#no one asked for it but have an elaborate post with two au variations

[fullofsunsetwhispers]

OMI AND CHASE BEING LIKE LUZ AND EDA IS SUCH A CUTE COMPARISON

Thanks! Originally I was in favor of 'Wuya and Eda are alike' idea. Back then, I had the urge to put XS characters in places of Toh characters. Not even a crossover, this au would have a similar plot to TOH but with XS characters instead. I wanted so badly for Jack to find friends in the demon realm I made him 'Luz'. Jack would meet Wuya – the most recognizable criminal witch on the Boiling Isles and her little roommate – Omi.

My decision to put Omi in King’s place was based on the fact both King and Omi tend to be boastful (and extremely cute!). Raimundo, Kimiko, Clay = the hexide kids. Dashi would take Raine’s role because Raeda and Wudashi are my OTPs and hey. You have to admit Dashi would look astonishing in Raine’s outfit!

I haven’t decided on whom to assign the role of Willow, Amity, and Gus. And I’m not fully convinced if I want Jack to find a significant other, so no equivalent of Lumity in this au! Moreover, I think Tiny Sim from XC could be a nice Mattholomule. Apart from that, I’ve figured out Shadow Young is perfect for the role of a grimwalker.

Both Hunter and Shadow were born in weird circumstances and share that ‘gold theme’ (well in shadow’s case – her disguise was more connected to gold but it was enough for me)

This version of au also had Chase as a potions’ guy, who sells treatments to Wuya’s curse. Of course, Omi has taken an interest in that mysterious grumpy man so Omi and Chase become good friends <3 damn, Chase also turns out to be a skilled witch as well and he teaches Omi some of his tricks!

The main problem, tho, lay in the most important part of s01 of Toh. No one is in Lilith's place because in XS it is unknown whether Wuya has a family or not. Ultimately, I intended to put Princess Kaila in Lilith's place and Hannibal Roy Bean could be Emperor Belos.

However, once I thought that through I discovered the conflict between the Clawthorne sisters is quite similar to what Chase and Guan have going on in xiaolin showdown.

Guan has tried for many centuries to bring Chase to the side of good with the same determination Lilith tried to convince Eda to join the Emperor's Coven.

I dare even assume Guan and Chase's friendship was as strong as the Clawthorne sisters' bond. (btw bless chase's smile. Lilith's smile is so cute too.)

But because of Guan and Lilith's greed, everything has changed. Once friends, now enemies.

(Mind you, Lilith and Guan have almost the same pose in these two screencaps! Ain't that a cool detail?)

Apart from that, I had my mind blown when I compared these two screencaps:

Lilith and Guan sure know how to swing their weapons!

They both tend to be very shady.

Guan has traded Dojo in order to redeem his Spear.

And Lilith has cursed Eda in order to secure for herself a position in the Emperor's Coven.

Not only did they sacrifice something even tho they knew someone might get hurt but they also share one particular trait. They both feel as if they never were good enough. Lilith is overshadowed by Eda's wild magic. Guan from the alternate timeline, on the other hand, had accepted HR's offer because he wanted to be the most powerful person in the world and he knew that he can't compete against Dashi and Chase. (It wasn't said directly in the show but I do believe Bean had bribed Guan with the same tricks as Chase. That is, Guan has heard fake!Chase say Guan will be in his shadow or sth)

Hence, Lilith and Guan's fear is becoming inadequate.

I just think that decision to make Guan and Chase have Clawthorne sister's arc fits even TOO well.

As you can see, in light of these afterthoughts I should change almost everything. For example,

Chase = Eda

Guan = Lilith

Omi= Luz

Jack = Hunter (someone had mentioned Jack could be a great grimwalker and I do see that bc Hunter and jack share some habits and personality traits.) (+ Luz and Hunter are found family and of course, I want more Omi-Jack brotherly moments so that tracks)

These are all great ideas and I can't make up my mind :( Because all Eda- Luz moments remind me either of nicer!Wuya and Jack or Chase and Omi and I love both duos! But Guan as Lilith makes more sense! Idk maybe I could manage to make both Wuya and Chase share Eda's story?? So One XS character would be a mix of 2 toh characters???? Let's say it's a work in progress.

Oh, and for a nice finish, I can even compare two Lilith-Eda's interactions to some Chase-Dashi bickering.

In Covention, Eda is annoying her sister and starts rhyming. Yup, the same scene but it's Dashi saying puns, and Chase warns him: 'One more pun. I dare you'. And a second later Chase hits Dashi because he refused to stop telling jokes xD

And when Eda shouted to Lulu 'I'm gonna get there before you!', Lilith was so shocked she exclaimed: 'No, you won't!' and started running after her. Yeah, it's also Dashi pulling Chase's leg. Because grown-ass men also deserve to act like 5-year-olds from time to time.

Thank you for bearing with me. I racked my brain and you, dear reader, were patient enough to accompany me in my chaotic thought process!

[ferusaurelius]

Nihlus Fic Headcanons

My latest fic, The husbandry of victory is blood (on AO3), is basically a Nihlus Kryik and Mass Effect mercenary/batarian culture headcanon backstory where @expertmakodriver reacted by asking me to ... please translate w/e I was on about.

So here it is! The English translation of my Nihlus Kryik worldbuilding art project.

In reality, this type of character sketch is something I would normally keep private. But since we need more Nihlus content, both it and the headcanon basis are all public and free to use and/or transform as you see fit without attribution.

Please, I’m begging anyone who might want to use any of these ideas in whole or in part: write it and save me from having to do it myself. You do not need to credit me, but I would appreciate a link to your work so I can promote it! :)

Tfw you actually need to annotate your own fic...

Long post - everything is under the cut!

Organized by the order each element is referenced in the fic, with the divided sections labeled as [NUMBER] on the left.

Edited 5/28/2021 because I forgot some things.

[Title] “The husbandry of victory is blood” - Taken from “Sparta Says No” by A.E. Stallings. I actually thought about using this as an alternative title for another fic, but I figured this background sketch for Nihlus more aligned with the themes. I strongly suggest you go and read the poem without taking my word for the following interpretation: the contrast between growth and destruction, and civilization built through conquest or through agriculture. I enjoy the high-level commentary on society. The metaphorical encounter between farming and war is something I wanted to bring to my work, and I wanted the title to color the tone of the epigraph from Virgil’s Georgics. On a more personal level -- my grandfather joined the military in part to seek out opportunities he wouldn’t have had if he’d stayed on a farm, and I decided to draw on that experience for Nihlus.

[Epigraph] - Virgil, Georgics Book I (tr. H. R. Fairclough) - I picked a public domain translation of the poem and went hunting around for a line that had juxtaposed farming and war imagery. It’s a fairly common classical motif! Wars often stopped and started based on the seasonal harvest and the necessity of feeding the community and supplying the troops. You can’t fight a war and gather in wheat at the same time. Digging up the weapons pf the dead in farm fields is a powerful image. My take on Nihlus draws on the tension between fighting and negotiation that I also connect to the symbolic opposition between agriculture and warfare. The Georgics are also just really neat.

[1] Half-face markings - I could write a whole headcanon post on turian colony markings and how mercenary modifications fit in with them (and I will at some point). You’ll see in this fic that I regularly use terms for how much ‘real estate’ the colony markings cover. My HC is that there are variations of colony markings that can be worn as minimalist (smallest critical details), half-face (upper or lower, may include simple full-face designs without a lot of paint), full-face (both, usually more elaborate), and full-crest (what it sounds like on the tin). These are all just different styles and up to personal preference, though there are a few cultural connotations or stereotypes about people who choose which version. Plus I felt really bad for people who might have super-complicated full versions of markings and wanted to give them something more aesthetically lightweight that would have the same meaning. 

[1] Batarian trader patois - An evolving lingua franca with many dialects. Nihlus is uncannily fluent at the one spoken in the Terminus, which is mutually intelligible with the dialect spoken in the Attican Traverse. This is a language without a formal codex that sounds a little strange even to batarians born into the Hegemony. Since batarians have been around and in contact with the Citadel and council races for ~1000 years longer than turians (true if the timeline on the wiki is correct, but I haven’t done the backdating myself), I HC that batarians have a more refined and developed spacer and trading culture. Traders and smugglers are infamous for liking to be beyond Hegemony control and when their government withdrew from Council space, they just kept up with business as usual. Many of them have a shared religion based on debate and argument over the meaning of the Pillars of Strength and the way to live an honorable life.

[1] Terminus languages - They exist, both with and without formal linguistic codexes available to ordinary citizens of Council space.

[1] Hierarchy basic - The common turian colonial language spoken in Hierarchy space. Nihlus was born outside turian space, so he had to learn it from his parents and from educational videos. While he has only a vague accent, certain words and phrases he uses come off as very strange to turians who were raised in Hierarchy space.

[1] Draughts - A popular ancient board game dating back to before the Romans. Pieces move by sliding on the board or jumping over each other to capture. I originally wanted to use river stones as a metaphor, but Nihlus at that age had never seen naturally flowing water. I figure everyone has a version of a capturing/marker/stones sort of game.

[1] Amma and appa - Batarian words for grandmother and grandfather. Nihlus is a bit of a ‘surprise’ baby for his parents. This nice older smuggler couple are longtime associates of the mercenary group and, while they have never done fighting themselves and have no children of their own, they are friends of his mother and father and are absolutely delighted to “adopt” him. He is their smol spikey grandson, they teach him to speak and act like a proper young batarian, and anyone who argues with them about how exactly he is related will end up on the wrong side of an airlock.

[1] Vatar - A canon planet in the Mass Effect universe with a cold and inhospitable environment, located a short relay hop away from Omega (“downtown”) in the Terminus Systems. Mercenary groups have outposts dug into the surface. I rolled with it. 

[1] Falx - The turian name of the mercenary group Nihlus is born into. A falx is both a Roman entrenching tool and also the most overhyped Dacian curved blade weapon you’ll see in ancient art and literature. In essence? The word has been used to refer to both weapons and farming tools for a very long time. The group is a batarian-lead mercenary company with a very long history of turian cooperation, which enjoys stable political ties to other such batarian splinter groups. Traders and smugglers often form the links between them. The batarian word for members of this same group translates as “harvesters” or “reapers.” HAHA. And you thought this was a no-Reapers AU…

[1] Truce customs - A batarian mercenary outpost thing. If you’re friendly and in mechanical distress, or if you have something to trade, it’s not unusual to head to a known group of mercenaries and ask for truce on tightbeam broadcast to get someone to meet you or actively flag your ship with their ident codes (aka: make you temporarily register in local space as belonging to their ‘fleet’). This is usually for medical essentials, emergency mechanical trouble, and also serves as an informal way for Terminus merchants and traders to make a living without having to worry about being boarded every time they deliver the groceries. It’s considered a grave breach of etiquette to violate truce terms and those who do are hunted down as examples to the rest. Truce terms make “ordinary life” possible for outposts that are otherwise on the edge of traveled space.

[1] Trade-cloth - A canon quarian cultural object. Mentioned in the the fandom wiki and probably part of a quarian codex somewhere. Intricately patterned cloth is common on the Migrant Fleet, but the personal cloths are seldom given to outsiders. Nihlus’s gift is one used in trade, but displays a pattern with more ‘friendly’ cultural connotations than something that would be sold and mass-produced in a shop. It was made special for him by his childhood quarian friends. It’s something that it would be appropriate for him to wear like a scarf on formal occasions when he’s dealing with quarians, or when he’s invited to quarian parties or festivals.

[1] Colony crescents / Falx sickles - Yeah there’s some repetition here, but it’s mostly to contrast the two. I HC that Nihlus’s base colony markings are already curved. “Sickles” are embellishments which add a cutting or combative edgeline in some places and very overt stylized weaponry to standard colony markings. They are additions or alterations that are unique to mercenary groups and may read as “flamboyant” or “aggressive” because they are noticeably different in appearance to Hierarchy turians. This is more or less on purpose, and is a bit on the taboo side. One does not wear these additions or draw their markings in these styles without genuinely belonging to one of these groups -- the patterns are not easy to reproduce correctly or in the right places, and they are generally a source of stigma in Hierarchy basic training.

[1] Sand-bath - How you clean a turian when water is scarce and everyone has to share it.

[2] Draw and fire from retention - The shooting-sports specific term for “shooting from the hip.” Kinda. This breakdown of a scene from Collateral, one of my all-time favorite Michael Mann films, will give you an idea. All of the referenced gun techniques are also more or less real, and lining up your body posture so that it helps with aiming and putting the rounds where you want them to go is a real thing.  Nihlus has a great deal of practice in shooting as self-defense and was training alongside professionals from a young age. Going to the range is one of his hobbies (but not mine, I’m lame and that’s loud).

[2] Triginta Petra - A canon Mass Effect world that is a dustball home to hardscrabble turian farmers. Kavala Kryik’s family were some of the first colonists and they’ve been scratching a living from the surface since she was nine years old. They are very proud of this fact, since it gave them opportunities they wouldn’t have had on their native Oma Ker (also a canon turian world).

[2] Laskaris - Nihlus’s mother’s original family name. Kavala Laskaris. While I don’t have any particular headcanon about whether or not turians do the whole ‘changing surname’ thing when they marry or pair off or whatever, Kavala really liked both the alliteration and the overall aesthetic. Joked with Inaros Kryik, her husband and Nihlus’s father, that she only married him for his pretty colony markings.

[2] Lupulin - Literally, hop acids and the essential oils that you get from ‘hoppy’ beer. A direct reference to hops (Humulus lupulus) and brewing, because why not? Actually is a mild sedative and produces a bit of a chemical high.

[2] Stiletto - A pistol from Haliat armory (turian weapons manufacturer).

[2] Blooded sickles - Worn only by mercenaries who are full / fighting members of Falx or their direct allies. Batarians have their own culturally-coded marks, some of which have been adopted and/or adapted by their turian members as embellishments to colony markings. I HC that newer “commercial” groups like the Blue Suns and Nyreen’s Talons, without a shared cultural background, are imitating this style of marking rather than the other way around. Merc-born turians with old-style batarian trade connections tend to recognize each other through these symbols, which are used most often outside of Council space (i.e. the Terminus Systems and the Attican Traverse).

[2] Pillars of Strength - Canon batarian religious artifact. I treat them as a text or a particular philosophy that values free will and independent action as the signifiers of ‘strength.’ While I don’t have a fleshed out or specific HC for what the ‘tenets’ are, I do know that slave implants are treated as anathema.

[3] Struthious - A reference to Earth ostriches. Some kind of chicken-like prey animal that turians like to cook and eat. Mostly because the thought of Nihlus running around like a chicken to entertain his sisters made me laugh.

[4] Cutter - Bigger than a personal clipper and better armed, with living space for a crew. They come in various sizes and are smaller than frigates.

[4] Cup of mourning - A turian funerary ritual. On Taetrus, performed with a distinctive form of dark ale. Different colony groups have different cultural traditions.

[4] Thalia, Tomyris, and Traian - Nihlus’s three turian siblings. Thalia and Tomyris are his younger twin sisters. Traian is the youngest and his baby brother. While they’re only hinted at in this fic, I do plan to make some references to them in the Air Needing Light arc at some point. There’s also a chance they’ll get their own short!fic appearances.

[4] Hierarchy military grants - A HC pool of money that the Council races put up to fund large-scale basic training for anyone (turian or another client race) completing compulsory citizen service.

[5] Talons and suns - Generic references to other symbols that are common incorporations for mercenary groups. I HC that these were adopted and color-coded by the Blue Suns and the Talons rather than conceptually created by them! 

[5] Fuck the cause, we’ll die for a drink! - Profane versions of the turian Hierarchy anthem are popular drinking songs among the merc-born. If it’s a patriotic and well-known song, you can pretty much guarantee turian mercenaries have parodied it.  Awkward for colony-born squadmates who find these renditions hilarious and catchy—but also a little horrifying.

[6] Optio Sideris, 85th Atrax Legion, Fifth Cohort Operations Section - A one-off turian Blackwatch OC I may bring back in another fic at some point because I ended up liking her. The Hierarchy military organization borrows from the HCs I use for the Air Needing Light AU: 85th Atrax Legion is a joint special forces organizing legion made up of six cohorts. The 5th Cohort is informally known as Blackwatch, while the “Operations Section” is a generic term used by intelligence operators. Optio is a mid-tier leadership rank.

[6] Batarian body language - Batarian language and manners are highly dependent on physical cues according to the Mass Effect canon. I took this one step further with a HC that Nihlus is essentially a native speaker of turian-adapted gestures that translate successfully into batarian social patterns. This physical vocabulary is most refined and most present in culturally batarian mercenary and trading groups with a strong history of turian association and recruitment. While older turians can learn and approximate the gestures, they are best learned and absorbed in childhood. Nihlus “speaks” a form of gestural batarian that places him as a native of the Terminus Systems.

[6] Interrogating batarian prisoners - No torture involved! Optio Sideris trains Nihlus in a more practical form of intelligence gathering that involves building rapport, establishing trust, and remaining consistent. Even pirates or smugglers who would not normally give information to a Hierarchy patrol flotilla can be convinced to—if not speak—occasionally offer hints about the locations and activity of slavers. Nihlus is notable for actually being conversant in traditional batarian moral interpretations of the Pillars of Strength, as well as being able to walk the fine cultural line between guarded respect and abject deference. 

[6] Merc Red - Nihlus’s batarian nickname among the patrol flotilla’s prisoners. A sign of individual respect, since it contains no profanity and is just blandly descriptive.

[7] Broken weapons - A traditional sign of thanks between two non-allied mercenary groups when one has agreed to truce terms. Mostly symbolic.

[7] Tattoos - The permanent marking method of choice when turians are full-grown and have developed a strong preference for the color and personal style of their colony markings. Nihlus decides on a complex ‘full-crest’ Taetran colony pattern embellished with Falx blood sickles. This is more or less him being loud and proud about both his colony origins and his mercenary background, as well as putting them on an even footing by tattooing the entire pattern: mercenary symbols and all.

[riveir]

wishlist plots & aus.

i’ve been meaning to do this for a while but because i’m a person that really strongly prefers plotted interactions and also runs into problems with actually getting those more developed things going, i figured compiling wishlist stuff and stuff that comes from my own brain might be helpful. i’ll keep this linked in the pinned post if anyone ever wants to draw from it for a starter call or whatever, and to also make it easier for me to find if plotting ever hits a road block.

peace corps. this would technically fall under the umbrella of one of river’s canon au verses, the one in which he lives but is in the less realistic scenario where he rejects his parents’ wishes and goes ahead and joins the peace corps. this could be a really good way to get muses from two different canons / universes / etc. to meet, because the organization brings all these people together into one group sent to work somewhere overseas. river works as an english education teacher, and where they’re working can be totally open. could be used as mentioned before, but also as sort of a stepping stone for river to start a life beyond the states / open up opportunities for him that will take him away from home, etc etc. just a fun way to take him out of his usual settings and throw him in a new place under new circumstances, whether your muse is in the corps with him or if they’re just in the same place and they meet under different circumstances.

political dynasty. rather than holding a high position with goldman sachs, river’s father has an influential political position ( like a diplomat or foreign ambassador, which could explain river living years of his life at least somewhat abroad ), something that would put the family under a microscope on a national scale. could be a very kennedy-esque thing where politics is sort of just like the family business and river would be expected to carry that mantle as well ( which, obviously, he doesn’t really want ). this could go a number of different directions because the barkleys would be considered high profile individuals: bodyguard stuff, danger stuff, etc. i’m open to anything here, this would just be the groundwork to set up some conflict that would be more specific to your muse and their circumstances, since this is pretty adaptable on river’s end. i’d also be willing to write river older than i usually would ( as a younger adult ), because i think being nationally known would change his circumstances a bit and yada yada i can elaborate on that more if anyone asks, if we wanted to go the route where river himself is the political figure, probably a junior congressman or something. he could pretty controversial, as mental health advocacy and gun control would probably be two of his biggest agendas / two of the most important components of his platform.

modern royalty. similar to the above, but rather than coming from a political family, river comes from a monarchical family. obviously not based in the united states but could open up similar plotting opportunities as listed above. for one example he could still be attending a traditional university, and could open up opportunities for your muse to be a classmate of his ( as a friend sure but maybe there’s some benefit your muse could gain from making friends with him or something shadier like that ), or maybe you’re super annoyed that he’s there because like who cares about the royal family and why does he get so much attention, or maybe your muse knows he hates the attention and it gets to a point where he actually has to be fearful about it and there’s some way your muse can help him out.

fake dating. this is a jam of mine always. river could have several reasons of his own to be in a fake relationship, and this could work especially well in another au like the political dynasty or modern royalty scenarios, but it could totally come more from your muse’s end as well. it could also be a thing where river’s parents are trying to set him up with your muse if that would make sense, because that’s a very wasp-y rich people thing to do. 

period aus. this one is super open but river could work really well for this type of thing, especially because his family is so old fashioned in a lot of ways and very traditional in how they expect their family to be and how they expect river to be and all that. also could work super well for this letter writing plot i have in my wishlist tag.

ghost!river. this would have to be plotted for sure because the way river’s “ghost” canonically manifests is as an extension of the other person; he exists to give them advice or as their moral compass/conscience or something like that. it can be different depending on the muse, but he manifests at their own will and serves some sort of purpose for them. he’s more of a guiding force of some sort rather than an actual ghost coming back to reveal new information or anything like that. he wouldn’t do anything that the other muse wouldn’t think he would do, and wouldn’t tell them anything they didn’t already know. the exception to his in river’s canon is when the protagonist has a near-death experience and sees river in the afterlife and they have an actual conversation as two separate entities, and that could definitely be something i’d be up for, too.

champagne problems. this song off of evermore has enormous river energy. from the genius description of the song: “’champagne problems’ tells the story of a woman who shocks her would-be fiancé and their loved ones by turning down a marriage proposal right before christmas ... the song depicts ‘longtime college sweethearts [who] had very different plans for the same night, one to end it and one who brought a ring.’ the song implies that the protagonist has a history of mental illness, which the town subsequently stigmatizes in their gossip surrounding the failed proposal.” river could be either of the people in the couple for obvious reasons ( either the wealthy person from the well-to-do family all expecting the proposal, or the person who breaks it off and is subsequently - or, maybe, already is - the subject of that gossip ). the circumstances of the breakup can vary depending on the specific relationship between the muses: maybe they were really in love and had a great relationship but the influential family just had too much influence and pressure, maybe the stigmatization and gossip was a bit too much, maybe neither of their hearts were really in it and it was just an advantageous thing that appeased the big family but the other person ultimately just decided they couldn’t go through with it. as i am with everything i’m totally open here. it also totally doesn’t have to match the exact circumstances and can just be based on the general idea. ( in the same vein, here’s a link to some cool folklore-based plots )

apocalyptic danger. or to be honest, any sort of scenario that creates a life or death (or near life or death) situation for one or both of our muses. in all honesty i just love raising the stakes.

musician or actor river. even though it’s not my favorite alternative path to explore for him to seriously pursue acting or music as a career, it could open up some potentially cool dynamics that i’d be down with. maybe river plays piano in a bar or restaurant or whatever at night during college and your muse loves open mic night. maybe they’re doing a show together in college or maybe even out of college if i think it would make sense that river could get to that point in life. maybe river’s actually achieving some level of success and has some degree of notoriety. idk this is just an option that could be cool if we develop it enough ( cause like i said, without that development and specificity to our muses i’m not as into this route for him specifically)

childhood best friends to lovers. ( or some variation ). self-explanatory, just my favorite trope. some wishlist stuff here.

wishlist post #1: “i just want a plot where it’s two rich kids who live in neighboring estates and their families always throw parties together and they have vacation homes in the same spots and their elite parents are too busy to notice when they sneak off to fuck in that second guest bathroom that no one uses or get high in the back library and makeout”

wishlist post #2: “give me a we broke up because i had to move away because of school and we knew we couldn’t do long distance but oh my god i’m home for christmas and you’re still beautiful and we’re wine drunk slow dancing to the sound of elf on the television and you smell like hot chocolate and i miss you so much please don’t let this end again plot !!!!!”

wishlist post #3: “someone give me “you live in the apartment across the hall and you’re so fucking hot but i get so awkward around you even though you act completely normal and i stutter every.time. you’re out of my league anyway but then one night my stupid roommate locks me out and i forget my key and you see me sitting the hallway so you invite me in. and obviously i say yes but holy crap what is happening” plot pretty pls”

wishlist post #4: “au where it's a blind date gone wrong/really awkward first time/two people who just get off on the wrong foot but keep on running into each other and then slowly fall for each other”

wishlist post #5: “give me best friends who harbor feelings for each other . they’ve acknowledged the feelings but they don’t do anything about it , because the friendship is too precious . and when one of them is finally ready to say “ fuck it, let’s take the risk ” , they see the other making out with another person”

i also always just want more college things and things in pre-established canon universe aus ( all linked in my pinned post, but including hogwarts, gossip girl, legacies, riverdale, etc ). i’m also always down for plotting ships.

[soft-october-night]

Hey Ren, you reblogged that post about AU comments not really being compliments. If that's how you feel, would you mind to elaborate? Because I honestly don't understand - to me, as someone who doesn't like AUs usually, that kind d of comment always felt like the biggest compliment I could pay a writer: there's something I usually don't enjoy (which has nothing to do with you or anyone) and your writing made me enjoy it, which is pretty amazing. how can that not be awesome for everyone involved?

Hey Anon!

I've thought a lot about how to answer your question, and it really helped me think through why exactly this type of comment makes me feel the way it does, so thank you so much for asking it!

I want to preface my answer with this: I wasn't bothered by this comment the first time or even the tenth time that I heard it. Initially, it did make me feel like me and my writing were special, that I was different, that something about my writing spoke to people, and that made me feel good.

But over time, and with the almost daily repetition of that sentiment, I have started to feel differently.

Let's first start out with what I know, and then go into how I feel.

1. Intention: I know 100% that everyone who has made this type of comment to any au writer has meant it as a compliment. No one wants to make me feel bad, in fact, it's the total opposite!

2. Personal preference: I absolutely don't expect everyone to like every fic, and I know if they liked my work enough to comment, then it spoke to them and made them feel good! I'm not here at all to discourage commenting on any way, I'm here to explain how a certain type of comment might make some writers feel.

But no matter what I might know in my head, it doesn't change the fact that these comments have started to make me feel a little bad, and I think that has to do with several factors.

1. Personal history: I am a lifelong gamer. I also identify as female, and anyone who has been those two things at the same time will tell you that the community isn't always decent to you. I have had more variations of "you're not like OTHER girl gamers" directed at me than I can possibly recall. The "I usually hate aus but yours is different" has started to have the same feeling for me, which brings me to point 2-

2. Identification with a group: I think whenever we identify with a group, we become more sensitive to comments about that group. The same way I felt that "you're not like other girl gamers" was putting down all of the women I knew who played games, I'm starting to feel like these comments are raising up my work and putting down the works of my friends and works that I enjoy reading. I'm an au writer, I have friends that are au writers, their works are incredible, and I enjoy reading aus. Getting a comment that prefaces it's enjoyment of my work with the caveat that what I enjoy is something the reader usually hates doesn't make me feel great. It makes me feel like I'm "lesser," somehow, that the works of my friends and the works I have enjoyed are worse, because my fic was the one that changed the reader's mind. (I hope this is making sense, if not please send me another Anon and I would be so happy to elaborate!)

3. Virulence: honestly, 90% of these comments don't bother me. But some are a bit more, shall we say, virulent in outlining how much they hate aus. Im sure it's meant as a joke, in the same vein as "how DARE you make me feel my own feelings," but whether it's because of my own personal sensitivities or the medium of text vs spoken word, it doesn't always feel that way.

4. Prevalence: like I said above, this didn't bother me the first or tenth time I heard it, but it's a comment I get very frequently, and it's a sentiment I see constantly. I don't think I've gone one day since GO dropped where I haven't seen something along the lines of "I hate aus/human aus/reverse" on this site or on ao3. And again, everyone is entitled to their own opinions and feelings about fics, but as someone who writes aus, hearing that all the time is starting to again, make me and my writing feel lesser After a while, you just get ground down, you know?

So I feel the way I do because of a multitude of factors. And again, I'm not here to police comments or make anyone feel bad for something they might have commented! This is just one writers take on a certain type of comment, and if it makes people be more mindful of what they say to other writers in the future, I will consider it a success.

I hope this answered your question Anon! Thank you again for asking it!

[cherp-official]

Directory Tagging 101

LAST UPDATED: 9/10/2020

Proper tagging in the directory has two purposes - first, it lets people who aren’t interested in your prompt blacklist it. Second, it lets people who would be interested in your prompt find you. Using variant tags or spelling things wrong hurts everybody, so be sure to use the correct tags.

Here are some general guidelines that we’ll follow with an example or two.

General

Don’t tag anything as “optional”, “maybe”, “possible”, “past”, or “mentioned” - tag it. In the case of the optional content, use the ‘Some Content Optional (Check OOC Notes)’ Misc checkbox and note in the OOC notes what’s optional. Don’t use different terms from what everyone else uses to try and circumvent blacklists. Use the warning checkboxes. If something is available as a checkbox in another section, it doesn’t also need to be a warning. Additionally, if you place something as a warning and it moves to misc, it is because it is not supposed to be in warnings - i.e. the warning tags are not for kinks.

Don’t write sentence tags - tags should be one or two words, three at max, and should be an easily explained concept. Please do not use conjunctions (and, but, or, etc) in any tags outside of fandoms that genuinely have these inclusions. If you need to add a conjunction, then the tag should be separated into individual tags.

Additionally, all fields should have at least one tag present. Failure to fill the Fandom and Character tags will automatically default to ‘No fandom’ and ‘Original Character’.

Warnings

As above, no “ish”, “maybe”, “potential”, “possible”, “mentions of”, “past”, “themes of”, or any variation of them. These should be just tagged as the appropriate warning, as anyone wanting to avoid them likely doesn’t want even the implication of them. Scenarios and AUs go in the misc tags, not as warnings. Things like “gay”, “m/m”, “smut”, etc. also don’t belong here. 

The checkboxes and box for custom warnings is only available if the prompt is put under NSFWE. If you need a warning, your prompt should automatically be NSFWE. Generally, warnings are for illegal or triggering content. Rule of thumb is that if you have to ask, it should be a warning. You can always double check with a mod.

For a breakdown of some of the standard warning tags:

Character Death – If someone dying is relevant to the post, it should be tagged with the death warning. If the death happens in the prompt, is planned to happen in the RP, or a major plot point which will be explored at length/in great depth, it is NSFWE.

Drugs / Alcohol – Due to its highly triggering nature (and the interactions it has with consent), drug and alcohol use are always NSFWE, and should be tagged as a warning.

Abuse – Due to its highly triggering nature, abuse (whether emotional, verbal, physical, etc) is always NSFWE, and should be tagged as a warning. Please do not tag variations of abuse. For example, Emotional Abuse, Verbal Abuse, and Domestic Violence are not valid warnings and all fall under the Abuse checkbox and should be explained in the OOC.

Filth/Unsanitary Themes - this is required for kinks mostly, but it is so that people can filter out this content. Content under this umbrella includes: watersports, scat, emetophilia, musk, etc. However, individual/specific topics under this umbrella should be tagged in Misc Tags.

Additionally, if your prompt is going to handle serious mental illness it needs to be tagged. Also, if you are going to handle suicidal ideation/thoughts/attempts/etc, it all needs to be tagged under the general tag of ‘Suicide’ and expanded on OOC so that people who do not want to see that content can easily blacklist it.

Other NSFWE Warning Checkboxes are elaborated upon in Directory Tagging 102.

Fandoms

Fandoms are tagged by their recognized western name. The tags we recognize are the title of the Wikipedia article regarding the work. Do not use acronyms or foreign language names (including Japanese). If there is no Wikipedia article, whatever it is titled on the largest source of fandom information, such as the dedicated wiki, is correct. If there is not a recognized (either localized or consensus-recognized) English name for a fandom, only then are you permitted to use its original-language name.

For cases in which no fandom is directly involved, such as a situation with original characters not made for a specific setting, the canonical tag is “No fandom”. If your character is interacting with the setting in question, however, you can tag it with that fandom. Please note that time periods, ‘original setting’ and genres (i.e. sci-fi, fantasy, historical, etc) are not valid fandom tags.

EXAMPLE: A person wants to play their OC interacting with characters from Homestuck. Their character is not native to the Homestuck setting, nor are they being put there. For Fandom, they would tag “No fandom”, and for Fandom Wanted, they would tag “Homestuck” as the characters they are looking for are native to that series.

EXAMPLE: As above, but the OC is playing a game of Sburb and thus meets John Egbert. They would tag Fandom as “Homestuck”, in this instance.

Additionally, for blacklisting and search purposes, you must tag parent franchises when making a prompt for a work that is part of a franchise. This follows the same naming conventions as the above regarding localization and titles.

EXAMPLE: A person is writing a prompt for Breath of the Wild. They would use two fandom tags – “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” as the game tag, and “The Legend of Zelda” as the parent tag (since that is the Wikipedia article for the series as a whole). This would be put in both “Fandom” and “Fandom Wanted”.

If you are willing to accept any fandom, the appropriate tag is “Any Fandom”, and if you are looking for crossovers between multiple fandoms, tag the involved fandoms in the Fandom field and “Crossover” in misc.

Character Tags

Characters are tagged by, as with fandoms, their recognized western name. The same rules apply for determining what is their “recognized western name”. Additionally, character names are always written in western order – personal name followed by family name. An important note is that any sort of “Series Qualifiers” on Wikipedia articles are ignored, since that is what the fandom tags are for.

When there is no information regarding canonical names or titles of a character, such as in the case of characters that the player names who have no recognized in-universe title, they are tagged as “Protagonist (Fandom)”.

Character modifiers, traits, and genders do not go in here. 

Do not use any sort of nicknaming system or way to describe aliases such as pipe notation.

The canonical tag for original characters is “Original Character”. Do not tag the name of your original character.

If you will accept any character, tag “Any Character”. For specific slices of character by gender, simply tag the correct genders – we do not accept, for example, “Any Girl” as a valid tag. Instead, you should tag Any Character and then tick the cis female, trans female, and feminine fantasy morphology boxes. Any other subsets should be specified within the OOC, such as “I will only accept Trolls!” or via characteristics by tagging Trolls. If you want only canon characters only, still use the “Any Character” tag but make sure to utilize the misc checkbox ‘OCs Not Accepted’.

EXAMPLE: A person wants to play the Persona 5 protagonist meeting with the Persona 3 protagonist. They would tag, respectively, “Joker (Persona 5)” and “Protagonist (Persona 3)” (since he lacks a canonical name and is titled by wikipedia “Protagonist”). All Persona protagonists have nonstandard tags - Protagonist (Persona 3), Female Protagonist (Persona 3 Portable), Protagonist (Persona 4), Joker (Persona 5), and Violet (Persona 5 Royal) are their respective tags.

EXAMPLE: A person wants to play Tracer from Overwatch. They tag “Tracer”, despite the character’s name being Lena Oxton.

EXAMPLE: A person wants to play Deku from My Hero Academia. A quick search to Wikipedia’s character page on the series lists him as “Izuku Midoriya”, so they tag that.

Gender Tags

At least one gender tag is to be used when posting. If you are willing to accept any gender, then please check all gender boxes. If you are playing a canonically male character as a female genderbend, then you would tag ‘Genderbend’ and ‘Cis Female’. Additionally, if you are roleplaying a genderbend, tag the character’s canon name. Fan genderbend names are not acceptable tags.

If you are willing to play a character as different possible gender identities - i.e. Trans Man and Cis Male - then tag both and clarify OOC.

Additionally, there have been new gender tags added which are the Fantasy Morphology tags. The Fantasy Morphology tags are for unrealistic or oversexualized/exaggerated physiology which is not naturally occurring. 

Example: So say you have a character that is sentient and identifies as female but maybe doesn't actually have any actual genitalia - like a doll - that would fall under Fantasy Morphology (Feminine). If they identified as male it would be Fantasy Morphology (Masculine). 

Note: Trolls with Nook + Bulge combo fall under Fantasy Morphology.

In regards to futanari - Futanari is to be denoted with the Fantasy Morphology (Feminine) tag with a characteristic tag of Futanari in conjunction. It is under absolutely no circumstances to be tagged as Trans Female or Intersex. Additionally, much like warnings - since this is something that many people actively want to blacklist, there should be no “ish”, “maybe”, “potential”, “possible”, or “optional” variations of the characteristic tag to allow people to blacklist the content properly.

Characteristics

This field is for all your modifiers and traits such as Alpha / Omega / Beta for A/B/O Dynamics, age, race/species, etc. 

Remember that characteristic tags should follow the general outline of tagging - tags should be one or two words, three at max, and should be an easily explained concept. Please do not use conjunctions (and, but, or, etc) in any tags outside of fandoms that genuinely have these inclusions. If you need to add a conjunction, then it should be separate tags.

Just as an idea, a list of tags that would be acceptable for characteristics are:

Demon, Tiefling, 18, Tall, Busty, Exotic Genitalia, Furry, Anthro, Top, Bottom, Versatile, Submissive, Dominant, Switch, Feral, Hybrid, Caregiver, Wife, Son, Father, Lusus, Nook, Bulge, Crossdresser, etc.

As you can see, there are plenty of uses for the characteristics tag, but it should be something easily relayed to your audience.

Misc Tags

Tag any miscellaneous information, including relevant kinks, specific AUs, and genre information here. Do not put character modifiers here, those are for the characteristics tag. Tag talk is still not accepted here.

Remember, A/B/O Dynamics is a misc tag and should go in this section as it is treated as a form of AU.

Other

There should be no use of tags as identifiers for blocking - i.e. Blacklist Tags / Block Tags. Now that blocking individual prompts has been put in place, these are no longer valid.

Reminder: Mods can and will wrangle or outright modify unnecessary/invalid tags either to a fitting tag or to a ‘nullify tag’ which will remove the tag from use. Additionally, there is no tolerance for the use of slurs as a tag and these will be nullified and your account will be noted for further infractions.

If you think that a tag has been incorrectly wrangled, please bring it to one of the mods’ attention to discuss the matter. If you see wrong tags, then report the prompt to a mod, which is most easily done by DMing a mod on discord.

[madmaudlingoes]

I was tagged by @yaboyspodcastpalace​

Author Name:

Mad Maudlin (or Mad_Maudlin, or some variation thereof).

Fandoms You Write For:

At the moment? It’s all-MAG, all the time (with a tiny side brain devoted to the Daredevil/Chronicles of Darkness crossover of doom).

Where You Post:

AO3, with side announcements here and on twitter.

Most Popular Oneshot:

A Study in Natural Philosophy, a BBC Merlin daemon AU written during the very brief time I was in that fandom.

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story:

Tongues of Men and Angels, a Stargate: Atlantis McShep AU I wrote for NaNoWriMo one year.

Favourite Story You Wrote:

Listen. Listen. I have 223 works on AO3. I have been writing fic since 2002. Let’s just stick to one-ish per fandom.

Once and Future, a Merlin/Torchwood crossover with additional references to Sanctuary and the rest of the Whoniverse. At some point this was going to be a whole Thing, with more elaborate crossovers and the Wandering Jew, but I fell out of love with most of the fandoms involved and at this point I can’t even decrypt my old notes. Something about “murder rehab” and Dropkick Murpheys lyrics.

Care and Feeding -- Harry Potter, my contribution to the grand traditions of super fucked up porn in that fandom.

Ghost Story, a Torchwood fix-it fic that nobody reads because it’s weird and long and in the first person a lot. But I loved writing it, and I think @marginaliana loved reading it, so who’s the real winner here?

The Story Needed Mending, Sanctuary, because I love Kate Freelander and I love Ashley Magnus and I just think they should be in lesbians, okay?

Apotheosis, BBC Sherlock, which, look. This fandom was massively important to men during my first couple years of grad school. I know how it ended, and I know it’s a punchline on Tumblr these days, but I found a lot to like in the first season, and this is probably still my favorite Sherlock fic of my own.

Dear John (WIP Remix), which I’m linking to the plain text form, because Photobucket took the images hostage. ::sigh:: I always enjoyed the Remix Redux, and this is probably my favorite remix fic I’ve done, going way beyond the original text but staying in the same spirit. Also I got to pour ketchup on it and devised cursive forms of the Pegasus gate symbols.

Frequently Asked Question, a comics!Hawkeye fic based off that one post about the lady with meningitis who lost all short-term memory. One of the few Marvel fics I ever wrote, based of the Fraction/Aja/Wu Hawkeye and the Kot/Walsh Secret Avengers.

The Stars My Destination, SGA in a Star Trek AU. This fic took two years to write and I was super burned out by the end of it, but it’s also got some passages I’m really proud of.

All You Holy Men and Women, Daredevil, because I think I really nailed the characters here.

The Minotaur and Other Poems, TMA. Which is funny because I was really, really unsatisfied with it when I posted it, but once I had a couple of months of distance I realized that it really achieved everything I was trying for?

Story You Were Nervous to Post:

Pretty much any “first in the fandom” story. Particularly “november in this house of leaves” and “Heave Cannot Hold Him, Nor Earth Sustain” since those were both preceded by multi-year writing breaks/mental health disasters.

How Do You Pick Your Titles:

Statistically speaking, most of them come from “Lullabye” by W. H. Auden.

Do You Outline:

Not formally -- it tends to kill my enjoyment of the story. If I outline at all, it’s very general. The good news is that I can hold a pretty complex storyline in my head without much trouble; the bad news is that, if i don’t finish the story quickly enough, it goes “poof” along with all my other memories. There are a loooot of abandoned wips in my writing folder, is what I’m saying...

How Many of Your Stories are complete:

...which is why I almost never post anything until I’m done with it. Even “Take Care of You (And I’ll Take Care of Me)” was almost done, I was just impatient for kudos and struggling to write out that last conversation.

There are a few unfinished tidbits float around various kink memes, but on the whole, I only post complete stuff. That was only I know how much I’ve abandoned. 

In-Progress/Coming Soon:

There’s a Basira-centric fic I’m stalled on which might be perma-WIP territory, and because MAG canon is hurtling into a pit of despair, I’ve been working on a ridiculous AU in which Jon is a literal cat and nobody dies or gets mutilated. (Well, “working” -- grading is hard, y’all.) And there’s a Little Mermaid AU still in the very early stages, but that one’s got an outline so I can come and go without losing the thread.

Do You Accept Prompts:

No, sorry.

Upcoming Story You’re the Most Excited For:

Jon Is A Cat And Nothing Hurts.

Tag Five Fanfic Authors to Answer These Questions

Tag anarchy! Do the quiz if you want to!

[thelastspeecher]

Hi, with mother's day just around the corner, how are Angie's mother's days? Is it a casual thing or a big deal? Any special outings or crazy surprises? With so many AUs Angie is in there might be some variety.

It’s a casual thing.  Angie doesn’t like to make a big deal out of it, because her ma never made a big deal out of it.  No, making a big deal out of it was her pa’s job.  And similarly, making a big deal of mother’s day falls to Angie’s significant others.  But her significant others also recognize she doesn’t like a whole big thing, so settle for having the kids serve her breakfast in bed and having Angie suggest a couple low-key activities for them to do, like go for a walk in the woods so Angie can ramble about salamanders.

There’s bound to be some variations among AUs, for sure.  But since I have so many AUs, without being prompted for specific ones, it’s a bit difficult for me to come up with examples.  I do have a couple in mind, though.

The first variation that came to mind was the Reverse Portal Stanley McGucket AU.  Because Lute doesn’t follow Stan’s lead in having mother’s day be low-key.  He insists on going all out for Angie, every single year.  Well, every single year except for the year after Emily and Emmett are born.  Emily and Emmett were about three months old during their first mother’s day, and Lute decided to have a big to-do to celebrate.  But Angie was still dealing with post-partum depression and all of her other issues that resulted from her husband disappearing while she was comatose and then having a difficult pregnancy.  So she just burst into tears the second Lute revealed the shindig he had thrown together for her.  Lute backed off for the next year, since Angie was still very sensitive and prone to crying during specific circumstances, but she was more comfortable to the idea of a big thing once Emily and Emmett were two.  Lute felt awful, he just wanted to cheer Angie up, and he only made her sadder by inadvertently reminding her that her husband was gone.

In the MerGucket AU, Stan surprises Angie by recruiting the kids to do things for her and waiting on her hand and....uh, fin.  She asks him what exactly is going on, and Stan’s like “it’s mother’s day?”  And Angie’s like “what is that”, because the mers don’t have mother’s day.  Stan explains it to her, and while she finds the concept interesting, she tells him he doesn’t need to do it for her, she’s fine without it.  All she wants is to spend time with her mate and guppies.  Pa Guck, tho, when he finds out he hasn’t been spoiling his mate on an annual holiday for that purpose, goes over the top and showers Ma Guck with presents and attention.  Ma Guck playfully scolds Stan for telling her mate about mother’s day.  She kept it a secret for a reason.  She knew he’d go nuts over it.

In the Stansort AU (and its variations, such as King Stansort), because they’re royalty and have to keep up appearances, Stan takes Angie and the babs out and about for some fun activities on mother’s day.  I don’t know why, but my first thought was “they ride HORSES” so I’m gonna say that it becomes a tradition for them to go horseback riding on mother’s day.  And then they go to a restaurant for brunch.  They have to dress up and pose for some pictures from the press, but they have a good time.  And then once they get home from brunch, the REAL mother’s day starts.  They all put on comfy clothes (instead of the fancy stuff they were wearing) and go garden or hike, and then laze around in the evening and watch Angie’s favorite TV show while eating kettle corn (her favorite kind of popcorn).

As for like, crazy surprises, I’d imagine in the Angiewolf and Werepire AUs, there’s some sort of big drama that goes down on mother’s day, every year, without fail.  Not sure what kind or why, but it gets to the point that Angie and Stan joke they should just stay home to avoid any more chaos.  And then when they stay home, some sort of supernatural critter shows up to harass them at home.  I don’t know why I get that feeling for those AUs, I just do.

Anyways, those are the things I thought of off the top of my head.  If there’s a specific AU you’d like me to elaborate on how it would go down differently, let me know!  This was a really fun ask, thank you!

[nefertiti22002blog]

Fanfiction writer asks

@criminal-minds-fanfiction​ sent out an epic set of 50 questions under this title. (Thank you!) It took awhile, but these were excellent questions, and I enjoyed answering them. (I just reblogged them without answers, in case any of you want to have a go.)

I don’t expect many will want to read all 50 answers, but people who have recently started following me might be interested in the fics I write in the Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell fandom (and even those I used to write in the Lord of the Rings fandom).

Fanfiction Writer Asks

Most of the writer ask posts I come across are only like ten or so questions long so I thought I’d try to make a longer one because we like talking about our writing! Feel free to reblog!

1) How old were you when you first starting writing fanfiction?

52, still going at 68

2) What fandoms do you write for and do you have a particular favourite if you write for more than one?

Started out in The Lord of the Rings, writing Gandalf slash. (My fics are available on my old website, “Meddling in the Affairs of Wizards.” Haven’t had time to add them to AO3 yet.) After a seven-year pause, got started again by the Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell tv series, after having been a fan of the book for seven years. (Those fics are all on AO3.)

3) Do you prefer writing OC’s or reader inserts? Explain your answer.

I have written OCs, but only if they fit into canon, which I try to stick to as much as possible in most cases. (I had to look up “reader inserts.” Never done one.)

4) What is your favourite genre to write for?

Given my two fandoms, it must be fantasy.

5) If you had to choose a favourite out of all of your multi chaptered stories, which would it be and why?

I suppose it would be “From the Ashes a Fire,” a Gandalf/Aragorn romance. I tried to pair Gandalf with as many different guys from the novel as possible, but Aragorn always seemed to most logical lover for the wizard. I think most of my fics up to that point had been practice for that one.

6) If you had to delete one of your stories and never speak of it again, which would it be and why?

“Service at the Prancing Pony,” which pairs Gandalf and Bob. (Yes, there is a Bob in LOTR.) It was only my second fic, and it’s pretty trivial.

7) When is your preferred time to write?

Evening.

8) Where do you take your inspiration from?

The challenge of figuring out a fic with explicit content (usually) and keep it true to the original source novel.

9) In your xxx fic, what’s your favourite scene that you wrote?

“Thrice Returned” is a multi-chapter novel pairing Gandalf and Frodo. My favorite scene is when Frodo wakes up in Ithilien after the Ring is destroyed and discovers that Gandalf is alive. I always felt that Tolkien should have shown that scene, but he skips over it. Of course, my version is more romantic, which is partly why I like it.

10) In your xxx fic, why did you decide to end it like that? Did you have an alternative ending in mind?

I don’t recall ever having an alternative ending for a fic in mind. My funniest ending, I think, is in “Mr Norrell’s Breeches.” I had no idea how I was going to end it, and inspiration struck just as I got to the ending. (Usually I know how the story will end, sometimes down to the last exchange of dialogue.)

11) Have you ever amended a story due to criticisms you’ve received after posting it?

Yes. In Chapter 8 of “Two Masters in the Darkness” Norrell and Strange summon the new King of Lost-hope (to call it by its old name). I referred to the King as King Stephen, but as one reader pointed out, he wasn’t using that name after the death of the gentleman with the thistle-down hair. I amended the story to be more consistent with that premise.

12) Who is your favourite character to write for? Why?

It was Gandalf for six years, until I ran out of inspiration. (I just COULD NOT find a way to pair him with Sam.) Since I started writing JS&MN, it has been Mr Norrell. Although I write book-canon, I imagine my Mr Norrell as he is played by Eddie Marsan, who brings such warmth and empathy (and cuteness!) to the role, despite the fact that the screenwriter made him such an inconsistent character. (If he can do the fantastic York Minster magic, why can he not do sea beacons? And so on and on.)

13) Who is your least favourite character to write for? Why?

Generally I don’t write for characters I don’t enjoy. Lady Pole was the hardest; I only did her once.

14) How did you come up with the title for the xxx? - You can ask about multiple stories.

Often I do variations on quotations from the book. My favorite title of my own is “One Spell not to discover what My Friend Is doing Presently,” where Mr Strange speaks harshly to Mr Norrell, who casts a spell to make them invisible to each other. I loved writing the farce that resulted.

15) If you write OC’s, how do you decide on their names?

I generally do a search for Regency-era names, as with the Misses Whitworth and Bastable in “Mr Norrell, ladies’ man.”

16) How did you come up with the idea for xxx?

Often I rely on prompts, but I came up with the idea for “Stark Staring” on my own. It started with a simple premise, that Mr Norrell would get a little tipsy and cast a spell that would allow him (but no one else) to see Mr Strange unclothed. I thought it a pretty feeble idea, but it worked out very well.

17) Post a line from a WIP that you’re working on.

From a fic with the premise that Mr Norrell is (of course) secretly in love with Mr Strange and highly distracted by his pupil’s habit of pursing his lips when he is concentrating on his work. He inadvertently lets slip some indications of his desire when the two are close together looking for a book in the library: “Mr Strange had not failed to notice the man’s gaze directed at his mouth and the faint whimper and the subsequent slight confusion and the heavy breathing and the mere pretense of examining the books when instead Mr Norrell was staring into space and blushing furiously.”

18) Do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them?

Nothing that I carried on beyond a few paragraphs. Just couldn’t find the inspiration to go on.

19) Are there any stories that you’ve written that you’d really love to do a sequel to?

I would love to continue my “Jonathan Strange ♥ Mr Norrell” series by taking the two magicians on one of the adventures that are only hinted at at the very end of the novel. I’ve gone so far as to set them up as planning to go to Egypt, but I have not had the time to do the necessary research to figure out a plausible evil spell for them to save someone from. Maybe someday, but I doubt it.

20) Are there any stories that you wished you’d ended differently?

No.

21) Tell me about another writer(s) who you admire? What is it about them that you admire?

I am very fond of the JS&MN fics by Predatrix. She also writes Norrell, pairing him with Childermass most often but also with Strange. She sticks less to book-canon than I do, but she has a great imagination when it comes to thinking up magic for the characters to do. I have not got that talent and usually derive the magic, when necessary, from Clarke’s book.

22) Do you have a story that you look back on and cringe when you reread it?

Not really.

23) Do you prefer listening to music when you’re writing or do you need silence?

Either way. As long as I’m not listening to vocal music with English lyrics, I don’t get distracted.

24) How do you feel about writing smutty scenes?

Love ‘em, though I have written so many by now, and for the same characters, that I kind of dread them.

25) Have you ever cried whilst writing a story?

Yes. At the parting (inevitable) of Gandalf and Aragorn at the end of “From the Ashes a Fire” and at the letter Childermass writes to Norrell in Chapter 9, the end of “Two Masters in the Darkness,” after he has been separated from Norrel by the Darkness. Even though my main pairing if Norrell/Strange, I loved writing the relationship between Childermass and Norrell in “Master and Man” and its consequences in “Two Master in the Darkness.”

26) Which part of your xxx fic was the hardest to write?

I did an AU version of “Thrice Returned” (the Gandalf/Frodo epic) where instead of being killed by the Balrog, Gandalf survived and went with Frodo and Sam (and Gollum) to Mordor. Figuring out what effects that would have on the rest of the book’s plot was a killer, but I struggled through it and came up with something that someone manages to be sort of book-canon and yet AU at the same time.

27) Do you make a general outline for your stories or do you just go with the flow?

Sometimes I do an outline for the multi-chapter fics. Not for the one-offs. In doing “Jonathan Strange ♥ Mr Norrell,” I had to do an elaborate chart with a chronology of all the things that happened to the two in the Darkness, since I wanted it to be absolute book-canon despite involving events in the final chapter that Clarke barely hints at. The chronology (when was Norrell born? 1765 in my head-canon) is the hardest part, since Clarke is so clear about hers.

28) What is something you wished you’d known before you started posting fanfiction?

More of the conventions. I just saw a prompt on Library of Moria requesting a Gandalf/Pippin fic, as if it would be something hard! I saw how to do it right away and just launched in.

29) Do you have a story that you feel doesn’t get as much love as you’d like?

I think “The Toasts of Venice,” a sequel to “Jonathan Strange ♥ Mr Norrell” that takes the two magicians to Venice immediately after the last scene in the book, is pretty darn good, but for some reason it got far fewer hits (averaging by chapter) than the original. It has an amusing scene of Strange trying to get Norrell to be a bit less shy about going out of Hurtfew by taking him to a sweets shop.

30) In contrast to 29 is there a story which gets lots of love which you kinda eye roll at?

I’m rather surprised that “A Book with a Strange Spell upon It” gets more hits than most of my other one-offs, some of which I think are better. But it’s a good story, so the disparity if not odd enough to make me roll my eyes, even a little.

31) Send me a fic recommendation and I’ll post it for my followers to see! (The asker is to send the rec not the answerer)

Having plugged Predatrix’s work already, I’ll say “The Perils of Being a Virgin in Faerie (Together with a Solution Thereto)” by Nothingshire. An excellent premise—that Mr Norrell’s virginity makes him an attractive kidnapping target for Fairies—with delightful humor and genuine affection between the two magicians.

32) Are any of your characters based on real people?

Not apart from the ones in JS&MN that Clarke based on real people.

33) What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten?

So hard to pick, but I really appreciated one I got for my series “Jonathan Stolen & Mr Norrell.” The premise is that after a few years in the Darkness, Jonathan attracts the attention of a beautiful lady fairy who kidnaps him, and Mr Norrell has to get up the courage to rescue him. I was a bit trepidatious about writing a Fairy character, especially given my lack of imagination when it comes to writing magic. But I gave it a try, and one reader made me confident that I had succeeded: “I love Lady Turn-of-Tide! You've pinned down the character of Clarke's fairies exactly: capricious, self-centred, vain, generous and cruel all at once, and utterly incapable of seeing humans as anything but cute playthings. As Strange says, she's a good sort (for a fairy), but I know I wouldn't want to meet her! She was a lot of fun to read about, though.” Yay!

34) What’s the harshest criticism you’ve gotten?

There was a troll on tumblr who was lambasting those of us who write really explicit stuff about JS&MN characters. She or he was denouncing a group of us (specifically by our pseudonyms) for ruining Mr Norrell and the others. As if anyone was forcing her/him to read the stuff! Fortunately the fandom sprang to our defense, and I actually got more hits than usual on my latest Norrell fic, “Stark Staring.”

35) Do you share your story ideas with anyone else or do you keep them close to your chest?

I’ve run some stories past Predatrix and even collaborated with her, and I’ve done that with past betas.

36) Can you give us a spoiler for one of your WIP’s?

I only have one, which I quoted above. It is based on a prompt that requests that Norrell be the top in the sex scene, for a change. That goes against my head-canon, but I shall do my best.

37) What’s the funniest story you’ve written?

Hard to choose, but I guess I would say “The Epic Battle over Mr Norrell,” where Childermass and Lascelles both want Norrell sexually, for different reasons, and they decide to have a contest demonstrating their various skills for a delighted but increasingly frustrated Mr Norrell (since of course they have to start over at each stage of the contest without him coming). Guess who wins!

38) If you could collab with any other writer on here, who would it be? (Perhaps this question will inspire some collabs!) If you’re shy, don’t tag the blog, just name it.

I’ve collaborated with Predatrix, but the sort of stuff we write requires very similar tastes, and I doubt I would find anyone else.

39) Do you prefer first, second or third person?

Definitely third, though I have done some first person in letters within the fics.

40) Do people know you write fanfiction?

Only people online.

41) What’s your favourite minor character you’ve written?

I don’t know whether he counts as minor, but I have built up Mr Norrell’s servant Lucas into a fairly major figure in my “Jonathan Strange ♥ Mr Norrell” fics. He agrees to return to Hurtfew, even in the Darkness (as do some other servants), and he works his way up to essentially replacing Childermass as Norrell and Strange’s Man of Business. I quite like him as a character.

42) Song fic - What made you decide to use the song xxx for xxx.

I’ve never done one.

43) Has anyone ever guessed the plot twist of one of your fics before you posted it?

Not that I know of.

44) What is the last line you wrote?

I added this to the WIP quoted above, in 17: “The exchange of Jeremy’s Tott’s little monograph, ENGLISH MAGIC, for its mirror had been a thrilling revelation that there was a second genuine practical magician in England.”

45) What spurs you on during the writing process?

Like Tolkien, I write what I would like to read. I am a professional writer and love dealing with the English language. It’s fun, and I love reading the results.

46) I really loved your xxx fic. If you were ever to do a sequel, what do you think might happen in it?

See number 19.

47) Here’s a fic title - insert a made up title. What would this story be about?

I fear I cannot come up with a title before starting to write the fic.

48) What’s your favourite trope to write?

Basically my Norrell/Strange fics are based around the idea that Norrell, who in the book is so boring and dry and selfish, becomes a different person when he’s with Strange. More lively, talkative, and even passionate. That makes writing about these two when they’re finally reunited in the Darkness is such fun. Norrell is transformed into a fascinating character.

49) Can you remember the first fic you read? What was it about?

It was called “No Windows,” and it was a LOTR AU in which Gandalf seizes the Ring because he loves Frodo and wants to spare him the agony of carrying the Ring—and naturally he’s corrupted by it. It was a terrific story, but unfortunately the author apparently withdrew from the fandom and deleted the fic. I was lucky to have started with such an excellent fic, since it made me go on and read more and then start writing.

50) If you could write only angst, fluff or smut for the rest of your writing life, which would it be and why?

I would say smut, since virtually all of what I’ve written has included very explicit scenes. But I’ve also enjoyed working out the other scenes and making them book-canon. I think I would choose fluff if I could only do one, since I enjoy writing comedy and farce.

[toraonice]

@accioharo​

Okay I debated I replying to this for a bit, but… here goes.

First and foremost I greatly appreciate all of your translation work for the fandom and I have for months.

That being said, I find the last paragraph of this necessary and also unfair. To accuse the other translators of ‘mistranslating’ the line when you outright admit that akashi can legitimately be translated as proof is a bit much, don’t you think? I get that you believe your translation is more correct, but as I’m sure you and the other translators are aware, language is not something all translators are going to unanimously agree on. Other translators work hard on their work, and essentially, saying that they’re mistranslating to forward a fanon agenda is unnecessary and uncalled for, in my opinion. There’s nothing to support that especially since even you’ve acknowledged their word choice is not incorrect.

Accusing their work of being fanon (especially when Victuuri, which is canon, is not remotely fanon) and yours of being canon is a further dig, I feel.

Regarding the destined from a previous life thing, I think most of fandom is not serious about that. When people are making comments about their soulmate AUs being canon, they’re well aware that Kubo is not literally saying “your fanfiction where Victor and Yuuri can’t see color until they meet their soulmate aka each other is now canon”. They’re just having fun.

We know what she actually means by soulmate.  It’s still a HUGE DEAL. And yes, there is a sense of destiny to the word soulmate, in both languages, even if it’s not on some ‘cosmic’ level, a certain ‘meant to be’, and that’s powerful. And yeah, that’s making fandom very excited and I think… there’s not really a need to sort of rain on that? People know their AUs aren’t really suddenly canon.

It’s not as if your translation of the line makes it much less shippy anyway.

Lastly the ‘Japanese word for soulmate’? I was under the impression, unless she uses it at another point in the article, that she doesn’t use a Japanese word anyway, but instead the katakana ソウルメイト (sorumeito/soulmate).

Hello! Thank you for your message and for voicing your opinion in what I think is the normal way when discussing about something. I will take this occasion to make one final last post about this whole matter to try and address what apparently wasn’t clear in my other posts. I will also explain in detail why I wrote that in my opinion “proof” is not a correct translation. It’s a bit long because I don’t want to come back to this topic again, so I’m trying to make sure that I’m covering everything that could help clarifying my point.

1) Regarding my opinion of other translations. I have only clearly referred to one translation I saw for this line. It seems that there is more than one translation going around but I haven’t seen them so I cannot say anything about them (well if they say “proof” too my opinion will be the same though). Except for that, I spoke in general because in quite a few instances I have seen people translate single lines or tidbits from interviews using a kind of wording that was clearly meant to make them sound “more shippy” than what they were. Of course if you ask 10 people to translate the same line they will likely interpret it and translate it in 10 different ways, because that’s how translations are, and they might even all be correct. I cannot state that “my translations are better than others”, but if I see another translation of the same text I can say which one I think is more correct. And I can explain why of course, I’m not just going to think that mine is better because it’s mine... (And if I find my translation to be the wrong one I am ready to admit it)

2) Regarding the soulmates thing. I actually really liked that she made the comparison with “soulmates”, I just had mixed feelings when I saw some people interpret it like in “soulmates” fan fictions (as in “predestined” etc etc), and it didn’t even sound like they were joking... Also, you say that “we know what she actually means by soulmate”, but in fact we don’t. It’s not possible to guess what she means exactly with “soulmates” just from that line, and I really hope she will elaborate more on that in future interviews because that is something I’d be very interested to know. My interpretation is based on how the sentence was worded and on what she and other people said about their bond in various interviews. Also, I cannot say that my translations are “canon”, because I’m not inside the creators’ minds, but I am striving to be as unbiased as possible and only translate what is actually written, without letting my personal feelings and/or preferences affect the translation.

What I meant when I said that "sourumeito” is Japanese I already explained in another note. As there is no native Japanese word, the Japanese word for “soulmate” (as in “the word you would use to refer to it when speaking Japanese”) is “sourumeito”, so it’s not like she was “using English”. She was using the “Japanese word for soulmate”, which just happens to be "imported” from English like many other modern Japanese words (some of which even sound like English but aren’t, like “coin locker”, “skinship” etc).

3) Regarding 証 (akashi) First of all, I did list various meanings for this word, but I meant to say that, depending on the context, it can have different meanings, not that “in all cases you can use any of those words to translate it”. When you say “hard stone” and “hard exercise” it’s both “hard”, but if you translate it into another language in many cases you will need to use different terms because the meaning is different. Here we have 2 variations: “proof that they are soulmates” or “symbol meaning that they are like soulmates” Proof (quoting the dictionary) = evidence or argument establishing or helping to establish a fact or the truth of a statement. If she said that “the ring is the evidence that they are soulmates” it would sound to me like she is trying to reply to someone questioning whether they are soulmates or not, or continuing a previously started discussion on the topic, but since this topic was never raised in YOI (and the word “soulmates” itself was never even brought up until know) it doesn’t really make sense that she would suddenly say something like that when it’s not even connected to the sentence before this one. The word 証 “akashi” would be commonly used in a context like, for example, a person giving a present to an important friend and telling them これは私達の友情の証 (kore wa watashitachi no yuujou no akashi), that would be translated as “this is the symbol of our friendship”, not as “this is the proof of our friendship”, because it’s not like the person is trying to prove something. The term ソウルメイトの証 (“soulmate no akashi”) really sounds a lot like this kind of context, when there is a physical object that is meant to represent something (a bond) between two people. Also considering how the scene was played out in the anime, I think it’s fitting to say that “the ring also means to symbolize that they are like soulmates”. I actually had originally thought about “token” too, which also reminds me of what Toyonaga said about this scene in one interview I translated some time ago (it can be found here). I think his interpretation of the scene makes sense. However, he isn’t one of the creators, and that is his personal interpretation, so unless he asked Kubo and she said “you got it right” we cannot take it as “canon”. One reason I didn’t use “token” is that I couldn’t find a way to make a nice sentence with it and anyway I thought “symbol” would better convey the idea.

If after reading this explanation someone still thinks that “proof” is more fitting, well, we can agree to disagree. As you also said, it’s not like my translation doesn’t sound “shippy” anyway.

Finally, this is not just related to this interview, and it’s a message for everyone reading: If anyone believes that I translated something wrong, they are of course free to message me about it. If I think I’m not wrong I will explain why, like I did above. If people message me just vaguely saying “you are downplaying Victuuri” without providing a concrete example (like mentioning exactly which line they are referring to, and also possibly what is supposed to be the correct version) I don’t even know how to reply because I seriously have no clue what they’re talking about.

Thank you again for your message, which I think provided a chance to better explain a few things about this matter. This is most likely the last time I say something about this because I’ve said all I could and also I think it’s better that I use my time to translate more interviews (since there’s still a lot out there waiting to be translated). If anyone has questions about other parts of the interview feel free to ask of course.