#it's been a great learning experience

[ejunkiet]

20 Questions for Fic Writers Game

tagged by the wonderful @autisticempathydaemon (chrissy my beloved <33 also you HAVE to let me know if you start writing for castleaudios >:3)

tagging - you, reading this!! also (no pressure!): @dominimoonbeam @glassbearclock @taelonsamada @romirola @lovelylonerliterature @genginger @ninzied @evilbunnyking @nerdierholler @commander-krios @chroniclesinlacuna @kesla @mordinette @garglyswoof @nagia-pronounced-neijia

1 - How many works do you have on AO3?

oh god, 128! but this is an underestimate, because i've anon'd some older fics/fandoms hehehe. i've been 'round ao3 since 2012!

2 - What's your total AO3 word count?

498,649... now this is actually accurate. 300k of that is from 2020 until now. basically the pandemic got me on a writing kick.

3 - What fandoms do you write for?

SO MANY. 19 according to ao3, but right now? baldurs gate & redacted audios >:3 there is another halsin fic in the works...

4 - What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

oh god. okay. you'll get some older fics here: 1. got me on my best (bad) behaviour 2. Call me scent o' mental, but I'm crazy about you (teen wolf....) 3. all bark, no bite 4. devils and ghosts (frank castle / karen page!! love this one heh) 5. sweeter than honey (ofc halsin makes it ahaha)

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

YES. there are only a few exceptions, when I've written something that touches close to home / a sensitive topic.

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

hmm...bittersweet endings were my wheelhouse for a long time. OKAY. let's do this one: too little, too late. caroline forbes and klaus mikaelson, set at the end of the originals. yeah.

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

....nowadays, I mostly write happier endings sadhfjk lets go with: bioluminescence, which follows on from the events of blood moon (@/barbwrites) and takes marco on a roadtrip to see luminescent algae up close and personal. (it's a loveletter to a summer I spent in california during a really difficult period of my life, and this fic means a lot to me <3)

8 - Do you get hate on fics?

I've not gotten hate, but I've definitely had some interesting comments over the years, for a variety of reasons, usually to do with the person's personal views. (one story had the main character smoking pot to calm their anxiety, and someone was not happy with that)

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

YEP. Smut with feelings is my FAVOURITE thing. I prefer sensual descriptions, because it is all about feelings and sensations with me. as an ace writer, I also like kink and monster fuckery heheheh.

10 - Do you write crossovers?

Not at all ahahahaha. Have I ever written a crossover? I don't think so. I love AUs though, and pacific rim AUs are one of my favourite concepts in fandom.

11 - Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes, and it was teen wolf, and honestly not one of my best. it was a hatchet job, they took random paragraphs and spliced it / wrote around it? someone flagged it to me in a comment, and it was taken down. all in all, a very weird experience.

12 - Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but gosh, that'd be cool! <- stealing from lexi, agreed, would be awesome <3

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

YES. It was FUN. It was a series of conversations between an estranged father and son, Colm and Milo Greer, with the incredibly talented @frenchiefitzhere (also tagging you for this meme!!). it's still one of my favourite things: An Honest Man Like Yourself

14 - What's your all time favorite ship?

ALL TIME FAVOURITE? How dare you. I love all my ships afjkdsfg Shakarian is pretty high up there. Kastle (karen page/ frank castle). All the werewolves from redacted. <3

15 - What's a WIP that you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

ahhhh. okay. 'wander. wonder.' my poly longfic. don't hate me, but honestly, I've just not got the space for a longfic at the moment. never say never, but I've caught up with the chapters I had worked up, everything else is a vague outline. <3

16 - What are your writing strengths?

oof. I want to say character. most of the fun for me when writing is getting inside a characters head and figuring out their voice >:3

17 - What are your writing weaknesses?

Structuring longer, multi-chaptered stories - basically figuring out the pacing of it. I'm working on an original project, and I love it, but the first series of major edits will be breaking up my alternating POV sections into proper chapter breaks and letting myself linger more in moments instead of pushing forward (habits of a oneshot writer fdsds)

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

I've been meaning to have my estonian friend critique my estonian, but I'm pretty positive the 'bond' I referred to is actually the money kind, and not the emotional attachment I'd been hoping to refer to hfjdkssfdg. I do as much research as I can, but it's best to run it past someone who speaks the language!

19 - First fandom you wrote for?

hehehehe naruto. yep. I was a naruto kid. first posted online in 2007......

20 - Favorite fic you've written?

WHAT A QUESTION. honestly, I love what I have been writing the last three years. I've really let myself just write what I want to read, and it's been great. i'm going to cheat, and say the original project I'm working on that I won't let anyone see heheheh. <3 it's got werewolves, kink and explicit consent, and spun out a whole verse for me to play with (and a fun MMF sidestory that I also need to finish...)

gods this got LONG. Thank you for making it this far!! <3

[ca-3]

Hey, I made even more Persona 5 styled sprites of the Omori characters, but this time headspace versions! 💜

Real-World Versions ✨️

[mumpsetc]

Daisy Bell 13: I'll Write You a Song

[marlynnofmany]

Pro tip for anyone who lives in a building with a toilet: if the plunger isn't working, and you're tempted to leave the clog until the morning, make sure the water isn't still flowing into the bowl.

And make sure it's not on the ground floor of a two-story house, with a communal plumbing pipe that is now clogged deep enough for any water upstairs to come out that toilet.

...

Related tips:

Carpet that has been soaked in poo water cannot be cleaned by human hands, even with one of those steamer machines.

Drywall that has been soaked in poo water will need to have a one-foot "flood cut" carved into it, to remove the damaged area.

You know that part in ET where the house is covered in tarps because Biohazard™? The water damage people will need to recreate that, with zipper doorways and industrial dehumidifier fans roaring day and night for 3-5 days.

Cats can and will climb inside any holes in the wall. Yes, even that one. Yes, they can climb upward too.

Homeowner's insurance is GREAT.

This little misadventure will cost upwards of $17,000 to fix (but we only have to pay $1000 of it). That's still an expensive clot of toilet paper.

In other news, our new carpet is going to be a different color, and that's exciting.

[daily-whistlepaw]

daily whistlepaw until whis becomes PoV whisversary part twenty four

okay everyone, we got there! it has been three years since I began drawing whistlepaw everyday.

It is not an understatement to say Whis has become a main part of my life. I draw whistlepaw constantly and it is a relaxing little thing to do in the evening. It has grown alongside me, I don't think I need to begin a whole new spiel like I did at day 1000, but my life has changed so much since day one of this, but whistlepaw didn't leave. It was here as I kept on drawing that silly blue cat every day. I never thought when I first started this blog it'd become such a massive enterprise, with people following along for the ride, and even helping make this hourly whisversary possible.

thank you so much to @morsobaby @ivynnnn @marshmallow-icing-swirl @cheesepaw-whisker @vulturequills @insertcleverurl @disgruntleddemon and @magnuficentwo for your guest drawings

and a special thanks to @booksofstars for coming up with the idea and drawing a total of 8 guest whisses to make this all possible.

textless drawing under the cut

[hella1975]

all hate to tiktok for taking 'having a space to more openly and actively talk about different cultures' to mean 'cultures are NOT to be shared and we must be vigilantly defensive of our cultures for fear of appropriation, a word that can be applied to any multicultural interaction'. like of course cultural appropriation is a very real problem but ive seen with the access to global multicultural conversation that tiktok provides it's made people TERRIFIED to even interact with cultures other than their own for fear of 'doing it wrong'. like at some point you have to acknowledge that in the real world of the great outdoors, the majority of people are eager to SHARE their cultures. yes there are ignorant questions and biases but also... how do you think those things get unlearnt? i dont understand how deciding that multiculturalism is an elephant in the room instead of a normal thing that should just be talked about and lived with is supposed to benefit anyone? and kids on tiktok are CONVINCED that it's a time bomb of a conversation to have and therefore must be avoided at all costs but like. people generally LOVE their home and their culture and are PROUD of it and want to share it. how have we made it so that showing genuine interest and a desire to understand something so integral to a person's identity is now feared and borderline demonised?

[wheucto]

it's tuesday! bfb taco as a cat cause why not

[coldshrugs]

remembering why i usually stick with commissioning friends 🥴

[winepresswrath]

last night's episodes of totnt mostly irritated me with very bad pacing, which is a shame, because I was so charmed by the lead up. there have been too many redundant meetings and also too many people stopping to monologue about how sad it will be if Lee Yeon dies. >:( I was ready to have brainworms for at least two weeks, show. Also, going into the final episodes there has still been no actual explanation for why the main character abandoned his kid brother on a burning mountain with a dead puppy aside from "he was very sad." im beginning to question whether he was locked in a hell dimension at all.

[trans-axolotl]

What is harm reduction outreach? I saw you mention it in a post.

Sure!

So I do outreach through an org in my city that provides harm reduction services to people who use drugs and sex workers. We have specific areas of the city that we go to on specific days, and also do deliveries. We also do at least one overnight shift a week to be able to better provide services to sex workers. For outreach, we hand out safer use supplies including needles, sharps bins, tourniquets, cookers, sterile water, stems, Narcan, fentanyl test strips, condoms, lube, bad date sheets, wound care supplies, food, water, etc. We also try to help provide people referrals to services like HIV and Hep C care, share what resources in the city are trans friendly and how to navigate social services with the least bullshit, and also provide peer support and harm reduction education to help people have all the information they need to make choices, and help reduce risk.

It's really important to us that we are not acting like exploitative nonprofits that come in, hoard resources, and expect people to be grateful. outreach is pretty much done entirely by people who are also drug users and sex workers. We are also really involved in local advocacy--we participate in a decriminalization campaign, a drug users union, and a sex work advocacy coalition. and i think nonprofits and government attempts to coopt harm reduction are so fucked up and actively harmful--you can't do harm reduction without also fighting to abolish the oppressive systems that are targeting drug users and sex workers. we have a lot of ties to the community that we're doing harm reduction in--for most of us it just is our community + neighborhoods lmao, and we make sure that we're always getting feedback, respecting autonomy and consent, and building mutual relationships. we've been around for a while and do have a lot of community trust, but we always want to be making sure we're respecting what people want and need instead of coming in with ideas about what services + supplies they want.

anyway. harm reduction is so fucking important to me and it's not just like, something i do to like, build my resume or to try to "save people." i'm a former sex worker and when i first started doing sex work, i didn't have any information, community, or access to anything that would have helped me to be able to work safer. it fucked me up pretty bad and i survived a lot of violence. i wish so fucking badly i had all those things, and it's super important to me to try to build community, care for each other, resist fucked up systems and protect each other.

[mcybree]

now im nosy, what do you mean by alien clone replacement????

DONT even worry about . dont even worry. dont even

[fictionadventurer]

Reasons that buying a pocket watch was an excellent life choice

Aesthetic

Seriously, so much my aesthetic that it's a crime I haven't had one before now

Helpful way to check the time without having to dig my phone out of my purse

It isn't strapped to my wrist where it can bump into things and get wet when I wash my hands

I can see if that A.A. Milne story was right about babies loving pocket watches. (Can find out for myself if baby will "Hark to the tick-tick.")

[martyrbat]

true strength — batman secret files (2018) #1

(ID below cut!)

[ID: A short story with a guiding narration:

His knuckles ache with each blow, bone grinding into bone. The criminals shout what they always shout. And Superman comes from above. — We're shown Batman fighting against several men that are trying to overpower him. He blocks an attack as he strikes another man. Above him, in the far distance, Superman is soaring through the air to get to him and help.

Superman gives a speech. They've been friends for so long. Colleagues. Soldiers in the fight. Superman knows his soul, he says. He knows he's a good man, he says. — Now, in the safety of the Batcave, Batman sits in front of his computer desk. He's facing Superman, who's standing in front of him with his hand outstretched. He opens his fist to reveal what he's brought.

Inside the Phantom Zone there is an impossible universe. Inside the impossible universe is an impossible planet. On the impossible planet is a small, impossible rock. Platinum Kryptonite. — Bruce pushes his cowl off as Superman presents the radiant silver rock to him.

It gives you powers. Powers like Superman's. Superman tells him to touch it. “Just touch it, Bruce, just once, and it lasts a lifetime. Then you can fight as I fight, as you should fight. With true strength.” A smile. A whoosh. Superman leaves. — Superman leaves the Kryptonite on the desk before he departs. Bruce doesn't move any closer. He stares at it somberly, deep in thought.

He looks at the gift. His mind wanders. — A red-tinted multipanel sequence shows Bruce imagining a scenario if he did gain Superman's powers. A woman is being held hostage by the Joker. She has a gun pressed to her temple as she stares at Batman with fear. Silently begging him to help and to save her like how he's saved countless others. The Joker pulls the trigger. But before she can be another person he couldn't possibly save, Batman's eyes glow with red electricity. He vaporizes the bullet with heat vision before it can even finish leaving the barrel.

He keeps his hands at his side. His knuckles ache. At least two of them are broken. Footsteps echoing down the stairs. The smell of stirred milk and white sugar. A polite clearing of the throat. Alfred says nothing. Their routines are well established, words are unnecessary. — Bruce continues to stare intensely at the well-intended present as Alfred approaches him with a tray. Bruce finally tears his gaze away from the Kryptonite to look at his lifelong friend before looking down at the steaming teacup that Alfred hands him.

His hand shakes. His loose knuckles stab into his skin. He can’t hold on. He always has before. But now he can’t. — His hand continues to tremble and before he can take a single sip of the hot drink, the cup is shattering against the ground.

The pain is not great. Not as great as it has been. Not as great as a bullet burrowing, or a back breaking, or a knife sinking into his throat. This is nothing. But still. His knuckles ache. — Bruce grabs his own gloved hand, cradling the back of his broken knuckles. He looks up and quietly asks, “Alfred. Am I enough?”

END ID]

[pepprs]

halfway thru my first drivers ed session. idk if i can do this aftually lol

[oifaaa]

idk if you read wfa but what happened to the art style??? i preferred season one idk season two's is a bit ehhh

So yes I actually have an educated guess on what happened which is to put simply a weekly webcomic is a lot of work for one artist to do so dc have another artist (Toby fan I think their name is) to do the inks if Starbitez can't Toby did a couple chapters in season 1 but seems to be doing a lot more in season 2 but starbitez still does half the chapters, the thing is tho that Toby is specifically trying to copy starbitez style (they even have a wee disclaimer for it in the credits) and idk if your an artist or writer or smth but it's very difficult thing to copy someones else's style so when you see the art go down in quality slightly it's just bc it's Toby trying to do a style that isn't theirs which tbh I actually think they're doing a great job for the work they have to do

[panharmonium]

“he’s just a fill-in!”

the fact that naruto’s tantrum inadvertently weaponizes every single insecurity that yamato later ends up having about his own position on this team...