#rmd writes

Coming out of hiding to do this game because I loved seeing what @welcometololaland @kiwiana-writes @cha-melodius @freneticfloetry had to say about theirs (thanks for tagging me lovelies!)

Rules: list your first fics in every fandom and how you feel about them.

In order of publication:

Schitt's Creek

Care Bear | G | 1.3k

Not just my first fic for the Schitt's Creek fandom but the first fiction I'd written in [redacted] years! I haven't reread it, I'm sure it's full of errors and mixed tenses. I actually posted this anonymously at first because I was so scared of putting my writing into the world but some pals convinced me to own up to it.

Also, some rmd lore: yes this is G-rated fic. I know that's exceedingly rare from me these days. BUT railmedaddy was always intended to be a funny little joke because wouldn't it be hilarious if someone with a username like that (a cheeky nod to Dan Levy's SNL episode) only ever wrote G or T rated fluff? Little did I know what was to come ...

Red, White & Royal Blue

Keep Playing (the soundtrack of us) | E | 4k

I was gently coaxed into writing this by @omgcmere who, when I mentioned maybe writing some firstprince fic and then asked why there as so little thigh fucking in fic in a fandom where canonically Alex is obsessed with Henry's thighs, told me that the answer to that was to write it myself then held my hand while I wrote smut for the first time. (This isn't the first smut I posted, I posted one (1) smutty SC fic first, but I think I started writing this one before that fic).

I like that I played with an interesting writing structure for this and didn’t necessarily play it safe. And I will always be fond of this fic because writing for RWRB fandom brought me some of the best people I know 💖

911 Lone Star

every breath you take | E | 4.2k

The thing about this fic is that it meant that I was actively writing for three fandoms which was seriously unhinged of me. It's also a rare foray into (admittedly light) angst but like almost everything I wrote in this fandom, I told @welcometololaland I was thinking about it and she 'yes, and-ed' it into existence.

I haven’t reread this so I don’t know how I feel about about this specific fic, but I had some of the most fun I’ve had writing in this fandom, so there’s that.

Heated Rivalry

everything is icy and blue | E | 8.9k

Once upon a time, rmd read some books, loved them, reread them but did not fall into the brainrot. Then the show came along and rmd told herself that she didn't have time at this point in her life for a new fandom, for a new hyperfixation and besides, she hadn't written or even read fic in months.

Readers, I think you can guess what happened next.

I told myself that I'd just get this one fic out of my system and maybe I could relearn how to write and then I could finally finish that one RWRB fic that's haunting me so that the 10k I've already written doesn't go to waste ... lol

I wrote this pretty recently so I feel okay about it

Are you ready to get (un)professional?

NOW COMPLETE

(UN)PROFESSIONAL SERVICES | CHAPTER 7/7 | TARLOS | E

Please see enclosed the seventh and final chapter of the unprofessional professional services Tarlos AU by @rmd-writes and I.

Thank you so much to @celeritas2997 for beta reading and for supervising our spiralling! 1000000 fruit baskets for you.

Chapter 1 - Identify the Lead

Chapter 2 - Connect with the Lead

Chapter 3 - Understand the Lead

Chapter 4 - Close the Deal (Part 1)

Chapter 5 - Close the Deal (Part 2)

Chapter 6 - Always have a Contingency Plan

Chapter 7 - Epilogue

As it turns out, the gods of the subway system are smiling down on TK today because their usual train is running just late enough for them to squeeze on at the last minute. He tries not to be too smug about it as he watches Carlos lean against the door of the packed carriage as it speeds through the tunnels, pretending to read the news on his phone.  He’s only made aware of the pretending part when Carlos looks up at him after a few minutes and whispers, “So, when can I return the favour?” Cottoning on to the innuendo, TK tries not to look too pleased and begs his body to behave – getting a hard on around so many people would be kind of problematic. “Tomorrow night,” he replies. “I’ll be expecting something good because that floor wasn’t easy on my knees.” Carlos fixes TK with a challenging look. “I’ll think about it,” he says softly. “I have time tonight, while I’m home alone with nothing else to do.” “I’m ditching my mom,” TK murmurs, trying to keep his tone conversational. “I just remembered I have plans.” “Mhm?” Carlos hums, evidently trying to retain the veneer of being politely engaged. “With your di—” “TK.” TK snorts. “Don’t start something you can’t finish, baby.”

HELLO RAE! Lovely to see you, apologies that this got away from me 🤍

19. Share your favorite piece of dialogue

In honor of you thoughtfully tailoring your responses for me, I am going to choose another piece of dialogue even though I already picked one for an earlier ask. Is this spitting in the face (nonsexy) of the spirit of this game? Possibly. But it's too late now.

From Make a Wish:

“I know it’s been a minute, Mr. I’m Familiar With The Practice,” he says, levering himself over Henry’s body to look him in the eyes. “But you don’t tell people your birthday wishes or they won’t come true. You have to remember that. It’s literally birthday wishes 101.” Henry’s got that same look on his face from when he blew out the candle, fixed on Alex with intent. “Of course. My mistake.” Alex takes it in, the seriousness of his expression matched by the gravity of his tone, asks, “You want it to come true, don’t you?” Henry swallows, his whole throat moving with it in a way that pulls Alex in, hypnotizing. He almost misses it when Henry whispers, “Desperately.”

30. What would you like to write next year?

alexis-rose-can't-wink.gif

WELL... The working title for the playwright/actor AU is 'Breaking Character' because I like silly little rom-com titles—but it's entirely possible it'll change to a long-ass lyric. That's equally on brand for me. I did make a gif for the Tumblr post where that title has a yellow background like a Playbill, tho, so it might stick. We'll see.

Anyway, this is actually the first AU idea I had for RWRB after reading the book—but then life happened and other ideas happened and I got Distracted. 😅

The general gist is that Alex grew up on a coming-of-age sitcom (think Boy Meets World or The Wonder Years). As such, he's been having a hard time shaking that wholesome image and being taken seriously in the industry. His agent (Zahra, btw) gets him the script for an autobiographical play by this snobby British playwright, and Alex connects to this character for reasons he just can't put his finger on yet. He wants it. Bad.

But, when he auditions, Henry literally leaves the room halfway through his monologue. Super rude. Alex naturally thinks he blew it, but then his phone rings... and, y'know, Stuff and Things occur.

The first half is in Alex's POV, and then it switches over to Henry's halfway through. I anticipate that it'll have some epistolary bits in addition to pieces of Henry's play, which has big Fun Home vibes in terms of, like, the storytelling structure (there's a Young Henry, a Middle Henry, and then Present Henry—who Alex was auditioning for because theatre can do that).

what is something you're looking forward to this year?

Thanks for the tags @kiwiana-writes @orchidscript @freneticfloetry @anincompletelist (and thank you to everyone who has continued to tag me during my months-long absence from this place. I've been checking my notifs and DMs occasionally and it always makes me a little 🥰 to see that you've thought of me 💖 I can't promise that I'm back, but this game seemed like fun and I was curious how many letters I could tick off)

Rules: How many letters of the alphabet have you used for a fic title? One fic per line, 'A' and 'The' do not count for 'a' and 't'. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fic count.

Are You Screwing With Me? (firstprince, RWRB)

Baci (David/Patrick, Schitt's Creek)

Call Me (By My Name) (Tarlos, 911 LS)

Despite it all (Tarlos, 911 LS)

Everybody needs good neighbours (firstprince, RWRB)

Feeling kind of sketchy (David/Patrick, Schitt's Creek)

Get fucked (or die trying) (firstprince, RWRB)

Home for the Holidays (firstprince, RWRB)

It's just for snow (David/Patrick, Schitt's Creek)

J

the key that unlocked me (firstprince, RWRB)

Letters to my Lover (David/Patrick, Schitt's Creek)

Make the Yuletide Gay (Tarlos, 911 LS)

Never the same twice (firstprince, RWRB)

The only thing I need (David/Patrick, Schitt's Creek)

Precious Love (Tarlos, 911 LS)

Q

A Revelation (David/Patrick, Schitt's Creek)

Soon (Tarlos, 911 LS)

To the victor, the spoils (firstprince, RWRB)

(Un)professional Services (Tarlos, 911 LS)

V

Who am I if I can't carry it all (June & Alex, RWRB)

X

You're all that I need (firstprince, RWRB)

Z

21/26 - not bad! Several letters had many, many options to choose from (S and T both had 10 each!)

This is such a sweet game that @thisbuildinghasfeelings came up with! Thanks also to @strandnreyes and @welcometololaland for the tags (Lola, I’m assuming that was a tag and if not, just lie and tell me it was).

Here’s 5 favourite things:

1. That time I started thinking about the legalities of Carlos putting TK on the deed to the loft

I was doing my skincare late at night, started pondering, and ended up reading both the Texan standard sale of property contract and the Texan Property Law Act at midnight, then I woke up to a very lengthy fandom discussion about how it might have happened. Even better was that this discussion spawned a debate about the ownership of Schitt’s Creek and how that could possibly have worked elsewhere.

Which brings me to my next favourite thing:

2. The fandom Venn Diagrams

I was drawn into LS because @clottedcreamfudge kept sending me the Butt Bounce™️ gif (you know the ones, from 1x02) and then @three-drink-amy shared the proposal and I was sold. I’d already seen a lot about the gay howdy wee woo show a bunch of mutuals were watching so it wasn’t a hard sell.

The overlapping fandoms delight me though! I love seeing people from one fandom start with liking gif sets and then they start rb them and then I see them pop up in my ao3 emails so much. I love being told that I’ve posted so many Tarlos gifs that someone started watching just to see what it’s about. I especially loved those of you who tried so hard to resist the inevitable, only to end up creating gif sets and writing fics.

I love it so much because that was me too, desperately trying not to fall too hard into a third fandom 😅

3. Beta reading

I’ve had the privilege of getting to beta read, help plot and brainstorm some of the most (in my very objective opinion) iconic fics in the fandom and I loved doing it. Helping plot and brainstorm fics is actually my favourite part of writing and the fact that people are willing to hand their drafts over and trust me with their words means so much to me, whether it’s an epic AU, or someone’s first foray into writing for a new fandom. I still can’t believe that anyone let me beta read a sportsball AU, let alone three of them lol

4. The Soulmates Scene

Need I say more?

5. The baseball day!!

Something about a fandom that, generally speaking does not seem to be interested in baseball, collectively following the World Series and (in my case) learning how to read game stats was just so fun!

Bonus extra: the friends I’ve made along the way 😘💖

Open tag 💖

Heated Rivalry fic list

Canon compliant

love, full of hope || Yuna POV, 5 + 1, family | G | 7.5k

when you're young, they assume you know nothing || smut + so many feelings | E | 16.5k

AU / Canon divergence

everything was icy and blue || holiday fic, snowed in, only one bed | E | 8.9k