#which the in universe implication is the doctor just didn't think about her

[sandymybeloved]

they remembered Sara Kingdom and Katarina, but not Leela??!! the disrespect

[txttletale]

(Other than the really weird bit about "Male presenting Doctor") what were your thoughts about the specials?

pretty mixed bag, pretty messy, but good overall. i think they were very obviously a nostalgia trip for people around my age lol and it worked! i loved seeing tennant and tate back onscreen together, their chemistry hasn't aged a bit, and honestly just watching doctor who that wasn't written by chris chibnall was a breath of fresh air. they weren't boring, like seasons 11 and 12 were, and they didn't go too far off the other end into nonsense like flux did. characters want things again! the show can let itself just be silly! i was literally cheering out loud when donna and the doctor were just saying random scifi gobbledegook at each other for like a solid several minutes during the star beast.

the structure of the specials kind of baffles me. i love wild blue yonder--i think it's definitively the best of the specials as a standalone, it's absolutely fantastic, creepy and atmospheric and bringing things around to RTD's strength, which is well-written characters interacting with each other and letting good actors just act. but at the same time i dont understand why it exists? it feels like...idk. imagine if you watched the star wars original trilogy but instead of the empire strikes back the middle film was just a feature length film about luke and han surviving on an ice planet with no reference to anything that happens in the last film except the two characters' relationship. and then the next film was still return of the jedi, unchanged. it felt like that

i liked all the weird campy silliness of the star beast and the giggle, and they were both very fun! neil patrick harris gave a fantastic performance, there are a lot of very memorable sequences from the giggle, but it's very very all over the place. so many threads get kind of picked up and go nowhere. the toymaker's haunted house dimension goes nowhere. RTD's eyerolling social media commetnary goes nowhere (thank god tbh but yknow im illustrating something here). even the toymaker kind of goes nowhere, after ncuti gatwa shows up he's bascially an afterthought who loses by dropping a ball. obvious parallels to david tennant's first episode with that ball scene could be made, but just... aren't. it feels like load-bearing sectikons of the plot and themes were cut out to make room for a backdoor pilot for the stupid fucking UNIT spinoff

oh and it goes without saying i fucking hate all the UNIT wank in the star beast and the giggle. i hope space nine eleven 2 happens to their stupid fucking avengers tower i cannot stand kate stewart who is constantly a murderous bonehead (in the giggle alone she gets two pepole killed by not listening to the doctor and assuming that this teleporting godlike entity could be restrainted by Two Guys) who is both in and out of universe just a boring nepo baby with no merit of her own

um. i still dont know what happened with the regeneration. i think the implication is that when david tennant dies hell time travel back to become ncuti gatwa inside himself--at least the rehab dialogue seems to make that implication. but it's not really explained or explored? baffling. i do think that fourteen getting to settle down and live a peaceful life with his friends is cute.

oh yeah and the ask said other than that but goddd there was some good stuff in the star beast and honestly with the state of the UK media i will take any perspective on trans people that includes baseline human erespect but some of those lines made me cringe so bad. anyway overall i am cautiously optimistic for the future of the show--oh ncuti was fucking great did i mention that i instantly bnought him as the doctor he owned the scene, the moment he was there it was clear he was the protagonist, and i liked the church on ruby road well enough too--i am cautiously optimistic but i worry that a big UNIT-shaped tumor will devour huge chunks of it and it'll be annoying. also russel t davies is like 60 and i just dont want to hear what he has to say about twitter so im not looking forward to dot and bubble

[gracesimp]

WHATSUP GRACE, your 10/14 fic has me pondering....tbh I was going to comment this but I ran out of characters ahaaaaa. IM SORRY IF THIS IS TOO MUCH OR IF YOU REALLY DONT CARE AKSKEIE it's just that your fic was amazing and it made me consider the lore implications it has on the series, because let's be honest: the multiverse is real, even if you don't believe it the fact that the theory exists proves it's point. That's how I think of it anyways. My point is that this story is totally real in another universe and so I HAVE QUESTIONS

first, did Tentoo stay in the parallel universe to be with Rose? Or did he stay and find an alternate Y/n? Would 10 have at all considered letting Tentoo stay to be with Y/n? Second, whY WHYWHY did he finally come back for her? Did 11/12/13 think of her? Did they visit her/check on her without her even realizing?! And third, more of an assumption, he broke up with her because he knew he was regenerating right? He must have figured that 11 was his last life if he'd already been through the 50th anni. Fourth, what does River think about her? Fifth, I love you

AHH IM SO GLAD YOU ENJOYED IT. There are a lot of holes that were mostly put up for interpretation but I'll try to clarify and rectify possible mistakes and questions the best that I can.

1) In this fic, tentoo gained the Doctor's feelings - moreso absorbing every remaining ounce of longing the Doctor had for Rose, unbeknownst to the Doctor. So naturally, the best outcome for all was Tentoo and Rose being happily placed together and left in the parallel world.

2) Prior to regenerating, the Doctor realised he no longer held love for Rose. instead, Y/n became a constant in his mind. He became regretful; full of anger. All pointed towards himself - leading to his inevitable demise. After his regeneration, he still thought of Y/n a lot, but everything he did to her made his hearts ache, so he'd push it away. Though, sometimes, against his better judgement, he'd land the tardis someplace quiet, and he'd watch her from afar.

Turns out Y/n's head wasn't playing cruel tricks on her with the taunting traces of the tardis' wheeze.

3) The Doctor didn't talk much about Y/n, too ashamed at himself for the way he'd treated her, though occasionally he'd accidentally slip up and mention her. Consequently, after their marriage, he told River all about her. And River could see the love and hope he held in his hearts for her. She was respectful and understanding. She even scolded him lightly, which he agreed he deserved.

But ultimately, the Doctor and River's relationship didn't change. Only with the Doctor being a little more withdrawn than in the show.

4) 14 was entirely devoted to Y/n. Internally, he had made a vow to never hurt her again. In this regeneration, he realised he had reverted to his former self because he had unfinished business with her. He desperately needed and yearned for his former fiancèe.

Y/n fought with her self respect and urge for travelling. Should she stay, knowing he was capable of mentally destroying her like he had before? Or should she leave before it was too late?

She took ahold on his hand, allowing him to giddly lead her to the tardis. Gradually, she let her walls slip, noting how different this version was. She no longer felt like a second thought.

And they both agreed that one trip just wasn't enough.

So, she did as she had done years before. She stayed, conscious that she may, as she had previously, live to regret that decision.

*Completely up to you if you want to decide they had a happy life, Y/n sticking around for the 15th, too. I like to imagine that was the case, but is anything really that easy when it comes to the Doctor?*

ILYSM TY FOR ASKING AND INTERACTING <33

[thesoftboiledegg]

After a season full of topical episodes, "All the Way Down" showed Futurama at its best: an episode explaining scientific ideas in a fun, entertaining way. This episode would be a great introduction to quantum mechanics and simulation theory.

Generally, I'm not a fan of simulation theory because people tend to get smug about it. "Nothing is real! Existence is meaningless! We're all just a bunch of ones and zeroes!" But if you're experiencing life, why does it matter if it's "real" or not?

If existence isn't real, then why don't you stop eating? Why don't you sleep on the floor instead of a bed? That sounds uncomfortable? Sounds like your experiences mean something after all!

I was happy that Futurama came to the same conclusion. Instead of feeling depressed because nothing matters, the characters realized that everyone's lives matter. One of the pre-commercial jump cuts implied that "our" Planet Express crew is in a simulation of their own, but what difference does it make? They're still people.

Additionally, I loved watching Amy show off her smarts. I think her ditziness makes people, including the writers, forget that she holds a doctorate. She held her own against the professor and challenged his thinking.

That being said...I didn't necessarily enjoy this episode. I had a blast watching "The Impossible Stream," "I Know What You Did Last Xmas," "Rage Against the Vaccine" (yeah, I know that's an unpopular opinion) and others. TV doesn't have to be fun to be great--I'm a Sopranos fan, and some of the best episodes are brutal--but I felt like I was watching an animated lecture.

It's a great episode, but I wouldn't say that I'll look forward to it when I eventually rewatch the whole series. Still, personal opinion doesn't reflect the quality.

However, that brings me to my biggest issue with the episode: the implication that a Bender from a higher dimension replaced "our" Bender. Some have said that our Bender came back, proving that the crew is in a simulation because the professor said it's a one-way trip--or maybe it's just a plot hole.

But I think the writing implies that our Bender is gone and another took his place. He reboots out of nowhere and tells the crew that he has a solution, just like our Bender did when he jumped down a level. Additionally, as previously mentioned, one of the jump cuts implies that our crew is also in a simulation. It's simulations all the way down!

I have the same issue with "The Late Phillip J. Fry" from the Comedy Central run. Fry, Bender and the professor jump two universes ahead, leaving the rest of the crew to die trillions of years ago. I also raised an eyebrow at the professor going back in time in "I Know What You Did Last Xmas." He probably came back to the same universe because if he didn't, he would've run into another professor--but you can't be totally sure.

Yeah, we're still watching the Planet Express crew, and it doesn't matter from a storytelling perspective. And it's debatable how canon this is since Futurama famously resets at the end of nearly every episode. But it's still unsettling.

If someone with an identical twin dies, and their twin takes their place, their twin isn't them. The original consciousness--the person that we knew--is gone forever.

This is also why "Jurassic Bark" doesn't hit as hard for me because Fry wasn't bringing Seymour back to life. He was making a clone. That clone isn't Seymour.

Maybe I'm taking a TV show too seriously, but if everyone's replaceable, then maybe "All the Way Down" isn't implying that every life is important after all. One simulated person is as good as another.

In any case, I can't deny that the ending was fantastic--probably one of the best endings that I've ever seen. The crew watches the world pixelate around them, but instead of having an existentialist crisis, Fry and Leela slowly lean in for a kiss. I almost cried, which is no easy feat! Very few movies and TV shows move me to tears.

The writers minimized Fry's role in season eight, implying that he's no longer the main character, but maybe Futurama said everything it had to say about his story. He can't be the "fish out of water" forever; at a certain point, he's going to adjust to the future.

I had some issues with this episode, and I disliked a few others (what the hell was going on with "The Prince and the Product"?), but overall, season eight had great gags, funny topical references, sweet moments between the characters--the Comedy Central run was pretty mean-spirited--and fresh takes on scientific concepts.

Ultimately, and I'm saying this as someone who's been watching Futurama since 1999, this revival was worth it. Futurama just won't die, and maybe it's a cash grab, but it's also because the fans love it so much.

[ashdoesfandomarchieved]

in the cars world do u think the cars have to pay registration fees every year on.. themselves? is that their version of taxes? because on the screenshot of sally's trampstamp i've been staring at, she clearly has registration stickers on her license plate

equivalent of "i went to the doctor and have to wear a sticker about it" energy. there is so much that exists in the CCU that makes me angry bc clearly the writers were just making a funny haha cars movie to sell more toys and they didn't think about the implications of making WWII canon in their universe. which means there's a cars Hitler you fucking idiots. GOD. i cannot.

[silentxxsoul]

The 'Uncle Buck and Madney house hunting in the same episode, we never lose' reaction dumppp:

this is a fucking mess but so am I 🤣

So many thoughts and hopes for tonight

mainly Madney house hunting and moving forward and picking a place that's theirs ahhhhhhhhhh

AND

FINALLY

UNCLE BUCK

IN (POTENTIALLY) MORE THAN A 'BLINK AND YOU'LL MISS IT' FASHION

which also means bingo for me, bitches

Listen I searched 'never lose' in the gif search and like, how do you pass that up?????

Spoiler alert: you don't

Christ this is already off the rails and the episode hasn't even aired lmao

I've always wanted to go to a Ren Fair but every year I forget until its already over.

You know what's kind of incredible here? They were talking about how girls could be more than princesses and no Hen is the one taking point on rescuing her sister, just reaffirming what her sister was saying before the bees.

I wonder how many hours of makeup/effects she had to sit through to make her look that swollen

WE GOT A JEE "BUCK" OMGGGGGGGGG

HE LOOKS SO HAPPY OH MY GOD I LOVE IT

COLORING

BEING CUTE TOGETHER

JEE KNOWING IMMEDIATELY SHE RUNS THE SHOW AND POOR BUCK HAS NO IDEA WHAT HE'S IN FOR

IM NOT GOING TO APOLOGIZE THIS IS MY JOKER

Terrible twos ahahahaah

She gon'

Did he forget she's half Chim, who loves to mess with him?

The way he's sprinting after her oh my god 😂

If bro says fix it one more time IM going to toss him out a window holy god my guy

Oh damn I didn't realize he was going out the window--whoops that was a day dream. Same tho

I can't believe he ran through every confession possible with Athena lmao buddy stop implicating yourself and get a new job, maybe a therapist

Chris is so grown up 😭😭😭

I LIVE for these Dad!Eddie moments

Carla shoving him into the kitchen hahahaa, man I missed their dynamic. Not the actress, but Carla speaking wisdom for Eddie and the fun banter they always have.

"It's gonna be great" famous last words

Bobby's lucky numbers have me cackling, because they're equal parts adorable and equal parts on brand for a sports obsessed homer

(dont ask me about 1738 and 2015)

No bc if May bought twitter it probably would be the shit show it is now

"Ms. Garcia, RIP" Evan. 💀🤣

Like, how do you think this would be a good idea? I get being overly horny but its a MOVING vehicle ???

The panic when he realizes Chris could be getting his first kiss and Buck being absolutely unhelpful

Eddie went from being invested in Hen swapping Swarezes to being a grump in 0.7 seconds flat

Not the 'grandpa' gd Buck don't give him a heart attack lmao

I missssssed the 118 family banter oh my godddddddd

Bobby's just mad him and Athena didn't do it first

May, don't make unnecessary journeys! Stay out of treacherous creepy dude's houses!

She really found his whole ass manifest

May if you're going to read the dudes journal out loud ROLL YOUR WINDOW UP AND LOCK YOUR DOORS

May, it's literally titled 'my fantasy'

Oh JFC

My nerves are so shot man

Is she going to do training to be a hostage negotiator??? Ohhh I love that angle!!! Bring her in for more big rescues!

(also that made a separate post bc I need to put it into the universe so that Tim and Co. can steal it 😇)

"Look swords", he's such a child lmao

Oh my god now he's talking about teaching Jee girls can do anything by getting her a sword I fucking love him

Hen and Buck fighting, my heart

SHE'S A FUCKING DOCTOR ?

OR IS IT JUST ANOTHER FANTASY ?

Eddie is such a fucking good dad 😭😭😭😭😭

BATHENA TO END IT?! WE ATE SO MUCH TONIGHT

Yall I'm in no way ready for a week off or for the hella long hiatus between 6A and 6B

[hellomynameisbisexual]

Rose*, a 31-year-old bi+ woman who has struggled with depression for most of her life, didn’t commit to a therapist until her mid-twenties. When she finally did, her therapist consistently “made comments about how I didn't seem very into [dating women] and maybe it wasn't for me,” she recalls. She says her therapist even asked if she was “using” her attraction to women as a way to avoid the relationship problems she had with men.

The reality was that Rose was nervous. She was unsure of what being bisexual meant for the rest of her life, and wasn’t convinced that she was “queer enough,” she says. She needed support and affirmation during this time. Instead, Rose says her experience in therapy, which belittled and undermined her sexuality, made it more difficult to wade through the process of bettering her mental health.

There are more than nine million LGBTQ+ people in America, and about 52 percent identifies as bisexual or Bi+, according to a report released by the non-profit think tank Movement Advancement Project (MAP). There are many wonderful things to celebrate about being bi+, which is defined as being attracted to or having physical and sexual relationships with people of different genders. However, it can also make navigating the world much harder, since biphobic stereotypes still persist within and without the LGBTQ+ community. Think: assuming bi+ people just can’t commit, are just gay or straight people who can’t “decide” what “team” they’re on, or are simply “greedy.”

Emotionally, biphobia is harmful, but it has larger consequences than hurt feelings. Biphobia can persist even in professional spaces where people seek care—which has critical implications for the physical and mental well-being of bi+ people.

Biphobia in health spaces

Brian A. Feinstein, PhD, a research assistant professor at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at Northwestern University, says that bi+ people have higher rates of mental and physical health problems than heterosexual, gay, and lesbian people—such as an increased risk of substance abuse, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The concerning trend is true for mental health issues, too; research shows that bi+ people are at elevated risks of suicidal ideation and are more likely to have mood or anxiety disorders.

Yet often bi+ people report biphobic comments from the very professionals from whom they seek care. This was true for Rose, and it certainly was true for Charles*, a bi+ transgender man. In a primary care physician’s office for a first visit about a stomach issue, his doctor shamed him about for having had eight sexual partners within a year. “I felt so on edge because of the slut-shaming and the assumptions there that I didn't even get into telling her the gender of my partners,” Charles says.

Assumptions that a person has to be equally attracted to men and women in order to be bi+, that a person has to have had sex with people of different genders in order to be truly bi+, or that a person in a monogamous relationship is no longer bi+ are all examples of biphobia playing out in real life. Adriana Joyner, LMFT, a bi+ woman who is a therapist herself, says that when a person’s sexuality is “repeatedly, frequently, and persistently minimized or questioned, or even worse, degraded, it takes a significant toll on a bisexual person’s mental health.”

The impact of biphobia on medical care

Beyond the very real mental health impact, biphobia within medical environments ends up making it harder for patients to be open about their sexual orientation, explains Gillian Deen, MD, MPH, the Senior Director of Medical Services at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Indeed, a 2013 study found that nondisclosure rates among bisexual men and women (39 percent and 33 percent respectively) were higher than among gay men and lesbian women (10 percent and 13 percent.)

This has serious implications for health. If a patient is determined not to be a pregnancy risk because of assumptions about their sexual partners, for example, they may not be offered contraception, Dr. Deen says, which could put a bi+ person at risk of an unwanted pregnancy. “Having clear information about a person’s sexual partner may also lead to different recommendations about routine STI testing, due to different prevalence rates among different communities,” she adds.

Similarly, Dr. Feinstein says that because bi+ men are less likely to be open about their sexual orientation, they’re less likely to receive prevention services like testing or pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the medication that prevents HIV transmission. This means that bi+ men who are living with HIV are also less likely than gay men with HIV to even be aware of their HIV status, Dr. Feinstein says.

The fear of being misunderstood can also prevent patients from seeking out the healthcare they need. Joyner says the work that goes into finding a competent, bi-affirming therapist has prevented her from going to therapy in the past. “There are so few therapists that are truly knowledgeable and affirmative toward diverse sexualities or that understand the uniqueness of being bisexual or pansexual that I’m wary to taking a chance on a new therapist,” she says.

How to combat the problem

Given the physical and mental health issues that bi+ people face, the fact that many of them aren’t comfortable disclosing their sexuality to their doctor should be a wake-up call to medical professionals to change their approach when treating bi+ patients. Doctors need to understand that “a patient's current or past sexual partners aren’t necessarily indicative of their whole sexuality,” says Dr. Deen. Instead, asking patients about their partners' anatomy instead of gender often provides her with the information she actually needs to properly care for her patients. However, when providers make assumptions and judgments, “it can make patients lose faith in our ability to provide the health care they need,” says Dr. Deen.

Dr. Feinstein says that the only way to truly help patients is to listen to them. “If someone tells you they have a same-gender partner, don’t assume they are gay. If someone tells you they have a different-gender partner, don’t assume they are heterosexual. And if someone tells you they are bisexual, believe them and don’t ask them to ‘prove’ it by asking them if they are more attracted to one gender than to other genders,” he says.

Those skills don’t necessarily come overnight, and unfortunately, medical schools aren’t necessarily providing LGBT-specific, bi+-inclusive cultural and health competence training for students. although with the prevelance of health issues about Bi+ populations, they absolutely should be, according to recommendations from MAP. It’s only been recently that signs of potentially changing times have occurred, with schools like the University of Louisville incorporating LGBT training into their med school curriculums.

Dr. Feinstein believes that healthcare providers do want to help their patients, which means they have to take a more active interest in biphobia and how not to perpetuate it. “Doctors and therapists should be engaged in ongoing continuing education in cultural competence and structural competence,” says Herukhuti Sharif Williams, PhD, a scholar whose work focuses on sex research and education. One potential place to start: accessible online learning modules to teach current doctors how to be LGBTQ+ affirming. He also suggests that doctors maintain personal relationships with people in the communities from which their patients come, “so that they have a personal stake in the outcomes for members of those communities.”

Until every medical professional gets on board, there are thankfully many LGBTQ+ health organizations around the country that support people of all identities, like The Center in New York City. There are also online resources like the Bisexual Resource Center to help fill the gaps for those who don’t have ready access to an openly bi-affirming healthcare center.

As Dr. Feinstein says, there are people in healthcare fields who care, and plenty of peers who want to provide support to their bi+ patients. It’s just a matter of getting more and more people educated and on board.

*Name has been changed for privacy.

[rjalker]

Absolution: *sets up the story like this is some weird hallucinogenic religious trial that Charley is being put through to Absolve Her Of Whatever Eutermisians Consider To Be Sins™*

Absolution: anyways yeah isn't this so sad? Isn't this so tragic? I can't believe this happened. it's so sad. The end.

And then they expect you to actually be sad as though it really happened even though they made it really fucking clear that we weren't supposed to be actually believing in what was happening.

But apparently they just........set that up by accident? It's not even like the writer goes later "Just kidding! It's real!!"

Like.

This is so badly written that the writer didn't even realize they were fucking dropping hints that it was all some weird fucking religious dream trial thing. Hello??? who the hell wrote this????

Scott Alan Woodard are you aware that having a character pick up what is clearly a powerful magical artifact while another character tries to frantically get them to put it down while also inssiting no no reason it's totally safe and harmless DON'T TOUCH IT THOOUGH and having the character look int the giant fucking gem or whatever on top that is filled with spinning lights and then having there be a rushing sound and weird noises and then the character who looked into the TOTALLY HARMLESS I SWEAR BUT DON'T TOUCH IT NO THERE'S NO REASON THOUGH magical gem is apparently getting basic shit like "the basic layout of her home" wrong and then other characters are acting completely out of character and random off the wall shit is happening with no one reacting apropriately drowns your story in the implication (which is too soft of a damn word for this) that the character is in a fucking dream religios trial thing??????????????????

Like Charley literally picked up some Definitely Magical Religious Artifact called a fucking Absolver, as in "this thing absolves you" that C'rizz REALLY DID NOT WANT HER TO GET NEAR BECAUSE IT'S CLEARLY NOT SAFE but also didnd't want to draw attention to that fact so instead of shouting "OH MY GOD GET AWAY FROM THAT YOU'LL DIE" he was like like "ahhaha no it's totally harmless.....give it back though. don't touch it though. no it's perfectly harmless, just a normal old religious icon it's no big deal at all it's totalllly harmless! don't look into the gem at the top though!! what? no there's no reason it's perfectly safe -- EXCEPT IF YOU DO THAT"

and then she very clearly gets pulled into some fucked up dream trial thing where the TARDIS layout is changed so that C'rizz has to show her the "'""Real""""" way to get to the console room, and then when they get there the Doctor is 100% chill about the fact that the TARDIS is supposedly dying and might explode and it's just like

holy shit person you are so bad at writing you literally ruined everything about your already shitty story even worse by implying that none of it was actually happening!!!!

And then we're supposed to act like it's actually really and totally happened!!!!

Even though it's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everything that happens in this story not only contradicts itself but literally everything else in this universe as well!!!

It's the most stupid and hilariously bad writing I have ever heard. Oh my god.

RIP To people who think Absolution is actually sad and tragic. The writer was so bad at writing that they made me unsuspend my disbelief not even five minutes into the story and by the time I realized that was not on purpose but through sheer incompetance, it was too late. I cannot fucking take this shitshow seriously because it is so fucking stupid.

[beloved-child-of-the-house]

Fic Writer Questions! (you can find me here on AO3 if you're interested!)

tagged by dear @theburialofstrawberries mwah!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

112 yowza!

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

750,421 kinda tempted to go delete one word so it can be 750420 which is a far more Pleasing number

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

12ish but some of them overlap: BBCS/Sherlock Holmes/ACD (these are all different bc my bbcs fics are not the same as my own modern fem Sherlock Holmes adaptation are not the same as my ACD Holmes fic; Good Omens; Harry Potter/The Werewolf Draco Malfoy Cinematic Universe; Captive Prince; The Hobbit; Fleabag (it was a crossover with BBCS but Fleabag is the perspective character so it still counts as a separate fandom imo); Doctor Who; The Office; Parks and Rec; Broad City (one a piece for those last 5 but I AM going to write a Parks and Rec polycule fic for @gaykagome)

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

They're all Good Omens fics from the 2019 Summer of Good Omens! Susceptible to Summer, Fragments Shored Against My Ruin, Something So Magic, Enter Serpent, and Anything We Like

All of those have over 2k except the last one, but average engagement for me is like 400 kudos or so

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try! It depends on what's going on with me. Sometimes I just don't have the energy, and I figure people would rather I spend my brain power on writing new fics than on writing replies to comments. Wish I had a fave button tho so I could let people know I read and reread comments, because I do!

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oh I wrote this ficlet series called A Chemical Defect about John and Sherlock's relationship in s3 of BBCS, and it's WILDLY unpopular. People don't read my fic to cry sad tears I guess! John and Sherlock are having an affair in the story, and it ends with the implication that their relationship is unsustainable and that Mary knows about it anyway. I intended to come back to it after s4 and write a more optimistic ending but LOL! Didn't have the heart.

7) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I know this answer is kinda up my own ass, but like. I think stories that feel true to life sort of feel like they end on a beginning if you know what I mean? You don't really consider a chapter of your life closed until you look back on it from the next? SO that said, I think I'd have to say that it's my big BBCS serial The Only One in the World. I spent 2 years writing it, and it ends with John retiring from medicine to solve crimes and write books full time.

Could also be my WDMCU (werewolf Draco Malfoy cinematic universe) series Moonrise, which starts with Draco isolated in his abusive mother's house, trying to cope with lycanthropy essentially alone and ends with him in love and surrounded by found family in a cozy cottage in Hogsmeade, having gotten some lycanthrope rights legislation passed after working at it for years and talking to Harry about whether they want to have kids. Oh man I feel warm and fuzzy just thinking about it

8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I have written one crossover. It's BBCS/Fleabag, because me and @loudest-subtext-in-tv were laughing about how John seems like one of the horrible guys Fleabag sleeps with basically out of self loathing, so I wrote this fic to make Nattie laugh, and you should read it bc it's so good and so underrated.

9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not really, but people don't seem to know that authors can read bookmark tags unless you private the bookmark, and someone once put in the bookmark tag on one of my fics 'writing was meh but it was okay.' Okay so why bookmark it then??

10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Fuck yes! I'm not sure what 'what kind?' means? People fucking? Sloppy, silly, and awkward, with lots of laughing. I also really like writing afterglow scenes which are even sillier and gigglier and often involve one character cooking for another. Food as love language is a very distinct pattern of mine tbh

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of, but occasionally I'll write a post on here where I make some elaborate head canon, and I'll see people in the tags talking about how they want to write fic of it, and it makes me breathe fire out of my nose like a dragon like PLEASE DON'T. The WDMCU came out of a ficlet post I made on here like a year before I actually wrote the 60k series so like!!! Please don't do that!

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! To Russian and I believe Chinese. Not my entire oeuvre but a handful of BBCS and Good Omens fics

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

No, but I wrote a fic inspired by an RP I did with my gf right around when we met (actually now that I think about it, it's two fics), and I waaaaaaanna do a WDMCU collab with my beloved Sally @clytemenestras at some point if he has time bc he inspired me to even write werewolf draco with his original lesbian werewolf story

14) What’s your all time favorite ship?

favorites are hard for me? I always think I'm currently doing my best writing lol so I'll say drarry

15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I don't post fics unless theyre finished, so I don't have any WIP up on AO3, but I did intend to continue with my fem Sherlock Holmes series, Your Many Tendencies. I just haven't been in a Holmes mood for a long time. Maybe I'll come back to it idk. This particular series is honestly very unpopular? People will just straight up say they don't read femslash, and it hurts a lot. This series feels really personal too, bc it's about a Black autistic nonbinary lesbian, so it does hurt my feelings that no one seems to care, yknow? I mean the people who read it are extremely kind and thoughtful in their engagement with it, but it has vastly less engagement than my m/m fic, and that's painful. It gets literally 1/10 the attention my fics usually get.

16) What are your writing strengths?

Almost all of my writing is romance, but I tend to write concurrently about recovery and found family, and I think I'm very good at doing that in a way that connects with my audience. I once had someone ask if they could use my words in their wedding vows, and I've had people tell me they started doing things with their spouse that my characters do with their partners in order to express love. I think about that all the time. My Impact. It makes me feel like I have a real duty to my audience yknow?

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

This question is hard for me like I've been writing so long and so much that I'm literally always happy with my final draft! It's always exactly to my taste, yknow? I suppose I could say that my fics tend not to be terribly plotty but so WHAT? That's beside the fuckn point for me. Plot who? I don't know Her. Also honestly like. Stories feel more True to me when they aren't ruthlessly devoted to plot bc like life isn't like that yknow?

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If you're not fluent in that language, get a beta who is!!!!! That said, I have written scraps of very simple dialogue in French using mostly Google Translate (sometimes I check w Sally bc he speaks French but I am usually too impatient), and I am perfectly well aware that I take my life in my hands each time!!! Also don't do that bullshit thing where it's in italics? That shit is weird and exoticizing. Just write it in quotation marks like normal dialogue.

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

BBCS babey back in 2012. Ended a 5 year dry spell for me after I got my writing degree.

20) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Hmmmm I think it's probably gonna be the fic I'm working on now that I haven't posted yet, but I know it's called Names for a House, and here's a tiny bit of it

Thanks again Shreya for asking me to do this bc I really love talking about myself. I tag @the-moon-loves-the-sea, @clytemenestras, @tomiano, @gaykagome and @totallysilvergirl

No pressure <3

[exemplarybehaviour]

I was thinking because of your SI idea, like, if Sam was diabetic. And how incredibly hideous that would be with John and then later with Dean. And whether Dean would surprise me by being halfway decent about it. And if Sam would run away to university (or Europe) and discover how much easier it is comparatively with a sensible non-hunter routine where he actually kept regular hours, slept, ate stuff on time, didn't live on gas station food, etc., :0

Not to mention even the basic accommodations like -- they don't use their names so he has no medical history, no regular doctor, etc., They live out of their car mostly right? They don't have anywhere to keep shit cold, unless there's like an eski or sth in the back. What about inevitable times when Sam's captured and can't eat or has to do absurd physical activity over long periods? What about dad mistaking diabetic symptoms for curses and other bullshit? :0

I was thinking about this a bit too. Well, at first I was thinking about if being reincarnated with a new body and therefore presumably different brain chemistry would affect one’s personality much. Like, if I had a different body, would I still be in a constant state of high-strung anxiety? Would I finally be able to abandon my various neuroses and Chill(tm)? And then I decided that wouldn’t be any fun, because that would basically be a rewrite of my personality. :P

I think-- in the context of an SI-- escaping one’s chronic illnesses might be a fun part of the fantasy. What would I do if I were Very Tall and not diabetic? Could anyone actually stop me?? On the other hand, John Winchester is a horrible dad and I don’t think he’d do very well with a diabetic child, and that could contribute to SI!Sam’s falling out (especially if we fucked off to Europe even with the foreknowledge of John’s death). Then there’s the whole wayward-son-is-Lucifer thing Sam has going on, which when mixed in with a chronic illness could have some really cool commentary about the meanness of the world, but could also, you know, have really terrible implications. We’d have to be very careful. 

Being diabetic would explain a lot of in-canon Sam’s personality quirks. How he focuses on healthy eating and exercise habits despite growing up in an incredibly unstable environment. His inflated sense of responsibility when compared to Dean (never mind that Dean feels personally responsible for the fate of humanity). 

I don’t think Dean would be a dick about it. I say this in part because I used to headcanon Dean as diabetic so I’m biased against him being a complete asshole about it, lmao. Dean grew up with a constant mantra about taking care of Sammy, so I can’t really see him blaming Sam for any of his problems the way I could see John doing. I also can’t see Dean (purposefully) being negligent of Sam’s wellbeing, physically or mentally, the way John was. So Dean might get overbearing or maybe just not Get some things, but I don’t think he’d be horrible. :O

As for John.... well, when I hc’d Dean as diabetic, it was pretty much a given John was gross about it. John seems to be very wrapped up in this very masculine idea of how he and Dean should be, and that would lead to a lot of “but why can’t you do that” moments, or “why didn’t you just take your insulin properly, you disappointment :/” moments. With Sam.... I don’t remember their relationship very well, but I got the feeling John was very hands-off with Sam and sort of made his care Dean’s responsibility. I wonder if he’d be more involved if Sam were diabetic? Or would he be even more hands-off? 

There’s also... well, if we bring this back to SI!Sam instead of just regular Diabetic AU Sam... okay, so SI!Sam is me and therefore mostly a woman. Assuming SI!Sam is afab, I think John AND Dean’s view of the whole thing would shift dramatically. SPN is not a very female-forward show. I can almost see John refusing to teach a daughter how to fight or even telling her things about ghosts, especially if she’s sick and fragile. :’( Or he’d handle her with gloves on, all very delicate and controlling in a very infuriating way. I.... do not have a very high opinion of John Winchester. 

But then, if SI!Sam is amab, theeeen a whole lot of things change. This would be a very interesting fic but I’m also not sure I am the best to tackle it. :x 

ANYWAY, I’m not actually sure I’d make SI!Sam diabetic! I’d have to think more about where I’d want to take the plot and how I want SI!Sam’s childhood to go. I will say I’ve done a lot of traveling while diabetic so at least she wouldn’t be totally screwed. :P And I do actually know someone whose elderly caretaker tried to exorcise her while she was having a hypo. xD Luckily her older sister intervened and got her juice. :P