Feels Like Flying

Sideblog of @wander-wren for the FLFverse, a BNHA Dabihawks-centric BDSM AU

[flfverse]

Landing Zone

Overview & About

Hey! My name is Wren or Kestrel (they/them) and this is a sideblog off @wander-wren that I use to house everything about one of my most ambitious projects.

Feels Like Flying is my biological BDSM AU, with a strong focus on Dabihawks and Bakudeku but a healthy smattering of other pairings. In this AU, everyone is either a dom, sub, or switch, and these orientations are part of the social structure—dominants on top, submissives on the bottom. The centerpiece of the series is Free Falling, and epic-length Dabihawks fic loosely following canon from season 4 onward.

This blog is not strictly 18+, but do be aware of the D/s themes and the prevalence of non-sexual kink. Any explicit content that may arise will be tagged #flf smut for filtering (or following, i’m not your mom) purposes.

I am always happy to receive questions, suggestions, nudges, and comments! I’m also completely open to fanworks based in this AU It’s actually impossible to bother me as long as you’re nice.

Getting Started

There’s a lot of stuff going on here! Farther down I have my tagging system if you just want to browse, but if you’re looking for organized, concise information on the basics I have a few posts:

Orientations & Relationships List

OC Info Masterpost

Series Timeline

Fic Directory

Plot Summaries: Free Falling, Cross the Line

Navigation

The tags I use to organize the blog include

#worldbuilding- all of the worldbuilding info, big and small

#character info- anything from full profiles to little fun facts that pop into my head. I also try to tag all relevant character names if you’re looking for someone specific

#potential ideas- usually reblogs of concepts/art that might fit into the series, but i’m not sure yet

#wren.txt- things not directly related to fics or the world, usually me liveblogging my writing sessions and the like

#asking the masses- general questions like what to do about a character or plot point, or what you want to see from me. also, polls!

I also tag things related to specific fics with their titles!

Important People

FLF would not be what it is without help! Other people involved in bringing this fic baby into the world are:

@15nightingale and @vistarya, current betas.

@spacetime-enthusiast, and @meowchirp, former betas on hiatus.

YOU!! Readers, kudos-ers, commenters and askers of questions.

Annnnd that’s all I have to say! Welcome to the FLFverse, folks.

[wander-wren]

just committed to having the first 7-8 chapters of my original serial novelthing done by mid-september, and now i have an actual obligation attached to it so i kind of have to.

i currently have. 3. plus prologue. so i need to lock in. i am also in the midst of the biggest transition period EVER lifewise. i make such great decisions. anyway if you’re waiting on anything else creative from me you probably won’t get it until october unless i crash and burn or get done early (will never happen) or take a small break to cleanse my palate. i’m sorry i also thought i would have more time to work on shit :(((

[flfverse]

anyway, what ELSE is kind of nuts to me is the number of new readers i’m apparently still getting? hi guys! i know updating the thing takes it to the top of searches that are, y’know, filtered by date updated, but it still kinda feels like i’m trapped in 2023

which is silly bc occasionally while looking for fics i stumble onto FF myself, so

[flfverse]

i’m actually kind of shocked that almost no one has commented and guessed at where i’m going with this fic….i feel like my foreshadowing/hints are too heavy sometimes (maybe they are and y’all are just in silent agreement) so it’s just always strange. not that i want it to be easily guessable, i do actually want a couple twists to land in some fashion, but just….dunno, musing on the nature of audience interpretation

also i’m super a hypocrite bc i’m a very “shut my brain off when consuming media for the first time” sort of person, unless i explicitly go into it trying to analyze. it’s also a context thing, of course. i’m more likely to go into analysis mode with a work that i can tell Has many intentional layers to it, and “kinky tropey anime dystopia fic” is hardly the usual place one finds more-than-surface-level themes. respectfully!

on that note i definitely did not go into this process intending to make something worth digging into on the level i’m currently working on, so like, y’know. at some point in the last year i crossed the line into wanting to commentate on certain things and make something that was worth Critical Thinking about, but this is also, y’know, still my silly hobby fanfic i do for fun, so it’s a weird line to straddle. i don’t know what i’m talking about

[flfverse]

okay i do actually know when the change happened and it was when i read Underline the Black by not-poignant (original omegaverse fic on ao3, it’s awesome) last spring and i got to the post-teacup-disaster chapters (you’ll know what i mean) and had to put the fic down for a couple months because i was scared of where the narrative was going and how confronting it was, how it flipped the script on what i expect from that genre of fic, esp as someone who related to efnisien.

and when i finally picked it back up, while it was a little scary at first, it went a different direction than i was expecting and ended up being…comforting isn’t the right word. something. UtB and all the other efnisien stories are very important to me. (people who have read Falling Falling Stars might also recognize me pulling from arden/ef’s arc early on, which while not as life-changing, did draw my attention to issues about consent and mutual responsibility and communication that i want to explore.)

i don’t have a point here i just. i suppose NP’s work shifted the way i think about things and gave me frameworks for them and i am very appreciative of that and would like to pass the torch as best i can. which has been making me think more intentionally about character arcs and dynamics. and if i’m doing that i may as well take the same approach to the plot (whatever of the plot isn’t covered by the first two categories, ha), so now i’m kind of making something that feels more weighty and serious than it used to, to me, even though that might not come across to the audience AND IT DOESNT HAVE TO. ALSO. this is a safe space for your no-brain-comfort-read, hopefully

[flfverse]

i’m actually kind of shocked that almost no one has commented and guessed at where i’m going with this fic….i feel like my foreshadowing/hints are too heavy sometimes (maybe they are and y’all are just in silent agreement) so it’s just always strange. not that i want it to be easily guessable, i do actually want a couple twists to land in some fashion, but just….dunno, musing on the nature of audience interpretation

also i’m super a hypocrite bc i’m a very “shut my brain off when consuming media for the first time” sort of person, unless i explicitly go into it trying to analyze. it’s also a context thing, of course. i’m more likely to go into analysis mode with a work that i can tell Has many intentional layers to it, and “kinky tropey anime dystopia fic” is hardly the usual place one finds more-than-surface-level themes. respectfully!

on that note i definitely did not go into this process intending to make something worth digging into on the level i’m currently working on, so like, y’know. at some point in the last year i crossed the line into wanting to commentate on certain things and make something that was worth Critical Thinking about, but this is also, y’know, still my silly hobby fanfic i do for fun, so it’s a weird line to straddle. i don’t know what i’m talking about

[flfverse]

okay and we’ve swung back to being really scawed waughhh

the downside of posting really fucking long chapters in the late evening is the WAITINGGGG

[flfverse]

FINALLY. feast, my children

tumblr link insert broken :(

[flfverse]

content warning for the chapter i'm about to post. i'm being very High Art about it (cringe), i want people to go in blind and think and analyze and stuff, but i also think this one is heavy in a different kind of way than usual, maybe? maybe i'm overthinking. so if you want the CWs, they're here (nd will be linked in the fic), and if you don't, well, carry on

because of the commission/paramount's new "training" for hawks, he's very mentally Fucked in this chapter. a lot of dissociation pretty much all the way through, disorientation, fear, generally just going through it. dabi and he will have sex again while hawks is in this state, something he can't really meaningfully consent to, and dabi doesnt try very hard to get consent. hawks also starts to explore masochism through this chapter, wrestling with his desires vs his triggers, and it's pretty fraught. all of this falls somewhere in the area of extreme dubcon or fully noncon depending on how you define those lines, and since it's between our MCs it felt important to note.

this is also not resolved in this chapter, but it will be in the next one, so be mindful of that.

hawks and aizawa also interact while hawks is like this, and there is some subspace/sexual elements to it. i dont know how else to explain this lol. it is more intimate than their chapter 17 encounter, but no reasonable person in this universe would consider it cheating. not really dub or non or con but a secret third thing. again, since this is a dabihawks fic, it might catch some people off guard, but like, it my universe and i do what i want :3 and i believe in relationship anarchy :3

[flfverse]

help

[flfverse]

this chapter is running so far away from me i need to be killed.

11.4/10k, i am. trying really hard to finish up around 12k and also get it posted tonight. why do they keep getting LONGER i mean i guess yall arent complaining i'm just a little embarrassed at how bad i am at estimating wc

[flfverse]

actually did manage to lock in further today and i am now at 7.5k and i THINK, i PRAY, i HOPE i have the rest of the chapter completely figured out. i wrote notes and everything, the only reason i’ve stopped for now is its 4am 😔 unfortunately i have no more days off until saturday so no time for any super long writing sessions, but it hopefully wont be too much longer!

[flfverse]

hi dabihawks nation, this is gabriel making my debut here to say we did Not write tonight and it is like 90% my fault so. sorry. i did do a little work on the chapter earlier in the week cause it appeals to my personal interest but. yeah. my bad. the other 10% is uncontrollable life circumstances making me specifically have a bad fucking time and i wanted to talk about that with friends tonight instead of writing gay fanfic. even tho tbh the latter would’ve probably been just as therapeutic. okay bye

[flfverse]

so i lowkey forgot to lock in for a couple days but shit was Happening, okay, and also i was just tired. sorry :( but i got back on the train today and we are at

which if you'll recall is about 1.7k more than the last update and brings us to 4.1k/10k total. i have just finished the first scene, lol. theres only supposedly three scenes in this chapter! i might have to poach one from next chapter if theyre not all long enough but i think they will be. i really wanted to write the next scene (which SHOULD be short, like 1-2k, but who even knows when its me) or at least make a decent start on it tonight too, but i have to open tomorrow at work 😭 and i have to do an Adult Thing or else my manager will not be happy with me at said opening. and i have to go to bed early bc i have to leave early bc they're doing road work on my work route. i suffer

[flfverse]

Listen,,, as long as they both have a happy ending together I don't really care. Put them through whatever, fr, this way the fluff is better hehe

hm…..alright…..y’all asked for it….

[flfverse]

okay okay okay. i am frustrated enough with myself. lets do this again. it is time to LOCK. IN. and get the next chapter done before may.

1203/10,000 words (ish)

5.5 days remaining

[flfverse]

(this doc is titled "ff part 2 part 1" and i will probably have to move on to "ff part 2 part 2" soon bc she getting Long)

idk if i'll write anymore tonight but i got 1.2k down, so it's officially twice as long as it was this morning, which is way better than anticipated. the downside is it started going in a really different direction than i expected and now i'm lowkey afraid everyone is gonna hate me. or cancel me. quick guys what are your hard limits (haha) for free falling

[flfverse]

hi wren! Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I’m curious…what has been your favorite part of writing flf? And also, what is your favorite scene? I love to get insight from the author so yeah please let us know! Thanks for all you do I love your fics

not a stupid question!! a very nice one!!!

my favorite part, honestly, is probably what is always my favorite part of writing: hurting hawks and then giving him comfort (or not :3). it is also really really satisfying, though, to step outside of both my comfort zone and the common trends of the genre—times i pay more attention to dabi as a dom for example (my brain is fried and i’m struggling to think of more examples lol), since subs usually get the focus. that’s not at all to say i’m ~better~ than other writers in the space (i would have to put in way more work before i had the right to be that egotistical, i think), it’s just a fun mental exercise. i think (i hope) i’m going to end up doing more of that in the next two chapters, so that’s exciting.

favorite scene…..ugh, hard. there’s so many! and i can be very critical of myself. i have to say it’s small but i still really enjoy that one scene in chapter 9 after the first raid (where they get itsu), after hawks talks to dabi and miruko and eventually gets caught back up with the commission and punished. i like that whole sequence, but especially the end of it when he calls aizawa. it’s very specific but i love a good “distressed phone call with no context” where you get to watch the other character work out that something is wrong and try to fix it. i am also not a tragedy writer but i like it in small doses, so giving hawks just a little bit of comfort and then ripping it away is fun.

thanks for the ask!

[flfverse]

okay okay okay. i am frustrated enough with myself. lets do this again. it is time to LOCK. IN. and get the next chapter done before may.

1203/10,000 words (ish)

5.5 days remaining