#obiwhan

[kaydeefalls]

💻🍰💭:)

Sweet, thanks!

💻 Do you do research for your fics? What’s the deepest dive you’ve done?

Yes. Lots. But not the deepest of dives, as a rule, because the deeper I go the more I become paralyzed by the fear of Getting Something Wrong, and that just means nothing ever gets written at all. I'm more of a wikipedia-level researcher (which, yes, I know is far from perfect, but it's ACCESSIBLE and good for fact-checking), or googling articles on subjects if I'm looking for something more opinion-based than strictly factual. I also spend longer than is advisable on google maps plotting out routes and distances and travel times, to the point where it actively annoys me when I see something glaringly obviously wrong in someone else's fic that literally takes ten seconds to check in maps.

Deepest dive was probably for The Conspirator's Gift, because history. I am quietly thrilled that all the Crusades-era research I did for that fic prepared me for TOG fandom a year later, though I still needed to play lots of catchup on Joe's perspective of the time.

🍰 Name one of your fave comfort fics (doesn’t have to be your all time fave).

I can't tell if this is supposed to be one of my own fics, or my fave fic to read by someone else? If it's just one of my fave comfort reads, there are several in TOG fandom that I find myself revisiting over and over just because they are soft and warm and good - emjee's All that I know is I don't know a thing, sheafrotherdon's Broken Bird's Wing, sixthlight's Good Enough To Be True (all Joe/Nicky, all modern!AUs for some damn reason even though I enjoy lots of canon-based fic as well). Those are just a few off the top of my head and by no means a comprehensive list. I reread good fics CONSTANTLY. And I'm currently in a TOG frame of mind, obviously, but I have many comfort faves in many other fandoms as well.

If I'm supposed to be self-reccing here, I guess The Pride Pact is the most idfic for comfort reading that I've ever written for myself. I'm not pretending it's one of my best, but yeah, comfort fic. (WHY are these all modern!AUs, what the hell, this is not a representative sample of fics I enjoy. But I guess that element lends itself to comfort reading because the overall stakes are so low, so there's nothing to stress out about?)

💭 What is a headcanon you have about your own work?

Hmm. It really does vary widely from fic to fic. For Joe/Nicky, though, I always tend to headcanon that Nicky falls first, fast, and hard, but keeps his mouth sealed tightly shut on the subject until Joe catches up in his own time.

[rafael-silva]

9, 11, and 18 for the ask meme :)

thank you thank you!

9. which of your neighbouring countries would you like to visit most/know best?

I would really love to visit jordan and tunisia! 

11. favourite native writer/poet?

naguib mahfouz!

18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language?

yup! we have our own dialect of arabic!

“hi, I’m not from the US” ask set

[eternalsterekrecs]

Heyo, really appreciate that you guys take your time to run this blog. Do you have any AU recs where Derek’s a beta? Either in werewolf terms or A/B/O?

We only have Derek as a beta werewolf, not any A/B/O fic. We hope it’s okay.

DEREK IS A BETA WEREWOLF

For My Flesh Had Turned to Fur, and My Thoughts Had Turned to You by literaryoblivion

They’ve known about the other pack for quite some time now. They know the pack is young and small, formed together more by accident and necessity than anything else. But, they haven’t done anything about them because they’ve been fairly quiet, kept to themselves, and haven’t caused any trouble.

That is until the Hales start hearing rumors about the McCall pack acquiring a very young and inexperienced but powerful witch.

So Alpha Hale sends her eldest son, Derek, for all intents and purposes, to spy on the McCall pack and their so-called witch, to see what the truth of the situation is.

So Shed Your Skin and Lets Get Started by halfhardtorock

He's sixteen and in the woods on the wrong side of the town-line and he's so fucking fucked.

He knows he's not supposed to run, they teach that to you in preschool (don't run from a Were, back away slowly and walk with care), but they never told you how it would feel, standing alone in the dark with your heart beating in your throat as those glowing eyes tracked you from the shadows.

I’ve Got A Sure Thing by skoosiepants

Stiles's water breaks ten miles outside of Beacon Hills.

Weave Soft Spells Over My Sight by AgnesBlue

Derek had blossomed steadily over the past year, growing into his ears and turning even more handsome, if that were possible. But instead of going out and melting the panties off the girls, suddenly he was coming to Stiles all bashed in, demanding that he patch him up like Stiles was some freelance nurse. It was a familiar pattern by now.

AU in which Stiles has been living with the Hales for a few years as their assistant and friend. He needs to deal with Derek, who keeps coming to Stiles with bruises and cuts to be treated, while trying to figure out what the elderly alpha of the Hale pack is up to.

re-connect by pineneedlepants

It takes Stiles six months to track Derek down into a wooden cabin in the middle of nowhere. He doesn't plan on bumping into Scott while he's trying to coax Derek into coming back to Beacon Hills with him, but his brother seems to have a knack in always appearing in the most convenient of times, when all the hard stuff has already been done.

Stiles thinks that, after all these years of Scott being on the road with Chris Argent, saving just-turned kids from other hunters, Scott should have had matured a lot since they've last seen each other. After a painfully slow trek through a blizzard and stumbling into Derek's cozy little den, Stiles realizes that maybe he's been holding a little too much hope over his brother's growth.

At least Derek is amendable to hearing Stiles' request. Even if Stiles does so while smothering Scott with a pillow to keep his scathing comments to himself.

Puppy Love by Jerakeen

"You stole half the dogs in town," his dad says, hands on his hips. "I should arrest you."

"They're in protective custody," Stiles corrects him. He's trying to sound serious, but it's almost impossible when you have a Pomeranian eating your hair.

running with the wind by thepsychicclam

Derek's been running and hopes he can find sanctuary in the Stilinski Pack's territory. The Alpha isn't the strong sheriff he thought he was, but a sarcastic awkward teenager that Derek finds he kinda hates.

Abominable by Revenant

Where Derek buys a secluded cabin halfway up a mountain, meets a yeti and falls in love with Stiles, but not necessarily in that order.

[dolorousedditor]

Hey man, really love your writing. Curious, have you written original stuff at all? I mean I've read a lot of fic and thoroughly enjoyed a lot of it, but your plot and character development is on another level. You've made me care about original characters in fic for cripes sake! Idk, I get it's fun to just play in someone else's sandbox too, but you're really good and I'd honestly read your original stuff if you ever posted

I am unworthy! Seriously though, thank you. Sadly we’re in the same boat, since I usually end up caring quite a bit for my original characters and look what I do to them I am writing an original story. It’s been about a year in the making and has involved a lot of world building and character research. Have a fair bit written and I hate every word. So it’s going well.

[kaydeefalls]

omg tog trek??

Yeah, that one’s pretty self-explanatory! A friendly anon prompted a Star Trek AU a while back, but the awesome thing about TOG as a fandom is that the characters are immortal and therefore all kinds of futuristic adventures don’t even need to beAU. 

It’s still just a rough outline at the moment. Basic premise is AOS-verse, somewhere not long after the first movie, a new immortal dies/wakes up (probably not a character you’re expecting), and the Old Guard need to go find them...IN SPACE. I’m still working out the kinks of where they all start out, but I know a few key plot points that I need to hit, so it’s definitely in the almost-ready-to-actually-start-writing phase where I’m not quite willing to give anything else away because it’s still fragile and new and subject to change. :D

[kaydeefalls]

I'm late, but is is "end" "trouble" or "snarl" in your wips??

No such thing as late! None of those are in my most recent WIPs, but both "end" and "trouble" show up --more than once, even! -- in an old Charles/Erik WIP that I do hope to return to eventually.

He was grateful that he hadn't been completely paralyzed by the bullet he'd taken to the lower back at the end of the War, but that wouldn't be much consolation when his legs inevitably cramped up on him later.

&

"Erik's handiwork will just have to do. In the meantime, keep Raven and Alex out of trouble, please."

[kaydeefalls]

What would’ve been your ideal plot points/character arcs for star wars ep 9? The palpatine post reminded me how much tros just makes my head erupt in flames 🙃. Or alternatively, what’s your fave Star Wars thing?

OHHHH MY GOD THE PALPATINE THING WAS SO DUMB.

Okay. So. Part of the problem with ep 9 was ep 8. And here’s the thing, I mostly agreed with the choices made in TLJ (which...I know fandom was SHARPLY divided on that one). But so much of TROS felt like a deliberate refutation of every single plot point in TLJ, and that’s just...not how you freaking structure a trilogy, guys. This is not where you fight it out! Pick an arc and stick to it! So let’s assume, for starters, that ep 9 is NOT setting out to undo every decision made in ep 8, okay? And that includes the parts of TLJ I personally found incredibly dumb (see: Poe’s entirely story arc).

What I would have liked from ep 9:

1. A character-centric plot revolving around Rey taking up Luke’s mantle and facing off against Kylo Ren as the Big Bad (with Hux as the Lesser Bad; he can still do the knife-in-the-back betrayal shtick, that very much suited his character). Also, Rey really is a nobody, lineage-wise. Just like Anakin once was. The Force can be found in a scrappy desert scavenger, too.

2. Finn comes to terms with his own Force-sensitivity and realizes that’s what helped him break free of Stormtrooper conditioning; he and the other ex-troopers start a revolution within the ranks to help topple the First Order. This is crucial: it starts from within, not just some big space battle like we see in literally every other episode of all three trilogies. Troopers were people too, once. Stolen children. They rise up.

3. If there is a redemption arc for Kylo Ren, it comes from a sudden burst of self-awareness -- maybe looking out at the sea of Troopers engaged in their own civil war -- realizing oh shit, I did this, what the fuck did I do. I am not invested in Kylo Ren, I don’t think he deserved a redemption arc, but those threads WERE set up throughout eps 7 & 8 so it does make sense for them to play out.

4. I kind of think the Jedi order needed to be formally ended? Like, Rey and Finn realize that they need to forge their own paths in the Force, to find balance in a new way.

5. Poe does take up the General role after Leia’s passing (which should be handled...differently, IDK, I know there was no good way to handle Carrie Fisher’s loss but they could have done pretty much ANYTHING else with it). He has to actually kriffing strategize instead of just jumping into a ship and blowing things up, and he struggles with it, but he learns and grows. Rose plays a key role in this; she has more than two minutes of screentime.

6. Look, honestly, I don’t care if endgame pairing is Finn/Rey or Finn/Poe or everyone is just friends and that’s great. I just want their character arcs to make SENSE, dammit.

And on this topic, a fannish friend of mine wrote up a whole article last year on how they would have redone TROS, and frankly, I think they’re spot on - The Rise of Skywalker We Deserved. Very much worth a read!

[kaydeefalls]

7, 14, 23, 30, and 43 for the ask!

Ooh, thank you!

7. Favorite author.

OH this is hard. We're talking professional? In the end, it will probably always come down to Tamora Pierce for me. Yes, YA fantasy, what of it? Her books just...shaped me so much as a person, and opened new worlds for me where women could kick ass and take names in a hundred different ways, and there was no right or wrong way to be female. I've reread some of her series more times than I can count and still revisit them regularly. 14. What’s the most research you ever put into a book fic?

Reframing this one, since I only write fics. ;) Um, Old Guard fandom as a rule is driving me to vastly more research than usual, because I'm a history nerd and I want to get things as close to right as possible. But I'm still talking wikipedia-and-a-couple-of-in-depth-articles level research, not full on writing-an-academic-paper research. But any fic gets me researching something. If nothing else, I tend to have google maps open as a tab at all times, because I want to get my locations and travel times in the ballpark of correct.

23. Single or multi POV, and why?

Totally depends on the fic! Plottier fics tend to do better with multi POV, to give the reader a wider perspective. (And choosing who narrates which scenes is a good way to make sure readers don't know too much too soon; this is ALWAYS a factor in X-Men ensemble fics for me, because Charles POV needs to be used very, very sparingly. Telepaths just know too much.) Shorter or more romance-centric fics prefer single POV, I'd rather settle into one person's head for those. 

30. Favorite line you’ve ever written.

Nope, can't do it, this question always breaks my brain. I tend to think all of my best lines sound dumb and flat out of context.

43. Are you an avid reader?

YES. I'm pretty much always reading something. Lately, significantly more fic than books, which does bother me sometimes, but we're in the middle of a pandemic and my brain wants to snuggle into universes it already knows and loves, so fic comforts me in a way that finding new books doesn't.