GUEST: Capeline Cutemeister

[quinnpriv1]

GUEST: Capeline Cutemeister

PROFILE RATING: E/18+

BIO: Hey! My name is Capeline Cutemeister (20+ She/Her). I'm a fanfic writer who mainly writes fics for the Sonic The Hedgehog fandom, but I've also been active in the Wings of fire, RWBY, and Pacific Rim spheres. I love entertainment media of all forms as well as building model kits and baking. Thank you for having me. :3

PREVIEW: If you want to grow and improve your skills, that will come to you with practice, but nothing is going to happen if you're scared of celebrating yourself and what you can do.

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GENERAL QUESTIONS

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[Quillifer: What is the first fandom you remember being involved in? What drew you to this fandom / community?]

I've been reading fanfiction for an incredibly long time, but the first fandom I actively participated in (and honestly, was my introduction to existing on the internet as a whole) was the Spyro the Dragon fandom, specifically the Legend Trilogy. When the Reignited Trilogy released, I was so enamored by this purple dragon that I actually ended up devouring fanfic content for it—and followed one of those fics to the author’s Discord server.

I was captivated by the characters, the stories, and the original characters (OCs) people were making for this series that I only learned after the fact was quite old. I stuck around for the same reason: learning about people and their sonas1 (or just characters, depending on who you talk to) is an easy way to make friends. This was my first 'proper' introduction to the furry community as well, as quite a few scalies2 enjoyed the series and were prevalent in the server.

{ 1 The term sona is short for persona. Typically, these are personalized artistic renditions/representations of specific creators.

2 Scalies are a branch of fans of anthropomorphic characters that are more reptilian than mammalian, as the term furries usually refers to anthropomorphic characters with fur. }
 

[Quillifer: How long have you been involved in fandom?]

I suppose it depends on what you mean by “involved." I didn't publish my first fic until the tail-end of 2021 and I wasn't active in fandom spaces until the beginning of 2018. I have been reading fanfiction for as long as I can properly remember, however, and I really got into it when my grandmother gave me a Wii U for Christmas.
 

[Quillifer: Do you do research? If so: how much and how in-depth is it?]

Oh, I do a lot of research for my fics—it’s just made easier since what I write about is often something I either A, want to do/want done to me, or B, is something I want to pursue as a career path.

The ways and what subjects I research take a lot of different paths depending on what the project in question asks for. I've studied a lot of "how" to write (and then promptly ignored most of those rules), but I have also gone as specific as how a specific surgery is performed and the required tools or setup.

However, I think most of my research relates to absorbing media and picking apart characters and their stories so that I can try my hand at [writing about them] or trying to get the details right in my fics when I care about being canon-compliant.
 

[Quillifer: If you were to go to trivia night, which category do you think you could sweep?]

Probably anatomy and physiology. I’m studying to be a surgeon tech (and hopefully a surgeon one day) so I have a fascination with all the parts of the body—what they do, how they do it, etc.
 

[Quillifer: What are your hobbies / what do you do outside of fandom involvement?]

The easy answer is, ”I play a lot of video games,” but honestly, coming out of New York and being allowed to breathe reminds me how many things I love to do when I have the opportunity. Now that I can again, I’m really sinking my teeth into the things I've always loved: hiking, model-building, creating art, watching movies, and talking with my friends. Some things I’m really excited to get into are TTRPGs (Table Top Role-Playing Games), skating, reading magazines, and skiing once the winter months come around.
 

[Quillifer: What kinds of technology do you use to write and for everyday life? (iPad, laptop, phone, etc.)]

I use so much technology except my phone. Oh my god, I hate my phone. Multiple writers I talk to have said, “Oh, I write on my phone when I’m on the subway/bus/break at work,” and they’re so much stronger than I am.

I like to sit at my desk with 3 monitors, a laptop, and my stupid little proprietary writing tablet that is my favorite thing ever. My writing tablet, especially, is a must. I don’t use it as much anymore now that I have access to more space, but back when I was living with my parents and a few months after the fact, it was a life saver.

I'm a very organized person who doesn't exactly like a lot of clutter or mess. All my projects are separated by journals, which left me with a bunch of half-empty journals that were taking up space and making my anxiety worse. Now, all my ideas exist on this device separately from each other. Because of that, people have actually recommended that I get a typewriter. I can't say that I'm not tempted.
 

[Quillifer: What is your advice for fellow creatives / people interested in getting involved in this avenue?]

I think that people have to be excited for themselves and what they're creating. It’s easy for a lot of my friends to get bogged down by the voice in their head that punishes this excitement and sometimes, it shows in the works that they create.

My avenue makes this sound so official when I think people forget that we're all just playing in a pit together. There are no rules. I don’t care about "writing advice.” If there's some idiot that's giving unsolicited critique, boot ‘em out of your life.

You can write the most technically correct rule-following piece of fanfiction the world has ever seen, and it could still be soulless—just like you could write the most wordy, poorly formatted, poorly structured fiction that will move hearts and make people cry. I've read both, and for me, the latter wins by a landslide every time.

It feels like a cop-out to say, “I don’t have advice, do what you want forever,” but for fanfiction writers, that’s kind of how it is. This is your chance to grow your prose, to decide what you like writing about and creating without consequences, without rules, without the risk of anything happening that you didn’t want to happen.

If you want to grow and improve your skills, that will come to you with practice and ingestion of work—fanfiction or otherwise—but nothing is going to happen if you're scared of celebrating yourself and what you can do.
 

[Quillifer: How do you want people to remember you? What do you want them to remember you for?]

Being remembered sounds awful, but I hope that my fics reach someone and help them realize they’re not alone. All of my fics have a little piece of myself inside of them and as long as someone can find companionship in that, I'm happy.

 

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WRITER-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

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[Quillifer: What are some of your most commonly used words/phrases/etc.?]

I don’t know if I have any common words or phrases, but I definitely have common dynamics and tropes. With Shadow the Hedgehog, specifically, I like to make her a trans woman and I like to make her pathetic. I love to lean on relationships involving her, Sonic, and Rouge because I think that is fun and easy and it’s pretty interesting to craft regardless of subject material or how seriously I'm taking the fic.
 

[Quillifer: What do you want readers to take away from your work? What is your favorite type of comment/feedback? (I.E. what makes you honored for people to point out when they read your work?)]

I don't know if I want readers to take anything away from my work. I strongly believe that a piece of work is a dialogue between the author and the person reading it. They can walk away thinking whatever they want and that’s going to be something different for each person. We are all different people.

What I want from readers is for them to engage with my works and take them seriously. Most of what I write is from the perspective of [various] characters, and while it is fun to read porn, I like to put little nuggets of the experience in my writing as well. I want people to see that and I want it to affect them in some way—hopefully for the better. I want them to think about it.

I'm always looking at my AO3 inbox hungry for comments, but the only fanfic I have felt extremely strongly about is Cleavers and Scalpels, and the responses to that fic have been damn-near unanimously awesome. I like it when people remark on a character’s experience or how it affected them in detail.

I’m happy, of course, to get any comment, don’t get me wrong, but the ones I still think about are the ones where people have in-depth discussions about the hows and whys of something relating to [said character.] It feels like an insane honor to be able to connect with someone in a messily vulnerable way like that.

Also, I like making people cry, so hearing that happened is always fun. :3
 

[Quillifer: Are you the type to outline your work or do you just go for it? What does your drafting/editing process look like?]

It depends on the fic. There’s a few that I've written where I wrote [everything] in one go with only a vague idea. Some that I've written with detailed notes and outlines up to 40 chapters in advance (doomed to the dust bin until I get back to them…) and some that are in-between—just the document and some reminders on the side of what I wanted [to accomplish.]

I've always been someone that struggles with drafting and editing. I get stuck on a segment and hyperfixate on it until it’s perfect and then I move on. It’s rare that I will edit after this point. Sometimes I do, and it’s something I'm trying to get better at, but my editing is largely propped up by 20 drafts floating around that I pick at until the words look right.
 

[Quillifer: What are the easiest and hardest parts of writing?]

There are no easiest or hardest parts to writing—this is a lie!

Everyone has a different skillset, but even so, sometimes I struggle with the things I'm ‘good’ at. I feel strongest with dialogue and I've always been told that I'm good at it, but there are times where words fall flat, ahaha.

As for the things I struggle with the most: literally everything. If it’s not something I can visualize in that moment, it’s really hard for me to actually write it. Dialogue only comes so easily because dialogue is particularly easy to fudge the rules for.

I've always felt like my prose is really weak, so I like to review other writers (fanfiction authors or otherwise) to pick at their stuff and incorporate their styles into my own. And that varies from fic to fic, too.
 

[Quillifer: What are some of your major media influences? (Books, movies, music, etc.)]

Oh man, ‘major media influences’ is a weird one for me to answer.

Most of the media that I enjoy is from before I was born, but I want to say movies like the Alien series were the most influential to me, and as I watch more movies (Speed Racer and horror films like Hostel come to mind) I end up finding more and more things I like to explore or write about.

…That makes it sound super serious, and sometimes it is, but a lot of the time, I’m just going, "What about these movies is interesting and how can I write about them?”

My musical inspiration is metal. Lots and lots of metal. Rock/hard rock/punk/emo all really encourage me in my writing process and help instill me ideas. It’s so hard to name specific bands, but the ones that have been helping me a lot recently are: Megadeth, Sleep Token, Godsmack, Angel Tech—which isn't metal, but whatever, not the point.

I could write multiple paragraphs about music and how it influenced me, lol. Multiple fics I have on the backburner are inspired by songs.

Temeraire (novel series) is a major inspiration for how I currently write, as well as the Wings of Fire series. The writing style and prose of Naomi Novik has me captivated and I really love how she writes her characters. I'm sure if you asked me this question the same time tomorrow, I would have a different answer for you, however.

I live to be changed, and at any point anything can become a major influence or die down. I'm constantly being inspired and influenced by everything in a way that feels so right to me that narrowing it down to this selection feels criminal, even though this is the longest time I've spent on a question, ahaha.
 

[Quillifer: What is your dream story to write? Who are some of your favorite authors (fanfiction or published)?]

I don’t have my bookshelf next to me because it’s in storage, so I’m going to kick myself when I review this later, but my favorite authors off the top of my head are: Naomi Novik (Temeraire), Tui T Sutherland (Wings of Fire), Neal Shusterman (Scythe), and Edgar Rice Burroughs (John Carter of Mars).

There are so many more, but I often think of these books and what they mean to me.

My favorite fanfiction authors are anonymous_azalea, cozyqueerchaos (who writes genuinely beautiful fics centered around disability. They really helped me break down the stigma I had towards my own access to these resources), and DarthfettDelusions (who writes Shadow in such a cute-yet-angst-filled way that it feels like it was made for me.)

As for my dream story to write: A long-format story that digs deep into people's emotions, fears, thoughts, and leaves them aching. I'm already working on something like this right now with Steelbound, but I think that this is one of those goalposts that keeps moving constantly.

Actually, strike that. My dream story is one that inspires someone to create their own.
 

[Quillifer: What makes your writing stand out from the crowd?]

I don't think my writing sticks apart from the crowd—and honestly, that’s fine. I don’t write to be recognized.

I think what separates my work from the crowd is that I’m the most prolific out of a handful of writers that write transfem Shadow—and I’m quite proud of writing her for a variety of reasons. Also, the sort of topics I write about (whether it be kinks or traumatic surgery.)

As for the writing itself? Pssh, get out of here.
 

[Quillifer: Do you like your old work? Why or why not?]

It depends. I'm envious that my younger self was so ambitious and went ahead and published things with the confidence that I would finish things later, somehow.

That was beaten out of me by beta writers and [that sense of confidence] is still not something that I've gotten back, even though I am writing again, and more than before.

On the whole, yes. I look at my old fics, reread them, and I like where I was going with them. I still have access to all my old notes and looking at them inspires me sometimes—which is more than a lot of people can say. Sometimes, I'm embarrassed by what I wrote and how, but that’s just how it is. I like seeing how I've grown, both as a person and with my writing.
 

[Interview hosted on May 14, 2026 via Discord. Edited & Posted by Quillifer.]