#8/10 I feel like when I'm writing fic I'm writing versions of this couple

[sofoulandfairaday]

Please share all of your Sirius and Bellatrix thoughts ♥️

I have way too many, darling.

The TLDR is it is our choices that show us who we truly are, far more than our abilities. The long version is under the cut.

When reading about them I usually prefer stories where their original 8-9 year gap is preserved (it annoys me to no end when people write the Order and the Death Eaters as entirely made up of people in the same couple of years in Hogwarts —really? Was the conflict exclusively waged by child soldiers? Were Dumbledore and Voldemort just chilling before 1977, when they decided to start recruiting?). With that being said, I can also enjoy fics where - for shipping purposes - their ages are more compatible, to make them share time in Hogwarts or during the First Wizarding War.

I think they are very, very alike personality-wise. The narrative draws some delicious writing parallels between them, both physically and in their expressions, vices and virtues, and choices. Directly between them, might I add. The author underlines the difference between Bella and Narcissa more than once, we're meant to see it, and similarly we're meant to see the similarities between Bella & Sirius.

They are haughty, passionate, powerful, competent, arrogant, bright, much more intelligent than the fandom thinks they are. In general, they suffer from the stigmatization that many characters - but some people in real life do too - that someone who is intense and impulsive cannot possibly be as intelligent as people who are meek, soft-spoken, generally more controlled. Think what the fandom does to Sirius vs Remus and Bella vs her sisters, when every arrow points to the fact that they are actually the cleverest in these pairings.

They are both some shade of mentally ill, and not because of the curse of the Blacks - half the Blacks went mad didn't they? What's the saying? Every time a Black is born the gods flip a coin. god the Targaryen-Black parallels are gold - Sirius is very likely horribly depressed in OOTP, something no one around him seems to understand, infuriatingly. The only one that seems to get it is Harry, who has the literal Dark Lord living in his brain (= bigger problems to deal with). Bella is... I don't know what she is, ask me after my psychiatry module next year, but my money is on PTSD after Azkaban - after all, she didn't have the escape of an Animagus form behind bars. She would also very likely be victim-blamed for these different feelings, which would lend itself to a delicious nobody else in the world understands us but us type of post-Azkaban dark!fic which I would love to read.

They are both skilled at magic, and while they might despise each other for their respective political views, they respect each other because of this. Bella is probably above him in terms of magical power and skill, because she's 9 years older and because of Voldemort's training, but Sirius seemed to be keeping up quite well with her during their fight in the DoM.

Speaking of which, I am sure that Bellatrix's scream of triumph was due to her winning their duel, not because she thought she had killed him and that is probably the single thing I love the most about HBC's interpretation of her in the movies. That look. 10/10.

I am of the opinion that Bella is all bark and no bite when it comes to certain members of her family, especially her sisters. Sure, she might say that she wants to prune her family tree but 30 years later in the beginning of DH, she still calls Andromeda sister. I'm sure she would want nothing more than to put him under lock and key for the rest of his life and never let him escape, not kill him. And, to me, the way Sirius speaks of his family is very interesting. I'm sure he firmly believes that he hates them, but his actual feelings are more complex than that. You can hate someone and still desire their love, their respect. You can hate that they are the only people in the world who understand you - and hate yourself more in turn, for it.

Sirius seems to me like someone haunted by his own darkness. He, much like Harry, would be constantly worried that he's becoming like them. I'm sure it's a weak spot for him and I wish we had heard more bickering, or at least a full interaction between Bella and Sirius (I feel like she would claim him as hers, underline how much he cannot escape his own blood, even just to mock him/unsettle him in battle). But what Dumbledore says to Harry is true: it doesn't matter how alike they are, it's their choices that matter much more. And I feel like this is why the two of them would never reconcile in canon. They stand for different things.

I also think there might be some - and I know Freud is controversial nowadays, but bear with me - penis envy, on her part. Because Sirius was born the heir - something she would have given her left hand to be: to be born and die a Black instead of being expected to marry into another family - and he squandered it all away by consorting with werewolves and mudbloods. But no. He got everything and pissed on it, and it's just not fair. And by choosing not to come back, even in the two years after Regulus' death, he made sure that the Black Family name will die with him- and I think that is just something she can never ever forgive him.

Now. Everybody knows I don't like TCC and my preferred view of Bella is someone with fertility issues, even to the point of being sterile.

[I read an amazing fanfic once and a line from it stuck in my brain - "If I can't be life, then I'll be death"]

But. If we do see it as canon. This is also the reason why - despite being overjoyed at Delphi's birth - I am convinced that she wished for a boy when she was pregnant. If she had a boy with the Dark Lord, who couldn't possibly give them his name, the House of Black would have an heir. This is also the reason why I don't thing she was necessarily opposed to having children with Rodolphus - the "spare" would have been her heir.

Bellatrix would say that Regulus was her favourite cousin, but truth be told, it was really Sirius whom she respected more - at her core, in my opinion, Bellatrix is really only someone who respects power. Sirius is like her that way.

But Bellatrix is clearly a cruel person, which Sirius is not (or at least, he tries not to be: Kreacher and Snape are two very particular cases of people who are mean to him back). Also, Sirius' view of the world is much more egalitarian - If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals. Bellatrix is clearly someone who sees the world in terms of hierarchies, and lives within them (see: how she acts around Voldemort and what is implied of her treatment of house-elves who obey their masters: there is a scale and some serve others, and as long as they do so well they have certain rights; disobey, you get punished).

(Bellatrix is somewhat a feminist character but let's be real- she's not a revolutionary. She went to the Dark Lord and showed him just how powerful she was - aka my wand is bigger than all these male DEs' - and he said "okay, fair, I'll give you the Mark", thereby freeing herself. She is not a "equal representation for women inside terrorist organizations!!" type of girlie)

I also love how her death parallels Sirius'. It's thematically beautiful and it excuses her death coming at the hands of one Molly Weasley (who could never ever in a million years have beaten her on skill alone). She dies because she is arrogant. It's one of her traits. Overconfidence. She was always meant to die like that.

[coincidentally one of the reasons why she would not be a hufflepuff like some suggest: this woman is not humble]

I could go on, but I think I've rambled enough.

P.S. Let's not sleep on the fact that the two of them together would be hot.

[the-badger-mole]

Shipper Tag Game

Tagged By @kila09

1. What ship were you completely obsessed with when you were a teenager, but now you don't care anymore?

I wouldn't say I don't care anymore, I just haven't been inspired by them in a while, but definitely Inu/Kag. They were not my first ship, but they were the first ship I wrote for.

2. Which ship would you consider your first one?

Serena/Darien from the Sailor Moon US dub.

3. Your first fanfic belonged to which couple?

Inu/Kag. And no...you can't read it.

4. Do you remember the first couple you saw a fanart over?

Inu/Kag. it was drawn by my friend

5. Did you ever get into ship discourse?

Ha! I am the discourse....yes. I do.

6. Did you used to have a NOTP or have it currently?

Kataang and Sess/Rin. The full body cringe I get when I think of either of them...

7. Who were the couple in the last fanfic you read?

Zutara

8. Currently, do you have any OTPs?

Zutara, forever and ever. Usa/Mamo (now that I've seen the original Japanese version), Inu/Kag

9. Is there any couple, to this day, you are extremely mad about not getting together?

Zutara. They are my only OTP that isn't canon, but they should have been. Hayley and Andy from Modern Family is next. I'm honestly not happy at how they handled Hayley's arc in general. The writers were so cruel to her! I'm still not over it, and I'm mulling over a fix-it fic for her (one-shot probably). Ichabbie (Ichabod Crane and Abbie Mills) are in third place, but a very distant third. I lost all respect for Sleepy Hollow after how they treated both Abbie the character and Nichole Beharie the actress.

10. Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they are kind of interesting?

...no. Not really. I mean, I guess you could count CaptainSwan from OUAT, but that's less I didn't like the ship and more I wanted to get rid of Emma so EYE could have Hook.

11. Do you have any ship that, in the past, was considered normal but now would be canceled over?

I mean...probably? I can't think of any right now. I only have a handful of ships that I care enough about to talk about, and most of them don't appear on my blog, so...🤷🏾‍♀️

12. What was your favorite crack ship?

Mai/Aang (or Flying Dagger as I call them). I don't even really consider this a crack ship. Don't get me wrong, I see them being a disaster together, but not in a cracky sort of way. More of a reality show couple way.

13. Who is the couple you read more fanfics of?

Zutara these days. It used to be more of an even split between my top 3 ships, but the fact that I get around to reading anything these days feels like an accomplishment.

14. What do most of your ships usually have in common?

Powerful women and the powerful men who would die protecting them. Also, powerful women and the powerful men who are their biggest cheerleaders

15. What do you absolutely hate in a ship?

I mean...pick a trait from Kataang, and that's pretty much it. Hero gets the girl because he's the hero; the woman becomes the supportive background partner no matter how powerful and ambitious she was before she got with him; Man can't control his violent outburst without his partner's help. Kataang is the embodiment of everything I hate in a ship.

@soopersara @dhwty-writes @veggie-smoothie @vocalvixen20cp the floor is yours if you want it!

[aetheternity]

Teyvat babysitting service

Synopsis: Your mother has important errands to run all day so she leaves you with her in home babysitting center. Which means watching over six very energetic kids for an afternoon. Luckily Aether is there to teach you the ropes.

CW: Just some sweet fluff. Reader has you/your pronouns. Venti and Scaramouche have different color hair than in canon.

A/N: I was reading the cutest fic by: teaberrii with a similar premise and it gave me this idea but like I put my own spin on it. Go check out their version it's super adorable. Plus I needed to write something in between two other projects.

A/N 2: Quick list of things that got cut, Reader calling Scaramouche 'demon child.' {I didn't know how people would feel about that}. Aether giving Scaramouche animal crackers with all the heads cut off. {Really sad I cut this one} Venti calling reader perfect {Didn't have a good place to add that} Aether cursing {Just the word ass but still} and last but not least Aether making fun of reader for having no child care experience {Also something I couldn't figure out where to place. I really wanted to put that in too but I guess right here in the authors note is the best I can do.}

Characters: Aether (10), Heizou (9), Kazuha (9), Scaramouche (8), Venti (7), Xiao (6).

-

Introduction

Ok so you might've agreed to something dumb. Something you never would've in a million years had it been anyone else. But this was your mom, your mom who you'd never heard sounding so frazzled before. She'd scheduled a doctor's appointment and a couple other appointments which she now couldn't get out of and the person she had hired to run the daycare for the day while she was out had called out sick only two hours ago. Lucky for her she'd remembered you were off from work on Saturday. Which is how you ended up begrudingly agreeing to babysit despite having no experience with the field.

Six kids as well..

You'd arrived exactly when you said you would however obtaining your mother's attention was immediately a nightmare.

"Mom.."

"Their scheduled snack time, nap time, playtime and pickup times are all on the paper on the table listed 'Name's to do list'." She stated struggling to pull her arm through her sleeve.

"Mom.." You begged glancing behind you at the ten pairs of eyes all glaring into your soul.

"And if I'm not back before six all of their parents know I had someone else here to take over for the day." She briskly headed towards the door clicking her heels as you rushed to keep up. Little giggles following behind you both.

"Mom.."

"And if you have any problems at all talk to Aether."

"Who's Aether??" You questioned

"Here I am." A small blonde boy stood from a dimly lit corner. His braid swayed along as he headed towards the rest of the kids with a book tucked into his possession.

"He's my favorite little helper." Your mom grinned patting Aether's head. "Alright, now you kids be good for Name ok? I promise this is only for today."

"Too bad.. our new babysitter's so pretty." A brown haired kid with pigtails said.

"Wait my assistant is a child himself??!"

"Trust me, as long as you're kind to him he'll help you all day." She leans in to kiss your cheek. "I have to hurry if I'm going to make this appointment on time. Thank you so much for agreeing to this."

"Moooomm." You childishly pout but she's already gone shutting the door quickly behind her.

You sneak a glance behind you and the kids stare back.

"What makes you so qualified to take care of us for the day?" One of the kids scoffs.

"Scara, we said we'd play nice." The one you remember as Aether speaks up.

"No, you all agreed to be nice. I would never make a promise I can't keep." And with that he storms off, the other kids slowly dispersing as well and you're honestly grateful for it as their eyes were creeping you out.

"Here you go Xiao." Aether slides the book he'd been retrieving into the grasp of the only kid that had stayed when everyone else left. "Welcome to Teyvat's babysitting center, Name." He turns to you with a smile.

-

The first hour

"Sorry if this comes across as mean but you're a child yourself. How are you apart of the help?"

"I help your mom everyday. This group looks cute but they're a handful." Aether replies as you head over to the kitchen to recieve the note your mom had left.

"Right.." You sigh trying not to make it obvious that you don't trust a word he says.

A ten year old? Seriously? Isn't that breaking some kind of child labor laws? Does he even get paid to assist? Do his parents know? He can't possibly have any big jobs at least.

"Ok, five boys and one girl to watch today.." You say aloud, flipping the page your mom had left for you over. "Great.."

"Actually it's six boys." Aether interjects

"What? Even that one?" You point across the room at the one with pigtails from earlier rummaging around in the toy bin.

"Yes, we're all guys."

"But he's wearing a dress.." You blink a little more stunned than you'd like to admit.

Aether laughs, "It's two shirts and a pair of leggings. Don't worry he wouldn't be offended if he heard you say that. He's used to being seen as a girl."

"Well that's just great." You huff setting the paper back on the table just as the same boy you'd been talking about ran over, his heels clicking across the hardwood as he came.

"Here! This is for you." He stops next to Aether shoving a plastic flower towards you. Its white petals drooping a bit but it was still quite pretty for a fake. You grasped it by the green stem and the boy in front of you smiled with glee. "I want you to have it cause it's pretty like you." He giggles before running off.

"Well Venti already likes you. One down five to go. Though Venti's approval is the easiest to get."

"Alright lay it on me. Everything I need to get through taking care of all you kids." You place your hands on your hips making eye contact with Aether.

Aether pushes a chair up next to you, resting his knees in the cushioning as he points out into the living room. "Here's all you need to know: Xiao right over there, smallest, youngest and likes to be alone. The only people he really likes are me, your mom and his dad. He's probably the easiest boy here."

"Easier than you?"

"Well, he doesn't really do anything. As long as he has his snack on time and his nap on time he's fine." Aether shrugs and you nod along. "Next we have Heizou and Kazuha, their moms have been best friends since high-school so they were raised like brothers. Which means they're basically always together. One of them always brings board games or cards or something and they play together most of the day."

"Three easy kids, lucked out."

"Sounds like you're hoping for an easy day." Aether teases "Venti is a bit of a menace. He sneaks snacks, loves sweets, cries whenever any of the other kids cry and he won't sleep without Dvalin."

"Dvalin?"

Aether points and you follow his direction. "His blue stuffed dragon." Aether shakes his head like he's remembering something truly god awful. "It went missing once and he screeched so loud we thought the windows would break."

"Keep track of the stuffed dragon.. got it." You nod, "Wait he cries when other kids cry? Why?"

"I believe there are two reasons he does that, one, he wants attention too. Which is very possible, Venti is a bit of an attention hog. Or two that he feels other people's emotions so strongly that he's just experiencing their pain with them. You can decide for yourself but I'm going with number one."

"This is all.. helpful." How is this ten year old so knowledgeable?

"And that leads us to our nutcase Scara. He builds block towers just because he likes to knock them over. Hates sweets-"

"Hates sweets? What kind of kid hates sweets.."

Aether shrugs, "And he should never be left alone too long without supervision."

"To be fair isn't that the same for all you kids?"

Aether freezes, "Wait he's not-"

A crashing sound makes you and all the kids divert your attention down the hall. "Oh God.. it's been fifteen minutes!" You groan jogging along with Aether on your heels.

You shove open the bathroom door to find Scaramouche standing beside the broken lid that belonged on the toilet tank. A low chorus of "Oooo's" began behind you and you turn to see Aether in shock with Venti, Heizou and Kazuha all leaning on each other in the doorway.

"I dropped my car in the toilet.." Scara said innocently, shifting back and forth on both legs. Though the smile on his face said he wasn't even slightly sorry.

"Why would you bring a car to the bathroom in the first place?" You grunt peaking inside the tank only to see nothing inside.

"Because I'm eight." He scoffed, crossing his arms.

"Ugghh Aether take everyone back out into the living room. I'll clean up in here."

You hear Aether shoo the kids away behind you. A soft whisper of, "You're in so much trouble.." From Venti soon followed by silence. And you sigh working to clean up the tiniest pieces of the broken top first. Once that's finished you slide the top back onto the toilet broken and all. You'll probably have to pay for it yourself but it was your fault for being irresponsible. You pull the lid up, looking into the bowl to see what you can only assume is the red car Scara had been searching for laying beneath the surface of the water.

Why was he even touching the tank then? With every part of your brain screaming in agony you shove your hand into the freezing water below, yanking his tiny car out with a heavy groan. Before you can even begin to bleach your hands until you clean your skin off you hear a loud call down the hall.

Placing the car in the sink, you shake your hand out stomping your way back into the main room. You're immediately met with a disgruntled Aether trying his hardest to yank Venti off the kitchen counter as the small boy stuck his hand up to reach the cookies on the top shelf.

"Venti!" You reach around his legs gently placing him back on the floor. "It's not lunchtime and it's not snack time." He pouts but surprisingly heads back off towards the toy bin.

You were at least glad to see that aside from Venti just now everyone else was being good. Heizou and Kazuha had returned to their game, Xiao was on the floor sucking his thumb while flipping through a book and Scaramouche was laughing at the scene that had just occurred only a few feet away.

"You mister are on timeout, ten minutes for breaking that top."

He sticks his face closer to yours, "Oh yeah? How do you plan to make me huh?"

Before you can respond Aether is by your side, "It's ten minutes for breaking Name's mom's property which is a good deal considering what you'd get if our normal caretaker were here. And this place has always been good to you considering how awful your home life can be."

"You think that's the way to get me to do what you say?"

"Ten minutes for poor behavior and I'll throw in all the blocks from my jenga box so you can build the tallest tower to break when you get out of containment." Aether points and you watch as Scaramouche's eye twitches but before long he's walking his way over to the timeout chair. "Go wash your hands off, I can handle everyone for right now."

You breathe a sigh of relief as you rush back into the bathroom, scrubbing your hands thrice with as much soap as you could. As well as the car that'd been discarded in the sink. You didn't hear a peep this time and for the first time today you were unbelievably happy to have Aether by your side, helping you through this.

-

Lunchtime

Aether had helped you get the table from your mother's closet and you'd allowed him to carry into the main room for the kids lunchtime. Not at all child labor.. it was a cute kid sized table that barely weighed anything. The kids just grabbed their own chairs from the corner where they'd been stacked up in the corner of the room. Except for Xiao who needed Kazuha's help.

"Phew." You looked out into the open room and Aether pushed the chair from earlier up next to you.

"So shall we get started on meals?"

"You wanna help with this too?" You chuckle but you're honestly a bit happy seeing as your mom had not given you any instructions on what they actually eat.

"Everything is brought by all of our parents. So I can tell you what everyone eats." You nod along as you'd done earlier. "Heizou and Kazuha are first, they only eat dinosaur nuggets, carrots and celery. Place the same amount of nuggets on each of their trays they like to eat an even amount along with the same amount of carrots two each and one stalk of celery on both."

You head over to the fridge pulling out the packed baggies with both boys names on them. "Why do they both need to have the same amount of nuggets, carrots and celery?"

"Because they'll assume you're picking a favorite and then they won't eat."

"I thought you'd say something like it starts fights."

"No they don't fight very often but they both hate favoritism. Oh yeah don't forget, Heizou drinks grape juice and Kazuha drinks apple."

"Alright."

"Next is Venti, he likes apple slices leave them out so they're not too cold or else he'll cry about his teeth. For his sandwich he likes it cut into forths peanut butter on top and jelly on the bottom with little marshmallows shaped like stars stuck in the jelly and peanut butter."

"Are you kids raised by rich parents? Why are there so many steps just to make you lunch?" You scoff "And marshmallows? Seriously?"

"Venti really loves sweets." Aether shrugs "When I said on top I meant jelly at the beginning part of the bread spread halfway down then peanut butter below it. Cut the crust off by the way. And make sure the marshmallows are thinly sliced before you put them through the cookie cutter."

"Unbelievable, you know when I was a kid I had a normal peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Sometimes tuna if I was lucky."

"I'm sorry to hear that." You must've turned to him with pure aggravation behind your eyes because he cowers a bit before continuing on. "For Scaramouche, he likes cucumber sandwiches.."

"Oh my God you are all high society kids aren't you!"

"It's really simple!" Aether chuckles "The cucumbers are already peeled and clean all you need to do is put cream cheese, war chester sauce, mayo, garlic powder and onion salt into a bowl-"

"War chester sauce?" You can't stop yourself from snorting. He holds up a bottle for you pointing to the label. "Sure.. war chester." You actually do let out a giggle now.

"I'm ten what do you want from me? Even my mom can't read this word on the first try." You giggle a little harder as you take a bowl from where he'd pulled it off the rack. "All you have to do after that is put the cucumbers on top of the sauce spread and then you're done with the sandwich. But don't cut Scara's sandwich at all."

"Why? Wait why would I ask about having to do less work. Nevermind." You mix as swiftly as possible trying your hardest to mix quickly.

"Scara drinks lemon juice by the way." Aether hands you a bottle without a label and you stare at it.

"Lemonade huh? Wouldn't have picked him as a kid who enjoys that."

"No, not lemonade just lemon juice."

You pause in your stirring to stare at the bottle. "Are you serious? There's no way there isn't a drop of sugar in that thing. Even an adult would hate that."

"I personally believe he enjoys torturing himself. No one knows why though."

"Ugh who's left? Xiao?"

"Mhm Xiao is easy."

"I don't believe you."

"No seriously his dad makes his food the night before all you have to do is heat it up." Aether hands you a plate full of cold food from the fridge then grabs a pan from the rack gesturing for you to place the food in the pan.

"This might sound a bit weird to ask but why're you so eager to help? Is it because you're the oldest?"

Aether kind of smiles heading back to the fridge. "When I was little, like littler my twin sister used to always protect me. I felt kind of useless after a while cause I was always hurt or crying and she always treated me the nicest of anyone ever. Our mom said to me the best way to pay back kindness is to be kinder to everyone else around you. To recieve kindness is to give it back tenfold. So I always help everyone, to pay my sister back for everything she's done for me."

"Aww. That's really really sweet. Your mother raised you well."

"Thank you."

"Wait, you have a twin sister? Then where is she today?"

"Mom has me Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and weekends. While dad has her Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturday. Then I go to my dad on Mondays and Tuesdays."

"That sounds very confusing. I'm sorry to hear that."

Aether shakes his head, "Don't worry me and Lumine whittled them down till they agreed to spend holidays together." He turns the stove off. "Someday we might even get them back together."

You put on your best supportive smile. Trying your best to think of literally anything to say to this happy go lucky kid right now. Though your mouth dries and a knot forms in the pit of your stomach but he doesn't seem to notice.

"Ok. Last but not least me."

"Oh." You try to laugh off the information you'd been recently burdened with. "What do you want? Figs flown in from France perhaps?"

"All I really want are mozzarella sticks and tomatoe sauce." He gestures to the fridge and you sigh.

"Truly the easiest child." You say with a loud exhale, tugging him into a tight hug. You softly rub his shoulders.

You felt as though you might've blacked out for a minute because you couldn't believe what you were watching. The entire group of six boys just eating away at their meals. No conversation amongst them at all. Just happy go lucky chomping. Unbelievable.

You'd endured probably the most fear known to man today. Venti had decided to go outside in the rain without a coat and you and Aether had chased him down. Only for him to track mud all throughout the house. Heizou had gotten a paper cut and Scaramouche had disappeared again only to return with the leaning tower of blocks in his hand. Which Venti had promptly knocked out of his hand when he'd ran past him with a toy car almost starting a full out brawl between the two boys.

But for the first time in the last few hours you actually had some peace and quiet. It was almost terrifying. A part of you was happy but all of you was a bit frustrated because you could technically go and do whatever it was you hadn't been able to do the entire day but here you were instead. Watching them eat.

-

Naptime

"Yeah me, Heizou and Kazuha don't need naps anymore but we normally take them with the others. Just because Scaramouche doesn't sleep if he sees other people doing stuff while he's supposed to be napping."

"Ok then. Nap time everybody!" You call out, clapping your hands.

"Dvalin?" Venti scurries over to his cot, tossing the blanket up in the air before searching beneath the cot as well. "He's not here!"

"Oh no.." Kazuha freezes, Heizou already covering his ears.

"No no! Don't cry Venti, I'm sure he's here somewhere!" Aether says "Wait where's Scara.."

Kazuha rushes to Venti's side, the tears already beginning to fall while you and Aether storm down the hall to look for Scaramouche.

"Scara!" You call

"Scara, come on we don't want to-" Aether pauses, gasping and you stop at the same door he's standing in front of with a loud exclamation.

Tucked between his hands is Venti's dragon Dvalin. One hand tightly wrapped around the dragon's neck while the other is beneath the dragon's torso. You can hear Venti's cries growing steadily louder.

"Scara.. please.. give me the dragon." You nearly beg

"Not one more step, or the dragon gets it."

"Scara why would you do this! You know how much that dragon means to Venti!"

"He ruined my tower!"

"We can all build a new one after nap time as long as you give me the toy."

"Scara.. don't make me call Auntie Nahida." Aether remarked moving closer. At this name you noticed Scara tense and his grip on Dvalin grew weaker. "Give up the Dragon. I just memorized her number too."

With a low throaty growl Scara handed over the toy. Running back into the living room. You and Aether both breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"It's ok right?" You turned the toy over to check the stitching.

"Of course it is. Scara was bluffing."

"How could you tell?"

"He keeps a knife in his pocket. If he wanted to kill Dvalin he would've forever ago."

Geez these kids are just not normal.

-

After Naptime

You and Aether had gathered with Scara in the first bedroom closest to the living room keeping the door open so you could peak out every once in a while. You had to admit that this was definitely the most fun you'd had with the kids. Scara had pieced together a huge skyscraper one that was almost taller than Aether at this point. And with the help of Aether's extra blocks it'd become truly marvelous.

"How is it fun?" You questioned when he'd added the last block.

"Hm?" Aether asked

"How is it fun to build something this big with the sole intent of smashing it?"

"Eight year old boy stuff." Aether shrugged

"Alright, I finally get to smash it." Scara's foot flies through it first with a happy go lucky grunt of 'yes!' The tower topples and in a matter of seconds the entire structure crumbles to the ground. Each block making a thud as they scattered atop each other.

You tsk, "All our hard work."

"Well what would you do with a block tower savor it forever?" Scaramouche questions crossing his arms.

"Well no.."

"Ah the crazy boy has a point." Aether chuckles collecting some blocks into a pile in front of him. You smirk collecting your own pile in front of you.

"Shut up Aether."

"Hey, what did we talk about on your last time out? You wanna build blocks until you go home you have to be civil."

He simply grunts in reply hanging his head as he starts to gather up as many blocks as he can. The tiny thuds of little footsteps coming your way made all three of you look up. Venti stopped in the doorway Heizou's hand in his. His eyebrows knitted as he looked at the scene before him.

"Um.. pretty caretaker we lost Xiao.."

"What do you mean you lost Xiao?" Aether is up first and you and Scaramouche follow the two boys into the living room.

"Venti had to go to the bathroom so I went with him." Heizou said

"You went with him to the bathroom?" You question

"Venti has issues getting his belt off sometimes." Aether replies, glancing around the room. "Well Kazuha, you were here right?"

"I was looking in my bag for my deck of uno cards. When I looked up he had vanished." Kazuha admitted

"Would he have gone outside?" You rush to the door realizing once you turned the knob that Xiao was far too small to be able to reach it. "Xiao!" You call "He has to still be in the house then." You say to Aether as he rushes past you to check the room next to the front entrance.

"Xiao!" Aether calls as well.

After a while even Scara's checking. Venti and Heizou moving to the kitchen. Heizou checking the oven while Venti checks under the table. Aether heading into the bathroom though quickly finds his search pointless as Venti and Heizou had recently been in there. Kazuha headed over to the toy bin flipping the lid with a small sigh.

"Found him!" Kazuha called

You were the first to make it over there, chest feeling so much lighter. You pulled the tiny boy into your arms holding onto him so tight as though he'd escape again if you let go. After a couple seconds of that he wriggled his way out of your grasp with a grunt sliding to the floor and wrapping around Aether's ankle.

"Well thank goodness he's alive."

"Ah Xiao I left you alone too long. Sorry how about I read you a couple stories yeah?"

Xiao nodded quickly reaching out for Aether's hand. Only to be met with a small chorus of 'awwwww's'

"Aether loves Xiao and Xiao loves Aether!" The boys all chanted in unison laughing and giggling amongst themselves. You can't help but stifle a small laugh yourself when you see how red Aether's face grows. His head falling, bangs flopping against his nose and cheeks.

Aether straightens for just a moment, "I don't love Xiao! I just care about him! Unlike you guys who lost him!" With a huff he grabs Xiao's hand. "Come on Xiao." And you watch them settle into the chair in the farthest corner of the room. Xiao tucked into Aether's lap as he began reading Xiao's book aloud for him.

☆☆☆

The last you'd seen of Venti he'd been happily pushing along a shopping cart of pretend groceries with Heizou and Kazuha playing shop keeper for him. Meanwhile you'd bunkered down with Scaramouche to finish yet another block tower.

"I want you to do the honors this time." Scara said placing the last block before scampering away from the slightly uneven tower.

"What really? Isn't that your favorite thing?"

"You don't appreciate how fun it is to build a tower just to smash it. But you will once you experience it for yourself."

You laugh softly, "Promise you won't use your knife on me if I do?"

"Just smash the thing." You put a hand out to push it over but Scara stops you. "What're you doing? You have to kick it over!" He stands and demonstrates with one leg out, "Kick it."

You shake your head but do as he says standing up to smash the tower with your foot. The tower collapses in a heap and Scara cheers the first bright non cheeky smile of the day stretching across his face.

"Now do you see?" He asks as he collects the blocks.

"That was surprisingly fun. Thanks Scara."

He rolls his eyes, "No need to thank me. Next time you should just trust me."

You sigh turning your attention to the door as Venti, Kazuha and Heizou enter. "Venti, wanted you to have this." Heizou says

Venti quickly unveils a messily colored picture. Most of the colors went outside the lines but over all you could tell the picture was from a coloring book. The colors all reminding you of Venti's stuffed dragon.

"Awww. It's beautiful Venti!"

"I wanted to thank you, for saving Dvalin earlier." Scara scoffs beside you and Venti just pouts sticking his tongue out at him.

"I'll treasure it thank you guys so much."

"Are you planning on coming back?"

"Back here?" You ask "This was really only for the day guys."

"But we really like you!" Venti practically yells, sucking his thumb into his mouth.

"We would all be happy if you came back again." Heizou nods

"Ewen Scawa!" Venti snickers over the thumb in his mouth.

The boys chuckle as Scara moves to shove his face into a nearby chair. "Shut up!" He huffs "I will not!"

"Aw Scara. It's ok. I will try to come back at some point. I've grown to like you guys too."

"Really?! Yay!" Venti giggles, bouncing around in a circle.

Aether suddenly appeared behind Kazuha, Xiao tugged into his arms as he went. "Someone's at the door, Name."

"Noooo, I don't want to go home yet!" Venti whined, hugging onto your pant leg.

"I don't think it's our parents." Aether said "It sounded like keys."

"She's back!" Heizou was the first one out followed by Kazuha, Venti, Aether and Xiao. You rushed out behind them and they immediately crowded your mother's legs. All calling out different things.

"Phew! I missed you kids too!" You sighed watching them happily jump around. Their smiles soft and delighted. "Did you kids have fun with Name?"

"Yes!" They all called excitedly

"When will name be back?" Kazuha asked

"Yeah we love Name." Venti piped in

"Love is a strong word." Scaramouche interjected

"Well, whenever you'd like to come see the kids. Since they enjoyed having you."

"Yay!" Everyone except Xiao and Scaramouche cheered

-

Closing time

You'd stayed until the very end. Until the last parent came to collect their child. You found yourself a little floored by how much Zhongli talked in comparison to his son Xiao that is until you met his wife. Very soft spoken, quiet woman.

"Bye." Xiao had murmured the first word he'd spoken the entire day. Or at least that you'd heard yourself. You barely registered his tiny voice at all. Almost thought you'd misheard.

"Come back soon pretty caretaker! Goodbye! I miss you already!" His mother's smile was soft but Venti was beaming as he waved and blew you kisses.

You were actually expecting Scaramouche to leave without saying goodbye so when he gave your leg a quick hug you were more than shocked. His mom was even more surprising or well moms one of whom didn't talk to either you or your mom. Too busy on the cellphone. His first mom had called for him pretty loudly and without another word he'd fleed.

Heizou and Kazuha hugged you super tight on each side. And with a "Come back soon." They each waved and headed off with their mothers.

"Hey." Aether smiled at you as his mom peaked in through the entrance. You leaned down to give him a tight hug shaking him back and forth as you did. "Never stop being a sweetheart ok? Look after the boys and your sister until I see you again."

"I promise." He headed to the door but flipped around one last time just for one final goodbye hug. "Today was super fun."

"Bye kiddo. Thanks for the help today." You waved and he waved as well his mother taking his hand and with him they left.

"Already attached to the boys? They'll do that to you they're the sweetest." You turn to look at her with a raised eyebrow, "Yes even Scarmouche. Once he gets comfortable he'll be even nicer to you."

"I'd love to see that." You scoff

"Well, anytime you're free." She shrugs with a smile.

[xoxoemynn]

8, 14, and 64!! (If any of these have been picked then pick the ones you want to be asked :) )

YAY thank you, friend!! I've answered a couple of these so I'll pick some fun ones for you. 💕

10. Cltr+f "blinks" on your WIP & copy paste the first sentence/paragraph that comes up Ed blinks and rapidly scrolls up and down the page. That can’t be it. A studio doesn’t just fucking cancel someone that successful. Ed had reviewed all the film grosses, both domestic and international; the numbers were there. And Ed saw the way the man danced; Stede was a phenomenon on his feet. And HB Low just let him fucking get away? Were they absolutely insane?

14. how do you write emotional scenes? Do you ever feel what the characters feel? Do you draw from personal experiences? I rely a lot on music to get me in the right headspace. My go-to song, because I feel it gets into ALL the big Ed/Stede emotions for nearly every situation, is The Story. I will literally listen to every version I have on it on loop for however long it takes while thinking about whatever situation the characters are in and then go. I do sometimes draw from personal experience, but alas, I haven't had a Great Big Love like Ed and Stede, so when it calls for that, it's mostly just the power of imagination.

11. Link your three five favorite fics right now I haven't had as much time as I'd like to be reading, but a few that are lingering on my brain right now!

2 Fluff 2 Furrious by @monksofthescrew: the sequel to the PHENOMENAL Fluff. Summary: In which Ed and Stede and their (!) ten (!!) dogs take an unhinged and perhaps ill-advised roadtrip in a dog bus. It's cute. It's emotional. It's Ed and Stede stupidly in love with SO MANY CUTE DOGS. And it's an absolutely impeccable Ed voice. WIP, just one chapter for now, but I've read the next and it's SO GOOD.

Moment of Truth by @trans-top-stede and karawrites: It's the most gloriously frustrating time loop; set during 2x06, Ed and Stede can't come until they learn how to fucking TALK TO EACH OTHER!!!!! I'm a few chapters behind and I am very excited to catch up this weekend, but oh my god, the EMOTIONS and the SEX it's all so good.

The Incident at Direfold Manor by @helloimjennsco: GOOD SPOOKY HORROR. It's the kind of uncomfortable feeling, something lurking in the shadows watching you vibe and it's SO UNSETTLING I LOVE IT AND AM SO CURIOUS TO SEE WHERE IT GOES. Still a WIP, and this is one I'm REALLY glad to be reading as it posts because the twisty turnies are so tasty.

The Tolling Bells by @edsbacktattoo: Recently completed, absolutely gorgeous fic with a unique premise that feels all the more poignant after the cancellation. I just keep thinking about how there is NO POSSIBLE UNIVERSE THAT EXISTS, real or fictional, where Ed and Stede DON'T find each other and fall in love, and how lucky we are to get to witness that. Good shit.

I Spit on Your Grave by @epersonae: A complete one shot! I have accepted this fic as canon now. The conversation Ed and Stede have is one I was really craving in S2, and this version of it scratches that itch perfectly. And because it's epersonae, you know it's some really beautiful, emotional, evocative writing.

Get to know the fic writer ask game!

[suspendingtime]

20 Questions for Fic Writers!

I've been tagged by @stars-of-kyber and @andthebubbles. 😁 So although I feel barely qualified, I guess I best do this...

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

7. 🤗

I started about 2 months ago, so... and yes, they're all Kanthony. Initially just started as a way of contributing to Anthony Week 2023, and I didn't even expect that I'd actually do all 7 days.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

13,370.

Currently ranging at 661 to 3,779 per fic. Rookie numbers!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

So far, just my beloved Bridgerton.

But there have been a couple other shows that have tempted me...

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Astride  - 166

Nursery  - 118

Hunt - 105

Yours - 94

Temptation - 88

Having published a handful with various ratings, it's quite interesting to see the kudos, bookmarks (private vs public), and subs ratios! Much to think about.

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

Yes.

Why... I sort of have a need? Idk, when I see a comment it's hard to just leave it hanging there and not to reply. Like irl if someone looked at something I made and verbally commented on it... and I just stared back blankly not saying anything. 😐 This is how it feels to me on the receiving end at least haha. And my replies saying various forms of 'Thank you!' is probably quite repetitive, but hey ho.

Plus comments give you that lil hit of dopamine; from both povs as a writer or reader. Being on the reader side for most of my Ao3 activities I tend to comment on most of fics I read, I can't help it - I must tell you what I loved about it and why, and there's a pleasure in reciprocating that back too. Look, now I've written half an essay on the subject, gaaah. (I've not been on Ao3 as much as I'd like to recently, and because I opened it to scoop out the stats for some of the questions above I can now see that I have some unreads... and the need is happening.)

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm *thinking really hard*, I don't think any of them have an ending that is all that angsty. If I had to choose, maybe Temptation?

The pattern I've shown so far in my posted works is that it's gonna be 90% fluff. Though that is liable to change. 😆

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

Probably Nursery?

I'm not sure, cause they've all ended on a pretty optimistic note so far. But that one has Kate and Anthony with a few of their kids, so it's the furthest on the Kanthony HEA timeline.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet...

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Ummm 👀 I may have dabbled in some smut.

What kind... hm, the kind where both people are panting for each other, and end up caving because they literally can't hold their horniness in anymore (this totally explains why I went feral for Bridgerton S2, ha). Another pattern I seem to have is making Anthony a submissive man puddle.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not yet, but I do have some crack ideas I may explore.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of, I very much doubt it.

How often does this happen to people?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No. I'd certainly be all for it if anyone ever wanted to translate any works of mine. 😊

If I was proficient enough to write in other languages, then I would probably try publishing the different versions from the get go.

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

Kinda?

Nothing formal, but there was a lengthy comment thread on Reddit some months ago where myself and another user went back and forth re-writing the script for that stormy library scene 😅 (not so much re-writing what was already there, bar the last few lines, more of a continuation in a universe where Kate hadn't fled).

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Must I even answer this? Kanthony, c'mon now.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

There's only 1 work that I have, where I've actually started a chapter 2. And I have all the faith that I will finish it. ✍️🤓

Other potential WIPs, that are currently just posted as one shots, only exist in my head... who knows if they will see the light of day.

16. What are your writing strengths?

This question feels illegal to be asked.

I have no idea, I'm very new to this whole writing thing. At least in terms of fiction, so I'm not sure what I'd consider my strengths to be. I feel like I need some more practice before I can get a real sense of this?

I would say that dialogue usually comes very quickly to me, and it's having to fill in the bits around it that takes more brain muscles. So that might indicate something.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Everything apart from the answer to the question above.

But really I think it's remembering that there is a world outside of the main couple happening, and trying to describe the details there. Also other general 'setting the scene' stuff like clothing, weather etc etc. I usually just want to jump straight in with some random dialogue.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

On writing it... no thoughts; not done it yet!

If I needed to for some unknown fic reason in the future, I'm sure I'll be apologising profusely in the author notes for trusting Google translate and probably butchering whatever language it is.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Still just the one so far, Bridgerton. 😌

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Hunt 🥺🥹 I was a lot of feels, and just very indulgent tbh.

I also really enjoyed my shortest one, Obedient, which was in 2nd person (hadn't done that before). The writing of that one was just really fun and I idky but I've reread it quite a bit!

__________________________________________________

I'm woefully looking at my Ao3 bookmarks (which has grown exponentially since joining Tumblr), full of things that I've not got round to reading yet. So I'm tagging partly based on stuff hanging out on top of that pile: @islemeadow, @ladykettlechips, @hydriotaphia, @eleanor-bradstreet, and the smut aunties @colettebronte & @fayes-fics 😋 (if y'all wanna do it, ofc. I tried to find those who hadn't been tagged/done it yet, sorry if you've actually already done this and I've just not found it).

[figureofdismay]

i've been going over tfx s1 and s2 with a fine tooth comb and going by how the episodes are written vs the time stamps or the air dates and imo it makes the most sense for the pilot to have taken place in ~March of 1993, and then a bit of a gap to Deep Throat 1.02, allowing for a couple unseen cases getting used to each other but not so much that Mulder doesn't ditch her-- and of course Scully's taking that security guy hostage so readily is still quite a statement about a partner she's had for a month. Then a longer gap to Squeeze 1.03, like ~late May/early June '93, to give the rumour mill to whip up the 'Mr. and Mrs. Spooky image, with Conduit-Jersey Devil-Shadows-Ghost in the Machine taking place through the summer to September-ish of '93 and Ice being like mid October.

I also assume that Fallen Angel is right after thanksgiving because despite the noted dates, it makes the most sense for Mulder to have slipped away during the holiday weekend, only to need bailing out. Scully probably got the call while staying at her mom's while frying stuffing-n-egg breakfast fritters 😂.

Though there's a problem with that headcanon, because Mulder broke is leg and he isn't even limping in Eve, and obviously Beyond The Sea has to take place last week of Dec '93 and the very beginning of '94, which logically is when Mulder when Mulder would be getting his cast off if he was injured just after Thanksgiving 🙃. Still, the airdates ~basically line up on Space thru Beyond the Sea, but again there must have been a bigger than airing gap between BtS and Gender Bender to account for Mulder's gunshot wound and for Scully to find more equilibrium.

This timeline makes EBE line up with round about the anniversary of their first case, which seems fitting and interesting. A year after Billy Miles in the woods and they're still chasing phantoms.

If you account for extra recovery time around Darkness Falls, that also puts Tooms almost a year out from Squeeze, which makes sense with the plot of the parole board seeing his case already. Then they get split up some time in June '94 and end up working apart through summer with Scully's abduction taking place at the beginning of September and her return in November. 8 to 10 or weeks seems like a workable compromise between how much hope they characters around her had all given up in her absence and how much plot they tried to fit in around her abduction in the same season. The canonical 'four weeks' number simply doesn't cut it, but the oft stated '3 months' and '4 months' i've seen used in fandom, while feeling weighty enough, also runs into logistical problems.

also, ugh, if I pad in the recovery time for Scully to get back on her feet after her return, that means Firewalker takes place at the end of November or beginning of December, that means she would spend her first Christmas in quarantine in 1994. Which does sound like something that would happen to Scully! She might get home in time for New Years?? But if you go by the airdates she misses Thanksgiving, so either way it's a major american-christian family in a CDC facility in the Cascades. No wonder her family hates Mulder a bit 💀.

If you go with the Dec dates for Firewalker, it pushes the middle of S2 forwards a bit and makes it so that Mulder ended up trading the 'Samantha' hybrid clone for Scully around about 2nd anniversary of their first case together. Which is also. Something an half, I gotta say. Really, really interesting bags of subtext there, potentially! 👀

I'm not sure that I'm going to still be working on the fic this is for -- I'm supposed to on therapeutic advice on the grounds of desensitization to triggers (writing), but even so it'll be slow going. So I wanted share the version of the timeline I'd worked out that leaves a bit more breathing space for emotional development, and has a couple interesting anniversaries. In case anyone found it interesting or wanted to run with any of that, or also found the supposed 'canon' timeline claustrophobic and contradictory in terms of vibes vs stated dates.

[just-here-with-my-thoughts]

Fic Roundup!

Febuwhump (@febuwhump) is over, and Bad Things Happen Bingo (@badthingshappenbingo) is nearly complete! Here's a quick roundup of how it went...

Your favourite fic:-

This is probably between I Love You / Sole Survivor which got the biggest reaction on Tumblr, and A Fair Price To Pay which had more love on AO3. They're at the opposite ends of the scale in word count (300 vs nearly 10k) but I guess what they have in common is how much you all love Crosshair and want him to be redeemed :)

My favourite fic:-

Despite it being a massive stress which I barely finished on time, posting at five minutes to midnight, I loved writing Adrenaline Crash! My favourite phrase was 'the crepitus of broken bones' and I was really pleased with the ending where I described Omega 'digging her fingers into the cracks in Hunter's armour' - yes, I meant it literally and metaphorically!

The one I want to write more of:-

There's actually a couple of these fics I want to write epilogues for - Presumed Dead and A Fair Price To Pay are the main ones. But I'd also love to do a rewrite of Human Weapon / Worked Themselves To Exhaustion (also known as the Birthday Cake Fic) with more time to develop my version of the Batch living happily on Pabu, and featuring more of the characters for Omega to interact with!

And now for the stats:-

Total Word Count This Month - approximately 40,000 Longest Fic - A Fair Price To Pay, 9675 words Shortest Fic - Left For Dead, 135 words New Followers - 11! (I'm so excited to have you along and I hope you've enjoyed the stories!)

Future Plans?

I'm going to go write those epilogues, and then it's back to my WIP fic Pieces Of The People We Love! If you enjoyed the Cadet Batch stories I've posted for Febuwhump, this is where to find more of it - Part 3 should be coming soon :) I have three more squares to cross off of my Bad Things Happen Bingo square: Kick Them Whilst They Are Down, Self-Surgery and Going Into Hiding. Got an idea you can donate? Drop me a fic request, because in the short-term I have wrung my imagination dry ^^;

Lastly a huge thank you to everyone who has followed, reblogged, commented, and liked my fiction this past month. Re-reading the tags on the reblogs was great when I was feeling unmotivated, and it's so fun to know you've enjoyed reading my stories as much as I've enjoyed telling them! Thank you for all your support! <3

And a quick summary of everything I've written in the past month:-

Bad Batch - Cadet Batch Day 21 - Unresponsive / Asthma Attack Day 25 - Lightning Strike Day 1 - Helpless / Caught in a Snare Day 14 - Blood-Stained Tiles / Ice Pack Day 24 - "I'm doing this because I care about you" / Victim Blaming

Day 26 - "Help Them" / Compelling Voice

The Bad Batch Day 2 - Solitary Confinement / Bruises Day 4 - Obedience / Conditioning Day 7 - Suffering in Silence / Chronic Illness Day 8 - Found Footage Day 16 - "I love you" / Sole Survivor Day 18 - Too Weak To Move / Bundled Up In Blankets Day 23 - Presumed Dead

Day 5 - Rope Burns / Bound & Gagged Day 12 - Semi-Conscious / Over-the-Shoulder Carry Day 19 - Please Don't / Adrenaline Crash

Day 11 - Time Loop / Cabin Fever Day 27 - Left for Dead Day 28 - "No... not like this" Day 29 - Not Allowed To Die Day 15 - A Fair Price To Pay ("Who did this to you" / Tortured for Information) Day 22 - Human Weapon / Worked Themselves to Exhaustion Bonus BTHB Fic - Elusive: A Stardust Conspiracy Fanfic ("I know you're in there somewhere" fight)

Other/Original Fiction Day 10 - Killing in Self Defence (Mass Effect) Day 9 - Last Words Day 3 - "Bite down on this" / Dissociation Day 20 - Truth Serum Day 13 - "You weren't supposed to get hurt" / Scar to Remember Day 6 - "You lied to me" / Angry Mob Day 17 - Human Shield / Impaled Chest

[magicalrocketships]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @powerful-owl! (Em's answers are here)

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

170. Crikey etc.

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

2,698,478. That's a lot of words.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

At the moment I'm writing F1, but I haven't been able to write anything for quite a while, and I never put the lid on any fandom. I've got some outstanding 1D WIPs that are on hiatus.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Emperor's New Clothes (1D famous/not famous, NDA where there used to be a relationship)

Can't Fight The Moonlight (Harry/Draco accidental mpreg)

Truly, Madly, Deeply (10 Things I Hate About You) (1D high school AU, famous/not famous again)

Maybe This Time (1D age play)

I Had Rather Hear My Dog Bark At A Crow (tomlinshaw, secret relationship, watersports, resulted in some of my favourite saved screenshots:

hashtag never forget (my beloved)

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

LOOK, I want to, and I used to when I had a fic lj, but every couple of years I'd try to on ao3 and then I'd just be drowning in my own horror at writing "thank you so much!!!!" over again and essentially we hit a slump and I haven't in ages. I'm going to pick it up again, though.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

oh god I hate a sad ending. I hate them!!!! I will only accept an ambiguous ending under certain circumstances, so I don't think I've got any with truly angsty endings. I've got plenty with very angsty middles. That SAID, I occasionally get hassle from people who don't think my fics are happy enough at the end because I don't like to tie all the ends up. I really, really hate pointless epilogues - NOTE, not all epilogues are pointless, and some of them I love - but the ones where it's just an unnecessary flash forward and all the problems are solved and they've got 2.5 children and a beautiful house and everything's perfect and it just feels like a horror story to me, like a fannish/romance novel version of the stepford wives. If it's an epilogue where the characters have had a bit of a chance to breathe after the main events, and they're happy, GREAT. If it's a cookie cutter ending then I'm out, so I guess maybe the end of Emperor's New Clothes where they're trying living together and trying to be financial partners in their relationship, and Not Your Fault But Mine, where Louis and Nick are together but it isn't obvious which route Louis is going to take back to university/he's still struggling with his mental health was still too angsty for some people. To me, both those fics end with them together and planning for a future so they feel happy to me.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I think all of mine are happy but maybe We Used To Wait is the most deserved happy ending, because it's the one where Louis was in an accident and a secret relationship with Nick, and he's in intensive care and his injuries are really bad, and the ending is him getting to perform again, and being out and being with Nick.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

y e p. Sometimes it makes me laugh because this fic very clearly wasn't For You, just press the back button, and sometimes it's more frustrating. Sometimes it's gross.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Oh yeah baby. My current fic is delightfully feral (to me) and I love writing smut. And then other times, I'm like... yes we won't be writing THAT right now thank you, no sex please we're British. Usually I have one week per month when I vastly prefer everyone keep their clothes on. Love a weird hormonal flux.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I have in the past, but in general now I can't be bothered. I definitely wrote a Sharpe/Doctor Who one back in the day.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yeah, a few times. The most egregious (and recent) was someone stealing We Used To Wait (which was Louis/Nick) and changing the names to Aaron and Robert, and amending various little bits to suit Emmerdale canon. If you're going to steal a fic, it's best to do it in a fandom I'm not in/I don't fucking read in, for the love of fuck.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, I love having a blanket transformation policy on AO3. I'm always so in awe of people wanting to engage with your writing like that.

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

Yes! A couple of short ones and then the delicious Sugar, We're Going Down which I co-wrote with my very dear Anonymous friend, and we didn't ever think we were going to share it when we wrote it (hence why my friend is anonymous on it!) so we just went balls to the wall feral with it.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

I don't have an answer to this, but if I ever considered something my OTP I will go to my grave loving it. I love Louis/Nick so much, and each OTP before that. Right now I'm extremely focused on Max/Daniel and I don't see that going anywhere soon.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Nope, I have the I Had Rather sequel and Harry Styles Cooks outstanding but hopefully they'll both get an ending when the time's right, even if it's just me reading them.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue? Angst? IDK??!! Help!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Oh, action and description for sure. I'm not a very visual writer/reader, I very rarely have a picture of a character in my head or the space that they inhabit. I know everything they say, though.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I'd be worried about fucking it up. If I knew someone who was a native speaker and it worked, then I guess.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Young Americans technically, then probably Percy/Oliver in Harry Potter and Dom/Billy for the Lord of the Rings films.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

I Had Rather Hear My Dog Bark At A Crow - I loved writing this, it came together in a few weeks, it made me fall in love with the pairing, legit changed my life for various reasons and I just enjoy it a lot.

Anyway, tagging @allwaswell16, @astorytotellyourfriends, and @junkshop-disco if you fancy it :)

[dimplesandfierceeyes]

AO3 Tag Game

Thank you for the tag @incandescentflower! Sorry it's taken an actual age for me to get round to it!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I somehow have 47...

2. What is your AO3 wordcount?

556,173 words... a totally normal amount

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Bad Buddy, mostly . I wrote for a few others, almost a decade ago or longer, but Bad Buddy finally got me posting again! One day I might branch out... but we'll see haha!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Fine Line Between Hormones and Home 

A Soft Boy in Soft Sweaters

All that Gleams is Not Gold, but Some that Gleams Is

music is not in the notes, but in the silence between them 

you can't lose a game you don't want to win

Actually, a couple of those are pretty surprising! 😂

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! I always try to, though sometimes it might take me many months. I love to let people know that I appreciate the time they take in replying to my fics.

Fanfiction writing can be a pretty lonely endeavour. You're writing sommething that you hope is going to resonate with the fandom but until you put it out there, you can't know! So when I get comments, I want to respond in kind. For me, it helps with the feeling of a fandom community.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Priestly Duties - a Stucky fic where pre-serum Steve is a Catholic priest who gives into his desires for Bucky, but only once.

I didn't start it expecting it to turn out so angsty but the character kind of took it out of my hands!

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Pretty much all of the others? I'm actually a big happy endings girlie. If I had to pick one though, I'd probably pick Aroma-nce So Sweet because the boys have no family feud to contend with.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not often, but sadly, hate abounds despite out attempts to push it out of fandom spaces

9. Do you write smut? If so, which kind?

Do you want to know a secret? When I first started out in the Bad Buddy fandom, I had no plans on writing any smut for PatPran.

Then, less than three months after posting my first fic, I stumbled across a tumblr prompt and after that, the floodgates well and truly opened.

In terms of a 'kind', I'd say it tends to be on the explicit but wholesome side

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest crossover you’ve ever written?

I don't write crossovers exactly but I do steal concepts and scenarios from other shows to put my characters in haha.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! It was very flattering to be asked 

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

Yes, though not a published one

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Whatever I'm obsessed with in the moment, which is currently, of course, PatPran

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

My Bad Buddy Regency AU 🥲🥲 I just can't get it to come together…

16. What are your writing strengths?

I focus quite heavily on characterisation in my fics, I like to make them feel authentic to the original versions of themselves, even in an AU. I get quite a few compliments on it so I like to think I do pretty well haha

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing too much 😂😂 I can be a little unnecessarily verbose. I'd like to work on cutting it down a bit

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I've done it once or twice but I’m not very confident in it so I avoid it honestly, except for the odd word

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Ahhhh probably HP, a long, long time ago.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

I just went through my fic list to see if one jumped out but all I found was that they all have a soft spot for me in different ways haha.

 I think in terms of how people reacted to them, The Fine Line and The Space Pirate and the Officer of the Law are the two that stand out. I had an amazing response from the fandom about those two so they're particularly special for me

---

Again, I'm not sure who's already done this so tagging a few people but sorry if this is one that you've already done!

@loooreleii @thebroccolination @toomoonfic @mendacity17 @Wolfsbane15 @itsmylifekay @geckoholic @paalove @nejineeee

[covenofthearticulate]

20 Qs for fic writers

1. How many works do you have on A03? 22

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 134,415

3. What fandoms do you write for? Vampire Chronicles, plus a few Umbrella Academy pieces

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? La mort dans dentelle (Death in Lace), Pink, An Aching Pulse in Search of a Home, and Bright Star. (Basically, all the fics that I no longer really like, that I wrote pre-hiatus in like 2018 that have been up on AO3 the longest so statistically have the most kudos just from age LOL)

5. Do you respond to comments? I really really try to!!! Most of the time I get really overwhelmed though like YOU GUYS ARE SO NICE LMAO so just saying "Thank you!" doesn't feel like enough and I get really nervous about not seeming grateful so it takes me approximately 10 years to reply to comments. I try to catch up every couple of months, though.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I'm sorry I love angst, but I am one of those writers who likes to have a satisfying emotional wrap-up at the ends of my fics so honestly most of them end on a sweet note. The closest thing is maybe les rousseurs amères de l'amour which was still soft, but definitely bittersweet.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? aksdjfhcabdsfk they all have happy endings bc I am a sucker and a sap!!! Home Court Advantage is definitely the silliest fluffiest ending though :)

8. Do you get hate on fics? Only if you count the comments that compliment my writing as being in-character for the tv show characters LOL (seriously one time someone commented that they could hear Jacob Anderson's voice come through in my dialogue and I had to go lie down lmfao)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? These days I mostly write smut LOL but even in the pwp pieces I see most of my smut as opportunities for character building, so most of my work tends to fall into the Smut With Feelings category lmfao

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I don't write crossover fic anymore, but back when I was crazy active on my rp accounts, I wrote hella crossover! It was moreso on the Umbrella Academy side than my VC side, but I did have some fun rp threads between Louis and Philippe D'Orleans (specifically the tv Versailles version lmao).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge! Please don't do that!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Not yet!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Once upon a time, baby High School Ash co-wrote an insane crossover fic with a friend I had met through tumblr. It was Barnabas Collins (from Tim Burton's Dark Shadows) x Mrs. Lovett. I feel so brave for admitting this LOL I really truly was so emotionally invested in that fic and it's so cringe-worthy but I had fun and that's what matters!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? I mean. I'm a Loustat girlie through and through LOL but I also love Louis with Armand, or in any configuration of any of the poly ships! As long as Louis is there, you can count me in.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Maybe one of the Louis/Lestat/Armand pieces I started....I love the 3 of them but I get burnt out so quickly because all 3 characters are so complex and so everything feels like an Ordeal with them because they're all very opinionated and only work in a certain dynamic if that makes sense!

16. What are your writing strengths? I think the thing I'm most proud of is my lyrical prose! I like writing sentences that just punch you in the face with feeling! I want my writing to feel evocative, I want the words and details to stick in your head and rattle around.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I wish I had better stamina and pacing to write longer pieces LMAO like honest to god it's looking like my next fic is gonna be around 9k-10k and it really truly felt like I was going to die writing it LOL it's taken me like 2 months and it has felt like pulling teeth the entire time. For someone who likes writing, I sure wish I liked writing more asdsfkfjghdxghn

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? Like Kacy said, if it's done well and adds to the world of the fic, then sure! I'm definitely guilty of this trope, but I try to reserve it for the really high-stakes moments so that the language lands differently and is more impactful. But I also think dialogue (and even certain dialects) in different languages have the power to do more harm than good. Like, as a reader, I know that if I see a line of something in a language I can't read, the first thing I'm going to have to do is open another browser tab to google translate, and then go back and read it in context again, and by that time the flow is disrupted and everything is off and it's just hard!!

19. First fandom you wrote for? ooooh girl you should've seen some of the spicy Sweeney Todd fic I was hand-writing in my notebooks in high school. Actually it was more psychological angst than smut but LOL listen I'm a ride or die Mrs. Lovett girlie, what can I say.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? I think in the grand scheme of things, Air Catcher will always have a special place in my heart. It was one of those rare lightning in a bottle instances where the idea came to me so suddenly and so clearly, and the concept felt so obvious I was like "SURELY someone has written this already???" but then I checked and NOPE no one as far as I was aware had written about vampire top drop, and so I just fucking went to town with that fic. It was among some of the first writing I'd done since coming out of hiatus, and to this day I think it's the only fic I've ever written where the end product was exactly what I had envisioned and hoped it would be. That fic was a gift from god to me LOL and it'll be one year old this summer! wild!!!!

Tagged by: @monstersinthecosmos <3 Tagging: adkjhfbcjhdsb once again I feel like all my fic-writing friends have been tagged by this point but PLEASE if you're reading this, do it and say I tagged you <3

[batrachised]

tagged by @professionalfangrrl for a twenty questions, fanfic author game!

1-How many works do you have on AO3?

For lm montgomery, three. For star wars, 38.

2-What's your total AO3 word count?

LMM: 14,467. Star Wars: 376,710 [i might have a problem]

3-What fandoms do you write for?

I'll leave you detective sherlocks to work that out

4-What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I've only written 3 lm montgomery fics, and there the top kudos one is sob of fall and song of forest (fun fact: that title is a line from an E. Paulina Johnson poem, whom I discovered LM Montgomery liked after the fact)

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

sweats nervously listen...listen....let me tell you something! let me tell you something! i'm a good noodle!

after being unsure when i first started writing, i used to respond to comments religiously because I thought it was nice. then, idk what happened, I think i got busy and stopped doing so right away...and then I waited even longer....and then as a result i barely ever responded to comments and now, after compiling over like the course of a year, my ao3 inboxes have a combined unresponded comments of too many comments to deal with😅

6-What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i feel like this is the only fic i ever mention because I've written so few lmm ones, but Violets - fic about Walter's death. i did once write this sad fic that had a very fluffy lead-up, and it always makes me cackle maniacally like an evil scientist when I get comments on the beginning chapters of people being like "omg this is cute :D" and then them reaching the end and proceeding to scream at me in rage via the comments - the happy-sad switch is something I've used in my writing more than once, and I always enjoy it

7-What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

A lot of my fics are crack and thereby necessitate happy endings, no one stands out as being more happy than another

8-Do you get hate on fics?

I have like, one time? and it just made me laugh tbh, it was one my first fic and I was like I'VE MADE IT ONLINE! I HAVE HATERS! 😎

9-Do you write smut? If so what kind?

nope, at least not intentionally (yes it's accidentally happened before - never forget). I tend to avoid romance in general (she says, having about 8 different romantic stories) because writing it is not for me. if I do I tend to make it silly/humorous

10-Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

nope, in general I'm not a crossover person. the only fandom where i actually got really into (reading) crossovers was merlin with harry potter, eons ago, all the more funny because I was never a harry potter fan

11-Have you ever had a fic stolen?

yup, although they did credit me. I've written about it before, but one time I had a fic stolen and put up on some website that appeared to be russia's version of ao3. Had a lot of fun translating comments on that one via google translate

12-Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes a couple of times. one time someone asked to translate my fic and I was like sure, just send me the link when you're done! :D and they did and it was short, so I just typed it in instead of copying except I misremembered whether it was a .org or .com and typed the wrong one and accidentally ended up on a porn website that apparently had a nearly identically domain and was like WHY DID THEY DO THIS TO ME D: DID THEY PUT MY FIC HERE D: IT DOESN'T BELONG HERE D: IS THIS A SPAM LINK only to refer back ot the comment and realize my fingers had betrayed me

13-Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

nope, all me and the workings of my incredibly silly mind

14-What's your all-time favourite ship?

don't have one! not a super shippy person anymore, although I used to be! sometimes I read romance fic but it's usually because I feel like reading romance, not because of the ship itself

15-What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

idk man, I've tried abandoning wips before but my brain doesn't let me. one time i abandoned a fic and then months later, i got the answer to the issue i'd been stuck on in a dream (or at least, upon waking in the middle of the night)

16-What are your writing strengths?

not gonna answer this one because (to me) it feels like a job interview question where you have to paste on a fake smile and talk about all the ways you're great while cowering inside. i like my writing and actually rarely experience the whole reading it over and seeing where it could have been better, not because I think my work is just that amazing, but because I don't really have that fine-tuned writer/artist brain that would give me an interesting answer to this question. i do this for fun, and for free, and for me lmao

17-What are your writing weaknesses?

PLOTTING OUT OUTLINES this one I can answer because I never do this enough and then I always end up several chapters into a fic trying to make it go somewhere that makes sense like

18-Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

nope, i don't know another language well enough. i'm so paranoid that when I make up space names for my star wars fic I always google the fake word to make sure it's not a dirty/offensive word in another language 💀it's saved me before.

19-First fandom you wrote for?

Star Wars, about a year and a half ago! It's been cool to see how different my writing has become in that short period of time!

20-Favorite fic you've ever written?

always the last one published or the ones that got the least attention. i loved them <3

tagging @gogandmagog @no-where-new-hero @kehlana-wolhamonao3 @kingedmundsroyalmurder

[novelcain]

I have a small head cannon now with my version of reader that I wanted to share with you:

She has a lotus pin in her hair due to her association with Quanyin and it has the added bonus of extra protection (like a protection seal)

Just wanted to share, now I’m going back into my hole to finally finish a fic that’s been giving me writers block for two months now.

*gets slapped with writers block in the face*

Gosh darn it….

(By the way any tips on how to overcome writers block?)

That's a pretty interesting idea. Like a lil fashionable talisman~

And good luck with your writing hope you can get through the writers block

As far as tips go, I unfortunately can't help much in the writer's/artist's block since I don't really get it.😬 If anything I just get bursts of laziness where I don't wanna pick up my laptop cause that's too much effort and so end up curled up in my nest scrolling through tiktok all day. But to remedy that, I just force myself to pick up my laptop or @lovesick-ritz will kindly hand it to me so I can get things done.

So here's the tips that I could think of:

Set a designated area or method for writing (ex. I only write on my laptop bc I've assigned it mentally as my preferred place to write)

Make it as easy as possible for you to write (ie. leave the writing tabs open. I personally never have word closed there's always at least my notes tab open but I usually have at least 3 word tabs don't ask me why I'm addicted to keeping tabs open)

Try to get rid of as many distractions as you can like unneeded social media (having a tumblr tab open is always my down fall cause I get distracted by asks)

Since I have adhd and autism complete silence honestly distracts me more than anything so I like to play this 10 hour thunder storm video on YouTube (this also helps with my tinnitus in case anyone else got that)

Another thing I've been told that help is just start writing little notes or just anything at all and maybe that'll spur you into what you want to be writing

Also some random tips if found useful when it comes to writing/drawing:

If you hyperfixate on writing and drawing for long periods of time like I do (like I'm talking about 8 hour sit down don't move sessions) get water and a couple snacks before you start and be sure to stretch at least once an hour

Remember to specifically do full hand stretches to avoid carpal tunnel and writer's/artist's arthritis

Try to get up and walk around as much as possible (if you can as someone with walking issues I know that isn't always easy or even possible)

One thing I like to do to rest my eyes and brain is after a few hours I'll go to Spotify and play a few songs (or in my case one song on repeat I've been particularly obsessed with the Epic sagas since they've come out and have been constant listening to Survive in the Cyclops saga) with your eyes closed. Staring at a screen all day can be harmful to your eyes and brain.

And for drawing with adhd, if you're working on a long piece it can get frustrating to work on one part for long periods of time so keep in mind that if you're start to feel bored or tired with the part that you're working on it's ok to move to a different part. (ie. you've been working on the hair for a while and start to feel understimulated to move to the face or even a completely different area so get that stimulation) It's not like a story where you gotta remember plot points and continuity the whole thing is right there so just work on whatever part catches your fancy. Or hell if you get bored just draw lil scribbles for a second in a corner somewhere until you feel up to going back to the piece.

Please keep in mind while reading these that I by no means have healthy habits. As I stated I hyperfixate on projects and will often neglect my human needs for extremely long periods on accident; however, I am lucky enough to have a very attentive partner that reminds me and encourages me to take care of myself and helps me when I can't. (Love you Ritz. Literally couldn't live without you~ mwah💜)

HOWEVER! Because of this I am extremely used to living with unhealthy habits and have an OBSENE amount of tips for dealing/living with them so if anyone wants some autism/adhd/depression/anxiety (all of which I have kinda extreme forms of) life tips lemme know and I'll write a whole essay for you. Tho again I will say these tips are not cures. These conditions are permanent so these tips would just be ways to make living with them a little easier. (Honestly I might just make that post even if no one asks for it on the off chance that helps even one person)

[itsanidiom]

SHIPPER TAG GAME

LET'S GOOOOO~ tagged by @negrowhat

1. What ship were you completely obsessed with when you were a teenager, but now you don't care anymore?

Glorestor or Glorfindel / Erestor of Middle Earth Fanon Fame. Not that I don't CARE about it anymore, mind you. There's just not enough new content (for obvious reasons god it's old and there's like one conversation of original source material). I don't think about them as much anymore. Like I used to be reading fanfic EVERY NIGHT and we're talking like novel length fanfics (as you can imagine people in the LOTR fandom write lol). Anyway here's some super old fan art... (>u<)

2. Which ship would you consider your first one?

Oh god...something Dynasty Warriors related for sure...

Probably like Sun Ce / Zhao Yu or Gan Ning / Lu Xun. (GO WU! lol) I feel like there were other couples I'm totally forgetting right now...but yeah god I love Dynasty Warriors...

Also...daaamn Gan Ning looks good there I should go buy the latest game. (>w<)

3. Your first fanfic belonged to which couple?

Like the first one I wrote or read?? I went into my oldest of old "old writing" folders and found this list of docs that I haven't been touched in over ten years. SO I'm gonna saaaay it was a Dynasty Warriors fanfic...one of these pairings. (^ ^;)

Also kind of hilarious to see that I literally still organize my fanfic files in the same way for over half my fucking life ago...nice...

4. Do you remember the first couple you saw a fanart over?

I feel like it would have been something Inuyasha related. That or something Final Fantasy X. I do not remember, but it was probably some version of these scene.

5. Did you ever get into ship discourse?

Not that I can remember...do not need this in my life...lol but maybe I've reblogged some RPF like discourse? Like the "should or shouldn't you ship" type discussions. I'm on the side of "do whatever you want but don't send it to the famous people" [ex. like ATEEZ fanfic/fanart] or "if they are literally doing it as part of their promo go ahead, it's for fun/they literally requested it as part of their promo" [ex. BillyBabe]. (^ ^;)

6. Did you used to have any no-otp or have it currently?

It honestly always depends on the quality of the fanart or the fanfic because even a notp can turn into a OH!tp if it's good enough. [Exhibit a: my Phaya/Tharn/Chalothorn fanfic]

7. Who were the couple in the last fanfic you read?

Weirdly the one new Chalothon/Singh fic from The Sign. But I really need AO3 to fix the spelling of his name in the tag...

8. Currently, do you have any OTPs?

PhayaTharn are the current obsession~

Look at them...adorable...

9. Is there any couple that, to this day, you are extremely mad about not getting together?

Still wish John Wick / Santino fucked...also like James Bond / Q and The Protagonist / Neil and Arthur / Eames...bromance is SUCH a waste but considering the genres of these movies it is never gonna happen...I have to wait for the Thai BL versions lol (^ ^;)

10. Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they are kind of interesting?

OH I haven't been traumatized by watched it yet, but Dead Friends Forever has made me get onboard with Macau/Chay of KinnPorsche fame because OMG LOOK AT THESE CUTIES!!!!

11. Do you have any ship that, in the past, was considered normal but now you would be cancelled over?

GOD I remember there was a LOT of Sesshomaru x Inuyasha yaoi when I was a kid LMFAO like...straight up cancelled...I dunno if it was normal back then but no yaoi was normal back then so like it sadly all got lumped together or something...then again looking at some of the comics that are coming out these days...

12. What was your favorite crack ship?

All the McFassy ships from back in the day like OMG REMEMBER JUNGKOV?? STELIOS AND LETO??? ARCHIE AND ROBBIE? SO MANY CROSSOVERS!!

LOL Sorry that just brought me back LOL

13. Who is the couple you read more fanfics of?

Ahhhh I don't know...I usually either write a lot or read a lot...I literally have a fic rec list for Glorestor lol and then when I look in my AO3 bookmarks the top ship is Hannigram sooooo let's say Hannigram even though I haven't read one for a while.

14. What most of your ships usually have in common?

toll and smol...i like me a toll and a smoll...lol or big and small...i dunno something something contrast something something just crush him and/or be uncharacteristically gentle or somehow incapacitate the larger man with your wiles...that is all...

15. What do you absolutely hate in a ship?

Miscommunication < seconding @negrowhat's response. Cannot stand it. Such a boring trope. Very annoying for me (the audience).

[practically-an-x-man]

Answer the questions and tag 5 fanfic authors you know

Thanks @goldheartedchaoticdisaster!!

How did you get into writing fanfiction?

I was writing fanfic as a kid before I even knew what it was, I was always coming up with little stories and ideas (it always ended up where I hand-wrote ~6 pages and proceeded to completely forget about it), but it was during the early COVID pandemic that I actually started getting into the fandom scene as a whole. I started reading fanfics when I needed a pick-me-up (@asteralpine's Loki's Lullabies series GOT ME THROUGH the pandemic, no joke, they're probably the reason I stayed sane), which then led to me experimenting with writing some of my own and daring to post it.

I had the benefit of finding a little writer-friendship with another writer on AO3 when I first started out (we both wrote for Hank McCoy and would comment on each other's fics), and they would comment on every chapter of my fic even though it was probably extremely obvious that I was a new writer who didn't always know what they were doing. I genuinely think that without that encouragement and feedback, I would have fizzled out and lost confidence as a writer, so I am forever grateful to brigid1318 on AO3 for helping me get started.

2. How many fandoms have you written in?

12, not counting rollovers (y'know like "X-Men: Movieverse" vs. "X-Men: Alternate Timeline Movies"). A couple of those are just gift fics or oneshots for friends, though, not regular fandoms I write for.

3. How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

Three and a half? Not counting all the things I wrote as a kid before I even realized they were fanfic

4. Do you read or write more fanfiction?

Hm... I'd say it's about a 50/50 split. At the moment I'm not really branching out and exploring new fics to read, I'm kinda sticking with trying to keep up with my friends' fics since I'm so busy right now, but I'm always writing something or another.

5. What is one way you've improved as a writer?

I think crafting my characters has really improved overall. My early OCs weren't awful, and there are elements that I still like about them, but my more recent OCs just feel so much more real and human compared to the old ones.

6. What's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Oh man... the history of the New York Aquarium - for my Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire fic, Heart in Your Hands. The weird part is that, since one of the characters is a ghost from 1915, I had to research both the modern version and the historical timeline, to make sure the character had the right perspective on it. And just the layout of NYC as a whole, since I've never been there myself.

7. What's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

I mean, I really love any comment I get and I will never complain (unless you're mean, but... y'know, that's a given), but I LIVE for the comments that pick out particular lines or moments that they noticed. I work hard to include symbolism, foreshadowing, or even just fun bits of figurative language in my writing, and I never know what gets noticed by the readers, so I absolutely adore comments that let me see inside a reader's head like that.

8. What's the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

Uh... Taking Flight as a whole is pretty fringe. It takes place in the Fablehaven fandom, which is tiny, and on top of that, it involves a lot of discussion into various cryptids and magical creatures, some of which are very obscure.

9. What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

Pure-blooded romance, for sure. I need there to be something else happening, even if it's small or weird or whatever. I've never been able to read or write a story that's solely about two characters getting together.

10. What is the easiest type?

I'm gonna say angst or horror. I watch a TON of horror movies (it's kinda my job lol) and read a lot of horror books, so capturing that whole atmosphere is really easy for me at this point.

11. Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

Most of my writing is on AO3, though I've gotten into the habit of doing some writing here on tumblr too - mainly oneshots, ficlets, bonus pieces, etc., while the main fics or series are on AO3.

12. What is something you've been too nervous/intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

I read the Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires a while back and was fascinated by the character James Harris (I want to slice him up and put him on microscope slides), and I want to write a piece exploring more of the book's themes of subtle manipulation and abuse. I haven't written it yet because 1. I don't trust people's reading comprehension and I worry it would be misconstrued as me glorifying abuse when it absolutely is not, and 2. I haven't seen anyone really talk about the book so I can't imagine many people would read it

13. What made you choose your username?

I chose my tumblr username first, then just made my AO3 username the same one. It's an anecdote about my personal life - I've got a ton of genetic mutations (my body is lowkey a total mess) so I'm 'practically an X-Man'

Tagging (no pressure!): @can-of-pringles @kyber-infinitygems @witchy-self-shipper @negative-speedforce @sashathedoge

[fazedlight]

20 Questions More

A deeper and more detailed version of the 20 questions for AO3 fanfic writers. Thanks @eqt-95 and @inkedroplets for the tag!!

1) How do you keep getting ideas for your ship/fandom?

Daydreaming. Writing fanfic is secondary to that. It was only in the past couple of years that it occurred to me that I could write some of it down and see what happens.

2) Which authors inspire you in your fandom, and why are they so freakishly good?

@searidings is my absolute favorite, the way she unravels the characters' emotions and angst is absolutely superb.

3) Aside from the characters of your main ship, who are the characters you love to write?

Ohhh I really love this question:

Cat in Inauthentic, as well as this ficlet and this one. I love her sense of humor.

Lillian in Darkness in All Things. For the same reason as Cat, I just love her snark.

Zor-El in Even Though You're Kryptonian. He kind of surprised me when I started writing him, and to this day I don't know if some of his lines are driven by genuine confusion or if he's just trolling.

4) Are there pairings or tropes you know for sure you'd never write about? Which ones?

I'm a never-say-never kind of person. There's a lot that I don't think I would ever write, but I've been surprised on where stories have taken me before, and may be surprised again.

5) What is your writing process and why is it cursed?

"Process" might be an overstatement...

I have a "scribbles" doc where I keep my ideas. I cull ideas often (though ideas often make their way back anyway). As I write more into the doc, a certain idea may get too big for it, so I spin it out into its own doc.

From there, I kind of go back and forward between outlining and writing. I write completely out of order. Which is why, so often, my multichaps are almost fully drafted by the time I publish chapter 1. I've usually already made it to the resolution point of the plot (meaning, no one's in danger anymore, the bad guy is gone, etc), though the final chapter often doesn't get written until later.

6) What is your favorite part of your writing process?

I love when I've finished the first pass of a chapter/one-shot, and I'm in the editing stage. The story really feels like it's coming together at that point, and it's before all the self-doubt starts bubbling up (that hits hard just before posting).

7) What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to research for a fic?

A friend of mine is a professor in astroparticle physics, so I spent a couple of hours asking him about quantum mechanics stuff. But only a small portion of that ended up being relevant to the fic and the rest was just for fun.

8) Is there a particular writing rule you struggle with (grammar, spelling, tense, reality in general)?

When I'm first sketching out a scene, about half the time I write in present tense (it feels more like I'm writing a play at that point sometimes), but I publish in past tense. So I end up needing to do a bunch of revisions 😭

Also TYPOS.

9) What was your hardest scene to write so far and why?

Fight scenes are ROUGH, man.

This is probably one of those answers I'll change every time depending what's at the top of my mind. But writing out a fight scene - like in Even Though You're Kryptonian, Darkness in All Things, or It's a Metallo Life - gets surprisingly difficult if there are more than 2 people.

I know exactly how I'd shoot those scenes if I had a camera crew, special effects, etc. But it's hard making sure the audience is aware of where everyone is positioned, why they can/can't act in the moment, etc.

10) Have your characters ever done something you didn’t expect, changing your plot completely?

All the fucking time, man. From the very beginning, even. I was trying to have Lena still be angry by the DEO scene in So I Kept Pretending, but that didn't make sense anymore.

I actually recently had a fic idea dissolve because it wasn't vibing with the characters. Which is fine, it became a ficlet instead!

11) If you could converse with any of the characters, who would it be and why?

Absolutely Kara. I have so many questions about kryptonian culture and how it drives her character.

12) What are some of the tropes or themes that you find yourself returning to in your writing?

Trope-wise, I definitely return to the Rift again and again. I find themes around forgiveness and understanding to be really interesting. Can two good-hearted people with conflicting needs hurt each other while still loving each other? How? What does that mean for the aftermath?

I think that's part of what draws me to supercorp - the complexity of their relationship. How they can both be right, and both be wrong, and love each other enough to rebuild from the ashes.

13) What's your most important resource as a writer?

Coffeeshops and libraries. Getting into slightly busy, cozy environments, out of the house, really helps shake loose the stuff in my head.

14) Can you share some of your strategies for editing and revising your work?

Especially for longer works, I tend to put the work down (and circle to other works, or go outside, or whatever) before coming back to it. It helps to step away for a bit - it's easier to pick up on repetitiveness or unclear passages when coming back.

Though I always find mistakes in my stories much later, so I'm not sure I'm one to give advice on this anyway 🤣

15) Which is worse: making the summary, picking the tags, or the anxiety when you post your fic?

Posting anxiety is the absolute worst. If I leave myself in front of my computer I'll end up refreshing constantly waiting for the first kudos (if it's a one-shot or first chapter) or the first comment (if it's a later chapter) to figure out if I've accidentally pissed off everyone in the fandom somehow.

Luckily, my partner will usually pull me away to go on a walk or grab lunch or do something else to take my mind off it 💗

16) How do you define success for your fanfic - hits? Kudos? Comments? Bookmarks? Or just if you like it?

I only publish what I like. Sometimes I'm nervous that other people won't like it, but I will always like it. Stories that aren't going a way I like - even if I think the idea is cool! - will dissolve. Just recently I dissolved one that felt like it was a cool idea, but it didn't make enough sense for the characters.

Kudos and comments always make me feel appreciated as an author!! Sometimes I'll get a user subscriber out of it, too, and it feels like an honor that someone would want to hear from me more than once.

The thing that feels most precious, though, is when someone comments on how something made them feel (I love making people laugh at my dumb jokes, or cry when a story is supposed to hit emotionally), or when they pick up on something that I wasn't sure would get picked up on.

I tend to lean towards understatement in my stories. For me, the biggest success is knowing that someone recognized what I was going for, without me being overt.

17) Do you have a playlist for your favorite character/ship?

Alas, I don't. But given that Kara is canonically a Britney Spears fan and musicals nerd, I feel like my default playlist works 🤣

18) If fan art was going to be made from your work, which fic would you pick and which fan artist would you like to create it?

Oh gosh, I don't want to pick someone and create pressure, or not pick someone and make them feel bad. This fandom has so many great artists!

That said, some of my favorites do commissions, you can see everything I've commission here.

19) How many WIPs do you currently have?

1 supercorp & 1 rojarias (for @supergirlmayhem)

For me, 2-3 is my happy number, so I'm relieved to be down to this after being so high (I think up to 11?) for so long.

20) What's your advice to new fanfic writers?

If you're wondering why you can't find that story you want, it might mean that you're the one to write it 💗

- - - - -

Tagging (respectfully and without pressure) @rustingcat @luthordamnvers @sssammich @tinyvariations @thatonebirdwrites @theredcapeofk @sideguitars @luthordamnvers @mycatismyeditor @inkedroplets @nottawriter @snowydragonscave @jetgirl1832 if you want some rapid-fire q's thrown your way. But also anyone who'd like to do this!

[voidify333]

20 Questions for fic writers

I was tagged by @almarnatiaam- thanks!

1. How many works do you have on A03?

36

2. What's your total A03 word count?

133,211

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly Ace Attorney these days.

I've also written for Les Mis and Good Omens; Les Mis makes up most of my works at 20 (though 4 of those aren't really fics, they're fanart pieces I posted to ao3 for sewerexchange).

And there's a couple random fics that aren't any of these: The Temptation Of Immediate Relief is a Pride & Prejudice missing scene fic that I wrote for high school english class and posted a polished version after graduation, and All Alone is a short War & Peace fic expanding the character of Anatole's wife who's entirely just a plot device with no character in canon (elephant in the room: the name I chose for her was retroactively made weird by my later fandom journeys by being cognate to the name of a completely different character, but like, whatever). I still think both of these are pretty good

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Wilson & Sons (Good Omens outsider POV fic about Aziraphale's barber, a family business that he's been going to since the 1700s), at 1861 kudos

You're Better Off Without Him (Good Omens outsider POV about the guy in episode 4 who says that line), at 763 kudos

perfectly statue-still (Ace Attorney 3+1 fic about elevators being a trigger for Miles, angst with a happy ending), at 433 kudos

driving back in style (in my saloon will do quite nicely) (Good Omens fic, silly cute little A/C getting together scenario), at 303 kudos

naughty list (Ace Attorney fic; angst with a happy ending; the premise is that Gregory didn't get to tell Miles that Santa wasn't real so when the von karma household didn't do santa Miles thought he was on the naughty list for a solid 4 years. If you haven't read it, ho ho ho 'tis the season to read it now), at 241 kudos

Yeah, my good omens stuff is never being unseated from the top of my leaderboard unless I end up getting into an even bigger fandom at some point in the future

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

I try to, because comments absolutely give me life and I need a constant stream of them, but unfortunately I don't get around to it often enough

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Absolute angstiest out of my published works is probably my very first ao3 fic, not quite nowhere to turn. Valjean sees Javert die and is too late to do anything. The fic is very flawed in that I was 15 and had not learned how to do subtlety, I can't look at it now, but I was a hyperlexic kid with A's in English so I think it's still better than what most people were writing as teens

Second answer is merry christmas., my most recent fic (if you haven't read it yet, HO HO HO TIS THE SEASON), it's Miles' POV for the first bit of Turnabout Goodbyes, it ends on a note of hopelessness that he's doomed to be convicted, but it only debatably counts since anyone who's played the games knows that the turnabout is coming

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my stuff has pretty happy endings, that's just my sensiility as a writer-- even "not quite nowhere to turn" has an afterlife reunion scene-- so I'm not sure what to say here.

There's some fics where the conflict was trivial in the first place (comedy and crack stuff), there's some fics where I feel in hindsight that the ending was a copout and that a rockier path to happiness would have been more interesting if I had mustered the strength to write it (When Tomorrow Comes is the primary example tbh), and there's some where it feels earned (the fics in this category include the ones I like the most)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've thankfully never gotten hate on AO3 that I can recall

9. Do you write smut?

Yes I do, but none of it is up on my ao3 account at this time. I have a ton in my google docs though...

10. Do you write crossovers?

I've written a couple. Both of them, funnily enough, of the format "javert meets one of my other blorbos and they recognise what they have in common"

In "and if you fall" (honestly the point of the title would have landed better if I did the full lyric "and if you fall (as lucifer fell)" but at the time that felt too corny), Crowley happens to be in the right place at the right time to talk Javert down from jumping (context: within GO book canon Crowley was asleep for the 19th century except for getting up in 1832 for a loo break)

In "The Choice Of Death" Miles Edgeworth meets Javert's ghost (AA ghost lore notwithstanding) one liminal night during his year away

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

On a tangent though, bc there's no question directly relevant to share this info, I HAVE gotten fanart for a fic before: this amazing fanart by @maym0rin for chapter 2 of "perfectly statue-still" (she gave me permission to crosspost it on tumblr bc she didn't have tumblr at the time but she later got tumblr when the twitter ship started sinking). There is nothing more flattering as an author than getting fanart, I hope this first time isn't the last time

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not yet!

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

Yes, I helped with @almarnatiaam's fic A King's Heart and got a co-writer credit.

And outside of cowriting on the level of be listed as cowriter on ao3, my friend who doesn't have tumblr (it's tsl for all the mtnr server friends reading this) and I have been collaborating and bouncing ideas on each other's fics for... wow, it's been over a year now!

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Honestly it would have to be Valvert because it got to me at a formative time and has shaped the kinds of ships I like for life

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

What do you mean "the" wip????

I have two dead fics and counting (one for les mis, one for good omens), and that's just the ones where I posted the initial content before realising it's too intimidating to finish. There's so many more in my docs; my friends know about some of them

16. What are your writing strengths?

Here are some that I have no problem bragging about, I reread my own fics often and smile at the moments where I did a banger line

Character voice (especially when the characters are my blorbos)

Using fancy vocabulary with precision in the prose to achieve effect (a skill born from trying to copy the vibes of victor hugo)

Witty prose humour (a skill born from trying to copy the vibes of pratchett & gaiman)

Prose from the POV of someone in a fucked up state- someone in a dark place emotionally, or someone whose motivations are fundamentally misguided or outright malicious. This is THE most fun shit to write for me

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Committing to long term character pain and tragic character conflict when it's not pulled/extrapolated directly from canon. I have many times read a fic where the author puts blorbo through the ringer and thought "damn if only I wasn't such a fucking coward and could write stuff like this". I've become less of a coward over the years and now enjoy

Writing anything long without a detailed plan for the entire thing

The need to use words with precision and write perfectly in character is as much a weakness as a strength. I am not a "write a whole first draft then edit" person I am a "dot points for the bits I don't have perfect words for" person and this sometimes causes issues where I assume I'll figure out how to get from A to B later but then it turns out to not make sense to get from A to B

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I have 4 years of Duolingo French and have used this occasionally for my Les Mis works. The way I think of my Les Mis works is that the characters are all speaking French behind the fourth wall but the fourth wall translates for us, so I avoid puns that only work in English except on a couple super cracky occasions.

For Inspector Javert Chooses Death (a fic with the premise "AU where instead of dying Javert fakes his death like Edgeworth and goes to england and unrepresses his homosexuality") I was originally planning to write the whole letter near the end of the fic in french and put the translation in footnote but my beta reader got confused so I scrapped that and had the prose paraphrase most of the letter and only included one French sentence

19. First fandom you wrote for?

First fandom I published fic on ao3 for was Les Mis. First fandom I published fic anywhere online for was Animorphs (when I was 12 I published a weird dark comedy fic to FFN which was a 5+1 or similar format of Visser Three executing people for slighting him by morphing into huge creatures and eating them. Then people on animorphsforum.com told me the fic was bad so I lost all confidence and didn't write fic again for years)

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Right now it's between my two most recent AA solo fics: merry christmas. (already explained; 1-4 fic) and the perfect weapon (Manfred POV throughout his revenge plot, SUPER fun to write all that villain pov, grew from the premise "he had to have known about the nightmare to plan all that")

My best Les Mis fic is but i have seen the same (i know the shame in your defeat); it explores my favourite parallel with a cool alternating scene format and I actually still like the writing and characterisation even all these years later which is a rare honour for one of my high school Les Mis fics

Tagging: @squadron-of-damned @kaleran @samioli @ashkazora @azalawa-scroggs