#though it doesn't count for any of the other categories ofc

[lumilasi]

Hi, PenWoman from AO3.

I have a few questions where did you get these amazing ideas for your Zaundads stories? What is your inspiration? If you could change one thing in the Arcane series, what would it be? And do you accept story ideas from other people?

Hi there! Sorry for the late response, when I saw this it was past midnight where I live so I figured I wait till morning before responding as it'd be easier from laptop!

Since you had a few questions I suppose I'll go down the list in order! (also I realized this is gonna be kinda long wall of text, so I'll break it up with some of the art I've done with each fic):

Ideas/inspiration?

A lot of places pretty much, just like with any and all fandom/non fandom art and writing I do. If you want to know more specifically though, I can somewhat point to a few sources for each fic:

Wraiths of Zaun is basically me pondering a "What if" scenario, where they got a warning beforehand about how things were going to go wrong, and how they'd deal with that (+ wanting to connect it into bit of a multiverse thing, this'll make sense MUCH later in the fic lol)

(Now, I do feel like in hindsight I probably should've done Connol & Feli's deaths more akin to canon, as RN we haven't had a moment where Vander can consciously choose to do better. ATM he hasn't really needed to make that choice. (the incident with Pow-Pow and Vi doesn't count, as neither died) I DO have a way to still have this kind of narrative point, but that'd then happen much closer to the end of the fic.)

The Lightkeeper was a mixture of me seeing a really cool merSilco fanart (that I can't find anymore :C), me loving spooky settings and stories, and having watched Dredge playthrough recently. Also "Vander raised Viktor" concept is always fun.

As for why I chose to have Silco be the younger version, the current dynamic in the fic wouldn't have worked with old Silco as well & when I was debating which way to go, more people suggested young Silco.

(This fic has my favorite setting, given it allows me to do more worldbuilding, whereas the other 2 are canon divergence stories. It currently has the most art for that reason as well, bc Fishco is fun to draw! Though it is only my second favorite out of these fics, as.....)

........This one....THIS one. This one's my baby, my magnum opus, my absolute FAVORITE fic of all time. (slight exaggeration, but I REALLY love it rn lol)

Riftside Angel is largely inspired by my love for horror/thrillers/ mystery, my older original story writing, and one of my favorite horror game villains, that the antagonist of this fic is loosely inspired by. It's also special because usually I don't utilize horror as a theme for fanfics, but this particular idea was too good to pass up on.

(To reiterate as I feel people see "horror" and might assume its a bad ending - understandably mind you - the boys will be fine by the end, traumatized for life ofc, but that's basically just canon isn't it?)

(It was also slightly helped by two other fics on AO3 that I've listed at the beginning of the fic of course, though the inspo from them was for more specific details rather than the overarching story, which is more reworking of an ollld OG tale with setting changed from island to a mine, and with magic rather than sci fi themes.)

2. Arcane changes

I'm not really someone who's going to think of stuff like this unless the canon story REALLY drops the ball somehow. Arcane, while flawed by the end somewhat, did NOT fuck up for me that bad. (Basically I personally find the issues small enough that its on that "nothing's ever gonna be perfect" category)

.......Especially when comparing to the travesty of my previous fandom, where the ending was SO AWFUL it retroactively destroyed the entire story, basically making it feel like as if none of it mattered, might as well just erase the whole story from existence. That's how bad it was. Even if Arcane was worse, I'd still probably give it more grace because HOLY SHIT WAS THAT BADDDDD

3. Story ideas

Typically no majority of the time. I always feel like if I accept ideas from someone else, there's pressure to get them to match what that person might've wanted it to be, even if they give me free reign. At most I tend to just ask for opinions on some small story element choices (like with Silco's age in Lightkeeper) if I'm really stuck with it.

If I ever did accept those, I'd be more likely to do that with Jayvik because I find myself struggling coming up with ideas for that ship. Largely because its so popular and already has so much stories, I feel like I can't come up with something unique and different feeling enough that I'd want to write it.

............Even Then though, given I am averse to a LOT of common fanfic tropes, suggesting me ideas might prove kind of useless; I'd probably end up not accepting many of them due to me not caring for majority of the common tropes people would likely suggest lol

Anyway, glad you have been enjoying my fics, and hope this rambly answer satisfied your curiosity! Just like with my fics always ending up long, I'm bad at giving short answers lmaooo

[alialmans]

This blog is curated to be viewed by selecting a tag and browsing it, instead of looking at the whole blog (as it is pretty spammy without that). You may also find more success getting good content if you just follow a specific tag or a few instead of following the whole blog, but you do you. Good luck!

As of W̶r̶i̶t̶i̶n̶g̶..... w̶h̶e̶n̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶I̶ ̶d̶e̶c̶i̶d̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶u̶p̶d̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶t̶s̶... months ago, each path had this many posts:

#aspect: lantern - 30

#aspect: moth - 26

#aspect: grail - 24

#aspect: heart - 31

#aspect: winter - 17

#aspect: edge - 21

#aspect: forge - 16

#aspect: knock - 24

#aspect: secret histories - 18

I will not be explaining where those names come from, if ykyk

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Gimmick side blog:

@declination-inator

For reblogging fandom comics:

@alialmans-onic

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All that being said, at least a third of my posts & reblogs do not have any of the upper mentioned tags, so you might be missing out on some random rambling and reblogged memes. Tread carefully. Beware of Worms.

[necrotic-nephilim]

do you ship helena bertinelli with anyone? if yes, then which characters and why? what's your favorite helena ship? do you have any helena rarepairs? (i know you've talked about helena/steph and you're so right about it, it's a very interesting ship)

!!!! i have so many ships for my best girl ever yes oh my god thank you for asking.

my top pairing is probably Vic Sage/the Question. Vic is the basic answer, but man. i love them so much. no couple has matched each other's freak like that have. Justice League Unlimited is a great adaptation of Helena in general, but it also did a great adaptation of Helena and Vic's relationship. how he just dedicates himself to helping her with no expected return, but also wants to make sure she doesn't go too far in a hunt for vengeance that never ends for her. i think a lot of characters often want to change Helena or expect things out of her for their own needs, like the Batfam and the BoP. but Vic is one of the few people who just wants her to be better for her own good. when he tries to stop her from killing it's not because of his morals, it's because he doesn't want this crusade to consume her. and i just. man i think about them a lot. Helena rlly likes weird little men who give themselves wholly to her.

Zinda Blake/Lady Blackhawk is also a top ship for me. tbh i just like Zinda. but i do love how Helena and Zinda interact, being the more rough and tumble members of the BoP. they're both outsiders, in different ways. Helena is an outsider of the Batfam and Zinda is literally from a different time and an outsider to the current world. their friendship is so genuine and i think if Babs and Dinah can have. whatever homoerotic nonsense going on during BoP, then Zinda and Helena deserve some homoerotic nonsense too. as a treat.

if we're willing to count New-52 Helena, then i enjoy Helena/Dick/Tiger. i think Helena and Dick being a past relationship is really important in pre-Flashpoint for Helena's development, though i don't ship them as a serious couple beyond a fling. but in the New-52, i think this throuple be fun. Helena and Tiger respect each other as two very driven, no-nonsense agents and then well. they both clearly have some kind of thing for Dick. so it's fun finding the balance of how they could all work together romantically.

and ofc. it's a crime to mention Helena ships and not mention Renee Montoya/the Question. every time they interact it's really fucking gay. it's so gay that Kate Kane, Renee's own ex, assumed Helena and Renee were gay. i cannot be convinced against this ship. i genuinely think this ship should be canon. i mean. DC did tease us with this moment from an alternate universe and it's lived rent for me since. fucking criminal for us to only get one panel of what we could have if DC let Helena be a fruit in the main universe. being in love with Helena Bertinelli should be a right of passage for the Question mantle, i personally believe. if you asked me like. genuinely who i want to see Helena date in the current comics, Renee is my top pick. (i would say Vic but he's fucking dead and the New-52 butchered him so rip my mans-)

lois lane (2019) #10

besides those ships, just about every ship for Helena probably falls into the category of rarepair. like you said i've talked about my love for Helena/Steph before bc god. i think it should be a thing more people ship. once i finish the fic i'm writing about them i will convince others to like it.

i also think Helena/Cass could be fun. in a *lot* of ways Helena and Cass are narrative parallels to each other. Helena was a victim of her family being murdered at about the same age Cass was forced to be a murderer. Helena grows up to believe in lethal justice because of this, and Cass grows up to be staunchly against it. Cass' Batgirl suit was made *by* Helena. they both want to be protectors of the most vulnerable people. they balance each other out in a lot of ways and i think they should kiss about it.

also probably a rarepair, i think Helena/Lady Shiva is fun. their fight during Birds of Prey (2010) had... questionable moments for Helena's characterization, but i do love so much that Helena knocks Shiva off her feet and gains a deep respect from Shiva. like. Shiva gives her a nickname and shows her admiration. i would like to see fanfic where Shiva continues to be weirdly admirable of Helena and bothering her non-stop. they could be a fun fucked up toxic yuri moment. this is just. so gay to me.

birds of prey (2010) #6

my most rare Helena pair would probably be Helena Wayne, actually. but specifically Helena Wayne of JSA (2022). ever since, for some reason, it was made canon that the current Helena Wayne was named after Helena Bertinelli and took the name Huntress to honor her i *cannot* stop thinking about them meeting. because in-universe it makes *no* fucking sense for Bruce to name his kid after *Helena Bertinelli*, someone he's regularly at odds with and doesn't like. it's clearly an awkward explanation to try to make the whole two Huntress situation make sense. (it's almost as bad as Helena Wayne in the New-52 using Helena Bertinelli as an alias.) but because it's such an odd choice, i do think it could be fun for Helena Wayne, when she's back in time to see Bruce, to find Helena Bertinelli to get to know the woman she was named after and Helena Bertinelli just being. baffled by the idea of *Batman* naming his kid after her. it could be a fun fucked up moment.

my other super rarepair is Kara Zor-L/Power Girl. they had like. one meaningful interaction of JSA Classified and it's been PLAGUING me. something about when Power Girl doesn't remember her past and she's seeking a friend, she instinctively goes to find Huntress? but it's wrong bc this isn't *her* Huntress and neither of them understand why Power Girl would seek Helena out? god it's so good. i'm always a big fan of ships where one person in the ship is *so* obviously using the other person as a replacement for someone they lost and they both know it. it's such a doomed angsty thing where you could play with Helena actually really liking Kara, but knowing that she's just a replacement for Kara's Helena Wayne. good fucked up shit man.

and lastly: i really ship her with Dawn Granger/Dove. there's no canon basis for this, they didn't have a ton of interactions even when they were both on the BoP. but there's a very kind innocence to Dawn that contrasts Helena's violence really well. and i do love a ship with a corruption kink vibe to it. let Helena corrupt Dawn. i could write such fucked up porn about these two.