#alternative title: fun ideas to try in bed with your partner

[aweisz]

whumptober day 6: conditioning / mind control / forced to hurt someone else

that must've been an awkward comm call ::))

so anyways. version without the fuckery and just the sketch bc i like them

[mishkakagehishka]

thank you for enabling me korka ily. your writing is amazing <3 idea number one! numero uno! silly little Mika fluff!! How about Mika realizing he has a crush on someone; and his idea of a confession is to make them a plushie! But Arashi tells him he needs a little more flare than that to make his feelings clear. So, perhaps some cute little Mika shenanigans, trying to plan the 'perfect' confession and make the best plushie for his potential partner~?

I told you this was the first fic I'm gonna write in the new city, and I think I kept my promise. I thought about scheduling this for your bday, but~ Instead of a late request, consider this an early bday gift <3 and I hope I'll get your second request finished in time, but I can't make any promises

Title: Operation: Score Mika a Date Word count: 3576 Summary: Arashi does her best to make Mika finally, finally confess to his crush. But when nothing she suggests works, maybe it's best to trust Mika do to it his way... Notes: Less of a focus on the "making the best plushie" part, but I hope I made up with it with the shenanigans. Arashi turned out to be a major character lol and Mika and Naru being besties <3

“Na~ru-cha~n!” Cries reverberated throughout the common room. Mika, the originator of said cries, laid draped across the aforementioned Naru-chan’s lap, whining all the while. "I dunno what to do!" he drawled out, groaning into her thighs. And Arashi, who tried her best to comfort him by petting his hair, sighed. "Well, they seem to like you, don't they? You're always telling me about how they give you compliments and like talking to you, right?" Of course, the “they” she was talking about was Mika’s crush. The person he’s been going on and on about for ages. He was absolutely in love, and it was obvious from how he alternated between crying and giggling about them every day. Today – it was crying. "But what if I'm misunderstandin'? What if they don't like me like that? Uuwh…” he cradled his head in his hands. “It makes my head hurt…" "You'll never know if you don't just tell them how you feel." "But what if… How do I even do that? I can't just tell 'em - I l-love ya…" "Oh, Mika-chan…" Arashi truly didn't know what to do about him anymore. "Just speak from your heart!" Mika paused, pondering it for a moment. He seemed to really give it some thought, his brows furrowing as Arashi continued twisting his hair around her fingers. Ultimately, however - "That ain't helpful at all!"

This has become their routine by now. Mika, the silly guy, managed to fall in love. No, rather, he tripped into love. Faceplanted straight into it before he was even aware of what had happened. Arashi was thrilled to find this out; she always aspired to live out a teen drama and if there was one thing missing from her checklist, it was helping her best friend woo their crush. Now her best friend, Mika, has finally fallen in love, and she, as knowledgeable as she is about matters of the heart, can help him! But Mika was not very open to her ideas. Every "Confess to them!" was met with "What if they reject me?", every "They were flirting!" with "They were just bein' polite" and every "Just ask if you can kiss them" with "Are ya crazy?! They'll start hatin' me!" It was as if he was working directly against her and himself, rejecting every idea in its conception, not even entertaining the idea of a happy ending. Yet, Arashi never gave up.

Like many best friends, they frequently had sleepovers together. When HiMERU and Tetora had work or other plans, Arashi would often invite Mika to sleep over in her dorm, and Mika would do the same whenever Ritsu was gone for the night. The beds were big enough, and they were close enough to share them without any awkwardness - not to mention that it was fun. And this time, too, Mika was sitting criss-cross on Arashi's bed, who was sitting on her legs next to him, peering at his phone while eating cucumber slices. "So, you’ll confess to them in person, right?" she inquired. “How are you going to ask them to meet up?” "I sent ‘em, … um, hey - are ya free this weekend?" "Oh, sweetie, that makes you sound too shy. Just ask if they want to hang out this weekend." "Ain't that too direct?" "Everybody likes direct men. You have to show you’re confident! You know what you want and you’re not afraid to ask for it!" Mika flinched. "Read!" he exclaimed. "They left me on read! N'agh…!! This is too stressful!" He hugged the pillow in his lap, burying his face into it. "Bein' in love sucks for real!"

"Alright, alright, it's not the end of the world, maybe they're busy! Put the phone down, come on, I'll do your nails." He hesitated letting go of his phone, hoping he’ll see them typing any second now, but ultimately doing as he was told. He watched Arashi grab her kit before setting his hands on a magazine. To be used as a pad; to avoid getting product on the bed sheets. It was a magazine targeted towards girls, one of Arashi’s older ones. A few seconds passed in silence, but, as she started prepping his nails for the new paintjob, she began speaking, "Talk to me, Mika-chan. How are you planning on confessing, anyway?" "’M not. I mean, I am, but I ain’t got a plan. I was just gonna wing it." "Wing it?! Oh, dear… Well, fine, think about it now. What do you think you could do? I’m sooo curious, and you never talk with me about your plans on seducing them." "Se-seducin’?" His face burnt red. "I dunno… They mentioned they liked the plushies I made once. Maybe I can make 'em a plushie and…" "I'm sure that'd be cute, but for a confession," she tsked, "you'd need a bit more pizazz!" He tilted his head, not unlike a confused puppy. "Pizazz! Flair! Everybody loves a grand gesture of love. Hmm, actually-" She set her tools down, raising his hands and grabbing the magazine that was under them. As she showed its cover to Mika, she beamed, "Look! Read what's written here!" "Um… I dun think knowin' trends from four years ago will impress 'em." A groan. "No, silly, here." She pressed her finger against a box of text in the corner. "The 10 best ways to confess to your crush! You can even do their 'Do they like you back?' quiz if you’re so worried!"

When Mika's nails were painted and dried, he helped Arashi dye her hair. Rather, he was dying her hair while she read him out the questions in the magazine’s quiz, marking all his answers to count up later. "Do they go out of their way to talk to you? A: they only talk to me when they have to, B: no, they tend to avoid me, C: sometimes, but they stick to small talk, or D: yes, they talk to me about almost every topic there is." He huffed. "Well, I guess D…?" "Alright… Do they find excuses to touch you while talking to you?" "N'ah… I dunno. They touch my arm when I make 'em laugh and… Sometimes they bump their knee against mine when we sit next'ta each other?" "That's a yes!" As she tallied up his answers, he was finishing up with her undercut. Absentmindedly playing with her hair as his thoughts trailed off.

Mika knew he had to confess to them someday. Being around them started becoming painful recently (he's been pining for some months, and being friends with your crush can sometimes be a curse as much as a blessing), and he felt guilty over how much his heart hurt every time they made plans with somebody else instead of with him. They've become friends and, he was certain because of how much of a catch they are, it was only a matter of time before they end up telling him about a significant other. His heart would break. He had to confess, otherwise he was always going to wonder. Especially if they start dating someone else, especially if it turns serious. He can pretend to be happy for them, but… "Great news, Mika-chan! Listen, it says: Sparks are flying! You are your crush's crush! If they not only like being around you, but also initiate conversation often, if they hold eye contact and smile easily at you, if they can't help laughing at your every joke (no matter how bad) and touching your shoulder when you talk - they like-like you! Confessing is not only safe, but highly encouraged. A romance is already blooming between you, and you need to make sure you lock it in." She closed the magazine, leaving it on the desk and spinning around in her chair to meet Mika's wide-eyed stare. "See? Just as I told you! They li~ke you, Mika-chan, you have to tell them how you feel! As your best friend," she placed a hand over her heart, as if swearing, "it is my duty to make sure you two end up on at least one successful date." He bit his lip. Truthfully, he felt like crying, both out of happiness, but also out of anxiety. He was afraid to raise his expectations, but if Arashi was that confident… "Alright. What's it say 'bout those ways of confessin'?" "That's my bestie!! So-" she grabbed the magazine again, jumping from the chair to the bed again. But a ping interrupted them. Mika's phone. He immediately grabbed it, checking the new notification. Arashi looked at him worriedly as he started trembling, but his huge smile quickly made those worries dissipate. "They replied!" he all but squealed. "They replied?!" "They replied!!"

It was easier to convince Mika to go with the magazine's advice when Arashi had managed to convince him he had a chance. Usually, he would stay away from grand gestures - he was shy himself and didn't like the pressure of it all - but the seductive sparkle of the possibility of a date with his crush was too tempting to turn down. And so, method one: asking them out directly. Per Arashi's instructions, Mika was to talk to his crush, and ask them if they wanted to get coffee with him after work. Something casual enough, but obvious as a date. Unfortunately for Mika, his crush responded with, "Oh, cool! Should we invite the others, too?" … Arashi bought him ice cream and promised they were just a little oblivious. It can't be helped, since he was too chicken to say, "As a date".

Method two: leaving them a note. They both decided that would be a good next step. He can write out a proper confession, and not worry about stuttering or chickening out. All he has to do is write out his thoughts, leave the note somewhere where they'd see it, and then wait for them to bring it up. Mika poured his soul into that note, he didn't even want Arashi to give him advice on it - he wanted it to be all his own words. He mentioned how long he's liked them and how shy he feels around them, the excuse for why he's writing a note. How he really wants to take them out on a date. How he just wants that single chance, one date! But that he'll respect their wishes if they don't feel the same way, not even enough to give it a shot. He ends it all with a scribble of a flower. But in the adrenaline rush of "Oh, shit, I'm actually doing this, I'm actually leaving my heart out in the open," signing the note escaped his mind entirely. He just slipped it into their pocket when they weren't looking, and ran off.

"You're never gonna believe it, Mika!" they laughed, fishing for something in their pocket. "Look! I have a secret admirer~!" They waved the note in front of his face. His note. Did they recognise his handwriting? Were they making fun of him? He blushed, the very tips of his ears burning up, ready to deny and defend himself, but they spoke first. "What, are you jealous? Come on, you're an idol, I know you get love letters all the time, too, let me have this. You're no fun!" They joked. "O-oh, you dunno who it's from?" His heart was about to explode, he could feel it beating in his throat. "How could I? There's no signature. Whoever it is uses a really cute dialect, though." "Cute?" There it was. They were making fun of him. "Yeah, I think it's very attractive, actually. Well, I hope this person will actually ask me if I got their note, I'm dying of curiosity." "... Y'think it's attractive…" Mika has stopped listening. And functioning. "Hey? Mika? Do I need to take you to the infirmary? You're looking a bit feverish." "N'gah!" He got startled, hand clasping over his chest. "No, no, ‘m fine, I just suddenly remembered I have some, uh, work to do. See ya later!" It was a step closer, but he was still unhappy with the result. At least he could be comforted knowing they thought his dialect was cute. Attractive, even.

Method three: spreading a rumour. This one sounded counterproductive to Mika, but Arashi found merit in it. She was going to be the gossip, to "wing woman" him, as she put it. "Hey, did you hear," she whispered to whoever would listen, "that Kagehira has a crush on (y/n). He's head over heels in love. Do you think he has a chance?" All Mika had to do was gauge his crush's reaction to hearing the rumour, and decide whether it's a good enough reaction to mention that the rumour is true. It travelled across town fairly quickly (and Mika was scolded by Ibara over it, as it escaped the confinement of ES, but those were the sacrifices they had to make) and soon enough… "I heard a weird rumour, Mika - you'll laugh, I promise - people are saying you have a crush on me." They laughed, but he had trouble discerning whether they were laughing at the absurdity, or out of their own shyness. "Yeah, that’s… weird. And what do you think about it?" He stuffed a candy in his mouth the moment the sentence dripped off his tongue. Where did he get the courage for such direct questions? "I don't know. We're friends, aren't we? People often confuse close friends' behaviour with that of lovers. Maybe they thought you were into me because we always hang out alone. Like now!" "Right. That is funny." He never laughed in a more forced way. They'd already changed the subject, and he was left with no information on how to proceed.

"Mika-chan, I'll be honest," Arashi was lying on her stomach on Mika's bed, leafing through a fashion magazine. "I think we're running out of methods." Mika was sitting on the floor, back to his bed's frame, head leaned into his palms. "I know." "You're going to have to ask them out directly. I mean more directly than last time. You’re going to have to tell them you want to take them on a date, in those words exactly." "... I know. It's just!" He groaned, hitting the floor with a hand and leaning his head on the mattress. "This sucks, this sucks so bad! Why’s it so hard?! I'm always tellin' ya how I feel 'bout them, I can write it all out, I can talk to anyone else 'bout it, but in front of 'em, I just… I freeze up, like an idiot! Like a stupid, worthless coward! I hate it so much!" He sniffled, quickly wiping his eyes before the tears could fall. "It ain't fair at all! And nothin' I do is workin'... Naru-chan, I think they just don't like me and're pretendin' they don't get it. I'm probably embarrassin' myself badly 'n they're just too nice to say anythin'." "That's not true!" She flipped closed the magazine, shifting into a sitting position. "You're not an idiot or a coward! I don't want you to talk like that about yourself." "I am… I'm so stupid to think they'd even like me back." He hid his face in his hands. His shoulders were trembling, and Arashi felt bad. She felt guilty, as if her pushing him was to blame. "Are you crying...?" "... No." "Mika-chan, you're my best friend. I know when you're crying. Do you want a hug?" He just sobbed into his hands and nodded. And she got down, kneeled beside him, and hugged him close to her chest.

He cried into her shoulder for a minute or two. Shaking and sniffling, squeezing her for comfort. When his sobs died down, she took the chance to speak up, "Hey, Mika-chan, I had an idea." "Please, no more ideas… It ain't gonna work, nothin’ will." "No, hear me out. Please? You don't have to do it, just think about it." When she was met with silence, she decided to continue speaking. "Remember what you told me when we started Operation: Score Mika a Date? About the plushies? I was thinking…"

It took weeks of hard work. A big chunk of his savings for the materials, too. And a lot of patience. But it was finished. He'd already called his crush and asked them to meet up in their usual hangout spot, one that he knew wasn't going to be crowded. And he arrived early, enough that he can take a moment to calm down and steel his nerves. Even Arashi came with him, hoping to give him a last-minute pep talk. "You have it with you?" She asked rubbing his shoulder. "I do, 's here." "You got this, okay? If they reject you, just nod and say-" "'S okay, I hope we can still be friends - I know." "And don't be pushy." "Mhm." "Oh, I think I see them… I'll be a bit further away if you'll need me. Text me how it goes, okay?" "Y-yeah."

Arashi left, and a few minutes later, his crush stood in front of him. "Hey! You said you wanted to see me because you had something to tell me? It's not something bad, I hope?" He stood silently. Gulped. He was holding his gift behind his back, and he could feel his palms getting sweatier. It was now or never. "(Y/n)-chan," he didn't stutter yet, "I wanted to give ya somethin'. You said ya liked my plushies, so…" He slowly brought his hand in front of him. He was holding a classical teddy bear, with dark green fur and mismatched yellow-blue button eyes. Though the craftsmanship was definitely a bit unprofessional, the amount of care and love that went into it was truly visible. The bear was holding a heart, sewn into its paws, with embroidered lettering. Shaky, but obviously something that was worked very hard on. A simple message on it: I love ya.

Mika's hands were shaking as he outstretched them, offering them the plush bear. "Ac-accept it, please." And he bit his tongue for that stutter. "And… Accept my feelings… (Y/n)-chan, I wanna be yer boyfriend." Did he sound confident enough? He hoped he did. He was certain he didn't look confident, what with the blushing and the avoiding eye contact, but he said it loudly, clearly… "D’ya wanna go out with me?" He really couldn’t look them in the eye, instead he stared down, fiddling with his sleeves, while waiting for the answer. Seconds felt like hours. He looked up timidly, curious on why they were silent. He was afraid they were creeped out. But they were… staring at the teddy bear. "It's really cute. I love it… Thank you, Mika!" They smiled at him. His heart skipped a beat and his knees nearly buckled. He didn't want to press them for an answer to his confession, but he couldn't deny that not even that praise was enough to distract him. He just wanted to hear an answer. "And… So, will ya…?" "The rumour was true, then?" They smirked at him. Mika was truly going to die if they kept looking at him like that. But he nodded. All his cards were now thrown face-up on the table. "The note… The note, too. Tha' was me…" "I knew it," they laughed. "It was so hard trying to give you hints to just ask me out already. But it was cute watching you struggle." "N'ah? Ya wanted me to…? Is that a yes? You'll go out with me?" His vision was getting blurry, and if his legs don't actually give out, he'll consider it a miracle. Mika was barely breathing, his heart beating out of his chest from the excitement. And his eyes just sparkled as he leaned in closer to them, eager and excited. If he had a tail, it’d certainly be wagging. "Of course I will! Let's make this our date, then. Where do you want to go?"

When he arrived home that day, he was running on autopilot. He texted his crush, no, his significant other (he's getting giddy just thinking about it!) he had fun today. He asked them if they want to go on another date sometime soon. He took a shower, changed into his pyjamas, and he just… lied in his bed, staring at the ceiling. Before flipping over and screaming into his pillow. Memories of their first date still fresh in his mind. They walked holding hands, they shared cotton candy… When they were sitting on a bench, they even leaned their head on his shoulder. They did all the things couples do on dates… They were a couple now! He held the pillow closer. When the sun set, he walked them home and they… He kissed them.

Mika was still high off the excitement of that day. He wasn't going to get any sleep that night, but he's happy. He's as happy as he was when he was accepted into Yumenosaki, when Shu allowed him to become a part of Valkyrie. He just wanted to call them, to hear their voice again, but instead he called Arashi. He wasn't going to bother them so late in the evening, and Arashi was dying to hear the details, anyway. One thing is certain, however: Mika cannot wait for their next date.

[himbowelsh]

Pls Hoosier on Valentine's list!

valentines day alphabet  ( accepting! ) 

A   :   AFFECTION.   how does your muse show affection?

He doesn’t, if he can help it. Unfortunately, Hoosier’s a bigger softie than he likes to admit. His affection shows itself through small gestures   ---   a blanket tucked around someone’s shoulders, food shared, limbs resting casually against each other during idle moments. If Hoosier’s willing to go out of his way for someone, even a little bit, then they matter to him. His smile could make flowers grow, so being on the receiving end of it tends to send the people he cares about a clear message.

B   :   BOUQUET.   does your muse like flowers? which ones are their favourite?

Absolutely not a bouquet man. Doesn’t trust flowers, doesn’t know how they work, and is not inclined to find out.

C   :   CHOCOLATE.   does your muse like chocolate? which one is their favourite?

Abso-fuckin-lutely. Hoosier would shank a man for some cherry cordials.

D   :   DATE.   what is your muse’s ideal date? where / who with / etc?

He prefers to split the bill on any dates, because he’s cheap economically responsible like that. Hoosier’s ideal date wouldn’t involve paying at all; he’d have a great time doing something on just the right side of illegal, like sneaking into a movie (makes the cinema experience 10x more fun) or loitering in a potentially dangerous place. Coffee dates are pretentious, but he really likes coffee, so sometimes you’ve gotta take the good with the bad. He’d love to go to an animal shelter and, like, play with the dogs...  Hoosier’s not a hard person to take out, and he’s satisfied doing pretty much anything, so long as it’s not too boring.

E   :   EMBRACE.   does your muse like hugs? what are their hugs like?

what the hell is a hug   He doesn’t love them  ---  mostly because he’s been on the receiving end of too many of Chuckler’s post-workout sweaty bear hugs, and that’s something you never recover from. Hoosier’s particular about physical affection, unless it’s from someone he really considers His People  ---  even with his closest friends, he can be weird about hugs, though he’ll make allowances for his little siblings. He’s not a hugger himself.

F   :   FLIRT.   is your muse good at flirting? how do they flirt?

He doesn’t, because it’s a lot of effort, and frankly he just can’t be assed. Hoosier doesn’t do charming small-talk; he’s not going to wine and dine someone he’s just interested in taking to bed. If he wants more than that, well...  he doesn’t even know how to go about it, so they better appreciate the drinks he’s willing to pay for. The other partner’s got to carry the conversation, because Hoosier can’t make small talk to save his life. His good looks and bluntness tend to carry him far enough  ---  as far as the bedroom.

G   :   GIFT.   is your muse good at gift - giving or do they struggle to get it right?

He really doesn’t try that hard. The sort of person to literally ask outright, “what do you want?” a week before a birthday...  then, to his credit, he goes out and tracks the thing down. (Leckie once gave him a really obscure book title, just to see what would happen. Hoosier turned up with it. The book had been out of print of years. This was a first-edition copy. No one knows where he got it, how, or if it was obtained legally.)

H   :   HEART.   is your muse quick or slow to give their heart away?

He’s...  slow because the idea scares him. Hoosier and intimacy...  do not mix. On a physical level, sure, but emotionally? He’s gonna glower that idea into submission and keep any pesky feelings that bubble up down for as long as possible. Hoosier does not love the idea of opening himself up to getting hurt, and doesn’t think he’s very suited for romance, so he’d just...  rather not.

I    :   I LOVE YOU.   does your muse find ‘i love you’ easy or hard to say?

Like we just said! Emotional intimacy is a Big Yikes for him! Anyone would be lucky to get an “I love you” out of him once. He’s got to be either very drunk or very sleepy to say it out loud  ---   both times are when he’s at his softest.

J   :   JEALOUSY.   does your muse get jealous in a relationship?

Oh yeah. Hoosier can be...  territorial when it comes to the people he loves. He passionately dislikes anyone getting too close to his partner; there’s being friendly, and then there’s being more, and he’s got strong instincts for when something’s more than friendly. Hoosier makes up for it by being bitchier than usual, glowering at them and being a bit more physical with his partner. He’s rarely one for PDA, but Jealous Hoosier has some points to make.

K   :   KISS.   is your muse a good kisser? why / why not?

He’s a very physical kisser, almost taking ownership of his partner through his lips; Hoosier Smith doesn’t kiss to play around. Hands on the ass, the thighs, gripping the hips as he grinds slightly against them; each breath seems to ripple between the two of them, a shared convulsion, before Hoosier goes right back in for more. He’s a hungry kisser, and a little feral about it  ---  bruises will be left along his partner’s neck, and their lips may be sore for days afterwards, but they way Hoosier leaves them seeing stars makes it all worth it.

L   :   LOVE.   who does your muse love?

He’s very fond of his little siblings, and very affectionate with them  ---  way more than anyone’s used to seeing out of him. Hoosier’s got Big Brother Instincts, even they don’t rear their head that often. He loves his mom and (very old, possibly immortal) grandparents; he’s very devoted to his friends, no matter how he rolls his eyes at Chuckler and Runner’s chaos or bitches at Leckie’s pretentiousness. That’s the thing about Hoosier  ---   he doesn’t love a lot of people, but the people he does love, he wants to keep.

M   :   MOONLIGHT.   is morning or night a more romantic setting?

Night, because he’s never up in the damn morning. Why would someone want to do things before 10am? Not this man. Anything that needs to get done can be done at midnight, or not at all.

N   :   NAUGHTY.   what is your muse like in bed?

He alternates between fierce and teasing, but Hoosier is very, very determined. God, does he love his partner’s reactions...  and he savors them, leading them along for as long as possible, dragging every encounter out until the end. Hoosier’s in no rush to finish; honestly, he has a bit of trouble finishing without his partner, and it’s usually seeing them go over the edge first that gets him there. He’s rough, rougher than he means to be at times; sex is the most energy he’ll ever expend at a given moment, and he turns it into a full-on workout, both parties slick with sweat by the end of it. Sometimes, he’ll just put his mouth to task, trailing it slowly along his partner’s body  ---  sucking kisses into their chest, their stomach, their hips, all the way to their thighs and what lies beyond.

O   :   ODE.   does your muse have a way with words?

Yes. Very succinct. To the point. Knows what the hell he’s saying. Fine with words, thanks.

P   :   PARTNER.   what does your muse look for in a partner? looks / personality?

Someone who doesn’t get on his last damn nerve. Hoosier would do well with a partner who goes with the flow  ---  probably someone more extroverted than him, but who really doesn’t demand much or tax his energy when he needs to just destress. He’d do best with someone low-maintenance. (Too bad the high-maintenance people are so damn attractive.) They have to love animals; they have to be able to keep things neat, because he hates a messy house; he’s fine with almost any quirk they might have, so long as they put up with his in return. He loves people who can sing...  and people who laugh at their own jokes really shouldn’t be as attractive as they are.

Q   :   QUESTION.   would your muse ask the big question or expect their partner to?

He’d ask as soon as he comes to terms with the idea...  which’ll take a while, not gonna lie. His partner asking first would completely take Hoosier by surprise. He wouldn’t be expecting it, wouldn’t know what to do with it, and his off-the-cuff answer would be, “what the fuck”.  Promising omen of marital bliss right there.

R   :   ROMANCE.   is your muse a romantic or a cynic?

Definitely on the cynical side. He’s...  afraid of romance, a little bit, and definitely doesn’t imagine himself as anybody’s Prince Charming.

S   :   SWEETHEART.   did your muse have a childhood sweetheart?

He didn’t, really. Little Bill Smith had way more important things on his mind, like taking long naps, stealing cookies, and hiding in places where his mama couldn’t find him. Bigger priorities on his mind.

T   :   TRUE LOVE.   does your muse believe in true love?

...  nah, probably not. It’s not something he gives a lot of thought to, because thinking about love in general leaves him feeling half-starved and irritated. True love...  well, to be honest, he’s got no clue what it is.

U   :   UNREQUITED.   has your muse had their heart broken?

...  let’s say he hasn’t and call it even. He’s not gonna talk about it.  (He hasn’t, but he’s been on the cusp of loving people who didn’t love him back. Caution is learned; if you go to the edge of a cliff and almost fall off, you’re in no hurry to dance on that edge again. He learned to fear love without ever feeling the full sting of rejection, cause he’s just proactive like that.)

V   :   VALENTINE.   how does your muse feel about valentine’s day?

A complete waste of time, unless there’s chocolate involved. Chocolate for him. Get him chocolate, please.

W  :   WEDDING.   would your muse get married? why / why not?

Mmm. I mean. He’s not going to not get married, if the opportunity arises, but it’s also, like...  a lot of effort, everybody makes a big deal out of it, it costs a lot of money, and, like...  if all his siblings get hitched, does his Mama really need him to, too? (If Hoosier gets to the point where he’s head-over-heels in love with someone, enough to want to spend his life with ‘em, yeah, he’ll get married. But he’s prefer a quiet ceremony, no muss or fuss, to a big white wedding.)

X   :   XOXO.   does your muse use / like pet names?

Absolutely never... unless he’s in the mood. An arm tucked around his partner’s chest or waist, and a muttered “darlin’” against the side of their neck, is Hoosier-speak for ‘let’s get someplace private now, before I take my pants off right here.’

Y   :   YOURS.   does your muse get protective easily?

In, like, the laziest way possible. He’s perfectly willing to sit back and watch the fireworks, glowering as some fool gets bolder and bolder with the person he cares about...  but he’s not apathetic, he’s waiting. As soon as the bastard crosses a line, Hoosier’s on his feet and swinging. He doesn’t say anything; he just puts an end to the situation, with a few well-placed hits. Cross Hoosier Smith’s people at your own risk.

Z   :   ZZZ.   how many people has your muse slept with?

...  do you really want to know the answer to this question? It’s...  a lot. Many people. An amount that should maybe concern him. He couldn’t count if he tried, but the number is probably in the double digits. (How? He literally never goes out! Hoosier’s got ways, okay. When he feels like having sex, he will find someone willing and eager. It’s never a challenge to convince them. The job gets done.) Don’t ask, cause he’ll just smirk and say nothing.

[tonystarkbingo]

TSB MIV Week 8 Roundup!

Go give our wonderful participants some love.

Title: For this, I am Thankful Collaborator: corsets_and_cardigans Card Number: 4061 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A3 - free space Ship: Stony Rating: Teen Major Tags: Past Pepper/Tony, Peter is Tony’s Bio Son Summary: Newly divorced Dad Tony spends Thanksgiving with his attractive new neighbor. Word Count: 4299

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Title: Iron Tsum Collaborator: deehellcat Card Number: 4028 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: S2 - mad science Ship: none Rating: Gen Major Tags: none Summary: During a battle with a power-hungry scientist, Tony got zapped by some handwavy energy beam and turned into a tsum tsum. This explains his very angry face. lol

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Title: Part of Your World Collaborator: iam93percentstardust Card Number: 4012 Link: AO3 Square Filled: R3 - Teenage Tony Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: Mermaid AU, Tony Needs a Hug, Howard Stark’s A+ Parenting Summary: Tony grows up without a pod. Howard doesn’t believe in pods, after all, even though nearly every other killer whale-mer out there has one. But the Stark patriarch is convinced that he’s too good to need a pod, too special, too skilled a hunter. Pods are for weaklings who can’t hunt for themselves, not for the likes of Howard Stark. Uncharitably, Tony thinks that maybe a pod might have saved Howard from the kraken. Word Count: 965

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Title: Gossamer Collaborator: RoseRose Card Number: 4022 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A3 - free space Ship: Stuckony Rating: Explicit Major Tags: PWP, crossdressing, humiliation, boot worship, BDSM Summary: Tony is indulging himself in a kink he hadn't told his partners yet when they arrive home unexpectedly. Fun is had by all. Crossdressing and humiliation kink, with accompanying boot worship. Word Count: 1379

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Title: Et tu, Phil? Collaborator: RoseRose Card Number: 4022 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A4 - Good Guys Gone Bad Ship: implied Stucky Rating: Teen Major Tags: Hurt no comfort, betrayal, HYDRA Phil Coulson, mentioned brainwashing, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes Summary: SHIELD, including Phil Coulson is Hydra. Steve has been betrayed. The only upside is that he found Bucky. Scene from a world where Phil Coulson is HYDRA. No happy endings here. Word Count: 926

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Title: Project A.R.I. Collaborator: Juulna Card Number: 4065 Link: AO3 Square Filled: S4 -  Stuckony Ship: Stuckony Rating: Not Rated Major Tags: Female Tony Stark, Established Relationship, Wow since when do I write that?, Post-Endgame, Alternate Canon, Parent Tony Stark, Bots as Children, Surprises, It’s hard to surprise supersoldiers, Arecibo Observatory & Telescope, Toni adopts Arecibo because of course she does, Inspired by Real Events, RIP Arecibo, Not Beta Read, Scientific Mistakes Likely Abound Summary: When Toni heard that Arecibo---one of her favourite scientific objects in the world---was going to be decommissioned, well she couldn't have that, now could she?? She tries to surprise her husbands, but instead ends up being the one pleasantly surprised---and very much loved. Word Count: 259

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Title: ’Tis the wind and nothing more! Collaborator: Faustess Card Number: 4059 Link: AO3 Square Filled: R4 - Supernatural (moodboard) Ship: Tony & Rhodey Rating: Teen Major Tags: Supernatural, Poltergeists, Fear, Haunted Houses, Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark at MIT Summary: Some older students lure Tony to a house that's reputedly haunted... then lock him in. Word Count: 100

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Title: I Went to the County Fair and All I Got Was This Alpaca Collaborators: newnewyorker93 & rebelmeg Card Numbers: 4042 & 4034 Link: AO3 Square Filled: newnewyorker93, T1 - Animal rebelmeg, S5 - Animal Ship: Pepperony Rating: Gen Major Tags: depression, Pepper cares, accidental alpaca acquisition Summary: Pepper has been doing her best to help Tony manage his depression after the Snap. A surprise encounter at the county fair gives her an idea for one more thing she can try... Word Count: 2530

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Title: Tony Stark/Iron Man Collaborator: needyoucap Card Number: 4029 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: A3 - Free Space Ship: none Rating: Gen Major Tags: ornament Summary: Tony Stark and Iron Man gingerbread ornaments

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Title: Chibi Iron Man Collaborator: rebelmeg Card Number: 4034 Link: AO3 Square Filled: R4 - “I Love You 3000″ Ship: None Rating: Gen Major Tags: Cross stitch Summary: Cross stitch of a cute chibi Iron Man Word Count: N/A

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Title: [Podfic] Apprentice Collaborator: Juulna Card Number: 4065 Link: AO3 Square Filled: R4 - AU: Sci-fi/Futuristic Ship: None Rating: Teen Major Tags: Companions (Firefly), Podfic & Podficced Works, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, (10 mins), Tony Stark Bingo Mark IV, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction Summary: "To stay safe from his father, a young Tony Stark is sent away from his homeworld to train as a Companion. He catches the eye of Inara Serra, who grooms him into the man he will become." Based with permission on: Apprentice by @ladydarkphoenix-blog Podfic Length: 10 minutes

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Title: Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend Collaborator: camichats Card Number: 4049 Link: AO3 Square Filled: Chapter 1: S5-Hindsight Chapter 2: A5-Bed Sharing Chapter 3: R4- “Who, me?” Chapter 4: A1-I Love You 3000 Chapter 5: K2-Mirror Image Ship: Wanda Maximoff/Tony Stark Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Sugar Daddy/Baby relationship, Age Difference, Sexual Content Summary: Wanda ends up as Tony Stark's sugar baby to help get her through college. Getting into that relationship was the last thing she expected and falling in love came as a surprise to both of them.  Word Count: 14,793

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Title: Call This Bliss Collaborator: iam93percentstardust Card Number: 4012 Link: AO3 Square Filled: R4 - Polyamory or Open Relationship Ship: Stuckony Rating: E Major Tags: Warlord AU, A/B/O Dynamics, Explicit Sexual Content Summary: Steven notices it first: a gradual sweetening of Tony’s scent from something warm and homey to alluring and intoxicating. It takes him a few days to realize what it means. In all the months Tony has been here in Sauoa with them, he’s never once had a heat. This isn’t unusual for omegas. Heats can be affected by anything, ranging from exercise to stress and everything in between. And Tony had certainly been stressed in the first few months after coming to the village. It’s no wonder he hasn’t had a heat before this. Word Count: 4174

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Title: You Want a Battle? Here’s a War Collaborator: deehellcat Card Number: 4028 Link: AO3 Square Filled: K4 - Expats Ship: Pre-WinterIron Rating: Gen Major Tags: Alternate Universe - No Powers, On the Run, Secret Identities, Alternate Universe - Hydra Won (Marvel), pre-Winteriron Summary: Two strangers running from the same threat meet and consider an alliance (on more levels than one). Word Count: 2185

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Title: I die with variety - Chapter 4 Collaborator: simi Card Number: 4066 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A4 - Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger Ship: IronHusbands Rating: Explicit Major Tags: major character death, immortality in a way but it will end at some time, explicit sexual content, deaths in various, graphic circumstances, violence, alcohol poisoning, terminal illness. Summary: The first time that Tony dies, he is four and he’s building his very first circuit board from scratch. He’s connecting the finished product to the multimeter to check the voltage, the current and resistance, when a lead slips, a shock ricochets up through his spine, and he sees black.He’s on his back, when his eyes flutter open, and he’s staring up at the ceiling. He gets up, frowning, rubbing at his eyes, and then, he sees the frayed wire on the end of the multimeter.Huh, he thinks and moves on almost immediately. Word Count: 4026

[ysalamiri-queen]

2019 Fic in Review

Inspired by @myevilmouse I’m going to sum up all the writing I’ve been up to the past year. I’m really proud of what I’ve accomplished, and thanks to you all for the encouragement to put my ideas out into the world! This has been a year of trying new things, and really growing as an author I feel… And wow according to AO3 I’ve written about 400k words in the past 12 months, damn. So let’s get to the list, going from the beginning of the year to the end, and as always please heed the tags on these before reading.

Note: As I go back, I’m realizing a lot of the links were messed up or are just straight missing. I am on the Mobile App so things can get messy. Please visit my works page on AO3 HERE to see all of these on my page under JessKo and my other pseuds.

1 Late Night at the Slab

Idea: Filling a prompt for the Thryce server in which some, uh, unique Chiss anatomy was assigned.

Result: A 3-way with Thrawn, Arihnda, and Eli and my first foray into the more Xeno side of things in a Modern AU setting. Yeehaw!

2 The Trouble With Free-Roaming Ysalamiri

Idea: Based on some adorable ysalamiri cuddles art by @strength-through-order I wanted to write some Thranto fluff.

Result: Ysalamiri-filled Thranto fluff X’D

3 Inquisitor’s Debt

Idea: What if the Grand Inquisitor changed sides at the end of Rebels season 1?

Result: Some fun throwbacks with Obi-Wan and Caleb Dume leading up to Quizzy defecting with Ezra.

4 Ancient Stems

Idea: Eli Week drabbles based on the Vanto Week prompts.

Result: A silly buzz droid narrative with Thrawn and some cute slice of life Eli backstory/Ascendancy days bits.

5 Charnsuka

Idea: Kinky stuff with Lord Garmadon when he’s an Anacondrai.

Result: Kinky stuff with Lord Garmadon when he’s an Anacondrai. Sorry Zane!

6 Caged Like Prized Birds

Idea: Again inspired by the awesome Chiss anatomy and Thrux drawings by @strength-through-order , I wanted to craft a narrative around Armitage, as a young man, stumbling upon a clone of Thrawn.

Result: Man, this might just be one of my favorite things I’ve ever written, had so much fun plotting it out and the smut is mmm! Tentacles everywhere~ I’ve gone back to re-read this a lot, I’ll admit it. I hope you all enjoyed it too.

7 Quiet On Set

Idea: Must. Write. Talos.

Result: A cute little platonic x-reader with everyone’s favorite Skrull. This was my first MCU fic too.

8 Diagnostic

Idea: Wanted to apologize to Zane for the damages done in Charnsuka with some Glacier shipping fluff.

Result: A silly glacier thing leading to a bit of foolery. I’m happy with it!

9 Heron Soaring

Idea: A continuation of the plot line from Heron Rising with Kanan and Thrawn.

Result: Too many feels… but some great sex to soften the blow, Kanera too!

10 Patron

Idea: Responding to a tumblr prompt from @wukeskywalker regarding Thrawn commissioning LOADS of artworks of Eli.

Result: More Thranto fluff! I see a trend here…

11 Black Heron

Idea: Kanan x Pryce for @myevilmouse , I think this was our first ‘collaboration’ on something!

Result: Juahir hires a special someone to show Arihnda a good time!

12 Red Heron

Idea: @star-wars-rebels-4 is always an amazing wealth of ideas for Grand Inquisitor, and encouraged a work featuring him and Kanan.

Result: Delicious back alley smut when an undercover Jedi is caught!

13 Warm Homecoming

Idea: Give my and a friend's OCs some cute fluff.

Result: OC fluff and a vacation to Hoth!

14 sowing the seeds

Idea: Add something cute to the spank war project.

Result: Another contender for my ‘favorite thing I’ve ever written’ rank. Two chapters of pining, cooking lessons, and sweet slick smut.

15 Red Frost

Idea: After watching “The Evil of Frankenstein” with @sneakybunyip ‘s amazing movie night group, I wanted to do something fun with Victor and Hans.

Result: A fun little adventure fic with some huddling for warmth to boot. Victor and Hans are the hammer-horror-verse Thranto send tweet.

16 a setting sun to hide the ruins

Idea: What if I tortured Kanan to the point he turned evil and joined the Inquisitors (and went a little insane in the process)

Result: Instead of torture, let’s just use some serum that drives him mad. Perfect. Smut ahoy, pretty much a dead dove type fic.

17 Pinktown

Idea: When browsing abandoned towns in Florida, I came across Flamingo… what if Thrawn had been exiled here instead.

Result: An alternate history of Thrawn’s exile and eventual discovery by the Empire. Huge thanks for @badgerandk on this one for the perfect epilogue and beta.

18 the sun rises to only illuminate the stranger i have become

Idea: Setting sun… part 2! But it’s actually what happens before sun?

Result: How Kanan ended up where he is for ‘a setting sun’... lots of imp smut and again, it's sort of a dead dove style fic.

19 Frozen Over

Idea: Ar’alani x Eli Vanto

Result: Somehow me and my writing partner ended up at sensory deprivation focus on this one.

20 Shape of Honor

Idea: Well, this one started in 2018 but ‘finished’ in 2019. Still working on the epilogue. Lots of tweaks… If you are not familiar, this is my AU in which it explores how the Thrawn novel and Rebels show would be altered if Palpatine distrusted Thrawn from their first meeting and accused him of being a Chiss spy. Vaguely inspired by the film The Shape of Water.

Result: Well it's nearly a novel now, isn’t it. This was a great adventure in learning how to create compelling story arcs. I’m extremely satisfied with how it is shaping (lol) up.

21 Datura Stamonium

Idea: Thrawnbine ovi smut.

Result: Oops it has plot now, a whole backstory with Eli and such and so fourth. Will need further stories told…

22 Desert Entropy

Idea: Luke/Wedge modern AU shenanigans.

Result: Also pulled Nath/Wyl and the Rogue Squad/Alphabet Squad peeps into this. Set in Vegas, Luke and Wedge meet and have a cute little romance, but some legal troubles set them back (Palpatine, as always, is That Bitch™) Very happy ending!

23 The Great Eli and Thrawn Prank War

Idea: See Chapter 1: Mullet Thrawn

Result: This thing really grew up, and thanks to all the contributors for allowing me to join in! My contributions were: 7-Bombs Away! In which a bit of drama brews and Thrawn makes a paint bomb that forces him and Eli back into being roomates. 11-Tooka Troube 2: Electric Boogaloo in which Eli finds his quarters slowly filling up with Tooka plush toys, and then something huge goes off in supply. 17-The Bitch is Back In which who knew Thrawn could sing?!

24 Clipped Wings to Keep Us from Flying

Idea: Continuing the story line from Caged Like Prized Birds

Result: Dragging Eli and the OG Thrawn into this, seeing that their stories were left untold in the first work. Also Armitage and the clone are up to all sorts of cool things. Still a WIP, on the list to keep working on this year!

25 I’ll do what I can.

Idea: Some Ronan/Krennic feels post Treason

Result: A Ronan character study that I really needed to get out of my system and finally a stable alliance between Krennic and Thrawn!

26 Purple Heron

Idea: @punk--kenobi and I concocted some fun Kanan/Zeb/Hera smut featuring Lasat heat cycles.

Result: Ah this came out so cool, full of emotion and wonderful imagery. Massive kudos to @punk--kenobi for beta-ing my portion and contributing some of the best smut one can find!

27 Ninjago Angst Week 2019

Idea: Do some 1-shots for Ninjago Angst Week

Result: ow right in the feels. Each character got a highlight in their own ‘dark retelling of a canon or canon adjacent event’ chapter.

28 Vertigo

Idea: Thing’s don’t go right planetside for Eli, Pik, and Waffle in Treason.

Result: Big oof. I hope Eli can one day forgive me… I even put strain on the end game Thranto! Bittersweet ending and lots of angst.

29 More Than Just a Treat

Idea: What is Obi Wan up to in the desert…

Result: Aunt Beau and baby Luke baked him cookies obviously!

30 Datura Metel

Idea: Continuing the Datura cycle…

Result: Just how Eli ended up where he did in the first installation.

31 Here & Now

Idea: Some Thranto Fluff! For @jewelliffer

Result: A camping trip for shore leave! And a marriage proposal for extra sugar.

32 Monster Under the Bed

Idea: Benevolent Boogeyman Chiss

Result: Modern AU Thranto spooky sillies. Bit of an intense climax but they talk it out!

33 Haunted by Sentiment

Idea: Nath is in denial of being the Squad Dad for @glassprowlers

Result: Nath’s very bad no good oh so terrible day! It's very silly and I really like how it ended up, the title is way more serious than the story itself XD

34 Pulse

Idea: Werewolf AU Lavashipping

Result: Oops Kai is a werewolf! Good thing Cole is here to help him figure out how to press on.

35 Stories from Area 51

Idea: remember the raid Area 51 meme? I do! Gotta clap them alien cheeks!

Result: Oh no it got PLOTTY! Pretty much all of my favorite characters and ships cherry-picked and plopped down into a Men In Black style facility in the middle of the desert. I really have a thing for the desert huh…

36 Good Day

Idea: The “truth” behind the “Good day, Lieutenant Vanto” from Thrawn in Treason.

Result: Oh stars the FEELS! Thrawn is in deep water and he KNOWS IT! GAH!

37 Fur Ball

Idea: Chiss are mogwai/gremlins…

Result: Silly Thranto fluff. Thrass shows up too! Feeding them after midnight is actually a good idea here… Grow your own ideal man!

38 Came Back Haunted

Idea: A mission fic centered around the @peters-pumpkin-day prompts.

Result: Ice planet survival with Tarkin, Krennic, Galen, and Ronan.

39 Sewn Together

Idea: This drawing actually is what lead to the fic-

Result: A fairly unique reuniting of Thrawn and Eli after both return to the Ascendancy.

40 Spiked Heron

Idea: Oh no… Kanan gets himself in deep poodoo this time.

Result: Devaronians really like humans huh? The next chapter is half way written I swear it is coming soon!

41 A Colder Embrace

Idea: Thrawn/Purrgil/Ezra and Luke/Wampa for SW Rare Pairs.

Result: It's very cold on Hoth… and even colder in space.

42 Surround

Idea: Luke/Wedge for SW Rare Pairs

Result: Luke has to confront Wedge post ESB regarding what is, essentially, his deserting the Rebels.

43 What Happens Planetside…

Idea: Eli/Pik/Waffle for SW Rare Pairs

Result: heheh a scrumptious Eli sandwich! And surprise tentacles because, well, why not?

44 Hesperidium

Idea: Fluffy Kylux for the Kylux Secret Santa event

Result: Ah its so sweet you might get a cavity

45 Reanimator

Idea: Lovecraftian eldritch horror Thranto

Result: This is the sort of project that it takes 2 months to fine tune each chapter, so bear with me, but I can promise a wonderful, creepy ride is ahead!

46 Floral

Idea: Luke/Faro for SW Rare Pairs. Enjoy the Jedi lovin’, @myevilmouse

Result: Sex pollen and accidentally defecting from the Empire. Whoops!

47 The Harch

Idea: Bouncing off of THIS art by @mamidlo , we worked together to create this plot. Very much inspired by the Hammer Horror films, such as Dracula and Frankenstein.

Result: A fun and spooky romp of Kallus and Zeb getting trapped in a creepy castle featuring mind controlled drones and a species-obsessed Harch. This was my first time posting the entire story at once, too!

Wow, I can not believe how much has been written this year. Thank you all again for reading and kudos-ing and your amazing comments. I’d not be here without the support and love <3 Cheers to 2020 and much more fic ahead!

[archiveofidentityconstellations]

(Preferably all batfam related else I'd be clueless :P) 4, 8, 15, 29, 30, 37, 40 alternative ending to 'On Fashions & Small Fry' 💜💜

4. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

I literally just had an idea this morning about little snapshots in which Damian crawls into Dick’s bed to kind of show the break of outer and inner lives and what we project to the world (day) and how we feel inside (night). That sounds like a lot of hogwash bc mostly I just wanted to do a cute thing with Dick and Damian being brothers

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

from birds all sing:

Several minutes passed, Tim looking at the man he had known as a father for several years, brow furrowed in consideration.

"What else?" Bruce finally said. He let his voice soften. "What else do you need?" Tim met his eyes. Bruce's fists clenched.

So young.

"...The roti."

What?

"What?"

"The roti bread?" Tim repeated. "I was thinking maybe the zucchini but no, I definitely want the roti."

Bruce stood there, adrenaline seeping out of his bones.

"That's it?" he asked brusquely, not a little annoyed to be put through the emotional ringer in under five minutes.

"Yeah," Tim nodded. He almost beamed at the thought of the upcoming food. "That's it. Thanks, Bruce!"

"Don't mention it," he growled, marching out the office.

It’s not perfect, but I like it because it makes me laugh. My humor has a lot to do with timing, so when I manage to get the timing right I find it very funny

15. If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?

Good question! I wouldn’t really choose any of my fics to be filmed, but I would love my “version” of batcat to have a film presence. Other than that, I would probably want either bratkid or star wars domestic AU to be filmed, but I would make them original work. I like the idea of family coming together and getting to love one another. It’s an after school special!

29. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

Oh man I’m kind of shit at imagining things beyond what the author intends. My friend Hobbs has a world she lets me play in sometimes, so I write little snippets of fanfic of her stuff.

30. Do you accept prompts?

When I say they’re open, yeah, kind of. I don’t get paid for writing, it’s not like a commission, so if I like the idea I’ll do it or incorporate it into whatever I’m writing. It’s free real estate babey

37. Talk about your current wips.

There’s too manyyyyyy

I’ll talk about what I need to do

birds all sing: start the first fight. make it organic, not off the cuff. don’t be overt but not too subtle.

crack fic: research you dumb bint. you are literally not writing this because you don’t want to research. why. normally you love research. you just don’t want to look up what writing up reports looks like. it’s probably online. just do it.

40. Write an alternative ending to [insert fic title] (or just the summary of one).

OHO, okay! Long answer

This was actually supposed to be a full fic, I had a lot planned for it but it got so large that I was like “hmmm” and didn’t do it. It had like 4 “acts” as to how the story went

Anyhow, the fic starts out how Damian wants to go to Sacramento with Bruce, because Bruce said he would take him last week, but then Bruce says no. He won’t explain why, but he’s obviously not mad at Damian, so Damian can’t figure it out. Damian ends up facecalling him and he can see Talia in the background. He promptly flips out, throws his phone at the wall, breaks it, destroys the room, then kind of has a breakdown wherein he just sits in the tub fully clothed with his shoes on 😅

Tim sits with him, then Damian basically falls asleep so Tim goes to get Dick and Dick puts his boy to bed

Second act: Several days go by, and Damian is better, but as he’s sitting on the counter while Stephanie is cooking, she accidentally says something they were all keeping from him: Bruce went to Sacramento so that Talia could sign off on custody rights, lawyers are involved and everything.

Cue to Damian being like “what” and marching off. Damian then concocts this scheme in which he tells Dick that he really wanted to see Dallas, that father was going to take him, please he wants to see the rodeo, etc. Dick gives in and decides they’ll take a brotherly bonding road trip! Yay!

But things start to go sour when neither one of them can mind their business in a seedy motel, and their relationship issues come to light. After this:

"No, damn it!" Dick slammed his hand against the doorframe. It rattled at its hinges. "You got your time, that's it, done, over. I take care of you, got it?"

"We're partners," Damian said, weakly.

Dick's eyes softened. He struggled inside himself, Damian could see. But just as a bubble of hope rose forth, it burst the next millisecond. Dick lowered his hands, head tucked low and shaking softly. "Not anymore we're not," he sighed.

then Damian uhhhh how does one say, drugs Dick so he can sneak out and take a plane to Sacramento.

He bursts into whatever meeting place Bruce and Talia are at and lambasts them for lying to him and such. Talia is like “hi sweetie” and Bruce is like “b o i” and Damian ends by saying he gets to leave first because they always leave whenever they wanted, so now he gets to leave THEM

So he angry-walks to a park and sits down on a bench and stews

Then Dick BURSTS in and is like “is he here?????” and Bruce is like “you let your eleven year old brother get on a plane himself?!” and Dick is like “that little SHIT drugged me, I didn’t let him do anything” and they all sort of talk about the best thing for Damian

Damian comes back after a day on the town in which he really doesn’t have all that much fun, and comes back and everyone is like “okay let’s all be mature about this and talk, no secrets”

And it turns out

Talia is dying

So Damian is bewildered and mad that he can’t be mad, she’s dying, she’s dying and she doesn’t even get to see him without Bruce’s approval, etc

So they work out what would be best for Damian WITH Damian’s input, thank you very much

(also Bruce is like “We acknowledge that we weren’t the best but if you EVER do that again—”)

Third act is in which the new normal is strange, because Damian is visiting Talia but it’s like when he was a very young child again, because she’s not trying to impart survival wisdom, she’s just his mom. And Damian is sort of dealing with the remnants of trauma, and is upset because why couldn’t it have been like this all the time, but he CAN’T be upset because she’s dying and despite his unwillingness to go back over his trauma it crops up and Talia has a lot to make up for. Ra’s appears in his crazy old way, because she’s his favorite child and she’s dying and Damian and Ra’s basically get to sit in a hospital waiting room together and have a stilted conversation on who they are and what family even means

Anyhow Damian is really starting to get along with Talia, which concerns Bruce because. she’s dying. Damian is going to be gutted. So he slowly kind of tries to make it so Damian isn’t as attached (dumb but it’s Bruce) and Damian gets angry and runs away to visit his mother in the French Riviera. They have a wonderful time but then Bruce goes to get him and Damian is mad at him. But Talia says “you need to listen to your father” and Damian realizes that Bruce is the only parent he’s going to have, he’s not going to have his mom anymore.

So yeah, there’s still another act that I didn’t finalize but that’s a rough summary of everything!!

And Talia was going to have an illness exacerbated by the Lazarus pits, like caused by it. It was basically going be Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease equivalent in the DC universe. So yeah, she can’t come back lol

[dvp95]

can’t breathe when you touch my sleeve - chapter 3

pairing: dan howell/phil lester

rating: e (eventually)

warnings: none

tags: alternate universe, slow burn, fluff & humour, tiny bit of inner turmoil wrt sexuality but trust me it’s not that deep, eventual smut, idiots in love

word count: 3,385 for this chapter (12,653 total)

summary: Dan keeps making a fool of himself in interviews, to the point where it’s basically a meme. Now he’s got to sit down for the better part of an hour and sell his show to the YouTuber he’d had a massive crush on when he was a teenager.

read from the beginning on ao3 or on tumblr!

read this chapter on ao3 or here!

Dan has been dreading the seemingly-inevitable call from his family, now that filmed interviews are being uploaded and live interviews are starting in the next few days, so he’s almost disappointed when it never comes.

Surely his parents know he’s in London. There’s promotion for his show on a couple different channels they watch, and his dad has always been fairly good at keeping up with entertainment news. Adrian follows him on Instagram, but - and Dan isn’t proud of this - he can’t remember if Adrian still lives in Wokingham or not. He can’t even remember how old Adrian is without doing the math.

So maybe they haven’t been keeping up with Netflix shit, maybe Adrian isn’t home to tell their parents that he’s in town, but surely, surely some well-meaning friend of the family will say something? That’s always been the case when he comes to town.

After almost a whole week, though, Dan cracks. He calls his mum. It goes to voicemail.

That makes him panic a little, but she texts him an, at work … call you when I’m home x. So, questionable ellipses usage aside, Dan is comfortably reassured that his entire family isn’t dead.

Dan busies himself with catching up on the Heatwave cast interviews he hasn’t watched yet. Patrick doesn’t like to watch them and Jaime couldn’t give a shit one way or the other, but Dan is unable to allow a video of him to exist without knowing exactly what it contains. That’s a control thing, mostly, but he also doesn’t want to be blindsided by a new Daniel Interview Meme that he doesn’t understand.

He types his own name into the YouTube search bar and feels his heartrate pick up when he sees a thumbnail from BBC Radio One.

Thinking about Phil makes his heart race like he’s a teenager with a crush, and he presses play just so he can listen to Phil talk. He can barely remember what he said in the interview, so completely caught up in Phil’s eyes and grin as he’d been.

The interview itself is good. Nothing special, in terms of the actual things they talk about, but Dan can feel the difference in the way he speaks to Phil versus the way he’s spoken to anyone else - comfort. He had been so immediately comfortable with their back-and-forth, only awkward because he’d been trying so hard not to think about what Phil looked like under his nice clothes.

Dan wonders if anyone else can see the difference or if he only notices because he’s so attuned to his own body language, has the advantage of knowing the whole context.

He scrolls idly through the comments and feels heat rise to his face.

Yeah. People noticed.

Lots of comments are just about Dan or the show or the lack of Patrick or Jaime, but there’s more than a few that are about Dan and Phil’s apparent chemistry. Phil, being an out gay man with no partner and a fanbase, probably has to deal with these types of comments all the time, but it’s new for Dan.

Dan shakes his head to try and clear it. He doesn’t want to get stuck in YouTube comments and feel impotent irritation every time someone replies, ‘uh, Daniel Howell is straight’, like they know him. Like he’s ever said that.

He’s been photographed with women, because he’s casually dated them over the past decade, but he’s never said he’s straight. And it never works out with them anyway.

Dating girls is fine - they’re all softness and little sighs and hands that look so extremely small wrapped in his own - but he doesn’t think he can ever be with one for a significant amount of time. That thought is one he usually keeps locked in his mental box, but. He doesn’t shy away from it this time.

Even if he could admit it to himself proper, it’s easier for Dan to just not talk about it publicly. He hasn’t dated anyone seriously enough for it to be an issue in ten years. Nobody needs to know that every time he’s inside a woman he remembers why it never progresses past that.

It’s fine. It’s always fine. It’s just, if he’s completely honest with himself, 'fine’ isn’t what he wants to settle for.

“Moot point anyway,” Dan mumbles to himself, clicking over to Phil’s channel for a distraction. “Not like you’re gonna do anything about it, you big fucking coward.”

Phil has uploaded the video he told Dan about when Dan was busy trying not to stare at his mouth. It’s such a welcome distraction that Dan almost doesn’t clock the title and thumbnail for the buffoonery they are.

IS MY DOG PSYCHIC?

The title doesn’t change when Dan blinks. Neither does the image of Thor, edited to be wearing round glasses in front of a crystal ball.

“What,” Dan says, clicking on the video before any of it really sinks in.

“Hi guys,” says Phil. He already looks like he’s trying not to laugh. “I know you read the title and you’re like, what, but I promise it is not clickbait! As I’m sure many of you know, my grandma had 'the gift’, and sometimes I think she passed it on to me. The question is, did I pass it on to my son?”

Phil pulls an over-exaggerated thoughtful expression and then breaks, giggling and shaking his head at himself.

“I know it’s stupid, but, I also figured it might be funny? I dunno, you tell me.”

It’s exactly as silly as Dan expects it to be. Phil sits on his floor with Thor while the dog 'reads’ his tarot cards. Dan can see why this video gave Phil a hard time in editing. There are a lot of close ups of Thor and the cards, filmed more like a comedy skit than a vlog.

He finds himself laughing along and getting way too invested in what the tarot cards mean, and he knows first hand how much work Phil put into this, so Dan clicks the share button before he can overthink it.

tbh watching amazingthorgi do anything could make a believer out of me, he tweets alongside the link.

Most of America is asleep still, but that doesn’t stop hundreds of people replying. Dan’s really got nothing better to do while he waits for his mum to call, so he settles in to respond to some of them. He makes a couple bad jokes, commiserates with some of them over not being able to have a dog yet, and ignores any mention of Phil.

Maybe that’s childish of him. He is sharing Phil’s work, after all. He sighs and replies to an innocuous question about how he knows Phil. met during this and then he let me meet his dog so now he’s not getting rid of me, Dan says with a link to the BBC Radio One interview.

His phone chirps with a Twitter notification and he taps it warily, still scrolling through replies on his laptop.

@AmazingPhil @danielhowell You saw his face now you’re a believer? He’ll tell your fortune anytime! It’s accompanied with dog and sparkle and crystal ball and, inexplicably, sock emojis.

Dan laughs, the sound of it almost surprising him. It’s impossible not to feel some kind of way when Phil is the way he is, so cheerful and dorky and fun.

He likes the tweet, but responds by messaging Phil - do you have me on notif or are you just always online - because he doesn’t want to add any more fuel to the fire that is Twitter stans. He can already imagine the argument threads about his sexuality that he usually tries so hard to avoid.

The thought of strangers picking apart something he’s not even comfortable with himself is abhorrent, makes him itch, and he puts on some older AmazingPhil videos to calm himself back down.

That depends

on?

Which one is lamer lmao

Phil’s voice filling the lonely hotel room and his words taking up space on Dan’s screen where something anxiety-inducing might have otherwise been is almost enough to make Dan as comfortable as Phil’s physical presence does.

Almost. It’s unreal how much Dan wants to reach through both of his screens to pull Phil closer.

Dan hides his smile in his hand, even though nobody is around to see it, and replies, tbh those are equally lame so you might as well go with the truth

I was on Twitter anyway. I really shouldn’t be, I’m supposed to be responding to emails. Phil keeps typing, then stops, then repeats that process a few times before he finally adds, I should go do that, but you can call or facetime me if you want to keep talking or whatever? It’s easier not to type/text while I’m doing emails lol

And, in a third message, a string of numbers. Phil’s phone number.

Well, that sounds better than using Phil’s videos as background noise. Dan shuts his laptop and gets out of bed to fuss with his hair.

“You’re such an idiot,” he tells his judgemental reflection. It, thankfully, does not respond.

Once he’s gotten his hair into some semblance of order - it’s mostly still straight from yesterday, but it got all sleep-mussed and a bit wavy in the front overnight - Dan tosses on a shirt and video calls the number Phil gave him.

Phil picks up with a big grin and sleepy eyes, and Dan almost hangs up on him to stop the heart palpitations in their tracks. “Hi!”

“Hey, you just wake up?” Dan asks, getting comfortable in the hotel room armchair. It feels weird to lie back down in bed while they’re chatting. Phil is at his desk, phone propped up so he can use both hands to type. His glasses are a little crooked and his shirt is too big on him, exposing his collarbones whenever he leans forward. Unfortunately, he looks like serious wank material right now.

“Yeah, had my first coffee already, though,” says Phil. “You would not like me before my coffee.”

“Barely like you now, mate,” Dan says to try and hide his blush at the idea of seeing Phil first thing in the morning. Phil just laughs. It’s tinny through Dan’s phone speaker, but it still makes Dan feel warm.

“You’re awfully chatty for someone who doesn’t like me,” says Phil.

“I’m only bored, don’t flatter yourself,” says Dan. “My mum’s supposed to call me in a few hours, so I’m just kind of waiting around til then.”

“Oh, yeah, you haven’t had the chance to go home yet, have you?” Phil’s tongue pokes out between his teeth as he concentrates on whatever he’s reading. “My mum would be going out of her gourd. When was the last time you went home?”

Dan doesn’t really like the way that Phil keeps calling it 'home.’ Wokingham hasn’t been home in a very long time.

He doesn’t want to get into that, though, so he just shrugs. “Uh, Christmas?”

“Dan,” Phil says, looking appalled. “It’s August.”

“I don’t live here,” says Dan. “And I’m busy. My family gets it.”

Phil hums, a little disapproving still. Dan has to bite his tongue so he doesn’t say anything scathing, reminding himself that some people actually like their parents.

It’s not that Dan doesn’t love them, because he does, it’s just. Complicated.

“Do you get to see your family often?” Dan asks, desperate to get the attention off of how shit a son he is.

“Not as often as I’d like,” says Phil. He sounds so genuinely sad about it, like he really would like nothing more than to go visit his parents every weekend. “My brother lives in town, so I see him a lot.”

“I didn’t know you had a brother.”

“Yeah, he’s -” Phil cuts himself off, then, and gives Dan an apologetic sort of look through his screen. “You don’t want to hear about my family.”

“I do,” Dan says, and he’s surprised by how much he means it. He shifts in the armchair. It isn’t that comfortable. “Dude, I already know every song on your iTunes, what’s so weird about telling me stuff about your family? They clearly mean a lot to you.”

He has no idea how to interpret the expression on Phil’s face, but whatever it is shifts into a smile as he turns back to his computer. “Okay, his name’s Martyn, he’s older than me, we work together -”

This time, Dan cuts him off. “You do? I haven’t seen him on your channel.”

“He’s not really interested in being on camera. We actually run IRL Merch together, although honestly it’s mostly Martyn.”

Phil explains the business to Dan, who feels himself getting more and more awed by the amount of stuff Phil does on any given day. It isn’t just sitting in front of his camera and then in front of his computer for a handful of hours.

Granted, Dan never thought that being a YouTuber was easy, or everyone would do it, but Phil seems to add things onto his plate that he doesn’t really need to do.

Dan listens for a little while, changing positions in the armchair a few times before he gives up and flops back onto the bed.

“Phil,” he says, holding his phone high above his head and making a face at the angle. It’s fine, really, Phil has barely been glancing at him this whole time. Now that Dan has some kind of idea about the number of people Phil works with, he gets the hours of emails thing. “Do you ever take a break? Hang out with your friends?”

“What friends?” Phil jokes, but Dan senses there’s some truth behind it.

“Okay, first of all,” says Dan, “big mood.”

Phil’s laugh seems like it’s surprised out of him, and his eyes flick to his phone again. They linger on Dan for a long moment before turning away again. Although, to be fair, that may be lag from shitty hotel wifi. “Is it?”

“Yeah, man, like I’ve got any fucking friends. Second of all, you need to take some breaks or you’re going to burn the fuck out.”

“Trust me, I know,” says Phil.

“I know Thor already reminds you to take breaks,” says Dan. “But he can’t force you to. I can.”

“You’re gonna force me to take breaks?” Phil hums, his eyebrows raising. “How exactly are you going to manage that when you’re back in Atlanta?”

“I can be very annoying with nothing but an internet connection,” Dan promises. “You wanna see?”

“No, no, I believe you, and I need to get this done, please don’t.”

They both laugh, quiet, and Dan curls up on his side to just watch Phil work for a little while. Phil runs his fingers through his hair every so often and mouths along to whatever he types. Dan has no idea how one person can simultaneously be the hottest and the most adorable thing ever.

“I have a brother too,” Dan offers.

“Do you?” Phil asks, more surprised than Dan expects him to be. “That’s not on your Wikipedia.”

“He doesn’t like the attention,” says Dan. It’s a half-truth. Most of what he says about his family are half-truths. “But you’re not, like, a stan account or the media or whatever.”

“Technically, I am both,” Phil jokes. “I’ll keep it to myself, though, don’t worry.”

Dan isn’t worried. He trusts Phil not to go blabbing about him on the radio, even with something as small as Adrian’s existence.

It feels a little strange to trust someone so immediately, and part of Dan wants to pull back, put some distance between them, because the combination of trust and a deepening crush can only spell disaster. He’s not going to do that. He’s only got Phil nearby for another two weeks.

After they’ve finished their media circus in London, then Edinburgh, then Dublin, Dan is off to France with Patrick and Jaime. They’re only hitting a handful of international media press, but that’s more than they were asked to do last year. It’s exciting to be expanding this way, to have something to point to and say, 'I did that before I was 30’.

And when they’re done with the press tour, Dan… goes home. Back to Atlanta, where his apartment is being sublet during his summer travelling.

They don’t even know yet if Heatwave will get a fourth season. It’s a bit of an industry joke that Netflix shows rarely make it past the third. Dan doesn’t even want to consider how Atlanta will feel without a steady filming job down the street.

Probably not much like home. Nowhere feels all that much like home, if Dan’s honest.

“Hey, you still with me?”

Dan blinks away the doom and gloom of his uncertain future and refocuses on the conversation he’s supposed to be a part of. Phil is looking at him now, the sort of undivided attention that makes Dan’s cheeks burn.

“Yeah, sorry,” says Dan. “I’m still here. Have you made a dent in those emails?”

Not the most graceful change of subject, but Phil allows it with a small snort. “No, for I am Sisyphus, doomed to answer a dozen emails only for another dozen to arrive.”

“Maybe if you didn’t have, like, three jobs, this wouldn’t be a problem,” Dan points out. “I get maybe two important emails a day. It’s great.”

“Maybe,” says Phil. He’s still just looking at Dan, his chin resting on an open palm.

“What?” Dan asks, feeling a smile tug at his lips.

Phil smiles back, brighter. “Nothing.”

There’s a warmth in his face, visible even through the mediocre FaceTime quality, that makes Dan’s stomach twist all up in knots. He doesn’t know how to handle that at all. “My mum’s calling I gotta go bye,” he says in one breath, hanging up before Phil can even react.

While he waits for his heart to stop pounding, Dan stares at the hotel ceiling and wonders what the fuck is wrong with him.

–

Dan’s mum does call, eventually. He’s been fucking around on Guild Wars and cursing the wifi for god only knows how long, refusing to check his phone so he doesn’t have to be faced with another message - or the lack of one - from Phil. Dan finishes the raid and then calls his mum back.

“Daniel, hi,” she says, sounding frazzled in the way she always seems to.

“Hey, mum.” It feels weird, now that he’s got her on the phone, but he pushes past that discomfort. “I was just calling to let you know that I’m in London.”

The sound of a door slamming comes through before his mum says, “Well, yes, dear. I know that.”

She doesn’t sound upset with him. More than anything, she sounds confused. Like she doesn’t know why he’s even telling her this. Like it hasn’t even occurred to her to nag her son for a visit. Dan has to swallow past a lump in his throat, not sure why he wishes she was angry.

“Oh,” he says. Allows a long moment of quiet to pass, just in case she wants to explain herself. She doesn’t. “Well. Okay. Do you - are you busy weekend after next? I could come see you before we leave for the continent.”

“That’s quite short notice, dear,” his mum says, and Dan experiences a dizzying rush of relief and distress before she continues. “But I’m sure I can make some time for dinner.”

Dan exhales. Dinner. He can do dinner.

“That sounds good,” he says. Another half-truth. “I’ll text you?”

“Yes, yes,” his mum says, already sounding distracted. “Text me and we’ll make a proper plan. Work hard til then, okay? I love you.”

“I love you too. Bye.”

The call ends almost as abruptly as his call with Phil, but Dan is okay with that.

im going to see my fam before i leave england jsyk, Dan texts to Phil. Phil sends him celebratory emojis in response. And maybe dinner with his family will be horrible, maybe it will be great, most likely it will be slightly uncomfortable, but at least he isn’t disappointing Phil on top of everyone else he’s let down.

[ladyfl4me]

A,E,F,G,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z ;o

Okay *cracks knuckles* let’s go! F, M, and S have already been taken from this list, so feel free to send in... B, C, D, or H, I guess. Yeehaw. This is really fucking long.

A: How did you come up with the title to [TMWCIFTC]? -- It started, as many things do, as a bad pun. The novel The Spy who Came In from the Cold was a cold-war spy thriller, about a British spy who goes over to East Germany as an apparent defect, except he’s actually there to spread misinformation and fuck shit up. He falls in love, becomes disillusioned with his superiors, and is shot dead over the corpse of his lover after climbing over to the east side of the wall. Needless to say, this is nowhere close to what happens in TMWCIFTC. I chose it early on because of the literal meaning: there’s a moth(man), he’s coming in from the cold WV weather, boom shaka laka, we have a title. Over time, though, it’s evolved into another meaning. Indrid himself is coming in from an isolated, lonely existence: he’s rejoining the family that cut ties with him, he’s in love, he’s warm and safe. The moth sure did come in from the cold, and hopefully he stays that way.

E: If you wrote a sequel to [TMWCIFTC], what would it be about? -- Hm. Considering my entire TAZ fic career is a tangled hairball of sequels and prequels, I kind of have this base covered. At the moment, TCOS - aka The Children of Sylvain, the sequel to TMWCIFTC - is about three things: a Pine Guard road trip race against time and the feds, the Spanish Sylvan Inquisition That Nobody Expected (least of all Jake and Hollis, who have to set aside their differences and past conflicts to save Kepler - and who knows, maybe they’ll fall in love along the way), and Alexandra the Interpreter getting woke to Sylvan politics and doing what she can from the inside to change them. In other words, it’s going to be a massive sequel that is the finale of the Amnesty alternate universe I’ve created. It’s this series’ Endgame. (That reminds me, I need an actual title for this collection of stories I’m writing. The “Tin Cinematic Universe” doesn’t quite have the ring to it that I’d like.)

G: Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order? -- eh, it kind of depends. It’s like a buffering bar on Youtube videos. I outline what I can until I run out of ideas, then start writing, then add outlines to the end, until the outline is complete and I just have to keep writing.

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)? -- I don’t have one for reading, but for writing, I fucking love structuring chapters around songs. Classical or otherwise, I love music. All my stories play in my head like a movie screen, and I just do my best to describe what I’m seeing in my head with an accompanying score. It’s not so much a guilty pleasure as it is a writing process. Frankly, I don’t think I actually have a guilty pleasure; the act of writing itself is all the happiness I need.

J: Write or describe an alternative ending to [insert fic]. -- An alternate ending for The Devil Went Down To Georgia would be... interesting. It ended with Boyd-as-Jersey-Devil scaring the pants off some poor broke college kid, who stole his worthless fiddle; then he changed back, and he and Ned went on their merry way to go break into Aubrey’s house and send everything down the drain. If there was one thing that I could change in there, it would be how fast Ned ran. If he ran a little faster, he would have seen the alley; he would have witnessed Boyd turning into the Jersey Devil, or at least turning back into himself; and he’d get a very rude awakening as to what Sylvans are and that his partner (in crime, and everything that mattered) was a fucking cryptid. God, that’d be a fun AU to write. Who knows, I might go do that someday.

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with? -- At the moment, the only angsty idea that I’m actually conceptualizing is a Hollis/Jake angsty breakup for TSG. (Spoilers, I guess.) I once wrote a very grimdark ending to TMWCIFTC where everyone fell through the ice and drowned. It wasn’t fun. I’ve also mentally killed off each Amnesty protagonist and NPC in various ways, but I never felt comfortable writing them down. I only write angst with a happy ending because those are the kinds of stories I need to hear.

L: How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting? -- 9 times out of 10, I just throw it into the void. I write as much as I can in big chunks, and then kind of hope for the best. TMWCIFTC, for example, is a completely unedited, unbetaed vomit draft. I usually do a quick reread of my oneshots to catch grammar and spelling errors, but other than that I just trust myself that it’s fine.

N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you? -- Can I get some kind of resolution for To the Edge of Night? Can I please get some kind of resolution for To the Edge of Night??? I was 14 chapters into that bastard before I a) became a more casual MCU fan and b) discovered TAZ. It was such a niche fic with such a niche structure - LOTR as galactic Asgardian propaganda to cover up Odin’s mistakes - that at some point I lost interest in it. I just saw Endgame though, so now I might get some inspiration for stuff to bastardize.

O: How do you begin a story–with the plot, or the characters? -- Characters. When coming up with character backstories, I can usually find ways to slot their lives together that necessitate a plot. I love character-driven stories, where their actions actually do shit and their words actually mean something, in favor of getting dragged along behind the plot like tin cans behind a car.

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?) -- I’m definitely an architect, but in a really messy way. My friends can attest that I do an insane amount of planning for each story - often in their DMs, sorry about that, Fae, Cro, Indy and Aline 😬 - and all that usually ends up in a stream-of-consciousness rant outline on Google Drive. Knowing where the story is going helps me a lot, but the planning I do is definitely just building flower beds in which to sow seeds. Or building a greenhouse. I plan the bare bones of a story, and things get really wild within it, but it does follow a logical plot structure.

Q: How do you feel about collaborations? -- I have a lot of respect for the people who can successfully pull it off, but idk if i’d ever want to do one myself. I get really possessive of my stories and ideas and like to be the one in charge of their execution. That being said, some collabs have produced amazing stories. I don’t mind reading collab fics, but actually being in a collab grates on me more than it should.

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence? -- I’m definitely influenced heavily by Neil Gaiman. I read American Gods and Good Omens a lot while I was trying to write TMWCIFTC; not only was it a good brain break, but I was able to pick up a lot of tips on scene pacing, concise yet expressive language, and character interactions. My creative wriitng professors have always told us to read so we know what to steal - not in terms of content, but in execution. 

On the fanfic side, @miamaroo is a huge inspiration for me. I’ve been reading Northern Migration a lot recently, and I love how its canon divergence is so worldshaking and so complex, but is still familiar in nostalgic yet terrifying ways. I read it back in October, went, “Huh, I wanna do something that wild. And if miamaroo can do it then I sure as fuck can too,” and I started planning TMWCIFTC during that one month dead zone the McElroys took last year. Northern Migration is one of the best, most coherent, most stunning, and most incredibly written TAZ Balance AUs I’ve ever read, and if I hadn’t read it, I wouldn’t have been inspired to take the fuckall huge plunge into TMWCIFTC.

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist? -- Bed sharing and cuddling, hand kissing, wrist kissing, whump, sympathetic villains. Canon divergent AUs are my absolute favorite things to both read and write. Anything that would turn me into Charlie Kelly slamming his finger on a bulletin board screaming, “CAROL,” is a fic I would give my life for. 

T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand? -- Not a fan of a) woobification and b) flat villain characterization, to the point where the story is riding on villain tropes instead of an actual person or plot. Character nuance is always something I look for when I read. I don’t usually get bitter about tropes, though; some stuff, when subverted, works really well. I fully subscribe to don’t like, don’t read, don’t write, which is why I don’t write anything that warrants AO3 content warning tags or an Explicit rating, in favor of focusing on plot. Every author has a reason for what they write and how - be it their level of experience, personal preference, or simply the joy of writing something and getting it out there - and I respect that. Within reason, of course.

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much. -- 

@miamaroo, for reasons I’ve already discussed. My favorite TAZ Balance author hands down. Read Northern Migration and give it the love it deserves, or I’m replacing all the faucets in your house with silly straws.

@transagentstern. Fae has a bunch of absolutely incredible fics and an amazing grasp on characterization. We come from the same place with AUs, in that canon is but the bare planks on which we put the drywall of our plot an characterization. They structure AUs and character backstories from the ground up in believable and emotionally raw ways. Also they have great music taste. I especially like their interpretation of Indrid in Moth to the Flame; he, like all the other characters in the story, is far from perfect, and his character arc is explored in relatable ways that I love to read. 

@keplersheetz. Aline - theneonpineapple on AO3 - researches like a motherfucker and has a wealth of knowledge/experience/viewpoints to draw on, making author-author interactions with her an absolute delight. She’s also doing the lord’s work with rarepairs. Spin a wheel, find a ship, and she’s probably written for it or at least conceptualized it. Reading her character studies and stories of the old Pine Guard - aka Mama’s original crew, before the current PCs joined - is always a delight. I’ve also hashed out a lot of details for The Children of Sylvain, especially for Mr. Boyd Mosche, guilt-wracked Jersey Devil extraordinaire, with her help. 

V: If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose? -- Not gonna lie, I’m fine with a lot of stuff that’s out there right now. It’s been a hot few months since I’ve actually stopped to read fic, but from what I recall, most of the fics I’ve read have done a good job of keeping things intact.

W: Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones? -- The vaguer, the better. With really specific prompts, it usually feels as if the story’s been written for me already; with vague, general prompts, I have more agency to explore my own ideas. Some accompanying detail is usually nice, though. For example, the coffee shop/college/flower shop AUs that @transagentstern​ wrote are my ideal prompt for drabbles: premise, a little bit of open-ended detail, clear explanation of what’s going to happen while leaving the rest up to the imagination. Good stuff. If it’s for a long-form piece, though, I prefer full agency, or even just some time to lie facedown in the dirt and wait for an idea to strike me.

X: A character you enjoy making suffer. -- Yes.

Y: A character you want to protect. -- Tim.

Z: Major character death–do you ever write/read it? Is there a character whose death you can’t tolerate? -- I do read lots of major character death, yeah, though not always for TAZ. There’s something cathartic about seeing a character die, but sometimes it sits wrong with me in ways that I don’t like. As for writing, I’d rather kill a character for a reason rather than for shock value/for the Feels, though said Feels can accompany the reason. 

[fatcatsarecats]

JayTim Rec List 1/?

In an effort to extricate myself out of the deep, dark, dank cave that is the marvel cinematic universe (or just marvel in general) for more than two minutes, here is a list of jaytim fics that I recently read, enjoyed and or generally love under the read more. 

Please remember to kudos/like/bookmark and tell the author how much you enjoyed their work! 

READ:

dick grayson, snooping? it’s more likely than you’d think by dragonryder94 Words: ~3k | Complete

dick knows that something is up between jason and tim. he just doesn’t know what...not yet at least.

Comment: A Dick armed with memes and trying to have good ol’ brotherly Bonding Moments™ with Tim and Jason is just downright hilarious. A quick laugh and an absolute banger.

In Which Conner is Meddlesome for Tim's Own Good by GeneratorCat Words: ~2.7k | Complete

“Homecoming dance!” it proclaimed. “Saturday, Oct. 24th”. And then, at the bottom some bastard had written, “Do you have your date yet?”

Tim wanted to scream because no, he didn’t have his date yet, and he probably never would. He was too scared to ask them.

Comment: *slams fist on table* you have no idea how much I love high school aus goddamn and this is the cutest!! Do you want awkward teen angst? Kon being chill but also hilarious??? Tim making a fool of himself??? Then this is it. This wins all.

Plus note: Anything by GeneratorCat is great. Puns everywhere, a humour that will hurt your gut laughing, and a writing style that’s tighter than Jason’s abs.

do you wanna feel a little beautiful, baby by Sister Words: ~42k | Complete

"They're watching me," Jason says, when Daisy Mae has left.

"Who, the drag queens?" Tim says. His face is an inch from Jason's chest, and when the strobe lights flash their way he can see a drop of sweat moving down Jason's pecs. His mind feels staticky, bouncing from general outrage to a general desire to put his mouth on Jason's skin. He's too horny to be rational about any of this.

++

Tim goes to a gay club and finds himself embroiled in one of Jason's cases. Glitter is involved. Also crises of morality. Also booty shorts.

Comment: Case fic, baby!!! Listen, I have many weaknesses and they’re usually words starting with C and case fic happens to be one of them. The case was a riot, the secondary cast was a riot, and the jaytim was a blazing hot riot. This fic is lit from beginning to end. Guns, gangsters, glitter and gays everywhere. Really hits the G spot.

this pen was inked with the promise of you by clarityhiding  Words: ~21k (4/5) | WIP

Everyone has a mark-match, someone whose mark will match their own. No matter what, you will always meet your match after your mark comes in and before you die, it's just a fact of life.

Tim's mark starts to come in the summer he turns twelve. Less than a week later, his match is dead. He doesn't meet anyone at all in the time between.

Comment: I usually steer away from a/b/o fics since gender dynamics is not my thing but this is a goodie. I’ve only read the first chapter of this but I already know this is going to be a great time!!! But by great time, I also mean in a dark sense— @themandylion​ really hits the melancholic, listlessness, apathetic vibes of depression in the most wonderful, nuanced way, and when the emotions come, they’re explosive. Plus, the world building is amazing, and this is all in one chapter!

Cats, Bats, Kittens, and Hatchlings by ThePackWantstheD Words: ~72k (18/?) | WIP

In which Selina finds Jason trying to steal Batman's tires and offers to make his sticky fingers a bit stickier, Bruce finds Tim taking pictures of him and thinks that an orphan can take care of an abandoned boy, and the boys learn that life is a lot easier when there's another sidekick around to talk to.

Comment: This fic took my broken heart—my broken, fragmented, crowbar-shaped holed heart—and lovingly stuck cat shaped plasters all over it. This fic was sweeter than a raspberry mocha with one sugar and cream on top. This fic will probably give me diabetes faster than any sugar addiction. This fic is just pure and warm and will shield me through torrential storms. It’s just that good.

Selina and Bruce as great mentor figures and Stray!Jason (not something I see quite often!) with Robin!Tim. Slow Burn.

Day 5: Fake/Pretend Relationship // Royalty AU by  CatChan

Tim stayed deathly silent, hoping that his iciness alone would convey the weight of his disapproval.

No such luck. The old earl kept prattling on about how much more suitable to rule Tim was compared to his older brother because at least Timothy had been adopted from a ducal family and not street performers.

Tim took a deep breath to calm himself, then smiled as sweetly as he could, and told the old fart that he would be sure to relay his message to his father the king.

Earl Duchamp blanched, and started stuttering. Tim didn't give him any sympathy, or wait around for his rushed excuses, instead storming out of the room.

Comment: Historical AU with exposition that’s so fascinating, it doesn’t feel like exposition. That’s a amazing feat alright. It’s just a lot of fun for such a short chapter (Like a fun pilot episode to a historical tv drama) and I don’t want say too much of the interactions because it might spoil the fic. Suffice to say, the world it builds leaves you wanting more so might as well jump in and read the whole collection while you’re at it.

"Mi cama es su cama" by redrobinfection (ChristmasRivers) Words: ~9k | Complete

JayTim Week 2018 - “Bed Sharing” (Day 6)

Tim and Jason aren’t friends. They’re barely allies at this point. But for whatever reason, they keep crashing each other’s apartments, lairs, and safehouses, all in search for a bed to crash in for a bit. It starts out simple - it’s just a safe place to catch a nap, a safe place to recover after an injury, a safe place to hang - but with each visit, it turns into something more - it’s a welcome place to hang, a comfortable place to recuperate, their safe haven in dire times. It might take awhile, but, slowly Jason and Tim turn into something more too. 

Comment: So I read small bits and pieces of this during Jaytim Week, and while I haven’t fully read it cohesively in one sitting (before I fell into the marvel hole *cough cough*), what I do remember it was that it was a very soft and healing fic. If I had to describe the feelings and associated scenes this fic evokes, it’s a cosy, intimate blanket, and a warm body snoring beside you. Comfort packaged in a fic. Tim’s sleepy/sick talk was damn hilarious, and I really liked the gritty details involved with wound cleaning. I thought it was skilfully described.

Mania by Pisces314 Words: ~6k (3/?) | WIP

“I didn’t realize,” Dick’s voice startles Jason, but he doesn’t loosen his grip on Tim. When he looks up, Dick is staring at them with wide eyes. “That you two were...uh.”

It hits Jason then, what the position they’re in might look like from Dick’s point of view. His restraining hold on Tim, and Tim’s now submissive posture, curled up against his chest, probably look to an outsider like a comforting embrace between two people who are much more acquainted than they actually are. His face flushes, but he doesn’t bother to correct Dick’s misunderstanding.

Comment: @glaciya​ is almost always an auto-read for me. The fact that she can flip from cute space, jolly ranch kisses that kills you from sheer amount of fluff and goodness to this is mind blowing.Just from the first chap, it’s already got a great emotional reveal (count me shooketh), descriptions that really immerse you in the terse atmosphere between all the characters and writing that captures a great deal of nuance/overtone of hurt/comfort. It’s wild. 

Dreams From the Sargasso by RivetingFabrications Words: ~46k (17/?) | WIP

Timothy Drake ventured out to solve the mystery behind his parents' deaths, but being taken captive by the most wanted pirate in history hadn't been part of the plan. 

Comment: RivertingFabrications is also another auto read for me, and while I read this a long time ago, I remember that the JayTim interactions were fiery and terse, on the brink of something great, and the camraderie between Jason and the secondary characters was an absolute joy to read. 

Viking AU | The Red Hunter by @drabblemeister​ Link is only to the first instalment

Comment: The only way I can describe the writing is just, lush. Amazing descriptions of the environment which intermingles with Tim’s inner monologue to create a tension that is off-the-charts and an action scene that demands heavy drums and an orchestra. It’s suspenseful, gripping, and engrossing, and this is only the first two drabbles. 

Casebook of Detective Timothy Drake by chibi_nightowl Works: 5 | Words: ~150k | Series in Progress

Comment: The thing about @chibinightowl is that if you asked me to rec one of her works, I’d probably just start listing off her ao3 portfolio. Everything she writes is gold and I will accept it as actual currency if they let me (one day). 

If I had to pick one (a harsh, cruel, gruelling etc. ask for a mortal like me) it would be this series. A series of case fics with never-was-a-vigilante Detective Tim, a fully fleshed out cast of secondary characters (Tim’s partner in particular is a favourite), exciting, intriguing cases that will keep you guessing and friction with Batman that is riveting to read. Gives me Nora Robert’s Eve Dallas Series and Karen Rose vibes. Love love love love love this series. 

TO READ: 

These are fics on which I plan to read, but the premise sounds too good not to be advertised:

If You Don't Grow by GeneratorCat Words: ~28k (8/?) | WIP

“I need to take care of myself. I can take care of myself.”

“You shouldn’t have to, you’re just a kid.” God, does Dick know that. He knows what it feels like to be doing things you shouldn’t have to do at such a young age. About feeling like you have to take care of yourself, be strong and useful.

He knows now it’s bullshit.

(Officer Dick Grayson meets Jason on the street.)

((Alternatively titled: In which Dick pulls a Bruce))

Comment: What more can I say. I’m a sucker for flawed mentor types who try their best!!! 

Build A Dream With Me by Myoneloveismusic Words: ~10k | Complete

Tim fell hard and fast when Batman and Robin first appeared in Gotham. He followed them for years, taking pictures, and watching in awe form the shadows. But after one fateful encounter with the second Robin, Tim found himself falling in a different way. Everything got torn apart when Jason died and Tim forced himself to take on the role of Robin if it meant keeping Bruce sane. But when Jason returns from the dead and makes his reappearance back in Gotham, can the two repair what had been blown apart or will they be separated forever?

Comment: Teen!! Angst!! *throws confetti* but also paired up with @my-one-love-is-music​‘s crafty way to frame fic like a movie scene and this sounds like a fun time.

Astra Inclinant by SociallyAwkwardFox (Maze_Runner_Fae) Words: ~30k | Complete

Every hero has a story. A tale spun by the Muses destined to pass from generation to generation, until the end of time. At the time of their conception, Fate already knows the paths they will walk in their lifetime and how it will end. She knows the stars they will see, the people they will meet, the scars they will bear-like badges of honor etched into their skin. With this knowledge, She designates a few to ensure every hero follows the correct path and completes their duty to the universe. These immortal beings act as a hero’s guide and watch over their lives, until their journey is complete. From one hero to the next they go, dedicating their lives to the universe and Fate’s will.  

Comment: A ‘Hero’s Journey’ narrative never gets old (like BP!) and mix that with Greek Mythology and like a great, angsty jaytim fic. Featuring Seer!Tim and Hero!Jason.

Flying Blind by TheSkyIsALie Words: ~4k | Complete

In the wake of a catastrophic loss, it's the path Jason sets that Tim follows back to safety.

Comment: I mean damn look at the summary already! It’s premise I haven’t seen for jaytim before and the tags have the dangerous combo of Domestic Fluff and Hurt/Comfort aka just looks amazing.

Making Amends by writemydreams Words: ~11.8k (3/12) | WIP

A new drug called Cupid’s Heart arrives in Gotham and Blüdhaven. Highly addictive, it also serves as a potent aphrodisiac. Jason enlists Tim’s assistance in rooting out the drug in Gotham and discovering the source. Along the way, Jason hopes Tim will see he’s changed and that he’ll learn to trust him.

What started out as a simple drug case becomes more complex when Dick discovers Cupid’s Heart comes from a resort for struggling couples. Jason and Tim go undercover as pretend fiancés to find the drug, something difficult for Jason since all he wants is to be in a genuine relationship with Tim.

Comment: A case fic!!! And damn, the tags looks delicious, ‘Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Pining, Fake/Pretend Relationship, and Dick Grayson is a Good Brother.’ It just looks like a really good time.

Turnabout is Fair Play by Skalidra Words: 5.5k | Complete

When Jason gets an invitation to the Continental's latest competition, a simple game, he gladly accepts. It's a bit of fun, an opportunity to win a couple prizes and some recognition. That is, unless one of the other people assigned to his group gets in his way. May the best killer win. 

Comment:  I mean, Skalidra is a guaranteed good time, and she does action scenes better than most published writers. The way she balances detail and action still results in a fast-paced, tense scene so this sounds like a perfect murderific jaunt for a bad day.

At Cosmos' End by RivetingFabrications Words: 11.8k (4/?) | WIP

Tim has quit Starfleet and gone rogue – the system can’t help everyone, despite its best intentions. But when he finds an olden spacecraft in the outermost reaches of space where none should be, he finds more mysteries than answers.

Comment: The tags says you don’t have to be a hard core trekkie to get the gist of what’s going on. It sounds amazing nonetheless.

SPECIAL MENTIONS:

@sociallyawkwardfoxwriter​ and @my-one-love-is-music​ who are both doing Write 365. A crazy feat and not all of the drabbles are JayTim. List of AUs are only from what I recall and there’s more on their blogs!

Write 365 by @sociallyawkwardfoxwriter​

Star Wars AU; Dancer AU; Pacific Rim AU; Tomb Raider AU; Oracle!Tim AU; Werewolf!Jason AU and more.

Write 365 by @my-one-love-is-music​​

Barista!Tim AU; Werewolf!Jason AU; Mermaid!Tim AU; Hunger Games AU and more.

and:

JayTim Week

A place for ongoing JayTim weeks.

Remember to kudos/like/bookmark and tell the author how much you enjoyed their work!

—

Published: 4th June 2018

[acsversace-news]

If you believe people can be monsters, devoid of the tiniest drop of humanity, then surely you would place Andrew Cunanan in that category. I’m not certain I agree; it’s too easy to dismiss everyone who commits a beastly crime as evil, delusional, or a sociopath. Cunanan may well have been all three of those things, but he was also a person with dreams and desires whose life went disastrously awry. And The Assassination of Gianni Versace would be empty crime porn if it didn’t try to understand why he ended up at Versace’s villa with a gun in his hand.

Now that the show’s reverse-chronological timeline has gotten past Cunanan’s five murders, writer Tom Rob Smith faces the difficult task of discerning his motives—a particular challenge because he didn’t live long enough to be interrogated or interviewed about his killing spree. This week’s episode opens a year before Andrew broke bad and follows him until that final flight to Minneapolis. Its title, “Descent,” pretty much captures his trajectory during that year.

Andrew is loving life at the beginning of the hour, swimming naked at a mountaintop mansion with an ocean view, in La Jolla. The home, we learn, belongs to his sugar daddy, Norman Blachford (Michael Nouri). Meanwhile, Andrew is trying to impress a long-distance boyfriend, his future victim David Madson. “Who are you trying to be?” his old friend Lizzie asks at his birthday party. “Someone he can love,” Andrew replies. (Is it fair to say he loved Madson? I’m not sure love was part of his emotional repertoire—what’s more important is that he wanted Madson more than anything else in the world.) But by the end of the episode, Andrew is broke, has lost both men, and is crying his mother’s tub as she bathes him. This is what hitting rock bottom looks like.

At this point, the show’s timeline gets a bit confusing. The previous episode alternated between scenes set in 1997, just before Andrew killed Jeff Trail, and flashbacks to 1995, when Smith has them meeting for the first time (even though they actually met years earlier). “Descent” begins at the midpoint between those two moments, the top of a long slide into desperation. So it’s worth taking a second to break down who the new characters are and what roles they played in Cunanan’s life before we get into Smith’s interpretation of his motives.

Norman Blachford

Before he was a murderer, Cunanan was a kept boy. His intelligence, social connections, and knowledge of the arts made him a sort of courtesan to the older, wealthier gays in San Diego (Vulgar Favors author Maureen Orth compares him to a geisha). At the time, Cunanan was calling himself Andrew DeSilva and had adopted a cover story designed to win the sympathies of these men: Before coming out and being disowned by his rich parents, he’d been married with a daughter.

Cunanan had certainly courted other men from this circle by the time he met 58-year-old Norman Blachford in 1994. Blachford had made his fortune selling sound insulation. He’d just lost his partner of a quarter-century to AIDS and was cautious about letting a new lover into his life. Cunanan persisted. In July 1995, he moved into Blachford’s home. (You can read more on that period here.) As part of their arrangement, Blachford bought Cunanan an Infiniti, made his credit card payments, and gave him $2,500 to spend each month. It’s unclear how often they slept together; Cunanan claimed their relationship was platonic, and the bedroom they shared really did contain twin beds, but acquaintances told Orth that was impossible.

The dual birthday parties in “Descent”—a snoozefest for Blachford's friends and a blowout for Cunanan's—actually took place in August 1995. That insane scene where Cunanan orders Trail to wear a pair of Ferragamos, give Cunanan another pair as a present, and lie about his occupation, though? Cunanan didn’t meet Madson until a few months after that party. Otherwise, the incident reportedly happened more or less as written.

Cunanan's arrangement with Blachford started to dissolve the next summer, ostensibly over the Mercedes SL 600 (a $125,000 car) we see him demand in the episode. Smith sticks close to the facts here, too: When he walked out, Cunanan expected Blachford to come crawling back to him, but was instead forced to find a cheap apartment of his own.

By then, his relationship with Madson had also deteriorated. He made a last-ditch effort to win Madson back, in April 1997, during an expensive weekend trip to Los Angeles—where, fun fact, a friend of Madson’s introduced them to her pal Lisa Kudrow. As we see in the episode, despite Cunanan’s extravagance, the gesture failed. (When Madson says to Cunanan, “I get the feeling that you don’t have many great nights with people,” it’s the show’s most honest moment to date.) Madson insisted to Cunanan that he only wanted to be friends. In “Descent,” he ruins his final chance with Madson by feeding him a new, unbelievable life story—and it’s pathetic. The truth is, by then, they’d already broken up, and Madson was dating other people.

The scene where a desperate Cunanan pounds on Blachford's door at night is fiction. But Cunanan did place one last call to Blachford, the day he killed Jeff Trail, acknowledging that they were through and to announcing an upcoming move to San Francisco. “Blachford was somewhat puzzled by the call,” Orth writes. “He already knew that Andrew was leaving.”

MaryAnn Cunanan

This week’s American Horror Story moment came courtesy of “Orange Is the New Black” and “The Sinner” actress Joanna Adler, who plays Cunanan's mother in high Grand-Guignol style. That scene where he’s curled up in the tub and she’s promising him “I’m gonna make you smell like you again” is as fantastical as it looks. The last thing Cunanan is known to have done in San Diego was throw himself a farewell dinner party. But that’s not to say that the real MaryAnn Cunanan was so different from the bizarre character we meet in “Descent.”

As you may have suspected, MaryAnn was never the sophisticated publisher Andrew talks up to Madson. The daughter of Italian immigrants, she was born in Ohio and moved to California at 19. She soon married Pete Cunanan, the father of Andrew and her three other children (all of whom we’ll likely learn more about later). Awed by his precociousness, the couple were as indulgent of young Andrew as we’ve seen his character suggest throughout the show. MaryAnn remained loyal to him even after his death, insisting that he wasn’t capable of killing five people.

Orth describes MaryAnn as “very fragile, by turns garrulous and stupefied, teetering on the brink of total emotional meltdown. Mainly, she seems to be all sweetness and light, but her mood can swing at any time.” She’d been seeing a psychiatrist for years before her son's murder spree and subsisted on disability payments; you can see the exterior of her humble National City, CA home in this article. A devout Catholic, she’d give away what little money she had—although, when Andrew was little, she spent wildly and used sex to wheedle big purchases out of Pete.

Andrew’s Motive

Does the terrible year that plays out in “Descent,” plus everything we’ve seen in previous episodes, add up to a believable motive for Andrew? Well, it’s clear he’s got very little left to live for by the time he flies to Minneapolis—no Madson, no Blachford, no Trail, no money, no success. If you’re already abusing drugs and have always lacked a moral compass, that loneliness and desperation might well be enough to turn your thoughts toward violent crime.

Then there’s his belief, one that’s pretty rich for a kept boy, that everyone uses him. In a strange, red-lit vision of an encounter with Gianni Versace, Andrew announces, “I happen to believe that I’m the most generous person that ever lived,” before demanding, “What could be more generous than spending everything on other people and being left with nothing? What could be more generous than finding soulmates for other people and ending up alone?” Cunanan really did feel this way. Orth reports that he dropped a ton of money on his friends, that he often set them up on dates, and that he assumed people only spent time with him for those reasons.

Shakier is this idea that Cunanan killed Versace because he was obsessed with the designer and his achievements. That’s the argument underlying Cunanan's dream, in which he attributes Versace’s success to luck and seems to get off on the powerful man taking his measurements. The designer may have been on Cunanan’s mind as a target; a friend who drove him to the airport told Orth that he’d gone on about his hatred for Versace, a man who he said “came from nothing” and made his reputation through “hard work.”

Cunanan’s supposed resentment toward high achievers is Orth’s fixation. While it makes sense that Smith would pick up on this argument, the extent to which he uses it to keep Versace in the story is a bit much. Did Cunanan make Versace collages and tell his mom that he traveled the world with the designer, making opera costumes? Probably not. I get that Smith is painting Versace as the light to Andrew’s darkness. But the approach flattens out both characters—and Cunanan’s story is absorbing enough to make the embellishment feel kind of unnecessary.

[isthatso7]

idk another part of my fic

a\n: this is my first attempt at writing if english( pls i need beta i suck

Title: Hyperspace blue

Characters: The Jedi Exile and Atton Rand

Basically, Exile and Atton meet on the Nar Shadaa under different circumstances. She works as a mechanic and he’s a smuggler.

UPD: posted it on AO3

Atton Rand woke up and sat up in his small, but cozy bed. His bedroom was filled with blue and pink glow from vibrant street signs and giant screens with giant faces on them. He needed to get ready; there was an another work waiting for him tonight. After a brisk shower and a scarce midnight breakfast he started to put his clothes on. He grabbed his old blaster with  holster from the desk and secured it to his belt. At last, he put on his ribbed jacket and left his rarely visited lair.

You know that feeling when your vessel is entering hyperspace? The sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach, the feeling of acceleration that pushes you back into the seat. For Atton Rand, this feeling was like coming home, something that meant comfort and safety. You are in the alternative reality made of white and blue lines, and outside observers can mistake your freighter for an innocent and beautiful comet. He knew it was weak consolation and ships still could explode while traveling at lightspeed, but he still relished the idea.

“I know a place where we can change vessel’s ID. The owner is an old, partially blind Sullustan, but he’s the best you can find. ” Rand’s partner in crime was a reasonable guy he met while trying to make a living in the refugee sector of Nar Shadaa. Atton never really liked the Serroco gang, mostly because they were easy to jump to conclusions, conclusions that usually lead to violence. This guy called them family. But he was smart and really knew his job so they got along very quickly.

“And also there’s a female mechanic working there, a pretty gal, but she’s not the talking kind, and Force knows I’ve tried.” He sighed and stretched his arms and put his hands behind his head. They’d successfully accomplished today’s mission, and now they needed to hide hijacked vessel. A few more hours and they’d enter Nar Shadaa’s orbit, a few more hours and they’d be changing vessel’s ID signature and bringing it to the client. Another simple job done. He’d fallen into the routine of odd jobs and got used to never knowing where he is going to meet new day again. When they’ve arrived to Tien’s place, it was close to nightfall on the Nar Shadaa. But it’s hard to tell what time of the day it was  because there was no sun above you head. There were only dim street lights and animated neon signs.

The workshop was desolate at this hour. There were no customers and Tien was nowhere to be seen. The only working light was above the workbench where was sitting a slumped female silhouette. They both approached her and she didn’t noticed them at first, too consumed in examining some droid part lying in front of her while sipping caffa from chipped mug.

The girl lifted her gaze from her work and the light from the lonely lamp fell on her face. She looked a lot like those Serroco refugees, always with the blaster in the hand, ready to fight for their territory, their little piece of freedom, trying to protect each other at all cost. Her locks were jet black and she had a few short braids in front of her left ear and in the back of her head, adorned with little wooden beads. Her monolid eyes stared at them, her right brow lifted in a silent question. She had an unusual eye color - usually people with black hair had brown eyes, but hers were green. But what did he know about genetics? He was just a smuggler.

“Hey, Kano, is Tien here?” asked Atton’s companion.

“Well, Gar, he’s sleeping, because it’s one AM.” She smiled weakly with a sleep-deprived gentleness in her eyes.

“And why are you up?”

“I can’t sleep”.

“You look like you’re going to pass out any minute, Kano.”

She shrugs, “Still can’t sleep.”

Hm. That’s the mechanic he was talking about, thought Rand.

“I and my friend are in need of some services from the boss of yours.” He ran his hand through his short hair and smiled tentatively. Kano got up and looked out the wide glass window behind her. She grabbed a rag from the table to wipe grease from her hands. The mechanic was wearing dark blue jumpsuit with dirty, worn-out military boots. She noticed their starship on the previously empty landing pad.

“You’ve got a new ship?” She eyed them warily.

“Yeah.”

“I’m going to wake him now.” Kano gulped leftover caffa and left.

***

Atton usually came around two or three times a week.

Sometimes he left the moment he got what he need.

Sometimes he tried to make small talk with the unfazed, steady and irreplaceable mechanic.

Usually, he started with: “Hello, Kano.”

And she would answer after a moment: “Hello, Rand.” And then she would put her face mask on to continue welding starship hull.

Sometimes he tried to ask her personal questions just to spite her. She made an impression of a person who probably was bullied in school, but never cared about it. An estranged girl that rarely let her thoughts to materialize in a form of spoken words.

“Do you live here? It seems like you’re always working.”

“I work every day.”  

“Why?”

She shrugged with a plasma torch recklessly swinging in her hand. Too cool to think about safety.

“What do you do after work?”

“I go home, take a shower, eat something, and fall asleep.”

“That’s really sad. Do you want to go out sometimes?”

“No.”

He rarely came around during the day, so most of his interactions with her happened during her night shifts in the poorly lit hangar or cluttered workshop. But he managed to catch the sight of little things about her. She had a stern gaze but a soft face. Her skin was sickly pale with a distinct green tinge. Her eyes were always looking at you with a hint of mistrust and suspicion, always watching out for sudden movements.

There was a look in her eyes that wasn’t obvious and he managed to catch a brief glimpse of it only once. But he understood it immediately. He saw them peeking through the cracks in her guise, eyes that reminded him of a wild animal, born and raised in the confines of a cage, malnourished and abused, only to suddenly become one day free and unrestrained.

“Why? Don’t you feel suffocated by loneliness?”

“There’s no need for your fake sympathy. I chose the job myself. I like it.”

Her smile was acidic. She knew he couldn’t figure out  what’s she was thinking about and tried to annoy her out of sheer curiosity. Or maybe he just didn’t care. Maybe he was acting like that with every person he found remotely attractive. Or maybe acting arrogant was just a part of smuggler’s professional work ethic.

“There’s no need to punish yourself, Kano. You deserve to have fun sometimes.”

“And you know how to have fun?”

“Yeah. A couple of drinks, beautiful companions and pazaak. And maybe some other stuff.”

She sighed and continued to repair broken protocol droid. Most of his jokes had zero effect on her. But he made her smile a few times. Atton would’ve never confessed to it, but he was proud of himself for doing that. That’s how he discovered most of her smiles were crooked and bleak. The only time he observed her having a beaming smile on her face was when she talked to an old rusty homicidal T1 utility droid.

***

Kano’s work attire never changed. She seemed to own at least dozen of navy jumpsuit, all in various state of weariness. He sometimes wondered what kind of clothes she wears outside work. He tried to imagine her in a sandy midi skirt and a ink blue jacket. But the jacket always turned to be very similar to the top of her jumpsuit, so he stopped and cursed his imagination. Usually he had no problem with imagining anyone in colorful outfit. Or without one.

“How old are you, K?”

He found out she hated when someone shortened her name. But she didn’t mind different pronunciations. Like, he heard people calling her “Kay-no“, “Kah-no” or even “Kah-nu”, but she never protested or corrected anyone.

“Don’t call me K, please.”

“So?”

“I’m almost thirty. And you, scoundrel?”

“Thirty-four.”

“Woaw.”

“What? I don’t look my age?”

“Really? Yes. What is the secret? You look twenty-two, flyboy.”

“That’s an ancient Sith technique. Only a few in this part of the galaxy know it.”

“Does it involve sacrificing a bunch of Jedi to an ancient Sith lord?”

“No. Just a lot of water and positive vibes.”

“Have you ever seen a Sith lord? A real one?”

“No, of course.”

“And you?”

“I haven’t too.”

“Do they really do that stuff?”

“I don’t know. I heard some stories, but you can never know the truth now that they’re gone.”

***

One day he strolled into the shop and Kano was wearing a white T-shirt. It hang a little bit loose. And that’s how he saw her pink burn scars all over her right hand and her neck. It only happened once. He tried asking how she got these scars, but she never answered. Hadn’t even stopped looking at the droid detail she examined.

“I’m going on a vacation,” She said suddenly when handing him the parts he asked for.

“Nice. Where to?”

“Telos IV.”

“If it was a decade ago, I would’ve been jealous of you. But now? C’mon, there’s nothing to see there. The ocean’s irradiated. Your skin will come off. Or the Citadel station will explode because of that shitty Peragus fuel.”

“They’re trying to rebuild. I’ve heard it’s beautiful in the zones where the atmosphere is restored. Almost like it was before.” She was delving into the old memories, he could tell it by her eyes.

“And who told you that? A shifty travel agent?”

“A friend of mine.”

“A friend? What kind of friend?”

Now he’s surprised. And maybe a little jealous. What, he thought she doesn’t have friends besides him?

“A kind that doesn’t lie about the peaceful landscapes.”

She wasn’t there the next time he visits. The almost blind Tien sat in her chair and a utility droid made a series of hostile  beeps following him around the shop until he left.

[tonystarkbingo]

TSB August Flash Week 4 Roundup!  

Check out the awesome fills for this week!

Title: I Am Iron Donut Collaborator: rebelmeg Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 019 - I Am Iron Man Ship: N/A Rating: Gen Major Tags: Cross stitch, Fandom Craft Summary: cross stitch of Iron Man donut with a bite taken out

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Title: Faraday Cage and the Stark Raving Burners Collaborator: DeeHellCat Link: AO3 Square Filled: 020 - Blueberries Ship: Gen Rating: Gen Major Tags: Burning Man, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Young Tony Stark, Pre-Iron Man 1  Summary: In 1996, Tony Stark hears about a wild party in the high desert and decides to drop in. Two years later, he finally does and learns a little something about himself. Word Count: 4044

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Title: Peter, Peter, Purple Pumpkin Eater Collaborator: betheflame Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 018 - Juice Pops Ship: Stuckony Rating: Gen

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Title: N/A Collaborator: betheflame Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 018 - Mutual Pining Ship: WinterIron Rating: Gen

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Title: Iron-Dad Collaborator: hddnone Link: AO3 Square Filled: 017 - Iron-Dad Ship: WinterIron Rating: Gen Major Tags: Humor, fluff, interrupting kids  Summary: Bucky just wants to sex up his boyfriend after a long day, but Tony being the Team Dad to the next generation makes that difficult.  Word Count: 887

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Title: Lunch Date Collaborator: darthbloodorange Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 017 - Cheeseburger Ship: Stony Rating: PG Major Tags: Art Summary: Cap-Tsum and Tony-Tsum go on a lunch date.

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Title: TonyTsum to the Rescue Collaborator: darthbloodorange Link: Tumblr  Square Filled: 017 - Ultron Ship: Stony Rating: PG Major Tags: Art Summary: Ultron-Tsum has captured Cap-Tsum. Tony-Tsum is going to get him back.

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Title: A Proud Father Collaborator: darthbloodorange Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 017 - Iron-Dad Ship: Stony Rating: PG Major Tags: Art, A/B/O, Implied mpreg Summary: Tony-Tsum watches over his family proudly.

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Title: Keep You Warm Collaborator: darthbloodorange Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 017 - Bedsharing Ship: Stony Rating: PG Major Tags: Art Summary: The power went out in the Tower and the back-up generators have failed. Tony-Tsum cuddles Cap-Tsum and keeps him warm knowing how much he doesn’t like the cold.

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Title: Longing to Linger Till Dawn Collaborator: poliz Link: AO3 Square Filled: 020 - Blueberries Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: dream sharing, CA:WS canon-divergence Summary: Tony finds himself in a dream, and apparently he’s not alone. Word Count: 1750

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Title: How We Came To Be Friends First Collaborator: Fighting_for_Creativity Link: AO3 Square Filled: 019 - Accidentally Saving the Day Ship: gen, Friendship between Rocket, Groot and Tony Rating: Teen Major Tags: Kid Tony Stark, Kid Groot, Rocket ,Space Stone, AU: different backstory, firefight, shooting, marvel typical violence Summary: Despite fully knowing he wasn’t allowed to be in his dad’s lab, Tony couldn’t keep out of there. When he stumbled over a glowing blue cube, he got way more than he bargained for.Meeting a tree and freeing a raccoon is a hell of an adventure after all. Word Count: 2846

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Title: Love Will Rule Collaborator: MagicaDraconia  Link: AO3 Square Filled: 018 - Mutual Pining Ship: IronHusbands Rating: Gen Major Tags: AU - Royalty, mutual pining, unrequited love (that's not so unrequited), fluff, weddings, love confessions Summary: Prince James of Rhodes and Prince Tony of Stark have known each other since they were six years old. Sure, they're now getting married, but that's just to bring the kingdoms together. It's not because they actually love each other. Is it...? Word Count: 2406

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Title: The Under Grounds Collaborator: hddnone Link: AO3 Square Filled: 017 - Coffee Shop AU Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: None Summary: Bucky was still figuring out how things worked at The Under Grounds coffee shop. It was a strange magic that ran the place, though at least it washed the dishes. Bucky liked working there, though, and he liked the strange magical owner, Tony. Though that didn't mean when Steve stepped through the door, Bucky wasn't going to try to shove him right back out. “Bucky, what - I saw you - you were dead!” “I am.” Bucky’s voice was tight, but there wasn’t time to explain. “I am, Steve, I promise you, and you need to go back -”But the entrance was closed. Word Count: 2488

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Title: My Two Dads Collaborator: ceealaina Link: AO3 Square Filled: 017 - Cheeseburger Ship: IronHusbands Rating: Teen Major Tags: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops and Cafes, Fluff Summary: Tony doesn't know how many times he can explain to the idiots in his life that no, he Rhodey are not actually a couple. But then there's a snowstorm, and only one bed, and suddenly Tony's wondering if maybe HE was the idiot in his life all along.  Word Count: 1162

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Title: Hello, Nice to Meet you Again Collaborator: darthbloodorange Link: Tumblr  Square Filled: 017 - Coffee Shop AU Ship: Stony Rating: PG Major Tags: Art Summary: Cap-Tsum and Tony-Tsum keep meeting at a coffee shop.

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Title: Of Mushrooms and Magma Collaborator: 27 dragons, tisfan Link: AO3 Square Filled: Chapter 1 - 020: Dark Secret Chapter 2 - Adopted: Ivan Vanko/Whiplash Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: Alternate Universe - Magic Summary: Tony's been in the Underdark for a while -- and is trying to find an excuse to stay longer. Word Count: 7662

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Title: a pavilion of nervous butterflies (only seen in lucid dreams) Collaborator: deehellcat Link: AO3 Square Filled: 020 - Dark Secret Ship: Pepperony Rating: Teen Major Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence Summary: Ginny Potts, Obadiah Stane’s personal assistant, keeps clashing with the villainous Iron Man, intent on destroying his company; but are things as they seem? Word Count: 7410

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Title: Guarding You Collaborator: Fighting_for_Creativity, Purple_ducky00 Link: AO3 Square Filled:  Chapter 1: 019 - Howard Stark                   016 - Bodyguard AU Chapter 2:  019 - Neighbour/Roommate Chapter 3: 016 - Locked in A Room Ship: WinterIronHusbands Rating: E Major Tags: AU Bodyguard, AU College/University, College Student Tony Stark, College Student Rhodey, Bodyguard Bucky Barnes, Fluff, Angst, Happy Ending, Dorks in love, Falling In Love, Fade to black sex, slices of life, Mention of alcohol, creep tries to creep on Tony, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Pining, Minor Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau/Nick Fury, mentioned dog, betrayal, Violence, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, Injury Recovery, Clint Barton Trolls People Summary: As Tony Stark always managed to get rid of the bodyguards Howard sends, the older Stark decided to try a different agency, one he knew had specialized bodyguards.The man he ends up hiring seems competent enough.James "Bucky" Barnes gets a job which leads him back to college. He might or might not gets into trouble with his neighbors Tony Stark and Rhodey Rhodes. And those troubles might lead to something neither of the three could have anticipated. Word Count: 8604

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Title: Penny for a Thought Collaborator: hddnone Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 017 - Ultron Ship: Stony (pre-relationship) Rating: Teen Major Tags: can be read as not Wanda friendly, post A:AOU Summary: Steve has to figure out how to handle Wanda telling him that Tony has been thinking about rebuilding Ultron.  Word Count: 817

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Title: Of Life and Death and Doors Collaborator: hddnone Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 017 - Bed-sharing Ship: WinterIron (pre-relationship) Rating: Teen Major Tags: character death but not really, Under Grounds verse, Steve & Bucky friendship but Tony doesn’t know that~ Summary: Tony can hold off Life for one day.  Word Count: 723

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Title: Through Rainbow Lights Collaborator: hddnone Link: Tumblr Square Filled: 017 - Cheeseburger Ship: None Rating: Teen Major Tags: character death but not really, Under Grounds verse Summary: Running into Thaddeus Ross is never a fun time.  Word Count: 1211

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Title: Meet Your Soulmate Collaborator: EachPeachPearPlum Link: AO3 Square Filled: 020 - dark secret Ship: Peggy/Daniel, Peggy & Steve, emphatically not Steve/Peggy Rating: Teen Major Tags: Good Place AU so all on-screen characters are dead, mourning for a partner who is still alive? Summary: Following her death and subsequent arrival in the Good Place, Peggy is still grieving the husband she left behind, and has no interest whatsoever in meeting someone new. Even if he is her soulmate. Word Count: 625

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Title: Emphatically Not a Nun Collaborator: EachPeachPearPlum Link: AO3 Square Filled: 020 - Thanos - replaced with adoptable psychological torture Ship: none Rating: Teen Major Tags: Good Place AU so all dead, Good Place spoilers Summary: Wanda is not and has never been a nun. Word Count: 288

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Title: Shellhead Collaborator: EachPeachPearPlum Link: AO3 Square Filled: 020 - shellhead Ship: none Rating: Teen Major Tags: Good Place AU Summary: Tony doesn’t understand how humans manage it, being so soft and squishy, nothing but a few easily breakable bones to protect their vital organs. And the men, with all their dangly vulnerability… Tony has no idea how the fork evolution could have resulted in something so utterly impractical, but apparently it has, and all he can really say about it is yikes. Word Count: 201

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Title: King of Antioxidants Collaborator: EachPeachPearPlum Link: AO3 Square Filled: 020 - blueberries Ship: pre Steve/Tony Rating: Teen Major Tags: Good Place AU, dumbassery, crack Summary: What,, Steve wonders, is with the number of places selling only blueberries products here? Word Count: 282

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Title: Defection Collaborator: JacarandaBanyan Link: AO3 Square Filled: 021 - Science Fiction AU Ship: Nebula & Tony Rating: Gen Major Tags: scifi AU, implied/referenced torture Summary: Nebula has been sent by Thanos to kill genius inventor and only permanent resident of Novathela’s outer moon Tony Stark before he can oppose the Mad Titan. Word Count: 1728

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] Unholy Desires:  Chapter 9

One second, nothing but the deepest of shadows and being utterly unaware of what went on around him. Only that single voice that whispered in the very depths of his mind, telling him to stay that way, that it was far too soon to wake up, that he needed to recover his strength and sleep was one of the ways. Another way would come when he woke up.

And in the next second, or so it seemed to him, Taichi opened his eyes and found himself staring at the underside of the bunk bed. He blinked a few times before he swung his legs off the side and sat up, his stomach rumbling and ravenous for something meat-related. Or maybe some fish. He wasn’t picky.

“Hikari? Do we have any beef bowls? Or fish? Something! I’m starving!”

He rubbed his eyes and blinked, staring. He didn’t expect to see everyone else there. He really didn’t expect to see them all looking so – disturbed.

Oh. Wait. It wasn’t everyone else. Yamato wasn’t there.

In a swift deluge, all the memories came back. Yamato – Yamato wasn’t – he’d been – he’d -

One hand flew up to the side of his neck and he winced at the faint hint of soreness there. He shook his head, trying to get everything put together, and not having a lot of success.

“Hikari? What’s going on? What’s got everyone so upset?” Wait – why were their Digimon here where Hikari could see them? She wasn’t -

She moved over to settle down beside him, offering a tiny smile. “You’re awake.”

“Yeah. What’s going on?” He glanced towards the window and blinked to see the first hints of sunrise. The last he’d been aware it had been … the night before? Or so he hoped…

Hikari glanced towards Koushiro. He, Jou, and Sora looked more worried than Mimi or Takeru did. Well, Takeru looked worried too but it sort of was different.

“Guys? What did I miss?”

Koushiro drew in a breath and came over, hugging his laptop close to him. “We’ve been busy all right. First, we know now who the Eighth Child is. It’s Hikari-san.”

Taichi stared at her. She nodded a little, holding up a small device – her Digivice. “Um…” Well, that was progress, at least? “Who’s your partner?”

“Tailmon!” Hikari grinned at that, her eyes glowing in deep warmth tinged by worry. “She and Wizarmon went off to find my Crest. But – they never came back.”

Taichi wasn’t sure of what he’d just heard. Tailmon – that little cat Digimon who attacked them before? One of Vamdemon’s servants? His head throbbed faintly and his stomach rumbled loud enough for everyone to turn and look at him.

Hikari got up. “I’ll get you some breakfast. Mom and Dad are still asleep. We – they know about the Digimon. They want to talk to you when they get up.”

Oh. He really had missed a lot. He rubbed the back of his neck. “What about Yamato? Has anyone seen him?”

“Not really. But we know more than we did,” Koushiro said. He flipped up his laptop and turned it to face Taichi. On the screen was Yamato, looking as he normally did – but there was a screenful of information there as well. Taichi read it by instinct.

Anbumon: half-human son of Piemon and Takaishi Natsuko, known on Earth as Ishida Yamato. Ultimate Level. Digimon Partner: Gabumon. Healer. Known attacks include Deep Sleep and Obsidian Strike. He is the corrupted Viral side of Chiguumon. Cold, arrogant, and quite possibly the strongest Digimon in existence save for the Holy Beasts themselves.

There was a great deal more but Taichi could hardly believe what he’d already seen.

“… Yamato’s – he’s – he’s not human?” That was going to take a lot of getting used to. “What is that? How did you find out?”

Koushiro tapped his laptop. “One of the programs that Gennai put on here is an addition to the Digimon Analyzer. The ordinary Analyzer can’t detect a human-Digimon crossbreed. That’s probably why we haven’t noticed anything until now. But I checked us all, on Jou-san’s recommendation. Only you, Hikari, Mimi, and Takeru are full humans.”

“The rest of us are part Digimon – or more,” Sora said, raising her head. Piyomon snuggled up against her and Sora’s hand caressed over her feathers. “I-I’m – Devimon.” She shook her head, shoulders shuddering, and turned away.

Jou kept his own head down, staring at his fingers. “Vamdemon. And – I suspected before this.”

Taichi took a step over towards him. “What do you mean?” He wondered if he’d actually woken up or if this were some amazingly realistic part of whatever dreams he’d had. He didn’t remember dreaming, but…

“I mean ever since we landed in the Digital World, I’ve – I’ve wanted to drink blood.” Jou shuddered, looking a great deal paler for a few seconds. “I thought I was feeling a little anemic, but then all of this started to happen, and I wondered ” He shook his head. “I’d rather not go anywhere near Vamdemon. I don't know if he knows – or what he could do.”

Taichi rested a hand on Jou’s shoulder. The whole idea of him being part vampire – or part Digimon – didn’t mean a thing to him. What did matter was that his friend was upset. “Don’t worry about it. If he does anything, we’ll stop him. We’ll stop him even if he doesn’t, just so he can’t!”

“He’s right!” Mimi declared. “I don’t care what he is, he’s not going to hurt any of us anymore!” She glanced at Takeru. “And that means we're getting Yamato back, too!”

Takeru’s smile brightened the tiniest bit. Taichi looked at Koushiro. “You said you were too?” He still wasn’t entirely convinced he wasn’t dreaming, so better to go along with it until he woke up.

“Yes. Me.” Koushiro actually fidgeted. Taichi hadn’t really seen him do that before. The redhead stared down at the laptop before he tapped a few keys and then shifted it around so Taichi could see it.

There was Koushiro, and a list of information. Taichi read through it, then blinked. “You’re an actual Digimon, not a – a hybrid?” He wasn’t sure of what else to call them. Were they going to have to invent a term?

“Apparently so. I – I want to talk to my parents about this. And to Leomon, if we return to the Digital World. Which we may have to. Those who have Digimon blood in them need the Digital World now that we’ve been there. Apparently we can survive without it – up until the blood itself awakens, for lack of a better term. But once it has, we need to be there as much as any other Digimon.”

Leomon. Taichi glanced again. Oh. Right. He was Koushiro’s – father. Sire? Whatever. He didn’t recognize the other name, though. Probably a Digimon that they hadn’t met.

Then something else occurred to him. “What was that – Chiguumon in Yamato’s profile?”

“That is something else that Jou-san and Sora-san have to deal with,” Koushiro said. He flicked the screen back to Yamato’s. “It appears that when a Virus Digimon and a human produce an offspring, then the potential for a “dark side” of sort exists. Somewhat like SkullGreymon, but the intelligence level is vastly different. It isn’t exactly an evolution but more of an alteration. This alteration manifests more or less as a different personality. That personality – and his Digimon blood – were awakened when Yamato was bitten by Vamdemon. That is Anbumon. Chiguumon is his natural state. Anbumon is the dark side – the corruption awakened by Vamdemon.”

Taichi wondered if the nausea that stirred up was because of hearing that or because Hikari hadn’t yet gotten back with his breakfast. Probably both. He settled himself back on his bed and tried to put all of this together.

“Also,” Koushiro added, and Taichi wondered what else he could take, “this mention of Piemon. We don’t know who that is but given that Yamato is apparently an Ultimate level Digimon – a level that we previously weren’t even aware existed – it stands to reason that he is going to be our enemy. We will have to return to the Digital World.”

“Oh.” Taichi couldn’t really say that bothered him a lot. He rather liked the Digital World and if they could get home now and then, he wouldn’t have minded spending more time there. Though going back to fight a powerful enemy wasn’t exactly his idea of a fun vacation.

Worry about that later, he decided, especially when Hikari entered with a tray of food, all of which smelled delicious and put every other thought out of his head for the moment.

As he ate, he started putting together what they were going to have to do. Find Tailmon and her friend and get Hikari’s Crest, then find a way to break Vamdemon’s hold over Yamato and get him back, and then find a way to defeat Vamdemon once and for all. Going back to the Digital World to face whatever they found there could wait – would have to wait – until after that.

“Taichi?” He looked up to see his parents in the doorway. He yelped for a second, coming to his feet, his first instinct to hide all of the Digimon. But both of them smiled little, weary smiles at him.

“Your friends told us all about what happened. I admit I wasn’t sure what to think, but you’re going to do what you need to do no matter what, aren’t you?” His mother said. Taichi slowly nodded.

“We thought you would,” his father said with an approving nod. “Be careful. All of you be careful. We heard about what that monster did to your other friend.”

Taichi’s eyes fell over to where Gabumon’s egg lay, wrapped in blankets and with Agumon and Gomamon next to it. Would Gabumon ever hatch again?

“We’re going to get him back,” he promised. He wanted to believe that with every scrap of his body. He could not shake the memory of Yamato – of Anbumon’s hands on him, the way his teeth pressed into Taichi's own skin, the sound of that velvet-soft voice purring in his ear, sending shocks through him that he’d never experienced, not even in those first few moments of meeting when the part of him that was a Firestarter sparked against the part of Yamato that were a Healer.

That's right, he reminded himself, he’s not just a Healer. He’s my Healer. They weren’t bonded yet but that was mostly just a matter of courting – proper bonds weren’t allowed to be formed until both partners were of legal age, in their case eighteen. But still, he and Yamato both knew. Everything that had happened in the Digital World only made both of them that much more certain that this was the one they wanted to bond to.

There were other things that Taichi thought he might want to do but that would have to come later. It wasn’t unknown for Healers and Firestarters to date as well as bond to one another. Not often, because a bond was lifelong once forged and romantic relationships didn’t always last forever, but it could happen.

He’d been told that many times growing up. Maybe somewhere along the way it had actually sunk in.

A startled noise came from the window where Mimi stood. Everyone surged over there, children and parents alike. She raised one hand and pointed, trembling. At first Taichi wasn’t sure about what she was trying to show them. Then he saw it. He saw them.

“They’re Bakemon,” Jou whispered. “We saw them on File Island. Vamdemon must have brought them along too.”

“What are they doing?” Taichi's mother asked, trembling. Taichi wasn’t sure at first, until it became obvious.

“They’re taking people,” he said. And so they were. The Bakemon swept into the apartment buildings and dragged people out, urging them towards somewhere. This had to be part of Vamdemon’s plan. Which meant they needed one of their own.

“Everyone,” he decided, “go find your families and get them to safety. Stop as many of the Bakemon as you can. Something must have happened to Tailmon.” He had a strong feeling that ‘something’ was either Vamdemon or Anbumon – or probably Vamdemon and Anbumon. “Once they’re safe, we’ll try to find her, and then finish off Vamdemon.”

He hoped that it would be as easy as he made it sound. But it probably wouldn’t. He clenched his fists, sparks dancing over them.

Vampires burned, didn’t they? He was more than ready to find out.

To Be Continued

Notes: Yes, I did a time jump. It was necessary for story purposes. And now action can begin to happen!

[the-master-cylinder]

SUMMARY A small family relocates to the Sonoran Desert to be closer to the grandparents of the family. Though there are news reports of a spectacular triple supernova and the young granddaughter has seen a glowing alien construction behind the barn, the family is at ease until, one night, a UFO soars overhead and appears to land in the nearby hills. Apparently, the triple supernova has opened a rift in space and time. The family finds that their electrical appliances no longer function, and the youngest daughter of the family has a telepathic encounter with an extraterrestrial. The grandmother, too, sees one of these diminutive creatures beckoning to her, but it soon vanishes.

The grandfather, while trying to start the car, sees that a strange animal is approaching from the distance. The grandfather goes back inside and informs the family that something is coming; before long, a variety of horrific, alien monsters (all of these creatures being of a reptilian or amphibious nature) are proceeding to slaughter each other outside the house; some are trying to break in (after knocking) and kill the family. After a few moments, the UFO appears again and teleports the creatures to a different place. The family take this opportunity to escape to the barn, which is more easily defensible than the house. The family become separated from one another and each hides until sunrise, where they find that they have been launched thousands of years into the future. They meet up with the daughter, who had become separated from the family during one of the time-warp events. She knows, somehow, that everything is going to be fine now. After walking across the desert, they finally see a domed city in the distance, and decide to seek refuge there. The grandfather proclaims that there must be a purpose to all of this. The family walks off into the distance, having survived the day time ended.

Producer Paul Gentry in The Day Time Ended (1979)

PRODUCTION The film was originally conceived by script writers Steve Neill, Paul Gentry, and Wayne Schmidt. The three offered a script for another project to producer Charles Band, who thought it was too expensive to make but offered to produce a science-fiction film if it was based in one or two locations.

Steve Neill is not your everyday, run-of the-mill, bottom-of-the-barrel scraper, however. For the last four years, he’s been making a fine living off his makeup talents, designing and applying material for The Crater Lake Monster, Kingdom of the Spiders, The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover, Demon and various other film features and TV commercials. His partners in the Vortex production, Paul Gentry and Wayne Schmidt, come from the same creative background but don’t have the impressive list of credits.

“I’m a science-fiction fan,” says Schmidt, “doing the convention circuit and the whole bit while writing screenplays no one seemed to buy. Until this came up I was doing a lot of starving.”

What came up was Neill going to work for Charles Band on the young producer’s two SF efforts of last year-End of the World and Laserblast. Suddenly, Neill had found his responsive ear and took no time in exploiting it.

“Steve had the tenacity to walk into work with some spaceship models he designed,” Schmidt relates. “They subsequently caught Charlie’s eye. He grilled Steve as to what they were for and Steve told him they were for a movie he was working on. Charlie was receptive so Steve brought me into it.”

What emerged was a concept alternately titled Race for Antari or Star Racers, concerning, not surprisingly, racers in space. Band was interested not so much in the theme at that point, but the creative package he could create: Neill on makeup, Gentry on SFX and Schmidt on script. Unfortunately, the idea soon became too big for Band’s budget.

“Charlie called me into the office one day,” Neill recalls, “and said, ‘I’ve got some good news and some bad news. First, the bad news is that Star Racers has been shelved. The good news is that I still want a picture from you. I want simplicity, I want one location and I want it this week.’”

Neill accepted the challenge and one hour later came up with the concept of Vortex.

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“Basically,” Schmidt narrates, “it involves a family who moves out to the desert and builds a completely self-sufficient house out there. But due to a space occurrence it turns out that their home is built on what you might call ‘the Bermuda Triangle fault-line.’ It gets whisked into other dimensions and the family goes through all sorts of-how shall I put it?-traumatic experiences. Heh, heh, heh.”

“It seemed to work real well,” Neill takes up the story, “so we drafted it out real fast. We signed three contracts and started the picture based on a one-page synopsis!”

But one page does not a movie make. The spanking new production team of Neill, Gentry and Schmidt had to get a shooting script, they had to get a director, and they had to gather a cast. Suddenly filmmaking wasn’t fun anymore. It was still exciting, but it sure wasn’t fun.

“The scriptwriting went on and on and on,” says Schmidt. “And the film grew in scope until we wound up with a project as involved as our Star Racers. And it was to take close to as much time. It’s not the simple project we started with by any stretch of the imagination. While Charlie handled most of the casting decisions with feedback from the distributors, we started creating the ‘look’ of the film.

“We brought in Lane Liska who worked on Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica to draw up our ideas. Meantime Steve, who had worked with John Bud Cardos on The Dark, called the director and got him in on this one.”

Although a second location was added and the final shooting script called for months of post-production effects work, things were going smoothly. Band had signed Jim Davis, Dorothy Malane, Chris Mitchum, Natasha Ryan and Marcy Lafferty to play the leads, while Cardos began putting his crew together. According to their contracts, Gentry would be the director of photography and head of special effects, Schmidt would discover the wonders of producing by doing a little bit of everything and Neill would oversee it all-valiantly trying to stave off his first ulcer.

The crew descended on Apple Valley for 10 days of location shooting, then things began to get a little dusty. The crew turned out not to be entirely reliable and Gentry was removed as cinematographer.

“The problem with low-budget films,” details Neill, “is that you get crews who are experienced in only that type of film, there is a lot of hiring and firing because they’re, kind of, in-between talents. I hate the watch-watchers, though, the guys who complain all the time then quit on you. If it weren’t for guys like Greg Jein, our model maker, and Joel Goldsmith-Jerry’s son who is doing the sound, the movie wouldn’t stay together. These guys are totally dedicated. I mean, when Paul Gentry was replaced as DP he took it cool. He knew he got aced, but he worked it out smoothly and kept helping. I can’t thank these guys enough.”

Not only was Neill’s patience tried, his wallet was sorely tapped as well. In the movie business, the least little mistake can push the film thousands of dollars over the budget-a lesson the young trio learned the hard way.

“We were supposed to be on location 10 days and we were there 16,” Neill relates. “The government charged us $6500 for use of the land. Beyond that they wanted so much for each actor, so much for each camera, so much for each truck and so much for each car. It cost like $10,000 to rent a dry lake bed. And we didn’t even have to be there!

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“You see, Bud had this idea that a scene which was set to be shot with special effects could be done on location. It called for a sort-of ‘intergalactic spaceship graveyard.’ He had all these friends, he said, who had all these old planes that could be flown down for free, etc., etc. It turned out to be a nightmare. When it came time, there were no free planes. It cost $6000 to fly one plane mockup to the location. It seems that Bud would rather see his old planes out there and shoot it for himself than hand it over to special effects. That’s been a problem.”

Fortunately, the production wasn’t all problems. The stage-bound mock-ups of the house, the barn and the corral turned out better than expected and the SFX were being created with style. All in all, the production values for Vortex marked a new high for Charles Band. The young filmmakers expressed their admiration for the abilities of their youthful boss.

“I’ll give him credit,” Schmidt says. “He was willing to take a chance with three guys who had no “authorized’ experience on a film. He has a lot of courage and for that we owe him a great debt of thanks.”

Neill, while mirroring his partner’s sentiments, also points out one of the problems of low-budget filmmaking. “Charlie is incredible. He signed us for Vortex, Dave Allen for The Primevals, wrapped Tourist Trap and Auditions just before releasing Fairy Tales. And that’s just this year, practically. Our only problem is that he seems to think he’s giving us enough money but he’s not. We’re stretching as hard as we can to make this a great picture.”

The final judgment will come, of course, after Vortex is released and the money starts-or doesn’t start to roll in. Given the returns on Band’s prior contributions to the genre, the trio are confident of a decent showing. But win, lose or draw, they all feel very strongly about the lesson in life their film has taught them.

“All through the production I wanted to strangle people,” says Neill. “But as a producer I couldn’t do it. You’ve got to bite your tongue instead of blowing up. I used to have a really bad temper, but that’s gone now. I learned to smile at people, sometimes leaving a bad taste in my mouth.”

Happily, the best is yet to come for the team. The principal photography is finished and they are now deep into the SFX, their first love.

“The special effects are the nicest part of the production,” says Neill, and his associates concur. “It’s like we’re free of Bud and free of the crew and Charlie has dumped the film in our laps and said, ‘Go for it.’ We are, believe me. We’re pouring our flesh and blood into this.

“But you know what? I’m not excited. There’s too much to do. I’ll get excited the night the film opens. Then I can just sit there and shout, ‘Yeah!’ at the screen. Until then, I’ll be very serious.”

CAST/CREW Directed John Cardos

Produced Charles Band Paul Gentry Steve Neill Wayne Schmidt

Written J. Larry Carroll Steve Neill Wayne Schmidt David Schmoeller

Jim Davis as Grant Williams Dorothy Malone as Ana Williams Christopher Mitchum as Richard Williams Marcy Lafferty as Beth Williams Scott Kolden as Steve Williams Natasha Ryan as Jenny Williams Roberto Contreras as Gas Station Attendant

Visual Effects by David Allen … dimensional animation / technical advisor: Special Visual Effects Unit Beth Block … opticals: 2nd unit Dave Carson … effects art director: Special Visual Effects Unit Chris Casady … special animation crew Lyle Conway … stop-motion figures designer & creator Randall William Cook … dimensional animation (as Randy Cook) / storyboards (as Randy Cook) Jim Danforth … The “City of Light” by Paul Gentry … dimensional animation (as Paul W. Gentry) / director of special visual effects: Special Visual Effects Unit (as Paul W. Gentry) Gregory Jein … models constructed by (as Greg Jein) Laurel Klick … opticals: 2nd unit (as Laural Klick) Peter Kuran … special animation effects supervisor (as Pete Kuran) James F. Liles … opticals: 3rd unit Laine Liska … models designed by (as Lain Liska) Robin Loudon … effects production secretary Steven Nielson … effects editor (as Steve Neilson) Lori Redfern … special animation crew Wayne Schmidt … opticals: 1st unit Jerome Seven … special animation crew Tom St. Amand … stop-motion armatures (as Tom St. Armand) Rick Taylor … special animation crew Pam Vick … special animation crew Joe Viskocil … special pyrotechnic effects Garry Waller … special animation crew (as Gary Waller) Jim Danforth … matte artist (uncredited) / matte photographer (uncredited)

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Cinefantastique Vol 08 No 2-3 Famous Monsters of Filmland#161

The Day Time Ended (1980) Retrospective SUMMARY A small family relocates to the Sonoran Desert to be closer to the grandparents of the family.

[shemakesmusic-uk]

INTERVIEW: Kelly Ogden.

Bowling for Soup and the Dollyrots have been friends and tour-mates for over a decade so it only makes sense that after years of hearing and singing each other’s songs a special musical collaboration would emerge. Jaret and Kelly’s duets album Sittin’ In A Tree was produced by Linus of Hollywood and will be out on March 22.

Sittin’ In A Tree is a multi-genre mixing album of duets that runs the gamut from pop to punk to alternative to “almost” country to dance music. This is not the first time the two have made music together, in 2012 they released their first duet titled 'Love Ya, Love Ya, Love Ya'. In 2014 the Dollyrots and Bowling for Soup pulled a “Freaky Friday” and released One Big Happy, a 7” where they covered each other’s songs.

We had a chat with Kelly all about Sittin' In A Tree, working with Jaret, new Dollyrots material, her experience in the music industry and more. Read the full interview below.

Hi Kelly! You're gearing up to release your debut duets album with Jaret Reddick. As I mentioned above, you first worked together in 2012 on the track 'Love Ya Love Ya Love Ya'. What sparked a full album collaboration?

"YES! I’m so excited! Recording that song was the first time Jaret and I really sang together and we realized our voices really fit well together. We had done some songs on stage on tour over the years but once we could really hear it in front of an audience we felt inspired. We performed that song on tour in the UK in 2016 and after playing to a packed crowd at The Roundhouse in London I was like… dude, we should do more! And that night we decided to make it happen. About 3 years later WE DID IT!"

What was it like working together on Sittin' In A Tree? Did you learn anything new from each other?

"Yes. I’ve been making music with my partner in life and music, Luis (my bandmate and husband) but outside of that I haven’t done any writing with someone else… we’ve done co-writes here and there but I haven’t been in a room just me and another person making music EVER.

"I learned that I could do it! And that even though Jaret has been writing longer than me, with more people with me, it was still fun and new for him too. We also had a lot of room to be creative together because there were NO RULES. Like at all. That means we ended up with songs that sound like The Dollyrots and Bowling For Soup, alongside some alt country stuff, modern alternative stuff, some electronic funky stuff and some stuff I’m not sure how to label! But it’s all good. We wrote everything together in the same room over the last few years and cherry picked the best stuff."

What are the songs on the album about? What was your songwriting process?

"Because it’s a duets album there are of course love songs but there are also friend songs, a father/daughter song and some songs about having fun. And the love songs aren’t all typical love songs. We used the words "kill" and "dead" more than once muahahhahaha!

"Usually one of us would have an idea or a musical part and we would go from there and build the song. We always wrote the whole thing before moving on to the next one… well, we might have skipped a verse or bridge but most of the time that was the evolution."

What do you hope fans will take away from the LP?

"Like anything I do I hope that it can take them to a different time and place… that it can be an escape from whatever they are doing. Or that it can resonate and help them to realize they are not alone in whatever it is they are experiencing. I hope they have fun with it… there really is something for pretty much anyone!"

Will you be touring the record with Jaret?

"We’ve just played our 1st show in the US last week! We also did a few songs on the Heartache & Hilarity Tour in the UK last fall but we played a ton of the songs last weekend at a house party in Kentucky! It was so much fun! We’re just going to see how it goes… if people seem to want it we will happily play!"

As well as preparing to release Sittin’ In A Tree, you have upcoming shows and a new album in the works with The Dollyrots AND you're a mother..how do you juggle all of that?! (I am in awe by the way!)

"Thank you! Oh man… I could really use a vacation! HAHA! Or maybe just a weekend where we’re not working. Fortunately though I (mostly, it’s freaking HARD!) love being a parent and I get to do music as a job. SO even at these insanely busy points, as crazy as it feels it’s also exciting. We get to make stuff and then people like it! And they even buy it a lot of the time! It’s just crazy right?!"

Is there anything you can tell us about the new Dollyrots album?

"We keep saying that we’re a little “scared of this one”, as in it’s THAT GOOD. We booked the studio time for the 3rd week in January and launched the Crowdsource Project before we were ready. As is the story most of the time now in life. We planned to do a lot of writing over the holidays in December and January but my dad passed away December 21st and I just couldn’t do it. In the end we had no choice… we would put the kids to bed and go out to the studio and write. And the music we’ve made is so strong, wild and beautiful I’m not sure we can ever make something this good again.

"Dollyrots fans will be happy and I think we will gain new fans with this one. It’s an album full of singles from front to back. Truly."

You’ve been in the music industry for almost 20 years now! Based on your musical journey so far, what’s been your biggest takeaway/piece of advice?

"Holy smokes! That’s a LONG TIME! Hahahhha! Impossible! But really… it would be - to be yourself. And to practice. Practice alone, practice in front of people. Don’t be afraid to try new things and push yourself in a way that isn’t easy. Nothing I have done has been easy. No one wants to hear that but even if you are the greatest guitar player of all time it will not be easy. You have to build a true, real following the hard way. There’s no such thing as an overnight success. Put in the time and you will be rewarded. And BE A GOOD PERSON."

If there was one thing you could change about the music world today, what would it be?

"You know, I’m terrible at questions like this… I try to see the world in a “What can I do directly to change something.” Obviously I think it will be great when the next generation of women, minority and LGBTQ kids are in positions of power. There are still major imbalances in the industry… just like all the others. But I think change is happening… it’s slow but it’s real.

"In the end it’s art… and I think it serves different people in different ways so aside from the above I’m in no place to want it to change… would I like more guitar-based music on the radio? Of course! But I think much of it is still truly dictated by popular choice and that’s a good thing. Even if it’s not my thing."

Finally, what's one non-musical goal of yours for 2019?

"I wold love to travel to a place I’ve never been… can be for music or pleasure! I’m thinking Asia! Or Australia! Or maybe we’ll be the first inhabitants of Mars on Elon Musk’s spaceship."

[reborn-imagines-redux]

Romance me with these films: Breakfast at Tiffanys, Roman Holiday, Sabrina, Casablanca, Cleopatra and Gone with the Wind whoops that six ahahaha hope you like the idea Admin ✌🏾

These are examples of how the requests I get will be answered.  

As stated before, this is a request I’ve had for awhile from the original anon with the idea, this is the only one that’s going to have more than 3 films included in the ask.  

Breakfast At Tiffany’s

you had always thought that your neighbor was doing something slightly illegal of the “sexual” variety, in his apartment next to yours

and really, what else were you supposed to think? there were always shady looking people, who were dressed to the T’s going into his apartment, and his own stuff was just a little too nice for someone who was living in the apartment building

but you didn’t really care, just so long as he kept the noise down (and he did, you never heard anything) you weren’t going to judge…sometimes people ran into trouble - you did what you had to do to survive

the idea of it being the mafia didn’t even cross your mind - this wasn’t the 60′s anymore, geez

it still didn’t cross your mind until he asked you if you were interested in some community service

you said absolutely not, until he explained that he actually meant community service and not community service

then you said yes, because you figured it could be worse and you had some time to give back

somehow you end up visiting prisoners - the non-violent kind, obviously, just some guys involved in fraud or embezzlement or some scheme

it was right about then that you found out that your neighbor was not in fact a male prostitute and was actually a mafia boss

and that the shady people were informants and his “family” members

and the embezzlers that you were talking to were also his “family” members

and that you were actually an accomplice to crime right there….

from there there was actually only the choice to join his “family” and let him take care of you

the fact that he was really stinking cute was just an added bonus, promise

Roman Holiday

Enma was rather unsure how he got in this position, he remembered being grabbed and pulled out of the gala after bumping into someone in one of the back halls of the Vongola.  After that, it was a bit of a blur.

There was the realization that you were not in fact a serious kidnapper, rather, the younger child of the influential American boss, who had been rather protected to later be utilized in a political marriage.  And that instead of being kidnapped, he had stumbled across your escape attempt.  And so your plans had changed, and now he was half way across town in a seedy motel, after an even seedier bar.

“Very unusual.  I’ve never been alone with a man before, even with my dress on.  With my dress off, it’s most unusual.” With a sinking feeling, Enma turned from where he was checking out the windows to test for security (sadly lacking) to see you struggling out of your evening wear.  

“Um, maybe you should…not.”  Enma finished lamely, trying to keep his eyes fixed on your face or any other part of the room, except where you were currently undressing.  His plans changed as he had to rush over to keep you from faceplanting after tripping on your train.  

“Relax,” you giggled.  “It will be fine.  Just don’t let my father find out.”  Without that, you slipped out of the dress to collapse on the bed, completely unconscious.

Enma was now faced with a moral dilemma.  He should call your father, he really should.  But if he did that, he’d have to explain to the man that he was involved.  That he was alone in a very cheap motel room with you passed out, almost naked on the bed.  And it wasn’t like he could call your father and leave, there was no way of telling what would happen in between then and your father showing up.

With a sigh, Enma slipped his phone back in his pocket and grabbed one of the blankets to take with him to the chair.  This was not going to be fun to explain in the morning.  

The line in italics has been taken from the movie.  (Along with the idea of the “runaway” princess (in this case, heiress)

Sabrina

you end up being in on the mafia “game” mainly because you move in right next door to Tsuna during high school

growing up, you were always a rather large fan of Yamamoto 

really, he wasn’t a large fan of Yamamoto - he was cute, talented, friendly

still, though Yamamoto was friendly to you, you basically saw that you weren’t ever going to be more than friends, he just didn’t notice you

you leave for college, going to school in America - learning talents that you know will help you in the mafia, and maybe end up impressing Yamamoto that way

and when you come back, it works and you do impress Yamamoto and he finally notices you - but because of your particular skill set, you end up working more closely with Gokudera

who was always fairly nice to you - but let’s face it, he’s definitely no Yamamoto

until one day, you’re at a party, escorted by Yamamoto and you realize that this is not meshing up with your dreams - yes, Yamamoto’s by your side, but it’s wrong, the things he’s talking about, the people he’s talking to, these aren’t your things

after that night, you and Yamamoto call it quits, but still remain close friends - after all, the relationship hadn’t lasted a while and both of you basically realized that the other wasn’t your “forever person”

Yamamoto is the one who pushes Gokudera to talk to you - because he’s hung out around both of you enough and is observant enough at this age to realize what neither of you could

you and Gokudera end up fighting over who he’s going to be in the wedding, you want Yamamoto for your “Man of Honor ;)”; Gokudera wants him as a groomsman

Casablanca

Tsuna had always loved you - he had met you during a hard time in his life and you had been right there, seemingly able to understand the same pain and so able to help him through it

and then one day you disappear never to be seen from again - he doesn’t understand, the relationship had been serious, he was about to ask you to marry him, and so he’s left with regret 

he moves on leaving you in his past as best he can

seeing you at that Gala, hanging on the arm of a boss who he was about to enter talks about an ally, blindsides him and he can barely make it out of the room before he’s punching a wall 

you follow him, of course you do, he just can’t seem to catch a break

he’s just about to tell you get out of his mansion, to take your escort and never come back if you want your partner’s family to survive

you cut him off with an explanation - he had sworn to himself that excuses wouldn’t work on him, but even he isn’t hard hearted enough to ignore this one

you had been married to this man for far longer than Tsuna and you had been involved - a coup had left your family reeling and you believing your husband had been assinated

and that night he was going to propose, the night you had left was the night you had found out that your husband had survived and gone back to him

and faced with that, there’s nothing Tsuna can do but force a smile and congratulate you, nothing he can do but deifnitely enter the partnership with your family

nothing he can do but fake a smile every time he sees you after that, always on the arm of the man who had you first

Cleopatra

“You dare ask me to kneel.”  Byakuran stared at where you were sitting at the end of the main hall of your mansion.  His men behind him shifted, irritated by the command.  

“I asked it of the Vongola Decimo.  I demand it of you.”  You stared haughtily down your nose at him, unimpressed by his own title, he knew.  You obviously weren’t one of the few granted memories of the future arc where he had almost succeeded in taking over all the known universes.

Still, he lowered himself with a cocky smile, making it clear that he had done it through his own volition.  He remembered you in that future - and honestly, every other timeline he had encountered you in, some things would never change - as every inch a queen as you were here.  You hadn’t bowed to him in the beginning either.  He had known then that if anyone was equal to stand next to him, it would be you.  

“Of course,” he lowered his head.  “I will offer the respect required in your own home.”  He remembered the pleasure he had taken in showing you his full power in the alternate timeline.  

“However, I fully expect the same courtesy to be returned when you come to my home.”  He had brought you your knees in the other world.

“And when would I ever be in your home?”  He would do it again in this one. 

The line has been altered from “I asked it of Julius Caesar.  I demand it of you.” to “I asked it of the Vongola Decimo.  I demand it of you” for obvious reasons

Gone With the Wind 

You had come to him when you had nothing, only able to pledge your allegiance and your loyalty to him.  Your family lay in ruins, and there was no where else to turn.  But you knew that you could survive, you were good at what you did.  

“And what does the Varia need with a femme fatale?  We don’t need to seduce secrets out of people, we just go in and take what we want.  We have a mist if we need it.”  Xanxus had stared down at you, no hint of what he was thinking in that fiery gaze.

You refused to be intimidated, you had gone through too much, survived too much to give up now.  “And will that always be the case?  What happens when you run into someone who can see through your illusions?  What happens when you are called upon for information from someone who can withstand your torture.  The world constantly changes to overcome the best techniques.  But there will always be one thing that humans can’t resist.”  

“Let me guess, sex.”  Xanxus sounded unimpressed.

You shrugged.  “Or the illusion of it, the prompt of it.  I’m flexible.”

“I bet you are.”  Xanxus considered the options.  There was a certain amount of truth to what you had said.  If there was one thing that he could count on, was that even in the mafia, a good figure could open most doors.  And damn, you had a good figure.  “Fine, you’re in.  A trial basis only for right now.  We’ll talk later.”

Because it’s not super clear here,what’s taken from the movie is you (Scarlett) going to Xanxus (Rhett) when she needs help (in this case, protection/money/etc) and be willing to use her “feminine wiles” so to speak, to get what she wants.