Hello how does it feel to be the only author that matters on a tag with 17k works 🎤
I don’t write against the grain that much do I??? lol. Again it’s very subjective and I happily fill a specific niche that’s absolutely not to everyone’s taste, I know that! I’m extremely flattered my works scratch that itch for you BUT there are many pieces out there, out of 17k works there will absolutely be others you can enjoy. Goodness knows I haven’t browsed through them all especially in the post-s2 tsunami.
If this was a not-thinly veiled rec request for me to hype up fics I like, I’m taking THAT bait. Now to qualify, I do tend to like angstier, more dramatic fics than the ones I write (that meme with the golden retriever sitting beside the werewolf statue lmao) so they may not be your exact cup of tea if my romcom/domestic stuff is your specific bag. But maybe give them a try! Here’s some fun CaitVi works I’ve enjoyed:
League Universe:
The Oldest Game (Caitlyn gets amnesia and it’s heartbreaking amazing I re-read this one constantly)
Shades Of Us (Piltover’s Finest through the eyes of others. One of the earlier fics I read and inspo in part for Legal Reasons)
I didn’t know love until your name (a great fic that plays with different skinlines!)
Arcane canon divergence:
Forever’s not your thing (au, arranged marriage, unfinished but I love what exists if the author ever gets a chance to come back it I’ll be giddy)-
No Powder but Stardust (a divergence where powder doesn’t exist and Vi and Caitlyn orbit around each other in growing up vignettes)
Where she goes (chembaron Caitlyn au and so well written the dramatic irony in this makes me nuts)
Great character studies:
Rain in the shape of everything (post-canon fic, just a great overall look at Caitlyn and Vi post s2, anchors is an INCREDIBLE writer her prose is like a great cup of tea you should also read her Twisters au)
And oh, poor Atlas (Vi whump and her sacrificial nature my darling)
You and I, we are the only heirs (I love you sad Caitlyn. I love you my despondent babies)
Death Comes and Goes, Comes and Goes (Vi and her mum, very melancholic)
Some fun AUs:
Your mouth and it’s flowers (this is how you lose the time war inspired one-shot)
Dirt and the road (I AM HOLDING YOU AT GUNPOINT TO READ THIS it’s my favourite fic ever, it’s like both seasons got smushed into one and modernized: detective Caitlyn busting Vi out of jail to help her solve her mother’s murder)
The smell of blood on concrete (incredible vampire/werewolf urban fantasy fic that makes me want to bite something)
Nothing Personal, Just Business (mafia AU, a very suave Vi and undercover Caitlyn)
Fault in our stride (this one’s a BEAST, it’s like a long soap opera! it’s a little silly at times and Vi with a York accent is crazy but that’s one of the ways fanfic is fun)
corrupting contradictions (based on a Bioshock-esque novel called Gilded Abyss, I suggest you give them both a read!)
(Okay at this point I need to admit thehaakun is my fave writer)
I hope that’s a start to help you find other great reads! Maybe folks can add onto this too, this is in no way comprehensive and is just a smattering of things I liked that might have slipped past radars, like I said I can’t possibly have read everything!
So, maybe an impossible question, do you prefer Cait or Vi ?
A truly impossible question! Because I love them both in different ways that are incomparable and they’re both so hot.
In terms of writing I think I would categorize them as Vi is more fun to write but Caitlyn’s more fun to pick apart. I love Vi so very much, she has got this great range of bratty humour to soft introspection and she tries so hard to be this tough, guarded character but her heart is too bright not to show through the cracks, which makes playing around with her internal monologues really enjoyable. She’s just fun. And at the same time she’s this fiercely loyal, loving character, she’s someone who’s lost, drifting and restless, who’s been put through the pear wiggler and came out on the other side bruised but still so good and oh my god do I love that. She has every reason to be a villain and she’s not, she’s Jake Peralta in Hulk Hands and all she wants is a better world even if she doesn’t fit in it. Vi’s the reason I even bothered to watch Arcane - I was on another swanqueen kick and a friend was like “hey wanna see another red jacket lesbian” and I fell in love with her instantly because she really is that character you just want to see get a goddamn break. Whoever made the decision to have her pathetically yearning while fighting because that’s all she knows deserves a gift basket. I cannot describe how much I love her, truly.
Meanwhile Caitlyn “My Crimes Are Justified Because I’m Right” Kiramman is my favourite type of character. She’s a stubborn, determined sort who’s so sure of her choices even though us as the audience are going “oh babygirl no”. She’s Batman combined with the woman from “Short Skirt Long Jacket” but way more unhinged and that’s so sexy of her. I still remember watching s1 with zero knowledge of League or the characters and thinking “yeah okay she’s the prissy/reserved foil” until ep9 and she aimed that gun at Jinx ready to pull the trigger and I went OH OKAY and went on a fun journey analyzing and 3yrs anticipating her dark spiral. 🥰 I love characters that get so wound up in doing good that they resort to their worst qualities. AND I love reluctant/accidental villains, sunk-cost fallacy into the abyss and clawing out the other side. She’s a fun archetype of all of that, and exploration of complicated psyche of humanity, of recognizing that darkness. She can be extremely cold and is guarded as hell and vicious, her love language is negging the shit out of you and once you figure her out she’s really warm and sweet in her own way. That’s the sort of stuff that makes her incredibly fun to write from Vi’s perspective, she becomes such a puzzle to pick apart.
If we’re talking League gameplay I prefer Cait because I love playing dirty with the traps but when I roll Vi in aram I have the time of my life hitting that R.
I can’t wait to read what you are cooking for League Caitvi. I love league caitvi and your fics. Wonderful combo.
Thank you! League Caitvi are so special to me, I love writing that version of them. I should be posting it by late winter/early spring but here’s the landing page of my brainstorm whiteboard to give you an idea of what it’s gonna be like :)
as a small prompt o: caitlyn trying on vi’s gauntlets o:
Hahaha I actually do have a WIP on that very subject! the fic itself is about halfway done, but here’s the part where Cait tries on a glove for the first time:
It’s in the genre of ‘started to write a fun smut, turned into a whole relationship study’ lol
Whats your favorite headcanons for Cait and/or Vi that you've might have rarely ever mentioned or addressed in a fic? Them as individuals!
Vi hates thunderstorms because she has mild claustrophobia and a storm conceptually ‘traps’ her inside even if she has no reason to go out atm.
Caitlyn leaning vegetarian has been one for a while now lol, although I did put it into text for The Deep End. Not for any real reason, she just vibes as a ‘not fond of meat’ kind of person (this is obviously not a fixed hc when I write since Rumours Cait makes meatloaf, although one could argue that’s why the meatloaf sucks lol).
But one I really like lately that I haven’t written out textually is Caitlyn was intentionally lonely as a child. I know there’s a lot of different views on her childhood as isolated due to her wealth, or parents being overprotective, or her learning early on that she’s a Name First, but I like the idea that Caitlyn just never really connected with her peers and was okay with that until she got older. Not misanthropic, she’s obviously a very kind and caring person, just genuinely didn’t connect on anything beyond familiarity. I don’t think she ever really considered feeling lonely until Vi came along, and she fell like a bowling ball slam dunked into the ocean because this was the first time she every made any connection with another person before.
Another for Vi, which is the direction I hope Riot goes with if they ever touch more on her current League lore but until they do it’s my pet hc, is I really like the idea of ‘The Piltover Enforcer’ being a sarcastic moniker for her. Even if she’s not officially working under the badge, her partnership with Caitlyn and doing what she thinks is the right thing to help gets her labelled as ‘might as well be one of them’.
The way I know that Cait is on r/fauxmoi and r/GaylorSwift reading the conspiracies just… recreationally. No real investment in the outcome in most of those stories but deeply, DEEPLY enthralled by the number of armchair investigators stringing together theories based on absolutely nothing. I know she’s dissecting new blind items daily like it’s her Wordle. It’s a puzzle feeder for her morning enrichment. Deeply normal woman
YES exactly, lolol. She isn’t a conspiracy theorist in the slightest but she loves reading the gossip and picking apart people’s reasoning for them. 90% of her pop culture knowledge is who was reportedly involved in what scandal
Hi just wanted to say you're the best cait/vi author ever. Do you have any tips when it comes to writing and getting to your level of prose and flow? Especially when english is a second language?
I really love the nostalgia in Teenage Sumprat. The playlist songs from the chapters rock 🤘🏻
Cheers from a fellow millennial French Canadian! Bon succès avec la publication de ton livre 🌻
I would humbly say it’s subjective but I’m honoured to be top in your estimates! Honestly I would say the best tip is to just read as much as you write. I read a lot in my downtime, both trad and indie publish as well as fic (Kindle + Libby on my iPad is my holy relic). It really does help keep the creative part of the brain fed, especially when you come across a good one that lights up inspiration. It also helps your brain fall into the flow of English better when you need it to. And audiobooks!
For my own prose and flow I have a few different approaches since I write in various POVs but my main focus is I try to approach the story like it’s a visual medium almost, like I’m describing a film, so I focus heavily on body language. It does make my writing less emotive/poetic which isn’t for everyone but I’ve gotten a lot of comments about how easy it is to visualize the scenes so that’s my niche. Especially when writing singular POV like the OUAT au where we only got Vi’s perspective of Caitlyn and Powder, or in limited omniscient POV like Rumours or The Deep End where we don’t get anyone’s internal monologues so I focus heavily on the characters acting. So it’s like I kinda ‘see’ the scenes in my head and then mentally tweak the camera angles and actors until I think it’s a good shot and then write out what the ‘camera’ sees, so to speak.
I’m still working on it, and constantly editing myself to make sure scenes don’t drag or are too short. I’m learning on the go. I read a lot for fun but I do also re-read the stuff I liked and work out what I liked about it.
Some basics too: Vary how short and long your sentences are. A good flow is short, short, long. Test the length of your sentences by reading longer ones out loud and see how tiring it is, and commas are there to take a breath. Don’t start two consecutive paragraphs with the same word/name. Always start a new line of dialogue, action, or thought with a new paragraph.
For same-pronoun groups, a good rule of thumb is having the name of the character precede the pronoun, even if sometimes you need to shuffle around or break up a sentence.
The other big thing that helps me is figuring out exactly the characters before throwing them into the stormy sea of the plot. One of the fun things about writing AUs, especially AUs based on other films/franchises/tropes, is trying to figure out how to take the core of the characters and the core of the trope and work them together in a harmonious way. It’s a bit like cooking - you have these specific ingredients and want to make a specific meal, so how do you do that. The plot can shift, but what I’ve isolated is still what motivates the characters so how do I have them adjust to it. Ie this Vi uses sex instead of fighting (Rumours), that Vi grew up completely alone (OUAT), this Caitlyn resents her loneliness (PE), that Caitlyn will do anything to escape it (Sumprat). I can’t speak for anyone else’s process but half the fun I have is dissecting stuff in the notes-portion.
I use a lot of notes when planning a fic. My hobby is being an analytical dork.
I also am very big on assigning songs/playlists to specific chapters and story beats (like with TS haha) so if that helps I totally recommend it.
If CaitVi were going trick or treating, what two person costume would they wear (who would propose it and how much would the other be on board vs oppose it?)?
Ooh, tough one. Honestly both Cait and Vi seem to me like… minimal effort costumers. They’re not creative people, tbh. And not Halloween gays either, really; Cait probably never went out trick or treating and while Vi likes the memories of when she and Jinx were kids, her enthusiasm was mostly for making the other kids happy and she wore whatever Powder assigned.
So TBH they’d probably just generic it up with sexy vampire/werewolf outfits. If they lived somewhere where they would get kids ringing their doorbell Vi would insist they need to dress up a little bit and she might get one of those animatronic wolf masks just to jump scare the kids when opening the door but Caitlyn would give the mask a shot a couple of times too.
Jinx would be the Halloween enthusiast, so you could also work out that she would drag them to a Halloween party/event and upon learning Cait’s never been door to door she’d gleefully insist they simply have to, even Vi got to do it and Vi barely had a childhood. In that case they’d do the couples costume but still mostly just ‘wander through a Spirit and see what costumes/accessories catch their attention’. A witch hat and cat ears. Princess and Knight but Vi wearing the princess dress because she thinks funny costumes are more fun than exclusively sexy/cool ones. Caitlyn is probably a fan of Mundane Halloween so they might consider that. Vi would joke about sexy cop outfits and Caitlyn would refuse to wear it in public (but she’d consider it for other reasons).
I think the most creative they’d get is Sherlock Holmes and Watson, Jinx would mock them for picking boring characters and the following year Caitlyn would be petty about the mockery and they’d dress up as House and Wilson.
