#& even then at most you only landed on 1 of the 4 WIPs you specifically pointed out

[theresa-of-liechtenstein]

AO3 Wrapped!

thanks for the tag ant @malcolm-f-tucker :)

1) biggest surprise while writing this year?

double likewise, that i did any at all (and even so, only two things ended up actually getting published). i had really hoped i could get some work done on my philippines trip but didn’t expect the amount of people who’d be looking over my shoulder lmao. oh well

2) how many WIPs do you have in your docs for next year?

i currently have the hercolyn-wedding-from-douglas’-perspective fic in a state of stagnation that i hope to have some work on during these next few weeks, and there’s always the second part of the f1 au which i keep trying to get inspired to write but am genuinely failing at because i’m not keeping up with f1 as much as i was when i started the series (this is why longfic is not great for me lmao)

3) favorite character to write this year?

linda because i came to terms with the fact that i accidentally predicted too much of myself into her

4) the character that gave you the most trouble this year?

martin always gives me trouble because i feel like there’s an Established Notion of him that i’ve sat with since i first got into listening to cabin pressure, but that i don’t necessarily fit with nowadays. so his bits in siete canciones were always a little bit of a challenge

5) what’s one pairing you want to explore next year?

i want to go back to some therlinda because i think they’re fun to play around with. they’re so far removed from canon that it’s just very much like a kid in a sandbox.

6) did you receive any gifts this year?

no i was socially dead lol

7) did you do any collaborative works this year?

see prev 💀

8) what do you listen to while writing?

nothing, usually. maybe whatever’s on the local classical music station if i have to have sound. but music often turns out to be more of a distraction when i write

9) favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

from to split an orange, a passage that i wrote a little bit too close to home, but fits shipwright & fairbairn perfectly:

Where does professionalism fall into any of this, oranges aside? Where does professionalism fall into bidding to fly with a specific pilot almost every round because he seems to like you and you think he’s funny and maybe needs you to stick around? Or—well, that’s just silly, he’s a grown man, he doesn’t need you around, but sometimes he says something that implies that you somehow, despite everything, fill some kind of niche in a career that’s probably stretched longer than your own life, and that you are not as insignificant to him as you think you are.

Sometimes you’re the pilot flying and you’re at the beginning of the runway, and you’re advancing the throttles, and he puts a hand behind yours, and at first you were confused at the gesture until you realized very quickly that it’s probably a habit left over from an older plane, and he’s guarding against accidental throttle-back.

And sometimes you’ve just landed the plane, and you’re in line to taxi to the gate, and he’s just looking over at you, and he looks…proud, somehow. Fond, somehow. And it’s not like nobody has ever been proud or fond of you, and it’s probable that he’s been proud or fond of a first officer in the same way before; but from him, it’s just different. It’s not really like a father would, not like someone who just so happens to be higher up in the pecking order would, but…something else.

Sometimes you wonder how many people have left before.

Sometimes you wonder if that’s what makes you want to go along with…well. Everything.

opening this up to anyone of my mutuals who is writing fic rn… i’m not in tune with who is, otherwise i would be more specific 😭

[love-bokumono-fics]

Fresh Crops! January 29 - February 4, 2024

This week's newest fics and chapter updates for Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons on AO3!

Here You Come Again - by SeasonSuite; WIP, 19/24, 78k

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: F/M Fandoms: Trio of Towns Relationships: Female Farmer/Wayne, Minor or Background Relationship(s); Characters: Farmer, Wayne, Frank, Lisette, Ford, Ludus, Trio of Towns ensemble Additional Tags: Crushes, Falling In Love, Love, farming, Fluff, dolly parton references, Friends to Lovers, cowboy aesthetic, idiots to lovers, Day At The Beach, Flowers, Romance, Bonding, Feelings, Humor, Slow Build, Did I Mention Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions Summary: On the first day of her new life, June meets a handsome, smooth-talking postman. Caught between his seemingly earnest words and his philandering reputation, she writes him off as bad news. Over the year, as June struggles to build her new farm, Wayne proves her wrong—then right—then wrong again. or, Westown's charming postman is known for being perfect, and he's usually happy to play the part. But when a new farmer tries to get to know the real him, Wayne learns that to be loved, he has to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known.

Bed Rest - by durotos; Complete, 1/1, 1.2k

Rating: General Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: F/M Fandoms: Friends of Mineral Town Relationship: Claire the Farmer/Cliff; Characters: Claire the Farmer, Cliff Additional Tags: Sickfic, Cuddling & Snuggling, shameless fluff Summary: Just when Claire thinks that her cold has gone, she has relapsed. She's grateful that she has friends and a loving partner she can depend on. Shameless fluff. Written for the Illness prompt by Love-Bokumono-Fics on tumblr.

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature - by stinlkystinks; WIP, 19/?, 11k

Rating: Explicit; Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings; Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi Fandom: Back To Nature Relationships: Kai/Rick, Harris & Gotz | Gotts, Elli/Doctor Trent | Torre, Cliff/Gray; Characters: Zack, Pete the Farmer, Rick, Kai, Mary the Librarian | Marie, Popuri, Ann the Innkeeper | Ran, Karen, Elli | Elly, Cliff, Gray, Gotz | Gotts, Harris, Doctor | Trent, Doug | Dudley, Kano Additional Tags: pete/zack, rick/kai, mary/popuri, ann/karen, karen/elli, cliff/gray/ann, mary/ann, gotz/harris, doctor/elli, kano/doug, mary/popuri/gray, pete/doctor, ann/cliff Summary: Your name is Pete, you came to inherit a farm in Mineral Town after your grandfather's passing. It has been decided by the residents of Mineral Town that you can only inherit the farm if you restore it to its former glory and fit in with the townsfolk within three years. On your farm, you're allotted a sizable amount of land for planting crops, flowers, and/or grass. In addition, you have a coop for the chickens, a barn for cows and sheep, a horse stable, a fish pond and an apple tree in addition to your tiny farmhouse.

Sucker - by Chibimiie; Complete, 1/1, 1.5k

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: F/M Fandom: Animal Parade Relationship: Chase/Molly the Farmer; Characters: Chase, Molly the Farmer, Angela the Farmer Additional Tags: Sickfic, Fluff, Kinda, he's nicer to her than he is most people, but even molly being sick can't stop the snark, man does not have an off switch Summary: Of course Molly would be reckless enough to catch a cold. Specifically, Chase's cold. If it was anybody else, he wouldn't care, but she had a way of taking over his thoughts…

Remaster: Yuki - by darkryuu; WIP, 3/15, 31k

Rating: Explicit; Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings; Category: F/M Fandom: DS Cute Relationship: Pony | Aya | Jill/Skye | Steiner; Characters: Pony | Aya | Jill, Skye | Steiner Summary: Sequel to Remaster: Step Toward the Future: Kaede ("Pony"/Jill) is caught in a situation where she may be the only hope of peace and freedom for a certain Prince of the Stars. Steiner "Skye" x Pony/Jill. Alternate Universe.

Yang Kosong dari Pengamatan Jauh - by rasyalleva; Complete, 1/1, 1.4k; Language: Bahasa Indonesia

Rating: General Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: Gen Fandom: Friends of Mineral Town Relationship: Karen & Sasha; Characters: Karen, Sasha, Claire, Mineral Town Residents Additional Tags: Mother-Daughter Relationship, Miscommunication, Slice of Life, Hurt/Comfort, Developing Relationship Summary: Ada banyak hal yang Karen kecil yakini bisa ia lakukan sendiri. Sayangnya, harga kemandirian itu semahal kekosongan dalam hati.

Her Voice Within - by syavwits; WIP, 10/?, 21k

Rating: Not Rated; Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings; Category: F/M Fandoms: Back To Nature Relationship: Claire the Farmer/Gray; Characters: Claire the Farmer, Pete the Farmer, Gray, Rick, Kai, Cliff, Doctor | Trent, Mary the Librarian | Marie, Karen, Popuri, Ann the Innkeeper | Ran, Elli | Elly, Manna, Duke, Doug | Dudley, Old Ellen, May | Mei, Stu | Yu, Zack, Won | Huang, Anna, Basil the Writer, Saibara, Harris, Gotz | Gotts, Kano, Louis the Entomologist | Chuu, Greg, Barley | Mugi, Aja | Adge Additional Tags: Friends to Lovers, Romantic Soulmates, Soul-Searching, Mystery, Mute Protagonist, Found Family Summary: It's not that Claire can't talk, she sometimes speaks yes, but only when she really put all her energies to do it. Then there's Gray, the stoic guy with the famous resting b*tch face, he doesn't want anything to do with anyone, everyone, even the new girl although she's… cute. While Pete tries to save his farm, he also confides in Claire and asks her help to search for his unknown childhood friend, his first love, who apparently is one of the girls in Mineral town?!? Will Claire manage to find Pete's long-lost Best friend? Will Claire find what she truly desires in her second chance at life?

Love Like You - by SymphonicFantasia; WIP, 4/29, 8.9k

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: F/F Fandoms: Hero of Leaf Valley Relationship: Gwen/Alice; Characters: Gwen, Alice Additional Tags: Slow Burn, Slow Build, Femslash February, Femslash, Bisexuality, Bisexual Female Character, First Dates, Post-Canon, Enemies to Lovers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Picnics, Dating, First Kiss, Girls Kissing, Kissing Summary: People say this love is wrong / But all I want is to belong / I can say without any doubt / People should learn how to love like you

And one Not Safe For Tumblr fic posted by Thefallen1986 titled The Barmaids Son.

[pepsiwriteswords]

ヾ(￣▽￣) ~ Hi!

My turn to break containment for the ask game! (Also 30!?! wips, holy shit)

15, 👀? 8, 👷? 30, 🏷️? 1, ✍️?

（＾∀＾●）ﾉｼ Hiya!

(XD I know, but like I told you - most of them are just vibes & maybe 2 characters right now lol.)

Now, somehow you managed to land on none of the WIPs you expressed interest in, which is incredible lol.

So!

👀 Can you give us any sneak peaks?

WIP 15 is Backyard Promises, & I have almost 900 words in that doc, so sure! xP

Larsen Suarez testing after eleven o'clock at night is concerning on its own, no extenuating circumstances required. Larsen Suarez texting after eleven asking about places to stay the night is more than concerning. Alice wastes precious moments looking between her phone screen and the world outside her window. Like she's actually considering not going out to talk face to face. Shaking her head at herself, she grabs her sneakers and shoots off a reply before shoving her phone in her pocket and creeping out of her bedroom. Park. 10 mins. It's the first place that comes to mind that they'll still be able to get into, aside from the singular shitty convenience store a couple blocks away. Sneaking out of her house isn't an art, or actually all that difficult. Anna will be pissed if she gets woken up, of course, and that's never great, but after three years she's more into threatening to call Alice's social worker for a new placement than anything else. She waits until she's closed the back door behind herself to put her shoes on, tucking the trailing hems of her pajama pants into them to keep them from getting wet in all the puddles she's sure she's going to step in.

👷 How has the creation of the story gone so far? Stressful or fun?

WIP 8 is Brimstone Butterflies (working title). xP This is one of those 'no words/plot, just vibes' WIPs, so. xD I don't know that I'd call it stressful, but I'm not sure I can really call it fun, either lol. It's more of a 'I figured out names of the characters & then put it on the backburner for a time' thing. (Apparently that 'time' was almost 2 years, whoops!) ...Okay, this was a short answer, so if I'd done my WIP count based on my WIP page, you would've gotten Ebb and Flow, and like. This one is also pretty 'just characters & vibes' but. I love the characters & at least 2 of them have gone & gotten married while my back was turned so it's a lot of fun! (Since my brain is being ... my brain, maybe there'll be some Ebb & Flow snippets during NaNo lol.)

🏷️ Does it have a title yet? If so, where did it come from?

WIP 30 is Ember(/Flame/Ash)! Another 'no words/plot, just vibes. XP So, yes, there is a title - potentially 3, if it turns into a series! & those titles came from the NaNo 'adopt a title' forums. Because it seemed cool & so far as I have thought of, there's some kind of rebellion & I like it. >.>

✍️ How far have you got with it?

& WIP 1 is Masquerade! & . . . how far I've gotten is hard to say. xD I get a few thousand words into a draft & take a break & then completely revamp the story & have to restart. So, right now I am ... not far. The last notes I have are about aging down the antagonist some, so she's not like, a middle-aged lady still extremely fixated on a thing that happened when she was like, 16 & harassing an 18-year-old about it, so. This may not even be a superhero story anymore! & which characters play which roles may be swapped around! I dunno! This WIP has become a mess! XD

Thank you for the ask! ♪(´▽｀)

[idiotic-genius]

How to write an immersive scene

requested by @noa-i - check out their blog, they have amazing lists of helpful links to writing guides!

As a writer, it is mostly inevitable to get to the point in writing where you are questioning whether anyone will actually want to read what they have created. A question greatly important to writing something the reader gets hooked up with is: How do I lure them in and make them feel like they are part of something? Sometimes, writing immersive makes THE difference between a scene quick to skip over and a scene you can't take your eyes off. But how do you create immersion?

In this post: 1. Worldbuilding 2. Narrators 3. Writing visually 4. Setting the scene 5. Example to summarize

Step 1: Learn your own facts

It might be banal, since you are the author, to re-read your own notes and think about what you have written so far. However, to get the reader hooked up, make them INTERESTED. This is easily accomplished by creating a detailed fictional world that doesn't seem flat. It might be a tiring process, but it always pays off! Knowing exactly what kind of world your character finds themself in makes it a lot easier to fill in details that subconsciously make the reader believe they are dealing with an actual real-world instead of "just" a fictional one. But even though it may seem harsh, cutting out some details and facts might make the reader feel much more comfortable. Their mind wants to insert them into the universe they're reading about, so overloading them with too many unnecessary details can be just as defeating as giving them too little info. Here is a link to a great beginners-guide on worldbuilding.

Step 2: Know your narrator

As we all know, there are a bunch of different narrator types to pick from when starting a new story, and each of them is good for a different thing- reaching from the typical first-person narrator (The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson) over personal third-person (Warrior Cats, Harry Potter) to omniscient third-person (Anne of Green Gables) and biased third-person (A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). If you are writing an unbiased third-person narrator in your WIP, you can just skip this step. However, if you have any indication at all in your story as to who the narrator is, you might want to think about this more closely. The narrator is the bridge that connects the reader to the fictional world. To immerse the reader in a book, it's usually easiest to use the first-person narrator or the personal third-person narrator, because that way the reader will either imagine themself as the narrator or as a friend of the main character, which keeps them interested. If your narrator is an actual character in the story, it is necessary to keep their speech and description patterns consistent with themselves and the events of the story. For example, a character narrating that has never visited a school or similar should not use highly scientific words to describe what's going on, etc, because it will interrupt the reader's reading flow and disturb the immersion just as much as time skips do.

Step 3: Writing visually

After making sure you have the narrator and the world they're in all set, it's time to choose a writing style, more specifically, to decide the visuality of it. What I mean by that is that having a fictional world so flat it's boring is just as bad as not describing it in a way that delivers it in the way it deserves to be delivered. Picture it like this: Every scene starts in a white room, with neither windows nor doors. If you as the writer don't describe what is going on in that room and what it looks like, at best while keeping the narrator's character in mind while doing so (to make it "3D"), the reader will never know what is actually happening. This also includes adapting the length and complexity of sentences to the scene: In a combat scene, you will usually find short and cut-throat sentences to represent the intensity and living-in-the-moment mindset of a fight, however, in a meaningful conversation between two characters about a heavy subject, it's more likely that longer and more complex sentences are of use to mirror the narrator's deep thinking of the subject and their concentration on the conversation.

Step 4: Setting the scene

By setting the scene, you fill in this white room in the reader's mind, adding characters, sounds, furniture, windows, and scenery in general, while still leaving space for the reader to fill in the blanks. To find a middle between these two extremes is up to every individual writer and depends on the writing style. If you over-describe the room, the reader will know every detail about it, but it will take away their focus from what is actually happening in the scene. However, if you don't set the scene at all, the reader automatically makes up what the room might look like based on what they imagine, and then breaks out of the immersion as soon as you mention something, later on, to be in the room that they did not picture. For example, if you just say that A enters B's bedroom, the reader might quite as well imagine there to be small windows, some bookshelves, a standard bed, etc. If you don't set that up right in the beginning and later on mention that B has small windows, the books stacked on the floor, a bunch of plants, an aquarium, and a bunk bed, the reader will get confused because it doesn't fit what they had pictured before. So ask yourself: What is so important that the reader should know it before the scene actually starts? Context also matters in that case.

5. Example

In the following, I will write the same scene multiple times in different styles to illustrate what makes a difference in writing immersion. The scene goes as following: Jae falls into a dark room underground with a hooded, mysterious person waiting for him. The hooded person greets him and lights a candle, and in the emitting light, Jae realizes who he is talking to. Remember: These are more caricatures of the different writing styles than actual representation and are very overexaggerated, but you get the idea.

1. first-person narrator (Jae), scene not set properly, no visual writing, no consistency in speech pattern

After three seconds, I landed on something soft and realized I had landed in a chamber underground, slightly lit by the moonlight above me. I walked through the only doorway and found myself in a second room. A hooded figure in the middle of the dark lifted their arm. From the table beside them, they picked up a candle and lit it using a lighter. "Hello, Jae", they said, and in the newly emitting light, I recognized them in front of the fireplace.

-> feels flat and jumpy, gives no significance to the change of scenery

2. biased third-person narrator, scene set properly, overly descriptive visual writing, consistency in speech pattern

After falling for what felt like an hour, even though it was probably just a few seconds, Jae finally landed on something soft. Before even attempting to get up, he shivered at the fresh memory of what slimy, earthy, suddenly appearing tunnels felt like. He stared up through the hole at the moon and the stars, and immediately recognized the constellation of Cassiopeia, high up above him. Cassiopeia is said to have angered the Gods, so they gave her the gift of divination, but made it so that nobody would ever believe her prophecies, finally banning her into the sky as this constellation. Weirdly enough, the stars' pattern doesn't look like a woman, or a human, at all. Jae slowly stood up from where he landed and realized he had fallen onto a rather big cushion with a print of primroses in yellow, pink, red, and blue. He looked around in my new location and found himself stuck in a small portico with no windows at all and only one doorway. The walls seemed just as dirty and muddy as the tunnel he had fallen through, and as he looked closer, he spotted about a dozen small, pink worms slithering through the soil. The floor on the other hand was made out of dark wooden panels- if you wanted to call it a "floor". The pieces were just loosely stuck onto the earth underneath, and mud squeezed out from the gaps in between. Jae slowly walked over them and reached the doorway after just four steps. He saw a hooded figure standing in the center of the next room. The room had two sources of lighting: One, the moonlight shining through the disgusting tunnel, and two, a crackling fireplace. It looked like it belonged in a small cottage, being made out of red bricks and looking a little old with the small black-and-white pictures put on top of it. The flickering orange glim of the fire met the silvery-white shine of the moon in the middle of the room. On the right side, Jae saw a big old round table made out of similar wood as the floorboards outside. There were obvious scratches on it, some made by smaller knives, others bigger and maybe made by swords, with splinters on their edges. Apart from two, the fours chairs around it seemed just as maltreated, but the two others were polished and reflected the two light sources, with no scratch marks at all. On top of the table rested a metal candlestick with one slightly burned-down candle stuck inside it. The candlestick had a few scratches as well, on the side and at the bottom. "Hello, Jae", the figure said snarkily, with a voice deep and rough like sandpaper. They wore a black cape, smooth on what Jae could see of the inside and rough on the outside, with a big hood covering their hair and most of their face. A few of the blue buttons with a golden pentagram engraved on them were missing from the coat, and it was slightly ripped in a few places. One strand of dark hair fell into the person's eyes as they reached out for the candlestick, lighting the candle inside with a silver zippo-lighter. The lighter had small scratches as well as a few symbols on it. Slowly, the flame grew bigger and bigger, until the shine from below reached the figure's face. Jae's eyes went big as he realized who he was talking to.

-> little place for the reader's fantasy, but details make scenery deeper and less flat. This kind of description does make sense if the narrator/the character the narrator fixates on (Jae in this case) is very observant and/or intelligent because they will notice details that others don't. The question is whether those details are important enough to keep in the story.

3. first-person narrator (Jae), scene set properly, visual writing, consistent speech pattern

After what felt like an eternity of falling and silently begging not to die from the impact, I finally landed with my eyes squeezed shut. Okay, legs, arms, and head still in place... I slowly opened my eyes again, realizing I had landed on a soft pillow with a flower print. Cautiously, I got up, gazing up at the tunnel through which I had fallen. The view of the slimy earth made me shiver involuntarily as I blinked against the bright moonlight far above me. The sky was clear enough to see stars, which could have been far more enjoyable if it hadn't been for my miserable situation. I had landed in a small chamber underground, with a single doorway leading into a bigger room. The walls were just pure earth and seemed to swallow all noise, but when I took the first step, the sounds of my shoes on the dark wooden floorboards and of the mud squishing out from beneath them was louder than I had anticipated. I could hear the crackling of fire from the next room and see the orange glow as I made my way over to the doorway and took a glimpse into it. The room was not very big, but also not as small as the one I had landed in. There wasn't much space because of a wooden round table and four chairs, which all seemed very old and maltreated, judging from the scratches on them. I could make out a few pictures on the fireplace, and in front of that- "Hello, Jae." I had to suppress a gasp as I realized that I was not alone. In the middle of the room, right where the silvery moonlight and the orange glow of the fire met, stood a hooded figure. Their coat looked as old as the few pieces of furniture, with missing buttons and rips. I couldn't make out much of their face, even though I squinted my eyes, but the flickering light made it hard to see anything, let alone recognize. But that voice... Before I could come to a conclusion, the figure reached for a metal candlestick standing on the table and lit the candle inside with a silver lighter. As the flame grew bigger, they dispelled the shadows below the hood that had disguised the person's features before. I could feel my eyes get big as I finally realized who was standing before me.

-> Gives enough information to "fill the white room" without dwelling on details too much, shows the context of the story, gives Jae a consistent personality

So that's it for this post! I hope I managed to pass on a thing or two that I learned while researching and that this post will help you with your writing. Please acknowledge, I am not trying to attack anyone's style of writing!! If you write the way I wrote a "non-immersive" scene, it does NOT mean that your writing style is bad, let alone wrong, because the existence of many different writing styles is what keeps it individual and interesting! Find your own way and let nobody get you down :)

[epicstuckyficrecs]

Weekly Recap | July 27-August 2nd 2020

Another big one this week! I discovered a new writer, can you guess who it is? 😆 

Complete

[Bucky is typing] by darter_blue/ @darter-blue​ (Shrunkyclunks | 4K | Mature): Steve just wants to wind down, post mission, with the silly cupcake game Clint downloaded onto his stark phone. He doesn't know who 'Bucky' is, or why he's texting Steve so aggressively. He doesn't mean to answer the phone and argue with the charming voice on the other end. He certainly never meant for the arguing to be interpreted as flirting... But maybe he should just go with it? Maybe Bucky is exactly the leap Steve needs to take, to find his way in the world again.

d-sides and rarities, Chapter 11. balcony + fairy lights  by Deisderium/ @deisderium​ (Shrunkyclunks | Teen): Pepper's PA keeps helping Steve with gala events and public appearances. Steve's trying to keep it professional. Good luck with that.

Helping You Out by darter_blue/ @darter-blue​ (PWP | 3,7K | Explicit): Steve is not having a great time here... attempting to find his own prostate. So of course, Sam's gorgeous best friend Bucky chooses this exact moment to walk into Steve and Sam's dorm room unnanounced.

Saké It To Me by Kalee60/ @kalee60​ (Shrunkyclunks | 8K | Teen): Being roped into speed dating was not how Bucky imagined spending his Friday night, especially when he realises some of these people might just be a little bit over his pay grade. But then Steve sits down, gorgeous, friendly and full of genuine warmth. Within mere minutes he manages to completely charm the pants off Bucky (or so his future self hopes). So why then, after such a strong connection, didn't Steve call him?

Tap That by Kalee60/ @kalee60​ (Meet-cute | 2K | General): When Steve is distracted while waiting at a busy crosswalk on the way to an important meeting, he inadvertently meets the man of his dreams - but only after making the most mortifying social gaffe of his life.Red faced and apologetic he tries to forget the incident.But sometimes when things go wrong - they suddenly turn out spectacularly right.

Pressure Points by darter_blue/ @darter-blue​ (Shrunkyclunks | 3K | Explicit): Bucky Barnes hates to fly. And this flight is starting out worse than normal. Except for the hot, built, blond sat beside him... Who has shoulders for days, a voice like molasses, and some very interesting ideas about how to ease Bucky's anxiety... (Part 1 of 💙 Pressure)

Under Pressure by darter_blue/ @darter-blue​ (Shrunkyclunks | 6K | Explicit): Bucky is still high off the sexy encounter he experienced with the super hot guy from his flight yesterday.Only today is not turning out quite so great. He could really use some more of that stress relief that Steve doled out so graciously on the plane.And he left Bucky his number right? Which means Bucky could just call him... See if he's busy...He's doing it - he's calling him. It's ringing. (Part 2 of 💙 Pressure)

High Pressure System by darter_blue/ @darter-blue​ (Shrunkyclunks | 8K | Explicit): So Steve ran out on him.Ran out saying 'I'll call, you' which everyone knows means Bucky just got ghosted. Except it turns out his booty call might be more than Bucky bargained for. How deep is he willing to dig to chase the answers to his questions? And why is he finding it so impossible to say no to this guy? Steve Rogers, who ARE you... (Part 3 of 💙 Pressure)

Pressure Rising by darter_blue/ @darter-blue​ (Shrunkyclunks | 7K | Explicit): Waking up in a farmhouse, on an apple orchard, in the arms of a man who could bench press a minivan, with eyelashes like a disney princess and shoulders like a greek god is Bucky's fantasy turned reality.Except this is sort of a kidnapping.And his life might be falling apart in the real world.And Bucky might not give a shit, because Steve Rogers is like a drug, and Bucky just can't get enough.Also, it turns out, maybe Bucky is a drug for Steve too... (Part 4 of 💙 Pressure)

Pressing You Down by darter_blue/ @darter-blue​ (Shrunkyclunks | 8K | Explicit): Steve Rogers is a master tactician, a supersoldier, a born leader. So why is it, as the team are closing in on an epic mission, two years in the making, that Bucky Barnes (and his thighs, lets face it, men have bled for less) and the possibility of he and Steve having a future together, might be enough to compromise everything his team have worked so long for.Actually, maybe it doesn't have to...Maybe everything is about to work out exactly the way Steve wants it to.Well... A man can dream. (Part 5 of 💙 Pressure)

💙 and the next by mcwho (Time traveling | 12K | Explicit): They have him in the common room of all places, and they won’t let Steve see him. or: a time-travel glitch lands 1936's bucky right in 2025 steve's lap

Reading in progress

Adorably awkward by darter_blue/ @darter-blue​ (Shrunkyclunks | 32K | Explicit): The one where Bucky uses Steve's car window as a mirror and Steve can appreciate the view...

WIP

💙 Heirloom by 2bestfriends/ @addyetc​ (Royalty AU, Arranged Marriage | 4/5 | 17K | Explicit): King Steven Grant Rogers of Aphekion is only 20 years old. He relies on the wisdom of his advisors, the strength and honesty of his people, and the love and kindness his mother left to him. He wants nothing more than to honor them all by bringing peace to his kingdom. So much has been sacrificed already. If he must sacrifice his hope for love, then so be it.

💙 Revenance by JJK/ @trenchcoatsandtimetravel​, SinpaiCasanova (The Old Guard AU/The Song of Achilles AU | 2/? | 5K | Mature): And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone. Or, the one where Steve and Bucky are immortal and used to be known as Achilles and Patroclus.

💙 With Only You by brucespringsteen (Time Travel | 6/9 | 35K | Explicit): Steve, semi-retired and still a bastard who doesn’t follow rules, touches a cube that sends him to 1938, eighty-six years in the past. He takes it well. Bucky, twenty-one and baby-faced, takes it even better.

💙 Sergeant Barnes and Colonel Rogers: Lessons in Lust, Longing and Inappropriate Erections. by darter_blue/ @darter-blue​ (Shrunkyclunks | 1/4 | 5K | Explicit): Bucky Barnes is a decorated (though young) Sergeant in the United States Army, a Ranger with the 75th regiment, a sniper of unparalleled skill; he still expects his first day as an Avenger to be challenging. He is not at all prepared for the greatest challenge to be one hot as fuck, steely eyed, Colonel Rogers. More specifically, he is not expecting the greatest challenge to be keeping his dick under control whenever Colonel Rogers, with his broad shoulders and his authoritative command and his fucking thick, gorgeous beard, enters into Bucky's immediate vicinity.

💙 Tender is the Ghost by Hark_bananas/ @harkbananas​ (Post-WS | 6/12 | 70K | Explicit): This thought is uncontrollably followed by another one: I’m not alone anymore. He looks over his shoulder, through the kitchen door, to where Bucky is sitting at his usual place at the head of the dining table, and he feels an unconstrainable smile breaking out across his face, the barest hint of threatening tears along its bright edge. Bucky is still looking past Steve’s left ear, but slowly, gingerly, one side of his mouth quirks up. Steve feels giddy, he wants to shout, or faint, or something to relieve the carbonated pressure that is bubbling up inside of him. Instead, he laughs, short and cheerful, and opens the oven door. (Part 2 of Tender is the Ghost)

💙 A Call to Motion by JJK/ @trenchcoatsandtimetravel​ (Uni AU | 2/? | 16K | Explicit): He was a jock, he did ballet, what more can I say? (aka: Steve’s football coach sends him to learn ballet to improve his game, Bucky is the dance TA tasked with teaching him).

💙  Bespoke by the1918/ @the1918​ (Shrunkyclunks, ABO AU | 7/10 | 72K | Explicit): “I love you, too. So fucking much,” Steve answered. His voice sounded cracked and exhausted, an exposed nerve ending in the shape of a man. “Some days I still don’t believe you’re real. Feels— feels like somehow, I’ve always loved you. Even when I didn’t know you.” Bucky smiled softly at that and felt his heart threaten to explode. Still straddling his lap, he reached a hand up to cup Steve’s cheek. “You’ve always known me,” he stated, simply. “I was made for you, remember?” (Part 2 of 💙Compatible)

💙 Songbird by chicklette/ @chicklette​ (Singer Bucky, Fake relationship | 13/15 | 61K | Explicit): At 43, James Barnes is a washed up old man. He’s got a dozen Grammys in the hall closet, an agent that can’t get him a deal, a decade-old case of writer’s block, a moody teen-aged daughter, and the gorgeous actress Natasha Romanova for an ex-wife. Enter Steven Grant Rogers, struggling twenty-something, orphan, and someone who has no idea who Barnes is. The two men meet by accident, doing nothing more than passing the time in a quiet bar. But when a pap gets a shot of the two men embracing, Bucky takes it as a chance to finally come out as bisexual, and his agent makes him a proposition: Ten new songs and one very sweet boyfriend will get him a new record deal that will maybe, just maybe put him back on top. Now all he has to do is write the songs, convince the kid, and not fall in love. Should be easy, right?

[autumnslance]

First Line

Saw some folks doing this and thought why not give it a try.

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favourite authors!

I’m going with actual “stories” or at least longer scenes, not just short blurbs or WIP scenes I’ve also posted lately for challenges/prompts. Also this goes back past FFXIV Write 2020, so going with the more polished works I posted on the free days and skipping those many prompts (much as I like most of them). Also using the Ao3 links for most of these (which means less visibility in search and tags), though a couple are on Tumblr only. The links go to individual works, though many are found in the “Unexpected” compilation thread I have for Aeryn & Thancred shippy nonsense, where they’re more or less arranged in chronological order. Still, direct linking to the specific chapters seemed the best plan.

I think I like best the ones that immediately give environment details, like “The Old Bargain” and “Sandstorm”, though there’s also something about “The First Day”’s first line that works for me.

1) Celebration: “There’s the hero of the hour,” Thancred said as he ambled over. The child Aeryn had been speaking with waved and dashed off, eager to share with his friends whatever secrets the Warrior of Darkness had divulged. Thancred watched him go, smiling, before turning back to Aeryn.

Shadowbringers 5.0 finale and how two warriors of darkness spend it.

2) Aetherytes: Thancred glowered up at the aetheryte. The morning light was obscured by a light snowfall, the blue glow of the device tinting the plaza. The knight handling the fees had a vague eye on him, but Aeryn was keeping the man mostly distracted with pleasant conversation and a thermos of Fortemps cocoa.

Thancred tries to hide his new condition from Aeryn immediately after Heavensward’s 3.1 patch.

3) Food: “Please tell me,” Y’shtola’s voice from behind Aeryn was positively acidic. “That you have eaten more than a muffin and a few pieces of fruit since our lunch.”

Aeryn is in a research frenzy and Y’shtola is annoyed she has to deal with it.

4) Dawn: Thancred hadn’t slept much.

Morning after the ARR 2.0 finale, kind of a sequel to FFXIV Write’s “Clamor”.

5) Flower: “What?” Aeryn demanded, snapping Emet-Selch’s attention down to her eyes; they were the hard grey of steel arrowheads as she glowered.

Emet-Selch has an unexpected memory thanks to Aeryn’s favored hair piece. Shadowbringers.

6) Indecent Whispers: The ceremony was lengthy, the lists and speeches interminable, and Aeryn struggled to not doze off. She shifted in her seat as the sermon continued.

NSFW for dirty language as Thancred quietly scandalizes Aeryn during an Ishgardian ceremony.

7) 15th Day of the 1st Astral Sun: Aeryn stepped through the mirror and into the familiar space of the Ocular, taking a moment to reorient herself after the rush of journeying between worlds. Once the vertigo had passed she left the Tower, the Crystarium guards greeting her as she crossed the Exedra. It took some questioning before she was finally pointed to where Ryne was currently; training with Captain Lyna just outside the city gates.

Aeryn gets a sentimental nameday present from her conveniently absent partner, post Reflections in Crystal.

8) Thancred’s PoV on 15th Day of the 1st Astral Sun: He always marked the day, even knowing that time was moving differently for her back in the Source.

I apparently had to write out Thancred’s perspective first to get the correct feel in the letters Aeryn read.

9) Girl Talk: Lyse and Aeryn fell on their backs onto the palm of Rhalgr, laughing as their early morning sparring session ended in a draw.

During Stormblood’s “Lady in Red” quest, two besties have a chat after their spar.

10) Only a Little Death for Now: He walked through the empty palace, heedless of the dark or cold due to the heated singing of his blood.

NSFW. Zenos having violent thoughts and finding a physical release for them. Shadowbringers patches.

11) Of Porxies and Pardons: “Oh my goodness!” Ryne squealed. “It’s adorable!”

After an off-screen fight post-Eden 8, Ryne and Gaia bully Thancred into talking things out with Aeryn.

12) Restless: Kugane’s lights were strange as they filtered in through the screened window. The little room was comfortable, and gods knew Aeryn was glad to be off the rocking seas and creaking ship, back on dry land.

NSFW. Aeryn’s got a lot on her mind and an annoying physical need to deal with as the Scions arrive in Kugane in early Stormblood.

13) Teach a Warrior of Light to Fish: A lazy day at the lake was exactly what they had needed, Renda thought, stretching on her towel. She rolled onto her stomach as she opened her eyes. Branden had cajoled Nyelbert and Cylva into some sort of ball game in the shallower water, Lamitt apparently refereeing from atop a rocky outcropping, the four of them laughing and shrieking as they splashed around.

Renda-Rae, Ardbert, and his fishing hobby.

14) The Old Bargain (original fic): The wind moaned across the swampy meadows, long grasses and rushes hushing the rattling cart that slowly moved down the muddy road, pulled by a stooped figure in a wide grey hat and long grey coat. The clouds hung low and dark overhead.

A lone figure acts as the go between for the mundane and fae worlds.

15) Realizations: Rhalgr’s Reach slowly recovered from the assault as the days passed. The bodies had been buried and all rites given, the living granted their too-brief time to mourn. Now came clearing the rubble, repairing what could be repaired, and somehow finding replacements for what could not.

Thancred talks to Y’shtola about his feelings for Aeryn in the wake of the assault on Rhalgr’s Reach in early Stormblood.

16) Sandstorm: The wind was kicking up, sand and grit blowing as they rode across the dusty old roads toward Drybone. Thancred looked up at the sky and frowned as the rented chocobos kwehed and shook worriedly. Aeryn looked to him, a questioning expression on her face.

Aeryn and Thancred on the way their investigations into Ifrit in early ARR.

17) The Parley: “We have time before these negotiations resume,” Merlwyb said. “I suggest we stretch our legs and clear our heads before meeting with the Emperor again, now we have a firmer strategy.” The others readily agreed.

Aeryn and Varis talk during the recess during the parley in “A Requiem for Heroes” end of Stormblood.

18) When Everything Changes: Zaine poked at a snail’s shell frozen to the top of the low stone wall. He guessed it had been stuck there before the winter had taken hold, trying to escape the cool rains of autumn. He wondered if the snail had found a new home, abandoning this one. He liked to think so.

Backstory from the pov of Aeryn’s brother, at five years old.

19) The First Day: Ryne had told herself she would not spend the first day sobbing, yet that was exactly what she did.

Ryne the day after the end of “Reflections in Crystal” in Shadowbringers.

20) Unsupervised, Again: “Ah, you’re back,” Thancred said as Aeryn came in the door, carrying a suspicious number of bags, considering the errand she had been on.

Aeryn got distracted while on an errand.

[mysticalandenchanting]

Dahlias [1]

Part 1

Summary:

Elain and Azriel are happily married and about to begin their own little family to join they’re much bigger, louder family in Velaris. Sometimes, however they crave they’re own peace and quiet; a small vacation is exactly what they need before their bundle of joy takes over their lives and hearts. Peace is not found in the Night Court though, war brews and things take a devastating turn.

~~~~~

AN: This is my first story I’m posting to tumblr although I already have a couple wip’s going. So i guess, if you come across this and like it, let me know! This is just a short idea i had and worked for Elriel. Can you guess which other SJM couple this is based off?😈 This will probably only be around 4 parts.

~~~~~

Elain

“I need to get away,” I complained while sinking further into the pillows, “I can’t handle it here anymore.”

Azriel smiled at me, his eyes crinkling in a way that I loved. He tucks his wings back as he sits on the end of our bed in front of me, resting his hand on my leg, “You know they mean well, and trust me, I know better than anybody they can be too much—I spent 500 years with them.”

“Yes, but that was before my sisters came into the mix. Together they’re all insufferable.”

Azriel laughed, “Well, you know better than anybody how headache inducing they are to me as well; how much of Madja’s powder mix have I gone through over the years?”

I smiled at the memory of the gift I gave for our first Winter Solstice spent together. “It has become a reliable gift to give.” I looked to him hopefully, “So what do you say? A mini vacation to relax before our lives are too chaotic for breaks ever again?”

He hesitated, “I don’t know El, you know there’s a lot going on in the Night Court and with you so close it might not be safe.”

“Come on, Az,” I turned my doe eyes to him with a pout on my lip, “I could use the break—we could use the break.” I pleaded, moving my hand to my rounded stomach. “I still have a month left before our baby gets here, and we can just go up to the cabin where it’s totally safe.”

The stresses of being pregnant were getting to me what with living in a city in a house with all the others; I felt as if I could get no peace and quiet. The worst offenders being my sisters who have always been protective, I loved them but I didn’t know how to ask them to back off. I could not even enjoy my garden with it still being on the edge of winter.

“What if you go into labor?”

“It’s just for a week, and we will have plenty of time to get back if that happens—which it won’t.”

He took a minute to really think about it as I held my breath in anticipation. “Okay, fine.” He gave in, the corners of his mouth tugging up. I broke out a big smile, sitting up and reaching for him as he leaned forward and our lips met in a happy kiss, our baby giving a couple kicks. I couldn’t keep in my laugh at it as I put my hand over the area.

“Seems like we’re all excited.” Azriel looked between us in wonder before resting his hand over the area as well and feeling the kicks. No matter how many times it has happened, he always looked as if it was the first. It was a side of him that I couldn’t wait to see when the baby actually came and he saw him for the first time.

I leaned forward and caught his lips again, this time more gently, trying to express my love for him and for our little family that we were starting. We stayed like that for several moments, both with one hand on my belly and the other pulling each other closer. He leaned more forward, deepening the kiss, until he was lowering me back onto the pillows—

Just then a knock came loudly at our door. “Elain?” Feyre’s voice asked and I groaned in annoyance while Az laughed and removed himself from over me, going for the door.

“We’ll leave in the morning.”

~~~~~

This trip was exactly what I needed. Being out in the quiet mountain tops with no one but Azriel all to myself was therapeutic. The past two days have made me feel more calm and like myself than I had felt in months.

Feyre and Nesta had objected to our retreat from the family but after a quick statement of needing some quiet rest away from the city before the arrival of the baby they could hardly object, although they had suggested to tag along which I could not have declined quicker. Az and I had practically ran out afterwards.

I was enjoying some tea on the couch as Azriel looked over some paperwork at the table. There wasn’t very much for myself to do but I most definitely didn’t mind what with being so round in the middle.

I took a moment to admire all of Feyre’s paintings that took over the walls and furniture. They were all beautifully done and brought a comfort of nostalgia from the old house that we had lived in when the wall had still been up and we had resided on the other side of it. It was hard to believe we had come so far from that.

I looked over to my husband who just so happened to be looking back and smiled. I am so lucky to be where I am right now.

I opened my mouth to express that luck when suddenly his attention snagged elsewhere, not on any specific point in the room but a look I had grown familiar with when Rhys was saying something to him mentally. I waited to see what could be so important before suddenly Az was tensing at some unwanted information.

“Rhys needs me.” He looked to me, proclaiming.

“What is it?”

“An Illyrian camp has gone missing, up and vanished without a trace and he needs me and my spies to find it.”

“Vanished?” I asked confused, “How could they just vanish?”

“I don’t know. With the rebellion spreading, we have been tracking the threats extensively.”

“And this camp is a part of the rebellion?”

“Yes.”

I sighed, “Okay, you need to go.”

He stood and walked toward, seeming unsure what to do. “I can take you back to Velaris.”

“No,” I shook my head, “I’ll wait for you here. How long could it take to find them? They couldn’t have gotten that far.”

“You shouldn’t be alone while you're pregnant.”

“I’ll be fine. The cabin is well warded and will practically take care of me with its spells. It will be more hassle than it's worth to go home and come back when you return and I’m not ready to end our vacation.”

He hesitated again before deciding and touching the siphons on his hands so that his Illyrian leathers appeared on him and he went to retrieve his weapons. “Your not going to be fighting them are you? Rhys just wants you to find them?” I asked worriedly.

“Yes, don’t worry,” he strapped on Truth Teller and his sword before leaning over the couch and kissing me on the forehead, “I’ll be back tomorrow, I promise.”

He was going to find a dangerous camp of Illyrian warriors who hated him, how could I not worry? What if he got caught? My nerves started to get to me and I, struggling, got up from my spot on the couch and made my way to door to meet him.

“I love you and be careful, okay?” I said kissing him and opening the door for him.

“I will.”

I watched him walk out into the cold chill of the mountain before settling back on the couch with fluttering of nerves and kicking at my stomach.

~~~~~

Azriel

After meeting Rhys just before the Illyrian mountains, I flew low in the sky just as the sun was setting, perfect time to begin my search. I let my shadows encompass me, hiding me, as I followed the valleys deeper into the cold that whipped past my wings.

The Illyrians have been spreading wide in the mountains and steppes working to fortify it against us and the rest of the Night Court. After so much tension and anger after the war that spread and spread into all out rebellion, communication became nearly impossible. Rhys could have easily gone in with his power to distill fear into them but that would have earned him no respect and likely would have made things worse. There were too many of them to continuously keep in check and the wrath required to end this rebellion didn’t seem necessary when they had confined themselves to their own lands.

In the end, no matter how much hate we bore toward them and their ways, they were still our people. Killing them outright didn’t seem right in any way, so we have been doing our best to contain them and work our way to an understanding despite the huge differences in view.

Recently, though, they have been growing angrier and braver, encroaching lower into the lands of the Night Court. We have been preparing for an attack since and the disappearance of this camp was not a good sign.

Over the course of the cold night I flew to the last known location of the camp but finding no trails, I went to nearby camps. They were just as discorded with us as many other camps but I have been working my around that for years, building networks within each of those who did not agree with the rebellion. I met with a few, being careful to enter and exit secretly hidden almost completely by my shadows. All of them had very little idea where the camp went or how they had managed to keep their departure a secret.

After gaining very little intel and no general sense of direction, I decided to take to the skies again flying high to gain any sight of them. I started with south, in case our suspicions of attack were true, and worked outwards from there.

I flew most of the night but found nothing of the camp, a seemingly impossible disappearance considering several hundred resided with them and they had to settle somewhere to rest. In every direction for seemingly reasonable distances that could be travelled for a camp that departed only the night before there wasn’t anything.

I flew well into the day as the snow began to pick up until Rhys summoned me and I flew back to our meeting point.

“What have you found?” Rhys greeted looking tired and troubled. He had been reaching out with his magic to see if he could locate them from a much farther back location outside of Illyrian territory.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” I admitted, perturbed, “Nearby camps have no knowledge, they’re last known location completely abandoned with no tracks in any particular direction. With the amount of supplies they would have to travel with along with the amount of females in company, I tracked out as far as they could have gotten and found nothing.”

“This is worrying. If they attack, it might lead to civil war, and if all the rebel Illyrians evasive techniques are just as good, then we might not be able to nip it in the bud as I had hoped.”

“Where is Cas?”

“He is preparing some of our forces for a defense that can be transported easily enough wherever this camp shows up to.”

“and Mor?”

“Handling her father”

“And you haven’t sensed them anywhere?”

“No,” Rhys shifted looking back out to wide expanse of the Night Court, “I’ve been reaching out as far as I can and no signs. I’d hate to think either they were so far out of reach inland that I couldn’t sense them or they had some sort of spell protecting them.”

Both thoughts were not great options but both seemed viable at this point. “So what now?” I asked.

“What can we do but keep looking? We can’t take action against them until they are found or they attack.”

We both paused, realizing just how close the cusp of war was again. It’s not exactly that we were settled in perfect peace all this time but it was enough that we all had settled down into our own routines and families. Feyre and Rhys had a child, Nesta and Cassian were happily married, and me and Elain were about to have a baby.

“I need to get back to Elain.” The sun was setting and I had promised I would be back today, I couldn’t leave her on her own too long when she was so far into her pregnancy.  No matter how close war was I would not miss my baby’s birth.

“Of course,” Rhys nodded, still distracted, “Feyre and I will keep looking covertly and Cas can handle wherever they show up, you should focus on Elain and the baby.”

A mix of relief and worry flowed through me at that, both wanting nothing more than to focus on my wife and the weeks coming in that our baby would enter the world and not wanting to abandon the rest of them to the war we had so carefully been trying to avoid.

I simply nodded placing my hand on Rhys’s shoulder as he winnowed us back to the cabin.

The dark wind blasted us as we stepped through space but what waited on the other end was not the comfort of being close to Elain again, but fire. My heart stopped at the sight of the cabin blazing high into the sky, almost completely burnt to ashes and nothing more than a frame of what used to be there.

“Elain!” I scream as I ran forward as close to the cabin as I could get, looking everywhere around but there wasn’t anybody or anything in sight except the blazing cabin and the darkening sky where the snow fell and melted as it came into contact with the heat of the flames.

I was met with nothing but silence and I felt like I couldn’t breath. What had happened here? Where was Elain? She couldn’t have been…

I ran my hands through my hair as I barely glimpsed the horror on Rhys’s face before I was calling out again, “Elain! Elain!”

My hands start to shake and a horrible feeling grows in my chest and just when I don’t know what to do I look to the ground and see it all covered in a thin veil of snow. Most looked melted so close to the fire but it was still there. Tracks. Lots of them. Everywhere as if hundreds of people had came through here. Not a second after this realization, Feyre winnowed in, fear already written on her face as she took in the sight and covered her mouth with her hands. Right next to Rhys.

I knew without a doubt then that every ward on the cabin was, somehow, down.

The Illyrian camp had been here.

[dragonnan]

WIP Challenge

WIP Challenge!! Tell your blog the titles of all the WIPs you are currently working on right now and a little about them and then tag five other writers.Another posting challenge I saw that appeals to meTagged by: nobodyDisclaimer: I'm only "actively" working on a handful of these.  I deeply want to finish all of them but some that have lingered for years are of a lower priority.  I also can't write for more than 2 fandoms at any given time and right now the two that interest me are MCU related and Sherlock.

1.  Sed Diabolus (MCU)

Takes place soon after Endgame.  Due to the nature of the multiverse it is both compliant and non-compliant to the film as well as being both a fix-it as well as making shit significantly worse.  The story is structured around Peter Parker - who returned, with everyone else, with the snap that restored everyone to life.  The difference is that he won't wake up.  Meanwhile, in another universe, Peter Parker has recently returned from from Europe.  Left to skulk around Queens at night, now that his identity has been revealed, he is feeling more lost than ever before.  Meanwhile Doctor Strange, back in the other universe, has been called upon to rescue the comatose Peter - and a startling truth is revealed!  What will it take to restore Peter once again?  Worse still, an old enemy of Stephen's has returned.  And a new enemy threatens to destroy everything they'd won with the defeat of Thanos.

2. Avengers: New Beginnings (MCU)

This is also an Endgame fix-it.  This is actually the first fix-it idea I had but then @kitcat992 and I started brainstorming Diabolus and I got extremely side-tracked.  In this one, the focus is more specifically on Tony Stark and the fact that he's been having horrific nightmares.  The thing is, according to Stephen Strange, they aren't nightmares but memories that come from another universe.  The story will involve repairing the fractures in the universe caused by the use of the gauntlet as well as looking at the various Avengers as the go forward from the defeat of Thanos.  There will also be the introduction of Kamala Khan and how, exactly, her powers came to be.

3. The Fire in Which We Burn (Sherlock)

Molly Hooper-centric.  Set immediately after TFP (with a thick dose of establishing history in the first chapter).  In essence this story developed from the question "what was upsetting Molly just before Sherlock made That Call"?  It also provides context for how she could go from speaking about Tom in glowing terms during TEH to stabbing his hand in TST.  Snatching back terminology from the jaws of obscurity this story relights on a ton of UST (unresolved sexual tension for the fandom young).  There is also a lot of Mycroft and Anthea involvement.  As to the actual story-line it involves an ex of Molly's who got dangerous.  The story will be about her dealing with said ex and the shit going on between herself and Sherlock.  Is anything salvageable from all of this?  Is it even worth discussing?  

4. Oompa Loompa Doom-Pa-Dee-Die (Psych)

Originally this story was part of a huge Virtual 9th Season set after the end of the series.  Myself and about 6 or 7 other writers had plotted out in tremendous detail a connected story arc that would carry through 8 episodes (originally 16).  This story was set to be the 5th episode.  Sadly, after many years of trying to make the VS happen, I finally contacted the various writers and we agreed to let it go.  However, as this story was fully plotted and was a bit of writing that I remain very proud of, I reworked it to function as a stand-alone story.  Basically, Shawn and Gus end up finding themselves involved in a murder investigation at a chocolate factory.  As is likely evident from the title, the themes in this fic draw very heavily from the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film.  There are actually two rival chocolate factories run by two sisters who have been rivals since their youth.  Their father, the former owner of the first factory, is fan-cast as, of course, Gene Wilder.  There are a lot of mysterious elements, humor, and hopefully a decent twist by the end.

5. Simon and Simon and Psych (Psych and Simon & Simon crossover)

In spite of letting this thing linger so long I’m actually pretty excited about it still.  The basic story plot is that Rick and AJ Simon travel to Santa Barbara so that AJ can compete in the annual (and real) half marathon.  Of course things go sideways when Rick gets caught up in a drug trafficking scheme with him as the accused.  To make matters worse, Shawn, Gus, and AJ all get caught and kidnapped while investigating the drug traffickers.  The one thing I’m especially excited about this story is bringing Rick and AJ into modern times with a few changes to their personal history.  It’s a lot of fun having them banter about websites and politics and stuff of that nature.

6. The Big Stink (Supernatural)

My very first foray into fanfic for this fandom I started this thing years ago when I had already become frustrated by the direction of the series.  I wanted to recapture what had originally made me love the show and that was the story of two brothers fighting monsters - no more no less.  The story is built around Dean being cursed to constantly have a terrible smell in his nose - which also affects his sense of taste.  While initially humorous the side effects of something like that become gradually worse as if not only makes eating and drinking awful but also leaves him constantly nauseous.  The story is about the boys backtracking their movements to figure out who or what put the whammy on Dean as well as trying to work out how to break the curse.  

7. Asgårdsreia (HTTYD)

Right off the bat I made the mistake of starting this fic before properly plotting out the story first - thus the initial reason why it was left hanging.  Then the third film hit with its swath of disappointment and I’ve been somewhat less than eager to get back to it.  So the story, as it stands, is that the Viking clan is in the midst of celebrating Fyr Bal (basically “fire festival”).  Most of the clans join together at this time with each clan taking a turn to host on their year.  That year it’s Berk’s turn to host - much to Hiccup’s dismay.  He’s especially off-put by certain visiting clans eyeing him like a side of beef for their eligible daughters.  So, needing some escape, he takes Toothless out to survey some unexplored islands in search of new dragon species (basically the typical shit he’s been getting up to in Race to the Edge as well as the second movie).  Things go severely awry, however, when he comes across some dragon hunters and is hit with a bolo - breaking his left leg and making it impossible to operate the pedal used to fly Toothless.  Forced to shift on his side and fly by using one hand on the pedal, he and Toothless eventually crash land on a deserted island.  Now, badly injured and with no way to escape, they’re forced to run from the dragon hunters who followed in their wake.  

Tagging: @hanuko @ceruleanmindpalace @kitcat992 @sgam76 @mizjoely @ariaadagio @aelaer    

[verdantvulpus]

For the fanfiction author questionnaire: I'm curious about 3, 4, 9 about "Forsaken" (as I'm currently obsessed with it) and 5, 6, 11 for "Corruption". Please, answer only if you feel like it! Thanks for you writing!

Thank you so much for indulging me in my cry for attention! I definitely am happy to answer!

Forsaken:

3. Fave line of Narration: “Luca left . No yelling. No threats. No insults. He just got dressed and walked away leaving Crowley sitting alone in his own mess.” and Crowley’s whole recursive thought process about melting away from Holy water in chapter 15 ending with “ He was unholy and evil and shouldn’t have touched anything this clean and good.” I really enjoy sneaking layers of meaning into lines of narration. I don’t know if they always land, but they make me smile.

4: Fave Line of Dialogue: I’m going to cheese out here because I can’t think of a specific line atm, but I really like writing banter and there are several instances where the years of friendship between A and C shines through all the drama and angst and they sort of dissolve into this comfortable back and forth before catching themselves and that’s so much fun to write.

9: Are there any Alt versions of this fic?: So, because this is a WIP I can’t get into specifics yet but there were three possible endings and it wasn’t until a couple weeks ago that I figured out which one I was going to go with. Just know that one of the discarded endings was very dark and people will probably be glad of the different direction (and should thank PinkPenguinParade for being persuading me to listen to better angels). 

The original beginning was a lot different too. Luca was originally introduced in chapter 1 while Crowley was still asleep as a pre-arranged wake up/ booty call. Az was lingering in the flat and bumped into him. Luca started off pretty toxic and nasty and in the end I had to rework the whole chapter because it was way too angsty right off the bat. In the rewrite Luca’s character became a lot more flushed out and Crowley became the toxic one, which was a better choice since readers are more likely to forgive Crowley’s bad behaviour than an OC.

Corruption:

5: Hardest part to write: This was my first attempt at writing horror. I wanted to keep the chapter count down so it could be easily consumed during the month of October and it was challenging to create an atmosphere of eerie dread so quickly and then to somehow pull back out of it again with some kind of resolution in 6 short (for me anyway) chapters. 

6: What makes this fic different or special from your other fics?: Mostly the horror context. I don’t tend to delve that deeply into dark, violent, content. Even the torture I have in Forsaken isn’t as graphic or vile, or psychologically damaging as what Crowley and Aziraphale suffer at the hands the fright. Until I started working on True Natures, Corruption was my only darkfic, and I really tried to make the fright terrifying through sheer eerie wrongness.

7: What do you like most about this fic?: I do really like the fright as an antagonist. It is so weird to write something that is completely devoid of human emotion and just exists to torment it’s target/s. 

I like the open-endedness of the fic too. It resolves, mostly, and there is definitely hope for their recovery together, but you see how badly this has likely set back their relationship. Aziraphale had been about to confess his love that day he chased Crowley off instead! Now they have to almost start again. And there is still the hint that the fright is waiting for Crowley in Hell. I feel like this ambiguous ending is fitting for a Halloween fic.

[ncfan-1]

fic meme!

tagged by @anghraine

Name:

ncfan

Most popular multi-chapter fic:

Well, if we’re going by hits or by comments, that’ll be Our Path is Crooked, but True. By kudos, it’s Of Rings and Knighthood and Their Associated Misunderstandings.

Favorite story you’ve written so far:

I would have a hard time saying; I’ve written so many so far, and honestly, I plan to keep on writing fic until I drop dead, so by this time next year, I’ll probably have a new favorite. For right now, that’s probably The Sacred and Profane.

Fic you were nervous to post:

I have tried to leave my nervousness behind me, since it seemed to be that in 2020 of all years, I should really just stop giving a damn if my readers are going to be offended by what I post. I do recall some nervousness regarding Our Path is Crooked, but True, since Ingrid and Edelgard are both divisive characters, and Crimson Flower is a divisive route. But the reception from my readers was so positive that any nervousness I felt evaporated pretty quickly.

How you choose your titles

Ahahaha, don’t call me out like this. It’s usually either a line from a poem, or some phrase I thought was terribly clever, but turned out not to be very clever at all.

Do you outline?

For my multi-chapter fics, sometimes. Like, I will definitely do it if I’m going into the fic knowing that it’s going to be a long one and complex enough that I need written notes to keep track of plot development and character arc developments, but if I know it’s not going to be that long or that complicated, or if I don’t think it’s going to be long and complicated when I get into it (like, Saudade turned out to be 22 chapters and 200,000 words long, but I didn’t think it was going to be anywhere near that long when I started writing it, so I didn’t bother with an outline), I don’t bother.

For oneshots, no. I can’t remember the last time I wrote a oneshot complex enough that I needed written notes to keep hold of everything I need to keep hold of.

Complete fics:

That is not as simple a question as you might think. Fanfiction.net was my first fic writing platform, and there was a lot of stuff that I didn’t bother migrating to AO3 when I migrated to AO3, but there was still a lot of overlap, too. My AO3 fic count as of this date (12/22/2020) is 619. My Fanfiction.net fic count is 1,411.

In progress:

Posted WIPs that I have active plans to continue at this time: On the Ragged Shore. All of the chapters are written, I just have to get off of my ass long enough to finish proofreading them.

Posted WIPs that I have given up on: Alas, Face to Face. I poured so much time and effort into it, but even though I knew it wasn’t likely to get much attention, I still became really, really discouraged by the disconnect between the amount of effort I poured into it, and the amount of attention and feedback it got. This fic is the one that made me start my rule that I wouldn’t post a WIP until I had finished writing all chapters, barring certain circumstances.

Exchange fics due soon/unrevealed: None.

WIPs that live in my fanfic folder and are incomplete and who knows when they’ll be finished:

I have four of those at present.

1. Under Observation, which has an incomplete outline, eight finished chapters, and the ninth chapter in progress. Basically, just watch me write a ridiculously long adaptation of that one episode of TMA where that guy turned out to be full of eyeballs, for my crackship that has two fics on AO3, and watch me wriggle in frustration as the fact that Clara’s dead means that I can only skirt around the edges of my Vast-aligned Clara head canon.

2. In the Hollow of Your Heart, which has a complete timeline and an incomplete outline, and no chapters written. It’s a retelling of the Silver Snow route of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, made to scratch these specific itches: Sylveth written the way I want to see Sylveth written; a version of Silver Snow that properly capitalizes on the apocalyptic feel the route sort of had, but didn’t really fulfill (the godless land! The fall of civilization! They had so much, and didn’t do nearly enough with it); emotionally traumatizing zombies; more focus on the Nabateans, especially Flayn. This one’s going to be daunting, because I have outlined, so far *checks notes* fifty-five chapters, and I’d say there’s probably going to be about another fifteen to twenty of them.

3. Shall These Bones Live?, the Fourth Age Finduilas x Maeglin fic which nobody asked for, but since it’s still my crackotp, I want to write anyways. I’ve got a document with characterization and world-building notes that I’m still working on, no outline, and no chapters written. Of the first three fics on this list, it’s actually the one that took root in my mind first, by the way.

4. A secret project. Basically, I want to write a fic remix of another fic, but I’m still waiting to hear back from the writer of the original fic on whether or not they’ll grant me permission. The only way I could find to contact them that wasn’t a comment section was through the PM function on their Fanfiction.net account, which there’s been no activity on in over a year. Yeah.

Coming soon/not yet started:

None that I can think of.

Do you accept prompts:

Not as such. When Legendarium Ladies April rolls around, I like to do as many of their prompts as I can fit in, but it’s rare for any other prompt events to move me the way this one does, and I don’t accept prompts from individual users.

Upcoming story you are most excited to write:

Shall These Bones Live?, if I can ever finish that notes sheet and start outlining it. Also, if I ever hear back from the writer of the fic I want to remix, I’d be a little nervous to do the remix (I’ve never done a fic remix before), but also excited.

Tagging, if you want to do it: @chidorinnnnn, @qserasera, @avelera, and anyone else who happens to see this.

[alistonjdrake]

Of Rust and Gold: Season Two

Or more like...the beginning of my world building posts for Of Vipers and Saints (the sequel) 

My other world building posts:  1  2  3  4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Main Wip Intro here

Below you’ll find a rundown of the key figures/prominent characters of the sequel so let’s get to this, shall we?

OVS, Of Rust and Gold’s first sequel takes us back to the Escana Empire where the Harver reign faces new struggles when they’re asked to join a war on foreign soil, rebellions against their rule are sparked, and an assassination attempt threatens to tear it all apart.  Prince Argus and his ex-pirate lover Leo are finally given the chance to be together, but as the political climate gets hot even they might turn against each other.

Prince Argus: Older and (slightly) wiser, Argus has said goodbye to his party boy nature although not by choice and spends much of his time as a councilman and still pushing his nose into other people’s business and matters that go over his head. Now with fewer friends, a bigger rift between him and his cousin, and a boyfriend he spends all his money on. Lonely but still well dressed. Oh. And he proposed to Leo. 

King Cidro: King of Escan and Emperor of all her territories. Cidro’s reign is still young and he struggles to emerge from the shadow left by Frederick and to move Escan away from the history that stains them. Can be found either doting on his wife or cooing at one of three children he now has. Being a king can get busy but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t get in his family time. A very nice guy but possibly not very keen of his youngest brother’s sugar baby?

Prince Leonides: With their father gone, Leonides has possibly occupied an even bigger space in court. Still striking fear and reluctant attraction into the hearts of others. Between him and the queen, sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s really pulling the strings behind the scenes but at least we can always trust Leonides to know everyone’s deepest darkest secrets. Or does he? 

Queen Liliana: Queen Consort of Escan and Empress of all her territories. After pushing out 3 kids (1 girl and twin boys) she’s moved onto other “duties”. Such as shadowing Cidro everywhere he goes and constantly whispering in his ear before he makes big decisions. What’s she saying? No one knows but no one is gonna ask either because of the resting bitch face. 

Princess Zurina: The only daughter of the late King Frederick and Argus’ oldest sister. The past couple of years have not been easy for her and she’s tired of not being included. She also thinks she’s cursed and that demons are gonna pry the empire from their hands and hates when their religious neighbors come to court.

Princess Damaris/Dame Havisa: Having pushed more of her focus onto knighthood and her work, Damaris is just one step away from leaving the Harver family entirely. After Argus, she’s been engaged several times. Luckily, nothing stuck.

Councillor Gilabert: A councilman who sits next to Argus during meetings. He’s in charge of a whole ass committee put together specifically to find Argus literally anyone else to marry as long as it’s not A. an ex-pirate and B. an ugly ex-pirate. He’s a nice guy. Ask him about his aunts.

Chancellor Harver: Or Prince Manolo. Although he took priestly vows and is technically no longer a prince. He lives and works in the holy capital of Mignola but is back to ask for a favor as war wrecks havoc throughout Codua and the most religious Santivians seem to think this is the Saints saying that something ain’t right with the world. He started growing a mustache. No one has the guts to tell him it’s not a good look. 

Prince Aayden Ponsonby: Possibly Argus’ only friend at this point. Friend, being used liberally. He still has a short temper, but now with more angst considering his father has been locked in his room for 3 years and now he has a family and legacy of his own to consider. 

Lady Cordinia ana’Gustavo Carvallo: Ex-queen, still a stepmom. Cidro put her in charge of the royal nursery. Keep as far away from Argus has possible.

Lord Enyo an’Tomas Serafin: After being dumped he’s actually been away from court for quite some time but could be tempted to come back. Or forced. Depending. 

Reverend Mother Ulrike: Mother of all Santivian nuns and here to pull Escan and Oskya into a war in Codua. It’s a messy situation but hey, some of the Harvers have a bone to pick with the Justice (religious leader) too and she’s hoping to pull them in if only because this might have a negative effect on their empire. 

Ambassador Ulmer: Oskyan Ambassador who literally will never be able to get a break. 

Hartanti Telak: King Frederick might be dead but she remains in the palace as a kindness from King Cidro. Not for any other reason. She has no other job. We swear. 

Maltoq Zamen: So...is he a prisoner? Is he a guest? Are people really still mad at him over the whole “almost fed Argus to a living god” thing? Wow. Get over yourselves. Oh. Also the figurehead ruler of Theassau, one of many territories controlled by Escan. He’s been held in Graza Palace for some time now. 

Marcel: A man traveling with Mother Ulrike because he sought help after fleeing religious persecution caused by the wars in Codua. Certainly not a con artist and definitely not someone Leo recognizes.  

Leo Dianglo: Still grumpy, still drinks a bit too much, and still would rather not talk about it. All he wants to do is put his life of crime behind him (or does he?) and spend some well-deserved time with the man he loves but it’s hard when literally no one in Graza wants him there and he’s constantly being pushed in different directions. Not to mention being the guardian of two teenage boys have put him in more troubling scenarios than he ever signed up for. At least now he’s the captain of his own ship and what he does is totally LEGAL.

Mel: Angst-riddled teenager, definitely cursed, and struggling to understand something no one can really explain to him. With his dad still on the run, people keep coming to him for answers he doesn’t have. But worse yet, they’re trying to teach him things. 

Mung: Pirate orphan #2. When he’s not threatening to murder Mel, he’s also spending way more time with him than he’d like to admit. Sure, Mung is definitely hiding something but he also slouches too much. Let’s pay attention to that instead.

Officer Gerwin: Commander of Escan’s Knights. He’s never having a good day.

Sir Erasmus: Knight elected to keep an eye on Leo and his wards to watch for any illegal activity.  

Tarley Vilardi: A Fate (solider of the Saints) who survived the night all hell broke loose in the holy city. An ex-lover of the now-dead Niels Dursten and blames a certain Harver for it. 

Lady Ludovica: A woman living in Mignola with her children and a distant relative to Mother Ulrike. Might speak up in a case against the Harvers because another one stopped writing her back after their affair. 

Duchess Benedetta Onesta Cassiopeia de ave Astorino: Yes. You have to say her whole name. She’s young and the daughter of a warlord who had a dedicated following, as such she’s been raised as a soldier and her men would die for her. And that’s likely why she’s been waging war in Codua since she was 10. But recently she’s gotten more ambitious and that can’t have anything to do with the fact that her uncle is Justice and hoping to build an empire of his own? In the process of trying to work out an engagement with someone that would give her land on Escana soil and no one wants her to step foot out of Codua. 

Justice Zisa: Well polite in manners he’s known to be quite ambitious and selective when it comes to telling people his intentions. Is he putting any effort into stopping his bloodthirsty niece or is he party to the destruction she’s causing?

Wiara: A girl Leo found in a shipwreck. She claims to be a princess but she was also smelled like blood magic and no one is really sure how she ended up there or what she wants. 

Sister Rosalie Pélissier: Working in the Kallenbach household, a Kellish nun working out the terms of engagement between Lord Gaius Kallenbach, one of the last of the Kellish nobility, and Duchess Benedetta. She also has some radical ideas about the Saints and could possibly be tempted to guide someone else who isn’t a warlord if they’re willing to listen/bring the change she believes the world needs.

Lady Philomené Kallenbach: One of the last of the Kellish nobility. At one point she was engaged to Argus and at another was the symbol for the last Kellish rebellion against the Escana Empire. She and Sister Rosalie are very close.

Lord Gaius Kallenbach: Phil’s younger brother. Might marry Duchess Benedetta and invite her onto Escana soil.  

Lord Elas an’Rodro Barraza: The rivalry between the Barrazas and Harvers goes back to the beginning of Frederick’s reign. There’s a lot of bad blood but current events invite the Barraza family to Graza for a celebration and surely an old man with a grudge is no worse than all the other threats surrounding them. 

Tamune: The living god in the cells deep within Alda. 

 An Assassin: Someone tried to kill a Harver. The question is who?

[mercuriallily]

WIP: Where the Wind Cries, Chapter 6

Word count: 2,005

WIP page: x

Prologue   Chapter 1   Chapter 2   Chapter 3   Chapter 4   Chapter 5

* * *

Friday, 6 December 2019, 7:20PM

“Ash! We were just talking about you.”

Ashleigh jumped slightly as she entered the rec room, startled by Logan’s loud and eager greeting. It was something she’d come to expect, but it did still catch her off-guard sometimes.

The rec room was a little smaller than the library, though it was by no means a tiny room. A large window on the far wall looked out to the guest cabins. Next to the window stood a tall bookcase filled with board games. Two long tables were placed roughly a metre apart in the centre of the room. Logan, Tanya Hutsul, and a girl Ashleigh didn’t recognise sat at the closer table. Alex Hutsul was at the other table, writing in a notebook.

“What were you saying about me?” Ashleigh asked as she took a seat next to Logan.

“Nothing bad, don’t worry,” Logan said with a laugh.

“We were trying to give Ali here an idea of who you are.” Tanya gestured to the girl sitting next to her.

“Nice to meet you!” the girl said in a cheerful voice. She wore a purple hijab and spoke with a slight accent that Ashleigh couldn’t quite place. “I’m Ali. Well, my name’s actually Aliya, but I think Ali sounds cooler. Call me whichever you prefer.”

“Ali and I met at UBC Vancouver,” Tanya said. “We were the only two girls in first-year civil engineering, so obviously we bonded.”

“I moved here from Toronto a few years ago, but I was born in Kazakhstan,” Ali explained. “The rest of my family’s back in Almaty. I miss them, sure, but with them not being here, I can date Tanya in peace.”

“It’s very nice to meet you,” Ashleigh said. “I really like your hijab.”

Ali grinned. “Thank you so much!”

“So Ash,” Logan said, “Jamie came by a while ago asking for you. Did he ever find you?”

Ashleigh nodded. “He did. Just a few minutes ago, actually.”

“Did he mention the surprise?”

“What surprise?”

Logan shrugged. “I dunno. He said there was gonna be a surprise. Two surprises, actually. One of them involves you.”

“Me...?” Ashleigh recalled her conversation with Jamie. The séance. Of course.

“Yep. Do you know what that’s about?”

Shaking her head, Ashleigh simply said, “No.” It was better to keep the séance a secret, no matter how stupid the idea was.

“But can’t you see the future or something?” Ali asked. “That’s what Tanya and Logan were saying.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Yeah, we may have mentioned your...psychicness,” Logan said. “Just briefly, though. We didn’t go into a whole lot of detail.”

“I want to know more! Can you really see the future?” Ali was very enthusiastic. “Can you tell me my fortune?”

“It...doesn’t work like that,” Ashleigh said slowly. It wasn’t something she enjoyed talking about, mostly because she didn’t know how to describe it in a way that made sense. But it was worth a shot. “I can see the future, yes, but in a...broad sense. I don’t get to pick and choose what I see. It sort of just...comes to me. And it’s not always super specific. Like, I can’t tell your fortune. I can’t see one person’s future. The premonitions I get usually impact a group of people. But if certain steps are taken, the event won’t happen.”

“Ooh, neat.” Her eyes wide with curiosity, Ali appeared to be enthralled with Ashleigh’s explanation. “Can you give me an example?”

“An example...?” Ashleigh thought for a moment, then said, “Let’s say that I predict an avalanche will occur on a mountain where people are skiing. I can see that there will be several injuries, maybe even some deaths. I tell the managers of the ski lodge to shut down the slope, to make sure no one’s there. They listen to me. Then the avalanche comes... But because there’s no one there, no one gets hurt. Because I was able to warn them ahead of time.”

“Whoa. Has that ever happened?”

“The avalanche? No. But there have been times where I warned people against doing something, and they didn’t listen.”

“Like the ski trip,” Tanya said softly.

Ashleigh nodded. “Like the ski trip.”

“Ski trip?” Ali looked from Ashleigh to Tanya, then back at Ashleigh. “What ski trip?”

“Tanya’s never told you?” Logan asked.

“No, not at all.”

“It’s not something we like talking about,” Alex said from the other table. “It brings back bad memories.”

“Bad memories of what?” Ali’s tone was a mixture of insistence, eagerness, and frustration. Clearly, she wanted to know more.

Tanya took a deep breath. Then she said, “Remember when I told you that our sister died?”

Ali nodded slowly. “Uh-huh. You and Alex aren’t really twins, you’re part of triplets.”

“Exactly. Natasha was the oldest of the three of us. We were close, obviously. I mean, come on, triplets aren’t all that common. We did almost everything together. Including going on our senior year ski trip.”

“Tanya, stop.” Alex shut his notebook and turned to face the other table. He looked a little wound-up, but his voice was relatively steady. “I know it’s been five years, and I know we’re here for a memorial, but it’s not really something I want to be talking about right now. At the very least...leave Natasha out of it.”

“She’s our sister, Alex.”

“I know that! But...” With an irritated sigh, Alex stood up and grabbed his notebook and jacket. “Whatever. Talk about it all you want. I’m going outside.” He walked past the group to leave the rec room. Surprisingly, instead of slamming the door behind him, he shut it gently.

Tanya groaned and leaned back in her chair. “Sorry about him, guys. It’s still a touchy subject.”

“It is for all of us. I don’t blame him,” Logan said.

“I’m sorry,” Ali said quietly. “I didn’t mean to...mess things up.”

Tanya patted Ali’s hand. “It’s okay. We can still tell you about it if you want.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yep.”

“You know, I don’t think we’ve talked about it since then,” Logan said. “Not as a group, anyway. You think we’ll talk about it during dinner?”

“Maybe.” Ashleigh was about to mention the séance, but remembered that she’d elected to keep quiet about it when she was asked about the surprise. So instead she said, “I wonder why I was even invited in the first place. I didn’t go on the trip. I just predicted what would happen. I didn’t think anyone would want me here.”

“So what exactly happened during the trip?” Ali asked.

“Well...” Logan glanced at Ashleigh and Tanya. “Every year, our school had a ski trip for the Grade Twelve students. It was always on this mountain. Jamie’s family owns the lodge, and they donate a lot of money to the school, so there you go. But the mountain’s known for...unpleasant things. Legend says it’s haunted.”

“You remember that road we passed on the way up?” Tanya said to Ali. “It leads up to the old asylum. It’s been closed since, like, the 80s, but the building’s still there. It’s really creepy.”

“Yeah. And hikers get hurt or lost up here all the time. Anyway, nothing bad had ever happened during the annual ski trip, so the school kept approving it. And then... Well...”

“About half of the kids in our grade decided to go on the trip,” Ashleigh said, picking up where Logan left off. “The ones who stayed home either didn’t have ski equipment or just didn’t feel like going. I stayed home too, but for a...different reason.” She began to pick at her nails as she continued. “That afternoon, I got a really bad feeling--well, not a feeling, more like a...premonition--that something bad was going to happen. To be more specific...I predicted that the bus would crash on the way up the mountain.”

Logan, Tanya, and Ali were absolutely silent as Ashleigh spoke. They were completely focused on her words.

“I tried to warn everyone--teachers, students, anyone who would listen. I needed to get them to understand that they were in danger. But...no one really listened or believed me. Well, Lo and Daniel and a couple others did, but...they still decided to go. So there was nothing I could do.” Ashleigh closed her eyes and shook her head.

“There were fifty-four of us on the trip,” Logan said. “Forty-eight students, six teachers. And...twenty-eight people died. Most of them on the scene, and a few others in the hospital. Those of us who survived had all kinds of injuries. I ended up breaking my arm and getting a concussion.”

“I broke my leg,” Tanya said, her voice barely above a whisper. “Alex just dislocated his shoulder, but we both got concussions. And Natasha...” She took a shaky breath. “When the bus crashed, it landed on its left side and skidded on the ice. Natasha was sitting by the window. She... There was so much blood. I couldn’t get to her. I must’ve passed out soon after, because next thing I knew, I was in a hospital bed. My mother was crying beside me. Apparently Natasha had suffered major head trauma, and she was in a coma... She died two days later. She... She never woke up.” The last word was hardly audible as Tanya broke into tears. She rested her head on Ali’s shoulder and cried.

Ashleigh looked down, trying to hold back tears of her own. This was the first time she’d heard of the exact circumstances of Natasha’s death. It was worse than she’d thought. I could’ve prevented this. I should have made them all listen to me. It’s my fault. It’s my fault people are dead. Lives were ruined. My fault. It’s all--

Logan’s voice broke the silence. “Jamie didn’t go with us. That afternoon, while the rest of us were getting on the bus, he was in his dad’s car on the way up to the lodge. But he acted like he’d been with us. At the memorial, he said things like ‘when we were on the bus’ and ‘my fellow crash survivors’... Even now, he’s still kind of like that.”

“...Wow.” Ali shook her head in disbelief as she softly stroked Tanya’s hair. “That’s horrible. I can’t believe something like that happened. I’m sorry.”

“Well...” Logan let out a long sigh. “We’re here now. That’s gotta count for something, right?”

“Yeah, but still...”

“Oh, my God!” Tanya shrieked all of a sudden. She sat upright and pointed to the window. “What the hell was that?!”

“What? What happened?” Logan looked toward the window, then shrugged. “I don’t see anything.”

“It was a--a--a thing! A thing!” Trembling, Tanya kept her finger held out in the direction of the window. Her voice was high-pitched and agitated. “I know it’s dark out, but I saw something!”

“Maybe it was just a tree blowing in the wind,” Ali suggested.

“I--No... Oh, maybe you’re right,” Tanya said, lowering her hand. “I think I’m just a little jumpy. It’s weird being back here after so many years.”

After a moment, Logan stood up. “I’m hungry. Anybody want a snack or something? I’m gonna go to the kitchen and see what’s there.”

“I’ll come with you,” Ashleigh said as she stood up as well.

“Awesome! It’ll be like a little adventure or--”

Before Logan could finish speaking, a crash sounded from outside, and the lights went out. The room plunged into darkness.

[lostinfantasies38]

5 Questions for Writers

Thanks for this wonderful writer tag @serial-chillr​ !  Tagged by @pikapeppa, @theaiobhan, @fandomn00blr  

Sorry this took me so long to answer.  I had to scour all my work to answer a couple of these.

1. Do you have a favourite character to write? Who and why?

Shit, this is hard.  I love writing so many characters, but Alistair and Sirra are my favorites.  

Sirra is unique with her dwarven perspective, and that tends to bleed into the rest of her life.  She isn’t hardened by any means, but her worldview is admittedly different, though she always tries to save as many lives as possible.  The last thing she ever wants to be is the callous Carta bitch Orzammar labeled her.  But she is scrappy and feisty, an absolute badass in battle, and Ancestors help anyone who touches her friends and family.    

Alistair is fun to write because he is sarcastic and witty, a fierce warrior who will wreck shop on the field, but he’s so insecure.  His uncertainty and need for validation make him approachable and real.  I have so many feelings about this man - it's absurd.

2. Do you have a favourite trope to write? Or one you want to write?

GIVE ME ALL THE TROPES!!  I’m not sure if I have a favorite, per se.  I love them all and I am liberal with them, as anyone who has read my work will attest.  But I do love “friends to lovers,” “they were roommates,” and everyone’s favorite, “there was only one bed.”  

Obviously, now that I am looking at these, I think this speaks to my need for fulfillment in proximity within my own life.  There is intimacy inherent in sharing space with someone on the daily like ‘friends’ and ‘roommates’ and anytime you share a sleeping space with someone, even platonically, you form a bond.  How far that bond progresses is up to both parties, but it doesn’t remove the foundation that now exists for something more to grow upon.   

I write the things I lack, the things I want, the things that make me happy.  Because let’s face it - we all live vicariously through our characters.  

3. Share your favourite description you’ve written?

Fuuuuuck, this is hard!  I am a very descriptive writer.  But probably my Varric prompt that @somniaran sent me.  You have to read the whole thing, but it’s too long to post here, so I’ll link it.  Titled “Careworn.”

But here is a portion of Alistair’s memory of the fight with the Archdemon, from my Alistair/Rylie Trevelyan WIP.  In this story, Elissa made the Ultimate Sacrifice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lips crashed together and he pulled her as close to him as their armor would allow in a desperate final plea with each other.  Elissa leaned out of the kiss and stared at him with her pale blue eyes that reminded him of whitecaps on the ocean – washed out sapphire ringed with gray, wholly unique and captivating.

“Goodbye.” 

Alistair opened his mouth to argue with her again, but her thumb pressed against the pressure point in his neck that Zevran taught her during her assassin training.  His knees buckled and his vision darkened from lack of oxygen.  When he sank to the ground, Elissa finally removed her thumb, staring at him with a heartbroken expression before spinning on her heel to face destiny. 

He was so weak that he could only watch as the Archdemon lifted its head in a final challenge to the woman barreling down on it.  Alistair raked a hand along the gore-covered stone towards her and yelled hoarsely when she snatched a nearby sword.  She slid under the dragon’s neck with sword tip raised and cleaved it in half.  Elissa rolled out from under the mighty Archdemon and without hesitation slammed the blade through its head with an anguished shout.

Blinding light and heat filled the center of the tower, rapidly expanding to encompass the whole of the building.  Alistair could barely see her in the white-hot halo, but his tainted blood located her directly in the center.  She was the center.  She was the light.  A high-pitched keen rent the air, growing in intensity until it abruptly stopped.  All sound in the city was extinguished and an eerie silence descended. The light shattered without warning and the shockwave of searing heat sent him flying across the tower, knocking him unconscious from the force of his landing on the stone.  

4. Share your favourite dialogue you’ve written?

I have so many favorites!!  But most of them are spoilers of WIPs and I don’t want to give too much away on them.  So here is my favorite snippet from Sun Touched. Apologies if you are reading the story on AO3 and already know this segment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Who are you?  I specifically told Carroll not to let anyone cross the lake.  We are dealing with a delicate situation here. You must leave immediately.”

Sirra bristled and took a bold step forward.  “No. The mages are obligated to aid the Grey Wardens during a Blight.  I didn’t come all the way here to be denied men for the scourge that threatens us all.” 

The Templar narrowed his eyes, but didn’t speak. He simply appraised the dwarven woman whose fuse was as short as her stature.  “The Circle is lost. Abominations and demons roam the halls. We were overrun and not prepared for such an onslaught.  We’ve barred the doors to keep them out and are waiting for reinforcements from Denerim for the Right of Annulment.”

Alistair groaned and Leliana gasped at his pronouncement while Sirra huffed impatiently with her hands on her hips.  "Oh, for the love of all the Paragons!  What does that mean?”

Alistair snorted softly at her dwarven curse and murmured in her ear.  “The mages are probably already dead. The Right allows for the Templars to kill everyone inside to prevent abominations escaping and any mages that might be alive from becoming possessed.”

Sirra reeled back in shock, staring at the older Templar, as fury bubbled within her.  “They are mages! They have magic! They can’t all be dead! You locked them in there and left them to their fate like cowards!”  

A hush descended on the room and he opened his mouth to refute her and regain his authority, but she cut him off with a slashing motion of her hand, glaring at him in defiance.  “I’m going in and I will save them, which is what you should have done! And when I return you will aid me against the Blight or so help me, you won’t be begging the Maker to spare your life, you will beg me.  Is that understood?”

“I assure you abominations are nothing to scoff about.”  The Templar closed the gap between them and stared down at her imperiously, attempting to intimidate her.

Flicking her throwing knife into her palm, she tossed it casually in the air, catching it by the hilt with ease, a murderous glint in her dark gaze.  “Do I look like I’m scoffing to you? I have confidence in my abilities. You really should thank me for doing your damn job, but if that’s below you then at the very least, get out of my fucking way.  I have people to rescue.”

5. Scene you haven’t written, but want to?

I have a few AU ideas, which would allow for some interesting scenes/scenarios, but I’m keeping them close to my chest right now.  I don’t know that they will ever come to fruition, but if they do, I want them to be a surprise.  

 Thanks for tagging me, friends! Tagging forward to @bigfan-fanfic @ginnyq @darlingrutherford @ranawaytothedas @somniaran @jacklyn-flynn and anyone else who would like to play!

[sapphires-and-gold-fics]

Fictober Day 29: “I’m doing this for you.”

Fandom: Game of Thrones / ASOIAF / Jane Austen

Characters: Too many to name, but Jaime Lannister / Brienne of Tarth

Notes: This is the 5th installment of my Sense & Sensibility adaptation! This is the final installment of it for Fictober/Put Me Back Together, and coincides with the end of Volume 1 of Jane Austen’s novel. The story will be posted independently on AO3 soon, and will continue from there - but please be aware that it’s not my only WIP and it may take some time before we get to the end. I hope y’all continue to enjoy the ride as much as I’m enjoying writing it!

Other notes: This chapter introduces the Lucy Steele problem character. I was really nervous about doing it this was buttttttttt I think it works so I’m running with it. I hope you don’t hate it. 

Missed the earlier chapters? Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Read Part 5 below or on AO3

xxxxxxxxxxx

Not many days after Jaime left, the Tullys arrived on the cottage doorstep with four strangers. Brienne was alone in the house at the time, and it disrupted her solitude but they were not completely unwelcome.

Ser Brynden introduced his daughter Lysa, Lord Edmure’s sister. A pale, stark woman with a severe nose, Lysa was strangely effusive; she is her father’s daughter in looks and, like him, hers bely her personality. She had arrived the evening before at Riverrun Park with her husband Lord John Arryn, passing through on the way home to Aerie Lodge in the Vale. They had, for the last few days, been in King’s Landing - Lord Jon seeing to matters of business, and Lady Lysa seeing to a doctor who would care for her in her confinement come spring.

At the mention of this, Ser Brynden had remarked that Lysa should perhaps have made the doctor come to her and saved herself a tiring journey, but Lysa had no interest in being parted from her husband - where he went, so did she.

Lord Jon, for his part, said little and even less in between, but he shook Brienne’s hand and commented on the attractiveness of the cottage’s front parlor.

The third person with them is introduced as Lord Arryn’s cousin Mrs. Blackwood, a very pretty widow of thirty who lived in the Arryn home following the death of her husband some four or five years before, and with her is her young daughter who is tall for her age, at only seven - half that of Arya.

When Mrs. Stark and her daughters returned to the house, they were welcomed with a parlor full of new friends, and little Dinah took to Arya immediately. Only Catelyn took at all to Lady Lysa, who was ready to pass on her father’s gossip about Ramsay Snow’s attentions to Sansa and congratulations for an engagement that had not materialized. It was not on this that she and Mrs. Stark found common ground, but on Lady Lysa’s upcoming joy. For her part, she was certain it was to be a boy; Catelyn had no experience in raising boys, but her advice was welcomed readily.

Sansa was ill-disposed from the state of her spirits to be pleased with any of these guests, but perhaps especially Eliza Blackwood and her daughter. To the invariable coldness of her behavior, Brienne principally attributed that preference of herself and, for the young girl, Arya, which quickly became evident.

And so it was that as Brienne’s solitude faded, Sansa’s was again elevated and made more prominent by the multitude of invitations to the Park which came to them daily for the next several days, most of which Sansa declined in favor of practicing her instrument alone in the empty cottage. Only on the first day did Sansa join them at the Park and, afterward, Brienne chided her sister for her silence in company, to which Sansa had upbraided her soundly once they were home. “I’m doing this for you,” she had said, “you have been so melancholy since Jaime left, that I thought having family with you would be kinder than leaving you to strangers, but perhaps I was wrong about that.”

Sansa declined to attend dinner with the guests for the remainder of their stay.

***

“You will think my question an odd one, I dare say,” said Eliza on the fourth day of their residence, as they were walking together from the Park to the cottage with the younger girls playing ahead of them. “Do you know much of your mother? I believe Ser Brynden mentioned that she was from Tarth.”

“No,” returned Brienne, curious, “I know very little of her. Only that she was from Tarth, as you say, from a small family. My father told me that I resembled her a great deal, both in person and in temperament.”

“I am sure you think me strange for enquiring about her in such a way,” said Eliza, eyeing Brienne attentively, “but I had wondered if we might be related in some fashion. I hope you will do me the justice of believing that I do not meant to be impertinent or cause you discomfort.”

“Truly, I have no idea of any familial connection with Blackwoods or Arryns. Perhaps you should apply to your cousin - maybe he has histories that would better inform you. I wonder at your not apply to him first, as I am quite without any record from my mother’s life.”

“I think you should wonder… if I dared tell you all, Miss Stark, you would not be so much surprised.”

“What do you mean?” asked Brienne, pausing in the path.

“As we could indeed be family… Miss Stark… Brienne. I wonder… I should wish to share something with you. I would not trouble your sisters or your cousins with this - it is a great secret which I wish kept among those whom I trust the most, and I understand you to be most honorable and trustworthy.”

“I know not by what device you have determined that aspect of my person, but I swear that whatever you wish to tell me - I may be depended upon to keep sacred.”

“Yes, I believe you can.” Eliza continued walking. “Brienne, you may well be surprised, for to be sure you could have no idea of it before… of our acquaintance here, only Lord Arryn and his wife know this, though Lysa does not know all.”

“I begin to think that may be for the best, Mrs. Blackwood,” said Brienne delicately.

Eliza smiled wryly and continued. “Blackwood… was my grandmother’s maiden name. She hailed from the Stormlands, near Tarth, and as such - yes - perhaps I do have distant family relations I know naught of, but you are more likely to be one than is Lord Arryn.”

Brienne frowned. “I do not understand you. Lord Arryn--”

“--is not my cousin, Miss Stark. My late husband, Dinah’s father, was a cruel man, Brienne. What marks I do not bear on my person still scar my mind. After my daughter was born, he turned especially wicked. He had wanted a son, and I had denied him that. For three years then, I lived - we both did - in torment. He was a judge, Miss Stark, and the magistrates were in his pocket - there was almost no one I could turn to. I thought to run away, but if I took his only child with me, no doubt he would find me again and send me to an institution, or worse.”

“Gods… Eliza--”

“--when I was very young, my mother called me Ella. Eliza wasn’t a far jump. Brienne, my real name is Rhaella. Dinah’s given name is actually Daena. Lord Arryn though it best to keep hers similar as she was so young when we left.”

“Are you-- El--I’m sorry, I don’t know--”

“--Eliza, please. For the others--”

“Of course. Eliza,” Brienne said carefully, “are you... in hiding from your husband?”

“Not him. He no longer lives. We sought shelter from his family. The Targaryens are powerful, and I’m afraid not an empathetic people.”

“Targaryen… My father received a letter some three or four years ago from his barrister, advising him that a judge they knew had been killed in a duel - was that…?”

Eliza walked a few steps before answering, looking ahead at the girls playing. “Officially? Yes. Society respects that kind of death. It’s acceptable, even.”

“And… unofficially?”

“A friend stepped in. Someone who was astounded by the conditions we were living in and alarmed by the injury that my husband had caused. It had been his idea to run away, but I had told him no because I feared Aerys’ wrath. But then my husband started hurting Daena, and our friend could not bear it. It was he who challenged my husband. That was his mistake. In being the one challenged, Aerys was given the choosing of the weapon. Aerys always chose pistols.” Eliza’s voice faded as she collected herself. Brienne patiently walked beside her, moving a little closer to give the other woman some comfort. “He liked the way they sparked when they were fired. But his challenger - our friend - he’s better with a sword. I knew that Aerys might kill him, and then he’d likely hurt us again. Brienne… if I dare tell…”

Brienne stopped and took Eliza’s hands in hers. “Please do not fear. Your secrets you wish to tell, they are safe with me, Eliza.”

She was given a small smile in return. “They are not only mine to tell, Miss Stark. But I think he would - I know that he would take comfort in your confidence, that he does already.”

Brienne wracked her mind to imagine whom Eliza could be speaking of. “Who is he, Eliza - your friend - do you mean that I am acquainted with him?”

“Brienne, have you never observed the scarring on Mr. Lannister’s right hand?”

Lannister? Jaime Lannister was not so impulsive or actionable. Could she mean Lord Tywin? She knew that he had very specific ways, and it would not be absurd to think that he might have involved himself in this, but to have thought of Eliza’s well-being seemed strange - he did not seem the type of man to care about anyone outside of his family. Brienne’s eyebrows knit together. “I’m afraid I’m not acquainted with Lord Lannister. We have never met.”

“Oh, Lord Lannister got away from the incident unharmed. But I am speaking of our friend , Brienne. I speak of Mr. Jaime Lannister.”

What felt Brienne at that moment? Astonishment, that would have been as painful as it was strong, had not an immediate disbelief of the assertion attended it. She turned toward Eliza in amazement, unable to divine the reasoning of such a declaration, and though her complexion began to warm, she stood firm in incredulity and felt no danger an hysterical fit. “We cannot mean the same Jaime Lannister.”

“We can mean no other, Miss Stark. Mr. Jaime Lannister, the second son of Lord Tywin Lannister in Rains Court, and brother to Mrs. Robert Baratheon, is the person I mean; you must allow that I am not likely to be deceived as to the name of a man on whom our happiness has depended.”

Brienne felt her steps speeding, as if her legs meant to carry her away from knowledge of Jaime’s past, or perhaps present. “How… how came you to be acquainted with Mr. Lannister?” She slowed herself as best she could to allow Eliza to keep up with her.

“Lord Tywin Lannister was a barrister at one time - that is how he made his fortune - and he was an old acquaintance of my husband’s. The families were somewhat close once, but had grown apart prior to my marriage. The relationship between Aerys and Lord Tywin improved again after we’d been married about a year. Jaime and I were often at the same dinners and parties. He is godfather to my daughter.”

“It is strange,” replied Brienne in a most painful perplexity, “that I should never have heard him speak of you.” Something akin to jealousy seemed to be brewing in Brienne’s chest.

“Not so, considering our situation, and our continued need for concealment.”

“You said scars on his hand? I had not observed--”

“When next you see him, Miss Stark, find occasion to regard the center of his left hand. It is well healed, but the inconsistencies are obvious under examination. I owe much to Jaime Lannister, and he’s very fortunate that those scars are the only physical injury he sustained due to my foolishness.”

“But it is not foolish to be a victim of cruelty, Eliza.”

“I speak of my foolish actions. If anyone knew the truth--”

“Pray, Eliza, what do you mean I have heard so many truths just now.”

The other woman paused, as if estimating Brienne’s ability to endure what came next. “I do not think Mr. Lannister can be displeased when he knows I have trusted you, because I know he has the highest opinion in the world of you, Brienne, and he looks on the Miss Starks as superior sisters to his own. He trusts you above all others.”

Brienne swallowed hard. “I cannot vouch for his certainties - I am not personally acquainted with them.”

“Aren’t you?”

Brienne didn’t know what to make of that look in her companion’s eyes.

“The morning of the challenge, I was there before the men arrived. Aerys chose pistols as I knew he would, and I knew that Jaime would not succeed against him. I hid myself behind a tree, near where Aerys would be. He and Mr. Lannister met, and then counted out their paces, and then Aerys - he cheated, Brienne. He turned before the count was up.”

Brienne froze. “And Jai--”

“--Brienne, I jumped then from behind the tree with Aerys’ own sword in my hand and I drove it as hard as I could through his back.”

“But you said--”

“--a gun went off - I didn’t know whose until Jaime came racing across the field and moved me away from the body - Aerys had gotten off a shot as he faltered, and it had gone clean through Jaime’s hand.”

Eliza was not only a someone whose history inspired empathy, but she was a savior of sorts as well - even if it had come at the cost of murdering a man who would have easily murdered others. How was one to compete with so many pitiable circumstances? “If what you say is true, then what of the others?” Brienne whispered. “There were witnesses?”

Eliza nodded, “Lord Arryn was there as Jaime’s second. And Lord Tywin was there as my husband’s.”

Brienne felt herself go cold, and gasped. “Lord Tywin would have stood against his own son?”

“If you knew Lord Tywin you might understand. He said he would have only stood if Lord Arryn had taken Jaime’s place, but...”

“Gods be good.” Brienne had known that Lord Lannister was a demanding sort of man, but this was beyond imagination.

“It was Jaime’s idea to take the credit for my husband’s death. Lord Arryn agreed to take Dae-- Dinah and I away, and Lord Tywin - he did what he could, using his influence to keep details out of the newspapers.”

“Is that why we’d never heard anything of it?”

Eliza nodded. “Lord Lannister managed to keep the more widely circulated papers from carrying it. But in King’s Landing it is well-known and still spoken of that Jaime Lannister killed Aerys Targaryen.”

Brienne felt her stomach turn, then looked to Eliza whose face was pale. “Mrs. Blackwood, I can’t imagine how hard it must be having done what you did - what you had to for your daughter.” And if she hadn’t, Brienne thought, she might never have met Jaime.

“I have made my peace with it, Miss Stark. I know what lives were saved by it. But Mr. Lannister... he’s had to live with having to take the credit for it for the last four years. It takes a toll. He was so miserable when he left the Aerie last month, to go to you, that I thought you might think him ill.

“He was in particularly low spirit, we thought, when he first arrived.” So perhaps it was not only the company that had caused his malaise.

“And he is still now - he wrote me from Winterfell - his letters are always somewhat poor, but this one was low as well. I think his sister and father continue to try and push him to embrace the lie, but he hates that part of his life. He hates noteriety.” Eliza held it out for Brienne to see, and she could tell that it was indeed Jaime’s hesitating scratchy penmanship. And she certainly concurred on her last point - Jaime had said as much himself.

But to what lengths might he go to ensure his privacy now that Eliza might tell him that the history of his secrets had been extended to her? Would he stay away? Would he wish to see the Starks again at all? It was too much to comprehend.

And then there was the matter of his correspondence with Mrs. Blackwood, of which Brienne had certain proof in front of her. It pointed to more familiarity between Jaime and the widow than Brienne had been willing to welcome knowledge of. Her heart sank within her, and she felt she could hardly stand; but exertion was indispensably necessary, and she struggled so resolutely against the oppression of her feelings, that her success was speedy and the for the time, complete.

“Writing to each other,” said Eliza, unaware of Brienne’s turmoil, “is the only comfort we both have in our shared secrecy - that, and my daughter. But Jaime doesn’t get to see his godchild often now. I, at least, have that . I gave him a lock of her hair set in a ring when he was at the Aerie last in order to remind him of the blessings that his actions have wrought, and he said that it gave him more comfort than anything in the world - perhaps you saw it when he came here?”

“I did,” said Brienne, with composure of voice under which she concealed an emotion and distress beyond anything she had felt before - distress for Jaime’s privacy, for Rhaella and Daena’s enforced secrecy, and for herself - mortified and shocked at her foolishness.

Fortunately for her, they had now reached the cottage and caught up to Arya and the younger girl with the pale yellow hair - far paler than Cersei's, as Sansa had correctly observed to Jaime. Eliza went to attend to her daughter, and Brienne was then at liberty to think and be wretched.

[breezethegame]

Dev Log #1-ish?

Seeing how I missed like two weeks of mini blog posts, I’m deeming this one an actual “Devlog” (fanfare and such yada yada). I'm just going to call it a Dev Log.

So much has gone on the last few weeks that I’m struggling to piece it all together, so here is an attempt:

Computer Adventures:

So, I don’t haven’t built a dev machine from the ground up for years now, (maybe since college?) and typically just upgrade parts as I see fit (graphics card, ram, processor, etc).

Well, my motherboard has been giving me problems for close to a year now, where it occasionally decides “yeah, don’t really care about your boot device today”, as well as other miscellaneous things that required me to do things like removing the CMOS battery or main drive. I was also running out of upgrade options, so I got a bit fed up and decided it might be time to replace it.

I wasn't going to be cost-effective to get another LGA1150 board and CPU, and I try to build computers with future-proofing in mind. I was also looking to get a smaller case too. I already had a nice GPU (GTX 1070) that I got a couple years ago before cryptocurrency “did the thing” and graphics card's prices got ridiculous, so didn’t have to worry about replacing that.

Ultimately, I decided to do a "completely new" build.

I’ve been building computers for friends and family for many years, so I literally woke up the next day and said, “I’m about to build this thing blind”.

Well, kinda learned the hard way of the hassle of going at it that way (along with committing a couple noobish mistakes)...

Shopping Time!

Lesson 1: Double check store inventory before heading to a store that's 20 miles away

Well, I choose the nearest Fry's Electronics (it was Saturday, and I really wanted to get a machine built the same day). I get there and start looking for all of the cases and motherboards (severally disappointed that they only had one Micro ATX board in stock, something I was looking to get for the more compact build, but not as restrictive as a Mini-ITX, which they had several of). Impatient as ever, I decided I was going to pick it up.

While looking at other things, I hear another customer talking to sales rep, and the rep mentions that they don’t have a certain CPU in stock. After listening even more (I’m noisy, sorry), he mentions that they have NO Intel CPUs in stock. I decided that I had to get in on this convo.

He informs up that as of late, their store may receive like, 10 at a time, and also mentions that their other location doesn’t have any either (both of these locations are 20+ miles away from me in Dallas).

I also find out that they don’t have the specific ram I was looking for either (I ended up getting something a little pricier). He ends up informing me that the Micro Center 10 minutes away from where we were should have some CPUs.

So I end up at the Micro Center and they did have the CPUs, as well as a case that caught my attention. They also had a lot of other nice things too! Kind of wished I would have known to go to Micro Center first, despite it being much farther from home.

Building Time!?

Lesson Two: Get a head-start of figuring out your plan for wire management and how pieces will fit in your new case

I got home and was ready to build. I spent a lot of time trying to get the interior wire management together since it’s a much smaller case than my last one. I ended up spending a couple of hours getting it just right (I don’t intend to go back into this machine once it’s complete since I’m nearly maxing it out spec wise for now), before moving out to everything else.

Getting my old water-cooling radiator in was a bit tough (a very tight squeeze), but after that, adding in the ram, etc was a Breeze.

Hours went by, I installed Windows, software, etc…

I go to shut it down (after having done several restarts for the software installs prior), and it doesn’t want to power off. After 10 minutes of waiting, I manually power it off. Whatever, I’m super tired at this point.

The next day (Last Sunday), I’ve encountered several other smaller issues. Updating the BIOS didn’t help either. Great…

Okay, Building Time For Real

Lesson 3: Kinda make sure things boot up and work before you get too early to clean/tighten things down in your build

After taking the whole thing apart, I ended up swapping out that mobo for another of the same kind (since Frys didn’t have any others), but then ended up ordering different board on Amazon. So waited another day or so and the new board arrived (it’s now Tuesday evening).

I rewired/rebuilt the computer once again, installed the software, etc. I spent most of Wednesday day checking in with the team and catching up with emails and such. Then Thursday as I was beginning to do some work, I noticed that the computer was saying that my Windows wasn’t activated. I go to my Microsoft account to retrieve my key, and the page wouldn’t load to provide me the key and would only show the transaction.

Lesson 4: Make sure to keep your activation key(s) somewhere other than online/digital if you can

It’s super late and the option to speak to someone was obviously closed, but they had a chat option, so I reached someone through there. After back and forth for a while, and him remoting into the machine to check the activation status, he tells me that the key might not be showing up because it was an “upgrade”, so I would need to buy another copy of Windows 10 again.

Lesson 5: Tell "Aaron" from Microsoft no over and over, and don't fall for possibly sketchy things like sales pitches that come out of nowhere

I originally bought Windows Home and upgraded it to Pro on the same day back in 2015, so I told him that and he kept insisting that I buy Windows 10 again. I refused and told him that I wouldn’t and that I’d take care of this in the morning, and he then offered that I could pay a smaller fee to reactivate my Windows 10, but it would be a one time fee of like, $40. (I refused again).

When I go to end the remote session, he then informs me that he “Really wants to help me out” and ends up activating it anyway. (This whole thing seemly suspicious, I ended up recording it). I watched him activate Windows for over 10 minutes through some manual process (it's almost 2am, and I had work in the morning). He eventually finishes and thanks/apologies. Not sure why I even had to go through all that, but whatever...

I ended up spending Friday wrapping up installs and doing a fresh system backup afterward, before moving along with pulling down the Breeze project from source control, and reminding myself of where I left off…

Anyway, long story short, I tried to get a system built in a day, and it ends up taking almost a week!

Okay, but did you get any dev done these last two weeks?

Yeah, somehow!

Health Bar and Health System:

First thing the team and I did was evaluate a few things that are critical, but we’ve been bouncing back and forth on: The Health System

(WIP of a concept we're working on for his health bar)

The reason for this is mostly for game balancing purposes:

Is this a game that focuses on having Breeze (the player) overwhelm his opponents with an array of abilities (think Devil May Cry/Bayonetta, Kingdom Hearts, God of War?)

Or is this a game where Breeze must focus on finding openings to deal damage and avoid an onslaught of danger (think Hollow Knight, Ori, Megaman, pretty much most NES/SNES platformers)

Game design… is hard at times. Sometimes you think something will work well in theory, but when you get down into the specifics, you begin to question how certain things will balance out.

You’d think something like designing a health bar isn’t too trivial, until you realize that the Health bar represents the player’s health, and the player’s health influences the character’s survivability, which is then tied to other factors: what options does the player have to “survive” and what threatens that?

Anyway, not going to get too deep into that because I lack the PhD.

Basically, there was a bit of a rift in the UI design process that led to really evaluating game design items, and I’ve been working towards seeing what Breeze’s options are and how to limit them in areas, or how I can build the world and it’s inhabitants in a way that will make this all work out.

It’s not going to be something that will likely be answered quickly, but nevertheless, that’s Game Design™ sometimes...  

Frame Data:

[Insert Craig of the Creek frame data meme here]

I used to have a really convoluted way of tackling this in which I would have events in the animation that if given an ID, it will look for a set of “Frame Data” and then look for a specific frame and then load that information up.

It would then pass that frame information into the active hitbox and if something is in it, math and physics and stuff would happen.

I didn’t change this up too much, but I did reduce the setup process by allowing you to just drop the FrameData right into the frame of the animation (no more extra array and ID lookup stuff!)

New Particles:

We’ve got new particles! There’s one for jumping/landing/dashing dust, as well as one for wall sliding.

In the last update, I added a feature that generates “points” at the edges of a character’s collider box (as well as other “checks”), so this helped in making sure that the particles are created in the right place. This was especially challenging with the wall sliding particle.

Also, with the wall sliding particle, I needed to implement a way to have a “looping” particle effect, as well as making sure the particle effect follows Breeze as he’s moving down the wall

Developing Sprite Model Sheets

We've got models sheets completed for just about all of the cast members, though, since there's several artists on the project, as well as animators (including I), I wanted to get some sheets together that would work as a base for animators to use, and to eliminate elements that aren't needed in the sprites (minor details that would be seen in promotional art or more detailed art in general), as well as get a proper size for the characters in-game.

Misc. Features

I’ve done various other quality of life code changes to make it easier to do certain things, like creating new attacks, making the screen pause/slow-mo when Breeze changes forms, and updated my Debugging Manager so that I can hide/show certain debug messages.

I’ve also been working on a RoomManager, and writing features to look handle what happens when the player enters a room (like starting a cutscene, showing UI, spawning things, etc)

I’ve also been looking into updating the game’s Music Handler, mostly for how to handle looping a song after it's intro plays, as well as finding ways to add effects to tracks!

Other Breeze things:

I’ve been working on getting shirts done through Teespring, and I would have loved to show off some of the shirts I ordered, but Teespring shipped them using DHL, and somewhere between DHL and USPS, my shirts have been sitting in shipping limbo for 5-6 days, despite being like a city or two away from me… Maybe tomorrow ~

Also, working on a couple of enamel pin designs! Haven’t figured out the maker yet, but designs are coming along nicely!

Quick Test Build Coming

So, a week or two ago, I planned on releasing a quick build for the Drop Tier backers and above. There was a lot of features and such that I wanted to get done... before my computer stuff happened. Our goal was to have one out before the end up March, so....

I’m going to release one anyway. Maybe tomorrow?

I’ll be creating a post for those in the eligible tiers once I’m done compiling/building it! Please keep in mind that this build will be very minimal and exists to test out controls/physics. I wanted to make a strong first impression, but I'll chill on the whole "striving for perfection" thing for now!

Also, I'm on vacation this week, so I'll be cramming on Breeze stuff this whole week to make up for lost time!

[pinespittinink]

11/11/11 Tag

Got tagged a while ago by @etjwrites <33 I don’t have the spoons to keep this tag going, but I liked her questions a lot!

1. What’s your favourite writing tip?

Write for yourself. Always. 

2. Do you prefer to write a little every day or a lot in concentrated bursts?

The latter is usually how I operate.

3. Is there meaning behind the names you’ve chosen for your characters?

Not really? I don’t think about meanings when I’m looking at names, most of the time. All the names in Star White and Solene’s verse, those two specifically, those are just entirely “popped into my head, we’re going with these ones” names. There might be outside inspiration to some of them-- a little pyromancer is named Chumly because there was an explosive chemist in a show I watched who’s last name sounded like that, even as it was spelled like nothing else, and a lot of the supporting names in Star White can be traced to its Hannibal roots, but as far as looking for actual definitions and such, that’s few and far between.

The only wip so far where I really looked at name meanings has been the waste wip, for one character who has two names throughout the story, one being a secret revealed near the end.  4. Top four books, go!

Oh I’m awful at these, I can’t possibly choose. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Many Waters, and I Am The Messenger. 

5. After an intense writing session, what’s your favourite way to recharge?

Going for a walk, clearing my head somehow. I need to decompress, and it’s good for me to be physically active after sitting idle for so long. 

6. Kiss, marry, avoid – which of your OC’s and why?

Kiss Victory, marry Cleophas, avoid.... a whole ton of them honestly. Mia and Clouse, Breanto, Domini, Wind, even Solene to a degree. Probably even Aloe;; at least, it would take me a while to actively seek her out. She’s an intimidating presence.

Victory’s a good kisser though, that’s an easy one. He’s warm and full-bodied and attentive about it. 

Cleophas.... is just like, my soulmate on the page. He doesn’t even feel like that really, he’s like one half of myself mirrored back at me, showing these pieces even I don’t know about. He’s simultaneously a mystery I’m ever exploring whenever I think of him, as well as the most intimate connection I’ve ever had with a character. Loving and living with him for life would be the most whole, natural thing for me. 

7. You’ve been dropped into the world of your WIP – how long do you survive?

Well, humans don’t exist in Helmi (yet), so assuming that to be a non-factor, I think a pretty decent amount of time. It’s not an inhospitable land, especially in the area of the Gelkins and the skin-changers, and if I was a part of either society, I think I’d do pretty well. 

I would spend a lot of time flying. 

8. What’s your favourite/preferred genre to write in?

Fantasy, forever and always. It’s my first love. Really, anything where the world is less tethered to what we know. 

9. Any pets or favourite animals?

No pets right now, though I’m currently in love with my roommate’s dumb fluffy cat, Indy. I’m a dog person at heart though, and I’m especially fond of humpback whales.

10. Whose work on writeblr/wattpad must we ABSOLUTELY read?

I honestly can’t express how much I’m looking forward to @49thriot‘s work, when the time comes that she reintroduces it. Carve The Stars and Wishbreaker are some of the best concepts I’ve ever seen, and it’s been a privilege to have been able to read what I have. 

11. Badly describe your WIP

I’m so baaaaddd at thissssssssss

Romeo and Juliet with angels and furries. There. There we go.