#after all these snippets the entire story will basically be posted here instead of on AO3 😆

[sufferu]

MASTERPOST

Check the tags for quick and easy navigation. (this will no doubt end up being updated repeatedly lol)

Cool Tags

Reading the Light Novels for the First Time: At this point it’s more like reading the Web Novels for the first time, but it’s basically screenshots of quotes + commentary.

Reading the Side Stories for the First Time: Screenshots of quotes + commentary — this time from the side stories.

Re:Zero Brainworms: Cool thoughts/theories about Re:Zero.

My Inbox: Asks that I have actually answered (I am so sorry to everyone stuck in Inbox Purgatory —)

Fanart: Re:Zero Fanart. And also official art.

Fanfiction: Mostly commentary on popular Re:Zero fabric tropes tbh

My Fics: Completed fanfiction of my own. (Or. Completed chapters.)

My Ficlets: Small snippets of fanfics I am working on. I hope to add to this somewhat regularly.

Fan-made IF Routes

Nameless Wanderer AU: Julius loses his Name in Priestella and strikes out on his own, aimless, only to end up getting dragged along by the mysterious possibly-the-Archbishop-of-Pride named Schwartz who claims to be another victim of Gluttony.

Crusch IF: Reinhard brings Subaru to Ferris after Elsa’s assassination attempt, where he ends up being hired as a worker in Crusch’s mansion. Everything goes pretty well for the first month, until about two days before the Whale is scheduled to hit — at which point Subaru’s mind shatters.

Nect Reveal IF: Julius sees into Subaru’s memories when they link souls during the fight against Petelgeuse, where he 1) concludes that he is a couple months old, as he cannot see into his time from beyond the Great Waterfall and 2) figures out RBD in its entirety.

Housecat IF/Chewtoy IF: Everyone is an animal hybrid and housecat!Subaru has developed a complex where he has started to think that he was summoned here as a domesticated cat to serve as a chewtoy for all the wilder and more dangerous animal hybrids of the Re:Zero world.

Whale IF: Subaru dies during the Whale fight and resets to moments before it begins, where he spends about two months continuously looping in order to get every single person out alive. Everyone figures out that he has some sort of time travel ability behind his back. He has no idea.

Omegaverse IF: Omegaverse.

House Arrest IF: Reinhard kidnaps Subaru alongside Felt due to him being a suspected Witch Cultist.

Amnesia IF: Instead of Joshua and Julius losing their names in Priestella, Subaru loses his memories. Everyone gets a front-seat view to Subaru’s second spiral into madness as he rediscovers RBD, one loop at a time.

Natsumi IF/Homosexual IF: Crack AU where Subaru has internally accepted Natsumi Schwartz before the start of the series but is now consciously repressing her anyway due to fears of how crossdressing might be seen in this medieval-style fantasy world. He is so bad at this that everyone thinks he’s gay. This does not stop him from trying to present himself as a Man at every opportunity and giving everyone — especially the traditionally masculine men he is attempting to emulate — massive amounts of psychic damage.

Kintsugi IF: Reinsuba Soulmate AU where traumatic events show up as golden scars on your soulmate’s body. Reinhard has no idea who his soulmate is or what the fuck could be causing all of these horrifying injuries and he is trying desperately to find out whoever’s responsible.

Feral Subaru AU: Subaru is Isekai’d at ten years old and is immediately traumatized by Capella before being taken in by Emilia. He bites people sometimes.

Runaway IF: Subaru and Emilia have a miscommunication post-Petelgeuse that leads to Subaru (wrongly) concluding that he is unwanted, and for the very good reason of painting a target on everyone’s backs, and so he leaves in the middle of the night and accidentally kicks off a manhunt that lasts for an entire year.

Back to Zero IF: Everyone learns about RBD in its entirety, and then everyone except for Subaru gets sent back to Subaru’s duel against Julius. Chaos ensues.

[ace-writer-lani]

WIP: A Final Revelation (Valgrace)

Here's a snippet of chapter one lol (@lavenderfairiez)

(This is an fic based off of this post)

-

Jason thought he had died.

And, well, he did. He had felt the multitude of arrows piercing his skin, littering his arms and legs. He had remembered calling out his final words to Apollo, knowing that his time was drawing to an end. He had also felt the searing pain between his shoulder blades, stabbing him again and again until he collapsed into the embrace of darkness.

So, he had died. End of story.

Except, for some reason, he hadn’t appeared in the Underworld. He was a ghost, that was for sure. His hands held the translucent tint of blue to prove it. But instead of waking up in a land covered in shadows and darkness, and filled with a multitude of other spirits, he had woken up beside a river.

At first, he had thought it was the Styx: the body of water that was the boundary separating the land of the living and the land of the dead. It wasn’t though, which Jason soon realized after taking a few steps forward to get a better look at it.

Percy had described the Styx once when he and Annabeth had been recounting some of their first quests to the rest of them back on the Argo II. Apparently, it was heavily polluted, filled with all kinds of things from lost dreams to broken toys. Basically, anything the dead wanted to leave behind before their new era in the afterlife.

This river was the complete opposite because to start, it was beautiful. It glistened beneath the shining sun (which was another giveaway that he wasn’t in the Underworld), and it was bordered by banks of luscious green grass and sounds of life.

That meant Jason was back to square one: if he wasn’t in the Underworld, where the fuck was he?

Was this some sort of memory from his past? He still hadn’t fully recovered from Juno’s brain wipe, unlike Percy, so he couldn’t be entirely sure. Was it a vision of what his future could’ve been like if he hadn’t died? Possibly? Although, he wasn’t exactly sure why his future included some random river that he had never seen before in his life—

His train of thought was interrupted by a small splash.

Jason turned to see where it had come from. There, sitting by the edge of the water to his right, knees to chest, was a figure. They had their back toward to him, so he couldn’t quite see their face, but he could recognize the combination of tanned skin, brown curls, and bright yellow toolbelt anywhere.

“Leo,” he breathed.

[likeamothtoalighthouse]

UNTITLED ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE PROJECT LORE DUMP

THE WORLD

This is a pretty typical post-zombie-apocalyptic setting, with the main distinction being that instead of it being mad max nonsense It's focused on a pretty chill and normal village/commune/safe zone called the Orchard. The story is set like 100-150 years after the apocalypse, but culture has shifted more rapidly than usual due to 1) the massive change in everyone's lifestyle on account of the apocalypse, 2) the sheer number of people who died, taking with them tons of culture and information, and 3) the fact that the internet and most modern technology doesn't exist anymore because who the fuck is maintaining it. I need to do some more concrete worldbuilding stuff here but it will happen.

In this universe there is a "zombie virus" but it's like. It basically eats the part of the brain that lets it feel pain and drastically reduces higher cognitive function. People affected are technically "alive" but they're like salmon swimming upstream; their bodies are falling apart and rotting while still alive, but since they can't feel pain they aren't incapacitated and don't notice. Theoretically a zombie kept in a completely safe environment wouldn't get all nasty and rotting and stuff but the brainmelting tends to make them get injured a lot and then they just kind of walk around getting injured and infected and gangrenous and decaying and it's just really gross and bad times. It is transmissible via bite but also any other bodily fluid which means yes it is technically an STD. Do not fuck the zombies. Anyways it's basically just Sci-Fi Rabies because rabies is like. the scariest disease.

THE CAST

AVERY HARTMAN: Farmer, trans woman, tea enjoyer, literally just wants to have a normal life with her wife and malewife but NOOOO the evil mad scientist lady is in a one-sided toxic yuri situationship with her and is making it her problem. Grew up in the orchard, started going on trade runs to other towns once she was old enough, on one of those trade runs ended up getting kidnapped by Dr. Alekseyeva's lab. Cue aforementioned toxic yuri and then once she gets the fuck out of there a very long process of getting back home. Fun times for no one except me :)

HARLOWE UNDERWOOD: ok so yknow how the concept of this universe is "what if the apocalypse were way more chill than people think its gonna be"? Well that's not entirely true. the Orchard is a nice chill area but there are 100% groups out there doing mad max shit for absolutely no reason. Harlowe was raised by one of these groups after they raided her home as a young child; she grew up with them and fully drank the Power Is Only Attained Through Violence kool-aid until she was severely injured and left to die during a raid on the Orchard. There she met Micah and Avery who kind of collaboratively rehabilitated her into being a functioning person. She also has a lot of memory issues; she's basically lost her memory of her entire childhood except for little snippets, and she deals with memory loss way more than like. The average person in their mid twenties.

MICAH RAMOS: The only normal and well adjusted guy in this story. And he's not even that normal. He's the Laios Dungeonmeshi of the zombie apocalypse. He's autistically fascinated by the zombie virus and trying to find some sort of vaccine or preventative measure. Nominally a doctor and actually very good at that job, but his real passion is studying the zombie virus. After Avery gets kidnapped and comes back he sort of becomes the idk... main emotional support of the polycule? Like Avery's always filled the role of being The One Everyone Can Go To and then she can't do that anymore and it's definitely a struggle trying to fill this role that he's not really built for. Very intentional parallels and contrasts to Dr. Alekseyeva in terms of worldview, approach to science, approach to finding a cure for the virus, etc. Really what it boils down to is that Micah is a deeply compassionate person and will always put others first, while Dr. Alekseyeva is blinded by her goals and lofty ideas of success. Speaking of her:

DR. OPHELIA ALEKSEYEVA: Evil scientist, has big dreams of being the one to find a "cure" for the zombification bullshit. Part of a faction descended from the ultra-rich who just went into their private bunkers when the apocalypse happened; her group split off about a generation ago and came to the surface to research a cure instead of just waiting forever. Her theory is that there's a gene that gives certain people resistance to the virus, hence all the kidnapping people (namely Avery) to do experiments on. Eventually she sort of snaps and gives up on the cure for a variety of reasons, and instead goes down the route of trying to create human superweapons to kill all of the zombies. This plan is terrible on every level but she's fully lost it by this point. Anyways im obsessed with her shes so unethical <3

There are other minor characters but they're much less fleshed out and I don't really know what I'm doing with them yet. We'll see

[solar-pxwered]

Narancia hated hospitals. Hospitals were cold, sterile places that bustled like anthills, so many workers just going through the motions while people in the rooms suffered and died...he had needed to come to this very hospital several times during his work with Passione, despite his vehement insistance that Fugo's rough first aid was preferable to being here; Giorno would never hear of it.

He'd gotten stitches here, been treated for some nasty burns and concussions...his mother had died here. There were no good memories to be had. And, here he was, about to rack up one more to the count.

The nurse led him and Trish down several long halls until they came to a room in the Intensive Care Unit numbered 44 and Narancia smirked. Bad luck, indeed, Mista would be having a fit.

"Mr. Ghirga?" The elderly, yet very kind, nurse announced herself as she opened the door and stepped inside, "We were finally able to locate your son. Would you like to speak to him?"

At Narancia's side, Trish let out a low scoff.

"Whether he wants to or not doesn't matter. We didn't come all this way to-"

But Narancia silenced her with a tight but gentle grip at her wrist and a look out of the corner of his eye. A small shake of his head was the only sign he gave, otherwise he remained stubbornly stoic.

"Yeah, let him in. About time you found him, shit, it's not like he changed names or anything." Came the reply from the bed across the small room and the nurse nodded before opening the door fully to allow the two of them to enter.

It was a typically sparse room, everything was white except for the few splashes of the hospital's signature logo color, a light blue that felt washed out and cold. There were no flowers, no get well soon cards, nothing.. and that was the only thing about this entire situation that felt right to Narancia.

He had released Trish's arm before the door had opened, but the second his father's cold gaze landed on him he wished he was still holding onto her. It had been years now, but the same sick feeling he had always gotten from his father remained, the knowledge he was responsible for his mother's death was still a fresh wound in Narancia's heart.

"Still scrawny as ever, I see." Came the expected observation, and Narancia ignored it with all the grace of someone who gave no shits what anyone thought about him. Trish, however, stiffened next to him and he felt her hatred coming off in waves. "Shit, kid, did you grow at all in, god, how long has it been? Five? Six years?"

He heard the very quiet sound of Trish's mouth opening to speak and he immediately took hold of her wrist again, squeezing it in warning.

"Don't." He said quietly, "It's what he wants."

To her credit, Trish stayed silent, but she stepped closer and slightly in front of him, a protective posture he recognized well from all the times he'd done the same for her.

"Looks like you must have some kind of skills though if you can get such a pretty thing like her on your arm."

"She's my best friend." Was all Narancia offered, but his hold on her wrist remained. "Now stop wasting my time and tell me what the fuck you want from me."

The harshness of Narancia's tone didn't phase the older man one bit, he simply scoffed.

"Is that how you speak to your old man after all these years, Narancia? How rude."

Narancia didn't take the bait. His gaze remained cold, empty, void of any warmth at all.

"I can leave as easily as I came."

The threat worked, because Matteo Ghirga's demeanor changed quickly. The teasing, abusive father was gone in an instant, replaced by something small and pathetic and needy.

"I hear you're involved with the Mafia these days. The local syndicate in Naples...they say you work close with the new Boss."

How he had gotten this information wasn't clear, but Narancia really wasn't too concerned with that at the moment. He didn't reply in any way.

"I'm sure that means you do well for yourself. I'm in a desperate situation here, as you can see. The old liver, you know, they say the drinking caught up to me, heh. Need a transplant. Transplants cost a pretty penny. Lucky for me, my son has the connections available to save his old man and find some peace of mind."

"You want money?" Trish's soft voice, tinged with disbelief followed a small silence between all present parties. "After everything...you would even dare to ask Narancia for money?"

This time, Narancia did nothing to stop her from speaking, he was far too gobsmacked. He had expected some whimpering, patheric deathbed confessional to clear his conscience as respectable Italian Catholic would, last rites and all that...but he had not expected him to have the raw nerve to ask for a favor.

"This is none of your business, Pinkie."

That got a reaction like nothing else had. Narancia's eyes flashed, Aerosmith roared into existence of it's own accord due to the fury that rose instantly in his soul. He pulled Trish behind him, probably more roughly than he should have and glared at his dying father with unmatched malevolence.

"Don't speak to her. You don't get that privilege."

For a moment, a look of understanding seemed to flicker in Matteo Ghirga's eyes, slightly widened in alarm at the sudden change in atmosphere. He couldn't see Aerosmith, but it was clear that he could feel something so dangerous about his son that he chose not to push.

"Fine by me, it's you I asked for anyway."

"You wasted your breath."

The implication hung heavy in the air and the room fell into such a silence that you could have heard a pin drop. Matteo surprisingly did not look away from cold stare of his son nor did Narancia so much as flinch from his unyielding position of power. He was in control this time, Matteo could do nothing unless he allowed it.

"You'll be killing your own father if you do nothing."

"I could kill you right here and now with a hundred witnesses and no cop or prison would hold me. As you said, I've got connections. But I'll do you a favor, even if you don't deserve it, and let you die in your own terms instead of full of holes."

".....Narancia..."

The man's tone was like nothing he had ever heard from him before, soft, begging, almost respectful...and that was the last straw. He wasn't going to stand here and let this piece of shit think he would listen to anither word from his worthless mouth. There was nothing morento be said.

Narancia turned on his heels, took Trish by the hand, and left the room behind, closing the door on his past one last time.

"Good riddance." The otherworldly voice of Spice Girl was the only sound that registered in his ears for quite some time after.

[hotpinkashcrimson]

Analysis&Hidden Lore on Ash Crimson

So I've been obsessing over this guy from 2019 October or so? And I have talked about him a lot and lot and lot and a lot but I might as well put it all on here in one comprehensive post. I cannot hold all of these they fall out of my arms like rogue lemons.

HUGE spoilers for the Ash Saga games, obviously.

TLDR: Ash Crimson is basically a changeling planted by Saiki, murdered all of the Crimsons at age between 2&6, and the whole message of the Ash saga is loving the people around you, in turn, loving the world itself.

So the lore right. There are snippets here and there because I don’t think Ash saga has officially licensed manga and light novels like Orochi saga or NESTS saga. Here’s what we know from the games though!

‘03: Ash fucking hates Mukai. His voice trembles in rage, even after you beat him. It’s insane. Ash also quotes poetry from Robert Browning in the team stroy. (Please read the team stories btw) Which one? You guessed it, it’s Pippa’s song. So the team recieves the invitation in spring, presumably. Mukai and Botan also do not know who Ash is?? Only his green flames. I will address this later.

XI: Ash also knows Magaki. Magaki also knows(?) Ash, trash-talking him that he forgot his ‘mission’. (Likely that he only recognizes the flames) Ash ‘enjoys’ fighting Magaki, saying ‘unexpectedly..that was fun.’ Weirdo. His voice also trembles in excitement when he gets a win from a thrilling fight with kyo or iori. Creep.

IN THE TEAM STORY HE ORDERS A STOUT BEER, BUT SWITCHES TO AN IRISH COFFEE. YOU ARE 16. This is winter btw.

11 team stories are awesome also Betty busts a bank robbery while riding a horse. Also shown is that the ‘Those from the Past’ crossed over to this time period using the Grand Cross in 1999, and the planets aligning in 2000. Mind, I say ‘used’ but this might not mean they arrived in 1999-2000.

XII: There’s no game, only team story but I have to mention this. I have to, I have to because Ash’s story made me insane. (I put the one on the snkwiki, i should edit it some day for better flow) IT STARTS. with

‘The boy has nothing. There has been nothing so far, and probably nothing afterwards. Most of what people think is his property is not his own. At least, that’s what the boy himself thinks so. With no dreams, no hopes, and no passion-’

THIS IS DUO LON. DESCRIBING ASH CRIMSON. SET BEFORE ‘03. HE IS TALKING ABOUT A 16Y OLD. IT DRIVES ME NUTS. IT STILL IS SO FUCKING INSANE.

‘At one point, Duo Lon had asked Ash. "Ash, what are you trying to do? What are you fighting for? ''

To those questions, Ash did not answer. Instead, looking up at the sky, "Being free sure is nice."

"Huh? What are you talking about? A brat like you that does whatever he wants; you're always free."

"Aha ha ha ha♪ Not as much as Shen, though." 

-Trying to figure out the heart of a freckled boy, smiling under the blue sky.

Immediately remembering how useless that task was, Duo Lon shook his head with a bitter smile. He thought he had a rather good eye for people, but even for him, the boy, Ash Crimson, was too difficult to understand.

Perhaps, a boy that no one can understand.’

I had to add the entire passage. Do you see. Do you see why I am insane. XII stories are crazy they are so well written I WILL TRANSLATE MORE OF THEM I PROMMY. ALONG WITH THE MAXIMUM IMPACT ONES BECAUSE SPEAKING OF MAXIMUM IMPACT

Maximum Impact Regulation A: I’ve been holding onto this one for forever. It’s Ash in Hong Kong wearing Chinese outfits shopping and eating and then getting kidnapped by the mafia then beating everyone up and blowing up the whole building. It’s amazing but not really lore related, but I just wanted to point out how the nickname he’s called while in Hong Kong is  ’The Laughing Drifter’. Drifter, huh.

XIII: Arguably this one has the most lore ingame wise. Here’s how we find out how Ash and Betty grew up together, after the mysterious house fire (which seems to have involved both Crimsons and Blanctorches), and how the rest of the Blanctorche family treated Ash as an annoyance. Like...damn bro that’s a 5-6y old.

It also introduces Saiki, who is NOT the will of Gaia like Orochi. This is important please. Revealed in the pre battle dialogue bwtween Athena and Dark Ash, Saiki’s the Goenitz, basically. His plan is for Ash to steal the orochi power, then go back to the past, then give that orochi power boost to their actual Master. The Master’s name isn’t really said, but I like the theory that it’s called Ouroboros because Elisabeth’s win quote against boss Saiki is ‘This time, we have truly defeated this unfortunate destiny of Ouroboros. It is the humans who will live!’ hehe snake Ash :)

Xiii also has some truly devastating win quotes & pre-fight dialogue? Like with King and Athena, who see Ash to be struggling or hiding something big, and suggesting that he gets some help or talk to someone; but Ash basically says shut up, you know nothing about me. Real defensive there, my guy. Kula also says his flames are lonely if she wins... Ash genuinely doesn’t have a lot of composure in xiii, easy to see through, easy to break (by his angry outburst at Terry calling him young).

At the end of the game, Heidern will recieve a recorded voice message from ‘the Flames of Nova’. We never get to hear what’s said, but yeah it’s Ash! WHICH IMPLIES ASH KNEW THE RISK THAT HE COULD DIE?? AND HIS TRUTH IS TOLD FUCKING POSTHUMOUSLY?????????? AND THEN HEIDERN FORGETS ABOUT IT 0.5 SECONDS LATER????????? FUCKED UP

Ash is also from the past, the same time period as Saiki. We see this as Saiki goads him to cross the gate, to go back to our time periods.

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NOW HERE’S THE HIDDEN LORE THAT WAS REVEALED BY AKIHIKO URESHINO, THE GUY RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THE OFFICIAL LIGHT NOVELS IN KOF.

-Ash was ‘adopted’, taken in by the Crimson family, and stole the clan leader’s flames. Ash only has the ability to steal things, the green fire belongs to the Crimsons. https://twitter.com/a_ureshino/status/744454053837611008

Okay so this brings up a lot of stuff right off the bat. Because the Crimsons were alive when Ash was a baby, but all dead when he’s 6. So he must have taken the fire from them during this time. But that’s a big event, right. The Crimsons were still alive. They would have defeinitely done something. Even the Blanctorches would have gotten wind of this. There’s also the question how an adopted kid can use this clearly family passed-down power as well, and nobody questioned it.

This can only be explained by 1. They THOUGHT Ash was a real ‘Crimson’. and 2. The death of the Crimsons and Ash stealing the Crimson Flame must have happened at the same time.

That’s right, Ash is basically a changeling who also killed like dozens of people by arson btw age 2-6. I don’t think he remembers or realizes this at all at age 6, considering how he wants everyone to come back. So he must have been still a baby???? LIKE......

There’s no way he hasn’t realized the truth by the time he’s 16 btw. Like everything else aside, Saiki would have told him. Considering how much Saiki likes to rub in that ‘Ash is merely a lesser version of him, only born because of him’, there is 0 way Ash would have failed to realise.

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But even so, even with all of that, Ash rather likes this world. He loves ‘being free’. He loves eating sweets, buying expensive clothes, getting lavish manicure, and being with his friends. His family. He rather likes it, that he can die over it.

Throughout the entire goddamn stories, Ash isolates himself, ‘discarding’ connections that know about him, that try to find out too much about him. But it doesn’t help at all, and they come back. And it makes him so so so lonely that it shows everywhere. Why does he do this? Because he can't trust anyone? Because his plan might be ruined? Or is it punishment, on himself?

Ash wants to kill Saiki so bad, that even in KOF allstars, his link to Saiki is ‘Final Target’. He wants to kill his ancestor so fucking bad. Looking at him makes him want to scream. (Pre battle dialogue with untransformed Saiki) It’s as if....Saiki is a reminder. whether to his own inhumanity, to his own sins, even to his future, that will always be unknown.

As Heidern said at the end of xiii, Ash didn’t die to save anything, he died to keep his pride. It was 10000% for his own sake. It was worth dying for, either one-upping his ancestor, or his feelings of love to his friends, the world.

To me..i think it’s both. To fly free from the shackles of birth family, and finding a place you can call your own, the freedom. Isn’t it all connected? Isn’t that what ‘life’ is? And isn’t being alive mean that you have to have hope, dreams, and ambition. The will to continue?

Ash Crimson chose death, because he learned and loved to live. ...That’s all.

[nightfayre]

Hello!!! switched au anon here! it's been months and the recent chapters really got my brain spinning cause i left off asking the he tian Qs of your au! I hope you don't mind my continued haunting lol

so, like we saw in chapter 383, earning money comes naturally to he tian, so i don't think he'd have much trouble in that regard in your au[?] so what would his struggle be? getting away from his father? needing Cheng in his life but too bratty and arrogant to accept his help[teenage hormones]? stirring up trouble just to fill the void his mother created in him when she left? your original drabble posted on tumblr had mentioned characters mad enough at he tian to want to kill him! what is this boy up to in your story???

also since you mentioned that she li would have more to do with he tian in your au, i wonder what their relationship would be? half brothers? rivals since middle school? they both approached mo guanshan at the same time? the curiosity is killing me!

please do rant away about this au of yours! your answers are pure dopamine >﹏< and maybe if you don't mind, just 50 words about he tian's and mo guanshan's first encounter in your au? pretty please? 🥺

have a good day! <3

hi there!! omg it's been SO long (and that's entirely my fault!)

tysm for your patience and, as always, my response is below the cut!

ohhh, i definitely missed talking about this AU :') thank you for keeping me accountable LOL, seriously!

i love love love that you mentioned how He Tian is a money magnet (especially in customer service roles) because i also thought about that when i was first drafting this AU. however, i quickly came to the conclusion that while He Tian might be an efficient worker whenever he opts to help out for short periods of time - usually to get brownie points with Guan Shan - there is no way in HELL that that boy would last more than a week in customer service. not at his age and with his current immaturity, at least. i'm sure you understand where i'm coming from if you've ever worked a customer service job yourself... especially food service. He Tian is a great charmer, but we've seen him lose his cool relatively quickly and explosively (!!!) after his patience runs out (like when he smashed that man's car??? hello?????? he did not think that through at all, jfc). and since customer service jobs are usually the only positions hiring middle/high school students, it'd be a recipe for disaster. so basically, He Tian is too volatile to work your typical part-time job, so he finds different means of making money.

as for why he's still troubled in this AU? well, I don't think I could narrow the answer down to only one or two things. that'd be like trying to define your own life by a single prevailing issue you face! impossible! so unfortunately, i'll have to leave you to your imagination for this question :)

as for She Li, i'm still very interested to see what OX does with him in the canon storyline. even though they do look eerily similar, i don't think he and He Tian are related (nor are they in this AU), but i do think that there's some kind of connection between She Li and the He family that hasn't been thoroughly revealed yet. using that logic, i intend to explore that same uncertainty in this AU! i have a good idea of what role She Li will play in this fic, but it's not entirely fleshed out yet. honestly, i'll probably spend the rest of tonight doing just that! i hope you don't mind waiting just a bit longer for my answer!

you are such a sweetheart - thank you so much for this ask and all the others you've sent! <33 at this point, i might as well start finalizing the outline and actually start writing instead of daydreaming! instead of a rant or snippet, i'll give you my honest word that i'll hop back into this AU for the rest of this week! i want to see it written just as bad as you do :') and if there are any post-worthy snapshots along the way, i'll be sure to post them ASAP! so keep an eye out! <3

thank you so, so much again dear, and talk to you soon! <3

[bigskydreaming]

Doing some writing today off and on between errands and work, and jumping around various Kings of the Sky installments, specifically Dick, Jason and Cass stuff, so probably gonna post snippets from a bunch of them as I go. 

(Kings of the Sky is an AU that goes canon divergent from the point of Jason calling Dick for advice for dealing with Bruce after the Garzonas case and where things end up going dramatically different from that point on. Including Jason not dying, being part of his own lineup of Titans between Dick and Tim’s, Dick being adopted not long after the Church of Blood incident, Cass being the third Wayne kid to be taken in and adopted and with Tim and Duke being next and then Damian coming along later once they find out about him. This is basically my ‘the family’s alright’ AU with largely ‘Good Dad Bruce’ except for Dick and then Jason yelling some sense into him about the other, respectively, in the first two installments, just FYI).

Anyway, this bit is from a story called “In Their Shadows Grow Trees Of Good and Evil,” set about a year after Cass has been adopted, when she and Jason are both sixteen and Dick’s twenty-one. Also just FYI, because canon has never been specific about what ways Cass is neurodivergent due to the comic-book style ‘rewiring’ of her brain so that she could learn to speak later in life, I tend to go with her being dyslexic and having aphasia. She sticks exclusively to sign language and being a silent presence in her costumed personas, so that there’s no chance of people connecting the dots between Black Bat and Cassandra Wayne, as she mostly speaks verbally in her civilian persona and doesn’t hide her aphasia. The reason there’s not likely to be any obvious signs of aphasia in the snippets of her I post is because I wait until I complete something to choose words at random to replace with aphasia-born mixups, so its more realistic and I’m not gearing her dialogue towards deliberately placed moments. Just in case you were wondering.

In Their Shadows Grow Trees of Good and Evil

“Hey Todd,” sneered an exquisitely obnoxious voice. “Why’s your sister so fucking weird?”

Jason sighed the sigh of a soul a mere century into its eternity of damnation as he rose from the lunch table he’d been studying at and crammed the rest of his books into his backpack. Then he pasted a cheerfully bland smile on his face and turned around, geared for academia warfare (teenage prep school edition).

“Hey Craig,” he said brightly. “Why’d you come out of the womb so ugly your parents had to tie a piece of steak around your neck just to get the family dog to go near you? Mysteries abound.”

The advancing junior slowed a step, momentarily rocked by his truly impressive return volley. The grimace Craig’s already gargoyle-esque features twisted into made his face even more unpleasant to look at than usual, which was quite the feat. Jason would have applauded if just looking at it hadn’t already turned him to stone.

But the bargain basement basilisk kept on towards him rather than turn tail and skulk off to pop his emotional blisters, so Jason sighed a sequel to his first one. Looked like it was one of those days where Craig felt up to powering through. Guess someone had eaten their self-esteem Wheaties that morning. Joy.

“You think you’re pretty hot shit, don’t you, Todd?”

Jason shrugged. “I mean, to be honest I kinda have a one track mind, so right now I’m mostly just thinking about punching you in your mistake.”

“My what?”

“Your face,” Jason elaborated with exaggerated patience.

“Huh?”

“Oh my god, I’m saying your face is a mistake. See, its not as fun when I have to stop and explain it to you. Ugh, you ruin everything.”

He neatly sidestepped the older boy as R2-Dumbass stayed frozen, smoke coming off of his internal CPU while trying to catch up. For a second Jason thought he was home free, but then he remembered the universe fucking hated him so haha, sucks to suck. Also, a small crowd had gathered to witness the verbal jousting match, and nothing invigorated an asshole like Craig more than an audience of like-minded peers. So there was that too.

“Whatever. Laugh it up all you want, you little shit,” the junior rallied. “But just remember, mocking your betters will never change the fact that you were born street trash and you’ll be street trash until the day you die.”

Honestly? Not his best effort. Jason almost felt bad using any of his good material. Seemed like overkill at this point. But he did have a strict Scorched Earth policy to maintain, so.....

“Yeah but my dad could buy out and ruin your dad so that means I still win, right?”

He smirked as the barb landed and Craig’s face set into a sunset vista of strangled purple and furious red. Bam. Direct hit.

“Listen, you - “

“Oh for fuck’s sake, it was rhetorical,” Jason interrupted. “I don’t actually care what you think even a little bit. Nobody does. You don’t matter. Please go be irrelevant elsewhere, you’re fucking dismissed, you loser.”

“Speak for yourself, charity case.” Oh goodie, Craig’s backup singers had finally arrived. Now if only he could remember to care enough to learn their names in the first place. Seriously, who told the extras they could have lines? “All the jokes in the world can’t change who and what you are.”

Jason shrugged and continued nonchalantly up the hill to where his sister was standing with arms crossed, staring down at something on the other side.

“True genius is never appreciated in its own time,” he tossed back over his shoulder. “I’m sure I’ll be immortalized in song eventually.”

The mob of morons deigned to let him go without further incident. Though he suspected that had less to do with his scathing wit and more to do with him being headed towards Cass. She was immaculately presented as always, wearing the Gotham Academy uniform like she was born to it despite hating its uncomfortable stiffness every bit as much as he did. But that was just Cass for you. 

For all that she still struggled at times to engage verbally or speak up in social settings, her mastery of body language remained without peer. She could chameleon-camouflage her way into matching poise and posture with anyone - a skill that had allowed her to walk into school on her very first day with her head held high as though she owned everything in her sight. Exuding so much Queen Bee Intimidation Factor even the other hive queens were afraid to approach her  themselves. Sending forth their drones to try and woo her into an alliance, only to see her remain oh-so-casually above it all, a slightly contemptuous smile adorning her lips.

Basically, she scared the shit out of their classmates without them having anywhere close to a true understanding of why, and Jason was outrageously jealous. Rude. Unfair. Why did his siblings always get all the cool toys when all he had was his rakish charm, scintillating intellect and debonair.....nah, who was he kidding. He was fucking awesome. 

“Sup, sis,” he said, cresting the hill to stand beside Cass. “Just FYI, I just took a popularity bullet for you, which means you owe me your dessert tonight. Its a family rule that’s totally a real thing and definitely not something I just made up right now because Alf is making chocolate soufflé.”

She made no acknowledgment and remained stock still, a Colossus at Rhodes peering down into the shifting shadows of the parking lot below.

He peered down as well, though with absolutely no idea what they were looking at. Solidarity, yo.

“So are we staring fixedly at anything in particular, or should I just pick my own spot and commit?”

His humor was totally wasted on her as always. Instead of laughing and telling him what a lovable goof he was, she just inclined her head in the direction of a blonde girl where she was standing next to the driver’s side door of a Mercedes-Benz, dictating final commandments to her peons before departing. Well, probably. Jason was just guessing, based on his own body language reads, and like, general disdain for literally everyone at this school that wasn’t related to him.

He made a face. An extra special one reserved just for this classmate in particular. “Ugh, Madison Dunleavy? She’s the worst.”

Cass raised a cool eyebrow. “I thought Craig Hendricks was the worst.”

“He is. They’re both the worst. Its a hotly contested position here at Gotham Academy.”

She rolled her eyes and nodded back down at the Queen of Air and Darkness. “So. You know her?”

“Nope,” Jason said. “Come to think of it, I’ve actually never seen her in my life. No idea who that is. Can’t help you, sorry. Shall we go home?”

The Eyebrow of Inquisition speared him with clear intent. Who the fuck needed words when you could pack the Encyclopedia Britannica into a single facial expression?

Jason sighed gustily. 

“I had a slight altercation with her freshman year that led to her declaring her undying enmity for me until the end of time. The word nemesis may or may not have been thrown around once or twice. I can’t recall.”

The Eyebrow of Inquisition lowered nary an inch. Ugh, she wanted more? Why did everyone in his family hate privacy, with the obvious exclusion of himself when snooping through Cass and Dick’s rooms for blackmail material, which was actually intel-gathering and thus another matter entirely.

“Okay so basically what happened was my first week here I overheard her talking shit about me and not even twenty minutes later she was pretending to kiss my ass in homeroom, like probably because of Bruce, y’know? So I just busted out laughing and told her to fuck off and die and she has inexplicably loathed me ever since.”

Avoiding further Eyebrow Inquisition-ing, he made a show of peering around aimlessly. When the silence extended and it was clear Cass was absolutely not going to break first, Jason waved a hand in dismissal and took to peering oh so casually at his fingernails. "I suppose I was less tactful back in those days.”

He chanced a look up, finally, and saw his sister’s eyebrow had somehow managed to mighty morphin power ranger its way into a configuration evoking both judgment and disbelief, with the latter perhaps aimed at the idea he was significantly differing in the tact department these days either.

“I don’t love the implications your face is making right now,” he told her.

She ignored him, because of course she did. 

“Does she know Dick?” She asked instead. Jason shrugged.

“I mean, maybe? She’s probably seen him around at one of those stupid galas we have to go to, and actually I think maybe she has an older brother who was either in Dick’s grade or like, one above or below it? I don’t know.”

Now both eyebrows were doing the dance of disbelief. Okay, so maybe that was poor situational awareness on his part, since it wasn’t like Gotham Academy was a big school with a ton of other kids and also he’d only been in the same class as Madison for like over two whole years, but whatever. There were extingent circumstances.

“Look, she’s a total snob who’s always looked down on me and in return I willfully ignore both her existence and that of everyone and everything even tangentially related to her. Its called equality, Cass.”

She pursed her lips and went back to the peering, because of course in the mind of Cass it made total sense that the Grand Inquisition didn’t need to be followed up by any explanation on her part, what the hell. Like was he supposed to have inferred it?

“What’s this all about anyway?”

“I heard her talking about Dick earlier,” she said without peeling her eyes away from her personal recon mission. “I don’t know what she said though, I just heard her say Grayson, and then I was busy looking at what her body was saying. I know it was about Dick because she shut down when she saw me. And I didn’t like the way she....looked....before that happened. The way she was talking. It was.....”

Jason frowned but held back any follow-up questions while he waited - with total patience because he wasn’t an absolute cad, thank you very much - for his sister to find the word she was hunting for. It was a major source of frustration for her, that whatever neural map her brain followed put body language and spoken language in totally different regions of her brain, separated by a fairly great divide. Meaning she usually had to make a conscious choice to focus on body language or conventional languages - whether verbal or sign. But it tended to be one or the other; she’d yet to master taking in and comprehending both forms of ‘language’ at the same time. And none of them had quite figured out how to convince her that she wasn’t actually missing anything when she chose to focus on one specific form of communication - that she was still observing far more than most people ever would.

“Proprietary,” Cass settled on at last. She nodded her satisfaction with her choice of word, and Jason waited a whole two point five seconds before sticking  his whole foot in his mouth.

“Proprietary?” He asked with a scrunched nose as he weighed that for possible context and implications. “You sure?”

She glared. He winced. It was a whole thing.

“Yeah, I know, sorry, sorry, I heard it the second it was out of my mouth. We don’t actually have to experiment with the legitimacy of if looks could kill.”

Cass rolled her eyes, but eh. That could’ve gone worse.

Jason swiftly redirected attention anyway. Discretion is the better part of valor, after all.

“So. The Queen of Air and Darkness was talking about our big bro, and her mood was.....proprietary, huh?” He recapped while digesting the info like a boss. “Well. Definitely not loving that, I gotta say. Hold please.”

Pulling out his phone and pulling up his most recent texts, he began typing furiously.

“What are you doing?” Cass asked.

“Texting Tom,” he replied, because duh. Hah, now it was his chance to have the answers that should be patently obvious and thus make with the ‘are you kidding me’ when she asked obvious questions she should know the answer to! How do you like them apples, sis?

“Why are you texting your boyfriend right now?”

Jason rolled his eyes, because fair is fair, but never ceased texting for a moment. Time was of the essence here, probably. Well, maybe. Okay probably not. But it’d still been like half an hour since he and Tom had last texted and that’s a very fucking long time in teenage years.

“To be our getaway driver tonight, obviously.”

She stared at him. He didn’t look up, but he could feel it anyway. He was very intuitive like that.

“What?”

Jason heaved another sigh, one keyed to tones of ‘oh my god, do I really have to spell this out,” exasperation. He was just racking up the bonus points here. It was really too bad this wasn’t an actual competition he could actually win and this was all just pettiness taking place wholly in his own head. Lame. 

“Well, clearly we now have to go snoop in Madison’s house aka lair to see if its actually a house or a full on lair. Because she’s either a creeper or like, legit evil, and its important to know which one before we proceed, because obviously we can only bust her for being a weird creeper about our brother as Jason and Cass, whereas if she’s legit evil, that’s gotta go down as Robin and Black Bat. I’ll handle the snooping, you’ll take look-out, but we still need a wheelman and that’s why I’m texting Tom. This is all very mission-oriented, okay. I’m a professional.”

“Right,” she affirmed, while sounding anything but convinced. “Why don’t we just tell Bruce?”

Without looking up or breaking stride, he said: “I’m going to give you til I finish typing this sentence to figure out what was wrong with what you just said. Remember that we are talking about hypothetical danger to our brother, and also Bruce’s idea of a proportionate response to any of his children being in even hypothetical danger. And also our brother’s idea of a proportionate response to Bruce’s idea of a proportionate response. Look, you’re still new so I’m gonna need you to just trust me on this one. Its gonna be a no on telling Bruce without further intel.”

Cass said nothing in response to that, which meant that she was conceding the point and recognized the wisdom of his words. Or maybe that she was just gonna go ahead and do what she wanted anyway and just wasn’t bothering to fight about it, but it was probably that first thing.

“Well you better not just make out with your boyfriend all night,” is what she said at last, and that got his attention reeeeeal quick like.

“Umm. Wow. Okay. So, first off, you’re not the boss of me and who I make out with and when, so jot that down. And second, now I’m definitely going to make out with my boyfriend extra hard, with the exception of when we are actually on our recon mission because as previously established, I am a professional. And also, again, you’re not the boss of me.”

Jason ignored her Eye Roll With Extra Emphasis, and instead just held up his phone to Text With Extra Emphasis, as he read along with what he was typing.

“By the way babe, we have to make out extra hard tonight,” he said, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth while he dragged out his dictation with the kind of focus that usually led to Bruce asking why he couldn’t apply as much intensity to training as he did to pettiness. “Cass has suddenly decided she can dictate terms to me and I need to shut that shit down ASAP, so thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter. Smoochies and other gay stuff to the best boyfriend ever.”

Jason frowned as a response pinged back seconds later. 

TheCatsMeow: ....the things I put up with for the sake of your weird family dynamics.

TheOnlyRobinThatRocks: Yeah, yeah. You’re a saint among were-panthers. Must you mock? Why can’t you just tell me I’m pretty instead?

TheCatsMeow: Sorry. Let me try again. OMG you’re so pretty Jase how did I get so lucky xoxo.

TheOnlyRobinThatRocks: No. Its too late. It feels forced and unbelievable now. You’ve ruined it forever.

TheCatsMeow: Got it. From now on I will only tell you that you’re repulsive and hideous.

TheOnlyRobinThatRocks: I’m breaking up with you.

TheCatsMeow: But after I help you with your mission tonight.

TheOnlyRobinThatRocks: Obvsly. I’m a professional. Why do people keep forgetting this?

TheCatsMeow: And also the making out to spite your sister.

TheOnlyRobinThatRocks: Yeah we should do that first too. I mean we already penciled it in.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

#1: Chloe’s “Damnation Arc” That Was Totally Planned From the Start

Time to talk about one of the most infuriating anecdotes of Astruc, and it shows how chaotic the production of Miraculous Ladybug is.

Chloe Bourgeois the resident mean girl you see in a lot of cartoons and shows with a school setting in general. She's the daughter of the mayor of Paris, so she tends to get her way a lot. And her callous personality has left several people emotionally vulnerable, which is how Hawkmoth creates his minions of the week, Akumas. Of the 26 Akumas in the first season, Chloe has contributed to 12 of them becoming akumatized through bullying, insulting, and publicity humiliating them.

In the first season, Chloe was the kind of character who you loved to hate. She was someone who served as a minor threat in the civilian lives of the main characters, and she would usually get her comeuppance at the end of the episode.

There was effort into giving Chloe character development, don't get me wrong, with six episodes between Seasons 2 and 3 dedicated to it. But for every moment of heroism Chloe got, it was always negated by the end, having her go back to her old self and learning nothing in the process. This was because of a strange idea Astruc has. For some reason, he wants the status quo to be the same so new viewers can jump in at any time. While that may work for a show like SpongeBob SquarePants or The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, but not for a story driven show like Miraculous Ladybug. So Chloe's “character development” was an unfortunate case of one step forward, two steps back. This ended up disappointing fans, who were really hoping for Chloe to get a proper redemption arc. What's important to remember was that Astruc claimed that he planned for everything that's about to happen from the start, when you'll see that it couldn't be further from the truth.

Even after getting an entire trilogy of episodes focusing on her “development”, Chloe didn't really grow as a person. The only thing that changed was Ladybug would occasionally loan her the Bee Miraculous because of how good she is as Queen Bee. They tried mixing things up in Season 3 when Ladybug said she couldn't be Queen Bee anymore because her identity was public and it would be too dangerous... rather than how rude she is to everyone she meets, and is overall irresponsible with her powers (In her first appearance, she sabotaged a train so she could pull a Syndrome and save it herself, and it was quickly swept under the metaphorical rug). So throughout the third season, we'd get snippets of Chloe saying “Queen Bee could handle this if you let her!” whenever she was on screen. This culminated in the season finale, where she got fed up of waiting, and willingly sided with Hawkmoth to get back at Ladybug.

And when fans were naturally miffed at all this time wasted on a character arc that went absolutely nowhere, guess how Astruc responded?

I find it ironic that Astruc is saying fans shouldn't insult the writing team or other fans because they didn't like the twist... while insulting fans who didn't like the way Chloe's character arc went. Astruc could have easily turned down the idea of a Chloe redemption arc, or find some way to compromise instead of whatever we got. But even if he didn't, why does he have to be so callous about it?

Even if you don't like Chloe, this still screams bad writing. Why focus so much on a character's development so much if you're going to just throw it out the window? There were several times where Marinette was scolded for saying she couldn't change, and that she needed to see the good in Chloe, and now you're just turning back on it? If she was irredeemable the whole time, why dedicate so much time to her “damnation arc”, as Astruc puts it? Why not focus on getting to know other characters and their relevance to the story like Master Fu? Why not focus on writing more interactions between Marinette and Adrien? You know, the two leads whose relationship is the main focus of the show?

And it wasn't just here. Before the season finale, whenever people talked about how they loved Chloe and fanfics showing her growing as a person, Astruc just shut them down. If someone tries to reason with Astruc the importance of being kind to others, he'll just say something like “That doesn't matter, Chloe sucks!” Because that's a good lesson to teach kids, right? People can never change, so why bother?

It's not just those characters either. The last decade we got characters like Weiss Schnee, Pacifica Northwest, and Amity Blight. These were all mean girls who weren't just one-note caricatures of bullies, but characters who actually grew as we got to know them the longer their shows went on.

The thing is, Chloe has all the pieces necessary for a redemption arc, and there are fans and writers alike who want her to get a proper one. But because of Astruc's own stubborn beliefs, he refuses to let anything interesting happen. Change is possible, some of the most interesting characters in fiction are those who genuinely want to be better (Just take a look at all those examples I used earlier, and I'll show more if I need to).

And when someone pointed out that character development is a thing?

I mean, it's not like there was any evidence in the show that made it look like Chloe was trying to be a better person—OH WAIT.

And then, that same person pointed out the redundancy of having two mean girls to antagonize Marinette in her civilian life, relying on the stereotype that all girls do is fight over cute boys instead of actually finishing the redemption arc the writers set up, as well as showing a screenshot of a Tumblr post that perfectly summarizes my feelings on Chloe's character development.

What does Astruc have to say in response to these valid criticisms? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

That's literally all he said to this person. He didn't refute anything that person said, he didn't defend any of his writing choices, he basically plugged his fingers and his ears, and went “LALALALALALA, I'm not listening! I'm not listening!” Dude, you chose to open this Twitter account and take questions, so expect a little criticism thrown your way. But what should I know, according to him, he already planned this for years!

But the main question remains: If you didn't want Chloe to develop or grow as a person, Astruc, why did you even get our hopes up in the first place?

[13uswntimagines]

Cliche (Tobin x Reader)

Request: Marriage Proposal 

Author’s Note: Special Thanks to @literaryhedgehog​

“I’m just saying, I opened my inbox. SOMEONE should have messaged me,” Tobin said, tugging on her hair frustratedly. You watched in amusement, loving the way the sunlight caught her hair, as you exited the movie theater. She was so focused on her tirade that she didn’t even look down as she stumbled over an uneven brick in the patio, just continued walking. “It’s been open for days and I reblogged several of those ‘send me a number and I’ll answer a question’ posts!”

“Babe, you run an anonymous fandom blog for a sci-fi television show that stopped running 15 years ago,” you said, rolling your eyes. 

“19 years, ago,” Tobin corrected, “and it has a pretty strong fanbase! That fanart I made got at least 100 likes.”

“You’re just lucky they didn’t match the brush strokes or something and figure out it was you. Like they did with your other fake Tumblr. They’re like crazy detectives,” You said side eyeing your girlfriend. 

“I mean, I was making fanart of us on that one, it was pretty obvious.” 

“I love it when you paint me, but It’s really creepy that you put it on the internet,” You huffed, crossing your arms tightly across your chest. 

“Oh come on, I only posted the ones I made from press photos. You have a problem with the high definition, you talk to Alyssa’s girlfriend. She’s the photographer.”

“As long as you keep your drawings just for us, yeah?” You asked. Tobin had quite the eye, and she often found her greatest inspiration when you were relaxed. When you let your guard down. That mess the that many of her sketches of you were most certainly not suitable for public consumption. 

“Anything I draw from life instead of from a screen I keep.” Tobin winked at you and linked her arm through yours. “So, what did you think of the movie? Or was it too romantic for you, you action-thriller loving fiend?”

You shrugged. “I think it was a little too cliche. Like who the fuck brings a diamond ring to the airport and uses the intercom to propose to the girl who just dumped him for a job across the country? And then she chooses him?” Some plots just made zero sense. At least your action movies didn’t force a girl to choose a person who was completely wrong for her. 

“Oh come on, everyone loves cliches. I’ve seen the number of ‘there were only one bed’ fics you’ve read.” 

“Those aren’t forced heteronormative love stories that don’t actually care about the characters” You scoffed. 

“I have seen your archive of our own bookmarks, do we want to continue this conversation?” Tobin said sweetly, looking at the windows of the shops you passed, though you could see her suppressing a smile. She loved winning, be it argument or soccer game. 

“My archive history doesn’t count,” you grumbled, pouting. It wasn’t your fault you had been kinda into Bellatrix dating Hermione, especially when they were both the same age and you got to see some Hogwarts hijinks (it helped you weren’t a Ron fan either). 

“Sure, sure. Tell you what. You don’t like my new favorite Rom-Com? Show me you can do better,” Tobin gestured to the outdoor coffee shop along the route ahead. “Real life coffee shop AU. Here’s your chance to defy heteronormative love stories and cliches in the most romantic way possible.” 

“Just please don’t spill your drink on me ok? You already have my number,” You asked, raising your eyebrows. You happened to like this shirt and didn’t want it to get ruined. 

“That would be a cliche, wouldn’t it? I thought you wanted to avoid those?” Tobin said, raising her eyebrows to mirror yours as she pulled out a chair from one the tables, “you’re chair, mon chere?” 

“You can be quite the Gentlelandy miss Heath if I do say so myself,” You smirked, settling into the chair she had pulled out for you, kissing her cheek. 

“Why thank you,” Tobin said, tossing her hair back playfully before settling into her own seat. She grabbed the menu and opened it up. “So, what are you thinking? Asking the barista to make heart-shaped foam? Splitting a pasta dish and reenacting lady and the tramp?”

“I was thinking a cafe mocha with no whip, and I’m pretty sure this place doesn’t sell spaghetti,” you said, setting your chin on your hands, leaning on the table. 

“I think I’ll get a nice chai latte. And a muffin on the side.”

“Lame. How do you live in Portland and hate coffee?” 

“I thought you were supposed to say nice things. We already know each other, this can’t be enemies to lovers AU!”

“You’re still stuck on that?” You asked, sighing when Tobin raised her eyebrow at you. “Fine. How nice of you to choose a predictably unusual drink, and healthy snack for our date. Better?” 

Tobin snorted. “Undeniably.” 

“Good,” you watched her as she placed your orders with the waitress, thinking over what to do. She managed to place the order with her usual level-headedness, but she had the slightest smirk as she turned back to you. It was both loving and a challenge. 

“Babe,” you said, “I literally have no idea how to make this a living coffee shop AU. I can’t remember the last time I read one of those where neither of the characters was a barista.”

“First I think we talk about random things while sipping our drinks, wondering how we get each other so well,” Tobin started, setting your drink on the table in front of you. 

“So basically do what we normally do, but with added pressure?” 

“Yep! Wanna start? You can tell me about that new fanfic writer you’ve been reading? The one who writes the really cute Sonnett fics?”

“Oneanddone has a couple… it’s like they actually know about Snippets from her and Lindsey’s relationship,” You said, your lips ticking up. 

“That sounds fun and not at all creepy,” Tobin said, leaning forward. 

“The best one was where Lindsey flew all the way to Sweden to propose. It was cute, but entirely too cliche,” You winked at Tobin, so she knew you were continuing the joke. “She just showed up and proposed after Emily won the championship and Emily kissed her hard hat and all. Like they would give the fans that much PDA in one shot,” 

“Hmmm, better check for cameras then,” Tobin said, ruffling in her pocket. You heard the sound of candy wrappers, as usual following a movie with her. 

“What?”

Tobin got down from her chair and kneeled in front of you. “Y/M/N, I have liked you since the first day I met you. You were smart, beautiful, and had a hell of a right hook. Watching you on that punching bag was one of the sexiest things I had ever seen, up until the day you agreed to go out on a date with me. And the date after that, and the date after that. I fell in love with a woman who’s not afraid to have an opinion, who will ask to pet every dog she sees, and who loves listening to me rant about any subject over the moon. Now I know you don’t like cliches, so I didn’t get you a diamond,” She pulled her hand out of her pocket and held the ring pop up for you to see, “I got you a cherry. I also have a grape and orange in my purse. Will you marry me?” 

“Yes,” You breathed out, forgoing the ring pop in favor of kissing your girlfriend- fiancé. 

“Such a cliche,” she murmured against your lips, threading her fingers through your hair. 

“Shut up and kiss me,”

[whump-a-la-mode]

Villainsicle | Part 13

I know it’s been a while, and if I’m being completely honest, I really ran out of steam on this story for a while. But, we’re back! If you’re new to my blog and are interested in this story, all of the parts up to this one can be found linked in my pinned info post.

Thank you guys so much for all your support of this series so far! I hope you enjoy this part, too!

Taglist:

@whatwhumpcomments

@sola-whumping

@professional-idiocy

@trappedgoose-in-a-writblr-room

@literally-just-kirby​

@the-polari-person

@teachunks

@daydreamed-snippets-2nd-blog

@sunflower1000

@lightdrinker-blog

@regalwritten

CW//Mentions of bathing, restraints, drugs, dehumanization, conspiracies, collars, talk of diseases, talk of falling, Stockholm syndrome, affectionate caretaker, conditioned whumpee

After their bath, Villain rested.

It wasn’t exactly how Counselor had imagined the whole affair going. Villain had already spent so many days resting, laid up in that same bed, but once they were clean and settled into fresh clothes, they had requested nothing except to be able to return to sleep.

They supposed it wasn’t entirely unexpected. While the bath hadn’t exactly been physically exerting, there had been several instances during it that Villain had nearly burst out in tears. Whatever was going through their mind, it was undeniably intense-- and that wasn’t even mentioning the heavy dose of sedatives coursing through their system.

And, thus, Villain slept. They were unconscious almost immediately upon hitting the mattress.

This time, however, there was no nervous twitching to accompany their unconsciousness. Instead, for the first time, their face showed a perfectly placid expression.

Taking care not to wake the sleeping patient, Counselor draped a fleece blanket overtop of them, tucking its edges in around their shoulders. They twitched, but did not awake. A moment later, they buried their face in the fabric.

Counselor had never before imagined that Villain was even capable of existing in such a calm state. Yet, here they were, looking for all the world as though not even an earthquake could wake them up.

Their gaze flicked to the bedrails. Upon returning to their bed, Villain had not so much as seemed to note the leather-and-foam restraints hanging there.

Yet, Counselor could not draw their gaze away from them.

Villain had been staying in the base for weeks, phasing through various states of aggression and fear and sickness and, on rare occasions, hesitant happiness. But, even after all that time, no one truly knew anything about them.

At least, Counselor knew nothing about them. Based on the way Leader and Medic’s expressions twisted when the prisoner was mentioned, it was clear that the both of them knew more than they were letting on-- but neither was keen to admit as to such.

Maybe Hero had had more luck on this information gathering mission.

But how much information was there really to gather? Officially, Villain had simply appeared on stage a few months ago, alongside two unknowns. More or less, they had acted just as any other villain did.

The other villains, however, had motives. Backstories. They were following orders.

Villain... If anyone on the outside cared about them, they had yet to risk any sort of jailbreak.

There was more to this than the official story, Counselor knew that full well. How much more... as to that, they had no idea.

But they had no need to rely on second hand accounts and official reports to know what Villain was. That much was obvious. They were a villain. Whatever their backstory, whatever their past, they were dangerous.

Right?

Counselor’s gaze drifted back to those restraints. Those simple straps, dangling from a metal bedframe.

At some point, Villain may have been dangerous. But not right now. Right now, they needed help, and that was exactly what Counselor was going to give them.

And, if they wanted that plan to go anywhere, they would have to start with the doctor who harmed their own patient.

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This time, when Medic answered the knocking on their door, their glasses were on the right way around. They blinked a few times, rubbing their eyes, hardly noting as the piping hot cup of coffee was pushed into their hands.

The doctor glanced down at the beverage before looking back up to meet their visitor’s gaze.

“I thought you wanted me to sleep.”

“Well, that was before. For now, we need to talk.”

“If this is decaf again, I swear I’m going to strangle you.”

“It’s not. Though the same threat applies to you if you try to go back to the med bay.”

“I’m a doctor. In fact, I’m our only doctor.”

“I’m a doctor, too.”

“Psychology doesn’t count.”

“Fair enough.”

“If we’re done threatening each other, then, would you care to, I don’t know, tell me why you’re bothering me?”

“As I said, we need to talk.”

“Do I even need to ask what about?”

“I think you already know that. Come on. You have your coffee, so there’s no excuses.”

“You really think I’m going to be that penitent about this?”

“Maybe.”

Medic rolled their eyes, but did not protest any further as Counselor turned and walked off. The two moved to a rather isolated table, tucked away in the corner of a hallway. The cafeteria was far too crowded at the moment to host such a discussion.

On opposite sides of the table, the opposites sat. Two cups of coffee clinked down on the wooden surface.

Counselor took a sip of their drink, placing the cup back down and raising their gaze. Medic frowned, lips turning downwards even further than usual.

“What, are we planning on talking through telepathy or- Come on, Counselor, stop looking at me like that. I hate that.”

“Then are you going to say anything?”

“I can’t read your mind.”

“You said you knew what this was about.”

“Maybe.” Medic shrugged dismissively. The doctor had been horribly standoffish, ever since Villain had been captured. “Doesn’t mean I’m going to start trying to guess your thoughts.”

Counselor took another sip.

“Fine, then. I can start.” Sip. Clink. “Villain told me something very interesting, earlier.”

“You really believe them?”

“I haven’t even said it yet.”

“Then stop wasting time, maybe.”

“Villain says that you’re making them sick.”

Medic’s brows furrowed.

“That’s what they said?”

“Pretty much verbatim, yes.”

“Well.” Medic took a hesitant drink of their coffee. “I don’t know why you’re even wasting your time on a notion like that. What they are is paranoid. I don’t doubt that they think I’m making them sick. Doesn’t mean it’s true.”

“You’re saying that your patient is lying.”

“Maybe not lying. That would imply that they know what they’re saying is not true. They are sick, I will not deny that. And they are not responding to treatment. I can’t say that anything I’ve tried so far has made it any better, but it certainly hasn’t made it worse.”

“Why would they believe such a thing without reason?”

Medic exhaled.

“Because, in Villain’s mind, they do have reason. They have a child’s understanding of medicine. They are sick, and they are under my care and taking my medicines, and thus, in their mind, one of these things has caused the other.”

Counselor cast their gaze downwards, focusing on the way their milk danced its way through the black beverage before them. It was a reasonable explanation. Maybe. They may not have trusted Medic, but they trusted Medic’s abilities as a doctor.

Could Villain really be wrong?

“If they’re wrong...” Counselor began again. “Then what is making them sick? Their incident with hypothermia was weeks ago, now. It can’t still be that?”

“I doubt the two are connected. If this was all a matter of post-hypothermic reactions, then we wouldn’t be seeing these kinds of symptoms.”

“What is it, then?”

Medic bit their bottom lip.

“That’s the problem. I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? They’ve been in your care for... well over a week, now.”

“You think I don’t know that? If you haven’t noticed, I’m the world’s leading expert on Enhanced biology. Not to mention, y’know, an experienced doctor for normal humans. Whatever this is, it’s not a normal sickness. I’ve done every test I can think of.”

“And... it’s getting worse, isn’t it?”

“Not as badly as you might be fearing. Their weakness is worsening, yes, as is their general mental state. But their vitals are fine. They’re not in serious danger of anything, so long as they don’t hurt themself.”

“You think they’d do that?”

“Given just how bad their confusion has been getting? I’m already putting preventative measures in place.”

“Oh.”

Medic raised a brow.

“You thought I restrained them for no reason? I’m not Leader. There are medical regulations about this sort of thing.”

“They’ve been hurting themself?”

“Not what you may be thinking of. But with how bad their weakness has grown, they can’t exactly stand up without aid, at the current moment. Forget walking. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have realized this.”

“They’ve fallen?”

“A few times, yes. If that is all, I was really just starting to enjoy my day off, so-”

“Wait.” Counselor shook their head. “People don’t get sick for no reason.”

“Congrats, you know a basic medical fact.”

“You know what I mean. You’re the smartest person I know. You must have, I don’t know, a theory? A hypothesis? Anything?”

Medic blinked, placing down their cup.

“I do. Though right now, I have no way of proving it.”

“What is it?”

“Villain has what we call... psionic powers. Powers that affect only a person’s brain, but not their physical body. It’s the rarest type of power, oftentimes because something you can’t see is often something you can’t detect. Thus, this group of powers is poorly understood, to say the least. But I’m sure you know what power fatigue looks like for other Enhanced.”

“Like when Hero broke their leg?” Counselor guessed.

“Yes. The simple act of overexerting ones powers, even without outside injury, can cause physical injuries like that to develop.”

“You think Villain’s having power fatigue?”

“It’s my best guess. It would check all the boxes. An undetectable illness affecting the brain, but nothing else. A never before seen condition.”

“But... is it something you can cure?”

“I can’t cure tiredness.” Medic shook their head. “That’s really not how it works. I can do my best to counteract the symptoms, but so long as the source is still there, I’d be fighting uphill.”

“Then what can you do?”

“I can remove the source.” The tiniest smirk crept onto the doctor’s countenance. “Power fatigue is caused not by using ones powers, but using them in a way that the body cannot handle. At least, as far as we can tell. If Villain can control their powers enough, their symptoms should go away.”

“You really think so?”

“I hesitate to guarantee anything. Not with how poorly understood the condition is.” That smirk fell, replaced by Medic’s resting expression of annoyance. “But training them to use their powers properly is the only way I can see them getting any better.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure. I’m also sure that I would really like to go back to my quarters. If you’re done bothering me?”

Counselor bit their tongue.

“Fine.”

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Counselor had momentarily considered returning to their own quarters, but had quickly decided against it, instead turning to the kitchen. They had yet to eat that morning, as had Villain. They figured that a warm meal might help them shake off the sedatives.

And, maybe, some food would make Counselor’s own stomach stop twisting.

They only made it halfway to the kitchen, however, when in the hallway, they nearly slammed into Hero. The two both yelped, and a slosh of Counselor’s coffee slopped to the floor.

“Shit, sorry, are you okay?” Hero asked. There was considerable nerve in their voice.

Counselor nodded. “You just started me, ‘s all.” They glanced down at the spilling coffee now sitting on the tile floor. “I’ll, uh, get that later. I was just heading to the kitchen.”

“Oh. Um, could it wait?”

“I need to bring Villain something to eat.”

“Can it wait?”

“What-”

Counselor’s gaze drifted to Hero’s twitching hand.

“You have something?”

“Mhm. I don’t think it’s going to take very long.”

“Can I see?”

“Not here. Not with everyone else around.”

Counselor raised their brows quizzically, but nodded.

“To your quarters, then?”

“I guess that’s as good of a place as any.”

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As soon as Counselor was out of sight, Medic changed their trajectory.

The musty air that filled their lab acted on them like a drug, sending a calm shiver down their spine. If they had the day off (or if they were being forced to take it off), there was no way they were going to spend that precious little free time moping in their quarters. Not when they could be here.

They sat, the memory foam of their desk chair still molded to their form. The laptop before them booted up with a familiar chirp and bright pink screensaver, written upon in white text:

“Property of Organization. Unauthorized Use Is Unlawful.” 

The grainy selection of videos blinked before them, and they selected the next one in the series. Even if they didn’t have access to their Asset at the current moment, they could at the very least work ahead.

The screen fizzled to life in all its low-definition glory, displaying a familiar room, its walls plastered with protective black rubber, and its tile floor made of the same material.

The presenter wore a bandage on their face, covering the side of their jaw. The gauze warped as they smiled, but they seemed to make no note of it.

Beside them, the presenter’s own Asset stood. The muzzle around their face had been modified, its metal warped as to compress its wearer’s jaw, to the point that even breathing was an impossibility.

Extreme, perhaps, but based on the Asset’s behavior, it was warranted.

Though their movements were weak and unbalanced, they were persistent, not ceasing yanking against their leash for the slightest moment. This time, unlike before, the presenter seemed to be paying attention to them, though they did not seem worried.

“It has been some time since we last spoke.” They began. “I apologize for the delay, but, hopefully, it will not happen again. After all, training our Assets is a full time job.”

A smile. Cheerful, stretching their cheeks.

“Unfortunately, I must report that the recent delay we experienced was as a result of my own Asset lashing out. This was unfortunate, but it made me realize that there is a flaw in my training methods. A flaw I seek to instruct you, today, on how to remedy.

One advantage we trainers have is that we have 24/7 access to our Assets. As we take care of them, we can choose to meet their needs in whatever way we see fit.

Deprivation has always been a part of Asset training, since we pioneered our methods. But it was something I, unfortunately and unwisely, neglected. And I have done you all a disservice by not mentioning it to you.

In order for training to truly take effect, there must be room in an Asset’s mind for it to fit. A reason for them to follow. Fear, certainly, is this reason, but there are other aspects to control.

Following my Asset’s incident, we have been working using these methods of deprivation. Depriving your Asset of things such as nutrients, water, and sleep can significantly speed up and solidify your training. In this lesson, we will go over this, and how it can help you improve your training methods.”

The presenter’s smile was matched by their Asset’s wicked snarl. From the corners of their mouth, licks of flame emerged, just for the slightest moment.

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Hero handled the flash drive as though it were a bomb.

Perhaps it was, if the writing on the device was at all to be believed. Scrawled on in sharpie, a hastily written yet well received warning.

“Property of Organization. Unauthorized Use Is Unlawful.” 

As if Organization cared about the law.

Hero seated themself in their office chair, leaving Counselor to sit a few feet back, on their bed. They almost flinched, plugging the flashdrive into their laptop.

For a moment, the computer hummed, before it reported chipperly that new files had been added.

“Uh, Hero?”

“Yeah?”

“Where did you get this thing?”

“Leader gave it to me.”

“Did they say what it was.”

Hero shook their head. “That’s what we’re about to find out.”

Still moving terribly nervously, Hero opened the folder that the computer had created for these ‘new files.’

“It’s... videos.”

“Videos?”

“A couple of them, yeah.”

“Should we... play them?”

“I don’t- I don’t know. I mean, if Organization is involved, I’m not sure I want to know what’s on them.”

“It could help Villain.”

Hero sighed, dipping their head.

“I hate when you’re right.”

With deft fingers, they selected the first video.

It had been so long, since any of them had seen Traitor. More than that, it had been so long since any of them had seen Traitor smile.

And yet, that was what they were doing. Grinning, ear to ear, eyes locked upon the camera.

“Hello, everyone, and welcome to the second edition of the Asset Training Video Course. If you are confused, the first edition of this series was, unfortunately, cut short due to... an incident. We will all miss our last presenter, but that does not mean that our duties can be shirked.”

Traitor turned, looking offscreen, calling:

“Veni huc.”

The language the words were in was clearly not English, but the person who moved on-screen did not seem concerned by that fact.

Villain smiled as well, though their warm gaze had an inquisitive quality to it as they regarded the camera. A chain-link collar was arranged about their neck, but it was attached to nothing, and seemed to more or less hang limply.

“For this series, I will be demonstrating all you need to know about Asset training. This, here, is my own Asset, Cadet. As you can tell, they are very well trained, if I do say so myself. They will be helping me show you how to train your own assigned Asset.”

Traitor’s hand reached for Villain, who did not flinch a moment. Their hand ruffled Villain’s hair affectionately.

Villain smiled, and leaned into the touch.

[deliriumsdelight7]

Sorry to shock you, but I have a lot of questions lol.

😅🥺🤡😈🛒💋⛔️🍦🌞💖💌❌🎃👀🧠 (for Chrissy!) 🤩🤲🏼🥰?

I am SHOCKED! lol. I'll skip the ones I've already answered.

😅 What's a story or scene you've created that you're a smidge embarrassed exists?

Uhhhh... Cursed Ties, for the Rumbelle fandom. It's, uh, gonna deal with a kink that's squicky for some. If I can ever get them to the point where they stop angsting and just bang.

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

Ooh, yes. When Character A has had to rely on themselves all their life, and Character B helps them to realize that it's okay to need to lean on someone now and then? That's the good stuff.

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

I can't think of anything offhand. If I do, I'll come back to this.

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

"Eyes slamming shut like a portcullis" probably makes its way into half the fics I write. As well as the phrase "screwing their courage to some manner of sticking place." I read it somewhere - no clue where - and I've blatantly stolen it. Apart from that, though, I like to think I mix things up a lot.

💋 First kiss fics. Love em or hate em?

Don't mind reading 'em. Not interested in writing 'em. I prefer angst and smut.

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

Probably somewhere, yeah.

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

Not really. Any time of day works for me.

💖 What made you start writing?

What made me start writing after a 15 year hiatus was the 12th episode of Once Upon a Time, "Skin Deep." UNREAL chemistry between the actors. Seems to be my catnip.

💌 How do you feel about comments and feedback?

I feel like they're not just welcome, but absolutely necessary. Fic writers cannot make money off of their work, which means anything they write is unpaid labor. This can be hours upon hours of blood, sweat, and tears being poured into something that is then posted for people to enjoy for free. Having participated in a dying fandom where I'm lucky to get a comment or two, and now having moved to one where my fic chapters get tons of engagement, I can tell you that getting little to no feedback on fic is incredibly demoralizing. I view commenting on fic similarly to how tipping is viewed in American restaurants. In an ideal world, the person whose services you enjoyed would be compensated fairly for their labor. But in that absence, it is up to the consumer to make up the difference. If you don't have the money to tip, you don't have the money to eat out. If you don't have the spoons to take thirty seconds to comment on fic, you don't have the spoons to read it.

🎃 Do you write fics for certain holidays? Which is your favorite holiday inspired fic?

I only have one so far, and it was basically a retelling of "The Holiday" with Once Upon a Time characters.

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

I don't think I could pick just one. Chances are if I'm writing a pairing, it's because I adore both characters in said pairing.

🤲 Would you please share a snippet of a wip?

Here's a snippet from a oneshot I'm stuck in. It's post season 4, canon-ish where Eddie survives and Chrissy... "survives."

Not for the first time, Chrissy’s throat tightened with guilt. This was the place where it had all started. Where her life ended, and Eddie’s life had started the freefall to the madness that had led him here. If he’d never agreed to sell to her… if he’d met with her anywhere else… his life would be infinitely better. He’d have graduated - she just knew it - and gotten out of Hawkins. Those big dreams of his would’ve brought him to a big city to match - New York, or LA, or somewhere where he and his band would make it big.

Instead, he was here. Trapped in a hellscape with only her for company. The entire world at his fingertips if he crossed over, barred from him by accusations for murders he didn’t commit. Starting with her own.

“Do you ever regret it?” she blurted before she could stop herself.

He glanced at her curiously. “Regret what, sunshine?”

She winced. This question had been plaguing her since the moment they’d found each other. But she could never bring herself to ask before now. She dreaded the answer too much.

Still, she had to finish what she’d started. “Do you ever regret… y’know. Meeting me in the woods that day? Selling to me?”

🥰 How do you feel about reader interaction? Are you open to receiving questions about your fics?

I love love love reader interactions! I do TMI Tuesdays to invite exactly that. I love getting questions about fics, or questions directed to my characters. It keeps me motivated to keep writing.

[gracelesslady23]

absolutely Love your prongsfoot fics!,!!I am curious about ur vampire and injustice wips. loved that azkaban snippet, it was deliciously angsty!!!

Thanks so much for the compliment and the ask! (super glad you liked the angsty Azkaban snippet too – I’m so excited to one day post that fic 😊)

The Vampire WIP was my original plan for my fic for James Potter fest I realised was way too ambitious for the timeline lol. (I ended up submitting this fic for the fest 😊).

The WIP fic takes the concept of Vampire Hunter James and Vampire Sirius much further… Sirius and James both come from a long line of Vampires and Vampire Hunters, respectively. They meet accidently when they are very young and quickly become fast friends until Fleamont discovers just who his son has become friends with and their friendship splits apart.

Many years later James (who is a fully fledged hunter in his own right) gets seriously injured in a raid against Vampire Bellatrix gone wrong and is admitted to hospital. Sirius who has split from his family at that point works in the hospital and uncovers Bellatrix’s plan to finish James off. Remembering his old friend fondly, despite the fact that James now openly hates all vampires including Sirius, Sirius pretty much abducts James to keep him safe… While hiding out at Sirius’s place while James recovers and completely despite themselves they can’t help but be drawn to each other’s personality (as well as being extremely physically attracted to each other lol). Basically my attempt at a enemies to lovers with a vampire spin.

Here's a snippet:

~~~

Sirius rubbed his palms nervously over his jeans. If were capable of it, he was sure his palms would be sweating profusely.

“So…” Remus said after far too long of a pause, “you’ve kidnapped a vampire hunter.”

Sirius cringed.

“I didn’t kidnap him.”

Remus tore his eyes away from the sleeping body on the bed to regard Sirius with deeply unimpressed look.

“You hypnotised to sleep, carted him from the hospital where he was receiving medical treatment, brought him to your apartment and now he’s asleep in your bed. I’m keen to hear what you would call it?”

“Saving him?” Sirius offered, the tipping up of his last syllable sounding completely unconvincing even to his own ears. “He killed Rodolphus and almost Bellatrix. It was only a matter of time before Bellatrix found him again and finished him off. Come on Remus, what was I supposed to do? At least here, I can protect him.”

Remus looked down at the snoring lump that was James Potter.

“Just leave him.”

“Remus, you must see reason – ”

“No, you need to see reason. I suspect the only reason he is not currently trying to kill you is because he is asleep.”

~~~

I don’t know if other writers do this, but Injustice is an idea that I love but have put on hold until I become a much better writer and can actually do it some justice (pun intended :P). So, I haven’t really got a snippet for it, but I have got a very large planning document!

Its an AU where Sirius never went to Hogwarts so he and James never met. James is magical lawyer (he mostly lives off his inheritance and takes on cases for the downtrodden pro bono). Anyway Regulus Black turns up at his office and he’s about to turn him away immediately – because why would the Black’s of all people need his services, the Blacks were usually the people James was defending against, not working for!

However, he is intrigued by Regulus’s story… a couple of years before Sirius caused a huge scandal in the wizarding world by confessing to losing his mind and killing twelve muggles as well as his own mother. He was sent to Azkaban never to be released, but Regulus maintains that it wasn’t Sirius that killed them and instead he was taking the fall for their unwell (now deceased) father. James does some of his own research and becomes fascinated not just by the murder itself (and upon inspection how neither Sirius’s confession nor Regulus’s version of events entirely match up with the evidence), but also by Sirius himself. Ultimately James falls for Sirius through character witnesses, stories of his accomplishments and pictures, etc. before they even actually meet, at the same time as trying to uncover the truth of who is actually responsible for the crime Sirius was imprisoned for.

[luna-rainbow]

Sorry, didn't mean to go off on in response to that ask 😬😖 but it's so frustrating how both Sam and Bucky got nerfed so hard in regards to their abilities. Idk whether it's laziness, or lack of understanding around fight choreography or what.

I remember watching as it aired, and Bucky's downgrading was so obvious to the point of it being painful (like the fight on the trucks. Barely able to stay upright in a fight against untrained (albeit) super soldier's, when we have literally witnessed him mowing through multiple highly trained super soldiers before.)

But after it finished, and after rewatching tws and cw it struck me how much they downgraded Sam too. We've only seen him fight in short snippets before, but he is highly competent. And there's no doubt in my mind that he's even better than what we've seen.

They didn't have to downgrade Bucky in order to showcase Sam, because Sam was already on par with Bucky, just with a different skillset/fighting style. They could have been presented as equals, and complementary to each other, but instead they... Idk even what they did really. It's sort of like they pitted their styles against each other's instead of using it as an opportunity to show how they grew and worked together as a team. Idk... Sorry to rant in your inbox, feel free to ignore 😅

(Yay I finally got the chance to answer! (And sorry it got super long)

Honestly I’m on a bit of a TFATWS criticism spree here so please stop reading if you love this show.

I think the problem is (at minimum) twofold:

A) Most of the action scenes only served to move people from place to place without regard to what this meant for their characterisations.

The net result is that out of all the characters it was John Walker who got the main character treatment of having a logical character arc and fight scenes that all served to build on his character.

1 - Truck fight: Sam and Bucky are BOTH nerfed in order for Walker to save them. This was supposed to establish Walker as well-intentioned and on par with our heroes. Except both Sam and Bucky were clearly punching wayyyy below their movie level while waiting for him to arrive. 2 - Wakandan fight: This fight served as a turning point for John as he became overwhelmed by a sense of inadequacy. However, to set up this fight, SAM went out of character to stop John from taking Zemo (this part was completely inane because Zemo ran away after this so clearly they didn't need him). And don't get me started on how Bucky went out of character to upset the Wakandans in the first place to set up this fight. 3 - Lemar/Flag Smasher death fight: I mean, let's be real, the protagonist of this entire fight was John. The target was John, the death was John's friend, the one who underwent major character evolution was John. Sam and Bucky were both on the sidelines, pulling their punches (although there's adequate in-plot justification for this). 4 - John vs Sam & Bucky fight: I already wrote half a chapter with Sam raging at Bucky's awful fighting style here so I'm not going to do it again LOL. But even SAM was brought down a peg to let John be a threat. Sam landed like...3 punches before he was pinned down and had his wings ripped off. And the characterisation in this fight? I'd say it built more of John getting deranged with the serum (don't @ me, he aimed for Sam and Bucky's heads multiple times while they were down)...with maybe a character beat for Sam coming to terms with the shield at the end. 5 - Final fight: Sam got some good sequences (I'm not sold on the Batroc fight), but John was able to finish off his character arc by a redemption. I'm not going to comment on Bucky because it will just remind me of Spellman's infuriating quote.

In other words, John was the only one in the series where the fights themselves told a coherent story, and in fact Sam and Bucky’s characters were warped to facilitate this. Examined purely from the quality of character development to the care paid to consistency and continuity, you’d think John was the main character, and that’s just...ironic.

B) A conscious decision to make Sam and Bucky not carry any arms against the Flag Smashers.

I feel like this is to parallel current events with Sam and Bucky representing police, and the Flag Smashers representing POC youths. Without getting into whether this allegory is appropriate or effective: it takes away what Sam and Bucky have been using in previous movies. Sam was always backed up by guns in the air, and Bucky also either used guns or knives. The easy fallback is to say that they seem weaker because they're not using weapons anymore, but it doesn't have to be this way.

As I said in my earlier post, Gundam Seed showed it is absolutely possible to have a main character who is staunchly non-lethal but still kicks major ass.

I know Kira has a lot of detractors but here's his signature move: disarm enemy armoured suits without killing the pilots. (GIF by mecha-gifs)

I know this is obviously a completely different type of fighting but Kira, as a main character, sustained this philosophy for the majority of 2 seasons of 50 episodes. He also started off in a basic suit which doesn't let him disarm multiple enemies like this, so his earlier fights were all "hand to hand" fights but he still managed to (mostly) avoid killing people. What I mean is, if they really tried, they could definitely make Sam and Bucky kick ass while being non-lethal. They just...didn't try.

[iclaimedtobethebetterbard]

Before the beginning for the writing meme!!

ooooh tyvm!!!

BEFORE THE BEGINNING — three sentences (or more) about something that happened before the plot of my current project

continuing the lovely trend of "i have too many wips so we're doing all 3 of the most active ones for these prompts":

the brand new Baby Janus Angst Story:

yes, i could have summarized this, but it was more fun to write it out as a tiny scene with no context to explain what's happening. (actually i will give one very small drop of context, which is to say to refer to the 2 opening lines i posted for this story here.)

"Logan, I'm boooooored," Patton begged. "Please come play? You've been over there forever!"

"I am investigating," Logan repeated stubbornly, hooking the wooden hammer from Thomas's toy tool set around the knob of the faintly-glowing door and tugging. "I need to figure it out."

"But it's still the same as it's been all week," Patton protested. "You already know everything about it so far! We can't open it. It's boring. Playing without you is boring. Come ooooon! Pleeeeease!"

"It is not either the same." Logan pointed firmly at the door. "It has an apple on it today. And the light is a different color, it's yellow now. I need to investigate."

Patton heaved a sigh and plopped to the floor, staring down the hall and watching Logan continue his mysterious experiments. He had Thomas's toy science kit out now. The kit was great for playing potions. But Patton knew better than to suggest they play potions while Logan was focused like this.

Patton dug in the pocket of his hoodie until he found one of the cookies he'd stashed there this morning, only slightly crumbly, and began nibbling at it morosely. He hoped that whatever was happening with the door would finish soon. He was just as curious as Logan, and a lot more excited about the idea of maybe a new friend like he thought was probably inside, it was true. But waiting was maybe his least favorite thing in the whole world. After being lonely when Logan left him alone and wouldn't play.

if you're going my way, i'll go with you chapter 7:

see. see i could have chosen to be nice and write a few sentences of analogical fluff about them waking up in each other's arms the morning after rescuing roman. bc that happens between chapters 5 and 6. however, i am far too invested in hurting both the characters and my readers. so instead of analogical fluff, you get a few sentences that will be the conclusion to a flashback chapter we'll get eventually (when i feel like making people cry). it technically does take place before the beginning of chapter 7 bc it takes place way before (like over 5 years before) the beginning of the entire fic. enjoy >:D

He let the car door fall shut and watched, almost numb, as it drove away. It turned a corner and vanished from sight.

Remus’s legs gave out from under him and he collapsed to sit on the edge of the sidewalk, pulling his knees to his chest and shaking all over, staring into the distance with unfocused eyes, breath ragged and harsh and loud. 

It was not quite eight o'clock on the morning of his eighteenth birthday, and Remus Kingsley was all alone. 

one chance to change your fate chapter 10:

here, have a little snippet from a piece that uh. i probably cannot publish/nobody will read it if i do. bc it is the story of janus and patton's dads slowly falling in love years and years before the fic starts. so they are the main characters. and they are ocs. janus and patton are technically there but also they are children. so. it barely even counts as a fanfiction at this point, it's just straight up an original piece in the same au as the fanfiction. bc i am way too attached to the dads and have fleshed out basically their entire life stories. oops lol.

but anyway this is from the scene where janus calls arun pop instead of patton's pop for the first time :) which happened before the dads actually got together, bc they were really really close for a long time beforehand :D and it's really cute and soft and good!!

(side note of great importance, there is another equally cute scene of the first time patton called philippe dad instead of janus's dad, also before the dads actually got together, also bc of how very close they all were even before the dads got together. philippe cried, it was adorable.)

Janus’s eyes widened. “I did it?”

Arun chucked them under the chin. “You sure did.”

“Dad!” The nine-year-old all but launched from the couch, darting across the room to the kitchen. “Dad, come see—c’mon—” They grabbed Philippe by the sleeve and tugged him over to the coffee table. “Look what Pop showed me how to do!” They seized the page of math problems and held it up triumphantly. “Didn’t I—”

Arun saw the exact instant that Janus realized they’d said “Pop.” The child froze, shoulders tensing and eyes going huge, the snake pupil in their left eye narrowing to a razor-thin slit of panic and the human side of their face going pale.

Philippe half-reached for his child, but Arun was quicker. He leaned over and ruffled Janus’s hair. “You did it exactly right, kiddo,” he said, striving to keep his tone as casual and warm as could be, to convey safe and okay and good without openly acknowledging what had just occurred and making it a bigger deal out of it to the already-tense child before him. Janus hated for attention to be brought to their mistakes, and while this was in Arun’s opinion possibly the farthest thing from a mistake Janus had ever done, he still wanted to be mindful of his reaction for the sake of the child's comfort.

[ask me about my writing projects!]

[mostly-mundane-atla]

Well I got at least two people interested (@esmeralda-anistasia and @deathsmallcaps) so why not.

Quick disclaimer: I understand that some fans can be very sensitive to this topic and take general criticisms as personal attacks and jump to the defensive. Please don't justify your ships to me if you have that reaction to anything said in this post. It's not my business and if I'm honest I really don't care. Your experiences are not mine and will not change mine and nothing I'm about to say is meant to be read as an insult.

Okay onto the rarepairs in question!

I was ten years old when the episode Zuko Alone first aired and Ursa fascinated me. She was so elegant and sweet, and yet the implication was that she was also capable of assassination. Her disappearence and the fact everyone involved kept pretty hush-hush about her gave her character an air of mystery and Zuko's memories involving her made him a great deal more interesting and sympathetic (i still rolled my eyes every time he showed up and thought he didn't deserve all the cute moments with Mai until The Day of Black Sun, and even then still thought Jet was cooler in every way, but you can't please them all). She had quickly become a favorite character and I've held onto that adoration for about 15 years now.

I also really wanted her to kiss Hakoda.

They had compatible personalities and deserved some luck in love after all the heartbreak and trials, and they both loved their children despite having to leave. Ursa was never treated as dead, just gone. She could have been anywhere and there was nothing to say she couldn't have crossed paths with Hakoda and his men.

There was also something about it I didn't quite have the words or media exposure to explain. Often, in fandom or canon, if a relationship is biracial, the partner who is fairer-skinned and/or of the dominant or invading culture, who the audience sees themselves in, is the man and the one who is darker-skinned and/or marginalized or colonized is the woman (heteronormativity got a head start on this one). There's a lot of ugly "taming the savage" rhetoric in this, usually paired with blatant misogyny that's supposed to be in the woman's favor (like suggesting that a woman could only be complicit in this culture because it was what she was told and didn't know any better). The woman's family and friends who oppose this are depicted as unfairly prejudiced against this strange man as if their distaste for people who can be or have been responsible for things like genocide or subjugation is the same as the other side seeing these people as deserving of genocide or subjugation for the crime of not being like them. Sometimes it's the other way around, where the partner seen as "more civilized" is the woman and the one seen as "less civilized" is the man, in which case the woman is often abducted or otherwise the man's defining feature is his brutishness. This supposed brutishness is both intimidating and attractive to the oh so delicate if a bit repressed captive/wife (as well as the audience) and can manifest as being fiercely protective of her, which is how he shows his affection if there is a language barrier between them. And if you grow up Native, this is easy to pick up on and often in the back of your mind, because at least 90% of your media representation likely has some aspect mentioned above.

(Man that was a lot of academic style analysis)

But the dynamic between Hakoda and Ursa wouldn't leave room for any of that. Hakoda, as an absent parent backstory, is defined by having to leave despite how much he loved and would miss his children. Ursa, as an absent parent backstory, is defined by the crime she was willing to commit for her children (for Zuko specifically, but how long would it actually take for Azula to shoot her mouth off at the wrong place and time and also be targeted by Azulon?). Ursa was the one whose willingness to kill sent her fleeing into the night. The culture of her nation betrayed her and made her choose between her own safety and that of at least one of her children. Hakoda is charismatic and a good leader, but he is also soft spoken and understanding, and above all else, gentle. He isn't here to hurt innocents. He's here to see to it that the next generation of his people will not fear invaders or raids or even know that snow can be black from soot. And he's someone Ursa can finally feel safe around and confide in, and she could be the same for him. Someone he doesn't have to be the leader for, to whom he can admit that he just wants to be home and let the tears fall.

I'm honest enough to admit that one of the reasons I liked The Search was that Ikem wore his hair a lot like Hakoda did and that was close enough to it being canon for me.

Another one is Jin/Smellerbee. Something about their personalities strikes me as being so wonderfully harmonious and I like to imagine Jin, smooth-talking and streetwise but still the most genuine person, being the one to sit Smellerbee, who never really got a chance to think about these things, down and explain that anything she might be is okay. That it's okay to not be in love with a guy friend who gave her a purpose and loyal companionship. That it's okay to like girls. That she can have more than one partner. That it's okay to be different from what's considered normal and proper and not have an easy word to describe it. And eventually she'd realize it's true. And eventually she'd realize that she wasn't teasing when she called her beautiful in a wild sort of way.

I also like to think that Smellerbee clearly has more specialized fighting skills and is very good at what she does but Jin is strong enough to bench press her no problem. And Smellerbee acts all tough (because she is) but blushes whenever Jin calls her cute or pretty because she's not used to it.

Sometimes Longshot is involved too. Not as a third wheel or the exact same kind of partner, more like a ghibli style relationship with Smellerbee. Like is it a gentle romance? Is it an intimate friendship? It's love and they know that and don't have to define it by others' perception. And Jin gives Longshot kisses so he doesn't feel left out, which gets him a bit bashful because she really could have anyone, she already has Smellerbee of all people, and she still finds him deserving of a peck on the cheek. They probably all bunk together.

This actually started from a fic I wrote but don't intend on posting more than snippets of. Basically, i was tired of a lot of fanfic tropes, especially those having to do with friends to lovers and soulmates (this world is not kind to aromantics and the last thing I wanted in my escapism was romance being established as a level up for relationships), so I wrote something to actively subvert all of them. Jet and Smellerbee were each convinced they owed the other a romantic relationship after all they'd been through together, even though neither actually wanted it, because that's how all the stories go. So after he dies, she remembers all those times that would have been romantic if either was actually interested, but were instead just uncomfortable because it was entirely social convention and no feeling. But then she comes across Jin, who she's never met before, but who takes her in her arms and reassures her and sympathizes with her, and in this tiny apartment in this seedy side of town, she feels safe. She seeks permission for every touch and kiss and tells her this encounter doesn't have to be anything she isn't comfortable with. And when Smellerbee has to leave, Jin insists she take a candle to light her way, and winks when she says she can return it the day after. She gives her an excuse to visit again. And Smellerbee blushes and accepts it.

And then there's Teo/Haru and Teo/Ty Lee. No special reason I just think both would make a cute couple and want Teo to be happy. He's a good boy, more people should love him. Let him impress people with wheelchair tricks and get smooched.

[pencilofawesomeness]

Fics I Absolutely Adore and Would Recommend to Anyone

I’ve been meaning to do this for a long, long time, because I love reading fanworks and they deserve a lot of love and I love sharing things that I love. 

Obviously this isn’t everything, and if it’s not on this list that doesn’t mean I don’t love it, it just means I forgot at this moment. I will be adding to the list and I remember things or come across it again. (Trying to sort through my bookmarks and subscriptions is like trying to catch a fish bare-handed.) I’m also gonna shy away from the one-shots, even though I adore fun one-shots, just for the sake of organization. The list would be super long otherwise, and those are best sorted by fandom. Here... Here are just some brilliant works I want to rant about. 

Disclaimer: I say “recommend” because I would recommend these works, any time any place, but do keep in mind the story’s rating and tags and stuff. Not everything is kid-friendly.

There is absolutely no hierarchy to the list below. They are added as I add.

Fairy Dance of Death

by Catsy ( @fairydanceofdeath​ )

Fandom: Sword Art Online Word Count: 660,282 Status: ongoing

「AU reboot of the entire SAO storyline, beginning from the premise that Kayaba Akihiko was obsessed with magic and Norse Mythology rather than swords and pure melee. As a result, he created the Death Game of Alfheim Online rather than the floating castle of Aincrad—a world in which player-killing is not a crime, and the nine player races are in competition with each other to reach the top of the World Tree. Multi-POV epic following the stories of multiple canon characters throughout the game.」

If Catsy wrote the SAO light novels and anime, SAO would be among the legendary series. Fairy Dance of Death has this amazingly simple premise of making Alfheim Online, the video game from the original series’ less-than-stellar second part, the game that the main cast becomes trapped in. However, it’s so much more. They took the characters and made them characters, and everyone gets ample spotlight—even background characters that normally wouldn’t receive a second thought. It’s masterful work, and to boot, there is a lovely frame of in-game mystery and player conflict. The organization is phenomenal and I aspire to world-build the way they did. Not to mention that stakes are so much higher and this series has ripped my heart to shreds more than once. 

It has also brought me great joy, and even when I was in the dumps and didn’t want to read anything, a FDOD update made me pick up my phone and read when I otherwise wouldn’t have. It has a really special place in my heart. It updates once in a blue moon, but that’s okay. 

Even if you have never seen a single piece of Sword Art Online, Fairy Dance of Death is still a great read. In fact, it’s the Better Version of SAO, if we’re all being honest, so I would especially recommend it if you hadn’t seen the original. Or if you have. The characters are given so much love and detail, to the point where Fairy Dance of Death’s characterizations are More Canon to me than Kawahara Reki’s work. It is just a beautiful piece of fiction, and it makes you question the depravity of man on levels that SAO shied away from. 

Poisoned Dreams

by StrangeDiamond

Fandom: Genshin Impact Word Count: 82,852 Status: Complete, with a complete sequel and more to come

「 Every night now, Diluc dreams of death. Usually Kaeya's. In between these nightmares his life is falling apart. It doesn't take Kaeya long to realize that this is something much more insidious than simple bad dreams. His brother's life and sanity are on the line and there is nothing Kaeya won't do to save him. Bonus chapter added.」

In a growing fandom from a new game, StrangeDiamond swooped in and characterized these bad boys so well I think it’s canon. It really breathes life into the video game lore, and it’s an A+ depiction of awkward sibling re-bonding post-Terrible-Happenings. Poisoned Dreams can be read alone with a basic understanding of Genshin storybuilding, but StrangeDiamond has an entire group of fics and oneshots set in the same headcanon, and they integrate them really well and subtly together. Not to mention that the narrative style is really clever with making you question what is real and what is dream (a big point in this story) and the inner voices of the point-of-view characters are very compelling. 

One Word to Change the World

by AgentMalkere 

Fandom: Fairy Tail Collective Word Count: 43,988 (30 parts) Status: probably never coming back

「 In just one universe, Ultear called out to her mother instead of turning away and the fate of Fairy Tail and the world was irrevocably altered. These are glimpses of a world where a single word made all the difference.

In other words, welcome to the Butterfly Effect - Fairy Tail style. 」

It’s a really cute canon-divergent, and while the series makes no attempt to re-write Fairy Tail, it addresses the major events and just snippets in between. It does a good job at giving the vast cast ample spotlight, but it’s also an easy read. It’s special to me because it was the series that made me really pay attention to Bickslow in particular, and I respect that.

Vigilantis Pretium Libertatis

by aradian_nights 

Fandom: Attack on Titan Word Count: 399,226 Status: Complete

「 Five years ago, an accident freed Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, and Armin Arlelt from an experiment that forced the most extraordinary powers onto them. After five years of separation, of being raised apart to be heroes by a set of three very different adults, they meet again. As they uncover the truth behind their captivity they realize being free and being heroes are sadly nothing but an illusion. 」

This wrecked me.

I still remember when I read it. It was the beginning of 2018, and I had the flu and a lot of time on my hands, so I binge-read this. It was simultaneously the best and the worst thing I have ever done, because I resonated with it so deeply there were times I was just staring up at the ceiling wondering what was real. I empathized with the characters to a level I rarely achieve, and I empathize easily. I laughed. I cried. It was amazing.

I refer to this story in conversation to this day. It handled themes published authors have only dreamed of achieving. Heck, if Dani (the author) took out the names of the AoT cast and replaced it with new ones, it could be its own stand alone novel. It is worldbuilding from the ground up, and any fandom knowledge you take in with you is used against you like a knife leveraged against your throat. Yet, no one is out of character. It’s phenomenal. I would say more, but this is something I daren’t spoil for anybody, because you must be as wrecked as I was. Vigilantis Pretium Libertatis is a level of writing I achieve to gain as a writer myself. It is a masterpiece in every sense of the word.

Life in Glass Houses

by blueskyscribe ( @blueskyscribe​ )

Fandom: Transformers (Transformers Prime, Transformers: Shattered Glass) Word Count: 119,900 Status: Ongoing (maybe, I hope)

「 No one would have thought Bumblebee and Knock Out were capable of getting along, but when they're stuck in a strange new world and their only hope of survival is cooperation . . . Yeah, they're probably doomed. 」

I could be biased because Knock Out and Bumblebee are two of my favorite characters, but it really is brilliant. Two enemies, stuck together—but not in an overly cliché way. It’s the right amount of cliché, with heaps moral conflict and inner conflict and sometimes just beating each other with a broom when no one is looking. It’s also a fascinating look into what makes a character the way they are in relation to the morals they possess, and how stalwart those morals can be. I can’t help but think of this story whenever I see or write a “role reverse” or mirror-verse AU. It does an excellent job at making all of the characters engaging and their own character, despite being in a mirror-verse.

Yesterday Upon the Stair

by PitViperOfDoom ( @pitviperofdoom​ )

Fandom: My Hero Academia Word Count: 424,070 Status: Complete

「 Midoriya Izuku has always been written off as weird. As if it's not bad enough to be the quirkless weakling, he has to be the weird quirkless weakling on top of it.

But truthfully, the "weird" part is the only part that's accurate. He's determined not to be a weakling, and in spite of what it says on paper, he's not actually quirkless. Even before meeting All-Might and taking on the power of One For All, Izuku isn't quirkless.

Not that anyone would believe it if he told them. 」

As a person who normally doesn’t read these kind of minor canon divergences, especially at the time of reading, I frickin’ love this fic. In fact, I think YUTS gave me a deep appreciation for canon divergence fics. It’s MHA in all of its glory but it’s so much more, and even the parts that rehash canon give new light to the characters and their points of view. 

I had read Viper’s work before and saw Yesterday Upon the Stair filling my inbox, and then I finally watched My Hero Academia. It was one of the first MHA fics I read and it still has a very special place in my heart. I recommend this series to people who don’t even watch MHA; in fact, there are some who might prefer the darker tones and themes of heroism vs apathy to the main series. Not to mention the writing style is phenomenal, and I aspire to be that good. It made me laugh. It made me cry. Yes, tears streaming down my face crying. It is the best ghost story I have ever read.

the Vantage Point Universe

by Aggie2011 ( @aggie2011whoop​ )

Fandom: The Avengers (MCU) Collective Word Count: 1,032,651 (35 parts) Status: Ongoing (just slowed down)

「 Six months after the Loki incident, Clint isn't adjusting well. When an enemy from his days in the Army comes back to haunt him, he'll be forced to face a part of his past - and to move past Loki, if he has a hope of finding his place with the Avengers. (First of a universe created to center around Clint Barton) 」

// description taken from first installment

Have you enjoyed the MCU, especially the first-era Avengers phase, but like me, were disappointed in the fact that Hawkeye was barely there? The VP universe is for you. 

I honestly have a hard time remembering what was canon and what was VP. And if it’s not canon, it should be. The VP universe gave so much life to Clint and to Natasha and to all of SHIELD and even the rest of the Avengers. It’s just...so good. It’s completely immersive. It focuses a lot on Hawkeye and Black Widow from before the Avengers team-up, as well as after, and it all flows together so beautifully. Not to mention that I can be reading a mission that happened pre-series, so I know that they are going to live with all of their limbs, and I still sit there on the edge of my seat the whole time.

The OCs, minor as they are, that are created for this are also wonderfully done. I can’t believe Dan and Phil don’t exist in canon. Every character, canon or no, is engaging and dynamic, it is a pleasure to follow each point of view. The emotional turmoil is also handled very well, and the VP universe carries the MCU trend of humanizing its heroes and takes it so much further. 

Ghosts of the Future

by Evan Stanley ( @evanstanleyportfolio​ )

Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog Word Count: comic (18 issues) Status: ongoing

「 About 200 years in the future, Silver the Hedgehog is an average kid living in San Francisco... except for his strange and terrible dreams of a dying Blue Hedgehog, a Black Hedgehog, and mysterious gems called "Chaos Emeralds". What will he do, when these "figments of his imagination" appear before him in his real life? 」

// description taken from first installment

Okay so this is the only one that isn’t an Ao3 story, but rather a comic on DeviantArt. However, it is still one of my favorite stories. Even though it takes the commonalities of Sonic canon and turns them on its head, GotF really treats the characters well. There are enough familiar world elements to create intrigue, but it is set in a completely different take of the future, so there is ample opportunity for world building and being able to engage with a completely new thing. I wish SEGA put as much love in the series (namely the games, because the comics are *chef’s kiss*) and all of its possibilities as creators like Evan Stanley do.

The friendship and family relationships in GotF are so diverse and all so fantastic to witness. It’s a keynote example of the new hero and the old veterans, and both parties are active and trying their best.

Do not be alarmed by the starting art style. Sure, it’s rough around the edges at first, but then it gets better, and then it gets gorgeous, and then you’re left there so stunned that it looks like just life canon art. And then you could be like me, blinking slowly as my small brain finally connected that this Evan Stanley is in fact the Evan Stanley. GotF is an amazing fanwork, but she also draws and writes for the Official Canon comics (the IDW ones now) and that work is also phenomenal and should be supported. 

Whirlwind

by Lynse ( @ladylynse​ )

Fandom: Danny Phantom, American Dragon: Jake Long, Miraculous Ladybug, Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja Word Count: 75,556 Status: Complete

「 Jake should be used to ominous predictions by now. Randy should know better than to blindly follow McFist. Adrien should think twice before sneaking away. And Danny really should've expected something like this when he got that phone call from Jake. (Secret Quartet fic) 」

I have to start by saying that I adore all of Lynse’s fics, and I chose this one simply because it is one of my favorites. But it’s all fantastic, one hundred percent. I also love Mirrored, the sort-of prequel to this fic, but Whirlwind just has the chaotic pure bean energy that each of the shows bring and it foils against each other so perfectly. This is the epitome of the Secret Quartet crossover, truly.

All fandoms and all characters get ample love, and the way the reader gets to see just how badly the characters’ assumptions are going is positively wonderful. It’s so easy to fall into the “I know what’s happening and so do the characters” trap, but Lynse leaps over it gracefully and lands in greatness. The fic had me smiling like a maniac one minute, and feeling sorry for my babies the next. Wonderful. Simply fantastic!