I Just Wanted To Say Ive Kept Up With Your Fic Rather Religiously And Its One Of My Absolute Favorites

I just wanted to say I’ve kept up with your fic rather religiously and it’s one of my absolute favorites to the point where I refused to read the final chapter until I re-read the whole thing. What a beautiful story you created. You have a gift.

Hii, marisatomay, I’d like to start off by apologising for how long it took me to get around to answering your ask 🙈❤️ (was trying to figure out what I wanted to say, and how I wanted to say it, sorry X’D), and thanking you for all your love and support!! 👐🏼🌻 This fic’s the first thing I’ve written written since my 12th grade grammar exam (I think I wrote a 500-word picture-composition on a black-and-white photo of two kids playing in the rain, if I’m not mistaken 😂), and many drafts later, it’s still riddled with little-big mistakes (am planning on doing a final round of edits to flesh out/improve some of the things I wanna work on in the earlier chapters, before I bid farewell to these characters for good 🤞🏼). Which is why, I’m so grateful and pleased that you’d consider my work to be one of your favourites :’) Really, you’re too kind, thank you so much!! ❤️🫂

Now, I must confess, that I do have some residual guilt with regards to the story 🙈 I wrote omegaverse ‘cause I wanted to explore the socio-cultural implications of this made-up biology (a teeny-tiny difference in a chromosome somewhere in an individual’s genotype, that results in a difference in their phenotype), that ends up determining a person’s place in society (a reflection of our world, only much darker, with explicitly discriminative policies/laws still in place in the 21st century)? I set out to tell a story about two people who grow up wanting more or less the same things (to serve their country, and honour their fathers’ legacies — whatever that means to them, individually), who were then offered vastly different opportunities by their world. And while Tom and Pete started their journey with us on a very unequal footing, I’d promised myself that they’d end it, as equals. I worked to that end with the constitutional amendment, and universal suffrage, and the honest conversation they had about the state of their marriage. But somewhere along the way, I realised that their past really does cast long shadows, that I can’t resolve all of their issues, tie everything up in a neat little bow at the end. And it occurred to me, that I had to be okay with that.

There’s a book called Sapiens, in which the author talks about how (I’m paraphrasing here) everything that isn’t a scientifically-proven fact, is a myth. How the sharing of collective myths (capitalism, money, nation, God), has helped shape the foundations of human civilisation. And that’s something something that really stuck with me, ‘cause if that’s true, then maybe we owe it to ourselves, to the world, to tell the right stories, to believe in the right myths? I’m not saying that every story should have a moral or a message (‘cause that’s just not true; people write to have fun, and what can be more justified than making yourself feel good with a creative outlet that also gives other people joy?) I guess, I’m just saying that I would’ve liked to tell a story with a better, more definitive message? My Tom and Pete are far from perfect people, and their relationship is flawed, as well (in some ways, all of their problems are present from the very beginning). The optimism they have for their future, doesn’t match up to their reality. Fate leads them down different roads, and although their intentions are pure, they do end up hurting the people they love. They’re not soulmates. They’re not ‘made for each other’. There’s a chance that they’d have had happier ‘easier’ lives with different partners. That they wouldn’t have made the same choices had their circumstances been different. But, they’re both inherently good people who keep trying to work on their relationship, to find common ground. To choose love and hope. To be better for each other. And I guess, therein lies their (and my own) saving grace… :’) ❤️

In the future, children will think our ways are strange. "Why do old people always grow so much milkweed in their gardens?" they'll say. "Why do old people always write down when the first bees and butterflies show up? Why do old people hate lawn grass so much? Why do old people like to sit outside and watch bees?"

We will try to explain to them that when we were young, most people's yards were almost entirely short grass with barely any flowers at all, and it was so commonplace to spray poisons to kill insects and weeds that it was feared monarch butterflies and American bumblebees would soon go extinct. We will show them pictures of sidewalks, shops, and houses surrounded by empty grass without any flowers or vegetables and they will stare at them like we stared at pictures of grimy children working in coal mines

Hii, saengak ❤️ If possible, wrt the ‘get to know your writer’ prompt! Could we do 74? [after reading your Naruto fics and then ofc, FSHOTS 🥹🫶🏼, I’m so curious to know whether you feel like there’s recurring themes/styles in your writing… ‘cause I really couldn’t seem to find any (other than the fact that I absolutely loved everything you wrote 🫠🌹)] Also, I’m dying to know 76 as well, for FSHOTS, ‘cause the universe you’ve so masterfully created is just so inherently dark that I often wondered whether it was tough to stay on track and not be led astray, down scarier roads…

Hiiii eclairfair ❤️ awww thank you so much for the lovely ask and sorry for taking so long to get to it ❤️

74. You've posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you'd written it?

It would be extremely gay. And angsty. It's the pining and devotion that gets me 👌 hahahhahaa

I like to put characters in situations where, even though they are good people and will in the end be nothing less than devoted to each other, they hurt each other either through circumstance, accident or mistake. Case in point: FSHOS and your fingerprints on my skin, my two IceMav fics. I also like arranged marriage AUs, slave AUs, etc. though I don't think I've published any yet.

Or, the blorbos would find each other in dire circumstances and fall in love gradually from the intimacy of relying on each for survival. Example: the ruins of our lives.

As for style (oh god, I'm exposing myself here AHHAAH):

em dash: I love them. So Much. One thing I like to do is to end a line of dialogue with it when a character gets interrupted mid-sentence.

dramatic one liners: I need to ration myself or I'll do it all the time.

comma splices: it's not grammatical but I like it. I probably use them more than I should but I try to be mindful of how I use it and how it affects the rhythm my writing.

use of names: you know that "the taller man" / "the aviator" / "the older man" thing people like complaining about in fanfics? Unless the descriptions are relevant to what's happening, I try to avoid those descriptions and just use their names instead. It does pose another problem though: overuse of names. I'm still figuring out how to balance it hahahah!

switching POVs: I try to ration out time to explore each side of the ship's thoughts

So there it is. Guide to identifying (recent) saengak fics 😂

76. Did you have any ideas that didn't make the final cut of FSHOS?

(Spoiler alert for FSHOS in case anyone else is reading this.)

Here's a scarier road that branched off from Chapter 22: David makes Mav disappear. He finds the transfer form with the buyer signature still blank and just... kidnaps him. Gets a few goons and stuffs Mav kicking and screaming into the trunk.

By the time Ice finds out, it's because someone has filed the paperwork to pull Mav out of the Navy. David has handed Mav off to a third party and Mav is already on his way out of the country.

(Spoiler alert for this potential fic... I don't think I'll manage to write it but just wanted to warn.)

Ice is on the WARPATH. He knows his father is behind this but he just can't find Mav anywhere and can't pry his location out from between his father's lying teeth, so he makes good on his promise and drags the Kazansky name through an all-out shit show of a campaign to take down omega trafficking. Maybe Ice's mom's alpha helps cause she's a banging lawyer.

Legally speaking, Ice is in an absolutely terrible position but it is an unprecedented case that opens up to a lot omega rights arguments. The media eats up the drama and there are investigations, protests, etc... and the omega rights lawyers/activist all flock him wanting to make this The Case to overturn omega laws.

They are in and out of court all day every day. There are TIME magazine articles: WHERE IS MAVERICK? reads the heading, with a grainy, candid picture of Mav in his Navy uniform. The Washington Post has a picture of Ice walking down the steps of the courthouse with dark circles and a glare, and David is somewhere further behind him, stepping through the courthouse doors with his face shielded: KAZANSKY V. KAZANSKY - the generational chasm.

Ice can't look at the news without feeling like throwing up but he knows how to play the game and he plays it well.

I have some thoughts on how Ice would win: national security concerns for one, to void all omega sale contracts out of the country, cause Mav is privy to Navy secrets. Undue duress of some sort is another option to void the transfer form. Finally, if omegas rights are granted, all omega contracts could be voided!!

That's all and good, but we still have one problem: seriously, where is Mav? It's no use winning in court and winning omega rights if he can't get Maverick back safe???

*turns back the clock*

Ice knew this from the start. He had hoped that dragging the Kazansky name through the mud would force his father to capitulate and hand Mav back, but he knows that (i) he could fail, (ii) it would take a long time even if he succeeded, and (iii) it means nothing if Mav is gone.

So he sends his best friend, Slider, on a mission.

Slider has his rifle ready. He has a fast car. "I'll get him back Ice. I promise," he growls. So off our best boy Slider goes, zooming off and sniffing the ground like a bloodhound to track down their precious Mav.

(Meanwhile Mav is rattling the bars of his cage, biting shitty alphas, gnawing through ropes and escaping into the wilderness.)

Slider finds him dehydrated and sunburnt on the border but he's safe. He's safe!

Omega rights: won. Mav: back home. Slider: extremely relieved and proud. Ice: weepy mess ❤️

❤️The end❤️

Even though I thought out this whole AU, I didn't go down this path because (1) I had already thought out the protest and the "canon" fic ending, and (2) I wanted Mav to be in a mentally healthier / more stable state when he re-started his relationship with Ice.

In contrast, the scarier Ch22 AU would give Mav a hugeeee amount of trauma (Ice too) and would probably end up with Ice being extremely protective and Mav accepting it, for stability's sake, while they heal together.

Again, thank you for this great ask!!! ❤️❤️🌻 

“I wanted to die a daydreamer.”

in this corner of the world - 2016

The candy-coloured sky’s melting into the waves, making me wonder what it’d feel like to swim amongst the clouds…

Thank youu for the tag, @saengak, ❤️🫂 these questions are fun! ✨

1) 3 Ships: IceMav, Hangster, Percabeth (we’re getting a tv show this December, and I’m low-key losing my mind after watching the teaser 😭💗⚡️🫠)

2) First Ever Ship: probably Roy and Riza from Fullmetal Alchemist 🧐 or maybe (I think you’ll revoke my protection-by-racquet squad privileges for this X’D), Naruto and Sasuke… 👉🏼👈🏼💘

3) Last Song: a cover of Take Me Home, Country Roads by Yuji Nomi, which is kinda the theme song of this Studio Ghibli film — Whisper of the Heart

4) Last Movie: Qala

5) Currently Reading: just finished reading Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

6) Currently Watching: nothing, really X’D but I watched A Suitable Boy a few days ago, if that counts?

7) Currently Consuming: oxygen 😂😭 (I’m so hungry rn, but it’s super late so… 🫠)

8) Currently Craving: hummus with grilled pita bread :’) ❤️

No-pressure tags: @realclowneryfc @brainjuicey @consultingunicorn22 👐🏼🌷✨

9 people you want to know better

Thank you @dukeoftheblackstar for the tag <3

3 Ships: PloWolffe (Ploffe), IceMav, CodyWan

First ever Ship: my OC with Urahara X'D

Last Song: K.Flay - Giver

Last Movie: The Hitman's Bodyguard

Currently Reading: Star Wars Complete Vehicles - I'm staring at the diagrams with my eyes all huge

Currently Watching: Ahsoka - I am not caught up aaaaaa

Currently Consuming: uhh it's late so water ahhahaa

Currently Craving: lamb dum briyani... im salivating typing this...

People to tag (no pressure!): @abliafina-18782 @itshoneywhatever @sweetlittleladybug @acruelerdonut @eclairfair98 @consultingunicorn22 @blazingstar29 @malewifebillcage @k9effect