deirta thelyss defense squad

writing sideblog. principessa on ao3. previously gayforleia. main @ rainiermaria.

[bittcrblue]

principessa / bittcrblue starter pack

I don’t know how to actually pin this post once I make it, but lmao. Welcome to my blog! I’m assuming you found me from ao3 but maybe not. I’m Caro, aka principessa on ao3 and bittcrblue here on tumblr, because I have never had a consistent username and don’t plan to start now.

You can find my writing [HERE], my published fics [HERE] on ao3 and [HERE] on tumblr. [HERE] are my answered asks. [HERE] are WIPs.

My Fics, the Short List:

BURNED HOUSE HORIZON / tumblr tag / a canon divergent CR2 series where Caleb visits Essek after the dinner with Trent, which goes terribly for everyone involved. [series cw for dub-con/non-con] 

DRAWN TO THE BLOOD / tumblr tag / aka, the beauyasha dragon age au. Yasha is a reaver, a former disciple of Andraste, and lately, a member of the Inquisition. Beau is a Seeker of Truth, and complicated. [Permanent hiatus after file corruption, considered abandoned.]

SOMETIMES GOD HAPPENS FAST / in which the M9 scry on Essek and witness a confession and a reckoning. Featuring Deirta Thelyss, Original Heretic, and her apostate son.

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE / the one where Essek is de-aged post e119 - or is he? Multiverse shenanigans ensue. Unofficially on hiatus.

My WIPS, or at least the Ones I Talk About Here:

SINGLE DAD ESSEK AU / As a result of Essek’s deal with the Assembly, when Misphi Thelyss dies in the war, she does so out of range of a Beacon. When she arranged for her cousin to watch her 3yo daughter, Sokoya, she only expected it to be a temporary arrangement; instead, it catapults Essek’s moral arc some several dozen episodes forward.

A SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOVE / The Courtly Intrigue Scourger AU Rule 63 Shadowghast Fic. 

[bittcrblue]

i've been writing akotsk fic btw

[rubyjones]

Create your own book cover - without generative 'AI' | Ruby Jones

Get more from Ruby Jones on Patreon

Too many writers are using generative 'AI' to make their book covers, so I've written a guide on how to make your own cover for free or cheap without turning to a machine.

If you can't afford to pay an artist, you CAN make your own!

I hope this is a helpful overview that covers the basics and points to some free resources.

[rhube]

I annoyed my cat by writing this and not playing with her; you might find it useful?

[copperbadge]

This is a fantastic guide not only to the technical aspect of cover design but the aesthetic aspect as well!

[naamahdarling]

This is GREAT STUFF. Highly recommend! Exactly the techniques I have used on covers in the past, and they look great!

[macabremoons]

crying and sobbing y'all when people said that you only add scenes that advance the plot they didn't JUST mean the overarching plot. they meant the plot of the book... entirely. like a conversation between two friends can advance the plot by characterizing them and grounding them with a meaningful relationship. if your book doesn't have "filler" it's missing emotional beats. which are plot. which are important. fun and whimsy aren't mutually exclusive from what "needs" to happen in your book. the advice isn't bad it's just taken too literally stop come back.

[thesporkidentity]

there's something about amoral manipulative little masterminds who are constrained only by their intense fealty to a person of high(er) morals that's just. chef's kiss. so good

[thesporkidentity]

something similar to the appeal of king and lionheart except it's king and spymaster

[scotchgrove]

when u like a character for their potential to be interesting and complex more than how they’re actually written

[thetrekkiehasthephonebox]

me, seeing someone left me a comment: screaming, running around the room in circles, kicking my feet up in the air, jumping up and down, giggling to myself, squealing, wiggling, dancing around...

me, replying to someone's comment: Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

[daddiesdrarryy]

Me when I finish writing something:

[ad-wills]

[power-chords]

Can you please explain your dialogue theory of fanfiction?

In short, that dialogue, more than anything, makes or breaks a fanfic. What do posts like "He would not fucking say that" and "They would NOT have communication skills that good" have in common? Talk. Characters expressing themselves to one another. The faithful recreation of identifiable speech patterns is weighted heavily in the evaluation of a fic's quality. By "speech patterns" I do not just mean the semantic content of a given character's expression, but idiosyncrasies of style and slang, vocabulary and idiom, even gesture, musicality, and rhythm.

Of course believable dialogue is far from the only thing that makes a good fanfic Good. And there are forms of fic writing, particularly highly abbreviated ones like drabbles and ficlets, that in practice tend to de-emphasize its significance. But if we are talking about the romantic, erotic shippy stuff that is the meat and potatoes of online fandom, dialogue does the heaviest lifting short of the consummation itself. Arguably more so! It's the real keystone to the catharsis, and often the catalyst for it. Is there a confession occurring? A provocation? An evasion or ultimatum? Zoom out, big picture: What is the most potent and fundamental mechanic for developing complexity, tension, and transformation within a relationship, getting it to go from one thing to another? Making these two idiots talk to each other! Often clumsily and indirectly and maladaptively, at the worst possible time and in the worst possible situation, about anything or everything but what they should be — but talk they usually do.

What makes fanfic specifically so challenging and rewarding in this regard is that the talking is as much a feat of translation as invention, because both reader and writer are working off an existing model. Liberties taken with plot, form, and even narrative voice have wider buffer zones; you can get creative with circumventing the events of canon while still conforming to its emotional and substantive essence.

But the training wheels come off the moment you open your mouth to speak in another character's voice. And man, nothing will break a reader's immersion quite like he would not fucking say that.

[armandgender]

writing is so fun

[armandgender]

writing is impossible why does anyone do this

[concerningwolves]

i am so so gently asking abled storytellers to try this little exercise: consider that maybe the main character doesn't miraculously get through traumatic event number 8277 with minor injuries. maybe they don't make a full, narratively-convenient recovery. there are tangible, long-term effects on their health. they are disabled. there are lots of ways to be disabled, and you can pick whatever makes the most sense. the point is that because they're the main character, they have to stay at the heart of the narrative. what happens to your story after that? just for the sake of this exercise, you're not allowed to have them spiral into helpless depression, or collapse under self-loathing, or turn their story into a quest for a cure or an uplifting recovery narrative. think it through instead. how can you tell this story with the character's disability? what needs to change? are there any reasons why these changes can't happen?

at the end of it, you might change nothing. but I think this is worth doing, because sometimes you'll find that the reason you didn't want your character to have a limp, or lose a limb or sense, or have some kind of SFF-appropriate fantasy disability is because of internalised biases. those are worth challenging & i truly believe that creators miss out on richer stories when they view disability either as a fate worse than death or as nothing more than a catalyst for tragedy.

[prettyboykatsuki-moved]

i love you intimacy in reverse order. yes we've had sex before and i know all the details of your pleasure, but i don't know anything else. i don't know what it feels like to embrace you carelessly. i can barely hold your hand, the grip is so slight it makes me lose my breath. i want to kiss you but what pressure is the right one? how much is too intimate? yes we've had sex and i've done all these things before - but without the guise of mutual pleasure, can i be sure you won't turn me away? will you allow me the delicate feeling of your hand in mine when you know it is me asking to hold it? i know i've held you before with our clothes off, but can i hold you even tighter? may i listen to the steady sound of your heartbeat? is it alright to look for it in front of everyone? yes, yes of course we've had sex before. i know what you look like naked, ive touched you with the lights off. is it alright to want see you with them on? in the morning, with the sun flitting through the blinds?is it alright to want you when the sun is up? yes we've had sex before but have we ever been intimate? can we be? tell me that it's alright to hold you. no, not like that. just like this.

[dotcie]

Writers Truth & Dare Ask Game

🎱 ⇢ post your AO3 total stats  🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction?  🌵 ⇢ share the link to a playlist you love 🕯️ ⇢ on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy editing? why is that? 🛼 ⇢ describe your latest wip with five emojis 🥑 ⇢ you accidentally killed somebody, which mutual(s) do you text for help? 🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love 💌 ⇢ how many unread emails do you have right now?  🌻 ⇢ tag someone you appreciate but don't talk to on a regular basis 🐇 ⇢ do you prefer writing original characters, reader inserts, or a mix of both?  🧃 ⇢ share some personal lore you never posted about before 🎲 ⇢ what stops you from writing more in your free time?  🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings 🧸 ⇢ what's the fastest way to become your mutual? 🪐 ⇢ name three good things going on in your life right now 📚 ⇢ what's the last thing you wrote down in your notes app?  🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character 🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project? 🦷 ⇢ share some personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on ❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best? 🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity 🥐 ⇢ name one internet reference that will always make you laugh  🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work? 🍦 ⇢ name three good things about a character you hate 🥝 ⇢ do you lie a lot? what's the most recent lie you told? 🦋 ⇢ share something that has been on your heart and mind lately  🦴 ⇢ is there a piece of media that inspires your writing?  🍅 ⇢ give yourself some constructive criticism on your own writing 🐚 ⇢ do you like or dislike surprises? 🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here ☁️ ⇢ what made you choose your username? 🐝 ⇢ tag your biggest supporter(s) and say one nice thing about them 🌸 ⇢ do you have any pets? if you do, post some pictures of them 🎨 ⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it 🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

[prokopetz]

Variations on "they would not fucking say that":

They would not fucking say that (the classic)

They might fucking say it, but they wouldn't say it like that

They'd say it if it ever occurred to them, but there's no fucking way they'd figure it out on their own

They might think it, but good fucking luck getting them to admit it

They might say it, but – and this is key – they'd be intensely fucking weird about it

[vaginafetishis-deactivated20250]

no saying that your fave male character has a pussy isnt enough you actually have to like female characters

[last-honey]

in 2025 let’s bring back being enthusiastic on ao3. leave a comment on every chapter. leave kudos and, if necessary, leave “double kudos” in the comments. tags and notes on bookmarks. the whole nine yards. let’s show fanfic authors how much we love them.