#idk. i love the meta of the storytellers

[apollos-boyfriend]

anyways this session has really solidified the reason quackity chose the people he did for me. because i remember connor getting an ask a while back complaining about how they wanted quackity to add people who would actually play instead of his friends (ie wilbur) who may not be active as often and. it rubbed me the wrong way for a lot of reasons, but mainly because it's clear quackity didn't choose just his friends. sure, it was a bonus that he was close to them, but quackity's first priority has never been "who can minmax the server and stream every day?" it's been "who is a good storyteller/who can tell a good story?"

because that's the core of it. the qsmp isn't about streaming or playtime, not necessarily. it's about the story. during the first announcement, people were surprised to see dantdm and jaidenanimations on the cast, because dan isn't really in quackity's circle and jaiden is barely an mcyt even if you push it. but you know what they were? storytellers. dan was a part of so many people's childhoods with his mod showcases and miscellaneous videos, all of which had lore. jaiden creates entire stories from video games! games with pre-determined stories that she has to spin into something new, something of her own.

and then the brazilians were added. some of them still did minecraft content, sure, but not all of them. but they were still storytellers. cellbit has his entire rpg. pac and mike have multiple roleplay series. and when you get to the french, the pattern repeats. baghera, for example, with her gta roleplay. not all of them are minecrafters at their core, but they are storytellers, and for most of them, improvisational ones at that. the same, of course, goes for the newest batch. pol is a filmmaker. vshojo has insane, deeply complex lore for all their vtubers. bagi is adept at ttrpg. sure, people being able to log on often is a necessity, but what good would that be if it ended up sacrificing quality for quantity?

this session really nailed it for me because you could see their expertise shine through. i feel like, even still, a lot of mcrp is seen as "lesser" because of its medium, or because of how it can switch between roleplay and just creators hanging out. roleplay is only typically praised and called to attention when it's highly emotional, and the same goes for the storytelling, with a heavier focus on how well creators can utilize angst as opposed to other moments. but this was treated differently. the silliness of minecraft was gone. what was previously disregarded came into light, like how fucking smart foolish is when writing characters and how well quackity is able to play into the story while staying true to his character, among other things! i just think quackity's brilliance in selecting his server members isn't talked about enough, because holy shit has he done a fantastic job

[moongothic]

It is objectively at least a little funny to me when people draw Crocodile super muscular 'cause like, sure, his torso may be as wide as a brick wall, but y'all seen his arms and legs?

They're skinny as shit, this man has never lifted a thing in his entire life, he probably doesn't even know how to run. Like Oda can draw people with muscular limbs, this shit's intentional

[wizardnuke]

i truly don't understand how people can get really into a fandom without seeing all/most of the material involved. how are you doinf that

[triglycercule]

i love doodling swapinverse like hello drawing characters aside from the normal mtt is lowkey therapeutic 🧡🧡🧡 anyways i FINALLY FINALLY finished crash's lore!!!! and vice.SER is connected to him,,,, theyre interconnected!!! i forgot how much i liked crash's design (not the design but all the little gimmicks in the design. figuring out all the hanging ribbon bits is annoying but hey it looks good)

[the-kipsabian]

..i also rewatched last years all in zero hours kip vs pac for research and i have so many things i could say about this match in the light of everything thats happened in the last year god

[dysthoepiadaily]

What are your favorite Dan videos? (also I love reading your metas!)

Thanks for enjoying my blog!

BIG (basic, but it IS the pinnacle of what Dan is capable of)

Story of my hamster

Evil Piano Teacher

The Panic Alarm

The Power Nap

How I Got Fired

Psycho French Teacher

Non storytelling videos:

I will go down with this ship (deleted video. first video I watched of his! It is close to my heart, even though it has a creep in it)

Pom Bear massacre (cute and weird. nothing special, I just enjoyed it)

Spiral of lies (deleted video. idk, I liked this one because I couldn't relate, and it was fascinating, from the perspective of someone surrounded by people who lied, and I didn't understand why)

[bengiyo]

Hi!!

Quick question: Is the level of regular engagement/posting/meta for BL series right now (particularly Step By Step and La Pluie, but others as well) a typical amount of engagement for a show in this little Tumblr corner? or above average? (or below average??)

Is it increasing because (from what I understand) things are changing and there's more to talk about nowadays?

As a newbie, I am having a FABULOUS time with reading and seeing everyone's different thoughts and perspectives and insights and learning new things. 'tis excellent. I don't think I've ever enjoyed watching TV more.

However, from what I understand the amount of BL coming out right now is actually in a bit of a lul? and so if this level of engagement is typical for the majority of shows (or only good shows idk) I'm going to have to put some time management stuff in place.

I just want to be prepared! Because this is Awesome!

Oh, this is a complicated one. I'm going to tag @absolutebl, @so-much-yet-to-learn, @lurkingshan, @ginnymoonbeam, @liyazaki, @negrowhat, @respectthepetty, and any other old fans reading this to also weigh in.

I think we are a shell of what we once were. At the height of 2gether, Bad Buddy, I Told Sunset About You, and a few other big shows you were getting banger after banger in the tags. I feel like I've been writing more lately because I miss that era and feel like I have to directly contribute to fostering it with new fans entering the space.

On the real, in 2020 @asianmade organized fans to submit letters and other content and assembled books to thank Bright and Win for the work they did on 2gether. We even got confirmation from Bright that they got the books.

I think good storytelling begets good reactions. The more invested we are, the more we're going to talk about it. I think fandom really only works when we're all actively contributing to it in some way. Reblogging and leaving fun comments in the tags. Writing crack posts. Sharing clown theories about what might be happening. Making gifs. Making fan vids. I genuinely think that the experience of watching the show improves when fans come together to share their ideas and build each other up.

Still, there used to be a lot more of us on tumblr. I hope that we continue to be this invested in the shows that follow. I feel like we're about to turn a lot more of our attention to Be My Favorite.

So, if you're enjoying the experience of having so much to read, please add to the stream! Write your thoughts down! Love the shows loudly! Tag us if you write something! Message us if you have questions!

[maygrcnt]

Your post about the loft is so true but also it hit me that this is another thing that made me pause when Tommy actually LIKED the loft in 7x04. He clocked it as expensive and appreciated the big empty nature of it. Which is interesting if we apply it to perception of homes and people needing to match.

im hijacking this ask to talk about something else but i promise its related and ill circle back to what you said bc ohhh anon your mind i LOVE this. it relates so completely perfectly to a meta i was talking about the other day with @treasurehuntbuck that has to do with the phrase “fake mouth static”

official disclaimer: it’s called meta because it digs into the meta textual implications of on screen elements that aren’t explained explicitly. i’m not grasping at straws, it’s just a personal analysis so pls, preemptively shut up about how unfounded this is because: that’s the point

anyway, i was mentally stuck on “fake mouth static” for a while because idk its such an important turn of phrase and moment in the bt relationship and a phrase that was not only said but repeated a few times in that pivotal first kiss scene. and now maybe im just fresh off my hispanic literary analysis course but i seem to remember that repetition in storytelling is basically just pointing a big red neon sign at a concept and saying THERES SOMETHING MORE HERE to the reader.

first the word fake, exactly what’s there. pointing to phony, dummy, not real. it may feel new and exciting but it’s not quite the real thing that we know buck is searching for. fake also makes me think of “i guess” because… if it feels like a lie to the viewers, if tommy was surprised by the fact… well maybe it was fake?

and then static rly gets me because what is static but the absence of content right? when a radio isn’t tuned to a station there’s static. when the tv is on a dead channel there’s static. it’s placeholder fuzz for something that should be entertainment. so take with that what you will.

and i bring THAT personal analysis up because it fits very well with the idea you bring up about the loft. tommy likes the loft; the void, the static, the fake. tommy being interested in the loft seems like one more to add to my growing pile of reasons they seem to be more of a fascade than a relationship. what they represent is more than what they are.

[sunflowerdigs]

But truly, as a person who hasn't really been all that comfortable in her own skin until recently and who has typically felt like she didn't fit in, it's been a real treat watching Loki find that one person who knows all of his shit but loves him in spite of (because of) it. And I think that's why it's so hard for me to understand why anyone would be clinging to Sylki at this point because Lokius is this wonderful, warm, accepting safe space. And, heck, if you only have that with your platonic friends and not your romantic partners, I don't know what to tell you. Lokius seems like the pinnacle of human connection between two people in that sense, what we're all looking for - someone who knows us because they've taken the time to learn us, and who greets every day that they get to keep knowing and learning us with delight and deep fascination.

Loki can give that gift to Sylvie, I guess, if the writers want him to. But she doesn't have the capacity to give it back yet - she's still very much in fear mode, there's no room for anybody but herself in her heart and mind right now. And that's fine, it makes total sense. But it's...illogical and unfair to say that Loki needs to wait for her to get to the point where she has the capacity to love him when there's someone else right there, right now able and willing to love him in that way. And that person is also very lonely and looking for someone to love. This isn't Sylvie's story after all - it's Loki's. It's his journey to love and acceptance, not her's.

Additionally, I think Loki wants to be the one to "fix" Sylvie in the way that Mobius "fixed" him but it doesn't really work because they're too similar, there's no room for that empathy and fascination with a different set of flaws and fears that leads to growth.

Idk. I'm fairly sure that the finale is going to be a disappointment to Lokius shippers and I'm struggling to accept that because it's been such a lovely and honest ride so far with these two. Loki literally turning to the camera in 2x05 and saying he's going to rewrite the story (so, in a meta sense, fix the flaws of the story that's been told) has given me a bit of hope, but, eh - it's Marvel. Heteronormativity will likely win out in the end. But I've had so much fun reading the reactions of other people and collecting the fic and the art. We're not wrong, we're just ahead of our time. I've gotta believe that, at some point in the future, a character as popular and beloved as Loki could get with another man without that heavy-handed, hand-holding, "this is gay, turn away now if you don't like it" kind of storytelling. Maybe not on Thursday. But someday.

[yennas-stuff]

elriels seem completely incapable of making any arguments for their ship on a meta level. like all of their arguments always rely on picking apart the text in a very literal manner, misrepresenting the text out of context, or just straight up biased takes on what the characters are thinking/desire (like idc what elain wants.... she's a character walking in whatever direction SJM wants). never in all my time lurking have i seen a single compelling meta argument from them outside of "elriel has already been set up", and "it would make no sense to casual readers if elriel didn't happen", and my favorite outright false claim that they love, "sjm said the series is about the archeron sisters".

idk how they champion so hard for a ship that they can't even make a good narrative argument for--because it doesn't make any sense from a storytelling perspective and they either know it or are too ignorant on the technicalities of writing a novel to understand that.

they take people's arguments like mine (saying idc what elain wants) and misdirect people's attention by calling it misogyny or whatever other stupidity they spew, and COMPLETELY miss the point everyone's making that it's not that we "don't care about elain" and "hate elain" but that we understand that narratives need to have a little something called dramatic irony, which only exists if characters are in opposition in some way (elain resisting the mating bond).

elain is not a victim of people's misogyny, she's a fictional character who some people would find less interesting if her endgame romance was as simplistic as "she likes azriel so she's going to end up with azriel", and all the drama for the book has to come from outside factors like Rhys keeping them apart... and... what? Breaking the mating bond before they can be together? Even though they already were happily going to touch each other seemingly without any regard to the mate bond/lucien being around? The book would be as big of a disaster as CC3 because it would rely completely on external plots... but that's just my biased opinion on a different topic, anyway.

It just doesn't make sense and it would be completely random for them to end up together, narratively. I know they argue the opposite but they just can't back it up with any logical arguments. I think that's why it confuses me that there are so many of them... i guess lotssss of people really read at a very surface level depth

First of all, thank you for the message!

Agreed about their theories. They also never make sense to me and seem to be based more on vibes than anything else. I could see how, to some people, their aesthetic can be appealing, but personally, I don't enjoy soft girl/bad boy trope. But it doesn't matter much since it's about what sjm enjoys and gravitates towards... and the whole point of the series is LIKE CALLS TO LIKE. It's about choosing a partner to match your energy, to help you meet your fullest potential.

We HAVE enough evidence to say that Azriel wouldn't let Elain do much about her powers. He speaks for her. He wants to duel her mate, which shows us he doesn't understand her on a deeper level. Elain also couldn't help Azriel heal and get better mentally. He wouldn't share his darkness with her. He doesnt plan any future together.

Is that the forbidden romance they are fighting so hard for? Lucien is so far away, respecting her boundaries. Rhys has already promised to keep Elain safe if she decided to reject the bond. So, who would they be fighting? What's forbidden about it?

You are so right that it reads very surface level. Their possible plot seems to be rejecting the bond, and what else ???? Koshei is connected to Lucien and BOE. So they would completely destroy Lucien and their connection to human lands. He will not just get over it and be with Vassa (lol). Mating bonds are a serious business. ONLY THE IMPORTANCE AND INEVITABILITY OF MATING BONDS HAD 4 BOOKS OF BUILD-UP. Not their ship.

Do they want the repeat of Nesta's warrior training arc? How would spy training look like? Didn't Az himself say it's boring? You just sit and observe...

Elain's visions seemed to be connected to Lucien's closeness (coz acowar). Also, Cassian's presence grounded Nesta and helped her out. Wouldn't Lucien be needed for Elain to wake up her visions back? Az would just sit in the corner and silently fume and spiral about not being her mate...

It's just... how can they not see that they are fighting for the losing side. And what for? Some smut scenes? That's what ao3 is for, babes. And they will get canon Azriel smut. They dont need to worry. Just not with Elain. (Gwyn seems more likely to keep up with his stamina. They do work out a lot, lmao.)

[leolingo]

(long post about purgatory and meta and rp)

sigh one thing ive been thinking is that it feels a bit unfair to see so many people complaining or doomposting over how purgatory affects the overarching qsmp rp story or how it ~interrupted arcs~ or is ~disturbing current storylines~ or ~narratively unsatisfying~ like. Sure. its a bit abrupt and most players were caught off guard because lore-wise it stems from the federation which means none of them were told about anything beforehand

but... its only been three days. maybe we could have a little faith? like idk ill be soooooo out there rn and say that maybe the admins did this now for a reason. maybe itll make sense later on. we already see lore repercussions with elquackity and his motives and all the nods to the eggs.

theres fair criticism to be made (when done respectfully) if youre mainly here for the roleplay but i feel like we sometimes need to remind ourselves that the qsmp storytelling is a VERY ambitious project. lmao. imagine being the writing team and trying to wrangle 20+ characters with distinct points of view and journeys on an ever-changing story because of the very nature of live rp. its practically IMPOSSIBLE to tie up every loose end neatly and at this point i dont think we should expect that. keeping up momentum with all plotlines must also be pretty hard, cc's schedules and outside factors like server programming and building and mod tweaking and all those meta elements considered and so on and so on

i DO also want the story to move forward and be cohesive and make sense in a satisfactory way. like i really do!!!!!!! but i try to understand that thats not ALL the qsmp is about. from the start quackity said the server wouldn't be exclusive to the rp aspect. it sure is that way right now, but thats because most of the active members are VERY passionate about roleplaying. thats a good thing! they have fun and its fun to watch and the experience is mostly good for everyone because it corresponds to their expectations to an extent

the thing about purgatory is that i feel like its a lot more meta than most people doomposting realize. it ties into the story, sure, but to me it feels like the sudden switch in environment and vibes and stakes isnt actually catered to the rp and thats FINE. like thats not what it exists for and thats fineeeeeee

pac for one has said he appreciates the event for the change of pace, though its very hard (lol), because regular qsmp was starting to feel a bit stale to him and he was kind of running out of things to do. THATS A GREAT THING! managing player engagement like that is awesome and sometimes necessary. YES, purgatory caters to a very different playstyle than what we're used to -- and thats one of its strenghts.

a lot of hispanic creators have also felt this!!!! roier, rivers and carre most prominently have been VERY excited about this event because its similar in format to a lot of spanish speaking events like mc extremo and such. a lot of these players are also not particularly interested in rp-ing and had not been logging on very often prior to purgatory.

even roleplay regulars like tubbo, fit and bbh have shown interest in purgatory for the competitive nature of the setting!!! thats cool too!!!! something different, new possibilities to play around with. thats what the events should be about. kudos to the admins and dev teams for attempting it in such a big scale. their effort shows and all the mechanics weve seen are really fucking cool

i love the roleplay!!!!!! its one of my favorite parts of the qsmp!!!!!! but its not ALL there is and it shouldnt be! non rp-oriented creators are also part of the project and deserve to have a little fun too -- not to mention a big chunk of the hispanic fan community that has blown up twitter with support bc what we have rn is similar to events they already love!!!!!!! im glad to see so many of them get excited again!!!!!!

at the end of the day, qsmp is a LONG long term project, and purgatory ends in two weeks. by the time its over, we can all choose to engage with it as we wish. it can be a big filler episode in your mind, if you want. it can be just for fun..... otherwise, if its not fun, your regularly scheduled qsmp will be back soon anyway :3 its fine to not like it, its fine to have something negative to say about it if properly tagged and not like. crazy entitled or blown out of proportion for what this situation is.

i just hope we can all manage our online experiences accordingly and avoid making things less enjoyable for each other. this is supposed to be fun

[nevertheless-moving]

Hi! I love your writing snippets - have you thought about posting them on ao3

Thank you!! Yes, I have thought about it, for sure! I'm nevertheless_turtle on ao3.

(I have... six fics, all of them star wars, half of them unfinished, last one updated in January 2022. Unless someone decides to put a million dollars in my kofi jar, this is for Fun, so unfortunately once the hyperfixation fades...it fades*.

:( star wars back and forth tumblr fics with star wars mutuals my beloved... murderbot discord i loved collaborative storytelling with ya'll and i miss you...i don't know how to make friends on the internet i just talk blorbos in situations and my blorbos drift over time... hello stormlight archive fandom)

! anyone want to talk about putting my type of blorbo, which when i check my notes is a pathetic wet person who is very good at killing but somewhat tries to avoid it, if you want to talk putting someone like that in a Situation, Hey! i may or may not be your person. this ask is really getting away from me i might be tired from walking a bunch of miles today...

*i do historically cycle back around to fandoms! i was lurking on tumblr for over a decade before i posted anything and there was definitely a cyclical nature to it! i consistently knit furiously for 3 months and then take a 4 year break! star wars fics wait for me!

aNYWAY writing fic directly into Tumblr adn/or Discord or if i don't have internet connection then a fuckin shitty notes app appears to be the Key for me?? like i tried fic writing before that in Word or Docs and it just didn't go?? idk! I think it's like the comic sans trick.

wait i still haven't answered the question.

you know, the thing is, when i write a snippet at the end of 5 paragraphs of background meta for an au, or a literal bullet point list, i'm not really sure how to post that to ao3. can you post chatfic and bullet points to ao3? it feels weird? idk. real question for the crowd in the midst of an extremely incoherent ask answer. let me know what you think!

me to myself: the question. scroll back up. what was the question. myself to me: that was answering the question! somewhat!

Right now a bunch of fic writing is churning around and out of brain, and circumstances have aligned for better or worse such that i have time and mental energy and ideas to write. we'll see how it goes. Once I get a bit more posted on tumblr i'll probably put things together and either make seperate works for different aus, or a masterwork of different tumblr aus that i don't think i'll develop further. i may turn some of those bulletpoint lists into cleaner fics for posting, making my earlier point moot.

some of my aus i already have a bunch written on my phone over meals or stopped in the middle of a side walk or on bus and train rides (why would an ELEVEN HOUR TRAIN RIDE not have an outlet to charge my laptop??). so. if i clean that stuff up ill probably post it to tumblr, then immediately notice the spelling mistakes, edit, then post to ao3.

a perfect system.

for my most recent snippet, well, that's actually self contained (not an au that requires 6 paragraphs of background to understand the snippet) and not a chat fic, so i WAS thinking i would just post it to ao3 soonish. i asked in the tags if anyone felt like betaing for ao3, i am wildly but unquestioningly assuming that the sorta individual who would want to beta a fic for me are reading the tags on my tumblr fic post. if anyone likes betaing stormlight or is interested in betaing a specific au/fic idea i've mentioned, hit me up.

TLDR above, tumblr is a for fun rough draft looser writing form place for me. ao3 feels like its asking for a bit more polish and structure. i have writing bees in my brain right now so i'm slightly more focused on that then editing, but if anyone feels like doing some form of beta, reach out and we can chat about it. regardless, i will clean up at least some of my recent snippets and post to ao3 eventually.

[sillypiratelife]

Watching the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and for some reason I think that Sanji would feel identified and cry so hard with it?

Here's how I see it:

The main villain, Claude Frollo, is the father (figure) of the protagonist. He's a cruel and manipulative man who groomed Quasimodo by making him think that he was a monster and no one could ever love him. Frollo is also a bellicose man who uses his power to bring chaos and horror in the name of "goodness". He doesn't tolerate disobedience and would gladly burn entire cities to get what he wants.

The way Frollo can only see Quasimodo for his usefulness, like a weapon or a soldier.

THE FEAR TO BE PUNISHED. AUCH.

FOR FEELING.

Quasimodo taking to visual representation the feeling of having something wrong with you, of feeling unworthy of love or unlovable, of thinking you're defected while also wishing to escape your confinement.

I personally think Sanji frames his own life like a joke sometimes to deal with the trauma and the abuse of his past. It's fitting then, that the movie is framed in a carnival sense of irony.

I also think that there's an interesting parallel in terms of meta-textuality. The story within the story, the role of the storyteller, those are things you can find both in Sanji's past and in the movie. Sanji and Quasimodo being both popular figures within their own cultures...

Maybe it's something about a man who grew up thinking he was a monster and a mother that got sacrificed while she was trying to protect her son.

Something about the kindness of gargoyles reminding me of the Baratie?? The way they interact is very funny, idk. They're so silly and fight so much and worry and try sooo hard to push Quasimodo to live his life instead of just staying for his job. They want him to go out, to chase his dreams.

Quasimodo and Sanji taking the passive role out of misplaced guilt and sense of loyalty.

All of this completely ignoring the fact that the movie is set in France lol, but okay.

The songs would absolutely get Sanji. He'd deny everything, he'd get defensive, he would do anything to deflect the attention.

There's a whole conversation to be had about the way the Romani people are portrayed and the discrimination they suffer, but for now I'll just say that the strawhat crew would feel identified in them, for several reasons.

The unfairness of the system, the corruption and cruelty, the torture (!!!) and the war and the balance between Phoebus' righteousness and Claude Frollo's rotten heart— you know what I mean.

THE FESTIVAL. THE COURT OF MIRACLES. THE COMPARISON WITH THE WAY OF LIFE OF PIRATES AND THEIR JOY.

But this is about Sanji, right?

He'd fall immediately for Esmeralda. Which is expected. Her character is perfect to depict the relationship between Sanji and women. The edge of (over)sexualization around them mixed with the rejection Quasimodo feels by the way they mock him, mixed even more with the way he's absolutely starving for love and affection. He wants acceptance, kindness and physical intimacy.

Esmeralda really personifies it all. All Sanji wants and needs. She apologizes for her mistake and frees Quasimodo by comparing his situation to her people, the Romani. She fights for him and stands for him against the representative of justice in the city. Bold and powerful and so skilled in a fight. Insane as hell and sooooo beautiful.

She'll be worthy the raging Sanji would get for the way the people wasted food throwing it at Quasimodo.

(depending on who you ship with Sanji, there is a way to compare them to Esmeralda and Phoebus, that I can assure you).

(and depending on how you see Sanji when it comes to gender and sexuality, you can talk about the role of Catholicism and religious guilt and manipulation).

Wow. This post is... long.... very long... Oops.

This is slowly developing into an au in my head. I'll leave this here and let you guys think about the potential of it all.

[matan4il]

You don't have to answer what the "text messages" were because I have no clue what it could be. But I panicked for a moment, thinking it was Buddie related. Your post made it seem like maybe you were moving away from them, and I hope not. It's a really depressing time right now, and especially knowing we will be lucky to get anything as early as March. I have brought my expectations down to 8 episodes if we are lucky. And that stresses me because I always felt like Buddie going Canon was a season long arc, so now I worry what is that gonna do to half a season. It's just a bummer by now we would be getting previews and pictures and close to the premier.

Anyways I just hope that when we have stuff to talk about, you're still here because your content is my favorite!!!

Awwwww, Nonnie! Your favorite? That is SO sweet of you! Thank you so much for the kind words! *HUGS*

Don't worry. I don't move on that easily, def not from Buddie. I love those two idiots too much for that. Also, I have written tens of thousands of meta words for them, I will be damned if I quit before I get to learn how their saga ends. At least canonically, I always reserve the right to decide what happens to them off screen after the show has ended. ;)

I saw one headline that said 911 might not be back before September 2024. IDK if it's true, but a part of me wouldn't mind. I support the actors and writers' strike, but I also remember what the 2008 writers' strike (which I also supported and still do) did to the quality of shows. And that one was shorter. So a part of me thinks it's better to wait for longer and (once the strike has ended with hopefully the victory of actors and writers who deserve to be treated properly) get a proper full season with the right kind of development and storytelling that we and the characters deserve. I know it's depressing to think about waiting that long. To me personally, it would be sadder if we got the next season sooner, but botched up.

Either way, I hope you're finding ways to hang in there! It's part of why I've been reblogging old posts, so that maybe people can find little Buddie treasures that they've missed the first time around.

Thank you again for the kindness, I am hugging you SO big, Nonnie! And I am very much still here with you, even when I'm babbling about my second hyperfixation... All the love to you! xoxox

(for all of my ask replies, click here, for all of my content, here)

[corvidcrybaby]

20 Author Questions

Shout-out to @the-frankenman-writes for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

4 - I actually only started publishing fics a little over a year ago and my main project has been a still-running longfic so I haven't been able to build up much of an archive thus far LOL.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

408,653. The longfic is a fucking TOME.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

At the moment, just Hellsing. I do intend to publish some Castlevania fanfiction soon, and I've got a couple of larger OC fics planned for Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Guess I'm listing all my fics in order with an empty bottom slot, oopsie!

formulas fatal to the flesh - Alucard (Hellsing)/Transfemme Jewish Reader fic that also serves as the "pilot" for my OC longfic. I originally started writing this as a means of exploring my sexuality in the wake of HRT changing a lot of things about my desires whilst also issuing a love letter to my favorite series. Then everything got intense.

2. Interview With the Impaler - Alucard (Hellsing)/Transfemme Reader. This was me trying out some new ideas with how I write Alucard as well as just trying to contribute to the transfemme reader insert pool. It's really nice when you don't have to mentally change the genitals of the reader insert you're reading about to put yourself in their shoes and enjoy the fantasy, so I like providing more of it.

3. lesions of a different kind - Alucard Hellsing/Transfemme Jewish OC. My longfic, my baby, my first foray into long-form storytelling. She's choppy, she's unhinged, she's full of bigger ideas than I know what to do with, but damn it all, I'm having fun with her. This is the main story of Zemira Shani Makhabi, my homebrewed blorbo and shameless self-critique. She started out as a reader insert before I decided to turn her into a golem allegory full of meta commentary on what it means to relate to a fictional character. That, and so much BDSM shit like oh man so FUCKING much.

4. Operation: GREENHOUSE - Pip Bernadotte (Hellsing)/Zemira Shani Makhabi. In dead last, a fic involving a character who is unfortunately not very popular to write about, but I happen to find incredibly hot in his own right. Technically AU of an AU fic too? IDK man I just wanted to write steamy smut about these two because I thought their dynamic was fun bwahahaha

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

Absolutely I do! They really motivate me to continue and I love connecting with people based on how they perceive my work.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

MWEHEHEHEHE that'd be Interview With the Impaler. I used the Mean Alucard tag for a reason. I may continue this story yet tbh, because I could make it ever angstier.

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

Operation: GREENHOUSE. Just ends with those two snuggling and teasing each other. Easy shit.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I'm extremely lucky to have never gotten a mean comment and hope it never happens.

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

LITERALLY EVERYTHING I WRITE IS SMUT BWAHAHAHAHA I lean heavy on a few tropes - maledom/femsub shit, mind break/hypnosis/heat/etc, and a constant obsession with men's hands. Hands in general, tbh, I get really horny about hands.

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

I've never published a crossover but I like the idea of one. I would need to find two series which I REALLY wanted to compare and contrast.

11. Have you ever had a fiction stolen?

None that I know of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

See above

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

Nothing that's published, but a pal of mine and I are cooking something cool up rn... You know who you are.

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

ALUTEGRA BAYBEEEEEEEEEEE my beloved genderfuck angst-fest full of questions about monstrosity vs. humanity and forbidden desires and old souls and and and and look do you know how hard it is to have an OTP that literally never touch in the original series

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

I don't have any right now but I live in constant fear I'll wake up one day without the drive to finish Lesions. That would make me so sad.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I can write really visceral gore and snappy action scenes, I can construct a layered character like a motherfucker, and I'm pretty damn good at dialogue, I think.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

OOF. Plot. Fucking PACING. I feel like my stories can sometimes feel like super compelling personalities flopping about in a sandbox. Which can work, for some cases, but I try to deliver on the promise of a compelling plot.

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

It really depends. I've seen writers do it with tags for the translated words? It seems to work best for small, potent exchanges.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I think this honor actually goes to Pokemon. I was doing a Nuzlocke comic once upon a time!

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

Probably Lesions, thus far, lol

Tags: @neet0 @rotten-hearts-sharp-teeth @brunette-barbie42

[addictedtostorytelling]

Hi AJ! I’m sorry if you’ve been asked this before but I couldn’t find anything like this 😅 as an old GSR fan I’ve always thought their ending in 9.10 was perfect, even if I missed them on the show, it just felt so right. So I was a little upset when Sara returned sans Grissom and I tend to ignore the divorce thing and all that came with it because imo the two of them in Costa Rica after everything they went through just made so much sense to me. So I was wondering what you think would have been their ultimate ending, like if Sara hadn’t returned and they stayed together around the globe until, idk, they both returned for the show’s finale together. Like what would life have been for them then? I know that’s way AU but it’s honestly how I sometimes want to think of them, even if I loved the finale and their return in CSI Vegas. Sorry for the lengthy question 😳 thank you so much for all your writing and meta, I’m a huge fan too! 🤍

hi, anon!

thank you for your kind words! i'm so glad you enjoy my stuff.

re: your question:

i'm very much with you in feeling like the reunion in episode 09x10 "one to go" was the natural conclusion to the gsr canon storyline.

while of course i don't begrudge jorja fox returning to work on the show—her career, her call—from a storytelling perspective, i also, like you, wish grissom and sara could have remained together off-screen for the duration of the show, only returning for the series finale.

there is no part of sara's or gsr's story from episode 09x10 "one to go" on that i would lament the loss of could we swap it out for them getting to keep their happy ending in the rainforest (and never having to go through that godawful, nonsensical divorce).

that said, i will admit: i honestly have never given much thought to imagining what might have happened had sara never returned to the lab in s10.

my personal "ignoring the later seasons of show canon" happy place au actually starts a bit earlier, in s8, based on the premise of "what if sara never left vegas to begin with?" so that's where i spend most of my daydreaming hours.

that so, i'm afraid i don't have a particularly well thought-out or cogent answer to your question.

there are probably lots of ways that scenario could play out satisfactorily.

to offer a few:

they could stay in costa rica, continuing with whatever scientific research work sara was doing there at the time that grissom joined her. could be there for however many years. eventually, they could retire. live on the beach. become that eccentric old american couple with a house full of curios, insects, and animals. grissom could wear hawaiian shirts. sara could learn spanish. they could come back to vegas for the series finale tanned (in grissom's case) and freckled (in sara's), with windswept hair and deep, deep smile lines, grissom spouting off dichos and sara with photos of sea turtles in their "front yard" saved on her phone.

they could essentially do what in canon they do between "immortality" and csi: vegas s1: i.e., globetrotting as they engage in some kind of scientific research. both of them are wired such that they want to make positive contributions to the world they live in, so they could end up having "second careers" in conservation work (whether it were with a "save the bees" initiative or a sea shepherd expedition or something else related to ecology) in order to scratch that itch. maybe they could live on a boat like the ishmael and sail the seas. conversely, maybe they could be more landbound but move around taking part in various projects, like setting up urban apiaries or tracking butterfly migratory routes. when they came back to vegas for the series finale, they could have all sorts of stories about the places they'd been and the work they were doing. invite greg to come and join them the next time they were in the amazon. tell catherine if she ever wanted to catch the whale stopover in baja, she could always crash on their couch.

or, in a slightly different spin on the above idea, maybe they could become wildlife photographers or national geographic explorers.

they could also go on the lecture circuit, traveling around to offer seminars at different criminalistics conferences and law enforcement training programs around the world. after all, between them they have almost forty combined years of experience in the field and share a wealth of knowledge, which they could use to educate the "rising generation" of forensic scientists. they've both always been excellent teachers, too. and it would be a fun little callback to the way they met, right? maybe in the finale, some new lvpd hire could recognize them from a panel they attended in grad school; admit to having a secret crush on sara ("she was just so knowledgeable about everything, up there with her hair pulled back in a ponytail, talking about how you can't always trust your first blush—").

alternatively, they could settle down someplace, whether abroad or back in the states (maybe in california, to be close to grissom's mother?). perhaps grissom could take work at a university, teaching and conducting research, and sara could assist him. she could also pursue some kind of work of her own—maybe with a nonprofit project. (she's so multitalented and highly educated; there are a million and one things she'd be good at!) she could also potentially go back to school to pursue a phd so that she and grissom could eventually be spousal hires at the same institution. rock back to vegas in the finale as "dr. sidle" or "dr. grissom."

they could write books together: on criminalistics, on entomology, on something they had researched. bonus points if some aspect of the case in the series finale touched up on the subject they'd been publishing about.

i've always liked the idea of them maybe trying out the ranch life—living out in the countryside, away from any big cities, having a few horses and chickens and dogs and cats, grissom getting to play out some of his childhood cowboy fantasies, sara maybe doing some equine therapy. they could take up insect farming. (spending so much time in nature and around animals would undoubtedly be something they'd both enjoy. good for them, too!) picture grissom making all sorts of metaphors about roping and riding in the finale. sara just beaming at him ("okay, buckaroo").

they could—maybe after some significant time spent away from the field—return, once they were no longer burnt out on the work, to criminalistics, but at another lab, away from vegas (and all its "ghosts"). maybe the finale could involve some cross-country fugitive case that required their lab to team up with the lvpd.

maybe grissom could take an early retirement and sara could work in some field of her choosing—something to do with animal advocacy or scientific consulting work (putting that ol' physics degree to good use). grissom could develop some obscure hobby, like raising heirloom vegetables or reconstructing ancient roman board games or something. baffle everyone with references to it during the finale.

one thing i think would be true across all of these scenarios is that grissom and sara would get married (probably not long after their jungle reunion).

there could be versions of this story where they have kids, either biological or fostered or adopted.

versions where it's just them and a dog.

i tend to prefer takes where they'd still remain in contact with their old friends as opposed to completely falling off the grid (as seems to be the case post-"immortality" in canon), though they could do so living far away, if needed.

of course, the main thing i would absolutely want to see would just be them together and thriving, with their happy ending intact.

anyway.

sorry i don't have a more well-thought answer for you!

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.