#earl fics

[earlgay-milktea]

hi earl im once again think about breaking free (i think about it A Lot) and i wanted to ask are there any small details or fun facts or thoughts you can drop about chip or gillion that wouldn’t really be brought up in the fic if there are any? im so intrigued by how they are in breaking free

hello!! I haven't thought about Breaking Free for a hot minute, so this gives me a good excuse to skim through my fic again and crack open my notes for it.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything too significant about fnc that I haven't written about. There's Gillion and Caspian's weekly Valorant matches (which I'm probably gonna put in ch11). There's the DnD podcasts that Chip listens to (maybe among those few, there's one we're familiar with...)

Gillion and Edyn are identical twins in this fic, and I only recently realised that identical twins can't be different sexes, so Edyn's trans now. If the opportunity arises, I'm gonna make it apparent in either ch11/12. I find it extraordinarily funny that their mother is an asshole but she doesn't bat an eye at her kids being queer. Trans daughter? Edyn, I'm already ordering you some puberty blockers, don't worry about it. Gay son? Gillion, can you at least keep your eyes on respectable triton men and not a loser human??

I've mostly incorporated everything I want to say into the fic. I don't usually mull over characters on their own outside of a story, if that makes sense? They exist in a tidy narrative, and when it's done, so are they.

I'll give a few fun facts about Breaking Free - it was inspired by a Dear Evan Hansen fic that was also a HSM AU. It was formerly a horror/crack/HSM AU hybrid. There were black goop monsters in the vents that were causing magic-users to fall sick. The final boss was defeated through a dance battle. Gillion and Chip still fall in love. Eventually I decided the idea was too fucking stupid so it's a slightly-less-stupid HSM story now.

Other major inspirations come from Read All About It and Tramps Like Us, both very very good Klance high school AUs. Yes, my Voltron phase never ended!

Thank you for the ask!! Don't hesitate to ask about anything else; I love talking about my fics.

[earlgay-milktea]

🌾✍️😚 hello earl you write very nice i hope you have a great day <3

Hi moon thank you so much!! I hope you’re having a great day too

1. A fic I really want to write but haven’t (yet)

There’s this fish n chips memory loss fic that I’ve written a bit of, and I think it could be a really good one-shot. I like the memory loss trope, so I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to even plan one. 

Here’s a snippet: 

‘When the surface of the orb touched his hand, he froze. His entire body locked up in paralysis. The light behind his eyes flickered out like a candle in a gust, and his expression went utterly blank. 

Chip had a moment to feel a lurching sense of terror, but then Gillion blinked, and it was like nothing happened. 

“I get it now,” said Gillion, a dopey smile overtaking his features, “it’s a stress-relief ball.”

God, now Chip felt stupid for worrying. 

“One of these days, an orb is really gonna kill you, and you’ll have no one to blame but yourself,” he said, perhaps more snidely than necessary. 

Gillion glanced over at Chip and the smile faded. “Who’s this, Jay?”

“What the fuck?” said Chip.’

The premise is that Gillion touches a magical artefact that causes him to lose his memories... but only of Chip. And a few other things, teehee. As you can imagine, this causes a great deal of anguish. I’m looking forward to sitting down and properly writing it.

2. How much do I plan my fics beforehand?

Depends! If it’s chaptered, I plan it extensively. If it’s a one-shot, it can range from 100% improvised to being planned ages in advance. A Thousand Miles took a fair bit of planning, but Lovefool was composed entirely off-the-cuff. 

3. A fic I like writing more than other fics?

BREAKING FREE! and A Thousand Miles both stand out as fics I had the funnest time writing. Drunken Dreams posed an interesting challenge too, and finishing that one was very satisfying. Heart of the Sea is a standout because when I wrote that one, I wasn’t very integrated in the fandom yet, and I was just humming to my own tune, dancing to my own beat. Now, because I’m aware that people have eyes on me... I wouldn’t say it’s scary, but it’s definitely a tangible weight. In the future, I hope to recapture that unfettered feeling I had when I wrote Heart of the Sea. 

Thanks for the ask!