#seventeen fanworks

[nervouscitytmblr]

Hedonistic

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Trans Male Character, FTM Yoon Jeonghan, Trans Yoon Jeonghan, Bottom Yoon Jeonghan, Top HHU, Alternate Universe - College/University, College, Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher, Teacher-Student Relationship, Alternate Universe - Fraternity, frat boys hhu, Glory Hole, Platonic Sex, Casual Sex, Vaginal Sex, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Objectification, heavy objectification, Degradation, degradation kink, Praise Kink, Barebacking, au where STDs dont exist, Rough Sex, Gangbang, Fivesome - M/M/M/M/M, Blow Jobs, Hand Jobs, Cunnilingus, Multiple Orgasms, Age Difference, Aged-Down Character(s), Aged-Up Character(s), Riding, Missionary Position, Doggy Style, Double Penetration, Double Penetration in Two Holes, Come Eating, Come Swallowing, Come Sharing, Snowballing, Hair-pulling, Aftercare, Begging, spit

[svsss-fanon-exposed]

Exposing SVSSS Fanon: 16/∞

LUO BINGHE HAS A "STEREOTYPICALLY MASCULINE" APPEARANCE

Rating: FANON - CONFLICTING

In fanworks, Luo Binghe is often portrayed as particularly muscular and buff, broad-shouldered, often with tanned skin and sharply-defined features-- all traits that are considered to be stereotypically masculine in the west.

All of this directly contradicts his canonical description.

Necessary disclaimer: I'm not talking against depicting Luo Binghe with a naturally darker skin tone. While that still contradicts the canonical description, I can understand going against colorism (something very rampant in east asian beauty standards!) in fanworks. This sort of discussion is particularly toward those who portray him as fair-skinned on Qing Jing Peak, darker skinned after the abyss, hence "tanned." While this sort of thing might have issues of its own, that's also not the topic of this post, and as a light-skinned Asian person, I don't feel particularly qualified to talk about it.

In truth, deep down, Bing-ge’s fair and clean pretty-boy type didn’t really suit the tastes of “Great Master” Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky.... The art of growing stallions was grounded in science, and the research was clear: women preferred men who looked cultured, pretty, and even a bit soft and feminine. (7 Seas, Ch. 26)

The buff and bulky Luo Binghe often seen in fanworks is not what I would consider to be cultured, pretty, soft, and feminine.

Luo Binghe is described this way just before the conference:

A seventeen-year-old youth, slim and tall and graceful, dressed in white robes, lips turned upward in the hint of a smile, gazed at him with a pair of shining eyes. (7 Seas, Ch. 4)

And again after his return:

The other party was a little taller than [Shen Qingqiu], slender and willowy, dressed in clothes as black as ink that exposed only a fair neck.  (7 Seas, Ch. 7)

And a description of his hands later on:

That hand was slender and unadorned. It didn’t look like the hand of a young lord of the demon race who had already taken countless lives, but rather one whose master had been born to pluck strings, his hand to burn incense and bathe in snow. (7 Seas, Ch. 14)

Consistantly, Luo Binghe is depicted this way-- slender and refined, with fair skin and a softness to his appearance that contradicts his actions.

Furthermore, Luo Binghe is also described as looking very similar to his mother:

Luo Binghe was beautiful, and he looked quite like his birth mother. (7 Seas, Ch. 4)

and

Yue Qingyuan’s knuckles slowly brushed along Xuan Su’s hilt. “I was able to meet Senior Su Xiyan once at an Immortal Alliance Conference, many years ago. Luo Binghe’s appearance is seven-tenths identical to his mother’s.  (7 Seas, Ch. 18)

As for Su Xiyan's appearance, not much is directly stated-- it can be inferred that she likewise looked quite similar to Luo Binghe, but the only description of her physical appearance that we have is found here:

Even if she wasn’t burly and heavyset, she should at least look like a martial arts master with fierce and ferocious eyes. For all that, when he finally met the culprit behind Tianlang-Jun’s bout of philosophical soul-searching, which had tormented Zhuzhi-Lang for many days, he realized that the culprit in question was not quite like what he’d envisioned... ... Just as these two tourists were standing penniless in the street, a tall woman dressed in black strolled by, sword on her back. (7 Seas, Ch. 25)

The only positive descriptor here is that she is tall, but it can also be implied that she does not have the appearance of a martial arts master, and did not look as fierce and ferocious as Zhuzhi-lang expected, especially in terms of her eyes. However, she is described as a cold person-- whether or not that carried over into her appearance, though, is up for debate.

Su Xiyan's eyes are another matter for discussion--

In appearance, Luo Binghe resembled his mother Su Xiyan, but you could more or less see the shadow of his father in him. For example, in the eyes. Tianlang-Jun’s eyes were deep-set, his brow strong and heroic, the irises dark like fathomless water. In this, he and Luo Binghe were very much alike. Luo Binghe had a pretty boy appearance in the first place, but if his eyes had resembled his mother’s too, his face would have been excessively feminine and the effect would be lost. (7 Seas, Ch. 15)

Here, specifically, Luo Binghe is noted as having his father's strong brow and deep-set eyes, as opposed to his mothers, which based on this passage were most likely to be round, soft, and "feminine"-looking. It's also interesting to see that if not for having his father's eyes, Luo Binghe's features would be "excessively feminine," therefore implying that the softer look applies to all parts of his face except for his eyes and brows.

(thanks to @furbygoblinxiv , @bijoumikhawal for bringing up this point)

So, Luo Binghe is a lithe and petite pretty-boy. Nonetheless, he is still notably muscular. Specifically with a surprising amount of lean muscle-- something that Shen Qingqiu actually remarks on:

Luo Binghe was on top, and Shen Qingqiu was on the bottom, so he was smushed under a considerable weight and almost unable to draw another breath. What had this child been eating?! He looked quite slim, so how was he this heavy?! ... A person’s abdomen is supposed to be the softest spot on their body, but Luo Binghe’s was uncomfortably hard against Shen Qingqiu’s stomach. The farther down he pulled him, the more he was sure that Luo Binghe had an eight-pack. Was that a rock slab down there? (7 Seas, Ch. 16)

(thanks to @verycharismaticdragon for bringing up this point)

As for where the fan depiction of buff, tanned, "hyper-masculine" Luo Binghe may have originated?

I'm not certain where the first such depiction came from, but as for the logic behind it, such phenomena could be explained as thinking of Luo Binghe, the stallion protagonist, as having an "ideal masculine" appearance.

For western audiences and beauty standards, this would certainly be that same sort of muscular, tall, with tanned skin and defined features. Naturally, when first thinking of what a "stereotype of an ideal man" would look like, these traits would come to mind to a western audience.

It is a bit different in eastern standards. While muscular appearances can still be favored, lean muscle is vastly, vastly preferred over bulky muscle, and fair skin, which represents elegance and status (as those with fair skin tones are perceived as those who are wealthy, and do not need to work outdoors) is preferred over tanned skin. This is, of course, a generalization-- but as a representation of ideal masculinity, Luo Binghe's appearance would also be a generalization.

Particularly, Luo Binghe's figure and appearance is described not as those favored by men for themselves, but as those favored aesthetically by women. Therefore, that gentle, refined appearance is a must.

While western vs eastern beauty standards may play a role in this, it is also possible that western vs eastern character design standards may also be coming into play. While in eastern character design, things such as color and style of clothing and hair play a very large role in creating visual contrast, in terms of western designs, body shape and style, along with hair shape and style, seem to be far more important, with the idea that a character should be recognizable by silhouette alone. This may lead to western-trained artists, and also those who grew up watching primarily western cartoons, unconsciously applying those same standards to their own design-- such as making Luo Binghe broader-shouldered and with rounder shapes, the "heroic" type character design, in contrast to sharper, narrower shapes for Shen Qingqiu, the "villain" type character design.

(thanks to @gaywarcriminals , @mu-qingfang-stan-account , @temporoom for bringing up this explanation)

One additional possible reason would be the potential for heteronormative/"het-coding" standards being applied to a gay relationship, where the gong is being given more "traditionally masculine" features in order to align with gender roles. This is something that is fairly common in BL/MLM shipping and designs in general, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that it might apply in some fashion to Luo Binghe's fan-design as well (Note, this does not apply to actual fem/masc mlm pairs, because those do exist and it isn't always about heteronormativity. This is specifically referring to taking characters with roughly similar build like SQQ and LBH and making their designs distinctly more masc/fem based on who tops and who bottoms).

(thanks to @mysteryteacup and @gurggggleburgle for bringing this up)

As for the true source of these design elements, it probably cannot be narrowed down to just one-- rather, it would be an amalgamation of bits and pieces of all of the above, as well as the popularity and spread of certain designs throughout the fandom and artists taking inspiration from one another.

So often i've seen that Luo Binghe's bulk and muscles are shown as key traits of his physical appearance, despite the fact that this directly contradicts his actual depiction in the novel. Thus, it is inaccurate to depict him this way.

Luo Binghe's canonical body type and build is tall, slender, and willowy with lean musculature, and his features are soft and a bit effeminate. The best example I could give for reference would be to base his body type off of a pretty-boy type idol.

Of course, fanartists are perfectly free to continue drawing him however they please, but it should not be assumed that a Luo Binghe with bulky musculature, tanned skin, and sharp features is a canon-compliant depiction.

Luo Binghe is a pretty-boy.

[liamshawday]

On February 16, 2023, Picard Season 3 aired its first episode and ✨️Liam Shaw✨️ made his first appearance. One year later, it's time to celebrate!

-Ten days of fan creations, for lucky number ten-

(See guidelines below- do as much or little as you would like to! Choose any of the three prompts and make any fan creation)

Prompts:

Day 1-Feb 16th: Alive/ S3E1 The Next Generation/ Hurt-Comfort

Day 2-Feb 17th: Borg/ S3E2 Disengage/ Backstory

Day 3-Feb 18th: Chicago/ S3E3 Seventeen Seconds/ Fix-it

Day 4-Feb 19th: Dead naming Explanation(s)/ S3E4 No Win Scenario/ AUs: Modern, Coffee shop, Vampire etc.

Day 5-Feb 20th: Engineering/ S3E5 Imposters/ Drabble or short fic

Day 6-Feb 21st: Fears/ S3E6 The Bounty/ Post-canon

Day 7-Feb 22nd: Gumption/ S3E7 Dominion/ 3&1 or 5&1

Day 8-Feb 23rd: Holodeck/ S3E8 Surrender/ Friends to lovers or sex pollen

Day 9-Feb 24th: Knives/ S3E9 Vox/ Crossover (with anything)

Day 10-Feb 25th: Lucky number ten/ S3E10 The Last Generation/ Trapped (in the turbolift, or anywhere)

Guidelines:

All fanwork welcome: art, gifset, fics, crafty stuff, we love it all

Use any of the three daily prompts, or of course you can use two or three of them if you like

It's okay to mix prompts from different days, such as Holodeck(day 8) and trapped(day 10) and you can post on whichever day you want

You do not need to make something for all ten days! Pick just one day or more than one. Post your creation to tumblr on that date.

For the episode prompt you can make anything to do with that episode: gifset, missing scene fic, etc.

Post your creation (or a link to your creation) on tumblr

Tag @liamshawday and we will reblog!

Any ships welcome, please tag

If you post an entire fic or chapter on tumblr use a readmore

NSFW welcome, please tag “nsfw” on your tumblr post/use appropriate tags on ao3

If you post a fic on ao3 please add it to the “Liam Shaw Day 2024” collection

*No Shaw hate please, we know some people don’t like this character, but we would like to keep this event positive. (We also know how to block and will.)

[cdrama-action]

LOVE BETWEEN FAIRY AND DEVIL FANS, we have seventeen wonderful creators here at @cdrama-action, the Cdrama Gotcha For Gaza event, who are ready to make something awesome for you in exchange for your donation to Palestinian direct aid. Get all your faves, in the form of art, fic, graphics, and vids!

[oopsallmabari]

✨Self-Rec Tag Game ✨

tagged by @gaysebastianvael! very cool tag game, prob should take time to appreciate my own work more often lol

Rules: Share five of your own fanworks (fic, art, etc.). Then, tag five more people to share the things they’ve made.

Something you absolutely adore

ooh i think it'd have to be this pic of daithi--i've done a few portraits of him and i like to see how the way i've drawn him has evolved!

2. Something that was challenging to create

digital painting continues to be a bit of a bear for me, and i remember plugging away at this for ages. hoping to get better at it in the future :)

3. Something that makes you laugh/smile

muppet dorian is probably the silliest thing i have ever made. but i like him. still have plans to mupp-ify other DA characters. someday.

4. Something that surprised you

this one is kind of difficult! but i guess i'll link to my longfic with arya for this one, which i can't remember if i ever actually linked to on this blog lmao. it's surprising to me that anyone has read it if i'm honest and that i wrote that many words. it's also on hiatus rn as i am. fully rewriting it (snippet of the rewritten opening under the cut at the end).

5. Something you want other people to see

time to plug some of my oc work! zeke is an oc of mine from a personal WIP--currently in the very early drafting stages of an interactive fiction of which she is a cast member. she's one of my oldest ocs so i like to make ppl look at her. (this counts as a fanwork! i can be a fan of my own work!)

tagging w no pressure (sorry if you've already been tagged before lol)! @creaking-skull, @triflingshadows, @dreadfutures, @lavellander, @glamfellens

and a preview of frostbitten blades, the redux:

“You don’t have to leave.”

Malik says it with that kind uncertainty she’s grown so accustomed to, that she expects of an older brother. Sturdy yet soft, truthful and earnest, but tapering off at the ends. They’re seven years apart. It’s a lifetime. They’ve been worlds apart for so long.

He’s grown into this role so well, the thin, gold circlet nestled comfortably within his dreadlocked hair, the purple embroidered jacket shaped perfectly around his broad shoulders. All of his fineries are well-tailored. He must actually sit for his measurements now. He didn’t as a boy. Wouldn’t sit still unless Mother was hovering behind him. Now—he waits, holds meetings at the head of the table with quiet assurance, smiles warmly at visitors.

Currently, the smile is small, but it’s there, rounding his chestnut-brown cheeks. He doesn’t want to force it—she’s barely been at the estate, at his home, for a week. It’s the longest they’ve seen each other in seventeen years. She almost left earlier, without a word of goodbye, until the twins snuck up on her. Malik knows this. He hasn’t said anything, mercifully.

She’s so bad at coming up with responses lately. Malik knows this.

[yellowstonewolves]

Honestly the appeal of fan content centered around Wyll to me isn’t that I think he’s that underrated? I mean, he is a little underrated I think that he has by FAR the worst writing of any origin character in the game.

On paper he’s really interesting. He’s supposed to be this wide eyed idealist fairytale believer who took a devil pact regardless! He’s been a wandering monster hunter since he was kicked out by his beloved dad at age seventeen! He believes wholeheartedly that he’s been fighting evil this whole time!

Except he’s ordered to kill someone who’s obviously not evil! He defies this order and learns that his contract can be (possibly has been?) used to force him into doing evil at any time! He ironically gets turned into a devilish form which oh no is going to ruin his reputation as a beloved hero!

But like…none of it matters.

He’s a hero with a reputation to uphold? Oh, except he barely gives a shit about that reputation. He doesn’t fully buy into his own awesomeness, it’s not a facade he desperately clings to, he doesn’t resent it because fame makes people weird towards him (it doesn’t! Npcs dgaf either way!) He’s not bitter that this is a mantle that was forced upon him! Nothing.

He’s been a wandering exile for the past seven years? Yeah but he’s not like, super lonely or socially awkward or desparate for stability or afraid of being tied down. He has a normal amount of friends somewhere or other. He’s not even like, notably worldly! Nothing!

He’s a monster hunter? He has a pretty average attitude about monsters and danger. He gets turned into a devil? He’s briefly sad about it. Npcs generally dgaf. Okay???

He’s a hero who chose to be pacted to a devil? Oh, for some reason you have to wait to find out why for most of the game. Oh what was the reason? He was in a situation where pretty much anyone would have made the same choice. Cool haha lmaoooooo.

I like that fanwork can capitalize on the potential in his backstory and act 1 story because the game as written really avoids making choices about who he is and why. He’s well acted, charming and has so much potential! But he and his story stick out as very generic in the final product.

But eh, this is not the era of fix-it and fanon. We all think that’s so cringe and childish and lame now. This is the time of “he would not fucking say that” where it’s considered bad practice and ~bad literary analysis~ to say that canon failed at something as big as the final draft characterization of one of their main characters.

So people feel the need on tumblr to blame the lack of enthusiasm for Wyll on like, people’s failure to adequately love him! It’s moralizing and obnoxious and it results in a lot of fics where the interesting stuff that’s hinted at is left unexplored and his main function is to be gently horrified at whatever someone else is going through. Sad!

[polizwrites]

PoliZ's WIP Update: 12 Jun 2024

Busy work week, but I made my  unofficial weekly goal. I touched four fics (3 new & 1 WIPs) - for a total of 2142 words. 

On Ao3, I posted: 

 Baring His Soul -  Stucky getting-together College AU ficlet.

Chapter Five of   Love is a Thing That Can Never Go Wrong  - No Powers Omegaverse AU with Alpha!Bucky & omega!Tony (eventual WinterIron) 

A Time to Lose and a Time to Keep -  pre-war Steve POV ficlet

Coming Clean -  WinterIron PWP ficlet with bonus Steve. 

I’m juggling  19 active/semi-active WIPs with my current  deadline being the  Steve Rogers Bingo which ends on June 15th.  

See  below cut for what I’m working on/planning to work on - arranged more or less by bingos/challenges/etc.  As always, feel free to send me   prompts or plot bunnies as well as asks regarding  any of these projects  or any other WIPs I’ve got out there.   Interaction really helps feed the Muse and keep me motivated!

Steve Rogers Bingo - Round 3 [SRB_R3] (ends  15 Jun 2024)

Twenty-one  fills, two bingos and no WIPs at the moment  - need to focus on getting my Tumblr posts on Ao3 before this wraps up! 

* B1 - Project Rebirth -   Went with an outsider POV to fill this - Judging A Book By Its Cover is 413 words of Howard Stark’s perspective on the moments before shrimpy!Steve is transformed into Captain America.   Planning to post this on Friday.   

* B2 - Streaking - Posted  Baring His Soul  to Ao3 last week. This Stucky college AU also fills the  Flash Fiction Friday prompt [#FFF252 Spill the tea]  and came in at 634 words.

* C2 - "In order to grow, you must let go of the past" (Sarah Rogers) - Posted  A Time to Lose and a Time to Keep to A03. This pre-war Steve POV ficlet incorporates the  Flash Fiction Friday prompt [#FFF253 Pushing Up Daisies] and came in at 182 words.

* D2 - Alpha Steve - Pulled together a  crossover with  Week 2 of Hot Bucky Summer - combining  “What should I call you?”  +  Master  + Alpha - and my BBB K5 - Voice  square  for   The Business of Pleasure.  Bucky seeks out a professional Alpha Dom and - despite appearances, will be getting exactly what he needs.  It’s coming in at 970 words and, while it will be tagged as a one shot for now, has the potential of being continued. It will post on Friday. 

* E3 - Steampunk -  Squished this square to combine it with  the Flash Fiction Friday prompt [#FFF250 Rushing Train] for An Attractive Concept -  a vaguely steampunk mostly-platonic Stony ficlet where Tony tells Steve about his newest invention.  It came in at 380 words and will get posted to Ao3 before the event is over.  

Hot Bucky Summer 2024 [HBS_R2] (Ends 31 Aug)

More fun from the @buckybarnesevents folks - this time weekly challenges to create a (presumably hot) Bucky-centric fanwork!   I’m starting off a bit behind the eight-ball, as I missed the reblog deadline for the first week.

* Week 1: I combined the following prompts - “Louder, let everyone hear you.” + Noisy Sex +  Exhibitionism  along with my WIB  A/B/O: Knotting and BBB KINK: Shower sex  squares for   Coming Clean - 659 words of PWP featuring WinterIron shower room shenanigans with a surprise appearance by Steve.  This may get a second chapter, if the Muse cooperates. 

* Week 2:  “What should I call you?” + Master + Alpha  see SRB - Alpha Steve above. 

Hawkeyes Bingo [HB_R2] (Ends TBD) 

Working on this  Tumblr event - got a 3x3 card and and am looking forward to creating more  Clint-centric content and trying my hand at a bit of  Kate Bishop fic as well!    

* A3 - Awkward Flirting – this might be a good entry into my first femslash fic with Kate/Yelena?    

Build-A-Bucky Bingo [BaBB_R1] (Ends 1 Sep 2024)

Another fun year-long  event from the folks at  @buckybarnesevents!  Each month there’s a list of prompts and you choose (at least) one  each month for your card!  At seventeen fills and two WIPs with five months to go, I seem to be going a bit overboard …. 😁

* May:  Bucky’s Trigger Words -  combined this with last week’s  Flash Fiction Friday prompt [#FFF251 Out There] for Just To Live One Day Out There - a Winter Soldier self-reflective ficlet. It came in at 312 words and will get posted to Ao3 Real Soon. 

* May:  Praise Kink - planning to fill this with Chapter Six of A Little Bit Carried Away where Alpha!Bucky and omega!Tony get to live out their fantasies.  It’s sitting at 754 words and will get posted later this month.  

*June - Breeding Kink  - Filled this with Chapter Five of  A Little Bit Carried Away  which posted last Friday. Tony and Bucky share their mutual fantasies over Bucky’s home-cooked dinner.   This chapter also filled my WIB  Surprising New Kink square and came in at 1287 words.

* June: Inconvenient Attraction - filling this with Chapters Six  of Love is a Thing That Can Never Go Wrong  which is sitting at  835 words and will get posted later this month. 

WinterIron Bingo Round 2  [WIB_R2] (Ends 16 Dec 2024)

Signups are still open for pre-made cards for Round Two of this super-fun bingo event! I have fifteen  fills and zero WIPs at the moment.  

* Iron Soldier (One Bingo, One Fill) - looking at combining my Column B prompts: Matchmaker, Bucky Riding Tony, Stark Gala, Inside Joke and Threesome.  Still working on a plot - if you have any suggestions/want-to-sees - let me know! 

* I1 - A/B/O: Knotting - Filled this with Coming Clean  - see HBE Week One. 

*I4 - SHIELD HQ - combined this with the Flash Fiction Friday prompt [#FFF245 You Never Cared] and wrote Fathers Don’t Know Best  -  No Power AU with Bucky working as an analyst at SHIELD who stumbles across a late night visitor to the lobby.  It came in at 407 words and will get posted to Ao3 before the event ends.  

* N1 - Hair Pulling Kink -  thanks to a fun prompt from @scottxlogan  - I filled this square with Untangling Their Attraction - where Tony’s offer of assistance leads to mutual kink discovery (not as racy as it might sound).  It’s coming in at 544 words and will post to Ao3 before this event is over. 

* N5 - "I'm here for you."  - Possibly the next chapter of  Lady Natasha’s Consort and Lord Steve’s Companion ?  

* June Adoptable: Surprising New Kink  - filled this with Chapter Five of  A Little Bit Carried Away  - see BaBB Breeding Kink above. 

Bucky Barnes Bingo - Round Six [BBB - R6]  (Ends 31 Mar)

This amazing bingo event is back!   Got my card last week and am still looking over my squares  after getting a couple of them swapped.   I have one fill already, and zero WIPs.  

* K5 - Voice -  Just realized I could squish this into  The Business of Pleasure - see HBE Week Two above.     

* C4 - KINK: Shower sex - filled with  Filled this with Coming Clean  - see HBE Week One. 

* Y5 - Polyamory or open relationship - if I continue  Coming Clean, this would be an obvious square to use. 

Warm and Fluffy   Bingo  [WFB]   (no end date)

Six  fills on my card, courtesy of   @warmandfluffybingocards  - need to try for another crossover or two!

————

On  other creative fronts:  I am working on  a Buzzie the Vulture as a custom commission,  along with a Count Orlok/Nosferatu for another commission.  

If  you’re looking for one of a kind gifts for birthdays or other celebrations, check  out Stuffed With Character    over on Facebook for a full list of my designs (now over 150!).   These soft stuffed figures are  mostly Marvel and monsters, but I have some Star Wars, Star Trek, DC   and Disney figures as well. Plus I love to take custom design   requests  for any fandom!

[duckprintspress]

Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributor Catherine E. Green

This is it: the final contributor spotlight for our crowdfunding anthology Aether Beyond the Binary, featuring 17 aetherpunk stories starring non-binary characters! Now, by going through the campaign updates, you can read biographies of all seventeen authors featured in this anthology and read excerpts from their works! We hope you’ll do so, and love what you read! We’ll be putting up a single post linking all the spotlights on Tuesday (January 23rd) so be on the lookout!

The crowdfunding campaign for Duck Prints Press’s next anthology Aether Beyond the Binaryends in 4 days and we are still $2,000 from our funding goal. We’d love your helping ensuring this project succeeds: so signal boost our posts or become a backer TODAY!

About Catherine: Catherine E. Green (pronouns: xe/xem/xyr or they/them/their) is an agender person, one who’s had an on-again, off-again love affair with writing. Xe began writing when xe was a wee thing, when xyr other major pastimes were playing xyr mother’s NES and roughhousing with the boys next door. It’s only in the past few years that they have begun writing consistently and publishing their writing, fanfiction and original writing alike, leading to their first published short story titled “Of Loops and Weaves.” 

Outside of writing, xe is a collector of books and sleep debt and an avid admirer of the cosmos. Playing video games, reading a variety of fiction genres (primarily fantasy, queer romance, and manga and graphic novels of all kinds), and working on wrangling their own personal data archiving projects occupy most of their free time. Xe is also proud to announce xyr graduation from a crocheting a single scarf to crocheting several scarves and other projects.

Links: Bluesky

This is Catherine’s first time contributing as a writer to a Duck Prints Press anthology, but xe were an editor on our anthology Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers”, and xe are also an editor for Aether Beyond the Binary. Xyr short story Of Loops and Weaves is linked above.

An Interview with Catherine E. Green

How did you pick the name you create under?

Catherine is my meatspace name. The E. Green is an homage to my grandmother, who is herself a writer and poet and someone I look to for writing advice and inspiration. She was my first beta when I was first starting to write, and I cannot thank her enough for her loving support.

Are you a pantser, a planner, or a planster? What’s your process look like?

I’m somewhere in between a pantser and a planster. I usually go into writing something with some overarching idea (like a theme or a shape of a scene) and begin the actual act of writing with setting the scene. However, if the words aren’t coming, before I resolve to try again another day, I try writing something somewhere in the middle of the narrative – just to try to trick my brain into cooperating with me. This will sometimes lead to some internal consistencies in my writing (which one reason I love editing so much – love, love, love it), but it gets words on the page, which is often my biggest hurdle.

What do the phrases “writer’s block” or “art block” mean to you?

Writer’s block, to me, is when the filters my anxiety has built up in my mind sufficient block my creative output. It’s when I question every word I put on the page to the point where nothing I write feels worth keeping, much less moving on from. I don’t know that it’s ever something I’ll be able to work through, but I’m trying our being kinder with myself and addressing my mental health issues to see if both combined help reduce how long my writer’s block lasts for. Here’s hoping!

What are your favorite resources and tools for your craft? 

iPad with a magic keyboard, Google Docs, and either Notepad or some sticky notes for things I want to bear in mind while I’m writing. I’ve tried Scrivener and similar software, but I’ve never vibed with any of them.

What is your “dream project” – the thing you’d see as the culmination of your work as a creator?

I wrote a short story during my undergraduate studies that still have a fondness for to this day. It’s contemporary fantasy-type thing set in a lonely, not-quite-haunted cul-de-sac, where the lights and people seem to fade in and out of existence. It’s about identity, companionship among people who come from very different backgrounds, and the importance of language in how it shapes identity and relationships. I want to expand the work into a novel at some point, if I can, but we’ll see.

Tell us about your pet(s).

I have a 6-year-old tuxedo cat named Yennefer (yes, the reference). My brother and I adopted her a couple years ago from a small rural animal shelter. At the time, the shelter had given her the name Jennifer, so Yennefer was hardy a jump at all. And, goodness, does she have the personality to match. She’s my energetic boo-boo head, who likes to sleep on my bookshelves and knock over my coffee, and I love her to bits.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Try to write a little bit every day, even if it’s only a hundred words. The period of time when I was writing everyday was when I felt the best about my writing and when I felt like I was most capable shutting down the filters in my brain that make it difficult to write.

If you could give one piece of advice to a new creator who came to you for help, what would that advice be?

1) Read, read, read. Read a little bit of everything: fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, mystery, science fiction, history, etc. Read about writing. Read works by people whose style you vibe with and those by people whose style you don’t. Every bit of reading helps build a scaffold onto which you can hang your own ideas and words, and having a more stable scaffolding, and more stable foundation can only help your writing improve.

2) Learn how to talk about your writing, especially once you get to a point where you’re engaging the services of alphas, betas, and editors. The writer and the editor work best together when there can be open dialogue, and open dialogue is only possible when all parties involved can talk about the work in a productive way.

3) Figure out the kind of environment you work best in, whether that includes music or white noise or nothing, what kind of device you prefer typing on or if you prefer hand-writing, whether you work best in long stretches every so often or in short, frequent stretches, and so on. Try to craft your perfect writing space.

4) Writing is a skill one can work on improving over the course of an entire life. There is no end-point at which you are suddenly a good writer. Every word you write is a small step toward better your writing in one way or another, so try not to become too frustrated with yourself if you don’t feel like you’re improving. You are—I promise.

Catherine’s Contribution to Aether Beyond the Binary

Title: To Hold the World Close

Excerpt:

Very much unlike the typical saying “Sending along warm thoughts” and its various approximations, which often convey a rather intangible, often perfunctory, sentiment, Adrienne surrounds the swirling mass of fear, embarrassment, and grief with a warmth of xyr own. It’s the warmth of a community coming together to bring someone up from their knees; it’s the wondrous comfort of a light breeze and a spot of shade on an otherwise murderous hot summer day; it’s the pleasant touch of a loved one. I can’t be with you, my dear, not in person, but please take some measure of comfort from me, if you can, and seek out those who love you.

[some-pers0n]

Maybe I'm coping and seventeen layers in denial, but I honestly refuse to believe that Valve doing all of these copyright claims and strikedowns aren't from some new hire on the legal team. Valve famously always endorsed and supported fanworks and projects. Portal RTX and such. Not to also mention how generally relaxed their policy is around it, to the point of making a joke about it in their Meet the Team videos (Copyright: LOLOLOLOL). Also not to mention them just dropping their animation program to the public for absolutely free AND hosting competitions for people to join and be creative with. Them taking down all of these mods randomly is so out of left field that I can't fathom it being a unanimous decision.

[andnatiabrosca]

Self-Rec Tag Game

Rules: Share five of your own fanworks (fic, art, etc.). Then, tag five more people to share the things they've made. I’ve put categories below, but they’re more guidelines than rules.  1. Something you absolutely adore 2. Something that was challenging to create 3. Something that makes you laugh (or smile, if that fits more comfortably)  4. Something that surprised you (in how it turned out, how much other people liked it, etc.) 5. Something you want other people to see

@layalu (@dungeons-and-dragon-age) tagged me & this is the blog I Do Stuff on! now that my weird bug was resolved where I couldn't access my mentions, onwards and upwards. I'm going into my files for stuff, not necessarily what's been published yet, because my tagging system...needs work. Cut for length.

1. Something you absolutely adore

Well, absolutely and without question, my current longfic is well-adored. It's [love knows life] on Ao3. Here's a snippet:

The fear rolls and boils and threatens to swamp her the deeper they venture into the Temple. And like a log, buffetted in the swells – the eyes of a friend. It’s a test, she knows, but does not hurt any more for it. “What’s shapin’?” the memory of her brother asks. His voice is too thin, and he flickers in and out of sight, not like a real ghost would. She leans into his rough smile.  “Topside as bad as you thought?”  Pretends the shadow play behind her eyes is a fear, not a memory. “Ancestors, you’re a bitch.”  He growls.  It doesn’t fit, just like the solid Trade that Leske never spoke.  “You never really cared about us.  Knew you were meant for greater things.  Up there.  The Surface.” It’s a bad memory.  It’s missing rough-big-brother Leske. “You’re the one always told me to leave,” she bites back before her mind finds her. He laughs, one solid, rough bark of her friend as he glows blue, then fades back to smooth, wavering grey. “I know it’s been playing on your mind, how you left us in the darkest muck-pit this side of the Deep Roads.  But it’s all right.  Don’t want to be all mopey.  You can let go and forgive yourself, salroka.”  He pauses for a few moments, fading between that grey and that lyrium blue. His voice quiets as blue memory finds living brown.  “I forgive you.” That she believes.  The last time she knew those eyes, they were thanking her as her blade pulled free from his stomach, breath caught in blood pooling on the stone. He’s gone – again – before Nat’s voice winds back to her.

2. Something that was challenging to create

This is a bit of a deep cut, but I did [this] back in 2017, somehow fit in around 19 credit hours of engineering coursework.

I've got more details in the original post, but this entailed (1) learning how to draw like. at all. (2) using MatLab and the wiki's list of known dwarven words (and a lot of sitting and reading them aloud) to count the frequency of each phoneme within the dwarven language, then trying to isolate graphemes from the written dwarven in game (I remember using the stone from Anvil of the Void), counting those, and trying to find some correlation to assign graphemes to phonemes, THEN writing all of the Blight Brigade's names using the new cypher.

I am looking to revisit that project in future, actually. I've got more understanding of linguistics and the courage to take a good stab at conlanging. But not the note-taking skills.

3. Something that makes you laugh/smile

I'm not putting any snippets in here because it's a rated M fic and also is super short, but I find [this kinktober fill I did] pretty funny. It's Alistair semi-intentionally stumbling across Nat and Zev finding some private time away from camp.

4. Something that surprised you

[I recorded a podfic of Seventeen] and, frankly, I'm surprised anyone even clicked on it. I'm extremely proud of how I did it and the sheer number of skills I learned from it.

5. Something you want other people to see

This is a snippet from an unpublished/unfinished fic from my series [seventeen years]. Its working title is "Twenty-Six"; it's meant to be written to hold a mirror between Natia (old form of Nat) and Maran Trevelyan. I still really like using Maran trying to live up to the folk hero juxtaposed against the reality of Natia being a child during the Blight.

Maran Trevelyn was sixteen when word arrived to the Free Marches.  The Blight – the Blight most hadn’t realized had even begun – was ended. There were stories, left and right and center; everyone claimed a different version of the truth.  The Hero of Fereldan was human.  The Hero was a mage.  The Hero was Dalish and the Hero was dead. Mar didn’t know which words were true, but she knew which ones she wanted. When Mar told herself stories, late at night, lying in a dreamless bed, the Hero was old, wise, brave.  A human warrior who knew battles and knew wars and fought with every fiber of her being to save the world, because it was her duty, not because it was right. Duty meant a lot, to the youngest daughter of a Marcher noble. In Mar’s world, the Hero was the woman she could become, if only she trained hard enough.  If only she fought herself and her desires until there was nothing left.  (Her Hero died in the end, but that really didn’t matter.  Duty first.)

[nervouscitytmblr]

ATTENTION ‼️ An entire fest for the one and only Wen Junhui ♥️

ALL INFORMATION HERE ->

This is a fest for fanwork centered around SEVENTEEN'S Jun ❗ Including fanfiction and fanart of Jun and Jun ships ♥️ Read carrd for all information and links!

Thank you in advance for participating! Please share this post ♥️

[svsss-fanon-exposed]

Exposing SVSSS Fanon: 3/∞

CANG QIONG MOUNTAIN'S TWELVE PEAKS HAVE COLOR-CODED UNIFORMS

Rating: CANON

Fanworks will often depict the disciples of Cang Qiong Mountain's twelve peaks in matching, color-coded uniforms to each of their peak. This is not something that is often mentioned in the novel itself, but it is canonically accurate.

However, we do not know many of the peaks' signature colors. The fact that they do have specific uniforms in specific colors is canon, but many of the colors used in fanworks are, in fact, fanon.

In the text, only two peaks have canonically-designated uniform colors.

It is stated that there are set uniforms for all of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect's disciples:

Though the disciples on the peaks had to wear uniforms, there were also many acclaimed cultivators who weren’t subject to these restrictions...

and

Thankfully, on An Ding Peak, trivial matters like assigning rooms and uniforms to newly accepted disciples didn’t require the peak lord’s involvement.

and also a passage here:

 Several hundred disciples in uniformly colored robes and furious expressions surrounded the invaders

In the original, the phrase "uniformly colored robes (服色统一)" could be read as all of Cang Qiong Mountain's disciples wearing the same-color uniform, but it could also be read that they were all dressed in uniform, as 服色 denotes both color and style of clothes (notable that "color" in Chinese is a more abstract concept than in English).

This passage isn't clear on its own, but there are other places where it is confirmed that the colors worn by the disciples of various peaks are different, and can be used to tell which peak a disciple belongs to:

[Shen Qingqiu] held his breath, attention rapt, and watched a youth in black rush out... ...The color of his robes confirmed that he really was from Bai Zhan Peak...

Aside from this, Qing Jing Peak's uniforms are the only others that are given a description:

Enveloped in Qing Jing Peak’s many-layered teal uniform, [SQQ] was immaculate and slender, with a great deal of graceful beauty.

While this passage describes the Peak Lord's attire and might not necessarily extend to the disciples, another passage shortly after this says:

A group of teal-robed boys and girls ran down Qing Jing Peak in a trailing conga line, one after another.

This confirms a uniform color used by the peak's disciples.

These passages, however, are the only ones which definitively state a uniform color for any of the twelve peaks-- meaning that we only know that Qing Jing Peak's uniforms are teal (青色）and Bai Zhan Peak's uniforms are black (黑色). Anything other than this is fanon and headcanon.

One more side note-- Luo Binghe is described as wearing white:

A seventeen-year-old youth, slim and tall and graceful, dressed in white robes

But this description only begins after the timeskip at the beginning of Chapter 4 (7S TL). Luo Binghe is, as of now, still a disciple of the sect, and thus would be required to wear a uniform. However, one important change had occured during this time-- Luo Binghe, at the time of the Immortal Alliance Conference, is Qing Jing Peak's head disciple.

The only time another head disciple's appearance is described is regarding Shen Qingqiu:

Shang Qinghua suddenly heard the tinkling of sword tassel pendants, and a youth wearing Qing Jing Peak’s uniform slowly approached him... ... His black hair was neatly tied behind his head with a light-green ribbon...

The color of his uniform is not stated, other than it being Qing Jing Peak's, and the "light-green" color of the hair ribbon is 青色，which is the same color translated as "teal" when describing QJP's uniforms above.

Therefore, one interpretation could be that head disciples of Cang Qiong Mountain's twelve peaks wear white uniforms with accessories in their peaks' designated color.

This, of course, is not explicitly canon and should still be taken as headcanon (I would categorize it as supported or neutral fanon on this blog).

However, the idea that the twelve peaks have each their own uniform colors, and that QJP's is teal and BZP's is black, are canonical facts.

[im-an-anxious-wreck]

Memories Aren't Important... Right? chapter collection

AO3 link

Summary: Remus wakes up in a house that's not his own, in a bed that's not his, and seemingly four years in the future.

A man with purple hair and a man in a blue tie have also lost the last four years of their memories.

Even though the other three of their unknown and forgotten housemates say everything is fine… their memory gap just doesn't add up.

Something about it… about everything just seems… off.

Rather unsure of what is wrong, the three of them navigate friendships, work, life, and maybe even love.

(Superpower AU anyone?)

Consistent Warnings: cursing

Brief/mentioned Warnings: car anxiety mention, car crash description, Janus' jerk parents die (non-descript), suggestive jokes, references to alcohol, mentioned past abusive parents, murder mentioned, spouse abuse mentioned, (some of them have some shitty parents okay), hypothetical unrealistic death mention, there's like one kiss

Universe: Superpower AU

Perspective/main character: rotates between Remus, Virgil, Logan, Roman, Patton, and Janus (all six sides)

Side/secondary characters: Dr. Amne (oc villain)

Appear: various ocs

Mentioned: Emile (from Cartoon Therapy)

Romantic relationships: intruality, prinxiety, loceit

Platonic relationships: everyone else really

Word Count: 56,464

Link to my collection of TSS fanworks

This is for the @ts-storytime's big bang challenge

Find the awesome art that goes with it here by @starshineandbooks!!

Thanks to @poettheythem for betaing!

Chapter index:

Chapter One • Remus

Chapter Two • Virgil

Chapter Three • Logan

Chapter Four • Roman

Chapter Five • Roman

Chapter Six • Patton

Chapter Seven • Logan

Chapter Eight • Janus

Chapter Nine • Logan

Chapter Ten • Virgil

Chapter Eleven • Janus

Chapter Twelve • Patton

Chapter Thirteen • Roman

Chapter Fourteen • Virgil

Chapter Fifteen • Janus

Chapter Sixteen • Patton

Chapter Seventeen • Remus

Chapter Eighteen • Virgil

Chapter Nineteen • Janus

Chapter Twenty • Roman

Chapter Twenty One • Logan

Chapter Twenty Two • Remus

-

No reposting, likes are nice, and reblogs are very much appreciated! | Taglist (ask to be added or removed): @someoneiwasnt

[seventeendeer]

yooo here we are! new url! thesketcherlass -> seventeendeer

“sketcher” you might say “why seventeen deer? that’s so many. you can’t fool us, you’re just the one guy”

to that I say well don’t we all contain multitudes

I’ll be updating my blog tags and so on in a moment to stay on-theme!* I’m also planning on updating my pfp and header sometime in the future. with the. all the many deer. really going to be leaning into the mental image of 17 very small deer in a trenchcoat running this blog

I’ve also made a side blog for holding my old url, where I’ll make an index of old fanworks I’ve done, just in case someone comes looking for it! so if you see another blog floating around with my old url, that’s just me doing my best to preserve almost a decade of things I’ve made <3

*edit: actually never mind replacing the tags! I might instead add the old ones to the directory and just start fresh with new tags when I post again. everyone blacklisting my talk tags are gonna have a rude awakening but that’s just how it is

[thereigning-lorelai]

13 & 19 for the ask game, please!

13. What is one of your favorite underrated parts of canon for [fandom]?

the fact that luke. introduced julie. to rock. i know it's probably not underrated but it's just thrown in there by alex and never mentioned again! in the same vein that bobby stole the boys' legacy—that luke managed to write a platinum record at seventeen and will never get the recognition he deserved for it. forever bitter about it.

19. What fanwork by someone else would you like more fans to check out?

please check out my dear friend @riderunlove's fics and leave kudos and comments. she deserves all the love! (especially this maleficient/fairy tale jukebox au.) ♥️

[gisellelx]

Hey lady. You know I have to aim one of these at One Day...

😈🙋‍♀️💔👐

Thank you for the ask, @edwardsmate4ever! And I think I might be about to break through I block that I hope will send me tumbling toward the end of this thing...

From Writers Emoji Ask:

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?

One Day is full of them. "Playfully mean" is I think a stretch for anything I ever mean to do? But deliberately misdirect people? I love doing that. I like playing with people's expectations about what is going on and then letting them discover that what I'm writing is not that. "Sensitivity to Initial Conditions" does this. If I've done my job right--and many reviewers have said it took them a moment in exactly that way, so I think I have--it's not immediately apparent what happened to Esme, Emmett and Rosalie, so it's only when you get to the fourth vignette that you realize it's an AU. There is one twist in One Day that is so deep that I myself didn't see it until I was stuck on a section and then realized that something I was thinking would happen at the end of the fic had to have happened before the start of the fic. And there are several others at varying degrees of "people have already guessed this" to "no one is gonna see this coming." They're fun to write.

🙋‍♀️ Do any irl people know you write fanfic?

Literally everybody. 😂🤣😂 I don't give a lot of people my fanfic handle and I otherwise try not to "cross the streams" as it were but I am a big champion of fanwork and as a result have published and talked about writing fanfic in major national venues so it's a pretty open secret. (Humblebrag! Maybe just brag brag. But seriously I just talked about this today to my first-year seminar.) I set as my litmus test to not post anything I would feel ashamed of someone who knows me discovering and knowing it was mine and so when I either ask or allow someone to know my fanfic is mine, it might be a little weird but it's not embarrassing. One of my best compliments was when my lifelong bestie was reading Ithaca and said, "You know, I got absorbed in the story and totally forgot it was you writing it." My dad also reads a lot of my fanfic. He's 78 and doesn't understand the vampire stuff but he is super proud of my writing and it's very cute. Twice in the past someone has figured out who I am and googled me and emailed my work email. That is just...weird? Even though on the one hand it's fine for all the above reasons. Please don't email me at work, even if you figure it out. My gmail is the same as my fanfic handle and I just feel more comfortable answering about fanfic through fanfic channels.

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

No but One Day comes close. Carlisle in an "Edward died" scenario is really hard to write. I have to tap into his pain to write it, but that makes it painful to write and as a result it often leads me to leave it alone for months and years. I don't think I could ever write Edward in a "Carlisle died" scenario. Maybe for a short short story but not much longer than that.

🤲 Would you please share a snippet of a wip?

Literally the last things out of my keyboard just before I hopped back onto tumblr:

Nabil was standing next to my desk, holding something rectangular in his hands. It took me a second longer than it should have to realize what it was, and my stomach wrenched. His brow was furrowed as he scrutinized the photograph in his hands. I could wonder what he was thinking. Was the look on my face real? Was it just seventeen-year-old hopefulness? Was it love? Was it the same thing I felt for him? Was the man in the photo more to me than he was? Was he…human? I didn’t say anything, just stood at the junction between the living room and the short hallway, crossing my arms over my chest, until Nabil finally looked up and noticed me there. He lifted the photo frame ever so slightly. “This is him,” he said quietly. “Eli?” I nodded. “Junior prom.”