#anneapocalypse

✨ What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

Probably what I would consider one of my more underrated works is the one-shot Common Ground, an Alistair/Anora character study set in the early days of their marriage. It was written for a fanwork exchange centred on themes of grief and mourning. While I thought the obvious direction would be exploring Anora's emotions about Loghain's death, I wanted to flesh out her relationship with her mother a little more. Like, I just think there should be more content that acknowledges Anora basically lost her entire family in the space of two years: first her mother dies two years before the Blight, and then she can lose both her husband and her father in the course of the civil war.

And although Anora has a spine of like, titanium, that must have really fucking sucked! Also, at this point in time Alistair's still processing his own grief with everything that happened, of course, and it's this common ground (ba dum tish) that gives them something to start bonding over and deepen their relationship. 💫 what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

literally anything, like, I am always delighted by even the barest hints that somebody, somewhere is enjoying one of my works! that being said, some of my favourite comments of all time have been:

borderline incoherent rambles where you can tell the person enjoyed the story they forgot how to even words (I feel like this is my default style as a reader!)

line-by-line live reacts

someone telling me that I've changed their mind on a character/pairing

praises of characterisation, especially in smut scenes (I feel like this is my core niche)

random gifs

somebody being so inspired they drew fanart??? (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE).

But yeah, honestly, as long as someone's not like, hurling abuse at me or commenting solely for the purpose of telling me that beer cannot be brewed in zero gravity (a thing that has actually happened before), I really do welcome any and all engagement! Please. Just. Tell me directly somehow, I beg. I know other writers prefer to receive comments on Ao3 and the like, which makes sense, but just please know for me personally, I'm also happy to be messaged or whatever on any platform. 💖

I just want to thank this anon for expressing a lot of frustrations I have felt for a long time, and which I find difficult to express without putting m/m shippers on the defensive. So often in these discussions it feels like f/f is either left out entirely or treated as something no one could possibly like sincerely. Or we're caught in the crossfire and attacked from both sides. TBH what I'd really like to see is less of m/m and f/f presented oppositionally, and

(cont.) more of a sense of solidarity among people who are tired of having our preferences come under fire for a variety of reasons.

Good point.

@anneapocalypse asked: I would super love a Mainelina if you are in the mood. :) Maybe something with both of them in workout clothes!

I’m afraid this ask is quite old now, so I’m sure you’ve found your answer! But for hindsight:We don’t use “cadet” in the regular army. You only see it used in two contexts: officer school, and the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, which is a program that lets folks get college educated before commissioning in order to serve the army better. I believe you can get a scholarship for an ROTC program by doing at least three years JROTC while in high school.

For OTS, (officer training school; yes we really bother to abbreviate this) trainees are called cadets until they graduate, whereupon they receive the rank of second lieutenant. In ROTC and JROTC programs, I think it’s mostly just used as a student-appropriate substitute for “soldier.” Supposedly they can’t call us that until we graduate basic training; even during BCT our drill sergeants called us “warriors.” On that note, we don’t get called cadets during basic training. If anyone calls another recruit a cadet they get smoked lolFinally, it’s defined as a “rank,” but it doesn’t actually have an insignia and in J/ROTC cadets already have a experience-equivalent rank depending on how long they’ve been in the course. So I’d probably call a cadet a “student officer” or something to that effect. 

- Kingsley

"hi i'm burnie burns and this is my halo oc, church. he did all the stuff catherine halsey did with an AI but he actually did it first. he has a dead wife and he's very sad."