#I missed writing short stuff

[dinitride-art]

When Will kisses Mike, it’s because they’re covered in blood.

It’s because Mike’s already looking at his lips.

It’s because Will loves him.

The flames churn and coil above them. It’s the end of the fucking world. The plan was never going to work. No matter now much Will wanted it to. They were doomed from the start.

He rolled a seven.

And Mike’s bleeding from wounds- scraps over the left side of his face. Running from his eyes over his cheek. Just a little bit like tears. And Will’s left arm, the hand reaching for Mike’s, is bruised and torn and shaking.

It’s almost over.

“Will. Hey.”

But Michael Wheeler is saying his name like that, and staring at his lips.

And Will gives in.

“I love you.”

Because he loves him too.

- - -

Mike Wheeler will be damned if they don’t make it out of this alive.

If Will doesn’t make it out alive.

If Will doesn’t know that he loves him.

So he’s giving him everything he has. And grabbing his hands, and dragging them both out of this fucking hell scape.

“Mike?”

Bloody, and broken, and scared.

Alive, in love, and determined.

“Let’s get back to the others.”

“How? We’re stuck here and the plan failed and- Mike. Why- we don’t have a chance anymore. It’s okay.”

No.

Holding Will’s face in his hands and kissing him. They. Are. Going. To. Live.

“It’s not okay.”

“Mike.”

“And we’re going to make it out of this.”

They are.

No matter what.

“Because it’s not over yet.”

It’s so fucking hot. Touching Will’s skin is nearly unbearable, but neither of them are pulling away. Mike stares him down. At the end of the world.

Begging him to try again.

There is no silence. No safety. No place to think.

But he waits.

And Will answers.

“You’re right.” Bloods dripping from his hands, his… nose.

His eyes.

“It’s not fucking over yet.”

[keyotos]

loved you every single day

summary ⎯ what is love for the xianzhou guys? that's basically it. very sappy and tender and sentimental.

includes ⎯ dan heng, blade, jing yuan

tana's words ⎯ hi...

dan heng

⎯ dan heng had a vague understanding of what love felt like. before the astral express, he never really knew what love really felt like due to memory loss. but he learned, eventually.

⎯ he found love when himiko always offered to make another coffee cup for him (this time, with the blend he enjoys). he found love whenever march/stelle would check on him during the late hours of the night, knowing he'd be buried in books. he found love whenever welt offered to shoulder the burdens of keeping watch during trailblazing missions.

⎯ but he has never felt love like this before. not with you anyway.

⎯ there was a sense of loyalty he had for you. of course, he was obviously also loyal to the crew, but it was different with you.

⎯ you made him want to follow you towards the end of the universe. you made him want to run with you into the light or whatever awaits the both of you later on. he was willing to do all of it.

⎯ why? a lame question to ask, he thinks. there are hundreds of reasons why, and he could list them easily. was your smile and the way it instantly warmed an entire room enough reason? or should he add onto the fact that you were practically made of stardust and cosmic radiance? that you have some kind of miraculous or even transcendental ability to string words so brilliantly that it manages to calm the harshest of voices down?

⎯ and love was scary for dan heng, at first. there were too many hindrances and difficulties in his life. for one, he could not let you get caught up in his past. he wouldn't: he would make sure of it. for two, he wasn't very used to love.

⎯ yeah, there was the express crew. but there was also you. dan heng thought that he would spend the rest of his life alone. he still has not settled into his room on the express because he reasoned that he'd stay until the archives until he was ready to leave. but you challenged all of that.

⎯ how is it that one person could make him want to stay by their side forever? how is it that you have such an enormous effect on him, yet you aren't even aware of it? every wall or barrier he's put up, you've always managed to erode it down. you allowed him to be vulnerable and you allowed him to be carefree. you allowed him to relax. to breathe.

⎯ loving you, was to breathe, for dan heng. you were the gasp of air that he needed while he was drowning beneath the waters. finally being able to decompress and unwind; he felt lighter around you. less stressed, less worried. less stoic. less somber.

⎯ he has never even thought of love like that before he had met you. but you changed him. and he is eternally grateful for that. eternally grateful for you. you are his home, his safe space, his sanctuary of security.

⎯ so he repays you often. he knows what kind of tea you drink and how to make it by heart. he makes a cup for you every morning. you have your own shelf in his archive. hell, you have your own damn space in there as well. there's an indent of you in every corner of every room.

⎯ or maybe, dan heng is so accustomed to you that he sees you in everything.

⎯ he lets you read from his shoulder. he has a shelf filled with all your favorite books from various worlds in his archives. he lets you sleep on his body rather than the flacid mattress on the ground, because he wants to keep you as comfortable as you've kept him. his fingers trace your body every night you stay with him, to ensure that you are safe and you are here, and he is home.

"are you sure you're comfortable like this?" you ask, situated on top of dan heng's body. you're partly afraid that you'll crush him with your entire body weight on him, and that his back would hurt after tonight, "wouldn't it just be smarter to crash in my room instead?"

his chest rises and falls underneath you, getting slower and slower as time goes by, "if you'd like. we can go."

you bite the inside of your lip in thought. it would be safer to do so, for both your and dan heng's safety. but, to be honest, you were very comfortable and tired. "is your back gonna be okay after this?"

"it'll be fine," he brushes off, "besides, you've been sleeping on me for the past few nights now. i can handle one more night."

"huh???"

blade (contains lore spoilers)

⎯ love was something blade has always lived without. as a child, with war and battles as a constant on his homeworld, there wasn't any room for affection or anything similar.

⎯ but then you came along, practically shaking his entire world. there you were, dragging him off to drink god awful mung bean soda. to force him to go outside on days where he was over-occupied with work. to let him enjoy something for once in a while. to let him rub his thumb over yours in the quiet hours of the night, forgetting about work and all other duties.

⎯ he had never thought that loving could be so easy until he met you. it seemed as though time would stop in his tracks whenever he saw you. blade thought it was a myth coming from romance novels (one he had heard from you, ironically enough), but it proved to be, in fact, real.

⎯ and everything was easy. up until everything wasn't. it was one thing, then the other. baiheng passed, jingliu was extremely distraught. it was wearying to see everything go so downhill, so fast. nobody was ever the same after that period.

⎯ yet even after all that, you still had the same look in your eye. you looked at blade the same way you looked at him all those years ago. so much has changed between the both of you, and you know that the both of you would never be able to return to the past.

⎯ though, even after all of that, some things remained the same. for example, the way you never failed to take his breath away. seeing you for the first time in years had him going through a plethora of feelings: distraught, appalled, and slightly less dejected.

⎯ but most importantly, there were still parts of the other's heart still beating for each other. even if you couldn't love him anymore, you still cared about him. you cared about him the same way you did all those years ago.

⎯ you went out of your way to find him. you went out of your way to offer him solace, even if it was for one last time. why? he didn't want to know, he didn't want to ask. he has a mission: he has to pursue it, always. nevertheless, he still found himself underneath the sun's rays, as it managed to follow him wherever, saying, "i'm here. even if you don't see me sometimes, i am still here."

⎯ and if you still cared... well, there was still hope, right?

he's leaning over a rail, looking over the xianzhou skies and the starskiffs racing by. he hasn't been back in ages. it feels... strange; it feels as if he's experiencing his first day all over again.

blade is so fascinated by the sight that he fails to hear your footsteps come closer, now reaching his side. he only hears you after you clear your throat. he's startled, for obvious reasons: but, when he sees you hold up a mung bean soda in surrender, he's surprised at how fast the panic dies down.

"aren't you going to arrest me?" he took a step back from you. you didn't move, but instead held out the drink.

"i could," you dragged out, checking your watch, "but... i'm not on duty," the corners of your lips turn up ever so slightly, like you were happy at the fact that you were having a drink with a criminal. you pull open the tab and take a sip, then offer it towards him.

he blankly stares at your hand. remembers the feeling of it in his. now, his mind is skewed. maybe even grotesque if he wanted to sound dreadful about it. but there are few happy memories he can recall, as well as the feelings during them, and it seems like you are recreating one of them currently. and oddly enough, there are no feelings of bitterness that follow him this time.

he takes and drinks the mung bean soda, and to his surprise, it’s not as bad as it was many years ago. maybe it was because your lips were on it, or maybe it’s because the once atrocious drink did get better. and when he looks up and is greeted by your curious face, he hopes that love is like that as well.

jing yuan

⎯ years ago, if you had asked jing yuan what love was, he'd say something benign: love is indescribable. a simple answer for a simple man in love. but oh, has time took its toll.

⎯ it isn't to say that love isn't indescribable. on some days, he finds it worrying that he may love you too much⎯that his willingness to give you the world was a bit concerning at times. others point it out, but jing yuan chooses to be blindsided. but he is always aware.

⎯ aware. jing yuan is nothing short of perceptive. he has been around for centuries. he has been there for wars, for battles, for decrees. and it sticks with him: forever. he does not simply forget, yet he is forced to stay in one place forever. immorality may be a blessing for others, but a curse for xianzhou natives.

⎯ he does not give himself a moment to fully relax. even if it seems that way a lot (the dozing general needs his power naps), he is always back to his duties.

⎯ however, it's different with you. with you, he has no burdens to shoulder. he has no secrets to keep from you. there is no wall of tension blocking between you. with you, everything is for grabs. his feelings, his emotions, his heart.

⎯ vulnerability. many look down at the vulnerable. and in jing yuan's line of work, the cost of vulnerability comes with a substantial price. his guard has to be up at all costs, because if not, there would be another catastrophe. his act as a lazy general is just a rouse, because there is so much that's weighing on him inside.

⎯ in a city that flies, jing yuan feels rooted by the weight of the luofu.

⎯ so imagine the amount of unconcern he feels when he's around you. the feeling of rocks suffocating him has subsided, and you are here to remove them. and one by one, he begins to feel lighter and lighter as you hull them off.

⎯ and you don't get tired. you're still here. you keep picking off the rocks, even the smallest ones. you relentlessly continue until everything is gone, and the only things left are just you and him.

⎯ by now, he understands what love is. it's when he knows how your fingers have ran through every crevice of his brain, every knot in his stomach, every knot in his soul. it's understanding. it's being able to shoulder the weight of the world with another. it's someone staying to help you get the rocks off of your body.

⎯ love is being met with soft touches instead of daggers. love is being met with mhms and reallys while retelling a story from this morning. love is being able to speak about the past, the truth of it all, and allowing the light to peek through instead of the darkness. that is what love is.

"and then, get this, i found him in the midst of a fight with blade," jing yuan throws his head on your shoulder exasperatedly, disregarding the fact that you were halfway through your novel.

"well, he was doing his job," you counter, looking back towards your lover.

"i know," he slides a hand across his face, "it's just tiring. and i don't want him to get hurt." like others, is the unspoken phrase here. it's on the tip of his tongue, you know it.

you place a bookmark in your book before shutting it. you finally turn your full attention towards jing yuan, "he's strong. you trained him."

"but," he sighs, "what if it's not enough?"

you decide the mood is a little too melancholic, so you decide to lighten the mood a little bit, "then i'll take over as general of the luofu," you grinned. jing yuan smiled as well: your smile was infectious, how could he not?

you ran a hand through his hair, "you are good enough. i hope you know that. you won't fail yanqing. he's tough and stubborn... he sadly gets that from you."

jing yuan chuckles, a real chuckle, and pulls you closer to him as you grab your book once again. he presses a chaste kiss to your temple as he reads along to the same words on a page as you.

yes, things will be okay, he thinks.

hi y'all! i have been sooo busy w sm stuff lately, like i've been preparing for college and i've been going to the gym and i've been doing sm. updates have been scarce except like the 3 alhaitham posts (i couldn't resist). but hopefully during these last few weeks of summer i can get my grind back on!!!

[hazzzyrider]

how strange is it that our most popular narratives cannot imagine a world where if an alien met us, they would be just as inexplicably filled with strangeness, wonder, delight and longing as we do for each other? how strange is it that we must conjure empires and kings and government for the hearts that visit us from beyond the stars? why must the hand that reaches be a fist and not an open palm searching and finding for the doorknob? the point of discovery of another life would be a matter of intimacy and long-lost family stranded by galactic variables in the dawn of creation, not subjugation.

[literary-potato]

Well I guess even though my body has adapted to tolerating some small amount of exercise without feeling like garbage the next day, it has NOT adapted to getting overheated. Braved the heat yesterday. Came home, had a horrible migraine that took 2 doses of triptans to knock out, and even then it was so bad that once I was able to fall asleep I simply kept sleeping rather than get up and eat dinner. Woke this morning with my arms and legs incredibly weak and shaky like I had the flu, and I’ve had 3 episodes of near-syncope today.

[sipsteainanxiety]

mha nation how yall doin

[hcdragonwrites]

HELLO FRIENDS HOLIDAY CHAOS IS OVER!

Or - at the very least- as over as it is going to be. There will still be stress and such but i think the storm has passed. I can poke my little nose out of my burrow and start taking a collective look about and branch back into creating.

I have some very exciting news- well. Exciting for me personally. I bought a computer !

For about a year or more now ive been computer-less and writing everything and anything on my phone(like the hobgoblin I am). So formatting and beauty was not something i could see or do for any of my Computer based peeps. I just wrote. I used to write on my old computer- but when it began to get buggy too I migrated to my phone. Then that computer - well…

It kinda imploded.

SO! I made the big decision to invest and bought the little laptop of my dreams. Ive wanted a Mac computer since I was 12 (those old blue desktop ones were SO COOL!)

Im learning the ropes still with it (i legit just got it out of the box two days ago) and feeling it out. I have to get all my apps onto it that I use for writing and then

THEN I CAN LET LOOSE THE FLOOD GATES. I HAVE THINGS RATTLING IN MY SKULL. IDEAS FOR LITTLE FICS, CONTINUING MY FIC, BRANCHING INTO OTHER CONTENT AND FANBASES AND FINALLY. F I N A L L Y. Getting the hardcore draft of my first novel set up. Big plans for 2024. Im ready and excited and i cant wait. This year imma grab it and make it mine!

[beanghostprincess]

Short and sweet Sanuso one-shot I wrote because I woke up in a very happy and clingy mood today!

[totheidiot]

one good thing about writing a very time-period accurate short story set in the 70s is that i can make a part of my character's backstory that he summoned the ghost of winston churchill and that was how he had realized that he just had the ability to summon ghosts.

[yoichichi]

if I could have stayed in college I would have loved to get my english degree

[haruchuiyo]

hi y’all🥹

[sleepless-in-starbucks]

(guy who wants to write so bad but has been too busy to properly do anything for his longer/more-plot-heavy fics voice) anyone want to mess around and give me a mini fic prompt

[doodlingwren]

Hiatus

I am going on hiatus for a bit more. I really really hoped the stuff that have been going on lately were already "sorted out" but, uhm... they aren't. I need to take a bit more time offline once again, and try to work things out.

Thank you for your patience ❤

Wren

[that-was-anticlimactic]

friends!!! what is a writing skill you wish you learned in school? like... it could be something specific in grammar/grammar-related, maybe about how to revise, maybe you wish you learned about different/specific genres, maybe how to write setting... whatever it may be!!! i'm doing a thing on tuesdays and would LOVE y'all's opinions on what kind of stuff to find to add for them to choose!

[hells-fvry]

can i get some anons for my boys im going through writing withdrawls without my laptop :c

[le--fruitcake]

Hello my leige, Lord of the Gays. This humble servant requests that you part your most correct cartoons opinions onto us all so that we may partake of your wisdoms.

How could I refuse a polite request such as thine? But of course, my vassal. Prithee, give me a moment to collect my thoughts before I impart them unto thee.

I refer, generally speaking, to the spinoff show of my favorite comic series, Usagi Yōjimbo, called Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles, as the "children's shows", though I may also refer to any of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shows as well— more on this later.

In Samurai Rabbit, the main character Yūichi is obsessed with the exploits of his ancestor, Miyamoto Usagi (宮本 兎), the main character and protagonist of Usagi Yōjimbo. Many of the fans on tumblr.hell grossly mischaracterize Yūichi as having a style of nerdiness that is very painfully American (such as enjoying pop music instead of Shamito Nadeshiko, for example, which is almost certainly something that would play in Neo Edo, the city in which Samurai Rabbit takes place. Yūichi literally lives in Japan. He would not listen to American pop music, mostly because he does not have access to the Internet. nor does he speak English), when there is, in fact, a subgenre of Japanese nerdiness into which he fits (almost) perfectly. This subgenre is called 歴女, or "rekijo", which transliterates as "passage of time woman", but is used to refer to women and girls interested in pre-Edo period (1600s) Japanese history— essentially female Japanese history buffs, usually into samurai and such. Usagi Yōjimbo takes place in the early 1600s— the beginning of Japan's Edo period. Of course, Yūichi is not a woman, but the sentiment applies. I frequently and somewhat jokingly use the nonexistent term 歴男 (rekidan) to refer to him and myself, as I, too, enjoy Japanese history. I replaced the kanji for woman, 女, with the kanji for man— 男.

(By the way, this show is For Children, and the animation is kind of terrible. I hesitate to recommend you watch it, but at the same time, it has many lines I am always quoting in situations such as Work and Any Time I Hear the words "Syrup" or "Accident" or "Grape", and some legitimately funny jokes sprinkled in. Also, the Japanese dub, despite not being the original, still manages to be better in most cases. There are some bits I prefer in English, and some I prefer in Japanese.

This is unrelated to anything and more of a nitpick I have with the show, but they state his name is 兎 友一 [Usagi Yūichi], which would make his family name his ancestor's given name— something that does not really happen in Japan, according to my sister, who is fluent and studied much of the culture. His name should be 宮本 友一 [Miyamoto Yūichi], assuming there is an unbroken line of sons stretching back to Usagi because of the stupid way last names work under the patriarchy, or if any of the women of their lineage made their husbands take their last name, or something like that.)

In terms of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it is important to note I got into this series because Usagi, the ancestor with which Yūichi is obsessed, frequently crosses over with them, in both comic and TV show forms, due to the authors of both comics being friends in real life. In fact, in every iteration of TMNT save Rise of the TMNT (which happens to be my favorite, despite this), there are at least two episodes that feature Usagi. I grew to like the Turtles independently, and made a post about them. In this post, I mentioned "having the most correct opinions about a children's show", and it is this that I quote all the time in my Esoteric Tags.

Anyway, Rise is the best Turtles because all of them are so well characterized, and the show has the very rare combination of good and stylized animation/acting, good characterization/writing, and a good story/premise. Usually, shows have one or two of the three, and you have to deal with the third being Just Good Enough to Keep Watching. Very much not the case with Rise, and I highly recommend starting with it if you want to get into TMNT. Music kinda slaps also. (This is a Correct Opinion because apparently, some people don't like this show. Somehow)

Side note about the crossovers: while the crossover with the 2003 TMNT is the most homoerotic (between Leonardo and Usagi), the 2012 crossover is the best, despite 2012 being my personal least favorite TMNT. Stan Sakai, the author of Usagi Yōjimbo, actually wrote two out of the three episodes, and they FINALLY got an actual Japanese person to play the Japanese character. That's a whole other can of worms I could open, but I'll leave that for another post, if I ever get around to making it. Suffice it to say, Japanese or Japanese-coded characters are, unfortunately, rarely, if ever, portrayed by Japanese people.

Hm. If I have any more Correct Opinions about Children's Shows, they are so correct in my mind I cannot fathom a world in which people don't think the same way I do, so I shall leave it here for now. I thank thee, my vassal, and pray you send me more asks like this in the future!

[blurrycow]

GUYS . I NEED TO WRITE MORE UMBRELLA ACADEMY FANFIC