I think you could enjoy Bloom Into You (the manga). There's also an anime, but it only covers a part of the full story and it could be a different flavour of yuri once you feel ready to move on from oniisama - e
What things in horror stories actually scare you? You mentioned that seeing your reflection doing something you're not doing was one, I was wondering if there were others.
Seeing my reflection do something that I’m not doing, or something that isn’t there when I look back, but is in the mirror, is the big spoopy thing that scares the absolute shit out of me. The classic spoop, if you will.
The other thing that I LOVE in horror stories, because it gets to me, is the idea of being your own unreliable narrator. Is this really happening, or am I unable to trust myself because I’m staring to lose it? Can I trust what I’m seeing? Can I trust my own mind? Honestly, I kind of love a story that fucking gaslights the shit out of the main first person character. And like, REAL GASLIGHTING, not “someone told me I was being overly emotional”. I would love a video game that actually fucked with things in that subtle way, that made you really believe you were starting to lose it. I know I’m in the minority here, but I love to be REALLY UNSETTLED.
For the fun meta asks for writers, numbers 4, 7, 10, 11 and or 18.
Oh my okay. Awesome. Thank you! Whoo! Obviously this is all going to be She-Ra themed. Here we go:
4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like).
I’m honored to say I’ve heard a lot of positive feedback on a lot of things I’m proud of - I’m picking this one in particular for technical reasons. It’s the following from Any Order You’d Like:
I had this (obnoxiously complicated, also obnoxiously quick) mental picture in my head and it was absolute HELL to figure out how to put it into words. Especially in a way that communicated the image while still, y’know, retaining the drama. I like to think I managed it.
7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?
I have no idea why is this one so hard why did I do this ask post. I like to write dialogue and I like to write hijinks and I like to write conflict, and I spend a lot of time on the internal lives of the characters I’m writing about. I think I’m funny? I hope my writing is accessible, even if I do somewhat abuse thesaurus.com, which happens to be the most important entry in my browser’s bookmarks bar. A fairly large contingent of my sentences are too long. I like italics.
To part 2 of this question: I have no idea and do in fact wish I knew.
10. How would you describe your writing process?
Methodical chaos.
11. What do you envy in other writers?
Speed. Concision. That weird ineffable thing some people can do where they put a perfectly normal set of words in a magic order that somehow has a perfectly calculated direct line to my gut. Those are just the repeat offenders, though; I’ve never met a writer who doesn’t have something to be jealous of (though I prefer to call it admiration).
18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.
So many. I am not going to mention every scrapped version of everything I’ve written, because it’s a lot. But here are what I consider the greatest hits (from the spop fics, because they’re really the only ones long and plotty enough to have alternatives):
Learning Curve had an early version wherein Geoda (whose purpose in the story is to flirt with Catra) was actively sinister and trying to seduce - maybe even blackmail - Catra into leaving the Etherian party/Best Friends Squad. I scrapped it very very early because the essay that is hiding under that fic’s trenchcoat is much, MUCH better served by a perfectly normal young woman who saw a hot girl and wants to get into her pants. (Geoda is #relatable and I do hope she finds a nice date who doesn’t come with an irate 7ft tall magic warrior girlfriend. Maybe she and Ondine hook up. Yes, I did just start shipping my own fic extras. Is this how one acquires OCs?)
Any order you’d like for a long time had an ending wherein Glimmer conned the space pirates into giving the Best Friends Squad all the tech they needed, then the BFS went on their merry way and left the pirates adrift in space where no one could hear them scream. This did not feel in keeping with the spirit of the show, and inspired the bit at the end where Catra thinks about how she would have defeated the pirates vindictively vs how Glimmer instead turns them into a sideways kind of friends. There was also a bit I had to cut where the BFS got pulled over by space traffic cops for a broken taillight, which I may still use somewhere else because it cracks me up.
Twist had an ending wherein Catra rips up all her work, is happy it doesn’t actually matter, and goes to sleep. It was important to me, because the Catra section of that fic is very much about NOT assigning arbitrary symbolism to small acts - just because you can’t find your keys doesn’t mean you’ll never get your life together, that time your sink sprung a leak is not an analogy for who you are as a person, and ruining your yarn project doesn’t mean you’re inherently destructive, just as completing it doesn’t mean you’re suddenly okay. There’s a place where the metaphor ends. The version I went with still includes this beat, it just isn’t the ending. Because - and honestly the shortest way to explain where my head’s at with this is to quote the fic itself - “It’s something she can make or wreck or make poorly and no one will care, and so when she chooses to finish it it isn’t penance, it’s just...nice.“ I liked that better, and I still do.
Hello, I wanted to ask you: in your roleswap AU, is Adora still She-Ra or that's Catra's role?
Catra is, in theory, She-Ra (in theory being that she’s touched the sword twice in the entire time she’s had it and roundly rejects the idea of being a hero or having a magical destiny).
Adora is a poor, put out Force Captain who find Entrapta in the vents and is now responsible for making sure she doesn’t blow the place up. She’s very tired
Ridiculous over the top extreme metal, movie sets and art with interesting settings, stories with interesting villains/anti-heroes/anti-villains who don’t do what you expect.
42. do you plan or do you write whatever comes to your mind?
I write whatever comes to my mind and it eventually congeals into some kind of plan.
44. do you write linear or do you write future scenes if you feel like it?
deihiru replied to your post “Watch the third pripri drama, it's half beato/half princess centric i...”
I haven't been able to find this one, but I wanted to know: Do Ange, Dorothy and Chise give Beato weird advice to take down the other girl?
you bet your ass they do. At first Chise suggests something normal like oh I’ll train you you’ll be fine. When they realize that that isn’t going to work they remember that Beat’s talent is in her voice but Beato is of course like a voice isn’t going to help me in battle. Then the amazing suggestion that Beato should just make a weird ass noise with her voice and scare the shit out of Chandony is made. Dorothy is all for this when she hears some of the strange noises that Beat can make, truly an enemy to be feared.
deihiru replied to your post “Since PriPri is nearing the end of the season and doesn’t have much...”
Hi, could you please do one with Dorothy reaction/opinion to the AngexCharlotte interactions she's seen on the show?
“What do you think of A and Princess?” The words traveled through the books in L's low voice, the library's shelf providing a wall to hide him from Dorothy’s sight.
Furrowing her eyebrows, she stared at the titles before her as she composed her answer: “The princess being on our team has given Ange plenty of time to study her mannerisms, and she has successfully pretended to be her around other nobles more than once already. As for the princess herself, she has proven invaluable to some of our missions, and she works well with the others.”
“Princess has been with your team for a while now. Has A become attached to her?”
Beatrice's question from a few days ago echoed in her head—Why do you think Miss Ange has such a soft spot for Her Highness? Dorothy had brushed it away then to focus on the mission, but she couldn't do that here. L was asking for an assessment of Ange, and she had to give it.
“I think...it's hard for me to say. She's the best liar I know, so it's hard to tell what she really thinks about anything, but she does seem to have a hard time saying no to the princess, and she's devoted to protecting the princess at all times.”
“Does that endanger your missions?”
“It hasn’t so far. If those are flaws, then she's good enough at what she does to compensate for them.”
“Why does she respond to Princess like this?”
“I can't say. I've known her for years and have never seen her act this way with anyone else.”
A long pause. Pages rustled on the other side of the shelf, and Dorothy ran her fingers across the spines to look like she was searching for a particular title as she waited.
“If one of your team’s members has become overly attached to a target, it will cause problems for you in the future. Princess cannot be trusted, and if orders come for you to act against her, A’s fondness could cause your best spy to act unpredictably. Any wavering from her would destabilize your entire team and cause a disaster. I want your most honest opinion—is the bond between them enough to endanger the operation?”
Dorothy paused. Regardless of what she said, Control couldn't afford to pull Ange from the team—no one else could pass for Charlotte like her, and the success of Operation: Changeling relied on a seamless switch—but Charlotte didn't have that same level of security. What would happen if she made Charlotte sound like a threat to the mission?
“Well?”
“No, sir, it's not. Ange is the best at her job, and she knows the importance of what we're doing. I've seen her work in the field, so I have no doubt she'll put the success of our mission over her own feelings. I may not understand their relationship, but I trust her as much as I can trust anyone.”
“...I see.” A book tapped shut. “Keep a close eye on those two. I believe things will change soon, and your team will need stability if you are to succeed.”
Her teeth ground together. How long would she be expected to spy on her own teammates? Dorothy couldn't continue like this forever, constantly scrutinizing her allies as potential enemies. She had to be able to trust someone. “...Yes, sir.”
He left first, passing the aisle without a glance her way, and she waited for her time to go.