#signal flags

for jamais vu, my post-rescue fitzconte, i have my fitzconte playlist that's all really depressing piano music coz it's post-rescue, 1850s london, so piano was fitting. specifically love the albums carlota: the last empress (music for the ballet) by khyaam haque and voyage by rob mcallister for this fic. the song time spent by deaf center which was on mr. k's ambient writing music playlist is like THE definitive sound for this fic, and the playlist was an attempt at finding more like this but it's very hard. i also have a very unorganized playlist of fitzconte reminiscent songs that remind me of the fic and it's themes and the tragic post-rescue fitzconteness of it all, specifically salt and the sea by the lumineers, i'm your man by mitski, that sea, the gambler by gregory alan isakov, and i will follow you into the dark by death cab for cutie. and time spent ofc.

my nedconte modern au O Comedie Neagră despre Doi Proști, Chitara Lui Bass, și o Lume-n Stare să Strice Toată Joaca has two different playlists one for bering strait, dundy's band, that's all alt-rock, and then punk-rock metal for edward's band polar sirens. but these are kinda' hard to write to bc they have lyrics and such so i've just had this on repeat of some piano from the fitzconte that was a little more upbeat and electronic, but there's just not enough of it on there. haven't really figured out what else would be for writing the nedconte. i did just throw this playlist of all of :umbra's discography together, so i may write to this when i get back to it. i also like writing to this playlist of the more depressing romanian band songs, but it only works for specific situations, and because this is a comedy, it's not really that fitting half the time. i wonder if this song head, shoulders, knees and and ankles by hemlocke springs off one of allegra's terror camp playlists would work, but i haven't tried it yet, it just came on right now and i like its vibes for this fic a lot. anyways, the bering straight and polar sirens playlists are DEFINITELY ones i listen to to think about the fic and the characters and events and all that. both bands have a handful of irl equivalents for the way they sound—muse, the mono jacks, and grimus being some of bering strait's, and my chemical romance and luna amara being some of polar sirens's, though for PS i don't really have as many as i do for BS, ig bc it's a little harder to nail down everyone's individual vibes and also i don't actually listen to that much punk rock or really like it as much as i do alt-rock. this fic also has a playlist for all the songs of the lyrics i'll be using for the chapter titles i'll update as i post more, as well as a playlist with songs that just REALLY remind me of nedconte in this au.

other fics have had their own little things. my hickgib series has been all the post-rock album when the flowers were singing which was cold and depressing. my latest nasty nedconte was this here—a combination of some very specific muse songs and also nive nielsen's music. i wrote my jirv hickey carnivale fic and the stars are silent and in our rooms beside the fire we talk to the entire hickey untreated playlist, which makes the fic feel very cold and dark. my latest grimdark post-rescue hodgeconte was written to one of mr. k's suggested music albums a slow messe by molasses, specifically the song that's linked there La Berceuse D’Ève (Eve’s Lullaby). usually i name my fics after a song that had a BIG influence on the vibes of the fic, and if i don't, i might mention what music had an influence on the fic in my notes, and im always hoping someone comes by and listens to the music and comments on how well or not well it fits for the fic hahaha. i really really really love music and love how music can conjure such emotions and vibes, and i'm always interested in having some kind of soundtrack for my fics, so there's ALWAYS music connected to fics. you can always feel free to ask me about anything specific, i'm sure i'll be game to talk!

as for on loop? well my oc stephen's playlist. bc i've been thinking about stephen. we're playing a pirate setting dnd campaign, and stephen's basically this really nice sweety doctor guy who's secretly spy for in-world version of the british royal navy sent to spy on the pirates, become a pirate, and report back to britain to give them intel to remove the pirate threat. my party just think he's silly and sweet and easily breakable hahaha. nope. he's a combination of goodsir, stephen maturin master and commander, and FLINT black sails. for him in terms of tunes, really it's been kwoon's leviathan, king of sea, and chesslove as well as flower face's bibilical love and the just added thousands of bees by in gowan ring. all of these on repeat. god i love him.

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

boy guess who doesn't have anything right now. i just wrote some bullshit on my phone last night for my dnd character stephen and his friend that i need to edit, but i doubt i'll throw that up on ao3 bc it's not fanfic + it's REALLY stilted. recently my writing's been stilted and gross as fuck—i'm not reading anything written nicely and poetically enough for my fics to improve right now (though i'm planning on reading the book contaminare by mihai radu to get vibes for my nedconte and re-reading jane eyre by charlotte bronte to get the vibes for my fitzconte. but it hasn't happened yet). so there's that. other wips r ofc my ned and fitz contes, but they're so totally on hold i can't even consider them up and coming wips. so long story short, i got nothing right now. i'm on a little break from terror right now because i've been feeling myself burning out HELLA and i really don't want to !!!! i really love terror, so i'm giving it a bit of breathing room and hyperfixating on my dnd oc stephen instead. anyways i guess i'll tell you about that one—it's basically kinda' just recounting what happens after stephen comes back from being lost at sea for a year to tell his ig best friend / lover (it's some aroace bullshit ass relationship where it's not lovers it's something much much deeper than that, my usual shit) that his wife's died (they were in a polycule see—guy who's going to be admiral of the royal navy, his wife, and their shared lieutenant you could say pet haha). anyways stephen comes home after all that shit and he has to tell this guy his wife's dead and that he was there with her when she died and OF COURSE admiral guy blames stephen for her death. so this fic just kinda' recounts the way the whole thing falls apart. recently i love this kinda' awful awful angst. i don't think any of this makes sense

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

this is really hard to answer HAHAHA. i really like to write james i think. i love how emotionally unstable he is and how much he tries to keep everything under wraps and how he sees the world as a big stage he's trying really hard to preform on. but then it falls apart. it's sooooo fun to see him fall apart. he's the most fun to put through the absolute fucking wringer bc he hates it and he can't handle it and it SO tears him apart. that's part of why my fitzconte post-rescue is so fun bc he tries really really really hard to pretend like everything's okay and he can go back to how it was but he's just too fucking RUINED and he can't. he literally just can't! dundy's also kinda' fun bc he's just a little shit and he's selfish and he's awful and then he also falls apart but he's not as fun as james, and ned is just like me fr so putting him through it is just validating as all fuck bc im like yeah ik. me too. suffer boy. suffer like i suffer. HICKEY....... hickey's also been fun to write bc he's also so tortured and in his head and waaaayyyy fucked up about everything, and i relate to him a lot (unfortunately) or at least can really sympathize with him. i've always liked writing guys who are awful, actually. love making them terrible terrible people and then twisting the knife by giving them such real human issues and reasons for why they are the way they are. really making you sympathize with the devil. like. it's not really that he's evil, see, it's that the world has fucked him over and over and over and kicked him down and now he's like this, cruel and rotten and mean, spat out by a society that never loved him and turned into this hateful thing. it's soooooo yummy. i soooo empathize with that hahaa. this is also why i like writing dundy actually. (ned is a different story. he's more of a. it's all shit. he could be shit. he specifically chooses not to be. and THAT is something hopeful and new i've never really broached the subject of before because ive never believed in that type of shit, but recently i've been healing and things have been better for me, so now i really like that aspect / side of things as well.) but yeah.