[EXTENDED SOUNDS OF BRUTAL PIPE MURDER]

2023 alectopause: you know it's ok we can wait. i got some fics to write

2024 alectopause: here is 30,000 words on how john's characterization as emperor and lyctorhood interplays with colonialism, imperialism, sexual assault, and misogyny, featuring a full bibliography, a reading list, and peer reviewed by three mutuals

2025 alectopause: gideon would not fucking say that

Piranesi concept art!

No worries! I sort of intentionally and sort of subconsciously keep my various online presences separate for... no good reason, honestly. And, I think I *did* find your Tumblr via your Ao3, because, 2. What's the first fic of mine that you read? What did you like about it? I think what happened is I read housewarming and, after peeling myself up off the floor after reading it, went to go see where that came from. I really like housewarming. Stranger Things definitely reached a point where the more compelling parts of it were the parts that the show was sidelining, and boy howdy did fanfiction rise to fill that gap. And the potential relationship between Max and Eddie was one of the biggest ones for me. I really love your character voices in the prose, and how you captured where both of those characters were in their respective arcs. I'm so soft on Max's bristling manner, and when she hisses at him.. makes the weird feral little child that I once was sigh softly. Love that fic. But I also read a little bit of a mind flip, because I think you posted it on here, and goddamn that's good. I think this work is extremely sick, and the fact that you wrote it before The Unwanted Guest came out is extra fun! Again, your grasp on character voices is premier, and these are just such excellent characters. And also every bit of Camilla is leveraged as a hook in my gut after the Paulening. I should read more of your fic honestly! I need to reread TLT is the thing. I see you wrote for The Bright Sword, which is a book that is on my ever-growing list of things to read. I think I dodged actually answering your question, but hopefully you won't notice.

5. Are there certain themes you think I write well? Admittedly, my sample size is small, but from what I've seen you write character relationships very well. I can always feel the depth of the characters through your writing. It helps, sure, that I am already familiar with these characters from their source material, but you definitely do an excellent job of communicating them. That's not a theme though, and I already didn't really give you an answer to your first question, so I'll say that I think you really flourish with the theme of change: characters who are in transitional periods of their lives, and taking something that might be a small or understated moment in the source material and picking it open under a microscope. And also I have football on the brain for Men's World Cup reasons, so I'm assigning myself found my tempo as reading for tonight.

16. Pitch me a oneshot idea that you think I'd knock out of the park Ooooooh, okay, listen. I know you've been on a TMA kick, and I think you mentioned that you had/have an idea for something there, maybe? But I think you could do a mean "Jon and Daisy after the Buried" situation. Though, knowing that you're a big Tim guy, I'd love to read your take on Tim during season 2 when trust is at an all time low. These are vague ideas because I'm more curious what you'd do with them, rather than me having a specific scenario in mind.

And, just for kicks, and also because I took a little long to answer this (whoops), 19. Can I get a pep talk for writing my current WIP? YOU CAN DO IT. YOU CAN WRITE. THE WORDS YOU WRITE ARE ENJOYED BY PEOPLE, BY ME, EVEN. POTENTIALLY, PRESUMABLY, ALSO BY YOU. WRITING IS FUN. EXCEPT WHEN IT SUCKS. BUT HAVING WRITTEN SOMETHING AND GETTING TO ENJOY IT ONCE IT'S DONE IS ALWAYS FUN, AND THEN THE PART THAT SUCKS IS OVER. THEN IT'S GRAVY. REACH INTO THE DISH AND GRAB THE GRAVY. SMELL THE SAVORY HERBS AND MEAT JUICES OF THE GRAVY. UNLESS YOU ARE VEGETARIAN IN WHICH CASE IMAGINE A GRAVYLESS SALAD. WRITE ABOUT THE SALAD. EAT THE GRAVY. ESCAPE MY TORTUOUSLY SENSELESS METAPHOR.

He taught her to cook. She fawned over him and played teacher's pet and whatever else to endear herself and it absolutely was the typical Third social maneuvering to gain a stronger ally but she also genuinely found his stories fascinating, and tells Harrow that part when he's not around too. They just have a similar blend of fancy bullshit and mean blasé humor. She's the first to jump in behind him critiquing Mercy's art. She takes up smoking because she think he looks so cool.

He still wants to involve her in the fight but let her stay back safer away from the stoma at the end and Mercy accuses him of swaddling her like a squalling baby.

His brother was his other half and from the sound of it might have been a lot like Corona. (The peacemaker, the diplomat urging everyone at Canaan to stay united, useless but a darling (and actually very useful), a great big bimbo (smarter than she lets on), the banker, the woman accused of selling her birthright for economics. Guy who killed himself to force Lyctorhood, girl who apparently threatened suicide to coerce Ianthe their whole lives.) Augustine is what her Bad Ending looks like.

How many traded stories were just about their siblings? "You should see my sister." "You always say that."

She kicks him into the stoma and saves John but if she hadn't it might have killed her twin too and I really have to imagine he'd be disappointed but Get It. And then she still speaks highly of him. She emphasizes his power to Pal in TUG. She quotes "poor old Augustine" unprompted in NtN.