#I'm unusually inspired by fandoms I'm not fully a part of

[pretzel-bitz]

Hello again twst tumblr look 🫵 look it's kinda an oc now

I made a design for Leona's sister in law! I've been calling her Njeri because as far as I know she's never named in canon which is a shame

[moondal514]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @decaflondonfog and @jaywalkers (thanks y’all, loved reading both of your thoughts. sorry I’m late doing this)

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

10 works (8 fics (one of which is a secret fic for @aftgthenandnow) and 2 original works)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

30,661 (not a whole lot but I’m working on it 😅)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

All For the Game is my main bitch but I also have fics published (or orphaned in some cases) for KinnPorsche, Romeo & Juliet, and BBC Merlin. It’s actually my default state to be a fandom hoe so I currently have active WIPs for All For the Game, BBC Merlin, Mo Dao Zu Shi, Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, Word of Honor, Tian Guan Ci Fu, KinnPorsche, and a secret fandom for Yuletide

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

leave or stay (i’m invisible here) (KinnPorsche, Kim/Chay, 4k, T)

secret @aftgthenandnow fic

sometimes i wish i kept some of my feelings in the basement (All For the Game, Andrew/Neil, 6k, M)

A Damned Saint, An Honorable Villain (Romeo & Juliet, Benvolio/Tybalt, 3k, M)

No Stranger To the Wind (All For the Game, Andrew/Neil, 10k, T)

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

I respond to comments, mostly just cuz I like thanking people or engaging in conversation with them if they leave a neat comment. But I’m (happily) not exactly a popular writer, both cuz I’ve only just started posting fic and also cuz the subject matters and/or fandoms I tend to write for can be pretty niche, so it’s easy for me to have the energy to reply to all the comments I get

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

Hmmm I guess prob Prayers or A Damned Saint, An Honorable Villain. Both have kind of depressing open endings

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

Prob Belonging cuz it’s mostly just found family fluff

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I’ve never gotten hate before and I really hope I never do cuz I would cry

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

Lol no. Most I’ll do is a fade-to-black pg-13-type of thing or innuendo

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

I do write crossovers but I haven’t ever finished writing any of them, just a couple fandom fusions (No Stranger To the Wind is the All For the Game characters existing in the universe of Cinda Williams Chima’s The Seven Realms series). The craziest one that I’ve ever outlined though was a BBC Merlin/Voltron crossover where after Lancelot walks through the Veil, he’s reincarnated as Voltron’s Lance McClain 😂 (I may or may not have been very inspired by Trust Me, I'm an Alchemist by metisket)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No and I hope I never do cuz that’s such an insanely disrespectful and shitty thing to do

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I would be thrilled to have any of my fics translated…so long as the translation is hosted on ao3

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

My best friend helped me out with the kissing scenes in sometimes i wish i kept some of my feelings in the basement so that’s about the closest to co-writing I’ve ever gotten. I’d love to fully co-write with someone one day though

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

Hmm difficult question. It’s hard for me to have an all-time favorite ship cuz my favorite ship is usually going to be whoever holds the spot of brainrot of the moment. As I currently don’t have a single ship that’s taking the cake rn, I’m going to say Andreil because they hold the record for longest time of being brainrot of the moment for me (19 months, which I know doesn’t sound like a long time but you have to consider that it’s my default state to be in a lot of fandoms at the same time, so the fact that I was for the most part only focused on AFTG for a sizable period of time is highly unusual for me). I have to give a shout-out to Merthur though cuz they’re responsible for turning my fandom participation from passive (solely reading fic) to active (actually writing fic and engaging with fandom communities…that is to say Merthur was part of the driving force behind me creating this tumblr, though Andreil is the ship that got me to actually start posting lol)

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

So I’ve got this AFTG Hunger Games au that I’ve been unable to write because every time I sit down to try to write something for it, I get a new idea to add to my outline for the au and then next thing I know I’ve done no actual writing and I’ve just made the outline longer. And now I just stare at the monster of an outline I’ve made and get too intimidated to write the fic cuz it’s just soooo long. And I don’t like posting fics unless I know they could stand on their own (even if they’re a part of a series) so the likelihood of me ever posting anything for this au is becoming sadly less and less likely as time goes on

16. What are your writing strengths?

I’m not sure actually. Prob characterization cuz that’s usually what I get complimented on the most in fics

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

1000% dialogue. Every bit of dialogue I’ve ever written has been an excruciating process where I hold the screen with a death grip and ask “would he/she/they fucking say that????” I hate writing people talking so much, it’s just exhausting for me, especially in a large group setting, which is prob why my default type of fic to write is usually a short introspective character study of some sort 😂

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

I would never do it myself cuz unfortunately I’m a lame American who is only fluent in English, but I love reading it in other fics (…if it’s done well cuz I’ve seen some very cringey and awkward instances of multilingual dialogue in fic over the years)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

The 1st fic I ever wrote that I posted on ao3 was for BBC Merlin (which I’ve since orphaned cuz the fic is kinda cringe). But before that, I took a creative writing class and our 1st writing assignment was essentially write a fanfiction (the prompt was literally “write a variation on an existing story”). I chose to write a story inspired by Monsta X’s DRAMARAMA music video and accidentally used the names of 2 guys in my class for the main characters (in my defense, it was the 1st week of class and the names were very generic American boy names). So I guess technically that was my 1st fanfiction 😂

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

sometimes i wish i kept some of my feelings in the basement. I really popped off with that one. It’s the only fic of mine that I actively reread for fun and I’ve been trying to replicate whatever was in the water when I wrote that fic ever since

No pressure tagging (apologies if you’ve already done this I haven’t been keeping track 😂): @seasy33 @bisexualbard @quensty @nanatsuyu @justadreamfox @worldenough-and-time @kairospy

[recentlylocal]

Agape and 'til I reach you for....1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11? Actually, if you just wanted to ramble on about those fics, that would work too

Send me writing questions!

WELL TWIST MY ARM I GUESS

I blame Moira Quirk’s audio book narration for ‘til I reach you, because that scene absolutely CRUSHED ME when I listened to it. I was very no thoughts, head empty about writing it otherwise, it was once of those snippets that just fell into my head fully formed. I wrote and edited the whole thing in half a day. As a fic it made a nice home for a lot of my meta-thoughts about Camilla’s story and how she’s just...put up with so goddamn much in this series. Poor Camilla, Queen of Hypovolemic Shock.

I will also take this moment to point out that Camilla has the line “it’s just a flesh wound,” in this fic, which is 100% an intentional Monty Python reference, and I am shocked nobody yelled at me about that one in the comments.

Agape, on the other hand, took me FOUR MONTHS so I have way more thoughts.

1. What inspired you to write the fic this way? I got a Nona arc in July and of course the knuckle kiss scene sent me spiraling. I drafted a couple of scenes really soon after I read it, and then figured if I could come up with a few more I could format it as a 5+1 instead of just a snippet. (Side note but 5+1s are apparently fandom old school now?)

2. What scene did you first put down? I actually wrote them more or less in the order they appear in the fic which is VERY unusual for me, I usually write out of order and then stitch everything together. I considered re-ordering them chronologically before I posted but I liked the dreamy sort of atmosphere of skipping around, felt more true to how someone would actually be recalling a bunch of related memories.

3. What’s your favorite line of narration? "She said nothing, because every word she could conceive of was even worse than this awful, broken silence." Felt really good about this one, especially since it was like the ninth time in this fic I had to come up with another emotionally charged way to describe Cam not saying anything.

Honorable mention to “Seis muttered something about teenagers with God-complexes“ because can you imagine how insufferable those two would have been at fourteen??

4. What’s your favorite line of dialogue? I struggle to pick between any of the dialogue in snippet #3 (everyone is being SO bitchy in that one which was fun for me) but "four hours ago you called it a placebo" still makes me giggle AND I migrated it over from a scene I cut from two corpses, so I was happy to re-home it.

ALSO I really enjoy Pal’s “I could find the courage to walk backwards into hell, would I know that you were behind me” vis a vis this dril tweet.

5. What part was hardest to write? Cam's dialogue always takes a long time to write because she says so much with so few words, I have a separate, specific editing process JUST for her lines (which is a whole other post.) Of all the snippets, #6 was hardest to write because it was SO charged, and it was a rare moment of writing Cam and Pal not seeing eye to eye.

9. Were there any alternate versions of this fic? Well there was an alternate version where I didn't write an entire extra scene so it was actually a 5+1 and not a 6+1 😆 I briefly considered cutting a scene when I realized my mistake, but I'd sunk way too much effort in at that point and I was attached to all of them.

11. What do you like best about this fic? I tend to write too much dialogue and not enough description of what’s happening around the dialogue, and I really worked at writing body language and emotional pauses into this one. It’s something I really struggle with (writing body language especially), and I'm really happy with how well I managed in this fic, it was a really good writing exercise for me. 

[neriak-at-night]

Hey this is the THIRD TIME I'm sending this so if I'm spamming your inbox I'm so so sorry.

For the WIP ask....... BotW/Lizalfos.........

Surprisingly, I’ve actually gotten asks from a couple people already! Aaaaaaand, of course, they’re both for the obvious monsterfucking fic. Why am I even surprised?

CW: Non-Con, Drugged Sex, Monsterfucking, Oviposition

This concept was directly inspired by a fic I stumbled across a few months ago when I did a blanket search for Explicit fics in the Legend of Zelda fandom. It was my first introduction to the oviposition kink and it  a w a k e n e d  something in me. Here’s the link, if anybody would like to check it out:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/35658208

I haven’t gotten past the “jotting down notes” stage yet, but the rough idea is that Link, who is AFAB, has no memory of the… unusual… threat posed by lizalfos and he has an… unfortunate… encounter with the two lizalfos swimming in the river separating the two sides of Dueling Peaks.

I’m running with a slightly different take on the lizalfos here than in the inspiring fic, giving them a neurotoxin in their saliva that paralyzes their prey if enough gets absorbed by their skin. (That tongue flicking attack? Yeah. That’s what’s going on there.) Lizalfos usually just hunt small mammals for food, but female lizalfos that are egg-heavy will occasionally target larger female mammals (like Hylians) for breeding purposes, depositing their eggs inside while the victim is paralyzed and fully aware.

The purpose of this is genetic diversity. The eggs are laid inside of what is essentially a mobile incubator, which is affected by hormones secreted by the eggs (or something), kind of like the sex pollen trope, but, internal?? Anyway, the lizalfos releases the egg-filled victim, who wanders off in a mental haze, not really knowing what they’re doing, reduced to primal urges, until they stumble across a male lizalfos, which will breed them again to fertilize the eggs.

Victims are protected during their dazed wanderings by pheromones the female lizalfos sprays on them to deter other predators. Basically, they’ll smell like meat that’s gone bad. This scent will also help attract male lizalfos to them.

I haven’t really decided what happens yet after the lizalfos eggs are fertilized. Options range from the male lizalfos abandoning the victim (who expels the eggs somewhere, regains their senses, and returns to their life) all the way to… well… CW: Gore, MCD… a messy end where the eggs hatch inside the victim and the hatchlings eat their way out. It might not even matter, I could just leave it open ended.

The reason I wanted a two part breeding process is because of how vulnerable it makes the victim while they’re wandering. Hylians don’t have sensitive enough olfactory senses to detect the pheromones, but predatory Hylians can still spot a vulnerable one a mile away, and, well, no matter what, things are not going to go well for Link.

[cyokie]

Xerxes or Oz 👁👁

Why not both? :D

XERXES BREAK

How I feel about this character:

I love Break! Though I will say that I think I love him a little bit less than the rest of the fandom. He's a very cool character, but in my opinion, he's one of the more trope-y ones...if that makes sense. Basically, I'm saying that I've definitely seen very similar characters all over anime/manga. But as with most PandoraHearts characters, he's unusually well-written and extremely well-done overall, so all his moments are super enjoyable!

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Hmm. I used to think about shipping in PandoraHearts more often when I was younger (I first read the manga when I wasn't even a teenager yet). I definitely shipped Reim with Break, and I still think this would be cute. Their dynamic can get very fun and almost tsundere-like at times (lol)!

I used to ship Sharon with Break too, but though I still think their dynamic is cute, I know this makes some people quite uncomfortable. I also know that their relationship was canonically intended to be more familial, and that Break was canonically in love with Sharon's mother, Shelly. So do with that what you will.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Honestly, Reim and Sharon could work for this question too?? They're the characters whose relationships with Break are the most meaningful to me. So yeah, I guess them again.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

I'm not sure I have any super unpopular opinions about Break. Maybe just that I don't find him as interesting as a lot of other characters in the manga? I felt I was sort of able to predict the direction Jun Mochizuki went with his character/story, whereas this wasn't the case with a lot of the others in the main cast.

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon:

Oof, this is a tough one too...I just wish there were more scenes expanding Break's relationship with Shelly.

- - -

OZ VESSALIUS

How I feel about this character:

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. MY BABY. MY BOY. Everybody who knows me is aware of this LMAO! Shut up about Oz Vessalius, they say. NO, I say.

In all seriousness, Oz is my favorite character of all time. I love PandoraHearts dearly for more reasons than I can say, but he is really part of what makes the manga for me. His character resonated so powerfully with me when I first read it and continues to do so to this day. He is such a nuanced, emotional, human character. 

I always say PandoraHearts saved my life, but more specifically, Oz saved my life. He was so painfully similar to me when I first read the manga. I was going through a very difficult period of my life. Watching him become somebody who could believe in and accept love from those around him, as well as somebody who could come to love himself, was incredibly inspiring. He became a sort of role model, if you will--though it’s more complicated than that. 

I am happy to say that today, I am more like the Oz at the end of the manga than I am like the Oz at the beginning of the manga. 

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

I’m going to be completely honest with you guys: when I was a kid, I was a passionate Oz x Gilbert shipper. I know that nowadays, people are extremely uncomfortable with this (and understandably so). Outside of this, I really wouldn’t say I ship Oz romantically with anybody, except for maybe Echo? 

I can’t fully get behind Oz and Echo as a couple for some reason, but if Oz needs to be with somebody, I think it should probably be her. The way they helped each other see themselves as human, the way they developed such an intense and intimate respect for one another...it’s very touching.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Oz and Gilbert, probably. Their relationship is insanely dedicated and resilient. Though they are “connected by their darkness,” as Gilbert says, they are a source of hope for one another throughout the manga. I think this is beautiful.

Oz and Alice could also count for one of these. I really don’t like Oz and Alice’s dynamic when seen through a romantic perspective, and I’m only able to truly appreciate their relationship when viewing it as platonic. I will say that due to slightly conflicting feelings about Alice’s character, I would prioritize Oz and Gilbert over her and Oz.

My unpopular opinion with this character:

I’m not sure I have one. I don’t think loving Oz is that uncommon of an opinion, lol. 

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon:

Hmm, I don’t know about this one, either...I think Oz’s story is very nearly perfect. I guess...I wish the manga had more directly addressed the toxic aspects of Oz, Alice, and Gilbert’s relationship?

Early in the manga, the trio’s relationship manifests in rather unhealthy ways. As they grow as people and learn to cope with their pasts, their relationship gradually becomes much healthier. Though this is certainly realistic, the manga never really tackles this concept head-on, instead just showing us the trio’s relationship in a more positive light later on.