Ao3 Wrapped 2022 ( Questions Not By Me, Just Some I Found But Wanted To Answer Bc Why Not! )
ao3 wrapped 2022 ( questions not by me, just some i found but wanted to answer bc why not! )
1. how many words have you written this year?
not all of this is on ao3, but calculating it up, i’ve written about 67,000 words this year! specifically: 2k from the haunting of sunshine girl, about 10k from born in blue, 20k for a wip band story, 10k from russian roulette, 7k combined for some unrelated brian stuff, 2k for a lost story, 3k for a hannibal/prodigal son crossover, 7k combined for bates motel stuff, 3k for another lost post-canon story, 2k for a scooby doo story, 1k for a there will be blood fic, aaaand…i think that’s it! a lot more than i thought, that’s for sure lol.
2. how many works did you publish this year?
in total, i published 12 works! in order of date, they are: russian roulette, the new and improved security system, born in blue, my 6 shoegaze fics, change (in the house of flies), broken by bloodied hands, and end song. most of these were published on my side ao3 account rather than my main.
3. what work are you most proud of?
out of fics i’ve written this year, i think i’ve got to say russian roulette. it was a really fun story to write and i’m proud of some of the research i did into it, as well as my motivation and pushing myself to complete it! i rarely complete fics, so it’s a welcome change and makes me really proud of the fic and myself!
4. what work of yours has the most hits?
i’ve got a secret harry potter fic from 2020 that has 17,000 hits as of now!
5. what work of yours got more feedback than expected?
definitely my there will be blood fic. i wasn’t expecting a whole lot of feedback but i got a good amount of praise for it, so that made me really happy!
6. favorite title you’ve used
oooo, this is a hard one…i’d have to say “shoegaze,” only because it fits with the story’s themes so well and has a double meaning! it’s the title of my original band story, and i’ll go ahead and explain the meaning. shoegaze is a genre of music that’s prominent in the story as well as an inspiration for it; this is the genre of music the band plays in the book. the double meaning is that the main character is often gazing at his shoes / looking down because of the abuse he’s suffering at the hands of another character. i came up with this on a whim but loved the idea!
7. if you used song lyrics, which artists’s songs did you pull from the most?
ha, this is an easy one. not song lyrics necessarily, but all of the work titles from my series “shoegaze” are song titles from a band called the brian jonestown massacre. they’re my favorite band and the main inspiration for the story, so i had to do them some justice of course! besides them, i’d say for song lyrics, probably alex g!
8. pairing you wrote the most for this year?
i don’t usually write romance, usually focusing on gen stories so that the audience can interpret it any way they want, but a pairing i wrote the most is probably neil mccormick & brian lackey! again, gen pairing, can be seen as pre-slash or romantic though. i also wrote about the same amount of words for john watson & sherlock holmes, so either one really. as for original stuff, definitely my characters knox ford/silas lowell.
9. favorite pairing you wrote for this year?
gonna have to say neil mccormick & brian lackey. those two are just so fun and i can’t get enough of their relationship, and i think i’ve got a pretty good grasp on them as characters.
10. what work was the quickest to write?
the quickest work i finished was my there will be blood fic; i wrote it in about an hour. my quickest, longest finished work is russian roulette ; it took me about a week and a half to finish! as i started it around new years 2021 and finished it on january 10, 2022. my quickest, longest work that isn’t completed is born in blue - i wrote the first 20k words in 5 days.
11. what work took you the longest to write?
most of them. my longest-running current fic is between the haunting of sunshine girl (started in 2019, has 187k words) and bound to stars (started in 2016, has around 90k words).
12. how many wips do you have in your docs for next year?
oh god, this question pains me. i’ve got about 24 wips in my docs that need to be completed / worked on…
13. what’s your longest work of the year?
shoegaze! coming out to about 20k words written. my longest completed work is russian roulette, at 10k words.
14. what’s your shortest work of the year?
my there will be blood story, coming out to around 1k words.
15. what wip are you taking into next year with you?
like, all of them.
16. what’s your most common “additional tags” tag?
unsurprisingly, this would be ‘angst.’
17. your favorite character to write this year?
that’s a tough call between brian lackey and my original character, knox ford. both are super fun to write and have a lot of angst behind them…i honestly don’t think i can choose!
18. the character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?
definitely will graham. trying to beat him into submission with my words doesn’t work - he’s a hard character to get down. his complexities make him nearly impossible for me to truly say, “yeah, that’s what he’d do.” so, will graham, i love you, but you suck to write.
19. what’s one pairing you want to explore next year?
oooo…another difficult question. i definitely want to keep exploring brian lackey & neil mccormick, probably the most, only because i love them so much. but knox ford/silas lowell is also a really interesting one to explore, so maybe them as well!
20. which work of yours have you reread the most?
without a doubt, russian roulette.
21. how many kudos in total did you get this year?
adding it all up, i got 321 kudos this year!
22. which work has the most comments?
russian roulette! coming out to 9 comments in total.
23. did you do any collaborative works this year?
unfortunately not, but i’ve really wanted to! maybe someday i can do a collab with another writer, it’s just a matter of finding someone who wants to lol. and shares a fandom with me, of course.
24. did you write any gifts this year?
no, i didn’t.
25. did you receive any gifts this year?
nope!
26. what’s your most common category?
gen! like i said earlier, i don’t write a whole lot of pairings mainly because i either have a hard time fully shipping the characters, like them in a more platonic way, and/or want the audience to be able to make their own choice about the characters’ relationship. that doesn’t mean i haven’t written romance, though!
27. what do you listen to while writing?
i either have playlists for the characters i’m writing, or i have one of my own playlists i’m listening to that i feel fits the vibe of the story. i’ve listened to the brian jonestown massacre a lot, and also the mysterious skin soundtrack. maybe a little too much.
28. favorite work you wrote this year?
as i’m so proud of it, it would have to be russian roulette! that’s a bit of a hard choice though.
29. most bookmarked fandom?
i replaced this question because the original one, “what line/passage is your favorite this year”, was too difficult. so! my most bookmarked fandom is the avengers/mcu, actually. merlin is a close second, and daredevil comes in third!
30. biggest surprise while writing this year?
probably how much i can write when angst is involved. it didn’t take me that long to finish 20k words for my shoegaze book, and that was all angst / outsider pov stuff. which is my favorite. so i think that!
well, there’s my ao3 2022 wrapped! kind of nostalgic looking back on everything i’ve written this year ; i’ll have to try my hand at this again in 2023!
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The Jack Monster and The Smoke Mother
In yesterday’s article, I mentioned in passing that Jack turns into the Smoke Monster. This bit didn’t seem to fit the conceit of the piece, but apparently I should have included it, because everyone’s asking about it. I’ve added it into the article in an addendum, and I’m putting it here as well. I’ll try to keep it “brief” and “simple”, citing only information we were given in the show.
The Mother was the Protector of the Island.
The Mother explained to her sons that going into The Source would result in a fate worse than death (i.e.- Becoming a Smoke Monster).
The Mother destroyed the Man in Black’s village in a most Smoke Monstery of ways, seen here:
What I’m getting at here is that, as Protector of the Island, Mother both had the powers of Jacob, and was a Smoke Monster. She split her duties and powers between her two sons, and made it so they could not kill each other. It would make sense that the Protector of Important Magic Island would be the incredibly powerful cloud of black smoke that can read people’s memories and kill them in seconds. Rousseau was right: The black smoke IS a security system. A very important one, meant to patrol the Island and protect it for as long as it can. Mother was this being, and she also had the power of Jacob: to make rules, to give others abilities, etc. Full-on Island Protector.
But she couldn’t decide which was deserving of the role. She loved them both. So she made it so each would get a part of her. The Gray Mother split herself into dark and light. The problem here is that The Man in Black became the Smoke Monster. He became a security system that wanted to leave its post. That was problem with the Broken Island for so long: One of its protectors had no interest in protecting anything. Both protectors wanted the other dead, but neither could kill the other. Thankfully, Oceanic 815 crashed and Jack was eventually all “Fine, I’ll save the world.”
So. How are Smoke Monsters made? They dip themselves into The Source. Into the Water and Light. Jacob tossed his Brother down and then his Brother cracked his skull, fell into The Source, and emerged as the new Smoke Monster. Later, Jacob found his body draped over a nearby rock and tree:
The Water and Light absorbs the essence of a person and turns them into a Smoke Monster. But they don’t need the person’s body. So The Source moved the body outside.
So what happened to Jack in the finale? He went down to The Source. Desmond unplugged the Island and was unaffected because of his Magic Time Brain. Jack had to plug it up again, though, and the Water and Light DID affect him. He sacrificed himself because he knew the Water and Light would kill him.
But the Water and Light doesn’t kill you. We’ve SEEN what it does. It turns someone into a Smoke Monster, into a Protector of The Island. The person needs to be dead, though, as The Man In Black was dead when he reached The Source. Then it spits out the body. So after Jack was consumed by Light and Water, where did we next see him?
The same place The Man In Black showed up. (Forgive the quality of the picture, I just screencapped an edited montage from YouTube).
The Source spit Jack out once it absorbed his essence for Smoke Monstering. But Jack wasn’t dead yet. He was stabbed and bleeding, but not dead yet. Not like the Man in Black already was when he fell into The Source. So Jack walked into the reeds, lied down with a dog, and died. His eye closed.
Then, however many yards away, a new Smoke Monster burst from The Source. And this time, it was a Security System thatwantedto stay. One that even needed to stay. Jack’s whole arc of the show ended with himneedingto stay on the Island and to do whatever he could to protect it. He believed in the Island, and he believed that he belonged there. Now he was even more correct than he thought. Jack could now happily float around in his new form, helping Hurley clean up Jacob’s mess, and protect the Island he loved, in the form of something he once feared. He did this for many many years, until Hurley’s reign ended and they could both pass off their power and position to Walt, the next true Protector of The Island.
Now let’s go to the Sideways, where Jack keptalmostremembering his life. Every other character had one moment when they remembered everything that ever happened to them. Jack, on the other hand, needed several. A moment with Locke, a moment with Kate. He kept not quite being able to remember. Now, one could argue that this is just because he’s Jack. He’s stubborn and resistant, and just needed a while. However, he wasn’t that way in the Sideways. That was one of the main points in that world. Everyone had evolved and grown in their lives, and they displayed the traits they’d developed in their time on the Island. Sideways Jack was not as stubborn as Real Life Jack.
SO. What’s my point? Jack spent we-don’t-know-how-long as a Smoke Monster on the Island. It could have been years or decades or centuries. Hurley lived a life just as long, but he never changed forms. Hurley remained himself. Jack, however, was Smoke Monster Jack. We saw what being a Smoke Monster can do to a person. As Mother said, it can be “worse than death”. You lose some of yourself. You take the form of other people, you float around asblack smoke. Yes, its essence is you, but much of you is lost over the years.
Jack needed those extra pushes in the Sideways world, because he was so far away from it. He spent his life as Jack, but then he spent X amount of years as another entity. He lost a bit of himself, and each time Locke or Kate touched him in the Sideways, he got a little closer to remembering his life before the Smoke. He needed a drastic wake-up call like his father explaining everything to him in order to truly wake up from his life.
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