#bc i'm going to read fanfic as research

[isekyaaa]

I'm going camping this weekend so gonna maybe try and see if I can get any writing done......

[thatdeadaquarius]

About your language brainrot. I see your "Reader's writing can't match tyvat's long and flowery writing" and bring you "Tyvat isn't used to books over 50 pages long so a short story to the Reader is a whole dictionary to tyvat readers".

Seriously, have you seen how thin the books are? They don't wrote novels, they write short chapters formatted in the way really old stories are. As in, summarizing all the events down into one smooth story then adding a few quotes. Fanfiction writers are insane. They will willingly sit down and write hundreds of words at a time. To them, a proper modern day story of maybe, oh 10k words or so, would probably be like the Oddessy itself.

If we were to combine the two headcanons. It would end up as many historians being intimidated by this insanely long written scripture in the language of the forgotten.

I'm going to take this a step further and say that if the creator asked some people to proofread their things, it would establish a hiarchy of who is able to actually finish the book the creator read and who isn't.

NOW THIS, THIS IS MY FUCKING JAMMMM

I'm so sorry this is so old!! u probably all know this by this point that I've really slowed down as the year has gone on, but I graduated university and then got my first job so its been pretty crazy!

Sun: Reader (you/they/them)

Orbit: Headcanons-ish

Stars: dash of all the book/nerds of Genshin, heavy on Sumeru?

Comets & Meteors: Content Warnings: Cussing, 16+ Mature Audiences, Spoliers for Sumeru Archon Quests/Scaramouche, & Trigger Warnings: mention of shipping/characters shipping themselves with you.

Comment if any missed, please.

☆

FULL STOP.

THE AKADEMIYA, FONTAINE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, HAVE BEEN WAITTTINNGGGG ON YOUR ASS LMAO

You fall from the fucking sky like a 5 star, or pop out of the Irminsul or whatever

and immediately are mobbed by scholars. LMAO jkjk (not really, bc that's what it’d feel like)

can you even imagine the dread older stories(”the classics” to them), that was instilled in the poor students around Teyvat??

id like to think ur works are the most preserved over the thousands of years of Teyvat archeologists excavating them, in comparison to other authors (teyvat just likes you more, suck it William Shakespeare)

also, bc I cant resist language differences/world building I'm sorryyyy 😭 😭

the vocab of Genshin lang vs. ours, has significantly less vocabulary like their actual dictionary is 1/3 the size of ours type of energy

(Omfg all ur fanfics being considered like insanely long realistic romantic classics or tragedies like Jane Austen-level, and only the richest and biggest play companies put on plays about ur stories bc the script goes on for hours)

(ur plays only get put on for rlly big events bc of this, like Lantern Rite or like a Summer/Winter festival/your birthday, which is, yes, an international holiday)

dude the sheer power move of anything you’ve written being essentially “Journey of the West” to them, like Damnnn.

endless like adaptations, plays, Teyvat-short stories condensing it, (THEIR OWN FANFICTION ABOUT UR STORIES)

the power is, in fact, going to your head every time another scholar both deflates at how long ur stuff is, but also lights up bc they get to read it

speaking of scholars… you know who snatched you up first. you know. you don’t even need to read the next line.

Alhaitham.

sneaky bastard he is, absolutely manipulated, mansplained (and manwhored bc he knows he’s handsome, cheeky little shit) his way into getting you to sit down with him and interview you about both translating other classics, your own, giving your own analysis of others works and ur own, and picking ur brain apart of how/why you wrote urs, etc. its fucking endless,

Kaveh had to come rescue you bc u were starving to death after getting stuck with the Haravatat scholar in his office for nearly 7 hours of interrogation discussion about literature

and Alhaitham wasn't even nearly done, he’d informed you as you left that he already had another appointment for later conversation scheduled (how?? you don't even know ur own schedule??? you have a schedule???) and was looking forward to more of your “creative and enlightening input” :)))

(you’re never going to escape him, not even Nahida herself can save you from his stubborn ass)

On another note, Xingqiu is quaking when you agree to autograph his copy of your stories (of which he has all hard covers of the first edition translations)

Zhongli/Rex Lapis is known for having a near-lifelong passion for searching for your works specifically, and learning how to translate them better into Teyvatian vernacular

like the same way he can absolutely speak on Rex Lapis facts/rocks/adepti info, is the same confidence he speaks about knowing ur work lol

(yes he did also ask for several autographs and another sit-down talk about the works, tho a lot more sneaky then Alhaitham bc he just casually gets u guys into it during dinner)

Barbatos/Venti has written some of the most famous songs based on your stuff, he has his favorites too,

but he always claims the best songs are any that have been written in the story, like either when a character sings something, or there are like quotes from songs ur fanfics are based on lol

(he also demanded to hear what they actually sound like from you, yes, you have to sing them for him lol)

Venti also can surprisingly drunkenly ramble the entirety of at least one of ur stories, like, word for word lmao

(Diluc gave in and did give him a drink on the house for that one, just once, Venti doesn’t remember it lol)

(I forgot to mention, u guys still speak the same language, just like, different versions of it)

ur works being one of the few things all the Archons can freely talk about with each other, like it’s neutral ground bc they’re all fangirling about it lmao

Furina and Neuvillette have had like,, fierce debates over the decades about character dynamics and the general drama of ur stories, they’ve gotten into it enough they’ve stopped talking to each other for a couple days a few times lol

Albedo, Sucrose, Kokomi, Yae Miko, Ei, Raiden, have read every single work they’re gotten their hands on in Teyvat (it took them like a literal year or longer)

Albedo drew you fanart for every single story, bc he’s hyperfixated on everything related to you ngl,

Kokomi had commissioned smaller pocket versions of ur works (which later got popular thanks to Yae Miko) both the OG and the Teyvat shortened versions

THE HARBINGERS ARE THE MOST DOWN BAD LMAO

Childe has literally tried to recreate battle scenes from ur works lmao

and gets especially riled up about fighting someone who resembles any characters from them (esp villains, what a cutie)

You cannot fathom the amount of research throughout Teyvat that has been secretly or indirectly funded by Pantalone/Tsaritsa

from the experts to analyze them, to funding play companies to act them out, to actually excavating places to get more of ur stuff unearthed

(the Harbingers absolutely are the first group of people that got to read several of ur stories first bc of this, like the world’s most exclusive secret book club lol)

Scaramouche used to clown on Childe all the time about how he was too impatient to even “sit down and read the King’s classics”, and he was downright insufferable when he found out about Tartaglia’s habit of recreating battle scenes/that being what motivated him to fight sometimes lol

that being said, Wanderer surprisingly never forgot ur stories.

Even when his memories were wiped for a bit, he found comfort in these fantastical epics still sticking around, even when his old names did not

(he mayyyy or mayyy nottt have secretly namedhimselfafteroneofthetragicprotagonistsherelatesto- )

oh btw, Nahida also found joy and comfort in ur stories when she was trapped, they also helped her literally grow as a person bc she had ur stories to help her sort of process the world/what life was like outside of her dreaming prison 🥺💔❤️‍🩹

◇

OMFG

ANYWAY FULL TONE SHIFT LMFAO-

the ABSOLUTE SPIRAL-RED-STRING-CONSPIRACY-THEORY-BOARD ENERGY IF THIS WAS A BLUNT LANGUAGE AU LMAOOOO

like specifically how Teyvatians like to give all the context ever thru their words, but older deities/beings like you just do simple phrases that can have deeper meanings (whereas teyvat just explains all the meanings behind their words)

STOP there’s like an official display at the Akademiya and Fontaine Institute of red string theory boards 😭😭 (look what you’ve done to themmm LMAO)

for like every story of urs, INCLUDING THE FANFICS STOP

IMAGINE THE SHIPPING WARS IF U EVER WROTE ONE THAT WASNT EXPLICIT OR LIKE ONE OF THE MAIN ROMANTIC INTERESTS HAD CHEMISTRY WITH OTHER CHARACTERS HAHAHAHAA

that's actually what Akademiya scholars argue about the most viciously, it’s like politics you can’t just bring up ships from ur stories casually in regular convos 💀

(poor Cyno has to deal with a shipping war once a year bc someone always makes the mistake of reading ur work for the first time (without being told to not talk to others abt ships lol) and it starts an all out brawl in the cafeteria every time LMAO)

Also yes.

Cyno is a fanboy.

(he has read Creator x Reader-insert fanfiction.)

(As have most of the characters mentioned, and those not lol)

…

(I'm gonna make a whole Creator x reader fanfic post one day i stg lmao)

☆

an iced coffee? for me?? :0

ok but real talk…

wtf do you guys wanna see for new years!!

i didn't do a inktober/october days thingy bc i felt too unprepared (and bc id wanted to post that 1000+ followers eldritch au for Halloween)

but now i kinda wanna, at least for a few days :o

ill post a poll in a minute, so check it out!! but still, please feel free to comment some ideas here! :)

Safe Travels Deafening Dreamer,

💀♒

If you wanna join a taglist, DM me what for! "Pspspsss, please tag me for [All SAGAU posts, Only SAGAU Language AUs, diff fandom, etc.]!"

(If you ever wanna drop, just DM me! "No more taglists/[specifically this AU/fandom] please!")

♡the beloveds♡

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza / @genshin-impacts-me / @wholesomey-artist / @thedevioussmirk / @the-dumber-scaramouche / @chocogi / @fallen-starr / @areaderofbooks / @devilangel657 / @esthelily

[chinomiko]

hi! i know it must be kinga boring for you recive questions about castiel bc ppl are obsessed ober him for years but like the other person who asked you a few days ago, i follow you (and ply mcl) for like 10 years and ever since day one my fav boy has been tiel. till this day at the age of 22 he's my favorite and my comfort boy so i joke that he's not a fictional character anymore for me and that i know him personally at this point lol

with that being said, i bet you can imagine that over the years i've been elaborating his personality beyond what the game gives us but he's your boy, you created him therefore you know him and your word is canon, so i'd like to ask a few stuff!! nothing too big, dont worry but here we go.

tiel is an amazing songwriter and since he's very emotional not very good at express it (he does it a lot better now that he's an adult 🥹) i bet his lyricism is very deep and poetic so i have this headcanon that he at first wouldn't like taylor swift because obviously lol but then he payed attention to her lyrics and ends up basically being a swiftie since he likes her writing a lot. what you think about that?

and what kind of music crowstorm sings? like there are any bands that you listen and think "hey this would be in a crowstorm album!" (i have a playlist with this name btw lol). im probably wrong on this one but since this is my fav band i like to think that catfish and the bottlemen are the irl crowstorm, musically speaking

and the last one: another thing that gives me so much comfort is the lystiel friendship. not having present parents, being so closed off i know that lysander is such an important presence on tiel's life because he was basically the only close person he had (specially after the debrah fiasco); if lys didnt had taken the farm and went to college and bla bla bla do you think he would still be part of the band with castiel? im not sure if im mixing the canon with a fanfic i read a while ago (lol) but the band was more of a fun thing to lys, right? he liked writing most (i always imagined him getting into a literature degree or something like this). i also like to think that he helps tiel with lyrics at times, even if he's out of the band (in my head the canon is that they are best friends and pretty close till this day, i pretend lys never left our lives just like armin)

anyways sorry for this big ask 😭 i dont even know if you will read it all but if you do, thank you! and dont feel like you have to answer, i know its too much its just that mcl is my hyperfixation till this day like for real, i have a fanfic that i write still and i even plan on making it into a book sometime. except from the main characters (who is my oc) all the characters will be based on the game's ones :)

ilysm take care and stay hydrated!!

Hellow !

Aww thank you so much and for all your love for Castiel ^^

What a long ask, I'll try to answer in order.

Castiel being a swiftie. No sorry, I don't think he would be. If candy likes her, I'm pretty sure he would try to listen. Also he is an open minded person for sure, so I'm sure he would be curious to listen and study what all the hype is about, it could also help as some sort of far away inspiration, but I don't see him being a fan.

What kind of songs Crowstorm sings This is hard to answer because my musical knowledge is pretty limited and I'm sure I would miss on lot of potential groups or singers that would fit well. And it would require too much research time to have a real detailed and clear answer, but I still did check a bit and here is a little list of songs/groups that I think would have a fitting vibe for Crowstorm

City of the dead - Hollywood Undead The worst in me - bad omens Paranoid - I prevail Trauma Just pretend - Bad omens Ice Nine Kills - A grave mistake Catfish and the bottlemen sounds nice but I think its a bit too soft for what I imagine for Crowstorm.

What is his voice like I think something similar to this (not necessarily the song itself, just the voice. )

bonus, I think this song is so so fitting for Castiel's breakup song, I love it. Dial Tone - Catch your breath

Castiel and Lys friendship. It was'nt mentionned much in UL/LL because I didnt wish to bring too much drama by mentioning Lys when he was not there for the players, but of course Lys and Cast always kept in touch. It is very clearly mentionned in Lys' AL that they keep in touch, that Lys helps Castiel write songs and Cast also like to come to his farm to have a break and spend time together. You should play it if you havent, you'll have a good chunk of Cast and Lys friendship :) However yeah I can confirm that Lys would not like to do it serisouly and professionally, but he'll be all the way around to support and help Cast.

[tunamayojazz]

Love your art, any Toge/Yuuta fanfic recommendations? Thanks so much!!

hi!! thank you so much...🥺🩷🩷 and i am SO glad you asked this. i have so many!! here are the ones i read/reread more recently along with some of the tags. tried to make every rec here different from each other hehe have fun reading!!! can't help it (if you look like an angel) by glimmiks (12.4k)

tags: college au, friends to lovers, mutual pining, IKEA

THIS WAS SO FUN TO READ PLEASEEEE i absolutely love college aus so much. and you just know the 2nd years would be the most fun and chaotic as college students. their dynamic is just chefs KISS, and it's written so well here. the mutual pining in here is truly a 10-course meal and i always go back for another round.

i'm alright if you're alright by anonymous (14.2k)

tags: spoilers up to ch146, fluff, hurt/comfort, injury recovery, fix-it, love confessions, pining

post-shibuya fic excellence. i always have such a great time reading this like inuokkos really do eat so well in this fandom. yuta pining is always so great to read like he is Longingly thinking about toge at all times im cry

Magnificently Cursed by diggingupthegrave (91.2k)

tags: dark academia, magic au, magic school au, slow burn, angst, mutual pining

i will always always recommend diggingupthegrave fics. they are easily my favorite inuokko writer pls you have to read all their inuokko fics...i saved this particular one of theirs to read for much later bc i knew it was going to change my life (7 chapters ok) and boy did it do exactly that. the way they implemented canon elements into a magic setting was so so brillaint and i savored every bit of it.

Beat the Turtle Drum by CasuallyScreaming (7.4k) tags: major character death, post-shibuya incident arc, angst, minimal comfort, no shibuya spoilers read this before sleeping the other night and honestly how i managed to still fall asleep after was my body trying to protect me from full out bawling and having a mental breakdown...i don't think i've read a lot of MCD inuokko but god this one shook me to my core. almost like the feeling of loss and grief were bleeding through my phone screen. so well written and while it's definitely mostly painful, the ending....well you'll find out :')

a special occasion by Cheshire (2.5k) tags: idiots in love, established relationship, first dates this was so so cute...!!!!!!! panda: but aren't you two already dating? yuta: well yes! no. sorta, kinda. super cozy and fluffy read!!

is this how every day begins? by mitgi (5.4k) tags: roommates, living together, mutual pining, hurt/comfort, angst i will always love me a roommate au. this fic was such a lovely read and i'm actually going to reread this right after i finish writing this! there's so much to explore in inuokko's relationship and also when it's in different settings. every time i think about how the actual source material are literal crumbs, i'm just even more amazed by how writers are able to draw out the most of what info we have and write their mannerisms so well. it all feels right and so WARM UOGHHHHH

haunted by sieling_fan (3.3k)

tags: pining, hurt/comfort, canon typical angst, character study

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

you showed up just in time by diggingupthegrave (14.6k)

tags: time travel, friends to lovers, mutual pining, hurt/comfort, slight age gap

another diggingupthegrave fic that had me crying screaming shaking throwing up because god. this was so so good. the build up had me at the edge of my seat bc like oh my god what happened? what's happening?? why is this like that? @#$%^&*()_!!!!!!!!!!!!! and when it's all pieced together? oh it ended me. read this again and again for DAYS you would think i was researching it for a thesis or something. take your time reading this btw like im so serious.

okie that's all for me from now, i have so many more to rec honestly....sending out 100000000000 hearts to inuokko writers you are my roman empire....

[olympip]

being a marauders fan can be so draining because why am i doing homework? like the required reading is a bunch of 500k+ word fanfics, but i got extra credit bc i read the 7-book source material and also this week i have an excel sheet due of all the different fancasts for the characters which speaking of i hope you memorized all those family trees because we have a quiz next tuesday- oh where does pandora go? idk fill in an answer. thankfully my wip isn't due until the end of the semester but i need to research and memorize these spells like I'M A WIZARD and then cite my sources when people say i got them wrong. anyways, i gtg study bye.

[olderthannetfic]

hiii i know you're just a person and not a library but if you happen to have them on hand, i'd greatly thank you for some resources on how social justice topics first entered fandom pre-tumblr-2010s, especially in the 90s or earlier is the period i'm interested in, if fans were very eager on being "politically correct" and went out of their way to find related academic texts or if they sort of had to be "kicked in the butt" to do research by people who were already involved in social justice irl, and also if there was pushback against social justice entering fandom & what the arguments were (i know the japanese had the yaoi ronso, i wonder if there is some clearly traceable event like that for the western fandom, or just some insight into the decades-long process it was and how the arguments have changed overtime, eg. yesterday i stumbled across a forum discussion about how a certain character using misogynistic language is "just how working class people talk", & it's so interesting bc that's a kind of argument which seems to have fallen out of circulation completely, so that got me wondering on what other shifts there could have been👀)

--

I mean... "fans" is pretty broad. But if you want to know about m/m fans in Western fandom, that's a lot more answerable.

Ye olde slash fandom did have plenty of discussion around queerness. There's a certain style that's much more common in older fic where one of them is really struggling with homophobia and doesn't like the idea of being into men and so does something or other awful to create drama in the fic, and even then, some fans would be like "Then he's an undatable jerk!"

The further back you go in that kind of fandom, the more everyone is a mega-nerd and quite possibly an academic. There are certainly things that are openly talked about today that people were clueless about then (trans issues, for example), but you have to do a lot more kicking now to get someone to read an academic article on average.

I really cannot express how much more default-intellectual this hobby was in the 90s and before.

Here's an example of the sort of thing people were coming up with:

Here's a bunch of early 00s meta:

Here's a fanlore article with a smattering of the many long discussions about Why Slash:

Here's a starting point on some rapey stuff in Pros fandom that people had meta thoughts about:

And a common practice of writing fic to debunk/respond to other people's fic that used to be so overt there was a term for it:

You could also just go through the history of Escapade, the oldest slash con that's still running in 2023, and see what the panel topics were:

--

I'm not sure "social justice" is quite the way to look at this. If you're curious about m/m shippers and misogynist language or treatment of internalized homophobia in fic, that will be covered quite well by things like the above. Plenty of individual fanfic people were involved in AIDS activism because that was everywhere back then. But race stuff? Other kinds of social justice? I don't remember those coming up much.

And of course fans were not eager to be "politically correct". Being involved in slash fandom in the 80s was seen as being a pervert and a purveyor of underground pornography. These were rebels, not pearl-clutching line-toers.

They might have been eager to be pro-gay, but they sure as fuck didn't express it in those namby-pamby terms.

[halsinsnaturepocket]

Gunna complain about a really stupid ABO fanfic thing under the cut

Gunna start with saying I have nothing against ABO / omegaverse fics, I really don't. I'm kind of new to it because I don't seek it out actively. It's not exactly something I'm into but it's not *not* something I'm into - I love the dynamic of A character is SO HORNY IT HURTS and B character is SO attracted to A that it's animalistic/feral and there's this insatiable, primal need between them, i get a little iffy with the "made for each other" trope bit thats totally just a me thing. I think it's fun and neat and if I get uncomfortable with a fic I know how to leave without being mean ((because I'm not a monster and I'm not here to yuck someone's yum))

I ALSO understand that Halsin being a druid who can wildshape easily lends itself to ABO dynamics

WHAT I DONT GET

IS ASSIGNING HIM WOLFISH TRAITS

He is a BEAR not a WOLF. he EXPLICITLY says that wolves mate for life and that's not his style, he's much more like a bear ((bears are very promiscuous, during mating season they can and will court more than one mate - and they are known for biding their time waiting for a female to be receptive and then when they fuck they fuck VIGOUROUSLY and that's why they LITERALLY LOSE WEIGHT DURING MATING SEASON. They usually leave after mating season is done but some bear species do have favorites that they spend time with after mating season is over and favored mates they return to every season. Yes i did research, leave me alone.))

So I don't get why we're out here writing knotting fics and giving him wolf traits when he literally does not adhere to any kind of wolfy way of life.

I keep trying to read abo fics with halsin knotting but I always end up backing out bc it just doesn't feel right.

Maybe I'll write my OWN omegaverse with bear dynamics.

Try and stop me.

Basically this is my call-to-action for ABO writers to be a little more creative. Give me a tav going into heat and halsin carefully approaching and waiting for the right moment. Give me some fun bear/wolf dynamics. Give me a tav that craves to be knotted but halsin simply *cant* because it's just not in his nature but he fucks them so vigourously and so frequently and protects them from other mates so agressively that it satisfies them. Give me halsin courting a tav in heat and literally fighting and chasing off other characters because he's laying claim to his mate. Halsin who literally can't keep his hands off his mate and its almost distracting how often he needs to fuck because she just smells so GOOD to him while she's fertile. Let me see an omega getting absolutely POUNDED by this giant bear of a man trying to knock her up all while fighting off all the alphas that come at her.

"I'm an alpha I have a right to her" "the fuck you do, she likes me more" and he's just so fucking large and intimidating and protective.

O R get really fun with it - Astarion or another character is an Alpha and Halsin is just Bear and there's a threesome dynamic

THERES SO MUCH ROOM FOR POTENTIAL HERE GUYS I CANT BE THE ONLY ONE

Are the rules for omegaverse that restrictive that we HAVE to use these dynamics based off of wolves??? ((Genuinely wondering since I've barely dipped my toes into omegaverse stories))

[brandwhorestarscream]

Skywarp helping Thundercracker get over his depression by telling him to write fanfiction 🤌🤌🤌 like I’ve never considered it before but it’s now been ingrained in my brain that he’s a fanfic writer bc it’s very in character for him. And now skywards gotta figure out how to get Starscream to feel alive. Who knows how he does it. Is it science? Is fashion? Is it G1 starscreams favourite hobby of being a bastard?

It’s probably not that…

I'm glad you asked! I think we've got a pretty great idea for what he does for Starscream

So, Vos is a flying city, right? It's way, waaay up in the atmosphere, barely a gleaming speck when viewed from the ground, and it has no set day or night cycle due to it constantly moving independently of Cybertron's rotation. As a result, though the acid rains they produce nourish the vast crystal flora on the planet beneath them, Vos is entirely barren. It's environment is entirely unfit for crystals and they can't thrive, bleeding their color til they turn gray and shattering to dust within mere hours. Because of this, most Vosians have never even seen a real crystal flower before.

This is where Skywarp comes in. Starscream can only pursue his love of science, of exploration, of the unknown in the palace's vast library. This sort of thing would put Skywarp to sleep, but there's always fire in the prince's optics when he's glued to a textbook or meticulously scanning through advanced theories, and it's clear he's boundlessly curious. He'd love to do some proper hands on science, but it's not necessary for his future as the Winglord to know advanced physics or xenobiology, so the current ruling trine wouldn't approve. In a perfect world, Skywarp would love to see a laboratory space installed in the palace, but seeing as that's not going to happen anytime soon, he sets his sights elsewhere

The idea comes to him after a portrait catches his eye in the halls while he's escorting the prince and his fiance. It's a beautiful painting, lovingly crafted and flawless perfection down to the tiniest detail. It depicts Starscream's carrier, visibly sparked, his chassis glowing softly with the life he carries and belly perfectly round. He's seated in his throne, a regal, serene smile on his face, posture perfect and arms tenderly cradling the swell of his midsection. It was a commemorative painting to celebrate the Winglord's first concieved children, but that's not what garners his attention. No, it's the background: the second Lord of Vos is surrounded by glistening white crystal flowers, reflecting light in rainbow dapples. They're gleaming and glittering and only serve to make him glow with a heavenly backlight.

He asks Starscream if those were real flowers, and he responds that of course they were. It may have been before his birth but he knows perfectly well that his sire would never spring for anything less than the real deal. Skywarp asks if he's ever seen a crystal flower before, and Star kind of sighs, rolling his optics and shaking his helm. Of course he hasn't.

And that prompts Skywarp to suggest that maybe he should.

Starscream scoffs because that's ludicrous. Importing flowers has an asanine price tag, and they shatter within mere megacycles. The dust gets everywhere. He's seen pictures, that's plenty.

But Skywarp jumps in, insistent, "No, I mean, you should grow your own!"

Starscream barks a single, bitter laugh, because surely he must be insane. Crystal flowers dont grow in Vos, it's impossible!

...wait.

Is it impossible?

Skywarp can practically see the gears turning in his head, and goes in for the kill.

He suggests that Starscream experiment. Research. Learn. He's read plenty of books on botany, right? Sorted through academic papers and knows Vos's atmosphere extremely well. If anyone could figure out a way, it would probably be him. Crystal gardens are a common sight amongst the houses of grounders nobility; why should they have anything the seekers don't?

It takes him a long time, a lot of trial and error and a lot of research, combing digital foreign libraries and maybe even writing to botany professors from Praxus or Crystal City. Starscream noticeably changes, becoming brighter and more exuberant now that he has a hobby he truly enjoys. The shelves in his room start filling up with various pots of ground metal soil from the surface, full of seeds and withered half-sprouts, and he's always got his face in a notebook, scribbling away new theories and notes and recording data, tweaking his hypotheses and trying everything he can think of. Thundercracker is always nearby reading his latest romance novel or writing his own fantastical ideas down, and Skywarp is always there too, watching over them and thoroughly enjoying just how happy they look.

And sometimes 🤭 multiple nights a week, Skywarp takes him down to Cybertron. Checking out the gardens and wild fields of flowers around Praxus, maybe even wandering through the delicate forests surrounding Crystal City. Star takes samples and observes them with intense scrutiny, and buys hundreds upon thousands of seeds for his experiments. Skywarp has never seen him so happy, so excited, when his first crystal seed sprouts.

It's after months of work and trial and error, but miraculously, it finally happens: a shy little blue crystal sprig, poking out of it's pot by less than a pinkie's width, but it's there! Starscream is overjoyed, mumbling to himself a mile a minute and rushing to triple check the sample ID and write everything down, as well as begin mass replicating that batch to see if they can get more to grow! He's smiling so widely it looks like his cheeks may become sore, and his wings are fluttering behind him, actually fluttering, he's so pleased with himself. Skywarp lends a hand preparing more pots and flower boxes, and when Thundercracker arrives he congratulates his fiance wholeheartedly. Maybe his endeavor even inspires the blue seeker to write some more 🤭 it may not have been the chemistry lab work ups Starscream used to dream of, but the thrill of scientific experimentation and discovery feels just as good as he thought it would, and for the first time in a long time... he truly feels happy. Content. Fulfilled. And it's all thanks to this lovely courtesan. That night Skywarp puts on the best show he can, and who knows? Maybe someday, he'll be able to dance for them with petals falling from the sky 💖

[love-toxin]

miss ellie i'm realizing now that i never told you now revolutionary your ocs are. like. i've been on this website for literal years and the day i found your blog was with an oc post where you introduced such a dynamic lineup with so much variety, it was the first i had ever seen. maybe i wasn't looking hard enough but you had poc yanderes AND trans yanderes it was the first time i had ever seen any (i know it sounds crazy to say but i'm being so fr rn.) even when i look through your old posts and reread them i just get blown away by how each one is different and has their own personality even though you have so many?? anyway it's late and i just wanted to say that ty <3

will you marry me?? 🥺

LOL to be for real though that makes me sooooo happy you don't even understand, I'm really glad i get to be that way for you and all you lovely people 💕💕 it's a blessing to be able to write & post my work and I'm genuinely happy to see people connecting with it.

tbh, the representation i try to portray accurately is a really long-standing relationship i have with writing & authorship in general. this might not be a terribly interesting bit of lore but back when i was in my teens and consuming a lot of fanfic online in the early forms of it (ff.net my love </3) that was something that hit me a lot in reading self-insert fic, because I'd always been a huge reader and was just then tapping into self-inserts and community fiction posting rather than just books. and i remember distinctly (i think partly bc I've always grown up in multicultural neighborhoods/had mixed family growing up) reading fanfics and having the thought of "huh, i can relate to this description or this experience, but that makes me wonder whether other people can."

funny enough, it was partly when i would read descriptions of the author giving a self-insert long hair or referencing their hair in some way, and I'd start wondering how girls who wore a hijab would read that same piece, cause i went to school with a bunch of girls who wore it or a full niqab. and so i started wondering more like "if i was black, would i relate to this experience in this fic? if i was trans or gender non-conforming, are there characters i can relate to? if i were a mix of these things, could i find somewhere i belong in this setting?" and since then it kind of became a focus in the way i wrote stuff going forward.

i think using inclusive language in fic writing is really integral to a greater horizon of people enjoying it, and thinking on my ocs i always wanted to have characters that people could really relate to. I'd stop a lot in my process of creating my initial sets of characters and try to keep in mind those thoughts that i had in reading fics; "if i were this or that, could someone in that position relate to the stories I'm writing? and if not, what can i change to make that happen?" because if people are going to enjoy my characters or find comfort in them i want everyone possible to have the ability to. it's kind of intimidating at times to write for experiences i haven't had personally but it led me (and still leads me) to do a ton of research, and in doing so I've been able to learn lots of really fascinating things in the process. in doing so, it made it really easy for my characters to develop their personalities through my writing because i think they inherently have identities that are complex, which is always the goal you want for any character in the first place.

sorry that this kinda went off on a ramble LOL, but after so many years of writing and with my degree under my belt i still really think about it a lot. I'm really glad what i wanted to do has come across and i hope you continue to enjoy my ocs!! ❤️❤️

[merakiui]

Hi Mera!! I am a bit late to the party but I finished reading tdmg and my God it was soooooo good!! As always your writing is so, so beautiful I ascend every time I read something of yours. I really enjoyed a lot of the metaphors you used to describe things(sorry for being vague, I read tdmg when it was first released but held off my gushing bc I had assignments due so I don't remember as much😵‍💫) I will definitely be going back to write down some of the beautiful metaphors you wrote because goddamn what you write is straight up poetry🔥🔥 you characterise everyone so well and the back-and-forth between the characters is always incredibly fun to read. It is also clear how much research you do for the fics you write(like finding out sea creature behaviours, for example) and it gives so much depth to what you write.

Respectfully, if I was a rich CEO one of the first things I'd do is hire you to write fics full-time🫡(100k per annum+paid leave+company credit card)

I had a question regarding something that happened earlier in the fic but I don't know if it's been asked yet.... Has Jade used invisibility magic to spy on the main character? When Floyd, Jade and the mc were at the garden, it seemed like Floyd could detect that Jade was there but our MC couldn't because she didn't have any magic... I feel like you were hinting that Jade had used invincibility magic to spy on the mc before but she hadn't noticed for that reason. He did admit that he watched her a lot but she hadn't noticed it(though that could also be bc he's a slippery eel!)

Hi, anon!!!!! ( ≧ᗜ≦) aaaaaaa thank you so very much for reading tmdg and writing such a kind message! I'm happy you enjoyed it!! <3 and I'm immensely flattered to receive such praise!! :O to say it's like poetry,,, and to say you'd hire me to write fanfic full-time,,, uuwuwaaaa that's so sweet of you. ⸜(｡ ˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ I think one of my favorite things to do when writing fics is research so that I can add another layer to the plot (you may have to pry the octopus and moray eel biology facts out of my cold, dead hands; I love it too much. orz). I also like being able to incorporate real moray behavior into my Jade and Floyd stories because it adds a touch of marine realism to their actions. >w<

As for your question, I like to imagine he may have done so!! But then it's also fun to picture Jade hiding behind a tree and blushing so shyly while he's spying on you from afar because he is just an eel in love. 🥺 you can trust him. 🥺🥺🥺 he can do no wrong; he's just swept up in romantic bliss. Perhaps he didn't need to use invisibility magic at all, considering Reader was so blindly obsessed with Floyd and thus failed to notice Jade on numerous occasions. ;;;

[cyybrzz]

To anyone who sees this and isn't a bot...

i need a bunch of feedback on a bunch of different topics so advice or opinions from anyone is accepted and appreciated!! i'm not new to tumblr, i'm just new to POSTING on here so to anyone with an aesthetic blog please give me wisdom 🙏

🔮 in search of mutuals!

ever since i've downloaded the app i've never posted or commented, i've always just kinda been l i n g e r i n g everywhere, reading, and going under the radar. but now that i want to start reaching out and socializing i want some mutuals to chat with and maybe even to help review/edit my writing works if i do any!! if you want to get to know me here's some basics on me:

-i'm latina <3

-unlabeled if that matters

-i tend not to get too much into 'politics' unless we're talking violations of basic human rights (cough cough palestine) and i don't care what you believe, as long as you respect my beliefs we're all good!!

-some shows i like are jane the virgin, the 100, criminal minds, and a bunch more but im leaving things to just 3 to keep it short

-i tend to like really niche things sometimes like escape the night or randomly doing research on medieval torture mechanisms so if you're like me join my little club (aka our potential friendship)

-i have a really open sense of humor and find a lot of things funny + i have a bunch of twitter memes saved in my camera roll bc those are the funniest things ever

-i love princess and the frog, tangled, and horror movies

-i love reading! romance, thriller, horror, i love it

-i'm an athlete and do/have done multiple sports

-i play the cello!! her name is cherry ♥️

-i love using emoticons :)

-i love bruno mars, mitski, gaga, LMFAO, and a some older niche spanish singers nobody knows 😭

-i try out a bunch of different fashion aesthetics but i think my top 3 are y2k street wear, classy/business casual, and homeless LMAOO

🔮 i need a theme!!

I still have no idea what i want to do with my blog and need some ideas/tips for my theme! i'd prefer not to make it fandom based though; i love this weirdcore thing i have going on but idk how to make it work and i can’t really find dividers and pictures/banners that fit this theme + i also love the city party type vibe but also cute themes or colored themes or earthy themes... i'm open to literally anything so if you have any sources or templates or any ideas that might help PLEASE lmk!! i also don't know how anything works- i don't even know if my first divider is actually a png or if i look stupid right now LMAOOOOO

🔮 i have a writing dilemma...?

i've been wanting to write a fanfic for a WHILE now, like an actual story that's so long it'd have to be put on like wattpad or something that's not meant for shorter stories. HOWEVER i am petrified that i won't be good at it and would want to test out the waters by potentially writing blurbs/oneshots for some fandoms once i figure this whole writing thing out??? so if you want to send in a request with a 50% chance of getting decent writing and another 50% of regretting ever trying to talk to me go ahead!! (please.)

🔮hi tumblr!!

so... i think that's it! i think that's everything i had to address, if you've made it this far, thank you for reading my very first tumblr post! didn't mean to talk this much but i feel like i needed to get this out there and connect with new people because i already have mutual crushes on so many people if that makes any sense, toodles!! now enjoy my pathetic attempt at writing hashtags

[thatdeadaquarius]

-vine boom

I probably sent a lot of these now im so sorry lmfao 😅

You mentioned in one of the asks that some countries are like a prototype/based of our existing countries, like Germany=Mondstadt, Liyue=China, Inzauma=Japan....

So even though the language is more or less identical for you to make heads and tails in a conversation or writing in a book, the reverse side does not.

Creator!Reader who knows a couple of languages (plus points if they're atleast fluent or have a understanding of it despite not being able to speak said language) and being born from a country that doesnt have the same language as the countries Teyvat based off. Basically Spanish, Italian, Filipino, Scandinavian languages that also have their own way of writing.

Imagine feeling homesick and the only thing that keeps you occupied is the notebook and pen you have while the others converse in a meeting or in a hangout. You started writing in your tongue and re-reading it to relive memories.

Zhongli, AlHaitham, Albedo, Jean, maybe the Berry bros too (Diluc & Kaeya) get curious only to have a double-take and immediately thinks that maybe there is a forgotten land in Teyvat that has this language, I mean Morax stayed faithful to Liyue and Barbatos blessed his country with abundance of supplies and freedom. Teyvat gods and archons played favourites, so why wouldn't you as well? (Bonus: Khaenriah flashbacks) (also I know these arent enough characters but how should I know? I only have a handful of them and I ran out of Primos😭

The people from Akademiya though? I mean they went hard on theorizing and picking apart the language of their creator. Have you seen Matpat's descent to insanity the more FNAF continues to push out LoRe? Thats basically them because Teyvat doesn't have a country based on Creator's birth country. They're grasping nothing but air and dead ends and the only lead they have is you, but couldnt ask because you look so down and they cant bear to see Creator sad....

(NEW BANNER TOMORROW AND I DONT HAVE ENOGH PRIMOGEMS HALP---)

Rip Vine boom no primos 🙏 hope u got some more by this time bc i was so late to reply lol - DUDE IM SO READY FOR THE GORG KAVEH <333

BERRY BROS!! Thats it, thats the only way im gonna refer to them now.

Not super long to add onto ur bc UR SO SMART AND SUCH A GOOD WRITER VINEBOOM U SHOULD ALSO WRITE STUFF SO I CAN GO OBSESS OVER UR WRITING WITH A MILLION FERAL COMMENTS-!!!

(Cute owl house gif is like, metaphorially u and zhongli in this lol)

EDIT 8/23/23: So this may be inaccurate/not that good to my Hispanic Readers out there! Sorry about that, I'l make sure to do better in the future.

EDIT 1/1/24: Unfortunately there are even more issues here, and I'm really sorry about that. I expanded on it more in my Eldritch fanfic post in Part 2, but it was exoticism of me to use the word "Huangdi". I have since replaced it with "Emperor", and don't intend to just erase the mistake like it never happened. But I did change it in the headcanons for better readability. Again, I'm genuninely sorry about this, and will absolutely be watching out/doing better in the future. I hope you understand.

THIS SOUNDS SO SAD, LIKE THIS COULD DEF BE ANGST, ESP SINCE U HAVE NO FAMILIAR-ISH CULTURE TO TURN TO-

tbh im american and i def dont think theres a u.s. country- oh god at least I hope not, damn but im also familiar with mexican culture so i wouldnt miss the united states, but id miss mexican culture…

BUT!!

You have a lot of amazing people who care about you in Teyvat, so they won’t let you stew in ur homesickness for long

like random said, i could see it being small stuff

ok so imma just-

LATINO! READER TIME BABBYYYYY

(i do this bc its just the culture/language im more familiar with, but dont let that discourage anyone from requesting other cultures! I will def do my research, or ur welcome to tell me all about it so i can write it better! <3)

THAT BEING SAID IM MOSTLY WHITE PLS LMK IF SHIT IS WRONG/SPANISH IS WRONG BC IM STILL A BEGINNER MY BELOVED LATINES!

<3 YOU GUYS

♡

you’ve been in the game-turned-life world of Genshin Impact for nearly 6 months now, turns out time isnt wonky as hell like it is if you were playing the game, half bc u bribed Albedo with answers to his many questions about you if he figured out the time difference, and half bc of ur internal clock

people would notice the cuss words first lmao

like Xiao hearing u stubbing ur toe on the million and one steps up to Wangshu Inn, hijueputa!

or Keqing pointing out the words you coo at the dogs hanging out by the bridge outside the harbor,

un perrito tan buenoooo!! :’)

while most would just, " hmm, maybe a dialect of one of the other countries we havent heard…"

but Zhongli? he’s been ready for centuries in case the prophecy came true within his lifetime, afterall, many things changed while he’s been alive, not crazy to him that you might descend randomly

While everyone else was unprepared, bc u were like… the oldest deity, more legend than history, so ppl just thought Morax was a little overly faithful …so when it actually happened,, Morax was just smirking as he watched ur golden shooting star streak the night sky… while absolute pandemonium consumed the mortals and adepti in liyue lmao

(like that scene of Regina George in Mean Girls watching the student body break out into an all out brawl just smirking 😭 pls god look it up if u dont know what i mean- )

So Morax- Zhongli, has been ready for you, just in case, to pay attention to what kind of person you’d be, learn your favorite clothes/colors/offerings, see what things you’d like to talk about with him (hopefully for hours) etc.

He was observant, and with his memory, he practically gave himself headaches sometimes with how aware he was,

on one of those days he was overwhelmed by the mortal crowds, the smells, the market yelling, and all the change from what he thought he knew-

Zhongli noticed you in your own melancholy, and curious, he began to stroll just behind

You sit at Wanmin restaurant, still somber, and ask Xiangling to

“please try out these recipes? they’re from my world, and id really love to have something like them again..”

a true experimental chef as always, Xiangling quickly takes up your offer, and u follow her into the kitchens in the back (the restaurant is much more real than in game, they have gorgeous inside seating, all shades of red coloring the walls and lots of pretty latticework-)

Zhongli takes a seat finally, he has a usual table at this point he comes in so much coughtorunintoyoucough the staff know it's his and give him tea pretty quickly

the food, and the looks, makes it your favorite restaurant in Liyue, the Liuli Pavilion a little too fancy for casual dining, afterall, Zhongli would know

He’s tried to keep track of your favorite places to be in Liyue too, and kept his near full attention on what you say when he asks after your stays in Liyue (he hasn’t felt the need to pay that much attention or felt that much interest in conversation partners in… decades?)

So when you come out of the kitchen, throwing your head back and laughing, "Sí, sí! It all tastes so close Xiangling! Gracias, thank you!"

He wants… to know.

to know what those strange, but delicious looking, foods are all balanced on two big dinner plates

Xiangling carrying whatever you couldn’t just behind, a pitcher of white liquid, it smells, like cinnamon?

He raises a hand, and offers the extra seats at his table, (when did his tea go cold? he only just sat down, he couldn’t have spent that long thinking about you…)

You notice and look over, a giddy grin lighting up your face (…hmm, perhaps he needs to transform into his Exuvia form and let off some steam, his chest has warmed too much right now for him to just be sitting here…)

You plop into the seat beside him, but not before carefully placing the plates in front of both you and Zhongli

You scootch around until you’re turned towards him, as always, Zhongli looks… actually kind of, happy?

a small soft smile pulls at his lips, his eyes half-lidded as they meet yours, his usual red eyeliner framing his monolids perfectly, he looks like he’s been,, well, sculpted from stone, an artwork come to life

“…My Emperor? Could I trouble you to tell me about the dishes before us?”

the geo god’s pleasantly smooth and deep voice felt so soft asking you that, like he didn’t want to push you one direction or the other

“Oh! Right! Sorry, these are from my home country, back in my world, or at least, as close as Xiangling and I can get to them!”

Your smile brightens your face once more, clearing away any leftover stormclouds from your mood earlier, and as you launch into explaining (Xiangling had to get back to orders, so it’s just you two now)

You list it all, the quintessential: quesadillas, empanadas, tamales, chorizo (you had to combine at least 5 different spices to Mondstadt sausages to get anywhere close to the real thing) the dips obviously, salsa, queso, guacamole, and the easy street tacos, and finally the horchata, but also all the weird fruits Teyvat has with chile, like Sunsettias mixed with Harra from Sumeru or Lavender melons with Wolfhook berries… all surpringly pretty good

(the Sun-Harra combo tastes like mango, a sort of deeper taste of pineapple/kiwi and a sort of light orange taste? all with the nice addition of chile flavors, the Lavender melons and Wolfhooks helped imitate chamoy enough that your heart was satisfied)

…you realize you’ve just been talking about the last meal you had with your family/friends instead of the food after a bit, and Zhongli hasn’t said anything…

you trail off and look back over your shoulder (u were practically about to get your shirt in the imitation guac u were leaning so far over the table to point and talk)

you’re about to sheepishly apologize for taking over the conversation, and ask if he wants to try anything (Zhongli can handle spice so u dont have to worry abt that at least)

but as u finally see his face, u just stop, and dont end up saying anything

He’s just, looking at you.

his smile's not huge, but big enough to make his eyes look happy, and Zhongli’s just… looking at you.

You can’t describe the look he’s giving you, but you suddenly feel… a wave of shyness wash over your heart in your chest, because he’s looking almost like, maybe like, he’s sort of, waiting for you to keep talking, his tan skin warm in the golden rays of the sun beginning to set, you don’t know why you’re noticing any of these things, and he gently, slowly, makes a move to lean into your space a little

almost above your armrest, head inches from your shoulder, he finally moves to stop looking at you-

He looks like a painting as he looks down, his eyelashes almost sitting on his high cheekbones,

you have to move your head to looking at the table too as he moved so close,

you feel your shoulders reflexitively hitch upwards as you brushed the hair on the side of his head as you turned away

He looks around, and then moves his head, not his body, he’s still leaning toward you, to look you right in the eyes again

“Why did you stop? I haven’t said much, I apologize, but it’s only because I wanted to hear you without anything interrupting you.”

You cough a little strained, “Oh! Oh I get it now yeah, thanks-”

“I want to hear you more,” his black eyes begin to warm with gold, you can vaguely see the shape of his diamond pupil revealing itself, “I want to hear about… everything, if you’ll tell me? The language, the food, the drinks, your family, your dances, your country, I want to hear it all. Won’t you please let me hear your voice some more?”

♡

GOOOD LOOORDDDD, ITS SO LONGGGGG IM SO SORRRYYY 😭😭

OKAY IM MOSTLY SORRY THAT THIS SCENARIO HAPPENED??? IDK WHERE ZHONGLI CAME FROM- GOD IM SUBCONCIOUSLY IN LOVE WITH THAT MAN I GUESS, SORRY RANDOMANTICS-

uh, hope somebody got anything out of this, sorry abt the length, again,

also pls somebody tell me if what i said about culture/food was alright! If not I’ll def change it, pls dont let me keep it up if its inaccurate/wrong!!

Safe Travels you guys,

💀♒️

.°•.☆.•°.

♡ the beloveds ♡

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza / @genshin-impacts-me / @wholesomey-artist / @thedevioussmirk

[needlesandnilbogs]

4, 26, and 30 for the ask game? 🥰

4: a story idea you haven't written yet

... most story ideas I write down whatever comes to me and work on it for as long as I keep my interest up, usually that's a few paragraphs or so? I don't think I really have "things I haven't written" so much as "things I've started and want to finish eventually" lol. I guess the closest thing is the "just a name for the au and a note on the plot or a single sentence" stuff?

... at least for murderbot. I have a lot more discrete ideas with no words for city spies like the superhero alternate universe that @fishyupmywishy and I considered for a while (can't dig through discord dms for all of this but clementine was a hero turned supervillain named Queen Orange (now Dark Orange) and Paris had a chess theme), "#giveMontyAGirlfriend2k23" (monty/magpie shipfic), and a mirror universe.

One day I will write all of these. I swear. also I absolutely do not have an au problem shut up

------

26: are you able to write with other people around?

I write everywhere. Very often on my phone, very often when I'm around other people. so yeah.

also I write in linear algebra bc the professor doesn't teach so I'm only showing up for the attendance grade. and in the dishroom when it's quiet and nobody's doing any actual work. so.

the fanfic brain rot is real okay

------

30: share a fic you're especially proud of

I did this one earlier but in the interest of practicing being able to talk about my stuff without falling apart in embarrassment, here is a different fic I am proud of: Preserving the Mines, aka what happens when an adhd person raised by historians hyperfixates on 1854 sacramento for a month and then gets really into it. aka what if murderbot and company were gold miners during the second gold rush. (read the tags and keep an eye on the content warnings. it does deal with slavery and the aftermath of the Perkins case)

Since I shared something at most half related when Stars asked this number last time I'm going to share a fun note from my "research" aka do you want to hear about one of the few historical inaccuracies in the fic: the location of the Preservation mining camp.

they should not be hanging around Paradise Beach because there's no gold there nor is it a good place to camp, but there they are bc this is a site I can imagine the physical features of fairly easily. also this is a public river beach now known for both nudity and drowning, things mb would hate.

I have way more stuff about this au I never posted, I should go back to writing 1854 overse's diaries and 1854 mensah's letters to her parents and share some of those eventually lol

[deliberate-disguises]

WHEN Ao3 comes back up (by the higher power, I KNOW they'll survive this! For now I, and all of us, must hold back from opening it until the Ao3 people say they're in the clear), here are reasons why Ao3 is superior than Wattpad and ff.net (and maybe livejournal if anyone is still using it--dear Lord, I feel old):

TAGS. Ao3 has tags that allows us to have a clearer guess on what we're stepping into. Plus, people can go wild on tags and it's always amusing to see. Wattpad has tags, too, but it's not the same.

Filters. I dislike Wattpad's filter. It confuses me a lot. Ao3 has better and extensive filter. We can filter tags we want to see and tags we don't want to see. We can also use the "search words" bar (or something like that) and that has saved me when I can't remember the title and/or the author but I remember certain sentence(s) in the summary. Ff.net's filter is just ... too limited.

Let's admit it, Ao3 does not have ads. Ugh, ff.net sometimes has ads popping out in the middle of a fanfic (really, right in front of my salad?) and it's absolute hell. I don't know about Wattpad but last time I checked, you might have to deal with ads before going to the next chapter.

Ao3 allows us to see the whole fic if we want to, not just chapter by chapter. I set my own account to show entire work and it's a blessing when I find a multi-chaptered locked fics (aka fics that can only be read if you have an account). I don't have the patience to press "next chapter" button.

Lastly, IT'S DOWNLOADABLE. IN SEVERAL FORMATS. I personally like reading on my phone, so I usually download the .epub or .mobi format. If it's over 50k words and/or it's that good, I'd leave a kudos (usually as a guest because I'm too lazy to sign in), and then download it so I can read when I'm offline.

Okay, bonus, this one is for the writers: FORMATTING. You can have footnotes!! Actual working footnotes! And embedded links! I don't think ff.net and Wattpad have that. For example, JAFF (Jane Austen Fanfic, bc I'm on a P&P roll) writers who like to add footnotes are adorable! I love seeing how they took time researching it and I get to know interesting tidbits about that era without having to fall into a rabbit hole (I'm the type to hyperfixate.)

Those are my reasons. Praying for Ao3 admins and my fellow Ao3 writers and readers.

[diodellet]

hiya dio!! tossing in 3 (honkai star rail? 👀), 5, and 15!!

hiya ian! thanks for shooting me an ask!!

3.) Go to the [honkai star rail] tag and reblog some art you like that has under 100 notes

aight i gotchu oomfie, ill search for stuff to queue up 😤😤

5.) What genre do you like reading the best?

angst and hurt/comfort 🔛🔝!!!

it's painful, it's good, and it makes emotional processing so much easier and less burdensome because the difficulty goes into finding an okay sentence and stringing together ok-ish dialogue (but at least those can be solved with a banger ass playlist, ykw?)

augh special mention to one of my formative twst fics i love that grim has such a big role in this

15.) Worst fanfic tropes ever?

NOO!!!! U CANT MAKE ME SAY BAD THINGS ABT FANFIC!!! ALL FANFIC IS GOOD WHEN IT IS MADE WITH HEART!!!

(did i say bridal carry? ill just say it again for funsies HAHAHA i dont like bridal carries, it doesn't spark any joy, please just carry me like this🤧👇👇)

i'm usually really open-minded with reading fanfics... so aside from the obvious fanfic writing sins (using generative AI, plagiarism, not doing enough careful research for sensitive topics) OH WAIT--

(this is probably specific to genshin/hyv) but i Reaaaaally don't like it when fandom infantilizes characters that use the teenage model. like, there is such a thing as short adults! (me. i am one of them!) one time i saw someone say that lynette was probably a year younger than lyney and i was confused bcs aren't they twins??? like, are we forgetting that lynette was the primary "errand-goer" for the house of hearth upon getting her vision? girlie's probably seen more shit than lyney did.

^^semi-related to infantilizing characters, i dont like how some obm fics treat luke as a literal toddler. like, yes he's immature but he's got a good head on his shoulders and even if he's a low-ranked angel he probably has sm powers that he can make use of to protect MC. and i esp see how he gets left out even in gen/platonic fics and hcs. smtimes i feel compelled to look at the game's shitty pop quiz events for fanfic fuel (i mean, the luke tag has more ppl saying not to sexualize him than actual writing and that bugs me ://)

There used to be this really good obm fanfic (Nightmare by StarsEncrusted) and it had a plot point of helping luke get his wings, but it++the author's orig account got deleted from ao3. thankfully some fans had the foresight to archive it, so heres a wayback link to the fic and the accompanying side stories

i guess to expound more on my aversion to marriage in fanfic, it icks me when the characterization stops feeling like the characters themselves and the fic starts feeling heteronormative (also sometimes the writing comes across as if the marriage/childbirth "fixes" all those issues, which, it doesn't) and, well, i already kind of deal with the idea of "getting settled down" shoved in my face. it's really not for me. but i do understand why it's comforting to people, smtimes i can indulge in reading in it. but on a bad day, nah, i can't.

anyway, also special shout out to chat fics, they can be fun but idk it reads to me as a way to regurgitate overused incorrect quotes. (please some vines need to be laid to rest. also, can we stop quoting that one copaganda show oh my god)

(art appreciation ask questions, please bug me to rb some underrated fic and art)

[scarlet--wiccan]

hi hope ur having a good day! sorry for the incoming stupid question but I didn't rlly know who else to ask. i plan on writing a mcu fic and wanda&pietro are going to be side characters in it, I don't like the fact that the mcu white washed them so I was planning on writing them as romani+Jewish but in one of your posts you discourage non-Roma to write Romani characters bc we might write them like a stereotype. should I write them as only Jewish or? thanks for reading

No, I would never tell you to erase or omit the fact that these characters are Romani. You should be able to include characters of color in your narrative without intruding on closed cultures or experiences that would be inappropriate for you to speak on.

In the past, I've stated that it's not appropriate for non-Romani people to write first-hand about Romani culture, community and upbringing. To that end, I would discourage anyone who is writing original fiction from using Romani characters as primary or POV protagonists. That doesn't mean you should never include Romani characters, however, rather than aiming for "authentic representation," you should focus on being aware of the social and historical contexts that apply to those characters and their circumstances. You can develop a sense of where a person comes from, what their family does, what kind of challenges they've faced, and things like that without digging into stuff like culture and customs. That may limit the scope of what you can represent-- you're not going to be writing about life inside a traditional community, for example-- but that's okay. You're just going to have to leave it to us to share those stories, if and when we choose.

With existing characters like Wanda and Pietro, it's tough because there are already so many voyeuristic and stereotypical depictions of their upbringing and their community in the canon. My goal has always been to sort through that material and identify the parts that are truthful or informative, and share them with proper context so that other fans can develop a better understanding of what these characters represent. I'm very happy to answer more specific questions about that, if you have any.

I don't know what the plot of your fanfic is, or how closely its going to hew to the M C U, but if you can do the research and figure out an appropriate, accurate way to fit European Romani characters into that setting, then more power to you. Personally, I think that those movies, especially the Avengers ones, kinda suck, and there's nothing salvageable about that version of Wanda or Pietro. It's not just that they're white, their story is an overall poor adaptation of the source material, and inserting Romani characters into those roles would actually create really awful, racist optics. These people are HYDRA collaborators, for fuck's sake. I don't think anybody, especially gadje, should be waste their time trying to "fix" the M C U Maximoffs.