#hello ask box

[sproutwings]

YOU’RE BACK!!!!!!

At least, I think you were gone? At some point? Sorry, super random, but even though I don’t think we’ve ever actually spoken, I really like your blog.

Anyway, hi, happy new year!

❤️❤️❤️❤️

I was gone (from Tumblr, I was still more or less active on DW and AO3) for almost two years! Life became stressful and some fandom things fell by the wayside.

But I've really missed Tumblr, so I'm trying to get back into the swing of things in 2026

Happy New Year! :D

[sproutwings]

20 Questions for Fic Writers!

The lovely @crestfallercanyon tagged me for this weeks ago, and I haven't been ignoring it - I just didn't get around to it sooner. Sorry!

How many works do you have on AO3? 380 (382, technically, because two are still anon/unrevealed exchange works.)

What’s your total A03 word count? 1,123,214

What fandoms do you write for? Currently, mostly DCU, The Flash and a bunch of tiny fandoms, but I've been writing fanfic for ages, so I went through quite a few fandoms.

What are your top five fics by kudos?

a) cut me open, take my heart (DCU, JayTim, 1744 kudos) b) A Bird in the Hand (DCU, Dickstroke, 1694 kudos) c) Hook(er), Line and Sinker (The Flash, Coldflash, 1586 kudos) d) No Shortage of Blood (Original Works, Starving Vampire/Vampire Hunter Having A Moral Crisis, 1453 kudos) e) Portrait of the Artist as a Middle-Aged Man (Gossip Girl, Dan/Blair/Chuck, 1149 kudos)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I always try to, but sometimes it takes a while to get around to it. /o\

What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I have no idea. I used to write a lot of angsty stuff back when I was younger but the older I get the more I gravitate towards fics that leave the characters in a... well, maybe not necessarily in a good place exactly, because I tend to ship a lot of dysfunctional ships and write unhealthy relationship dynamics, but I don't want the characters to feel hopeless and unhappy in the end, so even when they're in a bad situation, they're making the best out of it.

A very old, very angsty fic of mine is Too Close To Touch (Harry Potter, various permutations of Draco, Harry and Hermione). I don't know if it's the angstiest overall, but it occasionally still gets comments so it's fresh in my mind despite having been written almost two decades ago.

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oh no, this is similarly hard to answer. Maybe Throw Away the Plan (The Flash, Coldwestallen)? Most of my endings seem to be "the main conflict of the story is dealt with, the ship kisses and things are okay-ish for now". 🙃

Do you get hate on your fic? Maybe once or twice, but nothing dramatic or memorable, luckily enough.

Do you write smut? Sometimes.

Do you write crossovers? No.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Yes! Someone copied a few of my fics word by word, replaced the names and posted them as Kpop RPS. D: D: D: I got the author to take them down, but they did it with a lot of people's fics and eventually AO3 banned them.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes, a few! I blanket allow translations, as long as they're credited properly and not posted anywhere but AO3.

Have you ever co-written a fic? Yes, but it was a really long time ago, and coordinating was pretty stressful. I prefer to work on my own schedule.

What‘s your all-time favourite ship? Noooo, don't make me choose. I love so many ships! If I absolutely had to pick one, it would be Tommy/Bubonic from Eye Candy, but it mostly depends on what I'm in the mood for right in that moment.

What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? There's Coldflash BDSM fic based on a long-forgotten Tumblr prompt I would have loved to write one day, but it would be far longer than anything I'm comfortable writing and it's only 'in progress' in so far that I have a few dialogue snippets from it written down yet.

What’s your writing strengths? Character voices and snappy banter, probably.

What’s your writing weaknesses? Plot!!!! As you can see by every fic I've written where the characters get captured or attacked by some nameless villain for nebulous reasons. I always handwave stuff like that because I simply can't bring myself to care about it or put any thought into it. 😅 Sorry!

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? As a reader, It always throws me out of the story. :(

First fandom you wrote for? The X-Files! Mulder/Krycek was teenage Sandrine's first fanfic obsession. (Though technically, I wrote terrible Star Wars and The Three Musketeers fic long before I knew what fanfic was! But I've decided that doesn't count. 😅)

Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

(never been) so much at stake (OW, Vampire Moonlighting As A Barista/Exhausted Vampire Hunter In Search Of Caffeine) is probably the best, but The Biggest Score of All (The Flash, Coldflash) has my heart!

I'm supposed to tag people here, and I'm terrible at this, so @waysheswings, @sunherirai, @moriavis, @zeroducks-2, @hithelleth, @elasticella - if you want to do this, consider yourself tagged and if you want to ignore it, pretend I never mentioned your name. And anyone else who sees this and wants to answer, you're also tagged! Yes, I mean YOU. :D

[sproutwings]

WIP meme

Rules: write the latest line from WIP and tag as many people as there are words in the line. Make a new post, don’t reblog. 

@nixie-deangel tagged me, and lately I always had to skip the game because I was writing super secret exchange fic. But this time I’m not, so I can actually share something without breaking anonymity. \o/

"I made you a promise the last time, kid. And you know I'm a man of my word."

Tagging (as always, please feel free to ignore!): @moriavis @qlala @elasticella @sunherirai @crestfallercanyon @withthekeyisking-writer @hithelleth and everyone who sees this and has a WIP they feel like sharing a bit from! :D

[sproutwings]

Oooh, please elaborate about the Coldflash D/s (and I like the new autumnal theme, btw)

Thank you! ❤️ I'm still fiddling with the theme, so if anything looks a little wonky right now, that's why.

The Coldflash D/s fic.... oh man! I've been wanting to write this forever, but I also realize that it would be LONG and I haven't figured out a way to condense it into a shorter fic. /o\

Basically, Barry stumbles into a sex club pre-particle accelerator incident and finds out that submitting helps him let off steam, and he winds up having a standing appointment with one of the regular doms there. Then he wakes up in a changed world with powers and becomes the Flash (well, the Streak, at first), which is awesome! Until he realizes that the guy firing at him with the Cold Gun sounds uncomfortably familiar... The relationship with his dom becomes a whole lot more complicated after that, as Barry's desperately trying to keep his secret identity from him. (You can imagine how well that goes...)

Here's a bit from their first encounter at the club:

The intensity of those steel-grey eyes on him makes Barry shiver, and he tries to grapple for some kind of normalcy. He extends a hand. "I'm Barry." He immediately feels stupid, even more so when the gesture is met with a raised eyebrow. Maybe this isn't the kind of place for handshakes. And maybe he should have given a fake name. Before he can pull back and stumble into a flustered apology, long, elegant fingers wrap around his own. The man's hand is warm and dry, unlike Barry's, his touch is firm, just the right kind of pressure. "Len. Pleasure." The way Len's drawl curls around the words goes straight to Barry's cock, and he's tempted – oh so tempted – to abandon all hesitance and take Len on his offer right away.

This is vaguely (I think?) based on a lengthy prompt I saw on Tumblr when I first got into the fandom, except I never reblogged or saved that post, so I don't know how close it sticks to the prompt (or whose prompt it was). I have the whole story mapped out in my head, I just feel kind of apprehensive actually writing it.

[sproutwings]

I too am predictable in my choices here: Dickstroke identity porn (!!!) & Coldwest(allen?) undercover \o/

The Dickstroke identity porn was a prompt someone threw at me on AO3, about Dick hooking up with Slade when Slade doesn't know that he is Nightwing. I usually don't take prompts out in the wild, and my initial reaction was 'ha, I've written the same story with Coldflash'. Except then I started to consider it, and I thought the premise would probably play out differently with Slade and Dick, and now I kind of want to write it.

I don't have much of it written out yet, but this is one I really want to finish! Here's a bit post-sex, Slade being curious about Dick's scars:

"How did you get that one?" Dick winces. As his scars go, it's one of the least telling stories he could share without lying. It's also too damn embarrassing. "You wouldn't believe if I told you." Slade looks up, eyebrow raised, and the way his stare fixes Dick is as piercing as ever. "Try me." He doesn't look like he's inclined to let it go. "Fine," Dick relents warily. Maybe if he tells that story, it'll satisfy Slade's curiosity and they can end this night without bloodshed and new scars being added to his collection. "I'll tell you. If you promise you won't ask about any of the others."

---

The Coldwestallen undercover fic was very vaguely inspired by this Tumblr post, but I only have the opening scene and Leonard hasn't even shown up yet. :-/

"Are you sure this is a good idea? The last time we did this, you knocked a guy out with a bottle." Through the radio, Barry sounds mildly panicked, like he expects Iris to physically assault random patrons before he can interfere. She rolls her eyes and huffs under her breath. "Babe, did you forget that it wasn't even me the last time?" She keeps her voice low because 'crazy lady talking to herself' isn't the kind of character she's going for in this undercover gig.

[sproutwings]

One, how was I not already following you? I deserve a punch to the face for that. Two, I have two asks for you to expound upon from that WIP nudge because I am a lizard brain who just needs to know. So here we go: A) Coldwest time travel. Is that the one with the scene where she's in the freezer? SO GOOD. B) hallucination! Len?

Ha, turns out I wasn't following it either, which is weird because I could have sworn I was. *pokes Tumblr* Anyway, now I am! \o/

The Coldwest time travel fic (actually, I don't know why I said 'Coldwest' on the WIP post, it's pretty much Coldwestallen even though Barry would only be in the fic for about 5%) isn't the one with Iris in the freezer, no. Thematically, hallucination!Len is probably more like that one!

The time travel fic starts with present day Iris having a run-in with a hostile meta who sends her back to mid-S1 era where she finds herself at the mercy of a Leonard Snart who's only just started dealing with having the the Flash cross his plans.

Here's a few paragraphs:

"Time travel." Snart throws her a dubious look, like he doesn't believe a word she's saying. It's almost funny that Snart of all people is so reluctant to accept the concept of time travel, but Iris doesn't feel like laughing. "What, you've seen a man move as fast as lightning, and a guy who controls the weather, and a giant psychic gorilla, but time travel is where you draw the line?" "Hadn't heard about the gorilla, but fair enough. You got a point. So, why don't you just —" He makes a little 'up and away' flourish. "Go back to your own time?"

I used to have this fic all planned out in my head. Unfortunately, that's where most of it still resides. D: Whether it ever manages the transition from there onto a Word file remains to be seen.

---

Hallucination!Len is actually one of the largest files in my WIP folder, but it's also one with the least recent changes (last time I opened this before today was in 2018! /o\). I started writing it after Mick was "seeing" Leonard in LoT S2, and it has Barry (a bit like Iris in the meat freezer scene) 'hallucinating' Leonard whenever he's in danger. (Obviously, he's not actually hallucinating, but Leonard's being caught somewhere in limbo after the explosion at the Vanishing Point.

Excerpt:

"Your puns used to be more creative when you were alive, Snart." Maybe he should invest in a good therapist. Or maybe it's just that his mind has been constantly replaying the conversation with Mick, and he needs to confront his muddled feelings about Snart's death to move on. He swallows. "Mick says I got you killed. That you joined the Legends because of what I said. Because you wanted to be a hero for me." He winces at the awkward phrasing, at how damn telling it is. He momentary forgets that there's nothing to be embarrassed about because he's the only person in the room, because the man in front of him looks too damn real. The corners of Snart's mouth rise into a sardonic, humorless smile. "That doesn't sound like a smart thing to do, now does it?"

NGL, I'm not having particularly big hopes for either of them, but I'm also too attached to them (and to stubborn) to admit defeat and move them into my 'abandoned' folder...

[sproutwings]

Get to know me Meme

Tag nine people you’d like like catch up with or get to know better

The lovely @moriavis tagged me!

Fave color: I always instinctively and habitually say ‘red’, but I don’t think I really have a favorite color to be honest. I recently developed a fondness for dusty pink for clothes and appliances, I love bright warm shades yellow, crimson red is such a gorgeous vivid color, blue is comforting, and there’s nothing that makes me happier than the first green in spring. Idk. All colors are lovely. Except brown. Brown’s kind of depressing.

Currently reading: I’ve been so bad with books those last couple of years. I barely ever manage to finish anything. I started “Finlay Donovan Is Killing It" and I enjoyed it so far, but I still haven’t read a single word on it since May. It strains my attention span in ways reading fanfic doesn't. And there's so much fanfic to read (and re-read)!

Last song: I had the top 25 on before I went to bed yesterday. I can't remember a single song of it, though. A new Ed Sheeran song I thought was kinda meh, I think?

Last movie: Last new movie, “The Suicide Squad". I rewatched “8 Mile” the other night, though.

Last series: The lastest episode of “In the Dark”.

Tea or coffee: Coffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. ☕️

Currently playing: Does ‘World Above: Cloud Harbor’ count?

Tagging: @eaion, @lesbianleonardsnart, @sophiainspace, @arleney, @areyouscarletcold, @sugary-bowl, @elasticella, @nevcolleil, @theroguesharlequin (Obviously, if you’re not interested or have already done it, feel free to ignore. :))

[sproutwings]

Last Line Tag Game

The lovely @sophiainspace​ tagged me earlier today, and since I’m actively working on a Coldflash fic right now (just for a bit, before I focus on my Yuletide assignment), have a little snippet of that:

Leonard steps up towards Barry and lets his voice drop into that same clipped drawl he's taken to using whenever he dons the parka and the Cold Gun. Lisa mockingly calls it his supervillain voice, but Leonard likes how frosty it makes him sound. Goes well with the persona.

"Strictly speaking, Flash, you were never supposed to be here in the first place."

Barry squares his shoulders and nods, but not before Leonard catches the brief ripple of disappointment across his features. Cute.

This is from a remix-of-sorts of “A Good Time for Bad Ideas" from Snart’s POV that @a-redharlequin​ asked for. :D

Tagging: @moriavis @lesbianleonardsnart @pieprincess-andthe-fallenangel and everyone who sees this and is working on something they’d like to share!