#ask imochan

[imochan]

hey shout out to your characterization of walburga black in common woodbrown btw xx

Whattttt this message is amazing and so unexpected!!!

Thank you so much anon—the section where I was writing remus + the black family “interviews” was some of the most fun I’ve had writing anything in the last 10+ years, and I’m so thrilled you enjoyed Walburga’s scene especially!

[imochan]

Are you going to continue with 'The Trinity' or any other fbawtft fic?

Short answer: hopefully yes!

Long answer: been struggling with motivation for fiction writing lately (in all fandoms), and am pretty drained by trying desperately to finish my PhD dissertation this summer, so I won’t make any promises about timeline on any new Credence or FBAWTFT fic. I am considering (maybe ill-advisedly) signing up for the @rs-games one more time this year, especially since it is the 10th anniversary, and the mods just announced that this will be the last year that the games will run. So, at the very least, there will be some HP fic in the next six months, but I can’t guarantee that it’ll be the sequel to such as is common to man. Sorry!

(And thank you very much for asking.)

[imochan]

What are your thoughts about *goes anonymous* regulus/sirius

Look, a huge part of me is deeply hesitant to answer this, because tumblr in 2017 is a vastly different world than livejournal in 2005. But y’all know I’ve never been one to shy away from writing problematic relationships, exploring those dynamics (& one hopes, resisting romanticization). I have dabbled in blackcest, not only because the Blacks are an old house with obviously aristocratic ideas about kissing cousins, but also because of course, of course, Regulus and Sirius both are supremely Fucked Up Dudes. I always imagined and wrote Regulus as a meeker, sickly, more anxious version of his brother (I’m not even sure if this is a popular interpretation anymore), but they were obviously both always as needy as the other—needy for affection, for a sense of belonging, confused about how they fit into a tumultuous and overly-divided political and social environment. Sirius turned away from what he knew in a kind of desperate lashing out, while Regulus turned, resigned and scared, inward, until he obviously couldn’t anymore (a single act of bravery). 

It’s almost as if they were born with a wedge already between them, two people who couldn’t have been more inherently damaged by that kind of isolation and refusal. It’s one of the greatest tragedies of the Harry Potter universe, honestly, that they obviously could have supported and loved each other as real siblings, could have gotten that sense of loyalty and belonging that they both craved so much from one another, but were never allowed to find it.

In short, I’ll just leave this here.

[imochan]

"so. there's that."

ahhhh, hahaha, oh man. To Sit a Dead Man Between Us is getting a weird little presence bump on this blog, lately, and like—if you know me at all you know that I have a weird relationship to this story, like, didn’t even put it up on ao3 for years—but! I really appreciate the fact that if you have ever stuck all the way through this sad, unwieldy, confusing story, that there is at least a little bit of a sense of emotional pay-off, at the end? 

also: i guess if there is one part of the fic I don’t feel immediately and weirdly embarrassed by, it’s the very last section—so this ask is really heartwarming and i love it? thank you!

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tell me what you remember about my writing

[imochan]

3 things i always remember about your work 1) remus's memories of greyback in common woodbrown - 2) fever transformation minuet in g - 3) last paragraph of angels and arise. i get chills whenever i think of any of them tbh

there are many reasons i love you, my buddy, but this—the fact that you picked three obscure-ish moments from my maybe-not-so-secretively-favorite fics, and moments that I’m myself absurdly sort of proud of—is definitely another one! thank youuuuu.

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tell me what you remember about my writing

[imochan]

you might have noticed me obsessively reblogging from you and i will say! It's because you threw me down the gredence rabbit hole with your fic :') i recently got back to wolfstar after yeaaars and i read two of your fics (common woodbrown and we build our own unfolding) and i loved them SO much. Today i had some sort of craving to read about credence and i remembered i saw gredence fics on your ao3 so i clicked and i absolutely a d o r e d such as is common to man. I was captivated immediately!

[Part 2] I've run out of words hahaha basically your writing is WONDERFUL and also responsible for my new obsession 🙈🙈 i can't wait for next parts!!

Oh gosh, thank you so much! I’ve been taking a break from HP for a little bit to finish up some other work and other fic, but this is just the nicest message, and I’m so, so thrilled you’ve enjoyed my remus/sirius and credence stuff! 

[imochan]

to sit a dead man between us: 2, 3, 5, 11. i haven't read it in a long time but i think of "i love you. so there's that." all the time. it haunts me

thank you! i also have not read this fic in a long time, lol, so there’s two of us—but i’ll do my best!

2. What scene did you first put down?

This is super hard to remember! I think it may be a tie between two scenes: the scene where Regulus dies in the cave (towards the end), and the part at the very beginning, post-prank, that begins There is a piece of the moon missing.

3. What's your favorite line of narration?

This one is actually easy, haha. It’s the most bitter Remus I’ve ever had the pleasure of writing: 

What a cruel measure of character, he thinks. How badly I failed, he thinks. Whoever invented second chances should be stabbed in the back of the knees and left to rot, he thinks. You can never forget enough to begin again, he thinks. You can distill your life to the points of an obituary, he thinks, and there will still be those things that you can never change: That he was born, once. That he continued to grow older every year. That he knows a hero by name and the smell of his baby-skin. That he knows a villain by his touch and his existence spelled out in malevolent anagram. That he knows a monster by the shift of his heartbeat at sunset and the gothic-English print of a government manuscript and old exam questions. That he has heard stories, cries, laughs, obedience, lies, anger, apologies, spells, insults, niceties, prophecies, eulogies. That he has always been rather bad with goodbyes.That once, weeks ago, he had looked at a photograph of Harry Potter sleeping in his crib, with his tiny thumb in his tiny mouth, and was full of hatred. Like a pinpoint of stillness, like the particular clarity when the mind is dulled by age or amnesia; it was that he had hated every bone in that small body, every pulse and strand of hair. It was not anger. It was not twisted empathy. It was that he could feel the scream on the inside of his teeth.Everything that has been taken from you was mine first.

5. What part was hardest to write?

Literally all of it. (I have a, uh, complicated relationship with this fic.)

11. What do you like best about this fic?

This is a sweet question, especially considering how many negative feelings I have about this story now, but—I suppose do sort of like the sprawling, vague drama of it, the disjointed dialogue, and the consistency of the voice. At the very least, this is probably the most “me” a fic has ever been, which probably explains a little bit at least about why I’m so critical of it!

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send me a title of one of my fics, and a number!

[imochan]

Darling Omg it was "We Build Our Own Unfolding" and like I started it last night and a couple of paragraphs in I was like girl STOP don't do this tonight and I'm continuing it now and basically thank you for existing? Also I think it's time for me to join the Credence bandwagon since you're on it so I'LL DO THAT NEXT

Oh, bless you. Thank you so much!!