#I often get overwhelmed at first esp if I don't know anyone. and then go quiet.

[canisonicscrewyou]

Creating a dedicated space for me and my mutuals and everyone else to occasionally say one(1) thing in the group chat and otherwise stare at everyone in an unsettling manner.

[crazybutgood]

20 fic writer questions~

I'm procrastinating and feverish and in pain, so I figured I'd distract myself and finally do this,, thanks for the tag lovelies @the-francakes (x) @lumosatnight (x) and @orange-peony (x)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

44 including origami, fics, a mixture of those (all mine and also collabs), and podfics

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

Noo this would be a bitch to calculate

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I used to write for the HP fandom

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

You Light Me Up

I Just Want You to Know (collab with @sugareey-makes-stuff)

Language of Love

[FIC & ART] Heart on Your Sleeve

Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye

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

I try!! But I often fail. Reasons: Partially sometimes I get overwhelmed and/or am too shy and dk what to say, but mostly it's because I am so so incredibly burned out

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

Damn,, idt I have one. I do HEAs! At least in fics, and so far

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

All are happy I think,, and omg how does one quantify and compare happiness?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet

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

Nope! Like reading it, actually incapable of writing it

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

I haven't! Idk if I will! There is one published novel one that I want to read tho omg ;-; ok sorry going off track

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I sure hope not :') But to my knowledge no

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

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

Yeah with Krissy! Linked in question 4. We didn't even know it was each other haha cos it was an anonymous epistolary exchange but ye it was fun

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Don't ask me that!! There's lots of ships to love, and idh the same ride or die (or any, tbh) feeling for my previously main one anymore. Goes to show that it just changes with time (maybe this current answer will too!)

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

SIKE I don't start things I know I won't finish (involves an elaborate planning procedure, ask @getawayfox ) and once I start them I push through it even if I have to drag myself crying (I'm insane I know)

16. What are your writing strengths?

I love writing dialogue, and some people have told me it's nice, so I shall go with that!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Ohh loads I reckon,, I'm going to stick to sharing run on sentences and can't write long plots. Cos I have to do lots of academic writing and copywriting, and that's going pretty steady, so idw to break that and spiral by thinking too much about this :') esp cos idh much time and energy to write fiction rn

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

Yes if done right! Like you do things to make sure you don't throw off those who don't know that language and like make it part of the flow. And/Or footnotes! I've done dialogue in Hindi in my fics, and I've written an entire one in a script play format in Hindi too for @curlyy-hair-dont-care

19. First fandom you wrote for?

HP

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Listen :') I have mixed feelings about my writing, so I genuinely can't answer this

Tagging @andithiel @curlyy-hair-dont-care if you wanna do this, and anyone else who hasn't and wants to as well!!

[zmediaoutlet]

happy wincest wednesday!! if you could sort your own wincest fics by kudos which 5 (or 10) would be at the top?

happy wincest wednesday! (sorry i did not send an ask today ;-; -- thank you for keeping up the high fives anyway <3)

Um... hm. I guess this is effectively an 'author's favorites' list, although you could split some semantic hairs here and have it be which fics do you wish were most appreciated, which doesn't necessarily overlap with my own favorites. Tricky. Esp since my own taste (even for my own writing) changes so much, lol. But I can try!

oh so good, oh so fine -- this is my actual top by kudos and tbh it probably deserves to be there. plus the act of writing it was fun and it feels kind of... right, to me, that it's the top.

how badly i have let you down -- also pretty high up in fact, but I actually really like how it comes together as a destabilizing first time, especially since I don't actually like writing first time. Plus, like oh so good, it was written all in one sitting, and I just… often like the fics better when they're one quick shot from the hindbrain like that.

detente -- soulless!Sam/Dean, but it's really more about... Dean scraped down to misery entire, and a Sam who could give a shit but will take advantage if it's convenient. A lot grimier and grittier than I usually write spn, but it worked here.

freud's for suckers -- the early relationship here is just so fuckin cute. Written after I read Less, and if you've read that you could probably tell. This feels like a very Me version of a Dean POV.

eiderdown -- this is just frankly hot as fuck. A Sam who knows what he wants and will get it and isn't shy about it -- also very Z.

asceticism -- The Piss Fic, but more importantly the whole dissection of Dean's relationship to his body feels. idk, correct. Almost wish I hadn't tagged it correctly so people would read it for the part that actually matters, yanno.

the hollow summer -- sad, sad, sad. Whenever I write an AU it will nigh-inevitably be worse than canon. I put some real-life grieving in here and the writing's... honest. I really love the part where Dean beats the shit out of Sam (or tries to, at least).

buccaneer -- I know this is Dean/Crowley (and in fact Deanna/Crowley) on the face of it, but what it really is is the echo-shape of Dean(na)'s overwhelming, overarching need for Sam, felt in the absence of what's been cored out. Plus Deanna's sexy.

be subject to each other -- a rare sequel, but the established relationship here and the intimacy of finding yet another layer of ways to be known just makes me warm on the inside.

In a Cursed Hour -- this is technically gencest-that's-going-to-turn-into-fullcest, and might be a weird inclusion here, but if kudos actually reflected the level of work that goes into a story rather than whether someone's dick got wet in the approved way, this would have about 9000. So. I'm including it, lol.

Turns out I have ~160 posted spn fics, and one way or another they're all wincest (even the ones that have another pairing entirely -- that's how wincest the wincest is). So, picking ten of those. No links -- if anyone wants to read one they know how google works -- but this was actually kinda fun to think about, bud. Thanks <3

[fapangel]

>onslaught | I mean at least you didn't say Conquest or whatever the midline battleship is. I don't understand why everybody jacks off over that ship.

At LEAST? Are you implying it's BAD? SIT YOUR ASS DOWN SON WE GOAN HAVE A CHAT

Every time I see someone bitch about that ship, EVERY TIME, it's about its flux stats, because they miss the part where it's only supposed to raise shields to stop high-damage HE (so basically anyone carrying a Hellbore) or a Reaper torpedo. More recently I saw someone make excuses for the literal "three offensive guns, the rest PD" by whining about flux capacity for sustained fire. Yes. Yes, because it's the same damage-per-flux ratio either way, given the same guns, but they'd rather be able to apply constant pressure, which only makes one ship back off to vent while its buddies move in to block for it and shoot you themselves. Instead of, you know, putting out enough firepower to actually overwhelm a target which is greatly aided by the big-ass pulse cannons on the front.

And that's all true of the Onslaught before the latest update dropped, too, which gave it direct and indirect buffs which, in fairness, it did deserve. It was good before, but now it's great, the equal of any high-tech ship. The biggest upgrade was getting Heavy Ballistics integration, which REALLY helped the Onslaught as it's a hull that works best with a particular hullmod package and was a bit OP starved to start with. The pulse cannons got a flux efficiency boost, which really helps since the Onslaught likes to burn-drive in and dump those into a big target for an initial burst of damage for low flux cost. It had one nerf; more reasonable arcs for the side-facing large ballistic turrets, but that is completely negated by the reduction of the Heavy Armor hullmod's agility bonus from its previous 25% to a mere 10%, and the hullmod's armor bonus was increased as well. Even without considering built-in hullmods (referred to as "s-mods" now since you use story points to add them) the Onslaught really kicks ass now.

This is how I tend to fit it - three Hephaestus Assault Guns for the large slots and autocannons in the mediums. (Note this screenshot is from v.91, a newer one would have even more goodies even without s-mods.) Swapping the central forward dual flak for two single flaks on the left and right and a medium autocannon in the center is also good, as the single dual flak can be a bit limited in reach for attacks coming in at an angle.

Both the autocannons and the HAG are decently efficient flux-wise and also have good DPS; the HAG especially is the DPS king. They pay for it in accuracy: this build doubles in firepower against cruiser-sized and smaller ships once you get the skill that reduces recoil; (elite gunnery implants now IIRC). With that skill this thing is a monster.

The challenge with any combat in Starsector is flux management, but especially so for this Onslaught, because despite being flux-efficient the DPS is so high that it can max out the flux bar fairly quickly, leaving you unable to raise shields if some bombers dump a scad of torpedoes in your direction. I set my guns to groups by class - autocannons on one, HAGs on the other. In retrospect when I get one in my current playthrough; now that we have more weapon groups to work with, I might break it down by broadside as well, one group for the three HAGs and two for the autocannons on left and right. That lets one carefully manage which guns are firing when; you can pulse your autocannons on and off to punish clowns why to raise shields as soon as your kinetics go quiet. You don't necessarily have to though; the HAG's description about "raw damage output being able to overwhelm some smaller shield emitters" isn't bullshit. The Onslaught isn't really a "broadsides ship," it's more of a front-quarter broadsides ship with anyone who tries to get right in front of you to avoid it eating pulse cannons for their trouble.

The key to the Onslaught - or at least my Onslaught - is applying that pure DPS supremecy. By the time your soft flux is a problem, your target should have serious hard flux problems and be backing off to vent, at worst. As is often true in Starsector, the hard part in big fights, esp. outnumbered, is confirming your kill once you've fluxed out the target; before his buddies can come cover for him and he slips away to vent. This is where missiles come in to play, and an example of why the new OP dividend from Heavy Ballistics makes this ship shine now - adding Expanded Missile Racks is very doable. I'm usually a Sabot SRM Supremacy guy; I'd use those for initial burst overload of a target, hammer the hell out of them, and then when they recovered, raised shields and tried to retreat I'd unload the pulse cannons into them to secure the kill. When 0.95 initially dropped we had insane enemy officer spam problems and they typically had at least a few of the new tank skills, which made them incredibly hard to kill. That's when I started trying Harpoon missiles again; I'd never been much impressed with them before, but I've come to respect them. Nothing, nothing, nothing confirms a kill like Harpoons; they're long-ranged and fast and with Heavy Ballistics Integration (to say nothing of S-Mods) fitting four Harpoon pods onto an Onslaught is very doable (though two works fine.) If you want to burn drive in blazing away with your pulse cannons like Abdul charging on his Toyota, that's your initial burst damage; put Harpoons in the missile slots and use those to polish off those clowns trying to give you the slip.

The other key to flying DPS Onslaught is what you do after you've murderized that first clown - when all his buddies and escorts come after you from all sides and you're high on flux. This is when you start managing your fire; I typically turn off the HAGs and pulse the autocannons on and off to give the usual horde of smaller ships hard flux concerns on their shields, and god help them if they drop shields and I get to turn the HAGs loose on them. Once that armor is gone it stays gone, except unlike your Onslaught, they don't have nearly as much of it to start with. The armor comes off them easy under HAG fire and after that you needn't bother with the HAGs; the autocannons will hit hull hard enough to obligate them to raise shields and, naturally, take hard flux. Your maneuverability is horrible, but since your guns cover both broadsides it doesn't really matter. The real challenge here is if you've got hostiles on both sides so all your autocannons open up when you turn on the group, sometimes you'll want this but if you've got an actual threat to starboard and a single Kite without torpedoes to port, well, not so much. That's where facing-specific weapon groups come into play. Pulsing your groups also helps with the recoil; putting more shots onto smaller targets and improving flux/damage ratio accordingly. You have the DPS to beat these clowns off like a man laying about him with a big stick, you just have to use it right.

If all of this is too much work for you, well, go get a Paragon kid, nobody will notice the training wheels. Git gud scrub etc. In truth tho I think that describes most of the divide on the Onslaught. I adjusted the game combat speed to be half of what it usually was when I first started playing. These days I'm up to 80% of normal combat speed, but I still find the normal speed to be too insanely fast to handle shield micro and even weapon group switching. And yet, I know other people who complain that Starsector's combat is too slow. Depending on how you want to play, certain ships will work fine and certain ships (or builds of ships) just won't. Which is fine.

The Onslaught is a good ship; but it is definitely not a "turn off brain, turn on pew, watch fireworks" ship.