#vesperaevis

https:// www.tumblr.com/tanoraqui/816191333770346496?source=share

[ask meme - already answered 7, 15, and 25]

Which of your fics would you keep the basic plot of but rewrite completely?

I have this superb darker timeline AU of Girl Genius that I still really want to write more of, and even finish - I have a whole multi-fic outline! the deadline I've given myself is "before the comic ends", so I basically have infinite time to do it! But I started writing it, and put it on hiatus, literally 10-11 years ago, so by the time I actually do that, I expect I'll want to just...rewrite from the start with my significantly improved writing skills. Parts of it, certainly.

30. Describe a fic that almost happened, but then it didn't.

What does that even mean? A fic I thought of but never started writing? A fic I wrote most of, but never finished? I'd say neither of those situations are off the table for good - they're just WIPs...

Oh, here's one: when I was fifteen, I half-dreamed, half-thought of a portal fantasy about a total self-insert who gets recruited by a figure called "the Storymaster" to get dropped into a cliche fantasy adventure story and make sure it goes how it's supposed to. She gets mild reality-warping powers in the world to let her do this. The kicker: in this fantasy world, she'd not half-blind, nor has any other chronic medical issues, becuase nobody in cliche fantasy adventures ever do.

So, she becomes the Smart Guy in a Five Man Band, it's great, she can see blades of grass and everything, etc. But things that Aren't Quite Right keep building up in the story, and eventually she figures out that the Storymaster himself has taken over the role of Villain of this story...I think because he was tired of cliche and wanted to kill the Hero for real? I don't quite remember.

What's important is that by the end of the book, our heroine has realized that her disabilities made her the person she is, and she...ok she wouldn't never give them up, like, medical or magical solutions would be nice, especially for the more potentially one-day life-threatening issues. But! Not at hte cost of this whole world, much less the multiverse which the Storymaster threatens. So, just BEFORE the climax, she uses her gifted story-manipulation powers to restore maybe her hypermobility (useful for getting out of ropes!), and definitely her monocular vision...which is REVEALED in the climactic confrontation when the Storyteller's illusion-based magic literally does not work on her (grumble3Dglassesgrumble). He didn't see this coming, because nobody in cliche fantasy world ever has, much less would willingly have, these problems.

Then she looks straight through his illusion and punches him in the face.

Anyway, I don't think I'll ever actually write this novel. I just don't need it anymore. I'm glad I thought it through, though.

33. Give your writing a compliment.

I'm good at making up & fleshing out characters.

40. Write a 9-word fic.

In the spirit of the hot new ship taking over the Critical Role fandom in this long & terrible 1-week pause between episodes...

Murray's gemstone teeth glinted in the candlelight.

Oh what a lovely question!

I completely understand how you feel… it feels like everyone is in that sweet spot where they like the idea of it but are unwilling to play it because it’s not accessible unless you’re willing to emulate or play a known inferior translation on the GBA. And I do understand that some people just don’t like to play using emulators.

Anyway, I suppose today I am feeling sad about Archie. Just knowing that she’s going to outlive all of her friends and just.. ugh. :’)

I remember when I played NKDX and I got to her tower and I saw that she’d drawn her friends on the floor so she’d never forget what they look like and my heart broke for her. She’s my favorite of the party members so seeing her like that was so sad…

I think her attitude is somewhat of a front to make people think nothing hurts her because of her being a half-elf. I think she’s really quite intelligent, since she was one of the only party members that became suspicious of Dhaos’s true nature.

I really hope that Phantasia gets a modern port.

Like to charge; reblog to cast and whatnot.

hmm throwback to the Infamous Harem AU! Imagine Agatha is like 10 years old; Gil & Tarvek, 12.

The raid was going great. The jägers were having fun! Agatha had seen some of them tossing around blocks of the dilithium iron ore she wanted! And best of all, her new Superthermic Plasmathrower was working perfectly!

"COWER BEFORE ME!" she cried gleefully from atop her three-headed venemous horse clank, and blasted another house to ashy smithereens. "I AM A HETERODYNE! MWAHA--HEY!"

Her laughter cut off with an indignant cry because someone had just popped up from behind the ashy smithereens and shot a dart of some kind at her.

Before she could turn her Plasmathrower on it, her best friend and chief minion had jumped off his own clank-horse, caught the dart, and chucked it back toward their assailant like a missile.

"Gil, I could've done that!" Agatha complained.

She settled for sending a burst of superheated plasma, 6.66 times hotter than ordinary flame, roaring at the would-be hero.

But even before it reached the spot where he stood, there was nothing there but smoke.

I’m honored to be part of the enrichment in your enclosure.

Boop!

Answering for the Maglor/Eärendil* fic because I have a better 14 for that:

11. What scene are you most hyped for this chapter/fic?

The scene in which Maglor and Eärendil come face to face after having a semi-unrequited parasocial-ish relationship for 6000+ years (Eärendil knew it was mutual, Maglor didn’t), and Eärendil greets him warmly, Maglor bursts into tears, and Elrond stands to the side completely confused.

14. What have you been finding frustrating with writing this chapter/fic?

[ask meme]

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again?

And What Came Next is barely a "fic" - there is no plot arc and maybe 5% of a character arc. It's just some scenes of varying degrees of completeness connected by what's basically just written-out headcanon, mostly fluffy, post-"canon" for my Silmarillion OC Celechwes and her family, including OC children. It's the sort of thing that usually just lives in my head and in random chats with friends. But so many people have been so eagerly supportive of Celechwes and her story, and I've been trying to lean into AO3 as an archive not just for truly polished fanworks but all fannish creations I want to save - with the guideline that if I would want to read this stuff from someone else, the collected headcanons and bullet-point fics, shouldn't I share my own? So I posted it and lo, people liked it! They exclaimed excitedly in the comments!

Moral of the story: if you're worried that what you're posting is too self-indulgent and incomplete, it's not. There is no such thing. Admittedly it helps that I'd already spent about 65k establishing the relevant characters in a fic that did have plot and character arcs.

4. What piece of media inspired you the most?

Well, obviously I was still on this Silmarillion kick for most of the year... (It's fading now, but I have some really good WIPs that I'm determined to finish.)

Ooh but my favorite new books of the year were the Heartstrikers series by Rachel Aaron! Urban fantasy ft. internecine draconic family politics, vengeful nature spirits and genii locorum, aggressively offered and maintained friendship as a problem-solving method, manipulative seers as another problem-solving method, ghost cats (and armies of undead) as yet a third option, a couple apocalypses, pest control, compelling characters with opposing agendas and vivid worldbuilding and all that good stuff! I want to reread them and then maybe write a next-gen story.

15. Rec a fic you wrote or posted in 2023

My favorite little thing I wrote is this of Maedhros returning to what once was Himring.

18. What was the hardest fic to title?

Oh, god. "And What Comes Next" is so hopelessly generic, which I guess is appropriate given its content. I'm not really satisfied with "The Struggle of Squeamishness" (S&D Tier). "Magic Traps" was hard specifically because the whole Kate Daniels series has titles in this very specific form - Magic Binds, Magic Bleeds, Magic Triumphs, etc - and I wanted to follow it, but all the best words were already used.

26. If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

I worked really hard and for nearly a year, in bits and pieces, on The Minstrel and the Star, trying to capture this very messily nuanced but intense relationship, including an air of worship that I really don't normally go in for, and I'm still not sure I managed to express it exactly as I envision it... But one reviewer described it as "Numinous as well as luminous", which is so exactly what I intended that I must have done something right.

27. Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?