#I actually do think its very cool that a fic written by a fan of colour with such overtly third world themes got circulated in this fandom

[nebulouscoffee]

✄ what’s your editing process?

★ what was the scene you most wanted to write in "Who We Are" ? what was the hardest scene to write?

and

▵ pick a fic and I’ll tell you my favorite line -> for "Home"

Thank you so much!😊

✄ what’s your editing process? - answered here :)

★ what was the scene you most wanted to write in "Who We Are" ? what was the hardest scene to write? - I remember being so excited to write Ezri's joining, which ended up being a ton of fun- as well as this (not yet posted) fallout between Jadzia and Julian. Plus the climactic zhian'tara ritual! A scene that's been quite hard to write is one where Jadzia sort of snaps and is... actually very mean to Ezri (hard because it's tough to find the balance between painful and still in-character; in canon it was Garak, who can easily be cruel- but while I think Jadzia can be uncaring sometimes she isn't usually mean like that, so what would it take to push her? how can I make it convincing?) - and ofc that climactic zhian'tara ritual lol, because HOWWW can I capture the sheer madness of Jadzia Sans Dax But Not Quite Idaris hosting the spirit of Technically Now Dead Past Host Jadzia Dax. Nothing is good enough!! Nothing!!!

▵ pick a fic and I’ll tell you my favorite line -> for "Home" - omg Home :') can't believe it's been two whole years since I sat down and thought "well maybe I should try writing a fan fic" & then accidentally gave birth to a 100k word monster lmao. I haven't actually read this one since last December, so I'm not sure these are in fact my fav lines- but people seem to comment about this exchange between Kira and Garak a lot, and I do like it!

“Nilvi isn’t even a Cardassian fruit,” he said randomly.  Kira knew. It was Amlethi; plucked from their soils and grown on Cardassian worlds. Jiruoub berries were Amlethi too; yet they’d fed her three years in the Resistance. Korman weeds brought by Cardassian invaders now blanketed moba orchards, inexplicably helping the indigenous trees grow. Two of the seven spices in Seven-Spice Hasperat were Cardassian.  Years ago, Kira would’ve defiantly relished a five-spice version, shamed her peers who didn’t. Now, she just thinks they’ve all been through too much to punish themselves with bland hasperat. Maybe time couldn’t heal all wounds. But it could turn her hasperat from a political statement into lunch. “My father enjoyed it,” she remembered. “So did my mother.” Garak paused. “You’ve met her, you know.”

This digs into a lot of things I find fascinating about their dynamic, and what they might have in common despite being from opposite sides of an Occupation- but it's also an important character moment for both of them; a recognition of how much their lives have changed, their worlds have changed, they have changed. The nilvi fruit does have symbolic weight in this fic lol- it's the thing that starts off the whole series of unfortunate events, yes, but also when it's first mentioned in chapter one, it's via Garak reminiscing about it as a symbol of cultural pride, unity, and Cardassian wealth, and with casual nostalgia. Him saying this now is a display of how much the events of the fic have forced him to confront that nostalgia- now, the fruit has become a symbol of Cardassian greed, entitlement and violence (both on a larger, planetary scale, and a personal one). I also really wanted to write this moment of peaceful self-awareness for Kira- there are things she will never truly heal from, things she'll never forgive (a lot of which are quite literally personified in the man she's currently sipping springwine with) - but that doesn't mean they can't come to take on new significances. I remember I was thinking about how maize is a dietary staple in most African countries, and red and green chillies are so famously associated with various Asian cuisines- yet, neither of those things is native to those lands. Every country from Sudan to Sri Lanka is filled with tea stalls that are now a crucial part of the culture - but shai/chai never used to be made with tea leaves until those countries were colonised. This is not a "silver lining on the cloud" type thing, of course- quite the opposite; neither Bajor nor any real-world nations should ever have been colonised (& this is why I included that "inexplicably helping the indigenous trees grow" line- the exact sort of thing that would get paraded around as a defence of colonialism! Just like railways, languages, European architecture, fusion art, etc. Whether Cardassian activity was poisoning the soil or inadvertently helping something grow, it doesn't matter- it had no business being carried out in Bajoran territory.) But this is an aspect of occupations I hadn't seen explored all that much in ds9 fanworks; that inevitable intertwining of cultures- so I wanted to write more about it, and given I drew a lot of inspiration from stuff I see around me I'm always so pleasantly surprised by how many people responded to it, I'm very glad it resonated

[msmk11]

James and His Damned Owl

James Potter x gn!muggle!reader

Word count: 1.5k

CW: Mentions of food/eating, mentions of alcohol, ornithophobia

Summary: Having a wizard boyfriend is strange to say the least. While it certainly has its perks, it also has its quirks… In particular, you’re not very much a fan of the magic world’s choice in pets.

Author’s Note: So you know how this type of fanfic is called self-insert, well this is the most self-insert fic I’ve ever written. Reader is me, I am a reader. BIRDS ARE SCARY, okay?! Anyways, this fic is the silliest one I’ve written so far and I had so much fun doing it! I hope you enjoy :)

Having a boyfriend who is a wizard is strange in a number of ways. Truthfully, when James first confessed his secret to you a few weeks ago, you laughed right in his face. It wasn’t until he pulled out his wand and literally started doing magic in front of you that you believed him. It’s safe to say you were in shock, and you’re not quite sure that feeling has faded yet. After James gave you a day or two to process the news, his magic usage around you went from 0 to 100. More times than you’d like to count, your mischievous boyfriend has scared the ever-loving shit out of you by randomly appearing in your home or on the street out of thin air. Now too, instead of walking or driving to your house like a normal person, James will randomly tumble out of your fireplace in a burst of green flames. Not only did you nearly die on the spot the first time it happened, but you’ve since bitched to James many times about how the soot he tracks in is ruining your very nice rug.

The moving pictures he has gives you the creeps, you find it laughable that he prefers using a quill and ink to a pen, and your head swarms every time James mentions some spell, potion, or magical creature whose name sounds like complete and utter gibberish.

But, despite your groans and whining, you do really think that James being a wizard is super cool. Like a child seeing a magician, you’re constantly begging your boyfriend to do different things with his magic so you can ooh and aah over them. When you found out James is an ani- animungal? Anamatronic?- the thing where you can turn into an animal, you were even more ecstatic. Admittedly, you may have once or twice begged James to assume his deer form so that you could ride on his back through the woods like some Disney princess probably would.

Magic has its perks too outside of your own personal entertainment. For example, now, instead of having to do dishes when one of the two of you cook dinner, a flick of James’ wand has them cleaning themselves. Other chores are now taken care of similarly, leaving you with a lot more free time to be with your lovely boyfriend.

This evening is one perfect example. After getting off work, you were surprised to find James waiting outside your office, a bouquet of pretty pink flowers in hand. The evening sun rested lovingly on his peaceful face so that his brown skin seemed to actually glow. It was a wonderful surprise and your trip back to his flat was much more pleasant than usual- defined by clasped hands swinging between you and teasing conversation.

The night only seemed to get better when you arrived at James’ place and were met with the delicious smell of garlic and pasta. The table was set nicely, and your two plates were already prepared, kept warm by the wonders of magic.

Things were perfect. Maybe a little too much so.

******

When you and James finish dinner, he stands and grabs your plates. Usually, you would protest- claiming that whoever didn’t cook has to do dishes- but you know magic will take care of it all. James then kisses you quick before taking a trip to the bathroom.

As you’re sitting at the kitchen table still, reveling in your full belly and nursing your glass of wine, your peace is rudely disrupted. With it being pleasantly warm out this evening, James had left the windows open. This seemed like a great idea until now- when a big brown owl comes swooping into the kitchen.

While anyone would surely be startled by the bird’s random appearance, you are especially so because you’re terrified of birds. The bloodcurdling scream you let out is akin to someone who is dying- but in your mind is appropriate for the situation at hand. A string of curses leave your mouth as you jump up and hesitantly back away from the owl perched on one of the kitchen chairs. You grope for the counter behind you, never taking your eye off the owl as you maneuver around the island to hide behind it.

Of course, your scream has resulted in a panicked James and shouts of your name. He comes barreling into the kitchen in only his shirt and boxers, wand at the ready. He whips his head around, looking for you and the supposed threat that caused you to scream. He calls your name again and your head pops up from behind the counter.

“Lovey? What is it?” He asks anxiously.

You whimper a little and, with a shaky hand, point at the big bird across the room. When James sees what you’re pointing at, he visibly relaxes and lowers his wand.

“Oh, him? That’s just Hootie,” he tells you casually, “Probably should’ve mentioned I have a pet owl.”

You stare at him in complete and utter shock then shrilly squeal, “How’d you forget to mention that you have a pet owl?!!”

James shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly and places his wand on the counter, walking towards you, “Well, I guess I didn’t really think too much about it. It’s very common in the magic world to have one, so I didn’t consider that it’d be abnormal. It’s just like having a dog in the muggle world.”

You don’t respond with any English, instead sputtering anxiously.

James crouches beside you, “So are you going to come out now? There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

You shake your head no aggressively and shrink into his side, “No way, Jamie. Birds are terrifying- with their big beaks and beady eyes. And who knows what diseases they carry- no offense.”

Your boyfriend wraps his arm around you and soothingly rubs your side, “Awe, sweetheart, I didn’t know you’re afraid of birds.”

“Oh yes, very. Have been since I was five and a bird pooped on me at the zoo.”

You don’t miss the chuckle and small smirk on James’ face and huff, pulling away.

“It’s not funny Jamie! It’s a real fear!”

He puts his hands up in surrender, “I know, I know. I’m sorry, sweetheart. It is a real fear. But it’s an irrational one, you know.”

You huff again and roll your eyes, grumbling under your breath. James then stands and stretches out his hands, “Here, why don’t you come meet Hootie and see birds aren’t all so bad.”

You hesitantly take his hand and stand. You slowly walk out from behind the counter and only make it a few steps before the damned bird shifts, ruffling its feathers.

You squeal again and let go of James’ hand, this time hiding behind his broad frame, “I don’t think I can do this Jamie.”

He turns around and looks at you softly before pulling you into a tight hug. You relax a little against his chest, but your eyes never leave the owl over his shoulder, “I believe in you, lovey. Why don’t you let me go first, to show you that Hootie won’t hurt you, and then we can try together, yeah?”

You hesitantly reply with an okay.

James lets go of you and turns around. He walks over to the brown owl easily and coos a little, petting its back softly as it nuzzles into his touch. The owl then juts its head out, seeming to be waiting for something. James, apparently, knows what this means, and reaches behind him to grab some sort of pellet out of the cabinet and feed it to the bird.

“Okay, sweetheart. Now why don’t you come over and give Hootie a pet.”

He walks over and grabs your hand. Your smaller one fits into his nicely and you grip onto it with a death-grip. The two of you slowly make your way over to the owl and stand beside it. You sort of half stand behind James while still holding his hand. Fingers intertwined, James slowly starts moving your joint arms out, “Ready?

You very slightly shake your head and then your palm makes connection with the soft feathers of Hootie. The bird stares at you with its big eyes and, like it did for James, nuzzles into your touch.

Some of the tension in your shoulders eases a little and you decide that maybe birds aren’t so bad.

As you pull away, James squeezes your hand gently, “See? You did it. I’m so proud of you, sweetheart.”

Just as you’re beginning to feel proud of yourself too, the owl shuffles a little and rotates its head 180, so it’s no longer staring at you. The range of motion it has terrifies you and you scream again, running down the hall away from James and his damned owl.

[luxaofhesperides]

Listen. I love the dcxdp crossover. It’s a lot of fun! There’s so much that can be done for this crossover, with all the characters and settings and the many plots that can spring up from them. But as much as I love writing for it and sharing my fics with the community, there’s been a significant uptick in things that are rubbing me the wrong way. Some of these things have to do with canon vs fanon, but others are more about the shifting culture of the community.

(keep in mind that I only see things on Tumblr and am not in any discords, so my experience will be different from others bc I have a more limited experience with the wider community)

(putting it all under a read more bc its long)

Let’s start off with a look at what we’re doing as a group:

Building off of completed fics on tumblr: I always thought the etiquette is to not build off of a completed work without permission. Someone had an idea and executed it, then shared it with us. It should end there. If you want to add to it, contact the author first and see if it’s something they’re fine with; some will say no, some will say yes, some will say yes but be sure to credit them for the original fic. A lot of what I’m seeing is a completed fic gets added on to in a way that completely takes it away from the original idea. Having experienced this myself (on a requested prompt from someone else, no less), I found it kind of rude. Maybe it’s just me, but a completed fic is not a prompt request or something open for building up another story around. It’s already completed. Leave the story as is and let the author know you liked it.

Expecting others to write for you: the prompts are what build this crossover fandom, in my eyes. Prompts are posted and people create something around them, either as a group by adding onto what other people are saying, or as individual fics that one person wrote. Now I’m seeing people throw out prompts that are basically fic outlines, then begging others to write something for it. Like, those prompts are already written! They have very specific details! Why not write it yourself? You’re already halfway there, you can just write the thing you want to see and post it. It’s not about being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ at writing, it’s about crafting an idea to share to the world. Why ask others to write it for you when you’ve already practically done it?

But also, you are not owed fic. This might just be general fandom burn out talking, but being a fic author who has been treated like a machine? It sucks. I love writing, but I share what I write because what I wrote made me happy and I wanted to share that with others. I’m not a content creating machine who has to pump out fic after fic for other people’s entertainment. I just want to share what I love and having people pop up in my notifs only going “write more/tag me/sequel?/etc” is tiring. I get that it’s coming from a place of love bc you liked the fic enough to want to see more, but please actually talk about what I’ve already written instead of going “update? More? MORE????”

Hostility to DC canon: I get that DC canon is a mess, but it still is a canon and has a lot of cool stuff! I’m seeing a lot of posts recently about how dpxdc people refuse to engage with the comics, and I need to let yall know that this is not a new thing. DC fans also refuse to engage with the comics (it’s mostly batfam) and it’s very easy to tell who has and who hasnt ready batfam related stuff bc the fanon is incredibly wrong about characterisation and what happened in comics. But that’s for a different post.

I’m seeing both sides of the argument (this is for fun, reading comics isn’t required, don’t like don’t read vs it’s tiring seeing people butcher my favorite characters into ocs with their name/face, I want to share my love for comics but there’s so much pushback, it shouldn’t be weird to expect people engaging with a media to have actually engaged with that media). And I think you should engage with comics! DP is a unique case in which fanon is for the most part better and more interesting than the original show (also death to the author/butch hartman), but DC comics shouldn’t be engaged with in that way. If you like the characters you see in dpxdc, you should read about them in comics! The whole point of a fandom is that you’re a fan of the original media. That’s why you’re engaging with it in this way, writing within the world and characters and canon.

I don’t know how people write for fandoms when they’re not familiar with the source material. I wanted to write dcxdp so I started rewatching DP. I’m reading comics. I want to know the characters and their stories so I can have a foundation to write from, and also to better understand the media so I can share my love for it. The refusal to engage with source material while engaging with its fandom is so strange to me.

Also dc fans who love the comics are great! In my experience, they’re very kind and willing to help you jump into comics! Don’t know where to start? Pick a character or team and follow them! Want a reading guide? We’ve got TONS. want thoughts on a specific character or comic run? Just ask!

Now to more specific points about what I’m seeing in dcxdp works:

Mischaracterized batfam: this is a group of people who are disasters and have complicated relationships with each other. They’re kind, wonderful people who bring out the best and worst in each other. Why is Batman always adopting people. Why is this a running joke with the batfam. I get it being a joke the first few times, but I’ve seen it so often and done like it’s accurate characterization that I just. I can’t. I leave that fic immediately. I can’t do it anymore. Batman is paranoid and tried very hard to keep kids away from him/away from being a vigilante. Unfortunately all the kids he got are stubborn and smart so he was doomed from the beginning.

Superman and Kon: you guys are pretty much only pulling from Young Justice Animated which I think is a terrible adaptation, but that’s my own taste. But seriously. Clark is kind. That’s an important part of his character! He’s the strongest man in the world and he’s kind. He was also dead when Kon first appeared as a experiment from CADMUS in Hawaii. They’re not father-son, but they are family and they do care for each other, once they get to know each other. Also Kon is not an angry broody boy, he’s funny! And annoying! pls read kon comics guys, i promise youll like his actual character

Chronos??? Guys. Chronos is not a god in DC canon. He is in Greek mythology, but in DC he’s a Captain Atom villain and he’s literally just a guy who got obsessed with having perfect timing. He’s themed around clocks. He has nothing to do with time travel or time gods. The Speedforce is Time, basically, and it is not human. It is an eldritch being beyond our comprehension that can eat people. If it chooses to have a human form, it’s going to choose to look like Bart. Please read Flash stuff, it’s interesting!

Lazarus Pit Madness lasts like 5 minutes in canon. Jason having it, and being affected by it for years, is a purely fanon thing from the dc side. Not going to say anything more on this because it goes into Jason Todd discourse.

Repetition: I’m sorry but I’m tired of seeing the same things over and over. I barely see anything out of the dcxdp tags thats new and fun to engage with. Everything is the same variation of “Danny helps Pit Mad Jason”, “Bruce insta-adopts Danny”, “Superman is mean to clones”, etc etc. Think of any popular dcxdp trope and that’s all you’ll see. I get why these are fun and popular, but the way it’s being engaged with now? It literally makes me exit Tumblr and put my phone down.

Not every prompt has to go down the same routes as the other prompts. Please explore more options, branch out, twist those tropes around to do something new with them. And also stop going onto other people’s fics and saying “what about [dcxdp trope]? Cant wait to see [dcxdp trope]! You should have [dcxdp] trope.” If I didn’t include it, it’s not included for a reason. There are hundreds of other fics that write specifically about those exact tropes. Read those, or write your own. (im being super bitter here but please just let me write what i want to write without trying to pull the story into another direction for a trope you like. Im writing for me, but sharing it for you. Not every fic needs those tropes in them.)

Tumblr specific things: this is less about the content and more about general posting etiquette. Please put long posts under a read more. If it’s more then three paragraphs, consider adding a read more if there is significantly MORE than three paragraphs. Tag appropriately. Content warnings and trigger warnings should be at the very top of the post and in the tags so they can be properly blocked. If you’re posting fic/prompt, please double check your spelling and fix any typos you find because posts that are filled with excessive typos are difficult to read.

There’s probably a lot more to talk about, but just getting this much out is tiring and, frankly, I don’t want to think on it any more today. If you reply/add comments, I won’t get to them in a while bc I will be writing ghostlights and yhk fic to lift my mood :)

[valeriianz]

For the fic writer asks:

4. Obviously you did research for BitB. I'd love you to ramble about it if you like I'm sure you've got STORIES

5. Did you outline it?

7. How'd you decide it would be Hob's pov?

25-27 I'd love to know a/some favorite lines, details, and any lore you might want to share

omg TJ what wonderful questions! thank you!! this is going to get LONG!

4: Rambling about research!

do you wanna see a screen shot of my bookmarks under my "band au" folder?

man, and that's only what could fit on the screen.

there is... SO MUCH i chose to ignore for this fic. ideas that i had to drop, lines or extra details about the other band members equipment. more logistics, what Lucienne actually does, what Mervyn has to put up with as the new touring stage manager... i realized very early on that i couldn't possibly cram all this (super cool and eye opening) information into the fic and still keep reader's interest and, most importantly, to not stray away from the fact that this is a dreamling fic. whenever i felt myself getting carried away with a side character or job or even social media numbers, gossip, outside POVs, i had to reign myself in and get back on track. there will be time for exploring everything i missed in side stories after BitB is finished. i just hope i still have the energy to write it all.

once, i was so deep into research that after publishing chapter 2, i went into work and when my chef asked what "GA" meant on my prep list, i answered with full confidence, "general admission."

(it means "get ahead.")

the worst part of this entire writing process is im still learning new shit. i havent rewatched or read a lot of what i've saved because, to be very honest, i was feeling a little burnt out. it's why we're kinda full steam dreamling now. it's why ive been glossing over a lot of technical stuff and being vague about conversations amongst the crew/not including it at all. i don't prefer ignoring my research, but at the end of the day i want to still enjoy writing this fic and finish it. even if i can't be as descriptive and detailed and nuanced as i used to be.

5: Did you outline the fic?

(also asked by @hardly-an-escape!)

i wouldn't call what i have a proper "outline," it's more like a 20k word document filled to the brim with notes that i skim at least a dozen times while i'm writing a new chapter (being in my brain is literally hell). i live multichapter life very dangerously. i copy and paste lines or sections (always scattered, never together! augh!) that are meant to go together and plop them in a new document titled "band au ch.#" and then i structure the chapter around what i want to happen.

but to answer this question in the plainest of terms: yeah. i know exactly what's going to happen up until the very end. even if its all in my head and the only concrete shit that's written down are beats/plot points. i'll figure out the rest later!

7: How'd you decide it would be Hob's POV?

i actually never even considered writing it from Dream's POV. this was my first fic in the fandom (which is so nuts to think about lol) and writing in Dream's POV sounded so scary lol. i also just thought Hob's would be easier because i have worked a few backstage shows, back in my college years. i figured eh, i can make this work. and i loved exploring how weird and mysterious musicians can be, from a normie's POV. making Hob a fan first and having him worry about developing a parasocial relationship... it was fun to explore.

25: Share your favorite line

oh god, i have so many haha.

“What are you thinking about?” starting in ch.2 and onward lmao

“It’s–” Dream laughs quietly, bitterly. “I don’t like change.” He says each word with emphasis, eyes trailing down to fixate somewhere past Hob. “And I still hold onto the things I can control, like my instruments–” his eyes swing up to regard Hob apologetically. “Or my clothes or my–” he brings a hand up and wiggles his fingers around his head. “My hair.” ch.4

"His majesty is pleased." ch.5

“You are obsessive,” he states, slow and cool and with a quiet smile cracking through his composure. “Just like me.” ch.7

“You look good.” Hob has to lean in to say so, unwilling to raise his voice amongst the roar of the fans. ch.11

“Del looks like porcelain, but she’s actually made of steel.” Desire swirls the contents of their glass before pushing their shoulders back with a deep breath. “She's tougher than all of us.” ch.11

“Everything. I want…” his fingers tighten in Hob’s hair, pulling him closer, speaking against his lips. “…Everything.” ch.14

26: Share your favorite detail

how intentionally coy Dream behaves. i love keeping him a mystery and deciding when and how much to allow his intentions to peek through has been so fun lol.

Despair is in fact covered in tattoos and piercings! i say this because i feel like sometimes i forget lmao. (but also her and Hob don't interact much so. my bad haha).

Delirium's constant explosion of color in the way she dresses <3

Hob's dedication to his job, Dream, and the people he cares about the most. i don't care if people think i'm making him too soft and good, im gonna project on that man and make him a sweet, sweet simp lmao

and ah, this doesn't matter anymore, and i kinda regret doing it but. i originally had Dream's favorite bass all black but the pickguard was white. so it actually looked like Jessamy. not gonna lie when @designtheendless drew it all black i decided i liked it better that way. and truly i do. that's when i went back to ch.1 and changed it haha. to actually see the guitar with Dream, all done up sparkling black and purple flecks... gosh it's just so him. but then i got up to the reveal that the guitar's name was Jessamy and i was like, "oh, right." lmao. no one seems to care so i'll leave it be.

27: Share a piece of lore you made up for the story

i have a lot lmao. and this post is already so long... im hoping i can get to some if not all of it in side fics in the future. but for now, here's some that's more like headcanons but:

Dream hates flying. he can full on go into panic attacks on the plane if he allows himself to get into his own head.

this was mentioned briefly in ch.4, while Dream was discussing the formation of the band, but Despair was in another band before joining Endless. she is the only character in the fic who gets to keep her English roots (lol sorry) and is the oldest in the band (30).

all of the band members ages: Dream, Desire, and Death are all 28 and Delirium is 22.

Dream can experience subdrop after going too hard during a performance.

Dream paints his own nails, it's very therapeutic.

as an exercise, i explored my own headcanons for Dream in this verse in a word doc, and one thing i will share from it that you might find interesting: If I were to ever give Dream a theological values, I would describe him as a satanist. He is a physical and pragmatic person, nonconforming, and although he is introverted, he enjoys being a part of a community (he loves his band).

also found this in my notes: How Desire and Dream got along was Death making them fight it out. Hob raises an eyebrow “like in a brawl?” He couldn't imagine Desire throwing hands. “No, in a pillow fight that escalated in hair pulling and verbal taunts.”

fic writer asks

[crazylittlejester]

DAILY BRAINROT

I really need to stop trying to explain my fics out of context to my college friends. Today, someone asked if they could read my Hyrule whump fic because I said it was about "a rescue operation." Which technically isn't lying because I've got at least 2,000 words of Sky & Warriors rescuing Hyrule, but I also didn't tell him it was fanfiction...

Anyway, I've been poking at the Midwest gothic horror AU and have made progress on Sky's backstory. He is, of course, a god-killer.

God-killers are a whole thing in this AU. It's not a species so much as a classification based on potential. No one really knows how people become god-killers, they're just born that way. Given that it's based on their potential to kill a god, they're only called god-killers before they kill a god.

This is because once a god dies, there has to be a replacement or else the world will end. So you can think of god-killers as baby gods, I suppose, even though that's technically not right. Anyway, god-killers are forced to lose the type of mortality that prevents them (and everyone else) from being gods as they're slowly turned into the very thing that they destroyed. The variable is which god they kill if they kill a god. (Not all of them actually kill gods.)

Sky never looked for a god on purpose until the mess with Sun happened. Hylia ended up convincing him to fight Demise on her behalf because gods can't kill each other. Only god-killers can kill gods, so she needed him. Once he killed Demise, though, he ended up getting stuck in the process of becoming the next god of that domain.

no because today i was telling a coworker about how i ranted to my friends about the star wars sequels and essentially rewrote the movies in said rant and she went, “Oh you mean like fanfiction? You write fanfiction?” AND I WALKED STRAIGHT INTO A FUCKING WALL. BECAUSE LIKE YES, I DO WRITE FANFICTION (OBVIOUSLY), BUT THAT WASNT WHAT I FUCKING MEANT, I MEANT I TOLD MY FRIENDS HOW I PERSONALLY WOULDVE WRITTEN THOSE MOVIES, SO NOW MY COWORKER THINKS I WRITE STAR WARS SEQUELS FANFICTION. and I don’t even think I can correct her because she genuinely thinks thats super cool and I cannot ruin her image of me by going “haha actually i write fanfiction for a fan COMIC of a video game ☝️🤓”

guess i have to go rewrite the starwars sequels now /j

‘slowly turned into the very thing that they destroyed’ <- BITING YOU. /pos

dude im SO obsessed with this au idea its so awesome. midwest horror my fucking LOVE. AND THE THOUGHT YOU PUT INTO ALL OF IT?? OUGH. EATING IT. EATING IT!!

[weirdestarrow]

So I thought about what we talked about in my post, and here are some things about the general fandom's interpretation of North Korea that I don't (personally) like... Some of them might fit with the general ~evil NK thing~ but yeah! :3

Sorry if it's a bit messy, its a little bit of word vomit haha.

- Nuke obsession? Just very strange considering that characters like Russia or the USA aren't portrayed as also nuke obsessed as well even though... You know, the number of them they have;

- Angry all the time. It's just strange. Not only that, but also some things that people make him get angry over seem kind of reasonable (hating the country who bombed his own nation to the ground and also strangely a big amount of him in fics and art getting manhandled?);

- Poorly written English to... Denote he is not Anglo. Which a lot of times just comes off as very racist;

- The classic brainwashed by government thing so many countries fall into lol. But knowing how people treat real life N. Koreans as just actors hired by the government to trick the foreihners, it just feels especially dehumanizing with him;

- And if its not that it's "oh I secretly hate my government but they will not let me be happy :'''(". Let countries align with political opinions out of their own free will!;

- "Hermit Kingdom" shit. Is the DPRK kind of isolated from the rest of the world? Yeah. Do you think they'd do that if they didn't have to? Why do we so quickly forget embargos and the whole "the US will topple your government if they can" thing?;

- NK is sometimes depicted as very naive about the outside world, but I personally don't enjoy that characterization much. They treat him like an injured deer who cannot navigate the world by himself, for a lack of better words;

- This is going to be more my own petty grievance but I'm not too big of a fan of "the ussr was the one who took NK's eye". I like the eyepatch thing but like... The USSR and NK had a good relationship it's so unnecessarily made to paint it in as much a horrible light as physically possible;

- In general, people don't really depict him outside of the military man thing or "woe is me stuck in a dictatorship ;(". It does seem as an extension of real world politics were people just don't believe that North Koreans are real breathing human beings with things going on besides their relationship with their country. I made it so that my version of NK really likes literature, even writes a little himself :D.

Honestly I think the way this could be remedied really is looking at sources outside of what the West says and like... Radio Free Asia lmao. You will have to look for the perspective of actual North Koreans. I understand the aversion to seeking their sources, but honestly if you can read a BBC or Washington Post article about NK, you can take a quick glance at like KCNA or Pyongyang Times and judge accordingly.

And, actually media from the DPRK is not that hard to find! There are movies available online, as well as songs and pictures. I do all three, and its very cool stuff :3. I'm very willing to share! ^_^ As always, learn more about the history and culture from a genuinely curious, non-judgemental manner and you will always be able to learn more.

As you can see from my endless yapping, I just really like North Korea and wish people would be less obviously biased when making him (or her or them, depending on the headcanon). Yeah, thank you for your time! :]

Yes this is very good.

My NK is a bit of an introvert. I think he’s interested in geology and volcanology because of Paektu Mountain and that’s something he really loves studying. He’s very gentle and soft spoken and wants to do his best for his people. He cares about them deeply and he would put their wants over his over and over again.

I think he often feels like he is seen as the “extra” Korea that no one likes, but he’s not eager to try and make friends with other countries. I think he also doesn’t like leaving his country cause he’s nervous about being in countries unfriendly to NK, afraid that someone might try and assassinate him to give SK more legitimate claims to his land.

He cares about SK in a weird way, but is also jealous because people like SK and SK got to meet their mother and he didn’t. I think he feels like he was abandoned almost.

[newfrontierbackstage]

1,000 views Milestone and more

Hello everyone. Today I have come to talk about the most important milestone the fic has ever reached. A little bit ago, New Frontier reached 1k views on Ao3 and it honestly made me so proud, happy and satisfied with seeing such a number, even after months of hiatus and inactivity. The support that this fic has received is... honestly something I never expected.

If I may go off character for a bit, I want to tell you guys a few guys. I created this fic just for myself, for my own sake and to show the fandom some cool stuff, some action and my type of writing that I tend to like and go for. The first version was very much a showcase of inexperience and lack of understanding for a lot of things when it came to writing, but it was still the most fun I had writing the fic.

Then I went to reread what I had created and written... I started to see the cracks, to see that what I had put on the paper just wasn't as amazing as I first thought it was. So with that in mind, I decided to start going back and rewrite previous chapters, as it felt necessary and I felt it could elevate the story to higher levels and although that was pretty fun at first, it started to drain me pretty bad in the lenghtier chapters. It started to feel like a job.

The chapters have absolutely improved and I feel the fic's direction is in a much better spot, but I had to fight myself to get the motivation to keep going. Being honest, I was very much considering the possibility of dropping the fic on its entirety. as it truly felt that draining and boring to write. I wasn't doing new stuff, I was just rewriting older stuff and noticing my many mistakes!

My friends like CharmmyColour and LonelyLittleShips adviced me to write other parts of the story that were more exciting or thrilling. I honestly didn't think that was going to work out and I still tried to write through Chapter's 5 and 6 with a pessimistic and saddened state of mind.

That was until GoldenTulipLynx (my current cowriter) came into my life a year ago. We started to discuss more of the fic and he actively encouraged me more and more to write a few months ago. He told me to do so at least once a week to get some progress done and I did. It wasn't a perfect process, but it definitely led me to write more. Then he suggested me to write something exciting and for the first time, I actually listened to that advice and...

It worked. It gave me my inspiration back somewhat and it made me want to get writing more and more. If it wasn't for his inspiration and also the encouragement from my other friends, I may have cancelled the fic as a whole, so for that I'm truly grateful to them.

What I'm also grateful for is have fans and followers that have been patient, loyal and comprehensive towards the fic's state and progress. This took so long because I wanted to give you guys something worthy of that much of a wait and also have fun while doing so.

I really wanted this message to be special, as I felt the ocassion was the perfect time to do so. Truly, thank you guys. Thank you for still being here and I hope you look forward to what else I have cooking up.

And because I knew this was such a special ocassion/milestone, I also wanted to give you guys something exceptional, so with that in mind... I commissioned some art for New Frontier as a treat for you guys, one that displays Cavendish with his rifle in a wonderful forest, one that's going to be the usual hangout spot for him and Dakota.

This is my gift to you, everyone. Hope you have a good day/afternoon/evening/night and I'll see y'all down the trail!

With love: hypersonicJD

Edit: I have removed the background of this piece as I have found out it was been AI generated. I do not condone anything AI generated and thus, the commissioner's credits have been removed as well and I would like everyone to reblog this new version of this post.

[wrongcaitlyn]

do you have any favorite scenes that didn’t make it into talk ur talk?!?

okay so i took a long time to think about this bc GOD its such a good question but now that i rlly look back at talk ur talk - i realize that i was incredibly self indulgent with writing scenes and what sort of stuff i was including!! i mean, obviously the fic idea as a whole was very self indulgent, but i think that whenever i had an idea for a scene, it ended up in talk ur talk in some way

however, there are definitely some things that i cut out simply because they weren't in character/i didn't think it would be fitting, which sometimes you just have to do! the characters were progressing, and they didn't fit into this cookie cutter mold of a classic celebrity, so obviously i wasn't able to write some of the things i would've liked, aka:

interviews. i would've LOVED to write more interview scenes with nico. but i also knew that he, as a character, very adamantly was not a fan of them, and so obviously i couldn't just make him go back on his word and go off to do a bunch of interviews

more scenes in public/with fans, getting recognized and what not. honestly this may have just come from my own fear of oc's, bc everytime i included other characters that were not from the main cast, i got *terrified* like idk i just try to stay away from them? not like they can't be written well, they absolutely can, i've read fics with some of the most incredible oc's. i am just scared of writing them on my own, so i tended to stay away from the fan interaction thing even though i definitely would've liked to do that more

red carpets/award shows!! i didn't include a lot of these bc i felt like it'd get really repetitive after the first time and i didn't want to clutter up the fic with a bunch of, essentially, the same scenes. he walks down a red carpet. cameras are flashing. he answers some questions. that's pretty much it

OKAY OKAY WAIT THIS IS SOMETHING THAT TECHNICALLY it's not that it didn't *make it* into talk ur talk, but just several ideas that i had that i knew immediately wouldn't ever be in the fic, but like, aghsljdf my heart - him interacting with irl celebs. i KNOW i don't write that, i don't plan on writing that, i don't like writing with real people involved, BUT

him being a special guest on the rep tour

him talking with lorde at the grammys

him just meeting a bunch of other celebs like ugh ik i've thought abt it a lot and it'll never actually show up in the fic but i do like to imagine it!!

something i also didn't include in greatest of luxuries was will listening to welcome to new york. nonstop. like all the time. it's just always there he's always listening to it if i ever mention him listening to a song and not saying a specific song it's welcome to new york bc ofc it is.

(i am currently listening to welcome to new york)

aside from all that, i think when looking back at all of it, the one thing i regret is that i didn't write more school scenes. like. there were so many opportunities, more octavian, more angst, more nico being famous, like i feel like famous kid in a school with the asshole that is octavian would be such a cool dynamic and i kinda regret not writing it more! i think i may, one day, go back and write a few extra scenes of talk ur talk into a few one-shots or something (probably after i finish greatest of luxuries and just get nostalgic over talk ur talk lmfao) but i think that's it! thank you for the ask!!

[veerbles]

it's been a month and a half since I finished the trc series and while I'm still in that nice fic-binging portion of the post-book phase, I've been somewhat unsuccessfully trying to put together my final thoughts on it. so I'm gonna try to do it in writing instead.

I'm not usually a big fan of reading criticism in fandom spaces, so I'm just going to put all my thoughts under a read more and if anyone is interested in reading this: this has been your fair warning.

overall, I obviously enjoyed the books. I think my very first assessment to my s.o. of it the night I finished trk was: good writing, really good character work, excellent world building; so-so plotting.

so here's the plotting thing. just before I read trk I stumbled across an interview with the writer that made me sort of uneasy, and gave me an ominous feeling that turned out to be completely accurate. she told the interviewer, "Secrets and tricks, that’s all I’ve got," and immediately I got the inescapable feeling: this is an author who thinks they're really smart, and wants you to know they're really smart, and they are going to finish the books in a way that makes you think they are really smart, for all the wrong reasons.

let me preface by saying: not every question needs to be answered in the final book of the series. some questions are meant to keep you wondering, and that's fine, as long as they're not integral to the plot. why did the gang find one of the pig's wheels in the mysterious lake? don't know, and it's fine that I don't. iirc, ronan even mentions it at the end of trk and thinks to himself that maybe their adventures with the ley line aren't finished. cool! loose ends!

but some questions are integral to the plot. and in the trc's case, too many of them are left unanswered, to the point where I didn't get even a hint of that 'ooooh, the foreshadowing' feeling you expect to get when everything is finally resolved in a clever way. it left me with the feeling that the writer wanted the book to feel smart and mysterious by using all these tricks and secrets, and then overshot her own abilities to tie all of these tricks together into a cohesive plot, leaving more holes than material.

1. Glendower & Co.

the glendower plotline is one of the most disappointing things I've read in a while. I'm SORRY, but it's true. I love mythology! I loved the potential of this! I don't even mind that he ended up being dead all along - that's fine, if not a bit expected imo. the real magical favor was the friendship we made along the way etc. etc.

but if you really, really think about it, he ended up serving no point to the books. the trc series would've been virtually the same if gansey was obsessed with researching the ley lines themselves for the magical aspect of it, and ended up stumbling upon cabeswater in the exact same way, and wandered around in its caves, and the demon was awoken. glendower could've easily been written out entirely.

OR: the glendower story could've still served a purpose while being dead. they literally woke up both his magicians - gwenllian and artemus - and even drew parallels to two of the main characters by calling ronan and adam "gansey's magicians", but BOTH OF THEM served no purpose to the plot? at all?? I would've even accepted them not serving direct purpose, but instead helping further along blue's character arc. except blue spends three books wondering about her biological father, has one (1) conversation with him, finds out she's a half tree-spirit and... that plotline goes nowhere, enters the game way too late, and doesn't tie in to much else in the end.

or instead, the writer could've leaned into the obvious hint-dropping and played out the reincarnation plot that was lying in waiting. but as soon as the hints about gansey actually being glendower started being too heavy, I knew it wouldn't happen. because again: a writer who wants to come off smarter that their readers won't drop hints that their readers can easily decipher (even when sometimes it's definitely the right thing to do, to improve the reading experience).

the glendower pointlessness pokes more holes in the story. why did noah become a ghost? not every dead person in henrietta does, clearly. presumably, he became a ghost because gansey was dying at the same time. but why? "You will live because of Glendower. Someone else on the ley line is dying when they should not, and so you will live when you should not." gansey heard this glendower line because time is a loop, etcetera; noah whispered it to him before he passed on because he knew he was supposed to, because gansey already told him. but if there's no glendower magic, only ley line magic, then the whole "balance" thing was supposed to be that gansey got to live because noah died. except noah didn't die. presumably #2, noah didn't die (yet) because he was supposed to trade his life for gansey's, which he does, at the end of trk. but what all this means is that noah traded his life for gansey's twice, both when he got stung and when blue kissed him, at two different points in time. and we still have no explanation, or even a hint of an explanation, for what powered the ghost thing.

2. Prophecies

in the raven boys, we get several prophecies: one, from the fox way psychics; blue will kiss her true love and he will die. two through five, from the dreaming tree; blue will kiss gansey, in his aglionby sweater, and he'll ask her to kiss him knowing it'll mean his death. adam will cause gansey's dying and his friends will turn on him. gansey will see glendower lying in his grave. blue and gansey will almost-kiss in his car and talk about wanting to just pretend they can.

in the raven king, ronan says the prophecies in the dreaming tree aren't prophecies at all: "[They're] Nightmares. [...] When I dreamt that tree, that’s what it did. Worst-case scenarios. Whatever mindfuckery it thought would be most likely to mess you up the next day.”

except, blue's vision is an exact match for the kiss scene in trk. gansey's vision about glendower is an exact match. their combined vision about the almost kiss is an exact match for a scene in bllb. all of these come true.

so one of two explanation has to be true: ronan is wrong, or the writer ret-conned herself into a corner so she won't have to deal with the last vision. but this is an internal conflict - if ronan is wrong, that means adam's vision is a prophecy, and it just never gets addressed properly. did he really change his fate by sacrificing himself to cabeswater? how? what was supposed to happen, originally? and if the future changed, what was the point of showing the vision to begin with...? it's very possible there could be a reason, but seeing as it's never presented to the reader, it brings me back to the writer wanting to be smart more than she cares about the reading experience.

3. Henry

I'll probably get hate for this, but that's okay. what the fuck was the point of henry?

don't get me wrong: he's a fun character. I'd argue that he's not significantly more fun than the fox way ladies, or mr. gray, or any of the other side characters that didn't get a huge amount of focus and certainly could've, but it's less that I'm mad about henry than the fact that I'm mad about henry's patchwork insertion.

henry gets mentioned for the first time in bllb, and only gets actual action in trk. that's fine. another side character. but in a sudden, unexpected turn, he goes from cameo to main character that is present in all of the big plot moments, is suddenly in the gang, and is tied into gansey and blue's future post-canon...?

if henry was so important, he should've been written in from the get-go. I cannot be expected to care about a character that turned up in the third act of the play. if henry wasn't so important, but serves as a plot device in the fight against the demon and/or a character replacement for noah (like we're in a disney tv show and when a character gets written off another is written in as their "archetype" replacement), he shouldn't be given so much screen time and should definitely not be there at the culmination of the story (gansey dying).

I just couldn't bring myself to be as excited about gansey's plot in trk - when, arguably, trk IS about gansey's plot - because most of gansey's chapters were spent on trying to sell me on henry. and like, he's fun! he ends up deeper than he looks! the toga party chapters are... fun...? but I didn't see the point, and so couldn't bring myself to care all that much. and now whenever he's in fics I resent him, and that's sad, because it's for no reason at all. if he just got treated as the minor character he is, I would've liked him so much more.

CONCLUSION: I might add more points when I think of them. lol, sorry. this is a rant, not an actual review.

[queerofthedagger]

20 Questions for Fic Writers!

Thanks so much for the tag! <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

132 which. insane.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

1,520,700 which is even more insane. anyway

3. What fandoms do you write for?

BBC Merlin, Stranger Things, The Sandman, The Raven Cycle, and Lord of the Rings, and coming soon probably also Black Sails, let's be real

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

Old Haunts (Are For Forgotten Ghosts), A Study in Choices and Second Chances, I Wouldn't Leave You If You Let Me, Still I Surface in Morning Light, and Fate Rests Heavily On Our Shoulders. I'm never not baffled by the fact that my two most popular fics not only are for HP, but are for Regulus/Harry. Like. That tag has maybe 100 fics???

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes!! Sometimes it takes me a while but I'll tend to get around to them eventually <3

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

I think that's a toss-up between my my s5 Morgwen AU With Eyes Wide Open, and the one where I made the Diamond of the Day worse, watch all my bridges burn

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

This is such a difficult question because Angst with a Happy Ending is kind of my brand. That said, esp where Merlin is concerned, one thing I think about a lot is the inevitability of tragedy and how, no matter how many fix-its I write, personally I believe that most of them, if I didn't end them before the fact, would eventually end in some kind of tragic way, actually. Like. Very rarely is Merlin not immortal, or the world not against them, or or or. So in that vein I guess one of the happiest ones would be We Can Always Run because it's such an utter rejection of destiny, an utter refusal to even pretend they're playing the game.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Very rarely, thankfully.

9. Do you write smut?

Occasionally, yeah! It's a constant process of pushing at my comfort zone tbh, but I do enjoy doing it (ha), so!!

10. Do you write crossovers?

Nope, it's just not really my thing, neither for writing nor reading. Obviously never say never but yk.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Unfortunately (don't do this).

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Such a cool feeling, I love the thought of them existing in other languages in the world <3

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

Nope; there have been and are a few plans for that floating around though 👀

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

This is so hard but in the end it gotta be merthur, like, because I love them to pieces but also just for the sheer amount of words I've written for them. Not sure if/how that would ever get topped, especially considering it's like, on-going.

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

There's a bunch of HP WIPs I would have loved to finish, but I've fallen so utterly out of love with the fandom I don't really think it's ever going to happen at this point tbh.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Worldbuilding, plots/characterization, and prose; I think I'm solid in those and they come easily to me/bring me the most joy when writing. Editing, in a way, because I'm an obsessive bitch with a system about it.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions; I'm just not a very visual writer, which is not too huge of an issue when writing familiar characters and settings in fic, but becomes immediately and glaringly obvious whenever I 1. introduce non-canon stuff, or 2. have a go at OG. Also planning/outlining; I can make a bunch of notes but if I write an outline, I will not write the fic. I don't think it's necessarily a weakness, but it can make a bunch of additional work when it comes to the plottier stuff.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

Not the biggest fan tbh, which I know is probably controversial but odds that your audience will understand it are low if it's more than a bunch of words you can guess from the context? I prefer the ""dialogue," he said in Latin" approach. It's subjective though I get it.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Bandom RPF at like, 12 (not telling you which band peace and love). I took a long fandom hiatus until a couple of years ago though, and under this fandom alias it'd be HP/Tomarrymort.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Still There Are Many Names In History, I think. I love a lot of stuff I've written, but that story has my entire heart in it, and the response to it has left me sobbing like. a ridiculous number of times which, like, is not something that I usually have to deal with lmao.

No Pressure-tagging: @prattery @emryses @glaftwlet @snapshotmaestro @merlinemrys @atlantablack @insane-ohwhyfandoms @hazelands @aeonthedimensionalgirl @slantedknitting and anyone else who'd like to, just say I tagged you <3

[lovova]

I see artists doing little showcasings of what they've accomplished creatively in the last year, decided that looks fun, and decided I'd do for myself an little inventory of what I've written in the last year as well, based on archive posts and what I can recall (I specify 'what I can recall', because I was not keeping track of when I did or did not update my main fanfic "Video Game Cruelty Potential" so...guestimates for that fic! I have 36 chapters, I can probably guess it was updated at least every other month) ~ So! For 2023: January: Did a fan-fanfic for my friend Lex called "The Other Rooms" where I explored off-scene implications of his cool-ass fic Room No.5 February: Created an alternate version of VGCP called "VGCP: Characters at their best" where I tried to explore some of the chars in the same setting being more well adjusted. I haven't gotten very far in it, but I am determined to get back to it this year! Also probably updated VGCP March: Did two short Kaito stories, an Oumota called "Playing with Phobias" where Kokichi messes with Kaito and a Saimota called "Luminary Hero of the Track Field" where Shuichi worries over Kaito's enthusiasm to sports while sick. April: Started what was MEANT to be a multi-chaptered Homestuck!V3 Kaito fic called "The Devotion of the Luminary of Skaia", but I haven't gone back yet to figure out what happens next yet. Thinking about it now, I think I was to make it a three chapter fic, but I just need to save some space to go back and outline it someday. VGCP? Maybe? May: A short Oumota piece called "Carnation: Please Handle Gently" that I got some awesome art commissioned for by the incredibly talented Ere. This short story inspired me so much that I'm actually basing a new original novel on the same concept~

June: I (believe) this was the month I finished Kaiden! An omegaverse original story I was writing and posting to Kindlevella. I am super proud of finishing that piece, and while I want to go back and create a more refined second draft before selling it as an Amazon book, I still LOVE this version as well. Very proud~ And VGCP!

July: Two Oumota short stories, "Touring Mortality" and "Execution Failed". Touring Mortality was especially fun to write, though I was amazed at the positive feedback Execution Failed got. It was very uplifting XD This was also the month I (re)started my original story "Pearls and Shackles". Also probably VGCP August: More Pearls and Shackles, more VGCP. September: Pearls and Shackles! Probably more VGCP! Can't remember! October: Can you guess? PEARLS AND SHACKLES! VIDEO GAME CRUELTY POTENTIAL!! November: This was a purely Pearls and Shackles month, and that was because I dedicated NANO (National Novel Writing Month) to finishing it. AND I DID! It super needs a second draft, its not ready to show off, but it EXISTS! So hell yeah!

December: A funny short V3 story called "Soulmate Goose of Enforcement!" I had a lot of fun collaborating with this one with Lex, and am hoping to do a chapter 2 with another great writer added to the mix too, Andromebaa. I also started the first two chapters of a new novel manuscript, a Hanahaki story about a pair of lesbians struggling with love in their own ways, but both trying their best! And, also, I updated "Video Game Cruelty Potential"

Did I overestimate how often I updated VGCP this year? Underestimate? I have no idea, that fic is almost 300,000 words long by this point, let's call an update every other month a generous average of how often I add to it. Other then VGCP, I did 8 Short Fanfics, finished a book, started and finished another book, and started a third book. And I'm not counting stories I had to write for my school year. Just ones I did out of the passion in my damn heart.

So, yeah! I'm pretty proud of this year, it was a good one. I hope anyone reading this had just as good a year! Writers, steal this idea, go looking back the year and brag about what you accomplished! You deserve it!

Have a good 2024 everyone!

[bagelrites]

Have you ever had a fanfiction idea you knew was great but didn't have the time/courage/patience to write ? What would be the backbones of it and what scene in particular would you still like to see written one day ?

So my problem is that when I think of a fan fiction idea even if I have 20 other wips I still somehow think I will do it someday. There is one big fic idea that I had that I have pretty much given up on though, and that's the Squid Game AU. Obviously I thought of it when the DTeam were playing in the Squid Game tournament, and the premise would be that George and Sapnap are contestants who very early on become friends and form an alliance, and Dream is a guard who keeps somehow ending up in situations where he has to talk to George, and they start falling in love. There'd be a lot of complicated feelings, but in the end George escapes with Dream because in that final game he doesn't actually get shot when he loses (I think Dream would have gotten some of the other guards on his side,) but he plays dead until the field is cleared and then Dream comes and whisks him away and they escape on a boat together. George is kind of sad about leaving Sapnap behind, but he has a feeling he's going to win, and he's right of course.

I don't think I'll write more or a shortened version or anything one day. I had so little of it written, in fact, I could actually share everything I wrote here right now, so I'll put it below the cut :)

This was the opening:

George liked the blue hue of his jumper. He’d been told it was turquoise, actually, but it looked a grayish blue to him, cool and muted, like the still face of a lake reflecting the sky. The white stripes could be clouds, perhaps. The numbers over his heart the ripples of a fish flipping from the water, or perhaps the pearly feathers of an egret in flight.

And yes, technically it was a prisoner’s uniform, but George felt it was important to find comforts even—or perhaps especially—in circumstances such as these.

The dormitory was spacious, in its own way. The beds were stacked three layers high, but the mattresses weren’t terribly thin, and there was a wealth of free space opposite the bunks, plenty of room for all two hundred competitors to mingle together, or else find some corner to sulk in alone. The white walls were bright, too, and the ceilings were high.

George supposed if this was the room he was destined to sleep his last night in, at least it was clean and airy. Better than rotting away in a cramped prison cell, right?

He rolled from his side onto his back, staring up at the cross-beams holding up the mattress above him. It had been about an hour or so since they let the competitors into the dorm, and so far there was no word as to when the games would begin. George had been trying to nap in his bunk to wait it out, but everyone else was being far too talkative, and the din of voices kept him awake. Finally, he got antsy enough to get up, deciding to take a stroll around the room and scope out his competitors.

Not that he really thought it would help him win. He didn’t quite plan to do that. Didn't see the point in trying, if he was honest. If he won, he won. If he didn’t…

Then I had a few scenes of dialogue jotted down. First George teasing Dream:

“Why did you say that?”

“Say what?”

“That you trust me.”

“Oh. I don’t know. You’re fun to mess with.”

Dream looked away.

“George, you don’t even know me.”

“You could change that.”

“George—” Dream sputtered, and George giggled. He sounded so cute when he was flustered.

“You’re already talking to me. That’s a step in the right direction.”

Dream froze, and didn’t make any reply. George wished he could see behind his mask, see if he was angry, or scared, or just flushed from embarrassment. He was betting on the latter. “Oh, now you’re all quiet.”

And then here's George seeing Dream's face for the first time:

“Wow, you’re—” George paused, face flushing. “Nothing.”

“I’m nothing?” Dream chuckled.

“No, I mean—I mean you’re, um…” his mind raced for the right word, the least embarrassing word. “Handsome?”

“Oh, I am?” Dream leaned closer, smirking, and George covered his face with his hands.

“No, I meant hot! You’re hot!” he said, muffled into his palms.

Dream just laughed, the sound light and lovely and adoring, and George melted under the warmth of it.

And finally some George + Sapnap dialogue:

“Why do you think you’re gonna win?”

“Because I have to. I have to think it,” Sapnap said. “If I don’t think I can win, then I know I’ll die. You know?” 

George hummed.

“I think you might actually do it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, I don’t know. I just… have this feeling that you’re gonna go all the way,” George said.

“Well, then I want you to go all the way with me.”

George smiled and couldn’t help snickering a little at that.

“What? I mean it.”

“Oh, c’mon. You know what that sounded like.”

[peachdues]

hiiiiii i have a VERY random question.. i know u changed blogs and i was wondering why? when i first got on here i chose a throwaway username not knowing if i would ever actually post anything but then i started posting fan fic and its been doing ok which is super cool! (still haven’t written much for sanemi bc im intimidated by how good your work is im like omg she can’t see… seriously u rock)

anyway i want to change my username bc i feel like if someone saw my username they would prob assume its a throwaway account but i am also literally learning to use tumblr in my mid twenties like an idiot and it seems like it might affect shit i’ve posted if i do??? SO i was wondering if that influenced your decision to make a new blog entirely

ok i hope that made sense i feel dumb

Hello!

Put simply — I changed blogs because I linked the OG to my personal like a dumbass 😭 I couldn’t comment as my fic blog, and I think this was before tumblr allowed you to receive asks/answer asks under the alternate blog? Or I was just too dumb to figure it out.

But I did want separation from my main blog, since my main blog is over ten years old. I know i share a lot about myself on here, but I still have some boundaries (shocker, I KNOW because I never shut up).

Luckily, I decided to make this new blog before I really got big, and I took care to make it clear on my old blog that I had moved. That’s pretty much it!

Also PLS DONT LET ME STOP YOU FROM WRITING SANEMI OMGGG THE MORE THE MERRIER

[mothwingwritings]

I hope I’m not the only one here on your blog just for the Tokyo revengers content because I never watched Baki should i thought??

I have been very Baki focused as of late, huh? ^^; You are def not the only TokRev fan though, I assure you!  My first really sizable chunk of followers came from my Taiju fic, and though I have been slacking a bit on posting anything TokRev related, I promise you much more is planned/being written currentl. A large chunk of bigger fics I am working on are actually mostly TokRev, I just wanted a lil break and so I focused on smaller stuff for a bit, and pretty much all of that happened to be Baki.

Now, as for if you should watch Baki…

Short answer: Yes!  :D

Thoughtful answer: I think Baki is a very interesting take on the fighting genre, and I do highly recommend it. The saga of the Hanma family is as engrossing as it is entertaining, and there is a colorful cast of characters that support the series that you can’t help but love, hate, or love to hate. I have been kind of waiting for a Baki renaissance for a while now-I feel like other than in Japan, it really isn’t a super popular series and that’s a bit of a shame because it truly is an entertaining watch/read. The Netflix adaptation I think has helped the series a lot (and we are all grateful for it, to see our lovely boys animated so beautifully :)) and put it on the map for newer audiences to enjoy, but I definitely recommend the manga too. It’s a pretty fast read because a large chunk of it is action, but it’s pretty cool to see how Itagaki’s art has changed over the years and also how he has grown and changed as a story teller. Earlier Baki is much different than newer Baki, and some of the characters feel a bit foreign when you go back and reread some of the earlier stuff after being immersed in the newer content.

 Baki also has some very bizarre and downright comical aspects as well that kind of put it on par with JJBA  while making it very charming. The mangaka def adds some quirky flairs to his story telling, which while sometimes I can get a little annoyed/bored/confused with them, I feel like overall they make the experience of watching/reading the series its own unique and fun experience.

And if you love delinquents, Kaoru Hanayama is like… one of the best and coolest delinquents. If you put that man in Toman he would be running the whole gang within days and 90% of the bullshit everyone had to go through in Tokrev probs would have been resolved fairly quickly, if it even happened at all. This man would grind Kisaki to paste in the blink of an eye and I would pay to see it happen. :)

THAT ALL BEING SAID: Not everyone likes Baki, and that’s fine too. I know personally a lot of people are turned off by the art/how the characters look and honestly… That’s valid lol. I remember I once showed my friend a picture of Biscuit and her direct response was “Why does he look like he’s made out of balloons, like a clown constructed him?” LOOOL and often times if my friends mention weird body proportions in comics/manga someone inevitable asks when I am gonna chime in with a Baki manga panel. ^^;  Most of the rest of my friends don’t really have any desire to partake in it though, and a few that have just really weren’t in to it. It’s very heavy on fighting and martial arts, and though the fighting is rather fantastical in a lot of cases, it (usually) doesn’t have supernatural elements or magic involved. So if that seems kind of bleh to you, you may want to avoid it.

Horny answer: Incredibly sexy men who are at least half naked a large majority of the time beating the shit out of each other is very fun, nice, and fulfilling to watch. :)

So I say give it a try if you are interested at all. At the very least, some of the fics on here may make a little more sense.

REGARDLESS THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE!!! Please stay tuned for more TokRev in the future, I have at least one more alphabet ask that is for a Tokrev chara so that may be the first thing I post, but bigger stuff is coming soon too~ <3

[markcampbells]

002 | Give me a character & I will tell you: Spock

I also got this from an anon so I'm assuming everyone's like we know how she feels about McKirk, what about Spock?? 😂

How I feel about this character: Okay, so… it is not the character, it is the fanbase. Spock is awesome! All three actors do an absolutely fantastic job! But the fanbase is kind of… too much for me. I'm not speaking so much about the intense love for him as I am talking about projecting things onto him that have very little to do with the writers' initial intent and then getting angry when canonical portrayals don't match up. Like, people will absolutely INSIST that Spock is gay and then get angry when he's paired with women in new incarnations, despite the fact that (a) bisexual+ people exist, so him being with a woman does not automatically make him straight, and (b) Spock was never intended to be anything but heterosexual anyway. I won't deny that SNW in particular has made some choices where I understand the frustration--I absolutely understand why Jewish fans are upset by the bacon scene--but I think the preciousness over Spock and his fanon is what puts people like me off him a bit. He's a great character, excellently portrayed, but I could really do without the people who can't recognize where their fanon ends and canon begins.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: I understand the love for Spirk! But of the triumvirate and its satellite ships, it's kind of the least interesting to me. I like how Spock/Uhura works as a companion ship to McKirk! And I think SNW is doing really cool stuff with Spock/Christine and the idea that a young Spock would explore emotionality that way (especially after seeing his parents' marriage).

My non-romantic OTP for this character: The triumvirate, of course! Particularly in Star Trek V, I love the warmth and camaraderie of the camping scenes. I also really love his familial dynamics with Amanda and Michael (Sarek is… complicated…), and when it comes to Pike, the SNW S1 finale actually made me cry with how it portrayed their relationship and its impact on both of them.

My unpopular opinion about this character: I kinda accidentally got into that earlier, didn't I. Oops. I think something that strikes me about Spock and how I relate to fanon is I actually see him more as aro/ace, but I understand how complicated that gets as a headcanon because it might imply that aro/ace people are unemotional, etc. I sort of see him as a keen observer of relationship dynamics (in McKirk fics, I always appreciate a Spock who understands they're romantically involved but keeps quiet out of discretion), but someone who doesn't necessarily desire a romantic relationship for himself.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I totally understand why the subsequent AOS movies past the first one used him sparingly--having him in the first movie at all is a base to bridge the universes on--but I would find more knowledge of what Spock did to rebuild Vulcan society and how he adjusted to a new universe fascinating!

my OTP: Secondary to McKirk, I really do see the appeal of Spones! I think they're an awesome ship and I want to write more for their dynamic (thus far I've written a friendship fic I'm still really proud of). I love both the silly memes people make about them as well as the serious meta people do about why these characters work as a pairing and their relationship to each other.

my cross over ship: I don't think about crossover ships that much! Although now that I'm thinking about it, I would find him having some sort of relationship with Garak fascinating. Garak lies and eludes constantly, and Spock is held to not lie but actually does, and I think they could play off each other in an interesting way. Plus Garak is so lively and jovial whereas Spock is more serious but also has a dry wit I think Garak would love.

a headcanon fact: In my fic I linked above, I tried to build more on the idea of Spock having a dyslexia-like condition that Discovery established. I thought it was pretty cool that Discovery gave a character who's well-known for his intellect a learning disability! I like the idea that it gives him a lot of empathy for those in similar situations and that he's able to use his past struggles to help those on ship crews or in academic settings who need it.

[olderthannetfic]

Have you read a matter of oaths by Helen Wright? I've seen you talking about lbgt fiction and it's a space opera I stumbled across which is wonderfully written, has a intriguing storyline and which I was not in the slightest expecting to be lbgt. I was even more surprised when I realised it was written in 1988. Think it's had a recent reprint but I'm always surprised more people aren't talking about it, it's got the kind of real life representation people are always saying they want in fan spaces while actually being well written and about the story.

Whereas a lot of lbgt books I find that seem to be more about being an lbgt book rather than I'm gonna write a story and while I'm at it, make it as diverse as the real world. I'm not trying to bash that type of book at all (if that's your thing go for it, you do you.) but I am lbgt and find it frustrating that when looking for good books that happen to be about lbgt people, I can only ever find books where its clear the authors focus is on those characters being lbgt rather than them being characters in their own right who are also lbgt? A lot of books especially those on lbgt booklists feel to me like they are more worried about scoring points and getting the representation in than just telling a story and that's not really what I'm looking for.

This is completely diverging lol but do you or any of your followers have any tips on finding that kind of lbgt fiction? Representation without it being * representation * . I go for most genres tbh, depending on what I'm feeling at the time, but i like things to be telling a story rather than slice of life (ppl always talk about this like its a fanfic thing but it's the best term I can come up for for the kind of 'mid 40s married and having marriage difficulties' that always seem to get lent to me lol. I'm partial to a bit of romance if it isn't too tropey and i like things i read to have a bit of conflict, sickly sweet puts me off a bit. I'm never sure where to go for non literary book recommendations as tumblr spaces and following on from that, booktok, are very focused on young adult esque books which I'm not really in to and sites like goodreads don't go in to enough detail for you to know that person doesn't just have terrible taste (sorry. I don't actually believe bad taste is a thing. Different strokes for different folks and all but please. Goodreads reviewers, you do you, somewhere away from me. Every book recommendation I've had from there has been rancid.) Are there sites/spaces I should be looking in that I just don't know about yet? (I'm thinking if they are they are probably focused on particular genres? That's cool, I can do multiple places.)

I want to be able to find more recommendations for easy to read books that are still well written. I know these books exist because that's 90% of my non fic reading lol but I have to just stumble across them and in doing so rarely get to target my aim at all so I don't find many with non straight characters. I feel like if i work more off recommendations from other lbgt readers i could read more of these kinds of books with characters that are lbgt like me, but I need to find my kind of readers I guess? All the lbgt reading spaces I come across are very young adult aligned/ are running parallel with fanfic spaces which is great, but I read fanfic for fanfic! I want a different flavour from books. The frustrating thing is, I know these books are out there! And I know there are readers like me I just can't find them. The kind of lbgt fiction I'm looking for feels like finding diamonds in silt and I just don't know where to look.

--

It sounds vaguely familiar, but no, I haven't read it. Hilariously, the first thing I found on googling was an obnoxious review by KJ Charles.

"Not too tropey" is the main sticking point here. While people may say they want this or that type of representation, what a lot of fandomy people actually pay money for is tropey romance. I prefer it as a B-plot to a mystery or adventure story, but I'm still looking for it.

I share your experience with goodreads and with everything everywhere being YA City. I don't know of a social space for discussions of queer sff. There are some sites that list books with the specific content tagged. I can never remember the one people always rec to me.

I have not found "lgbt" to be a helpful descriptor for the type of queer genre fiction I'm seeking for myself. The presence of alphabet soup tends to go along with punctilious attempts to include everyone and with books that don't feature the kinds of relationships I like to read about. I'll read tropey f/f on occasion, but I'm usually in the mood for m/m, so I look for things with BL-like labeling, including the predominant niche in originally-in-English indie m/m, "M/M Romance". (It's presenting quite a problem as some of those authors transition to writing mystery-with-romance instead of romance-with-mystery though.)

Can you describe the kind of book you're looking for more? "Good" or even "easy to read" plus "not like fanfic" don't really tell me anything. Does this mean nothing that has been released by an independent author and labeled as "m/m romance"? Does it mean nothing in a coffee shop? Does it mean nothing without a proofreader?

I've run across queer fans of space opera hungry for... something, but I don't know if there's really a huge block who are on the same page about what that something is.

The last queer sf book I read was Earth Fathers are Weird, which is about a guy who signs on to be a surrogate for a tentacle monster due to translation issues. It's pretty fluffy and slight. Most of the stuff I actually care about is mystery or mystery plus sff elements, like The Plumber's Mate series.

I tend to read a lot more in the urban fantasy mystery space, which is also what I write in. I like Knives Out-y golden age detective novel pastiche, so I may not be a great source of recs for you.