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stark-tony · 3 years

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today is my 22nd birthday so i’m celebrating by reccing 22 of my favorite fics and giving my general thoughts about them.

atla

i'm still here by owedbetter (77.7, T, zutara) "You see me."And somehow, that makes all the difference.

thoughts: One of the first zutara fics i ever read and it’s still one of my absolute favorites. The characterization of all of the characters is superb and the gradual development of zuko and katara’s relationship is amazing.

such selfish prayers by andromeda3116 (47.6k, T, zutara) Katara's ambition, so long set aside for the good of others, breaks free and sets fire to her soul. Or, Katara has a vision of her canon future, casts it aside, and becomes a world-changing politician instead.

thoughts: while this fic is a zutara fic, the majority of this fic is centered on katara and her helping rebuild the world after the war and it does an astounding job of portraying just that. and honestly this probably has my favorite characterization of katara i’ve ever read in a fic.

Southern Lights by colourwhirled (501.8k, M, zutara) A world where the Avatar has disappeared from memory. Where Sozin’s Conquest was successful. Where the unsteady order of the empire is threatened as members of the royal family are picked off one by one and lines are slowly drawn in the sand.One last chance for peace forces an unlikely alliance between a homesick waterbender, a carefree Air Nomad, a runaway Earth Kingdom heiress, and the fire lord's inscrutable son. Together they must learn to shed old enmities and become the balance they seek to restore to the world.OR:The avatar has four heads.x[[Chapter 4: "And always, his eyes, cautiously watching her. Even when he thinks she isn’t looking. It drives her mad"]]

thoughts: when i say i was unable to put this fic down i genuinely mean that. like i’m pretty sure i was hooked from the very first chapter and i never looked back.

bnha

stickers and stars by aloneintherain (1.9k, G, gen) “Aizawa, are you sure I’m the best person for this job? There are a lot more qualified people on campus. People who have been teachers for years, and—”As All Might spoke, Midoriya Izuku crawled the length of the couch, ducked under All Might’s arm, and made himself comfortable on his lap. All Might’s hands rose into the air, as though unsure of what to with his arms now that he had a toddler curled against his stomach like a cat seeking the warmth of its owner.“Um,” All Might said.

thoughts: is it not enough to say ‘baby deku’ and leave it at that?

Butterfly by aconstantstateofbladerunner (198.8k, T, gen) The first over-night trip off campus since the training camp was supposed to be a fun break from more intense work back home. But between a bleak introduction to chaos theory, a chilly reception from the locals, and the looming threat of a villain attack, Izuku has too much on his mind to properly enjoy the fresh air. But those worries are a light breeze compared to the hurricane that accompanies what he finds on the outskirts of town.Or rather, what finds him.

thoughts: it’s incredibly well written and the horror aspect is so good. also the dad might in it is top tier.

villain eradication plan 5C: let them attack budding heroes mothers, wait appropriate time for mother to defeat them (3.4k, G, toshinko) Targetting the civilian families of hero students should be cakewalk. Pity they decided to go with Inko first.Or the one where Inko accidentally defeats the League of Villains.

thoughts: this fic is basically inko accidentally being a badass and it’s as hilarious and awesome as it sounds

see it all in bloom by aloneintherain (57.2k, T, tododeku, kiribaku, momojirou, bullying) Midoriya looked over the occupants of the room with butter soft eyes. “We should do this again. Seeing everyone in one place … it’s like we’re back in school again.”Todoroki said, “It feels like a family reunion.”(Social media fic, counting down the five months to Class 1-A's ten year reunion.)

thoughts: this series deals with social media + the lives of class 1a after they become pro heroes and it is amazing.

remember from here on in by aloneintherain (8.1k, G, gen) Aizawa glances from All Might to Midoriya quickly. It sounds impossible—he’s never heard of a quirk that can be handed down like a family heirloom—but at the same time, it makes perfect sense. Midoriya’s inability to use his quirk at the start of the year. The strange, familial relationship between All Might and Midoriya. The slow malnourishment of All Might’s body, like his power was being siphoned away.“You’re …” Aizawa begins.“I’m All Might’s successor.” Midoriya’s proud but shaky voice rings clearly down the empty corridor.Aizawa finds out about One for All.

thoughts: this fic deals with one for all being revealed to aizawa + midoriya getting more quirks and it is amazing

could i but teach the hundredth part by terra_incognita (5.2k, G, gen) Ito Matsu knows three things about her neighbor, Mr. Yagi: he's very skinny, he's very kind, and he has enough children to overthrow the Japanese government.Or:All Might is retired, but his former students keep coming up with reasons to visit.

thoughts: this fic is so lovely and i adore it so much

mcu

the talk by parkrstark (3.1k, pepperony) “Wait, man, what’re you doin’?” Rhodey asked, leaning forward.“Giving the kid his talk before he goes off to college.” Duh.Rhodey blinked. “At 3am when you’re probably too drunk to even spell your name, months before he actually has to leave?”“Yeah.”Rhodey blinked again. “Okay.”

thoughts: this fic is absolutely hilarious and poor peter is suffering throughout all of it

call you home by Madelinedear (19k, G, pepperony) sometimes family is who you're born with.and sometimes family is a spider boy, a rich not-dad, and a kickass aunt.(or; tony, may, and peter find a place in each other's lives)

thoughts: to me, this fic is the tony may co-parenting fic. like i honestly don’t think that anything can ever top it

I Never Lived 'Til I Lived In Your Light by losingmymindtonight (38.4k, T, pepperony, character death) As the world shifts to make space for Morgan Stark, everyone around her shifts, too. (As it turns out, this also includes Peter Parker's sleep schedule.)

thoughts: this fic is both fluffy goodness and heartwrenching angst and it handles both beautifully.

Lazarus, come forth by iron_spider (47.9k, T, pepperony) Tony's mind is a chaotic mess but he remembers the moment—remembers his death, remembers the red hot pain and Peter screaming, Rhodey rushing to his side. How he knew he’d never see Pepper again—but they’d fixed it. They’d fixed the world, erased the lost time, set things right—and the kid was back. The kid was crying, the kid hated him for doing what he did, but he was back. He was alive.Tony Stark was dead. But now he’s breathing again, trying to think, gasping, hands tracing the box surrounding him, covering him, suffocating him.He’s in a coffin. He’s under the ground. He’s under the fucking ground.(Tony Stark dies defeating Thanos. But then he comes back to life. He has to find out how, why, and how to live again. And how to deal with the changes in the people he's coming back to.)

thoughts: although this fic was written and finished pre-endgame but to me this fic is the fix-it fic for film.

Identity Saga by KitCat992 (400.7k, T, pepperony) An organically developed, platonic slow-burn of Avengers-fam dynamic with a heavy hand of Irondad & Spiderson. Throw in an overdose of whump, a couple of cunning villains and a big-bad hiding in the shadows, and you got yourself this hot mess.

thoughts: i just love the avengers dynamic in this series and the whump is medically accurate which is amazing.

college applications: the biggest meme by sagemb (3.3k, T, pepperony) Tony covered his face with both hands and screamed very gently. “Can I just bribe the school to let Peter in?"

thoughts: this series is absolutely hilarious and i love it

The Changeling + Armistice Series by Annerb (586.6k, M, hinny, rape) Ginny is sorted into Slytherin. It takes her seven years to figure out why.

thoughts: this fic is absolutely golden and i adore it so so much. the characters are so well written and the worldbuilding in this fic is fantastic and it actually has an original aspect of hogwarts (aka the parlor) that i practially consider to be canon at this point. also the depiction of slytherin house + house unity in this fic is just *chef’s kiss*

boy with a scar by dirgewithoutmusic (208.7k, T, hinny, romione, jily) A series of "what if" rewrites of Harry Potter, books 1-7. Cross-posted from tumblr (ink-splotch).

thoughts: every single one of these fics are exquisitely written and i wish that i could experience the beauty of this series again for the very first time.

Hogwarts, to welcome you home by gedsparrowhawk (FaceChanger) (11.1k, G, ginny) “You understand, Professor,” Harry began, after a moment, “that I don’t have my N.E.W.T.s. I never even finished seventh year. Between everything, I never had a chance the first time around, and then afterwards there didn’t seem to be much point. Hermione argued for it, of course, but I was so tired of Britain. So technically, I am completely unqualified for the position.”“Quite a way to begin an interview, Mr. Potter,” McGonagall said, dryly.Or, three years after the war, Harry Potter becomes Hogwarts' newest Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

thoughts: this is my favorite harry as dada professor i’ve ever read. no doubt about it

And the Unethical Binding Contract by justafandomfollower (14.6k, G, gen) AU. What if the Triwizard Tournament took place in Harry's first year, not his fourth?

thoughts: this fic is beautifully written and i love the relationship that forms between harry, cedric, krum, and fleur.

Regulus Black and the Way Things Changed: A Not!Fic by imaginary_golux (8.8k, T, wolfstar) What if Regulus Black, and not Severus Snape, ended up being the turncoat Potions Master of Hogwarts?A not!fic written in bullet points, ignoring the Deathly Hallows entirely because they annoy me.Beta by my immensely patient Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw, and by the delightful starbirdrampant.

thoughts: this fic may be ooc at some points but it’s so funny that that makes up for it

spn

Broadway Musical by Griftings (12.5k, M, destiel) This is the day that marked the Holy and Blessed Union of Dean Winchester and Jo Harvelle.The merging of prominent bloodlines is always a grand occurrence, but breeding pedigree hunter families like Winchester and Harvelle is something to be rejoiced. It is also something to be meticulously planned, which thankfully the Host is very good at.Or, the romantic comedy where Dean Winchester and Jo Harvelle are destined to get married, Castiel is given the task of playing matchmaker and fails terribly, the entire Heavenly Host becomes a sitcom audience, God warns against male pregnancy, and Jimmy Novak is incredibly unimpressed with angels in general.

thoughts: this fic is quite possibly the single most funniest thing i have ever read. like i was straight up cackling when i was reading some of the scenes.

Down to Agincourt by seperis (1 million+, E, destiel) There is no such thing as a guarantee when it comes to war.The outcome's known. Why try? Return your rusty sword to battered sheath, bow your head and bend your stubborn knee. Why take the field when you cannot win the war? But Harry -- he went down to Agincourt.

--Harry Takes the Field by bratfarrar (AO3 link here.)

thoughts: this fic is an absolute work of art. the characterization dean and cas and all of the ocs is astounding the world building is immaculate and the writing is so detailed and in depth. a fair warning though to the first time reader as this fic can get very confusing at times but trust me it is worth it.

#mcu recs #atla recs #hp recs #bnha recs #spn recs #my fic recs #bullying tw #rape tw

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overdrivels · 4 years

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TWtaH Notes

I’m finally free. It took three years and nearly 150k words, but I’m finally done. I can’t believe it.

It started off as a simple idea and a simple premise: a chef!reader who, while knife sharpening, catches Hanzo’s attention. It then evolved into a full-fledged fic with a plot and plot twists. Originally, it was supposed to be around 10 chapters long, but then it grew out of control over the years as I tried to figure out how to end what I started.

In addition to being a redemption fic, this was also an information dump fic. Since this is the very first slowburn I have ever finished and I have the feeling I won’t have much opportunity to do the same ever again--I don’t think any other fandom would give me the ability to showcase all these tidbits like Overwatch does--I literally threw as much knowledge as I could reasonably incorporate as possible.

About plot changes:

Most of the original plot points survived the writing process, some minor ones didn’t for plot related reasons, so this surprisingly went better than I thought it would.

There was supposed to be another scene where Chef faced off against Reaper in chapter 20 or so, but upon reassessing Reaper’s character, I decided he wouldn’t do that, especially not against civilians or put himself in harm’s way just to say something to Chef. He wouldn’t even say anything to his family in the comics, what makes anyone think he’d do anything to someone he had even less of a personal relationship with?

There were supposed to be more scenes about Chef’s fencing, but I couldn’t fit it in and it ended up being a one-trick pony plot device. It wasn’t supposed to be that way, but that’s how it turned out. There was supposed to be a scene where Chef fights back against Talon during their infiltration of the Watchpoint.

There were points where Hanzo himself talked his way out of situations and forced me to change the plot. In the kitchen when he first meets Chef face-to-face, he wasn’t supposed to get the chef to forgive him which is the biggest plot deviation I’ve had and it forced me to reconsider large sections of the story. Honestly, I think it’s for the better though because I was really at a loss as to how to progress the original plot under those conditions.

I also wanted to emphasize that when Chef left, there was increased tension between the members. There was little commonality joining them all together except for the fact they all needed to eat. In order for some parties to work, you have to have your support characters, and in that case, it’d be Chef. But I seem to have bumbled through that bit and made it less impactful so if I ever got a chance to rewrite this, I’d probably stress this bit more.

Symmetra was supposed to have a much bigger role in this, somehow she fell to the wayside with that one plot change in the kitchen I mentioned before. On the flipside, Ana and McCree got a way bigger role than expected.

One of the biggest plot changes was Hanzo hating peppers. Originally he was supposed to hate onions but I thought there was way too much onion in Japanese cuisine to omit them, so I thought of something that would seem more ‘childish’.

To be fair, I also don’t really like peppers all that much either. But I sure as hell love onions.

The proposal with the miso soup at the end, the plot twist where the chefs are the real treasure, and some other minor details have been there since the beginning of the idea’s conception. Things like Reaper trading Overwatch’s life for the tamale, the name of the restaurant, and Hanzo’s fight with Genji only came after the fic was being written.

Real life:

Covid really took its toll on me since a lot of this fic revolved around food, tasting it, experiencing it, making it, etc. I lost a good portion of my taste and smell, and it’s not back 100% even months later, so a lot of what I begin to describe after a certain point is just based on memory. If a pre-pandemic world, I would have been running around the city, sampling foods and writing down my impressions, but with things as they were, it didn’t pan out that way.

I tried to stuff as many of my favorite foods (and not so favorite foods) here as much as possible. There were a lot of foods I omitted because there’s only so much I could fit in here. A companion compilation fic of the Overwatch characters eating their favorite foods or just eating food in general made by Chef sounds really appealing right now.

May, June, and July made me really want to expand the story and include things in the fic that would turn it ‘problematic’ or at least morally ambiguous. If I did that, this fic would never be finished.

Characterization and development:

Junkrat and Roadhog are much more docile in this story than I would have headcanoned them simply because food security is life-changing. I really liked the idea of Roadhog using his farming skills and being less homicidal with the right environment. They both know food is sacred.

Argus 20 is in reference to Argus Panoptes, the all-seeing many eyed giant from greek mythology. The 20 comes from “hindsight is 20-20” (but now 2020 has a very different connotation and I’m thinking it’s pretty fitting). The reason for this is because she oversaw a lot of what was happening especially in the front of house. It’s not mentioned in the story, but she oversaw things like purchasing the restaurant, setting up the dummy accounts, organizing and obfuscating the donations, etc.

In case there was any confusion, ‘Tanuja Deshmukh Singh’ is Asim’s deadname. When he left Overwatch and became Asim Singh, his family disowned him. He was then free to live as himself, but he never discarded his last name because he still wanted to be connected to his family in some vague way no matter how much they disliked or denied his existence.

Head Chef Richard has been in jail. His backstory is basically after firing his staff to protect them from the fall out, he basically told the press he fired them for insubordination and took the fall for the kitchens and got quietly arrested. He was sent to the same prison that Chef would end up at. He’s not a very honest man, I don’t think, but he’s a character who was molded by the story and its needs rather than being a pre-established OC.

I kind of wanted to write the fic in a way where Argus and Asim weren’t bad guys but people who were forced to make difficult decisions because of the position they were put in by Chef and by Talon. Cause, you know, sometimes you do things to hurt people without realizing it.

I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to push another ship in the background. If you see hints of different pairings here and there, you may be seeing it right because I kept flip-flopping between chapters as to whether I wanted to or not, and if I decided I did, I kept changing the pairings.

Hanzo. Where do I even start with this guy? I had a really tough time trying to stick to one interpretation of his character. I kept reading other fics and going, “Yeah. Yeah! I want that!” But then it just became a huge mish-mash of characterizations until I wasn’t sure who he was anymore. But I clung onto the thought of “he’s the first son of an Asian household dealing with his spoiled brother” to help get me through it. It reminds me of that tweet that goes, “You think you can hurt me? I’m the eldest daughter in an asian family.” It was so relatable. Channeling eldest sibling in asian family vibes.

Chef. It was so hard. It was so damn hard writing a faceless character for so many words. I can usually do it in a one-shot because I can get away with not mentioning stuff, but in a slowburn?? It’s so difficult. Multiple times I had to stop myself or revise things because there were characters talking about Chef and I didn’t want to make the dialogue unnatural by saying ‘chef’ ‘chef’ over and over again. There were other moments like Soldier carrying Chef out of the Cellar and I was like: “What if the reader is taller than Soldier?!” It was a struggle. The other struggle was characterization. There were so many in-story stressful moments that I wanted Chef to start crying at but the timing of it was so frequent that I had to nix most of them or risk making Chef unrelatable.

lol i’ve made several pseudo-cameos in the story because I’m shameless.

Miscellaneous:

Man, my style changed so many times throughout the story. At some point I ended up writing outlines made solely of dialogue and wrote the story around it. It was oddly distressing when I realized my words wouldn’t come out like they used to.

This fic has seen me through a ridiculous amount of crap. I kind of wished I kept a journal or something because these past three years have been nuts.

After this, I’ll probably retire from writing Overwatch and then go into my usual writing hibernation that spans about 4 years before I reemerge with an unquenchable thirst for something stupid.

In my nearly 20 years of writing fanfic, this is the first slowburn I’ve ever completed. To be fair, the last time I even tried was like...over 10 years ago when mediaminer was still a thing and didn’t ban CYOAs.

This was also the longest single fic I’ve ever written. I have wirtten 200k in a year before but never for any single thing.

God, this was hard. I partially did it to prove that you don’t need to use placeholders like ‘Y/N’ and stuff like that and it was possible to write a slowburn with gender neutral stuff, but I had to cheat a bit. But it’s done.

I’ve worked in the restaurant business for a few years but not as a chef. It wasn’t even high-end either. I wanted to talk about the work conditions because it’s pretty tough in the kitchens and the amount of drugs and vices people turn to and the conditions in which people come to work is nuts.

I wanted to cover a lot of controversial topics to see if I could but it just didn’t fit in the story. I wanted to tap into things like social justice, racism, prejudices, political landscapes, and so on. Even within Overwatch, I’d imagine there’s a lot of tensions stemming from just basic ideologies. I wanted to see if I could write about both (or more) sides of challenging arguments and still remove the author’s opinions from the story, but I’d imagine that’ll bring its own complications. Last thing I wanted was to start a fight in the comments or something.

I almost made the crew travel to Asia with implications of a changed geo-political sphere from today. Like...the status of Taiwan would’ve been interesting to touch upon, but I didn’t feel like I had the knowledge to expand on it enough.

Almost every waking of my life, I have thought or worked on this fic. During meetings, during conferences, during client calls, while I’m on public transportation, in different countries. I don’t know what to do with myself now.

Anyway, if you have any questions or anything or just want to shout at me, inbox is open.. For now I’m just going to lament over the fact that Genshin Impact gives me motion sickness and I can’t play despite working so hard to roll Mona.

#twtah #the way to a heart #drivels drivels

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13eyond13 · 4 years

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what do you think of an OOC in a character? Have you ever read/write some kind of OOC about B, L or any other character? And how do we know when a character acts like ooc and they're not themselves?

Hi anon! I think the main thing I care about in fan works is the characters seeming in-character, and I would be open to almost anything as long as I felt the characterization was good. Meaning even ships I don't normally care about or haven't considered before, or a fic where characters I normally like together don't like each other but it's portrayed well, or just an interesting exploration of the world where everyone feels like themselves and nothing is bothering me or seeming really out of place. I think at times characters seeming OOC actually is necessary for the story too, such as in AUs where they live completely different lives or go on wildly diverging paths from the canon one. I think people/characters are always solid mixes of nature AND nurture. So it makes sense that significantly changing something about them in these categories would lead to them having somewhat different values or behaviours or habits or personalities, too. I'm at the point now where I'm pretty picky and have strong ideas of the characters and lose interest quickly in fan works that don't match my own ideas of them in certain ways. But when I am newer to a series I am much more open to tons of different interpretations because I am still trying to get a grasp on the characters myself, and it is really helpful for forming my own takes.

I think it takes quite a while to develop a strong sense of accurate characterization for any cast of complex characters, and lots of trial and error with attempting to depict them yourself, and that the taking in of other people's opinions and analyses (even if you initially disagree with them) is really helpful for forming your own as well. I think it's good to take notice of the things that make you go "ahh yes that's exactly right!" And the things that make you go "this is really bugging me somehow." Both reactions are very useful for helping you articulate what your own idea of the character is and why that aspect of them is important for you in how they are portrayed. I like to listen to other fans who are my faves' harshest critics, or who seem to understand certain characters more intuitively than me and who care about them more than I do, too. Ideally I would want to portray even my least favourite characters in ways that would seem accurate to their biggest stans, I think. Revisiting canon is also a good idea if you are uncertain about a particular aspect of a character, or in a disagreement about it with someone else. Oftentimes when I see fans get into big disagreements over an aspect of a character I find it's usually because the trait or character motivation they are attached to is one they found relatable and/or interesting and/or comforting in the character, so someone trying to remove it from the character feels threatening or personally insulting to them. I see this happen a lot with L for example; some people really like to see him as shy and polite and mostly well-meaning, and some people as bold and arrogant and shady. It can be just as insightful for yourself as a person as it can be for the characters to take in a lot of these discussions and to examine your own reactions to them, sometimes uncomfortably so! 😅

I think it's worth considering people aren't always coming from the same version of the story with their interpretations of a character, either. Writing L based on how he came off to you in the Japanese dub of the anime might be different than how he came off in the English dub, or in the manga, and the translation of the manga would probably make a difference to how you see him as well. I've been in the DN fandom so long now that I can usually guess pretty accurately which version of the story someone took in just by how they portray him in a fic. I think it's helpful to specify which version(s) you are drawing from and to know which version(s) the other person is drawing from when taking in their portrayal, as well as to take in multiple versions so you have a broader and better understanding of the different canon depictions of the same personality too. I see it as something you can pick and choose the aspects of you like best and that feel most interesting or true to you about the character. So if you prefer one version more than the other you don't have to just do away with your preferred idea of the character after taking in another one if you would rather not. In the end it's all just for fun! I think the best thing to do is to always keep in mind that other fans having diverging interpretations isn't necessarily wrong, especially given that you maybe took in different versions of the story when forming your opinions. It doesn't invalidate your own personal take just because someone has a different one. But that being said, I am not a huge fan of people just hollowing out a character entirely to insert themselves in it with no self-awareness about this, or characterizing them super lazily and then getting offended if other fans don't think it's accurate, which I have seen around sometimes. Lazy characterization in this fandom seems especially prevalent when it comes to characters people dislike/don't understand. And to B in general I think, as most people don't even bother to read the novel at all before trying to use him in a fan work. I also get that sometimes fans are newer to the series or just playing around with canon the way you might have played dolls as a kid or whatever, though. And even though I am picky about characterization it's really not that big a deal to me when people do this, as long as they aren't trying to dictate everyone else's interpretations or acting like more canon-compliant ones are automatically fussy or worse somehow, too.

#death note #l lawliet #ask #anon #p

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onereallygoodlambonastick · 4 years

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1, 2, 7, 8, 9 and 10 please

finally some good fucking food, thanks anon;

1. What themes would you like to write about that you feel don’t get explored very often?

Generally speaking, I think the in-betweens, the casual time-skips, and the quick intermissions are the things that get glossed over the most. The “missing scenes”, if you will--the hours after a squabble between a team, the morning before the battle, the months where a child sat idle, the dreams that turned into prophecy.

I also think the theme of re-connection is not often explored--its always “love on first sight” kind of deal, but what about the enduring kind of love, the kind that stays like an ache in your bones? the one you remember and miss? the one you long for like a phantom limb?

2. What are some common elements of stories you are tired of seeing? What would you avoid writing about?

This varies wildly between fandoms, but probably the thing they all have in common is: mindless smut. Just straight up down and dirty fucking, with no motive or prompting or characterization. Just the author smashing two guys (usually) at the hips and being done with it.

That’s fine; we all love to see it. It’s just so dull sometimes.

I need some intricacy, some intimacy, some ache, some angst, some destructive lines and some ruthless gut-punches, you know? Not a guy coming for the fifth time.

For the AFTG fandom: I’m tired of seeing people being fine with the way Sakavic treated her characters and coddling Neil & Andrew in the face of it. I don’t hate Andreil, I feel like I should say, but so much of it relies on one or the other sticking people with their knives or fists and that’s such a toxic love, a misconception of what a “good” relationship should be. Now, there are some brilliant fics I’ve read that are just gorgeous with the concept of Andreil--that was what I wished Sakavic had the ability to achieve in her series, while giving dignity to Kevin Day and the rest of the characters that were there and LIVED despite the romance.

So, obviously, I would avoid doing any of the above I just mentioned, and pray that you will too. Just let these ppl breathe, alright?

For the AoT fandom (yeah i dabbled cuz the manga is just. depressing man): same issue---too much fucking, not enough talking and emoting. Why are there so many goddamned high school AUs? My god. I need a fic that gets down and dirty with the shit going down in the manga and take me through it so I can stand to continue. What about the grief and mourning and the betrayal of it all? Can I get me some of that? Lord, don’t go near the Levi/Eren tag. Y’all just don’t even knock it. Go to Levi/Erwin or something. Or just don’t. Don’t.

For the BNHA fandom (lol. a staple): actually, there’s quite a bit of diversity here so I geniunely can’t complain about much. The sheer magnitude of the English-speaking fandom helps on that end, I suppose. I do think there should be more fics looking at the Shit n Grit of Hero’s society tho, Stain-style. The people the heroes couldn’t save or didn’t want to, the forgotten bodies and the cooling hands, the victims that never got closure, the heroes who got maimed and multilated and couldn’t get back on their feet once the limelight left em. Those sorts of things. I think the fact we see thru the rosy-eyed worldviews of a bunch of green-eared kids deludes people to the fact that People Are Fucking Bad and Disgusting almost all the time. So exploring that, I think, is far more worthwhile.

But I will also take injury aftermath. I’m not a monster.

For the KNY fandom: EYYY we talk about grief and suffering a lot which if you haven’t noticed, is kind of my Jam! Actually, this fandom prob hits a lot of my sweet spots: role reversals, grief/mourning aftermath, SabiGiyuu, Sabito Lives, the usual! Can’t really say much abt this. Except, there’s a lot of Demon Sex and Rape and, uh. Guys? Can we go back for a hot sec?

For the Code Geass fandom (*rubs hands in glee*): SO this is the fandom I’m most active in aside from AFTG at this precise moment. It’s pretty dead, tbh. My favorite two fics in the AO3 archive was published in 2014 and the author hasn’t written for my fav pairing (Suzaku/Lelouch) since. So. There’s that. There’s also a lot of fucking here! And gross cishet dynamics, but, uh, whatever. I think the Emperor Lelouch/Knight of Zero Suzaku has been overused and abused for rough sex and just general Angst-ing it out. I wanna see how their dynamic plays out like that for sure, but what about when they still had secrets between them a mile wide and had to tell each other half-lies and half-truths? How about them coping with the fact of their betrayals and the death of their loved ones at the hands of each other? Where’s the hardcore shit?

Think this fandom doesn’t want to dig their fingers in too deep. Shame.

Another thing: CC is not an immortal seductress. My god give her pizza and some fucking DEPTH. She’s a walking encyclopedia, not some mysterious slut machine! Get your stereotypes and fetishes outta here!

Final thing: TALK ABOUT THE SHIT SUZAKU HAS BEEN THROUGH! He’s not just Lelouch’s boytoy or knight! Stop that! Examine his abuse, his time with the military, his span as a pawn! Look at his motivations and his internalized disgust for himself as a Japanese that was ingrained in him by an oppressive fucking system! Why does he bow? Why is he silent? Speak for him!

7. Favorite description in your wip? (If asked more than once, respond with a new piece each time)

Suzaku watched him watch the discoloring, and Suzaku watched the stillness change into the bare bones of animosity. It was almost kind, the way Lelouch turned his face away and shifted his grip to snatch up the antiseptic.

Neither of them spoke as sharp hands dabbed at the slightly split skin and wet bruising. It stung, but only a little. Long minutes passed like this, Lelouch exchanging swabs for cloths, Suzaku sitting still and watching him work.

Neither of them mentioned the scatter of old deadened skin, puckered across Suzaku’s build like a migration of mutilated fish.

8. Favorite dialogue in your wip? (If asked more than once, respond with a new piece each time)

"You know I can't be seen with you two."

"And I just warned you to not be a coward." Lelouch's eyes gleamed. Again, the challenge was there, and like a fool only Lellouch could make of him, Suzaku took it, open-mouthed and open-palmed.

"Fine," Suzaku said, not knowing what he'd promised himself to: a dinner or a duel. Even though the last time Lelouch picked up a sword it was wooden and he was tiny and cute and clumsy. But Lelouch didn’t need blades to cut. "I'll be there. Does Nunnally still enjoy a good scone?"

"Bring the blueberry ones," Lelouch said, extending the comment like a plank between them, and leapt off the wall, into the white sun. "One for the bastardly son and one for the disowned daughter."

Suzaku followed him out into the blaze of heat, feeling the crude perch of his laughter at the base of his throat. He was so fucking dramatic. "Which one of us do you mean?"

9. What scene was the hardest to write for you and why?

From the same wip fic from above--I’m stuck on the “light” kind-of crackish scene where Suzaku is literally just exasperated with Rivalz and his porn mags. Like I just can’t write it. It’s too.....friendly. And “nice”.

10. What scene was the most fun to write for you and why?

Out of the same fic as above: probably the scene from #8. It was fun to see how coy and rough-mouthed Suzaku could get once he’s together with Lelouch. Just to see them fool around with each other whilst keeping secrets but also somehow be honest was very satisfying and interesting to write out. They are just boys, there. Just boys. In love.

#aftg #all for the game #code geass #suzalulu #bnha #aot #kny #my writing #my fic #soy replies #asks

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midnight-marimba · 4 years

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Mar’s DQXI Fic OCs

It’s Dragon Quest OC And NPC Week, and I’m going to approach it from the other direction than what’s described in the event proposal, because I rarely end up inventing a detailed character without context, but I often find a specific need for a character in a piece of fanfiction and build them up out of that prompt into something better than a footnote. So I’m going to take the opportunity to talk about some of my fics and the original characters and NPCs who wandered into them and made themselves interesting enough that I’m eager to share a little extra detail or commentary about them. (Under the cut)

Hair Tie That Binds

A comedic story about Hendrik recruiting Erik for a heist to help fix his own mistake. (9k words)

I needed a minor villain, so I invented Lady Druzy (named off of an obscure corner of a gem list, so as to suit a minor Heliodoran noble). She is petty, spiteful, vengeful, and apparently my favorite archetype of OC to write. She is awful and I loved writing her.

After Rain, The Sun Will Shine

A Sylv/Hendrik one-shot involving Hendrik’s memories of Sylv’s mother. (8k words)

When I wrote this, I had not yet heard the detail from the voice drama (please somebody translate the whole thing?? <3) that Sylv's mom's given name was Gerbera and her stage name was Sylvia (that is, exactly the same stage name Sylv took in the Japanese version of the game). I had only heard a broader rumor about the drama and Sylv choosing a stage name in honor of their mother.

So when I went to write a story about her, I looked at a list of Dutch names (to match Arnout and Hendrik — Zwaardsrust is Dutch) and hunted for one a name with a "Syl" sound. I landed on Silke, which is also satisfying from a word association perspective (since it looks like "silk" which sounds highly appropriate for a "famous Zwaardsrustian beauty" — one of the few canon details we get for her).

I tried to make her stubborn and determined, inspiring and willfully optimistic for the sake of the people she had under her leadership. Sylv-like, but with a slightly more intense philosophical flavor than canon Sylv, as she’s walking out of an arguably even greater tragedy (or at least more personal at a larger scale?)

Silk and Swagger

Faris/Reader, from the point of view of a Heliodor guard. (1.7k words)

The guard is nameless and the fic is relatively short, but my goodness it was fun inventing someone who is instantly smitten with Faris and believes the best of him at all times.

When Home Isn't Marked on the Map

A Sylv/Erik longfic set a couple years after the end of the game, in which Erik is coming out of a period of self-imposed isolation after a disastrous attempt at confessing his one-sided romantic feelings for the Luminary, and he begins by going looking for Sylv, the one old companion he dares hope won’t yell at him for his absence. (74k words)

Since the ultimate seed of the idea behind this fic was "Erik would be protective towards orphans and Sylv would like that about him" I needed some kids to put in the story. There are two sets of four that I named and included.

First is the group from the rural area near Puerto Valor, and thus they have Spanish names: Isabella, Serafito, Paz, Ana. I'm pretty sure I named the younger ones with shorter names to help myself keep them straight. In my head, they have a darker complexion than the rest of the kids in the story, since I always wish the DQ world was a little more diverse on that front, but I fear that I forgot to actually write that detail in. (Room for improvement...)

The second group is an expansion of the four child NPCs you can find playing hide-and-seek in downtown Heliodor. I could only find a canon name for Cammo (the King of Hide-and-Seek) so I gave the rest of them stone related names, figuring the pattern from Cobblestone might extend around Heliodor into the poorer and less formal areas of the kingdom (Ruby the innkeeper notwithstanding). So they are Flint, Crystal, and Mica.

There are so many of them that it was tough to give all of them a lot of characterization, but I tried to distinguish each of them at least a little. Isabella, the leader of her group, blunt in a way that reminds Erik of Mia and Veronica. Serafito, a little bit of a self-sacrificing caretaker. Paz, young but outgoing, and Ana, even younger and a little shy. Flint, the canny, cautious, and slightly manipulative leader of the Heliodor gang. Cammo, sneaky and adventurous and clever. Crystal, strong and brave and protective. Mica unfortunately ended up being most notable for the ordeals he goes through.

My favorite among them ended up being Crystal, from the instant she decided she was after Hendrik's job.

Diamond

A Sylv/Serena and Sylv/Dave fic, from Serena’s point of view. Set after Act 3 as Serena chooses a mission to research and perform healing around the world, travels alongside Sylv’s new circus troupe, and they both get to pursue some missing character development. (118k words, technically 1 chapter short of an intended ending but may not be continued.)

Mind the tags and content advisory if you go into the fic itself, because (1) for reasons of 2020, a story about a doctor-hero was simply not an ideal story to begin in the year 2019, and (2) it is NOT a utopian style world — many characters have prejudices, others are closeted in some major ways, and not all of that is gone by the end of the story. I 100% understand many folks not wanting to go roll around in that kind of fiction, and while there’s a discussion about Representation I could shoehorn in here, I’m going to set it aside for the sake of on-topic rambling about fun OC development.

For this fic, I wanted Sylv and Serena to be traveling the world together. Serena was to be motivated in part by the allure of getting to meet more new people, and also, I think it’s useful for her personal growth to spend a little time away from her blood family and most of the people from whom she would naturally take direction. I also wanted to explore Sylv as a leader in a way that’s not so easy within the canon party, and in general, I imagine Sylv both being friendly to every stranger and also having old friends pop up everywhere he goes.

Between the two of them, I ended up needing to plop in OC's left and right, both for Sylv’s new Act 3 circus troupe, and in every town they visited. Because I’m a nerd, I expanded lore for some of the regions too, and I will mention some of those details here with the characters.

Sylv’s troupe:

Chill, a contortionist from Sniflheim, where people get kind of uncomfy about magic, especially when it looks too close to evil witchery. Like, say, Zing.

Samir, a short, round bard from Gallopolis who can do amazing things with a variety of instruments, and his partner Grey, once a guard from Heliodor until he decided that job was even more bland than his name, and he ran off to Gallopolis to join the circus.

Maria and Mateo, a couple of quiet, short and slender dancers from Puerto Valor (in my head, Mateo is about 5 feet and Maria’s a couple inches shorter, though I keep gravitating away from talking in Modern Earth units of measurement when writing for this fandom). Their kids, teenaged Leo and toddler Lena, aren’t (yet) performers, but are present because I thought it was interesting to plug some kids into a story about a traveling circus troupe, and because I wanted to give Sylv an excuse to interact with kids.

Francine. A classically beautiful acrobat from Octagonia, where the only work she could find was being a bunny girl handing out flyers. She’s had a crush on Sylv, which didn’t work out, and in the aftermath she’s a little bitter and is predisposed to dislike anyone else getting too close to Sylv. She is rude and spiteful when she does not like someone (though she may do so in an overly-sweet tone), and she awkwardly overcompensates when she wants to prove she’s moved on from something, and she ended up being my favorite OC here.

Some other notable OCs in the world:

In Sniflheim: Healer Heather, the doctor who would really rather not have any magic in her house, so she doesn’t get a mob coming after her next time the tide of public opinion turns against witches.

In Lonalulu: Nohea, the charming and handsome hula dancer who isn’t quite as nice as he seems, and Pika, the shy, plain, and clumsy but kind-hearted net weaver. Both are there as potential love interests for Serena (and for contrast against Sylv, of course).

In the Inner Sea: Coral the mermaid, a singer. She's here for advancing Serena's character development, but it was fun to have other OCs react to a mermaid, and trying to write plot-advancing mermaid dialogue raised my respect for the localization team 1000%.

In Gallopolis: Doctor Zel, who is very scientific and good at her job, never makes eye contact, and lacks a comforting bedside presence. (Happily they have Faris to help with public relations during a health crisis…?)

This is only about half of the OCs and NPCs named in the story, but they’re most of the ones with the most screen time, and most of the ones that stand out in my mind. But the outgoing and friendly Sylv and Serena I was trying to write, both of whom wanted to engage with the people of the world at large, just spawned new characters around them as they went. You know those stories about mythical people where flowers bloom after them everywhere they go? This pair was like that, only with OC’s instead of flowers.

#dqxi oc npc week #dqxi #dqxi fanfiction #dq11 fanfiction #my writing #these stories are old but if you comment I will still love you forever

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tackyink · 3 years

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can you recommend me some of your fav reader fics? any fandom! im not fazed by my own ignorance. i got curious because of that one you had to rescue from the depths of oblivion. sending u a kis

I'm afraid I barely have any recs because I haven’t read many in the last years. The thing about reader fics is that they are the same as OC fics with less descriptors for the main character, and I tend to avoid them if I’m writing for the same fandom. Which I usually am. And I’m also extremely picky with fics in general. Add to that that I used to read them on Lunaescence and Lunaescence is down and... yeah.

I’m looking through my AO3 bookmarks and most of what I have are Fire Emblem and Persona 5 fics, but here are a couple fics I really like:

New Frontiers by winklepickers: An amazing Yugioh long fic I discovered a couple of weeks ago. Reader has had an online gaming buddy for years and after a series of coincidences she finds out her friend is Kaiba. It’s so good that I finished it and I started to reread it immediately. It’s very well written and a very feel-good read all around. Like getting huddled by a blanket of words. I’m also biased because I’m convinced that Seto Kaiba is not only a major dick, but also a very awkward potato when it comes to personal issues, and this author nails it.

the glow of your starlight softens my dark, creeping nights. by Citrus Scented: 6k one-shot showing scattered scenes of a Law/Reader relationship. I liked the characterizations in this one a lot.

The fic I had to rescue the other day is another Kaiba/Reader called Black Velvet and Southern Comfort and you can find it here, but you have to register to read it (or I could try to find a way to send you the pdf). I wouldn’t generally recommend it because my taste has changed a lot since I first read it, but since it prompted this ask and I am still fond of it, it deserves a mention. Reader is a car mechanic hired to work in the Kaiba mansion for a few months. It has fun moments and I live for the sibling dynamics in it, but the situations get too edgy or melodramatic for my taste I can only describe the tone as... very American. You’ll get it if you read it. Also has extremely agressive levels of “not like the other girls” that I’m finding very very hard to get through nowadays. The fic isn’t finished and hasn’t been upated since 2017, and I’ve actually never read all the chapters! It’s very long. Warnings for graphic violence, domestic abuse, and implied sexual assault of a minor (not the reader).

Shout outs to that Bleach Byakuya/Reader sort of Japanese feudal AU that the author took down to reconvert into an original novel and that KHR Squalo/Reader one shot that followed the pair as they grew up together and is lost to the sands of time unless Luna goes back online.

#glowssary #tacky asks

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joeys-piano · 5 years

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☀️, CFCS

☀️- Was there symbolism/motifs you worked in?

Catching Fire & Chasing Smoke was a fun little project over the summer~!(I say “little”, but it’s like 50k+ words of pure Japanese mythology and folklore + historical feudalism during the Kamakura period, set in the year 1287)

I had an entire section in my outline for the fic, solely devoted to the themes and motifs I wanted to integrate into the story. Loosely inspired by Journey to the West and the sheer length of said journey, I followed a similar framework in terms of how freakin’ long the story would be and there was a lot of room to just add and explore different motifs/themes depending on which arc of the story you were currently in.

There were 3 arcs. I’d say that the first and third were my favorite because there was a tengu vs. exorcists war in the first one and the main cast got to fight and seal away a demonic dragon from the netherworld as the grand finale.

THEMES

Journey & Travel

Oda can foresee future tragedies and wants to save people; Dazai is a four-tail kitsune that attracts tragedy no matter where he goes

Both are on a quest to find the fabled land of Paradise, a wondrous land flowing in alcohol and good food and a place where they can simply be themselves

Humanity

An interesting observation that most characters draw from Dazai is that he’s more human than youkai; considering he’s spent about 200 years living with humans and hiding the fact that he’s a kitsune, there’s more going on than meets the eye

Born as the vessel for a banished deity, Chuuya often grappled with the concept of humanity and the toed the line of where he truly belonged. From a human and youkai perspective, he is both and yet neither at the same time.

Identity

Both Oda and Dazai are outcasts to their respective groups and are traveling together in search of peace and to confront very personal and very real fears that have about themselves

Death & Resurrection

This was explored in the second arc when you learn more about Dazai’s past and the peculiar connection he has to a certain wandering priest by the name of Atsushi

In a metaphorical sense, death & resurrection applies to a number of characters because it signals change or growth or redemption, and there’s plenty of that

Family

Lots of found-family feels in this story; Kouyou basically raised Chuuya since he was seven and helped him learn how to control Arahabaki’s power and prepared him for later in life when he would have to follow the path of the minor god and help it hunt down four-tail kitsune.

When Kyouka lost her family, Kouyou and Chuuya took her in, comforting and helping her readjust to her new life as a vessel for a swordsman demon and the noticeable fragile health that followed.

Chuuya learned he had a long-lost little brother when he was in a village about a mountain away from the Ozaki Manor and came across a family heirloom from the Nakahara family. Although Chuuya has no recollection of his family (mostly because those memories were sealed away by said family when he was abandoned), he does recognize the name as being his own. When he bought the heirloom and inspected it, he saw a message scribbled into it that signified that his parents had another child. When Chuuya inquired about the Nakahra family, he learned that his family and several other families up North had perished due to a severe drought that claimed many lives. If there was a sliver of a chance that Chuuya’s younger sibling did survive, there was no way of knowing where they were.

By the same token, an adolescent by the name of Karma had come to visit a shrine near where his parents used to live before they moved up North a few years ago. He came to pay his parents respects, letting them know how his life had changed since he heard about their death and to apologize that he couldn’t help them sooner. He had left the village during the drought to find work and to bring money back to help his parents survive and when Karma heard the news, he felt lost. Kneeling in front of the plaque with the Nakahara family name on it, Karma asked his parents what he should do. He didn’t know what to do. He felt alone in this world.In the midst of his mourning, a passing Buddhist monk saw Karma by the family plaque and inquired if Karma was related to the family. Karma was, stating that his parents had passed away rather recently, and that the bloodline of the Nakahara family rested on him now. Taking Karma’s’ comment into consideration, the monk mused that perhaps that statement isn’t exactly true.Because this Buddhist monk is very familiar with the Nakahra family. After all, he was the one that sealed away their former son’s memories.

MOTIFS

Scarlet Threads

These threads symbolize Fate and how certain characters and circumstances were destined to be tangled in one another

Shadows

There’s something very interesting about youkai shadows. They behave much like normal shadows, but they convey the inner self, thoughts, and feelings that the youkai doesn’t outwardly display.

A good example of this would be Dazai. He normally displays himself as a human; but if you pay attention to his shadow, you’ll see it slowly morph and take on kitsune-characterics depending on how he views himself in a particular moment. Or in some instances when he wants to reach out but is unable to, you’ll see that his shadow is reaching out for him and it visibly extends its hand and clasps it around another’s shadow.

Paradise

Paradise is essentially some version of Heaven or an ideal place where it’s safe and comfortable to be who you are. This is the fabled land both Oda and Dazai are traveling to find to find rest and closure and to strip away from the identities that their respective worlds had stitched to their skin.

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sugar-petals · 6 years

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Hey. As I said in my previous ask, I think you are so darn smart, and I love your writing skills. If it's not going to bother... Could you, please, read my recent oneshot (akai-ito)? I need honest opinions on it, mainly coming from someone who writes and has no sentimental connection with me. (Only if it's not going to bother you) Thank you :)

Honest and a writer 😄 You’re at the right address I’m thinking. For a sweet please and Yoongi fics I’d probably do anything. The infamous review it is. I employ my classic critique structure (title-description-plot-characterization-grammar-dialogue), as always with strengths and improvement points, hope it is helpful, and here we go.

Title: As most pieces on your m.list, you possess good sense when it comes to selecting what catches the eye and stays memorable. Definitely unique and a summary of the story, although much like with ishin-denshin, it took me a while to figure out what it’s about. That can be a strength (innovation/tension!) or a weakness (confusion). Make use of the former by giving the reader bread crumbs. Authors have to play Hansel and Grethel as we say here in Germany. For instance, maybe you’ve seen it, some fic writers give definitions to foreign or complex words under the title right away, maybe you can drop at least a hint about the yarn and that the idea is from a manga/series, important crediting there. Something else that might also be relevant according to recent events, be careful there with using Japanese words should you not be a native speaker. The Ariana Grade tattoo effect is very real and a slippery slope. Solution: Best clarify everything at the start, or make a disclaimer. Other than that, you don’t need much advice with titles imo, never change a running system.

Description: It strikes me that you are an advanced writer. There’s solid attention to detail. Definitely keep that up. The common downside, and here is the crux, is trailing off. Bear in mind to tailor detail according to relevance versus background story and worldbuilding. Each piece needs to interlink with something else sooner or later, repetition matters as an emotional anchor. That’s the extra mile to go and the step from advanced to senior writer. The key to describing, unless your name is Oscar Wilde, is often linearity. You can only break it up once you’ve mastered it. Good news, I think you’re already getting there. I see things like consistent tense, great syntax variation, and a POV switch at the right point in time.

Plot: What you are excellent at is creating ups and downs. A lot of effort went into this. That can’t be messed with. An important component, however, is missing. Most authors turn defensive when I point it out so I’ll word it step by step and show a trick to solve it. The alpha and omega of Caro’s advice remains nailing a character’s actions to hook the reader, not just during the smut scenes. A crucial example: The boss firing Jade is not placed at the start — as the most dramatic event in the earlier sequences — and thus loses momentum. It’s a well-orchestrated event and twist, that’s why it’s so essential to add emphasis. The characterizations + foreshadowing that led up to it are proper. But it has to come down like a hammer; not with indirect phrases that make it seem like something trite. Which it is not given how dear work is to Jade as a comfort zone. You describe her leaving angry, but not her face, what she does, the environment, other characters. It’s only trailing off into a semi-monologue with background information that should be self-evident through things that happened earlier. I want to see the hammer. You only bring it in the dialogue but there, it’s secondary to the verbatim of the characters, as it should be, mind you. Solution: Draw the hands-on sentences from the dialogue into the plot. Then we’re good to go. Problem solved.

Characterization: Little to no objections here on the other hand, very well done. It’s one of the pillars of your writing. I’ll tell you why it is good. It maps out the different lifestyles from your characters which creates a nice contrast, especially with Jade’s concerns in life, and her core motivation (stability). Yoongi’s portrayal impressed me, too. All quite effortless. Even the names themselves, I quite like them, brings a lot of pizzazz. Definitely use them often, things like “the skinny man”, “the woman”, “the dark-haired female” are best converted into simple adjectives for description along the way. The Chaos Club: Also a good idea to have.

Grammar: Pretty salient, I see it in the way you chop your subclauses which I love. Not much to improve except the bit with caps. If you want to use texting sequences in your fic, definitely don’t hesitate. It may read as off in the paragraph but sits just right in a written message exchange. Which also depicts reality well. Now, the reason why I have issues with caps is that you only need them once emphasis is not clear enough through context. You can test out whether italics are a more sophisticated fit, it depends on the scene. If someone yells, incorporate that in the description, put an exclamation mark — yes, the old-fashioned way, I’m a conservative critic I know, it’s annoying. The only caps you need are the ones for saying korean - nations always with capital, geography pun intended. No other grammar concerns, that’s basically it.

Dialogue: Interesting how you use hyphens there. It’s much like everything about your style, very much in its own bubble. That can be a good sign of authenticity. Took a while to get accustomed to it for me, but it’s a stylistic and individual choice, whatever works best and is comfortable. The reason why I probably missed the quotations marks is not an aesthetic one, but because the words of the characters blend into description quite seamlessly. It’s hard to picture their voices that way. What other readers think about it, maybe gather some more opinions how they get by with the hyphens. If I were to use them, my trick for next time writing would be to start a new line for each particle of speech while the description is not attached after the hyphen. It makes it very deliberate and sets pace, too. It gets rid of ‘said’ quite conveniently and brings out stronger verbs. As in:

The man binned his cellphone in one of the back pockets.– Nice to meet you, Jade.

That has suspense and sex appeal. See how it differs from the original:

– Nice to meet you, Jade. - The man said and binned his cellphone in one of the back pockets.

Apart from that, something else to improve in dialogue is not stating the very obvious sometimes, but letting readers put things together in their head. That’s harder when Jade uses the exact tone of the narrator and not her own. Examples: ‘I’m visibly punchy’, ‘Before listening to his depressive songs and staring at his cute eyes and cheeks, I was satisfied with my nonexistent romantic life, now I’m considering the idea of nurturing a very dirty business.’, ‘I never felt another warm sensation other than tears, whilst watching some emotional crap on Netflix’. Dialogue does well contrasting to how the story is told. Bring all the slang, make it fragmented like real speech, fuck it up, it’s the fun part. You do have the registers and pull them off, that’s not the issue, only finding the right place to use them is the challenge.

Other: Something funny happened. I missed the URL mention and thought Jade was an OC and not an existing person! 😅 Took some time until I managed to immerse myself in the story because I’m not used to seeing singular users inserted as readers. It’s one-to-one and hard to get into as an outsider, which surely is not the purpose, but it would help to understand who Jade is in relation to you, and how the fic idea came about. That can be quite entertaining as well in the author’s notes. That being said, she is living the dream and being Yoongi biased myself I feel rather envious which means you achieved plausibility in your fic. Maybe it’s because he has black hair and round cheeks in it. Am very endeared.

PS: I get paid in fic reblogs for reviews 😉 Am half kidding. Speaking of the devil, for the love of my dash, please insert a keep reading so I can reblog.

#unimpressedperson #ask #bts fic #fic rec #rec #fic review

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fieryrondo · 6 years

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my top 25 favorite programs from the 2017-2018 season

So. We survived Olympic season. (Or did we?)

A few lessons gleaned from the past ten months:

the season is indeed long

momentum is fleeting

in the wake of disaster there will always be skaters who shine (thank god)

eating pineapples and writing prayer fic is extremely therapeutic

Olympics hype really is all that

being an fs fan is equal parts suffering and reward, though often times it seems more of the former and less of the latter.

See below for twenty five of my favorite programs from what has been a most tumultuous season, roughly in order of enjoyment. There is no rhyme or reason to this list as it is purely subjective based on my taste, which is already questionable to begin with. To avoid cluttering the top spots with skaters I absolutely stan and would gladly die for, I have limited myself to one skater per program.

Re: performances from Olympics. It was notoriously difficult to find footage for many of these skates. Thanks ISU I’ve done my best to link to broadcast footage whenever possible but have resorted to a few fancam links for some of these performances. Please do not manipulate fancam footage without permission from the uploader; I’ve been guilty of reblogging gif-sets made from fancam footage (which 99% of the time have the watermark removed and are clearly uploaded without consent and credit to the fancam creator) and am now trying to be careful with what I reblog.

Without further ado, here are my top picks:

25. Jimmy Ma’s SP, Propaganda/Turn Down for What, 2018 US National Championships

A guilty pleasure but something this fun can’t be bad right? This is the kind of skating program I’d show to friends and family in real life who dismiss figure skating as a dated sport characterized by heavily used classical warhorse music almost everyone recognizes but can’t actually name.

24. Ross Miner’s FS, Queen Medley, 2018 US National Championships

While Nathan skated a very technically strong program at US Nationals, the free skate of the night for me went to Ross Miner, who roused the crowd into a roar when he had the skate of his career and made a convincing bid for the Olympic team. Fun and electric, this program sparkled with energy from start to finish.

23. Moa Iwano’s SP, Asturias, 2017 JGP Austria

I generally don’t pay much attention to the junior skaters (so much skating, so little time!), but this talented lady from Kobe caught my eye during the JGP series. There were quite a few tangos this season but this one was by far the best one (that’s right, the best tango this season came from a 13-year-old). While her jump technique is not the best, Moa has an impressive sense of musicality beyond most skaters her age. I’ll definitely be following her more closely in the seasons to come.

22. Keegan Messing’s FS, Chaplin Medley, 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics

Thanks to a certain Spanish skater, I’ve developed a soft spot for Chaplin programs and while Keegan didn’t manage to skate this program clean, I really enjoyed it. It’s cheeky, charming, charismatic and full of fun choreographic details that bring the program to life. With an exodus of Canadian men retiring this season, Keegan will be among the oldest. He really hit his stride this season; here’s hoping he snags his first Canadian title next season!

21. Patrick Chan’s FS, Hallelujah, 2017 Skate Canada

Enjoyed...is not quite the right word to describe my feelings when I saw this particular skate via live stream. Shocked to pieces was more like it, and perhaps an overwhelming sadness to see him struggle so much. This skate would set the tone for the rest of Patrick’s final competitive season--a mentally, physically and emotionally taxing end to a competitive career most skaters can only dream of having. While this skate was a technical disaster--he skated a total of only two clean triples--it is nonetheless beautiful in the way a withering flower is; a remnant of elegance, an echo of years of skill, a lament for what could have been.

20. Yuna Shiraiwa’s FS, Pictures at an Exhibition, 2017 Internationaux de France

I had a hard time with this one because I adore both of Yuna’s programs this season, set to two very interesting pieces of music. Her FS, “Pictures at an Exhibition” won by a slim margin mostly because I love Mussorgsky and “Pictures at an Exhibition” is one of my favorite suites of all time--I also realize now that it’s really really difficult music to skate to because of the million tempo changes, key changes and the fact that half of the movements are very slow and not at all suited to skating. It’s a highly ambitious program for a 15-year-old and choreographically there are a couple of abrupt music changes that break up the flow (it’s mostly variations of the Promenade theme with a few other movements spliced in) but I really appreciated the challenge she took with a riskier but interesting piece of music. Looking forward to more exciting programs next season!

19. Nathan Chen’s FS, Mao’s Last Dancer, 2017 US International Classic

Super early in the season when skater after skater hopped onboard the recycling train like there was no tomorrow, I was ecstatic to hear Nathan bring forth two brand new programs. While Nemesis proved to be an instant hit, I was drawn to the free, an intriguing blend of Chinese music and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (avant-garde eargasm!!!). Mao’s Last Dancer had the potential to become a truly memorable and complete program. While the strategy to strip down the choreography in favor of hitting the technical elements later in the season was a practical choice, alas the performance I enjoyed the most happened to be its debut.

18. Cheng Peng/Yang Jin’s SP, Assassin’s Tango, 2017 Finlandia Trophy

What a rough season they’ve had :/ But I loved their short program, which they only managed to skate clean internationally exactly once this season. For some reason, after Finlandia, this short never really clicked for them (missing the cutoff for the free at Olympics was tragic) and they ended up returning to their tried and tested short from last season for their post-Olympics redemption in Milan. It’s a cute and fun program and they skated it best here.

17. Vanessa James/Morgan Cipres’ FS, The Sound of Silence, 2018 World Championships

After a strong start to the season led to a lackluster 4th place finish at Europeans, James/Cipres scrapped their initial free program to return to a program they were much more comfortable with, a strategic move that paid off when they rebounded at the Olympics and at Worlds with season’s bests and a shiny Worlds medal :) While it is not a technically perfect performance (see their 2017 World Team Trophy for a clean skate), there’s a lot of power and passion in it.

16. Carolina Kostner’s SP, Ne me quitte pas, 2018 World Championships

Simply divine! I have nothing else to add except that this was a breathtakingly exquisite performance, and I’m glad Carolina was able to perform this program to perfection in front of her home crowd.

15. Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani’s FD, Paradise, 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics

I admit I wasn’t immediately sold on the Shibutanis’ final program to their self-proclaimed “Trilogy”. “Fix You” was an amazing program, the best program of their career so far, and as with all sequels, it was tough to imagine “Paradise” could be better. But somehow things started to pull together once they made a few tweaks midway through the season and they pulled off a magical performance in Pyeongchang. Technically brilliant but also brimming with emotion, a performance absolutely worthy of Olympic bronze.

14. Elizabet Tursynbaeva’s FS, The Prayer, 2017 Internationaux de France

I fell in love with Elizabet last season (particularly her free skate to “Princess Mononoke”) and was very excited to see what programs should would do next. And she did not disappoint. Besides having the only acceptable Carmen this season, I also loved her free skate to Celine Dion’s “The Prayer”- it’s light and lyrical, a good fit for her. She still rushes through the choreography and some of her spins look really weird to me but she has made enormous strides in her presentation despite being hampered with a serious hip injury midway through the season. She’s lovely to watch, so floaty and quick over the ice.

13. Adam Rippon’s FS, Birds, 2017 NHK Trophy

What can I say? I loved this program last season and seeing it again this season was even more spectacular. The attentiveness to the music, the choreographic touches with bird movements, the meditative atmosphere. It’s just a very beautiful program. Adam has such a vibrant personality that obviously shines in his more “showy” programs, but I think I enjoy seeing his softer, lyrical programs best.

12. Wenjing Sui/Cong Han’s FS, Turandot, 2017 NHK Trophy

As a fairly new fan, I don’t have the same level of distaste for warhorses as veteran fans do (I imagine this will change once I have more years of figure skating watching under my belt). It’s not as poignant or as memorable as “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” from last season, but I admit I still very much enjoyed this skate, if only because Sui/Han were the ones skating it. Did I wish they had picked something a little more interesting? Yes, but they’re Sui/Han. They can make anything look good.

11. Kana Muramoto/Chris Reed’s FD, The Last Emperor/Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, 2018 World Championships

Kana is the best thing that has ever happened to Japanese ice dance (Chris, you’re cool too.) I’m so weak for this genre of music and ever since I discovered a certain tiny queen skated to Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, I’ve been waiting to hear it again. I’m a sucker for nature imagery and you really get the sensation of the passage of time and the movement of the seasons. Watching this is like taking a breath of spring air.

10. Boyang Jin’s SP, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2018 Four Continents Championships

Meh movie, great music. My favorite Boyang program to date, it was really exciting to see him attempt something more serious, a heftier program that would expand the emotional range of his skating. His short program was brilliant at Olympics, but I enjoyed Four Continents a little more because it was such a comeback after an injury-filled first half of the season. Out of the new generation of rising quadsters, he’s made the most improvement and I have no doubt he’ll continue to grow over the next quad. Onwards and upwards, Boyang!

9. Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue’s FD, Across the Sky/Caught Out in the Rain, 2018 US National Championships

My favorite free dance of the season! You can always count on Hubbell/Donohue to do something a little offbeat. Blues is a bit of an unusual choice of music for a free dance (which tend to be either lyrical or warhorsey drama) but it fits them like a glove. After building some good momentum earlier this season, a few fatal errors in the free including an invalidated choreographic sequence left them trailing in 4th, just shy of the podium at the Olympics. They rebounded to claim their first Worlds medal a month later, which was a special moment to witness but I felt their Nationals performance was the most passionately skated.

8. Tatsuki Machida’s EX, Swan Lake: Siegfried and His Destiny, 2017 Carnival on Ice

Go big or go home. The time and technical requirements of amateur competition are clearly too restrictive for Tatsuki’s genius :) Why cram the greatest hits of Swan Lake into a paltry two-minute program when you can really do it justice by skating to it for almost eight minutes instead? Tatsuki spares no expense for his epic-length programs. Every moment is meticulously thought out and is as extra af. We’re treated to almost a minute of dramatic music and a skater-less spotlight before Tatsuki appears. The star of Swan Lake is typically the swan (or the black swan) but no, that’s too conventional; let’s make Siegfried the guy everyone’s talking about instead. Drama hands! Floofy hair action! Seven straight seconds of twizzles in time with the tempo change! Dramatique feather posing because why not. Did that twenty seconds of absolute silence between movements make you uncomfortable? Good, because it’s all eyes on me! Skating so gorgeous you wouldn’t even notice there are only two jumps (both amazingly timed to the music), this is a visual and aural feast for the eyes. It’s a Swan Lake to outclass all other Swan Lakes that have been, that are, and that will be.

7. Akiko Suzuki’s EX, O, 2018 The Legends

[inserts crying emoji] A regret I have is not becoming a fan when Akiko was still skating competitively. I love this program soso much and seeing it brought back again was a real treat. The choreographic sequence still sends shivers down my spine <333

6. Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir’s FD, Moulin Rouge, 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics

Scintillating. Flawless. The pinnacle of ice dance. It’s the kind of performance that just sears into your mind for a long, long time. Though they didn’t get perfect marks here, it’s as perfect a skate you’ll find.

5. Wakaba Higuchi’s FS, Skyfall, 2018 World Championships

Such a cool and sleek program. I like the blue dress more than this one but this was easily the free skate of the ladies in Milan for me. A passionate and powerful skate, it was really nice to see Wakaba come back strong after a disappointing Nationals finish and hit it at Worlds. Reigning World Silver Medalist! (now please give her the PCS she deserves)

4. Aliona Savchenko/Bruno Massot’s FS, La terre vue du ciel, 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics

Wow. Just wow. I went in as a Sui/Han fan but wow, this free skate is gorgeous and sweeps me away every time I watch it. And they performed it to perfection at GPF, Olympics, and Worlds. The choreography is amazing and unique, and apparently full of little touches to previous programs (like the star catching moment from “The Lighthouse”, their free program last season). Dominant, majestic, and absolutely exhilarating to watch. I can watch this again and again and never tire of it.

3. Satoko Miyahara’s FS, Madame Butterfly, 2017-18 Japanese National Championships

While her short program is more loved (as it should be, it is an amazing work of art, Lori really outdid herself, you should go watch it ^^), I think I enjoyed her free skate more simply because it’s given her so many Moments this season. Coming back from a slew of injuries, including a serious hip injury from last season, it was highly questionable if she would even be able to make it to the Olympics at all. But Satoko silenced all doubters again and again, at Skate America and then at Japanese Nationals, where she gave the free skate of her career with an emotive and stunning performance that carried her to her Olympic dream on butterfly wings ^^. Triumphant, mesmeric, spectacular-it is a Madame Butterfly that rewrites the tragic ending into one of hope, a story that is entirely Satoko’s.

2. Javier Fernandez’s FS, Man of La Mancha, 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics

(password to video link: man of la mancha)

A skater from a small federation, from a country where figure skating barely exists, Javier has written history again and again. And what a journey it has been! From finishing 35th at his first Worlds appearance in 2007, Javier would go on to qualify for his first Olympics in Vancouver and become the first Spanish skater to win Europeans, to win Worlds, and ultimately, to win an Olympic medal. It feels appropriate that “Man of La Mancha”, an unapologetically Spanish program that perfectly captures the essence of Javier’s career--”to dream the impossible dream”--is to be the program to stake his Olympic dream on, And his Olympic dream truly seemed almost impossible in the months leading up to Pyeongchang. An uncharacteristically disastrous free at the Cup of China disqualified him from making the Grand Prix Final for the first time since 2013. And while his Chaplin short clicked for him (also excellent, highly recommended), he struggled with the free all season long. Unabashedly romantic, with just the right amount of earnest cheese (the best kind) and aged whimsy, “Man of La Mancha” is my favorite Javier free skate and I’m so glad he was able to skate it to its fullest potential at the competition that mattered most.

1. Yuzuru Hanyu’s FS, Seimei, 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics

What makes a skate great? Legendary? Memorable? It’s easy to jump to the pristine “Seimei” in Barcelona, the ethereal cleanliness of “Hope & Legacy” in Helsinki, or even the world-record breaking (again) “Ballade No.1″ in Montreal. While all of these skates are indeed great, legendary, and certainly memorable, I find my thoughts turning instead to a young seventeen-year-old Romeo in Nice, unleashing his battle cry after a dramatic fall as he fought through a sprained ankle to win his first Worlds medal. Clean performances are definitely great, but great skates don’t need to be clean. At the end of the day, what makes a skate great is in the struggles overcome, hardships endured, fears mastered, doubts silenced; in spite of it all, to manage to find joy and fulfillment in not only what you have accomplished but also in the thorny path that has led you there. It’s not as perfect as Barcelona, but the Seimei in Pyeongchang offers a different kind of magnificence, a triumph in more ways than one.

32 notes · View notes

margridarnauds · 6 years

Note

1789, ronan/laz, and laz | terra nova, wash/mira, mira

I bet you were wondering if this was ever getting done. Here, have some of my slightly sleep-deprived thoughts.

1789

Favorite character: Lazare de motherfucking Peyrol, for all of his (4) scenes.

Least Favorite character: You’re probably expecting Artois or Ramard. True, Ramard is absolutely noxious in the French version and…there in the Takarazuka version, but he has his moments, and he’s pretty adorable when he tries to rescue Olympe from Artois. Artois, while being….Artois, is pretty magnetic as a villain due to being played by Miya Rurika and managing to steal the show right out from under everybody’s feet everytime he’s on stage. No. The real threat is someone far more unassuming, someone that floods every moment he’s on the screen with dread. Someone who refuses to take no for an answer. Someone who DEFINITELY DID NOT HAVE AN AFFAIR WITH THE QUEEN OF FRANCE. MOTHERFUCKING FERSEN. The actress who plays him has such a phenomenal voice in the Takarazuka version and does so well with it that it’s hard, but Axel von Fersen is a dweeb and deserves at least one Peyrol Certified Bitchslap™. (Also, in real life, HE WAS A PLAYER. AND A BIT OF AN ASSHOLE IMO IF YOU READ HIS LETTERS, BUT THAT WAS PRETTY NORMAL SO I CAN EXCUSE IT. BUT HE WAS A PLAYER.) Now, I know this is 1789 and history is dead (poor, poor historical!Artois), but Fersen just…doesn’t really add anything with his presence. He’s there, he’s bland, he ups the already unfortunate heterosexual quotient of the show, and then I try to move on. And, also, while I am a member of the Slap Ronan Mazurier Club, I also think that GOING AFTER A HUNGOVER PEASANT. ARMED WITH A STICK. WHEN YOU HAVE A RAPIER. ISN’T GOOD FORM. Oh? He insulted your girlfriend? SO’S EVERYBODY ELSE, DUMBFUCK.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Laz/Ronan, Solene/Olympe, Olympe/Ronan/Lazare, Necker/Artois, Marie Antoinette/Olympe (in the sense of an unrequited thing that helped her to grow; not so much as an actual relationship)

Character I find most attractive: Solene. Like, was that a question? Thank you, final, ongoing proof of my bisexuality.

Character I would marry: Olympe or Solene

Character I would be best friends with: Olympe, though I’m not sure how she’d deal with my sense of humor. I would say “Charlotte” but I’m not sure re: the age gap there, though she seems to be fine trailing along behind Danton.

a random thought: I’ve been going over Solene’s scenes a lot for my WIP, trying to scoop out what characterization I can, and one thing that was really striking listening to the Takarazuka version is this mixture between power and insecurity. Like, she’s obviously deeply hurt by Ronan hurting her and, even though I don’t LIKE a lot of what the Zuka version did to Solene for various reasons, I do like that they have it as being DIRECTLY addressed to Ronan as a call-out. So you have her staring at him and saying she’s been abandoned and she didn’t have a choice while also talking about how Ronan’s entered her realm and how the men “submit themselves” to her. Like, I would never want to gloss over the harsh realities of a prostitute’s life at this time because it was REALLY dangerous, especially for a woman like Solene who seems to be working independently, without the (somewhat dubious) protection of a Madame or pimp, but she does seem to find a way to take some power in it that she would never have found as a farmer’s wife. I’m really glad that, despite the fact that this production really sanitized Solene (which, it’s to be expected; it’s Takarazuka), they still were able to bring in some of that grit.

An unpopular opinion: The thing with 1789 is that opinions that are unpopular with one section of the fandom are popular with another and vice versa, as small as this fandom is. Ronan Mazurier is an idiot, but I don’t ABSOLUTELY hate him and I can actually like him, especially when I’m writing him and ESPECIALLY when I’m writing him outside of canon. “Je Veux le Monde” is interesting not just because Solene is being badass (she is!), but also because of the way the show utilizes violence even while the lyrics of the song condemn the bloodlust of revolutionaries like Ronan. Even though I can like both versions, the Takarazuka production saved the show. Peyrol’s troops on pillars during “Nous ne Sommes”>Dancing Table Robespierre. I will never understand the appeal of Salieri/Lazare as a ship. As much as I utilize Kinky!Lazare, I’m not really fond of Sadist!Lazare, since it robs him of a lot of whatever nuance the French production gave him (It’s not much, but I’ll take it). I think pretty much every production we’ve seen thus far did a cop out by not showing what really happened on July 12 instead of just “Bad Royalists attack poor protesters” (I’ll give a hint: It involved rocks. Thrown at the cavalry.) As much as I like Solene and Lucille Desmoulins as friends (WOMEN. BEING FRIENDS. IT’S A MIRACLE), it makes literally no sense why a middle class girl like Lucille, enamored with Rousseau, would casually befriend someone of such a lower class, especially when, at this point, she’s Danton’s mistress and a former (?) prostitute. Okay, I think I’ve said something to piss off every section of the fandom, Mission Accomplished.

My Canon OTP: This comes with a CANON? Oh God, the French version more or less nixed this but Marie Antoinette/Louis were adorable historically and I will do literally everything in my power to bring that into fics. It seems like, despite being in an arranged marriage, they were deeply, passionately in love with each other and those last few years really brought them together. Also, on the other side, Lucille/Camille Desmoulins are…heartbreaking, historically. They loved each other so much and, when he died, she basically lost the will to live. Some of her last reported words before they took her to the scaffold were, “They have assassinated the best of men. If I did not hate them for that, I should bless them for the service they have done me this day.” They left behind a son, Horace, just a year old.

My Non-canon OTP: Laz/Ronan is the Ultimate OTP for this one.

Most Badass Character: French!Solene fucking shit up is my sexual orientation. In productions where she isn’t there, then Lazare, by sheer virtue of the fact that we see him most in combat situations, he seems to be the only officer in Paris who ACTUALLY DOES HIS JOB instead of dicking around in Versailles, and he climbs out of The Pit to shame revolutionaries.

Most Epic Villain: I firmly believe that one of 1789′s biggest sins in that they’ve never quite latched onto a firm villain. You’ve got Peyrol, you’ve got Ramard, and you’ve got Artois, but as far as serious, developed threats? It’s hard. But look, we all know I hate fucking Artois. I truly do loathe the little bastard. BUT. He’s also pretty damn iconic and Miya Rurika is obviously having the time of her LIFE in the role. Every single moment of “Je Suis un Dieu” is iconic because she’s finally been released into the wild. Like, the Extra Unmasking scene with a cloak, nailing that goth aesthetic? The fact that he declares himself a God IN THE CHURCH OF SAINT DENIS, the church of Paris’ PATRON SAINT? Casually using Ramard as a footstool? Putting on an ENTIRE SONG as a way of telling Ronan to shut up? The way he strides along the stage like he owns the place? Highkey flirting with Fersen? Iconic. He’s thoroughly despicable in every single way which makes the scene where Olympe points a pistol in his face so damn satisfying. And, the thing with Artois? HE WINS. The Royal Family will be killed, all of the young, idealistic revolutionaries we see here are going to turn on each other and die young, and Artois will take the throne, though he’s eventually yeeted off of it after six years during the July Revolution, with his successor, Louis Philippe, inspiring Les Miserables and Charles dying in exile. Still, for all intents and purposes, he gets exactly what he wanted, though you have to wonder if, eventually, so much loss and death of everyone around him, including his favorite mistress Louise de Polastron, won’t tear him apart. (I know, I know, Takarazuka Charles is an actual demon, but let me hope.) I’m really, really curious to see what the Toho cast is going to bring to the table, since it looks like we’re getting a VERY aggressive Laz, a slimier Artois, and a borderline heroic Ramard.

Pairing I am not a fan of: Ronan/Olympe in its pure, canon form; Danton/Solene (I have many, many issues with that one and Solene’s position in general, since we all know Danton’s a fuckboi who will eventually abandon her, hence why for once I prefer the French version where their relationship is seemingly a one-time thing); Charles/Lazare is interesting to play with as a part of Laz’s backstory but not something I’d want going forward because there’s no way that one can end well for Laz. He’s going to be stuck in the same patterns time after time again and he’ll remain loyal to a system that will eventually screw him over out of love for someone who lacks the ability to love him and who will use and manipulate him until the end. You could argue that he 100% deserves it but, tbh, my main interest in him is seeing if he can do better.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): I feel like every single character in 1789 (with maybe the exception of the Printing Press Bros, who work best as side characters) was screwed over. Olympe in the Forbidden Ending of the French version, shot down for Ronan’s angst (But, hey, final proof she’s a lesbian), Marie Antoinette in the French version, Louis XVI in the French version for the Throne Room Scene alone, Solene in any production not getting a really solid arc or characterization (and, in both Japanese productions, being watered down), and, tbh, I also feel like Laz really got the short end of the stick. I talk about the man a lot, but that’s mainly me filling in the blanks. It’s pretty damn obvious when you look at him as a character that he was added in at the last moment because the producers were shitting their pants over Matthieu Carnot’s contract after they wanted to stunt cast Louis Delort from the Voice.

Favorite Friendship: The Printing Press Bros, as per history. Such a pity that one of them is going to turn on the other two... On a less tragic note, I like French!Olympe’s relationship with Charlotte and wished that it got more screentime.

Character I most identify with: The very, very specific version of Lazare de Peyrol I’ve projected on in my mind. A lot of my character building for him comes from me more or less writing out what could have been for me and taking it up several notches. A lot of his little quirks (pacing around, for example), I take more or less directly from me (though you will notice that in the French Maniaque, even in the toned down one where he’s at the back of the stage, he’s always in motion, so I didn’t take it out of nowhere.) He and I both (according to my headcanons + the general age for a lot of officers, with could be preteen-14) were put into this position at a young age where we had to be adults, so the experience of childhood was really stunted in a way (note: This is also a BIG part of why I identify so much with Bres mac Elatha). As someone who was raised in such a conservative town and who parroted a lot of those views for years until I broke out of it, I also really get why he thinks the way he thinks and have a pretty vested interest in getting him out of it. I also really do identify quite a lot with Solene, specifically the French version where she and Ronan don’t have that reconciliation. It’s painful, but, in my experience, that’s a little more true to life in the sense that there are these family members who you never quite understand or get along with and who you think you’ll get one of these days, but that doesn’t happen and you’re left really trying to come to terms with that. That feeling of being abandoned, focusing more on the practicality of the Revolution, etc. I can definitely understand, as well as not really being able to trust anyone afterwards.

Character I wish I could be: I mean, the problem with 1789 is that almost everyone you love is going to be dead in five years. I would normally say Solene; I do want a tenth of the badassery of “Je Veux Le Monde,” but I definitely don’t want the sheer amount of dark shit that she goes through. Olympe probably has the best chance of escaping, I like that sparkle cloak, she’s also very loyal, and and gets to slap Ronan (literally the best part of the French version), so maybe her?

Lazare/Ronan

(Note: All of the following has been done under the [correct] assumption that these two are in a full romantic relationship throughout the musical)

When I started shipping them: About a year ago, watching the Takarazuka version with subtitles

My thoughts: The OTP. They come from completely opposite experiences and completely change each other’s lives and ways of viewing the world, for the better and the worse.

What makes me happy about them: Peyrol loves his boyfriend so much, he remembers his name after NEARLY A YEAR, he is basically completely infatuated within EIGHT DAYS of them being reunited (the length of time, roughly, between Maniaque and the comment about “The Comte de Peyrol’s affection”), he buys him coats, gets him a place to live, and lets him get away with things that no other human being could conceivably get away under his watch. Hell, in the French version, EVEN OLYMPE KNOWS, as shown by her dream and Ramard saying, “Monsieur de Peyrol, he’s yours. Do whatever you wish with him.” I think that if they’d ever had more time to be a couple, they would have really grown with each other a lot and learned to work past their quarrels, getting this really strong foundation with one another, finding a peace with each other that they would never have found in the outside world.

What makes me sad about them: Everything with this pairing is pain if you go with their canon ending. LIKE, Peyrol loves Ronan to a truly ridiculous degree, lets himself feel probably his first human emotion in possibly DECADES, and then Ronan dies. And, worse, in the Takarazuka version, he dies at Lazare’s hand. And over something that was purely because of Laz’s own pettiness and rigidity. (There was literally no reason for him to order his troops to fire on Papa du Puget, except for that he saw he was losing and decided to take one last shot at someone he deemed a traitor.) In all likelihood, since Laz is…Laz, he probably never told Ronan he loved him, thinking that everything he’d done was good enough when NO it wasn’t while simultaneously thinking that Ronan probably loves Camille and the others more than him, so Ronan probably spends his last moments thinking his boyfriend had just used and discarded him. And, the worst thing for me is that, while the French version seems to have a bit of a reconciliation in the afterlife, with the two of them embracing, in the Takarazuka version you can see Lazare looking at Ronan and then, when Ronan gets up there with him, turning his back. Which is probably just as much because the stage is actually rotating but, with a shipping lens….it’s depressing, since I tend to headcanon it as Laz being so guiltstricken by what he’s done that he can’t even look or speak with Ronan.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: As I talk about in more detail below, Creepy Crawly Lazare is a no. I think a lot of fics really take the power imbalance between them at face value and just go off of that, WHICH IS FAIR, given there are severe power imbalances, but such a big part of the relationship for me is also that, if we assume that Laz is willing to have an affair with a revolutionary, we have to assume that he’s completely, utterly smitten as well, and that, while Ronan’s too much of an oblivious walnut to realize it, Laz is completely emotionally compromised by him. He might have the social and economic power over Ronan, but Ronan also has him wrapped around his finger to a truly magnificent degree. (Which, if you look at Nous Ne Sommes with that lens, it becomes a matter of Laz really trying to convince himself that he’s still Old Lazare, still devoted to the Crown, that no, he’s not in love with him, and he ends up with a bodycount while still utterly failing.) And, also, I feel like Ronan post-Bastille VS Pre would take the relationship very differently. Like, in many ways, I think that if they kickstarted their relationship a year or so after the musical, you’d be looking at two very different people in a very different situation, with the scales tipped in Ronan’s favor.

Things I look for in fanfic: LITERALLY ANYTHING INVOLVING THEM I WILL READ.

My wishlist: Interactions? More interactions? Them to reinstate the original Maniaque? The ending to be revised so that it includes the first gay, interclass wedding while Artois throws a temper tantrum in the Church before being taken away by the Swiss Guards? Alright, in all honesty, if I can’t completely tear the original to shreds to give me the 100% gay version of 1789 I deserve, then I would like more scenes between the two of them, not even necessarily as more than rivals, but showing them as being linked to each other, like how the French version has him in the back during La Rue nous Appartient or how the Takarazuka version has him there during the Act 1 finale (which took La Rue’s place). I like the idea of Peyrol always kind of being there in Ronan’s mind as this looming threat. I would love to see Peyrol getting something more than just a couple of songs, because the fact that he’s not there for Ronan’s escape is just...odd to me. Like, is he asleep? On vacation? At Versailles? I would like to see him actually *react* to Ronan’s escape more, since that also makes him look bad. I’d like to see more of Peyrol’s concerns, seeing the mob growing, seeing Ronan getting involved in it, and having an “Oh God, What Have I Done?” moment, even if it doesn’t stick. I’d like a moment between the two of them when they realize how much they’re becoming like each other, as the Revolution takes bits out of both of them. On a noncanon level, I wish that there were more opportunities for them to work together as a pair.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Despite my general headcanon that Laz is GAY GAY GAY, I do lowkey ship L/O after the finale, mainly courtesy of The Bernese Affair. I also lowkey, lowkey ship him with the random peasant that appears on his arm during “Pour la Peine,” played by Alan Grall, who was understudy!Ronan. Generally, however, I don’t think Lazare could be with anyone after Ronan. For once, he tried to put his heart in with his duty, and it failed miserably. Tbh, in any continuity where Ronan dies, I don’t really see Laz as surviving for much longer. He could throw himself into the Princes’ Army, fighting against the Revolutionary Forces, he could face the mob and die on the lantern, or any other combination of factors (as you saw in the Solene WIP), but I really don’t see Laz lasting long after this one. I think the version we’d see of him post-finale would be broken in a way that we’ve never really seen him broken and, the worst thing is, he wouldn’t have anyone to confide in. In a world where Laz had died instead of Ronan, in theory, if Ronan would TALK to her (unrealistic), he has Solene, maybe Charlotte, Camille, and Olympe. Hell, Danton probably wouldn’t even care and would at least try to get Ronan laid, get him out of the house, etc. even if Ronan would be absolutely miserable company. Laz doesn’t have that. He has his men, and they more likely than not follow him out of a mixture of respect and fear. As a result, I see him trying to bottle his life with Ronan, trying to keep it to himself, and eventually destroying himself over it. Ronan…I have a hard time seeing with anyone else. Definitely not Olympe. Camille, maybe. Robespierre, maybe, though either one has….problems, historically. And, tbh, I think they’d be too tame for Ronan. Look at the two people he’s paired with: A Royal Officer and the Queen’s Governess. He literally can’t seem to go for a relationship where they’re on the same team. (Yet another reason to kinkshame him). I’d honestly rather have him realize the Revolution is going to shit and travel back to the country where he, idk, rolls around in dirt for a little while to forget his troubles. (Note: In the Takarazuka version, you have Ronan committing himself to a life alone without Olympe and, even if this is a moment of Ronan being Extra…I think there’s a bit of truth to it. Ronan feels things in extremes: Love, hatred, grief, and I suspect that he would be inconsolable. Like, his initial reaction to his father’s death was to IMMEDIATELY get out of the area and swear vengeance, which I have my own headcanons about BUT, the point is, he’ll want a new start, outside of Paris, and I think he would throw himself into it with the same fervor he threw himself into the Revolution. Which actually parallels nicely with Artois swearing himself to celibacy after Louis de Polastron’s death.)

My happily ever after for them: The two of them manage to convince each other to run away from the Revolution together, going to England, Italy, or literally anywhere else bordering France. They both grow as human beings, with both of them moving increasingly towards the center. Laz leaves the Army and begins the process of healing himself and getting his individuality back, with Ronan occasionally napping on his shoulder while he’s practicing on the harpsichord. They don’t have children, but do have several animals (that Laz claims are Ronan’s), including at least one black kitten that SOMEONE (Read: Ronan) names Artois for its imperious manner. Olympe and Solene occasionally stay with them, with Solene and Lazare calling a truce for Ronan’s sake. The Mazurier siblings reconcile. They all deal with the trauma of the French Revolution together, as a family. Sometime after the heat of the Revolution dies down, probably around 1804, they go back to France, where Ronan helps Laz deal with his past and the trauma associated with it. By this point, society’s more or less accepted that they’re married and, with the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1791, there’s not all that much they can do except for, like, not inviting the socially awkward aristocrat to their salons. Oh, the shame. Peyrol will have to console himself by banging his boyfriend in every room of his chateau. They all outlive Artois.

Lazare de Peyrol

How I feel about this character: He is my aristocratic gay disaster son who needs to CHILL and commit 99% fewer homicides.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Ronan, Olympe, Charles (as part of his Tragic Backstory, unrequited), Happiness, the Whip, the Coat, Marat’s Printing Press, Louis XVI (as an unrequited thing pre-Ronan, instead of Charles). I could also be persuaded to ship Robespierre/Lazare, though I don’t think it’d ever really be a major thing since, tbh, they don’t have the same kind of history/attachment that R/L do.

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: The sad thing with Laz is that we really don’t get any real relationships with him, besides his men and their attempts to get him to hook up with Ronan (which I read as mainly them thinking “HEY! If he gets laid, maybe he won’t have us flogged for every minor infraction!”) Charlotte as a sort of ward for Laz is a disaster waiting to happen, but it’s something that I think has a lot of potential in the sense that he’s never really HAD anyone to protect before and then there’s this street urchin who is more or less feral BUT she has her uses and eventually Laz is basically the equivalent of “I’ve only known Charlotte a day and a half but if anything happened to her I’d kill everyone in this room and then myself.” Which, Peyrol picking up ANOTHER stray. The good news is that Charlotte’s out of the danger stage as far as when i think Peyrol would have the most trouble dealing with kids, since she’s old enough that she still has a sense of independence, though I think they’d clash a lot as far as Laz wanting her to be A Proper Young Woman while Charlotte is…Charlotte. Also, on the reverse side, I like the idea of Papa du Puget (in a verse where Laz DOESN’T TRY TO KILL HIM) forming a sort of father/son bond with him.

My unpopular opinion about this character: Creepy Crawly Laz is a hard “no” for me. It’s not just that he’s more often than not portrayed as creeping on the wrong person, but it’s just…not anything in keeping with what we’ve seen of Laz thus far. I can’t see Laz as being the one who’s really forward in his relationship with Ronan, or really with anyone. I tend to headcanon him as more or less gray ace, with a strong focus on his work before he meets Ronan, which is part of why he reacts so STRONGLY to him. Like, he was minding his own business, doing his job, and then this PEASANT comes in and upsets everything and makes him feel tingly feelings that he’s really not used to. TBH I have a hard time imagining he’s even kissed someone pre-musical. (Okay, Takarazuka Laz I have an easier time with, but still.) And so he tries to put him in his proper place but…that doesn’t work well and then suddenly the peasant wants to kiss him and ABORTABORTABORT but it also feels…somewhat nice and, oh, that’s what the tingly feelings are. Consider that his opening lines to Ronan in Maniaque basically consist of, “Your father is dead and you’re an idiot. Also, do you want to betray your friends and become my trophy twink because I can arrange that?” That is not someone who’s experienced in any way. Like, he probably cries during their first time together and Ronan’s just there like “…Peyrol, Peyrol, are you alright? Did I do something wrong?” And meanwhile with Ronan we (unfortunately) know he’s very *physical* when it comes to people so, the second he realizes he’s got the hots for his father’s killer, he’s going to just…go for it. And then probably angst later.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish we’d gotten more development with Laz in general, given that I think he has a lot of potential. Obviously, my ideal version of 1789 would be a romantic drama with Peyrol/Ronan and Solene/Olympe as our two cross-class relationships, with Ronan and Lazare potentially being the comic relief in the background. I would really like to see him go through an actual arc in the musical, with him reacting to the events of the Revolution, with Nous Ne Sommes being him having a sort of breakdown (which is how I’ve always personally interpreted the “Let it Go Lazare” video), which leads up to the Bastille. I like the idea of him gradually losing control over everything, with at least some of his men deserting, so that the position between him and Ronan gradually flips. (Personally, I’ve always liked the idea of “Nous ne Sommes” being about not just the revolutionaries, but about his own troops as they feel torn about firing on their own people and are increasingly resentful of their commander.) I would like to see some closure to Ronan’s revenge plot against him, even if it’s Laz being cornered by the mob as the Bastille falls. It’s kind of why I truly enjoy having R/L in mind for the Takarazuka version, because even though Ronan is shot down by Peyrol in the end, you know he’s probably managed to do exactly what he’d set out to do: Destroy him completely. And he did it without even really trying. There’s a sort of dark, dark irony to that one.

My favorite friendship for this character: If I’m not going fully on poly with Ronan/Lazare/Olympe, I tend to still like Olympe and Lazare to be friends, as he probably has more in common with her than anyone else in the cast, seeing as they’re both devoted to the Royal Family, come from military backgrounds, have ties to the Bastille, and distrust the mob. I think it’s really important for Laz to keep up that relationship and to have someone like that to commiserate with.

My crossover ship: Not a full-on ship, but I really like Wash and Laz’s friendship in the TN crossover. I like that you have these two military figures, both dedicated to their leaders, finding some common ground, I like that Laz finally has a superior who actually gives a damn about him and is supportive and encourages him to be a human being, I like how they both support each other in their disaster relationships. For the first time in his life, really, Laz has someone who is in his corner, so he doesn’t have to deal with this on his own, someone who acts as a mentor to him and really pushes him to be a better human being and a better officer (and who is willing to use the spray bottle on him when he contemplates homicide). Like, they both keep each other in check insanely well? Also, I miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight lowkey ship Lazare/Chauvelin from the Scarlet Pimpernel, mainly because he was played by Ronan’s actress at one point and CROSSOVERS + It’s another revolutionary and Lazare has a Type. And I also lowkey support Saint Just/Lazare in the sense that I think they would have an absolutely HILARIOUS dynamic given that SJ was fantastic when it came to military stuff and had a noted love of music and Laz is….similar, but on a different side. Like, you’d have SJ complaining about the officers not doing anything and Laz would be like, “See? See? This is what I’ve been say-What do you mean ‘abolition of privileges?” And then they’d bond over, like, balloons or telegraph wires before remembering they hate each other and SJ is highkey in love with Robespierre. Also, I strongly feel like at some Laz tried to propose to Oscar de Jarjayes as a way of showing how very heterosexual he was and. She knocked him on his ass. It was probably the closest he’s ever come to being sexually attracted to a woman (Not counting the Polyamory AU where he’s bi, but still).

Terra Nova

Favorite character: Wash

Least Favorite character: Lucas Motherfucking Taylor

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Wash/Mira, Jim/Malcolm, Maddy/Skye, Mark/Josh, Lucas Taylor/A T-Rex’s Jaw...you know, the standards

Character I find most attractive: WASH.

Character I would marry: Elizabeth, because we know her family’s rich and she’s insanely smart and caring. (Actual Josh Shannon quote: “Rachel, please don’t fuck my mom”).

Character I would be best friends with: Maddy Shannon

a random thought: This is the kind of thing we’ve talked about, but It’s such a pity we got a conglomeration of four different scripts rather than one solid script. I can understand not going full on grimdark, but there are still so many traces of it throughout the script (the casual usage of torture, INCLUDING BY JIM), that it’s a pity they didn’t have the guts to do it. Even if they didn’t go through with the Cursed original script, they’d have done well to just stick to one coherent script with a solid idea of where they were going. Taylor: Antihero, villain, or Santa Steroids? Jim: Relatable everyman or hero? (ALSO: THEY SHOULD HAVE KEPT THE ORIGINAL REASON FOR HIM BEING ARRESTED.) It’s like everybody on the writing team had a different idea about the characters + Colony and what they were going for, with traces of that darkness edging in but never being addressed. The over-the-top dystopia of the original is, tbh, more than a little corny, but so is the “Taylor is always right! The government does surveillance on you because it loves you! You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide! Love Big Brother! Look, Taylor interacting with children! Have you ever heard of a dictator who hangs out with children?” thing that the final product had, especially given that this is so very clearly a post-9/11 world where questions about state authority are STILL going around and things like the Patriot Act are still deeply controversial. Obviously, character development is a thing and I would LOVE to see a gradual slide, but looking at where they went with what they had planned, I don’t see how they were going to pull it off, especially given that all they’ve really mentioned about S2 was that Taylor was going to go insane, which doesn’t seem to take into account his pre-existing authoritarian tendencies. (Also, the fact they just brush it aside as him being “crazy” feels deeply eh to me, since it seems like such a narrative cheap shot and more than a little unfortunate from a mental health standpoint.) There was so much they should have been building up to and bringing in from episode one, and they dropped it. I think, in the end, there were a lot of things that really damned the show in the end, potentially not fatal on their own, but I think that was the original sin of it, in a sense. If I’d been an executive looking the show over and deciding whether to renew or not, I’d not have hesitated over cancelling the hot mess, as enjoyable as it is.

An unpopular opinion: None of the canon relationships were well done and it’s better to pretend that literally everyone realized they were gay post-finale. Also, GIVE ME MY DARK VERSION OF PARADISE LOST WITH DINOS DAMMIT.

My Canon OTP: ........................................

My Non-canon OTP: Wash/Mira, even though it’s canon in my heart.

Most Badass Character: Uh? WASH? Now that she’s gone, the Colony is fucked, which is obv. the real reason the show was cancelled. Also, Mira, surviving in the wild for as long as she has and putting Taylor in his place when he’s like, “I WAS HERE A WHOLE MONTH WITHOUT MY X-BOX.” And Mira’s like, “Bitch, where do you think we’ve been the last few years? At the Ritz?”

Most Epic Villain: I’m not giving Lucas Taylor the benefit of this. Mira, but I don’t really see her as a villain. If they’d ever had the guts in a later season to call out Taylor’s bullshit, I think he had the potential to be FASCINATING, as Jim comes to terms with what he is, turning against someone he considered a boyfriend, and breaking free of following orders (or, you know, just assigning his role to Wash. That would work too.) Lead the audience in with talk of Utopia, “the ends justify the means,” then steadily deconstruct it with Taylor becoming more and more paranoid after the season finale, losing faith in his dreams, committing more and more atrocities and continuing to justify them.

Pairing I am not a fan of: Anything? In? Canon? Lucas/Skye in particular.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): All of them? But also, LET ! WASH ! GET ! CHARACTER ! DEVELOPMENT ! And Skye deserved a hell of a lot more than a half-baked spy arc and romance arc with Josh, especially given her connection to Taylor (which, I’ve said this before and I’ll say this again, if anyone’s taking down Taylor and we’re forced to admit Wash is dead, IT NEEDS TO BE SKYE WHO TAKES HIM DOWN. NOT JIM. SOMEONE WHO’S KNOWN AND LOVED HIM FOR YEARS.) We needed more of her relationships with people in the colony, especially Wash since Wash doesn’t really have *connections* and, if you’re going to toss away a character like that, you need to emphasize how much is MATTERS. And calling her “Alycia” every chance you get isn’t the same. Showing Skye mourning would have been a good step. And, tbh, I will always feel like they did Mark a disservice by cutting out his role as a Sixer spy and just making him Maddy’s Bland Straight Love Interest. The actor did a pretty good job selling it, and yet, in the end, all that made it the screen was oatmeal. You could have had an opportunity for a genuinely riveting Sixer Spy plotline, tying him and Skye together as friends and (reluctant) conspirators, while also giving some solid conflict to the characters, but they tossed it away. And killing Mark off in the finale would have made a lot more of an impact than Wash because the audience has SEEN him forge that (bland) relationship with Maddy, sees him joking with her little sister, and then fridges him. Like, you want to show you’re not playing around? DO THAT. RAISE THE FUCKING STAKES.

Favourite Friendship: Wash/Taylor. I def. tend to view them as long-time comrades who have a lot of deep respect for one another and who trust each other unconditionally. That’s why, no matter what happens, that friendship breaking is going to be so painful. They’re really one of the only solid ties that they have to the past on Ter Noa, and, eventually, the past has gotta die.

Character I most identify with: Maddy Shannon.

Character I wish I could be: WASH.

Mira/Wash

When I started shipping them: During our TN streams, thank you very much.

My thoughts: Definitely not a ship I came in with, especially since the writers seem to have a phobia over female characters talking for more than a minute at a time when absolutely necessary, but definitely one of the most interesting pairings insofar as chemistry and potential is concerned.

What makes me happy about them: These two work so well together on every level; they really match each other well even as they have that kind of conflict that makes a ship investing. You have these two complete badasses in love, angsty, but still staying true to themselves.

What makes me sad about them: They have so few interactions on screen; we never really get anything with them aside from the one (beautiful) interaction. Also, despite what they both might want, their loyalties for the foreseeable future are so bound up that, even if they meet up occasionally, they can’t pursue a solid relationship (WHICH. OH. IN THE CROSSOVER. RONAN FEELING BAD THAT IN A WORLD WHERE SEEMINGLY EVERYTHING’S POSSIBLE, SOME COUPLES STILL CAN’T BE TOGETHER.)

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: WHAT FANFIC? Making Wash and Mira straight is obviously a no go.

Things I look for in fanfic: To exist someplace besides my computer hardrive.

My wishlist: TALKING?

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: I don’t have any ships for Mira outside of Wash, tbh. If she’s with someone, it’d have to be someone who could match her and would be willing to deal with her rough edges as well as uncovering that little chink in her armor. Elizabeth Shannon would be an interesting choice there, I suppose. Wash...Reilly could work, as someone who’s military as well, though I’m not sure Wash would date someone under her command. Elizabeth Shannon’s still an option there, in the sense that I think she could get Wash to SLOW DOWN and also still has less of a tolerance for Taylor’s shit (the second he comes for her kids, it’s over.)

My happily ever after for them: Wash eventually realizes that Taylor’s doing Some Dystopian Shit and falls to Mira’s Sixer Wiles, the two of them work together to take him down and then, using some leftover Lucas Bullshit, they re-establish contact on Earth, snatch Sienna, and then go back to Terra Nova where they reunite the Sixers and the Colony as one united group. The Sixers get a full pardon for what they’ve done, or at the very least a highly commuted sentence. They also raise Leah and Sam as their own, with Sienna thrilled to get two new siblings (they also make regular trips to Earth to see Leah and Sam’s grandparents, who are THRILLED to see them but are also mildly intimidated by Mira sharpening her knives in the dining room.)

Mira

How I feel about this character: Very problematic but I also love her and am totally on her side VS Taylor.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Wash, Alycia Washington, Lt. Washington

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Sienna. It has to have been a pretty strong mother/daughter bond to get Mira to basically bend Heaven and Hell for her, and it’s a pity we never really got to see it in person considering it would have really helped to humanize Mira further.

My unpopular opinion about this character: THAT FUCKING SCENE WHERE THE WRITERS IN THE COMMENTARY CALLED HER “ALMOST SYMPATHETIC.” NO, BITCH. SHE IS SYMPATHETIC. I’m really along the same lines as you where I have a really hard time viewing her as a villain. Anti-villain, maybe, but, given what goes on in the Colony (torture, martial law, etc.) I have a hard time not rooting for her.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: That the episode with her and Taylor was replaced with her and Wash. That relationship has so much potential to be fascinating, not just as far as shipping but just in general. Like, even if I didn’t headcanon them as Sad Exes, that “Still doing Taylor’s dirty work?” Shows that they go way back, that there’s this connection there, and Mira offers Wash an alternative to what she’s got on the colony, even if it’s one she can’t take. They work well as rivals and foils for one another as two people who are both military, both very driven, but happened to wind up on different sides. I also really wish that we’d gotten to see more of Mira and what’s going on with her at a given point. I really would have liked to see if she has any mementos of Sienna or something like that. Flashbacks to her on Earth, maybe, or an episode from the perspective of the Sixers. Just something solid as far as establishing her and who she is outside of just “mean Sixer Lady”.

Favorite friendship for this character: Sixers? Have? Friends? In all honesty, Mira strikes me as the type who avoids attachments, because they’re not here to make friends, they’re here for the money and then to get the Hell out. She’s pragmatic like that. I think she wants her people to respect her, but, ultimately, she’s there for the mission. (Oh, like another military idiot I have a soft spot for.)

My crossover ship: Not a full out ship, but I’m really intrigued by how her and Olympe will get along in the crossover as the Revolution has to team up with the Sixers. Because with Olympe, she’s very easy to underestimate (which is why I think Lucas Taylor is going to fail miserably). Unlike Mira, who I think projects herself as more of a hardass than she actually is as a way of keeping control, Olympe makes herself deliberately softer and more demure than I think she really is as a way of keeping control because that is how you do things in the 18th century. She keeps her head down, keeps her wits about her, smiles, and then darts away from the trouble (namely, Artois). In terms of personality, she’s very nurturing and kid-focused, whereas Mira’s more like Laz in the sense that she has a goal that she wants to achieve and she kind of goes for the throat. Her actions towards Leah show that, while she loves Sienna, when it comes to kids, she’s not above being harsh to a child if she feels it’s necessary. Again, it’s all about the mission to her, getting the money, and then going. So you have these two people with very different approaches to life from very different time periods having to get along for the greater good.

#janetcarter

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carnelianwings · 7 years

Note

21 and 51 for the fanfiction questions? 💕

(For this ask meme!)(Answered: 3, 8, 15, 16)

Thank you for asking! And get ready for a lot of discussion of old shame fanfic. XD

21. What was the first fanfic you ever wrote?

Oh geez, you’re going to make me dig through my old shame memories aren’t you? I don’t think I ever posted it on ff.net, or if I did, it was very briefly and then I took it down because of the terrible quality, but I think one of the first ones I remember writing was this crack fic for-no-other-reason-because-I-wanted-to-and-all-my-friends-were-doing-it where it could roughly be summarized as a bunch of 90s anime series get thrown in together, fight each other, and everything ends with a singing contest and voice actor shenanigans (because there were several series that had characters sharing the same voice actor, lol.) It was . . . probably not the best written (I’m 90% sure that word document has been lost to the sands of time), probably had a good hefty dose of fangirl Japanese thrown in (ugh, why 16-year-old me, why?), but I will admit it was probably the first of many, many, many fight scenes I’ve written, so at least it was good for practice?

22. Is there anything you regret writing?

Actually, yeah. Especially since I’ve been writing fanfic since 15, publishing online since 18 (first on ff.net and now mainly on AO3), so I’ve been writing and publishing fanfic online off and on for roughly 14 years. I’m pretty sure some of my earliest fics featured some pretty bad characterization, maybe a splash of yaoi stereotypes before I figured out that I don’t need to follow fandom stereotypes or whatever is the ff.net preferred characterization of the moment, and I know I’ve written a single instance of rape-as-drama (it was all properly trigger warning’ed in the author’s notes and everything since ff.net doesn’t let you do tags, with multiple warnings in the start of the relevant chapter) and looking back now, I’m not particularly proud of that work even though it had a decent readership for one of my fics for that ship and is one of my few completed multi-chaptered works. It’s become one of those tropes I just avoid now and use other things for drama. Like threat of death or something similar seems to work just as well, if not better.

Should I take them down from ff.net and delete them forever? Maybe. But to me, though, they’re all part of that writing experience that turned me into the writer that I am today, for better or for worse, and so I keep them there as a reminder to myself of the things I’ve written and pitfalls to avoid, regardless of whether or not I’m personally proud of them anymore. And it’s also part of the reason I don’t give people shit over what they write, because we all have our Old Shame Problematic Fic(s), and as long as it’s properly tagged and trigger warnings placed, and the author has done their due diligence in making sure readers are aware that controversial content is coming, the rest is up to the reader to avoid the work itself.

In other words: Creators, tag your stuff. Consumers, heed the tags. Don’t like? Don’t consume.

#soymilkheaven answers an ask #it's sad but for a while i did think we could all get along #but now i see it #the only way to get along is to go with the age old fanfiction adage of don't like don't read #skia-visuals

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katwriting · 7 years

Text

Fic: Mending the pieces

After that nightmare of a cabinet meeting, Alec goes back to his room and remembers better times with Magnus – like the one time when they got those photo booth pictures done. Tons of hurt, a bit of fluff and a hopeful ending – enjoy!

Word count: 3331 | Read on AO3

After the seelie queen and Magnus had left the Institute, the rest of their emergency downworld council meeting dissolved rather quickly. Luke exchanged a worried glance with Raphael and then said goodbye, heading towards the Jade Wolf so he could talk to his pack. The vampire himself was led to one of the guestrooms of the Institute by Isabelle, since he couldn’t exactly go home in the middle of the day. He shook hands with Alec and promised to alert his clan right away. Jace and Clary took off soon after that, and Alec was left alone in the meeting room. He stood there for a few moments, unmoving, and stared at the table where they had sat just a few minutes ago, the banners representing the downworlders and the one with the Angelic Power rune waving lightly in the soft breeze that came in from Angel knew where. He remembered setting up that table a few weeks ago, just after he’d been appointed Head of the Institute. He’d been so full of hope then, so sure that there could be real progress if only he found the right people, people who were willing to make change happen. He’d been so confident that he had found those people in Luke, Raphael, Meliorn…and Magnus. “Now look where all that hope got you”, he said lowly to himself and then turned around, heading towards his office at first, but then choosing another hallway instead, the one that led to the sleeping quarters. Most of Alec’s work for the day was done and he didn’t want to see any other people right now. +++ Alec was a practical guy. He’d always been. He didn’t care about details, as long as they didn’t concern demon hunting or important Clave assignments. It was a trait that characterized him – and that was also well displayed in his bedroom. As opposed to the guest rooms, the quarters of the Institute’s permanent residents were all quite different from each other. They all came with the same standard furniture, but most of the shadowhunters usually adapted their rooms to their own tastes at some point. Alec hadn’t. At least not a lot. Back when he’d moved in, he had gotten some curtains and carpets and at some point exchanged the standard double bed to a queen size so he could stretch out comfortably. But apart from that, the room still looked pretty much like the same as any guest room in the Institute. The only indication that Alec lived here were his clothes in the cabinet, his toiletries in the bathroom and a couple of personal bits and pieces scattered across the room – like the framed photo of Jace, Izzy, Max and him on his nightstand or a piece of adamas from his very first stele (which Jace had stepped on and successfully broken a couple days after he’d gotten it). Nothing too flashy, just a few things that mattered to him. At least, that had been the case before he had started dating Magnus and the warlock had started sleeping here from time to time. Most of the time Alec slept – had slept – at Magnus’ place. But from time to time, when Alec’s days at the office and Magnus’ list of clients had been long and the two of them too tired to portal or walk back to Brooklyn, they had just crashed in Alec’s room. And Magnus had left his marks in Alec’s room just like he had in his life. Like the dark blue suit jacket that hung from the back of the chair by the window. The extra toothbrush in the bathroom. The shiny purple silk scarf carefully folded on top of the dresser across from the bed. The delicate silver bracelet lying on his nightstand. Or the soft black cashmere sweater Magnus had carelessly thrown on top of Alec’s bed just a few days ago, now totally wrinkled since Alec had slept at the loft for the past couple of days. Looking at those little traces of his ex-boyfriend – even thinking the word made Alec cringe in pain - made Alec’s chest tighten and his eyes burn with tears threatening to spill. He still hadn’t really processed what had happened in that hallway in front of the infirmary, hadn’t really let himself accept that whatever Magnus and him thought they’d had, was over. It just hurt too much. Every time his gaze dragged over the remains of Magnus’ presence in his life scattered across his room, he felt like he was going to suffocate. And yet, those small bits and pieces – the sweater, the bracelet, the jacket – were not even the worst. The worst thing was still waiting for him, lying on his desk, its bright blue color clearly standing out against the old Clave cases he had left it upon. It was a short strip of photos, taken from a photo booth in Japan. Four photos, four moments that had been not that long ago but still felt like they were from another life. Alec sighed deeply when he strode over to the desk and picked the photos up, running his thumb over his favorite one – Magnus was looking straight into the camera, the hint of a smirk on his lips while Alec was sitting next to him, smiling at him with a wide grin and looking the happiest had probably ever been. When his eyes started prickling with unshed tears again, he blinked them back and then sat down on his bed, the strips of photos still in his hands. He ran a hand through his hair and then, even though he knew better, let his heart win over his head as he dove into the memory of the day when they had gotten those pictures taken. +++ It was a sunny day in Tokyo and Alec’s head was buzzing. And for once, it was not because he had worked too much. Actually, it was quite the opposite. Earlier this day, Magnus had shown up on his doorstep unannounced, dressed to the nines and with a sly smile pulling at his lips. They had been seeing each other quite a lot recently, had gone out for dinner, met up for lunch or just spent time together for the sake of it, getting to know each other better day by day. Today, however, Alec had not been expecting Magnus as he’d been on a warlock conference in London. “Magnus…what are you doing here?” “The conference ended earlier, so I’m putting that extra time to good use and taking you out, Alexander. Come on, you’re taking the rest of the day off”, the warlock had announced, opening up a portal right next to him with a flick of his wrist. Alec had just stared at him, astonished and frozen mid-movement in surprise. “What?”, he’d babbled, still too surprised by Magnus’ words to form a proper sentence. “We’re going on a date, Alexander”, Magnus had chuckled and then walked over to where Alec was still sitting frozen at his desk, grabbed the shadowhunter’s hands and pulled him up and towards the portal. “And the best thing is – we’re not telling anyone where we’re going.” And before Alec had the chance to protest, Magnus had pulled them into the portal. Their first stop had been Prague, one of Magnus’ favorite cities, as he’d admitted once they’d stepped out of the portal. Magnus had shown him around the city, showing him his favorite spots. They’d grabbed coffee and then strolled around the old city center, taking a couple of selfies at the famous Charles Bridge. Then, Magnus had portaled them up to the castle and they’d enjoyed the view over the city from there. Now, they were in Tokyo, walking hand in hand through the busy streets. They may have left New York in the late afternoon, but it had already been the morning of the next day when they’d arrived in Japan. And since both Alec and Magnus had been hungry, they’d grabbed some more coffee and breakfast at a bakery. They were just debating whether they should stay in town for the rest of the day or go someplace else, when Magnus suddenly squealed in delight and then all but dragged Alec towards what seemed to be a shopping mall across the street. “One of my favorite interior stores is in there”, the warlock explained when he realized his date’s confused look once they’d entered the mall. “Would it be okay if we stopped there for a second? I want to redecorate my living room a bit and they might just have the things I need.” “Sure, I don’t mind”, Alec shrugged and then followed Magnus through the halls, letting himself be pulled through the crowd while he tried not to step on anyone’s feet. Because of that, he almost ran into Magnus when the warlock suddenly stopped dead in his steps. Alec looked around them and frowned. He may not speak Japanese, but he knew what a furniture store looked like – and there was most definitely none in their nearer environment. “Magnus, why are we stopping here?” The warlock didn’t reply, just slowly turned toward him and smiled at him with a wicked spark in his eyes. He then nodded with his head towards the wall and Alec turned, seeing nothing but stores lining up next to each other, people walking from one shop to another…and, nestled into a corner not far from them, a photo booth. Alec looked back at Magnus and tried to make his voice sound as firm as possible. “No.” “Alexander, please. This has been a really great date so far. I’d like to remember that.” “Nice try, Magnus. But there is no way you’re getting me into that thing. There’s not even enough space for both of us. And you would be wasting your money on stupid pictures.” Magnus pouted. “But why would we be wasting it? We’re getting cute pictures in return!” Alec let out a dry laugh. “Yeah, sure. For an insanely overpriced fee. Also, I don’t look good in photos.” Alec was silenced by Magnus’ lips suddenly pressing up to his own. “Trust me, Alexander. You look quite spectacular today”, Magnus muttered against his lips when he pulled away. And then, without further ado, he tightened his grip on Alec’s hand and pulled him towards the photo booth. Once they were in there, it took them a second to figure out how to do this. They were both not the shortest people in the world, and the small space had definitely not been designed for two people who were respectively at the verge or over 6 feet tall. Once the two had managed to squeeze onto the small bench in the photo booth, Magnus pulled the curtain closed and looked over to Alec. “You ready?” The shadowhunter rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless. “As ready as I’ll ever be after being kidnapped by a warlock and pulled into a photo booth against my will.” Magnus tutted disapprovingly as he leaned forward to slip a few coins into the machine in front of them, starting the count down for their first photo. “Now, Alexander, don’t make this something it isn’t. And now get your most beautiful smile ready, pretty boy.” When the flash went off for the first time, they were both just smiling into the camera, sitting up close and next to each other. However, for the next shot Magnus wanted to shake things up a bit. While Alec stayed put, smiling into the camera, Magnus turned and wrapped his arms around Alec from behind. He dropped his head on Alec’s shoulders and looked into the camera with a hint of a smile, just as the flash went off for a second time. For the third photo, each of them made a face, resulting in Alec starting to laugh because they both looked so stupid. He barely managed to pull himself together before the flash went off one final time, resulting in a fourth photo that showed Magnus smiling and him in the background still laughing at the warlock. “Now tell me in which of those beautiful pictures you look stupid, Alexander”, Magnus said as he looked at the two strips of photos that had been printed out for them. Alec stood behind Magnus and peeked over his shoulder, barely able to hide his smile when he saw the pictures – they actually looked good, cute even. He felt his heart flutter in his chest when he saw how utterly happy and carefree they looked. Not like a warlock and a shadowhunter who were trying their best to keep their world from falling into war, but like a normal couple, just two people in love. “Admit it, you like them”, Magnus laughed as he caught Alec looking at the photos. He turned around and smiled up at the shadowhunter. “You wouldn’t be smiling so much if you didn’t.” “Maybe I do. But tell you what – I like you even better in person”, Alec chuckled and then closed the remaining distance between them so he could finally kiss that smug smile off the warlock’s face. +++ Alec didn’t realize when he had started to let the tears fall. Probably sometime through that painful memory of when Magnus and him had been a lot happier. It was not like it mattered. He’d been trying to hold himself together for the sake of his job and the Institute for almost a week now, he just couldn’t find it in him to care about how he looked on the outside anymore. It was not like anyone was watching him, anyways. And lying to himself – or other people, for that matter – had never really gotten him anywhere. So he stopped pretending. Stopped pretending that he was fine, quit playing the strong leader who couldn’t be bothered with such mundane things as heartbreak. Instead, Alec let all those feelings that had been stored up inside him for days out and let himself be flooded with suppressed emotions. He sat on his bed, hunched over, the strip of photos in his hands, and cried like he hadn’t for years. Let it all out – the pain, the sadness, the anger about losing Magnus, the guilt for losing him like this, everything. He sat there and sobbed and for once in his life couldn’t care less about anything else than the pain of losing his boyfriend. So when someone knocked at his door a couple of minutes later, he ignored it. For all he cared that moment, whoever was looking for him could take of their problems themselves. He didn’t realize someone had entered his room until he heard the muffled sound of heels on carpet and noticed an all too familiar note of floral perfume in the air. The mattress dipped beside him and when he looked up, he looked straight into the dark, worried eyes of his sister. “Oh, Alec”, Izzy breathed when she took in his pale face, reddened eyes and the tell-tale streaks of tears on his cheeks. Alec could just shrug before another sob forced its way up his throat. He covered his face with his hands and tried to wipe the tears away, but it was no use – they wouldn’t stop falling. Alec heard Izzy sigh and a second later, he was wrapped up in a warm embrace. He hesitated for a moment, but then he let himself fall into it, wrapped his arms around Izzy, buried his face in her dark hair and hugged her tight. It wasn’t the embrace he craved so much, that one was way out of his reach, but it was warm and safe and it helped. Wrapped up in Izzy’s arms like that, he finally managed to calm down a bit. He still felt like his heart had ripped itself apart, but at least the tears dried eventually and his breathing evened out. “I’m sorry”, he sniffed once the worst was over and he could look at Izzy again, “for behaving like this.” Izzy tilted her head to the side, her eyes full of sympathy. She brought her hand up to the side of Alec’s face and brushed her fingers over his cheek. “Don’t apologize for feeling awful. It’s only human. And even though we’re half angels and warriors and whatnot…you’re allowed to feel human, Alec.” “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I just miss him so much”, Alec admitted, voice raspy from crying. The second after the words had left his mouth, he realized that this was the first time he admitted it to himself and to others. The first time that he’d really, genuinely feel himself the loss that came with the love of your life walking away from you. And even though that still felt awful, it also felt good. Alec let out a deep sigh. “It’s just…I don’t want to be without him. I know we’ve only been dating for a couple of months, but…it just doesn’t feel right when he’s not here.” He grabbed Izzy’s hand, brushing his fingers over hers. “I love him, Izzy”, he said absentmindedly as played with a heavy gold bracelet Izzy was wearing instead of her usual snake bracelet. The material and color made his heart clench with nostalgia. This was something Magnus would wear. When he looked up at Izzy again, her bright red lips were pulled into a sympathetic smile. “I know you do. He loves you, too.” “Then why did he leave me? I know I messed up, but up until last week, we always somehow found our way through tough times.” Izzy sighed. “I don’t know, big brother. But what I know is that the two of you belong together. You both had a lot to deal with lately…maybe all you need to do is give each other sometime. I see how you love Magnus and if he loves you even half as much, you will work through this.” Alec’s shoulders slumped and ran a hand through his already mussed hair. “Well, I guess that’s all I can hope for right now.” Izzy just squeezed his hand. “I suppose, yes.” They sat next to each other in comfortable silence after that, Alec still lost in his thoughts. After a while, Izzy hugged him one more time and kissed his cheek, then got up to leave. Just as she was walking towards the door, the silence was disturbed by the buzzing of Alec’s phone in his pocket. The shadowhunter frowned in confusion. He didn’t expect any more business calls for today, as he’d already spoken to both the Inquisitor and the downworld representatives. And he was right – it was not a business call. It was Magnus. Alec felt panic rise in his chest when he looked at his screen, Magnus smiling up at him from a photo he’d taken on that day in Tokyo. “Izzy, it’s him. What am I supposed to do?” Isabelle just laughed. “What do you think? Pick up, of course”, she said and then turned around, walking towards the door. “Talk to him”, she called before the heavy door fell close and left him in silence again. Not actually silence, since his phone was still buzzing. Alec looked at the photo of Magnus for a second, and then took a deep breath and swiped right to accept the call. What could go wrong? It was not like he had anything left to lose anyways. His voice was full of hesitation nonetheless. “Hello?” For a couple of moments, there was silence on the other end, the only noise Alec heard being slow breaths coming from the other end. When Magnus finally spoke, his voice sounded equally hesitant and sad, but there was also something else in it, something Alec could not pinpoint right away. “Alexander.” It wasn’t until Magnus had breathed out that single word that Alec recognized that odd note in his voice. It was hope.

Edit: I wrote a sequel to this - here’s the link to part 2

#malec #malec fanfic #malec fanfiction #katwriting #hurt #fluff #hope

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