#sableetmer

*squeals right back at you* Oh my goodness, first ask on my new blog!!! Thank you so much, for this message and for the Tumblr follow! <3 <3 <3 

I woke up to this ask and it made me want to cry (in the very best way). I’ve been writing fic for other fandoms on and off for over 15 years and was deeply entrenched in my past fandom for the past 7-8 of those, with several long, serious ongoing fics (ex. my big incomplete WIP over there is over 300K words), full of intricate headcanons and references to/retellings of fairy tales.

I just discovered SHINee in August (babywol here!) and started reading SHINee fic over the winter, then I had the miraculous good fortune to make friends with an absolutely beautiful 2min writer. In messaging back and forth, I told her some ideas that I thought would make fun fics (you know, ones you really want to read but you want/need someone else to write them for you) and she encouraged me to write them myself.

Other than some really feeble attempts at Beatles fic as a teen, I’ve never written bandfic or slash in general (do we still call it slash? I’m so old!), but I had all these fun ideas - all of them for 2min, mind you, except for one tiny oneshot idea, based on a Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin skit, that I thought would make a really fun Jongho fic. (Sidenote: I was solely a 2min shipper to begin with but the ever-amazing @lala-pipo made me ship Jongho with her delicious fic Anonymia. :D) The idea wouldn’t leave me alone so I tried to write it out of my head, as one does, and it has since spiraled into a 23K WIP. (It’s called Dream Girl, if you’re interested, and it’s on AO3 and AFF. Modern non-famous AU, very soft Jongho.)

I figured that would be it for my Jongho endeavors, much as I loved that universe (and honestly, I default to reading Jongho more than 2min these days, save for a couple of really amazing fics) - and then I heard about the Jjong’s Month fic challenge. I’m so new to this fandom and especially the whole sort of mythos of Jonghyun (I love him so much it hurts, I just know so very little compared to the rest of you!), so as badly as I wanted to contribute, I really didn’t think I could/should. (I’m also terrible at finishing stories in general, and challenges with deadlines tend to wring me out like a dishrag.)

The only idea that came to mind was an Endymion and Selene myth!fic with moon god!Jonghyun in love with handsome shepherd!Minho, but it just seemed so cheesy and predictable and probably overdone (albeit with a different pairing - I’m sure there are at least three Jongyus out there with this premise). But my dear 2min friend assured me that it would be anything but and encouraged me to write the story, so I decided to jot down a few ideas and just see what I could come up with. Because the month was already more than half over, I knew my best bet was to lean on my “voice” from my works in that previous fandom and aim for a sort of pseudo-Greek myth feel, told in slightly elevated language.

One huge downside of switching fandoms at this juncture is that SHINee fic traffic is virtually nil, especially for certain pairings (why, WHY don’t more people love Jongho??). This was especially tough as I created an entirely new pseud for SHINee fic and am literally starting from scratch - and as a brand-new Shawol to boot. Between AO3 and AFF, I’ve hit six total reviews/comments on Dream Girl in four months, and I have to remind myself that this is an accomplishment, especially in this dry season.

Yours is the first feedback I’ve received on The Distance Between You and Me, and it absolutely meant the world to hear. The entire month of April was absolutely miserable over here (thankfully no COVID issues at home, but lots of other stuff :( ) and I really struggled to get that fic out, and I was so worried that what I’d managed to come up with was flat and boring.

I’m so, SO thrilled that you enjoyed it! I cut it off where I did (I’ve already written Minho and Jonghyun’s encounter at the festival and just a teensy bit more ;D) because, as badly as I wanted to finish in April, I didn’t want to rush the good stuff in order to meet a deadline. And while I know how things will basically end up (and of course it will be happy - this girl can’t do angst!), I’m still deciding how precisely I want it to get there (and, erm, in how much detail... ;D).

As a thank-you, I’ll end this with a tidbit from the forthcoming second half. (I still have loads of writing and editing to do but I’m rather fond of this snippet as is. :D) I really hope to be done before the prompt-claiming for Summer of SHINee - I really DO have to write some 2min next, but I suspect we’ll see the next chapter of Dream Girl first. (Things are heating up over there in spite of my best-laid plans, and now the rest of SHINee wants to make appearances in the story too!)

Thank you again for your truly wonderful support! I hope I shan’t keep you waiting too long for the conclusion!

P.S. Girl-disguised-as-a-boy is my all-time favorite trope but I’ve never written boy-disguised-as-a girl, and it was surprisingly fun (in large part thanks to sassy, exasperated Key making Jonghyun pretty!).

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The moon had never known such bliss as dancing with Minho, neither in heaven nor upon earth. The herdsboy’s breath fanned his cheek, warm and sweet with apple wine, as those long strong hands guided Jonghyun’s body through the steps with lingering touches at hip and shoulder, then curled an arm about his waist, lifting Jonghyun up and against the herdsboy for a leap as the steps called for.

It was an intercourse in its own right: the ebb and flow of their bodies, pressing together and apart and together once more as hands caught and clung and breath fell in quick soft pants, and Jonghyun’s eyes grew damp with both happiness and heartache, for the longer he remained with the herdsboy, the more painful it was to think of leaving him. It is enough, he told himself. To feel his admiration and bask in his nearness just this once.

Jonghyun sank into a curtsy as the dance came to its close and turned away to hide his tears, but Minho had seen, and drew him gently back to cup his face in both hands. “What is wrong, my darling?” he asked tenderly, brows lifted at their inner corners and thumbs brushing the tears from Jonghyun’s shimmering cheekbones. “Are you over-wearied by the dancing – or did I perhaps handle you too roughly in the steps?”

Jonghyun shook his head with a whimper, wiping at his eyes. “It is nothing,” he dismissed weakly, “a bit of smoke in my eyes. Come,” he bid, though he had never desired anything less, “let us clean up our picnic before another discovers what remains of your prizes.”

Who? Me????

Wow!!! I don’t know what brought this but thank you, you’re so sweet. I’m just a regular shawol trying to live her best shawol ass life. 

I don’t know about Taem’s photo book (maybe someone can help us?), but this lovely shawol said she will stream both days and will also share the English translation provided by SM for the global package people. Not sure how that will go down. I’ll post the link later before the fan meeting starts. Let’s enjoy it together!

Hello, friend and faithful reader. <3 I know you sent this lovely ask months ago, and I’m so, so sorry that’s it’s been sitting in my inbox for ages. To be honest, I haven’t been doing well at all. :( I know that’s kind of the world in general this year, but I’ve been struggling with more close-to-home difficulties, foremost among which was losing my little 18-year-old dog in July. Lucky was my entire life and I’d had her for almost half of it, so it was absolutely like losing my only child (especially as I’m physically unable to have children T_T). 

That would’ve been bad enough for one year, but I’ve also been coping with some major family and work/financial issues. One of the most awful things about COVID, I think, is that it’s basically frozen people in situations (difficult jobs, unsustainable living situations, etc) that they would ordinarily do their best to get out of, but between COVID restrictions and a dwindling income, you can’t go anywhere, even if you had somewhere to go. :( 

And to add insult to injury, someone did a hit-and-run to the rear end of my car (on a fairly quiet residential street) sometime last night, leaving pieces of their headlight and a badly crunched hatchback and bumper, so this morning I got to deal with the insurance company and the police, as well as a rental car company. T_T 

One positive during this genuinely awful span of months is that I’ve had the honor of betaing @lala-pipo‘s college!JongTae opus, Dorm Life, which you absolutely must check out if you haven’t already. It’s long and lovely and addictive - so, soooo good. (There’s even some bonus side!2min, if you enjoy that ship at all. ;D)

Writing has been extremely difficult ever since May, when Lucky started slowly going downhill, and I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t touched The Distance Between You and Me since then. T_T BUT. I have intermittently picked up Dream Girl, and Ch 3 is currently about 11K (and it’s mostly JongHo morning smut *hides*). I know that’s embarrassingly short after so many months, but it’s pretty huge for me after the year I’ve had - my brain was broken even before the grief and the debilitating family struggles. 

I would really like to get Ch 3 posted by Christmas, since I originally wrote the fic for New Year’s, and maybe after that I’ll have the spark to resume The Distance Between You and Me? (There really isn’t that much left to write, I just had to stop working on it during an extremely difficult time and I think that’s partly why it’s been so hard to pick up again.) 

Alternately, because everyone needs more ideas they may never do anything with: about a month ago I got sparks of inspiration for an escort!Key oneshot (AU, of course, in which each of the others hire him, but not for that, and he ends up falling for Jinki :D) and a Jong2min oneshot, because I hate that one of them always gets left out in my favorite pairings. *hides further* (Quite soft and sweet, though - each couple meets through a blind date and struggles with the fact that they’re falling equally for both prospects, so they somehow decide to make a go of it as the three of them.) So...we’ll see if either of those go anywhere. (Or, y’know, that “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” JongHo drabble idea that revisits me every time I’m in a store with a Christmas department.)

In the meantime, I think you’ve seen this teaser already (from the opening of Dream Girl, Ch 3), but I posted another tiny tidbit semi-recently, if you’re interested.

Hey squeak,

Don't worry, your lovely asks arrived safely, I’m just the world’s slowest at replying to things, and this has been an extra crazy week to boot. :/ My little dog is adjusting to some new meds and for two of the past three nights, she’s woken me up in the middle of the night and spent an hour or more being needy before she’ll settle back to sleep (and on the night in between I didn’t fall asleep till 2am and she woke me at 6:30), so I’m running on a major sleep deficit. (And I’ve been stuck running errands for my parents during my normal productive hours.) I’m so sorry!

They’re all here, though, and I’m going to try to get a reply posted later today!

oooh that’s a good question...I was actually thinking about that the other day and tbh I’m not quite sure. I really wanted keyland for obvious reasons, but it was taken. As for the others, off the top of my head, I’d probably do jjong-domain, jinkingdom, and taeminrealm

aahHHHh

i dug around and went through my own files but i couldn’t find anything :( if iirc there even used to be a ver of their 2013 jat on youtube--the very video that //really// got me into shinee’s music, but it’s gone now :(