#And it's probably the closest to the actual Arctic I'm ever likely to get | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

novaviis · 5 months

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20 questions for fic writers

I was tagged by dear @victorianpining

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

52.

2. What's your total A03 word count?

921,539.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly DC/Young Justice, but also Inuyasha and Hetalia

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

The Bridge

Fireworks in July

The Floor is Lava

The Bird and the Worm

you lost the starlight in your eyes

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to! Granted I don't always, but when I get a comment asking a question, or one that particularily touches me, I usually respond. But even when I don't, I read and reread every single one.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I'd say as a whole, I'm not interested in angst without pay off. I'll absolutely drag my stories through the angstiest plotlines imaginable, and I'll do it gleefully, but there is nearly always some sort of pay off in an ultimate happy ending. That said, if we're looking at fics as individual stories (particularily in the case of Watercolour as a whole series), I'd say the angstiest might be Arctic or Au Revoir

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

If I'm measuring the happy ending in terms of the angst it took to get to it, definitely Light Me A Lantern.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I think the closest I've gotten is misunderstandings? Particularily when it comes to how I write Dick Grayson's lineage in Watercolour. I've had misunderstandings where people thought I was erasing his Romani identity and making him Romanian instead, when I write him as both - there is a lot of Romani history and a huge population in Romania, and I decided to play into that. Sometimes it gets lost in translation so to speak.

9. Do you write smut?

When I feel like it!

10. Do you write crossovers?

I used to, not really so much anymore.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of! Ngl I'd be pretty upset.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! The incredible @minakok translated Light Me A Lantern into Spanish (Enciéndeme un farolillo) and @eldescensoseduce has been chipping away at translating the beast that is Watercolour into Spanish as well. The first two chapters of Un Giorno Per Noi has been translated into Chinese as well!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I've had beta readers and been a beta reader and had an absolute blast with both - but in terms of actually sitting down, plotting out and writing something together with someone? Not yet. Although the closest thing has probably been the roleplay I've been writing with a friend over discord. That beast has AUs of AUs.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Don't do this to me.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I don't want to say I doubt I ever will because I really really want to, but... I have to say Der Unsterbliche Preis.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I would say dialogue and writing actions sequences. They're both things that I've struggled with in the past and worked very hard to figure out how to do properly.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I think I still struggle with pacing at times. I don't want to rush into the action and the exciting stuff so sometimes I draw it out more than I really need to and the pacing gets away from me.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

All for it! If I'm using a language I'm not familair with, I'll translate it back and forth a few times trying to make sure I have the nuances as close as I can get to accurate, and I always include translations in the notes. However, if it's a long scene of dialogue, I will just write in that the characters have switched languages, just to make thinks flow better. I don't want to have to scroll up and down the page constantly when I'm reading.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Oh god. It was either Digimon or Pirates of the Carribean. Eons ago.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

This is painful. I definitely have my top fics, the ones I'm most proud of, but Un Giorno Per Noi is a fic that I have reread every christmas since I finished it, so by a percentage of a margin, I'll say that one. Close behind are Light Me A Lantern and Terminal Velocity.

I'm tagging @hanmajoerin @flashhwing and whoever would like to do it because I'm a cop out ✌️

#shut up ren #thanks for the tag!#calculating that word count was.... something lmao

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agate-dragon · 1 year

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So I was wrong :(

For context, weather is a HUGE shift trigger for me, especially what we typically think of as springtime weather. If its rainy/overcast, temps in the 50s-70s, crisp air, and a strong breeze, it's pretty much guaranteed I'll have at the least a slight mental shift. Now where I live, the weather has been weirdly warm, with temps in the low 40's and nonstop rain, so I've been shifting rather frequently, which meditating on my hearthome.

Whenever think about what my hearthome could be, I'm instantly hit with kin memories of stony hills, dense pine forests, fish-filled wetlands, plunging cliffs into the gray ocean, herds of deer and warrens of rabbits in case I ever wanted red meat, and a constant damp chill in the air. Anytime I'm in nature with a similar vibe to that, its shift city baby.

Being the ecology nerd I am, I almost instantly assumed I lived somewhere along the intersection between a boreal forest (taiga), and tundra, and I was happy with that! I mean it checks all the boxes- cold, the right type of plants, big ol' mountains, sometimes wet, and with fish and large game aplenty! But the one thing I could never get around was how cold it actually got that far north.

I HATE snow. I really cant stand it, and I don't really have any kin memories it. I mean, how does an arctic dragon hate snow? I thought about how I also hate when it gets dark early in the winter, because it messes with my sleep schedule severely. Well, I guess that must mean I hibernate! If I have a diet and lifestyle similar to a brown bear, I probably have torpor like one too!

And I stuck with that thought process for months and months, until today. Like I said, I've been in shift city due to the weather, despite the fact that I almost never have weather-triggered shift when it's colder than 40, or snowy. I don't have any kin memories of either snow OR settling down for hibernation, hell, I don't even have kin memories of midnight sun.

So, after hours of research on the wikipedia page for ecoregions, I came to the conclusion that I'm not from a boreal forest/taiga, but probably a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest, the most similar ecoregion I can find being the Caledon conifer forests and the north Atlantic moist mixed forests.

Basically, where I lived was closest to the sparse, grassy, and mountainous forests, bogs, and moors of Ireland and Scotland!

I'm very happy about finding a new detail about my past life, but unfortunately it means I'm going to have to do a lot more meditation to make up for some of the assumptions I've made about my hibernation, by lifestyle, what foods I ate, and how I lived day-to-day. Despite looking and feeling similar, boreal forests and temperate broadleaf and mixed forests are VASTLY different environments, with vastly different adaptations.

Moral of the story: Don't be afraid to admit you're wrong about a kin memory, or that you interpreted the cause of a shift incorrectly, or any mistake you might have made in your own personal kin journey. It hurts a lot to know this environment I've put so much thought and love into wasn't actually my home, but I'm so much happier being closer to the truth.

If you're interested in narrowing down your hearthome, and being able to talk about/find uber-specific pictures, I HIGHLY recommend this resource! I could spend hours just looking through all the interesting environments. Support Wikipedia!

#This stuff is such a long and difficult road #especially when you get things wrong :(#but im happy I know better now!#Tbh I feel a lot more connected to this than the tundra #it just feels more correct #idk how i didn't notice sooner #alterhuman #otherkin #dragon #dragonkin #dragon kin #agate dragon

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deeeepsteep · 6 years

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I LOVE YOUR HUSKY, HE'S SO CUTE!! I'm thinking of getting one myself, do you have any tips?

Aw thanks anon, Milo appreciates your compliment

Huskies are beautiful dogs but they can be a handful if you don’t know what to expect tbh; I guess I’ll just run off whatever comes to mind lmao hopefully this all makes sense

I’m on mobile so I can’t do a read more soRRY FOR THE LONG BLOCK OF TEXT

- Huskies are very athletic, energetic dogs. I can’t stress this enough - this should be the number one point on every “Things You Should Know Before Getting A Siberian Husky” list. Most people give up their huskies because they don’t realize how much energy they have. They were bred to pull heavy sleds for extremely long distances, so they have a lot of pent-up energy that needs to be released. Huskies need A LOT, and I stress on A LOT, of exercise. My dad takes Milo out for a 45 minute walk in the morning and I take Milo for a 45 minute walk in the evening, and by the end of the day he still has enough energy to sprint laps around our backyard. If they don’t have a productive outlet for their energy, it will manifest in very destructive behaviours. If you don’t think you can keep up with that, I don’t recommend getting a husky - or any sort of dog that falls under the “working category”, to be honest. These kinds of dogs need something to do or else they’ll find their own way to release their energy, like destroying things around the house or barking excessively.

That being said, Milo is an AMAZING exercise companion. Power walking? He’s down. Jogging? He’s your guy. Hiking/long distance walking? He’s all for it. You even go sprinting if you want; he’ll be able to keep up with you. Sometimes I even hop on my cruiser and let him pull me down the street - it’s the closest he’ll ever get to sledding lol. Not only does he get his exercise, but I do too, so it’s a win-win for both of us. If you’re looking for a running buddy or a pal to go on adventures with, huskies are great for that.

- Huskies don’t bark, but they can be incredibly noisy. I somehow got the one husky that makes absolutely no noise (Milo’s so quiet that I often forget he’s there), but for the most part huskies are very vocal dogs. They howl, and they love to “talk” to you and other animals. If you prefer a social dog, huskies are the breed for you, but it can get exhausting, and your neighbours might not be so fond of it either.

- Huskies can be very difficult to train. A lot of people think huskies are stupid because they aren’t as responsive to commands as, say, a German Shepherd or a Lab. They’re not stupid at all - Siberian Huskies are very independent by nature and they don’t live to please their humans; they’ll do pretty much whatever they want whenever they want. They weren’t bred for obedience; they were bred for their athleticism. If you’re looking for a dog who’s willing to do everything and anything with you, a husky might not be the best breed.

Milo won’t do anything for me if he doesn’t see a benefit in doing it; if I want him to a trick, there has to be something in it for him, like a treat or a few minutes of playtime. Huskies respond best to positive reinforcement, and like most dogs they learn best when you start training them as early as possible. Puppy classes are extremely helpful for stubborn/independent dogs - though some huskies are so clever that they’re actually able to tell the difference between a class and just training at home. They know to behave when they’re in class, but if you try the same training methods at home it might be a completely different story lol. Huskies can be super manipulative - they really know how to get what they want, so the key is to maintain consistent, and to be firm. Huskies are very pack-oriented and if they don’t sense a clear/obvious leadership role within their pack, they’ll have no problem taking it for their own.

If a husky allows you to pet and cuddle it for a little while, and then suddenly it’ll get annoyed and walk off, don’t be offended. Again, huskies can be incredibly independent and not a lot of them look for validation from humans. They’re kind of like cats in dogs’ bodies lmao sometimes they don’t mind being affectionate, and sometimes they’d rather have their own space. It’s completely up to them.

Of course, it’s a case-by-case basis. There are some Golden Retrievers out there who may not like to play fetch (Btw, a lot of huskies don’t play fetch. They weren’t bred to retrieve, so it’s not something that comes naturally to them like Labs or other breeds that fall under the Hunting category). No two dogs are alike, just like humans! They each have their own personality, so you might get the one-off super affectionate husky.

That being said, a lot of huskies HATE being alone, which is weird - this is another instance where they can be very cat-like. They don’t want your attention, but they don’t want you being away from them either. They can get very upset if they’re left alone - I think this stems from their instinctual desire to be in a pack, so they always feel the need to be part of a group or a family. There are various ways to train and condition your dog to adapting on being on its own - because realistically, you can’t be around your dog 24/7, it’s gonna have to be alone every once in awhile. Some dogs just need more time and effort to get used to it, that’s all! Just be patient, consistent, and firm - this goes for overall training your husky, not just in terms of being left alone.

- Prepare to have fur EVERYWHERE. Siberian Huskies are from…well, Siberia, and Siberia can get super cold. To cope with this, huskies have two layers of fur to keep them warm - and when you have two layers of fur, there’s twice the amount of shedding. You will find hair everywhere, and I mean everywhere. My mom brushes Milo three times a week and there’s still an abundance of hair around the house. If you get a husky - or any breed from the Spitz family, really - be prepared to do a lot of sweeping and vacuuming.

Dogs with double-layered coats will go through a period of super heavy shedding during parts of the year when the seasons change, usually when summer turns into fall and when winter turns into spring. There’ll be even MORE fur than usual, and it can come out in clumps - like….you can legit grab fistfuls of a husky’s fur and it’ll come out just like that. Since my mom brushes Milo so frequently we’ve never gone through that, fortunately, so my advice is to brush them as often as you can. Two to three times a week minimum…and you’ll probably have to vacuum at least once or twice a week just to keep your house tidy.

But there are upsides to this as well!! Their coats aren’t as oily as other breeds, so they don’t have that “dog” smell to them. They’re also very clean breeds and only need baths a few times a year (Milo actually hates water; giving him a bath is a nightmare). Huskies also clean themselves like cats do; it’s so weird. They also don’t need to go to the groomer, since they shed all of their fur anyway. You’re not supposed to shave a husky’s fur, even when it’s super hot out, because their long fur protects their sensitive skin from the sun.

- They don’t eat often. Huskies adapted to living in the Siberian Arctic, where food can be scarce. They are incredibly energetic and can burn off a lot of energy, but surprisingly they only need a little bit of food each day to get by - especially for their size. Milo only eats one a day, and he only eats 2 cups of his food at most. Sometimes he’ll only eat one cup, sometimes he’ll eat a cup and a half. If you try to force him to eat any more than that, he’ll ignore you.

I’m not sure if this is a general husky thing or if this is just a Milo thing, but Milo’s a super picky eater. He gets bored of his food fast so we always have to find new, creative ways to get him to eat. We’ll add shredded chicken on top, or crush his favourite treats into powder and sprinkle that over his food.

- They’re shitty guard dogs. Most people think huskies would make good protectors because of their intimidating, wolf-like appearance - but in reality they’re nothing like their wolfy ancestors, even though they look a lot like them. Huskies are extremely friendly dogs and most of them are warm towards strangers. Milo LOVES people, and he’ll run up and kiss whoever allows him to, even if it’s just a random person who passes us by when we’re on a walk. I’m sure if a burglar ever broke into my house, Milo wouldn’t do anything except beg the guy to play with him.

- Huskies have a high prey drive. This means they’ll usually chase after anything that moves, especially if they’re smaller. If you have a cat or any other small animal in the house, you have to take a lot of precaution because huskies can end up accidentally killing or hurting them. Usually if the husky is a puppy, they’ll grow up with the other animals and so they learn how to behave around them, but if you’re adopting an older husky, it might be difficult.

That’s all I can think of right now tbh, but I think I got a lot of the main parts down. This is all speaking from personal experience and from the research I did before I got Milo, so I hope it’s informative enough for you!!

#dog #husky #siberian husky #animals #long post

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