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epersonae · 7 months

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fic etc (new version!)

[update March 21, 2024]

These days I'm writing fic for Our Flag Means Death.

Longfic

I have three finished long pieces, in order of connectedness to canon:

Hungry for love, ready to drown (T, 33K) - a Stede POV retelling of season one starting with episode four, lots of missing scenes (so much with clothing but also wound care! dream sequence!). My love letter to canon; I watched those episodes so many times in little bursts to really absorb the writing and acting, and I'm very proud of the results. Goes well with S2 prep, if I may say so. Will probably definitely most likely get a sequel, but it's taking me a while to figure out how to approach it.

the devil's threeway (E, 30K) - Ed POV, starts with a pre-canon encounter with Jack and (non-canonical) Anne Bonney, follows up with a post-S1 meet-up with Anne and (also non-canonical) Mark Read, and then a somewhat unusual reunion with Stede. Includes the fic where Ed would not. Stop. Crying. There is a reasonably likelihood that I will write something similar or equivalent with the canon versions of Anne and Mary, but it's still marinating.

for the benefit of all the broken hearts (E, 62K) - the not RPF but not not RPF that is maybe the best thing I've ever written in any medium for any reason: a fix-it fic for the gorgeous and weird Water Flowing Underground, told from the perspective of the unnamed second wife. My exploration of the aftermath of tragedy, the possibility of repair, and varieties of love. Read the tags, read the author's note, read WFU first (or don't, I'm not the boss of you, and I do know someone who read them out of order and still enjoyed it), but please give it a shot. Posts tagged #carlita coded content are related to this work, sometimes very obliquely. There is also a follow-up fic of missing scenes, end up several worlds away, that still has one chapter remaining (I SWEAR I'm going to finish it), and a short sort of non-linear AU, back on my beat, that explores some alternate endings.

Some favorite shorter pieces

I have begun to long for you, a "mutiny against Izzy succeeds" canon-divergence AU

nice either way, my contribution to the Beard Discourse

Commit to the Bit, modern AU blackbonnet engagement and wedding

Season 2 and post-S2 fic

I spit on your grave - post-S2, Stede and Ed have a serious conversation, starting with how Ed didn't "happen" upon Stede being gut-stabbed, and going some tough places from there

lost and found - post-S2, featuring beach comber Stede and those cake toppers

Through the storm - the crew of the Revenge between episodes 2 and 3. slow and creepy!

in case I never make it through to where you are - bad ending AU set at the end of 3. MIND THE TAGS, it's a rough one.

Other stuff

Occasionally I post OFMD fic recommendations, which started as a weekly thing but, you know. They are still posted in sets of five on Fridays, when I do them, and tagged #five fic friday. (There's no particular system to my listings, just stuff I like that's not PWP.)

Not fic: I am doing a little project where I make/recreate recipes that I have written down but haven't made in a long time (or ever) - that can be found under the tag #food as play. Includes my rewrite of the 40 Orange Cake Recipe!

I have also written a lot of fic for The Adventure Zone, my favorite being The Reckoning Arrives, a 77k fic in which Lucretia, Taako, Merle, and Carey go looking for Kalen.

I wrote quite a bit of my TAZ fic with my late spouse Ryn (@taakovapes). Ryn died in September 2021; here's the post I wrote the week they died. I often post/tag about them and death and grief. (See tags #not all exits are made equal, #[grief dab], and #posts I wish I could send to Ryn in particular.)

#about me #my fic #my writing #ofmd #ofmd fic #taz balance #hiding this in the tags: it's 'carlita' because she is an amalgam of CRJ and Rita (and tbh neither)#and I learned as little about the latter as possible while I was writing #as I said at a party 'everything I know about Rita Ora I learned against my will'#there's a reason the unnamed wife is tagged Original Female Character

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taakosleftshoe · 2 years

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What are some of your favorite TAZ fanfics?

Balance:

As a preface, a lot of these are Taakitz because I just love the dynamic they have, and AUs are basically my personal hallmark movies

Someone I have loved but never known - @anistarrose - Barry and Lup got married and have rings but they don't match and they got voidfished and it's thb + them and its so so good </3

An echo, an answer - Dooiney_Oie (@lexicals) - modern, ghost Kravitz au. I just finished this one and fuck <\3 it's probably the longest fic I've read but it is. So incredibly good. Oh my god. Like the actual writing is phenomenal and the plot is fun and the characters flow together very well and I really love the extra depth the author goes into and adds on their own story to the characters.

Touche - TheZpart (@the-z-part) high school fencing au need I say more!!

Bury the lead - marywhale (@marywhal) - high school newspaper au <3 (there is still magic)

Heartstrings - Weevilo707 (@kravkalackin) - Angus is Barry and Lup's kid au. An all time fave

Long Time Listener, First Time Caller - Weevilo707 - Kravitz is a radio show host and taako routinely prank calls the station. it's so funny

The worst candlenights ever - Weevilo707 - modern au, Lup and Taako want to go to their family candlenights and fuck shit up over the course of a few days and take Kravitz on as Taakos fake date

A Need to know basis - Weevilo707 - modern au, the seven birds go on a roadtrip and Taako may be sneaking a stowaway on the trip

Hot single dads in your area - Weevilo707 - taako tutors angus, who is kravitz's kid. it is fun and sweet

(When I think about you) flowers grow out of my grave - @phantomsteed - flower shop Taako and mortician Kravitz. It's so sweet. also I found the song separately from the fic and went wait that's on my tbr and immediately went to read it

Phantasmal and Resplendent - shipsorsanity (@Ships-or-Sanity) - Lup breaks out of the umbrastaff early when Kravitz is investigating it.

Ethersea:

I haven't really read many fics of Ethersea to be honest, but I've been meaning to! Here are a few short ones that I have:

You Could Love Me (If I Knew How To Lie) - Fiendishfools - After the events of the Cambria arc, Kodira meets with Amber

Blue like the sky, not like the ocean - @celestialseasquid - Amber misses the surface.

Weathering The Storm - YigaClan - Amber and Kodira talk about the decisions they made in the past, and Amber relives it.

No time to choose - bloggingbun @cherubuni - Amber surprises Kodira and makes her stop overworking, taking her to the cloaca

Why Does It Feel So Lonely (When You Are Around)? - Fiendishfools - Amber's birthday back on the shore

#sierra speaks #taz #taakitz #oksamber #bubbanana #the adventure zone balance #the adventure zone ethersea #taz fics #also holy heck this has been sitting in my drafts/inbox for months!!#took me a while to get around to collecting and linking them all

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ungarmax · 6 months

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Oregon trail script

i one time started making an oregon trail clone with taz characters in it like it was one of the cycles, but unfortunately, since i was using rpg maker mv, it didn't really run very well. i did, however, write part of a script for it. here's what happens if you choose taako to go on the oregon trail and leave lup back at the starblaster:

TAAKO: ...and if you use the last of my green nail polish, I won’t forgive you.

LUP: You can just transmute more next cycle.

TAAKO: Yeah, and I won’t forgive you for making me waste a spell slot on nail polish!

LUP: What if I transmute some? Like. You know that is a thing I can also do, right? Suuuper amazing, gifted, talented wizard right here.

TAAKO: Gross. You’ll fuck it up, like you did with my cologne.

LUP: Okay, fair, but that was fuckin’ hilarious.

TAAKO: It was not hilarious! I smelled like dogs and sweat! For a week!

LUP: Hey, Eau de Magnus was one of my greatest creations, and you should be honored that you were involved in its inception. If you find something cool out there, you better keep it with you until we come pick you up, yeah?

TAAKO: Duh. Don’t blow up my kitchen while I’m gone.

LUP: I’m absolutely gonna blow up your kitchen.

TAAKO: I can’t believe my sister is the literal worst person ever.

LUP: Don’t hafta flatter me. Get out of here, babe. And be careful. Don’t die.

TAAKO: That’s rich, coming from Miss ‘I wonder what falling into a volcano is like.’

LUP: That was an accident! Seriously, T. Come back alive, yeah?

TAAKO: ‘Course.

#taraxacum13 #z writes #thank you!!!

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papergardener · 2 years

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(This is a short Lucretia & Taako scene from an upcoming TAZ fic, Chickadee, that I’m scrapping in favor of something less depressing, so figured why not share it here.)~~~

“Hey chickadee,” Taako says, slumping against the doorway with a lopsided grin. Took him long enough but he found her, not in her room or the lab or the helm, but hunkered down out back by the greenhouse, just barely out of the drizzling rain. Hiding, it seems.

“Not now, Taako,” Lucretia mutters, not looking up from where she’s scratching away into a journal. It’s dark out, the red-robed shape of her illuminated only by a cantrip, a little Light spell on a copper coin.

“You missed dinner,” Taako says. “And lunch. Pretty sure you barely touched breakfast.”

She winces, and really she should know by now that he’d notice. Then her face goes steely again. “Cycle’s almost over anyway, doesn’t matter.”

That’s the crux of it. Cycle’s over and they didn’t find the Light, so this world is lost.

“Still gotta take care of yourself, even if you are getting a refresh in a couple days.” Could be any day now, really. Merle is taking his turn as lookout in the helm, watching the barometer for sudden pressure changes—Davenport suspects it might be an early indicator—but they’re still grounded. In the morning they’ll take off, the remaining time spent up in the air. “Come on, you can take a little break. The world’s not gonna break because you stop writing for a few minutes.”

“No,” she mutters darkly. “But it’ll break because of us all the same.”

“All right, enough of that.” Taako takes the journal and pen from her hands and tucks them under his arm before holding out a hand to pull her up. “Can’t carry the world, we’ve been over this. Food time, let’s go.”

Bed time might be more accurate. It’s nearly midnight. The others should be all sleeping by now. He should be too, except he had a feeling Lucretia was pushing herself too hard again. She’s better than when they first started this mission but they all sometimes fall back into old habits. After this much time, he’s also gotten better about catching them.

They head to the kitchen and he sets her down at the table. It’s quiet at this time of night, which is good for her. In the overhead light, he thinks how bad she looks. Tired and overworn, shoulders bowed under a self-imposed weight, as if anything they do can save this world.

When he sets down the bowl of soup, she already looks nauseous.

“Just a little,” Taako says softly as he sits across the table. “You’ll feel better after a few bites.”

She sips down a spoonful and seems to take time absorbing that, swallowing and then sniffing.

“It’s really good,” she whispers. The effect is quick. Already she looks a bit better, less wound tight from the cold. “Thanks. I didn’t mean for... I just got distracted.”

“Yeah, I know,” Taako replies, his gaze trailing beyond as he sits with her, head resting over his crossed arms.

It’s hard for her, seeing the worlds destroyed. Or harder, perhaps. Taako can compartmentalize it, rationalize it because they never signed up to be saviors of the universe, they didn’t bring the Hunger to this plane—arguably, anyway, it’s a bit up for debate—and fretting about this world’s destruction isn’t going to do anything except make him feel like shit. So he doesn’t. He focuses on his family because that’s all he can do.

“Feeling better?” he asks, after letting his eyes droop closed for a minute or so.

“Yeah, thanks. I needed that.”

“On the bright side, we’ll get Mags back in a few days.” That gets a little smile out of her, bittersweet.

“Yeah, you’re right. Still, this world was pretty nice. Won’t you miss it? Even a little?”

Taako hums, rocking his chin on the back of his hand. “Nah. Not really. I could if I wanted to, but I don’t. Want to, I mean. There’s no point.”

“I don’t know how you do it,” Lucretia says, almost in awe, but not quite.

“It’s how I survive. You could do a little with that, too.”

It’s quiet again, the clock ticking slowly.

“What do you say to some Taako time?” he asks, smiling lazily at her. “You look like you could use it.”

“You don’t have to,” she mutters, and yeah, she’s more timid than usual, withdrawing into herself. “I can just go to bed.”

“Boring as fuck. And are you really going to turn down spending time with this hot stuff?” he says with a grand, flippant twist of his wrist. That gets a small smile, a spark of the old her.

“What? Worried about me?” she says, propping her head on her cheeks.

“Course not.” He matches her pose, leaning over the table. “Not my fault you’re terrible at taking care of yourself. You’re apparently determined to make my job harder.”

“My goal in life.” Then she looks away, humming before sinking into her shoulders. “But yeah. All right. I’d like that.”

He flops down onto the couch, kicking his shoes off before settling against the backrest and shoving a pillow under his head. Lucretia pulls a blanket from nearby, a patterned red flannel, and shakes it out before laying down beside him, her back against her chest. She spreads the blanket over both and wiggles closer as Taako loops his arms around her, lightly holding her so she theoretically won’t roll off the couch in the middle of the night.

Sometimes they need this. It’s something just for the two of them, a bond not unlike that of his own sister, but different. Whatever he has with Lucretia, with any of them, really, is hard to define, but it’s family.

“Good?” he asks.

“Yeah.” She burrows her head against the pillow and lets out a long breath. “Yeah. This is good. Thanks, Taako.”

“Hm. Night, Luce,” he murmurs, his own eyes drifting closed as he sinks into the warm comfort, her heart beating steady, the easy rise and fall of her breathing.

They’ve got each other. Through whatever hell-scape they find themselves in, it’s a comfort. He just has to focus on his family, and they’ll get through it. He’d like to offer some shred of hope, some little idea that next time things will be better. But it’s hard when they know it’s not true. They survive. That’s all they can do.

#TAZ #TAZ Balance #Lucretia #Taako #Lucretia and Taako bonding #Stolen Century #I love these two #I love them as ridiculous friends who deeply love each other #Seven Nights #cause this assumes that as backstory #it's a shame because this is like the only scene where they get another Taako time #but the new scene is so much better for me #and I let Lucretia be happy for once #Chickadee

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holdmecloser-gandydancer · 2 years

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Okay okay okay I hope you're still taking these and that you don't mind me sending another one in, but for the share a secret about a fic thing, I just read Say it with Flours, and it's past 3:30 in the morning for me, but I HAVE TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS FIC AND THEN EAT IT IT'S SO GOOD

stop i woke up and saw my inbox and almost cried !!!!!!!!!!

okay so i got inspired to write this after i watched Bridesmaids in a hotel with my parents, actually! and i agonized over a name to the point where the final doc on my computer is still just called "currently unnamed wedding shenanigans" [i still don't love the name tbh but i think it ended up being cute!]

i believe i was starting this as i was finishing trial of lucretia because i have no self control and decided that my first forays into fic ought to be three very long (for me) multichapter fics skldfjsldfsdl

this is my single most well-performing fic as well as my longest (the final doc on my computer is 92 pages long which is nuts to me!!!!) and it's fun to me because you can absolutely tell this was before i had a bit of a better grasp on characterization (and just. writing in general) but you can also see a marked improvement from beginning to end.

i had decided this would be a no magic, still fantasy races au like. a few chapters in which really has no bearing on the fic as a whole, it just felt right.

some secrets!

i've talked about this somewhere but my explanation for Taako being a father is that he spent a lot of his adolescence working at like. a boys and girls club style place and then a lot of his young adulthood working with another similar organization and he decided he wanted to foster and then fostered Angus for like two and a half years before deciding to adopt him (and this happened some time before the actual canon of the fic)

this is something that i don't think a single person has ever picked up on (because it really doesn't matter sldfjsldf) but lydia and edward are the photographers at the wedding (very blink and you'll miss it mention).

I originally wanted it to be such a slower burn but i literally couldn't figure out how to not make it drag.

the chapter names were a pain in my ass but the kiss does take place during Tulips which makes me giggle (and that's the only reason why it's called tulips)

and also I had originally wanted to add more scenes during the wedding but that chapter was like fifteen pages by itself and I got antsy

as in most of my fics that have Julia, she's much taller than magnus <3

the opinions on macaron flavors and phillip glass are my own sdlfjsd

and it was such a fun piece to write!!! this was really the piece that made me stick with writing fic. I was a little discouraged with the lack of traction I thought trials of lucretia got so this was a nice change for me

ALSO i did write a piece that is in its universe for the taz novemeber celebration

#rip (reeses in pieces)#tentatively-positive-3 #THANK YOU YOURE SO KIND GAB !!!!#literally you can always ask me about my fics at any time!!!!#the ficlet takes place before the final scene of the fic slkdfjsldfkjsd #was it a cop out ending? maybe but i thought it was cute #asks

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explodinal · 3 years

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so ive finally moved into my apt and i still have boxes to unpack and shit or whateva but im too lazy to do that................. so in response to that , do i turn this blog into a canon multi muse bc that’s been on my mind lately

#like.... i miss writing so many of my other canons from ages ago???#and theres also canon characters i rly rly want to try rping for but dont want to have a billion blogs for????#like i miss writing lance from voltron even tho vld is bullshit #i miss writing nishinoya #i REALLY miss writing taako from taz #ughjghknhkgnkhgl #what do i do #⋰ ☼ ⋱ OUT OF CARDS .

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raineydaywrites · 3 years

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Step-Son Zone

Inspired by the TAZ Crystal Kingdom graphic novel and all the amazing jokes about Lucas being Lucretia’s stepson that I have recently seen.

"Package for you, Luce!" Lup said, entering the family room. She'd gone to get the mail hoping for a package she'd ordered, but sadly, it had not yet arrived. She loved Faerun and everything, but she had to admit she still missed package tracking. Having to go to the actual mailbox every day to figure out if her things had gotten here yet? Like an animal? Gross.

Letters were not an uncommon thing to find in the mailbox, a lot of which were fan mail. Saving the multiverse made one pretty popular after all. When the letters had first started coming, they were an onslaught, though now, months after the start, they were less frequent.

Still, it wasn't exactly unusual to find something from an address they didn't recognize in their mailbox these days. It was a little more unusual for the mail to be addressed to only one of them, but far from unheard of. Plenty of people liked to address their fan mail to some particular favorite in the family.

That didn't mean that Lup wasn't still pretty curious to see the package, but she had boundaries! She'd at least let Lucretia see it first, before she swiped it for a peek.

"Thank you, Lup," Lucretia smiled up at her from the couch as she took it. Some of their other family members- Taako, Barry, Merle, and Magnus- were also gathered in the family room, but there was still plenty of room to sit down, since they'd designed this room knowing exactly how large their family was and with decades of frustration at the relatively small size of the Starblaster common room in mind. Lup still plopped down immediately next to Lucretia anyway. All the better for reading over her shoulder, and it wasn't like any of them had much respect for each other's personal space anymore.

Sure enough, Lucretia didn't even look over at her at the invasion of her space, just shifting slightly to the left to make a little more space for Lup between her body and the arm rest.

Instead she looked down at the package, read the address it came from, and immediately turned and threw it in the garbage.

"Oookay," Lup said, curiosity even more raging now. "What the hell was that?"

"An admittedly nice gesture that I have no interest in reciprocating," Lucretia said crisply.

"From who?" Magnus asked, glancing over at the trash bin as if he wanted to dart over and grab it, but was restraining the impulse.

"Lucas," Lucretia said, with a long-suffering sigh.

"Miller?" Taako questioned. "What's that dick writing you for?"

"The holiday, I presume," Lucretia said, waving her hand vaguely.

It made zero sense to Lup that Lucas would be sending Lucretia something on holidays, and the weirdness was only compounded by the fact that she couldn't think of any recent holidays that she could be referring to. Glancing around at the confusion the rest of them were displaying, she was pretty sure it wasn't just because she was the least familiar with Faerun holidays of their group.

"What holiday?" Merle asked, scratching his head in confusion. "Only holiday I can think of around now is Mother's Day, but obviously it's not that."

Lucretia's mouth opened and closed in confusion for a moment, before her eyes widened. "Oh. Right. I'd forgotten you didn't know."

"Didn't know what?" Barry asked, head tilted to the side in curiosity and confusion.

"Lucas' mother Maureen and I- we were together. Married, actually," Lucretia said, glancing down at her hands in her lap as she said it. "It was pretty common knowledge, at the Bureau, so I thought you would have known- but I guess I assumed wrong. Which isn't that surprising, really, since nobody mentioned it too much after Maureen's death-"

Lup's had automatically reached out her arms when Lucretia started to sound sad, turning her lean into an embrace before her shocked mind could catch up with what had been said.

"What the fuck, Lucretia! How do you forget to mention the fact that you were married?" Taako squawked, even as he came over to them and gave Lucretia a quick, tight hug.

"I really thought you knew! It doesn't come up much with most people; I assumed it was the same here!" Lucretia defended.

"You thought we wouldn't have anything to say about the fact that you had a wife and she died?" Taako asked, still incredulous.

"Most people don't bring it up. It makes them awkward and uncomfortable," Lucretia said.

"Uh, yeah, obviously, but we talk about Julia with Magnus sometimes!" Lup said, wincing immediately afterwards and shooting a concerned look at Magnus. She hadn't meant to be so flippant about that.

Magnus looked a little shaken and wide-eyed, but he threw her a smile and a careful thumbs-up, so Lup knew she was okay.

"That's different," Lucretia said. "Magnus has been always been less private about his emotions than me."

They all knew what she wasn't saying. And also, Magnus didn't do what she did. And yes, those things were true, but like fuck was Lup going to let Lucretia think that they would just leave her to deal with her trauma and grief alone, just because she had betrayed their trust. They loved her way too much to do that to her.

"So? Being a private person doesn't mean your family isn't going to hug the living shit out of you when you lose somebody!" she said, squeezing her arms tighter to prove her point.

Lucretia chuckled softly, and her eyes got very soft and warm. "Thank you, Lup, but I promise, I'm okay. Now, anyway. Maybe we can talk about it another time?"

"Yeah, alright," Lup agreed, not totally loosening her hold.

"Wait, fuck, okay so it is Mother's Day? That's the reason Miller's sending you shit?" Taako asked, his face shifting from irritation and concern to a shit-eating grin.

"Presumably," Lucretia said. "He's done it before. And usually, when he writes me, it's just a letter, nothing more."

"Oh my god, he's your stepson," Magnus snickered.

"Yes, that is what it means when you marry someone's mother," Lucretia agreed, an indulgently amused look on her face.

"I can't believe you didn't tell us! We've been missing out on some choice goofs because of that, Lucy!" Taako said, faux indignant.

"Again, I thought you knew! I figured you didn't bring up Lucas being my stepson because he is, you know, terrible."

"Solid reasoning, but not quite," Barry chuckled.

Lup let go of Lucretia to push herself up and move toward the package in the garbage.

"Lup?" Lucretia questioned, watching her.

"Just 'cause he's an ass is no reason to throw out free shit before you even know what it is! Come on, Lucy, use your head! Might be something nice, and you don't gotta talk to him to accept free stuff," Lup explained.

Lucretia laughed, taking the package from Lup's outstretched hands. "I suppose you have a good point."

She opened the package and inside was a set of paints.

"Oh," she said softly. "These are- These are my favorites. Maureen used to get me this same set all the time."

"See! Nice!" Lup chimed. "You can just toss the letter and keep the paint!"

"Yes," Lucretia nodded, "you're right."

But she didn't move to throw the letter away.

Instead, after several long moments of internal debate, she said, "Lucas wasn't always such a dick. When he was younger, he could be a real sweetheart. When he wanted."

"Why don't you look at the letter, Lucy?" Merle said, soft. "Seems like you really want to."

"I don't," she said, firmly. "Lucas used the Philosopher's Stone in a way that was insanely risky. He didn't care about how it would affect anyone but himself and Maureen. And that was hardly the least of it, either. Maureen- wasn't always the most cautious when inventing or researching, but she only ever put herself at risk. She didn't hurt people. Lucas was grieving, yes, I understand, but that's not an excuse. And it certainly doesn't excuse what he did to the bugbears or- any of the other incredibly inethical things he did! Maureen would be disappointed in him. And so am I."

Even with the tirade, she hadn't tossed the letter.

"Yeah, that was fucked up," Magnus chimed. "Nobody's going to make you read it or talk to him ever, you know that, right?"

"Uh huh," Lucretia nodded. "I think- I think I'll take these to my room."

She waved the paints as she said it, and only the paints, but she still took the letter up with her. And when she came back down and threw out the mess of packaging on the floor, she didn't have the letter anymore.

(Notes: Okay, so I personally can't really stand Lucas, especially in the podcast with the whole, uh, enslavement debacle, but in a fandom that has so much focus on family and forgiveness and redemption and hope and moving on, it felt weird to just completely shut off any chance of Lucas redeeming himself and being less of an asshole and rebuilding that relationship so. I left it open-ended. Feel free to assume he never does though, if you want!

Additionally, I really wavered on whether to go with podcast canon of the control chips and basically enslavement of the bugbears or the graphic novel canon of intelligence enhancing chips, because the latter is less uncomfortable for me personally, but also the fact that the former is a thing is part of why I wrote Lucretia feeling so harsh towards Lucas, so I decided basically to leave it vague. You can assume the bit about what Lucas did to the bugbears refers to either podcast canon or something shitty in gn canon depending on your own preferences.)

#taz lucretia #lucas miller #taz gn #taz #taz fic #taz graphic novel #not spoilers #my writing

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neuronary · 3 years

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For the ask game! 👻 😈 💻

👻 What is one WIP you think you may never pick back up?

magnus and kravitz's life changing road trip through hell my beloved,,, you will be missed. i don't think i ever talked about this on here, but i really love the idea of taako not being able to grab magnus in time to keep him from falling through the rift to the astral plane. my version featured julia being awesome, magnus finding out about kravitz and taako in the worst way possible, and angus wearing the baby voidfish as a hat. i'm going to read the one fic i could find with the same premise soon, now that i've given up hope on it. (although if i ever listen to taz balance again,,, well.)

😈 Is there anything you enjoy doing that you think your readers hate?

starting fics and then abandoning them two weeks later?

no but really, i've written quite a lot of fanfiction where characters get some kind of satisfying resolution to what they suffer, but truly? my favourite thing to write is stretching, torturous tragedies that never come with happy endings. i don't publish these really ever, but i do love them, and i think they're some of my best writing. @king-of-the-dots can attest.

💻 Do you do research for your fics? What’s the deepest dive you’ve done?

well, this one's easy. yes, extensively, and the What Actually Is Vanya's Medication saga. for those unaware, one day, on the tail end of a biology research paper that had taken me fourteen hours and a re-binge of season one of the umbrella academy in preparation for season two, i wondered to myself "hey, what is vanya actually taking, though?" i asked @/captainkirkk (ly jade) and she replied with some Thoughts, by which time i had pulled an inadvisable all-nighter, consumed questionable amounts of coffee, and gotten back into my neuroscience hyperfixation. i spent pretty much eight straight hours hunting down and reading a collection of research papers of varying levels of ethicalness (thank you, 1960s). from there stemmed. hm. not quite a fic, but an idea. i'll see if i can dig it back up.

[fic ask game]

#asks #fij my beloved #beloved mutuals tag #fic asks

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argonaut--keene · 3 years

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Lighthouse Keeper

For @taz-channukah-event nights 3 and 4: Old Traditions/New Traditions. Yes, it’s one fic for both nights, but I’ve been busy playing Animal Crossing oops.

_____

It had been a very long day. Negotiations for the Light had been going on for over a week now, and everyone was exhausted. It was also, according to Lucretia's diligent tracking of the calendar from their home planet, the third night of Channukah. Even Lup, who was usually the one insisting that they light candles no matter what else was going on, was tired enough that she was planning to go straight to bed when she got back on the ship.

But as she walked into the kitchen to grab a quick snack so she wouldn't be falling asleep on an empty stomach, she saw Lucretia sitting in the windowsill next to a lit chanukiah. Her eyes were half closed. "Thought you went to bed already," Lucretia said softly.

"Wanted to eat something first. Did you light them alone?"

Lucretia nodded. "Everyone else was already heading to sleep."

Lup picked a cookie out of a container and sat down at the table. "It's really okay if we miss a night," she said.

"I know." Lucretia was looking towards the candles, but she seemed to be staring into the middle distance more than anything else. "I didn't want to. It feels...important, to keep the tradition alive. It feels like a lighthouse."

"A...lighthouse?" Lup asked through a bite of the cookie. Cinnamon rugelach. One of Taako's specialties.

"Someone has to keep the light going, so we don't crash into a reef. It's a guide, a...a protector. It's not the ship, the traditions that keep us floating, but it gives us something to look towards, to know where we're going," Lucretia said. She cupped her hand behind the shamash flame as it flickered. "Sorry, Lup, my metaphors get more confusing as the night gets later. There's a reason I write memoirs and not poetry."

"I think it was lovely," Lup said honestly.

"It's just, I feel like if we're just doing our old traditions from our cultures from home...mindlessly, or because we feel like we should, it doesn't matter. If we're doing it out of some sense of duty, then we shouldn't be doing it at all. But it doesn't feel like that's what I'm doing here," she said, looking over at Lup with wide, earnest eyes. "Lup, even though a lot of my family from home was Jewish, I was...never close to either them or the culture. I barely considered myself Jewish until I got onto this mission, and you and Taako and Barry were so...encouraging. To Magnus as well, since one of his moms was Jewish but they never practiced at home, and...anyway, it's meant a lot. And we've been doing this for ten years and I still feel the same way when I look at the Channukah candles. Like I know where I am even when the universe around us changes so much."

Lup felt her eyes getting a little damp as Lucretia talked. She didn't know what to say exactly, so she just nodded.

"Anyway." Lucretia smiled, looking a little embarrassed, and glanced away. "I'm just going to sit up and wait for the candles to burn down. Don't worry, I won't fall asleep and let the ship catch on fire. I know Dav is worried every time we light a candle, but I'll be careful."

"I'm not worried," Lup said. She brushed the cookie crumbs off the table and went over to Lucretia, giving her a brief side-hug. "You're a great lighthouse-keeper."

Lucretia smiled again, and settled back to watch the candles burn through the night.

#tazchannukah #taz balance fic #taz lucretia #taz lup #i wrote this VERY late last night so please excuse any errors #my writing #lighthouse keeper #this one is so short i dont feel like putting it behind a read more

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cntrspll · 3 years

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this is a love letter to my own fic

hi hello hey, this is an essay about my own fic and the feelings i have about it. fic can be found here.

i am going to try so hard to keep this organized but i don’t know how well that will work soooo let’s go!

on the fic overall:

i just... like magnus. i think he is a fan fave for a reason, but i think there’s a lot of missing discussion of his post-canon situation and the development thereafter. when i finished listening to balance for the first time (in february-ish this year, i think?), i remember being super frustrated with where parts of the fandom had landed their focus. this isn’t an uncommon fandom thing, and i totally get where it comes from. some characters are just super relatable and a lot of fun to write about and have like absolute piles of stuff to unpack, so it’s totally fair that some characters get more focus than others, but where i felt that some of my faves got a lot of fandom focus, others... didn’t.

so this fic was in part an attempt to rectify that, because i wasn’t finding the unpacking of magnus and his emotional / mental state that i wanted. that being said, there are a couple fics that i did draw a little bit of inspiration from, the biggest probably being patterns of migration by goodnicepeople. the depiction of magnus as this big strong dude who also has these quiet vulnerabilities that he doesn’t like admitting to people is like, in part just really accurate to canon, but also something that i really wanted to see explored more, and i didn’t find a whole lot of other fics that fit that, so in part i just wanted to set out to put a little more into that.

also, like, i work in food service, and we are in a pandemic, and i moved in the middle of this year and i started hrt this year and have been dealing with the fallout of coming out and just kind of everything, and this fic was a really good way of just like, distracting myself from everything and sitting down for a little every day and thinking about something else and not so much about everything that was happening around me. so there is a good part of this fic that is just like, me coping with everything and trying to reorient myself a little. and it worked pretty well for that!

on process:

ok first things first, this was never meant to be 133k long. when i first sat down to write this, it was going to be a handful of snapshots set across [undetermined amount of time here] of magnus dealing with isolation and insomnia, and it was only meant to be like, maybe a 20k oneshot? that obviously did not happen. i think my original estimate once i accepted that this was gonna be multichaptered was like 60-70k, but then the chapters started getting longer with each one i finished, and then i wanted to add in an interlude, and then i decided i needed an epilogue, and here we are.

i’ll talk about this in other sections too, but as i wrote, i just kept finding more and more things that i wanted to talk about. i was also in the process of relistening to balance i was writing, and i kept running into little things that happened over the course of the show that i was like... oh shit! and that would inspire another scene or an interaction i wanted to write or something i wanted to focus more on, and the whole thing just kept getting more and more and bigger and bigger.

i’ve said it like 50 thousand times now, but i have never written anything this long before. i tried really hard to be regimented about the way i did it, because from the beginning i knew this was going to be an emotional journey for me to write, but i knew that if i let it slide for a week or so then i would never finish it. so to get through it, i wrote almost every day for a minimum of an hour. the process that i’ve found works best for me when i’m writing is using word sprints, putting on some music, and then forcing myself to tune out of social media and everything else for 25 minutes. i try to do between 750-1k words in that time period, then the site gives you a five minute break, during which i usually check twitter or fact check if i need to, and then i go back in and do another sprint. this works really well for me because i wasn’t trying to hit a specific word goal in any given day, just like... trying to sit down and write. i also tried not to guilt myself too much if i missed a day, or if i only did one sprint instead of two, or anything like that, and that’s kind of what helped me get through the whole monster without instantly dropping it as soon as i had another idea.

on mental health and recovery:

so one of my big personal pet peeves in fiction is the idea that trauma recovery is like, a one time single event deal. like, someone has this big horrible thing happen to them or they have some pressing mental health issue and then someone else walks in and they have one conversation and bam, everything is fine. i was exposed to a lot of [fan]fiction when i was younger that kind of supported this kind of narrative, and i get that there is a certain sort of wish fulfillment thing to that, but it also sucks, being an adult and having Problems(TM) and knowing that it absolutely does not work like that.

so when i set out to write a fic about trauma and mental illness and recovery, i felt kind of a responsibility to not fall into that trap and write it like, okay and then magnus and taako talk about it and taako’s like hey dude you’re depressed but it’s okay and then magnus doesn’t have nightmares anymore. also, because this is taz and the canon of like, historical accuracy is complete bullshit, i can put therapists and psychiatry and psychiatric medications in my fic and no one can tell me i’m wrong and it doesn’t exist. elevators exist, so i can make ssris and anti anxiety pills exist.

but also, magnus as a character is not going to jump into that right away. it is canon fact that he doesn’t like accepting or asking for help with stuff like this, and yes there are a couple big moments where he does, but like i bring up a couple times in the fic, mental health struggles are a big jump from like, a physical fight using swords and axes and shit. and this i think is really accurate to a lot of people’s struggles with mental illness, just taking that first step and admitting that you don’t feel okay, and that you need someone’s help to deal with it. that’s super super scary even to admit to like, your closest friends.

so that’s why magnus kind of shies away a number of times from some of the conversations that people try to start with him about mental health. taako and carey and lucretia and pretty much everyone else approach him at some point about opening up about this stuff, but he pulls away because admitting that kind of vulnerability to someone else is super scary, even if you’ve maybe admitted it to yourself already.

i also wanted to make sure that at the end of the fic, he wasn’t magically better. this is something else that i think people kind of forget, like... trauma and the problems that it causes don’t go away just because of therapy and medication. those things help, they help you reform the ways you think about yourself and about the world, but they don’t change the struggles you’ve been through or the sometimes biological problems that are causing whatever issue you’re having. and i remember reading a lot of fic when i was a kid where someone would be depressed, and then they’d fall in love and get magic dick or something and then they’d never be sad again, which... isn’t great.

but at the same time, i didn’t want it to end on this note like, oh everything is still bad even though he worked so hard to open up and get help, because that sucks, too. so it was really important to me that the fic end on a hopeful note, like, magnus isn’t cured. he still has bad days and bad weeks and sometimes he is just as low as he was before, but he also has like, normal days, which is something that i think you kind of forget can even exist when you’re depressed, or when you’re dealing with any mental illness. but like, i really wanted it to be obvious that things did get better and even if he’s still coping with it and it’s not going away, he’s okay. he’s gonna be all right.

on an unreliable narrator:

this kind of plays into some of the mental health stuff, but one thing that i love about taz that i really wanted to play into with this fic is the idea of limited perspective. griffin does some really cool fucking things with this, specifically in relation to the ipre and the big reveal in the last lunar interlude, with the idea of like... a character can only know the things that they know. like, magnus knows that there is a picture of him depicted as a red robe, and barry knows that they’re all red robes, and taako knows that they found the umbra staff next to a red robed skeleton and that the umbrella spelled out lup at one point, but none of them necessarily know all the things that the other person knew, and none of them know all the things that lucretia knows or that fisher knows or junior knows, etc etc.

unfortunately, just because the pace of the story picks up so much in that last lunar interlude, there isn’t a whole lot of space to explore that like, disconnect between all these facts that they each have as individuals. and given the perspective of mental health and the way that plays into your perceptions of yourself and your perceptions of other people’s perceptions, i really wanted to delve into like… magnus’s misunderstandings.

this is not a strictly straightforward unreliable narrator situation, but i did bring in some elements of that. i really wanted to explore the disconnect between how magnus sees and how everyone else sees him and his issues. there are also a couple moments where he flat out completely misinterprets their intentions, which unfortunately i didn’t delve into as much as i wanted to so they ended up mostly being fun easter eggs for, uh… me? i guess?

one of those moments is the scene in ch 4 where barry and magnus are sitting in the kitchen and barry starts to ask magnus something. magnus assumes it’s going to be about his mental health, and that this is barry stepping up as representative for everyone else to talk to him about it, but it’s really meant to be a precursor to their conversation in ch 6 where they talk about barry and lup and marriage and proposals.

magnus gets a little perspective on this later, i think in ch 7(?) where he’s thinking about how maybe their lives don’t completely revolve around him and he’s missing some of their perspective. but like, they all have their own shit going on, and they all love him and they’re worried about him, but also, barry is thinking about lup. lup is thinking about taako. taako is thinking about lucretia. lucretia is thinking about davenport, and davenport is thinking about his own issues, and so on and so on and they’re not all just like… waiting to pounce on magnus the second he shows weakness.

a lot of that plays into the hypervigilance of ptsd, too. magnus is very aware of any perceived threat, and he sometimes treats the people around him as threats, when all they’re doing in reality is thinking like, man i wish he didn’t live out here by himself all the time.

on a more meta note, i also have a tendency to make every character i write just like, a super good judge of character. i don’t think magnus is that, and i really wanted to lean into that. magnus does not read intention super well, even when that intention is genuinely good.

on the ipre and their relationships:

so i… really don’t write gen fic a lot. even when i do, it is almost always tinged with a little bit of background shipping, and there is some of that in this, but whereas in most fandoms i end up being a multishipper, for some reason with taz i’ve ended up pretty much only caring about the canon ships (sorry…). that being said, the platonic relationships in taz (and especially in balance) are some of the most compelling and important fictional relationships that i’ve ever encountered. like, they are just really well fucking done.

this being the magnus love letter that it is, i really wanted to focus on magnus’s distinct relationships with every member of the ipre crew. i don’t know how obvious this is in the actual narrative, but with the exception of the interlude and the epilogue, the story is broken down into one chapter for each member of the starblaster crew (in order, magnus, taako, merle, davenport, barry, lucretia, lup). i did this specifically because it was really important to me that i dive into all of them and their particular issues. i didn’t quite get the deep dive with merle or davenport that i would’ve liked to, but hopefully in the future i’ll get more time to explore that.

anyway, in case it isn’t obvious, lup is probably my favorite fictional character literally ever in any media created by anyone in the history of time. i say this only because a lot of this fic was set up to build to the conversation between her and magnus in ch 8 out on the mountain where he finally opens up for the first time. there are some really incredible unexplored parallels and relationships in taz (unexplored mainly because like, where would it even fit in canon), and while some of them are super self indulgent (ie, lup and mags, barry and mags), i really really really wanted to dig into those a little more. things like the conversation where taako is talking about everyone brushing over his trauma to rush to forgive lucretia, or lucretia talking about trying to learn to love writing again and recognize happy moments, davenport almost admitting that he’s not completely sure about stepping back into the family in his former role… i could write an entire fic on any of these, really.

but ultimately, this being a magnus fic, i tried to filter those conversations through a perspective of two things: first, how does this affect magnus and his mental health journey, and second, what can magnus do to help this. those scenes where magnus is trying to help someone with something and they’re like, backhandedly helping him are some of my favorite interactions in the fic.

the other thing i really really really wanted to explore that i never see enough of in fic is magnus and carey’s relationship. carey is canonically magnus’s best friend, and yet in fic i feel like she gets pushed to the side a little in favor of the starblaster crew. which i get, they’ve got a hundred and ten years of shared trauma, but also, travis flat out states that carey is magnus’s best friend, so… i mean, there is also a little bit of self indulgence here, because i am also a man who is exclusively best friends with lesbians, but you know.

that being said, i really wanted to emphasize that relationship in particular, which is why carey doesn’t have her own dedicated chapter and instead kind of slides in and out of each one and slowly helps magnus along the way. her personality i also feel is like, the exact kind of thing that magnus needs to push him into accepting / asking for help and moving towards recovery.

on real life parallels:

ok, i swear to god i did not intend to make this a holiday fic posted during the holidays. i started writing this in june, and again, it was only meant to be like 20k and not necessarily entirely set during candlenights. that kind of happened, anyway? candlenights just seemed like the best vessel to get all these characters whose post-canon situations i wanted to explore into the same room, and i finished the first draft around mid october and i wanted to give myself plenty of time for editing, so it honestly just ended up coincidentally aligning with the holidays. go figure.

that being said, isolation ended up featuring pretty heavily in this fic. that i think is to be expected to a certain degree given the nature of mental health and recovery and blah blah blah, but i probably unintentionally ended up leaning into it a little more because like… this year. and the holidays tend to be a time that a lot of us feel really isolated, and this year especially, but one of the big things for me this year is that like, all of my friends live out of state. the closest one to me is still a good 2-3 hour plane ride, which i am absolutely not risking. i had like a hundred plans to go see people and do things this year, and those obviously got cancelled.

probably the biggest one of those things was seeing a friend who i have kind of started a new years tradition of seeing, but we ended up calling that off out of safety considerations, of course. and it sucks! it’s not fun! i also moved out this year and i have my own place and in june i was really hoping that things would be okay by now and i could have all my friends come in from out of town for new years and that didn’t happen. and i wasn’t intending for this fic to be a kind of wish fulfillment of like, here’s my new place post-[saving the universe / coming out and becoming a real person], let me show my found family around my hometown and let’s make new holiday traditions together now that we’re no longer [fighting the apocalypse / literal children] and everything will be fun and happy and good, but that is kind of what happened anyway. [insert joke here that goes like “do you project your real world problems and mental health issues onto fictional characters or are you normal?”]

but yeah, magnus’s mental health struggles did kind of accidentally become a little bit of a pandemic / quarantine life parallel. i did not mean for that to happen, but it did help me tease out a little bit of what it is that i feel like i’m missing and what i want in the future when things are better, and i hope it helped some other people figure that stuff out too, maybe?

and in conclusion:

i said this a little bit in the final notes in the fic, but i am so so so grateful and emotional over the comments i’ve gotten from some of you. i’ve said it already, but this was such an emotional rollercoaster for me to write. i put a decent amount of my own mental health issues into the stuff i wrote into magnus, and it was genuinely therapeutic and like… super helpful and important. it was also a big struggle, and there were some scenes i came out of feeling incredibly drained and like i needed to not write for a week.

so that being said, those of you who have commented things about how this fic helped you deal with your own emotional turmoil or helped put something in perspective for you, i am genuinely so happy to hear that i’ve impacted you in that way like, at all. that is so incredible to me, and not necessarily what i set out to do, but it means so much to hear someone say that and also to know that someone felt comfortable sharing that with a stranger on the internet. thank you so so so much.

again, this fic means so much to me. the fact that it’s impacted even a handful of people in that way is absolutely amazing. some of the things you guys have said have had me seriously choked up. i am so glad that anyone even took the time to read all 133k of this, let alone that it affected people like that.

i don’t know if i’ll be writing more about magnus in this universe. i would love to! but i’m also super happy with where i’ve left his story. i have plans to explore the calen thing in the future, but only kind of tangentially in a side mention and not fully, so who knows? there is more though, a lot with taako and kravitz and lup and barry and hopefully one day i will find the motivation somewhere in me to flesh out everyone else’s situations a little more, too. who knows!

anyway, i just want to say thanks again to everyone for reading, and even more so if you are reading this dumb essay. you’re super cool.

#txt #fic talk

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barry-j-blupjeans · 4 years

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TAZ Balance Fic Recs

I’m making this 90% because I love these fics and the world needs to know and 10% because I need help finding them once I’ve read them. Let’s begin!! (I will not be tagging authors because I only know a few writers on this list, but if anyone else wants to tag them, feel free :>)

Refractory - Written by Nesswrites on Ao3 - Rated T

Refractory adj. (rih-frack-tuh-ree) 1. Stubborn or unmanageable. 2. Resistant to a process or stimulus.

Kravitz, a young orthopedic surgeon, is thrust into what feels like a different reality when he meets psychiatric patient, Taako. In a strange flurry of events, he finds himself being drawn toward this man, spending more and more time in a department that he used to hate and becoming invested in a patient who isn't one of his own.

Taako, an in-denial anorexia patient, is forced into a long-term hospital stay by friends and family who worry about his waning health. When he meets an attractive doctor from another wing, he begins to wonder if maybe this was the star-crossed love that he was always destined for. At least, that's what hundreds of episodes of Grey's Anatomy taught him.

In other words, the hospital drama nobody wanted but everyone got

I just really love this fic, guys, there’s not a lot I can say. It’s well written

Bury the Lead - Written by marywhale on Ao3 - Rated T

Taako’s senior year at Neverwinter High could be going better. Faced with a choice between joining the school’s floundering newspaper or being expelled, he opts for a career in journalism.

Lucretia, the paper’s editor, kind of wishes he'd gone the other way.

As the first TAZ fic I ever read in my life, this was really good. Even if it wasn’t the first fic I ever read, I still would love it. It captivated me in a way I didn’t think fics could.

Seven Raptors - Written by DragonWrites on Ao3 - Rated M

In a distant plane, Fate brings together seven scientists and explorers, who set out to explore the unknown and find themselves on a mission to save all of existence.

In another, far harsher plane, Fate brings those same seven together again. But these Seven Birds have been shaped by a crueler, much less forgiving world. These Seven Raptors are the villains in their story.

And when the two flocks meet, each of the Seven Birds must come face to face with who they might have been--who they might still become--if they let the darkness consume them.

I’ve had an idea in my head for a while of the birds meeting themselves but on a different plane? And this fic makes that idea so much more than I ever thought it could be. The first chapter really drew me in and I read it all in one night (with help from insomnia).

More below the cut!!

Serendipity and it’s inconspicuous faults - Written by TasteofDeath of Ao3 - Rated G

The morning after Angus comes home with a sore tummy and a stomach bug, things are starting to get better.

Or, Angus’ fathers have a fun time loving their little boy and a not so fun time worrying about his health

This is absolutely the cutest fic I’ve ever read. It made me tear up but in the good way. Also everything by TasteofDeath is amazing, check them out.

From the blackest room - Written by FordRiverBlues - Rated M

The authorities on a new plane mistake Barry for an enemy spy. They want information he doesn't have. Barry just wants to survive.

What can I say, I like angst. I’ve spent long hours thinking about this fic. Barry is a comfort character of mine and apparently I love seeming my comfort characters going through hard stuff. It’s just a good fic, my dudes.

The Sweetest, Dorkiest Love - Written by ceilingfan5 - Rated G

Anxious about giving Taako the perfect Valentine's present, Kravitz trades Lup two weeks of night shifts so she'll teach him how to make chocolates. It doesn't go as planned, but love wins out anyway.

Okay listen. I just said I liked angst buuUUUT - Heck, this fic is so soft and I really love and it made me cry because they’re just so soft.

All the Things You Prayed For - Written by anonymousAlchemist and marywhale - Rated T

Taako's been dead for two years. Taako's been dead for seven decades. Depends how you count it.

Her brother is dead and Lup’s a whole lifetime into the future. It’s a brave new world out there and she’s trying not to think about it too hard. She gets the feeling that if she starts thinking, she won’t ever stop, and she can’t afford to be out of commission. She's the only Captain America the new century’s got.

Lup is Cap, Taako fell from a train, and eventually all ghosts come in from the cold. You guessed it—it's a TAZ/Marvel shakeup baby. We're bringing the party to you.

If you’ve been anywhere on tumblr, you’ve heard some mention of this fic and for good reason!! I’m not into any superhero stuff so it took a while to read it because I didn’t think I’d understand it. But honestly? You don’t need to know anything about any superhero to read this. It’s written excellently and I really like it.

It's Difficult To Learn About Yourself When You Didn't Know You Could - Written by Casual_Scribbles - No rating

He licks his lips, running his knuckle along the spiral binding of his notebook. “I was reading my Caleb Cleaveland books – some of the newer ones, where he's a teenager – and one of the characters that were introduced was, um, they’re nonbinary. And I- I've heard of that before, but I didn't know a lot about it, so I looked it up.” He looks up and Miss Lup is listening to him attentively, her ears perked up. She nods at him.

“And I found out- I thought it was just one thing, ma'am,” he feels bolder, having seen the encouragement on her face. “But it's not. It’s a lot- it's so many things, Miss Lup! And I was looking through them and I just- some of them felt really familiar. Like- like I knew exactly what the writer was trying to say and I-”

(They'd been more than familiar. They'd been-)

No. They weren’t his.

Angus struggles to come to terms with something new he learns about himself, but thankfully his family is there to support him.

Non-binary Angus!!! Non-binary Angus!!!!!!! That’s all I have to say!!! Read it!!!!

Back to Wonderland - Written by OhWowAltMal - Rated G

When lich twins Edward and Lydia pull a trick far too convincing for Taakos liking, he may have found himself panicking and making some rash decisions. Just a little, though.

He definitely doesn't break the umbrastaff in half, looking for his (real?) sister.

An alternative look at the live show in Orleans, and how it could have gone.

This idea was something I didn’t even think of but I love it so much?? Half of me wishes this is what really happened, but they write the characters so well that it feels like it did.

I Know I've Kissed You Before - Written by Desiree_Harding - Rated T

"He thinks, one day, that maybe what he’s been feeling is the urge to show Kravitz, really show him, how much Taako cares about him. To make it… official. That he’s not going anywhere. Because Kravitz doesn’t live off of implications like Taako does, and maybe Taako’s a little tired of making him translate.

Maybe Taako wants to do a little bit of the work for him, just once."

AKA The story of how Taako and Kravitz got married alone in their kitchen on Candlenights (on purpose they swear)

This??? Is incredible?? It’s a (long winded but worth it) process of Taakitz proposing. I have no words, truly.

Six Years - Written by WritingIsMyCoffee and zumbah_plumbah - Rated T

Six years ago, Taako was kicked out of culinary school for an altercation between him and his roommate, forever crushing his lifelong dream of becoming a chef.

Six years ago, Merle was fiddling with the ring on his finger that he no longer needed to wear.

Six years ago, Magnus was sitting beside a hospital bed and holding his wife's hand.

Now, Taako is burdened with the struggles of raising a ten year old. Merle is wondering whether or not he wants that ring to become an obligation. Magnus is struggling to overcome the grieving process. For the past six years, the three of them have been running away from their problems and the reasons that brought them to where they currently are. Now they will be forced to face the music and deal with what happened in the past in order to move on.

FUCK!!! Fuck this made me cry?? I really like it. I really really like it. It’s so raw and emotional. All the characters fit perfectly.

synecdoche - Written by androids_fighting93 - Rated M

Echoes of the seven of them stretch into infinity, and now there’s Kravitz, a parallel line that they keep crossing despite all physical laws. Taako can see how they are bound together, he and Lup and the rest of the crew, white shimmering cords that stretch between them, between himself and Kravitz, and every aspect of Kravitz and every aspect of the Raven Queen in every world, all existing simultaneously. The Light falling to countless worlds at once, the Hunger descending over it all, the same patterns into infinity and nothing to stop it except for a silver ship, a bright beacon, unique among it all. He can see all of it.

They’re hunted by two immensely powerful creatures now, the Hunger and the Raven Queen’s servant. It's too bad Taako can't seem to stay out of harm's way.

I read this again recently and it broke my heart all over again. The idea is wonderful, the writing is even better. Please go read this fic!!!

#vic speaks #taz balance #taz #taz fic #taz fic rec #The Adventure Zone #the adventure zone balance

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epersonae · 2 years

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I keep thinking about this, and it’s just wrecking me, so

(lord the Venn diagram of people who have read Ryn’s earlier TAZ fic, people who have watched OFMD, and people who follow me has got to be like 4 people, so apologies to everyone else)

The way people write post-S1 Ed consistently reminds me of how Ryn wrote Taako in Another Beach Year (and the rest of the works that lead up to that).

The sense of betrayal and self-loathing, lashing out alternating with self-destructive behavior (esp drinking), just being a messy bitch basically.

And I know Ryn struggled a lot with how to write him through that out to the other side. It took the two of us writing together to find a way to negotiate a new equilibrium for these characters -- both what we saw as the central conflict between Taako and Lucretia, and all the other relationships in that group.

I feel like some of the OFMD reunion fics I’ve read gloss over that bit, the getting through; like obviously they have to make up, because OBVIOUSLY (this, imho, is an interesting reversal of all the fics that go “well of course Taako and Lucretia never reconcile”, which says something about friendship vs romance, or something) but there’s a step of how is Ed really ready for that, how does he get the character arc????

[note: I actually totally trust the show writers to do something that will make sense emotionally and narratively; it probably helps to have a wholeass team]

The one time I tried to write something in the mental space of ABY Taako I wrote Kravitz POV, because of some personal shit that Ryn and I were going through, and it was very tender and tentative to write, and Kravitz has such a thoughtful way about him. And I also feel like a lot of people write Stede in that vein, which is great, I love a tender listening Stede, but also: Stede has his own inner turmoil that, dinghy into the waves notwithstanding, he still needs to keep working through.

I want to write a reunion. GOD do I want to write a reunion. And in the same way that I could always feel a Lucretia POV in my bones, I know where Stede is coming from.

But trying to figure out how to write through Ed’s stuff and how he comes out the other side to actually have that reunion work... I dunno. I miss Ryn a lot, and I know they would have some really thoughtful takes about it. I’m just going to have to flail about and probably write a bunch of extra Ed POV stuff until something clicks, maybe.

(guy friend, like a week ago, said “I know you two would have written like 20,000 words by now” and I kind of scoffed, but he was right.)

#my fic #feels like piloting a mech by myself #half the body I'm just dragging with me #fucking sucks actually #I'm enjoying writing but like everything else it's always tinged with grief

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mischiefs-hawk · 4 years

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Here’s a TAZ: Graduation thing that’s been on my mind a lot lately.

In Balance, the main “ship” was Taako and Kravitz which was a PC and an NPC. So awkward but excellently executed by Justin and Griffin.

In Amnesty, the main “ship” was Aubrey and Dani- again a PC and an NPC. Done just as well with Travis and Griffin.

In Graduation, however, it seems like the main ship is/going to be Argo and Fitzroy (which yes I do ship shut up). The thing is as much as I like it, I don’t think it’ll be canon for one very simple reason. That would be awkward as fuck for Griffin and Clint.

Before, with NPCs, I think the player could just say what’s happening on their end. Taako did this really well with telling the audience that what he and Kravitz did wasn’t the BOB’s business so that sort of let the shippers ship to their heart desires and make things not awkward for Griffin and Justin.

With Aubrey and Dani I think it worked b/c there was less downtime in general. Griffin could just ask Travis what Aubrey had been doing between a monster hunt, Travis could say Aubrey was with Dani. Again, here is the opportunity for the shippers to ship and make it less awkward for the bros.

I don’t really know of any ships in the other stories (Dust I don’t think had any for the PCs, and I can’t think of any for the one shots. Though, there could be something I’m missing from the MaxFun donor library). Commitment is the only one that sorta had a ship that I’ve noticed is also somewhat popular- that being Nadiya/Irene/Remy. Though with only 4 episodes there isn’t really a whole lot to work with in comparison to what’s happening now in Graduation.

The long and the short of it is Maplekeene is definitely going to be big enough to where Griffin and Clint will probably see it. Whether they choose to address it or not I have no idea, though I won’t think less of them if they don’t. Again, it would be super awkward.

That being said- I do think Travis has something in mind because of what was in the last episode (Ep 19: Creative Writing). Travis explicitly stated Fitz signed his letter to Argo with “Yours” and an abridged version of his name. It could be nothing or it could be Travis hinting at something.

I also saw somewhere (I’ll link it later if I find it again) it being pointed out that Chaos knew he had to get Argo to go to Chaos’ side in order to get Fitz’s loyalty. Again, maybe something, maybe not.

Am I gonna keep shipping it? Yep. And god willing, as a fandom, we can make it as less awkward for Clint and Griffin as we possibly can.

#the adventure zone #the adventure zone graduation #taz graduation #taz shipping #argo keene #sir fitzroy maplecourt #mcelory #those good good mcelboys #griffin mcelroy #clint mcelroy #travis mcelroy

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gaygemtheirs · 4 years

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Tumblr Slam Book

thank you to my new friend @lonelypalmtree for tagging me : )

1. You can call me: Cal, Callan, C

2. Three random facts about me:

Been writing stories ever since I can remember. Like from the age of 8.

I studied physics & chemistry in college

I have a whole slew of queer identities that apply. it’s such a laundry list that I tend not to use labels much anymore, besides queer, trans & nonbinary. other labels that apply are: asexual, bi/pan, aro (more specifically arospec or quoiro)

3. My hobbies are: writing, language practice (Spanish) and learning (Japanese), making playlists, drawing, reading

4. Things I love: COFFEE, my cats, good storytelling (in any form: fiction, manga, tv, movie, podcast, DnD play show), well written trans characters

5. Things I hate: transphobia, racism, capitalism, state sanctioned violence, the list goes on.

6. Things that make me happy: quiet, soft mornings, walks with friends, when my cats fall asleep on me, speeding down the interstate after work at 11pm with my music at full volume, writing a story about something I am excited about, good convos with friends

7. Things that make me upset: Blatant disrespect, Hange being gendered (but I really only get lit about that when I've had a few drinks lmao), unbalanced/one-sided friendship, black and white thinking, people who think they’re logical and not emotional at all (that’s not possibleeee)

8. I’m currently obsessed with: SnK (obvi) and... Kpop? not in like a Kpop stan way. like I don’t read fanfiction or follow it outside of listening to a lot Kpop (mostly at work). and watching a lot of different Kpop music videos. Recently missed the boat on my DnD play show obsession -- TAZ, D20 mostly. (my brain won’t allow me to be obsessed by those and anime at the same time. some sort of nerd capacity mental block. and thank god for that, honestly)

9. If I had an anywhere door: somewhere warmer than here! first snow today. torn between somewhere in rural Japan, or a couple places I have been before: Arizona, or Singapore. lmao

10. My favorite fictional character is: Hange, Levi (though specific to my interpretation & headcanons of him), Taako & Lup of TAZ: Balance, Zuko

tagging @rosaline-kei and @marmarparadoxa if y’all want to do this

#c rambles #this feels kinda off the cuff #i had a hard time with picking fave fictional characters #this is really a very specific snapshot into my pandemic time #i feel like my answers would've been p different a year ago #lol don't @ me about the hange being gendered stuff #i know they're up for interpretation #i just feel very strongly that the way yams talks about them feels very very nonbinary to me #in my trans opinion #but anYWAY i digress

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fandomsnstuff · 4 years

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Fic Author Tag Game

Tagged by: @halcyonhowl

Tagging: my dear friend @desiree-harding-fic

Ao3 name: fandomsnstuff

Fandoms: Currently I’m writing for taz, but I went off with the amount of v*ltron fics, I also wrote a little bit for yuri on ice and haikyuu a few years ago. For this I’m going to answer for just taz fics and in general, just for fun :)

Number of fics: 30(!) total fics, with 10 of them being taz

1. Fic you spent the most time on: That’s probably going to be Out of Time (taakitz, “real-world” & time travel au)

Although I do have a wip that’s already overtaken anything else I’ve ever written for the amount of time I’ve spent on it and it’s probably not even half done lmaoo

2. Fic you spent the least time on: Determining the Effects of Consuming the Light of Creation

tbh I don’t think this would even technically count as a fic, so aside from that, I think I spent about a max of 45 minutes of Kepler’s Laws

3. Longest fic: In general - A Foster Kid’s Confessional: 11 Unexpected Uses for Families (14 241 words, keith/lance, modern au)

For taz - Out of Time (14 167 words)

4. Shortest fic: Kepler’s Laws (545 words)

5. Most hits: In general - Five times Keith saw Lance cry, and the one time Lance saw Keith cry. (4837 hits, fic is exactly what it says on the tin)

For taz - Out of Time (830 hits, please read my fic she’s so good I promise)

6. Most kudos: In general - Five times Keith saw Lance cry, and the one time Lance saw Keith cry. (584 kudos)

For taz - Out of Time (148 kudos)

7. Most comment threads: Out of Time (22 comments)

8. Fave fic you wrote: I’m going to pick a few because I can. So in no particular order:

Don’t Commit Felonies, Kids - picked for the title alone. It’s about pidge (katie) reuniting with her dad in v*ltron

I Missed You - Listen v*ltron was trash, but this fic? Soft as hell. Someone complimented my characterization of the characters in this fic and it immediately became one of my favourites.

Stay Safe Out There - Barry Bluejeans is shaped like a dad and I’m always soft for him and his baby girl, and this whole fic is just him loving his daughter

Out of Time - There’s a reason this one has come up a lot, I spent like two weeks on this, and I Went Off if I do say so myself

9. Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: tbh I wouldn’t mind redoing Twists, Turns, and Shifts if I found the time and/or motivation bc I dunno. I don’t hate this one, but it’s the first taz fic I did and I think I could do it better if I really wanted to

10. Share a bit of your WIP or share a story idea that you’re planning: Okay so I’m in the process of writing a frozen 2 inspired fic with my blupjeans baby oc, but it’s multi-chapter and it has to be complete before I post it or it’ll never get done. This au has been in development literally since I saw frozen 2 on boxing day (dec 26th) and I adore it it’s so good.

Trying to pick and excerpt for this was very difficult, but here’s some mom Lup for ya

An eight-year old Lilliana sits cross-legged on the floor of her room, Lup across from her and an unlit candle sitting between them. She stares intently at the candle, willing it to light up. When nothing happens, she crosses her arms and huffs, frustrated. The fire in the hearth next to her flares up accordingly. Seeing this, Lilliana groans (prompting the fire to flare again) and falls back to lay down on the carpet.

“I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

Lup moves to sit next to her. “You’re not doing anything wrong,” she brushes a loose piece of hair out of Lilli’s face and tucks it behind her ear, “you just have to keep practising, you’ll get the hang of it.”

Lilliana looks up at Lup and pouts. “How should you know, Mama? You don’t have magic.”

Lup’s hand pauses in its ministrations with Lilli’s hair. She looks into her daughter’s hazel eyes, eyes that she knows are gold underneath. She tamps down the aching in her chest and sighs, smiling softly. “You’ve got me there, baby girl.”

Long story short: Lup and Barry makes some questionable parenting decisions, Lilliana is Elsa but better, Angus frets over her health, Taako loves his niece, Kravitz is just hoping everything works out

#tag games #fic games #taz #the adventure zone #taz fics

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