wooden

—shows that she’ll fit to Shauna, and proves it with Ben

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! sorry for asking an analysis question, I just always feel confused about it. do you think Shauna liked/cared for Hat outside of needing her attention/affection, so that Shauna could take the role of Jackie? and then when it stopped, Shauna showed she "cared" for the attention?

no need to apologize, it’s a great question! I tend to think yes, though I don’t think those things are necessarily separable in Shauna’s head. I contrast Melissa with Nat in the first few eps of s3: Nat offers companionship (from the group) if Shauna fits to them, Melissa—

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! will you ever write for marihat. they seem RIGHT up your alley and they make my brain go crazy. or genlissa

genlissa definitely, marihat maybe (especially marishaunahat)—I need to rewatch season 3 for sure because I could see my brain going funny for them too

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! I don't think Nat would side with anyone in a Jackieshauna fight, she'd have compassion for both. Even if she suddendly became bff of one or the other. And while she's Jackie's foil, she'd identify with Shauna more.

I tend to agree, I think she would be conspicuously uninvolved. To be fair, I don’t see Nat spending a lot of time with the team in the off-season and not after graduation, though I’m easily persuadable

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! are you writing any yj stuff currently?

writing? yes. successfully writing? ehh. I am in one of my seasonal jams that I am still finding my way through. I hope to be able to rekindle my spark, particularly my yj-related spark, sooner rather than later though

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! I need to see laura lees reaction to s3 lottieshauna murder tyrants.... ignoring that her living might have changed the course of events.

I think the core commonality of every death in the show is that I absolutely want to see the deceased’s reaction to what comes after had they not died, but of course the deaths are inextricable from events

—so that’s probably Jackie in a wilderness scenario, but quite possibly Shauna in a pre or no crash scenario. I think Shauna and Nat are both observers in a way, which is why I find them so compelling together: they’re orbiting away from the center.

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! did s4 change your perspective on shaunanat at all or is there anything you've expanded on with their new canon dynamic? I've seen a lot of people use it in newer fics where nat and Shauna hate each other pre crash and I just find that to be a really interesting choice

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! I've also seen people take it to mean nat would have preferred Jackie pre crash and I find it so hard to articulate why I disagree with that shaunanat just makes so much more sense to me for some reason do you have any thoughts on that?

I am still working through how the specifics of the new dynamic play into how I feel about shaunanat but I feel if anything stronger about it: Nat and Shauna have become increasingly central to one another. As for Jackie, I think Nat is almost always going to take the underdog’s side in the fight—

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! Santos taking Javadi to Whitakers secret empty wing to ‹redacted>

real, true, canon to me. whitaker cannot catch a break

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! wooden who are ur faves in andor? kleya?

kleya, vel, cassian, luthen, bix, brasso, mon, k-2so, melshi, cinta, nemik, partagaz, even perrin sometimes. genuinely I love all of the characters, I don’t think there’s a false note among them

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! Idk if its cool to send asks anymore now that everything is in hiatus but im honestly still not over how Cinta just vanished like that.... do i need fics where she lives or fics where we actually see Vel mourn her... both?

absolutely send asks! I think the negative space inherent to andor’s structure leaves a lot of room for viewers to fill the gaps but necessarily removes a lot of opportunities to sit with consequence, which has pros and cons. the fic opportunities seem robust!

HOLY SMOKES

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! Natalie, seeing Melissa having a panic about her sexuality and expressing herself intimately at the party and wondering if she will ever find love: I better make sure she knows Shauna is /my/ girl

on the one hand I thought this was a way to ground the reader in the inherent selfishness of growing up, the way we guard what’s ours even when there’s no real threat; on the other I thought it was silly and I loved it

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! /spoilers for those who havent read nh yet/ I stopped reading nh not because it was bad but because when jackie kissed shauna drunkenly, i felt so overwhelmed i didnt know what to do from then on. It's like shauna's spirit possessed me

hahaha well I have to admit that it overwhelmed me too! I struggled incredibly returning to Shauna’s POV in chapter 12

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! how do you plan out your writing? is it like a go with the flow-esque thing or is it meticulously planned?

somewhere in between! I like to have a basic idea where I’m starting, where I’m going, and what the point is—themes, or waypoints of events along the way. I try not to overplan so that I can discover things along the way

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! wooden baby, FUCKING WRITE

ugh you’re so right

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! is travnat canon in nh2?

travis is definitely going to play a role, but maybe not the same role he plays in canon

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! When did you get into shaunanat, of in not mistaken you wrote the first fix there is

summer 2022, on my second watch-through of the series—the kegger scene grabbed hold of me and didn’t let go

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! since everyone in this fandom hates multishipping I'm going to call a meeting.......... laura lee x shauna BOOM it's real now ill need at least 10 fics by morning guys

okay but shaunalee actually has a very special place in my heart in both a “Laura Lee gets really cool in college” sense and a wilderness consort way

SHAT SHAT SHAT

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! The funny thing with shauna and flint is that if you asked them why they became evil for Flint it would be "to lead the revolution on behalf of those who cannot" and Shauna would just say "because it felt good" oh antler queen of half-truths.

and they’re both lying in part! god I love them

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! Hi, I just wanted to say that I really admire how you write dream sequences, I still read back over the ones in NH for inspiration.

thank you so much! I am re-editing it to practice my revision/editing skills and I’m so excited to get to the dreams, I loved writing them

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! reading natural habitats permanently reshaped how I think about shaunanat. thank you so much

thank you so much for reading and for being open to them!

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! is your job related to writing or youre unemployed as of the moment?

I do have a job, much as my midday hannibal rewatches might suggest otherwise

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! Writing YJ fic when I wasn't alive in the 90s is hard....would someone like Jackie who's family seems traditional but not super religious rily be kicked out of her house for being gay do u think?

I mean that’s not just a 90s thing, that happens today, but with the Taylors I think it’s very possible if not what I consider to be the most likely outcome. they seem like the sort of family that simply doesn’t process what doesn’t fit their view of the world

yeah above all else the show is a Vibe greater than the sum of its parts but it’s also amazing how much less tolerance I have vs. ten years ago for shows that are so brazenly uninterested in the interiority of their women characters

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! Just realized that Shauna becoming ginger and a Gay Tyrant actually just made her tether with Flint stronger

flint and shauna were both made monsters for the comfort of others!!

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! shaunahat headcanons?

saving them for cannonball!

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! Are you reading any in progress fics rn? Anything good enough that you're waiting on updates?

I always jump on a porcelain update and drive my car just finished! also ex nihlio chapters always get my attention. but I’ve also just restocked my kindle with complete and ongoing fics so I’m excited to dig into those!

~ woodenpicador.straw.page Ask me something! I hope we dont wilderness timeskip again, and get lots of serious dialogue in the final wilderness months. theres so much to explore within these characters, shauna basically only has one ally in Lottie and i Need to see them extrapolate their relationships towards eachother and Rescue

every season I am convinced they simply cannot do a time skip and every season they do so I don’t even know anymore