#( hiiii this works wonderfully thank you for this!!! <3 )

[endexe]

                        ❝   There was blood EVERYWHERE .   ❞                                                            —   @salface​

EVEN THIS KNIFE OF HIS WAS ALL BLOOD STAINED, XE SAW. It bore no reflections, not even a speck of it, there was just a vivid reminder of what he had done. The Unknown is well aware of the news on his mass murder, yet, xe also knows there was a greater story behind his action, entirely unseen by the public eyes.   [   THERE IS ALWAYS A STORY WITHIN A STORY WITHIN A STORY WI—   ]   Xe understands what it is like to be misunderstood by the whole world. To be deeply feared while xe is most afraid of xemself.   (   Horror falls and the world will only blame on what is already known. Blame God— or you, with your hands unwillingly bloody.   )

❝   I - I am - I am aware of your situation, Sal Fisher. To kill those you know and love for the world to be saved... I - I have been in that position many times before...   ❞   As the Unknown takes a step closer to him, sympathy softly sings in the endless statics around xyr distorted presence: I understand, I understand, I understand, I...   ❝   It hurts, but if you - if you had not done it, not only would they be gone, but so would the world. Sometimes, making a great sacrifice is the only best choice.   ❞   But you already know that.   ❝   Did you get to see an- an- any of them again?   ❞   Xyr tone is still gentle, a reaching for an answer from a place of childlike curiosity.

[thegeminisage]

hey! i checked your writing masterpost and didn't see anything about this, so i thought i'd ask-a friend of mine and i are interested in writing a fic together, but both of us have previously only wrote stuff by ourselves. do you have any tips on writing collaborative work?

HIIII this is such a good question wow <3 i hope u don’t mind if i just throw out a bullet-point list as stuff comes to me instead of putting it in a more organized order!! obviously everyone is different especially wrt creative stuff so take it with a grain of salt but cowriting @cambionverse 11 yrs (holy shit) with my beloved @callowyn leads me to give u the following advice:

USE GOOGLE DOCS. like yeah fuck google or whatever always keep personal backups yadda yadda but i cannot stress enough how helpful it is to literally be able to see each other cursor’s in real time when you’re speaking about a particular section. it’s also fun to watch each other work, sometimes lovingly, sometimes lovingly but also with loving antagonism. there have been times when i’ve written faster bc i knew cally was watching and if i stopped typing she’d get bored or type dick emojis into the paragraph or something because she is <3 a menace

write down everything. the older and busier you get the truer this is. i can’t tell you how many times cally and i have decided on a plan of action only to forget it by next week’s writing meetup, and then be RELIEVED to discover a set of notes (or baffled when it turns out the notes were too vague to be useful). google helps with this bc you can leave notes all over the place. make as many notes as you can. no much thing as too many. make outlines. make an entirely new doc to take notes on what you talked about. save chat logs, if you’re not using something that saves them automatically. you will thank yourselves later.

the triangle my beloved. if you’ve been through the writing masterpost you may have seen this bad boy. i did not invent this, but i do live by it! idk it seems like really great advice. the nice thing about cowriting is that sometimes you can shore each other up on the “knowledge” point (knowing what you’re doing) because you can brainstorm together, but your projects can stall if you’re not matching each other in “enthusiasm” (commonly misinterpreted as “inspiration,” blegh, don’t get me started) and “time” (time to work separately AND TOGETHER, which busy adults sadly do not often have ASK HOW I KNOW or maybe don’t actually it’s so tragic that we’re always so busy). (”time” can sometimes also mean “spoons” or “energy” for people who are mentally ill or work demanding jobs.) some people write better solo and trading things back and forth some people write better when they hang out in the doc together so they can’t goof off but if one of you doesn’t want to work on it because they aren’t excited or can’t work on it due to time constraints the other one of you can’t pick up all the slack by themself. like with any collaboration you will sometimes need to be very patient with each other and very honest with each other (in a nice way!) so nobody is stringing anybody else along. if you can’t or don’t feel like doing something, just say so, and be nice about it when your friend can’t or doesn’t feel like doing something either. remember, you’re friends before you’re cowriters.

decide on who gets what workload. cally and i are very lucky to have complementing skillsets - i’m pretty good at laying down a first draft quickly, but i absolutely despise editing. she’s slower on the first draft, but she edits wonderfully and likes doing it much better. everyone will be different. sometimes she drafts scenes i’m not really excited about and i edit scenes she’s tired of looking at. maybe you’re better at porn but your friend is better at angst. maybe you’re good at dialogue but your friend likes to write action scenes. it’s good at have a rough plan going in, but don’t feel weird or bad about altering it as you see fit. especially if there’s like, only stuff left that one of you is “supposed” to do - the other can jump in and help finish up. on that note...

keep a checklist? this sounds weird but it’s been very helpful for cally and i when we unfortunately go a long time between writing sessions. at the top of the doc is just a little bullet pointed list like this one full of things like “fix the plothole in this particular scene” or “take a character out of that scene” or “rewrite this part” or “make that part sexier” or whatever. it helps keep track of where you are and what you’re doing because it can get chaotic with even just two people in the doc.

WRITE IN ORDER (or something). speaking of chaos!! so, a fun story that will haunt me until the end of my days is how in envesseled there’s this guy aaron birch who we introduced in i think the second chapter. but because we wrote some of the scenes before we actually GOT to the second chapter and because both of us were doing things separately, we wrote every time he came up in the narrative like it was the first one. “aaron birch, who claire and ben had met in the grand canyon on an angel hunt” was an explanation that showed up not once, not twice, but SIX TIMES. ironing out those mentions to make them consistent was a nightmare, because we had to read through like 50k to find them all, highlight them, and then edit the scenes around them to make sure what we got was the mostly-final product. i know not everybody CAN write in order, not everybody likes to, but when you’re cowriting, ESPECIALLY for longer fics, you need to do SOMETHING to check for consistency and make sure you don’t have two totally separate ideas about where the exposition’s supposed to go, even if it’s just a chronological readthru now & then. the sooner you catch errors such at plotholes and exposition snafus the less horrific they will be to fix.

decide on a process. so, this is my process, which you don’t need to read, but in general it goes brainstorming, outlining, reoutlining, blocking, drafting, editing. some people start with writing, some people start with inspiration boards, whatever. if you two have a different process from each other, deciding which order to do things in might be tricky - maybe you can get on voice chat and work on the inspiration board while your more outline-loving friend takes down notes for the brainstorming file or something. but you won’t start without a plan. if you’re like me you may even find satisfaction in writing it down step by step so you can cross it off. first inspiration pictures. then an outline. then doing this bit, while my friend does that one. you get the idea. don’t go overboard or anything, though - the point is to help you get started, not just put it off with productive procrastination forever because you aren’t sure how to do it. 

just fuckin go for it & have fun!! as with anything, the more you cowrite with your friend the better you will get at it. there may be kinks (hah) at first and mistakes will be made but eventually you will settle into a pattern. (the longer the fic is, the more time you have to get this down pat.) and of course, fic writing is done for free, for fun, and so is hanging out with friends. so make sure you’re having a blast doing both cuz that’s the entire point!!!!!

this is pretty unorganized but i HOPE IT HELPED. good luck to both of you, i bet you’re gonna ace it <3

[fic advice masterpost]

[spitdrunken]

It's Soft! And good golly miss Molly do I have words for you to read.

First, don't worry about taking too long to answer asks, especially from me. It's your blog and you can post on it at your leisure! I'm sure my fellow anonymous perverts agree! Time spent on words is between you and your commissioners.

Speaking of! No need to worry that I wouldn't like "someone to hold", I LOVED it! Oh spitdrunken it was just lovely. Emmet was the perfect amount of ornery and rude: not so much as to make him unlikable but just enough of a little shit because that is HIS brother and how dare Emmet be expected to share?! But also, he's clearly hurting from all the time traveling/amnesia nonsense because it was hard on him! It would be hard on anyone.

And the date! Reader-kun and Emmet in the cramped amusement park train is comedy gold. And we get to see Emmet's sweet side too, he may be mad at Reader-kun right now, but he won't let them get hurt or sick. Safety first! The two of them talking things out in the ferris wheel was great, it's nice and sweet and is a wonderful foundation for Emmet allowing Reader-kun to fuck his brains out.

Which segues wonderfully into the next section of my review: the smut! Fuck yeah, the porn was fantastic! I completely and utterly LOVED Ingo recounting his and Emmet's second first time to Reader-kun, in great detail. Imagining how shaky and aroused Ingo's voice must have been doing all that, all while being so submissive and desperate *swoons* I am weak. I also really like how Reader-kun is willing to fuck Emmet at this point in their relationship because, well, same. He may be being a brat, but he's hot and I want to make him the filling in a Subway Boss sandwich! I want those twinks obliterated!

Ahem. Anyway, the main event! Threeway on the couch! I love it all so much, how it's all coming full circle with the previous tension on the couch but now the tension is being resolved, Emmet's nervous little confession because he doesn't want Reader-kun involved if he only likes Ingo, "Make me listen" god what I wouldn't give to do that!, and Emmet now wanting Reader-kun's attention too! Ingo describing Emmet's face! And then Emmet being a horny beast who demands more! It's all so good, it's perfect! And then the ending, LOL. You snooze you lose boys!

All in all, I thought it was a fantastic fic. Well worth the wait! I'll wait until you post this ask to send in my additional thoughts on my scenario, just to keep myself from spamming you and to give others the space in your inbox that they deserve. I hope you have a lovely rest of your day!

hiiii soft!!!!!! i saw the absolute wall of text you left me and got so happy <333!!! and thank you for being so understanding, i really appreciate it <33!!

I'm so glad that Emmet was the perfect amount of rude :D!! One of the things that worried me the most was making Emmet just 'mean' enough that it shows how Reader could've been bothered, but not actually enough that no one can root for him LMAO And I'm glad it worked for you!! He was definitely just really hurt by his brother leaving.

The train scene was HONESTLY one of my favourite parts to write HAHA I came up with it after seeing a very ugly children's train online and just had to add it in. I also felt the ferris wheel scene was just necessary for them to kind of built a bridge between each other, so, exactly!!

'i want those twin(k)s obliterated'!!!!! LITERALLY ME. Soft we have the same brain because Ingo was sooo desperate and nervous telling all of that and it's soso good!!!!

The nervous little confession was something I just HAD to add in because I wanted there to be a moment where Emmet was finally more vulnerable and honest with himself <33 And Emmet just being slightly jealous for Reader's attention as well is just,, the icing on top of that HAHA

I'm sooo happy with all of your praise, thank you very much!!!! I'm not sure I'm expressing it well but I genuinely appreciate it <3

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Holistic Coffee Shop -- Modern Prometheus

Okay, so two weeks ago, I showed you the scene I came up with for Victor using his power of “life transfer” for the very first time. Now, that scene involved a stabbing, courtesy of Barkis Bittern, but this one happens to be even darker!

Mostly because it takes place inside Blackwing. And someone dies. Someone who really goddamn deserves it, to be sure, but still. Your warning for the day!

Backstory: After the above scene, upon getting Emily to safety, Victor eventually goes back and gives himself up to the CIA so they’ll leave his other friends alone. Barkis happily takes him in, and Victor is put into Blackwing custody. Amidst the experiments performed on him, he learns that Alice’s sister Lizzie is too a guest of Blackwing -- she’s a ghost now, trapped inside a containment field for study. The two become friendly, as her cell isn’t far from his, and start making escape plans.

Meanwhile, Alice is furious that Blackwing has her boyfriend and tells the others they have to rescue him. Everyone is for this, and they even bring in this universe’s Bart and Ken to help. Plans are made, discarded, and made again, and eventually the group heads off to find themselves a secret CIA facility.

The escape attempt and the rescue attempt end up colliding, and for a bit all goes well. Victor and Lizzie take out the power and release the child subjects Blackwing was testing on, while the Rowdy 3 run into those same kids later and Martin has Gripps, Cross, and Vogel get them out of there safely. Victor and Lizzie meet up with the remaining members, and all prepare to flee --

And then Angus Bumby shows up with an armed guard, a portable containment field for Lizzie, and a hard whack across the shoulders for Victor. A short standoff ensues, with Bumby THINKING he has the upper hand. . .

"Now, I'm sure I can arrange somewhat more comfortable quarters if you all come quietly." Bumby smiled at Alice. "Particularly you, Miss Liddell. Perhaps something near my room?"

Even through watery, pain-filled eyes, Victor could see the hate smoldering on Alice's face. "You expect me to comply with my family's murderer?"

Bumby shook his head. "Alice, even if you were to escape – who would believe you? You're a coffee girl with a history of mental illness. Specifically, of psychosis and hallucination. We know it's a bit more than that – much more than that, in fact – but to the outside world, if you started going on about Angus Bumby, who disappeared twelve years ago. . .well. Rutledge never refuses a patient."

"It's more than just me!"

Bumby's eyes raked over the rest of the rescue crew. "Ah, yes. A 'holistic detective,' another girl locally known as mentally ill, her dropout brother with a history of untruth, a computer hacker, an unkempt 'assassin,' and a common thug. I'm sure everyone will find them credible witnesses." He smirked. "I have friends in much higher places than you do, Alice. And I've been doing this a lot longer." He nodded to the men with guns surrounding them. "Please – let's do this the easy way? Your sister chose the hard way, and you see how well that worked out for her."

Lizzie tried to lunge at him, but the man next to Bumby twisted something on his device, and the containment field constricted with a crackle, forcing her to her knees. Victor looked at her, then back up at Bumby. He's going to win, he realized with a sick sinking feeling. He's actually going to win. Martin's going to start swinging at any moment, and he'll probably take out a couple of them, but even he can't survive being riddled with bullets. Same with Bart – she'll get a few, and then she'll be dead, and probably Ken too since he'll try to help – and the others will be taken in and Dirk won't have the universe to help him anymore and Amanda will be just another experiment and Todd will probably be 'recruited' and have to help them torture his own sister and Alice – no no no I have to do something I have to stop him – but I don't know how to fire a gun and they'll probably just shoot me if I get up and even if I end up a ghost like Lizzie I won't be any good to anyone I won't even be able to heal anymore –

And, for some reason, he suddenly found himself thinking of Emily and the oak tree.

He blinked, unsure why that memory had popped into his head. Emily was nowhere to be seen this time, thank God, and he wasn't near any trees. . .maybe he was just worried he was never going to see a tree again? No, that can't be it. Dirk says everything is connected – how does that memory connect to what's happening now? He shut his eyes and let it replay. Emily's tortured gasping, the blood under his hands, terror frazzling his nerves, the crunch of the leaves in his fingers – then that incredibly pleasant, warm electricity zipping through his body – and then the dead leaves crumbling to the ground, and Emily sitting up, the color returning to her cheeks, wiping away the blood to reveal the wound was gone – he'd saved her, at the cost of practically killing the tree –

His eyes snapped open. His power – how had the scientists put it? He rebalanced the distribution of life energy – helped and harmed in equal measure. And he'd saved someone from a fatal wound. . .maybe he could – it was a mad idea, but they were always encouraging him to push his powers farther. . .

He reached out and took Lizzie's hand, ignoring the faint sting from the containment field. She looked down at it in confusion. "Trust me," he whispered, then looked up at Bumby. "Sir – I just had a thought."

"What is it, Prometheus?" Bumby said, not even glancing down.

"It's about that, actually. My project name. You said it was from the Greek myth, but there's actually another place someone might have heard it from."

"Oh?"

"Frankenstein. I had to read it for an English class. The subtitle is The Modern Prometheus."

Bumby finally deigned to look at him. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"It's a book about raising the dead, more or less." He gritted his teeth. "Let's try an experiment."

His hand snapped out and closed around Bumby's wrist before anyone could react – and then suddenly his body was overflowing with energy, pulsing through him like a live wire, scorching his nerves with something that wasn't quite pain as he rebalanced the books of life – he could hear Bumby screaming, feel the man trying to pull free; his fingers tightened, sucking with lethal intent – Lizzie yelped, and he squeezed her hand, now comforting, now giving – and then there was gunfire and a familiar howling scream from Martin and a whistling snickersnack and an uncoordinated "Hiiii-yah!" followed by what sounded like someone's foot meeting someone else's groin and he wanted to worry about it but he couldn't right now because he couldn't really think beyond the flow of pure unadulterated life roaring through him, pouring through veins and arteries as it sought a new home, touching him along the way with the merest whisper of the sublime – everything was connected, and right now he was that connection –

And then, with a loud thud!, it was over. Victor released both Lizzie and Bumby, needing his hands to brace himself as he came, shaking and wheezing, off the high of being the conduit for the most powerful force in the universe. He managed, after a moment, to focus on the scene around him. Bumby was lying dead on his left, face twisted in a rictus of shock. The containment man was also dead, blood dripping from multiple gunshot wounds, his device sparking. The rest of the Blackwing soldiers didn't look much better – even those that he could see were still alive weren't getting up anytime soon. His friends were still standing, blood staining faces and hands and clothes but apparently uninjured – and all staring at him like they'd never seen him before. And to his right –

was Lizzie, gaping at him, her body no longer a mass of blue electric light but wonderfully, warmly solid. Victor managed to give her a smile as he struggled to catch his breath. "Oh good. I was hoping. . ."

The world inconveniently started spinning then, the walls and floor switching places like he was stuck on a Tilt-A-Whirl. He pressed down hard on the tiles, trying to steady himself, but all that did was make the ceiling start twisting in a different direction. He raised a weak hand to his head. "I – I think I overdid it a little," he confessed in the vague direction of Alice, tipping dangerously toward the left wall.

Then everything went black.