#and its always like. with aus like this they might as well be original fiction. except my ideas for Theme make it imperative that it's crown

[fitzrove]

Man I love POTO a lot !!!!

[wszczebrzyszynie]

In your older art (when he was a rabbit breeder named Nikita I think) Mikita seems much more… smiley than he is now. The first time I saw him (I think 2022) I remember him being gay + aro instead of aroace. I adore this character and I would love to know how he changed/developed over the years!

Oh gladly. I adore this topic. Mikita is my oldest one (8 years old now!) and i have quite a lot to say and show about him, so ill put it under the read more. For some reason the picture formatting is completly broken when i do it. Thank you for the kind words

Mikita went through quite a lot name changes now that i think about it, at least compared to my other ocs; it went hand in hand with his ethnicity mostly, as he was i believe polish first, then polish/lithuanian and only since... 2020? belarusian (which i agree is definitely... a pipeline, but theres no deeper meaning behind it; for the 70% of his life the world he lived in was 100% fictional, and at the beginning even fantasy-like). His first actual name (not "rabbit breeder", which was the title used for him in the original story instead of a name. Names were a modern au thing) if im not mistaken was Fryderyk, then Nikita, and then Mikita. That name change did probably happen around 2022 because a Belarusian belarusianized his name for me and I liked it so i changed it. Very nice of them it makes much more sense in the current story

Years 2016-2020-ish he was gay (but not aromantic) and also dating Mikołaj; frankly i do not remember when exactly that changed, but he and Mikołaj are some of my oldest still in use ocs and they were always a package deal of sorts. Last time i drew shipart of them was in 2021. I think it might have stopped around the time i realized i am aromantic? It was a very important moment to me and the second it clicked i realized most of my ocs were secretly aromantic all along too. It was pretty funny now that i think about it

Personality wise he was a bit insufferable. Well he used to age with me (like most of my ocs) so he was very much a 15 year old. Very bratty and unempathetic to others, actively manipulative and overly ambitious. He used to smile a lot yes it was very in character then and i think it makes him look more annoying so it stays. Well either way i made so much art of him in that time i actually canonized it as his younger self in canon, now that hes older. I think thats a fun choice and i still like his old design, so its good to reuse it. Art from 2020, 2021 and 2023. I think current Mika would hate his old self a lot

Frankly when it comes to my ocs the big shift from that more dystopian completly fictional setting to more historically grounded one happened at some point and i dont remember when that was. 2020-2021 ish possibly. Its hard to remember because it did not happen from day to day; i think i abandoned these ocs original story for months before i made that choice? and even then i dont remember how current DNS or such a clear idea for it came to be, especially considering that it changed basically every single character drastically. Its weird to me but i suppose that knowledge is lost. That being said i think it does coincide with the creation of Przemek, who quickly became one of my favourites, so maybe theres that. I dont know. Well either way its a very good thing that it happened

[crguang]

ahajsksbywpqp sat guess who has 2 tests in the same week in the same class next week. Not very fun for me. anyway I was think abt Kafka (honestly when am I not is the real question). See if it wasn’t Kafka in ur au and I was r I would definitely turn her in for the money, but I unfortunately think I might like Kafka just like a little bit ig so I don’t think k would be able to do that .

Reread part 3 today is her fingers twitching bc she wants to shoot something or is it just bc Kafka and her fingers. Ok thats not what I meant but also…what I meant was that she works with her fingers a lot I wish she used them on me instrument, guns, etc. we still haven’t gotten an in game Kafka appearance w an actual violin, it probably won’t happen but I’m still holding out. And she’s the highest threat level possible for a criminal but she STILL commits petty theft. She is so I saw someone say that the stellaron hunters were all siblings, Kafka and blade are like the older siblings that have to drive/pay for everything, silver wolf is the gamer (so original) and firefly is the youngest. Wish they had more in game interactions, or like they had synergy, meta wise, since canonically they’re one of the most tight knit groups.

oh also your inbox must be full as fuck so it’s fine if you don’t reply to everything, esp bc you answer a lot of stuff, and even tho someone already said this ur rlly great to talk to ur thoughts are always more coherent than mine. And we all get to simp over hot fictional women together.

ngl I might start playing ptn, like I’ve been seeing screenshots and…wow, I don’t think I have enough storage tho. I think the two types of characters I usually like are tiny mentally ill ones and hot evil women, so…

im so sorry my messages are always so long btw, I keep rambling 😭

-🌠

aaaa study well and good luck for your tests!!! hope you get a good grade and if u dint i will hack i to your prof’s computer and change it for you

im with you entirely, if it was anyone else in that story i wouldve already called the cops LMFAOOO kafka gets privileges because shes hot and my fav unfortunately… for the finger thing, i think its just one of her quirks! in her idle she mimics playing the violin and like you said she has very dexterous hands (even mentions it in a voice line) so i think she’d absentmindedly move them around when her mind is elsewhere. this is the kind of overthinking i was talking about, when i map out a character in my head i think about the most irrelevant stuff that dont matter😭 but imo they add to her charm a little and make her a rounder character, idk. AND YES i love that her crimes go from suicide inducement to petty theft shes so ridiculous hfjfhdhfj that time in her character story where she just walked in a store and took clothes off the rack then left in front of everyone… shes funny as hell😭

i see the SH as family too! silver wolf and firefly are sisters to me, and both of them are def kafka’s little sisters. i think silver wolf is the youngest though, she even gives off sassy youngest child vibes. i wish they could work together too, having them all in one team would be so nice. but it’s also cool that each of them has a speciality, it makes sense for the work they do

my inbox is full i think i have around 70 asks rn…😭 but to be fair a lot of them are veryyy old i just havent gotten around to cleaning up my blog yet, i’ll do it at the same time i change my masterlist and actually make it pretty to look at. i usually try to click on notifs as soon as i see them but like i said, i just forget to type my answers </3

and omg. anon. if your type is mentally ill and hot evil women ptn is literally the game for you. there is an abundance of mentally ill women in there, trust me… like there’s every kind of character you could want in that game— you could give me a specific type and i could find you a character that matches it, you should definitely play. and if you do, do it before the second anniversary ends (starts around mid/late-october) bc trust me you are gonna be upset if you miss shalom :/

dont worry abt ramblingggg i love talking to u and answering every point it’s really nice!!

[mdhwrites]

Ever find it funny how fandoms love taking light-hearted stories and making grimdark fanfiction about them, and doing the opposite with stuff like horror and making them cutesy, wholesome, etc?

I think it's because we, as consumers of fiction, love exploring routes that canon doesn't take, just for...well, the fun of it. But do you think there's anything deeper to it?

So there's a phrase me and a friend heard once that we ADORE when describing fanfiction, or fan stories in general to encompass comics:

Fanfiction lies in the holes.

What that means is essentially what you're bringing up but in all genres. Why does Sadako inspired non-horror stories? Because that's not the story told by the source material. It's the uncharted frontier of that franchise and so when you ask "What if" you don't actually get a concrete answer or think "They might address it in the sequel." No, instead you know it's up to you so why not play with it?

This also goes into how people will write their own endings to cliffhanger questions. A couple is clearly going to get together eventually? Well, the question of how is pretty big in every consumer's mind. One of the ones that was the most fun with The Owl House was that the Human Realm had non-boiling rain. It's not a big question but how Luz freaks out about the hot water begs the question of how characters would react to the cold water. I don't think any Lumity author worth their salt for the first two seasons didn't tackle it, myself included.

This is also why shipping is SO. PROLIFIC. Especially in things that just staunchly don't have shipping in them. The subtext of scenes, just the general questions of sexuality, chemistry, etc. like that are exciting for a lot of people, regardless of context. It's always going to be an evergreen question with high amounts of drama, angst, fluff, etc. potential because it's an entire genre within a piece of fiction that has its own subgenres, etc. within it.

AUs and Crossovers are kind of the ultimate version of this. Fantasy world? What happens if these characters were instead in the modern day? Dark, gritty noir? How about a cozy coffee shop instead? And of course: What would this character do/be like if they were in an entirely different work?

I think all of this points to a simple fact when it comes to the majority of stories: Writers and Scientists both start with a question. A scientist conducts an experiment to narrow down the answer while a writer expands on it to explore the possibilities. As such, the more questions you leave to your audience as a writer, the more that can be expanded by your fans as they see fit.

And really, who doesn't love seeing someone be inspired to experiment with your work? See you next tale.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[throamguide]

hi!! do u know why anna decided not to rewrite and publish throam as an original work?

Hi! First off, some background: even in 2017-2018, when Anna was posting about the rewrite and talking about publishing it, she was open about the fact that it might never happen: "A rewritten version might never get published, anyway, so don't freak out." (X)

It also wouldn't be easy to rid it of its fanfiction past, as with something like 50 Shades of Gray (Twilight AU fic) because of THROAM's relative internet fame.

Anna also disliked when bandom people IRL (people she wrote about) would find out about THROAM because of fans bringing it up to them. Which is completely understandable. Because it happened quite a bit. She sums it up well in a heated post from 2019: Choice. And it had to be said because a lot of people ended up referencing, asking about, or even reading THROAM, presumably because of fans: Dallon, Jon, Vicky, Keltie, Z Berg...

Anna also moved away from bandom in general and started writing about K-pop groups (she's still at it!) and hinted at some original fiction. Finleighsaid, her URL towards the end of her Tumblr days, was some sort of reference to an original character of her's (I think?).

While writing this I had a look at the THROAM Fanlore page (which I helped write because my teenage self had no life) and found Anna's explanation as to why she stopped rewriting it:

March 25, 2019

Monday confessionals - I haven’t even had wine or anything. Some juice, though. Is sugar a drug?

Anyway, it is yet again that I have not posted anything here for a good while, and in the interest of Managing Expectations (whose? idk) I thought I’d give an update. Or, nay, a nopedate. (I’m sorry, I’m trying.) When last summer I decided that perhaps I ought to work the trilogy towards publication, I was working part-time and was kind of weighing my options as to what to do in life. (I still am. Is anyone out there a career counsellor? Please send me some help, thanks.) Anyway, I had time to work on the rewrite in cafés after or before work, and I was quite into it! Then I swapped for a full-time job and all of my rewrite efforts, essentially, ceased. I realise now why I wrote the story when I was a student: I had sooooo much time. From 2009 to 2019, I suddenly don’t have that luxury anymore.

So what I am saying is that, from my end, and for now, the project is definitely on hiatus. You know, like one of your favourite emo bands. I don’t want to mislead people into thinking I am actively working on the project when I haven’t touched it in weeks or even months. I don’t know if my situation will change in the future, or if this is the universe telling me to let it go. I know some people definitely want me to just let the story be! And I know some really want to see it published, too. And you know what, if I ever did publish it, people would always just shrug it off as bandom fic, and it’s hard for me to deal with the reality of people constantly looking down at something I love very dearly. So I have my hesitations and reservations, and I have Dean stood at Venice Beach in 1969, staring at the waves and a decade of stardom.

I have always been my most successful in producing and finishing stories when I have selfishly written whatever makes me happy. I suppose the rewrite is not that for me right now.

Thank you for your patience. Soul searching is hard. xx

[ss-skyearn]

Stray Kids Masterlist.

All of my original works are completely fictional and are intended for entertainment purposes only. They do not represent Stray Kids members, nor are they connected to them in any way.

Some of my works may contain mature content not suitable for minors, so proceed responsibly. You are responsible for your own media consumption.

Before continuing with the fics, be aware of the respective tags and warnings.

Cross-posted to ao3 only.

© ss-skyearn 2023. All rights reserved. Copying, editing, reposting and translating any of my works is not allowed.

Key : Angst(A), Fluff(F), Suggestive(S), Smut(M)

Adore you (A), (F), (S)

WORD COUNT : 2.8k

WARNINGS : mentions of anxiety/depression (not descriptive), established relationship, hugging and cuddling, little crying.

SUMMARY :

“Min?”

“Mm?”

“Thank you.”

“What for, bunny?”

“No one’s ever done this to me.”

“Done what?”

“Adored me like you do.”

Incandescent (A), (M), (F)

WORD COUNT : 5.7k.

WARNINGS/CONTENT : Vampire au, explicit sexual content, switch!Minho, switch!reader, grinding, dry humping, desperation, unprotected intercourse, blood, just really emotional and fulfilling for both parties *sob* they're in love.

SUMMARY :

"Or I will," it's not a threat, but the potency with which you state it makes it seem like one.

"Do it," it's not a challenge, but the voracity with which he says it makes it seem like one.

A tug of war between rationality and derangement, that is what being with him is like. Always.

Because Lee Minho makes you do vile things, makes you want to corrupt every part of you, and him in the process.

Walk With Me (M), (F)

WORD COUNT : 4k.

WARNINGS/CONTENT : Past angst, established relationship, they're in love, first time together, hair pulling, voyeurism, public sex, unprotected intercourse, sweet lovemaking, so much love and feelings.

SUMMARY :

"Everyone can see."

It's a little too late for that now. 

But it's not a complaint, not a protest, an objection. It's a simple statement, divulgence of facts, a declaration made by your brain that has long since lost the ability to conjure lucid postulations. 

"Let them. Let them see," quickening of thrusts, desperation rearing its head in the most sinful of ways.

"Let me show them how much I love you."

Can I Be Him? (A), (M), (F)

WORD COUNT : 7.9k (~8k)

WARNINGS : reader has a toxic bf and felix wants her, strangers to friends to lovers, nightclub meet cute lmao, drinking, protective!felix, (un)requited love, mutual pining.

SUMMARY :

“Please, angel. You don’t know how long I’ve been wanting this. I want to do this right. I want to worship you like you deserve.”

If you could, you might melt into a puddle right then and there, but his dick is just a few centimeters away from your fingertips, and your mind is just a little unhinged.

You click your tongue impatiently, “You know damn well what happened the last time you tried to do this right. You wouldn’t want history to repeat, would you?” His fly is undone in a flash.

“Tick tock, baby.”

Ketamine (M), (A), (F)

WORD COUNT : 4.6k.

WARNINGS/CONTENT : Felix freckles appreciation, substance abuse, soft dom!felix, sub!reader, praise, gentle dirty talk, choking, size kink, unprotected intercourse.

SUMMARY :

Seizing kisses. Skin hot to the touch. Burning mouths. Blood ready to boil over.

There's not much it takes to be riled up all over again, not when it's him in question.

Mind growing soft with a single touch, numb with a single caress, blacking out with a single press, you wish you had time to find out if he could someday anaesthetise you better than ketamine.

You're pretty sure of the answer regardless.

Senses (A), (M), (F)

WORD COUNT : 6.5k

WARNINGS/CONTENT : past Seungmin x reader, mentioned cheating (not Hyunjin or reader), brief episode of anxiety, unprotected intercourse, desperate sex.

SUMMARY :

Upon hearing that, he'd turn you around, coming behind, pressing his chest to your back. He'd take your hands in his own large ones, and stretch them outwards.

"Look up, love. Close your eyes, look up and feel."

You'd scoff, "Really, Hyunjin? The titanic pose? Thought you were a creative arts major."

He'd bend down, just a tad, enough that the next words he breathed out were coherent enough to reverberate in your head long after he was done saying them, "They call me the hopeless romantic for a reason."

Took Too Much (A), (M), (F)

WORD COUNT : 4.5k.

WARNINGS/CONTENT : explicit sexual content, substance abuse, longing, mutual pining, vulnerability, they're in love and just want each other, angst with a happy ending, grinding, dry humping, foreplay, launderie kink, desperation, WORSHIPPING, unprotected intercourse.

SUMMARY :

But it's a silhouette you'd recognize anywhere.

Those legs that you were trapped between during stolen moments of vulnerability.

Those large palms that held you down while you shook from the white hot pleasure the same hands brought you.

That soft blonde mop of hair that tickled your inner thighs when the same head was buried in your heat, almost every chilly night like today. And every warm one too.

Tba

Tba

Tba

Tba

Tba

[sidleyparkhermit]

fanfic director's cut: talk about what went into your characterization of Chilton in interrupted stitch because i'm still amazed that you managed to capture a version of him that feels in-character without making me want to dropkick him. also tell the people about interrupted stitch

Thank you for the lovely ask and always being such an encouraging reader. I'll try to fulfill both requests as best I can, in reverse order, without wandering off to complain too many times

So: Interrupted Stitch originated as NBC Hannibal hiatusfic, though early in the outlining the second season premiered and the story officially became a canon-divergent AU. It had many elements that might seem in retrospect to be dunking on seasons 2-3 of Hannibal but simply came from looking at the plot and characters of season 1 and thinking about things that would make sense to happen.

It involves... how do I explain this. It exists because one time Aaron Abrams tweeted about Raúl Esparza being cute. It was supposed to be a PWP. It quickly grew a plot, wherein some traumatized secondary characters eventually solve the Chesapeake Ripper murders with the powers of gay S&M and friendship. It's my first foray into what I would call genuine crime fiction. My joke logline for it is "PTSD, BDSM, and some FUBAR MDs." Also, Beverly lives, of course.

I worked hard on it for a long time, but it's only really been seen by @stellerssong, partly because of [real life redacted] and partly because, as longtime readers will know, I hate the Hannibal fandom.

As to the Chilton question!

So, I think the most important thing to begin with was to take him as he is (or was at that point in canon). He's annoying, he's arrogant, he's not qualified for his job -- those are just facts on the ground. They don't have to be explained away.

What else is he? Well, despite the fact that he clearly should not have been in his position at what my old friend gamesiplay dubbed CrazyJail™️, he advanced this far as such a relatively young age somehow. He and Zeller have in common the quality of being overachievers in high-stress and high-risk occupations. I figured right away that he would be continuing to work as much as he could after the Gideon kidnapping, not just to take his mind off things but because that's his personality.

What does he want? In some cases he wants what everyone else can see is the wrong thing; he cannot help trying to get back to the BSHCI despite all his disastrous mistakes. But since we're seeing him outside that frame as well, we also see the quite ordinary human things he wants that were taken away, in some cases permanently, by Gideon (and Lecter): to enjoy food and sex, to hang out with normal people, to have one goddamn night of good sleep. To drink a cup of coffee.

What Chilton endures in "Rôti" is so extreme, from the point of view of the real world, that I feel like simply exploring its effects is more than enough to make the reader sympathize. Because Chilton is annoying, but he's not evil, and he lives in a world deeply infected with true evil. Hannibal Lecter thinks being evil is superior to being annoying, and I guess Bryan Fuller does too, but they're both wrong.

So, I think part of the answer is vulnerability, and mainly just the vulnerabilities already opened up by the text. (I guess the text didn't inherently suggest the humanizing effect of discovering a character's embarrassing sexual fantasies, but I think I ripped off that trick from Terrence McNally [Love! Valor! Compassion!, 1995].)

I think Zeller's POV, and Zeller being himself someone who alternates between brilliant overachiever and human disaster, also helps kinda equalize them. Like, yeah, here's a dude that makes bad decisions, I too am making bad decisions, who the hell would even be making good decisions at a time like this.

They -- and the others in that story -- aren't normal people, obviously. But what they are is people with normal kinds of flaws. And when you are just regular messed up, when you may have thought you were ready for the worst because you're very clever and you've done so much research, how do you deal after your own life is changed by extreme evil? That was the kind of question that interested me.

[nightmares-voicemail]

Introduction

Oh, hey, mortal. So, guess this old thing still works…? Well, congrats. By discovering this interface, you gained the ability to send messages beyond time and space, to the Infinite Cosmos. I advise you to use this power with an adequate level of responsibility.

Or don’t. It doesn’t matter, really. Because of the nature of the Cosmos, each reality contains infinite copies of itself. Even if you somehow end up completely messing up a world by, I don’t know, sending nuclear plans to cavepeople? Who cares, there’s still infinite versions of that world where that never happened. Just please, don’t piss off any Prime Gods. They will get on my case, and while they can’t do anything to me, they love to complain, and I have no interest dealing with them.

Actually wait, I can just make it so that you can’t contact other Prime Gods through this. That should save me some headache.

Anyway. If you REALLY feel like you need an entity with knowledge and power that you won’t be able to comprehend in a billion lifetimes for some chit-chat, you can message me. Make it entertaining and I might answer. Okay, that out of the way, here’s some instructions and basic terms on how to use this thing.

P.S. If you’re about to ask me to save you from some sort of world-shattering disaster, don’t. I’m not your nanny.

P.S.2: I might make an exception if said disaster was caused by me, but do not ask me to fix what other deities messed up. We have a policy of not getting into each other’s business and the only reason I ignore that is if it amuses me. But believe me, your problems are incredibly boring.

Okay, so the rules.

This is an ask/RP blog for my stories and OCs from the Infinite Cosmos setting. That is, basically all my stories and OCs. You can address me with general questions about characters or my writing, or you can address my characters for an in-character response. I might hold on to information about ongoing stories to avoid spoilers, but otherwise I like to rant about my writing so go and give me an excuse to do that if you’re interested.

The Setting

The Infinite Cosmos, most commonly referred as simply the Cosmos by its inhabitants, is a multiverse of multiverses where every possible and impossible version of reality exists somewhere. Some worlds and people are more aware of the other worlds out there than others. Also some worlds exist in other worlds as works of fiction. All my stories, both original and fanfiction, take place in the Cosmos. This is usually not at all important for the stories itself – after all, the Cosmos is infinite and I crafted it with the exact purpose that any kind of fictional world can coexist in it without contradicting each other, but it gives justification for cross references and metajokes which I love to make. (There is a cosmology and backstory I’m working on which I will definitely finish and use in an actual story one day.)

My Stories

Enchant: My current main project. An ongoing series about troubled teens discovering magical powers and turning into superheroes in a fictional modern setting. Updates irregularly with pretty long chapters.

You can always see the darkness: A long series of Deltarune fanfiction that I wrote over the course of a year, eventually turning it into its own AU. It is finished now.

Shuffled Fate: A discontinued isekai story from 2021. A lot of my OCs originate from here. To address the Shuffled Fate-version of any characters, just put “SF!” before their name. Otherwise, the more recent version of the character will answer if there are any.

Reverse Rune: An ongoing Deltarune roleswap AU series. It’s currently on the backburner.

Misplaced Fate: My multifandom-multiverse-crossover project. On the backburner.

Cross-references

I’m a writer with writer friends. Sometimes we get involved in each other’s projects or write fanfiction/recursive fanfiction for them. I have a friend who has a universal adaptor cast of OCs and she also likes to put her friend’s OCs into her stories. We both like crossovers and references. This can lead to shenanigans. If I reference a friend’s story or character, just take it as my headcanon/take on the original like you’d do with any canon fandom characters. Obviously nothing is canon to my friends’ works unless they say so.

Canon Characters

If I ever wrote fanfiction for something, you can send asks or prompts about those stories and characters too, just keep in mind that you’re talking to the character’s version living in my multiverse.

My OCs

Wisp: Okay, so this is not really an OC (man, I’m bad at this aren’t I), it’s just me. The creator of all my works and the narrator of most of them. You can address me in general about my worlds and characters, just keep in mind that I have no idea what I am doing most of the time, I will most likely make up stuff on the fly and might end up contradicting myself. I also use they/them pronouns mostly, it/its fine too until further notice.

Nightmare: He’s a Prime God, that is, he’s one of the “true gods” of the multiverse, not part of an in-universe pantheon. He can do anything, in theory, and he’s quite determined to see if that’s true in practice too, unlike other deities who usually stick to creating and managing their own worlds. He usually appears as this really tall guy with spiky black hair, long black fingernails, wearing a biker outfit, sunglasses, and oh, he has eight eyes. He also tends to talk in a kind of deep, booming voice that carries the feeling of powerful emphasis for mortal beings. He can be a bit jerkish and full of himself as a side-effect of the whole all-powerful god thing.

“I can hear you; you know.”

Flow: “Uhm, voices in my head… okay, don’t panic, this happened to Natasha too. Wait, that’s not reassuring at all.”

Flow is a guy (gender neutral) who I like to put into situations. They went from being unexpectedly isekaid in Shuffled Fate to being unexpectedly but a bit more willingly becoming a hero in Enchant (those are different canons and even worlds but eh). They’re great at being out of their water, feeling anxious, and serving as a foil to more extravagant characters, which does not mean they can’t be a bit of a mess themself. Also they’re 15 because that’s a great age to have things happen to you.

“Good things?”

:)

“Oh…”

In Enchant, Flow’s heroic identity is Ruthen. If you address Ruthen, they will answer as them, assuming you don’t know their identity.

Natasha: “Oh no, not again.”

“Oh, come on, I know you enjoy making a good show. And now you have an audience!”

“Sigh, fine. Not like I have much choice, you will just keep broadcasting these telepathic messages from other worlds into my head until I answer them, don’t you.”

Excuse Natasha for her mood, she had a rough…

“Life.”

“Lives.”

… existence. She started out as a minor Deltarune OC, then grew into a major antagonist in my fanfiction, then into an Anti-Villain. At some point in 2022 when Kira was looking for friends’ OCs to put them into her MLB fanfic, Maris Stella, I submitted Natasha, somewhat reworking her concept to work better with the different setting. Then, partially inspired by MLB and Maris Stella myself, I started to work on Enchant where Natasha became one of the main protagonists.

Even though she’s got three different versions now, the gist of the character stayed the same. She started out as an orphan living in pretty bad circumstances, being bullied by older kids, got separated from her one (1) friend, then got taken in by a rich widow who turned out to be an abusive jerk. Where the story goes from there is what really differs in the different continuities.

Addressing Natasha generally will get you her Enchant version most of the time – you can address DR!Natasha for her original version from my fanfiction or Maris!Natasha for the version appearing in Maris Stella. Addressing Nocturknight or Sylvana, her heroic alteregos from Enchant and Maris Stella respectively, she will answer as them, assuming you don’t know her civilian identity.

Vess: “…”

These are voice messages. They can’t see you. All they know is that you’re not talking.

“…”

Sigh. Vess grinned threateningly at the audience, showing their inhumanly sharp teeth.

There, happy now?

“Yes.”

Okay, so…

“Wait, are you making fun of me?”

… so Vess was originally my interpretation of the Discarded Vessel from Deltarune for a fanfic I wrote. Then as I kept writing more stuff with them, they kept growing, slowly becoming their own thing. Since I wanted to use them more, I decided to rework their whole background, creating a version with largely the same personality, and keeping and building on the gimmicks I added, for Enchant.

In all their versions, they’re an edgy, angsty, creepy, mostly-humanoid-in-an-uncanny-valley-way straw nihilist creature with artificial origins who will eat anything. That might or might not include you.

“It does.”

By default, Vess’ Enchant version answers the asks. For their original version from my fanfiction, address DR!Vess.

Néne: Néne is a powerful Seer native to Stonecloud Realm (the original setting of Shuffled Fate). She has the ability to see a person’s past and future as a network of branching paths but can’t predict what choices someone will make before they actually make them. Basically imagine what Garnet from Steven Universe had going on, but on a much bigger scale.

“Oh, Garnet? She’s adorable, but if anything, I’d call her a talented guesser rather than an actual Seer. I mean come on, being given false information can confuse her vision. That’s called a prediction, not a prophecy. But she’s a great yoga partner and I got my favorite pancake recipe from her. She’s always welcome at my house.”

Unlike most other Seers who work as spies, strategists, or advisers, Néne uses her power the run a successful restaurant, as she can make anyone’s favorite food, the exact way they like it without ever meeting them before. This, and her “first time free” policy turned Néne’s Dinner Hall a popular tourist spot among the travelers of Stonecloud and sometimes even guests from other worlds pay a visit.

“I saw it too many times, what it does to people if they learn about their possible futures. It paralyzes them with fear, denies them from meaningful choices. Everyone wants something and we all fear failure – but if we start to make our choices based on fixed knowledge of what will get us what we want then our life becomes a complicated choreography and somewhere along the way, we stop being ourselves. A good meal can make so much more good, don’t you think?”

Artemis: “Hi there! If you have some time, come, visit my shop! You don’t need to buy anything, but you might want after checking out our antique wares! For more information visit gwn.herald.con/@ArtemisHolmes and don’t be afraid to leave a like!”

Uhm okay, yes, while Artemis poses as an antique shopkeeper…

“I can assure you, I’m a perfectly ordinary shopkeeper.”

… he’s actually one of the few remaining members of the Order of the Enchanters, guardian of the remaining Enchants and currently in charge of picking human allies in the fight against the Sorcerer. He’s also well over 800 years old and is the spouse of…

Nox: “I don’t trust this at all. We have enough on our plate here, in our world without voices from the Cosmos.”

Rob Nox (Rob is his family name) comes from a long line of soldiers serving the Order. He was about to be an exception, up until his family history quite literally caught up to him. Long before Nox’s birth, his father was afflicted with a magical condition that slowly turned his body into living crystal feeding on his very life-force. Nobody realized the severity of it until it was too late. After his father succumbed to the curse it moved to the next generation – onto Nox. He joined the Order in hopes for retaliation and a cure but only started to care about its mission after meeting a young and idealistic Artemis. Then the Mistfall came.

Narwia: She’s not a cat.

“Wait, that’s it? That’s all you’re going to say about me‽”

It seemed important to you.

“No, you know what I mean, there’s really nothing interesting you can say about me? You did it for all the others!”

Very well, why don’t you go ahead and talk about yourself then?

“Hah! You’d like to know, don’t you?”

Yeah, that’s what I thought. Anyway, Narwia Solena is a felimorph and professional reaper and devil-hunter, working with the Order of the Enchanters on a strictly occasional basis.

She’s also a cat sometimes!

“I’m a felimorph!”

Igne: “Hey! Not sure who you are and how can we talk, but go ahead, ask me anything!”

Igne is one of Flow’s classmates with a passionate personality and wide range of interests. They love martial arts but have a hard time following any actual training because of their wayward nature. They hate bullies and dream about being able to help others but can be a bit reckless at times.

Matis: “Is it really a good idea to give out all this pretty personal information about us to some mysterious voices claiming to be from other worlds? I mean, shouldn’t we be at least a bit suspicious about this?”

Matis is Flow’s other classmate and the best friend of Igne. He’s usually responsible for his age and often acts as the voice of reason besides Igne, however his curiosity and desire to be more proactive and bolder can lead him into dangerous situations as well.

This list is incomplete and will be updated over time, but don’t feel limited by it. You can address any characters who appear in any of my works, whether they’re on the list or not!

[wordsandrobots]

I think After War: Gundam X is my third favourite Gundam show.

This is way behind Iron-Blooded Oprhans and Turn A Gundam, but compared to the others I’ve watched, it’s definitely more to my tastes. I think it could have benefited from the extra episodes it didn’t get, especially to expand on some of the initial space-based adventures, and it has a lot of the usual issues I have with the franchise (erratically written female characters, a half-arsed approach to condemning structural oppression, and throwing out the ‘horrors of war’ maundering whenever it’s more plot expedient to mow down mooks like there’s no tomorrow). Overall, however, it packs in a much more coherent plot than predecessor Gundam Wing, some charming characters, and a few very deft thematic flourishes.

For example, there’s an episode early on where our heroes have to help save a psychic dolphin and her pod from being turned into an advanced sonar system. Now you might think that’s a very silly sentence and you’d be correct. But the point is, this is something the Federation (emphatically the bad guys here) developed during the war this series takes place after, in order to have more effective underwater combat suits. They took dolphin brains and turned them into spare parts. And a couple episodes later, we discover this is their attitude to psychic humans too, which seems to be the pay-off until we reach the end of the series and, well, let’s just say the approach goes all the way to the top.

In fact, Gundam X is very concerned with the exploitation of psychics both by those who treat them as tools to be used and those who venerate them as humanity’s next evolutionary step. And oh gods, this means I have to write about Newtypes.

[I shall put the rest of this under a cut because I genuinely think this is one series it’d be worth going in blind on and also because this will ramble a bit.]

All right, let’s get this out of the way: Newtypes as depicted throughout both the original 1979 Gundam and this show (which essentially starts as a bad AU to Gundam ‘79/the Universal Century) are humans with extraordinary abilities, who are theorised to be an evolutionary adaptation to living in space. Newtypes have greater levels of awareness, cognition and empathy. That is to say, they can variously gain a deeper understanding of the people around them or be really, really good at driving giant robots. They are in-universe hypothetical until war breaks out and suddenly a lot of people are very interested in the military applications of psychic powers. Also occasionally people get their brains blasted to mush by the weight of too many people dying near them at once and/or are able to unify humanity’s brainwaves in order to atomise asteroids dropped by manipulative blondes with eco-fascistic tendencies. It’s a whole thing.

I am being a little glib here and I also don’t want to delve into the out-of-fiction meaning of Newtypes because I feel woefully unqualified to write about that. But for myself, considering the fiction as presented, I’ve always found Newtypes to suffer from the Jedi Problem: it’s fine and dandy to have quasi-mystical power that increases human connection but if you’re only going to show its applications in war, you’re smothering a lot of interesting potential in the concept.

This is primarily a problem of genre. Gundam is a series of war stories. It is deeply invested in fighting and conflict, and not merely because it’s financed in order to sell brightly coloured war machine kits to children and adults alike. There is nothing wrong with that per se but it limits what can be shown with respect to the doings of the magic people we’re repeatedly told are the heralds of a new age of understanding. Yes, we get to see lots of Newtypes get traumatised by their powers, or artificially created by nefarious powers-that-be, or occasionally bugger off to the end of time with their boy- and girlfriend after causing an untold amount of harm to everyone around them. But we never really get to see much in the way of non-military applications of this supposed ability to connect with others on a fundamental level. Even setting aside creative disillusionment, the very type of stories being told back the idea into a corner.

This is not to say the Gundam ‘79 derived fiction hasn’t made much hay of the in-universe tension between the status quo and the possibility of radical change. It’s kind of its one trick. But to me, it feels like diminishing returns and I end up longing for a story of Newtypes just . . . being. What does that kind of power look like when it’s not plugged into the latest giant robot suit and being sent off to punch whichever red-suited dork is trying it on this week.

Gundam X is not a story of Newtypes just being. It’s a setting where Newtypes are conscripted, manufactured or mutilated to be used as weapons. It’s a setting where one faction has proclaimed everyone in space to be a Newtype, in order to justify the wide-scale slaughter of anyone left living on Earth. And it’s a story in which, as it turns out, Newtypes do not actually exist.

Oh, there are people with unusual abilities. A girl who has prophetic visions. A pair of brothers with a psychic link. Ace pilots who glimpsed the future. But the ultimate revelation is that these are one-offs and the grand theory of advancing human evolution via living in space is so much hot air, dreamt up to further various agendas. And that makes a hell of a lot of sense in hindsight.

You see, throughout Gundam X we see a wide variety of supernatural abilities, but only some of these are classed as ‘proper’ Newtypes (resentment over this fuels the primary antagonists, the Frost brothers, who decide to burn down the world over being dismissed). As a viewer, you get pulled along by this without thinking too closely about it. But there are hints from the start (including a couple of ex-soldiers selling themselves as Newtypes while clearly not being anything special) that the term might be less than it seems. Amuro Ray-alike Jamil Neate’s stated goal is to protect Newtypes from oppression but he finds a grand total of one to safeguard in the entire series. Our hero, Garrod Ran, is an unusually gifted, empathic pilot who never gets the term applied to him. The working definition the world-dominating Federation are using is simply ‘can operate our patented robot control system’. Meanwhile the leader of the Space Rebellion has, as I said, declared everyone born in space a Newtype, making the existence of supposed Newtypes born on Earth very inconvenient. The term is at once over-specific and overly-wide, depending on who’s using it.

And in the end? Turns out the ‘first’ Newtype was some poor sod who could use that robot control system and got turned into a computer on the moon for their trouble. That was the source of the working definition and everything afterwards was just various people building castles in the sky. The powers are anomalous. Inexplicable, but not any kind of evolutionary leap. They just . . . happen. Every Newtype is their own distinct thing and not really an indication of anything very much other than fluke.

Which is actually pretty clever. It means the whole conflict is driven by people building taxonomies and raising certain things on to pedestals not because of something that definitely exists but because it suits their agendas to do so. It’s also a neat solution to the Jedi Problem, turning it around and saying, yes, these people only display their powers in combat because those looking for them only said those that were useful in war were actually Newtypes.

(I know the Gundam ‘79 and its sequels do stuff like this as well, but Gundam X has the advantage of making it the entire point, rather than wanting to have it both ways because it has the ending of Char’s Counterattack to deal with.)

Bit of a shame this all gets rushed out in the last couple of episodes due to the series running short. But perhaps that’s for the best, given there’s nowhere really to go once you’ve pulled the rug out from under everyone and demonstrated the antagonists’ motivation is fundamentally a hugely inappropriate reaction to a categorisation error.

Other observations:

Garrod Ran is fairly generic as protagonists go but I do find it amusing how he basically gloms on to every angsty teenager he encounters like they’re a precious baby in need of protecting. Including the one who was definitely trying to kill him when they met.

Tiffa’s arc would have worked much better if her attempts to define herself beyond her status as a Newtype had been emphasised more. Like, it’s sort of there, but it only comes to the fore at the very end.

Toniya and Ennil absolutely deserve to end up together and leave Witz and Roybea moping around a cornfield somewhere.

I really like the design of the Dauntless mobile suit. It’s an almost unsettling take on the GM model from the Unviersal Century. In fact, I generally appreciate seeing a Wing-esque aesthetic mapped backwards on to the original style, with greater emphasis on making the non-Gundam machines look that little bit off.

For all that I enjoyed this show, I really dearly wish Jamil hadn’t gone back to the Federation at the end. They make themselves utterly irredeemable across the course of the series and there isn’t any functional need to maintain them beyond the end. It’s a sour note, honestly, especially without any indication the rampant empire building across Earth is going to be reversed. But that’s the kind of pat assimilation ending Gundam seems to trade in more often than not, so it’s not a unique flaw.

Depths Of Minds Elevating. Huh. That’s a very long walk for what is itself a totally undescriptive acronym.

I am somewhat tempted to write Jamil/Lanslow fic. Not even necessarily Like That, but just to explore an older, more relaxed Amuro/Char dynamic in which both sides have learned how to chill the hell out.

[purlturtle]

Five things I never tire of writing

Got tagged by @lilolilyr - thank you, don't mind if I do! And I'm gonna open this open up to anyone who wants to do this, without outright tagging! Go bonkers, my friends!

1. Honestly a lot of my fics come about by me wondering "but what if *this* happened instead?", ideally in order to either stop Helena from betraying the team in Egypt, or stop the Astrolabe storyline, or even save Christina somehow etc etc etc. So, canon fix-its gets top billing here!

2. AUs. Whether I see a movie or TV show and think "Oh this could be something for Bering and Wells", or I get ideas for a Christmas movie for them, or put them in Scenarios and Circumstances - I love writing Bering and Wells AUs!

3. Smut - I like the lady love, for sure! Be it PWP or a smut scene that works with the plot of a story, I do love to put that spice into my stories.

4. Long-form stories! I always say "I can't do short" - it's rare for me to write anything shorter than 2K words; most of my stories are between 5 and 25K, and I got some whoppers that run even longer. I've written a few shorter things as exercises and to challenge myself, which is fun too! But overall I'm more for the longer ones.

5. Different kinds of queerness! Yes, Bering and Wells is f/f, but hey, there are plenty of ways this can be (one of these days I wanna write an ace HG!), and there are also plenty of other characters that can add other flavors of queerness! I love when I find my own flavor of queerness in fic, and I want my readers to have that feeling too. I might not always get it right, though, because I am just this one flavor of queerness, and if you've ever felt I didn't do a specific flavor justice, please by all means reach out and let me know.

There they are! And I haven't even mentioned the most important thing I'll never tire of writing: Bering and Wells! This ship is my happy place, it's what my muse whispers into my ear, it is what I want to write. Not interested in original fiction, not interested in other ships, not interested in other categories (like m/m). All Bering and Wells all the time, babey! 😅

As per usual, if you have any questions on my writing, please let me know! I love talking shop! (ship? 😁)

[fitzrove]

Now that I'm talking about history sklslsldldld here's another post...

Historical accuracy in fanworks - why?

A recurring thing w me is that people get annoyed with how obsessed I am with historical accuracy 😭😅 Like people have had to physically restrain me from doing 5 hours of research for a throwaway line in a fanfic, and one friend and I once had an hour long argument about word choice... But unfortunately I am just Like This lmao.

The thing is though, it's not because of any inherent sense of superiority or anything like that lol, I just have preferences. Also, I'm not the kind of person that needs everything to be 100% accurate all the time, I can still have fun JAPFLDPGPF. Basically, for me it comes down to a few things:

1. Suspension of disbelief / immersion

With historical fiction, the "he would not fucking say that" kicks in w dialogue easier than w something set in the modern day. Sometimes it's because of glaringly modern language (a 19th century guy going "sup" or something xD) but other times it's because a character is way too familiar with people of a different class, or acts/dresses/speaks too casually in general.

My hugest pet peeve with this are character names for side characters that the author made up 😭😭😭😭😭 As a non-native English speaker I don't really get the urge to insert random English names into my stories even when the stories are in English, I always look up the historical context and try to use names that a parent would give their child in that context. I'm sorry for naming and shaming but in one tdv fic Alfred's surname was Smith and I had to put down my phone because it broke my immersion so badly xD

2. Enjoyment

Historical accuracy can also be a characterisation thing!!! With crown prince rudolf of austria specifically his whole appeal as a character comes from his neuroses, and his neuroses are the specific way they are because of his specific position and status, and all that those entail in his historical context. It makes a story so much more interesting if these are properly taken into account 👀

3. What's the purpose of fanfic?

To me personally the purpose of writing and posting FANfic, as opposed to writing other stories, is threefold:

Making a point about the original story (is it a fix-it fic? An AU reimagining? A canon-compliant elaboration on something I think could expand upon a character's personality or two characters' relationship? These approaches all comment on the original work and its themes and characters.)

Personal enjoyment/self indulgence (I write what I would like to read)

Hopefully connecting with other fans (persuading them to see my Vision re specific characters/relationships, the setting, or the work as a whole; keeping the fandom alive; inspiring other people to make fanwork; providing entertainment; finding people who are the same kind of insane as you and making friends)

To me, putting historical accuracy into my fic or drawing inspiration from history fulfills all of these goals. With the first one: the original work usually comments on its era in some way as well, so drawing inspiration for the fic from that era complements it and keeps them grounded together. IRL history can also give you fun ideas to put in. W the second one: I love late 19th century history specifically and historical accuracy is my kink KSLFPEPDOFO. W the third one: I like sharing weird/funny/interesting historical facts w people so we can enjoy them together 😌 I also like Informing people of things that happened in history so hopefully they can have as much fun w the knowledge as I do. I try not to do this unsolicitedly and in general try to avoid criticising anyone for historical inaccuracies without being asked to because that's boring, I'm not trying to be cinema sins here

4. Exceptions

Sometimes historical inaccuracy is more fun than historical accuracy, though this is highly personal - you just have to do what you think is best and accept that something you enjoy might be something that breaks another person's suspension of disbelief (and hence makes them not enjoy the story). My personal metrics are roughly:

Sojblfpldlpf fun fact an unnamed person and I had a conversation about rudolf's probably not existing [redacted] register last night and while writing a fic about it would be historically inaccurate, the conclusions we arrived at about it were pretty funmy and interesting. With gay and homosexual implications

One of my favourite pastimes is to comb over crown prince rudolf's life and purposefully misinterpret random things as gay KSOGODPFOTK 😌😌😌 it's a good way to get fic ideas. So um yeah idk where I was going with this post haha

[kharmii]

I'm someone who isn't interested in content surrounding OCs. People are free to create them and to whatever with them and good for them but I'm just not interested in them. I once very politely asked some vocal anti to give tags when they share something and they just got pissed at me. Saying that every character be it canon or not is someones OC and I should respect them. This person also constantly screeches about boundaries and all that stuff but apparently it only goes one way. It's okay to ignore someones boundaries if one doesn't think something worthy of tagging.

I dunno. Once again shows hypocrisy at its finest at the side of the antis.

Disgusting content and all that aside: still thinking that I rather hang out with shippers than those snowflake antis who weep when someone is a bit harsher than usual but decide to ignore boundaries if they think they are "pointless"

so far I feel like OC content has always been tagged on your end (if it does show up) so I'm very thankful for that. Also I know you won't give me shit for my opinion. I'm just not interested in some special OC Karen/Kevin who is all the genders and none and wants to fuck the twins or any of that nonsense... as well as all the projection into the depot agents... a-nnoy-ing. But other people are free to like them. I am just not interested.

sorry for the little vent this has been boiling inside of me for a while and I needed to get it out of the system... honestly I'm thankful for your blog and content and even if you're often harsh with your words I think you're a cool and fun person to have around. Aside the rants I also enjoy your in depth character analysis or when you write your opinions on something. It makes me curious and interested even if I'm out of the loop with the franchise! Thank you for your content and I hope you're having a great time!

Do you mean like self-inserts? -Or OCs in general created to be shipped with a popular character? I usually don't pay attention unless I really like them. I can only think of a few off the top of my head. IE: ceciloque and the artist who did something cute with Volo. Neither did ships. One was a protag friends with the Subway Twins, the other hated Volo in a facetious way. I also liked the Generic Protag guy but lost interest in him when he made Gene leave Hisui (also the artist soft blocked me, so I don't show up in the tags).

I could see someone getting annoyed with OCs if they do that thing where they make a Mary Sue OC with a harem of OC partners and who goes around making every single canon character fall for them. The two things that aggravate my OCD are off models and implausible cross overs. Extra points if they cover both. You might have read some of my rants in the past, like the most aggravating one of all is when someone makes the Subway Bosses not twins anymore. IE: What if one was a guy and the other was a unicorn? -Or a dog. -Or a fugly mermaid? -Or a llama that vaguely resembles Arceus? (Had to dig up the original post that started a certain tag).

None of that stuff really bothers me on the general tags because I get why people do it. People want to come up with reasons to keep their interest going, and when content runs out with canon, then AUs keep the character alive for them. It's funny with me personally, I can keep myself occupied posting literally the same thing for years, but of course it's not going to be enough because interests change.

Thought of that today when I queued up yet another fan art of Dabi and Shoto sitting side-by-side eating soba together, and that's the equivalent of a Submas reunion hug in my mind, although with Dabi it might have a darker meaning. He might be lying in his tank barely alive having that thought of eating soba with his brother circulating through his mind in a continuous loop. He's done being mad and wants to think of something happier than dying.

I'm about to be guilty of creating a Geten x OC for my latest fan fiction to keep it going, just because I got stuck on the ending. I needed a female character with a specific ability, and the only person who had said ability was one of the advisors for Team Brown: Support Regiment which will create more content to give Geten and Mr. Compress something to talk about when they are eventually incarcerated in adjacent rooms. I decided to make my OC a sibling to to that unnamed advisor. It's me creating an OC but staying within canon. If I were motivated and adverturous enough to keep the thing going past manga canon ending, I'd still keep it in the MHA universe.

I wouldn't be like, "Let's do My Hero Academia Star Wars! -And make Geten a mermaid pirate and Dabi a succubus werewolf with a double-sided light saber!" That would be the exact sort of shit that would drive me up the wall.

[a-beneficial-union]

Here’s the post I wanted to make (but which needed the earlier context to make any semblance of sense); Designers are Fun. To. Make.

Look at this goof. Look at this squish face sad bab. Wookit theeeem.

(The nightfury-esqu orca dergon is from my Dual Haven AU.)

When making these forms, I’ve been trying to go through what the characters (Ben alternates) would actually go for in a form they can design themselves. Their designs have to reach certain criteria (or their Omni will just make the needed adjustments themselves), so they do have limitations, so the question then becomes ‘what criteria would a self-generative ai implement in order to ensure its bearer to perform optimally’?

Additionally, there are the criteria passively imposed by the -ens who already have their designers through peer pressure or rules made up by the people who have to approve of the design before granting access. Those criteria would be specific to the individuals, therefore creating trends within the larger networks, the smaller lines within, and the individual Ports making up the others.

Take for instance the WildWire port from the Blight network, since it’s the one I’ve been playing with the most of late. The majourity of -ens there have the Vulpimancer transfer so, right off the bat, they’d be more likely to add the same perceptive abilities of a Vulp to their Designer, WildWire has an offshore site with little to no air gaps (none of which being intentionally present), thus the forms all need to be strong swimmers capable of either breathing underwater or holding their breath for hours at a time.

From the algorithm, these forms also need to be strong flyers (be it through means conventional to Earth or through some of the more alien ways we see in the show). These forms also need to be roughly the same size as the bearer’s default (human) form, so the species used as a base needs to be megafauna. Because the algorithm draws its foundational data from the precursors of Designers (‘Wings’), which were used to transport people and cargo across a myriad of environments, these forms are always quadrupeds.

Given that these forms need to cover a wide range of needs and function as a deck of all cards, they should look a bit like a mess. Surreal or fantastical; peculiar and unreal.

I had the old standard (in the EA’s final years) be for -ens to have at least one Equate form, those being flyers drawing heavily on a dinosaur sample someone had gotten ahold of and since passed around.

As the present has the compulsory Equate being small, unassuming Earth animals, the connotation of extravagant forms shifted to the newly mainstreamed Designer form. The connotation was originally for dinosaurs, so why not not have them be of fictional creatures? And, once the well of mythical beasts dries up (hiii, Soma’s pegasus form), the trend shifts to other such critters?

I had the present trend be dragons because (1) it’s fun and (2) they’re very workable for my self-imposed rules as for how the first Designer form must be. I must be clear that I’m having the characters be inspired by dragons rather than these forms being accurate to myth; a lot of the design choices are intentionally mammalian. Scroll back up to view Dual’s tail? Reptiles and fish have the fins posed vertically for a side-to-side swim whereas mammals propel themselves via an up-and-down motion.

As I am rapidly running out if time and must soon scramble (like I said I would in my previous post), allow me to get to the point.

This fishy good lacks wings and has a somewhat slinky body. They have four legs to traverse land, the neck lids of a Vulpimancer (altered to better suit the scaley design), and a thick tail to easily swim. Their eyes are forward facing.

You might notice that the legs are oddly, cartoonishly long in a way not befitting flight nor swimming. Allow me to show you what species I decided to use as the most popular base at WildWire port:

[antigorite]

hi! i'm kind of new to black sails (watched s1 ages ago and then picked it up again after watching ofmd) and you mentioned in one of your posts that there are lots of well written fanfictions! sth that i always have trouble with when entering a new fandom is finding good fics so i just wanted to ask if you have a rec list or something?

Oooh boy what a fantastic ask to get. I don't have a fic rec list yet, but I'll take this as an excuse to make one!

I should probably mention that the main flavour of fic I read is Flinthamiltons (James/Thomas/Miranda) angst so that's most of them. Here goes:

- The World is a Hostile Country (98k so far). If you only read one Black Sails fic in your life let it be this one. It's a post Charlestown canon divergence fic with the premise that James and Miranda go to London with Peter Ashe, going into a season 3 rewrite and it's insanely well researched. It's a series with 3 installments, the second one is currently a WIP that's updating slowly but steadily, but even if you don't like reading WIPs I'd recommend reading the first installment.

- In The Deep by @queer-crusader (72.5k). If you only read 2 Black Sails fics in your life let this be the other one. It's a greek mythology AU in which Flint goes to the underworld (which is ruled by Silver and Madi) to get Thomas back. It's a tad more intellectually challenging than your average fanfic but soo worth it.

- No Black Sails fic rec list is complete without The Unaccommadated Man (26.9k, 45.3k including sequels). Ask anyone this is one of the best fics out there. Thomas-centric, focusses on his life at the plantation and features a bunch of OCs.

- everything @dykebonny has written most notably Sherlock Holmes and the Lord in Disgrace (91.8k) which is a Sherlock Holmes crossover set in the late 19th century and is party written as John Watson's diary entries, and i might believe a good deal of it, too (9.1k) feat. autistic Flint

- The Art of Asymmetry (5.5k). London era, relationship development feat. Miranda doing life drawings. Plus everything else by that author including alive to be here (1.3k) which is Maxanne hurt/comfort for a change.

- Pictures of the past (3.9k). Early Nassau days angst from Miranda's perspective.

- a question of needs (and not rosary beads) (4.1k). London era, early relationship development. This one's a bit spicy, but in an awkward and slightly angsty way which is my favourite flavour of spicy.

- everything by palebluedot, particularly Unspoken (2.4k) which is Flint and Thomas just taling about everything post canon in a very insightfully written way.

- If all of that wasn't enough angst already, I have driftwood seletons (2.3k, feat. Thomas in Roger's role and things not working out), The unquiet grave (2.5k, feat. Flint being visited by Thomas' ghost), I would enter your sleep if I could, and guard you there by @im-the-punk-who (2.7k, feat. Flint having nightmares and Miranda comforting him) and Severing (4.5k, just general early Nassau days heavy angst).

- The sanctum series (24k) by @ceraunos, both London era and post canon relationship development, fluffy and in parts spicy, with lots of classical greek and literature references.

- Everything by @flintsmintsplint (mostly flintham London era), particularly Throw Open the Windows of Your Soul (4.8k) which is relatively fluffy.

- Fair Weather and Foul (16.9k) which is my favourite flintham modern AU! Graphic depictions of bad weather conditions in a Scottish fishing village, it's quite atmospheric.

- For some more action: Red Sky at Morning (10.5k) in which Thomas is in Charlestown and gets involved in saving Flint from the execution.

And for non flinthamilton(s) fics:

- The new world (134k, 146k including sequels). This is a bit of an odd one since it only features one Black Sails character (Flint) and the rest are OCs so it's really more original fiction inspired by Black Sails. It's also quite long and one of the few fics I've read that earned its E-rating for violence, so it's not for everyone, but it's very good and I wanted to give it a shoutout.

- i'm a black ocean leaping and wide (6k) which is Madi centric (and features my favourite rarepair, Madi/Eme) and focusses on her journey post canon.

- Ranger crew fics (17.2k) by @thegreatblondebalrogslayer. As the name says, series of short mostly fluffy fics about Jack Anne and Charles.

- blaick slias (<1k) by the same author as above which is this fandom's take on My Immortal. Has to be included here.

- you'll always paint my sky (2.3k). Maxanne, the events of late s4 from Anne's pov.

- meet me halfway to your heart (3k). Maxanne again, a fluffy and a little bit spicy 5+1.

- histoire à tiroirs (3.3k). Backstory for Max, very touching.

- Rowing (5.5k). Another Madi-centric post canon fic, including all the Madi - Max interactions you didn't now you needed.

- Flint is Eleanor's bi dad (3.5k). What the title says - some mostly fluffy queer friendship moments between Flint and Eleanor.

That's most of them I think! Now this list excludes quite a lot because the fandom's most popular pairing is Silverflint which I don't read at all, so there's lots of presumably great fic that I don't even now exists! If you wanna get into that I would suggest just browsing on AO3 or asking anyone else in the fandom (which you absolutely can do, who doesn't love talking about their favourite fics).

Happy reading!

[socialfake]

alright my fandom preferences change all the time and i suck at being active on here but right now im deep down all things marvel and i have an idea for what could turn into a bigger social fake au with chris evans x actress!reader, including some sebastian stan x actress!reader and of course the rest of marvel actors and actresses yk

i was wondering if anyone would even be interested in that? i mean i‘ll probably start working on that and posting that anyway but i felt like asking lol

i can sum up some basic facts about the potential series here:

female reader is slightly younger than chris ( they meet at almost 20 and him 24)

i will try to match some real life aspects of chris into this but some (most) movies from the beginning of his career will not be a thing in this „story“ (its an au after all)

reader is into social media (obviously) and it will be a big part of her life involving all her actor friends and her life as an actress in general

reader will become part of the mcu and play a character that i have yet to come up with lol (feel free to help)

face claims for the reader will most likely be of white women simply because i cant seem to find fitting pictures of poc or other ethnic origin. i might be able to put some posts together that will display black or asian women (or the like) but i just wanna say beforehand that it has nothing to do with any form of intentional discrimination from my side! i am always open for posting about different nationalities/ethnicities etc. and i am open to any kind of cunstructive criticism. please feel free to reach out if you know of accounts on pinterest, insta or weheartit that post pictures that i could use in order to post more diverse edits (or if you feel comfortable to share your own pictures anonymously)

i dont think that there will be any writing as in story writing involved. english is not my first language and i get really insecure and nervous just thinking about actually writing a proper story because i am afraid of being a bad fiction writer 😅 somehow writing captions and comments to imaginary posts is easier and less stressful to me even tho i know i make mistakes there as well…

that‘s about it i guess. like i said, feel free to ask me about my ideas or share your own or say whatever you want about this idea 😂

[neonacity]

Black Daisies: Chapter 1

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

An NCT mafia AU with OT23. 

Summary: Working for the mafia comes with many layers. There’s excitement, violence, loss, and betrayals. Yet there’s also friendship, family, loyalty, and code. The last thing it needs? Love and all the complexities it brings. 

TW: violence, death, mentions of drugs and other illegal activities. If you’re uncomfortable with any of these, feel free to skip. 

Author’s note: This is purely a work of fiction. In no way am I supporting all the illegal activities and behaviors that might be mentioned in the story nor am I implying that any member of NCT acts whichever way I may write them here--they’re all sweetiepies that need to be protected! 

That’s all! Enjoy! 

Slight static sounded from the earpiece as the woman behind a computer pressed a small button to activate it. A few miles away from her, the same low hum could be heard from the ear of a young man as the line came alive. The boy barely moved from the shadows where he was crouching, his head twitching just a little bit at the alert. 

“Haechan, target just entered from the main hall, door A,” a voice sounded from the small electronic bud attached to his ear. His eyes lifted to look at the shadowy pillars above his head where a quick glint of light confirmed that another boy hidden there heard the same words. 

“Got it, noona. Plan C?”

“Plan C. Where are Jisung and Chenle?”

“Two floors down from us. Jaemin’s with them. Renjun’s done with the wires.”

“Jeno, you good?”

Up above the rafters from Haechan’s head, a darker shade of shadows moved. The metallic glint flashed again, followed by a low sigh that could be heard from the earpieces of the two people involved in the conversation.

“So I can’t use my gun again?”

“No. I already told you, right? What’s family rule number 2?” The female voice answered from the other end of the line, a tinge of laughter lacing her tone. Haechan giggled softly from beneath the rafters, enjoying the banter. 

“....we don’t shoot people in the head and kill them.” 

“That’s right.” From her screen, the woman’s eyes followed the movements of their targets as the man boarded the elevator that would take him straight to the penthouse of the high rise building. Her nose wrinkled a bit as she watched him wound his arms around two giggling women who look half his age. 

Disgusting. 

“...there’s something we can do though…”

Haechan tightened the scruff of his gloves as he heard the soft hum of the elevator climbing closer to where he and Jeno are. He smirked slightly to himself as the welcome ding from the penthouse reverberated just one floor below them.

“We put them in their right place.”

“Good luck, boys.” 

A soft buzzing sound indicated the earpiece temporarily being turned off the same time loud explosions sounded from the floor and roof of the penthouse.

“Noona!” 

I whipped around on my creaky swivel chair to face the group that just bounded through the door, wide grin plastered on my face. The blonde boy who called my name closed the distance between us with his long, excited strides, cheeks plump from his smile. 

“Look what I got you! Pretty nice, eh?” He asked with pride as he took a seat beside me, opening his palm to show a blood red stone nestled there. I moved a little forward to squint at it before gingerly picking it up. 

“Red diamond. I think two carats, at least. Wow, that’s impressive, Chenle! Thank you.”

The boy’s grin widened as he turned to the others who just settled on the scattered chairs and bean bags across the plain cement floor. 

“See? I told you she’d like it!” 

“We almost got busted because he wanted to take it.” Another boy with light purplish hair piped up from one of the bean bags on the ground. It’s adorable how only half of his body could fit on it, leaving him with no choice but to splay his long legs on the floor. 

“Did not.” 

“Did yes.” 

“Shut up, Jisung. You’re just jealous I’m the one who got it for her tonight.”

I chuckled from my seat, rolling the princess cut diamond against my palm. The kids always do this--if it’s not Chenle who is giving gifts from their little rendezvous, it was the others. It was a sweet act, at least if anyone counts out the fact that it came from ransacking a high profile businessman’s penthouse.

“Who wants some ramen? I’m starving.” A black-haired boy asked from across the room where a counter was set-up to serve as the headquarters’ kitchen. Five heads whipped up and gave various forms of yes, making him turn towards the group, one hand on his hip. 

“Yah, Lee Haechan. Help me cook.”

A groan sounded from the leather couch as the boy in question winced at the request.

“But I’m tired. I detonated two bombs today!”

“And I had to unlock three high-security safes. Come on.” 

I chuckled as I watched Haechan pull himself up from the couch, his boots still on. Three consecutive beeps from the monitor behind me made me turn back towards the table again, fingers tapping over some keys to review the message.

“Noona, how about you? You want some?”

“No, thanks, Jaemin. Just ate,” I flashed him a quick smile before turning to read the notification on the screen. Slowly, the corners of my lips lifted into a full grin as my eyes finished scanning the words. 

“127’s back from Tokyo. They got the goods well and secured.”

“Whoah, really? I gotta ask Mark-hyung if he was able to get me my favorite chips!” A boy with black and white hair said as he swiped his phone up from the back of his pants pocket to send a quick message. Beside him, Jeno propped his head up from one of the love chairs, looking at me. 

“Who sent the message?” 

“Doyoung.” 

“Did he--”

“P.S. Tell Jeno I got him the silencer he wants,” I read the closing note on the message with an amused eye roll and a smile. Jeno gave an excited whoop from behind me, clearly excited over his new toy. 

I quickly shot a reply to the message, making sure to give them a quick update from my end. A green logo flashed after I hit send, a special kind of cyber filter that automatically deletes all traces of conversation that passes through my computer at my command. My eyes registered the familiar three letters before it flickered and glitched to black. 

NCT. 

For anyone living a mundane life, those three letters might be senseless. However, it’s a different case altogether for anyone who is in any shape or form involved with the underground. It’s a name that is often said in low whispers of reverence… or spat with spite. Whichever of the two, the name itself only means one thing to those who know it: the top mafia group ruling the underground of Seoul--if not the whole of Korea. 

The “family,” as I’d  like to call it, is divided into three different smaller sub-groups of varying specializations and activities. First is 127, the primary group in power over Seoul. The unit specializes in drug dealings, assassinations, and smuggling of firearms, and its members are also the ones managing the many businesses (both legal and illegal) falling under the protection of NCT. As the group with the most experienced members, they are also the ones who often go across countries like Japan where they also have their own hold. Limitations and Prohibitions: none.

The second group; Dream. Despite having the youngest members, the sub-group also has its own chokehold over the city of Seoul. Specialization: Heists and Ambushes. It doesn’t matter if it is a high-tech bank or a high-walled fortress like Alcatraz--once Dream sets its sights on a bounty, they’ll make sure to get it. Limitations and Prohibitions: no killing allowed. 

Finally, the third cluster: WayV; the current ruling crime group of China. Specialization: Organized Cyber crimes and biological warfare . While the sub-group has its original roots in Korea, it didn’t have any problem taking over Beijing’s underground in a few years time. They are considered the visionaries of the family--always one step ahead when it comes to anything technology touches and influences. Limitations and Prohibitions: none.

I leaned back against the chair and gave a soft sigh. Compared to the others, I don’t have as much exposure to the so-called thrills of the job. Still, I do admit that being the eyes and ears of the whole group is not a leisurely walk in the park. It’s been a few months of being temporarily assigned to Dream, but with 127 back, work will surely double again in no time. Not that I’m complaining with how well the job pays, of course--I did get a blood red diamond today, after all--but things sure can get tough sometimes. 

Lifting my arms up, I gave myself a well-deserved stretch before kicking back from the desk. The smell of ramen hit my nose, making me smile. Another day, another job well done. 

“Hey Jaemin, changed my mind about that ramen. I think I’ll have it after all.” 

Chapter 2: Overture