#I have a few feelings about how to improve werewolf lore on that show... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lovecanbesostrange · 3 years

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since ouat never really cared about their werewolves, what do you think they can/can't do? I mean, if you could give their condition rules, what it would be like?

UUuuuuuuhhhhh, what a fun and delicious ask. The writers really never thought things through or gave us easy to understand lore. So, if I could have a say and make it all consistent? Here we go.

First up, the superspeed in human form goes. That is too much. Faster than average? For sure. Stronger as seen is fine by me. Let the wolves in humanform have an easy time to break bones, push others around and lift heavy things. Stamina surpassing the average human. And of course all the heightened senses as seen! Very important, everything is louder, smellier, brighter - very sensitive. (Can be used to overwhelm Ruby if need be. harrrrrr)

Something from the comics I'd be okay with is telepathy between wolves. That in their wolf form they can communicate with each other, not just with their animal noises, but telepathy. It's an interesting form of bond. But no communication with humans that way (also not in their human form). It's something that never mattered anyway, since Ruby is alone.

Now, for the most important thing that was glossed over - The Bite (tm). You can be born a wolf or you can be made one, so how does that work? The show tells us that Granny was bitten as a young girl and then the wolf came back and turned her. What does that mean? I propose that a wolf can't just bite anyone and *poof* now they're a wolf. There has to be a deliberate want behind. And let me go further, there has to be a connection between the wolf and the human. I'm not saying it has to be love, but familiarity, a need to add this human to your pack. And some form of willingness from the person being bitten.

Hear me out, outsiders will always talk about the Curse of the Werewolf. Because a person gets bitten, turns into a killing machine with fangs and claws during wolfstime. How horrible! The human family will say that someone was taken from them. But from the perspective of the new wolf, it's finding a new family, a new home, following the call of the wild, joining a pack. It's not easy and it breaks their heart a bit leaving behind what they know, but they will never be accepted in the human world again, right? They will be hunted. But they feel this deeper belonging as a Child of the Moon, it was in them before and when they met a wolf (maybe even in their human form, being drawn to something they couldn't explain)...

From the wolf perspective this is a gift. Marking someone is not be done lightly. And it happens only rarely. But when it does, it's the humans who get to tell the story and this is why werewolves are seen as beasts only. Well that and the unfortunate people being born a wolf, not knowing, having their tragic experiences like Red with Peter. Tragedy!!!

But obviously the bite isn't a curse, because curses can be broken with True Love (tm). Yes, Granny wasn't a fan of wolves, she saw ugly things and hoped her granddaughter would be spared. This is where my need for a Granny-centric episode comes on. Imagine meeting young Granny (imagine her having a canon name). @heartsways wrote something beautiful in her fic that I will now adopt as my headcanon. The reason Granny's wolf faded, apart from a few heightened senses, is that her husband died. So imagine a wolf dying and the ones he bit will not only lose the person, but also this gift. Angst! Layers! More tragedy! It's also why it so rarely happens, because the wolves understand that it is a high price to lose this life again like that. (It's also lifted somewhat from werewolf myths where you need to find the one who bit the person to lift the curse, but again, it's not a curse from the perspective of the wolves here.)

The other obvious thing - silver. Give me wolves that feel like almost indestructable killing machines. The skin so thick a normal sword will barely leave a mark, an arrow won't even stick. (A sharp blade with enough force should do damage, I mean, put a wolf under the guillotine and off that head goes.) But silver is their weakness. And while I am all for faster healing, let silver wounds carry between their forms, always. (Show me scars carry over in transformation.)

The wolf is strong and has many advantages, and since I believe in balance, the weakness against silver is within their human form. (All the jewelry Ruby wears? Lots of material, nothing silver though.) It's how somebody could try to find a wolf, having a silver coin or whatever, letting a suspect hold it and a wolf would react. Like a chemical burn. (Imagine Tamara and Greg doing that trick, that would be an amazing scene.)

Now, in the ideal world Ruby would been around for the whole show and to give her an arc, I'd introduce the concept that there are some werewolves, who master their shapeshifting abilities. Shifting independent of the moon.

Oh right, first I'd set this definite time frame for wolfstime. I'd give it the two nights before the full moon, full moon, and two nights after. So five nights of wolf fun. There.

But anyway, in S5 it's time to get Ruby an upgrade. She's confident in her powers and at peace with her wolf side. Which is key. For most even living in a pack, there is a lifelong struggle of the two sides. But Ruby is an expert now of living different lives, of seeing herself as a whole, made up of so many different ways she ever saw herself. Let there be a cunning shapeshifter around and give her a Big Damn Hero moment. Let her turn into a wolf when our beloved idiots are in dire need of help, give me proud wolf attacking to defend in brought daylight. It's super rare, but so is Ruby. (She should start flashing golden eyes every now and then from S4 onwards to build up to this.)

Other things - wolves are at an disadvantage against magic obviously, and yet maybe some spells don't work as easily against them. The whole strength can depend on the moon phase, like even as a human, they are a bit weaker during the new moon phase, so it's an ebb and flow that helps not being too powerful all the time. Explore that Ruby's sense of loyalty is part of her instinct package. (Girl will follow Snow into hell and back without question. Oh wait...) I'm totally here to add wolfsbane to the weakness list, because that's fun.

( @konako I’m tagging you, because if I’ve forgotten something, I’m sure you will remind me.)

#OUaT #Ruby Lucas #Granny Lucas #I have a few feelings about how to improve werewolf lore on that show...#anon ask

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loquaciousquark · 2 years

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4-Sided Dive Highlights - Critical Role C3E19 - E21 (May 3, 2022)

Tonight’s guests: Sam, Liam, Taliesin, and Laura. Liam: “Will the wheels just come off without Marisha here, or...?” Laura: “I feel like it already has.” Tonight’s Tavern Keeper host is Sam Riegel. Based on the teleprompter’s cues, he does a very, very terrible imitation of Fjord’s country accent. Laura, from offscreen: “It’s just FCG! Just do FCG!” Sam: “Yeah, but he’s deeper than me!” Oh gosh, this is off the rails already.

What the Fuck is Up With That? Sam starts the segment showcasing his flipflopped feet. Finally, we get to a question: how has it been to have a fluid group with the loss of Bertrand & Dorian, and the addition of Chetney? Liam says this didn’t feel like home at the start. Laura thought it felt really weird when Bertrand died and they were without Travis for so long. Sam thinks it made it harder to learn everyone’s goals, but he loved Dorian/Robbie both for who he is and what he brought to the dynamic: a kind character, great as a soundboard. Laura brings up that Dorian had a hardcore crush on one of the characters. “I’m pretty sure it was FCG.” Liam brings up that doing the mini-run with Fearne & Dorian in ExU made the rest of the group feel a bit like outsiders for the first few episodes, which was weird. Taliesin really liked it, thought it felt like X-Men.

Segue: Taliesin was way into comics as a kid, and reveals he once had a long conversation with Lenore Riegel, Sam’s mom, about Sam’s childhood. Sam was a Fantastic Four reader and never got into X-Men. Laura reveals she’s never seen Lost Boys, and everyone agrees it’s a very Laura movie.

Ruidus! WTFIUWT? Everyone agrees that Imogen’s dreams are happening on the moon, even though it hasn’t been confirmed in canon yet. Dani notes that Imogen’s mother wasn’t necessarily Ruidus-born, but was at least part of the study for psychic powers (and reminds us the Lumas twins were the ones to rip out the rest of the study’s pages). Orym’s moon tattoos were pure coincidence. Sam: “What do they symbolize? Are they you and your husband?” Laura, incensed: “You were THERE at the TABLE when he explained this!” Sam: “Oh, that’s why I think that.” Liam: “That’s what this show is for, to catch Sam up to speed.” Liam does point out that Travis is a moon-related werewolf. Taliesin is REALLY hoping they’ll go to the moon this campaign. Laura, Liam, and Tal accidentally start stuttering and fall into improv scat; Sam: “I don’t even know what they’re not talking about!” However, Sam remembers that in Legends of Vox Machina, Laudna came back to life under double moons in the animated shot. Tal tells us he reads the lore books Matt puts out as he reviews how Catha & Ruidus move in relation to each other. (Side note: @eponymous-rose, my partner in these recaps, has been talking about Exandria’s crazy moons since Campaign One. Nice to see this coming to fruition!)

The heist! WTFIUWT? Liam forcibly keeps us on topic by praising Matt for constantly varying the tempo of the game, avoiding all combat or all shopping or all heartfelt side conversations. Laura thinks they planned absolutely horribly; the moment when they realized they didn’t even scout the building was devastating. Tal was certain they’d be okay as long as they didn’t split up--except they did so immediately.

Liam talks about how he made Orym to be a “sidecar guy” who’d stick his finger in every electrical socket he came across, but over the course of ExU and then very quickly into C3 he found himself and his mediocre intelligence score (and Imogen) becoming the shop-minders instead of chaos monkeys. Tal tells us that save Imogen, this party is effectively a party of NPCs: Orym is the guy who works for the queen, Ashton is a goon for a villain, FCG is someone’s beast character; Laudna’s a ghost you would encounter. Imogen seems to be the only person with an intense destiny right now, aside from maybe Dorian. Sam could see Matt playing all of their characters as a silly voice. “It’s very X-Men.”

Travis’s invis-o-scouting with Chetney reminds Laura of Vax, in that they both would just disappear without warning and really annoy her. Taliesin talks about Ashton’s personal code & why the violation of the heist’s non-life-threatening rules affected Ashton so much. “If you have a deal, you don’t fuck with it. If you fuck with the deal, new deal and I get to make up what it is. Don’t put your hands on me if I don’t know you.”

They reminisce about heists within the show (all are followed with “that was terrible”), then discuss heist movies. Logan Lucky gets brought up! Excellent movie.

The Tower of Inquiry! Laura pulls a(n apparently quite sticky) block. It’s about preplanned character histories vs. organic adjustment of those histories within the game. Liam loves that you come into the game with a premise, then get to meet the character as it’s played. Examples: Orym really likes pie, discovered during ExU; Laura didn’t plan on a fear of heights for Imogen until the moment Matt was describing it. She herself doesn’t mind heights at all. Taliesin was struggling to find something for Ashton to be punk-y angry about in a world that fundamentally sort of functions well, but he’s now figured it out as of a few episodes ago.

Laura talks about building a character meant to be very uncomfortable in crowds who was then thrust into a heavily urban setting; she’d originally intended Imogen to stay very withdrawn until they left the city, but they stayed in the city so long she knew she had to at least partially get over it and start talking, or they’d be 20 episodes in and no one would know anything about Imogen at all. Laura & Marisha had lots of big discussions about where their characters had met & their travel history; Sam & Tal had one talk, ha. “You were a question asker and I was a not-question. You’re adorable and I want to make sure no one ever fucks with you.” FCG was delighted to finally have their questions answered when they met the rest of the group. Sam also discusses discovering FCG was a flat-earther, ha! “Strict RP decision,” and not because Sam is a troll in real life. Sure, yeah. He also discovered that FCG eats coins as they played--that wasn’t preplanned, as Sam decided he didn’t want to mess with money at all this campaign. He wanted a character who got rewarded mechanically by building relationships (RPing) with other characters, as that would encourage them to discover things about each other quickly.

Deep Dive! Sam thinks FCG has recovered since the glitching in the Shade Mother’s cavern. Sam himself knows the mechanics of how the glitching & recovery works, but FCG does not, so he can’t discuss it without spoilers. Sam also hadn’t really planned how to perform the errors, so the glitching was improv’ed in the moment.

Ashton’s hammer was made from leftover body parts from Ashton’s accident after Milo finished repairing him. Yuck. Prior to the hammer, they just used brass knuckles & whatever was around they could brawl with.

Laura FINALLY KILLS THE FLY that’s been haunting the set and screams directly into the mic. Bless her heart. Laura reveals that Imogen wasn’t born with her powers or the lightning marks on her arms; they both arrived together with the advent of her dreams. Both Laura & Imogen thought that the marks were just growing with the strength of her magic. She was terrified to use her powers at the start because she thought they were making the markings grow; she didn’t realize it might be related to the dreams. Taliesin asks about the purple hair: “Born with, changed to, or conscious choice?” Laura, weakly: “I haven’t decided yet. I just wanted purple hair...”

Liam’s question is about Laudna, and Laura confronts him on his pronunciation of Loud-na vs. Lodd-na. Liam: “I don’t say Loud-na.” Everyone else: “You do! You do all the time!” Liam: “Anyway. What was it like when Laudy made her revelation?” He says it’s like meeting a historical figure, since Orym wasn’t important in Zephrah but spent a lot of time 15 feet away from VM members discussing important events. It’s like carrying around a little piece of plutonium that he’s not sure how to communicate about. Taliesin tells us Percy is just screaming in the back of his head, “like just loud, irritated, British screams.”

Sam discusses how Liam chooses his race and class for every campaign. He wanted to find a different spin from previous clerics & loves diving into worlds he knows nothing about. He’s never gone through therapy himself, so he wanted to explore that here. He got lots of books and spoke to friends in psychiatry and psychology to get a good foundation. It reminds Taliesin of friends who take one psychology credit in college and go a little overboard. Liam thought it was a very improbable combination and knew Sam would come up with something entertaining. Sam originally intended to have FCG curse a LOT as a reflection of his builder, but thought that would be too exhausting (to Taliesin: “No offense.”). Tal remembers him finding the FCG voice over their session zero.

Segue into accents; there are lots of “viral” accents at the table right now, and it’s hard to keep them from creeping in. Everyone (rightfully) raves about Marisha’s accent and character. Taliesin has seen this voice before from theater with her many years ago and says it’s his favorite thing she does. Sam thinks Ashley also played it smart, because hers isn’t an accent, it’s (breathily) “just a way of being” like Marilyn Monroe or a 50′s movie star.

Ashton is a liar to himself and others, and believes he knows people well even when he doesn’t. “It’s worse when you need people and you’re bad at it.” Taliesin loves that there’s someone in the group okay with their pocket being picked, someone he can be a little bit of a dick to.

Laura has no idea who the figure in the storm is. Wild theory: maybe her mom is evil. Maybe it’s evil Imogen. She’s scared of and intrigued by the storm at the same time. The only thing she hammered into her backstory is Imogen’s certainty that if the storm catches her, she will die, and she’s intrigued that this might be changing.

Liam initially wanted to hatch Orym with his familiar friends, but decided to start him in ExU instead. He notes that they’re worse chaos gremlins in that group & had no Imogen to help him keep things grounded. “Dorian sometimes, but Dorian was a chameleon” who would take on other characteristics when he was talking to someone else. It was a different layer added to Orym and it was great.

Unexpected whiskey slaps cameo on this episode of 4SD! Laura smacks the bejeezus out of Liam (who apparently quite enjoys whiskey slaps but hasn’t been able to partake in a long time). “Should I really do it or should I kind of do it?” “75%. I love you.” Oh, my heart.

Question speed round! Initially, FCG never took offense when he was treated badly, but over the episodes with everyone checking in with them constantly, he’s discovered he’s actually not okay with it after all!

Ashton spent at least older-child-to-teenager years at the orphanage.

The ball was very difficult for Imogen because she couldn’t keep her walls up high enough. She’d never been dressed up in her entire life and was excited about that, but so bummed about being shoved in a corner.

Orym was wandering for years because there were no answers for so long; even now their leads are cold, but he’s growing fond of the new party. It’s giving him sharpened purpose. “Some things should just be made right.”

(Side note: they keep calling each other adorable nicknames throughout this, and it delights me: Limi, Mimi, twins, Tally. I’m just so glad they’re friends.)

Sam reviews their question slips. His were immediately shredded/crumpled, Tal’s were folded into origami, Laura’s stayed untouched, and Liam’s are an eclectic mix of mushroom shape, tiny twist, and flat. Fitting.

Tower of Inquiry (Reprise): Sam pulls a brick. Which Muppets would play your character? Fearne: Janet. Ashton: Animal. FCG: Beaker. Orym: Kermit or Robin (Kermit’s nephew). Imogen: Scooter. Chetney: Waldort and Statler (ha!). Laudna: the Count. Dorian: Sam Eagle or Rowlf. Matt: John Denver or Mark Hamill--one of the human guests.

Break: The Dani Barr confessions, a hilarious black-and-white noir spoof with Taliesin and Dani, with Tal talking about his euphoria at Matt’s frustration regarding his constant min-maxing of complicated homebrew subclasses. (Dani’s accent is fabulous.) “I don’t know what a grit point is, nobody does! Campaign Two--sure, he bumped me off before I had the chance to really get into that crazy, high level shit, but that’s okay. I bided my time, and now...Ashton. Rolling on a random table for nearly everything I do, fundamental chaos! That player’s handbook in your clutches won’t help you, because the table you need isn’t there. I hope you printed out a cheat sheet that consumes an entire panel of your GM screen just for me, and my crunchy little homebrew!”

Post-Break Shenanigans: ostensibly Street Fighter V, but Sam derails us immediately with honor rollies and then more questions as Liam and Tal start off with the game. Sam: “I can tell you that if I were watching this show, I wouldn’t give a shit about [the game].” Is that legal to say??

Imogen thinks Chetney is a funny little horndog. She works really hard with Imogen to avoid meta because technically she could be reading everyone’s thoughts at all times. She got the worst superficial thoughts of everyone when she first got her powers, so she blocks it all out. She wants to think better of people, so it’s an active effort to shut it down.

Laura, Ashley, and Marisha went to get their nails done together. Everything was harder with long nails. This is so cute.

Liam casually drops that all of the guests voice characters in this game except Sam. Taliesin actually voices one of the characters on the stream right now. Man, it’s a different world they live in.

Tal wrote more backstory for Ashton than any other character, which shocks Liam. This is also a character who’s never had something good happen to him, and Matt hates characters like that, so he’s unsure if Matt will stay with that or tweak some things.

Orym was a backup character in Campaign One, when Vax was high level but expected to die. (Laura physically blocks Sam’s view of the TV during this, which is pretty funny.) His backstory was set then; Liam had to find a reason for this high-level character to drop out of the sky. However, since Vax survived, he flipped the dynamic and had Keyleth help Orym instead of the other way around, and saved the character for another time.

Liam plays Gill, which is the character he voiced in this game. Dani is apparently “over it” in the background. Sam tells her to come hang out and she joins them. So cute.

Laura had no idea Imogen would have any connection to Ruidus. She just wrote about the storm, and Matt wrote her back and told her the storm would be red. That was all she knew going into the game. She HATES it when he turns the room red. She gets nervous every time they sleep.

Taliesin had to change one thing about Ashton’s background due to too much overlap with Orym’s background. He can’t reveal what it is yet.

Sam wore flipflops because the internet appreciates feet. Also, it was 88 degrees.

Dani declines to ship on camera; she’d rather let the relationships play out naturally without commentary. Oh, Dani, this is such a wise decision and I’m so glad.

And that’s it! Is it Thursday yet? (It is, it is!)

#critical role #talks machina #4 sided dive #4sd #4 sided dive spoilers #critical role spoilers #long post for ts #very long post for ts

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siswritesyanderes · 3 years

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This is a series of asks bc, while I do LIKE all the charas of Fantastic Beasts individually, much of the romantic pairings dont sit well with me. By that mean the messy love polygon w Newt & I think I finally figured out why & I'd like another's opinion on it. For starters, Newt's attraction with Tina is too fast for me considering he was friends w Leta, got expelled out of Hogwarts for Leta, carried Leta's photo in his case, & basically loved her for YEARS. But this is all undone by a [1]

jaunt in NY having met a woman, who he admittedly went on a huge adventure w, over the course of maybe a few weeks. He's so taken w her she replaces Leta's photo w her own &, after refusing to go to Paris for Dumbledore, leaves immediately once he finds out she's there. I just find this unbelievable. I can rationalize it from Newt's perspective where Tina is a fresh breeze sweeping into his life on (percieved) unrequited pining, but this is my conjecture based on my understanding of Newt. [2]

The audience shouldnt be left to rationalize endgame couple of the mc on their own. & the whole thing w Leta is so messily handled I dont think they can save it even if they bring her back in FB3. How she feels for Newt vs Theseus & unresolved lingering affection, etc. She & Newt were SO important to each other & we SEE that & they dont HAVE to get together, but they need proper resolution bc they have actual history between them. God Leta in general deserved so much better. [3]

But my main gripe is that this love polygon serves no purpose to what I believe is the main selling point of FB: the world. HP having love stories makes sense bc we're following the story of a boy as he goes through adolescence & his journey through that via school is part of that, which is why the romance feels fitting. It's a very personal story. FB on the otherhand is the best peak we have at the wider wizarding world beyond school. HP introduces the world of magic, but FB rlly expands it [4]

To that end Jakob & Queenie's relationship is the only one I find myself liking, bc it's deeply tied to the world setting, the series' biggest selling point (in my opinion, should have said this earlier). It underscores the attitudes of the period & the conflict they face feels suitably substantial & not like filler. There's a moral question between them of are they worth it? And how far should they go to be together?

Imma be real hear & say FB2 was rlly Queenie's movie & they should have been ballsy & just make Queenie the mc for FB2, bc her story was actually considerably more important to the overall development of the story than Newt's, which mostly came off as a rushed & a tad clichè soap drama. & making it about Queenie I think builds more room for good conflict & independent narrative for Tina that would serve her chara better. [5? 6?]

If I bad to be REAL ballsy, I'd say my big issue w/ the relationships in the FB series & how it enhances or impedes the main story & what I believe to be it's biggest attracter (the setting) could have been solved if they made Newt's romantic interest a muggle. It attaches a deeper meaning & relevance to them & the story so it felt more deeply that they truly moved WITH the narrative rather than beside it but I guess Im just picky. Thx for putting up w this! [Final]

(My response below the cut.)

Yeah, pretty much all of this is right.

Regarding the Tina thing, it was definitely rushed, especially since there was literally nothing romantic between them in the whole first movie, except maybe the end part where they're stumbling over their words. Despite knowing how movies work and knowing that they were the male and female lead, I still found that completely out of left field, because they don't really share any interests and I didn't feel like they felt anything in particular for each other before that. She really wants to be an auror and feels really intensely about it; he just wants to travel the world and write about magical creatures and take care of them. I don't see a lot of compatibility there, and the movie didn't really do anything to reconcile that gap.

Jacob and Queenie made sense, because they actually sowed some seeds for it. It's not even about the fact that they both like to cook; they showed an interest in each other throughout. They noticeably like each other. Newt and Tina never really had that, to me, so it was bizarre for her to become his primary motivation in the second movie.

Queenie's trajectory in movie 2 overall bothers me, so while I agree it would have been better if they'd centered it more around her, I definitely think they needed to drastically rewrite pretty much everything she did. Enchanting Jacob at the beginning never sat well with me; I usually only have to say this in the Descendants fandom, but if one half of the ship is magical and the other half isn't, we can't have the magical one enchanting the non-magical one for romantic reasons without addressing what a violation of trust that is. Like, Jacob would be justified for never trusting her again, over that. Also, the fact that she apparently holds it against people if they think bad things about her is not something I would expect from someone who has been a Legilimens as long as she has, and not a detail I like, at all. Especially since it was used to give her justification to be mad at Jacob after she enchanted him in the first place. I find it sad, because Queenie was definitely my favorite character in the first movie. (Also, joining Grindelwald was a nonsensical thing to do. I can only assume she's there to spy on him or something, because it makes literally no sense.)

As for Leta, I really don't like how that was approached. First of all, I don't like how their mention of her in the first movie was "She was a taker; you need a giver," because once we actually met the character, that only made me resent Queenie for representing her that way. Leta deserved better in pretty much every way, and they definitely shouldn't have killed her off like that. I find the whole situation really iffy from a racial standpoint. The first black character to be written three-dimensionally in all of HP lore, and they make sure to preemptively tell the audience that she's a "taker", kill her in the same movie we meet her, and manage to trivialize her death by turning it into a little "Who was she saying 'I love you' to?" mystery. I like her relationship with Newt and Theseus, and I'd definitely want to see more of it.

Yes, it definitely would have been better, thematically, if they'd made the love interest a Muggle. (I'd honestly say they should've paired Newt with Jacob, but I know they're unwilling to do that. That would be kind of cool, though, to see the movie shaping up with two male characters and two female characters and have the men end up with each other and the women just live their lives as humans.)

With the story they ended up telling, though, I don't think that is needed; since Queenie is already dealing with the wizard/Muggle storyline, Newt could have a different conflict. Maybe his love interest should be a werewolf or something, to tie in the wizarding world's unresolved dislike for "half-breeds". And if he were in a relationship with someone already regarded as a creature, the wider wizarding world might take a different view to his studies and look down on him a lot more. Idk, a thought.

And then, with Leta/Theseus and Grindelwald/Dumbledore (if they were willing to actually deal with that), they'd pretty much hit every controversial beat they've got: wizard/Muggle, wizard/"half-breed", interracial, homosexual. Credence and Nagini are both creatures, kind of, but I still like them together, so their relationship doesn't have to tie into any theme; it just has to be developed way more.

On the whole, Crimes of Grindelwald felt like they skipped a movie. It feels like they needed a middle installment to make these relationships happen, instead of jumping from "Do Newt and Tina maybe have feelings for each other?" to "Newt loves Tina and Tina is possessive enough of Newt to be outwardly upset with him when she thinks he's engaged to someone else," and creating a whole relationship between Credence and Nagini that we see none of.

The fact that Queenie and Jacob were done well in the first movie gives me a fair amount of goodwill for them, but that goodwill only offers enough cushioning from the botching that movie 2 did that I'm near-indifferent to the ship, now, instead of actively opposed. I'd like to see things improved, but as it currently stands, I'd be just as happy seeing them end up not together as together. The fact that Leta's relationships with Newt and Theseus were more interesting than any of the aforementioned makes it that much more ridiculous that they killed her. What ship am I supposed to care about how? If I can't go into the next movie delusionally hoping Newt and Leta will get some moments, or enjoying the Theseus and Leta content, then I'll just be sitting there waiting for Credence and Nagini to share a screen, and who knows when that'll happen?

#long post #fantastic beasts and where to find them #crimes of grindelwald #newt scamander #leta lestrange #theseus scamander #jacob kowalski #queenie goldstein #tina goldstein #credence barebone #nagini

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crowswritetoo · 5 years

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11/11/11 Tag Game

Rules: Answer 11 questions. Come up with 11 new questions. Tag 11 people.

I was tagged by @sahados-shadow on my main account (cantankerous-crow). Hope you don’t mind me answering on my writing blog! I’m gonna answer for my WIP Orphan Moon, which is the one I’ll be focusing on for Camp NaNo.

1. How well do your characters draw?

Most of my WIPs have a Token Artist character lol.

Orion is the artist in Orphan Moon. He’s pretty good, too. He naturally picks up almost every form of art he tries his hand at, though, including music. He’s very modest about it, and doesn’t like to show off or display his talent too much.

2. Did (or do) they sleep with any comfort items (stuffed toy, blanket)?

Skel sleeps with a quilt on his bed that his mother and grandmother made, and it does give him comfort, but he can sleep just fine without it, too.

3. Have they ever gotten drunk?

Skel has gotten drunk, but he isn’t much of a drinker. Orion, on the other hand, has never been drunk. Not because he’s a werewolf, (werewolves can get drunk in this universe just fine) but just because the circumstances of his life, and his past, have never allowed for it.

4. How useful are they with home improvement projects?

Depending on the project, Skel can probably help. If he doesn’t know what to do, he knows enough to google it, or watch a video about it on youtube.

5. Do you have nicknames for your characters that aren’t included in the story?

Not really, no. I call all my characters by certain nicknames when I first come up with the character, before they have a set name. Kind of a name placeholder, but once I name them I make it a point to always refer to them by that name. That way, if it doesn’t sound right, or doesn’t fit, or just seems wrong, and I can’t get rid of that feeling, I know I need to rename them. Most characters keep the name I originally assign them, but some characters go through a few different name changes before I finally find their perfect name. Those are usually the characters with extra loud voices. Orion was actually named Dylan for a little bit before I decided it didn’t fit.

6. If your characters had pets, what would they be?

Orion would be a crazy cat man, living alone in a house in the woods with a billion cats, if he had his choice. Skel’s life is very busy, and can be dangerous, so a pet underfoot wouldn’t be the best thing for him. Maybe something small that stays in a tank or cage.

7. Your main characters go out to eat but only have the money for one appetizer for the table. What do they decide on?

They’d probably end up getting some kind of meat. Wings, or shrimp, or something like that (idk I’m not familiar with the variety of appetizers lol). Orion would say he didn’t care, so Skel would order meat because he knows that while Orion doesn’t care, he does have a preference. He’s a werewolf, after all.

8. Do your characters have any useless collections?

Skel has a lot of collections. He’s a collector of collections. At least 25% are probably completely useless. Probably.

9. How many writing-related playlists do you have?

Omg don’t call me out like that!

After counting, it’s less than I thought it would be. Only 18!

10. Which character is most likely to crash on another character’s couch and who would let them do it?

I guess Orion is most likely, considering that’s pretty much what he’s doing in the story; crashing on Skel’s couch.

11. Which character would win an arm-wrestling contest with the others?

In Orphan Moon, the werewolf lore is different, so “werewolf strength” isn’t a thing. Orion would still win, though, because he works out, and Skel does not.

11 New Questions

1. What are your 5 favorite aesthetics for your story?

2. Which of your characters is the most tolerant of children?

3. Have any of your characters had a close encounter with a wild animal?

4. How would you describe the style/fashion of your characters?

5. Do your characters have any body modifications, or do they want any?

6. Have your characters ever killed anyone, or would they?

7. How is the universe/world that your story takes place in similar to our own, and how is it different?

8. Do your characters take any legal or illegal drugs, or have they ever?

9. What are the circumstances your characters were born under?

10. What are your characters’ sun signs and rising signs?

11. What are your characters’ moral alignments?

Tagging: @thepatchworkcrow @elizabethsyson @shadowknight1224 @seananmcguire @vhum @attanoempire @necros-writings @bexminx @writingwordsanddrawingpictures @cawolters @margaretcroftwrites

#original writing #original fiction #OC #WIP #werewolf fiction #my stuff #my WIP #my OCs #Orphan Moon #Skel #Orion #tag games

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randomparanoid · 5 years

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Like Love You, Love You

A/N: This was written for @myinconnelly1‘s threesome challenge. Congrats on the 300, I’m so happy for you!! My prompts will be bolded on the story.

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Word Count: 3604

A/N 2: So, its the first I ever post something I’ve written, and it’s like the third time I’ve ever written something, so I’m sorry if it sucks, but feedback will be appreciated to improve. Also, English is not my first language so I’m sorry if it’s bad, I try to do it as best as I could and my mom helped me as well.

Warnings: some angst and fluff, I guess that’s it.

Y/n: Your name

Y/d/n: Your dad’s name

My dad and my mom were both raised as hunters and against all odds we were a happy family. They dropped me off at Bobby’s and went on hunts, a usual thing to do and apparently their friend John did so too with his boys, Dean and Sam. Every time the three of us happened to be left with Bobby I loved it, we became good friends and Bobby was like a second father to us, the one that instead of teaching us about weapons and monsters played ‘catch the ball’. My parents were kind of reluctant to teach me much about the life of hunting, but they needed me to know how to use a weapon and some basic lore for their peace of mind, just so they knew I could defend myself.

One day when I was eight, they took me to Bobby’s and went on a hunt for a werewolf pack. I hadn’t realized they were a day late for picking me up ‘cause I was having the greatest of times with my two best friends, but Bobby received a phone call that night.

I heard his footsteps on the stairs and approaching the bedroom he had given me and the boys. They were fast asleep, but I couldn’t close my eyes for some reason.

“Y/n, sweetheart, you awake?” He whispered as he opened the door.

“Yes.”

“Come on outside for a minute, please.”

Once outside he took me to the living room, made me sat at the couch as he kneeled in front of me. His eyes were cast down at the floor and he was breathing hard. When he finally told me what was going on, I didn’t really understand his gloomy expression. I mean, in my mind he was just taking me to where my father was and there was nothing bad about it. I ran upstairs and gave each boy a goodbye kiss and a promise to see each other soon to play. As soon as we arrived at a hospital my heart dropped, this meant that one of my parents was hurt, badly, they never went to hospitals.

We went inside, and Bobby asked the nurse at the front desk for my father, she looked it up and gave him a funny look before giving him a room number. He grabbed my hand and gave me a soft squeeze before walking. I will never forget the sight of my father, he looked so small with tubes everywhere and in pain; nonetheless, he smiled weakly when he saw me. I let go of Bobby and ran to him.

“Daddy, are you ok?”

“Yes munchkin, so much better now you’re here.” Bobby picked me up and helped me got on the bed beside my dad.

“Where’s mommy?” I snuggled my dad’s side as slowly and as softly as I could. He looked up at Bobby before he answered anything. Both with the gloomy expression again. No! I thought, this can’t be happening, she’s probably in another room.

I saw my dad hastily clean a tear with the back of his hand. His lower lip trembling as he exhaled. He opened his mouth several times before he said anything.

“She…. Umm she’s in heaven now munchkin.”

I shook my head no and looked at Bobby expectantly with a few silent tears running down my face, waiting for him to deny this and tell me it was a lie as if he could do that. He just nodded, his eyes glassy and gently rubbed my arm. That was all I needed to bawl my eyes out that night.

As I grew up, I started seeing Dean and Sam less and less, it made me sad, particularly because I had a mega crush on Dean and I would’ve done anything to just spend some time with him even if it was just as friends, because I knew there was no way in hell he would see me as something more. My father needed me for the cases, well, mostly research but he did take me on a few hunts.

Ten years later after having breakfast and 2 slices of my favorite pie (because it was my birthday) we were on the road, my dad told me we needed to get some things. We stopped at a supposed witch shop in New Orleans, a city I always loved. It was bustling with music and they all seemed so cheerful.

He went inside, and I stayed in the car looking through some cassettes to play. I finally decided on a rock mix my mom had given my dad who eventually gave it to me as a present.

“Umm dad, why are we here?” I asked, pointing at the shop he just got out of.

“I… I just needed some stuff.” He showed me a little bag with some dirt or something. And started the car again. He booked us at a scrawny looking motel and immediately made a line of the dirt at the foot of the door and at the windows.

“Ok, dad, what the hell are you doing?” He sighed heavily and sat on the edge of one of the beds, I sat beside him and took his hand. “What is going on?”

“I know munchkin that today is your birthday and that we should do something more fun, specially today that you’re turning 18…”

“But?”

“But I don’t have more time left-“

I laughed nervously, shaking my head, “I know you’re old, but not that old. Come on, don’t be like this.”

“Sweetie… I’m so sorry, I uhm… I made a deal. When your mom was giving birth to you…” he paused for a second to swallow. “It was a risky labor, she was in pain for hours and you both got tired. Your little heart was failing and so was hers and the doctor told me they could save you, but your mom was most likely to die. I couldn’t handle that, I just couldn’t bear the thought of not having her by my side to raise you, see you grow up and give you advice and…” he trailed off.

“Ok. But that was 18 years ago, deals are 10 years.” I got up shaking my head trying to wrap it around the idea that he was going to fucking die.

“Yeah the deal I made was that I could get 18 years if I did something for the demon.”

“That’s why we never hunted demons, isn’t it?” He nodded in response. “Why would you do that?” my voice cracking for trying to hold back my anger and my tears.

“To save your mom, I didn’t want you growing up without her and I couldn’t have raised you properly on my own.”

“But she stilled died!” I yelled, and he flinched, I know it was unfair of me to say that, but I couldn’t believe I was losing him too. “And you’re going to, you will leave me all alone.”

“Munchkin-”

“Don’t Munchkin me! I don’t want you to die pops. What am I gonna do with my life now?” I crumbled, my knees landing on the floor with thud and burying my head in my hands.

He got to the floor and gently laid me in his lap like I was 10 again. He rocked me back and forth and mumble apologies in my ear. I sobbed and drenched his shoulder. When I finally could get a grip of myself again, I looked up at him. “So, the thing you put on the door, is it to keep away the hellhounds?”

“It will hold them off for a bit, but there’s nothing we can do to stop them. I’m still going.” His voice cracked this time, some tears rolling down his cheeks. “Actually, I think you should go, I wanted to be with you ‘till the last second but now thinking about it I don’t want you to hear when they come for me.”

“Dad I’m not going anywhere.” I hugged him tight. “I love you.”

We stayed at the motel room, my dad was watching something on the tv while I was trying to find something, anything to help me keep my dad alive, but I came up with squat and time was ticking by. I got up from the chair and walked to the mini fridge, grabbing two beers and opening them. My dad lifted an eyebrow and gave me a ‘what are you doing?’ look.

“At least let’s have one beer before you…” I didn’t dare finish that sentence. “It’s a memory I know I’ll cherish, as well as the first time you taught me how to shoot a gun.” I laughed.

“Ok, fine.”

Halfway through our beer the door and the windows started to shake, and horrible snarls were heard but they were gone as quick as they had started. I looked over at my dad, scared out of my mind. The next thing we heard was a knock and a woman’s voice.

“Oh (y/d/n), open the door honey.” My dad and I exchanged a look. “Don’t make me do it the bad way.” She threatened.

My father reluctantly approached the door and slowly opened it. The woman outside pushed the door and entered the room looking around. When she spotted me, she gave me a fake smile.

“Well, well, well, so you’re the one I saved from not living at all?” She pointed a long finger at me.

“What are you doing here? Thought your pets would be the ones to drag me down.”

“Oh no, no. I needed to take you personally, you are special… I mean you didn’t kill a single demon all these years, right?”

There was something accusatory in her tone and I looked at my dad confused. I knew we didn’t kill demons, at all.

“I, no, I di-didn’t.”

“Why do I feel you’re accusing him of something?” I stepped in.

“Oh, ‘cause, you see, he may have not killed demons per se, but I know he called some of his buddies to do the job for him.”

“Ok. So, what?”

“I didn’t like that…” I was about to interrupt her, but she put up a hand to silence me. “I am a benevolent person, er, demon so I didn’t do anything about it. You need to come with me now, though, or I might turn out to be the worst demon you’ve ever seen.” My dad stepped forward and the demon raised a finger to scratch her chin. “Or maybe, you could do something to save your father.” She was looking at me.

“What can I do?”

“No! Don’t do anything munchkin, just get over here and give your old man one last hug.”

“Well, you could make a deal with me right now and I could give you both ten more years together. Then I would come back for both of you.”

I shook my head and looked at my father, maybe I should make this deal. He approached me and hugged me, whispering in my ear goodbyes and begging me not to accept the deal. He turned around to face the demon and she smirked at him. I saw him reach into his back pocket and slowly pull out his little bottle of holy water. No dad! What are you doing!? That ain’t gonna help, that’s just gonna piss her off.

I tried stepping forward to stop him but damn me for being so slow. By the time I grabbed his arm he had already thrown some of it to her. She screamed and grabbed her face and my father started reciting the exorcism.

“Oh no you won’t, you little piece of shit!” She looked at my dad and with a little flick of her face he flew across the room and got pinned to the wall.

“Run!” He screamed at me. I didn’t move, if I left, I knew he was going to die, and I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least try to do something. I heard the hellhounds growling again, now this time by the bed and rapidly getting closer to my dad.

“Stop! I will make you a deal, but please don’t hurt my dad.” She laughed, a creepy laugh. And looked at me.

I started walking towards her but only made it three steps when the door swung open and John Winchester tailed by Dean stepped inside, guns raised.

“You brought the Winchesters into this!?” As John ran to her to knock her down, she threw my dad down directly into the hellhounds and they immediately started clawing at him.

I screamed and lost notion of what was happening around me, I fell to my knees. “No! NO! DAD!” Faintly I heard John’s voice reciting an exorcism and the demon leaving the body.

“Y/n, we need to get out of here.” John’s grave voice sounded by my ear. And I could feel his hands on my arms trying to pull me up.

I shook my head, tears blurring my sight. “No, my my d-d-dad.”

“Please don’t argue. You must leave right now, you aren’t safe here. C'mon Dean help her, Sammy is in the car sweetheart.” He said it, trying to get me to move.

John pulled me to my feet, Dean grabbed me by the waist and dragged me out of the motel room. I completely shut down, didn’t really noticed when John got to the car or when he pulled into the driveway or Sam that was in the back seat with me softly caressing my arm, Dean’s nervous glances back at me. No, in my mind I still saw my dad getting clawed in the back by the invisible hellhounds, his screams of pain and the look in his eyes.

I stayed with them after that, I had no where to go and John sort of adopted me and wouldn’t accept that I went my own way. He even took me to some hunts, along with Dean. And I suffered just as much as Dean when Sammy left for college. We were both proud of him, he wouldn’t admit it, but we were also kind of jealous, Sam got the chance to get out of the hunting life and do something that he liked.

There were times when I wished my parents hadn’t been hunters, but I loved the feeling you get when you help someone, and I got pretty good at hunting. After Sam left for Stanford, John would send Dean and me on hunts while he went on his own for clues on the demon that killed Mary. I couldn’t stand seeing Sammy so sad after Jess got killed. The Winchester boys had taken a huge place in my heart and I was so thankful to the three of them for receiving me with arms wide open after what happened to my dad. They even put up with me on those days, I was so depressed and isolated, I barely spoke a word and ate close to nothing.

When I was myself again, things got to like they were before when we were kids, always had so much in common with Sam, Dean loved to call us nerds and I grew close to him which only made my crush on him to get bigger and bigger.

One day, we were still on the look for John’s whereabouts. The boys found a case in a small town in Colorado not so far from where they killed the wendigo. We booked a room in a shabby-looking motel, Sam took a shower followed by Dean and before I could get in the bathroom, they grabbed their stuff.

“I think you should stay here.” Dean said.

“What? Why?” I asked confused. They had left me out of a few hunts before, but they learned not to do that since I’ve proven that I could save their asses too.

“Look… just trust me on this.” He shared a look with Sam.

“No, just tell me a good reason why I can’t come with you guys?”

“We’ll tell you when we come back, ok?” Sam stood between me and Dean rising his hand.

“Are you taking his side against me?” I pointed a finger at Sam. “You’re the one always helping me convince Dean, telling him that without experience I couldn’t learn anything.”

“I’m sorry y/n, but we promise to explain things to you if everything goes right.”

“If? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Dean let out a heavy sigh and left the room, Sam gave me a weak apologetic smile before closing the door. Well shit! Now what?

I spent all day locked up in that stupid horrible motel room, worrying my ass off about those two schmucks and not knowing what the hell to do. I considered the possibility of going to look for them, but they didn’t even leave Sam’s laptop for me or anything to do research for them so I had no idea where could they have gone.

Past 1:30 am I couldn’t stop pacing around, I was sure I had dug a hole on the floor. I texted Sam and Dean several times but neither of them had answered. I was about to pull my hair off when someone banged on the door. It startled me, and I stopped my pacing.

“Y/n, it’s us, open up please.”

I sighed of relief that was quickly changed to worry again as I opened the door. Sam had bruises and had a small cut on his cheek, but Dean was really banged up. Cuts on his forehead, his lip and he was clutching his shoulder. His features clearly letting me know that he was in pain but trying to act tough, as always.

“Oh my god, guys! What happened?” I grabbed Dean by the waist and walked him to the nearest bed. He just grunted in pain and I quickly helped him remove his shirt, so I could check his injuries.

He had a horrible wound on his right shoulder. I was used to patch the boys up, and Dean’s toned body always made me lose my breath, but I always tried to clear my mind to do a good job.

Sam walked into the bathroom to wash his face and tend to his cut cheek. “C'mon guys, tell me what the hell happened?”

“We, um, we found out that the demon who made your father the deal was here and… uh she wasn’t alone, so we got beaten up.”

“Why? Just why would you that huh? There was no need for you to go after her, I didn’t ask you to do this, in fact I never talked about wanting revenge.”

“We did this for you.” Said Dean through gritted teeth. I rolled my eyes, I knew I had to be thankful ‘cause I was, but I couldn’t after seeing them so hurt. I just wished they had told me earlier what they were planning to do so I could’ve convinced them to turn right back and go somewhere, anywhere else. “Bobby called us, he um, he heard that the demon bitch was looking for you.”

“So what?” I said just when I finished sewing Dean’s injured shoulder.

“So what?” he asked angry, getting up from the bed so fast that I almost fell from the bed. “She was coming for you so I, we thought we should kill her before she got the chance to even see you.”

“But why did you have to almost get killed to do that? You should’ve told me! How do you think I would feel if either of you died because of me?”

“No, y/n, I would die for you in a heartbeat, and I can’t stand the thought of you getting hurt.” He had calmed down and was almost whispering now. “Look, I think it is to time for me to tell you.”

“Tell me what?” I looked between him and Sam that had come out of the bathroom and had taken a sit at the edge of the bed in front of me. He was smiling at his brother and that just confused me even more.

“There’s something I need to get off my chest.” Dean sighed and sat down beside me again. “I love you, y/n.”

“Yeah I love you too Dean.” He laughed and shook his head.

“No, I mean I like love you, love you, as in something more than friends.” He caressed my cheek with his thumb and smiled sweetly at me. I was shocked… I would have never in a million years thought that he would feel that way about me.

“Dean, I’ve felt that way about you for a long time.” I whispered, unconsciously getting closer to him. His gaze falling to my lips and mine doing the same, I sucked in a breath when he licked his lips slowly. He leaned in and I closed my eyes, when his plump lips finally touched mine, I was in heaven. He kissed me slowly and gently, his hands on my neck and mine instantly flew to his hair, urging him to kiss me deeper. I lost sense of everything around until Sam cleared his throat. “Sorry,” I laughed.

“Let’s sleep, okay? Tomorrow you can continue your make out session, without me.”

“Next time you two idiots think of doing something like this, don’t, I have proven more than enough times that you do better in a hunt with me.”

“Yes, sweetheart, cross my heart.” Dean said and pulled me to his side on the bed to snuggle a little bit.

#dean x reader #dean x you #supernatural #spn fanfiction #fanfic

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lethesomething · 6 years

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A writer tag thing

I was tagged by @tottwritesfanfic and it’s an excuse to talk about fanfic. Let's do this!

1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean?

Uh. Um. Since I am an Old, this username has existed since forever, and acquiring it involved a goth themed IRC chat room and some virtual naked table dancing. The Lethe refers to the River of Oblivion in ancient Greek Underworld mythology, because again, I was Very Goth at the time. I'd… I'ma leave it at that.

2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/subscriptions/hits/kudos).

That'll be Chocolate Hearts. It's not the one with the most hits, because it's not porn, but it's getting there, considering it was only posted in August. That whole fic was such an incredible experience, because I was getting daily feedback from people as I was writing publishing it.

3. What is your AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?

It's Shimizu Kiyoko, because I still mostly write Haikyuu, and because she's awesome (and I, too, wish to be awesome).

Let’s put a cut here because this is Long.

4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?

I'd rather not name names, but I met at least one of my friends through AO3 comments. There's also a commenter whose style I liked so much that I started copying it for comments on other people's work. I absolutely notice when people drop by regularly, and I love every one of those people. I try to follow them back. There are few feelings more rewarding to me as a writer than seeing someone like one of my stories, and then go through the other ones I wrote for that fandom.

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

I don't regularly re-read fics, because I have enough trouble keeping up with fiction I feel like I *should* be reading. In that sense, the ones I keep going back to are the long ones I'm subscribed to. Bell, book and candle is my go-to plane fic for when I'm travelling, for instance. It's a 1k page pdf on my phone and I try to go back and comment on the chapters I finished when I get to a computer (or like three months later, most likely).

6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?

*Opens statistics page* I don't so much subscribe to stories, as I do to people. And I'm apparently subscribed to 22 people. I have 33 bookmarks, but that's mostly because sometimes I'll go back through my history and bookmarks stuff that I still like a few months later.

7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?

Urban fantasy. That seems to be the AU where my mind goes into every single direction and comes back with 60k worth of words every time. Also, a disproportionate amount of characters in my fics end up being bakers or baristas. So, uh, make of that what you will.

8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)

Um, I have 36 user subscriptions. 299 bookmarks. And 117 subscriptions to various fics.

9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

Well, there's always stuff you come up with that maybe shouldn't be put to paper. When it comes to very self-indulgent, or very smutty, I try to stay my hand. I struggled a long time with whether or not I should publish any smut at all, because I don't want like… my colleagues to find it. What I ended up with, was several fail safes, and the promise to myself that I would only write… acceptable smut (so no werewolf orgies for you! not that I, uh, would write them otherwise).

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.

So, uh, the very specific reason I started writing smut at all, was because that is the hardest thing to do. For me. Sex is, a lot of the time, awkward and funny and feely and there's a lot of emotions and actions going on, and I very specifically do not want to write lifeless mechanical porn sex. Because that's not what I'm here for. But that's difficult. I write to have the kind of stuff I want to Read, and I'm very friggin picky when it comes to smut, so it takes me longer to write 1k of smut than it does to write 20k of teen rated fluff. I wish I was better on that front.

11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?

It's a mixed bag. I'm pretty sure me and @leeva-art are the pioneers of all ShinToko content. And I did that whole SugaTen one. Looking through the list, I actually did a fair amount of rarepair shorts. I kinda like writing rarepairs because there's a lot more of the dynamic for me to explore. But I'm currently writing a series full of popular ships (YamaYachi, DaiSuga, KageHina, IwaOi), because sometimes, those are popular for a reason. To be honest, I think the ship I write most is 'x reader', and I'm fairly certain that's an under-reported popular ship.

12. How many stories have you posted on AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?

I have 21 works on AO3 in total. All of those are finished one-shots or multichapters, except the one I'm currently working on. Yes, I'm proud of this :P.

13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?

Oh god. So apart from the current multichapter one I have… one longish romance story that's been gathering dust for two years (The Aomine. I swear I will finish it one day), and… about four smut shorts in various states of unfinished-ness. And an Aizawa short that is like smut in the sense that it's a lot of action and feels and I'm Struggling.

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

I do both. I'm a bit of a daydreamer, so I like to play ideas and scenarios in my head for a while, and then I jot them down when they've grown enough. But I'm also a talker, and anyone who has chatted with me for any length of time probably knows that an Idea can take root in a convo and I basically talk it out and two months later there's a massive fic brewing. My brain is an overexcited puppy.

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?

Nope. It's not that I don't want to, I'm just not sure how that would work practically.

16. How did you discover AO3?

It's all Rin's fault. I pretty much only got into fanfic after watching Free! and discovering the joys of tumblr. Fairly certain I discovered AO3 while looking for Quality SouRin.

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on AO3?

Ahahahaha…no.

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

That would be weird? I'm not Lady Gaga.

19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

I've been writing since I was a little girl. So the first stories I wrote were probably inspired by that one teacher I had when I was eight, that kept saying I was good at this. But I remember in my teens, wanting to write like Anthony Horowitz, and later like Terry Prattchett, or Douglas Adams. As for writing fanfic, that is the fault of Aleramicci and A Shadow so Great. That was the first time I saw someone take that level of world building and lore creation and character development, and spin it into this… epic tale. Because I have always imagined scenarios and characters in my day dreams, I was creating alternate endings for the Three Musketeers at 13, but I didn't think anyone else was willing to read them. I thought fanfic was, well, smut. And she showed me that you can create worlds out of nearly nothing (please remember that 2014 League of Legends Lore was total shit), and do it Well, and write it well, and… ugh.

20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

Ok, where's that meme. I think the main thing is… just do it. You've got stories, you write them. But know that it is work. Like every hobby, it takes time, it takes energy and effort. You need to Make that Time. Very few people can sit down and just have the words flow out of their fingers. For most, it's Work. Once you know that, and you make the conscious decision to do the work, you can get shit done.

21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

I try to plot up to a certain level but I leave room for a lot of improv. Like especially for longer fics, I'll have a vague idea of where the characters end up and what needs to happen for the finale to… happen. The actual scenes aren't plotted though. I write better when I just let the scene take me where it wants to go. I've learned a lot from the Lock, the Key and the Sacrifice, in that it was my first Very Long multichaptered fic and it was Mostly Improvised. This meant that some character development got lost, and that I had to write myself out of some weird situations but also, some of the best scenes in that fic are complete bursts of random inspiration. Since then, I've gotten a bit more organized. I use OneNote to jot down 'spur of the moment' scenes to slot into stories later, and to make time lines and character profiles and all that. The actual fic is still me opening the Word doc and going 'ok, it's day six in this story, what should happen today'.

22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

I don't think so? AO3 readers are very nice and disciplined, I think. Either that or I've been very lucky. All I've gotten were a few comments that left me flustered, mostly along the lines of 'when are you updating', when I keep a very tight schedule. That sort of thing. I just leave those be.

23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)

See above: smut.

24. What story(s) are you working on now?

Currently, My Girlfriend is a Goddess?!, which is a fantasy exchange gift that ballooned into a very long, multichapter and possibly trilogy book type thing.

25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

The Plan is to finish book one of My Girlfriend is a Goddess?! (the YamaYachi, aka the actual exchange gift), then take a break for some one-shots and whatnot, and then continue to book two (the DaiSuga one). So yes, I do try to stay somewhat disciplined. This isn't to say that inspiration can't strike like a vengeful god and I have to rearrange the whole thing. Chocolate Hearts happened while I was trying to work on the TenSuga, and it got written in like a month of furious typing. Shit just happens, man.

26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

No. I have a very unstable work schedule, and sometimes I'm just tired. I try to get certain chapters finished on a weekly basis though. I learned with NaNo that when I try to write too much in one go, the output is also not that great. I need to write, and then do a whole bunch of editing, and then write again.

27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

Things are certainly going smoother now than they did two years ago. It's a certain… confidence? I think? A rhythm you get into. I got wordier, too. Not sure if that's a good thing.

28. What is your favorite story that you’ve written?

This is hard. That is a hard question. For the longest time, my fave story was Balance. But if I read it now, it does show its age. So I'm going to say The lock, the key and the sacrifice. I will always be super proud of that, because that's my first and currently only 'book' and I worked a year and a half on it. Not every part of it is amazing, but there's some Pretty Good Parts and I just felt such an immense relief and… satisfaction on finishing it.

29. What is your least favorite story that you’ve written?

One of the first things I published was an Iwaizumi smut short. It's… ok, but it has some issues that I would iron out if I were to write it again.

30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

When I was little I had this Plan to write a bestseller and sell it to Hollywood and then buy a castle in Scotland and basically be JK Rowling, but I sincerely doubt that's going to happen. Goals, tho.

31. What is the easiest thing about writing?

Coming up with random shit that blossoms into big, huge ideas and worlds and complicated plot lines. Like… that happens without me trying.

32. What is the hardest thing about writing?

The bit where you sit down to write through a part you've been struggling with. Those few paragraphs that you need to connect scene A and scene B, for it to make logical sense.

33. Why do you write?

Because I like it. Because I enjoy building worlds and scenes and characters, and sharing them. Because like all kinds of creative work, it has gained me relationships and connections to people I resonate with. Also, ngl, for the kudos and the comments. I get a lot of joy from seeing people enjoying my work.

The tagging part. Um, I dunno if @skittidyne has done this one yet. Also the usual suspects: @bsinoranges, @haruhi02 and @thekuroiookami Consider it a subtle nudge if anyone else wants to do this.

#lethey writes #tag thing

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