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cecilysass · 11 months

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Scully the ice queen?

I often see people talking about the “ice queen” trope in XF fanfic from the 90s as an example of fanon becoming ubiquitous in fanfic. If you don't know what I'm talking about, this is it in a nutshell: basically, fanfic in the 1990s began to make reference to Scully as a perceived “ice queen,” both at work and in her personal life, meaning that she didn’t express her emotions, that she was repressed and cold. And then that became a thing, a standard trope that other fanfic writers drew on.

My theory is that the “ice queen” / Scully association didn’t actually come from specific works of fic or from specific individuals. I also don’t think it necessarily originated in fic and then crossed over into fan perceptions of Scully. I think it’s easy for 21st century fans to get the causal arrows mixed up on this because we're missing some historical context. I believe many viewers in the 1990s—not just fanfic writers—actually interpreted Scully differently than viewers now because they interpreted female characters differently. I think people in the 1990s were simply much more likely to interpret women serious about their professional lives as “ice queens.” Especially if their professional lives involved science.

Consider the below female scientist (P.K. Newby) writing about her graduate school experience in the 1990s.

Of course this still happens today, and of course it didn’t always happen in the 1990s. But I think it’s important that this impacted actual women living their lives in the same time period, because it’s reasonable that this also affected TV audiences’ perception of a character.

I give you this message from the Usenet discussion group alt.tv.x-files, the first season of the show, from before the fanfic Usenet group was even created. This user characterizes Scully as an “ice queen,” claiming to notice a change after Darkness Falls, and even associating it with her skepticism specifically.

(This is me showing you the whole message with the date, then showing you parts close up because it's so tiny. I'm very dedicated.)

So in this (very early online fandom) conversation, we have a fan who already read her as an “ice queen” on their own without the filter of fanfic to sway them.

Now please don’t get me wrong. Fanfic definitely took hold of the Scully / ice queen thing and ran with it. There are many examples in the Usenet group during the 1990s of people asking, “Hey, which episode was Scully called ‘ice queen’ again? and people saying, ‘Oh never, ha, that’s just a fanfic thing.’” It was a well-established trope by at least 1997. See below.

I just want people to consider that it didn’t have to be one writer, one fic, or one incident that led to the popularization of this piece of fanon. This would have been something people understood right away because it already was culturally out there in the interpretation of the character and in associations with professional women. And like the person asking the question in the above message infers, it probably did come organically from several people at once.

That said, some 1990s fans actively questioned it, observing it didn’t seem to fit with their interpretation of the show.

Notice that in the below conversation, Scully as ice queen is mixed up in perceptions of GA as ice queen, too.

(Side note: I mean, you can totally get where that person was coming from, right? Gillian Anderson was TOTALLY giving repressed, cold, virginal saint in 1997.)

As a prolific reader of fanfic, old and new, I think it’s also important to add this: it seems to me that fanfic writers more often made “Ice Queen” a hurtful nickname that Scully was called by other people (like Mulder being called “Spooky”), not an actual characterization of her personality. And actually, especially given her mostly-male workplace, this seems not unrealistic in the 1990s? Some fanfic writers may even have been writing from experience. (At least, I think I'm right in saying that tendency was true. I'd be curious to know if other readers of old fanfic think Scully herself is characterized as an "ice queen" more often than I'm saying.)

I’m an Old Person. I’m ashamed to admit that in the same time period, I had a high school friend who always studied really hard in school and prioritized grades over social life, and sometimes we jokingly called her an “ice queen.” There was no male equivalent term. So unfortunately, I know this was most definitely a thing outside of Scully and the XF fandom. Fortunately, it does seem to be something we see less of in the 2020s. (At least I think?) I just want to point it out because it’s one of those things you could think was just a little fanon quirk concerning this character or this show when really I do think it’s about gender perceptions overall.

Very interested to know, though, if others think I'm wrong.

(actual Ice queen)

#the x files #ice queen #dana scully #gillian anderson #90s culture #xfiles fanfic #tropes #x files meta #txf meta #fanon

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lazyladyxeno · 2 months

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Some new Fics for the not very prolific (sadly) fandom of Lookism! 👊🏻

1. Gun / Samuel (Collars)

2. Taejin / Jihan (Dirty Talks)

3. Gun / Goo (Massages)

4. Zack / Johan (Consent Play)

5. Goo / Samuel (Voyeurism)

6. Vivi / Xiaolung (Orgasm Denial)

7. Jake / Samuel (Bondage)

8. Taejin / Jihan (Dom/Sub)

9. Gun / Samuel (Worshipping)

10. Warren / Hudson (Sexy Pictures)

1. Gun / Samuel (Collars)

“Move.”

Samuel gags slightly, coughing. The collar is wide enough that, at rest, it doesn’t bother him; but when Gun tugs the leash it grows tight on his throat.

He carefully crawls onto the bed, comes to straddle Gun’s hips. The other man reaches up and wraps his fingers around the collar, then jerks Samuel forward.

“If you bite me,” Gun warns as he undoes his pants with his free hand, “it’s going to end badly for you.”

Samuel grins toothily. “Why would I bite?” He brings his own hand up to curl around the collar. “I’m not an animal, after all.”

Gun gives a low, sarcastic laugh that would be amusing from almost anyone else, and jerks the collar to drag Samuel’s head down towards his crotch. “Be a good boy and suck.”

“Woof~!” Samuel huffs flatly, and takes his cock into his mouth.

3. Gun / Goo (Massages)

“Hold still,” Goo mutters, “Or I’ll slip.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have used so much oil, then,” Gun grunts. He falls silent when the other man’s hands start on his back.

It’s more intimate than he thought it would be, more intimate than it should be. And Gun hates lying on his stomach.

But Goo’s hands are firm and pleasant on his shoulders, on the sides of his chest, on his lower back, on his hips, and Gun feels himself getting hard and grateful that Goo can’t see it.

“Feel good?”

Gun grunts.

“If not,” Goo’s hands settle on his waist, fingers dancing over the skin in a way that can’t be anything but erotic, “You can roll over and I can try something else.”

He knows.

Bastard.

“Fine,” Gun mutters, and hears Goo chuckle as he rolls onto his back.

#lookism #fanfiction #ao3 #kim joongoo #lookism joongoo #samuel seo #lookism gun #Nah #I give up with these tags

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bakerstmel · 6 months

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Fall Favorite Fic Festival, Entry 5

Remember, winter doesn't officially begin until December 21, she said pedantically.

I've delayed writing this entry because I was trying to define the reason (or reasons) why I love this fic so damn much. I read this fic at least twice a year, usually sometime in February and then again in the fall. It's a sports fic, and while I am not in general a sports person, I do love me some baseball. But the sport isn't the reason I love this fic, and I think I may have figured it out. Stick with me.

I started the link at Chapter 2, because Chapter 1 is a guide to baseball for the uninitiated. Some of it is out of date now, because MLB in its STUPIDITY has messed around with the rules this year because GOD FORBID people have to wait longer than a minute for anything to fucking happen on a sports field, and of course only HITS matter, but it is still fun to read. You don't need it to appreciate the fic, though.

Whilst I was processing this fic, I spent some time thinking about sports fics in general, and that led me to reread a couple of other favorites. One was A Study in Winning, by Jupiter_Ash. I really like that fic as well, even though I know next to nothing about tennis. I like the drama of the story, I like Sherlock faking his nationality just because, and I enjoy John being a petty little bitch to Moriarty there at the end. I feel like there for a while everyone had read or was reading that fic. Another one I went back to was Of Ice and Men, by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John, which is an OT3 set during the Winter Olympics. That one has John in the Paralympics, which gives the relationships an entirely new dimension. There are other good sports fics - throw your favorite in the comments, if you like. I'm mostly limiting my scope in these musings to Sherlock, as I've said before, but I'll read anything if it's good. Links to these two fics are below.

One of the ways in which sports fics have an advantage is that they have a built in structure. There's a match, or a tournament, or a season, and the relationship drama plays out against that backdrop. Writing classes always talk about the "ticking clock" approach to narrative tension, and almost every sport has some type of literal ticking clock. The Bang and the Clatter plays out over a full baseball season, including Spring Training and the postseason. That's basically a year minus the main American holidays, and EarlGreyTea does a really good job of letting the story play out at an appropriate pace. That's very impressive considering that she was posting this as a WIP over the course of an actual season.

(I need to take a minute to talk about my issues with EGT, and by "issues" I mean "soul churning jealousy." EGT is ridiculously prolific. If you go back into the fandom annals and look at the timing of some of her biggest fics, she was posting what became major reference points for the fandom in tandem, writing multiple fics at the same damn time, while, you know, teaching law or moving cross country. She is the best example I know of the importance of writing regularly. Of course, she's incredibly gifted, highly skilled at plotting, characterization, pacing, and just words. She has a fabulous imagination. Her dialogue rings true, and it's fun. But she can turn really good stuff out relatively quickly because she's limber AF. She writes. Anyone who comes to Word Sprints on Sundays or just hangs with me writing knows I'm not fast. I'm lucky to break 100 words in 15 minutes. Part of that is that I edit as I go, but it's also that I don't write as often as I would like to, so it takes me some time to warm up. I would like to be more like EGT, which probably sounds kind of creepy. I hope she doesn't see this. Anyway, she's written many of my top 20, and she actually finishes her stuff. So, yeah. Issues.)

So here is where I ended up: this is a good AU that takes advantage of the time crunch of the sport in which it is set, but that is not why I read it 2+ times per year. I read it because this is one of my favorite John and Sherlock relationships ever. It feels so in character for the way we see them in the show (at least through S2; this was written in 2013). We see them meet, we feel their attraction, we feel Sherlock's very authentic confusion. We feel their fear at being caught out, at first by each other and then by the world. They earn their angst. The way to my heart is good characterization, and this has that. Alongside the battery, the OCs (especially Sherlock and John's families) are complex and have issues of their own. Moriarty doesn't show up until the All Star Workout, which is halfway through the season for those of you who don't know, but it works because by that point, John and Sherlock have things to lose. Lestrade is the best effing choice for a beleaguered, exasperated baseball manager there ever was. Mycroft saves the day AND fucks it up, which I wish we'd seen more of in those days.

Also, John and Sherlock never get too far away from each other, and when they're separated, it's usually for narrative reasons. I like that in a fic, I've come to realize. I like to watch the characters' interplay. It's hard for Sherlock to keep secrets from John when they work together, commute together, and live together, and John is no fool. Their office isn't 221b Baker Street, it's a stadium in Austin, TX, where shit plays out in front of 30k people. John loves baseball. Sherlock loves John. They fight, they fall in love, they eat Chinese food, and they play baseball. And best of all, they are themselves together.

If you read the parts that EGT wrote after the big story, there's a mention of Sherlock pulling together a pick up game in London made of American ex-pats for John's sake, and I'll tell you what. That really pulls this fic together for me. This Sherlock would do that for this John, and we end up a little on the outside looking in, and it's just charming as fuck.

In conclusion, read this even if you don't know baseball, if you want great characterization, a chance to be reminded of how beautiful John and Sherlock were together back in the golden age. Pay attention to the ticking clocks in your favorite fics; intentional or not, there's almost always some time pressure ginning up the conflict. If you're a writer, the best way to get better is to write more. Feels like bullshit, but it's true. And finally, fuck MLB forever for going the completely wrong way on the DH. Pitchers in both leagues should have to/get to hit, and more to the point, DHs should have to fucking do something when their teams are out in the field. I will die on this mound.

(Also, if I'm being honest, Bull Durham is probably my favorite movie, so maybe I'm more of a baseball fan than I'm letting on. I do generally love baseball in popular media. But I still think it's the characterization.)

#fall favorite fic festival #FFFF5 #The Bang and the Clatter #EarlGreyTea68 #A Study in Winning #Jupiter_Ash #Of Ice and Men #sincewhendoyoucallme john

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lovemishjen · 1 year

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I have been trying to understand why I was so disappointed with the Supernatural finale. After all, being a writer myself, I wouldn’t like anyone telling me how to write the climax to my story, and therefore, I more than the average viewer should have been able to respect the freedom of the writers and showrunners to take their story to what they believed to be the right conclusion.

The problem, I realized is that every story has a structure that it has to follow to get it to make sense, even the ones that are not overtly formulaic.

So I looked at a few beloved older shows that I watched through the seasons and understand what made their endings more palatable.

The Mentalist – Like supernatural, The Mentalist is not a show about romance; it is a police procedural show, with a murder solved by the team in each episode, and more importantly it is about Jane’s obsession and quest for revenge from the serial killer Red John and finally the journey towards Jane’s catharsis. But as the characters evolved, Jane and Lisbon’s equation changed from friendship to something more, very organically I would say, and the show ends with them together and even expecting a baby – a satisfying happy ending that works thanks to not just Jane’s character growth but Lisbon’s as well.

House MD – Again, not a show about romance or even friendships. It’s a hospital show and a ‘medical procedural’, that unlike Grey’s Anatomy and similar shows, is almost fully focused on the titular character. The showrunners have spoken about how House and Wilson were inspired by Conan Doyle’s Holmes and Watson. During all the ups and downs over the seasons, their friendship remains the heart of the series, and while the pairing was wildly popular in the fandom, with slash fiction being written prolifically even now, ten years after the show ended, the showrunners chose to keep the relationship platonic. As the characters were introduced as canonically straight, the writers probably did not dare take a wild leap to sexual intimacy on the show, despite the immense popularity of the pairing. However, we see the characters falling out and getting back together, thereby strengthening their bond, and the protagonist, a self-professed selfish and ‘bastard’ character, giving up on everything that meant anything to him, and driving off into the sunset with his best friend aka the person who is most important to him, again satisfying though bittersweet.

Elementary – Yet another police procedural. Most people read Sherlock and Joan’s relationship as platonic, a change from the shipping heavy pairings. Here too, the show ends with the two friends taking steps to becoming platonic-life partners after all the turmoil and physical dangers they faced over the series.

Now, in Supernatural, the story demanded a happy or at least a bittersweet ending. Why? Because of the death, resurrection, pain, literal hellfire, loss of loved ones that Sam and Dean went through, only a happy ending makes sense, and heaven, that is canonically in the control of manipulative angels is not a happy ending at all, unlike say ‘The Good Place’.

If I were to take the story to its logical conclusion, the finale would have both brothers taking the call to be semi-retired. Sam and Eileen would probably set up a Hunters Headquarters in the Men of Letters bunker. Dean would either start a Roadhouse-style bar named after Ellen and Jo or an Auto restoration business for classic cars named after Bobby. A full blown romantic relationship between Dean and Cas wouldn’t work so late in the game. So, again a platonic life partner setup, that’s open for interpretation, with Dean, Cas and Jack buying a farm where Claire and the rest of the found family frequently visit them.

So the brothers would find stability and “the peace when you’re done” that we were promised. Dean and Cas, as both soldiers with a fair amount of PTSD, would help each other on the path to healing. Sam would never get out of hunting as he wanted at the start, but a semi-retired approach would give that to him partially, and let him indulge in research that makes sense for his academic type personality.

The final shot would be of the brothers in the backyard of dean’s farm, drinking beer, finally at peace, not just with the world, but with each other, as having their own support system in the form of found family, and their own space would let them get over the annoyance of constantly living in each other’s pockets, forever on the road, with no control over their destiny and mistrustful of each other. We were so robbed of this – a logical, meaningful bittersweet ending that made sense for these beloved characters.

#spn #spn meta #destiel #sam and dean #dean and cas #sam and eileen #destiel meta #spn finale

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aaronsrpgs · 3 months

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DAWstruck

A Quick Look at Sci-Fi/Fantasy Publisher DAW and My Desire for Cheap Entertainment

If you've ever been to an American used bookstore, flea market, etc., you probably recognize the distinctively uniform yellow (or faded-to-brown) spines of the DAW books pictured above.

From Wikipedia: "DAW Books is an American science fiction and fantasy publisher, founded by Donald A. Wollheim, along with his wife, Elsie B. Wollheim, following his departure from Ace Books in 1971. The company claims to be 'the first publishing company ever devoted exclusively to science fiction and fantasy.'"

Wollheim was active in sci-fi publishing and fandom circles; he published the Ursula LeGuin's first two books at Ace, and as a youth, he was kicked out of the New York Science Fiction League club for getting a group of unpaid authors together to sue writer/publisher/organizer Hugo Gernsback after they weren't paid for published stories:

"It grieves us to announce that we have found the first disloyalty in our organization… These members we expelled on June 12th. Their names are Donald A. Wollheim, John B. Michel, and William S. Sykora—three active fans who just got themselves onto the wrong road."

I've worked in bookstores and libraries for decades, and my eyes always glossed over the shelves full of yellow spines. But I started to reconsider after listening to Sean at SFUltra talk about Electric Forest by Tanith Lee. (Once you're equally convinced, go back his Patreon, which is literally my favorite criticism on the internet.)

I started devouring Lee's work. In my opinion, she outstrips most of the "greats" of that era of sci-fi. Her prose is awesome, her plots are great fun, and she's prolific across science fiction and fantasy. Had I been sleeping on DAW Books? Were they all this good?!

They are not all that good.

DAW Books books run the gamut of sci-fi and fantasy, from alternate histories to barbarian tales to postmodern reactions to the post-war West. And taken as an overview of the sci-fi field at that time, they reflect the good (Tanith Lee) and the bad (libertarian cryto-fascism, coercive sex freaks, tired cliches).

So why am I writing about them? Because they represent a type of publisher that, as far as I know, doesn't really exist anymore. They published authors who'd never been published before, and they printed straight to paperback.

I have no idea if anyone was making a living being published by DAW, but I assume this was a foot in the door for lots of these authors. And the books were so cheap! The one I have on hand was $1.25 in 1976. Adjusted for inflation, that's $6.93.

And listen, I read difficult books. I read literary fiction and academic histories and complicated, confusing cross-genre works. But I also like to read trash! I think everyone deserves to read some trash. But I want that trash to be cheap and easily accessible.

And with modern publishers focusing on established authors and Next Big Things, it's hard to find trash! And when you do find it, it's often dressed up to look like a Next Big Thing and priced accordingly.

Please give me more cheap trash.

And god, look at those covers. Again, I don't know if any painters were making a living by selling work to DAW, but they were definitely putting in the work. You got classic Frazetta horniness, you got '70s psychedelia, you got "what if the Bible was weirder?" classicism.

I want to decorate my walls with these.

The nice part is that they're mostly shorter than 200 pages, and I've never spent more than $5 on one of these, and I can usually find them even cheaper. So next time you're at a library sale and you see a faded yellow DAW spine, take a closer look.

Just stay away from Gor.

(DAW is still in business today, as a subsidiary of Astra House Publishing. I would say they occupy the same spheres as Tor: popular, readable, and usually left-of-center science fiction and fantasy. Such as The Forever Sea, a sapphic ecological fantasy book about sailors on a sea of plants. They cost, unfortunately, more than $7.)

#books #sci-fi #science fiction #fantasy #sff

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ofbloodandbullets · 1 year

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INTERACTION WISHLIST / Plot call, TONY STARK.

So I’ve been mulling over various interactions with canon characters from other fandoms and how those would go with my dark verse power broker / master spy / arms dealer / assassin version of Andy and I was thinking specifically about Tony Stark this morning and came up with a plot idea that could be fun but it would totally derail 90% of Tony’s canon in MCU so it would probably be totally AU with somebody if they were interested but:

Stark Industries was one of the more prolific Under The Table modern arms dealers in the MCU earth with Obadiah Stane spearheading those sales and using them for warmongering and personal profit which - okay Andy gets it everybody’s got their hand out: if you can find a way to make a profit go for it whatever. But then he gets greedy. He wants to make the Stark heir disappear. He hires the Ten Rings front to make this happen.

Andy, being who and what she is, hears about this contract and is displeased bc one: he didn’t go through her, two: she dislikes the ten rings personally bc they have been around as long as she has and grudges are like that and three: it means no more inventions and weapons from the mind of Tony Stark genius extraordinaire

So she steps in.

It could be as dramatic as a last minute rescue as the convoys being attacked and she and a team sweep in and get him out or she could find a way to get to him after his presentation but before the convoy leaves so as to bypass the initial attack to capture him altogether.

She shows him proof of what Stone transacted with the Ten Rings to assassinate him, she shows him proof of the warmongering and private sales that Stone is doing. Her goal is to alienate Stone and force him out of the company, while gaining Tony’s trust and access to Tony and his weapons and company.

Now where this goes from here could vary greatly. Maybe she ends up telling him who/what she is at some point or maybe he discovers it when she has to “die” to save his life at some point and then she has to tell him. Maybe he still ends up in some kind of iron man suit just way more private army vengeance / taking back his weapons / being a one man army driven by less noble intentions like spite rather than some degree of altruism and a desire to clean up his company’s mess like he starts out with in the movies.

Maybe he ends up finding out the truth about her after they meet through research of his own along the way too, maybe he starts Jarvis on figuring out who she is and Jarvis starts to unravel the very very very long and twisting tale of Andy through the millennium. Maybe she relents and admits the truth about her immortality and her power broker / worldwide organization because why not. Maybe he ends up giving her a reason to believe there could be some good come of it all in the right hands or with the right intentions. Maybe he makes her better. Maybe she makes him worse. There’s so many ways it could go.

Poke me via im or inbox or something or reply here if you’re interested in spinning something off this plot.

#STARTER CALL.

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lilydalexf · 4 years

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Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with VivWiley

VivWiley has X-Files stories at more archives than I could list, but you can find the biggest collection (30 stories) at AO3. She's been prolific and around the fandom for a long time. I've recced some of my favorites of her stories here before, including Autumn's Threshold and Equilibrium. Big thanks to VivWiley for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

It does and it doesn’t. As someone who is always discovering new shows and new fandoms, I know that one of the first things I do is go hunting for the related fic. I love the ways that fanfic can fill in missing gaps, give us other POVs, and just generally help us see characters that we love (or are growing to love) in new lights. The X-Files, in particular, left so many freaking plot holes and jumps in logic, that I suppose it’s logical that people newly discovering TXF would gravitate to the fic.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

First, I should say that my “fandom” experience was really limited to the fanfic for TXF. I didn’t get involved in discussions about the actors, the show runners, etc. Nor did I go to any of the conventions. But, from the fanfic experience, I remain astonished by how many smart, funny, wonderful women I met (sorry, guys, I know you were out there, but I mostly didn’t get to know you), and how many of them are still close friends. My life would be infinitely less interesting and rich without all those friendships.

I also took away from that experience a confidence in my own creativity that I didn’t previously have. I have done a great deal of professional writing throughout my career – policies, reports, protocols – but TXF fic writing allowed me to exercise a whole other part of my brain and heart. It was fun and also felt like another way of learning and building a skill set I’d lacked.

Finally, I say that it was an early exposure for me to both the good and ill that online communities can foster. There so many amazing acts of kindness and support. One of my friends organized the Beta Readers Circle, a group of volunteer fic editors who would read and help you with stories on everything from grammar to “is this character acting in character” questions. I both used and volunteered with the BRC. On the flip side, some of the discussion threads on the email lists could get a bit ugly. Forerunner to the comment threads on today’s posts. So, humanity in a nutshell, right?

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

I initially discovered XF fic through a Washington Post article that was trying to drum up interest in the World Wide Web (as it was then talked about). Every week, they featured a list of “hey you might find this cool/interesting” sites, and one week one of the sites they listed was the Gossamer archive. I dove in and emerged utterly hooked. I also discovered one of the early fic mailing lists (the name of which now escapes me), and from there I began sending feedback, which allowed me to start building relationships with authors, etc. I later joined other mailing lists like Scullyfic, Sparky’s Doghouse, etc. I never connected with atxc or the message boards, really.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

The characters! Particularly Scully, at first. It was clear from almost the beginning that the “story arc” (or the notion that there actually was an arc) was pure fiction, but I loved the relationships between the characters, the nuances that so many of them had, and the interplay of the notion of skeptic-believer could have. And, of course, later on, Skinner was a personal favorite. [Lilydale note: VivWiley wrote a number of really great fics featuring Skinner.]

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

In many ways I think about TXF and TXF fandom in the same way I think about fond memories from high school or college. Something that helped shape who I am today, in ways that aren’t always straight-forwardly apparent. I still don’t really get involved (or care TBH) about the lives of the actors, the politics of the show construction, etc. I keep in touch with a large number of fandom alumni, and we will still occasionally reference the show, but our real-life connections have long-since overtaken TXF as our common denominator.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

I read and wrote in several other fandoms post-XF, but nothing ever grabbed me in the same way, and I certainly never found the kind of real community that I did through XF.

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

I think I’m drawn to characters who are human – flawed, nuanced, neither purely good nor purely evil – and who are ultimately driven by higher principle or purpose, even as they make mistakes along the way. From early days, King Arthur was a particular favorite, as are Raederle from the Riddle Master of Hed series (Patricia McKillip), Sam Vines (Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series), and Codi Noline (Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver).

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

I did watch the most recent reboot/seasons of XF (and try not to think of them too much as I don’t need that kind of stress). I do think about Mulder, Scully and Skinner on occasion. Sometimes when the news reports something particularly weird or absurd, I wonder how Mulder and Scully would react to that, or amuse myself by thinking about how Skinner would be clenching his jaw and subtly undermining the current misuse of federal law enforcement resources.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I still read a lot of fic. I kind of cycle through fandoms. I read a lot of Marvel stuff, but have gone through other fic cycles. I tend to find an author I like and then follow them into other fandoms. That is, if I can find characters and stories in those fandoms that call to me.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

I’m a really old school XF ficcer, so some of the folks who drew me into the genre were writers like Madeleine Partous, Parrotfish, Meredith, MustangSally, Rivka, etc.

There are so, so many other writers and authors I could mention, so I think I’ll just stick to some of my early favs.

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

In XF, my favorite is Equilibrium. It was the most plotting I’d done, and one where I wrote from several POVs and where I had to really let the characters tell the story. In order to avoid spoilers, I’ll just say that there was a moment where a character did something I thought was really stupid, and I actually quit writing the story for about a week during which I argued with the character. Then I had to go back and just let the story unfold. It’s the only time I’ve ever actually shed tears while writing a scene, but at the end of the day (end of the story?) it was the correct decision for the story I was writing.

Of other fandoms in which I’ve written, I think Fieldstripping (Farscape) and Gravity is not Responsible for your Fall (Firefly/Serenity) are ones where I felt I got it most “right.”

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

I actually have a long Skinner-related story that I’ve been threatening to write for about 10 years. I have it 80% outlined and a very clear picture of the first and last scenes…. I just need to find the energy and focus to sit down and start writing. I think I finally tracked down all my old fic and it’s posted up to AO3.

What's the story behind your pen name?

Which one? Ha! I’ve had a few. Viv Wiley is a weird one – it just sort of came to me while driving one day. Not entirely sure where it came from, just settled into my brain while at a stoplight in Northern Virginia (where I was living at the time). I ultimately consolidated all my fic under that name.

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

Some friends and family know. I’m judicious in who I tell. I think people find it surprising, and of course, up until 5 years ago or so, I’d have to explain what fanfic is to most folks. Now it’s so mainstream that I think if I were to tell someone new about it they wouldn’t be that surprised.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

Everything is on AO3 under VivWiley

Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

At the end of the day, what I care about is stories. I think about the Doctor Who quote: We’re all stories in the end, just make it a good one. I am so grateful for all the nooks, crannies, and giant chasms of plot holes that the XF writers left for us to fill in. Through that filling in, I discovered so many other wonderful stories, and wonderful writers and people.

(Posted by Lilydale on September 8, 2020)

#new post #old school x #xfiles fanfic #xf fanfic #vivwiley #xf fanfic author interviews

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atlantis-scribe · 3 years

Photo

Under the cut are the Stargate things I did this year. Yay me!

[ FANFIC ]

sliding doors (1/1) [ posted 12 January 2020 ]

For every person, there comes a moment, seemingly unimportant and inconsequential, that can forever change the rest of their lives.

For John Sheppard, this moment has always been just waiting for him. The question is whether or not he takes it, and how long he has until it finally gives up on him.

This one was inspired by the JJ x Reid plot twist in Criminal Minds (CM). I grew up watching CM, so it made perfect sense in my head to mix the shows together. It also seemed fitting, since post-series McShep looks to be heading towards a similar storyline with what happened to JJ and Reid. Sometimes, two people just aren’t going to end up together, feelings and regrets and longing notwithstanding :(

edge of a precipice (1/1) [ posted 5 June 2020 ]

There’s a reason why John never crosses the line.

I just really had to practice writing Pining!John (and John voice). That’s it; no other excuse. I also wanted to see if I can write a first kiss between them that makes sense in my head, one that can happen organically. It ended up a little too melancholic for my taste, but I’m glad I got to put it down.

archimedes in love (1/1) [ posted 20 June 2020 ]

John is trying to make things easier for the both of them.

Rodney, it turns out, has never really learned to do anything the easy way.

This was really difficult to write, not only because doing Rodney POV requires so much brainpower and vocabulary (as opposed to John voice, which is an exercise in casual and practiced emotional restraint) but also because I wanted angst, but not too much, you know? (This was also when I noticed I tended to daydream about post-canon scenarios. Seriously, show. You ended way too soon.) I’m pretty happy with the result, though, even if it wasn’t exactly how I pictured it would be when I started it.

off the record (1/1) [ posted 17 July 2020 ]

“I’m drunk,” Rodney declares, knowing that resistance is futile with Tower 5-C already listing ten degrees to the right.

“Yeah?” There’s a serious note to Sheppard’s voice, prompting Rodney to turn and face him. Blinking slowly, he finds the other man’s gaze fixed on something just above Rodney’s left ear. When Sheppard speaks again, the sound comes out almost ominous. “Good.”

(Or: Rodney and John share a bottle of Athosian ruus wine, and talk about things they won’t remember in the morning.)

My favorite one-shot title! Also inspired by that sweet-but-gutting scene from Crash Landing On You, where the leads had a drinking session and allowed themselves to be honest under the guise of not being able to remember anything the next day. What can I say, I love angst. Nothing new.

maybe next time (1/1) [ posted 28 July 2020 ]

Unbeknownst to the two of them, there had been five times when Rodney and John almost met.

I surprised myself with how quickly I wrote this. One sitting, about two hours tops. This was a fun little exercise for me, with the canon details I had to incorporate to make it realistic. Also pretty proud of the title ;)

in retrospect (1/1) [ posted 28 November 2020 ]

Tony Stark owes someone an apology, but finding the guts to say sorry is proving to be the least of his problems.

Always wanted to do my own MCU fusion after reading Siria’s The Things We Did and Didn't Do. (Read it if you guys haven’t yet!) It’s going to be a series, with heavy emphasis on Rodney & Tony’s dynamic. So excited for the other installments and really bummed that I’m not as prolific a writer as some of y’all are. Alas, we work with what we have.

Stargate Oblivion (5/?) [ 10 April 2020 - present ]

Fifteen years after John Sheppard left Atlantis for good, the Stargate Program is finally ready to go public.

In the ensuing chaos, sixteen-year-old Paula Jane McKay is thrown in the middle of sinister plots, complicated loyalties, and old secrets that will force her to choose between her beloved city and the planet she has spent her whole life yearning for.

Ah, the fic that continues to eat my brain. I will finish this if it’s the last thing I do, I swear. It’s sort of a way for me to play with time jump, original characters, the restrictive nature of canon compliance, and what happens to soulmates after being apart for so long (to name a few elements). It’s basically a love story 20 years in the making that I only hope doesn’t take me just as long to write lol

SIX SENTENCE SUNDAYS

This was exciting for the first few weeks, until I caught myself being anxious over what to write next and it sucked the fun out of the whole exercise. It did help me practice writing short pieces, and rest assured I’ll post another one if something shiny comes up.

MCSHEP AUs

Crash Landing On You

My Love From The Star

Also known as, ‘How to Hack Kit’s Brain’. This really helped me deal with the countless plot bunnies that keep popping up in my brain. I have a lot of these on queue, each one meant to satisfy my curiosity without committing to writing a full-length fic. Unless specified otherwise, these little ficlets aren’t going to be complete stories. I’m giving everyone carte blanche to pick up whatever you find interesting and to write your own version/continuation. Just drop me a link to your story so I can gush about it :)

[ REC LISTS ]

Kit's 2020 McShep Fic Rec List [ AO3 | Tumblr ]

Halloween 2020 Rec List [ Link ]

So happy a lot of people loved the fic recs. Join (or rejoin, for OG McShep fans) me in my downward spiral, folks. I have no plans whatsoever to look for the end of the tunnel ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[ STARGATE SIDEBLOG ]

atlantis-scribe

Of course, my favorite accomplishment of the year: this little sideblog. The pandemic has been rough for everyone (unless you’re Jeff or Elon, and if you are, can you pls fund the Stargate reboot?), so I’m really just happy to spread good vibes all around. This has been my most active participation in any fandom, so I may be a little awkward when it comes to interacting with other people. Forgive me if I violate some well-established rules; I’m trying to educate myself along the way. I really am just perfectly happy to provide whatever content I can, and people’s comments/tags/messages are simply icing on the cake.

Whatever reason you guys may have, I’m delighted to have you over. Grab a seat; let’s talk about stars and gates ;)

#kit things

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maxsmusicmacrology · 4 years

Text

Artist Profile: Toby Fox

Many of you may be most familiar with Toby Fox as “the guy who made Undertale”, or maybe as “the guy who made Megalovania”. The latter is actually a surprisingly useful way to think of the man, as the journey of Megalovania is wound very closely to the journey of Toby Fox. Just trust me on this part.

In the mid 00’s, Fox was a teenager frequenting Starman.net, a popular forum for the game EarthBound and the other titles in the Mother series, under the username “Radiation”. He created two ROM hacks of the game, releasing the first one in 2006, but his much more successful and influential hack was the EarthBound Halloween Hack, a submission to a 2008 Halloween-themed competition run by Starman.net.

After Fox rose to popularity, he went on to say that he’s not very proud of the hack, and in a deleted 2016 tweet he referred to it as a “bad rom hack with swears”. Having played through it, it’s an apt description- several of the fights are incredibly unbalanced and the villain drops a few slurs- but I don’t believe the hack should be entirely written off either.

In 2008, hacking new music into EarthBound was incredibly difficult, so both composing original music using the EarthBound soundfont and getting it to play in the game was an impressive achievement. While the game certainly has the usual Halloween aesthetic, full of pumpkins and zombies and ghosts, the real horror of the game is psychological, creating a much more fascinating story than a traditional halloween slasher. The final villain is consumed by grief after the death of his son and the estrangement of his wife, becoming a broken man who turns to violence— which are the exact same themes that would later be explored through Asgore when Fox would go on to make Undertale.

Anyway, this was the first and original appearance of Megalovania.

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In 2009, Andrew Hussie launched his webcomic Homestuck on mspaintadventures.com, his fourth and final work to be published on the site. It ran until ending 2016 (with Epilogues launching a few years later), and is best known for having possibly the worst fandom in modern history until people started losing interest in 2013. Its second most notable characteristic is how heavily it embraced its online medium, including not just text and images but also gifs, animations with music, and even little interactive games. Over the comic’s seven year run over 500 pieces were written as part of Homestuck’s discography by a variety of artists, and while only a few dozen were included as part of the comic, all of them were made available online through Bandcamp under the Homestuck umbrella.

Toby Fox joined the music team in 2010 with two contributions to the comic’s fourth album, and from there he went on to be their most prolific contributor. From 2010-2016 Homestuck published roughly 90 of Fox’s songs, and he also hosted and managed a contest that led to nearly 60 fan contributed pieces being published. After Homestuck ended, Toby Fox went on to be one of the composers for the various spin off titles: Hiveswap Act One, Hiveswap Friendsim, and Pesterquest, so it seems he has no intent to leave the Homestuck universe anytime soon.

Undertale’s soundtrack was highly praised through its use of leitmotifs (and trust me, I’ll be talking about that plenty later on), but some of his tracks written for Homestuck make even better use of their motifs and reach some fairly complex heights. This video goes through Descend, which ended up during a critical moment during the early comic, and lists the twenty seven songs sampled during.

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Of course, these aren’t just empty motifs for fun. The characters introduced thus far all have various themes associated with them, each motif bringing to mind the characters, their factions, and their histories. This is musical storytelling done through completely instrumental songs, and it is fantastically done. Several of his tracks do this, Jade’s medium entrance theme Umbral Ultimatum samples three songs she’d already appeared in, and his final track for the comic’s main run was a glorious melody of several prior battle themes.

Anyway, in 2010 he published the second appearance of MeGaLoVania, which was used during the [S] Wake animation and appeared on a 2011 album.

youtube

In 2012, Toby Fox contributed to an EarthBound fan album called “I miss you”, organized by bandcamp user sleepytime Jesse. He contributed four tracks, including Fallen Down (which would later feature in Undertale) and a remix of Megalovania. This isn’t a major milestone in his career like his EarthBound hacks or Homestuck, but I think it says a lot that he loves EarthBound and its community so much that he’d compose songs for a small fan album.

In 2015, Undertale came out and took the internet by storm. Like it or hate it, it was everywhere you looked for a while, from every gaming channel covering it to endless quoting on Reddit or Tumblr. Fox made the majority of the game himself, which of course includes making the soundtrack. There are a total of one hundred and one songs, and it would not surprise me if every single one of them (except Megalovania) was tied to all the others through some web of samples, remixes, and motifs.

Oh yeah, the third version of Megalovania is here, once again featuring as a final battle theme.

youtube

Once again, Fox uses motifs expertly as a form of storytelling. Let’s take a look at the track ASGORE, which is entirely created from other songs. The opening is bergentrückung, the intro theme that plays before the battle starts. That flows into Heartache, the battle theme of his ex-wife Toriel, showing that even after she left him, she’s still important enough to be part of his main theme. It also includes the Game Over theme, guiding the player to remember that it was his voice encouraging to continue playing when they failed, urging them forward only to reach him, as well as Undyne’s theme, who looks up to and idolizes him without knowing the truth of who he is.

The entire game is like this. If the player decides to turn evil, they gain a genocide motif that appears in some of the genocide-only bosses. The true final boss is foreshadowed through His Theme during important moments. Undyne and Alphys end up dating in the true ending, and in the genocide run Undyne resurrects herself from the brink of death while Alphys’s melody plays.

Fox’s music makes itself special by being so connected. His songs call back and call forward to other songs, making each of them important in some way or another. The Homestuck and Undertale soundtracks feel holistic, they’re not just “songs that happen to be written by the same guy”, they’re united soundtracks where every song has a greater meaning than just the scene they play over. Hell, even the Homestuck and Undertale soundtracks reference each other, and not just through Megalovania. Another Medium from the latter soundtrack samples Doctor from the former, and the final battle theme Collide samples Death By Glamour.

He’s currently working on his new game Deltarune, the first chapter of which (and its soundtrack) are available for free on PC and various consoles. The music already slaps, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Anyway, the fourth and (as of now final) version of Megalovania was included into none other than Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, added into the game alongside a Sans costume for Mii fighters.

youtube

This, in my opinion, is nothing short of incredible. Toby Fox went from a Nintendo fan who made a “bad rom hack with swears” for a game he liked, and now his music is appearing in one of the largest gaming franchises of all time. Shoot for the stars, everyone.

I think this is the part where I’m supposed to give a track listing, but come on, you’ve been reading. 90 Homestuck tracks and 101 Undertale tracks, plus everything before and after and in between. Fortunately, his page on the Undertale wiki has his entire discography listed, so I’m going to take the easy way out and link that.

https://undertale.fandom.com/wiki/Toby_Fox#Discography

He has done and has planned a few other projects, but I think the right place to end off is by mentioning his contribution to Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, the Battle Tower theme. This is notable not only for being an awesome song that he composed for a massive franchise, but because it samples one of his early contributions to the Homestuck fandom. I am of course talking about The Baby Is You, an “opera” he wrote as a fan contribution to protest forum rules, which was subsequently banned from even being mentioned on said forum. Not only is this another example of all Fox’s projects fitting in with each other, it’s also a nearly decade-old callback to an obscure edgy joke he made and then hid as an easter egg (or an afikoman for you Jewish folk) in an official Nintendo title.

And I think that’s beautiful.

#toby fox #earthbound #homestuck #undertale #nintendo #radiation #artist profile #music

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moderndayportia · 4 years

Note

What do you do when you have writer's block?

Thanks for the ask. I’m by no means an expert- hell, I’ve been blocked for about 2 years- but I will share some of the things I do that help me in hopes that maybe they can help you and others?

1. Ask for prompts:

Writing short, low-stakes, no-pressure stories has really helped me reconnect with my writing and my readers recently. It also helps that the fandom is so wildly encouraging. I feel so motivated to do more for them.

2. Read:

And I don’t mean fanfiction. This is my biggest source of inspiration for writing. I read novels, short stories, poems, memoirs- anything that will create space in my mind for new ideas to spark. This is probably highly personal for every writer, but Haruki Murakami is my go-to: he is prolific, so there’s always another book to dive into, and his novels create these spaces and images in my mind that I carry around with me and just think about. Suddenly there are two moons in the sky, or 30 chapters in to a normal plot a cat can speak, or it starts raining fish at a bus stop, or you are walking through an underground tunnel system surrounded by mysterious creatures, or there is a man on a mountain dressed as a sheep. Find stories that are steroids for your imagination and give them space to inspire you.

3. Read out loud:

Hearing can trigger new ideas in a way that reading can’t. Sometimes when I’m trying to work on the next part or chapter of a story and I feel stuck, I go back and read the previous part out loud. Sometimes I take a walk and have my iPhone read it to me. Being passive and listening may open some doors that you aren’t able to force open by being active through reading.

4. Collect images and language:

If I was a more organized person, I would tell you to write them down, but for me I just keep them in my head. I can sometimes build a whole story from one image or expression. For example, I’ve been thinking about an unmoored rowboat by a dock since I read a Mary Oliver poem years and years ago. I was recently able to use it in a drabble and it really was the point of that drabble- everything I wrote lead up to that. There are other things I carry around in my head from my own experiences: a woman standing alone on a subway platform as a yellow train pulls away; my bicycle basket filled with cherry blossom petals outside the elementary school; a lonely nighttime walk up a dark mountain road bordered by towering hyacinth bushes; a fox eyeing me warily at 2am in the middle of a London sidewalk; a bartender chiseling an ice cube into a perfect square; a fire escape up a building I couldn’t help but climb. These may never make it into a story, or they may become a part of a story, or they may become a whole story. I think everyone has these kinds of experiences but it’s just a matter of observing them while they are happening and remembering what makes them special. And then dipping into that well and letting them inform and inspire your writing when the time is right (and when you need them).

5. Find your theme:

This is where I often get the most stuck. Establishing what idea you want to explore should inform every other part of your story, from the pacing, to the plot points to the figurative language. Even in my smut, I try to explore some kind of theme, e.g, ‘In this story, I want to examine trust while in this one I want to play around with ideas of privacy and the public eye.’ If you can set that as your point A before you even start concepting a plot, you may find it easier write something that feels...substantive? I’m not sure if that’s the right word. Meaningful? Fulfilling? Name your poison.

6. Don’t compare yourself to others:

This might be controversial, but when I’m trying to get in creative mode I don’t read other fanfiction from the fandom I’m writing for. I found that I personally can’t stop comparing myself to other, better writers, and then I feel bad and just stop producing. So while I support all the wonderful authors in the KS fandom in spirit, I have to take a break from reading their works while I’m working on my own.

7. Make space and time for your writing:

This is by far the hardest part for me. My work tends to siphon all of the creative energy, so I have to make a concerted effort to carve out a time when I have both energy and inspiration to write. Rituals can help define the time- I light some incense, pour a glass of yerba mate, put on some cello music, and dim the the lights. That’s my routine that tells my mind and body, okay, now is the time we do what we need for our creative fulfillment.

8. Don’t aim for perfect from the start:

Everyone has their own way of writing, but what works for me is writing in layers. My first pass is essentially just a sloppy, sketchy, un-punctucated mess. Sometimes that’s enough and I call it a day (or a month or a year). Then I start going over it again and again, refining with each pass. I take lots of breaks so that I can come back with fresh eyes. I don’t strive for perfection at any stage. Eventually I will have built up all of the layers and the story will be just how it should be, but the process can be messy and wild along the way. And that’s perfectly fine.

9. Alcohol (and sometimes weed)

------------------- So those are the tools I have in my arsenal for uncorking writers block. Does anyone else have good tips for OP (and me)? Please share!

#asks #portia writes #portiawrites #naplunamod #long post

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397bartonstreet · 5 years

Text

Hey @johnny-and-dora this is for you for the fall fic exchange!! This prompt I wrote for was “autumnal walk in the park” I’m really sorry a pre-series, pre-relationship undercover case is probably not what you asked for but it’s what came to me. Hope you like it!

Also thank you @b99fandomevents for organizing this. These types of things always strike excitement and activity in the fandom during the hiatuses. You guys are awesome!!

About a month ago, Detectives Peralta and Santiago made a huge bust of one of Brooklyn’s most prolific drug rings they’d been investigating since the early summer months. And it was awesome. They smashed into the doors of an abandoned warehouse straight out of an 80’s cop movie. All the men and women inside scattered and refused to go down without a fight, but they were no match for the Nine Nine. There were gunshots, screaming, kicking, punches, all the shebang that make these kinds of events extra epic. They got every single one of those sick, surprisingly attractive bastards. And Jake walked out of that place holding two handcuffed men in slow motion, with an ambient orchestra, an explosion behind him, and wearing sunglasses at night. He looked so cool.

Except they missed one dude. The leader of the drug ring. A fearsome man having hundreds of thousands of dollars to his name, elusive in records, and several deaths on his hands. His name… is Frank Smith.

Jake is still bitter about that.

The day before, Jake got a tip that this Anatole Kuragin (he refuses to call him Frank Smith) would be exchanging information with another dealer in plain sight at Prospect Park in the middle of the day. Jake guesses he understands the logic, no one would expect such a wanted criminal prancing around in daylight. But if he were truly smart, he wouldn’t risk it. And you can never tell if strangers walking through the park are also hiding in plain sight, waiting to catch you in the act and arrest you.

Captain Holt gave the orders for Jake and Amy to disguise as a married couple simply taking their child on a stroll through the park. Which is where they were now. Casually walking through Prospect Park pushing a clunky stroller they found in the precinct and wearing probably the dorkiest outfits Jake has ever worn on a case. He’s dressed like a father in suburbia, not a dope ass detective about to make a dope ass arrest.

“This is the worst. How am I supposed to look cool when I’m wearing a sweater vest and khaki pants?” he grunts toward his partner.

“Jake, this is not about looking cool, it’s about making the arrest and making the community a better place,” Amy says haughtily.

“This is like, the 20th case I’ve done with you and every single time you say something lamer and lamer,” he responds.

“I’m not the one keeping count.” Jake ignores her and instead makes his first survey of the park. They were told that the perp would be wearing a golden chain around his wrist to be easily recognized, but so far he sees no intimidating assholes wearing the friendship bracelet. Everyone here seems to be teenagers totally not smoking pot and families that look just like they do right now. They blend right in.

“The tip said that the exchange would be near the bridge. Let’s casually walk over there and take a ‘break’ on the bench and we’ll wait there,” Jake whispers to her.

“Ooh, it’ll give us time to enjoy the view. New York parks in Fall are the best. Everything is all colorful and beautiful, it’s like one of the only good things about this state,” Amy says. Jake switches his view from the people to the trees. It is beautiful, if he took casual strolls - which, who would want to be alone with their thoughts for that long- this would be the perfect time to do it. It’s picture perfect, with the way the leaves steadily drizzle down like rain, and the cloudy sky seems to bring out their vibrant colors. And the slight chill causing a want for warm drinks and comfy sweaters. It’s romantic, and he almost wants to pretend he’s not here for a case, and instead just take in the view. With his earphones in of course, he meant what he said about being alone with his thoughts.

“It’s a shame we’re working, I’d totally challenge on you who can make a bigger leaf pile,” she says with a smirk and he’s pulled out of his thoughts to cast her something impish.

“Oh, you’re on. We’ll come back tomorrow, I’ll even bring a pumpkin pie because I’m going to cream you,” he smirks. They reach the agreed bench to wait out the perp, and Amy struggles a bit to align the stupid stroller when she sits.

“What? That made literally no sense,” she says as he sits down beside her.

“Of course it does. What do you top pie with? Whipped cream and I’m going to whip you into cream, title of my sex tape.” Amy cringes and he can tell she’s resisting the urge to punch him in the arm.

“That’s disgusting, and if you have to explain the comeback then it wasn’t a good one.”

“Whatever,” he says. “Alright, back to business. You watch this way and I’ll watch that way,” he says and points in the opposite directions. All playfulness immediately leaves Amy’s demeanor and she’s back to being completely professional. It’s one thing Jake can admire about her, she’s incredibly dedicated at her job. She can flip the switch from casual to focused in a second, he can’t even do that.

Jake blinks away his thoughts, turning his attention back to his side. A comfortable silence falls between them, the only noise being Amy rocking the stroller back and forth and her shushing at the doll inside.

He’s trying not to show that he’s definitely staring intently at the man sitting alone on a bench, when he feels a sudden weight on his thigh. He looks down to see Amy’s hand opened expectantly. When he turns to her, she’s still just scouring the scene.

“What?” Jake asks. Amy turns back to him and flexes her hand in gesture.

“Hold my hand,” she says impatiently, as if this is just another everyday bit of police work.

“Hold your hand? For what?” he’s incredulous when he asks this, but he still places his hand on top of hers and Amy grips back.

“Because we’re supposed to be married,” she says.

“Isn’t the giant stroller in front of us indication enough that we’re straight smashing it?” Amy flashes him a glare.

“A stroller only goes so far, we won’t be very convincing if we’re stiff as boards.” She has a point, but of course he’s not going to say that out loud. Instead, he tightens her hand around his and pulls it closer to his lap. Out of instinct, of course, because that’s what couples do.

He can’t help but note that it feels kind of nice, her hand a cold contrast to his warm one. He tends to overheat, even in the Fall weather, and her hand provides some nice relief. He doesn’t dwell on that though, he has a case to solve, and it’s the last time he’ll ever hold Amy Santiago’s hand anyway.

Jake tries squinting as discreetly as possible at the wrists of those in his line of sight, trying to spot the golden chain. There aren’t many men lurking around the park, and none of them seem to be wearing any bracelets. Except for one guy, who has his hands behind his back. Jake keeps an eye on him.

“Are you cold, Patricia? You need mommy to give you another blanket?” Amy says loudly so anyone around them can hear.

“Patricia?” Jake asks.

“What about it, Jake” she groans, bracing herself for a round of teasing.

“That’s what you would name your daughter? Patricia?”

“It’s just the first one that popped into my head okay,” she hisses. “What would you name her?”

“Me? I’d probably name her something badass. Like Rogue, or Rebel,” he says, nodding his head.

“Rogue sounds like the antagonist of an awful racing movie,” she laughs. “If I had a daughter, I would probably want to name her something that’s kind of meaningful and touching. I’ve always thought about naming my daughter Carmen, after my grandmother,” she says.

“Aw, that’s actually really nice. Then I’d call her Caramel. Caramel Carmen. Giving your daughter nicknames is Peak dad.”

“Your daughter? Are we having this baby together,” Amy snorts, a mischievous glint in her eye. She absolutely knows that pointing this out will make him squirm, and Jake hates that she’s right.

“What? No! It’s just… the undercover situation that’s all… stop looking at me like that” he says and doesn’t wait for her reply, just puts his attention back to the mission. Thankfully she doesn’t press, just lets him continue the surveillance. What he sees is lots of people that look like them, but then again not really. There’s at least one parent with a kid around them or pushing a stroller as awkward as theirs. And in the park, with the autumn leaves falling around them, and the kids making piles and kicking at them. They’re real, natural, unlike they are.

He remembers having that with his own mom. Whenever his mom found time and wasn’t working, she would take him to the park. And in the autumn months, he’d do exactly what that little kid with the chocolate curls and Ninja Turtles beanie over there is doing. Shoving pine cones into his pocket and then chucking them into the arm to see how far he can throw them. Looking back to his mother for praise.

If he was a dad, he’d be throwing pine cones with him.

And for a moment, he doesn’t know why, he lets himself imagine what it would be like if this was real. If he was sitting in a New York park during its peak season, with a stroller in front of him holding a baby, a real baby that would be his, that would grow up to be like that little boy over there. The hand he’s holding in his lap would be his wife’s, a woman he actually loved. If it were his wife, he thinks, he wouldn’t just hold her hand, he’d lace their fingers together. He does just that, changing positions to demonstrate how he’d do it. He would also stroke her thumb softly, and he gives the hand he’s holding an experimental caress. He looks up at Amy, who is still rocking the stroller and her eyes still focused on what’s in front of her. If Amy were his wife, he’d playfully tug on that strand of hair that’s gotten loose from her ponytail- he stops. If Amy were his wife?

He blinks several times, pulling himself back to earth and away from whatever just happened. He even shakes his head a little for good measure, to rid of whatever the hell kind of intrusive thought that was. Amy would be the last person in the entire world he’d marry. He’s known her for a year now and the only non work related thing he’s ever heard her talk about was a seminar for perfecting the art of nonverbal communication. Which is like the nerdiest thing he’s heard anyone ever say. If anyone were to be his wife, it would be the hot, flirty, movie ticket seller that’s always giving him eyes.

He looks down at their hands to see that they’re still joined. Not only joined, but laced together. Not only laced together, but his thumb is still slightly caressing hers, and he quickly lets go like he’s burned himself. Amy doesn’t even seem to notice his internal struggle, or acknowledge the way he let go suddenly. She just puts the hand on the handlebar to aid the other.

Well… he guesses Amy is pretty in that pre-makeover nerdy type before the transformation that makes her popular kind of way. Not that he watches those movies.

But not for him, no way. Not Amy. He doesn’t even know why he’s still thinking about this.

“You want to yell at me for being stiff? You look like an animatronic,” he teases, hiding his awkward cough through a laugh.

“Shut up Peralta. I’m just trying to do my job here,” she says. A shiver suddenly wracks her body. “God, I need this guy to hurry up, I’m freezing.”

“Seriously? You’re wearing a scarf and gloves.”

“I get cold easily, leave me alone,” she says, and another shiver chatters her teeth a bit. It makes him feel kind of bad, the only reason they’re out here anyway is because he didn’t go for the ring leader first like he normally would before getting away. The boss is always the biggest collar, and in the excitement he didn’t think. So, before he can think about it too much, he’s shrugging off his leather jacket.

“Here, take this,” he holds it out for her.

“Oh, no, I’m fine man, I’ll just-“

“It’s fine, you wearing my jacket will add to our undercover look and make us less suspicious,” he says with a lowered voice. Amy purses her lips in contemplation for a moment more before taking the jacket and sliding into it, shuffling a little to make sure her badge, gun, and handcuffs are still easily accessible.

“Thanks,” she says, her voice betraying some shyness and embarrassment, she’s about to say something more when something catches her attention, her brows furrowing and lips pursing. “I found the guy. Gold chain on his wrist in plain sight.”

And just like that they’re back in the zone. Two detectives lurking about twenty feet away from the bastard they’ve got their eye on.

“Alright you get left, I’ll get right. Rosa is waiting for us in a black van over there so we have to grab him and take him to the car. Remember, be as quiet about this as possible, we don’t want to scare anyone.” Amy says. Of course with cases like these they can never be too quiet, but the quieter it is, the less panic there will be.

They both stand and walk the stroller towards the perp, Amy going left and him going right like instructed. Away from the bench they were sitting on, and away from the happy children and parents enjoying the daylight. Away from the little boy with the Ninja Turtles beanie that reminds him a little too much of himself. Away from the fathers he’ll probably never be.

And sure, maybe he won’t ever be a father, or have a wife to have autumnal strolls with. But right now he’s got what he does best. And he gets to do it right now, take down a badass crime boss in… maybe not the most badass outfit. You win some you lose some.

Being a detective is all he’s ever wanted, and he’s totally good with that.

He really is.

He swears.

#b99 2019 fall fic exchange #b99 fic exchange #b99 #b99 fics #my fics

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irelise · 5 years

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Cherik fanfic tag game

Thank you @akasanata for the tag!

1. What is your favourite Cherik canon/ canon fix-it fic? Sub Rosa by tahariel, beautiful post-XMFC fic with gorgeous art. Technically a WIP but works brilliantly as a one-shot. It’s a Charles-centric mansion fic where Erik is compelled to return to the mansion every November. Just a very lovely fic all around, bittersweet and angry, but with the promise of hope and recovery. Charles’ voice and characterisation are absolutely impeccable!

2. What is your favourite AU Cherik fic? THIS QUESTION IS UNFAIR BECAUSE THERE ARE JUST SO MANY

...That said there’s always going to be a special place in my heart for Boden’s Mate and its sequel, the Inception AU by kaydeefalls, just because it’s one of the first fics I’ve read in this fandom and it’s so excellent on a technical level. Tightly-plotted, amazing twists and tension, really fantastic use of the dream-sharing, mind-manipulating aspects of Inception to create some gorgeous settings. There’s lots of layered and nuanced symbolism (especially in the sequel), and recurring motifs that pack an emotional punch.

3. What is your favourite slow burn, super long Cherik fic? For that particular flavour of ‘They raw each other in the first part of chapter 1, then spend 100k in denial, misunderstanding, and self-doubt‘: Anarchy in the UK by Yahtzee, definitely! It’s so far outside the usual genre of fic I read but it just works. Fantastic chemistry, one of the fics that sell me on the whole “sparks fly at first sight” thing. Loved how all the plot threads were character driven and develop so organically!

On the other side of the coin, my favourite 100k of pining would definitely go to The Marriage Bargain by @kianspo! Such wonderfully self-indulgent harlequin arranged marriage fic with the BEST young Charles, who is charming and cheeky and brilliant and warm-hearted and vulnerable all at once! Definitely one of those fics I go back to again and again

4. What’s your favourite short and sweet Cherik fic? This fandom has given me a skewed understanding of “short”, I swear! Everyone is so prolific! But here’s a few that I always go out of my way to read whenever I see them pop up :D

But The Cat Came Back by twelve_pastels: catfic! what more do you need? Heli Cases by Black_Betty: cute dad Erik! Also check out To Do List by the same author. Two words: coitus calendar Other Crabs Cannot Be Trusted by groovyphilia: one of the first fics i remember reading after the release of xmfc and I still remember it all these years later, that’s how delightfully amazing it is in its crackyness! The Holiday Lights Battle by so_shhy: mitosis!!!

5. Which Cherik fic gives you all the angst and the feels? what cherik fic DOESN’T give me the angst and the feels? But Us by Pangea stands out as one of those “i’ve read this once and it’s brilliant and i never want to re-read it again ever” sort of fics. Give it a try if you like Dark!Charles!

and also Residue by Tawabids, oh my god

6. What’s your favourite PWP/smutty Cherik fic? i’m too embarrassed to name specifics but anything by Red or by Gerec

Special mention to At Any Time by musical_emjay, and for something that’s heavy on the smut and sexual exploration but also on character development, check out you follow and i’ll lead by pearl_o and pocky_slash!

7. What’s your best recent find in the Cherik fanfic world? The Cherik isn’t the main focus of the piece but please check out this devastating little XMDP ficlet from @fatcatsarecats... Warning for serious spoilers if you haven’t seen XMDP yet!

Otherwise I’ve really been enjoying the ficbits from @freewithyourtempo I’ve seen popping up in the Cherik tag lately! They have some really cool ideas and really good range from angst to wow damn this is hot

8. If you could only recommend one Cherik fic, what would it be? Boden’s Mate from above would probably always be my ultimate rec (and most of the fics here are on my personal ‘top 10 fics’ list), but in the interests of mixing things up:

Limited Release by rageprufrock, one of my favourite ensemble cast fics with the sort of established relationship, bickering but fond and loving Cherik that I adore! If you like FBI-style fics definitely give this a try; most of the team works under Erik, who is a senior agent, and Charles is his usual Professor/activist self that gets too involved for his own good. I absolutely love it - every single character gets a chance to shine, it’s action-packed, there are some really fucking funny scenes, and some really gentle and intimate moments between Charles and Erik. This fic pretty much has everything you can ask for! \o/

Tagging @fatcatsarecats @jackyjango @amaranth42 @isamai @nesnalou @ice-cream-connie and everyone else at the Cherik discord server (sorry i can’t remember all your handles hdifsdf) and anyone who wants to do this!

#cherik #fic rec #xmfc #pair: between rage and serenity #memes

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octaviangrey · 4 years

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My Top 20 Fanfic Recommendations

Aka what to read to understand me/my tastes or what fanfic I’d bring to a desert island to avoid boredom.

First off this is my personal favorites and most highly recommended list, you may not like some or all of them, that’s fine.

Secondly, I’ve been wanting to make this sort of list for a while - a collection of my favorite fanfics and authors in one place which I can refer back to/up date as time goes by.

This will be mostly Naruto fanfic, since I’ve been in that fandom the longest, though I have included works from other fandoms such as; The Hobbit, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Inuyasha, MCU, American Gods, Girl Genius, Labyrinth, Van Helsing, and Batman The Dark Knight Rises.

Links to fic, and author page, included. I try to mention if I know someone is on tumblr. Let me know if I missed anybody.

Be sure to read the tags, and pay attention to the warnings before reading any of these - you are in control of what you consume in fandom. If you are feeling unsure about a fic and want to ask someone about it before reading, feel free to contact me! I try to check my messages regularly.

Please try to leave a comment/like/kudos if you enjoy the fics, the authors all deserve them. (If you can’t leave comments, that’s fine too - real life be like that sometimes. Don’t stress over it.)

20. To Trammel Some Wild Thing By Anon E. Mouse

This is completely self indulgent and a delight to read. The characterization is good and its plot is so much fun. I’m an unrepentant Dracula fan, in all his forms, and this ones damn entertaining. Incomplete - Anna/Dracula - Van Helsing

19. Nukenin By WhisperingDarkness

This fic, and the works inspired by it, are so much fun to read. Basically a 3 for 1 recommendation (be sure to check the links at the end!) A great Kakashi centric work, their characterization is excellent and the kids are great! Complete - No Pairing - Naruto

18. Fear By Almighty_Hat

I know, I know this isn’t the OT3, but bear with me, this is a really good series, looking at what ifs and giving us All the Jagers. Great slice of life Girl Genius style. Complete with an Incomplete series - Agatha/Jorji - Girl Genius

17. Klepto By DeGlace

This so much fun! A rare pair for sure, but it is so good. The chemistry between these two is amazingly portrayed. This fic is sexy, it’s vicious, it holds no bars and delivers on every promise. Also be sure to check out their fic Marrow, which just missed this list. Complete - Catwoman/Bane - Batman Darknight Rises

16. More Fair Than Snow By Jalen Strix

Oh man, this is such a good series. This author in general is very good, and has several other excellent fics, but this series is my favorite of the lot. Great balance of magic and real world, interesting use of fairy tales and a wonderful romance. Complete - Jareth/Sarah - Labyrinth

15. The Woods Are Deep, My Dear by Azzandra

Baby Agatha! World building! AGATHAS AMAZING GRANDMA! A delight to read, it is so fricking cute, and Grandma here kicks ass. The author also has some other great Au’s so check those out. Incomplete - no pairing - Girl Genius

14. RED KING By VesperChan but also on AO3

This author has so many great fics, but this is my favorite. They are also on tumblr! This fic is so gripping and atmospheric, a real feast for the mind. Can recommend the Obleisk series too. Complete - Sakura/Madara - Naruto

13. Lost and Found By NovusArs

Fem!Bilbo Baggins finds and adopts baby dwarves and the adventures thereof. The fic is cute, the characters are cute, the lore is great and this is so fluffy you guys. So fluffy. Incomplete - Bilbo/Bofur- The Hobbit

12. Lord Charming by forthright

This fic is sooo good. The drama, the lore building, the execution, all perfect. Now I know the chapter numbers look intimidating, but they are written in 100 words chapters, so don’t fear too much, you’ll get through it! Complete - Sesshoumaru/Kagome - Inuyasha

11. The House that Luck Built By TheBlackestFrost

This is so well researched, it’s use of belief and mythology is superb. I had so much fun reading this, but also I cried during some of it too. An amazing fix that convinces you of the romance with one of the parties being dead for most of it. Author on tumblr! Give! Them! A look! Complete - Laura/Sweeney - American Gods.

10. The Company of Trees By theroadkillcafe

This is my favorite Mokuton!Sakura fic ever. It’s amazing, it really captures the trials and tribulations of a young girl who’s life is changed so drastically. The supporting cast is really good too. Incomplete - No Pairing - Naruto

9. Kill Your Heroes by TheLightAtLastAndAlways aka Evil Is A Relative Term

Aaaaaaaaaa this is so good!!! The lore! The character growth! The plot twists! This is a masterpiece of writing, and I adore it. This author is never afraid to give gritty consequences, while keeping it fun and action packed. Incomplete - Itachi/Sakura sort of - Naruto

8. Retrograde Motion by Crunchysunrises

This is a fantastic example of the Time Travel trope, and tackles some really interesting lore and world building. I unreservedly love the part were we see Sakura’s seals from her family. It touched me so much I reread the whole thing 3 times in short order. Incomplete - No pairing - Naruto.

7. Amaryllis By silverfootsteps

This author is on tumblr, go check them out! And also this fantastic AU fic! I fell in love with this world, and the characters in it. A rich setting to sink your teeth into, with masterful twists and turns. Itachi is a very delicate flower and it’s great. Incomplete - Itachi/Sakura - Naruto

6. Sansûkh By determamfidd

This fic is amazing, I was able to get my mother in fanfic with this. I think it’s really well written, it feels very organic with the Tolkien world. I’m gonna get this hand bound in leather once it’s complete and gift it to myself, I want this in hard copy. Bilbo/Thorin - The Hobbit & LotR

5. Meeting Like This by FettsOnTop

And also the rest of the series. This Author is a prolific Boba/Leia writer, and all of it’s good, so give it a go and check them out! This series really defined this ship for me, and is my favorite work by the author so far. Complete - Boba Fett/Leia Organa - Star Wars

4. The Pilgrim Soul By jachap

Holy heck in a hand basket this fic is a feast. You will drown in this, the richness of this world will linger long after the final chapter ends. This is a historical fic, starting in the 1920’s and just keeps going even in the sequel. So much research has been done for this, and you can tell. Be warned you will cry. Has a sequel that’s just as good and being updated. Complete - Darcy/Steve/Bucky - MCU

3. Hermione Granger and the Serpents Renaissance by epsi10n.

This is my absolute favorite Harry Potter fic, it’s incredible. The author is very good at building tension, and then ending their chapters on cliff hangers, so you spend plenty of time on the edge of your seat reading this. Incomplete - Hermione/currently undecided. - Harry Potter

2. The Eyes Have It By Shana the Short

Written for FaNoWriMo. I adore this, and it’s incomplete sequel. It’s. So. Good. I can not recommend this enough - it’s fun, it explores interesting lore on what it would be like to develop a brand new Kekkei Genkai, and it has great character development for those who would usually go over looked. Complete - Sakura/Chojuro in the sequel. - Naruto

1. Five Kingdoms for the Dead by Evil Is A Relative Term

This is it, this right here is my favorite fanfic of all time. I LOVE this. I love the characterization, the plot, and is one favorite depiction of Madara Uchiha in fiction. Of all time. This author has already appeared on this list before, and I cannot recommend enough going out and checking out their work. Complete - Neji/Sakura - Naruto

This is not the be all, end all of good fic I’ve read, let alone all the good fic that exists, and I am very tempted to just add a list of authors I like too, but that would be a very ambitious list. Seriously, the number of stories I had to put aside because I love them but they are not quite on the list.... I have 1760 subsripctions just on AO3 alone. I couldn’t fit them all on here.

P. S. If you wish to reblog with any fic recs of your own, please do so! I’m always looking for new reading material!

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youknowmymethods · 5 years

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Content Creator Interview #5

Welcome back again folks! This week in our fifth interview @vermofftiss chats to @mizjoely about her love of lists, her fantasy season five finale, and reveals the truth about who really writes her stories...

Hi, @mizjoely here, chatting with @vermofftiss about my sherlolly writing and fandom experiences, and answering some questions submitted by a few other folks. I’ve been involved in fandom in one way or another since the early 1980s, which is also when I started writing fanfiction - for classic Doctor Who and Star Trek in its various incarnations.

@vermofftiss here, putting forward the aforementioned questions. I’ll also be trying to weasel some advice out of @mizjoely that I can use for my own writing, which has been a casual ongoing thing since I published my first sherlolly fic in 2014.

Vermofftiss: I think our first encounter was in the Sherlollychat in the fall of 2014, around the time I got onto AO3. Which means series 3 was five years ago. How does it feel knowing that series 4 was already two years ago? What’s changed in the time since it aired?

Mizjoely: Oh, I miss the sherlollychat, or at least I did until Channy came up with the discord version! It’s hard to fathom that so much time has passed since I joined the fandom! (I became active on tumblr in November 2013 after discovering Sherlolly earlier that same year, btw.) Series 3 was five years ago. Series 4 was two years ago. Crazy!

As for what’s changed since then, I’d have to say one positive thing is that the fandom wank has calmed way the hell down since S4…. Another change that I’ve seen is probably common to all fandoms over time - new writers and content creators have joined the fandom while (sadly) many others have moved on to other fandoms. Of course, that’s to be expected when your show is essentially over, but it’s still kind of sad to lose folks completely to other fandoms.

V: Which series was your favourite to play with as a writer? When did you really get into writing Sherlolly?

M: I would have to say Series 4 has definitely been a great series to write for - so much angst! The I love you! Mary Watson’s very sad death, Rosie Watson becoming a character, Mrs. Hudson showing us what a badass she is, and of course Eurus Holmes entering the picture. We might not have gotten as much Molly Hooper as we wanted, but the scenes we did get with her were tremendous and gave so much inspiration to me and many other writers.

I really got into Sherlolly as a ship after seeing TRF, as I’m sure is true with many folks - especially the “what do you need” scene. And it was so much fun to dive into the possibilities of life after Sherlock’s ‘death’ between Series 2 and 3, I consider that a real golden age of Sherlolly writing. My first published Sherlock/Sherlolly fic was “Conversations With A Dead Detective”, set Post Reichenbach, which according to fanfiction.net I published on 04/11/13 (so I’m nearly at my five year Sherlolly- versary, woo hoo!).

A quick look at my spreadsheet (don’t judge me, I love my lists) shows that I wrote or at least started 37 fics that year (one of which I’m still working on, yikes! - The World As We Know It, a vamp!lock fic). I’m currently sitting at almost 500 fics for Sherlolly, which still amazes me, that I could be that inspired by a pair of fictional characters! (For comparison, my second most prolific fandom is Doctor Who, for whom I wrote a total of 25 stories over a period of 20 years. And of those 25, only about a dozen were for my main ship, Five/Tegan).

V: A couple of questions from @ohaine -

1) Based on the sheer volume of your work, I have this theory that you’re actually some sort of artistic collective rather than just one person, please tell me I’m right!

M: You have discovered my secret: I'm actually four raccoons in a trenchcoat! Seriously though, until I was bitten by the Sherlolly bug, my output was much, much lower, even though I've been writing fanfics since the early 1980s. For example, I love the Zutara ship for Avatar: Last Airbender, but I only wrote three fics for that. I wrote about 25 fics for Doctor Who, and about the same amount for the various Star Treks (not including Khanolly). Nothing set my writing muse afire like Sherlolly, and I doubt anything ever will again.

and, 2) You write a lot of AUs, and I’m wondering what inspires them?

M: Considering that I started off as a strictly Canon Universe/Canon Compliant writer in all of my other fandoms, it still seems funny to me how much I enjoy writing and reading AUs now. I started reading them after finally running out of canon compliant fics to read and discovering how much fun it was to transplant the characters into a different universe. And that, of course, made me think about what sort of AUs I could fit Molly and Sherlock into.

In fact, the very first BBC Sherlock story I started to write (never finished or posted) was an AU because I was nervous about trying to write Sherlock and figured no one would complain too much about him being OOC if it was a fantasy setting. (I ended up taking the plunge on a canon universe post Reichenbach fic and posted that and a lot of other canon universe fics before returning to AUs.)

Wait, that doesn't answer the question! What inspires them? The same things that inspire all my writing: wanting to read a specific kind of fic and not being able to find it; fics that other authors have written that make me itch to put my own spin on the idea; dreams; books I've read or movies or TV shows I've watched...inspiration is everywhere when you really, really, really love a ship. (Gawd that's cheesy but it's true - no love, no writing fanfic, period end of paragraph.)

V: This past spring I finally got the nerve to start working on my first proper AU (not CC, CU, or UA) after sitting on the idea for about 3 years. Have you ever had to wait to be “ready” to start working on a concept? How much do you need to know about a project to get going on it?

M: I have absolutely had to wait to be ready to start working on a concept. My very first attempt at a Sherlolly fic (never finished or published) was going to be an AU because I was so intimidated by the idea of writing Sherlock Holmes in the canon universe set up by Moffat & Gatiss. I was terrified I wouldn’t get his voice right, that he would be too OOC for folks, that I wouldn’t be able to make him clever enough or that I’d mess things up a dozen different ways. So I started writing the AU instead, and in doing so (over a course of several months), I finally realized that no, I wanted to start off in the canon universe. Just trying to write him at all, in any setting, made me a little less intimidated by him. But I might never have written anything if I hadn’t started that abandoned AU. (And I look forward to seeing your AU when you’re ready to post it!)

V: Does reader feedback ever impact the plots of your stories or the building of your AUs?

M: It absolutely can, especially when someone leaves a comment that makes me think about my story in a different light. I won’t go so far as to say comments have caused me to redo anything on a larger scale (such as change the ending) but certainly I’ve thrown things into the fic or expanded on ideas expressed in a comment to make the story that much richer.

That’s one of the best things about being active in fandom - the interactions between readers and writers. Of course, the reverse can also be true - I remember needing a LOT of fan-friend coddling when some folks were unhappy with the ending of my story ‘Abandoned’ (i.e., my Molly let my Sherlock get off too easily). But you have to have thick skin to be a creator, and remember that not everyone likes the same things. And you also have to be able to say yes, I could have done this better, or if I had to do it over I’d do it differently. It’s all part of the creative process.

V: Are there any scenes or aspects that were cut from a story that you regretted leaving out at the end?

M: Not really. Most things that I cut have been vetted by my betas (shout-out to ALL betas for being willing to help you make your story better!) and jettisoning those things has always made my stories better. (Plus I keep a folder of scraps that got cut and periodically review those scraps to see if I might be able to salvage them.)

V: On top of being one of the better-known Sherlolly writers in the tag, you’re also the single person behind the Sherlollbrary. As much as I love to organize my life and everything else I can get my hands on, that’s not something I think I’d ever actually want to do. So what made you decide to start cataloguing Sherlolly fics?

M: My love of lists. Seriously, that’s it. I love making lists of things - like, how many stories did I write in 2013 for Sherlolly (37, as you now know!), how many one-shots have I written vs. multi-chapters, how many were prompts...and then I started seeing people doing lists of various tropes. The one that made me decided to start my Sherlollilists side blog was one put together for Sherlolly omegaverse stories. As more and more lists were created, edited, and added (I’m currently at 140 official lists, with more than a dozen unofficial lists), I decided it would nice to organize them all (not realizing quite what I was getting into!) as one spreadsheet, with other tropes and tags and keywords for folks to help narrow down their searches. It always give me a little thrill when I open the library and see folks are browsing, so I like to think it’s a useful tool (although I am looking forward to finishing it someday!)

@writingwife-83 asked: You work tirelessly to organize all the multitude of writing this ship produces, but how do you feel that affects you as a writer? Does it make you less interested in writing your own fics? Or does it tend to help get the wheels turning and inspire you?

M: I have to admit, sometimes curating the lists can completely put me off writing, simply due to feeling oversaturated. This is especially true when I am reading or skimming over fics that are, shall we say, not the best of the bunch. Or the times when I'm just pushing myself even if I'm not really enthusiastic about doing it. Those times, I've learned to just step back, which is why sometimes the lists don't get updated very quickly.

On the other hand, rereading a favorite or a forgotten gem can really get my creative juices flowing. At times like that, I fall back in love with the ship and the fandom all over again.

V: When you’re stuck with writer’s block or just a lack of motivation, does it help you more to reread an old fave or to go back through some of your own works? Have you noticed your style has changed much?

M: It does help, absolutely. It reminds me why I love this ship so much, and helps me reconnect with others in the fandom. People think of reading as passive and writing as solitary, but to me it’s an interactive process. Reading great fics, new can old, helps feed your creativity. And nowadays the internet helps so much as well - there are awesome resources and fandom spaces to talk to other folks about their works and your own, reminding you that you’re not creating in a vacuum. (And I REALLY love the cheerleading section of the Sherlolly Discord site. That can help unstick my creativity like nobody’s business!)

As for my style changing - yeah, it definitely has. I feel like my writing has become more streamlined and less clunky since I first started. I still do a lot of semicolon abuse but at this point I’ve decided that’s just my style and will likely never change.

Thanks for the excellent questions and for letting me ramble on!

V: I’m sure we can do a lot more rambling if left on the trail. How about one last one: In the currently hypothetical series 5, how would you continue the story from where it left off?

M: Oooh, good one! If I was in charge we would see that Sherlock and Molly are continuing their relationship, culminating with a wedding at the end of the third episode. But since I’m not in charge, I’m thinking that Mofftiss would give us some subtle hints, like John casually mentioning to Sherlock that he and Rosie can’t join ‘them’ for dinner that night for whatever reason. And maybe some small changes to 221B to show hints that someone else spends time there other than Sherlock and the Watsons - a cherry patterned pillow, perhaps? A Bart’s ID card with a woman’s picture to show that no, it isn’t one Sherlock nicked to get access to a place he otherwise couldn’t get to? A woman’s coat hanging next to Sherlock’s? Something like that. And some private smiles between Sherlock and Molly, little things like that. Enough to give us hope but not enough to give us proof! They do like to tease that way!

Non-shipwise, I think Eurus would make a return because come on, how do you leave a character like that catatonic? I also think they would return to ACD canon to revise a few more cases for the modern age, and maybe (maybe!) have John start dating again (especially if they’re so married to canon that they killed Mary off - since John seems to have been married at least twice, they would probably explore that option).

I know, that last part is a bit vague but honestly? I hope they surprise the hell out of us in a good way if we ever get that fifth series!

Next Week, Friday March 22nd, @ashockinglackofsatin talks to @sunken-standard

#content creator interviews #sherlolly #Sherlock #mizjoely #vermofftiss

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