#I haven’t written for ace a lot and it’s for this reason

[kenslilove]

Hi bun! 😊🫶 For the kink thing I was wondering if I could get overstim? (GN or Fem is fine)

ace can’t help himself, his fiery spirit leaves him with loads and loads of stamina and loads and loads to fill you up with 🫣 there’s also something about the way your pussy clenches up around his cock for the nth time, with the way it’s all swollen and covered in a layer of slick and his cum that’s he’s pushed in and pushed out too many times to count. A shiver racks all the way up his spine despite how hot he runs and he groans shamelessly against your neck. He lets out another load inside of your when he starts to thumb at your clit and you have to paw at him bc it’s so much, the white hot pleasure, the molding of his cock inside you, the feeling of his leaking out of you it’s making your brain turn off— but ace wants that. He pins your wrists above your head and leaves a feather light kiss against your lips, which contrasts the way his hips suddenly start bucking into your used hole.

“One more babygirl, you can gimme one more, right? I know you can, you’re so good for me. Just one more… and then maybe two”

send me kinks pookies 😋

[3cremepie3]

Airhead pt. 1

Synopsis - Riddle Rosehearts x fem reader. Y/n is an idiot and needs help with studying from Riddle! She wants to pay back his kindness in the only way she know how.

Warnings - innocent riddle, lose of innocence, graphic mentions of head lol, premarital sex, cursing, spit, roughness, slutty y/n, bimbo y/n

A/n - I was supposed to start this series so long ago but I got caught up in request. I found this so fun to write and I will be continuing it!

“Hey riddle,” you exclaimed. You pulled him in for a big hug he deserved it for being so generous. He was helping you study for free! “There’s no need for that.” His words were harsh but his smile said otherwise. Whatever you let him go and plopped down on his bed.

“Wow, it’s so soft I can lay here forever.” You will not now up at once,” he demanded. “In order to get optimal study results students sit at desks. I have a perfectly organized one here.” You sighed getting up to sit at his desk. The chair was cool against your ass cheeks that hung out your dress.

It was uncomfortable and for some reason forced you to sit up. “Now let us begin I have tea time to attend to and I’ll leave you for independent study time then.” Okay,” you accepted. The session didn’t even start yet and you were bored. "Yawning already? Did you not get a good night's rest?"

"No, I stayed up all night waiting on a flash sale." Well, that was idiotic,' He claimed. "When your dorm has no AC you make do with what you can get, look isn't it cute."

"My god," Riddle gasped. "Isn't that lingerie women wear that for their husbands and as far as I know you aren't married." You erupted into a fit of giggles. God, he was over dramatic! “Riddle you're too innocent for your own good," you laughed. "I'm just wearing it to bed what's the harm in that?"

"You're right." He cleared his throat and stepped away to grab a hefty text book. "Hand me your phone there must be no distractions." You were hesitant but handed it over. Riddle grabbed a chair and scooted over towards you. Your body moved closer to his wanting to marinate in his scent. "Wow, you smell so nice Riddle like roses."

"Well thank you I make sure to use rosemary oil and- what are you doing get back to reading at once!" He pointed to the paragraph your eyes finished scanning. "I already finished," you pouted. "Fine then let's get started on this written response."

"The teacher wants you to write this in a formal format so no personal perspective." He continued to yap on and on about something that you couldn't bother to hear as you were distracted by the flamingos running across the yard. "Get him." You cheered leaning out the window to watch the mayhem between students and flamingos concur.

In an instant, you flashed him the short dress that you wore hiked up your back. “You mustn’t lean over like everything is showing,” Riddle yelled. He covered his eyes wanting to keep your privacy. “Ace he went that way,” you pointed. You felt the air on your ass and quickly realized what Riddle had been yelling about.

“Oops my ass was out,” you giggled. “It’s not funny Y/n!” Come on Riddle you act like you’ve never seen anyone’s panties before.” He stared at you blankly. “Wait you genuinely haven’t?” His face became rosy red at your question. “Well, not in real life of course.”

“Christ how is anyone this pure,” you wondered. “My mother kept me very sheltered from a lot of things.” So you’ve never watched porn?” He held his head low not meeting your bright eyes. “ How is that your first thought no I have not.” We’ll have you ever had a girlfriend or a side hoe or a hookup?”

“No I don’t have time for any of that,” he admitted. “I guess remaining top student comes with its downfalls.” You frowned for Riddle. You couldn’t imagine not getting laid. Just then you thought of something. “Well, Riddle since you gave me your time helping me study I’ll give you mine in bed?” You watched him awaiting his answer. “But mother says only married couples do that.”

You slapped your forehead out of frustration. “Mother means married couples stick it in. No one said we have to do all of that.” I suppose there’s no harm since it’ll be a fair exchange and as long as it’s done before tea time.”

“Yup just the perfect pace,” you gleamed. Now why don’t we get on the bed,” you suggested. “Alright.” Oh wow Riddle I’m surprised you’re agreeing to this.” Well, you only live once they say.” He propped himself up on his elbows wanting to face you.

“This process is for relaxation you can lay fully down.” He laid back sinking into his many pillows. “Good boy now take off your clothes.” You heard his breath hitch at the thought but his hands were eager to make them come undone. He stopped at his underwear, however. “Need help or something.” Your hand graced over his bulge and then to the band of his boxers.

“I think that would be best,” he admitted. You couldn’t help but notice his hands shaking. “Aww Riddle don’t be nervous. You sat up to give him some kisses on his burning torso. “It’s just a little dick-sucking,” you reminded. “I know but I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“Well, then I’ll take things slower if you need it.” You began to kiss him softly he was a beginner after all. The first few were awkward teeth colliding but cute as you shared drool. The next ones were better since you took control catching his tongue in yours. You broke apart letting him catch his breath.

His hands tangled themselves in your hair pulling you back in. You balanced yourself on the bed before pulling your hips over his. Now you straddled his lap and could feel his heat against you. Riddle pulled up your dress which caused a gasp to come from your lips.

“Are you eager now?” Yes.” You looked up to see a riddles face flushed in a shade of scarlet. “Fine then I’m gonna go back down here. You crawled back to his legs making sure to land in an arch. Riddle thought he would lose his mind seeing the peak of your ass on full display. You pulled down his boxers to clearly see his mental state.

“Aww look at you dripping,” you coddled. "You can touch it i see you staring." Oh okay," he hesitated. You felt a hand collide with your ass cheek. He rubbed the flesh gently afterwards although it was an apology. You were gonna let out a protest but his focused face was too cute to pass up. You let a glob of spit coat his tip. You scanned his reaction as it slid down to his base.

His breath hitched at the warmness. Soon your mouth would follow the direction of the spit swallowing him down until you gagged. You exited with a pop making his toes curl. "So how's your first time getting head feel?" Good now continue," he demanded. His hand pushed you down onto his waiting dick.

You felt it twitch in your mouth as your tongue followed every curve every vein its entire being. "Oh my god," Riddle huffed. "Your cocks so cute look at it shake for me." You let it rest and spasm on your cheek. Your face had become wet with spit and his pre but you didn't mind. "Taste so good baby," you mumbled. Riddle could only bite his thumb down in response to holding his moans.

Your hand left his thigh to assist you in pumping him. Your grip was strong bringing his balls to tingle. Your lips noticed as you licked against the masses. And it intensified as you juggled them both in your mouth. He looked down on you astonished at your sinful actions.

Your dress was soaked but you were only just getting started. "Change of plans I want you to throat fuck me." Riddle looked at you like a lost puppy. "What does that mean." After quickly giving him a rundown he got into position. "So like this." He asked while pushing himself into your pulsing throat. Your hand linked themselves on his hips bringing him to push himself even deeper.

Riddle let out a grunt at the sensation of you squeezing around him. "Fuck it's like you're sucking me in." You chuckled you'd never think you'd get to hear Riddle RoseHearts curse. His hips buckled back and forth drilling themselves into you. But you still felt as though he was going to be soft on you.

"Riddle here's your chance to ruin me, to take all anger and stress out on me, to manhandle me. You're a man right then prove it to me." You spoke while scattering cock kisses. Riddle scoffed he was tired of everyone second-guessing him because he was small. "While since you give me permission I shall do my best job at it."

His smile twisted into a cruel smirk. You could tell in his head he had felt as though he was back in charge of the monarchy. While really you were still the dominant you just loved getting throat fucked. His hands raced to grab your neck forcing you to collide with the end of his shaft. You felt his hair tickle your nose while you gagged heavenly.

Riddle couldn't get enough of the vibrations against his core and forced you to stay until he watched your eyes roll back. You coughed greatly after being freed but stars were in your excited eyes as the same fate occurred. You watched Riddle lose himself in the contractions of your throat.

He moaned loudly as he pumped you like a fleshlight. They became whimper and he let out mewls that sounded as though he was crying. It was music to your ears especially when his voice that was sure to go raw yelled "Y/n" a dozen times. If he kept this up your throat would organize his shape forever.

And you wouldn't mind as long as you heard his whimper audio. "So good I think I'm gonna." He tried to give you a warning but it was too late. His cum poured down your throat leaving you to swallow the best you could in the short amount of time you had. The excess liquid spilled down your face and his now empty balls. He finally let go of his grip which allowed you to move away from the monster that was his cock.

You had 100% slayed that beast as he softened in front of your eyes. You pulled the bottom of your dress down ignoring the wet patch your essence had left on his bed. "Now we both held our fair end of the exchange." You spoke your voice raspy while removing your dress and stealing one of Riddle's shirts.

"Yes if you ever need help again be sure to let me know," he exclaimed. "Mhmm I'd love to push things even further. What your mother knows doesn't hurt her Riddle. It's not sin if its secret!”

[elluminis]

One Piece Fic Recs 2: Electric Boogaloo

Would you look at that, I’m back at it again with another collection of fic recs! If you have any fics that you’ve greatly enjoyed that I haven’t listed out, please send them my way! Once again, organized roughly by ship, with some of my all-time favorites marked with a ❤️ :)

(This list has a lot of zosan, because that’s the ship I’ve been most fixated on lately. There is also a ton of Sanji, but that should come as a surprise to approximately nobody).

Gen:

tomorrow never happens by midnightluck (NR)

That time Sabo pickpocketed a Marine, got kinda arrested (but it was only pretend! really!), asked some questions, got some answers, and broke a door. What's a bit of amnesia in the face of family?

Garp is a character that I find myself either loving or hating—and here, I very much love him :)

Somewhere Between Sorrow and Bliss by srididdledeedee (G)

I debated on whether this fic belonged here or under zosan, but I think more than anything this is a fic about Sanji and his gender.

This fic is so well-written, and is such a gorgeous examination of gender, trauma, and how they intermingle. I’ve talked before about how much I adore genderqueer Sanji, and this fic kind of encompasses every reason why.

a little bit odd, a little bit theirs by WhirlyBird70 (T)

There are things about the little boy that works at the Baratie that don’t quite make sense. Or, the cooks of the Baratie learn to love Sanji, weird quirks and all.

lightning turns sawdust gold by younglegends (T)

Kind of a cross between a Sabo character study and a “Sabo and Ace meet pre-Marineford” AU. Very well-written, with a fantastic dynamic between Sabo and Koala :)

Lost in Translation by HyperbolicReverie (T)

I love fics that play around with the idea of language in the One Piece world, and this one touches on Zoro and his relationship with Wano :)

requiem for lab rats by MissingN000 (T) ❤️

Hi this fic completely replaced the canon fights with King and Queen in my mind. Basically, what if Judge was one of the scientists on Punk Hazard when King was held there? And what if Sanji was the one who fought King instead? There is just…something so heartbreakingly authentic about this fic. There’s some minor zosan, but it’s practically blink and you miss it. (As an aside, my irl One Piece bestie literally JUST sent me this fic not a day after I’d read it, and we got to scream about it together. So…basically, it’s got two seals of approval!)

Stigma by ZephGale (T)

In which the Vinsmoke name has more than just psychological repercussions for Sanji, and in which his crew shows him their unwavering support.

where nothing hurts and nothing breaks by taizi (T)

Sanji is de-aged to a young child, and finds himself face-to-face with a big, strong man with green hair. But unlike Yonji, Zoro seems to use his strength to protect, rather than to hurt.

Lawlu:

the taste of ink by sweetdd (E)

In a shocking twist of fate, I come to offer more lawlu porn! Feat. tattoo artist!Law and suitably impulsive!Luffy :)

We Should Get Rid of Our Innocence Together! by Vomsa (E)

“Pathetic virgin Law and innocent virgin Luffy” pretty much sums this fic up. I promise it’s much sweeter than it sounds :)

we’ve got blood and honey (getting high and getting some) by Trashgalore (E)

This fic is…porn with very minimal plot. Basically, some very hot and well-written wound-fucking (not as extreme as it sounds) 👀

Lusan:

Wanted by transaizen (E)

Obligatory fic of Sanji with a praise kink! I am…very obviously a Sanji lover if one takes even a cursory glance at these fic recs, and how 99% of them feature my boy. Lusan isn’t my top Sanji ship, but by god do I love both characters to death, and lusan is a ship that more than does them both justice :)

Namivivi:

Shredded Letters and Telltale Expressions by hopipp (fancy2na) (T)

In which Nami realizes that she and Zoro have a little something in common (queer unrequited love) and maybe help each other out a bit :)

stolen things by Origamidragons (T)

The love language of a thief, as viewed from the outside :)

I really do adore namivivi, but I haven’t read many fics that focus on the two of them! So this fic made my queer little heart happy :)

Zolu:

that which is breathed by kurgaya (T) ❤️

This is the fic that got me hooked on daemon AUs, for both this fandom and others! I adore the characterization of Zoro and his daemon here, as well as the way the author works daemon lore into the lore of One Piece. Very much worth the read, whether you normally read zolu or not!

let thy sword be thy tongue by queerweather (M) ❤️

You know, I’ve said before that you know every zolu fic I recommend is good because I’m very much a zosan girlie, and I really mean it here because I’m insane for this fic. It’s got a chokehold on me. This fic is a love letter to Luffy, Zoro, and Zoro’s swords and by god is it deserved.

In which Luffy asks to handle Zoro’s swords, and Zoro wasn’t exactly prepared for how that would undo him.

Zosan:

For Better or For Worse by Hazel_Athena (NR)

Why, if it isn’t the return of Hazel_Athena! In which Sanji is doing his damndest to propose to Zoro, but the “universe” seems determined to get in his way…

Whatever You Wish For You Keep (Podfic) by Taurnil and three_days_late (G)

A Cinderella AU, featuring transfem!Sanji and prince!Zoro. It’s very well-written, very sweet, and accessible to boot!

This fic was written by three_days_late, with the wonderful podfic from Taurnil! I actually read this fic for the first time via the podfic, as I am in fact a huge enjoyer of audiobooks :)

a complete guide to falling in love by ThousandSunny (T)

Sanji was trained in the Bridal Arts; this does not go unnoticed by the rest of his crew.

Sanji’s love language is acts of service/caretaking, which is very much embraced in this fic. Also, the listed/categorical approach this fic takes with each chapter is very interesting, and makes my brain happy!

come on, come on (turn a little faster) by donutsandcoffee (T)

A classic zosan fic! Wherein Zoro and Sanji are very obviously dating—at least, it’s obvious to everyone except for Sanji.

Dear Gloom Island by brunetta6 and Springtime4Persephone (T)

These two are such a fantastic pair of writers, and I have honestly never read an epistolary novel or fic before this one that I’ve ACTUALLY enjoyed. But lo and fucking behold! In which Zoro and Sanji wind up writing each other letters while they’re separated post-Sabaody (with an additional smut fic available separately)!

Firedrake by Hazel_Athena (T)

In which a young Sanji finds a lost dragon in the storerooms of the Baratie, and he can never leave a hungry mouth unfed.

Lightning Strike by Hazel_Athena (T) ❤️

I’m kind of a slut for soulmate AUs, and this one certainly satisfies! In which soulmarks appear in the first place skin-to-skin contact occurs between soulmates, and Sanji is less than thrilled with the person at the other end of his bond—at least, at first.

This fic covers from Loguetown all the way through to Whole Cake, and it is a treat the entire ride :)

Ocean’s Child by 8ball (T)

You know me and my love of mermaid AUs! It’s the childhood friends mermaid!Sanji zosan fic of my dreams, and is absolutely adorable to boot. There are four other fics in a series with this one, but this story is by far my favorite and I didn’t want the whole series to get lost in the explicit section because of one fic :)

Rumors go a long way by hllfire (T)

In which a few out-of-context comments lead the marines to the absolutely ridiculous conclusion that Sanji and Zoro are now married.

where you gonna be (when the money run low) by summermidnights (T)

A supernatural AU? In my fic recs? I am but a simple lad, and easy to please. In which barista!Sanji co-owns a coffee shop that caters to the undead, and vampire hunter!Zoro becomes a regular.

A Thousand Nights by RazzaDazza (M)

A tw for self harm in this one. I adore an examination of Sanji’s mental state, especially one that isn’t afraid to get complicated. And I love how this fic portrays Zoro—as a protector and a caretaker, how does he take down an enemy that isn’t physical and isn’t his to fight?

I’ll Do Anything For You That I Don’t Want To by bluegoose (M) ❤️

The asexual!Sanji fic I didn’t know I needed. As an asexual myself, I absolutely adore explorations of asexuality and intimacy in fic, especially when it gets messy. The lines between romance, intimacy, and sex are easily blurred, especially when one doesn’t know that separation is an option.

Laundry by LibbyLune (M) ❤️

I have a deep and abiding love for Sanji with the queerest of genders, and this is an interpretation that I absolutely adore. That there can be a disconnect between clothing and gender. That there can be a blurred line between innocent preference and kink. And that this world is complicated, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

All My Firsts by beefcakelesbian (E)

In which Zoro magnanimously helps Sanji to check several firsts off the list, and is perhaps getting just as much out of it as Sanji is.

As Told by Fate (As Told by Us) by 8ball (E)

Sanji doesn’t really buy this whole “soulmates” thing—after all, his parents were soulmates. Zoro couldn’t care less about the mark on his back—why would he let a little thing like fate dictate his life?

Contingencies and Congruencies by PeaceSignDisasterBi (E) ❤️

This is the fuck-or-die/sex pollen fic of all time, and it is fucking fantastic the whole way through. The Strawhats plan for everything and nothing: for instance, they will improvise their way through overthrowing a government, but also have a categorical list of consensual helpers of dubious consent. The duality of man!

There are minor spoilers for the beginning of Egghead in the last chapter, so just be aware of that if you’ve managed to make it through the world of One Piece fanfics without getting any post-Wano spoilers!

Coregasm by Yakarmi (E)

This is…basically just porn lmao, but good porn! This also features my favorite brand of kinky pervert Sanji, because I love him unconditionally but even more when he’s being a freak.

Foolish body by fishmanbothfishandman (E)

For once, I come offering more Zoro-central zosan! This is an ABO fic featuring omega!Zoro and alpha!Sanji, and there’s a fantastic sort of push and pull between the two of them. Also, I adore caretaker Sanji, and this fic has plenty of it :)

Guard Down by abandonedstrawberry (E)

In which Sanji is touch-starved enough for it to be a liability, and Zoro magnanimously offers to help.

Insurgents by the Poolside by abandonedstrawberry (E)

In which Zoro and Sanji pose as a married couple while trying to uncover the darker truth behind a fancy resort…and the truth behind their feelings for each other.

Obelisk by DamianFinch (E) ❤️

This fic is a fucking behemoth, you hear me? 310k words, with a sequel in the works. But it is so, so, incredibly good. There’s also not that much smut here—it’s mainly E for being…incredibly dark.

This is a fic that changed my brain chemistry, okay? Basically, 21yo Sanji of canon One Piece swaps places with the Sanji of a different world—one where a 31yo Sanji is the genetically modified Stealth Black, fighting alongside the rest of the Vinsmokes as their chief strategist in a world with a very different physical and political landscape. There are so many incredible parts to this fic, but my favorite has to be the characterization. Sanji and Zoro get a lot of focus, of course, but quite literally every Strawhat is treated so reverently, and with so much love and respect. It’s so apparent to me that DamianFinch gets these characters, and wants to do them all justice. Please give this fic a shot!

One Time Thing by NaroMoreau and summerofspock (E) ❤️

This fic is. so good so far. A modern day ABO AU wherein Sanji and Zoro are roommates (and they were roommates) who have taken to sharing their heats and ruts together…but just as friends. Because neither of them would want anything more, right? Everything gets a whole lot more complicated for them both when Sanji goes into a sudden heat without time to sort out his birth control, and the two are suddenly saddled with a whole lot more than they bargained for…

Parasol by auspizien (E) ❤️

There are layers to this one, folks! Lawyer!Zoro has a crush on the cook at a nearby restaurant, but his tenuous plans to confess are shattered by the realization that Sanji spends his evenings working as a rentboy. This fic is complicated and messy, but even Zoro and Sanji’s questionable choices come off as endearing as opposed to frustrating—a very difficult balance to strike!

Riptide by summerofspock (E) ❤️

This fic has a chokehold on me 😭 in which Zoro is a fishman worshipped as the incarnation of a god on a certain island, upon which Sanji has recently been shipwrecked. The two wind up stuck with one another, in a situation neither has complete control over. I adore how both Zoro and Sanji are characterized in this fic, how Zoro being a fishman reshapes his backstory as we know it, and of course Sanji facing his load-bearing comphet :)

Steps of Calidity by auspizien (E) ❤️

It’s ABO ethics, the fic! In which Sanji tries to enlist Zoro to help with his heat…once in its midst, and once again with a clear head. Talking about the intersection of consent with primal instincts is endlessly fascinating to me—and of course, explicit consent is sexy :)

Talk About It by summerofspock (E)

This fic is fascinating to me: it’s kind of a deconstruction of romance, kink, and how they interact—especially in someone with such a warped sense of self as Sanji. While I love my overtly kinky fics, I think the one thing I love even more is psychological examinations of kink, or character studies through its lens. And this fic certainly does that!

the instinct to want you by lightrivals (E)

I absolutely adore nontraditional omegaverse dynamics, and this fic absolutely provides! Feat. omega!Zoro and omega!Sanji :)

Tower of Babel by Trixree (E) ❤️

You know how people will make those arguments about how sex has no artistic merit? I would love to shove this fic in their faces, because it is almost 7k words of the most gorgeous smut I’ve ever read. There are so many lines in this fic that I think about all the time, it’s just…incredible.

[captainlilyuniverseworld]

Love, Law and Laundry

A/N: Teaser from a new Bloodweave fic in the style of a romcom/drama where Astarion is a lawyer and Gale is a grad student who recently started working for him as a housekeeper and they eventually fall in love. Pics courtesy of @papercutstoday (who helped fuel a lot of this and listened to my rambling lol)

Love Law and Laundry

Gale stared at the address he’d written down on a scrap piece of paper then at the large highrise building in front of him. It would be an understatement to say that it didn’t appear daunting, nearly looming over him. He climbed the steps up to the doors and pulled it open, a rush of cold air from the AC slapping him in the face as he stepped inside and made his way towards the elevators. 

He pressed the button for the fifteenth floor and used the elevator’s mirrored walls to double check his appearance. He was trying not to be as nervous as felt and wasn’t exactly failing but he wasn’t exceeding either.  

Twenty six years old. Back home living with his mother. Starting back at square one with his master degree and working a part time job as a home cleaner. Was it his top choice for a part time job? Not in the slightest, but the client that Jaheira had assigned him to was willing to pay a lot for someone to come by a few days a week. 

Apparently this particular one, Astarion Ancunin, which try saying that five times fast, had a reputation among the Harper Cleaning Co. Worked weird hours. Had some weird dietary needs or something. Weird temperament, just weird all around. But for fifty dollars an hour Gale could overlook ‘weird’. 

The elevator doors dinged as they slid open and he stepped onto the floor counting the numbers as he walked past the apartments. 

1501. 

1503.

1505.

1507.

1509.

1511. 

He stopped in front of the door and double checked that it was the right place and pressed the doorbell listening as it rang out through the apartment. Condo? He rocked on his heels as he waited and heard the locks disengage before the door opened and a older man with a pale face, a shock of silver white curls and eyes that made Gale think of bloodstones regarded him coolly. 

“What happened to the other girl? Mayrina or something?�� he asked. 

“She…is no longer with the company,” Gale answered. “Uh…sorry is your dad here by chance? I’m Gale. I’m supposed to be her replacement.” 

The man blinked at Gale and eyed him curiously. “My dad…? No he isn’t, he’s been dead a good fifteen years now.” 

Gale winced. Way to put your foot in your mouth Dekarios. “Sorry…I just sort of...ahem...From what Jaheira told me,” and what people said I assumed you were some grumpy 90 year old man… “You are Mr. Ancunin then?” 

“Yes, but Astarion’s fine,” he appeared more amused at Gale’s mistake more than anything. “A voicemail sounds vaguely familiar.” He opened the door wider and motioned Gale inside, shutting the door behind him. 

Gale followed him down the short entryway and holy hells how did this man find anything? There were clothes strewn about, leftover takeout containers, empty bottles of wine. Half drunk cups of coffee, papers and books and notepads strewn about. 

He glanced over and saw the man leaning against the island counter that separated the living room from the kitchen, cell phone to his ear. 

“So they did,” he nodded and set the phone down. “Well, you certainly look…heartier than the last few.” 

Seems like one has to be…Gale just gave a slight smile. 

“Can I get you anything to drink?” he offered. “Coffee? Water? Tea?” 

“Water’s fine,” Gale answered. “Your requests mentioned that you needed general housekeeping, bit of meal prepping and the like?” 

He watched Astarion fill two glasses with water and walked over handing Gale a cup. “Yes. Housekeeping, meal prepping, grocery shopping. There might be times when I need to go out of town on business so perhaps some apartment sitting from time to time…”

Gale nodded and drank some water. “Sounds reasonable enough.” 

“We haven’t gotten to the fun part yet,” Astarion cleared a space on one of the couches and motioned for Gale to have a seat and sat across from him. “My work as a lawyer has me keeping odd hours depending on the case I’m covering.” 

“What kind of law do you do, if you don’t mind me asking?” Gale asked. 

“Family law, though I have dipped my toe into business law and criminal law, environmental law from time to time,” Astarion answered. “But family law is my main coverage. There will be times when I’ll hold a client meeting in my home office. That and the bedroom are the two hours you don't really need to worry about. I'll leave the sheets and towels in the hamper in the hall and take care of the rest.” 

“Home office and bedroom, off limits, gotcha,” Gale made a mental note. 

“Second, I tend to eat a high protein diet...I have a bit of an iron deficiency hence the interesting dietary needs,” Astarion continued. 

Gale tried not to frown. Why would they say that’s a weird dietary restriction? “I’d say I’m a pretty good cook, my mom taught me everything she knows, still teaches me actually, and that shouldn’t be a problem. Are there certain foods you prefer over others? Or things I should look for at the grocery store?” 

Astarion looked momentarily caught off guard by the question but quickly schooled his features. “I try to leave a list at the beginning of the week…I’m not overly picky in terms of food, but if you’re ever unsure you can send a picture of the item and I can let you know. I’m not expecting you to pay for the groceries with your own money, I have a card for that purpose. I just have money transferred over every week so there shouldn’t be any issues with it getting declined.” 

Gale nodded. ‘“Was there a particular number of days you’d like me to come over? I have morning classes on Tuesdays and Thursday’s, but on Mondays and Wednesdays I have evening classes and my Fridays are pretty much open.” 

“You’re in school?” Astarion asked. 

“I just started the master program at Blackstaff Academy,” Gale nodded. “Anthropology but uh…not exactly sure after that...needed some extra money so here I am.” He winced. Was that an okay thing to say?

“Every little bit helps right?” Astarion replied. “Why don’t we start with Sunday’s, Wednesday morning’s and Thursday afternoon’s?” 

“I can do that,” Gale nodded. “When would you like me to start?” 

“When can you start?” Astarion asked. 

“I could come by this Sunday?” Gale offered.

Continue Reading...

[nyx-umbrakinesis]

This is a Hazbin Hotel Blog.

🛑 This blog’s target audience is those of 18 years of age or older.

❤️ Fics may contain sexual content, violence and other triggering and/or adult themed content. Please read trigger warnings and remember you’re responsible for your viewing.

💜 You will find my own fanfiction works on this blog, as well as audiowork I’ve done of others works with their consent, as well as reblogs, and sometimes random ramblings and updates.

🧡 I have tags for my short Quips for ease to find them as they don’t go on my masterlists just follow #Nyx’s Quips for some snacks.

🚨 Any hate speech, basically anything that makes you look like a giant hateful dick will not be tolerated. You will be blocked immediately. Be a decent human being is all I ask, please and thank you. I have a no tolerance policy on bullies. 🚨

🧡 All written works will be uploaded on Ao3... eventually.

❤️ Thank you @redvexillum for making my banners and ask sign!

💙 Join us in the VoxTek Discord server for a Vox themed Hazbin place to hang and get teasers for upcoming chapters! This is a server where I personally am a mod and we foster a chaotic but welcoming environment and eagerly support fic writers and artists big and small, and everyone in between!

✨️ Request Rules: The more detailed, the better. Requests accepted for Hazbin Hotel, I endeavour to write any request or pairing (I do specialise in Alastor, Vox, and Lucifer), I tend to stick to smut, fluff, and crack but I can write dark/angst. Requests are typically written oldest to newest unless one snags my inspiration sooner. Turn around time is... long. I reserve the right to reject a request but it will be rare if I do and with good reason. ✨

💚Disclaimer: This is fanon and whilst the canon sexualties are respected, may not be represented in all of my works.💚

💜 (I have a lot of health issues and as such my ask turn around can be long for such a reason just know I do already have a fair few asks waiting for answers and I haven’t forgotten about any of you and intend to get them done, the majority of my asks are for longer one shots so will take me time given my capacity. If you really want to be informed when your anon ask gets answered just drop me a DM which one's yours and I can shoot you a message when I post it, I won't disclose identities and I don't judge.) 💜

~ Masterlists: FIND THAT FIC ~

*Hazbin hotel Written works Masterlist*

*Hazbin Hotel AudioBooks Masterlist*

~ To go on my taglist, please comment here! ~

*A/N about how I write Ace Alastor, Gender, Sex, Race, and Sexual Orientation (it's a little longer than I planned but hope it explains things for those who want to know a little more)*

[z-eel]

Few different things because I’ve been accumulating thoughts:

First of all, the least shocking thing I’ve ever learned about you is that you’re short - if you didn’t want that to be the most obvious thing you shouldn’t’ve compared yourself to a raccoon so often ( also you’re a barty kin.)

Secondly, you reblogged Cata’s post about barty’s crush on Fleamont and it made me curious why that’s not something you’ve written before (to my knowledge)

I’m not necessarily asking you to do it (I mean I wouldn’t be upset if you did…) But is there any reason behind your lack of age difference smut?(Personally I can totally see Fleamont & Euphemia as doms for the poor daddy & mommy issue subs that James knows)

Thirdly, I see what you’re saying about the rosier twins not having really having an incest-y relationship and I 100% agree ‘cause I’ve always hc both of them as ace (which ik you have opinions(tm) on Evan) but do you have any Pandora opinions? Sexuality/ship wise?

Ok this was a lot, I haven’t sent in a while and I had a few things to say. ofc as always dw about responding to all of it (or really any of it, but ykwim) and I wanted to sign off with thanking you for stepping out of your comfort zone for my ask the other day. Ok I’m done yapping now sorry this is so long.

-✨

what does being a Barty kin have in connection with being short?

and about the whole Barty and Monty thing, short answers is i have daddy issues (surprise surprise) so obvious so will Barty. i mentioned it before (like once in a post like two months ago) how Barty would have the biggest crush on Monty.

i've also been put on Orion x Barty Jr thanks to @blackstargazer

also hello Euphemia Potter!!! like my mommy issues aren't that bad but like common i mention my obsession with her like once every couple weeks so i will gladly share that with everyone (pretty sure i mentioned that Barty would fuck the both of them at least once)

[link] [link] [link] (i found my few post)

and as for the whole age difference smut, doesn't call for me to write it rn. like, im not really into writing it ig (not that i never will i just haven't really found my way into writing it). also age difference in general is kinda iffy to me (blah blah trauma, you get the idea) but im not against it just have to build up to it.

also i agree, Euphemia and Fleamont are just healing everyone's parental issues (i could on for hours about how they would be with each one of the marauders & co)

now for the twins, with Evan he's just whatever he want to be depending on the situation (i have this mentality for all the characters lol), but every version likes to watch (his fascination is the human body in general). Pandora open to dating everyone, she not all that sexually active tho, it doesn't call to her much (i do headcannon her a lesbian most of the time tho)

and the incest in the fandom is something i have to be pulled into. like starcest, can't just be starcest, there has to be someone else, a level of separation i can cling on to (either the really complicated feeling or another person) and for the twins is so strange to me because that level of connection and together that is often associated with them is similar to what i share with my own sister so is off putting.

but i can work around that by again adding a level of separation (the whole they're clinical about how their togetherness is just their sibling bond, no romantic feeing involved, does that make sense)

a general rule of thumbs for me, im up for anything once and i don't like something i won't do it. so never worry about asking me to do something.

[catenary-chad]

I think it’s funny that Stex has a roughly inverse relationship between how popular/glamorized something is and how interesting its depiction is.

Electra’s most notoriously weird traits (mind control, everything about the first two verses of AC/DC) are dead-on to notoriously invisible electric train traits that multiple rail employees have said “nobody knows or cares about”. I have a lot of ire towards how slanderously wrong they get a lot of more basic traits of electric trains but damn does getting obscure stuff like MU control and incompatible electrification systems right make up for it. Electric trains are such a non-entity in a lot of train media that Electra kind of mirrors the likes of Dr Frank N Furter being “problematic but hey, it’s some kind of representation”

Freight cars (and unpowered train cars in general) rarely get much personality or individual coverage, but the freight and Components in Stex are amazing as visually distinct and funny background characters in the replica show. Honestly I think their designs and concepts are more fun than most of the main characters, which is rare in media. The Components are more dubious but also lean towards Maintenance of Way vehicles, which are often pretty invisible to the public (but people tend to be fascinated by them when highlighted). I don’t know if the “hivemind” or “parts of a whole” thing are canon outside the Components name or just fanon, but it’s very EMU coded which is also an interesting direction with something widely regarded as “boring and mundane”

Greaseball is tropey in alllll the right ways. He doesn’t need to be weird or unique, he’s the establishment and dear god he works better the more you know about US railroads. British media tends to make diesel engines suck in just the right ways.

Momma/Poppa would be in a similar category to Greaseball if better written. I really don’t think it would be hard to fix the cringier aspects of the character without impacting the plot. They could be a lot more interesting though, even just having more of a backstory like Belle would be a step up.

The coaches are less distinct and get too human for my tastes, but generally work. OLC Belle probably has the strongest identity which is kind of funny with how sleeping cars are unappealing to tourist trains since they can’t be reused as-is. I think they could be a lot more interesting with more of the nuance and practical issues of different coaches (even just teasing each other over wall outlet quality).

The Nationals are based on relatively famous trains and it’s unfortunate that they’ve always been characterized so badly. Rail is such a nationalistic industry I think their concept is stronger vs generic or fantasy-based origins but man they didn’t even try to look into surface-level train jokes about the countries in question. It was an easy assignment and the writers still botched it and haven’t fixed it.

I don’t have anything positive to say about Rusty, my historical and metaphorical problems with him are only magnified with how I’m sick of small steam engines because they’re so overdone. Be a Pump is weirdly the most compelling aspect of him and imo not as unbelievable as most claim. Usually it was steam locomotives being turned into stationary pumping engines, but the inverse is vaguely feasible, especially with just how desperate some places got for small steam engines with how popular preservation was by the 80s (importing them from China, getting in bidding wars over reasonably functional ones, grabbing anything vaguely salvageable from scrapyards). But acknowledging that blows up the rest of his concept.

[thedvilsinthedetails]

Heyyyy…

hey im still figuring out what i wanna be called but for now u can call me Jamie if u want I’m genderfluid as fuck [they/she/he or whatever idegafatp]

some typa aroace spectrum probs grayace & demiromantic also omniromantic - in general I have nothing figured out

so a simp w like a slight preference for men ig but kinda ace most of the time but sometimes very not

neurospicy bitch

writing request status: OPEN FOR MICROFICS RN

I’m a rosekiller loverrr but also a multi shipper so u never know what ur gonna see ig [but probably Rosekiller, Wolfstar, Dorlene, Starchaser maybe some sunkiller if I’m in the mood etc] for the record just bc I don’t ship smth doesn’t mean I support hating it even as a joke [translation: prongsfoot is chill leave them be]

if u don’t like smth, just ignore it, if u send me hate I’ll reply w shitty jokes probs

my dream job is to be an actor [screen actor specifically]

Media I like:

Fav TV stuff: Challengers, Gravity Falls, Cruella, 10 things I hate about you, into the spiderverse

Fav author is @neil-gaiman also that man is my idol so I’ll probs reblog him a shit ton [do u think he’ll like…mind that I tagged him? Sorry if this bothered u Neil!!!] Music [uhhh changes all the time tbh but for rn]: The Neighbourhood, Olivia Rodrigo, Conan Gray [Kid Krow phase rn], Chappell Roan, Renée Rapp, Green day, Ricky Montgomery, NOAHFINNCE, MARINA and Hozier

Spider-Man. Fucking love Spider-Man.

One thing to note about me tho: obvi I love recommendations but I find starting literally any new forms of media really fucking daunting for no reason [this is everything: songs, movies, books etc]

e.g. I fucking love spider verse but I still haven’t watched movie 2, same w latest season of young royals, same with even like ONE song alone I find it rlly hard and really scary

so if u give me recommendations and I don’t get back to u about them for ages it’s not bc I forgot or i was ignoring u but bc I find it scary so pls be patient :)

also same w please don’t like assume I’m knowledgeable about like any of the music artists I named earlier bc tbh I don’t rlly listen to artists I listen to songs [im still a fan of a lot of music artists ofc but the artists I listen to ≠ the artists I’m a fan of]

HI! welcome to my crazy blog, I love making friends im not at all scary I promise :D

Btw my inbox is ALWAYS open for spam, ship ramblings [even if it’s not smth I ship], info dropping about ur hyperfixations, venting, questions etc. [the only thing is no illegal ships bc it will be ignored] also sorry pre warning im shit with the inbox chains [‘send this to ten people who…’] so often I won’t answer those sorry, anything else I will make sure to answer but the chains I sometimes just forget about sorryyy

Barty Crouch Jr & James Potter kinnie

got a FAT crush on Evan Rosier [he’s the loml he just doesn’t know it yet] and also a crush on Dorcas Meadowes

I write sometimes:

I fell for you like glitter on stage - rosekiller band au, this was a microfic series on tumblr that I posted on ao3 for convenience [words: 4548] [this is my fav thing I’ve ever written lol]

we are all just prisoners here of our own device - Jegulus, a oneshot on ao3 based on the song ‘hotel California’ by the eagles. [Words: 6162]

Oh where do we begin? The rubble or our sins? - ON HIATUS. Roman Empire Jegulus au with side Rosekiller, Wolfstar and Pandalily on ao3 [words: 6141] [currently I don’t want to write Jegulus - the hyperfixation hath faded]

also I’m in a marauders RP as Barty and u shld follow it bc we’re all super cool and funny and amazing and awesome and yeah @bartythebabygorljr

tags you’ll see on my page:

me and my old black biro > writing tag

Im in love with that Rosier boy > [this is a new one] me having a massive crush on Evan Rosier

the most boring soap opera > my life tag

I have an online diary called @miseryoforpheus if ur fascinated by my charming and irresistible personality

[The song at the bottom of my intro post changes all the time depending on how I’m feeling]

THIS BLOG SUPPORTS PALESTINE

THIS BLOG STANDS WITH UKRAINE

THIS BLOG THINKS JK ROWLING HAS A NEGATIVE QUANTITY OF BRAINCELLS

[physalian]

I think being an ace writer lets me write sex and romance with less of my own biases/wants/what-I-think-is-sexy getting in the way, to better incorporate these scenes into the story as a method of plot and character development instead of just gratuitous, among other things. In the same way being atheist lets me write real and fantasy religions without my own beliefs interfering, because I can respect religion academically and objectively, as a tool, not a given.

I write my characters in tons of situations that I myself would never enjoy, anything from bathing together or having kinks or even making out. I know why people enjoy these things and I’ve read enough romances to know how to write the proper buildup and the right tone to strike and all that jazz and I do enjoy reading romance.

There’s absolutely other factors at play here and I can’t speak from experience for a lot of the situations I put my characters into (nor do I write smut, I’ve tried, I’m bad at it because I’m ace) but I’ll beta read sex scenes for original authors, especially cis/het authors, and while “writing to satisfy yourself or your readers” is different than straight up just writing a story that includes romance, I seem to keep finding myself stuck with a constant stream of author wish fulfilment, a lot of newbie original authors seem… narrow-minded when it comes to sex.

Like they can only imagine what they find kinky or romantic or sexy, like the subtext is saying “this is sexy because I think it’s sexy and if you don’t think it’s sexy something’s wrong with you”. Which isn’t at all a problem in fanfic for whatever reason (probably because these authors also tend to think sex=romance thus smut=character development).

So I have a character with a medical kink, for example. I haven’t had readers gushing over him or that scene (haven’t had that many readers period, mind you), but I haven’t had any complaints, either. Heck, my protagonist in ENNS is a frustrated virgin in a vampire romance who at one point realizes “hm yeah I definitely don’t hate teeth anymore pls do it again” meanwhile I’m sitting back with my metaphorical coffee going “you have fun now, enjoy”. Maybe because it’s not just an 111k word fantasy smutfest but his self-discovery is part of his arc.

But I think the difference is, either in just skill at my craft or being on the outside looking in, is that I think “what would he think is sexy? And how would I go about writing that?” vs “what do I think is sexy? And how do I go about contorting my characters to fit that?” I spend the time making sure he’s in character, it makes sense for his character, and that he’s acting authentically.

Or at the very least, I think aceness (and possibly aro-ness we are undecided in that department) gives you a baseline of 0, clean slate, not that aces can’t enjoy the idea of sex, the idea is that sexuality is self-contained. But when your whole life is sex-favorable/allonormative I think it puts blinders up.

Or, I just keep reading heterosexual romances that leave something to be desired. Not just beta-reading, the romances in like, Maas books, for example—no kinkier or more wish-fulfilling than a fanfic with the same tags, but there’s something so cheap and artificial about those sex scenes. The first time I read… I think it was book 3 or 4 of the TOG series and I realized just how much sex there was, I legit got bored and scanned ahead until I could get back to the story—and I have sat through fanfics that surpass 100k words with as much smut and I am fine and entertained. Is it because she’s not a great author, or because she’s a cis/het author with blinders up, or some mix between the two? I have enjoyed poorly written but sincerely written smut in fanfic, so it can’t be that, either. If this was a science experiment and I’m controlling for all other variables except the sexuality of the authors and/or characters, I’d have my answer.

That’s not at all to say allonormative authors cannot write beautiful romances and hot sex scenes. There is only one (1) romantic scene in Maas's books that I used to go back specifically to reread, and it was just two characters finally tossing decorum aside to make out. She lost me completely after that.

Just in my experience, inexeperienced allonormative authors vs queer of any kind tend to be worse at making it compelling and sincere and my theory is that they can’t escape their own ideas of what sexiness is, because they've never had to, and can't get in the minds of characters and readers who don’t all think like they do.

—

Interested in a queer vampire fantasy novel? Eternal Night of the Northern Sky is out now!

[insert-witty-user-name-here]

20 Questions with a Fanfic Author

Thanks for the tag @andthekitchensinkao3 and @loki-is-my-kink-awakening 💕

1. How many works on AO3?

A nice even 20

2. Total AO3 Word Count?

335,746 and counting!

3. Top 5 Fics by Kudos

To Stay- some Lokius porn with feelings (my only exclusively Lokius smut fic).

We’ll Fix It Together- just your classic Loki S2 fix it fic.

Here- a Thor and Loki reunion fic.

Rising From the Ashes- written in 2021, how I would have written S2 if it were up to me.

Moments In Time- a Lokius proposal story (but really just an excuse to share some headcanons I had laying around).

(I don’t think I’ve ever shared my fics listed by kudos but a reminder that kudo count is just one way to list your fics and is a complicated marker. My top two fics by kudos were posted quickly after the Loki S2 finale. I like those two fics but I definitely wouldn’t say they’re my best. As always, what makes a fic get “a lot of kudos” is about so much more- like timing, fandom following, etc- than writing ability).

4. What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly just Lokius lol. But you never know when the inspiration will strike.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! I used to be a very shy commenter so now I try to always reply to comments when I can (And leave comments of course)!

6. Angstiest Ending?

We Could Have Been (Good Omens)

The penultimate scene of Good Omens season 2 from Aziraphale’s POV. My only hurt/no comfort fic (followed by a happy ending in another fic of course). My way of explaining Aziraphale’s actions to myself and Michael Sheen’s acting in the scene was incredible.

7. Fic with the Happiest Ending?

Most all my fics have a happy ending (usually angst with a happy ending but happy nonetheless)

Sharing two:

Happy Memories (Loki Series)

One of my only pure fluff fics, Loki and Mobius spend an afternoon cleaning their hall closet and take a path down memory lane.

We Last Forever (Good Omens)

One of the endings that’s given me the most closure- three semi-connected one-shots of Aziraphale and Crowley getting together and eventually settling down in their South Downs Cottage. How I would write an epilogue to Good Omens season 3 if it were up to me.

8. Do you get hate?

No, thank goodness. I think most people who don’t like Sylvie know to see themselves out with my fics.

9. Do you write smut?

Generally no. Took me a while to figure out but I am 100% on the demi/ace spectrum. But I have written smut, it’s such a great way to explore character dynamics! I am always in awe of those who write smut fics on a regular basis because it is a SKILL.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I haven’t but I’m not opposed.

11. Ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated

Not to my knowledge.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic?

Yes- currently!

Dividing Lines, a Lokius fic inspired by Severance

It’s been a joy to combine our two niche obsessions into this fic and I’ve been thrilled to see others are interested in joining @lgwilt and I for the ride!

14. All time favorite ship?

In case it hasn’t been clear: Lokius. The way they compliment one another both in their differences and similarities is something that deserves thousands of words of analysis IMO 💚🤎

15. WIPs you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I prefer writing long fics which means most of my WIPs are those I doubt I’ll ever finish 😅

At one point I toyed with the idea of doing my own take on Good Omens S3. At the time, I decided not to write it for a lot of reasons but given my own feelings about Neil Gaiman, I might pick it back up again to give myself closure for Good Omens.

Also sometimes will still dabble in a story focused on Ravonna Renslayer teaming up with Kang to re-establish the Sacred Timeline (before-spoilers- learning she doesn’t need him and comes into her own power 🧡)

16. Writing strengths?

I like to think I’m good at character arcs. Also I used to hate writing description but now it’s one of my favorite things to do! I love when the plot beats and dialogue are written and then I have time to really sink into a scene, using the description to further set the tone at that moment in the story or mirror characters’ emotions (in other words- yes, I do like to analyze why the curtains are blue).

17. Writing Weaknesses?

Many (overuse of adjectives, specific phrases, characters’ names) but to name one I am slow writer- idk how others do it. My first draft is always, always a random list of tell-y sentences (Loki looks sad. Mobius walks to the door. The sky is blue.) that takes hours upon hours to fashion into something I’m ready to share. I’m content with this as part of my writing process but I am always in awe of people who can crank out gorgeous fics in mere hours!

18. Thoughts on mixed language dialogue?

YES! Definitely do it if you can.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

First fic posted- Lokius.

Ever? Hmmm idk I’ve been writing as long as I can remember.

When my younger brother was learning to read he got really into the early-mid 2000s Lego properties like Bionicle and Knights Kingdom. I have fond memories of helping him learn to read with those books and then spending the afternoons drawing and writing new stories expanding upon the adventures of the “Toa Mata” or “Jayko, the blue knight.” I suppose that counts as fanfiction. Wish I still had those little books we crafted 🩷

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

I’m a broken record at this point but it’s Rising. First fic I ever posted. I have a habit of starting and not finishing things but in 2021 the stars in life aligned for me to have lots of free time to write. So, I wanted to see if I could write something through to the end and am proud to say I did. Will always treasure that fic for many reasons especially for introducing me to so many wonderful people 💕

Tagging some writer friends: @queen-of-meows @dewdropreader @mirilyawrites @starport-seven-five @devilbearingtrouuble @blackbirdofasgard @kcscribbler @lgwilt @thosegayoldmen

(Apologies if folks already did this and I missed it, the last two weeks at work have been the weeks from hell 🙃)

[ari-but-unhinged]

Art for Toritsuka/Hairo fic where I explored what was meant to be a crack ship and is now one of my favourite (??) ships in Saiki k- PLEASE HEAR ME OUT

(A long rant ensues so, if you don’t want that then that’s all good and you don’t have to click, but if you’re interested, then welcome to my rant about a rare pair i love!)

Of course, I started out by simply laughing at the “I hate men” line Toritsuka said about Hairo and thinking writing a crack taken seriously fic would be funny and it would be a nice break before I started this other fic I have planned that is going to be an even bigger endeavour with Saiki k x Danganronpa. What I didn’t see happening was for this Torihai fic to completely take over my brain space and end up with a fic just shy of 20,000 words.

This may not seem like a lot, but I usually only write fics in 1,000-2,000s so this is a lot for me, especially since I’m a slow writer/editor so it takes me a while.

Part of the reason I love these two together is because of the inherent dynamic of Hairo’s inspirational preachiness and how it doesn’t work on Toritsuka, and how it might be refreshing for Hairo to have someone who challenges him (and not in the fake way Teruhashi does, with Toritsuka being very upfront and honest about it). Toritsuka also, because he’s so upfront about his feelings, helps Hairo to express certain emotions like annoyance/sadness that he wouldn’t normally express outwardly. Something else too is that Toritsuka tends to be very physically affectionate, and I don’t know that Hairo is used to that (I haven’t seen any examples of him being physically affectionate in any other way than a bro way) so that could be refreshing as well. Also, also, Toritsuka is Hairo’s gym buddy who was reluctantly dragged along that day Saiki was trying to avoid everyone and no one can change my mind lol (this, in Hairo’s mind, forms a bond between them that can never be broken and he will never stop reminding Toritsuka of this when they hang out).

I just think their dynamic can be playful/fun because they’re both real with each other if that makes sense?

On Toritsuka’s side of things, he doesn’t have a lot of friends and the friends he does have he either doesn’t have any chemistry with or hate him (Saiki lol), so I think it’d be nice for him to have someone who is extremely caring/attentive to his friends and clearly cares deeply about them and shows it often. Because of this, Hairo shows interest in Toritsuka’s life, and for someone who probably hasn’t had many friends, that would mean a lot. Also the fact that Hairo cares so much for Toritsuka sets an example as to how to be a good friend/human would behave and could help him grow as a person (which are always the best friendships/relationships when they grow together rather than staying stagnant and dragging each other down). Being more caring of others and allow him to develop his interpersonal relationships with more than just ghosts, instead with real humans.

Also, I’ve taken to calling them the “errand boys” because it’s a great prompt to force two people who are polar opposites and would never interact to hang out/do an activity together, so I thought it fit them perfectly.

In the fic I changed a few things from canon (sexualities obviously- Tori is bi/queer and Hairo is gay. Although quick side-tangent- I’ve written Tori/Kaidou, Tori/Akechi, and now Tori/Hairo and all three of them either are Asexual or are often headcanonned as ace by the community/me and I just find it very funny that the horniest character is continuously shipped with them. I only realized I did this after I first started writing the fic.)

- Hairo explicitly has psychic powers (it’s something they can bond over and it’s something that plays off of Hairo’s emotions. Cue a lot of blushing not only because of embarrassment but also actual literal heat rushing to his face.)

- Hairo was raised by a single parent (His family is never mentioned so I just made one up)

- Personal headcanon, but I feel like Toritsuka might occasionally pretend to not see spirits in order to avoid getting approached.

- Toritsuka’s backstory has been slightly altered and has a lot more angst to an already pretty sad backstory (it’s played for laughs, but imagine how that would’ve felt for him :( he realized he lost two people he loved in a matter of minutes. Also, he’s a child when this happens so that’s even sadder. I honestly wonder if they died somewhere in the house or he was just there and his guardians didn’t know, like??? How???)

If this made you interested in reading the fic which this is all about, I’ll link it at the end, but if you were just here for the rant, that’s cool too! I’m obsessed with these two because they’re adorable and I must spread the gospel of Torihai.

Link to original fic-

[nikoniclove]

hey! just had a few random questions since you posted we could ask you anything :)

do you have a favorite music artist(s) or even a band to listen to?

all time favorite song that you could play on repeat?

favorite episode of criminal minds? so far at least, since you have said you haven’t actually finished the whole show yet. although i do agree with that as i’ve also gone back to comfort episodes or seasons. i’ve finished both cm and cme but just can’t will myself to rewatch the whole thing in order. do you plan on finishing the show though and eventually moving to cme?

is it possible for you to choose between jj or emily?

do you happen to have a favorite show or movie other than cm?

and finally since this is getting a bit lengthy (sorry haha) do you have a favorite story or chapter that you’ve written for the series?

Fun, fun. Let’s see

Favorite band/music: I listen to a bit of everything, but I love pink and have for many, many years. I’m always a sucker for the shit that came out when I was a teenager: panic at the disco, paramore, fall out boy, mayday parade, three days grace, that era of pop-punk stuff. Also love Jess Glynne.

All time favorite song: explosions by Ellie Goulding is up there given that it’s tattooed on my skin. I don’t know though. My ADHD means I get hyper focused on music and can listen to songs 500 times in a row (like nothing but that one song for days at a time) and then I will completely forget it exists.

Favorite criminal minds episodes: oooh. The cannibalism episode in season 2 or 3 always sticks with me. I will rewatch season 2 through 7 ish over and over again in order and rarely skip anything. Eventually I will probably watch the new stuff, but for me, rewatching the old stuff is a coping mechanism because I know what’s going to happen where I don’t have that reassurance with the new stuff. It’s a catch 22 for my brain haha /shrug

JJ vs Emily: honestly I flip back and forth. I’ll write a lot of one of them and then realize I’ve been heavy handed and veer back in the other direction. I like the characters for different reasons, so it’s all kind of dependent on my mood, but for 20 years I’ve always been drawn to the 2 of them

Other favorite shows: castle, rizzoli and isles, psych, schitt’s creek

Other favorite movies: most marvel stuff, the proposal, I suck at watching movies because I get distracted so I haven’t seen a lot of things

Favorite story: mmm I like writing brat Ace quite a bit because I’m a sarcastic pain in the ass, so it’s easy to write. I also like writing angst more than I like writing fluff or smut, so probably something in that vein.

[instantbreplay]

HELLO!

I HAVE A THEORY! And this is a theory regarding the newest character of Honkai: Star Rail, the rootin’ tootin’, flamboyant, brash, and trigger happy space cowboy of the Galaxy Rangers—Boothill! This will be posted on both Tumblr and AO3 for those who do not have either or for easier access! By the way, this theory contains mentions of leaks and in-game content, so if you don't want to get any spoilers, I advise not to read this theory at all.

For starters, I will admit that I haven’t played Honkai: Star Rail in a while due to…whatever reason I had, and one of those reasons was because of Twisted Wonderland! I was playing that for a while—still am—I was having a blast insulting Ace and having aneurysms over the students’ antics and methods of breaking people out (I’m lookin’ at you, Rook). It was great! Then, Star Rail showcases two new characters on their Twitter page for their newest planet known as Penacony, one of them being Boothill who a lot of people were upset with due to them wanting the characters, Sam and/or Firefly who unfortunately met her demise in the newest update, and…well, I fell head over heels for him and started saving for him (122 PULLS WITH 20 PITY BABY BUT HE’S MY FIRST FEATURED CHARACTER SO PRAY FOR ME). I kept up with leaks because I could care less about gameplay, stat kit, and character lore leaks since that’s the interesting part and helps me figure out if I want the newest character…like my Al-Haitham theory which did not age well, this theory about Boothill does stem from exhaustion from not sleeping, but I feel like this is a more coherent and sound theory than the last, and I have to say that I have to take this with a grain of salt—and I advise the same for you—because it’s merely a theory. I can be wrong on certain things, but without ado, I’ll start with what really feels like the backbone of this theory, and that is Boothill’s name: Boothill.

The Name

So, just to give a little context, prominently in Asian media—most notably Japanese and Chinese entertainment from what I’ve seen as I played HoYo games and watched a lot of anime—characters tend to have name pun which correspond with their personality, physical design, talents, etc., to give people a little laugh and be like, “Ooooh! I get what they mean!” For example, Zhongli, in HoYoverse’s most popular game, Genshin Impact, written as 钟离 in simplified Chinese, is a pun of his departure—his retirement—as Rex Lapis: 钟 Zhōng being a homophone for the word for “clock” as it’s spelled exactly the same, while 离 Lí is a common word for “leaving” or “away”. Putting it together, it can be taken as “time of departure/leaving” or “off the clock” which foreshadowed Zhongli stepping down as Archon of Liyue.

With that knowledge in mind, I looked at Boothill's name and decided to Google it because I knew it was a pun of some sort! My only thought was that his name could have been a reference to a western (cowboy) film I never heard of which, to me, made sense as Boothill is modeled after stereotypical cowboys, and HoYo loves pop culture references with the Genius Invokation TCG which is a reference to the ever-so-popular card game, Yu-Gi-Oh, and how March 7th and Caelus made a reference to the movie, Fight Club, when the Moles were talking about the first rule of Fight Club…never talk about Fight Club! So, I thought Boothill was a nod to an old movie!

…No! A lot of people have already Googled it, but for those who probably don’t know, Boothill’s name comes from a burial grounds for gunfighters—with headstones engraved with the gunfighter’s name or “unknown” if the identity of the person has not been found—in the Old American West called a Boot Hill, and that name derives from the phrase “those who died with their boots on”, meaning that the gunfighter died rather violently. I did see someone say that the phrase could also mean that they were hanged, and that part is correct as the context of the expression changed in the early 19th century. However, I don’t believe that Boothill was hanged—although it is a possibility that I will keep in mind! Again, I have to take this theory with a grain of salt so I don’t die on that hill again, but seeing Boothill’s situation that he’s metal and wires from the chin down, he most likely died in a very extreme battle in the past since the only thing human about him…is his head!

His body must have been blasted to oblivion to where it was beyond saving, beheading him from the impact of whatever and whoever killed him. Now, some people may think that they probably just beheaded him or he was shot multiple times in the chest: other possibilities I will keep in mind, but that would mean he could have resulted as some kind of Frankenstein instead because if the body was still there, the Interastral Peace Corporation or IPC (the people who rebuilt Boothill) would use that since he has things to salvage like a heart or liver, etc., yet if we look at another Star Rail character named Luka who hails from the Underworld, he is missing an arm which is replaced with a mechanical one. That is because Luka saved a child in a fire involving a monster possibly from the Fragmentum, and his arm was chopped off by the ax the monster wielded, giving him the prosthetic he has today. So, if we compare Luka to Boothill in terms of how bad the conflict in Boothill’s past was, Boothill lost too much of his body from the chin down for the IPC to even save, leaving him with a full body prosthetic.

The Light Cone

Now, the question that we have…why was Boothill killed? Who could’ve had such a grudge against him that they killed him off so violently? Well, that is where his Light Cone description comes in. Let’s focus on the middle of the description where it states:

“Some cruel memories resurfaced as the unforgettable hatred turned into a weak light in the darkness.”

The Light Cone entirely describes when Boothill was regaining consciousness and how he felt while briefly in a limbo before being greeted by a doctor in the IPC. What sticks out are these “cruel memories” and this “unforgettable hatred” that he has which calls back to what happened before he died. I’ll lead into this with another point I have to make this make sense a little bit: Boothill is a bounty hunter. Why do I think this? Well, we get a glimpse of this in-game in the newest update of Star Rail where Black Swan answers the phone to a mysterious Pathstrider of the Hunt who is part of the Galaxy Rangers (a gang who “swore to punish the wretched by any and all means”) who is tracking down Acheron, ready to kill her for reasons unknown as of right now: that was Boothill who has been confirmed to be a Pathstrider of the Hunt along with him being a Galaxy Ranger as he calls Acheron an “imposter” who is also a Galaxy Ranger, most likely hinting that Acheron is going undercover and infiltrating the group. We also know it is him from his line, “My bullets will find you”, since he is a gunslinger with a bullet motif on his hat and actual bullets around his waist and one hanging from his left ear.

Going back to the point I made, he’s obviously smart with pinpointing someone’s location such as Acheron’s and having at least some information on her like her being an Emanator. His Path, the Hunt, is said to “admire determination, ruthlessness, and tenacious behavior”, which fits Boothill’s Light Cone description as well as his possible reason for his alliance with the Galaxy Rangers and why his finger is ready to shoot Black Swan if she was an ally of Acheron stating to “get [her] forehead clean…and wait for [him]”. A bounty hunter would have to be ruthless with their target, showing little to no emotion as they are the person they are after, the person who wronged their client or the bounty hunter themselves, and it is obvious that Boothill is determined to gather any info from Black Swan to continue his hunt with Acheron.

Now, with that in mind…Boothill had to have been a bounty hunter in the past who was wronged as he had “cruel memories” returning to his mind, and he had anger in his heart that was weakening but helped him return to the living world. If I were to guess, he may have had a loved one who died at the hands of someone else and gained the skills to become a bounty hunter in his previous life to hunt that person down because he had “unforgettable hatred”, and that had to be at a level where he couldn’t let go especially if he had “cruel memories”, and those could probably be that he watched that same loved one get brutally tortured and/or murdered in front of him. As to who the loved one of Boothill could have been, it could have been anyone: his father, his mother, a sister, brother, a best friend—Unfortunately, we do not have the information to determine that for sure, but I truly believe that it could be someone he was very close to that was tortured and/or killed for, again, reasons unknown.

The IPC

From what we gathered in the leaks and what HoYo has already established, it was the IPC that brought Boothill back with unknown intentions, but to me for this theory, it’s because of his skills as a bounty hunter since he must have been the best hunter wherever he came from. However, Boothill has a new grudge against the IPC as the his reveal information stated that, “His flamboyant and brash actions were all to draw the attention of the Interastral Peace Corporation — the target of his revenge.” The man is very flamboyant as we can holler back to his Ultimate, his skill…the freaking JoJo poses—

—(somebody in HoYo is a JoJo fan—IT'S BECOME INCREDIBLY CLEAR NOW) so I can see him causing havoc and being flashy to purposely attract their attention so he can properly get his revenge on them due to them making him into a cyborg which he isn’t happy about.

However…if I go back to the Light Cone description…at the very end, it said that Boothill “would no longer live for himself.” Sounds a little strange, doesn’t it? Here he is greeted by the doctor that saved him, and he’s clenching his new iron fists (literally speaking) because he knows what the IPC’s intentions are. If he’s no longer living for himself, that doctor would most likely have a sadistic tone when he welcomed him back because they experimented on him, testing him and his new body and using him for unspeakable things against his will, and why do I believe this?

Think back to Boothill’s gameplay and the leak of his gun’s range. That could be a reason, and a way I can describe it is by using Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. the Winter Soldier, in the MARVEL franchise. In the movie, Captain America: The First Avenger, Bucky was believed to be killed during a fall off a hijacked train in WWII in an attack against HYDRA, a sub-Nazi group led by the Red Skull, Steve becoming devastated by his best friend’s death. However, in Captain America: Civil War, it was revealed that Bucky was actually brainwashed, gaining a prosthetic arm (like Luka), and became a Super Soldier under HYDRA as they experimented to revive Dr. Erskine’s research for the original Super Soldier serum. Plus, HYDRA knew of his friendship with Steven Rogers and that Steve was alive but was going to expose S.H.I.E.L.D. for their lies, making him a threat. So, they trained and used Bucky as their line of defense since he was the only successful experiment that remotely compares to Captain America in strength and combat.

Because of Boothill’s skills in gunslinging, the IPC possibly saw this as an opportunity to have an effective line of defense in case something were to happen in their facility or if there was someone they needed to eliminate; they would have Boothill who had those qualifications to be their guard dog, but hearing how Boothill talks in-game for the first time, you could hear a hint of insanity in him as he keeps insisting that he will kill Acheron and Black Swan with lines such as “My bullets will find you”, “you best find a casket store on Penacony, and ask the owner to reserve a good quality casket for you”, “I’ll leave a round for you, so get that forehead clean and wait for me”, and “Are you askin’ me to write your will?” He wants to kill anybody who hurts him, still having that anger. That must have been how he felt when he was trapped in the IPC facility, going through experiment after experiment that broke him to the point that he couldn’t take it anymore as he is still human; he still has emotions and a mind of his own despite being 90% iron and wires.

Boothill knew, from the sound of that doctor’s tone, that he would be seen as their Super Soldier, a little toy they could dispose of if he was deemed useless; he was nothing but a heartless, soulless object to them which most likely broke him. Boothill has calmed down since his possible escape from an IPC facility and killing people in order to have a successful breakout, but he still has that pain inside his heart because of the possible abuse he faced that he’s trying to protect himself from being betrayed or used again which is why he’s so expressive and flamboyant.

He wants to live for himself and show the IPC just how human he was. However, he’s still showing off how strong he is as a warning to others of what he can do to them if they ever crossed him.

Now, I cannot stress enough that this is just a theory (A GAAAAAME THEORY), and I have to take this with a grain of salt because there is still a lot we don't know about Boothill regarding his past or his relationship with the IPC. Heck, a friend of mine and I believe that Boothill may not actually be his real name, but there's no evidence of his real name to even prove that point. This is all speculation, and what I gathered and thought about using any resources I have at my disposal to produce this, so please—for the love of the QUEEN OF HEARTS HERSELF—do not take this as actual, confirmed, or leaked information on Boothill's backstory since there are many unanswered questions. For now, I'll stick to what I got until Boothill is finally released!

And hopefully not die on that hill like I did with Al-Haitham...

[bluedalahorse]

For the ask game: 6, 16, and 20.

6. Characters you have ace, aro, or queerplatonic headcanons for

Ooh, a fun one! My aro and ace headcanons migrate a bit, depending on the fic. But I’ll list a few that I like:

I sometimes love the idea of aspec Felice (I have written her with multiple different sexual orientations though.)

I enjoy @heliza24’s aroace Ayub and @starvalisedham’s.

I adore @sflow-er’s ace Henry, in all his iterations.

I sometimes headcanon Maddie and/or Fredrika as alloaro. Fredrika in particular would be a fun character to write as aromantic and closeted even to herself, because she puts forward such a “traditional” idea of love at first that make the romantic clichés are her only frame of references? And then she hooks up with her best friend because of course she loves her best friend, right? I’d love to read a fic where Stella and Fredrika navigate their way through that.

On the queerplatonic side of things, @heliza24 and I essentially ended up writing Sara and Wilhelm as a QPR in Heart and Homeland, and we are FOREVER BITTER that the show only allowed them one brief exchange of dialogue.

16. A song that reminds you of a secondary character or pairing

Gotta say, “It’s Alright” by Dar Williams has got some strong August vibes. Shout out to “Rearrange the Art” by Sarah Jarosz and “Anchor to the World Below” by Freezepop as saraugust songs, also.

20. Dream fanfic about a secondary character and/or pairing that you’d love to read but don’t want to write yourself

Echoing @sflow-er’s exact words here: “I'd love to read a long, nuanced fic focused on Sar(au)gust in a canon-compliant or canon-divergent (but not full AU) setting, with a good-faith take on their individual characters and them as a pairing.”

With the add-on of: I’d love to read that kind of fic for them that takes their story in a direction I haven’t thought of! Obviously I have lots of saraugust fics swimming in my head but I’d love something multichapter where I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen next because I didn’t write it. Preferably something not too heavy on the tropey romance—I get that tropes are some of the building blocks of stories, but I’d love to see it fleshed out with good, solid characterization.

Bonus points if there’s Dark Academia vibes. Saraugust and Dark Academia go together so well.

Alternately: an AU where August is doing competitive figure skating and it’s slowly burning him out, and meanwhile Sara takes up skating as a hobby because she’s unable to do horses for some reason and she’s not great at it at first until August can teach her things, and they end up skating together. A friend wrote a snippet of that for me once and I was left with an ABSOLUTE CRAVING.

Asks are here if anyone else wants to play! I’ve answered: 3, 5, 6, 7, 15, 20. About to answer 12 and 17 next.

[iridescentoracle]

So, I talked the other day a Whole Bunch about how I’d rewrite Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney to make it actually good. Obviously, I’ve thought about the subsequent games too. It took me a lot longer to figure out what I’d do with Dual Destinies, and I’m still not sure about Spirit of Justice, but one thing that made a lot of stuff click into place was thinking about the original trilogy, and how it ultimately can be boiled down to three main themes/plotlines:

Satire/Critique of the Japanese legal system

Generational Trauma Surrounding the Kurain Channeling Legacy

[gestures at Phoenix and Edgeworth’s relationship]

There’s a lot of reasons the so-called “Apollo Justice trilogy” games all feel wildly disconnected from each other and also mostly the original trilogy, but I think a lot of it comes down to how the themes/plotlines from the original games get lost or are irrelevant because we’ve got a new cast of characters, but there’s nothing tying the new games together but a shared (and much more dramatically expanding) cast of characters.

So for this proposed rewrite project, I’m fixing that. The Apollo Justice trilogy is going to be a trilogy, and that means shared/extended themes and plots that tie all three games together, and tie this trilogy back to the original even though most of the original cast, in this version, have even smaller roles (see: Apollo’s shitty mentor in my rewrite of AA4 being a separate person from Phoenix, who we barely see, etc).

So:

The legal system satire/critique stays consistent in rewritten DD & SOJ, instead of getting completely forgotten about/undermined in DD and doubled down to the point of losing all meaning in SOJ.

Generational Trauma Surrounding the Troupe Gramarye Legacy

honestly i haven’t figured this part out yet but it involves apollo somehow. this rewrite project is a work-in-progress and i’m mostly figuring it out as i go

I’m going to get to each of these in turn, starting (more or less) with the legal system critique, although it’s about to look like I’m mostly complaining about bad writing (in the form of character actions that seem to have been written without any thought actually put into making them make sense from the perspective of the characters in question), which is fair because I kind of am; bear with me, though, I promise it’ll be relevant and I think it’s a pretty solid illustration of how the thematic issues are inherently also narrative/characterization issues and vice versa.

So, let’s talk about Edgeworth and Blackquill’s plan and why the hell they thought that was a good idea. I swear to god, I cannot figure out how that entire plotline makes any sense, unless Edgeworth worked out that Blackquill thought he was covering for Athena and also that the real murderer was probably the Phantom purely via considering the parallels to his own life.

Because, like, the thing is. “this convicted murderer is allowed to be a prosecutor in the last few months before his execution (for murder), thanks to the machinations of a man who has dedicated the last like eight years of his life to being Staunchly Anti-Prosecutorial-Corruption” is just. completely nonsensical. So Edgeworth has to have some reason to think he wasn’t actually the murderer. But the canon trial makes it pretty clear Blackquill was the only suspect thanks to #1 nobody checking the security footage carefully #2 Blackquill making sure Athena wasn’t one, so why would Edgeworth think that? But for that matter, how did Edgeworth even know Blackquill, like, existed, let alone learn about the Phantom? Like, maybe he heard about Blackquill from a third party and got curious and looked into things, or was, like, looking through records of Prosecutors Found Guilty Of Crimes for some reason and found a case he and Phoenix hadn’t been involved in (for once) and had Questions, okay, but he wouldn’t have found out about the Phantom either of those ways, so even if he also somehow learned about him separately, why would he think to connect the two? So he has to have learned about Blackquill’s information on the Phantom from Blackquill, but why would Blackquill confide in someone else like that?

The only way I can make any of those pieces fit together in my head is if Edgeworth figured out Blackquill was attempting to cover for a kid who set off all of the Parallels To DL-6 alarm bells in Edgeworth’s head, and Edgeworth’s two mental options are “just fucking leave. run for it now. never think about this again” and “okay but what if neither the kid nor the other adult in the room was actually the person who murdered the kid’s parent. maybe there was a secret third adult who killed them for mysterious reasons” and he picks metaphorical door #2 (rather than leaving through literal door #1 and going home) and man do i want to see what that conversation/logic chess sequence looked like. At what point did Edgeworth contemplate the possibility of watching Phoenix cross-examine the defendant’s pet hawk

Also, crucially when i say Edgeworth picks #2, I mean he says that out loud, bc I really don’t buy that Blackquill would have just casually confided in him (or anyone) about the Phantom, but Edgeworth working out that Blackquill was trying to protect Athena (who he thinks really did it) and immediately going “okay i see why you assumed it was her but have you considered: what if there was secretly a third party who was the real murderer all along” does seem like the one thing that would actually get him to talk.

And tbh? I think everything makes more sense and is even more compelling if Edgeworth and Blackquill’s plan isn’t just to lure out the Phantom bc he’s a ~super spy with nefarious motives etc, but to lure out the real murderer, now that they’ve realized he probably exists.

To be clear, i don’t think that’s what was intended to have happened in canon, but i think it’s what would have to be true for Edgeworth’s involvement not to be hopelessly stupid and counterproductive.

And this is what I mean about the problems with the characterization/narrative choices being intimately intertwined with the thematic issues, because Edgeworth’s whole deal is fundamentally tied up in the legal system satire of the first three games (and Investigations 1 & 2, for that matter) and so it’s incoherent/inconsistent/nonsensical on a character/narrative level and a thematic level both at the same time. If we’re supposed to believe he did something as stupid as “letting a convicted murderer be a prosecutor without a reason to believe he had not, in fact, committed any crimes” then it undercuts his entire arc up to this point. Still, even that proposed backstory/context, while it would at least provide an understandable motivation/train of reasoning that would actually be in keeping with what we know about Edgeworth up to this point, is ultimately rooted in the Phantom plotline as it exists in canon, which I think is fundamentally flawed on three different levels, and genuinely fixing Dual Destinies requires completely rewriting it.

The three central problems with the Phantom plot, IMO, are actually pretty simple:

The legal system critique that ultimately was part of the heart of the first four games gets completely forgotten about.

Ableism

The stakes are too high and not personal enough, which undercuts the emotional impact and weakens the audience’s emotional investment.

To elaborate, because I’m not sure all of those are equally evident at a glance:

One of our main antagonists is a prosecutor who’s also a convicted murderer and… the worst thing he actually does is be mean to people. No evidence tampering, no forgery, no witness suppression, no actual murder. He’s just kinda scary-looking. The ultimate main villain of the game is a cop! He spends most of the game being nice and friendly and helpful but at the end of the day he committed a whole bunch of crimes, Dual Destinies says ACAB oh wait no never mind he’s actually an imposter and the real police detective he’s impersonating was probably genuinely a really good guy.

The whole “the Phantom has no emotions and therefore doesn’t really count as a person I guess so it’s okay to prove his identity even though the very explicitly established consequences are He Will Be Assassinated Right There in The Courtroom, Which Is Exactly What Happens but everyone’s pretty okay with that because hey, he didn’t have emotions, it’s fine, he’s exempted from, like, deserving basic human rights I guess???” is uh. you know. sure a choice they made

It sounds ridiculous to call the original games “grounded” or “realistic,” but like… at the end of the day, the culprits in the first four games are all just… people? The most powerful people who turned out to be murderers were, like, the CEO of a company, a chief of police, a popular actor, etc. Those are real kinds of people who do normal crimes in real life. The characters are ridiculous and over-the-top but at the end of the day the stakes mostly felt high because they were personal. Even when there’s magic involved, the actual crimes are ultimately things that could have happened for mundane reasons too! All the drama with spirit channeling and at the end of the day, half the spirit channeling-related crimes in the original trilogy come down to someone trying to kill or disgrace her sister and niece so that her own kid will inherit, or a teenage girl dealing with emotional abuse/neglect trying to escape and then trying to cover her tracks or get revenge on people she felt had personally hurt her. But now our stakes involve international espionage and a super-spy who can look like anyone? Absurd as it is to say, Dual Destinies doesn’t feel grounded the way the original trilogy did, and outside Athena’s trial, the personal aspects of the cases mostly come down to “the victim and/or suspect are cared about by the characters we care about,” which isn’t enough to bring the absurdly high stakes back down to something it’s easy to genuinely be invested in.

So. Let’s fix all of those. Conveniently, they all have the same solution: Bobby Fulbright is genuinely a cop. He’s exactly who he seems like up until the canon reveal. He is good-natured and cheerful and energetic and mostly pretty helpful to our protagonists. He’s also the man who murdered Metis Cykes and Clay Terran.

Instead of international espionage, he was engaged in corporate espionage. He was a security guard at GYAXA who got bribed to steal some of Metis Cykes’ research, but got caught and panicked and stabbed her. Even after Simon Blackquill was found guilty, he still felt too nervous to keep working at more or less the scene of the crime, and quit the private security guard gig in favor of becoming a cop. Seven years later, new Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth continued his whole signature anti-corruption deal, going through records of convictions of past prosecutors & law enforcement officers, and something about Blackquill’s conviction didn’t sit right, so he arranged to meet the guy in person. Hearing the story from Blackquill’s own mouth, Edgeworth saw some parallels between UR-1 and DL-6, figured out out that Blackquill had falsely confessed under the belief Athena Cykes had accidentally killed her own mother, and (mostly for DL-6 reasons) theorized that there could have been a third person on the scene who managed to escape undetected. Investigating the evidence, he found the security footage of someone in a security guard uniform and Metis Cykes’ jacket leaving the scene of the crime, and met with Blackquill again with that information and a record of Athena testifying at Blackquill’s trial that she’d seen a stranger in her mother’s lab before Simon arrived. At the time she’d been written off as lying or confused due to the trauma, but with the security footage proving her right, Edgeworth and Blackquill realize that she (unlike the security camera) likely saw the security guard’s face, and so would be the only person who could potentially identify him as Metis Cykes’ real killer—thus putting Athena in danger, if they ever happened to meet.

Without actual evidence linking the unknown security guard to the crime, though—no unidentified fingerprints had ever been found, and the footage didn’t show his face, so there was no way to figure out which of the security guards employed at the time was the real killer, if any records even still existed seven years later given that none of the security guards had been seriously considered as suspects at the time—the new evidence wouldn’t be enough to re-open Blackquill’s case, let alone overturn his conviction. (I have no idea if that would be true IRL, in the US or Japan, but this is Japanifornia, it’s fine, that’s how it works here because I say so. The burden of proof is on the defense and defendants are guilty until proven innocent.) Worse news: this whole discovery happened right after Blackquill’s execution date was finally set, severely curtailing their ability to investigate in any kind of normal sane way because Oh Boy That Time Limit, so: time for an absolutely terrible insane plan that would absolutely ruin the anti-corruption reputation Edgeworth has spent the last ten years working very hard to develop if it didn’t pay off. Also fuck it, Edgeworth says: let’s get Phoenix Wright involved, this is exactly the kind of batshit gamble he thrives on.

(Note: this game rewrite is set post–my Apollo Justice rewrite, in which Phoenix was never disbarred, and he and Edgeworth got together within a year of T&T. See here for elaboration and, like, a lot of complaining about how AJ should have been amazing and wasn’t.)

As in canon, the plan in question is, essentially:

Let Blackquill return to prosecuting crimes again while still a convicted murderer on death row

?????

The real murderer of Metis Cykes is caught and Blackquill is proven innocent after all

Profit

I have no idea what step two is supposed to be but given that step three of the canon plan seemed to be “the Phantom turns up to steal back the psych profile which he somehow finds out Blackquill had all along” and I didn’t understand step two there either, I don’t super care.

Blackquill agrees to the whole crazy plan, but only on the condition that both Edgeworth and Phoenix swear they won’t tell anyone about the real plan without his permission, and in particular they absolutely will not tell Athena specifically.

Phoenix, who just hired Athena like a week ago, and has definitely connected the dots to figure out she became a lawyer to save Blackquill and is seeing some parallels of his own:

…But Blackquill’s life is the one in imminent danger (his execution date has just been set) and the whole plan relies on his cooperation, so ultimately (after a lot of arguing), Blackquill wins and they agree.

It’s not easy; after 1-5 and 3-5, Edgeworth and Phoenix were not going to be easily convinced not to tell Athena. They have seen how Complicated Scheming With The Goal Of Protecting A Young Woman But Without, Like, Telling Her Anything goes before (not to mention the more general Bad Associations with the possibility that someone out there might be plotting the death of a kid for the crime of being inconvenient in some way, see 1-4 and 2-2 and arguably 3-1), but I absolutely do believe that Blackquill would listen to all their arguments and still be like “my only priority is Athena’s safety; if she finds out about any of this she will try to investigate and will not prioritize her own safety, I don’t care what you think, if you tell her anything I’m out,” so ultimately they’re stuck.

On a side note, Trucy (when she does turn up in Dual Destinies) is a delight, but her role is bizarrely tiny for someone who’s hands-down the best new character of the trilogy, so in this rewrite she actually spends most of the game investigating with Apollo and Athena. She’s not actually super happy about it, though, because she wants to be investigating with Phoenix but he won’t let her, or even tell her about what his current case is. She feels like he doesn’t trust her and she’s pretty hurt though she doesn’t want to talk about it, etc, and in general there are canon-typical levels of hinting at deeper issues without actually directly addressing them.

In the end, things get more or less wrapped up by Phoenix (and Edgeworth) being like “look we wanted to tell all three of you what was going on but we were sworn to secrecy, and it was Blackquill’s life on the line so we couldn’t risk breaking his trust,” with the implication of further discussions to be had off-screen/post-game abt the deeper insecurities and anything that still feels insufficiently well justified, but just like that, here’s Trucy in a larger role with a new emotional conflict/interestingly complicated relationship that nevertheless doesn’t require/get much screen time bc Phoenix isn’t there for her to be actively having this conflict with.

There’s also a whole new case added between 5-3 and 5-4 that revolves around the Gramarye family legacy, in which Trucy, Apollo, and Lamiroir all learn who they are to each other, but I’ll get to that later.

In the meantime, back to the Fulbright thing! As in canon, he’s both Blackquill’s assigned police detective and his parole officer, which definitely secretly kind of terrifies Fulbright because oh god oh fuck he was a suspect specifically because he used to hang around the space center with his sister & mentor back when I worked there, what if he recognizes me, but hey, keep your enemies close, right? Especially when they’re definitely planning something, and also the only person who knows they didn’t actually commit the murder they were convicted for that was actually your doing. So.

(If Athena notices that despite his cheerful demeanor and attempt to be casual about the whole thing, he actually sounds terrified of Blackquill, it’s ironically very easy to brush off bc like. Look he tries to be cheerful and good-natured but Blackquill’s a scary guy, okay, just look at him, etc.)

So, with Fulbright secretly there all along, not in on the investigation/unaware there’s new evidence that could help point at his guilt but still close enough to keep an eye on things, no further progress is actually made in the luring-out-Metis-Cykes’-real-killer project, and time starts growing short.

Meanwhile, GYAXA is preparing for a manned rocket launch. Time to rewrite some more backstory.

A bit more than seven years ago, Solomon Starbuck worked for a private sector rival of GYAXA, but their secret use of sub-standard materials nearly proved deadly for him, and upon returning to Earth, he quit and joined GYAXA instead. The rival company’s reputation took multiple massive hits (from the near-failure of the mission, the subsequent exposé about cost-cutting measures at the expense of employee safety up to and including materials used in rocket ships, and the newly-famous Starbuck’s resultant departure for GYAXA), and they promptly resorted to attempting corporate espionage (via bribing security guard Bobby Fulbright), leading to Metis Cykes’ death.

Seven years later, when GYAXA starts gearing up for Starbuck’s next trip into space, their rival company attempts to cause the launch to be canceled via phone calls claiming the rocket will be sabotaged otherwise. The hoax partially works: the director secretly arranges for the launch to be faked bc he believes better safe than sorry but he doesn’t have the authority to just straight-up officially cancel it, and meanwhile the police are also alerted of the claimed bomb threat, and a team is sent to ensure everything goes fine, which would’ve been fine, except Fulbright is on the team.

That would also be fine, except Fulbright is already concerned because Blackquill’s execution date is closing in so there must be something big going on that he doesn’t know about but even being Blackquill’s parole officer/detective hasn’t let him figure out what. (Ironically, he’s probably wrong; Edgeworth and Phoenix and Blackquill are all getting pretty stressed about things getting down to the wire, but don’t actually have any more concrete way to lure out the real killer or they already would’ve arranged it, and mostly what’s going on behind-the-scenes is arguments about getting more people (including Athena) involved in the investigation.) When he then learns about the bomb threat to GYAXA and (correctly) guesses that it’s likely the doing of GYAXA’s rival company who’d bribed him all those years ago, Fulbright is super paranoid about the possibility that the bomb threat might be real, and if it is that it might be the work of a new security guard, and if it is and they get caught, that the already-raised suspicions regarding Blackquill’s innocence will be basically confirmed, and Fulbright himself will finally be suspected of the murder of Metis Cykes.

As a result of his paranoia, Fulbright goes poking around in areas he wasn’t actually supposed to be, accidentally runs into Clay Terran, and (in a panic) kills him. Solomon Starbuck is deemed the primary suspect, Apollo takes the case, and a bomb squad specialist (disappointed the threat to GYAXA turned out to be a hoax) gets bored. The Cosmic Turnabout and Turnabout Countdown commence.

Things actually mostly go as in canon, just following on from the differences I’ve already established. The final major change is that while the hostage situation still happens, we’re lowering the stakes and making them more personal: it’s not a dozen people conveniently-for-Aura including Trucy, and there’s no fake robot uprising. Trucy is the hostage and Aura’s pretty open about it being her doing from the start.

Again, this is a sequel to my alternate version of AA4. Phoenix never got disbarred and he and Edgeworth have been together for years. It is common knowledge that Trucy is the daughter of Phoenix Wright + the new chief prosecutor. Since she’s Blackquill’s sister, Aura might even be one of the few people who knows Edgeworth found new information about the UR-1 incident (although she either doesn’t know about or doesn’t buy the security guard theory), and that this whole weird letting-Blackquill-prosecute-cases arrangement is part of some sort of plan to prove his innocence, so hey, win-win, right? Phoenix and Edgeworth try Athena for her mother’s murder, they prove Blackquill innocent just like Edgeworth was already trying to do anyway, and their daughter doesn’t get hurt.

Also there’s still room for an “oh no the robot uprising!” joke in there, potentially. The robots all start acting weird, someone’s like OH NO THE ROBOT UPRISING! CURSE YOUR SUDDEN BUT INEVITABLE BETRAYAL, I GLADLY SURRENDER TO OUR NEW ROBOT OVERLORDS etc and then via the nearest robot Aura is like “oh my god shut up” and it turns out all the robots are acting weird bc they’re all looking for Phoenix or one of his associates to let him know his daughter’s being held hostage and he better listen up.

Aaaand that’s about all I’ve got on that front. I know the culprit not being a super-spy and there not being actual bombs at the HAT-2 fake launch creates some plot holes but while I’m a life-long mystery fan, I’m not a mystery writer and that’s not really the part of this that I’m good at coming up with solutions to, although if anyone’s got ideas I am All Ears.

It’s not the most hard-hitting critique of the legal system, and I’m still working on figuring out how to improve it more; in particular, I’m honestly torn about Blackquill even turning out to have been completely innocent because it very much was a Whole Thing that all the prosecutors used to start out as corrupt and the ones we like had to become better, or, you know. go to jail for the crimes they very much did in fact commit. So it actually feels like a real step down, having the prosecutor in this one be a straight-up convicted felon who… turns out to have done nothing wrong and been a good guy all along actually, surprise! But I can’t figure out how to change that without undermining the whole resolution of the game and turning him into a fundamentally different character, so for now that part is what it is.

Meanwhile, at the end of the day: ACAB, including Bobby Fulbright who is actually genuinely a cop, and used his position to avoid being found guilty for crimes he’d committed (up to and including forging evidence to frame someone else). Which is to say, what the game almost said, without the haha nope nvm he was an imposter and the real Bobby Fulbright was probably a great guy actually of it all. Also in this version Fulbright casually tazing Blackquill is like. actually treated as fucked up and a reminder that oh right cops still suck and even if one seems friendly he will probably absolutely abuse his power over others given the slightest excuse, and also no one deserves to be subjected to police brutality. And while Edgeworth winds up being ethically in the clear in that he didn’t actually pull strings to let a murderer prosecute other people’s crimes bc he did know Blackquill was innocent all along, at the end of the day someone was in fact able to pull strings to let a convicted murderer etc. Which on the one hand requires a lot of suspension of disbelief, but on the other hand, like I just said about Blackquill: idk man I had to change this much just to make Fulbright work, I’ve only got so much to work with here and I’m not actually good at coming up with grand sweeping changes.

Also it occurs to me I haven’t actually established this yet but “the Dark Age of the Law” is stupid and we’re completely dropping that whole concept because if two relatively new lawyers apparently turning out to be bad people was enough to kick off a whole ~Dark Age~ and make the general public lose faith then where the hell was everybody during the reign of Demon Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, Chief of Police Damon Gant and Chief Prosecutor Lana Skye, and the forty-year win streak of Manfred von Karma. And so forth. There’s probably room for something interesting to be done with like, the ways in which public perception of a situation doesn’t always reflect reality and large populations can be slow to consciously react to major trends and sometimes one small incident can be turned into a symbol of something it isn’t really even an example of anyway or whatever but like… I have no idea how to do that in the format of an Ace Attorney game so personally I am simply ditching that plotline wholesale.

So that’s that. Now let’s talk about Troupe Gramarye. In canon, Apollo Justice sets the Troupe Gramarye rights up to be a major plotline, but then it gets completely forgotten about in Dual Destinies, and sort of half-heartedly continued but not really resolved in Spirit of Justice. In this rewrite, the Troupe Gramarye legacy is more or less what the Kurain Spirit Channeling legacy was to the original trilogy: a nominally magical element that at the end of the day is mostly the catalyst for a story about greed and complicated families and the trauma and destruction they create.

So, the Gramarye-related cases in my rewritten Apollo Justice go as established (i.e. actually basically like canon except Phoenix escapes unscathed), except with a couple more tweaks: Lamiroir’s face is hidden way better, and neither she nor the audience learn who she is to Apollo and Trucy yet.

That gets saved for Dual Destinies’ brand new Gramarye rights-centric case.

While it could probably go earlier, I think it would fit best between Turnabout Academy and The Cosmic Turnabout. I’ve already covered the latter, so some notes about the former: plot-wise it remains unchanged, but a lot of the dialogue is different because I would have thought it was unbearably preachy and condescending at age nine and this game was rated M. We Do Not Need The Lecture, Thanks. Also Aristotle Means looks slightly more human/less like an actual straight-up marble statue because that was so unbelievably distracting. There’s weird character designs and then there’s By The Way, This Literal Marble Statue Is Sentient I Guess.

The rest of the difference is that (following on from my proposed Apollo Justice rewrite) Klavier Gavin gets to be an actual human being with feelings and not 60% of a lovingly-painted cardboard cutout of a person. He shows up with a re-design—possibly a slightly different outfit in general, I don’t have strong feelings about that, but the important thing is that he’s gotten a haircut. In my head he’s got roughly the same style from the flashback portions of 4-4, but that’s partially just because I’m not good at picturing things like that. What matters is that his hair looks nothing like Kristoph’s anymore. Also it’s established in passing that he and Trucy and Apollo have had a whole bunch of conversations in the last year and are all on good terms now, despite [gestures at 4-1 and 4-3 and 4-4], and that Klavier is doing more or less okay. Emphasis on “or less” once his beloved mentor gets murdered, but in this version he actually gets to be part of the post-case denoument conversations and establishes that he’s pretty devastated (despite the return of his professional facade) but Apollo and Trucy and Athena are all well aware of that and are, so to speak, on the case, and with their support eventually he’ll be okay.

So. With that out of the way, here’s a new case about the legacy of Troupe Gramarye.

We start off by learning that Lamiroir is in town again and Trucy wants to go see her, because last time they saw her perform live things went pretty badly and it kind of soured the whole experience in retrospect, but she really did have such a beautiful voice that Trucy wants to see her again (hopefully with nobody getting murdered this time). She talks Apollo into going with her pretty easily; he might put up a token resistance, but he’s actually not really opposed since she’s performing solo this time and he likes her music a lot when the Gavinners aren’t involved. They go to the show, and it’s everything they could have hoped for and more, including that as it turns out, she’s working with Valant Gramarye again, and the effects are, again, super impressive.

But gasp, betrayal, after the show (possibly the next day, at the Wright & Co. Offices?) it turns out that Valant sucks even more than we thought (though, you know, framing his friend/in-my-version-brother for murder and abandoning the child of the woman he loved who had just also been abandoned by her father wasn’t exactly a great start): he’s suing Trucy for the Gramarye rights, based on the premise that she inherited them under false pretenses, because he’s discovered evidence that suggests Thalassa’s death was due to active negligence on Zak’s part, and he’s arguing that while Zak was the better/more talented magician, and thus Magnifi liked him better than Valant, Thalassa was Magnifi’s beloved daughter, and there’s no way Zak would’ve been given the first shot (so to speak) at earning the Gramarye rights if Magnifi hadn’t been blinded enough by grief to believe it was an accident, and while Trucy inherited the rights fair and square from Zak, he should never have had the rights in the first place, and Valant is the rightful inheritor.

I have no idea where the rest of the plot goes because I’m not a mystery writer and I don’t know how to come up with actual plots and red herrings and clues, but eventually there’s a dramatic reveal that there was active negligence involved, which Valant knew all along bc it was his fault.

…but that reveal is ultimately secondary to the one either shortly before or shortly after, that [drumroll] Thalassa wasn’t actually dead anyway

Which, again, I’m not a mystery writer, I don’t know if or how this would actually fit, but in my head there’s a great dramatic moment where the reveal happens for the audience—Valant, Trucy, Apollo, any Troupe Gramarye fans in the gallery, and the players—but not, for the first few moments, Lamiroir herself.

For whatever reason, she removes her veil/scarf, or they slip somehow, and so she’s there on the witness stand with her face visible around other people for the first time in years. The whole gallery (and Apollo) kind of collectively draw in a breath, while Valant says her name, genuinely stunned

And in almost the same moment, Trucy (who would sound five years old, if this bit was a cutscene) says “…Mommy?”

Cue discussion, Lamiroir learns who she is, the realization that Magnifi must have known she wasn’t really dead and the real cover-up was his doing all along etc, everything gets resolved, and Valant gives up on suing Trucy for the rights.

(The “hey that’s an awfully familiar-looking bracelet” reveal probably doesn’t happen until after the rest of the case is resolved, but I don’t have particularly strong feelings about that one way or the other.)

Everything winds up reasonably happy—Apollo and Trucy find out they’re half-siblings and their mother’s alive, Lamiroir resolves to get the surgery to restore her eyesight (and in the end credits we find out it helped restore her memory too), and Trucy gets to keep the Gramarye rights bc Valant’s suit was built on two different fundamental lies (that Thalassa’s death was Zak’s fault/that it wasn’t Valant’s, and that she was, you know, actually dead), and relatedly, in a shocking twist for the series, no one actually gets murdered, and there isn’t even an accidental death!

…but any hope of Trucy and Valant reconnecting/Valant becoming a positive figure in Trucy’s life again is pretty solidly destroyed, and there’s another two blows struck against the Troupe Gramarye legacy, bc not only was Thalassa’s accident actually Valant’s fault all along, Magnifi knew she wasn’t dead and abandoned her.

In a very direct parallel to Maya at the end of 3-5, Trucy spends most of the case uncertain whether she even wants these rights anymore—she ultimately decides the answer is yes, but it’s in question from basically the moment she learns Valant’s argument for why the rights should belong to him, and even him admitting the whole thing was based in lies and the rights are hers fair and square doesn’t convince her entirely right away.

Aaaaand then The Cosmic Turnabout kicks off and we’re back to the previously-established plot!

[shrinkthisviolet]

4, 12, 17, and 55 for the writer asks.

4: what is the plot bunny you’ve been carrying for the longest? optional bonus question: do you ever wonder why you haven’t written it yet and experience deep existential dread?

Oooh...I've carried a lot of plot bunnies. In terms of the longest...I have quite a few Ace Attorney ones from 2020—two OC concepts that I came up with and never developed into full-fledged OCs, and two Maya-centric fic ideas (1) Feyquill friendship, 2) Maya time travels).

The honest answer for the second question (why haven't I written them) is just that these have never been the top of my priority list 😅 multichaps are really daunting, especially given my relatively-recent practice of writing out the whole multichap before posting, and I have more urgent WIPs on my docket...not to mention quite a few irl commitments (which even put me behind on some fic commitments 😅 I still have to finish that April YOTP fic). So I'll get to these one day! Just not anytime soon, I fear

12: do you ever have trouble focusing on writing? how do you get around that?

Oh constantly 😂 I have trouble focusing on everything, whether I enjoy it or not. For fics, it helps when I'm locked in for a particular scene, because then I'll just keep going until the muse runs out. But...of course, can't force it, because burning out on fic (a fun hobby) feels worse than burning out on something like schoolwork. So really, sometimes it just means...I can't meet a certain deadline, or do an event I wanted to do, simply because the fic is not ficcing, the muse is not musing. It happens, and you just gotta ride it out.

As a bonus, as I've seen passed around here...reading books and watching shows/movies is a STELLAR way to reignite inspiration! Like...truly, the way you improve as a creator of any kind, but especially a writer/author, is taking in the work of others, people who have written the greats (and even the not-so-greats), and learning from them. Seeing what ideas click with you...what ideas spark a flame. It happens for my fics more often than you'd expect - you can get inspiration even from media you think is wildly unrelated.

17: what is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

I've answered this here, but ofc I have quite a number of favorites :D so here's another:

Not for the first time, he marveled at her—at this remarkable young woman with such a fierce and forgiving heart. And…and he could admit, it scared him too. Someone so young who loved like this…how easy would it be for someone to take advantage of that? He clung tighter to her at that, tears spilling from his eyes…and his shirt grew wet from her tears, but he didn’t mind that. After all, she was his—

~i love you (i’m sorry) [Chp 5]

The way Barry describes Morgan here makes me tear up 🥺 he loves and admires his baby sister sm

55: do you have any abandoned WIPs? What made you abandon them?

Oh I definitely do - some that are posted that I've now orphaned, others that are in my GDrive, half-written, and will never see the light of day. And...the answer's similar to 4, higher priorities...but when it comes to abandoned WIPs specifically, it's because I lost interest for one reason or another. People have asked why my WIP list isn't a mile long, and it's because I'm so fickle with my muse that I have to be more selective about what I will actually commit to finishing 😅 and more honest about "okay, this is never getting finished, time to abandon it (+ orphan it, if it's a posted work)"

fic writer ask game!