#'okay i'll finish this draft bc its more recent'

[rikyos]

time is so fake

[acaciapines]

for the ask game, answer whichever of these speak to you the most: 4, 5, 11, 14 :D

HI ASH MY LOVE ASH.

oh they ALWAYS speak to me. i answer All. i will not be contained.

4. How many WIPs do you have right now?

actually shockingly few! ever since i finished my big owl house editing pass back in june i've not done a whole lot in terms of projects...and recently i've been playing rain world so instead of writing im playing rain world like 24/7. currently my only main project is the dess raises kris au, and in that 'verse the only thing i'm writing right now is a dess/chara relationship study. i WOULD finish it, but, uh. rain world. (<- guy who is trying so hard not to write rain world fic. i probably wont but also i am always tormented by ideas. but consider i have to tell the story of my slugpup scooter SCOOTER I WONT EVER FORGET YOU--)

5. What's a fic idea you've had that you will never write?

probably countless that i do not remember right now! but digging around through my drafts, i've got a few deltarune daemon aus that won't ever see the light of day...one of them was a fangame where the player played as one of kris's two daemons, and the other was a fic where ralsei was kris's daemon. the ideas from there have basically been repurposed elsewhere--a lot of my kris&ralsei stuff went into various works, and the fangame stuff is being reworked into the dess raises kris au.

beyond that, in terms of things that are actually abandoned and won't be used elsewhere, there are so many daemon aus that i've left behind for one reason or another, though the gravity falls transcendence au is the one that i think was the best...that one postcanon his dark materials fic i was gonna write where lyra and pan return to will's world and cause general shenanigans there with him and kirjava...a vera-centric son of sea foam wings of fire au because vera is the love of my life and i was rereading wings of fire bc i felt nostalgic....oh my god fantasy high SOPHOMORE YEAR FIC, which i tried to start TWICE, once from fig's pov and once from ayda's that was their road trip back home and i have some very funny snippets from...MY INFINITY TRAIN DAEMON AU WAIT THAT ONE STILL GOES SO HARD ACTUALLY. okay drop everything ive ever said the fact that i never wrote my infinity train book two daemon au is a travesty. i was cooking with that one.

11. Do you have specific playlists for writing fics?

sort of! i usually always have at least one or two songs i connect to any given fic, but in terms of what i listen to when actually WRITING, it's changed over the years. i used to put on compilations of video game music--usually utdr, pmd, and then just whatever got recommended to me lol--then i did like. those character playlists people make on youtube? mostly bc they tended to pull from the same pool of songs so it became good background noise lol. now i use the youtube mix or whatever its called for a similar reason--it tends to play the same handful of songs ive listened to a lot, so they dont distract me.

14. If you could see one of your fics adapted into a visual medium, such as comic or film, which fan fic would you pick?

oh i LOVE this question, and it would be without a doubt my nimona daemon au oh, are you at all like me. nimona itself is obviously both a comic and a movie, and i'd say animated film since the fic follows the movie plot more--i think there'd be a LOT of really cool scenes you could get with that fic. i also think i could make killer animatics based on my fics if i could draw good enough <3 and thats not a joke i have scripts and sketch storyboards and everything. maybe one day i'll finish one of those.

[oh-cosmia]

12, 17, 19 <3

hiiiii alex <333

12. a trope you’re really into right now

haha well im gonna interpret "right now" as something i got into recently... dragon romance (YOU KNOW). also doomed friendship/friends-to-enemies arcs. does "the banality of evil" count as a trope?

17. talk about your writing and editing process

**OUGH**

okay so uhhhh for fic specifically its like. if its a new fic or a oneshot i write down a really rough summary like, i just ramble in my word doc as if i was telling someone this outline. sometimes if i already rambled about fic ideas in someone's dm's ill just copy paste it and use that as an outline. this was basically how me and mal wrote the outline for wedding fic, and also i did this with me and liz's dms when i first drafted solo au. and then i just start writing and keep fleshing out the outline till its done.

if its a chapter in a longer or ongoing work, like db:

prewriting; i need to know what main events happen in this chapter and also what key information is dropped. in chapter 11, something big happens, the steward shows up! thats something thats gonna build up to something in future chapters, so it was necessary to introduce it now. another big thing happens, when min encounters a denizen whose suffering he was complicit in. those are the big things that Have to happen, but then also in between that i want to drop some pieces of information that will become relevant in later chapters. when i get an idea for something gay i will find a way to work it in-- like, i didn't Need to make min kabedon ryan in ch11, but i had a vision. i had a dream. i did that for ME

writing; okay so first i lay down . then at 9-11pm i write in stimuwrite and then copy it into a word document later. then i lay down some more. if im REALLY feelin wild and i get into a groove i just keep writing till i pass out at 2 or 3 am. sometimes i go to my favorite cafe if i need to Lock In. writing is just mostly cleaning up and expanding on my outline. when i know generally what the trajectory of the chapter is and what stuff i need to make happen, everything else i kind of make up on the spot, like, the car settings and denizens are based off of whatever ideas or images were interesting to me recently. if i see an opportunity for fun banter or interactions i'll just throw it in. if i think of something funny or gay i'll put it in too. idgaf

editing; most fun part. so first i lay down. then i get up and look at a random scene of the wip. i edit it a bit. then i lay down. then i review the whole thing and fix any obvious #cringe moments or typos or fucked up syntax. then i lay down. then i edit some more until i can bear to show someone else

peer review. i show my trusted friends the fruits of my labors. they tell me if the vibes are off. they leave comments on my docs and reactions that help me gauge if my intentions/tone came through the writing. also frankly showing my friends a wip is nice bc the writing process can be very lonely and its a good motivator to show people and get amped up to finish

illustration; i've probably been sketching ideas up till this point, but i usually pick scenes if they're either important enough to the plot that i want to give an extra "oomph" to the moment, or if i just really have a strong image in my brain during a scene.

publish it. lay down again. sleep for a week. start thinking abt the next chapters

[mangostarjam]

fuji!! how are you doing on this fine day lovely lady? i'm responding to our thread here bc idk what the etiquette is on reblogging long ass conversations on the same thread lmao so to be safe i'll just send u a new ask.

soupmates is so cute and i love when typos become canon jargon in friendships hehe. you've made me crave croissants again and i am wistfully thinking of how we have a rule that while we're in france, if one of us asks "what time is it?" the other is legally obligated to respond "croissant o'clock" and then we go find a boulangerie. this is how we end up eating 8 croissants/day whenever we're there.

wttcsms is on my deep dive list too!! every time i see them on my dash i'm like how does it feel to never be wrong? ack i've just been so busy that the only time i have to trawl tumblr is during my unhinged insomnia hours when i'm only half aware of what i'm keyboard vomiting lmao NO FILTER only screeching.

okay not mushrooms but this weekend i was busy running around the kitchen experimenting with my lil hoard of fig leaves! i made fig leaf syrup, fig leaf oil, and experimented with dehydrating and freezing the leaves for preservation. i also tested different ratios of toasted fig leaves and pandan in creme brulee and panna cotta so i could see how the flavors bloom in dairy in preparation for the idea i had for my cake. then i gave all the excess treats to baristas at our fave local coffee joints bc i'm not a huge sweet tooth and this was tew much dessert! after i found a ratio i thought worked, i made the cake except i'm afraid it's going to turn out hideous (it's still in its cake ring rn) but it's basically a first draft cake and i can refine it next time! you should see the notes i took on it. i always try to start with a neat plan and end up scribbling all over it with ideas and corrections.

tonight we've invited a couple of our friends over so i can do a fig leaf-inspired dinner with hamachi crudo with fig leaf oil, tomato bisque with fig leaf oil drizzle and crouton, slow roasted salmon in fig leaves (finished with a sear from our bernzomatic + searzall bc crispy salmon skin is life), and the fig leaf and strawberry cake. my friend also got cheesybf a new cocktail set for his bday so we can use the fig leaf syrup to make some nice gin cocktails or a fig leaf strawberry mocktail!

right now i'm munching on leftover crying tiger steak and nam jim jaew for lunch with jasmine rice that i steamed with some of the leftover pandan leaves for extra ~aroma. i still have a ton of leaves so i think i'm gonna make a pandan simple for my favorite matcha pandan lattes.

re: urls haha YES chopsticks are the best way to eat flaming hot cheetos and no one can change my mind. i always think of puffins when i think of my own username. those cute lil round birds. with like a lil cheese hat. i also associate you with apples now as we move into fall. but mentally my picture of you is a swirl of the colors in a kent mango, scented by mango skin by vilhelm and just a hint of kilian's apple brandy on the rocks. maybe a waft of mfk 724 and something like clean cotton or a soft white floral.

HAHAHA totally fair i just realized it was getting long maybe i should put my responses under a read more LOL

i'm responding a day (??) late (time is fake) bc i had to recover from how gorgeous your cake looked and sounded tbh. but i'm good!! my new assistant at work is picking things up quickly and has common sense which is sadly in short supply around here lmaooo

there's a vietnamese bakery in my hometown that makes the BEST croissants i've ever had in my life (though tbf i have not been to paris yet!) and they supply all the local taquerias with bolillo so they are Churning Out Breads but i cannot emphasize enough that it's like. a warehouse space. with a door on a side street and the price list handwritten and they only recently started accepting anything but cash. i love them. the croissants are huge and lightly buttery and delicious. i will now be declaring it's croissant o'clock any time we happen to drive nearby haha

wttcsms and dee my beloveds!!! on behalf of all writers though i will say no filter unhinged screaming comments/tags are GREAT to read. i hope your busyness is the good kind!! it's always lovely seeing you pop up on the dash or inbox or wherever but i hope you're having a good time here >ᴗ<

oh my goddddd your fig leaf experiments... divine. glorious. something about the description of "seeing how the flavors bloom in dairy" is just. dreamy?? you sound like a wizard creating your own magical spell book tome with your scribbles and notes and ideas (saying this in SUCH a complimentary way). crispy salmon skin IS life i just had some last night hehe i had to look up crying tiger steak and nam jim jaew but YOOO this reminds me of duk prahok... yum. and oh my god crying tiger steak is like. a summer staple for us. i never knew it had a NAME. not to over share but my family is from cambodia and i have so many recipes in my brain that i just figured were things my dad created LOL

AND I LOVE PUFFINS!!! in like second grade i did a report/presentation on puffins unprompted unsolicited to my class. i read a book about them and was obsessed i wanted everyone to learn about them (yes i am/was a nerd) (bless my teacher for letting me present lmao). and i do love apple scented things mmm. one of my favorite candles ever is autumn air from elder&co (notes of wild apple and pear and fallen oak leaves). i'm so glad it's getting cloudy and cozy season is coming bc i can light my candles without feeling too silly. do you have any favorite candles?? oh these other scents are SO GOOD. i love that!! brb going to find a way to smell these immediately

[loregoddess]

2, 3, 8, and 19 for the fandom game, for any fandom(s) you feel like talking about :)

(for 3, fic and/or meta posts, can't actually remember if you've posted straight up fic before haha)

2. My favorite fic from the fandom that I’ve read

I haven't read a ton of fic sadly (although I haven't read a lot in general the last few years due to college making me read So Many academic papers and books that I got burnt out and haven't quite recovered my love of reading. Yet). Although, my friend @lookerdewitt has written literally some of the best fic I have ever read, so I would probably say one of their fics.

3. My favorite fic from the fandom that I’ve written myself

I have actually sort of written fanfic (both legit fanfic, and also a few "thinly veiled technically fanfic if you changed the names" for a fiction writing class that I had to write several stories for and wanted to see if I could get away with it), but I haven't actually. Shared those fics with anyone? Partly bc I have historically almost never finished any fiction writing project that I have started, ever, and partly bc I'm just shy about sharing my writing in general.

I have been working on a LoZ fancomic idea for the past uhhhh four or five years (technically last decade since I first came up with the idea in late high school and then had it sit in the back of my head for several years bc all I had was a setting and a handful of characters), and I have never in my life stuck with a project this long, so I guess that would be my favorite from my personal works bc it's apparently something I care about enough to not abandon entirely. I've actually made a decent amount of progress on my "detailed outline" recently, so here's hoping I can stick it out and actually get to the script and then to drawing pages one day.

For meta posts I think my favorite is actually my analysis of the Octopath 1 cast and how the major antagonists in each of their stories acts as a mirror and foil to each character. I really enjoy analyzing stories in general, but I so rarely write it out, so I was happy to actually do so for once. Gave me a lot of confidence for all the other meta and headcanon posts that I wrote afterwards.

There's also a Legend of Dragoon meta post sitting partly-finished in my drafts where I analyze themes surrounding each dragoon spirit and its wielders, which I haven't finished bc I only remember to work on it when I'm doing my yearly replay of LoD, and also bc it started looking like it might need to be a series of posts due to uh....length. Like I make a lot of lengthy posts, but each dragoon spirit's analysis was about a short essay's worth of words, and there are eight spirits soooo....hopefully I'll finish that one day, bc it's an analysis I've spent years thinking about.

8. Is there anything I wish people would write more about in fics? (A dynamic, an exploration of an arc, just a character that doesn’t get much screentime, etc)

I'm always a sucker for post-canon healing/recovery/rebuilding arcs. Can't get enough of them honestly (when I have the motivation to read). There's something so fascinating about looking at a character who Went Through Some Stuff, but the main narrative didn't look at the effects of that, and so a dedicated writer took up the challenge of trying to explore what comes after.

Most of my favorite characters are weird side characters who don't get a lot of love from the writers of canon or fans, so I'm always glad to see stuff for them as well.

19. Favorite headcanon

Oh hmmm, there's a lot and it depends on which media we're talking about, so if you're curious about a specific game let me know. Off the top of my head though hmm...

Okay I have this headcanon that Milo TriStrat snorts when she laughs genuinely. Like sure she's got the ladylike proper, cute laugh that's part of her spy job and totally fake, but when she is being fully honest and laughing for real, she snorts.