#director's commentary for fic is something I always loved so

[starcrossedxwriter]

Masterlist

Here is the master list for all my fics! The date at the bottom is the last time it was updated (I try to keep it as updated as possible)

Thank YOU for reading, liking, reblogging, and commenting! I appreciate and LOVE the reception and feedback and commentary more than you could ever know - it fuels me and keeps the inspiration flowing!

All stories have a face claim. However, with all my OCs, I encourage folks to see themselves in the story! Also I love angst BUT all my stories are happily ever afters so enjoy the emotional rollercoasters knowing everyone'll be ok lol Thank you again for reading! Love y'all!

MBJ Fics:

Built for Love Series - Michael B Jordan x Famous OC Reader Charlotte Elsbeth Jordan

Series Summary: Charlotte Bennett was not looking for love when she moved to LA and landed her first role in Creed. Quite the opposite actually. However, her costar, Michael B Jordan, makes her question everything she once believed possible for herself and her future. As she builds a life and relationship with him, ghosts from her past threaten to destroy it all.

Series Warnings: Violence, Mentions of past experiences with DV, Angst, Mature Sexual Content

** SMUT

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6**) (Interlude**) (7**) (8) (9) (10) (11**) (12)

One-shots:

Completely random one shots that follow Charlotte & MBJ as they navigate the world as Hollywood’s Black power couple. Whether it be stardom, their work, parenthood, or relationship drama, the Jordans are building a love that will last a lifetime.

Protective

Oscar Night Part 1** (Part 2**)

Bleeding Through (1)

Falling Apart (1) (2)

Date Night**

Asks:

Nicknames

GQ Couples Quiz

Wicked Fantasies - MBJ x Black OC

Moodboard: coming soon!

Series Summary: Raven’s life, as of late, was one unexpected turn after another. It seemed as though every time she got a break and could get her head above water, something came tumbling to knock her back down. As she struggles to get her foot in the door of LA’s call girl scene to make extra money, she stumbles upon her big break: Michael B. Jordan, Hollywood’s most famous, talented, and notorious actor, director, and playboy. One night of pleasure for him would solve many of her continuously mounting financial problems. However, an unlucky trip to the hospital and an ill-timed flash of a paparazzi’s camera snag her the proposition of a lifetime, one that would solve all her problems and allow her to live out her most wicked fantasies with the sexist man alive. However, she forgot one cardinal rule: fantasies and pretend never last and reality would always come around eventually. 

Warnings: Mature sexual content (18+), HEAVY Dom/Sub storyline (the whole nine), this is for the kinky girlsssssss, angst

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11.1)

Asks:

Late Nights

MBJ Requests:

A Love That Never Fades (MBJ x OC)

Erik Killmonger Fics

Unbreakable - Erik Killmonger x Black OC

Moodboard: Coming soon!

Series Summary: Naja, the younger sister of the Queen of Wakanda, hated few things. And at the top of that shortlist: Prince N’Jadaka. Well, if she were honest, he was the entirety of the list. Once destined to be a princess of Wakanda, Naja was the picture of kindness and grace. Now, she is hailed as Wakanda’s most fearless, dangerous, and reclusive war dog. After more than a decade of putting as much distance as possible between her and the life she almost had, Naja is forced to come face to face with the person she hates most again. With a threat looming over Wakanda and lives at risk, Naja must decide if trusting Prince N'Jadaka is worth the risk before it is too late.

Warnings: Angst

(1**) (2)

Last Updated: May 31, 2024

[seek--rest]

So I have watched Challengers a second time and I have to say upon second viewing the argument that Tashi does not love Art really does not hold water. (Also I firmly believe that Art hated Patrick in that sauna scene but that is another discussion for another time. Same with fact that Art is the biggest hater of the trio. Especially after reading the script post-second viewing.)

During the first meeting at that party it’s subtly shown that Tashi is interested in Art first, before Patrick. Her eyes are always on him.

Then during the hotel scene she is interested more about the relationship between Art and Patrick because she doesn’t want to be a homewrecker, but even then she still kisses Art first and then tells Art that he could beat Patrick. Then Tashi even suggests that Art should beat Patrick. If she didn’t want Art to win she would not have tried to encourage him.

Then after they met again 3 years later, Art says that he wants to kiss Tashi and Tashi kisses him. If she was not interested in Art or still hung up on Patrick, she would have curved him.

The script even suggests that Art has some trouble maintaining his hard on during their first hookup. Tashi could have left him but she doesn’t. She coaches him through it. In another scene from the script when Art struggles with this again, Tashi doesn’t belittle him or leave him. She encourages him saying “we can make it, we always do.” That is something you say to somebody you love and desire sexually. Y’all can’t tell me that Tashi will repeatedly entertain a limp dick dude she didn’t like let alone procreate with one. Especially when those issues showed up from jump, she knew that from the very first night and she stayed…I can go on about this point. Also the script does hint that Art is a champion pussy eater. Did not need coaching from Tashi and Patrick for that skill…Imma stop now—really digressing.

Even when she was asking Patrick to throw the game, she still wanted Art. She doesn’t ask Patrick to throw the game until after she tells Art that she will leave him if he loses. She even only says that because she thinks that doing so will motivate Art and says as much.

I probably have more points to demonstrate that Tashi did love Art but my head is all over the place right now and I don’t want this to be too long.

My point is and the point always has been that Tashi would not be with someone if she did not want to be there.

While I do agree with a LOT of what you said (especially that last point!!), I’m personally hesitant to use the script at all as evidence or justification for a claim in any respect. I’ve seen it across every perspective, arguing for and against Tashi, Patrick, and Art as a way to explain their decisions and I just don’t think that’s a good method of media analysis.

Using the script, cast interviews, director side notes and commentary, they’re all interesting! They all can be used as fodder for fic or to explore things and fill in the gaps when it comes to fan creation. But when it comes to actual media analysis of the text itself or to explain an action of a character, I personally think that’s just bad analysis. If you need to do homework to understand what the director/actor is trying to say, then they did a shitty job of conveying it.

“But Luca is the director!” “Zendaya is the producer/star!” Yeah and I am the audience member— who now having seen the finished product for myself, can now evaluate and interpret based on the actual media. Not what they say afterwards in press, not the script as it was written however many rewrites ago. Even if I do believe that Tashi loved Art— the script isn’t my justification for that or even added emphasis. The text itself was reason enough.

I do think people are arguing about how Tashi loves Art / if she loves Art at all from a perspective that itches too close to me to misogynoir or in having a very strict black/white perspective of what love is but that’s a conversation for another day

[epersonae]

Because you foolishly agreed to more than one of these: Director's Cut of "BIGFOOT STOLE MY HUSBAND!", please.

anyway.

before I even start on this, let me just say that I love that you've picked out my three OFMD fics that imho get the best comments in very different ways. for the benefit of all the broken hearts gets the in-depth analysis and plot-based screaming; I spit on your grave is full of I NEEDED THIS CATHARSIS; and BIGFOOT STOLE MY HUSBAND is about 80% "would it be weird if I wanted to kiss bigfoot/o no you've awakened something in me", which me too bud (actually this comment is one of my favorite comments on anything ever).

Sometimes you write something you're not into entirely out of spite, well, 80% spite and 20% as a gift to your friends lol.

Which is to say that someone posted a link to a pretty bad (and also at the time the only) Ed/Stede/Bigfoot fic in a server I'm in (come ON, "it was all a dream"?!?!?! COWARD) and we got chatting about what a good fic would be like, and then dammit now I have an actual idea.

I said in my previous director's commentary post that I often need a hook to get into a story, and the camping narration that it starts with was the hook.

My ex-husband (first spouse, the bad marriage, the divorce) was very outdoorsy in that Pacific Northwest way; in college he'd worked for a summer as a guide on Mt Rainier and then the following winter was the caretaker for a lodge. He was not as gung-ho about it as some of his friends, but he did always want for us to go on a "real" backpacking trip, and we did a lot of car camping. And like, we had some real awful arguments and terrible experiences, but also there was a lot I enjoyed about it, and I hadn't (still haven't) done that since before I got divorce. (iirc we didn't go out at all that last summer we were together, which feels like part of the "everything coming to a head" of that year.)

So apparently I had a whole bunch of pent-up feelings about camping, both the actual physical experience of being in the woods/mountains and the experience of doing something that your partner is into WAY more than you are. (Which, yes, is both about the camping and Bigfoot.)

One of the other things about that fic is the whole scent experience, obviously, and that is the 20% gift for a friend aspect of that story, because one of the people who I was more or less writing it for is someone who I thought would appreciate that particular aspect. My beta also pushed me to be more specific and detailed about the actual fragrance notes, so I did two things. One, I looked up perfume sites and stuff for the kind of language people use for that, and two, what ended up being the most notorious (?) details: I opened up my spice drawer and literally smelled all of my spices to find something that might be a little unusual but also felt right. And that is where the cumin thing comes from.

(I think the commenter experience of "would it be weird if I were into this" comes both from my commitment to sensory detail and to Ed's inner narration of "would it be weird if I were into this")

Finally, I knew it needed to end not with Bigfoot, but with them affirming their connection to each other, and I did seriously laugh out loud when I realized I could use "he's got nice hair". It's so stupid and so perfect.

(also the detail of the two of them having a selfie with a roadside attraction fake taxidermy Bigfoot is stolen from my experience going to the Portland Maine cryptozoology museum and doing exactly that with Ryn, who loved all things Bigfoot.) (I've had relationships with at least four people who are/were really into cryptids, I have no idea what that's about.)

[ask me for the director's commentary on a fic!]

[iaus]

Someone beat me to asking abt the temple of the fallen sun (GOD THAT SCENE IS SOOOOOO GOOD) but for the directors commentary is there anything abt the cashmere sweater in Porter’s car scene? Such a nice touch. I know it’s short so if there’s nothing besides like eh it sounded neat or you wanna mention other scenes w the sweater that’s cool too

First off. I’m really glad that you are also asking about the other scenes with the cashmere sweater because. That was going to happen. I’m like literally vibrating as I type this.

The cashmere sweater is SO MUCH. I cannot begin to articulate how much thought I put into it. Like I was literally googling different sweater cuts, material… prices.

I needed to be able to see this sweater in my mind’s eye as Jace found it and held it and rediscovered this piece of himself that Porter greedily kept for himself.

Also. This might. Be a little. Scattered and long. (Crying, I wrote this in a word doc because I didn't want to lose any thoughts.)

I have a lot of thoughts on this freaking sweater and I didn’t even touch on the chapter 7 implications with it.

My first draft, I had Jace walk home in the burned clothes he was resurrected in but that felt so flat to me. There was no substance and to me it felt like cutting from him walking away from the place Porter was killed to just walking home was awkward and didn’t build enough emotion.

So, I decided that since in my last fic Porter’s truck was… uh. Well, important that I would make it important here too. (I like connecting my fics a lot. I did it with my Darkest Dungeon fics and I’m already starting to do it with these sb fics.)

And. I am not going to lie I whammied myself hard with that truck scene. I got stuck on it.

It was such a passing scene, but I needed to make it worth it.

It felt like a way to start the fic off with basically trying to draw the readers (and Jace) into this thought of wow yeah maybe Porter really was in love. And how can I convey this in such a quick scene? So that’s how we get this:

He leans into the back of the truck, ignoring the protest of his bones and aching skin, and digs through the gym bag. Protein bars. A half-filled water bottle. A clean windbreaker. A surprisingly discreet bottle of lube in an inner pocket. A small tube of Jace’s scented lotion. Strangely, a change of clothes for him: The soft, maroon turtleneck he thought he lost; an old pair of cream slacks he left at Porter’s house years ago; the extra pair of shoes he always left just in case. Something strangles in his chest, stops his breathing for what feels like minutes—hours.

Jace is here in this truck that he knows well and reaching for something he knows is there—that’s already a lot of intimacy on Jace’s end in my opinion. He knows that Porter’s truck is going to be unlocked. He automatically goes to the passenger seat. He automatically knows where to reach for Porter’s gym bag—as if he’s done this before—and starts digging through things without real issue.

But in this familiarity, he finds something new.

I wrote this scene with the intention that Porter had packed this bag right before they came to the school for the ritual.

These are recently washed, folded just as carefully as Porter’s own clothes.

These are not stale, packed last month clothes. This was done with deliberate intention. This was what Porter wanted Jace to find after he ascended.

Which leads to that devastating clarity of doubt Jace has:

You wouldn’t keep things like this for someone disposable, he thinks desperately. Would you?

And then… we make a pitstop to chapter 3 where Jace is in his big time spiral. He’s getting ready to binge drink, but he doesn’t want to be dirty and gross while he’s in the midst of his binge so… we get to the bathroom where we get more details about this cashmere sweater… but before we learn about the sweater and its importance, we learn about how unimportant the majority of Jace’s belongings are. He chose everything based on appearance and how it didn’t even matter because he spends all his time at Porter’s house (which, spoiler alert, will make an appearance at some point).

Now, we get to chapter 4 where the cashmere sweater gets some more screen time.

Jace is getting ready to shower and he strips everything, but the sweater.

The maroon turtleneck clings high on his throat. He cannot remember when he wore this to Porter’s house. He touches the soft, cashmere edge; then drags his fingers to the strange steady thump of his pulse.

The sweater becomes almost a bridge for Jace.

This is something that smells like Porter, that he knows Porter took the time to fold and pack, and it’s almost an anchor for him. He doesn’t have a body to mourn, but he has this sweater of his that Porter stole.

It was old—one of the first nice things he bought with his meager first year teacher’s salary. He looked forward to wearing it nearly every winter the years after. It kept him warm in the chill—added something vivid and striking to the already slowing monotony of his life. A small thing he had truly wanted.

This paragraph winded me to write actually. There are so many different emotions.

There’s the fact that in his first year of teaching Jace is already bored. (He isn’t resentful yet… it’s just settling into a routine he didn’t anticipate having.)

There’s also the fact that I’m seeing this as like the first real thing he liked wearing to work. I know personally my first year teaching I dressed more professionally than I did my second year which was fine? It just wasn’t me, and I think a lot of younger/newer teachers do that.

I picture Jace as starting his teaching at Aguefort in his early-to-mid 20s, so it was more “professional” browns/grays/neutrals outfits versus the colors we see in his character art. Not to say his dress is unprofessional, it just really does strike me as the kind of outfit a guy working a few decades at a school would wear. I DIGRESS.

The fact that this sweater is something he bought his first year is huge.

This is something he bought when he still wasn’t as bitter as he currently is (I think he’s always been bitter, but great at hiding it). But this sweater now becomes an anchor into his past in multiple ways now:

It’s almost a glimpse into a slightly sweeter Jace… one that we know Porter had an obsession with.

But it’s also something that, even in his rage state, Porter thought to bring for Jace. Which leads to this:

Then, years later, in the wake of shedding earth browns and sleek monochrome for preening and distracting color, it had vanished. He hadn’t been heartbroken—at that point he had filled his closet with so many soft, lovely things (what else was he meant to buy).

Porter was able to keep this thing for presumably years without Jace noticing because his life faded into a monotony that was so insufferable that even that beautiful, expensive sweater he bought when he was young couldn’t distract him. But… with the sweater forgotten we get:

And Porter had liked it better when he bared his throat—hid it only with a scarf he could unravel; as if unwrapping Jace was a small, private joy.

Jace, without even realizing, has changed with Porter around. He dresses differently, Porter likes it. So, why would he worry about a turtleneck he had when he was young?

He loses it, but it isn’t actually lost.

Still, it was strange to know Porter unknowingly kept—stole—something so sentimental to Jace.

Porter hoards it. Greedy to a fault about Jace really.

I do realize as I’m typing this, that it may seem like Porter corrupted this sweet, naïve boy but that’s really not it. I’ve always seen Jace as a mean son of a bitch who hides it behind a nice smile and the ability to side-step any questions about himself.

It’s more that this sweater links back to possibilities.

Maybe there was a timeline where Jace straightened himself out and did become a good teacher. Maybe there’s a timeline where Jace managed to make connections with others rather than becoming an obnoxiously friendly person to cover up the fact that he hates his job and thinks he’s better than his co-workers. It’s not the innocence, it’s the possibility.

Which… gets to this:

He waits until the steam has fogged up the mirror completely before he takes off his sweater, leaves it on the floor, and steps into the shower.

I see this as a turning point for Jace honestly.

Like the first half of this fic is all about subtle nods, subtle movements. He can’t admit any truths to himself at this point—he can’t even admit that his grief is affecting him physically. But by just leaving this sweater on the floor, he takes this old part of himself, this old possibility and leaves it on the floor. Discards it.

BUT ALSO... at the same time…

It’s not his anymore. It’s Porter’s. It’s been Porter’s for years. That’s part of why there’s this almost shame when he’s undressing.

This sweater that Porter has kept for years is now this link to Porter, ALSO hides the fact that Ankarna took the shatterstar. He doesn’t want to see himself without that mark Porter put in him. The sweater conceals him, making it so he doesn’t have to face the reality that Porter is gone.

After all.

Reds have never been Ankarna’s color to Jace.

Red has always been Porter.

[distort-opia]

I'd like some director's commentary on-- shocker!-- my favorite angst, "this knife, like silence." A couple questions:

1) "He just steps off, removes himself from the narrative, and when you awake you can’t remember what you yell at him. What things you tell him to try and get him to stay."

Just curious if this is always how it went, or if you played with Bruce remembering what he yelled and what it was.

2) Just any further thoughts on Selina, really. I just keep thinking that Bruce does love her, and that's why he married her, and it'd be awful if maybe deep down the reason he did is because he thought it would bring Joker out of the woodwork! But then at the end of the story, Bruce ends up doing the same thing to his family that Joker did to him, and Selina is so painfully aware of how much Bruce feels Joker's absence that it's probably already occurred to her. Just imagining her deciding settling down with Bruce is worth the loss of freedom, and in return… 🙃 We've talked about a companion story from Joker's POV, but hers would be something too.

Always happy to hear that fic breaks hearts as intended, thank you for the ask!

1) I'm pretty sure I wrote it like that from the start. The thought process behind it was a bit similar to the one behind "friend, please" actually... in the sense that in an extreme situation, Bruce would choke on his repression. He'd desperately want to say the right thing, but he's never been good at expressing his emotions, he's always had issues with directly expressing his desires (hell that's why it took me 90k words and mental torture in REMS for him to even approach actual communication of emotions). So in a way, that line is about him abstractly dreaming that he managed to yell something out to begin with, but he doesn't remember what it was because he doesn't know what it was. Because he still doesn't have the words for what his feelings for Joker are... especially in a world where Joker's gone.

2) Oh Bruce definitely does love Selina; he didn't marry her because he thought it might get Joker to intervene, though the thought was definitely there. Selina has always made him feel less alone, but in a different way than Joker does. Joker and Bruce are similar in a two-sides-of-the-same-coin way, Bruce and Selina are similar in a Venn-diagrams-overlapping way. And he loves the understanding and the kindred spirit he has in her, and married her because of the peace that brings him... and well, partly because he thinks that it's The Thing To Do. He can be happy and have a family and be the man his parents would've wanted him to be. On Selina's part, I think that yeah, she's definitely acutely aware of Bruce's complicated feelings about Joker, but she feels the same way about Bruce, and perhaps hopes that it'll go away. That with time, Bruce will forget about Joker, and the part of him that's never present will slowly come back and be with her fully. Obviously, that's not the case, and Bruce does disappear. I see Selina reacting in a similar way as in Batman/Catwoman (2021), though perhaps a lot more bitterly and in grief... "They live together, they leave together." And damn, a companion piece from Selina's POV would be heartbreaking in a whole different way, though the Joker POV companion piece-- I am promising the second born for that one, since the first one is saved up for the roadtrip fic :))

fanfic writer ask game - director's commentary

[sizzlingsheepcheesecake]

⭐️⭐️

For the director’s commentary thingy :)

Also some stars just for you because I fucking love your fics 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thank you so much for the ask! I hope this is interesting, you mentioned wanting to hear about 'The camera speaks the truth that I couldn't' so I'm just gonna ramble a bit about the before and after!

I love outsider POVs of relationships, you might notice I nearly always have some form of the other characters commenting on/noticing/walking in on my ships in my fics haha. So I loved the thought of seeing bokris through Damon's eyes a little. I also loved the potential for lots of sexual tension in the photoshoot set up. And Damon being an absolute menace with his Instagram flirting was so fun, and I also love him crushing on them and describing how hot they are separately. I especially loved the idea of them acting so coupl-y and having such tension that Damon thought they were dating, but they weren't. On that note, for some context on their dynamic before the shoot: when they say they've kissed 2.5 times before the shoot, I imagine those kisses as: the 'maybe it doesn't count' new year's eve kiss when Kris was about to turn 17, a drunk kiss when they were around 20 that I imagine happening maybe before they fell asleep when they crashed at the same house after a party, and when Bojan pulled Kris out to the smoking area of the gay club the first night with Damon. Basically all of them happened with the safety blanket of drink/the NYE excuse, and plausible deniability. I don't think they ever talked about any of them the next day. In some of my other fics Bojan in particular struggles with his sexuality, but I don't think this was an issue here, I think they just were so close as friends that they didn't want to mess that up and were afraid to go there, and felt more shame (although that's too strong a word) about the fact that it was eachother than the fact that they were both guys. They definitely knew they were close to each other in a different way than the rest of the band, and I think they leaned into that, allowed themselves to push those boundaries and indulge in the extra affection without actually facing it or being brave enough to talk about or name it. The rest of the band knew as well, that Bojan and Kris went together, that they were a package deal, that there was something deeper there. I think they teased them occasionally, but it had been going on for so long and was so normal and taken for granted that they almost stopped noticing it. It wasn't even a question that they would share hotel rooms, sit beside eachother, etc. But when Bojan kissed a girl at a club or Kris flirted with a waiter who gave him his number at lunch one day the whole band found it pretty jarring and uncomfortable. And I think the whole Bojere thing at Eurovision was actually quite stressful for everyone in the band, even though they're pretty sure Bojan never actually slept with him. After the photoshoot, between the first shoot and the coming out shoot, I imagine the timeline went something like this: Bojan and Kris went back to their apartment and locked themselves in the room for like three days to just fuck, constantly. I think after finally allowing themselves to go there after literal years of tension they felt they had a lot of time to make up for and also just couldn't keep their hands to themselves. The others were happy for them but also kind of disgusted, and grudgingly impressed by their stamina and the fact they weren't seeming to get bored of eachother any time soon. I imagine some sort of sex toy being delivered in pretty non discreet packaging and Jure throwing it at them with his hand covering his eyes lol. I think there was no slow transition to a relationship, once they finally admitted those feelings they were immediately boyfriends and didn't even think to label it until one of the band members asked them. I do think they probably kept it quiet from everyone except the band and Damon for a month or two though, and then told family and friends. When they were ready to come out publicly they immediately thought of Damon doing the shoot, and I think they also immediately had the discussion of a threesome and were both enthusiastic and it was almost an unspoken expectation they had anyway.

Thanks again and if anyone wants more info let me know! :) <3

[findafight]

tell us the ship, explain your thoughts 👀

Me trying to be vague and everyone immediately perking up like prairie dogs ready for tea alskfnkdkd. Idk I don't think it'll surprise anyone on my blog I've spoken about it in the past. Just got annoyed at it always being there for no reason and not making sense to me one too many times, I guess.

It's r0nance. I simply do not vibe with it at all. I think, if given a sterile au where there's nothing and no one connecting them and no homophobia to worry about, it might be interesting to possibly explore them being attracted to each other but realizing their personalities and goals and priorities clash too much to work out. A bright first fling into maybe-love that fizzled quickly. I've sort of done this in my post o66 sto bin au for them, but I'm probably not going to actually explore it there. (As it's already in the past even during the war for that au)

But in fics that try to be more or less canon/fix it type deal, it really doesn't make sense to me without even mentioning the hairsprayed elephant in the room. Robin and Nancy's personalities don't seem to mesh well, what with Robin's rambling tangents and Nancy's need to focus.

Robin would probably want to do something specific with her life, but she also wants to wander! Her parents are hippies and she wants to visit Paris. She wants to travel in Europe, and probably stay at sketchy hostels and backpack in the mountains, talking to locals that she doesn't have to worry about ever seeing again. Nancy is planning on immediately going to her dream school after highschool and likely pursuing a career right out the gate. She's very driven and focused, wants to go out and seize opportunities that can assist in reaching her goals, and I don't see Robin's dreamier personality traits fitting with that.

I think @thestobingirlie mentioned that while Robin and Nancy both experience the sexism and misogyny of the 80's, Nancy doesn't experience ableism as Robin does. And she doesn't try to understand where Robin is coming from, only openly appreciating her efforts after she ranted at the hospital director.

Robin rambles! We see her either ramble or give clipped answers ("I'm Robin I work with Steve!") When she's nervous or under stress or excited! We see both Nancy and Steve react to these rambles in different ways. When Robin goes off topic in the library with the conspiracy paper, or talks a bit too much about how much she talks a bit too much, Nancy's annoyed. She's initially dismissive of the national Enquirer esq newspaper Robin brings up that helps solve the case (go Robin!). Robin babbles at Steve a lot, and he never makes her feel bad about it. She rambles about rambling to Vickie and the Muppet joke and he adds little commentary as needed, letting her go, or he cuts her off with a little joke during her rabies freak out. He lets her ramble or lets her know she should stop without being actually annoyed and letting her know that by not telling her outright to stop. (She knows immediately that it's a joke, and she jokes back, although understandably nervously. I love them.)

Them being a background pairing so often is annoying, though to varying degrees. If it's just as Robin's gf mentioned I, like others, just kinda...change it to Vickie's name in my brain lol. But other times it's not and it just. Doesn't make sense why Nancy would be such close friends with Steve (her messy breakup ex!) and Robin and Eddie. That girl has big city dreams, she's getting the hell out of her tiny hometown and not looking back. Let her be free!!

I mean obviously the bit I hate about it is that Robin holds a grudge and Nancy broke Steve's heart, which I don't see as compatible, even if we take into account that it's likely Steve and Robin have no idea Nancy cheated on him, and that Steve is an unreliable narrator and blames himself for the breakup. Steve and his relationships with both Nancy and Robin are so pivotal to all three of their characters that ignoring the history there seems a disservice to the complexities of their relationships with each other.

[performativezippers]

for the director's cut:

“You look like a sexy vampire,” Chloe says, grasping onto Helena’s bicep because she has absolutely no sense of personal space. “Like you’ve been around since the 1800’s, seducing people and drinking blood and generally lounging on, like, deep red velvet cushions.”

Helena laughs, and someone next to their table makes a slightly strangled sound.

Kate looks over to see Myka, who must have just walked up. She’s staring a Helena with a weird look on her face, but as soon as Kate takes a step towards her, she gives herself a little shake and focuses on Kate, the weirdness completely vanished. “Hey, Whistler,” she says, and Kate grins.

“Hey, Bering.”

Their hug is quick, because neither of them are naturally touchy. Myka’s hair is curlier than Kate’s ever seen it, like she’s finally figured out how to condition it properly, and she’s dressed the way she always is, in dark jeans and a simple purple cotton t-shirt. She looks like she gave absolutely no thought to being on TV, and Kate loves her for it.

Okay I have several Director's Cut asks about this section of the Ultimatum which I love! Here's this one.

In general, I love love LOVED writing this scene. I've never written Helena, Myka, or Chloe before, so it was really fun and challenging to simultaneously:

Pull them from their canons (Warehouse 13 and Pitch Perfect) and drop them into this one while remaining recognizable

Make them work as people Kate would actually be friends with

Fit into the conventions of The Ultimatum, aka fulfill the purposes of this brunch for the show

Move my fic's plot forward

Create tension for Kate and Lucy's romance arc

Show Kate and Lucy something new about each other

Show a new side of both Kate and Lucy to the readers

So that said, now let's play through this section. The fic is in black, my commentary is in purple.

“You look like a sexy vampire,” Chloe says, grasping onto Helena’s bicep because she has absolutely no sense of personal space. [Chloe Beale has negative zero conception of personal space. Doesn't she lick Beca's nose at some point? They basically make out the first night. This is just 100% canon Chloe and I love her. I also like thinking about some similarities between Beca and Helena, in terms of pasty-ass white girls with dark hair and enormous emotional walls.] “Like you’ve been around since the 1800’s, seducing people and drinking blood and generally lounging on, like, deep red velvet cushions.” [Obviously this is a joke/nod to Helena being a time traveler from the 1800s, and also I think she'd make a very sexy vampire. She HAS been seducing people since the 1800's and she looks like it! She'd do well against some blood red velvet cushions and I think Myka for one would like to see it]

Helena laughs, and someone next to their table makes a slightly strangled sound. [It's fun to find new ways to introduce characters! And in this setting, people keep arriving, so it was nice to say something other than "Now Myka walks in." I don't think Myka knew Helena would be here today, so not only is she (a) seeing Helena in the flesh for the first time in who knows how long, she's also (b) seeing Helena ON TELEVISION. This whole section is really just me playing with Helena wanting to take a bite out of Myka and Myka being desperately uncomfortable with how desperately she wants that to happen, while also trying--AND FAILING--to conceal all of it from Kate. Meanwhile Helena is like, Katie can know we fucked, darling, I'm not ashamed.]

Kate looks over to see Myka, who must have just walked up. She’s staring a Helena with a weird look on her face, but as soon as Kate takes a step towards her, she gives herself a little shake and focuses on Kate, the weirdness completely vanished. [Myka is good at focusing through absolutely wild shit going on] “Hey, Whistler,” she says, and Kate grins.

“Hey, Bering.” [SOMEONE needs to call Kate "Whistler" in this fic and I'm glad it got to be Myka! I feel like they would have called each other last names in college to mark themselves as different from the other sorority girls and I like that.]

Their hug is quick, because neither of them are naturally touchy. [Myka only touches HELENA] Myka’s hair is curlier than Kate’s ever seen it, like she’s finally figured out how to condition it properly, [I hate her straight hair fyi] and she’s dressed the way she always is, in dark jeans and a simple purple cotton t-shirt. She looks like she gave absolutely no thought to being on TV, and Kate loves her for it. [Myka's fashion sense is so funny. Everyone else on that show is so dated in what they wear -- the LONG TANK TOPS AND TINY VESTS, CLAUDIA, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD -- but for Myka it's like, cotton t-shirt and jeans of the week. I respect this. I wonder what Helena thinks about it.]

[uhbasicallyjustmilex]

Just finished Here Comes The Sun and it was absolutely brilliant. I want a ⭐️ director’s commentary ⭐️ on how you navigated Alex’s side of it all. Of course we’re only privy to Miles’ internal dilemma, but you did such a great job of Alex giving Miles signs, yet there were moments where I couldn’t read him at all and kept me guessing (in a good way).

Sorry if this was a longer ask than you were hoping!

hiii 💗 thank you so much for your lovely words about here comes the sun, i'm SO glad to hear you enjoyed it 🥰🥰

oooh that's a great question (and thank you so much, i love that alex managed to keep you guessing too)! i wrote that fic almost a year ago now, so the process isn't as fresh in my mind now as it would have been then, but i do have a few thoughts on your question:

i think the fact i wrote it very shortly after getting into tlsp was a big factor in why i wrote it the way i did - i think it made it easy to get into the headspace of someone (aka miles) who was on the outside looking in, having a sense of what might have been going on with alex but not really knowing for sure, just having a few pieces to try and put things together from and still very much trying to figure things out. one of the things that's always struck me so much about alex is his contradictory capacity to simultaneously be so vulnerable and open whilst also hiding himself so effectively. he's a little like a cloudy day where you catch glimpses of the sun here and there between bits of cloud, but never quite for long enough to see the whole thing - and i feel like that's a sense i really wanted to capture when writing this fic? like giving little vignette moments of the sunshine (eg alex's drunken conversation with miles), but interspersed with enough cloud to give that sense of uncertainty for miles that pushed him to think about and examine his own feelings more in a way he wouldn't have had to otherwise.

also, although i wanted to keep that kind of chameleon-esque ambiguity that feels so characteristic of alex, i also knew very clearly in my own mind where he was emotionally at throughout the fic, so i think that helped pin things into place and gave shape to certain scenes even when that wasn't obviously being addressed.

i took so much inspiration in terms of body language/expressions/ways of speaking from interviews and performances of alex and miles together, and i think pulling those little tells into the story as much as i could really helped me navigate alex's side of things in a way that felt authentic (to me, anyway!)

i have to admit, writing alex and the signs he was exhibiting (and trying to hide sometimes) in this fic was absolutely one of my favourite things about it. in my mind, he was resigned to his feelings and very back and forth about how much to reveal to miles throughout the fic. how much he wanted miles was tempered by how much he cared about him and their friendship, so he was kind of constantly fluctuating between a kind of challenging 'fuck it, let miles see how i'm feeling and do what he will' and a desire to protect himself from rejection and fear of losing what they have with their friendship/hurting miles. so he kind of goes from moments of recklessly just laying everything on the table (eg that entire first smut scene where he just looks at miles, holding miles's gaze when there are those moments of tension between them after their flirty tussling etc.), to suddenly pulling everything back because it feels suddenly too real and too risky (eg the morning where he's writing stuff sitting outside on the curb). and that constantly fluctuating headspace of course made it SO much harder for miles to figure out what was really going on. i think all the way through, alex suspects that miles feels something too, but he doesn't really *know*, and he doesn't trust his own judgement - it's only when miles gives him a really clear sign at the end that he's able to finally make that move.

oh help this ended up just being a huge long ramble, and i'm not even sure if i've fully answered your question 😅 i don't feel like i've been super coherent, but i hope this makes a little bit of sense or at least gives a glimpse into my headspace when writing alex!

thank you for asking such an interesting question, this was a lot of fun to think about 🥰

[everwitch-magiks]

evie!! director's commentary on the "please, please have me" series if you'd like <3 <3

Hello Roop! Thank you for the ask! ♡

The please, please have me series has played such a major role in my explicit writing. It was my first big foray into writing sexual content with kinks for FirstPrince specifically, something I've done quite a bit for other ships in previous fandoms, but a new ship is always a little different. The first part of that series features Alex and Henry having an anonymous sexual encounter via an elaborate glory hole scenario at an exclusive sex club. It was one of those fics that I resisted writing for quite a while - because I was, in total honesty, not entirely sure how it'd be received.

This was a little over three years ago now, and the fandom was significantly smaller, and we were still at a point where you could list a number of popular fic concepts (and - importantly in this case - kinks) that had not been explored much. I also hadn't touched upon any similar themes in my existing RWRB writing. On one hand, that was exciting, because I could play around with concepts that had yet to be written a certain way for these characters - but on the other hand it was intimidating, because I wasn't sure how it was going to go over.

I let several people read it in the doc before I actually stuck it on AO3 - and among them was @three-drink-amy, who I'd only just started talking to. Fond memories! Ally was of course supportive, as were other early readers, and so onto AO3 the fic went. And people enjoyed it! Big relief for me.

I then went on to write three follow-ups. I really liked this dynamic I'd introduced wherein Henry was knowledgeable about sex and super confident and also a little mysterious, which is something I've since written repeatedly for a number of fics (sex dungeon!Henry, anyone?) It was a great little universe to play in, and it really felt like I'd hit upon a dynamic for FirstPrince that I wanted to continue to write forever.

Funnily enough, I'm currently once again knee deep in a very kinky FirstPrince WIP, but with a slightly different dynamic than the one in 'please, please have me'. My current one has more influences from @dumbpeachjuice and @smc-27, who've both inspired me to write even more fearlessly about sex, pleasure and unconventional dynamics. Love you both so much!

I still love to write Henry as deeply confident in, competent at and completely unashamed of sex and kinks, but I've discovered that's totally compatible with writing him deeply submissive with fun masochistic tendencies. And that's where I'm currently at with my kinky explicit writing - none of which would've developed this way without my original kinky series 'please, please have me'. Thus we come full circle.

Thank you again for the ask! ♡

[breakaway71]

For the director's cut: there's a fire burning in my bones?

Oh, man, this fic. THIS FIC. This fic has been on my mind a lot, actually, since my current 9-1-1 WIP is less a general crossover, and more a stealth crossover with fire burning. So while it's primarily a 9-1-1 fic (the working title is buck sees dead people, and I'm trying very hard to write it in a way that no working knowledge of JATP is required), it's involved a lot of re-reading to make sure the crossover parts are consistent with the story. IDEK. Look, sometimes it's just better to let the muse have their way, and the muse was pretty demanding about this one. ANYWAY! Back in the golden days of the JATP fandom, I had a lot of ideas. It was a hyperfixation that hit hard, and I was jotting down story ideas faster than I could even start writing any of them. But when the Big Bang challenge came along, there was only one story I could even contemplate writing, and that was a story about Julie becoming a ghost. I knew I wanted it to be essentially a season 2 fic. And I knew I wanted Julie to experience being a ghost, but not have her actually have to die in any kind of permanent way. That was it. Everything else that happened throughout that entire story - the entire plot, really, and the ships and the soul bonding aspects in particular - were little "eureka!" moments I had in the course of writing. Usually these brainstorms hit at 3am and had me jotting notes in my fic notebook by flashlight:

Fire burning also never went through a significant editing process. Aside from general tweaks, I was deliriously happy with how the story turned out, considering I pantsed the hell out of it. The most interesting thing, for me, though: Originally, I thought this story would end up being gen fic, or maybe Julie/Luke. When Reggie found her in the music room... Look, you know how it feels when something just unlocks inside you? And you're like "MY GOD. YES. THIS." That scene, the opening to fire burning, was my first real PING! moment about Julie and Reggie. (And I was clearly doomed forever after that moment.) Reggie wasn't even originally the one who was supposed to find her! But I wanted so badly to show the balance of her friendship with all three of the boys, so I decided it made more sense for it to be someone other than Luke in that scene. And the way everything fell into place after that, right up until the first true OT3 scene, happened almost entirely by accident. I fell in love with the idea of all of them together much the same way Julie did. A little at a time until it felt more like an inevitability, and I couldn't even pinpoint the moment I realized it was going to happen. Also: I had two absolute favorite scenes in this fic. The first is when Julie is sitting at the piano, and feels Reggie's teardrop on her hand, from where he's sitting and watching over her body in the hospital. If I was capable of serious art, that is the scene I wish I could somehow convey in visual form, which is probably why Reggie's POV ended up being the first timestamp I wrote. My other favorite scene was after the ritual, where Julie can finally 'talk' to her dad and tells him about dating Luke and Reggie. Writing Ray will always be a personal favorite for me (Family Matters was another story that happened mostly by accident tbh), and trying to determine what his reaction would be in that situation was stupid amounts of fun. WHEW OKAY I HOPE I'M DOING THIS RIGHT AND YOU ENJOYED THIS BIT OF COMMENTARY!

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Director's Cut: Sounds Like Pearls (🌟 for whichever aspect you want to talk about)

Thanks so much Elaine!!

Sounds Like Pearls has been a bit tricky from the initial outlining, but I'm very glad for the thought it's forced me to put into Ed's character. For Ed, age regression is a trauma response, and I approach it as a way to connect the dots between the child and the man he is now, finding the links between how Ed as a man acts and the coping skills he started to lean on as a child.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Ed's character, for me, is his relationship with his childhood self. When he was a child, something terrible happened to him. As a child, he had to do something he thinks is morally horrible in the defense of someone he loves. I think these two things are absolutely essential to his character, and I'm going to get into it deeper in later chapters, but the core of it for me is always that Ed fundamentally does not see baby Ed as more deserving of compassion and forgiveness than adult Ed. As far as he's concerned, he might as well have sprung into the world fully formed. He holds so much hatred for himself and that extends to the scared little boy he used to be.

At first, in this fic, Ed's age regressions are so fucking scary for him, and that's in large part because he believes he was a "bad kid," he's inconveniencing Stede, and he deserves to be punished, and he has even more trouble than usual with dealing with these ideas when he feels small. Starting to forgive himself and be kinder to himself also requires being kinder and having some compassion for little Ed.

Ask me for director's commentary on a fic!

[wanderingblindly]

humbly asking for directors commentary on all the starts we cannot see!!! no matter what section, i'll take anything :)

Omg thank you for asking about this fic!!!! I've done one director's cut on this before, where I discussed how it became a soulmate AU on accident, but!

I have more to say! <- personal thesis tbh

My Favorite, Easily Missed Bits:

One of my favorite -- but relatively inconsequential -- lines in the fic is actually the transition between two scenes:

A fist banged against the door, Max guiltily shoved his phone back into his pocket at the noise. Schooling his features, righting his posture, he stepped back into Jos’s version of himself. Another round on the sim, then.  — A gentle rap of knuckles against his door pulled him out of his mind. Standing and straightening his t-shirt nervously, he walked towards the entryway, pulling in a deep breath before opening the door. 

It's a small detail, but I loved how nicely it highlights the very obvious difference between the two of the main forces entering Max's space/life: his father as a demanding, aggressive figure and Charles as a more gentle, understanding one. Somehow it very succinctly shows that Charles doesn't want to bombard into Max's life, doesn't want to burst into his personal bubble and assume he's welcome, which stands in such stark contrast to Jos.

Another small moment/line I really loved is:

He was inviting Max into an important, personal part of him, both into his home and onto his bench. Maybe they were one in the same to him, like Max’s bedroom and his rooftop. To take his hand, to fail at something so important to Charles, could either be that simple? 

Thought this isn't like, vital to the progression of the plot or anything, I really enjoyed how it emphasizes Max's... seriousness, as a person. He wasn't allowed a normal childhood, wasn't allowed anything that would foster lightheartedness or safety, and therefore immediately appreciates the gravity of Charles's vulnerability.

Of course, we don't actually know if Charles feels that way about his piano bench. Perhaps he views it like how some view a kitchen -- welcoming, inviting, a place where everyone he loves should get to be. But to Max, somewhere that belongs solely to you is personal, and I think this scene demonstrates that well. (maybe?)

Regrets About It:

Originally, I fleshed out more of a backstory for Charles! I wanted to use him as a foil to Max in a few more ways, but the plot just didn't end up moving in that direction. Here are some of the character notes I had that, unfortunately, didn't make it in:

Charles has a strong established sense of self; he knows who he is, what he likes, who he loves, etc.. He doesn't feel like he exists at the universe's whims, he is he own person

This was designed to be in contrast to how Max feels like fate just sort of... drags him around and kicks him while he's down. It's not that Max has a victim complex relating to Jos, per se, it's more that he feels helpless to escape the life that fate handed him. He feels doomed to live in the confines of what he's been dealt, whereas Charles doesn't.

However:

He's still fearful that one day he won’t be able to do what he loves anymore (piano), but has reached a stage of acceptance and appreciation for what he has now. His chronic illnesses, though a burden to his loved ones (in his eyes), is just a hurdle he can overcome and find happiness around.

Both Charles and Max have been through immense hardship as it pertains to their goals, passions, and personal lives. I thought Charles being in a positive place of acceptance and self-accommodation (warm clothing, taking breaks when needed, etc.) could contrast nicely to Max, who feels much more... mixed about his situation.

I also had this note, which I don't think really made it into their dynamic. The story, as always, had a mind of its own lol:

Charles is quiet, more of an observer. Max, surprisingly, drives a lot of their conversations. You wouldn’t expect it for someone that has his backstory (which Charles doesn’t know yet), but it’s the people pleasing survival instinct in him

[epersonae]

I'd love to hear a director's commentary on "I have begun to long for you!" I recently read it (finally!) and really enjoyed it, and I'd love to hear how you made the choices you did for that fic! "What if the mutiny against Izzy had succeeded" can already go in so many different directions, and I especially wonder if you'd change anything about how you handled it now that more time has passed since the s1 finale first aired and we've all had so long to discuss and ruminate.

You know, I posted I have begun to long for you two years ago yesterday. And I'm reading through it, and wow.

I think probably the most important thing to know about that fic is that it had been not quite nine months since my spouse died. Everything about it is rooted so intensely in that early grief experience, especially thinking back to the first week or so, and not really being able to eat, not being able to sleep more than an couple of hours at a time, and feeling just unmoored from the world.

This line? This came from a place right at the core of my being:

He wouldn’t look for happiness again, but maybe he could find quiet for a little while.

And also I had been watching the show over and over and over from the first time I watched it in early April 2022 (there is a horrifying alternate reality in which I watched it on my phone on the plane home from visiting Ryn's hometown, which might have actually killed me), and I'd gotten into fandom here, and I was reading just insane amounts of fic. This was the spring and summer where basically all I did was work, watch the show, and read fic.

I would say I still stand by it, even after all the back and forth and discourse and everything since then. There is I think a single sentence that could be interpreted as Ed not knowing how to read, versus being in such distress that he can't focus on reading, and I'd be tempted to fiddle with that a bit. Otherwise, I feel like I nailed something.

Also it's always struck me as very funny that it does feel entirely likely that Stede was in Bridgetown for like 3 or 4 days, max? FWIW, one of the inspirations was a post which is probably lost to time about the mutiny succeeding and then the crew going off and becoming a sailing theater troupe, which may have been my original intention until a rewatch where I was like HEY WAIT IF HE'D HUNG OUT FOR TWO MORE DAYS STEDE WOULD HAVE SHOWN UP.

Last thought: so much of what I did with the crew, while rooted in their canon depictions, is also drawn from the care and love I got from the people in my life right after Ryn died. (special shout out to @faintvox, @ensrensage, and @emi--rose for being the most present of all) If I am still here, it is in large part because of them.

[fanfic director's cut]

[freeuselandonorris]

omg please director’s commentary on oscar’s thoughts/feelings/vibes/happy valley rewatch for is it cold in the water? please? 🙏

EXCELLENT QUESTION omg. is it cold in the water? is my fetid little kidnap kink fic and probably the most 'personal' kink fic i've ever written but i don't often think about CNC from the other side!

okay, under the cut for length and also cw for discussion of CNC and kidnap kink.

so i think the only way oscar would be able to easily conceptualise being the 'aggressor' in a CNC scene is to essentially create a sort of character for himself, not in the sense that he's acting exactly (i think he'd be far too self-conscious to do any sort of dramatic roleplay) but more that he'd sort of have to externalise it and figure out the motivations and behaviours of this other, fictional Bad Oscar because he wouldn't quite be able to picture himself doing it.

i think i've mentioned before that i imagine lando figures out what kinks he wants to try out by going absolutely kamikaze in the pornhub tags, whereas oscar reads the wikipedia page list of paraphilias in his spare time. he likes to research!

but with CNC, because he kind of feels like he needs that external character self, just reading about it isn't really helping him. and maybe lando mentioned something vague like "yeah it's hot in films and that innit, getting tied to a chair and your mouth taped up and that" and that triggers oscar to think about the kidnap scene in the first episode of happy valley.

(side note: the happy valley thing is maybe the most egregious bit of personal fanservice i've ever put into one of my own fics because the kidnap and torture/threat scenes at the beginning of the first series make me FERAL. so glad other people enjoyed it lmao)

anyway so oscar would basically have watched those episodes back and studied up, both to get ideas of what he could do and how he could translate that into safer stuff to do to lando (hence the pillowcase over the head instead of just duct taping his actual skin/hair) but also to get ideas of how tommy lee royce acts and why it's threatening but also kind of attractive. which is why the persona he adopts is very cold and cruel and almost mocking (that bit in HV where TLR asks "are you a virgin?" in that sly way was VERY influential on oscar's dialogue).

i think when it's actually happening in the moment, he surprises himself with how much he gets into it, in a similar way to how lando is shocked by how difficult it is to remember that the threat isn't real. he's always in control of himself and there's a bit of him that's constantly watching lando to make sure he's safe and isn't getting genuinely hurt, but he likes seeing lando so helpless and scared, and it means that by the end of it he's acting more on instinct (i don't think coming on the pillowcase across his face would have been planned in advance, for instance). that's partly why he gets a bit of top drop himself afterwards, because he'd sort of imagined that he'd have more emotional distance from it all than he has in reality.

final tidbit: the most stressful part of the entire thing for him is stealing the zipties from the garage. it's done on the spur of the moment, but he's petrified someone's going to see him and ask what he's doing because he can't think of any plausible excuse why he might need a handful of big zip ties and also they're really hard to hide about his person and he's sure everyone can see them tucked inside his hoodie.

FANX i love thinking about this 'verse so very much. need to go and rewatch the first two episodes of happy valley now for personal reasons.

[cosmos-dot-semicolon]

(⭐fanfic writers' commentary)

@plutosoda hi

Ooh, time to reread my old writing, huh? Always a fun trip, especially given I'd totally forgotten like half of it including that repetition trick you'd mentioned…

fair warning, i only got like 3 asks for this thing so I'm gonna commentate on pretty much the entire fic here. This post never ends.

Here's an entire director's commentary on All-Nighter! Enjoy!

"The covers were warm… But at least it'd get something done before passing out again."

I'm still fond of this intro. I'm terrible with being succinct, but this is somewhere where my rambling writing style really works; this section is written from experience of many a 'stayed up too anxious now you can't sleep' nights, and someone who has read a lot of the techniques to fix that problem, then didn't (ADHD lol). That is in fact what my internal monologue tends to be like at night - a mix between recalling every single way you've ever learnt to pass out, worrying about what happens tomorrow, 'why is life like that. what did i do,' and just a pinch of 3am self loathing.

I never really thought of it until an AO3 commenter pointed it out, but it was a fairly natural way of worldbuilding/expositing/characterisation all in one go. Establish the premise of the fic, Robot only bothering to process things when it's on the brink of exhaustion, the way it's kinda obsessed with productivity and efficiency and self-improvement.

I'm proud of it!

Also I like to think Lady Luck only does the weird scheduling thing for Robot. She'd be the type of person to try and make the Dungeons a personalised hell for everybody.

“Hey, could I get a coffee, do you think? …I’ve been sleeping so badly down here.”

I'm quite happy with the intro to the next bit too. My goal going into most fanworks (still) is to emulate what drew me to the original story. In this case, that's Dicey's tone and dialogue, with a bit more direct focus on the characterisation of everyone. So this is sort of a meta plot device that signals all that to the reader. I love how efficient that is. also I just like throwbacks and references okay

"The canteen was a dense jumble of kichen counters…"

I could've been a little faster with this scene and Robot subsequently making the coffee. One of my weaknesses as a writer is that I hallucinate some of the scenes in my head, and try to write down everything in that instead of just drawing a comic (cough that one unpublished Ninjago fic). I'm a sucker for describing scenery for days on end.

That said, I'm really glad I got the vibe of 'light-blue-grey' morning over to you in your fanart. It was exactly what I was imagining as I was writing this.

"Pre-ground. …But this was just evil."

I think I'm funny. Anxiety cube can put up with a lot, but terrible coffee isn't it.

"They taste horrible compared to freshly ground beans. It’s not worth the convenience."

haha. because you see. that's its heart's desire *gets turned into a dice*

"Pouring a generous portion for its new friend, Robot masked its complaints with a long sigh." "…But thanks to the innovations of modern day life-” An overhead swig downed half the mug."

A commenter pointed out that some of my lines have really good flow in them between actions and characterisation. I didn't notice that until then, but I'm inclined to agree. Some of these drive in the point really well.

"At least its fellow patron was enjoying themselves – not even flinching at the concoction and savouring the coffee raw. It was tempted to start a commentary on how dark roasts were overrated, but soon became a little more concerned about them drinking through the 100 centigrade burns. This place had quite the collection of creatures, it seemed."

I like to think Robot's a little snobby about the things it enjoys. I like to think Lady Luck tries to throw people off as much as possible.

"So, how’s the self-improvement going?" they started. "I only want top quality minions in my dungeons."

Very fun fact is that I was worried about spoiling the twist in this fic because of this line being so blatant, but I wanted to put it in anyway because it's a good character-establishing moment, and a good… re-interpretation of the line in another context? I love recontextualising canon in a slightly different way that still works for the characters in question. it's so fun

Anyways. Turns out I didn't need to worry about that because at least one reader totally missed this too so got hit with the full twist anyways. Isn't writing great?

"So, what’s keeping you up this late?” they asked. “Nightmares? A looming sense of regret and existential dread? Unfinished essays due tomorrow morning?"

essays due tomorrow morning. haha so true. i'm glad I don't take much coursework nowadays.

"You know, as useless as it looks, sleep’s rather important for you folks. It’s how you deal with all the terrible things that happen during the day, since your brain can just wipe the slate clean and try again. But funnily enough, it’s always the first thing that’s left behind whenever someone wants to better themself." "Life’s painful enough as it is. Why not change things up if your current routines aren’t working?" "Nobody ever plays the cards they’re dealt perfectly, dear… Time always slips you by when you’re not paying attention. And nobody ever knows what’s coming next. You’ve just got to learn when to raise and fold them." "Well, part of being human is never being a hundred-and-one percent efficient. If you folks still count yourself as that. I’d apologise but I remember you were quite nonchalant about your little transformation anyways."

One of the main points of this fic was that while Lady Luck is blatantly on the offensive and absolutely insulting Robot to its core, she's not technically… wrong?

It's not bad advice. Lady Luck, in-game, seems very perceptive of the various insecurities mortals go through. And I like to think she does start this conversation just for genuine fun, to pick someone apart. See if they bounce back against it or just crumble. It's just a bonus that the recipient finds it harder to refute her offers afterwards.

"It might!" it snapped back, getting them to at least try and contain their mockery under a silent, wavering smirk. "You know what? I think it will be, I can feel it!"

Robot sort of does both. It's definitely very very anxious. But it's stubborn. I really like that about its character: how there's a contrast between its organised and disorganised sides? How robots are usually associated with hard numbers and calculations, but Robot's mechanic is blackjack. also it's SO autism/adhd coded. listen. in this

I don't know if there's a trope to call either of these, but they're my favourite things about both characters, and they're surprisingly introspective for a game so short on story. (I will write more about that in another post. lol).

It's a bit indulgent in how long it goes on in some areas, but eh. It works for the fic's pacing.

"The figure leaned forward to highlight its obvious obliviousness…" "I thought you were supposed to be the overly organisational optimist."

I love alliteration. yippee!

"A gentle chuckle filled the air, restrained from its usual projecting echo. "You wound me, Robot. Games are always more fun when your players at least get the chance to try and fight back."

I like to think Lady Luck's main motivation is entertainment. Which mostly involves watching people suffer. But I think it's in the spirit of luck to have it so that someone's downfall was their choice. Determinism versus free will and whatever.

The chance that somebody could escape makes things spicier. And makes it sting all the more for all those that didn't. Hooray!!

Also given Lady Luck's usual loud persona, I planned (plan) on giving her quite a few more subtle but equally threatening moments in this series. It's a thing that wouldn't really work well in the actual game, but it does in a slower medium like writing, and I fucking love that trope.

"Statistically unlikely, but I’ll humour it," she commented to an invisible aside."

You should picture this scene as her directly staring at you through the fourth wall. Like in a sitcom.

"But it’s not so bad, being a minion… I’ve heard that’s about as stable as a job as you can get these days." "…though surprisingly she was not the worst boss it had had to deal with."

I always thought this line, used on Thief in-game, would've been an absolute killer on Robot. The job market is pretty fucking shit these days under capitalism and you would be lying if you said there aren't at least some parts of the Dungeons that seem better work-wise. Inclusivity, stable employment, accommodation.

Yeah, you have no freedom, but that's also the goal of capitalism up here as well. At least in Dicey it's ridculous and ironic. And you'd get to use your degree in maths/statistics/acounting etc to its full extent! Can you fucking imagine the paperwork for a game-show/dungeon hybrid business.

"But then again, I think you’re plenty used to the grind."

I believe this was an unintentional-turned-intentional coffee pun. Boooooo

"Funny how they think that’ll discourage anybody. …Folks hear that the house always wins and immediately think they’ll be the exception."

She would be the one to know that. This was intended as a followup to Robot's entire argument before. I'm very happy that at least one person picked up on that :D

"So whatever you pick, it'll be a decision from Robot alone, no matter what your mind or body drags you into afterward.”

I believe this was also supposed to be a callback, but the wording got changed slightly. I think it was the "It feels like my mind and body won’t stop working against me" bit.

"Normally, Robot would’ve stayed to socialise and make new friends, and in all likelihood, skipping breakfast would leave it starving later on in the day. But right now, it needed some time to itself: to think and recover and remember where it was going with this."

This was another callback (that actually made it into the story). Robot immediately making another bad decision after the first, with the exact same words echoing it coming.

"Just another day in the dungeons. It could handle this."

I wanted the ending to be very short and open-ended, in that it was up to you to interpret whether Robot took the offer or not, and when. But regardless I wanted it to be like a regular intro to an episode, but with the hint something definitely fucking changed that the audience can only speculate on.

…oof. 80 minutes on this essay. My poor neck. I think that's it for now, though.

Overall I'm really happy with this piece - hence why it's one of the few things I actually put online. It's three years old, and I could've fixed the flow in some bits (there's one part where I think Robot answers a different question than was asked).

But I achieved pretty much everything I wanted to say in this piece of fanwork, it pushed me to think about characterisation a lot and my writing and editing techniques. There's a lot of neat little things I put into it, and it really got me to grips with what I liked about my inspiration in the first place.

I think that's an exercise worth trying for every fan-work creator. Stretches you brain. Almost lets you re-experience what you loved about a thing years later. Points you towards your possible future diagnoses. It's a fun time!