#Keep redacted tags away from this please and thank you

[sweetestpopcorn]

Only Helaena is allowed empathy for the death of her child, she is not judged at all that she did not rode Dreamfyre even once during the war, we must be sympathetic to her because she mentally collapsed.

Only Laena is allowed empathy for her stillborn child, only Alicent is allowed empathy for the loss of her children even though she literally planned to kill a young boy, Aegon the Younger. Only Corlys is allowed empathy for Rhaenys' death, only Nettles is allowed empathy for being an orphan and admiration for bonding with Sheepstealer, even though Rhaenyra was a tiny little girl of 7 when she flew for the first time, which is extraordinary.

But no. Everyone except Rhaenyra is allowed to allow grief and fear to color their decisions. She’s never allowed to be sad about losing her loved ones or be afraid for her family because she committed the crime of wanting to fight for something she was told was hers. Rhaenyra does not deserve our admiration for being the youngest dragonrider in recent Targaryen history, absolutely not! Our admiration must exclusively go to Laena and Nettles, because didn't you know Rhaenyra is a whore?

We must not mourn for her baby girl Visenya, because didn't you heard that baby was a monster? How could you believe she was loved by her parents?

That's how this fandom sounds and it's... definetly a choice in this pattern. Rhaenyra is dehumanized in happiness and dehumanized in grief. She is not allowed to feel or be human or feel furious for how everything is taken from her. Her simple existence, for these people, is worthy of hatred and only hatred.

Literally every so often this person comes to my comment section to lecture us all peasants and how wrong Team Black was... funny enough by Team Black they only mean Rhaenyra. They are bothered by having illegitimate children and affairs... if you are Rhaenyra, for Corlys, Daemon, and Aegon II it was totally fine in case you are wondering. They talk about bad and rash decisions... from Rhaenyra. And they feel sorry for Aegon II.

You know, the dude who fed his sister to a dragon while her 9 year old son watched. That poor man.

I wish I was joking. Yesterday I had to read that after Rhaenyra was killed the lords were not fighting for her anymore. This is the type of cr_p I see.

This Anon was so right that I want to make a shirt with this. Rhaenys and Corlys Anon, can we vote for you? Can we crown you? Please?

Like I have seen it all since day 1. Fics talking about Rhaenyra like she's a disgusting monster. Fics with Daemon abusing her and humiliating her. Fics making her look like a sociopathic Lolita on steroids. Comparing her to Cersei. Saying that Alicent wanting Luke to lose an eye is as bad as Rhaenyra wanting Aemond to be questioned sharply. Fics where she wishes she was as good of a mother as Laena.

I am so tired.

But also very happy that lately so many of you have been coming here to spill the tea and defend our Queen <3 I love y'all

PS: No idea why people are rebbloging this with the redacted tag. This is only referent to canon asoiaf Rhaenyra Targaryen.

[djarins-cyare]

WIP Weekend

It’s been a while since I’ve made progress on any of my fics, but I’m trying my best to write something for Kate’s Roll-A-Trope Challenge, so I finally have something I can share a snippet of 🥳

Over the last 14 weeks, I’ve been tagged in 19 WIP Wednesday posts / Last Line games / WIP polls (yes, I keep track!), so thank you to the following lovely people for continuing to think of me even though I’ve been suspiciously quiet 💚:

@burntheedges @nerdieforpedro @604to647 @the-mandawhor1an

@kyberblade @almostfoxglove @for-a-longlongtime @djarins-wife

May I offer you some (totally unedited and marginally redacted) pre-spice Din and f!Reader in the trope genre of secret relationship below the cut…

Swallowing, you blink innocently and ask, “Is there anything else you need before I turn in?” You’re not particularly tired, but you should let him get some rest. Slowly, the angle of Mando’s helmet drops a few centimetres, and he releases a vibrant hum. The few seconds of silence that follow feel charged somehow, full of expectation, and just as you realise where he’s relocated his gaze to, he rumbles a reply in the lowest, sexiest register you’ve heard from him this evening. “So far, you’ve known exactly what I’ve needed without me having to ask.” He leaves another pregnant pause as he slowly tilts his helmet. “So go on, tell me. What do I need now?” Your eyes inadvertently dart to his crotch again and… shit. You’re pretty sure something’s happening down there. It looks… harder… larger (if that’s even possible). “You, uh….” Your attempt at an answer doesn’t go anywhere, mainly because you don’t know what to say. You want this, sure, but you shouldn’t. He’s injured, and you promised your uncle you’d keep your distance, not jump into an intimate act with the guy the first chance you get. After a few deep and shuddering breaths, you manage, “You need a good night’s sleep.” “I do,” he agrees. “But your question was whether I need anything else before you go to bed. Sleep comes after you go. What comes before?” Fuck. His words vibrate through you and seem to disintegrate your misgivings. There’s no logical decision to answer the way you do; it just happens. “You… if you want.” A pleased hum resonates through the vocoder. “I do,” he agrees again. “The bacta took away the pain, but I could use some pleasure too. If you’re willing.” “Y-yes,” you blurt, halfway between eager and anxious. “But… my uncle will kill me if he finds out.” Mando chuckles. “He’d shoot me first. Our secret, then?” Your pussy dampens at the idea, eyes flashing as you nod your acceptance of his clandestine terms. Suddenly, a secret liaison with the apparently dangerous man you’re supposed to be avoiding for your own good sounds like the most desirable thing in the galaxy.

Yeah, you know me… I can’t just write a single scene; I have to write the whole damn relationship!

So, obviously, this is how their secret relationship gets off the ground. You may have gathered that Reader is a certain High Magistrate’s niece and has been given strict instructions to avoid the new resident of the cabin out on the lava flats. You can look forward to plenty of sneaking around, flimsy excuses, near misses, and suspicious confrontations. Oh, and smut 😏

I can’t believe I only have a month left to write all this. What have I signed up for? I’m so fucked…

*Hates self for not being able to write short stories* /jk

I’m clearly over-excited about finally having something for a WIP post, so I’m going wild and tagging a load of writer mutuals and favourites. Feel free to do any form of WIP post you choose, or ignore me entirely if you’re not up for posting snippets right now (either way, you’re all awesome) 💚

@5oh5 @abbonation @always-andromeda @captainredspade @court-jobi

@davnittbraes @din-cognito @dindjarindiaries @djarinmuse @drewharrisonwriter

@dumfanting @eatommo @evolnoomym @fhatbhabiee @fromthedeskoftheraven

@fuckyeahdindjarin @galaxyedging @grogusmum @happy-beeeps @iamsherlocked-1998

@insomniamamma @ishabull @itsjuststardust @joelalorian @jolapeno

@lady-bess @lahooozaherr @larkoneironaut @littlemisspascal @magpiepills

@morallyinept @mothandpidgeon @newpathwrites @oonajaeadira @penvisions

@prolix-yuy @quicksilvermad @saradika @secretelephanttattoo @sixhours

@sp00kymulderr @studioghibelli @syd-djarin @the-blind-assassin-12 @theetherealbloom

@wannab-urs @whocaresstillthelouvre @whxtedreams @wrathkitty @yopossum

[pimento-playing-hopscotch]

WIP Wednesday

Thank you for the tag @carlos-in-glasses @sznofthesticks @heartstringsduet 💝

This is from the upcoming chapter of my TK and Sophie fic - little plot here just TK being protective -

2010 -

“Well, you kids have fun,” Sophie said with a wink. “I’m gonna go see how long the line for the Cyclone is”.

“Soph, wait,” TK said. “Maybe… maybe you should stick with us”.

“What?” Sophie looked at him over her shoulder, baffled. “TK. We talked about this. Wasn’t this your idea?”

“Yeah, I know”. TK muttered. But it had been his idea when they had been talking about it at home. Not when TK felt the eyes of way too many tanned guys with big arms and small tank tops following them down the boardwalk. And TK might enjoy this, except he knew it wasn’t him they were checking out.

Sophie lowered her voice. “TK, you really want to ask someone out with your sister hanging around you?” The top of TK’s ears turned pink. Carson and Kenny were still in the hot dog line, and were far enough away that TK wasn’t worried that they’d heard her. But [redacted] was much closer; she was texting, but she’d definitely heard.

“Fine”. TK sighed. “You’ve got Enzo’s phone on you, right?”

“Yup”. Sophie took it out of her pocket. “It’s right here”.

“Keep the ringer on”. TK pressed. “And please, please don’t go off with anyone. And don’t talk with people you don’t know”.

“Uh huh”. His sister rolled her eyes. “Unless they offer me candy, right? Then I should snatch that shit up. I was kidding, TK,” she admonished when his face visibly paled. “God. I’ll be fine. Now, please go have your own fun? Or at least go talk to Carson before he realizes how annoying you can be?”  

No pressure tagging - I tag @anewkindofme @actualalligator @lochnesswriter @lemonlyman-dotcom @snowviolettwhite @reyestrandd @dreamingofmickeywaffles @firstprince-history-huh @lightningboltreader @jesuisici33 @kiwichaeng @herefortarlos @inkweedandlizards @birdclowns @freneticfloetry @paperstorm @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut @welcometololaland @tailoredshirt @thebumblecee @liminalmemories21 @happilylovingchaos @chicgeekgirl89 @sugdenlovesdingle @carlos-tk @eclectic-sassycoweyes @thisbuildinghasfeelings @kiloskywalker and anyone else who wants to do it - open tag 🫶

[lu-sn]

thank you @veliseraptor for tagging me ❤️ i had a lot of fun with this one

Rules: Go to your published works on AO3 and list the first fic you ever published there, the last fic you published, any fic that you wrote for a fandom/ship only once, your favorite fic you wrote in the fandom/ship that has the most works, the fic you wish more people read, the fic you agonized over the most, the fic that sprang fully formed from your mind without any effort, and a work you are proud of—for whatever reason.

--

first fic ever published: prickly hearts

my beloved!!! this story is extra funny to me because before this i was all "it would be hubris to try to write vp they're too NUANCED i'll mess them up" and then the ghost of khun spikes whacked me on the head with a crackfic idea and the rest is history

last fic published: warm-blooded

cue me from almost exactly a year ago telling my roommate i could "never write porn" skjdfksadfkjhdsfjkhf where's my clown nose

any fic i wrote for a ship only once: press F to pay respects

my one and only kinn/porsche fic. but the real crime here is that it's my one and only macau & chay fic 😭 I'LL GET TO IT ONE DAY

favorite fic for ship with most works: you can't make me choose

i love so many of them! and i'm fond of them for different reasons, so it's really hard to pick one over the rest. breathtaking might be some of my best writing. vivace has characterization i'm very happy with, and i'm proud that i managed to do that while keeping it lighthearted. but if we're talking favorite fic for me to read... god this is hard!!!!! i love reading my funnier stuff. so maybe it really still is prickly hearts

fic i wish more people read: have u heard of the f/f vp agenda–

here is my running theory: if more people read f/f vp then more people will write it and then there will be more of it for ME to read. this is a flawless plan. i will take no criticism

fic i agonized over the most: [redacted]

i could pick a published fic for this but i don't tend to agonize too much over oneshots when i'm writing them and anyway you could add up all of the agony over all of my published fics and it would not even be 1/100th of the agonizing i am doing over my current wip. longfics SUCK. "it'll just be 3 chapters that's not so bad" "ah shit this wasn't in the outline" "why does the halfway mark keep getting FURTHER away" 0/10 would not recommend i am blinking twice please airlift me out of here

fic that sprang fully formed from my mind: blindside

this is kind of a stretch in that i had had a couple of stray macau thoughts hanging around my head for months. things like "macau goes off at korn and it's heartwrenching and futile and pete has to drag him away" or "pete and macau have a days-long staring match over vegas's comatose body" but let's be real it was mostly a giant metaphorical whiteboard in my brain with the words "PETE AND MACAU????!!!" written on it and underlined six times. it didn't coalesce into "pete holds a gun to macau's head and it somehow ruins all of korn's plans" until i was standing in the middle of a crosswalk on my way home going oh my GOD THAT WOULD BE INSANE PETE WOULD BE THAT INSANE!!!! then i blacked out and it was written

work i am proud of: reignite

i reread this recently and it reads like it was written by someone who was not me. i would not in a million years have imagined i was capable of writing like that. so i love it very much, and i feel like i did namphueng justice, and she fucking deserves it.

--

hmmm tagging @ghost--houses and @fanonplussed and @magicaldreamfox1 if you're feeling it!

[romirola]

Tid-Bit Tuesday

Thought I’d share another bit of my current WIP since I’m excited to be starting on this next flashback chapter! I wrote this passage late last night, so it’s still rough, but ahh I apparently can’t keep a secret when it comes to my writing. I imagine this might be my last WIP posting this year, since soon enough I’ll be posting a oneshot for the Redacted Gift Exchange and reading everyone else’s work. Until then, please enjoy this tidbit. Thanks for reading!

As requested, tag list for the WIP: @lovelylonerliterature, @itsdaifuku, and @dominimoonbeam. (Do you want to be tagged in material related to this WIP? Please let me know and I’ll be happy to add you too!)

Need an extra push to share your own fic/art/music/whatever WIP? Consider yourself tagged! Gotcha! (Additionally, I’ll tag @ejunkiet, @weightedblanketjoyfriend, @softredrobin, @belovedbow, @teasandcardigans, and @sealriously-sealrious, but no pressure, friends!

"Well?" Sam said. "You found me." He gave the slightest of bows, which did nothing to take away from how he loomed over Angel and Babe. "Which leads me to a few burning questions.” He took another step forward, squelching his confusion when the two humans did not run away out of sheer self-preservation even as he purposefully drew attention to his vampiric features . “Who are you? And why are you looking for me?”

Remarkably, neither Babe nor Angel paid much attention to Sam. 

“You’re the alpha’s mate!” Babe whispered at Angel. “And this was your idea. So, go on.” They shoved Angel forward for a step, shoulders simply shaking as they looked up and down Sam’s imposing figure. “Do your alpha thing.”

Angel clambered behind Babe, squatting down and using them as a human shield. “As alpha-mate, I’ve determined this is a job for the beta-mate,” they hurriedly rationalized. “So you go on. Support me. Do your beta duty.”

“Alpha and beta?” Sam muttered to himself. He relaxed his posture a bit, but still kept on his guard. The freelancer-turned-vampire had presumed that these two fools were just a pair of unempowered humans who had perhaps caught sight of a careless newborn or show-offy energetic. He supposed that they had seen one too many episodes of </em> Supernatural<em> and let their imaginations run wild, emboldened and entitled to poke around someone’s home, as if his identity as a vampire meant he owed them the time of day. He suspected that they would have cameras and microphones, aiming to get rich by being the first people to capture evidence that vampires existed. He had not expected to hear shifter terminology. Maybe these humans were one of those obsessive werewolf fans and tried to adopt the dialect. “Answer my questions. Now, before I lose my temper. Who are you?”

Realizing that they needed to take charge of the situation before things turned ugly. They steeled themselves and quickly stepped to the side to lock elbows with Babe. “Hello, Sam,” they greeted confidently before introducing themselves and Babe by full name. “We are members of the Shaw Pack. I’m the alpha’s mate and they’re the beta’s.” Angel gave clear gestures to themselves and Babe as they spoke, channeling their work persona and pretending this was an important presentation. “We’re here on… unofficial pack duty on behalf of the Shaws.” Angel searched Sam’s face like a predator scanning a bush for a bit of movement. They waited patiently and finally, just as the silence hanging in the air was becoming too uncomfortable to bear, Sam’s mouth twitched. 

And Angel pounced. 

“And I think you know why the Shaw Pack would have business with you,” Angel surmised. “After all, word on the street is you’ve been spending quite a bit of time with a member of the pack.”

[j-nipper-95]

WIP WEDNESDAY

*brushes cobwebs aside* yep, still here, phew!

I’m back!! I’ve been more than a little AWOL with this blog recently, writer’s block is a bitch! ASR edits have all but halted, COTTA planning has completely stagnated, and epic gay sc-fi WIP never made it out of the starting gates.

But we press on.

Thank you for the tags the past few weeks @hushed-chorus @aristocratic-otter @artsyunderstudy @martsonmars @aroace-genderfluid-sheep @blackberrysummerblog @larkral @theearlgreymage @orange-peony ! Loving seeing what you’re all working on!

For now, here’s something from one of my, affectionately titled, ‘shit hits the fan’ chapters. Certain names have been redacted for spoilers 👀

“Psst.”

Lauren stopped, trying to pinpoint exactly where the sound had come from. Under the tree cover, rain drops on the leaves and leaf litter distorted sounds.

“Psst.”

It was coming from a raised bank to her right, one that sloped down and away into a small clearing with a rope swing in it.

“Lauren.”

Oh this was going to be fun.

“Lauren!” [Redacted] raised his voice a little this time, and she saw his curly ginger head pop out from behind a tree on the bank. If she hadn’t wanted to cave in his face, she’d probably have laughed at how suddenly he appeared. Like a little wood sprite popping up to guide a weary traveller in a fairytale.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Lauren whispered horsely, playing the innocent.

“I heard what happened.” Of course he had. “I tried to get word to you last night, but I couldn’t get hold of you.” Funny that.

“How did you know I was up here?”

His flushed cheeks turned a darker shade of red. “I … may have followed you.”

She couldn’t keep the bitter laugh inside. “Oh, really?”

“What are you doing up here?”

“I was scoping out the area, to make sure no one had followed me up here,” she said pointedly, keeping the knife in his line of sight.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“And ��?”

“And I found you.”

“Ah, yes, I can see what this looks like.”

“I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

“Yes. Now, before you disembowel me,” he said, his easy charm suddenly oozing from every pore, “there is something you ought to know.” Lauren’s grip around the blade was getting slippery with the rain. She needed to act soon. “I didn’t come up here alone.”

[Redacted] is currently causing me some headaches, as I have no idea how to write his dialogue to show he’s Welsh, rather than just dropping it into descriptions/dialogue tags. Any Welsh mutuals/anyone who has any ideas, please, help a gal out 🙈😂

Tagging: @hushed-chorus @aristocratic-otter @artsyunderstudy @martsonmars @aroace-genderfluid-sheep @blackberrysummerblog @larkral @theearlgreymage @orange-peony​ @letraspal @palimpsessed @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @fatalfangirl @confused-bi-queer @cutestkilla @ileadacharmedlife @stardustasincocaine @prettylightsbigcity @chen-chen-chen-again-chen @erzbethluna​ @ebbpettier​ @bookish-bogwitch​ @writer-nori-bard​ @dragoneggos​ 

[callahanscorner]

Heads Up Seven Up/9 Lines Tag

I'm super super late (I’ve been in a gauntlet of really intense job interviews) but thanks to @writernopal and @eccaiia for the tags! I'm just going to be combining them both here!

Rules: Share 7 (and 9!) sentences from your WIP

From The Silver Circle:

"After all she did for you, for us, still you spurn this gift? We bled together. We burned together." "On your knees, whelp," the General spit the word out as if it were poison. "You know the consequences for failure." As the spires of Petalkeep loomed over the group, a chill washed over them, as if the very warmth of life was being sapped from their bodies. Kyra sank to her knees, the ash of the once proud temple staining her robes. "Don't touch me!" she cried, swatting his hand away. "I just... I need to think." "Please," laughed the Aetheri, “you think [REDACTED] didn’t keep his secrets? You know only what he wanted you to. I offer more. I offer freedom.” “There was a time in which I’d have joined you,” Zogarr replied, his sightless eyes seeming to peer directly at his fellow Ular. “Unfortunately, there is nothing left for me but to atone.” “And you?” he croaked, looking desperately into his captor’s eyes, “What do you think will happen to you when you’ve served your purpose?” Twilly shuddered at the mention. Feannon’s Scribes weren’t meant for places such as this. There was nothing for her here.

I’m tagging @thesoftestofpetals, @fayeiswriting, @mthollowell-writes, @halfbit, and whoever else wants to!

[mareenavee]

Criminal asks! *grabby hands*

8, 15, and 22 please :)

Maple!! I was half wondering if you'd made this ask game before I saw the actual post this morning LOL. They seem like your kind of discussions, and I'm here for it.

Thank you for these!

From this caustic ask game right here.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

We're all entitled to our opinions, but I refuse to believe Ondolemar actually wants to be a Thalmor. He does some real RIEKLING BEHAVIOR SHIT in the Embassy for you if you get some bard or whatever arrested for their Talos-flavored nonsense. (Please, I hate this quest as much as the next person. I'm definitely live and let live ambivalent about Talos nonsense.) Granted, to get him to help here, you yourself have to not be a [redacted] idiot with the vocabulary of a Riekling yourself. :>

If he agrees to help you, then you get this gem of a conversation five feet from Elenwen, who is, presumably his superior:

Ondolemar: "How dare you speak of the Thalmor in such a disgusting manner!" Razelan: "What? I didn't... hmm? No listen, you must have misunderstood... I would never openly insult your... that is to say..." Ondolemar: "Your insults and provocations have gone far enough! I'd kill you where you stand if I wasn't bound by my oath as an officer of the Aldmeri Dominion."

This is Riekling Behavior. It is Causing Problems On Purpose for some [redacted] just because they helped with a simple quest he could have definitely thrown his power around to accomplish without thievery and tomfoolery.

To my eye he wanted to see if you, the player, were willing to throw away all reason to help him, and do so without getting your ass caught and thrown in jail. He needs people who can manage simple tasks without getting the entire government involved so he can trust you in the future. For what? Very out of character to LET IN RANDOM PEOPLE to secret Thalmor business in a secret Thalmor unjoinable faction.

He does not want to be part of this and/or is trying to do something about them. Bet. (Anyway thanks for coming to my TES talk.)

15. That one thing you see in fanart all the time

Hmm. I am usually in awe of fanart to be perfectly honest. But I suppose, and this is likely my very Aro/Ace brain, if I see a lot of fanart of pairings of OC/NPC, and I can't tell what the OC's deal is outside of who they are paired with -- ie, set aside, they have no personality at all on their own, then I'm going to be a little less likely to give the art attention. I want to know who the characters are, not just who they're [redacted.] Ya know what I mean? Sorry that's pretty blunt but it's true. I think this is why my favorite fanart is from or for people whose characters are part of a larger work -- ie a comic or a fanfiction. So I can understand the character.

This is specifically about fanart of pairings with no story other than x OC is with x NPC, that's it, that's their story. I am usually still in awe of just OC artwork, or just NPCs. And yeah there's always going to be exceptions but the question brought to mind maybe three artists I find myself bored of seeing work from LOL out of the hundreds I do love to follow.

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

...Am I allowed to say Athis here?

Okay so. I don't think I have to defend him to you, Maple lol (: But for others who may be out of the loop -- we stan a good Athis and we just want him to make something of his life. Yes, yes.

Anyway he exists. He's that one elf dude in the Companions? That one, yes. He was a shell of a character, yes, in Vanilla. He also looks a bit... We'll just keep our opinions on the vanilla art direction to ourselves in this case. Anyway it's little wonder he's been ignored...

But yes, please, you're ignoring a favorite bean, friends. Write more Athis. I don't even care how you write him, but please. Join me in the tag. LOL he deserves attention.

I picked him for World because he was a shell character and due to the project I've become enamored of all the iterations that could be. So ... join me in the brain rot. Yes, thank you.

[magic-is-something-we-create]

Find the Word Tag X

I KNOW I've missed a bajillion of these tags, but the ones I have on hand are from @ls-daydreams and @celestepens!! Thank you both <3

The words I'm finding are dear, yellow, burn, rust, rain, drink, wipe, state, teeth, and star

And because this Will Be Long, tags + your words to find are as follows:

Tagging @authoralexharvey, @calicojackofficial, @indecentpause, @naps-tries-writing, and @ashen-crest! Absolutely 0 pressure to play, and this doubles as an open tag if you'd like!

Your words are lock, dust, jacket, bed, spine, and offer.

And now, on with the game!

All of these are from Whispers, and while there's no explicit violence or sexual content, there are mentions of alcohol, smoking, blood, kidnapping, and more, so please tread carefully!

Dear (Whispers, Lorelei POV):

“You locked the door behind you?”

“Of course,” she says, passing my notebook over. She turns to leave, pauses as I flip the notes open. “And I closed the window for you.”

“Thank you, dear.” Folding the worn pages under so their curling edges and bleeding ink don’t distract me, I look up to Ilya and nod. “Tell me everything.”

Yellow (Whispers, Lorelei POV):

The paper inside is thin and yellowed, the frame around the words marking it immediately as an article from the Myshari Times. It smells of dust and old books, and I silently wonder to myself what archive had the misfortune of bearing the bait.

Burn (Whispers, Marika POV):

The eyes of an Uryak see the world differently. Their vision is wide, precise, able to see everything around them not hidden by their own bulk--but it is flat, too, almost all of it more like periphery than the true vision I am most used to. It is brighter than that of a fox. More colorful than a bear’s.

An Uryak hears more, too. From ten feet away, it hears the shaking breaths below the sharp breeze and the crinkling of paper hidden in a jacket.

An Uryak is, by far, the largest thing I have ever become.

My marrow will burn like Hio himself when I go back.

Rust (Whispers, Marika POV):

“There are rooms upstairs,” Kira tells us as the door slams behind him. “Stick to your right coming from the landing, or you’ll end up with us Debtors. We’ve got worse beds.”

[Redacted] nods, silent, making himself as small as he can when a pair of shadows darken the stairs, pushing himself as far out of the way as possible and keeping [his daughter] by his side. As I round the bar prepared to warn them against looking at the blood on the floor, I instead find that all trace of it has been swept away but for the slight rusting of the rug--which I wouldn’t know was not normal, if I hadn’t seen its color before.

Rain (Whispers, Marika POV):

Dakarsa scoffs. “Says the one who kidnapped a fucking child.”

Ivan’s hand slams onto the counter, knuckles white as they grip the glass with a new, light crack climbing up from its bottom. And like birds in the wake of cracking thunder, the other conversations in the room grind to a halt, the itch of a dozen eyes crawling up my spine like rain.

In the long silence that blooms, I lay a hand on Dakarsa’s shoulder from my place hiding behind him.

“Ivan did next to nothing,” I say as he tenses beneath me, breath freezing at my touch. “They came without protest. So if you insist on being angry at anyone--” I spin him around on the stool with a shove “--be angry at me.”

Drink (Whispers, Marika POV):

[Dakarsa] catches Vik’s questioning gaze, hand reaching for the back of his neck as he scrambles to explain. “She was the Uryak.”

“Ah,” Viktor says, dark eyes still wide, before setting the kettle down and lighting the stove like nothing happened. “Welcome.”

I have to hold back a laugh at Dakarsa’s dumbfounded expression. “You took that better than these two.”

Viktor shrugs, a smile slipping across his cheeks. “At a certain point, you learn to stop asking questions. Anything to drink?”

Wipe (Whispers, Lorelei POV):

[The officer] hardly acknowledge[s] me when I kick out the stool next to them and take a seat, instead downing the shot of liquor in their hand with a grunt.

I wave the barkeep away when they start to offer me a drink, fixated solely on the white-clad individual next to me, waiting for them to wipe the glittering droplets of liquor from their blond beard before I begin my interrogation.

State (Whispers, Marika POV):

Instead, the first view of Fowden is not even of the city itself, but the sheer wall of ice that bridges two jagged peaks and the black-iron gate at its center, the shade cast by the sun dipping ever-further towards the horizon to our left making it as stark against the snow as grass against stone.

It is the gate that reminds me Emarye used to be an Empire, not a disconnected swathe of eternally-arguing City-States.

It is the gate that reminds me Fowden was host to the throne.

Teeth (Whispers, Marika POV):

Vik’s face ignites in a mirror of my own suspicion, watching Ivan’s motions intently as he quietly passes out our drinks, before something else lights in his eyes and he sucks a hiss through his teeth.

“Oh, you ballsy son of a bitch,” he breathes, setting his mug down and watching Ivan take a seat with wide eyes. “When did she figure it out?”

Star (Whispers, Marika POV):

Neither of us say anything for the long moment after I step up next to him. In the silence, after watching his hands shake for a little too long when he lights the next smoke, I watch the strip of stars that are visible between the cluttered walls overhead.

As the edges of the thin clouds first catch a hint of the green auroras, he snuffs the butt of this second cigarette.

“I’m sorry,” he croaks, still gazing at the yawning darkness below as he flicks the smoldering remains down into the depths.

[willtheweaver]

WIP update for WIP Wednesday

Been working on this since the end of December. Things have gone on since then, the story has expanded, and I think it’s time for a (re)introduction.

The Crow and Foxfolk Series

Book 1: A Feather in the Forest (First draft)

Fen was not like the other foxes of the village. He was in fact a crow. All his life, he has lived by one simple rule: keep his identity a secret.

Now approaching the age of independence, Fen finds himself put to the test. Following his dream may mean that his secret will be exposed. What will happen then? Will his friends understand? And what about the community at large, one which harbors long rooted fears and distrust towards the birds?

Book 2: Snow on the Pines (Outline and some stuff from book 1 I thought would work better in its own book)

Strange things are afoot. On both sides of the boundary, foxes and birds have been experiencing a winter like no other. Now that the secret is out, Fen finds himself on the edge of two worlds: one he has grown up in, but which does not fully accept him, and one that he was born into, but is completely unknown to him. At the same time, Playa finds herself thrust into the role of leadership; a role she is woefully unprepared for.

Questions, answers, new allies, and hidden threats lie buried in the snow and beneath the trees. And from across the lake,comes a something the denizens of the forest thought was just a mere myth: [redacted].

Books 3-5(?): Not there yet. Will cross that bridge (and likely burn it) when I get there. Get. The. First. Book. Done. First.

Warnings: Contains blood, violence, mild use of alcohol and hallucinogenics, prejudice, xenophobia, depictions of disease,character death, and deep philosophical questions.

•—— ——— •—•• • •— ••• • •—— ——— ——• • •—•

Intrigued? Ask away. Will do my best to answer, but some things I don’t want to reveal just yet.(Will be tagging everything about this series from this point forward under/with #the crow and foxfolk series)

Edit: I had no idea that this would blow up into something this large. Am I mad? I must be, because I am pressing on until it is fully written.

Edit 2: Please do NOT repost anything written by me. Reblogs are fine, but do not post any and all written works by me without giving credit and obtaining my permission first. I do not wish to appear rude, but the last thing I want is for my work to be stolen. So please be courteous, not just to me, but all writers.

Edit 3: Please inform all writers (not just myself) if any and all writings show up anywhere else without any credit and permission given. The writing community will thank you greatly.

[crystalcow]

𝑆𝑎𝑝𝑛𝑎𝑝𝑠 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑//𝑆𝑎𝑝𝑛𝑎𝑝 𝑝𝑡 4

Masterlist // child reader ML //

Sapnap x reader !p !child reader

Pronouns used: none specified!

Warnings: swearing, mentions of death, casinos

➳➳➳➳➳┄┄※┄┄➳➳➳➳➳

𝐊𝐢𝐧𝗼𝐤𝗼 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝗼𝐰??

Quackity was telling you all of his plans

He rambled on for hours of his ideas for casinos and how he was going to marry Karl and sapnap

It sounded great

He had his whole plan set up! He even had Sam helping him with the building

But then he left

Just like everyone else

But that was fine! You were just with sapnap

Before Karl came running over rambling on about needed to move his library

He had a library?

“[Redacted] you need to stay close, please”

You looked at him weirdly

Who the fuck was [redacted]

“Karl my names Y/n you idiot” “flame..” “sorry”

He didn’t even notice it and then you had to spend the next couple days hauling over 100 books

“Oo hey what are these! The covers look really weird”

You had found his time travel books

Woops

That man raced over and in the kindest way possible, snatched it from your hands

“Don’t touch those, they are my special books”

You just shrugged and let him be, he freaks you out enough

So you all traveled to this area in the spruce forest and built a really ugly mushroom hut

But hey it’s fine! Foolish thankfully came around later that day and made everything better

So you stuck around

Maybe you needed this, this new start

Oh but prime knows that wouldnt last long

Karl started forgetting

At first it was simple things as just forgetting where he was or little stumbles with names

But eventually he was going away longer and longer

He started calling you by these strange names, some that sound Victorian and western and others that are unlike you

One day he didn’t call you by your name at all

You were hanging around the Sakura trees and the big yin Yang pond waiting for sapnap to come back with George

Then you saw Karl exit the library, running up to him for a hug

It’s been two months since you’ve seen him

You fucking hated it but you couldn’t help but consider him another parental figure

He loved it

But he just stood there as you wrapped your arms around him

Expecting the usual “[reda]- Y/n, I’ve missed you so much my sweet flame!”

But there was nothing just a sad one sided hug

“Hello? I’m sorry but do I know you?”

You were ready to cry

“I’m sorry, I uh must’ve mistaken you for the wrong person” “No that’s fine! Hugs are nice?”

So you left and ran into the library

Scouring throughout all of the books until you found them

The same 8 books you shrugged away

You read through all of them along with Karl’s other journals

You didn’t like going through his stuff especially, a whole invasion of privacy

The more you read the worse it got

What were you gonna tell Sapnap?

Who the hell is James, and [redacted]?

And why couldn’t he stop

It’s no use anymore

You were simply just forgotten

𝐋𝗼𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐬

The closer you got to the large building, the sicker you got

Kinoko Kingdom was supposed to be your free pass

But somehow you always end up here

You called for Sam on the comms waiting for the beep

The inside looked great to say the least

“What are your past relationships with the prisoner?” “No answer.”

“Where are you currently resided?” “No answer”

“Do you believe the prisoner deserves his sentence?” “Maybe”

You put all your shit in the locker and followed him through all the safety checks

“I’m glad you didn’t bring anything with you”

You stood on the platform heart racing as the lava went down

It was like a ticking time bomb

The small squeaks and scratches of the hovering bridge

He just stared at you

That sick stupid mask was broken by tommy that day in the black stone room

So you had to look into his face

Lets just say he looks good in Orange

“Barrier up or down?” “Down”

He backed up into the corner as you stepped in

Smiling

Once the lava cascaded down your smile turned into a sick frown

“Hello” is that all he had to fucking say?

“Screw you. Fuck you. Damn you”

He just looked you a small chuckle escaping from his lips

“Those all mean the same thing.” “Well I’ve been living in cinnamon town for the past couple months, and I’m ready to fucking burn some buns”

Yeah he just laughed

“I’ve missed you Hot shot”

“You ruined our damn life!”

Someone went quiet

“If you didn’t have to have a petty little war, or criminalize children we could’ve been fine! It could’ve just been you, dad, me, and George.”

You were pissed, everyone just kept leaving you.

Tommy and Tubbo, Quackity, Karl, Dream, and hell even Wilbur

“You come and visit me, after not having seen me for months and you just yell? Not a hello or ‘how are you dream?’ ‘How’s prison dream’ ‘how can I help you get out of this damn place’ “

You just sat down ready to just walk out into the lava

“I’ve been stuck here for months! None of you even cared enough to visit me, hell even Tommy came around.”

You might have felt a little bad after leaving him

The prison was cold even tho lava was flowing right there

“Why would you leave the discs alone..” “Because I had to end it.”

What were you doing here

What were you planning on saying?

“So, what do you do in prison”

“I have a clock.”

You got up to go look at the pretty clock

Then threw it at his face

“Ow” “deal with it bitch”

The longer you stayed the worse the feeling in your stomach got

so you buzzed for Sam waving goodbye

“Wait.. Do they miss me?” “Can’t say, but I think this may be for the best.”

He wanted his best friends

But he just got the annoying teenager

Oh but that wouldn’t be the last

𝐋���𝐬 𝐍𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐬

You got a letter in the mail one day

Who the hell uses letters??

You were shocked to see the address and the small post card

“Come around some time”-Quackity

Ans on the back it had the cords

Oh well what did you have to loose? Sapnap was focused on Karl

and well Karl didn’t even know you

So you set off

It took you a couple hours travel by horse to get to the desert area

The large sign blaring in the red text

You gotta admit the place looked beautiful

There was a giant dick and different shops

You were shocked to see this random un human like guy

“Hello, I am Charlie a totally human guy!”

Yeah totally not slime

“I’m uh, Y/n?” He reached out for a handshake sort of thing

“Dap me up!” “Another time Charlie”

Maybe when you had hand sanitizer

“Ohh so your Y/n! Mister Quackity talks about you all the time, come on in!”

You were skeptical but followed anyways

Stopping in your tracks when you saw Fundy

“Furry?” “Fire shit?”

You went over to give him a side hug, ruffling his fur

“What the hell are you doing here ginger boy!” “Oh you know, just escaping nightmares”

You were confused then just let him be

You walked to the entry way of the place

A beautiful pond with flowers and an arch

“Did what the place where Mr. Quackity was going to propose!”

Going to?

You shrugged it off following inside

You hated to admit it, but you were excited to see him

Yeah you really needed a parental figure in your life at the moment

So when you saw him, he immediately pick you up in a hug

You didn’t fail to notice his change in appearance

That beanie stayed the same tho

Thank god

“Hey hey! Let me show you around the place, we can also go for lunch and talk.”

The casino looked great to say the least

Loud music booming from the speakers, along with the live jazz band on the side

Slot machines were going off every minute

“Have a chip, something to remember this by”

He handed you a red poker chip

It was a cool one tho, in the middle has a blocky sort of smile

Creepy and dopey.. sick!

So you put it around a spare silver chain

“So how have you been kid? ‘Ts been a while hasn’t it.” “Could be better..”

You both walked around the city in silence, offering to go in the super model shop

“No” “why not” “keep walking”

On your way to lunch you had to squint at what you were seeing

“Oh my goodness you’re still alive?!” “You’re alive!?”

You and revivebur just stared at one another

“Yeah he came back after I died!” “you what now-“

You just stared at Tommy and back to Wilbur

Oh god those shrooms were messing with your head

You should’ve gotten out of there a while ago

Quackity came over placing his hands on your shoulders

“Do I have to execute you both? Get off my damn property”

“Sorry Q. Say, Y/n wanna join Lmanburg 2.0?”

You back away holding your hands up

“I denied that offer once, and I’ll do it again. Fucking zombie freaks”

You obviously muttered the last part

Why the fuck did dream revive those two shits??

When did Tommy even die??

Your visit here has just gotten weirder and weirder

𝐌𝗼𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬

Quackity got you away from the brits as quick as he could

So he brought you over to his office

“So kid, how’s your dad..”

Ah you expected this question

“How the fuck am I supposed to know. He’s living his life, Karl’s time traveling! Oh yeah did I mention he doesn’t even remember me.”

He looked at you with wide eyes

“So I’m not the only one they forgot..”

You slammed you hands on the fable dramatizing the situation

“How would you feel about moving here? I mean you could work for me in the casino!”

You thought about it for a second

You have two options

1. Live in shroom town with bubbles

2. Move to las Nevada’s with Quackity

You were sure Sapnap wouldn’t mind

I mean would he even care?

He hasn’t for the past couple months!

“You feel abandoned there, over here there are hundreds of people. You’ll have the time of your life”

You thought about it for a sec

“Alright hand me a contract”

So you signed

Making deals with the devil huh

Little did you know it would cost you your life

Devils little soul

➳➳➳➳➳┄┄※┄┄➳➳➳➳➳

and this is the finale! I will take requests for sapnaps child, and I’ll do some shit with Quackity and the casino and go in more depth if wanted!

As always request and ask anything! And ask if you want to be on a taglist (child reader or general)

For those on the taglist I don’t know if you wanted to be tagged for all child reader shit or just dreams child.. so please tell me :)

@creatorofstars @georgenctfound @samistheidiot @smolbox-png @ghostlysenses @stellarinstigator @bobaducky

[samuel-de-champagne-problems]

I’ll Take X-pecting for 200, Alex

Summary: Dr. Spencer Reid plays a trivia game at the request of his wife, Y/N, but he’s in for more than some heaving hitting questions. 

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Wife Reader 

Word Count: 1.5k 

Author’s Note: I really don’t think that this summary does this justice

I’ll Take X-pecting for 200, Alex 

Shuffling the cards with a shake in her hand, Y/N tells herself to just breathe. This is something that Spencer and her have been looking forward to, dreamed about, and constantly discussed. Regardless of how much she knows Spencer loves her, there’s a lingering seed of doubt that only grows with the sound of Spencer walking into their house. 

“Y/N!, I’m home, darlin’,” Spencer calls from the hallway, dropping the “g” because he knows that Y/N finds it endearing. 

“Baby,” Y/N yells from the table. “I’m in the dining room. I made us a trivia game! Come play with me, I need your brains,” she finishes, smiling at her husband, who has been away for nearly two weeks.

“You know do I love trivia, Y/N,” Spencer says. He takes a seat next to his wife, but before he can kiss her, she pushes him out of his chair and motions for him to take the seat opposite of her.

“Before we start, how was the case? Everyone make it home in one piece?” Y/N asks concerned over the wellbeing of some of her closest friends. 

“Everyone’s fine, Y/N. The unsub ended up being a team. Two women hellbent on getting revenge for their children’s murders. One of them got away,” Spencer explains, solemnly. 

“Oof,” Y/N says, letting out a sigh. “It’s at times like these that I’m glad I don’t have your job. I’m kinda glad she got away, between you and me.” 

“It’s hard, sometimes we don’t really know who we’re bringing justice too. But, I’d do anything to protect my future children, and you. Anything I needed to do to keep you safe,” Spencer tells her, leaning across the table and kissing Y/N’s hand. She gives him a sheepish smile, but inside her mind is eager to get this trivia game started. 

“You’re a charmer, Dr. Reid,” Y/N flirts. 

“Just for you, Y/N. Now you mentioned something about trivia,” Spencer says, clapping his hands together excitedly. 

“I just thought you’d like to rest your brain after a case but shifting though all those facts you got stored up there. And I always said you should try out for Jeopardy,” Y/N says as she collects the cards with the clues. 

She spreads out the categories, Child Psychology, Children’s Books, Labor & Delivery, Nursery Rhymes, X-Epecting, on the table. They were all handwritten on different colorful pieces of cardstock and decorated with baby animals and block letters. Y/N read the categories aloud to her husband, allowing herself to steal a glance at his face while he concentrated on the categories, as if he already could answer the questions. 

“All right, Spencer, you pick first,” Y/N says, in her best Alex Trebek impression. 

“I’ll take Child Psychology for $200,” Spencer chooses, looking up to smile at Y/N. 

“This is the substitute mother that baby monkeys formed an attachment to in Harlow’s psychological experiment,” Y/N asks.

“Terry-Cloth,” Spencer interjects. 

“Not uh, Spence, you need to answer correctly,” Y/N teases. She looks up at him expectantly to choose the next clue. He rolls his eyes at her, but secretly he enjoys the playful banter they still share even after all these years. 

“Um, Children’s Books $200,” 

“This is the story of the clever spider that can weave words in her web,” 

“What is Charlotte’s Web?” 

“Correct, pick again please,” Y/N says, as she tries to maintain a stoic composure. 

“This is the average of days that newborns keep up their sleepless parents,” Y/N asks, sure that this question would stump her genius husband. But to no avail, Spencer answers the question correctly. 

“Okay! Next time try-outs are around, I’m forcing you to take the test,” Y/N says running over to kiss Spencer on the cheek. 

“You know judges are supposed to remain impartial, Y/N” Spencer tells her, putting his arm around her waist as if he’s signally her to sit in his lap. 

“I can’t help it, how about you win kisses every time you get a question right, Spence,” Y/N proposes. 

“I guess it’s worth more than fake money,” Spencer teases.

“You offend me, baby!” Y/N pretends to be hurt by Spencer’s words, but urges him to continue the game. 

“You only got a couple more left, Spence,” 

“Okay, how about X-Expecting for $200,” Spencer chooses. 

“This chromosome is linked to the baby’s mother,” Y/N quizzes, finding it difficult to keep her smiles and secrets at bay when Spencer’s arm tugs around her waist tightly and his fingers draw patterns under her shirt. 

“What is X-Chromosome,” Spencer answers before Y/N can even finish the clue. 

“You know that you’re supposed to wait until the clue is read, Spence. I should redact kisses,” Y/N fake threats. 

“No! Y/N I’ll die without your kisses, please!” Spencer cries out in pretend disain. Much to his amusement his goofy behavior leads Y/N to plant small pecks on his forehead. 

“There, that should hold you over,” 

“I doubt it, Y/N. I miss you already,” Spencer mutters into her shoulder, as if he’s trying to get closer to his wife more than he could already be with her sitting on his lap. 

“Two more clues till Final Jeopardy,” Y/N announces, ignoring the fact that she’s bypassing the rest of the clues and totally disregarding Double Jeopardy. 

“Hmm, let’s go to Nursery Rhymes for kissing for the rest of my life,” Spencer picks, peppering Y/N’s shoulder with kisses. 

“Huh! Look at that, Spencer, you got the Daily Double, so whatcha going to wager?” Y/N asks, knowing she’s pulling this Daily Double straight out of the air, but Spencer’s affection for only one lifetime is not nearly enough for her. 

“I’ll make a true Daily Double, darling. That means double the amount of kisses,” Spencer tells her, ticking the sides of Y/N waist. 

“Here’s your clue, Jack is urged to be nimble & quick, helping him do this,” Y/N reads from the card. 

“What is to jump over the candlestick?” Spencer guesses, closing his eyes to be assaulted by Y/N’s eager lips. 

“Yay! Double kisses!” Y/N yells happily as she pecks Spencer’s eyelids and nose, causing him to laugh at her light affection. 

“Next question, it’s the last one so you don’t get a choice, but I have so much confidence in you, my genius husband. These are the names of the 3 stages of labor?” Y/N questions, looking over her shoulder to get a glimpse of Spencer’s mind at work. 

“What are dilation, expulsion, and afterbirth,” Spencer answers, once again perfectly. 

“Okay, Dr. Reid you’ve accumulated a total of double kisses for the rest of our lives. Your Final Jeopardy category is, Ready For It…” Y/N announces. 

“Last one,” Spencer says, and Y/N wonders if Spencer’s figured it out by now. She hands Spencer the small cardboard box. He looks at it curiously and Y/N can feel her heart in her stomach. He must know by now, she thinks. He’s brilliant, but sometimes he can be a little clueless when it comes to things like that. Y/N thinks back to how they danced around each other for years before Derek practically had to force them out on a date. He must know. 

“You’re clue is inside the box, Spence,” Y/N tells him, her voice shaky and unsure. 

Spencer carefully opens the cardboard box and reaches in to pull out the small pregnancy test that lay hidden inside. He looks it over, reading the test twice, three times, maybe even four times. He honestly can’t remember taking longer to read something. Spencer looks up at a terrified Y/N. 

“You’re pregnant? We’re going to have a baby?” Spencer asks, desperately wanting to believe what he holds in his hand. 

“You’re gonna be a daddy, Spence,” Y/N tells him, her smile struggling to conceal itself in between the bouts of happiness and joy that courses through her veins. 

“A baby! Oh Y/N. A baby!” Spencer shouts rushing over to where his wife stands in between the entrance from their kitchen to their dining room. 

“You’re happy, right Spence. You want this with me-” Y/N starts, a sudden rush of fear lodging itself in her heart. 

“Of course I’m happy, Y/N. I’m so happy to be a dad. You’re going to be a mom! You’ll be the best mom, Y/N. I love you, Y/N,” Spencer says, crouching down to rub his hands on Y/N’s belly. 

“Hi sweet baby,” Y/N says softly, looking down at her belly and covering her hand over Spencer’s. “I want you to meet your daddy. He’s going to take care of you so well, he might talk a lot but you get used to it” 

“Hey, baby. It’s your dad,” Spencer murmurs quietly into Y/N’s belly. “I’m so glad that mommy told me about you. You gotta do some growing in there before you can meet us, but we love you so much, baby,”

“I really love you so much Y/N,” Spencer says as he sits up to kiss his wife. 

All his life Spencer’s loved science. He loves discovering the undiscovered. Memorizing all those theories and facts and methods could never prepare him for the awe that sat before him. He realizes that he’s looked at science all wrong. There's a beauty in science- a natural, unadulterated beauty that’s so rare to find. But he’s found it and he’s never letting go.

Thank You for Reading!

Taglist: @calm-and-doctor​ 

If anyone wants to be tagged in new posts, feel free to comment and I’ll be thrilled to tag you <3

[bazzybelle]

Hello. I am back to working on my COBB (slowly, mind you). I downloaded CANVA and tried to make a new banner for my WIP snippets, but they're all way too effing big! So, until I figure out how to fix that, I'm gonna keep using this old banner I made.

I wrote a few words this weekend, not forcing myself too much.

Tags for today will be below the page break.

“Dev, I swear to Merlin, I will curse you if I need to.” I shake my wand out of the holster I keep around my arm (a gift from Siobhan), and point it at Dev. He scoffs. “Yeah right, Baz. You wouldn’t—” “A Slap on the Wrist!” I cast. Dev yelps, and flinches. He cradles his wrist, which is turning a bright red. “Have you legitimately lost your mind?” He shouts. I might have, honestly. The last year, dealing with growing hostilities, an active campaign against my family’s traditions, and [REDACTED] has affected me. Now to see Dev [REDACTED] is enough to push me over the edge and actually curse him to kingdom come. “Have you?” I shout back, keeping my wand levelled at his chest, and the book far away from his reach. “Why the fuck would you be reading this stuff, Dev?” “I told you both, I wanted to get a head start—” “Don’t lie to me,” I seethe. Niall comes between Dev and I (before I can get a chance to curse him again). He places a hand on my arm, gently lowering it. I allow him to do it (because I really don’t want to hurt Niall as well), but keep my eyes locked on Dev. He’s pointedly avoiding my gaze (a tell-tale sign that I’ve caught him in a lie).  “Dev, please talk to us,” Niall calmly says, and thank Merlin for him. I’ve been trying to keep a level head, but sometimes I need the cool presence that Niall offers. “Of course you’d side with him,” Dev spits out, glaring at Niall. I roll my eyes. “Don’t deflect. It won’t work on us.” “You haven’t been yourself since classes started up,” Niall says, keeping a solid wall between Dev and I. “You don’t pay attention in class, you’ve dropped rugby, you spend every single moment of your time reading those spells. It’s like you’re obsessed with them.”

Thanks for the tags for today (can't wait to read your snippets): @martsonmars, @aroace-genderfluid-sheep, @cutestkilla, @confused-bi-queer, @nightimedreamersworld, and @aristocratic-otter

Hello friends and gentle tags: @carryonsimoncarryonbaz, @f-ing-ruthless-baz, @fight-surrender, @amywaterwings, @ninemagicks, @palimpsessed, @excalisbury, @urban-sith, @artsyunderstudy, @facewithoutheart, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe, @takitalks, @ivelovedhimthroughworse, and @ileadacharmedlife.

[romirola]

Nominations for a RedactedASMR Fanfic Art

I was inspired by the lists/tag games recently circulating and the amazing fanart that I always see around the "redacted asmr" tag. I'm constantly blown away by fanart. I often see artists solicit prompts, and while I have occasionally requested stuff (the collective talent of this fandom is INSANE and hard to resist!), I usually hold back because I cannot reciprocate art like I try to do for writing fanfic/headcanons. I feel like I'm imposing or something. At the same time, when I solicit prompts/requests for writing fanfics/headcanons, I LOVE receiving them and do not consider them an imposition in the slightest. You can see how these competing ideas put me in a tough spot. To prompt or not? What to do? How to support the creativity here? Well, I thought, rather than prompting outright, I am going to create a list to nominate some wonderful fics I've read for fanart, in case there is an artist out there who might in need of some ideas or possible prompts. Disclaimer: No one is expecting or pressuring anyone to create anything!

If I had the talent to create visual art or the patience to practice creating visual art, these are the fics or scenes for which I'd draw fanart. I'm going to limit myself to 6 on this list for now, but honestly, there are SO MANY good candidates for fanart in this fandom. Plus, this list will promote some great fanfic authors! I invite anyone who sees this to come up with your own list of "fanart nominations." I am also going to invite dominimoonbeam, ejunkiet, lunareclipsee2, fuzzy-melonlord, and lovelylonerliterature formally since I nominated their works, but no pressure, friends! I decided to limit myself to one story per author, even though it was tempting to say all the stories from these writers. I aim to provide specificity. All the titles are linked to the story on A03:

In no particular order: 

The Lake by @dominimoonbeam I think the scene where Asher comforts Babe on the drive home as David drives, turns the heat up, and keeps looking back at them worrying would be very suited to fanart.

Your Mess is Mine by @ejunkiet I am very biased because I prompted this story and I very much champion the Sweetheart-practices-yoga headcanon, but the scene where Milo walks in on Sweetheart while practicing and silently, ‘stealthily’ admires them? It’s a quick, but significant moment for my favorite couple!

Not tonight, I have a headache by LoveRun (if this user is on tumblr, please someone let me know and I will properly tag.) The ending concludes with David using his wolf form to comfort Angel as they suffer through a migraine. Oh yes, definitely something I’d like to see!

flowers for the sick at the dead by @lunareclipsee2 This story has a great moment where David comforts an injured Sweetheart as Asher attempts to keep Milo from seeing the damage his mate has sustained. Emotional stuff!

Seeing Red by @fuzzy-melonlord. Okay, yes, I requested this one, too, and I will fully admit that, but the story features such a tense, tender moment between David and Asher as David reaches his grief-breaking point and Asher responds in true form! 

Settle Down by @lovelylonerliterature The image of Milo and Sweetheart at a diner at 2am is just burned into my brain, so I feel like it would translate well to a visual medium.

Artists, if you are so inclined, next time you need a prompt for redacted fanart, please consider these moments, or any others that get noted if anyone else chooses to nominate. Or use them for inspiration that you adapt! Or ignore them completely! Your call! Either way, I'm pumped to see all the art.

A general appreciation statement: Thanks to all the authors, artists, music-curators, character anons, theorists, headcanon-sharers, readers, rebloggers, and everyone in between for creating a community where people share stuff! 

[ringneckedpheasant]

tagged by @lavalierre, thank you <3 this was so fun, it's been ages since i've read most of these

10. Blood of Elves - Andrzej Sapkowski

The town was in flames.

I love The Witcher but c’mon man. You can do better than this. “It was a dark and stormy night” ass line.

9. Maurice - E.M. Forster 

Once a term the whole school went for a walk – that is to see the three masters took part as well as all the boys.

Establishes that the book takes place in Britain, which immediately makes me disinterested. I am only sort of joking.

8. The Gods of Tango - Carolina De Robertis 

Dante died a happy man, although a strange one, known for living with a coffin in his house.

I don’t know what it is but while I love this book, this does nothing for me.

7. Dusty in Memphis - Warren Zanes

This is not a book about a record.

I came here to read about Dusty in Memphis, please tell me about Dusty in Memphis. 

6. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë

1801– I have just returned from a visit to my landlord – the solitary neighbor that I shall be troubled with.

Mood.

5. Queer Cowboys - Chris Packard

Think cowboy, and what image comes to mind? 

I like that I’m being asked a question that already requires me to engage with the book, and I like that I’m being asked to visualize cowboys.

4. Howl’s Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones

In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three.

It’s a children's fantasy novel, it’s charming.

3. Cash: The Autobuography - Johnny Cash

My line comes down from Queen Ada, the sister of Malcolm IV, descended from King Duff, the first king of Scotland.

He was so kinnable for this one honestly because I love telling people that if you go far enough back the first member of the [Redacted] clan was related by marriage to Robert the Bruce.

2. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery 

Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' teardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.

This sentence is unforgivably long HOWEVER it is so unforgivably long that I can’t help but love it, and it establishes the setting and tone quite well, and tells you exactly the kind of person that Mrs. Rachel Lynde is.

1. The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. The United States of America - Eric Cervini

It began, as usual, in a public restroom.

Lol.

tagging @queerical @jockoppressor @iocane @tarantula-hawk-wasp @queerspacepunk

[mercurial-madhouse]

Trigger Warning: Healing is painful, but there’s so much light on the other side if we’re strong enough to walk through the dark.

My hope in sharing my story is to help anyone who reads it find peace or healing, just as I always aim with my fiction. If it feels right to you to do so, I encourage you to reblog this. It is highly personal, but I choose to share it publicly.

************

This past Sunday, I received an email responding to my desire to withdraw from a fic fest. Instead of the simple “You have been removed from the fest” that I’d been expecting through an official channel from mods to a participant, this is the response I received. Please be aware, the following is painful.

***

We've removed you from the fest and will mark you down as not being welcome to participate in future fests. We show a great deal of compassion toward our writers, which is why we send reminders, answer any and all questions, and provide extensions when requested. There's a reason why our fest has one of the highest numbers of fics of any fest/challenge in the fandom - it's because we support our participating writers and do everything possible to assist them as they complete their fics.

However, once a writer has repeatedly failed to communicate and missed both a deadline and an extended deadline, it's clear that they do not have any respect for the fest, the mods, our time, or our own unique situations, as we don't have endless extra hours to track down participants in a fic fest. Several reminders on three different platforms, an extension, and requests for writers to simply let us know if they need more time does not demonstrate a lack of compassion in any capacity. We also showed a great deal of compassion by welcoming you with open arms into the [redacted] after you insulted the fest, insulted [redacted] fics, and made writers uncomfortable last year after signing up to beta their fics, all while pretending to support and uplift writers in the fandom just as you did in your email here.

Have a great week!

- [redacted] Mods

***

This email arrived right at the end of the night, just as I was lying down to sleep. I couldn’t read it all the way through. It elicited a trauma response in me. My heart started racing, my palms were sweaty, I was shaking, I felt sick to my stomach.

I went into fight/flight/freeze/fawn mode. My first response was to freeze. In order to escape the barrage of pain bombarding me, I simply dissociated and disconnected from my body. It allowed me to sleep, but barely. I deleted the email in a desperate attempt to pretend it didn’t exist.

The pain caught up with me twenty-four hours later. I couldn’t breathe, my lungs shrunk in around my heart. My whole body locked up. I couldn’t move. I knew that if I spoke, even to say ‘hello’ to someone, I’d start crying.

The moment I was alone in my room the tears came. The pain came, bursting through me. I sobbed uncontrollably, curled into myself on my bed, begging for the pain to stop, begging for a miracle, screaming internally for relief and to understand what I’d done to deserve this because I didn’t have the air for more than broken whispers.

I fell asleep whispering ‘I need a miracle’ over and over. The mantra blocked out all the disgusting thoughts that wanted to keep swirling through my head. This is it. This is the final proof that you don’t belong here. You never have. You never will. Run away, M. It’s over. You tried, you failed. You always do. You always will.

I fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion.

Grief is intense. These are the moments where we don’t think we’ll survive what we’re feeling. My love, whoever you are, if you are reading this, hear from me. The agony passed. I needed to feel that agony, to allow it to move through me and to give myself the space to feel it. Without diving off the deep end into what hurts, I wouldn’t have been able to find the inner peace to keep healing, to start to understand.

The residual pain is still there, even as I write this post. But it no longer overwhelms my senses. And by Tuesday morning, I’d been given insight into what was happening.

I experienced a trauma response because it mirrored mistreatment I first received in childhood from family and classmates alike and continued into my adult life. In full view of others, it was acknowledged as cruel even by my mother, who struggles with her own guilt because she never stood up for me. No one did.

So I internalized the mistreatment. I must deserve it if everyone else around me is ok with me being singled out like this? At first I spoke up for myself. But in the end I stopped speaking up for myself too. I had never healed this pain and here it was, coming back around again, forcing me to face it, to heal it once and for all.

I still do not know what exactly I may have said to cause these accusations that you see in the email. **I do not and will not deny them.** Even if my words were taken in a way I did not consciously intend, to deny that I said anything that caused someone else pain is to deny my own power AND to deny that everyone’s emotions are valid and worth digging into.

I have the power to inflict pain, just as I have the power to spread and share love and joy.

Whatever I said came from a place of pain, of believing I did not belong in this community. That I am not good enough or worthy enough to be here. A series of unfortunate but necessary events when I first entered this fandom completely disintegrated my core beliefs in my abilities as a writer, something I have always kept so close to my heart, and my belief that I had a place in this fandom.

I expect, as I look into my past patterns, that what I did was try to logic why I wasn’t allowed to belong. At the time, this fest was the only subset of the fandom I knew, I was so brand new. So I looked through all the prompts in the fest. I brought a scientific method view to answering the question: “What is it about the fics people write in this fandom am I unable/incapable of doing?”

This process allowed me to generalize everything I saw that I perceived as ‘I can’t do that, this is why I don’t belong here’. Consumed in my own doubt that I could measure up and write something worth reading, I dropped from the fest last year too. If I can’t contribute writing that’s worth reading, I could at least stick with what I do best, which is helping others be their best selves. I had signed up to beta, and I chose to cling to the only grasp of belonging I had, which was through beta’ing. I ended up beta’ing four fics last year for the fest. And, of course, each of them were (and still are) incredible fics. At the time, it was further proof to me of exactly what I can’t accomplish.

In all likelihood, these generalizations, stemming from a place of pain and jealousy because I wanted to write good fics too, came out in a personal conversation with someone, which they translated as a personal attack. It is valid. Whoever you are, your emotions are valid. It does not matter how I meant whatever I said, pain is what you felt. This person did not feel comfortable sharing that pain with me, so instead they turned to others and shared. My moment of vulnerability and pain then spread more pain.

Pain only comes from pain.

The response was to shadow ban me. In fact, I was never meant to find out about any of this. The pain this person shared was simply taken at face value and that was that.

So on my end, this decision showed up in the physical world this way: Suddenly all my asks went unanswered, people I tagged to share snippets and last lines and get to know more through ‘about me’ posts or who had once talked to me through DMs simply stopped speaking to me in a way that is only noticeable to the person being ignored. I thought I was going crazy. But there it was, right in front of me: absolute proof that I wasn’t good enough to be a part of this fandom.

Is anyone else beginning to see the cycle of pain?

I expect I continued this cycle right back, because the pain turned to bitterness. I’d been doing everything I could to support every author the best way I knew how, and this was what I got? The exact opposite?

I found out about this shadow ban and actual blocking around June of this year. An ask sent in by a friend for me, inquiring why I couldn’t reblog a post that’d been sent to me by someone else, finally gave me the answer that I’d been banned for the accusations you saw above.

Horrified, hurt, and unable to comprehend any of this except to know that I support every author no matter what they write, I sent an apology to the mods, trying to end this cycle the best I could without knowing any of the details of what had happened. There was nothing more I could do.

They thanked me for the apology, though as you can see from the email, it was never accepted. I do not say that as a judgement call, but simply as a statement of what happened. Everyone is entitled to accept or not accept in their own time and their own ways.

I have been healing so much since everything that occurred last year. And the more I dig in to this cycle, the more my heart goes out to the drafters of this email, to the person I hurt with my words who then turned to share it out of context with others, and to the people who shadow banned me in connection with this situation.

We attract to us what resonates with us. Like attracts like. Which means just as I’ve attracted the greatest friends to me, I have also attracted this pain, and conversely, these mods and that person attracted me to them.

Deep down, on some level we share the same core wounds. And the person who can really understand just how painful those wounds can be is someone who feels them too.

So this is my message to the mods of the above email, to those who have shadow banned me and want nothing to do with me, and to the original person I hurt with my words:

I am sorry for my part in this pain. I am sorry for causing pain and I apologize for it. You are loved. You are enough. You are doing a fantastic job. Your feelings are valid. Your hurt is valid. I don’t know what occurred that hurt you before I entered the fandom, but after finding out from others that an email like the one you sent above is ‘Oh that’s just how they are’ tells me something else happened to hurt you before I even arrived.

Your hurt then is valid too. Allow yourself to feel it and process it. Don’t let it consume you. Don’t let that hurt and fear of it happening again or believing that that’s how everyone is push away from you people who in fact love just what you love. If someone has a different belief from yours, don’t let it invalidate what is true for you. Believing internalized lies about myself only caused me pain. And we spread and create what we believe to be true, whether we consciously realize it or not.

So here, now, is my truth:

I choose to perpetuate love. I choose to spread love. I choose to understand my pain and the pain of others, to transmute it, and to heal it, instead of passing that pain on.

I choose compassion. Compassion for myself in making these mistakes, and compassion for those who have hurt me. I do not condone the email that was sent to me. No one deserves to be treated that way. I choose to focus beneath the visceral anger and lashing out, to focus on the agony beneath the words, and stop this cycle of pain.

I choose to belong in this fandom. I choose to support every author in this fandom and ensure no one ever feels not good enough. I choose to own my past mistakes and learn from them.

I choose trust. To trust that those who I truly hope will see this, will see it. I have no expectations of responses or outcomes or reactions. My only hope is that whoever will benefit from seeing this post will see it.

This is not a matter of right or wrong, bad or good, just or unjust. It is a situation of two parties in pain, triggered by the same triggers.

Looking back on that email, I’ve come to realize that half of the pain I felt when I received it was not my own. I felt the pain of the attack, sure, but I also felt the immense pain beneath those words. And I wish I could hug you. I acknowledge your pain and I acknowledge how painful it is because I know that pain myself. I also know that this pain isn’t you and it isn’t who you are.

So I choose to remember the mods I first met around this same time last year in this same email chain. Mods who were so kind and offered advice to a brand new writer even when she sent an email that had nothing to do with the fest and was still struggling to find her place in the fandom. I choose to remember how beautiful that kindness felt. I choose to remember how I was so grateful for that kindness that I shared my gratitude for these same mods in an email with with another fandom friend at the time. I am still grateful for you.

You are so loved. You are loved for being exactly who you are. This fandom is built upon love. A shared love of five incredibly talented lads who have brought so much joy and light when each and every one of us has needed it the most. Shine your light through the dark and believe with all your heart that you are not alone. You have support. I support you. Shine on. Don’t let anyone dim it.