#dahllaz

Okay, but like... I did SAY I understood it was unpopular opinion. I know everyone loves Alex. And I like her too.

I can't explain why, I just... I really liked Casey. More so than Alex.

Why do I like salty chips more than sweet chocolate?

I'm just made that way, I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

CASEY NOVAK:

--> How I feel about this character:

Casey was just fun. Like, c'mon, she was balls to the wall insane. From the get go. She had life, she had fire, she didn't give a shit, she played baseball with Elliot and joked with them all, she wanted to get a judge disbarred/arrested, she went to a judge's private home during his poker game and threatened to stay there all night untess he signed her warrant, she took on the entire US army, she got violently assaulted and came back to work the next day expecting to remain on the case and was OFFENDED when they took her off.

Think about all the shit Olivia saw/did/put up with when it came to Elliot, and then look up at that gif, THAT is where Olivia is all "Girl, you're pushing it". When OLIVIA BENSON is holding you back from getting justice, you know you've obliterated a line or two.

But she was also vulnerable and emotional. She cried over little girls in coolers and questioned whether she could remain in SVU, she mourned the boy who committed suicide, she pled out the daughter of the drunken mother because it made Olivia sad. She was scared when she woke up in the hospital. She felt regret over her ex-boyfriend with a mental illness because she had to prioritise herself and he lost control.

She was human.

In a way that, unfortunately, Alex was not able to be, because Alex was created in the year 2000 when police procedural women had to be "professional" and less "emotional". Alex had a very strong hold on her emotions (though they came out on occasion).

Casey? Casey had a hold on ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. And I enjoyed it.

--> All the people I ship romantically with this character:

I don't really ship Casey with anyone. She's a friend. I'd go out drinking with her. But I'm not gonna think about her sex life that much.

--> My non-romantic OTP for this character:

I'm really sitting on the fence here with this ask. I don't know? Like, she got on really well with Olivia and Elliot...

--> My unpopular opinion about this character:

Apart from the one already mentioned?

Is there really that much to opine about Casey? She did her job well (a litte/lot crazy, but she did it). She got results. She had really good chemistry with the entire team.

Perhaps my unpopular opinion is that I would have liked her to either stay or return. Which is a difficult ask, because I also loved Barba.

--> One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character:

I would love to see Casey return.

If they could ever make up their minds if she was disbarred or not. One episode she is, then she returns to say she was only censured, and then the next time she's referred to, she's been disbarred again.

#4 and #10 already answered

13: Is there a trope you wouldn’t write if it was the last trope on earth? 

Omegaverse. The way it’s evolved in the fandoms I’m in or around end up with a level of enforced gender essentialism that make my queer agender ass extremely uncomfortable. 

20: What’s your favorite minor character you’ve written? 

All of them I really like how Maria Hill evolved in Hands of Clay, from FRI profiler to Manhattan private security consultant. I did a bit of her backstory in chapter 32 of Hands of Clay, but just more of it. 

I adore all of the pack in Hour of the Wolf (love those rascally kids). They’re great for comic relief and also tragic angst (upcoming).  

And this is more of a niche one, but I really enjoyed how Sarah Carter (an OC, the lovechild of a non-aging Peggy Carter and Howard Stark) developed in Rhapsody in Blue – being able to see her grow and be a foil to Tony.... fun to write.  

(from the Behind the Scenes of Fic Writing meme)

I don’t know what was going on with the first ask, and as someone who reblogged it I also want to know what they think is TERF about it. But this one? The use of the scare quotes make me think this could be from a TERF.

That was the feeling I got as well. Like... the twisting of words, I’ve found, is common in both TERF ideology and that of the alt-right/neo-nazi/nazi-lite/red-pill types like my brother. It’s like dog-whistles in the use of particular framing devices to signal to one group what they mean while hiding behind something that sounds relatively reasonable... like calling Black victims of police brutality ‘thugs’. 

If it keeps Josephine safe? Both being mad at her miiiiight be worth it. lol

@dahllaz

2. Has writing a fic ever changed your opinion of a character?

Yes and no. I think, when I start writing a character, they're no longer 'canon' as such. So my opinions of the person I'm writing may change, but they don't necessarily change my opinions about the actual character on the screen.

But I can't say that writing different people hasn't made me examine them more closely to get a better read on them. There are characters that I haven't really thought much about usually, just on watching the show, but having to write them into scenes, I've had to look into them and their reasonings/motivations/etc more closely.

That said, if I don't like a character when watching a show, it's usually for reasons. Because of their actions or their words, and this doesn't change because I'm writing them. I'm still going to dislike them. I do try to write mostly unbiased and assign what I believe reasonable and character-true actions to them. I treat them all with respect. I don't demonise characters to write them worse, or sanctify them and write them better, depending on my opinions. TRY. I try to. Obviously, I can't say that this doesn't happen.

On the opposite spectrum, if I *like* a character, I feel it's a very big injustice to gloss over their flaws. That character IS that character and they're going to make their mistakes. Their flaws and their history is what makes them them. So when I write I try not to ignore things they've done or are likely to do in a given situation.

You can't change an entire character's emotional make up, their actions, their motivations, their flaws, and remain true to them.

More power to people who write fics like "SVU, but Olivia's mom was never raped and she had two loving parents and happy life and nothing bad ever happened"... I mean, I'm sure that's a great character, but it's probably not Olivia Benson.

Olivia is stubborn and bull headed and reckless with her own physical and emotional safety. She is deeply traumatised by her own creation and upbringing and refuses to admit it (at first). She holds people at arms length. She will crawl off like a cat to die alone before asking for help. She will ignore the law to do what she believes is morally right.

But she is empathetic and pours all of the understanding and love and help that she herself never got, that she needed, and gives it to others at the expense of herself. She will fight like hell to help anyone else. She is loyal and caring and wonderful.

All of that make her who she is.

"Veronica Mars, but she was never ostracised and Lilly Kane never died and she grew up happy and popular"... also probably a great character, but it's probably not Veronica Mars.

Veronica was forged in battle. And I hate this, because I firmly believe that people don't need to suffer to grow. But that doesn't change the fact that the Veronica we meet did suffer. And it made her who she is. We meet her as she's beginning her ascent from her trauma. It's messy and she's not always right.

She's stubborn and reckless and once she makes up her mind, it's very hard to change it. She'll fight to uncover injustice, at the cost of herself and her personal relationships, she's paranoid and untrusting to a point that is almost pathological.

And we love her for it.

30. I already answered this on a previous ask, but... it's an easy one...

Finish this sentence with your fandom’s variation(s): No beta, we die like Ed Tucker.

No beta, we die like Kathy Stabler.

No beta, we die like Mike Dodds.

No beta, we die like Don Lamb.

@dahllaz

Let's do this!!

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

Would it be too easy to say 'everything'?

I think I really love Olivia Benson, because she IS everything. She is a badass, but she gets to be weak at times, she has her vulnerabilities, she is not perfect, she's a wreck, she's wonderful, she's stubborn and bitter and holds a grudge like nobody's business, but she's loving and warm and empathetic to a fault. I think Mariska has said in an interview that she might not play a very realistic cop, in terms of what most people might find in sexual assault cases, but she plays one that people need. And that's important.

At some point in their lives, everybody has needed an Olivia Benson. Perhaps not for sexual assault, specifically, but for the way she understands, empathises, and fights for those who need it.

And we get to see her grow.

We get to see her from wee little Baby Benson first joining SVU, fighting in those trenches, learning on the job, get to see her wins and her losses, as she becomes Sergeant, then Lieutenant, and Captain. She goes from Jr Detective to running the whole squad and, at times, running several SVU squads.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

We've been over my headcanon regarding her time with Lewis, so I'm going to go in a separate direction with this one: Serena Benson, more specifically Serena's family.

In 27 (and counting) seasons, there has never, NOT ONCE, been any mention of Olivia having any blood relatives on Serena's side. Not one casual reference to an Aunt or Grandmother, distant cousin, nothing. And nobody asks. Olivia literally put her DNA into a database to find more about her father, but made no mention about the maternal relatives that might be out there.

We know her relationship with Serena was troublesome at best, abusive at worst. Canon-wise, Olivia admits that her mother never wanted her, never loved her, said "How could I ever love someone created by a monster". In the early seasons, she was very much in denial and very much into the "everything is fine, la la la" mindset. The surface is what mattered. When Cragen tells her of her mother's death, Olivia does say she knew what she was in for with Serena's alcoholism.

It isn't until they have the Eldridge case that Olivia opens up a bit more into that history and tells Casey about the struggles she had growing up regarding her mother and the alcoholism that came it. She says "If you never talk about the abuse, you can pretend it doesn't exist" and she tells the story of Serena attacking her with a vodka bottle. Most importantly, the words "I'll never let anyone else have you!".

By the later seasons, Olivia is more willing to admit her childhood was problematic, Serena was difficult, and calls herself "collateral damage".

But that fight makes me think (and I reiterate, this is a headcanon, nothing other than this one line in a recounted fight from years before, after Olivia had already had a few drinks) that there is something there.

I like to think that Serena did have relatives and, very early in Olivia's life, they might have been involved. And they saw how much Serena was struggling.

I think there was some offer of help and either suggestion of taking Olivia away, or Serena just construed the suggestion as taking Olivia away, but it woke some sort of primal, trauma response of Olivia being Serena's pain and she had to keep her. So she made sure her family couldn't find her and couldn't take Olivia. Hence "I'll never let anyone else have you." (more than just talking about Burton).

Serena needed her pain, she needed to wallow in it, which is why she never got help and Olivia is part of that.

26. What's something the character has done you can't get over? Be it something funny, bad, good, serious, whatever?

Hmmm. Any of her boyfriends? (She has main female character taste in boyfriends, which is to say... abysmal). Dated Cassidy? Like, no. Please. You can do so much better.

I tend to be in awe of her a lot, but I don't think there's much in terms of "can't get over". Although, now that I've said that, I'll probably think of five examples when I go to sleep tonight.

28. If you could have this character meet another in another media, who would you have them meet?

This is actually a very good question. I have thought about it.

Veronica Mars.

I think Olivia Benson is *exactly* who Veronica Mars needed circa S1 of VM, which would be around S5 of SVU. Perhaps the end of S2 VM, which would be S6/7 of SVU.

I think Olivia could have been the support she needed and helped her, both solve her own rape case, but also to lead her into her career with law enforcement, being able to make a difference.

Sure, she had internships at the FBI, but they ultimately went nowhere, she did a law degree and was a lawyer for a bit, before ultimately giving up and returning back to Neptune to live out her days as a private eye, because law did not interest her. Olivia could have guided her through her emotions, re: the rape/not rape/oops rape again storyline, as well as then being a mentor to give her epxerience in law enforcement in a way that Veronica could have gained from. PLUS, I think helping Veronica and being her mentor, absolutely would have healed something in Olivia. Given her an outlet for all those maternal feelings as well as having a teenage/early adult mentee means Olivia would have had to toe the line a bit more (I'm lookin' at you, Philidelphia). She does tend to skirt the letter of the law for the sake of her own morals, which is definitely something Veronica struggles with too.

They both have alcoholic moms.

Let's be real, this is a cross over meant to happen.

(Obviously, it won't, because it's too late, but it does dovetail neatly with each other). PLUS, I would absolutely love to see Elliot Stabler meet Logan Echolls and see what comes of THAT.

Circling back to the start: Olivia Benson, the lady that you are.

From Baby Detective:

To Captain:

She gets to be weak, to be sick, to cry:

And she gets to be strong:

She gets to be sexy:

We get to see her happy:

9. Tell us your favourite thing to drink when you write.

Huh. Wasn't expecting this as a question. But my answer is easy. Diet coke. I'm a fan. 'tis my drink. Unashamed diet coke drinker.

(important to note: NOT coke zero, NOT coke no sugar, it has to be Diet Coke).

16. What is one of your favourite words or phrases to use in writing?

Hmm, I can't say I have a favourite. There are words/phrases/patterns I use a lot.

The word "flinch", coming from one of my early fanfics, (can't find it now, HA HA), but it was called Flinch. And somehow I use it in every single fic I have written since. I mean, it's a pretty common word so it's not noticeable in any way to any one but me. But I still manage to do it.

I think there's a pattern where I write someone knowing something, and I repeat it.

Like... "She knows, she does, that she should do this." or "He knows, he knows, it's going to be hard."

I don't know why. I think it's the emphasis. It does change the meaning.

"He knows this one thing" - well, he knows it, and he's an idiot for ignoring it.

"He knows, he knows, this one thing" - he knows it, he's aware of it, but it doesn't change anything. Things are going to turn out the way they do and no matter how he's tried, this is where they are.

I have caught myself writing this a lot lately. I don't know why.

It's not a FAVOURITE thing to do, but it is a pattern.

33. Which of your fic titles is your favourite?

Oh. Well.

Which of my sons is my favourite?

What kind of question is that?

I don't think I can answer this to anyone's satisfaction, least of all my own.

I love my fics for very different reasons.

I love Wicked Game for getting me back into writing after several years of absence and depression.

I love The Best Deceptions for being so happy and fluffy.

I love Adam's Rib for the absolute research and effort I put into the side world, all the extra characters and their history. There were side notes and diaries and battle plans and character histories and biographies and it took me places.

I love Paint It Black for letting me go *dark* and blooming the histories of some of my favourite characters.

I love Molasses and Taffy for letting me explore the character's my own trauma and talk it out and move forward.

I love Paranoia for letting me delve into the suspense and mystery and creating tension.

I love Pink Taffeta and the Opposite of Sex for letting me have fun and just explore stuff.

I love the smut pieces, like "Strain" and "Wood Grain" and "Smoke and.." and "The Blue Moon"

I love "The Girl of My Dreams is Giving Me Nightmares" for letting me get experimental.

And "Deep Deep Down Where the Darkness Dwells" (SVU version) for appearing in my brain and at my fingertips and just letting me write it, for becoming a huge behemoth of a fic. For actually getting the HEALING in and not just acknowledging the trauma.

For all the trauma I have explored in my fic history, D5 actually completed the healing process and it feels finished to me.

I love them all, they're my babies.

And now I just realised I answered "which of your fics" and NOT "which of your fic titles", but also... isn't it the same thing?

The titles become the fic, no?

A lot of my titles are song titles, which come to me with the idea of the fic. Some are plays on words or sayings and some just fit the fic.

idk.

Sorry, @dahllaz, I wasn't ignoring you. I just... got tired and went to bed, then I had to work and then it was Halloween and there was booping. So, uh, now it's over 24 hours later...

Fic Prompt: The Phone Call.

SVU, Gen.

__

"Don't worry, I'll get Liv."

These are the words she thinks about, stews over. It seemed unimportant at the time, such a casual sentence flung her way in a time where they were both too harried to even notice.

But they come back to Kathy and crawl inside her brain.