#mostly because I keep forgetting to edit them for ao3
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My Writing Masterlist:
My Hero Academia:
Foresight is 20/20-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/43853637 - Sir Nighteye accidentally mistakes Izuku for a doll and takes him home. 4 chapters, completed.
The Magnus Archives:
Are You Afraid of the Monster in the Woods?-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/43938712 - Martin is sent to investigate the statement about a giant monster in the woods. Part 2 in the ‘G/tober 2022’ series. 2 chapters, finished.
Feasting on Silent Screams-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/43915251 - Jonathan Sims can sense the fear of a borrower Sasha and proceeds to scare her. 2 chapters, finished.
Sanders Sides:
Anxiety and Rat Traps-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/45429106 - Logan accidentally trapping Virgil in a rat trap. One shot.
Candy-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/48630253 - Roman is a borrower trying to steal some Halloween candy, unaware he’s being watched. Part 3 in the ‘G/tober 2022’ series. One shot.
The Scientist and The Fairy-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/48630730 - Logan finds fairy Virgil in a box in the woods. Part 1 of the ‘G/tober 2022’ series. 2 chapters, finished.
Tiny Screws And Their Significance-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/43862274 - Logan has a prosthetic and he notices parts going missing courtesy of the 6 borrowers living in his walls. 1 chapter, unfinished.
Two Of A Kind-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/50784142 - Logan didn’t know the borrower he’d befriended, Remus, had a twin. One shot.
Transformers:
1, 2, 3, Switch!-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/54287878 - Megatron and Aster experience a size swap on an alien planet. Part of the ‘Stories Set in The YCRBYCH Universe’. One shot.
Accidentally Traumatising Someone is The First Step to Friendship-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/49641892 - Wheeljack meeting a human after crash landing to Earth. One shot.
A Not So Fictional Tale-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52992415 - Orion gets a shipment of datapads and there’s something strange about them. One shot.
A Small Problem-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/47080186 - Optimus Prime helping his human friend write g/t by helping act it out. One shot.
A Teaching Moment-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/49577713 - Ultra Magnus giving a lecture on humans to Rodimus Prime and others with a live subject. One shot.
Don’t You Speak, Hide And Seek-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/54383089 - Jazz encountering a human during a hunting trip. One shot.
Down To Earth-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/48832984 - Megatron crashes into Earth and finds a human poking around his ship. One shot.
Failure and Flower Crowns-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/49616911 - Optimus Prime guiding humans away from danger. Part of the ‘In Which Magic Barriers Do Nothing To Stop Human Curiosity’ series. One shot.
How To Handle Your Cybertronian-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/50937124 - A blog post fic about dealing with being around Cybertronians. One shot.
I'd Run Away From You if my Feet Could Feel The Ground-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/48906124 - Rodimus Prime and Megatron with a human who’s come to rescue their kidnapped friend. Set as an AU of @callsign-relic’s ‘Too Close For Comfort’ series. One shot.
If We Can’t Rewind, We’ll Restart Instead-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/53433847 - Aster, immediately after the war, is tasked with undertaking a mission with ex-Decepticon Megatron. One shot.
I’ll Be Back-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/50808868 - Orion steals a shuttle to go investigate the supposed existence of an ancient relic on a far off planet called ‘Earth’. One shot.
I.O.U-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/48987337 - Tarn as both a tiny and giant bot feat. a brief Optimus cameo. Part of the ‘In Which Magic Barriers Do Nothing To Stop Human Curiosity’ series. 2 chapters, finished.
Is It Still A Mask If You Can’t Take It Off-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/54839833 - Optimus is living as his holoform amongst humans and the borrower in his home knows. One shot.
Not My Commander-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/47961757 - Ultra Magnus and a human crossing paths and the human is having precisely none of it. One shot.
Once Upon A Time-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/50886154 - An insight into Elua, the woman who sealed Drift away, and her experience with other giants. Part of the ‘Undoing The Past’ series. One shot.
Optimus’ Travels-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/47540602 - Optimus Prime is sent to Liliput in a Transformers/Gulliver’s Travels crossover. 4 chapters, finished.
Raindrops and Sparkbeats-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/46672807 - Soundwave and his cassettes during a storm on Earth. One shot.
Rumours Versus Reality-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/49368388 - Drift is woken up after hundreds of years by a human. Part of the ‘Undoing The Past’ series. One shot.
The One Who Helped-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52582771 - Upon encountering Optimus, the protagonist begs to go with him. One shot.
The Sole Sentry-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/54656287 - Prowl protecting a human from a bully after centuries of being the protector of their village. 2 chapters, finished.
The Tinyformer Distribution System-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/48104755 - Blitzwing is a tinyformer found abandoned by a therapist. One shot.
This Is Totally Normal, Right?-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/54615661 - No one aboard the Lost Light has any idea what humans eat, and it shows. Part of the ‘Stories Set in The YCRBYCH Universe’ series. One shot.
To The Other Side-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52326736 - A mirror connects Aster’s bedroom to the Lost Light. 2 chapters, unfinished.
You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/49902286 - Hitching a ride on Rodimus, away from the aliens who kidnapped them, Aster hides on the Lost Light. Part of the ‘Stories Set in The YCRBYCH Universe’. 8 chapters, finished.
Misc:
Monsterjäger und Beschützer-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/51082228 - A set of pilots find out that their Jaeger is sentient. One shot.
The Prideful Borrower-
https://archiveofourown.org/works/49767286 - A borrower gets too arrogant. A cautionary tale. Part 1 in the ‘A Giant Chronicle of Tiny Tales’ series. One shot.
#g/t#my writing#masterlist#transformers g/t#sanders sides g/t#my hero academia g/t#the magnus archives g/t#I’ve never made one of these before#but it was very needed lol#anything missing is (for now) tumblr only#mostly because I keep forgetting to edit them for ao3
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7, with SOFT ethubs please, because i can't take any more heartbreak <33
7. Handwritten/Promised (x)
(Edit: This fic is on ao3! Read here)
It’s a no-sleeping night, Bdubs decides.
Nights like these are rare–Bdubs isn’t known as the sleep king for nothing. Some nights, however, Bdubs just… can’t rest. Some nights, his thoughts win out, and sleep is nowhere to be found.
Nights like these, Bdubs likes to set up a campfire and stargaze. It’s a tradition he’s developed over the years, typically accompanied by Etho, but the last few months he’s done it alone, in silence and a solitude he doesn’t exactly mind, but certainly doesn’t love.
Tonight, he sets up just outside of the monolith, campfire crackling away and a couple logs set out to sit on. The stars aren’t out just yet, but the sun is setting and he’s settled in for a long night of wandering thoughts.
Soft footsteps sound behind him, and Bdubs turns to see Etho, mask on and carrying several blankets. He doesn’t say anything, but places the blankets on the ground before disappearing back in the monolith. Bdubs waits, slightly apprehensive. They’ve not talked a ton since Etho turned up in the basement a few hours previously–it’s not that they weren’t talking, more that neither of them knew quite what to say, given the last few months.
Etho reappears, and Bdubs catches the scent of the tea they used to drink wafting through the air. Earl Grey for Bdubs, and some sort of strange lavender lemonade tea Bdubs is pretty sure Etho makes from scratch. He has yet to try it, as he’s content to keep to the known, but one of these days he’ll try it. Maybe.
(Not.)
“Mind if I join you?” Etho extends one of the mugs towards Bdubs, and Bdubs takes it gratefully, hands curling around the heat of the mug. Then Etho sinks to the ground on the other side of the campfire, legs crossed. He places his mask on the log next to him.
I love you, I made you tea.
For a moment, they’re both silent, watching the sky above. Stars begin to blink into existence, the moon rising from its place of slumber. And then–
“Where’d you go?” Bdubs fixes his gaze at Etho, still not used to the fact Etho is right there, finally.
“Here and there. My own world, mostly. Did some projects. Got a horse. Got chased by another giant cat. You know how it is,” Etho’s voice is steady, but Bdubs catches the wistfulness in his voice.
I missed you, I’m sorry for leaving.
“You gonna head back there?” Bdubs winces at the clear pleading in his voice. Please don’t.
“Nah, I got things to do here,” Etho keeps his tone light, sipping at his concoction and sighing in contentment. “I reckon it’ll be a bit before I head offworld again.”
“That so?”
Etho hums quietly. Casting his gaze upwards again, Bdubs notices how still the woods are, tonight. Typically the trees are filled with the noise of creatures scurrying, bushes rustling, and monsters groaning in the distance, but tonight the earth is quiet, like it's holding its breath. Waiting for something.
“You know… I would have given you the life. If I’d known.” Etho blurts it out, and Bdubs’ gaze snaps over. He’s staring at his own mug, and Bdubs is reminded of a time when they’d done something similar, only with a fence separating them, and the threat of… well, Bdubs looming over them.
Bdubs clears his throat once, twice, before he trusts himself to respond. “No you wouldn’t’ve,” and he knows he’s right. “But I wouldn’t have either.”
There’s another long pause, but Etho moves slightly closer, shifting out of where the campfire smoke started blowing in his face. “Yeah… I guess not. But I am sorry.”
“I know.” Bdubs closes his eyes to listen to the campfire crackling. He tries to forget another lifetime, when the campfire wasn’t close enough to feel its full warmth.
The moon is farther in the sky now. Bdubs shivers slightly at the chill creeping into his bones, that kind of cold that a campfire cannot drive out. Seconds later, he feels a blanket around his shoulders, wrapping him with care he’s not truly felt since before Last Life. Etho’s hands linger for a moment, holding the blanket around him until Bdubs’ hands brush his to hold it in place, then retract.
I love you. I want you to be warm.
Etho shuffles backward, but not to his original place. This time he rests an arms length from Bdubs, laying on his back to gaze up at the stars. His mug is empty, over on the ground across the fire. He always finished his tea first, fast enough to where Bdubs was almost sure he’d burned off his taste buds ages ago.
Bdubs finishes his own tea, now lukewarm, and… god, Etho is beautiful.
His breath catches at the way the moonlight is reflecting in Etho’s hair. His eyes are full of the stars, mask thrown off to the side somewhere across the campfire, and Bdubs can’t help but reach a hand over to Etho, lightly dragging his hand through his hair. Etho leans into it, craning his head slightly to move into Bdubs’ touch.
“...’m not gonna leave like that,” Etho mumbles, “not again,” and Bdubs feels a part of him crumble.
“You… you left me. Alone.” He doesn’t move his hand from Etho’s hair, but pauses his movements to gather his thoughts. “You left me, and I waited and waited, and the moon….”
Bdubs doesn’t look up at the sky, now. “It fell. And you weren’t there for the start of the season, or anything…”
I love you, and you weren’t there.
Bdubs shivers under the blanket again, and this time Etho pushes himself up, moving to sit against Bdubs. His arms wrap around Bdubs, holding him tightly against his chest. Shifting, Bdubs lets himself curl into Etho.
“That’s not gonna happen again.”
Bdubs can feel Etho’s heartbeat, with his head resting against Etho’s chest. It’s steady, much steadier than the last time he felt it. “Promise?”
“Promise,” Etho presses a kiss against Bdubs’ hair, lingering a moment longer than necessary before pulling back.
They both know Etho will leave again, for months. But it’s clarity, at least, and Bdubs trusts Etho to at least tell him next time.
I love you. I want you with me.
Bdubs turns his head up towards Etho, and Etho meets him. His hand brushes Etho’s face softly as he pulls him into their first kiss in months.
I love you.
And overhead, there’s a shooting star.
#ethubs#etho#bdubs#hermitshipping#shoutout to tunastime for giving me permission to reference their hot tea fic!#<3#hope you like anon#hot tea concept my beloved it was time to write this i think#my fics
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fine as we are, but we want more || Jason Todd x Female!Reader || Chapter 1 of 8
Summary:
all things considered, you're pretty lucky.
in all your years living in gotham city, you've never been mugged, never had your apartment broken into, never been held as a hostage.
until now.
it seems your luck has run out and there's nothing you can do about it other than wait for someone to come rescue you.
.
.
.
or, jason and you reunite after a long time.
Notes:
title's from "fools" by lauren aquilina
i haven't written fic in a good while and well, playing gotham knights made me want to write jason todd fic because i love him
this is mostly self indulgent, just scenes i wanted to write all crammed together. it's been a hot minute so i'm very rusty
hope you enjoy it though!
...
Read on AO3
...
Chapter 1:
You like to think that all things considered, you’re pretty lucky.
Living in Gotham is no walk in the park. You imagine that people don’t normally have to look over their shoulder as often as you do when you leave the comforts of your apartment. You think that maybe people outside of Gotham don’t play Bad Guy Bingo with their friends, checking to see if they’ve got the wining row of cliches and chaos on their way home.
One night, you found yourself texting BINGO to your group chat within thirty minutes of leaving the café, having witnessed a bunch of Freaks setting fire to the streets—obviously just because they can—while trying to break open an armored truck’s door. It didn’t take long before Nightwing somersaulted into the scene and quickly beat the group to the ground, quite literally, if you do say yourself.
It was the description of Nightwing’s spectacular entrance that caused your win. Your friends tend to forget the theatrics of the hero.
Anyway. For all the years you’ve been living in Gotham, walking its streets, and being witness to the disorder and mayhem that the city seems to be victim to much too often, you’d been lucky. Your apartment has never been broken into, you’ve never had your purse stolen in broad daylight, nor have you been held at gunpoint.
Maybe you were born with the knack of always being in the right place at the right time. Or maybe, just maybe, you had someone looking out for you.
At least, that’s what if felt like a few years ago.
You wonder if anyone else has noticed that the Robin they see fighting on the streets, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, was not the original Robin.
You’ve heard stories of the Batman for years, practically grew up watching the news cover his fights with major threats like the Joker and the Riddler, and he almost seemed like a fairytale—the dark hero that keeps the monsters from coming to get you in the night. It wouldn’t surprise you if no one questioned the child, now teenager, fighting alongside him, maybe because he seemed like a myth, too. You remember the time Robin first appeared alongside the Dark Knight, flipping over bad guys with a boyish laugh only to hit them where it hurts when they least expect it.
You remember the first Robin and you’ve met, befriended, maybe even loved (if teenage you even knew what that meant, what that entailed) the second.
Your Robin.
The boy who fought with strength that seemed to come from someone much bigger than himself.
You were a couple months into your freshmen year of high school when you first ran into him.
You were once again out late at night, not your choice, really, the library had run out of paper and you really needed to photocopy several chapters from a first edition (something you cannot check out) for your homework, and were just about to take a short cut through an alley when you stumbled into something you were sure you were going to see all over social media tomorrow.
Robin stood with his back to you, his attention on four grown men in different states of collapse. Two were face down on the ground, hands zip tied behind their back. One was leaning against a dumpster, eyes unfocused and drool and blood dripping from his mouth. The last was dangling upside down from the fire escape. He was missing a shoe and his jacket was slipping off his arms.
You were so focused on taking in the sight of it all (it really is different witnessing something in person than seeing it on a screen) that you didn’t realize that Robin was now looking at you, a curious frown on his face.
“I wouldn’t go down here if I were you,” he said, forcing your attention to him, thumb over his shoulder, pointing at the scene behind him like he needed to clarify what he was talking about.
“I, I need to get home,” you told him, almost embarrassed by how small your voice sounded. After all, it wasn’t every day you got to talk to Robin. “It’s, uh, faster through here.”
“Faster doesn’t always mean safer.” Robin gestured to the bodies behind him again, emphasizing the scene once more. “If that wasn’t obvious.”
“Good thing I wasn’t here a minute too soon then,” you let out a huff. You wanted to take his advice, you really did, but again, you needed to get home and it was only getting later. “I doubt there’re more hiding around the corner there… maybe if I’m quick…”
“I think it would be better if you stick to where the light is, Miss.” There was a bit of impatience laced in his tone. You figured that Robin had better places to be now that his job here was done. There was only more crime to stop in Gotham. “Or, I don’t know, maybe call someone to get you.”
You couldn’t keep yourself from pouting at his insistence that you don’t take the shortcut. You really didn’t want to be picked up and lectured if you could help it. There was a reason why you chose to walk home despite the risks.
“But that could take like thirty minutes. Can’t you just, I don’t know, escort me? Isn’t that like in your guidelines?”
The Boy Wonder let out a short, surprised laugh. The restless energy he was exuding fading. “Guidelines?”
“Yeah.” You perked up as well, glad that he no longer seemed like he was trying to get rid of you. “Superheroes save cats from trees and help old ladies cross the street. Things like that.”
“I must have missed the memo,” Robin said, grinning. “It really says that?”
“Yup. Pretty sure I’ve read it in Superheroing for Dummies or something.” You gave him a smile. “So, what do you say?”
The boy put his hand on his hip, a sort of thinking pose, you guessed, before he shrugged his shoulder. “Oh, what the heck,” he said under his breath. “C’mon. What kind of hero would I be if I don’t make sure you get home safely?”
And he did get you home in one piece, his presence reassuring and comforting on the walk back to your old apartment building.
You didn’t expect him to make small talk, he looked like the type who was comfortable in silence, preferred it, but he asked about the papers you had cradled in your arms and surprised you with some recommendations for your paper, suggested other books to look into. When you reached the front steps of the building, keys out to unlock the door, you didn’t even have the chance to thank him before he disappeared into the night. You looked into the sky, hoping to catch a glimpse of him but, alas, all you saw was darkness.
With a sigh of disappointment, you figured that maybe that was the last time you would see the Boy Wonder.
But then you caught sight of him right before the bank down the street practically burst into flames, people in heavy body armor running out with bags of money, and you watched him jump down from an impressive height, landing a kick on a goon twice his size.
And, again, you saw him brooding on one of the buildings you walked past on your way home, almost missing him if not for the chill that went down your spine, the telltale sign that you were being watched. Once you saw how his brightly colored suit looked in contrast with the dark skies of Gotham, it got easier to spot him running on top of buildings before disappearing into the shadows.
And again, and again, and again, outside the library’s doors, back against the wall, waiting for you.
“It’s late,” he would say, like this wasn’t the first time he’d wait for you to finish your schoolwork.
He said it like it was a coincidence that he was there, like he hadn’t waited for you about a dozen times before—in front of the school’s gates after you stayed back to decorate the classroom for the holidays, by the bus stop when you returned to the city after a weekend at your grandparents, behind the gazebo in the park when you stayed out late into the night just because being at home was too stifling.
“Shouldn’t you be home by now?”
“And leave you with nothing to do during your patrol?” You smiled when he took your backpack from you, the weight of your borrowed books practically nothing to him. “We all know how quiet Gotham is at night.”
“Safest city in the country.” He agreed before a thoughtful look passed over his features.
It was a familiar sight and you stayed quiet, waiting for him to speak.
Your friendship with the Boy Wonder (confirmed after a particularly awkward conversation that involved a lot of uhms and uhs and flushed faces) was special, unique—the kind of friendship that you were pretty sure you’d trust him with your secrets, your life, but he couldn’t return the favor, because of course he couldn’t, but you still trusted him and he still tried, tried to give you what he could, so you waited for him to gather his thoughts and put it into words that he could say.
“You’re…,” he began, clearing his throat. “You’re not afraid of heights, are you?”
“I don’t think I am. I do live on like the tenth floor. Why?”
Robin pulled out what you’d come to know as a grappling hook from his back, waving it with a grin on his face. It didn’t take you even a second to know what he was trying to say, and you found yourself returning his excited look.
“No. Can we, really?”
“Just hold tight,” he said as his only warning, arm suddenly tight around your waist, forcing you to press close to his side, your arms immediately wrapping around him before he lifted the grappling hook and shot upwards, sending you both into the midnight sky of Gotham, laughter lost in the wind.
A year into knowing Robin, he handed you what you at first thought was simply a keychain shaped like a bat. The visit started with him practically scaring you out of your seat, pointing out a misspelling you had in your research paper, his face so close to yours that you caught a whiff of his mint toothpaste in his breath.
“Jesus.” You breathed out, heart practically in your throat. You heard him laugh behind you, footsteps walking away. With a quick glance at the clock on your desk you saw that you’ve been working on your paper for a good couple of hours, so focused that you’ve literally lost track of time and your surroundings.
“Hello to you, too, Robin,” you said to him with a roll of your eyes, pushing your chair back and turning to look at him. He’s climbed into your room through the window again, tracking the dirt and grime from Gotham’s streets onto your fluffy rug.
“Here,” he said, tossing the keychain over his back. You barely caught it, jumping out of your chair to keep it from clattering to the ground, glaring at him when you have it safely in your hands. “Keep this with you, will ya?”
“And what is this?” You looked it over, thumb gliding over the metal finish. The wings felt sharp enough to slice through your skin if you weren’t careful.
“Good luck charm.” Robin said with a shrug, purposely not looking at you. “Might save you one day.”
“Oh yeah? How so?” You asked even though you saw the button. It reminded you of those anti-crime buzzers the school handed out at the beginning of the year. You had yours hanging on your backpack, unused, luckily.
Robin finally looked at you and frowned deeply, unamused, when he saw the look on your face. You knew that he knew that you knew what it was, what you were supposed to do with it when the time came, but you wanted him to explain it to you anyway, just to show that he cared. You watched him struggle with himself for a minute before he let out a grumble, marching over to you.
You immediately realized that you’d miscalculated your teasing because Robin was in front of you, standing close as he flipped the bat in your hands. You looked at him through your lashes, took in his features up close. You thought that his nose was slightly crooked, probably from being broken a few times, and there was a cut on his lip that was healing nicely. You remembered when it was fresh and bleeding, half his face discolored from a blossoming bruise, and you were rightly horrified at the sight, never thinking that Robin would crawl through your window, hands on his bruised ribs, cape and uniform dirty and torn.
It was nerve wracking having to patch him back up to the best of your ability with your makeshift First Aid kit. And keeping an eye on him as he slept over the covers of your bed, the sun only just beginning to rise, waiting for your alarm to ring. He had promptly passed out after a quick call to, you want to say Batman to reassure him that he was alive and that he’d be home soon. You promised that you’d wake him before morning so that he could go back to the Bat Cave.
(Bat Cave! You never would have thought such a thing existed.)
You let him sleep in just a bit longer, scared that he’d probably collapse on his way to homebase.
Sometimes it was easy to forget that Robin wasn’t indestructible. That like you, he was only human.
And he was young.
It was fairly easy to see that he was your age, voice young but had definitely already cracked before you’d met. You were about the same height, but you could already see that in time—probably sooner than you’d like—he’d outgrow you, shoot up like bean and gloat about it for the foreseeable future.
But for now, for now you were the same height, and if Robin were to look up from your hands to see if you understood his explanation—there really wasn’t much to say, really, just press the button when you’re in danger and he’d come save you—you’d find that everything would align—you’d be eye to eye, nose to nose, and lips to lips.
The thought caused you to blush and take a step away from him when he did look up.
“Press the button, gotcha,” you said, clearing your throat. The room was warmer all of a sudden, but the weight of the key chain felt heavy in your hand—it scared you to think that one day you were going to have to use it.
“Hey, don’t worry,” Robin said, voice soft, clearly catching the change in your mood, practically read your mind. “Angel,” he held your hand tightly in his, grounding you. “No matter what, I’ll come to you, okay? Nothing can stop me from coming back to you.”
“Promise?” You asked, looking him in the eyes. Or in the mask. The whites of his domino mask hid one of the biggest secrets you’d always wanted to know.
“I promise,” he swore and a moment between you two, both unmoving, eye to eye, passed before he cleared his throat, red blossoming on his cheeks. You felt the same warmth on your own, but you didn’t look away from him. He probably felt the weight of his words in that moment, realized the kind of promise he’s made. But he didn’t take it back. Instead, he tried to shrug it off like it was no big deal.
“Besides,” he said, grin forming on his lips once again. “If you’re lucky you’ll never have to use it.”
And you were lucky, for the most part.
You kept the keychain with you, fashioned it into a necklace when you figured that if you were in any danger, your bag and phone would probably be the first to go. You never had to use it, thankfully, never found yourself in a situation that called for it.
But oh, was it tempting. Because although you and Robin were friends, it wasn’t like you could send him a text or an email and ask if he wanted to meet up for a movie. Or you could if only you had his contact details.
Apparently, friends of vigilantes aren’t exactly privy to that kind of information. Like his name or what he really looks like.
So, yes, it was tempting to use, what you fondly called, the bat buzzer because you knew it would bring Robin to you and maybe it would make him mad, make him think that you’re in danger, but some nights when the pressure from your parents and school and maybe just life in general was too much, you wished there was an easier way to get Robin to your side, to have him be with you if only just to listen to you rant or hold you when you cry.
But you wouldn’t do that to him. No. You wouldn’t abuse the power of the buzzer like that. You wouldn’t take Robin’s attention away from what could be something important just to keep you company.
So, the bat stayed around your neck, the metal cool against your skin, as you waited for the next time you would see Robin again.
And wait you did.
You waited for him. You waited for him outside the library, looked out for him when the sky grew dark on your way home, and stayed by your window, eyes scanning roof tops in the hopes that you’d see the bright red of his uniform.
You waited for what felt like a lifetime, worried when for a time after Batman sent Joker to Arkham in a full body cast, you’d see pictures of the Dark Knight on your feed, alone, fighting crime without the Boy Wonder by his side. You wanted to use the buzzer then, just to see him, to see if he was alright. But something told you that even if you pressed the button he wasn’t going to come.
And the thought of that made your chest cold, made your heart hurt in a way that made you understand why they described it as broken, so to ease the pain, you decided that maybe not knowing was better than knowing. That if you never called for him, there was still a possibility that somewhere out there, he was okay and, in time, maybe, hopefully, he’d come back.
So, you left the button alone and waited.
Waited until images popped up online of a costumed boy with a familiar R on his brightly colored suit fighting off bad guys with a bō staff.
It was Robin.
Only, he wasn’t your Robin.
And maybe that was the confirmation that you needed that if you were to push the button, your Robin wasn’t going to come.
But right now, on the cold hard floor of the cage you’re in, with music blaring from the speakers that the Freaks dragged into the building, you wonder if you should take that risk.
You hear the moans and cries of the other hostages, pleading for someone to save them, hear the taunting of the Freaks as they tell you that no one was going to come, and you wonder what would happen if you pushed the button on the bat’s back.
Because what was there to lose? Your luck has run out. You were taken in the night and now you’re forced to listen to awful heavy metal music and stare up at your captor’s made up face, his awful excuse of clown make up smeared from sweat and grime, and you think that this isn’t how you want to go, that this freak isn’t the last thing you want to see, that this noise isn’t the last thing you want to hear, and God forbid this stench is the last thing you’re going to smell, so with nothing else to lose, you bring out the bat around your neck and push the button down as hard as you can.
And you wait.
...
Chapter 2
#gotham knights#jason todd#red hood#gotham knights video game#gotham knights!jason#jason todd reader#jason toddxreader#jason todd/reader#robin!jason todd#video game#fanfic#fanfiction#gotham knights fanfic#gotham knights fanfiction#jason todd fanfic#jason todd fanfiction#red hood fanfic#red hood fanfiction#reader insert#no yn#childhood friends#damsel in distress#self indulgent writing
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idle musings on the spngeorg podcast under the cut, mostly just me muttering so i can get some thoughts out of my own head... but also there's a poll at the end, because I honestly don't know what to do with all this paperwork :'D
i was just looking through my notes on past episodes. When i first started this, I didn't script anything, just noted a few key points for my reference while I talked. I quickly realized I needed to impose some sort of structure on episodes because they were... wildly out of control and meandering, and far too long. I know, I can and will talk forever if given the chance. So by the end of season 1, I was writing far more detailed notes. But I didn't start saving those documents until 3.13 Ghostfacers. All my notes before that episode are just... gone.
(well, they're probably in previous versions of that document, but there's no way I'm going back to try and recover them now lol)
It wasn't until episode 138 - 7.12 Time After Time-- that I started writing out what amounts to a full script. If you'll notice, episode lengths have become more manageable and consistent since then, and I probably forget to mention fewer things too. It's also far easier for me to actually record episodes and I save about four hours every week on editing. So it's a system that works very well for me, personally.
But this means that I do have the full text of my scripts for episodes beginning with 7.12. I don't follow them exactly, but for the most part, they're fairly accurate as a transcript.
And I was wondering if, despite the fact I only have rough notes and a full script of the intro section of episodes between 3.13 and 7.11, would anyone actually like me to like... post those notes and scripts online? either here or on tumblr?
I hadn't up to this point, because they are just messy little notes to myself for the most part, but I realized my archived episode post is now approaching 100k words, and was thinking I should probably post them all somewhere, you know? For reference, the document stats where I've been stashing notes since 3.13:
That's a screenshot of the doc, showing it's 214 pages long, and almost 93k words. And this is only for episodes that have already posted (including 7.17, which hasn't posted but has been uploaded and scheduled to post later this week).
There's two more completed episodes in another document totaling 21 pages and over 11k words. The next episode I'll record is 7.20! wheee!
So... what to do with all these things? Just post the complete scripts? Post all the notes, even though I don't have anything for the first 56 episodes of the series? Jump in with episode 57 and then just keep going? or only start with 7.12 with the complete scripts?
Does anyone have any interest in any of that at all? Or is it a good idea to stash these on ao3 at least? I mean, yeah, probably on that last question, but that means a lot of work. So I'd like the thoughts of listeners and other random folks who might be interested in my notes for whatever reason. Help a mitten out:
#now let's see if i remember i actually stuck a poll on here#because i'll probably just end up posting everything in an idle bored moment anyway :'D#my life as a sad sad fangirl#spiders georg of the tnt loop
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Fanfic Writer Questions
Alright so, @optiwashere tagged me in this question thingy, how fun! I was looking for an excuse to discuss this stuff.
Oh, and I will be tagging @zawazawanightmares, @modusoperand1 and @trygrievousbutgirl-blog, though ya'll are under no obligation to participate if you don't want to.
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
Twelve, though that number is a bit misleading because one of those has 15 chapters and has been getting sporadic updates since December of last year.
2. What's your total AO3 word count?
115,036. Which seems about right, I tend to get wordy.
3. What fandoms do you write for?
I started with Baldur's Gate 3 but pretty quickly expanded to Chainsaw Man, which is mostly where I hang my hat these days. I'm also planning on writing for Kakegurui eventually, and maybe Dead by Daylight and Warhammer if the mood strikes me.
Oh and I wrote one fic for Werewolf: The Apocalypse that wasn't very good, but I'm probably not returning to that universe anytime soon.
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
In descending order:
Stress Relief, In Lust and In Leaf (E-rated Karlach/Shadowheart/Tav feat. recreational drug use)
Through You (E-rated Power/Kobeni, chapter-based longfic)
A Matron's Mercy (E-rated Minthara/Tav with lots of gender affirmation)
Underdark, Under Pressure (M-rated Shadowheart/Tav, the first fic I ever published!)
Waning Moon, Not A Moment Too Soon (E-rated Shadowheart/Tav, ball-slapping sex in a broom closet)
5. Do you respond to comments?
All of them! Though it occasionally takes me a while because of things like time zones and me needing time to think of decent responses. I love getting comments!
6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
I don't really do angsty endings, I keep that stuff to the beginning and middle when it comes up at all, but by default this one probably goes to Would You Still Love Me if I Was Several Worms? because the ending is only very hopeful that things will work out alright instead of outright confirming it beyond a shadow of a doubt.
7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
Oh, hm... It's kinda hard to rank them, but I guess probably Hearts of Fire and Darkness, Eye Enough for Both, though there's no fic of mind that'd refer to as having an "unhappy" ending per se.
8. Do you get hate on fics?
Nope! Not yet at least. I'm sure there's at least one person out there who hates my guts and thinks my work is trash, but so far they've been cordial enough to keep it to themselves.
9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
Yup! I like to think of it as pretty character driven, I always try to keep track of the characters' emotions and mental state during the intense gay sex.
10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?
None yet, but I definitely want to write one for BG3 and Chainsaw Man eventually (as in, some time before the heat death of the universe). Both fandoms have a basically immortal lesbian and they deserve to meet eachother.
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Not to my knowledge!
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
Again, not to my knowledge.
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
I've definitely had writer friends of mine look over sections of fics I'm working on to provide feedback and criticism, but nothing quite so involved.
14. What's your all time favorite ship?
This is going to sound so stupid, but it's actually an OC x OC ship. See, once upon a time I joined a Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition roleplay server on discord. I played a terrifying, gay monster woman with way too much shit on her shoulders, and she ended up becoming the girlfriend of a blood-curdling, bisexual monster woman with a machete and a vicious streak. The scenes we wrote together there were beautiful and romantic and did wonders for my mental health. I am never going to forget those characters. Valerie and Jelena forever.
15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
I wanted to write a novel that was basically just me throwing a bunch of mine and my friends' OCs into an angsty high school AU. It was going to be an attempt at a complex exploration of queerness, mental health and being born into a privileged but deeply abusive household. I gave up after chapter 2 because barely any of the people I showed it to for feedback got back to me, and I got demoralised. Now I write fanfiction and get feedback all the time.
16. What are your writing strengths?
Apparently, transfem rep and hurt/comfort. Which I guess I can kinda see, I'm good at hurting characters but I can never stand to see them in pain for long, hence copious amounts of comfort to compensate.
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
I'm bad at writing male characters and just flat out can't write hetero romance. Also, I'm slow as fuck.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?
I just don't do it, unless using Japanese honorifics when writing in English counts. If I need to have a character speak in Russian or Infernal or whatever, I just write "they said in X language" or something like that.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
Technically there's a very shitty, unfinished, first-draft, collaborative Hotline Miami fic sitting somewhere in my google docs that's probably the first if I were to check the dates. It's never going to get published or finished, but one OC I made up for it still keeps cropping up in the stories I come up with in my mind, and if I ever go professional they'll see the light of day eventually.
20. Favorite fic you've written?
I technically answered this question here! But the TL;DR version is: Through You and Another Way share the top spot, passion projects that make me a little emotional to think about.
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Self-Celebration
me: oh no, I've gotten nothing done, I'm a failure
them: wow, Danni, how do you do so much????
I, maybe, need a good reminder of all of my accomplishments, so here we go. Everything I've accomplished this year so far. That I remember, anyway.
Threw together my HP Astro series; edited and formatted and posted to AO3 in time for Bethy's birthday!
Got White Lies & Silver Bells ready to go live on AO3 as soon as Hoggywartyxmas reveals were up!
Wrote Again (and Again) on a whim, to accompany A-Loveunlaced's Snarry art
Wrote a BUNCH of random drabbles for a House of Snarry challenge. 6 of which I also posted to AO3! (A handful of which I have not yet.)
Wrote 5 fics for Kinkuary! 2 of which are in the same universe as Contempt. 2 of which are not yet posted (waiting for the 27th and 28th!) 1 of which (the longest of which) I wrote, edited, and posted same day! The day after I had a tooth extraction.
Wrote 3 fics for Chan Fest! All of which I wrote, edited, and posted same day. 2 of which are 5k+ words!
Various words in various other places.
Brainstorming for other fics.
Co-modding @hp-chan-fest
Starting @hp-fruit-fest (and running solo, RIP me)
Modly duties on the Snarry Sanctuary Discord server
Keeping on top of my AO3 comments! (You know, responding to them.)
New HP Astro posts (Lily, Snily, Luna, and Ron (to be posted 3/1/23!))
Made several ship and fic related playlists on Spotify
Made TONS of fic banners on Canva.
Several rec lists! 8 posted so far, and a few queued up!
Got my home office all set up and cozy!
Brainstorming ideas with friends
Helping alpha/beta/cheer read for friends
Try to stay involved in the community/socializing on Discord, Tumblr, Twitter, Reddit.
Supporting other creators as much as possible!
Finally took the time to learn how to create work skins on AO3!
And site skins!! And finally got all fic stats and personal stats hidden (for mental health!)
Fought with site skin codes on behalf of a friend, to get it tuned to her liking, so that she has a clean and stress-free environment if/when she returns to fandom! (The perks of having your friends' AO3 login haha!) (This took like an hour I stg and I was being way too stubborn to stop fiddling and consult a guide.) (But oh well, I did the dang thing!!!!)
Started compiling resources I need to begin book binding! Still a ways off before I can start cuz supplies are not cheap, but I'm on the right path!
ALSOOOOO
Working a full time job
Spending time with my longtime partner (my beloved Eddie-bear!)
I actually watched a still-newish show for once! Wednesday!
Finished reorganizing/decluttering my home
Baked...a lot. Mostly cookies. Going to bake brownies this weekend!
Many doctor's appointments
And medication changes
I filed my taxes!!
Oh yeah and started being a teensy bit more sociable at work! I had a nice long conversation about ASTROLOGY the other day which was fun and great and awesome.
Oh let's not forget about all my work accomplishments! I made 8 years with my company. All the people coming and going (which I get to deal with.) Our census going way up. Many IT calls and playing IT person for small tech problems. Many errands run. Oh yeah and all the new tasks I get to do because our funder and our corporate office BOTH love changing expectations frequently.
So like...there's stuff I wish I could do and haven't been able to yet. But I'm far from a failure! Or lazy, for that matter. I am a lady of ACCOMPLISHMENT.
#danpuff stuff#personal#self-love is self-care#gotta recognize my wins#my therapist is going to be so proud
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Happy STS! (Shh, I'm a day behind.) And because of that, today's a free space! Use it to ramble as you please! ♥️
As I say on the sts asks that I sometimes answer a day late, the S in sts stands for Sunday :)
The other day I deleted like five chapters (i had only WRITTEN one, but there were five outlined) because the arc was Too hard to write so I changed my mind. Now my outline + schedule are off so I've been adjusting that. The good news is that I don't have a chapter count of 55 anymore.
This is going to accidentally be the Here's How I Outline ask but that's okay I got a free space + I can do whatever I want
SO my step one is that i have a document for my basic outlines which include the character POV(s), chapter title, word count, and a few sentences, with a few more details. I do this part all in one go. Once I have an idea of how many chapters I'm going to have, I try and make it a number divisible by three (30 in forget me not, 21 in dahlia) (rosemary has five parts because I rolled a negative in Planning Ahead skills and had 11 characters instead of 12) so now that I have the parts divided I attach a character to it. I usually already have a flower in mind to attach to the character as well. I write my fun little flower paragraphs here :)
Step two is when I add all the chapters for part 1 (or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 etc) with the Basic Outline. This is where I make my Real Outline for each chapter. I usually do this part in one go as well, or at least until I get bored. The Real Outline includes specific details, bits of dialogue that I want to remember, and stuff like that. I like to have this at a ratio depending on the word count I already assigned the chapter. If I want the word count to be 5,000, then the Real Outline is 500 words long. I'd explain my Ratio if I was good at explaining math concepts. but I'm not.
Step three is Draft 1. I do this part as if I am making a Guy. Draft one is Skeleton. Part 1 is the aforementioned Make the Outline a Certain Length. Part 2 is when I start writing the chapter, deleting parts of the outline as I write them until I have no outline left
Step four is when I put the recently outlined chapters on my Big Timeline that has everything on it- including character birth dates, dates of chapters, things included in dated flashback scenes, etc. Basically everything that I need to keep consistent/so that I don't have to go through 50 chapters to see how long ago something was. It's very helpful I strongly recommend having a Big TImeline actually. If anyone ever asks what my writing advice is it'd be to have a Big Timeline
Step five is Draft 2!!! This is where things have a tendency to get a little bit messy for me because I'm not bound by the laws of writing chapters in order anymore and the chapters that I like will probably be finished faster. Draft 2 is what I consider the Meat of my guy that I am creating. Draft 2 part 3 is where I add to each chapter to complete the Word Goal (unless I really just do not want to, or if it's close enough/don't have anything to add) (this step is optional) and Draft 2 part 4 is when I consider the chapter mostly done. This is where I just reread it and make sure everything is in order. I tend to skip this one too because I reread chapters when I'm editing anyway
Step six is my editing step. I don't know why I keep my editing checklist on a whole different thing but I Do. I'm actually going to move it right now really quick.
Editing:
1st read through: italicize/mark with "/" (i post on ao3 sometimes and it doesn't automatically italicize)
2nd read through: check for spelling errors/maybe add or delete sentences
3rd read through: look for trigger warnings and write them down somewhere
4th read through: inconsistencies (write down the things that need to be consistent) check timeline if needed (3rd and 4th usually end up getting combined)
5th read through: read again
After I've waited a week, I repeat the 2nd and 5th part of the editing, and THEN the chapter is done and I have created a Guy.
Here's how they're differentiated:
I might've made that more complicated than it needed to be but it makes sense to me lol. Obviously this doesn't work for everyone and etc
#sts ask#thanks for the ask!#writing outline#isaac says things related to his writing again#wip: rosemary#writing
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Chapter 4 of a Dedf1sh fanfic I wrote
This one's another fairly short chapter, I'm sorry. (The whole fanfiction is very short. I felt like it didn't need to be long to tell the full story though? I'll probably edit and re-release it later).
First
Previous
Next
Read it on ao3
Chapter 4 below!
(CW: Swearing)
Time worked strangely in the Deepsea Metro. Ahato knew they had spent a long time there, but they weren’t sure if it had been weeks, months, or years. Despite how long it had been, they only managed to collect one thang, and make one song. Surprisingly they were able to complete a lot of the tests, mostly because they loved how much happiness the mem cakes brought Iso Padre, but the thangs still alluded them.
“I don’t know what to do,” they thought out loud while wandering around the central station. Ahato had gotten into the habit of going to the telephone when they couldn’t figure out a test, but it wasn’t much help. It either didn't speak at all or refused to provide anything that could aid them in any way. So the central station had become more of a place to think. “I’ve completed a bunch of tests but I still can’t find any thangs! And it takes me so long to complete the tests. Then once I do the mem cakes always just remind me of memories that I wish I could forget! And all I wanted to do when I came down here was make music but I’ve only made one song, and it took me so long! And the stations are too damn quiet for me to focus so I always get inspiration for music then when I can’t make it, but once I get back to the train the inspiration is gone! If only I could focus better or was more efficient in the tests or… or…”
“I might [ERROR] a solution for you, homeskillet,” the telephone suddenly burst to life.
Ahato looked at it confused for a second, then said, “Why the fuck are you talking like that?”
“It’s my brand spankin’ new contemporary speech mode, its very based, my dude.” The thing was even harder to understand now, but Ahato assumed that it would just grow out of it. Hopefully.
“Whatever. You said you had a solution? How is that possible?” If there was a way for Ahato to keep making music without getting so distracted, they would take it in a heartbeat.
“It’s this totally fleek thing called sanitization. It can sharpen your focus and efficiency like [SLANG NOT FOUND] and make those not chill memories stop hurtin’ too.”
“You can really do that? What would I have to do in order for that to happen?”
“Well you’d have to totally give up your ticket to the promised land and stop completing tests. Can’t go if you’re sanitized.” So that was the catch. Focus and efficiency in exchange for not being able to go to the promised land. Ahato had never really cared about the promised land anyway, but now it seemed like a bad idea to give it up so quickly. Then again, it wasn’t like they were any closer to collecting all the thangs, and they’d been stuck on Righteous Rails Station for days now.
“Okay. I’ll do it. When?”
“It will take eight days for the docs to prepare the [SLANG NOT FOUND]. Come back then!”
***
Ahato sat silently on the train. They immediately regretted their commitment to the telephone’s offer once they saw Iso Padre. They hadn’t even thought about how they’d have to stop earning mem cakes. They’d be letting him down. And if they couldn’t complete tests, then they wouldn’t be able to see C.Q. Cumber anymore either.
“Iso Padre, you’re really good at giving advice. I need you to give me some unbiased advice right now,” Ahato sighed, their hearts pounding in fear of what he’d say.
“I’d be happy to help however I can, Ahato.”
“So that telephone in the central station made me an offer. It said that there was this thing called sanitization, and it would make it so the I could focus on my music more and my memories wouldn’t hurt as much. But I wouldn’t be able to go to the promised land, and I’d have to stop taking tests, too. So I wouldn’t be able to collect any more mem cakes and I might even have to stop hanging out with you and C.Q. Cumber--" they interrupted themself with a sigh as they finally made eye contact with Iso Padre-- "It sounded like a great offer at the time, but now I don’t know. I love you guys, you’re like family to me, but at the same time I really want to make music, and I just can’t seem to focus.”
Iso Padre was silent for a long time before saying, “I want you to be happy, Ahato, but I do not think that this is the road to that happiness. I couldn’t care less wether or not you continue to collect mem cakes for me, but I don’t want to see you make an irreversible decision. I’ve heard about sanitization, it’s what Kamabo Co. does to the octolings in the tests to make them so strong. I’ve seen them, they have no life in their movements. I would hate to see you end up like that. I know that your memories hurt, but that’s how you know that they are important. The bad memories are what help you grow. And I have seen how happy it makes you to create music, I want nothing but that happiness for you. But part of that happiness comes from the hard work and the things that go wrong. I know this may not have been the answer you wanted to hear. For that I am sorry. I truly hope that you can understand why I ask for you not to go through with this.”
“I was actually kind of hoping you would say that. Thanks Iso Padre,” Ahato smiled up at the giant isopod, content with his advice.
#creative writing#writers on tumblr#fanfic#splatoon 3#splatoon 2#octo expansion#side order#dedf1sh#acht splatoon
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20 questions for fic writers
@carriecmoney tagged everyone who wanted to do this, and that includes me :) I will also be passing it along and tagging everyone who wants to do it
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
109! The Hetalia fics are posted under a different psued, so they don’t all always show up
2. What's your total AO3 word count?
804,045!
3. What fandoms do you write for?
These days mostly One Piece
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
1) Learning to Listen (ZoSan as pain sharing soulmates)
2) Keeping Secrets (Zosan is the worst best kept secret of the Straw Hat pirates)
3) Is technically Call It What You Want, but since I’m basically riding the coattails of 7 much better writers for that, we’ll skip it and say The Proper Reaction (ZoSan au where Sanji brings Zoro home for Christmas to meet Zeff)
4) Hold Me Closer (Zosan, anesthesia makes Zoro forget he’s married to the love of his life, fluff ensues)
5) The Love I Need to See Me Through (ZoSan au where King Zoro kidnaps Prince Sanji)
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
Not really, mostly because I’m very shy and responded with “thanks I’m glad you enjoyed it” all the time makes me anxious. I’ll reply if someone asks a question.
6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
Hard to say, since I mostly like happy endings, but probably the ao3 version of the murder mystery because Spoilers.
7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
Hard to say since again since I like happy endings, most of them end pretty happy. Probably The Christmas Swap, since i was going for “hallmark movie but incredibly gay” and got to make the brothers more accepting thanks to that premise.
8. Do you get hate on fics?
Occasionally, but not really. There’s been one persistent anon lately, but I’m wise to their game
9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
I don’t! I might in the future if the plot calls for it, but we’ll see
10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?
Yes, sometimes! There’s a Kingdom Hearts/Legend of Zelda Epic I’ve been planning since I was like 14 that I want to write one day, but if all the ones I’ve published probably the Hetalia/Ace Attorney crossover.
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Thankfully no, or not that I know of
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
Yes! There’s a Russian translation for Bounty Troubles, and a Chinese translation for the first part of Learning to Listen. I think there are more but I can’t find the links
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
Yes! As mentioned I worked on Call It What You Want with some friends, and I worked on This Is How You Lose the Time War with my friend Haru! It was fun writing with them
14. What's your all-time favourite ship?
Probably ZoSan at this point, there just so versatile and fun to shove in Situations
15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?
There’s this au where Sanji never left Germa and became there spy and is now on Alabasta causing problems on purpose fic I’ve been chipping away at for years, but who knows maybe someday it’ll be finished
16. What are your writing strengths?
I’m great at dialog, coming up with ideas, and fixing plot holes
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
Too many commas, can’t describe shit, reuse the same ideas and phrases, and I can’t stop editing as I go
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?
I’ve done it! I only speak English so I got some outside help, but I think it’s very effective if the POV can’t understand the language
19. First fandom you wrote for?
Technically powerpuff girls, but that was just for my friends. That I posted online Legend of Zelda, but all those fics are gone now
20. Favourite fic you've ever written?
Fade Away! I didn’t think I was a good enough writer for the idea when I started, but I wrote it anyway, and as I did I became better
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I tend to forget myself when it comes to ask games so here's a whole bunch of numbers - 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 19, 23, 24, 28, 33, 38
No problem, actually, thank you for the ask!
7. Your favorite Ao3 tag.
Emotional Hurt/Comfort — that’s the Good Stuff™️
9. Thoughts on cliffhangers?
I love them! As a writer, I don’t think I’m that good at executing them (it’s something I’m working on), while as a reader, I love them! Sure, they make you suffer badly, but many times it’s what keeps me going. Not being able to put a book down because you have to know what happens next is the best feeling ever.
10. Top three favorite fic tropes.
Already answered it here.
13. Rate your world-building skills from 1 to 10.
Honestly? I’d say 4 or 5. I haven’t had the need to really work on world-building yet because I have never written original stories—though I do have tons of OCs—and I’ve mostly written one-shots. I actually think Winx Club is proving to be the most challenging world to write in so far because the combination of magic with sci-fi elements is such an interesting concept which wasn’t always executed well in canon. I do have a bunch of headcanons and ideas to fix the world or at least make it more coherent (mostly stuff for a potential rewrite for the future, but there are other WIPs I’m working on at the moment so who knows about that), but I would hardly call it ‘being skilled at world-building’ because the world is already there.
19. Share a snippet from a wip without giving any context for it.
I was hoping someone would ask that 👀
“Are you busy?”
“Yes.”
“That makes two of us, then.”
With a smile, Daphne placed her book on the table and sat in front of Griffin. As soon as she’d spotted Griffin in the library, she had chosen a book that wouldn’t draw attention to the real reason she’d gone there, careful to not opt for something that would make Griffin suspect she was hiding something—which she was.
Symbolism: How Whichcraft Redefined Magic Through The Use of Runes was the first title that had caught her attention. Daphne had always been fascinated by the different approaches to magic one could have, and one of the few bright sides of having so much time to herself because of the war was that she could focus on researching beyond what was required for her studies. Oritel wouldn’t be pleased by her growing interest in whichcraft, but Daphne found solace in the knowledge that her parents wouldn’t notice—they barely noticed anything these days.
“That’s an interesting choice.”
Daphne looked up, surprised Griffin would even talk to her. She surely must’ve known her ways around Symbolic Magic, Daphne thought, but as much as she wanted to ask her, there was another matter she urged to discuss with Griffin.
Daphne just hoped she wouldn’t notice her fake attempt at sounding casual.
“Are you and Hagen still working on the sword for Father?” she asked, nodding to a book that addressed the best ways to make a metal resistant to magical fire.
As soon as the news had slipped Marion’s lips, Daphne had been sure it had been Griffin’s idea. It was brilliant, really, to take advantage of the Dragon Flame to make their weapons more effective against the Coven.
If only they would let her—the actual keeper of the Dragon Flame—in.
It’s not really edited, but trust the process, right?
23. Dialogue or description? Why is the other one so hard?
Definitely descriptions. Though dialogues can be tricky as well.
Why are descriptions harder than dialogues? Granted that dialogues aren’t easy, I think that when describing something, you have to know when to stop. You have to let the reader know where the characters are and what they’re doing without exceeding. I still have nightmares from reading Anna Karenina.
24. Thoughts on flashbacks/flashforwards.
I love them! If well executed, they’re fantastic. Flashforwards can really catch the reader’s attention. I can only think of Berserk—when I was reading the first arc, I was dying on the inside because of anxiety. I think flashbacks can be trickier if they tend to slow down a story too much.
28. Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing?
Actually, I might have those. What has helped me a lot is building a routine and staying organized. I struggle a lot with staying consistent to the point I never thought I would find a way to focus on a story longer than 10k words, and I still can’t believe I found a way. To me, it’s just a matter of knowing exactly where you’re going but still allowing yourself room for improvisation and mistakes.
I think the more you avoid writing, the more it gets scary. So write anything that comes to your mind. Literally anything. My first drafts are a huge mess, you can go from slightly decent paragraphs to paragraphs that read like the ramblings of a maniac. Chopped sentences, words that don’t mean what you think they mean. Awful, awful prose. But having something to come back to it’s so helpful. I think the myth of the first perfect draft needs to be abolished.
With that in mind, I can manage to write something everyday. Mind you, it’s not good. It’s not polished. It’s not even solid. But it’s something. Of course, stressing it too much won’t help. I don’t have a daily wordcount goal because I’m not a professional writer and I don’t have time to write everyday. But I try. Even if it’s just one word. I might get lucky and get something done, or I might not write a single word because my mind is blank. It’s fine. I just close the document and move on to something else.
Honestly, I understand the need to write down the most perfect, god-like prose known to heart, I really do, but realistically, it’s not something that I can manage. A badly written story is better than a non-written story. Plus, I enjoy editing, so there’s that.
Granted, everything I said it’s something that works for me. Everyone’s brain works differently, so I guess it’s just a matter of sifting through multiple options until you find the thing that works for you.
33. Give your writing a compliment.
Already answered it here.
38. “This never happened” fix-it fics or “This happened, but” fix-it fics?
“This happened, but…” fix-it, with the ‘but’ part being, ‘but I will cherry-pick only the silliest things I like and change everything else to cater to my specific needs’. (That is exactly what’s happening with my SotLK rewrite tbh.)
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Hey Galena!
Do you mind sharing how you write your fics? Do you have a process? A starting point?
Also, I know a lot of ppl talk "show not tell" in writing, but how do you know if you're telling instead of showing (& vice versa)? Cause for me, I would look down at what I wrote and have no idea if I'm showing or telling.
I've searched online too. People all talk about "show it not tell it" but there's never any steps to tell you how to differentiate between the two.
Hey Rose!! :D
And ohh, those are fun questions!
1) Fic writing process
All fics start with an idea, and when I get one, I store it in a document of fics (it's a numbered list of ideas with some bullet points if I want to expand further). I don't look at the fic again unless I have nothing to write OR the idea keeps swimming around in my head and I need to get it out in a more concrete form.
I don't put too much effort into outlining a fic. Often I'll make a short list of bullet points with notes, scenes I want to include, and other things I don't want to forget. A lot of the time, stuff comes to me as I write, so I don't worry about the tiny details.
When I think I like an idea enough to see it to completion, I'll open a new document and put down the summary and tags on the very first page. Here's what that looks like for my fic Sorry, we thought this was a meal for four, not one:
Usually, I don't insert the summary quote until much later. On the same page, I'll also generally have things I want to include in the notes or details I really need to remind myself on. They don't always make the most sense:
Longer, more plot-driven fics tend to have more notes. I think for my Vyn Wonderland fic, I moved my story ramblings to the notes app on my phone (and actually ended up with a brief chapter-by-chapter outline).
I don't always have a finished outline when I start drafting, but when I do start writing I try to speed through the first draft. It's very much "write first, edit later" on my end because I convince myself that I can make it better during the editing process.
Speaking of editing, once I have a first draft I like to let it sit for a bit, whether that be for a couple of hours or overnight. Then when I return to the draft, I should have a better perspective on what needs to be fixed. I go through at least four rounds of editing, sometimes more, and the last round is always with the work pasted in the AO3 editor (because the change in font once again gives me that new perspective to get typos/errors I missed in the previous rounds). I also make sure to click 'preview' and then return to the draft because that allows me to fix spaces after italics, line breaks, etc.
Once I'm satisfied with the one-shot/chapter (or just tired of reading the same thing 5-6 times in a row XD), I click the post button!
2) Show don't tell
My interpretation of show don't tell is a lot to do with emotion. Mostly something like "if you can define the emotion then try not to state it". Character A isn't happy at some good news (telling), they're grabbing their friend and spinning them around in a circle (showing). Character B isn't angry (telling), a fire is burning in the pit of their stomach and/or their throat is tight and/or their fists are clenched (showing).
It's not a hard rule, of course, because I tell sometimes, too!
I think another way show don't tell is used has to do with internal voice. Like how telling would something like "he thought so-and-so" and showing would be putting the thoughts directly in italics or indirectly in normal text.
Telling: He wondered what the secret ingredient was.
Showing directly: He swallowed the bite of lasagna. Huh, I wonder what the secret ingredient is.
Showing indirectly: He swallowed the bite of lasagna. What could the secret ingredient be?
I've used all three in various situations, so you don't always have to show each and every thing. Find what works for you and go with it :D
I don't know if that makes sense at all, but hopefully that helped!!
If you get stuck, you can always refer to writing styles you like and see what the author does with their prose, dialogue, whatever you're studying -- and then see if you can execute it in your own writing!
Thanks for stopping by, Rose!! Hope I didn't ramble on for too long ^_^
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love the new chapter!! Can't wait for the next one, do u have any fave leatin fics i can check out in the meantime?
Why thank youuuu!! So glad you're liking it :) Lol, very good question! To give you a needlessly long answer with a lot of disclaimers...
It all starts with the kind of funny fact that i actually got into the wilds because of Shoni! But by the time i started writing I had done a HARD pivot to leatin. And now that I write, I do a lot less reading than I did before, so I don't actually have as many leatin fic recs as one might hope. (I definitely have more shoni fics bookmarked on my ao3 page than leatin ones lmao it's kind of funny)
ALSO, I tend to actively avoid fics that sound similar to what I'm writing now or what I plan on writing in the near future. So for that reason I have not read many S3 fics or post-island fics. And a side effect of this is that i DO read a lot of AUs, so this might be mostly AUs, sorry if thats not your jam!! maybe someone else can chime in with canon fics?
anyway. i KNOW im gonna be missing lots of good ones so sorry in advance but here's some ideas to get you started:
This feels like low hanging fruit but it's true - anything by lostresidentevilpotter is a good bet, the ex-girlfriends one was an instant classic for me and actually i think it was one of the first leatin fics i ever read! really you could spend a week making your way through the lostresidentevilpotter archives and it would be a week well spent.
I'm also a big JourEtNuit fan - this one where all the girls go into witness protection after the island was another instant classic, and another of the ones that I read really early on in my fandom journey so it has a special place in my heart. more recently i loved the The Last of Us AU !
Perhaps an unconventional pick because it's not my usual thing but this social media AU where the girls start a joint tiktok account after the island has TOTALLY charmed me and I adore it, always makes me smile.
I really enjoyed this series by tardexlanoche - think this is actually the only full-on s3 fic I've read, and I loved the premise set up by the first one in the series where Fatin and Leah were kind of almost friends before the island. Plus i believe there will be a sort of AU of itself that branches off after the first fic in the series about what would happen betw. them if they never went to the island, which I think is a super neat concept.
And one of the few other canon-adjacent fics I read and enjoyed a lot is The Fall by Ecrooked24 , where leah and fatin get stuck in a ravine and have to confront their feelings - with angst aplenty. (I've also been loving Polaroids!!)
And then there's a few others that only started recently but I'm keeping an eye on because they intrigued me -
tip the world on its side - leah sees gretchen in LA, i have no idea what's going on but i'm very into it so far
this compass tattoo soulmate au - i am not usually a soulmate AU kind of gal but this one has got me hooked!
this ghost hunter AU - had me at ghost honestly! and then had me again at ghost *hunter* lol
this one where Fatin leaves Leah annotated books - annotated books are such a cute concept and it was SO ruined by jeff doing it!
whew okay...sorry this was so long but if you follow me you should hopefully know by now that i write fucking NOVELS any chance i get hahaha. if anyone has anything else to add please feel free!! especially s3/canon-adjacent/post-island fics!
EDIT: suggestions from the comments - these are all great too, i've read a lot of them and started others!!
Mad Girl's Love Song by ThornedRose44
come home to my heart by scoutshonour,
Sleepless in Sylvester by comicc_bookk_jawnss,
pull you from the tide aka the tinder series au by overnights,
did you win? aka the celeb au by lunchables,
and can't forget the amnesia au
i was dangerously tangled (the second time i met you)
by rosymidnights.
#answered#again i am SO SORRY this is so long.#not my goofy ass saying i might not have many fic recs then throwing this monster of a post at you lol#added some suggestions from the comments btw!
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No Way But Forward
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Character: Azula
Word Count: 2k
Publish Date: 9/3/22
Warnings: Mentions of previous self-harm, suicidal attempt, abuse
Major Tags: Modern AU, Redemption, Angst with a Happy Ending, PTSD, Loving Family, Iroh and Zuko are Good Family, Azula was 14 Years Old
Summary:
9 things about Modern AU Azula, a 19 year old living with her uncle above his tea shop.
Azula has survived a lot of terrible things- her father's abuse, her mother's emotional distance, a psychotic break- but she's determined to fight the demons and find herself.
Read "No Way But Forward" on AO3 or keep reading
A/N: This character study was a fun little exercise that, as I mass upload my old works without editing, I can look fondly back upon. Please be kind, and enjoy.
1.) Her favorite color is red
It’s a swelteringly hot night in August when she realizes that she likes seeing herself in the red lighting of a restaurant sign. Her hands shoving a debit card back into her clutch purse, swimming in red. Her body, nails, clothes, hair, soul: all illuminated, painted in red. Not scarlet, not burgundy, not crimson. Just the red of Fire Nation’s Best- just like her.
The thought surprises her, curling in her chest. There’s so much of her life that was handed forced down onto her by her father that she often doesn’t know where he has bled into her. Is her favorite food really Beijing Kaoya, or did she like the way Ozai made Zuko eat it every first Sunday of the month, tears streaming down his face from eating his favorite animal? Does she really like to play the piano, or did something deep inside her collapse in on itself after the 10,001st hour of practice? When she had tried to end everything, did she really want to die or did his voice drown out every reason why she wanted to live?
But this- the color that adorned every room in her childhood- this she knows she likes, so she buys a cheap color changing light and decides to bathe her room in the color. It goes on every night at sunset and stays on even as she sleeps. When she goes to the bathroom, it spills from the small crack under her door and trickles down the hallway.
Iroh doesn’t say anything, but he starts working on brewing a new tea that steeps into a pure red. A little figure of a red dragon appears on her desk a few weeks later. He writes the notes he leaves her in red ink. Shuffled into her growing collection is a new paint palette of different shades of red.
Azula kisses his cheek one day before he opens the store and the red stain of her lips is still there when he’s falling asleep on the couch to some Asian drama show.
Zuko, she can tell, is a bit more concerned. His scar is more immediately noticeable, but her marks run like silver slits of a knife down her face. Once they were red, the same red that stayed under her fingernails for a whole day until the nurses sedated her enough to scrub them clean. She’s sure there was more red soaked into her bed sheets and carpet.
Apparently wounds on the face bleed more than anywhere else. She doubts that Zuko will ever forget that fun little fact- nor her chopped hair, bloody-clawed-raw face or screams she let out.He eyes the red of her lipstick and nails and shirts and comforter like he’s approaching a wild animal.
He relaxes once she paints a red bird flying free from broken chains: heavy handed to make sure it gets through his thick skull, but at least he gets the message.
2.) Just because there are mostly good nights, doesn’t mean the bad nights are magically cured
Her hands shake as she wedges herself between the couch and the wall. It’s a tight squeeze. Not the tightest she’s ever managed to escape Ozai, though. She’s done crazier things to dodge his fists and his temper.
“This is fine,” she tells herself. “The tighter I ball up, the less he can hit.”
Aang’s taking it decently well, considering how little they know each other, but his eyes are wild as they search for Iroh or Zuko or honestly anyone more qualified to handle her.
She presses her back against the wall and feels the solidness on three sides.
Good, good.
Now if he comes to attack her, she only has to defend one side. It’s somewhat disadvantageous to be cornered like this, but since her front is the only side open, he’ll have to come into her field of vision before he attacks and if she can see Ozai she can-
Aang’s hands wrap gently around her own and pull them to his own chest. He breathes slowly and she pretends to listen to whatever bullshit he’s spewing about focusing on her surroundings. Still, she can’t help but match her admittedly feral breathing down to his annoyingly calm pace. Her mind races as she presses herself back further into the corner, though.
The room is deathly silent for a few moments.
“I feel like I’m spinning out of control. I’m not even doing anything, but it still feels I’m still losing my grip again.”
Aang continues breathing in his nose and out through his mouth. He takes a beat.
“I don’t understand, but if you want to keep talking I want to keep listening,” he says.
She snorts lightly. Ever the diplomat, just like Zuko described him.
When Zuko and Iroh come back from the pizza place 20 minutes later, she’s telling him about the way her Mom used to laugh on the rare occasion that it happened.
3.) Azula rescues the dumpster cat from behind the Jasmine Dragon, not Iroh.
It used to be so dangerous to like things when Ozai was around. It was only a guarantee that one day he would turn around and snuff it out before eyes or throw it back in her face. Hobbies, people and pets included.
So the first time she sees his curious little brown face with the huge blown pupils peeking at her from behind the corner, she ignores him. Every day after her shift for the next two weeks, though, she sees the same damn cat. No matter how much she stomps her foot in his direction or hisses at him in order to scare him off, he doesn’t leave. On the eighth day, she decides if he’s going to be such a stubborn pain in the ass, she might as well leave him the can of cat food she happened to pick up while grocery shopping with Iroh.
Not because she likes him. It’s only because she doesn’t want rats out by the garbage and the little shit is keeping them away. It’s not like he’s cute or anything.
A month later, the bell on his collar is a familiar sound around the shop and he’s been poked by so many needles that he might even be immune to Death itself.
Azula lets him curl up by her feet at night, breathing softly and slowly. It reminds her of when she was little and would crawl into Zuko’s bed after a nightmare.
She names the cat Zuzu just to fuck with him.
4.) She likes having her head shaved
The first time she did it was purely out of practicality. After her lost battle with the infamous pair of scissors, her long hair was too unevenly chunky to be salvaged. The nurse gave her a pixie cut to “help”, but was worse because it looked closer to a catholic monk’s bowl-cut than anything else. It had to come off. She went into the bathroom with hair one night and walked out with only the shortest of stubble.
At first, it’s shameful.
Of course, she has a great head shape and her face is more than beautiful enough to carry it, scars or not. Azula could wear her hair however she wants and she’ll make it look pretty.
That’s not the issue. It’s just- her hair was like a crown. Always perfect and in place. Naturally pin straight and the perfect black-brown. It’s actually that thought that frees her, though. She likes letting go of that perfection, of that pressurized tank.
Azula lets it grow out a few inches until she confirms what she already knows: the shaved head is staying.
She lets her the rest of her hair grow long (because okay, sue her, it’s not the most flattering haircut she’s ever had) and ropes in Zuko’s talkative roommate Sokka to teach her how to shave the right side of her head.
It’s an odd scene. Azula and Sokka sit on the floor on a trash bag while Zuko holds one of those cheap full-length mirrors up so she can see how to part the hair properly and cut it cleanly.
Toph, with the sharp wit and no-nonsense attitude she respects, is sprawled at the end of the couch with her one leg thrown over the side. She throws little sarcastic comments at Sokka’s instructions and Azula can’t help but crack and small smile.
Next to her sits Aang and his Watertribe girlfriend (Sokka's sister, she's 85% sure?) who are chatting loudly with Sokka’s jujitsu girlfriend and Iroh about how the different languages of the nations overlap and differentiate.
Azula feels like she’s inserted herself into a puzzle that’s long been put together, but she still fits. And she doesn’t mind fitting in, either.
Also, her hair looks sick as fuck and is only going to look cooler as the rest grows longer.
5.) She still needs her big brother sometimes
Zuko lays gently down on the floor next to her. On their sides, they face each other. Scarred and older in the face than they should be.
“I’m always going to love you, Zula. You know that, right? I’m always going to be your big brother.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
And that’s enough.
6.) She’s OBSESSED with True Crime Podcasts
It’s nice to see how peaceful she looks with her headphones in at lunchtime or washing dishes after the café closes, until Zuko realizes what she’s listening to. Apparently, listening to horrific retellings of 40-year-old bald white men murder their entire families and random women is the perfect thing to eat turkey sandwiches and clean teacups to.
7.) Azula still has the pictures of Ty Lee and Mai hanging on her wall
They haven’t talked in years, but she still has their pictures hanging on the corkboard above her desk. In one, they’re frozen in time as high school sophomores before the Homecoming dance, genuinely smiling for once. In another, Ty Lee is in her stage makeup with her arms flung around Mai and Azula. A third has Mai and Zuko blushing on the front porch before their first date, long before they decided they needed a break to find themselves.
She knows she fucked up, but she still loves them. She’s learning that it’s okay to love someone and want the world for them and still recognize that they don’t have to forgive you and let you back in. Sometimes you just have to let people go and love them like the moon loves the ocean. Always distant, but always constant. She hopes they’re doing well.
8.) Azula absolutely has a record collection.
On rainy days, which happen so much more here in the Earth Kingdom, she turns them on and lays on the floor. She lets them wash over her, lets herself think about everything.
She plays Billie Eilish, Halsey, Miley Cyrus for herself.
Fall Out Boy and Hozier on the days she wants to remember Mai. One Direction and 5SOS on the days that Ty Lee swims in her head.
Arctic Monkeys for Zuko- replays “Arabella” three times. Old musicals like “Singin’ in the Rain” and folk music of the different nations for Iroh. Beethoven, Xian Xinghai, Mozart, Chou Wen-Chung and the like for the days she wants to remember her mother. Her favorite composition is still Fur Elise, likes to glide her fingers through the air like they’re sliding over an invisible piano.
She starts throwing in Bob Marley for Aang and 80’s rock bands with a splash of Tame Impala for Sokka. Toph, the DAMN. album from Kendrick.
And on the extremely infrequent occasion she wants to think about her father- the rarest of rare good times on Ember Island- she plays Elvis.
9.) She’s thinking about moving to Omashu.
Ba Sing Se is fine, lightyears ahead of Caldera or anywhere else in the Fire Nation. And sure, she likes living with Iroh. Likes hearing his snoring down the hall and his laugh, smelling his teas around the clock and feeling the warmth of his bear hugs.
Still, there’s something tugging in her chest. Here in Ba Sing Se, she’s That Girl. Iroh’s niece, Zuko’s sister, the one that showed up with gashes running down her face one afternoon and never left. The Crazy One. The One That Occasionally Loses Her Temper. The Scary One.
She’s never felt more like herself before, but she knows deep within that her growth is limited here. She needs to find “Azula” out there, and what better place to do it than Omashu University while getting a degree?
She thinks that she’ll pitch it to Iroh when summer rolls around, work on her application in the meantime. She has the money from the inheritance Ozai left her. What better way to spend blood money?
But until the summer, she’ll just enjoy her life as it is. Working in the tea shop during the week, watching TV on the couch with Iroh at night and filling her weekends with visiting Zuko’s (her?) friends.
#avatar#modern au#avatar the last airbender#fanfiction#ao3#azula#check the tags#trigger warning#alternate universe#modern#angst angst angst#angst with a hopeful ending#hope#uncle iroh#zuko#team avatar
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20 Questions for Writers
Tagged by @cxttlefishcxller, thank you my friend!
I really wanted to tag Pix, but I can’t seem to remember your blog’s URL. ;;;
Note: I am unsure if "fic" here indicates fanfic or also includes original fic, but I assumed fanfic for some reason? Meh, most of what I write is fanfiction anyways.
Also, this got really long....
How many works do you have on AO3?
So, I don't really have many fics posted on Ao3. I have like. Three, I think? I'm working on moving them over! I just only want the Rewritten Better Versions on Ao3.
Update: It's 4! I forgot I put the Ruby Gloom fic up there hoping someone would adopt it.
(Fanfiction.net has 33, for comparsion.)
What is your total AO3 word count?
...How does one find that out without manually adding the numbers up....????
Edit: I found the Statistics page. It's 35,853
Fanfic.net would be over 300,000 though.
What fandoms do you write for?
Actively: Teen Titans and Pokemon! I also started a Ruby Gloom fic and almost-entirely-outlined but never-fully-wrote a Steven Universe fanfic. (Well, I did finish the Ocean Gem scene from Lapis's POV. Does that count?)
As far as RPing (you did only say "write for", after all!):
- Teen Titans (Dove's main verse, which is part 00's show and part 80's comics)
- Steven Universe (my Lapis blog was kinda active for awhile and though my Blue Diamond blog never saw any actual roleplaying, I did write a lot of headcanons!) - Yu-Gi-Oh! (Ryou Bakura, like Blue, was never roleplayed except once on rabb.it but I wrote scattered heacanons) - DCAMU (Raven, of course! Would love to get some actual rps going with her again. But alas. The Horrors.)
What are your top five fics by kudos?
So, kudos is specific to Ao3, and I don't have a lot there. Apparently, uhh.... the only fic that has any kudos at all is the 14 on Unforeseen and Unforesaken.
....I was going to say "But on fanfic.net..." Except fanfic.net doesn't have a comparable feature. {lD;;
Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
I really should! I just. Keep forgetting to check my email. I would, given the time and attention spoons and a computer that actually stays connected to the internet for longer than 15 minutes at a time...
What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
It's not done yet. But it's going to be the final chapter of DDD. Dove literally asks, "I killed five people. Do I deserve to die?" It's... going to be Intense and come with a few content warnings because it's HEAVY.
What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
So far? Uhhhh........ I mean, A work of Magic (Pokemon fic) is pretty upbeat so far. The story basically BEGINS with Jess wanting to raise a Misdreavus and Mismagius (and finding them); Murky hating his flock (and he's with a trainer now so he's away from them); Missie being abandoned (but then found by a trainer who loves her!); and Mistress's arc is in the works (ha) but it's already begun (she's mad about her species being hated for their reputation but Jess doesn't care about that). It's going to be ALL happy endings.
I think, in the published stories, it might be between Mystery Sickness (Raven heals from the titular sickness and everyone's happy!) or Missing: Raven (wherein the titular missing Raven returns and everyone's happy!). In my unpublished fics though... Fire and Flight is going to end with Dove and Srentha getting married, and that's a really blissful scene for them, of course. This is hard actually because I don't like NOT-happy endings! They mostly all do except the ones that have direct sequels (DDD and Something Special).
Do you get hate on your fic?
Oh my stars, I USED to! Dove's core concept - "Raven's sister" - made SO many people mad! Keep in mind, I started sharing my stories in 2005 or 2006. Writing a character that fit arbitrary criteria that everyone else except me somehow knew was a !!SIN!!. (Two exclamation points for Mercymorn vibes are, in this case, intentional.)
One of the first things I shared was Dove's character bio. And people almost always said things like "She's a Mary Sue!" Simply because she was related to Raven. Or "She has too many powers!" (And Raven canonically has a new power like every 3 issues in the comics; what's your point?) People also said I wasn't allowed to make Dove like J-Pop because I also liked J-pop. Which is. Like. ??? H u h ? ? ? ???
It didn't make sense to me then and it doesn't make sense to me now.
I don't think I've gotten any hate in the past 10 years or so, though. Though I personally consider it equivalent to hate when someone goes to my Teen Titans stories and, in a review on that Teen Titans fanfic, without commenting on anything whatsoever regarding the content of the Teen Titans story, asks me to update the Ruby Gloom fic.
Fuck off.
(I got Really Painfully Disappointed when I saw that email that someone reviewed DDD! The first review on that story in YEARS! A story I've poured my heart and soul [and a little bit of my own mindscape experience] into creating! Only for it to be someone begging--on the WRONG DAMN STORY-- for me to update something I already explicitly said I was no longer writing.)
Do you write smut?
Not really. Not often. Not well. I mostly just have outlines. And there are like. Five scenes outlined. Brief scenes. (99.5% of the time, I don't care about smut at all. It's just not fun for me unless I am REALLY in EXACTLY the right mood to have fun with it.)
Do you write crossovers?
I did once! Unfortunately that was the only time I ever felt shame, because I thought it was Too Self-Indulgent and for some reason decided it was silly. Pokemon and Teen Titans. Dove gets a transportation spell wrong and ends up in the Pokemon world, and accidentally catches a Misdreavus. (Because what else would I write about in the Pokemon world? XD) I had this really fun idea about the ghost getting stuck in Raven's mindscape and Dove has to go in there to retrieve it. But I simply didn't have any idea where the story was going and lost interest. It's the only story I've ever deleted, and I regret it so much. I lost the flashdrive that had the original file on it and all the notes for that scene, too. u.u
Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Not to my knowledge. Although, let's be real, the idea that "Raven has a sister named Dove" is Very Far from Unique. Stories like that were all over 2000's fanfic.net. (I named my Dove independently and refuse to change it. It Has MEANING for mine, okay!)
Have you ever had a fic translated?
Not to my knowledge?
Have you ever co-written a fic?
Most of the process! Sort of. A Work of Magic (my ACTUAL Pokemon fanfiction) is going to involve my best friend's trainer character as my trainer character's traveling companion! Eventually. Assuming I ever publish enough of the story to solidify Jess's team first....
That's also assuming rping doesn't count, by the way. I assume you mean fic as in "fanfiction specifically". But if RPs count, I have co-authored a GREAT many fics! In fact the first 5ish years I was roleplaying, it was in a chatroom specifically for Teen Titans OCs!
What's your all-time favorite ship?
This may be cheating, but my VERY FAVORITE ship is actually my OCxOC ship, Dove and Srentha! Secretshipping! My babies. The first romantic interest/couple I ever actually cared about.
If it HAAAAS to be a ship of characters within the realm of canon... JeriRae is probably the one. Though Lapidot was a contender for awhile.
I also really liked the OCxRaven ship in my favorite Teen Titans fanfiction... before I reread it at an age where I realized it's Weird to ship a 25 year old man with a character that the story states "hasn't even reached her sixteenth birthday". Their dynamic would be REALLY exciting if it wasn't a little creepy.
What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
Honestly? All the smut scenes. I write at such an agonizingly slow pace as it is, but when I'm not actually In the Mood For Smutty Things, I'm actually mildly s*x-repulsed and when I'm not repulsed, I am simply Disinterested, and I'm not going to write it if it's Not Interesting.
What are your writing strengths?
Characterization so every character feels unique and alive! Maybe dialogue, as a subset of characterization and also sounding Pretty Natural? Using descriptive words that paint vivid pictures and echo vivid sounds and evoke powerful emotions! I've gotten my writing to a place where it generally flows very well, syntax-wise. Immersive descriptions of sensory experiences (especially tactile and auditory). Being able to get into the character's head and write the scene As They See It without using first-person. Character growth and developement is a Big Thing. I'm also learning to write better metaphors! (Still learning quite the right places to wield them, but I used to use a ton of hyperbole and modifiers that kinda killed the mood. I'm getting WAY better at them now though!)
Also, fic-specific: Hella headcanons! Especially for something I'm really interested in, like Azarath or how Raven's powers work. My analytical mind combined with the joy and perpetuity of hyperfixation means I analyze a LOT of little details in canon.
I can take a line that only briefly mentions a "magistrate of food production" and extrapolate an Entire Aspect of Society. (They have people in charge of food production! It's an organized aspect of society! It's HIERARCHICAL. "Magistrate" means he's judging things; he's not the only one calling the shots! It's PRODUCTION, which means it's not all foraged! They have a whole system for it; it's REGULATED! And I'm just now, at this very moment, thinking "holy shit, what did they do when the magistrate of food production fucking PERISHED"... not like that was the most important part of that scene. But. I never considered that before. Food is pretty important. I actually need to gnaw on this for awhile.)
What are your writing weaknesses?
Humor and fight scenes. Also fluff and smut, but I don't really enjoy writing those. There may be Occasional Fluff, especially in secretshipping scenes with Dove and Srentha, and usually it comes out pretty sweet, but it's always wrapped in Actual Story. And smut just. Doesn't really have any place in my writing. I've outlined a few things, "fully written" one singular lime scene. (It might eventually someday possibly conceivably become more than a lime. Maybe.)
But humor? I absolutely suck at that. My Pokemon fanfic has some humor elements, and sometimes the character narrating the scene via limited third person or omniscient makes a dry comment, and I appreciate dry humor. But humor just isn't... something I gravitate towards naturally. And when I do, it's dry and subtle and understated.
I tried to write a funny moment into DDD where Dove tries doing laundry with her powers, they go out of control, she gets the clothes mixed up and because Dove isn't from Earth and didn't know they have to stay separate in the washer, the whites and colors get mixed, and so Beast Boy laments his clothes turning pink. The scene ends with Beast Boy teasing her and saying he'll just get revenge, and Robin says, "So everyone except Dove: Watch for trip wires." It feels SO out of place in DDD. (You know: The story where murders happen and Dove has a breakdown.) I was going for "Break the dramatic tension with humor". You know. Comic relief. I'm not sure how well it worked.
And fight scenes? I can imagine Some Things Happening, but it's always in brief snatches of moments. I can't follow the flow of a fight in my head. I mostly describe it in snapshots, because I don't enjoy fights much. I don't enjoy physical training or sports or martial arts or war stories. I even zone out during Teen Titans (My #1 Hyperfixation) episodes when they're fighting. I don't enjoy writing them and I don't enjoy content of them, so I kind of just. Can't even figure out how they work. Solution: Slap a few serviceable moments together and call it a day. It's not a skill I intend to polish beyond "just get it over with so I can get to the COOL part". Cool, subjectively, being the part AFTER the fight.
I will say that I GREATLY enjoyed both the process of writing and somewhat enjoyed the result of the DDD climax battle! Chapter 20, the largely-abstract battle between Raven and Dove in Dove's mindscape. I absolutely LOVED playing around with how an empath and a telepath would wage war when they're LITERALLY INSIDE SOMEONE'S MIND! I didn't have to coordinate hits and weapons in my head; it was all abstract, emotional, redirection stuff that DOES capture my imagination!
But how often am I ever going to write an empath and a telepath fighting in a mindscape? It's the only battle scene I've ever written that I'm actually HAPPY with. (....event-wise, anyways. Not at all happy with the rhythm/prose/style. I like What Happens in the battle, not How It's Written. But the thing about not enjoying, and thus not practicing, a thing is that I'm not going to be good at it even when I really want to be.)
Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?
I kinda do that already! Though most of it is in a conlang... Not sure if that counts. (I don't think I've published it anywhere. But if you've ever seen the scene I posted on dA that ends in "May your spirit soar free"? I hadn't done it at the time, but I now know how that's written: Phiareh se-o a'erentha.) Names come into play for character!Zira, particularly Ciraen and Zirane, and Leyla and Dove both have "affectionate" names used to denote especially deep fondness and significance. I don't think I've ever written an entire CONVERSATION in another language though.
Oh, and I intersperse Rorek's dialog with Latin at the beginning of that story because I'm a dork for Latin and he's supposed to have been ripped from the past and is ~magically~ learning English. It's a transition.
Anyways, I think it's fine but I think people should try to find a beta who knows the language.
First fandom you wrote for?
Does "inventing a Yu-Gi-Oh! card" count as writing? Because if so, probably that. If not: Does imagining a species count as writing? Then Pokemon or Yoshi (both of Nintendo fame). As far as actually fully writing out the stories in words with the intent for them to be read as a narrative: that's 100% Teen Titans.
Favorite fic you've ever written?
What is my favorite star in the sky? My favorite leaf on a tree? Which tidal wave is the moon's favorite? By the gods, I can't pick just ONE. I love them all for the whole tapestry they weave, and my Current Favorite changes by the day. The most statistically common "Favorites" tend to be:
- Dove's Dark Discovery (because writing the mindscape scenes was SO DAMN FUN!)
- The Final Journey (I'm writing about Azar and that's very important to me for private Nexus reasons, but it's also important to DOVE! And it's a classic Adventure Quest story with a twist of "she's still getting over the fact that she killed people")
- Something Special About Srentha (perhaps my most coherent plot to date and headcanoning Azarathean history like CRAZY)
- Growing Up Demon (Leyla's childhood scenes that don't fit elsewhere and she's very fun and very loved and it warms my heart A Lot-- some of the only time I enjoy writing slice of life, but is it really slice of life when your life is magic and demons?)
- A Work of Magic is my favorite when I'm in Pokemon-hyperfixation mode or am just really appreciating warm-fuzzies and low stakes.
...
Holy fricking gods I'm tired. I read that last question as "first fic you've ever written" and. Answer under the read-more because I typed that all out and I Like The Answer, but it's not....... the answer it's asking for. {lD;;
Oh great gods, define "writing"! I was playing out stories with my PowerPuff plush figure things at like age 5. I made up characters and species for Pokemon and Yoshi when I was that age, possibly even younger! And I made up Dove at a VERY young age, considering I'm still writing about her at age 30: I must have been 10 or 11! I came up with her Core Concept veeeery shortly after getting into Teen Titans. I specifically remember playing pretend when Teen Titans was still airing; my oldest sister was playing Terra and I was playing Dove. We were playing toys with a spare Raven Bandai figure being Raven's sister named Dove (something about time travel and crossing a river in a boat made of legos?) the night Spellbound aired. That was... (checks internet) October of 2004!
And the oldest writings I have dated-- as in, writings when I actually wrote down the date I put the words on paper-- are Dove stories from 2005. But I know I was writing the stories down on paper about a year before I actually started writing the dates down. So at the VERY latest, I started "writing" fics in 2005.
I don't think I started Intentionally Writing Fanfiction, as it actually
I'm tagging: Under the singular condition that you actually want to do it! @mymixofmuses @orionsdestiny @sirenianheart @impulse-goblin
+AND: Anyone else who sees this and wants to do it! Frankly I'm not sure who else writes. @monstrousgourmandizingcats, if it can be interpreted as original fic?
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answering both of the recent tag games in one since im lazy (so scroll for the questions below the bingo)
tagged by @professional-benaddict (sorry for responding so late lol) and because i dont have too many mutuals, tagging anyone who sees it & wants to do it!
I chose my baby Spider-Man/Peter Parkee, with a focus on the starker fandom!
1. How did you discover your fave?
spider-man movies -> video edits on insta/tiktok -> irondad fanfics on wattpad -> ao3 -> looking at starker in disgust -> becoming a part of the fandom
2. How long have you been a fan of your fave?
since homecoming! when it first came out but it took me a while to start interacting with the fandom
3. Do you write for your fave? (E.g. AU's, Drabbles, Fan Fics.)
sorta! i don't actively write, just kinda drabble sometimes and i mostly dont post that, plus helping others write, i do have drafts that have been in my docs for years though
4. Do you like what is canon about your fave?
i do but i feel bad for him! poor guy has nobody :((, but before endgame i was in love with canon.
5. Tell some of your headcanons of your fave.
•his spider abilities on top of the originals like purring, cant have peppermint, hibernates, etc
•his love of animals, always stopping on patrols to say hi to them or trying to keep the strays he finss
•being worthy of mjolnir and picking it up without knowing the significance
•that he worms his way into the hearts of everyone he meets
6. Do you draw for your fave? (E.g. Fan Art)
no i dont, but i love seeing others fan art obviously!
7. If your fave/s are portrayed by several actors, who are your fave portrayers?
basic, ik, but tommy.
8. Are you more into Books/ Comics/Films when it comes to your fave?
mostly the fanfics then anything, but the movies and comics are so entertaining.
9. Quote anything about what your fave has said.
this ones weird but when i went to new york i went out of my way to go to moma because of him mentioning it to tony
10. Quote your favourite line of your fave!
basic but the "When you can do the things that I can, but you don't, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you." because even though its sad/semi unhealthy to put that pressure on yourself, i relate to it in a way and uphold myself to helping whenever i can.
11. Ever made a edit for/of your fave?
i dont think so? maybe photos but that would have been a while ago
12. Songs you associate with your fave?
anything to do w new york really
13. If your fave was real, do you think they'd like you?
i think so, if we meant in a natural way lolol, i try to be social and i think id be able to joke with him
14. Amongst your fave/s who do you think are you? (E.g. You have 5 faves, amongst the 5 of them you think of yourself as fave no.3)
skipping because i only am answering for the one
15. Do you know your fave origin story?
yes i doo, radioactive spider bite, yada yada, parents dead, yada yada, uncle shot, rip, grew up in queens & stayed there
16. In 1 word describe your fave’s aesthetic.
akward
17. Is/Are your fave/s famous on A03?
yes very much, but mostly for irondad
18. Ships that you like with your fave?
i do like irondad if thats even considered a ship, peter w tony, harley, steve, stephen, and bucky, either seperate or at the same time, and im open to other pairings too
19. Is/Are your fave/s well known?
yes very well
20. If your fave/s have a fandom, what do you think about the fandom?
i like them, idk if theyd like me now that ive gone to the dark side lol
21. Describe yourself using something your faves have said
oops kinda did this already for another question but, "I am Responsible. I…Oh crap. My backpack’s gone." I try to be responsible but i am very clumsy and forgetful lol, and i do a lot of stupid shit
22. If you would feed your fave/s something, what would it be?
as big of a meal as i could possibly make, very carby, probably pasta, get some meat on those bones and feed the super apetite
23. How do you see yourself in any of your fave/s?
i see the optimism/ akwardness in myseld as well, we are semi-close in age so i think that contributes to it
24. Ever taken a break from your fave/s?
sorta, it was very short and it was mostly in between going from irondad to starker as well as small breaks i took from everything lol
25. If your fave/s were to have a crossover, who and which character would they have a crossover with?
well they did have one with stephen and the other spidermen but i think it would be cool to see him really interacting w the women of marvel, aka kate, yelena or natasha (also rip), pepper, captain marvel, america chavez, etc.
#sydneys tags#sydney answers#sydneyrambles#rafni if you see this i love you#starker minus the starker tag
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end-of-year writing meme shit
the ao3 wrapped thing keeps popping up on my feed here and on twitter-- i don't do fandom anymore but i DO do origfic, so i'm just copypasting the questions and answering them in relation to original shit here.
How many words have you written this year?
i do not count words anymore because they stress me out! but ballpark figures from completed projects at very least, well over 200k. not as much as i'd like ofc, but given this is the first year i've been able to write consistently since my crash and burn in 2017, i'll take it.
How many works did you publish this year?
uhhhhhhh seven? seven!
What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?
Frantic Showstoppers, the novel i'm working on now, i think. no, it's not finished, and it won't be finished until February if all goes well, BUT it's the most complex narrative i've ever put together and if i pull this thing off it'll be spectacular.
What work of yours has the most hits?
the jokey mpreg short i published years ago consistently gets full reads on Kindle Unlimited, which i find hilarious.
What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?
publishing original fiction doesn't really get feedback per se, but the erotica i published on a secret pen name just to try each got a few five star ratings surprised the shit out of me.
Favorite title you used
lightspeed to love is an in-progress gay space opera romance thing that i had to ditch the first draft of cos it sucked, but damn do i still enjoy that title. it's so stupid.
If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most?
sadly not allowed to do that for Legit Published Things. sucks, cos i am horrible at titles and could use the help.
Pairing you wrote the most for this year?
wrote mostly dude-on-dude stuff. have a few projects i got words into that were sapphic, but nothing completed that i could show anyone.
Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?
the lead and his Crush(TM) in Frantic Showstoppers are my faves, with the secondary pairing of two characters in the background as a close runner-up. these people are flailing disasters and i love them.
What work was the quickest to write?
the erotica! spent no more than a week on most of them, quick to edit, even quicker to make a shitty cover for and to publish. there's a reason people do the erotica game with so many pen names to make money, and it's cos once you get into a schedule you can basically just bust them out quickly (lol).
What work took you the longest to write?
on-going novel now, Frantic Showstoppers. started that mf-er in June. or was it May? god i don't even know anymore. longest amount of time i've dumped into any book tbh, normally i'm a "three months for clean draft to send to my editor" type of person.
How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?
i think i counted them recently and it was thirty-something.
What’s your longest work of the year?
Frantic Showstoppers is currently over sixty thousand and like maybe a quarter to a third finished.
What’s your shortest work of the year?
first erotica short was under five thousand words. le gasp.
What WIP are you taking into next year with you?
ALL OF THEM.
What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?
gonna answer this with a common keyword i dump into amazon when publishing, which is GAY.
Your favorite character to write this year?
the lead in Frantic Showstoppers, Kenji Masuda. runner-up, the lead in Postscript Prometheus, which is one of those sapphic books that hasen't been finished yet and isn't a priority. the lead in that one is so gross and i love her.
The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?
uhhhhhhh the Love Interest in Frantic Showstoppers has been a bit of a bother because i forget he's got an interior life separate from Kenji, so i've got to go back and fix that over and over. one of the reasons i scrapped one of the versions of the third part in the book is because i just forgot everyone other than Kenji wasn't an extension of him. that was a bad week of writing, i'm so embarrassed with myself.
What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?
i want to go back to the Debtspace series and finish rewriting Lightspeed to Love so i can finally get that bad taste out of my mouth. the characters were fine in the first version, but the rewrite will make them better.
Which work of yours have you reread the most?
overall? Hooversuck of an Empty Space cos i keep having to edit it for one format or another and YES i keep finding shit to fix. recently tho i tend to reread what i have of Frantic Showstoppers just to try and get a grip on it before i dump another 10k onto it.
How many kudos in total did you get this year?
going to focus on reviews and star ratings, not a lot. in the self publishing sphere people who leave reviews or even bother to do a star rating are either absolutely rabid with love for your book, or absolutely despise it. there's very rarely any middle ground there.
Which work has the most comments?
see answer to last question lol.
Did you do any collaborative works this year?
uhhh no. i'm not really a collaborative writer, mainly cos i'm so flakey.
Did you write any gifts this year?
in the process of getting two done right now, but idk if i'll finish them before the new year.
Did you receive any gifts this year?
not writing-based. which is GOOD, i'm so inarticulate over those kinds of things i devolve into screeching and it's just uncomfortable for everyone.
What’s your most common category?
i think Science Fiction - LGBT is a category on every single thing i've published lol.
What do you listen to while writing?
my spotify playlists are vast and diverse. good amount of city pop and synthwave in there tho.
Favorite work you wrote this year?
the beat outline for this goofy space opera serial thing i haven't had time to work on. the jokes in that one are great, can't wait to get them in prose form.
Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?
oh god it'd take ages for me to scour scrivener projects for something decent to put on here.
Biggest surprise while writing this year?
how fucking long Frantic Showstoppers is going. it started as a less than ten thousand word short for a free webzine, and now it's uh… significantly longer.
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