#unless you look in my ao3 bookmarks I guess lol

[youarestellarverse]

Just in case anyone was somehow still holding any notions of moral purity while reading along with this fic:

I'm totally working on a side story where college sophomore!Jason bends thirty-something Dean Winchester over a table during the Third Act Breakup with Percy because he needs to dominate and Dean needs to be dominated and the fact that Lucas Till looks disturbingly like Jared Padalecki has absolutely everything to do with it. :|

(Yes this does mean that not only does stellarverse apparently take place within the SPN continuum, it's also wincest if you squint)

[yoonia]

hi there Dia i was wondering if you had any favourite member x reader fics from ao3?

Hello, yes! Don't worry. I kind of guessed that's what you meant when you asked lol

Unfortunately, I rarely look for fics on AO3 unless they're writers I've found previously on Tumblr, and a lot of the fics I've saved in my bookmarks are mostly old ones that are saved on AO3 as archive (as the writers are either on indefinite hiatus or retired completely)

Here are some of the fics that I have saved and would get back to from time to time (I think if you've been around enough, you might've read them as well):

Transference

Call Me Mistress series

To Be Without

Gone Wild (or pretty much anything by Johobi)

The Orange Girl

[jayflrt]

HELLO!

I like your work a lot like it's genuinely Hilarious so I thought you would be the best person to ask for this.

I want to make a writing tumblr for enhypen but I'm a little lost because I've never used tumblr (as a creator) before LOL just used twitter and AO3 to write/socmed for fictional fandoms (tbh this is my first time like being a proper fan of a kpop group as to occasionally liking a song or two).

Anyways! What I've gathered from my experience on twitter and the writers I've followed here is obviously your blog should have an intro about you (inc. what you're comfy with, what you write, etc.) and a master list of your works BUT some of Tumblr's mechanics are Confusing.

Like,

1) should I create specific tags for my asks?

2) on twt, usually you create a tweet like "Hi! New to #___twt, looking for moots blah blah" to get an initial burst of likewise new people to bond and communicate with, does it work similarly here and if so/not please elaborate TT

3) is the etiquette to reblog every work you like, or is that spammy and you should just like them?

4) is there any other advice you have for navigating tumblr (like odd quirks)

5) ALSO this is a small dumb question but in the fandoms I've been in until now we usually used socmed au instead of smau do you have any idea why that's different (low-key smau is smarter tho bcus it's a shorter abbreviation)

I think that's all. I tried going through your rules and intro again, but I didn't see anything on whether an ask like this was alright or not, but I hope it is! I didn't want to Like intrude, but I felt most comfortable asking you because you're also desi ❤️❤️.

Anyways!! If this is something you don't want to/don't feel comfortable answering or it's like annoying genuinely just ignore this, I don't want to be make anyone uncomfortable!

omg thank you so much ml, i'm so glad you enjoyed my works!! 🥹 welcome to the kpop community first of all!! did you recently become an engene? :') and welcome to the tumblr ff community too! honestly i feel like if you can navigate ao3 just fine then tumblr shouldn't be too difficult after a while but i'm sure it's confusing at first 😵‍💫

as for your questions i'll answer them in the same order you asked them:

1. honestly i'm not 100% sure if there's any real purpose behind specific tags for your asks other than organization personally LOL but it's pretty helpful if you want to go back to look through your asks for something instead of scrolling past all the posts on your blog !!

2. omg yes i love the twt intros 💗 honestly for tumblr i think i just started posting content right away whenever i made a blog 🤧 i think intros are usually just in your navigation anyways but if you want to talk to different authors then it doesn't hurt to send an ask!! usually people communicate with different authors via the ask box 🥰

3. all sorts of interaction is great but i think reblogs are preferred!! i typically use likes as my bookmarks and then reblogs to comment on work or share it to a wider audience. the algorithm for tumblr works so that your likes don't show for others (unless you make it public on your profile) but your reblogs are on the dashes of people who follow you

4. ooh i'd say make use of the tagging system!! using tags like #enhypen fluff or #enhypen x reader on your fics will make it easier for people to find your work 💘

5. HAHAH I USED TO CALL IT SOCMED AU TOO BEFORE I JOINED TUMBLR 😭 i still use social media au as a tag but i think smau is more widely used here!! not exactly sure why but im guessing its just easier to tag 🙂‍↕️ i get you tho bc i experienced the same culture shock

dont worry you're most welcome to send asks !! 🥰💘 and thank you for reading my rules and intro!! i definitely don't turn away anyone who's looking for advice <33 also omg fellow desi 🫶 welcome to enhablr !

[i-am-bitterly-jittery]

The issue with how I bookmark fics on AO3 is that I don’t bookmark it unless I think of it again later, and then I have to go find it

So if anyone wants to help me find some tss fics that I’m pretty sure (but not completely sure) are on AO3 I’m currently looking for

Pre-aa virgil routinely sneaks into movie night and only Patton notices, then post-aa Roman wants to invite Virgil to watch a movie (Hercules, I think) thinking that Virgil’s never seen it

LAMP soulmate AU (I think it’s one where whatever you write on your skin appears on your soulmates’ as well) Virgil’s been avoiding his soulmates but then he shares a college dorm with Roman, I think there’s a middle bit but I only really remember the ending (or possibly a follow-up fic?) where Virgil goes home for thanksgiving but his parents kick him out so he plans to just spend the long weekend alone in his dorm but then his soulmates come get him

Pre-aa Virgil has a nightmare and goes to Patton for comfort, but then just before Virgil leaves Patton’s room (I think) Patton says something like “goodnight Logan” and virgil realizes that Patton didn’t even know it was him

Lol try to guess my pattern

(I think most, if not all, of these might have been written before Remus’s introduction)

[zeawesomebirdie]

I hope I can still send you asks and you can answer them? Just to say that I'm trying to do the Snarry rec list but my memory is SO BAD lol there are a few I know have to go on there but otherwise? I'm going to have to reread so much fic..... Not that it's an imposition of course, but it does feel weird taking a look through my collection and realising 1) there are less fics than I thought and 2) I can't associate any summary to so many of the titles! Where has my Snarry knowledge gone!! Anyway I realise I forgot to rec you Diagnosis by MaidenMotherCrone for Tomarry fics, which is an error because I'm not sure I'd want to reread it but it's really a Whole Thing in an overall positive way. Also I never gave you the name of the absolute epic I felt weird reccing on main because there's some niche kinks in it? Obviously you don't seem like you open a 500k fic and come out of it a week later without having done anything else but read it, given what you've said about taking breaks in Pacify (which tbh fair. A lot of stuff happens there) so giving you a 800k fic series on top of all the rest seemed a lot you know :') but whenever you want, you know where to find me hehe. Anyway I'll go like brush my teeth and all, hope this sends, bye bye!!

Looks like I can still receive asks! Whether or not you’ll be notified when I answer this (and I guess, also whether or not tumblr will even allow me to post it,,,) still remains to be seen, but based on last night’s experiment with @’ing you, you won’t be notified. I’ll try to keep my reblogging to a minimum until you’ve seen this!!

For what it’s worth, I did send in another support ticket this morning, but I’ll update my pinned post with that info after I’ve answered this

There is no rush at all for the snarry rec list!! Take your time beloved!! I agree that rereading all that fic isn’t all that bad of a thing, but omg, it must be so daunting to have that list to go through, even if it’s shorter than you thought it was! I mean, I’m sitting here with 12 pages in my marked for later tab on Ao3, while entirely forgetting to read both the fic I currently have open and the books I have from the library lol, so I can def relate to having a list to read through. Just please don’t feel rushed or even obligated, you have the best recs but really it’s okay if I wait for it!

(but tbh, at this point I’ve read enough snarry that I feel like I could make an actual rec list myself, even if like 90% of my bookmarks have come from the @houseofsnarry discord. I might have to do that. No one has asked for my recs since I totally flubbed that one ask requesting my quiobi recs and I revealed that at the time I wasn’t really reading, but now I read so much more, even if it’s primarily snarry and irl books. Idk. I’ll have to think about it and also wait until I get un-shadowbanned, and also also I’ll have to read a little bit more so I can round out any list like that,,,)

Omg so Diagnosis looks like an absolutely incredible fic 👀 that summary, those tags!! No worries about not remembering anything other than the positive vibes, I’ve loved literally everything you’ve rec’d thus far and I’m sure I’ll love this too!

Feel free to drop the name of that longfic btw 👀👀👀👀 I don’t often go for fics over 150k unless they come highly recommended, but most of the time I do finish them really quickly. I got through Unrestrained by Lizzy00305 in three days, All the Young Dudes by MsKingBean89 in about a week and a half, and, while they’re obv not fic, I did read the first five HP books in 8 days, and then HBP and DH in about a week and a half. It depends on what’s going on irl and how into the fic I am tbch.

Rn it’s taking me forever to get through Transparency by oldesthuntress even though it’s literally my favourite fic of all time only because I have so much going on irl. My fatigue will catch up to me soon enough, and all I’ll be capable of doing (affectionate) soon will be reading and animal crossing, and even if I can’t read it for a little bit, I do have surgery right before Christmas which will mean only reading for a few weeks!

(for what it’s worth, I’m currently planning to save Pacify for after surgery, because tbch I think that’s the perfect read for when I’ll be stuck in bed for two weeks!)

But anyway! Yes please drop that link! No fic is too long if it comes highly recommended!!

All my love to you beloved, I hope the rest of your day goes well!! Thanks for stopping in!!

[valkyrieofsmut]

Captive Love   19

UF!Sans x Reader (or Frisk if you wanna)

Summary: Sweetheart enjoys flustering Papyrus, and he tries to educate her in the greatest of performers; Mettaton... Aka, share his interests with her. Also... other stuff happens.

A/N: Important stuff! So! While looking through stuff, I looked through the bookmarks to this story (on Ao3, for multiple reasons) and saw a comment in the bookmark saying that they weren't sure why she hadn't gotten her voice back, yet. This is honestly a good question. I guess it wasn't clear enough, I mean, a lot of stuff has happened. I tried to put the speech indicators to show that her voice is getting better, but then she'll yell and scream at Sans or someone on the phone (her idiot boss) and it'll get a bit worse. Also, I did a count of the days (quickly scanning through the whole file so I could be a little off) and at the beginning of the next chapter she's only been there for two weeks (13 days actually) and only been awake for 10 of them. Even if we give the benefit of the doubt and say three weeks (pretty sure that's the time frame I was aiming for about the point they had sex), she's basically gotten her voice back, its just a bit wobbly and squeaky. I dunno 'bout the rest of y'all, but last time I got sick (actually right before I started writing this story) I lost my voice for about a month and a half. I started getting it back after a month, had two weeks of the squeaky voice of a dog toy, and then a week of where it was mostly back, but still wobbly and had to clear my throat a lot because of it cutting out and squeaking. This is for informative purposes, not to be a jerk. Even though I feel like a jerk... lol God damn it! Do you know how hard I tried not to make it so he had a sock thing?! Maybe a preference or soft spot, but not an all out fetish. Like, 'ooo, yeah, those're sexy,' sure, but not, 'oh god, I'm so hard 'cause you're wearing socks!' *sigh* I fail at life... Enjoy an about double length chapter!.

Masterlist      Series Masterlist

Story

Papyrus tries to be... friendly? Maybe. Is that what he's doing? Yes.

Contrary to what Sans had said, the two spent the time until Papyrus came back not having sex, but cuddling and making out. 

“SANS!” Papyrus called from downstairs, knowing too well not to go near his brother’s room unless he was interested in an accidental show. 

Sans pulled back from the kiss he was tangled in with (Y/n), glancing to the door before giving her another kiss and climbing from the bed to go down to his brother. 

(Y/n) laid back, biting her lip and smiling. 

Ok… so it hadn’t started out great, but, really, even if she left now, the sex was amazing, and she wouldn’t have a problem messaging him. Who knew about a relationship, but what they had was pretty sweet. 

A sudden realization hit her. 

What did Sans think of relationships? 

Was it something monsters did? It seemed like they avoided showing that they had feelings or emotions at every turn, and she could see how having a relationship would blow that out of the water. 

Did she want a relationship? 

Yes, sex was nice, and it was nice spending time with him, but… it was entirely different than having a relationship. Right now, they were basically almost friends, with benefits. Maybe closer to fuck buddies who liked hanging out. 

It was a strange gray area to be in. 

(Y/n) stretched and climbed from the bed, hurrying to grab some clothes and head to take a quick shower to wash the smell of sex from her. 

How long had it been since her body had felt so well used? So nicely taken care of? 

...How long had it been since she’d been a willing participant in it becoming this sore? 

She shook her head to get that thought out of her head. 

It didn’t matter, anyway, that bastard was gone, and she was here. 

She needed to enjoy her life. 

She instead focused on washing up, bemoaning that her legs had gotten so hairy and that there was no razer around here to shave. How could she have forgotten to tell Sans to get one when she sent him out for everything and the kitchen sink? 

After her shower, she went into Sans’ room and found the bag he’d brought back on the off chance that he had gotten one and she’d just missed it. 

No luck, though she did find a pair of really cute over the knee socks. They looked like they were either from a halloween display, or from a store that sold punk and goth type clothing, having a print of tiny scattered skull and crossbones, and a bit of lace and back ribbon at the top.

Well… at least they’d cover the hairs on her legs and she wouldn’t be so self conscious about them. 

She pulled on a shirt, the pants she’d originally been wearing, and did her best with her hair before she walked downstairs. 

Papyrus was making a lot of noise in the kitchen, and Sans was nowhere to be seen. 

He must have gone out for something… 

(Y/n) went to the kitchen and stopped next to Papyrus. 

He looked down at her with a suspicious glare, but she responded with a friendly grin. 

Papyrus quickly looked away with a bit of red growing over his cheeks. 

Embarrassment… that’s right; being nice flustered him. 

A mischievous grin lifted her lips. 

This was going to be fun. 

As Papyrus started trying to make the shepherd's pie again, she stood near, pre measuring things and handing them to him. 

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING, HUMAN?!” He demanded, his hands going to rest on his pelvis. 

“He-ping,” she told him, then shot a huge grin. [helping]

Papyrus' sharp teeth gritted hard and he turned away with a glare. 

(Y/n) held back her laughter. 

So much fun. 

As Papyrus was starting to layer, the door opened and Sans came back in. 

“SANS! COME GET YOUR HUMAN! SHE’S UNDERFOOT!” Papyrus demanded. 

Sans entered the kitchen, seeing (Y/n) helpfully handing a bowl of mashed potatoes to his brother, whose skull was glowing across his cheekbones and nasal ridge. 

He stuffed his smokes in his pocket and strolled over to where (Y/n) was grinning at him. He gave her a devious grin back, his sharp teeth flashing at her, and let his tongue trace his golden fang suggestively. 

Sans stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling behind her ear. "c'mon, sweetheart, stop botherin' my bro an' come in th' other room wit me. i got an idea 'f how ta entertain ya." Sans chuckled at her obviously flustered form against him. “c’mon sweetheart, give ‘im th’ potatoes an’ come wit me.” 

Papyrus took the bowl of potatoes from her and made a disgruntled and disgusted noise as Sans guided (Y/n) to the other room. 

He sat her on the couch and sat next to her, pulling the remote out and putting on a show. 

(Y/n) sniffed the air, noticing a heavier cherry and vanilla smell around Sans. 

"What's that sm-ll?" She asked. 

"what smell?" Sans asked, looking over at her with a brow ridge up. 

"It's on you, like… vanilla, and cherry," she told him. 

"oh," Sans hummed, pulling out a slightly worn box to show her. "that's my smokes."

"You smoke?" She asked in surprise. 

"yeah, sometimes," he murmured, his eyelights flashing to the kitchen. 

(Y/n) mentally shrugged. Smoking was bad, but who knew if it even affected him the same way… He wasn't doing it around her, and at least the smoke smelled good. 

Over all, filed under 'not her business'. 

.

After a dinner filled with Papyrus shooting them disgusted looks from his spot across the table and telling them the 'thrilling adventures' he'd had that day, Papyrus made them stay downstairs to watch Mettaton shows. 

"boss, i don't wanna watch any mettaton stuff," Sans complained. 

"TOO BAD; I'M NOT LETTING YOU TWO WANDER OFF TO YOUR OWN DEVICES! WHO ONLY KNOWS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN THEN!" 

"heh, i know what'd happen," Sans commented, giving (Y/n) a suggestive wink. 

Papyrus gave a put upon sigh and wedged his way between them on the couch. 

"hey, bro, what're ya doin'?!" Sans complained, shuffling out of the way a bit so he didn't get sat on. 

"I DON'T WANT THE TWO OF YOU CANOODELING RIGHT NEXT TO ME!" Papyrus declared. 

"then let us go up ta my room, bro," Sans sighed, managing to hold back his irritation. "simple as that." 

"NO CANOODELING!" Papyrus declared. 

He spent a lot of the shows explaining to (Y/n) how their star, and sometimes only actor, was better than anything humans could possibly have, often spending half a segment explaining the ‘complicated and far superior’ bits. 

After enough time had apparently passed, Papyrus decided it was time to go to bed and ushered them all upstairs. 

As soon as the door closed behind them, Sans let out an irritated breath before looking up at (Y/n) and letting his sharp teeth curl into a predatory grin. 

Heat shot through (Y/n)'s belly, her heart rate going up. 

"c'mere, sweetheart," Sans beckoned her to the bed as he reached it himself. "i have a feelin' yer tongue's been away from mine fer too long…" 

(Y/n) felt a bit of embarrassment mixing with the excitement that was filling her, heat starting to build already. 

"aw, c'mon, sweetness," Sans drew his voice out temptingly, the low tones somehow reminding her already wettening core what he'd done to it earlier and making it clench. "no need ta be so shy noww." 

(Y/n) slowly stepped toward the bed, fluttering filling her belly. 

“there ya go,” Sans praised as she got closer. “that’s it, sweetheart, c’mon closer,” he told her as he knelt on the bed and moved to the middle, sitting on his knees. “wait, this’s gonna be easier if ya take those pants off b’fore ya get up here,” he commented. 

A wave of trepidation fell over her, and she thought through what was happening, trying to be completely sure she was ok with what was about to happen. 

One round of sex and a day of making out, you could… maybe still be friends. Any more than that… who knew… 

“what’s wrong, sweetheart?” Sans asked, his expression turning more toward question than the suggestive thing it had been. 

(Y/n) paused, then reached for her pants and started taking them off. 

“mmm, there ya go, sweetheart,” Sans commented as she started crawling toward him on the bed, his expression slipping back to that one of suggestive intent. 

She made her way up, then paused in front of him, biting her lip as she reached under her shirt and worked her bra off without taking off her shirt. Her attention was drawn back to Sans at the lustful noise he made as she threw it to the floor behind her. 

“i didn’t know ya knew magic, sweetheart,” Sans chuckled, leaning forward and grabbing her by the hips to draw her closer to him. His hands slid down her thighs, moving around them, then up the backs to take her panties and start dragging them down her thighs. 

As she lifted one knee so he could get them off, he caught sight of the dark fabric on her calf and twisted a little around her to get a better look. 

Yes, there were little skull and crossbones distributed every so often over the black of the fabric, a bit of lace nearly hidden behind her knee. 

“fuck,” Sans murmured softly, his phalanges lingering over the soft fabric as he helped her off with her panties. 

(Y/n) looked at him in question, following his gaze, her leg registering where he was touching. 

Oh. 

Oh!

Ooooooooh… 

He’d bought those… maybe not even purposely for her… 

Here she was wearing them, and if the tent in his shorts was anything to go by, he wholeheartedly approved. 

Sans tried to stop the drool from dripping between his teeth as his fingers took in the feel of her soft leg inside of the socks, tracing the muscles that filled out the fabric and looking sexier than he had imagined. 

He hadn’t even dared to hope that she’d willingly wear them, let alone put them on herself, yet here she was, calves covered in the socks, looking sexy enough that if she pressed her knees together, her legs would look good enough to- he’d have to hold on to the backs of her thighs so that he could brace himself to thrust, keeping her feet together with his knees and her knees together with his hands- 

Sans blinked his sockets to clear his fantasy, gripping the backs of her thighs and pulling her up into his lap, pausing only to get his shorts out of the way. Then he was pulling her up over him, her knees on the outsides of his hips, angling and positioning them both so that as he eased her to sit down, she felt the head of his cock brushing against her. 

(Y/n) bit her lip, her body giving all the signals that it was interested and ready, and one of his hands slipped between them to guide his cock, brushing against her wet folds until he found her opening. 

The hand on her hip gripped harder as he encouraged her down, sliding into her, and his face turned into a grimace of pleasure. 

“nnn, fuck, ya feel jus’ ‘s good ‘s last time…” He told her through gasped breaths. “fuuuuck, sweetheart… ya a’ways this hot an’ wet, or is this jus’ fer me?” He groaned as she sank down, her thighs finally meeting where his shorts had crumpled around his femurs. 

“Sans,” she whispered, her hands clenching around the back of his shirt, grabbing at his ribs and making him growl needily. 

One of his hands buried itself in her hair, tangling and fisting in it to point her face to his, his teeth pressing against her lips and parting them to let his tongue meet hers, and she moaned, her hips following the motions he was guiding her through to get a bit of movement going. 

It was a bit awkward due to the angle, and only served to make them both want more. 

Sans' hand moved from her hip to give a rough grope to her ass, holding her against him as he turned and laid over top of her. 

His pelvis stayed against her as he knelt up, his hands running down her calves, the roughness of his phalanges catching a little at her socks. 

He gave a squeeze to her calves, then lifted them up over his shoulders, nuzzling them, his hands stroking over them. 

His hands slid down to her thighs, gripping them tightly before starting to move his pelvis. 

He rocked gently for a moment, but soon leaned forward, pushing her knees closer to her chest as he did, and it seemed to open her up to him more, making her able to feel every inch of him as he moved inside her. 

Sans held her thighs tight against his ribs, keeping her calves on his shoulders and nuzzling against them as he thrust. They felt so soft under his phalanges, against his cheekbone-

His eyelights stayed on her as he panted for breath, thrusting into her rhythmically. He could feel her hands grabbing and twisting around his shorts, trying to pull him into her as her hips gave little bucks trying to meet his. 

fuck... 

She was so cute- the socks were adorable, and they made her look even cuter… 

His tongue reached out and traced over her calf, making him grunt as she clenched around him. “oh, sweetheart,” he groaned softly, nipping at her calf. 

A noise escaped (Y/n), but she tried to swallow it, trying to keep quiet as he sped up. 

Sans gripped her thighs tightly, pushing into her faster and faster, his pointed teeth digging into her sock covered calf, his tongue brushing over it. 

(Y/n) gasped, her mouth dropped open as she tried to stay quiet, her body bouncing as he pushed into her harder. 

“fuck, sweetheart- ya squeezin’ ‘round me like that- ya like what ‘m doin’ ta ya?” He asked, watching her face. 

(Y/n) nodded, her hand tightening in the fabric of his shorts. 

“yeah?”

She nodded again as she gasped for air, trying desperately not to make noise to piss off the other skeleton in the house, starting to get light headed at how much oxygen she was taking in. 

“nnn, fuck- y’re so sweet, sweetheart,” he told her, gulping in air as he tightened his hands, holding her steady as he pounded into her. 

She was going to have bruises there, though it couldn’t seem to matter to her mind. He was hitting every perfect place inside her- it felt so good- he felt so perfect inside her- every spot lighting up with pleasure- so amazing- 

And then he bit her calf again, his tongue trailing over the sock that made her seem even more adorable and sweet. 

“Ungh-” (Y/n) squeaked, holding back the other noises as she came, her body tightening and pulsing around Sans as she softly moaned his name. 

“uuuuuuugh, sweetheart- tha’s right, come fer me- nnn- ya feel s’good- fuck- fuckfuckfuck-!” He growled out as he fell over the edge and followed her into bliss, his jaw clenched tight to keep quiet. He didn’t need his brother bursting in and ruining the mood. 

As they came down, Sans leaned forward and kissed her, his tongue and teeth moving with her mouth, small noises leaving them both. 

Sans chuckled after a moment, his hands squeezing her ass with her legs now wrapped around him. 

“What’s so funny?” She asked, watching his face. 

“nothin’, i jus’ feel bad fer humans ’s all. any guy who doesn’t get ta feel ‘is girl keep pullin’ at ‘im like this, really. can’t ‘magine. jus’ feels so good. c’mere, sweetness,” he coaxed, though he was the one who did all the work of wrapping his arms around her and rolling so that she was again on top of him before he gave a content sigh. 

“Their loss,” (Y/n) murmured back with a chuckle of her own. 

They started drifting off, but (Y/n) would swear she heard Sans say, “‘m glad i found ya… some a th’ best luck in my life…”

 A/N: Uh... In case it wasn't clear... Yes, Sans was thinking of pressing Sweetheart's calves together and fucking the space between near her knees... um... while she was wearing the socks... I- I don't know... I was going to have him just think about licking or nipping, but, in the moment that's what came out instead... Sans does what he wants when I write, apparently... Sans: damn straight i do, doll!

[multsicorn]

a few thoughts on writing fic comments

tl;dr.  I was bad at it for ages!  I got better!

Because for the first time since I stopped being able to cheat by writing reblog recs that also functioned as comments - (since people stopped posting fic to tumblr as standard practice) (and, yes I was around, for pre-tumblr days but only lurking, so of course not typically commenting) - I’ve been succeeding at commenting on fics I liked.  Not all of the time, but a large majority.  And doing so without it being a big thing, without it blocking me (much, at least) from ~being able~ to read fic cause of trying and failing and failing, without it driving me crazy... I’m saying, cause those are failure modes I’ve had previously.

So, the how!

* Most of the fic I read is from my ‘Marked for Later’ list, because - unrelatedly to commenting - I find that ‘trawling through AO3 for fic to read’ and ‘reading some fic I will probably enjoy’ are activities I tend to be in different moods for.  Unfortunately one can’t filter the Marked for Later list, but scrolling through a few pages’ worth to find whatever sort of thing I’m looking for still works well enough for me.

* The ‘Marked for Later’ thing is relevant here, though, because it functions as a backstop.  If something’s already ‘Marked for Later,’ and I read it and like it enough to want to maybe reread, but I can’t manage to comment as described down below, I simply won’t change it to ‘Marked as Read.’  And if it’s not ‘Marked for Later’ yet, then I’ll change it to ‘Marked for Later’!

* (if I like something enough to want to be able to maybe reread, of course, and also manage to comment, then that’s time for ‘Bookmark’)

* (yes having a ~system~ makes things seem more doable.  for me.  what of it.)

* ANYWAY.  If I liked a fic enough to want to maybe reread it - when I want more of the trope, pairing, whatever - then it’s time to click into that little comment box down below and write something like ‘I loved this!’ or ‘This was wonderful!’ or y’know some very generic but positive comment like that.  I DO THAT FIRST, without needing to figure out ~what I’ll say~ until I’ve ~started.~

* AND THEN!  Because although ‘I loved this’ comments are great and all, I think that most writers would agree with me that we’d prefer a bit more content in a comment than that... I try to just think of a couple of things I liked specifically about the fic.  A beat, a line, something about characterization or worldbuilding or a certain facet of a relationship or a mood or.... whatever, really!  The point is, that instead of trying to write ~the best comment~, I’m writing the comment that’s not too hard for me to write.  Say how I felt or what I thought or liked about just a couple bits that stick out, and then I’m done; or if I don’t feel done, and I’m moved to, then I can go on in a similar vein for a few more sentences, or a few paragraphs, even, when I’m just overwhelmed with ‘AND EVERYTHING AND THIS AND DON’T LET ME FORGET ONE MORE THING.’

* Because the best comments I’ve gotten weren’t necessarily all the longest, but simply specific compliments or personal responses that particularly resonated with me.  With something I’d been trying to do, or something I hadn’t realized when writing but loved in retrospect.

* ‘I literally lol’ed/cried/squee’d irl,’ ‘I stayed up too late reading this,’ ‘I immediately had to go back to the beginning,’ etc., all count as ‘things I liked/loved’ about the fic too, of course.

* And then!  I get to press ‘Post Comment’!  Cause I wrote a sentence or two or three and THAT’S FINE!  That’s doing great, in fact!  And I won’t second-guess whether the author ~agrees~ with my comment...

* Cause the fact is that I’m sure we’ve also all gotten comments that make us side-eye, ones that aren’t negative (don’t leave criticism unless someone’s asking for it, seriously, and actually I don’t even then), but: someone praising how fluffy a story is when you meant it to come off as creepy, someone questioning a background setting detail that’s from your personal real life.  Someone assuming you take their side in an inter-fandom dispute where you really really don’t.  And there’s always a small chance you’re reading against the author’s intentions, and don’t realize it... and THAT’S FINE.  If we all want to get comments, we all need to take that specific ‘communication isn’t perfect’ risk.

* So I write those sentences, and I take a deep breath, and I press ‘Post,’ and I feel good!  I have Commented On The Fic, and now I’ll be able to reread and to rec and so forth to my heart’s content without feeling bad that I didn’t.  And PROBABLY, in ~99% or more of cases, the author will be happy to get my comment, whether they reply or not, whether I made their whole day or just nudged it a little brighter.  And in that very tiny number of cases where my comment might strike the author as off, well, I couldn’t help it, it’s gotta happen sometime!  It’s not a big deal and I was trying my best.

* And if I’m too busy or too sad or too tired to manage an ‘I loved this’ and another couple phrases, then it’s okay, instead of beating myself up I can just do the ‘Marked For Later’ thing, and as long as this doesn’t happen too frequently then it’s fine, I’ll get back to ‘em later.

* And if it’s one of those cases I’ll get once for every twenty? thirty? whatever fics that I unequivocally love/like enough to bookmark and rec etc., where my honest comment would be ‘loved the worldbuilding, but wasn’t quite sold on the ship,’ or ‘super hot porn, but the setup didn’t quite work for me,’ or... anything with mixed praise and criticism like that, then I can kudos and not comment, just like I do also for fics where I feel like ‘that was nice,’ but nothing more.  And maybe sometime later I’ll come back and manage to comment on just the part I liked without seeming to imply obviously that I didn’t like the part I’m not commenting on, and maybe I won’t, either way it is fine.

* ‘Commenting on every fic I like,’ I maybe should’ve said this earlier, implies for me a fairly high bar of ‘like,’ more like ‘love.’  ‘Every fic I like’ is still too hard!  But ‘every fic I like enough to want to bookmark, and any others where I have something nice that pops to mind to say’ is... doable, at least mostly, and I think it’s good enough.

* Anyway, yes, this does mean I have a bunch of bookmarks I want to rec.  And more to say about that process, too, lol, if my blog is for ~posting what I want!~  And... I’m sorry this has gone on so long, and is so disorganized.  I”M DONE NOW.  *sweeps out*

[everbrilliantheartbreaker]

Fanfiction Reader Tag

Tagged by @eyeliner-vampire  ♡ ♡

Fanfiction Reader Tag!

1. When did you start reading Fanfic (How old you were or how long ago)?

When I was probably...11 ish? so like 13 years ago

2. Do you have an AO3 account?

Yeh (LadyWisteria)

3. Do you read WIP (work in progress)? Why or why not?

All the time. I’m not picky about this at all. I’m a simple person. I see fic I think I’ll like? I read. doesn’t matter if it’s finished or not. I’ll make up my own ending til it is lol. also authors need that encouragement. finishing stuff is hard

4. What time of day is your ‘fic reading time’?

Usually late at night (like 1 a.m. and later..much later) but sometimes I’ll waste an afternoon instead (2 p.m. ish til I either have to go to work or I finish the fic)

5. How much time do you spend reading fic per week?

Not remotely as much time as I used, that’s for sure. Anywhere from an hour (if I’m rereading That favorite fic) to 2-4 hours if my friend has sent me a longfic again.

6. Do you listen to podfic (fanfic recorded like an audiobook)?

I...didn’t even know this was a thing tbh, so no. Sounds very neat but also I don’t listen to audio books anymore bcus my attention span re: audio input has gotten so bad over the years I can’t focus for more than a few minutes. 

7. What’s your favorite fic genre to read?

AUs AUs AUs. and fantasy. and fantasy AUs (although good long AU fics are harder to find). I am a very simple person. I see magic mentioned, I read. I also read a lot of romance fic (proving once again that fanfic writing is often better than mainstream original writing, bcus romance is one of my least favorite YA/movie genres). I don’t read as much of them but I also love mystery and paranormal fics

8. Are there any genres that you tend to avoid?

Super angsty no happy ending type stuff. “Major Character Death” is an automatic nope lmao (unless the summary looks reaallyyy interesting or it was recc’d to me). Tragedy is definitely Not my thing

9. What tag(s) do you track?

I don’t track any fic tags (I stopped tracking tags at all since Tumblr changed it from “keeping track of new posts in said tag” to “dropping random posts from that tag into the middle of your dash, and usually the same three”)

10. How do you find new fic?

Nowadays I mostly just read what friends send me or the new stuff a very few writers I follow post, but sometimes I also come across stuff through Twitter or Tumblr and curiosity wins out

11. How do you organize your fic bookmarks?

I..don’t? Is this a thing people do?? If I wanna reread something I either search through my bookmarks by title/author or just. filter by fandom. 

12. Do you subscribe to authors or stories?

Yeh. I only keep up with a very select few of them though. altho part of that is due to several of them being people I followed on fanfic.net years and years ago and never unfollowed, even though our interests may no longer be the same. (the other part is me going “oh I’ll read that later” and then just. never doing it.)

13. What is your favorite fanfic trope?

fake dating and bed sharing are always good

everyone is gay. also Good

14. What kind of plot line are you always here for?

“everything’s the same but they’re soulmates” (oh my god they were soulmates)

mafia AU

MAGIC

I really like in-between scene fics too. the events and character interactions that happen off-screen. I like writing those

15. What can an author do to make you love them?

write about my faves frequently

cool AUs

write about minor characters

good sense of humor

16. What can an author do to make you avoid them?

not into mpreg fics

a/b/o fics make me super wary I usually pass on those, even if the summary looks mildly interesting. they’re rarely if ever done in a way that isn’t rapey and gross

don’t care for fics period that have rapey scenes but you’re supposed to find them romantic

adult/minor ships

characterization is a big deal to me so if I don’t like how they handle the characters, especially faves I probably won’t be back

17. What do kudos mean to you?

when I get one I have a few seconds of “oh someone kinda liked this thing I wrote” and then I carry on about my day >.>;;; (I do appreciate them tho)

18. What kind of commenter are you (No comment, short comment, keyboard smash)?

I don’t comment as often as I mean to or wish I did, but when I do they’re loong comments (I’ve passed the AO3 character limit at least once kshg)

I tend to quote favorite parts and then react to them, and I like to theorize and ask questions about character’s thoughts at a certain part or what author imagines happens before/after the fic

19. Have you ever stopped reading a fic? Why or why not?

Yes. Once because I stumbled into a very sexually explicit fic when that was. Not at all what I was expecting (I was also very young lol), I think there was a very few I quit because they were boring or very poorly written, but most often I “quit” a fic for the same reason I don’t do audio books anymore lmao: because my attention span is sht and my motivation and commitment are extremely fickle things. I either forget or just wander away for a bit and then forget. Often I mean to come back and finish it; it’s just a matter of how long it takes. (I also second hand embarrassed out of a fic so hardcore that it’s been a whole 9 months since I’ve touched it khdfgd)

20. Have you ever read a fic more than once? What is it about that fic that makes you want to read it again?

YES. This requires like a minimum 4 separate posts to really answer but:

Behind Bricks and The Penance of a Killer by Deathbelle

this person is my fricking favorite author ever and these are two of my fricking favorite fics ever, I must’ve reread Behind Bricks 6 or 8 times now and Penance is the BokuAka-centric companion piece to my favorite fic of all time that I always wanted 

Mending Bonds and If the Heart Breaks, Does That Mean There’s No Home? by RussianSunflower3 

Mending Bonds is soft found family fluff centering on a very minor fave of mine and If the Heart Breaks is very angsty found family fluff that also focuses on some minor characters and it always hurts my heart but the ending and the soft middle always heal it right back up (“[Hanamaki] has a heart big enough for everyone in the world, and then some.” ohhhh my godd)

Boiled Frogs by ReginaGalaxia 

this one is. a really hard read centered around emotional abuse and manipulation and hoooo boy it is a rough read especially if you’ve experienced any of that personally but it’s so well written and the character dynamics are great and in its lighter moments it’s fricking hilarious. 

(bits and pieces of) The Roost by Ugglabarn 

 bits and pieces only bcus Roost has a lot of very heavy dark content that I’d have to be in a specific mood to reread the whole thing because it hurts my heart way too much but also it’s one of the best Fukurodani-centric longfics I’ve ever read (PLUS AN AU..!!) and I love love how they write the characters and how much focus there is on the minor members and ships and in its lighter moments Roost is also really funny the most recent chapter was hilarious

Expensive Hotel by Crown_of_Winterthorne

smut. explicit smut. excellent explicit smut with loving polyamorous boyfriends and plenty of consent discussion and kissing. my entire jam right there

Class 1-A Whomst? by Ya_Boi_Hal

this is the funniest chatfic I’ve ever read in my life and the first good chatfic I ever read. absolutely hysterical. also has some really good serious content in the middle and some Aizawa dialogue that punched me right in the feels. 12/10 will read again. sometimes I just randomly say “Mineta whomst??” and cackle to myself

and back in the day it was:

The Flame of Betrayal by DataIntegrationThoughtEntity

I guess traitor! Tahu was a popular trope back when Bionicle fandom was at its peak?? and not everyone liked it apparently but I enjoyed this fic greatly every time I read it it was well written and had interesting OCs and I am actually highly tempted to go reread it again

and Asleep Beneath a Wheat Field by Feline Freak

this was a very peculiar little OC-centric one shot that was also very sad and I don’t know why it grabbed me like it did but I remember rereading it 3 or 4 times at least

21. Do you like sequels?

The fics I like don’t usually come with sequels but The Penance of a Killer is one so Yes

22. Do you like dabbles?

I guess? I haven’t read too many I don’t think but hey, more fic is more fic. Who’s gonna complain about that?

23. What do you wish more fic authors would do?

Write about minor characters more

24. What do you wish more authors would stop doing?

that thing where they latch onto one facet of a character’s personality - or worse, one that fandom made up - and write them as if that’s the only trait they have

25. Do you like one-shots or multi-chapter?

Multi-chapter. I mean both are great obviously but the majority of my faves are multi-chapter and obviously if I like a fic I’m gonna wanna spend as much time in that universe as possible

26. How long do you like chapters to be?

Usually I feel the longer the better. once in a while I’ll hit one that’s so long it’s kind of distracting but extremely rarely

27. What’s your favorite POV (point of view) to read (first, second, third)?

Third

28. What do you think of OC’s?

I didn’t use to care for them very much but as I started reading fic by more advanced writers I found several I really liked. have a very small list of OCs from recent fics I’ve read I would actually kill a man for I love them so much

29. Do you download fic?

No, but seeing as my absolute favorite Bionicle fic vanished off the face of the earth several years ago and I cannot find anything about it an y wh ere sometimes I think about saving my faves. I never got to finish reading that fic and I am absolutely devastated every time I think about it. 

30. Tell me something else about your fic reading! Anything else!

best thing is when my friend and I buddy read a fic and send each other our favorite parts

Tag!

@yaelathewordsmith and @samantha-girlscout  ♡ ♡ ♡

[longclawislightbringer]

Arya Stark and the Green-Eyed Monster Chapter Four: Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop

Rating: T

Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters, Elinor Tyrell/Gendry Waters, Arya Stark/Trystane Martell, background Jon Snow/Sansa Stark

Characters: Arya Stark, Gendry Waters, Daenerys Targaryen, Robb Stark, Sansa Stark, Jon Snow, Elinor Tyrell, Hot Pie, Trystane Martell

Summary: Gendry spends his Hogsmeade visit with Elinor at Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop.

Here I am, still updating this fic late. Lol. Here’s the original author’s note: 

Surprise! I'm still alive.

I'm still riding high from last Sunday's Gendrya scenes, which were everything I never knew I wanted. Of course, they had to give us such lovely interactions with all the characters before they destroy everything this week lol.

But anyway, if you want some pining before our collective imminent deaths on Sunday night, I'm your girl. This chapter is in Gendry's point of view. I hope you guys like it. ;)

As always, thanks to to the wonderful sansapotter for beta-reading. I'd also like to take a moment to thank everyone that has commented, bookmarked, or given kudos to this fic. Seeing all your thoughts and reactions really makes my day. If you've got the time, let me know what you think.

Chapter Three. Chapter Four. Chapter Five. 

Also on AO3. 

Chapter Four: Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop

Gendry gazed out beyond the towering cakes that clogged the window display through the frosted window panes of Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop onto the streets of Hogsmeade. Fresh snow blanketed the sleepy village in a sea of sparkling white. A few straggling couples wandered through the street, waiting for tables to open up at the most popular establishments. Gendry spotted his friend Jon exiting Honeyduke's with Sansa. Still no sign of Arya. Gendry sighed, turning his attention back to the laminated menu in front of him.

“Thanks for doing this, by the way. I know it must be hard.”

Lowering his menu, he peered across the table at Elinor.

“I can’t say that enough,” Elinor continued, placing her menu down. “My break-up with Alyn almost destroyed me, but even if this doesn’t end the way I want it to, I’m glad to have met you, and Arya and Hot Pie too.” She squeezed his hand.

"You're welcome," Gendry responded before glancing around the tea shop. Students occupied every nook and cranny of the cramped shop floor. "It sure is crowded today."

“It’s always packed this time of year.” Elinor examined her pink nails.

A slender waitress sidled up to their table which was tucked in the front corner of the tea shop next to the window. “Welcome to Madam Puddifoot’s. My name’s Ros, and I’ll be your server today. Can I get you guys something to start off?”

"I'll have the rose tea and some strawberry shortcake, thank you," Elinor flashed her a dazzling smile.

“And for you?” Ros turned to Gendry.

"Earl Grey and almond cake, please," Gendry answered. Ros scribbled their orders down in a notepad before relieving them of their menus. As she disappeared into the kitchen, Gendry scanned the crowded restaurant again. His gaze landed on a suspicious couple seated near the back of the restaurant that he suspected were Robb and Dany, though it was hard to tell given their ill-fitting wigs and oversized sunglasses. A flash of silvery blonde hair peeked out from behind the girl's wig. A thick red mustache, obviously magicked into existence, covered the boy’s upper lip. Gendry narrowed his eyes at the odd couple. They both waved at him and gave him two thumbs up.

“Why are Robb and Dany sitting in the back corner in disguise?” Gendry whispered across the table.

"Dany said something about ‘moral support' and making sure everything went according to plan when I talked to her this morning," Elinor replied. "But yes, it is a little strange that they’re in such bad disguises.” She examined the odd couple even closer. “Those sunglasses are a little overkill.”

Ros appeared at the table with a tray balanced on her hand, blocking their view of Robb and Dany. "There you are.” She placed a delicate pink teacup and saucer in front of Elinor, before putting a matching set in front of Gendry. "Rose and Earl Grey teas." She completed the set by placing a pitcher of milk in the center of the table between them and then handed them each a slice of cake. “Let me know if you need anything else.” With that, Ros moved onto the next table.

Elinor dropped a spoon of sugar into her steaming cup as Gendry stabbed his almond cake with his fork. The moist cake melted in his mouth, the almond colliding with a hint of vanilla.

“This cake is delicious,” Gendry moaned.

"I know," Elinor sighed. "If this place weren't such a couples spot I'd probably be in here every Hogsmeade trip for the strawberry shortcake alone."

In his periphery, Robb gestured frantically at the door. Gendry raised a quizzical brow as he took a sip of his tea.

“The signal!” Elinor exclaimed. She whipped her head toward the front door. “Alyn must be coming in. Quick, grab my hand.” Gendry almost choked on his tea when she snatched his free hand, holding it tightly. “He’s got one of those dreadful Frey girls on his arm, ugh.” Frowning, she glared daggers at her ex-boyfriend’s unsuspecting date.

“Which one?” Gendry asked, placing his teacup back on its saucer.

Elinor shook her head. “Doesn’t matter.” Her gaze followed Alyn and his date as they trailed after the hostess through the restaurant to one of the tables in the back near Robb and Dany. Alyn held a chair out for the Frey girl. He looked up for a moment, his gaze falling on Elinor.

“Eep,” Elinor squeaked, flushing with anger or longing, Gendry couldn’t tell which, and ducked behind her teacup. Gendry watched the scene with interest, still holding Elinor’s hand. Alyn whispered something in his date’s ear before walking toward them.

“Oh my seven, he’s coming over here!” Elinor panicked, her fingers tensing. She put down her teacup and began to fiddle with a strand of her hair. “What do we do?”

"We follow the plan." Gendry gave her hand a squeeze. "You've got this. You're the best chaser on Slytherin—you've gotten the quaffle past me more times than I can count. You're a great girl, and if he can't see that, then it's his loss."

“You’re right,” she gave him a small smile as she put her hand down.

“Now remember, we’re madly in love,” he winked.

Elinor winked back, letting out a loud chuckle just as Alyn reached their table. He cleared his throat to get their attention. “Elinor, Gendry,” he nodded.

“Oh, hello Alyn,” Elinor greeted him coolly. “I didn’t see you there.”

“I heard a rumor you replaced me; I was just coming to see if it was true.”

"Well, obviously it's false," Elinor snarked, "since Gendry is a much better boyfriend than you ever were." She stroked Gendry's hand, gazing lovingly at his face for good measure.

“Do you love him?” Alyn crossed his gangly arms over his chest, trying to puff it out in an effort to not look like an overgrown beanpole. It wasn’t working.

Elinor froze, unsure how to answer such a question.

“I don’t think that’s your question to ask anymore,” Gendry interjected, fixing Alyn with his iciest glare. “Unless you’ve got something to say to her?”

Alyn gaped like a fish. At last, he uncrossed his arms.

“You’re right,” he said. “I never did deserve you, Elinor; I hope he makes you happy.” He shifted his weight, his gaze drifting to the floor. “Guess I’d better get back to my date. See you around.” With one last longing glance at Elinor, Alyn pivoted back toward his own table.

Elinor waited until he made it to his table before bursting into laughter.

“Did you see his face?” She chortled, slapping the table. “The plan is working perfectly. You,” she raised her teacup to him, “are an excellent actor, my dear fake boyfriend. That bit of overprotectiveness was an excellent touch.”

“Thanks.” They clinked their teacups together.

Ros swung past their table again, carrying a tray of dirty dishes. “I hope everything’s to your liking.”

“Everything is excellent,” Elinor responded.

“Great; here’s the check. I’ll be by to collect it later.” She dropped a tied scroll of parchment on the table. Elinor reached for her purse, but Gendry stopped her hand.

“I’ve got this.” He pulled a few jangling coins from his pocket, dumping them on top of the table.

The bell above the door to the teashop tinkled merrily as Ros sauntered away, heralding the arrival of another couple seeking a warm pot of tea and respite from the cold. Trystane Martell entered the shop, laughing as he stamped the snow off his boots. Arya followed in behind him, her face alight with the biggest smile Gendry had seen from her in weeks. It sent a dagger straight through his heart. While she divested herself of her winter cloak, Arya looked at the restaurant’s various patrons. When she noticed Gendry and Elinor, she froze; her smile disappeared.

“What is it?” Elinor asked.

“It’s Arya. On a date.”

Elinor turned around to wave hello. In response, Arya gave a weak smile before returning to her date. The hostess led them to the last empty table near the door.

“I’m the worst friend. Why can’t I be happy for her?”

Elinor paused, twirling her fork as she ruminated. At length, she said, “You're in love with her, aren't you?”

“Is it that obvious?” Gendry sighed, stabbing his almond cake with more force than necessary. “It doesn't really matter, though; Arya will never see me as anything but a friend.” He popped the cake in his mouth.

“I wouldn't be too sure about that.”

"Clearly she doesn't since she's here with Trystane." He shoveled in another mouthful of cake.

“Gendry, you dolt!” Elinor smacked his arm. “I know I said to keep it a secret, but maybe you should tell her that we're not actually together.”

Gendry paused, fork halfway between his plate and his mouth.

“This charade’s gone on long enough as it is. I was going to suggest we ’break-up’ next week and tell everyone we decided it would be better to stay friends anyway, now that we’ve lasted a while.”

“Are you sure Alyn will want you back?” Gendry took a sip of tea. It would get cold if he didn’t drink it fast enough.

“No, but that doesn’t really matter now. I’m not going to spend my life pining after someone who doesn’t want me. But you,” she poked him in the chest, “you definitely need to tell Arya how you feel.”

“Alright.”

A chair scraped across the floor elsewhere in the shop. The entire restaurant fell silent as they turned to see what the problem was. Arya stood up abruptly, face purple.

“You … you… jerk!” Arya screamed, her fists clenched. Gendry knew that look; he had been on the receiving end many a time. Arya snatched her teacup from the table, hurling the steaming liquid at Trystane’s chest. Without another word, she yanked her cloak off her chair, slinging it over her shoulders as she darted out the front door. The bell above the door rang violently.

Trystane blinked, pulling at his wet sweater.

“I’m going after her,” Gendry told Elinor as he pushed his chair back. Pushing past tables of gobsmack patrons, he whipped on his own cloak.

The bell chimed as he stepped outside into the cold winter air. The freshly fallen snow crunched under his feet. He followed Arya's tracks in the snow down the main street until he lost them among the scuffle. The biting wind nipped his nose, chilling him. He pulled his cloak tighter.

Jon rounded the nearest street corner, arm in arm with Sansa. Gendry jogged up to them.

“Have either of you seen Arya?” he asked.

Sansa pointed down a side road. “I think I saw her running down that way. Is something wrong?”

“Of course,” Gendry whispered to himself as the realization dawned on him. “I’m about to find out,” he told Sansa. He took off at a run down the road that led to the Shrieking Shack. Close-knit houses lined the street at the beginning but began to thin out as he approached the end of the way. The shrieking shack rose up in the distance, past the fence at the end of the road. Arya curled up against the gate, her face hiding behind her knees and a curtain of dark brown hair. At the sound of his footsteps, Arya looked up, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Oh, it’s you,” she sniffled, quickly rubbing the tears from her face. “If you tell anyone you saw me crying, I’ll kill you.”

Gendry laughed.

“My lips are sealed.” He dropped down next to her. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not particularly.”

“I know you can handle it yourself, but if you ever need me to beat someone up, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

Arya smiled faintly. Gendry stood up, holding out a hand.

“Come on; let’s get back inside where it’s warm.”

He hefted her up by her icy hand.

“Thanks.”

They walked back down the road in silence, shoulders almost touching. Gendry flexed his hand, itching to hold hers, but put it in his pocket at the last second. The alleyway opened onto a larger street lined with quaint cottages, each blanketed with a cap of pristine snow. A lopsided snowman occupied the corner of the lawn of the last house on the street, where it crossed onto the main road. Gendry laughed.

“That snowman kind of looks like Professor Varys, doesn’t it?” he said, pausing in front of it.

“You’re right,” Arya chuckled. "I feel like it's going to quiz me on the best methods of Occlumency."

“Miss Stark,” Gendry put on his best Varys impression, “what is the difference between—”

Trystane Martell barrelled around the corner, coming to a stop in front of them with a sheepish expression on his face. Arya tensed behind him. Gendry took a protective step forward, blocking Trystane from her view.

“Martell.” Gendry crossed his arms.

“Gendry,” Trystane blanched. “Hi.” He peeked around Gendry’s shoulder at Arya. “Arya, can we talk—” glancing up at Gendry’s stony expression, he gulped before adding, “—alone? I need to apologize.”

Arya answered after a long pause. “I guess.”

"Are you sure?" Gendry asked. "I can still punch him if you want me to."

“It’ll be fine, Gendry,” Arya scoffed, although her eyes told a different story. “Besides, if he messes up again I’ll just punch him myself.”

Trystane smiled faintly.

"Alright," Gendry answered. "I'll be back at the tea shop if you need me."

Arya nodded before following Trystane down the snow-covered street toward the Three Broomsticks. Gendry watched them as Trystane disappeared inside the pub first. Turning around, Arya motioned for him to leave. Gendry nodded. She smiled before heading inside.

With a heavy sigh, Gendry trudged back toward Madam Puddifoot’s and his fake girlfriend, desperately hoping that next week’s break-up wouldn’t be too late.

[pinkletterday]

Writer's Year In Review

This year has been a revelation. I went from deeply, irrevocably believing I can't write fiction at all to knowing that I'm actually pretty good at it!

It's given me the confidence to find work as a freelance writer and editor in real life, after years of unemployment and anxious paralysis resulting from chronic illness and trauma. A lot of other factors also helped but the fic writing played a huge role in getting my shit together.

General Fic Stats:

Word Count on AO3: 92284

Fics posted to AO3: 23

Favourite Fic:

Kiss It Better (Westallen).This fic is my baby. I love little Iris and little Barry in it so much, the hurt and confusion in each other they attempted to heal, how that healing carried into their adult love and family. It will always and always be my favourite thing I have ever written. Wee!stallen is my jam, and the reason I ship them so damn hard.

Do Not Go Gentle (Westallen). Ngl, I love this for the sheer amount of truly gratifying comments. Every single one of them have been emotional and flaily. It all makes me feel like I may have finally levelled up. Hallelujah. xD

Funniest Fic:

The Care and Feeding (Queenwestallen). This is my ultimate OT3. This fic, written as a list and discussion is 95% humour and contains some of my best banter and (I feel) characterization. An element I'm really proud of is how I managed to center and include all their important non-romantic relationships in their conversations. Iris's boisterous female friends, Oliver's friends, Cisco and Caitlin's snarky commentary all shoehorned themselves into the list with hilarious and wholesome results. 

It's not a popular OT3 but I feel like it's a good first attempt to drag this ship to water. xD

Cutest Fic:

Dancing Queen (Olivarry). Even after a year this contiues to be the fic with the highest kudos ratio (except for the more recent one) and the second most bookmarked. I love getting comments on this because they are all some variation of "my teeth hurt. I have diabetes!" xD Well, I did build it around a rainbow sprinkle icing sugar donut, but there is a significant dollop of angst there in the middle. A flangst donut.

Your Vigil In My Keeping (Westallen). This fic has less than 200 hits but has the highest kudos ratio of all. I guess kid fic isn't everyone's cup of tea, but Wee!stallen is cute af yo. I headcanon the origins of Barry and Iris's steadfast partnership in this story, where her faith and belief in him is as strong as his protectiveness of her, all tied up in the language and innocence of children.

Kinkiest Fic:

WA Smut and Kink Collection. I literally just posted this yesterday lol. So far it's just a face-sitting short, but I have quite a few hard and soft kinks lined up. Westallen needs more hard smut tbh, and they have such a unique powerfully loving dynamic that every kink I'm writing has required me to come at it a little bit sideways with a whole lot of emotional focus.

Saddest Fic:

Three fics I can't choose from.

Do Not Go Gentle (Westallen). This is basically Iris's grief and fear in a raging tempest, and it's strongly implied that the future Nora has warned them of will come to pass regardless of what they do. The fact is that there already is and will be a timeline where Iris loses Barry, just as there must be one where she won't, because that is the nature of potentiality. 

The Paradigm of Uncertainty (Westallen). This was a drabble almost, that ruminates on the probability that speedsters do not erase timelines but abandon them, along those versions of their loved ones. It's as @rkwago's brilliant comment says: "Iris hurts in so many weird, cosmic ways that her life is almost an eldritch horror house," which is the most perfect description ever of what it means to be a time traveller's wife.

The Universal Constant (Gen, background WA). A lot of people find the way Barry goes off on Joe cathartic in this fic, and so do I. But it's not so simple. I don't think Joe was wrong to form the views he did, or that anyone was in the wrong really. As @sophiainspace pointed out, it's a mediation of grief and love, their parallels and continuations between parents and children and lovers. The fact that it takes Henry's death for Barry to find the adult language to articulate to Joe why he will always believe in his father's innocence is a tragedy that cuts three ways.

(This fic is also the reason I have a folder in my drive marked "how to get away with murder" and probably a likely reason to get me arrested one day. xD)

Most Popular Fic:

Strangers In The Cold (Coldflash). The Coldflash fandom is a joy to feed. This was my first smut fic which was preceded by an entire chapter of banter about nothing in particular (except it ended up establishing a background that gave birth to the Coldflash vs Olivarry polyam series) And holy wow, for a newbie writer, the response has been amazing. Looking back, I wince at a lot of writing mistakes and its undeniably rough, but it really bolstered my confidence.

(I feel a little guilty that all my other CF stories are still in my WiP folder while I update the polyam series at snail's pace.)

The Shape of Us (Westallen). I wrote this on tumblr half-asleep one night, half as a rambly headcanon...and woke up to literally one hundred freaking notes. What the hell. Now at over 260, it's the most popular fic I've ever posted on tumblr.

I never consciously intended it to be a body-positivity fic but apparently women really relate to the insecurities of growing older and watching our bodies change with marriage, children and the sheer hectic pace of life. Even my non-fandom friends reblogged it simply for its representation of "real women". Barry's response is my own wish fulfillment fantasy; the sort of total acceptance and validation that we wish we could hear it the times we can't find it in ourselves. In light of the virulent body-shaming Candice Patton has been subjected to ever since she was revealed to have gained a fuller figure in S5, I'm very glad to have written it.

Least Popular Fic:

Carry On (Gen) This character study of Oliver Queen only has 135 hits a year after posting, which is par for the course with gen. But has a solid 12% kudos ratio, which means it's probably as good as I think it is. It's one of my favourite and easiest fics I have ever written.

Love Me Like You Do (Olivarry) Lordy, if my first Coldflash smut filled me with confidence, my first Olivarry smutfic all but ruined it. I struggled with it for a long time, unlike SitC, which I suppose shows in the over-descriptions. I got carried away with the quipping and I guess Barry topping at all is really not popular with slash fans?

Still, I'm honestly toying with the idea of deleting and rewriting it. At least it was a learning experience - don't write smut unless it makes you feel horny yourself.  

Most Challenging Fic:

Do Not Go Gentle (Westallen). I think the reason stories you knock off in two hours are instantly popular while the ones you slaved over for weeks barely get any attention is because the process is reflected in the ease of reading. But this one is an exception. It was an absolute monster, taking three weeks and several revisions to wrestle into submission - and it paid off in spades!  Going by the response, I seem to have achieved the wow factor I was going for.

My only regret is that I posted it on tumblr before the last revision that finally made it work, so that too many readers saw the lacklustre version rather than the polished one.

Honorable Mention:

A Stitch In Time (Olivarry for now, eventual Queenwestallen) Baby's first multi-chapter! Admittedly chapters 3 and 4 have been languishing in my drive for a few months now and this thing has 100% more deleted scenes and outtakes posted to my tumblr than the actual story on AO3. But I'm so proud of it! I learned to write action scenes because of it, how to write climaxes, dream sequences, news articles and tell a story in several different formats. It made me rediscover my empathy for Felicity and write her as a PoV character, think deeply on Laurel Lance's losses and give voice to her struggles, and explore how a real friendship and understanding could evolve between Oliver and Iris out of their mutual love for Barry. (Centering female characters within manpain narratives, ftw! Otoh, I centered Iris so much it veered off the Olivarry rails into Queenwestallen territory on its own)

There is so much meaty conflict and delicious looming disaster in this story that I'm determined going to keep at it, even if slow and steady. If only to bring the light of Barry/Iris/Oliver into the world. xD

Holding On (Olivarry). This real-world disability AU deals with chronic and mental illness and the precariousness and personal demons of that reality. I tore out the rawest parts of my life for this fic and put them on display so that I couldn't bear to show it to anyone for a year after it was written.

I'm very glad I did finally brush it off and put it up because it has struck a chord with so many people, especially other Spoonies. The low number of hits on a fic that deals in hurt/comfort rather stings, as I can't help but think the disinterest is because of the "disability" and "neurodivergence" tags. But I still think it's one of the best things I've written and one I'll always be proudest of.

General Reflections:

Things I've learned over the past year of writing:

- Self-deprecation is not my friend. I need to be honest enough with myself to acknowledge when my writing is good, because either I self-validate and build confidence or I become a black hole of insecurity where validation goes to die. And if I think I'm a bit better than I actually am, it's not just okay but necessary to believe it.

- What I call writer's block is perfectionism, anxiety and physical and mental fatigue. If I don't eat, sleep, hydrate and acheive a relaxed mental state, I won't be able to write. 

- Momentum is more my friend than any amount of inspiration and motivation. Sitting my ass down and make it a habit to churn out X number of words a day, even bad writing, will do more to help me than polishing an idea to a high shine. 

- If I don't forgive myself for the stories I can't write I'll never write anything. I am doing this for free, to share the love and joy and therefore obligated to no one. 

- I'm capable of writing things I don't have the first idea how to write. My fingers on a keyboard can paint the picture my brain can't visualize. 

I don't believe in New Year's resolutions, but I am going to make it a personal goal to write at least 15k words per month, learn to stick to a posting schedule where possible.  and end next year with an additional 150k words posted. 

To everyone who follows this blog, commented, reblogged and liked my posts - I see and remember and appreciate every one of you. You're the reason I feel seen and valued and why I am motivated to keep writing through all the difficulties life throws at me. <3<3<3

[franeridart]

Hey! So sorry if you already answered this but what application and tablet do you use??

I use Easy Paint Tool SAI and a pretty old wacom intuos tablet! Both questions are answred in my faq, actually~

Anon said:You. You awesome person. You are my new fav artist. 💘💘💘

AW thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3<3

Anon said:I love your art and the style, it’s all so cute and it might give me a heart attack

He c k let’s hope not! Thank you so so much!!! ;^; <3

Anon said:hey, can ya do more tokage, pls

Sure, I mean to draw more 1B in the future anyway~

Anon said:nori is soo adorable!! I love your art and seromina so much and seeing them combined makes me mega happy!!! I gotta ask though, how are sero and mina as parents and how do they handle nori’s quirk?

They’re disasters as parents but they try their best and are always having fun - Nori adores them! In their house not a minutes goes by without someone laughing, they’re all super loud and cheerful always~ neither of them has any problem dealing with Nori’s quirk, Sero has spent a whole lifetime learning how to deal with sticky stuff and tape and glue so he knows all the tricks to save clothes and furniture from accidental quirk usage and so on, while Mina’s own quirk makes it easy to counter any glue that might end on her - the main thing actually is that the quirk itself was a surprise! Since Nori looks a lot like Mina, both she and Sero had expected her to have acid like Mina so when she started gluing herself around in places and walking along walls and stuff it was a surprise (they had expected to have to deal with the house being constantly half destroyed by acid though, so glue is nothing compared to that haha)

Anon said:Heyy I saw your twitter account and was wondering if you could link some of those “fics about them boys sharing a bed..“ I’ve been following you for a while now and absolutely love your work (: I hope you don’t mind lol. I need more kiribaku in my life gahaha ❤️ thanks !!

I didn’t really bookmark any and most were old things I had read in the past and spent time rereading lately, but the newest one I read is this one - honestly though at this point 99% of the fics set in the dorms have them sharing a bed, you just need to open ao3 and scroll down less than a page to find stuff lol

Anon said:If you’re not an Adventure Time fan this ask will make no sense to you (so skip it), but when I saw your drawing of Katsuki with a guitar, I immediately thought he was singing some edgy Marceline song, like the teasing-aggressive “I wanna bury you in the ground / I wanna bury you with my sound” (which he actually says at some point I think XD) or the romantic and melancholic “Slow Dance with You” and Eijirou M-E-L-T-S.

Not an AT fan, but the concept is adorable so I’m keeping the ask anyway <3<3

Anon said:Do you think you might draw more of your fantasy AU children while you’re playing with you’re new pencil tool? It would be neat if you did! Regardless, I’m grateful for anything you draw!

Yup! Can’t promise when it’ll happen but I love the fantasy AU and I love childhood friends AU, so the chances of me going back on it are pretty high!

Anon said:Are you going to draw Mako and Taiyou again? They are so wonderful.

YAH that’s definitely in the near future plans! Thank you for liking them!!

Anon said:I just…I love all your art. It’s so amazing you’re awesome

THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!! ;^;

Anon said:Stavo scorrendo il tuo blog e ho notato che hai risposto ad una domanda in italiano? Ho seriamente pensato fossi inglese tutto questo tempo! Amo seriamente i tuoi disegni, i tuoi oc sono meravigliosi e non vedo l'ora di scoprire più di loro.

AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH grazie infinite omfg ;^; specialmente per i miei oc, è sempre incredibile per me sapere che alla gente piacciono abbastanza da volerli vedere di più ;^; <3<3 ty!!

Anon said:Hewwo! I’m a huge fan of your artwork!! I was wondering if you have any time could you draw some more of those dorm room scenarios?

Anon I’m sorry but I need you to be more specific, which dorm room scenarios are you talking about? Most of my comics at this point are set in the dorms hahaha

Anon said:I just noticed that on every artwork you sign “do not repost” and I hate it.I don’t hate that you do it, but the fact you NEED to do it. Artists all over the Internet say to not repost their art but people still do it…I hope this will stop someday Sorry for my english btw

Yeah well, I guess as long as people keep on following and giving notes to reposters that’s not really gonna change is it orz

Anon said:You should draw Present Mic x Aizawa *awkward finger guns*

Hell I really should, shouldn’t I

Anon said:my god im gay for your kiribaku like they’re so good aibdjsbsknwnx and i love the interactions between the bakusquad ahh keep being awesome :)

HECK THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! <3<3<3

Anon said:Honestly, this might be an odd question I don’t know, but would you ever consider putting your art together in a art book to sell? Cause to be honest, there’s not a piece by you that I don’t adore and I’ve seen some artist do things like that before so I didn’t know if that was something you’d consider. Maybe like all your BNHA pieces or something?

It’s not like I never considered it? It’s more like I dunno how worth all the work to figure out how to make it/where to print it and then to actually make it would be compared to the interest people would have in buying something they can have for free on my blog? It’s just doodles after all haha

Anon said:Would you be willing to draw a little lavi (dgm) doodle for me? Anything tiny, I just love him and your art!!!

I’m not doing requests right now, sorry, but soon enough the new chapter is coming out so I might draw him around then!!! I always fall in a serious dgm mood around the time of the chapter release haha

Anon said:More abuse of the ask function: 1- I love your art and have been for months. On top of that, it often feels cathartic, which is amazing to me. 2- I love how balanced you can make KiriBaku. You even manage to make me appreciate that overrated attention hogger that is Bakugou, you can handle him so much better than the author, because your character dynamics make so much more sense!! 3- I always, ALWAYS find myself reading through all your tags. They’re awesome. Thank you for everything.//Avevo finito lo spazio nell'ask precedente, so I’d only like to add that aside from cutie-smoochy (“It’s not about whether you break” and “I don’t need you” might be my favorite, and for what’s worth, I remember writing something exactly like the latter in the past), you also make mu burst into laughter. Like, the comic where Katsuki is about to out Eijirou on his red hair, I am still rolling. Kiri’s giant mouth is seriously hysterical XD

Thank you for the compliments!! I’m glad I can make you like a character and a relationship you’re not much of a fan of in the actual manga? ? ? Bakugou’s actually one of my favorite characters ever though so………. maybe……….don’t offend him and the way Horikoshi writes him while talking to me………….orz

Anon said:I am starved for Bakukamikiri stuff in this fandom……..But you got some good shit.

I’m!!! happy to be able to help there!!!! haha

Anon said:They mama Mitsuki art you drew 👏💯💖☺️💕👌 I love your art so much

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:Yessssss you have Twitter! It is boring at the beginning but then you’ll love it! I can’t wait to see you here and there! Now all my Bakushima favorite artist have one I can die of happiness!!

I’m!!!!!!!!!! Still trying to figure it out but!!!!!!!! For now it’s not that bad? Just!!! Very different from tumblr so I’ll need to get used to it first!!!!

Anon said:Omg do u shade jirous hair like its a heartbeat line? Dhdisbdisb thats so fuckibg good

THANK she actually has it in canon too, tho, so I can’t take credit for this!!!

Anon said:Im crying on how you draw kirishima’s soft hair

S O B I’m glad you like it!! ;^;

Anon said:Can I ask what your stance is on bakugo’s mom being abusive and sorry if you’ve answered this before

I love Mitsuki with my whole heart and while I don’t think she’s perfect I do think she’s loving and caring and trying her best and always looking out for what’s best for Bakugou 👍 no abuse anywhere, for me

Anon said:OMG I LOVE SEROMINA LOVE CHILD NORI<3 She’s so precious I love her I want to see more of her.

Thank you for liking her???? heck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:I wish I could use your art for my phone’s background ;^; You’re amazing! I love youuuuuuuuuu

No one’s stopping you from doing that, anon!!! Unless you don’t have a phone that allows you backgrounds, in which case ;-; thank you for liking my stuff that much tho!!

Anon said:Hey! I followed you way back when your main output was haikyuu!! comics and once you started putting out more bnha, i had to unf because i had no idea who everyone was rip. but now that ive finally had the chance to watch it i’m glad to come back and see how much you’ve improved!

HECK THANK YOU???? I’m glad you decided to come back????? oh man that’s super flattering !!!

Anon said:Yolo bakusquad bakubowl ?

I don’t really like the whole concept of [character]bowl, sorry!

Anon said:I absolutely adore your art style😍 every time I see your art it makes me happy:)

THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:Can you draw Hawks and Tokoyami together? You are rlly creative and amazing! So I believe you will produce sth. awesome!!!! (If you don’t want to draw Hawks, could you draw a Tokoyami fusion?)

I can draw that! I’m just waiting to know how tall Hawks is compared to him before doing that 👍 be patient pls relative heights are something I’m stupidly fussy about 

Anon said:Burn the whole world to ashes for you? R U serius?! You always killing me dude. I ascended to the heaven of soft things. I N C R E D I B L E. Im sorry for the break down, i was without tumblr 2 months and the firts thing i do is go to your profile. Keep doing this plis im trully love it 😭💖

mAN I’m so glad you liked that one this much, drawing the boys being unreasonably soft with each other is my fav thing to do tbh !!!

Anon said:Omg I can totally imagine Nori and bakushima’s daughter being friends!!!

THEY ARE !!!!!!!

Anon said:Your seromina is amazing!!! I love that ship I feel like it is so underrated! Thank you for this blessed image!! 😭

No prob!! thank you for liking it!!!!!!! I’ve been in such a seromina mood lately, I might actually draw more soon enough!!

Anon said:Omg imagine a Tetsuwase love child. Something tells me they’d be adorable and one rather angry child, considering who their fathers are

I can see them as being quiet and grumpy………. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Anon said:Hey just wanted to tell you I love your art. It’s so soft and beautiful. My dad doesn’t ship any characters from the series, but he does like the series and he thinks your art and style are really pleasing. We were talking about how nicely you shade and that the style is well developed and lovely to look at. Thanks for making such great art that makes me smile and giving me and my dad yet another thing to bond over.

YO THAT’S SUCH A COOL THING TO HEAR!!!! Thank you to both you and your dad for liking my stuff????? h e c k !!!!! <3<3<3

Anon said:Thanks to you I started reading haikyuu.

I hope you’re enjoying it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[howsareeasy]

it isn’t failure; it’s data

Equipment: mac pro 2014 with inbuilt mic. Moto G3 (and then Moto G6) for reading via the Adobe Acrobat PDF reader. For hosting purposes, Dropbox and Mediafire. Software: both GarageBand and Audacity.

There’s 1600 words under the cut. Or you can read here over at Dreamwidth if it’s easier

Chose: GaragageBand or Audacity:  For the sheer scope of the information gathered alone, Audacity. I held out on using Audacity until I got my head around GarageBand, because GB was Apple. I did five of my first podfics in GarageBand (and the last six in Audacity). I'm glad that I did GarageBand before I got into Audacity, because Audacity didn't feel that difficult when I got my head around it, because I already had my wars with GarageBand. Although I do like GarageBand for the ease of rerecording (you literally just record over the offending area), and insertion of silences, it has a lot of drawbacks. For instance,  when it comes to longer files (about 180mins) it will start to eat your files. In addition, because not many people use GarageBand, information on troubleshooting is pretty rare, and Apple insists on upgrading and changing the interface ever so often. As a result, a lot of people I know are working from their legacy interface from 2014. It doesn't help me with what I have now. I only know one person (other than myself) who worked in GarageBand, and got tired of bugging her (she's busy and took ages to respond to my questions, because she's BUSY). whereas with Audacity, there are enough people to have a wiki. There are guides everywhere in terms of how to use Audacity, especially podfic specific guides. Overall, Audacity is a bit more straightforward, once you know what to look for. The wiki is relatively comprehensive and easy to follow. For instance, once I got my head around recording edits and putting them in the spaces where they needed to be, the process of recording patches then patching them for reedits is fairly straight forward. Audacity has the advantage of doing more pin point edits when it comes to mouth noises, and general cleaning up of fic background noises with noise plates. Audacity's envelope application is a lot better and smoother than GarageBand's fades (in terms of say, if you want to have music fading in or out of your narrative). Now, I don't think I'm going to be the sort of person to use music in a podfic unless the writer is pretty much waving semaphore flags and going - this piece of music here!- but it's a neat effect. Hardest thing about podficcing: For me, it was getting the reading down pat, to be honest. When I listen to my first five podfics, I'm surprised at how fast I'm reading, so every reading it's been me telling myself to slow down. It's one of the reasons why I started to edit as I go, because it forced me to refocus, and check my speed when rabbiting along. Then because my reading got slower, I could engage in the process of the fic more. However, as I grew more confident with the reading flow, I'd allow myself to read through a chapter or so, and then go back and edit. I didn't really get the concept of what a read/performance was until podfic 7, I guess (AO3 is down now, so I can't remember what it is. I want to say Cloud City). The whole concept of pauses in podfic and how that's a part of hitting the ear didn't really strike me until about podfic 10 (Stay In My Eyeline to the point where I took it down and recut for silences). But I think podfic 9 (Good Timing), made me happy enough with my narrative and voice bits. As much as podfic 11 KICKED MY ARSE, I'm more or less happy with the pauses and spaces in the fic. I mean, I could have done more, let the quiet spill out, especially towards the ending, but you can only learn by doing. I'm not going to beat up myself with the first podfics, tbh, because no one is born a master. Now, that last podfic. I don't think I had any hubris with the first ten podfics. I tried to improve on every one as I went on, and I think they got better quality wise when I jumped over to Audacity, because again, because of noise plates and edits made for a cleaner product (I could get rid of the 'clunk' sound when I'd stop the recording), but that last podfic (Now That I'm In Madrid) almost made me rage quit many a time. Between the file deletions, Audacity freezing, my files crashing, having to borrow someone else's PC to get my three hour files on as well as the edits, the installation of my mpegg plug in refusing to deal on my macbook (until I had to manually install it, after overriding Apple’s admin permissions to accept the plug in), only to export the chapters and not being able to bundle them into a book. Plus my voice turning to gravelly mush in the last third of the reading, it's been a hard knock on my confidence, to be honest. To the point where, I'm like, "Yeah, I liked podficcing, I guess? But erm... I don't think it likes me much." That being said, I really like the last story, and I'm sorry that I didn't do my best by it, but it was beyond my ken. To the point where, if I had to redo the podfic (lol, no), I couldn't do it any better right now, and that's fine. Reading source: A lot of people read their fic on screen while the recording is going on in the background. I tend to read directly from my smartphone, using the Adobe PDF app. I do like the app because you can highlight bits, and insert comments on the document, it's also smooth scrolling experience reading wise. My Moto G6 has more power and a better screen so it's an easier read. File hosting: Dropbox and MediaFire are relatively straightforward. They are fine. Most annoying bit of podficcing: Podfic covers. As much as I know that they didn't have to be made, I pretty much did it, because people do expect them (before Itsadrizzit started the push to overturn the practice). I wouldn't do anything beyond a text box now, but podfic covers came at the worst time for me. After recording, edits, and listen throughs and before uploading for hosting. I forever whinged around that. Most surprising bit of podficcing: The edits, I guess? I didn't mind them at all. I can do edits while being sociable, whereas for preprepping and doing the reading itself, I had to lock myself away and put my phone on 'do not disturb' mode. Would I podfic again? I don't have the resources, nor will I be in a position to get a new laptop for the while so, no, I don't know. More no than yes. It depends? As it is, I can't risk anything more than a 60 min run time (no more than 9.5k word count) and even then, I do wonder if I should review that to 30 mins (about 3-4k word count) because I can't trust my equipment. It makes no sense to set your stall up for anything less than a 2k word count. It's too much hassle for me to find an empty space and record for anything under 1.8k at least.  Not to mention the edits, listen through (ugh) and hosting. I can't do anything chaptered in terms of podbooks (because I don't know how to bundle the chapters to export without having ppl downloading 24 separate files and I don't have the bandwidth to deal with that right now. I'd just do a basic .m4b file, although I hear that people aren't fans and NEED. CHAPTERED .m4b podfic, but these madams will have to deal). My computer cannot be trusted to splice various files together (for instance, if I wanted to do a fic with a run time of 180mins, I'd have to do three 60min files, then splice them together. My computer crashed twice doing that feat, so no). This is tragic, because it's knee capped what I wanted to do. Liiiiike that 25k fic to pod in my bookmarks is now deleted (170 mins run time, three files of 57 mins give or take). Overall, yay or nay?  Yay! I'd like to think that I have shown respect for podficcers before, but after doing it for three weeks (11 podfics in three weeks, but I spent two weeks before doing the research) my respect is tenfold. It's not just reading what's on the page, but reacting to it with a mixture of control with the air of surprise. There's an art to it, as well as the technical bits, be it just having a fluid and enjoyable listening experience. Hell, just reading aloud alone is its own feat of stamina. There's the weighing up of file hostings, and this on top of the lack of Blanket Permissions, so if you find a fic that you want to do but there's no BP, you're out of luck, and there are far too many writers who are really arsey toward the whole medium. Conclusion: So, yeah, my experiment ends here! It wasn't a total failure, but it hasn't been an activity brimming with triumphant successes either. Thanks for the weigh ins and the advice from the podficcers who've been doing this for a minute. If you're a writer and are reading this, please think about including a BP in your profiles, even if it's a yes, maybe so (please ask) or hell no (so you won't be bothered).

[meggannn]

concrit, and notes for the self

So this is a bit of a weird post I've been wondering how to articulate for a while. I know people have different ideas on fandom courtesy in this regard, and opinions on this topic can be heavily divided.

This is my post to get it out there and say I don't mind, and in fact encrouage, people giving me concrit in my fic in AO3 comments or reblogs. Everyone is different and everyone writes fic for different reasons; some people write for fun and don't care about improving. I totally respect that and that's why I don't offer concrit unless someone specifically asks for it. I'm writing for fun, but I also take my writing seriously, maybe more seriously than I should, so if you've ever read my fic and thought "hm, that bit's not great," please consider this an open invitation to give me all the constructive feedback you want. I try to say I welcome it consistently in my notes when I post fic, but I guess people don't really register that. In fairness, I've seen people say they welcome opinions on their fic and then turn haughty and defensive when someone gives any feedback that isn't praise, but I've always respected writers who freely share the negative concrit they receive (so long as it’s not a troll) because as a reader, it also encourages me to read and interact more with them. If you don't feel comfortable sharing it publicly or want to talk about a certain thing at length, you can always feel free to IM me privately here, or leave the comment on anon on AO3.

This is a weird thing to post on Tumblr, since I don't think I have a big writer presence here, but AO3 doesn't really have a good platform to share this kind of message. And I realize this is a bizarre thing to want to post about -- if I'm not receiving any concrit, like, shouldn't that be a good thing? am I really complaining I'm not receiving any? -- but the few times I have received concrit in the last five years, one was from a friend who knows me well enough to know I welcome it, and the other two were strangers who seemed hesitant to bring it up at all, that made me wonder if they were scared of my reaction so they sandwiched it between complements to soften the blow. I don’t want people to worry about my reaction and apologize for giving negative feedback. I’m always down to talk about ways I can get better. Chances are more likely I’ll probably apologize to you, lol.

Not to say people should look for things to criticize if they think there aren't any -- I'd be flattered -- but I don’t want people thinking giving me concrit will make me resent them, or that bad feelings will fester if we’re mutuals. I promise there isn't anything mean enough you can say about my work I haven't already said to myself. (Though I will say, I'm writing this with the implication people will be reviewing recent or future works judging my talent as a writer now, not dig into my '09-'13 fic history back when I didn't know the word for ellipses and criticize me how I was.)

I have a weird history with concrit (it all started with a flame war back in ‘10...), but now I take the smallest comments from both positive and negative feedback so seriously to the point it does affect how I look at my future works, possibly because most of the feedback fic writers -- including myself -- do receive is just a single bookmark or anonymous kudos with no words attached. Sometimes when I think of people hating my stuff it makes me never want to share anything again, but a large majority of the time when I do receive it, I find that I have a thicker skin than I thought and I'm very easily able to separate the work from my personal feelings. Again: there's nothing anybody can say will be as bad as what I've already told myself, lol.

I'm putting the rest of this behind a cut because it's somewhat related, but it's mostly me blabbing about ways I think I can improve. I've been trying to narrow it down to a few specific areas I want to get better in. Some are going to be on me and only on me to make happen, but I feel like others might better spotted by readers.

This is about to get very mopey and self-indulgent, so if anyone actually reads this bear with me.

Vocabulary. It’s not that I think I have a limited vocabulary, but I think my tendency is to rely on the same words or phrases, which... just feels lazy and fake after a while. @thunderheadfred suggested I don’t try to hard with this one, because trying too hard to include big words can often lend to a convoluted mess, but I think the solution to my problem might just be “read more” and “get creative with how words interact with each other.” Part of this is also just learning relevant jargon or legalese or whatnot and getting familiar with it to the point that I finally don’t feel like I’m playing Mad Libs when I’m talking about something I don’t understand.

General... logic editing. I'm not sure how to describe this one, but I've had moments occasionally while rereading fic where I just think, “Life doesn’t work like that,” or “Megan, you pulled that one completely out of your ass.” You ever just read a fic and think “Goddammit, this makes no sense,” or even with smaller things, just “that’s not how that works”? Some of them are going to be things only specialists will know, which is okay because at that point I feel like learning to get it right is more a bonus than an obligation especially if it’s not plot relevant, but I generally want to make everything as accurate and realistic as possible to the point that the story unfolding in the reader’s head matches the film I’m imagining in mine. Most of the time, I can bullshit my way through stuff I don’t know, but bullshitting also takes talent, which... well. The thing about talent is that you need to have it or develop it, it’s not always something someone can help you with. But still, it’s a bit of a weird problem to articulate when the crux of it comes down to me saing like an idiot, “Uh, I don’t know how things work.” I kinda vaguely know how governments work. My knowledge of science and technology and math is in the negatives. And I don’t have a goddamn clue how the military works, which is a great joke on me for falling in love with a character like Shepard and wanting to write a million fics about them. So, just, part of this is research, but oftentimes research is only half the problem. The other half of the problem is sitting down at my keyboard and thinking “Great, now how am I going to write it?” because more often than not what happens is that the information I just read off Wikipedia or an obscure informative website just collects dust in my brain. I’m trying to be patient with myself about this kind of thing, because on some level I realize I’m pretty damn young and sometimes you just learn things by! going through life! But I am also an impatient ravenclaw motherfucker who wants to be a good writer Right Now. I want to know how things work and how they affect the people around them! I want to be able to make my story and understanding of the world as accurate as possible! I want people to go “yes, this makes absolute sense” not just “oh, that sounds kinda right I guess?” One thing I try to remind myself is, when I think a small thing sounds wrong or try-hard or that that thing doesn’t quite sound right for whatever reason, most of the time, the reader has no idea. The reader might be skimming over it, they may be digesting it without any sense that something is wrong about it whatsoever, hell they might even like it. I mean, if you asked me to read a friend’s fic and point out an error, I’d have to pull out a magnifying glass to find one, and they’d probably be able to recite a laundry list’s worth within five seconds. So there’s that.

Environmental building. I feel like I'm improving on this simply because I've finally started acknowledging where characters are even located in a place at all, lmfao. I'd like to upgrade to "being so good at describing locations and environments that someone other than me can ‘see’ where they are," but atm I'm settling for, "remember to at least TRY to transcribe the physical locale I see in my mind, because half of the time you forget to do even that, dumbass."

Characterization. This is a big one because it affects so much else, namely, the course of the entire fic. I say this all the time to reviewers but I mean it. A fair amount of time I can type on autopilot and it’s like the characters are doing all the work for me, but other times I sit for an hour scratching my head saying “Jesus, what would Varric say in this situation?” and then I realize “Maybe Varric wouldn’t even let himself get into this situation in the first place,” and that starts a whole chain of doubt and thinking about rewriting and actual rewriting while wondering if the rewriting is even necessary. I've recently been able to put my most consistent problem to words, and that's that I will always have staple issues with the POV characters. The nature of my style means that I spend a lot of time in the POV's head, which sometimes means less energy is spent developing their actual actions. E.g., say I write a fic with Shepard as the POV. If Garrus is in the fic, he is absolutely going to be the snarky, confident, more proactive version of himself to make up for all of the angst and moaning I will inevitably write as a result of digging into Shepard's mind. But say I write the same fic with Garrus as the POV. Depending on the time setting, I will be so caught up in his head as he worries about his mom dying and his guilt over losing his team and his place in the Hierarchy or if his dad will ever forgive him or his insecurities over his relationship with Shepard, that Shepard-the-deuteragonist will have to be the talkative, confident marine to draw him out of his own head. And again, imagine this is, like, the same story -- the same story written from a different perspective shouldn’t go a different way! In this example, some of the gap can be excused with the fact that by necessity, the POV has them viewing each other. Garrus and Shepard know each other well enough to know each other's bravado and strength can be a facade for their seriously fucked up emotional issues, so it's not that they imagine the other never has these moments of darker reflection that they do. And the same thing about Varric and Hawke or Hawke and Fenris, etc etc. Depending on how you play them, they could also be looking at each other through rose-colored glasses, or be so used to accepting and supporting the other through their private uncertainties that for the sake of the fic, that what they mostly register in the other is just the best or most confident side of the other's behavior. Narratively, I've realized it might come out of a subliminal urge to balance one's introspective side with the other's more proactive side, which may work sometimes (if they're both serving aggressive roles in the story, for me, the fic might get too 'loud'; if they're both too quiet, it'll just get boring), but most times I feel like it doesn't do justice to the "loud" parts of the POV character, since they are always the one who gets caught in paragraphs on paragraphs of angsty introspection in their own head due to my inability to write anything else. Shepard and Garrus are undeniably “loud” characters no matter how you slice it. Shepard may mope and pine and nearly drown in her depression in her private moments, but she's also a marine, and she’s proactive and brave and assertive. So I'm trying to be hyperaware of when I lose those facets of her personality through the trees when I try to capture the forest that is her darker side. And I would be wholly welcome to anybody who has comments on that type of thing in the future, if I write a character that isn't acting like themself.

This got a lot longer than I thought it would so now I’m not sure how to end it. I think I’m just going to sit in silence for a moment then heat up some soup. Hmm.

ETA: I would be ashamed if I didn’t mention @tetrahedrals, who consistently provides me wonderfully helpful feedback on my ME fic, and none of whose fault this is. All remaining errors in my fic after they’ve been beta’d and workshopped are entirely mine, but she’s helped me a lot to ensure there are far fewer than there might have been. xo

[lightscavenger]

Tagged by: Enemyofperfect

1. Nickname: Life 2. Star Sign:  Aries. 3. Height:  5 ft 2 ½ inches 4. Time right now: 10:17pm Pacific Time 5. Last thing I googled: I dunno, probs ao3 because I look that up instead of bookmarking it for some reason, and probably the definition for something, and possibly song lyrics? I’m not exactly sure but there are the results lol. 6. Fave music artist:  Hmmm, my favorite ALBUM is the Polarbear one by Snow Patrol. I used to be really fond of a band called Efterklang until they started actually singing more pop than ambient. Mother Mother is pretty fun to yell along to, and so is some of Metric’s work. 7.Song stuck in my head: I dunno… Submergence by Greg Haines??? Last movie watched: The Shallows. A killer-shark movie. I screamed like a child several times and scream/cursed like a sailor a few times as well. I almost wish someone had been recording me, me yelling “FUCK!!!” when a gigantic shark rises out of the water and chomps someone in a very high pitched voice has GOT to be pretty funny. 8. Last tv show watched:  Uh… I almost forgot but I’m pretty sure the last tv show I watched was Hell’s Kitchen. I watch it with my dad and we both get really into it. 9. What are you wearing right now: A pair of pajama pants with horror-movie imagery all over them and a tight t-shirt with a zombie unicorn on the front of it. *shrugs* I’m pretty goth I guess. 10. When did you create your blog:  five-ish years ago? I think it was either literally christmas or new years when I first created my tumblr. What kind of stuff do I post:  “Fannish stuff and social justice stuff and, um, anything I think is interesting or important?” - enemyofperfect 11. Do I have any other blogs: I have like *blushes* literally seventeen side blogs? As well as a Dreamwidth that I post to sporadically. 12. Do I get asks regularly:  Nope, but if anyone is reading this, feel free to pop in! I don’t have anonymous enabled tho. 13.Why did I choose my url:  I like scavengers and I like the idea of scavengers picking up the light in the world? I consider myself to be a scavenger because I like shiny things and I tend to trail behind people and I like the thought of finding pieces of light where I go? That I can see something in the world that maybe others can’t? I dunno. I realized that the name was terribly pretentious when I tried using it as my username for twitch.tv when I got embarrassed using it lol. 14. Gender:  Genderfluid, feeling a bit more femme recently. 15. Hogwarts house: ...I’m a special self-insert OC that can magically enter all the Hogwarts houses simultaneously fitting into all of them AND none of them. *sticks out tongue* 16. Pokemon team: Mystic. Because Articuno is the best. 17. Favorite color: Green and Purple. 18. Average hours of sleep:  12 ugh 19. Favorite character(s):  Spock (Star Trek), Axel (Kingdom Hearts), Loki (Marvel/Myth), Tony Stark/Iron Man (Marvel), Breq (Imperial Radch Trilogy), etcetc. 20. How many blankets do I sleep with:  I sleep with one blanket, I lie my head on a comfort blanket that I’ve had since I was around six years old. 21. Dream job: Something that I like doing, that is rewarding to do, or at the very LEAST gives me accomodations for my various disabilities, physical and mental. 22. Following:  191, but most of those are art blogs that only post once in a while or blogs that have died. Despite the number indicating otherwise I am VERY picky about who I follow, and am not one of those who ‘follows those who follow me’ unless I like their blog content or I am very attached to them as a person (or both *coughs*enemyofperfect and thegoodqueertheywarnyouabout*coughs*)

Tagging??? I don’t know how to tag or link people here on tumblr (though I should know by now lol) so... anyone following me who wants to answer these questions?