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I've been thinking about Nor/HK a lot today. It's a really good pairing. I really wish that I could get an idea for an actually good fic with them, though. Something with substance, not like the stuff I've written and the ideas I currently have.

Probably wouldn't have become interested in it if it weren't for my roleplays with Jay back in the day. They played a great HK and the dynamic they had with my Nor was very fun.

I suppose I could always work with the premise we used for how they became involved. It's slightly more substantial. I wouldn't be using all our dialogue or anything (because good roleplay dialogue != good fic dialogue) but the general premise that HK and Iceland were visiting Norway and HK & Nor got to talking when Iceland wasn't present, and then things led from there - that would work.

Man, why don't I have any EstPol icons? I should make some. When I have time. With Kyuhu's art, since it's so cute. (Not that there's much to choose from with other artists, but you know.)

Someone recently posted a bit from Hetalia Fantasia 3, which I've never actually looked into. And it has a scene with Estonia and Poland interacting! In more than just a small amount! Quite a bit actually! In comparison to the usual.

It's kind of funny that Pol is totally computer-inept in the Hetalia Fantasia excerpt, while in more recent canon (like, past ~3 years) he's more tech savvy. Or at least competent enough to manage a gaming setup. Guess Himaruya changed his mind. ;p

Anyway... Ahh, I love this pairing. They're just really cute together. Nerds, both of them, but in different ways. I wish I still enjoyed drawing, so I could draw them. (I drew a lot when I was a teenager, but somewhere along the way, it stopped being fun.) ...Or I wish I could commission people to draw them - I mean, theoretically I could, but uhhh that refrigerator wasn't cheap, so I'll have to put that thought on the backburner for a while.

Anyway. Yes. Poland/Estonia is cute. Must make icons later, when I have time. Should write something with them too; it's not like I don't have ideas.

Ugh, I keep getting all these embarrassing fluffy RoBul fic ideas. Terrible. Or rather, terrible because there's only so much time in the day.

Keep having vague thoughts about writing up headcanon posts, but to be quite honest, it all kind of embarrasses me, and also I think it might be a better use of my time to write those thoughts and little details into actual fic instead. Which I have! To certain degrees! I, uh, just haven't finished them yet.

And I typed up the draft for the eyeliner fic today! And I found that I actually liked it! Like, hey, this is pretty good; nice job, me. 'cept the first part of it needs a bit more fleshing out, but that's fine - it means I'll have room to put in some thirst, which is always fun.

One of these days, I really should write some RoBul stuff with substance, though. Like... not something serious, but it'd be nice to write something with them with a bit of length and something resembling a plot (or at least sequence of events). Something in the 4-5k range maybe. I have no idea what, though. ...Eh, well, I'll think of something eventually.

I think part of the reason I've been so fixated on these two lately is that they're completely unrelated to any of the major projects I have due (which would be an Estonia-centric fic for a fanbook, and also a Norway-centric project that Lu suggested to me). It's like, since they're not connected to it, any stories that I write related to them won't be a rehash of anything I'm doing for that other stuff, and also they're something I can turn to when I need a break from the characters in the serious projects.

But also they're just really cute.

I just realized that I have a tag on my tumblr for writing prompts that I find around (imagine your otp) but not one here. Should fix that. Anyway, here's something I've had in a tab for a while.

From this subthread about how virginity is a state of mind:

So if a vampire could mind-whammy their victim into believing that anal sex didn't count, they could have an endless supply of virgin blood?


Whew. Never thought of that before, but uh... I'm thinking about it.

I don't think I'll ever be able to use this prompt as-is, but it's still neat.

...Could work for roleplay, though. (In which case, RoBul. Obviously. ...Why do I find the idea of BG pretending to be mind-whammied into thinking he's a virgin so appealing? Virginity kink is normally not my thing. And yet. This very specific context....)

People saying that Hetalia is a small fandom make me feel absolutely insane. Tell me you’ve never been in an actually small fandom without telling me. Something with over 100 Ao3 uploads in the past week and tons of new fanart on tumblr every single day is by no means small.

Thing is, it’s decently-sized, but it’s heavily fragmented. A lot of people silo off into circles related to characters/pairings that they like, and sometimes there’s not much interaction with people who like completely different character groups - and this can make it all feel a lot smaller than it actually is. You get into a less-common character, you pal around with the people who like that one, and it starts to feel kind of claustrophobic and slow. You encounter a lot of the same people whether you like it or not, and the only fanwork about such-and-such secondary/tertiary character that you see is the stuff you and the people you know make. But there's stuff going on that you'll never know about.

Do I have any idea what the FRUK and AmeCan fans are up to? No! Do I care? Also no!

As a point of comparison, some small fandoms I’ve been in: English side of Nirvana in Fire fandom, 1900 Ao3 works. SSSS, 2100 Ao3 works. Vatican Miracle Examiner, 153 works. aRTD, 141 on Ao3 and I’ve written 25% of them. Etc. Hetalia, at over 50k Ao3 uploads and (as I mentioned) over 100 in the past week, is downright chonky in comparison.

Sure, it's not like the glory days of the LJ, when I had to take the comm off my flist because I couldn't keep up, not to mention the huge amount of activity on the kink meme (and the anon meme...), but... damn, dude. No, this fandom is not small.

No brains once more! Oh, well.

- Had to dogsit for my brother this weekend. I am exhausted. The adult dog is lovely and chill, but the puppy is still very much a baby, and needs to be watched at all times to make sure he won't get into something he shouldn't. Fuuuuh

- Pride month coming up. My feelings are kind of a tired "ugh, don't feel like it", but that could be because I'm tired. There sure are a lot of things going on locally; it's gotten a lot bigger from the first one. Getting up motivation to do things is going to be hard, but I think I'll try to go to one or two events, just because it's important to show up. But ughhhh dragging my feet, as usual.

- raremaleslashex is in the nom stages. I enjoy this exchange and really would love to participate, kind of tempted to nom some things just in case I do bite the bullet, but... I think I'm going to have to skip it this year.

- ...Because I've been invited to participate in another Chinese Hetalia fanbook, and I need to write a thing for it! (WHAT) A bit of a surprise, but I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully whatever I come up with will fit with the zine runner's vision.

Bastille's "The Silence" is a RoBul song. Most of the Bad Blood album feels very DenNor to me, but "The Silence" - that's a RoBul song.

It feels like a time when they're seeing each other again after a cooling off period. Like they've been apart for a while, didn't want anything to do with each other for a while, but after a while being separated was more than they could stand, too. And there's this silence between them, and it feels awkward as hell to start it up again.

I have a vague idea for something, not sure of time period except somewhere post-1991. At a time when it's still - busy, lots of changes going on, but things have settled enough that they do have a moment that they're able to take for themselves and work on -- well, whatever this is.

Honestly, I like it even better if the reason that they stopped seeing each other in the first place wasn't any serious nation-related thing, but like, petty interpersonal bullshit. Some minor thing that someone got in a snit about, and the other person got irritated about them being pissy, and it escalated into "ugh, that guy, he can just fuck right off for all I care, fuck him". Maybe it was made worse by the stressors they were existing under, but the root cause was something so stupid, and so trivial, that it's just awkward to make the first move to pick things up again.

(Bulgaria, it's Bulgaria who initiates things. Just like "Well, I guess somebody needs to be the mature one here, so...")

...Anyway, I need to think about this premise a little more, but I sure do like it.

+ "What a week!" "Yuu, it's only Wednesday." Well, that's about the half of it, eh.

+ Everything is mud and slush and ice and ugh. Spring up here is so gross, and I just want it to be over. :V

+ Been feeling Exceptionally Mediocre, especially due to upcoming overtime, ew. Why can't I just be able to sleep as long as I want? :V

+ I totally forgot that Camp NaNo is coming up soon. I kind of want to take it up, but... commitment. Also, busy. Hm. Maybe I'll just work extra hard on what I'm writing for crackthewip and call it a day.

+ Lindonwald drew some adorable Hetalia Ro/Bul art for me (voila) and it really picked me up after this mediocre day. <3

Man, I've been really enjoying the latest Hetalia strips. [449 450 451]

452 isn't translated yet, but I'm really looking forward to it. Obviously I'm biased, because I sure do love RoBul, but there's just a fun vibe to these recent strips. Bul gushing about Ro, Ro being adorable, someone running around in their underpants and claiming it's the latest fashion... very typical Himaruya, I would say.

[Edit: It's translated now]

Plus there was some very cute official art of them posted on twitter, too.

And this panel redraw by twitter user ymgr64 of the end of strip 451! Gosh, that's adorable. I'm sure there are other fanarts of that scene, it's the kind of thing that begs for redraws of it - I'll have to go looking for more by other users.

Anyway... yes, I've been super happy with the most recent manga strips. (And have a few RoBul fic ideas percolating, possibly. Which would be interesting - I've never written that pairing before. We'll see what happens!)

+ launchtheship: A multifandom fest where the goal is to write the first fic for a pairing. Signups open today; deadline is Oct 15th. I really like the idea of this - could be great for rare fandoms.

+ I'm thinking about dropping out of iddyiddybangbang. I love this event, but real life has been kicking my ass. I feel like I've been hit by a semi, and writing is the last thing that I want to do right now. Guess I'll decide whether I'm in or out at the next check-in.

+ Recently commissioned Kyuhu to draw me some fluffy Hetalia Est/Pol fanart! Ee, it is ever cute! So glad I jumped on the chance to grab one of her slots. I love the way she draws those two, and it reminded me of how much I used to love that pairing. (Well, I still like it a lot, but it's like I had only two EE/PL fics in me and now I'm totally out of ideas, haa.)