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Ahhh so I’ve been watching Mythbusters again and I just keep seeing these grown adults just getting so giddy about 💥explosions💣 and going out of their way to find the most contrived methods specifically so that they can blow stuff up and all I can think is that in a Modern AU, the Cranes would definitely be their universes version of Mythbusters. Just the whole school having a TV show and/or posting YouTube videos of the same crazy crap the Mythbusters do here!😆

The most recent episode I watched had them testing what happens when a car hits a moose. You know they’d be ringing up a certain Bear to ask if they can come over to take measurements for science.

In a modern AU, the Cranes would absolutely have a YouTube channel that's mostly explosions. It would probably be very educational! Just a lot of what you'd be learning would be "how to not get blown up while doing Mad Science".

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Hey Inex,

No question, just something I thought might make you happy: my partner asked me to try out a handicraft in order to put the phone down during board gaming. So, I'm going to try embroidery bc I know what I can DO with it from reading MBTTs and the AWAU.

Thank you so much for all the wonderful fics!

This delights me wholeheartedly. If you feel like it, send pictures of what you make!

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The “No-Longer-Quite-As-Accidental Warlord” doesn’t really have the same ring to it… 😂

Geralt: “It started out with a king, how did it end up like this??”

Though on a more serious note, thank you for bringing us along in this universe. And for showing that making sure people have rights and safety and making the world a better place for everyone is hard work that never stops, and that your characters know it is easier to walk away or look the other way and just look out for themselves, but choose to do the harder right thing with no promise of reward. ❤️

NLQAAWAU is indeed a bit of a mouthful, yes. Poor bewildered Geralt!

Thank you for continuing to read, and to send such lovely messages. Making the world a little better is hard work and never stops, but - well - we gotta keep trying, right?

May tomorrow be a little brighter than today.

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I can’t remember if I signed up for the fan map for AWAU already - Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada 🦞 🇨🇦

Hello in Truro! You're on the map!

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I’m also a writer, of both fanfics and works I hope to publish someday, and I was wondering if I could ask your advice. I have a number of larger projects that I want to undertake, but thinking about how long it’s going to take to finish them makes me anxious and then I won’t even start. You’re an incredible writer and you have so many finished works; how do you do it? What would you recommend for someone who feels incredibly daunted by the lengthy and disheartening process that is writing a novel or series?

Also thank you for your Accidental Warlord series; it brings me inexpressible joy every time I read it

Oooh okay this is a complicated one. Let's see.

First off, and this is hard: don't compare your output to other authors. I have what my friends affectionately refer to as Wordy Bitch Disease. I write a lot, I write fast, and I write clean enough copy that Rose isn't doing copyedits, she's doing plot and characterization fixes. I start a new WIP...pretty near daily some weeks, and they do not all get done. My WIPs list is frankly fucking terrifying. But it's important to note that I have been writing pretty consistently for twenty years at least, and I was not as fast, coherent, or skilled when I started. For that matter, when I'm tired or stressed or just feeling blah, sometimes the words don't come, and it's important not to beat yourself up about it when that happens.

Second bit of advice: start smaller. I really, really like flash fic challenges and themed prompt lists and tumblr ask memes, because they make me limit my story to what can be told in a few thousand words. That lets me improve my craft without getting bogged down in enormous plotlines. (Yes, sometimes the story still grows a plot. But it's less frequent.)

Third bit of advice: take little bites, and accept that it's going to take a long time and possibly several drafts. When I started MBTT, I genuinely thought it would be 50K. (I am bad at estimating finished lengths of stories.) But I still took it one chapter at a time, and tried to have each chapter be a coherent whole, a chunk of story that needed to be told. When I'm working on the AWAU, if I think about the whole overarching storyline too much, I get overwhelmed and have to go stick my head under a proverbial rock for a while. But one story is doable, most of the time. I've had to restart drafts for some stories two, three, four times to get the voice and style and plot to cooperate. Be willing to say, That's not working, and try something else, even if you're really fond of what you've written so far.

Fourth bit of advice: learn what style of planning works for you. Some people like to outline in great detail. Some people like a sketchy outline. Some people, like me, can't outline - it kills the story for me. The WIP I started this morning has a notes section for important characterization details and the single plot point "Bandits?" Anything more than that, and I won't write it, because in some sense I've already written it so why bother doing it again?

Fifth and final bit of advice, because this is getting long: if you can find a cheer-reader, cherish them. Having someone in the doc leaving comments or emoticons helps immensely with knowing how my readers will react and with keeping my own enthusiasm for a story stoked high, which vastly increases the likelihood of it getting finished.

Good luck! Be brave! Thank you for the compliments!

I hope to read your stories someday!

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I love how the new fic is set in the middle of Movran’s visit, which means that as Geralt is teaching Movran about leadership, he is also self-reflecting that this is something that he now needs to fully commit to, for himself and his people

Yep! Everyone is learning things! And Geralt didn't even go up mountain! We're all very proud of him.

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I've got to admit, I'm not quite sure what the threat of the marbles is or why it's even moderately effective? Couldn't Lambert just flip over his shoes? Please explain, it's somehow distracting me from the rest of the glorious chapter. I'm just imagining a bunch of the marbles used for games/to fill vases poured into his boots. Like maybe it would be slippery and weird to feel when sliding in a foot but it's not a full-force inpact onto unexpected legos?!?!

"We are not scaring the sweet kitten,” Aiden hisses, glaring at his lover. “If you freak her out enough that I can’t get my mouth between her pretty thighs I will put marbles in your boots, I swear to every god.”

Lambert glares back. Voltehre sighs. “May I carry you to bed, sweetheart?” he asks, nuzzling at the nape of her neck.

She giggles. “Please. Let us spare Lambert from marbles.”

- Threading the Warp ch 10

I think you put just a few marbles in and then they're uncomfortable and hard to get out. It's not meant to be a horribly serious threat, to be fair.

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as usual, i’ve come across a little detail i never gave much thought to before on my most recent reread, so i’ve come to ask you about it as is tradition.

morvran gifts ciri a hide from a spotted desert cat- does she have a cheetah pelt now??? i never actually considered what animal that might be before

It is absolutely a cheetah pelt, yes. I don't condone this in the real world - cheetahs have enough problems without being hunted for pelts - but in the Witcher world perhaps they are slightly less endangered.

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I just had an excellent idea for Mouse in Wolfblood (since I was rereading MBTT). Milena thinks that a Griffin should attend Baron Filip's son's wedding, right? And in AWAU that was Orn and Roland who attended and then picked up Mouse. So the idea goes as such: Roland approaches Milena as they return and goes "don't be mad, but the bridegroom's younger sister was SO MISERABLE while her mom was trying to matchmake that I told them you were looking for a lady-in-waiting." (part 1 MouseBTT)

And behind him Mouse is just poking her head out like "oh she's so pretty and elegant, I really hope she's nice." So Milena just shakes her head and says, "Well, I suppose I have a lady-in-waiting now." And then said lady-in-waiting proves herself to be a much better spy and eats more often with the Cats and her great-uncle than with her nominal lady. (part 2 MouseBTT)

Awww, that would work surprisingly well! And Mouse would be delighted to run all over Kaer Morhen and ferret out its secrets, and Milena would get a friend. And Kiyan would get a Mousie to follow about.

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so I just finished one of my regular rereads of the AWAU series (if ao3 allowed repeat kudos, you'd be getting them on all the fics a couple times a year. it's by far one of my favorite stories) and I just thought of how stressful it must be for nobles outside the Wolflands, having to let Witchers into their lands to hunt monsters now. sure, they used to come through all the time anyways when they were just wandering monster hunters, but now they're the personal troops of the Warlord! just.. casually going about their business in what is now a foreign ruler's lands? shock! horror!

Honestly, yeah, it's probably Very Stressful for a lot of nobles outside the Wolflands, especially depending on whether they believe the general propaganda about the Warlord or whether they actually talked to a Witcher about what's going on and believed them. Which, to be fair, would be difficult - everything about Geralt's rise to power is frankly ridiculous by noble standards.

But you've gotta have Witchers, or your peasants get eaten by monsters, and sometimes your nobles, too. Maybe even your royal self. Not a great choice, really.

I think Gwidon of Aedirn is fine with it, though. He knows Geralt would have conquered him if he'd wanted to, and didn't, and is therefore unlikely to change his mind unless Gwidon does something stupid.

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https://www.tumblr.com/unnameablethings/786659612055273472/knight-who-is-constantly-searching-for-a-good-and

VERY accidental warlord

Somewhere out there in the multiverse, AWAU!Geralt feels very Seen and isn't quite sure why.

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i know aubry wasn’t assigned as jaskier’s bodyguard until the agata incident, which was well after he joined the council and moved to sit by eskel at meals, but i like to imagine that he was the first pick because even though he’d never complain, no one could stand aubry smelling sad and kind of lonely now that he didn’t have his dinnertime buddy anymore

I like this theory. Eskel looked at his calm, quiet big brother who has gotten bizarrely and unexpectedly Attached to the loud, brightly colored, ever-chattering bard and went, Y'know what? I can kill two birds with one stone here.

And now Aubry gets all the Bard Time he wants, and smells so happy.

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PFFFF thinkin bout jaskier sittin there having a Moment after eskel finishes eating and goes off the day he moves up the table, having Thoughts and Revalations about how bad he wants to be ~marked and claimed~ by geralt, an poor lambert’s just sittin there like jesus fuck man i wish u would fuckin remember that i’m here 😫 this ain’t my business, go do this in ur room like a normal person, that’s my big brother 😖😖😖

Poor Lambert, the bard has very smelly emotions!

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Hey amazing Inex! Was rereading for the umpteenth time the Warlord AU and I was thinking about the mantikittens;

Does any of them go back to see their blood family?

Apologies if it has been asked before, it just popped into my mind and would not leave me alone!

I want to write Maja's reunion with her family, although the bunny is fighting me.

On the one hand, they're going to be very glad their daughter, who they have mourned for some years now, is alive.

On the other hand, they're Redanian and she's now a Witcher. Which means she's either a monster to be feared or technically a noble now, and either way...not quite the daughter they lost.

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inex i am as always having Thinky Thoughts about the most recent awau installment (delightful as always, my dear!)

obviously ban ard is the main threat in this universe, but other than sabrina being less netflix and more games we don’t have a ton of info on aretuza’s alignment. are we going to get to know tissaia in this world? i think filling those teaching slots at the new mage school will be a lot easier if a handful of aretuza sorceresses can swear to the wolf, and i’m a shameless tissaia stan happily throwing her hat in the ring for her lol

I would very much like to get to Aretuza in the AWAU! But I'm not sure how many Aretuza-trained sorceresses will be able to join the Wolflands school. I suspect they'll be working with a lot of hedgewitches who don't have the raw power but do have the community mindset and experience to teach their students about compassion and serving the people rather than their own ambition.

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So this is probably gonna sound weird but I run a sideblog where I match characters to tarot cards (@character-tarot if you're curious) and I just wanted to check with you if it would be okay if some of your original characters were featured. I ask because it happened to come up in a discussion of fandoms for fanworks, and while normally I'm fine with people submitting their own OCs, I'd rather get permission before posting someone's characters, even if they're from a hugely popular fanwork.

Fascinating! I know very little about tarot, but this looks like a cool project. I am fine with my OCs being featured on your blog; just tag me, maybe, so I can come look at the polls?

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New fic! Winter Entertainment is a sequel to Second First Time.

Geralt, intrigued by his encounter with a temporarily-cursed-female Eskel, went and hunted down the sorceress who cast the spell, and brought a copy home to Kaer Morhen for the winter. Eskel thinks this is an amazing opportunity. Lambert is...less enthused. At least at first.