#phan phiction

[persephone-victorious]

If he is a monster, man's hatred has made him so.

They asked to see, didn’t they? 

[battydings]

Hollywood: Chapter Four

More of this terrible, toxic duo for Crack Week! Thanks to @flora-gray for putting on this event and getting my fingers back on the keyboard to write these two nightmare characters.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

“I get burnt out by others and must disappear into solitude for a long spell. You know this about me,” he said,“I’m an empath, Christy. I’m far too sensitive for this world.”

“You’re confusing yourself, “ she sneered, “I was the one burnt out by YOU. Your shenanigans have gone on far enough.”

“My shenanigans?” He chuckled as he packed an odiferous wad of pot into the bong before him, but not before he popped a blue pill into his mouth and downed it with a large swallow of Dunkin’ coffee. 

“What are you taking now,” she asked with exasperation.

“Viagra,” he replied, around a thick drag of marijuana before blowing it out in her immediate direction. “I assumed you came down here because you were DTF. You know I don’t need it but I’m hoping for that four hour erection they warn about in the commercials.”

[battydings]

The Eater: Chapter 18, Death Is Not the End

I don't talk about my personal life on Tumblr, for good reasons, but this chapter is a very long time coming and I feel like its important for me to explain why it was so hard to write.

I had to take time away from writing and reading fic for a long spell. 2023 was a very tough year for me. I had three deaths in my world. My aunt passed from a respiratory infection (which unfortunately was too similar to this chapter I had mapped out). A good friend succumbed to her cancer that had returned with an aggressive vengeance, and I lost another friend to an accidental Fentanyl overdose when she relapsed.

My estranged father returned to my life after a 20 year absence because he is also reaching the end of his life and is developing dementia. I've had to deal with all the complicated and messy feelings that come from that.

On top of all of that, some things happened (mostly by my own doing) that created a deep sense of alienation from fandom and I'm just trying to move forward and find the joy in it again.

I wasn't in a very good place, struggling with grief and regret while juggling the pressures of being a full time Biology student and mother. But I'm back to writing and I figure that the best place to put some of those feelings is on the page. After all, this is a story about deep loss, regret, and ultimately, forgiving ourselves and finding inner peace despite it all.

Thank you for everyone who had been so supportive during this past year, friends and readers alike. I couldn't have weathered through without you.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[battydings]

POTO Dark Week 2024!!!

***An Early Post because I have received a few inquiries about this year's event!***

Let all of your darkest versions of your beloved POTO characters out to play April 1st-7th!

Murder, Madness, Mayhem, Misery and Macabre galore!

This is an opportunity to really delve down into the most twisted and deranged versions of your POTO characters and give them some life.  

Here is how to participate:

1. Follow the tag POTO Dark Week 2024

2. Create new dark POTO content, this could be fics, art, memes, posts, whatever! Use the POTO Dark Week 2024 tag when you post.

3. Repost or reblog any dark works you have created in the past. Use the POTO Dark Week 2024 tag when you post.

4. Support the dark works of others by reading, leaving feedback or reblogging.

Note: Taboo, gore or any other graphic subjects are welcome, it is descent into darkness after all, but be sure to tag or provide some warning for sensitive readers.

(Art by László Mednyánszky, 'Old Man's Death' 1890)

[battydings]

I often wonder if Erik would have still retained the same obsession for Christine had he been born with a normal face. Would he still de the beauty and become insanely jealous over his competition with Raoul ?

I don’t think he would be nearly as intriguing, and he certainly wouldn’t have that trauma that gives him the broken edge we all seem to love.

But I think you are asking the same question most of us do: what draws Erik to Christine? Why her? And I think there are so many ways to answer. Perhaps he sees brokenness in her too. Maybe she seems like an attainable target because she’s a gullible dreamer who has nobody. Or maybe this isn’t the first woman he has obsessed over, perhaps there were women before Christine. That’s why I love the story so much, it poses so many great questions that writers in the fandom love to explore.

If you are wondering how Erik would act if he finally got a “normal face”, and are wondering what he would be like (probably insufferable), there are two fics that come off the top of my head

Quelles beautés, ô mortels by @illuminaughti-online

and this one that is POTO inspired but not POTO Kepler’s Web by Inkblottales

For “women before Christine” fics in which he obsesses over another woman before she enters the picture , check out

Like Pulling Teeth by Catcorsair (but don’t worry, Christine is in it too!)

I wrote one called The Kiss

(read the trigger warnings for both of those)

As for the age old question of “why her?” I think many fics try to answer that in their own way, and maybe at the end of the day, Erik doesn’t even know.

[battydings]

Phic Recc!!!

Skates, Lies and Videotapes by @illuminaughti-online

Seriously!! Go read it. I’m two chapters in and I want to stick this Erik in my pocket. Just a genuinely enjoyable modern-ish AU. Naughti is the queen of Rom Coms.

[battydings]

I just read you Camera Shy fic . I . Got . Goosebumpssss!!!!! I kept asking myself about Erik’s POV . How did he choose Christine amongst so many other people ? Did he know her before this ? Did he “pretend,” and he started to believe his own lies ?

Oh man, thank you. Camera Shy is a fic that is near and dear to my heart because Erik is both incredibly pathetic but also very irredeemable. As to your questions, who’s to say he hasn’t done this to other women? Maybe this is his M.O. and he has been constantly searching for a “living wife” without success. But I think he’s so unhinged he probably doesn’t realize that he’s living in a deluded fantasy until the bubble pops.

Again, thank you so much. Now I wonder what a sequel would look like 🤔

[battydings]

The Eater: Chapter 16, The Kiss

“You look,” she said, her words hushed and airy in nature, “different.”

“A good difference, I hope,” he replied carefully, lest he startle this new feeling she had developed away.

She nodded demurely while her eyes darted away from his with shy embarrassment.

For a moment, he felt some level of vindication, as if he had risen one rung on the ladder towards reaching the same impossible level as that boy.

Art is by me (I have a lot to learn)