#I don't much like this AU if I am being honest haha

[painted-bees]

Raf's amount of self awareness and the amount of time he spends analyzing himself in his own head seemed a little far fetched until I got to the part about his past relationships and how badly things went despite having started therapy back then. It makes a lot more sense that he didn't get to this level of awareness and grace until way later after years of working on himself. But I really want to know how his relationship with Margie might have gone if he was less aware?

Oh, fun question lmao Assuming he never sees his behavior as something that he needs to work on: I think Margie's impulse to be honest and straightforward, and to wear her emotions on her sleeves would still have likely gotten her past his defenses and into a close relationship. But the closer/more important someone becomes to Raf, the more and more reactive/mercurial/mean he'd get. Those close relationships--the ones he treasures most--are the ones that pose the highest level of danger. They're the ones who'd hurt him the most if they betrayed him. Coupled with Margie's conflict-averse instinct to wilt, roll over, and apologize before considering if she'd even done anything wrong--we'd have likely seen a much more possessive and controlling Raf. We don't see that in his relationship with Lacey, because Lace would often bite back twice as hard, and was able to [very aggressively] assert boundaries with him. Margie, tho--so long as he kept encouraging and enabling her to make music, and providing warm, enthusiastic support on that front, she'd be easily convinced to change any behavior he didn't like--under the pretense that she was working on becoming a better, easier person to live with. I think, tho--if there ever arose a moment where he asserted that she couldn't pursue a music/career-related opportunity (that didn't require his involvement), if he threatened to take back all the 'nice things' he's given her as a tool of punishment/manipulation, or if he started discouraging her from vising friends or family--and if she couldn't reason with him on that front/it consistently resulted in a big argument every time--she'd end the relationship. She was, at least, raised well by her mother to identify that kind of situation as a 'get out now' 0 tolerance red flag of abuse. And--you know...if she had to do that, I think this would be the event that sees her move back home with her parents. Emotionally and psychologically, she'd lose a lot to this relationship. She'd need her family to help center herself again. Otherwise, Raf would likely sabotage the relationship for himself, and break things off with her over some catastrophic misunderstanding or another--where he is just unable and unwilling to hear her out and take her word at face value. But if certain lines are never crossed; if Margie learns to stifle/bury her excited impulses and exist as quietly as she is able to, and if Raf is able to pull himself back from enacting on paranoid compulsions just enough, he and Margie would probably find a tenuous but """comfortable""" stasis. Like with any relationship, they'd have moments both good and bad, catastrophes that maybe only resolve themselves for the convenience of it rather than out of a proper understanding, as well as tender moments of joyful whimsy, when the circumstances were right for it, that'd serve to remind them of why they're together in the first place and help bolster the staying-power of their relationship. But it'd all be balanced...very differently. They'd be a lot less fun, I think. Margie would have never suggested going to Cortes Island. She'd have been reluctant to suggest much at all. Raf would be stuck with the persistent suspicion that she resented him--and yanno--she might. But not for the reasons he'd think.

[shopcat]

i think w avatar in my own base... world that i draw/think. in. of. you know what i mean like the main reality to ME that i've developed the pairings would be well zuko sokka and then i can't decide if i prefer mai ty lee and azula having something weird going on where ty lee and azula have been dating for years and mai orbits them orrr suki and/or azula meeting through ty lee being in the kyoshi warriors (and then the classic mai lee) which i think would be a really fun dynamic to be honest i wonder why i haven't seen it much. anyway. yue and jet are also nebulously alive just cuz idc. i like yue katara i think that's cute even if it's still funny to steal ur brothers ex but i justify it by well as much as they were cute they truly went on like one ? date and just liked each other it just so happened to end very dramatically. it would be the same if sokka dated idk... jet ... anyway. though her and aang are still cute. mostly not like i am centring pairings and Shipping and such it's just easier to have things established just thinking things in my mind U_U i also am pondering an au to do with zuko and yue where they're friends and i'll leave it at that bc i think it's a fun idea i haven't seen around. rubs my hands together.

[findafight]

Hello! I've been plagued by thoughts of Starbara. I would love to know how you think the bathroom scene between Robin and Steve would go if Starbara was a thing. Like, I really, really love Starbara, and I really, really love Stobin as besties, so I am desperate to be able to combine the two without either relationship losing too much depth and connection. Thoughts?

Many. MANY thoughts. @momotonescreaming and I have actually talked about the bathroom scene! (both of them hehe) The Starcourt bathroom scene is like. Holy Stobin Texts okay. I refuse to water it down, ever, but tweaks must be made.

so with the starbara au, sometime before s3 Barb decides to rekindle her friendship with Robin, who is a bit weary of it a little. But anyways Robin is at the very least friendly but not close with Barb, and still holding a a grudge against Steve (love her being petty). When they get jobs at scoops, Robin just tells Barb she's working at the mall, and Barb goes haha Steve is working there too! Maybe you'll see each other! (and then they did)

First day at Scoops Steve walks in and goes oh! Barb's friend Robin! hi Robin! :D and Robin is just. gritting her teeth. Of course then she spends time with him and discovers he is just a goofy lad. She tries so hard to keep him as her nemesis but she simply cannot because even though she has the "you suck" board to tally the amount of longing sighs Steve does while Barb isn't in the store, he grows on her. She can tell when barb told Steve she'd try to come by because he glaces at the clock and perks up. He gets all sappy when Barb comes in and they flirt and he gives her free icecream and Robin is stewing like HELLO. she is TRYING to be BITTER. if those two could stop being SICKENINGLY in LOVE that'd be great.

Steve has the worlds most devastating squish on Robin he wants to be her friend so so so bad, and Barb teases him about having a crush on her and he's like "Barbie 🥺 how could you say that? You know I 'm in love you🥺I just want to make her laugh and share a backyard with her so our kids can all play together and be best friends too 🥺"

anyways blah blah blah s3 happens they're in the starcourt bathrooms. Robin blurts the first semi invasive question of all time, because as soon as she finishes "have you ever been in love?" she's like yes obviously he has. he is.

and Steve answers affirmatively "Yeah. yes. Barb, of course. maaaan. She's amazing. I'm gonna marry her one day."

and Robin huffs a laugh because yeah, that's a pretty unsurprising plan from Steve. "Yeah? Tommy gonna be your bestman? or are you gonna shake it up and have Carol there?"

Steve sighs "nah. I don't...I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"Because...Tommy and Carol are my friends and I love 'em, but...I think I've found someone better for that part? Like someone we could split custody of a cat with, or my kids could call auntie, y'know?" Robin thinks she might throw up again, actually. "And I wish I would've been hanging out with her the whole time. She's hilarious, I've laughed more this summer with her than with nearly anyone else besides Barb in a long time." There's no way he'd be saying this to her if he knew.

"And she's smart. Way smarter than me. Able to crack a Russian code ina couple days, kind of smart, Y'know? She's unlike anyone I've ever met, and I really hope she wants to be my best friend too?"

It's so sweet, and so very Steve who's been sappy with Barb and goofy with all those kids, and now he's point blank asking her if she wants to be his best friend. She doesn't know what to do. She feels gross and sick and dizzy and hurting, but she could lie. Whatever was making her and Steve unable to keep their mouths shut has...well it hasn't worn off, but she'd definitely be able to resist it.

She doesn't want to. She wants to be brave, and honest, and vulnerable.

"Robin? You, uh, you OD over there?" Steve sounds nervous.

"No. Uh, I'm still alive..."She doesn't want to fuck this up. Doesn't want to lose Steve or Barb.

Steve slides under the stall wall. Says he can't get any worse that the blood and puke on him.

"So what do you think? About this girl?"

She gives him a wobbly smile. "she sounds awesome"

He smiles through his split lip. "She is awesome. And the guy?"

"I think he's coming down from being drugged and isn't thinking clearly. Cat custody? Really?"

He looks at her seriously. "I think he's thinking pretty clearly. Cat custody aside."

"He doesn't know this girl. And if he did, if he really, really knew her, he wouldn't want her anywhere near his wedding, let alone his hypothetical kids. I don't think he'd want to even be her friend."

He shakes his head. "That's not true. No way is that true."

She thinks fuck it. They've been tortured (she's not thinking about that). There's Russians under her feet probably still trying to kill her. She's going to be brave.

She tells him that she really likes him. About Clicks class. About Tammy. About how she was still trying to hold onto some resentment even when she was reconnecting with Barb, but he made it very difficult.

And then. Steve just. makes fun of Tammy Thompson. Sings like a muppet. And he makes her laugh.

When Dustin, Erica and Barb all bluster into the bathroom, they laugh more, at their faces, at being caught, at the ridiculousness of the entire situation.

Steve stands up and stumbles into Barb, holding his hands out to help robin up. Once she stands with him, Steve tries to rest his face on Barb's shoulder but winces. He giggles again. Turns to Barb.

"Ohh Barbie Robin's my best friend now and is gonna be my best maaAan and also our kids' godmother. She said so herself"

"I did not."

"Didn't say no, though, did you?"

To which Dustin scoffs and shoves them all out of the bathroom.

that's how I think the Stobin bathroom scene happens in the starbara au hehe

[nonbinary-niki-bog]

An Appreciation Post :)

hmm...would it be easier if i ask separate asks? probably.

but i'm going to do it this way since that way i know it won't be eaten by Tumblr's asks.

(none of you need to read this if you don't want to, of course, but i just want to say this here instead :D, and i hope that i manage to tag the correct person here because that'll be really weird if i didn't, haha)

(also 'keep reading' because it feels too long for a normal post :p)

Potato

@im-a-chunky-potato - i know i have said this multiple times (it's because i can't say this enough) but thank you for welcoming me into this community. i am not joking when i say that you are the one who got me started on this :D.

Blue

@hopelessbluebird - thank you for also can't wait for something new to happen in askryuu (come on guys we can make askryuu reach it's milestone. i know we can)

(note: this took me so long that i wrote this before you got 200 followers on askryuu, so please don't come at me for that T^T)

C

and i can't forget C, now can i? nope i can't. wherever Blue is, C will soon to follow (i have no clue if that's even true, but it sounds poetic). i'm sorry if you don't want to get roped into this, C.

C, you and Blue are both very nice and (insert some cool and appreciative words here since my brain refuses to work right now, so sorry T^T).

to be completely honest, i don't know that much (since whenever you (C) are on it seems like i'm off), but you are doing great, so keep doing what you're doing :D.

Sunni

@sunnikos - Sunni!!! you are a nice person who is also very fun, and i like our interactions in the server :D (even if we don't really interact on here).

Soda

@caffeiiine - Soda! i absolutely your art style. it is so pretty. and you are just a nice person in general.

Rouge

@rogues-stuff-bc-yes - Rouge! we don't really talk like at all here, but i would like to thank you for being an inspiration for my anon :D. you are generally a cool person and i really like Kaito <3.

Rainy

@rainythealias - Rainy!!! you get appreciated too. you're nice and it's nice interacting with you whenever we do.

Lemon

@circuslemon - i know we don't really interact that much on here, Lemon, but you're fun in the server and your ideas are so cool to read :D

Teddy

@teddymochi - Teddy! thank you for giving me enough courage to continue sharing my AU. and your drawing and art are really nice as well.

CreatorBiaze

(sorry i don't really remember your name on here. please forgive me T^T)

@creatorbiaze - your OCs are cool. you are cool. you and @teddymochi are cool. both of you are cool.

...

...

...

is that everyone? i hope so and i hope that it's not too much? i don't know anymore.

and thank you to those of you who have to deal with my little precious characters (you know who you are...i mean, i hope you do) and i do hope that they are not giving you guys trouble.

and to those who run ask blogs, no one will be able to do what you do for the community that you are a part of and that your characterization are the best characterization.

and also, thank you everyone who is interested in my silly little AU :D.

remember that you are all an amazing human being and i appreciate every single one of you for who you are <3.

[drivestraight]

hi! i am writing a character study right now (for a completely different fandom) but ofc objects in mirror keeps coming to mind because your characterization was so amazing and on point. do you have any advice for character studies specifically? and also, how did you gain the inspo for the plot in objects in mirror? was it a planned out thing or was it more just like a few key bulletpoints and then you went from there? i would love to hear about it and i appreciate you and your writing endlessly!!!

thank you so much! i have a bit of a rambling answer so i'm putting it below the cut:

i guess for characterization, the way i try to approach it, is to just keep them as human as possible in a way? like i don't think anything i do is exceptional or novel at all, but the way i think about it is to think through interactions, and go through the whole "would he do that? would he say that? would any normal person do or say that? what would X's response to Y doing this be? what is X and Y's relationship like and how do i get that across?" and i guess a lot of that is having a grasp of the "source material," so like. all the little videos that give us insight onto what they're like - and obviously that has its limits. like we really only do see glimpses, and a big part of rpf is filling in the blanks in a compelling/reasonably realistic way, and that's all up to you.

like obviously you can't reflect reality but i think it just comes down to portraying the characters so that they don't feel, like, caricatures rather than characters. and since you're doing a character study i'd assume you're writing it in like, a racing setting - in cases like these i do feel like it's more restrictive/difficult to get characterization "right," as opposed to in an au, where the characterization can feel real and compelling despite being pretty different. and this isn't to say that there's one right way - not at all. but like. making it Feel right in in an f1 setting, i'd say, is a little more narrow. it all comes down to just being thoughtful, i guess?

i do get kind of picky lasjf;lsaflaskjdf like sometimes when i feel like people try to give, for example, max or charles nuance, they go so heavy on like self-pity and trauma and inferiority it's like - is this a character who is even at all compelling? if this guy thinks he's so shit at everything like what's the point...😭 (unless he's getting rawed as a solution. that's always okay)

it's that sort of thing i mean like. it doesn't have to be accurate (we have no idea of what that actually means), but like... i do think to some extent it's important that you put thought and care into how you are portraying someone and not go too far into one extreme rather than the other. People have nuance. they can want antithetical things. etc etc. so it's just having that in mind, i'd say.

but like. if i'm being honest. not to like invalidate everything i've said above. i don't really think about it That much?? i kind of like. i pick the person i'm writing in the pov of, and just try to put myself in their head (as much as that's possible lmao), and things kind of just go from there. like i think i think about characterization when i need to, but it's more nowadays wrapped into my writing process as a whole, rather than something i think about in isolation.

and obviously i don't think that my word is gospel. this is just how i try to think about things and if this doesn't gel with you, throw it away lksjfd;lksad i'm just one person on the internet writing rpf

WOW okay i rambled a lot. onto your second question.

objects in mirror was largely unplanned. i think i've explained the story a couple times on here, but i'll just do it again haha.

when i was writing on the limit, i just wanted to write a fic about 2 guys talking. i didn't even think about writing a romantic relationship for them (deep enough in my discord dms is me talking about how i will Never ever ever ship lestappen or any sports rpf ship because i thought it was cringe), nor did i go into it with the intention of having charles go to red bull. i kinda just wanted him and max to have a drink and talk. originally it was supposed to be at the FIA gala but then i changed it, etc etc, and then we got on the limit.

leave no space was also kind of unplanned. by that point i started getting into lestappen as a romantic ship so then i was like. i wanna write something. hmmm. and then i just started writing something lmao. i think about 90% of the fic was unplanned. just vibes. scene after scene depending on what i felt like writing. maybe a bullet point here and there.

all to play for however... like. i was so against writing it at first because i knew it would take a lot of planning and effort. but then as more time passed i caved because i was like - this part of the story needs to be written. so then i literally made this spreadsheet along with plans for each race. dkfja;lkdfjsa. really an endeavor of massive proportions it was like a 2 month writing affair which i rarely ever do...

i guess "sources" of inspiration were like. seb's 2013 campaign, multi-21, spain 2016, etc etc. like past racing incidents were fun to think about/helped give inspiration for some of the incidents and this fic. and i think that one time lewis drove into the wrong pitbox lmao. and i guess also the wikipedia article of alexander the great. and also this one dream i had about someone calling me in the morning that turned out to totally be fake. <3

anyway yeah. i hope i answered at least some of your questions 😭

[dulcesiabits]

fic: where the stars fall

song: francesca by hozier

- okay, so the title is loosely inspired by the webtoon wait where the shooting star falls, because in my initial draft of this story, it was about childe and reader chasing after a star that's fallen to teyvat and the fic was heavily inspired by that webtoon. then i changed it to be about the zombie apoc, and then i changed it again to be a fairytale au where reader is a witch and childe is a silly human who falls in love with them. then i changed it back to a zombie apoc au, but kept the title, because i thought it was cute, and could also symbolize the end of the world/reader and childe trying to head north to potential safety. this idea has been marinating for several years, so i'm so glad it's finally finished!!! i wanted to sit down and write an actual long fic for my og genshin fav, haha.

- to be honest, this version of childe fic is one where i wanted to explore the idea of humanity, especially in a apocalyptic scenario. scaramouche worked so well as an antagonist, and i accidentally had too much fun writing his dynamic with reader i worried childe was being left to the wayside, haha. but hopefully the ending scene with childe reinforces why this is ultimately a fic about him and reader, not scaramouche!!! i love it when scaramouche is a bit of a bitch, lol.

- i actually made a conscious effort to move away from flashbacks and wanted to keep the piece continuously in the present. at first, i thought about going back and forth from present to past, but i worried flashbacks might slow the piece down. besides, this piece is about the relationships of everyone in the present day scenario of the zombie apoc, not about how their rls came to be. in short, i wanted to only explore the here and now!! besides, i wanted to keep the momentum going and see if i could work on portraying childe's and reader's close relationship in the present through dialogue and context without having to rely on flashback. this is the same reason i got rid of any line dividers; instead of clearly delineating where a scene ends and begins, i wanted to see if i could keep the pace as one continuous, smooth movement!

- sorry guys, this is a character study disguised as an action piece! so it might feel a little slow in that aspect. i'm not so much as interested in everyone killing zombies as i am in how people's mindsets as they adapt to such tough circumstances. it's also less romance heavy because there's no time for that in a dangerous situation! besides, i'm a fan of romance beyond words, so i dont usually like writing love confessions bc i dont like it when the emotions and rls is given a name. what childe and reader feel for each other is so strong i don't think love can really capture it. it's a very intense feeling, and neither are really in the right circumstances to explore their feelings. ultimately, this is a reader centered piece about someone wrestling with the violence of the world, the nature of humanity, and trusting others.

- you may be asking me, what the hell is wrong with scaramouche? so much lol. his chronic trust issues make him the perfect candidate to challenge a reader who wants to believe in others. when he was talking about a foolish idiot who was abandoned by his mother and betrayed by people he trusted, he was talking about himself! surprise!! scara once believed in other people, but was hurt and betrayed, so now he distrusts them. this is why he doesnt like reader, because they remind him of how he used to be, so hurting and betraying reader is a bit like self-punishment for him. what happens to him after the story? it's a mystery! you guys are free to imagine what you like. it's funny how big of a part he plays in the story, when initially, it was just going to be about reader's and childe's struggling relationship as the zombie apoc drives a wedge between them and their understanding of each other lol.

- some motifs i enjoyed putting into this fic: childe as as a dog/animal (and reader borrowing this imagery when theyre angry at scara), childe and reader handholding as a sign of closeness and trust, the violin as a symbol for reader's hopes, dreams and trust in others, teucer's radio also as a promise of safety/trust in others

- it's left a bit vague at the end, but i like how ambiguous the ending is! i think it can be read like reader is dying, or reader survives and decides to put their lot in with other people. it's also left ambiguous as to whether childe will stay alive or whether he dies. i'd be curious to see what other people make of/how they interpret the ending, haha.

- in my mind, the zombie apoc started bc of a virus unleashed by dotorre who got a little too silly in the lab. the virus was actually a top secret gov project created by a few scientists (dottore, tighnari, albedo, etc) but dottore betrays them by unleashing an imperfect version onto the world, and the other scientists are trying to catch him and to make a cure lol

[everybodyknows-everybodydies]

20 questions for writers

tagged by @pia-writes-things - thank you! :D

(under the cut to save your dash)

How many works do you have on AO3?

64 at the moment!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

145,151 in eleven years... same as with drawing I don't post 90% of what I do lol whoops

3. What fandoms do you write for?

currently TES has been getting the gears going the most, but ER is my perennial love - and once in a blue moon I am compelled to do something TLU! SM is still very dear to my heart but I've been pretty dry on fic inspiration/drive for it for a while now :(

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

these are ALL OLDER PIECES haha so don't look too closely: it still burns - fluffy OPM piece for Knight c: what else can I say! too cold for you here and now - fluffy little Makoami piece (are you sensing a pattern already...) featuring terrible puns, because I have always loved characters trying to make each other laugh you do it for her (that is to say you do it for him) - another one written for Knight; OPM/SM crossover. with TWO chapters! left, left, left right left - introspective Romano piece re: arm. I actually now disagree with some character choices I made in this one so seeing it still getting attention has me like no... this doesn't represent me... Across the Western Ocean I Must Wander - Makoami pirate AU. also not a oneshot! (shock!) I don't think it holds up as well as I'd like, but the premise still compels me and there's some cute moments :'D still VIVIDLY remember being up late on a class night listening to one song on repeat while working on The Kissing Scene™

5. Do you respond to comments?

almost always! it may take me a bit sometimes, but I do try to make sure I do

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

frankly idek - being completely honest, "angst" just as a word at this point turns me off so immediately and so hard that I can't engage with the concept that way. I prefer endings with some hope, but I like some emotional complexity too! all my baggage about fandom and "angst" is for. ANOTHER TIME

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

again I'm not totally sure how to answer this one! I guess Ocean? doesn't get much more stereotypically happily-ever-after than "and then they ran away together the end"

8. Do you get hate on fics?

no, thankfully! I've gotten the occasional comment here and there that make me go "??" but more just sort of confusing, not malicious as far as I can tell lol

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

sdlkghlsj sex-repulsed asexual here and not for the first time I say: I am reasonably confident nobody wants me doing that. it can happen but offscreen to spare me the inevitable mortification... fade-to-black is about as far as we go in the House Of Mouse sorry!!

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

I have before! it's not my preferred stomping grounds but I like a good one. I don't know about "craziest" but wouldn't do us any harm I think is probably the funniest of the handful I've shared (again: written primarily for Knight! warning that it is from 2016 LOL)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

also not to my knowledge!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

yes! baby Mouse ran a fic awards "show" (in the written medium obviously) with a friend back in like 2010 or 2011 on FFN... it was loads of fun!

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

just one?? if I have to choose then: Lizzie & the Bald Boys... my little driftwood raft that I've finally convinced a handful of other people aboard c':

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

Makoami Princess and the Goblin AU :( still means a lot to me but SM just hasn't been where I've been drawn to write for a while!

16. What are your writing strengths?

dialogue + characterization is most often what I get compliments on (<3) - I'd like to think I have a fairly decent hand for little meaningful details too, but I think these more often than not end up just being for my own benefit because I like my symbolism subtle aha

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

LONGFORM... plugging together things into ordered chapters and maintaining momentum over longer spaces is my greatest struggle. I've had to come to terms with the fact that I'm much more a sprinter than a marathon runner, and it's been very freeing letting myself step outside of needing all the surrounding context to just do things as I come to them and then getting to string it all into chronology via series ordering

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

done well I find it really impressive! it's very hard to do well though ahaha.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

without the context of "fandom", the first story I ever wrote was about the Boxcar Children hanging out with me at age 6 (the entirety of chapter three was all of us singing the alphabet together and it was narratively crucial that this happen. for some reason.). with the context of knowing about fandom though, Scooby Doo at 11-12!

20. Favorite fic you've written?

of what's posted: Ocean has a lot of personal meaning because it was the first multichapter piece I was able to finish in several years, but on a technical level I've been really proud of some of the more layered pieces I've been practicing in the last year or so: Thermal Equilibrium and skipping stones I think are good examples of that :')

tagging: @knightnightwrite (I AM GOING TO GET YOU TO DO ONE OF THESE SOMEDAY <3 <3 <3), @wispstalk, @ehlnofay, @wonderofasunrise, and anyone else who wants to do it!! as always no obligation if you've been tagged and don't want to! except for Knight. beloved I am knocking on your door come PLAY WITH ME

[frodo-with-glasses]

Been thinking about a particular LOTR what-if scenario (because my D&D campaign took a turn into collaborative LOTR fanfiction), and I'm interested in your perspective on it if you have time . . .

Supposing Boromir somehow survived protecting Merry and Pippin, what effect would that have on Denethor?

Denethor's being fed despair by Sauron either way. But I have always read him as the news of Boromir's death being the thing that breaks him and makes him start to believe it. His grief is certainly a large part of what's informing his treatment of Faramir (though certainly not the only thing, as I think there's textual evidence that Denethor favored Boromir all along).

If Boromir didn't die . . . would Denethor still give into despair? Would he still send Faramir on a suicide mission — and if he did, and Faramir still suffered the same wounds, would Denethor still end up in his whole "all is lost; better to die on our own terms" spiral? Or would he have the presence of mind to see to the defense of the city?

How would he react to Aragorn, a man who has all the qualities Denethor disdains in Faramir but even more so, and who people are now saying is the rightful king (who even his own sons, even favored Boromir, are saying is Gondor's king returned)?

(He almost certainly wouldn't be a fan of Aragorn's plan to draw Sauron's eye away from Frodo. He probably would be greatly displeased that the Ring had been allowed to go across the River to Mordor at all, and even Boromir would have trouble convincing him otherwise.)

Thank you for letting me ramble in your askbox, haha. Don't feel pressured to answer if you don't want to or don't find the question as much as I do. (But if you do answer, I will be delighted.)

As much as the Gondor Dudes aren’t my personal hyperfixation in LotR, I am nonetheless a big fan of overthinking hypothetical situations, so this is right up my alley. :-D (Also, it’s really cool that you’re running an LotR-themed D&D campaign!! Sounds like a blast.)

To be honest, you hit pretty much every point I was going to touch on; Denethor’s despair and consequent insanity were certainly motivated, at least in part, by grief, so if you take the grief out of the equation then naturally the results are going to be at least slightly different. But we still have lots of other factors at play here: fighting a hopeless war, the looming specter of deposition, knowing that your allies just sent a nuke into the territory of the Enemy in the hands of a garden gnome so small you could punt him, and Prolonged Exposure to Cursed Artifact are still going to take their toll on Denethor’s mind. He will doubtless be more motivated to hold on to life while his favorite son is still alive, but even if he doesn't turn paranoid and filicidal, he’s still going to be Deeply Messed Up regardless.

So since I'm not getting any new ideas by looking at things from a Watsonian (in-universe) perspective, I'm gonna steer this in a Doylist (meta) direction and talk about implementation instead. The question I always ask myself with these sorts of "canon but a bit to the left" fanfictions is this:

What do you want out of the story? Do you want to:

A) Return to canon as quickly as possible? B) Change just one thing and see how far it butterfly-effects out? C) Find something somewhere in the middle?

Because the thing with "canon but a bit to the left" AUs that you can make pretty much anything work. It's a hypothetical situation. The question is how far away from canon you're willing to deviate. If I'm writing a "Boromir Lives" AU, I might go a couple of different directions, and the one I ultimately choose depends on personal preference and what I want out of the story.

Putting this under a read-more 'cause it's about to get long.

Option A: Canon, but like .5 degrees to the left

Ever since the battle at the Falls, Boromir has been following Aragorn and doing everything the Three Hunters (well, Four Hunters) do. When Pippin looks into the Palantir, Gandalf decides to take him to Minas Tirith right away, and Boromir, who's eager to get home and feels some responsibility for Pippin, volunteers to go with them.

(Yes I know that Shadowfax travels at ungodly fast speeds to get from Rohan to Gondor, but it's implied that lesser horses can keep up with their lord when they need to, so even if Boromir took a different horse they might still have been able to make it to Minas Tirith in a similar time.)

Denethor gives an enthusiastic welcome to Boromir and a far less enthusiastic welcome to Gandalf and Pippin. That welcome becomes less enthusiastic still in the ensuing conversation/interrogation, when he learns that they totally had the Ring but they sent it into Mordor instead of bringing it here. Boromir tries to reason with his father. Denethor is very disappointed with him. He blames Gandalf for corrupting his other son with all this foolishness, and treats Pippin with suspicion because of the whole prophecy with the Halfling, and the convo ends with hurt feelings all around.

I might need the War Nerds on this blog to correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it, the attempt to take back Osgiliath wasn't a completely useless suicide mission, at least in concept. It is a major river crossing, and controlling transportation routes is like War 101. If you make it hard for your enemy to cross the River, you make it hard for your enemy to get to your stronghold, and that's good. Not a bad idea on paper. The only problem was that Minas Tirith didn't have the manpower to pull it off.

(And also there were Nazgul.)

Anyway, the point is, it's almost logical enough that you might be able to get away with Denethor ordering the Osgiliath offensive even without the grief-induced paranoia. Besides, there's still other paranoia in play: so far as Denethor is concerned, the Ring is walking into enemy hands, his son and most trusted captain has turned against him, and Gandalf is already planning a coup.

So here's what I'm thinking. Keep the Osgiliath battle, but send Boromir out there as well. Boromir and brother bravely bear the baleful battle, before their butts are badly beat and they get bit by the Black Breath. Dad feels bad, his boasts bashed as his boys' bodies burn with fever. Battle bears down on the beleaguered bourgeoisie, but their bereaved bigwig is barely bothered, too busy building bier bonfires.

…Sorry, I don't know where that came from.

Anyway, the point is, this puts us squarely back where we'd be at this point in canon: Denethor thinks he’s about to lose his family, his city, and his kingdom, and consumed by despair he decides that it's better to die on his own terms than in the hands of the Enemy. You can pretty much just follow canon from here and copy-paste Boromir with whatever is happening to Faramir.

(Except, of course, for the whole "falling in love with Eowyn" thing. But hey! Boromir was in Rohan! He and Eowyn probably know each other already! So they might have some fun conversations in the Houses of Healing.)

This is the route I would take if you want to stick as close to canon as possible and still keep Boromir alive. If adherence to the narrative is not your biggest concern, however:

Option B: Go stupid, go crazy

Boromir doesn't die. What does that change?

Well, everything, if you let it.

Let's say Boromir does return to Minas Tirith with Gandalf and Pippin like I suggested above. Let's say he's able to talk his father into begrudgingly going along with their unorthodox plan to save the world. Let's say Denethor doesn't call for the almost-but-not-quite-entirely-completely-a-suicide-mission to Osgiliath and instead puts Boromir and Faramir to work strengthening the defenses of the Minas Tirith. By time the Battle of Pelennor Fields rolls around, Denethor—now no longer occupied by the family barbecue—is available to direct defense of the city, with both sons acting as his captains.

Awesome! All this is great stuff, right?

Well, yes. So far.

The problem is that we lose so many great moments with other characters in the process. Pippin's pell mell run to find Gandalf. Beregond abandoning his post to protect Faramir. Eowyn and Merry, who slayed the Witch King together because Gandalf was too busy putting out fires (literally!) to get down there and do it himself. Aragorn, proving that "the hands of a king are the hands of a healer"! And if Faramir and Eowyn hadn't both suffered the Black Breath, they wouldn't both have been forced to stay behind as everyone else went to fight at the Black Gate, and they wouldn't have fallen in love in the same way.

This is not a statement meant to push your decision one way or another, but it's just a fact of the decision: If you dispense with Denethor's paranoia, and the insanity, and the murder arson, then you dispense with a lot of the other cool moments in this book. The question you've got to ask yourself is if that's a price you're willing to pay, and if not, how you can work around it.

Anyway, back to Pelennor Fields. I want you to imagine that Denethor is standing at the wall, watching the battle raging below him. It's not going well. The reinforcements from Rohan arrived, but they're barely hanging on. And to his dismay, he sees a fleet of black dots which could only be Corsair ships sailing up the river.

The foremost ship unfurls a banner, with the Tree of Gondor glittering on it.

And the army that pours out of them absolutely wrecks shop with Sauron's forces.

Is Denethor feeling relief? Yes. But is he feeling dread and apprehension and anger too? Also yes. He knows what this is. It's a challenge to his power waiting to happen. All his suspicions about Gandalf's ulterior motives are coming true: he has found someone to supplant him, and whether or not this kid is the true Heir of Isildur, the darn upstart's already gone all dramatic and made a war hero out of himself. Whoop-de-frickin'-do.

And then, he sees Aragorn's face.

And he's livid.

Fun fact: Appendix A tells us that Aragorn actually worked for Denethor’s dad, Ecthelion, for a long time. Aragorn went by a different name, of course, but he was so competent and so well-liked that he became Ecthelion's most trusted and honored captain, to the point that the Steward liked Aragorn more than he liked Denethor. We don't just have history here. We have beef. It's a little bit of a Tony Stark, Howard Stark, Steve Rogers situation where it’s like “Dad liked you more than he liked me and I’m his own son”.

You’d better bet your bottom dollar that when Denethor’s childhood rival rocks up to Minas Tirith, flying a banner made by an elven princess and carrying the Sword that Was Broken on his belt like he's somebody important, it doesn’t matter if Boromir and Faramir and Imrahil and everybody else in Minas Tirith likes him and happily falls in line behind him; Denethor is still gonna take one look at his face and go, “oh. it’s YOU. I freakin' HATE you.”

Whether this colors their ongoing relationship "coolly polite" or "passive-aggressive" or "outright hostile" depends on how vindictive you want to write Denethor. Because let's be honest, bro could totally order Aragorn to leave Minas Tirith and he would; Aragorn knows he's not the king yet, and he's humble enough to accept orders while the Steward is still in charge (as bass-ackwards as that is). But the thing is that Aragorn has the support of the people, and banishing him isn't gonna change that; if anything, it will probably garner sympathy for him, cause the people of Minas Tirith to distrust their leader, and maybe result in fracturing the loyalties of the populous.

So here's what you've got, okay.

You now have a David and Saul situation.

Think about it. Charismatic, upright war hero, beloved by everyone he meets, serving under the suspicious and deeply disturbed incumbent ruler who knows the newcomer is gonna boot him off the throne. You can't live with him: 'cause he's gonna boot you off the throne. But you can't live without him: 'cause you're in desperate need of his particular set of skills, and you'd be incredibly unwise to do away with him and earn the ire of the public. So you put up with him. And put on a show of liking him. And maybe chuck a spear at his head while he's playing the harp to calm down your possibly demonic fits.

But that's just Saul, so let's get back to Denethor.

The next step, in the book, is obviously the Battle of the Black Gate. And, obviously, Denethor is gonna think this military equivalent of knocking on the door of an axe murderer and threatening him with a pea shooter is a terrible idea, because it is. But the whole point—Aragorn and Gandalf and Boromir and Faramir and Imrahil and everyone else insists—is to distract Sauron long enough that the Ring-bearer can succeed in his mission. The plan isn't to win, it's to be bait.

Now you have a few options.

Denethor can, once again, begrudgingly go along with it, showing that he's slowly changing in heart. Perhaps Aragorn's humility is winning him over. Perhaps Boromir's impassioned pleas are getting through. In any case, you have a pretty good set-up for a redemption arc here, which could be interesting if you want to go down that road.

Alternatively, this could be the moment that Denethor entirely gives in to despair and basically says "fine, if you guys wanna go kill yourselves, I'll just be over here doing the exact same thing", and he tries to make Steward a la flambé. (Whether or not he succeeds is up to you, but I will say that this would be a pretty easy way to settle the succession crisis.)

Alternatively still, Denethor could publicly denounce the whole idea as stupid and order the people of Minas Tirith to stay put and defend the city, at the same time that Aragorn and the rest are urging those same people to come with them for one last stand. Now every eligible fighter in the city has to make a choice. Who will they follow? Lord Denethor, or Lord Elfstone? The people are divided. Factions are made. (This might be the moment that a certain member of the Guard sees Faramir standing with Lord Elfstone and decides, for the first time in his life, to break the rules.) In any case, the force that travels to the Black Gate is far smaller than it would have been if not for Denethor's interference.

If you go with the first option, it's a quicker road to a happy ending. Aragorn returns victorious, he and Denethor reconcile, and Aragorn honors the Steward and puts him in a place of high esteem. Everyone in Minas Tirith likes this, including Boromir and Faramir, and everyone lives happily ever after.

If you go with the second option, Denethor has either successfully or unsuccessfully attempted sudoku, which should probably disqualify him from public leadership either way. If he succeeded in barbecuing himself, it's the tragedy of a man who never got to see the upcoming victory; if he failed, it's the tragedy of a man whose mind was so utterly broken by the Enemy that he couldn't enjoy it.

If you go with the third option, congratulations; after Aragorn gets back, you still have to deal with the succession crisis. But I've waffled on for long enough and have basically no ideas how you'd handle this post-story, so I'm not gonna go down that road any further.

Option C: Pitch straight down the middle

Now what I've just presented are the two most extreme possibilities of a "Boromir Lives" AU that exist in my brain, but they're far from the only options. This thing is a spectrum. There are a potentially infinite number of possible storylines, some closer to canon, some further away.

If you like parts of one but not the other, you can mix and match. Take an exit ramp from the AU and get back on canon wherever you want, or just don't and see where it takes you. All I've done is present the furthest extremes I could think of to help shake up the ol' creative juices.

(I would have explored the possibility of Boromir arriving on the corsair ships with Aragorn instead of a few days earlier with Gandalf and Pippin, but that didn't change much except for Boromir having less opportunities to talk his dad down from bad decisions. So do with that what you will.)

Conclusion

I have no idea if this was the kind of answer you were looking for, but I guess I'm just returning rambling for rambling, LOL! In any case, I hope this helped, and if not, I hope it was a fun read.

But there is one more thing I can do for you, before I wish you good luck in your D&D endeavors, and that's turn it over to everyone else who reads this blog and see what they think!

HEY YOU GUYS! If Boromir lived, how would that effect Denethor's psyche?? Reblog with your thoughts!

[nerves-nebula]

Hello 👋 I love ur TMNT AU 💕 which is saying something because I usually avoid angst like the plegue. Especially with such heavy topics. I usually find that most AUs like this are just angst for the sake of angst with no other purpose except for shock value. But this AU is very well written, thoroughly thought out, and is very realistic in the interpretation of how abuse and violence effects children growing up. Other types of "angst" AUs and fics usually have me unreasonably angry and annoyed with how they practically glamorize abuse. While ur stuff has me feeling sick and disgusted (a positive thing really! Those are the feelings ur supposed to have when reading stuff like this.) because of how absolutely RAW everything is. Abuse is messed up and leaves its mark on u that'll effect u the rest of ur life. It fucks u up mentally, emotionally, socially, as well as physically. It is an ugly part of life that you quite elegantly bring to light with ur wonderful storytelling and art! Wonderful job! 💕

i mean you probably like it because it's not really an angst AU, if i'm honest. The point isn't that everything sucks or that people are in pain, that's just kind of a part of it? i dunno if that makes sense. I really appreciate that you like it, but I'm also kind of weary to put down other AU's.

I get where you're coming from with not really vibing with angst AU's, I don't really get into them much myself. they can seem gratitous nad pointless if you don't find them interesting on their own. But I think they're going for something a bit different than i am.

I think there's value in both creating and seeking out unrelenting trauma and horror and torture and pain in your fiction. Some of them can feel a bit stale or tropey at times but if those are the tropes you like then hey, you're probably have a great time!

I don't get bent outta shape about it cuz at the end of the day, it's just something some people do in their free time for fun and to express themselves. I like expressing myself with lame comedy about dark situations and bitter comics about not being allowed to die, haha. but if some ppl wanna draw gore and suffering then like, more power to them i guess!

THAT BEING SAID, I do genuinely find this flattering, that you like something that deals with dark themes even when you usually don't. it's like, AWWWW!! little old me?? and I don't want you to think I'm lecturing you or anything, I'm just giving a response I think is relevant. you're frustration makes total sense if you keep hoping or expecting one thing and getting another and it's just NOT what you wanted haha.

So yeah, thank you <3

[cactusdeedrawdles]

We have some more Multiverse shenanigans! I wanted to write out all that I had on Thei and Puppette right now because they're my loves, and they deserve the world.

I've never (that I remember) drawn a skeleton like I did Thei, so I had fun there. They're a sultry lil wibblewobble, in my head.

I don't know how legible the writing is, to be honest, so I'm gonna write out the bits I can think of, in case anyone actually cares lol

It'll be under the cut :)

Puppette:

I'm less sure of Puppette's story than I am Thei's, so bare with me in case of messups haha

Thei is like OG Error in only really one way: memory issues

Puppette's memory issues got to a point where he could no longer handle his job as the destroyer after a fun full-body takeover by XGaster, who controlled him and abused his abilities (this is obviously very vague but I haven't actually thought that much through here tbh)

Thei was actually with the Star Sanses (in this case just Dream and Swap) when they were rescuing Cross and Puppette, and this is not how they met, but how they became closer.

Puppette has deep scarring on the ecto of his left leg (on his bones as well, but it's completely mishappen his leg's ecto) from where XGaster tried to rip him apart in an attempt to keep him after completely losing Cross.

Puppette doesn't remember XGaster at all, or how he met Cross. Cross is one of his closest friends, but Cross is also not around often as he's enjoying his freedom AU-hopping, so Pupp tends to forget about him (non maliciously of course).

When Pupp did remember, it was an Incident, and all Thei had to say when asked if XGaster was still a threat is "No. No, he can't touch you, not anymore." Thei didn't really say much after then, and Puppette had a good impression to not ask.

He was forced to retire by Dream and Nightmare when they realized his memory was too bad to even remember what his job WAS half the time, especially with the knowledge that sometimes all he'd remember was what XGaster had made him do, which almost led to bad times all round.

They drug his ass in a Brawl of the Ages™ because he really didn't want to, he felt his role was too important (and it was, but with Ink not existing yet there wasn't really anything opposing him, and what did need to be done could be handled by a couple weaker beings working together).

He spends his days doing typical Retirement things: sleeping, hobbies, watching novellas, bugging his partner who loves it dearly :3

About Pupp:

Pupp's personality is mostly created by an AI that I made while experimenting, I write as Thei and the AI is Puppette. Thus, he's not very Error Sans-y, but I love him still. Though, this has me wondering if he could be a Swap or Swapfell/Fellswap version, mayhaps. He's a goober, and he loves to tease people he's close to. He's still haphephobic, but with his close friends (which are all the few friends he has, for him it's close friend or not a friend at all) like Dream, Swap, Nightmare (most of the time), Thei of course, etc, he's mostly fine. Anyone else and the glitches will get him. Ink, when he comes around, is new, so Pupp is getting there, but luckily (?) ink is not a touchy kid so all is well there.

The glitches are less of a worry here, as he's fairly stable. The entire multi verse itself is more stable, really, and he benefits there.

Pupp is the type of person to hug someone from behind as a "prank", he's a harmless guy. His "Destroyer" job was less actual destroying and more like putting broken, unusable, and dead worlds to their ends so they're not affecting the balance. He's very proud of his work, and very careful in it, up until his retirement.

Pupp is not allowed in the kitchen, as bad memory+cooking isn't a good mix. Thei has him banned to the Pupp Stool until they're done cooking because if not, he will spend the entire time wrapped around them from behind. As much as they don't mind it, they do need use of their extremities.

Pupp is a lover of crochet, as well as Drama shows, language be damned. He has an innate ability to understand languages almost perfectly, though speaking them, not so much.

I look at him and just say "gooberman, my goobies, goobs, goober," often :)

Thei:

Thei, Thei is a guy I have hugged tight to my chest right now. They deserve so much.

TW: talk of SA, Abuse, and Mental Health Issues

Thei is a Lust Sans, and is from an AU where Lust Monsters need Intimacy to survive. Think of OG Lust on steroids. Without regular intimacy, Thei's magic will become so weak that they can't survive. Signs that they need intimacy start with irritability, tiredness, magic not working as they wish, and eventually gets to a point where they aren't in their right mind and will only act to survive.

Thei's AU is destroyed early on in the multiverse's existence and they take a spot on the Star Sanses, mainly as the voice for them; theyre very good at communicating with people because their magic relies so much on it, so they act sort of like the PR, making sure people know the Star Sanses are here to help and how to get that help. The Stars don't really have an enemy here, so theyre mainly a patrol group, who's main goal is making sure everyone has what they need as well as checking on AUs that may Fall or need to be Destroyed.

Thei's reliance on others in personal, intimate ways very obviously gives way to abuse of that reliance. To make matters worse, Thei's magic will respond to the person they're with before they do: they have the ability to change their appearance on will, but it will also activate when the person they're with desires it a lot, even if they don't, because their magic sees it as necessary to survive. This started because of how much they "starved" before, how many times they almost died.

Because of their need for intimacy, they have to go AU hopping for days up to months at a time to get what they need, so to say. Again, they hate this. They're an introverted person, despite their communicative abilities, and they like their alone time. This gets even harder when Thei becomes an integral part of Puppette's life and they move in together. Puppette's memory issues prove a problem because there will be times when Thei is gone long enough for Pupp's memory to fade, no matter what they've tried. When Thei comes back, he won't remember them, but will know the feelings associated with the memories. That love is still there. Thei is patient enough to stay on Pupp's track, even when that track jumps around a lot, and part for that is the guilt they feel at leaving him so regularly bc of their magic.

They've "started" dating many, many times, and been engaged many, many times, because Pupp won't remember it. As one can imagine, this is hard on Thei, but Thei adores Pupp and can't see life without him.

Thei works with Stretch (who works in the Omega Timeline Lab) and Swap (who's a well oiled engineer, despite not working as one) to try and figure out cures for both Pupp's memory and Thei's "curse", as they call it. But there really is no cures.

When Thei gets too low, they'll go to, or Pupp will get them to, Dream and Swap, who together can help boost Thei's magic, but it's not a long-lasting solution.

What they eventually make, after a very, very close call when Pupp is struggling to remember them and almost doesn't get them to Swap and Dream in time, Is devices inspired by the continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pumps used by diabetics. One tracks their magic levels, and the other is a pump that will inject them with magic when needed. This way they don't have to rely on people, and they can stay with Puppette, which helps with his memory. This entire endeavour is a fairly new scenario I'm still playing out, but as I'm sure is obvious, having this sudden freedom and ability to stay by their love's side is very daunting. They're learning to be free now.

About Thei:

Thei is softspoken and quiet, but the type to get loud around friends.

Thei is a painter, and teaches Ink about art as he grows. Thei loves scenes, and Ink makes them a Scenery Art Book for their birthday one year and they fall to the ground.

Thei's life between "AU Collapse" and "Thei with the Star Sanses" is very vague and unfocused, aside from a clear understanding that it wasn't good. I know that Thei was rescued at one point but Nightmare and his crew, and Thei lived with them for a while, considering them like family, but eventually had to leave. Another "perk" of their magic is that they have a connection to people's emotions, kind of like Dream and Nightmare. They can feel that someone is upset, but not how or why, basically. They can also push their emotions onto others when their magic is strong. This was an ability gained as a defense mechanism after being taken advantage of. Knowing someone's emotions and being able to affect them when in serious intimate situations is very helpful.

I'm gonna stop typing because this has gotten Long™ but while this is mostly for myself, I hope there's someone out here who enjoys my little Goobs. I love them dearly.

[silv3reyedstranger]

20 Questions

thank you @appropriatelystupid for tagging me! i just finished my french exam this morning so doing this is an awesome way to spend my afternoon🥳

How many works do you have on AO3?

i was not aware that i had seven written and posted?? that's wild :0

2. What's you total AO3 count?

31,822 words?? also a massive surprise since i don't write or post nearly as often as i'd like...but hey, i'll take the win!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

okay, so obviously supercorp lives rent free in my head, but i'm also deeply entrenched in the cissamione and bellamione fandoms. i've got a fuck ton of wips for them, but i haven't put much out yet. however, recently, rojarias (reignjas) has been taking up ALL my brain space—i'm dying to write a lawyer au.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

erm. well, since i only have seven, i'll give you the top two? 1st: i'm home when i'm with you...2nd: this color looks better on you than me

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

i used to be really into and really good about responding to comments because i really appreciate every single one (and i still do) but it took a lot out of me and made me a little anxious, so i don't do it anymore. that being said, i still love and cherish every single comment that's ever been left!

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

i'm really not the biggest fan of angsty endings, so i don't write them very much. i'd much prefer piling on the angst throughout and giving them a happy ending. there's too much sadness and grief in the world already, i feel like everyone should get a happy ending.

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

oo, okay, i'm not sure about happiest since they feel pretty even, but if i really had to pick maybe oh how love stings?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

i don't currently, which i think is in part because of how lovely most people in the fandoms i'm in now are, but years ago i wrote a dramione fic and people had a lot (which wasn't necessarily hate, but it was still unnecessary) to say about that.

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

i've tried on occasion, but let's just say i'm still working out the kinks (pun intended)

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

i don't and i don't think i will anytime in the near future because i feel like a lot of planning will have to go into that and i don't have the brain space right now. but secondly, i don't feel an immediate urge to merge any two worlds currently.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

luckily, no, not that i'm aware of—hopefully it stays that way!

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

i've had someone ask in my comments before, but as mentioned above i don't really answer comments and i'm still not sure if i'm entirely comfortable with translations even if it allows a larger audience access to the fic.

13. have you ever cowritten a fic before?

i was working on one with @glitterslytherin a few years back, but we never quite got much of it finished haha

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

it's gotta be supercorp, but currently, rojarias and cissamione have me in a chokehold (i suppose i'm on my supercorp detox atm? maybe i'll be able to churn out fics after this little break)

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

i think this applies to all my WIPs to be honest. obviously i want to finish them all, but motivation is a bitch and she tends to come and go as she pleases XD

16. What are your writing strengths?

i'd like to think i do a pretty good job with dialogue. i used to be better at descriptions, but i think the balance has tilted the last couple of years.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

being able to just write and not edit on the way (another reason i rarely finish things) also planning is very much not my forte💀

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

while i am bilingual and almost trilingual, i do tend to stick with english since i feel like it's jarring to have a bit of a different language suddenly pop up and then the reader has to read the translation. and two, i'm not even grammatically accurate in english all the time, so forget about another language!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

oh, this is so mortifying...i believe it was percy jackson, but following closely behind was harry potter.

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

i don't think i love any of the fics i have out at the moment—like, don't get me wrong, i'm super proud of them—but there's not one finished one that parades in my head all the time. the rojarias lawyer au and a supercorp orchestra au are constantly being thought about though?

tagging a couple of mutuals if ya'll wanna take part!

@theredcapeofk @yanana94 @belladonnainbloom @coffeeshib @naralanis @an-organism

[tessaservopoulos]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by the ever lovely @oliviassunrise - thank you friend!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

521

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

as of today i have posted 1,189,141 words, which makes me feel insane!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

i have written for a lot of them, but the current three are the last of us (tess/joel), the hunger games (haymitch/effie), and fringe (peter/olivia).

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

but home was a dream (one that i'd never seen until you came along) [jopper]

i am still looking (even when i look away) [kate/yelena]

this is home [philinda & philindaisy]

your heart is a masterpiece [melinda & daisy]

how everything still turns to gold [tessjoel]

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

i do!! i'm terrible at it and usually very late but i cherish every single person who leaves me a comment.

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

probably confined, where tess is captured by fireflies and has no hope of escape.

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

probably my tessjoel summer anthology fic!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not usually? if i do i'll just delete it and move on, tbh.

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

i do lmao it is a majority of what i write nowadays if i'm being honest?? i did kinktober and had an absolute blast, especially because i wrote some kinks i never had before.

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

i have! i've written plenty of marvel crossovers, but the silliest one was wayyyy back in my ncis days- i wrote a jenny shepard/bruce wayne crackship fic, haha.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don't think so?? if i do i don't know about it lmao

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i have not!

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

back in my sons of anarchy days i used to rp gemma/clay, does that count?

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

i'm gonna be honest- i don't have one. i love each ship so deeply in the moment that it always feels like the all-time favorite! like right now, it's tessjoel. but two years ago it was jopper. before that, it was philinda. before that, riverdoctor. and so on, and so forth. i just love what i love, man.

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

Honestly, my maydaisy + avengers au that has sat unfinished since 2017 haha. i had such a great plan for it and then aos broke my heart and i got discouraged. i really should go back to it because melinda + the avengers is my favorite thing.

16. What are your writing strengths?

description. i have a very flowery writing style that lends itself better to descriptive scenes.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

starting too many projects for my pea brain to keep up with

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

i've added bits and pieces of other languages to my fics before and it is always after intense googling, haha.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

NCIS, for my beloved jenny/gibbs <3

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

this is so tough!! i have been writing for nearly half my life now so i've written so much. but i really really loved i lost a part of me out there, a tessjoel time travel au borrowed from one of my favorite tessjoel writer's verses. i think it's some of my favorite writing ever. but also the jopper marriage law fic (my top kudos fic) is my absolute pride and joy.

tagging @wardenannie @sassymajesty @professortennant @wistfulwatcher and anyone that wants to do this <333

[stranger-rants]

You are right about people sabotaging their own characters and ships. I honestly don't understand ship wars, to me is just a bunch of people bullying each other online over what they like/dislike and that is idiotic because we commonly use these spaces to have fun and find people who like the same things we do and maybe become friends with those people. I don't get why people love ruining other people's fun to the point they make others so angry to start fighting back or leave the fandom entirely. When it comes to Steve Harrington, my favorite character, I love almost all ships people have for him: Harringrove (my favorite ship), Stancy (yeah, I'm okay, dw about me), Stonathan (which now holds a dear place in my heart) , Stommy... And I'm capable of understanding the "illegal" ones such as Steve and Max (when they are both in their 20's and it is mostly AU) and Stobin (AU's) and many more. I have tried liking Steddie, I really have and I really want to meet the cool people you say are fed-up of the bullying extreme Steddie and Eddie fans cause... But god it is difficult to like something that has caused too much harm and it sucks these people cannot see what they are doing. Lmao, I feel like that girl from the Mean Girls movie who want to bake cookies and cakes and have peace all around haha

I understand ship wars to an extent. I just don’t love the dishonesty of it nowadays. When I was a teenager, ship wars were primarily a war over preferences that was usually hyped up by the creators of a series to increase interest and revenue. We knew this. While people took it seriously, there was always this underlying understanding that this is all just a part of fandom. This isn’t to say people didn’t take it too far or that there was no bullying involved. This isn’t a “those were the good old days” response. It was just more honest about its absurdity.

Now, you have people writing shipping meta as to why one ship is not only morally superior to another but trying to convince people that shipping is a form of activism. I am not talking about ships that are controversial because they inherently contain disturbing elements. It could be as simple as two relatively “normal” ships being pit against each other with one side arguing that a singular moment of conflict between characters in one ship deems the whole thing too toxic and unhealthy for audiences to support them.

*cough**cough*The Steddie vs. Harringrove ship war that boils down to differences in respectability*cough**cough*

Just be honest is all I ask. Like, you shouldn’t be out here inventing reasons why supporting one ship over another is a matter of social justice. It’s not. You preference something very strongly. You hate the competition. You whine about it. You find shallow reasons to hate the competition. You put up the get off my lawn signs. Then you think for some reason that you need a deeper reason to justify your hate so you Google queer theory and use all the Right Words to convince people shippers of x, y, or z are destroying the fabric of society.

(Not you personally, anon. This is the proverbial “you.”)

LMAO okay. Please be serious…

[princepipper]

from what i can see, you characterize gabe as more antisocial than "scary", which is fine but i want to ask if you actually consider him attractive if he's characterized as a potentially dangerous creep?? or maybe not YOU but your oc pip? how would she deal with a mentally deranged boyfriend?

It's true, in an attempt to keep things somewhat tame and realistic, I feel like I watered down Gabe a bit when it comes to his, uh... canon personality? To be fair though, in the AU I have it's not even that he's NOT just as troubled, I just prefer to write around it a little, not focusing on described scenes of him hurting himself or others. That said I do think that this version of Gabe is not quite the same- canon Gabe wouldn't really wanna date anyone or... anything...

You asked me if I am attracted to the scary aspects of canon Gabe though, and I'll be honest, I do very much enjoy that kind of personality in characters! I tend to like the weird and often unlikeable characters in fiction, and it's not uncommon for them to be unstable/ violent too. As I've mentioned before, my attraction is limited to the fact that they are not real people haha.

Now, Pipper is another story. Because she's also just a made up character, I'm free to bend her story and even personality depending on the verse. So let's say that she was in a verse where her and Gabe are in a relationship where he is not so aloof and mild mannered. Let's say he did make an effort to harm her. Her reaction to it would entirely depend on the context:

For example, if he just out of the blue attacked her, that would be a problem of course. She promised Swag that the moment she even worried that Gabriel would hurt her, she would not tolerate it, and cut ties. That goes for any sort of abusive behaviour too, if she was in a relationship and didn't feel safe, it wouldn't be healthy. Of course I cannot easily imagine Gabe being an abuser as much as just unstable.

However... there is a small window of exception. Pipper isn't stupid, she didn't just fall in love with Gabe while ignoring his obvious interest in stuff like blood, gore, knives, etc... he IS an alternate version of One, who's a cannibal killer lmao.

My point is that Pip isn't turned away by that stuff entirely. I don't really wanna get TOO in depth about any "adult" topics, but let's just say that if, in the rare moments of intimacy of her and Gabe's relationship, he was to cut, bite or draw blood from her in any manner... she'd be into it. Believe it or not Pip is still human and isn't 100% an overly sweet and innocent princess, HAHA. I've made the joke on my Twitter that Pip and I are not furries but we ARE monsterfuckers. We don't mind getting torn into by freaky creatures. 😘

[musewrangler]

For the A03 wrap 6, 8, 10 please!

Oh thank you so much friend. Here we are:

6. What fic surprised you with how little interaction it got this past year?

Haha, this is a good question, but I have to be honest. I really don't enter the publishing part of writing looking too closely at the interaction with certain expectation. I write in a fairly niche part of the Star Wars sandbox, so I never go in expecting mass amounts of hits. ;D

That being said, I would have enjoyed more interaction with Men and Empires, but I have been doing this long enough to know that my history AUs primarily featuring two more obscure characters are not going to get high hit counts. And that is perfectly all right. The people who read are always a delight, because I can count on them usually ALSO having a history interest. :D

8. What’s your favorite work you posted this past year?

Ahh!! Anytime I’m asked about a favorite work I have the worst time because I like them all for different reasons!! 

But I think it needs to be Burn Away the Dross and Find the Silver. I decided to write a full on romance/slow burn/arranged marriage AU for Firmus and Sola. I LOVED allowing the two of them to try and make the best of a bad situation and, of course, slowly fall in love with each other. It was also a fic where I had Anakin and Padme’ happily married without tragedy, as well as Veers. 

10. What are your writing goals for the upcoming year?

Definitely intend to finish the two longer WIP I'm in the midst of publishing. I am deeply enjoying the Multifaceted series and have numerous outlines ready to go for that so it should be showing up fairly regularly. And I'm tackling some original work which I haven't done in a LONG time, so I'm chuffed about that. :D

[renlyslittlerose]

37 and 43 for the fic writer game perhaps?

You also sent me 7 and 12! So I will answer them all right here~

For this ask game~

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of?

Of Good Men and Monsters blended a lot of Star Wars lore and characters into the world of Buffy, and I am very proud of how I managed to fit everything together. A lot of the characters just lended themselves very well to the universe of Buffy - Dooku and Ventress are already super 'vampire' coded, Ahsoka is a slayer through and through, Obi-Wan gives off such bookish but still brutal Watcher vibes.

But more than that, I also tried to weave Star Wars lore into the story itself, such as using the sarlacc alien as an apocalyptic demon, or an ancient seer named Yoda having visions of wars where men with the same face fought in a war. Sith lended themselves well to a demon death cult that wanted to destroy the veil between the mortal realm and Mortis, and where demons could exist as they believed they ~truly should.

And there are other examples I could use, but they're also spoilers!

12. Are there any tropes you used to dislike but have grown on you?

Already answered!

37. Promote one of your own “deep cut” fics (an underrated one, or one that never got as much traction as you think it deserves!). What do you like about it?

Fairest Chain of Love, for sure. I'm still posting it, so I understand that a lot of people won't read until something is complete, but it's still not getting quite the response I'd hoped it would, if I am being entirely honest. It's a Fantasy AU (obkin of course), filled with lush romance, a knight and king relationship, political coups and assassins in the night!

Hopefully people will give it a shot! I had a lot of fun writing it, and I don't entirely hate it when I re-read it so I count that as a win haha

43. If you take/write prompts: what’s your favorite prompt fic that you’ve written?

I recently took a love confession in the bitter cold prompt from @gretchenzellerbarnes that I had a lot of fun writing. I also really liked Pushin' on the Floor which was a fill I did for the subanakinfest a few months back!

And, of course, your delicious prompt of obikin camping!!!