Current Fandom(s): Final Fantasy VII/Final Fantasy XV

Crush of the Day: Tseng (FFVII)

Pairing of the Day: Tseng/Aerith (FFVII)

The Playlist In My Head: "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" (Simon & Garfunkel)

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
of Alley Cat Sunflower, Bespectacled Brunette & Amateur Author Extraordinaire

Greetings! I'm Alley Cat Sunflower, but you probably knew that already since you clicked on my name to get here… and since I mentioned it just above. But you can just call me Alley if you want. Or not. I don't care.

And now to get the self-promotion out of the way. My main Tumblr is "alley-cat-sunflower". I also have four mostly inactive side blogs: "shenanigumi" for otome, most prominently Hakuōki; "crystalline-lifestream" for Final Fantasy, specifically XV and VII; "thestorytellersprotege" for original work, especially poetry; and "i-got7-bulletproof-biases" for K-pop, even if only BTS/HYYH and GOT7 so far. On a related note, I've recently taken to cross-posting my more recent fanfiction to AO3 as "AlleyCatSunflower" (and there's also some work there that isn't on here!).

Anyway…

I am a bag of contradictions: a logical empath and social introvert, alternately overconfident and insecure. The one constant is that my comfort zone is the truth; I say what I mean, and I mean what I say. Because of this, it's very easy to read me, for better or for worse. I may come across as brusque when unhappy, but I also stand behind every compliment I offer. However, I sometimes verge on the gullible since I tend to take things literally, often including jokes.

In both content creation and consumption, my interests lie primarily in characterization, interpersonal dynamics, and motivation. I like considering how various personality traits are developed and change over time, with or without influence from other people, and what drives characters to think and act as they do. I'm fascinated by how they behave around one another, why that is, and what bearing feelings have on actions. I'm especially interested in the romantic spectrum of emotion, particularly when there are complications, and enjoy exploring the relationship—or lack thereof—between love and lust. Which means I write a lot of pairing-oriented stories, despite being fairly inexperienced in the world of conventional relationships.

Five other miscellaneous tidbits about me: one, my second favorite pastime is dancing, of which I don't do nearly enough. Two, I love the rain to the point that prolonged periods of sunlight depress me. Three, I've always hated English classes; I consider myself a largely self-taught writer. Four, the two topics I can always find something to say about are astrology and video game soundtracks. And five, Bugs Bunny is my hero—enough said.

Okay, I'll stop talking about myself now. I got a little carried away there.

I've moved my Tales of Zestiria: Ring of Fate reference and fanwork section to my main Tumblr, alley-cat-sunflower: /private/173200439441/tumblr_p7lqkz19fe1rwdlz0

OC-MEME-CENTRAL'S FANFICTION QUESTIONNAIRE

1. How about a brief introduction of yourself? I've already included one. If that wasn't more than enough for you, a.) I'm surprised, and b.) tough, because I don't know what else to say.

2. And what got you into fanfiction to begin with? It depends on what you mean by that. For as long as I can remember, I've been interested in the idea of developing undeveloped territory in previously established stories, like Shakespearean plays ("The Taming of the Shrew" could be considered one of my first fandoms). My evil stepmother was the one who first told me people besides me wrote stuff like that and posted it on the internet. She actually helped me set up this account way back when I was like, thirteen.

3. What kind of fanfiction do you like to write? As previously mentioned, I'm fascinated by the way characters interact, so a lot of my stuff revolves around relationship dynamics, especially romantic/sexual. Like, a lot of it. But my relationship with smut is odd; I can't write it for its own sake. If I don't fade to black, it's because there's some sort of point that can only be narratively conveyed via more thorough descriptions of intimacy. Because of that, and also because I can't stand either detailed anatomical descriptions or euphemisms, I'm typically focusing on things other explicit action. But I wouldn't say I'm vague about what's happening, either. It's really hard to explain, but nature/nurture contains more than enough examples of how I handle it.

4. Do you tend to write the same pairings/characters? Or are you a fandom whore? Why not both? I'm a member of several fandoms (although I'm not at all active in most of them), and I write whatever strikes me as interesting. But typically, it's the same set of characters and pairings per fandom that strike me as interesting.

5. What is your most popular fanfic, and why do you think people like it so much? Judging by the numbers, Another Day at Beacon is definitely my most popular story. As for why people like it, I have no idea. I still get a couple favs and/or follows every few weeks, even though I've explicitly stated it's on indefinite hiatus due to being OOC. At this point, I'm fairly sure my interest in RWBY is in the past tense, so I'm probably never going to come back to it. Sorry to disappoint, but that flame has flickered out.

6. Forget other people… what is the fanfic you've written that you're most proud of? I tend to be proudest of my newest stories, since I feel that they reflect my style more accurately than my older work, so that honor often goes to whichever one is most recently published. Improvement comes through practice, after all, so I consider my newer work higher-quality on average. I think, of the stories I've posted on FFnet, "and you can't make it nothing" takes the prize at the moment.

7. Do you find writing easy? Hard? What are the most difficult aspects of writing? Writing used to be really easy for me, but lately, I've scarcely been writing at all for reasons I don't entirely understand. A part of it is that it's always been really hard for me to muster the motivation to finish anything I start, which is why I have so abysmally few multi-chapter stories posted (not counting the several I've abandoned at this point), and there's been more going on in my life lately that makes it even harder to focus my energy. I tend to concentrate more on developing ideas than following through with them, and I have so many ideas that my energy tends to be scattered.

8. Write a few sentences or so of your favorite pairing or character. Zelos/Sheena, Tales of Symphonia: They both know he's been in worse brawls than this before, but that doesn't stop either of them from going at it again. If he's being honest, it'd be a piece of cake to dodge those kicks and punches, but he makes it a point never to be honest. It's her insults that stick more, anyway, like gum in his hair, but he lets her do that too, because he doesn't remember he has a heart till her voice pierces it again. But even as she reaches inside and tears him open once more, he only grimaces to hide the smile. She never yells at the Chosen, but at Zelos Wilder, and her genuine anger means more to him than a thousand false compliments ever could.

9. Are there any fanfiction trends/clichés that you're sick of? I don't read nearly as much as I write, to be perfectly honest, because my standards are way too damn high. If haphazard spelling/grammar/punctuation, badly formatted dialogue, inaccurate characterization, underdeveloped OCs/self-inserts shoehorned into canon, generally contrived or convenient scenarios/plotlines, and/or ridiculous smut-related euphemisms count as trends/clichés, then those are definitely the ones that grind my gears the most.

10. Are you guilty of any of these? Or have you committed other crimes? Oh, you can bet a lot of my earlier stuff is OOC as all hell, hence my reason for quitting Another Day at Beacon. Other than that, I've committed plenty of crimes myself. Repetition of certain phrases, too many synonyms for 'said', too many adverbs, and too many em dashes, ellipses, colons, semicolons, and/or run-on sentences come to mind. But I've been actively trying to fix all of those, and I suppose the fact that I can identify those issues proves I've improved at least a little.

11. What was the first fandom you wrote for? Are you still a member of that fandom? The first fandom I ever wrote for was Pokémon, but I pulled that story ages ago to spare everyone the horror. And you can bet I'm still a member, even though I don't write nearly enough for it. Hopefully, once I actually catch up on Gens VII–VIII and plot out this one insanely long epic in my head, that'll change.

12. Name your OTPs or most frequently written pairings/characters and explain what it is about them that you love to write. Since I have way too many OTPs, I'll just say I like writing the spicy ships instead of the sweet ones. I like pairings with more to them than undying love and pure affection. (I also have a strange weakness for pairings in which sex precedes, or goes entirely without, romance.) As for characters, I'm mostly a sucker for personality development and the reasons behind it. That said, I do seem to have a distinct bias toward villains.

13. What do you call your writing "style"? Uh, I don't call it anything, really. Wordy, perhaps, sometimes to the point of being verbose. I tend to value clarity over concision, and I strive to be evocative as well as literally descriptive. I also have a rather extensive vocabulary, which I am not afraid to use, but I've been trying to get better about that lately. (Overall, I think it says a lot that my favorite writers are Hermann Hesse, Lord Byron, and Charles Dickens.)

14. Do you read other people's fanfics? If so, what do you find yourself reading the most? As I've said, I don't read nearly as much as I write. Still, if I'm in the mood, I'll read almost anything as long as it's well-written enough—provided it's not one of my antiships. The problem is, the fics I consider well-written are extremely few and far between. If I love a character or ship enough, I'll settle for reading for concept instead of execution, although I'm such an insufferable snob I'll call that stooping. For me, it's not always the thought that counts.

15. Name one thing you'd love to write but haven't yet. It's a safe bet that if I said everything that came under this category, it'd be a list as long as that of my published stories, or possibly longer. I can't even decide which one of my unwritten ideas is the highest priority at this point.

16. Do you have trouble taking criticism? Or worse yet, do you have a really bloated ego? I wouldn't say my ego is bloated, but because I've refined my style through continual practice—and relying on my own editing eye, rather than consciously making adjustments based on others' feedback—I'm not really used to criticism. So I can't deny that I tend to get a little defensive when people offer it, even constructively, and I've noticed that I have a bad habit of making justifications or over-explaining my intentions. But I'm trying to learn to take comments in a spirit of friendly advice, so please bear with me.

17. When you write, is there anything that helps? Music? Quiet room? Usually, I have something fandom-related going on in the background, or at least readily accessible in case I need it for reference. This is most common with my Tales fics, for which I stand around in the overworld in relevant locations to take in the scenery. However, there are times when I prefer to listen to a playlist instead, such as whenever I work on nature/nurture. It contains relevant tracks from various Hakuōki games, HakuMyu, and songs that remind me of my story's plot.

18. What inspires you? I wish I knew; it seems kind of random. Frame of mind permitting, the most common factor appears to be music. And rain.

19. Lastly, how would you sum up your fanfiction experiences and yourself as a writer? Overall, my experience as a fanfiction writer has been overwhelmingly positive, though much of that may be because I usually write for smaller communities (or very specific niches within larger ones) and they seem to be a little more tightly knit. Even though I write mostly for myself, I post for everyone else, so it's really nice whenever anyone so much as glances my way. If you're reading this, thank you!!

They just couldn't make it an even twenty questions, could they? Ugh…