#It's a series actually (there's more in the works for the same verse because there's so much we wanna do with Near and his Mello introject)

[queer-omens-in-the-archives]

sweet atonement

Relationship: Mello/Near Rating: Mature Chapters: 2/2 Words: 1,735

'Near.' 'Mello.' 'Which of us is going to get Kira first...?' 'The race is on...' 'Our destination is the same. I'll be waiting for you when you get there...' That's what Near is hoping for with all his strength, more fiercely than he's ever hoped for anything.

Warnings: Suicide Attempt (No Archive Warnings Apply) Tags: Multiplicity/Plurality, Near's Mello Introject, (could not put this any more succinctly), (learned recently that in one of the more recent DN adaptations Near & Mello are a system from the start, this isn't that. Here Near introjects Mello after Mello's death as a coping mechanism for the grief, is it a psychological phenomenon or is it possession by a ghost? You decide! It's left ambiguous on purpose.), Dissociation, Lucid Dreaming, Angsty Beginning with a Much Softer Ending, Post-Canon, (ignoring the one-shots though not necessarily contradicting them)

[read on AO3]

[beforetimes]

okay so! female shen jiu! let's talk about it! [long post warning]

so. i have a lot of thoughts about this concept/au. but like mostly in how it will affect shen jiu's general reputation/the rumours surrounding her (will be using she/her and feminine terms for shen jiu throughout this!). as well as the way her relationships with the people around her would change + the way shen yuan would navigate this world with the combination of his obliviousness + his perception of the genre he's working within + what potential romance with would look like in this au!

also you will have to forgive me in advance for the very western-centric arguments i will be making in this because. i am working off what i discuss at university which is unfair to apply to a chinese novel but! this isn't a serious critique as much as it is a fun thought experiment to run through because i enjoy applying these theories to things i read and enjoy. so take a lot of this with a grain of salt as far as serious criticisms go because i am not making any! just off-handedly discussing things i thought would be interesting to chew on in this verse.

rumours of lechery :

one thing i think would be interesting would be the way shen jiu visiting brothels would be perceived in this universe. i felt that in pidw, it was a problem because it compounded with the accusation that he preyed upon his female disciples. but in a universe with a female shen jiu, i think those rumours would be squashed before they even started. i know that it's popular to assume that homophobia doesn't exist in the svsss universe, which i'm pretty sure is implied canon and not fanon. but i feel this doesn't really account for lesbianism, which is veryyy absent from the novel past fanon extrapolated from a few scenes here and there. which is fair! the entire genre of the series revolves around a male x male pairing. i just guess i want to know in a more meta sense if airplane, while writing pidw, kind of wrote in the same invisibility of lesbianism into the work that would carry over when shen yuan eventually shifted the genre to a bl.

what i mean by invisibility of lesbianism is that historically, while homosexuality was prosecuted both as a mental illness and a crime categorized under sodomy (mostly due to the disruption of social order) there was a lot less scrutiny placed on lesbian relationships. mostly because they were essentially non-existent in the eyes of the law in the early? 18th and 19th century (feel free to fact-check me on this). as far as i recall this was mostly because without the actual like. act of penetration there was confusion on how sodomy between females would necessarily work. as well as the fact that female sexuality was something that the law was unconcerned with in general. but that's a bit of a tangent.

anyway! i bring this up because while the utopian view of homophobia as non-existent in the pidw/svsss-verse is awesome, i don't think there's necessarily evidence to argue that misogyny is treated the same way. which is important! because the invisibility of lesbianism is tied into both homophobia AND misogyny! which is a very roundabout way of saying that were shen jiu a woman in the pidw/svsss verse, there wouldn't be as severe of a case to make for her supposed lechery if she visited brothels because of the invisibility of female sexuality. and that even if she was having sex there, would they even necessarily know how to legally prosecute that?

also like. i know it can be tempting to argue against this as a concept because the setting itself has no homophobia at all so how can lesbianism be invisible but like! on a more meta level we have to keep in mind that airplane (who i'm assuming for the sake of this argument is a cis man because there is no canonical argument for any other conclusion, as far as i remember) wrote this novel, and the original novel inarguably employed misogynistic tropes in the creation of luo binghe's harem. and despite how shen yuan eventually shifted the genre, the original world he landed in was very much pidw before it started to morph around shen yuan's choices. which is again a very roundabout way to say that misogyny very much could still exist in this world because of the biases of its creator and the lack of evidence against it.

i'd actually argue that the existence of the brothel itself implies misogyny exists in the pidw/svsss world but that's neither here nor there.

anyway! a very long way to say shen jiu's original lecherous rumours very well may not have existed. and rather than the problem being her sexual life, it would be the disruption of social order (which can also be prosecuted under sodomy!). because i'm assuming with the reputation of the sect on the line and the seemingly accepted view of immortal cultivators as beyond earthly desires, the problem would be less with shen jiu's presumed salacious desires concerning her young female disciples but rather the disruption of these social norms put upon cultivators. but also sodomy wouldn't necessarily exist in this universe because of the lack of homophobia! so maybe the only rumours going around would be of shen jiu being a man-hating prude in comparison to her canon counterpart's more serious and lecherous accusations.

moving on!

relationships with people :

i feel that her relationships with the people around her would be changed, but only slightly. for example, with liu qingge, i recall that despite the two of them fighting and being at each other's throats most of the time, one of the most decisive moments for their rivalry/hatred of each other would have been when liu qingge dragged shen jiu out of the brothel and got in a fight over it. which i explained in the reasons above might not have been such a big deal now that shen jiu was a woman. but there would definitely still be animosity between them because of all the other usual reasons (mostly shen jiu's and liu qingge's attitudes and world views clashing).

which may even be exacerbating with shen jiu canonically being a woman in this verse! it's not stated too explicitly but i feel there is still like. a broader social acceptance of the fact that female disciples (ie ning yingying) need to be doted on and babied more. which could be misogyny in this universe rearing its head. so if you combine this with shen jiu's need to be strong while constantly lashing out at the world so she doesn't get taken advantage of in the way she was at the qiu mansion, you get a! very explosive, vindictive, delicate relationship that honestly probably fared worse than canon. i feel shen jiu would be twice as aggressive with men in this universe because of this perception of female disciples/cultivators. (i say cultivators but honestly i see less evidence of that here. maybe ning yingying was a fluke? though that begs the question of why there would be a peak of just female disciples if not for the existence of misogyny (specifically misogyny that affects cultivators as well) in this world!)

i think shen jiu's relationship with yue qingyuan would stay mostly the same. i don't have a lot to say about that, really. i think the devotion from yue qingyuan and shen jiu's hatred in return because of the misunderstandings between them is something that wouldn't be influenced by gender. though that could be a blindspot in my perception, hahaha.

there is a world where shen jiu is more aggressive with yue qingyuan for the same reason she's aggressive with liu qingge, though! maybe she sees his deference to her as something that is like. pity born of misogyny and mostly because yue qingyuan looks down on her on top of his guilt complex. in that shen jiu thinks that he assumes she's a weakling and thus needs his helping hand/his dismissal of her more abusive, violent and disruptive actions as a favour. i think maybe while they would grow up together and he might not necessarily ring the same alarm bells as other unfamiliar men for shen jiu, she would still be. slightly uncomfortable at the prospect of a man with so much authority over her paying her such attention. if that makes sense.

moving on, though!

qiu mansion and that whole mess :

take everything implied in canon and make it like. nine times worse. is the general vibe i get when considering that era of time in this au.

because! if i'm going off the baseline assumption that qiu jianluo is still attached to shen jiu and the implied sa that she faces still occurs here, i believe the arranged marriage would be made not between qiu haitang and shen jiu but qiu jianluo and shen jiu. which i feel would give him a lot more access to her as there would be little excuse for shen jiu to be hanging around qiu haitang as much as she did. though she would be roomed with the female servants in the house rather than the male ones, there is also the possibility that qiu jianluo would just repeatedly summon her into his room. though again, no homophobia in this verse means there's no reason for him not to do that in the canon, non genderbent verse, so things on that front might not change much.

the aftermath of the qiu mansion disaster though! i think that would be interesting to see. because i feel there is (unfortunately) a very different connotation between male slave forced to marry young woman of the household and female slave forced to marry young man of the household. while i don't know the legalities of it in this verse, i'm assuming based on the shen jiu's perceived crimes against ning yingying in pidw that this would be frowned upon. though it could also not be! because of the intersection of class dynamics and how technically, because shen jiu was a slave, she didn't really have rights in the first place.

either way, i think a lot of that trial was born out of shen jiu's deviation from social order/social norms and the issue of her engagement with qiu jianluo wouldn't be seen as a strike against her in this case. because i think people would have enough sense to see the power dynamics and lack of consent more clearly when confronted with a marriage between a teenaged female slave and a young male master. especially when compounded with the fact that the original charge of lecherous behaviour with ning yingying wouldn't carry much weight because of what i discussed concerning the brothels

the murders, though, i think she would be held responsible for that. there would definitely be a harsher view of that, i feel. mostly because like. it would be out of a woman's place to commit such bloody acts on top of it being such a violent crime? so there would be an argument to be made that in breaking social order by not being kind and deferential enough on top of going through with the murder of the men, she would be faced with harsher consequences.

simultaneously though there could be an in-universe argument made on the side of cang qiong mountain to claim insanity on shen jiu's part. similarly to how hysteria is seen mostly as a female malady and is a gendered/misogynistic diagnosis. but that's a whole other (mostly western centric, i feel) can of worms to get into. but just know for now that i think the hypothetical defences that cang qiong could give for the murder spree would also be misogynistic in nature.

ps. if you want to read about the female malady check out the introductory chapter of the female malady by elaine showalter.

shen yuan enters the narrative :

now i don't want this to get super long. so i will try very hard to keep this short. i think shen yuan would have a misogynistic viewpoint that would affect his understanding of his place in the plot when he is transmigrated into shen jiu's body.

i already went over the more meta aspects of shen yuan (who for the sake of clarity, i will say, is still a male in this au) and his experience travelling through the world in a female body. but i didn't discuss so much the narrative implications of it. because i think there would be! many!

for one, i think shen yuan would constantly underpin a lot of the interactions he has with the (male) peak lords/cultivators with his very heterosexual worldview. in the sense that he would assume there were romantic undertones where there weren't any, which i feel would be a baseline assumption he would make considering the supposed genre of the novel-brought-to-life he was living. we see so many times how shen yuan will look at a female character and immediately identify her as a part of luo binghe's harem. which i feel will carry over in his perception of shen jiu's lived experience as a woman. if that makes sense.

i also think. hm. how do i explain this. the way he would view his role when it came to any potential romance would be coloured severely by his modern understanding of shen qingqiu (assuming she was a lesbian, perhaps, because of her visiting brothels in pidw/her aversion for men) but also in relation to the people around her. i think he would only really see the possibility of a romance between liu qingge and shen qingqiu mostly because of the time they spend with each other in svsss and how he would assume that it would be the type of fan service airplane would indulge in for his very heterosexual audience of pidw fans. but as far as luo binghe is concerned, shen yuan would fall back very heavily on shen qingqiu's role as the scum villain to separate himself from any potential romance there. in the sense that he would focus so heavily on the teacher-student, antagonist-protagonist relationship between the two of them that he would? in a way. de-sexualize shen qingqiu entirely in his mind's eyes. so that the possibility of romance wouldn't even occur to him because narratively it wouldn't make sense for the hero to fall in love with the villain.

though that isn't to say luo binghe's love for shen qingqiu would be contingent upon gender. there exists a world where luo binghe is still attracted to women but doesn't necessarily create the harem and still only wants his shizun. i feel that the harem, while in a meta sense fed into the male power-fantasy of pidw, also was only like. a way for luo bingge to fill a gap in his lonely life. while this luo binghe would still need that gap in his life filled, he would only need to fill it with shen qingqiu's love because the way he would be treated by shen qingqiu in his youth wouldn't suddenly make him want all women. (because it definitely doesn't make him want all men in svsss). rather it would just make him want shen qingqiu.

all the while shen yuan would assume that luo binghe still wanted to kill him or when he does realize luo binghe's feelings, assume that luo binghe was only looking for a woman to fuck, to put it crudely. which would be cleared up during maigu ridge (specifically thinking about the canon detail of shen yuan turning his back to luo binghe only for luo binghe to turn him around. which i've seen someone analyze as shen yuan assuming luo binghe just wanted anyone while luo binghe wanted shen yuan specifically).

which. very roundabout way to say that i think shen yuan's obliviousness would manifest in different ways and his misunderstandings of the world around him would be because of his somewhat misogynistic viewpoints and desexualization of shen qingqiu to boil themselves down to simply 'scum villain' and 'antagonist.'

anyway that is. most of what i've been thinking about when it comes to this au. i hope this wasn't too tangential or didn't make sense because i am telling you now that i did not proof read it. i wrote this in one sitting and i will, in fact, be posting it as soon as i finish typing this lil outro. but if it did make sense then! i hope you found the more in-depth narrative and meta things i lined out here interesting. i know i did when putting this together!

thanks for reading <3

[phantomrose96]

twice now ive started and not finished silt verses. (no particular reason i didnt finish, ive really enjoyed it both times and keep thinking that i gotta get back to it.)

a moment that really hit me, and i think i'll always remember, is in hayward's first episode. the series starts with carpenter, so we know that worshipping the trawlerman is illegal and a bit about what that worship is like, but not much about how worshipping other gods works. even with the deer/hound people (who i forget if they happened before or after hayward's intro), that's another illegal and hidden religion. it leaves space to assume that the deadliness and the human sacrifice is WHY these gods are forbidden.

and then hayward's ep happens. and he says, offhand, like it's something completely unremarkable (paraphrased), 'people following those kinds of gods wouldn't get in trouble over it if they could just be reasonable about these things. there's a right and wrong way to do this, like how every new building starts construction by drowning two criminals in the cement foundation.' hearing that, and hearing how casual he was about it, i felt my entire understanding of the setting shift drastically.

legality wasn't about whether a group of worshippers do or don't kill. it was about what worshippers kill the acceptable targets, in the right way. and suddenly i find myself much more distrustful of a society that's motivated to create acceptable targets than i ever was of how carpenter and faulkner do things.

its a really chilling and well done bit of writing.

someday ill get past five episodes. im sure i'll really enjoy it.

Yes!!! YES!!!!

I've mentioned once or twice in my ramblings here that that was also my biggest "Oh" moment for TSV.

I started out episode 1 vaguely thinking of Carpenter and Faulkner as if you'd made a podcast following TMA Avatars as main characters. We know right off the bat the Trawlerman's people are human-sacrificing cultists. Obviously Nana Glass wasn't a good person. She killed people! And she got killed in a police stand-off because she was a mass murderer. And we know Carpenter and Faulkner are following in her same line of work so, really, we're following antagonists aren't we?

And then my "Oh" came later with (not necessarily that Hayward scene specifically) but when I went "Oh. The Trawlerman's people are being persecuted by the authorities not because they're human-sacrificing cultists. But because they're the losing human-sacrificing cultists."

Because actually, the legal authorities, the politicians, the corporations, are all very much part of human-sacrificing religions. That part is allowed. These "backwards hick" gods are illegal and horrible, because their kind of human sacrifice is uncivilized. Unlike the civilized people's human sacrifice, which is allowed because the corporations and the institutions have okayed it :).

They do so much with it over the series.

Also I see you're only on episode 5 so actually I'm putting this part beneath a readmore since I checked and this is about episode 7

The episode with Paige recounting what happened to Vaughan is what drove it in for me, I think. It plays out line-for-line like a corporation going through lay-offs "These are tough times :(. We understand this is difficult for everyone leaving us today :(." but they are... just... allowed to kill these employees they're letting go in a ritual sacrifice. To a legal god. And Paige thinks surely they won't--surely good people won't do that--but they do, very much, kill Vaughan.

Money is tight and times are hard and ritualistic human sacrifice is, in fact, incredibly allowed... As long as you're one of the legal powers, doing it the correct way.

[padfootagain]

Love in Verses (XII)

Chapter 12 : Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again

Hi! Here is new chapter! This one is… interesting… Whiskey is very dangerous, indeed…

I hope you like this chapter! Tell me what you think!

****

Pairing: Hozier x fem!reader (professor!AU)

Warnings: slow burn, angst, hurt, hurt/comfort, tooth-rotting fluff in later chapters, some scenes in later chapters will have heavy sexual themes even if it’s not explicit nsfw description, so minors here

Summary: Your life seems perfect. You're engaged, your career is thriving as you become an assistant professor at Trinity College, and this Andrew Hozier-Byrne you're sharing an office with seems to be a nice guy you hope to call a friend soon. Life seems to be smiling at you... until everything goes sour. When your fiancé breaks up with you, your perfect world shatters. And when your colleague also gets his heart broken soon after, your shared office seems to be a curse rather than a blessing. But Andrew seems determined to mend your broken hearts... Will things finally go according to plan?

Word Count: 2527

Masterlist for the series – Hozier’s masterlist – Main masterlist

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body        love what it loves. Tell me your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things.

Mary Oliver, Dream work, 1986

You ended up at your place with Andrew. After that awful dinner you both needed some emotional support.

You didn’t talk about the meal though. He didn’t mention how Frank had hurt you, you didn’t talk about how Andrew deserved better than Sam.

That was your final conclusion after the evening. Andrew deserved better than her. You didn’t know all the details that had drawn him away from a professional career in music, but you knew that it had been a tough decision to make for him. The way Sam made it sound, Andrew had simply given up. And yet, his eyes still lit up every time he talked of music.

You sat down on your couch with a bottle of whiskey, getting lost in thought as you replayed the conversation through your head. You had noticed how Sam had stopped listening the second you had started talking about your job, about music… about things Andrew loved. And perhaps you were too busy grieving for him, but was Frank the same with you? Because Andrew deserved someone who listened, someone who actually cared…

What did both Andrew and Frank saw in Sam that you didn’t? The question was relentless, spinning in your head again and again, a fly trapped under a glass trying to escape. What did you lack that she had?

You watched Andrew as he downed his first glass of whiskey. Neat. No ice or anything. He didn’t flinch, merely let out a long exhale as he let his head fall back onto the backrest of the couch.

“God… that felt good. I needed that,” he sighed, pouring himself another glass while you drank yours as well.

You winced slightly at the burn of the liquor, but silently asked for more anyway.

“What’s next on the list of things to ruin?”

Andrew chuckled at that.

“I reckon we haven’t really ruined anything yet… but… I guess not much until the New Year. You’re still coming to their party?”

“Of course,” you sighed. “We need to make a plan for this. We need to ruin something and then save the day.”

“We should ruin the champagne.”

“And replace it with another excellent one? Good idea. That could work for you.”

“What about you?”

“I don’t know… Maybe help Sam. That would impress him.”

“Hmm… a knight in shining armour? Ruin her dress and you fix it?”

“Oh…. That’s nice! You’re very good at this Andy, that’s a little scary!” you joked, nudging him. “I could give her my dress, and wear some disgusting clothes instead. The self-sacrifice will make him grow fond of me.”

“I’ll make sure to have the worst change of clothes in my car.”

“Perfect.”

“They said they wanted to organise the party in some sort of club…”

“Hmm… I bet you love the idea.”

“I’m already panicking at the mere thought.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be there.”

You thought yourself silly for offering such a useless argument, but Andrew didn’t seem to think of it that way. Instead, he gave you a grateful smile.

“Why are we doing this again?” you asked, question aimed the ceiling as you sighed, Andrew shifted by your side.

“Because we love them.”

His voice sounded like a lie. It was true though. It had to be, somehow…

You drank again, tried to think of something else, let silence settle instead. It was okay. Silence with Andrew felt comfortable, like the world shushed under a blanket of snow. Natural. Slow.

And outside the world kept on turning, as if you weren’t in pain, as if you weren’t grieving. Wasn’t that a strange truth? Frank had left, and the world hadn’t stopped with him. You wished you could feel it spinning again, look at the rest of the world and feel its beating, and be part of it once more. Maybe, if someone listened to you, and understood you, and made you feel safe again… if you could be yourself with them…

“I’m glad you listened to the record,” Andrew spoke after a while and another emptied drink.

“I loved it.”

“It’s one of my favourites. My father listened to it often when I was a child.”

“Is he the one who made you love music so much, your father?”

Andrew nodded.

“He was sick when I was a child. Bad surgery on his spine. He never recovered.”

“I’m sorry.”

“He was a drummer, back in the days. And even after everything changed he just… I don’t know. No matter what we said to each other, how angry we were, how much we argued… we’ve always had music in common. Even when we couldn’t communicate properly, we would put on a record, sit in silence and listen to it, and then we’d discuss it, and things would get better.”

You knew that he was blinking tears away, heard him sniffing. He wasn’t looking at you and you were still staring at the white ceiling. It didn’t matter. Perhaps it even made it easier.

“I just… I didn’t… I made a choice, back in the days, you know? I wasn’t being a coward or something, I just… I didn’t want to tell other people’s words; words that I didn’t care about, I wanted people to listen to me. I wanted to make something that was true and earnest. I wanted… I wanted for someone to listen to me…”

He sniffed. You reached across the couch for his hand, easily found his fingers. He held your hand so easily, like it was obvious, like your hands were meant for that gesture, for holding onto each other. His so large, yours so small in comparison…

“I thought she used to listen, but I don’t know anymore. She wasn’t listening tonight. She hasn’t listened in a while. Do you think…? Do you think she ever listened to me? I had so much to say that I couldn’t express, I didn’t know how, I still don’t know how… I wanted her to listen… God I wanted for someone to listen, just once… just once…”

You tightened your hold on his hand, and you hoped that he would understand what you meant by this simple gesture. That you were listening now. That you listened. That you understood him. That you were there…

“Thank you.”

His voice was a mere whisper, but it was enough.

You struggled with your own tears as you spoke again, your voice shaking.

“I don’t understand why Frank needed to wait for me, and not for her. What… I feel like I’m lacking something…”

“You’re not.”

You felt his stare on you now, but you kept your own gaze set on the ceiling.

“You’re not lacking anything, stop it. Frank is the one who left…”

“Because he saw something in Sam he didn’t see in me. And I don’t know what it is. And I’m scared… I’m scared that I thought he cared about me, and he didn’t. I’m scared to have built my life on that kind of lie. And the worst is… I still want it. I want the life he promised me.”

You were surprised when Andrew let go of your hand. But then you felt his palm cupping your cheek, the brush of his thumb drying your tears.

You finally turned to him, he gave you a sad but soft smile.

“Don’t cry over him. Please, don’t cry.”

You sniffed, let him caress your skin for a moment longer. It felt reassuring, anchoring. Soft and tender. Safe. You felt safe with him…

You shook yourself, moved to the bottle of whiskey again.

“You’re right. I shouldn’t cry,” you nodded, drying your face on your arm. “Let’s get hammered instead, that was the deal!”

Andrew silently agreed by handing you his empty glass for a refill.

“Tell me something silly,” he requested.

“Something silly?”

“Something about… your college days. Those are always worth a good laugh.”

“It’s good craic,” you agreed with a chuckle. “Alright… I’ll tell you a couple of stories. But you’ll have to tell me some as well!”

“Fair enough.”

You exchanged a smile, united your glasses with a cling.

And then you talked about yourself. And he listened.

Your head was spinning, you weren’t sure anymore if it was because of the alcohol or how much you were laughing.

You let yourself fall back into the sofa, holding on your painful stomach, tears in your eyes and on your cheeks. God, you hadn’t laughed so hard in… you were about to think ‘since Frank’ but you couldn’t remember ever laughing so hard with him.

“There was this one time,” Andrew went on. “I was playing with a band… Alex thought it would be hilarious to hide my guitar… I was so fucking panicked, I fell down the stairs leading to the stage and almost broke my neck…”

You doubled over with laughter, and he followed you close.

“How did you pay him back?”

“I told the girl he fancied he couldn’t read music, and she went on to teach him…”

You were hysterical at that point.

“And then…” Andrew choked on his own breath, and it took him a moment to recover and speak again. “Then, he was too afraid that she would push him away if he said anything, so he pretended he didn’t know and let her teach him all over again…”

You were both laughing too hard, the alcohol blurring your senses and making the stupid jokes and silly stories funnier than they ought to be. You looked at the bottle of whisky, admired the empty part of it, felt the burn of its effects on your cheeks.

And you looked at Andrew who was drying his cheeks, his long fingers spread across his stomach. He took off his glasses, they were wet with happy tears. He put them down on your coffee table and leaned into the couch again, slouched and comfortable, with his cheeks flushed with the liquor you had been drinking through the evening. His hair was held back in a messy bun, that had only become messier along the evening.

Damn, you couldn’t help the thought when it crossed your mind, because he was so bloody handsome…

He felt your stare on him, turned his attention fully to you. Focused and expectant, as if he knew you were about to say something incredibly interesting. And this black shirt he had on…

There were butterflies in your stomach and stutters on your tongue while your heart was pounding. You didn’t think. You didn’t think at all, you only felt, and wanted and easily yielded… and perhaps it was just the liquor, you would blame it on the whiskey in a few hours, but for now, you weren’t thinking about tomorrow morning. And for the first time in three months, you weren’t thinking about Frank at all either. Instead, you were thinking of Andrew, of how gentle and warm he looked sitting with you on your couch, how inviting his lips were, how you longed to touch his hair and his beard and him and…

… and then your lips were on his.

You felt him raising his eyebrows, but when you leaned closer and let your fingers find their way to his cheeks, the brush on your cheekbones told you he had closed his eyes too. And there you were, kissing him, and he was kissing you back, your mouths moving in perfect unison somehow, despite a first kiss and too much alcohol. He pulled you closer, wrapping an arm around your waist, while his other hand came up to cradle your face. The long fingers soon moved to your hair though, pulling you closer while he deepened the kiss. You wrapped your arms around his neck in a slow, lazy movement while you kissed, gasping for air every now and then, but your lips always connected again after a mere instant. You weren’t sure for how long you kept on kissing, too long for it to be meaningless, and yet you refused to think for now.

When you at last opened your eyes again, Andrew blinked at you, seeming a little shocked, and you weren’t sure if it was a good sign or not. You felt dizzy… dizzy with his scent, something of wood and a tinge of spices. Dizzy with his taste still on your tongue, a mixture of whiskey and something that was just him. Dizzy with the burn of his beard against your skin, with the heat of his body against yours.

Dizzy with him…

“Y/N?”

The way he whispered your name, his words a little slurred because of alcohol, and yet it sounded so good, tender, like he cradled the vowels and the consonants in his mouth, with tenderness in the way he spoke it out loud…

He cleared his throat, but didn’t let go, his hands on your waist and in your hair still, and you held onto him for a moment longer, admired how your kisses had reddened his lips.

Why did it feel so good to hold him? Why did it feel so good to kiss him…

“Erm… You… you kissed me.”

“Yeah… yeah, I did,” you whispered, refusing to pull away, remaining in his arms and your lips only centimetres away from his.

“You… I mean… We…”

You felt him leaning closer again as he took a deep breath, felt the brush of his lips on yours… but just when you were about to lean in, he pulled fully away, moving further away on the couch.

“Wait�� what’s going on?”

You blinked up at him, regretting his brown curls between your fingers and the warmth of his breath against your mouth. But then your brain kicked in again, and your eyes grew round as the realization of your own movements sank in.

You had kissed him. You had kissed Andrew…

Holy…

“God, I’m sorry,” you stammered. “I… I’m so sorry. I… I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. God…”

“It’s alright,” he reassured you, but it was obvious that he was shaken.

“That was so out of line, I’m sorry…”

“No, it’s okay… I… I think we’ve both had a little too much to drink.”

“Yeah… yeah, I think it went to my head.”

Why was your heart aching when you thought he regretted it. He should have regretted it. And you ought to regret it too…

“Frank and Samantha…” you mumbled under your breath, thinking out loud, but Andrew caught your words and nodded.

“Yeah… yeah, we… they are the ones we want.”

He slowly nodded, ran his hand across his face, as if to clear his head.

“You… you were just drunk. Just drunk…”

He looked at his watch.

“God…it’s almost 2 a.m. We should go to bed…”

You nodded again, but stopped him when he pulled out his phone.

“I have an extra bedroom, you can stay if you want.”

“I can take a uber.”

“It’s late. You can stay, if you want to.”

Slowly, he nodded.

You let him head to the bathroom, and hid inside your bedroom, resting your back against its wooden surface as you closed it.

What the fuck was that?

[000marie198]

I love it how in the movies and shows, it is never explicitly mentioned that Hiccup and Snotlout are cousins but it is shown throughout the franchise in little moments so accurately that when you tell a fan they are cousins, there is zero doubt. Their whole dynamic screams cousins, whether it be them trying to freaking destroy the other in the funniest ways or caring about the other while still throwing around insults.

That aside, what I really wanted to point out is how similar some of their skills are. A proof they are cousins is that they share some very specific talents that most people on Berk don't have, talents that match in almost a familial manner.

You guys all know Hiccup's perks and personality and talents right? Well, lemme point out some of Snotlout's and see how they match his cousin's.

A strange combination of Loyal to a fault and Rebellious to a fault. This perk doesn't just apply on Snotlout, Hiccup is like this too but in his own way. It depends on the situation and person and their mood most importantly. Hiccup would sneak out to hunt for trolls and go into forest or try and train dragons or sneak out to go on flights when he's not supposed to etc. And Snotlout would trust and listen and have his team's and leader's back even if he doesn't seem to like it at points. He cares about his friends so much (seriously, go watch the entirety of the DreamWorks Dragons series)

Inventive and artistic. Snotlout works at the armoury at the beginning of RTTE, he also invented the sheep launcher. He's also pretty good at stitching. And I'm preeeetty sure he's able to forge his own weapons and armor now same as Hiccup.

Amateur writers who're actually pretty good. Hiccup's narrations are always fun to listen to and they also indicate that he has a knack for being a writer. In an episode of RTTE, Snotlout wrote a book that the gang found to be pretty good. And while Hiccup has artistic skills in drawing and painting and sketching, Snotlout is good at designing and aesthetics.

They both have a strange tendency to go and get hit on the head by lightning. Actually, lightning really seems to love these two.

Interestingly enough, Snotlout is also shown to be pretty persuasive and encouraging to others when needed, whether it be giving a scared kid a peptalk or talking some sense into someone who's being reckless and stubborn.

Tendency to plan something extremely reckless and crazy when there's a time crunch and those plans surprisingly work. Yes, both Hiccup and Snotlout do that quite often.

They love dragons! And yes, I'm aware that by now, the whole gang loves dragons but Hiccup loves them even more. He is obsessed with them and wants to keep them safe, he cares about these creatures so so much! While the other riders love their dragons more than anybody else but not as much as Hiccup, Snotlout cares about dragons almost in a similar way to how Hiccup and Valka do. He sings lullabies to baby fireworms and is so gentle with them. In The Eel Effect, he went into Hiccup mode with a terrible terror (just before he shook the poor guy but that besides the point) and was giving a speech to start a dragon revolution because he appreciates these creatures and genuinely believes they should be treated with full respect

That is all to say, even if it isn't directly told in the movie-verse, it is shown throughout that Hiccup and Snotlout are cousins and both even have some traits and talents in common

[billy-royalton]

LawRusso story recommendations?

i shared my top ten the other day but i'm more than happy to share 10 more!!

but before i do, i'm gonna ask one thing of you. if you read these, and you like them, i'm gonna ask that you leave a comment on these wonderful fics. the writers in this fandom are so talented and don't hear it enough! so please show them so love (at the very least, leave them a kudos!)

Yes, Sensei by @darthdisco i literally just read this and it's genuinely everything. like we all wanted lawrusso slutty gi power dynamics sex after 6x14 right??? well sarah delivered. DELIVERED. DELIVERED SO WELL. GO READ IT.

The Bed Situation by @darthdisco look, sarah is just an incredible writer in this fandom so i'm actually gonna tell you to read all of her lawrusso fics but this one is also so fabulous and a great take on the "there was only one bed" trope!

the same deep water as me by violet_pencil my notes in my bookmarks for this one are "this felt like a churning sea in a hurricane" -- just so beautifully written.

An American Werewolf in Denial by thembonesthembones werewolf!johnny and pack!cobras set in the tkk-verse! the whole series is just so good, absolutely loved this.

Stories from the Valley by marycontraire "lawrusso as exes" is a trope that needs to be explored more and this is an excellent example of just how good it could be!!

Baby You've Got the Keys (Shut Up and Drive) by @wicked-jade sex in daniel's office at larusso auto!! my bookmark notes on this one are "if it WERE to happen it would happen like this." amanda is another writer in our fandom who really does a phenomenal job and another one i would suggest reading all of their works.

Made One Way by scarredsodeep oh this one makes me absolutely crazy!! it's got so much hope and so much trauma all rolled into one and it's masterfully done.

you've got the lead, baby (i've got a start) by @secondclassfangirl teenage!lawrusso in which daniel wears johnny's cobra kai jacket and it kicks up a flurry of feelings for our boy!! absolutely delightful and another ringing endorsement for all of reg's work because there are so many good ones to choose from!!!

Good Like That by GoldStarGrl sid drops dead, leaving laura and johnny with no money and set in the karate kid-verse. and listen, i am a SUCKER for any fic that depicts laura and johnny's relationship and this one really delivers on that

Ain't That a Kick in the Head? by Anonymous this is such a LOVELY little slow burn and whoever wrote this, please know i still think about rereading this fic constantly.

[quibbs126]

So today I learned that apparently g1 Galvatron is just like, actually insane, as in severely mentally ill

There’s apparently an episode where one of his own men commits him to a mental hospital to get help (but the treatments don’t work and he blows the place up, and I heard it’s actually supposed to be about bad mental health institutions but idk I haven’t seen the episode)

And I don’t know, I find this fascinating. Also alongside the fact that he used to be Megatron, the powerful leader of the Decepticons, but seemingly after being remade to serve Unicron, he became a different person but also maybe not?

Admittedly I’m not the most well versed in this topic because I haven’t yet seen the 86 movie or Season 3, I’ve only heard things from YouTube videos and posts on tumblr

But back on topic, I kind of want future series to explore this with Galvatron. From what I understand, in more recent continuities, he and Megatron tend to be made separate characters, likely in part because they want to make more sympathetic Megatrons and he works as an evil alternative. But I want to see them as the same person and have this explored more

Like maybe the idea that Unicron stripped away the last semblances of Megatron from him, and he’s trying to regain it without entirely understanding how, and maybe re-evaluating the things he’s done to even get to this point in the first place

Okay to be perfectly honest, I don’t think I know exactly how I want this to play out. I’m struggling to come up with the right words here, I already deleted my first idea and I’m not sure I like the one above. What I do know is that I’m intrigued by the idea of Galvatron being genuinely mentally unwell, possibly to the point where his own comrades try to help him get better (and also maybe Optimus trying to help since he’s a lot closer to Megatron these days), as well as the potential loss of identity becoming Galvatron brings him and him trying to regain semblances of what he once was

[lvrstrsh]

the way this song is so fitting for the three arcane ships (caitvi, jayvik, timebomb) omg?? maybe not so much caitvi but during their breakup era yes a little bit.

"you're the best thing to ever happen to me but also the worst thing to ever happen to me. on that day when i met you, maybe i would rather that it never happened to me" is SOOOOOO JAYVIK CODED I'M ACTUALLY GONNA JUMP OUT A FUCKING WINDOW JAHHSWQO. viktor saved jayce from killing himself, helped him achieve his life's goal to channel magic. alternatively, jayce helped viktor to be more than just an assistant, gave him purpose and did with hextech what viktor always wanted to do: help people. HOWEVER, them meeting ultimately led to their deaths (actually erm i refuse to believe they're dead and prefer to believe they're in some higher form of existence giving each other cosmic backshots 💜). them meeting helped bring hextech to the world which, as it happens, was the beginning of the end. the formation of the hexcore, viktor turning into robotic jesus, starting the cult, the formation of the anomaly that sent jayce to the ruined dimension (poor guy also lost his mind) so although jayce was able to fulfill his life's dream, it also was the thing that ruined him. if they never met, this all could've been avoided, which is easily seen in the dimension ekko & heimerdinger were sent to. they were best friends, equals in the sense of intellect and generally just two halves of one whole (saw someone on insta relate them to the sin²x + cos ²x = 1 formula and gen crashed the fuck out) hence, the best and worst thing to ever happen to each other.

"why does hearing your name hurt me when it hides right there in the vicinity? what kind of emotion, is it hatred or pure sweetness when i hear your name?" we all know ekko and powder were childhood friends. due to a series of unfortunate events, powder was taken under silco's care — the same person who was the cause of vander's and benzo's death (who were like father figures to ekko). powder became jinx and was working for silco, who was using shimmer to exploit his own people. as ekko grew up, all he did was work to defeat the purpose jinx was working for. imagine how much it must hurt for him to know someone who meant sm to him is doing all this to his people. her name brings bitterness, but also the sweet press of memories of simpler times. then, obviously, ekko was sent to the other dimension. saw that other dimension have everything he ever wanted (except vi ☹️). powder was still HIS powder. his life was playing out just the way he wanted. however it wasn't REAL. he got a glimpse of what could've been. in that dimension ekko and powder grew up to fall in love. imagine coming from your reality where you're enemies, and the being sent to this one where you're lovers. but you can't stay, no matter how happy it makes you. he got a taste of the sweetness that could've been. then he had to go BACK to his reality, where he saw the same girl he could've fallen in love with try to kill herself. and, afterwards, when you've basically saved the world, you're left all alone and are led to believe she's dead (uhm which she's not trust 🙏)

i don't think i have to explain the 'worst of all blessings, the best of all curses' verse in relation to both the ships because AHHHHHWJWJWJWIWIWIWJSIQIQJWIIWIWSIJQIDBCIAOJW

alright guys anyways thank u for coming to my ted talk 😁

[nocompromise-noregrets]

likethenight's Barduil fic masterpost

It's been a long time coming (mainly because I've been putting it off because there's so damn much of it how is this even my life at this point) but here, have a masterpost of everything I've written about the bi widower dads!

the series

My Heart Is An Empty Vessel: canon-'verse, featuring the dads getting together in the aftermath of the Battle of the Five Armies and featuring side-fics, flashbacks to Thranduil's youth in Doriath and an entirely canon-mangling sequel set in Valinor. (62 stories so far)

All I Want Is You: modern AU in which Bard is working as a delivery driver who keeps having to make deliveries to the reclusive owner of Greenwood Hall (and then lockdown happens). Including the daft Christmas-movie fic that nobody wanted except me. (23 stories so far)

A Kiss in the Cold and Dark: modern AU in which Bard and Thranduil knew each other as teenagers but lost touch for 30-odd years before running into each other again at a Christmas market. (14 stories so far)

Dancing In The Dark: modern AU in which Bard and Thranduil had a not-quite-a-thing in the 90s when they were both singers for relatively successful rock bands, never sorted themselves out, and find themselves on the same festival bill 30 years later. (14 stories so far)

stained glass heart: There is a legend in Dale, that somewhere deep in the forest that borders the city lives the forest king, an ancient being with a special care for archers, and for all things that grow. Bard, camping in the woods after his finals, finds a place that isn't on any maps and begins to dream of something - someone - familiar; and years later, after the heaviest loss he has ever had to bear, he goes back out there again, hoping to find something that might help him recover. (5 stories so far)

Stars and Arrows: the Oxford-college-professors-with-different-names reincarnation story, featuring a mysterious illuminated manuscript and your humble author's 25 years of archival nerdery. (2 stories so far)

the oneshots: canon-'verse

Something Magical: Thranduil thinks about magic, and glamour, and illusion, and wonders if now he is under a different kind of enchantment.

Overrun by Halflings: a somewhat cracky fic in which Rosie persuades Sam to take her and the children to the Undying Lands, some of the Elves are somewhat less than pleased, and one of them (no prizes for guessing who) has Absolutely No Room To Comment At All.

A Little Less Than Safe: Thranduil takes Bard, Sigrid and Tilda for a picnic in the forest. The sorcerer of Dol Guldur sees an opportunity to have a little fun and teach the Elvenking a lesson.

Should All The Stars Shine In The Sky: the first Midwinter celebration in Dale after the Battle of the Five Armies. Bard and Thranduil are in the thick of the festivities, Sigrid and Tauriel are stargazing on the rooftops, and there are all kinds of magic abroad on this, the longest night of the year.

Caught Like Stars: another Midwinter-in-Dale fic - Thranduil has his reasons for accepting Bard's invitation to celebrate Midwinter in Dale, but he isn't quite expecting anything that happens after he arrives.

(Not) For You: They’re not for you, the Elves, not for the likes of you, and Bard has known this all his life. But he's always been a dreamer, and after the Battle of the Five Armies his whole world has been turned on its head, and the Elvenking is being oddly open with him.

fragile/uncanny: in which the Elvenking and the Dragonslayer find that they have more in common than they realise at first.

what dark paths brought me here: Riding into the darkness of the forest, Bard wonders why he was so insistent that he go alone to ask the Elvenking for help; but it takes his mind off wondering why he can't stop thinking about the time they spent together last autumn, at least.

unanticipated, unexpected: Sigrid never expected to be in a position to actually do something about the ridiculous crush on the Prince of the Woodland Realm that she picked up during the fall of Lake-town - so Tilda and Tauriel take matters into their own hands. Otherwise known as the Sigrid/Legolas fic I never thought I'd find myself writing - the dads are a background pairing in this one.

Very Nearly A Diplomatic Incident: Dáin thinks something's going on between Bard and Thranduil. He…isn't far wrong, but they're not telling him that.

and where they dwell now none can say: there is a tale that's seldom told about two kings in days of old… (in other words, your humble author accidentally commits poetry)

On the Steps: After the battle is over, Bard finds himself talking to the Elvenking - and tending a wound.

A Very Recent Development: When Thranduil's temper gets the better of him in conversation with Dáin, he has to ask Bard to help him salvage the alliance between their three kingdoms. Perhaps inevitably, it gets complicated.

Waylaid: After the battle, Legolas is determined to get as far away from Dale as fast as he can. But when he is delayed retrieving his horse, he finds himself lingering for Tauriel's sake, and beginning to forge friendships with Bard's children - and beginning to mend fences with his father at long last. (another one where the dads are more of a background pairing)

into the darkness: Bard had only ventured into the forest to try and find something for his children to eat. But the spiders - and the Elvenking - have other ideas.

someone else's life: Bard often thought, in the months following the battle, that the world had ended, for him, on the night the dragon had come swooping down from the mountain breathing fire and flame and burned Lake-town to ashes and cinders. His home was gone, his livelihood was gone, his whole life as it had been had stopped on that awful night, and now - now he felt as though he was living someone else’s life.

the greatest treasure you could ever hope to find: A couple of weeks after the battle, Sigrid has a conversation with the Elvenking, and both of them find themselves saying rather more than they'd intended.

red: Thranduil's cloak is lined with red, the colour of blood; he is all silver, silver and red, ice and blood and a love he can no longer bear to let himself feel.

the oneshots: (mostly) modern AUs

Three Things and One Step At A Time: in which teenage boyfriends Bard and Thranduil are split up by Thranduil's abusive father and run into each other years later. Inspired by 'To Be A Father' by the lovely @fox-deer.

On Arda Street (chapter one): a tiny tattoo artist/florist AU, part of a set of AUs also including a pet shop, a coffee shop and a high school featuring other characters from the legendarium.

Metallic Red and Deep Pink: two fics set in the incomparable @scary-grace's seeking a friend for the end of the world-'verse. In a ruined, deserted mall somewhere east of Wyoming, Bard discovers that Thranduil is perfectly capable of walking in (very) high heels - and, in an abandoned motel, Thranduil tries on lipstick for the first time in a very long time.

Tonight Is For Mysteries: the retelling of the Cinderella story in which Sigrid is not the only one who finds something special at the Woodland Realm's masked ball.

A Double-Booking in Room 305 and Another Night in Room 305: Bard, checking into a hotel for a conference, finds that someone else has already checked into his room.

Once In A Lifetime and Make This Work Somehow: Bard's taken his first away-from-home acting job since his wife died and it's a huge opportunity, with the most renowned costume designer in the business working on the film. It's also an adaptation of his kids' favourite book, so...no pressure. And no need to even think about how incredibly attractive the aforementioned costume designer is, because that's not even the slightest bit relevant...

Espresso: There's a reason Bard always gets his coffee from the Lonely Mountain Roastery, every single day…

paint the sky and burn the stars: The best birthday present Bard ever had was the treehouse his da built him for his eighth birthday. Over the years it brings him his best friend, his first love, the one that got away…and then, eventually, it brings his first love back to him again.

All The Ages Of The World Alone: Thranduil never leaves the Greenwood, after the end of the time of the Elves in Middle-Earth. Gradually he fades away, drifting between the trees as a spirit…until a little lad playing in the woods catches his attention, and later, a grieving man with three children who seems to know about events he could not possibly have experienced…

Court Etiquette: (only just not-canon-'verse, this one) Thranduil is very bored at the wedding of Thorin Oakenshield and Bilbo Baggins, but then he meets the new King of Dale, who has never been to one of these events before.

business class: Bard, on his first business trip abroad since his wife died, gets an upgrade to business class, where he finds himself sitting next to someone very intriguing indeed.

on first sight: Thranduil allows himself to be talked into a blind date.

[extremely-judgemental]

Writing a fanfic for this series is just pissing me off. I ignored most of the flaws in political setting and magic system in ACOTAR since it’s a romantasy and I had very low expectations from SJM. But I’ve got questions now. I could have missed a lot of these because of Feyre’s insufferable monologuing and I was busy raging on IC’s atrocities. I'm not well verse with fae lore, so I’ll welcome any explanation from people who have been here for years.

High Lord’s power transfer. It’s by accident Feyre gets her powers when she is resurrected as no one knows how it works. How did every HL make the same mistake at the exact same time in the exact same way? It makes better sense that Feyre gets one or two powers. Maybe from Tamlin or Rhysand alone, since they are the ones desperate to bring her back and give her more than needed. (Which also supports ‘Rhysand planned it’ theory since he’s the one urging them in their minds)

Inheriting multiple powers. Feyre’s wind power is actually Tamlin’s, right? And her shapeshifting is also from him. Why two powers from him and one from everyone else? The previous theory could have worked here too.

Shape-shifting. Tamlin only ever takes his beast form often and only one shown to turn others into wolves. If he could shift into any other form himself, he would have done it in Hybern’s camp, grow wings and fly off, or something else that gives him an advantage. So, let’s go with one form theory. If Feyre inherits this power from him, how is her shifting abilities customisable? And every HL has a shifter form and it's fixed too, so this is just. . . Now, this would have made more sense if Feyre only morphs into that creature she sees in Ouroboros instead of her growing Illyrian wings and parading them around.

Feyre’s arsenal of powers. This one is odd because how does this make her more powerful than every HL? Sure she can access multiple powers and it gives her an edge but she won’t win against one HL at a time. Hers must be like a gift bag of powers HLs possessed UtM. Besides, the HLs are bestowed with magic by the lands itself at their ascension which is what makes them the most powerful in their respective courts, not the markers they were born with. If they could just pass that level of power on, they could very well do to their offsprings.

Good HLs. How is none of them petty? These are old-timey, traditional magical beings. Except for Beron, who also conveniently happens to be an abuser, every one of them is good-hearted? How do they all happen to be about ultimate peace and not saving their own asses and their courts? We know the land’s magic doesn’t pick one based on morality or character, else we wouldn’t have. . .well Rhysand and Beron.

Helion’s friendship. How is he the only one who knows IC’s true nature? Is it a ‘birds of same feather flock together’ kinda thing (although Helion is decent till now)? Why does the IC reveal their true selves without the mask in the first place? I won’t be reading the next books, so lemme know if you find out in Lucien’s story. Here’s what I think, SJM used him to support the theory that her poor Rhysand is good and loveable. Now can’t prove that with every HL hating him.

Tax system. Again, old-fashioned courts. Why is Spring’s taxing (ignoring the fact that it is important for governance) bitched about so much? Every court must have some fucked up system in place. Rhysand's treasure cave is definitely a result of taxes.

Calanmai. Why is this a disgusting ritual when they are. . .fae and it’s just an orgy and everything is consensual (unlike what Rhysand did to Feyre UtM)? And every HL and priestesses are participating willingly. And every one else is having a good time, which Feyre herself observes. The three who attack her do so because she is a human, moreover if something like that did happen, isn’t every HL present accountable for participating and letting it? I mean, it’s not as hideous as wing clipping.

Velaris. If the place is warded, how does it have a thriving trade? It was explained a bit in the book, still it doesn’t make sense. The magic doesn’t let anyone enter and confuses them if they get too close. The name of the city itself is erased from memory. What trade are they having outside the city when no one can even talk about it or outsiders can’t remember it? They will have to make a lot of exceptions which counters the point having all these precautions. Or ‘someone’ will have to go into their minds and enforce all this, but that can’t happen because of Rhysand’s ethics.

Hewn City. How are all people here rich snobs? If they are trapped under the mountain and how are their trade systems? Or if they can get out of the mountain, why haven’t they populated outside yet?

Illyrian trade. Velaris and Hewn City are localised communities rolling in riches. Illyria which is out in the open is taking handouts from Cassian? These are the ones who should be truly rich since they don’t play by HL’s rules either. They don’t trade because they are training 24x7? The only businesses are clothing and supplies? Where are they getting those from? They can’t grow everything they need on mountain tops. Who are working here and making stuff if all the men are training and women are doing chores?

Illyrian lifestyle. There hasn’t been a major war in 500 years since the wall went up. Now, if there’s peace for that long, won’t the people go a bit lax with their army? No one in 500 years went ‘hey, we’ve had a quiet life for a while, let’s just do something else instead of getting killed in stupid games or training pits’. And every court is afraid of the 'most powerful HL ever' to go against them. Even if their bodies are designed to be a perfect soldier, how long has it been? 15 000 years? Won’t evolution take over a little?

Nesta’s apartment. IIRC the building is torn down to build a veteran community, right? Why? Why in Velaris when all their warriors are from CoN and Illyria, and none of them are allowed inside? Which reminds me, how did that weaver’s husband go to the war when none of them ever fought or were recruited?

Daemati. This one is more of a rant. ACOTAR is the only series where the mind controller/reader’s words are taken at face value by everyone. Especially when the guy had been walking around terrorising and lying and scheming all his life. It’s basically the plot of almost every fic with a telepathic character that there will always be trust issues around that person and for good reason. Is everyone that stupid?

If any of you got posts already on these, tag them and let my brain rest easy.

[kiwiana-writes]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

A big ol' fuck you to @rmd-writes for the tag xoxo

1. How many works do you have an AO3? Lol. Lmao even. 289.

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 914,620 on AO3, but that includes co-writes as well as things I've podficced where the fic and pod are in the same work. My actual personally-written wordcount, per my Batshit Spreadsheet, is 771,819.

3. What fandoms do you write for? Mostly RWRB these days, though most of my back catalogue is Schitt's Creek. Also The Pairing and various other things scattered about.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Kinda think that I might be his type aka Alex and Bea fake date coming in at the top spot, which will never not bewilder me. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely fic!! But I am always surprised that it was a few hundred more kudos than:

With so much of my heart (that none is left to protest), the Much Ado actors AU. My magnum opus, my beloved.

We were supposed to find this - baby's first soulmate AU and my first RWRB fic. The brainrot really took hold with this one lmao.

All the Lonely Starbucks Lovers, in which Henry takes 'open mouth insert foot' to a whole new level.

Warm like the glow that you feel head to toe, the age gap fic with older Senator Alex and younger Prince Henry. This is probably the only one in my top five that really surprises me, considering age gaps are... divisive.

5. Do you respond to comments? Always always always.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I mean I did write that one MCD fic in Schitt's Creek, though I maintain the other five parts in that 5+1 are in fact angstier than the MCD ending.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Uhhhhhhh, the rest? The Doylist answer is any of my fics where the HEA is literally forever rather than 'till death do us part'; so, the Schitt's Creek afterlife AU and the RWRB zombie!Alex AU. (Is that all? Am I forgetting one?)

8. Do you get hate on fics? Yeah, sometimes. Weirdly, more through tumblr anons than on the fics themselves? A lot of them I just delete, sometimes I'll give them a bit of a public scolding etc. Frankly at this point if you come into my ask box to be a cunt on anon I'm going to assume you have a public humiliation kink and will indulge you accordingly.

9. Do you write smut? Who's to say.

10. Do you write crossovers? I'm more inclined towards a fusion than a crossover (love a good media fusion) but I did write a short RWRB/The Pairing crossover for VoiceTeam.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope. Someone did ask recently, so we'll see!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? HEAPS. @ships-to-sail is an ongoing collaborator, but I also did a bunch of "each write a chapter" type collabs in Schitt's Creek. Currently co-writing something truly fucking incredible with @indestructibleheart.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? IDK if it's a WIP by the strictest definition, but every day the likelihood of the SC kink!verse series being completed slips further away lol.

16. What are your writing strengths? Rae, you're the worst.

Smut, I guess? Giving people new kinks, apparently. Character voice. Also a very specific type of world-building where I explain nothing because the characters already live in that world and let y'all infer how it works, which came up a LOT on one of this year's Kinktober fics in particular and led to my spouse saying "okay so you're basically the Brennan Lee Mulligan of tree fucking", which is sure not a sentence I expected to ever be directed towards me, but here we are.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Anything original, apparently. Good thing I didn't quit my job to be a writer or anything OH WAIT.

(In all seriousness, though, I am genuinely shit at, like, plotting. And action sequences.)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? If it makes sense for the character, sure! I'm enlisting someone who speaks it for anything more complicated than, like, a pet name - I've seen what Google Translate tries to spit out for my second language and therefore don't trust it lmao.

19. First fandom you wrote for? terf queen mcgee's property.

20. Favourite fics you've written? The RWRB fic specifically based on the episode The Husbands of River Song from Doctor Who. Hands down the best thing I've ever written.

I also fucking LOVED the Much Ado actor AU. My love letter to Shakespeare and theatre and queer joy.

-

Tagging @blueeyedgrlwrites @cactusdragon517 @cricketnationrise @firenati0n @getmehighonmagic

@hgejfmw-hgejhsf @indestructibleheart @inexplicablymine @notspecialbabe @orchidscript

@piratefalls @sherryvalli @sparklepocalypse @stereopticons @whimsymanaged and, as always, anyone who wants to play! 

[tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors]

Realized that last night was the Feast of the Parting and I had a question. When it comes to soulmates in Pieces Verse, are they the same every life? AND are these 6 entangled with each other in every life?

(actually, feast of the parting happens on the new moon closest to the hibernal equinox, which this year is in about a week on the 30th!)

okay so to explain this ive gotta get into the nitty gritty details of how reincarnation works in this religion, and across different religious denominations

the overlap - people are believed to reincarnate into new lives for the purpose of Learning A Lesson. each life teaches you something, and this is supposed to improve your souls sort of resonance with the rest of the world. More Harmony Good

in the denomination patton and virgils families follow, the pattern is typically that they believe you will be a person when you need a very Big Lesson, because being a person is one of the harder things to be, and then you get a kind of 'break' and then you get to be bugs or plants for a hundred years or so to rest up a bit

in this framework, when people are 'made' before theyre born/getting ready to 'come back,' -

(side tangent this isnt considered a *separate* afterlife really, the idea is that dead folks and other souls are sort of floating around in parallel ether- this is a house with two rooms and thin walls, and birth/dying is walking back and forth through the door to the other)

-theyre made as one 'piece' in pairs (or triads, etc) in the position they'll be in when they first touch, and then theyre split the idea is that theyre sort of snipped apart at the soulmark and sent on ahead separately

also irt being human being The Biggest Lesson, they are also the only species that has soulmarks, animals dont - so the soulmate is considered an integral part of this lesson (which conservatives usually flatten to 'learn to love (romantically) better' but which more liberal churches stress can be anything)

so in fact, in this framework your soulmate is explicitly different every time. your soul is fashioned in a new shape and needs a new pair, supposedly.

as for the second bit we gotta talk about the nobles

the broad strokes are very similar - you are reincarnated to learn/improve yourself, but the nobles view this on much less emotional lines and more materially, and they dont typically believe the alternating-human-plant-animal thing - nobles believe you go directly from being a noble human to being A Higher Noble Human, until the very best smartest most awesome people /heavy s are reincarnated into the royal families and may or may not become monarch

ah but when the monarch dies, what then? because westrand is obviously the best country, and the monarch is the best person, theres nowhere better to go! /more s

well they believe that the monarch 'Ascends' and becomes permanently immaterial ie in the other room, manipulating the world from there because theyve 'earned' their way into being in charge of the eventual One 2: Electric Boogaloo

the nobles also believe in absolute predestination, that every part of their lives from birth to death was written by them and the souls of their family members before they were ever born. they believe souls who were tied by blood ties in life will always be born still tied by blood. so when a noble makes a marriage match in an attempt to gain political clout, they are also trying to improve their 'spiritual' clout by blood-tying themselves to an equally 'spiritually superior' family

they do think that a soulbond teaches you a lesson, but they usually think that lesson always ought to be 'i dont need a soulmate or indeed any human love or connection at all, wym' - some more liberal nobles believe it more along the lines of 'we have to make sacrifices in order to be the best rulers we can be' but its still not great vibes

as for which of these is materially true, since the series deals so much with sometimes traumatic religious themes, and i because i have multiple denominations and do plan on introducing some minority religions (soon!) im not actually going to say any of the things above are canon or otherwise except that theyre the canonical beliefs of the in-universe religion. i just dont feel like it makes sense to say 'you dont have to do all the bullshit that your religion raised you to do' and then turn around and make one of the religions explicitly and confirmably real

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

A (Partial, Hypothetical) Map of the

Arachno-Humanoid PolyMultiverse

[A slightly MEDIUM length post where I mapped out and explain the positions of the different universes we see in ATSV -

and how those distances can effect everything to travel time - to the reason why Miles got bitten (maybe..based on my charting and data)]

Did I use common grouping and graphing to make a connectivity map of the universes within the Arachno-Humanoid-PolyMultiverse based on common attributes and similarities?

Why no - I didn't. Lyla gave me this map this morning. So there. _______________________________________

You know what pisses me off? ATSV showing us amazing ass things and then not stopping to explain them at all. Lucky for them, I have autism, a keyboard, and way too much time. So allow me.

'This is Everything': Okay but what is it?

The Spider-verse series is like an expert at going 'this is super interesting but i also I refuse to explain'

But one thing I've always found this SUPER interesting - The Portals. Because LOOK AT THEM. Like... the watch is creating a channel along a set path! It has velocity! How fast are they going? How far?!!

In lots of other Marvel movies like Doctor Strange, teleportation between universes is instantaneous. This is true for a lot of sci-fi.

However, for Spider-verse, they chose something different.

We see them flying and falling through portals, many of them twisting and turning. And it got me thinking -

If they're flying from point A to point B - Doesn't that imply that the universes have set locations - with measurable, varying distance between them?

And if so - how close are they together? Does it always take the same amount of time? Are some too far to get to without jumping to a closer location first?

So many possibilities! I was so curious to make sense of this. How does the watch KNOW where to go? Where every universe is?

The Solution:

I realized that each universe has similarities - and if similarity = proximity, there could be a way to map the universes by asking three simple questions:

Are they in the modern era? Are they in New York - or something like it? Are they stylized?

And what I got was a map that actually explains some very interesting things in the movie! (If you play by my logic, lol)

Graph Breakdown : How to read

[Explainer and breakdown below the cut PLUS a clearer version - so you can map out your sona!]

The graph is made up of two different points - Cluster Centers & Universes:

The Three Clusters: Location, Time, & Style

Cluster Centers are specific attributes that universes share, and these attributes clump similar universes together, shortening the distance between them.

There are 3 cluster centers, based on the three questions:

The Time Desynchronization Cluster: For universes that exist outside of the modern era The Stylization Cluster: For universes with artistic stylization The New York Cluster: For universes in which the Spider-person is based in New York, or a rendition of it.

These clusters are arranged in a triangle with sides of equal length.

Then, a universe is placed on the map based on whether they fit the criteria and how much they fit the criteria.

How much they fit each criteria determines each universe's proximity to each other, and the pathways the watches will take to get from location to location as quick as possible.

For example:

Plotting Universes: Distances & Changes

Using these three Clusters, we can plot almost any Spider-person or Spidersona on the map!

Universes that share attributes and clusters are closer together, shortening the distance and time it takes to complete jumps.

In addition, universes with lots of cluster connections and nearby universes are considered more stable, the strands of the web closer together, and quicker in general.

And just for reference:

The places in which the universes' lines cross are common canon events they share.

Looking at the plotted Universes, we can see some cool things about how they work:

[My lovely OC's, DiscoSpider Diane and Inca-Spider Moche plotted as examples]

The proximity matters in context too! And it seems to effect a lot of things - like observably in the movie.

The closeness of two universes, can possibly explain the time it takes to get there, why some people fall into other universes, and how easy it is to assimilate into another's universe.

Some cool things to note:

Gwen and Miles' universes are next to each other. Which could explain how she fell into his world. Gwen is way more stylized than Miles, so she's closer to that Cluster than he is.

Peter's universe (not charted..lol) would be next to Miles' & Pavitrs - which also explains his involvement in ITSV.

Noir, Spider-Ham, and Peni Parker would all be close-by as well.

Miles and Pavi's universes are next to each other. Miles & Pavi share all three attributes. Because of this, Miles and Pavi's universes are right next to each other. Which could be why Gwen & Miles' jump to Mumbattan is very short and quick.

Pavi's universe is next to HQ. Pavi is modern, low-stylization, and based in a New York adjacent city. This is true for Miguel too, however, he's in 2099, desynchronized from time. Them being right next to each other could explain how so many members of the Spider Society arrived to Mumbattan quickly to contain the anomaly - as all they would need to do is traverse the time difference.

The stylized characters are charted 'most stylized' to least - left to right, based on medium/inspo: Gwen being first (watercolor), then Hobie (collages of prints, text, and real people), and then Noir (completely shaded with no color, but based off of live-action films), then Patrick a.k.a Webslinger (based on live-action Westerns).

Because of this layout, Hobie's universe borders Gwen's. This could explain how Gwen stayed at his place without being noticed for her differing style (which - as we see with Miles and Spider-Ham, would be obvious). But Gwen universe being nearby, could be why she didn't stand out too much.

Hobie's universe borders Noir's. This is very cute. I love them. Happy feelings.

Noir's universe borders Diane's. Because they both live in New York, and are desynchronized from time (Noir being 1933, and Diane 1982) - Noir and Diane's universe sit next to each other. This makes a lot of sense - Noir's world is perpetually white and black - literally 'noir', while Diane's world lacks a day-cycle, making it always night-time.

Because they share these attributes with Miguel as well - Nueva York, 2099 - Noir and Diane actually live 'closest' to campus, along with Pavitr third.

Despite both being O'hara's, Patrick's universe is REALLY far from Miguel's. This is because WebSlinger's universe is time desynchronized in the opposite direction, very far in the past. He's also stylized - and he lives in the Wild West, not New York. Hence the distance.

As is Moche's - Miguel's wife. Like Miguel, Moche lives in a time desynchronized universe (his 2099, hers 1992) - however Moche is from Peru, hence why her and Patrick are the farthest from the New York Cluster. Moche's world is stylized as photorealistic, moreso than Miles, so she's the farthest from that cluster as well.

Miles' and Wiles' universes would be almost directly next to each other - which explains the spider-bite and the fact Miles' DNA changed so easily. Not all variants are next to each other though - Hobie's 616 Prowler variant is actually pretty far from his.

Uhhh...yeah, I think that's everything. But mind you - that's only a two dimensional slice of THIS

Hopefully I was able to decode like 0.0001% of it.

This is all speculation and my imagination, But what came out of it is INTERESTING AS HELL TO ME. Writers...pleasee...feed me more random stills in which I can consume.

Also Miguel if you're reading this please hire me I have a degree in Archnohumanoid Poly-Multiversal Research that's good for nothing and I desperately need a job-

________________________________

I hope you liked this and this made sense! It was just a fun little experiment to do that turned out to be REALLY interesting to chart out/decipher.

Lemme know what you think about how it all works and stuff and what you think of this!

If you made it this far! Thank you so much!! SERIOUSLY THANK YOU

Here's a copy of the map with smaller universes, so you can slot in your own sonas! Plus, a pic of Hobie for your troubles.

His eyes are so pretty. Can you believe he's in love with my Spidersona thats crazzzyy

Bye.

[princesssarisa]

I've been thinking about The Swan Princess. I haven't seen the entire series, but the original movie was a childhood favorite of mine.

I've been thinking of some ways the movie could have been better.

First and foremost, the issue of "What else is there?" How to offend women in 5 syllables or less keep the plot point of Prince Derek saying those words when Odette asks him if he loves her for more than just her beauty, yet without making so many audience members permanently hate him for it.

I actually wrote two entries on the Fridge Brilliance page on TV Tropes about this plot point. (1) This is a fairy tale, and in most classic fairy tales, love is just a matter of beauty, so that's what Derek expects. (2) There are hints throughout the song "This Is My Idea" that young Derek and Odette like each other long before they admit it to themselves. Adult Derek thinks at first that he fell instantly in love with Odette when he saw she had grown beautiful, but by the end he realizes he loved her long beforehand, for who she is as a person.

But maybe those things should have been made more explicit.

I personally would have made the movie more explicitly a deconstruction of classic fairy tale romances with their beauty-based Love at First Sight, more in the vein of later movies like Frozen. I would add some dialogue either before or between the verses of "This Is My Idea" showing Queen Uberta (bubbly romantic that she is) reading a classic Love at First Sight fairy tale to young Derek, and telling him that someday, when they're grown up, Odette will be beautiful and a single glance will make him love her. I might also add some dialogue for adult Derek later in the song, where he complains about having to marry Odette and imagines his preferred scenario – riding through the woods one day, suddenly encountering a beautiful dancing maiden, and knowing instantly that she's the one (a la Disney's Sleeping Beauty, or the original Swan Lake). This would show that he believes in classic fairy tale romance. Thus when "What else is there?" eventually happens, the audience's impression won't be "Derek is a shallow jerk who only values women for their looks" but "Derek has been raised with a fairy tale concept of love as something you feel just because the other person is beautiful."

Later, the ball scenes and "Princesses On Parade" would make it clear that Uberta is again trying to force the fairy tale concept of love on her son, hoping for a Cinderella-style Love at First Sight at the ball. But of course it doesn't work, not only because he's faithful to Odette, but because Love at First Sight isn't real.

I would also add some scenes throughout the movie where Odette and Derek each reminisce about their shared childhood. Odette could tell her three animal sidekicks about it, while Derek could recall it with Bromley and Rogers. This would help to avert the problem some critics find with the movie as it is: that Odette and Derek seem like different people as adults than as children and are much blander than their feisty child selves. It would also show us explicitly that they did like each other long before they knew it. We would see flashbacks to their childhood fights and pranks, and their adult selves would laugh wistfully and make remarks like "I wouldn't admit it to myself, but I enjoyed all that" and "We were never really enemies, we were just too stubborn and foolish to admit that we were friends."

Around the same time, I would also have Odette say a word or two about "What else is there?" to her animal friends, to explain why she's fully committed to Derek again despite having broken off their betrothal earlier. (Of course the cynical view would be that she only forgives Derek because she wants him to break her spell, but this movie isn't supposed to be cynical.) She would say something like "I shouldn't have left him. I know in my heart that he truly loves me, he just couldn't put it into words."

Going back to the childhood scenes, I would also find some way during "This Is My Idea" for young Odette to show her kindness. If at the end of the movie, Derek is going to say that he loves Odette for her kindness, then we should see her display it in front of him. I might show her finding and caring for a small animal in need – e.g. a stray kitten, or an injured bird – and young Derek would act nauseated by the sappiness of it all. But later, when Odette wasn't around, we'd see him find another lost or injured animal and care for it just like she did, showing that her kindness has rubbed off on him.

In his ultimate love confession, I would also have Derek say that he loves Odette's "cleverness" as well as her kindness and courage. That would reinforce the point that he fell subconsciously in love with her during their battles of will and wits in their childhood.

I think these tweaks would bring more consistency and depth to the love story and ensure viewers' sympathy for both of the two leads.

[goddessofroyalty]

I just binged your entire Zaun Family series on ao3, I just had to ask how would Viktor get his limp in your AU? I can see Silco being more of a helicopter dam because of said disability and not knowing if Viktor was gonna make it this far in life, same with finding out Viktor pregnancy, not knowing if his own pup was gonna live because of how weak his body is

I know I've discussed it at least in passing before but I also don't want to try and find those posts (maybe later if I get motivated to do the dig I'll add them in).

There's a few factors that are feeding into Viktor's leg in this verse and it's the kind of thing where it's impossible to say how much any one of them caused it vs how much it's the result of the culmination of all of them. But the factors include:

Viktor was born breach and his leg was caught in the birth

Viktor, especially when he was little, had low bone-denisity as a result of the lack of nutrition available while Silco was pregnant / Viktor was young and the toxic fumes they're living in at the time

Viktor didn't recieve any baby-checkups that might have caught that there was an issue with his knee so nobody realised it until he was crawling / walking

Because of the general poverty the medical options available once it is discovered are limited (taking into account that it isn't life threatening)

Eventually he develops the disease he has in Season 1

The thing is that while they are worried about his leg they're not actually worried about his leg. What I mean by that is nobody actually cares that he has a limp or a 'bad leg' - Zaun is full with people with various disabilities and generally Zaun seems pretty good with mobility aids. Okay, sure, Viktor is never going to be a work-horse like his father but Silco and Vander are more and more positioning themselves where the fact he's proving to be smart is much more useful. But they are concerned that it the precurser to something worse (which it does eventually become - first his spine also needs support and then, more worryingly, the Season 1 disease).

It definitively feeds into Silco's protectiveness of him and rage at Piltover. Because all the factors that might have caused / contributed it are things that are either directly / indirectly Piltover's fault. And, again, it's not just a one-off thing but something that is degenerative, something that might cause his son to die earlier than he should.

Silco is so worried (and angry) about the pregnancy. He had difficult pregnancies and births (they all could have killed him and Mylo's nearly did) and he doesn't have the pre-existing conditions Viktor has. Even with access to the Piltover medical system Silco is still very aware that he might lose his child because of this and therefore is very overbearing as a result.

[rose-of-pollux]

Back to the Future fic masterlist

The way my main BTTF fic timeline works, I operate on a fusion of the musical, movie trilogy, and Telltale game timelines; I take elements from each, and while my written version of Doc started out sounding like Christopher Lloyd, he's very much now heavily based on Roger Bart--I write out of timeline order, so just keep that in mind if Doc's voice isn't quite consistent from fic to fic.

I write Doc as very asexual, which was definitely the vibe that I felt from the musical; subsequently, my backstory for Doc and his relationship with Clara differs greatly from the actual Part III, and I haven't quite figured out how Jules and Verne fit in--only that they just exist for now, and I'll figure their origins out later.

Lastly, I operate on the headcanon that, in the Lone Pine timeline, George and Lorraine remain good friends with Doc after 1955, initially because they think he's their link to "Calvin Klein," but eventually as true friends. This ultimately led to them asking Doc to be Marty's godfather--a role Doc takes very seriously and makes him even more protective of Marty than he was in Twin Pines.

And now, the fics themselves--I'm going to try to keep these in chronological order from Marty's POV (as best as possible, since, in a few of them, he isn't born yet); distinctions between Twin and Lone Pine timelines will be noted as such, and AUs will be listed separately-- (Updated 2/9/25: added a oneshot)

Main Timeline-- Misunderstood (1931 Twin Pines) Miles to Go Before I Sleep (1945 Lone Pine) Stumbling Block (1949 Lone Pine) The Fork in the Road (1963 Lone Pine) Faded Ink (1968 Lone Pine) A Dark and Stormy Night (1973 Lone Pine) Is Anybody Home? (Twin Pines) Seeing Red (Twin Pines) True Blue (Twin Pines) Running Late (Twin Pines) Once in a Red Moon (Twin Pines) Lost and Found (Twin Pines) Reckless (Twin Pines) April, 1984, pt I (Twin Pines) April, 1984, pt II (Lone Pine) With Friends Like These (Twin Pines) Summertime Blues (Twin Pines) Back Down to Earth (Twin Pines) No Turning Back (Lone Pine) As I Lay Dying (Twin Pines) Morale Boost (1955) No Rest for the Weary (1955) At the Heart of the Paradox (Twin Pines becoming Lone Pine) Out of the Blue (Pt II, retconned since I'm doing something different) Cadence of Hill Valley: The Song of Time (musical-verse pt II; multichapter WIP) Cadence of Hill Valley: A Link to the Past (not written yet, musical-verse pt III) Sixty Seconds (pt III, may be retconned by the time I finish the Cadence series) All You Do Is Think (pt III, retconned due to the Cadence series) A Fragile Thing (Telltale game) Start From the Happy Ending (post-Telltale game) Unexpected Arrival (possible Telltale sequel, standalone for now) Haven't Heard that Before (post-canon) Faces of Family (post-canon) They Say that Time is a Healer (post-canon) Battle Scars (post-canon) Keep the Faith (post-canon, multichapter, complete) 'Cause I Might Not Make It Back (post-canon, multichapter, complete) Time Is Not Eternal (post-canon, multichapter, complete) Nothing's the Same (post-canon, multichapter, complete) Beat the Odds (post-canon, multichapter, complete) Close to Home (post-canon) You Can't Fight Fate (Or Can You?) (post-canon, multichapter, complete) The Impossible and the Improbable (post-canon) Seelie Wight (post-canon, multichapter, complete) The Ancient Relic (post-canon, 2015)

Ashen Pines AU Timeline (the Cold War goes hot in 1971, and when Hill Valley is incinerated by people looking for Doc and his knowledge of nuclear weapons, Doc goes on the run with the three-year-old orphan he just adopted--Marty McFly)-- Up In Smoke (oneshot) To Be Told You're No Good (oneshot) Nowhere to Turn (oneshot) A Moment of Peace (oneshot) Lessons Learned (oneshot) Teach Him a Lesson (oneshot) Injustice (oneshot) Don't Look Back (oneshot) I Can See the Fires Still Alight (oneshot) Fatherhood (oneshot) Vertigo (oneshot) Emergency Exit (oneshot)

Other AU fics-- Audivi Famam Ilius (Fantasy AU) Shattered Dream (Turn Left AU) Life, Life (Frankenstein AU) Discord and Rhyme (Werewolf!Doc AU) Where the Sea Meets the Sky (Merboy!Marty AU) The Project Chronos Affair (Doc and Marty join U.N.C.L.E. AU)