the-oracle-of-the-lost

[the-oracle-of-the-lost]

shout out to everyone who makes screencaps <3333 absolutely underrated fandom contribution

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'careful, you'll break it!!' 'i'll break you in a minute' romana and narvin are so funny like. one day soon you'll be everything to each other. and you'll still bicker like this. they're everything to me

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CISSY: Well of course you would say that, you're a Slav.

ok i know it's horrible but the way this line slapped me when i first listened. the first vivid memory of gallifrey i have is shock laughing at that line in the street somewhere, because bruh

like leela looks exactly like a british woman because she's played by a british woman, but cissy's framework of the world is unable to recognise that due to the way that leela dresses and behaves, because race "science" is nonsense that exists to retroactively justify the ugliest impulses of people that believe they're superior. it's not about what someone actually is; the facts always follow the beliefs, not the other way around

we see over and over again (in gallifrey and in history) that fascism is not an ideology that gains traction because it's efficient, it's an ideology that succeeds (domestically) because it feels good, it's simple and "self-evident" and tells you exactly what you want to hear. in fact fascism is horribly inefficient and prone to eating itself because it so often falls into the trap of believing it's own bullshit and prioritising image/vibes over material conditions

i choose to believe that the writers are trying to Do Something, as heavy-handed as it is, in their choice for the one (1) earth episode of gallifrey to be set in 30s germany. like, let's take a brief break from the Fascism Planet to go to the Fascism Country~

and i love the fact that we are exposed to this ugliness through a pleasant, well-spoken, educated, upper class english woman played by an actress we already love rather than some old evil cartoonish german guy—yes because it makes it more real, but also because this show is almost entirely about fascism being pushed and enabled by well-spoken, educated upper class english(ish) people, many of whom we are supposed to like and/or are characters we already love

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39 and 41 for the fanfic ask game :)

thank you <333 ask game here!!

39. Do you prefer first, second or third person?

i'm a firm believer in that you can write in any perspective and make it work well (even if first and second person get a bad reputation) but i've only seriously written in third person just because that's what always feels natural. that said for whatever reason, Benny is always a character who begs to be written in first person (probably because of how often her diary is used as a narrative framework in canon).

41. What’s you favourite minor character you’ve written?

answered here!

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49. can you remember the first fic you read? what was it about?

ask game here!

49. Can you remember the first fic you read? What was it about?

honestly no? i was introduced to fanfic on (cringes) Doctor Who Instagram circa 2013 so statistically it was probably some tenrose or doctor/river fic that someone had linked there.

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5, 13, 25 and 29 for the ask game

thank you!! ask game here!

5. If you had to choose a favourite out of all of your multi chaptered stories, which would it be and why?

ultimately And They Became Monsters (the fall of great men) will always be my favorite multi-chapter work just because i spent sooooo long on it and it really pulled me back in to loving writing again, but at times i do re-read some of it and cringe a bit just because i do think my writing has massively improved since i wrote some of the earlier chapters. so by default we pick ourselves undone has to be my favorite in terms of actual skill.

13. Who is your least favourite character to write for? Why?

my great shame as a massive Doctor Who fan is that i'm absolutely shit at writing for the Doctor. i can manage alright with certain Doctors if they're a side character but i truly cannot get a handle on their character/demeanor/dialogue well enough to ever write from their POV or as a central character. i think it's a larger problem of having difficulty writing characters who i feel are so largely dependent on their actors to bring them to life that i feel like i can't authentically capture their voice (Sisko is definitely in this camp).

25. Have you ever cried whilst writing a story?

i'm not a big crier even when i'm emotional but i do remember crying a bit when i wrote this section for And They Became Monsters (the fall of great men):

“I told you that you mattered. All children believe they matter.” Neutral, impassive, infuriating. He wasn’t belittling. Maybe to him, Braxiatel was still a child – the wayward son fallen far away from a distant and demanding father. Maybe that was the truth. What a cruel family he’s created. Just another cycle. Ad infinitum. And here they were, blame circulating around and around. Things would never be resolved. Things would never heal. Braxiatel didn’t even want to heal. He wanted to leave this jagged cut deep inside – so deep that maybe the wrong Braxiatel felt it – because if there was an ugly scar for all to see that meant all the hurt was real. His bitterness and anger was justified because wasn’t healing just erasing? Forgetting the hurt meant letting it happen again and again, and there’s another cycle because he just can’t seem to get away.

partially because i was almost done with the fic and was getting to the Big Confrontation i had been working on for years and partially because i realized that i was very much putting a lot of my own feelings on abusive/damaging relationships into the text but it was very cathartic to write.

29. Do you have a story that you feel doesn’t get as much love as you’d like?

honestly a lot of my stories with a low kudos/hits count are extremely niche so i'm not bothered by them not getting much love. but i am a little salty that i wrote one Steven Universe fic that i still think is pretty damn good and is by far my most kudosed and read fic and still the only comments i've gotten on it are from an irl friend and someone complaining that i didn't portray Pearl/Rose the way they liked even if i literally tagged it as a toxic relationship and was pretty aligned with canon...... i'm not that mad about it but i do find it ironic that i get a lot more comments/encouragement writing fic for obscure Doctor Who books that have been out of print for 25 years than for a mainstream cartoon show with a massive fandom. just goes to show that smaller fandoms are better i guess.

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33, 41, 48

thank you! ask game here!

33. What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten?

answered here!

41. What’s you favourite minor character you’ve written?

hm in terms of minor characters in canon who i've fleshed out... probably John (Where Angels Fear) who's a very minor character in one Benny book. i'm not usually someone who gets super attached to minor characters – i like having a decent basis to write them from, but John was just such a fun mystery character to write given that we were given a bunch of cryptic information about him (has two hearts but isn't a Time Lord, out-plotted Braxiatel, kept having weirdly intimate moments with Brax, etc) and absolutely no answers. i ended up re-imagining him as a somewhat central character to my And They Became Monsters (the fall of great men) fic (though spoilers for his actual narrative purpose). then i just wrote a ficlet with a somewhat different interpretation of him for an AU that i'm thinking of expanding on when i have inspiration.

48. What’s your favourite trope to write?

anything premise that involves two characters being trapped somewhere and forced to talk about their feelings especially if it's sickfic or h/c.

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For the fanfiction ask game: 7, 14 (for any fic you want), 33

ask game here!

7. When is your preferred time to write?

idk if it's a smart time to be writing but i always find that i'm more creative and productive late at night so like 10pm-12:30am is usually my ideal writing time.

14. How did you come up with the title for the xxx?

oh god my titling game is not strong. i've started to default to song lyrics – this happiness is hell on earth, we pick ourselves undone, love is just pain in reverse – from Monsters & Men, Bastille, and Snow Patrol lyrics respectfully though i've fallen victim to not having particularly wide music knowledge.

most of my other titles have just been things that i've thought sound decent after staring at the post new work page for a few hours except for And They Became Monsters (the fall of great men) which i've talked about before but i had it earmarked for an Irving Braxiatel character study for literal years before i published it. the title proper, "And They Became Monsters", is a line from an iconic story where it's revealed that Braxiatel has (not so) secretly been doing shitty stuff for years and has been slowly turning his friends into monsters as well. but the subtitle "(the fall of great men)" is kind of a critique on the idea of "great man theory" in history. a lot of the fic is about Braxiatel re-writing time over and over again so things will go his way, so he can be the hero of his own story (and when that fails, he can at least be the monster/villain), but the story eventually is about him losing control of the narrative and realizing that there are no heroes, monsters, or archetypal characters and the only way to escape the cycle of history he's been trapped in is to let go of it and share the burden with others. it's a bit lengthy but i'm pretty proud at how it captures the story as a whole.

33. What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten?

not necessarily a specific comment but my favorite writing compliments are always when people have said that i've made them think of a character/plot point in a new light or that they've gotten attached to something just because of my writing.

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Fanfiction Writer Asks

Most of the writer ask posts I come across are only like ten or so questions long so I thought I’d try to make a longer one because we like talking about our writing! Feel free to reblog!

1) How old were you when you first starting writing fanfiction?

2) What fandoms do you write for and do you have a particular favourite if you write for more than one?

3) Do you prefer writing OC’s or reader inserts? Explain your answer.

4) What is your favourite genre to write for?

5) If you had to choose a favourite out of all of your multi chaptered stories, which would it be and why?

6) If you had to delete one of your stories and never speak of it again, which would it be and why?

7) When is your preferred time to write?

8) Where do you take your inspiration from?

9) In your xxx fic, what’s your favourite scene that you wrote?

10) In your xxx fic, why did you decide to end it like that? Did you have an alternative ending in mind?

11) Have you ever amended a story due to criticisms you’ve received after posting it?

12) Who is your favourite character to write for? Why?

13) Who is your least favourite character to write for? Why?

14) How did you come up with the title for the xxx? - You can ask about multiple stories.

15) If you write OC’s, how do you decide on their names?

16) How did you come up with the idea for xxx?

17) Post a line from a WIP that you’re working on.

18) Do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them?

19) Are there any stories that you’ve written that you’d really love to do a sequel to?

20) Are there any stories that you wished you’d ended differently?

21) Tell me about another writer(s) who you admire? What is it about them that you admire?

22) Do you have a story that you look back on and cringe when you reread it?

23) Do you prefer listening to music when you’re writing or do you need silence?

24) How do you feel about writing smutty scenes?

25) Have you ever cried whilst writing a story?

26) Which part of your xxx fic was the hardest to write?

27) Do you make a general outline for your stories or do you just go with the flow?

28) What is something you wished you’d known before you started posting fanfiction?

29) Do you have a story that you feel doesn’t get as much love as you’d like?

30) In contrast to 29 is there a story which gets lots of love which you kinda eye roll at?

31) Send me a fic recommendation and I’ll post it for my followers to see! (The asker is to send the rec not the answerer)

32) Are any of your characters based on real people?

33) What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten?

34) What’s the harshest criticism you’ve gotten?

35) Do you share your story ideas with anyone else or do you keep them close to your chest?

36) Can you give us a spoiler for one of your WIP’s?

37) What’s the funniest story you’ve written?

38) If you could collab with any other writer on here, who would it be? (Perhaps this question will inspire some collabs!) If you’re shy, don’t tag the blog, just name it.

39) Do you prefer first, second or third person?

40) Do people know you write fanfiction?

41) What’s you favourite minor character you’ve written?

42) Song fic - What made you decide to use the song xxx for xxx.

43) Has anyone ever guessed the plot twist of one of your fics before you posted it?

44) What is the last line you wrote?

45) What spurs you on during the writing process?

46) I really loved your xxx fic. If you were ever to do a sequel, what do you think might happen in it?

47) Here’s a fic title - insert a made up title. What would this story be about?

48) What’s your favourite trope to write?

49) Can you remember the first fic you read? What was it about?

50) If you could write only angst, fluff or smut for the rest of your writing life, which would it be and why?

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j'adore le chat!!!

meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow

mrrrrrraow?

(my dad's gremlin cat)

(my old cat who was the world's sweetest boy and also loved to sleep in bags)

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Silly fun ask:

cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese

cheeeeeeeeese you say?

top 5 cheeses:

feta but only the actually good stuff not the shitty salad crumbles that taste like socks. quality feta is god's perfect creation and i will just eat chunks of it plain but it's also good cooked into basically anything.

fresh mozzarella – i've been eating it on toast with some pesto for lunch for the last few days and it's divine

smoked gouda – i loveeeeee smoked cheeses so much and smoked gouda is always my go to if i want cheese & crackers or add something a little special to mac & cheese

truffle gruyere???? i'll be honest idk what kind of cheese it was but it definitely had truffle in it; i got it on sale like a year ago as a little treat and eating it was a transcendent experience and i haven't been able to find it again :(

white cheddar – ideal basic cheese. no complaints, no notes.

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In your opinion, which Voyager crew member would be the most likely to adopt a stray creature as a pet, and who would be the most likely to try and get it off the ship?

oooh let's go through the crew...

Janeway – i meannnnn she has a habit of taking in strays and i firmly believe that would extend to pets too given that she canonically has dogs too.

Chakotay – he would be pro-pet but not really a deciding vote in any camp.

Tuvok – yeah let's be honest, Tuvok would definitely be anti-pet initially but this B plot would 100% end in him reluctantly falling in love with it and then sighing and saying "i suppose if it would improve morale, it would be only logical to keep it..."

Tom – definitely instigated the Voyager Pet Debate and tries to get the new pet to learn tricks and then gets really frustrated when it doesn't learn them after an hour.

Harry – horribly in love with the new pet but is sweating while he remembers all the Starfleet regulations about adopting unknown fauna and keeping it aboard even after Janeway says it's fine.

B'Elanna – doesn't really get the whole pet thing but is still very happy to let it cuddle on her lap.

Neelix – i entirely forget if canon supports this or not but in my head i don't think Talaxians have a concept of pets/keeping domestic animals for enjoyment rather than functionality so he's initially put off by a random stray animals wandering around the ship but like Tuvok learns to love it.

EMH – firmly in the anti-pet camp. is jealous that people seem to be taking the pet's wellbeing more seriously than they ever treated him.

Kes – very pro-pet, appoints herself in charge of taking care of the pet, let's it sleep in her room, finds it foods to eat, it starts following her around like a familiar.

Seven – very much does not understand why people love the pet, why people are sacrificing their time and energy to take care of it, or how it provides any material benefit to the ship. to Seven's dismay, the pet still really likes her.

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I don’t have much but here are some funny memes

all incredibly good memes thank you. i feel the second one so hard rn.

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meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow

mrrrrrraow?

(my dad's gremlin cat)

(my old cat who was the world's sweetest boy and also loved to sleep in bags)

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i've still been feeling like shit and can't do much other than rest today so i'd really appreciate any silly fun asks that anyone wants to send my way <333

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figured I should just share the big finish benny books since i think they are harder to find now, so here they are ! Have fun!