#anyway this is the actual quality fic i wanted to post first in this fandom lmao.

[loosingmoreletters]

Snippet of a fic where the gang meets a KDJ from a different universe. Spoilers for idk everything past chapter 400.

The other Kim Dokja grinned up at the monstrous cat of Grimm’s Märchen, seemingly paying no mind to his damaged story fragments. “You really should’ve killed me directly.”

Han Sooyoung cursed. There was no telling what would happen to their Kim Dokja, stuck in the other world, if this idiot died right here! She considered the distance, but even if she invested the coins she had, there was no way to reach that idiot quickly enough—

And then something strange happened. Darkness deep like the great depths of the sea and as bright as a star opened up above the cat and a man holding a familiar dark blade descends on the Constellation, bisecting it at once.

[■■ has used the stigma Eternal Companionship Lv.???]

“Kim Dokja!” the man snarled and didn’t hesitate to cross the distance to him. Stupefied, Han Sooyoung watched as yet another Yoo Joonghyuk pulled the other Kim Dokja up by his collar. He looked almost like their world line’s Yoo Joonghyuk, only his hair a little longer, and on his otherwise black shirt, the number [438] stood out in bright white.

“What is this?” that Yoo Joonghyuk hissed. “What have you done now?”

“I didn’t do anything,” the other Kim Dokja protested as his collar was let go off. Curiously enough, Yoo Joonghyuk simply moved his arm to hold the other Kim Dokja by his waist to steady him unnecessarily. “And why are you here? I expected [999].”

“Would’ve eaten too much probability,” he answered. “An arm and a leg if we got lucky and Demonic Judge of Fire pitched in. Now, tell me where we are.”

The other Kim Dokja sighed. “You are too impatient.”

“And you are too reckless.”

Their bickering continued, a strange mirror to the arguments Han Sooyoung was used to seeing from her world line.

“—of course we treated him well,” Yoo Joonghyuk [438] interrupted the other Kim Dokja’s rant. “He’s just as much of a fool as you, even if your identities do not match entirely.”

The other Kim Dokja paused. “I noticed. I don’t fill the gap he left here perfectly either.”

And then he smiled. “So let’s end this quickly, yes? I’m sick of following along the story of The Evil Queen.”

Yoo Joonghyuk [438] only rolled his eyes, but did not let go of the other Kim Dokja either way.

He didn’t need to.

[Giant Story An Outer God’s Beloved screams out.]

[colorfullpaperbird]

Characters in Ace attorney that i believe are aware of fanfiction✨ ( and fandom )

Warning i haven’t played all the games yet, in fact my apollo justice trilogy is crashing every time i try to open it, so all the characters from after aa3 are based on fandom osmosis

Miles Edgeworth - writes Steel Samurai fanfiction on ao3 and has been doing it for some time now (the living embodiment of the ao3 writers curse) would rather die than anyone finding that out tho, doesn’t have a lot of free time so only posts once in like 3-4 months, fics are pretty good and distinct since he writes them with so much formality, so he is relatively popular in some fandom spaces;

Maya Fey- fanfiction reader only, runs an account on Tumblr for Steel Samurai news and fanwork, famous in the fandom and runs a discord server, one of those people that lowkey have their own fandom mostly bc of the insane revelations she drops about her own life from time to time ( “ lmao guys sorry for being absent but i got accused of murder for the 4th time and that really sucked ANYWAYS did you guys look at the leaks for the new reboot… “ ) Shes also way too open about herself on the internet;

Simon Blackquill: Sasuke fan ( derogatory ) also steel samurai fan tho, dont think he goes out the way to read fanfiction ( i think if he did he would read them in fanfiction.net ) but its pretty funny to think hes edgeworths beta reader ( AN: sorry for the delay, unfortunate circumstances came to light that my beta reader was arrested and is now on death roll ) He ran an AMV account on youtube before going to prison;

Trucy Wright: Shes 16 and her only friends are her dads coworkers, she opened wattpad AT LEAST once, probably accidentally read one of those “got sold to one direction (gavinners)” fics and immediately closed the app;

Klavier Gavin: opened wattpad to see what type of fanfiction people were writing about him, he runs a secret fan account and shares fun facts about him and his bandmates as “hcs”, also pretty popular but most people hate him bc they believe his depiction of the gavinners is “too ooc”. He is actually pretty impressed by the quality of most of the works and alludes to their existence constantly in his main on twitter, the fans go insane everytime;

Franziska Von Karma: I don’t believe Franziska is a fanfiction reader nor is she into any fandom, i do however believe she has notifications turned on for Edgeworth’s ao3 account, he doesn’t know that of course, what a foolish fool to think he could hide such a thing from his big sister, she will sometimes quote his work back to him and find amusing seeing him freeze. He thinks its a coincidence because he is too secretive about his hobbies, he’s wrong, she’s been following him online since she was 13, that’s how she knew he wasn’t dead in JFA.

Extras: Phoenix is technologically illiterate, he couldn’t read fanfiction even if he wanted to. Apollo is way too normal for that, he has the law autism not the fandom one. Athena knows of fanfiction bc she is young and in the internet but she wasn’t very interested in it. If you ask Gumshoe about fanfiction he would give you a smile and say “Of course im a Fan of Fiction Pal!”. I do believe Pearl has wattpad but only reads original works on there, so in my opinion she doesn’t count.

Im sorry for any spelling mistakes, english is not my first language

[dustorange]

I really was interested by what you said in your post about WFA outselling the main comics and canon/fanon. Do you think the fanon characterizations are pretty much on point for canon characterizations or then at least redeemable?

Well, so the thing with Fanon DC stuff and why it exists and why it is so pervasive is that 1) PART of it is a function of the medium—I.e., lots of people know Batman, through movies or shows or now TikTok and ao3, without having read 80 daunting years of comics, so people take a shortcut (very reasonably) (fanon) whereas others HAVE read 80 yrs worth and want to discuss canon and 2) PART of it, the larger part in my opinion, is that fanon Dick Grayson or fanon Tim drake or whoever are NOT really in any way approximations of their canon counterparts anyway—instead they’re just the same default character archetypes you see across other fanfics and fandoms. They’re a little bit painted to be the DC characters (features like Patrol, Pit Madness, etc.) but otherwise it’s not really a special character at all, just an archetype or something, just someone’s vague sort of immature cartoony characterization of a Good Happy Big Brother or Neglected By Parents Anxious Panic Attack Boy. You can see exactly those same characters—with the names scraped off—in any other fandom’s fanon. And in lots of contemporary shows or books. Everybody does the same stuff. With the same weekly social media jokes etc. The same 2024 up-to-date politics uniform among the characters. And characters are the exact same across so many different things because it’s just what people jump to and know how to write! Because we’ve grown up with those archetypes! It’s just like how EVERYBODY’s first stories involved Mary-sue-like qualities. Or how a trademark first fic for EVERYBODY is a very teenage angst victimfantasy or everyone Realizing They Were Wrong and Apologizijg or Grieving Their Loss Of You. It’s like the universal teenage girl fantasy. And it’s a loooot of people’s first stories me included probably. And that’s why an essential part of talking about fanon people has to be cut with the fact that fanon people ARE VERY YOUNG. Like teenagers. Not all of them. But a lot of them are veryyyyyyy young and there’s a big Pro Being A Hater contingent on here and i have laughed at many a Tim drake shrimp allergy meme but omg I should not have bc that is rly cruel and people are really truly harsh and I know if someone made some meme about how bad fanon writing is about a fic i put genuine work into, I would feel sooo crushed so with all of this preface before the actual answer is to say WE SHOULD BE NICE TO FANON PEOPLE BUT:

no, fanon really is not redeemable and it pretty much does not have any, even accidental, grasp on or insight into the dc characters. as far as i’ve seen. These ARE complex characters and they’re tough to nail. But fanon is not dealing with those characters, just sort of empty characterholes that are the same regardless of the fandom. Fanon is really a snowball that began snowballing in a whole different zip code from canon. And then there’s a whole different question of What Is A Dick Grayson or What Is A Bruce Wayne like is there a true essence to be gleaned from comic books and stuff and I think the answer is YES. But also something ive been thinking about is that everybody picks and chooses, even selfprofessed canon fans, and says No I Don’t Consider This Canon or In This Fic I Changed The Timeline And Ignored This Arc And This Run Because It Is OOC and I think if we’re really talking about being rigorous and tied to canon it’s GOOD to force your stuff to be in line with canon, even with canonical aspects you don’t like, because pressure, limitations, and rules make you much better than just getting to do whatever you want at all.

[howlsmovinglibrary]

Hello! I saw your response to the "5 things you could talk about for an hour" tag game, and I just wanted to say that I am in fact very interested in your perspective on how fandom/fanfic has impacted media literacy and the publishing industry, if you'd ever like to yap on Tumblr about it!

hmmm... other people have said it better than me in various different tumblr posts but I'm a yapper why not?

(under the cut to save a long post)

fandom/fanfic impacts on media literacy:

media is viewed through shipping goggles first and a critical lens second (both of them are allowed! i love my shipping goggles! but i also like having multiple tools of analysis in my arsenal!)

this also sometimes means that media devolves into relationships and 'fan service' moments, above plot or delivery of a good and satisfactory story (I'm not saying OFMD but I kind of am. I'm not saying BG3 additional content that has focused on popular characters and ships above incomplete and underwritten narratives... but I kind of am)

because fandom now also has a big purity culture kick back, and fandom has become mainstream, that means mainstream media also has a purity culture kick back (for instance, everyone performing scandalised and 'disgusted' reactions to Saltburn, when actually all that is is a... psychological thriller)

fandom/fanfic impacts on the publishing industry:

the Locked Tomb's popularisation of fic-ish writing, alongside the reylo fanfic boom (Ali Hazelwood serial numbers filed off -> romance pipeline) kind of coincided perfectly with the pandemic. as did the success of Travis Baldree's coffeeshop AU, Legends and Lattes. people wanted comfort media, but at the other end, publishing industry professionals were working from home and likely spread thin. I think this created a perfect storm for 'fast fiction' (like 'fast fashion') where basically a fanfic can be quickly changed into a book with minimal editing that doesn't matter anyway bc it provides a dopamine hit. None of this is inherently bad. I don't dislike fanfic-to-published-novel on principle. What I *hate*, is bad editing. Extremely high quality editing is what trad publishing has, in a way fic doesn't. Bc fic can be as long as you want it to be, and can linger, and can have fun - it's not designed for efficiency or quality control bc that's not the point. that being said... quality control can, in fact, improve a work's quality. but trad publishing doesn't have good editing anymore, bc the pandemic proved it didn't necessarily need it, and publishing companies love to not spend money on things, especially if it will make them a profit without that care or attention.

what i will also say, is there is a reason it's easy to file the serial numbers off. reylo fics are very far from canon, for a number of reasons. Legends and Lattes is a coffeeshop AU, without any character work. This doesn't mean they are bad. It just means they feed into a general trend of 'fic as tropes' - rather than 'fic as character study', for instance - which in turn means that romance in particular has also become 'romance as tropes' (or even 'romance as smut' which is another thing I have feelings about, bc bad editing + fiction as smut = really, really bad smut actually lads)

in general 'fiction as tropes' has then obviously been aided by tiktok as the primary marketing platform. rather than provide an explanation of your story, providing an explanation of its tropes encourages your book being read this way

another thing that has happened as a result of fic is 'queer rep' as being 'there is queer people in it' or 'there is queer romance in it'. again, not inherently a bad thing. i love a gay book. but gay and queer experiences exist on a spectrum. a book with queer MCs for the sake of having queer MCs may end up feeling tokenistic, if the writer has included queer rep for the sake of queer rep, or (and we need to admit this happens!) to be trendy!! to hit on the 'queer rep' zeitgeist!!! similarly, a queer book without any romance in it can still be queer, but gods forbid we have *that* conversation.

As I said, all of these things have been discussed in tumblr posts far better than mine. In terms of my personal experience - teaching undergraduate literature classes, this is what I've noticed:

because of fandom or social media with fandom lite edges, a lot of my students are very up-to-date on things such as intersectional feminism, gender performativity, compulsory heterosexuality, queer coding, etc. I don't need to define these terms, whereas they were defined when I was an undergrad.

however, the flipside of this is they often approach the texts I teach only with a contemporary mindset. The biggest example I have of this is Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre actually benefits from a contemporary mindset - after being heralded as feminist in the 1960s, intersectional criticisms in the 1980s/90s by postcolonial critics called out its racist treatment of Bertha Mason. BUT if I have to read another essay about Jane Eyre's relationship with Rochester being 'problematic', I will scream. Not bc I don't agree, but because criticisms of this novel need to also acknowledge that in the victorian era, such a blatant discussion of female sexual desire was radical for its time. That class and sexism was a big enough issue in the 19th century that for Jane to get to marry a man from the landed gentry on equal footing was a big deal at the time. It's fine if you decide Jane Eyre isn't feminist! but you need to prove that through multiple critical lenses and not just a jezebel-article style treatise. (for instance, one essay critiqued the male gaze in Jane Eyre... Jane Eyre was written by a woman looking very disrespectfully actually, and also... film hadn't been invented yet. while the male gaze existed in art, the normalising of female objectification, sexually, required film. also... the male gaze is a term that requires a man with eyes to be making that piece of art.)

the other biggest problem I have when teaching, is the 'queer character as queer representation' thing, and ESPECIALLY "good queer representation means morally good queer characters'. I teach Giovanni's Room. Anyone who has read Giovanni's Room, knows that the main character is both gay... and a bad person. That book isn't just talking about being gay, but about being closeted, trapped in compulsory heteronormativity, and also... 1950s racism. One of the biggest challenges for me as a teacher is to ask students "don't just tell me there's gay people in it, look at what those gay people are doing. is queerness portrayed positively or negatively? what aspects of the experience are being represented? do these aspects have value, especially when it is a queer artist making the art?"

(people also feel like they can't call a gay character mean or bad, because of the whole 'gay is inherently virtuous' part of fandom's mindset. spoilers: gay people can suck too. and are allowed to be portrayed as such in fiction, once you have a tool in your toolkit known as nuance).

anyway, aside from the fact it means i occasionally struggle to find good romance books bc I want not just well written sex but character development - which fanfic has! I'm not saying fanfic doesn't have it! but the fanfic that gets published sometimes doesn't, and certainly very rarely has both! - my teaching is absolutely where I see fandom's impact most clearly.

[elvisabutler]

give you my heart

summary: christmastime at graceland is hectic. you and elvis enjoy some quality time alone with each other by the fire after everything is said and done. some important conversations happen. fandom: elvis presley | elvis ( 2022 ) rating: t to be on the safe side, i used the word cocked. pairing: elvis presley ( big daddy variation ) x female reader word count: 1846 warnings: elvis as santa. reader as mrs. claus. talk about elvis's health. basically the reader kind of taking the place of ginger alden if you're curious the time frame my mind went to. talk about marriage. brief mention of elvis's mother. potentially excessive talking to a baby belly. author’s note: merry christmas to those who celebrate and happy holidays to those who don't and happy sunday to those who neither of those apply to. also happy hanukkah. anyway! so this is the tame piece i mentioned last night. special thanks to my lovely ladies of graceland for convincing me to write both pieces. the beginning few paragraphs are the same as the first dirtier fic so no you're not imagining that. you know the drill, imagine austin or real elvis, i'm not picky because i know who i imagined. might maybe have one more christmas-y/holiday themed fic up my sleeve but that's likely for right after the holidays. and yes i am posting this at 6am, i don't understand why my brain wouldn't let me go back to sleep either. also if you want a tag for my later fics, or any of my fics in general just give me a heads up, i'm actually gonna try and start using one.

Christmastime at Graceland is always a bit of a packed house and one that is a- in your own opinion, bit of organized chaos. Between Priscilla bringing Lisa Marie, between every member of the Memphis Mafia- former and current- bringing their basic families and Elvis's own family it was a bit much to handle. Not for the first time you are so deliriously thankful for your fiance still having a relatively cordial at least nowadays relationship with Priscilla. You're pretty sure you would have been lost for the first two Christmases you had hosted and even for this one had you not had her to fall back on.

You're able to handle it though, flitting through rooms like a hummingbird, the swell of your stomach rounding out the red dress lined with white fur causing you to bump once or twice into the children running around and twice into Santa himself, causing him to run his hand across it, murmuring apologies to you and to your little one who gives him an answering kick that has him grinning even more than he already was under his fake beard. Your pregnancy, while giving you more energy than you thought was possible, sometimes also drains you more than you'd like during social engagements. Elvis warns all the adults ahead of time, tells them that things might be cut short if you're looking like you need to relax. You manage to make it a respectable three hours, even if by the end you find yourself sitting on one of the couches, rubbing at your belly enough that despite you moving to stand up shakily in your heels he's showing everyone out in record time.

Lisa and Priscilla are sound asleep upstairs as you find yourself curled up under a blanket on the rug in front of the fireplace with Elvis behind you supporting your back. One of his hands is rubbing small circles against your skin, watching as your child occasionally reacts with a kick that has him huffing a laugh against your neck and has you rolling your eyes. This is all you've really wanted today, for honestly the entire week as preparation for this soiree truly went into overdrive. Elvis might be taking a break from touring and from everything else to focus on his health a little and to focus on you and the child growing in you but he's a bit of a workhorse who doesn't know proper sleeping hours even on his best behavior. You're used to it and it makes times like this, makes these simple moments special.

You're both tired from today's festivities, him from running around after the kids and passing out gifts and you from just entertaining. Any other night after being as pulled apart from one another as you had been lately would have ended in some form of sex but it feels almost like too much effort for the pair of you. The baby within you keeps rolling about, the excitement from today and from Elvis's touch proving to be a combination to drive you a bit batty. Elvis wants to stay behind you, wants to be the rock you lean against but at the same time, he can't help the overwhelming urge he has to talk to your stomach, to kiss at it and marvel at how his girl, his future wife is growing another little one for him, an active little boy he hopes but he's alright giving his lil Yisa a little sister. He doesn't fight the urge after a while, after the fourth kick from your child has you huffing a little out your nose. With an agility you forget he has off stage he moves his body almost like a predator and you find his mouth placing a soft kiss to your belly as he speaks.

"Now ya listen here, it ain't nice to make mama hurt like that. Know ya jealous ya ain't out here enjoyin' the season but next year, lil one. Gonna be in our arms or running around the room. Or maybe you'll be in our arms when we get married. Have ourselves a Christmas wedding." He looks up at you, looking younger than his years. "'Less ya wanna be my wife sooner than that. Ya already got the ring and my big baby."

Your hand moves to his head, thankful he had taken the Santa hat off ages ago and you allow yourself to run your fingers through his hair. It’s a little sweaty still, but you figure it’s from the heat and the former hat. Elvis’s eyes flutter shut a little at the motion, the action being something comforting no matter who’s doing it. A smile plays on your lips before you shrug. “Your very big baby, wondering how much bigger I’m going to get- if I didn’t know any better I’d say there were two in there.” You pause and motion to the belly his head’s now resting on. “I’m not fitting into any wedding dress, sweetheart. Can’t have a wedding till this is all gone.”

Elvis laughs a little and rubs at your belly again, marveling at the kick he receives back, this time down toward the bottom of your stomach instead of toward the top. Maybe there was something to be said about your joke about there being two in there. He shakes his head before he speaks. “We can, ya just don’t wanna have everyone lookin’ at ya and realizin’ I’ve already got ya full of me ‘fore were married. ‘Sides, there’s always a courthouse one. Can do that for now, no fuss ‘n later on we can have the big ceremony with everyone.”

It’s not a bad thought, you think, allowing both of you the privacy of being married before everyone else knows, a truly rare thing that you figure would only serve to help your relationship rather than hinder it. Still, you’re wondering where all this is coming from, Elvis had been content to put a ring on you right before you found out you were pregnant and you had told him you wanted to have a Christmas wedding- a fact that had delighted him to no end at the time- but you hadn’t realized just how big you’d be around Christmas thus forcing you to put aside your plans.Your teeth worry at your lower lip before you say anything. “Just me dressed up in something nice, you dressed up in something nice and we just march down to the courthouse and say our I dos? No fuss.”

“Aw hell-” He starts, rubbing at his neck as he places another kiss to your stomach, murmuring something else before moving to sit up even as you want him to stay in your lap, just allowing you to stroke his hair. This had to mean business if he was turning down the chance to get it. “Look I know my mama's looking down on me right now and reminding me not to mess the one up. Already cocked it up a little giving you the little one early. Figure she'll come haunt me if I don't do what ya want me t'do. And I know you wanted a Christmas themed weddin’ but darlin’ I want ya to be my Mrs. Claus already. Want that ring on your finger to be our wedding ring. I’m bein’ impatient but hell- I don’t even want them questionin’ when you’re pushin’ out our baby whose it is. Just-” He pauses, and moves to cup your cheek, an action that causes you to nuzzle into his hand. “I wanna be able t’call ya my wife already. Wanna be your husband already.”

Not for the first time lately or even today you find your chest tightening at the love you feel for the man in front of you. He’s not perfect- God, don’t you know it and there’s a part of you in the back of your mind that’s prepared to eventually join Priscilla in being his ex-wife once you get married but it’s times like these, these simple times where he bares his soul to you that you’re reminded of why he’s the man you fell in love with.You bring your hand to rest over his and pull him into a soft kiss. “You’re that impatient, huh, big boy? You promise we wouldn’t make a fuss? That I can still have my wedding next year with you and I bouncing the baby between us during the ceremony?” 

He nods solemnly. “If that’s what my baby wants, if that’s what my wife wants, already told ya, mama’ll come haunt me if I don’t do what ya want. I’ll make it so we’re in and out and I’ll get Joe or one of the boys to take some pictures and that’ll be it. No fuss, no fans, nothing but you, me and the- well the little one inside ya but that can’t be helped.”

You giggle softly, running your free hand across your stomach as if to comfort the baby and to just help ground yourself to think.It’s a perfect plan, you think, and you’ve got just the outfit that could work. “They’re probably open on the 27th, you know. If you’re real serious about making me your wife as quick as you can.”

The grin that forms on Elvis’s face makes him look like a giddy school boy or like every silly picture of him just doing this full face grin that to this day amuses you to no end. You had said the right thing by agreeing and his excitement feels a little contagious as he nods his head. “I was serious as anythin’, darlin’. Gonna- Gotta make the plans tomorrow mornin’ when everyone’s awake and gotta tell ‘Cilla she can’t leave just yet- gotta have Lisa and her, just to witness. Oh- This might be the best Christmas present you’ve given me. Don’t think ya ever gonna top this one.” He bends down and places another kiss to your stomach. “Your mama is perfect ya know that, so lucky t’have her as ya mama.”

You shake your head, marveling a bit at the joy and the silliness in the air before you grab at Elvis’s face and place another kiss to his lips. “They got a real silly daddy but I’m marrying him early as a late Christmas gift so guess I‘m just as silly. Can we take this upstairs, jolly ole Saint Elvis?”

Once again, Elvis stands up quicker than you forget he can sometimes and pulls you up and close to him as he peppers your face with kisses. “Of course, gotta make sure my wife is comfortable. What kind of husband would I be if I didn’t? Can’t get started off on the wrong foot. Come on, let’s get to bed.” He pauses and takes a moment to look you up and down. “Love ya.” 

You shake your head and laugh at the way he looks at you. “Love you too, you impatient man.”

taglist: @ab4eva, @aconflagrationofmyown, @butlersxbirdy, @eliseinmemphis, @blurredcolour

[sgtmickeyslaughter]

Thank you so much @callivich for taking the time and effort for coming up with these questions, and thank you @such-a-barbarian for tagging me also!

This got long lol

What’s a fic you’ve read more than once? 

one of my favorite generas of fic is shameless Mickey worship and for that I aways come back to from head to toe and the many things Mickey Milkovich has been called, Unforgiving Touches and the Feeling of Their Bruises. 

also, in no particular order You’re Tough To Love When You Don’t Love Yourself, the broad shouldered beasts series, sincerity is scary.

for something a little smutty go back to sleep has always been a favorite of mine

and as always, my favorite fic of all time Boy In The Box

What’s a gifset you always have to reblog? 

i love that gif set of Ian sniffin’ on his husband, also I think there’s one thats a compilation of Mickey’s best smiles through the series, gorgeous.

this beautifully edited (?) gifset I stg this is better quality than the actual show idk how they did that

this gorgeous art/gifset is awesome also!

this one is very important to me but man it hurts

another heartbreaker

everyone say thank you gif makers!!!!

What’s a fanart you love looking at?

I literally just saw this one for the first time, it immediately went to the top of my list!!

Its so beautifully done and captures the tone of the original piece so well while also transforming it into a unique moment and commentary on intimacy in their own relationship, ugh, gorgeous 

What’s a headcanon you can’t stop thinking about?

creative mickey! the best thing season 10 gave us was mickey and his notebook. i just know when Ian sees that thing come out post canon a part of him locks up in genuine fear

i don’t really think he gets into art persay, but just being a creative thinker, figuring out how to run their business, decorating their apartment, building ian a garden on their balcony when he gets put on the waitlist for the community garden

What’s an idea you’d love to create if you had the time/inspiration?

so I had this idea very vaguely floating around in my head for a while, but it wasn’t even remotely formed, let alone developed and then suddenly last weekend the plot just came to me in that beautiful and cruel way inspiration comes and goes, but it will take forever to write because I want the pace to feel very slow and syrupy and a little dream (or nightmare) like.

i dont want to give away the plot but its very southern gothic, slight true crime elements, cults, slight age difference (younger Mickey)… anyways if anyone from the rural south wants to be on call to explain geography and culture to me, hit me up 

i also have an idea for a dirty filthy, nasty smut fic but i would have to post it anonymously i wouldnt be able to look anyone in the (virtual) eyes

What’s something you’ve discovered since entering this fandom? A new trope you love? A different analysis of the show? Something else?

in all seriousness, analyzing Shameless as a show overall is so interesting, understanding each of the characters as case studies in different particular expressions of being raised in poverty, which is what makes it twice as upsetting when someone is like, ‘why would this character do this, thats so stupid’ and the answer is that statically speaking that character was actually very likely to do that because of the circumstances they were born into and the way they’ve been affected by that throughout their life, but okay. I also noticed that a lot of people on here are not from America and I always wonder what their take on the social/political reading of the show, if it feels familiar at all etc.. 

i also remember the first time someone commented under my fic to be like, ‘why are you giving Mickey a pass Ian did this’, and someone else commented underneath that ‘oh well Mickey did that so he’s a bad person etc.’ and it was just so upsetting to me, I dont see a lot of that on my dash but I just personally believe that if you are judging teenagers/young adults who are in the middle of their first major mental health crisis or who have suffered unimaginable abuse and neglect their entire life, you need to recalibrate your empathy levels 

What’s your favourite season? And has this changed after multiple rewatches of the show?

I love love early seasons (1-3) there is just something so nostalgic about it and as a show that’s when the writing was at its most creative and interestingly paced

also who doesn’t love baby gallavich?

What line/dialogue/description from something else (a poem, a book, a tv show, a movie, or something else) do you feel describes Ian and Mickey’s relationship? 

Ugh Im so sorry I am going to have to add all the lyrics to In Your Love by Tyler Childers, the inspiration for my first fic title because it is the most perfect song to encapsulate the passion between them and the work and sacrifices they put up for each other

What’s a plot hole you wish had been answered or resolved?

where is mandy? where the fuck is my girl?

also the fact that kevin had a son with v’s mom and just, has no interest in a relationship with him? like that made the story easier for sure but it doesn’t make sense with his character

What scene or moment do you feel isn’t discussed enough?

guys, there is not a scene in this show that we have not done to death already (affectionate)

and you know what? we’ll do it again!

but just for the sake of it, the “would you take care of me if i was paralyzed” scene, you can see that Mickey is almost idk, hesitant? but that’s because he’s really picturing it and that his yes is genuine and thought out, and ian’s face of wonder when he realizes that he has someone who loves him unconditionally and forever? earth shattering

What do you think is next for Ian and Mickey post-finale?

listen, i think the laws of television writers being assholes would dictate that they would give a break up (and maybe reconciliation) arc which is my least favorite television trope

but irl? (u know what i mean) i think they do have some hard, stressful times both out of their relationships and in it and realize pretty quickly that they have to work as a team and lean on each other and it only makes them closer

i also think that they simply refuse to sleep without each other, like one night when Ian gets stuck at the gallagher house taking care of sick franny mickey will drive over and sleep in the twin bed with him or if mickey gets wasted on a night out with sandy and debbie and his battery runs out he’ll stumble his ass home instead of going with one of them when they offer even if it takes forever

and ian grows his hair and stubble out to look like it does in the most recent photos (fluffy mullet) and mickey adores it he can’t keep his hands off his husbands head it’s a sensory dream

Thanks again for tagging me!

i’ll tag @stocious @mybrainismelted @sirrudo @solitarycreaturesthey @juliakayyy @jrooc @jezzibelle89 @i-think-you-mean-reduction @iansw0rld

[celestie0]

Hello!! I wanted to ask some advice 😞 I have a fic idea but I've never posted any writing before and its like a very very specific band au and I'm scared no one will care to read it because of how much music context it requires 😭 I really admire your writing so like...what do you suggest...

(Also super excited for next kickoff ! I've never been this invested in a fic)

hii my love!! omg a band au sounds like so much funnn are you kiddinggg i would eat that UPPP. my advice would be to just go ahead n write it!!! it's super nervewracking to share work, especially if you've never shared before, so for the time being you can just write w the idea that no one else will read it except for yourself! that'll help you establish a healthy relationship w your writing & your hobby in general even before you post should you choose to post

as for the specificity n music context, i personally think thats SO FUCKIN RAD!!! i love a story where i can enjoy a romance but also have aspects outside of it that i can learn something new from or take something away from. i have read some pretty incredible fics & books, but the ones that have always had a lasting impact on me are the ones i went into knowing nothign ab a specific something, but then i leave it feeling like i've learned something i wouldn't have ever known before!!

it's a totally valid feeling though, esp in fanfiction where you might think readers want to read ab only their fave characters or specifically romance. i felt this way a lot with including the film major & photography aspect to kickoff, i feared readers would find it boring and would just want to read ab gojo x reader. i think in ch9, gojo only had like 40% of the chapter screentime and didn't even make his first appearance until like 5k words into the chapter, but i'm still really happy w the chapter and the response i got was great too. i see some of my writer mutuals break the norms n experiments w their stories all the time too, and honestly, i think that makes for some of the BEST and most MEMORABLE stories :)

as for fears that people may not see your story, i totally get that. keep in mind, i think the jjk fandom specifically doesn't really have too many long fics, at least compared to what i've seen in other fandoms, n tends to steer towards oneshot content (i could be wrong ab this but it's just what i've noticed! at least on tumblr. long fics always get lots of love on ao3 tho) so don't worry too much if you're not getting as many notes or reblogs etc as some other authors, bc if you choose to post series content, then you'll technically be in a niche category for this specific fandom. BUT i have noticed that the quality of interactions w longer stories is very amazing and totally worth being a part of this writing community for that reason!!

when i first started posting, i really didn't know what to expect since the last time i had a fanfic blog was for like two months when i was 12 on deviantart LOL. and now i'm just extremely blown away n humbled by the support. but that's the thing- you'll never ever know unless you try! again, just write and picture it that you're the only one that's going to read it, so put all that juicy music context in there n really write w that passion in mind!! (i'm assuming you're into music or bands n that's your inspiration? don't be afraid to let that interest show!!) and that's really the only thing you need to get started, after that it's just simply copy pasting n then posting :)

if you do get around to posting or sharing it then feel free to tag me bb!! i'd love to read it n support you. good luck to u n much love!! <33 i hope this helps in anyway

and thank you for looking forward to kickoff :)

ps. in case you want any specific writing advice i have some on my page here (sorry bb i just realized i wasn't sure if you were asking for actual concrete writing advice haha my bad if i misinterpreted)

[sarahowritesostucky]

2023 In Review : Authors' Edition

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again? I wrote my first drabble. Plan to do more as part of my compliments to fanart that I like and reblog.

How many fics did you work on this year? (They don’t have to be finished or published!) 28

What’s something you learned about yourself as a writer? I overuse semicolons and dashes and the first step is admitting you have a problem.

What piece of media inspired you the most? Handmaid's Tale, Snowpiercer (And of course MCU just b/c of Stucky)

What fandom(s) did you write for this year? Marvel/MCU, Actor RPF, Supernatural, Fresh, Snowpiercer, Knives Out

What ship(s) captured your heart? Stucky already had my heart. I really got into other C.Evans and S.Stan characters paired with OFC's, this year though.

What character(s) captured your heart? I liked exploring Curtis Everett and Lloyd Hansen. But I still ride or die for Steve&Bucky.

Did you write for a new fandom or ship this year? Yes!! Lots of new M/F pairings, and 5 new C.Evans characters.

What fic meant the most to you to write? "The Carter Academy for Omega Excellence"--because this was my first commissioned fic and I'm super proud of that. Plus, I've formed a friendship with the person who asked for it!

What fic made you feel the happiest to work on? No clear winner for this one, just a ton of ties. Fluffiest fic was "Angels Are Avian Adjacent"

What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing? "The Merging: A Union" - just b/c I've left the SN fandom and was glad to have given the story an end.

What fic was the most difficult to write? Did you finish it? "Medically Necessitated" - because there is SO much I want to include in the plot of this one and it just is hard to keep it all straight in my head sometimes. Plus I'm rarely in the mood to write it because I hold the tone and quality of the writing so dear to my heart, that I don't want to just phone it in or half ass it. It is not finished (yet!).

What fic was the easiest to write? "Wet Dream" was written as a Bingo fill, and it felt like it came pretty easily.

What were your shortest and longest fics this year? "It Started with Helga the Lunch Lady" - 863 words "Medically Necessitated" - 91,000 words

Rec a fic you wrote or posted in 2023 "Medically Necessitated"

What were you go-to writing songs? "Wicked Game," "Enjoy the Silence," "I want to," "Like U," "Say It," "Falling," "Insomnia," "Should Be Higher," "Daddy Issues."

What were your go-to writing snacks? Kratom, caffeine pills

What was the hardest fic to title? Hydra Sanatorium - the title was actually something else that I decided I didn't like, so it got changed.

Share your favorite opening line A 3-way tie between: 1. "As a gigantic fucking Duh, hiking that last mile home with an ass full of cum is no fun." (BB & his 1001 Fetishes, ch 34), 2. "The Morning When Steve Finds Out What Bucky Wants to do to His Dick:" (Modifications & Improvement of Functions), and 3. "Sebastian’s in the middle of taking a dump when he hears his phone out in the kitchen. “Ah, crap.”" (I Prefer Girls Who're Not Afraid to Cry)

Share your favorite ending line A 3-way tie between 1. "What the hell kind of simp-ass Dom even calls themself something stupid like "Bucky," anyway?" (It Started with Helga the Lunch Lady) 2. "And then, nodding at the box of Midnight Black #106 that the other man is considering, furtively advises, “... don’t do it.”" (Merry & Bright, part 2) and 3. "Well, Bucky utilized his super soldier stealth skills. Steve tripped into the floor lamp." (Good Ol' Fashioned Values)

Share your favorite piece of dialogue I couldn't sort through ALL of the dialogue, lol, but it would definitely be the dirty talk in one of them. A recent one that comes to mind is the sexually tense and taunting back and forth Bucky has with his half-sister in "Make it Stick", or the banter between Ransom and his ex-GF in "Who'd You Have to Blow to Get That Part?"

Share an excerpt from your favorite scene AGAIN, too too many to sort through them all, but I love the scene in Good Ol' Fashioned Values where Steve and Bucky are making love, and Steve is emotional over wanting to be the omega mate he used to be for Bucky, and Bucky tenderly reassures him that he's still the perfect mate: [[“Buck, oh, p-please …”

“Uh huh. That’s right Honey. So soft. You work so hard to go soft for me, don’t you Sweetheart?”

Steve whimpered in a way he rarely did anymore, hands flying up to cover Bucky’s on his neck. “Yes, yes,” he gasped. His fingers curled into Bucky’s metal ones and held on almost desperately. “Please. I can be good. Buck,”

It broke Bucky’s heart a little bit, and he cooed sadly and shook his head. “Aw, Stevie, no.” He changed his pace, slowing down and fucking in deep and staying there to grind them together. “You’re always good, Honey. Always. Even when you can’t.” Steve’s eyes got misty at that, and plaintive, sad sounds started working their way out of his throat alongside the moans. Bucky hushed him. “Shh sh sh, Sweetheart.”]]

Share the final version of a sentence or paragraph you struggled with. What about it was challenging? Are you happy with how it turned out? The last paragraph of Modifications & Improvement of Functions, because the tone of the fic was so lighthearted and so twisted at different points, I wasn't quite sure which tone I wanted it to end on. [[Steve’s old junker of a heart gets another ding in it. He pulls Bucky in close to be the little spoon, and lies there kissing at the back of his neck for a long, long time. “You always work right, Buck. You’re always perfect. I love you.” He traces the edges of the star that’s carved into the nape of his neck, and eventually he whispers, “We’ll go to the piercing shop tomorrow.”]]

What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story? That a 16 year old character may NOT be written engaging in even non-explicit sexual relationships in a Tumblr fic. I had to reformat a few details to be safe (but I increased the age gap super much instead, so nah nah! 😝(Got my abusive Tumblr Staff Troll 🧌to thank for that one.)

What did you use to write? (e.g. writing programs, paper & pen, etc.) Google Docs. Sometimes I'll jot something small down straight onto a Tumblr post.

If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year? I'm just really satisfied with the themes and unique way the narrative handles the subject matter in Modifications and Improvement of Functions, I think. As well as how I navigated the half-sibling incest depicted in "Make it Stick"

Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic? When I achieved 5 in a rows on Bingos, I posted the masterlists. First time doing that!

How did you recharge between fics? Sleep, binge eating, elliptical machine/gym, Youtube videos.

If this were an awards show, who would you thank? My supporters who have commissioned fics, my most frequent commentors/rebloggers, and the people who supported me when the Tumblr Staff Troll 🧌 started abusing her position. (@smlmsworld, @autumnrose40, @pia-bartolini, @pandafishao3, @albymangroves, @rogersbarneses, @cobaltmoonysart, @justsupersarahthings (@and the others who I probably forgot!)

What’s something that you want to write in 2024? I have a fic I was writing for the @stuckyhistoricalfiction challenge that I never finished because of an injury/recuperation, but I truly love the fic concept and what I have written so far, so I'd like to finish that this year, even if it's just a shorter version than I'd planned. I also had two fics I was supposed to write and another fic I was supposed to draw for, for the @stuckybangs, which I didn't complete due to the injury. I'd love to collab with those partners and fulfill their visions! BUT MOST OF ALL: I want to finish up many, if not most (or all 😅) of my WIPs that I have going. I love them all so much and have no intention of letting any of them remain unfinished forever!

[wander-wren]

got another bot-spam comment on ao3, but this one is extra weird. let’s do some investigating!

for those not in the know, The Haunting is my dark whumpy “todoroki gets adopted by aizawa” fic. it’s also 60k words long. so right away i’m doubting this person read it. that plus the generic vibes? bot comment. but i’m also pretty sure i’ve heard of this channel before, specifically because it wasn’t crediting authors. hm. so i go check it out: http://www.youtube.com/@DnWhatIf

first of all, these are the videos i’m greeted with:

now, i don’t want to bash anyone’s taste, but this is so extremely not my thing. nooooo way. some of these read more like crackfic, which is fine, but tonally the difference is SO much. and just makes it even more glaringly obvious that they aren’t reading the fics they’re spamming or even giving them a cursory once-over (or putting strong filters on the bot? i’m not clear how bot comments work)

because this is the first thing you see about The Haunting:

i’m guessing, if it wasn’t completely random, it’s the fact that i tagged izuku as a character. and really it’s just lazy, the whole thing. it’s all bots. ai art in the thumbnail, ai voice reading the fic, bot making comment spam for you. zero respect. if this was an actual podficcer i would consider it! hell, i might even accept ai voice readings (MAYBE), if it was obvious there was a human person who cared behind them. it could certainly be a tool for good, since podficcing isn't very common (we love you podficcers. if i had a little bit more confidence i would be one of you).

but anyway, hang on, lets back up a step, because the whole reason i looked into this was the credits issue. the video “what if deku became a teacher at ua” (ugh) (i hate the title gimmick also) is going to be my guinea pig.

so in the little intro (also done by ai), it says “all credits to their respective authors” which, yikes. however, they do link to their permission statement and the fic in the description, so it….could be worse. but also, these are the comments

(and it continues like that for a bit)

the channel name also has a 4.0 after it [edit: it did when i started this post, then i got distracted for two days, and now it is gone. hm], which implies they’ve had a lot of trouble with keeping it up. so it seems likely that this is the channel i heard about stealing fics, they just finally learned to get permission and give credit to try and keep it up this time. the permission statement on this video is real (i wondered if they would just link to something else and assume no one would check), but even THAT author references being “freaked out” (positive?? unsure) when they heard of people finding their story on youtube. before giving permission to upload with credit. so that’s not great

also this sludgepit of content is absolutely the thing that attracts people with no patience clamoring for updates literally one day after the video goes up. go figure. bad vibes all around.

also, if you’re wondering about the quality of the reading (i’ve stumbled on some pretty good ai voices as of late!), it’s, uh. i don’t actually know about how all this works, but i feel like when you pick a voice to read a story it should at least be able to approximate character name pronunciation. and flow.

but alas.

i also don't want to bash the authors in question but the truth is from the very minimal poking around i did (not giving this channel any more of my time than absolutely necessary), the writing featured is....mediocre at best. which is fine and good for the fandom ecosystem and i will NEVER be anything but happy that people are writing and posting less-than-perfect works, especially since some of these premises are pretty unique and i think it's better to have the fic than not. we all start somewhere, fanfic is an excellent way to practice and get feedback at the same time, etc.

but these channels, these kinds of operations, they're going to prey on new and young authors and that's who is going to be saying yes to them. because they want the exposure, they want to be told their work is good enough for someone else to care to record it for youtube, they haven't been around long enough to recognize this for what it is: someone taking extreme shortcuts to get views and likes and a bit of notoriety off of other people's work. and that's shit.

and remember that youtube videos can be monetized!

now, i doubt this channel in particular has been monetized, although it does meet the minimum requirements as far as numbers go:

it shouldn't meet the requirements for the monetization policies, specifically these ones:

especially with the disclaimer in the beginning that the content is not their own--which might be why previous versions of the channel did not give credit. who knows.

however, youtube DID just have some scandals about people making videos that were pretty much entirely plagiarized, which were monetized, so i don't have the highest hopes in the world. still, it doesn't seem monetized, so no strikes against this particular creator for that, at least, but defo something to look out for if anyone ever brings up hosting podfics on youtube.

so yeah, bot spam, not a complete scam this time but definitely really sketchy, bad vibes all around. and i still kind of want to give them permission to use my fic just to see what would happen, lmao

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

Well now you’ve got me started on the ikran racing au and now I’m curious so!

Nocorro fic recs for the noob please? 😂

BESTIE finally join the dark sideee.

As I said over dms; unfortunately for you, there are better locorro (and spiri, although I really only rec one hardcore) fics then there are Nocorro. Nocorro is like a desert spot, there really aren’t any aside from a few really short but cool one shots. It's a very small fandom, and it's pretty young right now so tbh most of the fics are not very good, so it'll be a short list anyway. So, as we discussed, here are the high quality, well written Spider ship fics:

For nocorro, there really isn't much. That's why I said I've come so fucking close to writing that ikran au; because I am deeply obsessed with the nocorro parts of it. I adore that au and the ghost neteyam one honestly best of all, but the ghost Neteyam one there is slightly more content for. BUT ANYWAYS;

Upon looking up my list for this I was furious to discover one of the three well written little nocorro one shots has been deleted, so beef begun with CherryApollo (jk queen I need more of them. Actually, a03 user CherryApollo; I know ur reading these posts, or else you wouldn't have tagged that fic nocorro, huh? You said "tumblr has it's claws in me so here's some nocorro" I SEE YOU, I KNOW UR HERE. THERE'S LIKE THREE OF US USING THAT TAG, AND IT'S MOSTLY JUST ME ALONE IN THE VOID. You listen to me. I liked that fucking fic, I had it bookmarked. Give it back to me. But seriously big fan of ur work).

The two remaining fruit themed CherryApollo nocorro oneshots better be your first stop just in case this sociopath decides to take more from me, Take a Bite of the Orange (p sure I was the commenter that took offense mentioned in the notes) and Follow Me Down to the Peach Tree, which did make me want to end it all. Both under 1000 words and worth a quick read.

There is also the ghost of Guilt by thatshowthemafiaworks @undercoverpan who has written us a ghost Spider au which has never failed to make me cry each chapter. The prose is not as flawless as the other recs here, but it packs some emotional weight the others don't. I also can't even fathom where it's going as it all seems entirely hopeless which is why it makes me cry.

The only other nocorro fic I even think is worth a mention is Crop Circles by our bestie @spicymiilk. It's not done and we haven't reached any nocorro yet, but know it's coming and it's good. I get my sticky little fingers in each good Avatar fic writer and I puppeteer the content I want, just look at whats happening here.

For locorro (still a small as hell ship), we can afford to be slightly more picky and I shall give you the best of the best.

Personally I would start with the locorro bible, Bitter by Icandigelvis @oppa86oppa . All of us locorro stans have said this, but this fic started our interest in the ship for most and it caused the cultural revolution of our Spider ship community. This fic still months later lives with me 24/7, and it really is one of THE fics I've ever read of all time. It went righttt into my collection of fics to show to my MFA prof who told me to stop reading fanfiction lol, like seconds after I finished it. Then I put it in the grad school jealousy collection because it's that well formatted.

The Restless Child series by @spicymiilk is a full length novel that will take you a bit lol. I am biased as I do beta it but it's real good. I keep not anticipating turns I should anticipate, but maybe we can convince Andrei to simply let us live for a sec because the fact that it's been like two weeks in universe hit me yesterday while editing and I wanted to fall off an ikran (👀).

There is also, NATURALLY, The Thunder Answered Back by @spicymiilk. This fic crawled up my butt what I can I say. You all got to read my massive post about it, hope u enjoyed that. I was walking back from work today, listening to Back to You by Louis Tomlinson ft Bebe Rexha, in 91 degree heat and it started to thunder and simply pour rain and I was like "I am lIVING The Thunder Answered Back vibes rn, holy fuck." You know it's good writing in general when it gives you a specific vibe. Tbh, that song is that fics vibes, perhaps locorro vibes in general.

I'm only gonna rec one spiri fic for a few reasons. One, because there is a criminal lack of content for them, and two, that fic is worlds above any other spiri fics. I think it's a great starter fic for getting into Spider ships and for getting into spiri in general, just because of how detailed and in depth the world is, my god. It's basically Spider and Kiri pov switches from their childhood up until wayyy past Way of Water and until the end of all conflict with humans. Like any good canon continuation, I disagree with and I agree with a ton of @milesocorro 's interpretation. I don't particularly enjoy the way the conflict concludes, but I really adore the way Quaritch is handled. I said this before to the author, but it's my favorite Quaritch confrontation I've read yet. I have a review up for it while it was still coming out, and I said there I was obsessed with Spider's tsurak and I still fucking am. That's my fav Spider iknimaya sequence too!! Anyways, that's my repeated pitch for Please be kind, please be gentle with me .

[ghostintheheadset]

watchmojo's top five headphones_haver fics of 2023 (not clickbait)

I'm looking at my 2023 stats on ao3 and fandom disparities are really funny to me lmao, my main fandom at the moment is fe3h, and of the 22 fics I posted this year, 19 of them were fe3h.

All three of the non-fe3h fics are my top three most kudos'ed fics of the year:

It goes without saying ofc that these numbers don't really matter, if I was only doing this for the kudos I'd be writing m/m genshin fic, and it's not really surprising why the numbers are the way they are- both my Pokemon and Zelda fics were posted within a few months of the game coming, and gwitch is also relatively new and I was writing for far and away the most popular ship. Meanwhile, 3h is now past the 4 year mark, and largely m/m dominated while the majority of my fics are f/f. While I would certainly enjoy all my fics getting popular, seeing the numbers like this makes it easy to remember that engagement isn't a metric of quality.

(In that vein, Falling is probably the fic I spent the least amount of time on this year, being impulse-written in about 2 hours. Sometimes niche fics you pour your heart and soul into can't reach the same level of popularity as wider-appeal stories you wrote much more quickly, and that's okay)

That said, though, I am happy with the fics that made top 2. There's something satisfying about my first and last fics of the year being the most popular, and I am very happy with how the both of them turned out. They're both representative of the themes I like writing about and are both wholesome yuri, so I think they "belong" in the top 5 as much as any fic could be said to.

Numbers 4 and 5 are kind of a surprise to me- Pegasus Knight Dysphoria is a gen fic about a trans girl and Someday is an f/f rarepair. Of the 19 (wow) 3h fics I've written over 2023, these are not the two I'd expect to break into the top 5, but it's a pleasant surprise that they did!

Anyway, none of that actually matters beyond being mildly interesting to me specifically. Onward to 2024:

According to my stats page, I posted 126k words of fic in 2023, which averaged out to a little over 10k words a month or about 345 words a day. Not bad! Looking to get those numbers up next year though. If I don't, then that'll be okay, but 126k is the Word Count To Beat if possible.

I would also like to do some more fandom events! Apparently there's a FE rarepair week happening literally right now that I wasn't aware of until yesterday. Hoooopefully I'll be able to see more of that kind of thing now that I'm here, as they've always been a lot of fun when I could participate. I'm not leaving 3h just yet, but I would like to branch out a bit more- I definitely have more gwitch fics lined up, and I'd like to also branch out a bit and write for some other fandoms I haven't gotten around to yet.

Big writing goal is to finish Together We Ride, and also work on it more consistently. I was putting off starting it for a while because I wanted to "wait for a good time", but I realized if I kept that up it would never get started. Considering I started it in April and there's currently 7 chapters, it was in fact "not a good time", but! I am committed to seeing it through in the upcoming year.

That's about it I think. It's been lovely writing fic over the past year (and a great way to unwind from the Grad School Stress), and I'm very much looking forward to exploring more next year.

(might do a roundup later today of some fics from this year I really liked we'll see)

[nitewrighter]

Hi! I'm very new to the overwatch Fandom and am currently obsessing over your fan kids (specifically Seye bc I don't see a lot of doom content and I love him) ANYWAY, doomfist does die, right? If so, who is it that kills him, and how do Seye and his mother react? I did read the post about Seye eventually destroying the doomfist with some help, but am super curious about some of what happens in between and after :>

Wow! Asks that make me dig through my ancient 'Marsey' tag.

To be honest, I used to be SUPER protective and vague when it came to stuff at this stage of the story I wanted to tell with my fankids, and was also being sadly dangled along by Blizzard's breadcrumbs of lore---I was in a dance with Blizzard where, I did have a very strong idea of how I wanted the story to end, but I was also dependent on Blizzard for canon lore so that I could make my ending the most accurate, the most satisfying. But seeing as there's basically only lore drops now because Blizzard no longer gives a shit about continuity or quality, and basically the cast has expanded so much since I initially plotted it out that I'll probably have to reconfigure this ending in some capacity anyway, I can talk about it now.

Basically there were two avenues I could have taken with Doomfist, the first one, that actually had those Marsey fics, where it was basically a 'continuation' of the Doomfist cycle, that is, some guy challenges Doomfist for the gauntlet and is able to kill him and take the gauntlet, which obviously puts Seye into a lurch as Doomfist's son and the previously assumed successor. I literally didn't have a name for this would-be killer, and in a way, it didn't really matter because you as the reader weren't supposed to see Doomfist's killer as the rightful bearer of the mantle and Seye's whole arc would be defeating this guy (with Marti's help) and then basically shutting down the weird Metal Gear-esque war cult that's risen around the Doomfist gauntlet as a symbol.

The other option was that Doomfist would be killed in the Final Battle™ at Nepal by... drumroll... Junkrat and Roadhog. NOW BEFORE YOU YELL AT ME, Junkrat and Roadhog would also die in this fight. Roadhog would die before Junkrat, but Junkrat would basically be talking to a very clearly bled-out-past-the-point-of-no-return-and-unconscious Roadie like, "It's okay, Roadie, you can take a nap. I can wrap this up," Before pulling all of the pins on all the grenades on his little chest harness while clinging onto Doomfist. Okay you can yell at me more now. But mostly I loved the combination of dramatic irony of Doomfist being consumed in these fires of chaos, and of the ~Junkers~ of all people going out in a blaze of glory against one of Overwatch's Final Bosses. I had this in my brain for years before Junkrat even got his "I killed the Doomfist!!" elimination line, btw. Doomfist views conflict as its own sort of order, but ends up getting killed by the wacky Mad Max randos who have kind of been the comic relief this whole time. Basically the fact that the Doomfist gauntlet itself would also be destroyed in this kind of fight would aslo be the thing that ends the cycle. That was also the battle that was vaguely referenced in this fic.

In both potential deaths for Doomfist, Seye becomes disillusioned enough with Talon as an organization to basically split off and form his own splinter mercenary organization (I was going to use my Talon Goon OC's as his starting lineup, haha), and he also attempts to create his own mantle as "Earthshaker" but he's still deeply affected by Doomfist's death because that's so much of his identity and he's had this enormous fear of irrelevance all of his life. Like this isn't just the grief of losing a father, this is the threat of oblivion that he's dreaded his entire life. As for Seye's mother, Tejuka, it's less of a blow to her--she more or less came to terms with the fact that Doomfist really doesn't have the philosophy or lifestyle to "go peacefully in his sleep," and that's one of the reasons why they divorced and she put so much effort into grooming Seye to actually be the successor of Ogundimu Prosthetics. Dying is easy, living's harder, etc, etc.

[vroombeams]

"nOt WoRtH dOiNg CoMmEnTaRy On" with love, shut up. i would love any kind of commentary on sweet talk because my brain leaked out of my ears when i read it today and i will never be the same again 💖

"with love, shut up" is just the Emy Albonoooo Catchphrase huh. love it

anyway hi 😭

so to talk about sweet talk i guess we gotta roll it back a bit to the loscar kink exploration anthology in general? i actually got the inspo for the series thru a kinkmeme prompt that i subsequently lost and for whatever reason could never find again so that's the lore there! but yeah, i'd started on like three or four different pieces meant for that series all at once (music to breathe to being the first), and i really had no intention of adding any other?? characters?? to the mix???? this was also SO not the first piece i was intending to post in the series

and then the alex heckling from the cuck chair tumblr post circulated and i was simply helpless in the face of inspiration and also hysteria? many such cases

i feel like probably i went through every stage of grief w this one, like i hammered out the draft SO fast and then the editing process nearly killed me. threesomes are fun to write! except that there are three people to keep track of. and that is one more than i typically have to deal with. so that's, you know. much. that last day of editing was like... i was prepared to scrap it entirely because i was just so frustrated with trying to bend the words the way i wanted them, but eventually just said ok we're doing one more editing pass and then we're posting it and we're walking away from it. and we did that

obv as i said in the notes for it, alex was absolutely meant to STAY in the damn chair but just refused to? the whole thing spun entirely out of control if i'm being honest like i had zero say in what was happening next at any given time, pretty much. i had the start (alex in the cuck chair what will he do!) the vague middle (logan is experiencing deeply horny mortification!) and the vaguest end (oscar's a puddle of goo!) but otherwise they all just kind of did what they wanted

anyway. wrote the threesome. intended to wash my hands of the whole thing because three people, as mentioned, more than two. but there is a sequel in the works because i have no sense of self-preservation and there will be more cucking! more goo-puddle oscar! all the hits!

MAN IDK IS THIS COMMENTARY. IS THIS ANYTHING. should i have talked about how my favourite bit was oscar drooling everywhere because that was my favourite bit. probably. actually i guess i could have talked about how there were points when i was writing where i started unconsciously making the faces that i imagined everyone having. in the fic. luckily no one was there to see that

i guess the last thing i can say about it is like... i had no idea that it was going to get the reaction that it did? like f1 as a fandom is always so kind and generous with comment quantity + quality but i just really was not expecting the absolute landslide of kind words that were DUMPED in the comments on ao3 for this one 😭 just very honoured and flattered and humbled to see that people enjoyed this doof-ass horny meme fic!!! (and i will one day get around to replying to the comments but every time i look at them i start getting all worked up and lose any grasp on coherency)

I HOPE THIS IS... ENLIGHTENING... or something ,

THANKS!!

director's cut ask game

[onewomancitadel]

I'm like the world's number one Jaune/Cinder doubter. I claim this title because I don't think anybody has given it as much doubt as me. This is especially so because my IRL best friend is a major doubter, that is, she actively doesn't follow ongoing stories because she doesn't believe good storytelling is worth hanging around for because it's just as likely it's going to be dumb. It's not that she thinks it doesn't make sense per se - she does - but rather that even if R/WBY were good, or has demonstrated competency, in her view all stories inevitably tend to being bad.

So we've talked a lot about it in the past in extreme detail, less so now because I devote the majority of my fandom energy to fic writing, and I tend to avoid it now just because of [redacted, gestures generally]. It's totally intellectual between us, which is a quality I value very much in her, because I know she's never bullshitting me either, and we can actually talk about stuff in a way which isn't clouded by meaningless partisan bias.

The one thing she's broken this rule of hers is for Severance, which she feels had a strong enough first season that it doesn't matter what they do next. I need to watch this because she wants my Jungian take on it lol.

Anyway, I've always thought it was funny how angry people get over Jaune/Cinder because like, it's not even inevitable. Just read my posts and you'll understand. It's not false modesty, it's highly contingent upon narrative consistency and thematic integrity, and even previous good storytelling doesn't attest to future good storytelling. It's the fraught nature of investment.

And I don't think it's a case of spurious 'theorycrafting' either; it's not just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks or speculating for the sake of speculating or just for the fandom gamble. This stuff actually has to matter and mean something. Which speaks to my broad problem with the fashion of fandom 'theorising'. It's the same as people who think Reverse Ozlem is just an arbitrary pattern, which I've talked about recently. Ozlem redemption (and more specific to Jaune/Cinder, the relationship in literal reverse) actually has to stake territory in the story.

But given the overall trend of disaster after disaster in storytelling, staking territory is itself pretty fucking rare.

[fonulyn]

Just wanted to say that I’ve followed you for a few years now, and have enjoyed a lot of your fics. I try to comment when I can, but a lot of the time I just don’t have the energy or am in too much pain from chronic health issues to do so as consistently as I’d like.

I write for a variety of fandoms myself, both small and large, and I understand how frustrating and disheartening the lack of engagement can be. I tend to average 3-4 comments per fic, and my most popular one so far has 8 comments and 30-odd kudos, on a 25-chapter, 200,000-word fic. The sad reality is that no-one owes us engagement on our writing, and the old mantra of “write for yourself�� still holds true, especially nowadays when it seems like reciprocal engagement is dropping off everywhere on social media (I don’t get nearly the same number of asks or responses on here that I did 10 years ago, and I think that reflects a wider change in how people are using social media nowadays).

I guess what I’m trying to say is that writing and posting can be its own reward, but it requires a change of mindset. I found that when I focussed on how much I enjoyed writing, and how proud I was of the final product, it got easier to weather the lack of engagement, and to appreciate the few-but-substantial comments I do get (also helped to realise that the whole reason I was so hung-up on popularity in the first place was a lack of recognition and validation in childhood, and that I was effectively denigrating my creative work in pursuit of something that had nothing to do with it, and which remains unachievable anyway since my mother is an unrepentant asshole). There’s also the fact that popularity is just a numbers game, and overwhelmingly rewards low-effort, low-complexity, broad-appeal works as opposed to those of genuine substance. Put simply, to be unpopular, or otherwise rarefied, is often a mark of quality.

appreciate the effort! and i do get that we're all human and sometimes doing stuff just requires effort that is too much.

you're also right that the entire social media and fandom have changed. things will probably never be the same.

and yeah no one owes us comments. but at the same time the sad reality is that no comments is gonna mean no fic. not saying this to be contrary or mean, it's just how it is.

i've always hated the "write for yourself and stop complaining about lack of comments" type of posts tbh, because writing and sharing are two completely different animals, at least to me. i'm still writing. right now, actually. and i probably will always write, more or less. but idek if i'll be posting stuff anymore because. why would i?

i genuinely think that i had it too good for a while in the "old fandom" lmao when people still commented and interacted and fandom was fun and felt engaging and it was so easy to make friends. so the shift to this consumerism is always going to feel jarring. and unfair.

i'm not even saying i wanna be super popular or anything, i am not expecting a sudden influx of twenty comments on a fic :'D but i would like to feel less like a squishee machine pushing out content thanklessly, y'know, lol.

(also, sorry about your struggles, and your mother :/)

[flying-kanery]

Voice

Hey queens! Soooooooo this is my first time ever posting one of the many fics I've written and it honestly feels surreal lol. Anyways, any and all writing advice is more than welcome! I'm so glad to finally be actively participating in the little kanera community on tumblr! I hope you guys enjoy the fic and that it brings even just a little smile to y'all's faces :)

Notes: This fic is the first part of a five-part series I'm planning to write. Each chapter is going to be inspired by one of the five love languages (words of affirmation, physical touch, gift giving, acts of service, and quality time). I guess you could say that it’s a late response to the Kanera week prompt “love languages” although I’ve actually been working on it for a while lol. This chapter is inspired by words of affirmation, thus the title: Voice.

Everyone in the fandom, myself included, seems to really like the idea of Hera singing. So I've wanted to write a fic about what singing means to Hera for a long time and here it is!!!

I actually started writing this fic on my birthday in early August (stay with me I promise this is significant lol) and I always pictured that Hera was a Leo like me (I'm definitely not projecting). So anyways, I picture this fic taking place soon after her birthday, which is why it starts with Kanan kind of reminiscing about when she was younger and thinking about how much she's grown as a person and stuff. Just wanted to explain my thought process there lol ;)

Anyways, here's the fic (rating: G):

Hera was twenty now, so they had been together for about a year and a half.

He remembered it. Meeting her when she was eighteen. It was such a different time. She was so light and airy, as if she didn't have a care in the world somehow–even though clearly she did. She cared about everyone. She was always more in touch with the pain of others than she was with her own emotions. She was alone, not taking into account the company of her droid of course, but she didn't seem bothered by it. She never lost hope in people, despite the fact that no one had believed in her enough to join her cause yet. That was the thing about eighteen-year-old Hera. She could connect with and understand just about anyone, but no one could really understand her.

She was always magnetic. Eyes and smiles followed her wherever she walked. But the thing that captured all kinds of people, the thing about her that made the air in the room become arid and still, as if the wind itself was stopping to listen--was her voice.

It didn't matter who was listening. Whether it was thugs with nowhere better to be or a wealthy rogue senator over a transmission or even a disillusioned ex-jedi who had used up all of his strength to bury and suffocate the love inside of him. When Hera spoke, you listened, some of the thugs even nodded, and everyone obeyed.

Her voice was the first thing that captured him the second that they met. But it wasn't just the sound of her voice. It was the soul behind every vibration. He just knew there was something more. Something deep inside of her, yearning for him to pull it out--set it free.

Of course, he didn't realize that that was the reason he loved her voice, at first. He just thought it was beautiful--and he wasn't wrong. It's just that now, he realized there was so much more to her voice.

Now, what he had always known had been fully realized: the reason that he couldn't help but follow her and eventually get completely and permanently swept up in the storm of sound she created every time she spoke.

Now, he realized that her voice had always been calling to him because her voice was his calling. Hera's voice was one of the biggest ways she expressed herself and exposed her soul to the world. However, as open-hearted, expressive, and brave as Hera was, she still kept so much of her soul private--which, at this point, meant between the two of them.

He knew that there was so much of her soul that only he got to see--as if that part of her was made just for him. He was the only person who got to see and love and be a part of all of her.

He was beyond honored and ecstatic to be that person--the one who got to love everything she is.

But there was still one part of Hera that not even he had fully experienced yet.

The first and only time he had ever heard Hera sing was in the middle of the night when he was half-asleep, just waking from a nightmare, eyes so blurred with tears that he could barely make out her face right above his. But he could hear the melody she was singing and it was like nothing he had ever heard before. It felt like a dream, but when he woke up the next morning, remembering what he had heard the night before, something inside of him just knew it was real.

He often replayed that memory of her singing to him and it always made him smile, but a part of him just wanted to hear more.

He was just replaying that favorite memory of his while making repairs in the cargo bay when suddenly, he heard it.

"Hold me close and hold me fast."

He stopped his work.

"This magic spell you cast."

He climbed up the ladder to the lounge, his mind solely focusing on her voice.

“This is la vie en rose.”

When he reached the top, he moved through the lounge as quietly as he could towards the cockpit, where the singing was coming from.

Luckily, Hera couldn’t see him, even though he was standing right outside the open doors to the cockpit, because she was lying on the ground positioned beneath the Ghost’s control panel.

“When you kiss me, heaven sighs”

”And though I close my eyes–”

She looked up to reach for another tool and right as she did, Kanan side-stepped so that his back was against the durasteel wall right by the doorwary.

She grabbed the tool and layed back down.

“I see la vie en rose.”

He peeked his head into the doorway and continued to watch her sing—entranced by the way the song spoke to his heart.

The way he could sense the happiness radiating off of her told him who she was singing to—even if she didn’t know that he was actually listening.

“When you press me to your heart, I’m in a world apart–a world where roses bloom”

He relaxed against the doorframe, letting her voice wash over him.

“And when you speak angels sing from above. Everyday words seem to turn into love songs.”

He felt an overwhelming sense of calm. Peace flowed through him with every breath he took, as Hera’s song filled the air.

“Give your heart and soul to me and life will always be la vie en rose.”

As she continued on with her work, she began humming the melody of the song.

Kanan wanted to stay and listen to her all day, but he knew she would get suspicious if she found that at the end of the day he hadn’t finished all of his repairs. So he walked back down to the cargo bay, still listening to the sound of her hums as he went.

~

That night, as he pulled Hera close to his chest, he whispered against her forehead,

“Can I ask you something?”

Hera lifted her head to look at him, “Yes, love.”

Kanan laughed, “Okay, well…It’s just kind of a random question.”

She smiled, “Aren’t they always?”

He paused for a moment, then shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so,” he said laughing.

“So what is it?”

Another moment passed as Kanan wondered how he should go about asking this question. Slowly and simply he said, “Do you like to sing?”

What?

Hera was dumbfounded by Kanan’s strange question. She also couldn’t seem to verbalize any kind of response to it, which she wasn’t used to. However, as of late, it was becoming more and more common for her to be at a loss for words, specifically in situations involving Kanan. That man never ceased to surprise her.

Kanan just patiently waited for her to respond. She could tell by his expression that he was open to hear any answer she gave him. That always made her feel safe—the fact that she could just look into his eyes and know that there was never any pressure for her to do any certain thing or act any certain way. She could just be herself. She didn’t have to try around him at all. She could just be.

Letting that feeling of safety surround her is how she managed to finally get a few words out, “Uh…yeah, I do actually. Just not really in front of other people–well, I’m just kind of shy about my voice.”

“Oh,” he nodded. “I understand…Why are you shy about your voice?” he asked, tilting his head a little like an adorable puppy.

How could she not open up to that?

“I guess I just…I don’t know. I just–don’t wanna draw attention to myself? Even if it’s just one person’s attention. I just feel so vulnerable when I sing, you know?”

Kanan nodded once again as a silent moment passed.

“My mother used to sing to me a lot…She would always tell me that when you sing, you open up your soul to other people. You put a piece of your heart into the words you’re singing for all to hear…I just struggle with being that open I guess.”

Kanan smiled, “That makes sense.” He pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her. “You deserve to feel safe.”

~

When Kanan woke up the next morning, Hera was already  awake propped up on top of him, her face right above his.

“Good morning, Hera,” he grabbed her face and kissed the space between her eyebrows.

She laughed, “Good morning.”

A tense moment of silence passed as Hera’s expression suddenly changed to one of worry. He could tell there was something she wanted to say—no, not necessarily say, but something she had to let out.

She rested her head on his chest. Another quiet moment and then,

“Wise men say, only fools rush in”

He looked down at her, awe in his eyes. She nervously fiddled with the hair on his chest.

“But I can’t help falling in love with you.”

His heart felt like it was going to explode. He smiled wide and kissed the top of her head, urging her to go on.

“Oh, shall I stay? Would it be a sin? If I can’t help falling in love with you.”

He held her closer, cherishing this moment. Soaking in this piece of her heart—this part of her—that she was finally sharing with him.

She moved to face him again as she continued.

“Like a river flows surely to the sea, darlin’ so it goes, some things are meant to be”

She moved a few stray hairs behind his ear, and their noses touched.

She touched his hand as she sang,

“Oh, take my hand”

Their fingers interlocked.

“Take my whole life too.”

“For I can’t help falling in love with you.”

She smiled, a big wide, genuine smile.

“Oh, I can’t help falling in love with you”

He lifted her face so that her lips met his. When they finally broke apart, they pressed their foreheads against each other and just sat there, happily looking into each other’s eyes, a quiet understanding between them.

He pressed her to his heart again.

After a moment, she popped right back up and with a wry smile said, “So when do I get to hear you sing?”

He laughed. “You hear me sing all the time! When a song I know comes on the radio, purposefully loud to annoy you, or embarrass you if we’re in public–”

“No, Kanan,” she laughed. “I mean, like actually sing.”

“Actually sing?”

“Like, actually try to sound good.”

He paused for a moment, “Hera, that is my actual singing voice.”

Her eyes went wide as she tried to hold back laughter.

“Guess I’m just a terrible singer,” he said sarcastically, but unable to hold back his laughter.

“I guess you are,” Hera laughed.

Thank you so much for reading<3xoxo