#fishgills writing

[nebulousfishgills]

Returning the favor for the writing asks! (And you're right, there's SO MANY good ones!)

1, 3, 11, 13, 17, 20, 35, 54, 55, and 74 please!

I see ten numbers so we're just gonna assume this should in theory be split into ten asks but it's gonna be one doctorate thesis length post so be warned as usual and here we go!

1) Do you prefer writing one-shots or multi-chapter fics?

See already I have a cop out answer ready because I like doing both! A good portion of my multi chaptered fics started out as one shots, actually. A Song of Stars and Magic started as an alternative look at how The Avengers could have ended that spun way way way too out of control. 29 chapters and two plus years of nitpicking and adding and writing later...

As we know Diplopia started as a one shot before it, too, spun out of control and got six seasons and a movie. The Weirdo From Saint Valentina's is gonna get an additional three chapters and that started as a one shot (I'm very excited to show people what I have planned for that can of worms).

But, you know, Facade was always a longfic. I never finished it but I at least stopped at a decent enough stopping point. One could believe that's how I chose to end it if a) I didn't outright say I never finished it and b) it's not actually marked as incomplete on AO3. Time Variance Detected was a long fic by design because of the episodic chapters. One episode of the series was one chapter and that trend will continue with it's eventual sequel.

His Tenebris Moenibus was always a longfic. It's gonna have a sequel once season 5 comes out. It's kind of exciting but a little nervewracking that part of the anticipation that comes with Stranger Things' finale is also me being able to find out how Emily's story is going to end. I'm on the same page as my readers as of now. None of us knows how that will go and it's exciting and... oh good god it's also fucking terrifying.

But I love writing my small, stand alone one shots. Little nuggets of story. Ways to explore alternative ideas and plot bunnies that are too big for a simple idea but (in some cases, at least) are too small for a full, dedicated fic.

So... they kind of go hand in hand, really. I love the planning and complexity a longfic requires, but I love the bite sized freedom one-shots give. But one shots with me sometimes turn into longfics. So... one shots, I suppose, if you put a gun to my head and made me choose.

3) Describe the creative process of writing a chapter/fic

It varies from project to project. Nine times out of ten, though, it starts out as one of my elaborate daydreams. I have to mentally plan everything at the very least before I write even if I don't write down those plans or outlines all the time. The ideas come in bursts, sometimes with listening to music, sometimes when watching a piece of media, sometimes with the Holy Grail of idea generation: the shower.

Most of any kind of "creative process" with my fics happens mentally. Sometimes I just get so many ideas for a fic that I have to make a bullet pointed plan or an outline. I have a server on discord that just has me in it where I send things to myself or write notes. It's just an alternative for a notes app, really. I have pages of ideas and outlines there. I remember doing this for Necrosis specifically when that last large piece of the narrative puzzle just came to me and then I got so excited I wrote out an outline I still continue to follow.

I wouldn't really go as far to say I'm a planner, though. Most of my fics are more spur of the moment.

Sometimes I have to research as well. I have wikis bookmarked on my laptop in a folder called "The Sacred Texts." The most notable time this happened was with Diplopia and I wanted to better understand these characters before I wrote about them... and now I know too much, go figure.

Ultimately it's kind of chaotic is what it boils down to. I get an idea, sometimes I plan it, sometimes I research it, and then I just kinda... let my brain do what she do.

11) Link your three favorite fics right now

In no particular order:

Necrosis

His Tenebris Moenibus

Instinct (largely because it's my highest kudo'd fic, an unexpected cult classic)

13) What's a common writing tip you almost always follow?

Okay, so I don't know if this is exactly a common tip, but it is THE end all be all writing advice I've ever gotten. A few years ago I watched a virtual book discussion for one of my favorite authors, Christopher Paolini since he had just released a new book ("To Sleep in A Sea of Stars").

Side note he had actually given us a sneak peek of the book a couple years before that when I went to an in person book signing of his when he released a coloring book for his Eragon series that I still have, actually, it's very cool.

Anyways, one piece of advice he gave was to plan out exactly what you want to write in your head throughout the day. So, you know, come up with dialogue scenes when you're eating lunch or how to start your story/chapter's opening paragraphs in the car etc. And then once it's "writing time" you don't have to waste "writing time" coming up with ideas right then, you just need to transcribe your thoughts from the day and then work from there.

I do it for every single piece of writing I put out, even in micro ways. Sometimes I get impulsive and post one shots I wrote in like, two hours, but the hour or so before that, I was laying in bed with music going, eyes closed just organizing and basically writing in my head. It helps me weed through my thoughts prior and saves me a lot of time in the long run.

Also because I fixate on my fics, I'm constantly thinking about them anyways so this advice is just how my brain operates anyways.

17) What do you do when writing becomes difficult? (Maybe a lack of inspiration or writer's block)

This happens pretty frequently. It's more like I have the motivation to write but I can't physically bring myself to actually type it out. Typically what I do is I just let it happen. If I'm de-motivated I won't be writing at my best and the product won't be at the level I would want it to be at. The dialogue and scene pacing would get clunky and then it just feels stiff. I'll eventually get my motivation back.

But in the meantime I'm doing more planning (daydreaming), I'm looking at pinterest for ideas, I have music going, whatever I need to help me not only get my motivation/will to write back, but with more ideas and inspiration than I had in the first place. More often than not I just need to find that one perfect idea that hypes me up enough to finish the chapter/one shot/what have you.

It was a huge help with Necrosis in particular since some of the filler chapters I trudged to get through, but I was motivated by the chapters that set up that big twist at the end or even those chapters themselves. That's another idea, I sometimes write the scenes I'm excited for ahead of time because I'd rather take advantage of that motivation rather than let it die and then leave more work in the future. I had those three particular chapters of Necrosis all completely done, and that's three whole chapters of work I was done with.

Basically, to sum up: Accept the fact that there will be times you want to write but can't. Find the time in between to come up with more ideas. Then, if you get motivation but for something other than that next chapter you need to write, just write that something else. Means less work in the future and it leaves room to experiment.

20) Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/Expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

Well, corruption arcs, obviously. I'm a sucker for redemption arcs, of course, but there's something so cathartic about having a character arc involve going batshit rather than having a come to Jesus moment. But at the same time, usually my corruption arcs happen because of outside forces.

I like to take an optimistic approach to life, that nobody's born evil, it's their choices and environments that can fuck everything up. My characters never start out as evil, but typically the longer they have negative influences, the more it may seem like it. Like the juxtaposition between Olivia's downfall in SoSaM and Emily's spiral downwards.

We know something went wrong to cause Olivia to do horrible things, and it wasn't her fault. So there's a bit of space to sympathize with her because likely her real self is trapped inside of her mind, screaming to be let out and appalled at what she's done. She's naturally a good person with a tricksy streak, not a genocidal maniac. Emily seems more like a bad egg from birth, but that's because her life was set on a downward slope the minute she was popped out and given up. Then it's just nonstop abuse, tragically. St. Valentina's was a horrid place to live, two years on the streets, twenty years in Hawkins Lab... the Upside Down is arguably her best place of residence and you've seen how hazardous and desolate it is. I guarentee you'd lose your mind, too. And this isn't even mentioning my Mind Flayer theory.

I take the optimistic approach to a very pessimistic trope, but the secret is that I usually find the exterior corruption along the way. At first, the characters usually start by fucking shit up for no reason because I want to throw my action figures together and explore the consequences of poor actions before I feel bad and then decide to find the proverbial "Palpatine" in the Anakin to Vader fall from grace.

Of course, smaller things could be my blue rose motifs, my frequent uses of meta humor/references, and how sometimes you can tell I just remembered a cool word and use it three times each paragraph. Also just the Villain's Favorite Person trope, which with me goes hand in hand with the Corruption Arc. It's demented but there's an inherrent appeal in loving someone so much you'd do anything for them. Someone who's done horrible things being gentle only with the one they love. That sort of shit.

I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting.

35) What's one essential thing to remember when writing a villain?

Motivations and how they're not always one-dimensional. All the best villains are ones we can understand, sympathize with because we understand their motives. Sometimes yeah, it's fun to just watch a bad guy fuck shit up for the sake of fucking shit up, but Malekith-type villains are rarely all that memorable (in fact I bet I'm one of maybe six people who remembered his name was Malekith).

I like it when my villains are a little bit sad, wet, and pathetic, or I can mold them to be like that. Look at the characters I ship my OCs with, look at all their drama, their family angst, their abusive pasts, among other things. Even the villains I don't ship my characters with who I use as actual villains, I make sure to analyze their motivations and reasonings.

You have your Thanos types who are trying to do a good thing for the way wrong reasons. Like, my guy, just double the resources. I know some Thanos truthers exist, but I just can't quite see it.

See it hurts knowing Henry would probably agree with Thanos to some degree. I'm a hypocrite for disagreeing with Thanos and being like "yes king go off, fuck humanity" when Henry monologues.

Or, how about delving into something I've only recently been able to discuss because of spoiler reasons, arguably the most complex thing Stephenie Meyer ever came up with that's rarely mentioned and she didn't do anything with: the situation with Didyme. This is what Stephenie Meyer's website mentions about the event, our most thorough analysis on it:

"Once upon a time, a fairly young vampire (he had only been a vampire for a decade and a half) named Aro changed his young sister Didyme, who had just reached adulthood, in order to add her to his growing coven. Aro always wanted power, and because he himself had a potent mind-reading gift, he hoped his biological sister would also be gifted in a way that would help him rise in the vampire world. It turned out that Didyme did have a gift; she carried with her an aura of happiness that affected everyone who came near her. Though it wasn't exactly what he had hoped for, Aro pondered the best ways he could use this gift. Meanwhile, Aro's most trusted partner, Marcus, fell in love with Didyme. This was not unusual; given the way she made people feel, lots of people fell in love with Didyme. The difference was that this time, Didyme fell in love herself. The two of them were tremendously happy. So happy, in fact that, after a while, they no longer cared that much about Aro's plans for domination. After a few centuries, Didyme and Marcus discussed going their own way. Of course, Aro was well aware of their intentions. He was not happy about it, but he pretended to give his blessing. Then he waited for an opportunity to act, and when he knew he would never be found out, he murdered his sister. After all, Marcus's gift was much more useful to him than hers had been. This is not to say that Aro did not truly love his sister; it's just that a key part of his personality is the ability to destroy even what he loves in order to further his ambitions. Marcus never found out that Aro was responsible for Didyme's death. He became an empty man. Aro used Chelsea's gift to keep Marcus loyal to the Volturi, though not even Chelsea's gift could make Marcus show any enthusiasm for it."

That's surprisingly a lot of information and it really shows how much thought she has the capacity to put into these characters, yet refuses to, but I digress. All I did was take the Machivellian motivation mixed with the genuine love Aro had for his sister and just expanded upon that. Alas, actions do have consequences, and Emily's a little shit so go figure.

The point is, villains need to have good motives to make them stick.

54) What's your favorite part of the fanfiction writing process?

That moment when everything, every disparate piece and idea just clicks together and the plot finally comes forward. Usually I start with an idea and find the plot along the way. I think my most classic case would have to be Necrosis. I started with just "Diplopia Sequel" and then ended with:

And it was cathartic as hell

55) Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite?

Oh, god, that's hard, cause I don't typically write for characters I *dislike* writing for. And then that question changes depending on if you mean OCs or canon characters.

I suppose my favorite OC has been Emily since it's been a blast seeing what wacky shit I can do with her. Olivia's gonna be making a comeback soon, though, since Loki s2 is DAYS AWAY AAAAAA- But I missed working with her, it's been a HOT minute.

Favorite Canon is a broader arguement since there's so many fandoms and characters I've written for. Obviously the characters I ship with my OCs I enjoy because I have to be able to see them in a certain way to write them that makes me like them. It has be a joy expanding upon the Volturi though, I'm very proud of what I've come up with. Loki, Sylvie, and Mobius have also been fun and I'm very excited to mess with them again. Eddie was fun to pit against Emily and in particular I remember really enjoying writing the parent/child dynamics between Harry and Keira.

Take your pick I suppose.

74) You've posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you'd written it?

Well, obviously look for my trademarks, playing with morals, blue roses, meta asides. And nine times out of ten if it's a Canon x OC fic, there's a high chance it's a brain child of mine.

But let's very hypothetically say I was to post the one shots I hope to write about Caius and Athenodora's backstories anonymously. Since these characters are so open to interpretation you could probably pick out unique things specific to me about them. Thena has a penchant for swearing and will Cut A Bitch, Caius is a massive wife guy and is extremely horny...

You know come to think of it, these are pretty universally agreed upon ideas... except perhaps Thena's swearing habit, I will stand by the fact that she drops f-bombs like nobody's business.

But aside from all that, I think there's a certain diction and voice my writing has that one could probably pick up on overtime. I'd say assume if you think I wrote it, I probably did.

***

Oh my god I got this ask even before fucking July 5th/Doomsday and I'm just now finishing it I'm so sorry.

#i didn't mean to take so long but shit happens and brain no wanna brain #anyways here are your essays #fishgills speaks #fishgills ocs #fishgills writing #stranger things oc #twilight oc #avengers oc #spider man oc #beloved mutuals #writing asks #oc asks #ask game #my inbox is open

[nebulousfishgills]

I'll hang with you, friend! Have a few of these to chew on:

FMK, Jamie edition: Henry Creel, Jace Wayland, and whatever his Twilight character is (haven't seen Twilight lol)

Would you rather spend a year in the Stranger Things universe or a year in the Twilight universe? assuming that you're human, but have a reasonable degree of possibility to get powers somehow (so like... if you want to be a vampire, you could try to get converted but they might also just kill you)

You're visited by the writer genie, but they'll only grant one wish. Which do you pick?

1. You're able to transcribe the story exactly as it is in your brain, but motivation is just as it is now (so you'll probably end up with writer's block at some point)

2. You never get writer's block again, but that means you get intensely motivated to write at exactly the wrong time (i.e., in class, about to go to bed, etc.)

3. You get wide, positive reception for everything you post and comments on every fic, but some people BADLY misinterpret your characters and you literally can't do anything about that

Favorite things: your writing style is incredible, and you're not afraid to add genuine darkness to your storylines. You also stay really true to Henry's character and make it clear that he's still a villain, but you're able to implement these moments where we start to care about him all the same. It's really impressive, and makes for an addictive story! And even outside your writing, you're a really lovely person and I'm glad we've struck up a friendship here

Tiny vent: I have one fic that I'm honestly really proud of (the characters are unique and dynamic, there's an interesting plot, the writing is some of my better prose), but it has gotten ZERO attention whatsoever. I realize it's because it's written in a very small and underappreciated fandom, and OC x canon fics aren't always the most widely-received anyway, but I really wish people would give it a chance because I really think they'd enjoy it if they did. The worst part is that I can see a few people have bookmarked or subscribed to it, but I haven't gotten a single comment (not even one of those "this is great!" or "extra kudos" or whatever). I'm trying not to let it kill my motivation because I really do like this story, but it's starting to make me sad :/

Thanks for "hanging out with me," bestie lol. Luckily my isolation window for Miss Rona is over and I'm feeling better 😷. Anyways, let's see what we have here...

FMK - Henry Creel, Jace Wayland, Caius Volturi...

Bestie you're killing me here. You're actually killing me. It changes depending on my mood, of course, but if I had to pick the most constant idea... F Henry, Marry Caius, Kill Jace

I'm sorry

Would you rather - Spend a year in the Stranger Things universe or spend a year in the Twilight universe, both with a reasonable chance of gaining powers...

Hmm... that's a good question. Again, this very much depends on my mood, but I might have to go with the Stranger Things universe. I would honestly need an essay to explain why that would ultimately be like many of my college essays: four pages of nothing. Some days I think living in the twilight universe would be fun, but right now the Stranger Things universe seems like the "safer" option, relatively speaking.

A Visit From the Writer Genie - It's between 1 and 2, but I think I'll go with 1 becaus 2 tbh is not that different to how I operate now. I do most of my writing at like, 1 AM (as my roommate could likely vouch for) and I have done writing during class. But I'd love to just implant text right to the page, that'd be wonderful.

Favorite Thing - Bestie, your comments are some of the best things I have gotten, and it really means a lot that you enjoy those facets of my writing. I like to say that it's my blessing-and-a-curse empathy that lets me get characterizations right because I find that I'm very good at reading and interpreting characters, even for little shitpost things. And I, too, am very glad we struck up such a lovely friendship. I love making friends in my little Tumblr-sphere :)

Vent Reply - Aww, I'm sorry! Low engagement is the worst when you're very proud of what you've written. That by no means diminishes your worth as a writer, though. I bet it's a really amazing fic! In fact, I'll add it to my list. It's the least I can do.

Thanks for "hanging out" with me lol. It's been an incredibly hard few days, so it really means a lot that you decided to pop in :3

#fishgills speaks #ask game #come hang out with me #fishgills writing #beloved mutuals #my inbox is open

[nebulousfishgills]

'send me a word' ask game

lost, two, green, dark/darkness, pale, run/ran, shine, moment

Ask and ye shall receive:

Lost - nope

Two - She continued to wander, finding locations like a church, a library, and a town center headstoned by an old clock tower that ticked by slowly. It told her it was about two minutes until 8 PM.

Green - "Your sister doesn't seem like she should be in high school." Emily said as Henry tried to open Emily's locker for the third time, the grody old green paint seemingly mocking him.

Dark/Darkness - The hallway grew thinner and the darkness more suffocating until the tour guide pushed open a set of double doors and led them inside.

Pale - If [censored for spoilers] wasn't already pasty pale, she was sure he would have turned as white as a sheet. In moments, mere moments he had gone from having power to having it all stripped away, now faced with the real and very terrifying prospect of retribution.

Run/Ran - A tall, well-built man zeroed in on her and it finally kicked in for Emily to run.

Shine - Close, but no

Moment - "She didn't even realize it was happening, she wasn't scared, she didn't feel pain. It's just that one moment she was happy and talking, and the next her body was burning on the ground."

Lots of good words!! Thanks!

(send me a random word (or a few words) and I'll post a line from my WIP that includes that word!)

#ask game #fishgills ask box #fishgills writing #writing game #writing asks #work in progress #wip lines #my inbox is open

[nebulousfishgills]

Maybe if I make a poll I can hold myself more accountable

Okay, my drafts are piling up and just writing them in order isn't doing myself any more favors.

So! After the Sylvie Request that's mostly done is posted, which of my drafts/requests would you like to see next?

#FishGills Asks the Audience #fishgills writing #fishgills speaks #writing #writing requests #am I stupid for not closing requests absolutely #but the dopamine I get-- #sylvie laufeydottir x reader #natasha romanoff x reader #henry creel x reader #agatha harkness x reader

[nebulousfishgills]

Why is it so hard to figure out the distribution of different sects of christianity in the 50s.

Like, bro, my pagan ass doesn't wanna be a member of your christian newsletter to read your article, I just wanna figure out if the Creels were protestant, general christians, catholic, or what have you.

...I think I might go with protestant, that feels right.

#fishgills speaks #fishgills writing #religion #tw religion #tw christianity

[nebulousfishgills]

"iconic scene" ask game

Definitely something from Yours...

Either when Loki appears in the doorway (for some reason the green sweater stands out to me, bc it would look so good on him :D ), or when he picks up their daughter and realizes she's got his same eyes. iconic.

Wow I have not thought about that fic in a really long time lmao. But thank you!! It means a lot that people think my writing is any semblance of good. I'm also just a sucker for tropes like that so here we are lol.

#fishgills ask box #fishgills writing #fishgills speaks #old fics #my inbox is open

[nebulousfishgills]

I love saying I'm gonna start the next chapter of my latest fic and then proceeding to NOT do that.

Instead I spent two and a half hours collecting and editing footage into a forty second long shitpost video ABOUT my fic...

#is this something writers do a lot #listen if no one is gonna make meme content for my fics i gotta do it myself #writer and memer #i'm carrying my own fandom of one to three people #fishgills brainrot #fishgills writing #fishgills speaks #writing #writing problems #fanfic writing #shitposting #fanfic shitposting

[nebulousfishgills]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love❤

Ohoho okay okay, this is gonna be a loose top 5 but let's have fun.

Coming in at number 5 we have Facade, the infamously incomplete Spider-Man fic I wrote as I was finishing out high school. The tragedy is that this one's likely always gonna stay incomplete because I realistically can't see myself going back to it. I use it as a warning to myself about being careful about my hyperfixations because no matter how excited I may be to finish a fic, sometimes it may end up like this. But despite the fact that I kinda cringe over it, it's a really well written fic and Keira's like an underrated beauty of an OC. Chapter 13 might be some of my favorite bits of my own writing.

At number 4 we have Instinct. I wrote this one as a silly one off one shot because I just kinda wanted to play around with alternate routes for Emily as I'm... known to do, I realize... but for some reason this one POPPED OFF, I haven't had a fic get this many kudos EVER. It's a niche genre within a niche genre with strange logical leaps and oddities but for some reason it's very highly acclaimed and I've had requests for follow up chapters, shockingly. I didn't release Instinct into the world with any expectations and suddenly she's a Valedictorian of kudos and I'm so proud.

In third place I think I'll have to give it to Diplopia. My meme baby that I REALLY didn't expect much of and originally wrote as a joke has become arguably my most iconic fic... and it's so close to a thousand hits, my highest hit fic, first to hit a thousand. I've discussed Diplopia's birth and growth several times and I'll always be happy to talk more about it. I've had her in my life for over a year and I can't imagine life not having written her.

Second place, probably His Tenebris Moenibus, Emily's introductory fic and my second highest kudo'd fic. This was the one that started it all. I'm considering tweaking a few things but as it stands it's a highly solid fic. I really feel like Emily was my chance to let loose and write a truly abhorrent character that I've enjoyed developing overtime. She's a gremlin and it all started here. I'm so incredibly excited to see how I'll get to conclude her main story come season 5. Not to mention after reading some First Shadow spoilers I'm realizing I was right on the money in a few aspects and I feel so fucking vindicated.

And at number one we have, probably unsurprisingly, Necrosis. Apparently I have a hidden talent for writing really banger Twilight fanfiction and I think this is the quintessential fic of the type and the ultimate fic of mine. One of the few long fics of mine with a fully original plot (i.e. HTM follows ST season 4, Facade follows Spider-Man 1 etc.) and I really think that's one of the ways it shines. It allowed Emily to grow up a little maturity wise and morally, was an exercise in mystery and patience/making smut important to the plot, and let me explore one of my absolute favorite aspects of the Twilight lore (Didyme) in a really satisfying way. I love digging into these characters and adding my own spin to them since Stephenie Meyer won't.

Honorable mentions go to The Weirdo from Saint Valentina's and DNA Doesn't Make a Family.

#it's so hard to pick favorites because i have a fondness for all my fics #but here you go #fishgills speaks #fishgills ocs #asks #fishgills writing #beloved mutuals #my inbox is open

[nebulousfishgills]

For those of you who've left writing requests with me and I have yet to get to them I swear I promise I will do them don't worry ik I'm awful about following through but every one will be answered pinky promise

#within the next few weeks I'm gonna do my best to bang as many as I can out #i owe it to y'all i'm so sorry #fishgills speaks #fishgills writing

[nebulousfishgills]

let's talk about Diplopia!

what prompted you to write it initially? How did you come up with the idea to have them cross into another dimension? Why Twilight and not another of JCB's roles, like Shadowhunters or Sweeney Todd?

would you write another universe-crossing fic like that, either still with JCB or with other actors?

what was your favorite chapter or scene to write in Diplopia? Was there a scene you especially struggled with? Did writing it come in bursts of inspiration or a continuous stream of motivation? Or with the idea, was it a bolt of inspiration or a gradual build?

If, instead of Emily, you'd chosen to create a new OC to complement Caius, what characteristics would you give them? (Emily is fantastic and I love how she works into the story, but I'm curious to see what a "from scratch" Twilight OC would look like)

Do you like Emily's relationship with Henry or Caius better? Which relationship does SHE like better? Does she ever regret leaving Henry behind? If she were to encounter another of their "doppelgangers" (Jace Wayland, Anthony Hope), would she consider a relationship there too?

Ah yes, the strangest thing I've ever written that turned into one of my most complex fics to date... yes, let's absolutely talk about it! Thanks for the ask!

There will be more shitposts because I want to share my stupidity.

How it Began

I think most people know that I hadn't ever planned on touching Twilight with a thirty nine and a half foot pole. I'd grown up hearing about how god awful it was and that it had no redeeming qualities. For god's sake, the final battle never even actually happened! What are the stakes?? What's the point??

Then, of course, Summer of 2022 comes along and we all know what came with it. The further I fell down that rabbit hole, I came to realize that the pretty (fucked up) blonde I was starting to get eyes for... also happened to be in Twilight, among other things. I told myself, quote, "I'm not breaking my No Twilight streak over this."

Then, my roommate and I made the executive decision to celebrate our first week of college by watching Twilight since neither of us ever had. That was a very strange week and I remember having mixed emotions watching all five movies... the main one I remember was watching New Moon and then realizing that this is where that one meme came from:

Fast forward to that Sunday, I had finished Breaking Dawn (roommate dropped out after New Moon, I don't blame them) and was ready to move on with my life. But of course I can't leave well-enough alone. I was talking with a friend over snapchat about just how awful the movies were, providing examples such as the horrid cgi used when Caius' fake death happens and the Denali's rip his jaw off (I'll spare you the imagery). This friend knew about Emily and was very enthusiastic about her, and that's when this happened:

So that's how it was born. A friend from high school theatre gave me the idea, and it all went back to the arson. In fact, she gave me the idea for the fact that Emily had red eyes at this point in time could be a consideration.

The very original idea I had was a lot less serious and more goofy than it actually ended up being. In fact, one of my very first incarnations of the idea was essentially akin to (and this is such a niche reference) the Goof Off from that one episode of My Little Pony where Pinkie Pie and Weird Al try to one up each other to win over Rainbow Dash to prove who's the better Party Pony:

Except, of course, it's Caius and Henry trying to one-up each other to impress Emily. A flower, new clothes, human souls, arson, you get the picture. And Eddie was always going to be there to bear witness to this insanity, keeping essentially a tally of who was "winning" this asenine contest.

Of course, however, a fic like this needed research. I know, it wasn't supposed to be taken super seriously and I could have probably gotten away with using the bare minimum characterization and knowledge the movies gave me, but I don't know how to half ass fics. So, I just opened the wikis and started reading. The information I discovered was... actually a lot more fascinating than I had expected. In fact it taught me more than I had thought to ask.

I remember laughing stupidly hard at Marcus' "death" because I genuinely thought he was just so over everyone's shit that he was like "thank fuck get me away from these weirdos" but NO, this dude's story is so fucking tragic I sort of feel bad for finding that scene as funny as I do. That, and I realized that my central focus, Caius, was just a, quote, "Trigger Happy Wife Guy" who just wasn't fully realized... which of course brought up said wife, but that's a later issue.

Armed with more knowledge, I needed to figure out how this was supposed to go. I couldn't just plop Henry, Emily, and Eddie in Volterra and have this pseudo Goof Off without rhyme or reason. How did we get there, how did this happen, why did this happen, and so on.

I can't put into words how far this fell from my original dumb idea. I repeatedly say even now that the original joke got lost in translation along the way. The primary source of comedy was supposed to be these two guys with almost identical faces fighting over Emily... and then that posed the question. Why would Emily even consider Caius at all? It's a contest of who's in theory the better lover, but why would Emily give Caius any thought other than the uncanny resemblance and maybe the shallow, superficial gifts he could give her?

Answering this question in the place where all my big writing ideas come from (the shower) could arguably be considered my biggest mistake/triumph.

She and Henry had to get into some kind of fight.

It took me a while to figure out what that was about, but eventually the 'joke' helped me figure it out. Diplopia (I was always proud of the cleverness of the title. It's the medical term for having double vision/seeing double) takes place after the events of Stranger Things 4, so by all rights Henry should look like Vecna, right? No, because then the joke wouldn't land the same way. So, you know, for the sake of the story I came up with an explanation. Consuming enough human souls allowed Henry to shed this gross, viney, fleshy skin, which probably meant Emily not only had to work double time to help the effort, but give up sustenance she could have used. Then it all just fell into place, her insecurities about her own Upside-Down modifications, some simmering issues in their relationship they hadn't dealt with, all that shit.

And suddenly pure comedy turned into an angsty valliant effort on Henry's part to win Emily back because he accidentally fucked up. There are still elements of the original idea in the fic, the gifts Caius gives Emily when she's giving Henry the silent treatment, and the tally board Eddie uses is seen when they're trying to figure out how Henry can fix his oopsie...

Which leads me to the fact that the very original one shot I had uploaded to my Stranger Things one-shots book on Wattpad had a different ending.

(Side note, my character arc has been all but abandoning Wattpad except as a means to store drafts. Friendship ended with Wattpad, now AO3 is my new best friend. It only took so long because of interface familiarity; I stopped reading any fics on there aside from my friends' years ago)

Originally, Emily realized all the effort Henry was going through to make her happy again was proof he was the one who knew her the best, her perfect match despite the fact that Caius provided her things she could also find the appeal in... and then I decided to be cheeky and say the entire one shot was a vision Emily had like how Breaking Dawn 2 ended. Armed with foresight, she could decline Caius' offer for them to stay for dinner and she and her two companions could just go home.

So I posted it and left it alone for about... three months.

Then I watched Breaking Dawn 2 again with, actually, @ohitshoneybee and before I knew it, I felt the familiar horrible tendrils forming.

A new hyperfixation.

Of course, before this I had once in a while thought about what would have happened if Emily had just... decided to stay with Caius, but I never went much further with it than small ideas. But NOPE, my stupid ass decided to write a whole continuation that went through all the movies just to see how they would change if Emily became a factor. That became a small winter break project, writing what I called "The Director's Cut" and posting it to an untagged story on Wattpad because originally I just wanted close friends to read it.

This allowed me to get more extensive and creative with the lore. I had The Wife Problem to deal with, sure, but I fixed that quickly and then could proceed with fully weaving Emily into this... frankly mediocre story and making my own improvements (namely trying to make Bella seem less... you know, flat faced and stupid by making her knowledgable about Hawkins, for example). Now Emily could wreck shop and I could get revenge on the franchise that had begun to ruin my life by taking a fat piss on it and putting my OC into it to make it better.

That original version of the longer story had multiple endings, like video games. A Bad Ending, A Neutral Ending, and a Good Ending. The Bad Ending was basically if Alice's vision was a reality and Emily really had lost Caius, the asshole she gave up everything for... it doesn't end well for anyone, lemme tell you. The Neutral Ending was the closest to the movie, the entire battle being a vision and the Volturi just walk away (not without complaints from Emily and Caius of course)... and then because I really wanted to be an asshole, suddenly Emily woke up back in the Upside Down, none of it having ever happened in the first place.

Once I finished the full story, I waited a bit and then decided I'd be brave and not only upload it to Archive of Our Own, but clean it up and try my hand at smut since I figured I was about to turn 19 and I'd wanted to put on big girl shoes for a while at that point... of course it had to be this fic, but you know. I chose to just use my original Good Ending since I had always viewed that as the "canonical" ending, with the Volturi kicking Cullen ass.

So, now here we are, several months later, and I have a sequel in the works. What started as an idea for a comedy one shot has now become arguably my most notable fanfic series with emotional gut punches and general weirdness.

And that's that.

So, that was a lot, but let's keep going with your other questions.

Why Caius?

I can't really provide an honest reason that sounds clever or complex. It's not like I spent hours deciding to go this route out of several others. I suppose the least complicated way to put it is just that Twilight was my first step into branching out to Jamie's other works and the idea grew because of that specifically. Diplopia was always written to make fun of Twilight and because I noticed that both Caius and Emily had this shared trait of liking fire. That's literally it.

Also I think one of the other reasons was the slowly budding desire to expand upon these characters that Stephenie Meyer, frankly, half assed. I've had the discussion with many people about the wasted potential these characters had and how I, in particular, take offense to it beyond the superficial reason that I think Jamie's more talented than such a one note character like Caius was written like displays.

The Volturi is literally a coven of dramatic, theatre kid, art and science nerds that also happen to enforce vampire laws. Since they stand in opposition to the Cullens, naturally that makes them The Bad Guys since what kind of Monster would stand in the way of Bella's happiness? So why should they get any depth?

Thing is, the few traits Meyer gave to the Volturi are traits that describe me exactly. She created the bones for characters that seem specifically curaited to me and my tastes. So their lack of depth and information bothers me excessively because I want to know more and she won't give me that information.

I'm serious, this is part of Caius' page in the Official Guide Book she wrote herself

"Sometime before 1300 BC" "Unknown" "Unknown" Ma'am this is your official guide book that has everything one needs to know about your series, you can fill in these unknown dates! Not to mention the utter lack of respect she gives the wives. They get ONE sentence, and it just says who they're married to.

Stephenie Meyer, you named Caius' wife after Athena (side note, always been my favorite of the Greek Pantheon, another reason I feel a very strong connection with these characters), she's obviously a badass, not a trophy wife who gets high.

A pet project I wanna start is to write my own guide book about the Volturi using the bones she gave, but adding my own ideas, giving these characters depth, including ideas from fics and blogs that also feel the same way as I do.

All this to say, aside from the main reason I gave, I chose Caius because, in a sense, he and his wacky, weird coven chose me. I feel very protective over these characters and I want to give them their dues. I don't claim to be the ultimate say in this since I'm a baby in the fandom and others have wonderful ideas I subscribe to, not the other way around. But still.

Other Universes?

I don't want to rule out the possibility, but Diplopia/Necrosis really feels like a one-of-a-kind phenomenon. I don't think the same effect could be felt if, say, they ran into Alicent Hightower for some reason.

(Ironic, considering I did actually find a fic shipping Alicent with the Three Stooges Kings... unfortunately it's written in Spanish soooo...)

This has been a trope I've liked to at least play with a little bit in the past, though. I remember a long time ago I thought it'd be a funny idea if my Avengers OC ran into Thomas Sharpe from Crimson Peak, a character played by Tom Hiddleston aka Loki (who she's shipped with). I never did anything with it beyond a few texts with a friend discussing the idea of Olivia and Edith duking it out.

However as of right now, I don't really forsee another forray into the Doppleganger Crossover realm anytime soon.

The Actual Writing

Favorite Scene/Chapter - Honestly I love many scenes in this fic for many different reasons. There was a certain satisfaction that came with writing Henry and Emily's big arguement and inserting Emily into the events of the actual series was wildly fun.

Although I think my favorite scenes to write in this story are as of yet unpublished scenes in its sequel, Necrosis, that I can't talk about for spoiler reasons but have been written because I'm impatient. There are two chapters in particular there that I'm immensely proud of, one where Emily is a complete girlboss and the immediate aftermath where she has a long talk with another character about her past, why she did what she did in the previous chapter, and her feelings about everything she's done as a whole, it's a very touching scene...

That's probably cheating, though, so for the sanctity of the question, I think my favorite scene in Diplopia is either the scene where the secretary has to find plane tickets to get the coven to the Cullens and the computer is infuriating everyone or the scene where Caius and Emily are talking, ah, "post coitus" about their pasts and, specifically, what happened to Athenodora.

Struggles - The smut, for one, since I'd never written smut to actually post before, and I hadn't even written anything smutty at all in a very long time. I'm getting more comfortable with it since it's something I want to include in my writing, this one in particular. It just takes me a whiiiiiile to hype myself up enough to do it. Plus, I know there's the question of whether smut is "necessary for the plot," but trust me, for Necrosis in particular any spicy scenes are important. The reason why will become more obvious as the story progresses.

Also, writing Henry and Emily's goodbye was extremely hard. I'm very protective of them and their relationship and it's something that's very important to me. I think the goodbye made the situation more real to me. I wanted to do it because then I could move on to the fun stuff later in the story, but that scene was very hard on me emotionally. I suppose that brings up the question as to why I did this in the first place, but the only real answer I can give is "shits and giggles." I'm not ashamed to admit I was crying while writing it, and the fact that "Slipping Through My Fingers" from Mamma Mia happened to come up on my shuffle while it was happening...

Motivation - The motivation was strange for sure. Nine times out of ten when I write my fics the motivation to write comes in bursts after days or even weeks being absent. Diplopia was no different. I remember it took me a while to get the original one shot done, but that wasn't necessarily a motivation issue, more like a... "once I go through with this, I can't go back, I'll have officially written Twilight fanfiction" and it was... kind of a battle to come to terms with that, and then overcoming my motivation wave.

This also brings up how I plan my fics... usually I don't plan aside from mentally, but for this one, once I decided to go full send on the Director's Cut, I knew I had to somewhat shape what I wanted to do and have it written down. So I started my trend of writing long messages to myself on a Discord server with only me in it devoted to sending myself stuff or writing down ideas. There are pages worth of notes on Diplopia and Necrosis in there. And when I get more ideas, I just add to it. The idea train never stops with me.

Emily vs. Another OC

Being honest, there were a few times where I had an errant thought or two about coming up with a whole new OC to ship with Caius aside from Emily. I never went anywhere with it other than an idea or two about a backstory or a personality, though, and I don't plan on going further than that. Here's why.

By far, Emily is my most developed, well-rounded OC. As a Twilight OC, she has an entire, fully fleshed out backstory that comes from her "past" as a Stranger Things OC. She works incredibly well as a match for Henry, but she's also very compatable with Caius. My ability to ship her with both of them very seamlessly just feels natural and my best route to go with. For all intents and purposes, Emily is my OC for Twilight just as much as she is my OC for Stranger Things.

The only thing I can think of that makes her Stranger Things ties... we'll say stronger is that she can exist as a Stranger Things character without her additional Twilight lore, but she cannot exist as a Twilight OC without at the very least her base level Stranger Things lore...

I say "base level" and I mean basically everything up until she meets Henry (so her mother giving her up, her shitty orphanage she eventually runs away from etc). I have another one shot planned where Emily manages to avoid the trauma of HNL entirely and skips right to Italy with Caius... and an additional detail but that's another conversation.

So, wouldn't it be easier to come up with a whole new OC without those Hawkins ties?

Well, maybe, but the thing is that she wouldn't be nearly as developed as I would like. And I feel like at a certain point she'd just feel like Emily, just without the baggage. It's just not in my interest to do such a thing.

However.

There are some ideas that I have that just don't quite work with Emily. She's so developed that there are things that just aren't in character for her. Her personality and presence is so unique that at a certain point there's no room for additional base level nuance. She can only change slightly with a "hypothetical" character development, and emphasis on the "slightly."

But you know who could benefit from this base level nuance that Emily can't use? Who is in desperate need of some filling to her character?

Athenodora.

Let's get something clear, Thena is Stephenie Meyer's character, I'm not saying I'm just straight up stealing her character and calling it an OC. But remember how I said I wanted to make it a project to expand upon these near empty husks of characters with my own ideas and headcanons?

All the traits I can't use with Emily I could in theory give to my revamp (no pun intended) of Athenodora. I mentioned a few asks ago how I had a one shot idea cooking that doesn't involve Emily. That one shot is basically going to be me writing out Athenodora's story. Who she was before, where she came from, how she was turned, how she met Caius, and so on. All the stuffing that could have gone into a half assed OC can be added to Thena, a character with bones who needs meat.

So, tl;dr, Emily is the defacto Twilight OC for me, but any and all energy that I could hypothetically put into a from-scratch character would be much better utilized in giving substance to a character that needs it much more.

Team Henry vs. Team Caius

Oh boy! Well, this is the real question for sure. I knew at some point I'd be asked for my opinion on the matter. And after a long, hard debate with myself, my answer is...

I can't pick.

I know, it's such a cop-out answer, but I genuinely cannot decide who's the better match for Emily at the end of the day. It's a cliché but it's like asking me to pick a favorite child. They both have pros and cons, and it's a completely subjective opinion based on the individual which of those pros and cons hold more weight. For example, I know you seem to prefer Emily with Henry for any number of reasons, meanwhile my best friend has a certain preference for her being with Caius for other reasons.

In an ironic twist, this is my Team Edward or Team Jacob in more than just the love triangle object. When it came to Bella, Jacob was the childhood friend who came with what was familiar and Edward was the vampire who came with the family that Bella had lacked to a certain degree.

Sound familiar?

For me, my preference changes with my mood on the situation, and that mood can change in seconds, back and forth.

Sometimes I re-read His Tenebris Moenibus or the other associated one shots and I feel like the absolute worst for taking away, quote, "the only thing [Henry's] ever loved" and how he wants to reshape the world for both of them just so he can make Emily truly happy because of that love he has for her. And I made her break it off with this man because I got the urge to create chaos?? The trauma bonding, the shared goals and ideas, the willingness to literally destroy the world for each other, it's endearing.

And then I take a look at the other side of things. I sometimes forget the base level circumstances as to how this happened in the first place because, to me, Emily falling in love with Caius also has a certain natural way about it. It feels like a legitament, viable option. Similar to Emily and Henry, they're damaged individuals who help each other essentially patch each other up. I think the only reason this fact can fall through is the fact that I just haven't been able to show just how badly Thena's death had affected Caius before Emily showed up since one, the aforementioned under-developing of their characters and relationship by proxy, and two, it's very hard to not only create that from scratch, but blend that in when I have to balance so many other more important plot threads.

Not only that, but as I said, Caius came with a family, something Emily's been without but secretly longed for. She has so many siblings and friends, "more than [she] know[s] what to do with," who help support her and provide a different sort of love to her. Aro's her strange older brother who she fights with, sure, but also sees somewhat of herself in (namely the fact that they're both batshit insane at times and have... spotty pasts). Sulpicia's her matronly sister who in many ways is a rock for Emily to keep her from going too wild, but also can act as another woman who can understand her. Marcus is... just there, unfortunately. He has his own issues and typically Emily's too haywire to pay much attention to him.

And the Guard of course! Her relationship with Jane is I think what Emily wanted her relationship with Eleven to be like. Even if Jane is much older technically, their older/younger sister type bond is incredibly special to Emily, Alec is just a bonus. And we have characters like Heidi, who help Emily branch out and be her own unique self or even yet unseen dynamics with Felix or Demetri. It's a whole support system and Caius is just the cherry on top, someone who genuinely cares for her and wants her to be her best self... even if they light things on fire along the way.

Now as for what Emily thinks...

I think like me, she's not entirely sure who she truly prefers at the end of the day. She knows and understands everything that I said a second ago, just much more personally which makes it an even harder choice.

What I do know is that she never regrets the relationships she had with either of them. She knows they both provided things she needed and she helped them in her own ways as well. Though, and I've said this before, when Emily's with Caius, a small part of her always will long for Henry because of the fact that she's essentially frozen in time still feeling that love for him. Nothing is going to change that. So by proxy sometimes she feels regret for leaving him, but that's not mutually exclusive to also regreting her relationship with Caius. She can regret leaving Henry while also being very happy as she is with Caius at the same time.

Caius also knows that Emily has this deep seeded love and longing for Henry and he will never ever try to erase that. He knows how much Henry meant to her and will never ever say Emily should never have been with Henry. He knows she loves him, and she also loves Henry. He can live with that.

I can't exactly speak on Henry's feelings since I don't exactly know what they are. That's not me just avoiding the question. Since I don't have season 5 to guide me, I don't know how his story wraps up. It seems odd considering this is fanfiction so why should I care about canon, but I feel like I need to know how Henry's story wraps up in season 5 so I know how it wraps up when Emily is with him, and then I have to remove her from that new equation. I'm making it harder than it needs to be, but that's how my brain is choosing to operate.

At least in part though, he feels like if she's happy, then he's happy. In a way, he did give her happiness like he promised, now that I think of it that way.

Some other possible Jamie Variants?

As I said, this story was very curaited to pitting Caius against Henry because that's just how it developed from the start. But I have thought about this question a little bit since clearly Emily Has A Type, so why shouldn't we think about Jamie's other characters?

I think the next most likely candidate would be Jace. Personality wise, he and Emily have similarities. Their snark, their I'll say off-putting demeanors, among other things. That, and their aesthetics are similar. Emily's got tattoos and dresses alternatively, same as Jace. Plus, I think Emily would also be Jace's type since Emily and Clary have some similar traits like their red hair colors and brown eyes.

The primary problem I see with this is kind of a big one, though. Jace is a part-angel demon hunter. Emily is quite literally, for all intents and purposes, a demon. It would make for an interesting variant of the "two lovers on opposing sides of a war" trope, but that seems like a reaaaaaalllllly hard thing to bypass... oh but goddammit Emily as a Shadowhunter sounds like such a badass concept.

SHIT

I'm gonna move on.

Sweet little Anthony Hope I feel like is a much lower candidate. Emily doesn't quite fit in his world, nor does Anthony fit in hers. Emily's far too much of a psychotic bitch for him. Plus, this would have to be like, a younger version of Emily since in Diplopia (our baseline), she's 38, a whole 20 years Anthony's senior. That, and there would also have to be time travel used since Sweeney Todd takes place 159 years before that. I shouldn't really factor in these logical aspects since nothing about Diplopia was logical in the first place, but I can't help consider it.

They don't seem that compatable to me. Anthony should just stick with Johanna.

This one is more for fun, but let's analyze Kit Marlowe. I'll get the obvious out of the way, but there's a slim chance Kit would even be looking in Emily's direction in the first place. If we bypass that, I feel like if we put these characters on a spectrum of hypothetical compatability, Kit would be somewhere in the middle. He and Emily have some similarities, but I feel like if they spent too long with each other, they'd butt heads often. Emily's clingy and Kit pushes people away. That's not very conducive to a good relationship. But they do have a shared interest in more macabre things and both see themselves as damned and irredeemable creatures.

If I'm being honest, the most likely outcome for this, provided Kit is willing to have relations with women in the first place, is a friends with benefits situation more than anything.

In fact, let's have fun. If we put Henry and Caius on a shelf and let Emily play the bachelorette, we have a very clear cut game of Fuck, Marry, Kill for her. None of the options are perfect like with most games of FMK, but if we really break it down, Emily would...

Fuck Kit, Marry Jace, Kill Anthony

But I feel like now is a good time to mention that at certain spots in Diplopia and Necrosis, you can see small influences and references to these other characters.

Emily mentioned a girl from Saint Valentina's that she lit the mattress of on fire. Her name was Clarissa and she "thought she was basically an angel" which is me referencing Clary, and Jace by proxy.

This one is more loose, but to a certain degree, on Caius' part, I feel like in his mind there's a certain "I'll steal you, Johanna" element to how he feels when first meeting Emily. You can take that as you wish, but Johanna was the first "Every Breath You Take" regardless of who's singing it, iconic and adorable as that scene is.

Lastly, this is moreso in Necrosis, but I very specifically call out how in one scene Caius is wearing a black dress pants and a black Elizabethan blouse that was open in the front with his hair slightly wavy and touching his shoulders. This is me describing Kit Marlowe in essence, specifically that scene when he's talking to Will about ambitions and then they kiss (jcbbby would know what scene I mean for sure). Frankly, the Twilight budget was strained when it came to wigs, especially in Breaking Dawn for the Volturi, but to me, if you made Kit's hair Targaryen silver-blonde and he had the red eyes of course, that's my ideal Caius, full stop.

In a few ways I tried to make Diplopia/Necrosis a sort of melting pot for Jamie characters, some elements more subtle than the others, so if you really think about it Emily gets to have all these characters.

And all of this is without mentioning the fact that Emily is also attracted to women, but that's a conversation for another day.

***

Phew, that was a lot! Thanks for the ask and I hope this isn't too exhaustive of a read!

#let's see i think this took me about three hours or so to complete #fishgills speaks #asks #oc asks #writing asks #stranger things oc #twilight oc #fishgills on diplopia #beloved mutuals #my inbox is open

[nebulousfishgills]

Making a bet with @ohitshoneybee that if she can actually post a multi part smut fic with a few details/conditions I set, I'd reblog every single chapter, even if I don't find the character appealling in that way at all.

We'll see how this goes...

#now I could say who abouy but why do I wanna spoil the surprise #fishgills speaks #writing #writing challenge #beloved moots #(who's also your irl bestie but go off)

[nebulousfishgills]

OC x Canon Asks for Emily and... y'know what, Emily and whoever the hell you want!

3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 15, and 20 please!

...you don't know the power you've just given me bestie. You already know I'm gonna milk this ask for everything it has.

So you're getting both hypothetical sets of answers to these questions. Prepare for shitposts and shoddy edits.

God why do I sound like the fucking Bridgekeeper from Monty Python.

Emily and Henry

3 - What would their song to the other be?

Henry to Emily, you know it's "Dream a Little Dream of Me." It's a song Henry grew up listening to and nine times out of ten it's playing on the radio in his fantasies and dreams of them having better lives away from Hawkins Lab. You literally can't beat the visual of them just slowdancing in the Creel House while this song plays in that alternate reality where they were happy and 'normal.' Or, even better, Emily dancing with Vecna in the Upside-Down while the song plays.

Emily's relationship with music is unfortunately limited. But since she learns more about music in the 80s, that's mostly what she listens to. If I had to pick, it'd probably be "Lost in Your Eyes" by Debbie Gibson. Her favorite feature of Henry is his eyes, probably indicated in my playlist for her with songs talking about eyes. In every reality when they meet, his eyes are the first thing she notices. If you google the lyrics and imagine they're from Emily's perspective, it makes complete sense.

6 - What small quirks do they love about each other?

I forgot to mention this in a previous ask about ways to calm the other down, but Henry tends to fidget and play with Emily's fingers when he's nervous or worried. I think it's something Emily thinks is extremely cute and heartwarming to a certain degree. I think this extends to the idea that Henry always takes extreme care with her as opposed to the harsh treatment they experience otherwise.

This one may be born of that fear of Brenner and needing to be presentable, but clearly Henry takes great care of his hair and I think Emily loves how he always curls the front of it, it gives him a very almost boy-ish demeanor. When they get the chance to be alone I think Emily likes to flick it. And then she musses it up to comb it back with her fingers a-la the contrast between Nina Project Henry and Massacre at Hawkins Lab Henry since it's one of several of their private moments of rebelliousness.

Honestly to a certain degree I think every small thing Emily does is something Henry loves. The way she runs her tongue over her canines when she's thinking, the way she tries to make her curly hair somewhat presentable but it always ends up a little unruly, and how easily she flushes.

His favorite, though, is when Emily's just unapologetically herself in the best and worst ways. This moreso comes post-banishment where they have more autonomy, but Emily seems to enjoy going to the surface world to do the little things that bring her joy. Does Henry really understand Dungeons and Dragons, no but he likes hearing Emily talk about sessions and the latest bullshit she tried. She gets her tattoos and Henry thinks it's just the cutest thing that she likes expressing herself in this way that's an incredibly subtle nod to him and their pasts.

7 - Who makes the other laugh more?

Okay, here's an answer: Emily says and does more funny things, but she's the one who laughs more. I think their senses of humor are a bit different since I can think of several things that would make Emily laugh off the top of my head, but not so much for Henry. But other than the screams and wails of the damned, I think Henry's laugh is one of Emily's favorite sounds since they both had incredibly shit lives and it makes her happy to see him find something funny to bring him some kind of joy.

I think Henry has more of a dry sense of humor and is perfect with comedically timed deadpans and sarcastic comments, but only around Emily. I see it as something like "the real Henry" showing through the stonefaced front he puts up with everyone else. Maybe it comes from that desire he has to make her happy since it's one of his greatest wishes to be able to see her smile.

Henry's humor is based on timing for quips and Emily is the kind of person who laughs at boob jokes, basically... Eddie's her best friend, he absolutely makes lewd jokes all the time.

9 - How did they know they were right for each other?

I see this will be an interesting question to answer for my second go-around.....

My default answer usually boils down to trauma bonding and that mutual desire to reshape the world, but that could also be the answer for siblings or business partners.

I think it's a combination of things. First, to them there's simply nobody else they feel is right for them. They feel like they're honest to god soulmates and, in essence, they were forged and created for each other both to complete their mission, but also for that companionship. Each other's perfect companion...

...We're not gonna address the elephant in the room yet.

Another facet I think that plays into it is something they realized right around when they first got together officially. Maybe the same night they had their first kiss, even, but at the end of the day, they have this almost innate desire to make each other happy, to support each other, to comfort each other, etc. Seeing the other hurt is devastating, seeing the other happy is uplifting.

Really, I think they just... knew. Being together just felt like the most natural thing for them and the love they have for each other is one of the very few things in their lives that they really, truly cherish.

11 - Who gets adorable when they're sleepy, and who gets grumpy and irritable?

Again, here's a bit of a strange answer: usually they both get grumpy when they're tired, but they both think the other being grumpy is adorable. Neither of them are gonna turn into sleepy, rubbing eyes, yawning angels when their tired, not by a long shot.

Emily's already thin filter becomes non-existent so if it's late and she still has work to do in the lab, she will be swearing and ranting the entire time. Her nose scrunches and she has this deep set scowl on her face that Henry just can't help but think is just the most adorable thing.

Likewise, Henry's temper gets much shorter when he's tired which either manifests into just ignoring people trying to talk to him or looking at people with that expression on his face:

And I think Emily finds it funny how he's usually so softspoken with this Friendly Orderly persona he's adopted, but when he's tired or irritated his more natural self pokes through. That side of him that's never directed at her but is at the lesser humans they're forced to surround themselves with. Besides, why do they need something so human and inconvenient as sleep? Aren't they above becoming tired?

Nope.

And for the record, when they get the rare chance to sleep in the same room in the same bed they like to snuggle close with each other and they both think the other's sleeping face is cute.

If Henry finds Emily asleep, usually she's either curled up in the fetal position under her sheets like a child with her hair sticking out everywhere in a curly auburn lump or she's completely splayed out. One's more adorable than the other since a splayed out Emily involves snores, twitches, and drooling. Henry sleeps on his side or his stomach, but if he's alone that night he hugs a towel instead of a pillow since he only has the one for his head, pretending it's her.

When alone, Emily wakes up looking like an angry Merida and Henry's hair is sticking in every direction and his eye bags are the absolute worst... but they sleep better and wake up better when they're with each other, which reduces later grumpyness.

15 - Who has a hobby only the other knows about?

Can I say murder? Since that's something only both of them know about for a while?

No, but in all seriousness... I don't know if it's really a "hobby" per se, but I like to headcanon that Henry has a proficiency when it comes to doing someone's hair. Braiding in particular and I think it's just something he picked up from his sister. He'd never let anyone know about it, the all powerful and intimidating Vecna, ruler of the Upside Down... likes to braid his girlfriend's hair.

It's a methodical movement that just helps calm himself down while also keeping Emily's hair tamed. And we all know Emily's thing is that she likes it when someone plays with her hair.

Please, I just want you to visualize Vecna with his mismatched hands and grotesque appearance sitting behind Emily on their bed while he braids and then unbraids her hair, repeat ad infinitum.

20 - Who infodumps and who listens with heart eyes?

I feel like this is a bit obvious, but clearly Henry knows a lot about spiders. Emily doesn't like them, but she'll listen to Henry talk about them for hours. He was demonized for his fascination with them and Emily's not gonna be someone to add to that. Do spiders give her the willies, yes. Will she fall asleep on Henry's chest as he lulls her to sleep with as many silly little facts as he can remember? Absolutely.

I feel like, again as I said previously, Henry also likes hearing Emily talk about her Dungeons and Dragons sessions since it's something she clearly finds joy in despite the less than honest intentions she has.

Although, let's be honest, everything they do makes the other go heart eyes. Henry literally had an Anakin Order 66 Younglings moment and Emily genuinely saw this as Peak Rizz. Emily could literally disembowel someone with her bare hands and Henry's gonna be seeing rose petals and cheap heart filters.

***

Anyways, let's move on!

Emily and Caius

(Thank you Deadline Magazine for the new HotD cast photoshoot, it's perfect for a fresh off the burner edit 🙏🙏)

3 - What would their song to the other be?

...Again, see, it's hard because I don't see either of them having the greatest taste in music that's good for this question. I should be able to answer it so easily since I have a playlist for them lmao.

Okay, here's my halfway cop-out answer: obviously Caius likes sharing things from his homeland with Emily, and I think he'd teach her songs from that time in his life. I kind of skitter around names and the like but I made this hypothetical homeland into Old Valyria from A Song of Ice and Fire, just turning it into a long forgotten Greek island. In House of the Dragon, Daemon sings this to the dragons in their little dragon pit and it's just... so, so thematically appropriate:

Because Caius does see Emily as this powerful and even otherworldly being, especially with the spitfire personality to boot. It's recited like a lullaby and even if they don't sleep, the sentiment is there.

Again, Emily's relationship with music is strained so it's hard to pick any one specific song she'd "assign" to Caius... that and love songs outside of Disney are just not something I'm familiar with.

You know what, to be funny, I'll say in the 90s she hears "Beauty and the Beast" and likes how they can both be The Beauty and they can both be The Beast. I'll go with that.

6 - What small quirks do they love about each other?

Again, an easy and kind of cliche answer, but Caius loves all of Emily's little 'human' quirks that carried over after she changed. Her nose scrunch when she's annoyed, her smirks, the aforementioned tongue on her canines when she's thinking. Also her general restlessness. Emily's always moving, always doing something and vampires usually find comfort in stillness. She does, too, but the majority of the time Emily's never gonna be still for very long.

In tandem, I think Emily finds Caius'... we'll call it enthusiasm endearing. That, and while it's usually played off as a joke, Caius' fascination with fire takes on a new meaning when you understand that fire is really the only thing that can truly harm vampires. It's actually a loose yet interesting parallel on Emily's feeling about the Upside Down once upon a time: finding beauty in something so destructive.

Kind of like them, really.

7 - Who makes the other laugh more?

Emily makes Caius laugh more. She kind of adopts Henry's more deadpan sense of humor while combining it with her own lewd sense of humor. She can call Aro a moron in quips he doesn't understand yet she and Caius do and she can tell Caius to, quote, "cover his tits" for the sake of a modesty neither of them care about. Both of these are things Caius laughs at.

Again, I think it partially comes from the vastly different times they come from that have similarities that trancend time. The Ancient Greeks made jokes about taking it up the ass, Shakespeare genuinely made Your Mom jokes, and so much more. I think Caius has an appreciation for Emily's lewd humor in a way that Henry didn't for any number of reasons. Plus, Emily's a woman of her era and people in the 40s-50s etc just weren't as brash as she is.

It's really a combination of things, Emily's just better at quipping. To most vampires, Caius is the angry, no-nonsense arbiter of justice, but behind closed doors he and Emily are making constant sex jokes and other inappropriate things.

9 - How did they know they were right for each other?

...oh boy, isn't this the question of the hour?

I mean, it's such a complex question with all the context. I can't exactly hide completely behind the "Mating Bond" excuse even if that's a good portion of the reason why. Again, I think it's a vast combination of things. The general compatability, the filling of holes neither of them realized they had, all that.

It's very hard to go into specifics beyond that without doing an extreme deconstruction. Normally I might but... dude it's currently about 2:25 as I'm writing this answer.

In a simplified answer, Emily saw someone who a) seemed completely enamored with her who seemed like he would always put her first, b) gave her a large family that she didn't realize she'd been silently longing for, and c) matched her chaotic energy since Henry was by far the calmer one between them.

When he first saw Emily, Caius saw a woman who had a very strong personality that he instantly felt like he clicked with. It's a little talked about yet very important scene, but I don't think Caius was expecting for Emily to seek him out for sex that night, which then came with the realization that they felt this innate trust in each other that quickly bloomed into something even further.

It was a vast amount of things that happened that led to the realization, really.

11 - Who gets adorable when they're sleepy, and who gets grumpy and irritable?

...so they don't sleep.

But for the sake of the question, let's have a little fun. Again, I feel like the same rules apply. Emily gets grumpy when she's tired and Caius finds her fatigued irritation to be the strangely cutest thing. She gets snippy and then very aggressively just wants to be close with him. I call it Angst Cuddles since just calling it cuddles seems incorrect for these two.

Caius' default setting is Angy, so if he got tired you bet the same thing would happen. I see him getting more sluggish when he's tired, dragging his feet to his and Emily's room before just picking up Emily from whatever she was doing and just holding her in bed for those Angst Cuddles he's forcibly giving her. Not that she minds of course.

15 - Who has a hobby only the other knows about?

I don't know how easily secret hobbies could be hidden given the circumstances of somebody knowing everything about everyone's memories.

I think everyone at least knows of Caius' painting hobby, but I feel like the exact range is something only Emily can attest to. People probably would think Caius paints scenes of war and portraits when he feels so inclined, but maybe not serene landscapes.

Likewise, I think Emily's little drawing hobby is only expanded. I think she likes drawing the people around her without them really knowing. So she has sketchbooks and spare papers around with candid sketches of Jane or Felix for example just around doing their things. I think it's another thing of hers that Caius finds cute. Emily's someone who likes to appreciate moments in time and capture them. Even if she has perfect recall, I think she partially sketches these moments to share them with Caius. It helps him appreciate her outlook on life and in a sense how much she really actually cares about those in the coven to the point that she'd choose to save their split second moments in her sketches.

20 - Who infodumps and who listens with heart eyes?

Caius loves to just tell Emily about history and she's always an eager listener. Emily wants to know more about the world she was largely locked away from her entire life and hearing Caius talk about history satiates that need.

Though, of course, it's Emily so sometimes she's not paying as much attention to what Caius is saying compared to paying attention to him specifically. She just holds a lot of love for him and sometimes that manifests in Emily tuning everything out to just look at and admire him. Usually I think it'd bother Caius that she wasn't paying attention to what she was supposed to, but it comes with satisfaction in knowing that she has that affection for him. It makes him feel lucky to have her.

***

...you said to not apologize so I'm not gonna, but I'm gonna instead apologize to my tomorrow self when I bitch about being too tired for work.

Anyways, always happy to answer these questions! It gives me a lot of joy to just talk about my characters and writing.

#i'm answering this ask with two essays and a nat geo documentary as if it's not like three am and i know i have to work tomorrow #fishgills speaks #writing asks #oc asks #fishgills ocs #stranger things oc #twilight oc #oc shipping asks #beloved mutuals #my inbox is open

[nebulousfishgills]

Fanfic Asks, friend!

A [HTM], F, H, K, M, S, V, W

Yayyyyy more asks!!

A - How did you come up with the title for His Tenebris Moenibus?

Honestly, titling fics can either be the bane of my existence or the greatest thing I ever do. HTM was the former. This was about a year ago now so I don't entirely remember all the minutiae, all I know was that I wanted something in Latin to make it sound fancy. Then I just went through the process of putting together thematically appropriate combinations of words and phrases until Google Translate spit out something cool sounding:

Within These Dark Walls... in reference to the Creel House, is I think what One Year Ago Fishgills was thinking. Cause, as we know, a lot of shit happens in that house, and usually it's dark inside. Within the dark walls of the Creel House, These Dark Walls.

I wish I could say it was as clever as Diplopia, but no, this was very much Spaghetti Against The Wall To See What Would Stick.

F - Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why it's your favorite

I have no self control, you're getting several cause I can't pick a favorite.

I have two from His Tenebris Moenibus:

"If this is supposed to be hell... why is it so beautiful?" Emily asked quietly. "Normally I wouldn't think a place so desolate and destructive would be, but..."

"A world untouched by mankind." Henry said, somewhat answering her question. "A land with no structure, nothing chaining anything down. It's beautiful because it's free."

This is when Emily and Henry are banished to the Upside Down and they're exploring this new hellscape they're stuck in. Honestly, I just really, really love Emily asking why a supposed hell is beautiful to her. I think it's a similar effect to when people go to desolate places to appreciate the beauty that humanity hasn't touched/changed or simply can't, like the tops of mountains or sunsets.

Really, I think it just shows what this goal of theirs really means to them. To us, we see it as wiping out humanity and its structures in a bid for control out of a probably over-exaggerated distaste for human systems the rest of us understand a certain need for. To them, though, they see human systems as shackles or "straitjackets" that cascaded into the sources of their suffering.

It was social stigmas about young births out of wedlock that got Emily sent away to Valentina's and (as far as we can suspect) Virginia's need for the picture perfect nuclear family that Henry simply couldn't fit into that led to his troubles. They want to erase humanity to erase human suffering, suffering they went through. It's a horrible way of going about it, but when you scrape away the grime and blood it's somewhat of a sweet sentiment. And, to them, the blank slate the Upside-Down seems to show is opportunity, a blueprint. Sure it looks desolate and inhospitable, but that's not how they see it.

Besides, they survived in it for all those years. At the end they want, they'll be the two sole survivors. It just checks out.

Next:

"Emily... please..." Eleven whispered. "You... you were the closest thing I had to a mother in that place. Remember? We drew pictures together. You would sharpen my pencils when they broke because I pressed too hard. I drew a picture of you, me, and Henry. Outside of the lab in the sun under a rainbow... a real rainbow. I wanted you both to take me away from there, away from Papa. When I hid in the closet, I thought we were going to... before you... I thought we were going to escape and be a family. A real family."

"Don't be afraid." They heard Henry say next to Max. "Try and stay very still. It will all be over soon." Eleven continued, gaining back Emily's attention.

"We could have found a house to live in. You would teach me more words, about how life is supposed to work. Teach me to use my powers in a supportive way. Not using fear and punishments like Papa. There would be a garden out front with blue and yellow flowers mixed with roses. We'd run around the yard and play games. We could dance to whatever song came on the radio."

Henry raised a hand, caging Max's face like he had the others.

"I could go to a real school and make real friends. Henry could help me with my homework while you made dinner. Real food. We'd go to the park and go on the swings, each of us trying to go higher than the other two. We'd ride the Ferris Wheel on the fourth of July while the fireworks exploded over our heads. We'd host sleepovers for my friends and eat too much ice cream."

Emily's limbs tingled slightly the closer Henry grew to taking Max's soul.

"I never wanted to destroy the world or remake it. I never wanted to hurt people. I just wanted to escape, escape with you so we could create our own world for ourselves. A family. But after what you and Henry did to the others in the lab, I knew that we could never have that. I wanted to believe that you were both good people who were trapped like I was. And part of me still does, still believes you both can put a stop to this before it's too late." Eleven was fully crying at this point, tears dragging down her cheeks and dripping from her chin. "Please, Emily, listen to me. You were my protectors once... what you're doing is wrong, all of this is wrong. Stop this before it's too late to turn back."

I like this monologue I gave Eleven because I like the idea that she can find the power to resist and fight back within herself. In fact just recently I edited this chapter to remove most of Mike's monologue since one, almost nobody likes it, and two, it fits my theme-ing better if Eleven can fight back with backup support from both Mike and Will (he gets to encourage Eleven now, too) rather than total support.

That, and it's almost the other side of this coin the previous passage I included presents. Creating a perfect world shouldn't mean destroying the previous one and everyone in it, it should mean creating your own world for yourself and those you care about. Emily and Henry are just too damaged and disillusioned to understand the difference.

Eleven's perfect world was getting to grow up in a normal, happy environment with two people she saw as protectors, as opposed to Henry and Emily's perfect world where they're all alone with their abnormalities.

Now we absolutely *have* to take a peek at Diplopia since there's so much to unpack in almost every conversation. I'll be nice and just pick one, though:

"Henry, what's the matter?" Emily asked, her hands holding her upper arms as if stuck between sympathizing and chastising. He looked up at her, his bright blue eyes sunken and contorted in barely restrained anger.

"Don't you see what's going on here? They're trying to draw you in and take you away from me." Henry replied, pointing back in the direction they came from.

"Henry, don't be ridiculous. They're trying to be hospitable. I know it's hard for you to trust anyone, but you're being paranoid. Just because they're vampires doesn't mean they see you as a side dish." Emily said, her arms now fully folding.

"Please, don't tell me you haven't noticed Blondie over there looking at you like you're some fancy meal. His eyes never leave you."

"Just because Caius looks strangely like you doesn't mean you have to get jealous. He's just trying to be nice."

"You saying things like that makes me worry that you've fallen under his sway." Henry jabed his finger out again in an acusatory way. By now Emily was getting angry.

"I'm not spineless, Henry. To be honest, yeah, I've noticed. But you know that's part of what I do. I steal souls through allure. What makes this different than any of the others?"

"Because he has my damn face!" Henry yelled. "You fell for it once, who says you can't do it twice?"

"Henry Creel, do you even hear yourself? You're being a paranoid, jealous freak."

"Maybe you're not being paranoid enough!" Henry pinched the bridge of his nose. "I want to go home as fast as we can. I don't want you being seduced by these... filthy bloodsuckers!"

When Emily didn't reply right away, Henry looked up at her to assess her expression. Her face immediately told him that he had fucked up. His eyes softened before Emily spoke.

"You... you do know that's what I am right?" She asked quietly. "I feed off of blood, too. Do you think I'm disgusting? Is that what you really think of me?"

"What? No, Emily, of course I don't!" Henry was quick to defend.

"Yes, you do. Don't lie to me. I could see it in your eyes. Every time Eddie and I had to feed, you were disgusted. Even when this became a need, you thought it was disgusting. That I was disgusting. Is that it?"

"Emily, no, I could never--"

"But you did!"

To me, this is the point in the story where we see the tone shift I never intended to happen, but did. Before this, it's largely been goofy fun with banter and these characters from two different worlds interracting. Sure there have been asides and innuendos, but nothing to indicate it could go far enough that this could turn into an actual deep rift. If we read His Tenebris Moenibus before this, we feel like Henry and Emily's bond seems incredibly strong, indestructable, nothing could tear them apart. After all the shit they've been through, nothing can come between them, right?

Really, in an ironic twist that can be taken in multiple ways, Henry is his own worst enemy.

We don't entirely know what happened between the end of HTM and Diplopia aside from some vague references. Eddie has to get resurrected somehow and that bond has to form among the three of them, Henry has to return to his human visage for the original joke to land, and between all of this there has to be some type of grating in his and Emily's relationship. I always saw it as Emily always feeling like she's seen as the second best and having to put Henry first in ways she feels like she doesn't get anything back for it. Then oops, here comes Caius, suddenly putting Emily first and giving her his complete attention without any strings attached (yet at least).

We sometimes forget that Emily is an inherently selfish person, so I don't think she was completely happy having to abstain from sustenance in the form of souls to bring Henry back since it was skin he hated that she learned to live with, even if she missed his human self. And of course Henry thinks drinking blood is a little strange, it's only natural he'd be a bit put-off by it.

These irrational thoughts Emily keeps on having are more dived into in her little monologue right after this, but here is I think where we as readers start to understand that something isn't quite right. That this is more than just a goofy crack fic and that it's actually something very serious... even if that wasn't my intention. There's that blend of the previous comedic tone with some of the things they say at the start of this passage, but it quickly evolves into something angstier.

That, and I keep compulsively saying "you're being a paranoid, jealous freak" when I'm alone. Which, that line has its own layers, but for the sake of brevity that I completely devote myself to, let's move on. I want to provide one more passage, this one from Necrosis.

It's not a passage I've published yet, not by a long shot, so it might need to be tweaked when the time comes. I'll avoid and censor spoilers by changing tenses and cutting off at a certain point, so bear in mind I'm not delivering the full context or truth, but I really want to talk about this:

"I don't know." Emily's tone remained even as she continued speaking. "I didn't really have a family growing up. I had disparate fragments of one, I suppose, but never anything like people are supposed to have. My mother abandoned me, I don't know who my real father was... I had a father figure at one point but he... I don't like remembering him, making almost twenty years of my life a living hell on earth, trapped in sterile white walls with the only reprieve being one room painted with rainbows. A sick joke.

"I had one person to rely on for twenty-five years, the first man I'd ever loved. I thought he'd be the only one I would ever love, both of us being damaged the way that we were. But... well you know that story. I had a best friend at one point, and a little girl I saw as a little sister or daughter at one point... Jane, oddly enough."

"But nothing that every really felt... whole?" Sulpicia offered. Emily nodded.

"I know I have siblings, but I don't know anything about them and they don't even know I exist. And I meant what I said when I grew up with someone who... another sister in law I'll never know."

"What was her name?"

"Alice. He never talked about her much. Some memories best left to the past." Emily paused, choosing her next words carefully. "I betrayed them all at one point. Both my parents died by my hands, directly or not. I turned my back on my Papa, I betrayed El- Jane's trust, I managed to hurt Eddie twice, and I... abandoned the first man I ever loved and who ever loved me. I knew leaving him would emotionally cripple him and I don't know if my doing that ended up getting him killed. All the different pieces of what could have been a family and I betrayed all of them.

"The day I walked in here, I was given all the love I had been missing in my life twenty, thirty, forty times over. Caius matched the love I already had in my life and more came with him. Maybe when I agreed to marry him, I wanted his family as much as I wanted him. For so long I said I didn't need one because I had all the family I needed. Picia, the Guard isn't beneath me, they're my friends, my cousins, even my siblings. And I have actual siblings to boot. You're my sister and Marcus is my brother..."

"But?"

"But I think I saw Aro as my brother first. The first one who greeted me when I got here, one of the first people I saw when I woke up, someone who seemed as insane and flawed as I was... and the first person who called me sister. We drive each other up the wall sometimes, sure, but... I'm just not sure what I'm feeling because I don't know what I'm supposed to feel."

If you really critically think about it you might be able to piece together what's been going on, but if that's the case, so be it. This is by no means the end of this conversation, but I think it's a massive show of growth and introspection for Emily. Shit's been happening in Casa de Volturi and she can't just keep ignoring her problems.

That, and I really just wanted Emily to have a deep and personal moment with Sulpicia. Her sister by marriage, the only sister she's ever had. I feel like in twenty something years, Emily's talked about her past, but she hasn't been this vulnerable and detailed about it with anyone aside from Caius.

Me personally, I don't have a sister, but I know that can be a very important relationship and I wanted to display that to some degree. Emily simply can't go through life without letting people in, especially if she's going to be living with these people for thousands of years. She has relationships with the others, but again, other than Caius she's never been open about her past to anybody.

The twins are closer to younger siblings or even children to her and Jane isn't one you would usually exposition dump about your trauma to. Heidi's more like her Gal Pal she complains about current personal problems to rather than being abused in the Rainbow Room as a child. Mele maybe, but again, that's closer to a parent/child relationship and why would Emily burden Mele with past problems she can't properly comprehend.

It's not like Emily could talk to Marcus about this, the poor dude has his own baggage and hardly says more than a few words; Emily mostly ignores him. Aro's seen all of Emily's memories at one point most likely, so he knows all of this, but he's not the kind of guy she would pour her heart out to. If anything she's more guarded around him. Honestly, their dynamic is the closest Emily's gonna get to her relationship with Eddie in her Second Life, not someone you trauma dump to.

But I think it's important that Emily lets herself be vulnerable around more than just the person she's married to. I've written Sulpicia to be more wise and maternal... Chaotic in her own right, of course, look who she's married to. But honestly I really think Emily needed another woman to talk to. Someone who understands her (Sulpicia was an orphan as a human, too!) and who can be another shoulder to lean on. Emily letting all this out is a huge step for her as a person and for her and Sulpicia's relationship.

Of course this is by far the full context and it's not like this was a conversation that happened on a whim, lots of stuff has happened and it got ugly. Again, for spoiler's sake that's a secret for now, but even without all the context I think it's important to talk about this scene, even in part.

...and I'm apologizing for giving four very long answers to one question, the second one, no less.

NEXT!

H - How would you describe your style?

Many different ways. Descriptive first and foremost. I mean, sometimes I read other people's fics and think they're novel-worthy where mine may not be. Novella, maybe. I'm a bit jumpy sometimes, too, which contributes to that. It's rare for me to have many chapters cover the events of a few hours or a day, usually there's some kind of time skip. I'm getting better about it, I really think Necrosis is where I'm showing improvement with those skips, but they're still there.

I also can't really write something purely fluffy or comedic. There are ALWAYS darker undertones. I was talking about this with my JCB girlies on Discord just earlier today, but it's very rare you'll get a sweet moment from me that doesn't have some kind of undertone that makes it less than fluffy pristine. I can write Henry and Emily being affectionate all I want, it's never gonna be completely right. They're stuck in the lab forced to do this or that in regards to their relationship. They're in the Upside Down having a light conversation about murders they commited before making out on the sofa.

Guys, I turned a doppleganger crossover into a full blown angsty serious duology fic diving into relationship ethics and the role trauma plays in what we want in romantic partners and families. I can't write sunshine and fluffy clouds with unicorns relationship fluff to save my fucking life.

Lastly, this is something you've said about my writing before, but my ability to zoom in on small moments to display broader tones and contexts. It's one thing to say the conditions in HNL were abhorent for everyone involved, it's another to describe Two's tyrrany and all the ways Henry and Emily have been punished for small offenses.

A lot goes into my writing, so I couldn't give you a one or two word "style" to describe it as. Clearly, as with most things, I need six seasons and a movie.

K - What's the angstiest idea you've ever come up with?

Can I say ripping Emily out of Henry's arms after all they've been through together in a scene that made me sob while writing it?

See, the thing is that most of the angst I come up with ends up getting used in one way or another. I suppose in one answer that's probably cheating, it's all the endings that I never wrote or I said weren't canon where my characters just don't get happily ever afters.

Maybe Alice's vision was a reality and Caius really died in front of Emily, the asshole she gave up everything for just taken away in an instant that she can't reverse. Maybe Loki never came back to life in Endgame (in my version he did and got to fight with the other Avengers cause I was piiiiiissed he didn't in the original movie) and Olivia has to watch everyone else get their happy reunions she will never have and has to learn to move on. Vengeance totally consumes Keira until she dies for, ultimately, a lie she created in her head and leaves her daughter behind in the process. So many things.

But I have another idea.

This is not something Emily knows, nor will she ever likely know since I won't really present the chance, but even if Henry did survive after they split ways, she shouldn't see him under any circumstances or even come anywhere near him. If she did, she'd discover that he would be her cantante, her blood singer:

Emily's self control around blood is already extremely strained, if she were to ever find a singer, she'd completely lose it and they'd be dead and drained before you could even say la tua cantante. If she were to ever see Henry again, she's instantly kill him because she couldn't control herself. Then she'd have to spend the rest of her extremely long life living with the fact that she killed her first love with her own hands, all because she couldn't control herself around his blood.

In a sense, unknowingly Henry became something like a forbidden fruit to her.

She'll never know this because they'll never cross paths again, but it's something that I know. And I know the consequences of what would happen if they did meet again.

They're not pretty.

M - Got any premises on the back burner you'd care to share?

I'm always coming up with little ideas, usually going towards the already in-progress fics. But sure, I'll bite.

One is a one shot I spoke of a while ago that takes place towards the end of Necrosis, not after. It'll have to be written and posted only after this point in the story itself because it would go into major spoilers. But the idea is that Emily gets to go back to Hawkins for a little while to just see how the town's evolved since she left. An all grown up Eddie turns up and after they both finally recognize each other, he basically tells her what's happened to Hawkins. Again, I'll keep some details to myself so I'm not revealing all my secrets, but I think it's going to really help Emily fully move past her human trauma that's in a sense been her ball and chain to some degree.

I've also briefly toyed with the idea of maybe trying to do a little Rule 63 and do something with Emily and a Henry who's a female. I don't think it'd change the story all that much, but I'm a sucker for evil women in fiction, let alone evil women lesbian power couples.

Also there's a mild temptation that comes with the idea of something adjacent to a high school AU where Emily and Henry just had normal lives and met in high school. All the classics, extracurriculars they support each other in, Henry sneaking in through Emily's window to study and "study," Henry using Victor's car to take Emily to a drive in, prom night...

Dammit, I'm just going through "Seventeen" from Heathers, aren't I?

Of course, it's not so much a plot bunny for a fresh fic, but once season 2 of Loki starts coming out, Time Variance Detected is getting a sequel. That's always been the plan ever since I knew there would be a season 2, but I'll start the planning and such once we get our first trailer... @ Marvel hint hint.

And maybe I'll write some about Lydia, my Sweeney Todd OC. I have a story in mind for her, but nothing beyond a "this happens then this happens" barebones plan. It's always hard to write fics for musicals because where's the line between dialogue and lyrics that need to be said for plot reasons. It's an idea though.

I also have some drafts I need to finish up that could be considered new ideas, but you'll have to wait for those...

I'll probably even have more ideas before I post this, but I'll stop here.

S - Any fandom tropes you can't resist?

I'm assuming most of my signatures are easy to identify. Corruption arcs, redemption arcs, evil power couples, evil women, transformation scenes, [X] to Lovers, references to other fandoms (some more egriegous than others), and various forms of angst.

Actual footage of me writing my fics tbh.

V - If you could write a sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

Honestly... I wouldn't.

I think the fics I've read ended or began perfectly the way they did. Besides, they're not my stories and only their authors can truly continue them with the same essence and spark they started with. I don't think my writing style would truly capture that same feeling.

I'll instead use this time to do some Twilight fic recs since that's mostly what my bookmarks tab is... listen, the fics for this fandom can be straight up bangers.

This one I was initially apprehensive about since it's a first person fic, but honestly... it adds to the whole experience. The original novels are in first person and this author not only captures Bella's mannerisms, but vastly improves upon them. Plus, the tags of "Bella Swan with a Backbone" and "Out of Character Bella Swan" in sequence absolutely killed me. It's at a bit of a lul, but there are only two more chapters set to come out. Worth the read, 100%

This one just finished. This was I think my first forray into this flavor of Twilight fic and it's very well constructed. I always love fics that turn canon on its head, making Edward deranged at losing Bella and again, making Bella still feel like Bella, just Better. And the characterization is just 🤌.

This one. THIS ONE. MAGNIFIQUE. This author's got some wonderful works and I'd even go as far to say we're amicable. This fic made me feel so many emotions so intensely. I remember staying up well past 3 AM to just keep reading it before common sense won over telling me I had classes in the morning. Then the next day I kept reading... I screamed and flopped around so much I think my roommate thought I was dying. Again, not my usual prefered flavor but DAMN it's so good.

Plus, the way they wrote Caius and Athenodora's relationship made me feel like a middle schooler reading OTP fanfiction again. A peak feeling, squeals and audible "THEY'RE EVERYTHING TO ME" screeches included. You know, in case it wasn't obvious I'm very protective of Caius and whoever he's with at the time. That, and Thena deserves better and I'll go to my grave saying it

W - Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones?

I like both for different reasons.

Specific prompts means that I get more ideas from the prompt that I may not have come up with in a more broad one. It lets me work around new curves and provides a fun challenge for me.

General prompts let me be a bit more creative, of course. The world's my oyster and I can create anything I want from just a simple idea.

I couldn't really pick one or the other (wow, look, the bisexual disaster can't pick, shocker!).

We're... we're gonna pretend like I don't have several writing requests in my inbox I've been sitting on for months or even years at this point... I'M VERY SORRY, I PROMISE I WILL EVENTUALLY DO THEM.

***

But thanks for the ask as always! And again, here's the customary "I'm sorry for going way too overboard" statement... I genuinely can't help it.

#lmao why am i like this seriously like #gets one simple question and gives four responses like who fucking does that #me apparently #fishgills speaks #writing asks #ask game #fic writing #fanfiction asks #writing ask game #stranger things oc #twilight oc #avengers oc #spiderman oc #also some fic recs i guess? #beloved mutuals #my inbox is open

[nebulousfishgills]

fanfic tropes! chosen at random bc idk

high school au, unrequited love, coffee shop/flower shop au, slow burn, sickfics, and childhood friends to future lovers

Thanks for the ask, bestie!

I'm giving short answers for once, look at me be concise for once!

High School AU - B

I enjoy a good high school AU since it can be fun to figure out what certain characters would be like in high school, but I don't actively seek it out.

Unrequited Love - D

It's too painful for me to read most times, but if I'm in a really peculiar mood I'll probably do that.

Coffee Shop/Flower Shop AU - C

It has potential, but it seems a bit basic to me sometimes. That, and I don't frequent either of these places, so there isn't that personal connection I have to it (I have never had coffee).

Slow Burn - B

I'm impatient and oftentimes slowburns make me antsy, but sometimes the kush is just too damn good.

Sickfics - A

Top. Tier. I love reading fics where characters just have to care for one another. There's a certain vulnerability that comes with it that just scratches that good itch... maybe I should write and Emily/Henry sickfic now that I think about it.

Childhood Friends to Future Lovers - A

I live for this shit. I love the idea of people just meeting when they're small, innocent (sometime's not, let's be honest) children and then growing into adults that know each other more than anybody else, it's just the Good Shit. It can get a bit sappy or cliche sometimes, so usually as you can probably tell, I'm not gonna give you sunshine and rainbows with that trope (...well, Rainbows maybe).

#fishgills speaks #ask game #trope ask game #writing asks #writing tropes #beloved mutuals #my inbox is open

[nebulousfishgills]

hmmm.... random-ass asks about your fics, let's see...

idk, you were pretty damn thorough when I asked about Diplopia, so I'm not sure there's anything else I can ask on that front.

how about you tell me a little about your Spider-Man fic? I've been curious about that one but a little unsure of what to expect. Who's the OC? What makes them similar and different from Emily? How have they evolved as you developed the story?

Also, are there any particular themes, motifs, or symbols that seem to find their way into your writing consistently? I know you're very intentional about symbolism (and I love it), but I'm wondering what tends to crop back up more often.

Do you often include animals/pets in your writing? Why or why not?

Do you often include music in your writing? Either out-of-world (titles, thematic lyrics a la Desert Song) or in-world (characters' favorite songs, lyrics as dialogue, etc.)

How intentional are you about the weather when you write? Does it invoke symbolism, or do you just add it based on how you feel in the moment?

How intentional are you about the way characters dress? Specific colors, clothing styles, new vs. worn clothing, etc.

Always a pleasure to see you in the ask box, my friend :). Also rest assured there is always room to talk about Diplopia or His Tenebris Moenibus since I jam pack them with so much shit, never be shy about asking about them!

That being said, I'm always happy to talk about my other fics! I'm not exactly sure how I would categorize my Spider-Man fic (Facade is the title) because while I do think it deserves more attention... it's not really my favorite fic for a few reasons, but you know, there's always one fic you're not totally in love with.

Discussing My Spider-Man Fic

So, long story short is that Facade features Keira Browning-Osborn and her role in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films. This was one of those fics that I pull out of my ass after seeing or reading a particular book/movie/show etc. No Way Home led me to the original Raimi movies and I just had to create a story with them since I was incredibly fascinated by Norman Osborn in particular.

This infatuation has pretty much passed by now since Stranger Things and then Twilight by proxy just absolutely crushed that. Now I kind of look at my past self like "...girl you sure? Are you good?" In fact, I don't think I was "good" since this era coencided pretty evenly with my high school production of Mamma Mia and I was several kinds and levels of stressed and at times upset with how the production went, but that's another long discussion. I don't regret being involved but if I was a different person I'd have had a few choice words for our director, but I digress.

Writing Facade kind of helped me get through that time in my life and I think there are certain elements in the story that show that. The fact that Keira is always listening to ABBA is a major one since, you know, Mamma Mia is a musical featuring their music. Another detail is that Keira was in choir in high school and was quite successful with it... my relationship with choir is complicated and I think I got a really short end of the stick with Mamma Mia since all the good parts went to the 'elite' or higher level choir kids despite the fact that our choir teacher was impressed with me and my range (I can pretty seamlessly go from very low alto notes to high soprano).

I really hate bouncing between the fic and how second semester senior year peforming arts went for me but the two were very tied together and you can't really talk about one without the other.

I've mentioned this before, but one of my least favorite parts about this fic is that Keira was very much a self insert for an idealized version of how I thought I wanted my life to end up that's changed vastly since the fic was posted. Which, one can think of that as a good thing so she seems a lot more original and unique, but I also modeled her to look a lot like myself, and my appearance hasn't changed since then.

Without knowing what my life was like while writing Facade, I don't think you'd ever know that I was having struggles, but with knowing I think in comparisson to some of my other writings specifically, it's a bit obvious that something just... wasn't right, I don't know. It's hard to explain or put into words, but I think the fic seems a little too idealized in some ways and I was in my head and with fantasies more than reality to escape my stresses.

But just a few weeks ago I re-read it all the way through and while I kind of treat it like the black sheep of my fics, it's not honestly that bad. It's very good, even, I think my gripes with it come from just the memories associated with it and how fixation-wise I cringe over it.

Part of that displeasure with it I think comes from the fact that I never finished it. Originally I had this whole elaborate plan where it was essentially split into five definitive "parts" of story. The first six chapters were establishing Keira and her relationship with Norman (cute chapters but that idealization really comes into play so it's kind of hard for me to take them that seriously), then I would go through all three of Raimi's movies, and then finish with a few chapters set in the future featuring Keira and Norman's daughter, Sophia.

I only got through "parts one and two," plus a few drafts for the end of part 4 and onto part 5 before Stranger Things 4 came out and the massive overhaul that came with it. And since so much time has passed, plus the above backstory reasons, unfortunately I don't ever really see myself finishing it unless something major happened. So the fic ends where Spider-Man 1 ends, but it's still marked incomplete.

It kind of makes me sad that I never finished it because I had a lot of ideas for how the other two movies/parts would have gone, but you know.

For example, I wanted to make it a detail that in Spider-Man 2, the brown roots of her hair have grown out from the red dye (faded, yet still there) so there's a clear line around her ear area between dyed hair and natural hair. This is because after Norman died, she hasn't had the time or energy to recolor or cut her hair to make it look nice. She has a company to run while also navagating her grief and trying so hard to keep her cool around Peter. But in Spider-Man 3, her hair is fresh, it's revitalized with her after she vows to kill Spider-Man.

All this to say... I think, in part, this is why I'm very scared to try new media I want to watch (Good Omens, namely) while I'm actively writing Necrosis since I don't want to fixate on something else and never get that finished even if I'm very excited to get everything out.

But about Keira!

I will say that I'm quite proud of how her corruption arc is shaped and handled. For most of the story, she's a very demure yet intelligent woman. She wants to do the right thing, which then comes into conflict when the "right thing" clashes with her teetering moral compass and her own selfish desires. I don't want to give too much away that's stated in the story itself, but if I had to pick a favorite chapter, it would be Chapter 13 (all the chapters have stupid titles, be forewarned) because that's when this war Keira is having with herself starts to bubble over and it's quite a good psychological study if I do say so myself.

So, as far as how similar she is to Emily, there are small similarities among large differences. For one, Keira doesn't start out as someone who's bitter, damaged, or "born a bad egg" as I would say Emily is. Keira was actually quite a content, happy person who thought she struck gold until things started to go so far downhill so very quickly.

But they both solicit extremely bad behavior in their partners. Obviously we've seen everything Emily has done and the things she let pass or even encouraged that Henry did. For the most part, everything we see the Green Goblin do in the first movie Keira makes no effort to stop or even help. She knows she has the power to create some sort of anti-serum and put the entire issue to bed, but she just... doesn't. And it's basically for almost the exact same reasons Emily has for her behavior... the fact that she just cares too much for the one she loves and the sometimes perceived protection they provide. Again, I won't say too much, but Keira is far from innocent, and had I continued her story it would have gotten a lot worse for her.

I'd almost go far enough to say that their taste in guys is the same, but as we know, that statement is normal to everyone except for Emily since she takes Her Taste In Men to the highest and most insane level possible. But, sure, we'll go with that.

As far as how Keira developed, again, I had an entire plan for her and how she developed (or more like devolved) as the story would progress, but I just never finished her story. But I will say that at the end of the day, Keira's main priority is her family... but since she lets her vengeance consume her so thoroughly, eventually she all but sidelines her daughter until Keira ends up dying and leaving Sophia in Peter and Mary Jane's care.

Keira isn't my favorite OC, but by far I think she's the most nuanced.

General Writing Questions

Themes, motifs, symbols that keep popping up... well, right off the bat, we have Blue Roses.

Blue roses are in reference to Game of Thrones, actually. In Game of Thrones, Rhaegar Targaryen gave a crown of Blue Roses to Lyanna Stark after he won a tourney because he believed she was the most beautiful woman in the realm. This leads to Issues, but I'm very fond of Rhaegar and Lyanna's story. That, plus realizing none of my OC love stories are clean cut and easy, like theirs, means that the blue rose is a good symbol for all of them. Blue Roses in general have kind of woven their way into my aesthetic as a person as well. But each of my OCs has some kind of blue rose at some point in their stories.

The first hint to Olivia that Loki loved her was him giving her a blue rose from Asgard's garden when they were children, him running off as soon as he presented her with the gift. To this day she still has it, kept safe in a Beauty and the Beast type bell jar.

In Facade, Norman gets Keira a blue rose hair clip as a small birthday gift on their first date. She wears it to his funeral.

Emily obviously has a blue rose tattooed on her right shoulder. She claims it's meant to emulate the blue paint of the Creel House, but I think she just thinks blue roses are cool.

As far as other reoccuring things, obviously if I post a brand new OC fic and there isn't some kind of corruption arc, assume I've been kidnapped and am being held hostage. I honestly enjoy both redemption and corruption arcs but there's something just so satisfying about letting a character fall to the Dark Side, usually for a lover. To me, both tropes mean the same thing; human beings are equally capable of great good and great evil no matter what. I just like the angsty version because usually that means my characters get Cool Outfits and get to Be Chaotic.

In a similar vein, while also slightly contradictory, I also like the cousin trope to Fallen Heroes in which the corruption out of the character's control. A rogue entity invaded Olivia's mind to cause her to change allegiances in A Song of Stars and Magic, Keira's corruption is brought to you in part by Science Gone Wrong, Just Delayed, and currently I'm operating under the idea that the Mind Flayer has been behind everything and being a disillusioned individual in the Creel House (a weak point) allows it to claim your consciousness.

I primarily think I do this because I'm an optimistic person and want to believe that sometimes circumstance gets in the way and that humans are naturally good people, it's outside forces that cause people to do bad things or that people do bad things for good reasons ultimately. And even then I think you can blame that on the fact that I grew up on the story of Anakin Skywalker's fall to the Dark Side, THE defacto corruption arc caused by trying to do the right thing and being influenced by someone or something else. I can really see how Revenge of the Sith shaped me as a person.

God I'm SO excited to meet the man next month.

Also, clearly I'm very fond of the what I'll call the "Villain's Favorite Person" trope, where the villain is Soft only for their lover or whoever. I really internalize concepts like "being a hero's lover means you'll always be second to their duty, but being a villain's lover means you're second to nothing" because villains are allowed to be selfish. "Villains will burn the world for a last kiss goodbye" as that one post goes. Plus there's something that just Hits Different about writing Villain Fluff because we as an audience understand that this character is capable of great destruction or madness, but they're being careful and Soft with someone they love.

And there is a difference between being a villain and being an asshole, you'll never see me writing villain romances like Harley Quinn and the Joker that are obviously so toxic and one-sided.

I'm sure there are other common themes, but for a perceived brevity's sake I'll move on.

Animals/pets aren't something very common in my writing. I don't really have a specific reason as to why, it's just never really crossed my mind. I think as of now the closest thing you'll get is how Emily feels about the Demo-Bats, little creatures she's very fond of.

Actually, I think I do have at least part of a reason. Most of my stories aren't fully happy and I don't want to run the risk of a character leaving a beloved pet behind or the other way around. That, and half of my major stories feature some form of long term immortality, which means outliving things. Emily is going to far and away outlive everyone she knew in Hawkins probably several generations over and Olivia is going to outlive the other Avengers... adding pets to the mix hurts too much.

Music is something that's very important to me. That's why I have character playlists for my OCs (some of them better maintained than others). When I pick songs, I usually try primarily to match them up first lyrically, then thematically, and then just the Vibes if all else fails. There are a lot of showtunes mixed in because that's just my primary taste in music, but each song tells a little story that I can mold and construe to fit my themes. Then there are just random odds and ends from here and there that just Fit. Lastly, I try to make it a goal to add at least one example of the significant other singing.

So, Olivia's playlist has the drinking song Loki sang in the third episode of his series, I added Jamie's music to both of Emily's playlists, and for funsies I added a song from the Spider-Man musical to Keira's playlist (DIY World is the only legitament banger on that soundtrack tbh). I also try to add some music from the given fandom, so Keira's playlist has Spider-Man soundtrack songs and Emily's playlists have either the Stranger Things soundtrack (both the OST and the licensed songs like Master of Puppets or Prophecies) or songs from Twilight like Bella's Lullaby or Supermassive Black Hole.

I'll provide descriptions and Spotify Codes to each one.

Olivia has a mix of songs from two perspectives, her usual self and her Bad Bitch Villain era. It's not as organized as it probably should be, but I think some songs are easier to discern from others as to which Variant of her we're dealing with

Keira's playlist is the shortest because my era with her didn't last as long. Olivia has had going on I think five years worth of development by me, Emily has had about a year, whereas Keira got maybe... idk five? Months? Again, it's unfortunate how little I ended up doing with her, but she's still one of my girlies. There's ABBA of course, but I also made sure to include music from the Jekyll and Hyde musical since it's... kind of eerie how well the stories line up.

Emily's playlists are actually in a rough chronological order. So if you were to listen without shuffle you could in theory get a rough outline of her stories. Her Stranger Things playlist for example starts out with the song "Room of Angel" from Silent Hill because it's about her relationship with her mother, which then goes to the Hawkins Lab theme from season 4 and Rät by Penelope Scott for her entrance to the lab and relationship with Papa. I even tried my best to use the love songs to provide a timeline of her and Henry's relationship. There's more but again, to keep it short, I'll let you see for yourself.

The same goes for Emily's Twilight playlist, a rough chronological timeline that ultimately leads to Necrosis (which only has two songs at the end so far; I'm always adding to Emily's playlists right now since I'm actively focused on her right now). Emily's Twilight playlist shares some songs with her Stranger Things playlist since it's the same character... there's also a copious amount of Disney on this one compared to others... I mean it checks out, Disney Princesses fall in love slower than she did in this case.

(I just changed the playlist cover on this one so the code will be a different color than this, Spotify is just being a dick about giving me the updated one)

Once in a while I'll include song lyrics in dialogue or in titles when I deem it appropriate. I don't go out of my way to do so, though since sometimes it's awkward. For funsies, though, let's see what the OCs favorite songs are because I have to be extra.

Olivia: "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri (shhh I know it's a Twilight song, but this was on her playlist before I really knew that)

Keira: "Lay All Your Love On Me" by ABBA (it's a canonical detail that when she was first starting to date Norman, she sang this to herself CONSTANTLY to the bemusement/annoyance of her friends)

Emily: "Dream a Little Dream of Me" by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (because it reminds her of Henry... it's hard to pick a favorite song for her since clearly she has a strained relationship with music... but no matter how long she lives she will NEVER like Running Up That Hill for obvious reasons)

Now for the weather.

Honestly, the weather is something that I think about the least when crafting environments, at least symbolism wise. Sometimes I include rain, but that's just because I like rain and sometimes it can provide a cozy atmosphere if used right...

Actually, I lied, there is one instance where the weather ender up having a deeper meaning.

Emily finds Hawkins Lab because she needs to seek shelter from a rainstorm, so when she first meets Henry, she's soaked in rainwater... which is exactly how Mike found Eleven in season one. This even carries over in The Weirdo from Saint Valentina's, the title even being in reference to that episode, "The Weirdo on Maple Street."

No, I don't think Mileven is endgame, but it was an unintended parallel that I kind of liked and ran with.

Other than that, I wouldn't think too hard about the weather in my fics.

Clothing... again, not much goes into the thought about clothing. Nine times out of ten I put my characters in something I randomly sketched out or something I found on pinterest that I thought looked cool. But something that I do enjoy doing is using a fashion base and sketching outfits for specific scenes both as a reference to me and just because I like the creativity that comes with it. They're kind of like concept sketches to some degree.

Some OCs have more sketches than others, of course. I drew out basically every dress Olivia is seen wearing in "A Song of Stars and Magic" and there are two others of these six panel samples for her, and one with just two.

Keira has a total of two six panels and one two panel sample (the labels started to become unhinged with her for fun)

Emily just has the one sample, but there's proof that sometimes these turn into early drafts since Emily's last outfit turned into a green tank top instead of green jacket/grey tank top

Emily also has a Diplopia sample, but I ended up writing more scenes than just these outfits, so some of them are up to the imagination.

And I'm working on my Necrosis samples as I write the fic.

But as you can see I have a trend of dressing my characters in primarily cooler shades because it's just a preference thing. I like blue/green/purple shades so I dress my characters in those. And sometimes I take inspiration from pinterest because I have a lot of outfits/dresses in my feed, like these two that I'll probably stick Emily into at some point.

I looooove using Alicent Hightower stills for Volturi Emily since she has the aesthetic and hair down pat. In fact sometimes my outfit inspiration for her comes directly from those scenes. Although with the Diplopia samples you can kind of see I borrowed from Rhaenyra's dresses, in particular the dress on the upper right hand side... so basically Volturi Emily is Alicent Hightower with Rhaenyra's wardrobe, for all intents and purposes.

...and once again I went waaaaaayyyy off the rails for simple questions. I'm sorry I can't help it. I just have a lot to say. By now, though, you're probably going in expecting this, so thank you for sending me asks with that mindset lmao. Feel free to ask me anything at any time, of course. These take me hours to finish, but it's something to do!

#fishgills speaks #writing asks #ask box #spider man oc #avengers oc #stranger things oc #twilight oc #fanfiction #fanfic asks #beloved mutuals #my inbox is open

[nebulousfishgills]

writing asks!

5, 6, 9 [crimson, bright, or under], 25, 26, 48, 57, 63 [His Tenebris Moenibus], 72, 77

Thanks! Sorry, I would have answered this sooner, but I spent most of today doing training modules for work and my brain is friiiiied.

Anyways, let's see what we have here...

5 - How many WIPs do you have? What fandoms/pairings are they for?

All my current WIPs are under the Stranger Things and/or Twilight umbrella.

Necrosis: Diplopia's sequel, a more freeform fic based on the many (...many) wonderful fics I've read. The fic deals primarily with... I'll call it Emily's Involuntary Character Development by Phoenix Wright-Related Means. Posted chapters: 5/?

The Weirdo From St. Valentina's: I know this one was originally a one shot, but someone in the comments flattered me by saying it should be a longfic, and I have more ideas, go figure. So I have another chapter partially drafted and maybe a few more after that? Posted chapters: 1/? (Three or four maybe)

Stranger Things One-Shots: I have a few one-shots I have already written and a few I want to finish/write. As of now I have a total of I think 4 that I have yet to publish, three are done and one I need to finish.

Twilight One-Shots: There are fewer of these, in fact right now I only have one that's in the works, however given that my top priority is the Twilight longfic and I have some of those later chapters done for when I get to them, it evens out. There also miiiiiight be one in the future that doesn't involve Emily at all...

So I don't know how those totals work out. A lot, it's a lot of WIPs.

6 - What is the last line you wrote?

"Lead the way."

Context: Emily says this to a character that she's gonna take a walk with to a location after a very... we'll call it an introspective conversation. I can't say much for spoilers' sake, but this is one of those "later Necrosis chapters."

(I know I posted a one-shot called The Third Rule to celebrate Stranger Things 4's one year anniversary, but technically that was one of those one shots I wrote a while ago, so none of those lines were 'the most recent line.')

9 - Does [word chosen by asker] appear in a WIP?

Crimson - Surprisingly, no lol

Bright - She had just the prettiest, brightest hazel eyes, I could practically see every color imaginable in them.

(That counts, right?)

Under - He hasn't had a singer in 305 years, not since 1593. It's amusing how the humans are still under the impression that the poor man was killed in a bar fight. That's what Chelsea told me, at least.

Dang, those are from the same WIP lol, again, one of my Necrosis chapter drafts (although this one is gonna be on deck soon).

Also I should note the italics are indicating that this is a quote someone is reading. This is a scene of someone reading someone else's writing.

25 - What is your favorite part of the writing process?

Honestly, it depends on my mood. But in general I really like developing characters. Their traits, their relationships, all that fun stuff. It fits together like a nice puzzle and I just get to be creative. Writing aside but in a similar vein, I also like coming up with character concept sketches and making character playlists. Both of those things can be a massive help to the writing side of the equation as well.

26 - What is your least favorite part of the writing process?

...can I say the actual writing part? I mean, I don't hate it, sometimes the act of writing is a huge stress reliever, but the problem arises when I either a) have the motivation but not the time or b) the desire to write but the inability to actually execute the process for any number of reasons. I need to plan more, I don't wanna type, I'm tired and would just rather daydream about the fic... the list goes on lmao.

48 - Who is your favorite character to write for? Has this changed since you've started writing for that fandom?

This is an interesting question since I love writing for all the characters I write for. Some more than others, sure. I mean, obviously I love writing stories about Emily, else I wouldn't keep doing it. But like Emily, I'm very attached to both of her long term boyfriends and love getting to write for both of them. Although I thiiiiiink Henry takes the edge.

It really just comes down to how creative I feel like being on that day. When I'm in the mood to be more creative I like writing for the Twilight characters more since... there's very little canon material to work with, forcing me to fill in the gaps. Giving more depth to characters like Jane or Sulpicia is such a joy, even if it's born of annoyance.

57 - How conscious are you about adding symbolism or foreshadowing in your fics?

Incredibly. I try to make every single thing in my fics very intentional, down to using specific words in simple sentences or dialogue. For example, this excerpt from Diplopia:

If you know, you know, and you know this will be important later... and that it is not gonna be pretty. Foreshadowing is one of my favorite tropes because it gives a fic re-read value to go back and look for hints.

63 - What was the hardest part of writing His Tenebris Moenibus?

Many little things, but it all boils down to balance. Balancing Emily's shitty personality to still make her a somewhat likeable character that you want to keep engaging with. Balancing content and information in the show with keeping the story fresh (i.e. Henry telling Emily his backstory in a different way than he presents it in Episode 7 while still getting the same information across... admittedly in retrospect writing out his entire monologue when we eventually get to the massacre might have been unecessary, but I did it anyways cause I love and adore that scene, sue me). Balancing out how Emily interracts with people like Eddie so her presence in that part of the story doesn't seem forced or weird.

72 - What's your favorite writing compliment you've gotten?

I appreciate and adore every compliment I've ever gotten on my writing since they're all very special to me. Obviously the analysis comments you give me and I get stronger with every "good characterization" comment (I might be able to fight god soon). I even got compliments on Necrosis from someone whos fics I have not only read multiple times but have gone absolutely feral over... It's like publishing a short horror story and Stephen King telling you he felt creeped out reading it.

But I think the greatest compliments I've gotten are from people who've told me my writing changed their outlooks and minds on characters, Henry specifically. You've said this once or twice and I actually got @ohitshoneybee on the full blown Henry hype train... arguably initially because I put him through an emotional ringer with Diplopia and she felt bad for him, but still. This is a character I care about very much, more than I ever expected to, and it gives me a sense of pride that I can essentially make people somewhat see him the way I see him.

77 - Why do you enjoy writing fanfiction?

Oh, many reasons. Putting my own creative spin on my favorite fandoms, exploring ideas and adding extra dimensions to pre-existing lore... and making people have emotional breakdowns. Are you really a fanfic writer if at some point you haven't gone full Helmo?

I think the most recent example is the fact that it's allowed me to take my childhood nemesis franchise, Twilight, and give it my own three-dimensional makeover. I basically started with Mopey, Angry, and Creepy with their (remaining) wives, Druggie One and Druggie Two. I put some thought and work into it and now instead of two dimensional, one trick ponies, I have full characters I can mold and play with.

Stephenie Meyer, if you're ever reading this, call me and I can have an entire guidebook whipped up to give your characters a full revamp (no pun intended).

I take cash, checks, or Venmo.

#I always love ask games even if they take me a while to answer #i just love gushing about my hobbies #fishgills speaks #ask game #fanfic writing #writing ask game #fanfic ask game #fanfiction #my inbox is open