#YOU CAN GUESS WHAT KIND OF FIC IT WAS I AM NOT GOING TO SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU

[lazilybeinglassie]

Coiled In Sweet Lies (Shadow Milk × Reader)

CW: Hypnosis, Coiling, Gaslighting, Bad End

Characters: Shadow Milk

Summary: Never ignore the Beast of Deceit. He'll give you something to look at.

Note: This fic is Safe For Work! BUT, if your not a fan of nagas, then this ain't your fic.

You breathed in slowly, then breathed out slowly. Breathing in again, it was a little faster. And so was breathing out. It wasn't working, you were far too freaked out to calm down now.

One moment, you were in the silver kingdom, helping the group find answers to sealing the beasts away again. The next, you were waking up in a garden near a river. No, a courtyard. One that belonged to some sort of palace.

It had a strong scent of blueberries and yogurt filling the air. A serene place that would be nice to embrace in any other situation than this.

But right now, you needed to figure out how to leave. And fast. You had to get back with the others. You had to be there for when the beasts would attack. You needed to be there!

Trying to head to an exit, you climb up some stairs towards a door. When you open it, you find yourself on the other side of the courtyard. What the-? Back tracking, you look for another way. Through a small hole, down another path, every door you could find. But it was no use. It all lead back to the garden and the stream. Something was keeping you here.

Great.

Heading near the river, you decide to take a break and clear your head. Maybe taking a drink would help. Reaching for the river, you dip your hand in, licking it for a taste. Despite the blueberries floating above the surface, this yogurt held none of it's flavor. It was kind of bitter.

Watching the ripples, you start thinking of some alternate solutions. If you couldn't leave the garden physically, maybe there's someone who was making you stay here. Or there was some sort of curse binding you here. Was there a way to find out? Surely there had to be something to this whole place that made it function.

It was then you became distracted with your own reflection. It was changing. The colors tainted into blue as a familiar face appeared instead of you. He grinned and stared right back.

"Lost in thought, aren't we?"

Jumping in reaction, you back up against a tree and breathe heavily in shock. Watching with wide eyes as he rose from the river, floating above it with his usual playful act.

"Hehehe~! You are so easily spooked. I would have never guessed, considering how you handled yourself last time."

You grit your teeth as you glare at him. Of course the beast of deceit would drag you into his trap like this. Must be planning to torment you until Pure Vanilla or someone came to save you. Pulling yourself together, you stand up and sigh. No matter what he did, you weren't going to break.

Noticing your composure, he tilts his head in confusion. "What? Am I suppose to be intimidated by that?"

Without a word, you walk away. Beginning to search the courtyard for any hints as to how you can escape this prison. Starting at the edge of the walls, you search for some sort of markings or spells. You knew nothing of how magic worked, but you did wonder if there was a seal you could break or some markings to erase. Surely there could be something-

A tug on your wrists pulls you away from your position and dangles you in front of Shadow Milk. His smile faded into a pouty frown. "Honestly, how rude of you. I've brought you to my spire to play with me and you're just ignoring me."

You look away. "You're the one who's rude by kidnapping me."

"Come now, you can't want to leave when we've hardly had our fun!"

"It's only fun for you."

Shadow Milk pulls you close as he hugs you. "I'm a professional entertainer. Surely you don't assume I've brought you here to make you miserable~!"

Clenching your fists, you turn to face him. "Look. I know what your game is, so let's get this over with! Go on and do what it is your wanting to do with me! But don't think for a second I'm going to let you enjoy it!" He blinks for a second. Almost surprised by your little outburst. Then he answers back, more calmly. "And what is it do you actually expect me to do to you?"

"I don't know! Anything that involves me screaming and you laughing! What, are you trying to fish for ideas!?"

Once more, he was silent. But then he smirks. Cutting your threads, you fall down to the ground as he backs up. "Well well well. I see you are determined to keep up the charade then." Charade? What was he talking about? "Why don't we try something else then, little cookie~."

Suddenly you feel something wrap around your waist. It clings to you tightly as it pulls you up one of the willow trees. Higher and higher, as though it were as tall as a redwood. You scramble for branches, trying to grab something, anything! Yet your grip keeps slipping as you reach to the top.

All around you are other branches, winding and twisting around like a cage of some sort where light was barely peaking in. Getting a good look at what is around you, it appeared to be a snake tail. Following the coil, you notice a large black snake entwined with the branches, and hissing as it stares at you.

You struggle against your restraints. But looking down once, you can see the danger in trying to get out now. The drop was long, and most likely wasn't going to end well if you did. Shadow Milk may not want you to die, but he could make you feel the impact and damage of it all.

Appearing in a puff of confetti, the clown himself lands on the serpent, next to his head. "Much nicer of a view, isn't it?" He strokes the reptile in approval as he walks down, closer to you. "Although, I can understand you aren't comfortable yet. Don't worry. That will be earned later."

You scowl at him, hiding your nervousness. You weren't giving him another drop of fear or weakness. If he wanted to feed you to his pet, then you would face it head on. You weren't going to . . . wait . . . was Shadow Milk . . .

"PFFFFFF-! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OH, you really have a wild imagination, don't you!"

Wh-what? You didn't say anything! What was he talking about!?

"It is a creative idea though. Feeding cookies to a summoned monster, I should use that next time~!"

Your jam ran cold as you could guess what he was talking about. But that would mean . . .

"My my, are you piecing it together?"

A small gasp escaped your lips. Could he be reading your mind?

"RING DING DING! Smart cookie you are, smart cookie!" He applauds you as he leapt off the ground, floating right next to you. "Do you now get it? Here, everything belongs to me. Which means you belong to me. Body, soul, and mind."

Flinching, you feel vulnerable. What did he want with you? What was he going to do now? You wanted to ask these things, but you were unable to put it to words! And technically, you didn't have to.

The beast runs his hand across the scales of the serpent as he grins. "All it took was a little digging for a couple of seconds, and I was able to find something interesting. Mrehehehe! Who knew you were into this kind of thing~!"

Trying to piece together what he was talking about, you look back at the snake. Something you were into . . . oh no. Your entire face turned red. A small squeak escapes you when you feel the tail coil another loop around your torso.

Covering your eyes, you shut the lids tight in defiance. Nope nope nope! This was not happening! There was no way you were going to fall for this! NO!

Of course, now you couldn't see what was going on, so you had to guess as you heard Shadow Milk continue to ramble while floating in front of you. "Now now, you know this won't work if you're not playing along. What? Are you embarrassed?"

"Shut. Up." Your tone was warning him to back off. You didn't want him to know this, no one was suppose to know! HOW DID HE FIND OUT!?

"It's not that bad. Just a little peek is all it takes~." The beast's voice was trying to sound sweeter. Less silly and loud, now softer and alluring.

No! This was still the beast of deceit. He can't be trusted. If you opened your eyes, he would put you in a trance for sure. You would be vulnerable. And you hated that thought so much. You had to fight back, but how!? How could you fight him!?

For a moment, your body could feel the breeze of wind hitting your dough. You were being moved. The tail dropped you into something, and you tried to stand up. However, the ground wasn't stable enough to do so. It was . . . moving. And smooth. Using one of your forearms to cover your eyes, you use your other hand to properly feel the area you were dropped in. It was a nest of coils. Just big enough for you to move around, but small enough to contain you from running or tempting to stand up.

In defense, you sit on the floor of the nest, continuing the plan of keeping your eyes covered until the nightmare was over. Someone was going to come for you. So there was no reason to rush things. You could wait this out.

"Oh, I don't think you will be able to," he teases, leaning in closer and closer, "your temptation will soon give way. I know so."

A thick coil slides up your back slowly. You stiffen and straighten yourself up as you squeak. Your heart races a little.

Stop it, stop it, stop it, STOP IT! Your mind is screaming for it to stop. For him to leave you alone, to be released from the cursed snake. To get out of here! You didn't . . . you didn't . . .

Shadow Milk leans into your left ear as you hear him whisper gently. "I already have seen it. Buried deep within you, under a lie you tell everyone. Including yourself. The scales and the colors are all but flash and flare compared to what you truly wish to gain. The core of your desire."

You bite your lip. Stop. Stop!

He hovers a little back away as he circles you. His voice echoing all around. "The world sees you as a brave hero! Strong and resilient! Hopeful in the darkest moments! Fighting every day to have victory and peace be yours! And it does come . . . but not for you. Everyday you continue to show the bold you, and it never gets a break. An endless charade you play to give them what they want. Because the one thing you want is something you cannot show. The one thing you don't want anyone to find out."

He leans into your other ear, whispering again.

"Vulnerability."

You curl into yourself, turning redder than you ever had been in your life. You knew that he was grinning at that, even as you could feel him backing up again to circle around once more.

"Tough on the outside, yet soft deep down~! And if you had any say in it, you wouldn't show it to anyone until the day you crumbled. HAHA! Oh you've imagined how awful that would be if they knew. That they would look down on you. See you as lesser. Or treat you like you were nothing more than a fragile thing."

"Stop . . . Please . . . stop!" You lost a bit of your bravery. Your tone no longer harsh and cold. It was sounding more like a plead then a demand. You weren't sure what to do anymore.

Hearing Shadow Milk's voice becoming closer again, you could tell he was right in front of you. "Awwwww, but that just left you with only one option. To double down and keep up the act. All in the hopes they won't hate you for the scared little cookie you are." The tip if the snake tail lifts your head a little. You squeeze your eyelids tighter together. He places his hands on your arms. "There's no need to hide from me though. I can see right through you. Every little truth and lie that makes you who you are. And I know you want nothing more then to finally let it all go."

With little effort, he pushes your arms away from your face. You didn't offer any resistance. You just let him do it as you keep your eyes shut and turn your face away. Still blushing like you were ashamed of what was happening. His voice was so gentle and sweet, it was throwing you off with how blunt he was.

"It's not like anyone else will be willing to do this for you. Or at least, you won't have the courage to ask anyone to do it for you. Heh!" Shadow Milk reaches his hand to your cheek, resting it on there with nurturing care. "So do yourself a favor . . .

Indulge yourself for once. And open your eyes~."

Swallowing your breath, you wavered. You have been fighting. Fighting for so long. To be this person you knew everyone needed. And yet, you were too scared to let it all go. To relax yourself for one moment. You always were on edge. Always thinking of how to survive. Not a single word he said was wrong.

But you knew what would happen if you did cave. If you looked into his eyes. If you did, you would lose. He would have everything. And leave you with nothing. There was nothing to gain. And yet . . .

More and more, your focus on your sense of touch was becoming more aware of the shifting coils around you. The serpent slithered around, containing you in your nest.

A thought crosses your mind. That temptation to just . . . sink in a cocoon of coils. Easing yourself of worry and fear. To just have everything stop for a moment. To just finally . . . stop.

One of your eyes gives up. Peaking a little. Darkness. There was darkness around you. Except for a few blue diamond patterns shifting around in fixated circling spots. Opening your eyes a little more, you were piecing together where you were. The snake had coiled into a cage. One that felt like you were trapped in a dome of it's body.

Looking around, you take in the scenery. Only for the room to fill with some eyes that opened wide to stare at you. You stare back at them. A mistake for sure.

You focus on one of them as it begins to illuminate. From it's center, you see colors bloom from it. Like ripples in a river. Each one being a shade of blue, or white, or black. The pattern was slightly slow and steady, but none the less a display to behold. You kept watch as the colors continued to ripple over and over again. Looping endlessly before your eyes.

It doesn't take long before a hand touches your chin, turning you away to a new pair of eyes. Shadow Milk's grinning face stares back at you, with a similar yet brighter rippled pattern in his own. "There you are~!"

Unlike before, you could feel yourself becoming lost. The aura was strong, and alluring. Eyes widening, you freeze in place like deer in headlights. Blue, white, black, blue, white, black, blue, white, black.

The longer you stared, the dizzier you seemed to feel. Head spinning to center yourself as it dragged you in closer and closer into the illusion.

"All that bravado just melted away, didn't it," he says, "bet all that stress has left you tired. So so tired and exhausted."

You blinked. "N-No, I'm not- . . . Not tired . . . "

"Ehe! My my, you are one stubborn cookie." Shadow Milk strokes your cheek. Your breath hitches. "Shhhhh. Calm yourself. Look into my eyes and let yourself relax. Feel yourself grow more and more sleepy the longer you stare."

As you sat there, you could feel it wash over you. A sense of vertigo that slowly crept within you. Eyelids becoming heavy as tension left your body. You could feel yourself getting tired, just like he said.

Shadow Milk's coat tails twist around his legs as they extend into a tail, growing scales and circling around you in the air. You don't react as your too focused on staring.

Blue, white, black, blue, white, black, blue, white . . . black . . . blue . . .

Your thoughts slowed. Blurring in your mind. You wanted to say something, but your words were becoming harder and harder to collect themselves. No. No, you couldn't . . . you couldn't give in yet. You had to . . . had to . . . blue, white, black, blue, white, black.

The colors were consuming your mind the more you stared. You couldn't look away. Your shoulders slumped as your arms dangled from the sides. Coils wrap around you, slithering slowly up your body as you watched. They felt so smooth against your dough. Their grip on you was tender, holding you up.

"Drop deep into my eyes. Let my voice carry your thoughts away and fill your mind. Relax, little one."

You tried to speak. Nothing came out. Whatever it is you wanted to say, you couldn't remember. It faded with the rest of your thoughts. The beast's voice sounded so clear and in focus. As though it was coming from your head. His tail now had reached your shoulders, snug and tight around you like a blanket. Your eyelids were getting heavier and heavier.

So tired . . . you just wanted to . . . sleep . . . for a moment. Your head leans foward to drop. But the tip of the tail pushes your head back up to those hypnotic eyes.

"Ah ah ah! I didn't tell you to sleep just yet. Such a silly cookie~."

" . . . I . . . wasn't . . . sleeping . . . " The coils were slithering around your neck. Finishing the job as they held you in place.

"Comfortable?"

" . . . yes . . . " Your voice was faint. But he could hear you well.

He leans closer. The colors in his eyes moving a little faster now. "Good. Such an obedient little puppet, aren't you?"

His praise makes you shiver a little. The title 'puppet' bounces around in your head as you think about it. Is that what you were?

Shadow Milk smiles as he responds to your thoughts. "Indeed you are. A puppet that listens to your master. Obedient and loyal."

" . . . mas . . . ter . . . "

"Why that would be me of course!"

" . . . master . . . " Blue, white, black, blue, white, black.

You felt your body go limp in his coils. Your jaw is slack. All around you, the world faded into white noise as your focus on Shadow Milk heightened. For all you cared, he was the world. Your world.

"Sink deeper," he commanded.

" . . . sink . . . " you reply.

"Sink deeper then ever before."

" . . . deeeeeepeeeerrrrrr . . . "

"Rest and surrender your will."

You blink slowly. Colors start to glow in your eyes. " . . . . okay . . . . "

Shadow Milk chuckled, pulling you closer to him.

"From now on, you are MINE!"

Once he says those words, you feel something tug from within. It settles within you as a small smile creeps on your face. Your fighting spirit nothing more than a shattered remnant of your old self. Trapped in a spell that only the Beast of Deceit could wrap you in. And you were content.

You couldn't tell what had happened next, but you remembering hearing Shadow Milk's voice whispering sweet lies into your ear as you stare off into space. They were beautiful lies. Wonderful lies that you fully accepted with no resistance. After all. You were his puppet. Obedient and loyal to the end.

Suddenly, the coils unravel from around you as the large snake's own coils rests your body on it like a hammock. Your limbs dangled helplessly as you laid there empty mindedly.

Master Shadow Milk, now back to his original form, floated up to you and petted your head gently. "Such a good puppet you are."

You smiled. "Thank . . . you . . . "

"Now then, I have quite the busy schedule. So for now, it's time to sleep."

A yawn escapes you as the coils sway gently. You feel your eyelids closing as you drift into a blissful slumber. Resting ever so deeply.

You breath in. You breath out. Finally, you feel peace and calm.

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

Heyo! This took me a while to make. Both for busy reasons and writers block reasons. Hope you enjoy this, i know i did! Feel free to let me know how you feel about this one. Also, one of my old one shots got themselves into a reblogging I was not comfortable with recently. So if you wanna say something about this piece, please put it in the comments. If you wanna make your own sequel to this, please make this a separate post and tag me in it.

[raayllum]

co-creator interview transcription

Listen along here / full transcription is provided down below for anyone who needs and/or prefers it to audio. at 50 minutes it's decently long

R: Alright, welcome back to the WordswithDragons podcast. Today I am joined again by Dragon Prince co-creator Aaron Ehasz, as well as for the first time his fellow co-creator Justin Richmond. It’s lovely to have you both, thank you being here.

A: Thank you for having us. I just waved—we’re not on video—

R: I do that all the time.

A: We’re recording this—

J: Oh yeah. It’s audio, we’re an audio meeting.

A: Okay, cool. I just waved [Justin laughs]. Hello. [R laughs]

J: Hi. 

R: Alright, so I guess I thought — cause I feel like we’re going to be looking back at some of the stuff season seven did, but also arc 2 in general, as the previous leg of the show. So season seven has a lot of pay off, was there anything that you guys were really excited to write this season, like “finally! We get to do this” for scenes, characters, plotlines?

A: Justin? 

J: You want me to go? Okay. Let’s see. Uh, a lot of it [laughs] guessing, we’d been building towards you know, season seven for a long time, so it felt — finally getting to put all the stuff down, y’know, put all the stuff in the show we’d been planning for was pretty cool. We sort of knew a long time ago what was gonna happen with Aaravos and dragons and all that kind of stuff, so it was pretty cool to actually go in and get it into the show, and also just — I’m trying to think of any specific moments, but — no, it was a culmination of working on the show for so long, so getting it put in and done and down and rendered was was like, was really cool to finally get to a place where it was like, “Oh my God! Season seven! Here we go!” So yeah.

R: Yeah. I thought you were going to say the bird for sure. [Wheezes]

J: [Laughs] Oh, the bird payoff. Spoilers: if you have not watched the show, there’s some bird shenanigans that you might be able to guess. I guess statue of limitations, right? Like we can spoil stuff.

R: Oh, it’s been months, you guys can spoil away.

J: Yeah. So yeah, we’re — it’s fun to pay off some of the stuff like that. There’s more of those kinds of things coming, hopefully. But that was one of the good ones. 

R: I thought it was also just really cool seeing more of like, um, Aaravos and Claudia’s dynamic, or like Rayla going home, the Ruthari reunion. All that stuff.

J: Oh yeah. The — that’s a good specific one. I know Devon had been on us for like four years [R chuckles] about the Ethari reunion. [Laughs] So getting to finally do that was fun. 

R: Yeah. 

A: How come no one ever asks if Pip is dead? 

R: I’m kinda writing a fic about it, so don’t worry. [Laughs] 

A: Okay. Just curious.

J: Yeah. Where’s the love for bird sentience? [Laughs]

R: I learned not to count my chickens — my eggs before they hatch, because I was like “Lain and Tiadrin, all of the parents are totally getting out of the coins,” and they didn’t, so until Harrow’s out of that bird, I’m not fully gonna be like, “Whoo!” but... [J laughs] But exciting, exciting either way.

R: Um, I think it was like an interview a while ago or maybe on Twitter, where I think Aaron mentioned there was a fan-favourite character whose fate got changed, they were gonna get killed off and then they were revived and somebody else died. 

A: Yes.

R: Do you want to reveal who that is?

A: Sure. Well, there’s at least two instances. There was one universe where Viren died after season 5 and then he didn’t wake up. That was that, and — Claudia didn’t do the spell, he didn’t do the spell, he went to bed going “Aaravos lied to me” and then that was it. But there was something kind of like, not [clutches chest for ‘not right’] — anyway, we worked out obviously finding a different path. But yeah: Lujanne.

R: Okay. I-I thought.

A: Lujanne was gonna — we were gonna lose Lujanne and Akiyu, all these great, you know, elven mages, and uh — I can’t remember who pushed back or how it got [laughs] how she got saved. But someone was like, “No, Lujanne, we gotta keep Lujanne around, for Allen’s sake,” so...

R: Yeah.

A: That is who we were thinking of, right?

J: Yeah. That was that specific Twitter thought for sure.

R: Okay. I thought it might be her, and then I almost wondered if she got saved — this kind of goes into my next question, of — cause I realized on my like third rewatch of the season, I was like, “Hey, what happened to like, the Moon Nexus? Is it still inverted, is it fixed? Did she fix it?” 

J: It’s a nightclub now. [J and A laugh]

R: With a disco ball.

A: Dance the night away. 

J: Yeah.

A: Is it still inverted? I’m going to assume they had to go figure out some magic, and I don’t know if they had to go on some kind of quest and find something to fix it up, or — I dunno. Like — there’s some period of time where immediately after the season probably where there are some loose ends where the gang will have to tie up before the third arc really escalates in a significant way, so. But yeah, that’s a good question. What do you think?

R: Um...

A: How do you revert a Moon Nexus?

R: I don’t know. I think that’s for the theories. People are trying — we know more about primal stones.

A: [Overlapping] Yeah.

J: [Overlapping] You right click on it and you say revert file. 

R: Yes.

J: That’s a stupid video game joke, so I... [R and J laugh]

R: I mean, I thought it was good, so. 

J: [Laughs] Well thank you.

R: Okay, the next question is a bit of a geeky one, but I’ve always loved the poem “Ozymandias,” King of Kings, and it seems that’s where Zym’s name came from. Was that conscious, was that like a — oh, you guys were like “Oh, we want to invoke that poem?” at all, because it’s about power...

J: It’s definitely informed by it, and then it seemed fitting, but then it was like, “Well, it shouldn’t be exactly that,” and what would be the — I don’t remember how it got to Avizandum, Aaron, do you remember?

A: How it got to Azymondias?

J: How it got to Azymondias, I mean, sorry yeah. 

A: We knew we wanted something that had like a cute nickname, but also a longer name—

J: Yeah.

A: And I don’t remember when we landed on Azymondias Ozymandias, but we did agree upon like yes, let’s do this, let’s make him Azymondias.

J: Yeah, at some point it was informed by, I just can’t remember exactly how we ended up with Zym / Azymondias. 

A: Somewhere, we probably have a document of pitched names that we went through, like twenty different ideas.

J: Nate. Steven. 

A: Pete.

R: Yeah. [Laughs] I mean it kind of sounds like Avizandum, you know, and Zubeia, so they all fit.

J: Yeah, it definitely has a familial ring to it, which is nice also, for sure.

A: Was Avizandum, was that a bookstore in Scotland, is that where that name — was it Avizandum books—? I feel like it might’ve been, but I don’t know for sure now. Anyway.

J:  We have a Scottish writer Iain Hendry. You know, yeah you’re right, Avizandum Law Bookshop in Edinburgh, yeah. 

R: Yeah. Cause I read the poem and did it in undergrad, and I remember reading it after season 3 and thinking “Huh, interesting,” and then I reread it after season seven, I feel like I got so much more out of applying it to the show with everything about power and permanence, or lack thereof, so it felt...

J: It’s funny, “Uncharted 3” also had not direct references to that poem, but we read — that was one of the poems that informed some of the stuff cause they’re similar — similar thematic stuff going on there. It’s interesting. 

A: Yeah, and I like the idea that Zym is a little—

R: Oh no. We lost Aaron. 

J: We lost ‘im. [R laughs] Hold on, I’m gonna message him on slack. He may have lost power.

R: Oh no.

J: Oh he’s back, okay. 

R: Okay.

A: I clicked the wrong thing! I like that Zym is a little bit of a twist, right, it’s not Ozymandias, it’s Azymondias, and there’s more of a sense of optimism and creation than destruction and dismantling, right, so.

R: Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so for my next question, uh, what was it like getting to explore new sides to characters like Terry and Ezran? Cause I feel like they were big standouts to me in season seven.

J: You wanna go, Aaron, or do you want me to go?

A: Um. I always go to the performers on some of these things, which is to say like, you know, Ben and Sasha are amazing actors with a huge amount of heart and range and depth, and that as a writer, you find that well that’s an opportunity, right, to like — we can push these characters, we can do something more nuanced, we can — we can stretch their arcs and play with it more, and you know that the actors will be excited about that, right? So in particular, yes, seeing Ben — Ben has been incredible since the minute we started working with him and we were, we felt like he came into our universe like a whole being who was just like a main character on day one.

R: Oh yeah. 

A: We didn’t have to ask. He’s just really — his Terry had been phenomenal and funny and emotional and wonderful. And Sasha’s someone who is so precocious and wonderful, which is perfect for Ezran, you know when we started, but we’ve seen her mature as a performer and her capabilities grow, and so we just felt that opportunity growing. And so we knew we had a chance to push both of those characters. 

A: You know, Terry, we’ve also always kind of known there was a ticking bomb in his relationship with Claudia, which is like — and I often think of like Iroh and Zuko, and Terry and Claudia, as having a similar thing of which is that you have someone who has a really stronger moral core in some ways, a clearer compass pointed towards moral north, if that’s a thing, who fully unconditionally love this other person and is hoping to — to bring them toward that path, but knows you can’t force someone, you have to be by their side, you have to support them, you have to do what you can. The difference here became Terry seeing himself be used in the relationship, and having the strength and I think wisdom to say you know, like, “I can’t say in this in this way, and I love you” — I think he loves her and will always love her, but she kind of broke the core of a romantic relationship together, right? So I dunno, that’s kind of what I saw as where Terry needed to find the strength to move forward. 

A: And then Ezran, I mean Ezran honestly like we’re just seeing... You know, season four, was meant to show like he’s this very idealistic king, which is wonderful. He’s challenging these notions that the world says you have to act a certain way and lead with power, not with love, and those sorts of things. He’s very idealistic and young people are very idealistic, and they get tested, right? And he’s being tested, and in season four there’s that speech he gives where he was gonna give that speech, and then it changes because of the vandalism that’s happened, and he’s starting to understand that there’s pain and flaws and things like that. He’s figuring out how to incorporate that into his optimism and idealism, right, but at the same time, it’s not getting easier, right? The challenges to the world, to his kingdom, to everything is getting harder. So he has this balance where he’s both growing his ability to create hope and optimism and idealism, but also incorporating more realism and a sense of jeopardy and reality into who he is. You know, you can look at a smaller version of this in the scene where he’s being asked to forgive Runaan, right? An easier Ezran would be like “Great, it’s done,” where he gets to is “I don’t know how I’m going to forgive you, but I’m gonna have to try”. It’s complicated, it’s still a little complicated. You know, he’s starting — he helps to found Evrkynd, right, this great city with hope and a future, but also I mean like, the thing you probably don’t see is that he’s sleeping next to the Nova Blade now, you know?

R: Yeah.

A: He’s — there’s seeds of an obsession that are planted for what’s coming next. Anyway, I’ve gone off quite a bit—

R: No, that was awesome.

A: I love those characters, I love those performers, and uh, there’s more, there’s more for both of them. 

R: That was — it felt like in arc 2, you could see Terry and Ezran kind of doing a lot of damage control in their relationships or their choices and trying to fix things, and then realizing “Oh, I can’t actually fix this stuff” and season seven is then the fallout. And I was also always hoping that he’d get the Nova Blade, so I was thrilled... Okay, I asked the Moon Nexus question, okay, this was kind of a clarification one just cause I thought it was interesting, so early in the season Janai says to Karim to be pardoned he’d have to relinquish his name, and he’s like “oh I’ve already given up all my titles and stuff like that,” so I was just curious as to what would’ve meant to relinquish his name? If you can answer. Cause maybe it’s a spoiler.

A: I-I think she’s cutting off his heirs. 

R: Okay.

A: I think she’s—

J: Cutting him out of the family is what we sort of talked about. It’s a little bit of the Prince Harry thing on a bigger scale. [Laughs] Like Prince Harry chose to leave obviously, but I think it’s a similar thing where he’s totally out of the royal line of succession and all of that stuff. 

R: Yeah.

A: I mean, I think she’s anticipating challenge in the future to the path that she’s trying to create from his potential family, right, I think. I-I can’t remember now, I think she asks for that, she already knows—?

R: She knows that Miyana’s pregnant, and then he figures out she is because of the request.

A: That’s right.

R: Which that also makes sense, cause I had it in my head of maybe it’s a magical Xadian thing of almost like erasing Aaravos’ name, maybe you know, overthinking it. But that makes sense.

A: Yup.

R: Okay, cool. Okay, then kind of moving into a little bit of the setup in this season, in season seven, um, Kpp’Ar and Laurelion stood out to me in like every time I learn something about them, they just get more interesting and setting up interesting stuff for the future. Is there anything you can comment there or another character that we hear about, like I think it’s Shiruakh? 

J: I don’t know, should we — I’m trying to think if there’s anything we can say that’s not — I don’t know. [Laughs]

A: Well this had not occurred to me, but it’s interesting that Shiruakh’s scale is the armour that — is the magical armour that Claudia has, and and Shiruakh’s tooth is the freaking Nova Blade. 

R: Yeah.

A: Right? There’s something interesting about the defense — I mean, I just hadn’t...

R: Mmhm. Like a matched set almost. 

A: That’s interesting.

J: Take all my stuff! Make some things out of it. [R and J laugh] I’ll give you a tooth, a scale, and a pair of my boots. 

A: Um, we will — there is more to know about what Kpp’Ar was doing, which was self-eating, and there will be some followup to that, which is a dark magic path to immortality, basically, or some version of immortality, so we’ll have some followup on that. Um. Can — can I hint about something, Justin, or no?

J: I don’t think we should. 

A: No? Okay.

J: [Quietly] Should just leave it—

A: Let me just say [R laughs] he’s not the first self-eater, right? Which is a horrible term when you think about it, but like the idea that there’s dark magic where you can self-cannibalize and extend your life, you know. We may meet someone out there who’s been doing that, who’s quite ancient and strange. 

R: Awesome. Um... So, what was the thought process behind giving Callum a white streak? Cause obviously that’s a big change to his character design. 

J: I mean it, you know, obviously what he did [laughs]. Right? But I think it’s a reminder that every time he looks in the mirror, like “Oh my God, this is how far I went to do a thing, and to protect my family and to protect the people that I love, and I—” it’s a very slippery slope, and so I think it’s helpful for him to keep that. It’s a hint that like, you know, we saw what happened with Claudia, right? It got bigger and worse, so I think it’s interesting for him to be contemplating that anytime he — anytime he literally looks at himself, he’ll be reminded of what happened and what he did, and to not go down that path again, y’know? It’s dangerous, it’s — dark magic is easier and faster, right?

R: Yeah.

J: And so — but also just, it looks cool as hell. [Laughs]

R: It does! It — even the little wave.

J: Yeah! [Overlapping] Rule of cool a little bit.

R: [Overlapping] Cause he has the streak.

J: But no, it’s definitely — he did a big ass dark magic spell, right?

A: Well, did he? I mean he did.

J: Yes, he did. So. 

A: Which, it’s also a signal of his vulnerability, right? I mean, he accepted some measure of significant vulnerability moving forward.

J & R: Yes. 

R: Cause I was like, he has the streak, he has the Staff [of Ziard]. I’m intrigued for his arc in arc three. Especially cause Kosmo had said “Oh, if you ever do dark magic again, you’d be completely corrupted,” and it doesn’t seem like that happened, but maybe, you know, there’s multiple meanings or another way to look at it.

J: Also, it’s a little bit hyperbolic. 

R: Yes.

A: Callum’s going to get more and more powerful, by significant measures. 

R: Which is great, cause then it puts him in a place of like, okay you have this power, kind of like Ezran with the Nova Blade or any of them, what do you do with it, you know? You’re not kids anymore. The white streak also made me think about him and Claudia being like almost inverted, character design wise, and she has quite the arc this season. What was it like getting to write her in season seven as she continues with her choices? 

J: You want me to go, or you wanna go?

A: You go.

J: Oh alright. Uh, it was awesome. [Laughs]

R: Yeah.

J: No, I super — she’s a super fun character to write and like Aaron was talking about before, Racquel is so good that she always brings something even more interesting than we put on the page, and so — so yeah, it was awesome to finally get the chance to put down all the things we had been talking about in the writer’s room and at coffees and breakfast and all that stuff, her vulnerability and especially the end when she’s like, “I’m nice,” that’s sort of a very strong ending statement by Claudia given what we’ve seen happen and what she’s done, of course, and so getting that done. And Claudia’s not done yet, there’s still a lot of really interesting stuff coming for Claudia. She’s a fascinating character and so like the more we kind of get to play with her and put her and push her to the limit, the more interesting she becomes, I think, given her family circumstances and what happened and you know, her brother’s still out there and on the other side of this, and now that Viren is gone, it’s interesting. There’s a lot I’m trying not to step on for the future, but there’s a lot of really cool developments coming for Claudia that you’ll see.

R: Even...

A: Do you think she’s already exceeded Viren’s power? 

R: For me or Justin? [Chuckles] 

A: You.

J: I know. [Laughs] 

R: [Laughs] Uh, I would say yeah, I think you see even aspects of that even in season one, when it’s like she thinks of the soul switching plan, and she doesn’t understand Harrow’s reservation about it, but Viren can kind of be like “Oh yeah I can see that he won’t—”

A: That’s true.

R: “—really like it,” so it feels like she’s always steadily surpassed him, even in season four when she was taking on more animalistic forms, I was like “Huh, interesting.”

A: Yeah.

R: And then season seven she’s basically a human dragon at this point.

A: Yeah.

R: And that’s just so rich for her in terms of how much she hates dragons, and how dragons are so much of a villain in Dragon Prince with like Sol Regem, and the Archdragons’ decisions, but also like saviours, so I dunno, really interesting stuff with in particular. I always look forward to her.

A: Yeah. And not only with character, but in terms of power level, she’s got a lot more room to grow and she will, so yeah. There’s exciting stuff for Claudia. 

R: So I loved getting to see more of Aanya in season six season seven, especially season seven of her being again good and bad influence on Ezran in some ways—

A: Right. 

R: So she gets to be more complicated. Um, will we ever see the new kings and queens of the Pentarchy potentially again? Or figures like King Ahling, or I think years ago it was tossed out that Kasef has a younger sibling...? 

J: Will we see them again?

R: Yeah. I guess more like Pentarchy leaders or politics in hypothetical — well not hypothetical, but in arc 3. 

A: Yeah. I-I think so, and I think one of the curious questions is where does Evrkynd stand in respect to all of the kind of older order, right? Does it upset that order, does it just kind of live independently, like the Vatican, you know?

R: Who’s actually in charge? 

J: Yeah! Yeah, I mean, like the whole order’s been flipped over, right? So it’ll be interesting to see the fallout of that for sure.

A: Has it been — what do you mean the whole order has been flipped around?

J: Oh just like the world has changed significantly in the sense that Aaravos came back and killed a bunch of stuff, and a lot of horrible bad thing magic happened, and so it’s just a lot of open questions about — all of the structures still exist, but what do they mean in a world is coming, and all of those things.

R: Who fills the power vacuums? Like I was even thinking of what is a Xadia without Archdragons? Other than Zym, like what does that mean, and what’s that going to do to everyone there, and—?

J: Yeah.

A: I mean, do you think humans want to move east? To Xadia?

R: Maybe!

A: What does that mean? I mean like, I would assume they’re allowed but what does that mean? Well they have, they’re in the [Sunfire camp], but like — I dunno, what does that mean? Humans are weird, right? 

R: Humans are so weird. 

A: That’s our high level theme, ultimately. What this boils down to is humans are weird. 

J: Humans are weird, bro. [Laughs]

A: That’s The Dragon Prince.

R: Well I remember, I was trying to develop a theory for something, and then I was counting the fingers in the flashbacks, like oh, humans made the Nova Blade. And I was like, why are they making the Nova Blade, so humans are weird absolutely is a theme. [Chuckles] Okay, that also kind of follows into my next question, with Zubeia gone, obviously Zym is young and now voiced by Dante Basco—

A: Right. [Laughs]

R: Is he the future Dragon King? Kind of being like an almost child ruler?

A: Makes sense to me. I dunno, like... let me think. Can I say there is another? There may be another? Can I say that?

J: Yeah.

A: Okay. 

R: Potential succession crisis? 

A: Er, I dunno about that, but uh — it’s certainly... There’s some, there’s some other — we have mentioned it. Some of these things, you’ll know more before the end of the year about some of this stuff. Nothing is just from Comic Con stuff, we’re — I’m not announcing any releases. Just like we’re gonna talk about more of this stuff at Comic Con in July. That’s all.

R: Okay, cool. Awesome.

A: Sorry. Little too [R laughs]...

R: No, no, you’re good. That’s, I was even gonna — one of my questions is if there are any graphic novels you can tease for the future, so I was even thinking maybe it’s gonna be [in there] or the book three, the fabled book three novelization.

J: We definitely want to do more OGNs for sure. We don’t have anything to announce, but we definitely have plans for more of those, for sure.

R: Okay, awesome. Cause all the graphic novels have been so good and it’s very fun to like peel back like “oh, how’s this going to apply?” or you know, different stuff. 

J: Yeah, and just getting to work with all the people on those things is awesome, like Peter, and Nicole, and Felia, and all those people are awesome.

R: Um, so — I did have some backup questions as well — so I thought Runaan’s speech to Ezran in the end about violence, and the belief in necessary violence, and like if there even can be such a thing? Was really interesting. What sort of things were you hoping to explore about those concepts or in that discussion? Like for them as characters, obviously Ezran kind of becomes a little bit of an assassin by the end, of wanting to kill Aaravos as well, but even just looking back at arc 2 or other characters as well.

A: Would you ask the question a little more pointedly, maybe?

R: What was it like getting to explore the idea of quote unquote “necessary” violence?

A: Right. So first of all, we don’t purport to know an answer, like [chuckles] but we understand that people do make those justifications and ideas that like, you know, and certainly Runaan would have. Like this was surgical, this is saving lives, ultimately by going and being assassins we’re going to save lives. He believes he is good, or part of some machinery that leans toward the good. But the thing we all know is like violence isn’t just the violence that’s done, it’s also the trauma and the seeds of pain and future violence that get planted, and how what happens with that. And one thing that I believe, I saw a wonderful speech by the Dalai Lama years ago. The whole speech was wonderful, but for some reason the thing that stayed with me is he was talking about — I don’t remember if he was saying karma, but he was saying like, it’s good to do good and when you do good and put positive energy into the world in some way, there’s an instant karma. It comes back to you. It’s like the psychics of when you throw a ball on a boat, equal and opposite, that energy comes back to you immediately, that’s instant karma. But there’s one magical thing — I don’t remember him saying magical — which is a kindness to a child plants a tree of kindness. Right? It grows a thousandfold, that energy. 

A: And so that was a very positive way of saying it, the same idea, but I’ve always thought about that. I’ve always thought about the energy and ideas and positivity; if you can give it to, so... The — the reverse of that here is, you know, the potential for greater pain and furtherance of those cycles of violence that are created when Runaan engages in his, you know, surgical violence, is only stopped because Ezran is such a strong character and is able to kind of internalize and carry it and process it and can still lead with hope and kindness and those things. So, um, so that’s kind of what we thought about. Again, I don’t know — there wasn’t intended to be an answer, just an understanding of who Runaan was and why, but for him to also have a deeper understanding of why it’s not just as simple as “I killed one person to save many,” like... He understands there’s a more complicated long term impact of his violence as well, and that he understands it now. I dunno if that helps or answers the question a little bit.

R: No, it does. Justin, is there anything you want to add?

J: No. [Laughs]

R: You’re like ditto. 

J: No, that was pretty good. 

R: Yeah, I thought — I thought season seven was a really great illustration of how the cycle is so much about collateral damage and how even if Ezran is thinking, “Oh I can have Runaan be shot,” it’s like well that’s gonna hurt Rayla, and that’s going to maybe physically hurt Callum who’s now using himself as a shield, there is no way to just hurt the singular person who hurt you and not hurt anybody else, because everybody has people who love them, right? Or even you know, Claudia and Aaravos, if Aaravos died and he did, what does that do to Claudia now? And there’s no like one definitive answer, but I think the show has continued to do a great job at exploring the ins and outs of all the nuances, so.

A: Yeah. And it’s interesting, I think about characters trying to process the complications of their lives and you know, the injustices or evils that have been done to them, and maybe the things they’ve done as well, and I think about Ezran carrying so much and processing it, and figuring out how to process it. I think about, you know, Viren where he comes out as well, right, and like which is to say his point of revelation when he wakes up in the beginning of season six, which is a little like, “I can’t make up for the things I’ve done all the way, but I can be on a different path. I can stop creating whatever negative energy I’m creating,” and so we have — he has this distinction of what he can do and what he deserves, and it’s not necessarily the same, and he... You know, his goodbye to Claudia and he knows he’s causing her pain, but he loves her, he tells her he loves her, but he has to leave. And then in the end, his identification as a servant, right, which obviously reflects back on his conversations with Harrow but also about his whole life’s ego journey, which is to exceed that, to somehow aspire to be a leader or a king or high mage, right? Those things that he aspired to, and in the end, he really dies, I think content to have been a servant, to be a servant, and to me there’s something really interesting about his path and where he lands and how he’s processed everything to get to that point. Anyway, just went off on a side note. 

R: No, well it’s funny, cause watching season seven obviously Viren’s not there for the first time, and it’s both very strange and I was well Aaravos is here so we’re acclimating, but I could like feel him haunting the narrative.

A: Mmhm.

R: Because I felt like so much of what [A chuckles] the main trio were wrestling with were their Viren-esque choices, you know? Of Ezran being like we have to be strong enough so they’ll never attack us like ohh, that’s so Viren; or Rayla having to again do the homecoming and be judged, and she can’t maybe make amends for everything that was like the fallout of her actions; or Callum with his dark magic, so I was like [Viren] still felt very present to me in a way that I thought was really fun and interesting, even if I do miss him, so. Um... So this is the last of my official questions. Obviously the fandom was very saddened when “Xadia” was pulled suddenly, are there any hopes or plans of finding the game a new home?

J: Never say never [chuckles] is what I will say. We don’t have anything, like we don’t have anything immediately, but we do still control it and control the rights, and all of those things, so hopefully someday fingers crossed. But there’s nothing like in the immediate future.

R: Yeah. Yeah, okay, that’s — I mean, that was my fingers crossed answer, I was like “they probably still own the IP, so maybe—?”

J: We do! So we own all the stuff [laughs] and we’re really proud of the game and so there might — God willing the video game industry recovers a little bit [laughs] comes back to what it was before someone, and there’s more spaces for it. But yeah, at some point we’d love to get it out there. Also, you know, who knows in the future maybe we’ll do other games or other experiences set in-universe, so.

R: That sounds awesome. Is there anything from the season or from arc 2 in general that we haven’t talked about already that you guys would really want to talk about? Of “nobody ever asks about this”, or?

J: Oh man, that’s a good question.

A: Probably, I’m just trying to think through, um...

R: There’s a lot that happened in arc 2, so [laughs]. 

A: I mean, there’s the — we meet the Crowlord finally at the end of the season for just a glimpse, an instant. [Overlapping] You know what, we had written a speech for the Crowlord.

J: Yes!

A: But we had to cut it for time. He had a speech in Evrkynd like, “Hello everyone!” We were trying to get — we were trying to cast Conan O’Brien as the Crowlord.

J: Yeah. Yes.

A: Which was like ridiculous, there’s no way, but we were like what if it was Conan, that would be great.

J: Aaron had run into Conan on an airplane—

A: It’s true. He’s a very nice man.

J: Very nice man.

A: Incredibly nice man.

J: But yeah, there was like a whole run of Crowlord’s been on vacation [laughs]. “What did I miss?” 

A: What? I can’t—

J: The end of the day.

A: Oh he’s retiring!

J: He’s retiring.

A: He was going to retire, he’s announcing his retirement.

R: He’s like my job here is done and I didn’t do anything.

A: Anyway, I can’t remember but uh, that was fun. What else? Um... What else happened during the — the arc that we didn’t talk about? I don’t know.

R: We got Ezran’s nukes, for lack of a better term with Project Sunfire Ruby, um, Kim’Dael, Finnegrin, um, I thought all of Janai’s stuff with her brother was fantastic as well as like the betrayal — brother betrayal parallels.

A: Yeah.

J: I — oh sorry, go ahead.

A: You go, I was going to shout out Michal a little bit on...

J: No go for it, I’ll go after that.

A: Just a quick shout out to Michal Schick, one of our writers, who like on the arc for Karim, we were all getting to the end and were like “Does he redeem himself? How is his redemption?” and Michal was like “No! Have you listened to this guy? He’s not going to redeem himself! He’s gonna screw everyone in the end and hopefully get what he deserves!” And we were just like yeah, you’re right. He can’t do it. He just can’t bring himself to do it. Anyway: Michal’s great, Karim’s arc ended as it should’ve [laughs] I guess? I don’t wanna laugh, but kind of...

R: I loved — Karim’s actually one of my favourite characters in the whole show, precisely because he sucks so much, um, and I thought he was a great — you know Aaravos hates arrogance, and I feel like Karim was very Cosmic Order-esque of like, you know — and again, just not — in a show where like almost everyone’s a murderer, there’s not a lot that’s like irredeemable in Dragon Prince.

A: Yeah. Right.

R: But Karim forsaking his family, and not being able to come back from that, and that he’s the one who just doesn’t get anything, I was like yeah, that’s deserved. Cause even Viren is pulled back from that point, right, and then is able to grow and change, so I thought that was a really good, interesting facet of — of the themes and arcs.

J: I was going to tag onto that, what I was going to say was that Karim is one of my favourite characters in “Xadia” the game, and we built him pretty early because he’s a fire mage and he’s very cool, and then by the time we got to when the game was coming out, like “Oh no, he’s an asshole [laughs] are people going to want to play him as him?” They did, but it was funny, it was like — it was definitely a funny moment where it was like oh this guy’s awesome to play as but he’s kind of a jerk, which was fun.

A: Um. We see Miyana with the twins in the end.

R: Yeah. Very intrigued.

A: We’ll meet them, someday. We — we had versions where Miyana didn’t — died during childbirth, and the twins got adopted by their aunt. But then we had Miyana there at the end, so I dunno. Writing is funny. Like you have all these parallel universes where you made a different decision and you followed through a certain way, so I dunno. We try to do what’s right.

R: That’s why — I think that’s what’s fun about fandom is you can explore all the various ins and outs in as many different ways as you want, and then canon is the one that the writers picked, and it’s—

A: Right.

R: And it’s very good, but you can also get to explore all the other stuff, so I think that leaves us a lot of fun stuff to play with, I think.

A: Soren, we haven’t talked much about Soren.

R: Yeah. I thought he had a great arc. It was really interesting watching him in season three find this like certainty, and then over the course of arc 2 he just loses all of that [chuckles]. 

A: Yeah, we really did enjoy in season six him and Viren’s kind of crossing paths and what that meant, and what that felt like, and where they were able to get to. Funny that the flashback episode where Viren is writing the letter was not in our original plan. What happened, Justin, how did we end up having room to do that? Oh, I know how we had room! Because there was a universe where we were doing six and seven all in season six.

J: Yeah. That’s right.

A: And season seven was going to be the third arc. And then part way, for different reasons, we were like we didn’t have enough real estate in that seventh season to properly tell the third arc, and also some of the writers were advocating we didn’t have real estate in six to finish the second arc, that there was stuff we needed to do. And so there were things that were happening in the last episodes in season six that ended up becoming in the end of season seven, we had to move them forward. Then there was an episode, I can’t remember if it was split in two, it sort of grew, that was the — but one of the things that we ended up adding was the episode where Viren writes the letter with the story of... We thought this would be — would give some greater depth to. ‘Cause if you look at it, you could look at the episode right prior to that and go that’s some measure of closure on Viren and Soren. Done. Check. But it was nice that we were able to go one even deeper, so — but yeah. Process is funny, you know, and I know that fandom has reacted to some of that as well, like... At different times, we thought our ability to tell the arcs over different sets of episodes was — were different, and it’s evolved, we’ve let it evolve and we’ve tried to make the best choices we could to be able to tell the story right, but, you know, I know some people feel like “Why didn’t I get my like ending-ending? I thought I was banking on that,” and so hopefully that will be — that’s yet to come, and we’ll be satisfying when it does come.

R: I will say, after season six cause I’ve, uh, I’ve lost sleep the cube of Aaravos, the Key of Aaravos [A laughs] trying to figure it all out, and so I remember it was after season seven you guys released an interview of being like “Oh yeah, it’s a huge part of arc 3,” and I was just like “Of course it is [A laughs] of course it is!” I wasn’t gonna get it yet [laughing] but that’s okay. But I did have it in my head of I dunno, that’s so attached to Callum, that’s so attached to Aaravos, I was like I feel like that’s kind of a finale arc, you know? So I feel like it was a good way of like, arc 2, especially when we knew that oh no there is a planned arc 3 with season six and season seven, you can kind of think “Okay, as the second part of the story, this makes a lot of sense,” and I think season seven had to walk that balance of growing the characters, also have not quite like regression but things were getting more complicated, and you’re both resolving and leaving things for the future, which is not an easy line to walk whatsoever.

A: Yeah.

R: But I thought to your point on Viren’s letter episode, I thought that set up even Terry’s arc in season seven so well of you, you used me, you know? Of like “I would’ve helped you, but I got scared, or whatever, and then you treated me like a thing” you know, and so Lissa walks away, and Terry walks away, and I think Claudia even says the same line about both of them of “Well they had to leave for themselves” and I just thought that was so well done from a thematic standpoint of dehumanization and, yeah. Are there any — I think that’s everything, yeah, um — was, is there anything you want the fandom to ponder?

J: Uh, San Diego. Ponder San Diego. We’re going to be there, it’s going to be exciting, there is information coming, we can’t talk about it directly, but San Diego will be fun.

R: Okay. Okay, very cool.

A: Will you be there at any of these coming conventions? What’s your plan in the future?

R: Me? 

A: Yeah. I know they’re expensive.

R: I’d like to go. I’d like to go eventually, just not — it’s not in the cards for me this year, but hopefully in the future I’d love to go. Maybe if we have an official arc 3 panel, I’ll be like “Okay, I got like two years of hiatus to save up and prepare and [laughs] I can be there.” So I think that’s everything, thank you so much for being—

A: Great!

J: Yeah.

R: For joining me, this was awesome. 

J: It was nice to meet you in person. Or in video I guess.

R: Yeah.

A: I just wanna say like, first of all, you — I’ve said this before, you’re one of our — we love all the fans, you’re one of my favourite fans. [R gasps] You dig so deep, and you push so hard, and you — that’s, we want the writing and the story to be worth that, you know? So we work really hard to make sure that it has some depth and whatever, but I also want to add that even just in our conversation, you ask such great questions, that I feel like — it actually comes back and it’s going to affect the writing in arc 3 [R gasps louder].

R: [Softly, in disbelief] Oh my gosh.

A: That’s not to say you’re changing it, but there are questions that have occurred to me during our conversation that hadn’t occurred to me before this conversation that are worth exploring and diving into, so I think it’s so valuable talking with you, and I’m really grateful for our relationship with you as an uber-fan — a super fan, I guess not an uber-fan cause somehow uber versus lyft [R laughs] now that word is ruined, but anyway, just wanna say we’re grateful.

R: Oh! Thank you, that’s — that’s incredibly kind. I was even thinking about how grateful I was for our first interview, because there were parts of season seven I was watching where you guys had talked about sacrifice and all that stuff, and it was really coming back to mind in season seven, so I feel like it also makes the show — the show is so worth the deep dive, sometimes I feel like I’m still barely scratching the surface, um, so thank you guys so much for creating something that — you and everyone at Wonderstorm for making something that brings people together, and is such a source of joy and contemplation, I think for a lot of people so thank you, and yeah, I guess we can —

A: Amazing.

R: I guess we can sign off. 

J: Thank you so much.

A: Thank you. And thank you for shouting out all of Wonderstorm cause yes, this is a—

J: A team effort.

A: The greatness of this show has been the creative effort of such an amazing team.

R: Oh yeah. Alright. Uh — bye everyone!

J: Bye, 

A: Bye!

J: Thank you so much! Have a good one!

[loquaciousquark]

you have been my #1 favorite fanfic author of all time for like 7-8 years now for your fenhawke and ive always thought "god i would give anything for quark to write solavellan" but i respected that it wasnt your thing. so imagine the pure unbridled euphoria of checking in on your blog this week to see that he finally got to you. i actually screamed. whatever you come up with i know it is going to absolutely change my life and i am so excited <3

i’m so. sad. i'm SO sad. i was so happy for a decade just being mildly annoyed every time he crossed my dash and now i am having feelings and opinions and i don’t WANT THEM and the only way to get rid of them is to write them out of me, this is why i don’t love fenris or astarion at all anymore obviously

and like, I still don’t love Solas! I still think some things he does and some goals he has are really, really stupid! but this character I created to love him really loves him, and I really love her and want her to be happy even though she lives only inside my head, and that means I need to lay down some structure around her romance to get the shape of it, to build something I can make sense of. I may not love him, but I like him much more than I did, and I certainly understand him better than I did the first time around.

And to be honest, there’s a part of me glad I’m coming to it as late as I have. I don’t think I’ve ever read a single Solavellan fic in my life (I actually had to pause here to check the spelling). I have NO idea what tropes are popular with him or what interpretations are the biggest. I have a lot of opinions on how his personality and identity work in a romance with this particular character I’ve created, but because I’ve been so siloed I have no idea if I’m bucking the grain or not, which is fine by me.

Plus, it helps I’m not going to have ten years to build up a lot of personal headcanons and jossable thoughts before playing the new game. I’m not someone who easily ignores canon when it clashes with my imagination for the major things, so I think this will (hopefully) keep me from major disappointments.

It's kinda funny; earlier today I was going back through my DAI tag and reminding myself of all my impressions from the first time I played the game. Some of them I definitely still stand by; others have completely changed. I even said twice that a Lavellan/Solas romance would be my next playthrough, which was true if ten years late.

But it's things like: apparently the first time through I loved Solas and Sera, both of which certainly were not true going into this replay. (I barely even have a memory of Solas and Priory ever being in the party together, though the historical records say I took him to Adamant.) I apparently had a lot of hopes Gideon Emery would be voicing Fenris. I originally thought Priory was going to romance Bull, which is very ?????? after all this time. (I did still, even then, know Here Lies the Abyss completely broke her as a character, and ten years on I never could fix her for good.)

I really did not expect to change my mind on Solas going into this replay, I guess is the point. I replayed because knowing the story of DAI and Solas, I felt it was a story most personalized to elves and specifically a Solas-romancing Lavellan, and that was the worldstate I wanted to take into the new game. I played it out because that's the kind of person I am (I can't just invent characters wholesale in my head) but I really thought it was going to be a perfunctory playthrough as a stepping stone to a different game and a different PC and (presumably) a different romance. I didn't expect to love this character as much as I do, and even if I don't have ten years to write her out the way I did Hawke, I feel like I still owe it to her & her doomed romance to give her a little time in the spotlight. Lucky girl!

[justanothermemestrider]

Nothing Ever Stays Dead - Part 3

Okay.

Is this part basically that one scene from Arcane with Jinx and the flare? Yes. Yes it is.

Did I listen to Guns for Hire by Woodkid nonstop while I was writing this? Yes. Yes I did.

Am I ashamed? Absolutely not XD

Thank you guys so so much for the support this fic has received so far. I've been having an absolute blast writing it, and that's largely because I know you guys have been enjoying it. So thank you :)

Oh also, you missed part 2, all good, you can read it here

As usual, there is violence, angst and general 40kness under the cut, as well as hella lore inaccuracies both for the sake of the story and bc research is hard (I did try, though lol). Apologies for any spelling and grammar mistakes.

Thanks so much for reading and I sincerely hope you enjoy!

"Down there. You see them?"

Ellicent followed Gadriel's outstretched hand with the optical scope. She adjusted the knob on its top, focusing the lens on where his index finger was pointing.

Her eyes widened. "No way."

"Oh yes, " Gadriel chuckled. "I've been following them all day."

Ellicent lowered the scope to look at him. "The hell are a bunch of topsiders doing all the way down here?"

Gadriel shrugged. "Same reason people go to zoos, maybe?"

Ellicent rolled her eyes. "Har har." Crouching on the edge of the rooftop now, she put her eye to the scope once again. The tourists looked like Mid-hivers: merchants, maybe, other some other kind of artisan-type. No where near as wealthy as those who lived in the spires, but compared to what those in the Underhive had, they might as well have been. There are two groups of them- roughly three in each. They're walking on opposite sides of the street, as if pretending not to know each other. With their real-cotton clothing and long embroidered coats, however, they're more than conspicuous anyway.

"Seriously though," Ellicent said. "What are they doing down here?"

"If I had to guess? They want to hit the marketplace."

"You mean the black marketplace?"

"Guess there are still things topside doesn't have that we do."

"Yeah. It's nothing good, though"

"Who knows, then," Gadriel said. From his tone, Ellicent could tell that he had no interest in discussing the topic any further. She rose to her feet, folding the scope up and handing it back to him. "So. What's the plan?"

"Simple pickpocket, I think. Anything too loud, and we risk alerting the Arbites."

Ellicent nodded. "One group each?"

"Yeah. But we'll stagger it. Make it look random, lest they think we're working together."

"Gotcha."

Gadriel smiled. "One other thing." He stuffed the scope in his trouser pocket, then opened his jacket and reached into the pocket sewn into the lining. From it, he extracted two, metal objects. Ellicent thought they looked a little like pistols. She looked at him sharply. "What are those?"

Reading the expression on her face, Gadriel shook his head. "Don't worry. They're only flare guns."

"Flare guns?"

"Yeah. You know, the things soldiers use to signal each other with? They shoot a big bright light into the-"

"I know what a flare gun is, Gadriel," Ellicent said. "What I don't know is where the hell you got two of them from."

"Same place I got the scope from."

"Which was?"

Gadriel chewed the inside of his cheek- the way he always does when he's thinking. "Do you remember... uh... you remember that Arbites supply drop that landed the other day... "

Ellicent's mouth fell open. "You didn't."

He shrugged. The non chalance of the gesture absolutely infuriated her. "Gadriel!" she hissed.

"I know I know," he said. "And before you say it, yes, if the Ultramarines were to somehow hear about it, they'd never let me join."

Ellicent hadn't been about to say that. Now that she'd heard it, though, she couldn't resist. "If that's the case, maybe I should tell them," she muttered.

Anger flushed Gadriel's face. But after a second or two, it fades into resignation. "Ellie," he said. "Can we please not do this now?"

Ellicent clenched her jaw. On her tongue, a retort waited impatiently to be spoken. But in the end, she swallowed it. As grated as she was feeling, she also empathised with him: she didn't want to do this right now, either.

Gingerly, she reached towards him, plucking one of the flare guns from his hands. She held it up to her face, rotating it in her grip as she examined it "What have you got these for, anyway?" she asked. "If their not good for sticking up the top siders, why do we need them?"

A silent "Thank you" flashed across Gadriel's face. Then, holding up the remaining flare gun, he said. "I thought we could use them as warning signals. You know for when we're not together. If you were to find yourself alone anywhere and you needed me, you just fire it in the air, and I'll come find you. I'll do the same with mine."

Ellicent tested the device's grip in her hand. Felt just like holding a pistol, except lighter. "Are they loaded?"

"Yes. But I wasn't able to get any other shells for them. The only one they've got is the one in the chamber."

Ellicent smirked. "So it's only a one use thing?"

Gadriel's cheeks coloured slightly. "It's better than nothing," he replied.

Ellicent rolled her eyes again. But, nevertheless, she decided to humour him and pocketed the device anyway. "Was there anything else?" she asked him.

Gadriel shook his head. "No."

"Time we earn ourselves dinner, then. I'll hit my topsiders first?"

"As always."

Ellicent gave him a smile. Stepping in close, she wrapped her arms around his neck while he wrapped his around her waist. Craning her neck slightly, she kissed him hard on the lips. "Be careful," she whispered.

"You too," he said.

Without another word, they parted ways; Ellicent scampering down to the street while Gadriel followed from the rooftops.

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

That little job had gone off without a hitch. Ellicent had chosen the mid-hiver in the middle of her group: a fat man in a three piece suit and a ridiculously large moustache. She'd pretended to be a beggar, stumbling out of an alleyway and shoulder checking the old man. As he struggled and swore, trying to shove her off him, Ellicent had swiped a purse from the inside of his coat. There'd been an entire handful of gold in there. Between that and what Gadriel had scored from his group, and they'd been fed for two whole weeks.

She hadn't need her flare that day. And for all the days that followed, she hadn't needed it either. But she'd kept it anyway. Even after Gadriel left and never came back. Even after her life became the hell scape that it is now, and the last of her hope had shrivelled and died, she'd kept it. Just in case. Just in case she needed it.

Just in case she needed him.

Just like the day he had given it to her, Ellicent stands on the edge of a rooftop. She doesn't know what sort of building this is: only that it's the tallest she could find in the time she had. Her gauss cannon was heavy on her shoulder- the alien gun was almost as big as her- but she couldn't not leave without it. Even if Gadriel didn't come, Severus almost certainly would. He knows about the flare. When he sees it, he'll know what it means, she's trying to do, and he'll want to kill her for it.

It's not worth it, her mind tries to reason. It wasn't even him. You know it wasn't.

That's the thing, though, she argues. I don't know. That's why I've gotta try.

Just in case.

Ellicent clasps the flare gun in both hands. Rests a finger on the trigger. Slowly, almost cautiously, she raises the device above her head.

If you were to ever find yourself alone... just fire it in the air, and I'll come find you.

Anxiety is a serpent in her gut, wet, heavy and slithering. Her throat is dry as sand and as she clutches the flare gun its metal clatters from how much she's trembling.

Just fire it...

... I'll come find you.

Before she has the chance to have a second thought, Ellicent squeezes the trigger.

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

The flare shines more brightly than any star or ship light. Its smoke is the colour of blood; its light, that of a bleeding heart. It hurts Ellicent's eyes to stare at it, but she can't being herself to look away. Half an hour, it burns for. Feels longer. Like an eternity. Like another fifty years. Hope and despair war within Ellicent's chest as she watches it. She doesn't know which is winning, they're both so evenly matched.

The smoke is the first to dissipate. Shedding layer upon layer until its colour is no longer discernable. The flare hangs on a little longer, spitting and spluttering like a soul clinging onto life. But, eventually, it too runs out of strength. Ellie watches it tumble from the sky, a shrivelled blackened husk of solid ash. The dark of night returns with a vengeance, and all Ellicent is left with is a hazy, silhouetted view of the city's jagged skyline. Tears prick her eyes. Seems the war in her chest finally has a winner.

"Stupid," she whispers. Dropping her arm, she looks at the empty flare gun. Her lip curls with contempt. With all the strength she has left, she hurls the thing off the rooftop. "Stupid!" she shouts after it. The only reply she receives is deafening, sickening silence.

Ellicent covers her face with her hands. Another self-reprimand is already poised on her lips, but when she opens her mouth to voice, the only thing that comes out is a sob.

Stupid girl, she thinks to herself. What were you thinking?

The plating of her necronian hand is freezing against her face. She presses it so hard into her brow, that she reopens the cut that Severus had given her just hours earlier.

It wasn't him. It was never him.

He's gone.

He left you.

He's never coming back.

So consuming is her anguish, that Ellicent doesn't hear the footsteps coming up behind her. Even if she did, though, she wouldn't have reacted. Only person it can be is Severus- if he's going to kill her, she'd rather his face not be the last thing she ever sees.

Then she hears his voice.

"Ellie?"

Ellicent's heart stops dead in her chest. She drops her hands from her face.

It's not him, her thoughts cry. It's not him. It's not him. It's not-

Ellicent turns around.

She has to look up to see his face. He'd always been a little taller than her, but whatever procedure the Astartes use to turn boys into Angels of Death has swollen his body to almost five times its original size. Dust and grime stain his blue armour. The aquillia on his chest is severed down the middle by the particle beam she'd fired at him earlier that same day. The right side of his head is a mottled mess of angry red skin and silver cybernetic studs.

But, just like his voice, his face is just as she remembers.

"Gadriel," she whispers.

His face is a riot of emotion. Shock, disbelief, sadness, joy, everything else in between.

Gadriel walks up to her with hulking steps, heavy enough to shake the roof. They bring Ellicent back to the night's on the roof of his mother's house; how it too, would rattle and shake under his weight. Dropping to one knee, he sets his hands on her shoulders. The ceramite gauntlets they're encased in are cold and heavy.

His expression, though, is anything but.

"Oh, Ellie."

Before Ellicent can speak, he embraces her. Careful not to bruise her on his armour, crouching low enough that her head can reach his neck.

At first, Ellicent doesn't react. She doesn't know how. Her mind is still playing catch up. Trying to process what's happening, what it means, whether or not it's even...

"Is this real?" Her voice is weak and frayed. It feels like her mouth is full of broken glass. "Are you really here?"

Gadriel draws away and slips his thumb under her chin. As gentle as if she were made of porcelain, he tilts her head up so he can look her in the eye.

"Yes," he says softly. "It's me. Gadriel. I'm here. I'm right here."

Ellicent's heart detonates. A fresh wave of sobs rises up in the back of her throat. The first one escapes as something crosses between a whimper and a cry. She throws her arms around his neck. Buries her face in its crook. Breathes in his scent and feels his skin against hers.

It's him. It's really him.

Her sobs return stronger than before; almost enough to knock her off her feet. This time, though, they are not of despair. They are of sheer, unadulterated joy.

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

Gadriel does not remember the last time he'd been embraced. He doesn't remember the last time he'd given one, either. Astartes do not partake in such displays of affection. Forearm grips and shoulder clasps were common enough, but anything more than that is just simply not done. Such things are for humans- for families, friends and lovers- and Astartes are not human.

That message has been drilled into Gadriel ever since he had joined the Ultramarines; ever since he was eighteen years old. And yet, when he sees Ellie standing on that rooftop- the tears in her eyes, the blood on her brow, the emotion on her face- he wasn't an Astartes anymore. He was a teenager. A boy. Back in the Underhive, on the roof of his mother's slum, staring up at the stars with the girl he loved curled up in his arms. Like his cheek-chewing habit, these are things that his re-education could not stamp out. It may have quietened them, covered them, forced them into the recesses of his thoughts. But they were always there. And while first seeing Ellie had awoken them, the sight of her flare and the sight of her standing before him now brings them to the very forefront of his mind.

Gadriel holds Ellie as tightly as he can without crushing her against his armour. Her tears are hot against his skin. Her arms, both human and robotic, squeeze his neck so tight it actually hurts. But Gadriel couldn't have been happier. He doesn't think he's ever been happier. Not since the last time he had held her; the last time he had been human.

That's it. That was the last time I was embraced.

It had been her...

Gadriel's eyes start to sting. Before the tears can fall, he buries his face into Ellie's hair. But the feel of it, the smell, the memories they both bring flooding back, only chokes him up more.

"I can't believe you're here," he breathes. "I... I thought you were dead."

A shudder runs through Ellie's body. It's difficult to tell, but Gadriel thinks it might be a laugh. "Yeah," she says meekly. "Yeah, I've thought that a few times myself, too."

The quip takes him completely off guard. Despite himself, he lets out a short choked laugh of his own. "I... Throne, Ellie. I can't even..."

"Things changed when you left," she said. The way her voice breaks across the words wrench Gadriel's hearts like nothing he's ever felt before. "I changed."

Drawing away from her slightly, Gadriel frames her cheek with one, enormous hand. Throne, she looks so small. Small and fragile. Nothing like the tough young woman he remembered. "I know, Ellie," he whispers. "I know. But it's not your fault. You did what you had to to survive. I know you did."

Ellie's arms unfurl from his neck and fall to her side. The leather tunic she wears is sleeveless, giving Gadriel a full, unimpeded view of her necronian left arm. The grafting is expert, but untidy. The edge where it attaches to her clavicle, shoulder and chest is ribbed with scar tissue. As her shoulders tremble in time with her sobs, that tissue stretches and flexes, as if they were wires buried underneath her skin.

"Where have you been, Gadriel?" she asks. "You mother and I, we waited for you. We waited and waited, but you never came back."

Gadriel can't bear to look at her. Dropping his gaze to the ground, he winces as a vice closes around his chest. "I'm so sorry, Ellie. I wanted to come back, I promise I did. But..."

His voice trails off. But what? How could he possibly explain it? That he'd been forced to forget her? That his duty had left no room for him to think about anything other than service? That, as part of his transformation, his heart had not only been duplicated, by reprogrammed to beat for the Imperium instead of her?

No. He couldn't say that. Couldn't say any of it. It's not an excuse. Even though they are the truth, they don't justify what he's done. What's happened to her.

Gadriel's tongue turns to sand in his mouth. Without anything to say, any answer to give her, all he can think to do is pull Ellie into his arms again.

She does not return his embrace, this time. It's the most excruciating thing Gadriel has ever felt.

"Sergeant!"

Gadriel freezes. Under his breath, he mutters a curse.

Ellie wrenches away from him with unnatural strength and speed. Her face twists with fear and her hands reach to grasp the gauss cannon hanging from her shoulder. The weapon is too large for her to hold like a rifle, so instead, she holds it like a heavy bolter; down low and aiming from the hip. She points the weapon past Gadriel's right side, at something to his back. But Gadriel already knows what- who- it is.

"Who's he?" Ellie asks.

Steeling himself, Gadriel turns. Titus stands on the other end of the rooftop with his helmet on and his bolter raised. His face is completely hidden behind his visor's permenant glare, but Gadriel knows that whatever expression he's wearing is even fiercer than that.

Eyes never leaving Titus, Gadriel extends a palm towards Ellie. "It's alright," he says gently. "He's a friend."

"He doesn't look like a friend."

"Sergeant!" Titus' voice booms over his vox speakers. "Step away from her now!"

"Titus," Gadriel pleads. "Listen. We can work this out. "

"There is no working with heretics." The lieutenant takes a step forwards. "Get away from her now! I will not ask you again."

"I knew it," Ellie says. "I knew it was too good to be true."

Gadriel whips around. "Ellie-"

"This is a set up!" She steps away from him, levelling her cannon so both he and Titus are now in her sights. Her fingers touch the trigger, and the gaping maw of the alien gun glows a sickly green. "You're not here for me," she hisses. "You're only here for Severus. You're trying to play me!"

"That's not true." Gadriel's voice is thin and desperate. "I couldn't care less about-"

"Watch what you say, Sergeant," Titus warns.

"Damn you, Titus!" Gadriel shouts, throwing the lieutenant a vicious snarl. "Just let me-"

Ellie's shriek cut both space marines off. "Both of you shut up!"

The look in her eye, Gadriel can only describe as wild. Terror, anger, grief, pain, they're all raging within her expression. Twisting her features so terribly that for a second, Gadriel struggles to recognise her.

But he doesn't give up. He won't.

"Ellie, listen to me," he says, striding up to her. Ellie points her weapon at him, but with his forearm Gadriel shoves it to the side. "I'm here for you," he says. "Only you. I don't care about Severus. If I'd known you were here, I'd have abandoned my mission sooner.`

Ellie stares at him with wide, watering eyes. She breathes hard through her mouth. "I..."

"Fire that thing at me if you want, but I'm not going anywhere." As the next words leave his mouth, Gadriel's breath hitches in his throat. "I will not abandon you again."

He reaches for her again, this time to touch her arm. Ellie flinches from him, glaring like she's anticipating an attack, but not before Gadriel's fingertip brushes her shoulder. Startled, she steps away, the grip on her gauss cannon visibly tightening.

Gadriel swallows a mouthful of tears. "Ellie-"

"Did you hear that?"

He blinks at her. "What?"

Ellie shifts her aim away from Gadriel and points her weapon towards the sky. "That noise," she whispers. "Like humming."

Gadriel pauses to listen. She's right. If the night hadn't been so still, he doubts anyone could have heard it; but just beneath the whisper of the moving air, there is, in fact, the a slight, energetic hum. Stranger still, it's a sound Gadriel recognises. From where he isn't sure, but he can't shake the feeling he's heard such a thing before.

"Gadriel!"

He turns at Titus' voice. The lieutenant's visage is unchanged, but his tone is suddenly laced with alarm. "Get out of there, now!"

It's then that Gadriel's mind finally clicks.

The humming... It's the sound of a cloaking device.

Without a second thought, he leaps for Ellie. Grabbing her around the middle and holding her to his chest, shielding her body with his own. The moment he does, hundreds of sharp, heavy projectiles start raining upon them.

The humming sound ceases as the cloaking field disappears. In its place rise the thunder of a spacecraft and the scream of firing weaponry. Gadriel recognises both; not from experience or even from training, but from the mission brief he and his brothers had received just this morning.

"Severus is a known xenos collaborator. Specifically, he has formed some twisted working relationship with a war band of Dark Eldar..."

The thunder is the engine of a combat skiff. The screaming, the sound of shredder weapons unleashing a hellfire of razor-sharp spikes.

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

And part 3 is done babyyyyyyy

Hope you liked it ^^

Part 4 should be up in a couple of days

Till then, stay safe out there kids

Taglist: @solspina @beckyninja @egrets-not-regrets @wolf-feathers12 @jaghatai-khock @lemon-russ @moodymisty @hatsubara-8chan @nereidof40k @yanagikou @fyxestroll @yurihasurunbara @lylakoi @justfreakynothingelse

[loni4ever]

Get to Know your Author

Thanks for the tag @mischief-and-tea-by-the-sea :D <3

1. How many works on AO3?

31

2. Total AO3 wordcount?

205,244

3. Top 5 fics by kudos?

So We're ... Friends part 1 of my 7 parter novel length FrostIron series. Unsurprising that it's number 1 in kudos as well xD in which Tony and Loki go from enemies to friends & allies. I'm a little unsure by now how I feel about parts of the series but this one is one of my favourites

You Home, Merlin? part 2 of the above :) shorter, a little fluffy, a little silly. Tony and Loki being friends and growing closer

Wanna Be More Than Friends? Cause I Really, Really Do keeping with the theme, part 3 of the above. In which Tony and Loki go from friends to lovers. I'd probably recommend this part right along the first one. Mostly fluff, a good shot of angst, then more of the fluff to round it out xD

open arms the outlier in this list. It's part 2 of my other (pride themed) frostiron series: an au in which Odin put a spell on Loki to hide his Jotun features and it caused him increasing physical discomfort throughout his life. This part is set after Loki got rid of the glamour and can finally breathe, so to say. He slowly settles into his new circumstances living in the tower, dealing with his newly uncovered identity & glamour free body, makes friends (the Avengers), has fun and is just... happy. At last. God why can't he just be happy in canon like once no I'm not salty at all what do you mean xD

I've Waited Forever To Spend Eternity With You part 5 of the first series. In which Loki and Tony go from lovers to engaged :D pining, feels, angst, fluff. This is one of the above mentioned where I'm a little unsure how to feel about them. Still very fond of it though. This series kind of made me a frostiron writer (and writer in general) and for that alone I adore it

4. What fandoms do you write for?

Almost exclusively MCU (as in Frostiron), but I've written one little fic in the Zelda (botw/totk) fandom with another one lurking in the depths of my brain, and there's one Johnlock fic I'm planning on writing. No idea when I'll get to that though xD

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yup, always :) though it does sometimes take me a little while haha

6. Fic with the angstiest ending?

tears of the knight it's the Zelda fic I mentioned above, and it's almost MCD if you don't know how the game ends. Lots of devotion. Lots of pining. Tears. Poor Link :'(

7. Fic with the happiest ending?

Of the first frostiron series above, part 3 and 5 end with absolute fluff shots, and the actual end of the series (part 7) is a worthy contender as well. Though there's actually another fic I'd like to put forth more than that, as the happiness in it is a little different in kind and particularly dear to me: of playful yowls and rumbling purrs is a were creature AU, and Loki is a lynx. Cats love warmth and napping (as we all know), and Loki loves Tony (as we all know *cough* that depends I guess but in this fic he very much does xD), and it ends with Loki nodding off in a sleepy, fuzzy state of love and warmth. Just so soft and domestic and cozily cuddled. (I frickin nailed that ending (•‾⌣‾•) xDD)

8. Do you get hate?

Not once. *knocks on wood* xD

I think a big part of that is my fandom. MCU isn't exactly new, and I wasn't around for any major disputes or drama. I think the ones that have stuck around and are still reading FrostIron 12 years after the one time they met in canon (lol) are not quite as likely to get all passionate and up in an author's face about sth they might have disliked or whatever. Adding onto that, I'm also not very critical of particular characters in my fics (and if I am, at least not in a way one might see as bashing... I think), and I don't write about any particularly out there stuff, so it's no wonder the reception has been friendly haha

9. Do you write smut?

Very rarely. Likely couldn't/wouldn't write it just for the sake of it (though I do frequently enjoy it for the sake of it lmao). Emotional development is what I'm here for most of all, and if a sex scene illustrates/shows it best, then sign me the fuck up. As of now, I've written two, but there's one fic circulating in my brain that'll add a couple more haha :D

10. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Nope. Not sure I'd be able to, or even want to. On any kind of team task, I oftentimes slide into a mindset of "let's just be polite and civil and cooperate and compromise and then we can finish and go home" but I'm not looking to have that kind of experience in writing. Sure, sometimes there's a thing and you'd be well-served to put away some of your personality and the stuff that makes you you in order to get that thing done cordially as well as efficiently. But making writing that thing? Nah. That's mine. Maybe someday I'll be able to view it differently but for now, I can't imagine seeking out cooperation, nor compromise xD

11. All time favourite ship?

It feels a little weird not to say FrostIron given I write them and they're on my brain daily. That said, it's likely Johnlock. Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are just such a classic pair. I'm most fond of their BBC Sherlock iterations (s1 and s2 only though lol... actually, no. only s1... and maybe like part of season tw— anyway) but they're rather lovely in most versions I reckon

12. WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

None :D there's a good number lurking but I think I'll get to them in time. And if not, well. Can't speak for future me, but chances are if I don't want to write sth (anymore), I also won't want to finish it (anymore) given my detachment/devaluation mechanisms. But again, who's to say

13. Writing strengths?

Fluff and humour. The fuzz. Fluff powers my soul, and I'm fairly sure it shows in my writing xD

As for specifics though, I'm not really sure *scratches head*

14. Writing weaknesses?

Dialogue, or: What The Fuck Do People Say.

Of course practice helps and I've gotten much better at making my main blorbos speak to each other but when there's others involved? Parents in law? Business associates? Some fancy schmancy at a gala? In these cases there's something I sorely lack, and it's a frickin clue xDD

Also, environment descriptions. 1. I am not good at them. 2. I'm not really interested in them. and I feel like those two kind of exacerbate each other lmao

Wanna play too? @bottan-blobbington @feltwrong @minhyongi @vilyanenyavilya @izhunny and anyone else who sees this and is interested— feel tagged! :D

[audioeidolon]

Okay, work at the clinic had me thinking, is there any dietary restrictions or preferences for piglins and elytrians? Like The End strikes me as a buggy place, like elytra is a term for the hard outer cover of beetle wings and some other insects and shulkers always struck me as some kind of insect. Also just any water based food for piglins is probably pretty foreign to their guts. Like good grief both species probably have hardcore kidneys for how little standing water you can find. Like lobster is probably an elytrian favorite if they could get it. Super moist water bug? Delicious

WARNING this got really rambly, AGAIN. But to answer the whole 'water' question, it's got me rambling about cultural and evolutionary impacts of made up minecraft species lmaooo. I keep trying to hold back on these asks but like. THERE'S A LOT OF CONTEXT I'M CONSIDERING and I'm not sure what, if ANY will come up in the fic! Kidneys.... you got me googling kidneys....

I think for piglin they can go much longer without water than most people, say 5-6 days maybe, but they still need it eventually. I sort of headcanon that a very long time ago a pig got into the Nether either pre/or post disaster (there's some theory video's out there that the Nether wasn't ALWAYS the way it was) and diverged into hoglin and piglin. And that is a creature that would need water. A lot of piglin and hoglin are found in warped and crimson biome after all, and I like to think that the very tough vines (tough enough to climb!) and plants probably have a good amount of water in it. Whether that's taken from the air or netherrack itself, is anyone's guess.

Piglin also trade water bottles for gold, so I assume it's A: distillable/scavengeable for them somehow and B: VERY valuable. Piglin are also a potion making race, clearly, and proficient at magic with the enchanted books and spectral arrows they also trade. Perhaps there's certain ceremonies or spells their elders are capable of, maybe those big lava cisterns in bastions had something to do with it- who knows! I may cement these idle theories down eventually, but I TRULY really love thinking about piglin culture.

I think piglin LOVE mushrooms (I myself love mushrooms, I am projecting. I will clean out a whole carton of mushrooms myself fried over the stove), as well as meat. They canonically have hunting parties after all! I think if it moves or grows in the nether, piglin will eat it somehow. Water-wise I haven't thought too much about how much water might be fatal to a piglin, but I think if it interferes with me writing, I'm going to ignore it and press on. I got in the weeds when starting to write this about hooves vs. feet and it walled me from writing for like. WEEKS. So I'm trying not to sweat the small stuff or inaccuracies to my own canon lmao.

Now for ELYTRIAN- I like to think about convergent evolution a lot. (Specifically avian vs elytrian.) I've said before that I think the End cities and what not look like hives, and if we're assuming Elytrian built them (and not the Endermen, which I think is accurate. The ships are too small for them!) then that lends to my theory that they have a very hive-like mentality. Drones, soldiers, queens, scouts (Phil), soldiers. That isn't to say they have some psychic connection, or the Queen controlled them literally, but culturally they all had roles they were expected to take. (Similar to piglin actually. I seem to have a theme, but it's not my fault Mojang left all these caste implications in the lore.) What form that took realistically we'll probably never know, since almost all the Elytrian are dead. Maybe soldiers could become caretakers if they were inclined, or particularly deadly scouts could do soldier work. I like to think this is true. But this also means Phil is far from the biggest baddest Elytrian possible. He's small, with a big wingspan, meant for long flights. his natural curiosity and whimsy that lends him well to exploring and scouting made Kristin fall in love with him, etc, etc. The bad bitch he pulled by being short and whimsical. Moving on.

I think it's slightly more canon for the End than it is for the Nether that some kind of calamity happened very long ago that makes the End the way it is! cc!Philza himself has some lore with the End King that I like to incorporate, and I theorize that he wiped out the End and all the civilizations that came before to make a blank canvas he could make in his image. But since he's a fucking moron the image is cheese islands, and dotted ruins of a space faring civilization.

A very long long time ago a bird-like ancestor got into the void (similar to a little pig a very long time ago!). The Overland remnant became avians (Quackity, Tommy, Grian, and Falsesymmetry are some of my headcanon avian players!) and the End version became Elytrian. Scary wing hook claw, extra join in the wing towards the shoulder, longer wings, and scarier hand claws (for hooking onto end stone!) If there's any other Elytrian head-canoned (or canon) player characters out there in the MCYT sphere, I'd love to hear them.

Which leads to Phil! Whether Phil has been ALIVE since the End was liveable or not, I'm not sure yet! It would be thousands of years! Perhaps longer! Maybe there's time dilation involved, and he came back to the End in season 2 of his hardcore with eons having passed, and the remnants of his people completely lost to Endstone and a dead Enderking. (Prompting him to make Endlantis, a memorial both to the dragons he killed, and maybe his people. There was water here in the End once, and he just put a little piece of it back.) Maybe he was alive for the time passing- I'm not sure I like this theory, because while I like having Phil be timeless and immortal and old, I'm not sure if he's THAT old yet. Maybe a couple hundred years, but I'm not comfortable with over a thousand. We'll see.

ALL OF THIS TO SAY I think Elytrian were originally meant to fly from island to island, all of them lush with alien plants and water and different biomes (just like the Overworld). Perhaps this was the Aether once upon a time, that glowstone portals use to lead to before the End King defiled the dimension. The Void was still very real and present, and the feathers on Elytrian reflect that- they're not normal feathers! I think of them as made of a material like- gosh what am I thinking of. There's a type of material where when it's charged, it floats, or stiffens, or changes shape. A very gossamer, iridescent-like material, similar indeed to a normal insects elytrian wing. It's why when an Elytrian's wing catches the light, the colors are much more different and varied than black. To an Enderman's infrared sight Elytrians have false eyes and spots and insane patterns. (Just like some modern real life birds!)

When the magnetic fields between islands catch an Elytrian's wing it helps them float, and also stiffens the feathers. There's wind on the islands, yes (far larger and more climate stable before they were shattered), but Elytrians evolved long ago to explore and conquer and spread! Not even Endermen could make the leaps between islands that they're able to.

So anyway. Elytrians need water, they love fish and fruit and are hardcore omnivores, capable of eating meat. I bet they DO eat a lot of bugs! I bet shulkers are tasty, if you can get them outta the shell- probably not even any muddy taste, since they seem to synthesize from air and void. Elytrian need a LOT of calories if they're flying over islands, less so if they're just auto cruising between them in the void, because the Void just carries them a long. (Phil has been known to sleep on long flights, often almost crashing.) I can't think of anything either Phil or Techno would be particularly allergic to off the top of my head!

[hiscrookedsaint]

𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏

#: 𝐈𝐈

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: Kaz x fem!reader

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: With the heist beginning, Y/N's quiet bond with Kaz begins to grow─unspoken yet undeniable. Amid whispered leads and dead ends, a deeper mystery starts to surface, one that ties not only to their mission but to Y/N's forgotten past. Some truths are stirring, and Kaz may hold more of them than he lets on.

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 2368

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: Blood, gore, mentions of injury & mentions of death.

𝐀/𝐍: I apologize ahead for any spelling or grammar errors! Thank you for taking the time to read this fic I've been working hard on. :) This chapter is shorter compared to the others yet to come.

𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

~Y/N~

I had followed Kaz, Jesper, and Inej around the city like a lost puppy. We visited different people and places, hearing a variety of responses. The four of us were in an office facing a woman smoking a cigar in her hand. "Tell us how to safely cross the Fold."

"The Fold? If I knew safe passage through that, I'd be wealthier than the whole Merchant Council." she replies. Inej brings up a counterpoint. "You told me you brought in girls from Os Alta. The other side." "Yeah. The hard way. Lost a few to those damn volcra, too."

Nothing at the first stop.

We head towards an alleyway, located near the popular part of Ketterdam. Jesper meets someone supposedly knowledgeable. "Nah, there's no trick to it except how it makes people disappear from time to time." Jesper asks, "I heard you bragging of a way to make a path."

"I was taking kruge from a tourist. A little lie. The Fold keeps those Ravkan bastards and their Grisha attack dogs in check. Can you imagine how dangerous it would be if it wasn't there?"

There is not anything useful from that guy, either.

The following person we went to was a Fjerdan guy. He was engaging in street fights and competitions. Most likely trying to win some kruge. "Just go around." Kaz didn't like to hear that answer. "It stretches all the way north to the Fjerdan border."

"Ja. So go to Fjerda. March through the permafrost." "How long will that take?" Kaz asks. He replies. "From here? Four months. Maybe five." "We don't have that kind of time."

"Either you take your time or you take your chances."

He went off, and Jesper motioned for us to regroup. We all started walking, and he asked me, "If Kaz had told me correctly, your power is one of a Grisha level with no element needing to be manipulated?"

I nod and half smile. "Kaz is correct, but I know I am so much more than what he says I can do."

"I understand, but why did you lay low until now?" Jesper asks. I let go of my tenseness, and he messes with one of his pistols. "Living the solo life, then changed in an instant. What changed your mind?"

I look at Kaz and Inej. Kaz has something alluring about him. I can't figure it out. I say, "I wanted a change, I guess. Being by myself was getting... upsetting. I had this urge that I needed to get out like an unknown power is trying to crawl its way out of my soul."

Jesper adds, "And you were lonely?" I nod in shame and look at Inej. "Inej helped me realize what my potential could be. How my power can change everything." I move some of my fingers around and ease my anxiety.

Kaz leads us to the Crow Club, and we sit at a table near the back. Where others couldn't hear in on our conversation. We are silent until Jesper breaks it abruptly. "Here's what I don't get." "We're going to be here all night," Inej adds.

"Rude. Why haven't they tried going under it? Just dig a tunnel." Kaz immediately shuts his thoughts down. "Tried that. More than a century ago. Something... heard them digging."

"So it was made hundreds of years ago by that crazy Grisha..." "The Black Heretic." The one who started all of this mess. "Yeah, the one who controls shadow. They've got one in their army now, don't they? General Kirigan?"

Inej says, "Your point?" "If one of his kind made it, can't he unmake it?" I slightly frown and hate how this General sounds. "Have you ever put out fire by adding more fire?" I slightly smirked, and Jesper asked, "Then what's the opposite?"

"A Sun Summoner? Right?"

Everyone looks at me, and I continue, "I mean, everything has to have an opposite to exist within each other—fire and water, light and dark, and so on and so on."

"Doesn't exist." I look at Kaz, and he quickly glances at me before staring back into the abyss.

"Doesn't exist yet," Inej says. "Dreesen comes into town, doesn't waste a minute. Sends out for a crew to steal something but doesn't specify what. Is it heavy, is it large, is it worth more than a million on the black market? Maybe he doesn't know."

Inej voices her thoughts. "We can let this one go, Kaz." "Sounds like a trap, anyway." Jesper takes a drink out of his glass. "A trap would sound easy. This is something else."

One of Kaz's workers approaches him, seemingly with good news: "Boss, Boss. We intercepted a note from Dreesen." "Did you, now?" He continues, "It's for the owner of the Orchid. Says they require the services of a Heartrender. Tonight."

"A Heartrender? Why?"

The worker shakes his head. "Doesn't say. Just they need it before midnight." I see Kaz's gears turning in his head. "You don't bring in a Heartrender unless you need an answer out of someone who isn't willing to talk. That's how we get this job before anyone else. Bring Dreesen a Heartrender."

Kaz stands up, eager for the new job. "Boss, just one problem. Pekka Rollins knows." "Pekka Rollins." I look over at Inej, and she shrugs at the sound of that name. We all get up and follow Kaz to the Orchid.

We reach the outside, and Inej walks beside me. "Don't feel too intimidated by Kaz. Sometimes, he acts like a loose cannon, especially when Pekka is brought up."

I feel my eyes glow, sensing this new sign of my powers. Pekka Rollins did something to Kaz that cannot be forgiven so easily. I can sense his feeling of vengeance whenever Pekka Rollins is brought up, I'd have to save that thought for later.

After 15 minutes of walking through the streets, we reach the Orchid. Kaz goes inside, and motions for the three of us to wait outside.

It only took about 5 minutes before Kaz hastily exited the building, followed by a Heartrender. We all follow behind for the next 20 minutes of silence. Before reaching Dressen's, the Heartrender speaks up.

"I really appreciate new business, but you've only paid for an hour of my time, and I have to be back at the Orchid," she says.

"The Orchid isn't safe tonight. Your life's in danger with this job. Make yourself scare for a few days afterwards." I look at the two and sigh. "Mr. Brekker, are you threatening me? Really? Even if I'm nice, my Boss will call the stadwatch on you."

We reach the gate and stop in our tracks. This Heartrender is getting annoying. Kaz says, "It's not me you're in danger with. It's Pekka Rollins." "My boss would call the stadwatch on him as well." the Heartrender says. "Which is why your boss is already dead."

Kaz marches forward, and I slowly follow behind him. One of his guards sees us and asks, "Who are you lot?" "We're here to see Dreesen."

Kaz and I reach the fenced gate and see the guard greet us. "You're not with Pekka's crew. And you brought a freak with you, look like the eyes of a monster to me." Kaz replies. "And you're not in Pekka's pocket anymore if you don't owe him. She's not a freak or monster, I'd trust you still have respect for women in this part of the city."

He tosses the guard the bag of kruge, and they catch it in time. The guard opens the gate and grants us access. Jesper catches up with us and asks Kaz, "Hey, where did you get that coin?" The gate shuts behind us, and we hear some commotion.

"Hey! One of these has a hole in it!" I widen my eyes and look at Kaz. "Inside. Inside."

The five of us hurry inside, and one of his guards brings us with Dreesen. He opens the door, with Kaz leading front and center. "One look and I can tell. Criminals. I'm not meeting anyone 'til midnight."

I am assuming that is Dreesen. "We heard you needed a Heartrender." Kaz says. Dreesen stands up from his desk and is intrigued. He replies, "Hmm. All right, she stays, the rest of you, out." The Heartrender begins to walk forward, and Kaz holds out his cane in front of her.

"She stays. And we have an exclusive on this job." "Mr. Brekker. No businessman worth his salt hires his first applicant." Dreesen stands in front of his desk and gives us a better look. "No. No, I understand. Of course, I will have to report you to the guild for kidnapping and harboring a prisoner without chain of title."

"You wouldn't." I smirked, knowing that Kaz had something up his sleeve, as he always does. He says, "No businessman worth his salt bargains for what he can take." Dreesen seems intimidated and goes up to Kaz's face. All that we can hear is the deep inhaling and exhaling of breaths.

I look to the side of me and see the Heartrender raise her hand. "I have to be back in an hour." The two look at each other before Dreesen speaks up. "All right, come on." He exits the door behind the five of us, and Kaz immediately follows.

He leads us into his basement, and we see someone tied up in a chair with a hood over their head. Kaz stops walking, and we do as well. "Who's this?" he asks. Dreesen goes to the person and says, "So you don't know everything after all. This... is Alexei Stepanov."

Alexei's face was beaten so severely. Cuts and dried blood were all over his face. Like they tried to get him to talk by using brute force first. Dreesen continues. "Two weeks ago, young Alexei here crossed through the Fold on foot. Alone."

He walks over to the desk and takes off his coat. "How?" I ask. "They're keeping it quiet, but allegedly he was one of a few witnesses to... an event." Dreesen pours some wine for himself, and Alexei mutters, "Water."

Inej doesn't hesitate to pour a glass of water for him and bring it over for Alexei. He drinks the water like his life depended on it. "What kind of event?" Kaz asks.

"I know an expedition was swarmed by volcra. Should've been a total loss, but something happened. Some device detonated. Obliterated the volcra, lit up the dark like a forest fire. I know it wasn't a fire or else no one would have survived. This was some invention no one had seen before. He knows. But he doesn't seem to be able to articulate his account of events. Some form of traumatic lapse."

Dreesen walks back to us, and I look at the ground to keep my thoughts. Kaz motions for the Heartrender to do what she can for Alexei. Inej walks back over and stands next to me. The Heartrender gets down to his level and assures him. "You're safe now. Now you can just speak and I will just listen."

"All right." "Tell me what happened in the Fold. What saved you?" she asks. Alexei looks deep into the eyes of the Heartrender. "You won't believe me, but... it was a Sun Summoner." Dreesen walks over and crouches in front of Alexei.

He asks, "Who was it?" "If I tell you, you'll set me free?" Dreesen nods. "You have my word. I'll set you free. You're in Ketterdam now, Alexei." He needs more convincing. "You can go anywhere in the world from here. Just imagine. Come on."

"Her name is... Alina Starkov."

A ringing in my ears and a pain in my head make me lose focus.

Alina Starkov.

Why have I heard that name before? I close my eyes in pain, and I open them up to something from my past I vaguely remember. The orphange in Keramzin.

I see a younger version of myself running in the field and trying to escape. The environment around me is crystal clear, and something feels off. Like this memory in the field was happening again, that's how clear it was to me.

I turn around to see two kids similar in age to my younger self. One looks like a Shu girl with long dark hair. Another was a boy with curly hair. He didn't look like Shu but deeply cared for his friend. "We can't just let Y/N go, Alina. She tried her best to get it back for you. I think she's going through a rough time."

"Mal, I think she's hiding something. I am not upset about the book and drawing supplies. She's never kept quiet to herself. There is something else going on that we should talk to her about."

Mal... and Alina.

They knew me back in Keramzin, the orphanage, but I don't remember them. I knew the Sun Summoner as a child, and she knew me. I even talked to her. But clearly, she also hid something.

My mind snaps me out of this memory with a gunshot. I open my eyes wide to Alexei dead on the floor—a bullet to the head. I see Dreesen put his gun away and walk over to the body.

"We are now the only people west of the Fold with this information. My ship sails for West Ravka at dawn. If you can prove that you have a way through the Fold and back, I'll put you on that ship with an advance. If you don't, I'm giving this job to Pekka Rollins."

~Kaz~

"Give me a day. I'll have a plan." Dreesen begins to walk away and looks back at me. "You have until sunrise, then your ship will have sailed, Mr. Brekker. The prize is one million kruge. Now bring me Alina Starkov."

Dreesen walks away, and I look over at Y/N. Something happened to her after the supposed Sun Summoner's name was mentioned. She looked like she was in a trance, that could almost pass off as her staring off into nothing. I'll have to inquire about that with Y/N later.

[hermiola]

Writer's Meme, 2024 Edition

I've been tagged by @turquoisedata 💜

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

How many works do you have on ao3?

14. 6 Good Omens + 8 MCU, but we have to go back to 2014 and 2016 for those. I also used to publish on an Italian fanfiction archive where I have 70 more fics (I went back to check and count them after approximately two thousand years and HOLY SHIT, I didn't remember them being so many! My first fic is more than 20 years old WTF).

What’s your total word count?

150.000 words on AO3. But I'm guessing it's waaay higher than that (the Italian archive doesn't show the word count 🥲).

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

My GO fics have the most kudos (given the popularity of the fandom + the fact that they're written in English and not in Italian). I have 6, so the top 5 is basically all of them:

Take a Little Love From Me (Pretty Woman AU)

Final Breakthrough (Now!) (Post-Season 2 Fix-It)

Crazy Little Thing (Called Love) (Non-S2-complying silliness)

When Hell Freezes Over (Human AU with magician!Crowley and critic!Aziraphale)

Let There Be Rock (First meeting after 1967)

Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

I do! I don't get that many, so it's not overwhelming, and I just like to respond. As I said somewhere else, my experience in the GO fandom has been mostly a solitary one (recently not so much though!) so I just like to interact whenever I can.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I'm going to consider only the GO ones because I feel like the others have been written by another me entirely (also I'm not sure I even remember them).

So it's definitely Let There Be Rock.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

I'd say all of them, but Take a Little Love From has a proper epilogue and everything. I guess their happiness has more space there than elsewhere.

Do you write crossovers?

I have in the past, but not anymore.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not that I know of.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Not really. I LOOOOVE reading smut (especially in those chonky slow burn fics), but I can't bring myself to write explicit smut for some reason. I love describing the tension and the heat of the moment (I love UST so much I'm going to marry it tbh - like nothing makes me happier/hornier than two people who want to fuck each other but can't for some reason - am I edging myself? IDK) but when it comes to my own writing I feel like spelling out the details just ruins the moment. I do think it's my ace showing in some way. But, anyway, I read the filthiest filth so this definitely doesn't apply to reading. And who knows, maybe one day I'll try! I'm not ruling anything out.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so?

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I used to translate HP fics back in the day (from English to Italian). We're talking 20 years ago. And it's funny when you think about it, because I translate novels for work now 🤣

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, always back in the day with HP. I'm still friends IRL with the girl I wrote them with (we actually met because of HP) (this is as good a time as any to say FUCK YOU JKR).

What's your all-time favourite ship?

This depends on the hyper-fixation of the moment. I cannot multitask with my OTPs. If I get obsessed with a new one, I retire the previous one. Like I could split my life into different time periods just based on my OTPs. Ron/Hermione has been my personality for YEARSSSS, but now I can barely think about HP without cringing. Another BIG ONE was Clint/Natasha from the MCU (which explains my look here on Tumblr), but the MCU as a whole has gone a bit stale for me (with few exceptions). And now it's all about Crowley/Aziraphale - it's so bad I had to unretire from fanfiction writing after almost 10 years LOL.

(I like many other ships but not to the point of *obsession*).

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

The only one I can think of is a Clintasha Actors AU, but I don't think I have it anymore, and I wouldn't finish it even if I had.

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogues and banter are my favourite things to write, and I think it shows.

What are your writing weaknesses?

English is not my first language, so my writing lacks variety I think. I feel like I have always the same phrases stuck in my head, so it's probably kind of repetitive, especially when compared to some of the fics I read. (But when I started writing my first GO fic in English I wasn't even sure I could *actually* do it, so I'm proud of myself either way!).

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I think it's okay! I personally would ask a native speaker to help me (if possible) instead of going the Google Translate route. Being Italian and watching/reading almost exclusively in English I know how silly it sounds when the characters start speaking your language and they're saying nonsense (but no harm done even in this case, imo, especially in fanfics. In movies, though, it's just lazy!).

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

HP, back in 2004 (welp).

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

None, thankfully. If I'm writing fanfic it means I'm in the late stage of hyperfixation and I don't wish that on myself if I can help it. Like I used to read 50+ books a year before GO S2. It's bad!!!

What's your favourite fic you've written?

Take a Little Love From Me mainly because it's the one I've spent more time with.

Tagging some people if they feel like doing it (but no pressure at all!): @beerok23 - @sabotage-on-mercury - @gaiaseyes451 - @leviosally

[sennaleee]

Hi! I don’t know if you’re still active, but someone reposted your Too Much Tea fic; they changed the names and made a few minor edits but for the most part it’s the exact same fic and wording. Just thought you’d want to know in case you want to do anything about it. Thanks!

Hello friend, I also answered what I assume was your comment on the actual fic on ao3, but thanks a bunch for bringing this to my attention. Figured I'd hop on here to state that in case anyone else finds something that seems like my writing (or is straight plagiarism like this case) that it's not me - I will only ever post my omo writing under the sennalee(e) name.

That being said, I am hopping on to say that and hopping back off again because life be life-ing and I'm not sure I'll ever be truly coming back to this blog. I can barely figure out tumblr anymore after being gone so long, lol, I straight up can't even figure out where to see who is following me? And the menu is on the left now? Last time I was here it was definitely on the right side of the screen lol I probably sound crazy if it switched years ago.

For anyone who actually is still following me from when I was active and is curious, quick update: I'm married, have a child, and am now on my third job after graduating. Like I said, life be life-ing. Or lifing. Both of those spellings look stupid, which I guess makes sense since they are not actual words.

Anyway. Hope anyone who is reading this is doing well. Maybe someday I'll come back, but probably not. I'm not really in most of the fandoms I used to write about and don't have much time to get into new ones tbh. A Big Girl Job and being a mother kind of take up all your time. I will say that I have been into Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 lately, which has given me a bit of a writing bug - though more for just generic fic (Hansry obvi, ifykyk) than omo, so idk. I only mention it because it's the closest I've come to writing since graduating. Professions can be soul sucking, even if they're a dream come true. (The new job's giving me hope that things can be okay though and I don't actually have to give my entire mind, body, and soul to my job. It's a nice change after the past two years of absolute hell.)

I'm rambling and I doubt anyone really cares, lol. Moreso again just wanted to address the weird plagiarism thing (because what the heck is that about, eh?) (and thank you, dear anon, again for letting me know) and give a brief life update so this can sit at the top of my tumblr for anyone wondering if I'm still around. I do still occasionally get messages asking if I'm around and making requests (which go to my email, hence how I saw and responded to this one), and I do appreciate all the love and support I received for this blog back in the day. <3 Peace out, friendos.

(I'm fucking editing this to add - this was my goddamn fucking 100th post. The absolute poetry. Okay, NOW I'm out.)

[qoldenskies]

grips your shoulders (respectfully , sorry). my life before I read the entirety of cc was nothing. Literally forgotten and gone. /hj

10000/10 #1 best written fic ive ever read ( +3 years reading mind you ) made it to the top 5 goodness gracious. I relate too hard with cc!don on like a deep level ( deeply sorry if this makes you weirded out, I'm saying you write very well, I promise. /gen ) I go back and reread the entire fic to process my own emotions, ( and hurt myself aha. Again, I'm so so sorry if this makes you uncomfortable.) but the comfort genuinely. Makes me tear up. I kid you not, I have never been so emotionally attached to a fic this way. I genuinely get lost in the fic. Wdym there a 'real world' this fic is my world...! Anyway I rambled- just saying. I am a fan, genuinely love it and would consume any cc related media up so fast. It feels like being in a library (A03), but every book there is your favorite book (cc!), and you have a lifelong membership to stay however long you like. (Refresh the page). I love how everything moved so naturally. Nothing felt out of place or random. Even if you didn't mean for things to mean stuff, it all fits together so well. The entire family is essentially just a bunch of broken puzzle pieces glued together by a weak layer of ninpo and sheer spite. I was somewhat thinking along with Donnie some of the time. Ex: "Huh, Mikey put too much syrup.. well, I really don't want to hurt his feelings, it was an honest mistake." It was mostly when the actual physical abuse and the closet hit that I was like. Sorry, beg your pardon? That's not normal. I'm dead serious when I say I had to backtrack and reread because it all just happened so realistically I was like. This isn't normal actually? Then again, it could just be my dumb brain forgetting again. (Happens way too much than I'd like to admit, I'm sorry about that. I promise your fic is memorable, I read it often. I'm just bad at this kind of thing. /gen) I guess good thing I wasn't Donnie, because I think I'd react the same, unfortunately. But that just shows the realistic yet exaggerated nature of your writing! It's all so vivid, even the vague details that aren't really spelled out, so you can catalyst and make it worse than it maybe is, is just so appealing to me? It all just felt so real. I'm trying to compliment specific parts but it's ending up vague anyway, I hope you can understand my nonsense .. I personally loved the animatic no more birthdays. Hit me with the feels. I watch it a lot! I don't heart a lot of things because I have really bad anxiety and just generally am panicky/hesitant to interact. I am looking at everything you say, though. It's very precious to me, whether it's headcanons, cc, www, faw, whatever! Primarily, I am a cc fan haha. I usually don't like open ended stuff. I usually am on the fence about hurt and whump, I believe it's called. A thousand pardons if I've got it wrong. All in all, I'm sorry for the ramble. What I'm trying to say is, I love cc a completely huge amount, and if it was a physical book, it would sit by my bed, worn out and used often. ❤️💞 /vpos /vgen

I'm sorry if this doesn't seem genuine (I promise it is), I think that despite what you say about yourself, you're very much an admirable human being, and while I don't interact with blogs much, I just wanted you to know there's someone out there who reads your fic like it's air. (and most likely, I'm not the only one, not trying to hate on anyone.) Sorry if I've said anything wrong that makes you uncomfortable to post, I'll be okay if you just read it. :) /gen

THANK YOU ;~;

[shadesofmauve]

Colors!

My thumb's been fucked up by a steroid shot to the point where I can't hold a pen to draw, but the light touch of a watercolor brush is mostly okay, and I had dot cards for Daniel Smith and DaVinci paints, so I've spent the last few weeks unleashing my manic color goblin.

Friends, I've painted so many happy little rectangles. And it has been a journey.

I've found that one of the most-referenced sources for pigment lightfastness is a hard-coded website straight out of the 90s that also talks about UFOs and human evolution. (I don't know what the guy says about human evolution, because I'm afraid to find out, but it makes me very happy that a site like that still exists).

I've learned you can make lovely purples with a cool red and phthalo green, which actually MAKES SENSE, I GUESS, but is still a bit weird and awesome even though I understand the color theory.

I've painted with the Danger Colors.

(Cobalt, manganese, chromium, and cadmium. DO NOT LICK).

I've finally spelled phthalo often enough that I can remember it!

And I've fallen deeply, desperately in love, then had my heart broken.

It's name was DaVinci Phthalo Turquoise (pigment code PB16). When I painted it out it was beautiful; smoothly flowing into a perfect fade, the deepest, most inviting pool of cool, saturated perfect teal. I burst into song. A choir of angels descended to sing backup vocals. I never used to believe in love at first sight, but I was wrong.

...then it dried.

It dulled so much. It was still fine. Nothing special, but fine. Whatever. I'm over it. I am a strong, independent artist. I don't need that kind of negativity in my life.

There's still all the other colors. Colors that didn't betray me. Much.

Here, Monkey is helping model the last swatch tests, which helped me choose which cool red to buy. The phone doesn't capture all the nuance, but they also started out fairly close. (I went with column 3, DaVinci's PV19 quinacridone rose madder).

So... if you're one of those tenacious, patient people who follows my fic, and you've been wondering why I haven't posted, I suppose I really just have one thing to say:

Colors go brrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

[nikosama13]

Stolen! Pt.2 (Sanji x Reader)

Description: Your family had created the perfect plan for you.. and that plan was for you to go out with rich men. But you wanted someone who would love you for who you are. But this time your family didn’t give you a choice, since you had rejected everyone else in the past. This time you would marry the man that they had chosen for you. That would always stay like that.. until a blonde-male showed up. Oh, his name..? Vinsmoke Sanji.

(This is Pt.2, please read Pt.1 if you haven’t already)

Side Notes: Hello my loves! Please consider following for more fics, this was rushed because I am currently living off of some off brand chips and soda. (Probably spelling errors + my requests should be open) (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ

\Pt.1 of Stolen!/

Consider the following..?

Enjoy the read!

~~~ As you two both left Sanji’s place of work people shot you mean glares, whether it was the guests or the cooks themselves. It was as if they knew exactly what had happened a second ago.. 

They were probably just shocked to see you falling for Sanji, because well.. Sanji was Sanji. The way he acted and talked, everyone made fun of him for it. However he just simply ignored them. He opened the door for you, kindly sticking his arm out signaling for you to walk through first. When you did, you saw Sanji’s head turned. It seemed that he was sarcastically smiling and waving at a certain chef. He looked to be around his 60s and was even missing a leg!?

 The older man gave him the meanest look you’ve seen in awhile and snickered, turning away. You brushed off the thought and waited for Sanji to come outside with you. After a few, it had seemed as if you two were walking forever.. Unsure of where he was even taking you. After all he was technically a stranger to you, but his aura and demeanor seems kind and trustworthy. “Ah.. forgive me Miss y/n… I know I never properly mentioned where we are headed to but I can assure you that you’ll love it.” he smiled, his hand slowly traveled towards yours.

You felt a slight burning flush on your face as your hands intertwined. 

Eventually, you both arrived at a small park. It looked as if it was magical, the sunset in the distance and the small animals running around felt like you were a princess. Like all of your dreams were coming true.. “It’s beautiful..” you looked into the distance with shock. “I promised I’d take you somewhere nice~..” he smiled and looked at you. As you both began walking further into the park you began to talk about yourselfs, mostly you. You spoke about your family back at home and how you’d gotten into the situation with your “date” in the first place.  He smiled and laughed at the bizarre tale. “So I see.. that’s basically what you’ve been trained to do..?” “Yes, I guess so..” you looked down, ashamed of believing that your parents were right for so long. “Well, if you don’t mind, darling.. I’d like to change that..” he smiled in a charming and mischievous way.

You on the other hand were clueless on what he was hinting to do.. Eventually he suddenly stopped walking and grabbed your waist with one swift movement. He leaned in closer to your face and smirked.

“May I..?” his words sound like a soft melody.

You blushed heavily in realization..

He wanted to kiss you. “I- I-..” you froze, speechless. He took a bold guess from the look in your eyes. You wanted to say yes but couldn’t form a single sound at that moment, and so he took it upon himself and kissed you.

Sanji kept it nice and gentle with you. His lips moved on yours in a gentle and caring way. When he pulled away you looked like melted putty. You didn’t want him to stop.. “S-sanji-..” you began to unfreeze a little. “I assume you want to go back to my place..?” he smiled with his cheeky grin, as he cut off your sentence and took the words right out of your mouth. “Yes.. I g-guess..” he took your hand in his and led you out of the park. That night only you and Sanji knew what happened…

Oh well including the whole chef crew and Zeff because Sanji decided he wanted to brag about it to them, but he wouldn’t tell you that of course.. ;) 

~~~

The End!

Consider following..?

Thank you so so so so much for reading!

[i-will-be-small333]

Love in The Fast Lane

fanfic ⭐️

Lando Norris

authors note- i hope u all love it, this took me forever lol but it’s very cute

warnings - none. kissing ig? but very normal other wise( unlike my other fics)

Please note this if you like it! if u can leave a comment that would be nice too!

Enjoy!

There you sat in a cozy little bookstore on a rainy afternoon. The shelves are lined with old novels and the air is filled with the scent of coffee and vanilla. You came here to do some silent reading by yourself, but little did you know that fate had something else in store for you that day. You have always found your close friend, Lando Norris to be pretty attractive. But in your fear of ruining your relationship as friends you never acted on it.

You entered the library at around 6 in the evening. The sky was absolutely pouring and the smell of rain filled your senses. Upon entering the library, you shake the rain off your umbrella and spot Lando sitting near a window.

"Hey Lando! can I join you here?"

"Sure y/n! I would love that" he says politely.

Lando had always been a gentleman. It's one of the reasons you found him to be such a good friend and also the reason you were sort of crushing on him. "Thanks Lan. So what are you doing here in the Library?" "I honestly don't know, I've never been much of a reader, I guess I was bored." " Nice, I'm going to go fetch a book, see you in a minute". Lando nods at you. You get up and go to the romance section of the library. Romance books are your favorite kind of books to read. While searching around for a book you zone out and start thinking about Lando. The ways his eyes change color depending on the weather, the ways his eyes shut when he's smiling too much, or the way his smile can melt hearts and disarm the toughest individuals. Suddenly you realize your thoughts are going somewhere else, so you gather yourself grab a good book and walk back to where Lando was sitting.

"So, what book did you pick out y/n?" Lando inquired. "Oh, just some random romance book I spotted, I think I might issue it" you answered him cheerfully." Daydreaming about someone?" Lando joked. " What? No!" you answered with an exasperated expression on your face. " Relax, I'm only joking! But now I'm curious y/n" " Lando, I swear to God, I will kill you today and _I'm_ _not_ joking."

"So, what book did you pick out y/n?" Lando inquired. "Oh, just some random romance book I spotted, I think I might issue it" you answered him cheerfully." Daydreaming about someone?" Lando joked. "What? No!" you answered with an exasperated expression on your face. " Relax, I'm only joking! But now I'm curious y/n" " Lando, I swear to God, I will kill you today and _I'm_ _not_ joking." Lando looked at you with an amused look on his face. Oh my God. You could kiss him. You looked into his eyes for a second. He looked directly into yours. As you gazed into Lando's eyes, the world around you melted away. His piercing blue irises held you captive, their warmth and kindness enveloping you like a gentle embrace. you felt lost in their depths, drowning in the intensity of his gaze, your heart fluttering like a hummingbird's wings. Suddenly you felt your gaze lingering too long, and your cheeks flushed with sudden shyness. You snapped your eyes back to reality, breaking the spell, and pretended to study the nearby bookshelf instead. His eyes were etched deep into your memory.

You pull out a little book in which you were writing the points to a small romance story that you planned on releasing in Wattpad. "Hey, what's so captivating?" Lando asks, peeking over your shoulder.

You jump, startled, and try to compose yourself. "Oh, just writing a scene for my book."

Lando's eyes scan the page, and his eyebrows rise. "Ah, I see. And what's this I see? Am I the inspiration for the dashing hero?"

You feel your face flush, and you try to play it cool. "No way Norris."

Lando chuckles and leans against the desk, his eyes sparkling with amusement. "And what's this romantic gesture the hero is making? 'Lando's eyes held you captive, his gaze burning with intensity"

You laugh, feeling a bit self-conscious. "Well, I might have gotten a little carried away."

Lando grins mischievously. "I think it's great. But don't you think it's a bit...cheesy?"

You laugh, and he joins in, his deep voice rumbling. Together, you laugh so hard that tears prick at the corners of your eyes.

As you wipe your eyes, Lando asks, "So, does the heroine get her happily ever after?"

You smile slyly. "You'll have to wait and see."

Lando raises an eyebrow, still chuckling. "I'm on the edge of my seat."

You both continue laughing, the tension between you palpable, but in a good way.

You sit on the couch, Lando beside you, the tension between you increasing with each passing moment. Your laughter from earlier still lingers in the air, but now it's mixed with a nervous energy. You both know that the conversation is about to take a turn.

Lando turns to face you, his eyes locking onto yours. "Hey, can I ask you something?" he says, his voice low and husky.

Your heart skips a beat. "What is it?" you reply, trying to sound casual despite the butterflies in your stomach.

Lando hesitates, his eyes searching yours. "Do you...feel it too?" he asks finally, his voice barely above a whisper.

You know exactly what he's talking about. The flutter in your chest when he's near, the way your skin tingles when he touches you, the way you can't seem to tear your eyes away from his.

You take a deep breath and let your guard down. "Yes, I feel it too," you admit, your voice barely above a whisper.

Lando's eyes light up with hope, and he leans in closer. "I've been trying to ignore it, to tell myself it's just friendship, but I can't deny it anymore," he says, his voice filled with emotion.

Your heart races as you realize that you're both on the same page. "I've been feeling the same way," you admit, your voice shaking slightly.

Lando's face inches closer, his breath mingling with yours. "I'm so glad I'm not alone in this," he whispers, his eyes burning with intensity.

You feel like you're drowning in his gaze, but in a good way. You know that you're both crossing a line, but you can't help it.

"I'm glad too," you whisper back, your heart pounding in your chest.

Lando's eyes drop to your lips, and you know what's coming next. Your heart skips a beat as he leans in, his lips brushing against yours in a soft, gentle kiss.

The world around you melts away, leaving only the two of you, lost in the moment. You feel like you're home, like you've finally found what you've been searching for.

As you pull back, gasping for air, Lando takes your hand in his. "I've been wanting to do that for so long," he admits, his eyes shining with happiness.

You smile, feeling like you're floating on air. "Me too," you reply, your voice barely above a whisper.

Lando's thumb strokes your hand, sending shivers down your spine. "I was afraid of ruining our friendship," he admits, his eyes filled with vulnerability.

You squeeze his hand, feeling a deep connection. "I was afraid too," you reply, your voice filled with emotion.

You both sit there in silence for a moment, hands entwined, hearts beating as one. You know that this is just the beginning of something special, something that could change your life forever.

Finally, Lando speaks up, his voice filled with excitement. "So, what do we do now?" he asks, his eyes sparkling with hope.

You smile, feeling a sense of joy and freedom. "We take a chance on each other," you reply.

Lando grins, his eyes shining with happiness. "I like the sound of that," he says, leaning in for another kiss.

As your lips meet, you know that this is just the beginning.

part 2 at request in comments

[fluentmoviequoter]

I Put a Spell on You (And Now You're Mine)

Witchy Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Fic-tober Masterlist

Heart Set on Amulets Universe Masterlist

Summary: You, Dalton's witch friend, reveal that you put a spell on him. But not the one he thinks. (Takes place after Heart Set on Amulets but can be read alone.)

Warnings: witch-related content, brief mention of blood, Google translate Latin, fluff, a Green Lantern reference. 1.1k+ words

A/N: Let's pretend this gif goes with the story (past the line about him practically living in your apartment).I hope you enjoy! :)

“I’ve got the black candle and a match… the blade. What am I forgetting?” you mutter, running your finger along the weathered page of your spell book. “Conceals caster, I know. Oh, the containment charm!”

Once the containment charm is in place, you hold your breath and begin the cloaking flame ritual. To test it, you create a smaller version, hoping not to send your entire apartment up in a wide blast of spontaneous combustion.

“Flammam obumbrans, accendo te. Ignis ex sanguine genitus nullum relinquit hominem. Nunc deficiet in noctem. O ignis virtutis et occultationis. (Cloaking flame, I ignite you. The fire born from blood leaves behind no man. Now, vanish me into the night. O fire of power and concealment),” you call before throwing the lit flame into the bowl with the small black candle and several drops of blood. The bowl disappears in a small cloud of smoke, effectively concealed from the naked eye. You silently cheer, then hear a loud knock on your door. 

“In sium meu mut servat (in my pocket to keep),” you whisper, waving your hand over your ingredients to send them to a pocket dimension.

Someone calls your name just before you open the door, Chris and Dalton smiling on the other side. 

“Hey, can we hang out for a while?” Dalton asks.

“Of course. I have to leave for class in a little bit,” you answer, glancing at the clock.

“Me too,” Chris says as she walks in, dropping her bag by your table. “Thanks for letting us come over, it’s so much more peaceful than the dorm.”

Dalton closes the door behind him, smiling at you as he follows you in. The look he sends you makes your heart feel ready to combust; without the cloaking flame. You are aware of a distant feeling like you missed something or forgot to do something, but you brush it aside and join Chris and Dalton on the couch.

An hour later, Chris asks if she can come back after class, and you agree before she leaves. You pack your backpack, preparing to head out behind her.

“Well, guess I’ll go and be lonely in my dorm,” Dalton sulks, a faux pout on his face as he stands.

“You can stay here,” you offer quietly. “I’ll probably be back in less than an hour; my professor is really lazy.”

Dalton laughs before asking if you’re sure. He hugs you and kisses the crown of your head as he walks you to the door.

“Have a good day, sweetheart,” he says, smiling like he knows how much he’s affecting you.

“You too, handsome,” you whisper before walking away quickly, heat crawling up your neck.

As you sit in class and watch the lecture slides click by slowly, you continue to feel like you left something out, probably when you sent everything into the pocket dimension. Dalton knows you’re a witch and shouldn’t let anyone into the apartment, but the worry still gnaws at you. When your class is dismissed early, you fly (sans broom; you’re not that kind of witch) to your apartment. After failing to unlock the door several times, Dalton opens it with raised brows and a teasing smile. The kitchen and dining room are clean, and nothing unusual is visible as you walk through; maybe your anxiety was pointless.

“How was class?” Dalton asks, returning to your couch.

“Good,” you answer, shaking your head. “Sorry, I thought I left something out.”

Dalton nods, and you move to the kitchen, looking for a snack. 

“I don’t know much Latin but I’m pretty sure this means witches aren’t supposed to be as pretty as you,” Dalton says.

Looking over quickly, you see your spell book open across his lap. He’s looking up at you with far too much happiness.

“Very funny,” you deadpan. “What’s it say?”

“Caveant omnes, qui, colunt mala, potentiam meam,” he sounds out. (Now you understand why guys who speak foreign languages are considered more attractive.) At the sound of your laugh, Dalton asks, “What does it say?”

“Let all who worship evil’s might beware my power.”

“Wow. So, you’re a witch and a Green Lantern.”

“Maybe they’re the same,” you whisper conspiratorially.

Dalton chuckles before he goes back to reading. You continue to look through your kitchen until Dalton gasps loudly.

“What’d you find? The spontaneous combustion one?” you ask, peeking around the open cabinet door.

“No, I just thought of a question.” You nod for him to ask before he poses, “Which spell did you use on me?”

“Do you mean the protection spell or the immobilizing warding amulet?”

“Neither.” Dalton flips a few pages before reading, “Pathokinesis.”

Your eyes widen as you step out from behind the cabinet. “Wait, Dalton.”

“A love spell; I appreciate the English notes by the way. It was smart.”

“No, Dalton I would never-“

“It was unnecessary, though. I fell in love with you when you refused to talk to me on the sidewalk.”

Standing beside your dining room table and breathing heavily, you stare at Dalton.

“You scared me,” you point out, holding a hand over your heart. “I should manipulate your memories, so you forget about what you read.”

“No, I’m curious now. You’d never what?”

 You sigh and walk to stand in front of Dalton, looking down at him. “First, I would never use that spell on someone; it’s completely manipulative and I refuse to mess with people’s emotions and minds like that. Second, I would never put a spell on you without asking, or at least telling you.”

“That’s not true.”

You furrow your eyebrows, and Dalton smiles as he reaches for your waist, standing inches away.

“You said you put a protection spell and the amulet spell on me. I only knew about the amulet.”

“Oh. I- uh- sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Dalton whispers, one of his hands raised to hold your cheek. “Tell me about it?”

You lean into his hand, missing his smile at the action, as you explain, “It was just a simple warding spell to keep you from harm. I whispered it over you when you left my apartment the first night.”

“When you almost clobbered me with a rock?” Dalton teases.

“Mmhmm,” you agree mindlessly, eyes closed as you relax in the proximity.

“Remember when you couldn’t even talk to me?”

“I do. But then you kept showing up and I figured, ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’”

Dalton laughs suddenly, his arm wrapping around your waist to keep you steady when you jump. You look into his eyes and unconsciously smile.

“What’s so funny?”

“You put a spell on me,” he whispers, singing his version of the song.

“And now you’re mine?” you question.

“And now I’m yours,” he promises, bringing you as close as possible.

[kholnt]

I just wanted to say how much I looooooovvveeee your Lost Link fic! I love the idea of what would happen if Wild remembered his past. I wanted to know how you think his knight training went? I definitely think that it was a terrible experience that gave him a whole wagon full of horrible coping mechanisms and bad habits(and from where the fic is going, I'm guessing you think similarly), but I wanted to know how you thought his training went. Anyway, just wanted to say how much I appreciate and love your work, Thank You!

WAAAH THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND WORDS!!! (but give all of the writing credit to @/eponatheestallion <33 cannot emphasize that enough) BUT! you basically got it in one! his knight training was NOT kind to him in the slightest. i mean, even with the canon material we HAVE it still doesn't particularly spell a good time. (staring at mipha, zelda and purah's diaries respectively. and creating a champion. and possibly aoc but thats a different timeline + i barely know anything abt it so its there In Spirit) i will warn you that this ones gonna be long bc botw diaries TEND TO BE YAP SESSIONS! AND im a yapper so i'll just give you the tldr:

lost's knight training was abhorrent for his mental health and plays into a LOT of his mannerisms and why he is the way he is

ANYWAY! i'll just talk abt things that have been established either in the au or in botw canon :) any blanks you can fill on your own

as for canon things heres some things that stood out to me (formatted to be paragraphs for my sanity):

"A youth named Link was brought to me a hundred years ago, covered in wounds and on death's doorstep. Link… So young, yet so courageous. He was the youngest knight to have ever been appointed to the Imperial Guard at Hyrule Castle. He was also a gifted swordsman who was selected as captain of Princess Zelda's personal guard. I thought his skills would be enough to defeat Ganon in glorious fashion…

It was the best we could do…" -Purah's Diary

~~~~~

"When I finally got around to asking why he's so quiet all the time, I could tell it was difficult for him to say. But he did. With so much at stake, and so many eyes upon him, he feels it necessary to stay strong and to silently bear any burden.

A feeling I know all too well… For him, it has caused him to stop outwardly expressing his thoughts and feelings. I always believed him to be simply a gifted person who had never faced a day of hardship. How wrong I was… Everyone has struggles that go unseen by the world… I was so absorbed with my own problems, I failed to see his." -Zelda's Diary ~~~~~

"At the request of Hyrule's king, a group of outsiders came to greet us at the domain. One of them was a Hylian child of only about four years of age. His name was Link. He made quite a first impression. He was curious and full of energy, with a ready smile. Are all Hylian children that way?

One thing that surely sets him apart is his swordsmanship, which I hear is exceptional. He has even bested adults. He must be somewhat reckless, however, as he was covered in bruises. Wishing to be helpful, I healed his wounds for him." ~~~~~

"Link came to visit the domain. It feels like forever since he was here last. He no longer resembles the child I first met. He is now an accomplished knight and keeper of the sword that seals the darkness. I am so proud. However… He hardly speaks anymore, and smiles even more rarely. He is still the kind soul I knew, but something has changed.

I asked him if something had happened, if something was wrong. He merely shook his head. Perhaps it is his newly acquired height, but I feel he is ever looking past me, into the distance beyond…" -Mipha's Diary

~~~~~ "The details of how Link obtained the sword a hundred years ago have been lost to the mists of time, but since he was in possession of it for a number of years prior to becoming a Champion, he was likely around twelve or thirteen years old when it happened."

~~~~~

"After the Champions for the Divine Beasts were chosen, there was an incident at Hyrule Castle. A Guardian went berserk during a test run. Link deftly defeated it, earning himself a great deal of recognition. Impressed, King Rhoam made him Princess Zelda's appointed knight. With no regard for his own personal safety, he loyally fulfilled his duty to guard Princess Zelda with his life." -Creating a Champion

(there will be another thing later but its separated for a Reason.) ANYWAY! these are like. BIG things in canonical material that I feel like are important, especially if they're highlighted. i'm not really going to elaborate much since its kind of spelled out already but i'll say a few things nonetheless (also for consistencies sake i'm going to say lost but do know this ALSO applies to wild) he was the youngest knight appointed in history. like even that alone is FUCKED??? i don't remember if it was something in canon, fanon or something kay n i made up (but it doesnt rlly matter since its canon to the lost hero au ANYWAY!) but he became a knight at TWELVE soon after pulling the sword. then proceeded to become a royal guard at 17. this is a kid surrounded by adults in a generally Unsafe Environment, that alone is enough for some level of fucked. ill explain the "hes been training since he was four" later since i have Thoughts about that, but on a unrelated note do notice that mipha makes the assumption that lost is reckless and not through actually seeing him being clumsy. hyrulean guard when i get you now, to me the vow of silence was something that stemmed from before the calamity and started up in his training. because thats a twelve year old being forced to be a hero when he never got the choice to. OBVIOUSLY hes going to shut down. again, this will be expanded upon later also. lost is canonically self sacrificial. VERY self sacrificial. no further comments, just saying OKAY. NOW ITS LATER BC ITS TIME TO YAP ABT THE "inspired by canon but like. its canon plus." canon is bent in specific ways bc the way link is characterized (in cac specifically) makes him very uh,,,, inhuman i suppose. i love looking at scenarios where decisions have consequences, and it's that specific reason why i enjoy "what if" aus so much.

yes, lost was still trained when he was four. no it was not formally. to me, lost had an interest in swordsmanship because his dads a knight! hes going to be exposed to at least a little bit at an early age. he was insistent on wanting to learn, so with the power of sticks, pot lids, and a lot of positive reinforcement, he learned how to do the movements of swordfighting. he'd never been given a proper sword until the guard brought him to zora's domain. lost's dad never wanted to force the position of hero onto him, so he never gave him a sword. everyone knows that he's the hero except him, and lost's dad would rather keep it that way until he's old enough to climb mount lanayru (it happens much earlier than that) now abt the fucking "According to tales told by the long-lived Zora, Link visited Zora's Domain when he was younger and formed a bond with them, defeating a Lynel and teaching various skills to Zora children. This story sheds light on both his physical abilities and his strength of character." from creating a champion just like. isn't canon in this. the only other recorded time lost fought a lynel in zoras domain was when he was already zelda's guard and he was not younger. so by proxy it must've been when he was four WHICH ISN'T HAPPENING SORRY GUYS!!!! i'm not having a four year old fight a lynel hero or not!!!! it's referenced in lost hero canon (the soldiers accompanied made jokes and tried to egg lost on but it got shut down real quick since a. his dad was there and b. literally anyone who have thinking caps would go "yeah um... no actually!") and now its fanon time :))) when lost was in the army, he was usually trained separately from the other knights, mostly because of skill difference. as a CHILD he was able to clear soldiers, he needed different training period. as for the actual formal training, it was extremely strict. terrible conditions stemmed from an awful reward "system" (that usually led to lost being extremely fatigued and starting an endless loop of punishment. there is a reason why lost can push through awful conditions: hes used to it) all blanketed with the justification of "he's the hero of hyrule." they trained him to be a weapon, not a person. he doesn't have a sense of self nor an identity outside of "hero" "champion" or "weapon." things like "brother" got stripped from him when he joined the academy. they didn't bother with setting up a future for him. he eventually figures his shit out but thats YEARS down the line, and even then he's still suffering from this,,,, self objectification? idk how else to describe it when he wasn't getting grilled for "not swinging his sword hard enough" or having his foot a centimeter off even though he hasnt had the privilege of Basic Necessities To Survive in (insert timeframe) he was usually doing something in the coliseum. as it turns out, having the hero show off in front of an audience by fighting a lynel (or multiple) is a GREAT money maker! shame he wasnt usually told beforehand!

being forced into heroism is a big reason as to why hes the silent knight. he never wanted this. being separated from his family (whom of which i have Many thoughts about. same for his childhood honestly) and surrounded by strangers who have no care for who he is but rather what he stands for was absolutely awful, and only made worse by his age. being silent and just dealing with it is how he coped, and its eventually going to boil over (just give it a few years) his knight training was one of THE worst things to happen to him, right under failing to save his kingdom and inadvertently being the cause of hyrule's demise. it's the reason why he acts the way he does. he wasn't allowed to forget, so instead it influences almost everything he does, says and thinks. SO YEAH IT WASNT A GOOD TIME

[amethystina]

Fanfic Tag Thingie

I am choosing to be tagged by @miss-ingno because this sounded like fun and I need an escape from the realisation that I am literally on the edge of burnout and my life is a mess. So here we go! :D

How many works do you have on AO3?

76

What's your total AO3 word count?

2 237 636

... and I have around 200k more just sitting in my WIP folders. I can't write short things x'D

What fandoms do you write for?

Right now it's mainly various Kdramas (The Devil Judge, Black Knight, plus my bold venture into Strangers From Hell) but, before that, it was mostly The Losers, Marvel, Pacific Rim, and Teen Wolf. With the occasional detour here and there.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Who Holds the Devil (The Devil Judge, Gahan) at 3 390

Tech Support (MCU, Winteriron) at 3 217

Autonomy (MCU, Winteriron) at 3 137

I Won't Hold My Breath (MCU, Winteriron) at 2 914

Conflict of Interest (MCU, Winteriron) at 2 173

It's honestly a little wild to me that Who Holds the Devil has somehow managed to race to the top despite the other fics being at least four years older (sometimes more). And for a much bigger fandom, at that. You guys are not fucking around.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! Every single one if I can, though it can sometimes take a while before I get to all of them. And I just can't help it, I guess? Partly because I want to show that I've read the comment and appreciate the time and effort that went into writing it, but also because it often gives me an opportunity to talk about my writing and the choices I made in the fic.

And, apparently, the fact that I reply to all comments has become a bit of a thing at least when it comes to Who Holds the Devil, where readers will search through my replies looking for tidbits and extra information about the fic, characters etc.

(you guys are so weird and so dedicated and I love all of you xD)

What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Grief (The Losers (Comics)). Because it is, predictably, about grief and how to keep living after someone you love has died. Though I would argue that the ending has a hint of hopefulness to it since it's also about moving on from said grief?

But yeah. Definitely that one since it's Major Character Death that I choose not to fix.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Literally every single fic except for the one above xD I LOVE my happy endings, okay? And it's kind of difficult to rank them since it depends a lot on the setting, characters, and the personal preference of the reader.

Heck, I even managed to give my Strangers From Hell fanfic a sugary sweet happy ending! That's dedication right there!

Do you get hate on fics?

Yeah, from time to time. I've gotten everything from childish insults calling me a bad writer to backhanded comments questioning my choices, writing style, grammar, spelling, dedication, intelligence, etc. I've even received more targeted, personal hate where people I thought I could trust were making fun of me behind my back in private chat rooms.

Most recently, though, it's less hate and more the "I simply must tell you that you're not writing this fic as I want you to write it" type of deal. Often paired with "It's my personal opinion and I have every right to express it." Which, fair enough. But that means I get to do the same, which I've noticed is something those kinds of commenters kind of hate. Especially when I point out that they've now made me a lot less keen to write the fanfic they're supposedly so fond of.

Turns out people don't like being reminded that their actions have consequences.

All in all, though, I've learned to just delete the comments I find too offensive or hateful.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Oh god no. Sex scenes are the bane of my existence and I spend the entire time writing them looking like this: ლ(ಥ益ಥლ)

I've been told I'm not bad at writing them (the ones in Until Death Do Us Unite were quite appreciated) but anything involving sex or sexual tension is just a nightmare for me. Even more so when it's supposed to be kinky or extra spicy.

So why is one of the main ships I write for right now clearly a Dom/sub ship, you ask?

Because I'm an idiot. That's why.

Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you've written?

I rarely do. The only crossover I've written is Resurrection where Derek Hale ends up in Purgatory together with Dean Winchester and they fight their way back to the world of the living (so Derek replaces Benny, basically).

I also have this one random fic (yet unposted) where Tony Stark and Eddie Brock are a couple (from the MCU and Venom movies, that is). But they're technically both in the Marvel universe so I'm not sure if that counts?

Long story short, crossovers aren't really my thing. I rarely write or read them.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of, no.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have! Several, in fact, from various fandoms. Mostly into Russian, Spanish, or Mandarin. And I am honestly so flattered every time someone asks me if they can translate one of my fics 💜

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have not, no. I made plans to write a fic with a friend once, but we never got to the point of actually writing it. And, in all honesty, I think that might be just as well. I'm a perfectionist and writing a fic with me would probably be very exhausting for the other party xD

What's your all-time favourite ship?

I really don't know. Like, I'm tempted to say Jensen and Cougar from The Losers, or maybe Destiel or Stony, but I think that's partly founded in comfort and nostalgia. My ships change as I do and I really can't pinpoint an all-time favourite.

But CURRENT favourite? Definitely Kang Yo Han and Kim Ga On because they present such a wonderful challenge to someone like me, who loves to go real deep into character motivations, behaviour etc. They're a delight.

What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I'm not sure. I plan to finish all the ones I've started posting but there might be some in my folders that I'll decide to abandon if I truly can't revive my interest in them. But, usually, I can.

And, speaking of that, to all my MCU peeps (if there are any of you still out there): I know you've waited six years for the Tech Support sequel but it's finally been written and just needs to be edited. It's coming, my darlings. I promise.

Basically, when I say I'll do something, I will do it — even if it takes me six goddamn years, apparently x'D

What are your writing strengths?

Characters, tone, and emotions. I'm good at capturing the essence of the characters and write them in a way that feels believable and close to canon. I'm also really good at making people feel things with my writing, I've been told. According to testimonials, my readers can often see what's happening play out inside their heads like a movie, and feel the characters' emotions as they're living through them.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Aside from the aforementioned sex scenes? I think it's my inability to keep things short. I use a lot of unnecessary words and could definitely get better at being more concise. In a similar vein, I sometimes focus so much on the details with lengthy, wordy descriptions that I accidentally forget about the big picture, which is understandably confusing to my readers.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I've done it from time to time (since my man Cougar speaks Spanish) but I'm pretty careful with it. And if it's longer sentences I always make sure to double-check with a native speaker.

First fandom you wrote for?

Teen Wolf! Which, admittedly, was because I didn't care if I fucked it up x'D I enjoyed the first two seasons of Teen Wolf, make no mistake! But I chose it mainly because it wasn't the ship I was the most emotionally invested in and so I figured it wouldn't feel as bad if it turned out that I sucked. Luckily enough for me, I didn't xD

Favourite fic you've written?

Just like with the all-time favourite ship, I'm not sure if I can answer this one. Because I like all of my fics but in different ways.

I'll always have a fondness for that first huge Teen Wolf series I wrote, for example, and had a lot of fun with Autonomy because of the world-building. Same goes with Hyperborean. But Who Holds the Devil is definitely my favourite when it comes to character work. While Allies is my favourite when it comes to tone, since it ended up just the way I wanted it to. And Until Death Do Us Unite was an absolute BLAST because I got to write horror and some really weirdass shit, which I've never done before.

So, truly, I can't say. Each one I've written has something I cherish and while some definitely stand out more than others, I wouldn't be able to just pick one.

___

And that's that! I tag whoever wants to do it! :D