Please excuse me, but I need to gush about how important @jupiterjames is to me for a minute. Or a lot of minutes, but I LOVE HER, so whatever, lots of minutes.
We first became friends when I was writing for the Mass Effect fandom. She was someone whose stories I loved, and the first time she commented on one of mine I fangirled a lot little. Senpai noticed me levels of flailing. And while we chatted back and forth a little bit, it wasn’t until I made a post full of fic ideas that I wanted someone else to write so I could relax and be the audience, and she very excitedly adopted one, that we really started to get close.
All I said was that I wanted a firefighter AU where one of the characters nearly dies in a fire, survives with lots of scars and PTSD, and she took it and ran with it. She was going through a lot of shit, and she poured a year of herself into that story. And we started talking, at first just about the fic, but then about ourselves, and she soon became one of my very best friends.
I wrote a decent amount before our friendship, but if it wasn’t for our mutual love of fictional characters smooshing faces, I wouldn’t write nearly as much as I have in the past several years. I have so many ideas. Big Ideas. TOO MANY IDEAS PUT SOME IDEAS BACK ideas. Whenever I get stuck with too many potential directions to take a story, I freak out and quit altogether. She talks me out of my funks, helps me trim away the unnecessary bits, lets me cry about killing my darlings, and cheerleads me to keep writing the good stuff that’s left over. AND she shares pictures of her cats with me. I mean… what on earth would I ever do without her?
(The answer, in case you haven’t been paying attention to how much I love her, is CRY.)
I wouldn’t have finished Kiss the Baker. I had started it in 2014, and gave up after 20k because I had a couple directions I could take it and I didn’t know which one I wanted to pursue. Did you know it was going to be a kidfic with Single Parent!Dean? Yeah, it’s no wonder I couldn’t write that original idea. I’m not a parent, I don’t even want to be a parent, why did I think writing about it was a good idea? It wasn’t, and talking with JJ about it helped me figure it out. I was able to cut that, while keeping most of the story idea, and even getting to include the cute conversation between Ben and Dean that I loved so much because she helped me figure it out. A year later I came back to it, and it’s the main reason most of my SPN fandom followers even know who I am. Even if it wasn’t the first fic of mine you read, it’s absolutely the reason I’ve ended up on most people’s radar at all.
No Words if she hadn’t let me talk almost non stop about it. Anything I’ve ever written for a DCBB wouldn’t have gotten done because I’d be unable to keep the story short enough to finish in time for the deadline. Dreaming in Digital is such a huge and daunting project that it never would have gotten off the ground, much less to 103k (and growing) if she didn’t have such a boner for Android!Cas lol
Heck, Noise Complaint is my most popular short smut fic ever, and it’s SET IN HER APARTMENT.
I love JJ for so many more reasons than writing or fandom. We’ve had conversations that I absolutely treasure, and when I’m down I always know she’ll say something to make me laugh. She’s so incredibly special to me.
And I hope my fans understand how special she should be to you. If you love anything I’ve ever written, I just want you to know that you may never have had a chance to read it if she wasn’t my bestie.
She’s pretty much my silent co-author. And she’s a fan-fucking-tastic writer as well, and if you like my stuff, you should read hers too 🙂
I need a few moments to snot cry over here. Like, ugly, gross, snotty tears. I’m trying to think about a good, honest, nice reply to all of this, and there’s just so much.
You see, @ltleflrt and I have vastly different life experiences. A lot that overlap, but most don’t. If you read our stories or watch us talk here on Tumblr, you’ll probably get an “opposites attract” vibe. Even in fandom. I’m the Sam to her Dean, the Dean to her Castiel, and so on. But when we became writing buddies, and then friends, and then besties, you’ll probably notice that both of us had a huge influence on each other. There were projects I straight up wouldn’t have tackled without her. And maybe she’s the same. We’ve hit each other up hundreds of times by now to ask for advice about this thing, or another in order to add better realism to our stories. That’s a solid writing buddy.
More than that, though, she has never blinked an eye at just being there when I was ready to just… not. When my dad died, when I got divorced and was shoved into being a single, unemployed mom, when I ended up in a treatment center after losing health insurance and unable to afford my medications, she’s been there. And she’s never let me stop being there. That’s big. That’s everything to me. You wanna talk about a person in this world who loves beyond measure? That’s her. She’s that person.
And she’s also (fucking rightly so, btw) kinda a big deal in the SPN fandom. FAR more popular than I am by a huge margin, but to us, that’s nothing. We write what we like, and encourage each other no matter what. However, every now and then, I tend to get some nasty anons who like to drag me for being her friend. Most of the time they make me laugh, because really? This is fandom. That sort of fame doesn’t really do anything outside of Tumblr and Ao3. But it still causes resentment?
I got this one anon who said I shouldn’t bother writing because I’ve never had an idea that wasn’t given to me by @ltleflrt. I laughed about it, because 1) duh. She’s my writing buddy and we hardcore share a muse for stories! And 2) so what? I mean, I have had story ideas that weren’t hers, obviously, but what’s the big deal, anyway?
No Righteous Path, my 3rd most popular fic, wouldn’t have been even a blip if she hadn’t wheedled me into writing A/B/O. Protect and Serve, my most popular fic, would have greeted the world, but it would probably only have been a short one. Who do you think requested about 80% of the kinks that ended up in there to make it 192K? That was her. Or Else was something I actively did not want to write, but she reminded me that after P&S, I was already rolling on writing about personal experiences in fics, so working through my anxiety and severe OCD might be therapeutic. And she’s right! And I’m loving writing it!
It doesn’t matter where the bones of the idea come from. Most ideas don’t come out of thin air. I usually don’t have many ideas of my own, and she has an excess, so that’s really just a relationship benefiting like, everyone. And when you have a writing buddy and bestie who trusts you enough to let it all hang out through the process, and give you an idea they love, but can’t get to? Well, then, you end up with 40 chapters of hot firefighters fucking in an AU that would have been a little drabble in the other person’s hands. And if we didn’t have each other, our content on Ao3 would probably be around 5 fics each. Which would be a total bummer.
The bottom line is, aside from my daughter, @ltleflrt is the most important person in the world to me. And there’s a lot more to our friendship than just what we produce for the fandom, but even if there wasn’t, making friends this strongly is rare for anyone! So my personal opinion is that when you see friendships like that, respect them. It’s not worth trying to stir up drama. I don’t get upset by negative comments because I know that the people sending them know nothing at all, but they upset her. The person these anons are claiming to love is the one being hurt. That’s shitty.
My one big hope always and ever is for everyone to have friends like I’ve got with her. I mean, look at the creative menagerie we’ve made together as friends and silent co-authors! It’s awesome! I never thought I’d end up with a freaking library of fanworks, but I have! Because of her!
You’re welcome. 😀
PS : I saw your tags, Carrie. You can write all the DCJ you want! 😀 I read the ones you wrote before despite my twincest squick. That’s how amazing you are!
PPS : That reminds me I should some day finish that damn DCJ you had me writing…
Re: PS: Okay, but I have so many Destiel ideas that won’t squick you that I need to write first 😛
Re: PPS: YES PLEASE
(Do you ever just go “man I wish someone would write This Fic With My Particular Specifications So I Can Cuddle With Cats And Blankets And Have A Nice Read”? I can actually go to @jupiterjames and request a fic, and how fucking awesome is that?? It’s not just giving her my ideas, it’s asking her for a bedtime story, and she fucking delivers like a goddamn superhero who saves lives via smutty fanfic.)
*sobs* omg I loves yous so much you both are so freaking awesome and keep me feed with Feckin’ fantastic fanfic and I want to give you both cuddles and warm fuzzy blankets and moose stuffies and yummie treats if your choice…
Enjoy Karate, BJJ, and almost anything else martial arts...and anything to do with the ocean...BS in marine science..currently HS Bio teacher
View all posts by reginadabean
Karate, SPN Demonic Octopus Guardian 