#I do have my CJ fic still but I’m not like working on it

[askamnesiamoonjumper]

Brother the aau chapter one rewrite was insane how was this the same fic wtf ,, I forgot how actually hard I had edited it. got damn

[claudiajcregg]

Tell Other People About Your WIPs

make a list of all your WIPs with a brief description of each and then people can ask you questions about them and then tag other people.

Tagged by both @onekisstotakewithme and @miabicicletta 💜💜💜 Thank you, guys <3 I don't know who to tag that hasn't been tagged already. Interested? Tag, you're it! :) (Please do know that there are no set sections. Pick whatever you want. I went the deranged route.)

I have an outdated WIP list, and many others unaccounted for. This is just a selection of stuff I could see myself posting or editing/retooling to write something new. I love talking about my WIPs, about as much as I hate being perceived because they are not remotely interesting. (I also love knowing which ones people are interested in! I have an incentive to work on them!) (Instead of snippets, part of my feedback loop is sending actual rough drafts to get a sense of whether it's worth working on more.)

Multichapters, different levels of completion.

S5 Pregnancy AU. My main WIP. Can you believe I’ve had this idea for a year… almost to the day? I’ve been stuck since November bc I don’t know how I want this one to end, beyond a birth. (As I’ve mentioned in the past, I feel like this has legs to become a fluffy universe. I have ideas! Timelines!) Gist of it: CJ gets pregnant circa Zooey's kidnapping. How does it change S5? It's less angsty than you think.

Campaign bars, aka campaign conversations sometimes happened at bars in the 1998 campaign. Fun stuff. I need to pick it right back.

What Once Was Ours or the IM AU (2021), aka IM ends with a breakup. Not a WIP. Not a UFO. A secret third thing. (“Finished” but not edited, and I’m doubtful people would be interested. Probably bc of some bittersweet ~memories~ attached to it. I mean, I shared a third of it to discord and people couldn’t care less, at least after a while. Now, better IM AUs are being posted these days; I'm not in a rush.) 33 chapters. 150k words. I do reread it every once in a while, and I cannot put it down. But its 'age' takes me aback. If things had been different, I'd have posted this in H2 2021/Q1 2022 (or even the planned Q2-3 2021). But alas.

The “Almost Ready, question mark” Category

Another SVD prompt meme claim: what if CJ has the crush first. The thing is, I tend to write her as having a relatively obvious crush on him at first until something makes her wise up. So this is just some ridiculous, post-first-meeting thoughts. Most of it was written in one sitting! It kinda fits with something in the campaign bars fic, too.

Post birth, hospital story: A couple of hours after their bb girl is born. Pure fluff. Recently reworked it to make it less wordy. Still failed, but it’s better focused now.

Many ficlets – the few I did post on Tumblr that haven’t been posted to the story I’m collecting them in, plus a couple more. I'm thinking the ice skating one, Jan 22, a few post-eps I wrote last year, etc.

Ambitious Projects I don't think are happening right away (or ever), but probably have a detailed outline somewhere

(I put this up instead of last, because the next category has faves, but it's also a long one.)

Danny is back a bit earlier on s7. Toby leaks (or tries to leak? I always wavered) the shuttle to him, as he and CJ are getting closer.

Simon lives. How does his relationship with CJ evolve post-honeymoon phase? What is it like when Danny returns?

You’ve got mail AU. This outline had two ways the climax could go. I had fun.

Epistolary collab (?) fic. Probably an X + 1 fic. The only one with nothing written; don’t rule out writing it individually at some point.

And because this is so long already (but not as long as it could be)… A few more under the cut – more "I just want to make sure I like them" and "this meme reminded me I meant to pick those back up." And they are still not all. (How do you summarize seven years of writing?? I've only posted 20-something of them, lol.)

“Almost Ready (but I feel like I want to make changes to them) (might just redo them altogether)”

Haunted by the Notion, 2007 edition. My beta Ruth suggested this when she edited the other story, and I wrote it around then. It’s another Christmas dinner at Filomena, and, eight years later, things are different. I feel like it hits expected beats, and is just missing some oomph. Maybe. (As much as I do like it, half tempted to make it 2009. Or later.)

Heaven’s here…: A interrupted proposal. I’ve written many proposals over the years, and I love toying with different ideas and setups. Danny takes the lead here, but I’ve been intrigued by the idea of having CJ do the final twist.

5 to 6 am 'me' time. Another story inspired by last year’s rewatch that I wrote right at the start of it (so Jan 2023?). It has five short parts with five different years of what CJ describes in the pilot as her “me time.” This is one when I think one per year would be fun, but I don’t want to repeat myself.

One bed, “sexy” edition. An AU to a sort of AU (one of the drabbles from this summer) and… it's what it says on the tin. The world does not need to read my attempts at smut. If I didn’t put it in the previous category, it’s because I am not sure that I want to post it. (All the previous attempts are locked somewhere; unfortunately, someone loves this one and noticed when I tried to do that, lol.)

First baby kick: I remember writing this while in grad school (so, late 2017? First half of 2018) but I lost it, along other fic, when my laptop had to be reset because I used Bear to write back then, but didn’t have sync across devices. I rewrote it, and I feel like it's not the same, but still. It's sweet! Includes: Danny talking to the baby, domestic fluff, and… baby kicks!

“This meme reminded me they exist and I love them, so don't be surprised if they are posted before anything in a previous category”

(Lbr, if I added something about them in this post at all, it’s because they sparked some memory.)

Mosaic broken hearts: CJ, circa S4, jealousy. Prompted by a former fandom friend, back in my productive era (first half of 2021; before that friend just ghosted me.)

I can’t believe I captured your heart (pancake breakfast, three words and eight letters). For a while there, I edited it so much but then I fell off. iirc, it was part of some morning-related prompts I saw around that I tried to fulfill in 2018? 2019? And they had like internal progression. But this one was the best of the 3-4, and I kept tweaking it.

Green light of forgiveness (IM-ish) — there are many other IM/IM-Tomorrow snippets I’ve written over the years. I’m not sure if this one makes much sense, but I liked it enough.

Distance — I recall liking this one! Might have to bump it up. CJ is in Africa, Danny is at the Farm and sulking because they left off on some sort of argument. There is some Danny-Abbey friendship goodness here. I even have a second file that is “Distance - shorter version (it’s not)”

Danny writes fiction, shows it to CJ during her pregnancy and she’s into it. Technically written. I would probably try to take another stab at it. Third time might be the charm?

San Andreo phone call/fallout from ID. I just had the idea of CJ reaching out once things calm down. This is one of those fics I’ve written a version of every year or so, but I think there was one I liked quite a bit.

Terrible taste in men — a run-in with an OC ex of CJ. It was so dumb.

Fka Impatience - actually beta’d three years ago (by that fandom friend I've mentioned twice before… actually, three times) and “done”. I just think I’d change so much about it these days. It started being something else but ended up being a CJ-Toby friendship story in which they have lunch and catch up. But I would want to rewrite most of it now, and not just because it’s from like… 2019 (but finished in 2021).

I forgot this one initially! he's passing by, rare as the comet in my sky - 2? 3? times CJ thinks she sees Danny somewhere, and one time she does. (Which tried to work in the 'I remember shunning you' line.) I even wrote some sort of sequel later! Probably useless.

I said I would post a lightning round with fics that are either also done but not ready for me to mention them, or just… not done at all. The length of this post and how much I've spent on it is embarrassing. To give a general overview: in line with the nonsense I've been mentioning, includes phone calls at the end of S7, also a few friendship-focused fics around that time, too; present-day stuff; anniversaries; Hollis fundraisers; weddings; many ficlets, introspective thoughts, a “yes day” fic that's super sweet but needs better dares, the third memoir idea (the original one!!!!) that I had three years ago… And those are mostly the ones I had preselected, lol.

If you're interested, I can screenshoot this part in the notes app if you message me!

Anyway, this is embarrassing, and the worst part is that it's not all. fml.

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Fantasy, feminism, and philosophy

Recently, I picked up two novels published in the late 1980s by CJ Cherryh. I’ve been avoiding reading books since I finished my dissertation, as the act of opening a physical book seems a little too reminiscent of work, no matter the content - I’ve been enjoying audiobooks, but find it more difficult to listen to fiction than non-fiction, and so my consumption of published material has been skewed one way for several years.

I decided to break that cycle by returning to one of my pre-teen loves, which I read voraciously: high fantasy, the kind of novels with swords and sorcery right there on the cover, in all their pulpy ‘80s glory. I am a fast reader and can finish a ~250-page novel in an evening, given few interruptions, so long as I am hooked. I was looking for that hook.

I found it! And one other book by the same author, which I thought was high fantasy, but turns out to have a science-fiction, world-hopping backdrop. But I also am now armed with a lot more knowledge of feminist theory and the rise of women’s and feminist fiction* (well, science fiction) during the ‘70s and ‘80s, and so I found myself reading with an eye to the representation of women and a constant feminist narrative analysis going in the back of my brain (don’t be sorry; it was rad as hell). It takes a lot more for me to be satisfied with a narrative these days, and it’s not necessarily any sort of literary snobbery on my part, although I do consider myself to have higher standards now. I will read the pulpiest genre fic that I can find, but I will only truly recommend it if I find something redeeming in it - and not just plot and characters. I’m looking for a specific kind of feminist philosophy in the narrative.

Seems like a lot to ask from genre fiction, right? But to me (and to scholars in the entire discipline of English literature going back centuries), stories aren’t just stories: they’re vehicles embodying cultural attitudes and messages about the way the world works. Even a hastily-written piece of flash fiction will still contain the author’s biases and worldview in it, from the characters, the plot, and down to the words they choose to use (or avoid). Science fiction are stories (often) told in the future, but they are actually about present issues; fantasy are likewise stories (often) told in the past, but they reflect the author’s (and audience’s) view of and struggles within the present.**

And so I couldn’t help thinking, as I was reading, about my thesis’s second chapter, which was all about gender and post-apocalyptic science fiction during feminism’s second wave, because I think there’s a fair amount of those conclusions which are cross-applicable to fantasy from the same period.*** Not to put too fine a point on it, but post-apocalyptic sf is itself a fantastical narrative, and though it’s not “fantasy” as we think of the genre, it certainly draws from some of the same imaginative sources.

Some background

I’m gonna try to keep this brief, not least because others have written on it better and more comprehensively. In 17th century Europe, the Western scientific enterprise as we know it today was coalescing, and unfortunately for all subsequent practitioners of science, the values of 17th century European cismales were hard-coded into the philosophy underpinning the scientific worldview. Hence fun things like scientific racism, eugenics, devaluing animals and nature, and sexism, which keeps cropping up throughout the subsequent centuries, and is also what I’m going to focus on now.

You know what else was happening in 17th century Europe? Witch hunts. I’ll spare you a history lesson about it but in short, that’s the background cultural context of what was going on at the time. The milieu of misogyny, you might say. Carolyn Merchant, who wrote a pretty foundational ecofeminist text tracing this history, points to the writings of Francis Bacon as instrumental in advocating for “the control of nature for human benefit” in which he “used the language of nature as female to articulate an experimental philosophy that would extract nature's secrets.” (ENVIRONMENTALISM: FROM THE CONTROL OF NATURE TO PARTNERSHIP, 4).

Merchant argues that scientific discourse about nature codified the gender of nature as a female to be exploited, inviting abusive interrogation much in the same way as a torture victim on trial for witchcraft; her link between women’s persecution and the ramping-up of the exploitation of nature is echoed by socialist ecofeminists such as philosopher Val Plumwood in articulating the fundamentally misogynist underpinnings of a rationalist economics system that glorifies a separation of (masculine) intellectual reason from denigrated (feminine) bodily situatedness. Thus developed a scientific ethic that saw no problem with manipulation and use of the earth to satisfy scientific curiosity and capitalist gain within a patriarchal system of society.

Still with me? The female-nature connection in western culture is actually a lot older than 17th century, but before the industrial revolution there was emphasis on the mystery and power of nature and the life-giving capacity of women, which inspired respect or, at least, fond feelings for a “Mother Nature”. This crops up a lot in a lot of fantasy narratives, by the way, since most of them are set in a pre-industrialized past and also in some post-apocalyptic sf that assumes a catastrophe of some sort will set humanity back a millennia or two and with it will come this older worldview. Merchant argues that this older attitude served as a “cultural constraint” on the actions of human beings, since “[o]ne does not readily slay a mother, dig into her entrails for gold or mutilate her body” (Death 3). The advent of the industrial era and of scientific inquiry was made possible not just by advances in technology but in a philosophical shift in attitude to view feminine nature as inviting—and deserving—of violation by scientific and technological enterprises - which were, of course, male-coded.

Feminist critiques of (old) feminist fantasies

These two different attitudes - let’s call them the science fiction (post-17th century) and fantasy (pre-17th century) attitudes - aren’t as different as they might seem at first glance. Both adhere to an essentialist logic that is hierarchical, valuing “masculine civilization/culture” as inherently superior to “feminine nature.” I’m just going to mostly quote my thesis in the next two paragraphs here:

Essentialism understands “the feminine” as a repository of unchanging truths, determining substances, and ground of being, quite literally: it holds the historical European cultural conflation of women and nature as truth, and radical feminist political thought (and many feminist utopian fantasies) of the 1970s leaned into this binary, but flipped the moral hierarchy. Publications such as Mary Daly’s Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism (1978) and Starhawk’s The Spiral Dance (1979), for example, embraced the identification of non-human nature and the feminine, celebrating the power of chthonic forces, the moon, fertility, and historical goddess worship. Radical, goddess, and other essentialist feminisms drew on deep ecology, following the same binary logic as Francis Bacon did, but reversing the moral weighting, holding the “male” forces of civilization, culture, and science as bad, or at least incredibly sus, given their collaboration with/outright endorsement of the systematic oppression/torture of women and the earth, if not the very reason for women’s suffering. Ciswomen’s bodies, traditionally the reason for their exclusion from cismale-only spiritual and intellectual spheres, were instead celebrated by some feminists as the ground of human life and part of the mystery of creation itself. ***

Feminist community based on an essentialist notion of cisfemale experience was and is a fantasy that, in addition to being violently exclusionary to trans and genderqueer persons and invested in creating and maintaining a distance between ciswomen and all others, at base replicates the same power structures that fuel patriarchal ideology, only with the values reversed. There is still a hierarchy in place, a flipped version of the fantasy attitude: there is the same conflation of women with nature and its consequent essentialist logic. Female empowerment is crucial to the realization of women’s full humanity, but its celebration at the expense of others leads directly to an ideology of exclusion, perpetuating the structures of oppression that make it necessary for female empowerment in the first place.

For example, some questions that bubble up when I encounter certain stories ask things like, Is this lady knight actually a strong female character, or a vehicle for a male power fantasy with a ciswoman subbed in and nothing else changed? Is this story about a witch/sorceress/magick-user main character really compelling, or is it subject to tropes from both the science fiction and fantasy attitudes, so she is either an evil conniving force to be subjugated (or romanced, depending on flavour) or a mystical feminine cipher in touch with the natural world…. or both? Both happens a lot.

In my thesis, I have a whole paragraph following those paragraphs on essentialism to disclaim that I’m not dissing the enormous contributions of many writers to fantasy whose works completely upended the hierarchical gender binary, boldly challenged gender roles, and stomped all around a genre that up until the ‘70s was almost exclusively made up of male writers. I’m convinced that we’re politically and socioculturally in those authors’ debt! I’m just skeptical of the fantasy genre because of the abovementioned history of the fantasy attitude. In my view, it takes an author who has an attitude (fantasy OR science fiction) that is consciously disloyal to its own roots in essentialist, sexist nonsense to write a narrative that isn’t fundamentally regressive.

Moar, tho…

It’s nice to fantasize about a world where the people whose gender that we identify with are pedestalized, taken care of, comforted, respected, given the benefit of the doubt, empowered, etc. Especially in this day and age when the demands of neoliberalism and late-stage capitalism pile up into an exhausting, overwhelming, threatening force against which it feels impossible to stand alone. Escaping into a world where powerful women are actually respected and can make tangible change in the world (through politics, or magic, or swinging a big sword around) is pretty great.

But it’s not wrong to demand more of our narratives. It’s not wrong to be critical of something that you love (I often joke that it’s the things that I love most that get the most harsh criticism). It’s not wrong to ask that the stories that I read articulate a non-binary, non-hierarchical society that people of all genders can move freely in, instead of being expected to act a certain way (and punished if they don’t perfectly conform).***** Flipping the gender hierarchy just isn’t enough anymore and isn’t even all that feminist, in the end.

In any case, I can highly recommend the work of CJ Cherryh; I think even thirty-five-odd years on, it still holds up because of the way she writes her characters, regardless of gender or age, as human beings and not essentialist tropes. I’m not surprised she won the Hugo, multiple times. She seems to have an underlying philosophy that values humans for who they are, not who they are supposed to be dependent on their predetermined roles in society.

What are some fantasy novels you would recommend? I’m not a huge short-story reader, and I’m a fan of wordplay and have spent the last eight years or so thinking about novels written by and for people living in the 1950s-80s. I need some good contemporary stuff! Or perhaps there are classics I am missing out on? Let me know in the comments!

PS: I’m indebted to the works of Donna Haraway, Celia Åsberg, Myra Hird, Helen Merrick, Élisabeth Vonarburg, Joanna Russ, Carolyn Merchant, Lisa Hogeland, and way too many others to list for influencing the direction of my ruminations here. Any issues are a result of my taking research on historical Canadian SF and bending it to apply to fantasy. ___

*They aren’t the same. It’s akin to assuming all Jewish people are Zionists. One is an identity category, the other a political one.

**Caveat: I’m not saying authors of sff sit down and are like “ah yes what issue griefing me right now am i going to put into this book” - it’s usually a subconscious thing. Sometimes authors do that! But it’s rare.

***Again, they aren’t the same: I’m not a scholar of fantasy, merely an observant fan who has a bit of a scholarly background in another genre literature.

**** This attitude is alive and well today in the politics of trans-exclusive radical feminists (TERFs), a subgroup of radical feminists whose reification of biological essentialism leads them to deny trans peoples’ identities. Fuck TERFs. Their philosophical worldview is warped.

******It’s also not wrong to love something even though it’s Problematic (tm), or just want to turn your brain off with a fluffy read. So long as you’re self-aware.

[twwpress]

Creator Spotlight #22: jazzjo

Welcome back to the TWW Author Spotlight! For every spotlight, we’ll ask each featured author the same ten questions (as well as questions you submitted on Twitter!). This week we’re excited to be chatting with jazzjo (on AO3 - @sameschtick on twitter)!

1) What are your top 5 desert island fics by other authors?

baby it’s cold outside by crossingdelancey It’s short, it’s sweet, it’s cj’s gay meg ryan winter, what more could you want.

may these memories break our fall by claudiasjeancregg A real gateway fic to cj/toby/andy that captures the internal lives of all three characters so well; I could (and do) read it over and over.

Red, White, and Boo by fleurfemme Scream meets West Wing meets great ensemble writing. Incredible.

departures and arrivals by rearviewmirror Atlas plays with distance and time and liminal space to pack so much yearning into this piece.

we thought love was something we weren’t meant to find by darlingdarling I love pieces that take a little moment in canon and expand on the potential and this one just knocks it out of the park. 

 2) Do you have a favorite character to write? Favorite ship(s) to write? Are there characters or ships you'd like to write more of? 

My crutch character is C.J. by a long shot (who’s surprised) – the interiority of her as a character in how she’s portrayed is just so fascinating to me. My favourite character to write is probably either Andy or Charlie. Both of them get witty repartee in canon but there’s so much not said that I do love taking my authorial liberties.

Favourite ship is cj/andy hands down. I think I’ve populated half the tag (the math works out – 29/55) because I’m incorrigible about them. This extends to permutations within the cj/andy/toby triangle, which is a sandbox I love to play in.

I’d like to explore writing more about Charlie, Donna, and Joey. I’ve done a bit of all three (finally caved and wrote something Charlie-centric recently) but they’re still more challenging to properly capture. 

 3) Tell us about your writing process (setup/location? Night or day? Snacks/beverages? Computer/phone/notebook? Music or silence? Anything else you want to share is welcome!) 

My (somewhat messy) rolling desk. Night (by necessity, because work). Emotional support water bottle or seltzer or a hot drink. Laptop, though I used to primarily write in a notebook. Music either completely accelerates or impedes the process, it’s really a toss up. I love writing with it, and take a lot of inspiration from it, but I sometimes get too distracted by it and have to turn it off.

I used to write longer things, back before I started working full-time. I only started writing for TWW in the last half-year and have gravitated to shorter chapters and one-shots because I like writing a full chapter in one sitting and I have less time. Even so, this lil baby can fit so much angst into it. 

 4) What writing advice do you have for others who may be reading this? 

Write what you want to read. If something comes naturally, lean in. Catch passing thoughts and phrases in a small notebook or on your phone. Make a habit of writing. There’s always time to write – five minutes on the train, ten minutes before you sleep – but don’t let it take over your rest time. 

 5) From where do you usually draw your inspiration? (Other forms of media, music, tropes, etc?) 

I love pulling and expanding on the tiniest moments in canon, or I’ll get a single line of a song so under my skin it turns into something on the page. I love intertextuality and my best work tends to happen between mediums.

I tend to draw on things I know well, so you’ll see recurrent themes and references like classical music, theater, Jewish life, and literature sprinkled throughout my writing.

6) What is the fic you've written that you're most proud of and why? 

This is cheating, but I couldn’t pick between two.

turning in place is probably the best developed of anything i’ve written for TWW. It digs into Toby as a character in ways I didn’t really think I could do, and it really was me trying to find a way I could stomach the shuttle leak arc. It plays with time, it plays with religion, it plays with guilt and family and dwelling too much or too little or just enough on things, and if that isn’t Toby Ziegler. I think form, character, and content collided in a way I have been trying to get to again in this fic, and I still don’t know how I did it.

In one-shot land, enumerated powers comes to mind. It came completely out the left field, but I loved writing Evelyn Baker Lang as a character and imagining (aka spreadsheet planning) a workable backstory for her that bled through the whole fic. 

 7) What's the fic trope/concept/AU you'd read 1000 of? What's the fic trope/concept/AU you'd write 1000 of?

Romcom tropes kill me in the best way every time. Writing-wise, I love writing looks into post-canon and filling in the blanks within canon. 

 8) Is there anything you'd like to try writing-wise that you haven't yet? 

A true ensemble fic. I came close in too wise to woo peaceably but not quite. 

 9) What's your go-to Starbucks/coffee shop/other drink order? 

I tend to go for black coffee out of my aeropress, sometimes slightly sweetened, and I love all manners of tea, but both of those tend to be drinks I make myself. My one vice is bubble tea, and I’ll almost always get unsweetened oolong tea with taro pearls, without the ice in it if I can help it. 

 10) Do you have any current projects you'd like to promote or anything upcoming you'd like to tell us about?

I’m working on an Andy/Toby fic inspired by The Last Five Years – we see Andy in reverse and Toby in chronological order – called compel me to ask you for more. 

Submitted questions:

From @JessBakesCakes: Do you have a headcanon about one of your fics that didn’t make it to the story for one reason or another? If so, what is it?

The continuation to watching the skies (the charlie-centric fic I mentioned earlier where Charlie is COS to POTUS, which is Andy) that I clipped and set aside to focus more on Charlie’s road back to the White House has C.J. eventually running for Congress in Andy’s second term because the spin boys make a whole case for it, even though she still feels a bit like an outsider to Hill politics. I almost always think of C.J. – like Leo – as the person behind the curtain, but I think one of the ways she might step into a campaign of her own is if someone she really trusted made a case for why it would help the constituents for her to run in place of a shitty incumbent. 

 From @S4MWILS0N: favorite: season, ep, one liner, character duo (romantic), character duo (platonic), plot arc, hc for pre post and during canon? craziest au you’ve ever considered? snippet/idea that never became anything? fave trope to read or write? moment that made u fall in love w the show?

Favourite…

Season: Three

Episode: The Supremes or Hartsfield’s Landing

One-Liner: “There is literally no one in the world that I don’t hate right now.” 

Character Duo (Romantic): CJ/Andy

Character Duo (Platonic): CJ & Josh (early seasons) CJ & Charlie (later seasons)

Plot Arc: debate prep (also that we only saw the original campaign after we were already invested)

HC for Pre-Canon: CJ and Andy were grad school roommates. When Toby first introduces the two when he starts dating Andy they don’t tell him, and just let how similar they can be freak him out. He doesn’t find out for way longer than you think. 

HC for Post-Canon: Charlie sets out on his own for a bit. Donna finishes school and goes back into politics. CJ never goes to California – she goes to Ohio to take care of her father, then back to the East Coast. 

HC for During Canon: CJ has a personal relationship with each of the Bartlet girls – she’s the older sister Liz never got to have; she’s a model for living a full life while queer to Ellie; Zoey is a little skeptical at first but she ends up closest to CJ because CJ always Shows Up for her, no matter what, and holds her father back from being too embarrassing. 

Craziest AU: rockstar AU my white whale

Snippet that never became anything: I have a whole folder titled “ideas i may never write / finish”. I will refrain from naming names out of hope that something will eventually exit that folder.

Moment that made me fall in love with the show: when I realised everyone talks as fast as I do

Thank you so much to jazzjo! And thank you to everyone who asked questions. This is our last creator spotlight for now - we may pick it up again if there’s interest in the future! We really appreciate every one who signed up to be featured and who asked questions for making this such a fun experience! As always you can reach us at weeklypressbriefing@gmail.com, through tumblr messages, or on Twitter!

xx, What’s next?

[jamiscrazy4krerdly]

The he/she/ghoul demigirl Catti fan focusing on ghoul not showing up in the spamton sweepstakes nor the newsletters: shriveled up, wilting away, beating up a pillow VS the he/she/ghoul demigirl Catti fan that realizes Toby Fox is intentionally hiding ghoul away because ghoul is the playable character of chapters 3-5: jumping up in joy, thriving, feeling the sun against their skin. (aw yeah progress report time >:3)

STUFF IS HAPPENING!!!! Wowowow so much stuffs its crazy how much stuffs is… I don’t… it’s… uhm, happening?!! I thought I should clear some shits up. Ok so basically I’m working on four simultaneous projects somehow!!! Two AUs (“Mystery Delta Dungeon” and Deltaswap Inspired “Delta Scene Change” title STILL pending) and the fourth and fifth iteration in my kind of Deltarune… Krerdly… series?? Idk what to call it but just know that that’s happening! The two new mainline fics don’t overlap too-too much which means working on both sort of at the same time is pretty stress free in the continuation department. Soo those are going smoothly (even if they’re still both kinda in the draft phase) and I’m really happy with the vibes there!! I actually decided to implement the fourth in the middle of the fifth so it’s more of a compliment to the series than anything but I definitely think it’s needed and a super welcome addition in my opini-onion. *~^* ~

The order I’m aiming to release my projs is Delta Dungeon 1st -> Delta Scene Change 2nd -> Pieromancer 3rd -> Boons and Banes of Love 4th! I think THINK (think) that Delta Dungeon could be finished by this year if I do a good job ;^> but don’t count on it because deadlines were my downfall for my last upload “Cosmetic Heart Container”. ònó I made the setting a friggin mall and pulled that “big fish small pond” shit at a MALL like omg there was so much… potential and I frew it all up but WHATEVER I’m proud of the buildup!! Just wish I didn’t have to spoil my own fun with deadlines (fuck deadlines)… maybe I’ll rewrite a sort of continuation for that fic and double it’s size when everything else is said and done?? I’ll see!!!! It definitely deserves justice!!

Speaking of aftermaths: I’ve been rolling the idea of a Catti-focused fic in my brain for a bit now. Don’t know about the nitty gritty details but after everything I think it could be fun to promote “major side character” to “main character” and see what happens. Don’t want to pull a Spamton NEO and drop dead after I sever my last string from Deltarune lol (ouch @o@) (won’t happen anytime soon @v@‘).

Since I posted Krises last time I felt like doing sneak peaks, here’s some supplemental Berdlys to keep them company.

Auugh the quality!! Sorry I blended the pixels and made a smoothie out of them. :( It was tasty tho.

Ok enough business it’s me time and I’m kicking it off with a huge announcement. I’m not afraid to say it anymore… I really like Gyftrot Noelle. I REALLY like Gyftrot Noelle!!!!! There’s something about her that speaks to me mhm mhm. My first experience with the concept was through the design done by @pespillo but while searching for references I also saw some really cute ones by @undertalegorls so definitely go and dig through their profiles to see the vision! ì.í

Okay I have to cut the silliness short because it’s time for… spontaneous Animal Crossing Headcanons!!

Kris Moment!!!

Bug Enthusiast Bug House Bug Island Only Bugs 3 Golden Nets In Inventory Flick’s Best Friend Flick Cosplayer Completed Bug Museum within 24 Hours via time traveling

Ugliest villagers imaginable

Most crafted item: pitfall seed

Crazy good at Hide-And-Seek, cracked custom outfit designer (countless horned-hat QR-codes)

Hates Blathers

“Sings” along at K.K. Slider concerts,

“Make Flick and CJ gay wedding real right now @NinninedoOfficial @NinninedoOfficial @NinninedoOfficial”

Programs the wedding themself out of spite.

Reaction Wheel - Mischief/Let’s Go/Sleepy/Cold Chill/Scare/Stretch/Sniff Sniff/Sneezing

Wordy Berd(l)y

Time Traveler Anti “I-IT’S CHEATING!!”

Achievement Enthusiast (according to his passport)

Doesn’t realize unlimited tasks are unlimited

Buys turnips up the wazoo but gets horrible selling price luck (always needs to use Noelle’s shop)

Keeps track of exact tool durability and customizes his tools different colors to refresh it

Can’t figure out why he doesn’t have every reaction

“Intellectual villagers ONLY” (that’s why)

Crushes on AND kins Raymond, very seriously considers getting a yellow or blue eye-contact to match his heterochromia

Hangs up all his villagers’ photos like trophies, including dupes

Regularly rants about his villagers to Kris (“Why is it that Raymond can spontaneously profess his love for me but YOU CAN’T?!”)

Cannot for the life of him make a pretty island, to his dismay

#1 Pocket Camp Hater

Blathers kinny

“Kris don’t let me fall asleep it is absolutely vital that I wish for star fragments tonight.”

Reaction Wheel - Pride/Aggravation/Thought/Smirking/Behold/Amazed/Mistaken/Heartbreak

Catti (Wow)

Queen of Nookazon

Hacked star trees

INVENTS fashion

Infamous haunted island dreamcode

Always has a matching umbrella

Favorite NPC is Brewster

“Wand-outfit slots… increase them.”

Reaction Wheel - Haunt/Take a Picture/Yoga/Resignation/Disagreement/Agreement/Intense/Work It

The bunny outside is frightful, Noelle

Cannot stop playing Happy Home Designer DLC

Permanently sets island to Winter

Terrified of Zipper the bunny

Completely normal about the New Leaf soundtrack being BETTER

Furnished extra houses for her family

Extremely attached to her villagers and convinced Catti and Ralsei to help her write fan-fiction for them

Takes animal crossing personality quizzes religiously

Highest HHA score out of her friends but doesn’t tell Berdly

Somebody get this girl more co-op features she is desperate.

Reaction Wheel - Eager/Pleased/Sighing/Sheepishness/Curiosity/Distress/Act Natural

Introducing… Ralsei!

Prince of Amiibo Cards (scans one every day because they are all his friends)

Really wants to show his friends every part of his island

Treats villagers like royalty

Can’t say no to villager requests

Posts ethereal flower patch combos

90% of his island consists of flower fields

Never had to look up a single fake painting tutorial

Jumped in joy at the food update

Mails letters to all his residents every day.

Reaction Wheel - Greetings/Wave Goodbye/Confetti/Glee/Delight/Worry/Apologetic/Here You Go

If anyone’s allowed to crash directly into the studio it’s Susie.

Borrows everyone else’s Switch to play

Runs everywhere holding an axe

Extremely emotional about fishing results

Goes out of her way to ask Blathers about fossils and responds with “woooah” every single time without fail

Claims the dinosaur exhibit is her favorite but finds all of the museum extremely relaxing

Dives off balconies into the water over and over

Sells everything through the drop-off box

Loves goofing around in Harv’s island

“The hell you mean you don’t grow rocks in your rock garden?”

Ralsei lets her terraform whatever she wants and builds off of it

Genuinely upset that she can’t terraform higher than 4 levels

“MOSS UPDATE??!”

Reaction Wheel - Flex/Encouraging/Curiosity/Laughter/Day Dreaming/Excited/Bashfulness/Shocked

And if anyone wants to visit MY island my Dream Address is DA-8935-5288-7510 ùvú

Also to contextualize this seemingly random Animal Crossing section, I’m sure some of you won’t be surprised to hear that before I was crisping chicken I was… a Marshmond maniac. *insert ominous thunder flash* Marshmond stands for Marshal and Raymond btw. Krerdly is definitely more Bob x Raymond lean, though…

Speaking of related characters!! I’ve been keeping track of kin-lists for my fav trio on the side. Here’s what I got so far!!

Kris Kins: Karkat (Homestuck) - Flick (Animal Crossing) - Link (The Legends of Zelda) - Beast Boy (Teen Titans) - Gnabbit (Mario Bros.) - Mae Borowski (Night In The Woods) - Bax Twiford (Ikenfell) - Metal Sonic (Sonic The Hedgehog) - Gramble Gigglefunny (Bugsnax) - Prince of Ouji (Katamari) - Creeper (Minecraft) - Courtney (Paranormal Park) - The Devil (Cuphead) - Magalor (Kirby)

Berdly Kins: Tobey McCallister (Word Girl) - Falco Lombardi (Starfox) - Revali (The Legends Of Zelda) - Waluigi (Mario Bros.) - Blathers (Animal Crossing) - Ibn Oxley (Ikenfell) - Lace (Hollow Knight: Silksong) - Jet The Hawk (Sonic Riders) - Snorpy Fizzlebean (Bugsnax) - Amity Blight (The Owl House) - Miles Edgeworth (Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney) - Ren (Oxenfree) - King Dice (Cuphead) - Sheldon (Splatoon)

Catti Kins: Raven (Teen Titans) - Bea (Night In The Woods) - Blaze The Cat (Sonic) - Beffica Winklesnoot (Bugsnax) - Katrina (Animal Crossing) - M’ggie (Broken Age) - Magic Witch Ashley (WarioWare)

“You better be afraid of the great CA-A-TTI!”

~~ OK ANYWAYS ~~

~~ LIGHTNING ROUND ~~

~~ DIRECTLY FROM MY NOTES APP ~~

~~ LET’S GO!! ~~

Kris and Susie going as Flick and CJ for Halloween.

Berdly asks Catti if they can go as Blathers and Celeste to follow suit and there is 1 (one) universe where ghoul says yes.

Kris and Susie love Bugsnax fr fr.

Kris and Berdly go bonkers over Bug Fables. Cosplay Group: Catti Lief, Berdly Kabbu, Kris Vi, Jockington Chompy.

Krerdly is so bogus binted x papers printed core <3

Berdly is Yikking out! (Leans in to kiss Kris at QC’s Diner without warning, they demand he never try to do so ever again.)

Kris pestering Berdly with “if. you. were. gay, da na-na na-na na-na. that’da. be. o-k. da na-na na-na na-na” all of pride month.

Catti and Noelle as the “should I kill off the characters in my book to make it more interesting?” audio.

Ralsei: Slay!! Noelle, internally: Sleigh??

Noelle, sweating and holding up a paw: Sorry I’m late, I was the man behind the slaughter! Susie, blowing steam out of her nose: I’m stuff…. wait what?

(To the tune of Fairly Odd Parents Theme Song) The trash and mash in that school stash Just gave out instantly When the magic little goat hidin’ his every dote Gave a prophecy!

“BANG, BANG, BANG STRAIGHT THROUGH MY HEEAAARRT” -Kris every moment of every day after creating 77 original animation memes

“Pray tell, companion of mine, what is this… “jiggle jiggle skin” you are referring to?” -Player 1

“Glizzyyy” -Player 2 110%

Berdly HATES jellybeans because they’re awful and manipulative

For that last one I originally wrote down that Berdly really liked jellybeans because they just seemed to fit his palette in my mind until I ate one that made me wanna puke and decided it wasn’t meant to be.

Also also idk where to put this but there’s this one scene in Broken Age after Vella escapes the sacrifice ceremony where she’s standing on the back of a giant blue bird flying through the sky in her ripped dress and a knife in her mouth and I’ve never wanted Kris to take the place of another character so badly before… (Berdly makes a fun Shay replacement also but the big blue bird is clearly the hanging fruit here)

Ok! Cool! Good post! Awesome job! Thanks for sticking around. Play Ikenfell, Chicory, and A Short Hike. Don’t forget to totally look at my island lol I definitely didn’t speedrun finishing it just for this post lol. Appreciate cha if you do (DA-8935-5288-7510). Amazingness. Goodnight gamers.

Posted July 27th, 2023. Sparkle Sparkle.

[ghostalservice]

okay so i just posted this over on twitter but I thought I’d make a post over here too with the twitter fics I’m currently absolutely fixated on!!

I’m enjoying the medium a lot because they’re mostly epistolary, but in a really interestingly multimedia way. It’s been interesting to see how different creators balance prose with art and artifacts!!

Here’re the ones I’m following SUPER closely - there are a bunch of other great ones I’m reading but these ones own my soul at the moment and the ones I’m so into that i don’t get them mixed up with others in my head. All WIPs and all absolutely fantastic!!

1. The Camera Loves You, Baby (Director Stede/struggling actor/delivery driver Ed): my #1 favorite!! Everybody’s doing their best (except the Badmintons). Ed doesn’t want to like Stede so much but he can’t help it! An entire movie as set dressing! Phenomenal multimedia and a deliciously slow burn! This is the one I take fake bathroom breaks at work for when it updates.

2. Breaking the News (Newscasters): gloriously done coming-out for Stede! Absolutely sparkling tension! Deep trauma (on both sides) handled gorgeously! Twisty turny news plots! A Badminton gets punched! REALLY good spicy bits, with Izzy/the Swede that actually??? works really well??? 

3. Liquid Gold (Beekeepers): the Softest (with a bit of intrigue!!) AU! Featuring bee-allergic beekeeper Stede because he is, in every universe, a lunatic (Ed likes it). Fantastic small-town drama and a particularly well-written Lucius.

4. Angle of Attack (Plane Crash Investigators): A field I have never even considered the existence of!! The author OBVIOUSLY knows so much about the setting, which is my favorite kind of AU. CJ starts off dead! Early days but I LOVE IT SO FAR.

5. Mismatched (Matchmaker Stede/Romance Novelist Ed): truly glorious airport meet-cute, A+ refusing-to-talk-it-thru Stede (who’s a matchmaker who doesn’t believe in love!!). Really captures the way these two weirdos instantly click!!

6. Home Sweet Home (Tiny house builder Ed/rich, still married Stede: Stede is a whirlwind of last-ditch secret-vehicle disaster and I am LIVING for smitten Ed!! Featuring plans for the largest tiny home ever built! The text conversations in particular are A++++. This one is also just starting but I am fully fascinated.

7. Bootlegged (Theatre bootleg recording makers): a profession I know nothing about! A fantastic famous Ed reveal!! Awesome crew antics!!  Obsessed with this low-stakes criminal activity AU, because I adore when people take very small, non-dangerous crimes and treat them DEADLY SERIOUS. Also features Ed taking risks to add excitement and Stede being an absolute disaster of a man.

8. Whereever You Go, There You Are (Canonverse!): This just started and is only a few tweets in, but it’s SUPER NEAT because it’s got no prose and is only through letters and artifacts? I’m real into it.

9. I am obviously also reading Pina Coladas (80s thru 2000s AU) which was what made me make a fandom twitter in the first place. It continues to murder me daily.

PLEASE tell me if you’re reading any of these and yell with me! I hate twitter and would much rather yell about fandom here, where I know my mom isn’t!

[bottomlessabyssposts]

Okokok—pjo asks.

You already KNOW i have SO MANY.

Ok. Focusing.

Jonathan & Argyle. How do they meet? Greek/Roman camps, etc.? Does this take place in a post-reintegration universe (like how CHB & CJ started interacting after this giant war)? EXCEPT—in the 80s

Also. Alsoalsoalso.

How did Lucas find out he was a demigod? How did Erica?

I have more but like. AJSDJNFKCKFNCKL. We shall get to those in due time lol.

Also. Also also also also.

Remember how i said i knew i’d cry? I was right. Fuck you. That fic was fucking gorgeous and it fucking devastated me so like. Pop off i guess.

(Tysm for sharing the fic it was really, really lovely. How long did the flower research take????)

Hi !! I still don’t know what to call you except user himynameis4 it’s really funny! 

Let’s dive right into it

I imagined both camps having brief relationships, just to exchange information, and training, as well as internships, if you get what I mean ? Like they’d give the demigods the possibility to travel, and go to the other camp. Jonathan and Argyle would meet there, probably earlier than in ST. (I imagine a whole conflict that will force the camps to go back to ignoring each other. (for example… Barbara’s death ? CHB perhaps accusing CJ of killing her on a mission or something, while they promised they’d keep the kids safe, and CJ affirming they had nothing to do with this) Which would then mean that Argyle needs to go back. 

Lucas found out like everyone ! Before Nancy had the full confirmation they may have godly blood (except for Mike, she knew because of her parents) the whole gang + El have been chased by monsters (disguising themselves as humans, obviously) and when they told Nancy, she decided to take them to CHB for their safety. (She only planned to take Mike, but if his friends needed help too, she would of course protect them) 

So then, Lucas got claimed at the camp ! For Erica, it would definitely be because she’s getting more and more curious about Greek Mythology, and exhibits demigods’ traits (the tingle tingle and the need for a fight like Percy described) ! She definitely kicked a monster in disguise in the balls and called the police, and Lucas saw that and was like “yeah yk what I think she’s like me”

I’m so happy you liked the fic!!! My evil plan worked I am collecting everyone’s tears muahahahah

IT TOOK AGES. I was using the guide every five seconds but it was worth it because I wanted to make every detail perfect. I needed it to be as accurate as possible I hope I did well !

[organic-lure-trees]

I was thinking for my next fic that I’d like to make a long-chapter series fic that involves legal drama and soft filler moments with my lawbot OC, Samuel the backstabber. It’ll be a large undertaking, and a lot of research at that, but it’d be cool to try.

But I’m undecided on whether to tackle TTR canon or TTCC canon first. TTCC’s established their own lore for the cogs with the presence of boardboats and how the CJ was replaced with the CLO. That’s not even getting to other stuff such as cogs having children, unique managers, there being places outside of Toontown that the cogs have control over, surnames, and etc.. 

Basically I have a general idea for either of these canons and how the story for each of them go:

TTR: It’s just a usual routine for Samuel as he goes about his vapid, mundane routine of dealing with case after case, hearing the CJ’s insipid lectures, and just existing as a cog in general. He feels sick of it all and believes he’ll never get the inner peace he so desperately desires. He’s just a cynical, worn-down lawbot that isn’t sure what to do with himself anymore.

Then at one point, he’ll defend a toon in court much to the determent of his peers and even the CJ himself. Why the lawbot chose to do this despite it going against the very nature of a cog involves lots of past events, growing knowledge, and internal emotions.

Despite the obvious outcome, Samuel believed in justice for those who are unable to defend themselves, regardless of his own ingrained bias towards toons. He couldn’t stand to see someone suffer and be relegated to such an unfair trial.

Cue a private meeting within CJ’s office as the two argue over what occurred. CJ believes what Samuel did was disgraceful and that he let his stupid emotions get the better of him to go  and willingly defend a toon of all things. Samuel would argue back about all of the stuff he’s had to deal with, and asks why he was even made with these thoughts and feelings if he’s just going to be relegated as another cog in the machine. It’ll be a lot of debate as CJ has his own fair set of issues and takes it out of Samuel because he sees a part of himself deep down that he hates so much.

In the end, Samuel really did take a “stab in the dark” with his fight with the CJ. What happens after I’m still undecided about. The CJ could have him scrapped for displaying such tenacity, demote him, exile him, or any other bad outcome. 

But if by some chance that the CJ is merciful (and that’s a big if), he’ll let Samuel off on the condition that he never speaks of this to anyone and continues to work to the best of his abilities. That’s he’s sorry for what’s happened in the past and that he’s proud to have a lawbot like him around. (Of course this is just wishful thinking we all know CJ is a massive prick and this will most likely never will occur).

TTCC: Samuel dealing the the aftermath of the CJ resigning and the original Lawbot HQ being destroyed during the Break the Law event. With the CLO being hired as the new leader, there’s now a new doctrine established that requires all lawbots to learn corporate law instead of criminal and civil law. 

Of course, the backstabber is not thrilled about this at all. Now, he has to work around these new, arbitrary laws (as if the previous ones he dealt with weren’t already bad enough) to ensure that his clients get the best defense they can during trial. He may at one point have to defend a toon despite all the odds stacked against them.

There’s also the introduction of the litigation team that Samuel will cross paths at one point during one of his trials. Lets just say they don’t get along with each other well, and that there’ll be a special case involved where Samuel will be humiliated and curb stomped by the leader. Internal dilemmas ensues and Samuel will come back to “pierce the corporate veil” to hold everyone involved responsible and ensure his client gets the justice they deserve in the end.

[onekisstotakewithme]

5, 15, and 29 for the author wrapped ask!

Mack!! Thank you!! 💜🥰

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

this one is two-fold.

I did not expect The Flying Dutchman of the Pusan Perimeter to be so enthusiastically received, like i am the one-woman Steve Newsome fan club, and I didn't know everyone else would love him as much as I do! (maybe the numbers are modest by mashblr standards, idk, but they're big for such a minor character? And I felt very soft about my steve newsome ghost story).

I also was surprised at the incredible amount of feedback I got on Off the Record. The premise is a little out there (one missing scene per episode... so you have to remember the context of each episode) but it was so fun to build on existing canon and everyone else seemed to love it too!

15. What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

What WIP am I not taking into next year with me?? Okay, jokes aside, things I will definitely unquestionably not-a-chance-in-hell-otherwise be taking with me into next year unless my muse sprouts wings in the next like four days:

An Idea, Whose Time has Come (aka President!CJ. 70k in and still going)

punnihawk skiing modern AU

triad wedding fic

probably 'into a gold and crimson graciousness of october'

plane crash

I'd like to hope that (tww) wedding fic and subverted noir will maybe be december projects? can it still be noirvember if it's now december? please write in now!

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Oh. Um. I went back and re-read 'it's torment won't be through' recently and I didn't have strong feelings on it before but now I'm like damn, girl, that was GOOD stuff (beejhawk 'that's show biz' fic):

Hawkeye’s voice is barely a whisper. “I’m not going to be what this place does to you, Beej. I can’t do that to you. I can’t do that to Peg. And I can’t do that to me.”

And then this from Off the Record!

CJ doesn’t like the way he’s looking at her, the blue eyes fixed on her face, a look like he can see right through her, and she thinks, a little uncomfortably, that Superman played a journalist during the day too.

[iceman-maverick]

modern sam seaborn headcanons

more modern west wing! sorry i’m actually not done with these.

it’s very important to me and non-negotiable that a 2021 sam seaborn is openly, unapologetically, and disastrously gay. he never was closeted so he doesn’t think it’s a big deal and doesn’t really bring it up. 

this utterly confounds most of the senior staff (excluding josh for obvious reasons [bi josh headcanons coming to a dash near you soon] and ainsley, who figured out sam’s mlm after a breathtakingly awkward attempt at asking him out, bless her) 

sam acquires  a mass following on stan twitter (like obama’s hot speechwriter!!) and it completely gets out of hand. secret service gets involved when a @WhatSamsWearingToday account manages to get a picture of sam in the oval office. cj is getting questions about fanfic in the press room, toby draws the short stick and ends up having to explain to leo what exactly the omegaverse is and why it’s an issue that the presidential seal is being associated with it 

hey remember how in season one they told us sam is a passionate, hobbyist sailor and then literally never revisited it? well in 2021, sam has a sailing vlog that he puts an absurd amount of effort into. he walks viewers through prepping, techniques, equipment, and then does cool shots on the water where he explains political concepts and the like. he’s getting very popular, and donates all the proceeds dc school funds 

sam is dc’s most eligible bachelor but his love life is a screwball comedy of errors. not once in his life has he been able to successfully pick up on the fact that handsome business man of the week is trying to buy him a drink. he just thought the dude was really interested in sam’s hot takes on geology

sam gets canceled on tiktok for supporting fast fashion after a video of him wearing a shein frog bucket hat gets leaked. what tiktok doesn’t know is that it’s actually toby’s hat. 

i got into this in my most recent fic but sam has A LOT of opinions on princess diana, meghan markle, and the rest of the royals. it’s beginning to become something of a foreigns relations crisis because he keeps putting in subtle anti-charles messaging in whenever they’re writing for uk stuff

despite being a man of the 21st-and-2-decades-century, sam is desperately out of touch. he’s can quote maybe three vines at best, and is frightened deeply by tiktok. his instagram still has the auto-post on facebook feature activated and he doesn’t know how to turn it off, which josh thinks is very funny

after josh makes a particularly embarrassing blunder with the senate, cj comes up with the brilliant idea to collaborate with vogue to do one of those “the bartlet admin senior staff answer 73 questions” videos where they essentially do walk-and-talks. you’d think this would go over well but sam gets so overwhelmed by a question about his zodiac sign that he flips over a chair and knocks down donna. the clip goes viral so i guess cj’s plan to distract from josh worked out in the end lol

okay that’s it for now, peace & love, love & light, let me know if you want more of these but tbh i’ll probably just drop more as they come to me. i am thinking THOUGHTS about donna and amy  👀

[sapphosclown]

ok i wanted to make this a fic but i truly don’t know how to start writing it so this is how i imagine cartero becomes canon for doafp week day 2

mid season 3 camilla and danielle’s wedding

bobby was supposed to bring CJ as his date but CJ ended up not being able to make it for some reason

bobby was like damn and he remembered that camilla had said he could invite all his friends but he didn’t because he felt like it’d be awkward so he only invited cj but now that he can’t go he needs another plus one bc seating charts whatever

he decides to invite liam as he’s a little afraid nanny and ziggy may not be the best wedding attendees

liam is like ok i can make that work

the ceremony is beautiful obviously camilla was not about to have a dull wedding

the party is a lot of fun too, he and liam kind of just chat until liam ends up pulling bobby onto the dance floor and he’s a little embarrassed and flustered at first but then they’re having a good time

and then a slow song comes on

liam: may i have this dance?

bobby: oh, i’m, i don’t really know how to dance

liam: that’s ok, i don’t either. but i’ve seen enough movies it’s just like a bunch of swaying

bobby: haha yeah i’m idk

liam: come on, just one dance

bobby thinks about it a second and then a smiles slips his face and he accepts the hand liam had reached out to him

and it’s a little awkward for a minute but then liam starts up a conversation again

liam: i can’t believe camilla didn’t make you guys learn how to dance for her wedding

bobby: oh i think there was a dance lesson but i didn’t go

liam: why not? didn’t you expect to dance

bobby shrugs: i don’t know. guess i didn’t think about it too much.

liam: well, i actually lied. my grandma taught me and my brothers how to slow dance when we were kids. i could teach you now if you want?

bobby: yeah, why not.

so then liam is teaching bobby how ti dance and they’re having a good ole time

here’s the kicker

cj shows up. whatever reason he had to not be able to go changed and he managed to get into the afterparty

bad news tho, he sees bobby and liam dancing. and he really didn’t think much of it until he really saw the look on bobby’s face.

he just turns around and leaves

the next day or a few days later or something cj asks bobby to hangout and bobby is like yeah !

bobby meets up with cj and immediately notices something is off and is like what’s up?

cj: yk how i wasn’t able to make it to the wedding?

bobby nods

cj: well the thing changed and i made it to the after party. danielle came to see me at the front and let me into the party, she said one more wasn’t gonna hurt anything. anyways, i walked in and saw you and liam dancing

bobby: oh

cj: i mean, i didn’t really care, it’s a wedding people dance. but. the look on your face while you were dancing with him. (cj pauses as he thinks back to it).

bobby: no it’s not like that, i don’t even think of liam like that anym-

(bobby catches himself before he finishes the word but cj already knows. he’s had a feeling for a while probably a bunch of built up subtext from prior s3 episodes)

cj: listen, i like you a lot but i’m leaving for college soon and honestly, i just don’t think you’ve ever gotten over him. i just don’t think we were meant to work out bobby.

(in my head he says something ab liam liking him too i just don’t know where it fits here)

bobby is sad and whatever but to sum up they end on good terms maybe a goodbye kiss just for gay rights yk

anyways upset bobby can’t sleep so he goes for a walk and finds liam at the tennis courts

they do the whole what are you doing here dance thing and they say their excuses and bobby tells him that he and cj broke up

liam: oh. man that sucks, i’m sorry.

bobby: it’s chill i guess. i had a feeling it’d happen at some point. usually the sophomore and the senior aren’t meant to be.

liam: you’re still allowed to be upset tho.

bobby: i know. the crazy thing is he said he thinks…. he thinks i like you.

liam: …oh

bobby: yeah. crazier than that he thinks you like me. i tried to tell him we’re just friends but—

liam: i do.

bobby stops and looks at him: what.

liam: I do, like you.

bobby: …oh. since when?

liam: end of freshman year? maybe? but you had just gotten with cj so. i tried to get over it but. (liam shrugs)

bobby doesn’t really know what to do with himself. he does notice that the overhead lights from the tennis court are creating a halo effect around liam. he notices that they’re standing kind of far apart. he notices he’s feeling a lot of things, he just can’t pinpoint what it is. joy? sadness? fear?

liam: sorry, i shouldn’t have said anything, you just got out of a relationship— pretend i didn’t say anything—

bobby: liam?

liam: yeah?

bobby: can i kiss you.

liam: i- like right now?

(bobby nods)

liam: um. yeah, yeah you can, yes.

and then bobby is kissing his middle school crush and at first it’s quick and uncertain and confusing. but the second they stop and look into each other’s eyes, another kiss begins, much more comfortable and now an answer to a question they’ve both been dying to know for a very long time.

and there’s probably some more drama but that’s as far as i got. thank u happy doafp week

[deancasbigbang]

Title: The Incredible Sinking Novak

Author: FriendofCarlotta

Artist: CJ

Rating: Explicit

Pairings: Cas/Dean, Sam/Jess, minor Charlie/Meg, past Cas/Amelia, past Cas/OMC, past Dean/Lisa, background Benny/Andrea, background Garth/Bess

Length: 61808

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Panic Attacks

Tags: Modern AU, Inspired by Gilmore Girls, Kid Fic, Single Parents, Bottom Cas/Top Dean With Implied Switching, Fluff, Romantic Comedy

Posting Date: October 13, 2021

Summary: When Castiel Novak’s wife dies, he buries himself in work and lets his formidable mother take charge of his daughter Claire’s care. Two years later, he realizes Claire has become a stranger to him and takes her on a road trip so they can reconnect. They wash up in the small town of Lebanon, whose quirky residents include Charlie Bradbury, a sculptor with a vendetta against the town’s mayor; Bobby Singer, a grumpy antiques dealer; and Garth Fitzgerald, the town’s mailman, go-to babysitter and general jack-of-all-trades. But most importantly, there’s Dean Winchester, the handsome owner of the local diner and also a single father.  As time passes and Lebanon becomes home, Castiel realizes he and Claire may have another chance to be part of a family.

Excerpt: When Claire and Castiel reach the town square, they find at least twenty people gathered in front of the gazebo. At the center of the crowd stands an older man in a knitted sweater, his white hair in a state of advanced disarray.    “What I mean to say is, it’s obscene!” he says, gesturing emphatically in the direction of the gazebo. “It shouldn’t be allowed!”   Castiel briefly considers that perhaps he should steer Claire away from whatever commotion is going on, especially if it really does meet the definition of “obscene.” But Claire says, “Oh! Let’s go see what’s happening!” and drags him along, and Castiel is admittedly curious too. The fact that he’s spotted Dean and Jack at the outskirts of the crowd, and that Dean is trying and clearly failing to hold back a grin, has nothing at all to do with his decision to investigate further.   “What’s going on?” Castiel asks when they arrive next to Dean.   “Oh, hey, Cas and Claire!” Dean looks genuinely happy to see them again, and Castiel’s heart flutters in his chest like an overexcited hummingbird. “You’re just in time for the most interesting thing to happen all week.”   “Somebody put a statue of a naked lady in the gazebo, and Donatello doesn’t like it,” Jack explains solemnly.   “Why not?” Claire asks.   “That’s a very good question,” Dean says, matching Jack’s solemn tone. To Castiel, he adds, “Donatello is our mayor. He’s kind of grumpy, but he really likes being mayor, so we haven’t had the heart to vote him out.”   A tall, skinny man shuffles up to Castiel’s other side. “This is the third time the statue’s turned up someplace around town. Donatello keeps getting rid of it, and it keeps showing up again,” he says. “It’s quite the mystery.” The man holds out his hand to shake. “Garth’s the name. Are you new in town?”   “Castiel, and I’m just passing through. This is my daughter Claire,” Castiel says, shaking hands. “So nobody knows where the statue came from?”   “Oh no,” Dean says. “We all know. We just don’t tell Donatello, because it’s more fun that way.”   At the center of the gazebo, the man Castiel assumes to be Donatello is now engaged in a spirited argument with Sam, who is throwing around phrases such as “artistic freedom” and “the slippery slope of censorship.”   A woman with bobbed red hair and a Star Wars t-shirt walks up behind them, greeting Dean with a one-armed hug. “How long have Donatello and Sam been going at it?”    Dean screws up his face into a thoughtful grimace. “They’ve gotten around to ‘think of the property values, Sam’ but they’re not at ‘freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Constitution, Donatello’ yet.”   “Oh goodie.” The woman rubs her hands gleefully. “Still got a few minutes till Sam gives up and storms off.”

DCBB 2021 Posting Schedule

[adorethedistance]

READING MY BOYFRIEND’S FANFICTION?? - Owen Joyner x Influencer!Reader

JATP masterlist

Requested: OMGGG!! Could you do a an Owen fic based around his girlfriend being an armature youtuber/social media influencer (shes also an actress and they met on set and have been dating for a while) and it’s “reading/reacting to my boyfriend’s fanfiction” ? You can do whatever you want with the fanfic part it’s just a concept that has been running around in my head for a while. LOVE ALL YOUR WORK!!

Warnings: swearing, allusions to sex, very mild

Words: 1460

A/N: A fic?? From Ace?? Hi. I’m off spring break officially and so my stress has dissipated immensely. School was becoming so much these last two weeks and I thought I’d be stressed or worried, but I’m actually fine? It’s weird lol so I decided I could be productive with my stress-free moment and post a little fic for y’all. I love this prompt, and before any of you writers panic, I’m using my own fics for the fanfictions because I wouldn’t want to put y’all on the spot like that. Also this is my 3000 post! thought that was cool lol

“Do you wanna do the intro?”

“I think I have to do the intro.”

“Okay, go for it.”

“Alright,” Owen sighs out a heavy breath in exaggerated preparation for my (some would say lengthy) intro. “Hello, hi. Yes, okay, this is Y/n Y/l/n vlogs, welcome or welcome back to my channel!” Once Owen finishes his statement I’m so stunned I can’t generate any sort of response other than a slacked jaw semi smile.

“That was not even close. Do you know my intro?”

“I got the first part right!”

“You’ve lost intro privileges,” I turn back to the mess of lights and tripods in front of me and ignore the disaster of an intro Owen offered. “Oh, hello, hi! I am Y/n and this is: Reading My Boyfriend’s Fanfiction!”

“That’s basically what I did.”

“No, it is not! It’s ‘oh, hello, hi. I am ‘name’ and this is: ‘title of video’.”

“You don’t ‘welcome to my channel’?” Owen’s voice has dropped to a hushed volume as he genuinely inquires about the segments of my usual introduction.

“I do not.”

“Don’t use any of this,” he pleads when making direct eye contact with the camera. “Mister Sid. Editing Sid, please don’t embarrass me.” His pleas fall on deaf ears, knowing that I’ll be using the footage in full.

“Anyways. Butchered intro aside, I am Y/n and today I am here with my lovely “So Many Stars” costar and scene partner, Owen Joyner!”

“I’m also your boyfriend.”

“That too,” I give Owen’s pointed comment a soft place to land, “So, yesterday--it was actually like, two weeks ago, I don’t know why I said yesterday--a little while back, I came across a tweet telling me someone had written a fanfic about us-”

“Did you read it?”

“On Wattpad. Of course, I read it. There are only three chapters up right now and they’re all in the 2-3k range so it was a quick read.”

“2-3k?”

“Words,” I reply nonchalantly as I unlock my phone. I bookmarked a few one-shots beforehand for us to read, and I’m slightly cocky about my selections. Owen then responds with an outburst of shock.

“2-3 thousand words is a short read?” I merely give him a blank stare.

“Judging by that reaction, Owen hasn’t read any fanfics in his life.”

“Is that not long to you- That’s what she said.” Owen cuts me off with his own stupid joke and I briefly sigh before answering.

“No, that isn’t long. Baby, I’m here for that 130k slow burn enemies to lovers on AO3 with the ‘only one bed’ and ‘locked in a closet’ tropes.”

“The what?”

“Oh, we have so much to catch you up on.”

__________________________

“So I saved three fics, an angst, a fluff, and a smut. Which do you want to read?”

“Wait, what does that mean?”

“Oh my- okay. Angst is the sad shit, it’s what you read when you need your heartbroken and a good cry. Smut is pretty much in the name, it’s explicit content that will undoubtedly get this video demonetized, but that’s okay because we do have a sponsor. And fluff is the cute moments, domestic and sometimes mundane romance that makes you smile like an idiot and put the device down to screech into a pillow.” Throughout my whole explanation, I can tell Owen was becoming more and more lost, so I opt to give him a few moments to collect his thoughts.

“Let’s start with the fluff just to ease into things.”

“Smart choice. This fic I have saved is called ‘Baby Fever’ and the summary says ‘you and Owen spend a day at the zoo babysitting Baby Shada, and her presence sparks conversation about adding a new presence of your very own’.”

“That sounds so ominous.”

“Here, I’ll read the narration and reader’s POV, and then you’ll read your own dialogue.” Owen nods and leans over my right shoulder to read off of my computer screen.

“You actually start the fic.”

“‘You ready, little one?’” The instantaneous actor mode Owen slips into has me howling with laughter at which he looks at me confused. My gasping for air makes Owen laugh empathetically despite still being unsure as to what’s killing me at the moment.

“Why are you laughing?!” He yells, dramatically shaking my shoulder.

“Just the way you jumped into that, I wasn’t prepared for you to turn on the acting charm. Okay, uhhhh, ‘I bite back a laugh when I hear Owen’s voice coo from the back seat’.”

The two of us go back and forth between reading the narrative, bouts of laughter, commentary on the accuracy of Owen’s character, and we finally manage to finish the 2.5k fic in about forty minutes.

“‘When he looks up from CJ’s tiny body and recognizes the familiar ‘baby fever’ look in my eyes, he smiles and utters a simple-’.”

“‘I told you so.’”

“That was cute! I like the tie-in of having us watching over Baby Shada- or, sorry, you and ‘y/n’ watching over Baby Shada.”

“They wrote me kinda funny, I don’t think I’d ever fabricate a life to make conversation with a stranger due to baby fever.” My jaw drops slightly and before Owen can respond to my reaction, I cry,

“That is such a lie!”

“What?”

“You absolutely would do something like that, are you kidding me?!”

“No, I would not!” Owen punctuates every word with the utmost offense. He has the same look in his eye as when he was proving himself to be the cleanest phantom of the three on the Sunset Drive podcast.

“You literally told the guy at Home Depot yesterday that we were buying plants for our child’s nursery!”

“Okay, that’s different-”

“How is that different? That’s the exact same thing as fanfic you!” Owen’s furrowed brow and dropped jaw are a sight to be seen as he leans away from me, bending at the waist to stare at me with defiance. I raise my eyebrows pointedly as I await a response. Instead of actually producing a response, Owen lunges forward, grabbing my waist in his hands and squeezing gently. The feeling makes me screech and gasp of laughter from surprise and also being ticklish.

“Owen! Owe-STOP, I’m gonna drop my laptop!” I manage to say through my laughter and with one final grab, he releases me from his hold. It takes a minute for my laughter to settle but once I do, the two of us are simply breathing heavy and staring at one another with giddy smiles on our faces. In a moment’s clarity, I turn to look into the camera lens to talk directly to my editor,

“Sid, don’t use any of this. And please don’t cut to this after we finish reading to make it look like- things were happening.”

“Actually, I think you should, Sid. Just cut to right there and make the world think we-”

“OKAY, thanks for watching, bye!” I quickly stop the recording before Owen says something we’re unable to recover from. I hear him laugh gently behind me as I set my laptop down on the coffee table behind the tripod. Coming back to the couch, I move to plop down but before landing successfully on the cushion next to my phone, Owen grabs my body and moves me to sit on top of him.

“You are crazy, you know that?”

“Hmm. Crazy for you, maybe.” His cheesy line makes me scoff but smile nonetheless. I reach my right hand up to caress the side of his face as we sit cheek to cheek.

“Remind me to never film with you again.” The gesture is sweet and the sentiment is not which makes Owen laugh and he presses a soft kiss to my cheek. I lean back into him so my back is pressed flush with his chest as he lazily wraps both arms around me.

“You say that now but you’ll regret it when you wanna do a ‘boyfriend does my makeup’ challenge video.”

“Nah. I’ll just call Charlie to-” Without allowing me to finish my sentence, Owen is digging his fingertips back into the tissue of my sides and I squeal with laughter once more. This time the torment is short-lived and Owen releases me after a sweet, reconciling kiss. “Do you have baby fever now?”

“It was cute and all, but not really, no.”

“That’s too bad,” I stand up from my spot on his lap to grab my computer and hold it to my chest, “I was gonna say we could practice some baby-making.”

And with that, I turned on the balls of my feet, heading for my bedroom when I heard Owen stand up eagerly, quick to follow.

***

Taglist: @caitsymichelle13​ @kaitlyn2907​ @itz-jas​ @crybabyddl​ @kcd15​ @kinda-really-lost​ @calamitykaty​ @morganayennefertyrell@n0wornever​ @dream-a-little-bigger-x​ @mrstodorooki@vicesvsvirturesfanfic @curlybrownhairedboys​ @amazinggracy​ @kaitieskidmore1​ @asdfghjkl-fanfics​ @ghostlygreenbean​ @juliefromaustralia @merceret​ @jemimah-b99​ @ifilwtmfc​ @thesweetestsinner​ @imsydneywalker​ @lovesanimals​ @thebloodthirstyvampress​ @bumbleberry-pie​ @losers-club6​ @tefilovesreading​ @dmcfarland1​@joynerxmercer @kexrtiz​ @talk-on-the-street​ @phantompogues​ @konciousdreamer​ @sunsetcurvej​ @warmnesss0ul​

[twwpress]

Creator Spotlight #13: rearviewmirror

Welcome back to the TWW Author Spotlight! For every spotlight, we’ll ask each featured author the same ten questions (as well as questions you submitted on Twitter!). This week we’re excited to be talking with Twitter user @S4MWILS0N (rearviewmirror on AO3)!

 1) What are your top 5 desert island fics by other authors?

1. christmas (baby, please come home) by crossingdelancey

As far as I’m concerned, this is THE CJ/Toby fic. It’s full of tropes I adore (divorce with getting back together, co-parenting, fake relationship, found family, misunderstanding that gets resolved in a heartfelt way, and outsiders meddling), but it’s really about the characters and the relationships between them. NOBODY writes CJ/Toby like Kate does, be it the dialogue or the internal monologues or even the pure physicality of how the characters interact. She has an incredible gift for tiny details that feel like a sucker punch, and this story’s brimming with them. I could read this one over and over again (and I do) because it’s just so beautifully written. A must-read for every CJ/Toby & CJ Cregg enjoyer.  

https://archiveofourown.org/works/35750233/chapters/89146165

2. Safe Harbor by murph283031

This is the fic that got me into Leo/Abbey. It’s about grief and healing and family and a million other things, but mostly, it’s just a beautifully written portrait of compelling characters. I must’ve read this one- and the other works in the series- at least 5 times and I’ll probably read it five times more. The premise is a sharp divergence from canon, but all the character voices and relationships are spot on. Just a really well-done story. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31562528?view_full_work=true

3. turning in place by jazzjo

Absolutely heartbreaking meditation on guilt and forgiveness, love and religion. Really, really great Toby character piece as well as a beautiful handling of the post-leak arc leading into post-canon, with touches of CJ/Toby/Andy as well. Nobody writes angst (especially religious angst) like Eli, and this fic is exemplary of their incredible deftness and sensitivity when dealing with such heavy subjects. Not really a happy fic, but a hopeful one, and I know I could read it again and again and still discover new details to fall in love with. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/41457948?view_full_work=true

4. Direction Home by dafna 

My first Jed/Leo/Abbey fic :) This one feels almost like a TWW episode in how it alternates between past and present- it’s post-Rosslyn, and Jed, Leo, and Abbey are trying to figure themselves out- but features flashbacks to important moments in their pre-canon lives. It’s an incredible piece of work in how it spans their lifetimes while remaining true to the characters the entire time, and every plot tension resolves so beautifully. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5956

5. And If You Try Sometime You Just Might Find by thedeadparrot 

Jed/Leo/Abbey through the years. Wonderful build-up with a wonderful payoff. I love angst with a happy/hopeful ending, and this really hit the spot. It’s also a great Leo character piece, and creates backstory for the whole trio that fits seamlessly in with canon. Great starter fic for anybody interested in Jed/Leo/Abbey but doesn’t know where to begin. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/96040 

 2) Do you have a favorite character to write? Favorite ship(s) to write? Are there characters or ships you'd like to write more of?

Fave character to write: Jed Bartlet.

Favorite ship to write: Jed/Leo, with the other permutations of Jed/Leo/Abbey as the runners-up.

Characters or ships I’d like to write more of: Charlie and Charlie/Zoey, who should’ve been endgame! Charlie’s one of my favorite characters, and he’s sadly often ignored by the fandom. Writing about him (and Charlie/Zoey) is really, really fun, so I’d like to do some more of that. 

 3) Tell us about your writing process (setup/location? Night or day? Snacks/beverages? Computer/phone/notebook? Music or silence? Anything else you want to share is welcome!)

The environment doesn't really matter, but I do the bulk of my writing on my laptop in bed. I like to have my JLA playlist (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ibswxpE5msVA23Ui8wvQ0) going in the background as I write- not for inspiration, just because it’s nonstop bangers. 

 4) What writing advice do you have for others who may be reading this?

No matter what you’ve heard about fanfic, it’s literally not that serious. It’s like making your action figures kiss and/or kill each other in word form. It’s about as low-stakes as it can get. So, go crazy with it. Write something that’s indulgent or silly or been done a million times. The whole point is to have fun :)

 5) From where do you usually draw your inspiration? (Other forms of media, music, tropes, etc?)

I draw a lot of inspiration from music, primarily Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, My Chemical Romance, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, my favorite intersections of “bands I like” and “bands that write good lyrics.” Most of my fic titles are song lyrics. Perhaps that’s because I’m not creative with titles, but there’s nothing quite like an insane song lyric to inspire and/or guide a story. 

 6) What is the fic you've written that you're most proud of and why?

the feast and the famine (https://archiveofourown.org/works/42133008). Heavy, heavy themes and a lot of internal monologuing made it tough to write on emotional and technical levels, but I’m very pleased with how it turned out. It’s a Jed Bartlet character piece, and it hit all the notes I wanted it to. It’s engineered for the extremely niche overlap of religious, LGBT TWW fans, so it’s not trying to be anything revolutionary, but I’m always proud of myself when I think about it. 

 7) What's the fic trope/concept/AU you'd read 1000 of? What's the fic trope/concept/AU you'd write 1000 of?

I write what I like to read, so this question condenses nicely. Tropes: first kisses, coming out, old married couple/throuple, love confessions, teasing banter, domestic romance, angst with a happy ending, parenting/co-parenting, and found family. AUs: pre-canon plausible backstory stuff, post-canon stuff where everything is nice and happy, and non-politics AUs. 

 8) Is there anything you'd like to try writing-wise that you haven't yet?

One of these days I’d like to branch out in terms of style- I think a proper TWW social media AU would be a lot of fun, and I’ve been toying with the idea of a story where the characters know they’re in a story. Epistolary fics are cool, too- I’d just have to figure out how to do it well. 

 9) What's your go-to Starbucks/coffee shop/other drink order?

I don’t drink Starbucks. If I had to pick, hot chocolate. 

 10) Do you have any current projects you'd like to promote or anything upcoming you'd like to tell us about?

I’ve got so many projects on the back burner it’s frankly a little embarrassing. To name a few: updating two of my longer fics (pry it open and echoes, silence, patience, and grace), writing a short series based on Foo Fighters songs, and finishing the BBOC September prompt, which I still haven’t filled. And Lord knows new ideas come in all the time. So we’ll see :)

Submitted questions:

From @sameschtick: Rapid Fire (edited slightly for continuity): 

Short vs long fics (to write and to read)? Long fics. The only way to improve a good thing is to have more of it. Also, I’m a chronic rambler who’s lousy at editing, so my stories usually end up on the longer side.

AU or canon? AUs are easier to write, but a well-done fic set during canon, in my opinion, is much more interesting to read. “Canon with a twist” is always fun, too.

Favorite season? season 3

Least favorite season? season 5

Favorite episode? Bartlet for America

Most underrated character? Charles Young, the glue of the Bartlet administration from his first episode onwards. Everybody loves him (and for good reason) but he never gets any attention in terms of fanworks and seems to be left out when people talk about the show. Also Joey Lucas, for similar reasons. 

Most underrated ship? Josh/Joey. I get that Josh/Donna is canon, by far the most popular ship in the fanbase, egged on by the actors, etc., but I think Josh and Joey have incredible chemistry and are reliably a joy to watch on screen. They’d be a D.C. power couple, they’d exchange dirty jokes in ASL, and she makes fun of him all the time. What’s more to ask for? Plus, they have the same initials- if JD had that, it would be declared soulmateism. Double plus, they look really good together. 

Underrated platonic dynamic? Charlie and Leo. Two quietly brilliant guys with bone-dry senses of humor with the same unquestionable loyalty to the same guy. The scene in “Stirred” where they’re arguing over Charlie’s taxes is golden, as is the scene where Leo asks Charlie if he’s bringing (Secret Service) protection on his date with Zoey- there’s a split second where they both look like they want to throw up. Ultimate comedic duo.

Thing you wish wasn’t canon? The leak arc first and foremost. I will see the S7 writers in hell. Leo should never have been VP. Ellie should not have married that random guy. The Jed/Leo divorce in seasons 5 and 6 was stupid and lazy writing. I get skeeved out whenever I rewatch the episodes with Laurie- the subtle Sorkin misogyny wasn’t subtle with that plotline. And perhaps a hot take, but I think it would’ve been much more interesting if Santos didn’t win.

One thing you wish was canon? Leo driving a pink Cadillac.

Where did the pink Cadillac idea come from? Some context: pink Cadillac is a motif that appears in a few of my stories. It’s basically that Leo owns and is in love with his 1959 pink Cadillac, while every other character thinks it's tacky and tasteless. The idea originally came from Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac,” a song with unbelievable sex appeal considering it’s about a car (depending on your interpretation), and a fantastic groove. The song is about sin and sex and beautiful women and one really awesome car, all set to a bluesy riff with classic, plaintive Springsteen vocals. To make a long story short: the song is great, so I got obsessed with pink Cadillacs. And because they really are gorgeous vehicles, I decided that Leo should drive one. 

 From @JessBakesCakes: Do you have a headcanon for any of your fics that didn't make it to the page? If so, what is it?

Not really, because I write to indulge my own wishes and don’t like editing, so if I have a thought about a story, it’s in there. Also, I don’t think much about what happens after a fic; each one is a contained ecosystem. After pretty much any of them, you can safely imagine plenty of kissing, though. I try to write fics with happy endings. 

 From @thefinestmuffin: Do you have a favorite canon TWW quote or moment? And is there a favorite headcanon/backstory/belief you have about a fave character or pairing: like, something that's just true to you about them, in and out of canon?

Impossible to choose, but for a moment, it’s the final napkin scene in “Bartlet for America,” which of course comes with a sucker-punch quote of its own- Jed saying “that was awfully kind of you.” The whole episode- and frankly, past few episodes- built to that scene, and what gorgeous payoff it was.

I’ve got mountains of headcanons and backstories and beliefs about Jed, Leo, and Abbey (I could talk about these three for hours, and that’s an open invitation), so I’ll give one for each of them:

Leo walks the way he does because he’s got a residual limp from his injuries in Vietnam, and it particularly acts up when he’s stressed. 

Abbey is from a wealthy New York family that always thought Jed was a country bumpkin not good enough for their daughter (they were right). 

Jed’s “four languages” are English, Latin, Greek, and German. When he and Abbey went to Italy as a young couple, his Latin was not helpful. 

From @claudiasjeans: 

what got you into tww? My parents recommended it, because I was already a huge fan of Veep. Very tonally different, but equally good writing.

what ship do you want to write that you never have? I’d love to try my hand at CJ/Toby/Andy or CJ/Andy because I absolutely love reading about them, and the authors who write them are some of the most talented in the fandom. I feel as though I don’t know their dynamics well enough to write them well, but perhaps that’s a future project.

what character would you write a full length character study of? Coin flip between Leo McGarry and Jed Bartlet, two characters who are certifiably insane the second you look below the surface. I want to crawl inside their minds with a toothpick and poke around a little. And then craft a thesis accordingly.

what other fandoms have you written fic for, if any? I’ve written for Veep and Marvel.

who’s the character you feel you’re most similar to? Probably Sam, except that I’m much less intelligent. We both have that friendly, off-putting, staunchly loyal nerd thing going. His hair is nicer, though :) 

 From @donnamossburner: What is an episode of TWW that you would rewrite if you had a chance? And what would you write to happen!

I would LOVE to rewrite season 5’s An Khe. It’s a flashback episode where the flashbacks are Leo’s time in Vietnam and the present involves the repercussions of that. It should be a quintessential Leo episode, and yet it’s mid at best, and I blame lousy writing. The bar is so low, it’s not ego to say that I could do it better. As Leo’s #1 fan, this could’ve been his “The Long Goodbye,” his second “Bartlet for America,” his (insert character-centric episode). Imagine what we could’ve had… 

 From @zieglercregg:

which tww quote really stuck with you? impossible to choose, but I adore the “Game On” quote where Leo says “there’s nothing you can do that’s not gonna make me proud of you” to Jed.

if we had another flashback episode, which time in which character’s life would you want to see and why? I’d like to see high school-aged Jed and Leo, college-aged Jed and Abbey, wartime Leo (as I’ve said, An Khe did NOT do a good job), Abbey in medical school, and all three of them as new parents. I’d also like to see Jed as a Congressman calling up his lawyer buddy Leo and just hanging out.

do you feel that the endings for the characters were all suitable? It’s easier to list the characters who got terrible endings than the ones that got good ones. CJ’s and Sam’s endings are wildly out of character to me, and Toby specifically got screwed with his pants on- and for no good reason, but that’s a different rant. Suffice it to say late seasons TWW writers I’ll see you in hell!

what’s a small plot point you love or hate that nobody talks about?

I love that Jed and Leo had a dinner date in the Stackhouse Filibuster. It’s like yeah, in the middle of a historical event in the Senate, these two are having dinner by candlelight- allegedly for Abbey, but I don’t think the White House stewards are that dumb. Leo makes a crack about homophobes. Nobody removes the candles. And Jed complains that Leo’s not paying enough attention to him, adopting the tones of a put-upon wife as best he can. I could watch that scene forever. 

which relationship do you think deserved more screentime (can be platonic)? God, there are so many. I would’ve really loved to see more of Josh and Joey- I think their chemistry is great romantic or platonic and I adore their scenes together. CJ and Charlie have both funny scenes and really touching ones. Abbey and Charlie are a fun pair, too; he’s her youngest daughter’s boyfriend, she’s his boss’ wife, both of them are very smart and very funny, so there could be a lot of potential there. 

if you could have one celebrity make an appearance on the west wing, who, and what role would they play? I would want the Veep cast to show up, as their characters on Veep. I think one conversation with Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) would make Jed suicidal, whereas CJ could out-press secretary Mike (Matt Walsh) with her eyes closed. A proper crossover could be a lot of fun. 

do you think there are enough queer pairings being written for this fandom? This is a tricky topic, because all shipping is a matter of taste, and a lack of queer ships is to be expected when the pairing that’s got a near-monopoly on the fandom is a heterosexual one. Gay representation on TWW was absolutely dismal, but I often wonder why there aren’t more gay ships being written, especially WLW ones, when there’s plenty of subtext and possibility to be found. Sure, Sam/Josh gets a bit of attention, but other gay ships are pretty solidly rarepairs. I don’t think it’s homophobia, per se, but it is something I think about, and I would watch a video essay about it. But, as I always try to tell myself, we’re talking about fanfiction about a show that went off the air over a decade ago. It really isn’t that serious.

Thanks again so much to Atlas, and thanks to everyone who contributed questions. If you’d like to be featured in a future Creator Spotlight, DM us here or on tumblr, or send an email to weeklypressbriefing@gmail.com.

xx, What’s next?

[insomniamamma]

Rain: Ezra X F!Reader w/Cee

A/N: Prickle ‘verse. Takes place after Prickle but before Clean Dirt. Can be read as a one shot. Reader is established crew with Ezra and Cee. This was written for @autumnleaves1991-blog​ ‘s Writer Wednesday. I am woefully behind. I legit don’t understand how some of you write fics so fast!

Warnings: Mentions of war, a little bit of angst, but mostly gentle fluff. Feelings.

            "Hey, Ez," Ezra is engrossed in grading the latest haul, testing for clarity and hardness.  The surface of CJ's World is cut through with oxbow rivers, fantastic hoodoos of striated sandstone slashed with valleys deeper than any found in Sol system. You're digging for fossils. These rusty carved out plateaus were once the bed of an ancient ocean. Through some trickery of mineralization and chemistry the fossils of CJ's world shine like the fire opals of Old Terra. Big or small, they all have value.           "Ezra," says Cee, "She's doing it again."           "Doing what, birdie?" Ezra takes off the loupe and rubs at his eyes. Rain pelts on the tent, even sheltered the humidity soaks through.           "Look." Ezra draws open the tent flap and sees you, standing in the rain, your head tilted up, no gentle shower this, rain that pelts down hard, turns the view across the sharp-cut canyons to silver curtains. Your clothes are plastered to you like a second skin. The rain actually aids your cause, washing away loose sediment, making the fossils easier to get to. You bow your head and let the stinging rain hit the back of your neck, let it fall on your closed eyes, your outspread arms. You laugh at the sky.

           "What do you know about Falnost?" Cee's eyes go distant for a beat. She has a memory to rival Central computers.

           "Hmmm..about two thirds standard grav, class C5, would've rated lower if not for it's primary. Dustball."             "Mmm-hmm."             "She's not used to real weather," says Cee.             "Observant as ever," says Ezra. The rain is not gentle. It is chilly and hits your skin like handfuls of flung sand, but is so different from anything you've known, so new that you can't help but stand there with a huge, dumb grin plastered on your face, even as your teeth chatter with the cold. Ezra comes and gets you.             "C'mon, Artichoke, while the rain does feel slinky and delicious it is not worth hypothermia."             "Sorry, Ez," you say and allow him to take your hand and lead you back to shelter. This has become something of a habit. Many worlds in the fringe are dustballs like the one you fled, algae and fungus growing on every bit of pipe that condensation beads on. On Falnost they had a deal with the ice-miners, discounted accommodations on world or on station in exchange for chunks of ice from your primary's lush rings de-orbited, burning and evaporating as they fell. The idea was that, eventually, there would be moisture enough in the atmosphere to trigger rains. Someday Falnost will have an ocean, but you won't be there for it, half your life spent harvesting rills of water from sail-traps, careful irrigation channels covered over with plastic sheeting, calorie vs water consumption ratios discussed every planting season. How many credits do we net vs wha† we have to spend? You got fucking sick of dreaming of an ocean your great grandchildren might paddle in. You skimmed enough to buy your way off world and since then you have seen things that you never would have believed as a child.            The first time you heard thunder was on a world called Ingwy. Your first  thought was artillery. Ingwy was a contested world, Karoclan and Lussia Collective skirmishing over land rights, while small stakes droppers like you and Ez and Cee swooped in to reap the spoils while the big corps and clans fought each other.  It was the middle of the night and you were on your feet instantly, railgun in hand, screaming that there was incoming, to take cover. Someone had flicked on a utility light hanging from a cord that swung, illuminating the inside of the tent in sickening arcs, and there's another explosion, this one so loud you feel the pressure change in your ears, hear your own voice crying out in tandem, white hot light even through the thick weave of the tent.           "It's just thunder," Ezra yells over the sound of rain slamming against the tent.           "That was an explosion!" He presses gently on your arm until you lower the rails.           "It's just loud," says Ezra, "It can't hurt us. We're safe here. Put the gun down." You set on the edge of your cot and put your face in your hands.           "Kevva. You must think I'm the dumbest dirt-farmer this side of the Great Arm." The cot dips as Ezra sits beside you.           "Not at all," he says, squeezes your shoulder, "I come from a backwater as well. First time I ever saw a proper ocean I nearly lost my breakfast right there on the beach."  Thunder peals again and you flinch, shrink against him slightly.            "Static electricity," says Ezra, "That's all it is. Builds up in the clouds and discharges into the ground." He keeps his hand on you as he speaks, fingers gently squeezing the juncture of your neck and shoulder, "The sound you hear is the air in the path of the lightning instantly heating and expanding. It makes a sonic shock wave, like any explosion."            "Like the boom when ships lift," you say.            "Just like that, Artichoke," he says, "Storm's already moving off, see?" The rain pelting the tent has settled into a steady drone. Thunder grumbles, a low, almost soft sound, not the air-rending explosion that shocked you out of sleep.            "We should try to rest," says Ezra, gives your shoulder one more firm squeeze and a little shake, and when you look up, he's smiling, dimple just beginning to sink into his cheek.             "Yeah," you say, "Okay." He kills the utility light and settles into his cot. You can hear the music from Cee's headphones, the tinny, fast pop she favors, threaded through the white noise of the falling rain. She slept through the whole thing.

            The ancient life of CJ's world favored heptagonal symmetry, long-dead mollusks like seven-sided shields shine out of the rusty ground, the smallest the size of a fingernail, the largest the size of dinner plates. This is a good deposit. The small ones are fashioned into jewelry and buttons.            "They take these great big ones and slice them micron thin," says Ezra, "Use them for window-glass in the temples of the Ephrate. They say it is like standing inside Kevva's very beating heart."           "I can see why," says Cee, and so do you. The minerals that limn the shells shine translucent red with brilliant streaks of orange, yellow and even thin threads of green and blue.           "They say that Kevva's first heart-beat ignited the explosion that became the universe," says Ezra.           "You really believe that?" Asks Cee.           "I don't know if believe is the right word," says Ezra, "We all grew up with these stories, why my grandmother..." You smile and tune him out. The back and forth banter between Cee and Ezra is a pulse that underlies every harvest. Cee has grown more talkative with each drop. Their relationship has a growing ease to it. You don't know exactly what happened between them before you joined up, but Cee's initial skittishness and Ezra's new healed scars tell a story you can guess the shape of. You let their conversation fade into the background, focus on the work of your hands, the meticulous scrape of soft sediment away from the hard glitter of the fossil, working around the seven sided edge, loosen enough up to get your fingers under the shell and you can pry it out, focus on the sounds of the world around you, no birds on CJ's world, but there is a range of bug-music, hidden in crevasses in the midday heat, all metallic clicks and creaks. Your rail-gun rests within easy reach, as always. You worm your fingers under the edge of the shell, wiggling it like a loose tooth, pops out of the sediment suddenly and you plop on your ass in the sandy dirt.           "You all right there, Artichoke?" Ezra grins at you.           "I'll recover." You dust yourself off and take your prize over to the tub that sits in the shadow of the pod. Further cleaning and grading can be done after dark. Nights  are long at this latitude. You stretch in the sunlight. This job is a milk-run compared to other drops, but hunkering in the dirt still hurts your knees and you feel every bit of it when you stand. There's a familiar sound, like a rumbling stomach, thunder, you think and glance up.          "Ezra!" Your voice is urgent and sharp and he's scrabbling up in a heartbeat, hand on the thrower at his hip, but when he stands there is only you pointing out across the vast expanse of sharp-carved valleys and hoodoos, lined in sharply delineated shadows and rusted cliffs where the light catches. The rainbow swoops skyward into grey cloud-bellies, a luminous curtain against the grey clouds, distant rain falling across the canyons.

        "Ezra, look!" Ezra exhales, tension leaching out of his shoulders. His hand drops away from the thrower.          "Oh, hey, a rainbow," says Cee. You lower your arm and just stare, transfixed at the glowing phantasm, brightening and dimming with the movement of clouds between it and the sun.           "It's beautiful," says Ezra. But he's not looking at the rainbow. He's looking at you. Your eyes are wide, lit up with wonder, an unconscious smile creeping across your face, crinkling the corners of your eyes. The stiff professionalism that you wear as close as your body armor momentarily set down, forgotten. Ezra's heart squeezes. There you are, he thinks. He can count on his one hand the number of times he's seen you smile like this, open and carefree, rare and precious as the gems the three of you pull from the ground. Part of him wants to kiss you, but he suspects he would end up on his back in the dust with the barrel of your railgun jammed beneath his sternum, so instead he brushes his hand against yours and your fingers find his and squeeze hard.            "I've never seen one before," you say, barely aware of Ezra's hand linked with yours, "I mean, I know what a rainbow is, but I've never seen one. Not in the real, just in vids."            "They don't have rainbows on Falnost?" Says Cee.            "They don't have rain on Falnost," you say, "Get's a little hazy sometimes after the ice-haulers make a drop, but that's about it." You shake your head as if just waking, the rainbow still shimmers, a bit duller now, and you are suddenly aware of Ezra's hand clasped with yours, the gentle pressure of his grasp.             "Sorry," you drop your eyes, "I got distracted. We got work to do." Ezra gives your hand a squeeze and then lets you go.             "Not to worry, Artichoke, rainbows are fleeting things. You look your fill while you can." And so you do. So does he.

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Audrey Roget

Audrey Roget has 10 fics at Gossamer, with some different ones at AO3, fanfiction.net, and her website. You might know her from her very good fics or as part of Musea, a collective that all wrote fic and posted X-Files fic recs. I’ve recced some of my favorites of her stories here before, including Three Times Dana Scully Didn’t Go to San Diego for Christmas and The Shirt. Big thanks to Audrey for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)? A little, yes. Not so much by folks who were around in those days. I sometimes go hunting for beloved stories from the early years, both those I read and loved, and those I never got around to. I am always delighted to hear that later generations of fans have stumbled across my stuff, especially since I haven’t posted anything new in a number of years. It’s fantastic that both years-long fans and new ones are out there continuing to rec fic from all eras, and to maintain archives for fans yet-to-be born. What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it? What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general? It may sound corny, but the main thing I think of, and the thing that has ultimately been most valuable and lasting, has been the friendships. The feeling of having found a tribe – not just of TXF fans, but of other people who could be as enthusiastically engaged as I was (if not more so) with fictional stories and characters – was mind-blowing. Since I was a kid, I had often mulled over the books/movies/TV I loved and speculated internally about what happened off the page or off-screen, or created new stories for characters in my head. But, except for an elementary school phase where I and my two BFFs regularly played Charlie’s Angels, I hadn’t engaged in that kind of gleeful immersion in a fictional world with others until TXF fandom. My involvement in fandom followed pretty quickly from getting hooked on the show, so for me, it’s all one big ball of experiences. Even as my interest in/involvement in fandom has waxed and waned over the years, I’ve been lucky to remain friends with wonderful people who I originally connected with as fellow fans.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)? What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

My initial entrée to the fandom was through fanfiction. I didn’t get interested in the show until mid-season 5. Around the same time, I read an article in a zine called Might (co-founded by Dave Eggers) about this thing called fanfiction that people would write and publish online. At first I thought it was satire or a joke – the fic cited involved Wilma Flintstone and a polished sabre tooth, as I recall – but then realized this was an actual thing. So I figured that a show then at the peak of pop culture must have fanfiction, and I went looking. Early on, I scrolled atxc on a daily basis and downloaded stories. But I didn’t engage in discussions about the show on Usenet, since I only knew how to access it with my Earthlink email client, and I didn’t want to post using my real name.

Later, I set up a pseud address with Yahoo and subscribed to a couple of email fanfic/discussion lists, and stayed subscribed to those for years. There was also a period in there somewhere – of maybe only a year or so, when I think about it – when I’d often nerd out into the wee hours with other fans via IM chat groups. That was around the time the small writers’ collective Musea was founded, and we were active for several years after the show’s initial run. In the early aughts, I followed many authors to LiveJournal and eventually set up my own account and stayed involved in fandom that way, until it mostly dispersed as well. What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show? In a word: Chemistry. I had casually watched a couple of episodes during the first four seasons, but I’m not a huge sci-fi/horror fan at heart, and the story lines didn’t immediately grab me. But I happened to tune into The Red and the Black in 1998, and BOOM. For the first time, the intense layers of emotion and attraction between Mulder and Scully really struck me – and then of course, upon further viewing, I realized it was unmissable, an essential element in the fabric of the show. As a wise woman once said, a switch had been flicked. Mulder and Scully’s magnetism was like nothing I’d ever seen, and though I eventually came to appreciate the storytelling, humor, production values, and other components that made the series so successful, watching those characters interact has always been what kept me coming back. Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files? I was part of a list-serv discussion group for The West Wing for a while, which was a fun melding of character and plot analysis with political discussion. Later, I got into the House, MD fandom, again mostly as a fanfic reader/writer. I was finding that other fandoms, unlike TXF, were more dispersed, the networks of people structured more loosely, if at all. There were fanfic and discussion communities on LiveJournal, and fanfiction.net was the other main hub for posting and reading, but if there was anything centralized like Gossamer, Ephemeral, or the Haven, I never found it. Within all those fan communities, as in TXF, there were partisans for various characters and pairings, and flame wars erupted over plot developments that outraged this faction or that. One main difference was that those other shows had larger, ensemble casts and more varied subplots. So on one hand, there was more opportunity to explore back stories and multiple perspectives. In House MD in particular, there were several entrenched rival shipper camps, which were about equally grounded in canon, rather than TXF’s central ship. I was less into TWW fic, but my impression was that readers were less militant about their pairing preferences than TXF or House fans. Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

I was deeply fascinated by Greg House for several years. (And the love-hate chemistry between him and Lisa Cuddy was a strong draw for me.) House MD came early in a wave of TV shows centered on anti-heroes, and Hugh Laurie brought amazing complexity and thoughtfulness to the character.

Philip and Elizabeth Jennings (The Americans) are a lethal pair of antiheroes. The inherent moral conflict of a sympathetic narrative from their POVs, and the global political conflict they embody was TV catnip for me. The internal struggles at the hearts of those characters were so exquisitely written and performed, they completely fascinate me.

The West Wing felt so much like a show created specifically for me. I’m especially fond of story arcs and scenes that centered on CJ Cregg, Charlie Young, and Josh Lyman. Though I loved Martin Sheen’s human portrayal of Jed Bartlet, the fact that he was the President always made him a little untouchable in my mind. But CJ, Charlie, and Josh were basically hard-working functionaries who were ambitious and idealistic and funny and flawed, and they spoke to me. What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom? Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully? Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I do continue to think about Mulder and Scully and watch episodes somewhat often. I’ll sometimes run a favorite episode as background when I want something comforting on. I read TXF fic pretty regularly, which can inspire me to go back and watch a particular episode or story arc I haven’t thought about in years. Just recently, I started listening to The X-Files Diaries podcast (@XFDPodcast, @admiralty-xfd), and that’s a fun dive into the characters, and how other fans react to and interpret episodes.

Every once in a while, a TV show or movie – and more particularly, the characters – will grab my attention and make me curious about how fanfic writers have interpreted the original material. Random example, I saw Singin’ in the Rain for the first time in a theatre a couple of years ago, and the chemistry of the three leads sent me to AO3 as soon as I got home. I also loved the first season of Mercy Street and found some well-done stories in that fandom. I usually peruse the Yuletide gifts every year and have been amazed by the sheer variety, creativity and cheekiness of the output. There are a bunch of other shows I’ve followed faithfully, and sought out fanfic – Broadchurch, The Killing, Agents of SHIELD, Elementary, The Good Wife. Although I’ve found some well-written stuff in those fandoms, I’ve rarely gotten the same charge from them as reading TXF fic. Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

syntax6 (@syntax6) – Universal Invariants/Laws of Motion. I’d also shout out to syn’s Hunter fics, too – well worth reading even for those who have never seen or particularly loved the show itself.

JET – I re-read Small Lives Awake every year around Thanksgiving time. Other annual holiday re-reads: Revely’s The Dreaming Sea and Jordan’s Through the Fire (both set at Halloween).

Amal Nahurriyeh’s Casey universe – the rare post-col fic that felt hopeful, made extra intriguing by a kick-ass original character. [Lilydale note: the series starts with Machines of Freedom and has lots of additional fics and snippets.]

Prufrock’s Love – Finding Rokovoko was genuinely terrifying and tender.

melforbes (@melforbes) – Seaglass Blue is a recent favorite, lyrical and bittersweet.

These are just a few (apologies to those that didn’t come to mind immediately). Fortunately for readers, there’s an astonishing number of authors who have written in TXF fandom whom you can depend on for a good yarn, insightful character study, and/or ingenious “fixes” where 1013 went awry.

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

Probably the two set in my own (former) backyard of Southern California: Enivrez-vous and Ravenous. I’d first read the Baudelaire poem that was the source of the former’s title back in university days, so I was tickled to be able to use a few lines as an epigraph. Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online? It’s not out of the realm possibility. I’d meant for “Three Times Dana Scully Didn’t Go to San Diego for Christmas” to be followed up with “And One Time She Did.” In fact, the idea for that never-finished story was what inspired “Three Times” in the first place. I have a couple of scenes sketched out and – unusually for me – even know exactly how to end it. Every year, November rolls around, and I think I should finish and post it…maybe in 2021?

Where do you get ideas for stories? Sometimes it’s from my environment. “Enivrez-vous” and “Ravenous” describe places that I’m fond of, that made me want to place Mulder and Scully there. “What Not to Wear” has that element too – I set it in Memphis as a tribute to a great trip there with a sister Musean. But WNTW was also inspired by a kink challenge in a years-ago LiveJournal thread, so sometimes ideas come from fandom discussions or even other fanfics. In the House MD fandom, a fic by another writer made me want to continue the story, and the author kindly allowed an authorized sequel. What's the story behind your pen name? I wanted my pseudonym to sound like it could be a real person’s name – or at least, maybe like a romance writer’s pen name – rather than an online handle. I also wanted to use a slightly obscure fictional character, to amuse anyone in the know. I had long had a bit of an obsession with Whit Stillman’s 1990s film trilogy, which started with Metropolitan; the 3rd installment, Last Days of Disco, came out the same year I started down the TXF rabbit hole: 1998. The central heroine of Metropolitan – who is mentioned in or makes a cameo in the other two – is Audrey Rouget, a lover of Austen and, eventually, a book editor. I altered the spelling of the last name as a nod to every writer’s companion, Roget’s Thesaurus. Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions? I have a few close friends – from outside TXF fandom – who know that I’ve written fanfic. I don’t know if they know my pseud; if they do, or if they’ve ready any of the fic, they haven’t said so to me. They are fannish sorts themselves, but not really TXF fans. A smattering of other friends and family members know or could intuit that I’ve been a fangrl on some level for years. My boss, whom I’ve known for about 3 years, recently mentioned off-handedly that she was really obsessed with TXF “back in the day,” and I am DYING to know if she got involved in fandom, but don’t think I’ll ever work up the courage to ask.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now? Most of the X-Files stuff continues to be generously and steadfastly archived by Forte at The Basement Office. The House MD stories and some TXF things are at fanfiction.net; same for AO3. If ever post anything new, it will probably go to TBO and AO3. I really ought to get it all together in one place, one of these days…

(Posted by Lilydale on April 6, 2021)