#fish-writes

"shed your knuckle velvet," chapter 1: gilboa

Posted (belatedly, oops!) for @juneofdoom Day 1: "Unfair Fight." AO3 link below!

Fandom: League of Legends RPF Ship: Gumayusi/Keria Archive warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence Rating: Explicit Category: M/M Word count: 7353 Important tags (see link for full tags list): Omegaverse, Angst, Smut, Major Character Injury, Religious Imagery & Symbolism

Summary:

Ever since Lee Minhyung presented as an alpha, he's hated his secondary gender. All he wants to be is gentle, kind, soft—everything that his inner alpha would ordinarily prevent him from possessing. Thankfully, he’s spent the past two years on rut suppressants, taming himself into the man he wants to be. But, after he gets benched out of the blue, he decides that, if it takes being a killer to get what he wants, then a killer is what he's going to become.

AO3 link:

i recently read kiss my wounds but not forever and i loved it! i was feeling some 100t nostalgia and was wondering if anyone wrote squid at all, and as a fan of your rulehends works, i was really happy to see that you wrote squid as well! i loved the way you wrote sniper and quid; i felt that i could really imagine them in the scenarios you wrote them in and honestly it made me sad (in a good way) that they are no longer on the same team anymore.

if it’s okay to ask, as a primary lck writer, do you have any other lcs ships that you like, whether past or present? lcs has always been special in my heart but i feel that it never had the rpf reach that the other regions have, so i’m curious about your thoughts on it (and if you do, i’d love some fic recs if you have any!)

OH MY GOD I CANT BELIEVE PEOPLE ACTUALLY READ THAT FIC AAAAAAAAAAA im so glad you enjoyed it<3333 i also highly recommend screamtail's takes on squid!! i miss sniper so bad ugh i want him back in the lcs TT_TT

so, funnily enough, i mostly write lck now because that's where the majority of the lolrpf fandom is these days, but i'm actually a lifelong lcs fan and i don't really watch lck very often haha. i still remember reading lcs fics back in the 2015-2018 era and they were SOOO good, but unfortunately a lot of them have been lost to the sands of time, rip<///3 i really wish the lcs fanbase was still as active as it used to be; it was sooo much fun back in its heyday ughhh

as for my favorite ships, one of my all-time OTPs is pengwang (aka biolift aka doublelift/biofrost)! i actually wrote up a massive primer for an upcoming rarepair fic fest, which you can check out here. in general, i love the whole 16/17tsm roster and could definitely see them as one big polycule LOL. however, my first-ever rpf ship was sneakeos (meteos/sneaky), from back in the 14c9 days, and it's one that's definitely still near and dear to my heart.

as for more recent ships, i'm very partial to jojodanny (jojopyun/danny), yeonla (yeon/eyla), tenasio (tenacity/busio), and busio/massu (idk if they ever got a legit ship name). yeon's my favorite lcs player right now so i'm always desperate for anything that features him haha. (i also very much had a soft spot for dardoch back in the day, toxicity and all.)

i think the "golden age" of the lcs has come and gone, as much as i hate to admit it. i didn't publish my own rpf until a year or two ago, but i was an active rpf reader and fandom participant all throughout the 2010s (i started watching lolesports in 2013, believe it or not!). in fact, this tumblr account's pfp was bjergsen with a flower crown for like 3 straight years LOL.

i think the big thing is that the decline of the fanbase (and the budget) in NA has resulted in less demand, and fewer funds, for the things that really fuel rpf — namely, behind-the-scenes content pieces like vlogs and docuseries, as well as frequent streams. back in the day, most pros would stream regularly to supplement their org's salary, so we'd get a much better insight into their personalities. similarly, the shift away from a gaming house model, like we used to have in the 2010s, means that a lot of lcs players don't live together and aren't as close with their teammates; plus, when they stream, they're often not streaming from a shared room in their gaming house anymore (though obviously there are exceptions, of course). the way i see it, rpf is a relatively healthy outlet for parasociality, but because the lcs teams offer so little material with which fans can get parasocial with lcs players, there's also less fodder for rpf writers. it's unfortunate but that's just where the fandom is at, which is how i ended up mostly writing lck fics — there's just way more material to work with, lmfao

anywayyyy, soapboxing aside, here are some fic recs off the top of my head, in no particular order:

lourlo/dardoch: "you're trash, let me take out you" by one of the lolrpf OGs, eloboosting

busio/massu: "on a simpler day" by copiumoverdose (unicorns_and_spider_webs), "is it new years yet?" by gwenisimmune, and "i don't know how to talk to you" by atropos87

jojodanny: "fall down again" by gwenisimmune — my beloved gwen is the ultimate source for all things jojodanny, and she made a lovely primer for the same rarepair fic fest i mentioned, linked here if you're interested

squid: "bury me in silver" by screamtail

yeonla: "the sea is a pond" by the illustrious monochromia, which i requested for a fic fest and she totally understood the assignment haha — a whole bunch of different lcs ships are in her 100-word challenge as well! additionally, gwenisimmune also has a great yeonla fic: "as you wish"

platonic yeon&haeri: "in case you're up late" by glitch mode (asteryunqi)

pengwang/biolift: "intoxicated i love you" by missillusional and "the brink of pain" by aeonwing (but this is only the tip of the iceberg, there are some really really great ones out there!)

sneakeos: god it's so hard to pick just a couple since so many of them are PEAK, but maybe start with "bite of my heart" (orphaned) or "9 crimes" (also orphaned). sidenote, i also have a sneakeos fic in the works that i'm thinking of publishing for kinktober this year lol

technically cross-regional but apa/vladi: "i see right through you" by atropos87

surprisingly, only one hit!

I'll give you two for this one hehe, from different fics (though this word came up like a dozen times across all my WIPs lol):

"Minseok sets down the water glass and the painkillers on the bedside table, then places the first-aid kit onto the bed next to Minhyung."

LMAO lots of recent angst indeed!! i'm a canmaker enjoyer, i've read a handful of great canmaker fics (i think archiveofouroner has done a couple particularly enjoyable ones!).

i wasn't following lck very closely back when they were teammates, so i haven't gotten to know their dynamic very well. that said, i'm totally endeared by both their individual personalities (showmaker's ksante rant lives rent-free in my head lol), and i definitely see the compatibility between them! they got a brief mention in one of my on2eus fics, but i haven't really felt compelled to write anything focused on them yet (not for any particular reason, they just don't have me in a chokehold the same way that some other ships do).

same anon as before here - i'm so glad my message was appreciated! it's heartbreaking that the lesser reaction to your rulhends fics was disheartening. especially in small fandoms like ours, the popularity of a ship frequently has far more bearing on online reception than the actual content or quality of a fanfic. not to hate on popular ships! i am a big on2eus fan and i love your writing for them but i assure you that your rulhends fics are fantastic too and i enjoyed them just as much if not more. i really appreciated your work on them and i'm sure i'm not the only one!

i listened to both of the songs you were contemplating for your title and while both are good and fitting imho (since you asked) 'pushing it down and praying' clicks with the current vibe of your series better. i think the tone feels far more consistent with the previous songs and naturally progresses lehends's unwritten pov from 'i'd have to think about it'. the part of that song where the beat drops is also absolutely magical. as you said the lyrics are spot-on too. it reminds me of archiveofouroner's mad scientist incorrigible fic with lehends sleeping with everyone and imagining it's ruler every time.

if you don't mind sharing do you have other ships in the fandom that you like? which ones and why? i'd love to hear your thoughts!

ahhh thank you so much and welcome back haha!! i appreciate the kind words and i'm really glad you enjoyed my on2eus fics as well — i know omegaverse isn't everyone's cup of tea, so i'm happy to hear i have some readers who were interested in both! and thank you as well for the input, i was already leaning towards pushing it down and praying, so i'll definitely be going in that direction :))

also, mad scientist incorrigible is truly such an amazing fic, one of my favorites of all time! it's an honor to even be mentioned in the same sentence as archiveofouroner haha, they really set the gold standard for rulhends and i'm trying my best to meet it with everything i write.

in the fandom, i'd say rulhends is the ship that's nearest and dearest to my heart, though i also have a MAJOR soft spot for defiko and ummo. i think my affinity for those two ships comes from the absolute treasure trove of content that exists of them being super physically and verbally affectionate with each other; i just find it SO endearing! plus the angst of deft and umti leaving their respective teams is *chef's kiss* (i will never ever get over the defiko divorce tbh).

for everything else, i don't have terribly strong opinions, i often just find myself following the irl angst. right now, that's guke/guria because there's so much to explore with the whole benching situation. in general though, i read pretty widely in the fandom, and my favorite ships tend to get influenced a lot by the fics that have resonated with me the most (all my love, mad scientist incorrigible, and stormchasers are three of my favorites), as well as what my friends in the fandom are yapping about the most in my twitter DMs (right now, that's onelk, xunchan, and pernut).

i usually don't tend to gravitate towards fics that are full-fledged AUs (though i do enjoy many of them!), because the ships that i find myself most drawn to are the ones that are grounded in at least some amount of real-world context. for example, my interest in on2eus spiked when zeus left t1, and likewise with rulhends when ruler came back to geng right as lehends left.

i feel like i also have a somewhat unique perspective in this space, insofar as i don't have any particularly strong lck/lpl allegiances. as a fan, i primarily follow lcs/ltan (much more closely than any other region), and i've also been watching lolesports since 2013 (certified unc, haha), so i've seen a LOT of players and teams come and go, across all the regions. ultimately, i think this makes me WAY less attached to individual players/teams than many other folks in the lolrpf space. hence, the ships i like the most are constantly changing, since they're usually less about who i'm personally a fan of (my current favorite player is yeon!) and more about what dynamics/tensions/situations seem the most interesting to explore through writing. plus, i haven't the faintest idea how to write fluff, so i always go for the ships that feel like they have the most potential for angst, lmaoo — as of right now, those are rulhends, ummo, and guke. the defiko era (sadly) seems over but if i ever come up with a compelling idea for them, i'd definitely write that too.

i just wanted to say that im a really big fan of your ruler x lehends fanfics and i adore the way you write their dynamic. i can't wait for more of them and i wish you the best with all your writing

your writing style is super compelling, like it completely sucks me into their story. you also have great music taste: "i'd have to think about it" and "blowing smoke" have both been added to my regular playlist. i also find it so cool that for both fics, the perspective of the singer counteracts the pov of the fic titled after the song - 'dinners and free will' is told from ruler's pov, but the song "i'd have to think about it" reflects lehends's inability to fully get over ruler even after their separation. on the flip side, 'I know what you are, brighter than the stars' is written from lehends's pov but the song "blowing smoke" mimics ruler's sort of contempt for lehends's charade of a relationship with kingen despite them barely knowing or even liking each other. i'm so lucky to get to read your writing and i am very much looking forward to your wips!

OH MY GOD THIS IS SO SWEET AAAAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

i'm so so glad that you enjoyed them!! nothing makes me happier than hearing stuff like this, i'm literally glowing!! it's especially lovely to hear positive feedback about my rulhends fics because they didn't perform as well as my on2eus series, so i've been feeling a little down on myself about it tbh ://

PLUS it makes me soooo excited that someone picked up on the thing i was doing with the titles hehehe, it was sort of a little easter egg to give insight into the opposite POV of the narrator of the main fic. i'm over the moon that it made an impression on you!!

the next fic in the series is happening at some point in the next few months, and right now i'm stuck between two potential titles: "it's only a question if somebody brings it up" from "pushing it down and praying" by lizzie mcalpine, or "my lover, my liar" from "eyes closed" by halsey. both are also very lyrically on-the-nose (in the same way that the other two inspo songs have been!) so i'm torn haha — if you'd like to share your opinion i'd love to hear it :))

dinners and free will — a rulhends one-shot lehends wins a match, and ruler goes looking for him.