#again no time stamps but they’re in chronological order

[anne20055]

sorry this took so long but here’s phil

less quotes than dan

dan yaps phil disassociates

[jeanbie]

WORDLESS #5 ★ masterlist.

pairing: levi x reader

genre: sugar daddy & contract killer au | warnings: implied violence, establishing feelings, mentions/references to john wick & the continental | wc: 6.8k

note: who expected me to actually finish this? (answer: no one) i'm so glad that i got to finish "wordless" and put these two losers in a place they deserve to be in! this chapter is the finale and also almost entirely from levi's pov, and this one flows in a chronological order :)

★ ch1. ch2. ch3. ch4. ch5

⏤ Sometimes, saying “I love you” is inappropriate, and given your circumstances, you think it might send Levi over the edge if he hears them again. But maybe he's ready now.

(41) Giving them space when they express wanting to have some time alone.

It’s been a hot second since Levi saw you — and it’s killing him more than he’d care to admit.

Since the blow up in the shower over girls he wasn’t fucking in the first place, Levi hasn’t heard from you, and he hasn’t made much of an effort to reach out either.

Why did he even lie? There was no benefit from telling you he was seeing other girls; the only reason he said that so often was to manage the healthy boundaries between you, to remind you not to get too close, to remind himself that being with you is a risk.

Not that pushing you away has made his life any easier. On the contrary, he thinks it’s made everything worse.

It is almost dehumanising to admit it to himself, but he misses you. Since your rather unconventional first meet — which was a far cry from any ‘meet cute’ that normal situationships had — Levi has been telling himself that the circumstances surrounding you being in his life were unique at best, and that you weren’t permanent.

But now, he lives his life around a ghost of your body, making room for you in his home, making time out of his schedule, making arrangements to keep you happy. 

Okay. Maybe it’s a little bit too late to acknowledge the feelings he has for you. Levi knows they’re there — he’s not an idiot. But making those feelings real is something he just can’t afford to do. Not yet. Not while there’s too much going on in his life.

Still, he stares longingly at the door every night when he staggers back home, as if hoping you might take him by surprise and crawl back into his arms. Not that you do, at least not for a while; not until Levi grows fed up of waiting and finds you first.

But for now, he’ll grant you he space that you need, the space you deserve. And in the meantime, he’ll try and make peace with the waging war in his head.

(42) Holding their hand while walking, even if there isn’t a crowd.

“This is nice.”

The neighbourhood Levi now lives in is much smaller than the last one. It pales in comparison to the condo it took forever to finally move out of, but having consistent security breaches just for a tiring view of the river didn’t feel worth it for Levi anymore. It made no difference to him if the apartment he all but owns for you is much farther away — you’re barely ever there, anyway.

Since putting his angst to rest, and since making it known to you that you’re quite literally the only woman he likes enough to keep buying houses for and invite over, things have been calm between you.

There’s still a strange unspoken thing, the remains of an agreement made out of convenience so long ago, to feed both the lust and pride Levi wanted and the safety you craved; but in general, Levi acknowledges that what he has with you right now feels like the closest thing he’s had to a partner in a long, long time.

Levi looks over at you, feeling your hand tighten in his as you cross a cute little park covered in flowery bushes and beds of tulips. 

“I’m glad my neighbourhood has your stamp of approval,” he replies, tightening his fingers around yours before pulling up slightly to stuff your joined hands into his pocket. Though it’s spring now, there’s still a bite in the air, a chill that Levi is determined to shelter you from.

“Technically,” you start, and Levi can predict, like a robot, what you’ll say next, and mouths the words as they fall from your lips, “it’s mine, too.” Your eyes turn piercing as you scowl at him, “Hey! Don’t…predictive text me.”

“Then stop being so predictable.”

“I think we spend too much time together,” you mutter, looking back at the flowerbed you’re currently passing by.

Levi scoffs to himself and playfully scratches a nail against the hand lodged in his pocket.

“Then go away,” he says. No chance, is what runs through his head, and the coy smile you flash him is as equally predictable as the word he knows you’ll say next, starting with n and ending in o.

(43) Holding shopping bags that are too heavy for them.

Ever since Levi figured out how to share locations, he’s become obsessed with watching you move around on the map on his phone. Numerous times, he’s slipped up on spending hours watching your little circle move, sometimes not even moving at all.

If you had any complaints, he hasn’t heard them, though he very much doubts that you’ll complain in the future now that his stalking has worked out in your favour.

You might have initially thought that bumping into Levi outside the supermarket was a rather delightful coincidence — that was until he moved across the city, and has no real business in your area unless it concerns you.

“Perfect timing,” you say once you see him crossing the small car park in your direction. He has half a mind to pretend he hasn’t seen you and keep walking, but watching you struggle with your shopping is painful enough.

He grunts, reaching for the bag that is squeezing the blood from your fingers. “Don’t get proud about it.”

Sniggering, you happily let Levi grab the overweight bags and fall into an even step beside him. 

“Why do you have so much stuff?” Levi huffs. To be fair, the bags aren’t that heavy, but he can’t see any reason for you to have bought so much considering you live at his house more often than you do your own. “You gonna share this shit?”

“If you want,” you reply. “You paid for it.”

His tongue clicks. Levi hasn’t paid you a penny since he last felt guilty about the fact he rarely paid you, despite that being the very foundation of your relationship in the first place, but even with what he paid you and hasn’t since that point, he knows your bank account is more than comfortable. Paying for all of this has barely made a dent, but that’s what the money’s there for.

He makes his way to his car pulled up outside the car park turning in a layby and struggles in his pocket for his keys.

“I live five minutes away,” you remind him, steps slowing. 

“No, you just said you’d share it, so we're going to mine.”

With a sigh, you’re left with no other choice but to follow him to his car. “You know, the romance of you carrying my bags is lost now you’ve only walked it to the car.”

Before he pops open the boot of the car, he turns to you and sneers, “You want me to walk back and let you do it yourself?”

There’s no argument to be had. You get into the car.

(44) Standing between them and a busy road.

Habits. Levi hates to keep track of how many he’s developed since you entered his life almost two years ago. Time has gone by so quickly since the day he first met you, in the worst way possible, but since then, he’s transformed into a whole new person, a whole new paranoid man who overthinks everything because there’s no other option.

His habits as of late include worrying about you whenever you’re not around — whenever he’s at work, he’ll think of you. Whenever he’s in a different city or country, Levi will obsessively worry over what you might be doing, who might be on your trail, scenting your every move while you’re vulnerable. Another habit includes feeling like an overbearing parent even when he’s in the same five mile radius, but at least he’s self aware of it.

If you’ve noticed Levi becoming more clingy, less like who he swore he’d never change from, you haven’t mentioned it yet. Perhaps a small mercy to save him the mortifying task of admitting that he has feelings stored away for you. 

Today, Levi has fallen victim to his habits of worry and has walked himself all the way to your university just to walk you all the way back home. His home, not yours. In a sense, your home, too. In an unspoken way.

Levi stands waiting for you in the overhang, gaze trained on the thick grey sky until he hears your class file out of the building in a chatter. Sasha is who he sees first, followed by another one of your friends he’s never met but has seen on Instagram once or twice, and then he sees you, looking thankfully in good spirits, and all too beautiful for your own good.

When you see him standing with his hands in his pockets, he allows himself the pleasure of pride when you break away from your friends just to join him, the smile on your face so genuine and radiant that he has to scoff in amusement.

“Hey, you,” you call, falling into his arms. 

“Hey, yourself.”

“I didn’t know you were coming today,” you confess, pulling away to stare curiously at his withdrawn expression. Levi is already twisting an arm around your waist to walk you down the step and across the lawn. “I told Sasha I’d go to her café and wait for her shift to end. Didn’t you have that thing today?”

“What thing?” he mutters.

“The thing with Erwin. And some deadbeat called George, or something.”

“How many Korean men do you know named George?” Levi deadpans, though his arm does tighten around you in caution. “You shouldn’t even know about that. How do you even know?”

The busy road widens into view as you leave the closed campus. Levi’s pretty much counting the days before you graduate and never have to come here again, and the time is passing strangely slow in that department. It feels like it’s been ages since you enrolled, and he wants nothing more than for you to leave and become the greatest journalist in the world — or whatever it is you even want to do when you’re done. 

As you walk, you lean into Levi’s side, furthering the distance between yourself and the road bustling with cars and buses. He frowns.

One of your habits since the accident on the bridge with your family had been to avoid busy roads, as if convinced something might happen again. You’ve told him numerous times that it’s irrational, but Levi doesn’t think so. It’s a very normal thing to feel afraid of everything, even when those things are a little on the unrealistic side.

Naturally, it results in Levi sliding his arm from around your waist and replacing it with his other one, positioning himself between you and the chaotic lines of commuting cars going home.

His heart flips when you smile at him for it, linking your arm around his while moving your waist out of his grip. Levi tries not to let it get to his head how much you trust him, how much he cares for you. But by the minute, he’s losing the will to keep it hidden.

(45) Rubbing the back of their hand with a thumb.

Back to habits, there are some that Levi has that he’s not particularly as proud of. But, as expected, you’re as good as it gets, and any habit he thinks he might have gotten away with hiding, somehow you pick up on it.

Levi flicks through a blueprint laying flat over his kitchen table, his hands nervously drumming the edge of the tabletop as he tries to memorise the elaborate labyrinth of a building he’ll be breaking into later to find his next hit. Usually, Levi has you at his home before and just after taking a job, just to eliminate the threat of you being hurt as a punishment. 

He wishes that the company gave you unrestricted entry and protection without him being there to clear it, but in order for that privilege, Levi needed to address you as his partner, which just felt like an even larger target on your head. So, he settles for his home, though the worry does not cease.

This building is riddled with passageways and vaults, basement levels with so many access points that studying them feels intense. One wrong recollection could come at the cost of his life, and at the minute, his life has increased in value. Things are finally going right for him, it would be a shame to have it all taken away from him again.

A text from Erwin sounds next to him, and Levi all but glances at the screen to see what’s happening. All assistance available should he need it — he almost sighs with relief at the words.

In the past, Levi had thought he could never work in cohorts with other hitmen, but becoming partners with Erwin and his henchmen has been working in his favour. 

Still, it doesn’t hurt to learn the layout off by heart. So, Levi pours himself over the blueprints and maps, memorising every detail, becoming so engrossed in it that he barely even hears you letting yourself inside of his apartment.

Your shoes hit the wall with a noise that makes him suddenly aware of your arrival, and he glances up to see you peeking into the kitchen, eyes scanning the room for any unfortunate signs of Elio before you approach him.

He notices the street market bag and inhales the smell of spice before looking back at the maps. “Hope you’re gonna share that.”

“Of course,” you reply, offended he even thought you might not. You place the container of tteokbokki on the table before sliding around to his side, eyes glued to the rolls of paper. “Where’s this?”

“Less you know, the better,” he mutters, leaning his head into your mouth as you kiss his jaw. 

For a while, you say nothing, letting Levi memorise what he needs to while you assess the prints for yourself. Eventually, you shift your hand over his and squeeze, making him glance at you sideways. 

You’re looking at him already, though you can’t see his eyes from the way he’s hunched over. Spotting Levi’s signs of anxiety must be incredibly easy, because somehow you’ve caught on, and begin to rub the back of his hand with your thumb, nose pressed into his bicep. 

“Come eat,” you suggest quietly, after a while of basking in the silence with him.

He grunts, a typical Levi sound, and nudges you away. Though, you only shuffle to the drawer to fetch two forks — forks! He scoffs, rolling his shoulders as he rounds the table to take one from your fingers. 

“Easier to stab with a fork,” you offer as an explanation.

“If my mother was here to see me eating tteokbokki with a fork, she’d lose her goddamn mind.”

“Well…” You start, trailing off after a moment. You’ve got nothing to say; he’s won the argument just by bringing Kuchel up, and both of you know it.

Scowling, you stab another wedge of tteok and chew it furiously, meanwhile Levi smirks to himself, victorious.

(46) Giving them a back massage when they flop on the couch or bed.

“I need to retire. I’m getting too old for this shit.”

“No way. How old are you now, like, twenty eight?”

“…I’m thirty.”

“Best looking thirty year old I’ve ever seen. Roll over, I’ll massage your back, if you want?”

If he ever refuses a massage from you, he’s an idiot.

Levi rolls over ungraciously, hitting the mattress on his stomach with a low groan. He rolls his shoulders, the bones cracking comically loud, and as you shuffle up to straddle his back, he groans again.

“Oh fuck off, I’m not heavy.”

Levi sniggers into the pillow, though as soon as your hands start to work their magic, he moans, the pleasure instantaneous. 

“Make a house back there, if you want. Just don’t stop.”

(47) Staying up half the night to finish a game with them.

“I can’t do it if you’re not here, Levi. You need to get over here.”

“Do you not see that I’m trying?”

“You’re terrible at this game.”

Levi scoffs. He wouldn’t be so terrible if he actually knew how to play properly. His character begins to run in circles without him even asking him to, and Levi growls angrily.

“Fucks sake, this bitch is pissing me off.” Then, he wrangles the controller from your hands as you protest and says, “You be him instead.”

“But I don’t want to be Cody.”

“Me neither.”

As soon as you start moving little Cody around, Levi peers in scrutiny at the controller in your hand and how it so suddenly has stopped drifting on its own. There’s a circular dent in your inner cheek where your tongue is, and Levi scowls in your direction.

“You were sabotaging me,” he accuses, eyes focused back on May as she stumbles around uncoordinatedly.

“I think you’re just really bad,” you reply. Cody is moving fine, and finally, the mechanism moves and the story can progress. Hm.

Levi’s eyes bore into yours as you shift to face him, elbows snug in the blanket bundled around you both. Levi has been laying low for around two weeks now — he’s surprised with just how much he likes not having to work. Though, there have been a few times whilst playing this infuriating game where Levi has wished to be anywhere else. 

“You’re good at a lot of things,” you tell him sincerely, “but just not games. And that’s okay. You tried.”

“I’m good at games,” he replies, offended.

You raise your eyebrows, “Like what?”

“Your animal living game.”

“Animal Crossing?”

“Sure, that too.”

All Levi has ever done on Animal Crossing is make a character and proceed to hit everybody with his fishing net, not to mention dig holes around your front door so you can’t get out. Still, you say nothing — the look of disbelief speaks volumes to Levi and he rolls his eyes, turning back to May as she wanders off to the side of the screen and falls off.

Okay. He’s bad at games. That he’ll admit. But you like it, and by the time he’s gotten the hang of the controls, it’s already four in the morning.

(48) Getting them a coffee just the way they like it.

Remember those habits?

“You remembered!”

If not just to see your smile, Levi likes to bring you one of the expensive bags of coffee from Erwin’s studio. You could quite easily buy the bags yourself, but there’s no thrill in ordering something and having it arrive in due time, not like there is in making Levi steal three at a time as he leaves a meeting or training session.

Levi sets the bags with a loud thud by the coffee machine and hums. 

“And you got me a drink!”

Yes. He has also become a barista and familiarised himself with the exact way you like to drink your coffee. The takeout cup he also borrowed from Erwin is placed down by your laptop as you relentlessly type away at an assignment at Levi’s kitchen table, and he presses a kiss to your temple and mutters under his breath.

“Thanks, babe,” you say, already sipping at the steamy contents.

“It’s hot,” he points out. “You’ll only cry when you singe all your taste-buds off.”

“I will not—” You slurp, then hiss, “Ow!”

“I warned you.”

(49) Buying them a special treat when you go out shopping.

You know what? No. Levi has given up on pretending like he doesn’t enjoy you being in his grill all day, every day, which is the reasoning for why he ends up in an expensive jewellery store with Erwin one day after a long haul of inspecting an upcoming raid location.

In all honesty, Levi wants to put his work to rest once the raid is all over. It will be their riskiest ploy to date, and quite frankly, Levi’s tired. He’s been killing people for years, cutting at the humanity he has left, and back in the day he would have been very comfortable with being a monster, killing until he was killed.

But now he had you. Now, Levi had someone to care about, so deeply and so passionately that it often left him feeling sick.

“That’s called love, Levi,” is what Erwin had said when Levi chose the rare option of opening up when he tried to explain why he wanted to retire early. 

“Love,” he scoffed. But then Erwin had said something profoundly wholesome, leaving Levi with a bitter taste in his mouth.

“You’re not unloveable just because you loved nothing for so long. I know it took you awhile to get back to where you are now, but just because love went wrong once before doesn’t mean it has to again. Besides, almost two years of your bullshit and that woman is still there — I don’t think you need to be worried about her pulling away from you once you tell her how you feel.”

Which roughly translated to: Buy her something nice and quash until you can’t any longer.

Once Levi gets home, he hears you giggling at something and finds you with a book over your face, your legs kicking as you squeal like a goblin. His face twists and he asks, “That book got jokes in it, or something?”

You peer around the spine and look at him. “They kissed. They. Kissed!”

“Who kissed?” Levi makes his way to the couch and takes a seat where you were just lying down. The cushions are warm — you’ve been here a while, and the thought makes him smile. 

“Evangeline and Jacks. It’s all so perfect. I didn't like most of the book, but what matters is that they kissed,” you tell him, a little too excited. You plant your feet in Levi’s lap. “I love love, Levi. It is the greatest. I love books. Men written by women!”

“Why are you giggling over other men in my own house?” 

“I giggle over you when you’re not around, too.”

He hums once from the back of his throat, watching as you mark the page with your bookmark and close the book before crawling into his lap and curling into his arms. He welcomes you instinctively, the blocky shape of the ring he bought in his pocket.

After smooching your lips for a long fifteen minutes, Levi pulls away and reaches for the box. “Got something for you.”

“Ooh, show me!”

He produces the little box and hands it to you, but when your eyes round and you hesitate in taking it, he worries.

“I’m not proposing,” he says quickly.

“Thank god. I was about to be very upset,” you sigh dramatically, finally taking the ring box. “Most unromantic proposal ever.”

“The fact you think I’d be that lousy with a proposal is actually really offensive.”

The genuine grumble in his voice puts a flutter in your stomach, though soon after, it simmers into a cool pit of shock when you flip open the box and see the most delicate, gorgeous ring that you’ve ever seen in your life, not counting ones you ogle in shopfronts.

Cautiously, you lift your head to peer at Levi’s expression. It’s not a proposal — he’s just told you so, and considering you’re not even his girlfriend in official terms yet, it seems unlikely that anything like that will be happening soon. But it has to be more than just an offhanded purchase, and you’re determined to figure out.

Levi’s eyes tremble as he looks between you and the ring. “Is it ugly?”

You immediately shake your head, “Of course not!”

“Put it on, then,” he urges. The steady beat of his heart stutters out of tempo. Suddenly, he feels quite nervous as he watches you take out the ring and study its appearance up close. “Need help?”

“Yeah, it’s so hard, I can’t figure out how to put it on. Needs instructions.”

Levi tuts and gently takes the ring from between your fingers, grabbing your ring finger whilst trying to look as casual as possible. Somehow, he manages to slide the ring on without making a fool of himself, but when he looks back at your face and sees gemstones of your own lining your waterline, he frowns.

“I’m not gonna sit here and give a speech,” he starts. By now, you know him better than that. He’s never opened up about his feelings to you, at least not without feeling regretful of it the morning after, and you nod simply, eyes catching the glint of the diamond. “But you know why I’ve bought it. I don’t need to tell you what you already know.”

And he doesn’t. Somehow, despite Levi being tremendously unromantic, having no manners, and in general being a terrible companion, you at least know that he cares. And with his upcoming job creeping up on you both, it doesn’t require an above-average intelligence to work out why this ring came when it did, what it means if things go south, what it means regardless.

“I know,” you tell him. “Thank you. It’s beautiful.”

Instead of saying anything, Levi curls you tighter in his arms and presses a kiss to your forehead, closing his eyes when you snuggle your face into his collar and relax. 

His mind has been made, his plans set. As soon as the job is over, he doesn’t want to look back. Only forward, with the woman who has made him feel alive again.

(50) Giving them a tight hug that makes them lose their breath.

Something is wrong. Something is horribly wrong, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

It has been days since Levi told you he’d touched down in New York, working out some stuff in the very famous Continental until he was set to join Erwin on whatever mission they had planned and prepared for. Levi hadn’t told you the details this time because the risks were too high, and now, it feels like a major setback. 

New York is on fire, and Levi barely kept his life getting out of the Silver Sword compound. An entire mob wiped out by two guys with no backup — it was practically unprecedented, unseen or unheard of since John Wick was knocking around. 

The Continental had done everything right in the aftermath, including keeping Levi in their small infirmary for days whilst tending to his excessive wounds. Fuck, he had been so reckless, so vengeful, so stupid. It had almost cost him his life ensuring that no leads followed him and Erwin back to Seoul, and although he had succeeded in destroying every last bit of incriminating evidence, the risks had been too great. 

When Levi finally gets discharged from the infirmary, it is almost eleven in the evening, and New York has finally calmed down and settled in for the night. Erwin greets Levi in the lobby, a frown on his face, holding a destroyed black bundle of phone parts that bear a striking resemblance to Levi’s missing device. He swears.

Levi hasn’t heard from you since he got here. Since the last risky job he took in Gwangju last year, you’ve never been lax while he’s been away; he can almost imagine your fear, your paranoia, and before he can even hear Erwin’s well wishes, Levi’s crossing the lobby for the customer payphone and dialing in your number.

The line rings twice before someone picks up.

“Baby?” Levi asks, after three attempts of saying your name and no coherent response. He cranes his head around the curly wire and glares at the clerk, though she looks less than pleased being interrupted by Levi, “Is this a global line?”

“Obviously, sir. It’s a telephone.”

“I fucking know it’s a telephone, but if it’s global, then why the hell isn’t it working?”

The girl gives him grief about his manners and Levi is forced to give up on calling you, slamming down the phone angrily and feeling his body growing hotter and hotter with worry.

He knows you're fine, in his house with the big cat you hate to love, but he knows you. He knows how you operate, how you worry, how you love him too much.

“Look, we’ll catch the first flight we can,” Erwin assures him as soon as Levi has caught his breath and taken a seat on one of the black leather sofas. His hands are shaking violently. “She’s fine. I promise.”

“I know she’s fine,” Levi grumbles.

“Then get a hold of yourself,” sighs Erwin, his frown low and face tired. “There’s nothing you can do but wait. I’ve got people waiting on me, as well, you know.”

“It’s not the same thing.”

“Dogs miss their owners just as much as girlfriends miss their boyfriends,” Erwin protests, because that’s all he has back home these days.

There had been a time where you had offered to set him up with your friend, Sasha, who deserved to be with a man who could handle her energy but also make her feel safe after her last terrible relationship, but Erwin is basically married to his work, and had got a dog despite Sasha being deathly allergic.

Still, Levi’s not heartless enough to know that Erwin isn’t missed by his dog, and probably other people in his life. And he’s right, there’s nothing he can do about the connection problems. All he can do is reign in his worries and wait.

The earliest flight they can find is the next morning, and Levi spends every second up to that point and up until he pulls up outside of his house in a complete state of panic. Would you be there? Did you leave, thinking he’d never come back? 

Levi abandons his bag and leaves it in the backseat as he sprints from the car up the stairs, past his front door, and into his house. He kicks off his shoes once he’s in, the door hitting the wall with a booming slam.

He hears what he thinks might be scuffles, potentially even Elio’s claws, and right as Levi calls out your name, he sees you round the corner with a blotchy red face and feels his arms stretching out for you.

“What the fuck is wrong with you!” You slam into his chest, almost taking him to the floor, and encircle your arms around his neck so hard that the breath knocks out of his lungs. Still, he isn’t even annoyed; he squeezes you so tightly, tighter than he’s ever hugged anyone before, and shoves his face into your neck, inhaling the smell, feeling the way your body felt in memories while he was away. 

“I’m sorry,” he says in a whisper, his features tugged in displeasure as you whimper into him, no doubt crying over his shirt. “I’m sorry, baby.”

“I thought you were dead!” you blurt, “I even cried on Elio’s back because I thought you had died! What’s the point in having a phone if you never pick it up or charge it?” You snatch yourself from his arms and gently beat against his chest with your fist. “I’m so pissed off at you!”

“I’m sorry that my phone got crushed,” he says, affronted that you would even think he’d ignore your calls on purpose. “I was in a hospital bed for three days! And then the bitchy receptionist got smart with me about their shitty phone, and I called but the line cut out. Sounded like a goddamn robot, I couldn’t hear a word you were saying.”

Your jaw drops, “That was you? I thought you’d died and some enemy gang guy was trying to call me to kill me!” Levi has to laugh at the look of worry on your face. He hasn’t been cared for in this way in a long time. Never been loved to this volume. “I unplugged the landline, I was so scared! Jesus Christ, Levi!” Then, like you never left, you rush back into his arms and let out a shaky cry. 

“You did the right thing,” he tells you. Unplugging the landline was the silliest thing he could have ever thought of, but then he realises that you’re still here, and that you made peace with Elio just because you thought he had died.

Levi strokes the back of your head and shushes you, feeling your heartbeat hammering furiously against his chest. His is most likely the same, though he’s not so eager to acknowledge his own feelings.

After a while of standing there, and after Levi’s stroked behind Elio’s ears when he prowls towards them and rubs his head on Levi’s trousers, Levi looks back at you softly and takes everything in.

He has missed you more than anything, grieved the missing piece of his soul that is shaped like you. And, while he’s at it, yes! Fucking hell! He loves you!

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” you tell him, and Levi kisses you, his hands cradling your face. The kiss is firm, desperate, though he has no intention of walking you backwards towards the bedroom like he normally does after a job.

Instead, he pulls you in for a hug again. 

“I missed you,” he mutters. “So fucking much.”

“Me too.”

He says with his mouth pressed into your head, “I’m done with this shit. I’m not taking any more jobs.”

You twist out of his arms, eyebrows raised. “Really? Why? You love your job.”

“I hate my job,” Levi confesses. “I have too much to lose. I just wanna live my life. And make it all count for something.”

For a moment, you stand there, looking at his face so intently that he almost feels uncomfortable. But then, as a smile spreads over your face, Levi feels like he can finally breathe again, finally feel like himself.

“Alright. If that’s what you want, babe, then let’s do that.”

And we can do it together.

(51) Getting adjusted.

Levi forgot what it was like to be normal.

He now wakes up at whatever time he wants to, feeling next to him for the lump in the bed where you sleep. Once he knows you’re still there (because despite being retired, he doesn’t think the habit of making sure you’re safe will ever go away), Levi wakes up and starts his day. 

Coffee for one becomes coffee for two. Levi never has to eat breakfast on his own, never sits alone on the sofa or sits in silence at the kitchen table. Levi has lost half of his sink counter space to your belongings, lost half of his wardrobe to your own clothes. There are so many shoes by his front door that it looks like a storefront. 

Elio has a mother, in a strange, estranged, visitation-hours-only kind of way. Levi has made room for you in his life and you fit perfectly, so perfectly that he barely remembers what it ever felt like to live alone.

The shower is always filled with two people. Levi finds your things all over the house in the most bizarre places. He has candles on every coffee table, pictures in frames, finds your cardigans hanging over every chair. But he loves it. He loves it so much. He can’t imagine ever not having it, having you, having this life.

(52) Finally saying the words.

“This is my first time using this thing.”

“What?” you gasp as Levi comes to sit next to you on the balcony.

Elio yawns inside, sleeping on the couch. It is partly his fault that Levi’s out here in the first place, though the thought of being tucked beside you on the outdoor couch in a blanket, watching the sun sink behind the skyline, is thankfully rather appealing, and he voices no complaints.

Levi takes a swig of his whiskey and abandons the cup on the table, throwing an arm around your shoulder and pulling you close. It’s not exactly cold tonight, but he knows you too well, and knows that within an hour, you’ll be dithering next to him.

“Imagine having a balcony and never using it.”

“I’m using it now,” Levi huffs, pinching your neck. You squeal, “Fuck off, it didn’t hurt.”

You’ve been officially living in Levi’s home for two months now, although sometimes it feels like you’ve always been here. Still, despite you making yourself very much at home on the inside, neither of you have once come out to sit on the balcony, to bask in the lovely sun as it settles for the night, not until today. 

“When’s Erwin coming?”

“Bout an hour or so,” Levi says in a low drawl, his head tilted back and hand massaging the side of your head. It had been your idea to invite a bunch of people over to your house — the house you now shared — and frightfully, Levi hadn’t opposed. It would be nice to share the wealth of simply being alive with people he now had the patience to care about. 

You shuffle to look at him, and Levi picks up his head at the sound of you moving. Like always, Levi thinks you look beautiful, but since he’s made you his girlfriend, it has felt like every time he looks at you, he can’t breathe properly.

“I’m excited. This is our first time hosting a party together,” you grin, while Levi thumbs your ear and smiles. “Do you think Elio will eat Erwin’s dog?”

“No. Elio’s moved back onto a pescatarian diet, so I think Erwin’s mutt will be safe.”

“Good. I bought him a bone, do you think he’ll like it?”

“He’s a dog. Yes, I expect, why are you asking me this?” Levi asks, eyebrows scrunched, though he pulls you close to where his mouth is and kisses you straight on the lips. “Stop stressing.”

“I can’t help it. I’m nervous! It’s all so serious! What if nobody likes our house?”

He shrugs. “I don’t give a shit who does or doesn’t like our house. It’s ours.”

“Hnnngh. And I want you to have a good time!” you whine. “You deserve a bit of fun in your life.”

“My life is always fun now that you’re my girlfriend.”

He’s instantly won himself brownie points by saying that.

“Just tell me if it gets too much,” you mutter, lips on his, mouths together. “Okay?”

Levi hums. “Yeah.” Then, after he’s kissed you three more times and felt his heart shake, he nudges his nose against yours and says, “I love you, y’know that, right?”

You pause, eyes rounding wide as you take in the sight of him. Levi has never said those words before, not explicitly. But now is as good a time as any, right?

Levi has spent far too much of his life withdrawing from his emotions, hiding away from what matters most out of a fear of caring too much. In the past, he had cared too much and lost it all. You were never supposed to be something he cared about, but when it had happened, it happened so fast he hadn’t had the time to make sense of it all.

But now, now that he’s been through it all with you, ticked every box imaginable, become comfortable being vulnerable again, Levi thinks he’s finally ready to accept the love he deserves and dole it out to those who mean the most to him.

Your mouth moves against his, though he can’t understand the words coming out. He laughs, confused, and somehow manages to pull away and ask, “What’re you even saying?”

All for you to blubber out in a laugh, “I’ve been waiting for ages for you to say that!”

His heart bursts, chest soars. “You could have said it first.”

“I’ve said it before,” you protest, “in actions.”

He scoffs, “So have I.”

And he has, you really can’t deny it.

“Say it again, won’t you?” you ask sweetly, kissing the corner of his mouth, and Levi sighs, like asking that of him is simply too much.

“I love you. You make me very happy.” Levi groans when you cackle and squish the breath out of him with a hug, but this time, he sniggers too. Why waste the moment on pretending to be indifferent when he’s actually the happiest he’s ever been?

Levi Ackerman can finally say that he feels good. He feels safe, he feels content, he feels comfortable — and most of all, he feels loved. And in love. And totally at peace in the world with the person who makes him the happiest.

[thessalian]

Thess vs The Audacity

Today can only be described as a “What the fuck is WRONG with you people?!?” day.

First thing was getting to work and discovering that somehow, despite everyone having been in on Monday, and my having sorted out people’s computer issues the previous week, the backlog got worse. There were about 350 outstanding dictations when I got in. We managed to whittle it down a bit, but of course, the moment Scruffman’s back was turned, it turned into quite the gab session. Again. Also Temp tried her hardest to avoid doing the long typing again, but either someone caught her at it or she has some sense of shame and realised she couldn’t really get away with that when the time stamp would make it three hours’ worth of obvious that she wasn’t going in chronological order. So, yeah, seriously, all manner of “What the fuck is wrong with you people?!?”

Also, I honestly thought that it was pretty obvious that the first thing you do if you’re having trouble with the sound on anything that produces sound is to check the volume control, but apparently not, because when I got in, Goblin said, “Oh, hey, I travel on the bus to and from work with some of the nurses over at the Trust’s other hospital and they’re having their computers upgraded too and they were having the exact same problem so I told them how you fixed it for us so you’ve helped more than just our office with this”. I mean, yay, glad I helped, but ... seriously, how is checking the volume not your first move? Again, “what the fuck is WRONG with you people?!?”

I was a bit late home today because I needed to go and get a haircut. And that was ... well, let’s just say I am never using that salon again. Not that the haircut was bad - quite the opposite, and the hairdresser was a good guy. The lady at the reception desk, on the other hand... Well, first thing out of her mouth was, “We won’t charge you more this time but your hair technically counts as medium, not short”. Which ... I mean ... the longer end of my hair was only a bit below my jaw, so I have no idea how they’re calculating that. My hair has qualified as ‘short’ ever since I started rocking the asymmetrical pixie cut, at least at my salon, and at the one in my neighbourhood that I tried when my salon shut down because of Covid-related business problems. But ... I mean ... okay... The perils of booking online, she said, though I’m not sure how my doing it by phone would have been any better.

Anyway, after a gorgeous shampooing (wonderful neck massage as an added perk; ended way too soon) and a great haircut by a dude who didn’t feel the need to fill the entire proceedings with idle chit-chat, I went back to pay and the lady at the reception desk goes, “We won’t charge you extra this time...” and I apologised and tried to explain as how the salons I’d been to in the past considered my hair ‘short’ if it didn’t touch my shoulders. But ... that’s not what she was on about. She said, “Technically, your hair was styled, not cut”.

..................Excuse you? It was a fucking trim. The essential shape of it was not changed. It just got shorter, with the layers fixed a bit. It was like when a topiary gets overgrown and you have to trim it a bit to maintain its shape. It hardly took any time to do by salon appointment standards. No product, no tools except scissors and clippers ... so how the fuck was that ‘styled’? My hair was already in the style; it was just shaggier than I like so I got it trimmed!

So, no, if that salon’s going to move the goalposts on me, no matter how much I liked hairdresser dude ... not going back. I mean, at least they didn’t charge me extra, but the fact that she was making such a big deal about how they supposedly should have was hugely offputting. I know hairdressers have their own standards for what constitutes these things, but I tend to consider a style being something that at the very least changes the shape your hair had when you arrived in some significant way. Not a fucking tidy-up. So ... yeah, again, “What the fuck is wrong with you people?” was a theme. But I no longer look like a Briard, so I’m happy and will remain happy with it for the next few months. Then I need to find a salon that’s not going to move the goalposts if I so much as sneeze. I guess the salon in this area was okay. Not great, but okay. I’ll see what else Dulwich and Forest Hill have to offer.

Maybe it’s a Camden thing, I dunno. I guess if you’re in the major tourist hotspot, you can afford to be ... flexible about those kinds of terms. And maybe you have to be, since the guy who owns the area A) has raised the fees and rents to insane degrees and B) is now attempting to sell it for a couple of billion pounds. The Camden Lock Market, specifically. Gods, that was a blow to find out. Not only is it one of the few spots in that area that hasn’t been gentrified entirely to fuck (just ... partly to fuck), but it’s hard to read about someone selling property for a couple of billion when something like half the country has been making use of food banks.

Right. No. None of that. It’s already been a hugely bad pain day and I had to push it because the backlog my idiot colleagues let build up and the last thing I need is to stress myself out by boggling over the stupidity and/or audacity of the people around me.

[novantinuum]

AMV process...

I’m not sure many people often think about the process that goes into editing fast-paced videos, and to be entirely fair neither did I before I got into it as a hobby. XD

But with that, I thought it may be interesting to pull back the curtain a bit and share some of my mental process/decision making while editing. So letsgo!

To start, I must be entirely honest: I am currently cursed with the grungy piece of trash software that is iMovie. Adobe Premiere is my preference, but dear goodness it’s too expensive for me now that I’m not getting a student discount anymore. But honestly, I think that really gives credit to iMovie about how much it can do, despite its lack of features. If you’re really savvy with it, there’s a lot of functionality you can squeeze out. 

Where it makes me cry, however, is how it only allows chronological editing.

Basically, I had to put in every single clip one by one IN ORDER. I can’t float clips I want at a minute forty seconds and then return to the very beginning to edit there. This is a huge disadvantage of iMovie, along with its weak ass transitions. Despite this, I thankfully found a way to make it work.

So! I’m gonna look at the Oh No! AMV I just finished. First off, when I select songs, I try to pick ones that have lyrics I can outright match thematically relevant clips to. The more lyrics you can match up, the better. Second, songs with strong beats are the best candidates to edit to. A strong downbeat helps give good transition points. Thankfully, this song had both.

In my mind, the best AMVs tell a story. Thus, while considering clip choices I wanted to both reflect the lyrics and also drive the video’s narrative of Steven’s plunging mental state further. One of the ways I worked to do this was by switching up the meaning of one of the lyrics in the chorus each time it showed up...

“I know exactly what I want and who I want to be.”

1. In the first instance, I used a bunch of clips where Steven appeared lost, flustered, or confused to push the sheer irony of this statement for him. Because at this point in his life, he doesn’t know what he wants, not at all. It’s a statement laced with spite and sarcasm.

2. The second time the chorus hits, it’s Steven- still every bit as lost and confused as he ever was- realizing that what he wants is to be Stevonnie forever. The clips are all proposal/Stevonnie focused here.

3. In the third chorus, Steven has now convinced himself that who he wants to be is... a monster. Because that’s what he feels he is. I swapped it back and forth between Steven having a bit of a mental break in Everything’s Fine and Kaiju Steven to really push that he only appears like this because he’s successfully convinced himself of it.

I made a lot of active lyric-matching choices like this throughout the editing process, but this was one of the biggest ones. 

One of the others I’m particularly proud of was matching up the last “I’m now becoming my own self-fulfilled prophecy” to three consecutive clips of Steven standing in craters of his own making. 

That’s one of the other places where AMV making is fun- pulling in the parallels! Sometimes while editing you notice moments of thematic parallelism you don’t notice on first watch.

Okay, so beyond matching lyrics... what about clip choice? How do you pick clips that are gonna make the video really pop?

Here’s a few tips I’ve picked up from over time:

Avoid using a surplus of clips where characters are doing nothing but talking. This is especially important when you’re not incorporating audio clips from the show in your edits. This is because tiny lip movements can often distract against the song’s beat. 

If you DO have clips where the characters’ mouths are flappin’, do your best to at least sync it up with the rhythm! Or else, sometimes I outright edit the order of the frames to make it look like they’re lip syncing, ahah.

Seek out clips with strong movement. Feet stamping down. Arms swinging wide. Eyes dawning with horror. Use those movements to emphasize the downbeat.

Clips that have strong movement AND already incorporate “camera” movement are liquid gold. Protect and use these hummers. By camera movement, I mean... the POV pans or zooms in and out. Those look extra sexy in video edits.

Timing? Transitions? How the hell does any of that work?

Gonna be real here. Timing is a bitch. I can’t even count how many times I’ve rewatched portions of this video, constantly making tiny spot edits over and over and over again. It’ll honestly probably never look 100% perfect. I eventually just have to call it done for the sake of my own sanity. Fast-paced video edits are tricky because it has to both stay on beat, and be clear enough that viewers aren’t lost with the speed of the transitions.

A few things I’ve come to find helpful...

Don’t overdo it with the fancy transitions. In my latest video I’ve got a few cross-zooms, a few slides, and one funky mosaic thingy. But mostly, I just let the bulk of my clips sit side-by-side. Hard transitions are really crisp. You really can’t beat them. Save the fancy ones for moments you really need a bit of extra pop. 

I honestly speed up almost all of the clips I use. It depends on the kind of song you’re editing to, but for fast edits this helps keep everything up to tempo.

Smash-zooms. A lot of the time, I split longer clips halfway right on a down beat and then crop the second half so it’s zoomed in. It gives a fun bounce to your video.

Anyways, in the end- video editing is as much about the audio as it is the video. Let the music flow through your soul, kiss your creativity free, and go feral with it! It’s a whole lot of fun, if you ever wanna try playing around with it.

[adverb-slut]

Breakpoint (Fanfiction) Part 1/6 | Belphegor

Heyo, it’s me again!  This is an older fanfic for Obey Me! that I haven’t updated in a hot minute, but I’m planning on working on it soon-ish.  Anyway, this isn’t fluffy or cute or anything, it’s really mostly lore stuff!  

Anywho, it’s a six-part story (only parts one through three are written so far) and focuses on each of the brothers (Satan being the exception since he was never an angel) breaking point in when they decided to rebel against their Father when they were angels up in the Celestial Realm.  

You can read all the chapters that are up (one, two, and three) here on AO3, but I shall post them on Tumblr one by one in the coming days.  

Also, I know I still have more requests to do, and I am working on them, I promise!

Title:

Breakpoint

Summary:

These are the tales of when Belphegor, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Leviathan, Mammon, and Lucifer each decided to actively rebel against their Father and together incite the Great Celestial War.  

Genre:

Backstory/Lore

Rating:

T

Word Count:

3126

Additional Note:

The chapters are ordered “age-wise,” in the sense that Belphegor is first and Lucifer is last.  However, the actual content of the stories do not go chronologically, save for Lucifer’s chapter, which brings all the previous chapters together.  As I stated before, the first chapter is Belphie’s!

-

“Belphie, stop squirming,” Beelzebub muttered.  “You’re not very heavy, but if you keep moving around, I’m gonna lose my grip and drop you.”  He readjusted his hands under his twin’s arms as he flapped his wings in descent.

Belphegor fidgeted a bit more at the movement, earning a hmph from his brother.  He knew better than to look down, especially as an angel without wings and so unused to flying, but some kind of inane reflex prompted him to anyway.

He gulped as he tilted his head downward.  The ground didn’t seem to be coming up awfully fast—Beel was a deliberate flyer—but that didn’t stop a tingle from snaking its way up his spine.  He clutched the scroll in his hand tightly, not daring to imagine what would happen should he drop it and it go whizzing down all the way to the verdant plains below.  

“I always forget how far the cloud cover of the Celestial Realm is from Earth’s surface,” Belphegor commented.  “I can’t believe you make this flight every day, Beel.”

“It’s my job, Belphie,” Beel responded cheerfully.  “Someone has to guard Eden, you know?” After a pause, he scanned their surroundings below, and decided, “Alright, I’m going to drop you off here.  I’ll walk the rest of the way—Eden’s only a half a mile north, but I’m pretty sure there’s a town nearby here for you to explore.”

As Belphegor’s feet touched Earth’s surface and he wriggled free from his brother’s grasp, he marveled at the solidness of the ground, despite having made this excursion several times before.  In the Celestial Realm, everything under their feet would be on a layer of cloud, and it was strange for him to feel the sturdiness of soil against the soles of his sandals.  

He turned to his twin.  “Thanks, Beel.”

“I would say, ‘anytime,’ but Belphie, you can’t keep doing this,” Beel warned, wringing the hem of his tunic anxiously.  “You know you always get in trouble whenever you come down here.”

Belphegor sighed.  Getting in trouble was quite an understatement.  As the Angel of the Sabbath, he was meant to spend his time in the Celestial Realm, managing reports on which humans below kept the covenant of the Sabbath and which did not, and calculating percentages of whether or not their Sabbath-related actions warranted them a spot in heaven.  As far as his Father was concerned, this was not a job that required him to go down to Earth, and every time that he did, he had quite the plethora of punishments to endure—most in the form of excruciatingly long lectures on disobedience. 

But that didn’t stop him from making the odd trips down to Earth.  It wasn’t necessarily the planet itself that fascinated him, but the creatures that inhabited it: in his opinion, there was no other being that his Father had created so engrossing than the strange little mortals that looked surprisingly like their angelic counterparts above.  These creatures—these humans —he could never find a way to truly describe them.  

Humans, with their mortal life spans, each living only a fraction of what he had lived, who had seen only an iota of what he had seen.  Humans, who lived each day like it was their last and loved so fiercely that altruism seemed to be embedded into their very beings. Humans, who were just another one of his Father’s innumerable possessions, expendable and easy to dispose of.     

He couldn’t help but allow himself to visit them now and again, and due to the fact that his Father had decided in the Beginning that wings were given to angels based on their job and how often they needed to travel down to Earth, he had to rely on his twin, Beelzebub, to fly him down on his way to Earth for his daily morning shift as a Guardian of Eden.

However, this always brought the discussion of when Beel was supposed to return after his stint at Eden to recollect his brother, so together they could fly back home.

“I’ll come back at sunset—that’s okay, right, Belphie?”  Beel asked. It had been the same schedule the pair had been using every time they visited Earth. 

“Uh,” Belphegor began, turning his eyes downward, as he unfurled the scroll that he had been holding.  “About that ...”

Beel’s eyes widened as he saw the contents of the scroll.  “Isn't that … isn’t that the official schedule for Messenger Angels on when they’re supposed to deliver messages to humans?”  He gulped. “Why do you have that?”

“Relax, I asked Gabriel for a copy, and he said I could have it,” Belphegor reassured.  He pointed to the hundreds of boxes inked on the papyrus, each box containing writing that depicted a single message, to whom it was for, and where a Messenger Angel could find the recipient.  “Some of these have dates for when they have to be delivered by,” he explained, tracing his finger along one of the boxes, which was stamped with an angel’s personal seal and acted as their signature.  “The ones sealed with purple wax means that someone has already been assigned to deliver the message because it was so urgent.”  He moved to the next box, which was stamped with red wax.  “This one means that it can be delivered at any time, but someone already is en route to do it.”  He then pointed to a box that had no stamps near it whatsoever. “And these?  They’re nonurgent  and no one’s signed up to dispatch them.  Those are gonna be mine.”

Beelzebub gulped.  “What do you mean, yours?”

He rolled the scroll back up and took a deep breath, not daring to look his brother in the eye.  He hadn’t told Beelzebub of his plan, yet, and he dreaded to hear his twin’s opinion of it.

Beel was a fastidious worker, who was proud of his role as one of the Guardians of Eden, but he was even more proud of his younger brother’s monumental task of being the angel who was in control of the entire Sabbath.  Belphegor’s titular role of Angel of the Sabbath was one that afforded him quite a bit of fame and power up in the Celestial Realm.  There wasn’t an angel who didn’t know his name, and he was always getting stopped by those who wanted his advice on various subjects, most of which Belphegor knew nothing about.

But that didn’t stop him from envying the role of angels who were granted wings and were permitted to visit Earth as often as they needed—Guardian Angels and Messenger Angels (as well as some of the all-powerful Archangels); even though their faceless roles didn’t offer as much prestige as his did, they were gifted the privilege of actually interacting with humans.

“I can’t keep doing this,” Belphegor admitted.  “Coming down here, spending a few hours until the sun goes down, just watching them, you know, Beel?  I want to talk to them, learn about them, heck, I want to learn from them—”

“No, stop,” Beel interrupted.  His eyebrows were upturned in worry as he lifted his brother’s chin so he could look him in the eyes.  “Belphie, don’t tell me that you want to stay here forever—” He paused and glanced at the scroll that Belphegor had been holding.  His eyes widened as he made the connection. “—posing as a Messenger Angel.”

“Not forever, Beel,” Belphegor reassured.  “Just … a few weeks. Let’s say three, okay?”

Beelzebub massaged his forehead.  “Three weeks? That’s three weeks where you won’t be able to do your duties as the Angel of the Sabbath.  You can’t—no—no—Father would be incensed.”  He reached over to his brother and grabbed his arms.  “That’s it, I’m taking you back to the Celestial Realm right now.”

He shook off his brother’s hands.  “No, Beel.  I’m doing this.  I’ve already made up my mind.”  He sighed, closing his eyes. “Just … promise me you’ll support me in this?”

Beelzebub smiled.  “Okay!” He grabbed Belphegor’s shoulders and flapped his wings as if he hadn't said a word.

“What—Beel put me down!”  He squirmed and kicked his legs.  “I’m serious!” He opened his eyes and looked down as they flew higher and higher, farther and farther above the Earth’s surface.  Taking a deep breath, he stopped wriggling and held still. “Beel … please. Just three weeks. I promise I’ll have my curiosity sated by then—I’ll never come back to Earth after that.  I’ll never leave the Celestial Realm, I’ll—I’ll stay up and run the numbers of Sabbath-day-keepers, I—I won’t even think of humans—I swear!”  He sighed. “... I won’t ... even think of humans.”

Their ascent stopped.  He couldn’t see his twin’s facial expression from where he hung, but he could hear the weariness in his voice.  “Who’s going to take over the role of the Angel of the Sabbath when you’re gone?”

Belphegor’s heart lifted.  “Azazel and Telantes. They work under me, you remember?”

He could feel the body-shaking groan that left Beelzebub.  “Fine.” He flapped his wings as they descended.  “Three weeks. I’ll come find you at sunset at the end of them. Do you know where you’ll be then?”

“I’m not really sure,” Belphegor admitted.  As his feet came to rest on Earth’s surface, he looked at his brother.  “But you’ll come find me, right?”

Beelzebub beamed.  “Of course, I will, Belphie."

-

Beel didn’t find him, and three weeks turned into three moons, which turned into three years.  

Belphegor had run out of messages to deliver after the first week and had spent most of his time wandering from city to city, country to country, living in camps that welcomed him as a messenger of the gods.

That was the case, at least, until about a moon ago; he had taken copious amounts of some kind of liquid that a village had offered him as an act of hospitality called wine.  He didn’t know what had transpired after he had consumed the fourth wineskin, but he had woken up in a deserted land, with nothing but enormous snowdrifts as far as the eye could see. 

Belphegor had seen the storehouses laden with snow in the Celestial Realm but never had he ever imagined it to be so blisteringly cold.  The Earth was still new, and humans had yet to populate the area where he was in.  Ill-equipped for such weather, Belphegor had no choice but to trek through the snow, shivering from the cold with his teeth chattering and his lips an unbecoming shade of blue.  

Being an immortal angel with no fear of hypothermia or frostbite, the only way he could find respite from the frigid air that surrounded him was to sleep.  

And sleep he did.

For days, in fact, until all Belphegor knew was sleep.  There was something cozy about the pitch darkness that enveloped him when his eyes were closed; it was a surefire welcome as opposed to the freezing wind and subzero temperatures that greeted him when he was conscious.  Sleep was a comfort, wrapping him in momentary joy instead of the crushing sense of abandonment that bodied him if he dared to open his eyes.

That was, until, he felt something other than the howling wind waking him up.  

“Belphegor, Angel of the Sabbath,” someone said, shaking his practically frozen body, which was nestled deep in a snowdrift.

“Beel?”  Belphegor asked groggily, noticing that the silhouette glowed and had wings like an angel.

The silhouette offered him a hand to help him get up, which he hesitated before taking.  “No, my name is Jabril. I am a Messenger Angel.”

Belphegor rubbed his face with frost-covered hands and widened his eyes to take a better look at the figure, who he realized wore the standard white robes and blue sash of a Messenger Angel.  He looked at their surroundings. “Why are you here? There’s no one to deliver a message to around for miles.”

Jabril shook his head.  “No, Belphegor. I’m here to deliver a message to you.”  He produced a scroll hidden within his sash and unfurled it.

Belphegor choked as he noticed that it looked exactly like the scroll he had shown his twin years ago.  

Jabril pointed to a message box, which was stamped in purple with his seal.  “Belphegor, Angel of the Sabbath, has been summoned to the Almighty’s Throne Room,” he read.  Underneath it was written today’s date and the exact coordinates to Belphegor’s location.

He gulped.  His Father never invited His sons to his Throne Room unless it was for punishment.  And it wasn’t the typical “lecture” punishment—no, no. These types of punishments were much more severe.  There was a real chance that Belphegor could have his title ripped away from him or Hell, his very existence erased.  “He waited three years to summon me.  Why?”

“You know better than to question, Father,” Jabril reminded him as he latched onto Belphegor’s shoulders and began to flap his wings.  “But you know how He is. Making you wait this long to wonder when He was going to find you might just be part of your punishment.”

Belphegor stomach clenched as the two continued to fly higher and higher into the Celestial Realm.  “I hope that really is the case.” 

-

The first thing he noticed when he entered the Throne Room was not the pearlescent marble floors, the walls encrusted in brilliant diamond, or the immense moonstone chandeliers that hung from golden chains off the ceiling.  

It wasn’t the seraphim that loitered around His throne, their haunting praises rumbling in their throats.

It wasn’t even the blinding light, the glory of his Father, that shone from the throne itself.

The first thing he noticed was the music.  

Soothing notes—a melodic piece—a cry of melancholy and reassurance, resounded from the masterful fingers of Lucifer as he guided his harp into realms of music so beautiful that Belphegor, who knew better than to linger in the Throne Room entryway, had to stop and listen.

From the left side of his Father’s throne, Lucifer’s music was a constant: he produced a sound so beautiful that the Almighty could rarely go without it.  His fascination with Lucifer’s music had grown to a point where the two were nigh inseparable.  

The Archangel of Music’s eyes were closed and his face held an expression that was so serene that Belphegor had to wonder if Lucifer even realized who his audience was; he looked as if his only purpose was to coax the notes out of the instrument, regardless of who might be listening.  

Belphegor stood entranced, his eyelids feeling heavy with the comforting tones before he was pulled out of his reverie with the sound of someone clearing their throat.

“My son.”  His Father’s voice, like peals of thunder, reverberated through the expansive throne room.  “You may approach.”

He walked forward, his shoulders straight, and tried to keep his gaze ahead, but every time his peripheral vision grazed the bright glory of his Father, his eyes watered and he was forced to look down.  When he was several feet away from the throne, he fell prostrate on the ground.

“Father,” he greeted, his forehead resting on the tile.

“Arise, Belphegor, Angel of the Sabbath,” his Father said.  “Although, perhaps it is wise to address you also by your self-given role of Messenger Angel, as well.”

He peeled himself off the ground.  Knowing better than to stare at the luminous figure of God, he stood and averted his eyes toward the almost equally brilliant Lucifer, who played on as if there was no one else in the room.  “That’d be alright.”

“Do you know why you stand before Me today?”

He took a deep breath, drawing a miasma of calmness from the harp and the low chanting of the seraphim.  “I do.”

A moment later, his Father boomed, “Do you know why, my son, I created the Sabbath?”

“I do.”

“You are the expert angel, in this case, then; explain it to Me.”

“You created it, Father, to represent the day of rest You took after spending six days creating the universe, back in the Beginning.”

His Father’s glow diminished for a moment, and Belphegor cringed.  For every time his Father’s light faltered, it would return a moment later tenfold brighter, signifying his rage.  

There it was: the glorious light roared back with a fierceness that indeed rivaled what it had been before.  “And yet, this duty of protecting such a hallowed tradition is something you are willing to shirk, only to take upon the duties of a Messenger Angel —a duty that is not even yours?”

“Yes,” Belphegor gulped.

Strangely enough, the inferno that was his Father receded slightly and didn’t get brighter.  It seemed almost as if the Almighty was actually calming down.  His voice, now, sounded like a stream of water, without an ounce of malice.  “You did well in your duties as a Messenger Angel, Belphegor; I commend you for that.  But, I cannot overlook your slothfulness into the work that I assigned to you.  I gave you the title of Angel of the Sabbath for a reason, and I expect you to go back and continue to fulfill it.  The dismissal of your actual work comes off as laziness, and I cannot tolerate My day of holy rest being made into a day of indolence on your part.”

“But, Father, I—” Belphegor knew better than to argue with God, but he had spoken without thinking.

The brightness of his Father’s glory flared irritatedly at his act of insolence, and He spoke over Belphegor as if he hadn’t said a word.  “My son, I will withdraw my original punishment from you, provided you understand the error of your ways. Answer Me, Belphegor, do you regret what you did?”

For a moment, Belphegor was silent, as he thought back to the moons that he had spent on Earth.  There were no words to describe just how much he had enjoyed his stay there, despite the overwhelming agony of going without Beel.  Every day was a new adventure as he trotted from village to village, delivering messages that his Father had decided was necessary for certain humans to hear from his underlings.  Sure, not having the actual wings of a Messenger Angel made the role significantly harder, but he was so fully dedicated to this job that it made little difference to him. Even the miserable moon he had spent in frigid hell, no matter how torturous, was worth listening to the fascinating stories that he had heard from the humans and the experiences he had gleaned. 

So that is why, Belphegor blinked through the tears that came with looking straight at his Father’s glowing presence, and declared, “No.”

[patatacosmica]

Drarry Fanfics’ Recommendation (masterpost)

I’ve been postponing this for too long! 

And then I were working on it for five days and I though I would die before finishing it! But here it is, finally! *cries*

The organization of this post is a little bit rubbish, but I hope that you enjoy the fanfics if you decide read some :) Also, english isn’t my first language, so I’m very sorry if there’s some grammar mistake or misspelling :___

Enjoy! <3

CANON COMPLIANT

Perfección, by OneMinuteBlack

Harry Potter tenía una vida perfecta: tenía una esposa a la que amaba, tres maravillosos hijos, una familia cálida y numerosa. Era el Jefe del departamento de Seguridad Mágica  más joven de la historia y la prensa por fin había dejado de atosigarle. Todo era perfecto. Todo, hasta que su hijo Albus decidió invitar a su mejor amigo a su fiesta de cumpleaños. Entonces descubrió que la vida no era tan perfecta.

31 chapters

Spanish

Explicit

Are you mine?, by gracerene

A trilogy of fics set in an Epilogue-Compliant Harry Potter 'Verse, with various accompanying time-stamps and one-shots. Fics are in chronological order.

Three fanfics + one-shots (91.008 words)

English

Explicit

MY FAV CANON COMPLIANT FIC!! Also, one of the three fanfics it’s a Jeddy fanfic <33

Dating Potters, by GoldenTruth813

Scorpius and Albus have been together for awhile now and decide it's time to have a family dinner and come out to their fathers. What they're not counting on is the fact that they're not the only ones with secrets to share. A story in which innuendos are made, hoodies are worn, secrets are revealed, and Albus hides under the table, though not necessarily in that order.

7.733 words

English

Mature

PERFECTION! I mean, this has Drarry and Jeddy and Scorbus and it’s absolutely perfect. Plus, it’s illustrated! I love this one :__

Freedom to be, by Quicksilvermaid

Harry Potter is the Boy Who Lived.

12 years after the war, he's become the Boy Who Lived For Everyone Else. He has the perfect wife. The perfect house. The perfect job. The perfect friends.

Only nothing feels perfect.

Until one day he stumbles across a club called Release and begins a journey of self-discovery that takes him to a very different place.

19 chapters (169.540 words)

English

Explicit

OMG THIS FANFIC!! Mix Drarry + BDSM + poweful!Harry and you’ll have my heart forever and always <3

Fate has different plans, by MarchnoGirl

Harry drew in a breath.

The man must have felt him, because he spun his head towards him, leaving Harry completely speechless. He was wearing a white mask, covered in plumages and diamonds around the eye holes. The diamonds were almost too shiny in the darkness of the room and made the man’s eyes pop out more evidently: they looked like liquid silver. Or, where some casual anal fingering changes Harry’s destiny.

3 chapters (24.336 words)

English

Explicit

Why have this boys to insist in being so angsty? I don't wanna suffer (well, maybe I do)

Play dates, by bixgirl1

Harry never thought seeing Malfoy as a dad would affect him this way.

7.722 words

English

Explicit

Draco and Harry being dads is so sweet :___ Also, good old praise kink *wink*

Predictable little curses, by brightowl

Two single fathers. One rather inconvenient bonding spell.

14.481 words

English

Explicit

In this post you’re going to discover that I’m a sucker for bonding fanfic

 What you left, by MalenkayaCherepakha

Dear Mr. Malfoy, the letter began.

May I begin by extending my deepest condolences on the death of Mr. Potter. It is a great loss for all of wizardkind, and an even greater one for those who knew him personally.

I am writing to you today to inform you that Mr. Potter left you a bequest in his will; the key to Vault 467 at Gringotts. I do not know what the vault contains.

The key is currently in my possession, but if you would like to retrieve it, please do visit my offices at your earliest convenience.

My deepest sympathies once again,

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Alexander Stewart

Draco didn’t understand. Why would Harry leave him the key to his vault?

3983 words

English

Mature

Don’t read this fucking fanfic. It’s going to break your heart. This is the most angsty thing I’ve ever read, I swear.

HOGWARTS EIGHTH YEAR

Tug-o-want, by dysonrules

Harry is back at Hogwarts minding his own business when he finds himself magically drawn to Draco Malfoy. Over and over again.

16.664 words

English

Mature

Not exactly a bond fic, but... more or less.

Dreaming of Harry, by Writcraft

The first night Draco Malfoy dreams of Harry Potter, everything changes.

11.377 words

English

Explicit

Draco is so soft, I need to hug him :___

Hey, Potter, by SunseticMonster

Harry returns to Hogwarts for his 8th year, determined not to let Malfoy get to him. But when the snarky teasing starts up again, Harry finds that returning the jibes with compliments has a far more interesting outcome.

16.024 words

English

Mature

This is so funny, they’re so idiots... But the thing with the ghosts :(((

Candy, by bixgirl1

It was only after careful consideration that Draco came to the wildly preposterous conclusion that he and Potter were actually friends.

Sweet fic. May cause cavities.

5.858 words

English

Mature

THIS IS SO FLUFFY ASLKJALKSJD I love oblivious Draco :’)

It’s joggers season (or so the muggles say), by carpemermaid

Everything about Draco’s life since May has been one bloody long exercise in subverting everything he’s known, that’s expected of him, in an effort to get as far away from the mistakes he’s made—the wrong choices he was forced into. He’s returned to Hogwarts to take his N.E.W.T.s and everything is different—namely, Harry Potter strutting around in clingy joggers that Draco can’t get off his mind.

10160 words

English

Explicit

Kiss, by heyitsamorette

Harry and Draco are forced to kiss over and over again, because that’s just what happens to two arch-enemies around Christmas.

6 chapters (15.344 words)

English

Explicit

This is very cute :__

You cannot save people, you can only love them, by heyitsamorette

Upon returning for Eighth Year, there are so many strange things going on with Malfoy, Harry doesn’t know where to start. He won’t talk to Harry, but he’s talking to ghosts. He won’t apologize for his past, but the Black Family tapestry has crossed him off its tree. And the worst of it all, he still has that infuriating, snotty mouth on him that gets Harry’s dick hard as a rock drives Harry insane.

9 chapters (51.732 words)

English

Explicit

Let it burn in hell, by ImmortalAcorn

Pansy is a cow. It’s unbearable. This whole year will be horrible, I can already tell.

or

Draco hates the stupid diary and he will not be caught dead writing in it.

Not complete! 126/151 chapters (33.593 words)

English

Mature

I love this one ‘cause it’s written like a diary and I think that isn’t common (?)

before & after, by endoftheline7

Loving Harry James Potter was this: soft, extended longing, stretching out forever in his heart, only faltered by the knowledge that having Harry Potter's love would be entirely different. It would be bright and coarse and real. It would be that brash Gryffindor nerve translated into feeling, and Harry's hands would be rough when they cupped Draco's face and his lips would be bitten raw and chapped with cold and perfect, perfect, perfect.

It would be. If he had it.

2 chapters (23.942 words)

English

Mature

MY POOR HEART! MY POOR BABY DRACO!! The first chapter hurts so, so much... But the second *^*

Dragon’s Hide, by featherflairs

“Finally got me on my knees, eh Potter?” Draco smirked up at him, scandalously close to flirting as he placed Potter’s foot on the scale.

“Could you please carry on?” Harry coughed, awkward when faced with his brashness.

Draco gave a dry smile, writing down his measurements and reaching for Potter's other foot.

“You should consider yourself lucky. I’m usually quite picky with who I service.”

14 chapters (61.156 words)

English

Explicit

Draco’s working as a Quidditch boots’ maker and living in Hogsmeade. Harry is in Hogwarts for the 8th Year. And then the drarry happens :D

The Nightmare Club, by Elle Gray

Hermione and Ron are going back to Hogwarts to do N.E.W.T.s, Ginny isn't. Harry hasn't decided, until he has, in front of the Wizengamot and now he's responsible for Malfoy as well. A tale of enemies who learn to get along, get it wrong and get it on. Everything is purple, some things are on fire and no-one is sleeping properly. But don't worry, there's tea! 

16 chapters (85.073 words)

English

Explicit

Harmonised Consciousness, by Talizora

"Potter's spell is still active, but I can shield my thoughts from him. I've been stirring him up all afternoon! It's hysterical!"

Blaise gasped, "It's still active! But it's… Dinner time!"

"Yes, so?"

"S-so? That spell is supposed to cancel itself after an hour! It's been, almost four hours!"

Draco shrugged, "I'm not worried. It's probably due to Potters magic. I'm sure it'll time-out eventually."

Blaise frowned, "Draco I don't think this is a good idea. Maybe you should end the spell?"

"No way! Blaise! I can hear everything! Before, in Runes, Potter was ranting about how he wanted to kill Weasel and Trelawney! He's all over the place! I had no idea he had such homicidal tendencies!" Draco giggled.

One of Blaise's eyebrows rose, "…Draco? Did you just giggle?"

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did."

3 chapters (24.318 words)

English

Explicit

BOOOOOONDIIIIIING *^*

Something I don’t want to stop, by  lq_traintracks

It's Harry and Draco's eighth year, the Houses have been all but demolished in favor of unity, and they're being forced to room together. How ever will they cope?

16.228 words

English

Explicit

AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES

Love comes tumbling, by taradiane

'Harry's thoughts were of how much he would have done differently with Malfoy over the years, and of Dumbledore's final words to the other boy . . . "It is my mercy, and not yours, that matters now." Maybe, Harry wondered, he could find some mercy, too, and give Malfoy the second chance that Dumbledore had believed him worthy of.'

22.221 words

English

Explicit

(Un)Calculated Risk, by loveglowsinthedark

He thought about the way Harry looked at him, smiled at him; about the way Draco’s head was nearly always full of him, all day every day, and about the way Draco sometimes deliberately went to bed still smelling of him, refusing to acknowledge what it meant – because he already fucking knew what it meant. What all of it meant.

And then Draco decided, fuck it, he was going to risk it. They were going to risk it together, Harry and Draco.

6.917 words

English

Explicit

So sooooft :___ And so smutty *smirks*

Slip into my lover’s hands, by lq_traintracks

Draco licks his lips. He shuts his eyes, because he doesn't think he can look at Potter when he says it. When he asks for it. "One finger?"

5.933 words

English

Explicit

Good old smut~ I found this fic thanks to this fantastic fanart <3

 In evidence of Magical Theory, by bixgirl1

When a hex meant for Draco accidentally catches Harry as well, they're forced to learn to understand each other in ways they previously might have thought impossible.

In which Harry and Draco can't fight, so they fall in love instead.

7 chapters (43.747 words)

English

Explicit

ACCIDENTAL BONDING LAKSAJLJKDLSJD

The ties that bind us, by Faith Wood

An accident leaves Draco and Harry bound tightly together. Literally.

27.890 words

English

Explicit

It’s not exactly a bond fic, but it’s very funny!

The standard you walk past, by bafflingaze

On returning to Hogwarts for their Eighth Year, Headmistress McGonagall decided to room Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter together. She may have hoped for a leading example of house unity; the other students fully expected insults and fights. But nothing happened.

That was, until Harry sleepwalked into Draco’s bed.

14 chapters (46.202 words)

English

Mature

THE CUTENESS!!! OH MY GOD THEY WERE ROOMMATES

Right hand red, by  lq_traintracks

Harry felt Malfoy's breath on his lips as they came together over the bottle, hands firmly planted on the floor as though they each needed their familiar soil, refusing to cross into enemy territory.

Except that Malfoy no longer felt like his enemy.

Malfoy felt inevitable.

3 chapters (73.173 words)

English

Explicit

The bois playing muggle games and being awkardly in love

Rarely pure and never simple, by motleygrrrl

"Is stalking me some sort of compulsive need of yours or something?"

Harry Potter won't stop following Draco around—no matter where he goes, Potter is there, watching. And Draco knows what that means—Potter is clearly planning his death, despite what Blaise and Pansy think. Because if it's not murder he's after, what else could it possibly be? And how could Draco find a way to use that information to his advantage?

Not complete! 4/? chapters (35.006 words)

English

Explicit

HOW CAN BE THIS SO CUTE?!?!? Draco’s so cute falling in love for Harry and Harry is so in love already :______

Through the looking glass and what Draco found there, by magpie_fngrl

Draco discovers the Mirror of Erised is a portal and he enters an alternate reality where your deepest desires come true. Or how Draco found himself in the world of his dreams and Potter had to come and ruin it.

2 chapters (17.440 words)

English

Explicit

This is cute and sad and cute ;___; I feel so sorry for my baby Draco :((

Lumos, by birdsofshore

Harry never expected to spend eighth year listening to Draco Malfoy wanking.

41.746 words

English

Explicit

I promise you, it’s cuter than it seems, hahahah

AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES (again) (this trope is everything)

The romantic prawn who loved Christmas, by bixgirl1

When Draco, forced into sharing a room with Potter for the year, finds out that Potter has a sleepwalking problem, he expects the odd conversations and the weird games of chess.

What comes as a complete shock are Potter's other activities...And why he seems so intent on having Draco join him.

2 chapters (39.404 words)

English

Explicit

More roommates ^^ This is so funny and smutty :___

Beautiful meanings in beautiful things, by dwacos

After a cocky comment from Malfoy and a (totally, 100% justified) punch in the face from Harry, Malfoy ends up with a bruise on his cheek that just doesn't seem to want to go away, no matter what is attempted. Harry's confused by his Amortentia smells, Malfoy keeps asking him to punch him (literally,) and everybody seems to think that they can just tell Harry that he isn't straight anymore. On top of all of that, Harry now has to figure out what the fuck to do when you find out that you've got a soulmate. A fucking soulmate.

2 chapters (76.944 words)

English

Explicit

Wow, another soulmates/bonding fanfic, what a surprise *insert pikachu’s meme here*

Then comes a mist and a weeping rain, by Faith Wood

It always rains for Draco Malfoy. Metaphorically. And literally. Ever since he had accidentally Conjured a cloud. A cloud that's ever so cross.

21.139 words

English

Explicit

THIS IS SO FUNNY!! Draco is a grumpy kitten <3

In need of a proper hug, by Faith Wood

Draco rescues a poor, poor koala, which won't stop hugging him. Inspired by this pic of DanRad hugging Jack Huston aka Jack Kerouac in Kill Your Darlings, and this comment: "I've decided that he is part koala, and I think you should write a story where Harry becomes an Animagus, turns into a koala, and clings constantly to Draco." Beware of cute. Bring a toothbrush.

2.086 words

English

Mature

THE FLUFF!! KOALAS!!!! MY HEART!!!!!!!!

An issue of consequence, by Faith Wood

Draco has woken up in an alternate universe. Or he has woken up utterly insane. Nothing else can possibly explain why Harry Potter suddenly seems to think he's Draco's boyfriend.

5 chapters (20.798 words)

English

Explicit

This one hurted so much :( But there’s a happy ending, I promise <3

Written on the heart, by who_la_hoop

Harry doesn’t mind that so many Slytherins from his year have returned to finish their NEWTs, really he doesn’t. It’s just – do they have to be so friendly? He’s not prejudiced, really he’s not. It’s just – they’ve got to be up to something, right? Unnerved by the attention he’s attracting from everyone – the Slytherins are the least of it, to be fair – and struggling with a raft of changes to Hogwarts itself, Harry wishes he could be happy that one constant remains: Draco Malfoy really fucking hates him.

When he’s hit by an illegal love-spell though, Harry finds he has more to worry about than whether or not Blaise Zabini actually wants to be his friend. For if everyone affected has been blessed – or cursed, by the look on Malfoy’s face – with a magical tattoo revealing the name of their soulmate, what does it mean that Harry’s skin remains completely bare?

20 chapters (113.984 words)

English

Explicit

AND THEY WERE S O U L M A T E S

Say my name, by Thunderbird587

Harry witnesses something unexpected in the 8th year boys' showers and starts to see Draco Malfoy in a whole new light. The question is now, what is he going to do about it?

A coming of age Drarry tale about letting go of the past and building the future.

21 chapters (199.135 words)

English

Explicit

I have a special affection for this fanfic, because it made me realize the bad things about the relationship of Harry and Ginny and that’s always a good thing (?)

Things worth knowing, by Femme (femmequixotic)

After the Battle, Harry thinks he's left Hogwarts for good, but Minerva insists that all students return for an Eighth Year if they wish to sit for NEWTs in the spring, and Harry needs those NEWTs to go into the Aurors. Draco's just grateful not to be in Azkaban. Or the Manor. He's hoping he can steer clear of Potter this year and grapple with his own problems. Unfortunately for him, Potter appears to be one of those problems. And that's not even addressing the fact that Potter's got serious issues of his own, which Draco realises as he's forced to share an Eighth Year dormitory room and several classes with the Gryffindor Git. If only they can make it through the year without killing each other, it should be all right, shouldn't it?

10 chapters (164.523 words)

English

Explicit

I think this is my favourite Hogwarts Eighth Year fanfic. All the thing with the hate towards the Slytherin House and DRACO DRESSED UP AS HYPNOS OMG WHAT A BLESSING <33 Also, Ravi is the best and the talk :___

Alliges Duplicia: Bound, by Anonymus

Harry and Draco both go back to Hogwarts for the 8th year. Harry goes because he skipped his 7th year, and Draco goes because he failed his.

The get stuck working together on a Potion’s project because they both skipped the same class in which pairs were chosen. Due to the clumsiness of another student, their brilliant work turns into a disaster when, somehow, their magical energies get bonded together, which forces them to stay in close proximity to each other.

This isn’t a permanent situation, but it will take quite a bit of time for the proper officials to figure out how to unbind them, seeing as this type of instance is extremely rare. Somewhere along the way, Draco bonds with Harry in a different way. Enemies become friends, and friends become something more.

Not complete! 23/? chapters (76.089 words)

English

Explicit

Do you remember that I’ve lost a fanfic and was looking for it? WELL, I FOUND IT AND IS THIS! :D

Strangers, by LucyLightwood

The first time he sees Malfoy up there, he points his wand at him. And even though he knows he should leave, he decides to stay and sit as far away as possible while they both look over at the same set of stars. They shouldn't be sharing the same room or breathing the same air, but after a month of silent company, it's not Harry who crosses the line first.

Not complete! 24/? chapters (146.845 words)

English

Mature

I think this was one of the first Drarry fics I’ve read :__ They’re so soft, help ;__;

Harry Potter y las Cicatrices Invisibles, by OTPshipper98

Tras la Batalla de Hogwarts, todo el mundo ha perdido algo. Algunos han perdido a familiares y amigos. Otros han perdido la inocencia. Pero Harry Potter ha perdido la sonrisa; se ha perdido a sí mismo. Y la única persona que se siente como él es, para su sorpresa, Draco Malfoy.

61 chapters (253.651 words)

Spanish

Explicit

Okay, this fanfic competes with Things worth knowing for the first position of my favourites Eighth Year fanfics :___ 

The wolf pack, by dracogotgame

Nobody said achieving your animagus form was easy. Draco could handle being a wolf pup for a while, right? How bad could it be?

13.672 words

English

Teen and up audiences

The fluffiest thing in this galaxy <3

Friday night gossip, by jamesilver

“You two are my best friends, you know that. It’s just...” Hermione paused. “There are just things I can’t talk about you two with. It’d be too...weird. For all of us. It’s just a thing girls like to do, you know. We want to talk about our boyfriends, the guys we like—the cute things they do, the stupid things they do, all their quirks that we really like, our feelings about them."

After her friends were gone, Pansy Parkinson got her attention. "We couldn’t help overhearing.”

Draco leaned forward. “If you want to talk about crushes and feelings and your boyfriend, you can join our Friday night mani-pedi group.”

“Okay,” Hermione said.

“Good.” Pansy pointed at her. “Bring what colors you want for your nails. I’ll provide accent colors and decorating tools. Also, bring towels and whatever hair products you use. I bring drinks, Draco brings chocolate, fine something to add to that. Be at Draco’s room at nine on Friday.”

_____

Or, in which Hermione just wants to talk about boys and ends up becoming a small sort of matchmaker

(above is a heavily-edited excerpt)

6.424 words

English

Mature

I love the idea of Draco and Pansy being big drama queens and befriending Hermione <33

Tie me up in knots, by lauren3210

“Harry, are you wearing a Slytherin tie?”

2.065 words

English

Mature

KASHJJKDAJSDKLAJSDLAKJD (that’s the most coherent thing I can say about this fic)

Unexpected consequences, by lauren3210

Harry was going back to school. He was going to play Quidditch, sleep in lessons, hang out with his friends, and generally just enjoy being a kid for a change. And he was also going to do it while being bonded with Malfoy, because apparently life was just going to continue throwing curveballs at him. Harry didn't know why he expected anything different.

7 chapters (39.192 words)

English

Explicit

OMG THIS FANFIC!! B O N D I N G <333

AUROR POTTER

Dueling, by heyitsamorette

Draco is an Auror trainee. They have dueling practice every week. All dueling really amounts to is a game of domination and submission.

Written for wand_in_a_knot for pasdexcuses' delicious prompt, "domination is the name of the game."

3.211 words

English

Explicit

Have yourself a kinky little Christmas, by keyflight790 & tsundanire

As the holidays loom, Harry feels the weight of everything and everyone he'd lost. Working as an Auror, while exciting hadn't filled him with the same kind of satisfaction he'd assumed it would. It takes one extremely kinky secret admirer to pull out a side of him he'd been pushing away since his youth, and actually make him want to come into work everyday.

12 chapters (21.433 words)

English

Explicit

The man in the scarlet cloak, by bixgirl1

There's usually a better time and place to participate in seduction than the Forbidden Forest. Unless, of course, it's Mating Season.

In which Draco is sneaky but not sneaky enough, Harry is confident but goes a bit mad, and the Trees are either incredibly romantic or just sort of perverts.

16.350 words

English

Explicit

This fanfic is fantastic! I loved the trees’ thing <3

Work it out, by GoldenTruth813

The Auror Trainees now have required gym time, and Draco is distracted by Potter’s equipment. His workout equipment, that is.

4.454 words

English

Explicit

Hourglass heart, by bixgirl1

It only happened once — depending on how Harry counted.

5.252 words

English

Explicit

WHY ARE THEY SO IDIOTS?!?!?!

Draco Malfoy’s Stupendous Seduction Seminar, by Anonymus

Draco Malfoy offers to help his coworkers to improve their seduction techniques, with unexpected consequences.

8.700 words

English

Explicit

This one is so funny :__ Also, it contains the best kink ever aka praise kink (uwu)

Cauldron full of hot, strong love, by aibidil

In which a group of wizards' rights activists goes on the offensive after a prohibition against love potions, forcing the magical world to confront the horror of magic's role in sexual assault and the murky legal nature of consent. Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Draco are swept together to solve the case, and in the process they're made to confront their own love and lust—with and without potions.

4 chapters (80.466 words)

English

Explicit

THIS IS A FUCKING MASTERPIECE!!!! You can’t imagine how much I loved this fanfic :___

Fake it til you make it, by mssldiaz

Draco hates soul marks. He hates all marks in general. Especially one that ties him to the Boy Wonder. Draco just wanted to finish his probation in peace and slowly remove himself from the public eye. Being soul matched with Harry Potter is definitely not the way to avoid attention.

Especially when he won't shut up about it.

A sort of Modern AU.

4 chapters (24.274 words)

English

Mature

I don’t believe in soulmates irl, but in fanfiction... oh boi 

Little Prince, Kneel, by Selly87

Almost immediately after the war, Harry Potter took his godson and Andromeda and left England behind. He returned five, nearly six, years later; changed, healed, and a very different man altogether. Now an extremely handsome bachelor in his late twenties, and with a promising career at the Ministry, he suddenly finds his life turned upside down after unexpectedly bumping into his former school nemesis, Draco Malfoy, Prosecutor Extraordinaire.

Is Harry going to be able to stay away from Draco? Does he even want to? And exactly how will Draco react once he discovers how the Saviour prefers to spend his free time?

Not complete! 40/70 chapters (209.400 words)

English

Explicit

I’M ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE WITH THIS FANFIC, IT GIVES ME LIFE, CURES MY DEPRESSION, CLEARS MY SKIN!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAA *dies*

This year’s love, by trishjames

This year’s love had better last, heaven knows it’s high time when you try to make lovers from friends. But Harry Potter realises time and time again that it’s simply not possible for him. And then along comes Draco Malfoy— the ultimate foe on the mend. Whatever will become of them? A story about love.

6 chapters (84.000 words)

English

Explicit

Dean is such a shit in this fanfic :((( Also, Harry and Draco being idiots *eyeroll*

Antlers and Ivy, by violetclarity

The thing is, Draco has always known he wouldn’t be able to marry his soulmate. Finding out his soulmate is Harry Potter shouldn’t change anything.

Or: soulmarks, a masquerade ball, and gratuitous use of The Daily Prophet as a plot device.

6 chapters (19.124 words)

English

Explicit

Write the way out, by carmemermaid

When Draco finally gets his first real assignment as a reporter for the Daily Prophet, he didn’t imagine that he would be given the Potter beat. Resigning himself to writing boring pieces about dull charity functions and various Auror missions, Draco is more than surprised when he follows Potter into Muggle London and discovers Potter’s secret.

14.578 words

English

Explicit

The Full Monty, by magpie_fngrl

Harry poses for a naked Auror calendar and Draco goes batshit crazy with lust.

9.860 words

English

Explicit

PROFESSORS

Of roses and dragonfire, by xErised

Years after That Kiss, Potter (and his new pet snake) appears again, this time as Hogwarts's Quidditch and Muggle Games instructor (what are Muggle Games anyway? Is this why Potter is swimming in the Great Lake wearing such a tiny pair of pants?), disrupting Draco's peaceful life as Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. It's bad enough dealing with one exuberant Gryffindor (Charlie Weasley as Care of Magical Creatures professor) on the faculty, and what's all the gossip about Potter courting Draco?

3 chapters (53.123 words)

English

Explicit

Asakdjslkdjas this is so cute and funny :__ And the Parseltongue kink, help xdd

Nosy niffler, by dracoismytrashson

Harry can't stop watching him. It's starting to feel a bit like sixth year, except this time he's a grown man with classes to teach and no time to obsess about his favorite subject: Draco Malfoy. Unfortunately, Harry's pet Niffler keeps stealing things from Draco and only Draco, making it entirely impossible for Harry to avoid confronting that stupid smirking face he most assuredly doesn't want to kiss.

6.582 words

English

Explicit

A secondary education, by Thunderbird587

Fleeing the aftermath of his recent divorce, Draco Malfoy takes up a post as the new Potions Master at Hogwarts. At first he believes his hopes for a fresh start are dashed when he sees that a certain boyhood rival is on staff there as well. But Harry Potter is being weirdly nice to him, leaving Draco no choice but to play along. As Draco reckons with his ex-wife's infidelity and questions about his own sexuality, he finds himself going to an openly gay Potter for guidance. As their friendship deepens, Draco realizes that there is quite a lot that Potter can teach him. And that he is surprisingly ready to learn.

21 chapters (234.528 words)

English

Explicit

Not to be dramatic, but I would die for this fanfic

IN THE MUGGLE WORLD

Yours to keep, by dracoismytrashson

Some people think concepts like fate and destiny are romantic, but for Harry Potter, fate has always meant one thing: a swift kick in the arse. Why else would he cross an ocean to New York and enroll in Muggle university only to find Draco Malfoy living two doors down the hall? The universe and its twisted sense of humor can fuck right off.

A story in which two broken boys try to repair themselves halfway across the world. Too bad trauma doesn't care how far you run.

22 chapters (135.830 words)

English

Explicit

OMG I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS FANFIC! I think it’s my fav fic and without a doubt this Draco is THE BEST DRACO IN THE UNIVERSE <3333 Plus, the mental health is treated so well in this story, it’s a blessing. Seriously, this fanfic is everything ;___;

The lost bet, by Selly87

It is 2019 and Harry Potter, Ex-Auror turned full-time dad and writer of magical children's books, finds himself making a startling discovery about none other than his former school rival Draco Malfoy. Just where will this relationship, rekindled over several cups of exquisite coffee, lead those two men?

27 chapters (60.700 words)

English

Explicit

This is so sweet <3 Also, it triggered my need of coffee :__

The Magic Cat, by dot_the_writer

When Harry sees Draco Malfoy with painted nails and wearing an oversized jumper covered in cat fur, his obsession from school comes back in full force. Featuring supportive friends, cute cats and lots of Harry figuring out what he wants.

17.455 words

English

Explicit

CATS CATS CATS *^*

There’s no I in team, by JulietsEmoPhase

When Draco's babysitter cancels on him, he has no option but to bring his son to work, despite the fact he has an extremely important day ahead of him. Rescue comes from the most unlikely of places, and Draco ends up having a day he never could have planned, or hoped for.

Muggle AU, smut. Birthday present!

13.389 words

English

Explicit

Oh, the cuteness :___

Listen, the snow is falling, by dracoismytrashson

It's the coldest day of the year, and a blizzard is threatening to bury the city at any moment. All Draco Malfoy wants to do is get through his shift at the homeless shelter so he can go home to a warm cat and a comfy bed. Too bad the universe has other plans.

12.450 words

English

Explicit

I have a soft point for Draco trying to redeem himself and so does Harry <3

Highly (in)compatible, by gracie137

Draco’s been shagging The Prat Who Lived on and off for a few months when his soul mark starts to change. Draco’s had to accept a lot of adjustments to his life, but accepting that Harry Potter could be his soulmate is one step too far. It can’t be true? Can it?

37.300 words

English

Explicit

Me and the soulmates au, the soulmates au and me (a love story)

Anyone but him, by  RuArcher (Coriesocks)

Harry thought going to a Muggle university would be the perfect opportunity for a new start. He hadn’t counted on having Draco Malfoy as a flatmate.

19.323 words

English

Explicit

I laughed so much with this one, it’s so relatable xddd

CREATURES

In the red, by bixgirl1

When Harry goes looking for a vampire at a Creature club, the second-to-last thing Harry expects is to find Malfoy working there.

The last thing he expects is to fall in love with him.

5 chapters (45.629 words)

English

Explicit

This hurt a little bit :__

A Choice of Wings, by Lomonaaeren

A Choice of Wings is Harry's matchmaking business for Veela who have trouble finding mates. And Draco Malfoy is his most difficult client.

18.738 words

English

Mature

Harry Potter and the Maudlin Merman, by FleetofShippyShips

Not a proper series, more like, I might dabble in this AU and when I do I'll just post things as oneshots.

At some point after the war, Draco Malfoy was cursed and dumped in the lake at Hogwarts. 

2 one-shots (8.946 words)

English

Teen and Up Audiences & Mature

Merman!Draco is pure fantasy :___

Today, Forever, by Palendrome

As if his recent divorce and sleepless nights weren’t bad enough, a rash of escalating crimes against purebloods forces Harry and his team of Aurors to protect the riskiest target in all of Wizarding Britain.

Of course, Draco Malfoy would still be ridiculously infuriating and impossibly gorgeous.

As well as a Veela.

Who happens to be Harry’s mate.

6 chapters (60.960 words)

English

Explicit

I loved this one <33

RANDOM JOBS

Phoenix Repairs Services, by carpemermaid

Phoenix Repair Services — We’ll bring it back to life as if it was new! Draco hires a suspiciously private wizarding handyman to fix his kitchen when he returns home to find it destroyed. He expects a middle-aged wizard with greying hair and a pudgy gut to show up. Instead, he gets Harry Potter—with a utility belt and a charming smile—who is more attractive than he has any right to be. 

20.550 words

English

Explicit

What’s my age again?, by lazywonderland

Harry Potter has had enough of pleasing the public, and his reckless tendencies are finally getting out of hand.

The Quidditch World Cup is only a week away; as Captain of the English National Team, Hermione has assured him that his immaturity won’t be tolerated by the Ministry.

And then Malfoy shows up.

(Inspired by the blink-182 song of the same name.)

12.249 words

English

Explicit

Harry being a rebel and doing with his life whatever he wants is my kink

Notes on a resurrection, by newleaves

The plan was never to raise Sirius Black from the dead. Draco’s intentions were only ever to free him from the veil, most likely so that he could move on. It’s Harry’s actions as he entered the forest, ten years ago, which have afforded Black the prospect of life and are causing these accidents along the way…

A story about hope, courage and the act of changing state.

Not complete! 10/13 chapters (88.248 words)

English

Mature

I’M SO GLAD I FOUND THIS FIC *^* IT HAS A LOT OF WONDERFUL THINGS: UNSPEAKABLE!DRACO, WOLFSTAR, HARRY AND DRACO BEING IDIOTS IN LOVE...

Touch, by bixgirl1

When Harry is referred to a professional cuddler for the soothing power of touch, he’s dubious — even more so when the Cuddler who shows up turns out to be Malfoy. But in the years since the war, Malfoy’s changed, and over the next several days Harry is confronted by how much he still doesn’t know about this new version of his old enemy — and by how much he wants to learn.

5 chapters (44.791 words)

English

Explicit

Let’s take a chance on happiness, by endless_grey

Harry works with Luna at her magical antique shop, and everything is going pretty well until a mysterious ring makes an appearance. Cue curse-breaker Draco Malfoy and an accidental bond, and suddenly Harry is magically married to his former nemesis. They need to break the bond before Hermione's fundraiser, but Harry doesn't remember "fall in love with the git" being part of the plan.

21.178 words

English

Explicit

Boooonding tiiiiiime <3

A man like him, by darkestbliss

Draco Malfoy has made a name for himself after the War as 'the wizarding world's best interior architectural designer' (his words), taking old, decrepit spaces and transforming them into exquisite homes for those who can afford the hefty price tag. His most recent assignment is number twelve, Grimmauld Place, which has only deteriorated more in condition since the elusive Harry Potter inherited it after Sirius Black's death. When he stumbles upon a collection of questionable items in one of Potter's wardrobes, he finds himself appalled, shocked, distraught, and just a little bit turned on.

23 chapters (60.132 words)

English

Explicit

I’m in love with Dom!Harry, sorry :___

FANFICS I DON’T KNOW HOW THE HELL CLASSIFY

Draco Sodding Malfoy, by  Shewhxmustnxtbenamed

Harry finds Draco outside a pub and takes him back to his place, only to find out that Draco is in an abusive relationship. Harry invites Draco to stay until he can get back on his feet. They go to Draco's ex-boyfriends house, and come back with more than they bargained for.

73 chapters (250.248 words)

English

Explicit

Oh, godness, this fanfic. It was one of the first Drarry fanfics I’ve read and I’m completely in love with it.

He kneels, by Selly87

“What do you want, my gorgeous little prince?” Harry asked softly and Draco stared up at him, eyes wide, lips trembling slightly beneath Harry’s gentle caress.

8.841 words

English

Explicit

This one inspired Little Prince, Kneel and :___

The Day The Weasel Crashed The Party (And Got More Than He Bargained For), by Selly87

It's a perfect evening, the restaurant is exquisite, the champagne is cool and bubbly and Harry is in the company of the only man he wants to spend tonight with...until his best friend, Ronald Weasley, makes a surprise appearance. Things can only go pear-shaped from here on, or can they?

3.348 words

English

Mature

I would kill Ron, I swear... agh :/

[cordyceps-brain]

forum rp guide

To start this off, I just want to say that I’m in no way a profession (but really, this is roleplay, I don’t think there are profession rpers??). I’ve been roleplaying on forums since I was really young and I’m an old lady now, so I definitely have experience. I felt like making this guide because I know there are a lot of tumblr roleplayers that feel anxious about trying forum rps. This is just a rough, all-over-the-place guide for understanding and getting started. 

Forum Roleplaying is quite different from tumblr roleplaying and can seem daunting to anyone unfamiliar. I have no idea how else to go about this, so I’m going to start from the beginning. 

QUICK VOCABULARY

forum - forum can be used to talk about the site as a whole. but more commonly when someone says ‘forum’ in conversation, they are referring to a category on the site that when clicked on then reveals threads that are within that single forum. 

sub forum - a sub forum is just that. a forum within a forum. often used for further organization. 

thread - a thread is a post and all it’s replies. in chronological order from the first post created to the last. 

membergroup(s) - membergroups are how characters are categorized. many rp sites use personality types to do this. some use neighborhoods. say the site is set in a city with four neighborhoods. the membergroups may be those four neighborhoods and each character is in the membergroup that they live in. there are so many ways to organize characters into membergroups. this can help with plot ideas or general organization. 

Finding a Forum Roleplay

There are a lot of advertising tumblrs aimed at helping roleplayers find a forum to call home. My favorite is allthingsroleplay. There you can search by genres to find something you’re interested in. There are all kinds, just like there are all kinds of tumblr rps. I can be pretty shallow when it comes to finding a new site to roleplay on. I just can’t get super into a site that has clashing colors or grainy graphics. That’s not to say there can’t be an excellent site out there with bad visuals. That’s just strictly my preference: a beautiful site with a great plot and welcoming members. 

Getting Started

Once you have found a site that you’re into, you can read the rules, plot, setting, membergroup info, etc to make sure it is the right place for you. Generally, those important reads are found toward the top of the site. There are usually even links beneath or above the site banner or in the topbar ( the bar across the top of the window that nowadays is often fixed there and remains in the same location as you scroll. ) It is important to read the rules to know what is allowed/not allowed on the site. Most are very common sense rules; #1 forum rp rule is always ‘don’t be a dick.’ Of course, you want to also familiarize yourself with the setting and plot of the site. 

Once the required reading is complete, people usually want to browse the face claims in use. Most forum roleplays ( with the exception of sandbox sites or anime sites ) only allow one person to use a certain face at a time. Of course there is twinning but you get the idea. If you’ve decided that this site is where you want to settle your character, make sure to reserve your preferred face. Be certain that you’re not trying to reserve a face that is already claimed by someone else. To reserve a face ( and later after acceptance, claiming a face ) you will have to copy/paste a code within the face claim list. The code to copy paste will be titled something like “TO RESERVE A FACE” or something like that and the code will look something like 

<blockquote><b>face claim</b>  is reserved for <i>alias</i> until <b>##:## am or pm</b></blockquote>

You want to make sure you copy all of that, from the first < to the last >. You would fill it out appropriately and paste it in a reply to the same “thread” where the face claims are. This will save your face claim for you while you create your character. 

You can either reserve your face before registering an account or after. It doesn’t really matter either way. When registering your account, make sure you know the rules. Some sites want you to register with your character’s first and last name in proper capitalization. John Doe. Some want you to use all lowercase letters. That should be in the rules that you read when first investigating the site. 

Character Application

There are different kinds of applications depending on the site you’ve chosen. Some require a traditional application, where you write about your character’s past, their appearance, their personality, etc. Many use shipper applications, which is when you discuss your character’s friendships, romantic life, enemies, and how they may connect with other characters. 

If you’re stuck on this part, feel free to browse accepted characters on the site to get a feel for what is asked of you when applying. 

Typically on forum roleplays, there will be a “forum” for completed applications and a separate one for unfinished applications. If you haven’t finished your application but you want to go ahead and post it, you should post in the unfinished section and come back to it to finish up when you can. Once you’ve finished, most sites just ask that you reply to your own application with something like, “i’m finished.” or “i think this is ready to go.” This is referred to as a bump. You’ll often see someone saying things like, “You can only bump your request once every three days.” or “If you’re finished with your app you can bump it so the admins see that you’re done.” That’s what they’re talking about when they say that. 

After Your Application is Accepted

If the admins feel that your application needs a little more for them to get a full grasp of your character, your application may be pended and a message sent to you. Try not to take this as an attack. This is just an opportunity for you to dig deeper and get to know your character even more than you already do. A good admin will let you know what part of your application could use some more meat and may even give you advice/suggestions if you ask. Everyone gets a pended application at some point or another. Don’t fret.

Once you get the glorious stamp of approval your application will be moved to the accepted forum. This is where you will plot with other characters. Don’t get over eager yet though. After acceptance it is important to make all your claims. You’ll need to go post in the face claim thread with the appropriate code, even if you reserved the face before. A reserve is not endless and will run out. If you don’t want to risk losing your face you MUST go update your claim. Many sites also have a member directory claim, which usually allows you to give a short blurb about yourself and lists your characters so everyone knows who plays which characters. Sometimes there is even an occupation claim so everyone can see their characters coworkers and this kind of claim can making plotting a breeze. 

Once all claims are made, you can finally get into the really fun stuff. ( I personally really adore the character creation stage but plotting/writing is the best part of roleplaying obviously. )

Plotting

Plotting, like in all roleplays, is important to help you establish character interactions and relationships. To begin plotting on a forum, you need to find the forum where all accepted character applications have been moved. The applications are often categorized by membergroup.  Read a character’s application to determine if that character is someone that yours would interact with in some way. When you have an idea all you need to do is post in the character’s application (also often called a shipper) with that idea. 

Again, reading the replies on others will help you understand how plotting on a forum works. 

Once plotting is established and you’re ready to start writing with someone it is time to start a thread. To do so you find the location that you want your thread to take place in. Say you want the interaction to occur in a house. There should be a forum titled ‘residences’ or ‘homes’ or something similar. You should go to that forum and find the button that says ‘new topic’ or ‘new post.’ When you’ve finished your starter you just hit submit and wait for the other person to tag you back in the same thread. 

Tagging

I prefer jcink forums above all else, so I wanted to add in a bit about their alert system. On jcink forums you can tag your rp partner when you reply to a thread that you have together. You can do this by adding @[character’s username]

This will send them a notification that you have tagged them in your thread.  

Have fun! 

It might all seem complicated in the start but forum roleplaying really is a very organized fun way of roleplaying. It also doesn’t take long to pick up. You’ll find your way around in no time. 

Please let me know if this was helpful to anyone or if you’d prefer I shut up. Suggestions are welcome. Let me know if screenshots would help this guide or if there is any area of forum roleplay that you would like more detail on. I’m here to help!  

[luciahunter6]

Favourite moments of 2018

Just before the year closes out, I thought I’ll run through my best moments of 2018. Here they are in chronological order:

End January: Extensive 4-day Numazu pilgrimage. This wasn’t my first trip down here, but it was my first one after they introduced the stamp rally. Also, it was the longest I ever stayed down there. Freezing my ass off on the cold Senbonhama beach, visiting Mission Bay for their fluffy pancakes, a whole lot of cycling until my butt hurt. It was a genuinely relaxing experience after a stressful event I helped organize, the town’s vibe is really just soothing when you’re into LL. 

Early Feb: Taiwan for Aqours Fan Meeting. I never thought I would fly to one of the East Asian countries just for a Fan Meeting level of event, but I absolutely did not regret this one at all. Excellent production value, superb selection of fan-letters, questions and mini-games, as well as a really great team of translators that TLed and retained nuances of their sentences and jokes without delay. My seats were plenty decent so it was a good view, and I also distinctly remember all the fan projects they set up. I was awed by the love of the local fan community, they’re good people. Also I’ve never been to Taiwan before so it was a good experience seeing new things. There was also a post-apocalyptic vibe in the night cityscape after the rain which I have fond memories of.

Mid May: Running into Wendy online over Discord again after 4-5 years apart? This seems like a weird thing to include here but basically back in the day when we were into Love Live!, we were both authors who would talk about our fics. And then subsequently she invited me into a LisaYuki server where I’ve met some really great people- people I’m not close to by any means, but they still show me more support than I deserve. All in all, I’m really grateful for this chance encounter for all the wonderful people I’m thankful to have met. Mid May: BanG Dream! 5th Live. This isn’t a good moment, but a painful one. I’ve talked a lot about how my planning for 5L DV started since last year, but this was one of the first moments that actually cemented my personal, emotional commitment to it. I cried a lot during this period after watching the videos, even if I hadn’t been following them beforehand. I’m still not sure why. I guess this was when I truly became fully devoted. This might also be the first time I acknowledged and put into words just what I had been doing up to that point: my personal mission to show other people the dreams that I was once shown.

Early-Mid June: Aqours 3rd Live trip. This was a hurricane trip starting with 3L Saitama, /r/LL offkai, a Numazu pilgrimage and then 3L Osaka. I really loved staying at Awashima Hotel- with a suite split between four people, it’s honestly not that bad price-wise. Having cars for us to do our pilgrimage was also pretty cool, I got to hit up spots I never would’ve been able to do otherwise, such as that mountain-top parking lot. 3L Osaka was also decently good, definitely better than Saitama. I mean overall 3L was pretty bad setlist-wise, but at least the experience was improved. But my favourite memory of 3L Osaka was our two Airbnbs: I was staying at ONIBE Airbnb on one end, and Whales Airbnb was a 5-minute walk away. On the last night, most of us just crammed around the Whales’ dining table and talked for a couple of hours. I was distinctly struck by the feeling of this Sado concept, 一期一会 (lit. One chance, one meeting). Every single meetup is precious, every moment is once in a lifetime. I love these people, and times like this is when I realise how insanely cool it is that such a connection can happen between people from such diverse walks of life around the world. That’s the power of our hobby.

Early August: BanG Dream! 5L DV in SG, Japan Park. The moment of catharsis here was real, watching everything come to fruition after a lengthy struggle. This was definitely my most impressionable moment and my achievement of the year. Finally being able to set that burden down was such an impossible relief. And the gifts and fan messages I received- irreplaceable. There were many things that could’ve gone wrong along the way, but were fine thanks to support and guidance from the people around me. Given the chance, I would like to challenge myself in similar ways in the future to see where I can further improve.

Mid September: Roselia Fan Meeting. I had committed to this one shortly after hearing about Akesan’s graduation. After being unable to attend 5L, I knew I didn’t want to sit by idly and be unable to witness this happening all over again. And thankfully, I made it into the night session with my own code from my own CD (my 3 donated ones failed heh). Night also kindly provided me with a ticket for the day session, so I was able to attend both. This was actually my first time witnessing a Roselia performance live. I still remember the excellent pacing of the sessions, and the fun questions and fanmail. And the live segments- watching Yukki’s performance was the first time I was truly able to accept her as Lisa in my eyes. Seeing them perform was amazing. Of course, those hand-written messages during the end of the night session, which caused literally everyone to break down aside from Akesan. And their final appearance back on stage as a band of four, asking for permission to turn their next event into a live performance. It was one of Roselia’s most powerful moments that I was grateful to have witnessed first-hand.

Early November: Writing my first fanfic in years. This is a minor one but something else I’m proud of. Writing a new piece was one of my goals for 2017 that I hadn’t been able to complete. I was glad I could do this again in 2018 with the help of Bandori.

Early November: Roselia Live Vier. Specifically, the reveal of Shizaki Kanon for the encore. Even though I knew what was coming beforehand, I was caught up in the hype: there was a seriously epic moment when the audience realised what they were in for as her back appeared in the pre-encore video. The noise went off the charts, and it only went even crazier as the staff came out onto stage to wheel the drums to one side. Absolutely lovely production.

Mid November: CharaExpo USA. Another insane rush with the costume project. This was honestly one of the most stressful things I had to do, almost as difficult as Japan Park & 5L DVs. But we pulled through together in the end, as a team, as a community. Of course, finally being able to meet a whole bunch of people I’ve been waiting to meet was amazing as well. And the fan messages I got, which I was really thankful for- they give me the courage to keep pushing on, to do what’s best for everyone. And oh, that moment when Nonchan made her surprise appearance on stage as well. I made sure I was there to witness the crowd’s reaction from the back and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Was even crazier than Vier’s audience, honestly.

Early December: BanG Dream! 6L Day 1: Brave New World by RAISE A SUILEN. Sneaking in just at the end of the year, RAS's live was a surprising contender for memorable moments of the year. I’ve always liked Electronic and House music, but damn, that was a show alright. A DECLARATION OF XXX was impossibly hyped on site. I can’t wait for them to release it.

Overall, a lot of things might have changed in my life, but I feel like the most visible changes were in the last few months.

It might have been the release from a lot of stress, having been working towards JPSG and BD 5L DVs. Or maybe it was having those exact things under my belt, having actual experience that gave me a little bit more confidence. Having been through all these things gives me not only precious memories in the past, but also more certainty in knowing what I am doing.

Honestly, 2018 has been a really good year to me, a pleasant change from the shitfest that was the year before. I’m thankful for all the opportunities that were given to me, all the awesome people I met along the way, and all the challenges that I was able to conquer.

I hope 2019 will be a good year for us all, too.

[solarpunksoftie]

Mark Isn’t Dead

(step-by-step spoilers ahead!)

Y’all. Y’all. 

My bro and I, the theory sibs, had a 5 hour jam sesh and have been pouring over the last 3 chapters and have come to the conclusion that Markiplier isn’t dead. This is gonna be a really long post, but basically we got a plot, a scheme, and the staff and detective are in on it.

Ok, So I guess I’ll go as chronologically as I can with my evidence, but there may be some mobius double reach-arounds.

so going in TRUE chronological order. I’ll start with the security tapes. The eye is drawn so quickly to the Time Stamp because, obviously we’re looking for time, but watch:

on the footage that ACTUALLY MATTERS the TIME doesn’t mean anything at all. It’s the DATE that should matter. 3 days before the party and subsequent murder. Mark discusses the trustworthiness of the staff that will be at the party. Note he doesn’t bring up the groundskeeper at all, presumably because he shouldn’t be present.

WHY DOES MARK FALL FROM THE CEILING. GENUINE QUESTION. I DONT UNDERSTAND.

Anyway, from there, the lightning upon discovering the murder draws THREE people to the scene, specifically the three discussed in the scene from 3 days ago. They all react rather similarly. YOU are then immediately accused of murder. The only wild card in the room? trying to wrap things up quickly? Hm.

There’s then a lot of talk between the three of them, mostly confirming each others validity in their positions and agreeing. You’re made the partner, possibly to keep a better eye on you so you don’t wander off on your own.

Damien doesn’t discover the scene until after the crime scene has been established properly, and seems realistically distraught. He has the most genuine response in this situation imo. I’m convinced he’s at the very least not guilty. 

From the time the crime scene is established onward, we don’t see the body again. It’s under a very bulky sheet. could be anything under there

This seems like such a lazy and obvious slip-up??? There is only one guest not present and that is the Colonel. Seems like he just needs an excuse to leave,,, after the detective disbands them. Why would he really need an excuse? Why would he lie so poorly? is it code?

Again, a genuine distraught friend. Not suspicious. A bean who needs a hug and a cry. I’ll stop talking about this genuine man. The only person actually acting like an old friend just died. Just know in my book he’s clean.

So now we get some repetition, to drive home an idea, only it seems to be completely disregarded. But its not. It’s deliberate as hell.

He leads us to the wine cellar. And he doesn’t just lead us there, he makes a show of it. He narrates the whole thing, talking about evil and seeming afraid of the cellar. Why? The chef is right next to us in the kitchen, just off screen.

 He knows every inch of this house, the Colonel says you’ll find answers in the house, and you’re shown a room exactly once immediately after. He makes such a show of running down the stairs, wailing “If only he was still alive!!” loud enough for half the house to hear, probably.

He’s giving us hints, serious hints, but if the others find out he’s telling us he’ll be in deep shit, so he has to make a show of being emotional and opaque. 

So we creep out of the basement, bump into the cook who says some vaguely incriminating stuff, probably to distract us from the house and get the focus back on the people. He shows us the security animatronic (theres no way you can convince me thats not what it is), likely expecting us only to look at last night and find nothing, not to flip back several days and find conspiring. 

Now in the middle of all this I’m gonna jump to the first chronological Jim short, Suspect With a Shooty?!

On our timeline, this is the longest stretch of time we are away from the Detective while the body’s whereabouts are still presumed. As he leaves the living room onto the balcony, he keeps checking over his shoulder. Presumably to be sure he could be weird in peace. Jim babbles on as he has his private weird moment (which he is later loathe to discuss as to why he wasn’t watching the body and why I place this Jim first in the sequence). At the end of the video, something seems to alert the Detective that he may not be alone, and he runs off very specifically away from the eyeline of the area where you meet Damien. One can presume what alerted him was Damien exiting onto the balcony.

Next we take a wander outside and get some NPC conversation from Damien, leaving us on “We’ll talk later, I need to think.”

And then we see this:

Why hide behind a bush? Why sneak around away from Damien?

Why Colonel, what an advantageous spot. What a lovely overlook to spy on Damien and y/n’s conversation. What a good distance to talk to someone down on the porch below. Maybe warn him that company was arriving?

But Gene, you ask, i thought the conspiracy was between Mark, the detective, and his staff? Yes, reader I did, just bear with me a little longer. Or a lot. It’s gonna be a double reach-around, don’t worry.

Then as you know, we find the lack of body in the living room and the chapter ends.

So chapter two begins with just us and the Detective standing around the missing body. And then, in the same order as before, with just as much rehearsed regularity, the Butler and Chef enter. Once again, none of them act distrustful of eachother.

But then, right on our heels, the Colonel (its so hard not to call him wilford) pops up, with the same pacing and obfuscating energy as the other’s entrances. He says some mystifying things regarding re-murdering a decidedly mobile corpse before excusing himself to go zombie hunt. 

The Butler points out the fact that the Colonel and Mark are the same age. So they do acknowledge that they look the same. The Detective follows the Colonel’s exit by blatantly saying he doesn’t trust him, or anyone for that matter. The Butler and Chef make some... odd reactions.

The Detective asks us to walk with him, presumably so he can give us some insights in confidence.

“Why Tonight”???????? That could be a writing slip-up, a mistake, but knowing what we know now about the events later that evening, I don’t think so. Sure I think the character made a fruedian slip, but I don’t think the writers did.

This whole monologue. Why give it to us? To tell us he can’t be trusted.

This one line alone tells us a few things. He’s lying to us to get us to stop asking questions. He doesn’t trust us. There is ONE (1) other person he doesn’t trust, who can be considered a wild card or meddlesome. Well, headcount, we have the Butler, the Chef, Damien, yourself, and the Colonel. So other than you, who has the Detective been avoiding? Damien. Hm.

So as you walk he continues to blow smoke up your ass until you get to Mark’s destroyed room.He leaves you to look for evidence when suddenly,

the Colonel pops up. My, my, how does he get around so quickly? Hm.

The Detective hands you over to his vaguely threatening conversation that runs and rambles and utterly distracts you from looking for anymore clues or finding any answers, always conveniently disappearing when Damien appears. Why is everyone avoiding Damien? Or is he trying to lead us into a private conversation with Damien? A conversation he knew would have to happen, since spying earlier revealed that Damien had more to say?

Eventually Damien pulls us away from the Colonel and finally has a very important conversation with us. One where he starts to hint at some suspicions of his own, regarding the Detective And The House.

Hiding in the house? Hm.

So we hear gunshots, run inside to see the altercation between the Detective and the Colonel, and in the frustration and heat of the moment we get this golden gem:

in my own home

In My Own Home

IN MY OWN HOME.

Mark IS the Colonel. At least sometimes. He made a plan with the Detective and his staff to fake his death. The Colonel never interacts with the dead body in any way, and once the sheet is down we can’t even visually verify there’s a body under it. He repeatedly tries to stop the investigation by shouting it down and defaming himself to dishearten us. 

But how does he get around so fast? Well, what does every good Mansion have? Secret passages. Ways to pop up unexpected in your own home. He’s been in the house the whole time. In the walls, spying, corralling us and Damien for something. Maybe the Real Colonel is tied up in the basement somewhere. Who knows?

So we start off with the entrance of Selene. And the Colonel responds very uncharactaristically soft.

He sounds more like himself, like Mark, for a moment, in his surprise before composing himself and acting erratic again.

Selene starts dishing out exposition, the Jumanji line drops giving us a possible explanation to the space-time bending ways of the Colonel, the boys play with lightning.

Flash Forward to the Oracle sight sequence. Its prefaced with “Keep your enemies close.” A phrase we’ve heard a few times. I think the visions warn us of not only things to come, but of our “enemies.” And who is featured in not one, not two, but Three of these visions as the point of interest?

THE COLONEL.

At this point we haven’t seen the Colonel in person since the round table scene, but one more interesting thing occurs between the plotting three. Once the groundskeeper is revealed the Detective loses all of his cool. Flashback to the first point, Mark and the Detective had a conversation about this days ago and Mark didn’t tell him about any groundskeeper. This is a wildcard who could ruin whatever they have planned. Then he and the Butler have a weird exchange specifically regarding the Colonel.

The way the Butler’s lines are delivered is everything here. “Well,,, he appeared Tired... and went back to his room.” Tyler gives a lean and a nod and everything short of a wink wink nudge nudge. They’re talking around something right in front of you. A way of telling each other “he’s doing what he should be, he’s safe and out of the way.” without giving away that something more covert is happening. I only caught it because I’ve watched this 12 times at minimum.

I dont know what they’re planning, maybe it was for Selene, maybe it was different and Selene has thrown a wrench into things, who knows. Maybe Damien is the true wildcard, knowing them all so well it threatens the plan and he must be avoided. But something Is Going Down And Mark Is ALIVE.

[ltcol-laurens]

Hamilton workshop good bits, should be in chronological order and I’ll try to put time stamps, spoiler alert I guess:

Act 1:

 Eliza saying ‘shit’ - she’s a cinnamon roll so I’m glad it wasn’t in the real thing

‘In New york you can be a new mann??’ - It sounds like a question at 2:30

Just you WAIIIIIITTTTTTTT 2:42

Burr sounds done from the beginning 

ME! I’m the damn fool that shot him 3:28

yo yo yo yo heh yo yo yo yo yo (then Antony’s little laugh is so cute) I SAID I’M JOHN LAURENS IN THE PLACE TO BE 5:10 ish

The ahs at the beginning of the story of tonight 11:42 it sounds weird

17:21 IN JERSEY?!

FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE

maANNNN I aint scared of ships

Laurens sounding super sad and depressed at the beginning of Satisfied 32:40

LAURENS SAYING HELLLPPLLESSSS 33:20 This is what listening to that feels like: It feels like I’m in a tunnel and I’m listening to Helpless but I’m tripping some hallucinogens and LAms

 Just the whole of the story of tonight reprise at 36:36 they sound so much more drunk lol 

the newly not POOR of us

bUrr 37:23

44:14 Laurens saying shit what a smol bean

LAURENS SAYING ALEX OMG MY LAMS HEART 44:20 (heh 4:20)

And the way Laurens speaks really quietly like it’s a little intimate moment oh my LAWD

That would be enough 47:34 - Who’s crying??? Also it sounds like a lullaby with the piano in the beginning I love it

Dear Theodosia with guitar (I think) sounds so good I like it 59:40 

Also just the whole bit after 1:01:55 is incredible 

ALEX DONT CRY 1:02:02

OH FRICK NO LAURENS DIES IN THIS ONE TOO he could just not

Act 2:

Founding fathers in a line looking all humble 

He CAN DO THE SAME AMOUNT FROM THERE 1:16:03 chill Al

Keep it brief - Lmao 1:17:22

‘They have tied me to a stake, I cannot fly But, near- like I must fight the course’ - No one understood the reference and as someone who did Macbeth for GCSE I don’t know the reference lmao that’s why they changed it to ‘tomorrow and tomorrow..’

Philip sounds less depressed in this one 1:20:55

ELIZA SINGING HELPLESS IN SAY NO THIS IM NOT OK 1:25:53 

FUCK 1:26:25

How could you do this? - Bitch you did it to yourself ugh. I’m glad they changed it though. 

‘ Company screams in chaos ‘ - Great

Checkmate, game finished

I’ve gotta stop a homicide! - Eliza I love you

Eliza and Burr making polite conversation is cute 1:34:42

Yeah one day he’ll run Manhattan 1:34:56 God he’s like one of those parents that puts everything their child does on facebook 

Eliza saying ‘hon’ how cute (sometimes I cheat on shipping Lams with shipping Hamilton and Eliza don’t kill me)

YOU SWING AT MY FAMILY YOU BETTER NOT MISS YOU BETTER HAVE A BETTER PUNCH TO THROW

People will always be critical They’ll make the personal political They’;; try to knock you off your pedestal, your pinnacle Let other people be cynical

You’re smiling because you know I’m right

You didn’t kill him did you?

Were you here this whole time? 1:26:05   Lmao

JEFFERSON CALLING HAMILTON A BITCH loooooll 1:40:03

He likes taxes so much; can we enact an asshole tax? 1:41:13 MADISON CHILL MY DUDE 

I hear he’s George Washington’s illegitimate son. We don’t know where he’s really from 1:42:13

They’re saying my mother’s a negress 1:42:20 First of all: racist. Second of all, LEAVE RACHEL ALONE 2K17 

Madison wrote the first draft It’s a mess. 1:44:46

PAY YOUR FUCKING TAXES - 1:46:27

Just the whole bit of 1:51:30- 1:52:25

Yes, I confess, I’m a sucker for a damsel in distress. 1:54:14 Well that’s true: that story with Peggy Shippen , his mother, Eliza ‘helpless’, Maria etc

‘I tried to’ 1:54:07 Doesn’t that sound like he was unsuccessful and like it was one sided

 Uh OH 1:54:08

Young soft and supple 1:54:13 First of all, that’s gross, second of all ‘young, scrappy and hungry’

Ugh chill out Hamilton

Or you could let it go 1:57:04 MY BOYS BACK EVERYONE. HE ROSE UP FROM THE DEAD. I missed you Laurens. 

The friend who would tell me not to do it is in the ground. 1:57:05 HE TALKS ABOUT LAURENS IN ACT 2 hold my parsnips whilst i cry

Also when Hamilton says ‘I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory’ and LAURENS is there that’s like he misses Laurens so he wants to be dead to be with Laurens ahh i cry. 

1:58:07 NO

1:58:40 JEFFERSON’s laugh oh my

Just Congratulations is amazing 1:58:52

George’s blatant ‘fuck off’

Thank Theodosia for warning me - Those Philodosia (is that the ship?) feels tho 2:08:13

 DONT VOTE BURR 2:19:18

Your obedient servant is so different woah

Sorry if your life is difficult without your wife - 2:22:37 I would’ve killed him right there and then

Philip never hurt a soul, he must’ve been so scared 2:26:21

My Eliza - 2:26:28 ahhhhh

God I can’t wait to see her again 2:27:03

The real life quote from Alex’s last letter to Eliza makes me want to cry 2:29:18

[arabella-halley]

“I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart...”

I had a book once (I think it was stolen from the library) and it was the most boring looking book I had ever laid eyes on. That may sound hard to believe when you think about all those antique books that contain poetry and really long Latin words, but there is something romantic about a book that has survived the years. At their core they’re just decorated card and paper bound together, but the time and care that has gone into creating them can’t be ignored.

I remember seeing a Lord of the Rings collection in an old second-hand book store when I was working in London. I thought it remarkable that this collection had managed to stay together all these years. Each book was bound in the same way. The hard covers seemed to have been wrapped in material and stained in different colours; green, red and blue. I spent a few minutes studying the colours and wondered what they would have looked like in their prime, on the shelf of a rich family somewhere in the City. Years of sunlight had drained a lot of the vibrancy from the dye, but I could tell that these books had been cared for. The owner of the shop had placed them in chronological order, with their spines facing out of the shop window. I doubt the shop keeper could employ this tactic with another books series. Publishers these days spend a lot of time designing (and not enough time considering) their covers before mass printing in my opinion.

I felt like applauding the owner of the shop for displaying this trilogy in such a way. The spine of the middle book was a faded red colour, with a black tree trunk embroidery down the spine. The branches of the tree spread out over the edges of the book, only to reappear on the spines of the books either side. I wondered if this red book could even exist alone, as its beauty was reliant on the others.

The base of the tree managed to root itself across the bottom of the trilogy books, and it rested just above the gold stitching that displayed the name of the publisher; I think I made out Harper Collins through the window I had been staring in to.  The top of each spine carried its unique identifier in the form of a star for those who may not know what order to read the books in. All the stars bore the same gold thread as Harper Collins, but the third book was my favourite. I don’t know whether this was because the three stars sat so nicely at the top, or the fact that the branches that appeared on that spine had more swirls and curvy lines than the others. I’d be lying if I said I wanted to buy these books so I could get stuck in to a classic work of literature. I don’t think I could bring myself to touch them, even if I could afford to buy them. I would get them and leave them on my book shelf for everyone to admire; they were far too precious to risk spoiling the colour or making the pages dog-eared.

The stolen library book I used to use was not precious. I could understand why the second-hand Tolkien books were encased in dull colours, but I could not forgive this publisher for printing something in such a menacing shade of green. The book was encased in a plastic cover to protect it from damage, and it hurt the palms of my hands if I held it to read it. It was the size of a piece of paper, and I had no trouble opening it up and using my hands to make it a double spread. There was no chance this book was ever going to be returned to the library, but I didn’t dare remove the cover because it still did not belong to me.  The front cover was a mess of words randomly placed on top of the green swampy colour. I couldn’t help but imagine some apprentice messing about on his computer and printing off random fonts, which he had then accidentally left on the photocopier when he started printing this book cover.

It was a book on typography and the contents were not appealing to me in the slightest. I even struggled to look at some of the designs. Each font had its own two-page spread with the alphabet equally divided across the two pages, adding to the rigid structure the book commanded from its reader. Even the prettier alphabets that had less symmetry and more rounded edges made me stand to attention. The repetitiveness of the alphabet and that fact that such lovely letters could be printed and stamped so brazenly and carelessly on the page made me detest the publishers, the printer, and even the library for enabling this act of vandalism.

Despite how uneasy the green cover and cheap plastic made me feel, I made a point of drawing out each letter as it was printed in the book. Every style was given a new lease of life thanks to my pencil and paper; and each letter was given the attention that only a bored 14-year-old could devote to it when it’s not quite bedtime yet. I got a lot of satisfaction from breathing life into these characters, and I loved imagining what era they were from and what they were used for. I could see the strong ‘ye olde’ type printed on the signs of taverns and inns in the middle of large towns; buildings so grey and dull they were only distinguishable from the rest of the dirty, crowded street by the drunks and the board hanging above the door outside. Then there was the elegant ‘false free hand’ style, which I Imagined some depressed European noble woman using when she was writing letters to her secret lover. It was all very wonderful.

When I had finished my copying, and felt a certain affinity with a style, I started to break away from the repetition of the alphabet and create some words. I began with my full name in ‘Vivaldi’, before writing it again in ‘Gothic’, ‘Script’, and then some other pretentious style of calligraphy that allowed my pencil to glide across the paper effortlessly. Eventually I ended up with multiple sheets of paper with my name repeated again and again. To this day I still write my name out in different sizes and styles. Sometimes the pen barley touches the page when I write it, other times it forces the letters to be so bold that they indent the page and I spend the next three meetings trying to stop my notes from falling into the paper pot-hole I created several pages ago.

It was only when a colleague commented on my habit that I realised why I had devoted so much time to that ugly book in the first place.  Each ‘Arabella Halley’ was trying to say the same words Sylvia Plath had declared all those years ago.

‘I am, I am, I am’

[wulfrann]

As you watch the snow fall, ch 2 (Andreil Jack Frost AU, part 3)

All for the game

Rating: General Audiences

Relationship: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Andrew Minyard & Renee Walker, Andrew Minyard & Kevin Day

Additional Tags: Jack Frost!Neil, Writer!Andrew, Succession of vignettes, Non-Chronological, Hurt/Comfort, Friendhsip, The editorial world, POV Andrew Minyard

[Part 3 of the When the frost is in bloom series - Chapter 2/? - 3484 words - Updated 2020-02-03]

Summary:

The trials and tribulations of editing Der Albtraumprinz, featuring Andrew, Renee, Kevin, and Wymack.

(Set during Frost Bite)

[Read on AO3]

Author’s Notes:

I read I'll Give You the Sun in one night, slept from 6am to noon, and wrote this. So you can thank Jandy Nelson for getting the second vignette so soon, I guess.

[See the end for the German translations]

Chapter 2: Snowdrift

The world is right again, Mia thinks.

There’s only one thing left to do, Issa thinks.

“Will you visit?” he asks Alberich, not saying please. 

The Prince of Nightmares smiles.

“Always.”

And the wind blows. And he takes Issa’s hand. And the world is right.

_

Renee puts her bag on the table and sits across from him, smiling. Andrew’s already ordered for her, that smoked tea she always drinks when she wants to focus. His own drink is nearly finished, a coffee he didn’t taste as much as breathe. It burned all the way down.

“Thank you,” Renee says, taking a sip out of her cup. It clinks when she puts it down on the saucer, a light, clear sound that makes Andrew think of snow, of all things. Under his fingernail an itch suddenly calls for smoke. He makes tight fists until it’s gone.

Renee pulls a thick envelope out of her bag and sets it on the table where her bag was. Out of it comes paper, a stack of it. White like snow but stained with black, all over it. Touches of blue, he knows, sprinkle the heap, a very light blue, like the sky on winter sunny days, because Renee doesn’t like to write in red.

(It’s a little too harsh, she told him once. And I’m not a school teacher. I don’t write corrections. Just suggestions.)

Andrew gulps the last of his coffee, grimacing the bitter blackness down. Renee’s eyebrows make a little jump up and she looks amused at the gesture for a second. Then she looks down at the snowdrift sitting on the table covered in black and blue, and it begins.

“I really liked it, Andrew,” is the first thing she says. She always starts with a general statement. Then she thanks him. “Thank you for trusting me with it.”

Andrew shrugs, jumps his leg under the table a few times, brings his hand down upon his knee to stop.

Renee takes a sip of tea. Her face opens, happy and honest, enthused. “I’ve always loved your stories, but I think you’ve got something special with this one. It feels… truer. It’d already started with Winter, but - something went further with this one. It’s the rawest I’ve ever seen you write, Andrew.”  She says this and fixes her gaze on him. “I don’t know why, or how, but I think you’ve really found yourself with this story.”

Andrew stares her down, stone-like. If he moved, if he spoke, he would shatter. He’s sure of it.

“Sorry,” she says, smiling, “but it needed to be said.” She brings the cup to her lips and drinks, and when the cup is down she pulls Der Albtraumprinz closer. Somehow, Andrew too feels like he was just moved. “Ready?” she asks with both hands flattened upon the first page.

Andrew clenches and unclenches his hands, and blows a breath to lift the fog inside his head.

“Go for it.”

Renee does a detailed run-down of it. Every scene that works, every scene that doesn’t. The little things and the bigger things. What could go, and what needs more. Andrew has been deconstructed into pieces by the time she’s done, or peeled and peeled into hollows. Either way the wind rattles him raw, scrapes his skin off until everything that’s left of him is in shambles.

Words, he thinks. Words words words words. I need them now.

He gets his notepad out and starts to write.

-

The world is right again, Mia thinks. 

The world has changed again, Issa thinks.

The sword in Mia’s hand glows white. Issa doesn’t notice, because he’s turned to the Albtraumprinz.

“Will you visit?” he asks, not saying please. 

Alberich smiles.

“Always.”

And he takes Issa’s hand. And the wind blows. And the world is right.

-

Andrew drags a deep cloud into his lungs and feels himself fill up. The smoke floats out through every pore until it’s joined the sky above, where the wind flares.

“I’m not saying it’s bad, Andrew,” Kevin is saying back down on earth. “In fact, I think it’s really good. Renee’s right when she says it’s the best you’ve ever written - but, Andrew, you can’t - that’s exactly why you can’t. Think about your target demographic. You’ll lose readers.”

Kevin rakes a shaking hand through his hair. His hands haven’t stopped moving since he started talking, like flies, like birds, and his face is a storm he’s trying desperately, and failing, to keep bottled.

“Think about it, Andrew,” he pleads, green eyes like river sludge. “You’ve built yourself a readership, a name. This is madness. You could ruin it all and for what? It’s a kid’s book!” He throws both hands into the air like it’s the be-all end-all of arguments, then brings them back down to his head. “Don’t be stupid.”

Andrew turns around in his chair and stubs his cigarette out into the ashtray, shutting Kevin up with his gaze. “Are you done?”

Kevin opens his mouth, closes it, opens it again. “Der Albtraumprinz could be a bestseller, Andrew. This is an unnecessary risk.”

“Art is always a risk,” Andrew drones out, voice flat. “I don’t write to sell.”

“I know that -”

“No, you don’t,” Andrew cuts in. “You’re too covered in your own shit to see it. Just because you’re too scared of the monster in your own closet doesn’t mean everyone has to be.”

Kevin makes a face like he’s been slapped. His hands drop to his lap like flies. “What -” he stammers, then thinks better of it. He looks so pale Andrew’s almost tempted to feel sorry for him. 

Almost.

“You can hide all your life for all I care,” Andrew hammers down, not letting Kevin look away. “But either you get over your self-pitying paranoia, or you’re not reading a single one of my manuscripts ever again.”

He lets the words hang in the air for a second. Then he gets up, and leaves a frozen Kevin to stare at the wall in his beige hotel room. Maybe the cold air rushing in through the open window will help him gather his one-track junkie brain, or maybe it’ll give him pneumonia. Andrew wishes for the latter.

-

The world is right again, Mia thinks. 

The world has changed again, Issa thinks.

The sword in Mia’s hand glows white. Issa doesn’t notice; the Albtraumprinz is smiling and it’s all he can see.

“Will you visit?” he asks, and forgets to say please because his chest is about to burst. “Will I?”

Alberich smiles.

“Always.” 

And he takes Issa’s hand. And the wind blows. Everything slots into place.

-

Wymack drops the stack of paper on his desk and sits down across from him. He tidies a few things off his desk then sits back, hands crossed over his chest. Andrew raises an eyebrow.

“Renee was right. This is your best work yet.”

“So I’ve been told.”

Wymack huffs. “You know, Minyard, what I really love about you is your modesty. Really refreshing.” He claps the manuscript on the back. “Anyway, Der Albtraumprinz’s approved. I got the cover a couple days ago, so you should get the first test copies soon. You’ll be on the shelves on the sixteenth of December like we’d planned, so hopefully you’ll sell well for Christmas.”

“Good to know.”

“If there’s any last minute change you want to make, it’s now. Tomorrow will be too late.”

Andrew nods. “There is one,” he says.

“Let’s see it then.”

Andrew digs a folded piece of paper out of his jacket’s pocket and puts it on Wymack’s desk. When Wymack unfolds it, he frowns.

“A dedication?”

“Yes,” Andrew says.

Wymack looks skeptical, but he grabs a red pen and stamps a sticky note over the page, quickly scribbling a few instructions over it.

“I’m not going to ask,” he says with finality, “but others will.”

“I don’t care.”

Wymack sighs. “I don’t doubt that. Anything else?” he asks, clapping the manuscript again, then putting it away when Andrew shakes his head. “Alright. Now that that’s done, let’s talk sequel. Are you continuing this or not? It doesn’t have to be official just yet, but I’d like to have an idea. Seems to me like you’ve got room to explore.”

Andrew twitches. 

The sword in Mia’s hand glows white.

“I’m continuing it.”

-

[From: Kevin] They have new pieces at the Landesmuseum Württemberg.

[From: Kevin] I’m going tomorrow.

[To: Kevin] why should I care

[From: Kevin] Come with me?

[To: Kevin] no.

[From: Kevin] I’m flying back the day after.

[To: Kevin] good.

[From: Kevin] They’re doing something around myths and legends for Christmas.

[From: Kevin] I’ll pay for your ticket.

[From: Kevin] You were right. I overreacted. I apologize.

[To: Kevin] what time

[From: Kevin] 2PM? I’ll meet you at your place.

[To: Kevin] you mean 14 Uhr, du Ami

[From: Kevin] You know, if you’re capitalizing words in the middle of a sentence, you might as well capitalize the first letter.

[To: Kevin] no thx

[From: Kevin] You disgust me.

[To: Kevin] heul doch

[From: Kevin] See you tomorrow, Andrew.

-

[German Translations]

- "Der Albtraumprinz" : The Prince of Nightmares

- "Landesmuseum Württemberg" : the regional museum of Württemberg

- "14 Uhr" : 14h, aka 2pm

- "du Ami" : you yankee

- heul doch : cry me a river

[youcouldmakealife]

PSOTW: Robbie/Georgie; study break

For the prompt: Robbie getting shown Georgie's baby pictures (or vice versa)

Because going through BAIT again made me miss Past Robbie and Georgie terribly.

Robbie doesn’t know if this makes him a bad boyfriend, but he can’t tell Georgie apart from his brothers. Like obviously he can now, Georgie’s the hot one and the one who isn’t in the grip of puberty, occasional stress breakout or not. He’s also spent enough time looking at Georgie’s perfect, perfect face to easily see the differences, like how William’s eyes are lighter, or Dicky has more freckles.

But like, baby Dineens? No way. It’s super easy with the ones they’re all in, because it isn’t much of a stretch to go with ‘the biggest one, that is my man when he was but a lad’, but the Dineens’ photo albums aren’t in any order Robbie can figure out, definitely not chronological, and while some of the photos have the handy date stamp on the bottom that makes it pretty easy to figure out if it’s Georgie or not, he’s stuck guessing on the rest.

“Is this you?” Robbie asks, handing over a picture of a scrunch faced toddler with chocolate (Robbie hopes it’s chocolate) on his face to Georgie. Georgie looks up from his textbook, which he’s been balancing on Robbie’s shins, studying for the test he has next week while Robbie entertains himself with the ‘which Dineen is which’ game.

“Will,” Georgie says, looking back down at his book. “Why do you want to know?”

Oh good, Robbie doesn’t have to think that scrunched up face is cute. Though he kind of does, actually, thinking of the fairly similar one William makes now when he loses at video games, all sulky teenager.

“Just wanted to make sure I didn’t call you funny looking,” Robbie says. 

“Hey,” Georgie says, looking up again. “Will’s not funny looking.”

“I think that expression stuck,” Robbie says.

“It did not stick,” Georgie says.

“Look at it,” Robbie says, waving the photo emphatically, and he can see the flash of a smile before Georgie smothers it.

“It didn’t stick,” Georgie insists.

“You didn’t see this earlier today?” Robbie asks. “Maybe after I kicked his ass at FIFA?”

“It’s not nice to beat him at FIFA,” Georgie says. Robbie knows. Georgie already told him this. Something about his poor fragile teenage ego and needing to be the undisputed best at soccer. Which he totally is, he could kick Robbie’s ass in a game of pick up, but nobody beats Robbie at video games. “And it’s extra uncool to treat it like you just beat him in the World Cup.”

“You’re right, I only won the FA Cup,” Robbie says.

“The noogies were unnecessary,” Georgie says, gently knocking his textbook against Robbie’s shins.

“It’s the least a Chelsea fan deserves,” Robbie says. “Man U, baby.”

“Uh huh,” Georgie says, then, “C’mere.”

“You’re supposed to be studying,” Robbie says, but grabs Georgie’s textbook, putting it beside the albums, before he shifts to straddle Georgie’s lap.

“Hi,” Georgie says, grinning up at him.

“Study break?” Robbie asks.

“Just for a minute,” Georgie murmurs against Robbie’s mouth when Robbie leans down to kiss him.

“Guys, mom was wondering if—” William says, then, “Not on the baby pictures!”, slapping his hands over his eyes and promptly running into the doorway and landing on his ass in his hurry to blindly escape.

“Okay, Will?” Georgie asks, while Robbie muffles his laughter in Georgie’s shoulder.

“I hate both of you,” William says, from the direction of the floor.

“The least a Chelsea fan deserves,” Robbie says again, and Georgie doesn’t protect him at all when William gets up to return the noogies plus interest.

[cinemotions]

animated Zooey Deschanel & Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Summer & Tom    in 500 Days of Summer (2009) directed by Marc Webb An offbeat romantic comedy about a woman who doesn't believe true love exists, and the young man who falls for her.

There is a Light That Never Goes Out (The Smiths) Take me out tonight Where there's music and there's people And they're young and alive Driving in your car I never never want to go home Because I haven't got one Anymore Take me out tonight Because I want to see people and I Want to see life Driving in your car Oh, please don't drop me home Because it's not my home, it's their Home, and I'm welcome no more And if a double-decker bus Crashes into us To die by your side Is such a heavenly way to die And if a ten-ton truck Kills the both of us To die by your side Well, the pleasure - the privilege is mine Take me out tonight Take me anywhere, I don't care I don't care, I don't care And in the darkened underpass I thought oh God, my chance has come at last (But then a strange fear gripped me and I Just couldn't ask) Take me out tonight Oh, take me anywhere, I don't care I don't care, I don't care Driving in your car I never never want to go home Because I haven't got one, Oh, I haven't got one And if a double-decker bus Crashes into us To die by your side Is such a heavenly way to die And if a ten-ton truck Kills the both of us To die by your side Well, the pleasure - the privilege is mine Oh, there is a light and it never goes out There is a light and it never goes out There is a light and it never goes out There is a light and it never goes out There is a light and it never goes out There is a light and it never goes out There is a light and it never goes out There is a light and it never goes out There is a light and it never goes out     Songwriters: MORRISSEY & /MARR

500 Days of summer remains a doppleganger upon itself, something that refuses to take itself too seriously but moderately keeps itself just serious enough.   The movie flows with the indie appeal of minimalism, yet crosses boundaries and feels more real than most more serious fare being released in the last ten years.  Despite a rather bumpy beginning and some flaws in the ending, the movie flows and hums thanks to a superb performance by the leads, a creative and inventive script, and a first time director who emphatically puts his stamp on the rom com genre.

500 days of Summer is a review of a relationship between two brief co-workers, Tom (Gordon-Levitt) and summer (Deschanel).  The movie follows their relationship out of chronological order to show the highs and lows they go through, both together and apart as they try to navigate love in a much more modern world.  Tom remains draped in romantic idealism, a hopeless romantic in a much more post modern time and Summer the cynic, only accepting things at face value and unable to make a connection to take any relationship deeper.  The theory of the manic pixie dream girl might as well be spun from this movie as the assortment of character traits given to Summer would make almost any man fall had over heels in love with her.   The movie takes several things, from a couples walk through IKEA to tom feeling he’s in a music video after his first sleep over with summer, with much aplomb.

  Demanding in its insistence to get to the core of the emotional journey of its characters while convincing the audience that its trying to get to the physical changes between the both.Like most indie movies, the cast is a combination of up and comers and unknowns, who add a grounded style of sensibility to tide over as the leads are allowed to elaborate on the events in their life. This is much needed as without that anchor and view point, the movie would have no common demoninator to come back to in order to explain where these characters should ideally be.  The problem with most romantic comedies is the insistence in creating quirky fun characters with one flaw that perfectly corrects the other persons weakness, allowing the characters to seem perfectly fit together, yet cause hilarity and hijinks.  The formula, like coca cola, is well known but extremely guarded. After all the human reaction is not that their manipulated which is the problem, but knowing how their manipulated.Another interesting side point to the movie, and the point above is that after the financial collapse and nine eleven, people don’t want the ideal couple any more.  They want real grounded people, like Harry and Sally, in when Harry met Sally.  People want to know that life can be normal and what their going through has a happy ending. They want to see the same mistakes they make on screen and how to correct them. People no longer want the fantasy, they want the answers to reality.

This last point is why 500 Days of summer remains great, and in some aspects, will remain timeless.  The movies emotional core traces the characters inability to be the one for each other. That issue will plague relationships for the rest of time, leaving the issue perpetually unresolved.  The ability for the problem to never truly be solved will always leave an audience, regardless of when in the future to still seek out the same answers.  The questions just haven’t been posed in such a reserved and emotionally raw way.   The screenwriters tap from experience of real love lost,  something else the audience can relate too.In the end 500 Days of Summer is a story of Tom and Summer, and which one we feel we are when we watch the movie. The true answer is at one point or another, everyone has been both, and the truth in that is why we feel so strongly in each scene, we know what its like to rip someone’s heart out, and we know what it’s like to be that person longing for that second chance, knowing this person is the perfect person for me.  As the tag line states, this story does not have a happy ending.  That may be true, but the ability for 500 Days of Summer to show us how to get up after we reach that point is more than most movies have shown us in the past.  Its visual style and confident script lead us on unexpected yet very familiar journeys, one you should take again the next time you get down on relationships.  After all it’s all about getting back up                                                     David, from filmtakeout.com

[akamaru01]

Ya know what I didn’t want to really get into the shit show that is the discussion on the Sonic movie but here we are

I’m gonna try and make this like an analysis, what it looks like happened in chronological order, and what the hell is going on and maybe a bit on how people are reacting

For a bit more info on me I am currently a studying 3D artist because I will get a bit technical at times

I’ll also put it under a read more because not everyone wants to see it so HERE WE GO starting off with where I think shit went wrong in production (Spoiler: People high up on the food chain probably fucked up big time and interfered too much)

(Note: This will be mainly about the design, not about story)

So obviously as with everything it begins with the original designs made by a character designer. Now from what I have seen the studio actually doing all the CG work for the movie also worked on the cinematics for Sonic Unleashed that released back in 2008. Love or hate the game, you can’t deny that it looked and felt like Sonic. So clearly the studio itself knows what it’s doing.

However, the movie might be made with Sega helping (maybe) on the sideline but the production is controlled by Paramount. That means everything goes through Hollywood Big Wig Executives who probably don’t care about source material and also have no creative abilities and also don’t listen to anyone besides themselves and their investors. SO here is a very short, exaggerated idea of the conversations surrounding the design.

Exec: Hey we’re making a Sonic the Hedgehog movie so make us a Sonic that can fit in a live action movie.

Designer: Okay here you go he looks like regular Sonic but with some texture/material/fur touch ups to look more real

Exec: Too cartoony/Not real enough/Something something make it more like humanoid

Designer: But if we do that it wont look like Sonic, might be too creepy or weird, just looks weird/bad in general

Exec: I can have you fired

Designer: Here it is but people won’t like it

Exec: Yes they will, now get to work and make some posters people will love it (or not, it’s hard to say if they would really care as long as people see the movie and it makes money)

You get the idea. This probably continues all throughout production, maybe eventually they give up trying to change minds or they’re just too tired or it’s too late who knows.

So the posters come out and oh boy they were a thing that exists now

And so people do the thing and dunk on the look of it, get in their criticisms, which I think criticising or not liking something is well within peoples rights ya know?

At this point maybe the conversation comes back something like this

Artists: Yo we told you people wouldn’t like this let’s change it while we’re still relatively early in production (mabey) and can adjust it and not spend months with actual animating/lighting,post production

Execs: No no this is fine who cares it’s not even moving yet it’ll be fine

Artists: No it won’t

Execs: Jobs

Artists: Fuck, alright

So nothing changes, time passes, and here we are and by the way

Trailer editor: Hey for the background music I am thinking something upbeat and fun like the Sonic music from the games

Execs: No no make it edgy and cool like Gangsters Paradise

Editor: .... fucking why

So we got the Sonic trailer drop and guess what everyone dunked on like this isn’t even a shock at this point people analyze and criticise fucking everything (especially 3D) this time it just so happened to be on a massive fucking scale

So from a personal note my reaction was “This looks like shit I ain’t gonna bother with it”. From what I saw the general consensus’ were either basically what I said or “This looks like shit I’m gonna watch it anyway”. Absolutely no one I saw said “This needs to be fixed before the movie comes out” from what I saw people basically were just ready for it to flop and we’ll try again later. Even if some people were calling for a redesign I doubt even they expected what was coming next

So, this seems to be what ended up happening

Execs: -trailer release-

Internet: Yo this looks like shit wtf

Execs: Oh shit we fucked up

Internet: Yeah you did

Execs: Don’t worry we’ll fix this

Internet & Artists: What

Execs: We’ll overhaul and redesign him before the movie releases as scheduled

Everyone else: WHAT 

Because here is what that means. The artists and animators will have to redesign (or maybe go back to an old design), adjust the model or maybe worse completely redo it, change textures, possibly adjust or recreate the rig, REANIMATE ALMOST IF NOT EVERYTHING, adjust lighting, re combine the new CG footage with the live action, make sure it all looks good and no clipping

What’s most likely is that this is gonna be hell for the studio leading up to release if they don’t delay the movie, which they have not said anything about yet and that’s not a good sign. 

But now here is where the biggest variable comes in: How much will change?

Minor changes that don’t affect overall proportions and placement of details means they could keep the same rig and animations and just check for touch ups. HOWEVER these kind of minor changes probably won’t help much, if at all. Honestly besides textures and small changes to fur the only thing that can really be adjusted without much worry is the teeth because they can be the same size and they don’t have to deform or do a lot of crazy movement.

But in order to fix any of the actual problems with it, besides teeth, will require a crap ton more work. Any changes to the eye shapes, sizes or placement, and any changes to the mouth and surrounding areas will require a new or heavily adjusted face rig, which will completely throw off eye movements and lip syncs and those will need to be redone.

Any changes to proportions of any kind will require an adjustment of the rig, which could throw off the animations already set and need to rework them almost everywhere, and maybe redo them completely in a worst case scenario. If the hands change at all they have to adjust every single shot where he is holding or touching something, same with his feet, and really same with his head, quills, freaking everything.

All this in 6 months? Doable, but not without a fuck ton of unnecessary sacrifice.

But we don’t know what this redesign will look like, so it’s impossible to speculate on how much these artists and workers are going to be fucked over and pushed and destroyed for this.

Basically, odds are the artists are gonna be the ones paying for the mistake of those higher up on the food chain, and if the movie does well then, similar to what recently happened with game studio Bioware, they’re going to think “Oh it’s okay that it’s all shit for so long and then we push and destroy our artists at the last minute because it works” which it fucking doesn’t. If they had listened to their people at the beginning, this could have been avoided. No matter what some people still would have been like “ew 3D sonic live action” but no where near this degree.

So the final thing to touch on is some of the reactions after the announcement of redesign. Because I have seen... a lot. All across the spectrum.

I am going to try and talk about some of the more basic groups that these reactions fall under that I’ve seen.

Before we get into those though I want to say something that kind of applies to all of them: I think criticizing the design and look is okay. Talking about how you don’t like it and why and how it could be better is good, outside of ya know the extreme stuff like death threats or whatever, not that I’ve seen those really around this project but they probably exist.

So the first one is basically where I stand on the issue personally. The design sucked, they should have listened more and let it be more stylized and it still would have fit (because suspension of disbelief is a thing and what they have now certainly doesn’t fit in any more than regular Sonic would). I expected them to release it, it flops, no more Sonic movies for a while. If they were gonna fix it they should have done it a long time ago. I am not happy that they are going to punish their staff and artists for their own mistakes and now they’re trying to cover it up.

Now the next argument is one I have seen around here and there, and I understand it, but don’t completely agree. It’s the argument that we, as a collective group, complained about the design, and now we are at fault that the artists have to redo it. There is some truth that if the internet did not go “This sucks” then it would be over and it would have gone on to release as planned. Personally though, I feel like this takes away 2 things: 1) The right of consumers to dislike a thing and 2) The blame away from the executives who made the decisions not only about the initial design but also to change it so late in production. Should they not be held accountable as well? There is a piece that occasionally goes along with this along the lines of “You’re getting so wrapped in a kids movie” or something like that but like: This might (?) be a kids movie but really the target audience is largely the adults who grew up with Sonic. Also bad is bad and kids movies can be great they don’t have to be trash and also kids movies can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

There are smaller sections of discussion, usually quickly stamped out, about how “They fucked it up this is their fault” placing blame on the artists, but this usually comes from a place of ignorance and not knowing how the process works and who makes all the final decisions. The other side of that is “Whatever it’s gonna be shit no matter what I am/am not gonna watch it regardless” or “Idk looks fun I’ll watch it either way”.

To basically sum it up The people in charge probably fucked up, people rightly were like “Lol look at this shit” and now those same higher ups are gonna overwork the artists to fix their own mistake

[limgsblog]

How To Ask Twitter Followers To Like Your Facebook Page?

[ad_1]

Give some compelling reasons to your Twitter followers as to why they should join your Facebook community, much as in the example post your promotion post mentioned above. A tweet might read, "Great discussion about our newest garden tool range happening right now - get involved!" / Yourfacebookpage. "

In addition, do not be afraid to directly promote your Facebook fan page on Twitter once or twice per week in order to attract new "Likes." Unlike the approach above, here you simply point people to your page with a message along the lines of "Enjoying our tweets? Why not join us on Facebook too? Click here:" yourfacebookpage. "Create and save 3-4 different variations of this message, so that you do not repeat the same tweet over and over.

Share your Facebook statuses on Twitter

Whenever you publish something on your Facebook fan page that you think would also be valuable to your Twitter followers, consider sharing with them a direct link to it. To do this, click on the time stamp of your Facebook status update (a gray link that will read, for example, "16 hours ago," depending on when you posted it, to open it in on its own individual page. URL from this page and paste it to make up part of your tweet. Of course, customize the tweet to tell users what they're clicking to see! Note: As I mention later in more detail, I would not recommend automating this task .

Create QR code links to your Facebook Page

QR (Quick Response) codes are barcode-like square images that, once scanned with a smartphone camera, can link to any webpage you desire. They're quick to create and can be placed anywhere, either big or small, such as on print adverts, brochures or product packs. While QR codes are useful social media tools, do not put them in silly places ... like your Facebook profile photo! Create customizable QR codes for free at a site such as http://www.qrstuff.com/

Add your Facebook Page URL in your YouTube videos

If you make videos as a part of your social media strategy, throw in a well-timed Facebook fan page shout-out at the end of your YouTube videos, and do not forget to include it your video's description too. When you write a URL in the description, be sure to write it out in full, (ie http://www.facebook.com/500socialmediatips ) otherwise it will not be clickable.

Ask your email list to like your Facebook Page

Got an email marketing list? Consider sending a dedicated email asking them to Like you on Facebook - again with compelling reasons as to why they most certainly should. Whenever you send out future messages to them, include links to your Facebook page and other social network profiles underneath the main message.

Post often and consistently: be visible and compelling

Do not spam your customers with dozens of updates a day; but, just as importantly, do not leave your Facebook page to dry up. One, two or three updates a day is a good target, but at a minimum, you should post at least a couple of times a week so that you remain on your customers' radar. The more engaged a customer is with your page posts, the more likely your posts are to continue to appear in their News Feed for future engagement opportunities. Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm filters content into individuals' News Feeds according to what it thinks is most relevant to them. If a customer ignores your posts for a prolonged period of time (or worse, uses the option to 'hide' them from their feed), they will disappear from that customers' News Feed altar. Research shows that it is illegally a customer will ever voluntarily visit your page again to catch up with your posts, so do your best to make sure this situation never arises!

Note: Following the roll out of a new News Feed layout in 2013, Facebook users are able to view all posts from Pages by selecting the 'Following' menu on the right-hand side of the site. These posts are displayed in chronological order in the News Feed, so it is important to be visible under this option by posting regularly and making sure that you are near the top of their feed. And since this menu also allows Facebook users to filter their news feed to view stories from nothing but their friends (zoning out brand Pages altogether), it is critical that your content is as compelling and shareable as possible so that they continue to engage with you .

Focus on your brand advocates to increase reach

With the last tip in mind, the 'Following' tab on Facebook is joined by various other filters, including one which displays only content from a users' friends. That means there is a chance that even if someone likes your page, they may never decide to view content from it.

The solution is to focus on the most passionate fans on your page - the people who like and engage with your content, and tend to share it with their friends. Keep track of what types of updates these people like most; target more of it directly to them. When they share your content, it will appear in the friends-only feed of all of that person's friends, thereby increasing your reach.

[ad_2] Source by Fabi Thode