#adventures in fanfic

[mittensmorgul]

There’s another post going around about this, but tumblr won’t let me reblog it but...

When I read a story written by a human being, I’m not just reading it because I want to read a coffee shop AU with a specific plot description. I’m reading it because it’s making a connection to another human storyteller and seeing a piece of them carved into the words. Storytelling is a human act of sharing joy, angst, tension, resolution, satisfaction. It’s an act of love.

Writing and reading a story isn’t just an act of creation and consumption. I hate that commercialism and AI are reducing it to that sort of transaction. Like oh, you need words on this subject and that’s the end of it. Like what we really needed was just a vending machine we can push buttons on to get a fix, as if the human creating the story wasn’t a factor. That the author’s life experience and views and feelings haven’t infused the words with their own unique touches.

I’ve read hundreds of coffee shop AU’s over the years (and thousands of fics in general). I’ve seen many similar tropes reused across stories, and just like an AI would, I’ve learned things about writing them that I will always carry with me. But unlike an AI, a human author is not just the sum total of coffee shop AU’s we’ve consumed. Even if we used the same prompt, the same sets of tropes, the same characters. I will always choose the human-crafted story over the computer generated one.

Because again, I’m not just looking for a very specific fix via a series of words. I’m looking for a human connection through story.

Unlike an AI, I have BEEN to a coffee shop. I’ve had experiences in coffee shops. I’ve had funny little meet-cutes with people. I’ve accidentally spilled coffee on myself and knocked heads with someone as we both rushed to wipe it up. I know what it FEELS like. The machine doesn’t.

I’ve also read millions of things that aren’t fanfic, or coffee shop AU’s. I’ve experienced things OTHER than going to coffee shops and having meet-cutes. And I know what all those things feel like when processed through my personal human lens of experience, which is different from every other personal human lens of experience.

All the machine can do is spit out what it THINKS a human experience is, and I honestly don’t care about that at all. Fic is not a “product” to be “generated.” It’s an art form that connects us to other people who share the same love of a thing that we do.

People who, even when all writing the same characters in the same setting to the exact same prompt, will all add something or have a viewpoint about something or bring a completely different personality and life experience to the story that no one else on the planet could. That’s what I’m actually reading.

#ai shit #adventures in fanfic #i detest this commodification of art being accelerated by ai tech #as if art was nothing more than a consumer product #i want to engage with art made by people who were driven by a passion to make something and share it with us #not working to an algorithm to generate specific 'content' (and can we agree that reducing art to 'content' is part of the problem here) #and this whole concept of 'death of the author' that has been warped so far beyond what it actually means >.> #it just... makes me incredibly sad to see so many people arguing FOR the use of ai in the arts #like way to miss the whole entire point of what the arts even are #but this reminds me of the fic writer challenge i did one summer... #same prompt same set of tropes and every week a dozen completely different stories from a dozen different authors #because we all took our own unique spin on the subject because that's what PEOPLE do... #i just lament what will happen to that vast well of creativity and humanity that will be lost if everything just gets replaced #by a machine that just keeps spitting out the 'content' it believes the 'consumer' wants... it's just... depressing af

[quillquiver]

Happy 2nd anniversary to those two old guys from supernatural [[ao3]]

Their room is a mess.

It’s not their fault; though they’re largely retired, Claire and Kaia needed backup on a nearby mystery monster situation. So Cas’d cracked open the books and Dean had packed a duffle and when they’d stopped hearing from the kids, they’d gone in after them. ’Course, by the time they’d gotten back they’d pretty much just shed their viscera-covered clothing and dropped into bed.

Bright winter sun streams in through the window, causing Dean to groan and Cas to burrow further into his pillow. The duffle has been thrown at the closet door, the thing busted open and swollen with weaponry. Cas’s angel blade thigh holster hangs off the bottom-right bed post and Dean’s gun sits atop the dresser. The room smells like sewage and monster guts, which isn’t exactly ideal for a second wedding anniversary, but Dean figures they’ve done worse; last year, Jack had been so sick they’d spent the day trying to stop his puking. 

But Jack is with Sam and Eileen today, and after a shower and a change of sheets, Operation: Oops We Did It Again can finally commence. Starting, hopefully, with a vat of coffee and Dean getting fucked silly as many times as they can swing it. 

“Cas,” he whines, eyes closed. He shakes his shoulder. “Coffee.”

“You do it,” Cas says.

“Did it last time.”

Cas slaps at Dean’s hands. “M’gonna burn it.”

“S’automatic, you loser.”

“Can’t.” He rolls over. Tucking his face into the juncture of Dean’s neck, Cas applies half-asleep kisses everywhere he can reach, mumbling nonsense about how good and strong Dean is, how he’s the best provider and so manly and wouldn’t he prefer to make the coffee?

Dean stumbles out of bed grumbling.

Cas smiles. “I love you,” he murmurs, eyes still closed. 

Yeah, Dean bets he does.

By the time he comes back with two mugs and his present under his arm, Cas has moved from his side of the bed to Dean’s, his head face-down in Dean’s pillow. Dean still has no idea how he manages to breathe like that. “Hey, Sleeping Beauty. C’mon.”

Cas groans.

“Cas, seriously. There’s shit all over the room, I need you to grab this.”

He rises from the bed like a zombie from the grave, sitting up and offering his hands. As soon as the mug is cupped between his palms he sighs. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

“I love you.”

“I know.”

“Kiss.”

Dean grins. Pecks his mouth. “We’re so nasty,” he says. “Feel like I need to go through a human car wash.”

“Mm.” His blue eyes are only barely open. “Made it though.”

“Yeah by the skin of our teeth.” Dean frowns at his mug. “Gettin’ old.”

“For fighting, maybe. For everything else...” Cas shrugs. Smiles. “I think you deserve a real retirement.”

Dean purses his lips. They haven’t really talked about going whole hog on their apple pie life yet, and it’s not something he really wants to think about; if his family’s in trouble, he’s just supposed to sit around with his thumb up his ass? He’d never leave Jack, how could he leave Claire and Kaia?

“We don’t have to decide right now,” Cas says, clearly more awake. He shrugs. “It might be something to think about. I don’t like it, but Sam and Eileen’s network has been doing great things. And I think we scared Claire.”

“Yeah,” Dean chews his lip, distracted. “Maybe.”

“...Is that for me?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah.” Smiling, again, Dean takes the badly-wrapped package from under his arm and offers it. “It’s, uh, nothin’, y’know. Just... yeah. Happy anniversary.”

Cas kisses him, soft and sweet. “What is it?”

“You have to open it, you dork.”

“Alright, well...” Cas stretches and reaches under the bed, bringing up a present of his own. “Happy anniversary to you, too.”

Dean grins. “Open mine first.”

Cas’s gift is a riotously coloured cotton sweatshirt and short set. The thing looks like it’s been pulled right out of the 90s, soft and bright and Cas smiles so big his gums show. “I’m going to wear it once I’ve showered.”

“You don’t have to—”

“I want to.” He leans in for another kiss, grinning when Dean chases as he pulls away. “Open yours.”

Dean shakes his head, moving to press soft, wet kisses across Cas’s top lip. “Wanna make it last.”

Cas gives as good as he gets, shuffling until he’s practically in Dean’s lap. Their empty mugs have gotten lost in the dirty sheets somewhere, hands holding and squeezing and grabbing as the kiss deepens to something sexy and slow. Cas has this way this way of kissing that makes it feel like the main event. “Trust me,” he breathes. “We’re going to want what’s in there for the next part.”

“The shower?” Dean teases, leaning in again.

Cas nips his bottom lip. “The sex.”

Dean tears into the wrapping paper. 

“Oh hell yeah.”

Sheets. 

“Egyptian cotton,” Cas grins. “500 thread count.”

“Mm, talk dirty to me.”

“Single-ply,” he says lowly. “Hand-dyed.”

“Oh baby.”

They beam at each other. 

“Thanks, man,” Dean says. “I love ’em.”

“That’s only part of your gift,” he explains matter-of-factly. “I also plan to fuck you on those sheets. And to have pizza delivered later.”

“Hot.”

They make-out for longer than they probably should given how gross they are, until Cas is trying to hump him like some over-eager teenager and Dean is rapidly forgetting why they shouldn’t just add to the mess (the answer: that would be disgusting). “Sweetheart, we gotta—we should—”

“What if we just, ah, like this. Then later—”

Dean shakes his head. “Want it to last. I want—”

“I can do that. I can—fuck—”

“Cas, if you come without fucking me I’m gonna be pissed.”

Cas wrenches away, frustrated. “Then just let me—”

“Woah,” Dean interrupts. “What’s the rush? Sweetheart, hey. Castiel.” But Cas refuses to meet his eyes. Dean cups his face. Cas grips his wrists. “Talk to me.”

“I love you,” he blurts out.

Dean frowns. “Yeah, I love you, too.”

“I love you so much,” Cas says, like it’s a confession. Like it’s being ripped out of him. “I’m here. We’re married. We almost died. And I just—Dean, I don’t know—There’s something wrong with me, I—”

Dean’s eyes soften. “Nah, there’s nothing wrong with you.”

“Sorry,” Cas croaks, squeezing his eyes shut as if to stop himself from crying. “I want you. I-I want—So I don’t understand why I’m—I was fine. I’m fine.”

“Yeah,” Dean agrees. “You are.” His dirty fingers thumb away tear tracks from the apple of Cas’s cheek. “Look, sometimes... we think we’re fine but we’re overwhelmed, y’know? S’okay.”

“I wanted to take care of you today.”

“Who says the day’s over?” Dean asks. “We’re gonna go take a nice long shower and I’m gonna wash your hair, and then I’m gonna go order like 40 pizzas and choose a movie, ’cause you owe me for coffee this morning. Then we’ll shove everything in the wash, and change the sheets, and you’re gonna fuck me so good I’ll feel it for the rest of the week.” Cas huffs a laugh. Dean smiles. “Darlin’,” he murmurs. “We’ll talk about hunting.”

Cas bites his lip. “I don’t want to die,” he breathes. “I only just got you back.”

The smallness of his voice hangs in the air between them. Dean feels something in him break. “...Yeah,” he swallows thickly. “I know.”

“But I don’t want to leave Claire if she needs help,” Cas argues with himself. “And you love hunting, I don’t want—”

“Alright well, first of all I don’t love hunting.”

“You know what I mean.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Dean promises. “We always do.” They’re quiet as he rubs at the cut of Cas’s jaw, a smile teasing at the corner of his mouth. “Not to change the subject or anything,” he eventually says. “But that was some serious real adult shit right there.” Cas rolls his red-rimmed eyes. Dean puffs out his chest. “C’mon, you gonna tell me I didn’t just make that conversation my bitch? I win at relationships, man.”

Despite the smile creeping across his face, Cas shakes his head. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”

“Whatever, I’m totally winning.”

Cas squints. “You routinely put things away without asking where they go. And then you forget about them, like a squirrel.”

“Please, you leave your shit all over the place. What am I supposed to do? Just walk right on by?”

“Yes! You...” Cas trails off, eyeing Dean’s shit-eating grin with a grimace. “Fine. Yes. Thank you. You’re very good at relationships.”

“Some would even say...” Dean prompts.

“They’d be wrong,” Cas says simply. “If the sample size is the rest of our lives, there’s no way to tell you’ve won yet.” A shrug. “And as we aren’t even through the whole day today, the jury still seems to be out on that, too. Sorry.” He doesn’t sound sorry. 

Dean hums. “So what you’re saying is, we should get in the shower to figure out who’s better.”

“As a start, yes.”

“Cool.”

Dean’s halfway to the bathroom when he suddenly pulled into a hug. Cas steps in and around until they’re pressed chest to chest, clinging to him in a way that would have broken bones if he was still an angel. He pulls away with a kiss to Dean’s closed mouth. “Thank you,” he says emphatically. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I’ll never stop being thankful for it.”

A blush explodes across the bridge of Dean’s nose. “That’s cheating.”

“I meant it.”

Dean looks at him, helpless. “Cas.”

Cas stares his fill until he’s apparently done, nodding to himself before leading Dean, by the hand, into the bathroom. “Come.”

Dean does, for the record.

#destiel #destiel fic #destiel anniversary #happy anniversary dean and cas! #fluff #lemon-y #hurt/comfort #kinda #adventures in fanfic #man this was supposed to be so short #and then took me like 2.5hrs #oops

[hazardous-arcadia]

Making Roy delivery a eulogy for the guy that tried to kill him and it’s taking forever to write because there’s no way to really adequately convey the massive amount of sarcasm he’s heroically with-holding.

#fullmetal alchemist #fma 03 #adventures in fanfic #post-fma 03 au #this is why roy isn't having a good time

[lyntergalactic]

Can I hear more about #5 oops rex and ahsoka time travel (star wars: the clone wars)? I love Force shenanigans!

of course!

the basic premise is rex and ahsoka, a couple of years after o66, are investigating some temple or relic or another when they suddenly find themselves back in the clone wars. early clone wars. and unlike most time travel fics they're not suddenly in their younger bodies so everyone who sees ahsoka knows that something happened.

it's a fun and angsty little fic because the two of them feel like they have no choice but to intervene and try and stop the empire before it rises. but that requires some very fast, very clever thinking, and also getting anakin on their side against the chancellor which they know will be hard.

plus there's all kinds of things that the audience knows that they don't at that point. like, for example, what happened to anakin and obi-wan post o66. so anything they tell past!anakin and obi-wan is bound to be slightly off.

#ask #bilbosmom-belladonna #memery #adventures in fanfic

[spifflocated]

Watching silent witness with my housemate like “oh that’s cool, I remember reading something once about using glitter for trace analysis in forensics.”

About half an hour later, remembered the something I read once wasn’t a research paper, but was instead actually a Sherlock smut fic

#adventures in fanfic #story of my misspent youth #silent witness

[ap-trash-compactor]

I'm lazy but I want to use some Cheunh in fic so I'm giving Vulgar a go. I've used it before and had plenty of fun with it but that was basically using it to do something simple like 'make a fake French language.' It's really easy to find grammatical rules, sample words, and lists of realistic sounds already formatted in IPA for a language that exists that you just want to riff on.

I don't got none of that shit for this fake space language that Timmy has only given us like two sentences of, ever.

I used anthean's Faking Cheunh for Fun and Profit as a handy guide to some of the stuff we knew about Chenuh as of Feb 2019, and then started combing wookiepedia for a bit more detail without having to crack the books open. I'm tentatively using these as the list of vowels and consonants I'm feeding into Vulgar:

i iː o uː aː ɒ ɪ ei eu a ɛi

ʤ ʧ ʃ s pʰ p θ m ɱ n v kʰ k ɦ ɻ r ɾ β v f l ɫ ɡ ɥ j tʰ t

But I'm a little paralyzed on how to try and feed what very little we might reasonably guess about grammar into the machine.

ah well! it's not like this has stakes. i think i am going to leap, then look, now.

#adventures in fanfic #inspo for dealer

[ohmyoverland]

the idea of buying train tickets to California because your Midwestern girlfriend has never seen the ocean is very romantic but. if you’re already in New York City, you are in fact already on an island and there is no need to do all that.

#adventures in fanfic #personal log

[random-shoes]

What did I write today? I wrote two characters arguing about whether Weevils are technically primates. (The answer is yes if you ignore taxonomy, claws, and reliance on sense of smell. Dental specialization is debatable.)

#adventures in fanfic #torchwood

[ronanception]

first chapter: Ah, 2100 words. That's a great number of words, mm. What a great strong start. Wow, am I sure I have enough material for 10 chapters? Well, I have 20k words on the page and probably at least that many left to write... but maybe I'll edit it down to 2k ish words per chapter. That's a good pace. 10 chapters, 20k words is a nice novella.

the second chapter: Oh my god, oh fuck, oh christ, I've written 1700 words already, and I haven't even touched on what I was going to do in this chapter. I haven't even gotten to the month of the year where it occurs, jesus christ stop typing STOP typing, what are you DOING

#adventures in fanfic #my writing #should I break it into smaller chapters or turn it into a weekly update with enormous chapters? #writing #fanfic

[mebssann]

Hair routine and rituals

#might do a part 3 for F&C Simon and Marcy #this was inspired by a fanfic (but it doesn't look it till i reference it on pt3) i gotta go find it again #adventure time #simon petrikov #marceline abadeer #fanart #my art #digital art

[superbat-love]

Clark: [stares at Ace] Is that what I think it is?

Bruce: Oh, that’s Chewperman, Ace’s favorite chew toy.

Clark: You let Ace chew on a mini me?

Bruce: That’s what it’s made for. If it makes you feel bad, I’ll make one for Krypto too. He’ll love it, right boy?

Ace: Woof.

The following week at the Fortress of Solitude…

Bruce: Why is this toy kept behind a glass casing? It’s meant for Krypto. [takes it out of the casing and tosses it to Krypto] Here boy!

Krypto: [happily chomps on the Batman chew toy]

Clark: Noooo! Don’t! Krypto, let go of Batsqueak!

Bruce: Batsqueak?

Clark: It just feels wrong, Bruce! I can’t bear to let any harm come to Batsqueak. He should be kept safe in his ice cave, not mauled by giant fangs.

Bruce: …

#the adventures of chewperman and batsqueak #world’s chewiest #dc headcanon #incorrect dc quotes #dc fanfic #drabble #text post #dc #superbat #superman x batman #batman x superman #superman/batman #batman/superman #superman #batman #clark kent #bruce wayne #ace the bathound #krypto the superdog #super pets

[mittensmorgul]

ive been wanting to reblog all my holiday fics from the last... however many years now, but i've been waiting to hopefully finish this year's holiday fic in time for the holidays... my brain keeps wanting to make it longer and i'm desperately trying to wrangle it into a ficlet lol. i think it's almost done anyway, maybe two or three more scenes... i hope >.>

#i do have a lot of holiday fic tho! i should reblog the individual posts for them at least #but the masterpost reblog will wait until i'm done with the new one... >.> #adventures in fanfic #gotta run an errand and then i'll try and bang out the rest of it

[quillquiver]

sitting here thinking about how dean would’ve seen movies like the best little whorehouse in texas as a late night rerun on crappy motel cable. thinking about how he would’ve probably been entranced by the costumes and makeup as a little kid, and loved the bright colours and singing and dancing. about how he’d entertain sam when the tv’s bunny ears refused to cooperate by putting on a scarf and singing like dolly parton. about how john would barge into the room, take one look at him and curl his lip, telling him to cut that faggy shit out, dean. about how dean wouldn’t know what that means, but it sounds bad. it sounds like breaking glass and finger-shaped bruises, but worst of all, it sounds like the most devastating kind of disappointment. 

and thinking about how, eventually, he sits on a couch lying between cas’s spread legs, watching mona give ed earl a pair of snap on nut-huggers. cas’s chest rumbles against his back when he laughs. dean threads their fingers together and presses a kiss to cas’s knuckles. 

#destiel #i have so many feelings #especially about him stumbling on the queer canon of that time period #maybe he saw them on late night tv #maybe he stumbles into a queer bar #maybe he sneaks into any movie because he doesn't want to take sammy back to the house they're squatting in #because it's winter and it's cold #dean winchester #adventures in fanfic

[hazardous-arcadia]

The current arc I'm writing will pivot to making Ed suffer because he has been Repressing the Horrors and the Horrors are done being Repressed.

#adventures in fanfic #fma 03 #post-fma 03 au #the angst has been some time coming

[lyntergalactic]

last sentence tag game

tagged by the lovely @qprstobin!!

RULES: Post the last sentence you wrote (fanfic / original / anything) and tag as many people as there are words in the sentence

or, in my case, last three sentences because i am incapable of limiting myself to just one when it's so short.

Jason can give himself all the excuses and explanations in the world, but when it comes down to it, he knows there was only one thing keeping him from talking to Bruce: his pride. And now he'll never get the chance to 'cause he's dead. His dad is dead.

i... don't think i have anyone to tag that hasn't done this already. but consider yourself tagged if you want to do it?

#adventures in fanfic #lyn writes #tag games #dcu #jason todd #for context: this is me rewriting a bit of jason's story post-countdown #because just about everything after that up until flashpoint is... #well #godawful

[pherredraws]

i think its so funny that no one knows that fionna and cake are real except simon. imagine if he forgets to tell marcy and just gives her a heart attack one day

#adventure time #fionna and cake #simon petrikov #marceline #i dont remember her last name :( #obviously i imagine he tells everyone right away but maybe she was busy #marceline and fionna should meet tbh #just him talking about his fanfic characters like theyre real people one day. marceline is concerned