#these are SO hyperspecific to me as a writer and no one else in the silm fandom has these exact headcannons

[sanisse]

I started reading the fic because I got very curious and

Eldritch Peredhel? What does it imply exactly?

oh please this is a dangerous ask. I could ramble about Eldritch Peredhel for hours.

It's a fanon thing that all of the Elrond/Luthien/Elros/etc. stans pass around and interpret differently, but basically it's the concept of...well...due to the maiar/ainur genetics, Peredhel may be a bit....eldritch, so like weird, perhaps a bit sinister-feeling, perhaps a bit creepy, and usually outside of something which our human brains can conceptualize or wrap around fully. They often set off the uncanny valley alarm. It also usually includes extra superpowers.

For me, I base my Eldritch Peredhel headcannons drawing from what we know of Melian the Maia (the most powerful Singer, able to create the Girdle of Melian/Doriath which turned the woods into a maze which confused unwanted foes and outsiders so they couldn't find their way in or out --more on that later--), Luthien (flowers popping up when she sang or danced, the ability to solo-out Morgoth himself, and Tolkien's descriptions of her in the lay of luthien), and then direct knowledge of what we know about the nature of Maiar and the Ainur.

Re: the Girdle of Melian, I think it’s very significant that the descriptions of the Girdle are extremely similar to the descriptions of the road to Rivendell. I actually don’t think Elrond is using Vilya to hide the Valley. I think that’s intuitive magic from the line of Melian that runs in his blood. Perhaps enhanced by Vilya, but the descriptions that Tolkien gives are so incredibly similar that I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that Elrond is lauded as having an immense connection to Music, and possibly the best current Voice in all of Middle Earth, considering Melian and Luthien’s abilities. 

So... for Elrond, my main headcannons are as follows, HUGE post under the cut:

Most noticeably, his eyes are flecked with actual stars. That’s how he got his name (Vault of Heaven, Star Dome, Firmament, depending on who you ask about the translation). They glow a bit, and will turn into constellations and glow a lot if he’s a bit out of control of himself (high stress, tired, high emotion, has recently used a lot of his power, or...yeah....sex :D ) 

He heals using Songs of Power -- all Elves have access to Songs of Power, but Elrond has an especially strong connection via the line of Melian. Vilya definitely enhances his abilities to an extreme degree, but he can do crazy things that a normal healer would not be able to do (like transcending into the spiritual/astral realm and dragging someone’s soul back from the dead...an immense expense of effort and could possibly KILL him, but he does it anyway). Using his power like this is extremely exhausting and physically damaging. He always has to rest afterward and he does have limits. These limits are pushed out by Vilya, but he still DOES have them. 

Re: songs of power: he has the ability to physically shape reality with his voice. I usually manifest this in the best bedtime stories. Like is he singing the lay of Luthien? Congrats you’ve got flowers blooming on your bedspread. Singing the tale of Nolofinwe dueling Morgoth to the death? You’ve got a live movie of it flashing around in the fire. 

As mentioned above: he disguises the Hidden Valley using intuitive magic from his Ainur genetics. He can do this in even smaller/less noticeable ways (say, he doesn’t want to be bothered in his office today, so suddenly you can’t find it and the halls keep doubling back on themselves and you forget what you came for and eventually wander away). 

During times of extreme emotion, or extreme expense of his powers, he will look less and less Elven/Mannish, and more and more Eldritch. He masks himself on a regular basis so as not to frighten others. So how this manifests in my head...I base it by taking Tolkien’s description of Luthien literally. His eyes literally glow with gray starlight, his hair literally becomes a roiling mass of ink...almost like it’s rending a hole in the fabric of space and time, he grows and lengthens (like how Gandalf does when he confronts Bilbo), and also feels bigger. Like, spiritually bigger. Like okay he’s physically this size but he feels like he swallows sunlight and fills the whole goddamn room. If he is angry, he radiates white-hot starlight from inside of himself to the point that it’s lighting up capillaries and veins, you wouldn’t really recognize him, and he can pretty much just rip you apart on a molecular level. Think like...bloodbending, from ATLA.

Now, re: the above, but when very happy, (like, say, in the throes of an orgasm...), he will look bewitchingly gorgeous. (Re, Thingol becoming bewitched by Melian and staring into her eyes for thousands of years). He can actually kind of almost...bewitch people in the same way in this state, but he doesn’t intend to. He still glows with starlight, his eyes will fleck with constellations and nebulae, and when he orgasms (i think about this way too much) he becomes extremely eldritch, like just a riot of stardust that you can’t really comprehend. And afterwards he just is like, this arcane thing that you can’t make sense of, feels like he could enfold you and swallow you whole but like in a good way. 

Differences between emotions will effect the kind of Eldritch he feels. Like, for instance if he’s happy then you’ll go “wow what a gorgeous night sky in your eyes!”, if he’s trying to intimidate someone, his gaze will give you a sense of vertigo, like suddenly you’re hanging over the vast expanse of space and might fall in. If he is sad, upset, or fading, his eyes will just be like, vacant. The empty void of endless space -- a black hole, almost. Is he trying to figure out what you’re thinking and delve into your innermost being? You’ll start to feel like you’re being watched by a thousand, thousand different eyes from all directions. Is he trying to comfort you? He can physically find your rhythm in your soul and kind of slow it down and anchor it to himself.  

Another note: when he loses control of himself for any reason, he starts to like, be there and not there and flicker between thousands of different forms in a millisecond. It’s hard to explain... he did this a lot as a child and it really freaked Mae and Mags out lmao. The “flickering between a thousand different forms at once” I actually pull from Tolkien’s description of him in the Hobbit and in Fellowship. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mean it that way but....

"The face of Elrond was ageless, neither old nor young, though in it was written the memory of many things both glad and sorrowful. His hair was dark as the shadows of twilight, and upon it was set a circlet of silver; his eyes were grey as a clear evening, and in them was a light like the light of stars. Venerable he seemed as a king crowned with many winters, and yet hale as a tried warrior in the fulness of his strength. He was the Lord of Rivendell and mighty among both Elves and Men."

Genderqueer and bisexual (almost pan) - Tolkien is very clear that Ainur have no gender and no set sexuality, and can choose at any time. 

Shapeshifts to a small degree, often without really intending to. Canonically, Ainur can change forms at will (we see this most often with Sauron pre losing the Ring). Elrond can do this in a small way, like if a book is too high up for him he can lengthen to reach it rather than grabbing a stepladder, lol. He often does stuff like this without meaning to. And also...his physical proportions will change on a day-to-day basis in small ways, but that’s outside of his control and actually super annoying because it’s hard to find clothes that fit and he feels good in.

I feel like I probably have more of these but those are the main ones! 

[olderthannetfic]

I think some of the reasons people struggle sometimes who ARE into SOME kinks, but not others, is that there are so many kinks and so many variations on existing kinks that it can be hard to feel you've covered all the bases, for either what you like or dislike. So you end up having to resort to some broad categories. Like I have "breathplay or other potentially life-threatening kinks" after seeing it on someone else's DNW, do you think that's specific enough? But idk how else to say it.

--

Yeah, I think that's a good-faith effort to make things clear.

You don't need to be hyperspecific unless your likes start straying close to your DNWs. If you love bondage but chains are too far, you need to say that. If you prefer vanilla sex, you don't need to go into a lot of detail about which bondage-y stuff you do and don't like.

The one problem I've seen is when someone has a judgment about what's default or normal that is not as widely shared as they think. Is rimming a default sex act that you should opt out of if you hate it, or is it something a writer should assume you don't like unless you ask for it? (Yes, this comes up specifically with people who think rimming is nasty having meltdowns that this is no longer the cultural default most places.)

For me, it's all about the emotional fallout. I love dubcon stories. I don't like stories where characters end up feeling violated and upset. Some people might say "Dubcon but no noncon", but that doesn't really capture the difference in a way a writer can reliably use.

"Life-threatening kinks" does... probably. I'd assume from this phrasing that your issue is less descriptions of gasping and necks and such and more than you don't want to see the characters doing genuinely risky things in bed because that stresses you out. For many fandoms and characters, that's perfectly clear.

However, if one of your requests is for Jack Harkness or Highlander characters or Deadpool or something, I'd either specify "Typically life-threatening kinks even for an indestructible/resurrecting character" or "kinks that could be life-threatening for this character", depending on whether it's breathplay in general that you don't like or behavior that's risky in the context of the fic.

It just really, really depends on what kinds of fandoms you're asking for and what might be implied by other aspects of your signup.

[changelingsandothernonsense]

Fic Authors Self Rec!

Tagged by @mareenavee Tagging @archangelsunited, @thequeenofthewinter, @gilgamish, @thana-topsy, @orfeoarte, @paraparadigm, @polypolymorph, @snippetsrus and anyone else who's interested :) Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love!

I don't have that many yet so I'm going to gush about one that I'm particularly happy about which is Sleepers Awake: Adherence This one-shot from a prompt given by Topsy was a huge milestone in terms of storytelling. Horror seems to be the genre I'm most comfortable with. I had wanted to write my personal headcanon for how corprus disease and subsequently the dreams that are meant to accompany it for some time now. So this really did write itself! It also made me start the actual full Morrowind fic Sleepers Awake, which has it's first chapter in beta atm. This fic is key for how I characterise Danger!Josh (my hyperspecific chaotic characterisation of a Nerevarine Teldryn Sero that I may push too much). It (and a few other key events) inform why his personality is so... chaotic and why so many things go so wrong for him.

A sample ~

“The chairs. The tables. All confused. We hear the words and must speak them. We take them and arrange them, but still, they will not be quiet."

Legions, grey, ash coated – their skin weeps. The creatures move in succession, mindless, terrorised, they feel for purchase in the darkness. They fumble, writhe; limbs twisting, deforming, blindness encroaching. There’s a snap, a scraping. Metal on leather.

“What are you? Where is this place?” The words fall from his mouth, a drone that isn’t his. Movement, confusion. Something tugs at his arm, the fingers cold, dead. The skin is dry, ashen, splitting between the joints. The wounds emit a blackened ooze. The creature’s skin mingles with his own as it turns to ash before him. A transfer, like for like.

“Child of his flesh.” The creature’s breath is shallow, putrid, and it holds a curse within it. The thing’s grip tightens and pulls him closer. It is faceless, its features replaced by an ashen proboscis. He watches it begin to cave in. Fragile, fleeting. Its features reform before disappearing. Over and over again. Cycling faces, writhing limbs. They disperse with the ash.

The creature weeps.

[iaure]

Sincerely not trying to be annoying, but do you still have plans to write your requests one day?

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ the short answer: yes and no. The longer answer:

The elden ring asks; yes! Those are headcanons and much easier to digest. i am answering the godwyn ask today, as well as working on the tanith/rykard ask. elden ring, in general, is easier for me to digest, though it's generally much slower work, as there's more lore for me to take into account. one thing i often strive for is complete accuracy, though i do not doubt i've been wrong before. they take a very long time, due to being paired against my work and other life events, but i find them much easier to do.

the cheater!miguel ask; most likely not. though the concept was good, and i would've enjoyed writing it before, full length works are MUCH harder for me to focus on these days. unless it's something i wanted to work on initially (i.e. the daryl dixon mention), it's harder to pump out something that's roughly 5k words unless the idea came to me before. this also goes with one of my rules, that hyperspecific asks would be considered. i never posted the ask, but it's about two paragraphs long! very specific, and given the situation i'm currently in, while i wanted to attempt it before, i don't see it happening.

the tall!s/o leon ask; again, this was a wonderful idea! i'm a tall lamb myself, and always appreciate the representation. but there wasn't much else added onto it aside from 'leon with a tall s/o', so i'm unsure if they were hoping for headcanons, a full length work, mere thoughts...which means it falls into the same category as the miguel ask. again, it falls under another rule i had: 'have a base idea for what you want made', and looking back i feel i could've written it more specifically, but this means more than simply character + single notion. this also means - do you want headcanons? a full work? that sort of thing!

to be very transparent on my situation: i am a store manager for an ailing company store due to malldeath, so i'm under quite a bit of pressure. i do not get off days generally, as more often than not i get called in for one reason or another. paired with health issues i won't divulge and the fact that my ram and i are in a long distance relationship with a time difference, this leaves me with very little energy at all times. my schedule oft looks like this, on a day to day basis; wake up, go to work, get off of work, get home, cook and clean for my family, speak with my ram once he gets off of work, go to bed, repeat. i do not mean to blow off asks and requests-but i did put within my bio that i'm prone to disappearing for a reason. i think some might take it as a more artsy or figurative thing, but i meant it in the most blunt way possible!

this also means that my own writing capabilities are tied directly with inspiration, as opposed to energy. i know quite prolific writers who post every day, splendid things, simply because they have the energy! but i do not have that. if i am compelled to write, it is because something has kickstarted it; usually, starting a new series, as exemplified my ram has asked me to watch the Walking Dead with him. i operate often on a snowball effect; i write one thing, then another, then another, before hitting a block and waiting for the next thing to come along to kickstart it.

allow me to be clear; i am certainly not upset by this ask, nor is it annoying! it's a very genuine question, as it's been nigh a year since most of these asks have been sent. as far as my flock sees, there is no work being done, no proof of such. i suppose it's akin to an absent mother bringing back men after my children get attached to the one prior. it is far from the best situation, but i am attempting to be as transparent as possible about my work and processes.

[distortedclouds]

for the fanfic writer emoji ask:

🥺⛔️🌞🦅👀⌛️🛠

i could ask about all of them really but do we have that kind of time

Hello there!!

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

This questions is kinda vague, bc are we talking canon moments or something I like to write... so I'll do both!

Canon-wise I'm excited to see them meet again, yeah on Annie's titan hand, but also after it's all over, because then they'd be sure they actually made it out and have each other. The relief on their faces is what I'm anticipating to kill me

Fanon-wise, I like aurani hugs. Just big warm bear hugs because even super early on in their relationship, I think those would be Annie's weakpoint and she'd always relax into them

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

I answered it here previously, but if I were to think of something else... I may or may not have seriously considered (and planned to some extent) a modern AU following the plot of the k-drama: Healer. Annie would be the notorious night courier, while Armin is the aspiring journalist who eventually joins the Survey Corps newspaper (Someday News) started by renowned senior Journalist Erwin Smith, so they can expose political corruption without being silenced.

On a side note I'd 10/10 recommend it! It's only 20 episodes long and the characters are a blast!

On a second side note: why did I scrap this, it sounds so good :|

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

Preferably as soon as I wake up, early in the morning. I had my best writing days preparing the word document while eating my breakfast. But on occasion, I'll stay up late writing or put down something real quick in the afternoon

but yeah MORNING!

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

To various degrees of detail, yes! I do like keeping it minimal so I don't constrict myself, but even for oneshots, I like having a bullet points outline of just the events that'll happen in 1-2 lines each. (though I very rarely do a rough first draft unless I'm desperate and resorting to the Most Dangerous Writing App)

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

I'm looking to go back to Slow and Steady with more one-shots, and here are the prompts I've already planned on using:

⌛ How long does it take you to write a fic, or a chapter?

depends! oh my god does it depend! I've thrown together 4k one-shots and smut one-shots in one afternoon, but some chapters I have to force myself to just write around 400 words every day.

so:

🛠What tools/programs/apps do you use to write?

For writing: WPS Office docs, comic sans at size 12, 0.5 line spacing between paragraphs, page color set to dark gray. (I know this sounds hyperspecific, but I can't write in any other setting)

For notes: Google Keep on my phone on dark mode with the live widget so I can write something as soon as I get an idea for it. I've written thousands of words worth of scenes for BW and other fics just on this

***

Hope this was good :D

[bisexualbard-writes]

Fanfic writer ask game!! 2, 7, 17, 18! 💕💕💕

19 (as a treat, to me) : one of my (many) favourite lines (all words you write are my favourite, this is like choosing between ventricles of my heart): Kim will keep Chay safe I GO FERAL IM BITING AND CHEWING IM RIPPING UP THE FLOOR WITH MY BARE HANDS IDK STH ABOUT THE SIMPLICITY OF THE STATEMENT JUST. IT WILL HAPPEN. NO QUALIFIERS. NO FALSE BRAVADO. JUST THIS. HHHHHHHHH BITING anyway hi i hope you're having a good day! 💕

2. What fanfic do you wish you got more response on? Just answered in another post so I won't get into it here (short answer, in the dark of the night)

7. What's a trope you love to write? MUTUAL PINING! It's my jam! When they both want each other but it's just situations/communication/fear getting in the way? That's where I thrive babey

17. Are there any writers and/of stories that you consider an influence?

Oh my god, so many. I feel like who I am is entirely made of parts of all the different stories I've consumed. But I can name a few if I zoom into the influences that specifically affected my writing style. First being Maggie Stiefvater with the Raven Cycle series - she has such a lovely dry wit, and while there's definitely plot happening in that series, when I think back on the novels I think of all the quiet moments of intimacy between characters who love each other but sometimes love is hard.

The second influence is unfortunately locked in a livejournal community and hyperspecific to the 2008-ish Johnny's Junior J-pop scene, but Story of the Impassionate by livejournal user chiharu resonated with me for it's beautiful simplicity. The scenes are all short vignettes, and I feel like most of the big, hard feelings of the story are technically left unsaid but resonate loudly in the negative space. It's silly and fun, but to me it's a masterpiece 🤣

18. Recommend someone else fic! (And tag them if they have a tumblr!) TECHNICALLY I just did. But if we're talking KP specifically… I think I need to go make another post since this one is already getting long and I have so many I want to highlight. Short answer, go look at my bookmarks 🤣

And as for 19 I LOVE THAT THAT'S ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE LINES!! IT'S A GOOD LINE!

[alivingfire]

F I R Y for the fic ask game! 😎

thanks anon friend!!

F: Share a snippet from one of your favourite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.

i'll do one from my big bang, there are quite a few dialogue bits i'm proud of with that one (caveat it's unedited, so like, who knows if this bit stays in the editing)

“Well, yeah,” Eddie said. “I need to know your feelings on Ozzy versus Dio as lead singer.” 

Steve laid his head back, eyes fluttering shut, as Neon Knights filtered through the air around them. “Dio’s a better singer. Ozzy’s scarier. Both‘re good.” 

“Steve Harrington,” Eddie marveled despite himself. “Always keeping me on my toes.” 

Steve laughed, raspy and tired, and bumped his knuckles against Eddie’s thigh. “Even trade,” he said. “You sat through an hour of me and Wayne talking about the Pacers last week. Figured I’d give your boy bands a listen.” 

Eddie’s offended screech could probably be heard back at the bonfire, and Steve cracked an eye open to watch the reaction, pleased with himself like a cat covered in canary feathers. “They- Those are not-” Eddie said, and Steve laughed at his sputtering, “Black Sabbath is not a boy band!” 

“Man band, then,” Steve said. “Dudes in matching outfits having fun singing about death together. Don’t see the difference.” 

“Well, we had a good run,” Eddie said regretfully. “But I’m afraid this is it, I can no longer speak to you. My conscience won’t allow it.” 

“Your conscience can kiss my ass,” Steve said, eyes closed again. 

“Just my conscience?” Eddie teased, and Steve huffed another laugh. 

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

hmm. it's a good question, because i don't even know if i'd notice without someone pointing it out to me. maybe the strict adherence to found family tropes? like, my characters are going to be Codependent To The Point Of Absurdity. or. possibly that i think it's impossible for me to write anything that isn't a slow burn lol.

for reading, honestly, i have no guilt with any fics i read. like, someone else wrote them, so if i'm into it, i know i'm not alone! but some of my off the beaten path favorites are things like sex pollen/fuck or die, Hyperspecific AUs set in other worlds/locations/timelines (@teddywesworl's appalachian farmer au lives RENT FREE), and missing scenes from canon that change basically everything about canon.

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

oh man, absolutely. for non-fic, i would say i strive to get across the humor or emotion in a scene with as few words as possible like c.s. pacat. i love leigh bardugo's worldbuilding and magical realism. i also love Grumpy Old Man Goes On A Quest stories like what nicholas eames and scott lynch write, and that's been on my mind a lot lately — basically a character going "yes i used to do that, and i was good at it, but i'm out of the game" and something dragging them back to their past.

for fic authors, truly i couldn't begin to list them all. but my bookmarks on ao3 are public, and if there's anyone in there, i bookmarked because it hit me in a way that will stick with me. if an author is in there multiple times? i'm in love.

Y: A character you want to protect.

STEVE HARRINGTON. STEVE HARRINGTON!!!! but also stiles stilinski, max mayfield, bucky barnes, and din djarin, if we're keeping it to fic i read.

[stirringwinds]

Anon doesn't know about stylization.....

they don't, evidently! but y'know—jokes aside, this is one of those things where some folks just have zero fandom etiquette about. and it's a trend of entitled behaviour i’ve noticed as i’ve seen other people getting these types of comments. in fandom:

1) it's one thing to critique and complain if you've paid to access or purchase content. but in fandom, people draw/write/cosplay shit for free most of the time. it doesn't matter if the content creator sometimes takes commissions, if they've made fancontent freely accessible, you sure as hell should respect the (free) labour and be polite in public. if somebody's style isn't up your alley, just keep quiet and find something else you prefer instead of moaning and complaining to the artist for having the audacity not to draw to your tastes. simple as that. i have my own hyperspecific preferences in hetalia style/interpretation, and notps/characterisation i dislike that i discuss privately with my friends for this reason. fanworks are like people baking free cakes and going “here! enjoy!” 

2) fandom is full of hobbyists. i'm not interested in pursuing art professionally, but i'm lucky to be a reasonably visible artist & even my shitposts get likes and engagement which makes it easy to disregard rude anons. but so many artists here are younger and starting out. like, let's say even if i really did have sameface syndrome? it's rude and being a prick, period, especially when you may discourage somebody starting out completely. and even if you're dealing with an older fan, it's not carte blanche to be an arsehole either. i've noticed this esp with writers in the hetalia fandom—fics often don't get as much likes as art, but it takes hell of a time to put a fic together—recognise and respect that before you go into someone's inbox and complain they write badly or think it's funny to be a wanker for a laugh. try writing a fic yourself!

3) people make stuff in hetalia for fun and have differing interpretations based on our backgrounds, personalities and just how we see the characters. i have my stripes as a londoner and my family is of commonwealth migrant background; roasting the british empire is just my thing in hetalia, bc while england isn’t just the empire, that’s the area of history personally relevant to me. if my jokes about arthur being an imperial ratman or first sea lord of the liquor cabinet aren’t your cup of tea—okay, that’s alright. just find somebody else who explores arthur in the other ways you prefer, or even better try making your own works. 

[sunkissed-mogai]

iiiiiiit's mogai month! y'all know what that means!!

as some of you guys may know, july is mogai month! which means, as a respectable member of society, i've gotta do my part to make this one great. therefore... 31 days of mogai! let's go!

anyone and everyone who would like can do this challenge! some prompts are aimed at coiners, but there's always gonna be a non-coiner alt for everybody to join in the fun.

1 - what’s your favorite gender you’ve coined? non-coiners, what’s your favourite gender you’ve requested?

2 - what’s your favorite pronoun set that you use? that you’ve seen?

3 - share your gender hoard with us!

4 - coin a self indulgent gender! non-coiners, describe your “dream gender”!

5 - coin a gender as a gift for somebody else! non-coiners, tag someone who’s making this mogai month special.

6 - what got you into the mogai community? what was your “mogai awakening”?

7 - what are your favourite parts of the mogai community?

8 - what’s your go-to naming strategy for genders? non-coiners, what draws you to a gender when you see it?

9 - do you use any alt terms for “gender”? ex gendie, gemder, etc

10 - what do you use to make your flags? non-coiners, try your hand at coining something!

11 - describe your gender for us without using the words “feminine,” “masculine,” “neutral,” “cute,” “little,” any food, color, or any animal/plant (the more poetic the better!)

12 - if you could make a flag symbolising yourself, what colours would you use and why?

13 - describe someone close to you, like a best friend or significant other!

14 - artists, do a quick doodle using the colours of your flag or the colours of the mogai flag! writers, write a poem relating each colour to something in your life.

15 - make a mogai moodboard!

16 - if you could make MOGAI (marginalised orientations, gender alignments, and intersex) stand for anything else, what would it be? go wild

17 - share your favorite piece of queer media!

18 - what's your favorite hyperspecific xenogender?

19 - do you identify with any attraction/sexuality terms under the mogai umbrella?

20 - who introduced you to the mogai community? alternatively, who was the first mogai creator you followed?

21 - give a shoutout to a small or new blog! shouting out yourself is completely acceptable <3

22 - do you have a tagging system? if so, what is it? how did you come up with it?

23 - do you plan on celebrating this month with anything special? have you already done so?

24 - what's the most visually appealing flag in your opinion?

25 - mogai-fy your favorite animal! that's up for any interpretation you care to give it.

26 - do you have any mogai friends irl?

27 - when did you get into the mogai community? where?

28 - describe your mogai journey! were you ever an exclus? what changed your views? (no pressure to answer those last two questions!)

29 - favorite plant themed term? favorite animal themed term?

30 - how much of our history do you know? trivia bonus: what was the first ever mogai acronym and what did it stand for? no googling!

31 - back to the beginning! what's your favorite term you've coined? non-coiners, what's your favorite term you've requested?

i can't wait to see what you all do! please tag me in your posts and/or tag them all with "31 days of mogai" and "mogai day [x]" so i can see them!

[abeautifulblog]

7, 25, 32 from the writer questions meme, if you're still taking them!

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

Being able to enjoy what I've written when I'm done.

I don't understand people who say they never reread their own work, that it makes them cringe—like, yes! that's called a first draft! That's why you keep editing until it's doing what you want it to, until you're happy with it!

The whole reason I'm motivated to write a story in the first place is because it's a story I wanted to experience, and no one else had written it for me. You know that meme that's like “I wrote this for me but you can read it too”? Yeah, it me.

...That said, the joy of being able to share it with others, and seeing the comments full of their unbridled enthusiasm, is a close second. :)

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

Hrm. Not sure I've got any, actually? o_O

I've seen a lot of writers get overly-attached to their hyperspecific headcanons (“And modern!AU Geralt's favorite snack food is CHEETOHS!!”), but ultimately I'm like... why? If it's so specific and tangential that it has no bearing on the story or their overall characterization... what is its purpose?

I mean, it doesn't do any harm to give a character a weird quirk or preference (Robert likes pineapple pizza!), but a common mistake for novice writers is to mistake that for characterization. It's not. It doesn't give you any deeper understanding of who this character is as a person to know that they like cheeseburgers and hate hotdogs, or that they listen to Taylor Swift, or that their type is redheads. Trying to understand your character by compiling a list of their likes/dislikes is pursuing the wrong question.

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

“Life does not cease to be funny when people die, any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.” (George Bernard Shaw)

I've mentioned this one before, but if I could sum up my entire writing ethos in one line, that would be it.

Life is both.

Those plodding, dreary, relentlessly cynical and nihilistic grimdark books are just as unrealistic as the unrepentantly fluffy fanfics in which everything is beautiful and nothing hurts. Not that realism even should be the goal of fiction, but it's dishonest to pretend like the former is an objectively more truthful depiction of the human condition.

And that's something I consider myself pretty good at in my writing -- striking the balance between heavy moments and lighter ones. It's that bit of salt in your caramel, that bit of sugar in your marinade -- the contrast is what brings out the flavor to its fullest.

[suttttton]

20 and 21 for the fanfic writer ask game?

20. What feedback makes you the happiest to hear?

probably when people say things like, 'i've never thought about this ship/trope/concept before but now I'm obsessed' (especially when the ship in question is jonsasha, i LIVE to spread jonsasha propaganda)

i also get really happy when i get feedback from people who have read and enjoyed several of my stories. especially comments about common tropes and themes i use in my writing that they really liked. my favorite comment ever is this gem that i found in the Little Black Bird bookmarks:

("If I had a knickle for every time i read a forest creature jon! Gets turned into a human to be jonah magnus' husband fic, i would have 2 nickels. Which isn't a lot, but its weird that it happened twice, and i really hope it'll happen again cuz they both rocked. Edit: holy fuck theyre by the same author!")

I have never laughed so hard at a comment. i look at this whenever i'm feeling down and am just like, yeah i sure am the queen of this hyperspecific trope!

21. Is there an idea you’ve always wanted to write, but haven’t yet?

I've got a few, but in honor of the TMA finale anniversary, let me tell you about my idea for a somewhere else fic:

so martin makes it to somewhere else, and the very first person he meets up with is somewhere else!gerry. obviously gerry has no context for the Fears, but he witnesses martin coming through the rift along with a collection of horrors, so it doesn't take much to convince him that martin is telling the truth about alternate universes and whatnot. he lets martin crash on his couch for awhile, and they end up forming a ghost-busting team to try and protect people from the Fears

so where's jon in all this, you ask? ummmmmm he's dead. really. actually. he's dead. his only presence in the fic is as a corpse and in martin's memories. the entire first section of the fic is just gerry awkwardly trying to be sympathetic while martin is nearly catatonic with grief. (and then when martin has recovered a bit it's gerry awkwardly trying to figure out how to respond to, "yeah my dead boyfriend [from an alternate universe] would have been really excited to meet you, he was basically in love with you")

and like. this isn't a martin salt fic in any way (because i love martin with all my heart), but it does address the thing that most bothered me about the finale, which is the way none of the characters (except jon my love) seem to really consider that releasing the fears into alternate universes would do,,,,,, a lot of harm to the people in those universes, and i want martin to have to face the consequences of that choice

anyway, this was the very first fic idea that popped into my head after the finale, and i love it, but i haven't written it yet and maybe never will because jon is my fave and i would miss him :( (also no one wants a somewhere else fic where one of the boys just fucking dies)

[nobody-knose--archive]

📫 & 📼 for whatever characters ya wanna talk about :D

these are both really interesting questions in the sense that i cannot for the life of me foresee their potential answers being of much direct value to the stories i try to tell. also they’re hyperspecific & contain stories within themselves and y’all know me telling a story in short time is a goddam challenge, but! with a character randomly selected as its focus, below the cut i give you: one story based on the first prompt feat the cojum who? crew! i do not in any way promise to give a story for the second prompt but this was fun enough on its own so i thank you all the same. (cws for implied death, mention of blood)

2.66 to 4.67 billion miles apart at any given time

“What’s that you’ve got there?” is an innocuous question when it’s directed at, for example, a cat. ”A letter, duh,” is an innocuous answer when it’s not being given in, for example, a space ship with nothing that could conceivably resemble a mail slot on its entire exterior. ”O-kay then. Is the easier follow-up question ‘Why’ or ‘How’?” Amber responds, cautious but incredulous. ”’How’, definitely; I got this out of the T&LDIS mailbox. The easiest question you could’ve asked was ‘Why not me?’ as I think you can understand not getting letters when nobody knows your transtemporal address.” ”I... don’t particularly care about that.” ”Same here, actually. But the hardest question you could’ve asked (given my inability to answer it) and, frankly,” Coral takes a second to look incredibly incredulous, “the one I’m surprised you didn’t ask is, ‘Who’?” This moves Amber towards a different shade of curiosity. “There are many people connected to you I of whom I wonder the ‘Who?’ but I never expected you to do as well.” Coral, who had been scanning the now-open letter as Amber spoke and looking for all the world utterly lost in thought, glances up at Amber when his sentence concludes and says, “Have you ever considered becoming a poet?” He only stares and stifles a sigh in response. ”Or maybe a songwriter? I understand if that’s less your style though-” ”Are you not going to answer my question?” ”I got a letter because I know people who know my address, and anything else I can go over if I want to, and if I figure out the answer myself after reading it.” ”Alright. That’s good enough for me.” Amber, with a strange sort of compliment in his head and plenty of awareness of how Coral wants to be left alone, exits the console room. Coral takes a seat in a seat that manages to be well-worn and familiar despite the objective newness of this console room design and takes another look at the letter in their hands. ”Hey Coral,” it starts, already a strange way for a letter addressed to them to start, considering they have yet to tell any of their former companions about their name change, and especially not any fellow Time Lords (the use of circular gallifreyan indicating as such). “The majority of this letter wasn’t written by me- and before you ask, no, I’m not Marcy. I’m a time lord you’re close with, yes, but not Marcy.” This factoid Coral finds suspicious- whoever wrote it must know Marcy well to have handwriting so similar in style to its. And the use of the present/past/future perfect continuous tense [a tense that is notably difficult to translate into english] in reference to the writer’s familiarity with Coral themself carries a array of implications they aren’t looking forward to understanding. ”I’m writing this preface to clarify a couple things. Firstly, I came into possession of this letter unintentionally and without any ill will towards you. And secondly, the contents of this letter would thoroughly unsettle you if you weren’t aware of the strange means by which it made its way to you- means I don’t plan on telling you, but the fact that they’re strange and I’m writing all this should help at least somewhat. Two-and-a-fifthly, I know these contents would unsettle you because I used a different name at the top of my section than what the original writer used in theirs.” It seems the writer of this letter (its preface at least) is attempting to cram as many confusing temporal implications as possible on one (modified-to-be) dimensionally transcendent piece of paper. ”I’m pretty sure I’ve said everything that needs to be said, but if I didn’t I’ll probably find a way to get the information to you anyway. Only if the opportunity presents itself though. Much like how the present tends to opportune itself.” Coral’s almost starting to wonder whether this is actually some completely random person they know that at some point in their life learned circular gallifreyan, just for how unlikely it feels that any time lord would write this stuff. “Greetings and good evening,” then a signature in the form of a drop of ink close enough between conventional shades of orange and red for Coral to mistake it for a drop of gallifreyan blood at first. They sigh, then pull the next sheet of paper out of the envelope- the actual letter itself. “Dear Conductor,” The preface wasn’t lying. That does feel weird to them. “That’s probably the weirdest way I’ve ever started a letter but you never told me your name and I don’t care enough to ask. I don’t really know why I’m writing this letter (do you even have a mail slot on the T&LDIS? I don’t remember ever seeing one) but it’s been about a week since you left me at home and” Their hearts stop. Exercising a considerable amount of self-restraint, they do not crumple the letter into a tiny ball and throw it into the depths of the whirling time vortex, and instead resume reading it. They know who wrote it now. “I get the feeling you’ll show up tomorrow or another half week from now looking like you thought you’d arrive only a couple hours after dropping me off.” (Not an inaccurate prediction, though to be precise it would be the day after she wrote this letter that they would pick him up.) “I guess the most likely reason I’m writing you this letter is that [the clear markings of an abundance of erased words fill up space] you’re the only dude ever, I think, that might know what it feels like to go somewhere and be kind of lost in the past and future instead of actually in the present. It’s a really hard feeling to place.” (They can’t actually relate to this, the contrasting aspect of it at least. Being untethered from the natural flow of time, reality itself even to an extent, has been the norm for them for nearly as long as they can remember. All the same, the very groundedness of non-Time Lords, their ability to truly look at a world the way it currently exists as they are in it, not as one of many bits and pieces in a long, winding web of time, is something they envy. They wonder if thon ever managed to pick up on how that very quality is what they happen to value in every companion they ever pick up.) “I mean, to you, there’s not much of a difference between 1985 and 1984 and 1986, right? Just like how there wouldn’t have been a difference when we landed in that one jungle place, if we were there in 443Δ or 441Δ (<- that’s what a delta looks like, right?) But to me, here in the “present” or whatever, if we go back a year that’s when me and everyone I know about and the whole planet was a year younger. Are you just used to that?” (Yes. On occasion, they no longer are. And they treasure those occasions as much as they can.) “I mean, you’re the only person ever who could possibly know if this war with the Russians is going to end a week from now or in another year or in a whole century. Or even if it’ll end at all. All that stuff is just things that’ll keep me up at night but to you it’s facts you already know, right? And it’s like that everywhere (everywhen?) there are probably people on all those planets who are thinking about stuff that happened a month ago and you could go there and know exactly what happened then if you want to. And now I feel like i could do the same thing, almost. It’s so strange.” (This is what happens to the people they make companions out of.) “I don’t want to just fill up this letter with talk about weird time stuff though. We deal with enough of that already, don’t we?” (They did, and it wasn’t enough.) “I guess with all this talk of how much a big deal the present is, I was thinking I could offer something for us to do when you get back. I don’t have to immediately set off again on grand adventures with you, do I? There’s this movie coming out, you probably know about it in some way, and it’s about an old person and a younger person traveling through time in a machine that looks like a car- sound familiar? We don’t have to see it, of course, I always like traveling with you, just let me know what you think when you get back. I guess I might be making a big assumption, that you’ll get this letter before then, but what’s the point of having that scifi trans-temporal mailing address of yours if it doesn’t work as intended?” (A very good point. One they can’t help but agree with.) “Your partner in time, Wesley Griffin.” Coral’s eyes lock with the signature at the bottom of the page for a long, long moment. Eventually, they glance up and reread Wesley’s entire section of the letter, top to bottom. And again. And a few more times, for good measure. For Wesley, it was about a week and a half spent at home, recuperating. For Coral, it was closer to a year, and an incredibly busy one at that, dealing with fellow renegade Time Lords and making sure the T&LDIS is appropriately capable of evading the non-renegades that seek to cause them more harm than the actual renegades. The whole little diversion was meant to be a break for both of them, when in reality Coral got maybe a couple weeks of fine rest and recuperation, and Wesley obviously wasn’t having as restful a time as they assumed he was, if this letter is anything to go off of. The day Coral returned to pick Wesley back up was a grand one, though humble. Neither of them brought up the subject of watching a movie, Coral because they didn’t know it was meant to be an option and Wesley because thon was never confrontational enough for her own good. Nor was the subject of feeling displaced in time brought up, though it is surely a more difficult topic of conversation to breach over dinner. Coral had spent their whole life until now unaware of this letter’s existence and had not suffered for it, to the best of their knowledge. Now it’s in their hands and they haven’t got the fainest clue what to do with it. Barely sparing the preface a second glance, they carefully fold and replace the letter in its envelope. Their back deliberately turned away from the door, they leave the console room to set off down the T&LDIS corridors, only the faintest whisper of a destination in mind. A few doors down, and some picked chords are heard underneath Amber’s voice from behind a door. “See, what most people think of when it comes to Spanish guitar is this one set of chords, when really those are just native to the Mediterranean and not Iberia specifically.” Coral doesn’t even try to stick around and hear a response. Long after the sounds of spanish guitar have faded, Coral crosses paths with Darius, heading in the opposite direction. “Oh, hey, do you know where I can find Amber?” it quickly asks. “He’s straight down the hall,” Coral responds without breaking their stride or turning their head, not giving Darius a chance to respond in further questioning or thanks. Briefly, they wonder if Amber was in fact talking to himself instead of to someone else, as they had assumed, but don’t bother entertaining the thought for very long. Just as they’re nearing exasperation with their ship for tucking the room they’re seeking so far away, the door reveals itself. It’s a door they’d recognize anywhere, and one they’d expect to see in only one place, and one they have not touched for far more years than they’d admit to most. So they take a deep breath, grasp the letter lightly in their hand, open the door, step inside, lay it on the bed, and leave. Not all of those actions occurring immediately after one another. - It’s more obvious to Jay than Amber himself that he relaxes immensely as he plays and talks about playing guitar. He’s greatly enjoying having an audience, clearly, and they have no doubt the novelty will not wear off any time soon. “...when really those are just native to the Mediterranean and not Iberia specifically.” Cautious and alert as always, though, it tenses up hearing footsteps coming down the hall- it can’t know for sure, but just in case that is Coral walking so quickly, it scans the room for any hiding spots or new ways out it knows should be there. Luckily, the sound passes by and fades almost before Amber can even notice, so Jay simply motions for him to continue playing rather than bring any attention to it. One and a half flamenco pieces later, some more footsteps are making their way towards them, and this time Jay’s earlier preparation pays off in part; the door is opened and ze is nowhere to be seen when it happens, but as Darius expresses a bit of interest in Amber’s technique and nobody else presents themself, ze pop zerself back into visibility with relative ease, neither Amber nor Darius batting an eye at this. “If you want, I could try and show you how alzapúa works, although I don’t really think I’m the best teacher out there-” “You’re fine, Amber. Darius, did you happen to see Coral out there?” Jay softly interjects. “Yeah, he was moving very quickly in the opposite direction and told me I could find you- well, just Amber -if I kept down the way I was going.” “Huh. Did they have a letter on them?” Amber replies, and Jay starts. “Yeah, actually.” (They try collecting themself to the best of their ability, and it should be said their ability is better than you’d expect.) “Alright. I wonder what they’re going to do with it.” (So does Jay, but ae at least have a very strong hunch ae’re highly interested in testing) “Amber, you don’t mind continuing this serenade in miniature with an alternate exterior audience, would you?” Amber shifts his attention back to Jay, a slightly melancholy tinge encroaching on his smile. “Yeah, I’m good. Go ahead and do your thing.” They nod and duck out the door, him quietly finishing, “I wasn’t really expecting you to stay very long anyway.” Unexpectedly, hy responds on hys way out, “I’ll steal another chance for us.” - A short while down the line (a while being, famously, one of the least quantifiable units of time measurement out there), Jay will take every necessary precaution they possibly can, walk directly into a room the T&LDIS will never be allowed to eject or remodel, no matter how many regenerations she or its conductor go through, and on their person will be a very, very old pen with no ink in it. A long while down the line, Coral (or perhaps someone no longer going by that name but very much the same inside) will walk back into the room that at one point housed a dear friend of theirs, and they’ll somehow bring themself to reopen the letter from him, and in the introduction they’ll read in reddish-orange ink a single, long, winding, and entirely new sentence in the preface that reduces them to tears in the kindest way possible.

[thequibblah]

hey! as someone who routinely goes over their planned word counts (thank you for the 20k chapter updates), do you have moments when your word count is lower than what you planned? how do you deal with having too many ideas but not writing them out well? (if you do, that is)

well first of all i'm perfect and never screw up, so jot that down

no ksjghjskgj kidding!

this ended up being spoilery for 40, so if you haven't caught up yet ignore this nuclear bomb and drop me another ask so i can explain this with another example

i think i quite routinely have that concern, and it's a multi-step process for me to figure out where to take it. first, is falling short of my "planned word count" a genuinely concerning point, or just an ego thing? sometimes it takes writing out something to realise that while it feels expansive in my head, i don't necessarily want to delve into every tiny bit of it. and that's okay!

unlike with something you want to publish, especially a commercial novel which comes with pretty definite expectations about pacing and length, fic is pretty rules-out-the-window. it's okay if some chapters are shorter than others. if you ask me, it's better, because it means you're only serving up the bits you were excited to write, and it stands to reason that those are the bits people are interested in reading about.

for instance, i was surprised to have fallen short of thee quibblah benchmark for chapter 40, even though there was ostensibly a lot going on plot-wise. but in retrospect, i had some definite plot beats to hit and there weren't actually that many of them. a chapter doesn't have to be meaty for it to accomplish what you want it to!

if it seems like that's not the case, and i really do have more to say but can't figure out how to say it, this is where i stop trying to force myself to squeeze out scenes i'm not that invested in and go back to brainstorming/outlining. the important thing is that i need to find a way to make every scene exciting or interesting — even if a scene serves an important plot purpose, it can bore me, and that's a sign that i need to rethink something about it.

it sounds stupid but thinking is really important to my process tee em — i probably spend two or three times the amount of hours i am actively writing on thinking about my writing. especially when i have a big idea i really want to get right! so i go back to daydreaming and trying to add depth to my scene notes — which often begin as bare bones as (ok i'm trying desperately not to spoil 40 for you just in case so this will be really vague) "aurors react, what's their plan?"

when initially putting down that note, i knew fucking NOTHING about where it would go. all the way from whose perspective will this be from, will we actually see the aurors on the page or just hear about what they're doing, not to mention what is their plan. obviously, i then hit that moment in my drafting and began to panic. i discarded a bunch of ideas that i thought were not interesting enough (hearing the aurors through a broadcast, for instance, which i thought was already happening enough in that chapter), and couldn't really find an obvious cool angle. so then i was like, fine, we've established i will write from an auror's pov, so which one? i discarded a bunch of character options before finally settling, which then brought me to the next question.

i know this scene has to take place because it adds colour and depth to the larger plot, and gives the reader information that the main cast of characters doesn't necessarily have. but why should this specific character be our viewpoint? in chapter 32, i picked alice and frank for little auror interludes because the stakes were super personal for them both. in 40, i didn't have that option, so i had to manufacture a reason. i came up with two.

one was a really hyperspecific explanation for why that character would be in that situation, trying to break the death eaters' hold, that both developed her character in a way i thought was super fun and also dealt with a larger plot problem i was having (aka inferi in the books are way way too powerful and i needed a plausible way to, for lack of a better word, nerf them).

two was my favourite reason to do anything, which was dramatic irony! the best part about prequel fic is that the reader knows so much more info about canon that you, the writer, can use really effectively to make a scene automatically interesting. (another example: when i wrote the scene in 37 where james nearly has a run-in with filch and drops the map, i was really hoping readers would remember that the marauders lose the map in seventh year and panic thinking this was the moment. it worked!) in 40, i put the auror pov in close proximity to the person who ends up killing her, and i automatically had so much more to say and do with that section because i was trying to figure out what that dynamic would be like (and what repercussions it would have on other aspects of the story) while i was writing it

so, tl;dr, when i have an idea that i know is in theory really cool but can't figure out how to make it interesting on the page (which for me is usually why i don't have much to say), i try and think things through in a very practical way. i ask myself if i'm telling this story the way it needs to be told, and usually when i'm struggling the answer is no!

as for when it's too many ideas that's the problem, i brace myself and (nooooo) cut some of them, or put them aside for now. sometimes they fit in later, and i realise it was just that it was too much cramming to do with the rest of the plot when i initially came up with it. i'm constantly moving things around to accommodate reactions — like, when one big thing happens i often find i haven't given my characters enough breathing room to process before tossing something else at them, and that is a waste of the first big thing!

it's also a question of scale. especially in one big story, you can't have every idea you have in the A-plot. some things will necessarily shift to the background, because they involve secondary characters. it's okay to accept when you have to scale ideas down. this is something i struggle with constantly, but people aren't here to read my more distant subplots except for in the ways those subplots interact with my main characters. it's the latter that i should be focusing on!

ok this was very disorganised and i feel like i jumped from one thought to another a lot but please let me know if this makes sense/answers your question, or if there's anything else that comes to mind!! i love talking about plotting like so so so much xx

[igarbagecannoteven]

okay trying again because the wifi cut out the first time but! i really want to know about numbers 5, 6, 15, and 19 -hazel

hello hazel thx for stopping by the ol' ask box! i hope you're having a good day :)))

5. show me your favorite under-appreciated fic; why do you wish it got more attention? what if i'm weak (and i need you tonight?) was my fic with the lowest number of kudos at twelve until literally yesterday when it tied with my drabble and canoeing malum (and now that place is being taken by it's sequel lol) which kinda surprised me? i mean the responses i've gotten have been lovely but it's probably my favorite au i've written other than maybe the road not taken lashton universe, and now that it's part of a series i wish it had a touch more interaction so i can feel more confident if i decide to write more in that world (which hopefully i will unless my other wips kidnap me and hold me for ransom lol). i'm always going to write what i want and not what's popular/what other people might prefer but its always good to know new projects will be well received.

6. what fic is on your back burner, waiting to be written when you feel your skill matches its potential? ohhh there are a few but the one that i'm saving until i'm a stronger writer (and until i finish my first longfic) is this muke-centered series i think has real potential. it'd be in two (or maybe more) parts, the first being an another place by bastille songfic which would be a fwb situation where luke thinks they're just doing it to have fun and get out of their heads but michael's slowly falling in love with him (needless to say it'd be an angst fic) and then the next installment would be a fourth of july by fob songfic that'd be half flashbacks about how a few months after another place fic they ended up kinda dating but they weren't on the same page about what the relationship is (luke's leaving once the summer ends and thinks it's more a lighthearted, fun relationship before he leaves for idk what yet and michael thinks of it as a more serious relationship) and half somewhere in the future when luke's haunted by the realization that michael's actually the only person he ever loved and he just didn't realize it at the time and michael's trying to move on and they meet up again and have to deal with everything.

it's obviously a lot and tbh idk if i'll ever have the skill level to write it but i'd really really love to bc i think it has huge potential and i wouldn't trust anyone else to write it (no offense meant, i'd just hate for it to turn out different than what's in my head and then i wouldn't like it and offend whoever wrote it). it'd be a huge challenge not just bc it'd be hella long and i still have lots of plot issues to iron out but also i think it'd be better if it leaned towards an M rating (like obvs no smut bc i'm me but def some implied stuff and maybe a couple make out scenes) and right now i can't even write a detailed kissing scene much less anything M rated (it certainly doesn't help that i've never kissed anyone lol) so. my writing would have to improve by leaps and bounds. sorry that's probably way to detailed an answer than you wanted lkjsfkjds

15. what are some of your favorite tropes to write? do they match the ones you read? if you haven't noticed i love writing hurt/comfort and mutual pining in part bc they're both easy mindsets for me to slip into (for various reasons lol). idk if it's a trope but i also love concepts that are more,, out there ig? like i have a lot more fun writing something that's not necessarily your usual fic plot bc those tend to be the ideas i get the most and also there's more freedom if people don't have specific expectations. funnily enough, i don't really read a lot of hurt/comfort, esp ones dealing with physical injuries bc while i can write it i can't always read it (yes that makes no sense my brain is weird) i do love reading mutual pining but i'm usually more a fan of ones where they get together in the end while when i write it's usually pre-slash. i adore reading outlandish plots tho and am obsessed with other people's hyperspecific aus bc they tend to have extra passion from the writer that just bleeds into the fic itself.

19. do you prefer writing dialogue, description, or some other part? why? i think dialogue tends to be easier for me to write, and it can also be helpful bc the characters tend to run off in their own direction which can sometimes help me figure out what the heck the fic is about (it can also be annoying but that's a different problem). description writing is only fun when i come up with a funky fresh simile to describe a feeling and other than that it's struggle central lol

[albatris]

T for the oc asks?

hey! thanks for the ask! I think I have two T characters that I can remember and I have another T in my inbox so…… as per usual I’m gonna start with the easier one hahaha

which would be Tris, much to the surprise of……… no one, probably?

also, obligatory apology for the lengthy rambles

I swear not all my responses will be like this ok

I just don’t know how to, like.......... shhh, ever

Full name: Tristan James Greer, n like. as mentioned in a previous ask he and his older brother Jacob share a middle name because of just. incredibly stupid reasons. both in terms of canon explanation and Me As A Writer explanations

Nicknames, if any: technically I guess “Tris” is the nickname, although it would be more accurate to say that “Tris” is his name and “Tristan” is a word he is entirely divorced from and will not respond to, unless you’re one of his two siblings, or his parents using A Certain Tone Of Voice, or sometimes Shara who forgets, or legal forms, or it's pertinent to a joke he'd like to make

Hogwarts house: Hufflepuff

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Ace, definitely at least a little bi, not that it ever really comes up in a major way in-story. Like, could definitely be argued he had a crush on Kai when they first became friends, but like. who knows whether that was legitimate romantic attraction or whether he was just so unbelievably caught off guard by someone being genuinely interested in and nice to him that it immediately crashed his entire emotional system and caused his brain to short-circuit. could go either way. also who of the atdao gang DOESN'T have at least a slight crush on Kai, probably

A song I associate with them: How about five instead!! Good Tris tunes include but are in no way limited to: “Boys Will Be Bugs” by Cavetown, “Sloom” by Of Monsters and Men, “If This Ship Sinks (I Give In)” by Birds of Tokyo (melodramatic edgy Tris vibes), “Monsters” by The Boy Least Likely To and “The Future’s Right In Front Of Me” by A Great Big World

3 important relationships:

Okay so first off would be Noa, his best friend of an amount of years that I always just fucking make up because I can never remember. More than 3 and less than 7. Anyway these two only started hanging round each other ‘cause it was mutually beneficial, ‘cause kids are mean and they eventually twigged that they were less likely to be targeted as a pair than on their own, but pretty soon they were like "oh wait hey you're actually a nice person and I genuinely enjoy ur company and we make a good team" and their friendship grew from there n now they're bros.

honestly I have like seven hyperspecific rambles in my drafts about Tris and Noa's friendship n how they relate to each other could honestly talk abt both of them for hours

in terms of Tris I will say that Noa is part of the extremely extremely small group of people that he's generally willing to trust completely with zero strings attached, which is like. sure something. n she's someone he generally considers a touchstone of reality and someone he can rely on when he can't necessarily trust his own perceptions. also she's someone who is a half-decent opponent at upside down Mario Kart which is a plus

and also, Jacob, arguably the most important person in Tris's life, someone he thinks the world of and considers his biggest role model. like. not in terms of Jacob's intelligence or success or how hard he's worked n all the reasons their parents think he's the ideal Tris should be striving for, just in terms of like. the sort of person he wants to be, someone kind and well-liked and fun, someone with a good heart, which is super corny now that I write it. Cool. Great. Cool. Tris did not have a lot of super great adult role models growing up 'cause his parents are a nightmare and most teachers found him frustrating beyond belief, nor did he have a lot of friends being a weird neurodivergent kid lmao, so his relationship with both his siblings but especially Jacob has been one of the only sources of stability and genuine warmth and connection through most of his life

so I mean basically he pretty much thinks of Jacob as Literally The Coolest Person In The Entire World which is funny because Jacob is just a complete dweeb

n then thirdly. I mean. parents, again much for the same reasons as I listed in Jacob's post. controlling, emotionally distant, impossible standards, more concerned with maintaining a perfect image than any of their kids' actual wellbeing, blah blah

Jacob is currently the only Greer sib who has any real grasp on exactly HOW unhealthy their relationship with their parents is? Tris has a whole thing going on in the story where he's kinda juuust starting to come to grips with things and work through some of his complicated feelings towards his parents and reconcile the ideas of "I love these people" and "these people kind of really truly genuinely fucked me up and none of what happened to me was normal or my fault and I'm going to be untangling the repercussions for a long time" and how both these things can be true for him at the same time

also Jacob's like thirteen years older than Tris I feel like I forgot to mention this here

I'm tired, yeah

2 fears:

1. everything

2. literally everything are you kidding me. weird birds. diseases. public transport. dying. sudden change. loud noises. crowds. hot weather. roadworks. natural disasters. people walking behind him. it'd be easier to list the things he's not afraid of. it's a miracle he leaves the house at all

ok those aren't good answers ummmm let's see

here's one: being somehow responsible for harm coming to the people he cares about, being the cause of something that directly hurts someone else, etc. etc. in broad general terms, but also in terms of intrusive thoughts and in terms of delusions/hallucinations that sometimes wander into the realm of threats, orders, "do this thing or your best friend will die horribly", kind of thing. so. the stress that he's going to disobey something or misinterpret something and his loved ones being punished for it....... all of that

1 element of their backstory:

his parents once tried to have him exorcised as a child and he’s only just now beginning to realise this was a "legitimately fucked-up experience” not “haha relatable childhood hijinks”

also on a lighter note he insists to Shara that this makes him immune to demons and she is fairly certain this is not how it works at all, but neither of them can technically prove it's NOT how it works without actively trying to get Tris murdered by demons, and while this DOES sound like a fun after-school activity, both their parents said no

anyway cool that's it from me! I'm not going back to edit this at all! I don't remember what I wrote even slightly! I'm going to bed! I should have probably picked a more fun backstory fact! The one I chose is horrible! Goodnight!

[scabopolis]

Santa here! I didn't know you wrote a fic last year - and what a fic it was! I zipped right through it. An absolute delight - well done. RE: your preferences for this year go - excellent choices, my friend. We are very much on the same page. It'll be a delight to whip something up for you. If you think of anything else you want to see, let me know! I'll add it in. 'Tis the season to be home for the holidays - I'm glad you'll be able to. Do you have any fun traditions? And may I ask where abroad?

Oh, glad you liked my one and only CS fic. I agonized over the beginning of it for...literal minutes (such drama!) and could never get it quite right. It’s one of those that continues to annoy me for that very reason. Eh, such weird creatures fandom writers are, right? 

Holidays will obviously look a little different this. I think it’s shaping up to be me and my mom, brother #1 celebrating with his family and maybe us going to his backyard for a dessert bonfire outside afterwards, and brother #2 celebrating with his family. Last year I spent the Christmas holiday with a dear friend who came out to visit me and we roadtripped throughout the Scottish highlands. It was cold, wet, rainy, and a complete and total dream. One of the loveliest Christmases I’ve ever had, to be honest.

And of course! I lived in Glasgow, Scotland for a year and have been in London for the past few months. My dream was to find a job working in the film and TV industry here (it’s a in my 30s career shift) but the job market being what it is and visa requirements being what they are, I am returning to the US and regrouping. 

My family isn’t a huge one for traditions - usually I am the one who wants everything to be a tradition and I am met with good-natured resistance. But! I have very hyperspecific tastes in Christmas music where I search the same song over and again on YouTube because I only want to hear one version of my favorite song (e.g. Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan’s mashup of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlmen/We Three Kings...I can’t explain it). And I love my mom’s homemade apple pie. And I love forcing everyone in my family to play boardgames. Two years ago my mom and I put together a murder mystery puzzle which was total absurdity but right up my alley. 

Truthfully, I am just excited to be in the same timezone as so many humans I adore. 

What are some of your (or just one given the word count limit!) holiday traditions?