#Originally Buddy was going to have a gun but I wanted to be done with this already

[aioliravioli-69]

Thank you so much @tmkalp for creating that wild west au 🙏 and for being ok with me making my own :D

So here, have Chase being hog-tied to a train track!

First things first(because you KNOW I gotta add a description to every image lol)

I hate that goddamn train. I'm gonna admit I traced the hell out of it and it took me hours??? It came out so ugly brooo

It's WAYY too small but not a single cell in my body is motivated to redraw it

Aight, train rant over

Buddy is supposed to be a western prostitute(the pants were supposed to be non-transparent fading into a transparent tone) because I couldn't think of any other villainess role in a western movie.

Not that I was more creative with Chase 💀

I literally just looked up 'western film female protagonist' and stole ideas off of there

Also yes, Chase is in extreme back pain

Buddy: Well hello there

Chase: *muffled insults*

[cherrirui-official]

Friendlocke Violet Gijinkas (Part 4/7)

Hell yeah we're over halfway done! Isn't that crazy? I don't have too much to say here sooooooo onto the usual stuff

I plan on posting them in order by groups of three, so there's gonna be seven parts in total, all of which I'll be linking here when done vvv

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) (Part Five) (Part Six) (Part Seven)

!! These will contain personal headcanons I have for the cast, little fun facts, and also spoilers for Friendlocke Violet (for both the edited vids and the streams) !!

@saltydkart-reblogs

Designs under the cut!

VRISKA:

Vriska has an extra set of arms that they can retract and extract whenever they please. However, they usually keep those arms hidden.

The long needle she's holding is her trusty sword that she's used since her pirate days. She doesn't use it as much as she used too, but it's good to keep it on her for self defense in case of an emergency.

The marks on thier neck and shoulders aren't tattoos, they're birthmarks.

Good at sewing, as she often would have to fix her coat after getting into epic pirate sword fights. Sara and Vriska are sewing buddies!

It is unknown why they're unable to sleep, but while the rest of the team sleeps they often find themselves wandering around and doing whatever they want.

Artist's note: I based Vriska's design off the fact that I wanted to make her look like a bootleg version of the og Vriska. As in "Hey that's Vriska" but also "That's not VRISKA" if you get what I mean

MALL BINGO:

Trained herself to become resistant to poison (and by "trained" I mean she just ate a bunch of poison until her body became almost immune to it... please don't try this at home.)

Often goes scavenging for items when she's doesn't feel like robbing someone. If she's lucky enough she'll find some good items scattered around because "stupid trainers often leave good shit on the ground for some reason" (due to all the items you can pick up from the ground ingame lmao)

Mal lost her leg in one of her first heists, after she and another pawmi tried stealing from the wrong person at the worst possible time.

The gun she keeps with her wasn't originally hers, it belongs to someone else.

On a more positive note, Mal has plenty of stories and tall tales to share. She learned them from the eldest in her little pawmi group, as they would often tell her stories before going to sleep. Mal will often share those same stories with Peppy Jr and Mykyie Jr.

Can and will bite you. You won't be expecting it. Be warned.

GRUNPILO:

Due to his abundantly long hair, Grunpilo often lets Mal play around with it and style it however she wants.

It is unknown how or why he picked up on puppetry specifically, but it makes him happy so who are we to judge?

Speaking of which, he creates his own puppets by hand, from simple sock puppets to marionettes on strings. The two hand puppets shown are his favorite ones though.

Sometimes he'll be found speaking to them as if they're real.

Not good in social situations or confrontation, so Mal will sometimes have to speak for him. ("EXCUSE ME! He asked for no pickles!" /ref)

EXTREMELY light, very easy to pick up.

And that's all! Only three more batches left woo, hopefully I can finish them by the end of the year lol.

[howtofightwrite]

For super-powered individuals, if we assume the standard of characters being stronger, faster, more durable than normal, is there a reasonably thin enough material (i.e. not just 5 inch thick hardened steel) that a super strong individual could carry to be bullet-proof (enough), presumably in some form of plate armor where you can still be agile?

Not exactly. The problem with armor (in the context of armored vehicles) is that you can just hit them harder. Something that can stop a .50 round might not do so well against a guided explosive munition, and if that fails an artillery strike. But, against a roughly human foe, those anti-material rounds would probably get the job done.

So, let's stick with your hardened steel solution for a moment. A .50 BMG round will penetrate ~1.5 inches, but for the sake of argument let's say 2 inches. That's a pretty good defense against a sniper with an AM rifle. However, this is also used in heavy machine guns, where you're looking at a cyclic rate of ~750-850rpm. In a situation like that, your armor might hold up to a short burst, but probably will not survive multiple bursts in the same area. As is often the case, the real problem isn't the bullet with your name on it, it's the 20 or 30 buddies who wanted to swing by for a fun time.

This leads to another problem. While bullets punching holes in you is bad, your armor taking a hit can be pretty unpleasant in its own right. A .50 BMG will deliver somewhere north of 14k joules of force into the target. That's enough for the bullet to do some pretty unpleasant things to a person in the armor, even if the armor itself isn't compromised. This a large part of why there isn't any armory rated to soak a hit from one of the AM rifles. (The Russians claimed that their Ratnik-3 armor would be able to... and then it never really appeared. The claim was someone dubious to begin with, but that's a much larger, and wilder, rabbithole than you're asking about.)

For a normal person, wearing high end body armor, hits from normal combat rifles (intermediate and high power rounds) can result in broken ribs and internal hemorrhaging. It's not just about your armor being bulletproof, it's about your armor being able to effectively dissipate kinetic force as it's received. If it doesn't do that effectively, the bullets may get the job done, even if they don't manage to penetrate the body armor.

On an individual level, simply adding more armor isn't a particularly efficient solution. It makes sense to a point, but if you're already saying someone is super-humanly strong, and tough, covering them in steel plate isn't going to make them immune to harm.

Beyond that, there have been experiments with developing combat exoskeletons, to allow normal soldiers this kind of protection. The aforementioned Ratnik-3 was the Russian program, while the American project was named TALOS. TALOS was scrapped sometime before February 2019, citing technological limitations. So, this isn't a new concept.

Something I found deeply amusing is the “See also,” section on TALOS's Wikipedia page includes a link to Crysis. For those unfamiliar, Crysis was a first person shooter set in the distant future year of 2020, which would have come dangerously close to matching the intended schedule for TALOS, if the project had continued.

Powered exosuit research is probably not dead, even if TALOS has been scrapped. It may be a bit further out than was originally expected, but it is a reasonable bet that it will happen at some point. There are a lot of technological hurdles, including both the issue with the armor failing under direct fire, and dealing with kinetic force, but, at least from an optimistic perspective, it's somewhat plausible.

Unless you're talking about vehicles, modern armor isn't about adding more metal, it's about being more efficient with dissipating the kinetic force from a hit, and still survive to do it at least a couple times.

That said, whatever you do come up with, it's likely that the old adage will hold true, if force doesn't solve your problems, you're probably not using enough of it. No matter how good your armor is, it won't survive sufficient application of high explosives.

Even ignoring all that, a Type IV plate will still take a hit from most rifles (up to and including .30-06 AP rounds.) You don't need fantasy armor for that, it's something that already exists. Real world body armor is designed to take hits. Full plate was designed for melee combat. Neither one is particularly good at doing the other's job. That's not a limitation of the materials or technology, it's a function of what the armor is designed to deal with.

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, one of my scoutmasters warned us that if you use a knife as a screwdriver, you'll break it. It has an intended purpose. Trying use that tool, (whether it's a knife or body armor) for a purpose other than it's intended ones, will usually end poorly. (Of course, I also remember a crayon eater who was rather vocal in his opinion that the USP's only effective use was as a hammer.)

If you want to put a character in fully enclosed armor, take a look at Ratnik-3 or TALOS armor. If you just want a character who's unusually durable, and you're willing to go for (low key) superpowers, you don't need special armor to get that idea across.

-Starke

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[diolanza]

͟͟͞͞➳❥ ––– starters based off sounds I have saved on tiktok.

Note: I know not all of these sounds originate from tiktok! Feel free to change pronouns as needed. Some of these have been modified to fit better starters. tw: mentions of n.sfw and drinking

 ❝ I know you. ❞

 ❝ I think you're holding the heart of mine. ❞

 ❝ Nobody gets out of this shark pit alive. ❞

 ❝ There's not going to be a swimming pool, you stupid slut. ❞

 ❝ And when she smiles, that's what I'm after. ❞

 ❝ I wanna be that fucked up girl. ❞

 ❝ Aah! Don't point that gun in my face! ❞

 ❝ I wanna see you on the floor. ❞

 ❝ I only want your body. ❞

 ❝ I got your back! From right here. ❞

 ❝ Please hold me close to you. ❞

 ❝ You're so pretty. ❞

 ❝ Can't be sidetracked with cheap sex potions. ❞

 ❝ All those muscles didn't help much. ❞

 ❝ Sometimes life is not a cakewalk served up on a silver spoon. ❞

 ❝ I'm lurkin' and I'm stalkin' when you least expect it. ❞

 ❝ I've got to make you mine. ❞

 ❝ An eye for an eye, a leg for a leg. ❞

 ❝ I'm sorry that on that day, no one was there to lift you up into their arms. ❞

 ❝ I hope that you choke. ❞ 

 ❝ I have a better plan. ❞

 ❝ I'm not worried about silly things like labels, people can call me whatever they like. ❞

 ❝ By the way, I'm bisexual. ❞

 ❝ Can I see you tomorrow night? ❞

 ❝ I got that good stuff that you want. ❞

 ❝ What the fuck is goin' on here on this day? ❞

 ❝ Did you see the way he looked at me? ❞

 ❝ I brought back some takeout, so like, let's get down and pig out. ❞

 ❝ Don't come crying to me when your big dreams fall apart! ❞

 ❝ I stay awake at night because I don't even know what my favorite color is and I'm afraid I don't have a real personality. ❞

 ❝ Nothing ever lasts forever. ❞

 ❝ You make me sick! ❞

 ❝ Let's get drunk tonight! ❞

 ❝ I hate who I was before. ❞

 ❝ Buddy, you're letting all your fragile masculinity show. ❞

 ❝ Tell me what to do to make it all feel better. ❞

 ❝ It's always darkest before the dawn. ❞

 ❝ This is a disaster! ❞

 ❝ The world don't revolve around you. ❞

 ❝ You're just too good to be true. ❞

 ❝ [name], pick up the fucking phone! ❞

 ❝ Come on, [name], we've got to hide the body! ��

 ❝ I'm not touching that thing, I'll get neurotypical cooties. ❞

 ❝ Times have changed. ❞

 ❝ And here he is, the piece of shit! ❞

 ❝ I don't like the way my skin feels on my body. ❞

 ❝ Can't spend another night in this home. ❞

 ❝ You sleep rather soundly for a murderer. ❞

 ❝ I never walk about after dark. ❞

 ❝ The gods know what you've done. ❞

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

what's a good BL drama for fans who aren't innocent, but still get too shy during the nsfw parts, but also something more lighthearted?

(The Sign has traumatised me for life)

Hi 🤗 Thank you so much for this ask! And sorry it took me so long to answer 🙈

So The Sign has traumatized you and you are looking for something not that innocent, but not really with nsfw parts and kinda lighthearted? The difficulty was the not that innocent, but lighthearted part 😅 most not that innocent series I could think of have some traumatizing backstories or main plots or are way too explicit. But of course there are still a lot of good dramas, with a more lighter tone. And I hope you'll find something you like and haven't watched yet 😊

So lets go 💪

A Boss And A Babe

It was not my favorite show from last year, but it was okay. Cher is a very extroverted character with a big heart and a loose mouth. Gun is a strict boss who can't find sleep without listening to Cher's voice. It is a different start for the relationship than we are used to, but it worked for them and for us too. Both have to deal with some stuff, but the tone of the series is mostly lighthearted. There are some love scenes, but not explicit and very tasteful.

A Breeze Of Love

I have to mention A Breeze Of Love! It is my favorite show from last year and it has to be in any list I put up 😅 It feels so good to watch this show! I just get happy when I think about it. There are no nc scenes, but you know those two want each other, especially Lee Do Hyun. The conflict between these two has its start in the past and of course it catches up with them. The series tells us that it is okay and needed to be honest with yourself before you can be honest with other people and before you can open up to them and love them. It is such a heartwarming series. Sorry, I love it so much.

Bad Buddy

A classic. A masterpiece. Such a good series. Do I need to say more? A classic enemies to lovers, Romeo and Juliet, story. And so well done! Nothing nsfw, but a good story with good acting, a great kiss and a very good soundtrack. The story of two different people falling in love with each other and decide to be together against all odds. It is rightly a high rated drama. The chemistry is one of the best out there and you just believe those two that they slowly fall in love with each other.

Be loved in house: I do

A workplace romance. And again, there is some trauma from the past, but the series itself gives such a warm feeling. For a long time this was my feel good pick. It touched my heart and it was funny (the mom is the best) and it makes me happy. The boss has a problem with workplace relationships and forbids them, not knowing that this will become a big problem for himself in the future. The mains have great chemistry and I love watching them cuddle!

Bake Me Please

You like cakes and a workplace romance between a cold hearted boss and a total ray of sunshine? This is the one for you. It gave me such a good feeling during december. It felt so cosy, even though the main conflict was... dumb... But nevertheless seeing Shin become more open and approachable and better understand the emotions and thoughts of others has melted my heart. And Peach was such a comfort character! Highly recommended.

Be My Favorite

This might not be the most lighthearted series out there, but it is such a good series. One of my favorites of 2023. It deals with grief and finding your place in life, acceptance and allowing yourself to love and to be loved for who you are. There are so many emotions and I was hooked from the first til the last second. Kawi is such a relatable character, especially in the beginning. I liked him and his journey a lot. And Pisaeng is such a sweetheart and I wish that every Kawi out there, who is looking for a partner, can find their own Pisaeng.

Cherry Magic

One of the most wholesome and perfect series out there. We have the japanese original and the current airing thai adaptation. The story is easy: Adachi (Achi) turns 30 and with that he receives the gift to be able to read the minds of everyone he touches. And that is how he learns that Kurosawa (Karan) has the biggest crush on him. Kurosawa is one walking green flag and he is so attentive, I love him. And Adachi is a shy sweetheart who could need a little bit more self-confidence. They are adorable together. The thai adaptation is also really good! I love it! And don't worry about nsfw scenes. At least the japanese version is very safe.

Hidden Agenda

I must admit, this is not one of my favorites, but it is cute and lighthearted for most of the times and the acting really improved. The Hidden Agenda is not so much hidden and I would have wished for some secrets and perhaps a longer period of pining and coming to terms with the fact that, hey I like a boy now. But it is cute and a good choice on a stormy sunday.

Jun & Jun

I wish they would have gone down the road with the scent-kink. That would have been so cool. But it is lighthearted and the dynamic of these two is great. It is a perfect watch for an afternoon. A workplace romance all around scents and when Choi Jun wears his glasses - chef's kiss! Such a good looking man. The plot itself is nothing very special, but good for a short entertainment.

Kiseki: Dear To Me

Kiseki, lighthearted? Well. I think it is not so problematic. Yes, it has a mafia plot, but the basic mood is more light. And you can just ignore the plot and concentrate on these two lovebirds. Ai Di and Chen Yi really safed this one for me. Their relationship is so fucked up in the beginning and to be honest, it doesn't get better, but cuter. Trigger warnings are blood and death and violence. But the nc scenes are chef's kiss, very well done, very beautiful and not that explicit.

Last Twilight

The show that ends this week and I don't want to let go of it! It was my highlight of the week. Day lost his eyesight because of an accident and needs a care taker. We meet Mhok, a young man who is condemned from his surroundings because he had spent time in prison, but whose character is just a soft green flag with the most respect for good people and with so much love to give. I want a Mhok in my life. He is such a sweetheart. And them together are such lovey dovey adorable puppies! Their dynamic is very natural and the chemistry is chemistrying! Plot wise a more mature bl, not that overly lighthearted, because it touches some sensitive topics, but I don't feel bad watching it. There is always this hope that keeps you warm.

Love Class 2

Okay, listen, the main couple deals with some trauma, but the rest is really cute and adorable and lighthearted! And the main couple is adorable too in the end. We have three couples, for a korean bl it has a really good nc scene (I got a little bit shy, but just because I had the feeling I needed to give them their privacy) and it has some nice kisses (indeed some of my favorite kisses of 2023 or ever). The story... Well... What story? Because there were so many couples, the story was a little bit flat. But every couple got their time and yes, nothing special was told, but in the end it made me feel good and I enjoyed it very much.

My Secret Love

And again, three couples, but more time to tell their stories. We start the series and the main cp with enemies and go on to fake lovers and of course finally to lovers. I liked the series. I liked the main couple and their differences and how they could make the other person rethink some of their actions, to become a better version of themselfes in the end. And the side couples were cute and lovey dovey.

Papa & Daddy

One of the really mature dramas about starting a family and the obstacles one has to deal with. It is a very realistic drama. It shows a short timeline in the life of this new family and their problems with themselves and the other parents and the child and their surroundings and how they try to solve these problems and to learn how to deal with homophobia on a new level, because now there is this child that needs to be protected and that is questioning their life as a family. I really loved this show. The second season... not that much, but it was still okay.

Secret Crush On You

If you manage to overcome the pure urge to turn it off while you watch the first or second episode because you cringe so damn much, you are gifted with a little gem. It is so lovely and the deeper message this one wants to tell us, I love it. You don't have to be perfect in the eyes of others, you can be a weird nerd and still be loved. You don't decide what other people find attractive about you. Just accept the fact that there are people who want to smack you and love you and protect you with all your flaws. Such a good series. And most of the times really funny!

Sing My Crush

I was so surprised when this came out, because I haven't heard about it before. And there is was. All of the epsisodes out and I thought, okay, I'll give it a try and I fell in love. The story of these two friends, one a musician and the other one his biggest fan, is adorable. They are so natural with each other and Im Han Tae is such a sunshine character. He is full of optimism and love, a total comfort character. And those two are soulmates. The development of their story felt so natural. Such a good series!

You're My Sky

I enjoyed this drama. It is build on pining and basketball and friendship and it has the brother from La Pluie, which is nice. I fell in love with the side couples, especially Sean and Aii, they are so cute. If you like sport dramas, this one is for you. It has a lot of sport. It is not the most lighthearted series, because all characters deal with some kinds of secret or obstacles to overcome, but it is well made.

Shout out to some really cute and lighthearted series without any nc scenes, but which feel just sooooo good and are simple a joy for the heart:

My School President

Our Dining Table

I Became the Lead in a BL Drama: Crank up Edition

Light On Me

Like In The Movies

Love Mate

Our Dating Sim

Old Fashion Cupcake

Semantic Error

Kieta Hatsukoi

Love Tractor

Okay, I have to stop! I hope this can help you a little bit with you to-watch-list 🤍

[ofstoriesandstardust]

we could leave the christmas lights up 'til janaury (b.r.b.)

a/n: this was written for a mutual who i have not spoken to in many months but is lurking around here somewhere (so if she sees this she should come say hi). this is just 2k words of fluff my dudes

summary: Rebel and Rooster finally make a home together.

main masterlist | top gun: maverick masterlist | same mistakes-verse

warnings: swearing, a good helping of MavDad, i did extensive research on property deed changes in california for no reason, one reference to sex if you squint

word count: 2.3k

“You have a tiny bed.” 

You look up from your phone to see your fiancé, who’s standing with his hands on his hips, eyeing the sight in front of him. Buddy had definitely been getting bigger and had been taking up more space on the bed than when he originally came home with you. Rooster had been a little bit grumpy about that fact, bemoaning the fact that the dog loved to wedge himself in between his parents and it meant he couldn’t cuddle with you as much, the damn koala bear. 

“It’s just so unfair.” Rooster groaned, letting his head plop down onto the top of the bar. You raise an eyebrow at him, thoroughly unimpressed. 

Hangman gave a chuckle, smirking at you over the top of his head. “Bradshaw, are you really getting jealous of a dog? Your dog?”

“Hey, he’s my dog. I’d get him in the divorce if Rooster and I were ever to get a divorce, the same way I’d get Bob in the divorce.” Coyote lets out a loud laugh at that as Hangman continues to smirk. 

“Still Bradshaw, I’d say this is a new low.”

“Shut up.” 

“You know, I could just get a bigger bed.” Rooster sighs as he sits on the wedge of bed Buddy has left for him and he raises his head, annoyed at the movement, choosing to hop off the bed. You chuckle as Rooster rolls his eyes.

“Dog’s a damn drama queen.” He mutters and you turn to him as he settles on the bed next to you, back up against the wall. 

“He gets it from you.” You whisper and he nudges you as he kicks his legs over the bed, slipping them under the covers to entangle them with yours. “So, a bigger bed? I’ve had this one forever anyways.” He hums as he wraps an arm around you, tugging you towards his chest. 

“Or...” He trails off, looking down at you.

“Or?”

“Or... well, I was thinking you could move in with me. You know, finally.” 

You shift slightly, moving to be eye level with him. “Yeah, I’d love to.”

He gives you a soft smile. “Yeah?” 

You nod, humming as you place a soft kiss on his lips. “We’re getting a new bed though.” You whisper against his lips, feeling the hair of his moustache rubs against your skin.

He smirks, placing his hands on your hips to pull you onto his lap. “Oh, obviously.” 

“Yeah, and we’re getting rid of those ugly curtains in the living room. I love your Mom, but they’re ugly.”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that Mav picked those out.” 

You roll your eyes.

“’Course he did.” 

-

“Why do I have so much shit?” You hiss, practically sitting on the suitcase to get it closed.

Someone laughs from your doorway, prompting you to look up. Your Dad’s there with an amused grin on his face, hands in sweatpants pockets. “I take it packing’s not going well?” 

You sigh, sliding off of the suitcase. “I’m pretty much done, I just… Why do I have all this crap Dad?” 

He shrugs. “I don’t know, it’s your money.” 

“I knew I was overdue for a spring cleaning but holy shit.”

Your Dad side steps a box, sitting down at the foot of your bed. “I gotta admit kiddo, I’m a little surprised you guys have taken this long to officially move in together. You guys practically do live together as it is.”

“You saying you want me out of here?” You ask, quirking an eyebrow. 

He fixes you with a look. “I just meant that I figured you wouldn’t want your Dad around so much and might want to have your own space. You and Brad have been together for a while now.”

“So have you and Penny and the two of you don’t live together.” You point out.

He sighs, holding his hands up in surrender. “That’s only fair. But-” He says, leaning forward so his forearms are resting on his knees. “We aren’t talking about me.”

“Yeah well, I don’t know, I know I didn’t exactly grow up in this house but it’s always felt like home, you know? Didn’t want to give that up you know. I didn’t grow up here but I did grow up here in a lot of ways, especially the last few years. And I guess it was nice to know that I always had somewhere to go if shit hit the fan and you know, Bradley and I broke up. Didn’t want to sacrifice it and not have a backup plan, I guess.”

Your Dad sighs. “You’d always be welcome here, kid. I really hope you know that. Even if ten years down the road, you’d have this place as a home. That would never change.”

You sigh, standing up from the floor to join your Dad on the bed. “Dad, I know you’ve been wanting to sell this place for a while. I know Penny’s realtor friend gave you a quote on how much you could get. I know you’ve just been waiting for me to get out of here.” 

He shrugs, arms still resting on his thighs. “Gotta admit that I’ve been using you as an excuse as to why I can’t get out of the house kiddo. Maybe you’ve also been my backup plan.” 

You let out a breath, leaning back on your palms. “What a fucked up father daughter duo we make.”

He lets out a small laugh, shaking his head. “This is actually maybe a good time to talk to you about this, kid.”

“Talk about what?”

“I’ve been thinking-“

“That’s never good.”

He shoots you a pointed look. “I’ve been thinking that maybe it’s about time Penny and I move in together as well. We’ve been dating this time around almost as long as you and Brad have.”

“Yeah? Good for you guys. You can smother Amelia now.”

He shoots you another look. “And I’ve been thinking that you know, I’m getting up there in years, and I just want to make sure everything’s squared away for when I’m gone.”

“Dad…” 

He glances at you. “How do you feel about transferring the title into your name?”

“Like… the title of the house? Like our property deed? You want to give me the house?”

He shrugs his shoulders again. “The house has always been yours. Was always gonna be yours. I left everything to you and Brad, you know. Figured we might as well get a head start on it.”

You gap at him. “Should I be worried about you? Are you feeling okay?” You reach over to press a hand to his forehead. He laughs lightly, batting your hand away. 

“I’m feeling fine. I just want to make sure you’re taken care of when I’m gone. And it would make me feel better to know that the legal and physical stuff is squared away.”

Part of you wants to make a joke about how he’s going to live forever so he shouldn’t worry and the other part of you is entirely stunned, although not surprised, your Dad has put this much thought into what would happen to you if he were to die. 

He’s been thinking about that since the day Goose-

“Dad.” You whisper. 

“You don’t have to say yes. And you can think about it of course, I know you might not want to take on this place, but-“

The sob you let out catches both you and your Dad off guard as the emotions come pouring out of you before you can stop them. He reaches over, pulling you into a hug. 

“Kiddo, it’s just a house. It’s four walls and a roof, really-”

“It’s not just a house. This was our house when I was at UCSD and this was our house when you and I were bouncing around the world and this was our house when Ice got cancer and this was our house where all my friends got to call their home too.” You say, wrapping your arms around his chest as the tears roll down your face. “I don’t wanna leave.” You whisper. 

“Kiddo…” He whispers, rubbing his hand up and down your back.

You sniff. “I mean, I do wanna live with B and Buddy but this is my home.”

He sighs. “Like I said, a house is just four walls and a roof kiddo. A house is just a house. A home is what the people inside make of it.” He squeezes you. “You made this house a home. You made it a home for me and for Brad and for all of the Daggers. I know you have so many memories here. But you’re gonna have so many more in your place with Brad. You already do have so many in that house. And now you get to move into a place where it gets to be entirely your own and you get to share it with the person you’re gonna spend the rest of your life with. Brad didn’t take putting that ring on your finger lightly.”

You sniff. “Yeah, I know.”

“I mean it. Asked me for my permission and everything.”

You raise your head, looking at your Dad curiously. “Did he really?”

He laughs. “Yeah, he did. Kid was terrified I was gonna say no. He loves you so much, he really does.”

You sniff again, letting your arms fall from your Dad as you smile. 

“I know he does.”

-

Bradley groans as he lays down on the bed next to you. You quirk an eyebrow at him. 

“What are you groaning about, mister? I’m the one who did all the hard work.” 

He grins, reaching out for you. “I don’t know, I stood there and looked mighty pretty.” 

You roll your eyes as he plants his hands on your hips. “Yeah, okay.” 

He snorts, before kissing your cheek. “You know what I can’t get over?” 

“What?” 

He grins at you again, a childlike excitement on his face. “This is our house now.” 

You grin back at him. “It is, and we get to do whatever we want.” 

You both break into giggles, the excitement being too much. 

“I know you’ve pretty much lived here the last few months, but it’s nice to finally make it official, you know?” You nod as your dog hops up on to your bed, nestling in at your feet. Bradley smiles at Buddy before beginning to run his hands through your hair. “Hey, how was the last night at your place? Mav cry?” 

You shake your head. “Actually, surprisingly, I cried.”

Bradley shifts so that he can look down at you. “What? Why?” 

You shrug, watching your dog’s steady breathing. “Dunno. Was just weird I think. I grew a lot in that place.” 

He hums, his hand working on detangling a knot in your wet hair that must have formed sometime after your shower. 

“I can imagine. You’ve lived in that place since you were like 19, yeah?” 

You nod. “Yeah, and that place we had on base growing up never really felt like home. That house was the first place that had really felt like a home rather than just somewhere I slept. The closest I ever got before that was here.” 

“Funny now, how it all kind of circles back to this home.” 

You nod, thinking about this house. The weekly dinners you used to have with Ice and Carole. The memories you have from growing up playing hide-and-seek with Bradley, the movie nights Carole used to have with you when your Dad was out of town and Bradley would be out with friends. 

This house had only ever emanated love, a feeling that could be felt in its walls the minute you stepped through the door. It was a feeling you could recall across decades, even from your earliest childhood, the fuzzy memories of Goose and Mav and Carole, when that was all you had ever needed,

“Oh, I almost forgot to tell you the most important part.” 

He laughs a little, chest vibrating against yours. “Oh yeah, and what is that?” 

“Dad’s moving out and giving me the house.” 

He startles, pulling back from you so that he can look you in the eyes. “What? He’s giving you the house?” 

“I guess.” 

He shakes his head, looking a little dazed. “I just figured he’d sell it.” 

You scoff. “He’s not going to get shit for that place.” 

“So are you going to sell it?” 

You shrug. “I don’t know, I haven’t totally thought about it. I guess maybe we could invest some money in it and fix it up, rent it out.” 

“Actually, that’s not a half bad idea.” 

You turn at him, offering him a small smirk. “I got good ideas sometimes.” 

He rolls his eyes, pulling you back down to his chest.

It’s quiet for a minute, the only noise really being Buddy’s breathing and the fan, but you know Bradley isn’t asleep yet. 

“If only little us could see us now.” 

“You think they’d be happy with us ending up together?” He whispers back. 

“Well, I know they’d be thrilled to hear that we’re having a sleepover every night for the rest of our lives.” 

He lets out a full belly laugh at this, waking up Buddy who huffs and shifts on the bed. “Yeah, except our sleepovers are way better now.” 

You roll your eyes at him. “Shut up.”

He laughs again, before settling back down into the bed, taking in the moment.

“Hey, I have a question.” 

He hums, indicating you to ask. 

“I know Christmas is a few months away but do you think we could leave the Christmas lights up until January?” You can feel Bradley smile against your cheek. “We can do whatever you want, honey. It’s our home now.”

[ray935sworld]

Hi, wonderful ray. How are you? How are you doing?👻

To be honest, this is probably the worst couple of days I've had in a year lately, I feel dead (I hope you're not that bad ><)

I genuinely like the way you write, but as it's easy to see, I'm only in love with rosquez, they have amazing chemistry and an incredible bond.  And what would you think? gangster au!

THEY'RE MADE FOR THIS.

It was sooo exciting. It will be so difficult when the problems start (or whatever is meant by "loyalty and trust seem to waver..."). Vale bluntly says that he laid the world at Marc’s feet, God, if it comes to betrayal, it's scary to even imagine what this dangerous man will do. It's going to be like the end of the world.

The idea of an idealist Marс who is ready to even kill to make the world a better place and his brother's happiness seems so real. He loves Alex so much, I think Marc is really ready to do anything for him. Well,  and Vale, a cunning dangerous man with his own interest, who couldn't help but notice Marc (honestly, who would have done anything else at all) and immediately becomes fascinated by him - oh, great.

So please continue, I will die if I don't get a next chapter.

Thank you for reading my other essay,

A thousand kisses to you and your writing 💖

P.S., As a wonderful @calia23 already said AGAIN (absolutely incredible, how did you do that?)

«You have killed Luca...». WHY? My poor baby, why?! Who will be the voice of reality in Vale's head when things go bad? I'm suffering so much.

Another thousand kisses 💕)

Hey my dear 👻, I hope you know that you just changed my today's rpf plans. You're getting some fluffy rosquez later to help cheer you up. I'm so sorry to hear you're having a hard time. I really hope you're going to get better soon.

And THANK YOU! Oh I'm so happy the gangster AU cheered you up a little bit!

And I have like 2 major plot ideas. Originally I wanted to put them in 2 parts but I think they'd be so much better intervened and would make more sense in terms of logic and story telling. And trust me the 2nd one will be a shock so beside @afiations who gave me the world setting I haven't told anyone about that because I NEED to see rawr reaction from my favorites (love all of you <3)

And honestly I just love the power dynamics. It was so exciting to write Vale's view/ emotions so I can't wait to explore that part of the dynamic some more.

And yes I killed Luca. RIP to the little buddy. I will not apologize for that. Wasn't a gun to the head situation but I had to

All the thousands kisses to you to cheer you up!!! 💕

[annakie]

FIXING THE HOUSE: PART TWELVE - We Can Make It on the Outside

Part One: I Do Not, In Fact, Have the Power

Part Two: Let’s Spend Lots of Money!

Part Three: All These Things That I’ve Done

Part Four: I Really Want to Stay At My House

A little interlude.

Part Five: Power Down

Part Six: You Will Leave Some Paint

Part Seven: Backwards to go Forwards

Part Eight: Master of Bathrooms

Part Nine: Within a Room, Somewhere

Part Ten: Rooms With No View

Part 11: Big Bang Room Part A and also Part B!

Hi, I know it's been like a week and a half but I was damn busy. I went to Minnesota and saw my buddies @ahab99 and @gloriousclio for a long weekend and it was fantastic! And then just generally busy since I got home, doing lots of projects for home and other personal life reasons. But there's still two posts to go after this one, so let's actually finish this!

Today we're going to talk about the garage and I think also just like, outside in general? And we'll leave the two biggest reveals for last.

Let's leave the living room and first head into the garage!

Look, the garage is not that exciting. The most exciting thing tbh was the fact that I got it like, halfway cleaned out back in July.

It's been too damn hot, YES EVEN IN OCTOBER to really finish the job after I, tbh, worked too hard on it in July, but I'm still glad I did that because of how bad it needed it, but we covered that already.

So I said this before but I made enough space to easily walk around, I put up some metal shelving for more storage/organization, and did some general tidying, so hey you can walk through it now.

There's a significant amount of stuff sitting in it that I'm waiting for a friend of mine to come get, idk when that's going to happen but I hope soon. Like a loveseat, a vacuum cleaner, a small desk etc. When those things are out, it'll be even better.

There's also several bags of clothes that need to go get donated and one bag of fandom-related shirts I was going to sell cheap here on tumblr maybe if I ever get around to it.

So one big improvement was just the fact that the drywall was starting to get real iffy. Some of it was straight up threatening to fall down. So that's fixed. I do not care that the new drywall is blue. It's a garage, I'll deal with it later, maybe. Also hey, shelving! Still messier than I want it to be. At least all that crap isn't on the floor anymore.

Also, no pic for this but apparently one of the beams across the ceiling in the garage was either loose or had come completely off the joist, maybe during the re-roofing? Anyway, Arturo fixed that, too.

So yeah, the workbench is still messy BUT.. remember way, WAY BACK in Part Two when I had no internet one night because the plug for this internet box was on the ceiling over my garage and it'd come loose, but I couldn't plug it back in because it was right over my car, which was blocked in by a dumpster?

Yeah, well, see, that won't be a problem again. Yay, I have power next to the workbench! A brand new outlet.

Crazy that there wasn't one there before. The only actual outlet nearby was against the back wall, pretty far away. And that outlet was SCARY. Very loose, felt really unsafe. It's been rewired and looks good now, too.

The most noticable improvement was this...

OK, see? Still TUFF there. It's actually a little better now. BUT... the windows! You can see through them! They don't have paint smeared on them! None of them have been shot through with a BB gun!

Look I love the kids who live across the street (and there are ALWAYS kids in that house, the kids who were kids when I moved in 21 years ago now have their own children, and there are always other kids there.) But occasionally they cause mischief and at SOME point someone shot a BB through my window and also into the siding a bit. I don't have any proof who did it or honestly exactly when, so I never confronted them, but it irked me for the last 2 or 3 years when it was there.

They were also just original to the house, and needed replacing. So now they've been replaced and look nice!

OK, enough of the dirty, stinky garage, at least until it gets actually cleaned out more.

-----

THE FRONT EXTERIOR!

The picture at the top of this post was the last picture I had from "Before" and that was taken day one of roof work back in late June or early July. The old roof, old gutters, old windows... etc. Just old and tired looking. You can see huge cracks in the driveway.

TBH it was starting to just look run down. Other problems were like, the garage door needed painting, honestly everything except the poles needed painting and that's only because they'd gotten so bad a couple of years ago that I had asked my lawn guy do it.

Obviously most of the things that improved the interior along that wall improved the exterior, like the windows and door.

All of the black trim along the fake shutters and next to the door got a fresh coat of black paint. The windows got touched up. I thought about replacing the light fixture but it's only like 10 years old so I didn't.

TBH the brick and cement could use a power wash, I need to talk to my neighbor's son about that since he does power washing. The new door especially looks so pretty. It also needed to be swept in that pic, it has since been, and the bushes trimmed.

My neighbor Veronica keeps reminding me that the bushes out front are too high, and she's right. I talked to my lawn guy about it and we decided to cut them way down in the spring when they'll start to grow back again.

Another improvement outside is security. I have a door lock camera, another camera you can't see in these pictures covering the front porch. There's a motion sensor spotlight camera over the driveway. And more stuff you'll see.

See? Camera.

New windows! Painted garage door!

The plan had been originally to power wash the driveway here. But there were those two HUGE cracks that were a problem. We filled them in with caulk(?) and cement but then you got... well, what's there. Also looked real bad.

Arturo ended up with a couple of extra bags of cement from another project. So he ended up putting a new entire layer of cement over the driveway.

He said it won't last forever, probably in the next couple of years we'll need to do a new driveway in order for it to look good, but by the time we got to this, the money was really starting to run dry.

So here's the front of the house now! It's so much better! Still has a little ways to go, but definitely not in the running for the shame of the block anymore.

Couple of other small things happened, including me washing the glass in my little lamppost, and spending $34 on ONE replacement pane that had broken long ago but it now looks fresh and whole.

There's also now a little sign you can kind of see on the door in a pleasant script that says "NO SOLICITING! Family, friends and Neighbors welcome!" I'm not sure if it's actually working or if people are just skipping my house now that it's clear I DON'T need new windows, but I haven't had any randos knock in a month or two since it went up.

---

Had Arturo make a small improvement to my gates -- there were just BIG gaps between the doors and the walls. Like you could pretty easily see my entire backyard if you wanted to peek in at either door.

So he bought and installed a border around both doors of the same cedar wood, and I had saved a quarter bucket of the stain from Joel so it got painted. I also put locks on the gates because the locks the gates came with seemed pretty easy to open from the outside with like, a coat hanger. Now... not possible.

The sidewalk is swept and most of that junk is gone now, though I'm still waiting on my friend to come get the extra granite that he requested Arturo bring for him. STOP CLUTTERING UP MY HOUSE!! :D

But tbh, I don't have the funds and haven't had the time to pretty up the sides of the yard yet.

BUT... big improvements have been made on the patio!

---

You may recall that the patio was in various states of looking pretty much like this all summer.

Eventually, as we finished up projects, the patio started getting a little cleaner and a little cleaner, combined with Monday or Tuesday Morning cleanups.

Hey, an empty, but ugly, patio floor! You may recall the patio ceiling got painted and the ceiling fan went up very early.

What's this? It's just ONE color instead of three or four worn through colors? I love it!! A nice green, which, again, was a darker shade on the same card as the ceiling color. I'm probably going to need to do yearly touchups but I have the can of paint for that for at least the next year or so. Believe it or not, these are not the same greens as in the dining room, nor the master bath, or the k-- wait we'll get to that. Just a lot of shades of green in the house, all different!

The patio furniture I think I mentioned at some other point got painted from stained red to the same color as the patio ceiling. I bought new grey cushions that look fantastic with them.

I also had taken the rug that had been under my computer desk the last couple of years and washed it off in the backyard, let it dry, then rolled it up and put it in the corner of the patio and forgot about it for a month or two.

When I was finishing the final cleanout of the patio for the painting I had an idea of what to do with it!

I also, back when all this started, had bought an adirondack chair. I wanted a nice lounger to relax on in my backyard, even though I had four perfectly good matching chairs already. But I wanted to lounge. I bought it in like... June, I think? The box arrived, I dragged it to the patio and it basically became a table for two months.

Just this last week I finally unboxed it, and spent three hours putting it together. I do love it!

The rug really adds a bit of homey-ness to the patio I think. It'll probably be need to tossed in a couple of years, but for now, I really like the look.

Hey, you can also see the new bathroom window from the outside here!

I really think the patio came together well. There's an element or two still missing.

And also... what's this?

I bought a house for my feral boys Buster and Peter for the winter! I really wanted them to have somewhere protected from the elements for those long week or three where it's actually cold in Dallas in the winter. I also wanted something that looked cute and gave them both their own space.

Still working on getting them to understand that it's for them, but Peter has at least checked it out!

Buster is under a chair over there being unimpressed. But also it's still in the 60's or 70's at night so they haven't needed it yet. I'm sprinkling food and treats in and on it to get them to try to investigate at least. There are warm beds on both the top and bottom levels for them. And you can see they also have beds in the chairs/floor where I see them sleeping.

They get oral flea medication every month or so btw.

The backyard is covered with cameras covering every inch. Nice cameras that solar recharge and are in high resolution. Every entrance of the house has at least two angles on it now. I'm really happy with that setup. Plus of course monitored alarm system.

There's no perfect home security, but I feel like I've made my house an unattractive target, at least. There are also generic signs posted about the video/alarm surveillance.

ANWYAY...

Fry and Pemily have also been enjoying supervised visits outside!

Fry loves dirt. Pemily loves just chilling out. I love hanging out out there after work and chilling with them. I do want to get a little side table for the lounger, but in due time. And YES I WEAR CROCS AROUND THE HOUSE. They're comfortable, ok? :D

Still gotta get the generator hooked up, and at some point actually finish beatifying the outside, but that's gonna take more money han I have left over now. I'll keep working on it, but also right now I'm letting myself just enjoy it.

OK! Back inside next time for the last two updates!

[liskobot]

can i ramble about my idea for a 'bad end' narilamb au of sorts?

i'm gonna do it anyway

but under read more so it wont clog folks feeds lol

firstly, the song 'beast in the beauty' from the 'royal scandal' series

that gives a pretty good-ish outline for what happens; "indoctrinated" Narinder overall plays along with the lamb's wants/wishes. Lamb is pretty easily tricked by it, still devoted after all this time

Buuut Lamb does eventually figure out Narinder's true intentions, which is of course stealing the crown back. Cue once again feeling betrayed (and brokenhearted), Lamb is left thinking over just. everything. taking on the task of a vessel, becoming the leader of this cult. just sort of cursing it all at this point, cursing the crowns for being the central point of so much drama and strife

so

in comes mystic seller

they make deals with godly beings, whose to say they wont have means of in other terms 'dealing with' godly beings

if going with the 'beast in the beauty' music inspiration this would be a gun different from the blunderbuss the crown turns into

cue Lamb, acting as if they hadn't found out about Narinder's true intentions

going in close, an embrace even

but before Narinder can notice them not actually relaxing like usual, Lamb has already grabbed the gun-

no, they don't shoot Narinder

they don't shoot themself either (at least not directly)

they shoot the crown

we've already seen in game that the crown takes different forms (the snake from the sins of the flesh update)

it probably does not full on 'shatter' and be done for good but. if the mystic seller handed it to the lamb as means of erasing the problem, it probably at the very least gets rid of the crown in this realm

(more than likely) forever out of Narinder's reach now

now, the crown is what kept the Lamb alive all this time too

but by now it has already embedded part of itself onto the Lamb (some official art on poster even shows how it's 'rooted' itself in Lamb's brain)

it doesn't just end with Lamb's fatal wounds reintroducing themselves aka their head falling off. Mix of ichor and blood from that wound- wherever it is that the crown ends up, the lamb is taken with (visually, would imagine it looks similar to when followers overwhelmed by sin are taken away)

in game the lamb does get referred to as a god, but i'd say they're not quite done with ascending at this point

so, neither mortal or fully ascended into godhood, what happens? something in between

a fallen deity? demon? or maybe considering the red crowns role of being 'death', a reaper in the more traditional sense

one that goes unseen by the (usual) mortal eye, quietly bringing souls from one realm to the beyond. The Lamb has essentially cursed themself into the same chains The One Who Waits was once in, even if without literal chains

as for what happens to lamb's flock; they are plenty self-sufficient by now, even in the Lamb's absence. Of course problems are bound to arise as they notice their absence is much, much longer than ever before.

By now the bishops have been brought in and their relics have been cleansed. They're by no means buddy buddy with Narinder but they'd likely be showing at least some support to Narinder by now, navigating all of this

along with baal and aym too, of course

even if not directly considered the new leader, Nari does find himself sort of 'guiding' it from the sidelines. To what direction?

well, who knows

edit:

i originally said this would be after the bishops are brought in + their relics cleansed also, but maybe would actually be more interesting if this was before

and as such it would be up to narinder to go through the realms and free the bishops

[dollarbin]

Dollar Bin #47:

Leonard Cohen's Songs of Love and Hate, Part 1

I have the, perhaps false, sense that I am the only person out there who loves this record.

Seems like, when it comes to Leonard Cohen, people either focus on his first two records, or they get all uppity and tortured about his 80's work, or they defend his devotion to a sexually abusive Zen master or they brag about the down-on-your-knees-charisma of his darkly dappled gentleman closure years.

And, if you hear anything whatsoever about Leonard's 70's output, it's sure to be focused on the perfect-for-its-gun-toting-storyline-and-sonic-awfulness Death of a Ladies Man or the towering greatness to be found in the evolution of Chelsea Hotel.

Plus, in the 90's, before Hallelujah became bizarrely ubiquitous (why, oh why, does an impossibly complex song with prominent sadomasochistic themes appear in Shrek and fill up summer camp songbooks? And why, oh why, did I once have to sit through an earnest rendition of the song by two children during an Episcopalian church service? Are Episcopalians into bondage? Is Venus in Furs in their hymnal?) Songs of Love and Hate was the Cohen record you were most likely to find in the dollar bin. That's definitely were I got mine.

All of Cohen's easily accessible hits packages keep up the myth that this record sucks. Famous Blue Raincoat alone gets the love, and, if there's another track from the record featured, it's likely the daunting snoozefest that is Last Year's Man.

Sure, like Cohen, I too enjoy waiting around for the creepy kids (who are now 60+ years old and are surely still in therapy about the whole thing) to show up and chant about how the lover will rise up and the mountains will touch the ground.

But I've never been to an orgy, nor do I ever want to go anywhere near one, so I don't know what it's like to lust after the shy one at such a gathering, thank you very much, especially if that shy one is an entire biblical town. How could an entire biblical town even attend an orgy anyway? Seems like that would take a lot of camels and effort. Wow, I'm getting creeped out just writing this paragraph.

But, before we move on from Last Year's Man, I've just got to say that any song which prominently places a Jew's harp alongside its protagonist is just weird - Cohen, unlike me, is Jewish so I trust him to say whatever the hell he wants about Judaism and, I suppose, Jew's harps.

But, even so: a Jew's harp is the dumbest and easiest to play instrument on earth; even I can play one. You just bite down on the thing and start boinging away. My childhood buddy Eric got one when we were in 8th grade and handed it me so that I could say I had an instrument to play in our "band." He was sick of hearing me search for the next chord.

Here's a portrait of me done at the time:

But I'm serious about Jew's harps: Kazoos are high art by comparison. So, I'm not real into calling a dumb instrument (which actually originated in China and has no relationship whatsoever to being Jewish) a Jew's harp. It's just weird. Whatever plan Cohen had with that portion of Last Year's Man is lost on me.

While we are are it, I think we should stop calling them Jew's harps altogether. After all, I'll bet Donald Trump is playing one right now and that jerk is not Jewish. Boing... he plays it, setting down his 6th Diet Coke to do so. Boing... he entones, all mellow with his own brand of racist, fascist and narcissistic satisfaction... Boing. Let's call Jew's harps Trump's harps from now on.

Anyway and finally: there's another reason no one pays attention to the greatness that is Songs of Love and Hate: it's the fundamentally rare artist who nails their third record. Tracy Chapman, Yo La Tengo, The Shins, Edie Brickel and, while we are at it, Jane Austen blew theirs (seriously, have you read Mansfield Park? I love it but I'm as weird as lyrics about Jew's harps and I'm guessing not a single person who ever reads this will have ever got through that slog of a book with its uppity protagonist who is morally and ethically opposed to stagecraft; then again my famous brother is probably thumbing through its pages as we speak); World Party, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Richard Thompson and Neil Young sidestepped through their second records; and Michael Penn, Graham Parsons and Jeff Magnum basically never made theirs. So I'll bet there are people out there who simply assume they should not give Leonard's third record a chance.

But! I'm here to tell you that Songs of Love and Hate sits beside Ladies of the Canyon, Armed Forces and Damn the Torpedoes in the pantheon of big deal third records. Indeed, it's so good that like Zuma and Trans before it we're gonna need to stretch thing out over multiple posts.

And so I'll tell you all about it, or start to do so anyway, asap in Part 2...

[puppy-phum]

ten bl boys i want carnally to put in my pocket like tamagotchi

thanks for tagging me krish @i-got-the-feels ♥ i took the liberty to make this a softer version of the original ^^ these are in no particular order!

-

I. Mork (Jimmy Jitaraphol) Last Twilight

after all this pain, i just want him to be happy. have him smiling like this, living comfortably. let him have an easy life with a lot of good days and laughter. let him have love. i care for him so much that this is all i want for him ♥

II. Ten (Off Jumpol) Cooking Crush

very my type of character. sweet and kind but has his own troubles. needs way more loving than he has received. i melted when prem was being considerate about ten's aversion to touch and never questioned him, just tried to make him comfortable, and how ten was so baffled to be treated like that. he deserves that type of love so much.

III. Cher (Book Kasidet) A Boss and a Babe

my boba-eyed baby! i adore him so much. cher was such a fun character and i felt very deeply for him. a boy filled with only happiness on the outside with a horrible sadness inside. i want to pinch his cheekies and ruffle his hair and tell him he's doing amazing ♥

IV. Zo (Dunk Natachai) Hidden Agenda

unlike the majority (i think?), i very much enjoyed hidden agenda. and zo was one of those characters that became very important to me this year. he's very familiar to me somehow and watching him change and grow gave me a lot of comfort. he was so brave!

V. Ai Di (Chiang Tien) Kiseki: Dear to Me

the casting choice here is so interesting but works beautifully. ai di is tiny but extremely spicy, and i love him for it. a hissy kitten truly, and you approach him with your own risk. most likely, he will bite you. he's the highlight of this whole show.

VI. Li Ming (Fourth Nattawat) Moonlight Chicken

i was reading some of my old tag games and there i mentioned how i could relate to li ming's struggles in a world run by adults. that one still stands and maybe that's why he is so dear to me. a very brave boy i hope knows all his efforts mean a lot ♥ it takes a lot to be so kind in this world.

VII. Nuengdiao (Phuwin Tangsakyuen) Never Let Me Go / Our Skyy 2

he's so, so precious. i will fight you if you think otherwise. i am serious. this boy deserves all the love he finally got for himself. he deserves to be carefree and happy after all the trauma. let him have a happy life with his beloved, far from death and suffering ♥

VIII. Talay (Sea Tawinan) Vice Versa / Our Skyy 2

it's huge when someone who doesn't believe in love turns into someone who is the epitome of love. that's what happened to talay who, despite this change, is still learning how to believe in love and see it as something permanent in his life. he's doing so well tho. i adore him ♥ also, he will make one amazing parent one day!

IX. Tinn (Gemini Norawit) My School President / Our Skyy 2

absolute loser of a boy, but i love him for it. there's no one more perfect out there. he has a heart of gold and so much hope in him. he believes only in love and gun. it's amazing how he was so lonely and despite it, was so ready to put all his faith in one boy and their future together.

X. Wai (Jimmy Jitaraphol) Bad Buddy / Our Skyy 2

another absolute loser. a little asshole kitten. bastard. douchebag. am using these words as i would use endearments. i love him so much. that will never change thanks for asking. i'm in this wai-loving bullshit for life.

tagging: @stormyoceans @dimpledpran @celestial-sapphicss @jimmysea @leonpob @daymork @smileytharn if any of you is interested! or if you've done this already, this is your sign to send that list to me ^^

[moonlightguidesky]

This fic in general will have lots of gruesome details of death and of battles. I am letting you know that there will be angst and some really concerning things to come from this. I will keep it to a minimum, but like this story is already an AU for The last of Us. If you know the game and show itself, you will see why I put a warning at the beginning.

Also, some information, the time frame will be only a 5 year difference than from the original source. It will be 15 years instead of 20, in this chapter, they are 17, and Randall is 10.

Last but not least please tell me what you think, it helps with improvement and writing I plan for this whole thing, thanks!!!

- Sky 💜

Warning ⚠️: This chapter contains violence, mention of guns and weapons, along with the death of a child. You have been warned.

Chapter 1 : Lights Atop the Hill

September 26th 2003

Steven had finally made it home from school, it was a whole thing back at school but he would just worry about it next week.

"Steven."

A slightly deeper voice called, it was Marc, he looked down at the puddle of water that was created by the sprinklers of their neighbors.

Their patch of sidewalk and grass always mushy yet full of life, clean and dirty but it's the piece of earth they owned.

"'Ello Marc, what's up?"

Steven asked as he looked down at the water to look at his companion on the other side.

"I need to body back Steven, you had it the entire day."

Marc said as he waited for Steven response.

"But, I haven't even said hi to mum yet."

Steven reasoned with Marc to at least sat hi to their mother.

"You said good morning to her this morning Steven, give the body."

Marc threw back because he had receipts for both of them to make the body sharing equal.

"Fine, fine. You got a point."

Steven sighed as he felt the switch happen and just like that Steven was the reflection and Marc the form.

"Thanks."

Marc mumbled which earn a small smile from Steven.

"No problem, later gators."

Steven said as he held out a piece sign which got him both a small smile and eye roll from Marc as he walked away from the reflection and towards their house.

Marc had the keys and opened the door to his home.

"I'm home."

He shouted before taking his shoes off and walking down the hall of his house, he waited for a call back from his parents but, nothing.

"Marc!"

A small voice exclaimed before a small boy crashed and wrapped his tiny arms around Marc's waist.

"Hey Roro, where's mom and dad?"

Marc asked his brother as he mess with his hair.

"Said that they had to go city to grab something, also that they won't be back till nightime."

His little brother said which got a sigh from Marc before he looked down at his brother and picks him up as he now sat on his hip.

"So, what do you want to do right now then?"

He asked his little brother as his brother started to grin from cheek to cheek as small dimples formed on each end which made Marc's heart warm.

" Can we play gods today?"

His little brother asked with eyes that lit up Marc's mood.

"Alright, but only for an hour, then I got homework and chores. Got your chores done?"

Marc asked his brother and little Randall nodded his head.

"Got to it the minute mom picked me up from school."

Randall said as he puffed his chest proudly looking up at Marc.

"Good, alright who do you wanna be?"

Marc said and the two brothers played with each other, despite the age difference they still worked together in harmony.

Their own little world's intertwined into one big playground for their childhood and boy hood to exist.

4 hours later....

"And I win!!"

Randall cheered as he got onto of Marc who was on the ground pretending to be wounded by his brothers punches.

"Yep, you got me. Good job buddy."

Marc said as he slowly got up and looked at the clock of the living room which was now messy with toys and building block made to look like towers and cities.

"Okay, that's enough playing for today, gotta go do my other thing Roro."

Marc said as he started to pick up some of the toys from the floor and into the rightful place of their color coded cubbies labeled from Randall since he tended to get them mixed up before.

"Aww, but that was like only 15 minutes of playing Marc, I wanna play a little more."

His brother whined as he looked at Marc with a small pout, he always did that when something didn't really go his way.

"No way Roro, I need to get my things done. But I'll make you a deal instead."

Marc responded as he held out his pinky since they still did pinky swears, this peaked his brothers interest.

"Once I am done with what I have to get done I'll play with you then, deal?"

Marc said with a small smile to try and get his brother to agree with him cause he really doesn't know how else to do it.

Randall looks at him, hesitant but after a couple seconds he slowly grins and nods his head before getting his even tinier pinky and wrapped it around his brothers.

"Deal."

Is all he says before he gets up and starts to put away the rest of his toys in the color and labeled cubbies that have been made for him.

"Okay."

Marc whispers before he goes and picks up his backpack that was flung to a wall during their "battle" and goes upstairs to his room.

"Man mate, I have no idea how you do it."

Steven sighs as he looks at Marc from the closet mirror as Marc changes out of his school clothes into something a little more comfortable.

He now changed into some gray sweatpants and a band t-shirt, it was an rock band that Marc was starting to really like.

"How I do what Steven?"

Marc said with a raised eyebrow confused on what his alter meant by his question.

"Like the whole playing with him for almost 6 hours, like that's mental. His stamia is just something else sometimes mate."

Steven says being exhausted himself.

"Your exaggerating Steven, it's was like 2 hours. Your just not use to his energy like me."

Marc said as he sat down and started to take out his homework, he knew he would get through it in maybe an 1 or so.

"I know, it's because he doesn't even know I really exist Marc."

Steven adds his tone a little more quiet like Randall would hear him, Marc noticed.

"It's just...I don't know how he would react that his brother has two in his head and not one. He's just a kid, he might not understand Steven."

Marc consoled his other, his voice a little softer but still firm about it. He knew that Steven felt a little hidden and almost neglected from how much he didn't have control.

"I know, I know. I get it, sorry mate."

Steven says as he had a apologetic expression on his face.

Marc sighed as he thought of how to make it up, the only people who really knew were his mom and dad.

Even they didn't understand all the way but they tried.

"Look, let's wait till Randall a bit older, once he can understand better, okay?"

Marc asked as he tried to make eye contact with his alter who was not really someone to look someone in the eye sometimes.

Steven thought and could see what Marc meant, good thing he had more patience and understood what he was saying to him.

He would wait.

Wait for the day someone would finally understand him and Marc, he hoped it would be their brother.

Steven nodded.

"Okay."

Marc nodded in return before going and taking out his notebook to start his homework.

-------------------------------------------------------

10:37 PM

After all that their parents weren't home yet, it had been a while now so Marc went and made dinner for him and his brother.

"What are you making?"

Randall said as he came out of whatever shadow he had hid in.

"Some Mac and cheese."

Marc answered as he mixed around the noodles, the white and yellow mixing together in a warm hue of lights in the kitchen glowed.

The smell already made both boys hungry and ready to just eat something, usually it was their dad or mom making food but they still weren't back from the city.

"Any calls from mom or dad?"

Marc asked as he looked down at his brother.

"No, nothing came in."

Randall said as he went and sat down at their round table, his small figure being taken over by the wooden chair he sat on.

"Okay, I'll call them later."

Marc said as he got plates from the top drawer and put them on the table as Randall got up and went to the shorter drawer and pulled out some spoons.

"Here, how much do you want?"

Marc asked as he got the pot and brought it close as he started to pour the food onto hit plate.

"That's good."

Randall said as he looked at Marc once he thought he got a good enough portion of food.

Marc nodded and tilted the pot back before pouring the rest onto his plate and put the pot in the sink to be washed later.

They ate together before Randall went to play a little more into his room and Steven took over since it was his turn now to wash the dishes.

"You should call them Marc, I'm getting worried."

Steven told to the reflection of the metal pot he was washing as Marc answered back.

"I know, once your done I'll call them to see what's up with them, something doesn't feel right."

Marc argued as his tone got quieter, he felt it somewhere inside of him that something was up. His parents never were out this late without telling him or Randall they would be.

"I have the same feeling mate, it feels like it's eating me from the inside."

Steven agreed as he put the dish in the dishwasher for them to dry on their own.

After being done with that they got the black flip phone that Marc had gotten for his 16th birthday.

He typed the digits of his father's number and held it up to his ear as the phone rang.

And rang

And ran-

Click

"Marc?"

A softer tone of Marc's more rough voice called out as the phone was finally picked up.

"Dad, where are you guys? It's been a couple hours, usually you guys call us when you'll be out longer, what happened?"

Marc questioned as he heard a car honk on the other side of the call.

"Yeah, sorry, we just got caught up in some traffic, didn't think it would take this long. Did you and Randall eat yet?"

His father asked as another honk happened then a other click as the TV was turned on, he turned around to find Randall had found the control.

"Roro, can you turn it down bud, please."

Marc asked as he put the flipphone to the side so his parents wouldn't hear him.

Randall nodded and put the volume down and flipped through the channels to get to the channel he wanted.

Marc gave a small smile before he put the flip phone back on his ear.

"Yeah, we ate. What about you guys, did you guys ea-"

Marc said before he heard a blaring noise and turned back towards the source, the TV.

"Randall, bud, I told you to turn it down."

Marc huffed as shook his head a little before he went back to his parents call.

"Marc, what was that?"

His father's voice questioned as he sighed and put one hand on his hip.

"Just told Randall to keep it down so that I could hear you, sorry."

He replied as the TV once again got loud, Marc turned around and looked at Randall who just looked back at him before pointing at the TV.

Before Marc could scold him, he looked at the TV and a chill ran down his spine.

Not too long after the sound of the radio on the other side of the phone started to say the same thing on the TV.

" This is not a drill. I repeat, not a drill. Due to a virus that has spread from a foreign country to now the West and Eastern Parts of the US we advise that residents stay indoor and lock your doo-"

Marc felt his heart stop. It was the EAS that never really happened unless it was a test. But it wasn't. It just said it wasn't.

"Marc?"

Randall looked at his brother confusion and rising fear starting to make its way and his brain now catching up that something was wrong.

"Son? Marc!?"

His father shouted as Marc finally got back to reality.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm here, dad, what do I do?"

Marc asked his dad as Randall got up and hugged his older brothers leg, he looked like he was about to cry. It broke Marc and Steven's heart.

"You need to lock the doors Marc, windows too, get some bags and pack any essential alright. Wendy I can't go any faster!"

His father was starting to sound panic as the sounds of honks and what seemed like cars starting to crash into each other on the other side of the call. Marc felt his chest fill up and deflat like a ballon, it was too much.

He felt sick, the Mac and cheese now making its way back up as it burned in his throat. He kinda wished now that he skipped dinner.

"Marc, protect your brother okay? We're gonna try and get there as fast as we can. Get a weapon and if things get bad there you get into the car and you get you and your brother out of there. You understand!?"

His mom's voice shouted with both frustration and panic, of course it would. Her children were in danger and she isn't there to protect them.

"Marc! Did you hear me!?"

His mother once again shouted and Marc nodded as he let out a shaky breathe.

"Okay, okay. Love you guys."

Marc said, hating the way his voice sounded right now, his hands were starting to shake, his hands never shook like this. Ever.

He looks down and sees his brother who is closing his eyes like if he opened them a monster would appear and hurt him.

Marc would never let that happen, not to his baby brother. Never him.

"Love you to-"

The line was suddenly cut, Marc looked at his flip phone to see that the battery had died.

"Fuck!"

Marc shouted which made his baby brother flinch, feeling immense guilt from that he bented down and steady his brother by his shoulders.

"Sorry, sorry. I-I didn't mean to scare you Roro. Okay?"

Marc asked as he tried to steady his voice, he needed to be strong right now, for his brother, his parents, Steven, for the people that relied on him right now.

"What’s happening? Where's mom and dad? Why did that message show up on the TV?"

Randall sniffles as tears were starting to run down his baby cheeks and Marc went ahead to softly wipe them away.

"Something, something bad is happening. I don't know what but all I know is that nothing bad is gonna happen to you. Okay?"

He reassured his brother as he looked him in the eyes as he cupped his brothers face and held it like he was the most fragile thing in the world. Because he was, he was just a kid.

"Okay."

Randall whispered as leaned forwards and wrapped his arms around his brothers neck which Marc reciprocated the gesture by hugging his brother and cradling his head.

He picked up his brother and took him upstairs to his room before setting him down.

"Now I need you to listen, grab your school backpack and dump whatever is in there okay."

Marc advised as he started to go through Randall's closet and taking out clothes for him that should last a good while.

"Why?"

Randall said as he started to grab his backpack and take things out one by one.

"Just do it, please."

Marc pleaded a little as he started getting small toys to hopeful entertain his brother from what was happening outside.

"Okay, bu-"

"Randall! Just, please. Don't argue with me right now, okay."

They both worked in silence as Marc got bags ready, Randall, his, and his parents bags were done in an hour.

-------------------------------------------------------

2:35 AM

Randall and Marc had stayed locked in their parents room, Marc had a switchblade and gun from his father's safe next to him.

Both were asleep together. Randall next to his brother and his brother hugging him protectively.

Both laid in the bed being the comfort for each other.

CRASH

That had woken the brothers up. Both sat up straight and Marc had gotten the gun and handed the switchblade to his brother.

Slowly they looked at each other as Marc mouthed.

"Stay here."

Randall nodded as he clenched the switchblade harder and Marc had slowly gotten up from the bed and went to the door.

He put his ear close to the door to hear whatever it was that broke into the house.

The sound itself was appalling in its own ways as it sent a shiver down his spine, the noise groaned and moaned like those horror movies that he would watch.

Steven wasn't a big fan and Marc every once in a while would also hate himself for watching the damn movie. But it felt him with such adrenaline that he still did it despite the nightmare he eventually got.

But those were just nightmares, things he could wake up from, this wasn't.

It sounded unreal, unnatural, just something horrid. It sounded close too, he held his breathe as he leaned away from the door.

He looked back at his brother and looked at the bags. They needed to leave, and now.

He grabbed his backpack and tossed it out the window, he had a plan at the very least on how to leave just incase someone or something broke in.

"Grab the other ones and throw them out the window, okay."

He whispered to his brother as he grabbed his flip phone, it was fully charged now.

"Okay, I'm gonna let you down first and then I follow, okay."

Marc said as he wrapped a curtain sheet around his brothers waist.

"Marc?"

Randall whispered as he felt his brother wrapping up his waist tightly with the curtain sheet from the window.

"Yeah?"

Marc answered as he did one final tug to check that his baby brother wouldn't fall out of this makeshift rope he had made.

"I'm scared."

Randall fretted as he looked at his older brothers.

"Mate, he's terrified. I am too."

Steven whispered from his parents mirror that hung on the door of their closet.

Marc looked at the mirror, at Steven who also had a worried look on his face, his eyebrows were furrowed and his lower lip was trembling a bit.

Marc could see he was trying his best to freak out about this whole thing.

Marc was too, he sighed and took a deep breathe before looking at his baby brother and crouched down to his level.

"I know. I know you are, think of this like the games we play together. Like we are going into a crave with treasure, only thing is the treasure we seek is mom and dad. Okay."

Marc tried to make this easy for him as possible. Another crash was heard down stairs and Marc knew they need to go.

"Alright bud, it's time."

He grabbed Randall's hand and the other with the end of the makeshift rope.

"Now, grab on tightly and when you reach the ground move out the way so that I don't accidentally jump on you. Okay?"

Marc said as he held Randall tightly and held his hands as Randall was going out the window and hung on to the sides of the window.

"Okay, okay! Like that bud, your doing good."

Marc said as he tighten his grip on the makeshift rope.

"Now, I'm gonna let you down, slowly."

Marc explained as Randall nodded and Marc took a deep breathe before he started to loosen his grip and finally dropped him to the ground safely.

He let out a small breathe of relief he had held in.

BANG

BANG

That was sadly short lived as he heard the door to the bedroom being scratched and kicked as the sound of groans and moans get louder and raw.

The sound made him flinch as he started to slowly understand he needs to leave, now.

The way down was only 6 feet from the ground, he could do it if he jumped but he could twist his ankle and be useless to Randall the-

BANG

"Skrew it" he hissed as he climbed out the window and held on tightly to the frame of the window.

"Marc, wait, hold, there has to be another way."

Steven protested as his eyes were wide and his worried expression written all over his face.

"Don't have much choice bud."

Marc mumbled under his breathe as the sound of the door being smashed open was heard, Marc looked down and jumped.

Luckily for the 17 year old teenage boy that has a fixation with parkour and had seen video after video on how they did their tricks.

He bent his knees and rolled before laying on the ground.

His felt his heart beating out of his chest, he felt the thump in his ears but he was alive, he was fine.

"Marc!"

Randall was by his side in no time to help his brother up.

"It's okay, I'm fin-"

Soon both heard a thump and turned around to check what had caused that noise, Marc put a hand protectively in front of his brother.

The sight to see was that the one who had caused the noise was the infected, it had jumped out and fell to its death.

The brains scattered and face mangled, there were holes in its face, the infected looked decayed almost.

Both stared at the dead corpse in front of them as the image was now ingrained in their brain. The smell something no one could truly forget if they had tried.

They could feel the bile go up their throat but decided to swallow it back down.

"We need to go, now."

Marc said as he grabbed the other backpacks and handed them to Randall as they headed towards the car.

It was nothing special but it would do with the circumstances they were in, Marc got the keys from his pants and unlocked the doors, they shoved everything inside.

"Put your seat belt on."

Marc reminded his brother as his brother got in and grabbed the belt around him.

Marc turned on the car and the radio is turned on.

"We are getting news that the hospital is being overflowed with patients as this new virus is taking over. The US army is making head way towards cities to evacuate civilians, H-hey, no, g-get off me !"

The women's voice was cut off eventually and the sound of her screams made way as Marc turns off the radio.

He fixes the mirror of the car before he starts to drive on the road not saying a word. His parents haven't called back yet, he should send them a message.

"Marc?"

The small boys voice called out.

Marc looks at the review mirror to see what his brother need to say.

"Yeah?"

He whispered as he kept his gaze from the road to the mirror and back the road again.

"Are we gonna be okay?"

His brother voice was shaky and small unlike his more joyful and loud booming voice both were more use to.

Something in Marc and Steven shattered right there, his voice shouldn't sound like that. Ever. He didn't deserve this, they had to find a way to make it right, but first they need to get somewhere safe.

"Yeah, yeah buddy we're gonna be okay."

He tried comforting knowing he was pretty shit at it sometimes but his brother needed something to hold on to.

He kept driving for a while before he ended up at a cross path, one lead to the city and the other went father into almost nowhere for a while.

"Maybe to the city, the army might be there and can help us?" Steven said the review mirror as he was also stuck about it.

Marc thought, his parents were last in the city and most likely the army would be at the city getting the most populated away before going into individual houses.

"Shit."

He mumbled as he made a hard right and pressed it hard, the grip on the steering wheel tight that his knuckles were turning white at that point.

That is when he was hit with the worse thing that could happen now, traffic.

Cars were honking and beeping at each other as they stacked through each other.

His flip phone started to ring, finally.

"Mom, dad? Where are you guys?"

Marc asked as he looked behind and at the sides for a way to get through the crowd.

"Marc where are you guys, we just got out the city."

Dammit it! Wrong move.

"We just got to the city, thought you would be there, we had to leave the house."

Marc exclaimed as the car in front seem to have people arguing, fair enough.

"Marc, is your brother safe?"

His mother asked as he responded, one of the people infront got out the car shouting at the other.

"Yeah, he's fine."

Marc responded, the people were still arguing, it was too loud and his signal was giving out, so he got out the car.

"I'll be back bud, just talking to mom and dad."

He mouth to Randall who just nodded and hugged his backpack closer to his chest like it was a stuffed animal trying to comfort himself right now.

When he got out he went to the other side where a line was and the connection was automatically better.

"Marc, you need to leave the city, it's filled to the brim with cars and people."

His father warned as Marc saw someone running towards the people infront of him car.

"What the fu-"

He mumbled before the person now looking was a middle aged man that seemed ill, extremely ill jumped the person who was out of the car.

He flinched hard as he saw now that there was a group running and moaning like the one that had died on the ground at his house long gone now.

The guy was screaming and shouting in pain as the others were going towards the others cars, he dropped his flip phone as his parents were shouting on the other side.

All the could see is the guy being torn apart as the ill man bite the guy with no regard and seemingly no regret.

The flesh peeled of like orange skin as the man on the ground fought for his life, his eyes wide and awake. A fear like no other shown, the infected then dug its hands into the man's insides.

The man squirmed and yelled, his gut wrenching screams being heard, other were getting the idea that people were getting attacked and tried to get the other cars to move.

The headlights showed the grotesque aftermath as the man stopped moving and the ill man feeded off the neck of the man as the sticky residue of his blood smeared across his teeth and lips.

Suddenly he remembered

"Roro!"

He picked up the device from the ground and immediately went back to the car where an another one from the group was trying to break the glass of the door as Randall was screaming and crying for help.

Marc felt nothing as he grabbed the infected hair and pushed him down as he stomped his head on the concrete.

Over and over and over again up its face was no more.

The brains and blood being black with mixture of red.

His shoes were covered now with blood and chuncks of brain left behind of his aggressive protective nature taking over, all he saw red and now he came back.

He was heaving as he open the car door where Randall was, the cars were honking and there was too many lights as the sights of people fleshing being bit off were being shown off.

The ground of black having goop of blood and flesh decorated it as people were being torn by others who seemed out of control.

He need to get them our of here and now, the car was a no go so they need to go on foot.

He got his crying brother and picked him up and got both his brothers and dads backpack and swung them on his back, he put his mom's backpack on his brother back.

Randall was crying as Marc held him tightly and pushed his head down on his shoulder as to make sure he couldn't see what was happening.

The smell was getting to be too much, others were doing the same as the infected started to jump others who weren't fast enough.

"Your ok, we're ok."

He kept encouraging to his brother as his shoulder was getting soaked with salty tears that fell from his brothers eye's but he didn't care right now.

He ran to the other side of the car his heart was heavy, he was responsible for his brothers safety and almost got him killed if not traumatized for life now.

The soles of his feet burned as he kept running the conversation with his parents kept coming up, he didn't get to answer them. They were probably freaking out, shit.

He was fucking this all up. He would have to find a way to fix this eventually.

He panted as he finally reached the edge of the long road and got to the cross road again this time heading left as he carried his brother in his arms as sniffles and little whimpers were all that came out.

"We're okay, we're gonna be okay. We're gonna see mom and dad soon and everything will be okay Roro?"

He tried to get the boy to calm down and he got a small nod and another hiccup of the boy trying to calm himself down.

Marc could only do so much, he knew this.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I told you to go that way."

Steve said in the back of his mind and Marc answered back.

"It's okay, we didn't know."

He comforted Steven as he slowed down, the screams were farther now. They were safe, for now.

The road was mostly empty, the only light coming from farther away, the sound of helicopters not being too far now.

The army was getting close, the sound of firearms being release made its way to his ears. He started to quicken his pace.

His phone was ringing but he couldn't answer, not right now. He was carrying his brother, the brother he swore when he was born to keep safe and so his focus needed to be there right now.

He was sweating now, the band t-shirt he wore sticking to his body now, he stopped and put the boy down to take a breathe.

"Randall, listen to me."

He said using his brothers name instead of his nickname as he bent down and cupped his baby brothers face to make him look at him.

"We need to keep going, okay. I need you to be strong right now, okay?"

He said as Randall looked at him small sniffles still left behind from the scare, he looked at his older brothers eyes but looked down as he felt the tears well up again.

"I-I can't, I can't d-do it."

He muttered as he couldn't look at his brother pleading eyes to look at him and understand.

"Yes, yes you can."

Marc gently lifted his head to make his brother look at him, his dark brown eyes nicer, warmer, but still firm.

"No, no I can't. I want mom and dad, you said we'd find them."

Randall accused, he was scared, he saw someone get eaten and bit alive and thought he was next.

Marc wanted nothing more than to take that damn memory now ingrained in his brothers head and stomp on it till it was nothing.

"We will, just things are not going to plan Roro. But will that stop us?"

Marc says with a new thing of an idea, making this a game, get his mind away from everything else.

"No."

Randall answered as he looked into his brothers eyes.

"And why not?"

Marc said with a small playful smirk he uses to get more into character with his brother, it's something to let his and Randall's guard down.

"Cause we have no fear!"

Randall said with more confidence, he was starting to relax as the tears have now long been dried and left marks on his cheeks.

"That’s right! Now come on, we aren't far from the treasure now, we just need to go across that field and then we can look for more clues."

Marc added as he fixed his backpack straps and tugs on the ends to make them tighter to his back.

Soon he felt a small hand latch onto his he looked down and already knew who it was, Randall had a more determined expression.

That was better, that was so much better.

"Lets go then."

Marc voice echoed in all the destruction of the world now around them, he has no idea what to do if he is honest. He has no plan but to just protect his brother.

Randall tugs on his hand and they start to walk through grass as the sounds of screams are muffled, they rather focus on each other than people tearing each other apart.

His flip phone is silent, he hopes it would rings soon so that he know that his parents are okay.

"They probably are, don't worry. They have each other like we have each other."

Steven's reassuring voice echoed in the mind they shared, it was nice sometimes to have another person with you to share a body with, at least Marc thought so.

Steven was the ground he needed sometimes when Marc started to panic or couldn't get the thoughts out of his head.

Steven provided the warmth that Marc sometimes couldn't provide, or he wished he could give. So much Marc wished he could give.

The grass reached their ankles, the rest of the way was dark and loud, so loud.

The grass crunched underneath their shoes, they held hands as they walked through the grass dead and alive.

There was a hill about to peak now and they made it to the top, it was a little steep the way down but they could manage.

"Hey!"

A voice called out and soon they were out of their thoughts, both boys turned around to see an army man holding his gun towards them.

Marc instinct immediately put his brother behind him, the shield he knew he could be in case.

"What are you boys doing here, did you not hear to announcement!?"

The soldier exclaimed as the flashlight was burning into their eyes but couldn't look away. Frozen in place with no real way of how to make this work.

"Did you hear me boys!"

The man yelled again this time his tone harsh against their ears.

"Y-yes, sorry. Yeah we did sir, but me and brother had to leave, one of those ill people got into our home and we had to leave."

Marc explained as his voice cracked slightly at the beginning as he had found his voice again.

Randall held his brothers hand tighter and hid behind him as best he could.

The man lowered his gun the light finally going down and the darkness enveloping them as he felt his heart in his throat.

The sound of a radio went off and the soilder picked up his radio and started to tune in.

"Yeah, Robin reporting, found two boys, both were walking away from the massacre at the road from Deadway Lane to Boston Ave Drive..."

Marc watched as the man went ahead and talked to whoever was on the other line.

"Massacre, that's what they're calling it now."

Steven intervened as he thought about it, he was shouting at Marc when he saw the whole thing, he felt like his heart stopped that moment those people started to jump people.

"Yeah, that is what is was Steven."

Marc replied in his mind before he felt a small tug and looked to his side.

"Can you lift me, my legs hurt."

Randall whispered, Marc sighed a little tired, he felt like he was on overdrive these past couple of hours.

But that didn't mean he wasn't going to pick the kid up, it was his responsibility as of now to help his baby brother not die from all of this.

He crouched down a bit before putting his arm behind his legs and another one behind his arms before lifting him from the ground.

The lighted shined back on them blinding both him and Randall.

"No one said you could move!"

The man shouted as the gun was pointed at them again his hand in the trigger, Marc froze as Randall wrapped his arms around his brothers neck.

"I just picked him up sir, he's tired."

Marc mumbled as he held his brother closer to him.

"We all are kid, still doesn't allow you to make sudden movement, especially at a time like this. Put him down."

The man said his tone ice cold with almost no emotion.

His radio went off again, his glare lingered on the boys before he went to answer.

Marc jaw tightened, he felt himself holding back from saying anything right now.

"When are we gonna find mom and dad?"

Randall muttered, his voice so small in that moment.

"Soon Roro, soon."

Marc answered with a little nod, he looked around hoping his parents would come and rescue him and his brother from this guy.

He knew what he was asking for was a really big favor but he hoped he would find them soon, he missed them.

"Yes sir, no they are not injured. Yes sir, yes sir, yes...sir."

The man finally said.

Marc looked back the man who just went silent, his gun pointed to the ground but something went up Marc spine, like an instinct. Danger.

They were in danger.

The light shined on them again making Marc step back for a second.

"I'm sorry kids."

The man said, Marc barely had time to even react to the guys hushed yet soft and pitiful words.

He saw the man put his finger on the trigger.

"Shit!"

Steven and Marc both thought before Randall was all that was in his head.

He turned his body as he heard the depthing sound of the rounds trying to hit their bodies erupt in the darkness and echoed into the night.

Randall screamed.

Marc and Steven were silent. At least they think they were.

Their bodies tumbled down to the ground as Marc let go of Randall and they rolled down the hill together.

Suddenly it was quiet again, Marc felt pain from the fall, his head pounding along with his heart.

His ribs screamed and he thinks he twisted his hand when they rolled down that steep hill.

He couldn't see where his baby brother went but knew that he was at least nearby, ge heard footsteps.

Then he remembered the gun he still had in his pocket, it had flied in the air and landd on the ground next to him, his hand reached for it.

Before he knew it another shot rang out and a small thud was heard.

Marc hand trembled as the weight of the metal death in his hands finally weighed.

He looked down and there laid the man the gun laying on the ground as blood spilled and splattered like spilled milked was on the dry brownish yellow grass.

He felt sick.

"What did you do."

Steven said in all this. What else could he say.

Marc had killed someone, not someone who was infected but was alive.

The ringing in his ear finally caught something, it sound like whimpers, like crying.

He turned around and saw his brother who was laying on the ground, his hands near his stomach, then he saw it.

The small puddle of blood starting to form under him.

"No."

Marc whisperer to no one, no one that could hear him or was alive at this point.

He crawled his way over to his brother ignoring the pain he still had.

He looked down and felt the bile rise again.

"It's okay, your okay."

He tried to comfort his brother who was heaving and gasping as tears ran down his cheeks.

His brother could only whine in pain as Marc tried to move his hands from his bleeding stomach.

He couldn't say anything but his tightness on the grip of his shirt was enough to tell Marc he doesn't want his to move his hands.

"I gotta see it Roro, come on."

Despite the horrible sounds that came out of his brother way of protesting to Marc, he moved the small hands and saw the large crimson blood that had now coated his brother t-shirt.

His stripped designed shirt now being taken over by the crinsom darkeness in the color of his blood.

Marc eyes burned, his hands were shaking, he needed to stop.

Stop the bleeding, that's what he needed to do.

Marc put his hands on the spot and put pressure, his brother yelped as he dug his nails into Marc's arms.

"I know, I know it hurts."

Marc said, he didn't know, he didn't know because it wasn't him that got shot, it was his brother, his baby brother had a bullet go through him and now he was bleeding in a dead field.

His brother nails drew blood but Marc didn't care, he needed to get him help.

"I gotta get you up Roro, ok. Work with me here baby."

Marc said adding in the last thing he ever called his brother. His brother didn't always like to be called the baby of the family but that was what he was, he was the baby and Marc was the oldest.

Steven was the oldest. They were the oldest and their brother was the baby.

A baby they failed to protect.

Slowly his hand went behind his brother small back, he felt the blood covering his hand. It was warm and sticky, he hated the feeling.

Randall yelped and whimpered as he grabbed onto Marc shirt now being decorated with his metallic blood that was coming out of his small body.

His small fist shaking as he tried to get up, his brother trying to reassure him.

"I know, I know, come on, please!"

Marc choked out as his brother was dying in his arms.

He looked around for any help, anybody to do anything. There was no one, he was alone, then it got quiet.

He felt a small body go limp, he looked down his brothers eyes still open but there was no light. There was nothing.

"Hey, no, no. Don't you do this to me Roro, come on."

Steven was sobbing in the shadows, he could sense his despair, his anguish, his sadness.

Steven eventually took control as Marc let him.

"Come on, we have to see mum and dad, don't you want to find them."

Steven softer voice echoed as he held the brother he never really got know in his arms as he tried to get him to move but there was nothing.

He pulled his arms to bring him closer.

Steven felt the tears fall even before he knew, their brothers eyes were lifeless as they looked to the sky the moon and stars reflecting in his eyes now.

Steven pulled his small body against their chest and rocked him back and forth just like they did when he was born.

Little thing was so small and so fragile yet his screams and cries did not match up to his size.

Now there was nothing, there was just him and the sound of the world ending in that back ground, no mum, no dad, no roro.

"Come back, come back. We promised to find mum and dad. We still got to finish our game."

Steven whispered into their baby brothers ears but nothing came, it was quiet.

Steven liked the quiet, but not this one, this one felt lonely.

"Don't take him away, don't take him, please..."

Steven choked on his tears as he tried to breathe, God what were their parents going to say. They were suppose to protect him.

They failed, they failed and now their brother was dead.

Steven felt fatigued and before he knew it, it went dark.

Jake took over, the tears that fell kept falling. He failed, he failed them all.

He was suppose to be the one to take over if things were too much and he failed. How could he fail at his only job.

He held the little brother that didn't even know he existed in his arms as he put his forehead and leaned into the hair of his now dead little brother

This wasn't suppose to happen. None of this was suppose to happen.

His anger was everywhere, he looked at the man responsible for the ache in his heart, the emptiness that now formed into their once full heart.

Then man was wheezing, he wasn't dead.

He slowly let go of his brother and laid him gently on the ground.

"Ahora vuelvo, Roro."

He said as his eyes went to darkness from the sadness and anger to just empty brown eyes.

He got up and picked up the gun, he would finish the deed, for his alters, for his parents, for Roro.

The man lifted his head slightly only to be met with cold metal pointed at him.

"Vete al el infierno cabrón."

Is all he said before the sound of the gun went off, the man was truly dead now.

But he wasn't satisfied. He would never be.

He shot his head again, and again, and again.

The tears ran down his cheeks with every shot that went off. He wanted the pain to stop, to just end. But it would never be enough.

Finally he threw the gun down, it had no bullets, it had done its job.

Unlike him.

He picked up the weapon that murder his brother and took the light off before turning it off, it still had rounds.

He swung it around and then went back to where their brother laid.

He sat down and looked at their brother, he wasn't in pain anymore now.

Nothing would scare him anymore, not where he was going at least.

He gently closed his eyes and cried. He was panting, and his neck burned. They needed to leave, but how could they without their baby brother.

They could never truly leave him. Ever.

There you go! The first chapter of this Moonknight TLOU AU, don't worry there will be more and sorry for the wait. School has been on my head for the most part but I will come up on top so hopefully this will make it up.

Hope you enjoyed reading this! Again comments about this would be nice to be able to see where I can make improvements on this whole thing as this story goes.

[zeawesomebirdie]

hi !!!! did NOT consider you might like to have the ask again to answer it. if you do:

seeing you post about your old west au is motivating me to at least draft my stuff out for my fic, too!!! so, firstly: good god thank you. secondly, what kind of drafting process do you normally go through? you don't have to answer this but everyone i know is pretty particular about how they write so i'm always curious!!!

Gosh okay I'm still so embarrassed about accidentally posting this before it was ready!! Lesson learned: only work on long posts on desktop (very affectionate). I'm going to copy paste what I had originally said, but there will be added stuff because it wasn't anywhere near ready to go (if you thought it was long before, honey you ain't seen nothing yet!)

Also I still am so proud of you for working on your fic, we are writing buddies now hand in lovable hand I love you thank you for enabling my rambling <33

Buckle in, here we go!

SO! My drafting process is always a moving target. I do what works best for the work in question, and things change depending on my energy and fatigue levels plus my motivation and interest levels

So that said, right now my process usually looks like:

ramble at someone in DMs, copy and paste rambles into a google doc for safekeeping and marinating

zero draft, aka word vomit until a plot forms, block out actions and the occasional dialog, determine chapter and story arcs

first draft, aka Where The Real Writing Happens

optional second draft, but only if the fic is under 10k

line edits

post :)

find a bunch of typos that I somehow missed during line editing, fix those before anyone notices

I will be showing examples because this is a bit hard to explain and Extremely Intense to a lot of people, and yeah that's because it is! I approach writing fanfic the same way I approach writing original fiction, and I find it works best for me as a plotter

If you are metaphorically inclined and familiar with oil painting: I write the way an oil painter paints. First I block in the big shapes, the gestures, and the colours. Then I come back in subsequent drafts and increase the detail until I'm done!

Further information and actual examples of my drafts will be below the cut, because this is gonna be super long and I love talking shop ^.^

And general content warning for non-graphic violence and graphic smut (and shitty early drafts); the examples are from Bruce Wayne/Dick Grayson fics

So before we get into the zero draft, I want to point out two things: first, I do full rewrites. This is why writing takes me one million years. I retype each and every word in each and every draft. Second, I'm actually trying something new with the Old West!AU, for reasons I will explain in a moment!

I started doing full rewrites in 2019 after a college writing course, in which we read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott; she encourages the reader to embrace the shitty first draft. I ended up really benefiting from a zero draft too, something I first learned about in 2020 from someone on authortube who I no longer remember the name of. The zero draft is essentially a pre-draft, in which one gets the gist of the story out of their system before the prose clogs up the spigot

For me, zero drafts are something that need to be finished as fast as possible in order to get done at all, so due to the sheer length of the Old West!AU, I'm trying out writing little bullet points instead of my full zero drafting. Right now this fic is at 27 chapters, and this is part 1 of 3 total. I will be going back and filling in the actual blocking once I have all the scenes roughly accounted for

Context for the Old West!AU: Bruce is the Bat, a vigilante gunman who only kills when he needs to but still has the fastest draw on this side of the Mississippi. Now that he's taken care of the man who killed his parents, he's returned home to his Uncle Alfred and gone straight, meaning that he's hung up his guns and gone back to homesteading the family land. He adopts Dick and then a year later Jason as well, when small burglaries start happening in town, so he takes the Bat out of retirement and goes to investigate.

My bullet points started out like this:

Open on comparison between Bruce's first gun and the Bat's guns. Introduce Joe Chill, general drunkard. The Bat calls out Chill, shootout, Chill is killed. Chill drew first. Moment of reflection between Bruce's first gunfight at 15 to this one, at 21. Bruce goes home.

And that's the whole entire first chapter!

However, now they look more like:

The Sheriff runs up and shoots at him. The Bat has him disarmed with his own gun barrel to his throat in an instant. It doesn't take the Bat much time to get info out of him either. The burglar is only going after small change, not enough to be noticeable. That rules out the gambler, easily. The Sheriff can't do shit about it, because no one is willing to start an investigation for such small change. The Bat shoves the Sheriff to his knees and is gone before he notices. Alfred is waiting for him when he gets home, and asks. Bruce tries to deny it, but the clothes are in his hands and he can't. So he sighs and says he may have made a promise, but… there might be more to this than there seems, okay? He just… has a bad feeling about it. Alfred can't accept this, what about his sons? Bruce can't take this, and tells him he doesn't have to. Their yelling wakes up Dick and Jason, who stand in the doorway to their bedroom and look on with the door mostly closed.

Eventually both Alfred and Bruce yell each other out, and they sit down for coffee as dawn breaks. Bruce breaks the silence first, saying Alfred is right. Alfred tells him he understands. Bruce decides to let the Bat go for real now.

This is about half of the chapter, and closer to the blocking I normally do in zero drafts

So far this pre-zero draft seems to be working, given I've already finished part 1, but I also can't wait to come back and do the blocking in because that's when the fic really starts to take shape!

Usually though, I just start with a zero draft. I'm going to show you two different fics for the zero draft examples, because they were done differently, and like I said at the beginning, I try to adjust my process based on what is called for by what I'm writing

This first is from the fic I'm writing for @ful-crum. It's a 5+1, in which it is five times Dick fucks Bruce to distract him from discussing his emotions plus one time they actually discuss their emotions and then fuck about it.

Tim and Jason turn up an hour later, and they're incredibly concerned. Dick waves them off. Tim takes him at his word and heads to bed (he has a meeting with Wayne Tech at 8am tomorrow, ugh), but Jason sits down next to the bed and asks Dick what he thinks Bruce is going to say. Dick tells him he's not sure, I mean, it's B, y'know? Jason just nods, and they lapse into silence. Then Steph and Cass come in, and Bruce is most noticeably not present. Cass signs something about bed, and Steph tells Dick that she's worried about Bruce, to which Jason snorts and says they all are, but she insists that Dick talk to him. Dick doesn't even need to take more than a moment to decide that won't be happening. But Steph goes to bed, and it's nearly 04:00 when Jason heads up too, saying he'd love to help Dick lecture Bruce about staying out late but he's got stuff to do tomorrow. Dick asks if he wants to know what stuff, and Jason gives him a smirk and says ask him no questions and he'll tell him no lies. Dick can live with that.

As you can see, this is just general staging directions and vibes

This second example was supposed to be for BruDick Week 2024, but I accidentally got carried away and ended up deciding to write a longfic for it instead. The prompt was "brudick meet their AU!selves," so I did 66!brudick meets the Gotham Rogues Polycule, an AU in which Bruce, Dick, and Clark are in a very elaborate polycule with half of Gotham's villains.

Batman and Robin were on a normal mission in the middle of the day, on the trail of Catwoman, who's been stealing from the Gotham Museum of Art again. One moment they were walking into the museum, the next they were in a weird swirl of energy. Robin clings to Batman and asks what's going on, and Batman tells him steady Robin, we just have to stay calm and see what happens. The energy clears as someone calls out “incoming! Clear the floor!” and they find themselves in what is clearly the Cave, except it's even more high tech than anything they've ever seen. There's three people in suits like theirs standing in front of a massive screen, and Robin identifies the Riddler immediately, even if he doesn't recognise the other two. Before Batman can stop him, he charges the Riddler, who jumps behind the man in black and blue with a laugh. Batman does call out for him to stop, but he ignores him. The man in black and blue meets his every move, almost like he's fighting himself, and he calls out to the man in red and blue “a little help here, Supes?”

The biggest difference here is how drastically these fics changed from their zero draft to the first draft rendition, and that is entirely because of how fleshed out they ended up being (or not being, lol)

When I zero drafted the 5+1, it was with the intention of that specific part simply being a chapter, whereas my original zero draft of the 66! meeting the polycule! fic was actually intended to be a two shot at most. I unfortunately lost control of the plot during the first draft of that one, and it spiraled into a longfic, which will become more clear in a bit!

Basically though, the goal of the zero draft is to know who's where and why at all times! With longfics, there is often a restructuring that happens after the zero draft is written, where I move scenes and sometimes whole chapters to their best locations. This is where I make the most use out of a beta! Pacing is a big struggle for me and it is easier to fix at this stage, before I have all the prose and have become attached to what I've written

Next up is the first draft, and this is a whole new document. This is where I write The Actual Words. This is more or less the final version of the fic, for longfics, give or take a few paragraphs and a shit ton of line edits. Having said that though, I write in fits and bursts, because y'know disabled and stuff. So I write a paragraph or two at a time, and I am constantly adding and subtracting words and lines and sometimes whole paragraphs while I am actively working on a chapter

I'm going to show the first draft versions of both of the above fics, and due to the length these will be extremely excerpted but they should serve as examples regardless. Generally speaking, my zero drafts are about 1/3 of the length of my finished fics, however the 5+1 is currently proving to be an exception so that number may not be super accurate

First, the 5+1:

“You did take care of them, right?” Dick asked, groaning when Jason’s mouth thinned as he looked away. “Is Steph at least still with him?” “Last I heard, they were—” Jason started, cutting himself off when the Cave’s alarm signaled the arrival of newcomers. A moment later, two muddy bikes roared into the garage, leaving dark tracks behind them as they parked haphazardly together on the far side of the garage. With the return of Black Bat and Spoiler, the only empty place on the garage floor now belonged to Batman himself. Dick tried to catch Jason’s eyes as they waited in the med bay for Cass and Steph to strip off their suits and join them, but Jason turned away from him, though he didn’t rise from the bed. Something must have gone down after he’d fallen unconscious, Dick was sure of it. Why else would Bruce have sent everyone else home early on a patrol night? He could already see it in his mind’s eye, Batman doing God-knew-what out in Gotham alone, Bruce coming home with a busted lip that Dick would have to personally clean up before they went to bed, how that lip would scab over and feel under his tongue when he kissed Bruce the next morning after waking up in their bed—Bruce’s bed—on accident. How that scab would stretch when the ghost of a smile caught Bruce by surprise after one of Dick’s terrible puns. “You okay?” Steph called across the Cave as she and Cass walked toward the med bay. “Never been better,” Dick replied, trying not to be put out at Jason’s eye roll. He put up a hand for Cass to inspect when she came up to his bedside, and after she had nodded her satisfaction of his health he smiled. “I’ll be right as rain in no time.”

And the 66! meets polycule! fic:

“You!” Robin shouted, not waiting for Batman to back him up as he charged toward the Riddler. Riddler didn't move—in fact, none of the three moved—then Robin was on him, punching his face hard enough to hear a distinct crack. That startled all three into action, Riddler swearing up a storm before throwing himself behind the blue masked man, who blocked Robin's next hits without hesitation. “Robin!” Batman called from somewhere behind him, but Robin ignored him, focusing his energy on striking past the masked man's defenses to get at Riddler. “I know you're behind this, you– you scum!” Robin snarled in Riddler's direction, placing a perfectly timed jab toward the masked man's left cheek and then feinting to the right. But the man met him easily, as though they were merely sparring. “I'm not who you think I am!” Riddler exclaimed, his hands cupping his face but doing little to staunch the blood streaming from his nose. “Let's slow down for a minute, okay?” the masked man said, his voice maddeningly level as if Robin wasn't trying every trick he knew to get past him. “We can explain.” “Yeah kid, there's a good explanation here, we promise,” Riddler added. Robin growled and spun around the  masked man's reach only to find him once again directly blocking him from Riddler. How in the dickens did he know exactly where Robin was going to strike before Robin himself knew? And why on earth was he protecting the Riddler? “Supes, we could use a hand here,” the masked man said, still obnoxiously calm, once again blocking Robin's fist and this time circling his hand around Robin's wrist to twist his arm behind his back. In a blink, Robin was lifted into the air by his collar, the blue and red suited man holding him at arm's length. Robin continued to struggle for a moment, but finally Batman came into view, frowning up at him. Seeing Batman's disapproval took every bit of wind from Robin's sails, and he deflated instantly. If Batman didn't think he needed to fight, then he probably didn't need to.

So as you can see, I just kinda fill in the details with each draft!

Which is where we come to the optional second draft. I try, I really do try, to do a full second draft of everything I write. I always am glad to have done one, once it's done. The problem is, I really do have very limited energy, and anything longer than a chapter or two just doesn't get finished if I try to give it a full second draft. I've instead been doing really vigorous line edits, which I don't have an examples of because those are done in the same document as the first draft!

Now, you're probably wondering why on earth I gave a smut content warning at the beginning of this post. WELL.

I am calling myself out as a newbie when it comes to the art of smut writing. My 5+1 fic, the one where literally every single part has extremely explicit smut, has the following in the zero draft:

Yes, that is not one, not two, but three "cue smuts." Clearly I was new at this (affectionate)

Shout out to past!me for this in the last part though, because at least it actually has some semblance of blocking even if it is still extremely lacking:

The kissing escalates (as it often does) to smut over the desk (though Dick does try to move the documents out of the way, even if Bruce is growling at him to leave it alone; he doesn't want to be the reason Tim has another caffeine-induced breakdown).

I didn't figure this out until I was actually writing this fic, but it turns out I not only need to block in regular action scenes, I also need to block in the smut, because otherwise I will be sitting there having no fucking clue what to write (very affectionate)

So I now present what a zero draft of smut looks like! This is from a 5+1 in which there are five times Bruce and Dick fuck because of Poison Ivy's sex pollen and it "doesn't mean anything," plus one time they fuck because they actually want to:

Dick asks if they can take off their suits, it's too hot he's too hot, and Bruce says okay, that's a good idea, and internally he's panicking because oh no. Oh no. But the moment the words are out he sees the relief in Dick's face, and realises Dick needs to be told what to do right now, so he tells him clearly to strip, it'll help. Once Dick is fully naked in the other seat, he turns to Bruce and asks if he needs help with his armor. His hand is tentatively, almost shyly stroking his cock, and Bruce is really struggling to not watch. He tells him no, he doesn't, and takes off the chest plate and arm armor, but leaves what's left of his leg armor on. He decides he can safely put his hand under his boxers, but Dick makes a little noise, and when he looks over he can clearly see Dick watching him stroke himself. Oh fuck. He's cumming before he even realises it, his boxers getting wet and sticky and his cock still so maddeningly hard and he strokes himself through it, unable to stop himself from moaning even as he tries to keep himself in a clinical mindset. Dick asks to see him, and Bruce, despite knowing what a bad, horrible idea this is, pulls down his boxers to reveal his cock. Dick shifts his hand on his own cock to mimic what Bruce is doing, and Bruce has the horrible realisation that he doesn't even really know how to jerk himself off. Dear God, hopefully Alfred stays the fuck out of the Cave tonight.

So it's really just more of the same general blocking directions and vibes!

Another thing of note for zero drafts, I try to use as few words as possible to get what I need across. These are only ever intended to be seen by myself and a beta, assuming anyone else besides me even sees them at all, so I use slang and shorthand and leave notes for myself in the text itself

This can be a bit weird for when I show it to betas (or anyone else, for that matter!) because there are some fics where the tone or the vocabulary in the zero is incredibly modern despite the fic being in a historical or pre-modern setting!

And I have yet to actually write the first draft of that one, so I'm going to give you the first draft of the "Cue more smut (but this time against the batmobile 😌)" scene so that you can see the difference between the blocking and an Actual Scene:

Bruce had turned his back to him, bracing himself against the batmobile, and Dick took hold of Bruce's hip to hold him steady when he slid a finger into his hole. A soft moan was all he got in verbal response, but Bruce pushed against Dick's finger despite Dick's best efforts to do this slowly. Chuckling under his breath, Dick slid in a second finger, relishing in the clench of Bruce's muscle as he began working him open. “Easy, B,” he said softly, leaning over him enough to move his hand from Bruce's hip to his cock. Bruce growled and arched into his touch, taking in Dick's fingers completely. “Someone's in a rush tonight, huh?” He didn't get a verbal response, not that he ever did. Bruce rarely spoke while full, relying instead on nonverbal communication to indicate his needs. It hadn't taken long for Dick to become acquainted with his movements back when they started this; after all, fucking was no different from fighting, not for them, not when they had flown side by side across Gotham for more than half of Dick's life. And Dick knew Bruce would always try to get him to rush just a little, knew he'd give in like he always did, wanting to have his cock inside Bruce as soon as physically possible just as much as Bruce did. He wasted no more time, sliding his fingers out and releasing Bruce's cock just long enough to slick up his own. The small whine from Bruce at the loss of contact ought to be ignored, ought not be acknowledged, and Dick knew that, but he couldn't resist leaning over to kiss the small of Bruce's back. Bruce huffed at him, glaring over his shoulder. Dick met his eyes with a grin. Then Dick gripped Bruce's hip again, holding him steady while Bruce leaned back to meet him, and slipped into his tight heat. There was a soft moan from Bruce the moment he bottomed out; Dick leaned forward again to kiss up his spine, keeping his cock buried deep even while Bruce began to rock back into him.

I do think the fic for @ful-crum would be easier if I had proper blocking for the smut, but also I do love a good challenge and you live and you learn, so I'm not super invested in going back and blocking in the smut at this point in time!

And honestly, once the line edits are done that's pretty much it!

I keep a little "posting info" doc for each and every fic I write, to which I add tags as I come to them in writing, so that I don't have to think about what needs to be tagged at the end after I've already forgotten what I've written. That has saved my butt so many times ngl, especially for longfics!

But really what keeps me from posting more often, despite how much I write, is that I fully finish fics before I post them, even if I'm posting them on a weekly or whatever basis. This is mostly because I can't guarantee when I'll need to randomly take several months off of writing, and I don't want to leave anything unfinished, but also because I don't want to actually end up leaving something unfinished for a few years until I cycle back into the fandom

And that's it!! Thanks for tuning in to this little master class :) If I can clarify anything please let me know; I tried to explain everything that I thought needed it but I can never tell what others will need more clarification on!!

And also, thanks again for asking this!! I don't know many people who do full drafts, or even many people who don't completely pants everything they write, and so I'm always excited to discuss my process!! I also am a firm believer in "take what helps and leave the rest," so if you find something in my process that sounds like something you'd like to do, give it a whirl!! I think it's super important to share the different kinds of processes there can be for writing, because everyone really writes so differently, you know?

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my shitty early drafts (very affectionate)!!

[leegunn]

So, I had the idea a while ago to write a Gallavich fic set in the Being Human universe. I have tons of notes, but haven’t written much on it yet, and am currently focusing on other projects. I would like to pick it back up someday, but it will probably be a few months before I do.

I did write this scene and I kinda like it, so I thought I’d share it anyways. Enjoy this…. Meet-cute?

TW: Violence

Mickey hears the crowd before he sees them. Jeers and howls and punches and grunts of pain. He senses the victim’s werewolf status before he hears the pejoratives. “Mutt!” It’s the heartbeat, stronger than a normal human’s from this distance. “Dog!” It’s the smell. Foresty. Animal. “We’re gonna put you down, Old Yeller style. Got my silver bullets.”

He moves towards the noise, recognizing the voices of his brothers laying into some wolf who walked down the wrong street. He turns a corner and sees them gathered behind a dumpster.

The werewolf is curled on his side, holding his head while Mickey’s brothers kick at him. He hears the form mutter something but can’t make out the words. His brothers must not either, because they pause their assault. Colin leans down closer. “What was that, wolf?”

Mickey is still moving towards the gathered monsters when the wolf lifts his head to look up at his tormentors. His pale face is covered in blood, gushing from his nose and from an injury that seems to originate somewhere above his hairline. He looks young, Mickey realizes, maybe even still a teenager. He opens his mouth, almost baring his teeth which are bloodied and stained red between the cracks.

“Fuck you,” the wolf grits out. He spits out a mouthful of blood at Iggy’s feet.

Colin grabs a fistful of the redhead’s hair and hauls his head back sharply as Mickey finally joins the gathering. The wolf grunts in pain and glares up at Mickey with big green eyes.

“What are you?” The wolf pants.

Colin holds out his free hand, ignoring the question. “Gun,” he commands simply.

The wolf starts squirming then, breaking his staring match with Mickey to flail his arms in protest. Colin catches an elbow to his jaw and curses, letting go of the red hair. Iggy steps in then, grabbing under the wolf’s arms and dragging him to his feet. Colin’s fist connects with the wolf’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him. If Iggy wasn’t still holding him up, he would have been on the ground again.

Mickey rolls his eyes and lets out a huff of a breath at the scene. “Alright, you two done yet? The kid’s had enough.”

Colin gives him an incredulous look. “He’s still breathing, ain’t he?”

“What the fuck do you want to kill him for?”

“We can’t let him walk, he was sniffing around our shit. He’ll go tell his little pack buddies.”

Mickey rolls his eyes again. “He doesn’t even know who we are, moron.”

“Well,” Colin flounders for a reason. “Terry don’t like wolves. We’ll look like pussies if we let a stray loose after it waltzed onto our turf.”

“Yeah, you’ll look real tough picking him off two weeks before the full moon. Might as well beat down a ten year old fuckin’ girl.”

“Well,” the redhead pipes up, “It’s not exactly like beating up a ten year old fuckin’ girl.”

“Man, you need to shut the fuck up,” Iggy says as he shoves the wolf to the ground. He turns his attention to Colin. “Let’s just go eat. I’m starving.”

“Fine,” Colin concedes. He gets low again, closer to the grounded wolf. “Won’t be so lenient if we find you here again.”

Mickey watches his brothers leave the alley as the redhead pulls himself into a sitting position. He wipes at the blood under his nose. “You look like shit,” Mickey informs him.

“I look like two assholes just kicked the shit out of me, probably,” concedes the wolf. He accepts Mickey’s offered hand and allows himself to be pulled up to his feet.

“Seriously, what the fuck are you doing in this neighborhood?”

He eyes Mickey suspiciously. “Why shouldn’t I be in this neighborhood?”

“You know how to answer a fuckin’ question, Scooby-Doo?” Mickey shoots back.

“You never answered mine,” the wolf accuses.

“Alright, I don’t have time for chit-chat,” Mickey grumbles. “Just get the fuck out of this neighborhood and don’t come back.” He starts to follow his brothers’ path out of the alley when he hears the voice behind him pipe up again.

“Wait, I don’t—“ Mickey pauses, something in his tone convincing him to hear the other monster out. Finally, the redhead asks, “how did you guys know I’m a werewolf?” He sounds lost. Mickey realizes he really is.

“How long ago were you scratched?” Mickey asks, turning towards the wolf.

“If I tell you, will you answer any one of my questions?” The redhead sounds annoyed again.


Mickey nods. “Where are you staying?”

“Jesus Christ!”

“You smell like dog. Now, where are you staying?” Mickey asks impatiently.

“I smell like what?” The wolf brings his wrist to his nose.

Mickey sighs. “You asked how we could tell. You smell like dog. Where are you staying?”

“I smell like—“

“This conversation is moving way too slow for me.”

“I’m homeless, okay?” The wolf finally admits. “I just got in town from Chicago. I was hoping to find an abandoned warehouse or something to squat in for a while, maybe, uh, change in. It looked like an abandoned shithole neighborhood but I get it, okay, message received, you guys have something going on out here. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

Mickey huffs out an unamused breath. “I’m not worried about you snitching.”

“Then what’s with the beat down?”

“Okay, you’re homeless,” Mickey says aloud like he’s processing. He feels sympathy for the wolf, despite the rivalry he’s supposed to uphold. He remembers being a new vampire, abandoned by his maker, left alone to figure out the harsh realities of his new monster life. “Come stay with me a few days, alright?” He finally says, surprising even himself a little. The wolf eyes him, hopeful but cautious.

“I thought I wasn’t supposed to hang around this neighborhood?” He asks as the other man leads him out of the alley.

“I don’t live in this neighborhood,” Mickey answers.

[watchingblsnowandforever]

*blows into a paper bag repeatedly*

I just need a moment.

I was squealing all through today's episode. If I start writing a meta as long as yesterday's, my fingers are gonna fall off because i liked every single thing. So here's an abriged version.

What I liked most is not only are they validating and making canon every fanfiction, they picked the top few to actually show.

I'm just imagining them going on ao3 and taking down notes from the most used tropes and headcanons.

I mean, Kajorn and Phat? Secretly dating TiwPor?

What I also liked is the hint here that in any Universe, Tinn fell first. Or in the original Universe, Gun fell first. I'm happy with either.

My prediction that this scene would be more funnier than the original one? Well, feels good to be right. "Hi, Mr. Handsome President"? They're so whipped for each other.

I also like how the bold, confident Tiw is a little shy babygirl here :D

One scene I was hoping would be a little different is the jogging scene; what if Gun carried Tinn in this one? I'm not unhappy with this one, but just a thought.

This is my favourite scene:

[Unmute :D Do NOT repost; I'll do more than find you]

In the original show, when Gun's mother tells him everything Tinn has done for him and he goes to search for the school president and the realization for that one moment that he might've lost him for good: that is when Gun really falls for Tinn.

Here, while it is similar, like everything in this universe, it is also slightly different. This time, they both run towards each other, and Tinn asks Gun to cross the line: a confession in his own way. In the og universe, Tinn had crossed the line first.

I loved that whole scene, especially the little references to their romantic moments in the og universe.

Speaking of the hospital scene, I'm glad they didn't use the same trope twice and Mae was only sleeping.

Moving on to the MV. When Por was announcing the couples, I was like wait. wAIT A MINUTE 😶🤨

It took me all of three whole seconds to make out the series. I don't know what to make of that.

If you haven't realized the series yet (very unlikely that you don't know at least one of them), they are He's Coming To Me (Tinn and Gun), Bad Buddy (Sound and Win) and A Tale Of A Thousand Stars (Tiwson and Por). All of these, are, coincidentally directed by the one and only P'Aof.

I was not surprised at the Bad Buddy scenes they chose, but I was a little surprised to see the rooftop scene without angst in the next few seconds (that SoundWin scene counts as a confession and not angst). The original scene had made me cry and I'd stopped watching the series all together when something brought me back and I'm eternally grateful I returned.

Anything else? Hmm..

Oh yes, I liked the glimpse into the future. And that doll and the fact that Gun is a jealous boyfriend in every Universe and Tinn loves him for it.

I have made four clips today and all of the remaining three are linked in this post.

If you want more clips, requests are always open :D

Fun fact: I can make gifs but don't simply because I prefer clips.

[vxyselectric]

Honey Brown Eyes (M.R)

word count: 1.1k

warnings: mentions of weapons (guns/knives), death, angst, hurt no comfort

pairings: Thomas x Newt (romantic (unsaid feelings) or platonic)

inspiration: Safe & Sound - Taylor Swift

Sorry it's so short, I'll post longer ones next time!! I have one I'm writing rn that I'll post when it's done :) - Vey

-

Thomas felt the color drain from his face as he heard the words blare over the speakers. Beads of sweat formed as the lights flicked on, illuminating the street. He heard Newt's struggling breathing coming from a few feet behind him but he didn't dare turn... Not yet.

Thomas inhaled a shaky breath, not ready for what was about to happen. A million thoughts raced through his head, he wasn't prepared. He thought he had more time.. Finally, he slowly turned around to face his best friend. Newt stood there, black veins visible and his eyes looked vacant.

Black orbs replaced his honey brown eyes, god how Thomas loved those eyes. Any sign of Newt was long gone, the fond look in his eye that he always held for Thomas had vanished. Thomas could feel his resolve breaking, 'Why him too?' He thought.

But he didn't have time to pity himself, Newt launched himself towards Thomas, scratching and yelling as he tried to gain any sort of ground. Thomas just barely grabbed Newt's wrists, stopping the blond from attacking him.

"Newt.. C'mon buddy. You gotta hold on for me." Thomas could see something flicker in Newt's blacked out eyes, but it was quickly gone, replaced by the fury that the disease forced him to feel. He had to get to Newt, he couldn't let him go. Thomas refused to lose Newt too.

"Newt, you can't make me do this. I can't let you go too.." Tears pricked at the edges of Thomas' eyes, not ready to lose someone else that mattered so much to him. That seemed to do something, Newt's face softened as he looked at Thomas. His eyes seemed to go back and forth between black orbs and his original brown eyes. His anger turned into fear and confusion as he realized what he was doing.

“Tommy.." Newt managed, his voice sounded broken, so much emotion managed into one muster of the nickname that only Newt was allowed to call Thomas. Newt glanced around them, his arms slacking a bit as he took in the burning buildings around them.

But before Newt could question it, Thomas released Newt's wrists and cupped his cheeks, forcing the blond to look at him. "Don't look.. Just pay attention to me, okay? That doesn't matter.. Just please stay with me, Gally and Minho will be here soon." Thomas pleaded, a stray tear running down his cheek as he watched Newt struggle with control.

"Tommy.." This time his name sounded different on Newt's lips, fear and confusion gone. Instead he said it like he was scolding Thomas, disappointment and pity clear in his eyes. But Thomas refused to listen to what Newt was implying.

"No, Newt. They'll be here soon.. You can't leave me here.. I can't be alone when they get here. Please Newt." Thomas' voice cracked, more tears running down his face as he subconsciously analyzed the others' faces. Even if he refused to believe this may be the last time he saw Newt, his mind seemed to want to make sure he had the image burned into the back of his skull.

"We have to get to the Safe Haven, remember you said you wanted to help the kids learn to garden Newt." Thomas was grasping on straws and they both knew it. A soft smile appeared on Newt's face, his hand moving to grasp Thomas' shoulders as he pressed their foreheads together.

Thomas could feel his heart breaking when he saw Newt's eyes flutter closed, just trying to savor the moment while he still grasped at his sanity. "Tommy.. We know this won't last long.." Newt said, his voice hoarse as he opened his eyes again. The black was coming back, "I can't hold on anymore.. Please Tommy."

Newt grabbed his necklace, ripping it off and forcing it into Thomas' pocket before he reached for the gun that was strapped to his waist and forced it into Thomas' hand, "I can't go insane like this Tommy.. Please don't leave me here alive when this bloody disease makes me crazy."

Thomas shook his head, throwing the gun to the side before grabbing Newt's face again, "I won't let you go crazy.. Just a few more minutes, Newt. Please... I'll never let you go." Thomas could feel his hope fade as he watched Newt's fight dissipate and the flare taking control of him again.

The honey brown eyes that Thomas loved to get lost in disappeared once again. He choked back a sob that threatened to escape as he moved his hand to grip Newt's wrists again. Thomas couldn't do this, he couldn't kill Newt, couldn't hold him in his arms while life left his eyes like he had with Chuck.

Tears seemed to be permanently running down his face as his body went into autopilot, fighting off Newt. As they fought, Newt somehow grabbed Thomas' knife and overpowered him. He lost his balance, Newt falling on top of him and trying to force the knife into Thomas' chest.

Thomas heard a scream when the knife broke skin, not sure if it was his own or Newt's. It didn't matter, that scream kicked in the adrenaline. Thomas quickly pushed Newt back, twisting the knife around before it plunged into Newt's stomach. Thomas could hear ringing as he looked at Newt, the honey brown coming back for the last time.

Newt met Thomas' gaze once more, a soft smile appearing on his chapped lips as he fell to the ground. Almost immediately Thomas fell to his knees beside him, holding onto Newt's weakening body as he watched the love of his life die in his arms. He felt numb, his entire body felt numb. He couldn't even feel the tears running down his face, nor did he register the screaming that was leaving his mouth.

All he could hear was the ringing, so much ringing. And the word why. Why why why why? Thomas let out a heaving sob as he pulled Newt's body to his chest, cradling his friend's lifeless body in his arms as he did. He stayed there for a few minutes before pulling away.

The tears still streamed down his face but his face held no emotion. He brushed a stray hair out of Newt's eyes. The eyes that once held all the kindness in the world but were now dull and held no spark. Thomas placed a kiss on Newt's forehead before gently closing his eyes, "Nothing can hurt you now.." He mumbled before gently laying Newt's body down and standing up.

Thomas felt like a zombie, walking away from Newt and towards where he was needed. Not even noticing Brenda who watched him leave, nor did he hear the thundering footsteps of Minho, Gally and Frypan who held the cure for Newt. He just walked away.