#tbh that's all probably what made the fandom so prolific

[waitineedaname]

I've been relistening to the homestuck soundtrack album by album while working lately and man. it's reminding me how much I genuinely loved about homestuck, and how that made the aspects of it that sucked so much more frustrating

[akkivee]

hello vee.

@/twogallonhats on twitter made this iceberg, and now i am subjecting you to this. Explain to the best of your knowledge, good luck.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh okay sure

idk why rhyme anima is listed tbh it’s just a zany anime version of hypmic but that very well may be the reason lol like it gave us a man by the name of tom whisper weathercock lol

there’s always a prolific push for your fav to win the drb lol. iirc during the championship round in the 1st drb there was a fan?? fans??? who gave money to some guy with a following to post a video of him asking everyone to vote for mtc lol. jp fans for the second got together and made eng/kor/ch instructions on how to vote in the vr battles it’s a time can’t wait for that to kick off next year 😬

arb is technically not canon and therefore ooc lol

idk what hypmic tictok sounds mean. i can tell you of a few times hypmic was trending on tiktok tho lol

idk if they were even a soundcloud rapper, but some soundcloud rapper fell in love with hypmic and decided to make ichiro his oc/persona and put himself on a team with jyushi and samatoki and they were california division lol

back in 2018???? hypmic posted a christmas video except it was just champagne gold and base hifumi.png in a santa hat slid across the screen truly graphic design is hypmic’s passion lol

i mean there was a brief time there were rp accounts on twt so ig that’s what it

kimura loves black people so much and wants to be black so bad he felt the need to bl@ckface for one of his album drops. fandom asked he take down the posts, he didn’t, fans called him out on it, he blocked them

around the time when there was rumblings that gbr was exiting uhhhhh the eu i think, a dice cosplayer had a video of themselves popping mentos in a coke bottle go viral. someone in british politics used it as a metaphor for whatever stance they had on brexit lol

lol i’m lumping hypstage and hypnama together since i don’t think there’s a real reason they’re listed other than occasionally being points of discussion

hifumi was the original tbh creature

asmr tubers vibe with hypmic characters being their yandere bfs

idk if it’s more than memeing on hitoya but that hitoya card in the pic was clowned on so hard LOL

i couldn’t tell you a specific instance of it but hypmic jank includes frequent misspellings lol

lol i also don’t know if there’s actual controversy behind oridivis besides them getting thanos snapped

*rio voice* curry friday and the mtc seiyuu used to celebrate it lol

there was a collab with some instant curry company (probably called curry meshi lol) and they had the leaders rap a song for it. the songs’ are fun and what’s even funnier is that the song has the leaders sharing this curry and kuukou technically didn’t eat the curry bc it was all gone by the time the cup reached him (and jakurai ate most of it LOL)

i have no fcking clue what weenor busujima is lol

the fact hyprice is a thing is a damn good reason to be here lol. ogs know a hypmic series producer made the joke in 2018 during a hypnama that spawned the concept years later lmao

there was a typo on kuukou’s introductory bio that said he was 68cm LOL

akuma no hana is indeed a song about sex idk what else to tell ya lol

throwback to the hypmic bathtubs they had a live for crazy ass hypmic merch moments lol

the hangout streams are located in this building called mixalive. instead tagging that building’s twt for one of their events, hypnosis flava iirc, they mistakenly tagged a porn twt lol

there was an art trend a few years ago where artists drew their bde faves (and even real people got in on the trend) balancing a shampoo bottle on their big 🍆. ichiro was unfortunately the face of the trend

stage hitoya went viral for that pic used in the iceberg and i had to see randos calling him a two face ass character ONLY HYPMICS ARE ALLOWED TO BULLY HITOYA DAMN YOU

the seiyuu are always getting up to shit backstage lmao tradition is ishiya-san and amasaki-san prowling up on the mtc seiyuu menacingly lmao

if there’s drama or anything of relevance outside of yes stream discords exist, ion know about it lol

a few songs are inspired by/interpolate from other songs. this a normal thing in the music industry (let’s get physical by olivia newton john and physical by dua lipa comes to mind) but hypmic caught a lot of flack for ‘stealing’ from black artists. shinogi dead pools is kendrick lamar’s drank swimming pools bar for bar lol but again, it’s very normal lol the whole kendrick vs drake rap battle that happened this year literally was them using each other’s sound to diss them

some european(?) indie film had an actor wearing ichiro’s jacket

there was a brief trend in jp where they made snow sculptures of their characters as means of attractions and hypmic jumped in on it. it produced the ugliest kuukou known to man he was so unflatteringly scrunckly i loved him LOL

????? bat seiyuu family???? i’m sure what i have in mind is not what they have in mind lol but i mean yeah it’s a running joke that the bat seiyuu consider each other family lol shoutout to sakakihara-san randomly calling hayama-san his ‘onii-chan’ and both hayama-san and sakakihara-san bullying tf outta takeuchi-san by calling him ‘papa’ lol

ariana grande is based about samatoki and there’s proof lol

hypmic vs crsm rap battle was REAL and fumiya wanted to EAT THEM

kamio-san has taken to slapping kuroda-san’s ass and kuroda-san has taken to trying to murder him for it 😌

quite recently lol mtr’s album art was leaked ahead of the hangout stream in a post meant to advertise the fan meeting lol

british dice was a theory i didn’t pay attention to bc i kinda thought just the concept was dumb *wheeze* i think it had something to do with a mistranslation about dice’s father

the rest of that tier i have no fcking clue about lol

in a camera transition during the 9th live, someone’s desktop background was on screen instead of the yknow, livestreaming concert lmao

they got some ddb members to make choreography to move your body til you die!!! i tried i didn’t think it was too bad but the pace of the dance needed to be slowed down eventually lol

if this isn’t poking fun at sensei saying men should automatically know how to rap idk what that is lol

if there’s a trip the mtc seiyuu have taken that stands out from the others, i don’t know about it lol

the hypmic cafe that’s going on rn have these stickers??? standees??? for sale and someone stole all of samatoki’s LOL

[ryanthedemiboy]

20 Questions for fic writers

(I was tagged by @annachibi )

Note: i'm combining answers for all three of my pseuds/both accts

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 56 :)

Ana's response: "18, I'm not very prolific haha"

That's so much! iirc the average person has like 2 fics under 3k total!

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 231,440 :D

3. What fandoms do you write for? Right now it's Fullmetal Alchemist. I may or may not go back to Marvel at some point. And I may move on to another fandom at some point :)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Four of the five are from my Ed is Dying series c: #1, 6, 7, 3. The fifth is an HP fic I wrote in 2016.

5. Do you respond to comments? Yes! It's extremely rare that I don't; only if I have nothing to say.

Ana's answer: "Yes, just about every one! Sometimes I don't if it's been multiple years since I wrote the thing and I don't have much to say back, since I figure some people don't necessarily want the author to respond anyway."

I promise you, almost everyone wants the author to respond! And the ones who don't just aren't going to check them xD

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Oh this is an excellent question. I have to be careful here, because spoilers. The end of the first fic in my spn series ended in a suicide that was unclear that he survived (he did). And then I have the death fic for my Ed is Dying series written, that's angsty af. There's also a fic I wrote recently on my semi-secret AO3 acct that doesn't seem angsty but it really fucking is.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Uhhh... I need to go look.

I forget if Out of the Box (MCU non-sexual age regression) had a happy ending, but basically the whole fic was gentle happiness. Same with Cas and the Bee Bag (spn. This is 9 years old)

I do not appear to have any other fics that are happy. Interesting, neutral, enjoyable, positive, sure. Not happy 😂

8. Do you get hate on fics? Not thus far

9. Do you write smut? Sometimes

10. Do you write crossovers? Not usually. It's very rare that I will. The main one I can think of is unpublished, idk if I even have it tbh — I had to write a crossover fic with A Scarlet Letter for my English class in 11th grade. I chose Doctor Who xD I believe that remains the only fic i've written for doctor who.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that i'm aware of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! It was a blast. I forget why, but I asked my friend not to list me as a co-author.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship? Riza/Al, I think.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? My spn series. I am so many levels of uninterested, and even if I did, i'd have to rewrite it from scratch bc it's not up to par, anymore, and is extremely insensitive in parts (in particular, I have Cas using bible pages as the rolling paper for his weed. He is not xian. That's just what I remember off-hand). All that said, i would love to finish it.

16. What are your writing strengths? Emotion. Hitting the reader where it hurts.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Anything with happiness 😂

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I have done it both ways. And both are kind of cringey for me, when i've written them in the past.

Generally, the best way is to use italics to signify another language, and specify that language, as long as the POV person understands it.

19. First fandom you wrote for? HP

20. Favorite fic you've written? Talk about a good question. Probably one of the kink fics i've written. I love how i've had the characters be with each other, and shown their love for each other. I also love some of the drabbles i've made — it's hard to get a fic to exactly a word count, and getting an entire fic in so few words is a massive challenge, and very rewarding.

I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you want to do this, go for it!

Blank questions to easily copy/paste (incl on the app) below.

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 2. What's your total AO3 word count? 3. What fandoms do you write for? 4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? 5. Do you respond to comments? 6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? 7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? 8. Do you get hate on fics? 9. Do you write smut? 10. Do you write crossovers? 11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? 12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? 14. What's your all-time favorite ship? 15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? 16. What are your writing strengths? 17. What are your writing weaknesses? 18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? 19. First fandom you wrote for? 20. Favorite fic you've written?

[peachonified]

tagged by @mayalaen and I couldn't resist :)

20 questions for fic writers

First, my AO3

How many works do you have on AO3?

202 - that was more than I expected!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,067,968

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mainly Kuroko no Basket and Haikyu!! I was very prolific in Supernatural (and I feel the urge returning tbh), and I keep umming and ahhing about writing in BNHA. In my past I have also written for Glee, Sherlock, and Harry Potter. And that's like, one fic for each fandom xD

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

To Make A Nest A Traditional Family Sammy's Little Boy Not Meant to Be This Omega is Mine Unsurprisingly, they are all SPN fics!

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

I do! I love responding to comments. Sometimes it takes me years (I have honestly responded to comments that are 6 years old) but to me, it's about community, and I won't to share what I love - which is my fic! It's like I comment on peoples art and stories cos I want them to feel the love, and I love that you can become friends when they respond back! that is how I've made most of my fandom friends, and (especially) in this time of reduced interactions, I want to keep it going.

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

I don't do angst. I don't. But it's probably Sammy's Little Boy. That is one of the few true non-cons I have written and it doesn't end with it being good.

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

They pretty much all have happy endings. Like.. that's my jam. but I guess Friday Nights (KagaKuro/AoKi) is pretty happy and Handkerchief Hijinks (AkaBoKuroo) Great and Striking Actions which Dazzle the Eyes (Destiel) is like, the funnest sort of crack fic but honestly a lot of what I write is pretty light.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

oh gosh yes! I once got death threats and it was awful. In retrospect they were an anon coward, but wow that was an experience. I think that antis are more vocal but they've been there forever. There's an element of such an idiot who can't not like something without informing everyone.

9. Do you write smut?

*nods* I do

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

I have never written one, but I have one started at the moment! I have the first chapter and some general plot points. It's a KnB/HQ dystopian d/s verse. I think it's really cool, and I am SO TEMPTED to post the first chapter, but it can take a while to get back to some of my fics...

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I have. A couple of times. It's the height of rudeness tbh. Just write your own stuff.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes. A few.

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

I wrote a few years ago but haven't in a while. I'd like to do it again!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

I don't have one. I don't! I have characters who I ship with everyone (Kise, Bokuto, Dean) and I love them with everyone! I lean towards polyships because I think that everyone should be happy. At the moment I am definitely feeling AkaKi... but I still Kise is everyone princess. Dean is everyone princess.... slight wincestiel leaning, and Bo is (you guessed it) everyone princess. If I end up dabbling in bnha Kirishim will be... is everyone princess.

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

I think I'll finish them all.

16. What are your writing strengths?

World building. Humour. Polydynamics. all things I want to read. Honestly I'd write less if I could read more!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

finishing things. omg is finishing things hard!

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

I add japanese words to things. for the japenese characters. like where I don't like the direct translation, or the word conveys much more than the english translation.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I think it was Glee?

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

I refuse to choice. I love them all. I especially love the polyships in d/s and omegaverse settings.

honestly, I tag anyone who is interested! this was a fun one, cos there was lots of opinion, not just stats!

[mannatea]

Every role in every fandom you've ever been in! GO!!!!!!

Uhhhhh, I’ll try.

Dragon Ball Z: Reader for some years, then writer. Someone in this fandom illustrated one of my ‘fics (the first time that had ever happened to me!) so that was a fun experience.

InuYasha: Obsessive writer with many WIPs. Met my husband through this fandom in 2003 so it’s special. Eventually I actually stopped writing for the fandom and went back to read. I still have fond memories of a specific AU writer (one of the stories they wrote was Bottled Genius).

Rurouni Kenshin: Obsessive writer with many WIPs, most of which were REALLY out there. "Stomach-chewing Demons" still haunts me to this day. (IYKYK.) Also embarrassing? I wrote a lot of poetry here.

G Gundam: Casual enjoyer and fic writer. Unfortunately I still wrote poetry, including a particularly stupid piece about Argo's eyebrows. I have to be kind to this fandom though, it started my tradition of writing "A Kitten for" 'fics.

Fire Emblem: Obsessive writer who wrote hundreds of fics for this fandom over the course of a decade. EXTREMELY prolific but because I wasn't picky about what I wrote I just posted anything that came to mind. I was super super annoying about my ships too. (RIP to everyone who dealt with me and still talks to me from those days.)

Tales of Symphonia: Eager writer in early 2005 who made a lot of friends early and was active on the Namco forums. Mostly flipped between writing humor and angst. I'm haunted by my humor contributions to this fandom. This was my first foray into dark fiction too (we all had our cringe years please be nice to me). When I got back into the fandom some years later I focused more on angst. The third time I was in the fandom I did more reading/commenting and ended up doing RP (as Regal ♥). This time I haven't settled into a role yet, but hopefully it's as the new R/R writer idk.

Star Wars: I read fics for this fandom for years and only ever wrote one. I was heavy into the EU back in like 2002 onward and would reread the Thrawn trilogy and duology on REPEAT. To this day Luke and Mara are the only enemies to lovers pairing I like.

Fushigi Yuugi / Ranma 1/2 / Trigun: Fringe enjoyer, though I did write a fic for FY and Ranma. Don't worry, they both sucked ass.

Pokémon: I used to write AAML and random sad things for no reason. Mostly a casual game enjoyer though. When S&M came out I was the resident fallershipping writer and an RPer until I got bored.

Rose of Versailles: The first regular English writer for the fandom who then dragged a bunch of other people in too, heralding an interesting time for the thirsty fans desperate for fic. This was probably my favorite fandom I was ever in; everybody was just so nice. I wrote my first sex scene for this fandom lmao.

Ouran High School Host Club: Casual writer. This is the fandom where I first wrote a "twist ending" fic and won a contest on LJ with it.

Warcraft: Salty healer gamer. Usually a discipline priest for some reason. (It's the shields. I love the idea of a healer that protects/prevents damage in the first place.) I have tons and tons of OCs in this universe for literally no reason. I've also written a few fics over the years, mostly about characters nobody cares about.

Gilmore Girls: I watched this as it was airing and would talk about it at work with a guy I worked with who watched the new episodes with his wife every week. I wrote a fic but mostly preferred to simply watch it.

Road to Avonlea: Avid viewer, obsesser, and lover of this series. I love love love the characters and the character development and almost all the storylines given to the cast. I only ever wrote one 'fic because this is the kind of series you just don't feel needs a lot of extra stuff.

Kaze Hikaru: Mostly just enjoy the series tbh. I haven't finished it, I just buy my latest manga every year and suffer with the knowledge that death is imminent.

Harry Potter: Got into this late, liked only two characters enough to write about them, disappeared almost instantly again from the fandom.

Full Metal Alchemist: Like Road to Avonlea this series just doesn't need me to write for it. It stands alone very well. Casual enjoyer.

Frozen: I DON'T KNOW I DON'T KNOW I DON'T KNOW. This movie touched me in my soul and meant a lot to me, what can I say. I hardly EVER see movies in theater and I went back more than once to see this one. Elsa was just so relateable to me. I wrote 6 fics somehow and also made some friends.

Attack on Titan: My obsession for writing for this series came out of aBSOLUTELY NOWHERE and decimated me and probably many friendships of years gone by just because I could literally not stop writing stuff. I wrote 100 fics while I was in the fandom and made many friends and acquaintances so I can't regret the time I spent there, even though the last few years were really fuckin' rough. I think there was something really fresh about the 2014 vibe in the fanbase that made it a fun and exciting place to be. Everyone was speculating and having a good time writing about their blorbos back then; it was contagious! This is where I cemented myself as a rarepair enjoyer too because I'm an idiot. (Gelyn. ♥)

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun: Casual enjoyer who wrote a couple of fics for some reason I no longer remember.

Psycho Pass: I needed a new obsession, I got it. The second season sucked so much though, that it made it hard to stay in the fandom, and also the vibe there was kind of bad. Fun while it lasted I guess. I only wrote 8 fics.

When Calls the Heart: What's this Hallmark shit doing here anyway... LOL. I grew up reading Janette Oke's books so seeing a series on Netflix based off of one of her novel series HIT ME LIKE A BRICK and I got a bit obsessed, at least until things fell apart in Season 5. I cared most about characters that felt the least liked by the fans AND the writers so it didn't feel like continuing to write for it was worth my time. 11 stories was enough.

I'm probably forgetting something because I've been in a lot of fandoms, but these are the ones that were more serious, at least to some degree. If I wrote even one fic you know I cared. LOL

[arofili]

how’d u get into writing? like, writing fic and being part of the silm community, being Known, that stuff? i’m really new to being a silm cc and i’d love to know ur advice! also: how’d u build up the confidence to start posting meta/hcs? bc i have a Lot of hcs and meta ideas but also i’m really anxious abt posting them bc yknow anxiety is like that

these are some great questions, anon! I’m gonna go through them one by one :)

how’d u get into writing?

not to be like, super cliche, but I’ve...kind of always been a writer? as long as I can remember I’ve been telling stories, and when I was too young to read or write I would dictate them to my mom, who would type them up for me and help me choose clipart illustrations to accompany them. when I got old enough I would always be writing; I attempted my first novel at age 9, and while that never really went anywhere I did finish the darn thing and it had some pretty sophisticated plot twists for a 9-year-old!

like, writing fic

around the same time I got into fandom! I was deep into Warrior cats (like. really deep) and I believe I started writing my first fics when I was like? 10 or 11? my memory is kind of fuzzy on the order of things, but I know I got an account on the Warriors forums when I was 9, and that I was already posting my fic there when I made my FFN account. I believe I was 12 when that happened, but who knows. I haven’t the faintest idea of what happened with those forums, but uhhh pretty much all of my Warriors fic is still up on FFN lmao. you could probably find that if you want to but um...maybe don’t?

my first Big Fic was a self-insert of...my entire 5th/6th grade class into the then-current timeline of the Warriors books...well. I honestly think that might still be my most popular fic of all time l m a o though I try not to think about it because Hashtag Cringe. though as much as I look back on that time with a “yikes,” I am very grateful for the Warriors fandom in a way? that place was so accepting and encouraging of OCs, of AUs, of completely disregarding canon, of worldbuilding that is completely alien from canon - it was a fantastic sandbox to begin with, there were so many ways to write stories and practically all of them were accepted and had fellow fans invested in them!

and being part of the silm community, 

soooo I wrote Warriors fic until my freshman year of high school (wow sdjfhkdsjfh), which was when BOTFA came out, and I was absolutely wrecked by the ending and immediately started writing my own fixit fic. I was also super hooked on Kiliel! so that was my intro to the Tolkien fandom; and simultaneously, I joined tumblr, and, well, the rest is history tbh.

I honestly do not remember when I first read the Silm, but I kind of got into the more obscure parts of the Tolkien fandom through fandom osmosis, and I do have a vague memory of doodling the Finwean family tree in geometry class so it might have been later on in freshman year? that was also the same time I was having my Queer Awakening, and Russingon definitely contributed to me unlearning my internalized queerphobia, so probably around then.

anyway - queer awakening, tumblr, Tolkien, transitioning from FFN to AO3 - all of that was happening around the same time. I know I dipped my toes in the Silm fandom then, but I was still primarily a Hobbit fic writer focusing on Kiliel. toward the end of high school I kind of shifted to LOTR and (qp) Gigolas...but somehow the Silm fandom is the most active of the Big Three within the Tolkien fandom, and I was getting dragged further and further in.

it wasn’t until @backtomiddleearthmonth 2019, my freshman year of college, that I really dove into writing Silm fic! I picked some Silm-specific bingo cards and never looked back :D that was really not all that long ago but I am obsessed in a way I don’t really remember being even with TH/LOTR, I obviously cannot see the future but I anticipate hanging out here for a long time. the Silm fandom is great overall and there’s just so much material to work with!! <3

being Known, that stuff?

so I don’t really have a whole lot of context on how “well known” I am in the fandom?? definitely within the past year and a half or so I’ve noticed that I like, get asks like this, and get a significant amount of notes on my posts, and I’ve made a lot of fandom friends especially since I joined some Silm servers on Discord (hmu if you want invites; I’m on the SWG server and 2 general Silm servers and the Russingon server) this past year. and I have 3,000 followers as of this month - and while ever since I hit 1k I don’t particularly pay attention to my follower count I can definitely say that I have more engagement now than I used to! but it took me a long time to build this “audience,” I suppose; I’ve been around the Tolkien fandom since late 2014, so nearly 6 years of this, lol.

really the best way to build a following, in my experience, is to just post a lot of stuff. when I started making edits I got a lot more engagement, because for a long time I would post one every day! (I made them in batches and queued them; I didn’t actually make one every day lol...and now I’m too busy to do that, so I just make edits for events and whenever I feel like it) And I have [checks ao3] 145 works in the Silm fandom as of today - I’m fairly prolific! I’ve come to generally expect 3-10 comments on most of my oneshots, which is a lot more than I used to have back in the day. consistency and quantity are more likely to attract people to your work - and quality, of course.

also: how’d u build up the confidence to start posting meta/hcs?

I’ve been writing since I was very young, and I’ve been writing fic for like...11 years? I think? in that time I’ve produced a lot of garbage, but imo most of that was in my Warrior cats phase, so I came into the Tolkien fandom with confidence in myself and my writing. I’m also working on original fiction on the side (I hope to eventually become a published fantasy author, but right now school takes up most of my time that I don’t devote to fandom, which gives me more immediate gratification and also is just Very Fun) and I know I’m a good writer.

basically, I’ve been doing this for like...half my life, and I’m still fairly young, so I’ve had time to build up my skill and confidence and I know I’m only going to get better with time. you will get better with practice. like I said, I’ve written a lot of terrible stuff, and it’s only through sucking for a long time that I’ve gotten to the point I am now. and I am far from perfect; I know I still have lots of room to grow!

for meta and headcanons specifically, I started with writing fic, and then when I didn’t think I could stretch something into an entire fic I would just make a hc post. I have a vivid memory of writing my first meta in a notebook during driver’s ed because it was so goddamn boring and I had Thoughts about Tauriel and Thranduil!

in my experience, meta comes from having Opinions and wanting to share them and most importantly to back them up - you need to have sources! you need to have reasons! you need to have justification! otherwise it’s not meta, it’s a headcanon or an AU. which is fine!! I love hc/AU!!! but they are not the same as meta, and I’m a stickler for being accurate when it comes to meta. if you have sources and shit to back you up, that will help you build the confidence to share your meta.

sharing disinformation and passing it off as meta instead of just coming out and saying this is a headcanon/baseless theory/AU or whatever is such a fandom pet peeve of mine; it’s not bad for something to not be Accurate! you just have to have that disclaimer - and even when you’re writing meta, you’re offering an interpretation of the text, and you need to acknowledge that other interpretations also exist and are valid.

um. I hope this answers your questions? and sorry for basically word-vomiting my entire life story, lol. this post got long; the main reason I’ve written so much fic is because I really just cannot shut up for the life of me. sooo if you can tear of that filter of being shy and just. say shit. you can go so far~!

OH and one more thing - I can’t believe I almost forgot this - but part of being a writer is participating in the community. this is code for LEAVE A DAMN COMMENT IF YOU LIKE A FIC. that’s how I made most of my fandom friends before Discord! I follow @ao3feed-silmarillion and stalk that blog for new Silm fics; I read the ones that interest me and comment on them.

I know this is not really the most common way for folks to find fic but it’s so rewarding to interact with new fic, new writers, new commentors, new stories - you can find gems that don’t rise to the top of the kudos/bookmark lists; you become friends with your fellow writers; you can watch people grow and change; you support smaller content creators. yeah, you might not be getting Just The Best Stuff, but it’s so so so worth it!!

and if you make friends in the comment section of other people’s fic - I guarantee you some of them will go to your AO3 profile and check out your fic, too! and they’ll leave comments! this is a fic community, and that’s what I cherish about fandom most of all, tbh.

anyway - again - sorry for rambling so much, but I hoped this helped! feel free to send in another ask, or to come talk to me off anon if you’d like! and definitely send me your stuff if/when you decide to share it; I would love to support you!!! <3

[national-nobody-writes]

2020 Creator Wrap

2020 Creator Wrap: Favorite Works

I was tagged by the oh so talented @irolltwenties!

Rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (or so) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought to the world in 2020. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

I’m not a particularly prolific writer (WIPs for days, but completed projects? Not so much). Somehow in this hell year though, I did manage to complete more fics than in any previous year for a total of seven new works (~49k words, all on ao3), plus a chunky chap of a long running WIP (~20k words) so I’m actually pretty damn proud of myself! I also made some new fandom friends in 2020 which has easily been one of the biggest delights of the year & has definitely helped my creative momentum, so ty all for that. <3

Counting down from 5, here are my favs:

5. Downtime

I have endless love for JayRoy and it felt so good to finally finish something for them for once this year! All of my past WIPs primarily focused on them ended up firmly in my graveyard folder, including the fic that this one shot was originally meant to be connected to. I liked the way this turned out well enough to clean it up and post it on its own though, so at least now I can say that I have something published for them at last.

(Also it got me back into the JayRoy headspace enough to outline a whole YJ/Earth16 JayRoy fic that I’m excited to start drafting in 2021, so we’ll see where that goes...)

2.3k NSFW; A mix of playful sweet and roughness, just like them.

4. Mirror Image

Bluepulse Week really saved me this year in terms of forcing me to just write, damn it! Did I finish all the prompts this year? Nope. Did it get me to complete a handful of fics that I ended up really loving? Yes. This was one of them.

This fic zoomed into existence entirely out of necessity as an alt idea to a prompt that I had a much longer idea for, but didn’t have time to complete. It then got a positive enough reception that I decided to turn it from a crack-adjacent, passable one-shot to a slightly more developed two-shot by request of one of my commenters. Really, it was writing that second chapter that ended up endearing the fic to me.

6.3k Humor, time travel shenanigans & accidental dating. This fic is the sweetness of teenage crushes, the confusing mess of discovering your sexuality, & laughter with your best friend.

3. Soft Wesper One Shots

Would you look at that, another nsfw piece. Could it be that I’m starting to get to the point where I can look back at completed nsfw fics without cringing terribly? Love that for me.

This fic took me by surprise, tbh. I wouldn’t consider myself a part of the grisaverse fandom (I’m utterly ambivalent toward the OG trilogy & have no plans to read them), but I did fall deeply in love with the whole Six of Crows gang earlier this year to the point of having quite the book hangover afterward, unable to pick up anything else except related fanfic for a couple weeks straight. These fluffy, nsfw scenes were born out of that, and I was pleasantly surprised to see such a positive response to them in the comments. The whole SoC gang has my heart, but the dynamic between Jesper and Wylan in particular got my writing fingers itching.

3.7k Domestic, post-canon fluff & tender sex with flirty Jesper & blushing Wylan abound.

2. Stick With Me

Ohh, I still get warm fuzzies thinking about this fic! If I’m only low-key proud of the first three on this list, this is one I’m legitimately very proud of. I had this idea on the docket already from a convo with @ivyxwrites early this year (or maybe last year? who knows, time means nothing anymore) but used Bluepulse Week as the excuse to finally get started, and I ended up adoring the process of writing it far more than I anticipated.

As much as I love planning out meticulously crafted, plotty stories, sometimes all you want to do is pick some well-loved tropes out of a hat instead and run with them (in this case: stuck in a cabin, only one bed, & heated argument leading to confession). It was freeing to just mess around and have fun with this fic, knowing pretty much right from the get-go how I wanted it to unfold and seeing it so vividly in my mind. It also probably helped that I was writing it for Ivy; it’s much easier for me to stay motivated when creating directly for my friends.

Finishing this was also such a serotonin-filled burst of pure victory for me since, as previously stated, I’m terrible at finishing projects--particularly multi-chap fics, particularly within a decent timeframe.

25.5k A showcase of the essence of what I love about the best friends-to-lovers dynamic. Part character study, part wires getting crossed & uncrossed, and whole idiots to lovers. This fic is the warmth in the pit of your stomach from a yearning made real & the sudden clarity of realizing what you were looking for had already been there all along.

1. The Rest Pt 1: Delicate (Remember Me Chap 4)

Oh, Remember Me. Of everything I’ve ever written, this story remains the one I’m most proud of and certainly the closest to my heart (not to mention the longest running, whoops). The first iteration of the beginning of this story was actually drafted back in 2017, but I walked away from it for a couple of years before deciding to dust it off and try again. It has spiraled into something far bigger in scope than I originally planned for, but I’ve come to love the path it’s led me down so far, and finishing this whopping 20k chunkster of a chapter was like breathing a huge (if temporary) sigh of relief.

This chap was particularly cathartic to write because it allowed for a number of convos between the boys that had really needed to happen, and was finally the ‘getting together’ moment the fic had been building toward for a while. It’s also so sappy I could die, but I will not be apologizing for that, lol. I was really hoping to get Chap 5 up this year as well, but y’know. Sometimes things just don’t work out like you plan for and that’s okay. 

Chap 5 does have 17k done already (with prob another 5-8k still to go) & I’m itching to share it, but no sense in rushing if the end result would suffer for it. Luckily, everyone in comments has been kind enough to beat me over the head with ‘take your time, we don’t mind/we’ll still be here!!!’ which I’m immensely grateful for. So, at least the pressure to hurry up and get it done is purely self-inflicted.

Of all my works, this fic has not only gotten the most passionate responses, but has also been the main gateway for me to interact with other bluepulse creators, which has been a real joy. Nothing brightens my day like the essays people leave me over there from time to time after discovering the fic. That kind of engagement is the highest praise, & responding is very self indulgent fun for me (bc, clearly, I could go on and on about this fic & YJ in general forever).

54.8k total so far (WIP). Bart & Jaime’s relationship journey from beginning to ‘current day’ (aka the moment the fic begins), using amnesia/memory restoration as a framing device. The high highs and low lows of first love, navigating a 3 yr age difference, and the long, winding road from best friends to lovers as the years roll on. Slow-burn-adjacent (in terms of both the boys’ relationship to each other and reader’s relationship to the fic bc of how long I take between goddamn updates).

Tagging @ivyxwrites, @incorrectbatfam, @paintingwithdarkness, @bluepulsebluepulse

[bisluthq]

I just read the Jaylor Timeline and it definitely feels like they're pretty real. But some thoughts, would love your feedback.

- I'm sure Taylor is happy, but it seems like, extra sometimes. Hopefully she's not pushing the Happy Vibes so hard cause she is trying to prove she's ok, you know what I mean?

- T and J spend wayyy more time together than the Kaylor/Gaylor fandoms admit to. Like, even their families seem pretty tight. It seems hard to imagine Taylor could balance all that + megastar career + sekret loverr. +1 for Jaylors.

- What does Patrick A do that he's so engrained in this Hollywood crew too? Was Joe's family that well connected early on?

- Maybe Taylor and Joe met on like Raya or it was a PR setup and that's why it's all so awkward at the start. They can't publicly admit that.

- Is this Taylor's first real straight relationship? Why is she so extra about it? Good for her, he's a tall glass, but I both believe it's legit AND think there's something they're hiding... What do you think?

That's all I can remember for now heh I'll probably send more anons as I process the Big 3 timelines we've recently been blessed with (4 if I include Tayliz).

Thanks! There's some amazing Gaylor blogs these days, you're making this fun again!

Thanks for sending this through! So in my opinion:

- lmao maybe they did meet on Raya!!!!!! That REALLY would explain how weird they both are about it. And tbh it’d make more sense for the “she made fun of him” story??? Like it’s such a deeply profoundly dick move in person but making fun of someone on an app is pretty standard lmaooooo. I BELIEB MY DUDE. I REALLY BELIEB.

- Taylor is extra and over dramatic. Like she’s a highkey weird person and she “never leaves well enough alone” and she’s generally hectic. I think her being noisy about someone she loves is very in character and doesn’t stem from how she is trying to prove something - it’s just who she is. Also I think Joe is the first person she has been with who is fundamentally okay with her extra-ness and allows her to be as hectic and weird and quirky as she wants which is why she’s so 😍 Like that’s essentially the premise of the Delicate MV right? She can be herself with him and he doesn’t get scared off.

- Yea I’ve been saying this on here lmao. Like for me the number of organic sightings and just random shit they’ve done together is pretty undeniable. BUT they could be platonic soulmates and be fucking other people WE DON’T KNOW FOR SURE.

- Joe’s dad is a pretty prolific filmmaker so meeting Iris Apatow isn’t like an odd thing to happen to Patrick. They’re rich and in entertainment (for a number of generations now).

- I don’t think it’s her first straight relationship tbh but I think it’s by far her longest and most secure one and I think that does make her more extra about it. Also Joe is okay with her talking about it whereas a bunch of her exes didn’t like it.

[aibhilin-atibeka]

50 questions for fic readers 27, 28, 35 :-)

I got an ask! 

It kinda deteriorated into a long post. I made a cut so it won’t clog your dashboard ;) For those of you interested, the answers can be found underneath, as per usual:

Yay, here goes!

27.) Name a type of fic that you wish there was more of.

Time Travel Fics!!! (and also fluff, but there can never be enough of that, methinks...) Fics focusing on languages/language troubles come in as a close second though.

As for One Piece, I’ve got a few ideas of what fics are still missing... ;D Here it is: Cora lives AU fics, Law & Heart Pirates domestic fluff, Ace lives AU, Ace adopts younger Luffy AU, Ace & Sabo adopt younger Luffy AU, Homing and his family live AU, competent!Buggy stories ( @stereden thanks, I’ve caught the bug), Law goes back in time AU... XD there’s a few? I can’t quite decide, tbh...

28.) Who are your favorite fanfiction author(s)?

In general or for One Piece? (I’m in an ongoing One Piece phase atm, so there....) - oh boy, slight warning, this list will be getting long... but well. :D you asked for it!

One Piece authors that I am a huge fan of atm:

stereden - prolific author, 'nuff said. :D

Depths - I adore their storywriting!

Origamidragons - lovely writing, seriously!

Sanjuno - I love their take on time travel fanfics ^_^

Bedlamwolf - their ideas are out of the box, really interesting to read!

RikoJasmine - love their time travel fanfics, both for YOI and for OP!

MaiKusakabe - any and all of their OP fanfics are great, tbh ;)

Gallus - they offer an intriguing take on OP

sjojo - awesome author, kudos to them!

TsarinaTorment - I adore their Heart Pirates content!

I’m sure I missed a lot, but this list is just the ones off the top of my head that I can remember rn XD

In general:

Icka M Chif - they are an amazingly creative author; I’m a big fan of their Magic Kaito fanfics, although they’ve written in quite a few fandoms ever since I discovered them!

astolat - awesome writer, been in fandom for eternity, it feels like.

ADreamingSongbird - some of the best Yuuri On Ice content out there, imo

Ysabet - lots of great Magic Kaito content here!

Again, those are just the authors I remember off the top of my head, chances are I missed at least a hundred more I could look up and add if I wanted to spend hours on responding to this ask XD

35.) Name all the Work in Progress fics that you are currently reading.

Woah, that’s a few. XD Here we go:

Tales from the Heart by TsarinaTorment - I opened it once and got hooked; am rereading chapters atm. Afaik, it’s still a WIP. ;)

Watashitachi wa Roger kaizoku desu (we still stand proud) by stereden - quite literally at that, because I’m creating the podfic for this one.

of pop greens and tangerines by ココダ - coco (arurun) - it keeps updating currently, so I keep reading :D

Within Risk of Reason by Depths  - I keep coming back to this one, it’s awesome

Trapped in Eternity by Skyleaf19 - same as with the one above

Scales and Whitebeards by BlueMoonChaos - amazing AU which I reread every week at least once, it feels like

The Beginning of a Certain End by codedredalert - awesomely written, I keep rereading the first two chapters on a loop

Lionheart by cyan96 - I’m a fan of Time Travel AUs, did I say? XD

Anything from the OP Bigbang 2019/2020 Collection that’s most probably being updated as you read this, as well as anything I can get my hands on that’s new in the Women! Wanted Zine Flashfics Collection.

Through Troubled Waters by yours truly XD In my defense, it is one long fic and I keep checking details for things I may have forgotten to mention or should mention later on... also, I quite like what I’ve written so far~

I keep rereading some of my other fanfics, too, on occasions that I wanna know what I’ve written so far or when I need a laugh or a quick piece of entertainment... usually makes me wanna write more for those - it’s more often than not my own WIPs or the stories that I am most proud of that I keep coming back to. ;)

If you think that’s a lot of tabs open, you haven’t seen my mobile’s browser...

Should any of you be interested in more, here are the questions :D

Thank you @chromatic-lamina for asking me! ‘twas fun~ Cheers!

This post was put online on the 01.06.2020.

[riversonfire]

HUTAZONE Album Review bc I can

01 // HUTAZONE - of course it starts sexy with his vocals an a smooth r&b beat to match. love it already. THEN he raps and it. is. fantastic. it's what I call "aggressive" rap lol. it's a prelude track and lasts under 2 mins but it's a fave. welcome to my zone indeed 🔥

02 // YA - tbh the music video for this song is what puts it over the top. the song itself is good, very up tempo, fits in very well with the other songs on my workout music playlist lol, but the music video is lit. he includes the lyrics "introducing redman tour" and I was just lmao. I really was never fond of his blond hair but for his huta look, it goes perfectly and yes, *sigh* it's grown on me. anyway, please do watch the mv and steam the song 💙

03 // 너도? 나도! (Feat. 소연 of (여자)아이들) - as someone who's not familiar with g(idle), hearing soyeon on this track (albeit very briefly) was interesting. she has what all good rappers have- a distinctive voice/sound. overall, this is probably the song I like the least but hey, that's just me.

04 // 아무렇지 않은 척 - as I suspected after hearing the audio snippet for the album, I love this song. even before looking up the lyrics, you can feel the angst in this track. it's super easy to listen to. it reminds me of "beautiful pain" only because of the recurring pain theme lol. look up the lyrics, you'll know what I mean :P

05 // 꿈인가 봐요 (Duet. 육성재 of 비투비) - anyone who's seen/heard the video of sungjae and minhyuk singing "doll" together from the I will your melody series way back when, knows how great the two of them sounded together. this song is no exception. the chorus is SO gorgeous and dreamy. it's a true duet too, not just a pop up of sungjae's voice here and there. I not so secretly hope to see them perform this song on stage together someday ;__;

06 // 낙화(落花) (Interlude) - um. this might be my favorite track on the album?? it's 1:40 long but omg it's so musically nuanced and complex. it starts quietly, calmly and gradually builds to a desperately beautiful crescendo that quickly dissipates. it's rather hypnotizing. it also reminds me of how brother act was put together to tell a story and feel like a play, because the rest of the songs from this point on feel more like minhyuk and less like huta if that makes sense.

07 // Fallin' - the 2nd cheeriest song of the bunch! but it isn't really my style so I don't have much to say about it :(

08 // ALL DAY (Korean Ver.) - well the original japanese version is my favorite minhyuk song of all time so why would this be any different? but I've read the translations of both versions aaannnddd yeahhhhh. this version is the g rated one lol.

09 // Purple Rain (Feat. CHEEZE) - ah, an oldie but a goodie (if you want to consider this song old lol). my one track mind is reminded of hyunsik singing along to this in one of his vlives ^^

10 // 오늘 밤에 (With Melody) - this is the cheeriest song on the album :) being the sweetheart that he is, he wrote this for the fandom <3 it describes his relationship with melodies. lyrics here.

11 // Waiting For You - this one feels like one of the more meaningful songs since it's the last track and it expresses the sentiment of "still waiting for you" as his enlistment date draws closer. the final lyrics are "I have to let you go now" and I just want to cry my eyes out 😭 in the same way fans will wait for him, he too waits for the time when he's reunited with us again. we literally just said farewell to changsub I'm not ready to let him go :((((((((

of the three album cover pics minhyuk posted today, the one I included here is my favorite bc it perfectly portrays the nature of this album. it's both huta and minhyuk. HUTAZONE establishes him as a true all around artist- composer, lyricist, rapper, vocalist, dancer, visual. I'm always sad when people mention btob's composer line and only include hyunsik and ilhoon. minhyuk may not be as prolific as ilsik in terms of number of songs he's made for the group, but he is equally as talented.

he's got three weeks left, y'all. and he's spending two of those weeks promoting "YA" and the album. his two night solo concert takes place three days before his enlistment date. and he even said in his LieV that he's doing all this for the fans so please, let's give minhyuk all our love and support 💙💙💙

[aroworlds]

Aro-Spec Artist Profile: Alex

Today I have the delight of introducing Alex, better known to aro-spec Tumblr as @arotaro and @mutant-jojos!

Alex is a bisexual, half-Puerto Rican multi-disciplinary aromantic artist and creative with severe ADHD. You’ll find her prolific fanworks on AO3 as EmeraldTrash666, writing primarily for the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fandom. Her bold, colourful art for the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Fullmetal Alchemist, Hetalia, Pokemon and Vocaloid fandoms is also available on Redbubble under the name StellaHagane.

She writes, she creates digital art and she dabbles in music, sewing and fashion design, single-handedly proving that there’s no such thing as too much creative awesome for any one aromantic!

With us Alex talks about finding the word aro, the power of fandom and creative fanworks, her love of aro Jotaro, the challenges of creating with ADHD, the struggles of being an aro gen writer in fandom and the importance of expressing our aro headcanons. Everything she says is absolutely on point, so please let’s give her all our love, encouragement, gratitude, kudos and follows for taking the time to explore what it is to be aromantic and creative.

Can you share with us your story in being aro-spec?

I guess in some ways my “story” starts out pretty typical. Got older, kept waiting for my First Crush™, never got it, started worrying and trying to force myself to develop crushes. I actually was in a relationship with another girl on a forum I was part of as a teenager, but eventually I realized that I didn’t really like her romantically, and the relationship started to become really unpleasant for me. I eventually felt so miserable that I didn’t even want to talk at her at all, even though we were close friends, but I didn’t want to break up with her - partly because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, partly because we were everyone’s “OTP” and I didn’t want my friends to hate me for ruining that. But eventually I did break up with her, and I’m happy to say she took it with grace and we’re still close friends today! (She’s ace and a great writer/artist herself, too!)

I was part of a very nice LGBTQ+ group as a teenager, but I could never figure out my identity. I felt really ashamed and alone. Whenever I brought up how messed up I felt because I’d never had a crush on anyone, everyone was like, “Oh, sounds like you must be asexual!”, but I knew I wasn’t, and that was the worst part. Even though I knew aromanticism was a thing, nobody ever talked about it. It was only ever in the context of aroaces, so I didn’t know I was aro. I thought I must have had some sort of mental illness or something, but certainly not a legitimate orientation, nothing to be proud of like everyone else.

During that time, I found myself connecting on a deep emotional level to characters like Alphonse Elric, Fujiwara no Sai, the X-Men in general (although I’ve been an X-Men fan since I was literally a baby), basically anyone who was somehow “different” from the rest of humanity, even though I never understood why, since I was a fairly privileged kid who had never experienced much bullying or anything. Weirdly enough, it was Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure that helped me realize I was aro and come to terms with it; I saw an interview with Hirohiko Araki, the author of JJBA, where he was asked what type of girls Jotaro Kujo likes, and replied that he didn’t think Jotaro liked girls. The obvious interpretation would be that Jotaro’s gay, but somehow, one way or another, I decided to go with the idea that Jotaro’s aromantic. Jotaro also happened to be a character I really related to for reasons I couldn’t quite articulate, so around the time I was 18 I put two and two together and was like ... oh shit…

Please click keep reading to continue Alex’s story!

Can you share with us the story behind your creativity?

I’ve always been weird in the way I’m very creative, but tend to kinda bounce around from hobby to hobby. Other people draw, or write, or sing, while I draw for a month, and then write for a month and sew for a week and play video games for a week, and then I draw some more, and then I try out something completely new, and then I write again. I think it must be an ADHD thing, idk. In any case, I’ve just always been really passionate about making stuff, whatever that stuff happens to be.

I’ve also always been very much fandom-oriented. Ever since I was a toddler, I used to dictate fanfiction to my mom (back then it usually involved Winnie the Pooh, the Powerpuff Girls, Godzilla, and my dog). I mostly draw fanart. I find that I’m not really capable of writing original stories, but I’m great at getting fanfics in character, and I love writing them. I love taking stories I already love and reinterpreting them, seeing what it would be like if the characters were put into different situations, etc.

Because of my ADHD, I really struggle with actually finishing things. I try really really hard, I really do, and I’ve been trying to push myself even harder these past few years. I’ve made progress, but it’s still extremely difficult, so I’m very sorry for all the projects I’ve abandoned over the years. Sorry I still haven’t finished the fic that was supposed to be done in early March. I’m trying, really. I promise I’m working on the next chapter of BLaD, too.

Are there any particular ways your aro-spec experience is expressed in your art?

Of course, pretty much everything I write is gen. Even if I include romantic relationships in my fics, I never write about romance, just stories which also happen to include some characters who might be dating someone. And obviously I always write Jotaro as aro! That’s really important to me. No matter which AU I’m writing, he’s always aro. (And autistic, but that’s off topic.)

I’m also not really into shipping because of my romance repulsion, but I ship Joseph Joestar and Caesar Zeppeli. The thing is … I’ve always viewed it as a unique relationship, sort of difficult to define as being strictly romantic or platonic or sexual, just kind of their own thing that defies words. That’s how I’ve always written it. I had the sudden realization recently that this strange view on the only ship I really actually like (at the moment, anyway) is probably due to my being aro, lmao.

What challenges do you face as an aro-spec artist?

People don’t read gen fics, and people aren’t interested in aro stories. That’s just the way it is. I do have some dedicated readers, whom I love deeply, but in general… I could post something with a deep plot, something funny and dramatic and witty and touching, something I poured my heart and soul into for months, and it’ll get very few hits/comments/kudos, while someone else could post the same generic 2,000-word romance fic everyone’s seen a dozen times over, with no editing or anything, and get twice the amount of traffic my fics do in half the time. It’s really crushing.

How do you connect to the aro-spec and a-spec communities as an aro-spec person?

I dunno… The aro community feels so small. Online, I have a small circle of aro mutuals who all kind of vent collectively, and I’m part of Arocalypse and a few aro/aspec Discord servers, but I still feel like there isn’t really much of a larger community to be part of in the same way that there is for other orientations. Offline, I’ve never met another aro, or even anyone who actually knows what aromanticism is prior to me explaining it to them.

I also don’t feel like there’s a very unified “aspec community”. As an allo aro, I feel very rejected by the ace community - not to say that I feel like I should be part of the ace community, since I’m not ace, but I feel like they throw aros under the bus a lot. I mean, we’ve all seen the “asexuals can feel love, just like anybody else! … oh, except for aroaces, I guess. But the rest of us are normal, so you should accept us!” rhetoric. Both within and outside the aspec communities, aros are rarely treated with the same priority as aces, even though we’re arguably in a much more difficult position than your average allo ace.

That being said, I’m glad there is an aro community at all. I don’t know where I’d be now if I were still questioning. Probably not in a very good place.

How do you connect to your creative community as an aro-spec person?

As I mentioned, there’s a general lack of interest in gen fics or sympathy for romance-repulsed people in general. It’s really difficult being romance repulsed in fandom spaces, because nobody cares about anything other than ships. There are very few gen fics, and even less that are a decent length, not abandoned, or cater to my specific interests, so I have to write my own. I don’t often have anything good to read; most of the big fics, the ones with cool plots and long word counts and ongoing updates, are ship fics. If I’m lucky, maybe two gen fics will be posted in one week, and maybe one of them will be longer than a few thousand words. Maybe one might even have my favorite characters. But usually genfics are few and far between, and kind of random in terms of what you’ll get. Sometimes I get so bored that I read ship fics anyway, and then I always wind up feeling really awful afterwards.

I’ve written, over the course of the past two years alone, over 20 gen fics. But whenever I vent that sometimes I’d like to actually get to read something, I always get someone telling me, “Well if you want gen fics, write some yourself! You have to make the change! You can’t demand people write stuff for you!” And of course, at the same time it’s totally acceptable to request ship fics from your favorite author, and if you complain that there aren’t enough fics for your rarepair, it’s seen as relatable and totally valid.

Fandom is just … really, really amatonormative, tbh. I hate it. I’m trying to make a difference (I did organize Gen Jojo Week along with my friend Rachel last year, and hopefully will again this year), but there’s only so much I can do.

How can the aro-spec community best help you as a creative?

Aside from reblogging my art and promoting my fics? Talk about stuff. Talk about aro stuff in fandom. Seriously! I know it seems obvious that aro people would like aro headcanons and gen fics and all that, but we need to talk about them more. Nobody outside the community gives enough of a shit about us to have aro headcanons, so let’s get them popular. Talk about your favorite aro headcanons. Talk about your favorite gen fics. Talk about how such-and-such character is totally aro; talk about how excited you are to see aro characters in fics. My dream is for aro headcanons to become just as common and popular as any other type of headcanon.

Can you share with us something about your current project?

This is old news to most of the people who already know me, but my current big project that I’ve been working on for several years now is Between Life and Death, a drama/horror/supernatural JJBA fic.

(WARNING: PHANTOM BLOOD AND STARDUST CRUSADERS SPOILERS BELOW.)

The plot of the fic is that Dio wins at the end of Stardust Crusaders, and after realizing that he has no hobbies other than harassing the Joestars, he decides to bring Jonathan back by sticking his head (which… we’ll just assume Dio preserved for plot purposes) onto Jotaro’s body. Obviously, Jonathan is NOT happy with this arrangement, but it also turns out that Jotaro’s still alive, just not in control of his body. He can still use his stand, so he essentially uses Star Platinum as a sort of proxy for interacting with the environment around him, even though he only comes out when Jonathan’s alone since he doesn’t want Dio to know he’s alive.

Basically, it’s the story of a depressed vampire and a traumatized ghost. It’s a very introspective fic; most of the story consists of conflicts between Dio and Jonathan, and Jonathan and Jotaro struggling to come to terms with their new existences - Jonathan being unable to reconcile vampirism with his personal morals, and Jotaro having one hell of an identity crisis while also mourning the deaths of his friends and family. The plot is picking up, though, and there is an end goal in mind, as well as an eventual sequel!

As for where the story-in-progress is at right now … well, the next “stage” of the plot is hamon training for Kakyoin and Avdol, which will be fun. This chapter also includes several dream sequences, including an extended appearance by Mary Joestar (Jonathan’s mom), and a very serious and dark scene which I almost ruined by having dream!Will Zeppeli refer to Jonathan as his padawan. Yeah.

Have you any forthcoming works we should look forward to?

As mentioned, I’m working on chapter 9 of Between Life and Death! And working on and off on some stuff for the mutants AU. Most recently, on a whim I rewrote the lyrics to Handbeat Clocktower by MOTHY to be about Jonathan Joestar. Somehow this went far enough that I’m making an actual UTAU rendition of this “parody”, and hopefully it’ll be done sometime in the next few weeks. I’m really having fun with it and I hope people like it!

[lightrises]

ao3 works tag meme

got tagged for this by @feralphoenix​! i have a grand total of.... 18 works on ao3, and a number of these are collabs. so i’m not sure how revealing this will be? 8′)a but we’ll give it a go

Go to your Works page, expand all the filters, and let us know the following:

1. What are your 1st and 2nd most common ratings? Any surprises?

general audiences (12), then teen and up audiences (6). and nope, that sounds about right for me!

2. What’s your most common warning? Least common? Do you consider yourself an adventurous writer?

no archive warnings apply (14) for most, graphic depictions of violence (1) for least

wrt that last question: ehhhhhh i mean. i guess by my own vague reckoning of “adventurous” i’m not? i tend to stick to my wheelhouse of low-stakes genfic and occasional excursions into romance when i’m just making my own stuff. ntm most of my homestuck stuff was either collabs or sprung from prompts (whereas my undertale works are running at an inverse to that, so: Progress??? shrugs)

i don’t think there’s a right answer here though. if, like, you shift the question from one of content type to “hey i made stuff At All” it’s a different story. writing’s been pretty hard for me over the past few years, so any time i’m able and willing to get stuff done and put it out there, that’s... well, its own version of “adventurous” perhaps! and that doesn’t touch on how personal some of that work has been, maybe not always in obvious ways (as loud as you can make it is one of the more Clearly personal ones imo, aha)

3. How many works have you done in each relationship category? Is this more accidental or do you have preferences?

gen (15), f/m (8), f/f (2), other (2)

“gen” is kinda funny here because i do in fact love genfic A Lot, but a good chunk of mine overlap with the other categories lol.... but that’s what i tend to like best anyway when it comes to shipfic, i.e. with a lot of genfic trappings woven in. if i were more prolific you’d probably see more other and f/f works from me these days, though i’m still very much down for The Good Het too

as for the other relationships category.... haha, man. okay i’ll just, c/p this instead of typing it out:

John Egbert/Rose Lalonde (6)

John Egbert & Rose Lalonde (5)

Chara & Frisk (Undertale) (4)

Chara & Asriel Dreemurr (3)

John Egbert & Jade Harley (2)

Jade Harley & Rose Lalonde (2)

Dad Egbert/Rose's Mom | Beta Roxy Lalonde (1)

Dad Egbert & John Egbert (1)

Poppop Crocker | Alpha John Egbert & Grandma English | Alpha Jade Harley (1)

Grandma English | Alpha Jade Harley/Roxy's Mom | Alpha Rose Lalonde (1)

the only comment i’ll add is that i wish there was more “john & jade” up there!!! but That’s How It Is alas

4. What are your top 4 fandoms by numbers? Are you still active in all of them or do you tend to migrate a lot?

homestuck (12), undertale (6)

undertale’s the only one i’m active in right now, and i’m very much a “choose one (1) fandom and fix most of your attention on it for a few years” type of fan. i do think if i wrote for homestuck again i’d want it to be jaderose. The Witch’s Gambit [image heavy] pops into mind first - it’s a setting i’m still drawn to, so who knows! i’d be nice to revisit it eventually

5. What are your top 4 character tags? Does this match how you feel about the characters or are you puzzled? 

john egbert (10), rose lalonde (9), chara (5), frisk (4)

this is largely VERY fair lmao, though on the homestuck end of things i wish i’d done more with jade (ao3 says it’s 4 works - 5 if you include her cameo in I Can Barely Sleep[...] - and that’s excluding two alpha!jade fics). another note is that for some reason ao3 doesn’t rank asriel, even though he’s in 3 works and it shows both alpha!jade and alpha!john (with 2 apiece)???? Excuse Me

the chara and frisk tags might Possibly meet(exceed??) the john and rose tags in the future, but that depends on how many works i end up making! we’ll have to see how that goes in the long run

6. What are your top 2 most used additional tags, and your bottom 2? What would happen if you combined all 4 into a fic?

autistic frisk (4), illustrated (4), implied/referenced character death (2), additional warnings in author’s note (2)

God...... i guess that would either be frisk on one of the neutral routes or a prequel/follow-up to and if you court this disaster, possibly in comic form?? though tbh any work that features frisk prominently and mentions what happened to chara and/or asriel pre-game would count too

7. How many WIPs do you currently have on ao3? Any you don’t plan on finishing?

3 are listed! one of them - Tripping Toward The Light - has been complete for awhile now, at its original tumblr home; the ao3 mirror is just something we haven’t gotten around to finishing yet. 8′) “and i can’t remember the man, the panhandler or his melody” is Super old at this point and likely won’t be picked up again (rip....). what the right hand does has seemed dormant for a while, but i’ve been hacking away at the next chapter on and off and a) i finally see the light at the end of the editing tunnel for chapter 2, and b) unless something drastic happens it’s gonna be 4 times as long as the first chapter, so!!! Def Not Dead, thankfully

8. Tag 5 people!

ummm ok let’s see.. @threeley, @tehstripe, @ruination-fangs, @longroadstonowhere aaaand.... whoever else is down for it??? if you wanna go for it feel free, basically

[izzyspussy]

ALL 50 QUESTIONS BITCH

HECK

1: Age Group   For fic tbh whatever, I know a lot of people in fandom are underage and are exploring and figuring out what they like, etc. Plus not all my stuff is explicit, and some of the stuff that is still isn’t porn so. As for original stuff that will likely all be explicit as well, so an adult market audience.

2: Genre   Usually fantasy, sometimes science fiction.

3: Big Idea or Detail Oriented Outlining   binch i cant outline for absolute shit. I guess big picture but like…. ?? the biggest possible picture, almost to the point of being useless lmfao. someone help me.

4: Line Editing or Plot Revision   I prefer line editing for fics because I’m lazy and it’s for free, but overhaul type revision results in a better finished product so I use that for original stuff (and commissions).

5: With or Without Deadlines    With deadlines, definitely. I can crank out 1k in an hour if I have a deadline, but without one it can take me 2 years to write just as much (see: Zwangsneurose, started the second I got home from seeing The Winter Soldier, still not finished, word count at ~800 lmfao).

6: The Biggest Compliment   I love it when people mention details that they noticed! Or if god forbid I was funny once.

7: Current WIP Length   I have 12 fic WIPs right now and the longest one is 7.7k. I have 4 original WIPs right now, but they are all in development stages, with no word count yet.

8: Author Comparison Goal   @neil-gaiman 110%. He is my ultimate goals and a huge inspiration, not to mention just a plain cool guy. I also would love to be compared to Rick Riordan or Gillian Flynn.

9: Biggest Struggle   Foreshadowing probably. I sort of wing it as I’m writing, and I can’t do a very good outline like I said, so it’s tough to get good hints and clues as to what’s coming. That’s part of the reason my originals are taking so much development (not just because I have to fill in all the worldbuilding that is already mostly done for fic).

10: Brainstorming With Others or Alone     I like to do a bit of both. I really appreciate input, plus talking things out can really get the creative ball rolling. But I like to get into Deep Shit on my own too, especially with worldbuilding. I’ll always share with others though, even the stuff I wanted to come up with all on my lonesome.

11: Characters Based on Real People     I’m sure there are aspects of people I know, and of myself, in every character I create, and likely even in characters that have already been created. What you know will always leak into your writing. However, I don’t usually base a character fully (or purposefully) around one real person. I do namesakes though, but they’re almost never modeled after that person, it’s just a shoutout to someone I find inspiring in some way.

12: Writing Space Clean or Cluttered     cluttered af binch u been here & seen it smh make me drag myself in front of everyone……

13: Character Driven or Plot Driven     Always character driven!! what kinda question

14: Favorite Writing Related Quote     “Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which sometimes pay the rent.” - guess who lmao

15: My Characters in Someone Else’s World     I would transport my characters into (brace yourselves for a shock lol jk) American Gods, primarily so that they could get some good old fashioned “help” from the Big Guys.

16: Movie or TV Show     Well two of them have pretty finite endings. The romance legend could be a tv show but with a limited amount of renewal, ala A:TLA (but I’d like it better as a graphic novel). The vampire tragedy has a very finite ending so that would make a better movie. And the witch noir and girl gang are both a bit neverending-WIP-ish so they’d make pretty good shows.

17: Soundtracks     Yes! They help keep me focused and writing in a cohesive tone when I have to leave and come back. Y’all can listen to the playlist I have for witch noir here. Eventually I’ll split it up for character and/or scene mood, and I might add some scene suitable ambient noise tracks too.

18: One Song to Sum It Up    witch noir - Temptress, S.J. Tucker    romance legend - Take Me to Church, Neon Jungle    vampire tragedy - Bodies, Celia Pavey    girl gang - Weapon, Bastille & Angel Haze & FUGZ & Braque

19: Me There or Characters Here     …me there, I guess? In the romance legend, vampire tragedy, and girl gang not anything would really be different, but in the witch noir I’d probably have inherited some sweet powers. Not many of my characters are very friendly tho lmao.

20: Most Wanted Adaptation     Probably (a piece of) the witch noir. It’d be neat to actually see all those neat film noir lighting tricks.

21: Finish     Uh. I finish one shot porn a lot? lmao. Other than that, damn… no.

22: Made Myself Cry     lol yah

23: Proud or Anxious     usually I’m more proud, but sometimes when it’s something that’s very deeply personal or controversial I can get anxious.

24: When Did I Become a Writer     tbh sometimes I think I came out the womb that way. I don’t remember not being a writer, and I know I had legit novel ideas as early as like 3rd grade, and was making shit up with pretty words even earlier.

25: Must Reads in My Genre     three guesses what i’m bout to say y’all. Literally anything by Gaiman. Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart series. Any Pratchett. Donna Gillespe fucked me up with The Light Bearer. Bear Daughter by Judith Berman (although that is kind of a tough read, so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for everyone).

26: My Genre Needs More…     Diversity in general, specifically more people of color, queer people, and people with disabilities (that aren’t magically erased). Also in my opinion there needs to be more things in between grimdark and go-lucky fairytale.

27: Inspiration Source     History, anthropology, and pseudoscience.

28: Character Naming Stress from 1-10     Probably about a 2 or a 3. I use behindthename.com which can be searched for meanings, sound patterns, usage, and origin, and has a handy “name themes” search algorithm. I also recently found the legit U.S. census thanks to @peppersandcats helping me out with search terms, and that can be sorted by ethnicity, gender, time period, and geographical location. So I’ve got names pretty well covered!

29: Underwrite or Overwrite First Drafts     It could go either way, but generally speaking unless I have a word limit I usually like to add more during editing. Except when something is confusing or too complicated, then I’ll cut it.

30: Calming or Stressing      Not really either tbh. I enjoy it a lot, but it’s mostly exciting! Not calming or stressful, but either a fun adventure or a challenging puzzle.

31: Favorite Trope     Tough to pick just one tbh. I love tropes when they are done “right”. Even tropes done classically can be great (as long as they’re not -phobic of some sort), but I especially love when they are done satirically or inverted.

32: Backstories for Side Characters     Guilty af. Even characters that might not even make it into the finished book have backstories, personalities, and quirks.

33: Characterize Before Writing or Develop with The Story     A little bit of both. I like to have a solid character to work with at the beginning, but for in-text character development I like to let that unfold with the plot and the other characters.

34: Old Writing in One Word     Prolific

35: Villains or Heroes     I like them both pretty well, but my favorite characters of all time are always a little ambiguous so if I had to pick just one kind that’s what I’d go with.

36: B&W Morality     No way! I live in the gray area.

37: Advice     Have fun! Be proud of yourself for what you come up with and celebrate your creativity even if you think it doesn’t compare with other writers. The happier you are to create, the more creative you’ll get. Also, like with any other kind of art, pick a couple role models to emulate and that will help you develop your own solid style.

38: Advice I Fail At     The first draft doesn’t have to be perfect. I spend too long line editing while I’m writing my first draft and that makes it a lot harder to finish anything.

39: Importance of Positive Reinforcement     I’d say reasonably important. Definitely helpful. But I know I’ll keep writing even without it.

40: Question for Favorite Author     How much difference is there between how his creation is in his head versus how it came out in the words, and does he ever think about rewriting things that are long finished?

41: Distracting to Read While Writing     Actually, no. Reading other comparable works helps keep me motivated, inspired, and focused.

42: Motivated or Discouraged by Critiques     Tbh I don’t think I have ever received a real in-depth critique so I’m not certain? I’ve had idle “I liked this, but I didn’t like/understand that” type of feedback, and that has usually been pretty helpful and appreciated. If nothing else it lets me know what parts of the story might not be as accessible to an audience.

43: Protagonists in My Likeness     Yes, there’s a little of me in very many of my protagonists, and often even in fic characters that I write. But, like with other real people, they’re not usually modeled after me, we just have some stuff in common because I leak over into them (and sometimes they leak over into me) when I’m writing them.

44: Choosing An Idea      This is something I struggle with, really. My process is usually to try writing a bit of it, and if I hate it it’s probably not viable.

45: Harder or Easier While Stressed      It’s usually a harder to write when I’m stressed, and what I do manage to write doesn’t have as much quality.

46: Sort Protagonists      !!! There are too many!! these are just the Big Ones (so far) in witch noir      Gryffindor - toots, eddie, maddie, anca, seth      Hufflepuff - lily, charisma, s.j., angel, iris      Ravenclaw - fred, ariel, dido, father piero      Slytherin - evelyn, jessica, sloan, clara-claudia, aixa

47: Five Year Goal     Hopefully I will have fucking finished something. Maybe published? Or maybe getting my manuscript looked at. (I have a humble-ish time frame, I think. Writing is a lot of work, and five years is a lot less time than it sounds like.)

48: Co-Writing     I’m a huge control freak, so probably not. At least not with original characters. Maybe for fic tho, because that can be much lower stakes lmao.

49: Fast or Slow     When I’m in The Zone I speed thru, but it can take me a while to get started and I come up on blocks pretty often so I’m a slow finisher.

50: Worldbuilding or Characters     Shit man, that’s a tough choice. I guess characters? I don’t know.

[bisexualtimothylawrence]

If there's anything that can make things less stressed, I'd love to be able to help. You've been a big part of what made me love the Flash fandom, and I'd like to be able to give back. Reading your stories and your posts make my day brighter, and if we can do something to help your day go better, please let us know. If there isn't anything specific that can be done, then please know that I'm wishing you well.

Hoo boy, incoming ramble. Which is just rambling/venting, for the record.Most of the stress has to do with financial stuff, tbh. Like. Top surgery is hella expensive and my options as far as surgeons are very limited, because I don't have the ability to get a therapist letter. (Well, unless I want to make it even *more* expensive by finding a therapist who can write a letter for me... but I'd have to pay for that out of pocket.)If I had my way, I'd just be a hermit who only goes to work and medical appointments until I had the money saved up. But I live with my very well-meaning sister who insists that I actually, you know, leave the house and have fun. Which is fine in the moment! But then later I'm stressed out because, well, that cost money.It really doesn't help that my laptop is broken, it's a ~$200 part... oh, and the person who broke it isn't gonna pony up the money to fix it. There's a long story there. So, yeah, right now I've got a $1200 paperweight and I'm just kind of wanting to kick my past self because, hey, that's $1200 I could have had for my surgery fund. But nooo, had to replace the laptop with the broken keyboard... ::throws hands in the air:: And, of course, I can't cobble together a working laptop between the two even though they're the same brand because why on any earth would we make basic fucking parts compatible between different model years????Which really puts a damper on, oh, almost everything I do to unwind and chill. Can't really write fic on a phone. Can't really watch any shows on a phone. Hell, scrolling through Tumblr on my phone is an exercise in patience...Ahem. Sorry, got a bit whiny there, Nonny.(I may also be trying to quit smoking, which is not helping anything. Word of advice: don't smoke. Ever. It's terrible for you.)Thanks for the kind words. Though it does kind of astound me that I, of all people, am part of what made you love The Flash fandom. (There are far more prolific and chatty fans than this grump who likes Harry Wells far too much. :P)...I should probably work on my ability to accept compliments. ::notes that down for next therapist session::