#I may have found my two new fave tags

[sitp-recs]

2023 in review - recs & highlights

Happy New Year and thank you @sorrybutblog for the tag 🥂I wasn’t very active in 2023 tbh, after May I couldn’t find time or inspiration to read new things or write single recs so I focused on list requests instead. But I’m very proud of all the little things I’ve accomplished! They’ve brought me so much joy and I’m pleased with how they came about. I’m sharing below my personal highlights and would to see everyone else’s. Consider this an open tag and feel free to @ me!

✨this year I jumped right back into my anime & manga phase (I’ve loved it for as long as I’ve loved Drarry) and it’s been a thrill to discover and revisit some top notch BL stories. I did two reclists (part 1 and part 2) for fun without really expecting any interest but the feedback was so lovely I’m now planning a part 3!

✨ got so many special gifts! I was absolutely mindblown by @epitomereally’s lovely and creative LA, Who Am I To Love You? for my Wireless prompt; I got hot and bothered over this delicious nsfw art by @maesterchill; and fell deeper in love with Harry/Ron thanks to @writcraft’s stunning Can’t Start a Fire Without a Spark. I’m so lucky to have these wonderful and talented friends! thank you ❤️

✨ loved doing these sexy rec lists for V Day: heartbreak & rarepair romance

✨ as I said I haven’t read much this year, so imagine my shocked pikachu face when I saw that I did 8 fest rec lists this year! two are still incomplete (Career Fair and Erised) but I’ll get there

✨ it was such a blast to join @hprecfest and share 31 daily recs throughout December. not only I got my mojo back to rec some of my fave hidden gems, I also found many new incredible fics thanks to everyone who participated. I was especially happy to see a big amount of love for rare pairs!

✨ I also did two cute holiday-themed lists: Christmassy reads and NYE reads!

✨ finally, following tradition I just posted my end of the year lists: Drarry + Rare pair. a bit shorter than usual but done with just as much love!

[margarrivergod]

I’m bored so i’m here to recommend some of the brain rotting fics i’ve read recently(all on ao3):

BSD:

A Dolls House by Abyss_In_Wonderland_likes_sexy_cannibals

Rating: M

Warnings: NA

Description: “Chuuya and Dazai get trapped inside of an ability made sigil. Now there's a creepy lady telling them that in order to get out they need to complete five tests. If they don’t pass they’ll just stay there forever or die, but no biggie, right?”

this is a high favorite of mine, the author does a PHENOMENAL job at characterizing the characters, plus the story is *chefs kiss*🤌🏼 i pray that they’ll write more skk fics in the future!!

the liars house by burgundytshirt

Rating: M

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Description: “Dazai, Chuuya, and four others are trapped in a cursed house where you cannot lie—each time you lie, you lose an organ. In seven stages, they are asked deeply personal questions that need to be answered in order to escape. Welcome to The Liar’s House.”

Dare I say this is one of my favorite, if not my favorite, skk fanfic?!? Like holy shit this is SO GOOD! This is a translation of the original, which is in mandarin, but it’s 12/10 regardless!!

TGCF:

Thank You For The Venom by xoTsundoku

Rating: E

Warnings: Underage, Graphic Depictions of Violence

Description: Mu Qing is guarded and hollow after losing his mother but he's content in his darkness until he moves in with the Fengs, and a light pierces his comfortable solitude in the form of his soon-to-be stepbrother. Two people who can never be together fall in love.

There’s a tag that’s reads “pseudo incest” and idkw but i found it to be the funniest shit lmaoo. But in all hknestly I REALLY like this fic. I still reading it currently but i’m bulldozing through it. I also believe the author does an amazing job at characterization while tying them into a modern au

Bad Intentions by bizzybee

Rating: E

Warnings: NA

Description: “Despite their hatred for each other, renowned cook Feng Xin and first-timer Mu Qing co-judge an amateur cooking show with a strong following on social media. As filming wraps up, Feng Xin is set to go on an international tour for the release of his debut cookbook. Their public relations coordinators team up to devise a plan that will not only jumpstart sales of Feng Xin’s book, but also boost Mu Qing’s rising fame and satiate the thirst of their shared fans: They will accompany each other on the book tour. Together. As a couple for the cameras. Whether they'll kill or kiss each other first is anybody’s guess.”

This is the first fengqing fic I’ve completed and it will forever hold my heart it’s SO GOOD! My emotionally cknstipated boys thrown into a cooking au!

if you can’t summon the flames directly from hell, store bought is fine by buthgoth (GremlinGirl)

Rating: E

Warnings: NA

Description: “Shi Qingxuan gets more than he bargained for when he steals a candlestick from a mysterious magic shop's private collection. A haunted apartment may be the least of his concerns, however. The demon he awakened is ancient and hungry, and it seems Shi Qingxuan might be his new obsession.”

Have I mentioned how obsessed I am with butchgoth’s work?… YES! this is the first fic of theirs that i’ve read and one of my faves. If your a beefleef stan then PLS read this fic plus their others!

as if by destiny by debwriting

Rating: M

Warnings: NA

Descriptions: “Hua Cheng stumbles upon the mysterious Midnight Cafe. He enters for a much-needed meal, and stays for the enigmatic owner, Xie Lian.”

A cute hualian coffee shop au with a twist!

MDZS:

Back to Bite One by diamond bruise

Rating: E

Warnings: NA

Description: “or, lwj, wwx and a couple of lan disciples get stuck in a haunted manor”

this one is cute and a tad angsty (like i wanna ram my head in the wall cause y’all r dense lol) but nothing too serious imo

RAWR! is I Love You in dinosaur by FireAwayy

Rating: E

Warnings: NA

Description: “Xue Yang has spent a life running only to find himself as an animal wrangler at Jurassic Park. He spends his time managing previously extinct monsters, and loving every second of it. Until Xiao Xingchen shows up.”

i love this author i love this fic i love this author i love this fic i love this author i love this fic!!!! if i couldn’t make that clear enough

Furry Porn Costs Extra by Fireaway

Rating: E

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Description: “Lan Xichen is the CEO of one of the richest companies in the world. He's efficent, savvy, and altogether bored. Lan Wangji is a ruthlessly efficient police officer with the highest moral code of anyone who had ever donned the uniform. Jiang Cheng is living day to day, getting by with his art. And when that doesn't work, robbing people blind. Wei Wuxian is the thief who hides behind a guileless smile and his uncanny ability to simply vanish when needed. What happens when their lives intertwine with one another? Will they find the answers they're looking for, or will they end up losing more than they ever bargained for?”

If i didn’t make it clear enough this author writes lovely fics! this is my fav Xicheng fic to date, it has its serious plot plus the humor is spot on (there is no actual furry porn)

Thicker Than Water by athena_crikey

Rating: M

Warnings: NA

Descriptions: “A disaster, is Lan Zhan’s first impression as the bike squeals to a halt on the far side of Song Lan’s car. The man riding it – and he’s tall, and lanky, and sure-footed – hops off and locks it to the car’s back door. The back door of a police vehicle. He pulls his helmet off to reveal long, sweat-soaked hair with a shaggy undercut, bright grey eyes, and a smile that launches like an arrow straight through Lan Zhan’s chest. No, he thinks, watching this trainwreck of a man shimmy between the narrow space dividing Song Lan’s back bumper and the next car’s hood like he’s doing some kind of dance step. Absolutely not.”

I absolutely ADORE athena crikey and her work- ALL OF IT!! this one in particular is one of my favs- here we have a modern cultivation au with my fav neurodivergent duo

Every River, Every Stream by athena_crikey

Rating: E

Warnings: NA

Description: “Wei Ying, rookie architect and chronically unable to prioritize his love life, in a moment of madness turns out to be tested for compatibility with famous new entertainer Lan Zhan, struggling with the after-effects of chemo. Unexpectedly matched with a man on a very different career trajectory, he's presented with a litany of unappealing choices. Oh, and also love.”

Another work by dear ole athena. This was the first fic I’ve read of hers and it will forever be a strong favorite.

Post Mortem by Cataclysmic_Calamity

Rating: E

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Descriptions: “Life is a horror movie sometimes. You ignore all the warning signs. You end up standing there in the final scene, covered in blood, contemplating your life choices. Wei Ying is used to that. But it’s harder when you’re in love with your best friend.”

If you guys are heavy into the tgcf or mdzs fandom than you’ll know exactly who this author, Evie, is. She wrote NPAB and The Soul Remains, along with a bunch of other beautiful fics. BUT MY GOD THIS ONE!!! I never see anyone talk about Post Mortem and I will proudly say this is my fav Wangxian fic, and one of my favorite fics period. The story is wonderful, characters r well written, beautifully paced, plot is to die for(lol). She’s an amazing author all in all so check her work out if you haven’t!!

[rosyfingered-moon]

2023 drama roundup

Unchained Love: I still hum the unhinged flute intro on a regular basis, easily my fave intro of 2023! I didn't actually finish the show due to dwindling interest, but for the first 14 episodes or so I took a keen pleasure in it (and it made me go on a eunuch webnovel spree, expertly curated by @mercipourleslivres). I love it when heroines are allowed to be truly funny, rather than just quirky or ditzy. Also appreciate the goofy Lamp Prince turning into a brutal incel tyrant the moment he got power.

Six Flying Dragons: I don't think I can write anything succinct enough for the roundup format so I direct you to my "my sfd tag" if you want to access my enthused livetweeting. Show of all times, lives were changed.

Tree with Deep Roots: I literally can't think of a better topic for a tv show than Sejong the Great constructing hangul together with his band of nerds, one of whom he has a weirdly intense, vaguely erotic relationship with. Han Suk-kyu carried this entire show on his trembling shoulders. What an actor! What range!!! It was such a treat to watch him smugly debate his ministers, roleplay a farmer, and hiss half-mad soliloquies to himself in the dark. It took nuance and depth to portray the kind of inner conflicts and generational trauma that Sejong battles in the background of this drama. To be honest I didn't always enjoy the Milbon subplot which I felt got repetitive, and often found myself wanting to fast-forward the wuxia scenes. In a better world the show would have centered the whip-smart palace maids and their alphabet workshops. But I will definitely rewatch this soon. And maybe also write a fix-it where Sejong and Soo-yi fuck idk.

Quartet: Cute little murder mystery about a found family of freaks, liked it a lot.

My Country: The New Age: As entertaining as ever. Very fun to rewatch this back to back with Tree with Deep Roots, since Jang Hyuk plays diametrically opposite characters with the same vigor and commitment.

Gone with the Rain: Sometimes you watch something which you understand is technically a masterpiece but it doesn't do anything for you, and sometimes you watch a piece of campy silly fun and it makes you tingle with joy. This was the latter category for me. I liked the first and middle parts enough to make up for the lukewarm fizzle of an ending.

The Autumn Ballad: Has some fucked up elements that are difficult to stomach, but the parts that are good are really good.

Not Others: Bingeable! But imo they could have cut out the stalker/murder cases and just focused on the excellent family drama.

The Matchmakers: This surprisingly swooped in towards the end of the year as my favorite comedy of 2023, all thanks to a rec by @haraxvati. I adore Cho Yi-hyun in this role!!! She is so hot as a shrewd matchmaker with a fake mole and a twinkle in her eye. Love the virgin prince with his yearning-induced panic attacks (Rowoon didn't work for me in The King's Affection in a quite similar role, but he's so much weirder and lamer here, which is something I like in a man). I am obsessed with the side plot of the crossdressing romance novelist and the solemn police officer who is trying to capture her and ends up giving her free home renovations and smouldering looks instead. Also, Park Ji-Young and Lee Hae-Young are two of my favorite villain actors on their own, and here they are married!! Still have a few episodes to go, but I intend to binge them as soon as I post this.

Dramas I dropped or paused:

Our Blossoming Youth: I shipped the heroine and her cute maidservant a little too much to bear the dull prince they stuck her with. But I might rewatch it some day bc I want to write a Sherlock Holmes fic for the girls.

Little Women: A real disappointment, because I love Louisa May Alcott and I love Jeong Seo-kyeong. Once again, letting the women kiss might have solved much of it.

Island: Casting Kim Nam-gil as an expressionless cool-guy action hero offends me personally. (Yes Song of the Bandits I'm giving you the stinky eye also.) But Lee Da-hee and Cha Eun-woo were delightful!

See you in my 19th life: I couldn't, even for my most darling Shin Hye-sun, go beyond episode 1. There's something about a kid dating another kid even though she's a literal adult inside her brain that I can't really vibe with.

My Dearest: I do intend to finish this, but I lost the thread after the first half. It got a little too dark for me I think.

[assiraphales]

You've reached water 7 yaay! Would love to hear your thoughts about all the galley la crew! Their dynamic is so interesting and i love their introduction at the start of the arc

I know this ask was about galley la but here's a collection of a few of my thoughts on water 7 in general!

-starting off with galley la. UMMM!!!! I will say that is one of the twists that genuinely shocked me so far in the series. the fact that half the town gathered to watch them work n fangirl over how strong they all are was so funny, and they seemed like such a tight knit group. I can't imagine working with them for five years as close friends and then finding out they were evil government workers

-lucci was a lot more fun when he was a ventriloquist who made his pet pigeon talk for him lmaooo

-the aesthetics of the water 7 amazes me! I love the design so much! i'm optimistically hoping there will be enough live action seasons that they make it here, and i've been thinking about how they'll put it off especially considering practical effects are so important to them. i'm thinking they'll build small parts of town like the shipyard, franky's house, and a main drag. and perhaps a model like they did in lotr for shots of the city ?

-usopp honey boo boo...................I get where his insecurities come from, and why the merry is so important of him (a piece of his home town) but he really brought the drama huh

-sanji is always more tolerable when he didn't have as much time to fawn over women. he did what he did best -- looking Cool smoking cigs and kicking ass. he's always so much cooler when he's on his solo missions and as soon as he's back with the crew the Dumbass gene takes over. I also DID think it was funny when he left the love note for nami in paint on the wall

-luffy getting stuck in a wall TWICE!!!!!!!! and being so in sync with zoro. naps at the same time. breaking into places at the same time. their little tag team move on the train.

-i've already talked about them in another post but franky n iceburg have one of the most interesting dynamics i've seen in the series. they make me ill. shipbuilder and ship demolitioner. mayor and criminal. they can never be friends but they'll always be brothers. etc

-franky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was on the fence for like 2 seconds but the blue haired hawaiian shirt wearing freak of nature won me over. he's so silly. he has a cola cooler in his stomach. he runs around in a speedo causing mischief. I love him. new little bug i'm shaking in a jar

-the two train station workers are two of my fave minor characters. they're eavesdroppers who live for gossip. they're making up love triangles and shipping strangers. good for them. good for them.

-nami literally cares for her crew so much. begging luffy to talk to usopp. crying / collapsing with joy when she found out robin didn't hate them. running into the path of a tsunami for luffy.

-luffy always gets this little :o face when he sees someone cry or hears their story. and he uses them as a power up. like yah he was angry but now he's REALLY!!! angry

-sanji's relationship w usopp. this arc revealed sanji ARGUABLY knows him the best

-oh tom :/

-the people of water 7 are v kind and live as a giant community which I think may have come from their struggles before the sea train came to town. the man who gave usopp the lumber and food. franky and co protecting the city. the shipbuilders / paulie helping nami luffy zoro n chopper. the townspeople rallyiing around iceburg and willing to risk their lives for him.

-the going merry :( I knew i'd eventually have to say goodbye to her but when I heard galley la say she was damaged beyond repair I was like no!!!!! NO!!! it's too soon!!!!!!!

-the found family of it all

[azures-bazar]

Night owls 

I've been wanting to write a Kieran Duffy one shot FOR AGES. He's my ultimate fave along with Sean and Arthur and I deeply wish we could give him a good hug in game. 💔 OMG I MESSED UP WITH THE TITLE IT'S "NIGHT OWLS"

Next mission : Part 2 of Fairest of Them All ! I already have the whole plot, now I just need more time :')

Please excuse my aweful grammar mistakes. Like I said, I'm mostly writing these one shots by night due to my new job ! I can take requests if wanted, it might just take some time. ☀️

Kieran Duffy x GenderNeutral!Reader 

Word count : 2.5k

Short summary : You and Kieran are two night owls who found one another on the dock of Clemens Point to gaze at the stars.

Tags : cute, our favourite horse boah, Chapter 3, Clemens Point, Kieran being cute asf, insecurity, stargazing

"O’Driscoll."

Here’s what Kieran heard most of the time, in the most scornful tone. No matter what he was doing, no matter what he was looking at, no matter what he was talking about. He was an O’Driscoll boy, and almost everyone in the gang reminded him about his former allegiance, even little Jack. He always felt safe around horses, they would not yell at him for a simple mistake, or openly pick on him like Sean would do. Kieran was a shadow, hiding from the rest of the gang despite Bill’s or Arthur’s best efforts to have, at least, one beer with him. Kieran was scared of many gang members, but certainly not of you. 

Since Arthur brought Kieran, first tied up in Colter’s stable, you had been overwhelmingly kind to him. You had given him food and had the right to untie him for him to relieve himself. You hated Dutch’s decision to keep him tied up and not having the right to feed him, but your own motives won over his orders. You could not stand Kieran’s endless cries for food, you just wanted him alright. Since he was free and taking care of horses, Kieran kept offering you his gratitude by picking a few flowers nearby, carefully placing them on your cot. He was too shy to directly give his bouquets to you… and you never knew who gave you all these gifts. 

Just like Mary-Beth, you had fallen for him. When you were not on guard duty, you enjoyed looking at him from enough distance for him not to spot you. You were too shy to talk to him, somewhat intimidated by his gaze. His large green and arched eyebrows always made him look like a lost puppy, which was quick to make you forget about what you wanted to tell him. But one thing was quick to make your heart rate increase in a mere blink of an eye : whenever your gaze met his, he would quickly blush and smile at you. He was deeply fond of you and, despite being quite awkward with the rest of the gang members, was quick to show his emotions to you. 

That night, you were resting by the dock of Clemens Point. Not a sound could be heard but the faint noise of campfire’s burning logs, or Arthur’s snore as you passed by his tent. Even Dutch was silent after his numerous arguments with Molly, which were now a routine. You had wandered around the tents to see if there were no other lost souls, night owls like you… but everyone was asleep. You had walked to the dock and sat there, taking your boots off and pulling your trousers up, allowing your feet to rest in the cold water. You were facing West, taking time to appreciate how beautiful the sky was, with the Milky Way showing its most beautiful stars above your head, giving you a beautiful picture to enjoy. Gazing at the sky by night was something you often cherished as it was relaxing. 

"M…M-May I join you ?" 

You turned your head to your right, noticing that Kieran was standing there, dressed in his underwear. His voice was so faint and calm that you had barely heard it. You could tell he was blushing, his hands clenching on the bottom of his shirt, nearly tearing it in the process. You shivered, still intimidated by his presence, gently nodding while patting an empty space beside you.

"Sure." you smiled 

It had taken about two or three days for Kieran to make this first move with you. He had mentally rehearsed his speech, from his moves to his facial expression, deeply scared of making you run away. He awkwardly moved forward and sat beside you, the tip of his feet touching the water. His heart rate was incredibly quick, he could not come out with any decent word to make the conversation. In fact… neither could you. His sole presence felt calming enough for you to enjoy the moment, but you were terrified of saying a word, believing he would also run away from you. How wrong the two of you were ! 

"Crap! It’s cold !" Kieran gasped, quickly dragging his feet out of water

"C’mon, it ain’t so cold." you smiled as Kieran turned to face you

"It is !"

His reaction was heartwarming enough for you to chuckle. The simple fact that he wanted to do things like you, plunging his feet into water despite its temperature was not hot enough, made him look adorable. You had seen Kieran trying to fit in with the rest of the gang by mimicking them on a daily basis, often trying to hold himself like Arthur, sitting by the fire like Sean or helping Ms. Grimshaw with morning chores by repeating her tasks with her proudly watching him do better than the girls all-together. He had genuinely believed the water was somewhat warm when he saw you bouncing your legs back and forth and wanted to join you into this harmless activity. 

As soon as he noticed you laugh a little, Kieran blushed and turned his head down. He believed he had ridiculed himself before you, and was wrong ! He turned his head back to you and smiled as he quickly understood he had no right to be ashamed, judging by the comforting glance you gave him. He was so confused and charmed at the same time, enough for him to smile even more. At this moment, he understood that there was nothing to be scared about. In fact, he felt comfortable enough to speak again. 

"You… you like gazing at the stars, right ?" he asked 

"Yeah. I find it relaxing, especially after tough days. What about you ?" 

"Same for me. I love watching stars move above my head… it makes me realise how actually small we are compared with what’s up there." 

Your eyes open wide to this statement. Just like you, Kieran loved watching the sky, acknowledging how tiny humans were, and how vast the universe was above you. Centuries ago, you would have been called mad by believing something existed beyond Earth and probably burnt at the stake for heresy. What was above your head was fascinating enough for you be feel lost in your thoughts, but never could you have imagined that Kieran felt the same as you, especially since he could neither read or write. 

"My mammy used to say we’re tiny beings." Kieran restarted. "She used to bring me to fields to gaze at the stars and often told me stuff about constellations. Can’t but think about her when I look at the sky now." 

"What we she like ?" you asked

"Beautiful and kind. She had her ways, but she loved things that weren’t good for ladies. I was ‘bout six when I lost her and pappy to cholera." 

"I’m… I’m sorry." 

"Don’t be. It ain’t your fault."

You could help but feel bad about Kieran’s past. The way he childishly called his parents mammy and pappy made you remember your own life, how you had lost your family at a young age too. Having been left alone in the streets of your hometown for years, Dutch and Hosea finding you felt like a miracle, providing you with a family you never expected to have, with Arthur and John as your two older brothers, watching over you since your induction into the gang. Kieran was certainly not as lucky as you, having joined the army for some time before leaving, living on his own before the O’Driscolls got him. Poor Kieran had it worse than many folks of your gang, being an outcast for most of his life. 

As far as you remembered, you were still young when Colm and Dutch’s feud occurred and had time to see how cruel the leader of the O’Driscoll boys was with his men. Dutch had shielded you from him, not allowing you to be nowhere near Colm or one of his men. You could remember Arthur and John never leaving you alone when Colm was walking by, even dragging you behind them when he was glancing towards your direction. You felt terrible you heard Kieran speak about him by the fire, how cruel and merciless he was, how many of his men he killed to just replace them, believing he went through hell while riding with the O’Driscoll Boys. At least he was safe with you ! 

"B-by the way… it was me." Kieran mumbled 

"You ?"

"I… I-I’m the one w-who puts flowers on your cot." 

You shivered and blushed at this sudden confession. It might have taken so much courage for Kieran to admit such thing to you ! You had been questioning a few gang members for weeks about these gifts, not knowing who would give you flowers and why someone would even gift you something anyway. You were close to mostly everyone, but probably not enough for anyone to give you flowers. 

"You’re the one who’s been bringing me flowers all this long ?" you blushed, feeling your heart rate increase 

"Y-yeah… You’re so kind to me, and… you know, you didn’t treat me like a monster. And… well… you…"

Kieran kept loosing his words, turning his head down. Saying he was the one who was secretly giving you these beautiful flowers was already such a big step forward ! He could not even think about what he could say next, being overwhelmingly terrified about your rejection, still being somewhat aware that you were receptive to his sweet charms. Kieran kept his head down for a moment as his large eyes twitched a little towards you.

"You’re really attractive…" he mumbled 

Your heart stopped beating for a second. If Kieran had told something like this during the day, he would have seen you turning red. Your mouth was half-open, you could not even respond to his sudden compliment. How sweet and genuinely kind Kieran was ! Enough for you to completely forget about your surroundings, and about Dutch who had been woken up, looking at the two of you between his tent flaps while Molly was asleep. The rest of the world did not matter much as you and Kieran, two night owls gazing at the stars above, finally found each other. Yes, finally.

"You… it’s alright… you can tell me to stop…" Kieran mumbled, shyly turning his head away while closing his eyes. "I ain’t probably the one you expected…"

"N-no ! Don’t ever stop, please." you gasped. "Don’t !" 

Despite feeling a vast amount of butterflies and bubbles inside you, you could not hold it any longer. You took a deep breath and dragged your feet out of water, moving a little closer to Kieran. Your hand rose to his directly, you lifted his face by gently holding his chin. What a move ! You could feel him shiver as he quickly opened his large eyes to look at you, still surprised. He even looked a little scared… like the lost puppy you thought him to be. 

"Y/N…?"

Your other free hand made its way to his cheek, his eyes opened wide. Nobody had even been so gentle towards him, so kind ! And there you were, there you were. His sunshine, his wildest dream. He would have never expected you to be this receptive to his words and act so gently with him. His eyes got filled with tears of happiness, he even moaned of pleasure as you rubbed his cheek with your thumb. The very last time someone had touched his face so gently was his mother herself, on her deathbed. It felt good enough for him to smile, bending his head for you to keep going while looking deep into your eyes. 

"You’re such a treasure, Kieran…" you smiled. "My treasure… I’m so glad I found you… "

"I’m… I-I’m happy I finally f-found you too…" Kieran stuttered

As you looked into his eyes, you had not noticed that Kieran’s hands had moved to your waist. He rose a little, moving his legs aside as he dragged you a little closer to him, carefully enough not to scare you. He did not want you to run away, he could not allow this… neither could you. You had found each other, and it felt like the beautifulest dream anyone of you could ever imagine. 

"I... l-love you." he whispered

You had no time to respond to such a beautiful sentence, Kieran had quickly moved forward to passionately kiss you. Your hands moved to his shoulders, you clung onto his shirt as you were softly pushed down, laying beneath Kieran who could not back away anymore. He kept kissing you so passionately that you even forgot about time and your surroundings. Nothing else mattered but the two of you, finally fusing into one being  beneath this endless star-filled sky. Kieran rose a little above you as you gently caught his face between your hands, gazing into his beautiful eyes. 

"I love you." you smiled 

Kieran smiled and arched his eyebrows, being overwhelmingly thrilled by what you had just said. No one had ever told him such thing ! He wanted to cry, but having you so close to him, ready to receive another kiss from him made him forget about all these negative and nostalgic thoughts he usually kept for himself. He kissed you one more time as you heard someone walk on the dock, causing the two of you to quickly stand up. Dutch was there, his arms crossed on his chest. You and Kieran stood still, turning your head down like two children who had been caught red-handed after messing around, which made Dutch smile. 

"What are you doing here ?" he asked 

"Gazing at the stars, Dutch." you responded

"We weren’t doin’ anything wrong, S-sir." Kieran added

"You sure weren’t, now go to sleep. Y/N, you’re on guard duty tomorrow, and we need Kieran to take care of horses." 

The two of you nodded, causing Dutch to chuckle a little as he watch the two of you walk away in line. Right before separating, you dragged Kieran inside your tent and closed its flaps. In no way could you just leave Kieran sleep by the tree alone again ! You allowed him to lie down on your cot first. He opened his arms to greet you into his embrace. 

"Cuddles ?" he whispered

Your heart melted one more time, you could not resist. You obliged and lied next to him, wrapping your arms around his waist. Your head quickly nuzzled in the crook of his neck as he placed a blanket above the two of you. 

"All good ?" you asked

"All good." 

It had been such a long while since Kieran did not get the right to lie down and enjoy a bed, even a bedroll, anything more comfortable than the bare ground ! He was quick to feel a relaxed, slowly drifting into sleep as he snuggled into your thin mattress. You rose a little to kiss his cheek, causing him to moan while holding you closer to him, held into your embrace on a comfortable bed, hiding under a warm blanket. He had forgotten how great it felt to have covers above him, how great it was to be loved. And, with you, he would remember what love felt like. 

"Goodnight, Kieran." you whispered

[themerlinlibrary]

Favourites Friday – Bonus New-Years Round: Fave of 2023

TML Favourites Friday round-up! New Year's Eve Bonus round (mixed!)

What is Favourites Friday? – The Basics

a different theme is announced on Friday each week; FF recs must match the theme of the week

only one FF rec per person per week/theme

FF recs must be unique within that week/theme; no double-posting the same fic for one theme!

no self-recs during regular rounds

only self-recs during self-rec rounds (last Friday of each month)

Theme for this bonus round: 2023 Favourite!

Since this is a bonus round, both regular and self-recs were permitted. Self-recs are labelled as such.

Like Every Tree Stands on Its Own by LeMightyWorrier E, 148k, Merlin/Arthur Canon Divergence, Mythology

False Hearts Know by Excited_Insomniac E, 51k, Merlin/Arthur Modern AU, Fake relationship

Arthur, Sincerely by MerlinLikeTheBird M, 49k, Merlin/Arthur Canon AU

in the arms of your protection (darling, i am yours to hold) by stolenstars T, 7k, Merlin/Arthur Canon era, Angst with a happy ending

The Neurodivergent Sorcerer's Guide to Graduating by Imagined T, 8.3k, Merlin/Arthur Modern with magic, College/Uni AU

Let's Be Winners by Mistake by Seravia E, 48k, Merlin/Arthur Modern AU

The Greater of Two Evils by N16 T, 4.9k, Merlin & Arthur (gen) Canon Era

Spit it out (Jot it down) by kirani, kiraniafterdark (kirani), NoSaladAllowed T, 3,9k, Merlin/Arthur Canon era, epistolary

Back on Track by kirani T, 5.9k, Merlin/Arthur Modern AU Self-rec

Pride by s0mmerspr0ssen E, 9k, Merlin/Arthur Modern AU, BDSM

All Things Loved and Lovesick by horsecrazy E, 90k, Merlin/Arthur Modern AU, vet

Separate Harmonies from Chords by thesongistheriver E, 12k, Merlin/Arthur Modern AU, musician and theatre Self-rec

I wish I'd known then by Zaharya T, 7.6k, Merlin/Arthur Modern AU, Roommates Self-rec

Somewhere Between the Sand and the Stardust by Cithara E, 110k, Merlin/Arthur Canon AU, Marriage of convenience

Merlin's fourth job by SnufflesThePig Not rated, 53k (WIP), Merlin/Arthur Canon AU/Era, Dragonlord Merlin

From the Shadows to the Light by PeaceHeather T, 580k, No relationships tagged Post Canon fix-it Self-rec

One Fool Thing by Of_Ivy_and_Gold E, 26k, Merlin/Arthur Modern AU, coffee shop AU

Long May It Burn by Imagined T, 6,3k, Merlin/Arthur Canon Era, Post Canon

Dirty Laundry by MerlinLikeTheBird G, 5.9k, Merlin/Arthur Canon Era Self-rec

And Everywhere I Look, I Look At You by aemelia_pendragon M, 19k (WIP), Merlin/Arthur Modern AU, Roommates

With and without you by Theroundbartable Not rated, 20k, Merlin/Arthur Canon AU, Magic reveal

I Don't Know How to Start by Shadow_Hole, thetreeofwillow M, 39k, Merlin/Arthur Canon Era, Hurt/Comfort Self-rec

The Coup by s0mmerspr0ssen T, 9k, Gwaine & Merlin Canon AU

A Good Life by Sorceressofdragons M, 73k, Merlin/Arthur Modern AU, Slow burn

All Tied Up by Sage_Owl E, 4.2k, Merlin/Arthur Modern with magic, succubi & incubi

A masterlist of all round-ups can be found here (oldest to newest) or here (newest to oldest).

If you want to make sure you never miss a FF rec, or would like to participate and share your own favourites; join us on the Discord TheMerlinLibrary! Happy reading!

About the FF round-up lists:

Recs are listed in the order they were posted on the Discord; the order does not imply any sort of ranking.

The pairing given in this list is the main pairing of each respective fic – please read the tags for any possible minor or side-pairings, as well as any potential warnings or triggers.

Pairings and Eras are given as tagged in each respective fic. (?) signifies that the tags were unclear and I do not know enough about the fic to fill the gaps.

Round-ups are compiled on the weekend of the week after the respective theme of the post (when the new theme has already been anounced), to avoid omitting potentially belated FF recs.

The weekly round-up is not a guarantee! I'm running this alone, so it can only be posted for weeks when I have enough time on my hands to compile a list. If you'd like to help out, feel free to contact me on Tumblr ( @zaharya ) or Discord. Again, so many thanks to @ravenwilds for helping! This one was huge!

[bluedalahorse]

YRS3 Fandom Writers Room Challenge: Round #1!

Let’s pretend we’re in the writer’s room for season 3 together.

This is not a predictions post. Nor is it fully a wish list, at least not in the conventional sense. In fact, I want to pause a moment move away from trying to predict what’s going to happen in season 3 exactly, and instead think about ways that it could be written. The wish fulfillment part is that you get to be the writer. You may have an idea you think Lisa herself is unlikely to include in the story, but you’ve thought of a way it would work well in the show. Or you have an idea you’re pretty sure is going to happen, but you have IDEAS about how it could play out onscreen and you want to explain those.

I thought we could spend the next few weeks considering a character or two at a time, and sharing out about what those characters’ arcs could be, if we were the writers. For now I’m planning to leave out Simon, Wilhelm, and August, just because I see a lot of thoughts going around about them already. I may reconsider later.

I will be using the tag “yrs3 fandom writers room” for these posts.

Ground Rules

Dream big, have fun, and share your ideas!

Try to stay in a writer’s mindset rather than an audience member’s mindset. We’re not trying to find secret messages in foreshadowing so much as using it to build a new part of the story that we are pretending we have control over.

Don’t feel like your thoughts have to be complete or perfect. We’re in the fandom writer’s room together, so you can leave some questions open and invite others to weigh in.

Comment on what you like about others’ ideas. If you want to build on someone’s idea, be collaborative rather than combative. Ask questions!

If one of your storyline ideas involves a character encountering or dealing with something triggering (as sometimes happens in the YR universe) please tag appropriately or give a heads up about what’s coming next.

If you’re not a fan of the character(s) of the week and your opinion is that they shouldn’t get any screentime in season 3 at all, this challenge may not be for you. Scroll on by and let other folks participate.

The first Character of the Week is… our wonderful fave Felice!

This Week’s Prompt: Imagine you’re on the writing team for season 3 and you’re deciding how Felice’s arc is going to play out this season. What do you want to do with her character arc? Where do you want her to start and end the season? How do your ideas build on what came before? How can her story interact with the stories of other characters on the show, and deepen the themes of Young Royals?

Think about your answer, and then reblog and respond. You can just write your ideas out, you can make a fun slide show, or you can write a drabble series or whatever, you can come up with a few songs you want played for Felice’s part of the storyline—it’s your choice how you want to respond.

I’m putting my response below the cut. Can’t wait to hear everyone else’s thoughts too!

My thoughts for Felice’s arc:

Heads up for discussions of bullying and conflict in friendship groups.

Sadly, I don’t have any cute graphics this week, or any fanworks. But I do have thoughts.

My writerly thoughts for season 3 are that Felice should be driven by a desire for true, authentic, passionate friendships.

I’ve been reflecting on how in season 2, Felice decides that she’s going to attend the school dance with her Manor House friends group, and prioritize platonic friendships over romantic relationships with boys. At the end of season 2, however, we can see that her friend group is in the middle of a schism. Fredrika and Stella are attacking Sara, and Maddie is nowhere to be found. While Felice is pretty angry at Sara herself, and I imagine she’ll spend the beginning of season 3 not really wanting to take her back as a friend, I wonder if it could perhaps haunt her afterward to see how quickly Fredrika and Stella turned on Sara without having the full story of what happened.

After Wilhelm’s speech, the school will be under scrutiny, and I imagine the general mood at Hillerska is going to grow even more tense. I also imagine this could make students act out more, and for Fredrika and Stella, this could mean power plays and using their gossip powers for evil. Maybe they’re continuing to spread rumors about Sara that have no basis in reality��but really they could be gossiping about anyone. Felice feels increasingly more uncomfortable with it and tries to get them to stop, but either Stella or Fredrika is subtly trying to usurp her role as the group’s “leader” and the group’s power dynamic is shifting. Perhaps by midseason they go as far as turning on her and kicking her out of the friend group entirely.

Felice lets some of this slip to her mother over the phone, and her mother makes an offhand remark about being bullied by her own friend group back when she was at Hillerska. Mamma Ehrencrona quickly tries to laugh off her remark like it’s no big deal, but Felice can sense her mother is bothered by these memories, and realizes that part of her mother’s meddling in her own life stems from unprocessed traumas.  Felice’s mother is a bullied person who became a bully. It doesn’t really lead to a full-on reconciliation between Felice and her mom—there’s not enough time for that in six episodes, and Mamma Ehrencrona probably doesn’t need that redemption arc—it’s more a revelation that makes Felice see some of her mother’s behavior in context.

Meanwhile, Wilhelm and Simon are publicly together now. Naturally they’re spending a lot of time with one another, meaning Felice can’t hang out with Wilhelm as much, and when she does hang out with them, she feels a bit like a third wheel. The choir’s spreading rumors about how Wilhelm “dumped” Felice for Simon, which adds another layer of awkwardness. Initially I thought, perhaps Felice is frustrated that she can’t get Wilhelm alone so she can open up to him about the struggles in her Manor House friend group, but I feel like that might repeat some season 2 dynamics with Wille being a dumbass who doesn’t take Felice’s feelings into account. So I wonder if instead she could be trying to actively avoid telling him about the conflicts in her friend group, so as not to disrupt Wilhelm’s newfound couple bliss with Simon. This could lead to a midseason moment between Wilhelm and Felice where Wilhelm finds out how Felice’s friends are treating her and he’s like, “dude that’s fucked up, and next time someone treats you that way, tell me and don’t keep it to yourself, because I’m your friend and I want to do what I can to make things okay for you.” 

Alternately, Simon could be the one who discovers Felice’s friend struggles and is there for her, and this leads to a deepening of their friendship. (Perhaps they can also bond as students of color in a predominantly white school—we’ve seen moments where both have experienced microagressions, but I don’t know if we’ve seen characters of color discuss something like that openly yet.)

If I were on the YR writing team, I would also use this as a springboard for Felice questioning if she might be aromantic asexual. Six episodes isn’t really enough for her to have an entire coming out journey, but perhaps she’s reading up on LGBTQIA+ issues throughout the season so she can be more of an ally to Wilhelm. Maybe we get one scene toward the end of the season where she comes across the terms aromantic and asexual and reads about how the aspec communities value friendship, and something about that clicks with her. She’s like, I think I might be one or both of these. I’m going to read more about it. This might be a slight retcon of Felice’s feelings toward Wille, but eh. This idea could also use some workshopping, too, since right now it’s feeling a little Heartstopper. Any ideas on how to make it more YR-flavored?

I do feel strongly, though, that if I were writing Felice and she wasn’t going to end up with a love interest in season 3, that I’d want it to be because she is aroace. There is a repeated trend in television of Black characters as the people who don’t get to be reciprocated love interests (Princess Weekes has a video about it and you should definitely check it out!) and if Felice remains alloallo, she becomes part of that trend, regardless of how well-written she is. On the other hand, there’s also not a lot of Black aspec rep in media right now, so Felice being aroace would at least kind of push back at that trend a little bit.

Overall, I’d like Felice to begin the season worried about her friendships, and ends the season in a place where she can be more confident and knows who a few of her real friends are.

One final thought: Now that Felice has given up riding, I’d like her to either devote herself to choir more fully, or try out a new hobby each episode. (For the latter idea, this doesn’t always need to be a series of in-depth scenes, but something we can see her doing in her scenes with other characters. Like in one scene she’s learning to knit as she chats with Wille and Simon, in another scene she’s doing food photography at lunch, etc.) If Felice gets more into choir, this can be something that deepens her bond with Simon. Maybe they get to do a duet!

Some questions I have for the other writers in the writers room are: I’m not sure how I want Felice and Sara to reconcile yet, but I know I want it to happen. Are there ways Sara’s arc can complement this one? I also want Fredrika and Stella’s arcs to end in a place where they aren’t total villains—I don’t want them to be flattened into basic mean girls, and I think ending them in a space where we understand them would be good. I think we can work out a solution but what do you think it should be? Also, any ways we can use Maddie? She’s always the wild card of that friend group.

Let’s hear your thoughts! Chat with me, fandom writer’s room. Let’s write a season of TV together.

[digitalcactusblog]

song ask meme!!! tagged by @hybridcitrus, thank you for the tag!!!!! >:3c i do so love inflicting my music taste on others :3c

Shuffle your on repeat playlist and list the first 10 songs, and then tag 10 people

God's Plan - Mother Mother y'all, the new mother mother album FUCKS HARD. i missed their old sound so much and it's back with this album!!!

The Glow (feat. Kimbra) - Big Data great song to blast in the car while you're driving to feel cool and also if you love heavy bass which i do :3

Kill All Your Friends - My Chemical Romance i actually only discovered this song like, recently??? by recently i mean like in the last two years, but considering i first listened to the Black Parade album like........ 10-12 years ago??? cannot believe. anyways this song gives me oc brainworms (shaoyuan my beloathed) for some fucking reason.

Astral Travel - Kikuo & Hatsune Miku i've been listening to Kikuo's stuff for a while but somehow i didn't notice that they dropped a new album?? honestly that's how it goes most of the time for me, it's always a fun surprise

Whisper - The Dear Hunter i'm kinda surprised it took 4 other songs before i hit a TDH one tbh but yeah this one!!! the migrant album was the album that got me into TDH, actually, and it's in my top 3 albums i think??? this song is especially fun to scream-sing loudly when you're feeling emotions. what emotions, you may ask? who knows! just as long as there's lots of it! just look at the lyrics cmon. also not to sing casey crescenzo's praises to the sun and back but, this man's voice. when you hit the chorus, man oh man. i love it.

The Carousel - Best Frenz & Joywave JOYWAVE joywave my beloved!!!!!!!!!! joywave's another band that i completely failed to follow along with and then suddenly i re-found some of their music, went "this is so good please tell me there's more" and then found all their albums??? and then there were NEW ALBUMS??? this is one of the tracks from one of them. this ALSO gives me tremendous oc brainworms (shaoyuan my beloathed again)

The Moments in Between - The Reign of Kindo if you like TDH, you'll probably also like the Reign of Kindo, because that's how i found them lmao. completely unrelated, if i have enough brainworms about an oc, i inevitably end up associating them with a band/multiple bands, and this band i strongly associated with tora. not even sure why!!

Burning Pile - Mother Mother wow, what a blast from the past. i used to listen to this as a sad depressed teenager!! and now i am a sad depressed adult, and i have different music i listen to, but this one still hits the same. damn. i'm such a sucker for a song that sounds happy and then you listen to the words and you're like fuck.

Ring 1 - Tower - The Dear Hunter ANTIMAI MY BELOVED. i cannot, for the life of me, decide which my absolute favourite song from the album is, because i love them all. but this one is definitely one of the top top faves. when the music slows down around the 2 minute mark?????? and the narrator in the song gets all smugly menacing?????????? and the instrumentals get all chill????????????? i simply die

Sword of Drossel - OSTER Project i think i found this track when i was in my late teens?? and then i forgot about it for a while, and then relatively recently (in the last 2 years) i had a sudden vocaloid nostalgia kick, and then i actually found this one on my streaming service and i was like oh shit???

man this was really fun!!!!! thank you again for the tag :D

i shall tag... @fangirling-phoenix @exilley @saiyanblood2 @bumble-b-goode @aboxthecolourofheartache @strawberry-hyacinth @mintchocolateleaves @artemisrockatansky @simplyaskeleton @skadren and anyone else who wants to do it!!!

[raid3r-r4bbit]

@fuzzydreamin thanks for the lol. ive been a little busy with life so sorry for the late response.

Favorite Color:

Green. Like Blindingly Neon almost yellow bile/acid toxic hazmat pukey green. Also black. I'm also a fan of earthy tones, warm greys and browns, rusty orangey reds, and i also unironically love that "some smoker lived here for 5+ years but i swear the walls are white" sepia color.

Last song:

Either Childish Flamingo or 1x1. I've been hopping in between really screamy and just goofy shit atm because i cant focus with anything else. 🤷 But (I also jsut got a new BMTH hoodie) BMTH's post human album has been feeding me. It's a really good (visual? no.) example of that like just angry and over it nihilist feeling and I just *MUNCH CRUNCH AAAA* like i feel like it could be just the tiniest bit angrier and louder but i think that's my headphones.

as for childish flamingo, its like that miseryxcpr thing imo. It's goofy and funny and it slaps. and it's so catchy. it's like right on the edge of aha funny and fuck you street and i love it. i hope any of that makes sense im sorry lol.

Last movie:

the Demon Slayer movie. I skipped all the way to the end to see the fight between Akaza and Rengoku because they're two of my favs ( in order from that show: Uzui (my mom calls yuzu (my cat) Uzui and its adorable) Akaza and Rengoku. I Found out the english dub is out (im way behind) and just needed to hear their english voice acting. all of it is amazing and Akaza's lil gigles during the fight make me incredibly happy. Guys who laugh/giggle mid combat? Ugh >\\x//<

Currently Watching:

Demon Slayer, Chainsaw man, Tokyo ghoul (im rewatching a bunch of animes) Steven universe. (i love all of these and full recommend them. I literally just yesterday(or the day before idk time is a blur) got a new funko pop, it's the half-kakuja kaneki and i love it.)

Other stuff i've watched this year:

Spy x Family, the Junji ito Collection, Yamishibai (if you like picture style art and horror this is great, its somewhat junji ito like, but shorter stories and ngl the zanbai ep scared me a bit) psychpass (some reccomended this to me cause im (obviously) a fan of darker more gruesome shows, and it is very dystopian, love the art work, but i just dont get it.) Given (if you havent watched this show please watch it its amazing) Yuri on ice, Banana Fish (also another fave)

(I work from home, and pretty much exist at my computer, and need to keep on music or tv to keep the bad thoughts out, so i have a lot of time and opportunity to watch stuff ok)

Shows I dropped this week:

Psycho pass. again, i just couldnt get into it. I know a lot of people seem to really like and it full seems like a show that would be up my alley. that first ep was kind of a lot though. I'm not ashamed to admit i love shows that are unafraid to show nudity and violence but the two together (ifykyk) make me uncomfortable. If this case had been a little further in the show i think it would have been fine, but it's litterally the first like ten minutes of the show. I also tried watching this a few week ago while at wasteland but we were pretty much just out the door.

Devil May Cry. I still love the games and the characters, and i remember loving the anime as a kid but its just... so different from the games lmao.

Currently Reading:

random internet stuff, fics and shit. I feel bad because i used to go to the library all the time but at the same time, i dont really have the room to store a whole bunch of books and despite being super dyslexic, i read insanely fast, so renting/buying books isnt worth it to me. (i've read entire full length series in the span of a day or two, while doing other stuff. I need longer, more conveniently packaged novels and that typically comes in the form of fanfiction. )

tagging: @snowmutant @ivanpahdrylakeracer @glaochormfitheach(idk if ur cool tagging you in this kinda stuff, if not just lmk i though it'd be fun :D) @the-soup-witch(im dragging you into tumblr culture whether you like it or not, welcome to tagging games)

[brothersonahotelbed]

was tagged by @transgenderfreak thank you so so much!!! & sorry im late </3

are you named after anyone?

i named myself after nico di angelo from the percy jackson series :3 he's my favorite character

when was the last time you cried?

may 15th! too much wine

do you have kids?

naur

do you use sarcasm a lot?

only around people whom im comfortable! im really fucking polite to new people but once i get to know you and i like you, i can be veeery sarcastic. like a cat exposing its belly

what sports do you play/have you played?

i don't play any sports currently, but i used to be a FREAK at soccer!!! i mean it. im severely out of practice but sometimes i pick up the ball for shits and giggles, and ive found that i can still juggle which is pretty cool :] ive got medals and a few trophies but they're from when i was younger, like in middle & elementary school

what's the first thing you notice about other people?

their face, im excellent with faces but not names.

eye color?

idk if they're blue-green or green-blue but they're a mixture of those two plus some flecks of like. brown or gold. idk

scary movies or happy endings?

scary movies BUT. i raise you this...happy movies with scary endings

any special talents?

i have will graham levels of empathy and this allows me to read people Very well. to the point where i can finish their sentences or say what they're thinking/trying to say better than they can.

where were you born?

manhasset, ny

what are your hobbies?

reading, writing, and playing guitar. i also notice patterns in the universe for fun :3

do you have any pets?

yez i have 4 cats <3 from left to right: bubbas, twix, ash/mr fluffy, and willow/wee wee

how tall are you?

5'6

fave subject in school?

im going off of my highschool classes bc college sucks. so, english or music. or latin, but i think that was mostly because my latin teacher was the greatest man on the planet i think i had a parasocial relationship with him before i even knew what that was

dream job?

i dont dream of work but if i could make money either writing novels or playing in a band...

you don't have to do this but if you want to: @vnapologeticapathy @gothdrpepper @autism69 @faggottranssexual @sooth-sayings @joanofarccoded @shobe-sandwitch @halfbloodsnowflake @probablymoons

[beck-a-leck]

Hey, for the AO3 Wrapped: Writer 9, 16 and 27 (And, if I may be so bold, 30 for the reader edition)

Finally getting to this after my weekend working. Thank you for playing!

AO3 Wrapped Writer's Edition

9. Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?

I didn't do a while lot of shippy writing this year, most of my fics were gen. That being said I did have a lot of fun breaking into a new ship for me when I wrote Adored. Exploring Frey and Vishnal's relationship under the specifics of my Empress Frey AU was a ton of fun, and chock full of feels. And we all know I do love the angst so, so much.

16. What's your most common "Additional Tags" tag?

Guessing off the top of my head, I bet it's gonna be "Angst" or something related, but I'm gonna go look now and see.

I stand partially corrected, it's both Fluff and Angst equally. This does not surprise me in the least. Because as much as I love my angst, I do love the fluff!

27. What do you listen to while writing?

There's pretty much always music on while I'm writing. Sometimes it's music with lyrics, I have a long playlist of all my fave songs to help be stay in a groove or mood. I listen to musicals a lot too. But most often when I want to get into a super focused mode I go for instrumental music, so lots of movie and video game soundtracks. (my spotify wrapped this year was 100% movie soundtracks I listened to while writing this year lmao)

AO3 Wrapped Reader's Edition

30. Biggest surprise for you as a reader this year?

I think what surprised me most in general was getting into The Hobbit/LOTR fandom. Like I've always enjoyed the original works, and over the years I maybe read one or two pieces if something crossed my radar, but I've never really gone into the tags. But I got bit by the bug earlier this year and started dipping into the fandom tags and I've found some really delightful fics in there. There's such a thrill finding a new fandom in an old fandom.

[pherryt]

Crossover Fic Recs

I was thinking about the fact that I love Crossovers (heck, i have more then 20 that I've written and more in the works) and thought I'd make a Crossover Rec List. I know i've read a good number, but these are my biggest faves:

1 - Browncoat, Green Eyes by nonjon

Read on Fanfic.net or AO3

Fandoms: Harry Potter/Firefly

Ship: River/Harry

Rated: M

Words: 298,538

Summary:

Post Serenity. Two years have passed since the secret of the planet Miranda got broadcast across the whole 'verse in 2518. The crew of Serenity finally hires a new pilot, but he's a bit peculiar.

2 - By Your Side is Where I Belong by TexasBean / @texasbeanwrites-stuffhere

Unfinished

Fandoms: One Piece/Naruto

Main Characters: Zoro, Naruto, Gaara

Rated T

Words: 378,159

Summary:

All he was supposed to do in Konoha was collect the reward for the bounty and be on his way. But when Zoro defends some kid from a drunk during a festival, he didn't realize he'd get stuck with Naruto. Arriving in Suna, the pair meet Gaara, who ends up leaving with them when he sadly has no reason to stay. Luffy is overjoyed to get three nakama at the start of his journey… The world is much bigger than people realize, and the Straw-Hat Pirates find themselves wrapped up in the mysteries of the Biju, Ancient Weapons, and earning the ire of the World Government while they’re at it. The unwitting presence of one resulting in the absence of others has far-reaching consequences.

3 - Trust Me, I'm an Alchemist by @metisket

Fandoms: Full Metal Alchemist/Yuri on Ice

Rated : T

Words: 54,791

Ships: Yuuri/Victor

Summary:

In which Yuri Plisetsky began life with the name Edward Elric, and this has made the world of figure skating a significantly stranger and more alarming place. “Are you saying you lived a life of crime before you began skating?” “I’m gonna have to check the statute of limitations on a couple things and get back to you on that.”

4 -There May Be Some Collateral Damage by metisket

Fandoms: Bleach/Harry Potter

Rating: T

Words: 61,209

Summary:

Ichigo’s been ordered to go undercover at a magic school to bodyguard a kid named Harry Potter, and this would be fine, except that he’s about as good at bodyguarding as he is at magic. And he considers it a good day, magic-wise, if he hasn’t set anything on fire.

I first read Browncoat, Green Eyes on fanfic.net after my husband sent me the link and I occasionally checked AO3 to see if it was ported over since I don't use FF.net anymore and I found out literally TONIGHT that it's there, so marking THAT to read. I am VERY happy.

And I just realized that the rest of my faves were found by @socially-awkward-chocobo, so I get to blame her for them :D

*note - i tried to tag metisket, since I, for one, love knowing when I'm on a rec list but even though the tumblr shows as active, tumblr won't let me tag :(

[bardic-inspo]

15 Questions

Tagged by @vault-heck. Thank you!! 

Tagging back if you want to (no pressure if you’d rather not): @electricshoebox, @some27-url, @persephotea, @wishing4nuclearwinter, @totally-not-deacon, @just-another-wasteland-merc, @alannabix88, @alder-berry, @mercurymiscellany, @thedreamwolf, @seduce-me-with-coffee, and whoever else would like to!

1. Are you named after anyone? Nope.

2. When was the last time you cried? I got a little teary on Saturday when we left home to play D&D at a friend’s house a few hours away. It was the first time we left our kitty cat home alone overnight in our new place and I was feeling a little sensitive about it. He was completely fine and he probably slept most of the time we were gone.

3. Do you have kids? No, but maybe, probably, having one someday.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Me? Never. (Absolutely).

5. What sports do you play/have you played? When I was younger, swimming and cross country running. I don’t run at all anymore, it sort of fucked up my knees. I would love to get back into swimming again sometime in the near future. I semi-frequently do yoga at home, and would like to get into biking again. I’ve almost-nearly bought a bike several times over the past few years, but always found an excuse not to (mostly broken toes and long winters). I also have my scuba certification, if that counts, but the certification process was spread over two years (because of the broken toes) and I don’t feel qualified in the least, if I’m being honest.

6. What's the first thing you notice about other people? Their voice, if I hear them speaking. Otherwise, I guess...just, vibes? A gut reaction of however they make me feel based on what they’re saying/doing and especially how they’re saying/doing it. 

7. Eye color? Hazel, leaning heavily towards green.

8. Scary movies or happy endings? Both is good!

9. Any special talents? I think I’m a decent writer, and a somewhat insightful person/deep thinker. 

10. Where were you born? Midwest U.S.

11. What are your hobbies? Writing, video games, dungeons & dragons, reading (sporadically), dabbling in random artstuffs as the mood takes me, travelling to places I’ve never been, helping my cat live his best life.

12. Do you have any pets? My kitty cat, Leo, is about 8.5 years old (I cannot believe!!). We adopted him from a shelter when he was 5, and that was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me.

I grew up with a goldendoodle named Teddy, and I do love dogs, but I very much do not want to own a dog and owning a cat has reinforced that quite a bit for me, just due to the lifestyle changes/amount of work to take care of them elements.

‘Leo’ was the name my kitty’s prior owners gave him, and we didn’t have another name in mind, so we kept it. If we had ended up with a girl cat, we may have named/re-named her “Neset” and called her “Nessie” for short. Neset was a recurring villain in a D&D campaign I played in, and was also know as “the shadow of Egypt”. She was a monk/rogue multiclass who escaped our party probably five times on the brink of death before we eventually captured her.  I

13. How tall are you? 5′1″

14. Fave subject in school?  In college, I liked political science so much I ended up minoring in it sort of on accident, because I kept defaulting back to those courses while figuring out my actual major. In high school, probably psychology or language/literature.

15. Dream job? Not having to have one?

I think would enjoy being a writer, as a job, if and only if my financial wellbeing didn’t depend on it, and I was writing what I wanted/decided to write. That being said, some sort of story or narrative work. Maybe as an editor, or some sort of concept-person. I also really enjoyed anthropology, poli sci, and research in general in college, and if I wasn’t certain academia would ruin me mentally and financially, I might enjoy that, too. These are all dreams and don’t sound like real jobs one could have with the terms/conditions I’m describing.

[astridhobbit]

Someone on Bluesky was like, hey maybe don't rec romance novels and sexy books to people who are actively saying they don't like romance, and especially don't tag in romance authors in those discussions because it turns out that authors do NOT like having their works shat upon by people who don't enjoy them, huh, who could have foreseen.

So when IS a good time to rec romance novels and sexy books?

RIGHT NOW!

I love romance novels and sexy books and here are some of my faves:

IF YOU LIKE: young protagonists, princess/bodyguard, princess/bad boy, and excellent SF nonsense TRY: Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik. It's the first in her Consortium trilogy, and all the books are a delight. The first is princess/bad boy, the other two are more princess/bodyguard, and they are ALL great SF, great adventure, and great romance!

IF YOU LIKE: middle-age protagonists complaining about their back pain, comedy, a religious order whose whole goal is to make things better for as many people as possible, and just a whiff of horror TRY: Paladin's Grace by T Kingfisher. It's the first in her Paladin Romance series and they are all hilarious and sweet, with only a few severed heads. Hardly any. And only the one warrenmind. (Like a hive mind, but hares.) Bishop Beartongue is the very best.

IF YOU LIKE: leather, whisky, BDSM, overthrowing the patriarchy, and just, so many orgies TRY: Beyond Shame by Kit Rocha. It's the first in their Broken Circle series, and it is an EXTENDED series. They were one of my gateway drugs into romance and I do love the extended metaplot.

IF YOU LIKE: fancy British society, clever unionizing efforts, and women who know how to play to their strengths TRY: The Duchess War, by Courtney Milan. It's the first full novel in the Brothers Sinister series (there's a prequel novella called The Governess Affair) and it's fantastic. The second book in the series, The Heiress Effect, had one of the tightest plots I've ever read. Everything tied up with a bow at the end, in a way that I didn't see coming but made perfect sense as I read it. Beautiful.

IF YOU LIKE: The Mummy, Indiana Jones, pulp adventure, hidden magic, good guys who can do no wrong, bad guys who can do no good, strong women who are stronger than they think TRY: Warrior, by Zoe Archer. It's the first book in the Blades of the Rose series and every book is cover-to-cover pulpy adventure goodness. The bad guys are cartoonishly evil. The good guys are pure of heart. The second book, Scoundrel, starts with a fight/chase themed around an Olympic pentathalon. It's SO good.

IF YOU LIKE: New York City, non-lethal violence, comedy, shifters who are decent but sometimes real assholes TRY: Hot and Badgered, by Shelly Laurenston. It's the first in the Honey Badger Chronicles, but the series comes after the Pride Series. (I started with these books, it's fine.) One of my favorite depictions of shifters, in no small part because of the thought she put into how shifters behave. Like how obsessed the male lion shifters are with their hair, or how sleepy the panda shifter is. I laughed a LOT when reading these books, they're SO funny. Violent, too, but shifters heal quick.

IF YOU LIKE: blood magic, becoming a monster to overthrow the patriarchy, polyamory, disaster pansexuals, ancient Greek aesthetics TRY: In the Ravenous Dark, by A.M. Strickland. We start with our narrator waking up, hung over, clutching a mostly-empty wine skin, with her on-again off-again girlfriend, on the roof of a pagoda-like thing above a fountain, in the middle of town. She makes choices based on wine and lust and anger and I love her.

IF YOU LIKE: subby men and Domme women, found family, overthrowing the patriarchy, long journeys, BDSM, ~angst~ and ~longing~ and ~guilt~ TRY: His Secret illuminations, by Scarlett Gale. It's the first in a duology and you may have heard of it as the fantasy pegging book. I regret to inform you that there is no pegging and not even any kink in the first book. I rejoice to inform you that there is a LOT of kink in the second one, His Sacred Incantations. (And yes, pegging.) He was raised in a monastery and taught that too much joy or pleasure will make him lose his magic. She's an Amazonian warrior woman who needs some help tracking down a missing book. They have an adventure! And, just, so much angst.

IF YOU LIKE: shifters, fighting the would-be conquerors, second chances, subby men and bossy women, grumpy/sunshine TRY: The Leopard King, by Ann Aguirre. It's the first in her Ars Numina series. Book 2, The Demon Prince, is more bossy lady/subby man, along with some hurt/comfort. Book 4, the Shadow Warrior, is a lot more BDSM. Book 5, The War Priest, is angsty grumpy/sunshine and Grumpy does NOT want to like Sunshine as much as he does. They're all good fun.

IF YOU LIKE: thriller/horror with a "hang on what is HAPPENING here" vibe, second chances, fighting for freedom TRY: The AI Who Loved Me, by Alyssa Cole. This book does a great job painting a scene that is just a little bit off, then slowly and subtly going more and more *wrong*. Not too scary, even for a horror weenie like me.

QUICK NOTE: I realized as I was making this that there are not enough Black authors on here. If anyone has any recs for science fiction / fantasy romance novels by Black authors, lay 'em on me!

[prince-simon]

GET TO KNOW ME🤩

thank u for tagging me @toffeelemon i love you i adore you

do you make your bed?

ever since i moved from the basement back upstairs i do bc i took my new bedroom very seriously as just a place for sleeping/getting rest and i read somewhere that if you make your bed you'll have a more organized day ahead of you and i could really need that for my adhd brain lmfao (idk if it actually helps but it has become a habit now lol)

what's your favorite number?

i'm not sure??? i could say 28 bc it's my bday maybe and it just feels like a nice round number??? or maybe 15 bc 15 feels like a green number??? and green is my fave colour so ksjfdkjf

what is your job?

i work in elderly care for the most part for now but i'm also in uni for social work so once a week i work in a youth centre and ideally that's what i'll be doing when i'm done with uni

if you could go back to school, would you?

still there so. skdksd last semester i had the ridiculous idea to get a phd eventually for the gender neutral title but also bc i gave a couple presentations on queerness and i actually quite enjoyed educating people (after all the anxiety beforehand lmao)

can you parallel park?

i did it once successfully during my driving test thirteen years ago. never again though lmao. i'd rather walk farther than get a closer parallel parking spot lmfao

a job you had that would surprise people?

i don't even remember anymore when that was but i think it was kinda like a job over the holidays so very temporary. i must've still been in high school. basically for one week i worked in a real estate office as an assistant and they just needed me for taking phone calls and stuff which is like my biggest nightmare. and basically i was working there for nine hours a day, occasionally taking calls and the other times going through the exposés for their real estate and correcting spelling and grammar mistakes in them just to kill time bc it was so fucking boring lmaooo honestly thinking about it now feels like a fever dream

do you think aliens are real?

obviously. the only reason humans haven't found them yet is a) they don't want to be found or b) our definition of "life forms" doesn't fit into what these "aliens" are

can you drive a manual car?

course. learned in one, driving one now. like if you learn how to drive a manual car you can drive any car basically so it's perfect really

what's your guilty pleasure?

probably hate watching movies and tv shows lmaooo like. i start them, hate it but then i have to continue bc i just need to know how it ends y'know? sksksk

tattoos?

just two currently - "don't let me go" (iykyk) on my shoulder blade and a rose on my wrist

it's been literally 10 years since i got them both so it's about time i get a new one ahahaha (i've got plenty of ideas but not enough time or money lol)

favorite color?

green. bc it's a gay colour sksksk dark greens, pastel greens, all the greens

favorite type of music?

i like the kind of music that makes you wistful, like you're sitting in a forest somewhere and pondering life and everything you've lost and everything that's yet to come, y'know?

do you like puzzles?

i don't think i have much of an opinion on them lol i remember when i was a child we had a 3D puzzle of castle neuschwanstein (i think) that was pretty dope

any phobias?

i am TERRIFIED of (dead) mice lol our cat (jake, may he rest in peace) used to bring them home all the time and i had several nervous breakdowns over it over the years

favorite childhood sport?

i never did any lol except for what we had to do in school and the teachers always treated me like shit so i hated it even more

they almost made me hate swimming too but i still love water. wouldn't call it sport though bc i enjoy floating around the most lol

do you talk to yourself?

occasionally yeah. funnily enough it's always in english

what movies do you adore?

suddenly i don't know any movies anymore. uuuuuhhh oh! mamma mia! it's just such a good time. letters to juliet.... i'm noticing a theme here. but can you blame me??? amanda seyfried??? hello??? anything with dylan o'brien tbh. and logan lerman lol

coffee or tea?

coffee only if it's iced and sweet and (plant) milky. tea. yes.

first thing you wanted to be growing up?

a painter. idk if this is only a german thing but we always had these friendship books going around in classes and among friends that were actually a little bit like these tag games. and there would always be the question of "what do you wanna be when you grow up" and bc one of my grandmas (the one i don't even like all that much anymore now kssksk) was always big into painting i just always wanted to become a painter

tagging @sterek-unhinged @aro-of-artemis @wonjungjae @omaremioo

GET TO KNOW ME🤩

thank u for tagging me @skibasyndrome 🫶🏼

do you make your bed?

not ever since i read somewhere that leaving your sheets uncovered is actually good for airing it out and reducing lice risk sksk (excuses). i would if i’m a guest / at my parents’ though

what's your favourite number?

0 is pretty neat

what is your job?

an architect - in training sksksk (for the past SEVEN years but any day now guys) would very rarely self describe as a MuLtiDisCiPLinArY artist/writer/researcher if i’m feeling like a wanker or trying to impress wankers

if you could go back to school, would you?

constantly entertaining the idea of a useless phd sksks - mostly for the gender neutral title and the most distance from capitalism to be honest

can you parallel park?

no. i can only shuffle in if it’s a space for 2 cars sksk i literally used to circle the block endlessly when waiting for family to grocery shop instead of parking if there’s no 2 spaces for me to pull into

a job you had that would surprise people?

i’m not sure i have anything surprising. i sold car magazines at a book fair and i will not elaborate.

do you think aliens are real?

yes. and they’re purposefully not making themselves known to humans because they don’t wanna touch this clusterfuck with a ten feet pole

can you drive a manual car?

never ❤️ city gay refusing to drive forever😗✌🏼

what's your guilty pleasure?

pimple popping videos or in general mildly gross “satisfying” videos sksksk. i would binge until i get sick and delete them from my history so i don’t have to see any more suggested once i got my fill

tattoos?

2! 🦈🪼

favorite color?

pink and blue. i like most pinks, like them less the more purple they get, i like pastel blues and navy blues but the bright saturated ones in between not as much

favorite type of music?

i’m a pop girlie through and through - almost exclusively listen to queer and/or poc artists now. i like hyperpop, pop punk, indie pop

do you like puzzles?

i used to do so much with my mum and got pretty insane over it (like 1000 pieces sets) but not as much now

any phobias?

hmm i don’t have much Irrational fear - one would be i Hate the idea of having my back exposed i always have to sleep with my back to the wall

favorite childhood sport?

Loathe sports. i loved ice skating and it’s one of the few things i quit against my will and in another life i would’ve been a figure skater

do you talk to yourself?

ever since i’m not living with any family i need to check whether i still speak my mother tongue every now and then sksk

what movies do you adore?

i keep going back to ghibli films. my absolute favourite is howl’s moving castle

coffee or tea?

i don’t drink coffee.

first thing you wanted to be growing up?

studio ghibli animator🥹 also wanted to write full time. play orchestral percussion full time

tagging @prince-simon @cloudywilmon @ungaroyals @aro-of-artemis @angelbabysimon @tooindecisivetopickaurl

[matan4il]

Hello!

I saw your post where you spoke about the 911's cast and writers being aware of Buddie, and the explicit support from some of the cast for Canon!Buddie.

I am quite new to the fandom and so I was wondering if there were any links you could source for this? I am genuinely curious :)

Funnily enough, I started 911 after loving LS, and saw a lot of buddie content on 911 blogs. I figured it was typical queerbaiting (tumblr 2012 era was ✨️ traumatising ✨️ and so resolved not to ship them.

But then I watched the show and yeah…there were definitely interesting choices made that make Buddie such an intricately beautiful ship. It's a slow burn to rival all slow burns :fire:

Needless to say, I'm now 100% on board!

Hi lovely Nonnie and welcome to the fandom! :D I hope you enjoy everything about it and I am so glad to hear you're on board! *hugs*

Okay, for links... TBH I mostly remember things as they happen, I'm less into saving links, but for you I made the effort, I traced my own steps (who knew I actually remembered where I yelled about certain things two and a half years ago? The power of Buddie), and found the source to the stuff I had in mind when I said Ryan, Oliver, JLH and Gavin have all shown support for Buddie. Her we go...

Let's start with Gavin! Obviously it was explained to him in age-appropriate terms, so take that into account, but still, look at how pure his response is (interview from Oct 2021):

And then they went and they filmed the lasagna scene in 601. You can't tell me that doesn't mean anything!

Now Oliver and Ryan have both expressed support for Buddie more than once, for example you can find my post showing how they were the ones who named our ship! In terms of official interviews, they've mostly given answers that are noncommittal but supportive, stuff along the lines of making sure they don't raise fans' expectations (in case it doesn't happen), but also letting us know they do like the enthusiasm for Buddie, and would be cool if 911 went that way. So most are kind of... let's say diplomatic. I will, however, throw in this live that Ryan did where at first, he had a few answers of that vanilla sort (encouraging the shippers, not promising anything, leaving room for Buddie to happen, but also leaving room for fans who don't want Buddie, and sort off summarizing with, "We'll see what Tim writes"). But then he got a question about Abby and I don't think he could help it, the Buddie shipper just jumped out of him, which I love. I edited and uploaded it to YouTube for you, since stupid Tumblr only allows me to directly upload one vid a post here:

Lastly, but maybe my personal fave, in May 2020, a gay fan of JLH uploaded to his personal IG account a video that he asked her to film with a message for his husband's bday. Here's the relevant part of the vid which I've edited and uploaded for you, where JLH is basically being all of us:

BTW, this is also a reply to the Nonnie who sent this ask:

I know about Ryan, Oliver and JLH but when did Gavin say anything about that?

I hope I managed to answer both of you! Have a great day, and as always, here's my ask tag.