#Number 8 is a genderbent fic

[olivers-cocoapuffs]

Rosekiller fics (all on ao3)

I’m not gonna teach him how to dance with you by greensenne

Aces up your sleeve by brtyls

Do you want me (or do you not) by graveryavery

I would say I love you (but it’s so hard, I won’t say it at all) by graveryavery

Yeah my boyfriends pretty cool (but not as cool as me) by paintmegrey {technically this is a starchaser fic but it’s got Rosekiller pov chapters}

Annoying by godforsaken_mess

kill your darlings by messermoon

stuck in your teeth by moonwater

like real people do by tsprongs

@roryy-the-male :)

[adhd-merlin]

2023 WRITING REVIEW

I really don't write much but it's the second time @eeverlark tags me in a writing meme (I think) soooo alright lys I'll do it. for you 🫶🏻

1. number of stories posted to ao3: 4, and yes I'm counting the fic I updated in early January because 7 out of 8 chapters were written in 2023

2. number of words posted last year: 49k

3. fandoms i wrote for: only Merlin I'm monogamous 💛

4. pairings: Merwenthur; Merwaine; background Arwen in an Arthur & Merlin fic if that counts

5. stories with the most:

KUDOS || BOOKMARKS: Call It Anything We Want (281 | 48)

COMMENT THREADS: my merwenthur vignettes have 31 threads (excluding the chapter posted in January 2024). makes sense given every chapter is basically a self-contained ficlet

6. work i'm most proud of (and why): every fic I write is simultaneously the best and the worst I've ever written and it remains so until I post a new one.

Honestly though every fic(let) has some things I like and some I think I could've done better.

Having said that, Call It Anything We Want is the first fic I posted on ao3 after a long writing hiatus so. I'm proud of that and of the amount of time I've put into this story as a whole.

7. work i'm least proud of (and why): hmmm see previous answer.

there's a ficlet called The Hunting Trip that I think I could have done better – mainly the conversation Arthur and Merlin have about Uther – but I just wanted to get it done tbh. I do like how it starts though. And Cavall the dog :)

8. share or describe a favorite review you received: I absolutely love any time someone says they liked my characterisation. for example:

your characterization is insane i am so obsessed. its so so good. like. idk how to describe it you just write relationships meshing so well together and not in like. an unrealistically flawless way but in a warm and familiar way. im in awe.

or

I love this story, your writing, this relationship, this dynamic, your details, your characterization, your everything and I’ve been meaning to tell you for a very long time. I’m sorry for not expressing this earlier. Your continuation of the original story was incredibly, believably, wondrously fantastic.

Comments like these give me life 🥺

9. a time when writing was really, really hard: 99% of the time if I'm being honest

10. a scene or character you wrote that surprised you: I wrote a ficlet that was supposed to be magically genderbent!Merlin x Arthur smut but it ended up being fem!Merlin x Gwen instead because Arthur wasn't cooperating

11. a favorite excerpt of your writing:

“Ah, the court sorcerer himself!” Gwaine exclaims, spreading his arms wide, and some wine sloshes out of his goblet and spills on the floor. He claps one hand on Merlin's shoulder. “Congratulations, Master Merlin.” “I told you to stop calling me that.” Gwaine just looks at him. Head to toe, with a grin that does nothing to hide what he's thinking, and must therefore come across as incredibly lewd. “You look good in green,” is all he says. Merlin raises an eyebrow. “You think I look good in anything.” Gwaine leans closer; close enough to purr in Merlin’s ear: “And even better in nothing at all.” Mainly for the pleasure of watching the tips of Merlin’s ears flush pink. — UNWAVERING

12. how did you grow as a writer last year: well I actually wrote something which is a good starting point

13. how do you hope to grow this year: I'd love to write a multi-chapter fic with an actual plot someday. also get better at titling things

14. who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer, beta, cheerleader, etc.): I think all the lovely people that left me some feedback made me push myself a tiny bit harder to keep writing and posting. a special shout-out to @castelled-away for writing whole essays about my merwenthur ficlets, I've loved every single comment 💛

15. anything from your real life show up in your writing last year: nothing apart from my desire to kiss Colin Morgan on the mouth

16. any new wisdom you can share with other writers: sometimes done is better than perfect. just get it done and move on it's fine if it's not a masterpiece. at least that's what I often have to tell myself but also I suspect I have adhd

17. any projects you're looking to starting (or finishing) this year: I would like to finish my Sefa-centric WIP, I wrote like 8k words but I'm not sure where it's going

[scary-grace]

20 questions for fic writers

I was tagged by @nocompromise-noregrets and @the-red-butterfly, and since I have some time this evening I figured I would get into them!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 67!

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 2,230,943. I don't know if that's actually a lot but it feels like a lot.

3. What fandoms do you write for? I write for the Tolkienverse (almost exclusively The Hobbit) and for My Hero Academia.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

i ain't changed, but i know i ain't the same (828)

Kairos (759)

seeking a friend for the end of the world (702)

Show Me My Silver Lining (532)

more than words can wield the matter (429)

The weirdest part about the answer to this question for me is that 'more than words can wield the matter' is a one-shot. Love Like Ghosts is only three kudos behind it and has been up for a significantly shorter time, but it was still strange to see.

5. Do you respond to comments? I don't usually respond! I always thank people who commented in the author's note of the next chapter, though. The times I'm most likely to respond are if somebody points out a mistake that needs correction (like the fact that I double-pasted the last chapter of Enough to Go By) or if they've asked for a fun fact I can't resist sharing.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? There are a few candidates, although the fics that qualify for this the most are still at the WIP stage. The best candidates at the moment are probably i'll follow you into the dark (in which Bard and Thranduil face the beginning of an alien invasion together) and Gravity (in which the theory of relativity puts a real damper on their relationship). Apparently space = tragedy to me.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Like @nocompromise-noregrets who tagged me, I write a lot of fics with happy endings. The no-holds-barred happiest endings are probably in Show Me My Silver Lining and Yamada Hizashi's Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Hanukah. Something about when the found family hits just right...

8. Do you get hate on fics? I've gotten some semi-antagonistic comments and some rude bookmarks, but otherwise, all the fic hate I've gotten was back on fanfic.net, when I was writing canon character x oc fics and giving everybody superpowers.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I indeed write smut. I used to have to be intoxicated to do it, but that's changed, and now I can write a full scene while chilling out on my break at work. As for the kind of smut, it used to be pretty solidly non-explicit, but I've recently branched out into more explicit stuff.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I write tons of AUs, but I don't think I've ever written a direct crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I don't think so. If anyone is considering it, I hope you don't. For your sake. :)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I have not!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! My co-writers include @dogblessyoutascha and @corndog-patrol, both of whom are awe-inspiringly talented writers and artists.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? Barduil, no contest. Almost 1.5 million of my 2 million plus words on Ao3 are devoted to them, and although bagginshield started it all and erasermic got me into BNHA, Barduil's my number one.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I've vowed to finish all my WIPs at some point, so I feel like answering this one will jinx me one way or the other. But the one that's probably furthest down in my list is Insight, aka the genderbent bagginshield/barduil The Village AU.

16. What are your writing strengths? Plot, I think -- I really get a lot out of setting up foreshadowing and twists! I also think I can write a mean action sequence when I really sit down and focus on it. And on several stories the commenters have informed me that I went pretty hard on the horror.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? PACING. I can't write a short fic to save my life.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? If I spoke another language, maybe, but I don't. Usually I convey that other languages are being used with italics in quotes.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Ooh, I'm going to out myself here -- it was for Thor (2011), a canon character x oc. The fic is still out there, since I don't believe in taking stuff down, but being reminded of its existence pains me.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? I don't know that I can choose. My favorites tend to be the ones I'm working on at the moment. My greatest hits are in my pinned post, but I don't think I can narrow them down more than that.

I'm going to tag my collection of writer mutuals: @dogblessyoutascha, @corndog-patrol, @phantombstone, @palmviolet, @piyo-13, and @candycandy00! No pressure or obligation, just if you think it might be fun!

[sga-owns-my-soul]

WIP Wednesday

first of all HUGE shout out to @spurious for doing this every week and always tagging me 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 i loved seeing everyone's posts and making my own wip wednesday posts, it was so much fun and so motivating!! thank you!!!!

it's the last wednesday of the year (what the fuck) so this week it's a

✨WIP Year in Review✨

Number of WIPs Begun this Year: oh my god too many 😂 not including ones that i finished/posted, 43, including ones i've finished/posted, 96. which is, quite frankly, ridiculous considering i haven't written anything in like. 8 years

Number of WIPs Finished this Year: 53????? somehow???? that's absolute insanity to me omg

Longest-Running WIP: not surprising, my millers crossing au is currently my long-running fic 😅 and probably will be for a while

Newest WIP: my newest wip is (working title) 'Lesbian McShep ft Sam" and the concept is genderbent mcshep with john and sam being air force buddies, and sam warns john to avoid rodney bc she's a bitch- cut to a year later when they catch up back on earth and johns like yeaaaaah so i might've. accidentally fallen for the bitchy lead scientist?

Most Worked on WIP: probably my millers crossing au lmao, it's one of those fics that i'm probably going to be writing forever because there's just. so much to explore in that fic with the characters and i'm loving it so much and i can't wait to share it but it's also going to be so sad when i finish it i can tell already

Favourite WIP: oh man this is a hard one! i've done a lot of writing that i really love this year so it's hard to pick a favourite but i think if i had to narrow it down i would probably have to say either Safe House (my unhinged insane cia mcshep au where they kill abusers for fun) or Childhood Memories (rodney surprises the team with a ton of classic childhood earth activities bc 'everyone enjoys the wonder and magic of being a kid')

Favorite Completed Work: again very tough choice bc i like a lot of what i've posted this year but i think its a toss up between Bludgeoned, a very angsty rodney whump fic with the team going insane, or Not Dating, but More Than Friends, a very sweet qpr mcshep fic that i honestly think very accurately describes what their relationship to each other in canon is

WIP You're Most Excited to Finish: safe house omg i'm so close to finishing and i can't WAIT to share it idk if it'll be very well received but i'm SO excited to share it (for the very niche specific audience of one i wrote it for 😂)

WIP You're Not Sure You'll Finish: i started working on a concept at the start of the year that was radek visiting rodney every time he's in the infirmary and idk if i'll ever get around to finishing it but maybe i'll post a snippet of what i've worked on so far if people are interested

WIP Resolution for 2024: i want to finish more plot fics!! i'm pretty good at writing short little one shots but i'm shit at writing plot or longer fics and i have a lot of ideas for long fics so i wanna get better at it!

what a great year of fic writing!! thank you to everyone who joined wip wednesday and everyone who read my fics!!! this is such an incredible community and i'm so happy to be a part of it!!

as always, open tags to anyone and everyone who wants to participate!!

[bodytoflame-ao3]

twas tagged by @coraniaid, here i am

How many works do you have on Ao3? 77

What's your total Ao3 word count? 245,927

What fandoms do you write for? Buffy/Angel, Person of Interest, Percy Jackson, dabbling in Yellowjackets….

What are your top five fics by kudos? you’re the only thing that i think i got right  yall thirsty sunnydale anonymous ate served deserved! my baby!!! if you ask how I'm feeling tonight (baby nothing could make me feel bad) literally just genderbent Percy judo flip scene and they ate it up! the world keeps turning my first wlw percabeth fic….. and they were roommates percabeth one-shots what it says on the tin. this list is soooo skewed by how big this fandom is lmao. 

Do you respond to comments? yes they bring me serotonin ☺️

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? haaaaas to be a tie between the insane post wilderness Shauna fic and the inbetween 5x09-10 POI fic! i can go anywhere i want (just not home) entr’acte

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? move with the tide marriage proposal!

Do you get hate on fics? no! I’ve gotten some weird comments of people trying to like nudge me in one direction story/character wise but I pretend I do not see it and frankly it makes me want to do the opposite of that

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? i really only feel motivated for it if it makes sense within the greater story I’m trying to tell. my work is really heavily based in character dynamics so it definitely does feel like the right move at times, but I generally don’t like to stay there too long and don’t tend to write with a ton of detail. i tried to write a pwp once and it ended up 10k+ words with a plot.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written no but during our leverage rewatch the cursed idea of the person of interest team getting all the leverage team’s fake identities as numbers while they’re trying to con finch was dreamt up. and i think someone should write it.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? not to my knowledge?

Have you ever had a fic translated? I had someone ask and I said yes so….. probably?

Have you ever co-written a fic before? WAY back in like 2013 I collaborated with someone on a House of Anubis fic in FFN dms that never saw the light of day hahahaha. i'd love to do it for real.

What's your all time favorite ship? It’s Root/Shaw and it’s not even close!

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I have about 30k written of a Buffy post-series fic/Angel s5 rewrite that I’m absolutely infatuated with but it’s sooooo biting off more than I can chew. 

What are your writing strengths? Dialogue literally just dialogue baby!

What are your writing weaknesses? can i say long covid lmao cause long covid lmao. kicking my ass. jokes aside my current weakness is being exhausted by html code, and the middle point of stories.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? i am not fluent enough in anything to trust myself to do so lmao

First fandom you wrote for? Ojamajo Doremi! Waaaaaay back on the 4kidstv forums when I was 8. shoutout 4kidstv fan fiction forums.

Favorite fic you've written i can't hide from you like i hide from myself im a SUCKER for soulmates and also s7 fuffy. chefs kiss i loved writing this.

Tagging: i think this has hit everyone i know here expect @displayheartcode

[gloriousmonsters]

Curious about 3 and 8!

3. is there a fic whose concept you like, but wish you could do over?

ooh, good one. I'm honestly happy with most of my fics from the last few years, so we're going deep with this one--to one of my few Silmarillion fics I didn't orphan during my black moods, Lomiel, a fic about 'genderbent' Maeglin.

I put 'genderbent' in quotes because I was but a wee thing with unexamined gender feels when I wrote it; considering that I transed my gender shortly afterward, it puts Maeglin 'pretending' to be male to connect with his father, fit into the role he feels is necessary, etc, into a very different light. (It's not your fault that you're masculine and people think you're a man if you just kind of accidentally fell into it/were encouraged to dress like a boy for your parent's approval, right?)

On a prose level I feel like the fic is underwritten, and on a theme level it would be fascinating to dive back into the premise of afab gender-confused Maeglin with my current, still complicated but far more examined genderfeels, but considering how far I now am from being into the Silm it's likely never gonna happen.

8. is there a fic whose ending you feel like you got wrong?

Nothing but deep cuts for this reply. That's gonna have to be you have no idea, a Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) pre-canon fic about Nancy Holbrook (a) being autistic and (b) being really fucking haunted by Freddy Krueger, brought about by her cryptic line 'you have no idea what I've seen' early in the film. I'm reasonably happy with the fic overall (though there's a number of places I'd try and strengthen if I edited it now) but the final scene/ending note just feels inadequate to me. I'm not sure how I'd change it, but every time I revisit the fic I glare at it a little like 'you could be better' 😂

[neonponders]

Fic Writer Questions

Thank you so much @lazybakerart for tagging me! 💋

This is long so I’ll put it under a cut haha

I’ll tag @peachypunk22 , @withoneheadlight , @hoegrove , @passivenovember , @lovebillyhargrove (if you want to 💗 )​

How many works do you have on AO3?

*sweats nervously* 54 haha

What’s your total AO3 wordcount?

1,378,705

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Stranger Things / Harringrove

Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) / Eruri

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them / Crewt

Merlin (BBC) / Merthur

Captive Prince / Lamen

Haikyuu! / several ships

Ancient Greek Mythology / Zeus x Ganymede

Starfighter (HamletMachine comic) / Cain x Abel

Deadpool & Spider-Man / Spideypool

Pride and Prejudice / genderbent Elizabeth so it’s ~ * gay * ~

Uncharted (video game)

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Anonymous (eruri), How it Works (kuroken), Something Else (eruri), Broken Chemistry (merthur), Right Time, Right Place (spideypool).

These are my oldest fics, so it makes sense that they’d have higher numbers.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I respond about 50% of the time. Sometimes I just don’t have much to say back, or I’m not in a decent mindset to reply. If the commenter is hyped and has a lot to say, I’ll probably get excited and respond back.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

It’s not done yet, but my Harringrove fic, Kiss, Consume. It’s part 1 of a bigger two-part fic, and therefore part 1 ends really sadly. Part 2 will be a happy ending, though haha

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve ever written?

I’ve written SpideyPool. Right Time, Right Place. It’s also not done LOL but whenever I finally write my Harringrove / The Mummy_au, that will probably be a crossover because I can’t really see all the ST characters working in place of the Mummy’s characters.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes. It’s awful. Let it be known that it doesn’t matter how old a fic is, if you leave a kind comment on something, you’re sparing that fic from deletion. I’ve nearly deleted Broken Chemistry so many times, but every now and then someone comes along who thanks me for writing it and sharing it. So I let it stay.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I do! I write rather fluffy smut lol I’m a fragile bean. The spiciest I get is lingerie and extremely mild bondage.

(Mind you, my writing prior to Harringrove was VERY different. I was neck deep in Game of Thrones and it shows. I thought good writing had to have sexual shock factors. Thankfully I’ve left that behind, and my writing has gotten much softer haha)

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

......not that I know of. Don’t jinx me, please haha I’ll have a conniption.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope, not yet ~

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope haha

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Harringrove, easily. These messy boys have endless potential and the community is unreal.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Starlight (merthur)

What are your writing strengths?

I write quickly haha it’s kind of absurd how fast and loose I go about things. Everyone else uses Professional™ writing outlines and stuff. I’m just like *keyboard smash* alskdfjslkdfjlsdfjsdkfj

*uploads 3 chapters in a week*

~ Ta-dah ~~~~

That doesn’t mean any of it is good lol

What are your writing weaknesses?

I often feel like I’m using the same 4 sentence structures over and over again. And I once saw “writing advice” that said, “pay attention to how often you use the word ‘was’.”

That fucked me up lol now I feel like I’m a monotonous criminal every time I use was and were.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If it’s not my native language, I don’t really have any right to a strong opinion. I once had a native French speaker come to me to correct all of my French mistakes in a fic and I was very grateful for it lol the last thing I want to do is insult someone just because I’m trying to be ~immersive~

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

Eragon LOL that was when I was, like, 8 or 9. Obviously I didn’t even know what fanfiction was and therefore thought I was doing something totally original lol

Fast forward a decade and I wrote Something Else for eruri ~

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Dracula Has a Mullet. It’s far from done but it’s my first Harringrove fic and very very special to me.

[freyfall]

Hey sorry to bother, but i don't thing I've really seen any sexism in the fandom? I might have just missed it, but would you be willing to elaborate on it a bit? You don't have to if you don't wanna

CHOKES

I’ll elaborate under a cut because a lot of the sexism I see is rooted in the ns/fw side of the fandom. I’ll be talking explicitly so don’t click if you’re not prepared for a conversation about sex and ectoplasmic genital shit. Also... it’s long.

God, where do I even start? This post covers a lot of the base issues with the fandom, though most of what OP said had to do with queerphobia. The issue with writers and magic genitalia in the fandom boils down to the fact that so often - so often - I click on a fic to read and heteronormativity slaps me in the face. One dominant (male-identifying) partner with male genitalia, one submissive (male-identifying) partner with female genitalia. And okay, I get it, some couples are like that. It’s not bad to write something like that as long as it doesn’t rely on sexism or queerphobia to explain away the choices. But then it’s... every fic. Every. Fic. I click on. 

Actually, I’ll give you some numbers! I’m going to look at the UTMV kinktober fics I’m keeping up with and see what kind of ratios there are. I won’t name them out of politeness, but here we go. Out of 4 Kinktober 2020 series on A03 with, so far, 23 or 24 chapters each, here’s how the gender and sex of the characters play out:

In terms of biological sex, the majority were male/female* with two partners, making up almost half of the fics read (42 out of 94). Out of said fics, 35 had a dominant** male and submissive female dynamic, 4 had a dominant female and submissive male dynamic, and 3 were unclear or there was no such dynamic. Only one out of the 42 fics had the female character identify as a woman. (Furthermore, she was genderbent.) 

The runner-up was the ‘other’ category, which encompassed the following: no genitals present, only one set of genitals present, odd genitalia (such as tentacles), or unspecified. This category made up 26 out of the 94 fics. Of the 26, 20 of them fell into the ‘one set of genitals’ category, with 14 male and 6 female. The male fics were split evenly between dominant and submissive males, and the females were all written as submissive. 

None of the other categories were nearly as popular, with the next one down the line only having 9 fics out of the 94. This category was male/male with two partners. The next one, male/male/female with three partners, had 8. Of the 8 fics, all of them had dominant male and submissive female dynamics.

The female/female with two partners category only had 3. Only one of the three fics portrayed a lesbian relationship where both characters identified as women. 

The other categories were as follows: m/m/m with three partners, m/m/m/f with four partners, m/m/m/m with four partners, m/m/f/f with four partners, m/m/m/m/f with five partners, and m/m/m/f/f with five partners. These categories only had 1 fic each. Each and every fic with a female partner had the female partners playing submissive roles.

It’s important to note that out of the entire roster of fics, there were 3 women. One of them was a genderbent character in a m/f fic, and the other two were in a lesbian f/f fic. Why the lack of women? Why constantly portray those with female genitals as men?

Going back to the post I linked at the very beginning, I do want to cover my bases - I understand that male characters with biologically female genitals and sex characteristics can be a hugely needed source of rep for transgender people, especially those who are transmasculine. As a transmasculine person myself, it’s important to me that male characters with female bodies exist. Having a casual environment where men can have whatever genitals they want is, in theory, rather progressive. However, three things:

Never in all my time in this fandom have I ever seen one of these characters stated explicitly as transgender. None of the fics in the study above did, either. 

In the UTMV, when writing skeletons with magical genitals, having male or female genitalia is seen as a choice. It erases the need for transgender characters. It erases transgender narratives that deal with transition, discomfort, coming out, and dysphoria. If you can pick whatever kind of body you want, why would there be a need for being trans? There’s no easy way to determine a ‘male’ or ‘female’ skeleton, erasing the concept of gender assigned at birth and erasing the struggles that trans people may face.

None of the characters have bodies that might align more closely with transgender folks who medically transition. No top surgery scars, no bottom growth. No breast tissue growth on male bodies, nothing. Of course, why would that exist in the first place? Magic erases the need to portray bodies with quote-on-quote ‘imperfections.’ None of the bodies portrayed even step a toe out of the cisgender box - such as perhaps portraying female genitals with a flat chest or male genitals with breasts. None of that was found in the study, and I don’t recall fics like that outside of the study, either.

So clearly, most if not all authors are not attempting to portray any sort of transgender character when writing them this way - which begs the question, why write men with female bodies? 

While I was taking these statistics, I had a conversation with my partner in which they said something that applies here:

“[Every AU character] being Sans is a problem on its own, but when you have the power to make whatever character a woman, how you approach that says a lot. What people do is that they give a male character female parts and it’s only for sexual purposes. So like, the entire existence of [the female body] in the UTMV serves only for sex and that’s just kind of not good.”

Keeping this quote in mind, the short answer to the question I posed above is this: sexism. In this fandom, the female body, femininity, and being a woman in and of itself is objectified, hyper-sexualized, and exoticized... in that order, respectively. I’m not just using these as buzzwords, I promise you.

The female body is objectified. The same as the quote above, female bodies aren’t seen as something that someone will just have in a non-sexual context. After reading 94 smutfics, their treatment of the female body tends to start looking the same. The female body is for sex. That’s it. Giving or showing a character with breasts, even clothed, is seen as the display of a sexual object, even though breasts are visible on (cis) women in everyday scenarios. In sexual scenarios, the female body is never portrayed realistically, either. Female arousal and preparing the female body for sex - compared to its counterpart, the male body - is wildly unrealistic. Yes, this is porn, and there’s bound to be realism issues, but in comparison, female sexuality is much more unrealistic.

Femininity is sexualized. Characters act feminine for sexual appeal... and only for sexual appeal. Because a character acts feminine, they’re more sexually appealing to their partner. Feminine clothing, such as dresses or skirts, are seen as sexual. 

Being a woman, in and of itself, is exoticized. This isn’t even a staunchly NSFW issue. I’ve been asked if my male characters, explicitly stated to be bisexual, would have sex with a woman. My partner has received asks about ‘what would happen if (insert male character here) met a woman.’ Genderbends of male characters into female characters are seen as cringy, childish, or fanservicey by default. Women aren’t treated as a normal occurrence. When genderbends do happen and people like them, it’s often in a sexual way. “She’s so hot/sexy.” “Step on me, queen.” 

It most likely doesn’t help that all of the popular AU characters in the fandom are men. It creates an environment where women are scarce and hardly represented, leading to unnatural assumptions about them.

I’m not sure how to close this off, so... TLDR; women are normal people. Stop exoticizing them. Stop objectifying the female body. Don’t use trans/queer characters as a scapegoat for your sexism. 

Sincerely, a bigender lesbian who’s sick and tired of all this.

-

*‘Male’ and ‘female’ are used to refer to biological sex. When I talk about gender, I will say men and women.

**When I say dominant, I mean ‘in control’ of the sexual situation. This was determined by considering factors such as written personality, physical position, and how they behaved. Vice versa for submissive. I don’t intend to use these terms as an equivalent to what they mean in BDSM language, though several of the fics attempted to or did portray BDSM relationships. I also do not mean these terms to be equivalent to ‘top’ or ‘bottom’. 

[queerpyracy]

first line tag game

tagged by @mickeymagpie​

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line, then tag 10 of your favorite authors! 

i’ll get as close to 20 as i can and not in any particular order bc god help me if i can remember when i started anything. you’ll recognize some from this post. as always i love to talk about my projects so you can ask about any of them

under the cut 👇

1) the expedition of the witchbane (fantasy, maritime adventure)

The crew of the Witchbane knew exactly three things about Second Commander Ulric Helde.

2) the devil’s daughters (space western)

Rachel quietly closed the door behind her, and sat down across from her father’s desk, waiting for him to notice her.

3) meda (fantasy)

Meda watched the sea as the carriage drew near to the estate.

4) queen of fire (epic fantasy)

I was at archery in the gardens of Alameya when news arrived that my mother had died.

5) bedfellows (fantasy)

Liese and her mother are hanging out the laundry to dry when Hevris Anaan stops at their back fence.

6) idw2 pre-war starop (transformers, starscream/orion pax)

Pity things on Cybertron only seemed to get interesting the moment Starscream was away.

7) bearskin (fantasy, post apoc but like, Very Post)

The orchestra of crickets and frogs was still going strong as Ian put another log on the fire to keep the coals hot through the night.

8) saint thunder (fantasy, post apoc)

I suppose the Saints were born before Oasis was.

9) salt and steel (urban fantasy)

The storm has already rolled in by the time Inez is ready to leave her apartment.

10) the courtesan (space opera, my 2020 nanowrimo)

When I first meet Janai Tiresos, she’s ninety-three years old.

11) untitled thinly-veiled fantasy frankenstein fix-it fic

Lady could smell autumn on the air.

12) dawn star (fantasy, erotica, dead dove do not eat)

“No need to look so morose,” Yura says, his amusement evident on his face.

13) undying (modern fantasy)

Has he gotten any better?

14) shadow of the mountain (fantasy, romance)

We had no name for the land in which we lived when the others came.

15) prince of ashes (not related to queen of fire, a sports anime fantasy au with the serial numbers scrubbed off and genderbent)

“Kestrel.” Someone kicked her boot, and Kestrel groaned, pulling an arm over her face.

16) radiant sun (space opera)

Tirem had waited six weeks for their security clearance to go through.

17) salt moon (fantasy, romance)

Kirin sits very quietly, watching the other women fidgeting nervously.

18) the flowers of copernicus (sf)

Bren sets up the camera, making sure the lamp doesn’t render them blinding white on the video image.

aaaaaaaaaannnddd that’s all i got. tagging @hipsofsteel and anyone who got this far and wants to do it

[thesickeststupidestcreep]

10 Ancient Gone Fanfics Every New Fan Needs to Read

This list is based off of the stories that left the biggest impact on me over the years that I’ve been in this fandom. Naturally, that means most of them are about the characters and concepts that I like best in the series, so expect a lot of Caina. I swear that people wrote stories that were about the Perdido Beach kids. I just didnt read as many of those, since I’ve always been a die hard Coates Kid. Additionally, I don’t really have any stories from before 2011 on the list, because that’s when I first read Gone.

10. Sunset (2014) by Yours Truly, Royalty Over Reality

Okay, I had to start off with some shameless self-promotion. I didn’t feel right putting myself any higher than number 10, but I do think that anybody who is interested in the content I put out on this blog would probably enjoy reading my old Gone fan fictions. In this Caina one shot, I tried to balance romance with angst to create a story that explores both Caine and Diana’s mental states in between Lies and Plague.

9. A Post-Apocalpytic Love Song (2013) by HalfwayDecentFanfiction

This unfinished story is only two chapters long, but both of those chapters are very good and VERY GAY. The first chapter is a wonderfully angsty story about everyone’s favorite screwed up bullies, Orc and Howard. The second chapter is a really interesting look at the relationship between Dekka and a genderbent Sam. This is a short read that does a great job portraying both one of the Gone fandom’s most popular ships and a ship you probably never would have thought about before.

8. Obsessed (2014-2015) by LadyBadass

For a long time, Drake x OC stories were the most popular type of stories in the Gone fandom. Most of them were about Mary Sues, but the main character of this story, Amber, is anything but flawless. The author intentionally portrays the relationship between her and Drake as chillingly toxic, instead of trying to over-romanticize the story by turning Drake into someone that he wasn’t. Be warned, this story is unfinished, but that just means that it ends on one of the most dramatic cliffhangers I’ve ever read.

7. The Queen and I (2011) by xCharlie-Groupiex

A heartbreaking one-shot about Caine’s feelings after Diana breaks up with him at the end of Plague. Believe it or not, this was published before Fear came out. Although, that’s hard to believe with how well the author predicted Caine would react to Diana leaving him. Even if Caina isn’t your cup of tea, I still recommend checking this story out if you want some insight into how much the entire fandom freaked out over their break up while we were waiting for Fear to come out.

6. Supremacy (2014) by Just Anny

Caine stans, consider yourselves fed. This is the Caina oneshot to end all Caina oneshots. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’m just going to say that it is gloriously sick and twisted in the most amazingly over the top way possible. If you love it as much as I think know you will, be sure to check out this author’s other Gone stories, because it was hard for me to chose just one of them for this list.

5. Akin to a Nightmare (2013) by Periwinkle Haze

For a while, “Post-FAYZ Diana” was one of the most popular topics to write about in the Gone fandom. Here’s one of my favorite stories from that genre. The author understands Diana’s character really well, and it shows in the way that they write her dialogue! The author also does a really great job giving you information on what happened to a few of the other characters in the series, while still keeping the focus on Diana.

4. Simply Giving Up (2013) by TheEldersOwner

This one shot is not for the faint of heart, but neither is Gone. So, I’m sure that you’re all going to love this. This story goes into detail about Diana’s decision to eat Panda, so you know it’s going to make you FEEL THINGS. If you enjoy this, be sure to check out this author’s other Gone stories because they’re all just as beautifully written as this one.

2. Finding Asylum (2013-2014) by Only If You Wish It

You know that a story is good when it makes you root for a pairing you typically can’t stand. I do NOT ship Driana, but OH GOD THIS STORY IS WONDERFUL. Even if the idea of Drake and Diana together as a couple seems completely impossible to you, give this fic a chance because the author really puts in the effort to make Drake into an *almost* sympathetic character while still keeping the essence of what makes him who he is.

3. Silence (2013) by Mistystarshine

Honestly, all of this author’s Gone stories are amazing, but this one stands out as one of their best even though it’s unfinished. If you like Caina at all, then you HAVE to read this story because they have tons of cute moments in it. It’s all what happens when the master manipulator loses his voice and has to learn how to get by without it. If you can’t tell from the premise, this story heavily diverges from the canon, but it’s so well written that it might have you wishing this is what had happened instead!

1. UnFAYZed (2013) by Curious Archer

Another popular genre of Gone fanfiction after the series ended was “Caine Comes Back to Life” stories. Most of them were just one or two chapters long, but this amazing author wrote a whole novel length story about what happens after Caine mysteriously shows up two years after the FAYZ ended. If you have the time, be sure to check it out, because it’s clever, emotionally impactful, and amazingly written!

[professorsparklepants]

Genderbent Bilbo Baggins names ranked

Buckle up losers I'm being judgemental. This is not a comprehensive list because there's 51 pages of Female Bilbo Baggins fic on AO3 and I don't have the patience required to go through the tag a second time.

Belladonna: naming fem!Bilbo after her mom is both a power move and brings to mind the Gilmore Girls scene where Rory explains that she has the same name as her mom because Lorelei was "possessed by the spirit of feminism" after giving birth. I unironically love it. 10/10

Bilbo: doesn't follow Hobbit naming conventions, but keeping a genderbend's name the same is a galaxy brain move. 9/10.

Bilba: for real? For real? Are you serious? Adding an a to the end does not automatically make it feminine, how many times do I have to say this. 1/10

Billa: are you the chicken sidekick from Ozma of Oz? Is that what's going on here? 2/10

Billianna: only slightly better in that you didn't stick an A on the end of a boy's name and call it a day. 4/10.

Bilberry: I respect the desire to keep it sounding the same while also making it seem more like other girl Hobbit names, but you probably should've gone with something that's actually recognizable as a plant. Until I googled it to double check I wouldn't make a fool of myself during this roast I thought it was made up. 5/10

Blueberry: THERE we go. 7/10

Briar: doesn't sound quite right but I enjoy the Sleeping Beauty reference. Pairs especially well in Bagginshield fics because the King Under the Mountain trope is the spear counterpart to sleeping beauty. 7/10

Briony: an actual plant that has the bonus of sounding like something a genteel Victorian couple would name their children, which is crucial in the naming of Hobbits. 8/10.

Bluebell: a flower name that has the same sounds, the same initials, and the same number of syllables. Absolutely superb naming. 9/10

Bramble: very cute. No major complaints. 8/10.

Any plant name that doesn't start with a B: I respect your desire to follow convention but also you couldn't even bother keeping the initials the same? 4/10

Non-plant names that don't start with a B: go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200. 0/10

[votsalot]

Tagged for writing meme by @meryton-etc​!  tagging @irrationalgame​ and @kiahexploration​

ao3 name: votsalot

fandoms: I’m currently writing for Downton Abbey, but on my AO3 account I’ve published for Voltron, Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. When I was in middle school I wrote ATLA fic (but didn’t publish), and when I was in high school wrote Gargoyles and Simpsons fic (deleted....it was so bad), and Dragon Ball Z, Hetalia, Darker Than Black, and the MCU. 

number of fics: 8 on AO3, 11 on ff.net

fic i spent the most time on: Probably Three-Fold at this point! I’m close to breaking my own record for most words published in a single work with it.

fic i spent the least amount of time on: I wrote Tears Like a Crocodile in a one-day fit of inspiration.

longest fic: It was an APH genderbent AU historical fiction fic, but everything on my ff.net is so embarrassing I’m not dropping the name (it’s 74,949 words, tho).

shortest fic: My Dragon Ball Z fic. I feel like it’s important to clarify I’d never actually watched DBZ when I wrote it, I’d only consumed the abridged series and series highlight compilations for Vegeta and Bulma on YouTube.

most hits: The most hits is Voltron’s Trust Me, but I suspect some of the traffic comes from some really questionable people and I’m waffling on whether or not to orphan the thing. Most hits for Downton is awarded to Three-Fold.

most kudos: Most kudos for Downton Abbey is Three-Fold again! I think the multiple POV appeals to people who wouldn’t otherwise read 62K of Thomas Barrow stuck in a time loop.  

most comment threads: Most comment threads from fics that I still cherish goes to Three-Fold! (The real answer is that APH au...)

most bookmarks: Most bookmarks goes to Trust Me. It is my not-so-secret mission to make Three-Fold surpass it.

total word count:  All together, 251,335 word across the two sites with ff.net holding the bulk of it.

favorite fic i wrote: Three-Fold, because it’s the most self-indulgent thing I’ve ever written

fic i’d rewrite / expand on: Parts of Three-Fold, need revisiting bc of some errors with the canon (Andy Fox...smh i cannot believe) as well as stuff I missed when I was editing. I kind of have a wall I hit and then it’s all just text to me.  Something I would want to go back and rewrite would be my deleted Gargoyles fic I started in 2009, but this time I’d make it gay and I wouldn’t kill the main character.

share a bit of a WIP: This is part of a wip for a Downton Abbey / Regeneration cross-over I’m working on....working title “Thomas Get Therapy”.

“First-class full, then, sir?” the corporal asked.

Rivers looked up, surprised by the frank address - because of their rank differential and the metrics of his own shyness. “As a matter of fact, it was. But first class, second class - it’s where you end up that matters after all, isn’t it?”

The train lurched away from the station. He found the report he was looking for - Percival Harding-Sachse, convinced he was capable of seeing the ghosts of every man who had ever fought and died for the Royal Fusiliers - and placed his valise on the luggage rack. On the turnaround, he gave the corporal a cursory glance.

Rivers took in the uniform - it fit the corporal nicely, but if it was tailored he must have done it himself. An interesting detail, the preoccupation with appearance. The red-cross of the R.A.M.C. was embroidered on his sleeve. An orderly, perhaps. His left hand was cradled in his lap, sheathed in a leather glove whereas the right was bare and half-heartedly holding open a dirty-looking book with a worn spine. Rivers was again surprised to observe the corporal was conducting his own visual sweep over Rivers, though in a way that was much more brazen. There was something defiant in the set of his face. But something deferential, too. Perhaps it was Rivers’s rank which granted him that hint of consideration. Or was it an invitation?