#to be controversial i don't super count it as canon

[sherlockianscholar]

in "his last bow" when holmes says: "stand with me here upon the terrace, for it may be the last quiet talk that we shall ever have." i never like to interpret it as a permanent goodbye, but in reference to the impending war and violence that will eliminate "quiet talks" into something much more chaotic. or at least, that's what i like to tell myself.

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

GIO COMMISSIONS SPECIAL SUMMER SALE FOR ALL JULY AND AUGUST!

super summer sale bc i did a woopsies!! more rules under read more

no pedophilia, incest, queerphobia, racism, ableism, or any other similar kind of disgusting and/or illegal topics

this also means i won't draw any ships involving related characters or a minor and an adult. i don't care if they're fictional, i don't care if you age them up, i don't care if it's a 400 years old in a 10 years old body, i don't care if they're step-sibilings

fandoms i won't draw:

all are censored so this doesn't show up in the tags. thanks tumblr

FNA.F

H.arry P.otter or anything else written by Joanne

V.ivziepop's works

A.ttack on T.itans

H.etalia and C.ountryhumans

Y.ansim

and generally "controversial" fandoms tbh

ships i won't draw:

i can't stress it enough i'm not drawing any pedo shit or zoophilia or incest Go Away

anything involving IRL people, unless i have proof it's you and your partner

canonically gay characters in hetero ships

everything else is more than okay. canon ships? crossovers? oc x canon? ocs smoochin??? pppspspss

OCs:

i love ocs i love oc x canon i love oc x oc please let me draw your ocs BUT REMEMBER THAT I WON'T DRAW:

OCs of fandoms I already said I don't draw

redesigns of OCs you don't own. I also need proof

also i'll always need a reference for your OCs if you want me to draw them. I'm not making them from scratch. I also accept picrews, videogame character creations and actual pictures of clothes, hairstyles and whathaveyou as references!!

NSFW & GORE STUFF:

no noncon. Ever

no NSFW or gore art involving IRL people, animals or children

i generally have no problems drawing gore stuff but let's discuss beforehand to see if I would be comfortable with your ideas or not

NO FETISHES. don't try to sneak in feet stuff or diapers or whatever you're into either. i've been on deviantart i know better. just ask someone else for crying out loud

artistic nudity counts as NSFW; some blood and beaten up characters don't count as gore

Know that I'm allowed to always deny your request before getting paid, depending on my comfort on the topic or your behavior when requesting it.

don't push me too much, don't try to sneakily ask for fetishes, don't request a fandom that might involve loli crap.

if you're in doubt, ask before requesting anything!!

[controversial-blorbo-bracket]

Controversial Character Tournament Round 2: Blaine Anderson from Glee vs Barok Van Zieks from The Great Ace Attorney

(remember that these characters are fictional and your fellow tumblr users are real. i will block you if you harass others in the notes, please consider sending your unhinged harassment to my inbox instead)

Propaganda under the cut, may contain spoilers:

Blaine Anderson:

LOVE: - "you know that post that's like "fandom will call a character evil and immature and then the character is just 15 yo" because that's what happens with blaine. he's just a sweet but socially inept kid with a lot of insecurities who's trying his best. compared to most glee characters he hasn't done anything wrong in his life. and yes he cheated on his boyfriend that one time, but he was super depressed afterwards (also this is glee literally every character has cheated and none have suffered as most as blaine because of it). in conclusion he's just a silly goose. my little princess <3"

HATE: (tumblr will not let me format this one bc its too long)

"A lot of people say he's the male Rachel Berry, and while I think that is absolutely a true statement, I actually don't mind his personality all that much. Literally everyone in Glee has a personality that ranges from inconsistent to downright horrendeus, so instead of talking about what he's like, here's some things he canonically does (buckle up, this'll be long): In season 2, when we first meet him, he's the leader of his school's showchoir. (redflag no.1/j) This gives him the freedom and authoritity to do a lot of stuff- not all bad, but he does serenade a closeted guy he doesn't know all that well, who works in costumer service AT HIS WORKPLACE, with a song about sex toys. (The guy in question ends up getting fired of course). He also gives some pretty hypocritical advice to his love interest, Kurt, about how he should try to blend in (hypocritical, cuz Blaine does the opposite and he's thriving under the attention), and he asks some insesitive questions, but those are all pretty excusable, or at least standard for Glee. In s3, him and Kurt are boyfriends, and he transitions school for him, which we could absolutely count as a decent thing, however it all kinda sours when he gets the part of Tony in the school's production of West side story. Why is this important? Kurt is a senior, and the performing arts university he's applying for is really competitive, so he needs all the extra curriculars and theatre experiance he can get. He asks Blaine to not aidition for Tony- which he agrees to- than promptly goes against that by singing one of Tony's songs at audition. He then gets offfered the role, doesn't turn it down, tells Kurt he should be happy for him, and honestly, BY GLEE STANDARDS, this is also pretty chill. Meanwhile: enter Sebastian Smythe, another contraversial character, who's now the new captain of Blaine's former showchoir, and who decides that either 1. Blaine is hot 2. Gonna use Blaine as an informat (His reasons are unclear tbh) Either way, he starts flirting with Blaine, who does end up rejecting his advances and telling him he's taken (though much later than it's probably ethical, idk tho, I'm aro). He (Blaine) really enjoys the attention though, so they end up keeping in touch. (Important for later.) Back to our main plot though; Blaime doesn't have sexual chemistry with his co-star, so the director tells him to lose his virginity (yes, you heared that right, it is fucked up). So he tries to sleep with Kurt, who of course, doesn't know that his boyfriend's sudden interest in him is due to directoral instructions. And then probably the most contraversial Blaine scene happens- see, Blaine, Kurt, and Sebastian (who Kurt hates with passion) end up going to this gaybar. Blaime gets drunk (though he only drinks one beer on screen, so we don't exactly know how drunk), and tries to sleep with Kurt in the parking lot. Kurt is visibly upset, and tells him no multiple times. Blaime doesn't oblige, and Kurt ends up shouting at him, which Blaine...doesn't take well, and blames Kurt, then leaves by foot. (They end up having sex by the end of this episode btw. No, Kurt still doesn't know about the directoral instructions. Whether he does it out of love or fear that Blaine will leave him is unclear) So we already know these two are not very good at boundries and communication, but the writers say they're "soulmates" so apperantly it's okay? Anyway, this all culminates in cheating incident no.1, where Kurt meets a guy whom he shares similar interests with, and who gives him some very cheesy compliements. They exchange numbers, and text a lot. Blaine doesn't like this. He checks their texts in secret, and then sings a song in front of the entire Glee club about how he's being cheated on, to humiliate Kurt.

Kurt insists it's not cheating, giving the example that Blaine's doing the same/used ro do the same with Sebastian. Blaine says "that's different" and they leave it at that. Kurt apologises via song. S4- Kurt moves to New York. Has to work a lot, since rebt is high, and also gets an internship at vague, so he's quite busy. Blaine feels ignored, so he cheats on him with some guy we only see the facebook profile of. They break up. S5- Blaine has a crush in this other guy, Sam. (He's been trying to get Kurt back, so him moving on is a big deal). Except gay marrige gets legalized, and Blaine decides to propose to Kurt. So he gets back together with him, then bot a week later he arranges a huge public proposal where it'd honestly just be plain emberassing to say no, but dontcha worry, because Kurt accepts. They move to New York together. Blaine becomes insecure, because Kurt gets ripped thanks to his fencing lessons, meanwhile he lrts go of himself a bit, enjoying all the fine food New York has to offer. His reaction to this is to try manipulating/tricking Kurt into eating copious amounts of food too. (To be fair, Kurt's reaction to the situation isn't perfect either, but this is not about him, their actions can co-exist without one of them necessarily having to be "the right one") S6- Kurt breaks up with Blaine. Blaine ends up going back to Ohio, and dating the guy who bullied, non-consensually kissed, than threatened to kill Kurt. (The guy did have a redemption arc, but I still dunno how to feel) You might be wondering- "wow, this was so lpng and extensive", and you'd be right but also this was mostly romantic relationship centric. There's also a lot of stuff Blaine says to his friends that make me question my sanity, but this is Glee, so that's every character in basically every episode. What makes me hate Blaine isn't even JUST all this- it's the fact that in universe, he almost never gets called-out, people take his side, it's as if the writers are condoning his actions, and I Don't Like That. I'm all for liking morally grey, or even morally dispicable characters, as long as their actions don't get excused. Hell, I started out just mildly disliking Blaine, but a lot of people paint him as innocent and pure, and that didn't feel right. Then I was ready to like him BECUASE of his questionable morality- but turns out, the guy doean't have much else going on besides this. His personality is almost the same as Rachel, except Rachel's more...full? If that makes sense? Blaine is just...bland. And inconsistent, and boring, and I just Do Not Like Him At All."

Baron Van Zieks:

LOVE: - "man's 6'4", british, looks like a vampire, took a mental health break for 5 years thanks to the dead bodies that cropped up after he lost in court, and is uhhhhhh kinda racist which is a key part of his character. the explanation for it is divisive but he does grow as a character eventually?? i think he's fun. there's a bonus case exclusive to the 3DS version of the games where he mentions he was almost poisoned in one of the first cases he ever handled. he objects with his leg. he brings wine into court but rarely drinks it. he has bats in his office. we have no idea where the scar on his face came from. his voice actor did a subway commercial. i think he wants to believe he is the sane one in the courtroom but that title belongs to the 16 year old judicial assistant for the defense." - "I love to hate him tbh!!! He's a complex interesting character tied up in things outside of his control and being used by the antagonist to hurt people, isolated due to his grief and rumors from the public. He also sucks SO fucking bad and I want to punch him. Lovingly. But I love him I promise."

[alliluyevas]

Fic Author Interview (meme)

I was tagged by the lovely @heckofabecca. Thanks, Becca :)

1- How many works do you have on AO3?

71...I honestly was a bit surprised it was that many. I guess I've had that account a while and it adds up! Almost all of them are oneshots, though.

2- What's your total AO3 word count?

204,091.

3- What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

They're all ATLA, which makes sense when you think about it. ATLA is probably the second-biggest fandom I've written for other than ASOIAF, but ASOIAF is so big it's sometimes hard to get noticed. That being said, when I sort by hits, three of the top five are ASOIAF so I guess more people are reading those and not liking them. It probably helps that my top-kudos ATLA fics are all Zuko-centric and he's one of the most popular ATLA characters in fic whereas I think the ASOIAF topics I focus on are perhaps a bit more niche.

tongued with fire (728 kudos)

i got soul, but i'm not a soldier (714 kudos)

cold fire (655 kudos)

we die with the dying; we are born with the dead (597)

the sword and the pen (577 kudos)

4- Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to! I'll respond to all comments on recently published fic (unless it's a hate comment, which I delete) and for older works I try to respond, especially if it's a substantive comment. I like to engage with readers, especially since I tend to write a lot of really niche fandoms and it's nice to connect with other fans.

5- What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

probably either another atla fic that's set right after ursa leaves zuko and azula behind or this big love fic which has an ending that is... not necessarily angsty for the narrator but super bleak in context.

6- What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

I don't typically write fluffy romantic fic (I usually do more bittersweet gen focused on family relationships) but I did when I participated in the Jaime/Brienne ship exchange a few times and this bakery-themed modern AU is probably my fluffiest/happiest ending. Exchanges are kind of fun because this is very much the type of fic I would not have ever written on my own.

7- Do you write crossovers?

I have not!

8- Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes, lol. My Lannister twins genderswap fic was very controversial among a certain subset of fans who vocally disagreed with my characterization (I will sum this up as them basically believing that genderswapped Jaime would just be canon Cersei which...lol). That's the only fic I've ever got hate comments on, though I did get a really bizarre comment back in ninth grade on FF.net before I migrated to ao3 where the person enjoyed the fic but also used the comment to grandstand against abortion, a topic that in no way was mentioned in my fic. Sir This Is A Wendy's.

9- Do you write smut?

I do write sex scenes but I wouldn't describe them as smut because they're non-explicit and mostly like fade to black stuff.

10- Have you ever had a fic stolen?

YES LMFAOOOOOOOO SOMEONE TOOK A MULTICHAPTER FIC I WROTE ABOUT NINA AND OLEG FROM THE AMERICANS AND SELF-PUBLISHED IT ON AMAZON AS AN EBOOK.

11- Have you ever had a fic translated?

I think someone asked if they could translate one of my fics into another language but it was years ago and I don't remember if they did it or not or which fic it was or even which language it was.

12- Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, my first ever fic! Me and my best friend wrote it in sixth grade and it's an unfinished sequel to Ivanhoe. We never published it, though. It's really, really bad lol.

13- What's your all-time favorite ship?

Tony and Carmela Soprano. sorry. Not ship in the fandom sense but...relationship of all time. (I honestly tend to write for canon pairings that I want to build on, anyway). In the traditional sense of "wanting them to get together in canon", probably Jaime/Brienne.

14- What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I honestly don't really have a lot of published WIPs, because I tend to do oneshots and if they're not ready they're just not published. Right now I do have a two-chapter Greek mythology/Iliad retelling I wrote in high school that is absolutely never going to get updated ever, but frankly I don't feel particularly strongly about finishing that. I did have an actual multichapter WIP with the Lannister genderswap fic that I really felt bad about not working on, but I finally finished it!

15- What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm good with dialogue and characterization! A lot of my fic focuses on precanon/younger versions of canon characters ("flashback fic") and I think I'm pretty good at developing backstories. Also if I may say so myself, I write decent prose.

16- What are your writing weaknesses?

Plotting, which is why I tend to do shorter character-study stories. I really struggle with doing actual plotlines. (This is also a problem in my original fiction, lol. I'm always like. Okay I have these fascinating people in an interesting setting. Now what the hell are they going to do).

17- What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If it makes sense in context, like a bilingual character, sure. I do think it should probably be written so that it's clear what is going on to readers who only know the primary language of the fic, though.

18- What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Other than the aforementioned Ivanhoe sequel, it was Harry Potter.

19- What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

Can't really think of anything!

20- What's your favorite fic you've written?

I'm very proud of the Lannister genderswap fic because it's probably my most significant achievement in terms of plotting, which as I mentioned is hard for me, and I'm really happy I returned to it after over a year's hiatus and finished it! I'm also really proud of this big love fic because I appreciate the effort I put into fleshing out the characters' world (including historical research) and I think it is a really good work of character study.

Tagging @when-did-this-become-difficult @ofhouseadama and anyone else who wants to do this, I can't think of many mutuals on here whose fanfiction output I'm particularly familiar with.

[bytedykes]

ORV ask game for 6, 8, 12 & 17?

6. whats a headcanon you have that you absolutely believe is canon?

yjh had one regression where he spawned in the subway car and in a few minutes killed everyone before star stream came online, so when the first scenario activated he was trapped in the subway car with no living beings at all and thus failed the scenario and died immediately. i love putting him through stupid bullshit. i believe in this with my whole heart btw i think there surely must have been a few regressions where his death was just so insanely stupid

8. whats your least favourite arc?

in the early chapters the one with the museum where kdj uses the constellation channeling thing for the first time... i think it was the min jiwon fight?? i find it so boring i read it once in the novel and once in the webtoon and have not reread it since 😭

12. are you more of a reader, writer or protagonist?

definitely reader! i am absolutely not a protagonist and im not a writer. even if you count 'creating worlds' in general instead of specifically 'writing', i still don't do that a lot, my ocs live in the void akjkssd. ive always been really into reading it used to be the only thing i really cared about when i was younger

17. any controversial takes?

the webtoon sucks 👎 idk how controversial this really is LOL i just um. i dont like it <3 i do read it but i wouldnt recommend it to anyone... just read the novel pleaseee for me ok? the webtoon cuts a lot of important stuff and i dont like the art style and everyone is super skinny and pale and etc etc etc i dont think its very um. good

[torchickentacos]

gonna be controversial. drew x brianna 👀

LMAOOO OH WHAT A FASCINATING CHOICE IRA KSDJSKDJ /positive (for the ship ask game)

So, uh, I don't think my opinion of it lies within 'i do/don't ship it' tbh! I DO ship it but in a 'let's watch this unfold like a car wreck' way and not a 'i want them to live happily ever after' way. But it's NOT a hateship thing. I REALLY DON'T HATE IT! I just think they're very "I can make them worse". I'll try to take this ask really seriously, as much as i know we meme about it in server shenanigans. Under cut bc I am a wordy individual.

Ok, so i'll just answer every part of the ask for this. side note that i get PERSONALLY icked out by shipping canon ten year olds at ten, so this is answering like, for ten years in the future. None of my opinions here are for the canon pokeani timeline because, uh, not my thing. I do not care to know what ten year olds are doing with their romantic lives. Love pokeani as a foundation for ship stuff but i don't work within the canon timeline for shipping. They're ten. they should be learning about photosynthesis or george washington or some shit.

Ship It

What made you ship it?

Again. It's the watching a car wreck in progress thing. I appreciate drama and mess and chaos and I FULLY think these two would bring that. It's kind of giving 'coordinating pr relationship' honestly. Don't think it would be that but the energy is there. I like ships that give me interesting stuff to work with, and with these two you've got two of the most interesting/messy personalities in Hoenn to mix like a live wire in a puddle of water, or kerosene and a faulty lighter. It's just INTERESTING and has a lot of potential to explore things like jealousy, longing, feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, settling, something doomed from the start, etc. again, not in a hate way. I do not say this because I prefer contest- not at ALL. I genuinely think, separately of any other biases, that they're just perfect to explore in a more messy context, especially if we want to factor in coordinating fame bullshit.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Chaos aside, I do think they'd bring out different sides of each other that we don't see much of. They're both very... two-sided, not in a bad way, whereas characters like May tend to be pretty May no matter what. May's just herself all the time kind of, but Drew and Brianna act differently around different people.

Brianna, super soft and anxious and reverent around Drew as opposed to her insane competitive streak and go-getter mentality with May. Drew, kind of quiet and, uh, shockingly normal and polite around Brianna. It's genuinely interesting to contrast and mess with those sides of them and how they shift.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I think entertaining this ship in any capacity counts as an unpopular opinion tbh DNKsfjhkjHKJDFHJ

Don’t Ship It

Why don’t you ship it?

They would make each other and everyone around them SO much worse /positive. I ship and do not ship it for the exact same reason. I ship it the way one would ship hazardous materials. My contest bias plays very little into this tbh, I just cannot see them making it long term at all. It's giving 'summer fling but in a flinging themselves into therapy' way.

What would have made you like it?

Answering this one really genuinely- I think if Brianna had decided to become Drew's direct rival instead of May's, opting to get involved that way. It would have made more sense. Since in canon Brianna knows Drew likes May, I don't see how beating May would make Drew like Brianna more? I don't see her logic there honestly. But if Brianna saw that Drew had a thing for his rival and decided she could be his rival, too, that could have been more interesting than 'let me beat up this chick he likes' if nothing else.

I think it would have been super interesting to see Drew with another rival (Harley counts but like, not in this context). We could have compared and contrasted the dynamics in the rivalries more instead of it just being this:

Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

Answering this one as intended as well. I think, assuming I had to look at it in a traditional happy ship way, I like the subversion of it. I think it would be great to give Brianna more of a focus in general. She's a FUN character with two very opposite sides to her and I'd have loved to see that personality shine more, minus the Spontaneous Combusken of it all /affectionate. Love that episode. It's a fucking mess. But yeah- I like it because it would give us more Brianna. She's FUN. Unhinged, absolutely, but fun.

TWO FINAL NOTES:

1.) Kind of way fucking funnier if Drew/Brianna/May goes the mako/korrasami route though, ngl lmfao.

2.) My opinion on them regarding the sims (iykyk) is that I need to kill that sentient wishing well. by the way.

[star-trek-smash-or-pass]

Hey guess what

Did you guess "new blog in the smash or pass ecosystem but this one specialises in trek characters"? I fucking hope so. Because that's all I've got here!

I was inspired of course by @charactersmashorpass / @charactersmashorpass-2 but also @smashingorpassing and especially @ace-attorney-smash-or-pass who put the fandom specificity idea in my head.

Please only interact (this includes submitting characters) if you are 18 or older. If you're part of a system, this has to be true both for all fronters at the time of any given interaction and for the body. All polls will run for a week, if one doesn't I posted it wrong and you're free to point it out.

Rules for character submissions:

(they got a bit long so they're going under the cut, along with the link)

Has to be from a licensed Star Trek medium. Beta canon is fine, OCs are not. Unless it's very funny, then I might make a (rare!) exception.

They don't have to be a major character or even appear more than once but it'd be good if there was enough canon information for people to make an informed decision. Having a canon appearance (that isn't super blurry) would almost always fulfil this requirement but you may have to provide an image yourself.

It is not a requirement for it to be feasible to have sex with them. If you wanna fuck a non-corporeal character, we'll assume you'd figure out a way. It will be assumed they also really wanna try to have sex with you if you choose smash.

Controversially, I will not have a universal minimum age but they do have to pass the Harkness test which includes being of sexual maturity for their species (tho I'll rule they also have to be of more general maturity for their species, some real life humans become "sexually mature" before their teens but that doesn't mean you should fuck them; characters from asexually reproducing species will ofc only be judged on overall maturity). If their age is unknown or it's unknown when their species would be considered mature, I will consider the way the narrative treats them. So TL;DR: Kes is fine, Zero is not.

(As an extension of this, artificial life forms designed to function like adults will not be disqualified based on how long they've been active while artificial life forms designed to emulate children/minors will never qualify. Where this line is drawn in unclear cases will be decided by me on a case by case basis. So the EMH is fine, Lal is not.)

(recently adjusted) If the character is shown at different life stages within one series, I will judge based on the one people are most likely to think of when they think of that character (eg Jake and Nog are not acceptable) and if they are to be considered from another series where they are an adult, they have to be at least a recurring character in it, very small narrative roles and cameos do not count. As a rule of thumb: if someone only watching the show where they're an adult would remember them after, that's probably okay. So Prodigy!Wes is fine, Picard!Wes is not.

That said, you are allowed to submit specific versions of a character, including alternate timeline versions, if they pass all other requirements, eg you can submit specifically Solid Odo or Dilf Harry from the episode Timeless, but you still can't submit adult Naomi from Shattered.

I reserve the right to reject any submission, especially if I have reason to believe it was made in bad faith, but other than that scenario I don't think this is likely to happen.

Here's the link to the submission form:

Have fun! <3

[chierafied]

20 Questions

Tagged by the super lovely @practicecourts, thanks so much!! 😘

*

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

342

2. What's your total AO3 words count?

1,371,916

3. What fandoms do you write for?

SessKag (Inuyasha), Jily (HP) and rarely IchiRuki (Bleach)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Since all my top 5 fics would be SessKag, I'm gonna not do the top 5 overall but top 2 SessKag, top 2 Jily and top 1 IchiRuki.

Life After Loss (SessKag) Post Canon. Slow burn. Hurt/Comfort. Chapter fic. Rated M. Stranger Than Fiction (SessKag) Canon divergence. Modern era reunion. One Shot. Rated T.

#Jily (Jily) Modern AU, celebrity AU, Fake dating. One shot. Rated G. Much Tweeting About Crushing (Jily) Modern AU. Neighbours. Social Media AU. One shot. Rated T.

Miscalculation (IchiRuki) Modern AU Fake dating one shot. Rated T.

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

I try to, most of the time. As long as I feel there's something to reply to. It's the least that I can do, though sometimes when comments pile up in the inbox it can also feel a bit overwhelming. And sometimes I let them sit there for too long at which point I feel weird answering at all.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I'm very much a happily ever after type of a writer but I do have two SessKag one shots that have unhappy endings. Foil (M) and Vagary (M).

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

Super hard to say, since I'm all for happy endings. I'm restricting my choices to Jily fics since I was tagged for this question thing by my jily fam so... I guess Fall Fluff! It's a 500 word ficlet but the ending is especially sweet. 😉

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Hardly ever. There's annoying comments here and there, sure. I've got anon hate once from someone anti that particular ship. And I did have a popular chapter fic with a plot twist that became somewhat controversial. Hate is a strong word, but I got enough upset comments on it that though it's been a decade, I sometimes still cringe a little if I see a comment notification on that fic.

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

No. I have only one fic that's rated E on AO3. Some of my M rated fics might have sex scenes, particularly the chapter fics. But I don't write smut, I don't even like the word smut and its connotation. Because I like to write sex scenes that are tasteful, that are a balancing act of giving just enough detail and description. I like to focus on the feelings and the relationship development and I don't like naming body parts.

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

I've only ever written one proper crossover, where characters from different series interact (though even that took place in AU setting so it wasn't a crossover in the purest form) but it's never been published. I have done multiple fusion type crossovers, though, in which I take characters from one franchise (Jily) and insert them into the world of another established franchise (The Office). I'd say my Jily The Office AU fusion (In the Dumps, Rated T) and my SessKag Star Wars AU fusion (A Leap of Faith, Rated G) are the craziest, in that I've never watched The Office nor been a Star Wars fan lol

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Once, that I know of. My popular SessKag fic Chain of Love (M) was posted without my knowledge on Wattpad. After a reader alerted me, I tried contacting the thief. When they never responded, I contacted Wattpad and it was promptly taken down.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have. Some of them are pre-AO3, though, so they're not linked with the translated work function. But the one that does show properly on AO3, is a Chinese translation for my SessKag one shot Cold (G).

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

I've made a few efforts with an IRL friend of mine, but they've both fizzled out sooner or later. I'm not sure I'm the co-writer type, honestly. 😅 I used to brainstorm a lot with my friends when I first started writing fic so that was co-writing of sorts, I guess.

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

Since I've been writing them for half my life now, I guess I have to say SessKag lol

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

Their Halcyon Days (M), my Jily chapter fic. There's plenty other Jily fics I like the ideas of, but will never likely finish. Shoot Me Straight to the Top (T) and the Bodyguard AU (M), for example.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Brevity lol. I like my one shots and I've been told I'm good at creating a whole story or scene in very few words. I'd say I'm also good at writing dialogue and conveying emotion. I also like semi-open endings, so I have a knack at ending my one shots at a point where it would be easy to imagine a continuation for them.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Inconsistency. When I don't have a writing routine established, such as now, I will only bother writing anything when I feel like it. And generally I feel like it once every other month, at most. If I don't have a writing routine going, I can happily go for months without writing a single word. I really should work on getting a routine going one of these years. Also I can't stand editing. I don't do first drafts. Or any drafts, really. I want to just write it once and then post it. Which is what I tend to do. I do proofread and do line editing, but I don't tend to do any deeper edits and have little patience to go make bigger adjustments to the story afterwards because in my mind it's finished and I've already moved on from it.

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

I don't hate it, I guess, but I don't see the point of it? Having terminology of another language in a fic is fine, imo. Cultural concepts like kimono or samurai don't really have good enough translations. Also I think using Japanese honorifics in dialogue serves a purpose. You could replace some with Mr and Miss, sure, but when you get to the nitty gritty, there are hierarchy levels and whatnot that English equivalents do not convey. But having entire lines of dialogue be in another language seems a bit unnecessary to me, 90% of the time.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I've since deleted the fic since I was never going to continue it, but the first fic I ever published was a next gen fic for my favourite book series growing up: David Eddings' The Belgariad and the Malloreon.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

I can't pick just one out of 300+ fics, so I won't. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

*

Tagging @gryffindormischief, @siriuslychessi, @kaoruhana08 & @jafndaegur

[italianpersonwithashippersheart]

Shipper Tag Game!

I was tagged by @theflagscene thanks for the tag <3

1 - What ship were you completely obsessed with when you were a teenager, but now you don’t care about anymore?

Ron and Hermione. But I was basically offline for most of my teen years so it was a private obssession.

2 - Which ship would you consider your first one?

These two

From the anime Kodomo No Omocha, the anime was called Rossana In Italian, still the best theme song in the world, that song is basically instand magic nostalgia button for me, I was a child and basically the age of the characters when I watched it, maybe a year or two older, they bewitched me body and soul.

3 - Your first fanfic belonged to which couple?

Written, I have never written anything that could be consider fanfic. Maybe once I wrote a single scene fic for an Italian Show but that's it.

Read on AO3: Stranger Things post s1 fics and Still Star Crossed fics were the first fandoms. I don't have the old fanfiction.net account and my shitty memory doesn't let me remeber shit from that time so, I will go with that.

4 - Do you remember the first couple you saw fanart of?

Not really, my memory is bad. Maybe Stydia, teen wolf was my first tumblr fandom along side GMW. Or Shameless.

5 - Did you ever get into ship discourse?

I have been aware of ship discourse. And I once pettily unfollowed someone because they shipped my NOTP at the time. But not really.

6 - Did you used to have a NOTP or have any currently?

I did used to consider ship NOTPs, but I don't currently use that term anymore, I am way into my ship and let ship era. I don't feel like any of the ship I dislike now are strong enough to be a notp. Even if there are a few that almost qualified.

7 - Who were the couple in the last fanfic you read?

Got curious because someone mention some Nick/Sand and some Nick/Sand/Ray stuff on my dash and looked up some Only Friend fics for the first time since the show ended.

8 - Currently do you have any OTPs?

Too many. I have been mostly watching BLs and QLs recently. Honestly shipping as become a little more low-key recently. I can love a ship and even read fanfic for them (although small confession I am becoming far more picky and It's super hard now to read a fic I enjoy especially in the BL sphere). And I am watching so many shows at the same time I don't think any of them could be called an OTP, in that omg I am so obsessed with them way. I feel like my attention is too split for that.

Not that I am not enjoying having so many ships and couples to choose from, I love it here in BL land.

If I had to pick a single ship that is consuming me body and soul like stuff used to I have to go with PheeNon from Dead Friend Forever, because this show put itself in my head and is going to stay there until it's over.

9 - Is there any couple that to this day you are extremely mad about them not getting together?

Does it have to be an old ship?? Because I only rember some recent stuff.

I WILL STAY MAD ABOUT TODDBLACK FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!

10 - Is there any ship that you used to dislike but now you think are kind of interesting?

Not sure, I have come around a couple of BL ships I didn't initially like at first viewing. Nothing special though.

11 - Do you have a ship that in the past was considered ‘normal’ but now you would be cancelled over?

I am not sure, I used to be the kind of person that followed canon and didn't get the appeal of crackships at the time. Or shipping non canon ships.

I guess maybe some het ships that I know now either have a very obviously gay coding (both or just one) or it's more common to put in a gay ship. But I am not sure anything too controversial.

I kind of read some early Mame fanfics and enjoy some of the mame ships does count?

12 - What’s your favourite crack ship?

Taking crack fic too mean there is basically no evidence of this in canon and there is little to no fics about them.

Ming/Yo from 2Moons (the og) I will die on this hill, the actor that played these two had amazing chemestry.

Anwar and Maxxie from Skins Gen 1. There are 3 fics of them on ao3. 3!!!! I feel like the only person that see this.

13 - Who is the couple you’ve read the most fanfics of?

I think maybe it's either Hannigram or Buck and Eddie from 911 a show I am feeling very over right now. So that will definately change.

14 - What do most of your ships usually have in common?

Not much. I enjoy different types of dynamics.

15 - What do you absolutely hate in a ship?

I have come to a point where if I can see the chemestry and I like the characters and I can get into the characters head and I think the relationship is interesting I can forgive bad or clunky writing. Or tropes like miscommunication and noble idiocity.

There is one trope that almost always kills a ship for me. Years long seperation in the final act. This is pretty much a bl only trope. But I have seen it in Het shows before I think.

I can understand a seperation for a couple of weeks or even months due to externel pressures and maybe some noble idiocity, or even something like I need to sort myself out a little first like Until We Meet Again. I don't love it. But it's fine. But YEARS!! That shit pisses me off. That is why even if I can understand the writing decision behind I hold a grudge over Ghost Host, Ghost House. I understand it was a good drama and the writing was good and the ship is cute. BUT I HATE THAT TROPE.

Not sure how did already so I will only tag @respectthepetty and @callipigio @benkaaoi

[streetkid-named-desire]

questions for writers

i was tagged by @luvwich (THANK YOU)

Last book I read: I'm currently reading Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak, I recently finished Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke

Greatest Literary Inspirations: Stephen King, though not as much anymore, Chuck Palahniuk, Douglas Coupland (these last two can be seen especially in Streetkid with regards to inner monologue and style), William Gibson and Neal Stephenson

Things in my current fandom I want to read but I don't want to write

Does smut of my own OCs count? Otherwise because I only ship my own OCs and am picky about like...idk ships in general (it's a vibes thing, not personal!) there isn't anything else. I just suck at and struggle writing smut. Maybe more like adventures and shenanigans, one off gigs and stuff.

You can recognize my writing by: Quick and snappy dialogue, action beats, describing gory bits more than scenery, little to no description of canon characters in scene, little to no description of the scene in general (i'm trying...). Oddly gory or gruesome metaphors for things not gory/gruesome (e.g. Bea branding V's heart)

My most controversial take (current fandom):

*clears throat*

I keep that shit locked down to small groups or specific people I know won't castrate me. While I am not worried about my reputation in fandom, I don't like randomly shit stirring and starting up discourse.

Top three favorite tropes: Gore gore gore gore gore gore gore gore gore gore. LOVE snapping bones and wet mushy guts. I also like unreliable narrators, I enjoy feeling disoriented and like the book is a personal attack on my person and psyche. That's why I describe my style sometimes as hostile to readers. And then the third one is enemies/friends/neutral working partner to lovers.

What's your current writing mood (10 -- super motivated and churning out words like crazy, 0 -- in a complete rut): Like a 6 or 7. Now that I'm working on new shit I know I can start and am looking forward to sitting down and writing, but also on a little brain break since I finished act one and need to do some housekeeping with my fics.

Share a random frustration: I am so tired of my hips hurting all the time and I am trying to ignore the fact that even after my hip surgery that hip but especially my left hip will still hurt and that's just like an unfortunate fact of my fucking existence with this stupid fucking connective tissue disorder. I don't think I have lived a day of my life fully pain free, even as a child I remember sitting cross-legged for too long would make my knees feel weird.

Tagging @dreadfulsanity @glitchinginthegarden @bloodydragam @dani-the-goblin

[roobylavender]

omg i always find the discussion on kishimoto and shounen writers re: writing romance and female characters really interesting bc it's so true that wider fandom refuses to engage with heroines even at the level of male characters who have the same amount of screentime/development, even more so if they occupy any sort of love interest role because they're "in the way" of m/m pairings - but i also wonder how much of this discussion has turned into "if you don't ship this (shoddily-written) heterosexual pairing you are doing a disservice to X female character" with the poor excuse that shounen series supposedly """don't focus""" on romance anyway (if that's truly the case, why does the author bother introducing it as a last-minute element by suddenly marrying off half the cast?) like if romance is going to be a genre introduced to the manga (and if any and every interaction between the two characters who end up as married in the final chapter is to be taken as romantic, then romance is indeed going to be counted as one of the story's genres), surely it needs to be taken seriously and held to the same standard as the action and fantasy world-building genres of a manga...

also not to out myself as a grandma but personally this new idea i sometimes see on reddit or twitter that "shounen authors aren't 'allowed'(?) to develop their romances properly or focus on romantic subplots" honestly disgusts me as a certified 80s manga enjoyer lmao because it's such an insult to decades of prior shounen manga that did in fact take the time to write romance well and thus didn't end up with canon pairings anywhere near as controversial as, say, the ones in nardo or bleach... like it just goes to show how little people know about the genre to be making super broad and baseless statements like that. it's got the same energy as when people read 2010s DC comics and think they've gotten the best the genre has to offer even though 1) they haven't even skimmed the surface of the material 2) modern stories are written terribly compared to their predecessors

LIKE people cite that ursula k le guin quote about H/P to talk about how it's like incredibly derivative, practically factory-generated fantasy but imo it doesn't quite hold true because H/P isn't fundamentally a fantasy story but rather a boarding school one with fantastical elements - but that quote does absolutely hold true for naruto and its role within the shounen genre because every element of it is ripped off from its betters (i.e. slam dunk, HxH, etc) yet people praised it as if it was completely original and the pinnacle of shounen... and yet despite it all, broader fan consensus still found the female characters and their romances in both the series examples i listed (that kishi clearly plagiarized from) more agreeable than the canon ones in naruto 🙈

somewhat tangential to this but i feel like what makes this phenomenon (as in the one you talk about in the last paragraph) prevalent within mainstream shounen manga specifically is the way that manga publication works to begin with. like although magazines are generally reflective of genre categorizations they need not always be so (eg clamp which has published typically shoujo content in typically shounen magazines and vice versa) and usually your serialization in a magazine happens because you applied to it through a competition. and you applied through that competition for that magazine because you were enamored with the mangaka already employed by the magazine. the wsj hierarchy is essentially a long form example of this in that many of its mangaka were either fanboys of their predecessors on the magazine and thus decided to apply to it or they were lucky enough to work as assistants to those mangaka and then spring off into their own work once they had found the footing to do so. the derivative nature of the various series in the magazine is practically manufactured! and it's a wonky sort of survival of the fittest scheme in that the successor mangakas get to pick and choose what elements that were key to their admiration they incorporate into their own work. that's how i think you get to works like naruto and bleach. i don't think it's outright plagiarism but more.. fanboy antics distilled into fanfiction that subsequently goes through an editorial process to prepare it for original publication. the twilight turned masters of the universe turned fifty shades of grey phenomenon if you will. how you fare after that then depends on your own additional input. i feel like although kishi definitely modeled some character and relationship dynamics on those of his predecessors what attracted people to his story was his world (which is ironic because it's more than arguable that his world is underdeveloped in various places) and how that world contextualized those already familiar dynamics. that's why even though the naruto-sasuke rivalry was admittedly modeled off of the yusuke-hiei one there was still a significant difference in overarching function between the two relative to their place within each series

as for the commentary on romance specifically i definitely agree with you that there's no excuse for romance writing to be taken less seriously merely because something is published in a shounen magazine lol. and frankly with respect to naruto specifically i always find this excuse to be very confusing because at least with sasusaku the writing is very intentional.. a lot of people seem to skirt over their development with respect to each other because it's convenient to ignore and that always frustrates me because kishi is more than due his fair share of criticism for any number of things but it's silly to criticize him for the absence of something when there is precisely.. no absence. i think a lot of people mistake subtlety for absence if anything. the moments when sasuke deliberates on his weakness and inability to save sakura and how that should render him worthless in her eyes are largely unimportant to naruto's readership so they either act like they never happen or they conveniently isolate sasuke's explosive reactions to that worthlessness without allowing other people to view the context that birthed them. that scene in part one where he shoves the apples away from her is one i see spread sooo often but no one ever includes the thoughts running through sasuke's head right before it happens

i do think kishi can generally be criticized for not making romance more of a focal point of his narrative because love in all of its forms is so important to that narrative and sasusaku's example in particular is quite revolutionary with respect to the world the characters occupy (as is naruhina's i would say). but i also feel like it's premature of people to say that they lack development. they only really lack development with respect to that final chapter which most people acknowledge is a corny fast-forward future written for the sake of wrapping things up in a bow. where they end up by the end of chapter 699 is pretty well predicated by the extent of their journey and people only really dislike it because where they're willing to look beyond the violence between naruto and sasuke they're not willing to do the same for sakura and sasuke. admittedly i'm biased but i do think it's one of those rare situations where people are doing a disservice to sakura if they don't even try to read into the intents behind her relationship with sasuke. i don't think people have to like it by any means but i wish there was more good faith engagement with it because there is certainly plenty to criticize about kishi but i don't think most people actually even get at what's worth criticizing because they're too busy making up excuses for him even though those excuses are supposedly supposed to be criticism loljfkldsjgdf

[booksandabeer]

Hello, I hope it is fine for me to ask you about this. I would like your opinion on something. I have just gotten into the steve/bucky community and looking through some blogs that seemed a good starting point to get fic recommendations. Yours is one of them but it seems to me, that there is less drama here, if you know what I mean. The question I have is about two series that I have seen discussed really controversial, people only seem to hate them. One is "Not Easily Conquered" and one is "What I'm Looking For". I appreciate that you seem to be more levelheaded about these things, so would you say it is worth it? And do you know more blogs like yours that aren't so hateful? I trust your judgement, thank you in advance.

Hey anon,

What a message! I don’t even know where to start with this one. Well, first of all, welcome to Stuckyhell™—I hope you enjoy crying about two centenarian super soldiers because you’ll be doing that a lot! I have to say that my experience in the community has been overwhelmingly positive so far. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but I feel that if you don’t go looking for drama and realize early on that occasionally the best course of action is to privately roll your eyes and simply keep on scrolling, you’ll do just fine and it’s a pretty chill experience overall.

Now as to your fic-related questions. I'm honestly a bit surprised. Where did you see all that hateful talk about these two series? I think I can count on one hand the number of people who have ever dared to utter even so much as a mildly critical opinion on NEC? And I’ve never heard a negative word about WILF at all? Hm.

But you asked my opinion so here we go:

Okay, so. NEC. There's a reason why you won't find any mention of it on my blog. Honestly, I had kind of hoped that I could get away with never having to publicly speak about my, ahem, complicated feelings about this series. Guess not.

Let's just rip off the bandaid: I'm not a fan. Now, it’s not a *bad* fic by any means, not at all. The letters in particular are exquisitely written, and I can see why people go feral over them, but almost everything else about this series leaves me somewhere between cold, uncomfortable, or mildly infuriated. That’s all I’ll say about it outside of DMs because (1) I’m not interested in creating any drama here, (2) trying to understand the excessive popularity of this series just leads to me being frustrated and baffled all over again, and (3) I know that a lot of people—among them some of my most beloved mutuals and fandom friends—really, really love this series and I think it’s mean and frankly bad form to talk negatively about something that they love with all their heart, in a space where they are very likely to see it. I probably already said too much, but you asked, and this is my honest answer.

(And btw, this is also a big part of creating a chill fandom experience for yourself: Just accept that some things simply aren’t for you and you will never understand why everybody is so into it. But publicly & repeatedly railing against it in great detail is very unlikely to change anyone’s mind.  You’re just going to make them feel bad about a thing they love and they won’t thank you for it. Also, people can like different things and still be friends. I know—what a concept!)

So back to your question: should you read NEC? I mean, yeah, go for it. So many people adore it, maybe you'll end up being one of them. Just because I personally don't love it, doesn't mean you won't either. If nothing else, you'll at least know what people are talking about when they praise it or, apparently, hate on it, and you'll be able to form your own opinions.

The other series you mentioned, What I'm Looking For, I absolutely recommend. If you're in the mood for a long, sprawling series that stays very close to canon while also trying to make sense of its often faulty narrative logic and inconsistent characterization, this will certainly do it for you! However, keep in mind that this is a veeeeery slow burn series, so if you want to read something that rather quickly gives you all the fuzzy happy romantic Stucky feels, then perhaps you better pick something else.

As for other blogs that do rec posts. @voylitscope makes fantastic themed rec lists. @burberrycanary occasionally makes rec posts with the added bonus of beautiful "fake" book covers. @sparkagrace and @xoxobuckybarnes put together monthly reading lists, and @hazel-wand and @msilverstar often post individual fic recs. I'm sure there are many more!

And of course, you can always send me an ask if you're looking for fics that feature certain tropes/genres/time periods/etc.

[strititty]

Ooh! BroDirk? You can answer this privately if you want idm

>:3! i don't mind answering publicly, so that's just fine! this is definitely not by biggest stridercest ship, but i wouldn’t turn my nose up at it and have in fact been keeping up with a certain brodirk hanahaki fic...

What made you ship it?

for this particular ship, mostly listening to people talk about it and reading fics where they interact. bro and dirk never talk in canon, obviously, so there wasn’t some big spark of a moment where reading homestuck i went ‘oh no bro and dirk should definitely kiss, actually.’ the dave + dirk conversation ABOUT their respective bros is super interesting, though, and can bring a lot of context to this ship that i think definitely has merit. i am just often a fan of striders and patching them together in interesting ways.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

there was a post a while back someone made about how characters in homestuck are reflective mirrors of one another and i think that that is one of the strongest contenders for why i like bro/dirk. it’s a little like haldirk in that way, right, in the way of doppelgangers and doubles, but like. but it’s also...

HUFFS.

dirk can see the quote unquote worst version of himself and have SO many complicated feelings about him and maybe, possibly still find it in himself to love him? like, god, that’s so fucking compelling. and MESSY. what a DISASTER. i love it.

also, hindbrain answer: age difference hot.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on this ship?

you know im not sure what would count as popular/unpopular on a niche ship with a controversial character like this, especially when my reading tastes are so varied. like ive read things where dirk tops (i think u wrote one of those actually maybe) that i adored and i’ve read things where bro would NEVER allow anyone else to top that i was like ‘yeah no that tracks, i’m into it.’

i think i like bro best when acknowledging him as fundamentally wounded, even if he would not care to acknowledge it himself. like i dont mind fics where he’s treated as one dimensional (i have written some myself) but he’s infinitely more interesting as part of a pair when he is COMPLICATED and FUCKED UP and i LOVE THAT FOR HIM

[wickedpact]

A ranking of all the TTT stories in order of how much I liked them.

(Oh god this is so long)

1 My Mother's Axe

BABY ANDYYYYYYYYYYYY. Honestly this one had the trifecta of developing a character's motivations, developing a character's backstory, & developing their personality. The story starting out with Andy teaching Nile to use the axe was so charming and fun, and you could feel that chemistry they had in Opening Fire, the way they teased and bickered with each other so naturally. I loved the wedge between them on the subject of the axe, how Nile was perhaps a little too young to understand Andy's feelings about whether or not its the 'same' axe. I also love how the axe is obviously the symbol of the franchise and hugely important, but you never get a sense of exactly how important it is to Andy until you read the story.

I love the entire Ship of Theseus theme, and how it feels so natural that for Andy she has to get attached to the idea of things rather than the things themselves because she'll always outlive the things themselves-- the axe is symbolically her mom's axe, even if physically it isn't. And I love how she clearly clings to that concept so tightly. "This is the labrys she held in her hands...." IT GETS ME.

And the fact that this sense of BELONGING, of FAMILY, of CULTURE is so important to Andy that she clings to it (figuratively and literally) with both hands. And of course it's important to her, she spent so long alone that the woman doesn't even remember her birth name. That axe (or the idea of that axe) is all she has left of her mother and that family/culture she was born into.

PLUS on that note I love how Andy doesn't remember if her mom was her actual biological mother, but it doesn't matter to her. This woman was her mother in all the ways that counted. And how her mom BETRAYED AND KILLED Andy but Andy loved her so much that she avenged her and carried her axe for thousands of years. THOUSANDS OF YEARS!!!!!!

I also loved how the story transcends the timeline of the whole franchise and seeing Andy through the years. Loved seeing her with the varying squads and with varying axes. Also baby Andy was so cute. It was cool seeing her so young. like holy fuck. Andromache The Scythian, Immortal Warrior (but smol). Love that.

Also I think this one is one of the few ttt stories that doesn't suffer from length problems.

tldr: goddammit greg you've done it again.

2 Zanzibar and Other Harbors

Zanzibar my beloved. I've said before, but it's downright comedic how little regard there was for Joe and Nicky's character designs in this story. The same person who does the colors for the regular comic did the colors for this one too, and you can tell, every panel of this story was Beautiful.

Ik there was A Lot of criticism of this one (lmao @ how the fandom had no idea what was to come) but I thought a lot of The Discourse was a bit dramatic. I did think Nicky came off as a little oblivious to Joe's feelings in this story, but I've said before, I honestly think that was a 'tone not translating' thing. It felt like Nicky was nagging Joe for [checks notes] saving innocent people, but Joe was so amused by Nicky's complaints I really do think it was supposed to come off as teasing.

Plus I know the 'Joe running off into danger and Nicky reluctantly following' dynamic wasn't popular (I'm a pretty meh on it meself) but I did love how Joe's impulsiveness (if you want to call it that) was interpreted as heroism and not hot-hotheadedness. All of the examples Nicky and Joe talked about included Joe explicitly saving people. (and it also took A Lot for the nazi to actually provoke Joe).

I also feel like their characterization here was closest to the movie canon-- the bit where they hear the woman scream and Joe goes running in to save her while Nicky swoops in on Joe's heels to comfort her while Joe and the nazi were fighting reminds me of the train car scene. Joe had suggested First that they go find Nile because she needed to be protected, and Nicky later added that Nile probably also needed emotional support. Similar reactions.

But it was So Good, the themes of queer community and the enduring nature of queer culture are Not themes you see in media that often and it was such a delight how it was done. Also it's one of the few more modern TTT stories that has a completely valid excuse for taking place when it did. Chef's kiss.

3 Passchendaele

I love the Duality between seeing baby Andy and then seeing Mama Andy in the very next issue. This story doesn't have a ton of meat to it, but the entire concept of Andy adopting a war orphan straight off the battlefield PLUCKS MY TENDER LITTLE HEARTSTRINGS, and I think it's especially poignant for comic!Andy. I think most people wouldn't think twice about movie!Andy doing something like that but comic Andy is so hardened and almost cruel sometimes, and seeing that even for her the world hasn't beaten all of the compassion from her yet is SO!!!!!!! this woman contains MULTITUDES okay, she's violent and angry and tired and Done but she's also so kind and compassionate and THE STRENGTH OF HER!!!!! Also the idea of her and Yitzhak co-raising a kid together is so damn cute. It was #mysterious pre-Yitzhak-story but now it's cute. holy fuck. It's cute.

& the headbonk panel of her and Zeus lives in my heart. anyways.

4 Many Happy Returns

I Know people weren't thrilled about Booker being in this one, but I've developed a pet-peeve about that: this story was *not* booker-centric. Booker only exists in this story to the extent required to explain the importance of the gesture Nile makes towards him. If there was a story about Booker making some grand gesture of kindness to Nile no one would be saying it was Nile-centric. bc it wouldn't be! Booker exists in this story to explore Nile's kindness, its not about him. I saw that a couple times and it bothered me. anyways.

AAAAAAAAAA I loved this one, the art was beautiful, I loved how Andy Nile and Booker were drawn (like their comic selves but.. more looking like actual people). I loved Andy and Nile's Bants, how Andy wanted to jump right in and Do Violence but Nile was basically telling her to hold her horses.

I feel like I'm just repeating the post I made on this story a few days ago, but I LOVED how Nile's plan revolves not around violence or Cool Mercenary Skills but on Nile's own life skills (as she canonly did a lot of minimum wage job-hopping before the marines in comics canon). Her plan used her skills, not the skills of an immortal warrior, and HER SKILLS were in fact more useful for the situation! lov to see Nile's resourcefulness and planning skills.

AND HOW NILE WAS PROBABLY WATCHING BOOKER??? it's so Much bc 1.) nile knew booker A SINGLE DAY and yet he made such an impression on her emotionally that she had to keep an eye on him and 2.) she said in the movie she wanted Booker to get off free with an apology. Yes she's a member of the team but that doesn't mean she's necessarily going to follow orders like a good little soldier. I also love how she convinced Andy to go along with it. her HEART, her KINDNESS, her THOUGHTFULNESS, UGH.

5 The Bear

Honestly I have like no negative things to say about this one other than a.) character design issues which is less about the story itself and is more of a 'tog comic in general' criticism and b.) too short, but it was supposed to be a tease, so.

But I loved Yitzhak, I wasn't expecting to really like him at all but like I said in my other post, he tickled me. I love characters who are Kind™, especially if they have little reason to be so given their backgrounds. Chef's kiss. Lov him.

6 Bonsai Shokunin

I know this one was a little controversial bc of the outsider POV but whenever I see people upset about that they never point out that the Outsider Guy (the samurai) existed as a reflection on Noriko. His ideas are explained in the text to develop hers. The whole story follows how she gave mercy to a scared young man and in response he murdered Noriko, repeatedly! Who gave him the right to inflict such pain and suffering on the world? In his opinion, the lack of response from the gods was his permission. And for Noriko-- over and over again she dies and suffers because she gave mercy, which lines up with her ideas in FM about how it's their fate to rule mortals and if they don't align with that plan/fate/whatever then they suffer. It shows some background to those ideas and how they developed in her mind outside of Ocean Madness™. Additionally, his idea of 'the Gods have done nothing to strike me down so it's fine if I do these things' kind of explains how Noriko may justify her own morally corrupt actions-- she's died so many times and it's never stuck. Maybe if she did die any of those times, or while she was in the water, maybe that would've been a sign she was doing something right, or at least doing something normal. But she hasn't died. Fate isn't done with Noriko yet. And maybe there's a reason for that. In her mind, it's just not a very pleasant reason, is all.

There were things I was kind of meh about tho. I did kind of wish we saw something of Noriko and the team, or smth explaining the way she was before her dip in the pool-- personality, likes dislikes, etc. but it wasn't bad or anything. It was super vague tho, I had to read it a few times before I got what it was going for. Liked the art. Liked the bonsai metaphor. And of course I Respect the decision to use the 1300s (1200s? I don't remember off the top of my head) rather than using the last 200 years.

7 Strong Medicine

Honestly looking back, this one made me kind of sad because both this one and Bonsai Shokunin explored character's ideas on Fate and The Divine and how that intersects with immortality and I totally thought that theme would be continued, especially with Love Letters. But Then It Wasn't™.

Admittedly.... I had to re-read this one to remember most of it. I liked Booker's ideas on God, 'The conductor of the symphony just may not be very good at his trade' but the plot itself was kind of forgettable. Some fuckin cowboys try to kill a doctor (their second) because he couldn't save their sickly brother. Book tries to stop them, gets killed, and then comes back and kills them all before they get the doctor. Alright. I liked the artstyle because the characters were ugly in a similar way that leandro's are, but way more bearable.

I love the Irony of Booker concluding that there is no such thing as fate or destiny and nothing has meaning, AS HE UNKNOWINGLY SAVES MERRICK'S GRANDFATHER FROM BEING KILLED. Booker getting fucked over by life/god/destiny yet again. It also kind of explains about where the fuck hell Merrick's interest in immortal mercenaries even came from.

I originally had this one a lot higher and then I thought about it and moved it down like two spots.

8 Never Gets Old

I liked seeing Booker interact with his kid. And we got a name for the kid! Philippe was a little bitch though, he was a little obnoxious. I liked how Booker was so thrilled to experience a restaurant with his kid (and since we know he was there before, it can be assumed he went with all of his kids and yet he was so charmed each time). It fits with his line to Nicky in the moon landing story about how you don't appreciate beautiful things 'unless you have someone to share them with'. It was charming to see Booker interact with his kid, and to see him so happy. Also lmao @ Booker's big fat Ye Olde Crush on Andy.

However at the same time it was like.. of all the things to write about,,, I guess? Booker's Night Out...... alright. Especially since Book had so many stories.

I don't know, it was alright. The old man killing him really came out of nowhere, (but the 'Salut, asshole!' panel was funny tho).

9 How To Make a Ghost Town

I've hit a point where talking about these stories has gotten less fun. I liked this one but I felt like Achilles getting lynched was not really necessary for a story that was already tragic (a story that already involved Achilles doing a lot of suffering at the hand of bigots). When we first got the blurb for this story I thought it would be about Andy returning to the squad and making friends with Booker after losing Achilles and them butting heads on the idea of family and when to cut off ties. So a little bit of my underwhelmedness about this one might be just my expectations being different.

Honestly I was pretty interested in Andy and Achilles' relationship and I would've liked to see more of them-- like, what was their dynamic like? What did they love about each other?

But anyways Andy leaving and Achilles getting killed anyways feels so pointlessly tragic (which I suppose is the point..... I don't like tragedies) she left to save him and yet people killed him anyway. Meh.

I did love the bits about Andy wanting to have a domestic life (Andy and her multitudes again) and the little detail about how she buried her axe near the road but he buried his guns under his bed-- he was an escaped slave, he never had the luxury of assuredness like Andy did. It was a sad story.

10 Lacus Solitudinis

'You put this one above love letters crim??? how could you???' easy, lmao.

There was stuff in this one I liked. But to talk about stuff I didn't like: (I'll keep it brief, I know ragging on this story has been done time and time again)

UH, setting aside the 6 year cold shoulder between Joe and Nicky, I thought their chosen method of conflict resolution was... bad at best. Nicky's inability to talk about his feelings was also annoying, especially since the entire point of this story is a fight Joe and Nicky had, and yet we don't get both sides to the story, which is...... important? That fact is especially annoying bc in the absence of Nicky explaining his side of the story, it's absolutely a possible (and admittedly probably unintentional) interpretation of the text that we do get that Joe routinely resolves conflict between him and Nicky by simply cutting Nicky out of his life entirely until Nicky just. caves? Even if it takes years?

WHICH i could get into that interpretation and how fucked up i find it. but im not going to. out of restraint.

I don't know, I think there are a lot of interesting ways to go about this conflict but 'Nicky wants to kill a guy and Joe refuses to acknowledge his existence until he stops because he thinks Nicky is too much of a Good Boy to get his hands dirty like that' ('I wont watch as the world turns his (...) compassion into something ugly'. ) wasn't.. how I would've done it. (I mean you know Joe doesn't give a shit about what Nicky is doing in a moral way, because Joe doesn't even care or mention that Booker is killing those cops too. Joe only cares because he doesn't like the idea of Nicky changing in a way he finds undesirable.)

admittedly I've said before, I do like the emphasis Joe's reaction puts on Nicky's kindness. Joe has a complete inability to cope with Nicky simply Not Being Kind. It speaks to the steadiness of Nicky's compassion all those years. but still that fact doesn't make it the conflict feel worth it

hm. I said I would be brief and I wasn't.

oh well. basically I thought there was interesting conflict potential there but it wasn't done the way I would've liked, and the way it was done leaves a lot of disturbing (and again probably unintended) interpretations to lie.

What I did like? Andy and Joe having that pessimist/optimist dynamic. Joe nerding out about science. Andy not being impressed by The Achievements Of Man. I loved Booker needling at Nicky about his outdated slang and also trying to give him Older Brother advice practically in the same breath. I loved Booker giving The Worst relationship advice ever and Nicky being like 'I Will Not Do That, Ever, Thanks.' the family vibes were so good. The Joenicky vibes left a lot to be desired tho.

11 Love Letters

I talked about my problems with Nicky in this story (and Lacus Solitudinis). I don't know, the story isn't bad but I do hold a little bit of a grudge towards it because its very existence begs the existence of a solo Joe story and we didn't get one. If we never got this story, then we could happily count Lacus Solitudinis and Zanzibar as The Joenicky Stories™ and move on with our lives. sigh.

I remember when we first got the blurb for this story I was really curious about why Nicky specifically + the setting, and the answer kind of feels like 'the author had an idea for a story like this and saw ttt as a good enough place to utilize that idea'. Plus I was really underwhelmed by the Romantic Sentiment in the letter. If you look at it line-by-line, the majority of the letter is actually Nicky talking about how lonely and disturbed he is, rather than actual,, yknow,,, Romantic Sentiment. I mean, compare the van speech and this letter and this letter is just kind of meh in comparison. I liked nicky calling joe wise! and I liked the brief sun/moon metaphor! and otherwise it was eh. It didn't even have cute squad banter, which is why Lacus Solitudinis is above this one.

12 An Old Soul

Nun orgy. Nun orgy?????? Nun orgy.......

The whole story felt like a setup to have a nun orgy. Why did Booker have abs? Why did they do that to Andy's nose? ?????? the art was good at least.

nun orgy.

[svltburn]

writer ask game

tagged by @fearlessjournalism tysm!!

what's your all-time favorite ship?

oh my god, i have no concept of object permanence, so this may just be bc they're current, but i truly think gallavich and andreil. i can think of other ships i like, but none that hit the way they do. they're on that soulmate shit, which i love.

how many works do you have on ao3?

six! to quote santeri, "we do be slow writers in this household." 'cause yes, we do.

what's your total ao3 word count?

22,199

what are your top five fics by kudos?

my top three are potions, pills and medicines, between the light of day, and sweet temptation, answer to frustration

do you reply to comments, why or why not?

occasionally, but in general not really? prior to the latest chapter of between the light of day, all the comments i got were super nice and i felt awkward responding the same thanks to all of them, and now i just feel like if i respond to anyone, i have to respond to everyone, so i just don't ):

fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

i don't write angsty endings (so far) i like fun

fic you've written with the happiest ending?

i think most of them, but i like the endings planned for between the light of day and a yet to be published wip, share the same graves

do you write crossovers?

uhm, i guess that depends what u mean by crossover? i haven't written characters from multiple universes meeting, but i'm not opposed to it. i have written fic inspired by other universes though

have you ever received hate on a fic?

idk if i would go far enough to call it hate, but between the light of day has been more controversial than i anticipated

do you write smut? if so what kind?

@messedwithmandy calls it diet smut lmao

have you ever had a fic stolen?

no, why would someone do that?

have you ever had a fic translated?

nope!

have you ever co-written a fic before?

yes! i would consider nearly everything i write co-written with @grumpymickmilk

what’s a wip that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

my canon divergent from 7.12 shameless fic

what are your writing strengths?

idk if i've been writing long enough to know my strengths or weaknesses, but if any of the people that i write w have opinions, lmk

what are your writing weaknesses?

ditto

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

i wouldn't do it bc i'm not currently fluent in any other language, but if someone is, who cares?

what's your favorite fic you've written?

i'm super fond of both between the light of day and share the same graves. neither one of them has progressed very far yet, but so much time has gone into them. i also really love this canon divergent from s4 shameless wip i have.

tagging: @southside-forever @arrowflier @gardenerian @shinsukekita @y0itsbri @mishervellous @whatwouldmickeydo

[luwupercal]

Which Warhammer characters qualify as "Poor little Meow Meows"?

within the primarchs: Lorgar pretty often (him digging angron out of debris and getting burnt to shit for it in Betrayer is top notch poor little meow meow as are the first four or so chapters of First Heretic), Angron but only when he's coming down from a rage and only with my personal mind's eye view of what that entails (him lying face down in the dirt like Yamcha mildly hyperventilating mostly), Konrad if he ever cries (or shows vulnerability to that extent; the dad hallucination might count, I haven't actually read the book it's from), Fulgrim but only post-daemon posession and only whenever he's super sad so basically Fulgrim only in the Imperfect short story, if they ever showed Lion Eljonson feeling a singular emotion he'd be it, Mortarion like nearly all the time, Magnus whenever things are going wrong for him (supercharged poor little meow meow that makes you the most popular individual character of the franchise sans your dad who's nearly the protagonist, whoop whoop!) ("SANS YOUR DAD" LOL), Perturabo probably has some moments, Rogal Dorn only in Flight of the Eisenstein when he punches a wall & literally nowhere else.

within the horus heresy but not primarchs: Garviel Loken very deeply all the time forever, Junior Aximand whenever he's written with an actual character (low-key but it's there), Lucius is like a strange meow meow-adjacent being that isn't quite, a lot of remembrancers (Karkasy, Delafour, D'Angelos, i've entirely forgotten the remembrancers from ATS but at least one of them should qualify, etc. yes serena d'angelos is a poor little meow meow it's like Lucy from elfen lied), uhhh god i'm struggling to recall names. There's more definitely

outside the horus heresy: Oleander Koh, i'm gonna be controversial and put down Ciaphas Cain, probably a bunch of drukhari but I'm not knowledgeable enough about them to quantify, every single meek little chaos cult growing in an imperial planet is a poor little meow meow entity (PLMME, pronounced "plummy") (but not tyranid cults), Obyron by the end of Severed (Zahndrekh starts out as a poor little meow meow but idk if he stays there by the end of Severed. maybe), the Deceiver has Lucius's thing of similar but not quite (i'm gonna call this being a "birthday boy" because the vibe is perfectly like the "ohhh i'm just a little 5'8 little birthday boy" tweet), all my soldiers are poor little meow meow swhenever i play dawn of war (i am very bad at it), i don't know anything about t'au but i feel like the ethereal caste all have 5'8 little birthday boy energy, i'm like just under 3/4ths of the way through the first Fabius Bile book but all of bile's filthy assistants (Tzimiskes, Saqqara, Arrian) all have some to a lot poor little meow meow energy (i think it's part of being an apothecary, the medical profession is VERY conductive to poor little meow meowism, only Bile escapes it through sheer emperor factkinning) (oleander is still at the top of the meow meow chart), if I ever wrote mr Lord Commander Dante Bloodangels i'd make him a poor little meow meow but i doubt he is in canon, a lot of word bearers probably, and Abaddon but only when a specific person i know writes him, nobody else