#I almost wrote a whole paragraph about this in the tags

[mellasso]

jason sudeikis.

[nightlyrequiem]

So I was thinking about this for a while but, what if the reader is Valeria's ex wife that had been together for almost a decade (dating included) and as a result the 141 and Los Vaqueros basically come snooping around their house searching for answers and interrogates them, hoping that they would help but realizes that's it's a dead end because Valeria always shielded them from anything that she did.

Oooh interesting concept 😍

So interesting that I kind of didn’t know what to do. I wrote an outline, changed the ending, then changed the ending again. Little bit of a challenge but challenges are a good thing 🫶

Tags/Warnings: WLW, Violence, 141-Vaqueros Appearance, Very Minor Angst

Interrogation

Promising forever doesn't actually guarantee forever. Valeria has come to learn this. A thick bitterness has coated her heart in your absence. Eating away at the organ like an acidic parasite. It's been years since your divorce, but Valeria still misses you deeply. You took something from her when you left and she knows she'll never get it back. The worst part is, she can't even really blame you for leaving. For the majority of your long relationship  she was dishonest about who she was and what she did. You eventually put the pieces together, even if the picture was never whole, and figured out she wasn't good. Valeria tried to spare you as many details as she could. Knowledge is power but ignorance is safety. To your credit, you had tried to make it work. However it proved to be too much for you. The danger, the lies, the late nights. You served her the papers and left soon after.

The divorce wasn't easy on you either. You spent just shy of ten years with Valeria. Building a life with her only to find she wasn't who she said she was. A house built on a weak foundation is doomed to collapse, and leaving her was one of the hardest things you've done but you couldn't stand it anymore. Couldn't stand wondering if she'd walk back through that door each night. The moral implications were eating at you as well. Whatever it was she was doing was bad enough for her to not tell you.

It's another lonely night in your apartment. The silence feels mocking. It's one of the rarer nights where you don't have music or the TV playing. Just you in your chair with a book you've already read. You struggle to focus. Having to reread the same paragraph twice because you're just not absorbing the words at hand. Leaving Valeria was the right thing, you tell yourself. But life is so... quiet without her. A heavy knock on the door interrupts your thoughts and you realise that you yet again didn't actually read anything. Sighing, you put the book down and get up. Your legs and back are sore from sitting in the same position for too long. You silently walk towards the door and peer out through the glazed window. Making out the shapes of men.  

The sight makes your skin prickle, but you unlock the deadbolt - not the chain - and pull open your door, wincing as the hinges cry out in protest.

"Can I help you?" You ask quietly, brows pulled low. You see there are five men in total, all clad in military gear.

"Hello ma'am, mind if we come in for a few moments? We have a few questions for you." The blond one asks. There's something about his voice you don't like. Under that American accent is something smug and violent, like he's used to getting his way.

"Um... no thank you." You respond. Like hell you're letting five strange men into your home.

"It won't take long, it's about a woman." The one with the mohawk speaks. You're caught off guard because this one has a Scottish lilt to his voice. Looking closer, you see a little British flag sewn onto the chest of his vest. His friend beside him has one sewn onto his as well, contrasting with the light blue button up.

"No, sorry."

"Her name is Valeria Garza." He continues, looking you dead in the eyes. You stiffen at the name. Fearing the worst. Has she been caught? Is she dead? You're torn between slamming the door and letting them in.

The latter wins and you unlatch the chain, slowly pulling open the door to face them.

"... What about her?" You ask carefully.

"Why don't we come in to discuss this, huh?" The blond man pushes his way in before you can protest. Putting you off greatly. The others follow suit like sheep to their shepherd. The blond man looks around, eyes raking over your home. He turns that blue gaze back to you. "So, to my knowledge you were... close to Valeria."

"I... suppose so." You reply. Close isn't enough to describe what you had. A roaring forest fire that died out too quickly.

"You used to visit her often, back when she was still in the special forces." One of the other men pipes up. He has the saddest downturned eyes you've ever seen on a human, but his voice is firm.

Everyone is looking at you. You don't like their scrutiny. Like you did something wrong.

"...Yeah? So?" You internally facepalm at the defensiveness in your voice. These men are dogs and they'll pick up on it.

"Well, according to some official government documents, you two used to be married." The blond says. Smug, like he caught you in a lie. You have the strongest urge to punch him in the throat. Or maybe give him a new facial scar.

"We were married for a few years, yeah." You say. Voice strong because you're not ashamed or embarrassed. "We divorced a while ago though."

"Why?" The man leans forward, beady eyes narrowed.

You hesitate. "She never made any time for me." You say. That and you never actually knew her.

The blond looks over to one of the men at the back.

"Alejandro, you're familiar with Valeria and by extension her wife-"

"-Ex wife." You correct.

"-Help me out here."

The man, Alejandro, comes forward. Hands held onto his vest. His gaze is severe and alight with a distaste that makes your skin prickle. "What did Valeria do for a living?" He asks. The way he asks tells you he already knows.

"She ran a business."

"What kind of business?"

"I don't know."

He raises a thick brow. "You don't know?"

"No." You grit out. "I don't know, she never told me."

"And you didn't think to ask?"

You frown at him. Obviously you asked. Many times. 

"Okay. I did ask. She wouldn't tell me." You snap. "Why are you bothering me about my ex-wife? I haven't even spoken to her in years."

The blond man shoulders past Alejandro. "So you didn't know about her connection to the cartel?" He asks.

"No-"

"You didn't know your wife was a narco?" He presses, drawing closer.

"No I didn't know-"

"You didn't think to question where her wealth came from? I bet the ring she got you was nice and pricey."

It was. A shiny, sturdy diamond ring. It makes you feel a little unwell that it might've been paid for with blood.

"I don't know anything." You growl. "Are you even allowed to do this? Barge into my home without a warrant? I think you need to leave."

"We're just trying to get all our facts straight." Alejandro replies. You focus your glare on him.

"Go get your facts from someone else. Leave." To your surprise, they do. They turn and walk right back out your door and you slam it behind them.

A few hours later there's another knock on your door. Setting your nerves on fire. You're still unsettled by the impromptu visit from those men. You get up from your spot at the table and check out the peephole, expecting to see them again. It's Valeria who is darkening your doorstep this time. A stony look set upon her features. You debate not opening the door. You don't really want to see her much either. However, you know Valeria and she knows you. She won't be leaving until she gets what she wants. The door creaks open, deadbolt and chain unlocked.

"What do you want?" You surprise yourself with the hostility. You are rattled by the men and they were only here because of her. Therefore, in your mind, she's to blame for you being unhappy.

"We need to talk." She says. Pushing past you and entering your home uninvited. Seems to be the trend this evening.

You close the door and turn to her, feeling annoyed.

"I think everything that needed to be said was said a long time ago."

"It's not about that." She stands in the hall menacingly, backlit by a lamp. "You had visitors today. What did they want?"

"Oh so you're stalking me now?" You snap.

"What did they want?" She repeats sharply. "What did you tell them?"

"I didn't tell them anything. I don't know anything because you never fucking told me!" You feel angry. More than that. All Valeria did was hide things from you and stress you out. Now she's waltzing into your home like you owe her anything.

Valeria turns away, trying to reel in her temper.

"I was protecting you." She grits out. 

"Some good that did, huh?" You reply sardonically.

She glares at you. "Are you injured or in jail?" She scoffs. "No, I didn't think so."

"No but because of your actions I had five men force their way into my home and interrogate me about you, practically accusing me of working with you."

The room goes quiet.

"... I'm in the cartel." She says. You roll your eyes.

"Yeah, I guessed."

"No, I'm really in it. High ranking, powerful." Valeria says firmly. "While you were waiting up for me at home, I was killing people trafficking drugs."

A response dies on your tongue. In a way, you always knew. To hear her admit to it is both cathartic and devastating. "... Why are you telling me now?"

Valeria's frown softens into a more familiar look. "Because you deserve to know." She says. "Did they hurt you at all?"

"No." You reply. But you didn't exactly feel safe. "They were a little... intense. It upset me."

Valeria looks at you for a few moments then nods stiffly.

"Okay." Is all she says before she's gone again. Leaving a messy pile of conflicting feelings in her wake. You catch a whiff of her perfume as she passes by you, and it reminds you of late morning cuddled in bed. She's stuck to the same scent since you two met. Nine and a half years spent together and now you're strangers. Yet you know what her go to scent is, that she doesn't like lettuce, the exact shade of the pink she paints her nails, when she got her first tattoo. The story behind each and every scar. You shut the door, cutting her off from your view.

Alejandro steps outside for a quick smoke break. leaving behind the lights and the noise. As he lights his smoke he spots a figure, barely illuminated by the yellow lights spilling from the canteen. It starts walking towards him. The lack of a greeting unnerves him and he shifts his hand to rest on his holster.

"Nice night, eh?" He calls out. No response. The figure steps out of the dark and he stiffens at the sight of short dark hair and narrow features. He unholsters his pistol. What is she doing here?

She stops abruptly and looks at him. Distaste evident on her face.

"I'm all for playing your little cat and mouse game but leave my loved ones out of it."

He frowns at her. Sizing her up for any visible weapons. "This is about the visit we paid to your ex wife."

"You did more than visit." She replies dangerously. "Don't speak to her again. Don't bother her again. Don't even visualize her again. I will kill every single one of your men and women, and then I will go after their families."

"What are you-" 

Alejandro doesn't get to finish his sentence as the canteen behind him explodes. The sound bursting his eardrums and sending him flying forward.

Beneath the ringing he's able to recognize confused shouting and pained screaming. A hand grabs ahold of his hair and yanks. Pulling loose a few strands. Valeria stares at him with absolute hatred.

"Our word is our worth, cowboy," She whispers. "so take my word for it."

[hegoeshardasfuck]

shake it left, shake it right (fuck me through the night)

wordcount: 1K

tags: established relationship, mating cycles/in heat, hair pulling, biting, rough sex, porn with some plot

synopsis: Riff gets his shit fucking rocked

note: this one goes out to the Trolls fans, I see u, I hear u, heres some smut for the girlies with no Ao3 account. wrote this before i fully grasped the intensity of Floyd's queer-coding so uh, ignore the very starting paragraphs. if you enjoy consider dropping a like or checking the Ao3 port

https://archiveofourown.org/works/52567057

The last time Floyd slept with a guy was when he was nineteen. He sort of decided to swing straight away after that, going after women because they were dying at his feet whether he liked it or not. Why not make use of that knowledge, just to see where it would get him.

It got him surrendered to Velvet and Veneer by a group of K-pop Trolls that had him absolutely enraptured is where it got him. A kiss, some tantalizing words he did not understand, and he'd be willing to go anywhere they asked him too. And that was used against him, brought to Mount Rageous and used as a drug for talent.

He retreated to Rock the second he could, his home away from home. The one place he felt safe enough to shed his vest despite gnarled scars from varying origins. Where he could tell dumb horny jokes with an impossibly explicit vocabulary and get an uproar of laughter instead of offended gasps. Where he could just be, even with Pop origins he felt a lot better in Rock.

Apparently he felt safe enough to slip into heat, a cycle he was sure he couldn't attain anymore considering the whole 'life force drained' thing that happened. But he could, and he wakes up with this twist in stomach and he obeys the heat under his skin before he can think about it.

"Riff," It's this long, expectant, whiny sound clawing it's way out of Floyd's throat. He slings himself against the drummer who near instantly picks up the heady scent, it makes him shiver.

"Yeah?" Riff answered with.

"It's that time of the month, no ones around," He keeps his words on Riff's ear, hand wrapping around his boyfriends tail, it twitches and furls. He's purring, a deep rumble in his chest he hasn't been able to shut off all morning. This was inevitable, he decides, having sex with his boyfriend of many months. The heat spurred it on just a bit, but it's been on his mind for a very long while.

Riff gives this nervous sound, this almost nervous sound, "I got a show babe."

Floyd lurches back from Riff, "How long is it gonna take?"

"Not super long, the average length," Riff answered with, "And then, after the show, we can do it."

"You can swear you know," Floyd answered with, he had the audacity to cock a hand on his hip. The motion made Riff freeze, a short circuit in his brain, "Just say fuck, it's hot."

"You're hot," was all Riff could supply in response to the statement.

===

It's Riff whose bending over backwards for Floyd.

It's Riff whose begging and pleading due to whatever freaky mode the heat put Floyd into it.

It's Riff whose losing a semblance of sanity and control under his boyfriend even though he was sure it'd be reverse.

"Say it again, louder," Floyd prompted, hands tracing across Riff's front as he went, tactfully sliding away from wherever it would spark pleasure. Avoiding any and every where that he guessed would make Riff go insane, just for fun, to get a grasp on what he'll be working with.

There's heavy panting before Riff can even form a syllable, "Please," It's a choked sound followed by a euphoric note as Floyd scrapes over those soft expanses of flesh with dulled claws. The motion leaves a searing trail of pleasure behind even as the same hand wrenches into Riff's hair at the base and yanks. He jerks further back against his crazed boyfriend and he's still heaving his breaths, near writhing.

"Good boy," The words ghost against Riff's neck alongside teeth so sharp they have to be artificial (they aren't, they aren't, they aren't, and Riff fucking loves his boyfriends fangs). He partially sinks down, swiping pin prick fangs across flesh and reveling in the way Riff's breath hitches in time with the hand working him.

The adrenaline from the show has long since been replaced, something entirely different rushing through Riff. Initially, Floyd was running hot, an impossible amount of degrees hot for a Pop Punk Troll. Now Riff feels like every single inch of his body is on fire, sparks bursting under his skin and barely appeased by the touch that Floyd is offering him.

He's ravenous, he barely registers himself as such with those softly spoken words worming into his brain. They're sugary sweet, probably because Floyd is Pop Punk, they make his brain feel full of cotton candy. All stuffed up and turning a blank whenever he tries to bring himself to beg louder so Floyd will hurry the fuck up and give him everything.

This should be reversed, deep in the roots of Riff's desperation he knows it should be the other way. That Floyd should be the one bitching and moaning and begging and pleading, but it isn't. No, Floyd is just barely edging Riff closer, holding onto him like he's a lifeline, nails digging into flesh. It's oddly euphoric, to be nearly torn into but not quite, to be nearly bit but not quite, it just shoots him into an entirely different state.

"C'mon sweetheart," Floyd urges quietly, words a snarl against Riff's ear, "You can cum for me."

He does nothing to shift his ministrations, nothing to speed up or slow down. Nothing at all aside from a tightening grip in Riff's hair, and apparently that's all it takes with the words to jolt him over the edge. His body jerks but Floyd holds him perfectly still, fangs still tracing over the crux of his throat, resting at his pulse. He doesn't let go even with the slick dripping down to his thighs, his breathing is labored yet quiet, a soft susurrus sound.

"Holy," Riff pauses to catch his breath, his entire body is shaking more than he thought possible, "Holy fuck."

"Ready for round two?" Floyd asked, already tracing along Riff's inner thigh expectantly.

Riff swallows thickly, "Round two?"

"I'm gonna be jacked up for a long time, Riff," Floyd purred, tapping his nails a little further up his boyfriends thigh, "If you need to get some water go ahead, but we'll be right back at it the second you enter this room."

Riff shudders at the snarled promise because he knows Floyd will go through.

[bisexualshauna]

hey everyone!! so, originally, i wanted to do one of these back when all of y'all were posting your 'follow forever' + favorite blogs lists for new year's eve, but at that point in time i didn't feel like i knew anyone well enough to make a full list. but now, it's been almost nine months (holy shit!!!) since i joined this fandom, and there have been so many people that i've connected with and who have made my experience on here so much fun and so special.

plus...it's my birthday today, so i thought - what better way to celebrate it than to show my immense love & appreciation for all my mutuals, followers friends, and anyone who has ever made my tumblr experience better?

this isn't really in any particular order, and also, i am so so sorry if i forgot anyone. i had to type this out at least six times over the past two months because tumblr kept deleting my progress for some reason, so i'm really sorry if i missed anyone because of it. i recognize the urls of anyone that regularly interacts with my posts, so i promise that if you've ever left nice tags in the reblogs of my gifs or replied to any of my WIPS or tagged me in a gifset or in a tag game or sent me a nice ask or anything at all, really, please know that i think you're wonderful and i love you all so much even if tumblr hates me and decided to erase all of the evidence of it 😅

okay, enough dillydallying!! putting this under a cut so that it doesn't swallow ur dash whole....n here we go :)

@fireplceashes hi jen!! i know i said like. just one paragraph above that this was in no particular order, but i immediately broke the no. 1 rule of law and lied, bc as my very first friend in this fandom you are so undoubtedly so special to me and i'm putting you first just because i Can and no one can stop me. but anyway. where do i even begin with you? you are easily one of the sweetest people i have Ever, ever met - not just on tumblr, but in my real life as well - and i really love talking to you So much. thank you so much for always listening to my rants, and checking up on me, and just generally being there for me. you're just a really soothing person to talk to and i never have to worry about being 'too much' or anything like that when i'm talking to you. and of course - you are also so, so talented, and your gifs are absolutely stunning. they always turn out so beautifully, and i'm so in awe of your editing skills. basically...i'm just Very grateful to have met you, and *mike wheeler voice* all of my other mutuals, they're great, but my fandom experience would not be the same without you ❤️

@basiltonpitch spencer!! i feel the need to echo the first thing i said to you and remind you that i think you're a genius :') fun fact that i haven't told you: when i first found your blog, even before i realized that you were That person who wrote the benvi meta that i loved, the first posts that i saw from you were your beautiful web weavings, and i was immediately like Who is this person??? and Who gave them the permission to stomp all over my heart like this?? wtf?? i just. i love ur brain So so much and i'm so grateful that i get to enjoy your creativity in not one but two of my favorite fandoms (soon to be 3 with 911 maybe?) oh also...this is slightly embarrassing but i've gone back through your blog a few times just so i can read your incredible meta because all of your thoughts are so valuable to me. you are the Only person on this site that i trust to Get devi vishwakumar and one of the biggest reasons why i'm so excited for never have i ever s4 to drop is so that i can experience it alongside you!! and even outside of your creative genius, you are one of my favorite people to talk to bc you're so kind and so supportive and such an absolute sweetheart and i really love hearing everything you have to say. so. um. basically. i am just a Spencer Enthusiast through and through 💖

@padmedala carson!! hello!! first off, i've said this to you a million times, but i want to thank you once again for writing one of my favorite pieces of byler fanfiction. do you know that one post about reading fanfics and having to stop because 'he would not say that?' well, your work is the epitome of reading a fic and feeling wholly satisfied because yes, he would say that - in fact, i would not hesitate for a minute to say that you have the strongest grasp on will and mike's characterization - especially their dynamic together - out of any writer i've met in this entire fandom. like...i enjoy your writing so much that i've read a couple of your pieces for IT despite not having any knowledge of the source material simply because i wanted to experience more of your work. you're also such a deeply kind and supportive person, and you have no idea how much i appreciate every single time you've checked up on me or sent me a sweet message or even just dropped into my inbox to say hello. you make my dash infinitely brighter, and i'm so very glad to know you and have you as a friend on here 💞

@wllbyers dani!! hi!! i have so much to say abt how wonderful you are, and i was struggling w how to articulate this for a while, but then i remembered that you once said to me that you found my presence on the dash comforting, and honestly, that's exactly how i feel about you. forgive me for the awkward metaphor, but seeing you on the dash is like coming home after a long day and having a warm, home-cooked meal. seeing your url and icon always makes me smile, and i'm so grateful that we're mutuals because of how kind, considerate, and utterly genuine you are!! i don't know if i'm describing this right, but you just feel so real, you know? i feel like your personality shines through with every post you make, and i always love seeing it. and i'm sorry if this is weird to say, but your openness and your authenticity about everything going on in your life makes me feel a little bit less alone about my own struggles. also do you remember when you started watching 911 and eventually ended up getting ahead of me, and you tagged each and every one of your posts just so that i wouldn't get spoiled? i know it seems simple, but the sheer fact that you thought of doing that just for me had me melting into a little puddle w my face looking like that one meme of kristen bell. you are just so, so lovely and i'm unbelievably glad we're mutuals 🥰

@willblogger ima i've said this many times before but i absolutely Need to say it again: you are genuinely the funniest person on byler tumblr. i cannot count the number of times that you've made me full-on belly laugh (to the point where my stomach starts to hurt) and completely destroyed my attempts to casually and inconspicuously scroll through tumblr in public places. i dunno how you do it at all but every single thing you say is such an absolute delight and i am always giggling n kicking my feet when i read the tags on all of your posts. the thousands of people on tiktok and twitter copying your jokes could never do it like you. you've also got this deep understanding of the way the text has been written and i really appreciate how your analysis honors the characters as they are instead of trying to make them more palatable them for this fandom. it's just. it's rare to find people that love these characters as they are and understand them as well as you do and i feel very lucky to have found your blog. also this is not related at all but ur plushies are cute as fuck & i love them :) OH!! n thank u sm for being my number one stevebucky enthusiast mutual n partner in rage when it comes to avengers endgame!! can't wait to have a hate party w you (if you'd like) in five days 💗

@willelfanpage SARA HI HELLO do u see me waving at you. this is me holding up a banner screaming abt how much i love you. as the resident fandom cheerleader who gives and gives and gives so much love to everyone she interacts with, you deserve someone cheering YOU back on and that is what i am here to do!! you are so brilliant and you have never made an incorrect post in your life!!! all your fics are wonderful and i've loved reading them!! you are kind, you are smart, you are funny, and you make everyone around you feel so safe and comfortable and welcome here. like. i can't tell you how much i admire how open you are with your kindness and friendship and how you give it so freely to everyone you interact with. i love talking to you so much - whether it's hearing about your life or sharing our ideas with one another or just. venting about anything i want to - and your enthusiasm is utterly infectious and makes me feel more hyped and excited to be in fandom. forgive me for being so sappy on main but i will never not be touched by your endless love for fandom, not only these characters and the works that people make, but for the people around you as well and i hope u know i love u very much too 💞

@jackietaylcrs hii marianne fellow haver of good taste!! i remember you once made a post wondering if your followers would still love you if your stranger posting went down to 0.5% and i wanted to lyk that i definitely would!! i really like reading your commentary on ST and yellowjackets, but even when you're posting about a show that i'm not familiar with, you have this Way of speaking that i find very charming and funny and entertaining, and you bring this inimitable energy to my dash that i doubt i could ever find elsewhere. i like the way you sign off your posts with 'and like i say: brf slt.' i think it’s Neat n it fits you very well. alsooo THANK YOU very very much for being the one to convince me to watch yellowjackets!! people have been telling me to watch it for a long time but in the end it was your posts that made me say, fuck it, and finally watch it. also. um. ur posts abt stephen harrison make me feel very Seen so. thank u. ok bye 💗

@emblazons hello marie my beloved mutual marie!! honestly, out of everything in this post, this message was the hardest to write because i don't even know where to begin with you!! you bring so, so much to this fandom - your thoughtful, entertaining, levelheaded commentary, your stunning gifsets, your logical and witty posts, your incredibly supportive and kind personality, and your endless passion for this show and all that goes into making it, as well as our shared love & enthusiasm for noah schnapp 😅 every time i think you've made the most brilliant observation or put out the most beautiful set, you go and top yourself by finding something new or making an even prettier gifset. if i had to pick one person whose contributions to the fandom enriched my experience of this show? more than anyone, it would be you!! and i could go on and wax poetic about your talent forever (as i have on many, many occasions bc you deserve it 🥰), but i'm gonna end it here by saying that you are a gift to this fandom and one of my absolute favorite people on here, and that i'm beyond grateful to know you.

@mikeandwillel sandy!!!! you are so so smart and your analysis is absolutely incredible. i look forward to each and every one of your analyses because you always find the most clever parallels and your deep dives into each of these characters' arcs are always written with so much care and skill. and of course, i forever have you to thank for writing The ultimate masterpiece (your s4 painting arc analysis) that finally convinced me of byler endgame and thus made my fandom experience so much more relaxing and fun. i also really love & how much you love mike for all that he is -- i feel like it's a little rare in this fandom, so seeing how much you adore his true character and how you Understand him better than anyone else i've ever met makes me really happy. and not to mention, i have no idea how you managed to get so good at gifmaking in such a short amount of time but all your sets are so beautiful!! you're a gem fr 💖

@babygirl-jonathanbyers abbyyyyyy hello!! do you know how much i love seeing you on my dash? i love your pure, unapologetic love for jonathan, jancy, and the byers brothers and it really makes my whole day when i see a post from you appreciating those characters/ships. your moodboards are also So pretty and your presence on my dash is so positive and welcoming. i hope you're doing well on your hiatus rn and i can't wait to see you back on here again 🫂

@elmaxed lumiiiii hi!!!! when i think of you, honestly, the very first word that comes to mind is creative, because you bring so much to this fandom and i'm so grateful for it. i'm obsessed with everything you write because your fics are so lively and fun and make me smile uncontrollably every time i read them, all your headcanons are brilliant and adorable, your moodboards are gorgeous and not to mention, your themes are always so beautiful!! you're just...such a ray of sunshine on my dash and i'm so happy to have followed you 🥰

@mlchaelwheeler sarahhhhh my favorite stonathan pioneer and one of my first mutuals in this fandom!! i think you already know this but your analyses were a huge part of what got me into the byler fandom in the first place and i have never looked back, so thank you for that!! i Love love love ur theories (especially the s5 spec stuff) and i love seeing u in my notifs and reading your lovely and enthusiastic tags on everything you reblog and i love your love for st's OST!! you're a really smart, sweet, and positive person with the best opinions and i am forever rooting for mike to get a sword in s5 just for you 🙏🏼

@bylrndgm dearest elz you have no idea how happy your blog makes me 🥹 you're one of the most talented gifmakers i've ever met, and i always find myself smiling so much whenever i see you've posted something new (especially your byler x TS edits 🥰) because they're always so beautiful!! i've also always felt like your blog and everything you've posted is one of the purest and most expressions of love for mike and will....it's so clear that you love them So much and your blog makes me so happy to be part of this community. you've also always been so sweet to me throughout my entire time in this fandom and you're one of the people that has made me feel most welcome here. also since i never ended up responding to your DM i wanted to say that whatever path you choose, i'm sure that you're going to crush it and i am rooting for your success always 💖

@madcleradin sierra madcleradin byhops finalgirlbyers willcoded!! ok i promise i don't mean this in a weird parasocial way but i kind of admired you from a distance for a while even before we were mutuals just because every single one of your posts that ended up on my dash had me nodding my head and tapping my brain in agreement and clapping for u like this 👏🏼 all of your takes are top tier and i love how passionate you are about everything you talk about!! you're def one of the sweetest, friendliest, and coolest people on byler tumblr and following u has been such a gift ❣

@byclairs hello emily!! your gifs are absolutely stunning and i love following you because i Know i can always count on you to have the most based takes, both on stranger things (especially ur will takes - those keep me sane fr) and on fandom as a whole. also just wanna say that you have the best taste in ships and that you've got a 10/10 banger of a url that always has me mentally giving you a thumbs up whenever i see you on the dash ❤️

@heroesbyler stav!! you're one of the most brilliant analysts on this site and i'm so in awe of all of the incredible theories and analyses you've posted!! i'm obsessed w all of your banger gay mike posts & i'm also both fascinated and disturbed by all of the dots you've connected regarding brenner, henry, & the lab. your posts are so insightful and compelling and you've made me think about so many things that i never would've noticed on first glance. i also love that you're both unflinchingly confident but also insanely kind - a rarity in most fandoms, especially this one, and i love that energy on my dash. i'm very proud to be your grandma (your words not mine -- no i will not let you forget about that 🙏🏼)

@mandycantdecide hiiiii amanda!! i love your blog so much, and even though we don't share all of the same fandoms i love seeing your posts about everything you're interested in because i can always feel your energy and enthusiasm for it no matter what :) in fact, it was actually your posts that made me want to get back into 911, and you have no idea how grateful i am to you for that because being in that fandom is the most fun i've had in a really long time. so thank you, thank you thank you for that, and for generally being so sweet 💕

@howtobecomeadragon ayla!! hello!! i know we don't know each other super well but i Really wanted to let you know how much i appreciate your posts and all of your contributions to this fandom. you were one of my first favorite blogs when i first joined in august and you have no idea how thrilled i was when you followed me back haha 😅 i looooove your theory posts so much and i think your fics are fantastic (and i am Eagerly awaiting the end of come back to me and forgive everything so i can read it). you're also super sweet and kind to everyone around you, and i love seeing you on my dash 💞

@mrperfectlyfinetv hi jake!! as my designated Swiftie Mutual i feel like i should let you know that i don't usually follow taylor swift blogs bc swifties are scary but your gifs are so gorgeous and your takes are so good that i just Had to break my rule and follow you anyway. i really enjoy reading all of your opinions on miss swift even if you are a rep hater asdkjendfcskjflejrf and i adore all of your pretty ST and taylor swift gifsets!! i also love how much you love speak now and you've definitely made me go back and give it a few more listens so that i can appreciate it more & at this point i'm begging taylor to release speak now tv soon just for you 🫶

@magentamee - hi bre :) your art style is absolutely delicious and your writing is so cute and i've always noticed how committed you are to uplifting everyone around you in this fandom. also this is random but your friendship with amanda and @/likegoldintheair is so cute and whenever you guys post about each other i always find myself smiling at how sweet your interactions are. you’re just a person who always brings a smile to my face when i see you on the dash and i want to thank you for that 💗

@paintingformike hi!! i've said this before but i really do think you've always been The strongest soldier in the byler fandom (like, ngl your posts were Carrying byler tumblr for a while there while everyone was still in their debating-over-s5-canon phase). you've always been so levelheaded and astute with your observations, and i've always admired and respected how your posts make it seem so simple and So clear how all of the overarching themes of the show are leading to byler endgame. you've got an incredible way with words and i'm so glad to have you in our fandom 💞

-

and now for the creatives in this fandom - some incredible gifmakers whose beautiful sets have been the highlight of my dash, some wonderful writers who have ripped my heart out over and over again only to stitch it back together seamlessly just one paragraph later, and brilliant fan artists who are able to capture so much and make me feel the entire spectrum of human emotion with just a few brush strokes:

@sharpesjoy - em!! you're an absolute sweetheart and such a joy to see on my dash. all of your gifs are so gorgeous and so clearly infused with all of the love that you have for everything you watch and i've added several shows to my watchlist because your gifs have made me want to watch them so badly 💞

@heroeddiemunson - kai!! your creations are so beautiful and you have this unique gifmaking style that i'm totally obsessed with!! your colorings and typography are always so pretty and i Love how special and creative your sets are, especially the D&D character sheets. like.....i have no idea how u come up w all these incredible ideas but i'm so very glad u do bc my dash is better for it❣️

@kaliprasad - hi!! your blog is amazing and i'm so glad that i found it bc all your gifs are fantastic and i love them So much. i think your talent is insane tbh, that byers brothers set that you made for me a little while ago is still one of my favorite things i've seen on this whole site, and i love that you love them just as much as i do 🫂

@kingofscoops - no one, and i mean no one, does coloring like you!! all of your sets are so vibrant and bring so much life to my dash & i think the ST fandom is very lucky to have you ❤️

@aliecenthightower - emilia!! your gifs are stunning and i'm completely in love with your song lyric edits. they're all absolutely beautiful and i'm in awe of how perfect and emblematic the lyrics you choose are, like you just Get these characters, y'know?

@mayahawkins - MADDYYYYYYY you are So talented, and believe me when i say that your gifs have been the Biggest inspiration for my own gifmaking journey. all your sets are so pretty & i love everything you make - including your playlists which live rent free in my mind!! but as a reminder i also love following your blog for You and not just your gifs :) you're an incredibly sweet person and ur presence on my dash is utterly invaluable 💗

@padme-amidala - hi erika!! okay, calling you a gifmaker almost feels wrong because that word doesn't feel like enough to encompass how beautiful your work is...all ur ideas are So amazing and you have such a natural eye for color and detail!! it is so clear that you pour so much love into all of your creations, and if i'm being honest, one of the reasons why i am so grateful to be a byler shipper is so that i can appreciate your craft to the fullest. and you're also Such a genuinely kind person that i always look forward to seeing on the dash!! thank you for being so lovely!!

@wiseatom - hi thea!! your writing is the ultimate definition of comfort. when i read ur work, no matter what i'm doing physically, mentally i am in my cozy bed with the fireplace crackling in the corner, surrounded by twinkly lights and warm blankets, sipping hot cocoa bc that is the kind of emotion ur writing invokes ✨

@byeler - irene!! your fics were my introduction to the world of byler fics and i admire you and your writing so very much 💞 i don't know how it's possible for one person to have this much skill and talent, but you do, and i'm so grateful that you've chosen to share it with us. eagerly waiting on a new heavy hopes chapter was one of the highlights of my fandom experience and that fic is a piece of writing that i will always come back to over and over again 🫶

@astrobei - suni i have been reading fics for over a decade now and i have still never encountered a writer that does emotion quite like you do, devastating me with every single fic you put out. i promise i mean this in the best way possible but you're So damn good at capturing all of that heartbreak and pain and inflicting the same agony on your readers, and it would have killed me by now if not for the fact that you're equally good at writing the sweetest fluff that has me melting into a puddle whenever i read 🫂

@hopelessromanfic - lyssaaaa!!! i've been Such a huge fan of landslide ever since you started writing it - it's one of my all time favorite fics in the fandom and i'm obsessed with the storyline and your characterization in all of your fics 😍

@artistaquinterob - hi!! your art style is so ADORABLE and your use of color in your work is stunning and i just adore everything you draw, especially your will and el art and your jargyle art 🥹

@junkoandthediamonds - your character studies are beautiful and i'm obsessed with your byler comics, your gifs and your ST x DC crossovers!!! i love your realistic style so So much and if i worked for the duffers i would 1000000% hire you to draw the official comics because i can't get enough of your work 🥰

@livsmessydoodles - fun fact: last year, when HSMTMTS s3 was airing, i remember seeing your rina art throughout the season and immediately fell in love with your style and your interpretation of the characters, and the same exact thing happened when i saw your ST work, and it wasn't until you followed me that i put the pieces together and realized that you were the same person 😅 your style is So gorgeous and your art just makes me so happy, and trust me when i say that i am mentally wallpapering all of your work to the inside of my brain so i can look at it forever❣️

and of course, a very special shoutout to all of the people that i don't know too well but are still such a comfort to have on tumblr: @miwism @yearninginblue @kittykat940 @robinsnance @jesper-faheyss @bylersheart @usergabby @achingly-shy @wheelersboy @wontbyers @stbyers @will80sbyers @watpoetry @frodohaven 💝

+ to all my other mutuals: tumblr wouldn't let me link your profiles because of some ridiculous limit, but please know that i see all of you and i am hugging you through my screen rn. thank you!! 👍🏼

[spookier11]

(I was originally reblogging from this post here , but I got so off topic I feel it would be disrespectful to not just make it its own post. so i made it its own post!)

#just wrote a whole infofump about pigeons in the tags and didnt send it. be proud of me#<- no prev why would you say that#give me the infodump i beg#please??? pretty please????? (tags from @evedaser) (prev tags are mine)

OK!!!111!!! YAY! i reformatted to a normal paragraph for ease of reading ^_^ (and i may have... added some more)

I love this so much omg, I've never thought about pigeons as ace or ace icons b4.... im thinking too hard about it rn BUT pigeons have really interesting mating habits. they are like,,, the bunnies of the bird world. bc most birds lay one or two clutches of eggs a year, and that number varies depending on species. so, a bluejay only lays once a year, and they lay 2-7 eggs. so thats 2-7 new bluejays a year! robins are a bit of an outlier & lay up to five times times a year! they lay 3-5 eggs, so two robins could have TWENTY FIVE baby birds in a single year. (this is really rare, of course.) bald eagles lay once a year, and almost always lay exactly two eggs. so, two eagle babies per year. how often a bird lays and the amount of eggs correlates to a birds place on the food chain- a bald eagle, with few natural predators, only needs to lay once a year to keep up their population. because bald eagles are so BIG i'd imagine it would be super bad for them to have more than that but i dont know for certain if thats a defining reason... bluejays are much smaller so they CAN feasibly lay more than two eggs, but bluejays are also BEASTS! who can fend for themselves very well! so they only lay once a year, but they lay more than two, and that keeps the bluejay population thriving. robins have it rough, so they lay far more frequently- the robin eggs/chicks commonly get eaten by larger birds or animals and, unlike the bluejay or eagle, they aren't able to put up a fight. to make up for this, they just lay more, so some are destined to live! but PIGEONS genuinely lay year round. different places say different things, but from my understanding and experience pigeons lay eggs just a little over monthly! pigeons, like eagles, lay two eggs at a time (& can very rarely lay 3) so a healthy, captive pigeon could have TWENTY! baby pigeons in a year. twenty is waaay over the average though,, a normal city pigeon hatches 8-12 birds a year! which is still impressive!! pigeons are NOT equipped to survive in the wild, at all. they are domestic birds!! so it makes sense that they lay so often- its how the species stays alive! what i DONT understand and think is really interesting is why do they only lay 2 eggs at a time?? and actually i stopped yapping about this for a bit and tried rlly hard to find an answer,,, and sadly the best one i found was 'lots of variables go into what sized clutch a bird lays,' which like I KNOW.... but N E WAYS! basically pigeons have the unique laying habit of laying two birds at a time, year round, rather than having a large clutch all at once or only laying once per year!! they PROBABLY only lay two eggs at a time 4 the same reason eagles do - they physically cant lay more than that at a time and keep in good health - but don't quote me on that guys i dont know thats just my hypothesis im just some guy. of course, like robins, lots of pigeon babies (squabs) dont make it. however,, they are are way more likely to die from malnutrition or parental neglect then being a snack for a bigger bird. i just think pigeons are neat! and its cool how they nest year round!! wow i really got off topic! oops!! asexual pigeons real actually,,,,

i just think birds are so cool u guys i cant not talk about them!! also i spent way too long writing this out to really just keep it in my notes app somewhere...

[vera-king-hrfl]

For the writer ask game! And thank you for the tag on that post also! How about... ❤️🦋 and 💭

Writer ask game.

Thank you for the questions, @graysparrowao3

The first one took me a while to think about. I write in a more narrative style, paying more attention to story than language. I also explore a lot in the characters' heads, what their thoughs and feelings might be (sorry Mr. Palahniuk, that's how I roll.) But there are a few bits I'm kinda proud of.

❤️. What is your favorite line you've written in a fic?

I wrote an avant-garde ballet performance for Heat of the Night, starring a luna moth and a spider. Things go as you'd expect, and this is how my OC Ryldinn describes how he understands the meaning. It's a paragraph and not a line but I like it. 😁

“Yes. I thought that it was sad at first as well. But a luna moth has no mouth. Her only purpose in life is to find a love that she cannot declare, cannot ask for. She can only entice, and accept. And then she must die. That form only exists so she can be fertilized. Beauty for a singular purpose. She lives one glorious week in worship of the moonlight, lays her eggs, and then departs. I merely brought her to that freedom more quickly.”

🦋. Which character is your favorite to write?

My favorite OC to write is Ryldinn. If any of you know how he is in the first story I wrote about him; Where Our Demons Hide, you'll understand. He's absolutely nuts and he doesn't speak Common very well so his dialog in that is really fun to write. Plus, everyone likes a sexy assassin. 😉

For bg3 characters, it's a tie between Cal and Zevlor. They are so completely different. Cal is kind, shy, friendly and sweet, and speaks in a very informal manner. Zevlor is the opposite. He's a wonderful man, obviously, but he's much more serious, dripping with angst, and his language is chivalric and almost archaic the way I write him.

💭. What inspires you and your writing?

Well, the obvious answer is @crowwolf

My bestie, who I met right here in this bizarre place, has been a massive inspiration and has given me so many ideas and so much encouragement. I don't think I could have done it without you, babe!

Also the ongoing Northern Bastards series by @graysparrowao3 . We've both been known to write a bit of M/M on occasion and the relationship between Rugan and Aradin is one of the most interesting I've read. I think my favorite part of the whole series is when they're doing the deed and Rugan says a lot of really nice things to Aradin... and then takes it all back. That was a total unexpected kick in the gut (for me and poor Aradin) and I loved it.

Other than that I try to follow the examples of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and write the stories I want to read.

[jeork]

TC Tag Game

As always I’m excessively late to the party, but thanks @renaultphile for the tag!

1. "He would not fucking say that" only they did and it's canon. When/who?

I don’t have a copy of the book at hand right now, but while Laurie is visiting home for the wedding he goes on a walk and recites this weird incest-y song to himself, then contemplates how it always felt relatable to him. I’m not saying he would not fucking say that, because obviously he does and I hear him quite clearly. But I am saying maybe he should not have fucking said that. 

Also Ralph calling Bunny “Boo”. I don’t care how drunk he was, you don’t randomly slip out with a word you wouldn’t otherwise use. It’s part of his vocabulary. This one had me in contemplation for months, like, would he ever call Laurie that? Does this count towards the bad habits and lifestyle choices he wants to abandon while being with Laurie? Whole scene’s just embarrassing af 

2. Did they kiss in the study? Yes/no + why you are 100% correct about this.

I think they probably did, but that it was very chaste. I’m convinced the kiss between Laurie and Andrew is supposed to mirror it almost exactly. The way I see it, Laurie didn’t fully process it and therefore just stood there. From the flashback he got later on while holding onto Ralph’s sleeve while they’re in Ralph's room I think Laurie might’ve grabbed onto Ralph’s arm a little. But other than that I don’t think he did much, which made Ralph decide he wasn’t ready yet.

3. Mandatory question about Ralph's alleged tattoos.

I wasn’t aware this is something people discuss lmao, I’ve only thought about it once myself. Gonna be a party pooper and say he has none, as it's "improper"

4. 53 vs 59 edition: quote a line or paragraph that is better in the edition you like the least.

I feel like me and @renaultphile are the only ‘59 truthers. I think I once even wrote an entire post just on why I like that Mary cut the knee-touch?

Again, don’t have any book copies at hand right now, but I remember one small detail in the ‘53 I really loved. During Alec’s birthday party while he’s blowing out the candles everyone is looking at him, and for a moment there’s this shared feeling of hopefulness. In the ‘53 Laurie feels someone’s eyes on him, but by the time he turns around Ralph has already stopped looking. Something about Ralph glancing at Laurie in this moment, who’s presence represents so much to Ralph, makes me ache. 

5. Which TC character would feel right at home here on tumblr dot com?

I guess the obvious answers would be something like Hazell, Sandy or Bunny, but I feel like Andrew would run the most terrifically angsty aesthetic account. Also young Laurie, he'd probably write bad poetry or something

6. Tag yourself at Alec's birthday party.

The two guys holding hands in dead silence, not because I can relate, but because they really set the scene. Or the petty shit-stirrer who snitches on Ralph having a boyfriend. Or the other petty shit-stirrer who cries "Here comes Bim"

7. Post a TC meme.

I used to run a TC meme account over on Twitter. I’ve planned on reposting all of that stuff on here sometime, in the meantime here’s one: 

8. Easy to talk about who deserved better. Who deserved worse?

Dave. The Mature Wholesome Elder act he’s putting on at the end is pissing me off. Self-serving cu- 

Also, following the heavy implications that Alec had been snuggling it up with Bunny for quite a while, I think he got off pretty scot free 

9. You can break the fourth wall (at any point in the novel) and say a single sentence to our protagonist, Laurie Odell. What do you say?

I really wanted him to stay friends with Reg. I always felt like Madge’s Aunt Vera joke was pretty funny and well intended, albeit improper and terribly timed. It didn’t come off to me as her making fun of him for being gay. More like her trying to awkwardly bond over it, similar to Reg during The Bathroom Talk™. If Laurie hadn’t been so emotionally rattled at that time I feel like he would’ve played it off. It was such bad timing for him. So I wanna scream at him “Chill out, they’re clearly not out to get you!” 

10. What's a question you have about TC? One you haven't found an answer for yet.

I think there still might be a couple minor details, but I can’t remember them right now. The only bigger piece of dialogue that’s still a little intransparent to me is Ralph’s whole speech at the beginning of their post-wedding trip argument. I have my theories about it, but would also enjoy to hear more. 

Considering I’m over a month late and have no clue who did this tag already I’ll open it up to whoever might still wanna do it. 

[itshype]

Ao3 WIP Tag Game!

I was tagged by @nonamemanga a while ago but I didn't have time to do this until now! Thank you for thinking of me!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? Thirty Eight! (37 on my account and 1 that is currently anonymous!)

2. What's your AO3 word count? 170,914 (oooh!)

3. What fandoms do you write for? Netflix's Wednesday (2022), DC Comics (Mostly Batman), Danny Phantom. Other fandoms I have written for but I wouldn't consider myself as currently writing for are; Disney's Descendants first film, Teen Wolf, Fantastic Beasts and where to find them the first film and Netflix's The Witcher. If we're counting my long-abandoned fanfiction account I have also written Dr Who fic, I think maybe a Sherlock one and Without a Trace (2002-2009)

4. What are your Top 5 Fics by Kudos?

In ascending order:

5) Hang On, I Still Need You (Descendants)

4) The Captivating Case of Percy’s Imaginary Date (Fantastic Beasts)

3) Bad Boys, not Bad News (Teen Wolf)

2) Espy Me, While I Watch You (Teen Wolf)

1) a language they cannot understand (Teen Wolf)

5. Do you respond to comments? If I can think of something to say! I can't always though unfortunately.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I generally write the most unrepentant fluff so I think Once Bitten, Never Shy? But I still wouldn't classify that as angst.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Again, most of them are pretty happy! I'm not going to reread 38 fics to check but the overall fluffiest, happiest AU I've written that comes to mind is The Only Garden My Heart Will Ever Grow In.

8. Do you get hate on fics? I don't think I've gotten hate in my comments but I did get an unkind comment on Tumblr fairly recently saying I needed to get a lot more feedback before publishing (I do have betas) - amongst other less friendly suggestions.

9. Do you write smut? No sorry. When reading fics I'll be like "Hmm this unsafe-kink, publicly-set, PWP is a little too vanilla." But when writing I'm like, "They kiss...with the tongue....I guess."

10. Do you write cross-overs? Yep! A bunch! I haven't always loved crossovers but over the last few years I've really come to enjoy them. On my account is a few DC x DP fics (Danny Phantom and DC Comics) and one, very poorly written Batman and The Witcher I never want to think about again.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated? Niet.

12. Have you ever cowritten a fic before? Yes! Not all of them are published and I don't think I currently have a cowritten fic on my ao3 account but yes, as a process. I enjoy it but also find it challenging to blend writing approaches and deal with time zones.

13. What is a WIP you would like to finish but doubt you ever will? All my fics are completed. However I just begun a new AU (Wyler) that's VERY ambitious so we'll see how that goes.

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship? Malec. Have I ever written a Malec fic? No. Will I? Probably not. The fandom is low key intimidating. But in my heart I have so many AUs.

15. What are you writing strengths? I think my comedy and worldbuilding?? Maybe? I'd feel more confident if a reader of mine weighed in on this.

16. What are your writing weaknesses? Length. It took me almost the whole year to get to the end of A Standing Reservation in the Eye of the Storm. I'll never be one of those people who can smash out 30k in a few days.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I'm not 1000% sure what this question refers to. I think it's important to check that any real-world language is written correctly. But with real-world languages AND conlangs, ensuring readability is so important. My preference is probably the sentence in English with the dialogue tags something like "he said in flawless Mando'a" but an immediate translation in parentheses at the end of the paragraph (hover text is good but doesn't work on mobile) is decent OR have the in-text reply make the dialogue fully evident:

"3456 234567 2345?"

"Oh, I love this song too, I'd love to dance with you!"

Encoded footnotes are alright, and my detested option is full separated out glossaries that give the meaning of each word used for me to string into correct order for each sentence. A headache.

18. First fandom you wrote for? Can't be sure...I think I was involved in a Five Find-Outers and Dog fanfic (not that I used that word) as a child that never made it near a computer, let alone the internet.

19. Favourite fic you’ve ever written? OH easily A million years ago, last night & at the end of all things (also known as AMYAL). The words flowed and I loved every moment. However, I did also love writing Espy Me, While I Watch You back in 2017. I wish the third story in the AMYAL verse came 1/3rd as easy.

20. What fic would you want to rewrite one day? None! Often after a fic is fully published I never think about it aga...That's all a total lie and I feel sad DAILY over the complete hash I made of Pry This Home From My Cold, Dead Mountain because I loved my au so much and I failed to show anyone why. It was just NOT good.

Tagging: @suchaladyy, @cosmic-lullaby, @katwitchwriting, & @writerrose1998 + @ohnomybreadsticks (If you'd like to be tagged please lmk and I'll add you ASAP!)

[chickwiththepurpleguitar]

Writer Asks!

Tagged by @stellarspecter! thanks for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

153! 142 of those are JatP, and I'm working on one that would be a really cool number 150... so maybe I gotta write 7 short ones first...

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

651,798. Since 2021. Yes I have a problem.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Julie and the Phantoms and The Bright Sessions almost exclusively at this point, but I also have Percy Jackson and Supernatural fics on Ao3. Back in the day, I wrote a ton of PJO on fanfiction.net and then a handful of fics in like 8 other fandoms.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

far from hurt is where healing occurs -- JatP, Rayvor Reconciliation, 276 kudos

a crack in the ceiling (trace it back to my heart) -- JatP, juke sickfic, 237 kudos

i was fine until it was time to feel -- JatP, alex sickfic, 230 kudos

as long as i am here (no one can hurt you) -- JatP, reggie sickfic (anyone seeing a trend here?), cowrite with someone iii no longer speak toooo, 203 kudos

say what you want (but it's hard when you're young)-- JatP, other alex sickfic, 187 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! Often several months after I received them, but I always catch up eventually!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

My latest! In which I give Mark Bryant a Better Life and Different Trauma!

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

My JatP Big Bang fic from last year! A lot of shit happens before we get to the happy part but it actually does end really nicely for everyone :)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I feel like I did... once... I do not remember what it was for or about and i'm pretty sure I deleted the comment. which is probably good in the long run that it happens rarely enough that i forget the details.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I occasionally write smut. I do not consider myself good at it. So I often don't post any. Closest I've got is the above linked mark bryant's different trauma fic and its like. five paragraphs in one scene.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I do! Haven't posted a ton, I don't think I have any on ao3, and a lot of what I call a crossover in my head and google docs is just a fandom crossed with ocs @joyandthephantoms and I made up and like to put places.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, and thank god, I think that would destroy me.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but that would be really cool if anyone ever wants to!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! Quite a few. Gonna shout out time travel with @a-tomb-with-a-view and toxic besties with @weneedglitter

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

this is an impossible question to answer. Whichever one i'm currently thinking about at any given moment :)

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

this is a trick question. there are WIPs i want to finish and i probably will because i'm stubborn, and there are WIPs i doubt i will finish but mostly because i don't want to.

16. What are your writing strengths?

dialogue, character, Concepts and Images

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

description, exposition, action, setting. basically all the things you don't need in good fanfic which is why i like writing fanfic :)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

fine if the translation is really obvious from context, fine if in small doses where it wouldn't be suuuper annoying to google the translation. whole conversations i will inevitably skip, although i did read a really cool Captain America fic once where there was some German dialogue and on ao3 the paragraphs were hyperlinked so that you hovered over them and saw the translation.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Percy Jackson! my fanfiction.net accounts are still up, but don't look at them, they're not good /lh.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

not sure there's an easy answer to this! sometimes i write things just to write them and post them just to get them out of my google docs, and sometimes i write things cause the idea won't let me go, and i post them cause i'm really proud and want some validation from strangers (and friends!) on the internet. my favorite one is whichever one I'm most proud of in the moment, which is usually the one I just finished, but even the ones I feel don't hold up as well or that i could've written better, i'm still really proud of, cause i made a hat! This was fun! i haven't been active on this account for a while, but i liked getting back into the swing of things, so if anyone still looks at this blog and actually read this, feel free to send me an ask with more questions/comments about my fics! i always like talking about them :)

no-pressure tagging: @joyandthephantoms

[abovetherainandroses]

🪲🏜️🌻 for the asks!

🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here

storm: I always have multiple wips going on and I'm kinda writing a lot of mcr right now (sorry i still feel like i'm cheating on peterick lmfao) BUUUT here is a peterick wip I just added some words to! I can't believe this ask game is making me just put unedited words out there but here ya go

There was a moment when Patrick wondered if time and distance had made strangers of him and Pete. The truth is more complicated. Reading Pete’s lyrics now, it still feels uncomfortably like looking into his soul. It still resonates in a way that he can only explain through music, but it’s like there’s something missing, almost. And then it hits him: whatever these words are about, Patrick wasn’t there for it. And for some reason, that makes him angry at himself.

sprout: hey i actually just started working on a peterick fic! it is, essentially, a place for me to dump my 2ourdust feelings. here's some new words i just wrote:

Just like that, Patrick’s caught in Pete’s pull again. This whole tour has been an exercise in meeting Pete’s whims—it was his idea, after all, for Patrick to have his own little section of the setlist. It was his idea to stop and talk to one another while the piano gets set up, to take a moment to just crack a dumb joke, or talk about the weather, or, sometimes, check in and reassure each other that they’re still here, after everything. Maybe Pete’s been pulling him, bit by bit, to stand in the light together.

🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

storm: I greatly appreciate all comments, but I admit I extra love comments that go all unhinged capslock scream-y, and also any comments that talk about my writing itself and not just the content of the story (e.g., complimenting my writing style 🥺)

sprout: all comments are wonderful ofc 💗 i'm especially touched when people point out specific lines or moments in the fic, particularly ones that i didn't expect anyone to notice!

🌻 ⇢ tag someone you appreciate but don't talk to on a regular basis

storm here answering for both of us:

@27-royal-teas - you are always super nice in the tags of sprout's art and my fob fics, and thank you for tagging us in that get-to-know meme before! i know we don't talk like at all, but you're so sweet <3

@starrynyxa - we also don't talk at all but WE BOTH LOVE YOUR ART, it is so cute, puppy pete forever, and it was so nice getting to meet you briefly at 2 shows! <3

[jaggededges123]

Writing Patterns

Rules: List the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there’s a pattern! Tagged by @ripeteeth, thank you teeth! <333 i do so love tag games 🥰

(i'm gonna only count fics that i wrote and posted directly to ao3, otherwise half of it would be archived tumblr fic and i don't wanna do that so i won't XD <3)

1. “Your eyes are different.” [my eye is wasted from grief (my soul and my body also), TLT, Colum Asht & Silas Octakiseron. given what this fic is, i think it sets up right from the start the lingering sense of grief and silas's general attention to detail both. i'm satisfied. it's punchy imo, if you have the context from canon.]

2. “When you asked Colum the Eighth to hang out with you, in a low husky voice and obviously implying that you’d let him bend you like a pretzel, you didn’t think it would be like… this.” [Naberius Tern: Incest Magnet, TLT, Colum Asht/Naberius Tern/Silas Octakiseron. i do think this one sets the tone quite well, right from the get go it reads very much to me like: hey. we are now entering babs's head. i feel like it's got a smidge of humor in it too, so i'm very happy with it.]

3. “You do not always wear a headband to sleep in.” [The Incorruptible Crown, TLT, Colum Asht/Silas Octakiseron. i guess the most i can say for this one is that it tells you right at the start that the star player of this fic is The Headband™️.]

4. “Silas Octakiseron was in a small room, in a small outpost, on a small moon orbiting their planet.” [it does not rejoice at wrongdoing (but rejoices with the truth), TLT, Colum Asht/Silas Octakiseron. i love the repetition ngl, repetition is a favorite of mine to the point where i probably overuse it. idk what else to say about it, i feel like the next line is a lot more, so to speak, but that one doesn't work without this one. that is pretty common with my opening lines i feel like, that they set up a much punchier and/or more beautiful sentiment a little further on in the same paragraph or the next one, which is almost a little bit of a shame, i think.]

5. “Silas Octakiseron was entering his fifth heat ever, and that heralded exquisite agony for Colum Asht.” [by day the heat consumed me (and the frost by night), TLT, Colum Asht/Silas Octakiseron. i like this one quite a lot, it very efficiently sets things up imo, including the emotional tone for the fic.]

6. “Silas Octakiseron can taste the sin on Capris Asht’s lips.” [Immorality, TLT, Capris Asht/Colum Asht/Ram Asht/Silas Octakiseron. i feel like this one is a bit different in that it starts right in the middle of it both in the sense of like, the act, but also the relationship. i like how this opener conveys that silas still is like. morally opposed to this, but also that he's doing it anyway which says a lot about the fic as a whole. it's v lovely to me tbh, i like this one a lot.]

7. “In the first month of the myriadic year of our Lord, Silas Octakiseron approached Colum Asht after the day’s duties had been performed.” [make no provision for the flesh, TLT, Colum Asht/Silas Octakiseron. i like the implication right off the bat that this is unusual, or it would not be remarked upon. idk, it's a sturdy sort of opener. very serviceable.]

8. “It was happening again.” [the bed undefiled, TLT, Colum Asht/Silas Octakiseron. i'm getting a vague sense of unease and dread with perhaps a splash of annoyance, which is a great place to start this fic imo.]

9. “Colum Asht had never told Silas Octikiseron no before, let alone in the presence of others.” [The Third Sin, TLT, Colum Asht/Silas Octakiseron. tbh i almost wish i could redo this one, i wish i has given a bit more context in the entire opening paragraph. it starts right off from canon which suits, but i wish i had added just a smidge more detail to just really settle the reader if they haven't read gtn recently.]

10. “The pews are empty, long, and wooden.” [enter not into temptation, TLT, Colum Asht/Silas Octakiseron. a short opener for a quadruple drabble! it has a particular cadence that i enjoy.]

what i'm getting out of this is i like using full names in my first sentences, i don't put the pov character's name first nearly as often as i thought i did in 3rd limited (or at least, not recently), and i have recently just gone completely off the deep end after reading htn and now like 60% of my fics will be in 2nd person lol. also i'm uh,, learning (being reminded) that i should perhaps go back around after i'm all done writing and editing and try to rework the opening sentence or two, because a few of these strike me as rather bland (because starting a fic usually requires me to not think about the opening line too much, otherwise i get stuck in blinking cursor hell) but i would like to improve my first sentence game.

<3 i'll tag: @neverhornyoneighth, @moscca, @octakiseronliker, @ilovelunatics, @monroeknoxwrites, @snarkivistfic, @theflirtmeister but only if you want!

[spiced-wine-fic]

Writer Asks

Thank you so much @swanfloatieknight

WRITER ASKS!

When did you start writing? How?

Has your writing changed over time?

Do you read your own fics?

Do you write every day? If so, do you have daily goals?

Do you plan? Or do you “wing it”?

If you plan, what does your planning process look like?

How would you describe your writing style?

Have any comments/tags/responses on a fic of yours ever made you laugh, cry or both?

Have you ever made yourself laugh with something you’ve written?

How many unfinished works are in your drafts?

Do you write for yourself, or for the readers?

Do you feel pressured to write some days?

Multichapter fics or one shots?

Do you take requests?

Angst or fluff?

What is your favorite character (or characters) to write for?

What piece of writing are you most proud of?

Which is more difficult, the title or the summary?

Do you have a beta reader?

Do you prefer to edit as you go, or once the piece is finished?

Do you listen to music as you write?

If you had to assign a theme song to [fic title], what would it be?

Have you ever stopped yourself from writing something? Why?

Would you ever collaborate with another writer for a story?

What projects are you currently working on?

Is there a specific scene or scenario you’re looking forward to most? (No, you don’t have to give away spoilers!)

Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

Share a piece from one of your current WIPs!

Best writing advice for other writers?

Make up your own question! Ask me anything!

1,  When did you start writing? How?

I was very, very young, five or six? I used to draw and write about places we were going to go on holiday before we went and little poems about nature and the seasons etc. I can’t imagine not writing. 

3, Do you read your own fics?

Only to check something.(it’s a series so everything proceeds from something else and sometimes you have to hunt down references). 

11, Do you write for yourself, or for the readers?

For myself mainly, I think because from about age 11 I hid all my writing and by then I was writing ‘stories’. It was like walking through a door into a magical world and closing it behind me. I didn’t want people reading it; it was a quiet, safe place. That continued until I posted Dark Prince on LOTRFF.com in 2007.

Of course, people actually engaging with your fic does change your attitude a bit over time, I think. I never believed anyone would read it so I’m thrilled when people like something I’ve written but it doesn’t influence why I write or who I write for (me). I just have stories in my head I want to tell. 

21, Do you listen to music as you write?

No, I prefer quiet or ambient nature sounds. 

Thank you @anerea-lantiria 🤗

5, Do you plan? Or do you “wing it”?

I always liken it to looking down a street at night and seeing the streetlights stretching away. The illuminated places are those parts of the story I know, but there are shadowy or dark areas between that I have to write ‘through’ to get to them. 

6, If you plan, what does your planning process look like?

I don’t plan. 

17, What piece of writing are you most proud of?

I’m always not proud but pleased at just having completed a fic.  Over my adult life I have no idea how many millions of words I wrote and threw away (most of it was longhand, file after file of it; I still have a few bits from a million years ago 😂) 

I would write almost novel length stories then get bored and start something else. I did finish two, I think (long lost) but only when writing fanfic have I consistently finished anything. (I do have a couple of fics on hiatus though). 

20, Do you prefer to edit as you go, or once the piece is finished?

I tend to do both. I’ll look at a few paragraphs and edit, then go through the whole thing when it’s finished. 

[cha-melodius]

First Lines

Rules: post the first lines of your last 10 fics posted to ao3. if you have less than 10 fics posted, post the first lines of all your fics.

I was tagged by @cricketnationrise and @rmd-writes, thanks! Fortuitously, I was just looking back through old tumblr posts and happened across the last time I did this (that one also included the directive to "look for patterns"), which as it turns out was almost exactly a year ago. Also, turns out I wrote a BUNCH of fics in the intervening time. Like, 32! What! I guess that's what happens when you decide to write a bunch of one-shots and accept prompts, lol. Anyway, here are the last 10.

Nova, Baby Agent Henry Fox-Mountchristen is an asshole.

All for a Taste of the Honey “Abso-fuckin-lutely not.”

It's Been a Bad Day Lately “Up and at ‘em, sunshine!” someone nearly shouts at him, jolting Loki to alertness where he’d apparently fallen asleep on a table in the archives. 

True Hollywood Romance “You cannot tell me you’re intending to wear that,” Loki blurts, in lieu of a greeting, the moment he opens the door and sees Mobius standing on the other side of it.

Love is a Deserter It’s just a party like any other.

How’s About Cookin’ Something Up With Me? The memo shows up in Illya’s mailbox on a fairly unremarkable Wednesday in early December.

May Your New Years Dreams Come True It’s a confluence of unfortunate events that sets the whole thing off.

Another Christmas Song (This Time I’ll Sing Along) In the six months since Illya’s new neighbor moved into the brownstone next to his, he has learned a few things about him: 1. he’s ridiculously good looking (he learned that on the day he moved in); 2. he’s a very proficient chef (that one, a few weeks later, when he invited Illya to his extremely well-provisioned housewarming party); and 3. he sings.

In the Morse Code of the Brake Lights This can’t be happening to him.

The Spirit of Giving Here’s the thing: Alex is pretty sure Henry can’t even cook.

I still use the snappy one-liner in its own paragraph pretty frequently, but if there are any trends to see here, it's that I definitely have started occasionally writing longer intro sentences. The one for Another Christmas Song is particularly funny to me.

Tagging @clottedcreamfudge, @mirilyawrites, @loki-is-my-kink-awakening (so you can do a year retrospective too lol), @heytheredeann, @ikeepwatchinghelicopters, @treluna4, @indomitable-love

[halucygeno]

The 2017 Bulgarian translation of Roadside Picnic is bloody weird as fuck, what the hell?

(This is a copy of a something I wrote on April 22, 2024. Apparently, if you set a "private" post as "public", it uses the original publication date, so it gets completely buried when you search for it in the tags. I've made this copy for visibility.)

Ugh, I've been procrastinating writing this for months now, but I'm feeling inspired, so here goes.

This all started around mid-2023, when I decided to get a Storytel subscription and listen to Bulgarian audiobooks in preparation for a Bulgarian language course I'd take during the holidays. One of the first books I listened to was my all-time favourite, Roadside Picnic - but immediately, something was off.

Specifically, the way the narrator pronounced the name of the town Harmont. He called it "Marmont".

This isn't a mistake or dialectical thing - no speaker of Bulgarian would see "Harmont" and read it as "Marmont". And if you're familiar with Roadside Picnic's turbulent publication history, "Marmont" should be setting off alarm bells in your head. This altered name was used in the infamously butchered version of Picnic included in the Unintended Meetings anthology. To quote Michael Andre-Driussi's essay "Searching for the Worst Edition of Roadside Picnic":

"[...] I found hints that the problems with the Unintended Meetings edition were less about censorship and more about sloppy editing: the town’s name “Harmont” was inexplicably changed to “Marmont,” and the name of a stalker gang was altered from Warr to Fan (or “BaPP” to “BeeP”)."

Unintended Meetings came out in 1980. Yet there I was, listening to an audiobook from 2019, supposedly based on a 2017, updated translation of R.P., and they were STILL calling it "Marmont"?

When I finally got to Bulgaria for that language course, I went to a book store and bought a copy to see what was actually written in it - "Хармонт" or "Мармонт". And it was written correctly - "Harmont". I thought to myself "huh, must be some mistake with the audiobook" and put it out of mind.

Fast-forward a few weeks, and I decided that a good way to practice my Bulgarian pronunciation would be to read the book out loud to my grandma, who offered to correct my mistakes. So we started going through it, and very quickly, I found myself repeatedly surprised by entire paragraphs, entire SECTIONS that I didn't remember hearing or seeing before.

Now, to be clear, I know this book almost by heart. I've read the 1977 Antonina W. Bouis English edition, the 1974 Irena Lewandowska Polish edition, and listened to audiobooks of the 2012 English translation by Olena Bormashenko and 2015 Polish translation by Rafał Dębski. Not to mention, I had just finished listening to the Bulgarian audiobook, supposedly based on this very translation by Milan Asadurov. Across different languages and different editions, I had experienced the book about 5 times, maybe more; there's no way I would simply forget whole paragraphs of dialogue or description. Yet there I was, seeing completely new sections, none of which can be explained as a "quirk of translation".

I've gone through the book and tried to compile all the major alterations I could find. All Bulgarian has been (poorly) translated into English by me, and the new sections are in bold font and coloured red.

Chapter 1:

When Redrick describes what an "empty" is to the audience:

. But there's still something between them, undoubtably some sort of force, from what I understand. Something binds them together. As if someone took a glass tube, plugged up both ends with copper disks, and then the tube disappeared somewhere, but took off in such a way, that the disks stayed in place, as if the tube was still there. You can place such an "empty" on a shelf — and it's a heavy bastard, weighs six kilos and a half — so you place it, that is, on the shelf and push the upper disk, and it falls, let's say, like a can of orange juice of which you only see the lid and the bottom. And the disks stay still, as if they're two wheels on an axis, and you even feel like you can see some semblance of that axis, but there's nothing there, it's all a trick of the eye... . No, boys, it's a pain to describe this thing to someone who hasn't seen it, but it's really quite simple to understand on sight, especially once you look at it enough to finally believe your eyes.

Same section in the 2012 Olena Bormashenko translation:

. And despite this, there must be something there, a force field of some sort, because so far no one’s managed to push these disks together, or pull them apart either. . No, friends, it’s hard to describe this thing if you haven’t seen one. It looks much too simple, especially when you finally convince yourself that your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you.

When Redrick talks about Kirill's work on the empties:

. Actually, Kirill's been struggling with these "empties" for more-or-less an entire year already. He has four of them. There were three, but the other day they brought him another. The Vulture Burbridge found it in the "House without a roof". A patrol caught him, the "empty" was transferred to us, while he's been thrown in jail. So what? We had three, now we have four. We could have hundreds of them, it's all the same! Each one is identical and no one will ever figure them out. But Kirill hasn't stopped trying. He's gotten it into his head that they're some sort of magnetic trap — be it a hydromagnet, gyromagnet, whatever, some magnet — advanced physics. I know nothing about that sort of thing. But he's exposing them to a bunch of things in accordance with this hypothesis, as one should. Thermally, for example, he heats them up to crazy temperatures in an electric furnace. Chemically, say, he pours acid on them and smothers them with various pressurised gases. Besides this, he tries crushing them in a press or running electricity though them. No matter what he does, it hasn't yielded anything yet. Only thing he's managed is to completely exhaust himself. Actually, he's a funny guy, this Kirill. I've been dealing with these academic types for a while now. When something doesn't go their way, they become irritable, rude, start snapping at you, shouting at you, and you get this temptation to clobber them in the mug. Kirill isn't like that. He just wilts, his eyes start beaming sorrow, like those of a sick dog, he even gets teary; whatever you say to him — he doesn't hear it; he wanders around the lab, bumps into furniture, whatever he gets his hands on, he puts in his mouth. Found a pencil — hop, it's in his mouth. Found some plastilin — into his mouth it goes. Puts things in his mouth and chews. And he asks me wistfully: "Why — he says — is it inversely proportional, do you think? It can't be — he says — inversely. It should be directly..." . So we're standing in the storage room. I look at the way he's gotten, how red his eyes are and start to feel extremely sorry for him.

Now, from the 2012 Olena Bormashenko translation:

. Anyway, Kirill’s been struggling with these empties for almost a year now. I’ve worked for him from the very beginning, but I still don’t get what he wants with them, and to be honest, I haven’t tried too hard to find out. Let him first figure it out for himself, sort it all out, then maybe I’ll have a listen. But so far, one thing is clear to me: he’s absolutely determined to dismantle an empty, dissolve it in acid, crush it under a press, or melt it in an oven. And then he’ll finally get it, he’ll be covered in glory, and the entire scientific world will simply shudder in pleasure. But for now, as far as I know, he’s nowhere near this goal. He hasn’t yet accomplished anything at all, except that he’s exhausted himself, turned gray and quiet, and his eyes have become like a sick dog’s—they even water. If it were someone else, I’d get him totally wasted, take him to a great girl to loosen him up a bit, then the next morning I’d feed him more booze, take him to more girls, and by the end of the week he’d be A-OK—good as new and ready to go. Except this sort of therapy wouldn’t work on Kirill. There’s no point in even suggesting it; he’s not the type. . So, as I said, we’re standing in the repository, I’m looking at him, the way he’s gotten, how his eyes have sunk in, and I feel sorrier for him than I can say.

This one is a huge change. Redrick openly, and very aggressively, accuses Kirill of having told someone about their expedition plan:

. I think everything through and even feel slightly relieved that I won't have to go into the Zone. Then it suddenly clicked in my head, what had happened. When I saw Kirill, I immediately told him: . — Don't mess with me! Do you have any idea what sort of problems you can get me into?! . He winced and became all startled. I immediately realised, that he understood nothing. . — What happened? — he asks — What are you saying? . — Did you tell anyone about the garage? . — About the garage? No! Why? . — Nothing. Goddamn it — I say. — Your orders? . — We go and declare the route. . — What route? . Naturally, that pissed him off. . — What do you mean "what route"?! Our route through the Zone. . — Why? — I say. — Who says were going to the Zone today? Evidently, he figured out what was happening at that point. He took me by the elbow, brought me to his office, and sat me down at his desk while he plopped down on the windowsill next to me. We smoked a cigarette each. Silence. Then he cautiously asks: . — Did something happen, Red? . Eh, what do I tell him? . — No — I say, — nothing happened. Yesterday, I lost twenty bucks playing poker with Mr. Noonan. He's like a machine, the bastard. And I had a straight... . — Wait — he exclaims. — did you change your mind or something? . That's when I lose it. I'm not playing games with him. . — Yes, — I say, — changed my mind. You're a real claptrap. Snitched on me. I trusted you with this, and you had to go blabbing to the whole town. Even the people from security heard about it. — He started waving his hands to signal that I've got it all wrong, but I finished my thought. — If that's how you do things, then don't rely on me. Not that it matters, since from now on, fat chance I'll say anything when I'm around you. . I rattled all of this off and went silent. He, on the other hand, got his miserable look back, and his eyes again became like that of a sick poodle. He inhaled convulsively, lit a new cigarette with the butt of the previous one, and quietly said: . — Believe me, Red, I didn't say a word to anyone. . — Alright — I say. — If you insist it wasn't you, then it wasn't. . — I haven't even told Tender anything. I got him a permit, and I haven't even asked him if he's coming or not... . I smoke in silence. To laugh or to cry, the man understands nothing. . — Listen, Red — he says unexpectedly. — Are you sure that it was this garage that alerted them? It's not as if you have a spotless track record! . — What difference does it make?! — I say. . — Just know that I didn't snitch on you! Do you believe me? . — I believe you - I lied to calm him down. . But he didn't calm down. He jumped from the windowsill and started pacing back and forth around the office, murmuring to himself: . — No, buddy, I can see that you don't believe me! Why don't you believe me?! Your distrust towards me won't give you anything, I tell you... . He looked at me strangely somehow, jumped from the windowsill and began walking across his office. He runs around while I sit, smoke and keep quiet. I feel sorry for him, of course, and I'm kicking myself that it all turned out so stupidly. Way to cure someone's melancholy.

Note that Kirill jumps off the windowsill and starts pacing around the office twice. This makes me think that Milan Asadurov had, for whatever reason, stitched together an early draft of this scene with the final version we see in all other editions. Why? It's so much worse!

The ENTIRE vibe and character dynamic of this scene is much better in the Bormashenko translation:

. I think all this through and even feel a bit of relief that I don’t need to go into the Zone today. Except how am I going to break it to Kirill? . I tell him straight out. “I’m not going into the Zone. Your orders?” . At first, of course, he just gawks at me. Eventually, something seems to click. He takes me by the elbow, leads me to his office, sits me down at his table, and perches on the windowsill nearby. We light up. Silence. Then he asks me cautiously, “Red, did something happen?” . Now what am I supposed to tell him? “No,” I say, “nothing happened. Well, I blew twenty bucks last night playing poker—that Noonan sure knows how to play, the bastard.” . “Hold on,” he says. “What, you mean you just changed your mind?” . I almost groan from the tension. “I can’t,” I say through my teeth. “I can’t, you get it? Herzog just called me to his office.” . He goes limp. Again misery is stamped on his face, and again his eyes look like a sick poodle’s. He takes a ragged breath, lights a new cigarette with the remains of the old one, and says quietly, “Believe me, Red, I didn’t breathe a word to anyone.” . “Stop it,” I say. “Who’s talking about you?” . “I haven’t even told Tender yet. I got a pass for him, but I haven’t even asked him whether he’d come or not . . .” . I keep smoking in silence. Ye gods, the man just doesn’t understand. . “What did Herzog say to you, anyway?” . “Oh, not much,” I say. “Someone squealed on me, that’s all.” . He gives me a funny look, hops off the windowsill, and starts walking back and forth. He’s pacing around his office while I sit there, blowing smoke rings and keeping my trap shut. I feel sorry for him, of course, and really this is rotten luck: a great cure I found for the guy’s depression.

([Jan 18th, 2025 edit] I'M TOO TIRED, SO I GAVE UP ON WRITING THE REST OF THIS. SORRY! BELOW ARE A FEW NOTES ON OTHER POINTS I WAS GOING TO COVER)

-- [When the emigration agent tries to convince Redrick to leave Harmont, Redrick complains about the cultural atmosphere of a few European countries, saying that he definitely wouldn't want to move to Europe.]

-- [In chapter 2, when Red and Burbridge run into a resurrected body in a cemetery inside the zone, Redrick briefly considers that the figure might be Creon the Maltese, tailing them after they turned down his offer to join the expedition. He quickly dismisses this as very unlikely.]

[Jan 18th, 2025 edit] Oh, I guess I should try to hastily conclude this somehow:

Months after I initially wrote this, I believe I've tracked down two potential candidates for the Russian edition where these passages originate from. Milan Asadurov, in his translator's note (which I took a crack at translating into English), claims he was working from "the version of '...Picnic' specially prepared by Boris Natanovich for the 2003 release of their collected works".

Checking fantlab.ru, which has a lot of details on the publication history of Picnic, it turns out there were actually FOUR Strugatsky anthologies released in 2003. I managed to find two of them online, and they didn't contain the altered passages. So I managed to narrow down the potential source of this weirdness to these two editions: one published by Амфора, and one published by ОЛМА-ПРЕСС.

I was even thinking about asking around in Russo-phone circles and seeing if I can buy these two editions somewhere, but it seemed like a huge hassle and I quickly forgot about the idea. Any Russian fans of Picnic seeing this, could you help out?

(And I still have no idea why the Storytel audiobook used an earlier edition of Asadurov's translation with the stupid "Marmont" mistake! AGHH!)

[Jan 27th, 2025 edit] Ok, apparently this is common knowledge in Russia — I just researched this extremely poorly

Uh, never-mind, it wasn't the 2003 edition at all. The original text actually originates from this 1989 edition. According to Boris Sturgatsky, this was a draft version of the story that Arkady sent to the publisher because he didn't have the final version on-hand:

"Для данной публикации использован текст повести «Пикник на обочине» в редакции, заметно отличающейся от других публикаций. По словам Бориса Стугацкого, данное издание «… было (промежуточным) черновиком повести, который АНС сунул некогда издателю за неимением под рукой соответствующего чистовика». О том, что это черновик, в издании не указано. [...]"

This Strugatsky fan-site, (ran by a Maksim Gushin) further corroborates the story:

"В 1989 году в издательстве «Юридическая литература» вышел двумя изданиями под разными обложками авторский сборник с «Пикником на обочине», текст которого значительно отличался от всех ранее и впоследствии опубликованных вариантов — это было обусловлено тем, что Аркадий Стругацкий (вероятно, по ошибке) передал в издательство один из черновых вариантов."

...and even links to a .pdf of this original, draft version, so you can look at all of its strange quirks if you wish.

Sorry for having researched this so poorly, and accidentally spreading misinformation. I have no idea why Milan Asadurov cited a 2003 edition, when this version was published in 1989. Maybe the draft was mistakenly used once again in 2003? Or maybe Asadurov just got the two editions mixed up? Who knows.

Again, apologies for the shoddy research.

[gali-la]

ooo questions for fanfic writers!! answer however many you'd like! <3

2. Go to your AO3 “Works” page, to the sidebar with all the filters, and click the drop-down arrow for “Additional Tags.” What are your top 3-5 most used tags? Do you think they accurately represent your writing habits? 4. What detail in take everything with you (but leave the sun behind) are you really proud of? 15. What’s your favorite AU that you’ve written? 21. If you wrote a “missing scene” in Beneath the Skin, Through the Heart, what would it be? 42. Have you ever received a comment that particularly stood out to you for whatever reason?

thank you!! ♥

So many juicy questions omg. i have to drop by your inbox too later >:) (once i check to see what's already been asked XD)

Okay!! for #2, oh boy, let's see...

the number one tag is "One Piece Bingo" with thirteen works, but by my decree, that doesn't count. MOVING ON, we've got "smut" with ten works and, yeah, that kind of fits. especially with the demon that was Kid week—hot damn, did i do smut for that. Next up is "Angst" with seven works, then "Established relationship" (6), "Alternate Universe—Modern Setting" (5), and finally, "Nightmares" (5). Honestly, the only one im surprised by there is "modern setting." i didn't think i wrote that many, though the rest of these sure fit imo. i do love my angst and smut XD

#4: What detail in take everything with you (but leave the sun behind) are you really proud of?

That's a tough one i do love this work a lot. hmm. I am gonna say im proud of the prose, though that's more of an overarching thing than a detail. Nonetheless, it's still a lil foray outside of my usual writing style and i enjoyed it <3

Now a detail so i can actually answer this question... im gonna say this bit towards the end:

"Her wings spread of their own accord, allowing her to feel the cold wind through her feathers once more. His first words to her came to mind. Hello, little bird. Would you like me to take you away from here? Yes, she chanted, yes, yes, please, anywhere you want to go."

It's precious to me. I don't know why,, it's got a lil undercurrent of "wow you are so fucked" but also peacefulness and i was jumping out of my skin to write it down <3

#15: What’s your favorite AU that you’ve written?

Oh my god this is so tough. It's stuck between two right now—one of them I've only written like, half a paragraph for (you know the one) so im gonna say it doesn't count yet.

Winner then has to be then my One Piece Demon Slayer AU. God, I wanna write more of this when i have the time, but right now, there's only one work out there in the realms: Pink is the Prettiest Color (if you check it out heed the tags!!). I just love both OP and KNY so much... and swords are so sexy... ANYWAY i've got like. a whole conspiracy for this au i believe ive cursed you with it in the past. SOMEDAY im gonna write more for it >:)

#21: If you wrote a “missing scene” in Beneath the Skin, Through the Heart, what would it be?

ahhhhhhh what a good question. I'm almost tempted to say "the wedding" but that's such a cliche answer let me think about it.

It's hard because that's one of my favorite works and I feel like it's pretty solid as is. Now, the question is—am i thinking of a scene i would like to have added, or a later addition/standalone that's connected but not required for the story? In the first case, I think a "experimenting with makeup" and such scene would have been cool. It's silly and small (and i have no fuckin clue how makeup works) I think it would have been a cool scene to further explore Rosi's newfound femininity. now, in the latter case, first thought that comes to mind is the honeymoon. skip the wedding, vows, whatnot, and straight to the married bliss. im a sap like that (also, more smut >:) I do love my katacora smut). I'm not sure if I'll ever add more to this, but these are tempting thoughts!!

Last but not least, #42: Have you ever received a comment that particularly stood out to you for whatever reason?

ABSOLUTELY. I got one that is very nsfw so I will spare you that one—but another of my faves is a pair of comments on Pink is the Prettiest Color (1) (2). They were very sweet and flattering, of course, but I could also feel the love for the works and the love for both of the fandoms!! They melt me <3

Of course, all essay comments also hold a very dear place in my heart. they make me want to cry every time i see them—like, oh my god, someone enjoyed my work that much?? holy cow asdfsjfovhs

Thank you for the questions, my dear dear gen <3 these are so much fun to think about

(dang this post got long. Here's the questions if anyone wants to ask away/reblog for themselves!)

[duckprintspress]

How to Edit an Over-Length Story Down to a Specific Word Count

One of the most wonderful things about writing as a hobby is that you never have to worry about the length of your story. You can be as self-indulgent as you want, make your prose the royalist of purples, include every single side story and extra thought that strikes your fancy. It’s your story, with no limits, and you can proceed with it as you wish.

When transitioning from casual writing to a more professional writing milieu, this changes. If you want to publish, odds are, you’ll need to write to a word count. If a flash fiction serial says, “1,000 words or less,” your story can’t be 1,025 and still qualify. If a website says, “we accept novellas ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 words,” your story will need to fall into that window. Even when you consider novel-length works, stories are expected to be a certain word count to fit neatly into specific genres - romance is usually around 80,000 words, young adult usually 50,000 to 80,000, debut novels usually have to be 100,000 words or less regardless of genre, etc. If you self-publish or work with a small press, you may be able to get away with breaking these “rules,” but it’s still worthwhile to learn to read your own writing critically with length in mind and learn to recognize what you do and do not need to make your story work - and then, if length isn’t an issue in your publishing setting, you can always decide after figuring out what’s non-essential to just keep everything anyway.

If you’re writing for fun? You literally never have to worry about your word count (well, except for sometimes in specific challenges that have minimum and/or maximum word counts), and as such, this post is probably not for you.

But, if you’re used to writing in the “throw in everything and the kitchen sink” way that’s common in fandom fanfiction circles, and you’re trying to transition only to be suddenly confronted with the reality that you’ve written 6,000 words for a short story project with a maximum word count of 5,000...well, we at Duck Prints Press have been there, we are in fact there right now, as we finish our stories for our upcoming anthology Add Magic to Taste and many of us wrote first drafts that were well over the maximum word count.

So, based on our experiences, here are our suggestions on approaches to help your story shorter...without losing the story you wanted to tell!

Cut weasel words (we wrote a whole post to help you learn how to do that!) such as unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, the “was ~ing” sentence structure, redundant time words such as “a moment later,” and many others.

When reviewing dialog, keep an eye out for “uh,” “er,” “I mean,” “well,” and other casual extra words. A small amount of that kind of language usage can make dialog more realistic, but a little goes a long way, and often a fair number of words can be removed by cutting these words, without negatively impacting your story at all.

Active voice almost always uses fewer words than passive voice, so try to use active voice more (but don’t forget that passive voice is important for varying up your sentence structures and keeping your story interesting, so don’t only write in active voice!).

Look for places where you can replace phrases with single words that mean the same thing. You can often save a lot of words by switching out phrases like “come back” for “return” and seeking out other places where one word can do the work of many.

Cut sentences that add atmosphere but don't forward the plot or grow your characters. (Obviously, use your judgement. Don't cut ALL the flavor, but start by going - I’ve got two sentences that are mostly flavor text - which adds more? And then delete the other, or combine them into one shorter sentence.)

Remove superfluous dialog tags. If it’s clear who’s talking, especially if it’s a conversation between only two people, you can cut all the he saids, she saids.

Look for places where you've written repetitively - at the most basic level, “ ‘hahaha,’ he laughed,” is an example, but repetition is often more subtle, like instances where you give information in once sentence, and then rephrase part or all of that sentence in the next one - it’s better to poke at the two sentences until you think of an effective, and more concise, way to make them into only one sentence. This also goes for scenes - if you’ve got two scenes that tend towards accomplishing the same plot-related goal, consider combining them into one scene.

Have a reason for every sentence, and even every sentence clause (as in, every comma insertion, every part of the sentence, every em dashed inclusion, that kind of thing). Ask yourself - what function does this serve? Have I met that function somewhere else? If it serves no function, or if it’s duplicative, consider cutting it. Or, the answer may be “none,” and you may choose to save it anyway - because it adds flavor, or is very in character for your PoV person, or any of a number of reasons. But if you’re saving it, make sure you’ve done so intentionally. It's important to be aware of what you're trying to do with your words, or else how can you recognize what to cut, and what not to cut?

Likewise, have a reason for every scene. They should all move the story along - whatever the story is, it doesn’t have to be “the end of the world,” your story can be simple and straightforward and sequential...but if you’re working to a word count, your scenes should still forward the story toward that end point. If the scene doesn’t contribute...you may not need them, or you may be able to fold it in with another scene, as suggested in item 6.

Review the worldbuilding you’ve included, and consider what you’re trying to accomplish with your story. A bit of worldbuilding outside of the bare essentials makes a story feel fleshed out, but again, a little can go a long way. If you’ve got lots of “fun” worldbuilding bits that don’t actually forward your plot and aren’t relevant to your characters, cut them. You can always put them as extras in your blog later, but they’ll just make your story clunky if you have a lot of them.

Beware of info-dumps. Often finding a more natural way to integrate that information - showing instead of telling in bits throughout the story - can help reduce word count.

Alternatively - if you over-show, and never tell, this will vastly increase your word count, so consider if there are any places in your story where you can gloss over the details in favor of a shorter more “tell-y” description. You don’t need to go into a minute description of every smile and laugh - sometimes it’s fine to just say, “she was happy” or “she frowned” without going into a long description of their reaction that makes the reader infer that they were happy. (Anyone who unconditionally says “show, don’t tell,” is giving you bad writing advice. It’s much more important to learn to recognize when showing is more appropriate, and when telling is more appropriate, because no story will function as a cohesive whole if it’s all one or all the other.)

If you’ve got long paragraphs, they’re often prime places to look for entire sentences to cut. Read them critically and consider what’s actually helping your story instead of just adding word count chonk.

Try reading some or all of the dialog out loud; if it gets boring, repetitive, or unnecessary, end your scene wherever you start to lose interest, and cut the dialog that came after. If necessary, add a sentence or two of description at the end to make sure the transition is abrupt, but honestly, you often won’t even need to do so - scenes that end at the final punchy point in a discussion often work very well.

Create a specific goal for a scene or chapter. Maybe it’s revealing a specific piece of information, or having a character discover a specific thing, or having a specific unexpected event occur, but, whatever it is, make sure you can say, “this scene/chapter is supposed to accomplish this.” Once you know what you’re trying to do, check if the scene met that goal, make any necessary changes to ensure it does, and cut things that don’t help the scene meet that goal.

Building on the previous one, you can do the same thing, but for your entire story. Starting from the beginning, re-outline the story scene-by-scene and/or chapter-by-chapter, picking out what the main “beats” and most important themes are, and then re-read your draft and make sure you’re hitting those clearly. Consider cutting out the pieces of your story that don’t contribute to those, and definitely cut the pieces that distract from those key moments (unless, of course, the distraction is the point.)

Re-read a section you think could be cut and see if any sentences snag your attention. Poke at that bit until you figure out why - often, it’s because the sentence is unnecessary, poorly worded, unclear, or otherwise superfluous. You can often rewrite the sentence to be clearer, or cut the sentence completely without negatively impacting your work.

Be prepared to cut your darlings; even if you love a sentence or dialog exchange or paragraph, if you are working to a strict word count and it doesn't add anything, it may have to go, and that's okay...even though yes, it will hurt, always, no matter how experienced a writer you are. (Tip? Save your original draft, and/or make a new word doc where you safely tuck your darlings in for the future. Second tip? If you really, really love it...find a way to save it, but understand that to do so, you’ll have to cut something else. It’s often wise to pick one or two favorites and sacrifice the rest to save the best ones. We are not saying “always cut your darlings.” That is terrible writing advice. Don’t always cut your darlings. Writing, and reading your own writing, should bring you joy, even when you’re doing it professionally.)

If you’re having trouble recognizing what in your own work CAN be cut, try implementing the above strategies in different places - cut things, and then re-read, and see how it works, and if it works at all. Sometimes, you’ll realize...you didn’t need any of what you cut. Other times, you’ll realize...it no longer feels like the story you were trying to tell. Fiddle with it until you figure out what you need for it to still feel like your story, and practice that kind of cutting until you get better at recognizing what can and can’t go without having to do as much tweaking.

Lastly...along the lines of the previous...understand that sometimes, cutting your story down to a certain word count will just be impossible. Some stories simply can’t be made very short, and others simply can’t be told at length. If you’re really struggling, it’s important to consider that your story just...isn’t going to work at that word count. And that’s okay. Go back to the drawing board, and try again - you’ll also get better at learning what stories you can tell, in your style, using your own writing voice, at different word counts. It’s not something you’ll just know how to do - that kind of estimating is a skill, just like all other writing abilities.

As with all our writing advice - there’s no one way to tackle cutting stories for length, and also, which of these strategies is most appropriate will depend on what kind of story you’re writing, how much over-length it is, what your target market is, your characters, and your personal writing style. Try different ones, and see which work for you - the most important aspect is to learn to read your own writing critically enough that you are able to recognize what you can cut, and then from that standpoint, use your expertise to decide what you should cut, which is definitely not always the same thing. Lots of details can be cut - but a story with all of the flavor and individuality removed should never be your goal.

Contributions to this post were made by @unforth, @jhoomwrites, @alecjmarsh, @shealynn88, @foxymoley, @willablythe, and @owlishintergalactic, and their input has been used with their knowledge and explicit permission. Thanks, everyone, for helping us consider different ways to shorten stories!