#I don't quite know if it counts as eldritch though

[acronym49]

Circle of dogs. Thought of them while on a walk. They slowly spin, emitting a low but loud "humming" sound. Normally in their center is a sort of eye, made out of hundreds of ever shifting eyes of different varieties. It's surrounded by an odd corona that seems to warp the air itself.

[unpredictable-probabilities]

The Pleasures of Dreaming and Waking

Summary:

Hob spends time with Dream after a long week at work. As they chat over their usual table, they grow more comfortable in expressing their fantasies and endeavour to explore them.

Notes:

Inspired by this fic written by @delta-pavonis <3

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 4,716

Square/Prompt: B3 - Somnophilia |  @dreamlingbingo

Ship(s): Dream of the Endless | Morpheus/Hob Gadling

Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Kissing, Neck Kissing, Making Out, Nipple Play, Smut, Eldritch Sex, Light Bondage, Consensual Somnophilia, Blow Jobs, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Orgasm Edging, Multiple Orgasms, Sweet, Sweet/Hot, Cuddling & Snuggling, Naked Cuddling, Post-Coital Cuddling, Porn Without Plot, Porn With Feelings

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/59931001

———

The sounds of conversations combined with the clinking of cutlery and soft footsteps is making Hob sleepy.

He had a long week at work and only managed to catch a break now that it's Friday; he stifles a yawn behind his hand and mumbles thanks to the waiter that just brought their order to their table.

“Are you well, my love? You seem exhausted.” A frown creases Dream’s forehead, and Hob still marvels at how Dream is more comfortable with expressing his emotions now, especially since they started dating three months ago; a fact that Hob still has trouble believing if he thinks about it too hard.

Hob nods and straightens up in his seat, trying to blink the fatigue out of his eyes. “I'm alright, love, don't worry. Just pretty knackered with finals week coming up. Been up late catching up on grading papers and all that.”

“You should have informed me sooner. We could always meet in my realm while your physical body rests.”

“Yeah, but I'm quite fond of this place,” Hob admits. “This table is where I was sitting when you first came back. I like talking with you here.”

“You are stubbornly sentimental,” Dream chides, though there's an unmistakable smile on his lips.

“You love it,” Hob says pointedly, taking some chips from the basket.

Dream makes a sound that might have been a chuckle. “Very well. What woes did you experience in the world of academia today? I have heard it is part of unwinding to talk about how one’s day has gone.”

“You learned that in one of those relationship books you read in your library?” He walked in on Dream reading that sort of book once in the Dreaming during their first month of dating. Dream vanished the book in an instant when he saw Hob, but Hob had been so endeared that he had pushed Dream against the shelf and kissed him senseless.

“Perhaps.” Dream drinks from his mug of hot chocolate to hide his face, but not before Hob sees the subtle pink on his cheeks.

Hob grins and reaches for Dream’s hand resting on the table, fiddling idly with the cuff of his sleeve. “Nothing remarkable happened, at this point even the students were just waiting for the weekend so classes were rather quiet. Then afterwards I went with some of my colleagues to that pub near the university, and we just traded mindless gossip to purge our brains of essays and staff meetings.”

Dream turns his hand so his palm is facing up, and he brushes his thumb back and forth on Hob's wrist as he speaks. “I am sure the other patrons enjoyed hearing gossip from academics.”

“I'm not so sure I did, honestly. My mate Nick runs his mouth after a few pints, and I didn't need to hear that he had a wet dream about our colleague from the Arts department. Does that fall under your jurisdiction, by the way? You just know whenever someone's fantasising in their dream?” Hob has already asked a lot of questions about Dream and his function, which Dream always answers with some degree of amusement, but Hob still feels like there's so much more to learn.

“I am able to see into someone's dreams should I wish, but unless a nightmare is crossing a line in troubling them or other similar concerns, I have no obligation nor desire to do so. And any fantasies they might have are created by their own minds.” Dream pauses and tilts his head slightly to the side. “Do you wish for us to do the same? To share such intimacies in my realm?”

Hob feels his face warm and he chuckles. He still gets caught off-guard by how direct Dream can be nowadays. “I thought you said you can't read minds?”

“I can sense daydreams. And yours are often loud.” The corner of his lips tilts up in a smirk.

“Well, can you blame me? People dream about that kind of stuff all the time, but for you and me, it would be real. It would actually be you.”

Dream��s smile disappears and he seems to hesitate, his face becoming guarded.

“Hey,” Hob says gently, stroking Dream’s arm with his fingers. “We don't have to, okay? All the sex we have here in the Waking is already perfectly amazing.”

“Crude.” Dream's eyes twinkle in amusement and he seems to relax. He pauses for a moment before continuing. “You have seen my form in my realm. How… different. I look.”

Hob raises an eyebrow. “You mean being paler and taller than an average human and having galaxies for eyes? And wearing that sinful robe that would be considered indecent in the streets of London?”

Dream lowers his gaze and is obviously trying to suppress a smile. “I am trying to be serious, Hob.”

“Oh I'm perfectly serious. I'm surprised you didn't sense my daydreams whenever we walked around your realm with you wearing that thing.”

“I… did. But.” Dream trails off, his fingers tapping restlessly on the inside of Hob’s arm.

“What's wrong?” Hob rarely sees Dream be so hesitant.

“I am… afraid. To hurt you, in my realm. If we engage in physical intimacy.”

Hob’s eyebrows lift in surprise. “Hurt me? You could never hurt me, love.”

“I might.” Dream’s voice sounds strained with worry. “In my realm I am… more. In the throes of passion I might lose control of my humanoid form.” He looks right at Hob. “You inspire such greed in me, Hob Gadling. I will have you for as long as it takes until I am sated.”

Hob swallows, his mouth suddenly dry. If Dream intends to discourage him by what he just said, he's spectacularly failing. “So exactly as we always do it, then?” he manages to say lightly.

Dream huffs out a chuckle. “You are not daunted at all.” He sounds almost impressed.

“‘Course not,” Hob says easily. “Is it something that you want, though?”

Dream nods slowly. “I have thought of it. More than once. I should like to have you in my bed, at the heart of my palace. So the very essence of our ardour seeps into each fibre of my realm, that none may doubt my affections for you.”

Hob takes a shaky breath, unable to look away from Dream. They should probably be talking about this somewhere more private, but right now the most prominent thought in Hob's mind is if Dream wants it just as much as he does then why haven't they done it yet.

“Okay, okay,” Hob says mainly to calm himself. “Since we both want the same thing, is there any way I can make you more comfortable with the idea? We can use safe words, and I bet you can sense anyway if I feel like something’s too much for me.”

“I am uncertain about that. I have never been able to sense your discomfort in any of our couplings.”

“That's because I've never felt any discomfort, love. Like I said, everything we've done has been amazing, and I think you know by now that you're not the only one who can get greedy,” Hob says cheekily.

A smile curves Dream’s lips. “That is a fair point.”

“I know. So then. Um…” Hob looks around at the pub. “D’you wanna go upstairs and talk about it?”

“You are not too tired?”

“Oh believe me, I'm more awake now than I've been all week.” Hob calls over one of the waiters and tells him that they're taking their food to go.

“Eager, beloved?” Dream raises an eyebrow playfully after the waiter leaves.

“No more than you, Your Majesty.”

Dream makes a low humming noise in his chest that might have been a purr or a growl. Either way, it's definitely a sound of approval and that's all Hob needs to practically drag Dream upstairs as soon as they get their takeout bag.

Hob takes a shower first because he's not sleeping with his boyfriend while carrying the grime of public transport, nevermind that it's the quickest shower he's ever taken in his life.

When he gets out of the bathroom wearing a fresh shirt and sweatpants, he sees Dream on his bed wearing black silk pyjamas, sitting up against a pillow and reading Lord of the Rings. The whole image is so soft that it makes Hob’s chest ache.

“I like seeing you like this,” Hob says as he sits next to Dream.

“On your bed?”

“Relaxed.” Hob kisses the tip of Dream's nose. “Do you still want to talk about it?”

Dream nods. “Do you?”

“Yeah. Thanks for waiting while I showered.”

“You were not gone long. I had not even finished the chapter I was reading.” Dream closes the book and puts it on the nightstand. “I still do not know what happens after Frodo and Sam meet Merry and Pippin.”

“Oh, should I shower for longer then so you can continue reading?”

“If you step in that shower again I should be inclined to join you.”

“Talk first,” Hob says firmly, rather proud of himself for declining such a tempting offer. Granted, he declined in favour of a much more tempting one. “How'd you feel about safe words?” he turns to his side to more comfortably face Dream, folding a knee under him.

“They could prove to be useful, yes. What words do you recommend?”

“We can use the traffic light system. Green means continue, yellow means slow down, red means stop immediately.”

Dream considers for a moment. “And you promise to use them with no hesitation?”

“Yeah,” Hob nods. “And you should too.”

Dream slowly blinks at him, looking surprised.

“You can use them too,” Hob clarifies. “You're allowed to say if you're uncomfortable, yeah?”

Dream is silent for a few moments, forehead creased in thought. Then he slowly nods. “Alright. And I should like to give you control to shape the Dreaming.”

“What?” Now it's Hob's turn to be surprised.

“My realm is tied to my temperament. I may cause a storm without meaning to. Or an earthquake. While you might not be powerful enough to stop these things entirely, you will have the ability to shape the environment to conjure whatever shelter best suits your comfort.”

The first thought in Hob's mind is how utterly sweet Dream is to even think of granting him that much power over his realm; Hob is aware that that much trust given to him is not to be taken lightly.

The second thought following closely after is that Hob wants to see just how much he can make Dream lose control while sharing his bed. He wonders if he can pleasure Dream enough for him to make actual fireworks appear.

Dream chuckles and rests his forehead against Hob’s. “Your priorities continue to fascinate me, Hob Gadling.”

“Shall I show you how fascinating I can be, then?” Hob reaches up to run his fingers along the collar of Dream's silk shirt.

Dream purrs low in his chest and holds the back of Hob’s neck to slot their lips together.

Hob groans softly and clenches his fist into the fabric of Dream's shirt, pulling him down to lie on top of him.

“I thought you wished to do this in my realm,” Dream says playfully against his lips, pupils already blown.

“Still do. Take me there then, my lord.”

There’s sand and the familiar feeling of drifting off to sleep, and then all at once Hob feels a different bed under him, smooth as satin and softer than goosefeathers.

Dream is looming over him, his black robe nearly slipping off a pale shoulder. His blue eyes flicker down to Hob’s clothes, running over them with a curious gaze.

Hob looks down and realises that he’s wearing a bottle-green robe, loosely tied at the waist and with nothing else underneath. “I owned something like this back then,” he recalls. “In the 1500s, I think. It was always comfortable.”

Dream nods in approval and noses along the line of Hob’s jaw. “Good. Here you shall have every comfort.” He sinks his teeth in the skin beneath Hob’s ear with just enough pressure to make him shiver.

“I wish I could carry your marks with me to the Waking,” Hob says breathlessly.

Dream pulls back to meet his eyes, and for a second Hob wonders if had said something wrong.

“If you truly wish it, I can extend my consciousness to my physical form currently sleeping beside yours. I will make love to you in the Waking as I do here. And you will have my marks until your body heals them away.”

Hob feels his eyes widen, his heart thumping in his chest. And once again he wonders why they’d never done this before. “Will I be able to feel what you do to my physical body? Even here?”

Dream considers it. “I can put your consciousness in the liminal space between sleeping and waking, just enough for you to feel my touch in your realm. Is this what you wish?”

“Yes,” Hob whispers, absently realising that he has his hands clenched into fists on Dream’s robe.

“Very well.”

Dream closes his eyes, and suddenly Hob feels smooth hands trail slowly up his thighs, even when Dream hasn’t moved at all. Cool fingers wrap around his cock and he gasps, hips jerking up against Dream’s thigh.

“Did you vanish my clothes?”

“I did not think you would need them.” There’s an edge to Dream’s smile, and when he opens his eyes the blue has vanished too, replaced by pools of black with brilliant stars at the center.

Hob pulls him down for a kiss, and Dream opens up immediately. Hob loses himself in the feeling of their tongues against each other and Dream’s body undulating above him. They both still have their robes on, but Hob can feel a hand slowly stroking his cock, a mouth around his nipple. He hears a whimper that might have been his but never felt it leave his throat.

“Dream,” Hob gasps, hips stuttering against Dream’s thigh. The sensations in the Waking haven’t stopped, but with most of his consciousness here in the Dreaming they all feel distant, like a vivid memory that can never live up to the real thing. “Touch me. Here.”

“As my love commands.” Dream unties Hob’s robe with one hand before pressing their lips together again.

Hob sighs against the kiss as he feels Dream’s hand caress his torso, gliding lower and kneading the flesh of his thigh. He wraps his arms around Dream’s neck, runs his fingers through soft midnight hair that seems constantly ruffled by wind despite the lack of any breeze.

The sensations in the Waking stop abruptly, and before Hob could begin to wonder why, he feels teeth sink into the inside of his thigh.

“Ah!” Hob arches his back, breaking the kiss and pulling Dream’s hair. His cock twitches and he feels the heat of Dream’s mouth wrap around him—in the Waking. Hob moans in frustration, his cock hanging heavy and neglected in the open air. “Do you even have plans to fuck me here?”

“I am marking you in the Waking. That is what you wish, is it not?” Dream rakes his nails lightly across Hob’s chest, scraping a nipple and making Hob twitch.

“Just in the Waking? What happened to being greedy?” Hob quickly bunches up Dream’s robes, thrilled to find that there’s not a stitch of clothing underneath. He grabs Dream’s bare arse and pulls him flush against his groin.

Dream throws his head back with a shaky gasp, his eyes fluttering close.

Hob pulls him down and mouths at pale clavicles, licks at Dream’s icy throat and nips at his jawline.

Dream surges down to kiss him, and at the same time Hob feels his thighs being spread open in the Waking.

Dream's tongue reaches into him from both ends, soft and slick and far longer than any human tongue should be.

Hob squirms as he feels Dream’s tongue move inside him in the Waking, feeling full and empty all at once. He grips the back of Dream's neck, ruts against his cock.

Dream makes a wounded noise and returns the enthusiasm, grinding down hard until Hob’s sure they're carving a dent into the plush cushions.

Hob feels precome on his belly, and he needs Dream inside him now but he also needs him to never stop moving.

And then Dream does stop, even his movements in the Waking.

Hob opens his eyes, mind clouded in a haze of confusion and lust. He sees Dream looking around their surroundings and blinking.

Hob begins to realise that even though they're still on the same cushions, they're no longer in Dream’s bedroom.

The ceiling made of a starry night sky is replaced with an elaborate mosaic of figures that might be deities, and the marble walls are now stained glass windows letting in colorful sunlight that dapples on the steps leading down from where he and Dream are.

Dream shifts to his side to give Hob room to sit up and look around. He realises that they're on a raised platform overlooking a great hall with long tables and tall double doors at the far end. They're the only ones here, and the vastness of the place has a solemn quiet to it.

“Where are we?” Hob’s voice echoes softly.

“You brought us here, beloved.”

“What?” Hob frowns and looks around again, paying more attention to the details.

The wall behind them is painted with doves and bells so intricately that Hob can almost hear them, and he suddenly recognises that the deities depicted on the ceiling are who the townspeople considered the gods of marriage from about six centuries ago.

“This is a wedding hall,” Hob breathes. I brought us here to shag on the altar.

Dream blinks at him slowly. “Why did you choose this place?”

“I didn't mean to,” Hob scratches the back of his head sheepishly. “I guess, um…” he feels his face warm up. He looks down and fidgets with the sheets. “I'm not proposing or anything, I don't even know what that would mean for you but… I s’pose I liked the symbolism of it. Us getting married…” He trails off and hesitantly meets Dream’s gaze again.

Dream is looking at him in bewilderment, and Hob feels panic rise in his throat, images of a rainy night and a black figure storming off flashing in his mind.

“Look, I can't control what my brain thinks,” he hurriedly says. “You can whisk us back to your room—”

Dream moves and pins him down on the cushions, claiming his lips with teeth and tongue and the intensity of the birth of a star.

Hob’s body quickly gets back with the program, whatever he was feeling before they got interrupted by the location change has come back in full force, and then some.

He grunts when he feels Dream slip a finger inside him, the sensation so vivid that it takes him a second to realise that it's happening in the Waking. Dream adds another finger, slick with the lube that Hob keeps in his nightstand drawer, or possibly dreamstuff, Hob doesn't really care. He grinds down on empty air here in the Dreaming, a moan of pleasure and need escaping him.

“You wish to be united with me in this manner?” Dream is actually breathless, and his form is starting to blur at the edges like a freshly made oil painting hanging on a lord’s wall.

He has a subtle glow about him, and Hob can believe that it's coming from the stars in his eyes that seem to burn brighter now. His dark hair ripples softly as if underwater. It's as if one of the gods from the mosaic came to life just to loom over Hob and look at him with utter adoration, as if Hob is the one worthy of worship.

“Of course I do.” Hob threads his fingers through Dream’s hair, caresses his face, his shoulders. Marvelling at how he's allowed to touch a being such as this. “I'll have you in all the ways you would allow,” he says quietly, reverently.

Dream presses their foreheads together. “Hob.” The syllable drops from his lips like a prayer and then he's kissing Hob again, their robes vanishing in an instant.

Hob cups Dream’s face in his hands, his eyes falling close as he inhales the scent of rain and ozone and fresh ink on paper.

He feels Dream's fingers pull out of him in the Waking, and his stomach clenches in anticipation.

The familiar shape of Dream's cock teases at his rim, and Hob realises with a gasp that it's here in the Dreaming. 

Dream tenderly takes his hands and pins them beside his head on the pillow, their fingers lacing together.

Hob is already slick and soft and open, and his eyes roll back in his head when Dream slips in, filling him up inch by delicious inch as Dream’s lips move down to his neck. Their fingers remain intertwined, but Hob feels soft touches up and down his body, becoming more insistent as Dream thrusts deeper into him.

Hob’s eyes flutter open to see that shadows seem to be bleeding from Dream’s form, shaping into tendrils that act as his limbs. Hob doesn't even bother to try counting them, especially not when one tendril touches his nipple, flicking and rolling the hard nub until Hob is squirming and jerking his hips up to meet Dream’s thrusts.

The teeth that scrape and nip at his neck are definitely sharper than usual, and a shiver runs down Hob’s spine, prickling his skin with goosebumps and making his toes curl.

Dream tightens his grip on Hob's hands and slowly pulls out before slamming into him in both realms.

“AH–!” Hob arches his back, or tries to, but finds that the shadow tendrils are pinning him to the bed; wrapped around his waist, his arms, holding his thighs open as Dream continues to thrust into him.

Dream's face is pressed in the crook of Hob’s neck, making growling noises that could never come from a human throat.

Hob’s weeping cock twitches from what little friction Dream’s body is giving, unable to get any more of it no matter how much he strains against the tendrils. Dream slams into his prostate and Hob cries out a sob, tears forming in his eyes.

Dream slows down and pulls back to look at him, the tendrils loosening their hold. “Colour, my love?” His voice sounds wrecked.

“Green,” Hob whines, taking advantage of his mobility to raise his hips and take Dream deeper into him. “Green— Fuck, Please…”

Dream captures his lips in a searing kiss. The tendrils wrap around Hob once more, but this time they help him move, raising his hips to meet Dream each time, faster than what Hob would have been capable of on his own.

He can feel Dream's teeth on him in the Waking while he's being fucked into his own mattress; on his chest, his jawline, his neck, oh his neck, Dream is making good on his promise to mark him, sucking bruises onto the skin and soothing them with his tongue. When that tongue moves down to his nipples, Hob feels so keyed up that he can almost feel it in the Dreaming as well.

A tendril wraps around Hob’s cock and strokes him quickly while another one teases at the slit, and it's all too much and not nearly enough. Hob doesn't quite remember how to breathe, and he tightens his grip on Dream's hands as the tendrils manhandle him to buck and rut against his lover.

The air feels charged, like the moment before a lightning strike, and Dream is panting in Hob's ear as a sudden wind whistles through the wedding hall, the light from the stained glass windows changing colours rapidly as if the sun is moving erratically outside.

Seeing Dream so affected is what hurls Hob over the edge, and he comes with a roar that might have broken the windows but he can't hear anything else above his own voice and the pleasure lighting up his spine.

Dream speaks against his ear, soft lips almost caressing. “This dream is over.”

Hob slams back into the Waking with a strangled cry, frustration crashing over him when he realises that Dream has a hand wrapped around the base of his cock, stopping his release even as Dream repeatedly fucks into him, his other hand bracing himself on the bed for leverage.

The whiplash of going from a mind-shattering orgasm to his cock heavy with wanting has Hob going half-mad.

“Dream–!” he digs his nails into Dream’s back, squirming as he tries to get free of Dream's iron grip, only succeeding in deepening the angle of Dream inside him.

“Shall I fuck you into unconsciousness, my lover?” Dream is in his human form again but his blue eyes are no less piercing. “I can take you here, and in my realm, going back and forth until you can no longer distinguish between Dreaming and Waking. Giving you endless pleasure in my realm where you will not tire, and holding back your release here until I decide that I am done with you.”

A full-body shiver runs through Hob; Dream's voice only stokes the fire already burning Hob from the inside, his words making Hob’s cock ache and twitch in desperation.

“You are mine, Hob Gadling,” Dream's hips stutter out of rhythm before speeding up. “Not to capture nor possess. But to adore and—ah—cherish. Mine to care for. Mine to love.” His eyelids flutter and his breaths are coming in pants. “Just as I am yours. To do with as you please.”

He thrusts deep and Hob cries out, his nails raking red lines across Dream's back.

A flash of concern appears on Dream's face as he looks down at him.

“Green, green!” Hob screams before Dream could even think to slow down. “Dream, my love, please…” he whimpers.

“Yes,” Dream says breathlessly, leaning down to kiss him. “Your love. Yours,” he says against Hob’s lips. He deepens the kiss as he strokes Hob’s cock in time with his thrusts.

Hob clenches his hands into Dream's hair, moaning wantonly in his mouth as his hips buck up and down of their own accord.

“With me, my love,” Dream gasps. He slams into Hob’s prostate and twists his hand.

Hob's vision goes white and he screams, his body thrashing under Dream as he spills and spills between them. He hears Dream’s guttural cry in his ear and it only flings him higher into his peak, where nothing else exists except the two of them and Dream’s spend filling him up more than he thought possible.

Their embrace tightens as they shake and tremble, listening to the sound of each other’s breaths as they begin to calm down, their chests heaving.

Dream gently slips out of him and they both groan at the sensation. “Have I fulfilled your expectations, my love?” he asks quietly, brushing away a lock of hair that had stuck to the sweat on Hob’s forehead.

Hob’s brain takes a few moments to understand the question. “Have… What…” he tries to form a coherent sentence while still catching his breath. “I only ever expect for both of us to feel good, and I think we'd been pretty vocal about that just now.”

Dream smiles, a soft thing that brightens up his face. “Indeed. And now, you must sleep,” he brushes a thumb across Hob's cheekbone. “You have been exhausted this week, and even immortal bodies need rest.”

Hob just hums. Given how his eyelids are already feeling heavy, he doesn't have much room to argue.

“Cuddle?” he manages, sleepily running his fingers through Dream's hair.

Dream leans into his touch. “Both here and in the Dreaming.”

Hob vaguely registers Dream waving his hand to clean them up, and then Dream is lying down beside him and snuggling close, tucking his head under Hob’s chin.

Hob wraps his arms around Dream, drifting off to sleep and smiling at what a lucky bastard he is.

———

(Dreamling Bingo Masterpost)

(Masterlist)

[perpetualexistence]

Tell us about your other Alenoaheather AU(s). I know you have them. 🔫

- Totally not Ophe

Hello completely random anon whose identity will forever be a mystery!

See, with the way you've phrased this, you've actually opened yourself up to a few options. I'll tell you a little bit about each one and you can tell me which one you want to learn more about first.

Currently unnamed G/T Alenoaheather

Definitely the most detailed AU of the bunch. It's got backstories and character arcs for each of the three. Probably the best way to describe it is Urban fantasy since none of them are (completely) human, but they pretty much live in a modern setting.

It does get dark at times. Think Beastars-adjacent in terms of vibes. Including the murder bits. But it's mostly self-defense or being forced into it, so take that as you will. I will say that it's nowhere near the levels of toxic relationships that something like the Sea Monster AU has. And they do actually improve as people. These three still get drama mind you, but it's from keeping secrets rather than being genuinely manipulative. ...Well. Too manipulative. It does have Alejandro and Heather in it. But it's got fluff moments because fluffy giant/tiny dynamics are precious and must be preserved at all costs.

It's got Alejandro who's a giant-shifter able to grow even larger than most other giant-shifters thank to his Burromuerto heritage. The Burromuertos are a completely upstanding giant-shifter family and definitely don't have any incredibly fucked up family traditions they expect Alejandro to continue.

Noah's a were-mongoose. Werefolk come in a large variety, though mongoose is on the far more uncommon side. Unlike most werefolk, this kid genius actually figured out a way to not completely give into his instincts during full moons. This has absolutely no negative repercussions on his wellbeing.

Heather who's a giant-shifter hybrid unable to grow thanks to her human heritage from her father's side. She's the only one of her siblings unable to grow. She definitely doesn't have a complex about this. But she has managed to find her own way of making herself just as much of a physical threat as her two boyfriends. (Aka the day I take away from Heather's inherent badassery is the day I die.)

Serial Killer AU

It's exactly what it sounds like. With exactly the vibes the name implies. Definitely the darker one. They're just a thriving villain throuple with a body count. It's also mostly Noah-focused so far as I haven't figured out Alejandro or Heather's motivations.

Noah stumbles across a body of a serial killer spree, only to be the first to realize that one serial killer is actually two. Curiosity leads him to investigate...but not for the reasons you'd think.

(For this one that's pretty much all I can share before just going into the whole AU)

And then, on the completed side since might as well dump all the Alenoaheather AUs:

Noah and the Beanstalk

Another giant/tiny AU! This one's actually got its own post already. I don't really have anything else that I didn't already mention in that post. But it's my blog, so I'll advertise my own AUs as I please!

Collab AUs

The Royal Court AU

Originally named The Lords In Black AU because it was originally inspired by me watching an animatic of The Summoning from Nerdy Prudes Must Die. Then it evolved into something far beyond that where the name doesn't seem quite right anymore.

It's got Alenoaheather as the worst teens at school and unashamed about it. ...Until Alejandro goes missing, and nobody else really seems to care. Leaving Heather and Noah to investigate and try their best not to be next.

They fail, but hey, at least they get cool eldritch powers out of it!

This AUs also dark because the premise is them being kidnapped to be used as sacrifices. And it's got plenty of eldritch horror in it. The posts for it are scattered because they ended up going into two separate reblog chains with @total-drama-brainrot and @ur-local-brown-multifandomist. If you look up 'lords in black au' on my blog you should be able to find most of it. I'm going to just centralize it for ease of organization one day. It'll just be. You know. Effort.

Also, @ur-local-brown-multifandomist is currently making a fic for it! It's their first one, so feel free to check it out.

Fake Dating Alenoaheather AU

This one's a collab AU between me and @total-drama-brainrot, a person you have never met because you are a completely anonymous anon. Noah gets caught in between Heather and Alejandro's attempts to make the other jealous by each making him pretend to be their boyfriend. Shenanigans and drama ensue. The posts for this are also scattered and tagged on both our blogs, and one day we might make a fic about it. For now, there actually is someone already making a fic about it that you can feel free to read!

I still can't believe two different people decided to start making fic of AUs I helped create. It's wild, and I'm incredibly touched.

"Why are all of these AUs except for one dark in at least some way?"

I honestly couldn't tell you exactly why my brain works the way it does. It just decided that the two canon villains and one-villain coded teenager deserve to be at least a little feral. As a treat.

Maybe one day I'll have an AU with them that's not so dark. That day will be a surprise to us all.

But yeah, that's all of the Alenoaheather AUs I got! The first two I'm more than happy to go into more detail for if you ask!

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.187 thoughts

[Just the Way I Like It - Extra Crispy]

(Contents: immediate reactions, small Andy analysis, speculation)

Ohhh, the DNA hair isn't supposed to represent chromosomes, it's supposed to represent evolution! You know Tozuka did that on purpose. He wanted us to think she was Sex so we'd be surprised when she was Change. And from what I've seen, all of us sure were

But that's not the most interesting part of this chapter, not by a long shot. No, the most interesting part has got to be, without a doubt, Andy

As always, Tozuka provides us with a shot that's instantly iconic, this time in the form of Andy's charred body sitting stalwart on the barren surface of the extinguished sun. The linework and shading here is phenomenal, it almost feels like something out of Berserk. In the hands of a lesser artist, Andy's body might just be completely blackened with a barely recognizable outline, but here, even through all that ink you can see every contour of his physique, almost like you could count the individual muscle fibers. It's eerie, it's haunting, it's melancholy, it's beautiful, and to top it all off, it's metal as hell

Understandably, everyone is terrified when they see Andy in that state; they've only seen Andy in action for the span of about a minute, so they don't quite understand the extent to which Undead really works. Seeing someone charred to cinders but still shockingly intact like that would definitely be unsettling, especially if you aren't used to seeing death the way that the previous Union members all were, but being told that he's still alive through that? Knowing that the heat you're feeling on the extinguished sun, likely a fraction of how it feels normally, is the sort of condition he's been stoically enduring for eons and somehow he's still conscious? That's pushing eldritch horror territory

But of course, Fuuko isn't even phased. She's seen her fair share of the things that Andy's had to go through, and she knows that however hard it was for him, he'll be able to bounce back better than ever. Seeing Fuuko run up to hug him and thank him, telling him that she learned to live as she does from him, is so heartwarming and sweet that you almost forget that Andy's a smoldering statue

Now, the whole time that Nico was talking about Andy's sensory nerves and organs being fried, I was thinking one thing: he doesn't really need them, does he? He was able to move his body with his soul even through the effects of Unmove, and we've seen him moving his body while the sun's flames were active, so we know he has some way to tell what's going on around him, so why even worry about conducting sound through his bones?

The first answer is probably that Fuuko didn't know that or couldn't rely on it. Even if he could hear her through his soul, it's best not to take any chances and guarantee that her message is going to get through. Secondly, though, it's way more dramatic to shoot him in the head and jam her fingers into his skull. It makes a beautiful parallel to the events of the Spoil arc, it cuts the tension of the movement by being surprising and funny, and again, it's a striking image. Not even just the gunshot, but Fuuko having her hands on Andy's head while she talks to him, almost like she's holding his face but in the macabre and disturbing way that only UU can provide

My concerns were then answered though with Andy not only raising to his feet, but also firing off a brand new move: Soul Boosted Parts Bullets! Whether it can actually deal damage remains to be seen, since we've seen in the past that souls can only interact with souls, but Andy also created a soul chain to hold Change in place, suggesting that he's able to interact with a target's soul while its bonded to its body, much like how Ichico gained the ability to force a target's soul out. This implies that Andy can in fact deal damage with this move, even if only to the soul, which would arguably be more effective than harming the physical body of a UMA since they can regenerate any damage that isn't to their core anyway

Andy leveling up to the point that he can weaponize his soul like this, coupled with Enjin having solar-level control of Unburn, suggests that Tozuka is nowhere near showing us the real ceiling of everyone's powers. I talked about it in my response to @buhbuhlmao's post the other day, but there really is a good chance that, while no one's going to be able to solo Sun, everyone's probably going to be able to operate on a scale that would let them at least hold their own if they needed to

That said, Andy's new ability made me realize something: Victor probably wouldn't have been able to hold off the Master Rules like Andy did. While Victor never believed that his mind was a necessary part of "being alive," he also was stated not to believe in the soul as a concept, meaning that if his whole body were charred inside and out like this, he wouldn't have a mechanism for forcing his body to move anyway - he wouldn't be dead, but he also wouldn't be able to regain consciousness until someone brought him somewhere he could heal, and he certainly wouldn't be able to use his soul to suppress the Master Rules. Andy's ability to pull off such a feat proves that he's surpassed Victor, or at least caught up to his level by traveling a different path. Honestly, if we ever do get to see Andy and Victor split, I hope that we get to see them using Undead in completely different ways to show just how much of an individual Andy has become

To cap off this stellar chapter, we finally get a glimpse of our last five members (excluding Ruin and Lucy). Bunny, Tatiana and Kururu are all how I'd expect them to be, and Top is a bit older looking, but the real surprise is that Juiz is clearly younger. Not only that, she looks remarkably like Fuuko. Twitter user Junebug pointed this out too, that Fuuko and Juiz's positions and appearances have switched: Fuuko went from short- to long-hair and has become the leader of the Union, and Juiz has become short-haired and naively bright-eyed. The impact that this will have on their characters remains to be seen, but I'm super excited for it!

I do hope that meeting Juiz will allow us to fully understand the mechanics of the loop, though it's probably not super important that we get that. I just really want to know myself. Was Juiz always supposed to be a child/teenager in the 2010s, or did her soul hold her off for a few extra years? Also, she looks completely different compared to her child self before, is this because this is her first reset in the loop after getting transed as many have theorized? Oh, and could it be that Sex isn't the one who made Juiz into a woman, but Change? There are so many questions, and I hope Tozuka deigns to answer them all in time!!!

Until next time, let's enjoy life

[aesolerin]

song that reminds me of DD1/2 cast. for some it'd be sarcastic or bitter, for others (read: baldwin) it'd be sincere in how gentle it is.

But, particularly, the last verse, the "I might've been a good man" one - that verse makes me imagine all the shit DD1 Dismas went through in the name of redemption (up to potentially the final battle and maybe even being a sacrifice to Come Unto Your Maker), and how in the end, after all of that, DD2 Dismas is the only one who has a vague recollection of any of it. (not that it turned out we were doing any sort of good in the end, but you get my jist)

now (only slightly related to the above): we both know who our faves are, but I'd love to know all your thoughts/headcanons on our fave Mr. Highwayman yourself, since it seems like you might have some! DD1 or DD2, your choice (if that has an impact).

....but also, if you do have any thoughts on how his dynamics would be with either or both Sarmenti/Baldwin, I would of course not be averse to that either. >>;

the link didn't stick, but we thank lyrics.com bcs i was able to reverse search that one line and you confirmed it was this song:

oh my goodness it has such a sweet bitterness that can perfectly embody what it means to be send unto the breach over and over until you and everyone else around you is dead. lives they could have led, the stories they can tell, the good and bad moments they share. in the Tavern, at camp during an expedition, i can clearly see any and every hero singing along with any and every emotion.

it definitely hits Dismas the hardest. if the well-traveled Sarmenti didn't bring the song to the Hamlet, he's the next likeliest candidate to me. perhaps he's in the Living City of DD2, quietly it singing to himself because nobody else knows it...

i do love Dismas! i especially love the works that contrast him and Reynauld, the penitent thief and the thieving repentant. the Crusader is a good guy, but i don't think he's a nice guy all the time, and in DnD terms i see the Highwayman as the 'face' between them. silver-tongued rogue, ya know?

other miscellaneous Dismas headcanons:

-jokey and witty and such, but still puts up a bit of a wall. old instincts as a former brigand, you don't get close to the new recruits. he softens up a bit as the heroes build camaraderie.

-very protective over his food, but i think this is a pretty common headcanon. if he goes out of his way to share a meal with someone, he is willing to die for them.

-a little bit superstitious. lucky coins and red skies at dawn and such.

-we all know this. man loves poetry. has a secret stash of poems and thankfully Reynauld hasn't found it yet. they're getting really good!

-could give the Antiquarian a run for her money when it comes to counting money. one glance in a pouch and there's a very good chance he can estimate how many coins there are.

-seems to take the eldritch bullshit in stride, but really there are nights where he just. lays face down on his bed. and internally screams about the fuckery of the Farmstead and/or the DD2!Cultists. he's fine after though.

-did in fact try his hand as a candlemaker. loved the work, but the pay wasn't quite enough.

-kinda low alcohol tolerance, but also so on-edge all the time that he feels like he needs to get buzzed to relax.

-loves rats and other vermin creatures. big reason why it bothers him so much in DD2, reliving the times he had to resort to eating rats. how'd you feel eating your cat or dog to survive?

as for his relationship with Sarmenti and Baldwin in particular...

Sarmenti: even with all the verbal jabs and physical semi-violence (headlocks, shoulder punches, etc), Dismas and Sarmenti are best friends. they 'get' each other. with one non-verbal cue they know when to tone it down for the other. partners in (mostly metaphorical) crime, in good times and bad.

Baldwin: Dismas really looks up to him and sees him as one of the very few genuinely good people in the world. trying so hard not to say 'daddy issues'. (which is very funny because i headcannon that Baldwin is actually the youngest of the DD men. man just has that regal bearing.) they'll occasionally read together, and he's the only one Dismas shares his poems with!

thank you for sharing the song and your thoughts! i hope these were enough thoughts for you! sorry it got so long!

[ticklystuff]

:O for the team ask game! Kafka, Black Swan, Ruan Mei, and Luocha (I love women (I love twinks (I love women & twinks))) I can't tell if my team is good or bad honestly :'D

ask game is closed!

hello~ you are so valid lmao luocha is one of the girlies (also yes your team is quite good from a gameplay perspective)

also sorry i don't think i totally understand black swan's character yet so i might be a little inaccurate when it comes to her!

who’s the most ticklish character

i think it'd be ruan mei! she doesn't really mind, though, and i think she'd be interested in why she's so ticklish compared to her teammates or why people laugh when tickled. yeah tbh i think she'd find tickling fascinating because what is the evolutionary advantage of being born with a trait that can be so debilitating

who’s the character that most people would assume isn't ticklish, but actually is

black swan because she literally does not have a body lmao BUT you can still tickle her in dreams and such! it surprised her too when she first became a memokeeper and felt the light breeze tingle against her back in a dream like bruh what was even the point of giving up your body if you can still feel stuff asdlkfjs

who’s the character that everyone gangs up on and tickles

oh it's absolutely luocha because he's the only guy on the team and you cannot convince me that kafka doesn't get the others to tickle him to tears. she tells him that it could be ten times worse but they don't want to ruin his pretty face~ also they'd love to tease him to get him to reveal his true identity like "are u really a merchant? what's in that coffin of yours hm?"

who’s the character that somehow knows everyone else’s tickle spots and reveals them to others

oh it is absolutely black swan because she collects memories due to her memokeeper job, so she knows where everyone has been tickled and which spots are the best. she wouldn't go around spreading them so blatantly though but might subtly drop a spot like "ah luocha, i came across the cutest memory of your friends tickling you~ i think they were counting your ribs? absolutely heartwarming." also i've mentioned this before but ruan mei would be good at guessing just based on the vibes people give off

who's the character with one specific tickle spot that only one other person knows about

ok idk if you remember but during the recent story quest but there was a shot of black swan's back turned to the camera and there was a good view of the beauty mark on her back which i'm pretty sure they wanted to show off for whatever reason but ya kafka saw the beauty mark too and was like "you got a bit of dirt there, pretty lady" and gave her a poke and when black swan jumped she was just like "whoops~"

who’s the most likely to win gang tickle wars

i'm going to assume these tickle wars occur in a dream bc well black swan does not have a body and she has the ability to choose who gets to see her so you probably can't tickle her irl and that's just not fair lol but even in a dream it's still black swan! like have you seen her burst?? she summons those giant arms and they have claws too!! and she can make people forget things for a moment, so they're like what were we doing again?? but ya black swan is the tickle monster if black swan chooses to play fair, then it's kafka because kafka comes from a place where the people do not feel fear (her backstory makes her sound like some eldritch horror) so she will do absolutely anything to win. also she still has the ability to influence people's minds and can use that to turn the tables when things do start getting bad like "listen, you will tickle luocha"

which character has a kink for tickling

i feel like the easy answer here is kafka so maybe her? BUT i just have this feeling in my soul that would luocha would have a tickle kink too idkidk he's giving me "magikarp in the streets, gyarados in the sheets" vibes, like i just feel that he's into some shit more out there than just tickling, but also tickling is one of his kinks

which character didn’t even know they were ticklish until another character tickled them

kafka because no one has ever tried to tickle her before because of how turly frightening she is but black swan does not fear her and since she does not have any memories of kafka being tickled, she had to just create some for herself

which two characters have tickle fights all the time

i think ruan mei would have this one-sided interest in tickling black swan because how does being a memokeeper work? does she feel tickles the same way humans do? will she get tired when tickled for long periods of time or is her energy endless? these are all questions that black swan has answered for her already but ruan mei will still go out of her to try and tickle her from time to time i think kafka would also bully luocha because only one of them can be aloof and mysterious. she later finds out that luocha is actually a pretty skilled tickler too when he wants to be and she has to put a lot more effort into these things than initially expected

[sugarrspice]

Hi hi! I just rediscovered your writing tag; I know I binged the whole fae au ages ago but good grief have I caught the brain rot again. If you feel like taking a request, could I ask for fae au Chase having to deal with one of his eldritch housemates losing their temper, potentially with some protective Anti if that’s a vibe? No worries if not, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask :)

Pfft, you and me both. I've been thinking about them quite a bit. You can absolutely ask for it; I hope you enjoy!

Warnings for... not much, really. Nobody gets grievously injured or manipulated.

--

Chase is only aware that something is wrong because when he walks into the kitchen, Jackie has cornered himself by the cabinet, five feet and three hundred and twenty pounds of pure wolfish muscle.

He snarls at Henrik, which is the other sign that something is wrong- Jackie would cut off his own godsdamned hand before ever threatening Henrik.

Henrik, for his part, is frozen; unsure of whether to run, or approach, Chase would assume.

Circling around, Chase keeps his steps audible, his voice low.

"Jackie?"

The wolf crouched by the cabinets snarls at him, muzzle wrinkled with fury. There's no hint of recognition in those brilliant amber eyes, and Chase casts his mind back, casts his thoughts to the calendar-

He edges around the corner to the window, just enough to see the moon hang, swollen and bloody, in the sky.

Ah, shit.

He needs Henrik out of here. Then he can- he doesn't know, open a door, lure Jackie out-

"Henrik," he hisses softly. "Henrik."

He sees Henrik's eyes flick in his direction, but no other movement. Jackie picks up his head, muzzle wrinkling, and growls in Chase's direction; Chase keeps his hands out and open, movements slow.

"Easy, Jacks," he soothes, voice low, in the same tone he uses to calm a spooked Henrik, to talk down Marvin and Anti from yet another spat, to soothe the snag-toothed magic under their skin. "It's just me, yeah? It's just Chase. Bet you're feeling all sorts of trapped in this tiny apartment, I've been telling Marv for ages we needed to move, but what can you do with rent."

It's all nonsense, soothing nonsense, and it doesn't make Jackie's hackles come down, but he can see Henrik's shoulders loosen. He'll take one out of two.

He gestures, a tiny motion, with his head; Henrik begins to edge back his way, eyes back on Jackie. The wolf snarls at them, fur rising along the ruff of his neck. Really, he's a gorgeous wolf, Chase thinks idly, all rich brown fur, a pelt thick enough to sink into.

Right now, he's fucking menacing.

"We'll leave you be," Chase soothes, watching as Jackie pulls himself to his feet with more than a little concern. It's a wonder his voice doesn't shake; he's gotten good at managing the adrenaline. He has to be, when ninety percent of their household can smell if his heartrate jumps a beat because he got startled by oil popping too furiously. "Nothing to worry about here, Jacks."

Henrik gets to within inches of Chase; Chase shifts aside to let him reach the doorway.

Later, he'll wonder if one of them moved too quickly; or if Jackie had simply reached the end of his limited patience.

In the moment, Jackie uncoils, and lunges.

Henrik shouts- Chase doesn't think before pulling Henrik back. Unfortunately, this means taking a solid three hundred pounds of muscle head on- he hits the floor hard enough that he hears something crack, and his vision fuzzes out. He can't seem to catch his breath, though that could also be the fact that there's an entire direwolf on top of him.

Someone's shouting. He doesn't have the voice for it, so he's assuming Henrik's shouting something- he can't quite make out what, wheezing for breath.

Above him, Jackie snarls, and Chase can count each claw digging into his shoulders. He drags in another breath, trying to force his lungs to expand past the weight on his chest. Don't panic, don't panic, he chants in the back of his head, through the haze of fear that thickens.

This is Jackie. He won't hurt you.

This is Jackie. He doesn't recognize you.

"Jackie, Jackie, it's me," he wheezes out, forcing his arms up between him and the snarling wolf's muzzle. Jackie snaps at him; Chase can only wedge his hands between them like a prayer to a god he's long stopped believing in. He's a journalist, not built for wrestling werewolves twice his size off of himself. He'll be lucky to make it out unbitten, be lucky to make it out--

"Be still."

The corners of his vision sharpen into almost painful detail. Jackie freezes, ears swiveling straight forward before they pin flat to his skull. A wolf recognizing the bear lumbering by.

Anti stalks through the door, all liquid grace and barely restrained fury.

These last few months, he's gotten good at... not tamping his otherness, but not smothering them. Most days, the hair on the back of Chase's neck doesn't do more than prickle, a lurch in his gut that he leans into.

Right now, Anti does not give a single shit about restraining even a sliver of his thunderous nature. Chase doesn't dare to move, doesn't dare to remind Jackie that he has a very vulnerable chewtoy beneath his paws, but he thinks he could've started dancing the cancan and Jackie wouldn't have looked.

"Up."

Anti isn't even looking at him; Chase can still feel the itch in his bones to obey, as Jackie staggers to his feet, a puppet unsteady on its strings. His tail tucks between his legs, an uncertain snarl wrinkling his massive muzzle.

Anti does- Chase doesn't know how to describe the sound he makes in response. It's too guttural to be a snarl, too harsh. Chase reels back against it, and Jackie takes a step back, and then another.

Towards the open door.

If Anti commands him to leave, Chase knows that he will not return. That they'll be lucky if he doesn't run himself into a bloody grave.

Pushing himself to his feet, he watches Anti's eyes flick his way. There's flecks of silver, brilliant shards of starlight reflecting back at him; the low light of the kitchen makes it downright eerie. He is very, very keenly aware that he's the only human here.

In any other case, he would consider himself outmatched- and on some level, he knows he is.

But he exhales, and then carefully, steps away from Jackie, grimacing a little as the world spins around him. He doesn't have a chance to waver- an arm, cool and steady, wraps around his waist.

"I'm alright," Chase murmurs, half a warning, half a reassurance. Anti's lip curls at that, eyes cutting back to the frozen werewolf crouched before them. Chase swears that he can feel the walls press in around them that inch more in response, and he squeezes what he can reach of Anti's arm. "I'm fine," he repeats, knowing that Anti can taste the half-truth.

"You know Jackie wouldn't in his right mind. We were surprised." Full truth.

After a long moment, Anti only shakes his head, and with the same finality as the sun setting, tells Jackie, "sleep."

The werewolf doesn't so much curl up as he drops; Chase starts, but Anti's already steering him away, and Chase knows full well that the fae is going to be hovering.

"He will wake up," Anti says with that odd finality, before giving Chase a familiar side-eye. "You would not have if we didn't hear you. Henrik."

Chase waves a hand, and immediately regrets it; his shoulder fucking burns. He's going to have to wrap it, probably. "I knew you would. And Jackie-"

...Well. Jackie like this would have easily ripped his throat out. A full moon already heightened his irritation; an eclipse like this would only make it worse. He wisely keeps his mouth shut.

Anti must read the way his expression tightens, because the tips of his fingers prickle, the taste of winter ice seeping into his mouth. The aching eases, and Chase lists further against Anti, who all but pours him onto the couch, and curls around him. Distantly, they can hear a pair of footsteps- Henrik, then, and possibly Jameson, likely at the feeling of magic as wild as Anti's flaring within their threshold.

"Every day," Anti mutters under his breath, shifting to allow Chase to pillow his head on Anti's lap. "Every day you find new ways to flirt with death. They are not that compelling, you know."

Chase huffs a soft laugh, and shuts his eyes, floating on the dizzying feeling of Anti's magic throbbing under his skin. A nap would probably do him good.

"I thought you liked it interesting."

"I like it when you are here," Anti snips back, and tugs a little at a lock of hair. "And death will like not having to gamble against me again."

He's going to shelve that for later, instead humming, and nuzzling into Anti's touch.

"Bet you'd cheat."

"They have no proof," Anti returns archly, but Chase can read into his words well enough. He'd rob death and all of their cousins blind if he had to, and something about that warms him all the way to his bones.

He only laughs, and curls closer to Anti, who's pressed close enough that you couldn't slide a sheet of paper between them. A nap really is looking heavenly, now, and Anti seems faintly smug about that; he's safe, here.

"Wake me up when Jackie's up," he says, quietly, and Anti grumbles indistinctly; when Chase opens an eye, he finally huffs.

"Sleep," Anti says, instead, and tangles slender fingers through his hair. "I will wake you."

There's no command in his words, but he's never needed it; Chase closes his eyes, and falls.

[bewitched-forest]

20 questions for writers, tagged by @gremlin-bot

How many works do you have on AO3? I have 17 total works posted! And I believe, like, two or three WIPs I haven't? I dunno, I'd have to double check.

What's your total AO3 word count? 260,118. I- I don't even know how to react to that. Holy shit.

What Fandoms do you write for? I write for mostly DC, Danny Phantom, and Artemis Fowl. I have done a Spiritfarer au and a FNAF crossover over fic though. Just one of each. No, they're not the same fic.

What are your top 5 fics by Kudos? Danny & Billy: Brothers in Too Much Power The Rebirth of Tim Drake Ancient Deals Phantom Feathers Danny & Billy: Brothers in Too Much Power The Rehash

Do you respond to comments? Why/Why not? I actually try to respond to all my comments! I really enjoy all of them and I want them to know! (Yes, even the person who insists on leaving over 2000 hearts on every chapter) For certain fics, *cough* Rebirth *cough*, I also just enjoy torturing some of them by not actually answering their questions.

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? None of my completed fics really have angsty endings, I guess. Once I finish Now We're Stuck Here to Decay or How to Fowl A Bat, maybe? But even then, both of those fic are suppose to get more solemn but hopeful endings than just a straight angsty one. I just like hopeful endings I guess.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I can firmly say a fic that I finished for the recent DPxDC WIP Swap, which is What Once Was Lost Must Now Be Found. Eldritch homeless boy Danny gets himself a family in the Bats. ^-^

Do you get hate on fics? Not hate, really. Some unnecessary criticism, sure, but not what I'd call hate.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I haven't actually really written smut. I mean I did roleplays with ocs before, but never like straight written it soooo. Yeah.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one? I do write crossovers! Exclusively crossovers. XD I'd have to say Formula For a Crime Scene, which a three-way crossover with Danny Phantom, DC (Specifially BatFam), and Artemis Fowl.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? No, not to my knowledge.

Have you ever had a fic translated? I have not had one translated, no. I would not be opposed to it however, as long as I was asked and somehow tagged in it.

Have you ever co-written a fic? Yes, I have done multiple actually! All mine actually come from events. Weltschmerz is a fic I am actively co-writing as a results of Patrol Partners with @spite-sapphic-starlight, @gremlin-bot, and @half-dead-ham. Ham and Gremlin are my partners and Kate is the... stubborn QPP that got us together. XD What Once Was Lost, which I mentioned earlier, is from a WIP Swap. Gunebug started that fic, and I finished it. And then Of Clones and Time Bullshittery is a fic I started for the same WIP Swap, but Itallcomesbacktoandriel finished! I frankly adore how Andriel finished it too. ^-^

What's your all-time favorite ship? Ooh. That's a tough one. I'd have to say either Artemis FowlxTim Drake or Dead!Tired, which is Tim x Danny Fenton.

What's a WIP you want to finish but you doubt you will? So. I haven't actually posted this fic. I started in like the middle. But its a Danny Phantom, BatFam, and Scooby Doo crossover fic that I've called Danny Phantom & Batman in: The Mystery of the Mystery Kids. I'd be okay talking more about it in a separate post if people are interested.

What are your writing strengths? You see. I asked my friends about this because I don't usually get specifics, just get told I'm a good writer. Gremlin's exact quote when I asked was "I don't know I just like it." I did get complimented quite a bit on my charactizations of Artemis Fowl, so I'll take that win.

Writing weaknesses? I've been told I can make dialogue drag. Someone actually told me this in a comment telling me I should go back in fic despite me tagging the fic as "No Beta We Die Like Jason Todd".

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language? I don't think I've done it before, but once I'm further in my duolingo lessons, I'd love to incorporate Spanish or Japanese. Especially since I adore the Hispanic!Jason Todd headcanons.

First fandom you wrote for? It's technically two cause my first ever fic was a crossover with BatFam and Artemis Fowl.

Fav fic you have ever written? I- That's just cruel. I can't pick one. I really can't. They all hit my sweet spots in different ways.

Tag List: (Gremlin stole most of my list. XD) @precarious-hermit @the-stove-is-on-fire @tourettesdog @halfagone

[duhragonball]

Now that you have wrapped up the biggest fight of the fic, do you have a fight you liked writing best? Obviously, this last one was the most important to the fic, and most important to get *right*, but which is your favorite? Or are they all about the same to you?

Ultimately, it was all about Luffa vs. Goku. Everything was building towards that, and that was always in the back of my mind when I was writing every other fight.

There was a time when I used to worry that if I went too hard on a particular fight, it might diminish the appeal to Luffa vs. Goku later on, but in hindsight, I needn't have worried, since Goku is such an iconic character that he raises the stakes just by showing up. And Luffa was created to compliment Goku, so the other fights were never going to overshadow that one. Besides, it's not like Akira Toriyama worried about King Piccolo stealing Vegeta's thunder or anything like that.

Even now, I sort of have this reflex to keep writing Luffa vs. Goku, even though it's finished. It's like that training montage in Kill Bill, where Uma Thurman spends all day punching blocks of wood, and she ends up punching the wall in her sleep. I guess I could run it back, but I'm not sure a rematch would fit the story at this point.

So that one's my favorite, and it's not even close. I was trying to think of other fights from earlier in the story, and I had trouble remembering. A lot of them were mismatches or just outright slaughters, so I don't think those would count.

Working backwards, I'm pleased with the way I handled the fights at the end of the Xenoverse/Demigra arc. As much as I was building towards Goku, the catch was that I also had to build up to Luffa vs. Demigra, and Luffa vs. Mind-Controlled Trunks before that. And before that, the Luffa/Goku team up in Chapter 200. So there was a lot of action, but I think I managed to pace it well and give each battle a chance to breathe, and keep it from getting too repetitive.

Anything with Cell was a blast, just because he's my favorite character, and the twist is that Luffa thinks he sucks. She fought him several times and decided he's not worth her time.

In a similar vein, the battles with Towa and Mira were fun, because the games try to set up Mira as having this rivalry with your Time Patroller, but that doesn't really work for the story, since Towa's the mastermind of their team, and Luffa would see Towa as the true enemy. Also Demigra's the real final boss of the game, so I didn't have much interest in developing Towa as a major antagonist, much less Mira. So I came up with the conceit that the rivalry is there, but it's entirely one-sided. Mira is obsessed with proving himself against Luffa, and Towa is fascinated with his obsession, and Luffa stone cold does not give a shit about either of them.

"Hey, my artificial husband saw you from across the bar, and we really hate your vibe. Can we buy you a drink?"

The fights with Frieza and Nappa were really satisfying to write, because I had Luffa in a state where she couldn't use her full power, and yet she still is the Legendary Super Saiyan, even if she can't back that up. And so she managed to get in the heads of those two characters, because they know the story and can kind of see it in her eyes without knowing it. Nappa realizes he's fighting this eldritch horror and this dread starts to set in. It's the sort of thing I couldn't do with Goku or Vegeta, because they're peers, so it's like when two golden retrievers meet another golden retriever.

The stuff with the Jindan cult was hard to write, but it probably holds up better than I thought it would at the time. The biggest plot hole in my mind was how a cult could accept a 100% casualty rate without all of the members quitting, but the past few years have shown me just how dearly people will cling to lost causes. Memestock investors are still going all in on Gamestop, for example, so I guess it wasn't so hard to believe that a bunch of Saiyans would convince themselves that they stood a chance against a vastly superior opponent.

I guess I should mention Luffa's last stand against the Tikosi on Dorlu Prime. That was really the first real fight in the story, and I was kind of worried about being able to pull off DBZ-style action in my writing. I guess I did okay.

[dreadfutures]

🎇20 Questions for Fic Writers🎇

Tagged by @shivunin | @melisusthewee thank you!!!

Tagging: @anneapocalypse | @shift-shaping | @demandthedoodles

Empty meme for your own convenience. My answers below! 1. how many works do you have on ao3?

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

3. what fandoms do you write for?

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

5. do you respond to comments?

6. what’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

8. do you get hate on fics?

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

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

14. what’s your all-time favorite ship?

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? T

16. what are your writing strengths?

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

19. first fandom you wrote for?

20. favorite fic you’ve ever written?

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

48

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

Hit 1.5 mil last year. 1,610,652

3. what fandoms do you write for?

On AO3: Dragon Age, Elden Ring, Pathfinder TTRPG, Pokemon, Dishonored, The Legend of Zelda. Older fandoms: Spirited Away, White Collar, Maximum Ride.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

Dead Pasts and Dread Futures (883): DA Time Travel Fix-It.

Hero of the Wild (784): Zelda BOTW Sequel Fic.

When the Wind Whispers (573): Zelda BOTW Novelization.

The Brave Guide (285): DA Time Travel Fix-It (Continuation).

Light in the Dark (190): Zelda BOTW Childhood Fic.

5. do you respond to comments?

I try to respond to 90% of them! Though sometimes I'm slow.

6. what’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably The Hope of Fen'Harel since that's Ixchel's young!Trespasser ending.

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

the road seems too wild for mixing it with blues - Solavellan after-the-end happy ending for DPDF. :)

8. do you get hate on fics?

Yes. Quite a bit. Everyone hates Ixchel for being an SJW, and for being depressed. And for a long time, I got a lot of hate for writing some SA allusions in my Zelda fic. I delete all of them now.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

Yeah, I write it, though I don't know how to describe what kind. I just write smut when I feel like writing smut. Loving smut, hatefucks, threesomes, possessive, fearful...

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not really, no.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

I've had ideas that I made up wholecloth for my DA fics, stolen. I've had plot points that I took from my own life, stolen. I have had ideas, plot points, and headcanons, that I shared in DMs with trusted friends, stolen without permission or acknowledgment. This is different than the headcanons I share that my friends run with and we acknowledge where we inspire each other!! There are headcanons I came up with that other people go around saying "I'm so brilliant I feel so smart for coming up with this" but I have receipts that I'm the one who introduced them to the idea :))))))))) but I'm not here to beef :))))))))))

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

No! That would be so flattering.

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

Several times!!! Many of my older fics were cowritten actually, it was such a fun pasttime with my friends ;-; i miss it.

14. what’s your all-time favorite ship?

Link/Zelda.

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I would love to write Ixchel's first life...but it would be sad, and I don't want to.

16. what are your writing strengths?

Lyrical prose, visceral emotions and especially eldritch horror, and conveying sentiments that others have felt personally.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

Brevity.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

So, I stopped doing it in my DA fics because the Project Elvhen creator was a bigot and kind of awful actually, and everyone would whine about not being able to understand it and being too lazy to look it up. Now I just write the English but do it in [[italics and brackets]] to convey that it's Elvhen. I think conlangs are different than real life other languages. But in other places I do things in Spanish, and I just. Leave it. People can and should look it up, or try to understand. Or my characters also don't understand it clearly, so this is a way to convey that feeling. And I think we should normalize just having dialogue in other languages, and leaving it to the reader to put in just a smidge of effort to get it--or not! I think there's importance to reading something without understanding that component but feeling the consequences of what was being said, and also, of reading something and looking it up to understand and get ADDED context.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

Maximum Ride. :)

20. favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Tie between When the Wind Whispers (BOTW) and It Ends, or It Doesn't (Dragon Age).

[elizabethshaw]

20 questions for writers

i was tagged by @riversofmars (thank you!!)... feel like a little bit of a fraud doing this as i've had major writer's block for nearly two years now and have written virtually nothing during that time, but i'm gonna give it a go anyway 😅

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

14 :))

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

46,344

3. What fandoms do you write for?

doctor who! mostly leaning towards dweu/big finish stuff but i've written some new who fic as well in the past. (i've also been wanting to write something for the pleasant green universe audio series for a while now but as my major fixations on it have all coincided with the aforementioned writer's block that... hasn't happened lmao)

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Wy' ti'n dal i weld cysgodion yn y nos? (67 kudos)

in it together (23 kudos)

The Security Guard, The Scholar, And The Giant Stone Cube (22 kudos)

I Lie Awake And Watch It All (19 kudos)

og um vitt aldrin síggjast meir (18 kudos)

predictably, this includes all of the new who fics i've written, and (bar the third) almost none of the fics i'm actually most proud of lol 😅

(also feel a need to clarify here that the foreign-language titled fics are not actually in those languages, i just use song lyrics as titles a lot and for various reasons over half the music i listen to at any given moment is Not In English, hence the titles being as they are)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i try to! sometimes i'm a bit delayed with it (i know there's a couple i need to get around to answering rn but before today i hadn't been on my ao3 for... half a year at least?? so i'm a bit behind oops), but i like to get back to everyone who leaves a comment, just to say thanks :)

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

probably hver fer sinn veg - it's set during "the war doctor begins", it was never going to be a happy one lol

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

gei di weld y byd mewn lliw, i think :)

8. Do you get hate on fic?

thankfully no! i've been lucky enough that my experience with fic writing/sharing has been very positive so far <3

9. Do you write smut?

no, it's not really my thing. smut is very honestly just kinda there to me, i don't have strong feelings about it either way, and so it's not something i've ever felt compelled to write yknow??

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

nope! i mainly prefer playing around with canon/canon-adjacent stuff tbh, i've got a couple of unfinished aus hanging around that will probably never see the light of day, but no crossovers that i can think of

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not as far as i'm aware. though to be fair, i don't venture onto fic websites other than ao3 so i'll never know for certain. i doubt it though

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

again, not as far as i know! i'd probably be chill with it though if anyone wanted to translate a fic of mine, provided they asked beforehand and it was one i was comfortable with being translated :)

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

nope! the closest i've got is participating in an event run by a discord server i used to be mildly active in and am technically still part of, which was a lot of fun :D

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

i don't know if i really have an "all-time" favourite as such, but i've written a fair bit for liv and helen from the 8das, and really love their dynamic. i'm also a big fan of leela/romana, but for whatever reason i've never been quite able to make writing them work :/

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but probably won’t?

there's a fair few 😅 the main one I can think of atm is the eldritch helen fic i vaguely remember being asked about on here a couple of years back, it's a concept that i still have a lot of interest in and love for, but i've never quite been able to get the fic itself to work and i fear it may be doomed to the wip pit for eternity :((

i've also got quite a few unfinished pieces of varying lengths with the war-veklin-albert tardis team from "the war doctor begins" hanging around my drive that i'd a) love to finish and b) probably won't; their dynamic and their whole deal as a team whose story takes place mostly off-screen and which we only see the ending of fascinates me. maybe one day i'll manage to do something with it

16. What are your writing strengths?

description :) this is the one thing i am ever consistently happy with in my writing (i am my own harshest critic <3), and i've got a couple of nice comments about it before. so!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

dialogue - even with characters i know well and whose voices i have clear in my head, i do find it difficult to make dialogue feel really authentic, and it's definitely something i tend to overly fixate on when i'm writing because i'm so conscious of wanting to get it right

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

i'm totally fine with it! as long as it has a reason for being in the story, and isn't like. getting in the way of readers understanding what's going on, i don't see the problem.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

doctor who :)

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

it's probably a tie between The Security Guard, The Scholar, And The Giant Stone Cube (a fic i wrote back in 2021 based on this post about rory and helen theoretically being able to meet each other at the national museum during the pandorica arc, which i loved writing and am still really happy with nearly 3 years later), and mae cuddio dagrau yn fy ngwaed (a bit of a weirder/darker dreamscape-type story; it took a lot of puzzling things out to piece all the different parts together to make something that was cohesive but still felt strange or off in the way dreams do, but i was really pleased with the end result!)

can't think of anyone to tag off the top of my head who hasn't been tagged already, so i'll leave this free for anyone to take part if they want to! :)

[agirlking]

(If you, a fellow over a hundred fics posted author, want to overthink getting five too XD)

:3cc Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love❤

Definitely going to have some of my original work on here, thank you!

Cry for Help (Original fic.) I don't know why exactly this is one of my favorites, but it is! I just love how eldritch it feels, how it's atypical for its genre of hurt/comfort. It flowed very naturally for me writing it too, which has not always been the case! I'm still really proud of it.

Return to Humanity (Amnesia The Bunker) I rarely write slash fic so this one was a nice change of pace! Even if it's quite ambiguous. I loved this game more than I thought I would, both story and gameplay, and The Stalker has a special place in my heart in terms of horror monsters. I wanted Augustin and Henri to get a gentler ending. Also this fic got shockingly popular for such a small fandom, and got some very sweet comments on it!

Steady rhythm (The Dark Pictures anthology; House of Ashes) I actually really struggled with which one to pick from this series, because I still love it, it's one of my favorite series I've written no doubt, even though it does need some editing at this point. I love vampires, I love Jason, I love giving this wonderful game a happier ending, and I love the comfort and acceptance and support the characters give each other here, it ends up being very found family. This specific fic though, was my first collab! So I picked it.

You don’t have to be (Stranger Things) Considering how short each part is, I probably could say this whole series counts as one, but I decided to pick the first part of it. I think One/Vecna/Henry is a much better villain than ST had had up until that point, but also that there could've been soooo much more to him. I love AUs where a villain ends up not being the villain, more morally grey, so this was a neat two in one! No puns intended. (Also El getting to have a family that shares her powers is so nice to me.)

Mosquito Bite (Original Work) Okay there were actually SEVERAL duking it out for the final spot, but I had to pick this one. It's arguably my first true darkfic and I love how it came out even if it's so much different (in some ways) than what I usually write, so it deserves this spot!

[leam1983]

Narcolepsy's always been a problem in the family. Humans get it too, occasionally, from what I understand. In my case, it means you sit down at the bottom of the ocean to have a think and the next thing you know a hundred million years have passed. Not only that, but a weird bit of convergent evolution makes the land-monkeys receptive to your own species' telepathy, and you wake up realizing that you've, oh, driven a few hundred thousand people insane across History. They've seen your back yard, but you've dreamt of their cities, too. Their lives, their civilizations, their bad habits...

The poor cultists; they think I got up from the Atlantic's seabed for them, when what really got me out of my funk was how irrational their economists were. Their scholars accuse me of spreading madness, but what about the factory bosses and landlords that actually break these minds I'd happen to unfortunately innoculate?

Of course, there's a flipside, too. When I'm awake, I can slip all sorts of thoughts in other people's heads. Tacky Pulp Fiction authors would say I'd make a homely woman behave as though she were possessed by the soul of her ancestor, but all I really did was show poor Asenath that she didn't really need to make do with self-absorbed scholars, nevermind so-called propriety! She's a grown woman; she doesn't need some hoity-toity scholars from Miskatonic to sign off on her research!

Excuse me, I, er, got slightly sidetracked, here... My ability also makes everything else easier, too. As I am how others perceive me to be, all I needed was to imagine myself as person-sized, easily clothed and not too squamous, with tentacles that could curve into a smile, three-fingered and clawed hands you'd still want to handshake, and a silly pair of vestigial wings that serve more as emotional markers, now. I climbed up Providence's beachfront with a singlet and a straw hat on, kicked an old rubber ball back at a few kids and spent a few minutes convincing the locals that seeing a dumpy man in a dripping singlet saunter over to the closest haberdashery really was nothing special. Green skin? What green skin? There's nothing there, isn't there? By the time I had clothes on, nobody cared about my wings anymore.

I knew the risks, of course. By day, I'd pick up the local cannery, hire workers and keep them fed and lodged, but as soon as I'd lay down to rest my subconscious would wage war against the sleeping minds that surrounded me. The only way I could muffle out my call was by keeping a consistent sleep schedule, but a fair and flexible factory boss doesn't get the benefit of consistency.

I napped a few times. I fell asleep at my desk a few times. Only one worker died - poor old Johanssen - but he already wasn't quite right, back when I hired him. What was I supposed to do, leave a drunk ship's captain without a ship who couldn't speak more than three words of English before defaulting to Swedish ramblings alone on the docks?! Alone, with no place to stay?!

I may be Eldritch, but I'm no monster!

I try and console myself with the study grants I've financed, the houses I've bought, the marriages I've covered, the baby showers I attended - or the fact that our count of workplace injuries is far, far lower than what you'd find out of an outfit helmed by just any other profit-motivated human, but it's hard not to feel responsible when they call you by your assumed human first name and wonder why you don't have a wife or a family of your own.

I would, believe me; but my call is the one injustice I can't fix. Besides, I can consider my workers' union to be a family of sorts, right? We certainly have enough professional dinner dates together and enough arguments on how the factory needs to be run. All civil, of course - not that it stops outsiders from asking questions.

They say Christopher Thülen is an occultist, a cult leader. They say he comes to people in their dreams. Nope, that's just Chtulhu - what I'm stuck being. Like you never chose to have eyes that couldn't see into the infrared spectrum, for instance. Did you know mantis shrimp actually have jokes about human eyesight? I'd translate a few, but I'm afraid the punches wouldn't land. Get it - mantis shrimps, punches?

Oy. Tough crowd, huh?

No, what I'd like to know, Nodens, is why you, the purported protector of all Reality in the face of my myriad perversions, come to me in the guise of a Federal investigator - after planting scabs in the factory I helped unionize over in Brattleboro...

“When the Old Gods returned, they were surprised how easy it was to amass an army of followers. Turned out all they had to do was offer fair wages and good benefits, with reasonable deadlines and working conditions”

[papaya-inspiration]

2024 Reads in Review Asks for you 📘

1, 2, 7, 16, 17, 21.

Ooh, so many to answer!

Faves of the year

This is extremely hard to pick, but I have to go with The Lady Astronauts series by Mary Robinette Kowal, starting with The Calculating Stars. These books are just so amazingly written, and so for me. They have some of the best character writing I've ever seen, some of the most thrilling plots, and some really fantastic merging of real space science, real history, and just enough speculative fiction freedom to make them soar.

Honorable Mentions: The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Significant Zero by Walt Williams, and Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (a reread, but always a fave.)

2. Flops of the year

House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. Without a doubt. I have ranted and raved in several places now about what an absolute heap of soggy cotton candy this book is. I cannot for the life of me understand why it's gotten all the buzz it has. It's saccharine, condescending, thematically confused, boring, badly paced, and nearly every piece of the established world building falls apart the minute you think about it for two seconds.

Two other lesser disappointments included: Kingdom of Ash and Birars by Hannah West (generic YA fantasy with middling to poor execution) and Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Talked by Eric Larocca (good first story, but the other two in the collection where confused, shock-value nonsense.)

7. Wasted Potential: Great premise and/or characters but fell down on execution

Elder Race by Adrian Tchiakovsky for sure. It's stuffed full of tropes that I love (a stranded scientist struggling for meaning, the meeting of science an myth, and even a good dose of eldritch horror at the end) but I just couldn't connect with the characters, and there were some odd story telling choices that I feel really hamstrung the overall experience. I'd love to see this same concept written by an author I connect with more, like Becky Chambers, who could add some much need texture and heart to the whole thing.

16. Biggest surprise?

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson! Based on the cover and blurb, I expected this to be a middling YA fantasy with an unwelcome enemies to lovers plot that I'd read for book club and then forget about a few weeks later. Turns out it was an extremely well written, fast paced story about two very traumatized people helping each other grow--and the particular EtL relationship I was worried about never even materialized. Instead, we got several different really heartfelt friendship plots and a cool magic system and I am HERE for it.

Honorable mention also goes to Slow Boat by Hideo Furukawa, which is a novella I pulled off a bookstore shelf almost at random and then devoured in an afternoon. I don't know what I was expecting, but what I got was strange, sardonic, and quite enjoyable.

17. New author (either to you, or with a recent debut) you're hoping to read more of?

Victoria Goddard! I read The Hands of the Emperor and The Return of Fitzroy Angursell and really loved both. They are excellent hopepunk high fantasy, and she has a sprawling world of interconnected novels that I would love to dive into more. Though I hope and pray someday she gets picked up by an agent and published by a traditional publisher with a more intensive editing style--all her books are self published and while they are fantastic, they are prone to bloat and inconsistent exposition manage ment. I think the work of a professional editor could really take them to the next leve.

Honorable mention for this is Ann Leckie. I will absolutely be finishing the Imperial Radch series this year, and hopefully reading the side books in it as well!

21. Best recommendation from a friend

I'm not sure if I should count my book club books in this or not. If not... I think I'll go with either Witch Hat Atelier or Significant Zero.

[negativeinterview]

💤 SLEEPING SIGN — is your oc a light sleeper or a heavy sleeper? how are their sleeping habits?

🔺 RED TRIANGLE POINTED UP — does your oc know how to use any weapons?

💤 SLEEPING SIGN — is your oc a light sleeper or a heavy sleeper? how are their sleeping habits?

"Hi there! ...umm. Okay so- this will sound a teensy bit odd but ... I don't exactly need to sleep anymore .. !"

"I mean, I can. Sometimes, I do after an exhausting day but ... to be honest it is something that slips my mind quite easily. Can't say when the last time I slept was."

ooc notes - one of her warlock features makes it to where she no longer needs to sleep, and magic cannot put her to sleep. She can but when you've learn eldritch knowledge, the crippling information makes it difficult to do so. But she would probably be a light sleeper and the type that only needs 3-4 hours of sleep. Also plushies. Lots and lots of plushies and pillows on her bed to where she can hide underneath them.

🔺 RED TRIANGLE POINTED UP — does your oc know how to use any weapons?

"Ah! Well, I can toss a mean paper airplane at people!! Oh? That doesn't count- hmm ... I have a dagger for emergency situations. Though I mostly use it to open stuff..."

ooc notes - Sorta! Being a former playwright, she did extensive studies on combat in order to write proper fight scenes. But of course, there's a difference in knowing how fights should look vs knowing how to wield a weapon. In her time adventuring, she's picked up on some techniques. Can comfortably wield a dagger or a crowbar but anything else is above her current skills. Magic is her go to in a fight, primarily launching fiery paper airplanes at targets.

[micheladee]

20 questions writer meme

Stolen from @crush3dmary. Feel free to steal it forward!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

12

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

149,027

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters is the hole I've fallen into.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Eldritch Encounter (Deathshipping, 35 kudos)

Let's Ditch (Angstshipping, 35 kudos)

Chasing His Ghost (Thiefshipping, 34 kudos)

Horror Movies and Chill (Deathshipping, 33 kudos)

The Hunter and the Selkie (Deathshipping, 26 kudos)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to respond to everyone. I'm genuinely grateful for every comment I get and it's the least I can do to thank every person who takes the time to leave a comment. I have a small audience so it isn't too difficult to do this, but I also love talking to people about what details stood out to them. It helps me improve as a writer too when I know what's working and what makes an impression.

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

All of my stories so far have had happy endings, but there's one in particular that lives deep in my backlog that will have a bittersweet if not tragic ending. Until then, I'd say the ending of Chasing His Ghost is the most angsty because it only ties one loose end. There's no guarantee either character will thrive, but it leaves on the note that, despite everything they've been through, they'll be okay. And that's enough for the moment.

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

It's probably Eldritch Encounter. The ending is stressful, but I think the characters receive the biggest payoff in the end.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I haven't yet and I'm genuinely grateful. I write for a living, but this type of writing is completely different. It's what I escape to.

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

Yes! Mainly gay smut, romantic but enough disrespectful fucking to keep things exciting. Some scenes are plot-essential and some are not, what more can you want?

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I haven't since I was a kid, but I'd be open to the idea again.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, thankfully. One funny aside is that I genuinely think a writer borrowed a short, but specific phrase from one of my pieces (I can't confirm this and it could absolutely be all in my head), but I had to laugh about it because I borrowed the phrase from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No but it would be amazing if people who speak other languages would want to read something I've written!

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

Not yet but it's something I'm open to eventually! I hope you don't mind collabing with the slowest writer on the planet. I have collaborated with some amazing artists though.

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

It's probably Thiefshipping. I've been on-and-off obsessed for 20 years.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I have two pieces I haven't been able to get off the ground because of time constraints. When I finish one story, I usually get more inspired to write a fresher idea, so these two have unfortunately fallen down my backlog quite a bit. One is a CUTE anniversary fic where the characters in a ship I love are older and the other is shameless eldritch smut. The duality of man.

16. What are your writing strengths?

For me, I think it's a combination of flow and a deep understanding of the characters. If I don't understand a character on a profound level, I won't write about them. Alternatively, I'll make them more of a side character so I can practice their characterization.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action. At least, that's what I struggle with the most. I thrive on writing slice-of-life scenes and characters finding joy in mundane situations, but I'm practicing to hopefully get better at action.

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

I wish I could, but I'd be awful at it. I used to be proficient at Spanish and had a solid intermediate grasp at Japanese, but that was years ago and I've lost most of my skill. I can understand more than I can speak or write of either language. Even then, my knowledge is rudimentary at best. If I felt inspired to, I'd check with friends to make sure the pieces of dialogue I decided to write were correct.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I'm showing my age here, but Animorphs is the first series that inspired me to write fanfiction. I was around 11.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

This one feels like a dark horse compared to other, more popular pieces, but for me it's Chasing His Ghost. I tend to write only one fic at a time (although I have done 2 before) so I can stay on top of the narrative, but the inspiration to this one burst into my mind unexpectedly while listening to a song I'd never heard before. I started it while working on another project and finished the first chapter almost instantly. That rarely happens for me. I thought about Malik and how he'd struggle to cope with life post-canon. It made me interpret his character differently than I'd ever seen before in fan-created works and I enjoyed exploring that new direction. The ending is that melancholy sort of happiness where you have no idea how long it will last, but for just a moment, maybe even for the first time, you feel you're going to be okay.