Hi Ilsa! I just realised that I’ve never asked you about your writing and fic before! 😱 So here goes! I’m curious about what kind of tropes that you like to write (is it different than the ones you usually like to read)? Also, from all the fics that you’ve published, which one is your personal favourite??? ✨

Hiii ☺️☺️ tbh most of my fanfic (I'm Asimovich on ao3) remains as scenarios in my brain as trying to get words to paper can feel like pulling teeth sometimes :// but I've actually been pretty proud of a couple of fics recently, especially one called Absolution about the Reiner and Armin trying to deal with grief and guilt. In general, I love writing angst and find it really difficult to write soft / smutty stuff. The works I'm happiest with have all been aot canon universe depression, and although I do like reading that sort of stuff, I also do love reading cuter and less painful fics. I also cannot write anything long but I do love to read a good long fanfic with proper world building and character development

I think in general, my favourite type of fanfiction is when there's a mix of pain and catharsis and characters struggle through to their happy ending. Outside of AOT stuff, one of my favourite tropes to explore is deconversion (from a belief system, realising the propaganda you've been told all your life is lies, deprogramming after being turned into a weapon in some way, generally realising that you can be an independent person with independent thoughts). It's a theme that means a lot to me personally and I've never really seen it explored in film, tv or books, but there have been a few really good fanfics that have tackled it well. My longest fic to date is a Shadow and Bone Nina/Matthias one and it took me SO long to finish for many reasons (see: I can't write smut) but I'm happy I didn't just abandon it because it was nice to use Matthias' arc as a substitute for deconversion.

I'd love to write something longer than a one shot (and I'm planning a longer Bertholdt Lives AU atm but I doubt a complete fic will ever see the light of day 😢😅) but I'm not sure if I have the time, skill or motivation. Hopefully more short ficlets will be coming soon though!