#Inkheart fanfiction

[takahero]

inspired by the prompt “i don’t think i’ve ever seen you smile” from this list

It happens when you’re least expecting it, as these things often do.

He laughs.

Only for a second, yet it softens his entire demeanour, takes years off him. Crinkles by his eyes. Lashes kissing cheekbones. It’s boyish, playful, and so genuine that it feels like you’re looking at him for the first time.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile before.”

He glances at you, brows lifting ever so slightly. You hold each other’s gaze for a heartbeat, then look away again, back at the still night.

“There’s little occasion to,” he confesses quietly, a few moments later.

His words linger in the silence — like a secret, like a sin. He gazes into the dark, searching for something that neither of you can see.

“Well, that’s a shame,” you sigh. “I think it looks good on you.”

He’s caught off-guard by that, thoughts momentarily betrayed by a look of stunned surprise.

“Careful, now,” he murmurs, and maybe it’s just your imagination, but it sounds like he’s holding his breath. “One might think you’re becoming rather fond of me.”

[tarrenterror25]

Capricorn x F!Reader Title: Take Me Home Word Count: 4.5K Rating: E

Summary: You are the second eldest daughter to the Adderhead and not yet married off by some miracle. This leaves room for a budding romance with a certain fire-raiser. The two of you must keep it secret lest your tyrant of a father find out.

Tags: Pre-Inkheart, medieval-typical circumstances, mention of arranged marriage/betrothal, heavy making out, grinding, forbidden relationship, mention of violence, some fluff, angst, pining, lost love, verbally abusive parent and family trauma, probably diverges from canon, reader is an adult (age not specified)

Notes: Title is from “This Could be a Dream” by Aurora. A really self indulgent piece. This is a medieval setting where some less than desirable stuff is canon so there’s mention of arranged marriages, some violence, etc. It’s been awhile since I’ve read the books so this probably is forgetting some canon facts or I’m just choosing to omit them (stares at “castle made of silver”?). This has been sitting complete in my drafts for a loong time, but here it is. I wanted to edit it more, but also was tired of it just sitting there so here ya go!

Playlist here

Mind the tags

Take Me Home

Clutching the skirt of your gown, you flee from the throne room. You brush past the maidservants and guards in your way, your dress trailing behind you as you hurriedly make your way out of the castle and into the eternal night.

Your father, the Adderhead, the Silver Prince, is a monster in every sense of the word. His wickedness knowing no bounds, he once again did nothing but insult you and your sisters.

“Useless.”

“A waste.”

Curse him. Curse him and his reign. You wish for nothing but everything that he does hold dear to turn to ash in his hands; for all of his silver to crumble beneath him.

Your pace slows once you reach the gardens. Soft light from lanterns illuminates the endless night

Seeing no one around, you catch your breath against a wall with some climbing vines.

Violante, the eldest, had just written you a letter telling you about how her marriage was going to Cosimo. Her words sounded neither happy nor sad, it just felt like a clinical account of her days. Worry settles into the pit of your stomach.

You’re supposed to be married; your father had arranged some marriages for you, but for different reasons they all fell through and by now you were older, well into adulthood, harder to get rid of. A waste of space in the eyes of your father. You watched your younger siblings already be promised to others. At this point your father didn’t care who the prospects were, he just wanted you all gone.

And so you were promised to someone, granted they met all the other contingencies like maintaining a pulse in the harsh conditions of Argenta. Nothing was set in stone, yet, but you knew that soon it would be. Soon your will would not be your own; even if it wasn’t your father, you’d still have to answer to someone else.

“Hey!” a voice whispers. “Psst!”

You turn your head towards the sound and smile. Capricorn hangs back in the denser brush behind a tall stone garden wall and beckons you to him.

You run to him and throw your arms around him. The two of you embrace tightly; tighter than the vines that cling to the castle walls, tighter than the roots of the the oldest trees in the Wayless Wood binding themselves to the ground. The two of you pull your heads back far enough to look into each other’s eyes, gaze flicking to the other’s lips. He leans forward and captures your lips in a heated kiss. There’s the faint trace of soot on his lips that you can taste and the smell of smoke wafts to your nostrils. You’d have to sneak to your chambers and run yourself a bath so as to not raise suspicion as to why the scent of fire is on you.

Capricorn carefully guides you to rest your back against the garden wall, his tongue brushing your bottom lip, asking for entrance. Your mouth barely opens before he deepens the kiss, swallowing your moans as he presses a thigh in between your legs. Your dress makes it difficult to feel any friction from his thigh, but with your hands braced on his broad shoulders you try anyways.

“I’d give anything to be out of this dress right now,” you pant.

“I’m sure we can figure something out,” Capricorn snickers in your ear, licking the shell of it and making you squirm in his grasp. “Don’t think your father would take kindly to the idea though,” he adds.

“I couldn’t care less about what he thinks,” you retort. “And you shouldn’t either.”

Capricorn presses against you with a sigh. “I have to,” he breathes. “He’d have my head if he knew I even looked at you.”

Even through the layers of your dress you can feel his member is hard and ready for you.

“How many times do I have to tell you that he doesn’t care about me or any of my sisters?” you huff through a moan.

“He cares enough to have nearly throttled me when he caught me staring at you last I was in his presence,” Capricorn explains. “Told me even I was too low to gaze upon his daughters.”

“After putting up with him the way you do, you’re more than deserving,” you say catching his lips in another kiss.

His kisses are even like fire; unpredictable and wild. His touch burns you deliciously like whipping flicks of a flame; his embrace warm like a hearth. By the powers of this world, all you want to do is unlace your bodice and let him ravish you right here among the wisteria.

The sound of footsteps in the grass reaches your ears and you rapidly pat Capricorn’s shoulder to signal for him to stop. It’s like he has to pry himself off of your body, he keeps going back in for ‘one more’ kiss. The footsteps are closer now and you can hear voices. “This way,” Capricorn breathes as he takes your hand.

The pair of you have snuck around the castle many times and know the winding corridors like you know the curves and dips of each other’s bodies. In the early days of your romance with Capricorn, you surprised him with your mischief when you showed him passages outside the castle that made traversing the grounds easier for two people in love. Under walkways and bridges, in abandoned tunnels underneath the foundation of the castle structure, and in lonely tower staircases the two of you exchange forbidden kisses and touches.

Stopping in a quite courtyard, you guide Capricorn to where the trees and brush can conceal your figures. Your fist your hand in his tunic and pull him close to kiss you again. You yearn for him to be closer than this, crave for your bodies to be joined in unison. Lust fills you with the burning desire, nay, the ache for him to just consume you, steal you, do all sorts of sinful things that weren’t meant for the light.

You palm him through his trousers and he grinds into your hand as he trails kisses on your neck and shoulders, pulling the neckline of your dress down as far as he can without exposing your breasts.

The two of you have never lain with the other; you’ve only had these passionate moments to sustain you. There were a couple of times when he had used his hands to pleasure you, bringing you to climax in his arms. You’d done the same for him, turned him into putty in your grip as you drove him over the edge.

Footsteps again and voices.

“Think someone went this way,” the faint voice of a guard notes.

“Follow me,” you say to Capricorn.

You leave the courtyard and enter the castle, careful to not let any of the servants or guards see you. Quietly, the two of you step across a hall to a door that’s set a few feet into a wall. You open it and he shuts it behind the two of you. The hallway you’re in now leads to the storage rooms. You lead him deep into the vaults of grain, wine, fruit, and meats. After some twists and turns, you end up in a room filled only with rolls of fabric, some sacks of cotton, wool, feathers, and other materials. You know that hardly anyone comes into this room specifically. It’s mostly untouched with barrels stacked in a corner that have been there since you were very young.

A few sacks of feathers and wool are already arranged on the floor and are already depressed where you two have laid side by side many times. Both of you settle into the familiar divot. He rests on one elbow and looks down at you with a soft smile.

“One day, I’ll take you away from this, all of this,” he says softly.

You feel your eyes water and you will your bottom lip to not quiver as you reply. “Truly?” you whisper.

He nods, serious and sure. “I’ll have my own castle and take you with me. We won’t have to answer to people like your father anymore.”

When you first met Capricorn, you assumed he was like any other rogue, you were somewhat familiar with his reputation. But he never spoke to you, he only stole glances at you, not the ones filled with lust wishing perverse things, but his eyes looked at you like you were beautiful. You spent your life being told how you were lower than low and if your father treated you as such, so why should anyone else regard you as any more? But Capricorn always looked at you with his soft pale eyes like all he wanted to do was hold you; cup his hands around your face like someone protects the flame of a candle with their hands from a cold wind.

The idea of getting close to one of the fire-raisers who worked for your father out of spite was a nice thought, but it was hardly at the forefront of your mind when you approached Capricorn first. The two of you just talked in passing, harmless chatter. You learned that like you, his family was not something he liked to dwell on and the two of you connected.

Now both of you answered to your father and both of you longed for freedom.

“And where will our kingdom be?” you ask with a smile, hand running through his dark locks of hair.

“Wherever you want,” he replies.

“Do you promise? To take me from here?”

“I swear it.”

His lips find yours and his body is on top of you. He gently guides your hands to rest above your head, hands trailing down your arms and bodice. Reaching down, he finds the hem of your skirt and hikes it up so he can settle between you legs better. He plants a hand on one side of your head and uses the other to pull back your thin chemise, the final layer of cloth separating him from your sex. Slowly, he begins to grind his clothed member against your center.

He’s firm and grinding against you perfectly, but the friction against your front makes your walls clench. The need for more is too hard to ignore, the ache to be filled by him.

Your hands fly down to the laces of his trousers and begin undoing them. He groans and puts a hand over yours to stop you.

“Can’t,” he breathes as he shakes his head. “We can’t.”

A needy whine escapes you. “I just need to feel you for a moment, please,” you beg.

Hesitantly, he shakes his head. “I want nothing more than to be inside you,” he says, his breathing heavy like a huge weight is crushing him, his voice a strained groan. “To even just allow my bare cock to kiss against your cunt, but we can’t.”

You’re grateful he has such a strong will because he’s right. As long as you remain the Adderhead’s daughter, the two of you can never be together in the way you want to.

“Once we’re out of here,” he says putting your hands back above your head, “I’ll take you.” He leans down and kisses your neck. “I’ll take you in every way you want me to.”

“I want you in as many ways as there are stars.”

Capricorn grunts as he grinds harder against you, your cunt throbbing as his clothed length strokes against your folds in just the right way. You’re trying to stifle your moans, but a high pitched cry escapes you.

Your hand flies to cover your mouth and Capricorn stills as the sound of maid servants can be heard outside in the hall.

“Did you hear that?” one says.

“Probably just the rats,” another replies.

Capricorn quickly stands and adjusts himself while you sort out your dress and hair.

The pair of you manage to find your way out of the storage vaults and back outside the castle, just near the edge where a fence keeps the lush green grass of the castle grounds away from the unforgiving dirt roads.

With ease, Capricorn climbs over the top and lands on his feet with a smile.

“Come back tomorrow?” you ask.

“I can’t,” he replies. “The Adderhead has a job for me and my men. I may be away for some time.”

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

He smirks and leans in close to the iron bars. “You never would have let me make it this far if I had told you.”

A final kiss and then he disappears leaving you alone.

The many days that follow are dull and bleak. You and your sisters try to just make it through your lessons and routine without running into your father. Being the eldest in the castle, you try to protect your younger siblings from his wrath, often taking the sting of poisonous words that he slews at you to spare them. All the years of his disdain have hardened you to take the blows and you even bite back with some of your own remarks.

Night falls and you sit in your chamber at the small desk and with a quill in hand you write to your sister, Violante. You tell her that you will not be marrying anyone your father chooses and you will not end up like her, unhappy and miserable. Someday, you’re going to leave Argenta and never come back. Your sisters will hopefully find their own way out, but as for you, you’ll risk everything to get away from your father.

Something hard pelts against your window and makes you whip your head around.

Your chamber is located upstairs, not too high, though nothing but the occasional bird should be disturbing you from outside.

Again, a loud whack on the pane.

You scrap the letter, pick up the lantern from your desk that provides the light for your room and go over to the window. You undo the latch that keeps it closed and look out.

Down below, a hooded figure stands holding a lantern as well. The figure removes his hood and you see it’s Capricorn.

Your heart swoons at the sight of your lover; it’s been far too long since you two last saw each other.

“Are you mad!” you loudly whisper.

“A little,” he says with a chuckle. “I wanted to see you.”

“You couldn’t wait until tomorrow?”

“No,” he says, his face turning serious. “No, I couldn’t.”

His words hit you like a catapult.

“If I had gone another day without seeing you,” he says, “then that would have been a day too long.”

Your heart flutters in your chest; you feel weightless, like you could float up into the night and be one with the moon.

“Can I see you tomorrow?” you ask.

He shakes his head.

“Then when?” you plead.

He’s silent for awhile until finally he just says, “I do not know.”

To Hell with all the things that keep you apart; your father, these castle walls, the damn height from your chamber window to the ground.

“Come up,” you say.

He smiles mischievously and places the hooped handle of the lantern in between his teeth and steps toward the stone of the castle wall. His hands search for handholds and he begins to pull himself up. He’s hardly a few feet off the ground when the sound of armor clinks in the distance; guards patrolling the grounds.

Your face is somber as he quietly drops back down to the ground.

“Better not,” he says. The sound of the guards is closer now. “I must go now,” he says.

“Wait, Capricorn!”

“As soon as I can, I will come to you, I promise,” he says before disappearing into the shadows.

More days pass and there hasn’t been any sign of Capricorn, but there is word of your father hosting a ball at the castle. It’s one of your sister’s birthday and the Adderhead is hoping the side effect of dancing and drinking can convince a noble to step forward and make a proposal.

Your maidservants come into your chamber to prepare you for the ball; they bathe you, dress you, layer fabrics onto you and lace you up into a deep navy gown adorned with silver embellishments. This dress is much fuller than the ones you usually wear; the sleeves rest just off your shoulder with the rest of them falling open at your elbows letting a trail of wispy fabric fall to that it trails should you move your arms. The maidservants adjust your hair and place a silver tiara on the back of your head. And still more silver adorns your body as if the accents on your dress did not serve reminder enough that the Adderhead favored the precious metal above all.

In the grandiose hall of the Castle of Night, the party goes on, but Capricorn has already found you and you guide him through the castle, careful to stay out of sight of everyone else. After navigating through the winding halls and twisting corridors, you stop at a secluded alcove that has a small window facing out towards the expanse of land beyond Mount Adder. No one should disturb you here.

Hand in hand, the two of you sit on the bench by the window. You lean forward to meet him halfway for a kiss. It starts slow and quickly becomes fervent. His hand finds your waist and pulls you close. “I’ve missed you,” you mutter softly.

“I can’t be away from the fortress for long,” Capricorn says. “I had matters to tend to.”

“You should just take me there,” you say moving in close to him again, eyes flicking to his lips. “Steal me away from here.”

His tongue darts out to wet his lips. “You want me to whisk you away then? Like a thief in the night?”

“Yes,” you breathe.

“If I didn’t fear for my life, I would,” he says kissing the corner of your mouth. “Right now.” He kisses the other corner. “I’d take you back with me to my home where we wouldn’t have to sneak around like this.”

“Please,” you beg, arching your body towards his. “Take me home.”

“One day,” he says. “One day, I’ll take you.”

“When?”

“Soon.”

You sigh woefully, almost like you could sob. “Not soon enough. I can’t stand it here any longer, I can’t take another day without you.” Your hands capture his face in between your palms. “Capricorn, I love you, I love you more than this castle loves the night, more than the embers of fires love the coals they cling to. Being without you is like being without air; I suffocate here without your presence.”

He embraces you tightly, his face burying into your neck. “When I am away from you, I am without,” he confesses with strained sigh. “My days and nights become one and I’m merely a wanderer in time.”

“Say you’ll take me home,” you plead softly trying to stifle the tremble in your voice, a tear escaping your eye as you hold him. “Please.”

He pulls away from you and wipes away the tear. “When I come back, I’ll take you.”

He says it with such assurance, like it’s not a fantasy or far off thought of ‘what if’. His eyes look into yours with sincerity that tells you he means it and you should be ready for him.

The rest of the evening is spent catching up on the time missed between the two of you with exploring hands and heavy kisses in between. Capricorn promises that he’ll come for you after he completes a raid. He’ll need the extra coin if you are to come with him.

A fortnight, he’ll come to you within a fortnight.

You’re all set. Everything is ready. You thought about leaving a snarky letter for your father, but decided against it. You have a rucksack packed with a couple of your more comfortable gowns. You’re excited to finally wear trousers and tunics like other women who don’t live in castles. You’ve packed your jewelry, all the silver is sure to be worth something to someone. Your heart races with anticipation to finally be with your lover, to finally be free. When the day arrives, you stay up all night waiting for him to show up.

But he never comes.

None of his fire-raisers are ever seen again.

You wait by your window, in the gardens, and outside near the stables, but Capricorn doesn’t show.

Your father thinks you’ve gone mad when the servants and guards find you standing near the castle gate almost every night. He can’t help but insult your sanity and with every passing day that Capricorn doesn’t show you begin to question it.

Word comes around that Capricorn’s fortress has been abandoned and it’s then that you accept that he is gone.

He is gone and all of the light of your life goes with him.

He’s left you behind.

In a castle in a rural part of the country of Italy, Capricorn sits in a room furnished with a large wooden desk. He sits at the head of a table and next to him a maidservant sits with paper and a pen. She recites to him the letters of the English alphabet, makes their sounds and he echos them back to her. She strings them together into words and sounds them out slowly.

Capricorn takes the pen and practices the motions that make legible text. During his first lessons, he was quite shaky and was easily frustrated when he failed, but now it’s much smoother though still a bit wonky.

The maidservant reads a book to him though he’s hardly paying attention to the actual meaning of the words, he’s only focusing on recognizing the letters and their sounds.

Finally, Capricorn dismisses the maid from his presence. When she leaves, he let’s out a long sigh.

He’s ready.

It’s taken many months after being in this world, but he feels he has enough literacy to look for the next person he wants Darius to read out. He has his servants, his fire-raisers, and even Mortola.

He reaches across the table and takes the pen and paper and slowly writes out the letters that spell your name.

He’s said it enough times in his head to know he has it right and there it is in front of him, in his handwriting.

He takes the paper and heads to his bedroom. There he opens a chest that has a a copy of Inkheart in it, his personal copy. He removes it and sits on his bed. One hand holds the paper with your name on it and the other flips through the pages of the book, his eyes skimming the text and looking for the familiar pattern of your name. He could have just asked Darius or the maidservants to look, but he wants to find you first, he wants to see with his own eyes the text that binds you.

It’s a crawl to get through the entire book at his pace, his eyes hurt from the walls of text he’s been searching through. He doesn’t take in much of what the words mean, he’s just trying to find you.

There are some words he recognizes and he clings to those letters and scans around the page looking for your name.

Adderhead. Silver. Castle of Night. Beautiful. Love.

None of these associations led him to your name. He’d have to resort to looking for other words that mention you. Not all of his fire-raisers or maidservants were listed by name and Darius was able to bring them here. Surely he could do the same for you.

Between the pages of this cursed book, Capricorn searches through all descriptions of Argenta from Mount Adder to his fortress, but all he finds is mention of your sister, Violante. There’s plenty about her, but none of you.

The next day, Capricorn tosses a copy of Inkheart to Darius and the paper with your name. He demands that the stuttering man find you within these pages. He says your name out loud and it nearly stuns him, the way it rolls off his tongue. How long has it been since he’s said or heard your name out loud?

“Any mention of her should bring her out, correct?” Capricorn snaps.

“Y-Yes!” Darius says. “B-But what d-d-do I look f-for ex-ex...exactly?”

“The Adderhead’s daughters. She’s the second eldest,” Capricorn explains. He describes you to Darius, your distinguishable features, your personality, and all the places you might be. “Find her.”

Capricorn leaves a couple of his men to keep an eye on Darius while he looks through the pages.

Night falls and there is still no word from the reader as to your whereabouts. Capricorn spends most of the day pacing in his room, snapping at anyone who bothers him.

He’s nervous; He’ll make sure to make Darius nice and comfortable for when he reads so not a single part of you gets left behind in the book. What will he say to you when you come out? He’ll have to explain everything and help you navigate the world, but he’ll have kept his promise to you, he’ll have stolen you away from your father, from Argenta, and most of all from world of Inkheart. He can’t wait to hold you in his arms again. You must be quite angry with him for not having returned when he said he would, but once Darius reads you out, you’ll forgive him and the two of you can go on living a new free life.

It’s Basta who fetches Capricorn from his chamber and insists that he speak to Darius himself.

“What?!” Capricorn shouts at the meek reader. “I gave you one simple task and you can’t even manage that?!”

“I-I’m s-s-sorry!” Darius says cowering from his captor. “I’ve g-g-gone through it m-many times!”

Capricorn shouts and yells at the reader to try harder, he slams the book in front of him and demands that he provide proof of his lack of findings.

But with every turn of the page, Capricorn feels rage inside of him at seeing that Darius is right; there is no mention of you in the book.

Nothing.

There is not even a single whisper about the Adderhead’s other daughters.

Distraught, Capricorn knocks the book out of Darius’ hands and storms off.

He stands in his bedroom looking out the window trying to remember the taste of your kiss, the scent of your perfume wafting off your soft skin, and the sound of your sweet voice in his ear.

In his hand is the paper with your name, crumpled now from being in his fist. He didn’t even notice he swiped it from Darius before he turned away from the reader, refusing to believe that there was no trace of you.

But it’s true.

Capricorn unfurls the paper.

There must be a way for him to see you again, there has to be. Until then, only in your name, in the written word, are you waiting for him.

[mischievoussilvertongue]

GUYS the first two parts of Scar(r)ed are out on my other Tumblr. A fic on how Dustfinger got his scars.

[happypeachsludgeflower]

Inkheart inspired SVSSS au where Shang Qinghua can influence the events of Proud Immortal Demon Way by writing new sections of the book, making it canon.

[awwyeah107]

Happy 1 year (and 1 month) anniversary to my first-ever published fic, Mending The Tears ❤️ I honestly had never dreamed I would publish any of my writing before this. But over time, as I wrote it, I decided why not share it? The Inkheart fandom is quite small and there's not a lot of fics out there, and I was happy with the quality of my work. The dialogue flowed so naturally when writing, so it was very enjoyable to create. I've since been overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of the comments I've received on it, and I will treasure them always.

[lostandbackagain]

inkheart could very easily have been an anti-fanfiction story and we should be actively grateful that it's not

[clowngremlin]

thinking about the inkheart message board i went on from like 2009-2011......i wonder if the other people who went on it still think of me or am i just sentimental...... i think about them often and i hope they all grew up to be happy..... inkers for life.....

[nyandereneko]

Spare Blanket

Word Count: 701 Summary: “With a reassuring smile and a confident squeeze of the hand, Nova followed Qifrey’s lead as the pair set off to find a cozier nest to settle into for the night.” Author’s Note: Day 5 of the prompt list I’ve been working from, Qifrey brain descended out of nowhere but I’m not complaining lol. Thank you for reading as always!

*****

She always seemed to catch him dozing in the most peculiar places. Slumped over a chair in the kitchen here, passed out at the drawing table there, squirreled away in who knows what kind of nook that she just so happened to be passing by at the time. As the hushed hours of night settled over the remote atelier, Nova could hear subtle notes of the evening’s ambiance ebb and flow through the halls, suffusing the air, caressing her ears with the comforting hum of the surrounding wilderness. The crackle of a fire or the stirring of pots had developed into a similar kind of comfort for her, much as she’d come to recognize the distinct rustle of a certain witch’s robes or the deft glide of his nib staining parchment.  

Qifrey wasn’t as transparent with his exhaustion as his warmhearted Watchful Eye tended to be, but Nova was more than shrewd enough to notice which days seemed to hang over him like a cloud. And that didn’t even account for the episodes of agony that struck him from time to time, symptoms of some insidious malady that she was still somewhat apprehensive to treat. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help him, more that she suspected he may end up resenting her aid more than he appreciated it. It was easy for him to justify her intervention in the moment, but when the fog cleared she wasn’t as confident as he seemed to be that his gratitude was genuine and unwavering.

Magic wasn’t the only thing she had to offer him, of course, and apart from playing his occasional partner in crime she took it upon herself to look after him to a certain extent, as much as she safely could. And as much as he would permit, stubborn as the snow-haired witch was. Sometimes that took the form of something as simple as covering his sleeping shoulders as he slumbered at his workspace—much as she was doing now—being careful to extricate some of the more uncomfortable items from beneath his resting head as she fussed about. She closed up his books, compiled his scattered notes, and neatly stored his arsenal of tools for casting. She didn’t dare to encroach upon him any further as he slept, more than aware of the depth of discomfort and agitation he tended to exhibit when someone invaded his personal space without warning.

But just as she was turning to leave, something unexpected snagged her wrist. The woman let out a startled yelp, fur fluffing up like she’d been shocked, and she buttoned her lips as swiftly as she could as her cry faded into the air. There was no doubt she must have disturbed the fatigued witch’s rest, but much to her own surprise Nova found a weak hand halting her retreat as a single bleary blue eye observed her over the soft curve of his shoulder. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…I was just—”

“I believe I’m the one who owes you an apology,” he corrected between yawns, releasing his hold as he sat up and stretched. “It wasn’t my intention to catch you off guard, I’m sorry for startling you.”

“No apologies necessary,” she replied with a smile. “However, I think you’d be more comfortable if you found somewhere a little softer and warmer to rest.”

“Am I to assume you have some such place in mind?” he asked with a playful edge, and Nova cleared her throat and swept a horde of unproductive thoughts into the darkest, dustiest corner of her mind she could find.

“Not necessarily, but it’s not like there’s a shortage of cozy places to curl up in around here.”

Qifrey rose from his seat, swaddling her in his cloak as she gasped and yielded to his embrace. “Let’s see what we can find, then, shall we?”

Nova simply nodded her agreement. She didn’t think she had the strength to voice a coherent reply, but her gesture of acknowledgement was more than sufficient enough for him. With a reassuring smile and a confident squeeze of the hand, Nova followed Qifrey’s lead as the pair set off to find a cozier nest to settle into for the night.

[dramaticinsomniac]

Hi there! This is a cringy introduction post

I’m Jim, a dyslexic english major who loves to read 📚

I adore fantasy, sci-fi, Y/A, queer and neurodiverse rep, but also will literally read almost anything!

Some of the great loves of my life so far include: The Shadowhunter Chronicles, Percy Jackson, Inkheart, Folk of the Air, The Raven Cycle, Graceling Realm, The Remnant Chronicles, Shades of Magic, and The Lunar Chronicles.

I am perpetually emotionally invested in fictional worlds and fictional characters, and am an avid consumer of fanfiction as well as published literature

I’m just getting back into having a public account after taking a hiatus from being perceived, and am building a following again!

Come be a dork with me about my favourite things!

[pallases]

HELP forgot how much i used to talk like a victorian child

[ambrial-blog]

Blood Ink:

Blitzo is a novelist. He has written numerous books under the mysterious pen name The Harlequin. Hells denzins are foaming at the mouth, eager to get their claws on the latest novel. But no one has ever seen his face or knows what the mysterious writer looks like. Blitzo has lived a rough life. Full of drugs and addiction. Now he lives in the wilderness with his best friend Fizzorolli. A wanted criminal. known for his inane charisma. A psychotic jester who had spent time in the pen. After putting Blitzo conceited father on life support. After catching the Ringleader trying to sell his twelve year old son, who he was passing off a thirteen-year- old off as a sex worker.

Fizzorolli was five years older then Blitzo. And on that day, Fizz narrowly saved Blitzo life. Escaping Valentino's wrath. Fizzorolli being nearly eighteen adopts Blitzo and shields him away from the preying eyes of hell.

Fizz embodies his psychotic nature. Never wanting to see the deadened look in Blitzo's eyes again. remembering the hellish nights of detox. Blitzo's heartbreaking screams that still pierce his skull.

Fizzorolli still has nightmares about the night he shot Cash in cold blood. And if he had to do it all over again. He'd make sure that the insidious ringleader was dead on arrival.

Valentino still prowls the streets of Pentagram city in a sleek black pimp mobile looking for the two imps who had gotten away every now and again.

Fizz finds himself down on his luck and sells his image to the sin of greed, Mammon for extra money in supporting Blitzo. Fizzorolli supports Blitzo's writing endeavors and enjoys listening to his fabricated tales.

For Blitzo's fifteenth birthday he manages to purchase a pen and ink set off the black market and gifts it to Blitzo.

The childlike jester is unaware of its magical properties. Fizzorolli sets up Blitzo's office adjacent to his own: sex line. a side Hussle. Within, Blitzo's office he has equipped a rustic old type writer: along with a mildly out of date computer. he has yet to set up. he prolongs setting it up as much as possible. instead he built him a mahogany desk and, fished out old antique styled lamp with a faulty fuse.

They didn't have much but they had each other.

Fizz had high hopes that Mammon would pull through for him. He had quit the circus. and only performs for Blitzo when Blitzo is feeling sad.

'"No one can beat out Abbot and Castello, Bannna pudding would always be there for wormhorse"

" and-how Blitzo predicted Fizzorolli’s accident. was astonishing. the only person who knew where they were was Mammon ." "Fizz controlled Blitzo's income. and how much of the world the imp got to see"

The scarlet devil has come a long way since his opioid addiction. the more he learned about what was going on behind closed curtains the more sick he felt. Blitzo was made into a drug mule early on in life. How Tilla could be so blind infuriated him. Blitzo still had lucid nightmares. and Fizz was desperate to get his best friend to focus on something else.

Meanwhile at night when Fizzorolli was away at Ozzie’s club. Blitzo would be hard at work creating worlds he could immerse himself in. He continued to write under the psyunumn Harelquin. Creating the Hellverse: and the characters that dwelled within. At night he could here the spurs of the cowboy roaming the halls as he slept under sihlouette of an owl prince. Blitzo was born with the knack of weaving tales… He just didn’t know how he would breach the subject of him leaving the safety of the cabin to Fizz. It wasn’t just the Cowboy and the Goetia Prince who haunted his every waking moment. It was Fizz himself.

[aceofwhump]

Do you have any gifs of these tropes?

One of my FAVORITE caretaker tropes is when the caretaker steps in front of whumpee to protect them. Not face to face but like if the whumper is in front of both of them, so the caretaker moves in front of whumpee to get them out of view of whumper, take the first hit, etc.

Or even if it’s not fully in front of whumpee. Like if someone threatened whumpee so caretaker takes a step forward, not in front of whumpee to shield them, but in a ‘say that again’ way. As a threat towards whumper.

Or when caretaker puts their arm out. To push whumpee behind them or to stop them from going towards whumper. ITS SO GOOD!!!

Especially if the caretaker is an older brother protecting their little brother. 😌😩

That is one of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE TROPES!!!! EVER!!!!! I love when it happens especially in fanfiction and I die every time. I do have a few gif examples for you too! Please enjoy the following:

Doctor Who - Donna stepping in front of 10 in "The Runaway Bride"

National Treasure Edge of History- 1x10 Owen in front of Tasha

Our Flag Means Death - 1x09 Teach in front of Stede

Merlin 2x04 when Arthur pulls Merlin behind him

Hawkeye 1x04 Clint stepping in front of Kate

Inkheart Dustfinger steps in front of Farid

Superman & Lois 2x02

Agents of Shield 1x07 and 3x09

Lucifer 3x24 when Chloe steps in front of Lucifer

NCIS 1x20

The Magicians Margo and Eliot

The Umbrella Academy

Lost in Space 1x06

[skumhuu]

Tell publicly 3 facts about yourself or your three favourite songs or favourite books (it can be anything, really-whatever you want to share/feel like talking about) then send it some people you like! 😃

don't feel like doing it again xD it's just because you're part of the "people i like" <3

Three facts:

-I have two cats! Sammy and Marmalade (Marma for short)

-My favorite movies growing up have been studio ghibli movies, especially castle in the sky, Kiki’s delivery service, and the secret world of arrietty. I also love the httyd movie as well as rise of the guardians. I tend to cycle through the same ten movies over and over 😂

-I read so many books and fanfictions as a kid, for dark series I love V.C.Andrews, for a lighter series I love the Inkheart series. For fanfictions I grew up on Danny Phantom fics and especially loved Danny Phantom/Teen titans crossovers.

[fandomimaginewasteland]

Who and What I Do Picture Imagines and x reader Fanfiction For

List updated as of: 11/05/24!

💗 - My Favorite Characters & Fandoms To Do Picture Imagines & Write For

✒️ - Who I will eventually for sure write fanfiction for

Picture Imatine Request status: OPEN

x reader fanfiction request status: CLOSED *TBD*

American Horror Story:

Jimmy Darling | Kit Walker | Kyle Spencer | Tate Langdon

Angels of Death: 💗

Zack Foster 💗✒️

Assassination Classroom:

Karma Akabane 💗✒️ | Gakushu Asano 💗 | Ryonusuke Chiba | Itona Horibe 💗 | Yuuma Isogai 💗 | Tadaomi Karasuma | Hiroto Maehara 💗 | Ren Sakakibara 💗 | Nagisa Shiota 💗 | Tomohito Sugino 💗 | Ryouma Terasaka

Attack On Titan: 💗

Armin Arlert | Bertholdt Hoover 💗 | Connie Springer 💗✒️ | Erwin Smith | Eren Yeager💗✒️ | Furlan Church | Jean Kirstein 💗✒️ | Levi Ackerman 💗✒️ | Marco Bodt | Reiner Braun 💗 |

Avatar: The Last Airbender & The Legend of Korra: 💗

Bolin 💗 | Desna | Jet 💗 | Mako 💗 | Sokka 💗 | Zuko 💗✒️

Chronicles of Narnia:

Caspian | Edmund Pevensie | Peter Pevensie

DCAU:

Dick Grayson (Young Justice & OG Teen Titans)

DCU:

Barry Allen | Bruce Wayne | Clark Kent

Death Note: 💗

Light Yagami 💗✒️ | L Lawliet | Mello

Demon Slayer: 💗

Genya Shinazugawa 💗✒️ | Giyuu Tomioka 💗✒️ | Inosuke Hashibara | Kyojuro Rengoku 💗 | Muichiro Tokito 💗 | Muzan Kibitsugi 💗 | Obanai Iguro 💗 | Sanemi Shinazugawa | Tanjiro Kamado 💗 | Tengen Uzui | Yushiro 💗 | Zenitsu Agatsuma

Disney:

Jack Sparrow 💗✒️ | Jay (Disney's Descendants) | Harry Hook (Disney's Descendants) 💗 | Jim Hawkins 💗 | Kylo Ren | Poe Dameron | Varian (Tangled: The Series) 💗

And other various Disney characters

Dragon Ball Z Kai/Super: 💗

Android 17 💗 | Broly 💗 | Future!Trunks 💗 | Goku | Gohan | Vegeta 💗✒️

Divergent:

Eric | Four/Tobias Eaton

Fairy Tail: 💗

Erik/Cobra | Freed Justine | Gajeel Redfox 💗✒️ | Gray Fullbuster 💗 | Hibiki Lates | Jackal | Jellal Fernandes 💗✒️ | Laxus Dreyar | Loke/Leo The Lion 💗 | Lyon Vastia 💗✒️ | Macbeth/Midnight | Mystogan/Edolas!Jellal 💗 | Natsu Dragneel 💗✒️ | Future!Rogue Cheney 💗 | Rogue Cheney 💗✒️ | Rufus Lore 💗 | Sting Eucliffe 💗✒️ | Yuri Dreyar 💗 | Zeref Dragneel 💗

Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them:

Credance Barebone | Newt Scamander 💗✒️

Glee:

Noah Puckerman

Harry Potter: 💗

Bill Weasley | Cedric Diggory | Draco Malfoy 💗✒️ | Fred Weasley 💗 | George Weasley 💗 | Harry Potter 💗✒️ | James Potter | Neville Longbottom 💗 | Oliver Wood 💗 | Percy Weasley | Ron Weasley 💗 | Tom Riddle | Seamus Finnegan | Severus Snape | Viktor Krum

How To Train Your Dragon:

Hiccup Haddock

Hunger Games:

Cato Hadley | Gale Hawthorne | Peeta Mellark

Inkheart:

Dustfinger

Into The Woods:

The Prince (Cinderella) | The Prince (Repunzel's Prince)

InuYasha:

Inuyasha 💗✒️ | Koga | Miroku 💗✒️ | Sesshomaru 💗✒️

Jujutsu Kaisen: 💗

Choso | Kento Nanami | Mahito | Megumi Fushigoro 💗✒️ | Ryomen Sukuna ✒️ | Saturo Gojo 💗✒️ | Suguru Geto | Toge Inumaki ✒️ | Toji Fushiguro | Yuuji Itadori 💗✒️

Jurassic Park & Jurassic World Universe:

Alan Grant | Bilbo Baggins | Frodo Baggins | Ian Malcolm | Owen Grady 💗✒️ | Kenji Kon

Lord of The Rings/The Hobbit:

Aragorn | Bard | Legolas Greenleaf 💗✒️ | Thorin Oakenshield

Marvel:

Bucky Barnes 💗✒️ | Charles Xavier | Clint Barton | Erik Lehnsherr | Grant Ward | Harry Osborn | Loki 💗✒️ | Peter Parker ✒️ | Peter Quill ✒️ | Phil Coulson | Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider (Agents of SHIELD Ghost Rider) | Steve Rogers 💗✒️ | Stephen Strange | T'Challa | Thor | Tony Stark 💗✒️ | Wade Wilson

Marvel Actors:

Tom Hiddleston

Maze Runner:

Gally | Newt 💗✒️ | Thomas

My Hero Academia: 💗

Dabi 💗✒️ | Denki Kaminari 💗✒️ | Eijirou Kirishima 💗✒️ | Hitoshi Shinsou 💗✒️ | Inasa Yaorashi | Izuku Midoriya 💗✒️ | Jin Bubaigawara/Twice | Kai Chisaki/Overhaul | Katsuki Bakugou 💗✒️ | Keigo Takami/Hawks 💗✒️ | Mirio Togata ✒️ | Natsuo Todoroki | Neito Monoma 💗✒️ | Rody Soul 💗✒️ | Shouta Aizawa 💗✒️ | Shoto Todoroki 💗✒️ | Tamaki Amajiki ✒️ | Tensei IIda | Tenya IIda 💗✒️ | TetsuTetsu TetsuTetsu | Tomura Shigaraki 💗✒️ | Yo Shindou 💗

Naruto/Naruto Shippuden: 💗

Deidara | Gaara 💗✒️ | Itachi Uchiha ✒️ | Kakashi Hatake | Madara Uchiha | Naruto Uzumaki ✒️ | Neji Hyuga 💗✒️ | Pain | Rock Lee | Sasuke Uchiha 💗✒️ | Shikamaru Nara

Night at The Museum:

Ahkmenrah

Once Upon A Time:

Killian Jones

Ouran High School Host Club:

Hikaru Hitachiin 💗 | Kaoru Hitachiin 💗 | Kyoya Ootori 💗✒️ | Ritsu Kasanoda | Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka | Tamaki Suoh 💗✒️

Pride, Predjudice & Zombies:

Mr. Darcy

Rise of The Guardians:

Jack Frost 💗

Supernatural:

Dean Winchester | Sam Winchester

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlles *2012 Series & Bayverse Movies!* 💗

Casey Jones | Donatello | Leonardo | Michelangelo | Raphael 💗✒️

The Walking Dead: 💗

Carl Grimes | Daryl Dixon 💗✒️ | Glenn Rhee | Negan Smith 💗✒️ | Rick Grimes 💗✒️ | Shane Walsh

Tokyo Ghoul: 💗

Ayato Kirishima 💗✒️ | Hideyoshi (Hide) Nagachika ✒️ | Ken Kaneki 💗✒️ | Kuki Urie 💗✒️ | Nishiki Nishio 💗✒️ | Uta

Twilight:

Edward Cullen | Jacob Black

Yuri On Ice!!!:

Viktor Nikiforov 💗✒️ | Yuuri Katsuki | Yuri Plisetsky (Yurio) 💗✒️

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

Hello there!

I’m currently searching for more books to read. Although, my reading list is quite full (43 right now) I kind of want more. Do you have any recommendations?😊

Love you and have a fantastic day/night/whenever you like to answer this!❤️

HI ANON MAGGOT LOVE YOU TOO! This is literally the perfect ask because I've been meaning to recommend some books but never got around to it.

OKAY LOIN THY OILSACKS OR SOMETHING HERE GOES:

YA Fiction:

I Wish You All The Best by Mason Deaver, it's a beautiful story about a nonbinary teenager with an adorable love interest.

Loveless by Alice Oseman, literally so fucking intense and amazing in both plot and character, the level of drama, it's an aroace coming of age story.

I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman, it's about a fangirl of a boyband and what happens when circumstances push her favourite member and her together. It's nothing like what you'd expect, and it feels like a real book about the real present times, yknow?

Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke (not sure if it's middle grade or YA but oh well), all three books were my childhood and rereading them now, there's so much more to them than I remember, the characters are so enchanting and the world is so intricate and fantastical. If you haven't heard of it, the premise is that a bookbinder named Mo can read aloud characters to life from books.

Classics/Older books:

Sherlock Holmes by ACD, the originals, literally so much gayer than any fanfiction could ever be. Like wtf. That shit is iconic and beautiful and Watson spends far more time describing Sherlock's 'nimble' fingers and 'thin sinewy muscle' and the 'dreamy look' in his eyes (ALL CANON FROM THE 1890s-1900s BTW) than any bloody deduction.

Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, I'm literally so pissed she isn't given as much credit as a serious writer as her sisters because holy fucking shit I adore Tenant of Wildfell Hall, the protagonist is such an iconic and gorgeous and strong woman with so much complexity and it's written so creatively.

Adult Romance:

Ali Hazlewood. All books by Ali Hazlewood. Can't narrow them down. She's a scientist and romance writer and her books are such fucking comfort food with the usual fake dating, enemies to lovers, those kinda tropes but set in STEM fields with amazing natural diversity representation, so much valid commentary on women in STEM, and idk I'M JUST FILLED WITH JOY AFTER READING HER STUFF.

OKAY I SHOULD STOP HERE OR I NEVER WILL BOOKS ARE MY LIFE OOPS LOVE YOU MAGGOT HAVE THE LOVELIEST OF DAYS BYEBYE~

[awwyeah107]

Forays Into Fandom

I felt it would be appropriate for one of my first posts on Tumblr to be about fandoms, and I’ve had this bouncing around in my head for a little while, so I wanted to share it. Basically, it’s my timeline of discovering fandoms and hyperfixations on media as well as some thoughts on my experiences with fandom recently. Also, heads up, it’s pretty long XD

One day, when I was 8 years old, I was at over at my best friend’s house and found a book with an orange cat on the front of it. I was intrigued, and I asked to borrow it. From the very first page, I was captivated.

Thus, I was introduced to my first real fandom: Warriors (aka Warrior cats).

And the rest is history.

Over the years since then, I’ve had the joy of discovering many more fandoms. I was in many fandoms before I knew what the term was, and I wrote fanfiction and drew fan art before I was aware that those were things other people did.

Around the time I first found Warriors, I started discovering more fandoms, most of which were book-based and of the fantasy fiction genre. This kicked off what one might call my “fantasy phase,” which I would say is still technically going. Back when it started, however, it was marked by devouring any and all (mostly) age-appropriate fantasy books. As I said, I don’t think my fantasy phase ever stopped. But that time of my life was when my love for all things magical and mythical came alive. My tweens brought more fandoms, including bigger/more well-known fandoms like Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, as well as smaller fandoms like the Books of Beginning, the Land of Stories series, and Michael Vey.

The next major milestone in my fandom life came when I started watching the TV show Once Upon A Time. OUAT was the first fandom TV show I ever seriously watched, and it introduced me to my first OTP: Captainswan. I don’t think I have ever fangirled harder over a fictional couple nor shipped characters more intensely. I literally put their wedding anniversary (the date their wedding episode aired, that is) on my Google Calendar: May 7th, 2017. I love Once Upon A Time so much; I love how hopeful it is, I love the fantasy elements, and I love the characters and their relationships.

Then, my Tolkien hyperfixation started when I went to go see The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in theater. It was my first Tolkien movie, and although people often criticize The Hobbit movies (myself among them), I will always be grateful for that film. It drew me into Middle-Earth and kept me spellbound throughout the entire movie. I had read The Hobbit when I was younger, for a book club, so I was generally familiar with the story: I knew Bilbo and the dwarves journeyed to Erebor to take back the mountain from the dragon Smaug. Despite the changes in storyline that they made for the movie, I was able to follow along enough to enjoy it. This led me to watch the other Hobbit movies and some behind-the-scenes/making of videos.

Right around the time I started watching Once Upon a Time and saw The Battle of the Five Armies, my mom started letting me use her Pinterest account (and then shortly thereafter, she let me create my own). Pinterest was my gateway into social media, and more importantly in this case, fandom media. I knew Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook existed, but I didn’t know of Tumblr until Pinterest. I was surprised and delighted to find that people posted online about books, TV shows, and movies that I enjoyed. Tumblr posts on Pinterests were how I learned of the term “fandom” in the first place. They were how I learned of the “golden age of Tumblr,” of SuperWhoLock, of iconic Tumblr posts (e.g., none pizza with left beef), and of fandom overall.

This marked another turn: I stumbled across a piece of fanfiction. And I was enthralled. Most of my reading was Hobbit and Captainswan fanfics. However, I felt quite guilty for reading it, because my parents had told me that I shouldn’t browse any websites they hadn’t approved first. I didn’t ask them because I was scared they would say no, since they didn’t know what it was. So although I enjoyed reading fanfiction, I felt like I had to hide it from my family. Finally, after two weeks of summer camp and vacation where I didn’t have access to any electronic devices that I could read fanfiction on, the habit was broken, and I stopped reading fanfiction. However, I dreamed that perhaps one day, I could admit what I had done to my parents and I could read fanfiction again. (More on this later.)

Because I needed something to fill the gap that fanfiction left, I decided to dive into Tolkien’s stories. I read Lord of the Rings and then took on The Silmarillion. Those took me into my freshman year of high school, along with Marvel movies—I started watching those with some of my friends, and Marvel was one of my top hyperfixations for quite a while. I also discovered a few other fandoms in high school that I really enjoyed: two of the more well-known ones would be Fablehaven and The Selection (the latter was my first taste of a romance-focused series). I was still an avid Once Upon a Time fan, though my hyperfixation on it waned when season 7 aired (I didn’t watch past the first couple of episodes because the majority of the main cast was gone and the overall story was different).

In late high school, after Once Upon a Time had finally ended and my Marvel hyperfixation started dying down, I began watching Doctor Who. I had always thought the show sounded interesting, but it wasn’t until a friend of mine insisted I sit down and watch the first couple episodes with her that I decided I wanted to watch it. (I have never, ever watched a show for which I have gotten SO many spoilers. Never. Most of that was definitely my own fault, because I had seen lots of SuperWhoLock content on Pinterest and I wasn’t super careful about avoiding spoilers once I started watching the show, but occasionally I would just run into something on social media or a friend would tell me something. I still haven’t fully caught up on the show, lol.)

When I started college, I found a roommate who, among the many amazing things about her, shared a love of fandoms with me. We had a lot of big fandoms in common, but also some smaller or less-known ones too. Because of this, we have had tons of discussions about different fandoms, watched TV shows and movies together, and freaked out about new announcements concerning fandoms. To this day we still do those things; we’ve been sending each other stuff about the upcoming Percy Jackson TV series, and we watched the first two Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials together.

Another turning point came when I discovered the band Greta Van Fleet in 2021. Before this, I had enjoyed different bands, but I had never really found a favorite band, so to speak: one where I liked all the songs, where I knew all the members’ names, where I kept up to date with their tours, where I watched interviews with the band, where I knew lots of background info about the band, etc. Most times, I heard a few songs from a band and went “They’re cool, but I’m not hooked.” This time was different. I really liked their first song I heard, Talk On the Street, so I decided to check them out. I listened to their songs and thought, wow. Their songs match my taste in music SO well! I was like “YES, I’ve found a band that plays the exact kind of music I like to hear!”. Another reason I liked the band was that the songs were not all about drinking, drugs, and sex. Most of them were about other, more philosophical things, without any loss of rock ‘n roll. This, I would say, is really where music and fandom collided for me. A band fandom (“banddom”?) definitely feels different than a media/fiction-focused fandom, because these are real people, and as such, I’ve drawn different boundaries in terms of how I engage with it. My hyperfixation on Greta Van Fleet has calmed down a bit, but they still have a very special place in my heart.

My newest fandoms are Inkheart and Shadow & Bone/Six of Crows, which I discovered in 2022. Inkheart was one of the books that had been on my to-read list for forever, and I finally decided to read it. I absolutely loved it (and the sequels); the style really took me back to the start of my “fantasy phase” when I was younger. As for Shadow and Bone, one of my friends persuaded me to watch it, and one night when I didn’t have any schoolwork, I decided to watch a few episodes. After the third episode, I was invested enough that I had to finish the first season, and then I read the books before the next season came out. I hadn’t realized before what a large fandom the Six of Crows books had, but upon reading the books, I immediately understood why—the character arcs and relationships are so compelling, and the setting and plot aren’t what I would expect of the typical fantasy world in fiction. (Interestingly, Inkheart and Shadow & Bone/Six of Crows are the first two fandoms I have published fanfic for!)

Sometime during college, I started reading fanfiction again on and off. And I found myself comfortable with admitting to my parents/family that I used to read fanfiction, and that I read it now. I haven’t discussed it with them further, and still don’t really talk about it much (though sometimes I'll tell my sister about fics I’m reading). January 2023 saw me getting back into reading Tolkien fanfiction, especially Tolkien fanfiction. I found some of the old fanfics I had read during my first fanfiction era, and I felt like I was 14 again, reading the stories I had read back then. I reached out to one of the authors, and it gave me so much joy to tell this person, “Hey. I couldn’t tell you back then, but I read your stories years ago and they’re some of my favorite stories. Thank you.” I’ve kept reading Tolkien fanfiction since then, and weirdly enough, it prompted me to read The Silmarillion again (it was my third time through, and it was the easiest time I’ve had reading it by far). I’ve been in the grip of the Tolkien fandom all year, and I’m planning on sharing a “Fanfiction Wrapped” soon (well, it’s going to be a fic rec list, but now I’m thinking of doing a real Fanfiction Wrapped…lol) for my favorite Tolkien fics I’ve read this year, as well as the handful of fics for other fandoms I discovered in 2023. I’ve found so many great stories and wonderful authors this year, and I want other people to get to experience the joy of new stories and authors too. Plus I love finding fanfic rec lists, so I thought it would be fun to do a rec list of my own.

For so long, I didn’t realize how much of a community aspect there is to fandom—and I think that’s because my parents kept me safe from the internet. I understand that and I will always be grateful that they kept me protected from really nasty, dangerous things that are present on the internet. I don’t feel any resentment towards my parents for that whatsoever. But now, as an adult in my early 20s, I’ve discovered that I can make my own choices about the community side of fandom and how much I choose to participate in it. It’s still something I’m pretty tentative about, at least when it comes to posting publicly; I’m very aware that anything that is put on the internet may very well be there forever. Public Discord servers feel a bit more private, because you have to join them to see the conversations taking place there, but they’re still public. Especially at this point in time, internet safety and privacy is quite important. However, you can still have fun while being safe, so that’s what I’m hoping to do. I’ve created this blog, I’ve joined some public Discord servers for fandoms, and I’ve even posted fanfiction. I have no idea how much further I’ll go into the online world of fandoms and fandom community—or just into the world of internet interaction and posting in general—but I’m interested in seeing where the journey will take me.

And who knows, maybe there’s a kid (or teen, or young adult) out there like me, who is tentatively taking their first steps into fandom and figuring out what this is all about. If that’s you, hello! And if not, hello to you too!

At the start of the year, I discovered the song “Still Into You” by Paramore through a YouTube compilation of Hobbit TikToks. (Yes, I know, I’m literally 10 years late to the game on that song, lol.) But it made me think of all my fandoms that I’ve had hyperfixations on and that come up now and again, like the Tolkien fandom.

So, to my fandoms: after all this time, I’m still into you :)