#wick talks

[wickawick]

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

Read my fic ooooh you wanna read my fic sooo bad

[thewickling]

Another fic idea I probably won't write but periodically haunts me.

Post-canon Shen Yuan transmigrates back to the start again. He has no idea why this happened. He's a little conflicted because he's attached the the system again. He suspects though this is due to his guilt around not trusting Luo Binghe.

He sets off to be as sweet to Luo Binghe this time around as he can within his restrictions. The prologue goes through the early chapters of Scum Villain except this time Shen Yuan struggles aganist the system because he sincerely cares of LBH. He also just feels kind of guilt about how in both times he's taken care of LBH for "impure" reasons. The first time because he was afraid and now because he wants to treat his future lover well.

He's a little disappointed when it is clear this isn't his sweet Bingmei as this time around Luo Binghe acts a little less clingy and more like a well-adjusted teen. As we go into the village storyline, Shen Yuan realizes that this LBH isn't just a little distant but he has an interest in girls which is why he's distracted enough to get caught in this timeline by the spirit with LBH.

Chapter one. We switch to LBH's POV and as the chapter goes on, it becomes very clear that the LBH we're with isn't a clean slate LBH, but Post-extra Bingge. He's thinking about how he can break free and wonders how he could have been stupid enough to get caught. How was he so distracted by this stupid nice shizun that he was taken by surprise by such a low level spirit.

This scene goes similar to the novel except it peaks Bingge's interest. How did SQQ know that the beam would break. Bingge is just constantly comparing SY to SJ and wondering how Bingmei got this nice SJ. It becomes a puzzle he wants to solve. This motivates Bingge to act like his 'foolish' younger self.

Shen Yuan is very much like... "QAQ what do I do?" on the inside when he notices that this time around LBH while close to him, isn't as sweet, tender, and clingy. "What if he still evolves into a YY protag"?? He doubles down on treating LBH well and focuses on gaining points faster to break away from the system. He has to win over LBH before it's too late QAQ.

LBH slowly realizes that his shizun is very tsundere yes but also he seems to be repeating their past in weird ways like he's trapped re-enacting their past. Except he's very clearly trying do things differently. Events that never happened the first time around are happening not only now but also things that never even vaguely happened are occuring.

Anyway, I want a story where Bingge gets softened by SY's care. And SY falls for this version of LBH too. Because the extras gave me feels about Bingge.

I also love the idea of LBH being jealous of himself (as in Bingge being jealous SY keeps thinking of Bingmei and not him.)

[thewickling]

crash course in stuff about thai series

to help @sarah-yyy when writing reading fic

General

Khun is the polite address for another person and means 'you'. It is also used as a suffix before a name like Mr/Mrs. when you're trying to show respect.

Phi means elder brother or sister. It's also romantized Pee (you see why I use Phi). You can say this in front of a name or on its own. It's very widely used for the "senior" in different kinds of relationships. (You see Tine call Fang this). Fic writers often shorten it to P in P'Name or P Name [your preference I prefer the first] as they read subtitles which have limited space and shorten the address.

Nong means younger brother or sister. It's used similarly to Phi but for the junior of a relationship. Also used as a nickname for younger people. It is shorten in subtitles to N'Name because of the limited space so fic writers have also adopted this.

Ai is an impolite/rude preffix before a name used to show affection between friends of the same age. It is more common than E' also means a curse word before a name. (Corrected: March 28, 2020)

E' I cannot remember what word it's shorten from but it's a rude way to address someone. It's functionally Curse Word (I think Bitch) suffix. You sometimes see if when someone is shouting at their friend after they'd gone something frustrating.

Nicknames and Names

This gets its own section because it's a different from how other cultures do names. Often characters will introduce themselves by nickname. This is because in Thailand people are given a nickname and in the two week period before a legal name must be chosen. Names are culturally significant and so families will deliberate a name for a long time and ask priests to help decide a name. These nicknames will sometimes be a shorten form of a person's name but may also just be a word the parents like. You'll often see a letter from the alphabet (though there are ones more popular than others). There can also be neat stuff like in SOTUS Oon (warmth) is Arthit's nickname and Arthit means the sun (the character does not like people using or knowing his nickname). So you know Sarawat's friend: Man? That is his nickname not his legal name.

You'll also see Nickname Name as an introduction. I'm mostly saying this because seeing two names is unlikely to be Name Surname. (Surnames in Thai culture due to laws and customs mean are quite restricted in the sense that you can only have a surname if you are from that clan so it means sense lots of shows don't bother with them).

Uni Culture and Terms

Student ID Lines: The way that IDs work isn't that you get the same ID all years. The first number changes depending on what year you're in. These IDs are in a system that is open to other students. There's a practice passing done useful textbooks and materials from a Student ID Senior to the person who just got the ID. This is known as a Student ID Line. This is Fang's relationship to Tine in addition to being his club senior. In more active Student ID Lines you'll have a mentor-mentee relationship as Fang is shown having with Tine. You see that implied in the meet up with the other line seniors (if a line is particularly active you may also have alumnus appear during events). You see Student ID Line event in the scene where Tine shouts about topping and bottoming.

ID Rumor: I don't know if this is true of all Thai Universities but I saw it in SOTUS and so I will share because it is cute. So you'll describe your Student ID Line by the last four numbers of your ID. Let's say 0206. If another Student ID Line has 2060 aka the same numbers but scrambled it's rumored you'll date.

Moon and Stars: At the start of the first year, there's several events. One of them is the Moon and Star competition. From the freshmen class of each college within the university, the most handsome guy and the prettiest gal are chosen. They are that colleges Moon and Star. They participate in events and practice for a competition (that is a talent show) to be the university Moon and Star (each role is decided separately so the Enginneering Moon may win and the Fine Arts Star). These two end up being representatives of the school for the academic year at events.

Freshman Events: Every university has events of which some are mandatory and some optional where freshmen do ice breaker and other bonding events together. For more competitive colleges this is when hazing would happen (it's less common now but depending on when the series is set it happens).

Engineers/Fine Arts Students: This doesn't happen in 2gether, but often one character in a BL is an engineering student. This is because engineers are lucrative career in Thailand so this is the will make bank major. Fine Arts majors are known for being beautiful which is why pretty people are often mentioned to be this major.

Uniforms: Everyone wears a uniform. The same uniform. You can tell if a person is in elementary school, junior high, or university by their uniform. University as you see in 2gether is white dress shirt and black skirt or pants. First years are required to wear a tie. 2gether does not follow this likely for visuals. The exception to the first year tie rule is the university has a international college those first year students don't have to wear the tie. An exception to the uniform rule you'll often see if higher year engineering students in the practical smocks.

I think that's most stuff but maybe @weilongfu can think of something I forgot.

[thewickling]

A day or so ago I chimed in formatting Ao3 in atypical ways on a @ao3commentoftheday ask. I thought I might as well share the CSS for the two common questions I remember seeing: tabs and dividers.

To do this you need to know how to use work skins.

For dividing sections of a story with aesthetically pleasing but screen reader friendly text divider, you will have to at some point have your fic formated for the html editor. Then, you can use the horizontal bar (<hr/>) where you normally use the divider you prefer. In the your work skin connected to that fic, insert the below.

hr { border: none; }

hr::before {

text-align: center;

display: block;

content: '***';

}

The three asterisk can be replaced what pretty much any symbol you want.

As for having a fic consistently indented/tabbed, you don't even have to leave rich text editor mode, just insert below into the appropriate work skin.

div > p { text-indent: 3em; }

You can change the 3 to whatever number fits your fancy.

Em is just a CSS unit based on font size so you can change that to one you prefer also like pt or px.

[thewickling]

I finally reset my asianfanfics account to start thinking about transferring my old kpop fics to ao3... This is surreal.

The site is a combination of exactly as I remember, what I remember but slightly to the left, and what in the hells in that??

It is also kind of interesting to see how works on its own separate ecosystem compared to other still standing sites from that era.

[thewickling]

Wait, What, Excuse Me MXTX what is this Timeline?

@weilongfu told me to just do it and share the weird time contradictions and paradoxes if you tried to accept the statements as fact. Well, share the ones I've found so far anyway.

At Dafan Mt., Jin Ling is described as "turning fifteen this year" (Arrogance, Part Two) and about a week later Wei Wuxian says he is "a boy of fifteen or sixteen" (Contentment, Part Four). On top of that, we know Jin Ling was born thirteen years ago because within a month Wei Wuxian killed his dead (Nightfall, Part One).

Xue Yang is already Lanling sect member at the banquet celebrating the end of the war (Guile, Part Four) at least 15 which is a few years before Wei Wuxian dies. He still to be younger (Dew, Part Three) than Xiao Xingchen who is 17 when he leaves the mountain (Dew, Part Two).

If we count the extras, in Villainous Friends, Xue Yang meets Xiao Xingchen 13 years ago, but Xiao Xingchen only left the mountain 12 years ago (Dew, Part Two).

The Yueyang Chang Massacre happened "ten years ago" (Dew, Part Two) and Jin Guangyao died eleven years ago (Loyalty, Part Seven). Jin Guanyao somehow dies before an event he enables.

According to Refinement Part One, Jin Guangyao is younger than Mo Xuanyu and/or Jin Guangshan disowned Mo Xuanyu before this death: "LianFang-Zun was the current leader of the LanlingJin Sect—Jin GuangYao, the only illegitimate son whom Jin GuangShan approved of. He was Jin Ling’s youngest uncle, being half-blooded brothers with both Jin Ling’s father, Jin ZiXuan, and Mo XuanYu". Considering that JGY was at minimum 14 during the Sunshot Campaign and Mo Xuanyu was taken in at 14 after Jin Zixuan died - yeah no. 

Discussion Conference must occur the year following the Disciple Exchange at Gusu  when Wei Wuxian is fifteen (Allure, Part Three) and the year prior to the start of the indoctorination at Qishan (Courage, Part One). By the time Jiang Cheng is rescued, it must have occured in the following two years prior to that when they are still seventeen (Poisons, Part Four). As the rescue occurs a day and a half after Jiang Cheng is stated to be seventeen, all four conditions can’t be fulfilled so I’m ignoring the last one.

[thewickling]

Asking for a friend, what is a reasonable amount of time to stop being spookied a mouse touched your back and return to your room to sleep? It's me. I'm the friend.

[thewickling]

Dear Writers of Dark Fic

Please do not include in your tags, summary, or author's notes: "Do Not Read This", "Nobody should read this", or "warning warning warning this is dark" or similar. Seeing these at the start of a dark fic leads me to one of the following conclusions depending on the combination of 'disclaimers':

One. I now feel as if the author is judging me or shaming me for enjoying this trope or kink for a fic that they wrote and posted. Since neither of these emotions are pleasant, I click off.

Two. The author feels uncomfortable or ashamed about writing this fic and so plastered these disclaimers to account for this. That isn't an encouraging reason to start reading from.

Three. That the author believes that the audience is dumb. Dumb in that we need  'nobody should read this'  comments to even notice that this fic is dark or may have triggering content as if we can't read. I sympathize with making clear warnings, but just list out the content warnings. If you're worried someone will skip the tags, relisting the warnings or even having "read the tags because this fic might have triggering content" in the author notes is less abrasive. 'Don't read this', 'nobody read this', or such comes off as a bit like the audience can't be trusted to make decisions for themselves and must be scared off like one of those 90's anti-drug campaigns. So, I leave because that's kind of frustrating.

Four. The author expects the audience to be bad faith actors and attack them for the fic. In which case, why would I want to read? Being assumed to be an asshole is unpleasant.

Basically, I have closed out of the fic not because I did not want to read it but because I took your words at face value and did not read the work. No matter how Dead Dove: Don't Eat or DLDR your fic is please do not include such disclaimers. I love reading dark fic. I can guarantee most people reading your fic had specifically been open to or searching for such content. Dark fic is already a niche. Don't reduce your audience by alientating your readers.