#it fills me with glee seeing all the kudos and comments

[bitbybitwrites]

fic writer 20 questions - ask game

I was tagged by @kurtsascot - Thanks for thinking of me!💖

tagging the following to answer, only if they want to : @heartsmadeofbooks, @gleefulpoppet, @forabeatofadrum, @rockitmans, @hkvoyage @myheartalivewrites, @clottedcreamfudge @lady-divine-writes, @yadivagirl @kirakiwiwrites @scatter-the-stars @spaceorphan18, @1908jmd @little-escapist and anyone else who may be interested - jump on in!

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

15

2. whats your ao3 word count?

146,161

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Right now, just Glee. But I'm contemplating branching out (*cough RWRB cough*) 😉

4. top 5 fics by kudos

1.) If I Can Make Your Heart My Home 2.) Under The Cover of Darkness 3.) Trick of Treat 4.) Come Into My Parlor 5.) Klaine Drabbles and Shorts

5. do you respond to comments? why or why not?

I do! Sometimes it takes me awhile respond, but I like to. I really appreciate when folks drop a comment. I know it's easy to hit kudos and move on, but when a reader adds just a little more, it's a nice thing to see. Like you've taken just a little extra time to let me know what you are thinking, if you are frustrated, if you're happy, if you all are getting the same feeling as readers as I do as a writer - it's nice to see and I like to acknowledge that the reader has done that.

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

Ending? Well I seem to deposit my angst in the middle of fics - so if we are talking about endings that's a tough call. I'm not sure if it would be considered angsty . . but Come Into My Parlor doesn't really have a happy ending - so maybe that one?

7. whats the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Ahhhh . . most of my fics have ended happily - I don't know what the happiest one is. Maybe Under The Cover of Darkness?

8. do you get hate on fics?

No . . I mean I've had some very passionate responses towards characters and what they've done in fics - but nothing that was a disparaging take on my writing style as a whole.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

*blushing* ok . . yes. No PWP written as of yet, but I've had some smut in my fics - though I'm on the fence as to how good I am at it. 😂. I'm getting better! (or at least trying!) I've written mature and explicit scenes in fics . . dabbled a little with some bondage and D/s . . not sure how to answer this "what kind" of smut part of this question 😂

10. do you write crossovers? whats the craziest one youve ever written?

So far, have only written one. It was and Adams Family/Glee fic inspired by a drawing by @justgleekout called Dancing In The Moonlight. Now was it the craziest? Well it certainly wasn't a crossover I would have ever expected to write- but it really kind of made sense once I saw the artwork and thought about it for a bit.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge. If anyone sees anything, let me know!

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Same answer to 11. Not to my knowedge.

13. have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Not at this time. More of a solo writer. I tend to take a long time to write and I think I'd frustrate the hell out of any poor person matched up to write a fic with me.

As an aside, when you talk about being paired up with another person for a challenge - like someone else provides the prompt/art and you need to fill in the rest - its both very exciting and nerve wracking for me at the same time. I've only done 2 of those so far (my current WIP - the Reverse Prompt challenge and a Secret Santa challenge.) There's always this part of me that's worried that I'm going to disappoint whoever I'm paired up with - will I live up to their expectations to what they are hoping the finished fic will turn out to be. Will my ideas go beyond what they wanted, if I have to tweak or changes to the original prompt, will they be open to it/ my interpretation of the prompt? I guess in my head if its something I'm writing on my own, I only have myself to disappoint if the finished product isn't quite right.

14. fave all time ship?

Right now I'm big into in my Klaine and Firstprince era 😂. I love those boys.

15. wip you want to finish but doubt you will?

Right now the WIP I all have I intend to finish - just gotta find the time.

16. what are your writing strengths?

Maybe dialogue. I think most of my dialogue feels very natural. I think I'm pretty good at editing. Brainstorming ideas?

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

Spelling. The use of an ellipsis 😂 Timing . . .I'm horrible with deadlines.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

I don't mind doing it. I just make sure to add some sort of translation for it somewhere. Either along side ( like having the english translation in parenthesis next to the foreign language parts ) or in the end notes of a fic.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

Glee

20. fave fic youve written?

I really enjoying my current WIP - If I Can Make Your Heart My Home but aside from that since its not technically completed yet, I have to say I really enjoyed writing All Aboard. It probably is overstuffed with call backs to the show, which I love seeing in any fics (call backs to whatever the source material is) - and it was fun trying to craft the story without giving too much of it away at once so the ending (hopefully) will be a surprise?

[invisibleraven]

20 questions writer meme!

I wa tagged by my beloved @bananakarenina <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3? In total across 5 fandoms, 124, 84 of those are JatP, and 5 of those are prompt fill compilations.

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 1,674,136 uploaded as of right now, and I know that over 1 million of those words are JatP.

3. What fandoms do you write for? Currently just Julie and the Phantoms, but in past I wrote primarily for Glee/Glee RPF, and Teen Titans. There's no other fandom really interesting me enough to write for it at moment.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I'm going to limit this to my JatP fics, but if you wanna check out my stories in my previous fandoms, well here's my AO3

And giving yourself to me can never be wrong my collection of smut prompt fills with 235 kudos

I Know Who I Want To Take Me Home the first installment of my Semisonic Sunset verse with 192 kudos

But came the dawn the show goes on (and I don't want to say goodnight) my PeterPatterLina soulmate AU with 169 kudos

Maybe this news can wait Part three (and the only non smutty part) of Semisonic Sunset with 124 kudos

Better walk the line my single dad Reggie PeterPatter fic with 124 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Honestly no I don't. I tried, once upon a time, but I just felt like no one really cared what I had to say, and then I didn't have the spoons for it, so I stopped. I know I should though, my brain just doesn't seem to like letting me.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Hands down it is Haunted by the moments of what we used to be because every comment I got on it was some variation of how very dare you.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Generally I try to give all of my stories a happy ending, but for this one, I'll go with Yellow Wood  because it gave everyone a happy ending, no matter the path taken.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Currently no, but when the blacklist was a thing that happened, my name was second on there, so that kind of sucked.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Out of my 84 JatP fics, 24 are rated E, and my smut prompt fills are currently sitting at 80 something chapters, so you tell me. In honesty, I don't write smut as much anymore, as I find it a little more difficult to write and the response to anything rated above a T is vastly lower than anything else. But when I started in this fandom, it was what I was known for; see my point regarding the black list.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? I actually kind of hate crossovers? If I'm looking for a fic to read on AO3, I always click the Exclude Crossovers choice. I'll write any and every AU I can, and I might add minor characters from said AU, but that's rare, and that's as close as I get.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Unfortunately yes. There was a person on WattPad who went and stole a bunch of different smutty JatP fics over a year ago, and one of mine was amongst them. They were reported, and the fic was taken down. This is why now my fics on AO3 are only available to registered AO3 users.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? No, but if anyone ever wants to do a translation or podfic of any of my stories, they have my permission as long as they credit me and send me a link afterwards!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? No, and no one has ever asked. It's something I'd love to try if the chance ever came along, and had the right idea.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship? I mean I can't pick just one, I've been involved in fandoms since I was a teenager. Like for Teen Titans Raven/Beast Boy will always own a piece of my soul. In Glee, Kurt/Blaine was such a formative part of my life. And even with Jatp I don't think I could choose between Rulie and PeterPatterLina, they both mean so much to me. And those are just the fandoms I've written for!

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? *looks at my GDocs which is a WiP graveyard* Oh gosh there's so many.

16. What are your writing strengths? My brain is not being kind to me ATM, so I don't think I have any? Like maybe how much I write? Does that count?

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Everything. Editing especially.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I have done this quite a bit, even if it's just plugging what I want to say into Google Translate. So I know it's not entirely accurate, but I think I have been getting better about it.

19. First fandom you wrote for? The first fic I ever wrote that wasn't done like on a dare was a smutty fic for the anime Trigun that still exists on my ff.net page if you find it (no I'm not linking it) that I wrote in high school. It is Not Good.

20. Favorite fic you've written? I give the same answer to this question every time: But came the dawn the show goes on (and I don't want to say goodnight) and I don't think that will ever change.

Honourable mentions

-For better or for worse (Even if it's just tonight) 

-So Close To Reaching That Famous Happy End

-Yellow Wood

-Dress You Up In My Love

Not tagging anyone, but if you wanna do this ask game, go to!

[indestructibleheart]

Fic Origin Story

Tagged by @doublel27 and my most beloved @stereopticons ❤️

What was your first fandom (reading and/or writing)?

Okay, you’re going to laugh... but I’m pretty sure it was Twilight? The fandom I got really, really deep into was Glee. I’m not proud of that, but here we are lol.

What was the first story you ever wrote (even if it was never posted) and what made you decide to write it?

My first story EVER? Oh boy. I was probably around seven or eight. My elementary school had this program called ‘Pinky’s Press’ (our mascot was a flamingo named Pinky), where we could write and illustrate stories, and they’d bound them into these little books. I was literally in the second grade, so it was probably something like “This is Lollipop. He is a unicorn. He eats apples.” (That wasn’t my story - fuck if I remember what I wrote about, but that’s, like, the gist of where I was probably at developmentally. 😂) My mom probably has the stuff I wrote for Pinky’s Press in a box somewhere, tbh. I don’t know how many I did, but I know I participated a lot lmao. 

My first fic was definitely in the Twilight fandom. It was on FF.net, and I couldn’t tell you what it was about, but I do remember I had a whole series.

What’s a piece of advice you would give to your younger fic-writing self?

It doesn't have to all be angst. It's FINE to let your characters be happy. Please get some therapy. Also, you're queer.

^ This was Julie’s answer and... Honestly? SAME.

What’s an early fandom interaction that stuck with you (be it a nice comment, a friend you made, a fic that got a lot of feedback etc.)?

Honestly, I think the feedback that I got back in the day and the friends that I made through fandom back in high school (a few of whom I still have some contact with!) played a huge role in my continuing to write. Having people tell me they enjoyed my silly little works kept me going, especially back then. Hell, it may have something to do with why I pursued a career in writing.

tldr; Comments and kudos matter, folks. Leave them.

Post a sentence or two from one of your older fics, and a sentence or two from a newer one (if you want).

I could not do that even if I wanted to. I have no idea what my FF.net username was. I am wracking my brain, but... I got nothin. However, here’s something that I’d really like to finish:

Whatever he’s saying dies in his mouth when the door to the café opens and a man he now recognizes slips through. By now, David has memorized the lines of his face; he knows the way his eyes crinkle when he smiles, and how his honey-brown eyes catch the light. He’s already traced his gaze over the slight curl to his hair in those pictures — thought about how it’d probably create full-on ringlets if he gave it the chance to grow. He knows how nice he looks in a suit… but he doesn’t know his name. Just the sight of him fills the empty crater in David’s chest, but he doesn’t know his name. 

“Ohmygod, David,” Alexis says, reaching across the table to slap his arm before looking back over her shoulder. “That’s him! That’s the button!”

He flaps his hands. “Shh!” David demands. “I fucking see him, Alexis.”

tagging: @lilythesilly, @blackandwhiteandrose​, @maxbegone​, @dinnfameron​, and anyone else who wants to share!

[lavender-lotion]

Fanfic Writer Asks

I was tagged by @asarcasticwitch - thank you so much!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

737, which is an ugly number :(

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,890,054 words, which ... AH I might actually get to 2mil by the end of the year!

3) How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

thank you, ao3 dashboard for this handy list:

Teen Wolf (TV) (377)

X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies) (187)

Marvel Cinematic Universe (93)

Glee (29)

Young Justice (Cartoon) (11)

Kingsman (Movies) (9)

Original Work (9)

The Avengers (Marvel Movies) (8)

Criminal Minds (US TV) (7)

Thor (Movies) (6)

Deadpool (Movieverse) (5)

Weird City (TV) (5)

X-Men (Original Timeline Movies) (4)

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga) (4)

Ragnarok (TV 2020) (4)

Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies) (3)

Teen Wolf (TV) RPF (3)

Iron Man (Movies) (3)

The House in the Cerulean Sea - T. J. Klune (2)

Venom (Marvel Movies) (1)

Stranger Things (TV 2016) (1)

Captain America (Movies) (1)

Fate: The Winx Saga (TV) (1)

Power Rangers Ninja Storm (1)

X-Men - All Media Types (1)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan (1)

Riverdale (TV 2017) (1)

X-Men Evolution (1)

Push (2009) (1)

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

With You, I Belong

Mates and Marriage Proposals

The Perceptions of You and I

(baby) maybe that matters more

Breathing You In

5) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

ughh so, fair warning, I have a lot of works. I definitely do not remember all of them, however I do have four works tagged as Unhappy Ending and then another nine works tagged Ambiguous/Open Ending, which is way more than I’d thought I had! 

however, there is one fic that stands out in mind when I think about which of my works has the angstiest ending! Heed the tags :)

And Now?

Teen And Up Audiences | Major Character Death | M/M | Teen Wolf (TV) | Chris Argent/Peter Hale/Stiles Stilinski | Chris Argent, Peter Hale, Stiles Stilinski | Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canonical Character Death, Peter Hale Dies, Unhappy Ending

Stiles Stilinski finds out who his soul mates are by setting one on fire.

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

ughhhhhhhh I truly do not know??? 

7) Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I don’t write many crossovers at all! I have some mcu/teen wolf cross overs, I have a teen wolf/glee cross over plotted (that i’ll probably never write), but my strangest is probably this teen wolf/x-men cross over!

what-ifs (don’t fuckin’ matter to no one)

Teen And Up Audiences | No Archive Warnings Apply | M/M | X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)Teen Wolf (TV) | Logan (X-Men)/Sheriff Stilinski | Logan (X-Men), Sheriff Stilinski, Stiles Stilinski | Memory Loss, Telepathy, Mentions of War, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Child Neglect, Grief/Mourning, Telepath Stiles Stilinski, Telekinetic Stiles Stilinski, Nightmares, Cuddling & Snuggling

There’s somethin’ there. Somethin’ that has him sleeping curled up on his side with a pillow tucked to his chest, somethin’ that has him splittin’ up his food ‘fore he eats ‘cause he don’t need as much as a baseline. Has him turnin’ to tell someone shit that ain’t there. There’s just...there’s just somethin’ there that’s missin’ and it shouldn’t be missin’.

8) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

sometimes! I don’t write a lot of smut because I actively dislike writing it, but the smut I do write is super super soft and sappy and full of emotions lol

9) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I respond to almost all of my comments! comments i won’t respond to: negative comments, unsolicited criticism, comments that aren’t relevant to the fic itself, comments simply asking for more 

I love love love responding to comments! I love every single comment that I get and I want to show how much I appreciate getting them, and personally I think responding to comments is the only way to do that! everyone has different comment philosophies, but for me, if someone is taking the time to comment on my fic like I so badly want them to, I think it’s important to respond to show my appreciation! 

10) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

aha YEAH I DO. this past weekend I actually got a number of shitty comments and had to file two ao3 abuse reports for harrasment (: I love it

I am no stranger to hate comments. I write copious amounts of age difference fic. I write copious amounts of incest. I am not going to apologize nor am I going to feel bad for enjoying either.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

ughhh I sure as heck hope not! 

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I have a number of them :) I always always do my best to make sure it’s linked to the original fic, AND that I add a tag noting that there’s a translation!

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

I have made a few attempts! the only successful attempt is there's nothing i wouldn't do to make you feel my love which is a collaboration with @flightinflame, not quite a co-write!

14) What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I am unable to answer this lol I don’t have an all-time favourite. mutli-shipping forever.

15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

god okay this is such a good question! imma ramble about a few so bear with me here! (i may have 700 posted works but I also have a few hundreds wips & ideas floating around in my gdrive, too)

gone & past - this is a starrish wip i’d started in 2017. I ended up deleting it from ao3 to rewrite it and never got there, but I have about 20k of content! I built my home, inside of you - thorki human au with college jock thor and high school dancer loki. i’ve got a start and nothing else Sheriff Stilinski Gets Some Sweet Sweet Lovin’ - massive wip where... well, the sheriff fucks his way through the entire pack. I want to write it but. trans allison au - this is an au where allison is trans and that changes the entire season 1 canon. it features stallison, petopher, and a looooooong ass outline that will never exist beyond my wips You Fill My Heart (With Such a Gentle Love) - this is a stetopher a/b/o au with pregnant omega stiles and alpha pair petopher falling in love. it started as a labour of love to someone I no longer have in my life. I have about 30k, a full outline, but idk. makes me sad to think about it they slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered - this is my big x-men first class rewrite that I honestly don’t think i’ll ever finish. I have a few thousand words, a full outline, but no love lost for cherik so. doubtful Physiotherapy (I'll Be Your Baby) - this was a fic I was SO excited about, and then it kinda flopped and stayed a wip because I didn’t have a plan or the motivation to finish it. it’s a winterspider human au with amputee bucky and science twink peter that I adore the premise of but who knows breathing you in chapter 2 - I have a massive second chapter planned for this fic but the first did so good so fast I am way too intimidated to write more in case everyone hates it lmao

there are more arjgoirjeg there are so many more but these are the bigger ones I can think of right now!

16) What are your writing strengths?

ughhhhh I hate answering this because I have, like, seriously bad imposter syndrome around my writing BUT I do think i’m able to weave poignant backstory into narration & i write strong, distinctive narrative voices!

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

literally I can’t write settings at all. I don’t know how people vividly describe settings but I absolutely cannot do that and it’s one of the reasons I haven’t delved into original fiction. I need to write the town my characters live in?? fuck that imma just use a location we’ve seen on screen & let readers fill in the blanks lmao

I am also shit at long fic. I don’t have the mind for long and interesting plots, and I don’t have the focus to write long fic (which is why every long fic i’ve ever posted has taken me literal years to complete smh).

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I like it! both as a reader and as a writer. as a writer, I generally only use a few words, or small sentences that can be understood by context, and I generally don’t 

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

the last thing I wrote and posted was this one:

Languish

Teen And Up Audiences | No Archive Warnings Apply | M/M | X-Men (Original Timeline Movies) | John Allerdyce/Bobby Drake | Bobby Drake, John Allerdyce, X-Men (Team) | Not Canon Compliant, Future Fic, Established Relationship, Summer, Teasing, Fluff

It was a really, really hot Saturday, and most of the school was outback, enjoying the sun, not caring about the heat, and having the time of their life.

Everyone but Bobby, of course, who was melting away.

“I just want to remind everyone that I make ice. I am the Ice Man. I am not built for the heat and soon enough I’m going to melt away into nothing.”

20) What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

this is another impossible question! I have a few I really enjoy, but I really don’t think I have a favourite that stands out above the rest!

i’m tagging: @4magicandmayhem @insertmeaningfulusername @midrashic @wynnefic @ikeracity @stronglyobsessed @elledelajoie @wolfnprey​ & anyone else who sees it and wants to do it! seriously! go ahead :)

blank questions below the read more!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

3) How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

5) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

7) Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

8) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

9) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

10) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

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

14) What’s your all-time favorite ship?

15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

16) What are your writing strengths?

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

20) What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

[lluvguts]

Cool Blue ; Chapter Six

⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚

a heart could come so undone

⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚

☽ warnings: internalized homophobia

☽ fic masterlist

☽ a/n: thank you all so much for 2k hits on ao3! this all means so much to me and it really empowers me to continue with this story, even if i don't want to at times :) i would really appreciate any of my tumblr readers to go and leave a kudos or a comment just to tell me if you liked it, and make me smile <3 my ao3

⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚

Alberto was a storm quietly brewing beneath a thin façade of calm. His pinched brow and  frown being the only signs of his mulling, his stewing, as the sun beat with ruthless fervor down across his back, already peeling and burnt, while he rowed back to Portorosso. To the real world. A life that made sense, one filled with humans and cars and houses, a bustling busy that progressed as the town woke up.

One that wasn't made for him.

He looked back to the island as he pushed the oars roughly in front of him, rowing back, and grimaced without thinking at the crumbling tower at its top. Signora Aragosta had told him that island belonged to her and her beloved, a haven for a young girl and her sea monster to sit and talk and discover themselves. He had stood in the remains of that tower, only hours before speeding down the steep, grassy slope of the island to Luca, his sea monster, and observed what little traces of their lives that were left. Children's books with frayed spines (when Signora Aragosta had told Alberto she'd taught her how to read) cracked flower pots with their centers hollowed out and small inscriptions Alberto could carefully trace on the convex cobblestones of the tower wall. Writings, words and phrases and, Alberto realized with a flush of heat, love poems that her Concetta had scribbled in messy, mostly-faded scrawl along the stones. But there were other parts of the tower, less beautiful signs of aging. Mounds of tree branches and rubble dusted over the tower floor, where time and bad seasons had caused parts of the inner walls to cave in. Sunlight drifting through the insides, illuminating those professions of love along the walls and warming Alberto's toes until he had to pull them away to stop thinking about it.

She said that they loved that place...so why did they abandon it so quickly? It was a different time then, Alberto must have known, but even still the sea folk and the human world were unable to coexist--let alone love each other.

His muscles gripped and shuddered in his stomach involuntarily and Alberto clenched the oars to keep his lips from trembling.

Then again, Alberto mused with little humor as he continued to row and glare into the waves, she had said a lot of things, but none of her comforting words had prepared him for what had really happened.

At this time in the afternoon the waters were calm, just a lazy caress on the boat's sides like old lovers and cast dim reflections of the sun in alternating lines of cyan along Alberto's forearms. The gentle waves were endless, if Alberto looked down he didn't think about his face staring back at him but rather what was beneath the surf, or more so who.

Was what Luca had done, what he had said, the same as those words on the tower walls?

His behavior was so...animal. It wasn't like him. But did Alberto truly know what to expect from someone that wasn't human?

Something landed into the ocean with an inaudible plink and Alberto saw in the reflection of the deep waters that he was crying. He hated himself for what he had felt, only an hour earlier. Absolutely dreaded thinking over it.

Luca's touch, so curious and bashful in the beginning. That was normal, that was something Alberto could understand. He had only grinned at their playful banter back and forth, like they'd used to. But as soon as he'd let his stupid fingers wander just to touch Luca's scales he knew every second after that moment was going to happen much too fast.

Alberto didn't even know what he was doing at the time, or why he chose to torture Luca like that. The boy was whimpering at his hands on him and had practically collapsed into Alberto's lap, so obviously it was only fair that Luca had freaked out and went full on sea monster. All he heard in his ear were Luca's uneven breaths mixed with his own, and the warm press of his teeth on his neck, with just a trace of saliva from Luca's tongue.

His stomach twisted at the memory, making his legs ache and that dull throb return in his shorts.

"Damn it," Alberto huffed, closing his eyes tightly and breathing through his teeth.

Alberto didn't know what he meant himself, when he pushed Luca off of him either. His own reaction to the touches had surprised him so thoroughly that he was afraid of what would have happened if he'd let it continue, and let Luca's words sink into his brain and maybe his skin, too.

Portorosso was fast approaching, and Alberto hopped off one side of the boat, tugging it along in the shallow waves to moor it to the dock. He tied the ropes in haste and bit his tongue when the old cord rubbed painfully along his already-sore palms.

"'Berto! You idiota! You couldn't hide from me for long!"

Alberto jumped at the voice, immediately thinking of Ercole, but as he looked up from his raw hands he only saw Giulia above him at the metal railing, waving her arms around.

"I wasn't hiding from you!" Alberto called up. "I was...out doing something!"

His word choice made him cringe. Giulia narrowed her expectant brown eyes and reached out a hand once Alberto had walked up the stone incline to greet him. But instead of a hug, Giulia used Alberto's hand clasped in her own to hold him steady and slap his cheek.

"Shit! What was that for?" Alberto cursed, freeing his hand in a jerk and pressing it to his hot cheek.

"For keeping secrets from me! Papa told me all about your girlfriend!" Giulia was near-shouting, and a few people wandering the streets turned. Alberto's face reddened another degree, if the handprint left by Giulia wasn't enough to show for it.

"She's not my girlfriend, Giulia!" Alberto spat. He craned his neck over at the boat just to double check then followed her down the seaside railing to their house.

"So what, you made up a fake girlfriend then to fool Papa? Is that it, Alberto?" Giulia looked at her brother out of the corner of her eye, smiling to herself. Her tone was light, so Alberto had no need to worry that she was being serious...probably.

Alberto spluttered. "Why would I lie to Papa? When have I ever lied to you or him, ever?" His heart was beating at a frantic pace in his chest, and if Giulia saw the sweat on the back of his neck he was done for.

"Let's see," Giulia stuck her tongue between her teeth, then counted off her fingers. "You lied about the orders that one time just so Papa let you go play soccer in the courtyard...you lie about your chores all the time. I think the amount of times he lets you get away with it is worse though."

"I do not lie about my chores! How can I lie about those when he sees the numbers every evening?"

Giulia swatted the air, and then actually swatted at Alberto, before letting out a shriek.

"Oh! Did I tell you that Luna, Machiavelli's mistress, is going to have kittens!" She splayed her hands out in front of her to emphasize the excitement, and it was just like her to lose her focus even if it was originally about teasing her own brother.

Alberto shrugged. "Papa isn't going to like it."

"Papa will come around in time, fratello. Besides, Luna's owner was very...understanding."

"Oh?"

Giulia nodded, her cheeks were flushed from her anger and the summer sun, but instantly darkened. "Yeah. There's a girl who lives a few houses across from us, by the Gelataria with her aunt. We met last week, but I saw her again this morning when her cat was looking for Machiavelli, but he was pent up in your room, cause you're stupid and left the door closed."

"Machi actually likes my room, unlike yours." Alberto said indignantly.

"I wouldn't call that liking. I think he tolerates being around you because you feed him."

"Ugh, Giulia! Stop changing the subject and just tell me about this stupid girl and her cat!"

Giulia flung out her hand and punched Alberto in the gut. "She is not stupid. She's...she's..." She trailed off, looking at the sand stuck between the stones beneath her sandals.

"Lovely."

"Giulia, you're blushing."

"Yeah, so?" She countered, glaring up at Alberto with her cheeks a deep rouge. "She's pretty. But you wouldn't understand...I don't think, um, Papa would approve if I liked her. As more than, you know. A neighbor."

Alberto felt so relieved he could cry. But he laughed instead, a short nervous giggle that dissolved into a long, airy chuckle that came from deep within his tightly-wound heart.

"What's so funny, hmm?: Giulia, despite her height, tried to size Alberto up by shoving his shoulder and leaning forward to get into his space. "Y'know, I wouldn't have told you if you were just going to laugh at me."

"No, Giulia! This, this is perfect!" Alberto didn't know exactly what he was doing, but all of his previous tension ebbed away as he took Giulia's hands and squeezed them with glee in his own.

"Me having un cotta with the girl across the street?" Giulia frowned at him.

"God, no." Alberto laughed, bringing his sister closer to look into her eyes and make sure she was listening. "Lucia isn't...uh, she's not, she's not a girl."

Giulia's light eyebrows were pulled low at that, as she curled her lip up in confusion and stared at Alberto's face. "What do you mean? Lucia can't not be a girl, her name is...oh....Oh. Alberto! You really were lying to Papa!"

He figured that was enough confirmation of Giulia's understanding and nodded slowly. She placed her palm where she'd slapped him and rubbed her thumb along the welt, breaking her gaze away to think.

"For once, I think I'm okay with you lying," Giulia mused. "But just this one time, Alberto! And I mean it! You'll have to make up for it by letting me meet him. What's his name, anyway?"

"You didn't tell me her name, so why should I tell you his?" They were standing outside the gate of their backyard, but Alberto stood in the way of the latch and beamed down smugly at Giulia.

"It adds mystery, alright big guy? Maybe I like that you don't know her name. Then you won't tease me about it."

"Fine then. I won't tell you Luca's name either."

Giulia beamed. "Luca! What a beautiful name! I bet he's very handsome, Alberto."

He bit his tongue and jammed one free hand into his pants pocket.

"N-No! I didn't say anything," Alberto gasped and clamped his hand over Giulia's mouth. "Don't tell Papa okay? I'm not...I don't think I'm ready."

Giulia licked Alberto's palm with a devilish grin and he groaned in disgust and pulled back.

"That's okay, I'm not really ready either." Giulia grabbed Alberto's slobbery hand and guided them into the side yard, swinging their arms.

So pretty...you smell so good, Alberto.

He almost stopped in his tracks, but Giulia was pulling them along so he trailed behind her, attached by their intertwined hands.

Luca's tail had twined around Alberto's ankle in such a quick and demanding way he felt his breath catch.

Please. I need you.

The words still trickled through his head, and soon the phantom feelings returned too. Cool scales dripping in sea water soon replaced by the feeling that Luca was burning up, swallowed whole by his own desperate pleas and touches.

"You okay, Alberto?" Giulia had stepped into the house, but Alberto's feet were pressed to the stone steps, unmoving. He thought that he could hover here at the threshold of the doorway with Luca's scent still lingering on his skin and the immense weight of odd passion forever, just so he didn't forget. Was this what Signora Aragosta had talked about when she first knew? When she first knew?

Alberto shook his head for Giulia, smiling and apologizing. "Yeah, we're good."

[flamingo-queen-writes]

5 & 7 for the ask game : )

Thank you for the ask!

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

Deciding what the chapter count is going to be when you post is the perfect way to get a never-ending story. Even if you’re just guessing. Even if you still go with a ? for a chapter count. Even if you have an outline you fully intend to follow. Sometimes even if you already have all the chapters written.

The three chapter story that you were going to write? The characters are muttering, they’re dissatisfied, come over here, they just wanna talk. The story will be nine chapters before they let it go. Then you start posting and it goes up to fifteen.

The story that was going to be five chapters, maybe seven? The characters will start making a pie and everything will fall to shit and you’ll have to back away after chapter 21 and regroup. But then you’re good again, except you have to regroup at chapter 24 because they keep altering the narrative with their their demands. Do you have the last part written? Yes. Will you ever get there? Questionable.

The story that was going to be ten chapters and you thought you understood how things worked so you laughingly guessed twenty chapters while putting a ? for the chapter count, thinking you’d escaped the curse of the expanding story before the story could expand itself? You will still be writing at chapter 118, not a typo, and not yet be at the end. The end? Is it in sight? Who knows.

So don’t even guess. Just go with the ? and be done with it.

Yes, you can escape. If you write the whole thing, every word, all the chapters, before you ever start thinking about the chapter count, then you can guess that’s how many chapters it’ll be, only if you then refuse to edit it. Even a little. Even to add a little section here or there. No touchie! Hands off once it’s finished or you’ll be adding whole chapters to the never-ending saga.

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

I want to say reader interaction, but that’s a dangerous place to find your joy. So let me elaborate. It’s not just comments or kudos or asks, etc. that you get to respond to, though those are filled with joy and are a source of incredible happiness. It’s the writing that anticipates reader responses.

I get a certain amount of glee from writing a phrase or a plot twist / revelation that I anticipate readers having a reaction to. It’s dropping a little “steve” into a ramble from the Soldier, or hinting at “the end of the line.” It’s putting in a recognizable dog that will become a major part of the storyline. It’s tossing in a reference to watermelon or birds. It’s hinting that Riley got shot down by HYDRA, not just any old opponent. I am my own reader first and foremost, so I get a kick out of these things even if/when no one else sees them or mentions them.

And then there’s the interaction itself that I get to have with readers. I really do look forward to that, and I answer every comment directed my way unless it’s clear the conversation has ended. Reader commentary lets me know if I’m on track, if the zinger has hit or missed, if the plot development makes sense. It helps me see if foreshadowing is working, because I love adding that in and having it pay off. And I love being able to discuss things with readers.

So I get that joy from the planning stage, writing stage, posting stage and responding stage. The waiting stage, not so much. That part’s painful, haha! But it doesn’t last forever, and the rest makes it worth the wait.

[amaltheaz]

Fic writer review

I was tagged to do this by @spaceman-earthgirl. Thanks friend! ❤️

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

42, the meaning of life!

2. What’s your total ao3 word count?

393,301 (pretty sure most of that was from my faberry fic lmao)

3. How many fandoms have you written for?

AO3 tells me 9 which feels... false 😂

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

did you mean it (when you said i was pretty)

pick a blossom and hold it to your breast (honey, you know that's my love bursting loud from inside)

our skin are silver shadows reflecting all the stars

we are one under a star

the altitude is dangerous but we ain't going home

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

I do! Sometimes it takes me awhile to respond but I do, even if it is just to say "thank you". I know how hard leaving comments can be, even when all you can think of to say is "thank you for writing/I look forward to the next chapter/etc" and I guess I always want to acknowledge that. It also helps me to recognize the readers that continue to come back and comment, even when there's so much time in between my updates.

The times I don't reply is when I see the same reader having commented on multiple stories so I'll reply to their latest to thank them for all the other comments (unless there's something story-specific that needed replying).

Oh! Also when the comment is particularly frustrating, which is rare, but it happens.

6. A fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending.

Ummm, the fic where I wrote reactions to Kara's fall after fighting Reign was pretty angsty I feel (I still remember @youngbloodbuzz telling me to go to jail 😂)

Another one would have been the one where I wrote of Kara and Alex going back home to Midvale in the time that Alex had the mind-wipe. That was particularly sad, I feel.

This tumblr prompt I filled for @pippytmi awhile ago was also deliciously angsty

7. Do you write crossovers?

I do! I've written Glee/South of Nowhere, Supergirl/LoT, Supergirl/Wonder Woman. Does Agents of SHIELD/MCU count as a crossover even though it's technically just a tv/movie crossover?? I'm counting it anyway, haha

8. Ever received hate on a fic?

I've thankfully been lucky enough not to get direct hate on a fic. I have gotten unnecessary comments, if that counts, most of which are usually in some variation of "I headcanon this character to be a bottom and I don't like that you made them a top" which has happened across TWO different fandoms.

9. Do you write smut?

I write a lot of flut (fluffy smut) though I have to say that after fwb au, I'm taking a break from the smut 'cause I'm all smut out y'all 😂

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, not that I know of anyway.

11. Ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

12. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Only in my dreams 😂

13. All time fav ship?

Oof, all time? That's a toughie. It's a toss-up between faberry and supercorp

14. WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Too many, absolutely too many wips.

15. Writing strengths?

I work a lot and very hard on getting into a character's head. Since I like writing within canon, it's something I do often. There's a restricti...veness (is that a word? It is right? 😂) in working only with what you're given which can be a fun writing exercise. I think you learn a lot about yourself when you can so completely access another person's psyche... which I feel sounds weird but it has always worked for me, haha.

16. Writing weaknesses?

I would love to work more on building stronger plots within a story, more of everything else that exists outside of romance stories. I love having lived in the world of writing romance fics but I want to dive into a different world.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

Good??? I'm not too sure what this is trying to ask me, haha. If the scene calls for it, I'd happily write in a different language.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

I'm pretty sure it was Hannah Montana. Those were the days, haha.

19. What’s your fav fic you’ve written so far?

Please don't ask me to choose one of my children 😂 I love them all in such different shades, it wouldn't be right to pick.

Let's see. I'ma tag @idontneedtobeforgiven, @myheartisbro-ken, @youngbloodbuzz, @swashbucklery and @cyclone-rachel.

[whatstheproblembaby]

AO3 Tag Meme

@klaineharmony tagged me like last week and I’m just now getting to this, oops. >.<

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

273, although I have collection of <1000 word stories that I originally posted individually on here and FFn, so technically I’ve written closer to 300 fics, probably?

2. What is your total AO3 word count?

497,239. Not half bad for a one-shotter!

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

5, if we count my Newsies/Supergirl crossover for both fandoms. The others are Glee, Riverdale, and Call the Midwife. (God, that’s eclectic to list.)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

They’re all Klaine fics, to the surprise of absolutely no one:

1. But Now I See, my blind!Kurt/sighted!Blaine fic. (Tbh, I don’t love that I took this prompt and made the big moment in this one curing Kurt’s blindness, but I wasn’t aware of how ableist that trope is when I wrote it. I’m not going to delete it because that feels like sweeping it under the rug, but please know that I know better now.)

2. Unforgettable, a Cheerio!Kurt/nerd!Blaine AU based off this prompt: “You probably don’t remember but you saved me from some bullies once in middle school and god damn it every year you just get hotter"

3. Finally Found the Boy, a florist!Kurt/barista!Blaine AU in which I utilized every trope known to man: “#okay but combine all four: person a works at a coffeeshop #person b works at a flowershop #they start fake dating to cover for person a who's lied to their parents about meeting their soulmate #but then they do whatever thing reveals soulmates while fake dating and start REAL DATING #THE END”

4. Covert Cupid, aka your classic nerd!Kurt/jock!Blaine gift-giving AU. (You know, like Secret Santa, but for Valentine’s Day.)

5. Make A Move, a Cheerio!Blaine based off this anonymous prompt: “a klaine alternate meeting fic where one of them is working at a kissing booth and the other one keeps coming back with money and asking for kisses “for charity” and they basically end up making out in front of everybody bc the kisses are so great okay love u bye” (Yes, I DID use a One Direction lyric for the title; no, I am NOT sorry.)

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

Every time! At the very least, I drop a “thank you” and a heart, because I’m just that grateful that anyone has enjoyed my fic enough TO leave a comment. If there’s a more specific comment, I try to address it, too.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Uh, probably none of them? Happily ever after or BUST, pals.

...

Okay, I literally looked through all of my fics and this drabble is the only thing that even REMOTELY ends angstily. Plenty of my work has some kind of drama in the middle, but I firmly don’t believe in tragic endings. 

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

I’ve only done one proper crossover (e.g., featuring characters from both universes), but I’ve done plenty of AUs based on other pieces of IP! My one true crossover is Just Be Real (Is All I’m Askin’), which mixes Newsies and Supergirl with a dash of past lives/reincarnation. Listen, when you put Jeremy Jordan in two things I love, I’m gonna find a way to combine those things, friends.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I once got called out for using the term “maiden name” in a fic, but I’ve never truly been flamed or anything. Hope that stays true!

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

Not often, and not outside of the Klaine fandom, at least as of right now. In those fics, I leaned a little more M than E in my ratings, and there were some D/s leanings, but that’s really based on how I saw that pairing. If I ever do smut for another fandom, I may totally mix up my kinks depending on how I see the couple/throuple/etc!

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I think I had some stories posted to at least one of those random pirate sites back in the day? But I’ve never been deliberately plagiarized that I know of.

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

I’ve definitely tried! Truffles and I worked on at least one co-authored fic once, but I don’t remember if we ever posted it.

12. What’s your all time favorite ship?

I’m only supposed to have one???

13. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Like many Millennials, I’m sure, it was Harry Potter. If you go digging in MuggleNet FanFiction, you should be able to find my terrible acrostic poems from when I was 14.

14. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Oof, again with the favorites? I have a couple that I’m more proud of than others.

Of my Call the Midwife fics, I love What’s in a Name? the most, simply because I included so many characters and feel like I managed to capture all their unique voices/personalities. And I created a moment I want to see on the show!

For Newsies, my 9k beast We Just Might Win proved to me that I can write more than 2,000 words without having to base the story on another piece of IP, and I’ll always love it for that. (And for Jack, Davey, and Kath, of course!)

I’m proud of all my Klaine fics on some level, because they unlocked a creative output level in me that I genuinely will not ever be able to match again. I think a crowd favorite of mine was my Sound of Music AU, My Heart Will Be Blessed, but if I had to pick a personal fave? I’d have to go with Destiny. Caroline @thehouseofthebrave gave me this incredible prompt for it, and I just love how I filled it.

I think a lot of people have been tagged already, so anyone who wants to do this should tag me as their tagger, but I also want to see @knightsofthegaytable‘s answers!

[sarcasticfina]

Fic Writer Tag Game

How many works do you have on AO3? 263

What’s your total AO3 word count? 4,901,188

How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they? including the fandoms on FFnet, that haven't yet been moved over to ao3, that'd be a total of 37. separating the larger fandoms (marvel, dcu) into their individual parts: Thor; Arrow; Smallville; The Vampire Diaries; Glee; Captain America; Supernatural; Teen Wolf; Iron Man; Life with Derek; Firefly; Friday Night Lights; X-Men; Fantastic Four; Harry Potter; Sons of Anarchy; Girl Meets World; Batman; Daredevil; From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series; Transformers; Lost Girl; Game of Thrones; Banshee; High School Musical; The OC; One Tree Hill; CSI: New York; Degrassi; Gossip Girl; NCIS; The Unusuals; Criminal Minds; iCarly; Secret Life of the American Teenager; Twilight; and The Listener

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. and I wonder (if everything could ever feel this real forever) - darcy/bucky - Steve tells him that Darcy's harmless. Bucky imagines, on paper, Darcy is harmless. HYDRA wouldn't give her a second glance. But he does. He can barely keep his eyes off her. He's not sure he wants to. | Kudos: 5576

2. I Climbed The Tree To See The World (When The Gusts Came Around To Blow Me Down, I Held On As Tightly As You Held On To Me) - darcy centric | darcy/steve - The path to self-discovery, including becoming Coulson's assistant-slash-liaison-slash-bff, Captain America's lady love, and rating fourth on the SHIELD BAMF scale, was like the yellow brick road; it was chaos and confusion around every bend. | Kudos: 3973

3. Take a little piece of my heart (and keep it for yourself) - oliver/felicity - A collection of Olicity prompts on Tumblr posted here for easier access/reading. | Kudos: 3498

4. You put your arms around me (and I'm home) - darcy/bucky - A collection of Darcy/Bucky oneshots, drabbles, and prompt fills. | Kudos: 3293

5. you (anchor me back down) - darcy/bucky - "I'll be right back." Famous last words. | Kudos: 2747

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? not all of them. i do try to keep up on them, especially on longer stories when there's been significant wait times in between chapters, or when a reader is asking a question or is unclear on something. and especially when someone writes a really indepth comment/review, i like to respond to those and talk about motivations and character growth.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? I've written a number of fics that either had suicide or major character death, so i'm not sure if one outranks the other in terms of most angsty... hmm... i remember "be still and know that I'm with you (be still and know that I am here)" and "light a match, burn the world to ash (I will watch it die, and hold your hand as I fly)" both got some pretty intense reactions when they were posted. And "It's Your Song That Sets Me Free (I Sing It While I Feel I Can't Go On)" was basically just angst from beginning to end. buuuuut, i think i'll say "so you think you can tell (heaven from hell" was, only because there's a build up of everything going so right, only to pivot at the end, so it feels very bittersweet.

Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written? i loooooove crossovers. i find writing in the marvel fandom makes things quite easy, but also smallville. as long as i can find a common thread, i enjoy finding a way to overlap two shows. i'll say the hardest one to write was "ruby red slippers (unavailable in her size)." I'm not sure why, but i found writing each personality together just felt strange. i liked the idea behind the story, but i definitely remember feeling like i was really forcing myself to keep going, like something just didn't fit right.

Have you ever received hate on a fic? oh, definitely. you cannot please everyone, it's impossible. for the most part, hate comes and i either argue back, take the criticism for what it's worth, or just ignore it when it's baseless. i think the hate that bothered me the most was a homophobic PM someone sent me re: "you know I will adore you ('til eternity)," on FFnet. i actually went and searched it up. they've since blocked me so i can't read our whole thread back and forth. but i did put part of it on tumblr so i could rant on it a bit, so you can see that here.

Do you write smut? If so what kind? ha. yes. depending on the story, it can be really detailed or really flowery. it depends on the ship, the plot, and how graphic i feel like being. i've definitely become more comfortable over the years with my writing. that said, i think everybody likes something different. i once had a reviewer tell me a sex scene was too much, just too intense. it was a stefan/caroline story and to be fair, that entire oneshot was just them fucking, lol, but it is what it is. to each their own.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Multiple times.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes! for the record, i am always happy to have my stories translated and shared. i just like having a link sent to me and to be credited.

What’s your all time favorite ship? i have a list of OTPs, because interests change and as shows come and go, my love for a ship can be shelved for a while before it pops back up at random. currently, i can't get enough of buck/eddie from 9-1-1. and, historically, chloe/oliver (smallville) and felicity/oliver (arrow) have been two of my top OTPs. but i think i'd have to go with bonnie/damon. they had all the potential and the show dropped the ball by not exploring it. at the same time, that's kind of a blessing, because i don't trust those writers to properly explore what they had without eventually destroying it for the likes of de/ena. it means a treasure trove for writing where it could have gone and all the what if's.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish, but don’t think you ever will? the intention is always to finish. but given how i feel about allison mack and how that impacts my feelings re: chloe sullivan, pretty much anything with her as a main character is not something i see myself returning to.

What are your writing strengths? What are your writing weaknesses? i'm putting these together because my strength is my weakness. i love to write. when i get an idea, i go all in and i will skip eating and sleeping to just write write write. but i also eventually hit a wall and i get so many ideas that i hyperfocus on one until the steam is gone and then i hyperfocus on the next one to maintain that need to keep writing, accidentally leaving the last story in the dust for entirely too long. i also have clinical depression that comes and goes, which hasn't been super great mixed with covid and isolation, so more often recently, i find myself overly exhausted and despite wanting to write, can rarely get motivated to do so. so, pre-covid, wrote so much i left entirely too many stories dangling. during covid, i've just been reading and struggling to get myself focused enough to do what i love.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? i appreciate the authenticity when possible, but i've recently been reading more about how native speakers of other languages feel when a) their language is butchered by google translate, or b) it's just not genuine in terms of how bilingual speakers act or speak.

What was the first fandom you’ve written for? it was smallville, but i remember adopting it out to someone else because i wasn't going to finish it. so if you look at my ffnet, the first fandom i wrote for appears to be x-men: the movie, but i remember writing a chloe/oliver story prior to that.

What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written? i have a lot. i mean, on ffnet, i have 576 stories, many of which were transferred over to ao3, with a lot of oneshots and drabbles getting joined together into collections. so there's a ton to pick from that span a 14-ish year timeline.

"you know I will adore you ('til eternity)" and "let me break (the walls that surround me)" hold a special place in my heart.

honestly, each story is important in its own way. there are bits and pieces of each that i love. every time i write something new it feels like my favorite. my best. and then a new idea comes along. there are scenes i've written that i loved more than the whole of what they became. lines that stand out that are almost too good to be a part of the larger picture.

one of my all time favorite passages i've written was bonnie's thoughts on damon and herself in 'if you love me (let me go)":

He is far from perfect. He is a novel of red, corrective ink. He is frayed pages and torn binding. His life, his choices, his mistakes leave lasting effects on everyone he meets.

She is a lifeboat with a hole in it. An anchor that drowns in the sea while everyone else remains steady above. She is both the calm and the storm, and while she screams that she will not be tamed, she cries. Bittersweet tears that go unnoticed and uncared about.

there are other stories, other pieces of dialogue, that i've been proud of. that make me laugh when i re-read them. that make me cry. and i love them. there are others that make me wilt and cringe and regret. it's a process. love and pride and growth, all bound together.

Tagging: @absentlyabbie, @anonymous033, and anyone else who'd like to fill this all out, haha

[kfs1001]

Writing has always been a hobby of mine. My interest goes back to high school, where I turned in a chapter a month instead of the weekly essay. I have tried to become a published author, which is easier said than done. Rejection notices no longer sting. They are part of the biz. However, the occasional rejection notice with comments boost the will to go on.

Have I given up? No. I have a manuscript into a publisher as I type? Non-Klaine related but definitely to my taste.

I did not discover fanfiction until after I became involved in the CC community. All of a sudden, I see posts of this story and that. The next thing I know, I am writing away, sharing my ideas of things I thought were missing from Glee and the carrying on after the show ended. I will admit that some of my thoughts might be outlandish, but then Sue became vice-president. Need I say more.

I have found it is not the number of hits or kudos that make or break my endeavours but that one comment makes it all worth it.

In my first series, Love's Cycle, comments from Vallyjean22, HKVoyage, and Dumas001 lit the fires of my imagination. (I am contemplating a fourth section to Love Cycle. Have to go into the terrible teens.)

I just completed the first part of my second series, Pretense and Obsession, and once more, one comment made my day. Thank you, AniPub.

Writing is entertaining in itself. It stimulates and keeps one's mind jumping through the hoops of imagination. It is a joy to share with others. To receive honest feedback--positive or negative, and to be part of a community that is strong and diverse.

When you look at Glee or other television shows, books, movies, games, and you see what amateur and, perhaps, some professionals are offering up for free, it is staggering. There is a wealth of talent out there.

It can be scary putting hours into crafting thoughts into words. Will people like it? Will, they read it? Then you get your first Kudo. Your first comment and makes it all seem worth it.

If you have ever thought of writing, take the chance. It does not have to be novel-length series like mine. It could be simply five hundred words. Take the chance. Share. Learn something new about yourself. Yes, it may not be perfect, but you did it--give yourself applause. You took that step and put yourself and your imagination out there for others to enjoy. The feedback is invaluable, though it may not always be pleasant. I look at negative feedback from this perspective—What have I learned? How can I improve? I cannot please everyone.

I have to remember that readers will not always like what I have done. It is part of the biz. We each have our interests and thus our niches. Writing about Blaine and Kurt was the first real step into romance writing because Klaine is about (to me) their relationship. The story is just the dressing around the way they look at each other, hold hands and explore their love. Personally, I like fantasy, and I started to exclude it, but it was not long before I weaved past lives into my stories. I thought about it. Wondered if it would go over. Did I have to stay with canon? Vallyjean22 recommended one story to me, and that was it. The canon is Blaine and Kurt, plus the others in their lives. The story is, again, the filling around their love. Explore your thoughts, your feelings. Let your mind go and your fingers on the keys will do the rest.

Thank you to all the readers. Thank you to the people who set up and maintain the sites we use to share our works. Thank you to all the copyright holders who allow us to bend the rules and enlighten others with a different way of seeing your original works.  

Please read and enjoy. Please write and share. Life is too short, and each of us has something to offer in our unique ways.

Thank you for taking the time.

[hyper-fixate]

You wouldn't believe the dream I just had about you and me - Nicolo POV

First part from Yusuf’s POV here.

Chapter 2 now up on AO3.

[I’m not entirely sure how this chapter happened. It wasn’t meant to happen, I had no plans for it to happen, but here we all are. I ended up writing till 1 AM the other night, woke up, hated everything and ended up having to rewrite this. Then had an on going fight with myself to take out the lines that yes, objectively, were really awesome sounding but did not belong here! And now I’ve got about 3000 words of meta that I gotta come up with another soulmate AU to write about, I guess.

A week ago, my husband jokingly told me to write my own fanfic if I’d read everything else and I brushed it off. But I’m so glad these two burrowed into my brain because this fandom has been so welcoming and so lovely. Every person who reads, likes, reblogs or leaves kudos has made me smile ALL WEEK. And special thanks to ever single person who took the time to leave comments. I am honestly so overjoyed that anyone wants to listen to me wax on about these two adorable nerds.]

——

One of his earliest memories of the dreams were not of the dreams themselves, but rather of the talk about them with his sister, Anthonia. He could not have been much older than four. But he remembered waking to the first of the sun’s rays and he felt such a lightness in his chest. When Anthonia came to get him from his bed, he nearly felt as though he was floating.

‘You are excitable today, dear Nico.’ She smoothed down his tousled hair and pressed a kiss to his crown. He had always been a quiet, solemn child and she found the change in him that morning endearing.

‘My dreams were laughing at me Thea.’ He grinned and dutifully held his arms over his head for her to remove his nightshirt. He didn’t catch her biting her lip or glancing towards the door as she tugged it over her head. ‘And such a laugh! So big.’ He held his hands out to mime a pot belly. ‘Like when Father Manuel laughs.’ He went to show her, breathing in deeply, but she placed a hand over his lips to still him.

‘Nico. My dear. This is wonderful. This is something very special.’ She lowered her voice, with another glance at the door. ‘But we do not speak of our dreams.’

‘Why?’ He asked, with all the wide eyed innocence a child could muster.

‘Because the laugh, it belongs to the love of your life. The person who will fill the other half of your soul.’ She touched his hair again, her eyes going wistful. ‘One day, you will hear it from another’s lips and it will be as if all of God’s graces have come at once.’’

‘That sounds wonderful Thea.’ He looked at her so wide eyed. With eyes so like her mother’s. Anthonia sometimes imagined she heard the ghost of Mama’s laughter, and Papa’s too she supposes, when Nicolo turned those eyes to her. Nicolo could not hear it, but one cannot listen for a sound they never got to hear.

‘Yes, my dear one. It is.’ She cupped his face in her hands and rubbed her nose against his. ‘And I am glad it brings you such joy. But here, now, it is not to be discussed. Not in this house, do you understand? Rafael and the twins know this too. We do not talk about the dreams. Especially not to father. Not ever.’ Nicolo nodded, but he didn’t understand. Not really. Not yet.

‘The person who laughs is to make us happy?’ He asked and she nodded. 'Then why?’

'Sometimes this world can be a harsh and unjust place, Nicolo.’ Her hand strayed to a chain on her neck; the locket that held a plait of their mother’s hair. ‘It’s by God’s grace we have our happiness but others may not. And it may be a kindness to them, to keep our happiness here.’ She gently placed her palm on his heart. 'There is so much in this world that is beyond our knowing Nico, so much that is for God alone. But we can choose what we do. And we should always choose to be kind.’

So Nicolo kept his secret. A bright, wondrous secret, that felt so warm in his young heart. And every night he heard the laughter in his dreams and awoke with a smile on his lips.

Nicolo was only six when he began to understand God’s plans did not always match his own. It could be argued the unfortunate coupling of Nicolo’s birth and his mother’s death was a clear sign God and Nicolo’s plans had never properly aligned, but that blasphemous thought did not occur to him until later. Anthonia came rushing home from the beach, her cheeks ruddy and wind chapped. She brimmed with so much energy he felt dazed by the proximity. He felt the warmth in her smile and in her eyes and it hit him as a dizzying blow. His father’s house, like its master, still mourned and this joy felt so out of place here.

She had met a man, Giacomo, and she had made him laugh.

They married in the spring and Anthonia was beautiful, like an angel from scripture. She took Nicolo’s face in her hands and bent down to rub her nose against his. There were glittering tears in her eyes but they did not spill, even as Nicolo’s were rushing down his cheeks. She kissed him goodbye. She promised to return, but he knew that it would never be the same.

Nicolo did not have the heart for much laughter then.

It was Nicolo’s tenth birthday when divine intervention plagued him once again. Anthonia had promised to come, with his nieces, and Nicolo could barely contain his glee. A strange energy seemed to fill the house and everyone felt it. The twins, always a handful, felt whipped into mania and decided to steal the cake from the cook. With great whoops and hollers, they raced through the halls, tossing it between them. Nicolo ran deliriously alongside. As the twins turned a corner, they decided to include Nicolo in the fun. Shrieking, he dove blindly for his prize.

Only to run directly into their father, Offredo, and priest, Father Manuel. Nicolo ended up on the floor. The cake ended up in Manuel’s hair and Offredo’s coat.

Nicolo could not help himself. He laughed. A loud noise that almost seemed to crack the very air in the house.

The two cake-covered men shared a look that instantly cut the laugh from Nicolo’s lungs. Within two months, Offredo di Genova oversaw his youngest child take his vows.

Nicolo found even less reasons for laughter then.

He answered Pope Urban II’s call to retake the Holy Land because he felt called to do God’s will. This, he reasoned, was where he and God could agree. Which would finally, hopefully, be enough to earn his rightful place in the kingdom of heaven. Nicolo never considered that heaven might spit him back out.

When he awoke after his first death, clutching at his stomach, pulling apart his tunic to check for the gaping wound he can reflexively still feel, the one stupidly clear thought he managed to knock together was this: Must I always be born from death?

And then a rather familiar, bloodied blade cut into his vision and everything went dark again.

God, it turned out, didn’t even have the decency to send Nicolo back alone. He spat back out his enemy as well. Nicolo, in his admittedly limited earthly experience, had looked at the events before him and assumed the two events to be linked. So Nicolo killed the Muslim again. And again. And again. Until, woozy from the stench of their combined blood, he looked up to an outstretched hand instead of a blade and, without really understanding why, he took it.

Learning Yusuf spoke Greek was a pleasant surprise, though, admittedly, Nicolo had not used it for many years. The speed at which Yusuf picked up zeneize was also a pleasant enough happenstance, and Nicolo told himself he was not in any way jealous. But the language that Yusuf spoke refused to lie still on Nicolo’s tongue. It slipped and flowed like poetry out of Yusuf’s mouth and seemed to tumble out of Nicolo’s, heavy as mud.

But then everything about his companion was poetic, his mind unhelpfully supplied in the long march through the desert. The darker man’s movements with his sword or on a horse were always measured. The soft words that he whispered as he prayed five times a day soothed something in Nicolo’s worried soul. The easy way Yusuf made friends in the villages they passed. The endless patience in which he repeated any word Nicolo asked.

How that first night, after they had come to the agreement not to murder one another in their sleep, Nicolo had woken to find Yusuf’s cloak draped over his shivering frame while his companion had begun his morning prayers.

But we can choose what we do. And we should always choose to be kind, Anthonia had said, during a life he no longer recognised. Sometimes, when Nicolo looked at the endlessly kind Yusuf, all he could see was the blood he’d drawn from him. And he was ashamed.

This blood was so familiar to him. He imagined he could tell the difference of it’s hot spill across his face, his side, to the bandit’s blood from only moments before. His mind was racing, his body no longer under his command as one hand pressed desperately to Yusuf’s chest and the other gripped the arrow he had just pulled from Yusuf’s throat.

‘Please wake up, my friend. Please Yusuf.’ He saw his hand moving, touching Yusuf’s neck, his cheek, the rough curve of his beard. He did not remember telling his hand to move. ‘You cannot leave me here alone.’

Yusuf awoke with a violent gasp. Nicolo felt his own heart thump widely. His breath seemed to rush from him, leaving him dizzy. ‘What happened?’ Yusuf asked, his voice rough from pain, but strong. Nicolo sat back on his feet. He had been on his knees, bending over Yusuf as if in prayer. He could not remember the last time he had prayed.

‘Bandits.’ Nicolo willed his voice to be even, but he didn’t think he managed it. He indicated towards the bodies he knew would be there, but didn’t look. He couldn’t take his eyes off of Yusuf. ‘They shot you with an arrow.’ He held up the arrow, still clutching it so hard he thought it might snap. ‘You did not wake up. Not until I pulled out the arrow. I had thought-’ He was babbling now. A sharp pain in his chest cut him off. Nicolo had a sudden vision of himself sitting there, bowed in prayer, as the night passed and the sun rose. Waiting for a breath that would not come. ‘I was wondering if your stubborn refusal to die was just at my hand.’

Nicolo had not meant to say that out loud. He had not meant for the fear he had felt to force itself from his lips. But the way Yusuf looked at him now, the softening of the other man’s eyes, made him feel naked as a babe.

‘Are you well?’ Yusuf reached out, as if to touch him. Nicolo felt the tension in every inch of his skin. Would he know that touch, as he knew the other man’s blood? ‘Did they hurt you?’ Yusuf asked softly, pulling his hand back.

‘This is mostly yours.’ Nicolo said, still feeling the sticky heat across his skin. ‘It sprouted out of you like a fountain when I pulled this out.’ He threw the arrow from his hands then, unable to bear the weight of it any longer. He rubbed a hand across his cheek and felt the smear of blood. He grimaced ‘How bad is it?’

‘For you? It’s an improvement.’ Yusuf said in absolutely perfect zeneize, completely seriously. The adrenaline and fear shimmered out of Nicolo’s blood. He felt almost drunk with relief and he couldn’t help himself.

He laughed.

The next moments were so sudden, so unexpected, Nicolo’s brain took almost a full thirty seconds to catch up to the reality of what was happening. Yusuf was in his lap. Nicolo was painfully trapped with his arse half on his feet and half his pack. Yusuf’s hands bracketed his face. His mind spun. His hands grasped instinctively for a weapon that he knew was out of reach. He wondered if Yusuf would rub his nose to Nicolo’s as Anthonia used to do. He unhelpfully acknowledged that he did know the feeling of Yusuf’s skin just as intimately as his blood. And then he wondered why he was thinking about that at this exact moment.

Yusuf was shushing him, softly, gently. He pressed Nicolo’s hair away from his face with trembling fingers and stared into his eyes as if he could divine Nicolo’s very thoughts. Nicolo wished to blink. Looking at Yusuf’s eyes like this was as if staring into the endless night sky.

‘What are you doing?’ Nicolo wanted to moan at the dismal way the Arabic toppled from his tongue. His mind was writing poetry and his mouth refused to bring the words to fruition. He huffed out a small laugh at his own absurdity.

And with that small sound, Yusuf seemed to find what he was looking for. He smiled and Nicolo re-evaluated his previous reflection. Having the full enormity of Yusuf al-Kaysani’s smile turned upon you, that was as if being blinded by the sun.

Yusuf threw his head back and laughed.

Nicolo’s entire mind seemed to narrow to one point. One bright, flashing moment of understanding. Energy sizzled in his veins and for a moment he felt as he had done at first death, trapped between two worlds. The one that had been, and the one that would be.

‘Mio Dio.’ Nicolo gasped. Yusuf laughed again.

And Nicolo finally knew, in that moment, what it meant to be born from joy, not death.

Prologue (kinda)

‘After my first death, when I did not dream of any laughter for those many months. I worried my death meant my soul was no longer bound to the same man.’ Nicky says slowly, sipping his coffee

‘Ha, as if you could get rid of me, hayati.’ Joe leans back in his chair and nudges Nicky with his foot.

‘I would never have tried.’ Nicky replies easily. ‘I used to rush to bed after Compline so I could get to sleep, just to hear your laugh. It was the best part of my day.’ Nicky reaches across the table, offering his hand palm up. Joe takes it.

‘Okay, come on Nile.’ Andy screws the lid back onto her liquor and shrugs into her jacket. ‘We’re off.’

‘Why?’ Nile asks, standing up as Andy pulls her t-shirt and moves her towards the door. Behind her, she hears the sound of a chair scraping across the floor and a low voice.

‘And now, tesoro? Is being in bed still your favourite part of the day?’

Nile speeds up and practically throws herself out the door as Andy laughs.

[crushpdf]

20 Questions, Writer’s Edition

thanks @hklnvgl​ for tagging me a few days ago!

How many works do you have on AO3?

19

What’s your total AO3 word count?

133,522

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Glee (😖), Harry Potter, Les Mis, TRC/TDT

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

To Dwell on Dreams (HP)

Kiss Me Again (TRC)

A Very Drarry Valentine’s (HP)

Filling in the Blanks and Gaps (TRC)

Oil on Canvas (Les Mis)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes! Almost always.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Not only is Anatomy of a Punch (TRC) unrequited, but it’s also major character death 😈

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Kiss Me Again and A Very Drarry Valentine’s are both pure fluff.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

Nope! Don’t anticipate ever doing one.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I genuinely can’t remember... probably not!

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I dooooo. I like non-fluffy smut best.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Don’t think so!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I’ve had someone ask me and TBH I never followed through to see if they did...

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope!

What’s your all time favorite ship?

I really really really love writing ExR. They’re basically OCs and I love that freedom, but I love that they’re also collective headcanon. It makes it easy to throw in recognizable details (E notices a green beanie somewhere? Well we all know who that is) which is one of the best parts of writing fanfic. And they’re such a delicious blend of angst and pining.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Honestly? Both of my Les Mis WIPs.

What are your writing strengths?

I’m strong in angst! And I’m good at prose. I think I’m good at the more whimsical, descriptive bits.

What are your writing weaknesses?

My dialogue to description ratio. My complete inability to write anything funny.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Heh, I’ve never formed a hard opinion on this! I don’t like when direct translations are just listed--you need to find a natural way to translate the words. Or, you need to have the character react in a way where the words’ meaning is understood (a thing you can get away with in the internet era where an audience can just google the word, too).

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Glee...

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I like most of my fic! I tend not to write fic unless I love it. I had a ton of fun writing my most recent work, no other witnesses just us two.

[tasteofshapes]

Writing Tag Game

I was tagged by @tackytigerfic, @maesterchill and @drarryruinedme7 - thank you so much!

AO3 name: Tasteofshapes

Fandoms: I write multi-pairings for  both Harry Potter & Bleach.

Tropes: Oh god, where do I start? I love them ALL. But my holy trinity is (1) they’re idiots, (2) they’re idiots obsessed with each other, (3) they’re idiots obsessed with each other and in denial of their feelings and there’s plenty of pining. UNTIL SOMEONE GETS HURT AND THEN THE OTHER PERSON TURNS INTO A BAMF. *glee*

Number of fics: On AO3 it says 16, but I have bonus drabbles posted on tumblr so I have no idea really. Let’s go with 16!

Fic I spent the most time on: These 2 both took about the same amount of time, which was about a month?

The Lion, The Dragon, and the Broom Closet [17.9k]

Harry Potter and the Secret in the Library [11.6k]

Fic I spent less time on: It would have to be The Christmas Party. I think that took about a week to write? I was working through a mini-block and wanted to write something easy and fun, and then it was Christmas, so it turned into Draco snarking, a neutral ground party, and a wobbly Draco who Harry just has to slip an arm around.

Longest fic: The Lion, The Dragon, and the Broom Closet. This was also super fun to write, and I learnt so much about the process when I wrote this as well. Namely, that once I have an impending deadline, stress can make me churn out the words! 

Shortest: A Sprig of Lavender, 272 words about Drarry, summer, and fields of lavender.

Most hits/kudos/comments thread/bookmarks: The Lion, The Dragon, and the Broom Closet. Holy shit! I did not realise the numbers until I went to have look at the stats but this is definitely my most popular fic!

Total word count: 68,510! Which is a lot, considering I only dived back into fandom in August 2019!

Fic you want to rewrite or expand: I have so many! I want to expand this Drarry Coffee Shop AU because it’s calling out to me; I want to turn this Wolfstar drabble on the only-one-bed trope into a proper fic because where are they going? Did Sirius fuck up the reservations on purpose? Will it finally take Moony sleeping alone in one bed for him to realise that he actually enjoys sleeping with Sirius, likes all the soft snuffly sounds that Sirius makes in his sleep?

Fave fic you wrote: For Bleach, it’s hands down Into Something Rich and Strange. I was on a roll when I wrote that, it was done in 3 days and it was an incredible rush. Everything just flowed and came together so well. 

For Harry Potter, it’s The Lion, The Dragon, and the Broom Closet. This had 3 different beginnings and was such a struggle to get started. If I didn’t have the help I had, I would not have been able to finish this - but once I did get started, it came together really quickly. At one point, I churned out about 5k in one incredible push over a weekend, and that was such a rush. I couldn’t write the words down fast enough, it felt like I was watching a movie play out in my head with every completed scene.

Share a bit of your wip or idea if you have anything planned:

For Harry Potter:

Draco finds the tiny dragon sleeping on the staircase leading up to the astronomy tower.

At first he thinks it’s a deformed lizard, and sends a couple of nasty thoughts towards Mrs Norris’ way about cats who spend entirely too much of their days snitching on students, and too little time catching pests. Then the dragon huffs out a little puff of smoke in its sleep, and Draco abruptly stops and stares. He stoops down until he’s eye-level with the step, and watches as the tiny dragon rolls over, its small claws flexing, and carries on sleeping.

That’s how Potter stumbles over him an hour later: sprawled face down on the staircase, his head turned sideways and resting on the step next to the dragon, watching it sleep. Draco has timed his breathing to sync with the dragon’s, and a hot mist fills the air every time they exhale in tandem. 

For Bleach:

Rukia likes it when it storms in the kingdom Above. 

There’s hardly any ships around for miles when it does, so she can surface without any fear of being spotted. She likes how the ocean changes; how the waters grow dark as the light fades, how the sea becomes violent and temperamental. She likes to ride the foam-tipped waves as they gather up speed across the surface of the sea, feel the cold rain lashing her face, and dive off the monstrous swells into churning waters. It makes her feel alive, which isn’t something that she feels too often these days, trapped as she is in the kingdom Below in a gilded cage fashioned out of rules and procedures and formalities.

So when Rukia feels something calling to her from the surface, at first she thinks it's the storm. She makes up a flimsy excuse, one her brother sees right through, but the affairs of the court distract him long enough for her to make her getaway. She swims for the surface, anticipation coursing through her veins, singing a sea-song of promise. She’s almost at the boundary line between the two kingdoms when she sees him. 

I think most people have been tagged, but if not, tagging @eva-eleanore, @p1013, @prolix-, @triggerlil, @xanthippe74, @veelawings, and if you’re reading this and you want to do it too, please do so, and tag me so I can read yours!

[captaindaddykru]

Top 5/Bottom 5 Kudos Fics

tagged by miss emily @arysafics​ herself and obviously i do whatever she wants me to so here we are.

What are your five most popular works by kudos (in descending order)?

we’re only alive if we bruise - arrow, 996 kudos

Felicity wasn’t really sure what to expect when tall, dark and armed walked into her office all the way down in the IT department, but it sure as frick wasn’t a marriage and a pack of trained Russian assassins escorting her at all times.

uhm yeah, little cringey reading it back but bratva!oliver still has my heart

we both pretend (but i know that i start where you end) - the 100, 878 kudos

"You’re not like, going to ask me to shave my head, too, right?” “God no.” She squints her eyes at him like she’s imagining it. “You’d look like a giant--fat, bald baby.” / Or, Octavia's pissed the thing her brother and best friend finally bond over is the fact Clarke has cancer.

not an accurate portrayal of cancer as i’ve had people scream to me about in the comment section multiple times, but at least it has a happy ending!

i would give my life just to hold your hand (i’m your number one fan) - the 100, 607 kudos

Wells: an OSCAR winner is hyping you up, C, free of charge

Clarke: He’s not just an Oscar winner. He’s also an asshole

Raven: is that why you two have been DMing for months now?

Or: He was an Oscar winner, she writes song for a living. Can I make it any more obvious?

loved writing this one but did NOT think it was gonna get the hype it did. honestly my most liked one i think

break up with your girlfriend (i’m bored) - the 100, 547 kudos

"Isn't she dating that TA? From the history department? The hot one?"

Clarke must still look confused, because Raven rolls her eyes, adding, "Octavia Blake's brother?"

"Right," she answers, a beat too late, her friend too intoxicated to notice. Clarke vaguely knew Bellamy Blake. Monty was her lab partner in bio, and he knew Jasper, who in turn was friends with Octavia, whose brother was him. She even took a class with him serving as the TA last year; remembers arguing with him on more than one occasion; remembers having heated discussions about the renaissance, semiotics, the social significance of La Gioconda; remembers he was somewhat ridiculously attractive.

So yes. Vaguely rings a bell. Yet, she doesn't see what he has to do with any of this. Then her eyes widen slightly. "You want me to—"

"Steal her man," Raven fills in, pointing a lean finger at her. She thinks it's directed at her anyway. Then she's back sipping on her drink.

OR: The logical thing for Clarke to do when some succubus on campus screws her over is to let it go, be the bigger person, let karma take care of it. Yet, there she is. Trying to platonically seduce it's boyfriend while still trying to remain morally correct.

yeah iconic tags and to think this was all borne out of my hatred for echo

too good to be all mine - the 100, 524 kudos

Clarke hesitates, then licks her lips, hastily urging, “Let me give you my number, in case she needs me, or you have to go home or something.”

He presses his lips together, and she just knows he’s trying to keep a smug smirk from breaking through on his face. “Better late than never.”

When an one night stand doesn't stay an one night stand, but instead you're suddenly kind of raising your adopted three year old together and you're trying to make a move but you don't know how.

jesus. very bad summary. did not think this fic was as good as people seem to think it is, but alas. happy they like it.

What are your five least popular works by kudos (in ascending order)?

venus, planet of love was destroyed by global warming - the 100, 9 kudos

In a world tainted by darkness, Harper meets Monty.

fic written for a competition

now the movie never ends - glee, 11 kudos

Quinn Fabray, captain of the Academic Decathlon team and professional student, and Noah Puckerman, first class deliquent with some community service hours to fill, team up to lead the infamous Brainiacs to victory. — Or Quinn and Puck as Rachel and Finn, with a small plot twist.

yes i was a quick crackhead. no i do not wanna talk about it. i fucking loved this fic tho might fuck around and reread it to cringe<2

and all these mistakes we’ve made - glee, 11 kudos

"No," she states desperately, shaking her head lightly, before barely whispering, not able to stop herself from making him hate her, "No. I was pregnant this - this year. I went to the hospital and then - then I wasn't anymore."

thought this was some deep shit when i wrote it

now it’s clear as this promise - glee, 12 kudos

Finn and Rachel become YouTube sensations thanks to a little bet.

always thought my one talent was writing crack fics and thats why i thrived writing glee fic but this is one of my better ones imo

when the party’s over - the 100, 14 kudos

Bellamy goes into the anomaly to save Octavia. What he finds, is a trail of bodies.

{Or: a canonverse take on Hansel & Gretel}

me, JUMPING at any chance to write octavia as the villain she is

tagging: @kombellarke @hiddenpolkadots and whoever wants to 

[kiraziwrites]

Author interview

Tagged by: @slipsthrufingers

Name: Not telling (but it starts with E).

Fandoms: Game of Thrones (JxB) is the only one I’ve really written for seriously so far, but I regularly read and have toyed with writing (to the point of having some dusty fragments that never made it to story status on an old laptop) in a bunch of others: Vorkosiverse (all kinds of pairings and stories), Queen’s Thief (ditto), Wimsey (mostly Harriet/Peter), Rivers of London (anything that gets the canon tone and voices right, but I’ve got a soft spot for Peter/Nightingale or Beverley/Peter/Nightingale as a v-shaped OT3), and Broadchurch (Hardy/Miller, both as OTP and BroTP). I’ve also read a fair amount of Yuri!!! on Ice and Veronica Mars and random other things, but I’ve never felt the impulse to write for those. 

Where you post: AO3 and here. I did put a piece of Babylon 5 fic on a listserv sometime in the 90s and I hope internet entropy has erased any trace of its existence (I was very young and it was almost certainly terrible).

Most popular oneshot: Going by kudos, Rescued Again, my first proper fic. Going by comments, its sequel Adequate Vocabulary.

Most popular multi-chapter story: Ring Them Bells, which doesn’t surprise me, because it’s the longest, it contains several plot elements that are popular in the fandom (i.e. J&B go to Tarth, meet Selwyn, etc) and it was written at what was probably the peak of appetite for S8 fix-its (not that that’s stopped me from continuing to write more of them....)

Favorite story you wrote: Ring them Bells is still dear to me, but A Great Fountain has mostly displaced it from the no. 1 spot in my heart—both because it feels more real to me (my head has been stuck in that continuity since late June, between writing it and the companion story) and also because I think I put more of myself in it. I wrote RTB for the fandom (and for myself, as a member of it), whereas AGF was for myself first, if that makes sense.

Story you were nervous to post: I feel like I ought to have been nervous before posting Rescued Again, but I’d been up all night writing and I think I was too high on the glee of it to feel nervous. Maybe a little bit about A Satisfactory Maneuver because it was my first time posting porn? TBH it’s probably Winter Should Have Meaning because this one has been much harder to write than the others and I’m both less sure of what I’m trying to do, and whether it’s working. 

How you choose your titles: It depends! The first three were all references to lines within the story; Ring Them Bells was after a Dylan song because I was thinking about bells and 8x05 as the turning point and a cover version got stuck in my head and many lines suddenly seemed to fit the story beats I wanted (which is why it’s the only one with chapter titles). As previously noted, AGF/WSHM are both titled after lines from one of my favorite books of poetry, Louise Glück’s The Wild Iris. If I continue to be on my bullshit, I forecast a high probability of either lyrics from The Mountain Goats, or more poetry (likely candidates: Seamus Heaney, Richard Siken, Agha Shahid Ali, Adrienne Rich....)

Do you outline: Not at the start; everything begins with vibes and feels and scattered clumps of text emerging from the depths and cohering into a scene or two. And then when I get stuck, or need to try to make sense of the larger picture, I outline. Sort of. It’s more like a jumble of incoherent notes-to-self with lots of ????? and idk, maybe X, and [something goes here] and ugh fml than anything as organized as the word “outline” would imply.

Complete: 5 stories so far. All about our favorite dumbass knights in love.

In-progress: Just the one! Well, maybe two, if we count the fragments of porn-in-Winterfell that might turn into something someday. I wrote a version of their first time for the Winterfell Sequence, but there’s a different, 8x04-compliant version of it (and the second, third, etc times) in my head that would be a sort of background/prequel to the fix-its. 

Coming soon/not yet started: See above, re: porn-in-Winterfell.

Do you accept prompts: Sure, why not? I can’t promise I’ll fill them, since I’m having trouble keeping pace with one story at a time right now, but it might be fun to play around with some short and different stuff, especially since Winter is hard going at present (I expect it will get easier once I can go back to writing all the post-reconciliation softness, but I have banned myself from writing any more of the soft parts until I get through the middle section of the story). Anyway, the ask box is open; fire away. 

Upcoming story you are most excited to write: Any of them, but I think I might sign up for Yuletide this year to push myself to try writing in another fandom, probably Queen’s Thief or Broadchurch.

Tagging @agirlnamedkeith, if she hasn’t been tagged yet, and anyone else who wants to jump in.

[quinnmorgendorffer]

fanfic authors tag game!

Tagged by @bethecowgirl​, thank you!!! I’m always up for one of these

I tag @gobbluthlesbian || @gobbluthbisexual || @theonewherelaurynhasablog​ || @whythinktoomuch​ || @redvanjie​ || @catty-words​ || @h-influenzae​ || @dollsome-does-tumblr​ || @pega-and-the-pen​ || @halles-comet​ || anyone else who feels like doing it! I just tried to tag people I know have fics/are still writing fics

AO3 name: xlessxthanx3x

Fandoms: From oldest to most recent: 13 fics for Glee, 1 fic for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and 10 fics for Arrested Development 

Number of fics: 24 on AO3

Fic you spent the most time on: Obviously When You're the Best of Friends (wytbof), since I started that in 2011…and I’ll probably never finish it.

Fic you spent the least time on: Honestly probably One of Gob’s Better Parties. It’s one of my shorter works and since I’d written so much smut before, particular in RPs, it wasn’t as hard as some of the past ones I had written. I think I got that done in a day or two. In terms of multichapter fics, I wrote Take On Me in about a month.

Longest fic: Étude No. 3 in G-sharp minor, S. 141 AKA piano fic 2 (13 chapters and still longer than wytbof that has like 30 chapters. It’s uh…321,472 words)

Shortest fic: Red Lace, a glee one-shot smut fic (1,359 words)

Most hits: Surprising no one, Take a Bite of My Heart Tonight, which is probably my best glee smut fic, with 7,472 hits (imagine how much more I’d get if it was k/laine lmao). 

Most kudos: I wasn’t surprised by the previous answer because I get kudo email alerts for Take a Bite of My Heart Tonight fairly often. 

Most comment threads: Wytbof, of course, ‘cause it’s so long and has been going on for so long. Very proud to say that first piano fic is right under it. I know being multichapter helps and I have no other glee multichapter on AO3, but I’m still proud lol

Fave fic you wrote: I’ll always say that some of my best writing EVER was in Étude Op. 25, No. 2 in F minor (first piano fic). I’m also so proud of Take On Me, it’s just so freaking cute.

Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: I can’t imagine rewriting anything, though I’m technically rewriting Take On Me as a novel. Lots of character changes, and not just the names, but like a lot of different dynamics between characters and stuff. Expanding, though…I have a full idea of a big overarching plot for the In the beginning, there were lips series. And, being high on my own ego, I have started work on yet another piano fic, but this time it’s covering Tony’s early life and fill in gaps that we didn’t see in the 2nd piano fic due to time jumps. Not sure how interested people would be in it, though, even if I reigned in my word count lmao. In a similar vein, I started work on something I was calling Take Me On, which is Take On Me from Tony’s POV. Not sure I’ll finish it since I haven’t touched the doc in September, but I open it up sometimes and think about it lol

Share a bit of your WIP or share a story idea that you’re planning: BLULANDER AKA Zoolander AD AU. it might just be the STUPIDEST thing I could ever do, but that just makes me want to do it even mORE. I just don’t want it to be a complete re-telling with a different endgame, I want to find ways to make it my own, so I’m conflicted. I’ve managed to find that balance with You're Standing on My Neck, which is loosely based off Daria, but that’s easier when you have multiple episodes you rewrite with much more complex characters than Zoolander lol.

But anyways Blulander. I shared part of it a while ago, but here’s some more of what I wrote that I never shared on here. Gob is Zoolander (weird shift lol) and Sally is Matilda (because I might as well keep one actor the same). This is from her interviewing him at the beginning of the movie

“How am I supposed to forget that you’re Sally Stickwell?” Gob asked with a grin. Sally clenched her jaw but said nothing in response to that. There was no need to try to get the idea of professionalism through his thick head.

Instead, she asked, “So, when did you know you wanted to be a model?” She was pretty sure he didn’t know until he was discovered back in high school, but she was sure he had a different answer these days. His mother was the one who managed his career, after all, and Lucille Bluth would certainly make sure there was a polished, proper response.

And Sally’s instincts were right. “I guess I’ve always known. I always knew that I’m, like, really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I was sure there had to be a career for that, you know?” 

“A career out of being good looking?”

“Utterly good looking.”

“And you never wanted to be anything else?”

“Nope.”

That was a lie, a bald face one. Sally raised an eyebrow and wrote down the response, biting back the urge to bring up how false that story was.

Well, at first. But then she figured, hey, if they wanted to use her due to her history with the Bluth family, why should she hold back from asking the right questions?

“So, you never wanted to run the Bluth Company?”

“No.”

“You were always okay with your younger brother, Michael, taking over?” Sally asked. “Since he has just been named as the successor to the CEO position, right?”

A muscle in Gob’s jaw twitched and Sally bit back a smirk. It was cruel of her and she knew it. Really, Gob, as much of a jerk as he could be, was really more of a harmless idiot than anything else these days and he didn’t deserve to be reminded of how he hadn’t gotten the position he had coveted since childhood—even if he didn’t do anything to try to actually earn that position. But, whatever. Maybe she could find a way to make this piece something more than a generic interview.

“He has, yes,” Gob said, his voice a bit stiffer than usual. “I’m very happy for him. He’s been working on it his whole life.” He let one of the make-up artists brush a powder over his nose before commenting, “Of course, you’d assume the position would go to me as I’m the matriarch of the family—”

“Matriarch?”

“Yeah, the oldest,” Gob said simply. He laughed for a moment, “I figured you’d know what that word meant, Stickwell.”

“Yes, Gob, I actually know what that word means,” she said, being sure to make a note of that particular word use.