#RL: OTP

[andthendk]

Another One of my Nonsense...MEETING THE IN-LAWS EDITION

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cws8C73BY9F/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

y'all tumblr fam inspired this btw, love ya guys 😘 I have the memory of a pickle so sorry I can't @ specific ppl for the idea haha

[cowandcalf]

I did it again😁I ordered my second McDanno photo book and included my friend‘s Hawaiian holiday pictures. 139 McDanno pictures. I’m in heaven❤️.

[fried-manto]

Some chibi art I made 💕

[nikkiruncks]

Hi Poorni! Literati or Rogan...and why?!

Rogan no contest (love my Literati moots tho). I just love their chemistry and how Logan inspired Rory to get out of her shell. Also enemies to friends to fwb to lovers is sooo good. Don’t even get me started on their s7 arc. So pure and good.

I posted here why I personally am not down with Literati, and it still stands like a year later lmaoo.

[hxans]

Beginning my reread of The Sword and the Flame, book three of the dragon king trilogy. I cannot help but feel with the distinct lack of mention of wives or lady-loves, and the fact they are rarely mentioned without each other, that Theido and Ronsard are a couple.

[alwayscaskett810]

[dalesgf]

i need some like batshit insane person to draw harvey x dale before iLose my Marbles .

[enbycrip]

My OH and were assigned different genders at birth. He’s always been kind of a twink and still are as they approach 40. I’m getting more comfortable with a more butch/masc presentation as I approach 40 six months behind him. One facet of this is that I’m finding ways to present that I like, and an interesting part of that is that my dress sense is getting more and more like theirs over time. We now *both* lean “1920-40s somewhat-boyish academic”.

One of the joys of this is that now when we’re out together people increasing mistake us for a younger twink gay couple or butch lesbian couple about our real age and you get to see strangers literally squinting trying both of these things on for size as they view us from a slight distance as their mind shapeshifts us to fit each conception 🤣

[notasapleasure]

Jo are you trying to make sense of the Tekke scene again even though you know it hurts your heart and makes you crazy?

Put Pawn in Frankincense DOWN and go back to work.

[dangermousie]

Finished Blossoms in Adversity.

It was a pretty flawed drama, and Hu Yitian remains the second least watchable leading man in cdramas for me but it really was consistently the airing drama I'd watch FIRST - it really was an addicting watch despite its flaws.

The best thing? I don't know how they managed to get it past the censors, but they actually had the emperor as the Big Bad.

He was the one who exiled FL's family men unjustly, he was the one who punished and messed with her because he didn't like his nephew caring for anyone outside of him, and as the above scene indicates, even his gaslit/brainwashed/enmeshed in abused fashion nephew finally had enough. Every positive character who had an opinion hated him (FL literally called him out at one point!) and all the negative ones did too. He was not shown to do any of his petty, cruel, arbitrary things for the greater good but because he was a paranoid, self-absorbed man.

The best part? No last minute, death bed redemption of any kind. You think there would be one, as he lies dying from poison (inflicted by his own son! with the help of a foreign agent who is portrayed as justified and sympathetic!) but nope. Gu Yanxi, who realistically still loves his abusive as fuck father figure (because that's how it goes in rl), is all "I am sorry for stuff I did/said, I still love you, I will remain security head blah blah") and I expected the emperor to say he loved him and no pls go live your best life, find your happiness, I am sorry for being a bastard daddy etc etc but NOPE. Emperor just says "Yanxi" and croaks. (And same with his one remaining child, the sixth prince. He does not repent for how he treated his small son who saved his life, he does not appoint him heir etc. It's the dowager who trots the kid out.)

It's pretty telling that everyone gets a happy ending but only after the old monster croaks. The kid emperor pardons the Hua men who come back, Yanxi gives up his awful job and gets married and he and Hua Zhi peace the hell out of politics and business and just travel the world all over with no responsibilities etc etc.

I also liked how realistically tailored to various people the ending was in terms of happiness. Youngest uncle and aunt and their daughter go traveling, and I loved that - they were my faves except for sister and her OTP. Sister and her boo are in court, SML (who really wasn't - he never really pined and barely showed up) is a royal tutor, various younger married ladies have their own happiness (and I love that for one of them, it's a very realistic happiness of ruling her not attractive husband's concubines, business and household and getting his respect and buy in. She was neither looking for nor getting true love and that was fine with her) and the older generation of women also finding their calling that isn't just about the husbands (business, charity work etc etc.)

[simatomica]

Got tagged by @rebelangelsims to do this this picrew

I had to go with my fave otp, Emilio and @midnightsquartz Candy. They've been together for so long in rl time, that I can't see one without the other.

I'm tagging @midnightsquartz @lilamausmaus @kuroashims @nefarrilou @sertrallne @bubblepopsims @kharssims @cronakillz

[nikkiruncks]

Seven favorite Rory/Logan scenes/episodes? This is where I confess to you that I'm in love with Season 7 so a lot of my favorites would come from there :)

S7 Rogan is my faveeeee

1. Logan’s return in S7! Literally the most romantic thing ever!

2. “You jump. I jump jack” because duh

3. Logan “no commitment” Huntzberger agreeing to be Rory’s boyfriend because he feels a connection with her and doesn’t want to lose her.

4. I hate revival Rogan but Rory being all “you’re my pillow” and being cuddled up to Logan is the most domestic shit ever. They just should’ve been the ones to get married in the revival.

5. Their goodbye in the S6 finale breaks my heart. Especially when Logan is like “Rory, if you come with me, I won’t be able to go on that plane.” Like FUCK 😭😭😭.

Anyways Rory Gilmore is the only woman Logan Huntzberger ever loved and fuck the revival for not having them be the ones to get married.

[aristocratic-otter]

Ten Questions for Writers

Thank you @artsyunderstudy, @facewithoutheart and @nausikaaa for the tag! So, it's that time again, huh? Well, some things have changed since I last did one of these, so here goes.

How many works do you have on AO3? 35 but one was a group fic (Birthday Man). So technically 34.

What’s your total AO3 word count? 957,040 - 39,132 for birthday man (not going to try to figure out how many words my chapter in that fic was) = 917,908. So close to that million words!

What fandoms do you write for? Carry On only.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Always. I can't say my responses are always inspired because, just like in real life, sometimes I just don't know what to say. But I always reply, because I know for myself how hard it can be to write a comment, so I want to honor that. That, and I'm really truly grateful for everyone who takes the time to tell me what they liked about my work!

Have you ever had a fic stolen? No...my fics are pretty long and specific, it'd be really hard to pass something of mine off as someone else's. I know it hasn't happened on AO3, though I can't speak to Tumblr or other platforms, since I don't spend much time there.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, Birthday man, of course. And the Star Trek Redemption series is a lovely collab with many talented people. But also, I consider all of the many artists I've worked with co-authors, because so much of what I write comes from bouncing ideas off of them and being inspired by their art. So I'm considering @krisrix, @ivelovedhimthroughworse, @frjsti, @moments-au-crayon22, @artsyunderstudy, @alexalexinii,

@steppjes, @letraspal and @cutestkilla as cowriters

7. What’s your all-time favourite ship? The one and only OTP, Simon and Baz

8. What are your writing strengths? Hmm...I think I'm good with blocking, because I visualize my stories in my head before I write them down, so I'm good about knowing where characters are in space at all times. I'm also pretty good at characterization? And while my fics aren't usually laugh-out-loud funny, lots of comments point out things that are amusing, so I guess I write humor fairly well. Definitely good at scientific background stuff, of course. I don't know, other than that.

What are your writing weaknesses? Plot, plot, plot...not that I don't write decent plots. I think I do. But it can take me hours of dwelling on how to get characters from one plot point to the next. I tend to plan a fic in broad outlines and leave out minor details, and then I get bogged down in the details later. Other than that? I have trouble with witty banter. I can do dialogue, but I struggle with, for example, coming up with amusing insults for Baz to use on Simon. It just doesn't come naturally, because in RL, I'm the type who thinks of the witty response hours after the conversation ended!

Oh, also I suck at continuity. I constantly have to go back and read earlier chapters because I can't remember what I already had a character do or say.

First fandom you wrote for? CSI is the one I'll admit to.

I have no idea who's done this, so I'll tag: @cutestkilla, @carryonsimoncarryonbaz, @angelsfalling16, @palimpsessed, @bookish-bogwitch,

@best--dress, @emeryhall, @hushed-chorus, @prettygoododds, @larkral

[perverse-idyll]

Thanks for tagging me, @danpuff-ao3! <3 And it's so good to see you talking about your fics again. I love your thoughtfulness about your work and the whole writing process. (And I love your work itself, of course.)

"Self-rec time! What are your favorite five fics that you've written and why? After replying to this ask, feel free to pass on to five other writers to spread the love. 💗"

This comes at an odd time for me because I feel very disconnected from my fic and deeply unimpressed by it. Every time I open the current chapter I'm working on, I think, "What an absolute slog." So maybe focusing on what I love (or remember loving) will rekindle the missing spark! Plus it's been umpteen weeks since I last posted here, and it would be good to show signs of life. (I'm not giving up on writing or my OTP. RL just kind of saps the will to live sometimes. Experience tells me this too shall pass.)

Tagging anyone who wishes to celebrate their faves because I'll be poking at this while at work, and it may take me hours*. *days, as it turns out.

I actually don't have that many fics, which is embarrassing, considering how long I've been in fandom. The same handful just keep cropping up. So I'm going to be really aggravating and mostly talk about WIPs:

The Afterlight - the Snape/Harry WIP I'm currently working/ intermittently fixated on. It's got a serial killer subplot that still hasn't kicked in after 52K words and a Denial of Feelings dysfunctional romance heavily influenced by the fact that both men died in canon and forever after have to live with that knowledge. (Here we have the author's perpetual Denial of (Snape-ish) Death on full display 😉). The fic features disillusioned!Harry, an offshoot of the angry!Harry who often turns up in my work, alongside a Snape whose feelings, whatever else they may be, are typically obsessive to the point of self-sacrifice. They fight a lot and fuck a lot and at one point Snape takes a curse for Harry. Hurt/comfort as courtship! Probably my schmaltziest ending ever, and quite likely a narrative mess, but it's got its hooks into me so I really want it to turn out halfway decent.

Year of the Thestral - the only non-WIP here, a Severus/Minerva fic I had on the back-burner for years and finally finished. It uses a dubcon relationship as a lens to examine the damage done to - and price exacted upon - all and sundry during Snape's year as headmaster. The conceit involves Minerva at the end of her life reminiscing to a biographer, finally facing the memories and meaning of Snape's actions, the layers of betrayal and inevitability of sacrifice, and the furious despair that lay behind Severus' treatment of her. It offers the possibility of forgiveness and even retrospective love, and is woven throughout with femslash feelings. For me, it's a meditation on the punishing aspects of Snape's agreement to play the monster, as well as a character study of McGonagall, undertaken as a tribute.

The Blood of Stars - possibly my favorite of my current WIPs, put on hiatus in 2014. It starts with Snape basically being kicked out of the afterlife by Dumbledore and Lily and discovering, as he searches Hogwarts' post-battle wreckage, that he can't speak to Harry. Literally, no words. Partly in retaliation, he commits an act of heartache and cruelty that affects Harry's marriage. But he also reappears at desperate moments in Harry's life to provide help. There's much to-do over an underground prison, a mutual fascination despite their problems communicating (although one might suggest that Snape's inability to tell Harry what he thinks actually improves the situation), two dramatic death scenes, and more afterlife shenanigans. It also has what may be my favorite ending for any fic I've written thus far, and I'm determined to finish it if only for those scenes alone. Oh, and it's my version of horribly romantic. Also, hubris: the entire middle section is written in first-person Harry POV, which I know will take out a chunk of my potential audience, but I wanted to try something I'd never done before. Anyway, it's next in line once I finish The Afterlight (yes, I know, how many years will that take? But hope springs eternal).

Impossible Without It - another Snarry WIP put on hiatus in 2014! Ah, I was so full of ideas then and struggling not to let the bastards get me down. Well, I haven't given up on this one, either. It's another angry!Harry fic (I do write optimistic!Harry, but really, none of my Harrys are well-adjusted). In fact, it's a memory-holed Harry who can't recall killing Voldemort and an amnesiac Snape who works in a Muggle gay bar. The story is told partly through their sexual addiction to each other, fueled by secrets and lies and out-of-control hunger, desire for vengeance and of course the question of what really happened the day Voldemort died and Harry lost that moment in time while Snape forgot crucial parts of who he is (like the fact he's a wizard). They don't treat each other well, but they become so bound up in their obsession they can't let go. Eventually Harry discovers a way to restore Snape's memories, and Snape makes him regret it. Believe it or not, this one has a happy ending! Well, depending on whether you think a rather fucked-up relationship can be described as 'happy.'

The Threefold Death, or: The Lost World (long version), Snarry, WIP. I was originally going to choose When the Rose & the Fire Are One, but I've singled it out often enough that at this point I'm not sure what's left to say. I had Threefold Death hidden in a collection for a while because I couldn't stand to look at it, but that didn't help so I've removed it from its cage. I'm still haunted by a lot of the scenes, and I love fooling around with fairy tale imagery. I also like playing with ambiguity: how much of Snape's love for Harry is his own and how much is the Forest using Snape to draw Harry into its clutches. Ditto Albus Severus, the third in their circle/cycle of debts and devotion, who can't stop setting off tragic consequences despite the best of intentions. (Well, maybe not the best.) The POV in this one starts with Harry and switches to Al, partly because I'm a sucker for outsider POV and partly because I want to examine Al as a mixture of Harry and Snape, neither as loving as his father nor as ruthless as his mentor and therefore the weakest link in this Game of Three. But it is ultimately his love for them both that closes the circle, and he's the one who ends up losing the most. (Sorry, Al! Even if it's partly your own fault.) And this is another ending with lines and images I'm rather proud of. Also a ton of bittersweetness. Ever since I hauled it out of storage, I've been having all sorts of daydreams about character moments, so this fic is definitely simmering again.

[alwayscaskett810]

[consistentsquash]

I have been pretty lowkey about my F1 RPF fandom because it's actually my first RPF ship and also because some folks in fandom can get pretty judgmental about those. Also the discourse is pretty intense because it's sports RPF and those generally get intense. So I don't really do online fandom for this but I have some RL friends who ship it with me. It's been chill and I really loved race watchparties and things like that.

But also it's my birthday week and I got a surprise gift fic from eldritcher for my new otp and ok I get to be out and proud now about my rpf now :D

it's great to have friends who support my ultra weird ships. just really lucky and also grateful to have more Ship And Let Ship folks around me in general <3