Twenty Questions; Writer edition Tagged by: @gingermintpepper thank you so much!!!!! ✨
Q. How many works do you have on AO3?
A. 45, which is probably entirely respectable?
Q. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
A.
Gold set upon moonlight (Utaawase-inspired KogiMika bath smooching with a side of snooping)
As quiet as the wind (short KogiMika fluff)
The truth, bitten back (sexy KogiMika fluff featuring ear teasing)
The truth that tickles your ears (same as before but with Kogiwame)
Aizuchi (slow-burn historical KogiMika and with historical I mean Actual History)
Q. What fandoms do you write for?
A. Currently my main is Touken Ranbu, but Prince of Tennis (and its wips) is still in the back of my mind, and I do have a Feiqiu (Honkai Star Rail) fic conceptualised, even if not written. I also wrote Mermaid Melody fics in a distant past.
Q. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
A. Comments are like, my favourite thing to receive so you can expect some very excited yelling back if somebody gives one! I like highlighting the decisions I made while writing, especially if those specific things are being commented on 🥺
Q. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
A. That's got to be A sea of flowers all scatter, by conventional measurements, which (ambiguously) ends with Mikazuki breaking. I personally think the worst ending I've given my boys was in Memory, in which Mikazuki outlives his blade having become part of history, and Kogitsunemaru is reduced to the distorted vestiges of his legends as told by humans at the very final end of (Japanese) history.
Q. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
A. I mean, fics like The truth, bitten back are just fluff so by definition those have the happiest ending, but the one of my usual hurt/comfort vibes that ends on the most positive note is probably Garden of Years (ShiraYuki, tennis) or The warmth that lingers (myu!KogiMika, set before TKO). I like ending fics on a bittersweet note, so while things probably won't be 100% sunshine and rainbows by the end, people will always end up in a better place than they were before.
Q. Do you get hate on fics?
A. Fam my most popular fic has like 32 kudos I am not big enough of a writer to receive hate lmao. The closest thing I got wasn't even directed at me, it was someone upset on socmed they enjoyed my fics interpreting them as fixed order KogiMika when I'm not actually particular about who tops or bottoms at all and they discovered I list them as MikaKogi on my twt? But that's not really hate, that's just preference.
Q. Do you write smut?
A. Oh yes. Absolutely. Listen I may or may not have started some fics so they could lead to fuckery down the lane later. I might admittedly be a bit out of practice, but I have an omegaverse... let's list it as MikaKogi, Ill-Defined-Era historical Japanese AU on the gentle simmer, complete with exaggerated societal norms and secondary gender roles (so the vibes will be my usual bull, probably) and also Kogi wears what amounts to nothing concealing like all of the time, to set the tone. I just haven't really gotten around to it yet. Same with finishing the KogiTsuru kiwame smut fic, and the KogiMika festival public sex fic. I also have one or two other fics in my main WIPs that involve sex, but there it isn't actually the main purpose of it, just a really important pivotal moment that happens.
Q. Do you write crossovers?
A. A few (like, two) of my recent fics have doubled as TTRPG backstories, so there's been some crossing over into things like 40k('s TTRPG), so I guess that counts! While I do tend to do multiple fandoms at the same time, they're not usually super compatible, so I haven't written my "Oops! All Original Fake History!" tennis-as-swords AU, my Kogitsunemaru-joins-Rikkaidai AU (more for lack of a plot), my tennis or swords' Dangan Ronpa AUs were biting off more than I could chew, and my tennis as Mermaid Princesses AU became such a piece of epic fiction I'm not sure if (singing aside) it still qualifies as one. Other than that, my friends and I have lovely swords-in-arknights and swords-but-Inuyasha AUs set up! I'll be in a Cyberpunk RED one-shot somewhere in the future, though, so a short Taikei fic in that setting might appear.
Q. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
A. Gestures gently at my too small a writer to have that happen. What did happen was that I got a comment about someone wanting to take my idea and apply it to their own ship which I was actually legitimately like, super honoured about! They wrote a lovely little fic based on the same concept (even credited me!?!) and I lovingly handed it my kudo 🥺
Q. Have you ever had a fic translated?
A. Again, too small a writer to have this happen! Instead, I'll admit that super duper baby Water (I must've been like, 12 or something) once liked a fic so much she tried to translate it to her native language... I got like two chapters in before giving up. I'm not sure if I even gave proper credit, and the translation wasn't really good either 🙈 I have flirted with the idea of translating some of my shorter fics into jp though, and if waka poetry comes up (which is more often than you think when your boys are effectively old Heian aristocrats), I'll tend to have the poems in both jp and en, because I think that's fun.
Q. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
A. I... don't think I have! Or well, nothing published. I've thought out AUs with my friends which ended up with each of us just writing pieces to each other, but none of those ended up into something linear or publicised. KogiMika college AU (feat. Noh soc), horror doctor ShiraYuki AU, and Mikazuki's School Of Friends still live on fondly in my heart though.
Q. What's your all-time favourite ship?
A. Well, obviously, it's KogiMika and ShiraYuki. I don't think it's entirely fair to pick between either of them, so it's both.
Q. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
A. Most big WIPs are at risk of being finished at some point once I have the excuse to do a sprint on them, such as the Other Kogiwame fic, the KogiMika myu featuring Nori and Kashuu + micchan and Chougi, the Higekiri Hizamaru smithing story retelling, and Kyoto Kokoro Oboe (with Kogi and the Genjis), but I have many Prince of tennis WIPs that don't seem like they'd get the excuse... Like the ShiraYuki roleswap AU (where Shiraishi becomes Rikkai's captain), the ShiraYuki artist x writer AU, the ShiraYuki battle as 2nd years fic, the ShiraYuki merman AU (full version), the ShiraYuki angel x druid AU, and the by this point ancient ShiraYuki KiriSen angels x demons college AU.
Q. What are your writing strengths?
A. Poetry and character introspection, I think. I'm very at home using metaphors and the environment to set up a specific mood and specific emotions, and I enjoy getting characters into situations where they, in one way or another, confront themselves or another character. So obviously, hurt/comfort is kind of my bread and butter.
Q. What are your writing weaknesses?
A. Filling in the space between dialogue. The amount of time I've stared, computing, at blocks of
"Character 1 says a good piece of dialogue"
"Character 2 responds to that also with a good piece of dialogue"
"Character 1--"
trying to fill in their body language I saw in my brain in a natural and non-repetitive way is kind of embarrassing. I know I should try using the scenery a bit more often to accomplish that, but when that's not an option... 🙈
Q. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?
A. So long as it's still understandable for someone reading the fic in its target (narrative) language, either through providing translations or when the other language used is presumed known because of the nature of the fandom, I think this is a cool concept. I myself tend to provide my waka poems in both relevant languages, but also 'naturalise' things like the Tosa accent-- if everyone speaks with the same distinct accent, it'll sound common to someone living there and that for me translates to a fic written in common english (including dialogue) rather than constructed accent english. This is also because that's simply easier to write for me. Until Mutsunokami comes in and I have to remind myself we're doing no accent here.
Q. First fandom you wrote fic for?
A. Mermaid Melody. I think the oldest fic I ever worked on was either MikeSei or Mikeru x self-insert.
Q. Favourite fic you've ever written?
A. I'm not sure if I have one! I'm really fond of the fics I've written for friends as secret santa gifts (The warmth that lingers -> Aizuchi -> Tsukikage -> A wound in the deck of clouds) and the fics in my general Myu AU But It's More Like Continuing Myu From Roughly Kotobuki universe (among those, specifically The warmth that lingers, Memory (insofar as that one counts), A river bridged by lotus blossoms and The mirage of your heartbeats is one I hold dear, Gold set upon moonlight, Tsukikage, A wound in the deck of clouds, Lapis Lazuli).
Tagging: @promisinininining, @tsunaminh if this seems fun, and everyone who reads this 👁️ You're tagged 👁️ You MUST do this now it's law. (If it seems fun!! no pressure 🥺)
