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hkblack · 10 months

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So I've been seeing a lot of people talking about Good Omens Season 2 and the Final 15 and Angst. And I'm watching the conversation sort of become either you loved Season 2 fully because you like angst, or you have reservations/didn't like it/are upset because you don't like angst.

And that didn't sit with me right, because I actually am not anti-angst. I mean, let's be honest about some of the fics I've been beta-reading for (@aethelflaedladyofmercia's amazing Aziraphale's Children Series and @mirjam-writes Be Still My Soul Series to name a few--needless to say, if you read these mind the damn tags). So I've been digging into it, and I think I've realized what inspired my initial knee jerk towards E6, my early reliance on various Discord S2-Venting channels, and I'm hoping it'll resonate with other people and maybe help them put things into words.

So, you know, Spoilers, and Long Post below.

Again, I am not anti-angst. What I am is someone who doesn't consume in-progress media. I don't actually watch a lot of television, nor do I watch any of the big movie franchises like Marvel where you've got to watch 12 movies to understand how you get to the Thanos snap, and then you've got two more movies to resolve the Thanos snap, nor do I read book series that do not have a published end. I don't even read in-progress fanfic unless I am beta-reading it. The TV series I do watch tend to be Monster of The Week shows, Doctor Who, Criminal Minds, Bones, where you maybe will have a season/series arc, but the format is designed so that unless it's a season finale, the "main" story of the episode is tied up neatly in that episode (and maybe a special guest is around for a two part season finale, or mid season special, or whatever). And maybe something bad happens in the season finale (this building exploded, the Doctor started regenerating!) that's a "cliffhanger" of did he/didn't he die (set up for an actor to potentially take a season off, or gracefully exit the show, or deal with off season contract negotiations), but for the most part, there is still a resolution for that season and episode.

So as I'm looking at folks still processing their feelings, and moving through handling S2, what I'm realizing is that I don't actually think the problem here is the "angst" and I'm finding myself getting a bit frustrated as people have started drawing a line of "you like angst, you don't like angst" as what's causing the fandom to have feelings right now.

Good Omens the book is a completed form of media. As is the radio play. And the musical (ostensibly). And Season 1 was, also, a completed form of media. It did not need a second season to complete the story it was telling. Now, I'm sure as we do more digging once we do get the third season, we're going to see little seedlings that Neil planted in season 1 for us in the hopes of fulfilling a promise to his best friend. However, it was and remains a completed form of media.

While yes Neil did warn us that Season 2 was the connective tissue between 1 and 3, I think I was still expecting S2 to be a semi-completed form of media the way most television seasons are. Not everything is resolved, no, but we've arrived at the end of this book. But season 2 is not a stand alone book. It's a prologue to s3.

My reasons for not engaging with uncompleted media is not really something I've spent a lot of time poking at because it's not that serious and honestly completed or not, I have a hard time focusing on tv/movies/books anyway because the ADHBees that live in my brain. I had a professor in grad school ask me once if I ever allowed myself to do "nothing" and let my brain shut off. I went "Oh I go to the gym!" and she got snippy because that's not "nothing," and then I had to explain to her that that's fine for her brain, but for my brain, walking on a treadmill is the only time you'll actually get me to watch television and let my brain "turn off." So I started using the gym as a time to catch up on all the latest pop culture. Good Omens S1 was a rare treat for me in that I did put down my phone the first time I watched it, and I'm not sure my hyperfixation would've been as strong had I not watched it in 2020 when I couldn't go to the gym to watch tv. But from my initial reaction to S2 I think my problem with uncompleted media is a mix of ADHBees and a dash of anxiety. I don't mind a cliffe that I've created by stopping reading at X chapter in my book, or pausing the binge on X episode of this show, so that I can go to bed/work/the bathroom. And I don't even mind that end of the season "What happens to the Doctor next?" or "Did Derek survive that bomb blast?" Because I know that the current arc that I'm invested in is complete and the next season will be a new arc, that will answer those questions (that may depend on actor schedules).

As I sit with it more, though… Season 2 is great. I have some issues with the Not-Neil writing, I won't label it as Bad, but I will say there were moments where I went "That's not Neil or Terry" and I have feels about that, because for me, Good Omens is Neil and Terry. While Terry isn't with us and I expect it to be more Neil than Terry, I wasn't ready for moments that weren't either of them. I'll get over it as I watch it more (and have, already, started to love some of those moments). But my issue isn't the angst. It's that, this was a prologue, and I don't like engaging with uncompleted media.

I think a fandom that is 33 years old based of a completed book, you're going to have more people who also don't engage with uncompleted media--whether they've made that realization of themselves or not. I think the struggles folks are having has less to do with "I Love Angste" vs "I Loathe Angste" and more to do with "Is there any kind of resolution to this season's arc?"

It is my belief that we have been given an excellent set up for next season. Seriously! I'm very excited! But I don't think I was given a good resolution for Season 2. I can't even say Gabe/Bee is a good resolution because by the time we got to the fly, it had been a hot minute since I had really spent time with Jim/Gabe or Bee being the main character on screen. So I lost my investment in them. My investment was in Crowley & Aziraphale, Nina & Maggie, and Shax & the Archangels. Because that's what the writing told me to be invested in. Muriel is adorable, and I love her, but like Gabe and Bee, I could take or leave all of them and what we saw of them, tbh. Gabe and Bee's story was so rushed and felt so empty compared to the characters we did spend time with (I really feel like I have more connection to the Magic Shop and it's history than Gabe and Bee's history because of how we had that time in it spread out and given to us in a way that made us care, I sort of wish their relationship hadn't been a mystery to us, the audience, much the same way as Adam as the anti-christ wasn't a mystery to us, and that the mystery had remained "where is Gabriel's memory?" because then that twist of "Oh the Archangels wiped it--WAIT THEY DIDN'T?!" would've hit even harder) that even though you could point to this season and say that their arc is clearly what was resolved in this season--their arc didn't start until 15 minutes to the end. Maggie and Nina's arc was excellent, but also we only saw them telling Crowley about their end of the season resolution (the end of the story resolution will, obviously, be them getting together, as the angel Maggie knows, as Nina rolls her eyes), we didn't really get to see their resolution.

This season was a lot of filler, and that's okay! I know Neil told us there was connective tissue. I just wish there had been a stronger story to center myself on in that connective tissue so I wasn't left with such a strong feeling of: "...that's it?"

#good omens #good omens season 2 #meta analysis #angst #unresolved #season 2 thoughts

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kaesaaurelia · 5 months

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So I talked about this on Discord and on FFA but I think I've written the last scene of the 1926 fic. For new followers or people who maybe forgot because it's been so goddamn long, "the 1926 fic" is a Good Omens fic I've been writing since 2019. It is mostly set in 1926 (the first scene is New Year's Eve, 1925) in Chicago and surroundings, it is going to be called Hustler's Blood, and this is the summary I think I'm going with:

Heaven tasks Aziraphale with tracking down the nefarious demon Crowley in Prohibition-era Chicago. The city is on the brink of a gang war, in the midst of a violent turf war between taxi companies, and many there are still suffering from the lingering trauma of the Great War. But there are good times to be had, so while Aziraphale figures out what he's going to tell Heaven, he and Crowley indulge in some Roaring Twenties decadence.

But when Crowley vanishes, Aziraphale must find him without tipping off the city's own assigned angel, Vehuel. She's determined not to let things in her city get any worse, but Aziraphale just wants his demon back.

Meanwhile, Crowley must contend with the cruelty of Hymie Weiss, Al Capone's rival on the North Side. Weiss is determined to kill Capone and avenge the murder of his best friend, and he's not above using a captured demon to do it.

As of now the draft is 426,128 words. I know, I know, that's so long. It covers nine months of spy intrigue and whump! And lots of (sadly no-longer-canon-compliant) Crowley backstory! An angelic swordfight over the Loop and a demonic brawl on the shore of Lake Michigan! Someone lies about a birthday to get free cake at a pirate theme restaurant! But, yeah, it's a long goddamn fic. Hopefully that word count will come down a bit but alas, I write long, so I really hope people like my writing enough to read that much of it.

In addition to Aziraphale and Crowley, there are two "main" original characters, because Aziraphale and Crowley spend most of the fic forcibly separated so they each needed someone else to argue with. So Heaven has sent Aziraphale help in the form of the Principality Vehuel, an angel who distinguished herself in the War Between Heaven and Hell, protected such combustible celebrated cities as Akrotiri, Troy, and Pompeii, and is returning from fifty years' mental health leave after the Great Chicago Fire. Meanwhile, Crowley is being guarded by Danny Kilpatrick, a WWI veteran turned mob accountant who stopped believing in God a while ago and isn't about to take some guy's word for it that he's a demon just because he can turn into a big snake.

It also features several historical figures, most notably Al Capone and Hymie Weiss, but Jane Addams, Clarence Darrow, and Fats Waller have fairly prominent cameos.

Anyway, I have a few more scenes to write:

- I think I will expand the final scene a bit, which involves the hazards of surprising your friends with malort while you're stargazing on Lake Michigan.

- I'd like to write a scene at a Chicago American Giants game, but their actual 1926 summer schedule is kind of hard to find from a cursory google. (They won the 1926 Colored World Series that year, but that was that fall; this would have to be in the summer.)

- I need to write a little interstitial scene at Hull House, but I didn't go and didn't go and then the pandemic happened. (I have actually been to Hull House since then but it was for a Ghost Files screening and I didn't see the building that part is set in.)

- I'd like to write a scene where Vehuel is asking Fats Waller about Aziraphale and Crowley, who met him earlier in the fic and made a strong impression on him as really fucking weird. Vehuel is also really fucking weird, of course, but in a completely different way.

- One more weird sex scene, as a treat. (They hook up fairly early in the fic but the confession of feelings goes uh, a little less smoothly.)

- I also have to go back and figure out when they're taking public transit and when they aren't. A friend of mine hooked me up with some solid public transit maps, but for expediency's sake in the first draft I wrote a lot of the fic with them just taking taxis or walking when plausible, and I'd like to go back and fix that.

- I think I might run the car chases by my dad, since he knows about old cars and I cannot even drive.

So yeah. I just wanted to brag about Maybe Almost Finally Being Done With This Fic because it's been so long. I'm really tempted to just throw it onto AO3 with no editing but if it's worth writing, it's worth writing well, so I am going to reread the whole thing, which should be fun, actually, because I really do like my own writing. But. Shkfkdjghg here's hoping it doesn't take another year to get this thing ready to post.

#kaesa op #writing #good omens #aaaa #weird research I have done #I think if I can't find internet sources on the Chicago American Giants I might know a guy who can help me out #and I could also see if the Newberry has anything

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ineffabildaddy · 6 months

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@celestialcrowley tagged me in an in-depth bio thing (thank u!!!) so here's some stuff about me:

real name: samuel's my full first name so let's say that?

nickname & nickname origins: sam!!! the only people who call me samuel are a couple of my friends when they sort of pretend to scold me, ha. or if they're singing little freak by harry styles but the line is "little freak, samuel" instead of "little freak, jezebel" (i have a tattoo of the words 'little freak' because of how much i love that song. i also am one i guess)

a couple people i know who are lotr fans call me samwise but i haven't read or watched lotr yet so i'm reluctant to accept this as a nickname hehe

sammi is what my sister and my very closest friends call me. if someone i'm not close to calls me that, my sister vetoes lol

ao3: sinchester

social media/s: i have all of the big ones but they're all personal accounts so</3

state country: i'm from the uk. always lived in london, it's the one true love of my life (and it's a character in good omens in its own right, fight me). i will answer ur state question in another way by saying that i usually visit the us once a year (usually for gigs and to see friends) and my last trip was to ny

pets: none</333 my grandparents have two lovely german sheps and a black cat which are my most precious loves though

hobbies: i like reading (fantasy, romance, twentieth-century poetry and nineteenth-century fiction mostly), writing (prose, screenplay and very bad poetry), live music/following tours, vinyl records, tea, whiskey, sitcoms, romcoms, and american traditional tattoos, among other things

personality: i have the most warped and harsh sense of self so i asked my best friend amy to describe my personality. this is what she said:

brb gonna go cry now

favourite holiday: christmas because i love christmas music of the easy listening jazz persuasion, and also because i love a lot of christmas films

favourite food: mac and cheese, bao buns, strawberries

favourite dessert: potentially cheesecake?

favourite colour: baby blue<3

favourite quote/s: "i am an unspeakable of the oscar wilde sort" / "not a southern pansy, the southern pansy", and in the same vein... "i'm not a big fat panda, i'm the big fat panda" / "there are heroes in the seaweed, there are children in the morning, they are leaning out for love and they will lean that way forever"

favourite book/s: call me by your name (sue me), good omens, the fables series, pride and prejudice (cliched i know sorry, i have read all of austen's work but it's her most popular for a reason), the scott pilgrim series, the spud series, the princess bride

favourite tv shows: good omens, avatar: the last airbender, peep show, supernatural (reluctantly), bob's burgers, arrested development, ghosts, yonderland. it's only just come out of course but honorary mention goes to scott pilgrim takes off

favourite film/s: shrek is my favourite of all time. it's just got everything. trust me, i went to film school (i actually did tho). then we've also got the nightmare before christmas, ferris bueller's day off, scott pilgrim, submarine, clueless, deadpool, the princess bride

favourite character/s: sam winchester, aziraphale, crowley, katara, sokka, jack and sally, kitty (ghosts), lucille bluth, envy adams, wallace wells

favourite actor/s: i've always found this a really difficult one to answer but i'll just say mae whitman because she's been in 3 of my favourite things ever and slayed all of them (avatar: the last airbender, arrested development and scott pilgrim)

favourite song/s: my favourite songs of all time are probably...

a certain romance - arctic monkeys

happiness/the gondola man - elliott smith

i used to be someone - kevin devine

i need some sleep - eels (shrek 2 teehee)

the way i loved you - taylor swift

let's call the whole thing off - louis armstrong and ella fitzgerald

that old feeling - frank sinatra (prefer his earliest version of this song to any other versions but i like ella's rendition too)

favourite music genre/s: i listen to pockets of all different guitar music, some pop and some jazz

favourite podcast/s: braving the elements, which is the official podcast for avatar: the last airbender and the avatarverse in general (hosted by the actor of zuko and the actor of korra!!!)

have you ever met a celebrity: oh god, erm... i've met so many musicians and actors (mostly actors that are less well-known) but i'll just mention the most famous ones. on purpose (some of whom i now regret lol): dua lipa, halsey, frank iero, brendon urie, jared padalecki, jensen ackles, jinkx monsoon (and loads of other drag race queens, but she's my favourite). by accident as they've come into my work: matt berry (i died), rob delaney, a couple of actors from sex education, sharon rooney (i actually bumped into her on the way to work oops). people i see around my local area or my area of work but haven't met: graham coxon from blur, peter capaldi, olly alexander. i know i've forgotten people but they'll come back to me hah - living in north london and working in central london means you do tend to see famous people sometimes

have you ever been to a concert: not sure exactly how many but my estimate is 200+. one band i've seen 37 times alone... but yeah, i follow two tours a year on average and then i'll go to gigs as a one-off for artists i don't commit as hard to lmao

do you collect anything: vinyl and soft toys! i also like to have lots of different interesting teas in my cupboard

do you have any idols: not sure i could call anyone i like an idol of mine but i naturally want to be neil gaiman when i grow up. i also would absolutely love to be as good at words as leonard cohen was. i guess taylor swift because i love her more than almost any other musician and have done since i was 8 years old but... she's a person at the end of the day (and a billionaire which is questionable)

is there a real life friend you can be completely yourself with: i feel i can be entirely myself around @icanbeurangle, among a few other people from different parts of my life. the person who wrote my little personality bio above, along with our mutual friend, and then a couple of friends i've known since school. i've also got friends who started off as internet friends but are now irl friends (the uk is a small place) who come under this category uwu

where would you love to travel to: off the top of my head, new zealand and mexico. i'd also like to see more of wales (i only went once or twice as a small child)

random fact about yourself: i'm an identical twin? it doesn't feel random at all but yeah haha

if you made it this far without falling asleep, well done!!! thank u so much for reading, i hope u didn't bore u to tears<3 i've missed out a couple questions where i addressed them already in a previous answer

no pressure tags (but i want to read up on u all!!!): @raining-stars-somewhere-else @sad-chaos-goblin @crowleyslvt @indigovigilance @icanbeurangle @bowtiepastabitch @genderqueer-hippie

#personal #not good omens #ineffabildaddy

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loserchildhotpants · 5 months

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Fic Writer Q & A

Tagged by @casdeans-pie :3333 (thank you for tagging me!!)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

on loserchildhotpants I've got 151

on someonetoanyone I've got 30

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

on loserchildhotpants it's 1,614,148

on someonetoanyone it's 370,992

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Oh, so many. Right now, I'm writing strictly for Supernatural bc i have too many ideas to split my time lmao but I still v much enjoy writing for Good Omens, Star Trek, Star Wars and IT : )

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

On loserchildhotpants my top 5 fics by kudos are:

Madman and a Fool (w over 9k kudos y'all are insane ilu)

Seeing Wolves (Where There Are No Wolves)

Just to See You Again

Derek Hale's Possible Heart

The Witching Hour

And honorable mention to surprising me by showing up in 6th place: The 'Do Not Fucking Touch Me' Tour which is my reddie post-canon fic that i wrote an entire, original, actual stand up routine for skjdhf

On someonetoanyone my top 5 fics by kudos are:

Being Lead Home

Threw Stones At The Stars (But The Whole Sky Fell)

Years of Sorrow Wash Away

What Used to Be Mine

Perihelion

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! I try my best to reply to every single comment a person leaves on any and all of my fics, no matter how old! I hope it encourages them to KEEP writing comments, not just to me, but to any authors. Fic authors suffer a huge disparity between kudos/views/bookmarks and actual comments written. The ratio sucks so bad, actually, it's kinda disheartening.

There's a big difference between eating someone's homemade cookies at an event and giving them a thumbs up before walking away, and staying at the table to tell them how the texture and sweetness was PERFECT, and they don't even usually like snickerdoodles, but you made them so well, they want more and more, they're so glad you're at the event and so glad you brought your cookies!! -- like, that really is the difference between leaving a kudos and comment. Comments are my lifeblood.

I've also made great fandom friends in the comments section of my fics lol

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

On loserchildhotpants the angstiest angst I ever wrote is in the Angst November collection for kylux -- none of them have happy endings, and happy endings are sort of my staple! It was fun to write a series of tragedies though. Beyond that, probably my kylux series Not About Angels

On someonetoanyone, probably The Levee Breaking, which is just a specific scene rewrite that offers an alternative to Despair where Cas' body is left behind by The Empty or One And Only, Time And Again which is endverse, so.....

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

A curious question! The HAPPIEST? Huh.... uh.

On loserchildhotpants probably Seeing Wolves (Where There Are No Wolves) or Madman and a Fool. The endings for both those fics are gooey and tooth-rotting lmao

On someonetoanyone maybe Being Lead Home or It Won't Be Perfect ? idk this is a hard question lmao what makes a happy ending happier than another?? sdljkfh

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Yes! I have had to delete several fics in the past because the threats, suicide-baiting, slurs, and absolute vitriol was actually too much for my heart.

One of the reasons I made a new account was to outrun that sort of abuse. There were people that knew and fucking hated loserchildhotpants and among several other reasons, i decided making a new account was a good idea, but the hate i got on fics under loserchildhotpants was definitely a contributing factor.

I've had people be shitty about my fics on someonetoanyone in the bookmarks and on twitter and tumblr but not on the fics themselves.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i write so much smut sldkjfhsldkjfhksdhj now, i'm generally a p vanilla smut writer; some end-of-fic, on-top-of-the-covers w the lights on missionary stuff, but I've been widening my horizons as of late.

I went outside my typical comfort zone for Red, Red, Red (sterek), and Arrows Made of Desire (sterek), and I've got an unpublished WIP on someonetoanyone rn that's sitting in the drafts and it's... perhaps the most animal, insane, monsterfucking smut i've ever written lmao sdlkjfhsdkfjh but y'know, after writing so many years of original flavor smut, you wanna take up new challenges!

Like, im not into food play, so i would have never thought of it on my own, but someone prompted me w it and i was like '.... you know what, i bet i could write the shit out of that' and i did! lmao (the fic in question is on someonetoanyone; Lost In The Sauce lmao) it's not my usual gig, which made it exciting and new and fun! so, i'm usually v vanilla but i am starting to try new flavors lol

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I have not written any crossovers, but I'm attempting my first one! It's for a dear friend, and I'm trying to make it just right, but this is way harder than i thought it would be lmao

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Several! Oh my god, so many of my fics have been stolen, and I always find out through a reader. Someone always lets me know through a comment like 'hey, head's up, [x] has literally copy and pasted this entire work and replaced the names w their current ship' and every time my shit is stolen or reposted on different sites without credit, i see fuckin red, dude.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Many! I was going to list them here, but it's actually a v long list lol if you look at my top kudos'ed fics on loserchildhotpants, you'll find several translations and podfics of those available, and i think maybe two of my fics on someonetoanyone have been translated as well : )

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Sorta? We haven't published it yet, but once it is published, I'll have officially cowritten a fic lol check back in

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

i have stared at this question for 5 full minutes i have no idea sdkjfhlsdkfjh i can't choose!!!! i love them all so much T A T my top five IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER are probably destiel, bagginshield, kylux, spirk, and johnlock (this list being comprised of who i have read the most fic for - although, sterek also deserves a spot tbh)

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I do not have an unfinished work currently that I have no intention of going back to. A few months ago, I went to loserchildhotpants and deleted all unfinished works that would not be finished, so if it's still up on AO3, it's JUST a hiatus and i WILL be returning to it someday

16. What are your writing strengths?

... uhhhh... huh. Does tangential, narrative metaphor count? Tbh I'm not sure. When folks have told me what they specifically like about my writing, the consensus has been that it 'feels like [i am] ripping [the reader's] heart apart and then tenderly putting it back together' and that my stories on the whole are 'satisfying.'

I have a certain speaking cadence, and I write like a talk, and I talk like I write, so people can usually hear it in their heads as they read. Whenever I am composing what I hope is a deeply emotional crescendo, it appears to land ?

Again, no idea what I'm doing there, idk the technical word for that. Maybe pacing? But it feels tied to diction too... composition ??? idk skdljhfksjdh if anyone's got an answer to this, lemme know

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Exposition and character introduction skdjlfhslkdjhf too many years of writing fic have allowed me to neglect these skills and i'm really bad at them. i just hate exposition!! just let me psychically transfer the information to you!! how do i write out the rules of the universe in a way that doesn't feel like a boring info-dump ??? thiS IS HARD

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Back during my FF dot net days, I'm p sure my first fic was an Inukag fic for Inuyasha. Back in the day, I majorly wrote for Inuyasha, OHSHC, HP, Death Note, Star Trek and South Park. But yeah, I think the first time i was like 'i need these two to kissy kiss right on the LIPS' was when i was 10 and watching Inuyasha for the first time sljkdhfskjdfh

Idk who to tag! If you see this and you want me to tag you in future stuff like this, consider yourself tagged by me! I'll make a mental note!

#destiel #deancas #sterek #ineffable husbands #reddie #good omens #loserchildhotpants #someonetoanyone #my stuff #fandom stuff #melanie writes #long post

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r3dblccd · 5 months

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GETTING TO KNOW YOU !

respond to the following prompts. include as much or as little as you want; you don't have to answer them all !

tagged by: @rainyearning

tagging: @luneblush, @moonpierces, @formorethananame, @weedzkiller, @dozenrozez, @wcvensouls, @honeycoded, @cherridream, @caelcstis, @blondiexbiites

name / alias. Rose

birthday. 12 February

zodiac sign. Aquarius

height. 150 cm (as mentioned sometimes before, I bite ankles)

hobbies. Listening to music, reading, writing, drawing, journaling, dancing, biting ankles, having existential crisis

favorite color. Red

favorite book. It's so hard to pick though! I'd say maybe the Rat trilogy by Haruki Murakami

last show. I honestly don't remember. I think it was the short series Choco Milk Shake. Idk what I'm gonna watch next, there are so many I still have to catch up on like WWDITS, My Beautiful Man, Our Flag Mean Death, Good Omens, Yellowjackets, Alice in Borderland, and now Sweet Home season 2.

sources of inspiration. I draw inspiration and ideas from various sources, be it movies, tv series, books, webtoons, video games, music, what have you.

story behind url. It's taken from the bridge of Enhypen's Given-Taken. Most of you all probably probably already know, but I just love vampires and everything magical and supernatural and wonderful and terrifying. And it just made sense with the majority of the muses that I have for the url to be this.

recent read. I moved this here for last so you can skip reading me ramble if you want. (I tell you, it's long, don't say I didn't warn you)

There have been so many things I've read in the past few months for my classic literature discipline in uni, mainly classic Greek literature and theatre, we've only recently dived in early roman literature and works from the Western European Middle Ages, our professor is kicking our asses off, but honestly these are one of my favourite classes out of the whole semester. But anyway, I actually just now finished reading The Romance of Tristan and Iseult by Joseph Bedier. Not bad, I must say. It has never been really my cup of tea to read romance stories, but at least it was much more interesting to read that than to read The Golden Ass (that one wasn't bad either, if we overlook some parts of it, yeah, I admit, but it was so unnecessary long in my opinion, I was literally falling asleep while reading it). If I had to pick which of the works I've read so far is my favourite, I'd have to say I really liked the tragedy Medea by Euripides (our professor once told us a story how she watched it being played out for the only time at the theatre in the city that we call our cultural center and how suddenly it started to rain and there was a thunder during the monologue of Medea and how it felt like nature was out there for the heroine and as if it was listening to her and answering her word, and the actress just kept playing her role in the water and when she was done, the rain suddenly stopped as if on cue and the sky was suddenly as clear as day again, and damn, I wish I was there to see it myself, I don't even care if I got drenched, I got chills just listening to that story. That was basically a once in a lifetime experience. But ANYWAY! The story itself is great, I really loved it.) and I also liked the comedy Frogs by Aristophanes, despite the message that the author was trying to convey at that time period.

As for my free time, I'm still reading The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and I'm pretty close to finishing the second book from the whole series (The Restaurant at The End of The Universe), probably in a week or two I'll start the third book Life, the Universe and Everything. And I really love it so far. There so many funny and straight up absurd moment in the story and I love the group of main characters in it. My heart goes out to the robot Marvin, idk if I will see you again in the following books, Marvin, but you're a big mood, I feel you.

As for my annual update on Webtoons I am reading! Right now I'm reading Everything Is Fine, Homesick, Never-Ending Darling, Omniscient Reader, My S-Class Hunter, ZOMGAN, There Are No Demons (the art style for this series is very uncanny valley but in a cool way, I love it), Nocturne, The Guy Upstairs, Lore Olympus and Zombie X Slasher (and interesting way to take the zombie genre and create a story, I must say, I don't think I've seen anyone do this before, I look forward to what the author can offer). And I recently finished Surivival Diary, Dark Moon: The Blood Altar, The Star Seekers, Crimson Heart and soon I'll be finishing Dark Moon: The Grey City Too.

And a webtoon I recently finished too was Survival Romance and I just gotta give a shoutout to it. That webtoon took me completely by surprise. It wasn't the cute art style that made it unique, there are many stories that look cute on the outside that hide something dark and sinister underneath (like Everything Is Fine, for example). I knew this webtoon is horror, so at first I expected maybe one of the characters would be a yandere or something like that and the MC would be trying to escape that. And yes, there is one side character that could be considered obsessive in a way in parts of the webtoon, but the story wasn't about that at all. The author just took the romance and horror genres and turned them on their heads. The whole story isn't all that much about romance at all, actually, it's about forming friendships and bonds with people and having the will to keep pushing forward despite all the struggles you might be going through. The plot twists were SO GOOD, even though some could have been quite easy to predict. I also loved that the author put some meta and breaking the forth wall moments (Doki Doki Literature Club style is the closest association I could think of for this webtoon, kind of) and by the end all the characters [REDACTED, NO SPOILERS, GO READ IT YOURSELF IF YOU'RE CURIOUS]. The message is also very nice, the closing words in the epilogue honestly hit quite close to home and made me bawl my eyes out. The story also has zombies in a quite a unique way in my opinion. So if like dark stories with twists and turns and a meaningful message, and if in any way I piqued you're interest, go and check it out. I'm sure you won't be left disappointed. I could honestly write way more about this webtoon, but I already wrote a lot, so I'm gonna stop here.

#misc; dash games #misc; ooc #//i always end up rambling when I get to the 'recent read' part of those dash games lmao

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applestorms · 8 months

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morality in the world of good omens

so i wrote another (admittedly very messy) essay on good omens not long ago right after watching season 2 but after finishing that, rewatching all of both seasons multiple times, and reading through the book, i have a couple more distinct ideas to get out...somewhere...if only for my own sanity. this is me throwing my thoughts into the internet before i pop, if you will. just 3 sections, below the cut.

1. environment, characters, & transformative fandom creations

to start this post off a bit more broadly, i've been thinking a lot recently about transformative fandom and the reasons why we write fanfiction/create semi-original works in the first place, as well as why certain aspects of fandom (writing, art, analysis, etc.) will be more appealing to me for certain shows/series than others. correct me if you have a totally different view of this, but in my experience i've found that i tend to naturally gravitate towards different parts of fandom depending on what the original medium of the story was- podcasts tend to lead to some of the most interesting art trends, for example, since there's more room for interpretation and character design tends to be more of an ongoing community project than something set in stone like for a tv show with live human actors.

in my own observation, i've noticed that a lot of the really big & excitable fandoms, the ones that generate tons & tons of fanworks more naturally (a.k.a. just because of the story itself & not other factors like a pre-existing franchise or hype about new great gay representation, etc.) tend to surround stories that fall into a kind of "sweet spot" that makes the creation of fanworks really appealing. if you've ever wondered why there are so many ravenous artists bending over backwards to draw gorgeous fanart for stuff like homestuck or south park or even minecraft youtubers, it's likely because those stories all fall into a sweet spot for drawing, with character designs that are recognizable at a glance and yet still simple enough that there is plenty of room for personal creative touches. (think also, if you're familiar with such kinds of homestuck terms: hyperflexible mythologies, A4:1524, and/or this archive link cause the official thing is down now for some reason)

the conclusion i've come to is thus that even something as basic as the original medium of a story can dictate a lot about what kinds of fan activities are more common or popular within said story's fandom.

so, back to good omens- for me, this all relates back because of a question i've been messing with in my head recently, about why i've been less interested in fanfiction for good omens than i have been for the last few fandoms i've been, almost all of which have basically broken my ao3 bookmarks.

this question has been fucking with me for a while now, largely because i'm not entirely sure what's motivating it. a lot of times i can figure out pretty easily why i might personally not be interested in some parts of fandom, but that's not really the case here. from what i've seen this fandom seems to be pretty mixed in terms of age, & the writing that i have read is certainly no worse than i've seen elsewhere, perhaps even better in some places- and yet, i can't seem to get entirely into it, even getting frustrated as i can't find something to my tastes for an ao3 bedtime story as i've grown so accustomed. what caught me off guard is that this was an issue that i ran into while watching season 1 as well, back when the series was still quite popular but not blowing up like it is right now.

a lot of this may seem like (and likely is, at least in part) basic overthinking, but i mentioned it all here because the answer i eventually came to is reminiscent of my previous reflections above on the nature of fandom & how/why fanworks are created.

a couple paragraphs above, i used the example of art as an example of how fandoms that generate a lot of original artwork will often do the most when the original story falls into a sweet spot of character design, but notably i think that this sentiment applies to a lot more than just art. if you've ever seen the copious amounts of kpop & hockey rpf fanfiction that lives on ao3, it should be clear that this applies to writing too.

i wrote this essay a while back responding to an observation about the lack of a more extensive symbolic language in fanfiction & i've toyed around with the idea more since, particularly in considering the question of why a lot of what we see as the staples of fanfiction exist in the first place. in that post, my response largely revolved around an argument of why we create fanfiction- namely, that fanfiction is created as in tandem with deeper analysis of the original story/series, as a way of trying to practically apply character analysis to a new context.

the key part of that last sentence to me is how a lot of this revolves around character analysis (and shipping, but really it's the characters that motivate the shipping in most cases so. same difference).

i tend to instinctively separate fanfiction into two separate categories: fanfiction that is based out of the original world/canon of the story (including but not limited to fix-its, deeper analysis fics that take a scene & extrapolate from it, continuations, etc.) and fanfiction that takes the characters from the original story & plops them in an alternate universe/AU. while i separate these out as two distinct categories of fanfiction, i should also clarify that i don't think these two groups are necessarily equal in terms of number of fics- rather, the vast majority of fanfiction tends to be AUs, keeping the original characters & changing any & all aspects of the world around them. again, this may vary depending on the story & Vibe of the fandom at the time, stories like game of thrones or harry potter or homestuck might have a lot more in the canon category by nature of any major dissatisfactions the fandom has with how the original story was told, but in most cases AUs are more popular. this was a lot of the basis behind my argument that fanfiction is created as character analysis in fact, since the characters are the most important part that carries over from original story to fanwork, as well as can end up being one of the most debated/scorned parts when it comes to fandom drift (i.e. "that's out of character"/"he wouldn't do that"/and all other such arguments about fanon vs. canon characterization).

basically, my conclusion in this case was that i was a lot less interested in gomens fic largely because i have a really hard time separating the characters from the world in the case of this particular story. aziraphale & crowley being an angel & a demon and dealing with all of the bullshit of their world when it comes to heaven & hell are such integral parts of their characters in my mind that i have a much harder time getting behind AU fanfiction that plops them in a totally different context. it's just a much harder sell for keeping the characters in character for me. (i also tend to not like s2 fix-its just cause, idk they're just not my style, which is where a lot of the recent blast of energy has led us.) to clarify, this is not a judgement, just a matter of personal preference and a reflection of why, even if a lot of fandoms will look the same from the outside/involve the same things like art, fic, etc., an individual's mileage can vary wildly when it comes to how they interact with different things online.

*additional note, also for clarification: i do want to acknowledge that a lot of this depends on pure popularity as well, popular fandoms will often end up with basically everything in terms of fanworks just by nature of how many people are interacting with & thinking deeply about the story. my point here is more along the lines of the fact that even within the more well-populated fandoms, certain types of fanwork will often Stick Out more to me than others, or even be visibly much more common than in other fandoms, due largely to the original medium/structure of how the story.

so, speaking of aziraphale & crowley in more depth now- why does the world of good omens feel like such an integral part of their personalities when it comes to characterization? up next, let's talk about morality within the context of good omens' perhaps surprisingly secular take on heaven & hell.

2. the amorality of heaven & hell (ft. the crowley quote apples you know the one)

(warning in advance that this section may be a bit limited since i'm not going to get super far (or very far at all, really) into the whole religious-analysis aspect of good omens.)

i've been binge-reading the original pterry & gaiman book for good omens over the last few days and it's been very fun seeing all the slight changes between the tv show & the original. you can really see the hand of the original creators in how the tv show was translated, even just by looking at which parts made it and which parts were deemed worth cutting out. i suppose having one of the original creators right there helping build everything really helps make a book -> show translation work, since the ASOUE tv series was also pretty well received- something about knowing what's the core of the series & truly important to keep in, and having more time to tell the story itself?

anyways, i have a short list of notes that i've been taking as i read, conversations that stand out to me or footnotes that particularly amused me, but i keep coming back to one line that stood out to me quite early on. in context, this line comes from crowley during the conversation where he is first attempting to fully convince aziraphale about stopping armageddon, specifically when they're talking about exerting equal forces on warlock to make him normal:

"You're saying the child isn't evil of itself?" [Aziraphale] said slowly. "Potentially evil. Potentially good, too, I suppose. Just this huge powerful potentiality, waiting to be shaped," said Crowley. He shrugged. "Anyway, why're we talking about this good and evil? They're just names for sides. We know that."

(pg. 67)

"They're just names for sides." if i had to pick one line to sum up the view on religious morality of this series, this would likely be it.

on the one hand, i tend to interpret a lot gomens' take on heaven & hell within the context of its political stance, something that is particularly obvious through a line from gabriel in s2e2 where he tries to clarify to aziraphale that heaven isn't trying to hurt job directly, but instead is just not stopping hell from doing horrible things to him. while there may be some additional nuance to add to this take within the context of british politics that i don't really know well enough to add about, i'm inclined to see this from the side of my own familiar american politics, which might hold some weight considering how long mr. gaiman's lived around here. point is, my current interpretation of that line is that it helps in more clearly establishing the analogy of heaven & hell as the story moves forward into newer seasons and thus more contemporary politics, equating heaven with mainstream liberal politics & politicians and hell with conservatives.

this stance seems to be emphasized even more in the tv show than the book which makes sense considering its been coming out more recently, and especially in season 2 which is still quite caught up in a lot of quarantine-based reflection. (the tv show puts a lot more emphasis on heaven & hell in general, actually, perhaps initially a byproduct of actually being able to see those environments in their entirety and all the angels & demons that populate them- but we'll get to that.)

the book takes a slightly different stance that, fittingly, seems more reflective of the time it came out. in particular, i was struck a lot more when reading the book by adam's rise (fall?) to power, and how much of it was motivated by a burgeoning nervousness/pessimism about climate change and the anxieties of younger generations that comes with inheriting an earth that feels so fucked up. honestly if anything it's only gotten more relevant in that respect, what with the current vibe on the internet & the hopelessness of the doomer gen z gang, but it also has a distinctly different flavor to me from the tv show, which i think is largely because it's less connected to Formal politics since again we see a whole lot less of heaven & hell as such distinct, bureaucratic entities.

instead, there is a very distinctly amoral aspect to heaven & hell that we get through lines like the one above and especially from characters like crowley. this is why i argue that good omens, despite having so many religious elements, is such a deeply secular take, especially when it comes to its ethics & morality- Good and Evil, notably with the capital letters in this case, has very little to do with actual actions and much more to do with the name that you stamp on top of said actions. heaven & hell and the angels & demons that we see directing and watching and generally fucking with aziraphale & crowley throughout the story are distinctly separate from humanity, and as we see even more as the story progresses, distinctly unaware about what it even means to be a human, in both a deeper philosophical & very basic and literal sense. Good and Evil is simply another name for the sides- and thus the true ethics is something separate, and based in a deeply human experience.

in my opinion this is also why aziraphale & crowley, lovers of humanity and also to some degree spokespersons of it from how much they've "gone native," tend to be so deeply at odds with both heaven & hell and always end up agreeing with each other over their own supposed sides. what makes aziraphale & crowley so distinctly different is that they ascribe to the same ethics & morality that humanity does, or at the very least are trying to figure out ethics & morality & How to Be a Good Person in the same horribly messy way that humans do, separating them from the black & white "this side Good & this side Bad," logic that the rest of heaven & hell instinctively ascribe to.

there's a lot of nuance here, which is also why i think there is such an emphasis on moral ambiguity (and love, but we'll get to that) throughout season 2. the story of job, grave robbing, & questionable attempts at matchmaking- aziraphale is working through a lot of Shit right now when it comes to trying to figure out what the Good thing actually fucking is, and i think it's key that a lot of that is motivated by crowley himself. crowley might'e been cast out of heaven for asking too many questions, but aziraphale is there & listening to them & giving them the serious thought they deserve, and that can't be overlooked.

sidenote: i couldn't figure out a place to shove this in, but i also wanna point out that a lot of this is tied to the idea of growing over time too. on the same page as the quote transcribed above is another line from crowley leading up to aziraphale's question that puts a lot of emphasis on the fact that warlock is going to be a product of nurture, not nature. again, this is an argument against basic black & white assigned-at-birth morality for the ability of humans to grow & change over time and be influenced by the people around them.

it's notable that despite adam's supposed origin as a Son of Satan, what really gets him to stop the apocalypse in the end is the fact that he doesn't really give a shit about all this big plans but instead just wants to hang around his friends. there's a lot of emphasis in the book placed on how beautiful & nice tadfield is as a place for a young kid to grow up, how well loved & fiercely protected it as as something beloved to adam. while he might be overwhelmed when faced with the full picture of how horrible the world can be, ultimately what he cares about is loving & taking care of the people & places that he grew up learning were precious, and the only way to do that is to keep growing & changing yourself within that world and trying to help it also grow into something better, not throw it all away just for the slightest chance that you could restart. a message worth taking the time to think about, at the absolute very least.

3. finding morality w/in humanity: crowley & aziraphale and speculation for s3

i have complicated feelings about both aziraphale & crowley throughout a lot of the show and especially in season 2. i think a lot of people, myself included, are inclined to see crowley as the voice of reason in this season, and for good reason- as i mentioned before, a lot of aziraphale's deeper questioning of the status quo and goodness (Goodness) as a whole is motivated by questions from crowley.

i kiiind of mentioned this in my previous essay, but to state it more clearly, my take on crowley is that he's arriving at the right answer for the wrong reasons, and, conversely, aziraphale is arriving at the wrong answer for... kind of also the wrong reasons but also slightly for the right reasons. let me explain.

crowley is clearly much more aware of the flaws in both heaven & hell than aziraphale is, which seems to be the basis behind a lot of his motivation in asking aziraphale so many questions in the first place. he's also, as maggie & nina point out in s2e6, deeply lonely, often running away or getting ready to fight literally anyone that isn't aziraphale (or humans, but that's a little more complicated). from his reaction to beelz & gabriel getting together, i think it's pretty clear that he still hasn't entirely given up on the whole alpha centauri idea, and it makes sense- as i said in that last essay, crowley basically won the argument at the end of the previous season when it comes to aziraphale & crowley, "making [their] own side," so he doesn't have much reason to face any of his personal fears until maggie & nina basically point out that they exist directly to his face. once they do point it out, however, he's very motivated to act & does so almost immediately, even after hearing what aziraphale has to tell him and being pretty thoroughly devastated by it.

my point here is that crowley is correct in seeing the toxicity of both heaven & hell, he's just flawed and largely motivated by fear (up for debate if that's all it is, but i certainly think it's a big part of it) in his desire to run away from it all. it's not quite armageddon, again he's going more flight > fight here, but he's still ultimately giving up and that's not a great conclusion.

on the other hand, as some others on this site have pointed out, aziraphale is certainly showing a lot of strength in his willingness to keep fighting & try to change things for the better, but it's not hard to see how that belief has been twisted. one of aziraphale's biggest flaw in motivation at this point imo is that he doesn't just believe in goodness but Goodness, the kind that's tied to heaven always being right & all actions being morally Good so long as they're done under the name of heaven, and that clearly also isn't great.

thus what i think the both of these two really need ultimately is that deeper connection to humanity, and the ethics born from humans interacting with humans. we can already see how strong these two are when they collaborate, even when they're doing their absolute best to be as subtle as possible, but what i think they need is to once again be grounded by humanity, not to get so caught up in the bullshittery of heaven & hell and Good & Evil, but once again find a goodness defined by the world that they mutually love so much and stick with it.

i keep tossing a question around in my head about whether or not aziraphale & crowley are going to end up human by the end of this series. it feels natural that they would, they're already so at home and in love with earth & around humanity, but i'm also not entirely sure if that would be a happy ending for them considering how long they've watched & loved the world as it's changed. perhaps taking this post into account is another push towards humanity as a happy ending, not running away to a cottage to get away from the world (i just can't see running away to a cottage to be together as as happy ending, sorry- it might work for beelz & gabriel but not for aziraphale & crowley), but choosing to settle down within that world that is so dear.

#'just three sections' LAFFS. YEAH #astronaut rambles #good omens #gomens #no but i like this one a lot better than the last attempt at a gomens essay #this one feels a lot cleaner. more focused?#got a bit sappy at the end but i don't mind humanity is always worth loving #also off topic but i read this really interesting paper at work the other day #about pratchett’s writing in discworld & zizek & religion #forget what it’s called now but it was an interesting take on how fiction/fantasy can allow for deeper insights/reflection of reality #got some discworld books today so looking forward to reading those once i slurp up the last hundred or so pages of good omens #also thanks to my dad for having some interesting commentary on the job interpretation in s2e2 today #i all but literally slept through sunday school so i think a lot of the more noteworthy religion takes in this show go over my head =3=‘’#man i am so very much looking forward to how season 3 continues this story #i feel like a lot of the big conclusions there are really gonna be important for the direction of the story’s main message #season 2 is just. such a transition season it’s hard to get super distinct conclusions sometimes #like it’s still going somewhere there’s shit developing #it’s not like sherlock where it just teases deeper meaning forever but gives you nothing #but. it’s just so obviously Not Over Yet and I Need More #anyways much love i need to go to bed now arghfjdkd lots of shit to do in the future but all i wanna do is keep writing gomens essays. sigh #brainrot central #oh yay my phone’s at 69% now ☺️ wheeee #good omens meta

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moveslikebucky · 4 months

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Yay!! My Bestie @ouidamforeman tagged me in a fun little AO3 game and I'm still crying about their post and how niceys they were to me in it <3

We've been collaborators on so many projects for so long now that it almost feels like we're a package deal at this point xD (and i love it <3)

1. how many works do you have on Ao3?

177

This isn't counting, I don't think at least, the five or six that I've orphaned over the last year.

2. what’s your total Ao3 word count?

642,686 <3

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Good Omens is by far my largest fandom lol. I have a long abandoned series that's a rewrite of Fallout 4, but no idea if I'll ever get back to it.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

They're all fairly older ones that have been kicking around AO3 for a while <3

well then, ask me to stay (904)

unpath'd waters, undream'd shores (643)

And now I'm ready to feel your hand (545)

Hush, darling...I've got you (532)

All the Idle Weeds That Grow (519)

5. do you respond to comments?

I love to respond to comments! Often they get away from me and I won't for a long chunk of time, and then inevitably the ADHD hyperfixation will kick in and I will answer some 60-120 comments in one go because I let them sit for far too long sometimes xD

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Gonna have to go back old school for this one, I think it would have to be Hopelessly, I'll Love You Endlessly, simply because it implies that Crowley is going to the bar to drink himself into a stupor after Aziraphale's discorporation as a form of suicide. Honorable mention for What good would common sense for it do? which has the two of them spending the night together after Crowley has a mental breakdown about the Spanish Inquisition, which ends with him leaving at the end because he doesn't think he's worth what Aziraphale clearly sees in him. As well as, as Ouida mentioned, I think about you, which ends with Crowley in a very distressed state after masturbating in the shower.

I think... I like torturing that old man. Oh well.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oh there's so many of those I might as well list my five favorite happy ending fics:

It's Not the Years, It's the Mileage - My fusion that puts Aziraphale and Crowley in the place of Indy and Marion during Raiders of the Lost Ark. It ends with them proclaiming their love and continuing their mildly illicit affair and lots and lots of kisses.

I won't have a life (until you're dead) - My first big long project with @ouidamforeman will always have a special place in my heart for happy endings. These two found each other despite all of the odds, and now they have eternity together!

Night of the Living Boyfriend! - Me and @ouidamforeman's 70s horror pastiche which I don't think anyone realized would have a happy ending. We certainly jumped through hoops to get there, but it got there all the same.

go where I go, do what I must - This one is going to be a series of interconnected one-shots in the same world but really... Poor little repressed Victorian man deciding to kill himself rather than get married to a woman he doesn't love by sacrificing him to the fae, only to become married to one of them instead? And then get to take part in their bacchanalian cultural customs? AND eventually get to have an orgy with two big Satyr fellas while his husband claps and squeals gleefully? He's living his best happy ending ever!

formation displays of affection - The android fic... oh my beloved android fic. I wrote this one specifically as a vehicle for Ouida to express some of their feelings and thoughts around their autism, and it ends so hopeful and happy and full of love to bursting.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I have only gotten hate twice. The first time was on a zine fic once it was published, someone saying that I was a hack and that my writing style was shit so I shouldn't get into zines. They bragged about it in a few discord servers, I've had them blocked since. The big one, as Ouida mentioned in their post, was on formation displays of affection, where apparently we are abelist against ourselves? For writing our experiences? Because the character is a robot. Whack as hell if you ask me.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Oh please honey, you know what blog you're on xD

All kinds of smut every configuration. Solo, couples, orgies... heavy kink, monster fucking. Always unapologetically queer and joyous. A few of my most Out There smut fics for your consideration (the first two are both collabs with Ouida!):

En Eski Aşk Şiiri - Vore sex. It's vore sex! Devour your angel husband for fun and profit!

The Nature of Intricate Rituals - Are they animals? Yes, strictly speaking. Reverse Omens where Crowley is a harpy and Aziraphale is a sphinx and they fuck good and Gadriel (Crowley) lays a lot of eggs and also comes about that.

In The Depths - Dubious consent wherein mech pilot Aziraphale gets fucked via that neural interface by a sea monster. Said sea monster comes back for more in a more compact, human looking form, but he still doesn't quite grasp the limitations of human bodies.

Five Sparrows for a Penny - Five Aziraphale clones give Crowley the ride of his life.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I've only written one crossover, and that was The Curious Case of Old Mr. Fell, where Basil of Baker Street and Dr Dawson from The Great Mouse Detective meet Aziraphale.

Fusions though, I have It's Not The Years, It's The Mileage as mentioned above, as well as the group project Reclamation and Reconnaissance which is an au set on Bajor during the events of Deep Space Nine, but with Good Omens characters.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Several times! Mainly into Russian, once into French and Italian I think.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

The majority of my writing is co-written. Me and Ouida are a great team <3

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Aziraphale and Crowley, hands down.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

My Fallout 4 rewrites. I just don't have the hyperfixation energy to work on them anymore.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I"m pretty good with dialogue and with scene details without them being overbearing. Ambience and mood as well.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I am not good at long form fiction, writing multichapter fics is a struggle for me because I struggle with plot of all things. I'm much more a one-shot person. However, part of the benefit of working with Ouida so much, is that they balance me out and are very good at hammering down worldbuilding and plot points. Also they beta everything I write!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I haven't done it myself yet, but I feel like it's so cool to do! If I can ever get it off the ground, eventually me and Ouida have a cold war spies concept that we're working on and Aziraphale will speak Russian in it a lot of the time.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Teen Titans. Not GO!, the original one.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

God I've written so many it's hard to pick, but I definitely have to say that it's I won't have a life (until you're dead). It will always be that one, forever and ever. That's why I haven't ever changed my profile picture xD

I'm gonna tag uhhhh @ashfae, @entanglednow, @charlottemadison42, and @waldosakimbo

#text #long post #my fic #tag game #anyone else who wants to do it also as well obviously <3

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morewyckedthanyou · 1 year

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I was tagged by @lovelesscherub, thank you soooo much, I love to be tagged 💖 (even if I don't always answer these because I forget or don't feel motivated at the time ).

favourite colour(s): Green (especially emerald green but all shades, really) and also yellow and orange. 💚💛🧡

favourite flavour(s): I have a sweet tooth, so if it's something is sweet... yes please. But also, I like savoury things too, and things that are a bit spicy a well. And garlic in anything usually works great! 😋

favourite genre(s): Whether we're talking about movies, tv or literature, I mostly prefer horror, sci-fi and fantasy. Oh, and mysteries (whether it's crime or something supernatural).

favorite music: I lean towards metal more than anything, but I actually also like a lot of different types of rock (especially if it was made 'in the old days', so in like... 50's to 90's) and pop as well.

favourite movie(s): So damn many tbh! But I will try to list at least some favourites that come to mind immediately. Here we go: Alien, Brokeback Mountain, Pacific Rim, Titanic, Flatliners (1990), Back to the Future-trilogy, Star Wars episodes IV-VII (but especially The Empire Strikes Back and The Force Awakens - the latter had so much potential ok!), Mamma Mia!, The Blair Witch Project, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Jurassic Park, Crimson Peak, IT 1990 (which is technically a miniseries but I think of it as a movie so), The Faculty, Thelma and Louise, Girl Interrupted, Stardust, Pitkä Kuuma Kesä, Spirited Away, Young Guns 1 & 2, Monty Python's Life of Brian, The LotR-trilogy, Hot Fuzz, Sinister, Maurice, The Breakfast Club, Kingsman 1 & 2...

favourite series: I don't watch a lot of tv (other than true crime "docuseries" sometimes) because I can't concentrate on following a plot that goes on and on most of the time but here are some favourites I've enjoyed in the past: Twin Peaks, The X-Files (seasons 1-7), Mash, Black Books, Doctor Who (the new series seasons 1-4), Spaced, Good Omens... Also I guess I should say Cobra Kai, not because I think it's particular good but because I just love the karate dads so much.

last song: GOSSIP by Måneskin

last series: Probably some true crime murder-series, I honestly can't remember, haven't even opened my tv in like a week or so

last movie: Can't remember if I've watched anything else in full since I watched Big Eden (2000) a few weeks ago.

currently reading: I wish I was reading an actual book because that's what I want to do more this year... But nah, I have started some but none could hold my interest more than a couple pages. 😩 I am however rereading a very good Cobra Kai fanfic feat. Daniel/Johnny/Amanda written by my very talented tumblr mutual and once I've finished reading I will leave a loooong comment because it looks like last time I was dumb and didn't comment at all and I am disappointed in myself.

currently working on: Writing letters to my penpals. Also trying to work on having a proper rhythm in my days even now that I'm unemployed and have nowhere to be during days. It's going alright I think. I should also try to work on my anxiety which has been quite bad lately.

I will tag: @catzy88 @disdaidal @icanhasnaow @leyley09 @an-sceal @ashyyboyy @dull-c @valastaja @marley-manson and @vonderbarr But if you have already done this recently or just don't feel like answering then no pressure! ❤️

#i got tagged #answers #lovelesscherub #lol my movie list became so long and would've been even longer if i'd also added all the horrible movies i like for nostalgia reasons #one quite bad nostalgia trip movie even found its way on the list 😂

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dracothedeatheatingcupcake-ao3 · 2 years

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Hi there! First off, wanted to say thanks for sharing your stories with us - Mondo and Taka are…intensely relatable characters for me in general, and the way you write them only makes it more so. I love them dearly, and your characterization of them is beautifully realistic in a way anime-boys-in-a-murder-school have no right to be, haha. But my question is actually about your other interests (forgive me, but I love hearing other people pontificate about their interests/passions/etc. so…) — if you don’t mind sharing, what other fandoms do you have a particular attachment to, whether you’ve created anything relating to them or not? Your work is wonderful and I’d love to explore more of it! Keep doing what you do, at whatever pace you are capable and comfortable with! 🧡

Aw this is so sweet!! Thank you so much!! :-D

I'm going to put a read more on this, just to help with dashboard clogging, as this got super long. As usual 😂😂 Though Tumblr's new long post thing might help with that, so who knows. But I'm used to using read mores, so... meh.

Ohhh boy, do I have a ton of other interests. 😂😂 My most recent fandoms that I've gotten into are Our Flag Means Death (which I'm so happy got renewed for a second season!! I loved the first one, so much. I hope it doesn't kill me with feels though!!!!), Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (And Apollo Justice, which I just finished), and Banana Fish (which is actually the only anime show I've seen, and while I highly recommend it if you've not seen it, you have to be careful since it's SUPER dark. Like... it's about a literal gang from New York and child trafficking. The main characters remind me a lot of Taka and Mondo, but even more depressing. Very good, but very dark.)

Then, of course, you've got my all time favorites, which include Harry Potter (though I've lost a lot of love for the series thanks to J.K. I can't ignore it, though, since it straight up shaped my teenage years and I STILL go by the name I made for my HP themed FB page when I was 13, DracotheDeathEatingCupcake. And I still love the characters, even now, so... yeah. But I fully support trans people and J.K. makes me sick), Supernatural (Destiel all the way, ha), Gravity Falls (and, for the record, I DO NOT like BillDip in canon! I liked it in fanon, which is why my most popular fic is BillDip, okay?? Oof), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (this one shaped my teenage years almost as much as Harry Potter, honestly. Spuffy is my fav of all time, even now. It sucks that Joss Whedon was such a creep. Why are all the things I liked as a kid made by terrible people??), and, surprisingly... Batman. That's a surprise since I don't like the majority of Batman things, and I more like the image of him I have in my mind, ha.

In addition to those, I've also had some big obsessions with the following: Rise of the Guardians, Danny Phantom, Legend of Zelda, The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings (the former more than the latter, actually. Also!!! I've been to the actual Hobbiton!!! I'll show pictures later, ha), Avatar the Last Airbender, She-Ra (the new Netflix one), Voltron (also the Netflix one), The MCU, Merlin BBC, Detroit: Become Human, Good Omens, The Witcher, Hunger Games (😉), Percy Jackson and.... god, a lot more prolly, but this is already a pretty extensive list, ha.

However, if you want the ones I've created and published fics for, I will list them in order from most recent to oldest here. Warning, it's a lot, ha. I've been writing since I was 13 (11 years, FYI), and I don't think a year has gone by where I've not written and published at least one fic.

Ishimondo from Danganronpa (duh, ha. I think I've written more Ishimondo than any other fandom other than HP, but most of my HP stuff was back when I was a young teen and was max 3k words each, so Ishimondo beats it word count wise by a long shot, ha.)

Merthur (Merlin/Arthur) from BBC's Merlin (which is actually the other 375k fic I wrote in a month and a half that I've mentioned before. This one got a little messy towards the end, since I tried my hand with a plot for the first time, and it was.... eh. People seemed to like it at least, so that's something, ha. But it was unique in that I started writing it when I was, like... 16/17, lost inspiration, and only continued writing when I found it again on my ancient iPod touch's note app several years later.)

Destiel (Dean/Castiel) from Supernatural (I actually have another fic for Destiel that is completely finished and I actually really like, but I just... have not posted???? For some reason?????? I keep meaning to but don't have time 😩 Maybe one day. Like maybe around the two year anniversary of Destiel becoming canon, and the two year anniversary of me finishing the fic 😂 Also, fun fact, but my first fic on AO3 was a Destiel fic. It wasn't my first fic ever, but my first fics will live on in infamy on fanfiction . net and will die a cold, cold death when that website finally goes belly up.)

An Avatar the Last Airbender fic that focuses on Lu Ten, Iroh's son (I love Zukka, but could never think of an idea for them, so I never wrote one for them. I had the idea for the Lu Ten fic after seeing a Tumblr post wondering about an AU where Lu Ten was secretly an earth bender, and HAD to write it. The first two chapters are pretty solid, but the last four... eh. Could do with some work.)

Hank/Connor, from Detroit: Become Human (I was weirdly obsessed with this game for a hot minute in 2019?? I still like it, but it was a pretty big thing for me then, ha. This fic of mine is another where I tried to have a plot, but it turned out meh. That's why my most recent fics have no real plot, and is mostly driven by emotion and details, ha. I'm much better at that than real plots.)

A Tony and Steve (from the MCU, ha) family fic (NOT ROMANTIC) where Steve is kid Tony's distant but loving uncle after Steve (spoilers for end game????? Ha) goes into the past to be with Peggy. It was a fix it fic of sorts.

BatJokes (Batman/Joker) from Batman, but more specifically, Bruce Wayne/John Doe from TellTale's Batman series (I had the idea for this fic when I was in a Target after having finished the second game and wrote it for like... 10 hours straight, ha. Fun fact, but this fic is actually the best fic I have in terms of kudos to hit ratio, with a ratio of over 1:1, if that means anything to anyone, ha.)

BillDip (Bill Cipher/Dipper Pines) from Gravity Falls (but like I said, I liked the fanon interpretation of BillDip!!! Not canon, since in canon, Dipper Pines is 12 and Bill Cipher is a homicidal ageless demon who is The Worst, but in a funny way. The fanon interpretation still wasn't great, but it was less bad to me when I was, like... 16.)

Stanley Pines and Stanford Pines from Gravity Falls family fics (I separated this from the last since it was its own thing, ha. Not much to say about these other than it was my first series and kind of started my whole "write from the other perspective" thing, since I first wrote a fic from Stan's perspective, then wrote one from Ford's.)

BagginShield (Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield) from The Hobbit (I am gonna be honest. I really disliked the Hobbit when I had to read it for a book report in, like... 10th grade I think?? But I LOVED the movies, even if the third movie was kind of pointless. I liked how Richard Armitage played Thorin, and how the movie gave the dwarves a much better a reason for wanting to go back to the Lonely Mountain than, uh.... I want gold. -.-)

And now I will put the fandoms/ships for fics that are either on FF . net and are not seeing the light of day (unless someone really is curious, but, uh... they're not very good and it's obvious a 13-14 year old wrote them, ha) or are in WIP Hell and will likely never get out. Also from most recent to oldest.

BlackBonnet (Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet) from Our Flag Means Death (this fic sadly landed in WIP hell despite me writing it for a week and a half straight and ending up with almost 100k words. But I realized I didn't like the way I wrote it, and I didn't know how to end it, which is just... yeah, disheartening, but I had fun writing it at least.)

WrightWorth (Miles Edgeworth/Phoenix Wright) from Ace Attorney (I actually have a completely finished one shot that was originally gonna be a longer fic, but works as a one shot, but again, I just keep not having the time/inspiration to post, oof. I also had started a longer fic with an OC young girl that Edgeworth fosters after her father gets murdered, and Phoenix helps him with her despite (spoilers for Apollo Justice) being all jaded after being disbarred, but I got a bit stuck with it and realized it was a meh plot, so... it's also now in WIP hell forever, RIP.)

Drarry (Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter) from Harry Potter (this ship is both one that is in WIP hell and is on ff . net, ha. The one in WIP hell is actually pretty good, but I just ran out of drive to finish writing. It's funny since I knew exactly where it was gonna go, but, uh... yeah, just ran out of drive. The one on ff . net is slightly better than my other older stuff on ff . net, but that's only because I was slightly older when I wrote it, ha. It's still Not Good.)

Dramione (Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger) from Harry Potter (This is entirely from ff . net, and it was actually my first real OTP. I don't ship them anymore, like... at all, since I'm more a Drarry girl, but it still holds a special place in my heart, ha. It also contains one of my better named fics, which I'm sure is the only reason it still gets views on ff . net even 11 years later, oof. All of my Dramione stuff is trash, though. Also, fun fact, but I only started liking Dramione because of A Very Potter Musical/Sequel. Ha.)

Spuffy (Spike/Buffy) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I think this was all one shots, nothing too substantial. None good either, ha. I do adore Spuffy though.)

And now, finally, I have a small list of fics I wrote on FF . net that were either for a friend, or were fun things I wrote but didn't really like the ship much for, ha. All are from Harry Potter, FYI.

Scorpius Malfoy/Lily Potter, which was actually the first fic I ever wrote, which I handwrote on paper during lunch time when I was in 7th grade, ha. I eventually transcribed it to my computer a year later, but it was the first fic I wrote and I didn't even like the ship that much, ha.

Draco Malfoy/Astoria Greengrass, which I only wrote for an online 'friend' who said it was derivative and had been done before. This was also a 'friend' who hated when I would call myself awesome (ironically, since I didn't like myself that much when I was a teen) because I was, and I quote, 'not awesome, so stop calling yourself that.' Yeah. She, uh... was not a great friend.

Lucius Malfoy/Professor Flitwick. Don't... don't even ask. I used to do HP roleplay, and I did an RP as the parents of the main characters, and I was Lucius and my friend was Flitwick, and I wrote this for him. It was my first (and, for the longest time, only) smut fic, and it's, uh....... yeah. Also! I just realized that those RP things showed a lot of indication that I was ace even before I knew what asexuality was, ha. I just remembered this, but I realize now that I never liked RPing smut, even when my friends were all "aw come on, it's not that bad!!!" But it always embarrassed me, so I only would do it with the people I trusted, and even then it felt weird to me (which was also in part because I was, like... 13-15. So were my friends, though, so don't get worried, ha). And my previously mentioned 'friend' (but different to the friend I did the weird smut fic for) got offended that I would write it with someone else but not her. Now that I think of it, my RP years were, uh... not great ones, wow. No wonder I've mostly blocked them out, ha.

Anyway!!! Wow did that end up long, oof. I hope this answered your question, because by this point I don't think I can even parse this response anymore, ha. I've also done art work for other fandoms, both digital and hand drawn, but if I add that this response will be never ending, oof. Maybe I'll see if I can link to my previously mentioned FB page (that I'm still active on, actually), where I have almost all of my old artwork posted, if anyone is still reading this and is curious. Is anyone still reading this??? If you are, reply with a smiley face and I'll give you a virtual gold star. I'd give more, but I'm always tired and can't make promises anymore :-(

Also, I think I promised Hobbiton fics, so, as promised:

These were all taken by my friend who lives in New Zealand, who went with me to Hobbiton, ha. I went in 2018 and it was soooo nice. I love NZ. I want to go back one day, but I'd rather go to new places before revisiting old places, so... maybe one day.

Also, a closer look of my elf ears my dad got me for Chanukah/Christmas one year, ha.

#Ask Answers #SUPER long response oof #I'm not concise :-)#But if y'all are here I'm sure y'all expect this by now ha #Also surprise Hobbiton pictures

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smallboyonherbike · 5 months

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for the end of year asks: 2, 9, 14, 20

ty ty!! 💖

2 - album of the year

if we go purely by my top apple music album it's måneskin - rush! which is a good album but not solid enough for me to say absolute top - it had the advantage of being released in january.

i do stand by my other top 5 as more reflective: diamonds & dance floors by ava max (another jan release but SUCH a solid pop album, if you also skip ballads this is for you), the rise and fall of a midwest princess by chappell roan (i didn't check her full album out until like november and it still got top 3 bc of how obsessed i got, she needs to blow up bc she's a musical and aesthetic genius), this is why by paramore (paramore being my 2nd fave artist of all time ofc their new album would be up there but i truly do love it, it's an evolution but also just so Them still!)

5 is renaissance beyoncé which was a 2022 album sure but i hope it's in my top 5 forever bc it's album of all time for me!!! could i have just picked one album maybe but shhhhh!!

9 - best month for you this year

hmmm i'm so bad at remembering shit in terms of months. i'll say november bc it's always a good month - my birthday, plus fall, plus it's after october which is my busy travel month at work so i get to be chill again. this year i went to the renaissance fair w three friends and it was a blast!!

14 - favorite book you read this year

oh god lemme try not to write an essay lol. i read way more this year than usual as an adult bc my current job is often slow (having actual free time still feels weird)

i'll instead talk about the three authors i read the most - mary balogh - i read 16 of her books this year. i really went on a tear and would have read more if i wasn't trying to save at least a few for the future. she writes regency romance which is yknow a big genre w lots of authors but smthg about her style really works for me! she somehow manages to have series with like 8 characters and their love interests and you care about all of them and they're all distinct enough to be side characters that Matter

jasmine guillory - read 7 this year. contemporary black romance. her characters are all loosely connected but you could easily read any of them solo! tropey meet cutes but not overly so, and crucially the characters can be flawed and have issues without being total assholes who shouldn't be together

seanan mcguire - read 7 october daye series this year. i've long been a huge fan of her wayward children fairy tale fantasy series but hadn't read any of her october daye urban fantasy until last year and now i'm obsessed! i literally got some of them as physical books from the library instead of ebooks which i hadn't done in years, bc i couldn't possibly skip any. october is a stubborn jerk and i love her so much. also cat boyfriend and found family incl her ex-death omen <33

20 - what's something you learned this year?

uhhhhhh i've thought about this previously and idk tbh. it's felt like a p solid year for me without a ton new going on. but maybe sliiiightly more being willing to push past my social anxiety to do new things! i can get p complacent in how i've set up my life to not have to do anything new, which makes me feel like i'm less anxious than when i was in school until suddenly something New is happening.

but like having to travel alone for work, def in 2022 i mostly got take out bc eating alone in a restaurant feels So Scary. but this year i was like i wanna eat hot food and relax and enjoy and it was p nice! something i still wanna work on in general, doing a bit more new/social things while still being a homebody lol

#megamazing #oops i really went off but hey it's my blog #ask //

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echotunes · 2 years

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top 5 shows or songs?

guess what i'm gonna do BOTH because it's fun

shows:

Good Omens: my most beloved. I like it so much. I like pretty much every character, I love the humour, the story, the acting, the opening is a fun little tune, the book was great too, so. yeah <3

Haikyuu!!: the volleyball people will always have a place in my heart <3 I have quite a few good memories associated with it, and the show itself is so good too on so many levels - characters, character dynamics, voice acting, soundtrack, it's all so good and I still enjoy losing my mind at the bird imagery and certain dialogue lines and moments ("we're the protagonists of the world" and the "I'm here" scene in that first practice game come to mind off the top of my head) and some of the general themes that keep showing up (like the "together we're invincible" thing) and just. hwagh. volleyball anime good

Our Flag Means Death: I love the gay pirates so much. The show is silly but also serious in a similar way to Good Omens, and every single character is so likeable. Like I'm not even gonna start listing off characters I like because I will end up with the entire crew they're all so <3 yeah <3 also just WOOOO GAY PEOPLE!!!!! (and also this show put me back on a "oh shit maybe i like men" kick. not going to elaborate but yeah)

My Hero Academia: (YEAH I KNOW I'M SORRY) I liked this show for years and similarly to Haikyuu i have a lot of good memories attached to it, specifically because I spent a lot of time in lockdown rewatching it with ny best friend on Discord screenshare and coming up with stupid jokes and it was so so much fun. that's one big reason why this is on the list. the other reason is that I just like a lot of the characters and all the superpower stuff is cool

i have been sitting here for like an hour writing the rest of the post and trying to think of another show and I genuinely cannot think of another show I've seen that I liked enough to give it a place on a "top 5 shows" list. like there's definitely a couple other good anime series (Noragami, Demon Slayer, Given) but those were never on the same level as the other ones on this list y'know? and I was never really one for cartoons, and I haven't seen a lot of tv shows (I did like Siren but season 3 ruined it for me. why did they break up the polycule. that was literally not necessary to do) other than the ones already mentioned on this list. so I'm gonna leave spot 5 blank

songs: this one is kinda hard because my music taste changes all the time but I'm gonna just make this a mix of my all-time favourites and songs I currently like. also gonna limit myself to one song per artist to allow for some variety

Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy by Queen: I like this song so much <3 it makes me happy, there's this one fantastic Good Omens animatic, the "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 [ding]9-o'clock" bit is so good it scratches a little itch in the back of my brain. it's good. I like this song :D honourable mentions by Queen include Bohemian Rhapsody (absolute classic, we played it in orchestra a couple years ago, very fun) and Don't Stop Me Now (upbeat! energy! also a classic! like it lots)

Supermassive Black Hole by Muse: this is one of the current favourites! It's a banger, it reminds me of [redacted] space opera AU, it's good <3 Starlight from the same album is definitely an honourable mention too

Sex with a Ghost by Teddy Hyde: another current favourite, it's just a banger I don't have much to say about it. I like the piano

Shut Up and Dance by Walk the Moon: I've been doing ballroom dancing (whether Discofox counts as a "ballroom" dance is another question but I learned it in my ballroom dancing class) and this song is SO MUCH FUN to dance a Discofox to, and also we've played it in orchestra which was fun as well, and ALSO it's just a very nice upbeat song :D it's on my feel good vibes spotify playlist and I like listening and dancing to it so it deserves a spot on the list honourable mentions from said playlist include Build Me Up Buttercup by The Foundations and Sugar Sugar by the Archies (both of which are not related to this song in the slightest but I like them and they would be on my grandma's kitchen radio which is a nice bonus association so I wanted to mention them)

Concrete by Lovejoy: yeah! tbh I didn't think I was gonna be putting Lovejoy on this list because their music isn't necessarily my favourite kind of music but this is a really solid song! I do quite like the rest of their music too (Oh Yeah, You Gonna Cry? and the It's All Futile! It's All Pointless! remake and also Sex Sells and Cause For Concern are some of my other favourites) but Concrete is my favourite by them I think :D

there's a bunch of other songs that I also like for various reasons (for example The Haunted Phonograph by Thoushaltnot, Mama and Welcome To The Black Parade by MCR, Oh No! and Hollywood by MARINA, and Bang! by AJR) but I think this is a solid list of favourite songs so. yeah :D

#thank you for the ask ven :D #echo.txt #echo.asks #melotuzu #ask games

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teledild0nix · 3 years

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Fic Writer Questions! (you can find me here on AO3 if you're interested!)

tagged by dear @theburialofstrawberries mwah!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

112 yowza!

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

750,421 kinda tempted to go delete one word so it can be 750420 which is a far more Pleasing number

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

12ish but some of them overlap: BBCS/Sherlock Holmes/ACD (these are all different bc my bbcs fics are not the same as my own modern fem Sherlock Holmes adaptation are not the same as my ACD Holmes fic; Good Omens; Harry Potter/The Werewolf Draco Malfoy Cinematic Universe; Captive Prince; The Hobbit; Fleabag (it was a crossover with BBCS but Fleabag is the perspective character so it still counts as a separate fandom imo); Doctor Who; The Office; Parks and Rec; Broad City (one a piece for those last 5 but I AM going to write a Parks and Rec polycule fic for @gaykagome)

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

They're all Good Omens fics from the 2019 Summer of Good Omens! Susceptible to Summer, Fragments Shored Against My Ruin, Something So Magic, Enter Serpent, and Anything We Like

All of those have over 2k except the last one, but average engagement for me is like 400 kudos or so

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try! It depends on what's going on with me. Sometimes I just don't have the energy, and I figure people would rather I spend my brain power on writing new fics than on writing replies to comments. Wish I had a fave button tho so I could let people know I read and reread comments, because I do!

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oh I wrote this ficlet series called A Chemical Defect about John and Sherlock's relationship in s3 of BBCS, and it's WILDLY unpopular. People don't read my fic to cry sad tears I guess! John and Sherlock are having an affair in the story, and it ends with the implication that their relationship is unsustainable and that Mary knows about it anyway. I intended to come back to it after s4 and write a more optimistic ending but LOL! Didn't have the heart.

7) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I know this answer is kinda up my own ass, but like. I think stories that feel true to life sort of feel like they end on a beginning if you know what I mean? You don't really consider a chapter of your life closed until you look back on it from the next? SO that said, I think I'd have to say that it's my big BBCS serial The Only One in the World. I spent 2 years writing it, and it ends with John retiring from medicine to solve crimes and write books full time.

Could also be my WDMCU (werewolf Draco Malfoy cinematic universe) series Moonrise, which starts with Draco isolated in his abusive mother's house, trying to cope with lycanthropy essentially alone and ends with him in love and surrounded by found family in a cozy cottage in Hogsmeade, having gotten some lycanthrope rights legislation passed after working at it for years and talking to Harry about whether they want to have kids. Oh man I feel warm and fuzzy just thinking about it

8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I have written one crossover. It's BBCS/Fleabag, because me and @loudest-subtext-in-tv were laughing about how John seems like one of the horrible guys Fleabag sleeps with basically out of self loathing, so I wrote this fic to make Nattie laugh, and you should read it bc it's so good and so underrated.

9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not really, but people don't seem to know that authors can read bookmark tags unless you private the bookmark, and someone once put in the bookmark tag on one of my fics 'writing was meh but it was okay.' Okay so why bookmark it then??

10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Fuck yes! I'm not sure what 'what kind?' means? People fucking? Sloppy, silly, and awkward, with lots of laughing. I also really like writing afterglow scenes which are even sillier and gigglier and often involve one character cooking for another. Food as love language is a very distinct pattern of mine tbh

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of, but occasionally I'll write a post on here where I make some elaborate head canon, and I'll see people in the tags talking about how they want to write fic of it, and it makes me breathe fire out of my nose like a dragon like PLEASE DON'T. The WDMCU came out of a ficlet post I made on here like a year before I actually wrote the 60k series so like!!! Please don't do that!

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! To Russian and I believe Chinese. Not my entire oeuvre but a handful of BBCS and Good Omens fics

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but I wrote a fic inspired by an RP I did with my gf right around when we met (actually now that I think about it, it's two fics), and I waaaaaaanna do a WDMCU collab with my beloved Sally @clytemenestras at some point if he has time bc he inspired me to even write werewolf draco with his original lesbian werewolf story

14) What’s your all time favorite ship?

favorites are hard for me? I always think I'm currently doing my best writing lol so I'll say drarry

15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I don't post fics unless theyre finished, so I don't have any WIP up on AO3, but I did intend to continue with my fem Sherlock Holmes series, Your Many Tendencies. I just haven't been in a Holmes mood for a long time. Maybe I'll come back to it idk. This particular series is honestly very unpopular? People will just straight up say they don't read femslash, and it hurts a lot. This series feels really personal too, bc it's about a Black autistic nonbinary lesbian, so it does hurt my feelings that no one seems to care, yknow? I mean the people who read it are extremely kind and thoughtful in their engagement with it, but it has vastly less engagement than my m/m fic, and that's painful. It gets literally 1/10 the attention my fics usually get.

16) What are your writing strengths?

Almost all of my writing is romance, but I tend to write concurrently about recovery and found family, and I think I'm very good at doing that in a way that connects with my audience. I once had someone ask if they could use my words in their wedding vows, and I've had people tell me they started doing things with their spouse that my characters do with their partners in order to express love. I think about that all the time. My Impact. It makes me feel like I have a real duty to my audience yknow?

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

This question is hard for me like I've been writing so long and so much that I'm literally always happy with my final draft! It's always exactly to my taste, yknow? I suppose I could say that my fics tend not to be terribly plotty but so WHAT? That's beside the fuckn point for me. Plot who? I don't know Her. Also honestly like. Stories feel more True to me when they aren't ruthlessly devoted to plot bc like life isn't like that yknow?

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If you're not fluent in that language, get a beta who is!!!!! That said, I have written scraps of very simple dialogue in French using mostly Google Translate (sometimes I check w Sally bc he speaks French but I am usually too impatient), and I am perfectly well aware that I take my life in my hands each time!!! Also don't do that bullshit thing where it's in italics? That shit is weird and exoticizing. Just write it in quotation marks like normal dialogue.

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

BBCS babey back in 2012. Ended a 5 year dry spell for me after I got my writing degree.

20) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Hmmmm I think it's probably gonna be the fic I'm working on now that I haven't posted yet, but I know it's called Names for a House, and here's a tiny bit of it

Thanks again Shreya for asking me to do this bc I really love talking about myself. I tag @the-moon-loves-the-sea, @clytemenestras, @tomiano, @gaykagome and @totallysilvergirl

No pressure <3

#sherlock stuff #ask games #apliddell #if y'all wanna send me asks about names for a house #or anything else i mentioned here #they would be welcome

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linz33y · 2 years

Text

Fic Writer Review

@veraynes-blog, you tagged me in this months ago, and I kept telling myself I would fill it out once I got back into posting on AO3. Welp, nature is healing and apparently so is my brain, because that time is now 😁

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

110,947

3. How many fandoms have you written for?

Published to AO3? 5.

Counting my WIPs? 10.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

You've Got a Funny Way of Making Friends (Good Omens)

One of a Million (Good Omens)

Sleeping Arrangements (Doctor Who)

Might I Tempt You? (Good Omens)

Long Time, No See (Good Omens)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

Doesn't matter if it's a single word, an emoji smash, or paragraphs of text: if I ever *don't* respond to a comment, please assume AO3 borked and didn't notify me, or I'm dead. Seriously, the immediate serotonin boost I get from seeing a comment notification makes me so, so excited that I have to share some of that joy with a response. I also try to leave comments on other people's fics as often as possible. Gotta pay the love forward <3

6. A fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don't normally write angst, but this Doctor Who drabble probably fits the bill. (I swear the rest of that drabble series is fluff and humor! 😅)

7. Do you write crossovers?

I don't currently have any published, but I swear to god @veraynes-blog, I have not forgotten about that Hannibal/Venom crossover one-shot that we've discussed on-and-off over the last year. I am determined to finish editing it one of these days 😁🙏

8. Ever received hate on a fic?

No, thank god.

9. Do you write smut?

I wish I could write smut, but alas, it is outside of my wheelhouse.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

11. Ever had a fic translated?

Yes, a couple of my Doctor Who fics have been translated! In fact, AO3 user Clara1998 read the translated version of The Locksmith, and wrote a follow up: 一个The Locksmith的续写 (roughly, A Continuation of the Locksmith). I had to paste it line by line into google translate to read it, but it made me very happy :')

In case anyone wanted to know, my transformative works policy is in my profile on AO3, and I welcome anyone to translate my fics as long as you link back to the original.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Closest thing I've done to a collab was the Masterversary Big Bang, with @mushigo-palm-spores illustrating my fic, Saxon and Jones.

13. All time fav ship?

Oh lord, it changes so often that it's impossible to answer this. Although I will say that I have a special place in my heart for Ineffable Husbands, seeing as the Good Omens series is responsible for my first post on AO3. When season 2 comes out, they'll probably be my fave again for a time 😊.

14. WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I can't think of one? If I want to finish a fic, it lives in my head until I figure out how to execute it, or until I decide I don't want to finish it anymore, at which point it wouldn't fit this category.

15. Writing strengths?

Humor and snappy dialogue. The first draft of my fics are basically screen plays: 90% dialogue, 10% screen direction. Then I spent the next several drafts slamming my head against my keyboard, attempting to fill in the actual scenes.

16. Writing weaknesses?

I definitely struggle with writing serious, emotional scenes. (For someone who finds herself in a puddle of tears near constantly, I am horrible at actually putting ernest expression into words 😂)

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

I'm pretty sure I've only ever written made-up alien dialogue, but I'm not against it. However, I'd have to narrow the language options down based on whether or not I know a fluent speaker who could help with translations.

Although, now that I think about it, even though it's not technically fic, @mushigo-palm-spores did help me with the German in this Ace Attorney comic I made a while back. Only the best for Franziska Von Karma <3

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Good Omens was the first that I actually published fic for.

19. What’s your fav fic you’ve written so far?

Unsuprisingly, it's my most recent. So, backstory: the pandemic made it really, really, really hard to write anything that I didn't immediately scrap in a bout of frustration. It's also the reason I have twice as many fandoms with WIPs than I do with published fics lol. It wasn't until around this past July that I got the idea for a little Fullmetal Alchemist multi-chap. It refused to give up on me, even after the first draft collected dust for a few months, and I finally finished editing/started posting chapters last week. Not only did it feel like a massive accomplishment (like, I actually finished! a thing! for the first time in like! a year!!), but I also got such a lovely comment on the first chapter that I cried. I've re-read that comment every day since, and it's been a huge motivator to keep on writing :')

There are still two more chapters that I'll post in the next week or two, but here's the first half of What's Yours is Mine (and What's Mine is Mine) ^_^

20. Tag!

@echospool (but I know you're still recovering from Nano, so no pressure) and anyone else that wants to fill this out <3

#my fanfic #tag game #long post

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shezzaspeare · 3 years

Text

The Science of Fanfiction

A Study in Sherlock | 3 More Days to Go!

Getting to Know Blessie.

A/N: This is going to be a long post.

Hullo! I apologise if this isn't the actual TSoF yet (next few posts won't be either, sorry), but I think that before we get to the point, I should probably tell who, what, where, why, and how I am. I guess it's important since I'm no big name here in the Sherlock side of Tumblr – I only have 32 followers at the time I'm writing this, and I'm just as much of a fan as the next user. Doing something this big is really hard for me since I've got a lot of things on my hands, but I hope and pray that God will give me enough strength and support for me to pull through.

(Yes, I'm a Christian; Roman Catholic, to be specific. However, my religion does not define my beliefs about life.)

Alright, enough sidetracking. For starters, my name is Blessie, but you can call me Bee if Blessie is a mouthful for you. I am the girl behind the handle of shezzaspeare, if that's not yet obvious. I will be launching TSoF at the age of sixteen years, two months, and two weeks. I'm a Hufflepuff, Thunderbird, Erudite, neutral good, ENTP-T, and tired. If anything else, I'm basically your local demisexual Sagittarian ambivert from the Philippines with artistic leanings, a truckload of unfinished WIPs, and a vague but large amount of anxiety running through her veins. If you want to know how I look like, here's a visual I made a couple of months back for you:

[Image ID: A self-portrait of Blessie/@shezzaspeare in pencil. End ID]

I've been in the BBC Sherlock fandom since I was twelve, the general Sherlock Holmes fandom since I was eleven. I'd be lying if I saw that they're not a big influence in my life: they, along with various other crime shows I'm fond of, inspired to want to become a forensic linguist. They're also a big factor of a lot of the things I do. I've watched a lot of Holmes adaptations (I've yet to finish Elementary and watch Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century), read countless pieces of pastiche, and spun numerous conspiracy theories based off the show. My parents find this liking a little worrying, but I beg to differ.

Other than the aforementioned classic, I'm also an avid fan of Marvel, Harry Potter, Good Omens, Six The Musical, Disney, and Hamilton. I adore Benedict Cumberbatch, Louis Partridge, Jeremy Brett, Natalie Dormer, and a handful more celebrities. I like to listen to old songs, watch documentaries, read classic books, and if I continue, we might be here long after Series 1 of TSoF is finished. Hello to my mutuals, by the way!

Now, for those who know me outside of Tumblr, you know I do a lot of things. But for those who don't, I've done a lot. I've sang, done art, cross stitched, made graphics, joined in academic competitions; and currently, I'm running a YouTube Channel, this blog, and this sentence.

Above that all, though, I write. I started writing when I was in fourth grade, and it's for a category in the school paper called editorial writing (the opinion columns). Not long after that, I discovered the world of fanfiction through the world of Wattpad, and I mainly wrote for this cartoon series called Ever After High. Years have passed since then, and my writing and fandoms have changed. So far, I've been writing for nine years and counting. I'm still fixing up my AO3 account and I plan to transfer some works of mine over there. You can still find all my works at my Wattpad page.

Now, why did I decide to do TSoF even if I have a lot going on with my life? Why did I push this through even if after nearly a decade of writing I haven't finished a single fanfic? The answer is very simple, really. I've seen a lot of brilliant discussions about the show — Sherlock's personality, symbolisms within the series, and backstories with the details of the scenes. I've come to realise that we never shone light into the other side of this wonderful fandom in which I contribute to as well. There are numerous writers who don't get the exposure they deserve, fanfic tropes we have yet to talk about, and AUs far more complex and deep than they seem. I think it's about time we talk about the—

[Image ID: A flashback of John (left) and Sherlock (right) finding an elephant (not in the screen) in a room in The Sign of Three. End ID]

I'm sorry. I just really love this GIF a lot. This is definitely not the last time you'll see it in the series.

For the tropes, if I may add, I'll mainly focus on tropes on Wattpad since AO3 is nothing short of unique and different kinds of stories whilst Wattpad is a different territory.

I don't have a day assigned for a regular update in TSoF, since I've still got school and all. I do promise that I'll post at least once a month, just for good measure.

I would like to thank everyone for their support for TSoF even if it hasn't begun yet. I can't promise it's anything as good as the content they put out, but I will give my all in this series. You guys rock!

So, allow me to share my love of fanfiction, BBC Sherlock or just plain ACD canon, with you with TSoF. It is my honour and pleasure to go balls knees-deep into this thing.

See you at the start of this thing on Monday!

My Carrd | My YouTube Channel

#the science of fanfiction #sherlock holmes #sherlock #gettoknowme #john watson #shezzaspeare #wattpad

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helshades · 5 years

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Ok Hel. I've spent the whole of april reading Good Omens because it had been on my to read list thanks to you for such a long time and i Knew i needed to have finished before the series came out (and how glad am i because the series doesn't hold a candle to the original despite being very commandable). Anyways. I am thorougly in love with Terry Pratchett's voice, and i need more, stats. How should i go at it? Where to start?

‘St. Beryl of Krakow was a 5th-century Christian martyr. Forcibly married to the pagan Duke Casimir, Beryl maintained her all-important virginity by ceaselessly talking to him and incessantly chattering on, until he went down with a headache.

Eventually he couldn't stand the eternal wittering any more and had her executed, but she died a virgin, which in Christian eyes was the all-important thing and which secured her a sainthood.

The Chattering Order of St. Beryl are an order of nuns dedicated to emulating her example, and whose members are commanded to chatter, natter, and rabbit on about every last little thing that comes into their heads for every second of every waking hour.

The Sisters are allowed half an hour's respite on Tuesdays, when they may be silent and, if they wish, play table-tennis’

Truth be told, I may be the only person who upon being prompted to give advice on a reading order for the ‘Discworld’ series will inevitably reply: ‘From the beginning, by book one, what a question’. Then again, I am also the sort of person to read Good Omens in two days (it should take me one, but I keep re-reading passages out loud) and the day after I was gifted my first Pratchett novel by my grandmother who thought she was trolling me (the back read: ‘In the realm of Lancre, smaller than a nudist’s outfit...’) I hurried into the big city to purchase the thirteen previous ones, which I read in one go, bar the odd contractual pause for sleep or shower (as other activities didn’t especially require that I stop).

Now, you might actually want to show some more restraint than I usually do in your discovery of such a vast, bountiful new territory, and start strategically, as it were, by a book most likely to help you transition smoothly from Good Omens into... well, Terry Pratchett didn’t write solely about the Discworld, but the Discworld novels certainly are the best point of entry and they are exactly what you are looking for if what you are looking for is a post-Good Omens fix. If such were the case, I would select these precise books amongst my favourite:

Hogfather (20)

Going Postal (33)

Interesting Times (17)

Monstrous Regiment (31)

Lords and Ladies (14)

Guards! Guards! (8)

The Discworld series comprises 41 books but they can absolutely be read on their own, so that in theory you may start with any of them. Nevertheless, some of the main characters have their own series: they grow up or grow older, start a family, shoulder new responsibilities... Some will deem it more satisfying to see these characters evolve along the years, especially as Pratchett’s own writing style has improved greatly since the (hilarious, but much less profound) initial volumes.

Should I advise only one book to be read after Good Omens, though, I think I would select Hogfather. It is a wonderful entry for many reasons, including the clever twists on real-world myths, the amazing main characters, the fact that it can totally be counted as a Christmas tale, and the seriously amazing main characters—who are (Duchess) Susan Sto Helit, who I guess is the closest thing the Discworld had to a Mary Poppins, and her grandfather, Death (a long story. It is told in Mort.), a 6-foot-tall skeleton normally in a black robe equipped with a scythe, except this time He is wearing a fake beard and several cushions to fake a jolly big belly, because one has to temp as the Hogfather, the latter having disappeared without a trace, meaning the little kiddies of the Disc won’t have their Hogswatch presents this year... ah, and, also, the world might just end because of it.

Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree. But people have always been dimly aware of the problem with the start of things. They wonder aloud how the snowplough driver gets to work, or how the makers of dictionaries look up the spelling of the words. Yet there is the constant desire to find some point in the twisting, knotting, ravelling nets of space-time on which a metaphorical finger can be put to indicate that here, here, is the point where it all began...

Something began when the Guild of Assassins enrolled Mister Teatime, who saw things differently from other people, and one of the ways that he saw things differently from other people was in seeing other people as things (later, Lord Downey of the Guild said, ‘We took pity on him because he'd lost both parents at an early age. I think that, on reflection, we should have wondered a bit more about that.’) But it was much earlier even than that when most people forgot that the very oldest stories are, sooner or later, about blood. Later on they took the blood out to make the stories more acceptable to children, or at least to the people who had to read them to children rather than the children themselves (who, on the whole, are quite keen on blood provided it's being shed by the deserving), and then wondered where the stories went.

And earlier still when something in the darkness of the deepest caves and gloomiest forests thought: what are they, these creatures? I will observe them. And much, much earlier than that, when the Discworld was formed, drifting onwards through space atop four elephants on the shell of the giant turtle, Great A'Tuin. Possibly, as it moves, it gets tangled like a blind man in a cobwebbed house in those highly specialized little spacetime strands that try to breed in every history they encounter, stretching them and breaking them and tugging them into new shapes. Or possibly not, of course. The philosopher Didactylos has summed up an alternative hypothesis as ‘Things just happen. What the hell.’

This conversation is far from over, but for now I really must go—I am feeling a mighty urge to reread a couple dozen things right now.

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