#i just hope that as well as the epic ideas people can enjoy the very normal nature of the characters too :') | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

7-wonders · 3 months

Text

In Waking Hours

Roommate!Calliope & GN!Reader (platonic)

Summary: Calliope's planning to enjoy a nice, quiet evening sitting outside under the moon and enjoying her relative freedom when she sees you still haunted by a particularly brutal nightmare. Plans change, because she's not about to let you face the worst parts of her former husband's realm alone, obviously.

Word count: 3.6k

A note from the author: (You don't have to, but you'll have a lot more backstory if you read To the world we dream about first)

Shitty summary but you have a nightmare and Calliope's like "well this is my emotional support human so I can't not help!" WOW this is the first time I've felt truly inspired when writing in months. S/o Calliope girl hope I'm doing you proud by giving you the stories and love you deserve.

So, I know that this isn't going to get a lot of love since there's no actual Morpheus in this, just mentions which means my normal tags can’t be used, but I love this little fic-verse I've created so much that I have to write it. (All this is to say please show this fic some love if you enjoyed!!!) This isn't romantic, but there are definitely romantic fics in the pipeline. The nice thing about a loose fic-verse is that there are plenty of fics for you to read if you don't want an eventual throuple :)

(But hopefully there will be plenty of fics for you to read if you do want an eventual throuple)

I would be remiss to not shout out the reason this fic-verse exists in the first place and the person that I can talk about any and every random fic idea with, the lovely @ivandra-winters! Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything.

Calliope doesn’t really sleep well anymore.

Not that she needs sleep in general. She’s a goddess, after all, and divine beings such as herself only sleep because they want to, because they feel like indulging in all the wonders available to them upon closing their eyes. Few things truly and regularly excite beings of myth, but the Dreaming is one of those few things. Only very rarely, such as in cases of extreme injury, do they need to sleep. Mostly, sleeping is a comfort, a way to pass the time.

In the early days of her imprisonment, after Erasmus Fry first captured her, Calliope thought that she would use sleep for both. Though her relationship with her husband had ended about as terribly as a relationship can end, the Dreamlord had never reneged on his promise to always give Calliope the sweetest of dreams. She would rest, then, and find a distraction and comfort in the Dreaming until someone, be it her sisters or her mothers or somebody seeking her favor, would save her.

Then, she found out all the terrible things one person can do to another while they’re unconscious.

Even though she’s now safe, the once-familiar action no longer comes easy to her. Almost every time she’s tried—and those have been few and far between—she wakes up in a panic before she can fall asleep enough to even make it to the Dreaming. When she closes her eyes, she sees them once more. Both of them, Fry and Madoc, taking what was never theirs in the first place. She feels their cruel, rough hands on her body, hears their voices demanding that she give them inspiration for their works.

(Works that she wishes would be little more than drivel. But no, nothing inspired—forcefully or not—by her could ever be drivel. They’re wild successes every time, and so the men just continue to take take take until Calliope thinks that she has nothing left to give. But she does, because she is the Muse of Epic Poetry, and for as long as people still believe in her, she shall be a source of inspiration. And so she continues to be drained like a tree of its sap, an essence so integral to her being that she knows not who she is without it. Until one day, when Madoc returns to his home ranting and raving—and there is a knock at the door.)

Calliope’s been doing some reading on the device that you gave her, the one that’s like a digital library, and she believes she might have what today’s humans call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The inability to sleep, the flashbacks, the ever-present hum of vigilance that still thrums under her skin and warns her that the threat might be just around the corner—it’s all there, and it’s all her. It’s humiliating to think about it as a possibility, and more humiliating still to see herself in the words written.

Goddesses shouldn’t have trauma! They shouldn’t even be in a position where trauma could be inflicted on them! She misses the age when she was at her strongest, the age when people worshipped the very ground she walked on, dropping to their knees in reverence and begging for her gifts.

But that world is long gone, and Calliope has landed in a new one that is entirely foreign to her. Slowly, though, she likes to think that she’s adjusting. Since the night is long and sleeping is not an option for her at present, she finds other ways to pass the hours when the rest of the world rests. The 21st century is new and exciting, and there is much to catch up on.

Not only is she learning more about this new world, but she’s also learning herself all over. There are hobbies that she gets to discover once more, enjoyments that she forgot were hers. She listens to music (music now is…very different from even a hundred years ago, but there have been some works that she enjoys) and reads—not just the books that tell her things about herself that she does not wish to hear, but she reads epics! And poetry! How she missed poetry; that special language so near and dear to her, the words of her most favorite patrons. She reads all that she can get her hands on, good and bad, for the simple pleasure of being able to read once more.

Oftentimes, she simply enjoys the quiet at night. She basks in the knowledge that she can do what she wants, when she wants, with nobody lording over her or imposing their will. Yes, she is still technically bound to a human, but that is a non-issue. Calliope knows with absolute certainty that you have no idea of who she is or what Richard Madoc had done when he declared that she was your problem now.

She likes living with you, though it has been an adjustment being what you call a ‘roommate’ instead of a captive. Whereas the two men (if such brutes can be referred to as men) had been the worst of humanity, she finds humanity endearing when she sees it through your lens. How can she not develop a fondness for you, with how earnestly you try to include her in your life and make her feel like she belongs?

There is also some level of comfort to be gained from the blissful ignorance you live in, the way that you believe your world to be black-and-white with no potential of the things you were taught to be nothing more than myths and stories. To you, such tales don’t exist—Calliope, the Muse, doesn’t exist—and Calliope, the woman, feels that she is able to let her guard down for the first time in a long, long time.

At times, she can feel your desperation for some sort of inspiration, lost as you attempt to complete your studies. It is comforting to know that you have no idea the being that you now share a home with. It is even more comforting to know that she has the choice of whether to grant you some inspiration or not.

Tonight, Calliope decides for herself once more, and thinks that she would rather like to sit outside on the patio and enjoy the late night. With her mind made up, she sneaks out of her bedroom with a blanket in one hand and a book in the other.

“Oh!” Calliope gasps in surprise, startled upon seeing a figure sitting on the couch.

Moonlight shines through the curtains that were most definitely closed a few short hours ago and illuminates your face staring out at the dark. She relaxes, but her fear immediately shifts to concern upon seeing what look to be tear tracks drying on your face.

“Hey. I’m sorry.” Just as she suspected, your voice is thick with tears. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Do not apologize,” she lightly chastises you. “Are you alright?”

You nod and use your sleeve to wipe under your eyes. “Yeah.”

It’s obvious that you’re planning on leaving it at that, which simply won’t do. Calliope levels you with a stare (a ‘mom stare,’ you teasingly referred to it as the first time she used it, without knowing how true your words were. One day, she thinks, she’ll tell you about Orpheus. Once the pain of losing him stops hurting so much) that you try your hardest to act unaffected by. You sigh after a moment, knowing that the fight is lost.

“I had a nightmare,” you admit. “And like, I’m not a little kid anymore. So why did this nightmare scare me so badly that I literally woke up and jumped out of bed in fear?”

Well, that explains why she heard a noise of surprise from your room, followed by a loud thump. She assumed that you hadn’t yet gone to bed, that you were up late finishing a project or just plain procrastinating your sleep. Why your late night required what sounded like the moving of furniture was beyond her. But no, instead, you’ve found yourself at the whims of a nightmare.

Nightmares are not something that Calliope has a lot of experience with. She’s met nightmares, of course. With how much time she spent in the Dreaming, it was a foregone conclusion that she met a nightmare or two. And when they weren’t performing their duties, a lot of them were really quite nice!

(The only nightmare she truly could not stand was her former husband’s most beloved creation—The Corinthian. He…creeped her out, for lack of a better term. It wasn’t just the ocular mouths, though those were also chill-inducing. Rather, it was his entire demeanor. Like he was simply playing nice, biding his time before he could go in for the kill. She was glad to have never seen him again after the end of her marriage.)

But has Calliope ever actually dealt with a nightmare? The lives of immortals are long (obviously), and while she may have once had nightmares when she was very young, it was so long ago now that she can’t remember any particulars. Even when her own son was young, nightmares were not truly a concern. Though she and Morpheus had mutually agreed that he needed to sleep like a normal child at least sometimes in order to aid in his development, the very first time his little brow creased and frightened whimpers began to well in his throat, that decision was quickly forgotten in favor of comforting the boy and assuring him that nightmares would harm him no longer.

So, while it’s true that she does not have much experience with nightmares, what little experience she has had helps her to know just how frightening they can be—and how frightened it’s made you.

“Would talking about it make you feel better?” Calliope asks.

You shake your head resolutely, determined to keep your fears to your chest. “I don’t remember it anymore.”

For many mortals, dreams and nightmares do not follow them out of the Dreaming. They may remember snippets of it, or certain emotions, but often, they fade away in the few hazy moments after waking. It’s pretty obvious that this isn’t the case for you, however. You continue to hold yourself tense, as though whatever had troubled you while you slept would reappear at any moment. Calliope has also seen you deep in thought a couple of times now, and the way you were looking outside when she first stepped out of her room was the same way she had seen you look when trying to complete schoolwork or focus on making something complicated.

Up until now, you’ve tried so hard to always be positive and to make your home and yourself as comforting as possible so that Calliope may have the best possible environment to heal. She appreciates it—this new life she’s found herself in has truly been conducive to recovery—but now, she struggles to watch you try to keep up this facade so as not to lay your upsets upon her. She wishes that you would, though; that you would feel like you can confide in her the same way that you have made her feel towards you. After all that you’ve done for her, you deserve to feel like you have gained a friendship.

Calliope will let you keep your secrets, then, even though this means that particular avenue of help is closed—she will not force you to do anything that you do not want to do. She moves on to Plan B, into the kitchen where she fumbles around until finding the kettle. Filling it with water, she places it on a burner and turns the stove on. Though she’s still not very confident around newer inventions like kitchen appliances, she’s proud of the fact that she’s slowly learning.

At the sounds, you peek up from the couch. “What are you doing?”

“What you’ve done for me when I find myself particularly upset,” she says, fetching two mugs from the cupboard.

“You’re making me tea?” Your voice sounds strangled, as though you can’t imagine why she would be providing you this small comfort.

You first started making tea for Calliope on the night that she technically became ‘yours.’ After locking herself in the bathroom and scrubbing her skin raw under the stream of hot water until she was sure that every inch of her body was clean from the DNA of another, she spent an interminable amount of time just enjoying the knowledge that she was now safe. While it was true that you were still practically a stranger, she had lived for long enough now and had honed her gifts well enough to be able to get a good read of a person’s intentions.

From the moment that she met you, you held none of the same ill will as the others. No, your immediate concern had been making sure that she was warm. When was the last time somebody cared for how she felt? She watched intently as you grabbed a coat from your vehicle, sure that, at any moment, your intentions toward her would change. Though she didn’t believe that she had the power (both strength and will) to fight you off, she would not be caught off-guard if it came to that.

But it never did. You simply wanted to make sure that she was out of harm’s way. You concluded on your own that whatever had happened to her in that house, at the hands of the man you called your professor, was horrific. To you, Calliope was a woman, battered and scared, with nothing to her name and nowhere to go. It was the obvious option to offer her food and shelter, to ensure her safety, simply because it was the right thing to do.

Still, even after your show of immense kindness, she did not want to face you, for some part of her was waiting for the inevitable. When you would demand the use of her gifts, wanting inspiration and fame and power and riches. She was dreading the potential that you were simply another human wanting to take take take. So she waited until the water ran cold and she was shivering. Even then, it took until she physically could stand the water no longer for her to finally make slow moves to get ready to leave the bathroom. Toweling herself off and putting on the borrowed clothes (clothes that actually covered her skin, so much more than the satin slips that she had been granted by her former captors) could only take so long, so with a heavy sigh, she steeled herself and opened the door.

There was no sign of you, however, and a quick glance at the light from under the closed door of one bedroom indicated that you were inside. The only sign of life that proved that you were once in this space was a plate and a mug sitting on the counter. When Calliope cautiously got closer, she saw a note next to them.

“Made you some dinner and tea. I’ve always been told that tea (or your preferred hot beverage of choice) can do wonders for making you feel better, and I’ve found that to be true a few times now. Sweet dreams!”

Your name was signed at the end, along with what looked like a drawing of a smile.

Aware of the very real possibility that this could be a trap—Fry, after all, had first tried to woo her before taking what he believed to be his by force—she hastily grabbed the ceramicware and made off to the room that you had called hers. She had no real need for food, of course, nor for bathing. But they were those same creature comforts that not even the gods were above, and beyond sporadic, cold baths, they were creature comforts she had been denied for over sixty years. Calliope would take any that she could get, especially when they were (seemingly) freely given. Unfortunately, she was not in a position to spurn such gifts right now.

These gifts kept coming, without an expectation of anything in return from her. She was free to take whatever she wanted, go anywhere she liked, do anything she wished. And you were always there to cheer her on and encourage her, with a smile on your face and (when she wanted it) tea in hand.

“‘Make’ should perhaps be used loosely.” She smiles sheepishly, back in the present as the kettle begins to warm. “Depending on how much of your help I shall need after the water boils.”

You wrap a blanket around yourself and make your way to Calliope. “Then we’ll make it together.”

After the tea has been successfully prepared and you’re both settled back on the couch with a large blanket shared between you, Calliope asks, “Do you have nightmares often?”

“Not like when I was little. I was one of those kids that had night terrors, y’know?” She doesn’t know, because she has never heard of them more beyond being mentioned in passing when she was still wife to Dream of the Endless, but she nods regardless. “Apparently, I would just scream and shake until I ran out of breath and woke myself up.”

“I am so sorry to hear that.”

“It’s okay. Like most kids with night terrors, I never remembered them.” You take another sip from your mug. “This is good tea, by the way.”

“You are the one that determined when the tea was done steeping.”

“Yeah, but you boiled the water, which is an integral part of tea-making.” You smile at her, the first smile she’s seen from you tonight, and it makes her feel a little better, like she’s doing something right. “So well done.”

You fall quiet, having said what you wanted to say regarding your nightmare and choosing instead to enjoy your tea. Though you’re content with companionable silence, Calliope is not. She feels like she should be doing more to help you, to comfort you. Caring for another, helping someone to feel better, does not come easily to her like it once did. She has been burned for too long now, that caring nature snuffed out early on in her imprisonment. But slowly, like the first blades of grass pushing back through the soil of a blackened landscape after a wildfire, new life has started to grow in the middle of this scorched area of her heart. She wants to help you, to care for you.

She wants to make you feel better.

“My younger sister, Thalia, is far better at this than I,” Calliope admits with a sigh.

“Better at what?”

“At cheering people up.”

Indeed, Thalia did not preside over comedy for no reason. Many times over the years that she’s been unwillingly away from her family, Calliope found herself wishing that Thalia would be right next to her. She loves all of her sisters equally, but Thalia would have effortlessly known what to say or told an anecdote that would have made her imprisonment easier. Perhaps it would have even given her the extra strength needed to truly fight and find a way out.

You bump Calliope’s shoulder with your own. “You’ve done a really good job of that yourself, Cal.”

She feels her chest warm, both at the compliment and the term of endearment. Somewhere along the way, you (and your friends, who are just as kind and welcoming to her as you have been) adopted a nickname for her. This is new for her—prior to her imprisonment, she was Calliope, eldest of the Muses Nine, Beautiful-Voiced, Chief of All Muses. She has always been Calliope. But now, sometimes she is Callie, or Cal. Those who call her this do not know that they are in the presence of a goddess, that she should be commanding the respect that she deserves from mortals who believe her one of them.

Instead, she finds that she loves having a nickname.

“You have…eight sisters, right?” you ask.

“Yes. Thalia is the second youngest.” Calliope has only spoken about her sisters in the most vague of ways, hesitant to reveal too much. Telling you the names of a sister or two certainly won’t hurt.

“It must be so much fun when you’re all together.”

Calliope smiles wistfully, feeling that familiar pang of homesickness. “It is. There are lots of laughs shared, and we all leave with enough stories to last until we see one another again.”

It hits her almost as soon as the words leave her mouth: There is something that she can do to help. She can do what she does best, that which is her chief function. She can tell you a story. Already the words come to her, the tale writing itself within her, nestled right at the hollow of her throat, and just waiting for her to speak it aloud. Her inspiration, her gift, is used on herself for the first time in a long time, and as her mind goes to work, she remembers why it is that she is so coveted. It feels intoxicating to think up a story once more, to be inspired to create. It’s an old feeling, one that was once so familiar to her, that it feels quite like a homecoming for her to be experiencing it once more.

“Have I ever told you of the wager that Thalia and our sister Mel once had?” she asks, baiting you.

You look at her curiously and take said bait. “No.”

Calliope smiles, feeling her power hum within her as, for the first time in a long, long time, she prepares an epic of her own. “Well, it started one summer…”

•••

Fic-verse taglist! (If you want to be notified when future parts drop, shoot me a message or an ask and I'll add you!)

@aralezinspace @morpheusbaby3 @juwu-theliciosa @pageswithoutaplot @thatonehumanbeing05

#the sandman #the sandman imagine #calliope the sandman #calliope the sandman imagine

36 notes · View notes

2dmenenthusiast · 7 months

Text

“Maybe a series. An epic, even.”

(Varric x Elf Inquisitor!Reader)

a very short, fluffy piece for y'all. I've been wanting to write for Varric for a while cuz there's barely anything for him which makes ZERO sense. I need more fanfics about this handsome dwarf :(

I hope you enjoy and comments and reblogs are always appreciated!

Summary: dreams of being thrown into the future and watching your comrades die have been plaguing you, and a certain dwarf appears to comfort you

Word count: 1k

Warnings/other info: Mentions of death, nightmares, floof

Another restless night in Skyhold. Unsurprising, but highly frustrating.

You couldn’t remember the last time you got a decent night’s sleep, plagued with nightmares of demons and everything else under the sun trying to kill you. You’ve had them since you first bestowed the mark, but they had only gotten worse ever since Alexius sent you forward in time.

You know everyone would disapprove of you torturing yourself like this, but you couldn’t help it. You imagined every single way things could’ve gone wrong, how you could’ve been stuck in the future forever. You relived the moment you saw Cassandra die, and Varric’s lifeless body was thrown to the side. You remember the enraged look on Leliana’s face as she put as many arrows in your enemies as she could, before she was killed mercilessly as well. Everything was okay now, things were set the way they should be. But what if they weren’t? What if—

You groaned, sitting up in bed and putting some warmer clothes on before walking down to the throne room. It was empty as expected, considering it was— what, almost 3 in the morning? You’d probably only average a couple hours of sleep at this point before you had to go out scouting in the morning. Cassandra won’t be pleased, that’s for sure.

Traveling the path out to the battlements, you leaned your arms against the stone wall and gazed at the night sky. The stars were incredibly bright, and the cool air felt heavenly against your skin. You’re considering just moving your bed out here. Of course, it wouldn't be the greatest idea for everyone in the inquisition to see you in your underwear first thing in the morning.

“If you’re planning on jumping, might I remind you of the imminent threat that faces us that only you can defeat with that thing on your hand.”

You turned your head just enough to see Varric in your peripherals, the dwarf sauntering up to you.

“You think I’d leave you here to fend for yourself?”

He shrugged. “People have made worse mistakes.”

You grinned, and he stood next to you. He set his gaze to the sky.

“I understand why you come out here. Definitely prefer looking at this than the shit we’ve been facing every day.”

You huffed out a halfhearted laugh, leaning your chin against your hand as you looked at him. Varric always knew what to say to cheer you up, even if the comfort sometimes came in vague insults.

The image of his body being tossed to the side like he weighed nothing appeared in your mind again, and you squeezed your eyes shut in an attempt to block it out. Varric noticed, because of course he did. He seems to notice everything.

“Got something on your mind?”

You scoffed. “Only the seemingly imminent end of the world.”

“Oh, come on, Lucky. You know that Corypheus bastard is all talk. You’ve got that mark on your hand for a reason.”

“The reason being I was in the right place at the right time.” You sighed, shaking your head. “Recently, it feels like I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Varric furrowed his brows, forehead wrinkling as he turned his body to face you.

“What’s wrong with you? If I’m mistaken, the only brooding elf I know is Solas.”

Teeth dug into your bottom lip and your hands gripped the stone wall. The mark on your hand slightly pulsed, and you took a breath to try and calm your racing thoughts. Since the Inquisition formed, you’ve grown to care deeply about your comrades and your advisors. You all got off to a rocky start, a few being wary to even speak to you, but with time, you all grew comfortable with each other. Some more friendly than others. And Varric… Well. He was a special case.

You’ve found yourself growing quite fond of the dwarf, beyond levels of platonic, and the thought scared you. Ever since you got the mark, your life expectancy grew shorter every day. There would be times where you’d come back to Skyhold barely clinging to life, only to have your friends berate you for being so reckless on your missions. Because, of course, you were everyones savior. And you had to live. But, after Corypheus was dead, and the hole in the sky was closed, what then? Would you outlive your usefulness? Would you be forgotten?

You imagined you’d be dead, most likely.

So, you kept your feelings close to your heart, making sure your emotions were under control. But, it was like a boiling pot, ready to bubble over any second. And seeing Varric die in that alternate timeline, it was only getting harder and harder to swallow your feelings.

“I keep… That day, when Alexius sent us into the future where… Corypheus won, I keep dreaming about it. About how you and Cassandra and Leliana sacrificed yourselves so I could go back and fix everything. And I did. We stopped Alexius, we’re still going after Corypheus. Everything is the way it should be. But…”

You sniffled, a familiar burning sensation behind your eyes that you tried to blink away.

“I keep seeing you, and your body being thrown to the floor, and any thought I had of going back to stop all of it from happening was completely thrown out the fucking window when I saw that. Because all I could think about was saving you. And how you died before I could tell you that I—”

You cut yourself off with a huff, reaching your hand up to wipe away the rogue tears that had rolled down your cheeks. Varric’s expression was a mixture of many things. Confusion, shock… sadness. You clear your throat in an effort to compose yourself. It barely helps.

“I’ve… grown quite fond of you during our time together. And when you died, I swore to myself I wouldn’t let it happen again. No matter how ready you might be to throw yourself into the line of fire for me,” you ended with a jab. Some humor to ease your words.

Varric smiled. “Anything to save the hero.”

You shook your head. “I believe you are more of a hero than I.”

“Yes, because being part of the Merchants Guild is a very heroic duty.”

Chuckling softly, you turn to him and reach out a hand, softly running your fingers down the chain of his necklace before looping them through the circle pendant. It shines in the moonlight when you turn it between your fingers, and you let it drop softly against his exposed chest.

“I understand if my… confession seems inappropriate or makes you uncomfortable, so. We can just pretend it never happened if you would prefer—”

“Actually,” your eyes slightly widened when he smirked, gripping your wrist when you tried to pull your hand back, “I think a kiss from the Herald of Andraste would be quite the story to tell.”

You smiled, hand slipping from his grip so you could hold his. “Just one story?”

He shrugged. “Maybe a series. An epic, even.”

You couldn’t control the rapid beating of your heart as you slightly bent to his height before gently pressing your lips to his, his warm, calloused hand reaching up to hold your face. A kiss under the night sky was more perfect than you could imagine. Because every time the thought of kissing the dwarf did occur, it was always in the midst of battle, when things seemed less than ideal, and it might be your last chance of telling him how you felt. Now? There might be a promise of more moments like this to occur in the future, and you couldn’t be happier.

Pulling away, you stood to your full height, but kept his hand in yours. You couldn’t wipe that stupid grin off your face, and he laughed at the sight.

“I’d say it’s time to get our hero to bed, hm? Got a long day ahead of us.”

“Trying to get rid of me already?”

Varric pulled you forward and led you down the battlements, gently squeezing your hand. “Please. You think so little of me that I’d let you be alone tonight?”

Your cheeks hurt from how wide you were grinning, and you lightly bumped your side into his.

Maybe everything would be okay in the end after all.

#varric x reader #varric tethras x reader #varric tethras #dragon age #dragon age inquisition #dai #varric tethras imagine

58 notes · View notes

marvelstars · 2 months

Text

Another interesting thing about Vader´s and Palpatine´s relationship is that unlike Count Dooku and Palpatine, were both truly were in it for the power and both made plans to destroy the other early on, there is almost a kind of camaraderie between the emperor and vader you don´t see with Dooku or Maul. The Emperor trusts Vader to have his back because he knows Vader´s loyalty even now is without question, that was always part of his character. Vader is above all loyal to the people he loves and the ideals he holds in great esteem and he loves the Emperor and is loyal to the Empire.

The Emperor does seem to enjoy having Vader around to talk to even if it´s one of his manipulation plots, at this point in his life he is the only one who still sees him as a person, not an authority figure or as a monster and Vader has grown too weary and tired to see where his master is faking it and where he is being honest so he doesn´t try to interpret it one way or the other but still feels a strong protective steak towards the Palpatine, despite the fact Vader was also getting ready to defeat the him with Luke´s help if that was what it took to keep Luke safe.

But then in ROTJ Vader seems almost ready to give up his post(life really) if that serves to keep Luke alive, because without Luke´s help, he no longer was strong enough to defeat the Emperor but also this protective steak for Palpatine is still there, he just feels the same for Luke now and that´s such a big conflict to him.

The Empire as an institution is such an important part of Vader´s plans and pov that connect with his wish to "bring order to the galaxy" which also connects with the " the biggest problem in the galaxy is that no one helps each other" that he was no going to betray the Empire just because Luke asked.

Vader believes the Empire can be fixed and the Emperor removed because he is no longer looking for the best interest of the Empire but he wasn´t going to betray it until it came to a choice between Luke´s life and the Emperor´s life, he made his choice knowing it would not fix what was but it would give a new beggining for something else to be born from there.

On this I believe Vader didnt thought much of the Jedi Order anymore, I believe he respected them as rivals, in fact he often gets angry on their behalf in novels and comics if he sees someone who is not a Jedi collecting or holding lightsabers, he kept his respect for them as an institution and as individuals, this is why I don´t prescribe to the idea in the fandom that he hated them, he didn´t he was dissapointed because he believed they lost their way, he has regrets for his part in their destruction but he regrets the younglings over everybody else, more than anything else.

So when we meet Vader in the OT he just has so many other things to worry about that they just escape his thoughts, they only matter to him in relation to Luke because Luke is important on his own, Luke is his Son and he loves him. He started letting go of the darkside the moment he found about the child he thought he killed with his mother, a child who was still alive, there was nothing he could do to change that darkside or not.

PD: If Vader lived post ROTJ it would have been interesting to see him in conflict with Luke, Leia and Han over what to do with the Empire, honestly a conflict of epic proportions because unlike them Vader could tell them all the issues the republic had as an institution that he hoped to correct with the Empire even if he agreed with them on the Empire´s(and his own) excesses.

A reedemed Vader would not join the rebellion automatically for the mere fact that the rebellion wanted to bring back the republic as it was and Vader knows very well the issues that began the fall of the republic even before Palpatine.

#my ramblings #anakin skywalker #star wars #luke skywalker #darth vader #darth vader meta #anakin meta #It

24 notes · View notes

seeminglydark · 4 months

Note

I was a little worried that the Mil-Liminal podcast wouldn't be as good as I hoped, since to my knowledge you write comics and I wasn't sure how well it would translate to the podcast format. GODDAMN DID YOU PROVE ME WRONG. Your pilot episode is fuckin epic! Lowkey in love with the bit where Caro is like. Okay now close your eyes (I did). And then slowly builds up this cool picture of what their little liminal world is like. Also the opening music fuckin slaps, did you make it? Are you going to upload the music on its own because I want to listen to it.. So fuckin cool very excited to see more of this

HAHA me too honestly, i was/am pretty terrified to put myself out there in a more tangible way like this, like...letting people perceive me as a story teller instead of just a writer/artist. THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME YOU LIKED IT omg this means everything to me honestly. Im so glad your enjoying it so far, i cant wait to get the real ep up in a couple days! thank you thank you thank you i need the validation food so much haha!

As for the music, i didnt make it but it was made for me. i had a pretty good idea what i wanted, and my extremely talented partner @snakepixel dabbles in music as well as game development and he created it for me a couple years ago, when i first had the idea to create the podcast. (he is also responsible for the logo designs of both Mil-Liminal and Seemingly Dark!) He says its just midi and isnt sure it would translate well to just be listened too on its own, but ill throw it here for you so you can hear it without Caro talking over it. The more ominous music throughout the pod is the same music, he slowed it down and took out some of the sounds to create it. Here's the main intro before it loops <3

ANYWAY thank you so much, honestly, i've gotten some feedback but it always helps to hear im doing pretty ok so far, i appreciate you so much! See you soon for episode one!

#rj rambles #caro speaks #mil-liminal podcast #validation food #yum thank you #I WAS SCARED TOO #STILL AM

29 notes · View notes

tedturneriscrazy · 25 days

Text

To my surprise, I find that I've actually been watching a lot of anime lately (for me, at least). It probably helps that I watched a lot of shorter series (e.g. around 12 episodes). For no reason in particular, here's a list of what I've watched recently along with brief thoughts on them (ongoing in green):

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. A nice cozy fantasy anime. I like how it mostly focuses on more low-key stuff in between and after epic adventures. Also really hammers home the themes of making the most of the time you have and how people will remember you after you're gone. For some reason I always want to cry when I get to the last line of the ending theme ("I'm whispering our lullaby for you to come back home")

Dungeon Meshi (aka Delicious in Dungeon). It's abundantly clear to me that I do not like this anywhere near as much as everyone else around me seems to. What's less clear is how I do feel about it, though I am still watching, and I enjoy most episodes well enough. Kinda wish it didn't deviate so much from the food aspect at this point, but maybe that's just me. Second ending theme ("Twinkling Ash") is fantastic

Laid-Back Camp (aka Yuru Camp). Peak comf. I was first introduced to this one in hazel's anime countryside video, and so far I've enjoyed it so much I actually bought the 14 volumes of manga that are currently out. I also watched the two hour movie. Twice. Honestly one of my new favorite shows

Super Cub. Another prime example of iyashikei. Also another rec from that hazel video. Seeing Koguma's life change as a result of her beloved Super Cub was absolutely delightful. Highly recommended

Serial Experiments Lain. Teenage me would have eaten this shit up. Peak late 90s existential mindfuckery. Took me way too long to realize that Lain's friends were named Alice and Julie thanks to the subtitles lol. "Duvet" by Bôa is now a semiregular part of my listening rotation

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (aka Yokohama Shopping Log). Yet another one featured in the hazel video, and not the last one I'll be watching. There are actually two two-episode OVAs, which I watched in the wrong order, but that didn't affect my enjoyment too much. A peaceful, laid-back take on a post-apocalypse

Do It Yourself!! This actually made me kinda want to engage in DIY projects, but then I remembered that I live in an apartment with no workshop lol. The protagonist looks an awful lot like human form Vee from The Owl House. Serufu and Miku/Purin are adorable together (lowkey yuri vibes?)

Bocchi the Rock! This one is actually very highly rated/ranked/regarded, and I can see why. If you have any form of social or general anxiety, you will find Hitori/Bocchi relatable in some way whether you like it or not. And what do you mean there are only 12 episodes?! 😭 I do hope another season gets announced at some point, because there's plenty of source material from the manga (which I may or may not end up reading). On a final note, that last episode kinda has me into the idea of Hitori/Kita...

#anime #frieren: beyond journey's end #sousou no frieren #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #laid back camp #yuru camp #super cub #serial experiments lain #yokohama kaidashi kikou #yokohama shopping log #do it yourself!!#bocchi the rock!

10 notes · View notes

theladyheroine · 9 months

Text

Miraculous Zorro AU! 🇲🇽

Okay this was actually an idea for an art piece that I came up with. But then I got too excited and decided to make a headcanon before that, like groundwork! I hope y'all enjoy!

┗━━━━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━━━━┛

Okay, now as for the time period I decided to go with the 1820s of Mexico, although I couldn't really think of a specific place for the AU? So let's just go with a port town or city maybe?

Also for those wondering, yes, I did take inspiration from the old Zorro movies lol. If anyone hasn't seen it I recommend it, although the sequel is kinda okay in my opinion. But the first one is better.

But anyways, going back in time, the Miraculous used to be in the hands of Mexican citizens during the 1820s. These heroes were known as La Mariquita and El Gato Oscuro, a pair of vigilantes set to stop the dastardly deeds of El Rey Pollillia. An underground crook who is known for sending out villains to do his work.

༻Characters༺

Rosita “Rosa” Sandoval is a local baker who works at her family's panadería in the middle of the city, as well as their delivery girl. While she is kindhearted and cheerful, she has a bit of an attitude. Whether it's with a customer or just anyone, she has a bit of trouble keeping to herself and doesn’t know when the right time to be honest is. This can lead to her coming off as brash at times, even without meaning to.

Enrique Aguirre is a Hispanic nobleman as well as the mayor's son. Since his father is a high political figure, Enrique does have a very formal demeanor but does his best to make others feel welcome. He has a big heart, although he can be a bit sensitive with other people. Leading him to be kind of timid. Especially about his occupation: he does not want his father's position.

Carlos Aguirre is the mayor of the city, who is also known as El Rey Pollillia. His son does not know he is a crook, but he tries his best to keep it from him.

༻Plot Line༺

When the two get their Miraculous, I had the idea of making their personalities similar to how Marinette and Adrien behave when they're superheroes. However, I added my own twist. Normally, Marinette acts a bit more confident when she is Ladybug, and the same can be said for Adrien when he is Chat Noir. Although I wanted my version of the character growth to be different since these Miraculous holders are different people.

Even though Rosa is headstrong, she learns to soften up and connect with someone close to her rather than just being “honest” with people. While Enrique learns that he has to stand up for himself in order to stand up for other people.

Because of this, I even had the idea to include the love square into the AU, but switched too lol. So to put it clearly, Rosa has a crush on her partner Gato Oscuro. Who she thinks is sweet and compassionate but also really cool. While Enrique has a crush on Rosa, who he meets at her bakery when he's trying to get away from his workload. Who he thinks is so passionate and brave.

༻Fun Facts༺

Instead of the piano, Enrique can play the guitar! Think of Manolo from the Book of Life; I can imagine Enrique sneaking out to go play with a mariachi band somewhere! 🤣

This idea I do wanna make an art piece of this if I can find a good reference, but I can imagine Mariquita and El Gato having a sword duel upon their first meeting. Kind of how Ladybug and Chat Noir met in the movie, but more bickering lol.

Maybe they both freak out at first, thinking the other is a bad guy or some kind of villain, and they have this epic sword duel jumping off of walls and barrels! Before realizing that they're the good guys destined to stop El Pollillia.

I can also imagine Plagg having the time of his life in Mexico due to all the food and epics! Like he sneaks into the kitchen at night to steal some leftover queso or even dessert.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous awakening #miraculous chat noir #miraculous au #miraculous movie #miraculous oc #zorro #the mask of zorro #mexico #mexican culture #miraculous headcanons #miraculous ladybug headcanons

21 notes · View notes

halfagone · 5 months

Note

I seriously love your fic 'Social Media + Insomnia = Epic Fails'. It's honestly amazing that you managed to write an entire fic through just snapshots of different social media. If I may, can I ask how you did it? I can't imagine that it would be easy, considering that there's barely any conventional dialogue or real action scenes.

Oh my gosh, yay!! Ironically I just reread that one the other night. It was very self-indulgent, but I'm so happy to hear so many other people could enjoy it too! 🥰✨😊

There are definitely some parts that are easier than others. Interestingly enough, I probably have the hardest time with formatting and the overall structure of the fic when I publish than the writing itself. I love playing around with HTML, but Ao3's HTML is notoriously hard. (Also, tip: the Rich Text Editor doesn't always allow the same amount of versatility, hence the HTML.)

For me personally, it was important for me to have plot in the background. It doesn't have to be deep plot, but just some sort of guideline that I could follow so I know where it began and end.

In that fic, I'm sure you noticed, things went down in the background like Danny joining the Justice League and becoming Ghost King and Tim getting overshadowed by Pariah Dark. (Yes, I did try to heavily imply that Tim was overshadowed by Pariah for five days. That's a fun plot point lol.) But the overarching story that people really came for was Tim and Danny being lovesick idiots and trying to navigate being public personalities and getting together.

You are totally right about unconventional dialogue. There is a bit at the end where we get actual dialogue with quotation marks and dialogue tags, but otherwise we just get a lot of chatting sequences. For me it was very important to get the tones right. Little clues in the messages that shows how they're feeling or what they're implying. And for things like sarcasm, which don't translate through writing the same way, you can even have characters call each other out on it. I know I've done the same for "Insomniacs Anonymous". (Can you tell I love social media fics? lol)

One of the things I will say about this kind of fic format is that it's so much easier to write fight scenes. On one hand, you don't get really inspiration scenes where your characters are out there kicking ass and saving the day, but that's also a let less work on your part. In this case the details aren't as important, it's the results. So that's why we just see Breaking News alerts.

For this fic, it's kind of a mixture of present-action and reactions. There are parts where we watch as plot points unfold but we also learn about other plot points via the reactions from other people on social media.

There are also smaller things you can do. Whenever I showed Danny's Twitter profile or YouTube channel, I changed little details to show the passage of time. I showed him steadily gaining new followers or subscribers, or in the case with YouTube, I showed his number of videos slowly ticking up higher. It's very easy to miss, and maybe most people don't notice it at all, but it's also a good bookmark as an author.

If you're looking for inspiration or ideas, then I would definitely recommend looking into other social media AUs. There's a canonized tag for it on Ao3, but the social media fics I read that helped me with "Social Media + Insomnia = Epic Fails! (Not Clickbait)" were from Yuri! On Ice, Batman, and BNHA. If you're interested in more specific fics, let me know and I can make up a list of recs. Even if you're not into the fandom, they offer some good ideas for what it can look like.

All in all, I'm really glad you liked that one! I have a number of more ideas for social media fics going forward like a Model AU, my Actor AU, and then a AITA Reddit fic which I believe I did post a while ago as well. I can't promise it'll be soon, but the format is so fun and I hope you get to have some fun with it too. 😉

#halfagone replies #halfagone's fics

18 notes · View notes

benevolentgodloki · 8 months

Note

Who are your top 10 favorite muns to write with and why? If a mun is a multimuse also tell which are your favorite characters to write with and why?

(The order in which you list the people doesn't matter unless you want to assign them specific places.)

Question Master

// Hngh, I hate playing favourites BUT since I actually only write with 12 people now I'm gonna cheat and list them all. Fair warning, my neurodivergent ass is appalling at expressing love but at least you know when I say stuff I mean it. I hope people find me friendly, but I know I'm reclusive and a bit robotic, and it's really hard to break my bubble so I don't get close to more than like 3-4 people. I digress. In no strictly particular order, but a little bit with some closer peeps!

@araedi / @compassofsouls / @minimizexaggrandize Mojitooooo. My love, my male bestie. We've written perfect pairings together across fandoms since all the way back in 2005/2006 when we first started chatting. Mojito is one of the wittiest, kindest, most creative people I know and he can blow your mind with the stories you can share. One of my two fave people to hang out with online and off. He's busy af at the moment in life but he's worth the wait. I love all the muses of his that I write with, but my special faves are his Thor, his Clint, his Scott, and his Geralt. For Loki, ofc. I have faves in Jade and Nate for my pirate boy and X/Theta for my time travelling XI. Why? I'm terrible at explaining. He gets the characterisations spot on and he's willing to explore so much range with his muses.

@forevermuses Linaaaa. My love, my female bestie. You can blame her Stephen for me kicking life back into Loki's blog after I ran rampant on Jack's for a while. Lina's superb. She writes snarky, brilliant characters, delicious plots, and juicy ships. The other of my two best on and offline peeps. Now she's a multimuse I guess I have to pick favourites so it's gonna be Stephen and Peter for Loki and Norrington for Jack but extra bonus love for Sylvie and I'm excited to write more with Sherlock and Theo. Shallow reason really for why they're my favourites but Stephen and Norrington are amazing for ships and Peter is all round hilarious. She writes him with no shame.

@kissedbymischief Trish is a sweetheart with great taste in muses :U Thoroughly recommend for indulging in magical muse exploration, gratuitous abuse of Google Translate, fandom squeeing, and splurging (ahem) out some quality smut. Super friendly mun, quality content.

@stxrksarc / @mxtalwings Archer/Iron Mun does one of the best characterisations of Tony I've ever seen and I'm loving terrorising Sam as Lokitty. Archer is a wicked funny and giving dude, open to a variety of ideas and brings so much to the table; also admirably takes no shit (a semi-colon just for him <3). Epic gif content as well as dash entertainment. Hoping life gives him a break soon!

@paragonrising / @shorndivinity Smaugieeeee. Love, love Smaugie. Friendly mun who writes a badass Carol and Sif that have Loki absolutely smitten, even if he's not revealed it yet. Quality person and writer who I can chat all sorts with especially D&D and video games. If epic plots and novella posts are your bag, very much recommend! I love her for also being forgiving that my replies are usually so smol XD

@antvnger @blindbastard @brooklynbred @cordeliabarton @mischieftomake @sonofirishseas @the-mjolnir-owner

Honourable mentions to all these lovely muns who I have fewer threads with but am enjoying the stories we're telling when we get chance and love seeing them on the dash. Friendly peeps I recommend! I have a secret no. 13 mun too but I haven't started up things with them yet so keep your eyes peeled :P

#outofillusions #Pirate answers anons #Pirate waffles #positivity

16 notes · View notes

gunpowdercarousel · 9 months

Text

So I finally finished the game

Just finished my first full playthrough and I wanna get my thoughts down.

I'm kind of reminded of how DoS 2 left me. I really enjoyed just PLAYING THROUGH IT but upon reaching the ending I was just kind of... let down. First of all there's the basic fact that the end-game content feels veeeeeeeeeeeery unpolished. Just from a visual standpoint, there's blurry textures and really wonky animations everywhere. The sound design is lacking, the 3D animations are lacking, the effects are lacking. It feels like they probably spent a tooooon of time on the first 95% of the game and then rushed out the last 5%.

I wasn't really satisfied with the ending I got. I realize they had to come up with an approximate FUCKTON of different scenarios, yet the endings just feel very... binary. Kind of boring. Minimalist. I didn't even hear from Shadowheart in the final cutscene so I have no idea what she's doing. I romanced Minthara and yet she had almost nothing to say. Astarion had one line and that was it. Lae'zel was the only person with any kind of 'send off' and even that was pretty short. Fucking MINSC said more than three of the companions I'd had for over half the game COMBINED.

It's VERY similar to DoS 2; this giant, giant build up to quickly skim over an ending and then just... stop. It's a bummer, and doesn't really leave me that motivated to do another playthrough. The ending battles just feel like clusterfucks, instead of epic, climactic showdowns, and the end to YOUR CHARACTER'S STORY can be so unsatisfying it's kind of maddening.

Obviously I could go back and try to do things better but... I just don't really care enough.

I'm sure I'll play it more in the future and I'll probably mod it just to make it a bit more satisfying and work out some of the more annoying features, but... meh. I sincerely hope Larian updates some stuff to make the climax more... well... CLIMACTIC. That scene at the end where you give a rousing speech to a HUGE CROWD of five people and then a stock applause sound effect is played?

Uck...

Anyway, obviously I still enjoyed the game and liked the characters, the ending just left a lot to be desired in... essentially all aspects. And that's kind of exactly what I expected.

It just still sucks to see.

#baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #bg3 spoilers #bg3 ending #bg3 review #thoughts and feelings #concerns #mild rant

16 notes · View notes

fanfoolishness · 1 year

Text

Rewatch of the Mandalorian Chapter 21, the Pirate:

Don’t smack talk Greef’s fashion sense!

“He shot first” heheh

aww Greef is starting to get worried

Dammit Nevarro! Just when you were looking more than ever like Los Angeles with those little purple flower things and all the ficus trees!

Nevarran fashion is a lil… medieval? Fancy hats.

I need to download the song for the New Republic bar because it lowkey slaps

It’s this guy! Captain Teva! His casual outfit is pretty cool.

For everyone who has seen Rebels, I wish you a very happy Zeb

Dammit Coruscant. Why do you have a brutalist sector?

Oh THIS BITCH awwww NO Elia Kane you just need to not be here, dude

But Tim Meadows my beloved!!! I had no idea he was in this season! I enjoy his vexation

Elia Kane quit stalking people you freaking creep! I hate her, she’s so good at this.

Love her evil-ass music too. Stop being eeeevil

And then Solas the protocol droid led Greef Karga the Herald to a hidden castle in the wilderness after the fall of Haven/Nevarro — oh wait, no, my Dragon Age feels go over there

Seriously, the Nevarrans look like Catherine, Called B-Wing

… I don’t remember how Carson Teva knew that Din knew Greef, really, but he’s so likable I don’t mind

Who you calling “blue boy”, PAZ???

R5 vindication! And also getting back at Din ahahaha

I cannot help but adore the Mandalorian Talking Hammer, that is so perfect for them

“The foundling in your charge” fuck, Din, you should be saying “MY SON” you fucker

“I’m in no position to ask” he asked, Darksaberwieldingly

“Our children” WELL YOU’RE GETTING CLOSER ANYWAY

I really thought Paz was gonna go off and then he did and I was like “ho shit, Paz character development? All righty then!”

What stake did the Armorer have in this? She didn’t try to sway them one way or the other? Does she have an ulterior motive?

Grogu still comes for every mission, yesss

Love Bo’s speech! All right, while I miss Din tremendously this season, I’m loving the season of Bo on its own merits. Also, how weird is it to see the Armorer in a ship? it’s like when your companion NPC moves from their place on the map and you know a great cutscene is going to begin

Poor lil broken droid :( Mean pirates! And they fucked up the school again :(

It’s the Mandalorian - bitch you thought hahaha

I need more smug motherfucker Din back in my life, I beg you

Wish we had more weird accents among the Mandalorians. Bo’s is pretty Standard, Paz and the Armorer are weird and flat and formal, and Din has some of that as well. But like, if they’re a diaspora, I wanna hear some variation!

One of my favorite tropes is “noncombatant citizen nevertheless rises up to defend their homeland”, and Kowakian monkey-lizards pointing out an ambush was a cheesy lil slice of delight

Paz how are you seriously so LARGE

High Magistrate Greef Karga, you are so cute and I love you

I do really love how Nevarro has been a touchstone for the entire series, and love seeing how it’s evolved over the years. Things like that are some of my favorite things about this show.

The Armorer wishes to speak with you. Here, let me accompany you to this extremely tense and dangerous music, I’m sure everything will be fine

The Armorer is… getting emotional? Reminiscent about Mandalore? I’m scared and so intrigued!!!

The sassy and scary way she asked “Do you respect my station?” And her “Remove your helmet,,.” I am… alarmed and aroused

This music is so calculating! So very Luke, join me!

Wait, Paz isn’t in on this plan? Interesting, I had assumed he was in the Armorer’s pocket.

I am hopeful for Bo because I do think she’d be a great leader? But also frightened because who could trust the Armorer in that moment? (I mean, aside from Bo who 1) I’m sure respects Armorers and 2) doesn’t know her well and 3) is seeking a home… and this is how smart people can get sucked into cults!). It could go either way, I suppose. Are she and Din finally gonna have the epic duel? I can’t see Din’s heart being in it, and I also don’t want that to happen until he’s actually competent with the Darksaber and learns why it’s been fighting him. I just need Din, Din, Din!

But this episode has me much more intrigued and curious about where the season is going, so I’m excited for next week!

#the mandalorian #the mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian season 3 spoilers #the mandalorian season 3 #text post #my mando musings #Star Wars #din djarin #Bo katan kryze #the armorer #Paz vizla #Greef Karga

30 notes · View notes

dreamerinsilico · 2 months

Text

Fic writing questions

tagged by @yuniemaki - thank you for thinking of me!

how many works do you have on ao3?

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

344,183

Kind of wild to me, but the VAST majority of those words happened more than five years ago.

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Mostly The Sandman right now, although I'm still a Hannibal person and I think I feel some BG3 coming on eventually. I've meandered my way through various video game fandoms over the years and am likely to return to Pillars of Eternity. Rather less likely for the Bioware stuff, but maybe the upcoming DA game will, in a stunning subversion of my expectations, make me care about Dragon Age again.

I really enjoy the Yuletide fic exchange, so I write for whatever small fandom I get assigned that year (so far I've done Wayward Children, Left Hand of Darkness, and Goncharov), and I'm hoping to get more into exchanges.

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Constellations of the Things We Left Unsaid - multichapter Reaper76 thing I actually finished and was writing when Overwatch was popular

His Pale Steed - early Hannibal fic, I think it was my second

Best of Cruel Intentions - also earlyish Hannibal fic, and the start of my very excellent mutual betaing relationshihp with @tiggymalvern

Let's Try Another Kind of Peace - T_T WIP crawling out of the well to shame authorkind (also Hannibal. Yes, I still do have intent to get back to it.)

Solstice - Actually tickled and delighted this made the list; it's the second fic I ever posted to AO3, and it is Aela/F!Dovahkiin smut from the Skyrim kinkmeme back in the day

5. do you respond to comments?

A majority of the time, yes. Especially if I get a meaty one to actually talk about!

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

....yeah, not really any competition there, it's I Recall, which I wrote for a Pillars of Eternity minibang about my Watcher, Acantha's past-life doomed romance with Iovara.

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

I'm not sure how to answer this one! I'm kinda all over the map in terms of the tone of the fics I write, and I don't know how to really differentiate between different happy endings.

But let's shout out You Sang Me of Some Distant Past (Dragon Age, F!Hawke/Morrigan, which canoe I will paddle until the end times) - this was my first ever big bang entry, and I'm still happy with it a decade later.

8. do you get hate on fics?

I think the closest thing to hate I've ever gotten was someone saying my Labyrinth fic had Sarah using too many big words in her head.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

My AO3's linked all over this post, you can just go look.

But uh, lot of D/s, lot of knifeplay, I think are the two big themes.

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written?

I have written one (1) crossover! There's Someone Scratching Softly is a Hannibal/Wayward Children crossover where Jack Wolcott is in therapy with Hannibal. It's the leviathan shadow of a much larger AU Hannibal fic I've done a lot of brainstorming on, and I posted it on a whim one day (I hadn't originally intended to, when I wrote it) and was very pleased with that decision, because a few fans who know both canons came out of the woodwork to gush at me about it.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

No idea, but probably not; I don't write enough plotty epics to make it likely.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I'm aware of. (A couple of delightful people have podficced some of my short Hannibal fics, though! I was very excited.)

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

Nope. Wouldn't completely rule it out as a possibility, but not something I've done date.

14. what's your all time favourite ship?

I don't really do all-time favorites? I do whatever I've got the most brainrot about currently. I don't have a good way of ranking favorite ships relative to one another!

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

Relentless Splinters I Recall is the parent fic, sort of, to I Recall, which I mentioned above. It was a very ambitious idea and I love what's there, but I will be very surprised and impressed with myself if I manage to pick that thread back up at some point. I don't think I'm really cut out to do game novelization fic.

16. what are your writing strengths?

Economy's probably the biggest one; I know very well that I can get a lot done in a relatively small number of words. I also really enjoy writing dialogue and like to think I'm good at it.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

I'm not the kind of person who can spawn wild AUs or plotlines easily, and I often wish that I was. (I don't think I'm bad at plot, but if I'm writing something plotty there is a lot of very deliberate brainstorming and probably workshopping with a friend or two, and it takes a ton of effort.)

Also just, you know, getting words on the page. (It's hard! It's hard! It's really really haaaaard! ~*)

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

I think anything from a curse word to a short phrase can have a place, but usually find it obnoxious when writers put in whole exchanges in (usually google translated) Other Language.

There was a post going around at some point discussing how bi/multilingual people do and don't mix languages that was very good and valid.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

Labyrinth (1986)

20. favorite fic you've written?

Oof, that's hard. Something, something, can't pick a favorite child.

However, with the caveat that I have a lot of favorites for a lot of reasons, the Goncharov fic I wrote for Yuletide 2023 still pleases me to an outsize degree. Sometimes I think I'm funny.

Tagging @tiggymalvern @stylishanachronism @firebatvillain @xenosimp @pragnificent @softdedue @the-bees-patella @dsudis and anyone else so inclined <3

#thanks for memeing me!#on fanfiction #my fic

6 notes · View notes

unrepentantcheeseaddict · 2 months

Text

WIP Questions Tag

I wasn't actually tagged by anyone, but @owlsandwich opened it up to everybody so I'm giving this a try! Open tag, but also no pressure tags to @somethingclevermahogony , @queen-of-the-weenies and @sarandipitywrites !

We're gonna do my main current WIP, God-Touched, and also a couple I've tabled for a bit due to stress, which are called Gods of Steel, and Nico after the name of the MC, respectively. I copy pasted the questions and I may have missed one or two.

What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

God-Touched: This is more of an overall writing struggle for me, but underwriting/being too concise. I tend to make unnecessary time skips when outlining and not add enough descriptive passages.

Gods of Steel: The world building. I usually enjoy complex world building, but I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this project. I'm taking it slow and building one aspect of it at a time as I'm motivated to do the necessary research, so fingers crossed that works out.

Nico: This one's kinda stupid, but keeping myself from imagining my protagonist as Nico di Angelo. She's completely different in appearance, mannerisms, etc, but I'm a rabid PJO fan and that was my first association with the name.

If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

God-Touched: Definitely something by Imagine Dragons, probably Natural.

Gods of Steel: Probably some kind of epic orchestral thing, I haven't found a specific track yet.

Nico: Song Of Women by the HU and Lzzy Hale. Going purely off of sound and vibes.

What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

God-Touched: Supernatural, Firefly, the King Arthur reincarnated as a space lesbian book (Once and Future) and the book Spellhacker by MK England.

Gods of Steel: This is gonna sound really presumptuous, but I'm trying to make it similar to Dune and the Na'vi Avatar movies.

Nico: Honestly, Tamora Pierce, even though my story is more sci-fi than fantasy. Also slightly the Divergent movie (haven't read the book in years), in that the MC slowly realizes just how much of a dystopia she's actually living in, even though she started out compliant.

What was the first part of your wip that you created?

God-Touched: The general concept of Christian mythology put into a queer science fantasy context.

Gods of Steel: The setting, (humanity's original non-Earth home), and some of its history.

Nico: The idea for the relationship arc between the two main characters. It was the first time I'd ever wanted to write romance, and it was an interesting challenge to come up with how that would play out.

Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

God-Touched: This is a major spoiler, but the main gang ends up adopting an iridescent rainbow baby space dragon. She looks majestic, but is actually a huge derpy goof. She's heavily based on Banana, my little sister's big ginger cat who is not exactly the sharpest crayon in the box

Gods of Steel: The main villains on this story are cyborgs, but some are cyborg animals rather than people. They started out as normal robots, but then got this virus that made them grow flesh, skin and other organic parts, but many of the animal-like ones still have working blades or guns as part of their bodies that they use when hunting humans for food.

Nico: The fauna of the setting for this one is very ice age influenced, the main character has a war mammoth that she's raised from a calf to be her mount and companion.

What part of your wip are you working on rn?

God-Touched: First draft of the first two books, if all goes well it's gonna be a five book series.

Gods of Steel: World Building.

Nico: In my first stage of outlining.

How do your characters get around? (ex: trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

God-Touched: spaceships and hover bikes

Gods of Steel: spaceships, then on foot after all their tech gets infected by the cyborgs.

Nico: Mammoth-back riding.

What are your hopes for your wip?

This is the same for all of them so I'll just do one answer: A devoted fandom that uses my books as inspiration to create their own awesome content. Fanart, fanfic, animatics, those character analysis YouTube videos, anything like that.

#writeblr #writing #my writing #speculative fiction #fantasy #my ocs #about my writing #original character #godtouched #sci fi and fantasy #scifi #gods of steel #untitled wip

4 notes · View notes