#so many of their scenes play like actual fanfiction scenarios

[maddy-ferguson]

not many fans of a ship can say they've been serviced like stydia fans were serviced

[sessakag]

I just wanna say that I absolutely LOVE Butterfly. It’s kinda the only fanfic I care about at the moment lmao I am LOCKED IN. The story itself is great, all of the characters (even the ones everyone hate rn) are interesting, the writing is phenomenal…I could go on and on.

I have a few thoughts I wanted to get out of my head. These aren’t suggestions (cuz it’s your story and I trust where you’re gonna take it), it’s moreso just kinda be me rambling lol:

Sasuke- I know you’ve mentioned he’s going to show up again later, but I’m so anxious to see the role he’s going to play. I don’t really want it to be a romantic thing with Hinata (I am a firm NaruHina lover lol) but I would love to see him be some kind of a protective friend for her? In my head he and Hinata already know each other; like they had some type of group therapy for traumatized teens or after she was removed from her dad’s care she was temporarily in a group home where she met Sasuke and they got to know each other idk. He knows her story and the pain she deals with, and is able to relate in a sense. So he doesn’t want to see her be taken advantage of. Idk, again this is NOT a suggestion lmao just rambling.

Strength- I would argue that Hinata’s the strongest character in the story so far. Even stronger than Naruto. She’s been thru absolute hell and suffers with severe anxiety and depression. The fact she struggles with suicidal ideations and is still making the choice to live is a testament to her strength. I hope that as the story progresses, Hinata starts to recognize that in herself.

Naruto- love the way you write Naruto in this; the chapters in his pov are some of favorites tbh. As someone mentioned before, I too would love to get a few jealous Naruto scenes. Especially since he’s starting to actually *see* Hinata and recognize his attraction to her. I’m assuming that as the story progresses, Hinata will grow into her own person and become somewhat independent of Naruto (like getting her own friends); is that something Naruto might feel threatened by? Since he does have a selfish streak and is immature, I wonder if he would have an issue with keeping Hinata all to himself.

I think those were the main ramblings I had. Chapter 8 is my absolute favorite so far cuz of the cute NaruHina moment we got. I know smut is probably a ways away but I cannot WAIT till we get to it cuz you are one of my favorite smut writers tbh. Anyways that’s all for now. Can’t wait to see what you have in store for us!

Thank you so much! 🙈💕💗so so so happy you're enjoy the fic that much 💕makes my heart do cartwheelssss 🏃🏾‍♀️🤸🏾‍♀️🏃🏾‍♀️💗☺️🫶🏽 and thank you so much for dropping love in my inbox, I absolutely adore you all that do I swear 🥹

Ahhhh, you have some really interesting ruminations🙈

Sasuke- Surprisingly a lot of readers have been waiting to see how Sasuke fits into all this🤭I've gotten some incredibly creative scenarios and prediction from commenters and anons that I've actually added to his role and even moved his entrance up in the timeline😄This is a very interesting scenario and I really, really like it a lot! So many people really want a protective friend Sasuke and I can't say the idea isn't unbearably adorable 💕

Strength- You hit the nail on the head for sure🫡💕Hinata's inner strength is one that's often overlooked, underestimated and underappreciated when compare to more overt forms of strength, or socially constructed ideals of what it means to be strong, and I've really, really been wanting to make a point in the world of fanfiction, specifically the Naruto fandom of fanfiction, that strength is not always aggression, violence and bitchy attitude 🤦🏽‍♀️ because I've seen, for years now, this narrow, short sighted standard of who is strong and who is weak being perpetrated and it's always, always bothered the crap out of me 😤With Butterfly, I'm hoping to open minds and break molds we've been taught to believe are absolute👎🏽but are actually highly subjective👈🏽 I swear, so many of my fics are 'break the mold' type fics, lol, I think I just like to nay say the nay sayers, ya know, shine light on areas and topics that many may make negative assertions and toxic assumptions about while in reality, know very little about the subject matter at all. I think it opens the door for more compassion, understanding and inclusion ️🫶🏽 and honestly, that's what I'm all about.

Naruto- I love, love, love me a Naruto POV 🙈idk what it is about Naruto in particular since I love most make POV but it is soooo much fun being in his head 🤭Butterfly!Naruto and Prey!Naruto are two of my fave Naruto POV's to write in, both are so much fun in different ways 😄For sure Naruto's gonna have his jealousy moments, he's too hot headed and selfish in Butterfly not to🤭Its definitely not out of the realm of possibility that he'll feel some type of way about not being the center of her attention🤔right now, he's the golden boy, he's got the coveted place at her side, he's got exclusive access nobody else has, losing that, well, he might not be too keen on it🤭although, he's been trying to introduce her to his friends and help her with her speech problems, so maybe he'll take it as a source of pride that he's help her find her confidence🤔that's why I love this Naruto 🤭he really can go either way. Like, on one hand, he can be sweeter than cotton candy, some real tooth rotting sweetness, but on the other hand he can be a selfish asshole making scummy choices just to get what he wants😅he gets tunnel vision, and the only thing that matters is reaching his goals by any means necessary. He's just a really fun character🤭

I super duper appreciate you leaving your ramblings here!! I enjoy each and every one of them! Chapter 8 is near and dear to me too!! I enjoyed writing it so, so much, the cuteness almost melted my laptop 🙈💕 I cannot wait to do more sweet bonding scenes for them ️🫶🏽 that's honestly why my fanfics be so long, I get so caught up in just enjoying and marinating in NaruHina love 🙌🏽its like a virus I never wanna get rid of 😫 Smut is indeed a ways off, but I can't wait to get to it too 🙈 and tys, I'm honored to be one of your faves💕 Thank you, thank you for dropping by!!! I really loved seeing your ramblings! 🫶🏽

[bellaxgiornata]

Do you have any tips for people who really enjoy writing fanfiction but struggle to actually get themselves to write it? Like I love writing specific scenarios in my head (mainly because that’s what I really want to read but no one else has written that yet) but I struggle to actually just get the motivation to do it, so my ideas just stay in my brain as a “I want to write this” and then the interest dies off and it never gets written.

I completely understand this feeling so much. Before I started writing in the Daredevil fandom I often just daydreamed in-depth scenarios in my head. I usually wanted to write them into stories but then I just...never did it. Even though I have been writing different fanfics in different fandoms for a really long time, I more often than not just created up scenarios that lived in my head and then that was it because I never wrote them down. So nothing ever came of them and I was never able to share them with anyone. I could have written so many more things if I'd just sat down and tried.

(As always, I'm long winded so more below the cut 😅)

In all honesty when this happens, I think the best thing to do is just that. Just sit down in front of a blank document and free write whatever comes to you. Take the pressure off of yourself first and foremost, though--you don't have to share whatever comes out with anyone. Don't tell yourself that it has to be good, either. Have literally zero expectations for whatever ends up on the page. More often than not, that really helps the words start to flow. When you sit there and nitpick how you're starting a sentence or a scene or a word choice, that's when you start second guessing everything and that can often lead to thoughts like "I can't do this" or "no one will read this" or the classic "I suck at this" (which I still hear in my head some days). Ignore all that bullshit and just focus on whatever it is that's in your head--a conversation between some characters, maybe an entire scene you've had playing out in your mind, a fight scene, or whatever it is that you're currently excited about. Just sit down and try to get it out with no expectations. Because you can absolutely always come back to it and edit it up how you want after the fact and make it into a story or a one shot or whatever if you want, but the hardest part is just getting something out on a page.

But truthfully, the only way to write something is to make yourself sit down and do it. I don't know of any other tips to give besides that. Sure, you can make a playlist or a mood board for the vibe of a story or a character. You can make outlines of what you're seeing in your head that'll give you bullet points of what you picture happening. But really you just have to get excited enough about whatever it is that's on your mind and write it. And I think that's part of the beauty of writing fanfic when you do share it and people interact with it. The commentary and interaction from readers is what helps keep the excitement for a story alive for the writer, which then gives us that necessary motivation to keep coming back to work on a story. Because any writer will tell you that sitting down and getting the words out is hard. Some days it sucks and you have to slog through it to keep going, but that's just a part of the process. Over time it becomes a habit, though.

Hopefully any of that somewhat helped, but unfortunately there isn't some magic answer to make it easier to get started. Having other writers to talk to about your ideas really helps, too. Or just someone to talk with/at about whatever is on your mind. Breaking an entire fic idea into chunks chapter by chapter helps if you're making a big story, but just picking a starting point and writing it is your best bet. I actually first wrote the entirety of Marci and Fog's wedding for FFTD and then worked my way backwards afterwards to start that huge ass series. It all started with those two installments and the idea/scene in my head that I didn't get to until "The Breaking Point" far later. So you can absolutely just start with an idea and expand on it. But unfortunately, you kind of just have to force yourself to start somewhere 😅

[mrs-monaghan]

Ok, but like why does Yoongi do Jk dirty like that? Lol Yoongi doesn't LIKE Jimin like that (does he?) and it's obvious that Jk does and the members know it.

Like in the behind the scenes of the xylitol Christmas commercial where Yoongi touches Jimin's ear and Jimin looks at Jk, Yoongi also looks at Jk's reaction. And a lot of other times where Yoongi is just waiting for Jk to react and Jk does and Yoongi just stands there without anything to do anymore.

Yoongi knows he is ruffling Jk's feathers by touching Jimin lol but why does he do it!?!

Could be many reasons

1) He doesn't care. 😂 At the end of the day he's older than JK so this could be a hyung card at play here. Who knows? (RM too stopped caring. He used to pull away from Jimin in the past when JK got bothered but at some point he said "fuck it")

2) Suga respects the Jikook relationship. (This should be number one but his behaviour is the reason we're talking about this so...😂)

Contrary to popular stupid beliefs, BTS wouldn't be BTS if they were dating eo willy nilly. Some of the things I see under YT comments are insane! V used to date JK but then JK left him for Jimin and now he's trying to win JK back. Or When JK rejected Jimin, Jimin started dating Suga and then Jimin left Suga for JK and now bla bla bla I mean, i see this shit everyday and I'm like;

I think it has to do with fanfiction, but it also has to do with the kind of TV shows we watch where a group of friends date eo and break up with eo all inside the group and somehow they remain friends and life goes on?? That's not how real life works. At all.

If any of that fuckery 👆🏽 actually happened it would affect the dynamic of BTS as a whole, big time. They wouldn't have been together all these years as a group if this was the case. Especially considering how possessive JK is. How attached to Jimin (satellite Jeon) he is. You really think Jimin getting with Suga would not cause some bad blood???

When they were young BTS were given scenarios where they were asked what they would do if 2 members wanted the same girl. Jimin said he would find another girl while JK basically said he would fight for his girl till the death. (I'm paraphrasing 😂) but yeah, JK said he would never give her up. Then couple that with JK's "mine mine mine" thing he's got going on and you know that man ain't about sharing, loosing Jimin, or none of that shit.

Another time Jimin said he wants to fall in love with one person for the rest of his life.

So these are the men we are dealing with. Those are their personalities. So this fanfic drama, love triangles people make up are just that, fan fiction.

3) Jimin is the only member he's comfortable having skinship with. This is because Jimin is very attune to people's feelings and u can see the way he initiates skinship with Suga is not how he does it with JK or Jhope. With JK he will just throw himself at him and call it a day. With Suga he will take a beat and actually make sure Suga is okay with it. And I believe Suga appreciates that.

Idk why Suga does what he does, anon. But there is one important thing we have to remember. JK doesn't have an issue with ALL Yoonmin moments. He could have an issue with them on Monday then on Wednesday he won't care. A good example would be this episode.

During this game Suga spent a good chunk of it all over Jimin and JK did not bat an eye. Not even once.

He wasn't bothered even for a second. Which fascinated me honestly. So just coz we don't talk about Yoonmin often, doesn't mean it happens all the time.

Also JK trusts Jimin explicitly and knows nothing is ever gonna come off whatever Suga feels. So it is what it is.

Bonus

Proof that Jimin knows about JK and his anti Minimoni agenda.

RM pinches (or almost pinches?) Jimin's nipples (which is a Jikook thing btw; to randomly nipple play on official content 😂😂) and what does Jimin do? He looks at JK. And what was that face Jimin??? 👀

Seems to me like someone was relived another certain someone did not see what just happened. He he he hee!

Oh. If u didn't get what i meant by Jikook have a nipple thing here u go. Nipple Nipple Nipple (Jimin actually looks like he felt that one 😏) another Nipple. Like i said, its a Jikook thing. 🤭

[ladytanithia]

AO3 Twenty Questions

I was tagged by @dirty-bosmer Tagging @lillxart @gwilin-stay-winnin @skyrim-forever and @thequeenofthewinter (even though I know she's already done this!)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

18

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

416,292

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, only Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, although I have written a few Breath of the Wild fics (one one-shot, one short 8-chapter story, and two long fics that are unfinished). Once upon a time in junior high and high school, my friends and I wrote each other stories about Duran Duran and Def Leppard, but those are on paper and too old for anyone to care these days!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

You know, I hadn’t really looked in a long time, so I’m surprised/not surprised to find that mostly my LoZ fics are the highest in kudos (they’ve been there longest).

Dalliances with Dunmer (86)

Link the Anachronism (55)

Larissa’s Tale: Before the Hero (46) – this pleases me; my first story with an OC and a lot of research

Khajiit: Stranger in a Strange Land (45)

Starting Over: A New Woman in a New Hyrule (38)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Absolutely! While I write for myself and have to remind myself of this daily, it’s always nice to know that someone else has seen and enjoyed my labors of love. Readers who comment are rare and precious. And at least 2 of them have become actual friends!

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

Dalliances with Dunmer – but that wasn’t the end of the story, just the ending of the 2nd book in the story.

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

What Might Have Been – because it was MEANT to be an alternate ending to the angsty one.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not usually. When I first started putting DwD on AO3 and fanfiction, one person called it dogshit and another person went on a mean, scandalized rant about Miranja’s “fatherless behavior.” But a dear friend told me, if there’s no controversy, you’re not doing it right, and I left the flame in the comments for that purpose!

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

Smut/romance/erotica – various levels depending on the mood and the characters’ relationship. There’s been everything from cuddly fluff to heart-pounding romance to jizz-in-your-pants or call-the-priest filth.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I can’t answer that definitively. I started a crossover (Khajiit) between BotW and Skyrim (a friend used Skyrim to wean me off of BotW, and now I live here forever), but I haven’t even gotten to the crossover part and now it’s been 2 years since I played BotW, so we’ll see where that goes.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. I can’t imagine why anyone would, unless they were training an AI!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yes, just a silly little back-and-forth scenario with my OC and a friend’s OC. It’s not on AO3, but I’m hoping it will be soon!

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Of my own, or anyone’s anywhere? Mine, of course, would be Miranja and Talvas. Elsewhere… I like to ship Kvothe and Devi in The Name of the Wind – if for nothing else but the hate sex!

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I want to finish all of them except the Link and Zelda stories, since those are moot points by now.

16. What are your writing strengths?

From others’ reviews, I’d say characterization and description. I like to get inside the characters’ minds and hearts, think up back stories for them that might have made them the way they are, make their interactions with other characters as genuine as I can. When describing a scene, I almost focus more on the sensations than the actual physical presence of, or situation of, things. What is the character seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, or tasting, and how does it make them feel? The feelings are what you remember, not the details. (Unless you’re Sherlock Holmes.)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Second-guessing myself. If someone says the story’s moving too slowly, I pick up the pace and skip the less important stuff that was kind of important to me. Then someone says I’m rushing the story, so I rewrite it and flesh it out the way I wanted it to begin with. Like, I BELIEVE I’m pretty good at re-reading and assessing the pace, but then I let someone else tell me I’m doing it wrong. Also, allowing things to distract me and keep me from writing until I don’t even remember where I was at.

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

If it’s relevant to the plot, then of course! Otherwise, if it’s just idle chatter, that feels like extraneous flaunting on the author’s part. Look what I can do! Haha!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

As many things as I’ve been a fan of, I’ve never thought of writing my own fiction about them until I beat Breath of the Wild. Because I wanted so badly to know how they would turn the kingdom back around, I decided to write my own continuation.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Larissa’s Tale or Hrefna’s Crush. Shorter stories, but special to me in different ways. Larissa was kind of a self-insert character but better-looking, who got her hands and other body parts on Link before Zelda did. Hrefna’s Crush was sort of a birds-and-bees and starting to have crushes story, where Sondas Drenim is the object of her crush, and Miranja is the competition she loves but envies.

[gascon-en-exil]

If you could make a few changes to Dream Daddy to make it more to your tastes, what would they be?

I take it that scrapping the whole concept and starting from the beginning would constitute more than "a few" changes? All the characters being literal fathers, with so much time devoted to their relationships with their children, is downright weird in what is supposed to be a dating sim, and dad jokes absolutely cannot carry an entire script and get old very fast. I also hate the Dadsona as a concept, and find that customizable main characters sharply limit what can be done with them (including sex scenes). However, if I had to stick to those parameters, and also avoid any explicit content lest it no longer be safe for social media:

Get rid of at least some of the child characters. Maybe one or two of the love interests can still have children for extra development or whatever, but they don't all need them. As much as I don't care for Amanda or for how the game uses her to fill in time that would be better suited to giving the Dadsona a personality beyond bad puns, I imagine she'd have to stay to preserve the theming.

Most of the minigames can be removed, as they add nothing whatsoever to the experience beyond tedium. Brian's route will need to be completely rewritten to not revolve around gimmicky minigame set pieces as much as it does, and to actually feel romantic. Given his physique, he'd be a good opportunity to have the game discuss what "daddy" actually means to queer men, and how Brian feels about that as a part of his relationship with the Dadsona.

Damien needs to be trans beyond the single missable line of dialogue. There are multiple angles to work that in and still keep his Victorian cosplayer who's secretly a boring IT guy characterization. Maybe cosplaying and feeling like he was born in the wrong century got him realizing some things, maybe his love of yaoi fanfiction had something to do with it...just something. Also, while we can't do anything explicit, those ending pinups could stand to be a bit spicier all around. Let Damian show off one of the binders he talks about!

Robert and Joseph's routes should not punish the player for pursuing sex. It's unexpected, prudish, and frankly suggests a rather juvenile understanding of the role of sex in romantic relationships. If the Dadsona sleeps with Robert early but continues to do well on their dates, have him come to the realization that he was wrong to be so disrespectful toward his casual hookups, and that he appreciates the Dadsona for continually making the effort to get close to him even after they've had sex. Joseph's good ending has to be rewritten entirely to not be as awful as it is; have him and Mary agree to an open relationship, or decide to get divorced since neither of them are happy in their marriage (here's one place where the kids not existing would allow for a tidier resolution, if that's a problem). Personally I'd be fine with the thrill of an ongoing adulterous fling, but I know many would consider that inappropriate.

Also with Joseph, if he's going to be a Protestant youth minister his faith needs to actually come into play in the story. How does it affect his perception of his sexuality, and of his failure of a marriage? The answers will of course depend on what denomination he's supposed to be, so clarifying that would be helpful. This would be a nice opportunity to explore the mind of a queer religious person, because they do in fact exist. (Carefully nonspecific American Protestantism may very well be the most boring religious background ever conceived, but at least it's better than nothing?)

Oh, and for the cult ending - Calvinist Protestantism has branches that are essentially death cults already, so lean into those for your wacky non-canon horror scenario instead of dressing Joseph up like a Catholic priest just for the aesthetic.

Craig could stand to feel more bisexual. He already gets hit on by multiple women throughout his route, but throw a man or two in there as well so that when he finally gets with the Dadsona it feels less like he randomly decided to experiment.

Hugo and Matt are more or less fine as far as I can recall. Possibly one or both of them can have fade-to-black sex with the Dadsona before their ending, for extra spice. This would mean that the Dadsona could have sex with multiple men before getting a good ending, but there shouldn't be anything wrong with that. These people should all be mature enough to handle the concept of casual sex.

[waheelawhisperer]

If I could add my own two cents on the whole "Yang's amputation was a punishment for a moral failing" debacle, can I just say how much I hate it's counterpart "Yang undergoes enough character development that she doesn't need to be punished with amputation to learn her lesson"?

Because let me tell you, it's really freaking annoying how EVERY fic that diverges before the Fall of Beacon saves Yang's arm.

I am SO glad that Yang's an amputee in the upcoming movie! Maybe now people will stop erasing that part of her character in fics!

Okay, so, I had to think about this one a bit. I'll give you fair warning right now that you probably won't like everything I have to say.

To start with, claiming that Yang losing an arm is related to a character flaw or that her amputation is a punishment for some failing real or imagined is stupid, gross, and factually incorrect. I've made many, many posts about how Yang actually behaved correctly in that situation, that her injuries were not her fault, and that she was caught in a scenario where her best option was a low-percentage play that ended up not working. I'm not doing it again. I'm tired of this conversation. Anyone who doesn't understand this at this point is cognitively equivalent to the roadkill I saw on my way to work this morning and would be better suited to using their empty skulls to store and dispense bingo balls than engaging in literary analysis. Recapping my arguments will not convince anyone new.

I think RWBY made a very bold and powerful choice to have one of the main characters lose a limb in combat. I hate it on a personal level because Yang is my baby and I can't stand to see her hurt, but when I divorce my emotions from the decision and consider it objectively, I think it's actually one of the best and most effective choices RWBY has ever made. Any negative reaction I feel about this decision is purely emotional and stems from my extreme protectiveness of Yang in particular. If they'd done it to any other character, it wouldn't bother me at all.

As a result, it probably isn't surprising that I don't have an inherent problem with fan content that averts the loss of Yang's arm. I understand why you do, and why others do, and I recognize and acknowledge the validity of those feelings. I do think that at least some people within the RWBY community downplay Yang's disability for ableist reasons, whether consciously or not.

I think it's fine for fanfics and so on to arrange things so that Yang doesn't lose her arm. One of the great things about fanfic and other fan content is that it allows the people making it to explore alternate paths or aspects of canon and to ask themselves how events would have unfolded if something had been done differently. Fanfics aren't obligated to follow the stations of canon if the author doesn't want them to. What is even the point of writing a story, if we're just retreading everything that happened in canon with no significant changes? To me, writing a fic where Yang doesn't lose her arm is no different from writing a fic where Pyrrha survives or Ironwood manages to avoid going off the deep end.

That said, I think you have a great point about how common it is for fics to avert the loss of Yang's arm. I don't think there's anything wrong with any individual fic simply setting Yang on a different path, one where she doesn't lose her arm, but if it's happening often enough in aggregate, then we have a problem. I don't know if that is the case or not. I don't read fanfiction often enough to be able to identify common trends within it. Most fanfiction either does not meet my standards for quality, lacks a premise I find sufficiently appealing, or both, so I will defer to the knowledge of others regarding how RWBY fanfiction as a whole treats Yang's canon disability.

I'll be honest, all of the stories I have in any stage of completion arrange events so that Yang avoids permanent physical injury of any kind. I tried to write a scene where she lost her arm, I really did, but I couldn't do it. It made me cry and I had to scrap it. I can, just barely, write a fight scene where she gets the absolute crap beaten out of her and nearly dies as long as she can somehow be healed from it without long-term consequences, but that's all I can manage. I can kill other characters. I can put them through one hell of a lot of misery. I can't do it to her. She's the only one I can't do it to.

I don't give a shit about the Justice League movie. I'm not sufficiently emotionally invested in it to have an opinion about any writing or design choice the people making it made. Sorry.

[crazyexdirkfriend]

What's the behind the scenes for shag etc? 👀 (also the icon on your blog theme is so cute...)

ty ty! it's from chapter 2 of two short hours etc. in case anyone didn't see it. okay this might get long so read more time

I have so many behind the scenes for that. Firstly: the playlist. this is what I made because my huge dirkjake playlist isn't thematically consistent. but to elaborate on the Lore of my choices:

dirt-emma blackery is actually the song that gave me the idea for the fic, and then down for the count-bowling for soup played afterwards. the key being snarky bits like "then you came on twitter saying i'm bitter, honey have you looked in the mirror" "how far down will you go on me, ONLINE" "guess things go sour after they pass their sell-by-date"

dead girl walking (reprise) was initially on my playlist for calvariæ and strip away my conscience (FIFTY SHADES OF MORALLY GREEEY) was on my two short hours etc. playlist, but both made the migration over thematically

someone gets hurt is solely on this for POOOOR LITTLE ME ALL TRAPPED IN THIS FABULOUS SHOOOOW. jake in a golden bird cage of his own making.

the bit where jake walks out on stage to endorse karkat with the back light is based on the music video for taylor swift's "i bet you think about me" when she...well comes out with a back light to "the voice is so loud, saying 'why did you let her go?'" it's very revenge dress moment for jake here. rip princess diana, she would have loved my fanfiction where dirk and jake hunt each other for sport.

i'm on it by the cast of nashville is on this because "the only over i'll be is over your shoulder" is why i have jake make those stupid billboards to haunt dirk with.

god is a freak is on this. but dirk is god in this scenario. WEIRD YOU'RE ACTING LIKE MY BOYFRIEND :///

Some other behind the scenes lore, like deleted scenes: I was supposed to rehash the scene where Roxy (and Jake) comes out as NB but it didn't fit in the end. Here's the excerpt I did write

There was also supposed to be a scene where Jake sent Dirk this meme but I forgot to put it in. I instead complained on Twitter about forgetting to put it in and then my third level lecturer SENT ME MY OWN TWEET and then offered me work. I am still haunted by this fact. I have no idea why this happened. Deep deep lore. Here's the image btw

This scene was also supposed to be in it but I had no idea where to go with it. Raccoon was supposed to be a series regular.

This note on the final conflict scene is the only time I used the term "emotionally devastate." The fic was unnamed until literally 3 days before its release bc I couldn't think of anything other than "the blood between us is horrendous but in a vacillating manner as opposed to a xenophobic one- (Troll Taylor's Version)" which was way too long considering no one ever types the full name of shag emotionally devastate etc. anyway lmao

The billboards and the bloat advertising on the dating apps are things I've had Jake do before in RP, both deliberately and accidentally. I find it so infinitely funny to think about the idea of Jake believing so hard that Dirk would never love anyone other than him that he (hope powers) makes it functionally impossible for Dirk to move on. Dirk looks for him in nothing and finds him there anyway. Buys a drink at a bar and Skaianet sponsors Orange Crush now. Is on a date with some guy who is like "hold on, you're jake english's ex? you broke up with jake english? sorry I could never date anyone stupid enough to let jake english go" (shoving breadsticks in purse). I think Jake would also set up Tinder so he pops up every three swipes but when Dirk swipes right on him eventually he just gets a Skaianet helpdesk bot

Other behind the scenes hmm. I spent the vast majority of 8-10 weeks not writing this and 4 weeks actually writing the bulk of it, but most of the time was spent hand wringing on discord because I was convinced that this fic would not be received well so I'm actually hugely pleasantly surprised that people have liked it!

[emilou-keen-gear]

ChatGPT Shenanigans

Okay, so I've been hearing a lot about AI based art and fanfiction. I feel very strongly against AI art, because people work very hard for their art, and it's crap that a computer can imitate their style and render something in a matter of seconds. That kind of "art" should have manditory airquotes.

As for AI programs like ChatGPT that people have been using to make fanfiction, I don't like how someone can feed it a story and get an ending or someone using it to create a whole story in a day when it takes me several months of writing to make one. But can AI write as well as a human? I read a few comments where people were saying how a chat program wrote such good fanfiction, but I was skeptical. I decided to play around with ChatGPT for myself to find out.

I set up a scenario with Charity, Darkwing Duck, Gizmoduck, Launchpad and Negaduck, and gave it a few scenarios to see what it would give me. This is what I found out about ChatGPT:

The scene you ask it to write must have a positive ending. You can give it conflict, but it will be resolved at the end with good feelings by the time the AI program is done.

All relationships are based off of mutal respect, understanding, love, etc. I didn't try to push the limits with this, but apparently there are no toxic relationships allowed. Even when I disagreed with the AI program, it still worked a positive spin on things.

I'm not certain, but I don't think the AI program likes people being arrested...

Also, unless magic is involved, you can turn people into things.

The writing absolutely sucks. It's pretty generic. It has a rythm, like an equation. It has good pacing, good description, a large vocabulary, but everything feel stale or stolen. Let me put it this way, you could feed it all of Shakespeare's plays (which it probably has all memorized) and it could create a whole play with spot-on language for that time period, but it would be using the same twists and turns and plots and characters as the other plays. Nothing would be original.

As a whole, I'm not worried that AI is going to be taking over fanfiction or writing (at least I hope not), because it's missing personality. It can imitate humor, but it feels like it's funny only by mistake. It can write song lyrics, but there's no heart to them.

However, with the right prompts, you can actually make a pretty funny scene. I'm tempted to post some of the stuff that it came up with just because I gave it rediculous prompts. I don't want to post it on AO3 or FFN because I feel those sites should be original content and I've heard many are angry that people are posting AI Chat stories there.

I really want to share what the program wrote because I spent way too much time laughing at what it came up with. Anyone have any ideas? I don't want anyone to get mad at me for posting "fanfiction" that was AI generated.

[stormxpadme]

1, 5, 11, 16, 21, 26, 27, 32, 34, 37 god i hope i wrote the numbers right im on mobile. also full disclosure idr scheduling this so it was fun figuring out whats happening. my answers coming as soon as the laptop awakens, till then, tell me everything 😍💖💖💖💖

Weird Questions for Writers

1 -  What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

I’m a Bookman old style girl indeed. As my followers know at this point, I’m a dinosaur aka proud Xennial, generation analogue to digital, from typewriter to cloud. So I went from the first Word programs to what we have now and also had my first office jobs when the whole PC thing was still in its first stages. Everyone especially in business life used Times and Arial and Verdana back then, and honestly, I was just really bored by those. So when I got on my own PC and started transcribing my fanfics from handwritten to electronic, I chose something that was still easy to read but didn’t look like work. And that stuck. I even use that font in my work life whenever I can get away with it. I just really love Bookman old style.

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

I don’t think so? Though if it counts, I’ve encountered prophetic writing with my stuff before and that can be pretty creepy. Like, in an entirely non religious way, of course, because I’m agnostic, but like ... visions put in writing. Stuff of my stories that came true weirdly specific in one shape or another later. So there’s that.

11 - Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

Nah, I have a very hard time killing my protagonists. So if it happens at all, you can be sure I’ll find a way to bring them back at some point. At that point when I do kill them off tho, I cry. Like, a lot.

16 - What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

Nothing strange, I think, I was just one of those sinners as a kid using dog-ears.

21 - Could you ever quit writing? Do you ever wish you could? Why or why not?

Nope, not gonna happen. This is the thing that keeps me alive, and I don’t have any suicidal tendencies these days.

26 -  How do you get into your character’s head? How do you get out? Do you ever regret going in there in the first place?

A lot, I think, with faceclaims when it comes to my own characters. Watching the material I got of the actors in questions, doing moodboards, videos, stuff like that. It was very inspiring for many scenes in the past. Then there’s the good old impersonating them in your head in calm moments like under the shower or when brushing your teeth, playing random scenarios in your head, contemplating how they will react. But in the end, a lot of characterizing only comes when I actually write them.

27 -  Who is the most stressful character you’ve ever written? Why?

I’ve got a lot of anxiety about my current first trans character, especially since the canon faceclaim is no other than Elliot Page. So I’m just really terrified I’ll fuck this whole thing up because it is not my personal corner of queer so I can’t write from experience.

32 -  What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

I’m more prone to movie lines than book quotes tbh, and poetry is not my world. I can cheat here though, since movie is based on a book, so Imma go with PS, I love you here.

“You made my life. But I'm just one chapter in yours.“

I’ve used that sentiment two times myself, in the two longest fanfiction projects I made, one of which I’m working on right now, and it’s breaking me every time.

And from the same movie (there’s reasons I can’t sit through this without crying):

“Thing to remember is if we're all alone, then we're all together in that too.“

Also something I used before in stories, and a thought that sometimes help.

34 -  Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

I hate it with the passion of a thousand suns since it has no place in German, and if grammarly wouldn’t do it for me, I would never use it.

37 -  If you were to be remembered only by the words you’ve put on the page, what would future historians think of you?

Hopeless romantic as long as there’s enough torture involved.

[the25thviolence]

Last update (01-13-23)

Its weird that as a writer I keep some stories to myself.  I’ve talked about little characters I’ve made up before.  Like the shadow character OC that would of existed in My Hero Academia universe.  I explained it generally but actually I day dreamed an extremely detailed story about that character (honestly its pretty fucking R rated so I’m never writing it down).  All my little day dreams have like detailed stories that play in my head.  

I don’t know.  I never got like big into writing fanfictions or AUs or whatever.  Surprisingly all my stories are original.  But I still day dream like fan content into my own brain. 

Like in the midst of my early morning about to wake up ease dropping on my brain.  I was having a dream, than a dream about a cosplayer realizing her boyfriends kink by dressing up as Maki Zenin from Jujutsu Kaisen, than another dream.  I woke up like “why the fuck was there 30 seconds of that in my brain while I was dreaming????”.

My brain just drifts away while I’m asleep or awake.  I could be sitting down or driving my fucking car.  I just drift into a fucking story in my brain.  I can’t like stop it from starting but I can pull myself out when I want to.  I can start them when I want to too but like most the time my brain is like “lol bored making up a 300 year history of a made up kingdom for the next 5 minutes”. 

And I’m just like....

Eyes squinting.....

“What the fuck....”

Honestly its probably why I’ve loved sports games so much since I was a kid till right now as I play a sports game while writing this.  I think of weird funny little stories about what’s happening in my game as I’m playing.  I play franchise/association modes so I’ll be playing a decade+ of a team’s lifespan creating little sports stories in my head.  

I remember one year I was tired of my players getting hit hard so I put in my big running back to “punish” teams all season to wear them down so my star players could get more room.  

I could try and write down all my little day dreams.  

But often I feel like I day dream so much because I don’t really experience my dreams.  And dreaming is supposed to help you deal with your like life problems and come to terms with things.  So when I day dream I’ll just be randomly trying to come to terms with my life.  

SCENARIOS

ALL THE GOD DAMN SCENARIOS. 

They just pop in my head. 

What would happen if this happened.

What if they showed up. 

What if this person disappeared.

What if I died.

What if my family had a real problem.

What if someone tried to rob me.

What if my car broke down.

What if there was a fire right now. 

What if I wrote a book.

And like these long drawn out storylines play out inside my head till I snap out of it. 

Like simple one.  What if I wrote a book.  Oh no no no.  Not just the book.  Not the simple shit.  My fucking brain imagines the what the book is about.  The publishing people I deal with.  The conversations I have with my family about it.  Random questions strangers ask me about the book.  EVEN FOLLOW UP WITH THE PUBLISHER ABOUT WRITING ANOTHER BOOK AND MY BRAIN STARTS TO BRAINSTORM WHAT THAT BOOK WOULD BE ABOUT.  I LIVE A LIFE.  I GET MARRIED.  I OWN A HOUSE.  I IMAGINE MYSELF SITTING A TABLE LIVING COMFORTABLY BECAUSE THE FIRST BOOK SOLD WELL. 

My brain just feeds me these scenes one after another.  

I know its kind of sad.  

But like.

I’d much rather dream like a normal person than have a brain that works this way.

I’d much rather not have the experiences I’ve had that turned me into a writer. 

I’d much rather dream normally, not write, and just see a therapist twice a month. 

I wonder what my life would be like with a normal brain.  

P.S

My brain started thinking up a story about how many people would miss this version of me but I stopped it by yelling “Shut the fuck up none of those people are here now so who fucking cares what they would think.”

[fangirl-writes]

Kiss and Tell

5sos x Fem!Reader

Warning(s): swearing probably

Notes: the quarantine chats are dangerous. I could have made this fic so much longer than I did and I really wasn’t sure how to end it tbh 😅

Summary: You've kissed all the boys at some point or another so they call upon you to settle an argument.

“What.” You deadpanned when your face popped up on the screen.

“Y/N!”

You narrowed your eyes. They were all smiling at you a little too sweetly.

“What.”

“Why do you assume we want something from you?” Calum asked.

“Because you never fucking let me into these things unless you want me to do something,” You replied and they laughed. “So what do you want?”

“We need you to settle an argument,” Ashton said.

“About what?” You asked, taking a drink from your water bottle.

“Well, you know how you’ve kissed all of us at one point or another?”

You choked on your water and they burst into laughter again.

“Great, yeah, I could be dying over here and you fuckers are laughing. I feel the love.” You said, face heating up.

“Sorry, Y/N,” Luke said through his laughter.

“Who’s the better kisser, Y/N?” Michael asked, swaying back and forth in his seat.

“I’m not answering that!”

“Come on, Y/N!” Ashton encouraged. “The fans want to know!”

You groaned, burying your face into your sweater covered hands. “Couldn’t you have asked someone else?”

“All the other girls we know are biased! Plus you’re the only one who has kissed us all.”

“Oh,” Michael interjected, looking at the chat. “Speaking of, the fans would like to know the story for each of these kisses.”

You let out another loud groan that set them into another fit of laughter. “None of you fuckers told me this was live.”

“I can vouch for some scenarios,” Ashton said. “One of us was obviously present for each kiss, um” - he cleared his throat - “she kissed me...actually, some of you probably saw when she kissed me during a- aaah, what’re they called?”

“Keeks,” you said, coming out of your hiding.

“Shit, yeah, that’s right. It was a joke to a one direction song or something.” he replied. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, chat’s right. It was in a car and ‘kiss you’ by 1D was playing. So I puckered my lips towards her, as you do,”

The other boys and you laughed.

“And, uh, she let me kiss her. Like the song says.”

“And I regret that decision every day.” You said.

“Oh!”

“Ooh.”

“Harsh.”

“Ouch,” Ashton said, smiling. “That- that was only a peck though, you didn’t even get the full Ashton experience.”

You wrinkled your nose and stuck your tongue out at him. He stuck out his right back.

“She kissed me in a game of spin the bottle,” Michael piped up.

“When we were fifteen,” You said. “And I remember you used way too much tongue.”

Michael blushed a little bit. “Hey, I didn’t hear you complaining,”

“You were fifteen, bro, she was just happy to be kissed,” Calum said, making the group laugh.

“Yeah, imagine having to watch that,” Luke said. “It was pretty gross but Y/N seemed to enjoy it at the time.”

You laughed. “Like Cal said, I was just happy to be kissed,” you said, winking at Michael.

He rolled his eyes with a grin. “Ouch,”

“I think you kissed me during one of the old music videos, right Y/N?” Luke asked.

You nodded. “Yeah, but I think it got cut from the final thing. I don’t remember which one it was.”

“Was it She Looks So Perfect?” Calum asked.

“No, I don’t think so,”

“Oh my gosh!” Michael exclaimed. “Remember when we tried to get Y/N to run into the shot in her bra and a pair of American Apparel underwear?”

The group erupted into laughter.

“Oh my god, yeah!”

“And she would jump into Luke’s arms at the end?”

“Yeah, yeah!”

“I couldn’t believe you guys even had the guts to ask me that.” You said. “I told them no, of course, but they didn’t drop the subject the entire time they were filming.” 

“So it definitely wasn’t She Looks So Perfect.”

“No,”

“Was it Don’t Stop?”

"Nah, she kissed Calum on the cheek in that one,”

Calum giggled, a small blush spreading across his face.

“Wasn’t one of the recent ones was it? Not No Shame or Easier?”

“No, definitely not, we’d have remembered that.”

“Fuck was it something from Youngblood?”

“Not Girls Talk Boys was it?”

“No, no, no,”

“Jesus, how many music videos am I in?” 

“I think you’re in them all.”

“I’m in all of them?” You said, shocked.

“You didn’t know that?” Ashton replied.

“No, I didn’t know that. I mean I knew I was in a lot but I didn’t think it was them all.”

“Yeah, you always have some sort of cameo,” Luke said. “Even in Try Hard though you refused to ride the Rollercoaster.”

“Fuckin’ hate those things,”

“Oh, found it!” Michael exclaimed, a video playing in the reflection of his glasses. “It was in Good Girls, but it was cut.”

“Thought so,” You replied.

“It was during that slowed down, echo-y part.” Michael continued, dragging the video back a little bit.

“Oh, yeah, they had you jump up on stage and just, like, aggressively kiss Luke,” Ashton said.

You all laughed.

“Yeah. I remember that now. They wanted me to be one of the bad girls which I am absolutely not-”

“What do you mean? That song was about you.”

“I think the fuck not Mr. Irwin.”

That brought on more laughing.

“Yeah, don’t go looking that up,” You said. “Let’s just say there’s a reason it was cut.”

“It’s really not that bad,” Michael defended.

“I disagree, I’ve seen it.”

“I’m not sure how to feel about your strong emotions about this, Y/N,” Luke said with a laugh.

You laughed in return. “Trust me, Luke-ster, you were not the problem.”

“We’re getting off topic here,” Ashton interrupted. “How was the kiss, Y/N?”

You rolled your eyes, a small blush creeping across your cheeks. “It...wasn’t that bad... Better than Michael’s anyway.”

“Hey!”

You laughed and Luke shot you a wink through the camera.

“From the video it looks like you were enjoying it, Y/N,” Michael said with a smirk, getting you back for the comment.

“Fuck off Michael it was acting,”

"Mm hm, whatever you say,”

Your face was hot as you remembered it. The director had wanted it to be hot and intense. Wanted you to act like the girl from the song, which was hard for you on its own but you also had to full on kiss Luke in front of a whole bunch of people.

You were glad it got cut.

“The chat says it was hot,” Ashton read with a laugh.

You groaned. “After that behind the scenes video was released fucking (You + Luke’s Ship Name) was all over the place.”

Luke laughed. “I got tagged in a shit ton of Tweets, too.”

You nodded in agreement. “Not that I haven’t been shipped with all of you at one point or another,”

“I bet there’s still some fanfiction out there,” Michael said.

You laughed. “You would know,”

“When’d you kiss Calum?” Ashton asked.

“Drunk at a party,” Calum answered for you, sheepishly.

You gave him a lopsided grin. “That’s super dumb, Cal, I’m sorry.”

He laughed. “It’s okay,”

“You’re apologizing for kissing him?” Luke asked, grinning.

You blushed, laughing. “I guess?”

“That doesn’t totally count, you were drunk!” Ashton said.

“What you want me to kiss him again?”

“Maybe!”

You were all sent into a fit of laughter.

“See? Why do you guys even need me here? You know the stories.” You said, wiping your eyes from laughing so much.

“Because we can’t say who the best kisser is! And neither can any of our girlfriends. You are our unbiased party.”

“How do you know I’m unbiased?” You teased, putting them into a talking-over-each-other frenzy. You laughed. “Seriously, guys, all of those kisses were so long ago. I can’t give a good answer.”

“We just all need to kiss you again,” Luke joked.

“No way!” You protested.

“Why not?” Ashton asked.

“Because you have girlfriends! And that’d be weird...”

“I gotta agree with her,” Michael said. “She’s our sister from another mister, it’d be weird.”

“Sister from another mister?”

“Shut up, Luke,”

“Okay, well, now that I’ve slacked off you with guys for a while I should get back to work,” You said.

“You work for us, what could you possibly have to be doing right now?”

“Unlike you boys, I actually do work.”

They laughed.

“This is our work! We’re catering to our audience.” Michael said.

“Whatever you say,” You replied with a smile. “See you, guys.”

“Bye Y/N!”

You left the meeting and opened your twitter.

‘I’m not kissing them so don’t ask’

[saijspellhart]

Meta ask: 18

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

Some of my old Bleach fanfics definitely have alternate versions/plotlines that I just never used, and abandoned. I don’t really feel like talking bout those though. Also I don’t think anyone currently following this blog read my Bleach fanfiction.

I don’t think I had alternate things for any of my Miraculous Ladybug fics. Pretty much what was published was what I had.

As far as Yugioh fics go, I’ve scrapped a few minor things from Chained. But they were mostly little drabbles that never made it into the main story. I do have a half finished oneshot for Chained that will NOT make it into the main fic, even when I finish it. And it is basically just an entire scene of Yugi being extremely kinky with Shadow Yami. And Shadow Yami absolutely spoiling him with pleasure. Just the kinkiest shadow eldritch horror sex I could come up with. I have plans to write a second steamy oneshot where they are in Yami’s soul room and doing naughty things on his stone throne. >;3c

My Sphinx AU has a lot of ideas that I might never use. Like lots of different little things. Different scenarios about how and when Sphinx Yugi goes into heat. A million different ideas about how their first time getting intimate would go down. A couple different variations about the stranger Sphinx that shows up at Atem’s palace. Atem not being able to smell Yugi’s pheromones, and actually asking Urmahlullu YMarik to cast a spell on him so that he can sense all the pheromones Yugi has rubbed into all his things. I’ve played around with the idea of Yugi using his magic to appear human. And considered different scenarios in which he could and would make use of that. I’ve thought of stuff about Yugi and Atem’s kittens, like if they have kittens, and how many kittens they would have. Different scenarios about how Atem might meet his children. How the harpies would react to the children. (They would be elated.)

I’ve considered about a dozen different scenarios about how Atem gets cursed to become a full on werecheetah. Some of those scenarios he becomes a were at the palace and starts wrecking things, and Yugi has to show up to sort of draw his attention and coax him to calm down until they can undo the curse. I’ve considered a scenario in which werecheetah Atem makes it all the way to Yugi’s oasis, and Yugi doesn’t recognize Atem at first and thinks he’s a rival cat magical creature come to steal the obelisk from him. So they get into a fight, dealing serious damage to each other before Yugi sees and recognizes the puzzle half-buried in the fur around Atem’s neck.

I’ve considered a scenario where Mana and Yugi are practicing their teleportation magic, playing tag while warping quickly through the halls of the palace and Yugi basically warps right into the back of priest Seth, bowling him over. He is especially unhappy.

Basically the Sphinx AU is just my sandbox for random ideas. And I like to muse about dozens of different things late at night before bed. Not all my ideas will make it into the actual fic. In fact it’s probable that most of them won’t.

Lastly I’ve been working on a oneshot that isn’t quite an AU of Chained. But still deals with the whole animorphous shadows. That one will be straight up horror during the first half, and then straight up smut during the last half. I don’t want to spoil too much a bout it. But it’s basically a piece where I explore more of the horror aspect of Yami’s shadows.

[marvelvsmarvel]

Here is my petition to bring back Marvel One-Shots

This is a screenshot of Red Skull for Marvel’s What If but it reminded me of things that I used to post about around that age old question “What happened to so-and-so or this-and-that?” That would be a terrible title for a show but I’m reminded that the Marvel One-Shots originally answered such questions. Here’s a sample of 5 Episodes I think would be great to explore!

Episode 1: What happened to the Red Skull?

When we last saw the leader of Hydra in Captain America: The First Avenger he was trying to wield the power of the Tesseract by hand before appearing to be dematerialized into a portal in the sky. When next we see him is a whole WTF moment in Avengers Infinity War appearing more or less as a ghost of Red Skull and claiming to be a guide to the Soul Stone. He makes mention that he once tried to wield the power of the Soul Stone and that it is why he is in the state he is. Story done right? Wrong! Where did the Tesseract send him? What other trouble could he have gotten into or caused along the way?

Episode 2: Secret Avengers

While the Black Widow film helped to fill in some gaps in the timeline between Captain America Civil War and IW there is a whole year of being on the run with Cap and Sam that was not spent with days at the beach. We know that they broke the rest of Team Cap out of the Raft and dropped off Bucky in Wakanda. We know that Clint and Scott cut deals to go home on house arrest but at some point the Vision turned off his tracker to join Wanda and the rest of them where they then make a deal for time away together. But Cap, Sam, and Nat undoubtedly looked battle worn when we see them in the train station in Avengers Endgame. What missions did they do? Which villains did they encounter? How many times did they cross paths with Secretary Ross and his forces during that time?

Episode 3: What happened to Loki prime when he fell off the Bifrost?

Let’s finally settle it! After Loki let go of Thor and fell into the abyss we thought he was dead! But then somehow he randomly shows back up through the Tesseract wielding another infinity stone in his staff and ready to take over the world in Avengers 2012. “I’ve seen worlds you’ve not known. I have grown Odinson in my exile.” What worlds has he seen? How has he grown? There were rumors and speculation that he did die and that Thanos somehow resurrected him. But how and for what purpose? Just examining the character he grew more as a warrior. It didn’t seem like Thanos sent him to Earth to find Infinity Stones but actually to conquer it and he even gave him the Mind Stone on top of his Chitauri army to assist in doing so. But why? Why I say??? I wanna know!!!

Episode 4: Tales to Astonish

There’s about 70 years of MCU history between when Cap went into the ice and then when Hank Pym unofficial-officially resigned from SHIELD. While I would hold out hope that they do a Hank Pym Ant-Man origin story franchise sometime down the road a One-Shot could be a perfect teaser towards that. Was he the only powered person during that time? What kind of threats did he have to handle?

Episode 5: Budapest

I know we all know what “happened” in Budapest now but we were only teased even further to what REALLY happened! Three days hiding out in the train station crawl space that Yelena called “cozy”. But we’re not just talking the time battling the Hungarian Special Forces to survive and get out but exploring the arrow marks left in her apartment wall. Were those intended for her or to help her? There is a good chance that the Hawkeye series touches on his origin story and might even touch on this as well. But this is how Clint and Natasha’s relationship was formed, when Clint made a different call, that would solidify that forever ending on Vormir, and we deserve to see how it happened!

I wanna reiterate that One-Shots kind of show behind the scenes or fill in blanks in a single episode like What If. And again I have no doubts that the MCU has plans to continue to fill in the time gap between the 1940s -1980s hopefully with other heroes. For now there are the upcoming Shang Chi and Eternals films that are going to add more historical context and What If will play out some fun scenarios. So maybe some of these answers may never be answered if not through fanfiction or mere imagination...

[djmarinizelablog]

A Conversation with the Author of City Comma State, kippielovesyou/ForcedSimile

Had a short interview with the author of City Comma State, @kippielovesyou/ForcedSimile and asked her if I could share our conversation online---she said yes!

Did you know that Hange and Levi in her work was based on Spongebob and Squidward's interactions?

Read the entire transcript below:

-------------------------------------

djmarinizela (D): if i may ask, where and how did you learn to write so good? what inspired you to write city comma state?

kippielovesyou (K): i don't mind at all! it's genuinely just years of practice. i've been scribbling stories since kindergarten (i had a long standing multi part series in first grade about all my classmates). i think one thing is certain: having a strong understanding of characters whether you borrow them or they are your own is pretty key.

a lot of points [in Isayama's story] could have been better thought out or tighter. however, we all love his characters. a weak plot (or in the case of city comma state: no plot) can be ignored or forgiven if everyone loves the characters

i'll be honest, i spend a lot of time trying to understand why a character does things or reacts a certain way. and yes, sometimes, that means i act out scenes in my car while driving. it's embarrassing...

there's a lot more to it, but to me that's the most important thing

as far as how city comma state came about: i wanted to do a slow burn romance centered around levihan, but I also wanted to show how all these characters care about and support each other. i knew in the confines of the AoT world, anyone could die at any moment and that didn't work with the softer feelings i wanted people to enjoy. how can you enjoy the friendship between mike and hange if he dies? it's possible, but it upends all the warmth we were enjoying. so i wrote an AU. i wanted to keep levi with a rough background with many walls, and i wanted hange to have her own issues that they can work through together. and i love the idea of them adopting/supporting the 104th kids without the fear of sending them out to war

D: your answer is so profound and helpful, thank you so much! I can honestly say you pretty nailed it when it comes to character development---everyone has a character arc in your fic! [my next question] is about the gender discourse in your story. I know you started City Comma State pretty early in 2014, but even back then, the nonbinary identity wasn't widely known before. How were you able to flesh out the discourse on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum and play it out on the dialogues and backstories?

K: it's pretty funny, a lot of the LGBTQIA+ has always been discussed i my family. we've had gay, lesbian, trans, gnc, bi and asexual people in my family for generations, as far back as the 20s (that we're aware of). hange's gender being debated made it a prime opportunity to write such an experience, some of which is borrowed from my own life. when i read older chapters i see certain slips in dialogue where i could have made an effort to be more neutral. we're in such a binary society that sometimes even if you feel in between, it slips in. in fact, i'm sure some people might take issue with the fact that i stuck with she/her for hange. i'm not sure i'd make a different decision today. i like this version of hange the way she is, and i hope hange's nb/gnc status comes across in more than just pronouns. hange's full identity is so much more than that and that is what i wanted to explore. and i think no matter where you fall on the whole LGBTQIA+ spectrum, you are more than just the label you've chosen. yes, in this story levi is bi/pan. but i don't think he ever says that explicitly, and he avoids labels. it seems fussy to him, which feels levi. discourse would not be his thing. i think even having a debate about whether or not he was bi or pan wouldn't be something he would want to engage in, he just wants to do what he wants. instead it's heavily implied. i think we forget since so many of us experience this discourse online and want to label things that there are people who don't want to involve themselves in it. it goes back to how would this character act. for instance, based on how levi is in canon, i can see many ways to interpret his sexuality. there's cues for a lot of different takes. but levi doesn't seem like the type that would need a definitive label in order to be happy. there's many ways to interpret hange's gender (and i've written several takes, some where they're more insistent on their pronouns), but i think hange's more excited to explore life than worry too much about much about how they're addressed or how someone talks about them. maybe another character might be more caught up in labels but hange and levi not so much

D: No, don't be sorry, I am more than thankful for your answer. I really appreciate it! I don't get to have these kinds of conversations with other writers, so I am grateful for your insights.

K: a really funny anecdote for you: i loosely based the idea of my levihan off of spongebob and squidward. you know, since they start out as neighbors and hange is more invasive than levi is used to

D: that's.... a stretch. but thanks for the tidbit! was the annual star wars contest also something that you do in your family? that part as well as all the geeky references won me over tbh!

K: it was an extremely loose inspiration! but hange mowing her lawn in the middle of the night so levi wouldn't be mad at her is on par with a spongebob move. and um...my family, while they can be a little nerdy, is not nerdy enough to do the star wars tournament! i made that up entirely

i just imagined hange having eccentric family, so they have very unusual traditions that none of the children question

i'll be the first to say a lot of city comma state is unrealistic and a little bit of a domestic fantasy. there's a lot of problems with money, employment and such that hange and levi SHOULD have but that's a little too real and not what i want to be the focus of this story. like hange landing a job that gives her a day off and she doesn't suffer a severe pay cut as a result? unrealistic. but i have other things i want to tackle. plus, in canon we have humans that turn into giants and 3D maneuver gear which would probably kill its user in real life. i think making certain parts of this fanfic a little idealistic is okay

D: are there other works that influence your writing? or authors that inspire you to write?

K: There's too many influences to count. reading is so important and even things that are bad are helpful. i actually was trying to read a YA series that seemed really cool and i had to stop reading because so many things were so annoying (I won't reveal which, since i think it has a small but dedicated fandom and i don't want to rain on their parade, it is purely a taste thing to some degree). instead of being upset and thinking that I wasted my time, i took note of what made me stop reading (that is a long list of things i didn't like so i won't bother to outline each one). even if it's something as small as a fanfiction that you had to click out of, ask yourself why you stopped. Especially with fanfiction: you already like these characters, what you're looking for is usually pretty specific (a pairing, an au, a specific scenario, etc). why, when this author has ticked all your superficial boxes, did you stop reading? and when you love something as yourself why. Ask yourself why you love the source material even! do you really love the plotlines and the world or do you love the characters? Is the dialogue strong? something to also pay attention to: people in general. how do they speak, gestures, facial expressions. really listen to how people talk (Youtube podcasts are really good for this!).

i think people would be surprised, a lot of what i really like to read is very all over. from surrealist novels, to classic literature, to science fiction aimed at children (i'm finally reading animorphs after almost 20 years!). and what i write for original fiction doesn't reflect what i'm probably best known for.

D: thanks for this, Kippie! looking forward to reading more of your works!

K: i'm still amazed at the response! writing is so solitary to me and i don't really look at my numbers. it never occurred to me that people would be discussing my fic!

-------------------------------------

If you haven't read Kippie's Levihan fic yet, here's the link to get started: City Comma State

[anangelwhodidntfall]

Empire records was filmed in Wilmington too? I did not know that. That gives me more reasons to go.

Yes, I live about 4 hours from wilmington. 4 and a half if theres traffic. Hahah.

Jason was in the run to play Eric? Are you for real. No! No! He would never make a good Eric. Why would they even suggest that. Omg no.

Alot of these 80s and 90s movies are coming back to being big. More of the younger generations are getting into it and bringing fanfiction for the movies. That's good tho. Yay more fanfiction. Lol.

Yes, recommend some stories. I love to read.

I love all things horror and Halloweenie. So it fits me perfectly. 😍

Yes, it was they used an actual building for the record store scene and you can take a picture outside of Corey's house! But they covered up the artwork that you have seen on the side of the building in the movie which sucks ;(.

Unfortunately Yes, he was which I didn't understand because I could never see him being the crow-like the crow isn't meant to be buff and all that.

some of my favorite lost boys writers: @theyreonlynoodlesmike, @queenofsantacarla, @darling-disastrous and many more who im blanking on!

Yess I agree! I love to see people's take on these characters and how they write them and what scenarios they put them in!

🔪 we're gonna be great friends then! Because all things horror and halloween is right up my alley.