#edit 2: i take that all bad it sucked. it kept going downhill and i was like HOW CAN IT GET WORSE and it got worse

[littencloud9]

honestly i love that they changed the secret tunnel episode to focus on katara and sokka instead. love comes in more than one form and their sibling duo is so underrated 🫶

[thefirsthogokage]

Why did you rage quit the rookie?

(this turned out longer then I meant it to be, but I kept remembering reasons why I hate this show now)

The writing went down the drain. Hard. I was so pissed because it started off well in season one. Granted, it had a couple big ridiculous things that happened, but overall it was pretty good. Especially for a freshman show. One of the best I'd seen in years.

Then season two came along and it became progressively/exponentially worse.

Obviously going for shock value over good content with extreme circumstances in most episodes, often not making sense (why the fuck did Nolan's son and his girlfriend go to that trailer park?)

poor plot lines with female characters (Lopez and Wes getting engaged after only being together a few months, Lopez trying out to be pretty damn toxic and "I was poor, you should have been happy you were rich" and "sorry you're embarrassed of me (which is the same abousive shit my mother would pull), Grace going back to her ex because they had a kid even though their marriage sucked and it was outlined earlier in the season that was a bad idea, Jessica killing that one guy and that was never followed through on and her being psycho and following Nolan around and that never being addressed, Chen never given psychological damage she should have absolutely had even of she did self-therapy, Rachel getting her "dream job" in NY and the writers couldn't even take the time to tell us what said dream job was.)

Poorly planned plots in general (stunningly so)

Most characters not feeling like a proper continuation of who they were in season one. Going a ong with that, Chen and Bradford being way too close basically over night when that isn't natural progression from season one

I was for Chenford after season one, but they escalated it in a very cheesy and non true to character way, which also happened way too quickly. So many of their interactions felt too romantically tinted when they shouldn't have been there yet. HEART EYES ALL THE TIME! Like, I stayed watching the show for them until I couldn't tolerate anymore. Then I tried staying for Nyla and just gave up because I hated the rest of the show so much

obvious lack of research (the serial killer with pathology that made no sense, never finding out the connection between him and the lady, the guy apparently also got a job a prison with a stolen social security number from a disabled person - both of which would have been flagged in a background check!!! Such a genuinely poor writing episode and the season just went even more downhill from there)

Nolan being the hero even more in most of the episodes, and his intellect or lack thereof being a plot device

not letting Chen actually suffer from PTSD like she should have and just had her basically quickly move on in an impossible way (I am including this twice, thank you)

throwing her into a relationship with a guy who was a jackass and went all "leave my woman alone" on Bradford when she absolutely didn't need help

Jackson going to a very public premiere with his actor boyfriend even though he was an active cop. What the actual fuck were they thinking with that? Jackson isn't that dumb, he would have never done that.

this show clearly is not keeping a a continuity or character bible of any sort, getting basic facts of their characters wrong (especially Tim, I just can't remember the specific thing that it was, but it could have been inconsistencies in his wounds. Now that I think about it, Chen said something about him getting shot more then once and stabbed and the only time we ever saw evidence of any injury was after he was shot in episode one. Which actually brings me to my next point...)

they never had Tim have a scar from his gunshot wound

Tim getting his 12-year-old-acting girlfriend out of trouble when she bats her eyes at him. He shouldn't have even been dating her in the first place. No way Tim would have ever dated a friend of his rookie. Completely unprofessional of him, in a way that was not believable for his character.

No way Chen could have been an undercover cop after that documentary episode. And if that episode was mean to be a stand alone, it should have never been in the show. That episode also had continuity issues, and that's not including the absolute insanity of whatever the fuck they did to Stirling. (That poor actor, he really wanted to come back and continue the story with his character and Jackson)

THE WHOLE FUCKING BULLSHIT TIMELINE AND PACING OF THE SHOW! examples: They made the stupid thing current to whatever the real world year was. The problem with that was they had an in-universe schedule set up. The first two seasons should have spanned from like October 2018 to October 2019, and yet, in the episode where Wes got stabbed (earlyish season 2), it was November 2019 when it should have been around like May, 2019. They said it was 2021 early in S3 when it should have never been around that time. Infact, it was supposed to be during their last 30 days of their rookie year, meaning THAT should have been October or November 2019. The time pacing of this show is so bad. They should have done a real time skip in season 3, instead, the first NINE FUCKING EPISODES WERE THOSE LAST 30 DAYS! And, according to someone else's math, because of the bullshit with the timeline, Lopez was pregnant for 11 months. Absolutely fucking insane. Timelines and timetables that are so thoroughly screwed up in a show that it's THAT obvious they are flying by the seat of their pants are just impossible for me to stand. That is so dumbfounding to see on any tv show and alone enough for me to rage quit. It's so bizarre they stuck to a timeframe in-universe, then so obviously screwed up what year it was every damn season at least once (in S3 2-3 times).

Just such piss poor writing. No real planning ability. No writing talent left in that writer's room after season one. Just people who throw words down on paper and hope that people will like it. Which so many people still do for some reason?

There are so many other things wrong with this show, but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head. Granted, a couple are second hand because I stopped watching after the rookies did stuff with the DEA. I couldn't watch that. That was such and insane idea. OH AND THEM GOING ON A FUCKING SECRET OP? WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!

And that's not including what I've heard was their "After School Special"-style take on fighting racism in the police force.

And I don't always pick up on these kinds of things specifically. I generally don't pick up on missteps like that in plot or timelines or whatnot or just things that even someone who doesn't have much specified knowledge in certain things should miss (the "job at a prison" thing I mentioned earlier). I'm good at telling the chemistry between actors, - or lack there of, - not the other stuff. When it's so bad I - of all people - am noticing things that are normally pointed out to me, a lot of fucking up is happening. In multiple departments. Like, normally when anything happens in other shows, it isn't as blunt, on the head, painfully obvious, and frequent as it has been in this show.

So, yeah, if you made it though my rant, congrats. If you don't get irritated with the show and bullshit that happens in it now, power to you I guess.

I really wished I could still hate watch this show, but it checked way too many "this is exceptionally poor craftsmanship: tv show edition" boxes for me to put up with it anymore. It was so promising at first, even with it's various hiccups (that I didn't notice until later on all of them) but I hadn't seen a show crash that hard in quality before. I mean, since then I had to experience the travesty that was Supernatural going from 15x18 to 15x19 and 15x20, but that was after I gave up on The Rookie.

Anywho, I would say I hope that answers your question anon, but I have little room for doubt that it didn't.

[box-bunny-grey]

Who wants to hear a random jackass ramble about Shadowlands and not edit what he wrote? No one? Too bad.

I’ll start this by saying that this is from the perspective of a Mistweaver monk, Necrolord Covenant, who only does content through pugs who cleared Normal Nathria and as of now has never cleared past a seven keystone.

So when I wrote out an outline for this one late night for the hell of it, I was thinking I’d be positive. That I’d say I had problems with the game but the main meat of the game, the group content, was still good.

This opinion has shifted.

So I’m just going to ramble through what I put in my outline and then see if it looks good.

The Good (Sometimes)

So as I said group content feels good… When it’s good.

Mythic 0 was a lot of fun early in expansion because groups were generally patient. Like I’d have a plaguefall group that was just really positive even as we wiped a few times getting a feel for the second boss, and was super receptive to advice. Even with the Sanguine Depths being pretty aggravating at zero plenty of groups were kind, and hell being able to heal tanks through it as they rushed through felt rad. Even played with a friend tanking a few times and it felt awesome to just be around and do well.

Nathria is also great at feeling like a logical progression of things. A lot of raids can feel like there’s a bunch of quarters that just exist, but Nathria did feel like a real siege. Starting off dealing with the first line of defense, dealing with the animal tamers before they could unleash the hounds, dealing with an infestation that could come back to bite you if left alone, culminating in that portion in the defeat of a boss established earlier in the leveling experience and technically dealing with the first major threat: the anima leaking into the maw. From there you deal with an attempted thief in the armory that should not be left to their own devices, keep Kael’thas from becoming a weapon to remove that option from Denathrius, and deal with his most powerful sycophants. I actually really like Sludgefist as an obstacle to the finale bosses and the reuse of Shriekwing’s room: Shriekwing might have bloodied the floor but kept everything intact, Sludgefist if there to say “Denathrius doesn’t care if he has to take down the whole castle, at this point you’re too dangerous.” And the end of the Stone Legion Generals and Denathrius was a nice was to finish up the instance.

Then everything goes not so good.

Mythic+ woes

Mythic+ is fun… When your group is competent. I’m not even talking going full meta here. I’ve had awful DH tanks as well as DH tanks that react amazingly. The bad runs where the DH tries to act like running at the speed of sound far above his ilevel, and the good runs where when I die because there’s so much to keep track of the DH IMMEDIATELY starts gliding back to where I’d spawn to make sure we don’t lose the progress we’ve gotten on the mobs. I’ve had amazing WARRIOR tanks in runs, and that’s a class I’ve been told right now is at the bottom of the meta in so many ways.

But then you have groups that disperse as soon as they see there’s no bloodlust, or call for it repeatedly when no one can (look I pug I have to take what I can get, I’m lucky I don’t get full melee groups honestly). Or more recently a group that could not get past blightbone in Necrotic Wake because someone kept getting eaten by their mob and getting it to explode, causing AOE damage I could not heal through in a Mythic 9 at my gear. Or a group in Plaguefall that, when I died because I had to focus on healing because the tank wasn’t tanking the second boss right and the DH and the tank accuse me of not paying attention when that disease he does because the tank wasn’t doing their job is pretty hard to keep off and would make my life much easier of the tank remembered that but no it was my fault.

I am still mad.

Speaking of Plaguefall, that comes back to my favorite experience of assholes in Mythic+. Had two warlocks in party, so two soulstones for battle rez. I die. No soulstone. Alright, it’s trash, guess I gotta walk back. Do so. Get to boss. Die again, don’t even remember what. No soulstone. Okay, maybe they’re mad because I died to something easy. Someone asks about battle rez. “Sorry it’s on CD think the healer used it.” I say I got no battle rez. They get uppity. Other warlock used their soulstone on themselves. People keep talking about it. Other warlock gets angry because he thinks they’re talking about them. Leaves. We manage to 4 man it.

I was not happy and now I do not like Plaguefall.

Raid time

When I completed my first Castle Nathria is was about 3 AM. It was a pretty painless run, mostly one shots with a couple of hiccups. It started at 9 PM. This was a mostly good run. That’s a good run. Now imagine what happens when you have a bad run. But I figured hey, late night lost on a Saturday is fine, it seems like even pugs with no voice chat can finish raids on normal easy, so pugging, and I got 10/10 so I could always do earlier runs, especially guild runs. Should be fine right?

I’ve learned how many melee do not know what an interrupt is.

I’ve learned how bad some guides are when giving kill orders for heroic over normal.

I’ve learned how easily people can kill a raid not realizing very obvious tactics will leave death pools behind.

I’ve learned Council of Blood is the big obstacle for any pug to find out whether or not you should be here, even more than Sludgefist.

Which brings us to the final point.

Oh Boy! 35 Anima!

Cold to the point of sub-zero take: loot drops in Shadowlands suck. This is coming from someone who got lucky in one of his Castle Nathria full clears and got multiple pieces in a single week. But overall the frustration of groups, Myhic+ or Raid, gets exacerbated when you see that 35 anima drop, and then notice the asshole who kept dying got an upgrade.

Mythic 0 works out well enough, the dungeons are easy enough and with every boss in them dropping something, even with the weekly lockout, feels a lot better than putting your all into a raid only to get nothing. I’d say the deluge of loot from 0 helped keep me going since there was always the chance of something coming from them.

And honestly, the Great Vault doesn’t fix it. I’ve had a week where, out of a full clear Nathria and 2 slots of mythic+, four out of five of my options were rings. And that one was alright because if it didn’t drop a trinket I could have used that. But I’ve had weeks where every possible upgrade was a slot that was already covered, while other slots wound up being stuck. I’d say even the catch-up mechanism of covenant gear doesn’t work due to both the anima cost of upgrading (which is FAR above 35 anima) and the extra put on your repair costs since the gear is worth 250 gold to vendors. Not exactly enticing.

And remember, I said group content was the GOOD part of the expansion.

Solo Content: Boring, Aggravating

It’s all downhill from here.

The New, Painful World Quests

When World Quests were introduced in Legion, they were usually pretty simple. Either quests you did to level, rares that you might have missed, and occasional puzzles from the Kirin Tor. BFA seemed to follow that in general, with the Tortollan replacing the Kirin Tor and occasional more involved battlefront world quests. But these were generally so plentiful that more often than not, if you wanted emissary but didn’t like an activity it was easy enough to find the simple ones.

Shadowlands World Quests attempt to be all the more involved type, and of small enough number that you’re going to hate some of them by the end of it. Some are fun, I will admit. Playing with Draka’s dog, the Maldraxxus running of the olympic torch, Theotar’s parasol, (most of) the tea time ones, and even one where you fly through the air to collect pupas. But then you have others.

And I’d say my biggest headaches have a common covenant: the Kyrian. Poorly programmed flappy bird. Dumb ‘training’ simon says. One that should be simple, just kill mobs… Except you have a stationary zone you have to pull them to and god help you if someone else is killing in the zone, doesn’t notice you, and now you have to wait out the cooldown to drop another one.

The gear rewards suck, the anima amount varies how much it’s worth it, and every other reward straight up aren’t worth it.

Also a lot of treasures are obnoxious. Like I can’t even think of how to elaborate on it it’s just so many are not worth the effort to find out how to open them because so many rewards are, you guessed it! 35 Anima.

Stagnant Sanctums

When I first saw sanctums I thought I’d have the patience to keep a few going. Having leveled 2 alts I can confirm I haven’t had the energy to even attempt to start their anima/soul grind.

First, we have the Mmission board. Because I chose the Necrolords first I didn’t realize just how bad some people’s were. Then I started night fae I soon fond out how blessed I’d been. Maldraxxus’ unit types are frontline and backline splash damage, and your first follower is entire board splash damage. I forgot what the follower for night fae did, but the night fae units are a healer and a dot applying unit.

Guess how man missions are massive amounts of enemies and how many are single objective focuses.

But then we have the anima conductor, and at first I thought it was a neat idea. Get rewards for putting anima back into the Shadowlands, and when I saw the second tier daily quests had a chance to give 500 anima . That seemed amazing and considering some of the quests were obnoxiously long and boring I assumed it was encouragement if you didn’t have the patience for other 35 anima rewards.

Then they hotfixed it the day after I found out it was only Necrolords. Now the quests are just boring and obnoxious world quests with the extra step of picking them up.

So now not only did the anima grind lose something to make it less obnoxious, and the time gating of souls for sanctum features, in addition to a lot of features just being underwhelming. I decided to waste resources on my travel network’s second level for a slow moving necropolis around my zone. There has NEVER been a point where the necropolis was a faster way to get to my destination over just mounting up and running. But hey, at least the shitty necropolis did what it promised and didn’t have people upgrade to find out their transport network didn’t do what it promised.

And hell, I’m liking making abominations, but the fact that so many options to customize them are behind a really obnoxious RNG (no Chordy, it’s not around here) it gets all the more aggravating to have fun with it. And I like stuff like Roseboil asking me if I have a boo-boo and telling me I’m tough.

Though with all these problems I have with anima, I guess at least it not being tied to progression like artifact power and azerite. Yet so many things fun things tied behind it with such slow, time-gated progression is aggravating. So clearly the solution would be infinitely grindable things, right?

Well…

Why are the Avowed a Thing?

I assume the Avowed were originally what the Venthyr had instead of the Ember Court and then realized it was terrible but then left it in to annoy alchemists and Venthyr that want certain tints.

I am no Venthyr. But I am an alchemist.

Least the Shadestones make me plenty of money.

I do not know why this faction still exists other than annoyance, or why they’re infinitely grindable like they are. In the sense that WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG?

Covenant Woes

I do like the Necrolords. Didn’t even choose them because they were (somewhat) meta for MW monk. I did it because I liked the aesthetic and the concept of my covenant ability being just tossing dust at someone is hilarious to me.

But I only like the wings part of my mog. I do not like the look of the leather set on my troll. And every other mog looks like actual armor. I mean I get it: cloth is house of rituals, mail is intended to be house of eyes (since Draka wears it), and plate is house of the chosen. So house of constructs is what is left for leather. I still don’t like it.

And the issue I have with a ‘right covenant’ is that that has changed already for some classes. Remember how I said Necrolord was somewhat meta above? Well that’s because the meta changed, they found out Kyrian is generally best overall. Or people who played warrior, heard their DPS was universally Venthyr, and found out later people did the math and found out that the night fae was best to do Mythic+. Not the worst thing since changing is easy. But I get the feeling more and more frustration is going to come as the expansion goes on.

Speaking of things that will definitely get worse.

The Maw Fucking Sucks

“Well it’s intended to be a hostile land that you want to get in quickly and out of quickly!”

Yeah. Still sucks. Transport options suck. The place tries to act like it’s bigger than it is by removing mounting except for a select few mounts. The dailies do not give enough ve’nari reputation to be worth it, in addition to the fact that, outside of the one use purchases ve’nari’s items are rarely worth it (wow a skeleton key for the incredibly simple puzzle chests that’s single use!). I feel bad for people who can’t do twisting corridors and have to rely on the shadehound hunt to make time in there feel less hellish.

Apparently Worgen can use running wild to circumvent it and you know what? Good for them. I hope that never gets/got patched.

Well Torghast is fun right?

Torghast is Terrible

The entire thing’s a timesink. Not enough fun builds to actually make it feel worth it past what you do to get your legendary. One of the deathroach pets seems to sell for a bit so I guess that’s a positive. It really feels like they did exactly what they did with World Quests: took something other mmos generally use for levelling, in this case the deep dungeon, and assumed people wanted to do it at max level. And I’d say it’s a good way to know they’re out of touch with their playerbase considering they had to nerf the last layers when they went live.

I think I was able to get through Twisting Corridors solely because I was a monk and our anima powers are good, but without a large amount of stamina or the right powers early on it goes to shit quick. But I got my mount so never have to see it again.

Also reminder that when Twisting Corridors went live there were still placeholder powers.

Future Worries

While mostly Torghast related figured I’d make this its own section.

What’s going to happen when new content comes out and legendaries have to be higher ilevel? Will they simply up the soul ash cost or put in another aggravating currency. What about legendary memories? Will more be added or will they have to be upgraded? Will we be wearing multiple? And how will anima be handled as things go on.

Really the big issue I have with all of this is from what I can gather, the mindless grind of wow continues to get more and more aggravating as expansions go on, with rarely a reprieve in sight.

Nitpicks

This is shit even I understand is probably not a big deal or might be personal preference.

LET MY TROLL WEAR SHOES THE VENTHYR MAIL AND NECROLORD PLATE DOES IT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD I’M PRETTY SURE SOME SHOES AT LEAST HAVE OPTIONS FOR HOOVED CHARACTERS.

Soulbinds vary in importance in covenant stories. Using Necrolord as an example, by the time you start the campaign Marileth is already done with his arc, Heirmir only exists to say they’re the Primus’ apprentice in smithing, and Emeni only shows up if you choose necrolord and is the only one with any prominence in the story. Necrolord is mostly the Azeroth trio each dealing with things, and it does have neat moments (always enjoyed the story of the Ashbringer, and Alexandros going “this is a large locked chest” crushing the lock, and then saying “it is now a large chest” was good) but I’d assume soulbinds would have more to do.

To compare, the Kyrian campaign seems to spend the most time with soulbinds, with Venthyr being second place, and Night Fae I think being a third. Further, odd things like a little under 2/3 of the Necrolord campaign being shared with other covenants, while Night Fae doesn’t interact with any in theirs. This is despite the fact that the Kyrian campaign interacts with all other factions, the Necrolord part being the same for that faction; and the Venthyr campaign interacts with Kyrian and Necrolords, once more the Necrolord version is shared. I guess I’d say I’d prefer they either commit to separate stories or overlapping uinversally, but maybe that’ll come with the next part.

Conclusion

Running out of steam for this random smattering of thoughts so conclusion.

Shadowlands I think is like most expansions. Launch is fun because everything is new, then the grind wears everyone down.

Make more loot drop for more difficulties or fix the great vault.

Really that’s all I got here’s a picture of my monk.

[zephfair]

Get to Know the Author

I was tagged by @desperatlytryingtowriteabook so this is about my fanfic (or lack thereof)

1. Is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason?

I have 10+ fics either mostly done or heavily outlined and I just don’t want to post them. I’m not super active in any fandom anymore so I know none of the fics are very good and I just don’t care enough to put them out there. They’re all fluff or humor or smut.

2. What work of yours, if any, are you embarrassed about existing?

Eh, I’m not embarrassed about any fic I’ve written because they all meant something to me at the time, even the weird one with alien sex.

3. What order do you write in? Front of book to back? Chronological? Favourite scenes first? Something else?

Mostly chronological, I guess. When I get an idea, I just start writing as fast as I can if the outline is developing in my head. I want to get down all the ideas I have, whether or not only a fourth of them make the final cut. That helps with the chronology and then all the little dialogue snippets I come up with as I go along. Once that’s done, it’s easier to go back to the beginning and fill it all in.

4. Favourite character you’ve written?

I love writing Riario from Da Vinci’s Demons and Gustav from Tokio Hotel.

5. Character you were most surprised to end up writing?

Gustav, definitely. And Grimmjow from Bleach.

6. Something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now?

Sometimes I get a hankering to go back and edit stuff to make it tighter but I’m too lazy. The only fic I’ve ever done that to is Thick as Thieves because it got weirdly popular for about a minute and every time I looked over it I found things I wanted to fix, particularly over-explaining and over-describing things. So I gave it a trim and hope that it reads a little better now.

7. When asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

The only people who know I write fanfic are online friends and I’ve had generally positive reactions from them. There was only one fandom I can think of that really looked down its nose at fanfic but I told them right off I was writing so they could judge me all they wanted.

8. Favourite genre to write?

Comedy, fluff and action. I break out in hives when I read or think about angst. And I always argue that there is a big difference between drama and angst. Drama is necessary in anything that isn’t a total fluff or slapstick comedy ficlet, but drama is good. I just can’t handle angst where everything bad happens and then more bad happens and then there is an unhappy ending.

9. What, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

I’ve been reading a lot thanks to Amazon Kindle’s freebie program thing and oh boy, does it make me appreciate good fanfic even more! Also it really helps to re-watch or re-read the source material for the fandom I want to write in. That usually brings up some more ideas for fix-it fic or adding on a scene here and there. Or suddenly realizing all the UST there was between two characters that I didn’t see a decade ago.

10. Write in silence or with background music? Alone or with others?

I have to have background noise, preferably the TV set to sports or sitcom reruns, something I won’t be paying attention to. I live alone so there’s that, but if I’m somewhere with a long wait, I’ve been known to write smut at the hairdressers and fluff fic at the garage waiting for my oil change.

11. What aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing?

I think my fanfic has actually gotten worse since I started posting on AO3. I feel like I hit a plateau during Teen Wolf days and then actually went downhill with characterizations and writing style. I lost the showing part of the stories and started getting lazy and relying on the telling.

12. Your weaknesses as an author?

Plots, omg, what are Plots???? I just don’t have the energy, time or creativity to come up with and execute any multi-chapter, intricately plotted fanfics. I admire and kiss the feet of fanfic authors who do. I’m madly jealous of you guys! Also lately the telling rather than showing thing, as I said.

13. Your strengths as an author?

I don’t have any. I guess I’m reasonably good at clean copy—spelling, grammar, punctuation.

14. Do you make playlists for your work?

Nah, I don’t listen to music while I write. But I do have a list of songs that reminded me of the DVD bandfic whose title I honestly can’t remember at the moment...it’s the longest title I ever made but it cracked me up at the time. Every time I hear one of those songs, I immediately think of those guys. I never shared it because it’s a weird mix of 80s and 90s hair bands, some 2010s pop and a few contemporary Christian songs whose singer was my voice model for Riario.

15. Why did you start writing?

I’ve been writing pretty much as long as I can remember, but the first time I shared it was in seventh grade when my two best friends and I started writing a book in a spiralbound notebook we passed back and forth. Now we would call it a self-insert fanfic, but we didn’t know anything except we were having a great time. Then they both left our school and I fell out of touch with them for the most part. I kept writing because I could make the world I wanted on the page so I could re-read it.

16. Are there characters that haunt you?

Canon characters that haunt me are Riario because he has layers hidden under his layers wrapped around his layers and canon did him so wrong. I still feel a lot of sympathy for Derek from Teen Wolf and want him to have a happy ending. Now I’m starting to feel a lot more feelings about Bleach characters.

17. If you could give your fledgling author self any advice, what would it be?

Write what you love. Read all the things, everything, every genre. Which is weird because I’ve done both of those things and … I haven’t turned out all that great. So I guess it would be to practice more, write all the time and don’t let yourself get lazy and complain you have no energy to write, you lazy fuck.

18. Were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? What were they?

I think Elizabeth Peters influenced my writing style in the past 18 years since I discovered her. Although I don’t write fanfic in the first-person, she is a master of the unreliable narrator as well as creating characters who are lively and complicated and burst off the page (which I don’t do). But her use of language and her style is wonderful, and I see glimpses of that sometimes but not often enough. Her humor is the one thing I strive for too. Also Terry Pratchett for his use of humor and satire and his brilliant way of turning everyday, common things on their head. I once wrote a fairy tale kind of fic for a prompt fest and the prompter compared it to Discworld, and I walked around with my chest puffed out for days.

19. When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, etc?

Ha, I don’t write complicated things. But my outline process serves me pretty well when I do attempt longer fic.

20. Do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts?

I prefer long sit-down sessions. Once I get in the groove, things seem to roll better. If I have to keep getting up or getting distracted, it sucks.

21. What do you think when you read over your older work?

“Hahaha, I can’t believe you answered a kinkmeme prompt where the two main characters were lions in a zoo and they humped.”

22. Are there subjects that make you uncomfortable to write?

Angst. I won’t write rape or sexual violence. No non-con. No major character death. I know there are other things but I don’t run into them because I only stick to the stuff I like.

23. Any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing?

All the time. I’ve pulled from my professional life more than once. I wrote one fic based on a very bizarre week that happened to me and everyone thought it was very wacky and hilarious. It wasn’t at the time and I did change the ending to give it a happy resolution, but I can look back now and merely grimace. I guess it was pretty funny.

24. Have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or a story?

No, I’m the opposite. If I write an AU fic, I try to set it in a world or scene that I’m already familiar with because I’m lazy. I did do some Renaissance research when I was writing for Da Vinci’s Demons.

25. Copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of.

From Treasure in Clay Vessels which is one of my favorite things, overall, that I’ve ever written:

Even though he'd seen the smaller sample, Girolamo was amazed all over again at the sight. It was awe-inspiring—a mechanical bird flying without wires. But even more astounding was the talent and sheer audacity of a man imagining that he could make mere metal fly as well as the Creator made birds take to wing.

It was blasphemy. It was surely sin.

It was incredible.