#tea'sasks

[teaandsconeswrites]

💫🌈!

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

This might be hard to explain, but the comments which "get" what I've tried to say in a piece of work. I think most people in fandom are just reading for fun, which is fine, but it tends to only be a few people who really dig into the deeper themes that I was touching on. Quite a lot of the time these topics or themes are important to me in some way, so when people notice them, it makes me feel seen, would be the best way to put it.

🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with?

All of the longfics tbh, I put months before writing them just into outlining, but most people can probably see that. 😂 In terms of shorter ones that I struggled with, Beneath Still Waters was pretty rough for me, even though I really like the end result. It's darker than I usually go, so I was a bit worried about what my readers would link, but at the same time I've always loved gothic horror short stories, so I was agonising over making sure I wrote the genre well.

[teaandsconeswrites]

Hello, I just want to say that I really love your writing, and I always look forward to your updates (friday now is like a sacred day for me haha). As a new tartali/zhongchi fan (since like, 4 months ago) I've been interested in reading fanfictions of them, so I read a lot. But no one has managed to capture me the way your fanfictions did. They're just, so beautifully written, so in character, and you don't seem to care much about whether zc/ttli dynamic is better like some of the others I've seen... which I appreciate a lot because you always make it work so well, and to me the story and the characterisation are what matter to me most which you succeded to deliver so beautifully

Just wanted to tell you that I appreciate your writing because I'm too shy to leave comments in ao3. And thank you for sharing your stories with us 😊 (and sorry for my poor english)

Aww thank you! I love hearing this ship is still getting new fans even now! I love this ship so much so seeing more people arriving into the fandom even with all the newer content / ships coming out is very heartening. 🥰 (Even if I love the new characters too, Childe and Zhongli still have my heart the most)

Characterisation and story are always most important to me too, and there are so many talented authors and artists who create for all the different dynamics! If anyone is interested, I can always make a list for other authors whose characterisations I particularly enjoy. A few of them will already be on the recs list I did the other week and it won't be comprehensive as I obviously haven't read everything on Ao3, but I can always compile a few more if anyone wants it!

Thank you again for enjoying my writing, and your English is perfect <3

[teaandsconeswrites]

while we wait for the next update of ATSGUTM, do you have any fic recs? ;^;

I'm not super up to date on the current longfics out there as I'm mainly reading oneshots in fandom at the moment and focusing on reading published novels, so you've probably already read these as they're a little older, but these are some of my faves:

The White Cicada Society by clementinesgulag - My favourite current ongoing fic. It's just fantastic. Amazing atmosphere, plot keeps you on your toes. It's generally dark (it's a supernatural murder mystery, after all) and I love the gritty atmosphere. Childe and Zhongli's relationship after they get together is an absolute delight, too. Their chemistry is off the charts.

yesterday upon the stairs by air_fried_air - Zhongli makes a deal with Celestia and is cursed to be written out of history, with no one able to remember him. The MCD isn't really part of the plot - it's reincarnation so Tartaglia dies at the start and Zhongli meets Ajax later on. Happy ending, suuuuper underrated fic that deserves way more views.

An age of gods and monsters by Bookish_penguin - Time travel. Childe travels back in time to fetch Zhongli's gnosis to save them from a crisis in the present. A trip through the history of Liyue, with Childe as its witness (and lover to the Archon).

All the Stains of Time by vahveroinen - Not a longfic, but a gorgeous twoshot with the war against Celestia and Childe overusing his Delusion.

BONUS!

do not feed the ducks. (unless they are secretly hot men in disguise. in which case you may proceed.) by daycinthe - In which Zhongli is a duck, and Childe is the man running the lemonade stand. If you grew up in the age of the Duck Song with that wonderful little duck and the lemonade stand, I need say no more.

[teaandsconeswrites]

✨ & 🤲 for the writers ask game please!!!

✨What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

It's gotta be The Monster Maketh the Man. I adore this fic. I think it's one of my strongest pieces in terms of plot, pacing, worldbuilding, character building (including Simran, the man everyone loves to hate), everything.

Unfortunately it's my lowest read / kudoed longfic, primarily I think because it sits in a bit of a weird spot as a SCP/Genshin fusion universe. It also came out when the fandom was in the peak of Haitham/Kaveh hype, as well as being M rated, so it loses both the T only and E only readers. Then it ended up under 100k, so it loses all the >100k filtering folks too. Just in a very, very awkward spot in the fandom. 😂

I love that I wrote it, it was an absolute labour of love project. I consider it far, far better than SMIH, but fandom likes certain tropes, and sadly it means some things get overlooked. I still love this fic. I wish more people would give it a read because I'm really very proud of it!

🤲what do YOU get out of writing?

A few things! The first one would be the sharing with the community. I have all these stories buzzing around in my head that I see like movies, and I want to share them with other people. It's like, "You see this? Isn't this crazy! Wasn't that sad!" Also I love knowing I affected people emotionally with what I wrote, be that making them laugh from a comedy, or breaking their heart with angst.

Then on the deeper side, I really use my writing, particularly longfics, to get my thoughts straight on a range of different topics. I've done this more and more as I've written more stories, but it's become very peace giving to me. I could go on for ages and ages about the specific themes of each fic from TMMTM onwards, which is when I really started doing this. I know most people are just reading for fun and aren't really here to be diving into all of that, but I do love having written it and having it out there.

[teaandsconeswrites]

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change? :D

Style is such a hard thing to define when it's myself! 😂

For oneshots, it can be a bit all over the place. Sometimes I just want to have fun and make people laugh, sometimes I want to dig around a character's brain with a spoon.

For longfics, I think I'm pretty good at plots, and I really love foreshadowing future events and twists. I think The Monster Maketh the Man really exemplifies how I like to write the most. I've always enjoyed reading thrillers, so that feeling of having something burning away in the background and a bit of a mystery always leaks into my longfics in some way.

But aside from the plots, I think what really makes my fics me is that in some way there's always something very intrinsic to who I am in them, topics that burn away in my brain that I'm searching for answers to, woven into the plots in a way that I don't think most people don't really notice. If someone wanted to dig, they could probably find it, and find a little piece of me in doing so.

On a more surface level, I like clean prose. I'm not one for too much flowery description. I'll spatter in a bit here and there, but on the whole I like clean, precise actions and descriptions, and to let the plot and characters to speak for themselves. I like the focus to be on the story, so if a nice description helps me get there, I'll use it, but my focus is much more about the emotions and the journey, and the feelings people feel about it.

Thanks for the ask!

[teaandsconeswrites]

Do you publish other any other pseudonyms? If this is a creepy thing to ask, I’m really sorry!!

I just have been reading As The Sun Gazes Upon the Moon and it is rocking my world. I found it right before your last mini hiatus, and when I read that it would be updating today, I literally wrote it down in my planner. It’s just such great stuff, I feel like… you know how you get a “hangover” after you watch a really good show and try to watch a new one but nothing is hitting the way you want it to?

I LOVE how you write Zhongli. His perspective is just so good. I mean, everything seems so true to life and seamlessly realized. Like, it has to be intimidating to try to write someone with such an ancient perspective, but you manage to make it feel so natural and somehow are able to give him believable and relatable vulnerabilities. I see how everyone compliments your take on the Tsaritsa in the comments, and I fully co-sign those sentiments too!!! I just really really vibe with your Zhongli, which i didn’t expect because I initially found that story through wanting to see more Childe’s delusion lore/ Foul Legacy transformation lore! (I love Childe. Every time I see or read about his dull eyes, I get the heart sparkles).

Anyways! I hope you get great feedback from this last update! Just wanted to give you a shout out here since I can’t leave more kudos. You’re a really talented writer. I’d be happy to have you on my shelves someday!

Aww, it's not creepy haha, I'm flattered! I don't have any other pseuds, my creative brain is entirely consumed by zhongchili, so they're all I write / post for. 🙈

I do cross-post to a couple of platforms though. I mainly use my Ao3 account but my older, purely SFW stuff is cross-posted on HYL, and my longfics are cross-posted on Wattpad!

Thank you for enjoying my fic! I'm honoured to have a place in your planner! I really love writing Zhongli PoV. There's so much in his lore and character to dig into and he feels very relaxing to write. A little nostalgia, a little appreciation for the small things, and so so much history and experience to draw from, even as he tries to figure out the intricacies of mortal life. He deserves many good things. 🥺

(Also I am in such agreement with you, Childe's dull eyes give me life hehe)

Thank you for the lovely message, this really brightened my morning!

[teaandsconeswrites]

What do you listen to when you write?

Lots of different things, honestly! I have a playlist where I dump a everything and just let it play on random. It ranges from Disney, to Kpop, to utaite, to more mainstream stuff, and everything in-between. It's not always tonally accurate to the scene I'm writing, either, it's more just background noise to keep the brain happy.

[teaandsconeswrites]

💘🎙️please!

💘Is there any posted fic you want to rework/re-edit/re-write?

Probably Seven Months in Heaven. It's nice, as a first longfic, but it's a little more straightforward than my usual style nowdays. I would probably go back and add some more hints / play around what was really going on, as well as update some of the writing and tidy it up with my present day methods of editing / tidying prose that I've spent the past couple of years developing.

🎙️which one of your fics would you like someone to make a pod-fic of?

I don't really have one, honestly. Like, I wouldn't mind if someone did it, but I wouldn't be able to listen to it - listening to someone reading out whatever I've written is actual torture to me aha. Siri tried to tease me by reading one of my fics to me on voicechat a few times and I was cringing so hard at my own work I think I ended up leaving the chat. 😂

[teaandsconeswrites]

jdjdjdjdj OwO???? I thought the chonker would be Zhongli but no it’s a separate character XD aaaaaaa I’m so excited OwO

Ahaha yesss Chonkli is basically an offshoot of Zhongli's Rex Lapis Geo energy in this, so he's part of Zhongli but also very much his own (stubborn) character! They all get to be one big, slightly dysfunctional, family! 😂