also, a little laugh for inspo 😌

""...I appreciate it when people reach out to me and say, 'Hi, can I make art out of your fic?' or 'Can I read it live in one of the servers?'"

In this episode, me and Corin interview R.K., known to her readers on ao3 as djmarinizela.

We talk about the communities that are built around fandoms and ships, collaborating with fan artists and beta readers, and the freedom and satisfaction that writing fanfic provides.

Son of Roger and Rouge, they say of him. Son of the wind and the song of the sea.

His name is Ace, he tells them, and they nod and say that of course it is, he is Ace, Son of Roger and Rouge, they know that perfectly well.

Rouge and Roger, he corrects, because one of them deserves a hell of a lot more credit than the other, and they tilt their heads with a bemused smile and just nod.

So he steps out into the world of humans for a while, because at least there no one cares. Humanity’s biggest advantage and flaw is their arrogance, and they will never look at one who treads on their same ground and think, god. They never imagine strangers to be their betters, so they talk down to him and dismiss him and ignore him, and it’s all just so refreshing.

Humans are wonderful, he finds. The problem with the heavens is that they are static; there’s no change or growth or new ideas, because why mess with what’s perfect? But the humans aren’t like that at all; they run before they can crawl. They hurt themselves in their curiosity and call it worthwhile. They do something they know doesn’t work for the sheer pleasure to be had in being right.

They’re fleeting and dangerous and oh so petty, but they look to the world and see wonder, and they teach him how to see it too.

One day he meets a man old enough to remember, to look at him and know. The man asks his name anyway, because these are the old high manners; to assume is ruder than to beg verification. Ace, he says, and the man nods and says, Rouge’s son. His lungs seize and he wonders if he’s glitching, but it’s not that–it’s happiness. It’s comfort. It’s pride in his name, and so he nods and doesn’t respond, and when the man invites Ace into his crew for as long as he’d like to stay, Ace can only swallow and nod.

He makes friends. He finds family. He learns how to forget his past to live in the moment because he’s never been happy like this, not in his whole long life.But the trouble with humans is their arrogance and their jealousy and their greed, and when one brother turns on another, he isn’t expecting it. No one was, but he ought to have seen it, why didn’t he see it? Here lies one of his chosen brothers, beloved of Sanji, the god of wrathful cooks, and Ace’s lungs glitch again, and his words crowd his throat.

And he does the only thing he can, in this guise he’s adopted, and he traps his brother’s soul before it can flee. You are beloved, he says, and ushers it upwards, into the night sky. There’s gasps and murmurs around him, but his focus is absolute. It’s the least he can do, for this human who loved him, to paint his portrait in stars and let his soul look down from the spaces between. And with that, there’s only one thing left to do. They call him the son of Roger and Rouge and they remember that Roger laid claim to the seas and Rouge dances the wind at her bidding. They so often forget that Ace is more than the sum of his parents.

So he draws upon his heritage and takes his aspect upon him, cloaking himself in flames and fury, and he goes forth into the night to wreak bloody vengeance on those that would dare to steal from him.

I’ll be sitting down around 6pm CST, but join when you can all day because of time zones! ❤️

Reblog with what you’re working on and lemme come and HYPE YOU