#can I write a fixit? yes I can.

[the-blind-assassin-12]

Hi!! I have a maybe weird fruit salad for you 🍍🫐🥝

Hi Kate! Hope you’re having a good week so far! I’m sorry I didn’t get to this sooner - I didn’t get a notification when you sent it (because dumblr) and then yesterday flew by in a span of 10 minutes (aka 24 hours) BUT I’m here now and I happen to believe that no fruit salad is a weird fruit salad. So thank you for my bowl of pineapples, blueberries and kiwis.

🍍What kind of AUs do you like? Are there any AUs you hate or just generally have beef with?

So I used to be a somewhat picky reader when it came to AUs. But lately I’ll give anything a chance - even if it’s something that doesn’t sound like it’s gonna be my thing - because as long as the writing is good and the characterization is done well, any AU can make sense and make a good story.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever read a coffee shop AU, because that used to be one that I’d avoid in my picky days (why? Idk? I love coffee?) but it’s not that I have beef with it anymore I just haven’t gotten around to righting that wrong yet.

I am and always have been a sucker for anything with a magical element, though. Magical, mythological, mystical AUs will always pull me in. Give me witches and monsters and merpeople and powers and abilities and visions and all that jazz.

🫐 What’s your favorite underrated thing in your fandom? (A ship that only you seem to write for, a character there’s almost no fics about, a trope that criminally hasn’t been written yet, etc.)

I think one of the most underrated things in this fandom is when writers take a character who has basically no screen time or canon background and turn them into a fully fleshed character who lives and breathes and loves and has flaws and motivations. It’s the way creators will see a character from a music video or a wine commercial or an SNL skit and make him into a whole man with a whole life. Like the imagination and creativity needed to make something from nothing but scraps?? It’s the Chopped Champions of fanfic. It’s like “okay writers, you’ve got 3 short scenes, 2 lines of dialogue, a pair of glasses and a smirk, create a masterpiece” and then they DO? 🤯

🥝 What’s your favorite trope/AO3 tag to write?

I think the things that I tend to write the most would fall under the umbrella of fix-it fics, because usually what inspires me to write for a character is some kind of tragedy or heartbreak that I want to undo or give context to. That character isn’t dead, he’s actually alive and well. That character isn’t heartbroken and alone, he’s actually in a really healthy relationship with himself and his partner. That character doesn’t have to face his past or future alone, actually he’s got family to support him and a cat to sit on his lap.

[jademight]

Happy birthday to the best Hulk adaption <3

[queermania]

Wait wait wait. Jensen picked the writer who gave Dean a lesbian best friend and made him a nerd to be the show runner for his little fixit fic show? This is amazing!

when you look at robbie's run of episodes (that he wrote specifically, not produced or was the executive story editor on), a very specific version of supernatural and dean starts to emerge and it is insanity-inducing. here's a very brief rundown of the episodes robbie wrote:

slash fiction -swayze always gets a pass -dean singing air supply -"it's like eating self-righteousness' -the creation and introduction of frank devereaux -"applications for sainthood" -dean letting sam go

time after time -"what are you gonna look up more anime or are you strictly into dick now?" -dean being a nerdy little fanboy about eliott ness (and checking out a dude in a uniform but that was probably jacting joices) -dean getting excited about dressing up in period clothing!! -understanding that rufus matters and that family isn't just blood -original sam is milf!bait (and he's into it) truther -actually writing grief in nuanced ways -dean is smart and resourceful actually! -your future is "covered in thick black ooze" (which i know is just a very lucky coincidence but i don't care!)

the girl with the dungeons and dragons tattoo -CHARLIE!!! he gave us charlie. he said "actually what if hardcore fans were cool and fun and GAY and they were dean's new best friend" -charlie/dean/security guard flirting split screen -"she's kinda like the little sister I never wanted." "how does a high-school dropout become one of the brightest minds…" -basically this entire episode is just "be gay, do crime" and i love that for me specifically

bitten -not my favorite episode but as @ilarual says "it's very fun in how it illustrates Robbie's willingness to play with form, since it's all done as found footage" -and as @doctorprofessorsong says it "has the concept of monsters aren’t always bad guys" -and apparently it contains a brokeback reference? my memory of this episode is hovering at around 1% tbh but you get it

larp and the real girl -dressing dean up in little outfits AGAIN -and he likes it!!! -and he likes being a nerd! (dean is getting into it and sam is the one who is unamused mr serious guy!!!!) -and charlie is dean's new best friend! -"belladonna" "the pornstar?" -"did you break up with someone too?" -honestly you already know all of it. this is a fan favorite for a reason. what more can i say about this episode??

goodbye stranger -yes robbie was the first writer to try to give us a destiel love confession -cas practicing killing dean over and over and over and still not being able to do it when it comes down to it -"what broke the connection?" gee i wonder -first episode writing cas and he nailed the sort of unintentional deadpan humor that makes cas so lovable ("would it kill you to watch a movie? read a book?" "a movie, no, but with a book with the proper spells—yeah, it could theoretically kill me.") -"if he's so sketchy then why are you praying to him?" -pizza man reference -"do you really think we can trust megstiel?" (we get both megstiel and jealous!dean) -dean quoting lord of the rings (because he's a nerd! and he reads!) -meg roasting the shit out of sam for the amelia stuff -etc

pac-man fever -charlie reading the carver edlund books -charlie and dean being besties/getting a montage -dean telling charlie that what happened with her parents wasn't her fault/understanding the guilt she feels -"i love you" "i know" -"what about castiel? he seems helpful, and dreamy" -again, putting dean in little outfits -charlie knows how to shoot/aim a gun

slumber party -dorothy!! -oz!!! -look, is this episode cheesy? yes. but it's fun and it's so obviously a love letter to the oz source material and i love that about robbie. he does his research and he commits

first born -cain!!!! -drowley team up!!!!! ("friends. besties, actually." im sorry but drowley means so much to me personally and this is the start of their beautiful bromance) -"this is by far the dumbest idea you've ever had." "yeah, well, it's early" -cas liked pb&js!! jelly, not jam. he found jam unsettling!! -"you have a guinea pig? where?" -"you're a terrible liar?" "that is not true. i once deceived and betrayed both you and your brother." -just. sastiel shenanigans (and hugs!) -"she only asked for one thing." "to stop" -anyway. you get it.

meta fiction -dean and cas phone call smiles!! they LIKE each other -metatron media dump -"what makes a story work? is it the plot, the characters, the text? the subtext? and who gives a story meaning? is the writer? or you?" -i think it's important to note that robbie who wrote gabriel faking his own death -cas noticing something is wrong with dean pretty much instantly and then discovering the mark of cain

fan fiction -i mean. come on. -"although we do explore the nature of destiel in act two." -"you can't spell subtext without s-e-x" -sam being such a younger brother and trolling dean about "destiel" -"BM scene" -dean "you know they're brothers, right?"-ing the w*ncest stuff but just being flustered about the destiel stuff ayyyy -dean casually referencing andrew lloyd webber -"transformative fiction" -"i want you to put as much sub into that text as you possibly can" -dean quoting rent -the samulet is back! -"i have my version, and you have yours." -"he took away our own free will" <- about john!! -THE RETURN OF CHUCK!

there's no place like home -"i forgive you dean" "yeah well i don't" "i know, kinda your move" -"you hurt my friend" -"you lied to me" "you lied to yourself. that's kinda your move." -i mean. robbie just gets it, ya know?

book of the damned -cas being a huge bitch (love that) -sam being the excessively codependent one -cas and charlie get to meet! -found family goodness if only for a little bit!!

angel heart -ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!! -"i got it at the hot topical" (and claire keeping grumpy cat) -no seriously. dean and cas went birthday present shopping together for claire and they did it at a mall -castiel feeling guilt for what he did to the novak family (and amelia recognizing that cas has changed/grown) -"you were both troubled teens. you speak her language." -"bring your daughter to work day" -"i'm saying she might be stronger on her own." which is a controversial line but i think it says something really significant about how dean feels about his childhood "in fact you're not anything to her except a constant reminder of someone that's gone." -mini golf!!!!!! dean and claire bonding!!!! -the introduction of the grigori, a class of angels which may or may not be important at some point -claire roasting the shit out of dean with "you seem pretty old" <3 -"happy birthday. don't shoot me."

baby -do i really need to explain anything about this one? -"okay first of all, never use swayze's name in vain, okay? ever." -"mistakes were made" -dean having a dream about john teaching him to drive but under normal and appropriate circumstances -werepire…. ghoulpyre… -honestly just the whole episde. you know what i'm talking about. the unique perspective. the insight into their day-to-day lives. the moments that live in between.

into the mystic -eileen! my best friend eileen! -dean x mildred otp -remembering sam's lucifer/hell trauma -the whole "follow your heart" speech -"banshees go after the vulnerable, so why'd it go after you?" -dean recognizing there's something off with cas -but really the most important thing here is EILEEN

safe house -bobby and rufus!!!! -i repeat BOBBY AND RUFUS!!!! -"were you ever nice?" "1985. worst year of my life." -robbie just really GETS that this show is more fun when it's not centered entirely on the brothers. -bobby referring to sam and dean as his boys -timey wimey shenanigans -there were some interesting implications in this episode too but i'm losing steam here so i'm gonna let you rewatch and figure it out lol

don't call me shurley -the reveal of chuck as god!!!! -bisexual chuck -dean does sam's laundry (sometimes with beer) -chuck is a shitty egotistical writer -he also plays the guitar and: "i like front row seats. you know, i figured i'd hide out in plain sight." -"i thought if i could show my sister that there was something more than just us, something better than us, then maybe she'd change. maybe she'd stop being… her. but every time I'd build a new world, she'd destroy it." -"the world would still be spinning with demon dean in it but sam couldn't have that though could he?" -"you were gonna choose amara over me."

so. yeah. jensen chose THIS GUY to helm the winchesters. bold move, sir. full respect.

also, this tweet always makes me crack up

one of us! one of us! one of us!

[all-pacas]

i think you're deeply in denial about being a chase/cam shipper or you gotta change your definition of shipping or something. because whatever you're doing here absolutely 100% looks like shipping them. to the untrained eye

in reality i have this very multi long paragraph disclaimer that's too convoluted to even explain but here ya go:

they are my two favorite characters

i like seeing them interact because of this fact

i find their deeply complimentary set of flaws fascinating. i love seeing cameron in a Relationship because she's such a fucking unreliable narrator about herself. i like seeing chase in a relationship because the very concept of "putting someone besides yourself first" is so antithetical to him and the opposite of what he has learned his whole life. i want to put them in a room together. i want cameron to talk at glowing length about her soulmate dead husband and how she watched him die and i want chase to talk about watching his mother die and how much he hates and resents her. i don't know where that conversation would go but i Want It. it's like how i want chase and 13 to talk about murder and redemption together. it is a platonic smashing together of fake people, not about making them kiss

i think they were badly written in the sense that like. there's no writing. they're just together. now they're not. now chase has feelings. do we see them? no. now cameron has feelings. do we see them? no. now they date for three years. as someone who likes writing and narrative this drives me insane because it's so lazy.

i think i could do it better, not in a "because i want to write uwu fixit fanfic where they kiss" way but in a "this sort of writing drives me insane" way. like. huddy was badly written too but it very much existed. cameron and chase are just "oh btw chase fell for her at some point for some reason during fwb." why???? we can handwave but there is NOTHING IN CANON. cameron likes him too! why??? WHO KNOWS

however i also find it annoying when people go "solution: they never dated, we pretend it never happened" because that's ALSO lazy and retcons several years of canon including cameron's exit from the show. including the actual character development chase gets, which i actually do like. i think i'm a rare person who almost prefers late series chase. i like short haired chase. and i don't like the idea of erasing all that canon development just because "uwu i don't like it" (or, more petty, because "uwu i think cameron should have kissed x -- usually house -- so i hate this canon relationship that like it or not did exist")

this ties in to my actual fairly complicated feelings about cameron and how a lot of fandom tends to Girlboss her up in obvious and admirable contrast to her years of reddit-ish character bashing. where i admire the Spirit but deeply dislike this Girlboss characterization.

basically i am a deeply contrary person by nature

so whenever i see this ship i go IT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER, and OUT OF SPITE I WILL DEFEND IT, which is a whole perpetual motion machine of feelings

i honestly could not care less about them kissing. except for the specific episodes where they allude to having a sex life and foreman all but flees the room. i actually care quite a lot about that, i think it's super funny. so in that context (in front of foreman, to troll him) i want them to make out.

i've gone and read old ffn stories from when the show was airing that featured them as a couple. like from true fans and believers of the ship. i disagree with almost all of it and think usually cameron and usually chase are ooc in these stories. but in different ways. this also triggers my spite

so sure. yes. i ship it. probably,

[uselessmicrowave]

Thunderhoof, Fix-it and maybe Grimlock (All RID15) romantic headcanons with g/n human? It can be nsfw

FIXIT HHHHGHRGRR 💕💕💕

sfw headcanons

Thunderhoof

Pet names are a must from him. Sugar, babe/baby, hon, toots, ect.

He’ll need to take some measurements of you… for clothing… Thunderhoof refuses to write these numbers down, which gives him an excuse to handle you like he would a delicate object. He’ll ‘accidentally’ touch your ass in the process.

Fixit

When he doesn’t have important tasks to do, he’ll follow you around like a lost puppy.

If you pick him up, or are able to and carry him over a particularly rocky patch of ground? He is smitten. Blushing and clinging onto your shirt.

Hugs your mid-section because he’s smol. It’s adorable.

Grimlock

Will shift to his bot mode just to get kisses from you.

Half of the time you spend with him is either you on his shoulder or in his servos.

Grimlock runs hotter than most of the bots on the team, making him just amazing to cuddle with. Like a warm blanket.

nsfw headcanons

Thunderhoof

Remember those measurements I was talking about earlier? Half of those measurements are for lingerie sizing.

A switch who prefers the top.

Thunderhoof is not at all careful with you. At all.

So fuckin loud. And so many rounds.

Does the bare minimum of aftercare and then falls into recharge.

Fixit

He’s so sweet and polite. Will ask if it’s ok before touching any part of you. He’ll stumble over almost every word, but he will ask.

Loves to be given instructions n’ praise. But don’t expect any words from him because he’ll do nothing but whine. Also loves for you to be on top.

Every time feels like a first time with Fixit, taking it slow and making sure that you’re comfortable.

Will last at the most two long rounds, but if you need anything in between or after he’ll take the best care of you.

Grimlock

Another very gentle mech.

Grimlock will not catch on if you simply imply you want to interface with him. You need to pull his faceplates in front of your face and tell him you want his spike in you.

He’s just so warm. Everything about him, his servos, chassis, glossa, his spike-

Wouldn’t ever tell you, but he really wants to shove his glossa in your mouth… and for you to touch and caress his denta. (yes his denta, not dermas)

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (21-27 Apr 2024)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😊 rounding third, sliding home. (througheden) - 68K, enjoyable steddie AU with pro baseball player Steven & massage therapist Eddie

🥰 Daddy Issues (His Boy Next Door #39) (RJ Moray) - reread; just a big fan of Jack & Channon & their ongoing story!

🥰 Common Ground (His Boy Next Door #40) (RJ Moray) - LOVE that Jack & Ewan are finding some common ground - really love that this series is showing how two people who don't particularly care for each other can work to find connection for the sake of the people they DO love

😍 ACT-verse series (ann_anotherthing) - truly outstanding series about middle-aged Steddie getting a 2nd chance romance after their first one flamed out 25 yrs earlier. Full series is 117K but it starts with A Certain Type (54K), which is a fully complete story with satisfying HEA - the rest are flashback fics or wonderfully indulgent epilogue/vignettes, full of fluffy and delicious porn. The author confesses to basically turning them into her middle-aged OCs but 1) I think her projections of their characters in middle-age with these particular life experiences seem reasonably plausible and more importantly 2) I don't fucking care because this story and these characters (main & supporting) are AMAZING.

💖💖 +227K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

When you stop being a ghost in a shell (Bittersweet_in_Boston) - MCU: Stucky, 12K - Hydra finds Steve in 1952 & then they have The Asset and The Captain. Except they really should have known better than to ever let them see one another.

Where the Sunflowers Grow (AidaRonan) - Stranger Things: Buckingham, 30K - incredible Chrissy recovery fic with bonus Buckingham. Just. So Fucking Good.

Early Returns (rageprufrock) - Inception: Arthur/Eames, 15K - fabulous AU where Arthur's an editor who has everything on lock, dammit & Eames is a reporter who wants to mess him up. Also the newsroom is nothing but a high-pressure high school when it comes to gossip.

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Murdoch Mysteries - s16, e14-20

Um, Actually - s9, e5; s1, e3, 4, 6-20

Game Changer - s6, e6

Smartypants - s1, e1

Ghosts (US) - s3, e9

D20: Fantasy High: Junior Year - "Untapped Rage" (s21, e16)

D20: Adventuring Party - "Honor the Cock" (s16, e16)

Dead Boy Detectives - s1, e1-3

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #13: Of the Gentle Sea

Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - Fireside Chat for WWW ep13 "Of the Gentle Sea"

Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #14: There is an Ocean Vaster Than This One

Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - Fireside Chat for WWW ep14 "There is an Ocean Vaster Than This One"

99% Invisible - The Power Broker #04: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

What Next: TBD - The Internet Archive Endangered

⭐ The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Tree Week: A Tasty Tale about Meyer Lemons

⭐ The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Tree Week: Love Letters

The Sporkful - Priya Krishna Writes The Kids Cookbook She Wished She'd Had

The Allusionist - 193. Word Play 3: Lemon Demon

WikiHole - Cicadas…LIVE (with Matt Rogers, Carl Tart and Claudia O'Doherty)

In Defense of Fandom - Season 2 Episode 3: Fanfiction fixit data

Vibe Check - Her Mediocrity Cannot Touch Me

Code Switch - How Jewish Communities Are Divided Over Support of Israel

Short Wave - Beavers Can Help With Climate Change. So How Do We Get Along?

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Tree Week: Oh, the places you will go …. to see these notable trees

⭐ Decoder Ring - Making Real Music for a Fake Band

Ologies with Alie Ward - Columbidology (PIGEONS? YES) Part 2 with Rosemary Mosco

All Songs Considered - Cruel songs for the cruelest month

Pop Culture Happy Hour - What Makes A Good Sex Scene?

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Tree Week: Killer Trees with Mary Roach

Shedunnit - Agatha Christie's Many Houses

⭐ 99% Invisible #579 - Towers of Silence

Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - Fireside Chat: Sound and Music Talkback Extravaganza: The Sound and the Fury: Music is All Around Us Volume 1

Dear Prudence - My love language with friends is touch, but it makes my partner jealous. Help!

Worlds Beyond Number - Fireside Chat for Chapter 1 of The Wizard the Witch and the Wild One

⭐ Endless Thread - The Jackie Show

Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - Fireside Chat for LEVELING UP (1 to 2)

Today, Explained - Honey, We Saved the Bees

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - Renée Elise Goldsberry

⭐ Hit Parade - The Bridge: What Made Them Beautiful

History Is Sexy - Episode #86 - Napoleon III

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

'80s Pop Party

Village People radio

[avelera]

Been struggling a bit IRL lately but I can feel my writing energy returning with the coming autumn and I’ve got about a dozen stories at the 4/5 mark of complete if I can just FOCUS on getting them done.

So I’m back again to ask which one you want me to update first? Keep in mind they’re all Sandman/Dreamling.

(If nothing else, the full list should make you realize why I WEEP to not have anything to publish. Cumulatively, all these have probably at least 100k words between them and yes they’re all ALMOST complete!)

[ofstormsandfire]

do u have any zelpha thoughts

I have many zelpha thoughts! They're sadly a little harder to pin down and write about than the revalink thoughts, but by god do they exist. In many ways, they're very similar to each other—both are princesses with inherited(?) magical power, both play an important role in the fight against Calamity Ganon—but in many others, they very much aren't. Rhoam, of course, is the guy who pushed his daughter so hard away from her interests that he very well might have made it harder to unlock her sealing powers and doomed himself in the process, because OH YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO DO ANYTHING FUN EVER. Sure, he regretted that in the end if you look at his diary, but—and this is crucial—Zelda had no way of knowing that.

And then we have Dorephan, who didn't want his daughter to pilot a Divine Beast at all because he was afraid (justifiably, in Breath of the Wild) that it would get her killed. I won't get into my feelings regarding Age of Calamity here, but while a lot of it is obviously not remotely canon to what happened in BOTW, I don't think it would be unreasonable to assume that Mipha promised a similar thing, that she would come back (a promise that she couldn't keep, because she died) in that timeline.

I think that Zelda would try very, very hard not to be bitter about that, given that Mipha is literally one of the nicest people she's ever met—but she would be bitter, regardless of how well she hid it.

Also very possible that, given that we never see a hint of Mipha's mother in the picture, she's dead too? So. More parallels.

(...I really, really should write more of my totk zelpha fixit. Because. God. It lets me delve into those things, and also the fact that both of them are so very traumatized and so very young.)

I'm grossly oversimplifying a lot of things here, sorry, but. Tl;dr yes I have zelpha thoughts and I wish there was more fic for them that didn't just have them as the B pairing to revalink. Because I love revalink too, don't get me wrong! But I'd love to see more lesbians. The world can always use more lesbians.

Strictly speaking, sapphics would be a better term given that Mipha is well-established to canonically have a crush on Link, and Zelda gives me bisexual vibes, but. Semantics.

Thanks for the ask!

[sanguinarysanguinity]

Tagged by @verecunda, thank you! I've lost track of who has been tagged, so please jump in if you'd like to play!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

176, give or take a few that are in currently anonymous collections.

2. What's your total AO3 wordcount?

737,590

3. What fandoms do you write for?

My current main fandoms are the Hornblower novels and The Flight of the Heron. But I also write one-offs as please me, either for exchange assignments or pinch-hits, or because I got bit by a plot bunny. (Yes, plot-bunnies are carnivorous!) This year, I've written for Hornblower (novels and TV), The Flight of the Heron, Vokosigan Saga, Elementary, ACD Holmes, Leverage, A Rip Through Time, and Wild Things (1998).

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Sincerity of Dust (Mycroft/Lestrade - Sherlock TV) Etta Candy's Last Stand (Etta Candy/Wonder Woman) Three Continents and Many Nations (Elementary gen; Joan Watson has broken hearts around the world) Baker Street Papas (Holmes/Watson, kidfic) Foundations (Elementary gen; Bell-centric fixit AU)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, because I was taught to write thank you notes. Also, because sometimes I can lure a commenter into a conversation, which is always fun -- and sometimes they even become a friend.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Heh. *rubs hands gleefully* I have a little sideline in fics that made people cry. Let me show you some of my favorites!

The Golden Sand Bush/Hornblower Once again a prisoner of the French, Hornblower awaits his execution.

Cock on the Right background Bush/Hornblower/Maria For as long as he bears them, Bush's tattoos protect him faithfully.

Telling the Bees Elementary gen Sherlock returns from Switzerland, but Watson does not.

Brandy and Soda Holmes & Watson; Mary/Watson (7 Per-Cent Solution) Holmes returns to Baker Street.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oh, fuck if I know. I've been accused more than once of writing only bittersweetly happy endings. But here, have a story in which Horatio Hornblower, that sad wet miserable bastard, is simply happy for a day:

Nothing So Much Worth Doing

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not often. Earlier this year a commenter objected to a pwp being a pwp. Which. Dude. As a later commenter replied (so I didn't have to! blessings on their house!), the story was exactly what it said in the tags and summary, so take some personal responsibility and don't click on what you don't want to read.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes. Slash, femslash, threesomes; vanilla and kinky; realistic and fantastical; first times and well-seasoned olds. I haven't yet written anything that would bring the antis after me, but that's the kind of thing that I'd put under a different pseud anyway.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Absolutely. Probably Elementary x Bee-Man Comics: THE BEST BEE FIC ON MARS.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I had a couple requests this year for permission to translate a story (both granted), but I don't know the current status of either project.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

@phoenixfalls and I have a story we've been co-writing; every once in a while we talk about finishing it. I'd very much like to; I think it's great fun.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Pass.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have a Twin Peaks x Buffy crossover that I quite like, but which I am extremely unlikely to ever finish. Every now and then I think of it wistfully, though.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Well-organized and precise prose, and strong characterizations.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Inelegant prose, and wobbly characterizations.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

An insidious trap, if your characters speak the other language better than you do. (With the exception of William Bush in French, they always do! Why do I write all these classically-educated assholes?)

My usual solution is to paraphrase the dialogue through my pov character, at whatever their level of comprehension is. After all, that's what the reader needs to know: what the pov character understands. Paraphrasing also circumvents the wild card that some of my readers will know the language and some won't -- this way, no reader has an advantage and no reader is left scrambling for a translation.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Ask Dr. Eldritch! a webcomic written by the talented evannichols.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Whichever one someone just left a lovely comment on.

[mjsakurea]

On Guardian and Creativity (we could all use to be a little more handwavy sometimes)

I’ve been ruminating for some time on why I find the Guardian fandom one of the most creative ones I’ve been in during my long tenure on Tumblr and other fandom spaces. After much thought (and some encouragement on Discord *waves to everyone there*) I decided to write out my feelings in a little bit of an analytical essay meta. So, I will begin this reflection under the cut

But the TL;DR of it can be summarized in this meme:

So, Guardian. A fairly small fandom with  just over 4,000 English-language fics in the general tag on AO3 (as of October 2022). Although the show aired in 2018, I only started watching earlier this year and quickly fell into a deep hyperfixation. I devoured every fic I could get my hands on like Ye Zun devours his enemies (I know, bad joke, sorry). I can wholeheartedly say I have encountered some of the most creative fics I have ever had the honor of reading--fics I return to over and over and over again and new ones that completely blow me away. So, just how does one small fandom manage to contain so much creativity? I would like to point to some reoccurring fandom AO3 tags to explain why.

1) Handwavy-ness 👋

Let’s be honest here, the ending of the Guardian drama is painful, agonizing, brutal, all of the above. If anyone walked away from it without tears falling down their face they’re a stronger person than me. So, what can one do when canon throws you into the pit of despair and kicks you while you’re down? Look for fix-it fics of course! And oh boy does Guardian have plenty. The generic Fix-It tag has 308 fics in it, and the Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies tag has 137, undoubtedly with some overlap. But this is not what I want to focus on; I would like to draw your attention to some of the tags I have collected below:

[ID: a series of screenshots of AO3 tags that read in order, handwavy post-canon, (handwavy everybody lives), hand-wavey fixit, Handwavey Post Canon, assume a handwavy fix, But Hand-Wavy Fixed, (the handwavey fix-it version), (of the handwavy everybody lives kind), Hand wavy post canon happy ending, handwave-y post-canon, (just a bit of handwaving), handwaving the canon timeline, and handwaving canon events. End ID]

These are all just from the first 21 pages (aka 10%) when sorted by kudos, and some repeat multiple times within that. Sometimes you don’t want to have to do the work to fix the tangled mess of the ending, it is a lot of work! I have seen it done and it is insanely admirable, but it no doubt takes a lot of brain power that my two brain cells just cannot keep up with. So herein lies the Guardian fandom’s alternative--just handwave it! Nothing is stopping you from writing a post canon fic and just never explaining how we got here. All you need to know is that everyone is alive and happy. I have been in other fandoms where this technique would be questionable at best, but not here. There is such an overarching acceptance for this attitude of handwavy-ness and I think this is a large part of where the abundance of creativity comes from. But let’s also look at some more tags.

2) Dixing powers can do what they want

Although we can all laugh at how the show turned ghosts into mutant aliens with dark energy powers, I for one love this choice, the dark energy powers especially! They add a completely new avenue for creative freedom. The Dixingren powers in the show that come up during various cases are so random and contrived, there is no judgement whatsoever for making a character in a fic have the most random and contrived dark energy power either. We have a guy in canon whose power is literally “hardening the lower body” for goodness sake! On top of that, we have a main character who can learn any power he sees. ANY. Including the lower body hardening one if he so chooses to. The amount of options this gives fic writers? Unparalleled I tell you! You can give a Dixingren OC any power you want and make Shen Wei learn any power you want. Fic authors in this fandom have already taken full advantage of this! Cue part two of tags in the top 21 pages by kudos:

[ID: a series of screenshots of AO3 tags that read in order, Dixing powers do whatever I want them to, Dixing powers work how I want them to, Handwavy Dixing plot device, Dark energy does what I want it to, completely contrived Dixing plot devices, Dixing powers do what I want them to, dixing artifacts do what I want them to do, and weird dark energy powers. End ID]

I have seen similar handwavy logic applied to the Hallows in fics too, because they are also the most random and contrived things in existence, but I wasn’t able to encounter any tags for those, so I will not get into it here as much. 

In any case, already with just the freedom of handwavy-ness and Dixing powers, the Guardian fandom already has such a big playground to mess around in! It is absolutely no wonder why Guardian fandom creators are some of the most creative people out there. I am so happy to be a part of this amazing fandom and I hope it stays active for many more years to come. Current and future Guardian fandom friends, go forth and be as handwavy as you want! You have a permit to do so!

Thanks for reading

[breadandblankets]

20 questions writer meme.

thank you @crimsonrainseekingflower for tagging me!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

26

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

101,970

3. What fandoms do you write for?

MXTX (SVSSS, TGCF), Fallout, Batfam, Bungou Stray Dogs, and i just started writing for S & D Tier

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

the window to the soul (and other such fallacies): scumplane fixit/romance told through weekly tea breaks i fell in (to a burning ring of fire): moshang fast burn strangers to married in under 5 hours a conversation i just can't have tonight: moshangliu chronic pain au pt 1 extreme hurt very little comfort and all this devotion I never knew at all: tgcf he xuan gets Hugged!!!! Agenda!!!! this has baby ghost kings and cuddles and v strong XL til the morning when it's time for us to go: msl chronic pain au pt 3 shangliu dates extreme fluff very little hurt, except for mbj he's suffering

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! usually!! i just like to let people know that i am appreciating their appreciation.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

thats fucking Hard cause i put some of them svsss boys thru some Shit, probably life is a current which cannot be fought which is less a fic and more of an archived twitter thread in which SQQ gets angsty drafts of PIDW and are trying desperately to stop it only for it all to go horribly wrong and everyone dies! it ends with cumplane! cause im evil! i should reformat that into something readable tbh

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

besides my hugging ghost kings agenda uhhh probably my dear atlas (let me hold the sky for you) which is a tianlang-jun/yue qingyuan crushing (like the cuddling method)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

yep! i delete it

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

yes i do! any kind really, ive got everything from trans lesbian threeways to getting dommed by an actual literal computer tower (and a soft spot for tianyue which features a penis haver using a strap on)

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

only one! its ongoing and a tgcf/dc fusion in which jason todd comes back as a ghost and gets trained by HC and HX (with secret guest appearance from BWX if anyone is paying attention ;) ): so i can find someone to rely on (and run to them)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

no? i dont think so

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope but i have had someone make a podfic!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

if you count twitter threads? or someone coming up with an idea and i expand on it? otherwise nope

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

impossible choice but uhhh idk maybe moshang? maybe?

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

in the morrows, good mourning a moshang serial killer/mortician au, unless i get some surge of inspiration its pretty much dead in the water (unless someone wants to finish it 🥺🙏)

16. What are your writing strengths?

dialogue/voices

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

whatever the fuck they're doing During the dialogue

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

i mean i do my best, i prefer to have it translated in line

19. First fandom you wrote for?

doctor who by hand in a notebook lmao

20. Favorite fic you've written?

recently ghost jason! other than that if someone would only want to be sweet and kind (nsfw)

Tagging: @livingmeatloaf @owldork1998 and anyone else who wants in!!!

[vyther16]

writing wip ask game

tagged by @curiosity-killed on main; ty!!!

RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

i don't even know how many wips i have yet but i can already say i will not be tagging that many people <3

Misc Fandom:

100k drabble prompts (multifandom, mostly OP)

kiss of death au (PotC)

lang dianxia soft smut (The Wolf)

love handel is surprisingly relevant (Phineas & Ferb/Milo Murphy's Law/ Scooby Doo crossover)

nttsmmp4 (Kinnporsche the Series)

A Journey to Love

enemies to married to friends with a side of yuan lu

forced politicking siblingship

lin chen is sick of dying men (NiF crossover)

qz lives (but no one else does)

Joy of Life

Groupwatch Countryside Hospital

yby imprisonment

yet another faking of death in the house

One Piece

elizabeth swann in a straw hat (PotC crossover)

Nami & Sanji

regent!sora

sanji & chopper make cookies

(chopper) some of those physical processes

(franky)

(jinbe)

(luffy)

Percy Jackson

bianca memory loss fic

luke fic ch 3

luke fic pt 2: hoo edition

Till the End of the Moon

modern au

puppy dog x his two abused aro spouses

time travel speedrun fixit

ybc & ttj learn to be human

Wednesday

Ah Beng/Judith (with @myhamartiaishubris)

weyler batb au from dms

you cannot kill me in a way that matters (yes the mushroom quote)

Little Siblings (thirteen beware (it's the devil himself)) (has 14 docs for 14 chapters but is all the same wip)

Time Travel (Joy is the Loveliest Number) (has 2 unpublished docs for unpublished chapters)

Original Work

all that's left of yesterday (fanuni)

Ink Noodling (fanuni)

Sarathae & Elandorr convos (fanuni)

Wen Yinhong's Halfway Home for Wayward Assassins

half a pillow gone cold

6 swans retelling

aight that's 53, without going into my abandoned works folder, which is not so much abandoned works so much as works i haven't looked at in over two years and so have moved to a different folder so they don't haunt me as easily

anyway, no pressure tagging @jianghuchild, @whirlybirdwhat, @toppingjeffsatur, @rocknghorss, @iamwestiec

[accidentally-in-fictional-love]

Sooo I finally got to read the Simon fic, and it was so good! You made me warm up to him more and understand him a little better. It was a nice way to save him too, I like that the protagonist isn't this perfect individual, they get jealous, a lil bit stalky, which quite honestly is very relatable and realistic. Couple questions:

Do you think there's a character that is beyond saving? Denham, Willy, Dave from Heavy (lol jk) Is there hope for everyone?

Do you plan on writing for characters that have died and if so, will you come up with a way to bring them back or have the story take place before the death or alternate universe?

Every time I get love for my fics with one of the lesser loved characters my heart grows three sizes and I want everyone to know this Q//w//Q This answer got long so I'm putting it behind a cut, I've never gotten to answer something like this before other than my Simon one from yesterday so this was a lot of fun to think about! 💗

Going into writing readers I honestly thought I'd just be writing me over and over, but as I do more of them I'm so glad that it's easy to fit someone different into whatever role the character needs them to be, which is so different from my usual stuff since I'm very used to fitting the plot around purely existing characters, or my own ocs, and getting to write up someone new who can mesh with these guys while also having that bit of me and what I hope are bits of the people who read them is so incredibly refreshing and a constant challenge I welcome 😊

I feel like some are beyond saving, but only because I have a horrible fear of getting attacked for wanting to find a way to save the unsaveable just because I'm into villains and think they're hot lmao

It's a challenge for sure, but I don't see myself being able to do any villain redemptions for Denham or Willy or even Realtor Dave since they're so surface level evil and love the hell outta it (even though my villain-lovin ass can probably still give them fully fledged proper backstories oop), unlike Simon or Kyle Slade or Logan Reeves, who all have short parts and did very bad things but also have peeks into how they got there, and I can always work with that.

I love doing deep dives and finding out how a character in the present got to where they are, figure out where they can go when they miss that One Event that made them a villain, and doing it with DD's roles has been so much fun since he loves playing rounded out characters and is always adding so much to them so they're not Just Evil, even if we get a few who're exactly that just for funsies hehe

This is why Gensan is such an interesting character to me despite The Big Flaw, because I see him get reduced to only that when there's a ton that made him that way. I'll never ship with him, the super rare character I don't since DD lures me in that easily, but I can't hate him either, and that's just the honest truth because he's so much more than Uh Oh Plot Twist because DD's such an amazing writer. This movie and Animals stuck with me the most after I watched them, I was just thinking about them for like a solid week afterwards, constantly turning over what I'd just seen in my mind whenever I stopped thinking of other things and putting those early pieces together so I could see why he reacted that way, or did what he did, and I'd love to try and watch it again soon and catch all the stuff I missed the first time.

And then there's Cam, who just really fuckin sucks lmao he's the absolute worst, 0 stars, kick to the balls, what an asshole 😂

As for characters who died, of course! Two of my biggest loves are Abner and Wojchek, and I'm also madly in love with Bob now as well, so they'll all have fully fledged fixits with my selfship sona Addy as I get back to all her plots, Abner first and foremost oh my god my heart I love him so much he needs to be alive and happy forever 😭

Outside of her, yes absolutely I'll find ways to save them for my readers, their canon endings will not stop me QwQ A lot of them don't deserve their ends with or without redemptions if they're a villain (looking at you Dwight you maniac I love you), and definitely not if they're good people who're just in the wrong place at the wrong time like Lonny or Lester or Coco now that I've finally watched BR2049. I'll probably mostly stick to saving them before their deaths rather than bringing them back or delving into aus (apart from the starting au of having the reader in their lives lol) since those kinda ideas can get away from me fast and start series, and I wanna save all the big series for my boys the Three River Phoenixes and all of Addy's plots~

This is where I'd love to get more requests, since I'm still mainly writing for who I love, so getting that random challenge to fix or save someone evil or who died before any real character of theirs was established would be hard but I know I'd have a lot of fun with them 😊💗

[afaramir]

20 questions for writers!

tagged by @emyn-arnens literally over a month ago and im finally getting to it now lol much love thank you for continuing to tag me in things even though im the worst at doing them sometimes.

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 65 (15 of them are under my archive pseud though lol)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 265,381

3. What fandoms do you write for? actively writing for lotr, pacific rim, my secret little marvel rarepair

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? these are so funny they're all my avatar work from before i remade on this blog. well throwback i guess. they're still dear to me.

open arms, atla sokka coming out to his dad

earth system history, atla sokka/zuko college au where zuko is an earth scientist

[redacted h*rry p*tter work from 2016]

love's not for show, atla bato/hakoda sokka creates a master plan to get his dad and bato to admit that theyre dating but they're NOT

knife loves heart, human loves human, james bond 007/q post-spectre fixit fic (my Only 00q and possibly also my only fixit fic?)

5. Do you respond to comments? i try so so so hard but the executive function that allows me to say anything coherent only comes around every so often lol

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? a couple contenders for this one but if we're talking strictly the ending probably i'm not leaving (til we make it home) (exu calamity patia & laerryn / patia & the ring of brass exploring her relationship with love and loneliness and finally being free to express how much she loves her friends only in the last hours of her life and dying happy for it).

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? also a couple contenders for this one but i feel like many of them are tinged with not a small amount of melancholy. so we are going with a big throwback to sun through open windows (atlok mako/wu plotless little morning routines fic that is about nothing in particular but also about realizing you have everything your younger self thought you would never have).

8. Do you get hate on fics? not in a long long time (like probably 7-8 years) thank god!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? yes although none of it is published (yet). what kind? idk man whatever im horny about this month. ok but for serious. really been into character developing smut. do u know what i mean. i’m telling you something about who each of these people are and how they view each other through the way they fuck. this probably says quite a lot about me

10. Do you write crossovers? i'm not much for the kind where characters from different franchises Interact, but i am partial to taking some guys and translating them to a different setting. ah to put characters in a situation and watch as the fundamental core of their being stays the same....

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? hope not lol

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? not that i'm aware of!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? yes! we have not finished it but it's absolutely CORE thesis-level influential on my entire psyche. even if we never get back to it i'll think about it until the day i die and that is not an exaggeration.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? of ALL TIME? i straight up dont know if i can answer this one. ALL TIME???? my long-term emotional permanence is NOT good enough and my recency bias is too strong for this. ok i think the only way i can answer this is with the ship that has gotten the deepest into my psyche and my soul. which is yancytendo pacific rim. they. affect me. on a level i will probably never be able to fully explain. the 'giving a guy built only to be a thematic device a personality and a history and deep gut-wrenching grief' of it all. the 'you are in love with a guy who is doomed by the narrative and despite your best efforts it means that he is a personification of all the grief you carry inside of you' of it all. yancy becket you will live forever in my heart tendo choi you will ALWAYS be famous. augh. yeah i picked right

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

hmm probably something about the way you look tonight, my mallorytanner thesis statement fic, the genesis of which was genuinely a life-altering event to me. i was listening to the titular elton john song walking home from a general chemistry exam in the snow and i was struck so violently with An Image for truly the first time in my life. truly not ONCE before that moment had that happened to me. this was in my freshman year of college this fic has existed in various forms for going on FIVE YEARS. will it ever be done. GOD i fucking hope so. i actually do hold out hope for that one.

the one i am actually hopeless on ever finishing is orogenesis, the sprawling expanded stemverse pianjeong backstory au fic. the whole structure of it is quite clear in my head actually. i just didn't have the life experience to create the plot structure to go with the emotional beats when it generated itself in my mind in 2020-21 and now that i DO have it the problem is that the inciting event is incredibly clear to me and yet bears too close of a resemblance to. personal events and horrors. for me to ever finish it! i'll think about it forever though. creating and writing that au changed my life for real it was the longest thing i'd ever written and the best when i wrote it and it's still very close to my heart.

16. What are your writing strengths? characterization and character development baby. evocative use of metaphor in descriptions of both character and setting. lavish description.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? PLOT. cant create that from my brain and i rarely attempt it. i have plenty of stuff to write about that does not require it. relatedly not great at worldbuilding.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? generally don't do it much except for a stray word or two. i don't mind reading it though! tolkien fic writers who translate full sentences you are god's strongest soldiers.

19. First fandom you wrote for? ough this one will be embarrassing. entering the archive pseud. wait is it also tolkien that's funny. life is a circle in some ways. this is first fandom on my ao3 account btw. the VERY first one i wrote for...i will take that knowledge to the grave.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

ah i feel like my answer for this one changes every time but i can't help it, i love many of my darlings equally. this time im giving the spotlight to life holds onto you, my chris pike & jim kirk post-star trek 2009 fic that is a few thousand words of 'what if your sort of son feared that you thought he was taking everything you ever wanted from you and he is right that you have thought that but you are learning how wrong you are.' i cried in the university library writing it and reread it recently and remembered it was good. recency bias baby

tagging the usual suspects @potatoesandsunshine @aaronstveit

[gjdraws]

Hi hi! For your ask meme 🤩 🍬

Have a good day! 🐸🌸

HELLO SORRY I THOUGHT I HAD POSTED THIS ONE

🤩 What led to your interest in the fandom?

Uhhh the current fandom would probably be one foot in CK and half a foot in XMFC I guess. CK was hilarious - I did not want to watch it bc it looked like a soulless cash grab. Which, pandemic and I was like what the hell - and then turns out it was actually quite cool (more or less lmao). XMFC is some people repeatedly posting cherik on my dash and 10 years past me arose with a vengeance

🍬 Do you write for multiple fandoms? If yes, what is your favorite fic of yours for each fandom?

UuhUhhhhh can one nominate older stuff yes one can i said so

Naruto: Breathing underwater

Cobra Kai: Poison Tree

Merlin: Et Sic Incipimus Iterum

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean fixit

[ladykf-writes]

LadyKF's Fic Update(s)!

So, been a while since I updated here... I wanted to let you guys know the upcoming plans now that I'm starting to write again.

I am literally right now working on CH 82 of A Second Chance at Family, the FFXV fixit fic where Eos is saved and the dark future averted more or less by the power of love, mostly familial and platonic with a small dash of romantic. It's plot, politics, lore and headcanon heavy, so be prepared for a RIDE if you start reading it.

It also only has a few more chapters left to write before it's done, which means there's a good chance I will have it done by the end of the month. Camp NaNo is next month, however, and even with ASCAF done I will need another fic to work on.

Believe it or not, I'm in the process of rereading Dog Whistle with full intention of figuring out where to go and writing more with the goal of that fic being the next one for me to finish. I've matured as a writer since 2021 and I expect that will show, so get ready. Obviously if I finish it I will start posting again. I will also start posting if I have a good backlog of finished chapters. REGARDLESS! More fic is coming. That's a promise.

For those who don't know, DW is actually from a batch of soulmate prompts from @snaccksels, who gave me a prompt that led to a sharp canon divergence a mere three weeks after the Nibelheim incident. Much politics, much involvement of "minor" characters, lots of sass and banter and a lot of big flashy fights and action.

When I finish DW, be it sooner or later, I intend to watch the Iron Man series and the first Avenger's movie to get Tony's voice down again and Tony & Bruce's dynamics - I may also watch Ragnarok if I need to nail down Bruce's voice. Why?

Because the next fic in line is It's Not A Game. Yes, it's a bit down the road, but I know there's some fans out there looking forward to it so I wanted to let you know.

The Series, specifically the long FFXV one - Stand By Me (Let Us Defy Fate) - will be picked up either when INAG is done or when November brings NaNoWriMo around. Currently on part three, there will be at least another three parts, and two long ones at that.

Obviously, there's other ones too, such as the OT5 MMO AU, Party of Five, the Threads of Fate semi-novelization, Dewprism: Journey to the [Relic], and the FFVII / FFXV crossover To Save the Future once I can focus on it again and @wandererriha and I both have revisited our plot.

Did you hear about one of the fics you were looking forward to? Let me know in comments, an ask, or a reblog how you feel!