#I'm finding the historical AUs to feel pretty natural

[doomedlemur]

Thoughts on the character motivations of secret relationships in AU fanfics...

I've been reading a lot of fanfiction, a lot of AU fanfiction, and something I've seen a few times now is Aziraphale wanting to keep his relationship with Crowley secret because it could potentially jeopardize his career if people knew. (Usually he's in the closet, but maybe there's something about Crowley specifically that makes it scandalous (or both).) This invariably leads to angst until Aziraphale decides to come out after all, and then they live out and proud together, happily ever after. Which, great! But—

I've just realized why this trope kind of bothers me: It isn't true to Aziraphale's character.

Because wanting to stay in heaven's good books isn't his primary motivation for keeping his friendship with Crowley a secret. I mean sure, obviously he doesn't want them to know, but his bigger worry has always been for Crowley and his safety. What if his side found out?

Look at him in the Globe scene, looking at Crowley with such fear: "If Hell finds out...they'll destroy you."

That the secrecy is all just to keep his own public persona clean? No, it doesn't fit.

I have my quibbles with Shotgun Wedding, but this is something it got right, that the relationship is a danger to both their careers, and more to Crowley's than Aziraphale's.

Tangentially, another fic I was reading got me thinking about Crowley's role in this setup. Usually there's strife due to Crowley not being okay with being Aziraphale's dirty secret (which tbf is a legit understandable stance, and a great catalyst for Aziraphale's journey to self-acceptance), but in this one, while Aziraphale had the thing thinking that being with Crowley would ruin his career, Crowley's role was subverted. Instead of Crowley stepping away, Aziraphale pushed him away, assuming Crowley wouldn't want to be his secret, that it wouldn't be fair to him. Until eventually, Crowley snaps, calls him an idiot, and that he doesn't care if Aziraphale is in the closet or not! That he's okay with being Aziraphale's secret. (I hesitate to name the fic because this is a spoiler for the climactic revelations in it, but it is on my fanfic master rec list and if you like I'll tell you in DM.)

That blew my mind. It was so opposite to the other characterizations and yet felt so right for Crowley. He never cared that he had to see Aziraphale on the DL, so long as he got to see him, and he wouldn't dream of trying to make Aziraphale compromise his standing for his sake. "I'm not going to tell anybody. Are you?"

Anyway, all this to say that while I understand the plot setup and why it's used, looking past the surface level, it doesn't actually fit for either of these characters.

[tizeline]

After the season one finale and seeing as Leon would be trustworthy enough to go to the lair and spend some time with Donnie, April and Splinter would he learn some ninja skills ?

Like I imagine the Lou jitsu way of fighting might suit him better than Draxum's mystic warrior style and he might pick it up easier and that would help his relationship with Splinter while also improving his self esteem as he finds something he feels good at.

Oh yeah Leo's training under Draxum was very fighting-focused, but with the ninja arts there is so much more to it than the combat. If we wanna get more historically accurate, I'm pretty sure ninja were supposed to mostly resort to fighting as a last resort, most of the time it was better for a ninja to remain hidden. All of this is to say, Leo could learn quite a bit from both Splinter and Donnie.

Let's be honest though, stealth would NOT be Leo's strong-suit. I mean, theoretically he could be good at it, Leo's pretty fast and agile, and I'm sure his portalling abilities could help out a ton, problem is the fact that he's really theatrical and a total show-off so I don't know how well he would do with actually staying hidden. Then again, Splinter is also a fucking theater nerd so if he figured out stealth then maybe Leo isn't a lost cause. (Donnie at least in this AU is great at stealth, he kinda had to be considering he was never gonna beat all three of his brothers in direct combat)

When Leo finally starts connecting to his Hamato ancestry and unlocks his Ninpō, his mystic powers would certainly benefit from that. But I dunno, as useful as Leo's portals are I feel like Donnie and Mikey would benefit a lot more considering how versatile their mystic powers are compared to Leo's more specific abilities.

What I'm trying to get at is that what Leo really needs is to figure out his own fighting style, his own method of doing things. Leo at first would be ecstatic over getting to train with Splinter and Donnie, he knows he never excelled under Draxum's teachings so this is what he must have been missing! Being a ninja would be His Thing, the thing that he's really good at. So Leo goes into the ninja training fully expecting things so go easy this time, and then they just... don't. He's not terrible at it by any means, but the ninja arts don't come as naturally to him as he'd hoped. And he keeps comparing himself to Donnie this time, who's way better at this than Leo is, and suddenly he's back at square one. Leo, never bad but always below average, more importantly, never quite as good as his brothers.

Eventually, Leo would figure out his own unique strengths, his tactical mind, his manipulation skills, his possible leadership cababilities. Who knows, maybe he even learns to stop basing his sense of self-worth on his fighting abilities lol?

[heygerald]

Falling Without A Harness - Chapter 3

AU where Tom Ryder is still an asshole, just not a psychotic asshole. After their moment at the wrap party, Tom shows up at Parker's bookstore. How is it possible someone can be such an asshole when asking for a favor?

read the story here: prev / next

Two weeks later finds the weather outside shifting with the first hint of autumn; cooler temperatures in the morning greet Parker when she walks to work, and the coffee shop next door has started advertising their new fall drinks of pumpkin spice and cinnamon tea. She's seen her brother every day since the wrap party—partly because he always makes a point of taking some down time after finishing a movie to recover from his stunts, and partly because her and Jody have become fast friends—but she hasn't seen Tom since their moment in the bathroom.

She suspects that's for the best. The internet is flooded with paparazzi photos of him flouncing around town with models every other day, and she's still trying to forget how natural it felt to laugh with him.

But despite her brother's newly open schedule, and Jody's constant pestering to go spend a day at the beach, Parker finds her bookstore just as empty as always.

There are a few stragglers here and there throughout the day. Sometimes she gets lucky when a tour bus stops for gas and snacks, allowing an ensemble of tacky dressed tourists to flood her street for twenty minutes. On unlucky days, Mr. Chamberlain will stop in to peruse her historical section; but he doesn't have any sort of schedule or income, and those visits consist entirely of him describing last night's CSI episode to Parker before trying to set her up with his grandson. Once he bought a book from her dollar bin. He attempted to return it three days later.

On days like today, Parker is visited by a sixteen-year-old named Melissa who hangs out every so often while her mom attends overpriced Pilates in the studio down the block.

"...and then Peter was all 'no, sorry Mandy, I'm not interested". Like, hello! My name is Melissa and we've lived in the same neighborhood since we were four," said teenager was droning on from her spot atop the upcycled reading chair in the corner. She never failed to impress Parker with how much she could talk—the stories quite literally never stopped coming—while at the same time she managed to read about four books a week. Parker suspected that Melissa's brain represented something like the Rainbow Road in Mario Kart, when the music got a little too fast and the turns were a little too hard to keep up with. "Now, I have no idea what I'm going to do. There's no one else for me to ask since it's three weeks away."

Parker, only half-listening to the story, hummed from her spot two rows back. She had won several boxes of books at a local auction about a month ago and had done a pretty good job at pretending they didn't exist.

Ignoring the problem only lasted so long, however, and this morning she had ended up spilling coffee all over herself when her sneaker caught the edge of the box. Pride—and knees—damaged, she decided to tackle the issue first thing in the morning.

It was now four in the afternoon, and the books were mocking her.

"Can't you just go alone?" she asked.

"Go alone? Are you crazy! That's, like, really sad, Park," Melissa explained. She couldn't see her, but Parker could feel the judgmental look the teen girl was giving her. "Only losers go alone to dances."

"Baby did it."

"Who?"

"Baby. You know? You don't put Baby in a corner? That one."

A tut. "You should really update your references."

"Jesus. Since when did Dirty Dancing become an outdated reference?" she muttered while inspecting the spine of a mystery novel from the 70s. It had definitely seen better days, and when she shifted it, three pages fell out. Parker tossed it into the TRASH box with a sigh. "Is going to a dance with your friends considered outdated too?"

"That's the same thing as going alone," Melissa groaned.

"How? You're literally not alone."

"Because if I go with my friends, that means that I couldn't get anyone that wasn't a friend to agree to go with me. I don't need the whole school thinking that I'm a total loser."

"I went with my friends and had a blast. And I'm not a loser."

There was no response other than silence, and after a few moments Parker realized that if Melissa had nothing to say about the subject, she likely had nothing nice to say.

She cleared her throat before moving onto the next, and final, box hoping that there would be better books in it. So far, her KEEP pile was looking pathetically small compared to what was about to be binned. With a forced change of conversation, she asked, "hey, you grew up here, right?"

"Sure."

"Did you know the Sawyers?"

"Like, Miss Sawyer? Down on Oakcrest?"

"The fancy old house with the bushes shaped like dogs. I bought a bunch of books at her estate sale, and so far, they all suck. I thought she was supposed to be a big collector or something."

The sound of Melissa humming echoed throughout the empty store, and Parker peeked around the bookshelves to spot the girl lying upside down on the chair; Doc Martens stuck up in the air, long ponytail hanging to the ground as she played on her phone.

Parker rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, totally. But she collected those kid's books. Original copies or whatever. Mom said she paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for some rabbit book."

"...Peter Rabbit?"

"I guess," Melissa shrugged. There was a loud smack of gum popping before her voice rang out, "she did a bunch of donations to local art musuems and galleries and stuff. A phila-something—"

"Philanthropist?"

"—and there was some big deal about her donating everything to some charity. Mom was talking about it. Which, like, good for them or whatever but I don't understand how donating an old book is helping solve world hunger."

Parker let her head drop against the beat-up cardboard box in front of her, something despondent and miserable sitting on her chest at the realization that she had wasted time and money on nothing but crap. "Well, I wish I knew that before I went into a bidding war over this garbage. Are the Hardy Boys still cool or is that dated too?"

A judgmental laugh floated back. "Um, their name is pronounced Hemsworth, Park."

"I meant—" she started, before realizing that this was a battle she was never going to win, and even if she wanted to try the musty smell resonating from these boxes of crap had burned through her daily allowance of braincells. Something Melissa didn't seem to worry about as she puffed from her vape pen. "Forget it."

Not so shockingly, Melissa did not, in fact, forget it. Instead, she spent the next ten minutes describing in scary detail each Hemsworth brother, their looks on a scale of one to ten, their best movies, and why Chris was the dreamiest of them all. His hair and eyes were a big selling point, apparently, and as Parker listened to the teenager drone on, she couldn't help but wonder if Chris Hemsworth used box dye too.

So wrapped up in her own world of book sorting, Parker didn't notice when the front door opened with a tinkle of the bell until the shop went eerily quiet. Melissa, it seemed, had finally found a reason to shut up.

"I never liked Chris all that much," Parker said as she slowly gathered the KEEP bin and hefted it off the floor. Her lower back ached at the strain. Jesus, maybe I am old. Moving towards the front counter, she continued musing, "There's something about him in the first Thor movie, when his eyebrows were all bleached, that kind of turned me off. I think there's a word for that, right? The ew or something...."

She spots Melissa first.

The girl is sitting upright in the chair now, face flushed a deep scarlet red with a book held tightly in her lap as she pretends to read through it. Her phone and vape are nowhere to be seen, and she doesn't so much as glance up when Parker strides by.

"What happened to you?" she asks with an amused quirk of the brow. Melissa doesn't respond, and Parker turns to set the heavy box of books on the front counter when she spots the other person in the room. "Oh, sorry. I was in the back. Can I help—?"

It shouldn't surprise her as much as it does, but Parker blinks to find Tom Ryder standing on the other side of the counter staring at her with raised brows.

Tom fucking Ryder.

He looks better than the last time she ran into him. He has a nice tan going underneath a funky pair of yellow sunglasses that are, in her opinion, too big for his face. They look a little absurd with the whitewashed denim jacket he's wearing, but the yellow matches the bedazzled t-shirt he has on underneath, so she suspects it's some sort of fashion statement. Paired with an expensive pair of well-polished boots, it all looks quite absurd standing in the middle of her dilapidated bookstore.

Even more so when Parker realizes she's wearing nothing but a pair of cheap cargo shorts and an oversized Twilight sweatshirt that was covering the coffee-stained shirt underneath. (Team Jacob, always).

"Tom. Um... are you looking for Colt or something?"

In typical Ryder fashion, he ignores her question entirely to do a slow spin; blue eyes tinted by his glasses trailing over everything in sight. She can feel the judgement from across the counter, and when he finally fixes his sights back on her, his smirk is rage inducing. "This is your store. Seriously?"

Parker promptly plants her hands onto her hips with a scathing glare.

"Ok, what do you want?"

"Jesus, no wonder this place is empty," he drawls, a pointed smile tossed towards Melissa's prone form as he leans an elbow onto the counter. At being noticed, the teenager ducks her head behind the spine of her book as if she had just been caught doing something she wasn't supposed to. "Do you talk to all your customers like that?"

"Just the assholes," she retorts. Over Tom's shoulder she catches Melissa's book dropping down two inches, and the girl's face is completely aghast.

What are you doing! she mouths, that's Tom Ryder!

Parker rolls her eyes. As if she didn't know who the blinged-out asshole standing in her store was. Speaking of—he's still standing there smirking at her. "That's you, if I wasn't clear. Don't let the door hit you on the way out."

Tom snorts. "I think I got that after the fifth time you said it."

"And yet..." she gestures vaguely to him, then to her store.

Because he's never behaved like a normal person, however, Tom doesn't seem to mind the insult or the offhand comment that she didn't want to deal with him. Instead, he smiles while his gaze drifts from judging the bookstore to judging Parker. He gives her a glance over—up, down, lingering on her oversized sweatshirt, before going back up—and finishes with a snort. "If the door hits me, I'm suing for damages, and I doubt you could afford the lawsuit. Let alone a lawyer."

God! What. a. fucking. asshole!

Parker bites back the insult knowing that it won't do any good. They've played this game before, and clearly being called an asshole seemed to have lost some of its bite over the weeks. So instead, she forcefully returns her attention to the cardboard box and slowly starts sorting the books into categories. "Fine. Can you just tell me what you want so I can get back to my life?"

He shifts against the counter and over the mustiness she catches a waft of his cologne when he grabs a book at random from her pile. "Why else do people come to a bookstore? I want a book."

Parker snorts. "Yeah, sure. Whatever. Seriously, what do you want?"

There's a moment of silence. She glances up to find him pointedly ignoring her as he flips through the book at random.

"You're... serious?"

He shrugs. "You said you have a bunch of sci-fi books."

"I'm surprised you even remember that given the whole," she sticks a finger into her mouth and mimes throwing up. He doesn't find it funny or cute and responds with a disgusted glare. Parker rolls her eyes with a shake of the head. "It was a—never mind. Why not order off of Amazon? I thought you said you've never even been to a bookstore before?"

This time, it's his turn to roll his eyes. He drops the book with a thwack before turning his attention to the overstuffed bookshelves at her left. At random, he starts ambling towards one. "You should be flattered that I picked your little store to start. Most people would kill to say that you know. Tom Ryder explores rundown bookstore in the shitty side of LA. If you had a picture, the paps would run it in every paper by tomorrow morning," he huffs.

"Yeah, I'll be sure to document this monumental occasion forever," she snarks, but follows after him anyway. His pattern is half-hearted; poking books here and there, glancing for hardly a second, before moving on. "And my store isn't rundown. It just has some... character."

He snorts over his shoulder. "That's what a Mom says when her daughter is ugly."

"Don't you go through PR training or something?" she scoffs as he diverts to a different aisle. "I can't imagine Gail would like to hear that particular opinion if I sold it to TMZ."

"Gail would sue you for everything you own," he laughed while flipping through an old copy of Gone with the Wind. Parker crosses her arms at him with a glare, and in response Tom flashes a too-white smile at her. "She freaked out about the mink rug, by the way. Was screaming and everything. It was hilarious."

Parker's heart stopped in her chest, but when there was no continuation of the joke—haha I can't wait to see you served with papers!—she furrowed her brows at him. "You didn't tell her it was my fault?"

A shrug as he shoved the book against her chest.

She huffed, turning the book over to check for damages, but when he turned his back... well, a part of her did wonder why he would keep that a secret if it was such a big deal. Was it to be nice? Or so he could hold it over her head indefinitely? Then again, if this was his attempt at blackmail, letting it go for two weeks seemed like the wrong way to go about it.

Deciding not to linger on unsolvable riddles, Parker returned the book to the end cap he had found it on and asked, "so, does this mean you've decided to audition for that sci-fi part after all?"

Her question went unanswered as Tom paused in front of the SEX & SEXUALITY section. He pulled a wrinkled copy of Fifty Shades of Grey off the shelf and waggled his brows at her pointedly. "Keeping the good stuff for yourself, huh?"

Parker responded by snagging the book out of his hand and stuffing it back into place. "You break it, you buy it applies here too, Ryder."

"Half this place is broken," he said with a pointed glance at the flickering overhead light. "I still can't believe you own this shithole."

"I happen to love this bookstore—"

"Oh, trust me, I can believe that you would own a bookstore," he said, and while there was nothing insulting about owning a bookstore on its own, the way that Tom spoke made it clear that owning a bookstore was not something he held in high regard. Then again, he spent all his time reading shitty scripts, so what would he know? "I just can't believe that you would own this bookstore. Like, you actually paid money for this place?"

"If you have to know, I used to be friends with the owner, and got a good deal on the property," she started to explain. He raised his brows at her while slowly perusing the RELIGION section, and Parker shook herself. She didn't need to explain anything to him of all people. The reminder helped her find some confidence, and she fluttered her hands at him irritably. "You know what—I don't need to explain myself to you. You've never even been to a bookstore before. What would you know about making sacrifices for something you believed in?"

Tom paused in his search. She saw his jaw clench, and eyes droop towards the creaky wooden floor beneath his shiny boots, and his comment from the other day drifted back to mind.

"You can be a real asshole sometimes, too, he had said.

And while guilt did block her throat up a bit—fucking asshole couldn't even let her defend herself without feeling bad about it—this time he didn't make any such reprimands. Instead, he just shrugged, before diving deeper into the store.

He cleared his throat. "I just expected it be nicer coming from you."

"Does something about me secretly scream rich girl to you?"

Tom harrumphed. "Trust me, no one is mistaking you for rich. Uptight, however..."

"Oh, ha, hilarious, Tom. God! You're such an asshole," she laughed, but it was a mean sound, paired with a mean insult. It failed to have the desired effect, however. In fact, Tom seemed to have shifted from hating the insult to owning it and looked far too amused for her liking. Frustrated, Parker decided the best plan of extermination was a straightforward shot. Through gritted teeth, she asked, "...what kind of sci-fi book do you want?"

The rhinestones on his shoulders sparkled as he shrugged. "I don't know. I need to understand what gets nerds so fucking excited about this shit. Not too nerdy, though. Alright? I'm not trying to be a Trekkie or whatever."

There were so many things wrong with that statement that Parker wasn't sure what to pick first. So, she pinched the bridge of her nose to point out, "I have a feeling the so-called nerds making up your potential fanbase aren't going to appreciate being talked about like that."

"Who's gonna tell them—you?" he asked with a derisive glance over.

It was definitely true what they said about Tom Ryder; his effect on women was instantaneous. Parker just doubted the tabloids were talking about migraines.

"The sci-fi section is on the right," she sighed while pushing past him. It was one of the larger sections she had; it hadn't been a lie to say the books weren't selling all that well despite being her favorite. "What have you read before?"

The blank look he gave her was response enough.

"Ah, right, maybe... Altered Carbon?"

"Isn't that a tv show?"

"Well, yeah, but it was a book first."

He glanced at the book in her hand, but clearly wasn't impressed. Leaning on the shelf, he said, "why the hell would I read that if I could just watch it?"

"Sound logic," she tutted with a narrow eyed look. Parker returned the book with an eyeroll. "Fahrenheit 451?"

"Read it in high school. Not impressed."

She trailed the shelf while muttering, listing books in her head before subconsciously crossing them off the list of something he was likely to read and enjoy. "I guess that means you wouldn't like The Illustrated Man or The Martian Chronicles," she said to herself.

His arm brushed her aside to pluck out a familiar novel. "Nerds love this," he said while already flipping through the pages. She was surprised the size didn't scare him off immediately.

"Nu-uh. No way," she shook her head.

"What?"

"Dune is not a starter book."

He furrowed his brows crossly. "You don't think I'm smart enough to read this shit or something?"

You shouldn't ask questions you don't want the answers to, her mother's voice echoed in the back of her head.

"Reading Dune as your first sci-fi book is like jumping straight into the deep end," she told him in a much more diplomatic approach. "If a sixteen year old wants to start drinking, you don't give him scotch, you give him a fruity cocktail."

Tom huffed; first through his nose and then through his mouth but stuffed the book back onto the shelf anyway. To which Parker then had to put it back on the correct shelf with a huff of her own.

"Don't be a baby and just trust me that Dune isn't a starter book. Okay?"

"Well—what is? You're supposed to be the expert here."

"If you weren't so picky it would be a lot easier..." she deadpanned but returned to her search anyway. Tom didn't seem to like waiting, and scowled at her as she shifted past him. She ignored him as best she could while squatting down to the lower shelves. "Arthur C. Clarke is one of the best sci-fi writers. He established a lot of rules that still exist in writing today. And films."

Parker pulled one of his novels, before moving towards Asimov, and then finally to Sagan. They were all slimmer novels than Dune, but no less complicated.

"Contact is my favorite," she said, shoving the books into Tom's arms. His denim was rough on her hands, and she tried not to think about how feverishly warm his skin had been the last time she had been this close to him. Swallowing, Parker remained on task. "But any of these should be good starter books for you to get into sci-fi with."

He glanced at the choices warily. "My audition is next week."

"Then I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to finish these if you're really serious about wanting to get that role," she chirped.

Together, they wound back towards the front counter. The TRASH boxes sat in the middle of the aisle, and she carefully toed them to the side before trailing past. While she was pretty sure he had been joking about suing her, a workplace hazard was the last thing she needed.

"How do you remember all of this?"

"Where stuff is? I spend almost all of my time arranging books. I'm uptight, remember?"

She felt more than saw his eyeroll. "These books, the authors. You, like, know everything about them."

Parker paused. It definitely wasn't a compliment, but it definitely felt like it could have been. Then again, this was Tom Ryder. When she glanced up from the counter, she found that he already has his nose back in his phone, and the conundrum of compliment versus not was thrown out the window. Parker shot him an unimpressed look to say, "please tell me that you're not on SparkNotes right now."

It was his turn to pause. "I'm just... reading the descriptions."

"Maybe that's why you can't understand why nerds like these books," she argued, hands planted firmly on her hips now. "Why would I go to watch one of your movies if I already looked the plot up on Wikipedia?"

He ignored her point entirely to smirk. "So, you do see my movies?"

"Goodbye, Tom."

"Relax. I'm not going to spoil them, alright? What's the fun in that when I could read them instead, and then leave you a bad review when the books end up being awful?"

"You mean have your assistants leave me a bad review."

He didn't seem impressed at the jab but didn't defend himself either. Most likely because they both knew she was right. Parker shot him a smug smile that he promptly rolled his eyes at. "Hilarious. Just tell me how much the books cost so I can leave before stepping on a rusty nail or something."

"Didn't you see the sign out front? Can't come in without a tetanus shot due to liability reasons."

There was a noise that sounded suspiciously like a laugh, but when she glanced up at him, Tom was wiping a hand down his face. "How much for the books, smartass?"

Parker was pretty sure she could upsell him. There was no way that he knew those three books, decades old with ripped pages, were only worth fifteen bucks together. And with all the Gucci name brand bullshit that he wore, she was pretty sure she could get away with telling him the price was a hundred dollars and he wouldn't even blink an eye.

But he was also a customer, a somewhat work acquaintance, and someone she really didn't want to hang around any longer than necessary. Not to mention her brother's pseudo boss, and someone that knew she was guilty of wrecking a far more expensive rug than she could ever pay to fix.

"Just consider them a loan," she said before she could second guess herself. When Tom raised his eyebrows so high they disappeared into his hairline, she waved a hand at him while half-heartedly returning to her job of book sorting. "If you're that put-off by it you can always pay me an agent's fee if you get the part."

He stared at her for a long moment, not necessarily computing, definitely hearing static, before Tom spared her an over-the-top eyeroll that surely had to have hurt to perform.

From his pocket he pulled out a couple of crumpled bills and slapped them onto the counter. He didn't even look at how much money it was. Just shook his head at her, glasses bobbing on his nose, before he was on his way out the door.

"Hey! Don't you want your change—?"

The door shut with a ting.

On the counter sat seventy-three dollars. Parker wasn't sure if she should be offended or complimented.

From outside there was the sound of an obnoxiously loud car engine revving, alongside the thrum of music, before it tore off down the street.

"What a fucking asshole," she grumbled with the shake of her head.

But it wasn't exactly an asshole thing to do, when she thought about it. And she would know; every exchange they had since being introduced had Tom acting like an asshole to her.

Or, well, not every exchange. Not when he had been, almost, nice to her at Gail's party, if only for a few moments when no one else was around.

"OH. MY. GOD!" a shrill voice shrieked across the store, bouncing off of bookshelves, as two boots went crashing towards the window. Parker was reminded in no gentle terms that they had not, in fact, been alone when Melissa smudged her face against the glass to peer out onto the street. "Holy shit! That was Tom Ryder! Tom Ryder! Are you kidding me right now? TOM. RYDER."

"Yeah, Jesus, I know who that was," she winced, pinching her ear when she thought the girl's high pitch yelp may have burst an eardrum. There was definitely a ringing as Melissa tromped around.

"You—he—I can't believe after all of this time you never once mentioned that you're friends with Tom freaking Ryder!" she squeaked.

"Well, hang on, we're not—"

"How long have you known him? How do you know him? Do you have his phone number? Ohmygod everyone is going to flip when I tell them that you know him. Tom Ryder!" Melissa shouted, phone already in hand as she started typing. "My friend, my dear friend and favorite bookstore owner, is best friends with Tom Ryder! Did you see his latest movie, Good Cop, Bad Dog? Ugh! He's so hot!"

"We're not friends," she said immediately, not even bothering to dispute the fact that Good Cop, Bad Dog was a puff piece in an attempt to market him for younger fans. "He's actually kind of an asshole."

The teenager shot Parker a scandalized look, mouth popped open into an O as her brows lifted to her hairline. "What? Are you kidding me right now? He just drove all the way out here to ask for your recommendation for a sci-fi book! His house is, like, fifty minutes from here with traffic. Don't call him that when you just became so cool."

Parker frowned. "How do you know where he lives?" she asked, before adding with much more intensity, "hang on a second, am I not cool?"

But Melissa was already moving on, the sound of facetime dialing on her phone as she darted back outside in hopes of catching another glimpse of the celebrity. Parker, in response, caught her head between her hands with a low groan.

And yet, she couldn't help but think about what Melissa said.

Tom Ryder was a total, grade-A asshole... right?

She cast a despondant glance towards the crumpled bills on the counter, then the box of books at her side, before fishing her phone out of her back pocket, and pressing the second number on speed dial.

"Hey," she said, "do you want to get, like, really drunk tonight?"

Colt didn't bother to ask why before he was checking what ingredients he had in his fridge and offering to invite Jody and Dan over for dinner. Sometimes, she really loved her brother.

[captain-mj]

I’m asking. Here it is. Ghoap outlander au. I have nothing to offer but my left kidney

Keep your kidney. Ive been shaking and waiting for someone to send me this ask. Real quick though, besides the basics of “modern person gets sent into 1700s Scotland” This won’t follow the show that much. Also, we are IGNORING homophobia. Realistically they were Catholic at the time but i do not care. Chances are there's going to be quite a few historical accuracies (plus I'm planning on making multiple parts because I fucking adore this idea) so just like... little heads up about that

Also, I'm doing this based off og SoapGhost, obviously it doesn't matter much, but I wanted you guys to know :)

Ghost had never believed in... well anything mystical really. He thought it was nonsense. For some people, it was helpful, but it meant nothing to him. Gunpowder held more meaning than a cross. He was a medic in the army for fuck’s sake.

So when he walked into an area he was told was sacred and asked to be careful, he treated it the same way he treated everything else of this nature. That was not to say he was in any way disrespectful, but he didn't treasure it the way his colleagues did. He was a soldier first, person second. The dark stones reached up to the sky, unnerving in their monolith, but they didn’t strike the fear of God into him.

And then, he felt a knife go through him. It aimed for one of his organs. He didn't remember hitting the ground, just knew that he was on it suddenly. Blood filled his mouth and he couldn't breath. Silently, he prepared himself for the next blow. Accepting death was maybe a bit too easy for him.

But he didn't die. He just laid there in a puddle of his own blood. Weird. It hurt a lot more than a regular stab wound but he was alive.

Ghost tried to get up to call for the others but someone's boot landed on his back, pushing him into the ground. The person started to speak, though he didn't understand the language.

"Get off of me." He tried to stand up and then a blade was against his neck. A sword. The person had a fucking sword. Ghost managed to glance up.

The person must be some kind of weirdo fucking larper. They had a mohawk with braids in it and blue swirling tattoos all over their shoulders and chest. As for their clothing... it was traditional. Kilt, furs over their upper half. He was hot but that was besides the point.

The person looked irritated, barking at him in his language again.

Ghost thought it through. "I can't understand you. I'm English?" He hoped the word “English” would mean something to him.

The man made a very upset face when he said English and that wasn’t what Ghost had in mind when he said something. He hissed at him and dug his heel in. Ghost groaned and gritted his teeth, glaring.

Someone spoke from elsewhere and he paused.

The man stepped off of Ghost and made a motion to get up, sword still pointed at him. Ghost got up and went for his gun, only to find the holsters empty. All of them. Even his assault rifle, which he was pretty sure only landed a few inches from his hand, was gone.

What the hell.

He looked up at him cautiously.

The man looked down at him and slowly used the blade to force him to tilt his head back.

His mask. Ghost's eyes widened as he thought about it. The stranger knelt down and went to remove it and Ghost tried to shove him off. Quickly they were surrounded by more men and something blunt hit the back of Ghost's head.

It was hours later when he woke up. He groaned softly and sat up, feeling thin restraints tug at his wrists. They were just thin leather straps, clearly more of a message than to keep him down.

Ghost looked around the room. It wasn't that well furnished, but it was rather cozy. The few pieces of furnishings he could see had clearly been hand carved. That did not mean they weren't well made, just it was clear they weren't machine manufactured.

He slipped from the binds anyway, touching himself to check for injuries. The knife wound had been well stitched and bandaged perfectly. Funnily enough, it looked like the supplies came from his own bag which was next to him on the floor. His shirt had been taken but the blanket had been pulled to his collar, so he had some privacy.

His mask. Fuck. He quickly touched his face, but luckily, his fingers met the soft fabric. They hadn't taken his mask.

Ghost started to get up but someone came in. The same mohawked person from before. They stared at each other before the man set the plate on the dresser.

They were roughly the same height, but Ghost was sure he could fight him off if needed. However, he was injured and the man brought food.

"English?" He said slowly, like he was feeling out the word. Ghost had a feeling it wasn't his native language. His thick scottish accent grated on the words.

"Yes... Speak it?" Ghost held his wound.

"Vaguely. Soap."

Ghost blinked, a little taken back. "Soap?"

Soap pointed at himself and nodded before pointing at Ghost.

"Ghost." He didn't want to tell him his real name. "What do you speak?"

"Gaelic."

"Don't speak that..." Ghost backed up and tried to joke.

Soap smiled and held out the food. It looked simple. Meat, potatoes, almost laughably what you'd expect from a Scottish person. "Eat."

Ghost reached out slowly and took it from him. The plate felt funny under his hands. He held it to himself, but Soap wasn't leaving.

Ghost decided to try to get some information. "Where am I?"

"Highlands."

"Here with a lot of people?" Maybe if there weren't too many, he could fight his way out. Or maybe just escape silently.

"Dozens. Better you stay here." Soap reached out and Ghost backed up, pressing against the wall. He pulled his hand back though it still lingered in the air.

Ghost slowly pulled his mask up and started to eat. He was starving. It tasted pretty good. His sunglasses were gone and the candle lighting of the room made Soap look otherworldly. A angel. He quickly glanced away again.

“You’re injured. Shouldn’t be out of bed.” Soap chided him, his head tilting slightly. He waited though until Ghost was done eating, hand reaching out for the plate. Once it was set to the side, Soap grabbed him, wrestling him back down.

Ghost fought back, trying to get away from him, but Soap had the advantage of not being fucking stabbed. He ended up straddling him to the bed as he retied him, this time much more securely.

Ghost tensed, feeling Soap’s weight on him. Panic filled his mind until it overflowed and he was kicking and thrashing. He didn’t make a sound, but he didn’t really need to.

Soap grabbed his face. “Breath.” It was a command and Ghost found himself following it. “Good.” He took a deep breath for Ghost to mirror and soon, his head was slightly clearer.

“Don’t touch me.” Ghost managed to spit out.

Soap nodded and got off of him. “Stay down, yes?”

Ghost glared and Soap put his hand firmly in his chest. “Won’t have to touch you if you stay down. Now. Stay. Down.”

Slowly, Ghost nodded.

“Good boy.” Soap grinned and Ghost felt heat rush to his face. He patted him gently and left Ghost alone again.

Ghost started to plan how he would escape.

[koulakoukoula2003]

controversial opinions: erwin would prefer modern/contemporary art museums because he'd find the art more interesting to analyze and read about, erwin is a bit of a bastard man, erwin actually has a good sense of humor (bit cheeky even, in a casual and subdued way) + he does appreciate good banter with people he trusts, although he values traditions and customs erwin isn't as traditionalistic as people think, erwin isn't necessarily scholarly by nature, "erwin never cries or gets emotional" ???

Finally someone's not asking for smut LMAO

Erwin would prefer modern/contemporary art museums:

At first, I was like nah I don't think so but when I actually considered it, I think you're right??? This man likes puzzles and he likes putting his brilliant brain to use to let everyone around him know that he's smart af so maybe, just maybe, he does prefer modern art but he's also appreciating the older, classic, renaissance whatever it's called, art.

Erwin is a bit of a bastard:

That he is LMAO especially canon!Erwin. If you think canon!Erwin will ever love you, you are a total idiot LMAOOO this man will only use you if you have something to offer and he WILL be feeling bad about it but he still won't stop cuz you're actually pretty helpful with something (fighting titans or being very brilliant strategically or whatever). This man doesn't know how to do this weird thing called feelings.

I know y'all are deprived of the perfect man and you imagine that Erwin IS the perfect man y'all need, but let's be honest with ourselves, he's anything but perfect. He's a manipulative son of a bitch who's going to use up everything you have to offer and you won't even be mad about it.

Erwin has a good, cheeky sense of humour:

On that, I will disagree, Erwin has a terrible sense of humour when all he's making is dad jokes that only he laughs at AHAHAHA ERWIN HAS BOOMER humour ok? this man has no idea how to have fun, all he's focused on is his work and his duties and whatever boring thing you can think about. He doesn't make jokes, but when he does, only he and Miche laugh istg but he DOES appreciate good banter with people he trusts I AGREE on that.

A joke that Erwin would say: "I have a joke about vegetables... but it's corny."

queue crickets chirping in the background

Athough he values traditions and customs, Erwin isn't as traditionalistic as people think:

It's me, I'm people AHAHAH I do think that Erwin is a traditional man and LET'S BE REAL and consider that all canon events take place in a WWII kind of era, so if we really want to be canon, consider that he's a military commander in the 1940s-1950s. What we call now traditional was modern for them back then lmaooo and because I have a smalllll fixation with those decades (cuz I've been writing an original book with an erwinlike character that takes place in the 50s) a military man in WWII who used to fight nazis for breakfast would be a man that we would totally call traditional today.

Traditional meaning that he'll be the one to provide for you, he'll work day and night, he'll be bringing you flowers and chocolate boxes whenever you're having an anniversary. He's a soft dom (or rough if you ask him to lmao) BASICALLY he's 100% a dom, TO SUM IT UP he is everything your grandpa/great-grandpa was in his prime I guess.

BUT if we're talking about modern AU erwin, then yes, I will agree. Modern!AU Erwin is not as traditionalistic as most would think he is. Such traits and mindsets are vastly dependent on where and when someone was born ofc.

Erwin isn't necessarily scholarly by nature:

If his father wasn't killed by the government when he was just a child, he wouldn't have thrown himself in books and conspiracy theories and historical books. IF Erwin's dad never died and he had grown up normally, he probably wouldn't have joined the army at all???? Im not sure, just saying that his father's death had a huge impact on his life and his decisions.

But I DO think that he's a bookworm??? In every scene we have of him in snk he's in his office surrounded by hundreds of books LMAO if that ain't a nerd right there, idek what is. I BET in modern AU he'd be wearing glasses too.

LET'S BE HONEST a man who reads and studies and is literally buried in books IS HOT. I DON'T WANT MY MAN DUMB and Erwin certainly isn't

Erwin never cries or gets emotional:

NOT in front of others. And even when he does breakdown, it's very, very, VERY rare. He does have the 'im a big strong man and big strong men are not allowed to cry' ego. He IS harsh on himself but most of the time he's trying to ignore all the burdens and guilt and regret that befalls him that eventually pile up and he's breaking down and crying, but EVEN THAT is silent and quiet.

I imagine him TOTALLY ALONE with his back against one of his many bookcases, seated on the floor, messy hair, wrinkly shirt, unshaved face, a total mess, crying silently cuz every time he closes his eyes all he sees are friends that he's the one who's sent them to their deaths.

Listen, canon!Erwin suffers probably more than most characters in snk (actually no everybody suffers in snk but you know what I mean ok?) he does act like the big strong commander with a resolve of steel BUT HE IS HUMAN and he DOES breakdown however silent it is.

There's lots of shit that comes with the position he has. No one could have ever dealt with all of this better than him, but he still breaks in the late hours of the night when no one is there to visit him and see him in a state that he doesn't want anyone to see him in.

And that's why hoes like me write fanfiction uwu

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (10-16 Nov 2024)

ngl fam this again was my brain this past week

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles (Mossa & Pleiti #2) (Malka Ann Older, author; Lindsey Dorcus, narrator) - another lovely mystery novella with Mossa & Pleiti - I admit I sometimes find Pleiti frustrating because I'm very much a 'if I want to know what's going on with someone I ask them kind of person' so I have little patience for her dithering BUT it's only occasional, it's always mild and I love everything else SO MUCH, especially the world.

🥰 The Wonder of Stevie (Wesley Morris, author; various narrators) - an in-depth look at Stevie Wonder's 'classic period' when he was transitioning from kid entertainer to adult thru deep dives into each of the 5 albums he produced from 1972-1977; technically a podcast but the audible version packaged like a book has an extra interview with Barack Obama & Stevie Wonder

🥰 Untitled Truck Stop AU (JessRoseDraws) - reread for Stucky Book Club - really love this (almost)historical fic of truck stop sex worker Bucky & hermit mountain man Steve

😊 Possession (Leather & Chrome #4) (Kiki Clark) - look, the heart wants what the heart wants, and sometimes the heart just wants a MC daddy dom taking care of two twinks

💖💖 +319K of shorter fic so shout out to these 💖💖

Where the Heart Is (Chancy_Lurking) - MCU: stucky, 12K - no powers, roommates-to-lovers/fake relationship

The Long Walk Home (Arbeds Ghost (GhostDeb)) - Stranger Things: steddie, 12K - college AU, steve has insomnia, eddie's the late-night DJ

A Really Private Person (astolat) - Person of Interest: finch/reese, 18K - an asteroid is going to annihilate earth but harold & the machine can save the day

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Abbott Elementary - s2, e9-11

Make Some Noise - s3, e11

Monster of the Month w/ Colin Dickey: The Albatwitch

Jet Lag: The Game - Hide + Seek

Jet Lag: The Game - Arctic Escape

Seas The Day: Life Lessons From Cephalopods With Dr. Sarah McAnulty - Session 5: Teuthological Teamwork: Cephalopod symbiosis

Handsome - Pretty Little Episode #13

Handsome - Nelly Furtado asks about celebrity crushes

What We Do In The Shadows - s6, e6

Brilliant Minds - s1, e7

Elementary - s3, e1-17

Doctor Odyssey - s1, e7

D20: Misfits & Magic 2 - "The Man We've Been Waiting For" (s23, e8)

D20: Adventuring Party - "Fighting For Bottom, Baby" (s18, e8)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Sul Ross Desk

Short Wave - These Drones Could Help Keep Your Lights On

⭐ Vibe Check - Democracy TBD

It's Been a Minute - Mormon Moms: Unpacking a national obsession

Switched on Pop - Still Freaky After All These Years: Gaga, Tyler, The Cure

Signal Cleveland: On Air - Moon hiking around Mentor's Nature Preserve

⭐ Lost Notes: Groupies - From the Slutmobile to the Starship

Ologies - Ergopathology (BURNOUT) with Kandi Wiens

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Malaria Bat Roosts

⭐ The Allusionist - 203. Flyting

⭐ Shedunnit - The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Green Penguin Book Club 6)

Song Exploder - Le Tigre "Deceptacon"

Short Wave - The Mystery Mollusk Roaming The Midnight Zone

⭐ Pop Culture Happy Hour - Red One And What's Making Us Happy

Dear Prudence - I Can’t Afford To Support My Girlfriend Anymore. Help!

Dear Prudence - Prudie Plus: My Life Feels Stuck.

It's Been a Minute - Why pop stars aren't having kids (and why you might not either)

The Curious History of Your Home - Gardening

⭐ Today, Explained - When docs cry

99% Invisible - The Memory Palace…Book!

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Nate DiMeo’s Personal Memory Palace

⭐ 99% Invisible - The Power Broker #11: Brennan Lee Mulligan

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Presenting Dio

"Rainbow In The Dark" [Dio] Radio

Queensrÿche

Lady Gaga

LCD Soundsystem

Prefab Sprout

Classical for Autumn

[heathtrash]

tww fans, help me recover from top surgery!!

okay i am freaking oUT bc surgery is in a few hours but i thought of a cute way you might want to support me - by reading/commenting on my fics? comments are my favourite thing to get so i will LOVE reading them while i'm in that very common post-op depression time

hicsqueak

A Clock With No Hands - it's epic, it's angsty, it's action-packed, it's domestic?? pippa pentangle is a horse girl?? if you love confinement slowburn angst this is the one for you. you can read up to the end of chapter 10 if you don't like unfinished things because it has a nice natural pause there. my first ever fanfiction i ever started. i don't know what else to say about it. it's my child i'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places - pippa is engaged! TO A MAN. hecate is furious about being invited? it's the daily update fic that i devoted my full life to for the month of october! i'm told it was exciting to read as it was updating but still remains a very "i'll just read one more chapter" fic. it really does go places

Theft of a Heart (I know this much is true) - go back to the 80s for this dive into teen hisqueak! it's kind of a prequel to a clock with no hands. if you want to see how morgana orchestrates pippa and hecate becoming friends, then this is the fic for you

Blow, Northerne Wynd - rapunzel au!!! hecate's confinement re-imagined as the rapunzel story. pippa is a gallant knight who visits her. technically this doesn't have an ending but i left it in a pretty good place!!!

there’s something about kittens - tiny little one-shot about pippa and hecate taking care of the kittens that the cackle's students will receive

To ready one's heart (hicsqueak Valentine's Day drabble sequence) - i mean, who doesn't love fake dating at a charity auction?

Going Once, Going Twice - (summary-style) non-magical au where hecate is an archaeologist bidding on an important item for her research. a rival from her past, pippa, bids against her. they have to meet up to resolve matters and. well, it's a christmas romcom.

Other ways of keeping warm - hicsqueak at a christmas market. SUCH fluff.

Taking the Initiative - after a workshop from pippa, hecate gets really into dungeon mastering a D&D game for a small group of students. this was never finished but maybe it doesn't have to be?

Raspberry and White Chocolate - very short university au where hecate is a lecturer and pippa is a PhD student. one of the first fics i ever wrote!

hackle

A Witch in Paris (Yours, Hecate) - hecate is staying in paris for research, and her only means of communication with the headmistress she pines after is by letter. if you've never read hackle before, this is a soft introduction! it's actually a remix fic so i can't take all the credit (originally was a series of letters by @emiline-northeto)

A Rather Distinguished Guest - edwardian au where hecate is on her way to a guest-house where she is the housekeeper, and finds herself sharing a carriage with a very interesting stranger. it's historical cottagecore!

A minute before midnight - hackle love confession at midnight on new year's! it's soft

Hush Little Kitty - only very tiny amount of hackle, but the fic is mainly about hecate looking for morgana. if you love cats and soft hecate then here!!

Only Happy When It Rains - super random magical grunge band au, no idea what i was thinking

mumbroom

A Nanny’s Intuition - hecate goes BACK IN TIME to pose as a nanny and protect baby mildred hubble in julie's flat from a magical attack. obviously she'll have no problems at all keep her feelings in check. what could go wrong???

Merry Christmas, Darling (mumbroom ficlets) - THREE one-shot fics showing how julie and hecate get closer over the years at Christmas, from beginning to date, to engagement and marriage

The Best Cure is Company - hecate is sick, julie helps her recover. established relationship that just gets cuter

misc/collections

A Taste of Honey - one of my most beloved fics??? HONEYBROOM. jennifer honey (yes, matilda miss honey) comes to teach at cackle's as a supply teacher. hecate is about to be in for a Lot. this goes deeper than expected

Fly Me To The Moon (Fill My Heart With Song) - starabella! a year after the betrayal, dimity checks up on arabella by taking a date to her jazz gig. starabella never gets enough love

Something Strong About Her - starbroom, where hecate treats dimity to a lovely day out

The Star of My Sky - starbroom, where hecate has a proposal for dimity and her collapsible broomstick. hecate teases dimity relentlessly. if you're wanting a laugh, THIS.

a dance to remember - pippa/hecate/julie, lots of soft care for hecate at ostara. chill lil cottage one-shot

The Cat Omnibus (multiship Valentine's Day drabble collection) - maybe you really like cats. there's a cat in EVERY drabble. some beloved rarepairs

only three sentences to confess my love (Tumblr Ask Box fics) - askbox three-sentence fics. they're gay

A Selection of Chocolates (April 2020 drabble collection) - so i bought a discounted 65p easter egg, and wrote a multiship collection. i've no idea

The Witching Hour: A Celebration of Hallowe'en (TWW October Drabble Challenge 2019) - random hallowe'en/autumn drabbles

Only This Moment (march 2020 drabble collection) - another multiship drabble collection, for my sins

other fandoms

home is where you kiss me - imodna try to make a home together and perhaps there is a little cONFESSION? some mild threat

creepy creeps with eerie eyes - imodna decorate zhudanna's house for hallowe'en. it's silly and cute and i wrote most of it right after the first episode of campaign 3 aired because i was immediately obsessed with imogen and laudna, like a gay

The Importance of Being Subtle - vex and keyleth go on an adventure and there's a sneaky little love confession. if the tag "sapphics on a broomstick" doesn't draw you in, i don't know what will

As Long As You're Here - downton abbey, mary/baxter sickfic. mary is sick and baxter has been left behind in quarantine with her

Just a touch more - downton abbey, mary/baxter. baxter is dressing mary in preparation for a hunt. it takes a turn for the gay

To the Hilt - flemson in an olympics au. joanne davidson and kate fleming fence. it's very uhhh gay word. even if you don't know the ship, you might enjoy the ladies with swords.

Two First Kisses - flemson university au? kate thinks she's straight and goes to the LGBTsoc meet. there's no way she'll fall for jo, right???? it's also 2006 because i'm nostalgic for my own university days. tbh this might as well be original fiction, the ship is barely relevant

Holding Back the Years - doubt, sister aloysius/sister james. is sister aloysius ready for the cOnFeSsIoN sister james is about to give her? lesbian nuns idk

to seduce a stranger (maryisa valentine's day drabble sequence) - maryisa from his dark materials! marisa coulter has to lead mary malone on, but how far will it take her?

anyway thank you so much if you decide to read or re-read anything! i might have some LAMPBROOM (constance hardbroom/lynne lamplighter) in the works but i’ve been so brain empty these past few days. if i have a braincell in recovery i’ll try to edit and post the chapters i have. obviously if that’s not your ship i’ve written plenty of other fics 🫡

[dharmasharks]

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

😘😘😘

Hi hi Tej and thank you for the inbox delight 💜💜

I'm in a weird writing headspace right now, which means it's probably the right time to reflect and be nice to myself. But it's haaaaard, wah. Well, here we go in no particular order:

You are here (cacw; canon-compliant)

20,000 words on why oh why Bucky hides from Steve, why Steve is such a big meanie to him all movie, and making them talk and hug about it. (Among other things.) I kind of wish I could replicate how it felt to write this one. I was just having a lot of fun with absolutely no plan, pressure, or expectations for myself.

Head in the sky (canon-divergent Cold War shrinkyclinks)

Everything on this list is self-indulgent but, whew, this really made (1) me happy. Featuring: a determined bossy Steve, a lost yet competent little soldier, and the both of them against a world, babey. Held together with a big helping of mutual protectiveness and devotion, naturally.

The more things change (WWII, post-bar scene)

I wrote this a while ago now, but there's something about the tightness of the story/plot that still makes me happy on rereads.

And you, you must’ve been looking for me (post-canon Brooklyn boys)

Maybe someday I’ll finish a long fic, but until then I’m much more confident in getting an idea across with as few words as I can get away with. There are not a lot of words in this one, but I like the ones I picked and they all work pretty hard, I think. Also I clearly need to put this on ao3 because it took forever to find what even is a tumblr blog.

Till there were no more wolves in the West (western + historical AU)

Speaking of longer fics I'd sure like to finish... What can I say, it's my most favorite of the bunch. Probably because it is so very specific to my interests in hyper-competent battle boyfriends, doomed promises, feeling unworthy of love (and being proven wrong), and also American myths and misremembered history. I first-drafted the epilogue last week and I'm feeling a little misty eyed about it.

Okay, that was way too much talking about myself, eek 🙈. But thank you lovely Tej, hope you have a fab weekend ahead of you 😘

[mylittleredgirl]

📺 dear 90s channel exchange creator 📺

hello writer or art-maker!

thank you for whatever you will make for me! i hope you're excited about whatever we matched on.

i'm pretty easily delighted and like being surprised by things i did not consider, so you are welcome to take my suggestions and prompts as random inspiration or pitch them entirely in favor of whatever you want to create!

this is basically just a rewrite of my request, but with the general likes/dislikes broken out in bullet points to be more legible.

anonymous asks are on for this account, so feel free to ask questions if you want!

general things i love:

happy or hopeful endings

episode-related fic

pining (especially respectful no-i’m-definitely-NOT-jealous pining)

hurt/comfort (especially oh-my-god-you're-not-dead)

friendship & family fic

canon divergence

complications

5-times fic

all ratings welcome

i tend to really love all canon characters, so feel free to include friends and relations in the fic that aren't directly part of my requests

kinks enjoyed:

soft dom/sub (bondage & praise yes, pain & shaming no)

aliens made them do it (or equivalent)

overindulgence (food, drinks, whatevs)

masturbation (mutual, pining, voyeuristic, whatevs)

body image/weight gain/aging/body worship

i’ve never said no to a quality blow job or hand job fic

sweet i-love-you sex works for me too i'm not picky

general things i do NOT love:

permanent character death

hurt no comfort

crossovers except within the extended canon universe (crossovers between star trek series are welcome)

historical or supernatural AUs (no pride-and-prejudice or zombies)

supernatural elements are actually fine (like telepathy, psychic powers, soulmate stuff, etc) but i specifically want to avoid zombies & vampires

bashing of canon past relationships or other characters (if a character loved somebody else in canon, thumbs down to the "i never really loved them" trope). except sam carter's collection of terrible exes in stargate, i can live with that.

-

fandoms requested:

-

the x-files:

i'm deeply obsessed with season nine right now, so my requests all have season nine characters, but i also love mulder/scully and am happy for you to include them! i prefer fics that happen during the original series era (or soon afterward) rather than the revival. episode-related fics (any episode) and hurt/comfort are my x-files faves!

john doggett/monica reyes: my otp. i love their long history and friendship and deep trust and the slowly shifting nature of their relationship that seems to parallel john's shifting acceptance of the paranormal. ideas:

what if it's monica's turn to be in hurt or in danger on a case and john's turn to angst/find her/care for her afterward?

was john somehow part of monica's predestiny/repeating past lives in "hellbound"?

monica reyes & dana scully: scully has needed a friend like her for SO LONG 😭.

i have always wondered about scully's drunk little "i like her :)" from empedocles and whether that means reyes kept in touch with her between "this is not happening" and "empedocles."

i also think about how monica is probably william's godmother and has so much love for him.

i'm not opposed to scully/reyes (subtle or overt) if it takes you that way, i just otp them elsewhere so i didn't request it. polyamory welcome!

john doggett & monica reyes & dana scully: i love their working dynamic all together and i also love the interplay of all their individual relationships and the different ways they love/trust/need each other. random ideas:

piggybacking on a prompt above: what if john encouraged scully to stay in touch with monica after mulder's "death," because of how helpful she was to him?

they all get snowed into a cabin or something with ghosts... (either paranormal ghosts, or the non-paranormal angsty ghosts they're all carrying around!)

john doggett/fox mulder/monica reyes/dana scully: honestly i just want to know how this could work without them all killing each other (or only killing each other sometimes). have fun!

--

stargate sg-1:

mini!otp (clone!sam/jack): i love them as fully grown rational adults now trapped in irrational teenage bodies, trying to sort out their complicated relationships with their new selves and with each other. prompt ideas:

how do they get over their past baggage to get into a relationship?

what do they do after graduation?

what if they got involved in something stargate-related?

i also really love the "oh god one of them is injured or in danger but that feels different now" trope for those two.

specific DNW: them changing their first names

specific DNW: everyone else getting cloned too

classic sam/jack prompt ideas:

anything to do with "desperate measures"

pining to first time 💕

this pairing is always good for amtdi

specific DNW: them having a baby

cassandra fraiser & janet fraiser: honestly when i requested this i was shocked to learn this wasn't already a tag. i fully support canon divergence where everyone lives or you can include "heroes" and the fallout, your call. if you want to include a romantic pairing for janet that's ok! (daniel is usually my preference but anyone or no one is fine). ideas:

what was their bonding process like?

what are little traditions/ways they show they love each other?

what have they learned from each other?

--

babylon 5:

michael garibaldi/susan ivanova/talia winters:

what if michael and susan rescued her from psi corps!!!

i imagine the sex here could be pretty great. or at least pretty fascinating

i like all their individual relationships too, but this combo seems like a lot of fun and/or deeply fucked up

--

star trek: deep space nine

miles/keiko/kira:

how does kira become/continue being part of their family after the finale?

what if she just never leaves after the baby is born?

an exploration of different family dynamics (between the three of them, with the kids, however you want to take that)

a cultural exchange

julian/ezri:

canon divergent au: what if the war had lasted longer and they'd taken longer to get together?

in danger together (or trying to rescue each other)

honestly just exploring how maybe they could really work out

orrrrr it can be messed up that's fine too, as long as neither of them are really cruel to each other at the end of the day

--

star trek voyager:

b'elanna/kes:

b'elanna needs some gentleness and i think kes can provide that

kes has no preconceptions about klingons, so how does that affect how b'elanna sees herself?

anything at all to do with kes's powers

janeway/chakotay:

they make an exception for a special occasion (& optional: how does that impact them going forward? do they repeat it?)

post-ep to "the fight"

post-ep to "good shepherd"

actually anything episode-related :)

specific DNW: no babyfic please

--

cheers:

diane chambers/sam malone: this couple is an absolute disaster, but I would have loved them to annoy each other til death do they part. ideas:

how do they support each other (well or very badly) in their ongoing mental health/addiction challenges?

what if they stayed in touch on her writing retreat and she came back like she promised?

if they DID get married, diane would co-own the bar…

--

that's all! i hope something here inspires you, and if it doesn't, toss it and write whatever you like. :) thank you!

[joylee56]

Helloooooo, Giftee? *taps mic* Are you well? Hydrated? Eating adequate vegetation? Is Tumblr being an ass-goblin and destroying these asks? I'm banking on the latter so, you know, I guess don't respond if so?

Hello, Santa.  Deepest apologies for taking so long to respond.  Real Life ™ has been shaking me by the scruff of the neck lately.  Thanksgiving, multiple snows (the first flake brings transport in my region to a screeching halt making everything take three times longer than it should) and having to replace a car have slurped up all my time the last two weeks.

So if you’ve started a story and anything I say here is at odds with what you have planned, feel free to continue as you were.  I’m sure I’ll be happy with it.  All Rumbelle/Anyelle stories are delightful.

Now returning to the notes I started back when I got your ask, before life interfered.

I hope you are looking forward to this year's Rumbelle Secret Santa as much as I am.  I have sloughed off on my Rumbelle writing lately and am hoping this will get me going again.

As to the walls.  I am simply crap at coming up with prompts.  Then I was washing dishes from my early Thanksgiving prep (did I mention my dishwasher died the weekend before Thanksgiving?  Yeah, things have been no end of fun here) anyway, I was listening to The Traveling Wilburys, as one does while doing household chores, and it occurred to me that the first line from the refrain of Tweeter and the Monkey Man would be an excellent sort of open ended prompt.

So use it any way you like.  Real walls – library, shop or home renovation; magical mishap; Norwester/tornado/hurricane/natural disaster.  Metaphorical walls – breaking out of stereotypes, trying to get out of Storybook.  Emotional – pretty much any Rumbelle story : )

While I pulled the line from Tweeter and the Monkey Man I didn’t intend to ask for anything involving the rest of the refrain or a Rumbelleing of that story.  Not only does it strike me as tough to Rumbelle (and a little depressing despite a really catchy refrain), but the Hades storyline is not my favorite.  I don’t think either Belle or Rumple were written particularly in character although Bobby and Emilie did their best with what they were given.  

Not to mention I really dislike Zelena.  Not crazy about original flavor Hook either.  They’re okay for antagonists, but not center stage.  

Love AUs.  Cursed Storybrooke, no magic, historical, role reversal, fix-it, heck coffee shop, or zombie apocalypse.  Enjoy them all.  

But whatever you’re in the mood is fine.  The way my last couple of weeks.have been going I’m more in the mood for fluff or happy ending than tragedy, but if you want to toss in a little angst along the way that’s fine,

Hope my venting does not put you off.  I didn’t realize I needed to until I got going.   I’ll tag these Joylee56 Secret Santa to make them easy to find.  And hopefully be quicker to respond and in a better mood when next I hear from you. 

[jaehyunzzmilk]

dinasty (part 2)

pairing: prince jaehyun x concubine reader

word count: 3.4 k

genre: Historical Mafia AU, smut, light angst

summary: after the perfect escape, you have to find a way to fit in your new life, leaving the past behind may seem easy when you're working for 4 princes and one of them is interested in you, right?

notes: hello again, part 2 is up and we have a new love triangle, thank you for liking the first part so much, and prepare for even more surprises

this doesn't have any relation to real facts and history, it's just pure fiction for entertainment purposes

warnings: violence, blood, cheating, unprotected sex, oral (female receiving)

main characters: jaehyun (prince), yuta (samurai, villain), ten (thai mafia, villain), kun (China's emperor warrior)

Reality - Part 2

Part 1 here

"- Nice tattoo!" the man says.

It was dark and his face was only visible through the moonlight.

You freeze, the man stays still looking at you like you were his prey.

You try to cover your body but your only reaction is to grab your stuff and run, praying he wasn't gonna come after you.

Arriving at your room, breathing heavily you try to think about what just happened. A guy like that had to be a prince or someone really important. Ms. Lee told you to be lowkey and on the first day you let a man see you naked in the bath area. "Whatever" You were just too tired to think, you didn't do anything wrong anyway, so you were gonna pretend that it didn't happen. The Korean Palace was gonna punish you for going to the wrong bath?

Suddenly you realize Kun's necklace isn't with you. "Fuck, I must have dropped there" but now it's too risky to come back and look for it so you decide to do that tomorrow. You lay down on your mattress and try to fall asleep.

-

Next morning Ms. Lee showed you the rest of the Palace, the kitchen and assigned your tasks. It was a lot of work and details, each of their meals had to be perfectly planned. They had someone even to taste the food before them so they know it's not poisoned.

"- I'm gonna be responsible for the King's meal and you're gonna be responsible for the four prince's meals."

-Four?

"- Yes, Taeil, Doyoung, Johnny and Jaehyun. Now you should prepare their tea, they always drink green tea in the morning."

While preparing the tea you wonder which one you saw at the bathing area and if you should tell Ms. Lee what happened yesterday.

You're walking with the trays to the dining place when you try to talk to her.

-Ms. Lee!

-"Yes"

-So yesterday...

You realize you still don't know much about Ms. Lee and even if Kun trusts her, you don't. Also you can't help but think that serving tea was much better than your life at the concubine's house, so you try quickly to think of something else to say.

-Well, yesterday… Before I met you… this man helped me at the harbor, he was wearing black clothes and had a samurai sword.

-"Stay away from him!" She turns at you. "They are dangerous, they will kill everything and everyone on their way, people you don't want to mess up with."

By Yuta's facial expression when you mentioned Ms. Lee's name you weren't surprised she said those words, you wonder why but she wasn't gonna be the one to give you the answers. Otherwise, you still weren't afraid of him, he was gonna be the last of your problems here.

-"Now let's get in there, first you bow and then you serve them the way I showed you, don't look at them in the eye and don't say anything." She says.

In silence, you enter the dining room along with the other servants behind you bringing the food plates and you stop in front of the tables on the floor where all the princes are. There are two on each side, the two oldest and the youngest, all of them are sitting on cushions, they all have long hair and are wearing beautiful hanboks.

-"Your highness, may I introduce you to your new servant 'y/n', she is my niece and she is gonna work with me in the kitchen from now on." Ms. Lee said while you bowed, you were still too nervous to look up and look at them. "Now, may we start with the tea." Ms. Lee turns to you and signs that you can go and serve them.

Holding the teapot you go to the first prince, the oldest, Taeil, he is very handsome, with his light brown hair, face delicate and mature at the same time. Slowly you pour the tea into the cup by his left, he doesn't do anything, just stays still looking down and you wonder if you did something wrong. On his right it's Doyoung, after you pour the tea he gives you a small nod which makes you feel calmer. He is also very handsome, shiny black long hair, perfect posture, he sure looks like a prince. On the other side, Johnny, you can feel he is looking at you, the first to say "thank you" after you pour the tea. His face is gorgeous, even if he is sitting down you can feel how tall and strong he is. And then, Jaehyun, the man from the bath. You freeze when he looks directly at your eyes, you try to stay calm and pour the tea but can't help but shake a little bit. He is the definition of perfection, he had perfect skin, perfect face, everything about him.

Jaehyun keeps staring at you even when you stand up and comes back to Ms. Lee side.

-"Seems like someone likes our new servant!" Johnny says laughing. The other boys look at him but Jaehyun remains silent and serious, still looking at you.

They give the first sip to their tea. Taeil stops and smells the cup.

-"Did someone… put ginger on the tea?" He asks.

Ms. Lee turns at you with her eyes wide open.

-"Did you put ginger when you were making the tea?" She says in a low voice. - Yes, that's how we usually drink it in China, I'm so sorry.

-"Don't..." Taeil says taking another sip "- From now on keep in that way". You see Jaehyun smirking with the corner of your eyes.

Your whole body relaxed, you felt like you were going to faint. Ms. Lee bows and tells them to excuse both of you. As soon as you enter the kitchen's door she grabs your arm.

-"You have no idea how lucky you were this time young lady, Taeil is the most picky to all the food we make, when he started speaking I thought I was gonna have a heart attack"

-Me too! But I'm so sorry, I swear I'm not doing anything again without asking you first.

-"Good! Now get back to work"

-

Later after you finish your schedule you come back to the bath area to look for Kun's necklace. You look everywhere but it's nowhere to be found.

-"Looking for this?" Jaehyun stops behind you holding your necklace.

You turn around and he comes closer to you.

-"I asked if you're looking for this?" Now he is inches from you.

-Ye- yes!

Jaehyun walks behind you and gently moves your hair to the side, putting the necklace on you.

-"Does that belong to your boyfriend?" He is so close it's almost he's whispering in your ears. You get goosebumps.

-Excuse me?

He smirks and comes back to look you in the eyes.

-"I fought in the war 2 years ago, I remember those from the chinese soldiers." He tilts his head to the side and looks at you from head to toe. "Or you did?"

-A prince fighting at the war?

-"And a very bloody one but yes... it would be a shame being a prince and let your people alone bring victory to your country"

-It does… belong to my boyfriend.

You hold your necklace in your chest.

-"And where is your precious boyfriend when a pretty face like you is talking to the enemy in another country?"

-It's complicated!

-"I have time!"

-Why? Do you want the full story to snitch on me?

-"Sweetie if I wanted to snitch you out I would have already!"

He was right.

-You wouldn't believe if I told you anyway!

-"Try me, I've seen it all"

You both sit on a stone beside the water.

-Well, when I was 9 my family was struggling, we didn't have food, money, anything… so my father sold me and my sister to a concubine's house. She went to a different house than mine so I never saw her again actually. But anyway after years of being a slave in all forms to that house I fell in love, to someone from the thai mafia, of course things got out of control, I was so dumb. When I tried to run away he found out and did this tattoo on me, I was in so much pain because I fell off the roof trying to run away that I didn't even felt the pain of the needle, I just stayed there, still. Then I met Kun, I fell in love again, he helped me to escape, and it worked.

-"And I assume that story of being Ms. Lee's niece is all lies."

-Yes! She helped to raise Kun and met his mother so it's the only reason she's doing this until he arrives.

-"Oh so he's coming."

-He works for the Emperor and he said they would kill both of us if he ran away, so he is gonna wait a little bit and ask to retire, he wants to do it the right way, then he'll join me.

-"If you allow me to say this but… I would never have let you to come alone, sometimes you don't have to do it the right way" He gets up and walks to the exit of the bath. "But I'm glad he did and we could meet"

You give a small smile with the corner of your lips.

-"Oh and by the way..." He turns at you. "The staff's bath area is on that way." He points to his left.

-I know now. Thanks.

He smiles and leaves.

-

Weeks passed and you were getting used to your new life. You were doing your job right, even making some different dishes from your hometown to the princes. Meanwhile you unexpectedly started spending time with Jaehyun. Since your conversation at the bath, you both got closer in a natural way. On every free time you had you spent time together, you mostly liked to walk on the garden because it was more private, he told you about his childhood, how he had to give up on so many things to be who the kings expected him to be, how he felt like he was on a prison his whole life and how he found joy on learning how to fight because it was the only way he had to express himself and not follow the rules. You were surprised at how wholesome he was, he made questions about your life in a way that you know he wasn't being just pity, he was interested in how other realities exist outside the Palace.

One afternoon Ms. Lee asked you to go to the flea market to buy fruit for the dinner's banquet. You went alone since now you were familiar with that.

Because of the summer there were a lot of different kinds of fruits on sale. You bought peaches because you knew Jaehyun likes it. After buying everything you needed you see some crowd gathering between the market, you approached them and notice some weird men you've never seen before. They were thieves. They were on their horses, destroying the sellers' stands, pushing everyone in their way, they even tried to put a food stand on fire. You saw a little kid who got lost from their parents and was crying right in the middle of the path where the thieves were. You run in his direction and catch him, putting him safely to the side of the road, when one of the men slaps your face "Get out of the way slut!"

The slap was hard so you fell on the ground when suddenly you see another group of men coming that way, they all had black clothes and katanas. The samurais. They were so fast, they fought the thieves in a blink of an eye. There are people running and dust everywhere, you feel a hand on you. "Let's get you out of here" you recognize the voice, Yuta holds you and takes you to a safe place.

-"Why every time I see you, you're in trouble? Didn't I tell you to not walk around alone?"

-I was just buying stuff at the market when they came out of nowhere.

-"You're bleeding, let me see your lips" Yuta takes the fabric that was covering his mouth and carefully wipes the blood on your lips.

-"You're gonna need ice if you don't want to get bruises..."

-Don't worry, I've had worse wounds! - You laugh.

-"You didn't tell me where you came from"

-You didn't either, and why are you doing this? Helping me when you told me to stay away?

-"Well you should!"

-I'm not afraid of you.

Yuta looks at you, his mysterious gaze turns into vulnerability.

-So, I will tell you my story if you tell me yours! - You say.

-"Years ago the king had a deal with Osaka’s emperor, since he traveled there and they proposed to do an alliance and protect each nation together, but when the war happened and the emperor asked for the samurais to fight on their side here in Korea. We came and it was all a trap, a lot of us died, the emperor stole our ships and made all his people be afraid of us spreading lies, that we were dangerous. Since we couldn’t come back home we settled ourselves here, but the funny thing is every time the small villages are in danger, like what you saw today, it’s us who come first to help them. You asked me why I saved you, where I came from, we take care of everyone, no matter what."

-I'm sorry!

-"Now your turn, what’s your dark pass?"

-Apparently like you I was also a victim of the war in my country, but other than having a sword and fighting I was just a concubine trapped in a house for so many years, let’s say I just involved myself with the wrong people and ran away.

-"It’s called a katana… the sword. And maybe I can teach you how to fight." He smiles.

-Me?

He gives you the sword.

-It's much lighter than I thought.

-"Careful, it's lighter but the blade is gonna be the sharpest of all swords. Here... You must hold like this!" He took your hands and taught you how to hold the sword, carefully he showed you some self defense moves.

-"Now if someone ever tries to slap your face again, you do this..." Yuta grabs your wrists and pins you agains't a tree, you can't move obviously, he is so close to you and you feel the sexual tension building.

-"Get away from her!" You hear a familiar voice screaming. It's Jaehyun.

Jaehyun gets off his horse, he was mad, you never saw him like that. You jump in front of Yuta.

-No wait! He saved my life! - You scream.

-"What? Y/n do you know who he is? He is a murderer." Jaehyun looks at you.

-"If you arrived 10 minutes earlier you could have joined us but the little prince was busy at his Palace right?" Yuta provokes him.

-"That's enough!" Jaehyun comes closer but Yuta doesn't even flinch.

-Please Jaehyun, let's go!

You grab his arm and take him away from Yuta.

- "This doesn't end here bastard!" - Jaehyun spits at Yuta's direction.

-

You come back to the Palace with Jaehyun and he takes you to the bath area.

He is sweating, you could see his veins popping because of how mad he was.

- Jaehyun please, everything is alright, you need to calm down!

- "No it's not, look at you, you're hurt" he grabs your face and touches your lip with his thumb.

- It's ok now, I was at the market when some thieves arrived, I was protecting a little kid who was gonna get hit by their horses, they got mad because I was in the way but I swear it was nothing and Yuta helped me and everyone in there!

- "What? How do you know his name?"

- When I arrived from China he saw me at the harbor, I was so weak from the trip he helped me and even took me to Ms. Lee! I don't care about your old family issues, he helped me and that's all.

- "I'm sorry I'm just… the Palace guards heard the thieves were at the market and when I knew you were there I got my horse and went after you, I just couldn't let anything bad happen to you y/n!"

He grabs your face with both of his hands and kisses you. You try to push him but still can't open your eyes and break the kiss completely "Jaehyun we shouldn't..."

- "If you don't want it then tell me to stop" your heart is beating so fast, you swallow hard and look up at Jaehyun, "I know I'm not the only one feeling this" He says kissing you hard again.

He is right. "Touch me" you say, grabbing his hands and placing them on your breasts. When he is caressing his hands on your breast he removes your necklace, dropping it on the ground. He unties your dress and slides the fabric until your lower body, he is on his knees in front of you and he passes his hands on the back of your thighs until your butt and kisses your thighs slowly. He keeps eye contact with you and licks your clit, you moan and grabs his hair in response to his tongue going faster.

In your head it felt so wrong because you were in love with Kun, but Jaehyun made you feel so needy, mind and body.

Jaehyun gives a hard lick on your clit and makes his way up to your stomach leaving a tray of kisses until your breasts, he sucks one nipple while his other hand and flicks the other one. He gets up and kisses you, the kiss was so wet, for a moment you forget that anything else exists while he kisses you hard, licking and sucking your bottom lip. He takes off his clothes, his hard dick slaps on his toned abs, pre cum leaking over his tip. Jaehyun lifts you up "Let's go inside" taking you to one of the hot tubs.

When you felt the heat of the water on your body, the feeling of pleasure and lust took over you, Jaehyun pulled you down onto his lap and gave you another kiss, you wrapped your arms around his neck when you feel his tip on your core. "Oh my god" you scream while his hands holding your waist puts you down until his whole length was inside of you. The feeling was so different, you got a harder friction because of the water and you start moving up and down to get used to his size. Jaehyun's shoulders and biceps tense while his cock is stretching you out. You bounce on him screaming in pleasure, body trembling as he helps you to move faster.

He was pushing all the way into you, hitting your g-spot. You arch your back and moan his name, clenching every time he enters you. You're almost out of breath when he sucks your neck and presses his thumb against your clit. "Jae, I'm gonna..." you can see he is close as well as he sucks your neck even harder and moves his finger faster. You scream when you feel your orgasm, your arching pussy made his cock tighter while he couldn't hold it anymore and released into you as well.

You both stay in the water for a bit recovering from the climax, he pulls you to his chest and you close your eyes.

-Am I dreaming?

-"I think the reality right now is better than your dreams."

"Reality" you thought, back at your own senses you couldn't help but be disappointed at yourself. Because of you Kun was risking his own life to help you to run away and now you're with the prince of the place he arranged you to work for. Maybe you were just a filthy concubine, maybe you deserved everything they did to you, even your tattoo. You roll your body and rest your head at the border of the hot tub, a tear coming out of your eye.

-

Part 3 coming soon

[oh-three]

7, 11, 17, 18, 34, 41, 58, 65, 78 and 94 for the ask game

7) Tell us about the plot of the first fanfic you ever wrote.

Oh god.

It was a Transformers fic, three chapters long, about Hubcap (red version) getting kidnapped by Decepticons then rescued by Blurr and Ironhide. It's actually pretty cringey, and I hate the dialogue so much. My writing has improve so much since then.

11) What’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? Also, how much do you worry about doing research in general?

[TW- slavery]

I don't worry about research too much, unless it's like historical or medical stuff (occasional Wookieepedia use aside).

I did write a Pirates Of The Caribbean fic a year and a half (or two and a half years) ago, spent days researching slavery. I learned all kinds of stuff from that, stored it on a document for safekeeping. Have this on there:

Slaves were scrubbed and their wounds filled with hot tar before auction. The unsold and frail were often sold by scramble auctions, where after agreeing a flat rate, plantation owners would race to grab the best workforce.

17) What is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

I don't really memorize them, but whenever I look back on a fic and read one of them, I remember how much I love it. For the sake of saving time, here's one from A Hand In Refuge:

Because even though his master had discouraged the voicing of his opinion, the desire to share had lingered deep beneath his rigorous teachings, waiting oh-so-patiently to arise.

18) What is your most and least favorite part of writing?

My most favorite part of writing is watching it turn from outline material into fully fleshed out conversations and ideas. There's a certain magic to watching it happen, to comparing the two afterward.

My least favorite part is figuring out how to pick something up again from where I've left off. Really struggling to start the next chapter of my Cobb Vanth series at the moment. I know what I want to do, I just don't know how to execute it.

34) How do you name characters and places?

Honestly? I usually just run a name generator until I come upon one that just fits. Something that I like the sound of aesthetically, something that feels like it suits the personality of the character receiving the name.

41. What is the weirdest story idea you’ve ever had?

I'm part of a (now -inactive) Discord server with a few other Pirates Of The Caribbean writers. Went to a feed store one night, shared a few pictures of chicks staying warm.

That turned into me writing a story about Jack Sparrow smuggling a couple pocket-fulls of chicks onto the Black Pearl. It's the most random thing I've ever written, and I love it.

58) What is the last thing that a fic made you google when you were writing it?

"hyperspace lane"

Yeah, I was trying to figure out what skylanes were called. I got there.

65) What is your favourite title for a fic you’ve written? 

Me, who's written over four-hundred fics: ...

I've Seen Things In This House I've Never Spoken Of is a good one. It's a Spider-Man fic, the title itself being a quote from one of the characters.

When The Suns Grow Low, The Fight Only Gets Tougher is the title of the first fic in my Cobb Vanth series. I don't even remember how I came up with it, but I really do love it a lot.

Solus Tome (Alone Together) is another favorite, the fic surrounding the Bad Batch and Fives, an AU in which he survives and they find him. The first part of the title is in Mando'a, the translation being the part that's in parenthesis.

I'm going to stop there before I get ahead of myself.

78) How do you choose where to end a chapter?

Yeah, that's always a tad difficult.

I usually just chop it up between scenes to make it a bit more natural, though I sometimes cut it in the middle of scenes for the sake of length consistency or dramatic effect.

94) Do you prefer dialogue or description?

I really like both, if I'm being honest. I can't say I prefer one over the other. I love description, going in-depth on how things look, but there's just something about nailing a character's line that is pretty magical itself.

[rynne]

I have seen many au mdzs focus centered fics with the idea that if one the big three of the sects either Lan or Nie found out about Wei Wuxian predicament they would have immediately gone all out to help which kind of baffles me because wasn't the killing of the children and elderly common over there in Ancient China and in canon they didn't care much when the killings of small sects took place ? I always thought that the only reason Lan Wangii kept his mouth shut in the first place was so if if he ever said anything regarding Wwx situation they would have ambushed him regardless of his innocence.

Like the idea 💡 of Wei Wuxian helping out the wens felt very progressive in thoughts that aligned with our modern day morals nowadays.

I hope I wasn't too harsh 😊 and I always 💕 reading your responses since youv'e always been very detailed with your thoughts and feelings.

Thank you for the compliment! Here are basically my thoughts on this:

So, I basically know nothing about this period of Chinese history, and I can’t really comment on things that did or did not happen in that time period and common attitudes towards them. However, that is not really what matters when we're talking about MDZS. If MXTX were an author writing 1000+ years ago for an audience of that time, it would be useful to understand the historical moral framework to better interpret her intentions and how both she and her audience would have viewed the morality in her novels.

But that is not the case. The idea of WWX helping out the Wens feels very progressive and aligned with modern-day morals because MXTX is a modern author writing for a modern audience. I'm sure that she entirely expects her audience to view her story through their natural modern moral lens, and that she crafted her story with that in mind. Furthermore, MDZS is not set in Ancient China, it’s set in MDZS’s version of Fantasy Ancient China, whose rules (including background moral framework) are what MXTX say they are.

(As a side note, while I don't think historical moral frameworks are as relevant to understanding MXTX's work, modern cultural distinctions are relevant. MXTX would also have been writing for her own culture, so there are nuances that those of us outside that culture -- including me -- would miss. This doesn't mean that we can't read and discuss this story, but we should be aware that we might be missing stuff and listen when people from that culture speak.)

However, in general, stories will usually establish their own moral frameworks, which will allow the audience to understand what the author is and is not giving moral approbation to. We can find this understanding through some amount of literary analysis.

This part got very long, so some helpful questions to consider for literary analysis (and how I applied that analysis) are after the Read More.

Useful questions to ask can include:

1. Are we supposed to trust the protagonist/point of view character(s) with moral authority?

It’s not always the case that we are supposed to ascribe moral authority to a story’s protagonist -- Humbert Humbert in Lolita is a famous example. Most of the time, though, the protagonist is meant to be a moral authority, just because that’s easier for an author. There’s a lot of work that goes into undermining the protagonist without undermining the story, and that’s not a technique suited to all stories.

So, are we suppose to consider Wei Wuxian a moral authority? Yes, we are.

Yes, there’s some unreliability in his narration -- but it’s pretty limited to his memory issues, things he can’t reasonably know and therefore makes assumptions about, and his unwillingness to dwell on his own hurts and who/what caused them. In general, his impulse is to do things that the audience would recognize as moral, including helping people in trouble even at cost to himself (Su She with the Waterborne Abyss, Mianmian in the Xuanwu cave, the juniors at Dafan Mountain), paying his debts (to the Jiang family, to Wen Ning and Wen Qing), and prioritizing what he considers to be the moral action over the action that might help him personally (refusing to go back on helping the Wens).

His morality furthermore remains consistent regardless of the situation. He wants to pay his debts to both the Jiangs and the Wens, even though they were on opposite sides of the war. He disapproves of mob justice whether it’s targeted at him or his enemy JGY.

Basically, textual indicators are meant to show that WWX is a moral person making moral choices. This doesn’t mean that he doesn’t make mistakes or that his morality can’t slip when he’s pushed too far (torture is considered morally bad, and he does that), but at his default, his impulse is to make moral choices.

All of this is meant to establish him as a moral authority to the audience, someone we ultimately trust to be in the moral right.

1.A. Does the protagonist have an opinion on the issue at hand?

Once the protagonist is established as someone whose morality the audience is meant to trust, you need to see if they have an opinion on the issue whose morality you’re evaluating. Generally, their opinion is what the author wants the audience to understand and agree with.

In this case, WWX very obviously sees helping the Wen remnants as the moral thing to do.

Perhaps more importantly, he consistently sees helping them as the moral thing to do. After his resurrection, there are parts of his life that he re-evaluates. He decides that he went too far during the Sunshot Campaign with the whole digging up dead bodies thing, he’s embarrassed at his past arrogant attitude, and he recognizes the perspective of the people whose loved ones he’s killed.

But he never looks back at helping the Wens and decides he was wrong to do it. He regrets what ended up happening, but he never thinks he should not have done what he could.

2. What other contextual factors might establish a moral framework?

If the protagonist can’t be trusted, or if you want the weight of more evidence, you can look at other tools the author uses to frame the morals of a situation.

2.A. Are there moral touchstones with an opinion?

Often stories will have some sort of touchstone that will help the audience calibrate morality. This can be something like religion, but it can also be a character who is widely recognized, in-universe, as a moral touchstone. The characters and the audience both know when something is right because this touchstone character says it is.

In MDZS, Lan Wangji is basically that moral touchstone. Pretty much everyone in the setting, from his enemies to his allies to random civilians, thinks he’s the most righteous cultivator they know of, who will only do the most morally correct things. (At least, that’s his reputation until he publicly sides with WWX, but by that point the audience has also recognized him as a moral touchstone and understood why siding with WWX does not undermine that.)

LWJ’s opinion on the issue is a little less clear before the First Siege of the Burial Mounds, considering he does not seem to have spoken up for the Wens or provided concrete help even after meeting them, but we still get some clues.

When LWJ finally leaves after the Yiling date, WWX basically says, “If you were in my position, you would be doing the same thing I am.” WWX trusts LWJ’s morality as much as anyone does (if not more), and he’s confident that LWJ would agree with him if he were in that position. LWJ doesn’t contradict him.

More clearly, though, LWJ ends up taking over WWX’s position in protecting the last Wen. Wen Yuan lived because the setting’s moral touchstone saved him.

2.B. What are the antagonists’ opinions?

As a corollary to the moral touchstone, it’s also relevant to consider what the antagonists think about the issue. Unless the antagonists are established as morally upright people who just happen to oppose the protagonist for other reasons, most of the time, what an antagonist thinks is good is something the audience is meant to think is bad, and vice versa.

Jin Guangshan is an antagonist. We are supposed to see him as selfish and immoral. He is in favor of killing the Wen remnants.

Jin Zixun is so bad that not even other antagonists (Su She, JGY) like him. He is also in favor of killing the Wen remnants.

Jiang Cheng has also been established as an antagonist by this point. He and WWX have spent most of the novel on opposing sides by the time we reach this point in the story. He leads the Siege.

Of the story’s other antagonists, the Wen Sect is already gone, and Su She and JGY are at best neutral but are likely some level of complicit in the Wen remnants’ deaths and the hatred towards them. They certainly do not stand up for the Wens.

The important thing about these antagonist attitudes is that they’re consistent. If there were mixed attitudes among the antagonists, then the situation would come across as more morally complex. Here, however, pretty much every bad guy is in favor, which is a sign to the audience that this is not, in fact, a morally complex issue. It’s just wrong.

And in terms of killing smaller sects -- I don’t think the text does indicate that no one cares when smaller sects get killed off. There are two instances I can recall of this happening, the first when the Wen sect is gearing up for war and the second when JGY frames some of his political opponents for the murder of his son and wipes them out in “revenge.” Killing off smaller sects is therefore not a neutral action, but only something the villains do.

2.C. Does the plot validate one moral position over another?

Authors frequently express their themes by having the plot reward one perspective and punish another. Note that when evaluating this, you do have to think about both genre and themes more generally (antagonists might still have good endings, so you might think about how that ending impacts the themes).

In this case, consider how the deaths of the Wen remnants are treated later on in the story. During the Second Siege of the Burial Mounds, the Wen remnants come back to help and protect WWX, Wen Ning, and Sizhui (also protecting everyone else in the process). They saved everyone there, despite the treatment they’d received. The moral characters (WWX, LWJ, the juniors) honor them, while everyone who participated in the First Siege is left to feel awkward about having been saved by those they murdered.

WWX’s protection of the Wen remnants mattered. His love and care for them mattered. They came back to return that love and care for and protect him in turn. The plot validates his choice by having it return meaningful consequences, and it punishes the mob who killed (or approved of killing) the Wen remnants by showing them that they were not straightforwardly in the right.

--

There are more questions you can ask to try to identify a story’s moral framework when you’re not sure what it’s supposed to be, but these are a start.

Basically, the story’s message is that WWX was morally correct in helping the Wens. In terms of fix-it fics, this means that people also want other sympathetic characters (Lan Xichen, Nie Mingjue) to make moral choices when given better information. There’s also probably some idealism in there, in wanting leaders like Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue to act morally rather than amorally or immorally (by letting innocent people die, even if not actively killing them), because we generally want our leaders to be moral people. It’s not unreasonable to think that, given the story’s established moral framework, LXC and NMJ might have chosen to help if they had all the information.

And we are, in fact, meant to determine all of this using our modern moral frameworks. MXTX is a modern author writing for a modern audience, so that is the perspective we are expected to bring.

[yellowmagicalgirl]

Hey, how do you and other Krexie shippers work around the age gap? I mean, I ship Krexie and have my own headcanons, but I'm curious to see what others have done.

I feel like I answered this before several months ago, but I don’t feel like finding that post so I’ll answer again. The full answer to your question is a short essay (and that’s without including the footnotes) so I’m gonna put it under a cut. This is based upon my own experience in the fandom, and the krexie circles I frequent are the ones on FFN, AO3, and of course, here on tumblr. Abuse and grooming (in the context of real people) will be talked about below the cut.

TL;DR I’ve seen three main ways of dealing with the age gap: ignoring it, aging Krel up, and aging Douxie down.

Ignore It

This one actually encompasses two different methods. The first of the two is to treat one or both of the boys’ ages as nebulous, with the maturity level of “teenager” and nothing more explicit since Douxie is about nine centuries old and Akiridion royals live for centuries Krel’s exact age is unknown. In this case, the age of one or both of the boys won’t be mentioned aside from being hundereds of years old. In addition, at least on Douxie’s end, this is somewhat canon. Fun fact: Douxie never calls himself a college student, and neither does Archie. Likewise, neither of them call Douxie 19. That was Steve, who deserved far better of a character arc than just to be the idiot that he is in Wizards. However, even though he deserved better Steve is not a reliable source of information on Douxie’s age, but Douxie and Archie are. In Wizards, the only information Douxie and Archie give on Douxie’s age is that he’s about nine centuries old.[1]

The other method of ignoring the ages is to treat Douxie as a 19-year-old (ignoring the immortality) and Krel as a 16-year-old, and to mention one or both of their ages. Their ages are ignored due to one or both of the following reasons: for one, in real life a three year gap between teenagers doesn’t automatically mean the older person is a predator. It’s something to be cautious about, and the younger person really needs to have people they can trust since if the relationship does turn toxic they would have less power and thus be in more danger (usually, though it is possible for the younger person to be more dangerous to the older one), but that doesn’t automatically mean something bad will happen. The other reason to ignore the boys’ ages is because honestly? If someone needs non-canon ships to tell them which relationships are healthy and which ones are dangerous, then their parents/guardians and teachers have failed them. Fanfic authors, fanartists, and other people creating/consuming fanworks on the internet are not responsible for educating random people on the internet. In fact, they and their content are not responsible for if a random person is abused, even if the abuser uses fanworks to groom the victim. It’s the fault of the abuser for being abusive.[2]

Out of these two methods, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen more using the former method of ignoring than the age gap than the latter.

Age Krel Up

This, again, has two different methods. The more common method is to have Krel (and the other Arcadia Oaks High students) age naturally, until they’re at an age that the fanwork creator is more comfortable with having krexie at. These types of fanworks take place years after the events of Wizards. The other method is to create an au where Krel (and likely the other Arcadia Oaks High students) were already the age the fanwork creator is more comfortable with when Douxie and Krel first met. I, personally, have created a lot of content for the first method, and I’ve seen other people use this method as well. My fake marriage au utilizes the latter method, and this method would also work for au’s where Douxie and Krel are both adults when they meet but the au does not follow canon.

Age Douxie Down

This one also has a basis in canon, though I haven’t seen any other krexie shipper use this method of dealing with the age gap. I, personally, use this whenever I want to make krexie content that’s compliant with Trollhunters and 3Below but also do not want to deal wit backwards time travel because I hate backwards time travel. However, someone should write an au where Douxie and Krel are human high schoolers whose biggest problem is being gay for the guy attending your rival school.

Now, while Douxie and Archie gave Douxie the vague age of about 900 years old and Steve made the assumption that Douxie was a 19-year-old college student, Trollhunters actually went out of its way to show that Douxie was a high school student.

In season two episode 10, Mary reveals that she was dating a student from Arcadia Oaks Academy, and Eli remarked that that was their rival school. I was in high school when Trollhunters was airing, and let me tell you: high schools do not have rivalries with colleges. Arcadia Oaks Academy would have to be a high school, or maybe a k-12 or 6-12. However, it’s far more likely that Arcadia Oaks Academy is a high school with the same age range of students as Arcadia Oaks High. In season three episode 1, Mary excitedly tells Claire that a student from Arcadia Oaks Academy is at Arcadia Oaks High. This student is Douxie, and unless I’m remembering wrong he also mentions attending the Academy. Unless Mary knew all along that Douxie was a wizard and was trying to give him a cover story for why he was hanging out at Arcadia Oaks High only for this information about Mary to be cut from Wizards due to time constraints, there is absolutely no reason for Mary to lie about Douxie’s age to Claire. The fact that Douxie was considered to be a high schooler by most of the fandom (some people had been on the train of “he’s a centuries old adult” for a long time) is why the krexie fanworks created pre-Wizards are all treating Douxie like a high schooler. (Yes, people shipped krexie (or at least consumed/produced fanworks for the ship) before Wizards came out. I have my fic on AO3/FFN and other people’s comments to prove it, as well as some fanart saved to my blog. Sadly, some of the people are now antis, and one them has now harassed at least one krexie shipper.)

Personally, when I age Douxie down, I age him down to 17. Only 17. Not 17-plus-several-centuries-without-aging. In-universe he may try to call himself 1492 years old, but he’s really just 17. However, as I mentioned before, if I’m aging him down to 17 then I’m also completely ignoring the backwards time travel aspects of Wizards. And, by doing that, I end up really changing the lore of Wizards. If you would like more information for the timeline I use when I age Douxie down, please refer to this ask.

In Conclusion

Thank you for reading this. These footnotes aren’t nearly as on topic and are more of a ramble.

[1] Re: Douxie having a really vague age of nine centuries. If you take enough chemistry and physics (but in my experience especially chemistry) courses, you will have it drilled into your head that 900 years old could really be anywhere from 850 to 949 years old. So, while 919 is definitely possible in the age range given by the age of “about 900″, it’s really a give-or-take number. However, if we truly want to be accurate, then if we choose to have Trollhunters take place in the 2016-2017 school year, choose to have had the moppet been between 16 and 19 years old at the Battle of Killahead Bridge, and we consider that the late 12th century (aka the time period of Wizards... supposedly, considering that it is not historically accurate) to be the latter half of that century, then Douxie would have to be somewhere between 834 and 886 years old. If we want a 16-year-old moppet and for the 900 years to be an accurate case of rounding, then the Battle of Killahead Bridge would have needed to be in 1183 at the earliest, which is accurate for the description of late twelfth century. If Douxie were to really be 919 in 2017, then the Battle of Killahead Bridge would have needed to take place somewhere from 1114 to 1117, aka the early twelfth century.

[2] Re: the argument that fanwork creators are not responsible for if an abuser uses their content to groom a victim. When I was a kid, the big scare was that strangers would lure off innocent children with candy. We were told not to go anywhere with a stranger, even if they had candy (or puppies, kittens, etc.) I don’t know how many kids have been hurt by strangers promising candy, nor do I know if this is something kids are still being warned about, but I do know that there isn’t some campaign against candy companies for daring to sell candy that an abuser would use against kids. This is because, as horrible as children being hurt is, it’s not the fault of the candy companies. It’s the fault of the abuser. And likewise, it’s not the fault of a fanwork creator if someone else uses their content to harm others.

PS: A side note since we’re discussing ages. I’ve been in this fandom for years, specifically on tumblr, AO3, and FFN as well as one of the discords. It wasn’t until the krexie discourse started that I started seeing people start calling Krel 14. I had seen people call him 15-16 in the past, because the fandom wasn’t sure if he and Aja were twins or had a minimum of a 9-month gap (assuming, of course, that Akiridions reproduce like humans do). That being said, before the discourse I never saw anyone treat Krel (or Aja, for that matter) like he had a canonical age. 14, however, seems to be something that stemmed from the wiki. You know, the same fan-run wiki that claims that Nomura’s full name is Zelda Nomura even though nowhere in the shows, books, games, or graphic novels is she ever called by that name. Yeah, the Arcadia Oaks-Pedia is not a reputable source. I’m going to give the wiki editors the benefit of Hanlon’s razor and hope that they were just going “well, since Krel is Aja’s younger brother and we’re assuming she’s 15-16 years old like the rest of the protagonists he must be 14-15 years old” and it was only after that that antis took the idea of Krel being 14 as canon and then ran off with it to be cruel and cause chaos.

[demonicheadcanons]

can you do a HC of 18th century Obey Me brothers?? I'm super into historical drama at the moment and would love to see classical Obey Me AU

AN: Thanks for sending this in!! I’m not very good with history, so please forgive any mistakes as I have pretty much just skimmed a few different websites trying to find whatever info I could pick up ;u; This isn’t a traditional headcanon set, but rather an overall ‘18th century Devildom’ headcanon. I hope that’s alright!!

It is occurring to me as I write that this probably isn’t what you want at all because this ask says ‘historical drama’. Sorry ;u; I kind of just ran with whatever came to my head.

I make some references to things that happen later on in the game, around Lesson 15/16. I don’t mention anything outright, but there are definitely hints at some spoilers, so please don’t read this if you haven’t gotten that far ^^

Obey Me - 18th Century AU

The brothers are less put-together than they are in the actual game, with a few hundred years less development under their belt. It shouldn’t make much of a difference as they’re all at least a few thousand years old, but because of some issues between the brothers that have been dragged into the Human Realm, the Devildom is a disaster.

Issues like... Satan and Beelzebub have been having an ongoing argument, contributing to the many wars and famines across the globe. In his free time, Satan has been travelling to the human realm and assisting global leaders from the sidelines, to relieve stress and to cause chaos for his own amusement. Beelzebub’s anger causes food to spoil easily in the Human Realm. Belphegor watches it all from the sidelines, enjoying watching the Human Realm crumble under the demons’ grasps. He doesn’t like seeing Beel upset, and encourages him to take it out on the humans. Beel himself is reluctant to do so, and most of the damage he does is accidental. He feels guilty for it, but is confused because it seems to make Belphie a lot happier than he has been.

Diavolo decides to put a stop to it, and settles on an exchange program of sorts. He puts it into action immediately, banning the brothers from travelling to the human realm and pulling a few humans into the Devildom. The first exchange goes... poorly. There isn’t any way for the news to really spread in the Human Realm, so the disappearance of a few humans is easily covered up. The next time, the MC is pulled into the Devildom and put into the care of Mammon, who is less hostile than his other brothers.

Mammon believes he can personally benefit from a stronger bond between humans and demons - he’s already in contact with witches, and it would help him gain their trust. At the same time, he’s also willing to follow Lucifer’s lead irregardless of how reluctant he may seem. Because of this, he puts effort into actually protecting his human this time; last time, things hadn’t gone well, and he really hadn’t enjoyed the cleanup. He hadn’t been attached to the humans then, and now that he feels a pull to the MC he’s going to be by their side constantly so they don’t meet the same fate.

Asmo loves the clothing, and is one of the first to bond with the MC. The secrecy of it all! What do you really look like? Why do you insist on covering up so much? He treats the MC like a forbidden treat, but genuinely loves the outfits they wear and, with a few adaptations, starts trying to get similar clothing trending in the Devildom, with some genuine success. His forward and suggestive nature is somewhere between disturbing and almost refreshing - its nice to be around someone so open once you get used to it.

Levi is the same as ever, but without all of his technology. The Devildom is still more advanced than the Human Realm, but I can see him with a typewriter writing out poetry and such. Perhaps he and Satan are closer during this time, Levi not being quite so much of a shut-in, and the two read and write together at times. Levi also helps contribute when Satan travels to the human realm to cause chaos - he doesn’t really care all that much, but its fun to lead any navy, even if its a pathetic human navy, and it helps him to de-stress and gives him some inspiration for his writing.

This changes when the MC arrives. He meets them on that first day when Mammon runs away, and they still go through with the pact plan. He’s a little less awkward, but still talks down to the human until they break their seemingly quiet and controlled nature and snap at him. It creates an interest for him, because he’s never seen humans up so close when he’s not fighting them, and he’d only paid attention to the fictional humans in his books. He ends up watching the MC and spending time with them when Mammon isn’t, one of the more controlled brothers who doesn’t really feel like hurting them because there isn’t some big game to play on a watery battlefield.

Lucifer is... busy. RAD isn’t what it is yet in the game - its tough trying to wrangle the demons in and to get them to adapt and better themselves. He’s determined to help Lord Diavolo however he can, but between getting everything set up and dealing with his brothers’ outbursts, he’s rarely able to see the MC.

When he does, he’s a bit of a mess, jumping between being proud and acting like a nobleman, to teasing them because before they’ve adapted to Asmo’s nature, their reactions to everything are entertaining. He’ll flirt and be downright inappropriate at times to get a reaction out of them, using it to help him stay calm amidst all the chaos. Because he usually ends up feeling calm or excited around them, he takes a liking to them quickly enough and ends up quite defensive.

He has quieter moments with them, too, if they know how to play the pianoforte. He invites them to play duets together, and likes to listen to them sing or work their way through the sheet music he has laying about. One day they quietly make their way through an old, old song he last heard hundreds of years ago, and he stands silently in the doorway before walking off to spend some time with his brothers, the memories of easier times fresh in his head.

Satan is also a mess but for different reasons. He’s suddenly lost his main output, and now there’s a human here that he’s not supposed to mess with? He might be a little manipulative at first, but one day he walks into the library and the MC is curled up reading one of the many books, or has discovered some of his writings and is smiling to themself as they read it before carefully and gently setting it back where it was. He changes after that, becomes quieter and tends to watch them a lot when the two are in the same room together. Were all humans like this when they weren’t fighting with each other? When they didn’t immediately rise to his words? It’s not that he feels guilty for the things he’s done, because he doesn’t feel he has done much other than offer advice to people already wanting to fight and conquer. But a soft spot develops for the quieter moments in human lives, where they create - through embroidery, drawing, painting, singing, etc. He finds a new output through them.

Beel tends to avoid the human, not wanting them to realise that he’s potentially been a catalyst for some of their struggles in the Human Realm. However, he begins to feel left out as his brothers are all one-by-one getting attached and spending more and more time with the human. They remind him of something, some old memories he’d long since pushed down, and now he isn’t sure whether he wants to remember or forget about them. They become easier, softer, to hold onto with this human around, and so he stays by their side whenever he can. They seem almost enchanted by him too, Beel being different from how most humans present themselves at the time. A common curiosity is what holds the two together, really.

Belphegor stays the same as he is in game. When the two eventually do bond, its because of Beel, and because all of his brothers are already so attached to the MC. He wanders around silently for the first few days he’s able to, watching them read with Satan or sneak into Levi’s room to write letters together, listening to them laugh with Mammon and Beel, and play piano with Lucifer - it’d been so long since he’d heard that song, since he’d heard Lucifer sing like that. Its hard not to get attached, and he realises that there’s no ill will in their heart at all despite everything the demons had done. One day he’s in the planetarium, laying on the floor with his eyes closed, taking a break from watching the stars. The MC walks in and freezes when they see him there, and they lay a blanket over him before leaving, and it settles everything into place for him. He could trust them.

Diavolo throws a lot of balls / parties for everyone to get acquainted, and because he heard it was common in the Human Realm. He has the MC and other humans help to teach the brothers some dances, and in return the brothers and himself teach them dances common in the Devildom. This sparks a jealousy between the brothers, who have all in one way or another, started to become attached to the MC. It becomes a silent battle of who can ask them to dance first, who gets to spend the most time with them, and so on.

Diavolo himself joins in if only to see the brothers reactions, and to see how well his plans have all worked out. The human seems content, seems to feel safe, and they smile calmly up at him and he feels guilty because he himself has accidentally caused harm to their kind before. How can they look up at him as if they’re safe in his arms, how can they laugh as the two dance together, practicing and developing a new dance that combines human and demon tradition together to form something new, to begin a new era? He relaxes over time, especially with Barbatos’ guidance and input. The plans are working and the MC is happy, and he feels like both are equal accomplishments.

Barbatos himself is happy to watch it all from the sidelines. He trusts that Diavolo will lead things where they need to go, and if anything happens, he knows he himself is capable of taking care of it. He finds himself curious about the human, who has settled into a life so different from what it had been. He doesn’t get too involved, but regularly brings them treats and, if he passes them at RAD, asks about how they’re doing. He mainly keeps Diavolo updated on anything he notices.

The angels aren’t brought into the picture yet, but a second exchange program is held shortly after that involves the Celestial Realm as well, and both Simeon and Luke quickly grow attached to the MC. They’ve helped so much with settling the Devildom and helping peace grow between the realms. Luke clings to them and asks about how they can cope around so many demons, and enjoys participating when they bake or draw or paint. Simeon’s interest is quieter, and he mostly enjoys watching how they interact with Lucifer, and seeing what traditions they have kept from the human world. Like Satan and Levi, he finds them to be an inspiration, and asks if he can write a story based on them.

[drwcn]

Hello! Please feel free to ignore this ayd. I'm writing a modern triad w magic au fic. In characterizing the sects as triads, I've dug into criminal tattoo practices in China in both modern and ancient times. I'm hoping to add piercings to one of them but there's not much historical info I can find other than a general taboo nature. Is it extremely insensitive for me to create my own triad-cultivator-piercing culture? Is it better/worse to base it on real practices from other cultures? Thanks!!

Nah you’re fine, go nuts. 

Although I will say Chinese families are still pretty ‘eh’ when it comes to piercings. It gives off a ‘bad boy’/’bad girl’ vibe to really traditional parents. Same with tattoos.