#I was doing good with a couple chapter story wips but then I didn’t like how they were written and stopped them

[thatsdemko]

the story of us - m.verstappen

part two (good riddance)

Taylor swift inspired works masterlist

masterlist

requested: n

pairings: max verstappen x driver!reader

warnings: angst??? idk

a/n: HAPPY SPEAK NOW TV!!

And we're not speaking and I'm dying to know

Is it killing you like it's killing me yeah

I don't know what to say since the twist of fate

When it all broke down and the story of us

Looks a lot like a tragedy now

the crash. it was a simple overtake, one Christian warned him about. you were on your way to p1, your first pole position in formula 1 and max verstappen—your boyfriend and teammate— just so happened to have the nerve to take it away from you and leave you into the barriers.

“what the fuck is your problem?!” you wip your helmet and balaclava off in an instant. the second the Marshalls take him and you back to the garage you’re fighting. this is why Christian warned you two of mixing your pens in the company ink.

“my problem?!” he whips around at the sound of your voice crashing into his ears. he hates when you yell.

“you saw me coming! christian told you!”

max starts to rebuttal, but Christian puts his hand up to stop him. max knows Christian and you are right. he was warned you had DRS and were flying right into pole position— his position.

“leave her alone.”

“you don’t tell me what to do with my girlfriend.”

— next chapter —

it’s been two weeks since the incident. two weeks since he sent your car flying into the barriers, and you haven’t spoke since.

he hasn’t called to apology and you haven’t made any efforts to show him you’re over the fight. you just want your damn boyfriend back.

you’re situated on the end of the couch, he’s in the middle between Charles and lando, happily engaging in gossip and conversation while the interviewer starts to ask you questions. typically, max would pay attention, he’d smile and nod along like a proud significant other, but he could care less in this moment.

“have you two made amends since the attempted overtake?” the interviewer looks up from his cards in his lap. his eyes scan max, who’s busy in conversation with Charles, and then back to you. it’s quite obvious no attempt of amends have been made.

you’re nervously playing with the ends of your hair. you’re nodding along to the questions and trying to keep track of what needs to be answered, but of course he goes off on a tangent, and asks the question you didn’t want to answer. were you two going to be okay? was formula 1’s it couple going to survive this fight? the answer was quite simply, no.

“umm,” you pause for a moment and look over at the other Red Bull driver. that’s what he was to you now, you weren’t even sure if he was your boyfriend anymore.

“we’ll get there.” you fake a smile and set the microphone into your lap allowing the questions to flow to the three boys.

Oh, I'm scared to see the ending

Why are we pretending this is nothing?

—

“and that’s pole position for y/n y/l/n! her first win in formula one!”

the crowd is erupting in cheers. the radio hasn’t stopped buzzing with excitement, and while you’re excited, and happy, there’s someone who’s voice you’d want to hear on the other end. there’s someone you want desperately congratulating you.

in the winners room, he doesn’t even bat an eye in your direction. Charles is playing middle man trying to please everyone with his jokes and lighthearted humor, but it’s no use. the tension is bubbling between you two.

“congrats, by the way.” max says rather briefly. he’s looking at the television in the room that’s replaying your overtake on him. the one that didn’t fail and alter your relationship. he wonders what would be different if he didn’t push you off the track. would you be kissing right now? would you cry in each others arms?

you don’t even get the chance to say ‘thank you’ or ‘I miss you’, because by then you’re being called up for podium and the distance between you two is so very obvious. the love and happiness Red Bull used to have, was a flame that was dying.

I don't know what to say since the twist of fate cause we’re going down

and the story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now,

the end

read part two here

[cdelphiki]

Athanasia going to the Manor - Jason and the Three Terrors

I started working on what will likely be the first installment of the alt-POV story I'll eventually publish. I ran out of time to finish this up and make it a full piece, so have my WIP. Once I have Attie meeting Alfred written and everything, I'll post it on AO3. I think I'm going to make another fic called "The Three Terrors and the Batfamily." or like "Bruce and the Three Terrors" or something, I haven't decided. It will be the POV of everyone not Jason, basically, and I'm totally going to write the little vignettes out of order, and I'll just post them to where they belong chronologically lmao. So like this will be chapter 1, but it won't stay that way because there's several scenes that happen earlier than this I will want to post and the fic chapters will be in chronological order. ANYWAY! Here's 1000 words of Attie being scared and going to the Manor.

Athanasia didn’t know what was happening.

Clark had taken her to his parents house, and she thought she would have to stay there until Jason got back. All by herself, without Mara or Damian or Jason. With people she never met before.

Ma and Pa Kent were nice. Pa didn’t do much with her, he was outside working on the tractor, Ma said, but Ma had her and Jon help her make ice cream.

Attie didn’t even know you could make ice cream. Jason had bought some ice cream at the store the week before, but it tasted no where near as good as the ice cream they made that afternoon. She really wanted to make ice cream again with Mara and Jason. Mara would like making ice cream.

Mara was in the hospital and wasn’t going to die, everyone promised her. Lois called her a couple hours before to tell her Mara had a surgery and the doctors said she was going to be okay, and when Mara woke up they could talk on the phone. So Attie had been sitting on the couch in the Kent’s living room, cuddling Batman as she waited for Mara to call.

But then Clark had landed on the porch and told her she was going to meet Alfred.

She didn’t want to meet Alfred. Not without Jason with her. But Clark said Jason wanted her to go to the manor to be with Alfred, because that’s where Mara was going to be when she got out of the hospital, and then they’d be there when Jason got back with Damian.

Now she was sitting in the backseat of Clark’s car, him driving and Lois sitting in the other front seat. She was by herself in the back, holding onto her backpack.

Someone had got her backpack and put some clothes and some of her toys in it. She didn’t know who did that, but Clark said Robin and Superboy had been packing up their stuff in their apartment, and keeping guard.

They drove over a giant bridge into the city of Gotham, and then through Gotham and across another bridge into the town called Bristol, where Clark said Father lived.

Attie didn’t want to meet Father. That was what she was most scared about. She didn’t want to meet Father.

But Clark assured her Bruce wasn’t there. He was in an airplane with Jason and Dick, and they were going to get Damian. It was only Alfred she had to meet.

Without her cat. She wanted to take Kitty out and hug onto her, but Damian had told her it made her look weak when she did that. So instead she had Kitty in her backpack, with her dolls and clothes in there.

She didn’t want Alfred to think she was weak, and then tell Father she was weak. Damian said Father was very strong, and he wouldn’t like weaklings.

Jason said Father was an asshole, but he’d like Attie. And she didn’t know what to believe. But she did know that Alfred was Father’s caregiver, so he would probably tell Father about her.

Attie hugged her backpack tighter, and tried to focus on all the buildings outside. Houses. Lots and lots of very large houses.

They drove down a long winding road, and Attie saw fewer and fewer houses. Right up until they pulled up to a giant iron gate, and Clark came to a stop to type a code into a keypad.

“You okay, sweetheart?” Lois asked.

She nodded.

Clark looked back at her through the mirror, as the gate in front of them opened slowly. “Are you scared,” he asked.

“I’m brave,” Attie said in response. Jason wanted her to do this, so she could do it.

“I know, you’re one of the bravest little girls I know,” Clark said with a smile. He drove the car forward, up a hill, and a castle slowly came into view.

“Mara is brave, too,” she said, as she stared at the giant house. It was made of stone just like castles, but it didn’t have any tall pointy towers. So it probably wasn’t actually a castle.

“She’s the other bravest little girl, it’s the two of you,” Clark said.

Father’s house was huge. It was bigger than their entire building in Metropolis, and lots of people lived in their building in Metropolis. She didn’t know how many people lived in Father’s house.

She wasn’t really sure how many sons Father had. Jason had said he had three sons, other than Damian, but all the pictures only showed two. And Dick didn’t mention having another brother, other than Jason.

Maybe Jason was bad at counting.

They came to a stop at the top of the hill, right in front of the entry.

Attie really wanted her Kitty, but she left it in the bag as she hugged it tightly.

Clark smiled at her one more time, then unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car.

Shakily, Attie unbuckled her own seatbelt, and watched as Clark opened her door for her.

“Ready?” Clark asked, as he held his hand out.

Athanasia slid out of the car and put her backpack on, then took Clark’s hand. She looked up the stairs to the massive front door, and squeezed at Clark’s hand a little more. Lois rounded the car, as Clark shut the car door, and when she got to them, Attie reached out for her hand, too.

Even though she was brave, she was very scared.

Jason was afraid of Father. Attie didn’t know why, she didn’t know what Father did to Jason. She just knew he was really scared of him. All the photos she got of Jason with Father were happy, so she was confused.

But Father wasn’t there. It was just Alfred. And Jason wasn’t scared of Alfred.

Although, Jason didn’t talk about Alfred much.

Together, they walked up the stairs and to the front door. Clark reached out and pressed the doorbell, and he squeezed Attie’s hand back as the pretty chimes sounded on the other side of the door.

[ladykailitha]

Across a Crowded Room Part 4

Just one more chapter after this and I've decided to release a chapter a week for a story and post a different story each day of the week except Wednesdays (it's too hard to post on that day because of WIP Wednesday, it's overwhelming).

In this one we have Wayne being wise, Eddie picking the perfect thing to cheer Steve up and just being cuties, and Robin figures out her housing problem.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

****

Eddie went back to his hotel and stewed about it for awhile. He knew Nancy was rough around the edges. That was what he loved most about her. She smart and funny and yeah, if Eddie had been straight and she hadn’t been with Jonathan he would have tried for a relationship with her.

But now, knowing what he did, all he could taste was bile. He knew he could call her up, bitch her out, never speak to her again. And even though Steve didn’t tell him he couldn’t flip out on her tonight, it was advice he was going to take anyway.

Plus, it may have only been 8pm here, it was nine where she was and he knew she went to bed early so she could be up at four to write.

He went out to a gas station to get a pack of cigarettes and some beer. It was going to be long night and he need to relax.

When he got back to the hotel, he stood out in front and lit a cigarette. He called the one person who could make sense of everything that happened tonight.

Wayne.

“Hey, kiddo,” Wayne greeted. “How goes things with your boy?”

Eddie let out a shuddering sigh. “Have you ever been so wrong about something that what you thought was a mole hill turned out to be the tip of an active volcano? Like you have this friend that had rough break up, but you got to be real good friends with the ex so you just kept telling the friend to get over it and move on. Only to find out she cheated on him and lied about it?”

“Oh Ed.”

Wayne had met Nancy and liked her well enough. She was smart and tenacious but she had this coldness to her that rubbed him the wrong way. But Eddie really liked her so he never said anything.

“Is Steve okay?” he asked.

He told Wayne everything that happened earlier.

“Steve is being a fucking saint about the whole thing,” Eddie barked bitterly. “And now I just want to call her and yell at her. Like how could she continue to hurt Steve that way? Because she had to know it was, right?”

Wayne hummed his agreement. “What are you going to do about it?”

“I’m going to wait a couple of days to calm down before calling her,” Eddie said after taking a drag from his cigarette. “Might even wait until I get back to LA, because I don’t want her cloud hanging over Steve and me.”

“Sounds about right,” Wayne said. “I didn’t know she cheated on him, but always thought that how quickly she moved on was a little suspicious.”

Eddie frowned. “What do you mean?”

“They break up and two days later she’s with Jonathan?” Wayne said. “Come on, son, you don’t stop to wonder about that?”

Eddie ducked his head in shame. “She always said that it was a mutual understanding between her and Steve that since she was in love with Jonathan, she should be with him.”

“Ah.”

The story had always been that Steve broke up with her and told her to be with Jonathan because she clearly loved him. But in light of her cheating on Steve, he doubted the conversation was as cut and dried as all that.

“I just feel like I’ve let Steve down after all these years because I never asked him what his side of the story was, you know?”

“I can understand that,” Wayne said. “But follow his lead on this. Don’t beat yourself up for something if he’s truly moved on, alright?”

“Yeah...” he breathed out and all the tension and worry just flowed out his body. “I think I’m just going to have a couple of beers and go to bed.”

“You take care now, ya hear?” Wayne said.

“You, too.”

Eddie hung up and finished his cigarette. He tossed the butt in the appropriate ashtray and went up to his room to crack a couple of beers. As he opened his door, he got a photo from Steve.

It was of him curled up on the sofa with a large blanket and a tub of ice cream. Eddie smiled down at the image. He pressed and held on the imaged and gave it a heart.

-Love you, baby. Take care yourself and we’ll meet up tomorrow.

-Love you too sunshine.

Eddie gulped down the hard lump that had formed in his throat. God did him love this man.

He got into his pjs and sat down on the bed, legs stretched out. He pulled out his phone to plug it in to charge, and looked at it a moment.

He wasn’t going to call Nancy. He had already made that decision. But there was one more person he could talk to.

Jonathan. Maybe he had some insights to all of this that the rest of them just didn’t.

After a good conversation with Jonathan, he hung up feeling a little better about the whole thing.

Then he settled down to read. He had this book that he had been trying to read for the last couple weeks, so he pulled it out to read it. There was a Netflix show about it that he moderately liked and wondered if the source material was any better.

He looked up at the clock on the wall with a frown. He hadn’t gotten too far into the book, but it was already after one.

Sighing, he put the book down and sent a message to Steve to tell him good night, like he had the night before.

Eddie wasn’t expecting a message back, but he got one anyway.

-:*

He shook his head and got under the covers, letting himself drift off.

****

Steve woke up early the next morning and stretched. He felt a billion times better from his quiet night in. He loved Robin and Eddie. They were his best friends for a reason. But they were loud and over the top. Hell, that was why Steve was so in love with Eddie. But he needed soft last night and he could get that better on his own.

Not that Eddie couldn’t be soft!

He didn’t want to suggest otherwise, but he needed the time to decide what he really wanted with Eddie. They had gone from friends that only talked on the phone and barely visited each other to a relationship and sex in zero to sixty.

And as crazy as it all was, Steve was even more invested in going all in with him.

Because he respected Steve’s wishes. Because he sincerely apologized. Because he felt like shit about it. They could have not believed him. Blown him off, telling him it was years ago. Him and Robin both.

But they didn’t.

He had barely turned on the coffee machine when his phone rang.

“Ello mellow,” he greeted absently.

“Steve!” Robin cried. “You’ll never guess what happened last night?”

Steve chuckled. “Yeah?”

“I was talking to Kendra and she has this cousin who’s moving out to New York next week to do ballet and while her parents bought the apartment outright want her to take a roommate to help with the utilities and shit. So we called her and talked. And now I have place to stay, stay and I don’t need to crash on Nancy’s couch. Hell, I don’t even have to tell her about what happened between you and her and I can just phase her out of my life. Isn’t that amazing?!”

She hadn’t even taken a breath throughout the whole speech.

Steve laughed. “That does sound amazing. What’s her name?”

“Chrissy Cunningham,” Robin said. “Steve, she’s like gorgeous and a ballerina and funny and I’m going to die but I’m going to die happy about it.”

“I’m happy for you, Robs,” he said. “You call Nancy yet?”

“No,” she replied grumpily. “I wanted to talk to my bestie first.”

Steve chuckled. “Bestie informed. Now go tell her of your changed plans.”

“Love you, dingus!” she said with a kissy noise. “Call you back soon!”

Steve stared at his phone for a moment or two in just sheer awe. Like if Eddie hadn’t gotten the record deal out here, none of this would have happened.

It probably would still turned out all right, but now things were going great.

He got his coffee and made him a bow of cereal. He was going to have to go grocery shopping. He was a little lower on things than he thought he was.

He had finished rinsing out his bowl when he got a call from Eddie.

“Morning, babe,” he said softly. Fondly.

“My glorious Stevie!” Eddie greeted back. “I have decided that because yesterday was shit, we are going to the zoo today.”

Steve blinked. He didn’t think he’d ever been to the zoo out here in Chicago. “Sounds like fun. Should we make a picnic out of it?”

“Yes!” Eddie cried. “That’s perfect. I get the drinks and sides and you bring the sandwiches?”

“Sounds good,” Steve said. “The best supermarket is on...” he listed the address and texted it to him. “Why don’t we meet there in an hour and do our shopping together.”

“Yay!”

“See you then, Eds.”

“Bye, honey!”

Steve did the sniff test and decided he’d shower when he got home. He was about to smear sunscreen all over himself and figured it would be easier to get just one shower today.

He went to the cupboard and pulled out their sunscreen. Robin being the cute freckled thing that she was burned in sixty two degree weather in severe overcast wearing a large hat and covering up the rest of her so he had the good stuff.

He checked his balance and satisfied he had enough for the zoo and groceries, he went and got dressed, applying the sunscreen under his clothes for maximum effectiveness.

Steve grabbed his keys and wallet and locked up.

****

Eddie found the place easy enough. The problem was that he arrived twenty minutes before he said he would meet Steve. So he left early to make sure he could find the place and not leave Steve waiting, so sue him.

He was finishing his second cigarette when Steve pulled up next to him and hopped out.

“I hope you haven’t been waiting long,” Steve said with a smile.

Eddie pulled him in close. “Just a few years, but that’s okay. I’d wait forever if it meant I would get you in the end.”

“Sap!” Steve teased, but he threw his arms around Eddie’s neck and kissed him deeply. “You don’t have to wait anymore, sunshine. I’m in it for as long you want me.”

Eddie’s smile was bright. “Mmk.”

They walked into grocery store and got a cart. Steve pulled out his phone and got the stuff on his list. Then they got the stuff for their picnic.

“I’d make my potato salad if I had the time,” Steve lamented when Eddie threw in a tub of the store bought.

“You have a potato salad recipe?” Eddie cackled. “Is it yours or Claudia’s?”

Steve clutched his chest and placed the back of his hand on his forehead. “I’m wounded to think that I would steal Claudia Henderson’s potato salad recipe! She uses Miracle Whip, the heathen!”

Eddie threw his head back and laughed. “There is nothing wrong with Miracle Whip, babe.”

“I like to add my own seasoning and that stuff throws off the whole balance!” Steve protested.

Eddie kissed his cheek. “If you say so, Stevie.”

Steve blushed and they finished their shopping.

They went back to Steve’s so that they could put away his groceries and make the sandwiches.

They stood side by side as they made their sandwiches. Then they packed the cooler.

Steve bullied Eddie into putting on sunscreen by telling him that he need to strip for it.

Eddie was naked in no time at all and moaned the injustice of it all when Steve told him he already had some on.

They loaded everything into Eddie’s rental and sent off for the Chicago zoo.

Eddie was most excited to see the primate enclosure, while Steve wanted to see the wild cats. He couldn’t call them ‘big’ cats because the African Blackfoot was the size of house kitten. And that wasn’t included the manuls. Or Pallas’ cat. Grumpy faces, short little legs, and fluffy as hell.

Eddie pointed to one of the manul kittens. “That one looks like Dustin!” he cackled.

Steve laughed. “It really does!” He pulled out his phone and snapped a picture.

He sent it to Dustin with tag, “I didn’t know you were at the Zoo today!”

The response he got back was a single eye roll emoji.

“You know,” Eddie said looking over Steve’s shoulder, “I swear that butthead has gotten less fun over the years.”

“I know, right?”

They got to the aquatic part of the zoo and there was this little boy who couldn’t have been older than two or three just glued to the otter exhibit. He had both hands on the glass as the otters swam and splashed as if they were showing off for just this little boy.

“I think they have to be that cute at that age to avoid you murdering them when they go on a tear in their underwear smearing poo on the entire hallway,” Eddie said with a grin.

Steve laughed. “Let me guess there are pictures of baby Eddie doing exactly that?”

Eddie pursed his lips and rocked back on his heels. “I plead the fifth.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t burn them when you turned eighteen.”

They moved on to the elephants.

“I tried!” Eddie cried. “Wayne won’t tell me where they are. He says he wants to show them to my future partner so he can see if they pass the litmus test.”

Steve kissed his knuckles. “And what test is that?”

“Whether or not they’d except the crazy with the sane,” Eddie murmured.

Steve pulled him in close. “I prefer the crazy to the sane, baby. The crazy keeps me from getting too far into my head.” He kissed the tip of his nose. “Okay?”

Eddie gave him a quick hug. “It’s no fair, because Wayne already loves you, so I don’t get to watch him get all protective and shit.”

Steve gave a half shrug. “I think I got enough of the protective father figure when we first started being friends, Eds. I think he actually growled at me once.”

Eddie threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, my god, I forgot he did that.”

Steve just smiled as they took their time through the whole zoo, just holding hands and being with each other.

Finally it was time for lunch and Steve went to go get their cooler while Eddie found them a picnic table.

****

Part 5

Tag List: @mira-jadeamethyst @rozzieroos @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @emly03

@spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie

@chaosgremlinmunson @messrs-weasley @chaoticlovingdreamer @maya-custodios-dionach @danili666

@goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @i-must-potato @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

@justforthedead89 @vecnuthy @irregular-child @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690

@anne-bennett-cosplayer @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @littlewildflowerkitten @genderless-spoon

@cinnamon-mushroomabomination @dragonmama76 @scheodingers-muppet @ellietheasexylibrarian

@thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @disrespectedgoatman @counting-dollars-counting-stars @tinyplanet95

[steddieunderdogfics]

This week’s writer spotlight feature is:  LadyKailitha! @ladykailitha has 33 fics posted to AO3 in the Stranger Things fandom and 32 of them are in the Steddie Tag.

Our anonymous nominator recommends the following works by @ladykailitha:

Little Runaway

Staking My Claim

I'll Be Your Knight

Eddie's Big Stevie Rescue

"LadyKailitha is a wonderful writer both on Tumblr (shout out to WIP Wednesday, makes my day!!) and on AO3! They absolutely deserve all the recognition and respect for their work. And now I'd like to share the love 🫶"-- anonymous

Below the cut, @ladykailitha answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

I’m obsessed with them. LOL! On a more serious note, it’s because I relate to the two characters a lot and want to see them happy.

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

Childhood friends. I just love watching them be friends as kids and then grow apart and then back together again. I could read it a billion times and do it again. As long as there’s a happy ending of course.

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

AUs. Just all of them. I like canon Eddie and Steve, but putting them in different worlds and still finding ways to make them who they are. chef’s kiss

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

There are so many good ones but one that I’ve read several times is STRIKE TEN by oaseas. So good.

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

That’s the best part of steddie is not knowing there’s a troupe I want to write for until inspiration strikes. Like I never thought I’d do a sugar baby/daddy AU, but I’m currently writing one. Ditto for omegaverse, but now I’ve written two from the same universe. But as I’m typing this… probably sentinel/guide. The idea has always intrigued me.

What is your writing process like?

First is day dreaming up an idea. Then depending on how long the idea is, I’ll do a short write up about. If it’s long, then it gets treated with plot beats I want to hit. I don’t consider it an outline, because they aren’t in order. Then I will sit down and start writing. I will do at least 400 words a day and keep at it until I have at least 3 or 4 chapters into it before I start posting.

Do you have any writing quirks?

I have to have a backlog of unpublished chapters because I worry if I’m not putting out stories people will lose interest. It’s also so that if I write myself into a corner I can go back a couple of chapters if I have to and change it to fit the new direction the story is going.

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

Definitely on a schedule. I’ve tried waiting until I’m done and I just get too excited for other people to read it and start posting.

Which fic are you most proud of?

Well Met By Moonlight. I’m really proud of the world building and mystery.

How did you get the idea for Little Runaway?

When I first got into the fandom, there was a severe lack of Eddie and Steve postseason 2 and I really wanted to lean into that a bit.

When writing Little Runaway, what was something you didn’t expect?

Max becoming a reader insert in a way. Where you see the characters through her eyes at the end.

What inspired Staking My Claim?

LOL! Steve licking Eddie’s hand like he was a cupcake he didn’t want to share.

What was your favorite part to write from Staking My Claim?

Jeff. I loved how he just kinda rocked up and said, “As Eddie’s boyfriend, you are now my responsibility and no, you don’t get a say in this.”

How do/did you feel writing I'll Be Your Knight?

I love this one. It really does not get enough praise honestly. I loved the idea of the sound of Steve’s lighter as he lights and puts it out over and over again. I just really loved the idea of Steve guarding Eddie because he’s part of the group now.

What was the most difficult part of writing Eddie's Big Stevie Rescue?

The subject matter. It’s one of my darkest fics because Steve gets slipped a date rape drug and the fall out of not trusting the people you care about with the deepest parts of yourself. Also, keeping the tension ramped up.

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

I absolutely love the scene with Billy and Steve from “Never Hold Back Your Step…” when Billy gets Steve’s lifeguard job and Steve calls him a washed up surfer. That whole takedown was cathartic as hell.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

I’m currently working on a couple that I think are just so much fun. “The Hellfire Exotic Club” a stripper AU that has been a blast to write. And “Of Butterflies and Backstrokes” the Olympic swimmer AU. I’m proud of that title, too.

Outside of these questions, Is there anything YOU would like to add?

nope!

Thank you to our author, @ladykailitha, and our anonymous nominator! See more of LadyKailitha's works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

[rdng1230]

Random orphan scenes

Since I'm done with the multi chapter I was going back to some of my old bucktommy WIP's and I cannot remember where I was going with some scenes in one of them and honestly wherever I was going with it I kinda don't want to write anymore but I do still like the scenes so here ya go:

“So I see he didn’t crash and kill you both.” Eddie pants as he dodges a couple of Tommy’s quick punches. “I like to think,” Eddie’s returned blow grazes off Tommy’s left shoulder, “I’m not a bad teacher.” 

They continue their sparring around the center of Tommy’s garage, fluorescent lights buzzing faintly above them. The sun had set but the Los Angeles heat hadn’t gone with it. Both of them wore ratty black tank tops, mostly just to have something to dab up the sweat.

The two had fallen into a quick routine since their meeting at Harbor a few weeks ago. Tommy’d met Christopher picking up his father for a basketball game. It was pretty much impossible not to be charmed by the kid. He also had the added benefit of not having to be asked for intel on Evan. He opened up immediately upon knowing that Tommy had flown his father and his Buck, Tommy’d raised an eyebrow at that one, into a hurricane. 

“Wow, so what does this superhero do on his off hours?” Tommy had inquired, after Chris was done recounting the tale of Buck and his father saving a girl in a runaway hot air balloon. Tommy’s budding crush was growing a little more with every story. Chris paused, “We play a lot of video games,” he starts, “Buck’s always trying to get his recipes right so we cook and bake a lot together.” 

Eddie landed a punch straight to Tommy’s sternum, jerking him back to the present. His breath sputters and Eddie looks almost apologetic before his smirk returns “You daydreaming, Kinard?” he taunts good-naturedly. 

“Maybe a little,”  Tommy says, lifting his knee. “Not enough to lose though.” With a leftward push to the abdomen he shoves Eddie out of the ring. 

—-

Back at the Diaz house, Buck lounged out on the couch watching Chris do his math homework. Chris had now surpassed the point where Buck or his Dad could really assist. Eddie was in the kitchen catching up on dishes when there was a knock at the door. 

“Are we expecting anybody?” Eddie called to the living room. 

“Yeah yeah, It’s Tommy.” Buck responded. “He’s picking me up.” Eddie could hear Buck’s tall frame rise from the sofa and start toward the door but Eddie had him beat. 

On the porch, Tommy started at the sound of the swing door opening. Eddie was wearing a dish towel over his shoulder with Evan a pace or two behind. 

Eddie made a move to hug Tommy but Buck barrelled past him, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s shoulders while Tommy’s instinctively wrapped around his waist. Tommy gave Evan a tender kiss to the cheek. Opening his eyes, he found Eddie’s gaze had remained fixed, and an unidentifiable emotion flashed in it, gone as quickly as it had appeared. 

Releasing Tommy from the hug, Evan grasped his hand and started pulling him toward the car. 

“Hey, aren’t you gonna say goodbye to Cristopher?” Eddie called after him, crossing his arms. 

Buck bent backwards to get a clear view of the front door around Tommy’s broad shoulders. “Chris, I love you buddy, I’ll see you tomorrow!” Buck called into the hallway. 

There was a pause, the sound of Chris putting down his paper and pencil and leaning towards the back of the couch. “Love you too Buck!” he called. 

Buck flashed Eddie a cocky grin and climbed into the passenger seat. When Tommy joined him in the driver’s, Evan immediately seized back his hand. Tommy loved how much his boyfriend seemed to need to touch him in some way all the time. “Thanks for picking me up, babe.” Tommy looked to his side mirror as they made the turn off Bedford, catching sight of Eddie still looking at them from the porch. 

“It’s no problem.” 

—-

Was I going for pining Eddie? Was I going for "being worried about Buck drifting away from him and Chris" Eddie? Was I going for a totally separate Gay! Eddie arc? fuck if I know.

Absolutely nuts how you can read your own writing even just two three months later and it's like somebody else entirely wrote it. Like "Damn where is this bitch going with this? Motherfucker this bitch is YOU?!?!?"

[idontknowreallywhy]

Resurface 30 - Reposition

Story so far

I was going to post a WIP but realised that the next chapter had got so long I may as well cut it and post in two or three parts, the first of which is here. Do they actually get to the point yet? No. No they do not. But they are thinking about it.

Also - please do not treat my all-advised and much-mangled metaphor as legitimate advice on how to save someone from a rip. I’m a seaside girl so feel compelled to say - DO NOT DIVE INTO RIP CURRENTS PLEASE AND THANK YOU.

💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙

There were a lot of hugs over the next couple of days. Pretty much wherever Virgil chose to sit he’d find himself sharing the chair, or at least the elbow room, with at least one family member. Usually more. During waking hours they moved around the villa like iron filings trailing a magnet.

The filings weren’t generic in their behaviour of course. Alan favoured a hand hold and a continual commentary on whatever happened to be crossing his mind - Virgil encouraged this, still not entirely persuaded by his baby brother’s assurances that he now accepted nothing had been his fault. There was perhaps more of the eldest in the youngest than in any of the rest of them, yet Virgil didn’t have the same instinctive read on the younger man’s expression. He was more than content to keep him close until he could be sure.

John, by contrast was quiet, watchful and specialised in the almost undetectable shoulder nudge. His presence was most striking for its tangibility and yet again Virgil found himself wishing it didn’t always take something awful happening before he could enjoy it.

Gordon, unfussy, tended to cling to whatever part of Virgil was available and on one occasion had abandoned all pretence of cool and leapt on to his back to be transported around, limpet-like, until Virgil threatened him with Four’s sonic hull-scraper.

Kayo had become surprisingly obsessed with ruffling his excessively curly, unstyled hair at every opportunity. Except today she was pouting because in celebration of waking up with the last traces of meds almost entirely expunged from his system, Virgil had reached for his beloved pomade (the recipe for which he’d only slightly tweaked from the version his father had used) and finally tamed the floof so he could look as well as feel more like himself again.

Even Brains had been unusually present recently, having just transferred his hours of poring over technical specs on his tablet up a few thousand stairs. Which meant Virgil got to join in and they’d exchanged some useful ideas for modifications with Alan chipping in not unintelligently. Until the engineer started to ask Virgil’s thoughts on some upgrades to Shadow at which point a series of crashing noises from the kitchen area had spooked him and he’d darted for the stairs muttering something about time-sensitive testing. Gordon had snorted about how at least Scott might reduce the washing up carnage he always produced while on meal-prep if he smashed it all as he went along. Virgil chuckled but it felt a little hollow and his throat was dry.

Scott… well… Scott had taken on the brunt of the food prep duty and had thrown himself into it with his usual energy. It had not gone unnoticed that every single one of Virgil’s childhood favourites had appeared on the table at some point over the last week. A steady stream of cookies and pastries had also been emerging because “Virgil needed fuel for his recovery”. Given his freakish lack of activity Virgil wasn’t convinced he needed quite so much extra fuel but had had more than a little assistance in consuming them. Alan had enthusiastically proposed shutting down Tracy Industries altogether as they could make just as much profit with a bakery if only Scott would get his priorities right more often. The chef had been toasted heartily for the good fortune of avoiding Grandma’s genes.

John and Virgil had exchanged a glance, both remembering what the younger two did not - that on the occasions where the messages from the moon base, or from the Mars mission had dried up - their Mom had channelled her anxiety and helplessness into frantic baking sprees. The community cake sales were never so well stocked when Jeff was safely planetside.

When not engaged in destroying the kitchen, Scott had hovered as expected but he hovered at the edges of the pack. Encouraging smiles, chuckles in all the right places as affectionate banter flowed. He teased a little, he ticked the tinies off for their excesses and he argued with John about a mathematical theorem Virgil knew his normally fastidious brother had deliberately misquoted to get a rise out of the older man.

Unlike with Alan, Virgil was entirely immune to this particular facade - a lot was not right with his best friend. His voice was wrong, too steady, unnaturally even. He was constantly just out of reach which was utterly wrong for Scott who was the most tactile human he knew. The man even looked wrong for some reason Virgil couldn’t put his finger on.

Grandma had been keeping a weather eye from a distance, albeit usually in the same room, or perhaps one away. Virgil glanced up and caught her eye as she leaned on the balcony of the mezzanine. She’d smiled, initially, and then frowned a little, raised her eyebrows and looked deliberately towards Scott, who was currently entirely unnecessarily explaining to Alan why he needed to finish high school. The woman had never been one for the subtle hint.

His brother was lost at sea, caught in a rip tide and drifting from the safety of the beach and Virgil had the only life preserver. It was inevitable that the circumstances of his illness would have knocked his eldest brother off course and Virgil still didn’t know exactly what had happened. All the possible implications rushed and sucked menacingly just below the surface and he knew the only way to reach Scott in time would be to face his terror and dive into the current to find out for himself what it carried.

Yet he never seemed to be in quite the right position at quite the right moment to make the leap…

💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚

Sometimes the boys just needed dragging into the right places.

“I’ve taken the liberty of informing Casey that International Rescue is on hiatus for at least another seven days.”

Sally released Scott’s arm and insinuated herself between Virgil and the coffee machine - the one piece of kitchen equipment with which she held no beef.

“The GDF will cover what needs to be covered. EOS is monitoring and will let us know if that appears to be falling apart.”

Her eldest grandchild rolled his eyes and somehow his entire body followed.

“Give them a chance, Scott, they may surprise us yet. Tracy Industries is in the perfectly competent hands of your COO and all the regular SMT meetings are postponed for a month due to your sabbatical…”

“My… my what?”

“You heard.”

Scott stood, hands on hips and gaped like a fish while Virgil tried to surreptitiously cover his grin by resting an arm on the kitchen island and leaning on his hand. Sally struggled to keep a straight face as he misjudged and his elbow slipped off the edge.

“The regular maintenance schedule has been paused - Brains has pulled the guts out of Thunderbird One and spread them all over the hangar and Two is both wing- and engine-less so neither is going anywhere fast. I believe Shadow is next on his list…”

Sally found herself wishing she had a camera to catch the identikit expressions of horror on both the boys’ faces - the same one they thought she never saw when she announced she’d been baking.

“Gordon has taken John, Kayo and Alan diving off the new reef. There is nothing left you boys need to do other than have that conversation you’ve been avoiding.”

She placed two steaming mugs of coffee on the countertop, reached up her hands to effect simultaneous destruction on both immaculate hairstyles and left them to it.

💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙

Scott ran an anxious hand through his hair, trying but not quite succeeding to recover the precisely gelled arrangement and Virgil suddenly realised what had been bothering him about Scott’s appearance. Something HAD changed.

He peered at his brother’s hairline.

“You’ve dyed it!”

[britcision]

Listen I can’t finish it tonight but I’m real real close but next week is gonna be buuuuuuusy so chapter 15 is right on the line of done and we’ll see if I get it up before next Wednesday 👀

If I do, we may not have a WIP Wednesday next week so again, we shall see

This week, have second place from the poll, Waylon and Danny!

————————

I’ll Take The Highway part vi

Waylon sat back in his seat, back scraping against the wall of the booth as he surveyed the kid in front of him.

Little squirt was tougher ‘n he looked, that much was definitely true. Harley had given him the short run down on their way to the milkshake bar, all the powers she knew he had.

And that he’d been hunted by his folks for a while. Waylon knew how that kinda shit could mess ya up.

He appreciated the heads up too, cuz this kinda shit coming up outta nowhere? Also pretty damn rough. He’d wondered if the kid just wanted to come along for another fight.

If he just wanted another chance to say he’d looked Killer Croc in the eye.

But there was no real bravado there, not even when he challenged Waylon to a rematch. Shit, the kid treated him more normal than most of his henchmen had ever managed to.

Made sense, knowing he was part a ghost an’ fought ghost rogues, but it left Waylon wondering. Apparently he was getting his answer.

Same damn question he’d asked himself a thousand times, ‘specially around the kind of young vigilantes who’d taken a turn to the bad.

Didn’t mean he had a good answer.

He regarded the kid for a long minute, watching the fidgeting, the sudden shyness from a boy who’d literally tackled him from behind on a whim.

This wasn’t just an idle question. Something made him sure of that, and he’d never been involved in all that much of the really weird shit. You heard stories, especially in Arkham.

So he decided to give the kid the best answer he had.

“Cuz I was the worst version of myself. I let myself be the monster they thought I was, got pretty good at it. But it never made me happy.” He paused, mulling it over.

Chuckled softly and looked down into his half drunk milkshake. It was kinda funny how obvious it seemed, in hindsight.

“Shit, there was never even anythin’ I wanted. Not like Penguin, Freeze, or the others. People treated me like a monster so I tried to be one, cuz why the hell not? Couldn’t be worse, could it?”

His gaze shifted back to Danny’s face, watching the kid’s expression. No judgement, which was nice. But he did look confused.

“So you just… got sick of it?” Danny asked, his brows furrowed as he played with his fingers.

Waylon chuckled and shook his head.

“Kinda. Spent a while thinkin’ if people couldn’t treat me with respect, fear’d do. But it ain’t the same. An’ I never had the drive or creative cruelty to stand out in Gotham.”

Danny looked a little incredulous at that, eyebrows rising, but he caught himself before commenting. Snickered and shook his head.

“Yeah, I guess being in a city that’s used to people like Scarecrow and the Joker puts “big and green” into perspective,” he agreed dryly, and Waylon laughed.

It felt good to laugh.

“Oh yeah. City’s got more than its share of low level thugs anyway. I spent a while as extra muscle for the big boys, but I ain’t the takin’ orders sort,” he explained with a modest shrug.

Danny grinned, folding his arms on the table and leaning forward.

“What, a shy and retiring guy like you?” He asked, clearly teasing, and Waylon waved a hand dismissively.

“I’m lucky it was Gotham,” he added after a moment, reflection sobering his mood. “Got sent t’ Arkham. Met Harley. An’ the Bat’s not all that bad. He tried gettin’ me outta the life a couple times.”

Danny cocked his head, a slight frown returning to his face. Following Waylon’s lead.

“How did Batman try and get you out?” There was a little too much intensity for it to be a casual question, and Waylon noted it. Not that he’d figure it out on his own.

Just tryin’ to make sure he didn’t damage the kid.

“Oh, there were a couple ways. Got me moved down to Florida once. Out in the green, away from people. I figured bein’ a wild animal might be more my speed, but it wasn’t. An’ it got messy when I left. Like that whatever he tried, really. There’s lines you can’t uncross.”

Lines like being a cannibal.

Not that he was sobbin’ on a preacher’s shoulder about it. Most of the people he’d eaten were assholes who’d deserved it, and it’d been a preference not a need.

For all people loved to go on about him eatin’ kids and babies, he’d never actually done it. A guy had to have standards.

Made it easy to stop, once he was in a better head space. He and Harley had talked a lotta old shit out.

Kid didn’t need to know those grisly details though, at least not from his own mouth. Watching Danny a moment longer, Waylon came to a decision.

“Look, kid. There’s a lotta reasons people go bad. Some of ‘em can’t be helped. But if they’re not gettin’ anything out of it, if there’s no goal? The appeal runs out. And sometimes all it takes is someone willin’ to reach down an’ haul yer back up to the light.”

He wouldn’t ask if that was the case with whoever the kid wanted to help. Everyone heard stories, ‘specially about heroes meeting their evil selves.

The fear looked personal, but the asking coulda been for anyone. Waylon was in no rush to judge.

Danny mulled over his words for a while, lips moving soundlessly as he frowned down at the table. This time when he looked up, there was a peace in his eyes.

He’d come to a decision. Good for him.

“Thanks, Waylon. You seem like a pretty great guy to me,” he said simply, and Waylon definitely did not feel a lump in his throat.

“This is after years o’ Harley workin’ on me,” he grumbled gruffly. Shaking his head, he slurped down the last of his milkshake quickly.

Nothing like brain freeze to explain being a little misty eyed.

——————

Tag List: @welcometosasakiworld @kyrianclawraith @someonebored0100 @stealingyourbones @starkcravingmad @frostedthroughghost @akikkobara @rainbowbunny0159 @littlefeather345 @violet-catsarelife @serasvictoria02 @wolfjackle @blacksea21090 @secretdestinywerewolf @anime-hipster-the-amazing @undead-essence @skitscratched @blackroserelina @snoodly-boop @trickerdi @mayoota-blog @xysidhe @idkmrpianoman @little-apricot-the-writer @chaoticmistake @the-legal-shipper @bun-fish @aroranorth-west @demon-cat-goes-woof @perfectwastelandcreation @onyxlightdragon @larks-and-katydids @peachesandcreamfemboy @jesus-camp-the-sequel @may-rbi @mothman-the-mothman87 @viyatrix @stargirl1331 @idfk-man10 @thedepressedrobin @skulld3mort-1fan @rootsmudge @ravenshadow17 @cankoking @phantom-dc @mentalcarebear @magic-pincushion @redamancyardor r @lyra689 @itsparadoxlacuna @alcorbearson @asphyxia778 @why-must-i-be-like-this @tkiesai @greenpyrowolf @frivolous-pastel @honeysuckletook

[rosieblogstuff]

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

44 😲 in my main AO3 account. 2 others in my older account = 46!

I didn't realize I had that many things!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

270,883

3. What fandoms do you write for?

All 44 of those works in my main AO3 are MacGyver 2016. One is a crossover with The Rookie. The other two at Star Trek TOS and Star Wars fics.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Table + Flashlight + IEDs

Mac + (Wilderness + Training + Survival) + Jack

Lost Causes

Lake + Stick + Fever

4 Times the LAPD Didn’t Pull Jack Over + 1 Time They Did 

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

I try to! I often respond to a chapter's comments when I post the next chapter of a longfic. And sometimes I just space on it and respond a year later when I notice I failed to respond.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh definitely my X-ray + Penny flashfic, Bad Penny. Most of the comments are variations on HOW DARE YOU!!!

There are a couple other flashfics with pretty ambiguous endings, too.

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

That's a hard one. Most of my fics have a happy or at least comforty ending. Maybe... uhh.... Electricity + Combustion ? which I literally labeled "whump with a fluffy ending". I also have two Jack Lives fics so that's always a happy situation at the end...

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I haven't. A few weird comments but I mostly scratch my head and ignore them. Anybody who hates on my fics will be getting a very long and nasty reply, followed by their comment being deleted.

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

Nope, no smutty fanfics here. I did have a romance I posted for another fandom awhile back (and never finished), and I've written fade-to-black stuff in my orig fic novels.

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

Just one! My Macgyver 2016+The Rookie cops-vs-spies crossover, in which some LAPD officers keep coming across a black GTO involved in shenangains around LA: 4 Times the LAPD Didn’t Pull Jack Over + 1 Time They Did

It's probably the funniest thing I've ever written, and the ending is one of my very favorites. Also possibly the only gen fic ever posted in The Rookie fandom, although I don't look over there much.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes. Somebody stole all my completed fics from FF.net last year. There was a big Tumblr post about some site full of stolen fics, and sure enough, there mine were. I asked to have them remove, got not reply. I haven't posted anything to FF.net since then.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I'm aware of.

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

Yes, but not for a long time. I used to frequently co-write fics in my first fandom.

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

I'm going to go with Washington State Ferry M/V Wenatchee. Who doesn't love a good ferry boat? It's an irconic style, fun if you're walking on, handy if you need to drive on, saves you hours of driving around Puget Sound by land. Also just a very nice-looking ship.

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

Ugh, wow. I have a couple dozen things I kinda like but might never finish. My favorite, and least likely because I've made the least progress on it, is a MacGyver fic about Patti having plotted out her revenge better, and tring to fuck over the team by having listed Jack as her replacement... which of course gives him access to high-level secrets like Oversight's identity. Much drama ensues.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Ramping a story up. Characters. Make a story fully story-shaped.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Endings. 😫

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

Hmmm I don't think I've ever needed to. Like most things in writing, I'm not against it in theory, but it can be done well or badly.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Anne McCaffrey's Pern, back in the paper fanzine days. Prior to joining AO3 in like 2019, I had 0 fanfics posted on the internet but a few in zines listed on Ebay. 😂

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

This is IMPOSSIBLE to answer. I could answer it differently every day for the next couple weeks. Anything I already mentions plus a couple more!

[amidnight--dreary]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thanks so much for the tag @zsparz !!!💖

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

166!

2. What’s your total ao3 word count?

2.013.111. I write when I‘m stressed, can you tell?

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly the MCU. Frostiron my beloved 💕 I recently posted a Huskerdust fic, though, and a couple years ago I posted some Good Omens stuff! I have another Good Omens wip brewing, but I haven‘t worked on it in a while.

4. Top five fics by kudos

First one up would be Your Call, a multi-chaptered ABO Frostiron thing that‘s sadly unfinished because I‘m not happy with where it was going somehow. Then Corners of Reality, my baby, Yes or No, Dereliktion and last but not least Vita Nova!

5. Do you respond to comments?

God I try. I’m so bad at it though. On long fics I always answer comments on the last chapter when I post the new one, but I keep forgetting to reply to comments on older chapters or oneshots😭 They all mean the world to me though.

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

Ohh I wrote a few angsty oneshots but it‘s been a while. Maybe Here, that‘s the most recent one. Of the older ones I remember all my light most clearly. Tony is dead or dying in both of these lol, poor Loki.

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I like to think the happiest endings in stories are ones you had to fight for a little bit, so maybe Dereliktion. That was a long ride filled with angst and messed up relationships lol. I think Haywire (my first and so far only Sentinel/Guide fic, I love that trope a lot akfj) also has a pretty fluffy ending, and I have some oneshots that are pretty much all fluff!!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Occasionally? Just the other day I got another anon ask on here complaining about my recent stories. Makes me extra thankful for everyone who takes the time to tell me they enjoy my stuff!!💖

9. Do you write smut?

I do! Pretty much all the time lol. I love writing Dom/sub relationships!

10. Craziest crossover?

I don‘t think I‘ve ever written one before?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yesss. I‘m not sure if they just didn’t know any better though, they deleted the copied parts as soon as I told them.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes!! I‘m always so happy when that happens!!

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

Also yes. One year I did a whole Frostiron Advent calendar with @rabentochter (do you remember this????? How did we have the time??????? Insane) and we wrote a few more collabs beyond that.

14. All time favorite ship?

Frostiron!!!!!!!!!!!! I love my sassy messed up geniuses lol

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

Uhhh I‘ve got a few. I‘d like to finish/rewrite Your Call. Once I also had the cracky fever dream of Loki doing random standup comedy shows in New York because he‘d KILL that. Can you imagine the sarcasm. The gallow‘s humor. Anyway I started that and then realized I Cannot Write Standup Routines at all. So there‘s that.

16. What are your writing strengths?

What I like to write the most is character and relationship development, so hopefully I‘m decent at that? Also dialogue, I hope, but that kinda comes and goes depending on the conversation.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I kinda suck thinking of longish plot that goes beyond “will they kiss?? Will they FUCK???” so I’ve been trying to practice that. Also scenes with lots of action😭

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I like it. I’ve been wanting to write a fic where Tony can properly show off his language skills but I don’t know enough languages to pull that off lol

19. First fandom you wrote in?

The VERY first was Dracula, back when I was 13 or so. I had a big thing for van Helsing back then. My first fandom on ao3 was Once Upon a Time!!

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Ooohhh. That would be Corners of Reality, because I worked on it for years before I even started posting it and I love how it turned out. It’s a slow burn time travel enemies to friends to almost lovers to enemies to friends to lovers to enemies to allies to lovers fic. I had SO much fun writing it I still think about it all the time😭😭

I’m just gonna tag some writers I know are on here: @endlessstairway @xottan @izhunny @arabesqueangel @bouncydragon no pressure though!! And if you see this and you’re a writer please consider yourself tagged!!💖

[mysticstarlightduck]

Looking For Feedback: Updated Prologue Chapter of Supernova Initiative

I mentioned I was looking for feedback for this chapter of Supernova Initiative, and after some feedback from my friends and mutuals, I did some editing and am going to post the new version here now!

Please give me feedback on this new version! It's still not the final one!! 💕

Important Context: The Prologue chapters take place around ten years before the main story of the WIP takes place. Those chapters serve to establish character backstory and showcase how the MCs became the characters they are in the main story - which takes place almost ten years later, where all the MCs have become famous outlaws. Each backstory chapter follows important events of the MCs past, and establishes who they used to be before. (However, only the Jack & Cassie backstory chapter is a part of the prologue, all the other backstory chapters are peppered throughout the book). In this backstory chapter Jack is 15-years-old, Cassie is 8-years-old and Deimos 16-years-old. (In the Main Story, ten years later, Jack is 25, Cassie 18, and Deimos 26)

SUPERNOVA INITIATIVE

We’ll Make It to the Other Side

CETHEA III - TEN YEARS AGO 

One could say Jack Tithus was having a bad day - in fact, he had been having ‘a bad day’ for the past couple of years. Good salaries were a far-gone illusion that Jack, and pretty much everyone else who called this broken moon a home, had long since forgotten. Right now, Jack took what he could get - and as things grew dire, started accepting gigs and odd jobs from lowlifes and mobsters of all kinds, having long since been familiar with their moon’s bustling, and cutthroat underworld. Yes, he was an errand boy for criminals, but at least it put food on his sister’s plate - and on especially lucky days, on his too.

Today was not gonna be either of those days, apparently. 

 “Hey, what the fuck?!” Jack counted and recounted the pitiful amount of units Zeke, the thug sitting leisurely on the swivel chair across the grimy desk, had tossed to him. He could not believe his eyes, and it took every ounce of self-control he had to not lunge across the desk and strangle the smug right out of the guy’s face here and now. He didn’t even get a quarter of the price they’d settled on the day before.

Jack hit the desk with his hand, rattling the cheap metal in his anger. “I did the job. It was so fucking dangerous, but I did it. Got the merchandise past those stupid guards at the Station. You said you’d pay me in full.”

The man across the desk burst into laughter. “And you were stupid enough to believe me?” Zeke mocked, lighting a neon-blue cigarette and leaning back on the chair “I just needed someone desperate and gullible enough to smuggle those parts to my clients. You fit the bill like a glove.”

Jack fumed, staring daggers at the man. “Oh yeah, Zeke? Well, I think maybe a broken nose would fit your face quite nicely.” His words came out with a bite to them and he closed his hands into fists “You sure talk a lot of game for someone who needs a teen to do your dirty work.”

At that, Zeke’s eyes turned dangerous. He took one slow, long drag from his glowing cigarette, letting the cyan smoke billow from his mouth lazily. At a motion from his head, two figures stepped out from the shadows behind Jack, seemingly out of nowhere. “If I were you,” Zeke began, coldly “I’d be grateful for the scraps and call it a day before you find some real trouble. You’re treadin’ on thin ice here, being this mouthy on Onyx Striker territory.”

The young man didn’t move, but he could see - from the corner of his eye - the guns glimmering on the duo’s holsters, ready to be drawn. The unspoken threat caused his bravado to falter - he swallowed nervously. Jack couldn’t afford the risk, he couldn’t leave Cassie all alone in the slums. Kids didn’t last long on their own around here, and when they did, it was at a cost. He couldn’t get himself killed for something stupid, as much as his pride told him to fight. 

Thanks to the Junction, Jack and his sister, Cassiopeia, hadn’t had the concept of a ‘home’ or ‘money in a long, long while. And that as the basic reality for most of the mismatched families that managed to make it in Cethea III - the third and most forsaken moon of the frozen planet, Ivion, below. A Junction mining colony, where poverty and crime run amok, while the government strips their supplies dry day by day. Pride was a luxury most had to abandon early on in this place.

Swallowing his anger and all the instincts that told him to stand his ground. One last time, he tried to bargain, but this time more controlled. His attention didn’t leave the two thugs lurking behind him. “This isn’t enough, you know I have a sister -”

Zeke cut him off. “Eh, cry me a river.” The man took another drag of glowing smoke, and Jack instinctively held his breath - out of anxiety and rage combined “Fuck if I care, that ain’t a problem of mine. The brat’s yours. Ain’t none of my business and I ain’t wasting even more money on you.” The man dismissed him with a scowl, waving to the door vaguely. “Now scram, kiddo, before I  change my mind and take back those units we already gave ya. I’m growing bored.”

Jack took in a sharp breath, instinctively clutching the small pouch of coins tighter, knowing they could be taken away at any moment. He glared at the thug for a moment longer, before relenting. “... Fine.” 

He didn’t wait for an answer, instead turning around and pushing past the two men stationed behind him, storming out of the greasy and now smoke-filled office. “Stingy fucker.” Jack mumbled, mind racing faster than a hoverbike, a million thoughts a second. He didn’t look over his shoulder nor slow down his pace until the mob-owned building was far behind him. 

As he trudged through the dusty, bustling streets and alleyways, he scrambled to figure out what he was going to do next. 5 units wouldn’t even be enough to pay for half a meal in the greasiest, cheapest diners of this settlement. It wouldn’t even scratch the surface. Jack wanted to curl up and die at the thought of telling Cassie they were gonna have to skip dinner tonight. Again.

He ran a hand through his hair with a drawn-out groan, trying to come up with good enough excuses that wouldn’t sound like blatant lies to a genius 8-year-old. The best he could come up with were excuses he’d already used a million times before. Which didn’t help at all. 

Turning a corner around a quieter part of the slums, he made his way to the local junkyard. He knew the path with his eyes closed by now. Cassie loved the place - to her, it was like a playground where she could build as many bots as she wanted, and to him, it was a safe enough hiding spot for when he had to leave her unattended. He hoped to all the stars he knew that she had stayed put for the past seven hours like he told her to. She usually did.

Climbing over the broken chain fence wasn’t much of an effort, nor was finding a way to maneuver through the assortment of scrap metal and broken spaceship parts. After a minute or so of walking, he spotted a familiar head of blue-dyed hair barrelling toward him, as small arms wrapped around his waist tightly. 

He let the resentment and anger he’d been feeling before wash away for a brief moment, thankful that his sister was here, and that she was okay. With an arm still wrapped around her shoulders, keeping her close, they began to make their way out of the junkyard. 

Jack avoided the pressing subject of dinner, pushing it to the back of his head after giving up looking for solutions where there were none. He could feel his blood still boiling from his interaction with Zeke, and it took almost everything he had to hide the frustration and slip into his usual doting, brotherly role. Jack never wanted Cassie to be upset about things he should be able to solve. So, meanwhile, he asked something else, voice practicedly happy and calm, a complete opposite of the annoyance he was still feeling at the mob. “Did you have a good day, Cass?”

The girl, who was skipping along beside him, holding onto his arm, nodded. “I did, I think. Got bored after a while because you were so late, so I went for a walk in the city. Was pretty fun.”

Jack bit back the knee-jerk instinct to berate her for wandering into that settlement alone, “Yeah?” He hummed instead, in a kind tone, injecting optimism into his answer despite his every thought  “That’s good. A bit risky though, but sounds fun indeed! Did any of the other kids give you any trouble?” They stopped by the broken fence once more, and Jack gave her a boost to get over it, before following suit with ease. 

Once on the other side of the fence, standing once more at an alley, Cassie answered, holding his hand “Not really. Some older kids were being loud and causing trouble at a pub. Didn’t go near them though.”

Jack sighed in relief, “Good,” He nodded at her “You did the right thing, never get involved with those sorts, ever. They could hurt you.”

He wasn’t sure if Cassiopeia was listening, as she seemed pretty focused on following the cracks on the concrete, walking over them like someone tracing a line on the floor. Jack found it cute and didn’t bother repeating himself at the moment. 

They wandered aimlessly for a while, taking the ‘scenic route’ - if one could call anything on this heap of space rubble scenic - around the settlement. Jack was in no hurry to find somewhere to stop, as it would mean facing that subject, so he simply let Cassie ‘guide’ him around town. 

Eventually, after crossing a tight street, weaving their way through passersby, vehicles, and robots alike, the siblings reached one of the city’s few ‘plazas’. Calling the place ugly and unsightly would be an understatement, but at least it allowed for freer movement than the cramped alleyways behind him. 

However, a commotion drew their attention, and Jack skidded them to a halt. An armored Junction airship was landed in the middle of the square, surrounded by officers in their tight, grey uniforms. A man, who seemed in his mid-thirties, could be seen struggling against the soldiers, clutching some kind of bag in hand. He must’ve stolen something - and by the looks of it, that something was food. A quick punch from one of the Sentries ended the struggle, and as the man doubled over in pain, his arms were quickly restrained in cuffs, the bag swiftly removed from his grasp as the officers pushed him towards the vehicle.

Jack felt his heart tighten in sympathy but began walking in the opposite direction, gesturing for Cassiopeia to follow quietly. The last thing he wanted was for the Sentries to turn their attention towards them, once they were capturing that poor man. Jack knew how Junction Sentries functioned - and he knew you didn’t have to do anything wrong to be put under their aim. You just had to be born here - that was enough to earn their disdain.

Once the commotion was out of sight and the sounds of sirens gave way to the familiar buzz of the city’s center, with voices overlapping, cars flying past and a myriad of other familiar sounds filling their senses, Jack muttered bitterly, under his breath, to no one in particular “I can’t wait for us to get outta here. I hate this fucking place.”

Still holding onto his hand, Cassie seemed to have caught onto his words, despite all the background noise. “Mhm.” She hummed in agreement, nuzzling closer to his arm. Before he could reply, she skipped a few stones on the ground as if she were playing hopscotch, each jump punctuating her words, “Got us some snacks though!”

Jack couldn’t believe his ears, blinking rapidly at the concept “You… you did?”

Cassie didn’t look over her shoulder, still skipping stones “Yep.” She answered simply, apparently unaware of the importance of what she just said “Saw some folks at this fancy eatery-place throwing out a box of tarts because they didn’t sell the week before. It’s a bit stale but tastes good enough.”

Jack could sob in relief right now - in fact, he almost did, barely holding onto his composure by a thread as he let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He stopped walking for a moment, simply basking in this moment, watching her absentmindedly skipping around ahead of him after basically saving their night. After a second, he caught up to her once more, playfully ruffling her hair. 

She giggled, batting at his hand and combing down her now-tousled hair. Jack smiled down at her. “You’re the best, Cassie. Did you know that?”

Cassiopeia looked up at him with bright, mischievous eyes. “Mhm. I’m pretty amazing.” She beamed, proud of herself. 

Jack laughed, nodding “That’s the Cassie I know.”

As they continued walking down the empty, Cassiopeia always skipping and running ahead, Jack enjoyed the feeling of a weight lifted from his shoulders, for a split second, before the feeling returned tenfold once they walked into another alley. There were droplets of what looked like blood splattered on the concrete - and before he could tell Cassie to slow down and get away, she’d already turned the corner. That same corner. The one with the blood. 

His heart skipped a beat, “Cassie, wait!” He yelled as he ran after his sister, ready to yank her away from whatever was waiting for them in that alley, but stopped in his tracks once he turned the corner. There, hidden behind a metal trashcan and broken containers, was someone. Someone around his age, who looked a little more than worse for wear. 

“...Is he dead?” Came his sister’s blunt question, shaking him from his shocked ‘trance’. Jack watched the strange kid intently for a moment, tilting his head to the side as he tried to gauge whether or not the other was dead or alive. The boy didn’t seem quite completely conscious, but they didn’t look dead either. 

“I…” Jack stammered. “I, um, I’m not quite sure myself.” His answer was as unsure as he himself was right now. Every fiber of his being screamed for him to grab his sister and get them both away from this place and this random person right now. But another portion of him seemed to claim that it wouldn’t be right. His conscience, apparently. 

“Maybe we should just go away…” Jack said, tentatively trying to ignore his better judgment, tugging on Cassie to come back near him. The eight-year-old looked outraged and sad at the same time. 

“But he’s hurt!” She protested, pointing at the limp figure near the wall “He needs our help. We can’t just leave.” Then she added, with big, sad eyes, like a puppy “You always say we should be kind to others. That we should help those we can help,” By the looks of it, and the sound of her voice, she knew exactly what she was doing. And Jack hated that it was working.

“Ugh, don’t you turn my words against me,” He complained, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest. She continued staring up at him, and there was a long moment of silence - Jack didn’t want to budge, and neither did Cassie. Eventually, her puppy-eyes won. Jack groaned. “Fine, fine. But if I get stabbed, I say it’s your fault” He says, half-heartedly poking at her, to which Cassie answered by sticking out her tongue at him and making a face. 

Moving toward the other teenager, Jack could see a bit more of their appearance - they weren’t human, that much was clear. Bright blue skin, long ears, dark blue hair. Peeking their mouth, which hung slightly agape, Jack could see a row of small fang-like teeth, as he closed the distance and knelt down beside the stranger. From what he could tell, this kid was a Zatrian - a species native to the tundra deserts of the planet below - who had somehow ended up battered and bruised on a grimy alleyway in Cethea III. Someone else was also having a very bad day, it seems. That level of irony wasn’t lost in him.

Jack, hesitantly, reached forward, giving the figure’s shoulder a gentle nudge. Deep down he didn’t know if he wanted the figure to stir or not - he knew it was a selfish notion, but years of ingrained survival instincts told him a situation like this was often a perfect setup made by a gang looking to mug whoever intended to play the good samaritan. It never did them any good to help someone they didn’t know. Still, a small, shy part of him, for reasons he could not quite comprehend, hoped that this kid - whoever they were - would respond. 

At his nudge, the other boy whined softly in discomfort - but didn’t seem to rouse.Jack frowned, growing unsettled with this alleyway more and more with every passing second, wishing for this to be done with as soon as possible. He tried again, with slightly more strength “Hey, can you hear me? Hello?” Jack asked as he shook the other’s shoulder a few times. It seemed that the figure would remain unresponsive, but when Jack was about to give up, the boy finally stirred, eyes blinking open with a groan of pain. 

Grey eyes, first glazed over with pain and confusion, then filled with a look of sheer dread and panicked rage that Jack knew all too well, met his. Before he respond or do anything really, the boy stumbled backward with a sudden jerk, which caused him to hit his head on the wall behind him. “G-Get back!”

The alien yelled, followed by a cat-like hiss that took Jack off-guard. He pushed himself further and further into the corner between the trash can and the wall, curling into himself as tightly as he could, pressed against it, The figures’ eyes flitted between Jack, who was still kneeling near him, and Cassie, who was standing a few feet away, with her brows furrowed in a puzzled look. 

Unsure of what to do, Jack withdrew his hand, instead raising it in a placating gesture. “Hey, hey, hey... Take it easy” He said, in a clear voice, backing a feel inches away himself - fearing that the kid may lash out. Those claws, a detail of the alien’s hand that Jack had only just noticed, looked sharp. “We’re not here to hurt you.” 

Apparently the gesture was anything but calming, as when he backed away and raised his hands slowly, the boy cringed way with a violent flinch, hugging himself and pointedly looking away for a moment. As if expecting to be hit, Jack realized. That reaction alone said more than words ever could, and despite himself, Jack felt his walled up heart thaw a little bit.

Finally, after a drawn-out while that felt like an eternity, the alien boy realized nothing was going to happen, and looked up once more. There was a sharp look of distrust and paranoia in his eyes, one that Jack knew all too well - he often saw that same look reflected in the mirror. Much to both of their surprise, the boy spoke. 

 “...What do you want with me?” His voice was weak and fearful, carrying a sharp accent, though it seemed he tried to inject as much venom into the words as he could “ His face scrunched up into what was supposed to be a menacing look, but he only looked more anxious. 

Jack answered, using the same calming voice as he used when Cassie had nightmares. It usually worked, and though he wasn’t quite sure of why he was even doing any of this “We want to help.” He gestured to himself and then to his sister, trying to muster a reassuring smile but still eyeing the boy anxiously, as if waiting for something to go wrong and for trouble to begin. Cassie waved at the other boy, who seemed even more confused, before Jack added, trying to provide some much needed explanations “Look, we kinda…stumbled into you - not literally, but y’know what I mean - and you looked like you needed help. You seem pretty hurt…”

At that, Jack’s words trailed off. He saw a deep, crimson stain pouring from the torn up sleeve of the boy’s shoulder, and noticed how the other nursed that arm protectively, holding it to his chest, face scrunched up in a grimace of pain. He was no expert, so he couldn’t quite tell if it was a stab or a gunshot wound, but thankfully by the looks of it, whatever had caused it had only grazed the arm. 

Better than the alternative, Jack guessed. Though it must still hurt like hell.

Jack opened his mouth to say something, but the other boy was faster, cutting him off as he spoke instead. “Ha. As if someone like you would want to help someone like me.” His breathing was labored, pained, but even then, Jack could feel the resentment and sarcasm in his voice “I know… I know your kind. It’s all just a big game. And I won’t go back to that place -” The boy’s voice cracked, but he steeled himself with a growling, bitter chuckle  “You can’t trick me like they did. I won’t fall for it.”

Jack tilted his head to the side ever so slightly, cocking an eyebrow in confusion, trying to make sense of what the other meant. “Who said there was any trick? Why would there be any?” He asked, genuinely, glancing over his shoulder slightly to check on Cassie. She gave him a shrug, just as lost as he was, “We have no clue who you are, my guy - we only just happened to find you. By accident. And you look like you need help so someone” Jack nodded towards Cassie “convinced me to come check on you. And that bleeding arm of yours only confirms that yes, you do need help. So let us help.”

Jack wasn’t quite certain if he wanted to help this guy they’ve just met. It could very well end poorly. Very poorly and very bloodily. But he already started this, so he might as well commit to the whole thing now. 

Meanwhile, the boy seemed torn between giving into relief or succumbing to fight-or-flight instincts and trying to dart away. Jack was certain that, if it wasn’t for the exhaustion the other must be feeling, that kid would have run away the second he woke him up. Instead, he narrowed his eyes, looking at Jack suspiciously. “Leave. Me. Alone.” The boy hissed, punctuating every word in that sentence, a jaded, tired look in his eyes. 

Jack facepalmed slightly for a moment, dragging his hands down his face in frustration, before taking a deep breath and collecting all the patience he didn’t have to continue this conversation. This dead-end conversation. In a shady alleyway. With someone he did not know. 

“Look, let me be open with you real quick: I don’t want to be here, and she doesn’t want to be here, in this exact situation and place, either. So I think if we could move the topic forward a bit that would be great.” He said, gesturing vaguely to the other in hopes that he would develop the conversation a bit more. When the kid remained seethingly silent, waiting for an answer Jack sighed, “Okay, then.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. After a second more of silence, his patience wavered and Jack stood up, dusting off his clothes and turning to Cassiopeia with a shrug. “Eh, fuck it. I can’t deal with this right now.” Jack gestures for her to follow him, but his sister won’t budge. He groans in frustration and stops in his tracks. “We tried, Cassie. Kid’s hopeless, and if he’s keen on being a sitting duck to a mugger, let him. This alley looks wrong in all the worst ways.”

He tried to reason with her, hand outstretched waiting for her to grasp it. For a moment, it looked like his sister would agree, before instead of taking his hand she sauntered over to the blue-skinned alien still curled up near the wall. Jack stared at her silently, a mix of tired frustration with deadpan disbelief as she crouched down close to the other kid. “You’re from Ivion, right? The planet this moon orbits?” She asked, innocently, head tilted to the side. Surprised, Jack could hear it in her voice that she was going somewhere with this, so he just watched, ready to yank her away in a second if he sensed any danger. The alien boy didn’t move for a moment, curled up like a statue with big, fearful eyes, before silently nodding. Cassie continued, “If so. Um. How did you end up…?” 

He saw Cassie gesture vaguely to their bleak surroundings and then to the boy himself, the absurdity of their situation painting a clear enough picture on its own. Much to Jack’s surprise, who half-expected the other kid to just shut down or worse, straight up push her away, he saw Deimos, slowly, ever so slowly, uncurl himself from where he was pressing up against the wall. The boy fiddled with what looked like a colorful string bracelet for a moment, pensive, but still seemed tense like a string ready to snap. His eyes seemed distant, confused and terrified at the same time, and Jack instantly knew that, whatever the answer was, it wasn’t going to be anything good. And he briefly wondered if he should let Cassie stick around to hear it. 

“Bad people. Raiders.” There was a quiver to his chin, and his words are less coherent, sentences cutting off sharply, as he painfully struggled to put his thoughts into words “There was so much blood. So much. Raiders said they would sell me.” Deimos started to hyperventilate, trying to catch his breath as he hugged himself tightly “... I don’t remember… I don’t remember how I escaped. I- I don’t know anymore -”

The other kid’s words had a slightly…broken edge to them - a sound that born out of desperation, panic, rage and all things in between. He noticed that Cassie seemed slightly concerned - and anxious, if the way she tugged on the strings of her backpack was any indication. Startling even himself, Jack felt his legs move of their own volition, gently pushing past from where he was standing next to his sister until he was once more kneeling at arms-reach of the kid. 

The boy seemed tired - too tired to keep arguing, too tired for anything anymore, like he was giving up, looking up at him as if he simply didn’t care what happened next anymore. Jack didn’t need a full explanation to get the picture, to understand what the boy was feeling. He felt it himself almost daily. 

Without saying a word, Jack pulled the other boy into a hug, for reasons he could not comprehend - and it seems that was an action that surprised both of them. The alien stilled, frozen like a board for a moment, too shocked to move. Meanwhile, Jack himself was confused out of his mind - he’d never trusted people like this. Usually, he would have suspected any story like that was a lie. But somehow, this one felt different. Likely it was just his ‘big brother instincts’ taking over, or maybe, and that thought surprised him even more, he hoped this day could get a little bit… ‘less bad’. 

The concept was almost laughable, given all of their circumstances

He thought for a second that the alien boy would surely push him away, but then, he felt two skinny, long arms wrap around him, hesitantly but surely.

The boy melted into his hug, and Jack realized that was probably the first kind physical contact this guy had felt in a long, long while. Tears wet his shirt, and Jack was unsure of what to do, but he let the boy hold onto him for as long as he needed. After a few minutes, Jack let go and put his hand on the other’s shoulder “I’m sorry for what happened to you. Seriously.” He turned to look at Cassie, who was looking at them with a mix of confusion and awe. She gave him a thumbs up, and Jack chuckled. “So, this is gonna sound really weird, but what do you say we stick together?” He stretched out a hand, waiting for Deimos’ answer. 

The alien gave him a puzzled look. 

“Whatever do you mean?” He asked, tilting his head sideways, trying to analyze him. 

Jack shrugged. “Well, I dunno” He sat cross-legged on the floor, tired of crouching down “You’re all beaten up, we’re starving, and there’s no one to look out for kids like us. Maybe we could… stick around each other and see what happens? Look out for each other maybe, just maybe…”

He could not believe the worlds coming out of his mouth. Either this day had driven him mad or he was really looking for trouble. Jack almost cringed, but even have the energy to care anymore, he just waited for an answer. 

As the alien boy seemed to mull over the offer in his mind as well, Cassie piped up, slinging her arms around Jack’s shoulders a tad too suddenly. “...We got food!” She said, like someone tempting a cat, pointing to her threadbare, butterfly backpack. Somewhere, in his mind, Jack was digging himself a grave and giving up on life. He regretted even saying anything. He regretted all his life choices including getting up from bed today. Nice going, Cass. Now we’re definitely getting mugged. 

Jack immediately craned his head to protest Cassie’s offer, a million rebukes at the tip of his tongue - that was their food. Her food. Food they needed so badly and couldn’t afford to share it with someone else they’d just barely met… Before he could even say anything, however, the words died in his throat - he saw the hopeful glint in the other boy’s eyes at the prospect of dinner. He recognized that same, desperate hoping without hope, look - he knew how much a ‘no’ hurt in that situation, when one’s far beyond caring for pride and only wants to survive. It killed a part of him he could never get back, everytime something like that happened to him.

Cassie looked at him expectantly, and he hated how, instead of standing his ground and saying ‘no’, he relented with a sigh. “Alright, alright” He said to her, playfully sharply. “It’s fine. You win this round.” His voice was fondly resigned. 

She gave a joyful, enthusiastic hurray, at that. To Jack, that almost made up to the fact that they were going to have to share their already limited dinner with another kid they barely knew. Just almost. 

As Cassie sat down beside him, swinging her backpack from her shoulders and unceremoniously plopping it down on the dusty ground, Jack spoke, pinching the bridge of his nose again and willing himself to have patience. “So, you heard her. We’ve got… ‘dinner’.” He said that word with air quotes to emphasize his point “Are you going to join us or is The Corner too comfy to move away from?”

He looked at the other boy, waiting, impatiently, for an answer. 

A bit too slowly for his liking, the alien slowly peeled himself from where he was basically cosplaying as a wallpaper, and sat down closer to them, mirroring their crossed legged positions. “...Yes. Let’s.” He said in a small voice, plainly. The kid’s mouth seemed to water at the simple thought of food, and Jack couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the fellow. 

While that transpired, Cassie had already opened her backpack, placing a dented and slightly stained cardboard box in front of the three of them, opening it quickly. “I think its cheese tarts” His sister said bluntly “I think. It tasted a bit funny.”

Jack knew that was Cassie’s attempt to make some small talk but cringed inwardly just the same at the implications. He hoped their new ‘friend’ -  who was still essentially a stranger whose name they didn’t even know - didn’t mind. 

There were a few of those pocket tarts in the box, a jumbled assortment. They looked like they would have been tasty, fresh off the frier - though now they looked like they’d be tough to chew on. Luckily though, there seemed to be enough to divide it between the three of them equally - something Jack considered a rare treat, given that someone else was eating with them. He couldn’t help but think about how the snack might’ve lasted longer if it was just the two of them, but quickly suppressed the thought.

Without wasting a second, the trio got to eating the now-cold, fried morsels. At a first bite, Jack immediately understood what Cassie had meant by ‘it tasted funny’. The pastry was chewy, but not in a good way. In an insistent, sticky way that was hard to swallow. It seemed to have absorbed some of the plastified cardboard taste, and that… didn’t make it tastier, to put it shortly. Still, it was better than nothing. Much better than nothing. 

And it seemed that their new alien ‘friend’ agreed, given how he absolutely devoured all three of his tarts in record breaking speed. If Jack hadn’t been feeling just as hungry, he might’ve even have been a bit astonished. As it stood, Jack didn’t think twice about it. 

Sooner than he would’ve liked, the cardboard box was empty, with nothing but a few scattered crumbs, crumpled napkins and oil stains littering it. His stomach seemed to still need more, even though there were none. At this point, Jack was just grateful that this day hadn’t gone from a ‘bad day’ to the ‘worst day’. Small wins, but still wins.

Wiping off his fingers on one of the napkins, and then straightening his clothes, Jack stood up, stretching himself a little bit. 

The weight of this entire day - which was, quite frankly an ordeal after the other - was catching up to him, and quick.

After adjusting Cassie’s backpack on her back and making sure to dust off her clothes properly, he turned to the alien boy once more. “So.” He started, a bit awkwardly, trying to come up with the words he needed “We had this… moment. Ate together and all that. I think an introduction’s in order: I’m Jack, and she” He gestures at his sister, who was admittedly giddy for some reason “Is Cassiopeia, my sister. I call her Cassie for short. What’s your name?”

He gave the boy his best friendly smile, and hoped that after all that the guy would finally start to open up a little and help break the awkward ice. If he didn’t, Jack was almost 70% sure he would implode out of frustration right then and there. 

Luckily, the other kid, who was still nursing the wound on his arm, spoke up after a few seconds “...Deimos.” He answered, a bit too under his breath, before quickly adding “My name, is Deimos Soll. My full name.” 

He seemed shy - looking torn between his fight-or-flight reflexes and giving two strangers a chance. Jack could understand how overwhelming that felt - after all, he was taking a similar gamble by helping him.

Still, ignoring his best judgement entirely, he reached out a hand to Deimos, hoping to help him get to his feet so they could get out of this filthy alley once and for all. 

Swiftly and without a second thought, Deimos grasped his hand, latching onto it like a lifeline. Somehow, despite this being a random kid he just met, Jack felt as if a silent pact, was being made. He didn’t know why and it was one hell of a strange feeling, but he preferred it over the alternatives. Though it is far too early to even consider calling… whatever this strange ‘truce’ is a friendship, Jack definitely was glad that this interaction ended up amicably. 

Jack helped Deimos up, hauling him up from the floor with considerable effort. As he helped the other maneuver into standing, Jack realized just how much taller Deimos was from him - he’d met few people who’d reached that height before coming of age. Supporting him to the best of his abilityuntil he was sure the other had gained his footing, Jack said, “Alright, since we’re apparently gonna do this, we need to get that wound” He gestures to Deimos’ free arm, the one who isn’t wrapped around his shoulders, “Fixed up. I think given our recent ‘feast’ you can tell we don’t have the funds for that” Jack adjusted his grip on the taller teen, as Deimos’ legs faltered slightly. “We can shoplift some supplies, but that would imply risking getting caught by those prim and proper arseholes in armor and that we’ll need to be lucky enough to do everything right. Or…” Jack muttered a swear word under his breath “I can cash in a favor. But it isn’t gonna be easy. I know a retired mobster lady who owns a tattoo shop and has some - and I mean some - first aid knowledge, but she always asks something in return.”

Deimos looked at him, befuddled. “Why are you helping me like this?” He asks, this time not judgemental, but genuinely curious, “I don’t think I quite understand.”

Jack stammered to find an answer. He didn’t quite understand what or why he was doing this either. “Well…” He trailed off for a moment, “I’m not quite sure. You were hurt, my sister convinced me to help you. We had a snack together. Kinda feels weird to not help you now, I guess. Plus, its the right thing and all that. I hope.”

The young alien seemed intrigued, but was satisfied with this answer for now, it seems. Or simply just didn’t have the energy to ask any more questions, which wouldn’t be surprising given his state.

With his free hand, Jack motioned for Cassie to follow. 

Once she saw that Jack trusted the other boy, for some reason, Cassie came running towards them, tugging on Deimos’ shirt and almost making him lose his balance. She had a bright, kid-like smile on her face. “Hi! I’m Cassie. Jack told you already, I saw, it’s nice to meet another kid! Why do you look blue? Are you made of ice? I heard that Ivion is made of ice, are you too? I like the winter, winter’s nice…” Her endless string of questions continued into almost unintelligible rambles. Deimos looked at Jack as if asking for emergency help in handling whatever that was, Jack chuckled, starting to walk slowly so that the other could keep up with him. “Get used to it, haha,” He said playfully “There is oh, so much more where that came from.”

Deimos keened slightly “Why am I already reconsidering our partnership?” He said, this time with a mischievous smirk. Jack knew they were on the same page, and chuckling, continued walking them both out of the alley, as Cassie rambled on ahead of them about her knowledge of planets, stars, and constellations.

Her ramble paused for a moment, as she heard their little conspiratory quip. She turned around, little arms crossed over her chest - she wanted to look angry, but given her entire style and age, she just looked more adorable. “Hey!” She protested in a playfully berating tone, imitating authority “I heard that, mister alien-guy. Just because, I’m gonna talk even more now!” She chuckled after her mock ‘scolding’ and went back to skipping stones and rambling even faster about an assortment of different and increasingly unhinged topics, just out of too much spite and sass on the same small package. 

Keeping a close eye on Cassiopeia ahead of them, Jack began maneuvering Deimos down the alley. Well, all things considered, this bad day actually ended better than most of his usual days. They ate something serviceable, met someone new who did not want to kill him, and got to unwind a bit. Overall, not quite such an awful day as it had started out. From there, they walked to Madam Cyrax’s tattoo parlor, where, with luck and a bit of smooth talking, they could get that wound fixed up half-nicely. 

Though he knew that this might just be yet another debt to pay in the future, he found it worth it to help this unusual ‘friend’ they met. 

Tagging (for Feedback) @saturnine-saturneight @ray-writes-n-shit @diabolical-blue, @saltysupercomputer @agirlandherquill

@sleepy-night-child, @kaylinalexanderbooks, @smol-feralgremlin, @oh-no-another-idea, @littleladymab,

@winterandwords, @cowboybrunch, @eccaiia, @sarahlizziewrites, @illarian-rambling

@agirlandherquill, @anoelleart

@leave-her-a-tome, @writernopal, @anyablackwood, @unstablewifiaccess, @forthesanityofstorytellers

@i-can-even-burn-salad, @cakeinthevoid

@lassiesandiego, @thepeculiarbird, @clairelsonao3, @memento-morri-writes, @starlit-hopes-and-dreams and OPEN TAG

[joeyalohadream]

First Line Analysis

Rules: post the first lines of up to 10 of your last fics/chapters posted on AO3 or your WIPs and try to draw some conclusions.

Thank you for tagging me @middlingmay!

This one made me a little self-conscious because writing the first line of a story is one of the walls I have to scale each time I start a new WIP and this basically made me cringe LOL. (First lines of published fics and a couple wips below the cut).

For my analysis, I think this revealed a few things that I honestly didn't even realize. One, I like to start fics with a line of dialogue. Writing dialogue has always come easier than other aspects of storytelling for me. I like to just jump right into the middle of a situation and dialogue is a good way to do that. I'm also tend to throw the reader right into the situation the characters are in with a bit of an abrupt entry into the fic. It's important to me to establish the setting at the same time as providing a little glimpse of how that setting is affecting the character.

My first lines seem to have a common thread of just dropping readers right into the fic without much ease. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I actually found this helpful! I'll be thinking about this the next time I write another 'first line'!

1. Don't want you to wonder, darling I need you to know (aka 'The Cooler Fic')

The dry Texas heat is something that Bucky thinks he’ll never get used to.

2. My love, my mind is set on you (aka The Cooler Fic part 2)

This is the warmest he’s felt in three weeks.

3. Carry You Home (aka The Cooler Fic part 3)(WIP)

There is no escaping the frigid air that bites into the exposed skin of his face and freezes the skin around his eyes where the wind has blasted tears from their corners.

4. Priority Number One

The coffee from the teacher’s lounges archaic machine is bad enough for John to consider giving up his caffeine addiction.

5. The Boy Next Door

The unit next to Bucky’s own in the quaint lakeside apartment building near the marina in Manitowoc has been vacant since the red eviction notice was hung on the door back in May.

6. Another First

The commotion on the runway is jarring as Bucky’s feet touch down onto the tarmac. 

7. A feeling I want to get used to

“How’s your steak?”

8. Home early, just in time

“Buck?”

9. You were right there all along (WIP)

“I was so busy this afternoon, I didn’t even have time to eat a thing. This wine will go straight to my head.”

10. Untiled WIP (this ones a secret, lol)

"Wait until you meet my roommate."

I'll be 'no pressure tagging' @soliloquy-dawn , @middlingmay (right back at ya!) , @majorbuckyegan , @amiserableseriesofevents and @alienoresimagines

[a-very-fond-farewell]

WIP tag game!!!

Lamb Loose 👁️👁️ (u know me very well)

(hehe I do know you dear 👀)

so, I will try to use my (nonexistent) pitching abilities to both: 1) introduce new people to what I’m currently working on; and 2) give you (yes you Fifi) some more intel to munch on while you wait for the next update. let’s see how it goes.

1) how it began:

it was a dark and stormy night when I finished the drama Evilive, in mid-November of last year, and I couldn’t sleep. for days I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters and I decided to put my Word of Honor big fic on hold to give this new fandom a chance. the plan was to finish everything around the 80k words mark but.. oh boi. I knew myself. I knew I wasn’t gonna cut it, verbose as I am, so I decided to be diligent about it: I took 1 month to plan this fic at the best of my abilities before I started typing like a maniac on my laptop.

at the end of the month I posted the first chapter and since then I woke up at 5am (almost) every single day to chip away at this project. long story short: it changed my life. not in a big way, it didn’t magically get me a super fancy job or a stable paycheck. none of that. but it made my life significantly better.

because you have to know that, before I decided waking up at 5am was a good idea, I was so used to be dreading the new day that it was messing with my brain. I didn’t want to go to sleep because “then another day would have started” without me enjoying myself even a little bit. but the difference between going to sleep at 3am (to wake at 7) and going to sleep at 11pm (to wake at 5) made me look forward to the new day time and time again. that way, if I manage to fall asleep on the right time every day, I get to start a new morning doing what I love most: writing.

this came at a cost, however, bc apparently waking super early is bad for my blood pressure (?? rude and biphobic of my body to do me so dirty, if you ask me >:/ like.. hello??) and I get (almost daily now) a sensible energy drop around lunchtime but it’s worth it in my book. this fic turned me into an optimist and I’ve always been a realist at best.

cons of this project: the fandom is tiny. so tiny infact that there are not many “work in progress” fics besides mine on ao3 ;—; I remember this being the case for Beyond Evil too, even if I was just a casual reader at the time, back when it first aired: we were starving for new content and I recall translating Korean fanfics into English just to have someto dig my teeth into xD

moreover, I tend not to read for the fandom I’m writing for, because I’m a sponge and (like my friend Amethystina said once) “I don’t want to accidentally steal someone else’s idea” just because I have shit memory (I’ll admit I caved at the beginning of 2024 bc I was in a bad place mentally and I read a couple of one-shots on Evilive, it’s ok, ik. I forgot the majority of them anyway, I just know they were lovely and their authors very smart indeed). so it’s a very lonely process! I churn up content, I don’t consume content, I wait for comments, I joyfully reply to comments and then, if I want more human interaction I have to (*checks*) come up with more content?? ahah. Ik it doesn’t work like that, and that I have to put effort in talking with other people in the fandom for it to become larger.. but this is why I do these tag games :D to engage with other lovely people in fun activities like these! good thing this fic keeps me going, bc I would be lost without it.

the general plot idea comes from a need I wanted to see fulfilled: I wanted to read a story about a group of women going apeshit crazy on the world. no repercussions, absolute power, no remorse. women from different levels of society, different ethnicities, different nationalities, different sexualities just.. being allowed to do whatever they wanted. I wanted to explore the pros and cons of such circumstances and yet I didn’t want it to be merely focused on that alone. I also wanted to point out how every person is capable of evil and that there still needs to be a moment in our life when we choose to be better instead.

one thing that made me side-eye Evilive specifically was.. well, the lack of women. there are 3 adult women in the whole drama taking some sort of role inside the story and all of them felt rich with the implication of a personality underneath, but no actual character to be seen. I love all 3 of them, from the “wife”, to the “mother”, to the “femme fatale” as they are, yet they still are flat compared to the other people in the show, even the more stereotypically evil or corrupt among them. I needed more, so more I made.

in addition to this, I really wanted to write from the point of view of a nasty, selfish man who has been corrupted by power long enough to have forgotten how to be human again. someone who believes they can fix it all by taking revenge on the person who turned them into a monster.. not realizing they had the potential to become a monster all along and never noticed.

Lamb Loose may be a “fix-it” of sorts based on the happenings (and the finale) of Evilive, but I also think it can be some sort of Atonement Arc rather than a Redemption Arc all in all: just because you become self-aware of the evil deeds you’ve put in motion and want to be better now.. doesn’t mean you can redeem yourself for the sorrow you caused. and, sometimes I also like characters who don’t change in their (evil/selfish) ways but somehow still learn to broaden their perspective after meeting new people. restoring one’s trust in humanity is hard, but maybe it can start by looking into our own selves and look for humanity within us first and foremost.

Han Dong Soo as a character seemed the best option for me, even if it is challenging to write from his POV at times. some of the things he thinks and does are truly horrendous to me personally, but it’s a necessary step towards understanding someone as bad as him in my opinion. not to justify his actions, but to learn how to recognize them in other people instead.

there’s also horny thoughts, not gonna lie, but those feel more like an extension of all that Han Dong Soo as a person has repressed along the years. so, in a way, the sexual tension is just another character in the script, unnamed and all-encompassing, but never at the center itself. since Han Dong Soo is also an unreliable narrator, I can play with him and make the reader question everything he is going through at the same time, which is fun to me :)

2) a treat for Fifi bc she was patient and read to this point eheh:

dear, ch16 may not be full of plot-relevant quests but there’s a lot of yearning involved 👀 and I know it’s tough to wait for something more juicy to happen 😥😔 but I’m finally seeing the end of the big draft (working on ch31 now, aiming to finish the whole thing at ch40 ending a ch37 was too optimistic of me apparently ahah) and I promise you it will be absolutely worth it.

sometimes I feel very dejected about this project, bc it’s taking forever and I absolutely want to finish it before the end of the year :(

but your constant support and care are one of the reasons I keep going 💪😤💘 your art is extraordinary in itself, but your enthusiasm for this fic truly has made me appreciate living in the moment and enjoy the process more and more. so thank you dear for always cheering me on and for indulging me with your lovely comments and messages :)

I’ll see you very soon :D (I’ll reply to your comments and DMs as soon as possible! but I wanted to give you a little something today)

- Niki out :*

[canonicallyobserving911]

WIP Wednesday

Fanonwriter2023 on AO3

Where CANON and FANON collide!

This is an EPIC LOVE STORY!

Season 7 FANON Speculation: Buddie Multi-Chapter Fanfic - Hiatus Reading: “I’m still in love with you but... I needed to learn how to love myself too!”

Chapter 15 is available on AO3 & Chapter 16 will be posted soon.

Currently 15 chapters completed: 484.9K Words Rated: Mature

One chapter will be posted at a time.

I'm so excited to finish writing Chapter 16 because there are so many things happening for Buck and Eddie and the Diaz Family. For anyone who hasn't read Chapter 15, here's a brief overview: Buck and Eddie got engaged however the day they're getting married is different from the day they're planning to have a wedding ceremony. They're going to get married before Christmas in 2023 but their wedding will be in May 2024 so they can invite their found family and Eddie's family. Buck told Eddie he wants to take his last name and they immediately started saying they're going to be Mr. & Mr. Diaz. Also, two more people discovered they're in a relationship but who was it and what did they see? Bobby already knows but who else saw something that caused them to believe they're already together?

___________

Here's some Buck and Eddie domestic fluff from Chapter 16 as they plan their international adventure.

___________

“That’s good.  Also, we should probably start looking at the places we want to stay while we’re there.  I mean we don’t have to book anything yet but uh… we should at least have an idea of the types of places we’re interested in staying.”

Eddie nods but he’s sure Buck’s already looked at some on the internet.  “I agree but have you already done the research on the places that are available?”

He smiles.  “I did and honestly, the hotels are nice and all but I think it’ll be better if we rent some homes while we’re there instead of us staying at different hotels.”

Eddie likes the idea; he really does but he’s still worried about the cost.  They’re adding up and he remembers Buck saying the settlement money will cover it but he’s not sure if there will be enough to cover everything they’re talking about doing while they’re in Italy for almost eight days along with the seven days they'll spend in London.  He sits his fork onto his plate and inhales because he’s trying to figure out how to say what he wants to say.

Buck furrows his eyebrows.  “Is everything ok?”

“Yes it is but… the costs are adding up and I know you said the settlement money will cover it but Buck… that’s your money and you’re getting it for your pain and suffering.  We shouldn’t spend it all on a trip to Rome.  Let me do something to help because…”

He leans in and kisses him to make him be quiet.  He knows Eddie worries about money and he’s never asked for anything but this is their adventure and he could care less about that settlement money since he was planning to pay for the trip anyway and that was before he found out Harmony Clinic agreed to settle.

After he pulls back, he takes Eddie’s hand in his and replies, “Listen to me… there’s more than enough money to pay for our trip, to pay off this house and to pay off your truck and there’s still going to be a lot left over even after we do all of that.”

“But…”

“Remember this is our money… OURS!  We’re getting married which means it’s money for our family.  I didn’t tell you this but I was planning to pay for the trip before I was awarded the settlement.  I was going to give it to you and Chris for Christmas.”

“You were?”  Eddie responds with a high-pitched tone in his voice because he’s shocked.

“Yes.  I have money in my savings account, it’s not a lot but uh… it’s enough to pay for the trip.  But now that the settlement money will be deposited into my account within the next couple of weeks, we don’t have to worry about the cost.  It’s our first international adventure.”

Eddie bites his bottom lip and before he can say anything else, Buck starts talking again.

“I just realized I didn’t tell you how much the settlement is…???”

How much money will Buck receive after Harmony Clinic pays him the settlement from the sperm donation mix up lawsuit? 👀

___________

Fic Summary: Months after Buck and Eddie were hit by the same lightning strike; they’re still struggling with the aftermath of it.  But before they make their love confessions, they’ll spend time getting to know themselves as individuals first. Eddie learns to enjoy the simple things in life as he participates in activities on his own and with new friends while Buck learns the rest of the 31-year-old deep dark family secret about his conception and birth. Their journey to forever is still a work in progress but once they finally admit they’re in love with each other, everything that follows their love confessions will be cataclysmic.

__________

Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1 - Eddie makes a new friend while Buck receives devastating news regarding the sperm donation he made for Connor and Kameron.

Chapter 2 - Buck does a lot of research to learn more about the abnormalities found in his red blood cells and Eddie starts a new therapy journey that’s all about him and not the traumas he’s experienced.

Chapter 3 - After more than a month, Buck and Eddie finally spend time together outside of work but it doesn’t end well and they part with a lot of uncertainty regarding their places in each other’s lives.

Chapter 4 - Eddie has a few realizations about his life which causes him to consider moving back to El Paso, TX while Buck continues to be reminded of his past which causes him to take an impromptu road trip across America.

Chapter 5 - Both Buck and Eddie have difficult conversations with their parents and Buck finally learns the truth behind the reason why his mother despised him while Eddie finally tells his mother about the way she tries to control him.

Chapter 6 - More than two weeks after Buck pushed Eddie away after suggesting they needed a break; Eddie decides to try again. Eddie’s there for Buck when he’s at his worst just like Buck was there for him when he was at his worst and he won’t let Buck give up.

Chapter 7 - After Buck’s mental breakdown, Eddie has his back the same way Buck had his when he had his own breakdown more than a year ago.  They share several vulnerable and emotionally intimate moments with one another and they begin to realize their small, sweet and caring gestures matter just as much if not more than any grand gesture ever could because these are the foundations of a long-lasting love relationship.

Chapter 8 - Buck, Eddie and Chris all have their own therapists and during their sessions, they reflect on their pasts while they’re in the present so they can prepare for their future together as a family.

Chapter 9 - Buck and Eddie are there for each other when Buck has to testify as a witness during the trial.  But by the end of it, they’ll both realize their individual and shared traumas are going to keep resurfacing until they talk about them, deal with the fact that they’re in love with one another and face the fact that they can’t live without each other.

Chapter 10 - As Buck and Eddie finally begin to confront their past traumas, they realize how much they need each other to fill in the gaps of their memories.  Additionally, the universe screams at them for what appears to be the one hundredth time so Buck can realize he doesn’t have to ‘find it’ because he already ‘made it’ and Eddie’s reminded tomorrow isn’t promised and he doesn’t have to die alone if he doesn’t want to.

Chapter 11 - A “virga” or dry thunderstorm is in the forecast but once the rain starts, the thunderstorm happening outside won’t be able to match the storm brewing inside between Buck and Eddie.  It’s the universe’s final scream and when the tumultuous winds begin to blow, they’ll have one last chance to hold onto everything they’ve built over the last six years or they’ll lose it all forever.

Chapter 12 - Buck and Eddie have always shared a deep physical attraction and an emotional intimacy that’s unmatched but now that they’re in a relationship, they’re learning how to navigate the romantic intimacy they’ve been waiting for six years to explore. The love they have for each other is a once in a lifetime, soulmate, love of their lives type of love that transcends space and time.

Chapter 13 - While navigating the newness of their romantic relationship, Buck and Eddie take advantage of every moment they spend together. As their individual lives, people from their pasts, time constraints and the possibility of losing each other again make attempts to interrupt and interfere with their journey to forever, they love, care for, support and hold onto each other even tighter to withstand it all.

Chapter 14 - Buck and Eddie can see the lights at the end of the tunnels regarding the results of Buck’s Cancer Screening along with everything else they’re dealing with. But are the lights they see exits to the tunnels or are they headlights on different runaway trains that are speeding towards them in an effort to interrupt their forever?

Chapter 15 - Buck and Eddie have known they were exactly who the other one wanted in a partner since they met six years ago when they agreed to have each other’s backs. They’re in a romantic relationship, they’re both preparing to ask the other one to spend forever with them and by the end of the seventh week into their relationship, together they will plan their most important and greatest adventure for their future.

Chapter 16 - Will be posted soon.

__________

Read chapters 1-15 are available on AO3.

Continue reading on AO3

Chapter 16 will be posted soon.

[charmwasjess]

5. What’s a fic idea you’ve had that you will never write?

6. Are there any fics from others you reread all the time?

13. How much planning do you do before writing?

18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic?

AHHHH! SO fun!!! Thank you, Geode! :D

What’s a fic idea you’ve had that you will never write?

Given my WIP addiction, I'll tell you I'll never write it and then accidentally start writing it next week. :D

But probably Sith Master Sifo-Dyas and Sith Apprentice Dooku AU - I love their fucked up dynamic, but let's be real, this would turn into PWP. Oh, that, or a Tales of the Jedi fix-it, where Dooku actually escapes Sidious with Yaddle, and ends up training Anakin.

Are there any fics from others you reread all the time?

Oh, um, yes, all of them!! :D I'm a compulsive rereader. If there's a fic I've left a comment on, I've probably reread it a few times (and will be going back to reread it a couple times more!) The one that jumps to mind especially right now is @purple-ant's Pray My Mind Be Good to Me - I'm helping with beta translation so I've gotten a lot more of it than is currently posted and I'm spending a lot of time thinking about it both as a reader and as someone who has been privileged enough to beta. I don't want to spoil anything, but it… it is asking some really fucked up, gorgeous questions about love, shame, hate, survival, and... and love. I'm really intensely interested in how the story is playing with those themes.

How much planning do you do before writing?

A lot!!! ….which actually, generally involves a lot of writing. I write out big pieces, usually wildly out of order, and then if the plot is coming together, write out a really incoherent outline/list of notes/scraps of dialogue. And when I say incoherent, I mean… this is an example from a fic I'm working on:

What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic?

I keep wanting to share a funny line because I think my favorite stuff is actually my dialogue, when Dooku and Sifo-Dyas get going back and forth like they do, but I really like this line from Five Days to Murder Sifo-Dyas because it's kind of my thesis statement for all my fics. It's hard writing hopeful stories about doomed characters who are set in a particularly doomed era - you know, what's the point of loving prequel era characters if they all constantly lose and fail and suffer?

“Sifo-Dyas.” The half-Sith studied him, emotion billowing like volcanic clouds. “You aren’t a fool. Why did you come here if you knew that might happen? Why did you remain my friend for decades of our lives if you always knew that this was a possibility?” His voice rose almost to a shout. “Why are you still being kind to me?!”

The words rang around the huge, empty room, like a challenge that went unanswered.

“I didn’t believe it would happen back then, and I still don’t.” Sifo-Dyas told him, looking down into his mostly-empty bowl. “And even if I did, why would I throw away decades of true friendship just because of a potentially uncertain ending? If you murder me right now, will that go back and erase the times when we were genuinely happy? Stars, remember the day of our Choosing tournament, when you wouldn’t let me lose, and we fought the most absolutely perfect duel?” He still smiled at the memory, even now, all of these years and chapters of sadness later.

“I remember.”

“Life isn’t any less incredible just because there’s death waiting at the end of it, even a bad death. The beauty doesn’t go away because there’s also pain. Even after a great loss, the love lives on.” Sifo-Dyas hadn’t meant to bring up Qui-Gon, but he could sense they were both thinking of him.

When he spoke, Dooku’s voice sounded slightly rough, as if his throat were still bothering him. “I do not think that normal people would see it that way.”

“You and I could not be further from whatever ‘normal people’ are.”

[queenofbaws]

aw snap, here we go again!

just another quick organizational update from ya gurl: my goals for the immediate future are (1) finish CREEPS: MM&BS, (2) get out a chapter or two of like wringing blood before my brainworms eat their way through my skull, (3) work on finishing the tale(s) of the champion. so if you're someone who's been waiting on any of those projects, i promise...they're comin'. hehehe.

i'm really, truly set on tying up the wips i've left gathering dust this year, so i'm trying my haaaaaaaardest to rein my ever-fleeting attention span in to do just that. i'm tossing a snippet of each of those three above-mentioned projects below the cut for anyone who's interested, and, as always, thanks so much for reading and hangin' out with me, y'all :) you guys are the best, and i hope 2024 is treating you kindly so far <3

of mummy men & bathtub soup

He wasn’t sure why he said it. Brotherly antagonism, maybe, or his pathological need to run his mouth at the worst possible time. Both felt like strong contenders. Whatever it was that spurred him on, the result was the same: As Julia sputtered, trying and failing to remember the story that had pissed her off so intensely in the first place, Conrad opened his mouth and finished the sentence for her.

“…bathtub soup guy?”

BANG!

The basement door slammed shut.

Before any of them had time enough to flinch, to jump, to yell at the sudden noise, the lights went out completely, sending the basement into perfect darkness.

Then there was yelling.

“Is…is everyone okay?” Alex asked a moment later, his voice missing the cool and confident mark by a couple notches.

“I, y…yeah,” Julia answered, and wouldn’t you know it, her fury had gone out like a candle in the wind.

“I’m good,” he said, nodding before realizing, whoops, right, no one could see. It was then, in the nervous stillness of the dark, that he noticed someone had grabbed his hand in theirs, no doubt grasping for him in fear and surprise. He couldn’t say it healed it battered ego, not after he’d been treated like a punching bag all night, but it certainly helped. “What about you, Fliss?”

From somewhere behind him, not beside him, she snorted. “I think I’ll live.”

“I…wait, if you’re there, whose hand am I holding?!”

“Uh, sorry, man. I got scared.” “Brad, for the love of—”

like wringing blood from a stone

“JEEED!”

Jack stopped an arm’s length away from her.

“TRAAAVIS!”

He opened the fridge.

“BOBBYYY!”

After a moment of deep contemplation, he pulled a beer out and shut the door again, using his thumb to pop the cap off. He looked her way once more, but instead of attacking her or grabbing her or plain old saying anything to her, he simply brought the bottle to his mouth and drank.

He watched her as he drained the damn thing, his throat bobbing. Just swallowed, swallowed, swallowed…not stopping until the bottle was empty. Not breathing until he’d finished.

“TRAAAVIS!” Constance yelled a second time, willing him to appear with his gun drawn and lather high.

“Give it another go, why don’t you,” drawled Jack. He set the bottle down in the sink, then braced his hands on the countertop behind him. His eyes kept moving across her face in a way she didn’t appreciate. “Third time’s the charm.”

She drew another breath, but didn’t dignify his taunt by shouting. Instead, she brandished the knife. Dared him with her eyes.

The ghoul just kept leaning back against her counter, though; his fingers left brackish smears wherever they touched. “Go on,” he mocked her, “keep hollering. See who comes running. I’d like to see for myself. Awful curious about it.”

the tale(s) of the champion

Josephine’s attention (and eyebrows) shot up from the desk. Her face had taken on the pallid cast of someone who’d had the bad luck to spot an especially large and hairy spider shriveled at the bottom their morning breakfast bowl much too late for anything to be done about it. Had she been speaking to anyone else, the Inquisitor might’ve thought that was the expression of someone staring their own death in the face, and yet all she’d done was present Josephine with the very probable reality that Hawke had simply bunked in Varric’s room for a single night of her stay.

“…I just figured,” she continued carefully, her words made slow as they crept forward on delicate tip-toes, terrified of tripping another unseen trap, “They were probably catching up after all that time apart, and since they were essentially always sharing space in Kirkwall…” Her voice trailed off and she shrugged.

It was logic, wasn’t it? Nothing more, nothing less? If one of her own friends from her life before (before all of this madness, before the Anchor, before Haven, before being pushed out of the Fade) had shown up on her doorstep out of the blue, she would’ve insisted on keeping them close. It only made sense!

Not to Josephine, it seemed. “But Varric’s quarters are so small,” she said in a voice more suited to, perhaps, finding out the crown Prince of Starkhaven had been assassinated. “Oh I certainly hope you’re wrong about that, Inquisitor, I hope she found other lodgings if she did in fact stay the night…I can’t imagine there’d even be room for two people in his quarters…Andraste, they would’ve been right on top of each other the whole time!”

[girlfromthecrypt]

My first Writeblr tag game!!

Thanks so much for the tag @mthollowell-writes! This is one of my first ever tag-games, so I'm pumped. Also, this made me realize I rly need to do a WIP intro for my main project. It's a dark fantasy/horror with some romance, too. The working title is Fucked Up Fairytale. That aside, let's goooooo

1) What motivates you to write?

Anything and everything! Writing is my coping mechanism, for good times and bad. It helps me keep hold of happy feelings and release negative ones. 

2) A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

I have multiple WIPs, but I'm going to refer to the one I plan on actually turning into a book. The working title is Fucked Up Fairytale. That may undergo revisions. Anyhow, I'll share two lines/snippets, if I may! Mainly because the first one is very short indeed. Here it is:

I braced myself for stupidity, and he didn’t let me down. —This is in the main character's (Margot's) narrative inner voice during a conversation with her little brother. 

And here's the other one, same chapter, same conversation! I feel like I may have gone a little overboard with Margot's world-weariness, but I kinda like it:

“The world I dream of has me making six figures at a job where my boss doesn’t need me to show him my tits,” I said, a chill creeping into my tone. “It has me going home at a reasonable hour so I can watch TV and fall asleep with a bag of spicy chips, preferably next to a spouse who doesn’t mind that they make me gassy.”

Neither of us spoke for a couple beats. Then, softly, my brother asked, "And where's the magic in that?"

"Nowhere, Callie. That's kind of the point."

3) Which OC makes you smile every time you think/talk about them and what are they like?

That would apply to Margot's love interest from Fucked Up Fairytale. He's, um… special. To me, and in general. Seeing as he's one of the Folk, it would be unwise to share his name, especially since not even Margot knows it as of right now. He calls himself the Huntsman, so that'll work for now.

He's this rather delicate-looking youngish man; slender, short and long-haired—he's quite pretty, really. And he's the smuggest, most self-satisfied dork you've ever met, but in a sweet, non-threatening way. I just love his and Margot's more wholesome exchanges. They clash a lot; she's a recent university graduate, has been a skeptic all her life and didn't mean to get roped up into any supernatural stuff, and he's this forest-dwelling fairy-like entity. But they end up being really good for each other, despite (or perhaps because of) their differences. Even though their dynamic starts off based purely on physical attraction, it grows into something more and their interactions really feel cathartic at times.

4) What process of writing do you enjoy the most?

I love what happens shortly after getting the idea for something. It's like a little twitch in the brain that grows and grows and it's just… awesome. And I'm not actually doing anything at that stage, so it's also the easiest step. Also, I just love writing dialogue.

5) What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

I think that's also writing dialogue! Not much else to say there. Oh, and nature descriptions sometimes. I've been told my nature descriptions are beautiful.

6) What is something in the writeblr community is most enjoyable?

How passionate everyone is! We all do the same thing, we write, and we all love doing it. And there's such an undertone of positivity to it all, of openness. That's really nice.

7) A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

Oof. This one's too hard for me. I'm honestly struggling with a lot of writing software so… I don't have a good answer to that. 

8) A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

The majority of Fucked Up Fairytale takes place in a single location. It's a magical forest that is its own entity, almost deity-adjacent. Certain characters worship it to gain its protection and power, but it can also be dangerous, trapping humans and turning them into so something they're… not. 

I just really like that forest! I enjoy describing it, I enjoy creating new creatures it may be harboring, I enjoy lending this seemingly inanimate idyllic environment a personality that kind of shines through in a lot of scenes. I almost wish it were real. Almost.

9) What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

I'm with you.

That's all I, or anyone, can really offer, I believe. I've dealt with month-long dry spells, really horrible ones. I know it's shitty, I know it sucks. My advice, if I had any, would be to force yourself to write anyways. It's the only way to get back into it, and you should never ever give up writing. Writing is worth it.

10) Tag some people whose works you love/have been your biggest supporters

Well, obviously I'm gonna have to mention @prismatic-bell who once wrote a wonderful thirty-part fanfic to one of my stories and is, in fact, amazing. Xe has contributed greatly to a lot of my stories and I will be forever grateful for that. Also @rehnwriter who helped me set up my blog because I'm bad at internet stuff and need constant surveillance.

I'm tagging… uh… anyone who sees this and wants to participate! I'm really eager to get to know more folks from this community.