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sineala · 2 years ago

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Love your fics! Wanted to know your opinion about AXE now that it's finished :>

Oh boy oh boy! Thank you for asking! I loved AXE so much. It was definitely the best story I've ever read about what would happen if your house acquired sentience and hated you and decided to destroy the world.

Seriously, though -- I really loved AXE Judgment Day. I have a half-finished post where I was attempting to summarize the complete event with all the tie-ins and I should probably… finish reading all the tie-ins and finish writing that. I have an AXE Steve/Tony WIP -- the kind of fic that is basically meta disguised as a story where they talk through how they feel about the whole thing -- that is 42,000 words and I am nowhere near done yet. I honestly think it's one of the best line-wide Marvel events in a long time, which is really impressive when you consider that for the most part it's an event about the X-Men and the Eternals and I have almost no fannish interest in the Eternals and I haven't been consistently reading any X books since X Of Swords started.

So why do I like this event so much if it's not even about characters I am currently following? Well, I'm here for Steve/Tony, and I think it's a really good event for Steve and Tony, both as individual characters and for their relationship with each other, and I think the end of the story leaves them each in a really interesting place emotionally, with enough hanging threads that make it interesting to me fannishly.

We've had a few events in the past several years where Steve and Tony were basically on opposite sides -- Infinity (when you consider the fact that Tony has already been secretly betraying Steve), Axis, Time Runs Out/Secret Wars, Civil War II (when you consider the fact that it wasn't actually Steve), Secret Empire. Sometimes these events have prominently featured Steve and/or Tony, but as a Steve/Tony fan most of these weren't satisfying to me on an OTP level because they're not really on good terms. Although, yes, Secret Empire did provide a hell of a lot to think about and also some really interesting material for AUs because it did give us an evil Steve who, uh, canonically loves Tony. You should see my WIP list. But Secret Empire wouldn't make my list of events where Steve and Tony are BFFs, if you get what I mean.

We've had events where they were on the same side but the event wasn't really about them -- War of the Realms, Empyre, King in Black, Devil's Reign. (As far as I can tell, Devil's Reign never actually had the real Tony in it, either, but I will admit to not reading all the tie-ins.) Heroes Reborn was also a thing but didn't ever have Tony even meet Steve, AFAIK. So, I mean, it's nice that they don't hate each other but also they are just a couple characters in a cast of thousands. I think Empyre comes the closest, and I really enjoyed Empyre, but I wouldn't call Steve & Tony the stars of the event.

So AXE is one of the first events in a long time -- maybe since AvX? -- where both Steve and Tony have been friends on the same team with neither of them secretly being evil and where they have had big roles to play in the event itself. Both Steve and Tony have a lot to do in the mainline and Tony has an entire issue about him. Also, though I think it has its flaws, AXE is definitely much kinder to Tony than a lot of the other comics featuring Tony have been in a while. It portrays Tony and Steve as friends and as heroes genuinely trying to do good. And if you're like "isn't that what most superhero comics are like?" then you haven't been reading a lot of Iron Man comics in the past several years, although that is maybe, maybe starting to change.

I also think the setup of AXE is the kind of thing that lends itself to interesting fannish theorizing without being unkind to most of the heroes. I suppose technically it starts out as a hero vs. hero event, depending on who you consider heroes. A faction of Eternals decides that mutants are deviants and decides to wipe them out. The Avengers decide this is a bad idea and they and the remaining Eternals join in on the side of the mutants. Since Eternals have to do what Celestials tell them, the good guys (starring Tony) come up with a plan to reanimate Avengers Mountain (a dead Celestial) and it will become a god to the Eternals again and it'll tell them to knock it off with the mutant-killing. This works. Sort of. Then the Celestial decides it's going to judge the rest of humanity on an individual and a collective basis and everyone has to band together to try to stop it. Steve ends up basically leading humanity in battle and Tony ends up taking point on the strike team trying to bring the Celestial down from the inside. Literally the inside.

So, yes, as a Steve/Tony fan, I enjoy the fact that they're working together. They're friends! They're clearly coming up with plans together and they're concerned about each other and Steve doesn't even blame Tony for being the guy who arguably headed the project that started the mess in the first place.

Also Steve makes some great rallying speeches.

(Don't worry, Steve's fine.)

And Tony also makes some great speeches, honestly, just on a smaller scale.

I feel like the AA references in there are very in-character for Tony.

It's been my experience that fandom tends to really enjoy events that let them sort characters based on their beliefs and powers -- who would win in a fight? Who would support Registration? And this gets you that, and they don't even have to fight each other. Because what a lot of the tie-ins are about is "who passes, who fails, and why?" and so, without even pitting your faves against each other, you get to do the same kind of theorizing. And because Steve and Tony are major characters, we get to see both of their judgments, and we get a lot about Tony's.

And it's really cool, I think, because it absolutely does not go the way you think it would go. It does not go the way they think it will go. Because Steve is one of the very first to fail -- and Tony is at his side, wondering who possibly has a chance to pass if Steve fails. So Steve basically spends the whole rest of the event clearly feeling like a massive failure and trying to pull himself together for the rest of humanity. I have feelings about this.

And Tony, in a move that surprises everyone including himself, passes. There is a whole issue devoted to this and I really like it except for a couple of points I will detail below and also the fact that it requires us to acknowledge that Cantwell's run happened, which is a thing I was really trying to not do. Anyway, it has a great callback to The Confession.

Tony just doesn't want to let Steve down.

The whole thing is interesting. It gives you a lot to think about. They're clearly still both unsettled about this by the end of the event, and then Tony asks Steve to go hot-tubbing with him, which. You know. There's potential there. I and my massive WIP clearly think there's potential there.

So that's a lot of fun. At least, I think so.

This event has a downside for me, which is that it has a Did Not Do The Research problem. I think this is most apparent in AXE Avengers, the issue all about Tony, which includes such odd developments as "Tony agrees with the assertion that he likes to date people who are parental figures with strong moral compasses" (I have literally no idea where this is coming from, as I would have said that he likes to date people to try to kill him) and "the Celestial, in the form of Howard, tells Tony that they wanted him so badly but then he wasn't a great father to Tony." I feel like "we wanted you so badly" is an interesting way of describing "we adopted you solely because we needed a decoy son to save the life of our biological son." If this had been by any other writer, I would have said, oh, well, I guess they just didn't read the adoption arc. This is by Kieron Gillen. You know, the guy who wrote the adoption arc.

There are a couple of other places in the event itself where the plot doesn't match up to itself across comics, which you would probably expect in tie-ins except… these were all also by Kieron Gillen. So after Steve dies and is reborn from an egg, naked, in the Avengers Mansion kitchen (don't worry about it), he either has enough time to get dressed and talk to Tony before the strike team heads out (if you believe Death To The Mutants) or Tony is already on-mission when Steve hatches (if you believe the mainline). These are, again, both by the same writer.

Anyway, if you believe the version where Steve gets to wish Tony well, it's very sweet:

There is also one further instance where Not Doing The Research isn't a problem, per se, but there was one canonical reference that AXE Avengers could have made, that the entire issue was leading me to think that it was going to make, and then it got there and it didn't, presumably because Gillen didn't know it, and I was so confused because it would have made the issue so much stronger.

So the culmination of AXE Avengers features the Celestial reenacting Tony's parents' car accident, which the Celestial is using as an analogy for the disaster the world is currently going through, and asks Tony what Tony will do. Tony immediately heads to the car and starts trying to repair it and explains that it may not make a difference, but he has to try, and if he works hard enough, no one has to die in a car crash.

It's a nice moment. It's very Tony. It's very touching. It seems like a philosophy he would espouse. It is also an established canon fact that is thirty years old.

In Iron Man #288, we learn that the first thing Tony did after his parents' death was find out what the cause of the crash was (a flaw in the brake design). Then he spent forty hours redesigning the brakes in that car model, bought the car company, and implemented his new, improved brake design. So no one else was ever going to die in a crash like that.

So that thing he says in AXE Avengers that he would do, hypothetically, about fixing the car so no one else would die? He did it. It wasn't hypothetical. He actually 100% did that exact thing, in canon, when faced with this exact situation. So you can kind of see why I was expecting the AXE Avengers issue to refer to this, because I figured this was him describing the thing that he did. It would have been the perfect thing for him to mention. I just assumed that was what was going on here and we were leading up to that.

The issue does not refer to this fact, at all.

I don't know, I just thought it was a bizarre omission. I guess no one involved with this issue knew enough to mention it.

Also I feel like if I were the Avengers I personally would not want to move right back into living in the dead Celestial corpse as soon as it died and the fighting was over. They cannot be hurting that badly for real estate. I'm just saying.

But overall? Yeah, great event. I loved AXE Judgment Day. Give me ten more just like it.

#replies #seraphiine

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maskspurpose · 1 year ago

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for superhero fic: 2, 8 (besides wtei), 9 for fine reunion: 7 for tori, 20, 22 and 13, 21 in general

Oh my god hiiii who are you <3 Putting these under a cut bc of how much I wrote LMAO

Superhero AU

2: How did you get the idea to write this?

WataEi week on twitter had a list of prompts and one of them included hero/villain au which made me think about how those are like... complicated and interesting roles for wataru and eichi respectively since theyve both played the protagonist and antagonist and how this could be an AU where you can explore that and another theme (masks) in a really fun way. It kinda like. appeared in my head fully formed especially bc superhero comics are a past special interest i've come back to a couple of times now.

8: Which character is gonna have the biggest storyline?

I meant to follow the broad strokes of ES1 main story and just retell it in this new framing device or rather like... see where it goes from there, so it would probably end up being Tori or Hokuto depending on where the dice of my focus falls. In a version of the story I was thinking about doing a type of monster of the week format similar to how many magical girl shows do it where the monster in question is like... the manifestation of the Mental Issues someone is having so I think in that version a lot of them have the potential to get a day in the spotlight.

Thinking about it some more though I really enjoy the worldbuilding I did for Yuzuru so. Honestly he's also a big candidate. It just feeds really well into a lot of the stuff that's happening.

9: Is there anything in the fic you're not so excited about writing?

I got extremely stuck on the worldbuilding and overarching plot and how to make it work without it being boring (bc of how much of it is retelling the main story) and also just... making the kinda complex morality stuff I wanna highlight work in a kinda cartoony setting?

The other thing is smaller but Wataru alternates pronouns depending on their identity in this story (at least in Eichi's POV) and keeping that straight is a headache and a half for me tbh.

fine reunion

7: What are your plans for Tori?

Okay so the setup of this fic is, essentially, what if EP:Link bad end where fine ends up disbanding, which means... you kind of have to imagine Tori's development re: the rest of fine as being stuck in that specific point in time? The last selfish thing he asked for didn't come true, so what does that mean... in this case it means he's suspicious of Wataru and passively pissed despite being aware that it's not fully justified.

I think at the same time he's grown more independent. He's grown up in a lot of ways that we can also see in ES2 and I think has become a lot more savvy and aware of unsavory business practices both by his own family and others. I think out of fine he's the one who seems like he's changed the most simply by virtue of being the one who had the most growing up to do. I think he's both become a bit more like Eichi in the roles he fills and a lot less like Eichi in how he does it? And where it all goes... we shall see!

20: Give a vague description of something that will happen without revealing too much

fine reunion album tour. four people with pent up emotional issues. in one bus and/or hotel room.

22: Will this fic include more angst or more fluff?

The reason I'm like willing to write it is because ultimately I want to lean towards fluff? I think there's ways to do this that get angsty really quickly and my original concept for it was leaning into that but ultimately I wanna focus on like... the fact that yes if fine split up these characters would stay the same in some ways but just how much personal growth is up to you as a person and imo one of the now most important things abt fine which is that they are together as a unit because they like each other and want to be.

There's still gonna be some angst and some topics are unavoidable just bc it will touch on like. idk a large part of the premise is that Eichi is doing the whole reunion bc he's doing an early retirement as an idol because of his health (no acute reasons and more of a precaution but it's still. yknow) and that Wataru left after EP:Link to become an actor. So there's issues.

General Questions:

13: Is there any unwritten/unpublished fics you haven't mentioned you're gonna do?

No promises but I still want to write something about Wataru and Keito working together on a script for Dramatica and what that would entail. I also wanna do a 5+1-ish (4+1?) thing/series about Wataru kissing the other eccentrics or something.

Part of me wants to one day do a collaboration on something with my boyfriend but we'd have to figure out the mechanics and I haven't brought it up to him yet, soooo 🤫🤫🤫

21: Is there any unwritten fic that you don't know if you ever will write?

Originally I was going to do a proper sequel to the Watareichi fic I wrote that's been shrinking in scope for a variety of reasons (less interest in writing wtrei as anything but exes, dissatisfaction with the fic it'd be a sequel to). There's a longer version of the Wataru & HiMERU drabble I wrote that'll never be done because uuuuuuh I really don't care for HiMERU anymore.

I have this whole AU i plotted out at some point where Wataru and Mama have a unit together bc I thought it'd be funny for a unit swap prompt but ultimately that's probably never going to happen.

IDK I have WIPs from fandoms I'm no longer in does that count?

#enstars /#ask meme #thank you for the questions <333

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runabout-river · 3 months ago

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I come from the school of having played Tekken for years, being a big fan of Monty Oum and otherwise loving everything to do with fights in all media including watching Mortal Kombat fatality videos for entertainment as a teen.

I just wrote a 5 chapter extravaganza fight in my slice of life fic which was well liked so here are some things to try to implement if they're applicable.

A caveat for this though is that I neither compared how I wrote my fight to how others wrote them, nor have others who liked my fic given me a good in-depth explanation for why it was better than other fights. Fight scenes in battle shonen fic are a niche genre 🎠

be knowledgeable about the fighting style either in detail or by good observation. In the case of a fight done by a magic system like in my anime fic, understand that magic system as best as you can.

Don't lose sight of character placement. Where are they and/or their weapons? What damage has been done to the environment?

What are the limits of the characters who fight? Also just add some to make the fight focused.

Don't forget that even though you're writing a fight, the personalities of your characters don't stop existing.

If the fight is important enough to write out ask yourself why and emphasize those reasons.

In general fights are expected to be dynamic so don't be afraid of changing your writing style a little to reflect that.

Being good at writing suspenseful moments helps, you just have to translate it into different situations and decide where the suspense is supposed to go.

What most people loved about my 5 chapter fight was the way I played with the (complicated) magic system and invented new things that fit into the canon perfectly but more importantly fit into the fight to make it interesting and exciting. That was coupled with the protagonist fighting for his life against competent opponents and early setups for what would come later.

Just like in live action or animanga fights, the people want to see competent and intelligent problem solving that showcases character and skill.

Apropos of nothing, but how difficult do the writers here find writing fight scenes? I tend to find that they're fairly easy as far as getting words on the page, but also the most likely type of scene to get completely re-written from one draft to the next due to me realizing that what I wrote initially was Very Bad or Completely Nonsensical.

I don't find them wildly harder than other things, but I think a lot of people have not studied well-written fight scenes and are getting ideas from live action media.

Not only do most writers have zero experience with actual fighting, but most have limited experience with doing martial arts, using guns, etc. and pick styles of fight scene that are very difficult to do well in prose.

#my fic #jjk #jujutsu kaisen

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ikilledamanforthisurl · 2 years ago

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Minami Anonx7 If it helps Literally everyone I have known ever has brought up that I sound like a literal cartoon mobster henchman every time I call people boss so i've just embraced it now fully. Everyone is Boss To Me as I sling my guns goofily to Get Da Coppers. But I SEE…. i've been playing through the yakuza games chronologically I’m currently watching through y4 right now but id like to watch dead souls afterwards. It is extremely funny though the idea of watching them completely ramshackled out of order. Anyways. 1) I personally would love to play the minami centric side game also + I literally cannot imagine it’s anymore embarrassing a thing to want then me daydreamng abt the side game id like to make for my yakuza OC and 2) SOOOOOOO true I love it when Nishida and Minami are like sort of a awful duo together also I admire your like notes about M construction. I haven’t given it much thought yet on how it actually works but that’s mostly bc I have family who work in construction so I make myself laugh thinking Majima has no idea what the hell he’s doing LOL but anyways real…… Idk if you've ever read it but there’s an awesome fic on ao3 where it’s basically about how Nishida was also a prisoner of the hole and this like sort of implied idea or like at least smth I saw someone bring up before in conjunction idea that “Whilst Minami tries to emulate Majima Nishida actually IS like Majima in a way and the result of that has made him jaded/heavily desensitised” which i think adds a really interesting layer to the Relationship to think abt ep if it were canon. So this is why Desperately desperately I need a M construction side game I need something to focus on the majima family outside of him and honestly especially on Nishida…… tangent but there is so much interesting potential w him I want to see it explored !!!!!! Last note here but have u seen Minami's scene in RGG online before? I just found an English translation of it today and it had me very biting and chewing over A) Minami getting legitimately upset when his fake accent was mocked, not bc it was a slight against HIM but against MAJIMA and B) the sort of self deprecating mention he makes of what good is he if he’s not strong enough / good at smth before it immediately gets pushed aside by him and C) the implication that Minami is genuinely attached to Kamurocho/wants to protect it. If u havent i can try and find the post I saw abt it but. Much to think about

I HAVE SEEN THE RGGO STORY IT KILLS ME KILLS ME KILLS ME EVERY TIME. biting and chewing is a good way to describe it. have YOU seen the Nishida one? Minami shows up very briefly and i can practically already sense your reaction to his couple of lines (i grab and SHAKE him i shake him so much)

its so funny how hes so close to having any kind of depth and then he brushes it off immediately like "yeah this whole clan fuckup bothers me n has got me feelin insecure .lol lmao anyways". like as much as its kind of annoying as a fan of the character its also unfortunately realistic? EYE do that. you wouldnt catch me dead elaborating and having a nice rock-talk if my life was in the midst of being tableflipped. lol + lmao + anyways is the best you're gonna get

also, as a bonus tidbit before i go figure out how to format this idea for a tumblin post, this is half the setup for the Saejima teacher idea i was playing with ☝ because i already know RGG is NEVER going to put any meaningful spotlight on the Family members who've been essentially left to pick up their bootstraps with the big whoopsie of y7. sorry that i keep talking about it in code i dont wanna spoil nobody, in spite of not caring abt them myself i know others do 🙇‍♂️ i'm taking matters into my own hands and i am going to explore the IMPLICATIONS of the BIGGEST FAMILY POSSIBLY EVER going thru what it does. and i'm going to grab Minami by his non-existent shirt collar and i'm going to shake him around until he talks about how this affects him at least a little bit. i'll stop coding this in the Saejima Teacher plot post so you can decide if it matters 2 you or not and read up when i get to it btws

also your point about Nishida is spot on. you don't keep the kind of man who trembles at every conversation he has for that many years without breaking him down and making him (comparatively) jaded in such a stressful line of work. on top of that, Majima literally tests this man like its some sort of divine Greek-mythos punishment put unto him by the gods..... he's absolutely jaded underneath that shaky deadpan stare. Nishida may never outwardly resemble Majima, persona or the genuine self, but he absolutely rubs off on him and influences him heavily. this is the kinda relationship most Gokudo in the series seem to have with their bosses when they're worth a damn, Saejima was ready to walk to the ends of the earth for his patriarch due to the positive impact he had on him, and Majima likewise for his boss, though moreso in the opposite direction. not wholly..... Majima's priority of strength begets some kind of twisted respect towards Shimano. I wonder if he lacks that respect for Sagawa, who as far as I remember never physically overpowers or threatens Majima except for when he's already down and weakened in some form.......? getting off track. point is Oyajis are very very influential to their precious boys, their Family will reflect them (personality, how he runs the joint, etc) regardless if they want it to or not. Majimemegoro has some baller fics exploring all this and it's a large part of what influences me today.....

Speaking of, i would love the title of that fic you've mentioned... i'm a little picky of which fanfic i'll give the time of day but Nishida also having experience with Anagura is tantalising. like that's so tragic.... that's so evil...... i'm sitting here wondering to myself if he was a survivor or.. yknow........ because no one else, in canon, "made it out" of Anagura alive. or, more specifically, no victims make it out of Anagura. Majima was always the exception. either option makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it...... cause if he is another victim then the way Majima treats him is just.... and if he's not then is his constant dedication to him like a form of atonement....... oouuhhhrggg......... im going to hit the wall...........

also! i'd love to hear if you have any unique takes regarding M.Con considering your family...... when i say im pulling ideas out of my ass i mean it. you've got access to a unique perspective methinks. closest i got is other people's accounts and (shudders) ausgov roadworkers i see occasionally............

also also! when you get to dead souls please bitch to me the moment something goes awry i HATE-love dead souls.... the characterisation makes me stub my toe repeatedly in frustration. its not bad and i dont want to be the NO FUN ALLOWED twat but ugghghhghghrghrhgrhg the zombie setting is not handled in a way that engages me. thats all i'll say bc otherwise ill be here forever venting all my nitpicks that i SHOULD throw on twitter but wont bc i got hardcore DS dickrider mutuals who'll get sad in my mentions at best and maybe take it personally at worst

#ikildaman shut the fuck up #thank you for your service minami anon goon(getting me to speak at length #i love these asks its like a hop skip and a jump away from resembling a writers room #i love bouncing ideas off of ppl and getting new ones back....... joy joyous joy #i DO have a friend i could probably get away with doing this with but i think theyll get mad at me for making em read so much english LMAO #he puts up with my deranged bullshit enough as it is (and i am thankful #kuppi if you see this. kidding ik you wont but KISSIES!

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angelinthefire · 2 years ago

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Ignite your bones: Director's commentary

After I finished writing, I was still thinking about this fic, so I wrote some director's commentary. It's under the cut because it's pretty long, but I could still talk about it more, lol.

This was hella depressing to write at times. I’m glad it’s done. I do feel like the ending was worth it. If the reader went through that same journey, then I’ve succeeded.

CHAPTER 1

This starts with Chuck POV for a couple of reasons. First because it’s creepy. Second, to establish why Chuck would actually do it this way. Third, so I didn’t have to deal with Dean’s POV in the moment of deciding to pull the trigger, because that’s not the point of this story. The point of the story is the aftermath. CHAPTER 2

I straight up cried while writing chapter 2. When I write intense emotional scenes, I always try to focus on something physical, either with the character’s body, or the setting, or something. It’s grounding and helps give shape to the scene, and I think, makes it relatable. It puts the reader in the character’s shoes. And the visceral horror of dealing with a dead body is a very physical, intense way to start out. This was a really intense start to a story, and I think making those intense emotions as physical as possible helps to keep it from getting melodramatic. (though some melodrama is fine, it’s just not what I’m going for)

The broken cup thing wasn’t something I was intending to come back to, it was just something that occurred to me as a good way to concretize Dean’s feelings. But then it just fit to call back to it in the big Dean and Jack scene. And then since I already called back to it once, it made sense to do it again, in the diner scene and the last bit of Dean in the bunker.

Cas reaching for Dean and Dean pulling away and that having different significance for both of them is important setup. Their ideas about what’s going on between them is very different.

Bringing Cas from the high of his big confession and moment of happiness to Dean being dead was just… yeah, I cried.

Jack’s arc is the least well defined. I really wanted to give him space to exist on his own terms, even if he wasn’t getting POV. It was more about things that I wanted to give him a chance to do (like be angry, for example) than a conclusion that I wanted him to reach. That’s reflected in the final chapter. But his scenes are more like picking at threads and unravelling something than they are about leading to a particular place. That’s something that made them more challenging to write too.

In general, it was important to me that if I was writing a story with Sam being dead as the premise, I couldn’t forget about it. His absence had to be tangible at various points throughout the story. Not because I’m particularly fond of Sam, tbh I think the character really stagnates in later seasons and I don’t find him that interesting. But on principle, regardless of my feelings, I feel like if you’re going to fuck with a character like that, you need to do them proper justice. That raised a challenge for me, because like I said, I don’t find Sam interesting and I’m not interested in writing about him. So what I ended up doing was focusing more on what he represented than who he was.

I love the idea of Cas having conflicting feelings over all of this. Being happy that Dean’s alive more than anything. Because conflicting feelings are just fun. And it gives him something to feel guilty about.

CHAPTER 3

One thing I wanted to accomplish in the first half of this fic was for there to be a constant sexual tension between Dean and Cas. Like they’re in love and best friends etc. etc. But they also desperately want to fuck. But they’re also both grieving and besieged by guilt. And that’s fun. So there’s this constant thing of Cas wanting to reach out to Dean, and Dean wishing Cas would touch him (usually violently, because that’s the only way that Dean lets himself process that desire), and both of them holding back.

Jack does still play a bit of the Greek chorus role. But in a very motivated way. That’s a peeve of mine, actually, when characters Greek chorus without motivation. But Jack is a character that’s trying to understand himself and his situation and the world better, he can ask questions that no one else would ask, so he can offer commentary in a more believable way.

The bunker is a character. And the bunker is Dean. And the bunker is a tomb. It represents an entire period of Dean’s life, one that he has to move on from if he wants to survive. So I keep coming back to descriptions of it having a great deal of weight, and feeling alive.

The question of how Cas would react to finding out the details of the deal with Chuck was something that I thought about for a long time. Straight denial is boring, it doesn’t move Cas anywhere. Being happy that there’s proof that Dean loves him is more interesting, but also not something I think Cas would fully embrace, because he did care about Sam. Recognizing that what Dean says is true, and then consciously rejecting it, because it fucks up the way he understands himself and his relationships too much, is the solution.

The scene after the wake is also interesting because it is a confession of love, but presented as an attack, and it’s not something that either of them can recognize.

Cas excusing Dean’s behaviour is another important part of his characterization that I knew I wanted to include from the start. I don’t like it when Cas is just the victim of a cruel Dean, it makes me feel bad, and I don’t even think it’s in character. Cas is fully capable of standing up for himself when he needs to, and in spite of everything he retains a certain amount of pride. The way Cas makes excuses for Dean, in an odd way, is healthier than some people write him. Because he’s recognizing that Dean isn’t treating him cruelly because he deserves it or because of anything he did, Dean behaves cruelly because of his own problems. And he doesn’t ignore Dean’s flaws or idealize them away. He is way too accepting of them, though.

It was also really important that Cas protect Jack from Dean. Sometimes, some people, when they’re being dark and edgy, and I’m thinking of a particular post here, don’t recognize that Cas would protect Jack. But Cas literally stood in front of the gun that Dean was pointing at him. Protecting Jack is part of who Cas is. That did make it a bit awkward to figure out where to physically place Jack in this story. So that question, of where Jack actually lives, becomes a plot point and a source of tension.

There’s a few points at which I feel like I don’t foreshadow the end so much as telegraph it. By referring to Dean as a time bomb, or Chuck’s Jack Torrance remark (I read The Shining but I never saw the movie. The book ends with the Overlook blowing up), and even talking about how Bobby’s house blew up. Those are all hints.

CHAPTER 4

Dean’s feelings about Jack, and Jack’s feelings about Dean, are full of contradictions. Partially because they were written incredibly inconsistently. Instead of trying to smooth that over, I lean into it. So Jack can be angry at Dean, and resentful of him, and care about him, and want his affection. He can be judgemental of Dean’s behaviour and still go in for a hug because he thinks Dean needs it.

And then the big thing with Dean is he has this big drive to self-sabotage. That’s the whole first half of this story. He wants to drive Cas away because he’s sure it’s going to happen anyways. There is also a part of him that gets satisfaction out of hurting Cas, but I don’t see it as an inherent part of his character. Like, I think it’s more a kind of relief. Like, he’s not the kind of guy to pull wings off of flies. It’s more that if he hurts Cas then he doesn’t have the burden of living up to a higher expectation anymore. But Cas ruins that by continuing to love him and think more of him.

Dean cleaning the bunker serves two purposes. The first is that it makes the bunker itself more of a focus, and ties the link between Dean and the bunker, to set up the payoff of Dean just destroying it at the end. The second is that it gives Dean something to do. I really try to avoid having characters that feel like they’re just waiting off stage for their cue, or like they’re delivering dialogue in a black-box stage, as if the setting doesn’t matter. So the setting matters. It occupies Dean fully.

There are a couple of chapters or sections that feel like nothing is happening, or like nothing is really moving, or scenes are repeating. Those chapters are about building up tension, and making the reader wait, along with the characters. I rarely include something in a fic solely because I just want to, I think everything needs to give the reader some kind of information to give them a fuller picture of what’s happening, and if it’s repetitive it’s not doing that. But there’s some scenes in this fic that are repetitive by design, they exist to draw things out so that the release feels bigger.

Rowena and Eileen both get a little nod, because they were important to Sam, and they need to be acknowledged. They aren’t a bigger part of the story because as much as I wanted Sam’s absence to be felt, the story isn’t about him. The story isn’t even about dealing with grief, really. It’s about Dean reaching a point where he can leave a whole forty years of his life behind.

Another thing that happens throughout the story is that Cas is always looking towards the future, and trying to drag Dean along with him.

CHAPTER 5

Jack’s Air BnB is just this hipster hodgepodge. The vibe of it is such a nice contrast. There’s a couple of times when Jack is associated with sunshine. The scene in his Air BnB, his big scene with Dean, and the last chapter in the auction house. I didn’t really realize that as I was doing it, but now that I think about it, it’s fitting. By getting Jack out of the bunker, that allows him to be the vanguard, kind of, that pulls Cas and Dean out of there too.

Jody does not exist in this story to help Dean and Cas. She exists to highlight how fucked up they are, by them being fucked up beyond her comprehension or her ability to conceptualize or deal with.

CHAPTER 6

The panic room scene was one of the first scenes I conceptualized. At the time, I wasn’t sure how I wanted Cas to react, I was considering having him go along with Dean coming onto him, just out of his willingness to be what Dean requires of him. I was also thinking of it as just a step along the way to a turning point, not the turning point itself. Sorting this out is something that restlesshush helped with.

I just like putting Dean and Cas back in the panic room for climactic moments. I did this in FYPO too.

This scene, like the post-wake scene, is another mis-fire. It’s this big emotional release, but Dean and Cas still fundamentally misunderstand each other, so it’s frustrated. There’s potential for everything to just spill over, and it almost does. But they don’t quite get there.

I’m not sure I really have anything to say about the way Dean has fucked up fantasies about Cas. I think it’s pretty much all there on the surface. Dean thinks all he deserves is to be punished, he thinks he needs to suffer, and that’s a safe way for him to experience his genuine attraction to Cas. And it kind of subsumes and overrides any internalized homophobia Dean has.

And then Dean is just such a sad little man on the floor.

Chapter 6 is the thesis statement chapter. It’s about the question at the heart of this fic: who is Dean? Is he inherently monstrous? Why does he hurt the people around him? Does he have the capacity to change? Honestly, part of the inspiration for this fic was seeing some toxic deancas posts -- and, like, obviously I am not opposed to toxic deancas on principle -- but these posts took that dynamic to the extreme of Dean being abusive, and fundamentally needing to control the people around him. And I reject that. This fic is a polemic against that interpretation. I think Dean is someone who is at war with ideas about who he’s supposed to be. This fic is about -- given the opportunity, is this insular, oppressive life something that Dean would cling to, or is it something he’d try to escape.

The confrontation between Cas and Chuck is about that. And it’s also because it’s fun. I think Cas deserved to have more confrontations with Chuck.

Also, about the title of the fic. I did initially choose it because the lyrics to “Fix You” do really capture the vibe of the story. But then, because the story is about setting fire to what seemed fundamental. “I know the bones of this story”, Chuck says in this chapter. “What do you do with ghosts?” Dean asks in the last chapter.

CHAPTER 7

The first half of the fic (I did originally plan for 12 chapters) is about setting up the question of who Dean is. The second half is about answering it.

So the first thing Dean is confronted with is his relationship with Jack. And again, it was really important to me that Jack has his own motivation in these scenes, that he’s not passive in his relationship with Dean, that he feels real. And it’s satisfying to let Jack get frustrated, and angry. He gets frustrated and angry on the show! But so often he’s conceptualized as this poor passive little guy. And like, Jack does suffer, and he is mistreated, but doesn’t that mean all the more that he deserves to stand up and push back against that, at least a little? And yes, he’s young, but instead of using that to make him child-like and naive, why not use it so he can ask the questions that everyone else takes for granted? So it’s Jack who really challenges Dean to be a better person, by asking why he isn’t; while Cas just believes in Dean.

And it is concern for Cas that gets Dean to finally move forward.

The car. Of course the Impala is representative of Dean’s identity. And the fact that he avoids the Impala throughout the fic has to do with how he’s grappling with his own identity, and the trouble he has with facing that question head-on. The car that I give them for the fic, the wood-paneled station wagon, is one that appeared in a lot of the old movies I watched growing up. It’s something markedly different from every other car that’s appeared on the show, and it also has a retro family vibe to it.

Cas isn’t 100% right about who Dean is, either, of course. He has significant blind spots. But he’s more right than Chuck. And one thing that I enjoy is that his optimism regarding Dean isn’t just inspired by having blind faith in the guy. His faith in Dean isn’t blind, he knows Dean has faults. His optimism is inspired by his spirit of defiance and pride. It’s inspired by -- screw Chuck, I’m right.

Dean doesn’t want to hurt Cas. He wants to push Cas away. Dean realizing that that’s impossible, that Cas isn’t actually going to leave and he isn’t going to stop loving him, forces Dean to rethink his approach. And it’s not just Cas saying “I’ll still love you” that convinces Dean that what he’s saying is true. It’s the way that Cas responds to the question “Do you think I hate you”? That’s the proof for Dean that Cas isn’t going to stop.

There’s two times that it rains in this story. The first time, the sky is that even, flat grey. The second time it’s all patchy and dramatic with sunbursts. I just felt like pointing that out.

Dean’s change of location is both symbolic of his changing mental state, and necessary for his changing mental state.

CHAPTER 8

Again, the setting is so important. Knowing that I wanted Dean and Cas to end up on the open road, I wanted to introduce that as a place in itself, and talk about how Dean feels about it. That he thinks of it as a “blank page” was written with the ending in mind. It’s a place where he can write his own story.

Dean thinking about how to approach Jack, and thinking about what Sam would say is one of the few, or even only, places in the story where I feel like Sam actually makes an appearance.

Regarding the big Dean and Jack chapter, there’s a few points I’ve made about Dean and Jack already that apply here. Jack being allowed to have a whole range of emotions, Jack being the one to challenge Dean to change, talking explicitly about whether Dean is capable of change. Dean does try to reject the challenge that Jack places before him, of trying to be someone better. Mainly out of a fear of failure. But Dean is finding that he can’t just opt out of people caring about him, or out of impacting people with his actions. This chapter is also about acknowledging all the inconsistencies with Jack, and Jack’s relationship with Dean, and leaning into them. Jack has been a mirror for different characters. That’s how he was introduced. And Dean has seen him in all these different lights. So this is about resolving those into one image, contradictions and all. And creating the basis on which they can move forward.

I also really like the element of the sun being too hot, and them being in a parking lot, and Dean’s eyes hurting from the light. It’s a nice change from the regular darkness of the fic. And I think just as evocative in an emotional scene as more dramatic weather.

CHAPTER 9

The way Dean and Cas finally get together immediately after the Dean and Jack scene is kinda funny to me. Like, good job, Dean, sorting out your shit with Jack, now you get Cas as a reward. It does kind of work that way. But the other reason why it has to follow that way is that Dean being too exhausted to fight, or to deny himself, and just wanting to be friends with Cas, is what makes the scene possible. The fact that he’s so emotionally worn down from everything, most recently from his exchange with Jack. So he can be really open with Cas, and really make himself understood for the first time. Like, the gist of what Dean says is very similar to what he told Cas in chapter 3, but it’s said with an entirely different aim.

I spent so much time on Dean’s speech. The flow and feel and content of it. It needed to be very immediate, something Dean understands about himself and is sharing for the first time, something that he’s been sitting with for so long. But then also, because it’s the first time he’s bringing it into the light, it’s also the first time he himself is getting a good, true look at his feelings. Writing scenes like this, it’s a balance between getting in good lines of dialogue, and staying true to the psychology and voice of the characters, and not letting the scene spin out of control.

And it really is, what does Cas mean to Dean at this point of the story? How did Cas’ confession change the way that Dean sees Cas? I think the impact of the confession, in certain way, was to put Cas back up on a bit of a pedestal, after he’d been knocked down so long ago. Like he did this thing, that’s so pure and self-sacrificial, and that’s the happiest he’s ever been. And I don’t think it showed Dean a whole new side to Cas, but it did bring him into focus. And Dean already can’t stand the world when Cas isn’t in it, so add onto that this sense of Cas being all about love, and yeah, I do think it makes sense to feel like all the love and light went out of the world when Cas died.

The moment of breaking tension was so important to get right. The sense of finally. The bridge breaking. Like, the tension breaks, and then Dean’s just done for. Like, he’s been so fucking starving for someone to touch him, and for Cas specifically to touch him, and then he gets what he’s been waiting for, and there’s no turning back.

There are a couple of lines of Cas’ dialogue that I thought of very very early on, that I just really love conceptually. “If our chance is ruined, I’ll take it anyways”. And when Dean says, “If you know what’s good for you, you’d get away from me,” Cas replying “I’ve never known what’s good for me.” Like, those really capture the depth of Cas’ devotion, to me. And I’m quite proud of it.

This was the longest sex scene I’ve ever written. I just kept thinking about the emotional beats necessary to get them to the end point, and adding on to it. It’s a journey. And there’s a few things that happen that aren’t sexy, or aren’t something that would happen if I was writing this as purely a sex scene. Because it’s never just about the sex, it’s about the character development, it’s about the psychology. It’s about Dean and Cas both being desperate for each other. And them both being sad, fucked-up guys. Dean pushing himself to have sex even when it doesn’t feel good, and Cas losing his mind from Dean cuddling with him, are the big character moments. They show how not okay Dean and Cas both are.

CHAPTER 10

In an early draft I had a big all-caps note to myself, that fucking Cas does not fix Dean, but it makes him worse. That was a really important dynamic to me. That Dean and Cas love each other, and need each other, but they also each make the other one more crazy.

I don’t really deal with Dean’s internalized homophobia per se in this fic. The way I think of him, it’s always a part of his make-up. But given the situation, it just gets wrapped up in his general guilt. Like, Dean is afraid of other people seeing him and Cas as a couple, but it’s because he fears that will lead to them realizing his guilt, and that’s the far more important problem for him at the moment.

Dean letting Jack drive is clearly an important beat. It is about Dean giving up a piece of who he’s always been, the driver, the one in control. He’s questioning where he fits in any of this, and who he’s going to be.

Dean-and-Cas-move-out-of-the-bunker-and-fix-up-an-old-house is such a common thing in fic. I was doing a bit of misdirect, hinting at the possibility of that with Bobby’s house. But the real point of bringing Dean to Bobby’s property was to mess with him psychologically. Get him in a place where he’s thinking about his past, and who he was, and who he’s capable of being. And to open the door to an option for Jack’s future.

On the topic of Jack more generally. I knew from the beginning that the conclusion for Dean and Cas was to run away from their old life. But that left the question of what to do with Jack. If I was going to be true to my principles, I had to be very careful about Jack not feeling like an afterthought. He couldn’t just tag along with Dean and Cas (especially because I intended for Dean and Cas to be very horny all the time when they run away), and he couldn’t just be deposited in his apartment. And, like, Jack has issues and some good moments in this story, but he doesn’t have the clearest arc. So that’s something I decided to lean into. That Jack doesn’t have to have everything decided, he doesn’t have to have a path all picked out. And what happens to him throughout the fic -- spending time with Jody and the girls on his own, getting his own place, making friends, having ideas about what to do with Bobby’s place, etc. -- it’s all about saying, the world is open to him. He can do what he wants and he’ll be okay. He has more options than the narrow path that he’s been on. I think I probably could have done more planning regarding Jack, but in general I’m happy with how he turned out.

Chapters 10 and 11 were originally one chapter, and all of what happens in chapter 10 was going to be from Dean’s POV. But then it got too long, and I wanted to make sure that Cas wasn’t getting lost in all of Dean’s problems. The way the garage scene went originally, was that it was Dean POV, and it was him finding a space where he was comfortable, and finding a headspace where he was comfortable, which did involve thinking back to “simpler times”, and Dean letting himself get lost in that headspace for a bit. And in doing so he lets himself be happy for a bit, so then when he leaves the garage, everything comes rushing back to him, with twice the weight and twice the guilt. And that is what happens, but we’re just seeing it from Cas’ perspective. So again there’s this tension between Dean looking to the past, and Cas very much trying to grasp for the future.

In many ways, this fic is about the relationship between one’s self and one’s location. I always like thinking about location and making sure the characters feel grounded in a real place. But the locations took on extra resonance in this fic, I feel.

Dean comes out to Jody as a kind of self-flagellation. He feels guilty for letting himself be happy with Cas, and he thinks that if he tells Jody about them, then she’ll judge him, and he’ll be punished in some way. So that’s why he does that. Writing that scene from Cas’ point of view was a little challenging.

CHAPTER 11

Again, Jody wants to help Dean and Cas, she’s worried about them, but she doesn’t have the toolkit to make much of a dent. Her purpose is to provide juxtaposition, to show just how fucked up beyond help Dean and Cas really are. It’s to show the acuteness of Cas’ blind spots when it comes to Dean, and Cas’ refusal to think of himself first. And she shows how hard it is for Dean to deal with anything at all positive in his life, how it just creates a burden of expectations for him.

CHAPTER 12

Originally I was going to have a scene where Patience talks to Cas, not Dean, and she tells Cas that he needs to be careful with Dean and watch out for him. The purpose being mainly to build tension and hint that something big is coming up. But I preferred Cas being relentlessly optimistic and didn’t want to undercut that. So instead Patience reiterates to Dean that he has a choice, and it’s a real choice. He can choose who he wants to be, reinforcing that major theme of the story. In doing so she also puts more pressure on Dean.

The diner scene was very vague for a long time. I just knew that I wanted something to happen that would put Dean in a bad headspace, and make him feel seen in a bad way. I considered having them run into Apocalypse Bobby, but that never really took shape. So instead, we have homophobia. And it’s not homophobia existing for its own sake to be treated as an issue, but just a very sharp way in which to make Dean feel like there’s something wrong with him that everyone can see.

I thought about trying to work in a stronger sense of Cas’ POV in the diner. To give a sense of his protectiveness. And also to show that everything they’ve gone through is taking a toll on Cas, and he is frustrated and angry at life, but he’s trying so hard to work towards a future that he represses it. But then this asshole comes along and gives Cas the chance to get some aggression out. But I didn’t want to get too far away from Dean’s point of view.

The car and driving come back as motifs. Again, they’re about Dean’s identity, Dean filling the role he thinks he’s supposed to play. Dean’s the driver. He’s the leader. He’s the father, like John was the father. He’s not supposed to be weak. Dean making love to Cas and being on top is about that too. It’s him trying to meet expectations of what it means to be a man, or a hunter, or what it means to be Dean Winchester. To meet expectations that he knows he’s already failed to meet.

When Dean gets back to the bunker, he’s kind of back to the beginning. He’s back in that terrible headspace that being in the bunker puts him in. But it’s worse than at the beginning. Dean feels so much more responsibility now.

The thing with Jack running over the ferret and the talk with Cas that follows was something I came up with spur-of-the-moment. Jack was always going to make a friend, and she was always going to be walking a ferret, just as a piece of characterization. And Cas and Jack were going to talk about college. But then I thought, what if Jack runs over the ferret instead. That would be more interesting. And it creates a pattern of Jack killing other people’s pets.

There’s a threat of Dean backsliding that I wanted to be felt throughout this chapter. The fact that he doesn’t shows how much of an effort he’s really making.

CHAPTER 13

The whole question is -- how is Dean going to manage to move forward? The bunker is symbolic of everything that his life has been, his old place in the world, everything Dean has lost and everything he feels responsible for. And it’s something he’s tied to with his entire being. I wanted the reader to be afraid that Dean was going to kill himself, and in a way that is what he does -- it’s a symbolic suicide. He kills off his old self, his old life.

And that’s the closing argument on the essay, in a way, that argues the question of who Dean is. Dean wants to change for the better. But he’s so tied down by everything in his old life. Does he want to change, does he want to love and be loved enough to blow all of that up? My answer is yes.

I wanted the last scene to be a huge final catharsis, to feel crazy, but still freeing. And also to have Nicholas Sparks romance vibes. Hence, the rain. And not just the rain, but the weird, surreal mood of sunshowers.

Jack gets his last scene. He’s not on a definite path. His fate isn’t decided. It’s open for him to figure it out. I like how his last talks with Cas serve a dual purpose of orienting Jack towards the future, ending his story in a positive place, as well as, hopefully, building some tension, with Cas being so hopeful when we don’t know what’s happened to Dean yet.

I just love Cas so much, and I love torturing him and putting him through shit. He has to feel just as crazy as Dean at the end of the story, so putting him through that scare helps with that.

I love the image of Dean racing down the road in the Impala -- back in his car for the first time since the start of the story, he’s himself again. And then saying that he’s giving the car away. He’s ready to start fresh. And whatever it was about his old life, or about the car, that was positive and worth hanging on to, he’s giving to Jack.

What else can I say about the ending? I was thinking about it for so long, knowing that the whole depressing slog of the fic would only be justified if that last scene was solid and did what it was supposed to. Like, Dean is insane, but he’s free, he’s really truly free, and Cas is 100% down with whatever comes next, as long as he’s chasing happiness with Dean.

CHAPTER 14

Originally, I was just going to end the story with “tear up the pages---” But then I was worried that it wouldn’t be clear enough what happened. And, since the story started with Chuck POV, it would make sense to end with him too. So, the final bit about him never finding out what happens next.

I was considering doing an epilogue from Jack’s POV. He would’ve been at Bobby’s, starting to clear away the wreckage and explaining to Claire what happened. And it would have been hopeful and funny. But it also would have been an encroachment on the ending, so I dropped the idea.

I think writing this fic fixed something in me, lol.

#spn #dean winchester #castiel #jack kline #destiel #my commentary #by mi #iyb

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purplewitch156 · 3 years ago

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Hi! I've always wanted to start book binding my favorite fics, but it seems like a really daunting task. I was wondering what programs you use? And how you do your type setting? And about how long does it take you to do one book? I've tried finding easy to follow tutorials (mainly for the type setting tbh, I've never done anything like that before), but haven't found any that I like. Thanks you! 😊

Hi! Binding fanfic can be very daunting! It took me forever to figure out how to print it in booklet form and I wouldn’t have been able to do it if my brother hadn’t been helping me. But once you figure it out, it’s actually pretty simple. I'm not sure how long it actually took me to make my books from start to finish. A couple of months? It's certainly not something you just bang out in a day.

This gets pretty long, so everything is beneath the cut. (Click the images to see them better.)

For my two books I used Microsoft Word. However, I’m excited about trying Affinity Publisher for the next project. It has a free month trial with apparently lots of youtube tutorials, but because I haven’t tried it yet, I’ll just focus on Word.

Note: This is what I did. I know @renegadepublishing has a very in-depth guide on typesetting. You could probably ask them for it or it may be on their discord. I had already started on my typeset by the time I’d heard about their guide, so I didn’t follow it, but it’s another option for you.

Margins

I already owned a book interior template back when I was self publishing, so I just copied the margins that were in it. I bet you can fiddle with this and find the margins you like best.

Go to Page Setup and click the small arrow to open the dialog box. From there change your margins, choose landscape, choose bookfold, and choose the number of sheets per booklet. For both of my books I did 16.

Next you’re going to click on the Paper tab and tell it what sized paper you’ll be printing on. I did letter (11 in by 8.5 in).

Next click on the Layout tab and tell it to start the section on Odd Page and check the boxes for different odd and even pages and different first page and fill out header and footer margins.

The Typeset

Under Page Layout, you’re going to click on Breaks.

There will be a drop down menu and select Odd Page. This is your half title page or full title page, depending on what you want to do. I recommend grabbing a random book off your shelf and looking at how they did the front matter. How many title pages did they put in? Where are they located? On an odd page or an even page?

Let’s say you want to do two title pages. Both should be on Odd Pages. There is no need to insert an Even Page break between them because the computer will know there is an Even Page between two Odd Pages, but you can insert a blank Even Page between them if it helps keeps things clear for you.

Continue to insert the appropriate Odd or Even Page breaks. For example, if you want to add a copyright page or an Other Things the Writer’s Written page. This is all up to you. You don’t have to put in any of that stuff. Just be sure that you’re giving these pages a designated break.

Now you’re ready to do Chapter One!

Make another Odd Page break and copy and paste the first chapter into the document. I know that sometimes copying and pasting from AO3 can be tricky, but I’ve only had two chapters where the italics didn’t transfer and I had to manually insert them, so I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Just keep an eye out for any formatting issues.

When it comes to formatting, have fun! Play around with different body fonts and chapter fonts. Add a Drop Cap if you want. To make things easy and consistent, use the Styles. You can modify them however which way you want, but be sure to choose justify. It’s also important to make Hyphenation automatic.

Now it’s time to make some headers and footers. You should have a bunch of text in chapter one. Pick a page and double click the header. The first page of the chapter will say it’s the first page header and then it will be Even and Odds. For the Evens I typed in my name. For the Odds I put in the book title. I’m actually having a hard time remembering how I did the page numbers, but I think I just clicked on the Page Number box and chose one I liked. For the headers and footers, you can alter the font and size. You can make them bold or italicized.

All the odd headers should be the same and all the even headers should be the same with the chapter title page not having a header or footer. (I think there might be a way of keeping the page number on the chapter page but I don’t know how.)

Now you’re ready to do Chapter Two!

Check the last page in the document and insert the appropriate page break, be it Odd or Even. This is important because it’s telling the program that you’re starting a new section and therefore there won’t be a header or footer on that page. The headers and footers will essentially skip over it and continue with the rest of the pages when you copy and paste the text in.

You’re going to keep repeating these steps until you get to the end of the book, always inserting the appropriate page break at the start of a new chapter. You should also do this if you want to add quotes or if the book has multiple parts and you want to make a page that showcases that without the headers or page number cluttering it up.

When you get to the end it’s a good idea to add two more blank pages. Congratulations! You did it!

When it’s time to print, make sure you tell it to print on the Short Edge. Double check that it’s on landscape, that the right sized paper is selected and that it’s printing double sided.

Remember when I said 16 pages to make a booklet? You don’t have to do 16. There are a lot of different options, but what this means is that the printer will print these sections so that when they are folded, the page numbers will match up. It’s super confusing to explain and I’m probably not doing a good job, but if you grab the first four pages out of the printer, and fold them into a packet, the title page will be on the front page and page sixteen will be the last page. It will continue to print this way with four sheets of paper needing to be folded into a booklet.

It's also important that if you're going to insert clipart, you'll need to tell word not to compress the images. This drove me crazy for a long time. Go to file, click options, click advanced and scroll down to where it talks about images.

I hope this is helpful and that you give bookbinding a go!

#typesetting #how i did it #microsoft word #bookbinding #ficbinding #tutorial

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marypsue · 2 years ago

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(feel free to ignore if you deem my questions too spoilery!)

hi!! i fucking Love the hawkins indiana psychic baby boom series thank you so much for sharing your brainchild with us. i saw in the final chapter end notes that part 3 is underway and i was wondering... will eddie make an early appearance, like robin did (for which by the way i kiss the ground you walk on)? since you're not doing s4 if i got that correctly. and do you have shipping in store for him? since his most popular partner is out for the count (yay stoncy!!) it occured to me that chrissy might be a player and i would love to see her in your hands, she has so much potential!! st s4 really made me ride or die for her in 10 minutes

also also... steve and barb's conversation about heartbreak and icecream made me think... was that a setup for barb hanging out at the mall a lot in the summer? i am greatly looking forward to steve & robin (naturally, im predictable like that) and i am also very 👀 about barb being an occasional addition... if steve & robin still get their summer jobs i suppose

well anyway! sorry for the rain of questions lolol. i really enjoy your writing and im looking forward to what you have in store for us!!

Anon I am squishing your cheeks together like an aunt with a beloved nibling.

Hello and thank you! This AU was entirely an exercise in self-indulgence for me, and I'm absolutely thrilled that it's made other people happy as well. (Honestly, I was expecting to lose some people with this second fic and the heavy foreshadowing of my favourite pool noodle of a ship, Joyce/Bob/Hopper, but instead I had three separate people tell me they hadn't considered the ship but now they were invested in seeing it happen in the AU, which I am counting as the biggest of wins.)

You read that right, I am wrapping it up after the third part. I've made some significant changes to the plot of season 3 (which...would have had to have happened anyway, considering how many things are different going in), and I'm hoping they'll make the antagonists and themes of the third part a better match to the first two and wrap the AU up nicely with a bow and a cherry on top. I still (yeah, still) haven't finished s4, because I'm still grumpy about it, but I have borrowed a couple of cues from one of the directions it took that I did like.

Having not finished s4 yet, I also have to say I'm not particularly invested in its new characters or in shipping them, and I'm not going to make them a big part of the storyline. I'm more concerned with making sure the characters I've already got in play in the AU get a fair shake and a satisfying ending. With that said, though, I haven't been living in a total bubble, I'm not made of stone, and I know people are excited to see Eddie and Chrissy. So. Don't expect much, but I'm not gonna totally leave them out, either. (ETA: I reread this and it sounds like such a bummer, lmao. Does it help if I say I got the BIGGEST evil grin when I finally figured out what to do with Eddie, and I’m reprising that evil grin thinking about how you’re going to react when you get to see it?)

As for the mall...it's a big part of s3, and also, I've been badly nostalgic for the malls of my youth (you know, before half or more of the stores were empty wherever you went and the general aura whenever you set foot inside one was of slow decline and misery). So yeah, Starcourt's absolutely still going to be a big part of the action. What that means for each of the characters, individually or otherwise, I'll leave you to speculate on, for now!

(Please feel very welcome to speculate. In my inbox, even! I love hearing about what people think is going on or going to happen next in my fics! I do however reserve the right to answer anything I feel is spoilery - or anything that's not actually spoilery, but I just feel like being a troll about - with a gif of an axolotl.)

#chatter

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leos-regression-cove · 2 years ago

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Nothing In The Parenting Books Prepared Me For This

Chapter 59. Monster Trucks

Synopsis: When Thor finds a flyer for a Monster Truck show coming up in their area, the littles and Mobius can't help but get in on the excitement.

Word count: 3,851

Stand Alone?: Although no previous knowledge of this fic is required, there will be a follow-up chapter, as this is the first half of a two-parter.

Warnings: Diapers; mild mention of violence;

Notes: I feel like I should add an extra warning for general silliness. It's a ridiculous chapter and just kind of setup for what's to come.

Read On AO3!

“Look! Look! Everyone, look at this!”

Thor nearly ran into the cafeteria where Loki, Sylvie, and Mobius were sipping on their caffeinated beverages of choice, and slammed down a flyer onto the table, nearly knocking it over.

“What’s this?” Loki asked, picking it up to examine it, while Sylvie inspected it over his shoulder.

“A monster fight!” Thor enthusiastically interjected.

Mobius took the paper out of Loki’s hands to also get a look. “Monster trucks,” he corrected, looking up at Thor.

“Yes, exactly! Monsters! It’ll be just like the arena battles Loki and I used to go to, right brother?”

Loki couldn’t help but smile thinking of those fond memories. Sure, the violence wasn’t his personal favorite thing in the world, but those fights did have some fantastic, unique fare he could never find within the palace walls.

Mobius studied the flyer further; the tickets were not the cheapest, but with Thor’s notoriety, Loki’s charm, and Sylvie’s hypnosis abilities, he knew 40$ per person wasn’t actually going to be what they paid. “Well,” he conceded, “guess we should mark our calendars then, huh?”

That Sunday morning, Sylvie just could not wait. When she had first heard about the idea she wasn’t sure. Honestly, she had been rather indifferent about the whole idea, but now that she was little, well, things were different. Like usual, she was the first one up in the home.

As quietly as she could, she got up, careful not to disturb her sleeping companions, and ran to go see Thor, clicking open the door of her cabin home and cautiously looking out into the woods, inspecting the sun-tipped trees for forest friends and foes before sneaking down the patio steps and onto the dirt ground.

She rapt on the door of Thor’s yurt.

He casually opened it for her as he continued washing his dishes.

Her big, oversized, t-shirt gave her little-ness away when paired with the giddy-excited expression on her face, and he couldn’t help but smile at it.

“What’s got you coming to see me so early? Shouldn’t Mobius be taking care of you?” Thor asked. He didn’t mean to sound like he didn’t want to be taking care of her, but usually there was something wrong if someone else wasn’t there looking after her, or Loki for that matter.

“Nope! He’s asleep.” She ignored the first question as she sat down on his stuffed-animal-covered bed, ignoring the nearby couch.

“Is he?” Thor pretended to sound like that was something he really cared about, but he was still hung up on why she had come to see him instead of just going for a walk or lounging about in bed or playing with her toys in the nursery. “So what did you come see me for?”

“I wanna hear about the monsters! Grr!” she held up a snake plushie to show him.

Thor turned off the sink and took the snake out of her hand. “First of all, snakes aren’t monsters. They’re very sweet… most of the time.”

There was no ‘second of all’. As soon as he had said that, he moved the little girl into his lap and encouraged her to look at his ax on the wall with big doe eyes as he told her all about it, the adventures he had gone on, and the many creatures he had slain, sometimes acting them out with his stuffed animals, hands, or even Sylvie for that matter.

She grinned and giggled the whole time and exaggerated nervous gasps whenever her big brother seemed to be in grave peril.

There were eventually a couple knocks at the door, and after Thor finished describing one of his favorite battles in very loud, dramatic, fashion for Sylvie’s entertainment, he opened it.

Mobius stood outside, carrying Loki in his arms.

“You have Sylvie, right?” Mobius asked, while bouncing the toddler while also slightly ignoring her.

He looked past both Thor and Loki to make eye-contact with the older little.

Sylvie waved back at him with a smile and seemed to understand that she was wanted and needed to come back with them.

“Sorry to take her away, but I wanna make sure somebody gets breakfast and her teeth brushed.”

Sylvie grinned, knowing she was the “somebody” in question and ran up to her daddy and Loki, bumping Thor out of the way, but turning to wave back to him before she was led back to the house.

Loki’s form did not change with her gender today. The only thing that demonstrated her feminine leanings was a bow in her hair and her own insistence that she’d be using different pronouns for the day.

Mobius set her into her highchair and let Sylvie sit in her own big-girl chair while he prepared something to eat; a sippy cup of juice for the toddler, a plastic cup of juice for the big-kid, and an egg with toast for each of them.

The two girls were immensely excited for the day, with Sylvie sitting on her knees on her chair, and Loki, playing with her food more than she ate, once again. And after breakfast, not much changed as Mobius bathed them and got them dressed. Well, Sylvie did it all herself, but she made sure to talk to Mobius and Loki through the bathroom door as if they were listening and chatted further while getting dressed and distracting Loki during her diaper changes, to which the younger little responded with her own input.

The littles were almost bouncing off the walls with excitement as Mobius packed up some things he thought they’d need and set their toddler backpacks on their backs, clicking both girls’ harnesses into place and putting leashes in her backpack, just so he could make sure neither of them could run away too far from Thor and so Loki would think twice about teleporting.

When Thor entered the home, both of the tots ran up to him, hopping up and down and excitedly flapping their arms and clapping about the big trucks and fair food.

Thor picked up both of his little sisters, and slung Loki over his shoulder while holding Sylvie under his arm by the midsection in a way he used to hold Loki before the little god’s growth spurt roughly eight hundred years ago.

The girls kept giggling and excitedly squirming as Mobius and Thor loaded them into their car seats.

“You ladies ready for a big adventure today?” Mobius asked them as he turned around to back out the car.

“Yeah!” Sylvie immediately answered with a huge, Thor-like grin.

Loki agreed and kicked Mobius’ seat just a little bit while playing with the top layers of her tutu skirt.

“Thor said there’s gonna be fire and blood and guts,” the preschool aged one elaborated.

Mobius frowned and looked back at the girls in their car seats. He thought about telling Sylvie it was supposed to be a family show and that violence probably wasn’t going to happen, but decided not to ruin her fun.

During the long car ride, Thor decided to entertain the littles with a game. He reached back and gave Sylvie a small punch in the arm. “Punchbuggy blue,” he said as a blue Volkswagen Beetle rolled past.

“Punchbuggy green!” Sylvie exclaimed, leaning forward to get him back.

“No, that’s not how this works, you punch someone when you see a buggy car and you call out the color,” Thor calmly explained.

Loki reached forward and lightly fist-bumped his arm.

“Mobius tell them they’re not playing the game properly!”

“Girls, you have to see the car first.”

Loki conjured a shaky illusion of a car in the opposite lane and then punched Thor for it. “Punchbug geen!” she laughed.

“You two are no fun to play with. Little cheats,” he mumbled, crossing his arms.

“I’ll play,” Mobius said. “I always remember calling it ‘slugbug’ though.”

“‘Slugbug’?”

“Yeah. I dunno. Must be a regional thing I guess.”

“Weird.”

There weren’t many on the drive there, but Mobius got in a few punches, which made Thor cross his arms and insist he actually didn’t want to play.

Upon getting out of the car, Mobius checked the time, and, realizing they had about twenty minutes, took some time to move car seats so he could change Loki in the back seat while Sylvie tried her best to get them all to go into the large fairgrounds so she could go see the big trucks.

Thor hugged her, resting his chin on top of her head, leaning down to wrap his arms around her neck and shoulders, and moving her gently from side to side, as she complained about missing things and impatiently requested they go soon.

“Just a second, Loki’s just... Not making this easy for me,” Mobius told her.

Loki wasn’t upset or especially poorly behaved, but changing a little in the backseat of a tiny compact commuter car like this was not an easy task on its own, even if she was still a wiggly and babbly little tot, who couldn’t help but coo at Mobius and chew on her teethers as he changed her and took on the daunting task of trying to keep her legs still.

“Alright, there we go, all done,” he said, putting the dirty nappy into a plastic ziploc bag to toss out later, and coating his hands in sanitizer before he picked Loki up, and later handed her off to Thor, to which she responded to by pulling on her big brother’s beard and hair before sticking her hand in her mouth and getting distracted by the loud noises and crowds as they got to the entrance.

“That’s a lotta people…” Sylvie commented.

“I know it is, that’s why I’ve got this, so I can keep track of you girls,” Mobius said, showing her the yellow leash attached to her back. “That way you can’t get lost.”

Sylvie nodded understandingly as she took Thor’s free hand as well as Mobius’, standing in between them so neither of them would have the chance to get lost.

It wasn’t that there were a lot of people per-say, but the crowd was being filed into a relatively small area, which made the whole thing feel rather claustrophobic.

As they waited to get through the gates of the local fairgrounds-- the ticket check and subsequent security-- Sylvie boredly tried to swing in between her caregivers. After a few regular swings, Thor lifted his arm all the way up, holding her a few inches off the ground with Mobius’ help, making her scream and laugh.

The stadium was loud, and very crowded. It felt like every voice echoed, so Mobius made sure to put headphones on the excitable Loki who hopped down from her brother’s arms when they were done waiting in line, only to yank on her leash and quickly become disheartened as she realized she wouldn’t be wandering off on her own. She toddled awkwardly in front of her family, chewing anxiously on her pacifier, and looking at all the bright lights and people and doing her best to not feel overstimulated by all the smells of intriguing foods.

“Tor! Treats!” she screamed, pulling her older brother towards one of the food stands.

“Indoor voices!” Mobius called out in an equally loud manner.

“Daddy, if Loki’s getting a treat I should get one cuz’ I’ve been so much better behaved than her.”

Mobius looked down at Sylvie. “You should be. She’s a baby and you’re a big girl, but neither of you are getting treats until we all agree on something, okay?”

“Mobius! Sylvie! Look what Loki and I found!” Thor yelled back at them, waving some paper wrappers in the air over the crowd.

Sylvie ran up to them, pulling Mobius behind her and barely missing tripping up a few passersby. “Whatcha got? What is it? Do I get one?”

“Of course I got you one! It’s a churro. It’s a pastry with sugar on the outside and some filling.”

“I’ve had these before!” she grinned, feeling incredibly worldly and smart for recognizing the snack.

“I think this is Loki’s first experience with them, though,” Mobius said with fascination, as he watched the little girl gnaw on the dessert. “Whaddya think? Do you like it?”

The toddler nodded vigorously as she stuffed more in her mouth.

“You girls need anything else before we go find our seats?”

“I wanna soda!” Sylvie said with a sugary grin.

“And anyone need to use the bathroom?”

A little more shyly, she nodded.

“What kind of soda?” Thor asked her. “Loki and I can get it while you go potty.”

“The blue kind ,” she answered before Mobius took her into the crowd.

Thor looked at his baby sister who was sucking on her fingers to get all the sugar off before lifting her up.

“I’m still hungry, aren’t you?” he asked.

She agreed as she sat in his arms.

“What should we snack on…? Do you see anything good?”

Loki kept her fingers in her mouth and she surveyed the area from above the crowd. “Um…” She pointed randomly at one stall.

Thor read her the menu when they got closer. “...Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, garlic fries, nachos… would you like any of that?”

Loki took her fingers out of her mouth and pointed at a picture.

“You want some garlic fries? Not the normal ones?”

The little nodded.

“Should we put something in your sippy cup, too? Maybe lemonade?”

“Yeah!” she agreed, flapping her arms a little bit.

“Did your daddy want anything?”

“Um… apple.”

“Apple?” Thor laughed. “Do you think he’d settle for a cheeseburger, instead?”

Loki shook her head but with a big, ridiculous grin showing through.

“Silly girl,” Thor chuckled as he pulled her down for a kiss on the collarbone. “I thought you were the story goddess now, but here you keep playing tricks. Next thing you’ll tell me you’re potty trained.”

Upon receiving the food, Thor ended up setting Loki down and wrapping her backpack leash around his wrist as he tried to balance everything in his arms, while she carried her own sippy cup in a proud, waddling march a few feet in front of him.

Sylvie and Mobius were outside the bathrooms where Thor and Loki had left them, which gave them a little time to regroup and for Thor to distribute food.

“We didn’t know what you wanted so we got you burgers…” Thor told Sylvie and Mobius. “But I did remember your soda,” he smiled, handing her a rather large cup.

She looked down at it and cautiously removed the plastic lid to make sure it was the blue kind and not purple or brown or gods forbid orange.

“There’s nothing down there!” Sylvie complained after finding her seats with everyone else.

“We are a little early, but that’s good. We’re just gonna be patient and eat our food until the show starts, okay?” Mobius asked her before changing gears to talk to the other little. “Whaddya get Loki?” he questioned as he took a bite from his own burger.

Loki was sitting in her brother’s lap and Thor was holding the box of garlic fries stable for her as she slowly, one by one, fed herself while curiously inspecting the rest of the small stadium. She looked over at Mobius only after Thor used his free hand to move a cup-like ear protector off one of her ears.

“Loki, whaddya get?” he asked her again, now that he had her attention.

The little ate the fry in her hand and made a knowing smile before picking up another, and very carefully, leaned closer to him and, with her awkward, babyish motor skills, smushed it into his mustache, only getting a little bit of the fry into his mouth, and successfully making her daddy, older brother, and big sister laugh.

She sucked in her bottom lip as she went right back to feeding herself, actually rather cleanly, with the exception of continuously trying to wipe her greasy hands on her skirt or her brother’s jeans.

Mobius eventually just had to grab her wrists and wipe her hands on a proper napkin, much to her displeasure.

When the show did start, Loki and Sylvie had their ears nicely protected and, luckily, their food was eaten-- except for a couple drinks including the one in Loki’s sippy cup, which she sucked on as the first truck was introduced, intently and quietly watching.

“Look at him go, Loki! Are you seeing that?!” Thor asked with a big, giddy, smile, bouncing her on his knee.

She silently nodded.

Sylvie, on the other hand, was bouncing up and down, on the verge of springing up out of her seat as she cheered with the rest of the crowd.

After one particularly large truck smashed some smaller, older, cars Thor did shoot up out of his seat, carrying Loki with him as he cheered.

The little girl was, understandably, rather shocked by her sudden change in positioning.

“Do you want me to take her?” Mobius asked when he sat back down.

Thor looked almost confused.

“I’ll take her, if you want…”

Loki furrowed her eyebrows at him as Thor handed her over.

However, to her surprise, Mobius was just as enjoyable of a companion during an event like this, hugging Loki close to him and also trying to make the event interesting to her, even though it was obvious that, to her, the show was not living up to the same standard of excitement that the other arena shows she had seen had set.

Noting her lack of enthusiasm, Sylvie took off her backpack and opened it up, only to hand Loki a miniature Hot Wheels version of one of the trucks.

The smaller little took it, taking her thumb out of her mouth and replacing it with a pocket-dimension pacifier as she ran the car along her daddy’s arms and her big siblings’ legs.

“Woah!” Sylvie suddenly yelled, shaking Loki’s shoulder and pointing at the pit of dirt beneath them.

The younger little looked down to find that a wheel had come off one of the trucks and it had flipped over, turtling on its back.

Loki grinned and clapped with the toy truck still in her hand, making a cooing noise, and, even though she couldn’t hear it, making Mobius chuckle.

Now that her attention was definitely on the trucks, things only got more interesting for Loki.

One car that was introduced, made Loki and Sylvie both pull on their caregivers and ask if they could get closer.

Mobius motioned that he was going to stay where he was and watch the seats, but the littles and their big brother were welcome to get a closer look, granted they had their backpacks on.

The truck itself was, to Loki’s absolute delight, and Thor and Sylvie’s amusement, a garbage truck-- or at least, it was meant to look like one.

Loki squeaked and tapped her feet, before nearly pulling Thor and Sylvie down the stairs of the aisle so she could get as close as possible to the machine, and eventually hopping against the plastic fronted guard rails.

Thor ended up picking her up and setting her on his shoulders to watch as she babbled and clapped at every jump or turn the car made and bounced up and down, much to the distress of Thor’s neck, every time it crushed something.

Someone tapped on Thor’s shoulder from behind-- someone who wasn’t Loki or Sylvie-- causing the big god to turn around and make the toddler fuss a little bit.

“Are you Thor!?” a young man asked.

Thor nodded while the little on his shoulders fussed and tried to turn him back around, pulling his hair like Remy the rat, so he set her down and let Sylvie watch over her for a couple of seconds, holding firmly onto the leashes.

He took the commonly asked for selfies with his fan and tried to chat over all the loud commotion, barely able to make out the words they were saying. With that being said, he made do and was able to pick up that the man had ties with a lot of the drivers and that Thor was invited to come backstage any time, either now or after the show-- with his guests, of course.

Thor looked back to ask his sisters what they’d like to do now that the garbage truck had been returned to the sidelines and was no longer performing, only to find that Sylvie had jumped up and was climbing on the vinyl barriers, and trying her best to get Loki to join her. However, it seemed that despite her height, Loki was having some trouble largely due to her bulky diaper and fluffy skirt which made her movements awkward and unagile.

Without hesitation, Thor put Loki back on his back before trying to grab Sylvie, until he noticed Mobius up, out of his seat, and coming towards them, slightly out of breath from obviously trying to run.

The older little smiled and seemed to be under the impression Thor was playing a game with her as she pulled away, against the leash. But of course it did no good and she was eventually dragged back into an acceptable area where Thor was able to pick her up, before Mobius could take by the wrist and trudge away with her, to a slightly quieter spot inside the walled part of the arena-- by the food stalls and bathrooms.

“What was that?! What were you thinking?” he asked, trying to seem as calm and rational as possible as Thor and Loki joined them.

Sylvie crossed her arms and looked away.

“Loki, do you know what you were doing?” he asked, turning to the little on Thor’s back.

Loki kept her thumb in her mouth and didn’t respond. Not in a guilty manner, but in a seemingly clueless one.

“It’s just… kind of boring…” Sylvie eventually admitted.

Thor, for a brief minute, considered agreeing with her, but felt he should probably keep his mouth shut.

Mobius softened a little bit. “I'm sorry, but I just can't let you run amok round here. You gotta go back to the seats, okay?”

“No!” Sylvie whined.

“Look, I’m going to get little bug here a diaper change and a refill sippy cup,” he said, taking Loki off her brother’s back. “Is the show really worse than sitting in the bathroom? You can always play with your Hot Wheels! I’m sure Thor would be happy to play with you,” he added.

“Can we go see that thing the guy was talking about?” she tried.

“What guy?”

“A fan was talking to me and invited us backstage,” Thor boasted, just slightly.

“Okay, fine, Yes, but let's do it after the show so we can see the trucks, too.”

The older girl huffed, and then stayed quiet for a brief moment in thought. “I’ll go with Thor.”

“Thank you,” Mobius told her, almost sincerely, before he carried little Loki off.

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sisterspooky1013 · 3 years ago

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Only One Choice, Part 2, Chapter 20

Read it here on AO3 / Tagging @today-in-fic

His apartment smells stale and dusty. His thrice weekly trips here to feed his fish are always quick and procedural; he hasn’t stopped to take in the state of the place in a while. A thick layer of dust covers most surfaces, his mattress is bare and there is no toilet paper in the bathroom. He sighs, frustrated and annoyed as he roots around in the closet for a set of sheets to make up the bed. He showers, remembering that his shower head is way too low for his tall frame, and misses Scully’s more luxurious setup.

He also, of course, misses Scully. He understands why she’s upset; he should have called, but the degree of her anger confuses him. When the X files reopened, he talked to her about the need to travel, and the potential for cases to disrupt their personal life. She said she understood, and they’ve worked through several hiccups already. So while he knew she’d be disappointed that he missed Thanksgiving and maybe even irritated at his lack of communication, he’d never anticipated being thrown out of her apartment.

He crawls into his bed, cold and lonely. They just both need a good night's sleep and this will blow over tomorrow, he’s sure. When he’s more well-rested, he’ll be able to explain, to help her understand.

In the morning, he feels a bit more clear-headed, but still decidedly off-balance; he needs to make things right with Scully. He packs up his things, feeds the fish, and drives back over to her apartment. He opens the door and finds the place quiet, the lights out. Something seems off, but he doesn’t immediately recognize what it is.

“Priscilla,” he calls, realizing that the cat hadn’t come to greet him at the door like she typically does.

He walks through to the bedroom, the bathroom, but there’s no sign of either of them. Back in the living room, he sees that the litter box is gone and his heart sinks. He goes back to the bedroom and throws open closets and drawers, checks the medicine cabinet. Scully’s overnight bag is gone, as is her toothbrush and the toiletries she uses daily. His heart starts racing, panic setting in at the idea that she’s left him, and taken his cat with her. This is worse than he’d initially thought, a lot worse.

He goes to the hallway and picks up the phone to try her cell, but it’s off. He tries her mother, who hasn’t spoken to her today. He tries Missy, who doesn’t answer. Not knowing what else to do, he calls Valerie.

“Hi, Will, good to hear from you,” she says, and he can hear the gurgle of her infant daughter in the background. Thankfully, he’d thought to call her a couple weeks ago and offer congratulations on her new arrival, so this phone call today won’t seem totally selfish.

“Hey, Val, I hope you and the baby are doing well,” he says, “I’m sorry to drop this on you, but I’m somewhat in need of advice.”

“Yikes, what’d you do?” she asks knowingly, and he hears her speak in hushed tones to her boyfriend as he takes the baby.

“I fucked up, Val. She’s gone,” he chokes out, tears constricting his throat.

Sitting heavily on the couch, he tells her about the X files reopening, about missing Thanksgiving, about Scully’s irrationally explosive reaction. She listens quietly, asking a few clarifying questions.

“I feel totally blindsided, Val. You and I were together when I was assigned to the X files before, and I had cases like this that took me away at odd times, but it wasn’t an issue. I don’t understand why it’s one now. I’m not sure which one of us is out of line here.”

“Wow, okay, where to start,” Valerie begins. “First of all, I think you’re both out of line. You are an epically huge asshole, Will, no question there, but taking your cat and disappearing is a bit much.”

He feels a pang of defensiveness for her saying something unflattering about Scully, but he pushes it down.

“Something else that strikes me,” she continues, “is your questionably accurate recollection of what our relationship was like when you were assigned to the X files.”

“What do you mean?” he asks, sitting up.

“Maybe I did a better job of hiding it than I thought, but I fucking hated that assignment, Will. I was relieved when it was shut down, but you were so upset I didn’t think it would be helpful for me to tell you as much at the time.”

“You hated it? Why? I always felt like you were supportive,” he asks, questioning his entire understanding of their relationship.

“I tried to be, but it sucked always coming second. I understood why it was so important to you in terms of trying to find out what happened to Samantha so I dealt with it, but it was kind of like the X files was the other woman in your life. I knew that if it came down to it and you had to choose, you’d choose her. It was really painful. I honestly think if they hadn’t been shut down, we probably would have broken up a lot sooner.”

He runs his free hand over his face. “Then what do I do? Quit the X files after I worked so hard to get them back? I haven’t felt this satisfied with work in years, I don’t want to have to do that.”

“I don’t think you need to quit, you just need to learn how to prioritize things differently. She needs to know she comes first.”

“That’s not how it works, Val, you know that. When a lead comes across my desk, I have to run it down. I have to go out, investigate. I have to find answers.”

“No, Will,” she says with a sympathetic sigh, “You don’t have to do that. You choose to. And you choose to do it at her expense. That’s exactly why she’s so upset. Even if in your mind it feels like you don’t have a choice, you do. That might mean missing out sometimes, passing on a case or not finding the answers. But you can’t have it both ways. You can put the X files first and be alone, or you can put her first and sometimes miss an opportunity to investigate the files.”

“Is it really that simple?” he asks flatly.

“It really is,” she answers. “The truth is, Will, that you may love those files, but they’ll never love you back. You’ll find yourself a lonely old man if you don’t get your priorities straight.”

He slumps down on the couch with a defeated sigh.

“Thanks, Val. I’m really grateful that I can talk to you about this,” he says earnestly.

“Happy to be of service,” she says lightly. “Let me tell you something else, Will,” she adds, “you better work this shit out before you have kids with her, because it gets twenty times harder.”

He chuffs a laugh, but the thought of having kids with Scully simultaneously makes him feel elated and terrified, because he’s not sure if he’s already messed it up too badly for that to be an option anymore.

———

She’s curled up on her side in the middle of Missy’s bed, Priscilla tucked against her belly and purring loudly.

Missy spends most of her time at John’s these days, so she offered her apartment as a place for Dana to crash, or hide out, or whatever it is that she’s doing. She’s honestly not sure, she just knows that she needs to be away from Mulder. To get space, to give it, to punish him, maybe all of those things. She wants him to hurt like she did, to not know where she is or when she’ll be back. She hopes that he fears she might be gone for good, though she knows she’s not. Taking Priscilla was just logical; having no idea when Mulder might come home she couldn’t very well leave her there to fend for herself. Knowing that it will add salt to the wound does give her some sick satisfaction, though.

The house phone rings and she lets it go, given that it’s not her apartment. The answering machine kicks on and Missy speaks to her as the message plays, telling her to pick up.

“Hello?” she answers, catching it just before Missy hangs up.

“Hey, Mulder is on his way over there,” Missy says breathlessly.

“What? Why?” she asks, not sure if she’s ready to see him.

“He showed up here, he’s been looking all over for you. He asked me if I knew where you were and I said no, but I’m a shitty liar, Sis.”

“Okay, I guess I have to talk to him sometime,” she answers, a sick feeling churning in her gut.

“Call me after, okay? Good luck.”

She relocates to the living room, not wanting this conversation to take place on Missy’s bed, and waits. The longer she waits, the more on edge she feels. When the knock finally comes, Priscilla startles and runs into the bathroom.

She stokes her own anger as she walks to the door, straightening her posture. She is mad, indignant, furious, ready to go into battle. That is, until she opens the door and sees his crumpled expression, his hooded eyes contrite and devastated. All the anger pours out through her heels, replaced by grief and fear. She feels her chin pucker, her nose burning as emotion wells in her throat.

“Scully,” he croaks out, and she steps forward, opening her arms to him. He folds against her like a rag doll, this big, strong man suddenly like putty. They make their way to the couch and he curls into her lap like a child, crying softly with a tortured grimace. She pets his hair, not offering any words of reassurance, but letting him know she’s there. He sits up a little, wrapping his arms around her rib cage and tucking his face into her neck.

“I’m so sorry,” he says in a harsh whisper, and her heart aches. She wants to forgive him, but sorry is not enough.

“I can’t live this way, Mulder,” she says against his shoulder, and he pulls back to look at her, not sure what she means. “I grew up watching my mother wait for my father to come home,” she explains. “Each time he didn’t write when he said he would, or call on a scheduled day, every time there was something about a navy ship in the news. We waited up, praying that he was okay, and it was torture. I swore that I would never put myself or my children in that position, and it’s a promise I intend to keep.”

His gaze drops away from her face and he nods sadly. “I didn’t understand, Scully, how to have both the X files and a relationship. I thought I was doing what had to be done, but I see now that I wasn’t putting you first, and I’m sorry. I’m going to do things differently, I promise. Please, give me another chance to get it right.”

He lifts his eyes to meet hers and she can see that he really means it, that he really understands. She nods, and he kisses her desperately; her lips, her cheeks, her ears, her hair. He kisses down her neck as he clings to her, his hands touching her back, her arms, her thighs.

“I was so scared, Scully,” he squeaks out between kisses. “I love you so much, and I was so afraid I ruined everything.”

He kisses the tears from her cheeks, finding her lips again as she grips the back of his neck, pushing her tongue into his mouth hungrily, needing him so much closer. He shifts to put his back against the couch, pulling her into his lap and gripping her hips, arching his pelvis up into her.

She’s overwhelmed with arousal, and love, and desperation. He pushes the hem of her shirt up and over her head, finding her braless, and sucks a nipple between his lips. She whimpers, slipping her hand down to rub her palm roughly over the bulge in his jeans and eliciting a deep moan from his throat. She stands suddenly, pulling down her cotton pants and panties, and he follows suit, standing just long enough to push his jeans and boxers down to his knees, sitting again as she climbs astride him. She impales herself on his erection, crying out in relief as they move together, foreheads resting against each other and their eyes locked as she flexes her hips forward and back, pleasure taking away all the hurt and pain.

When she closes her eyes to focus on the sensations, he brings his mouth to her ear, teasing at the lobe with his tongue and whispering to her, his thumb appearing against her clit and sending shockwaves down her legs.

“I love you so much. You’re the most important thing in the world to me, okay? You’re the only thing that matters.” His affirmations flood her with dopamine and she comes hard around him, the feeling extending to the tips of her fingers and turning her joints to jelly. He clutches her to him, finding his own release as he continues to make grand declarations of forever.

As they come down, he peppers her with kisses in the same way he’d started, desperation replaced with contentment. He pulls back a little to look at her.

“Will you come home?” he asks hopefully, and she nods with a soft smile.

“Don’t ever tell Missy we had sex on her couch,” she says, and they both laugh.

#the x files #txf #dana scully #fox mulder #gillovny #msr #sculder #x files fanfic #alternate universe

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ollieofthebeholder · 3 years ago

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ooh for the wip ask game, I'm very intrigued by both tma tim time travel and tma bartender au??

tma tim time travel: More or less exactly what it says on the tin. When Tim presses the detonator to blow up the Unknowing, something happens (it's not going to get explained until WAY later in the fic) and, instead of dying, he winds up getting dragged back in time to early in Season 1 - like, before Martin gets caught by Prentiss. He wakes up (which pisses him off) on the floor of the Archives (which pisses him off MORE) and about bites Martin's head off, then demands to know of the strange woman who tells him to calm down who she is. They think he's hit his head or that he's sick or something; Jon comes over and Tim is absolutely tearing into him...and then Tim comes walking around the corner. Shit goes down. It's just kind of my take on the "boy all these time travel fix-it fics would be a LOT different if it was Tim going back wouldn't they" thing.

tma bartender au: I talked about this one a bit the last time I did this, but now I'm going to talk about it more. XD Originally it was intended to be a no-fears one-shot based on the song "We Danced" by Brad Paisley wherein Martin worked behind the bar at a pub, Jon came back in after closing because he'd forgotten something, and they hit it off. It kind of snowballed and we're currently a little over 16k in. Also, it's no longer no-fears. The initial setup is the same - Martin got a job at a pub when he needed the money rather than going to work for the Institute; Jon stopped in for a drink just after concluding his trial period and accidentally left behind a folio with a couple of the statements he was looking into, came back to get it, wound up talking with Martin, and they ended up dancing to a song playing on the radio before Jon left. The difference from the original idea is that the Institute is still what it is in canon, and Martin's going to get caught up in that whether he wants to or not. (More on this under the cut.)

The big twist is going to be the Jane Prentiss thing. Obviously Martin isn't going to investigate - Tim is - but Martin will happen to be up that end of the line when Tim manages to escape Prentiss. Obviously Tim isn't going to tell Martin what he's up to, but Prentiss is either going to follow the wrong person or catch on that Martin is important to Jon somehow and follow him deliberately, leading to him getting caught in his flat for two weeks. Jon, meanwhile, will have gone to the pub, been curtly told Martin is "out sick", and be depressed and worried for two weeks. Tim and Sasha finally drag him out for lunch, happen to choose the pub where Martin works without knowing Jon knows it, and it just so happens to be Martin's first day back on the job. He ends up telling them what happened, and they end up cluing him in on what's going on at the Institute (or what they know so far). Jon insists Martin stay at his place for safety and things will proceed from there.

I haven't decided if Martin's going to end up working at the Institute or not. If he does, it'll be because he turns up to bring Jon lunch or something right as Jane Prentiss attacks and Elias offers him a job, ostensibly because he keeps his head in a crisis but actually because he realizes that Jon is forging Connections™ outside the Institute and can't have that or it'll make him acquiring those marks harder. If not, he'll end up being who Jon runs to after Jurgen Leitner's murder. I'm leaning towards that one, but we'll see where we end up.

#ollie writes fanfic #journalofimprobablethings #ask games for ts

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artnerd1123 · 3 years ago

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Among Us: CR3WM8TS

Impostor Walking ——————————————

Curious aliens will find a way around locked doors and impostor scares. It just takes a bit of planning!

Among Us archive/askblog Fic chapters post

——————————————

moar nubnub content, bc this is my comfort silly story to play with like a stress ball. also wanted to establish why nub’s so familiar with the concept of crews walking about- surprise surprise, they’ve snuck around the base multiple times!

big ol shoutout to @lightkrets312 and @fvaleraye for proofreading this for me!!!!!! y’all should check those two out, they’re really rad :>

###~###~###

PLANET [326-OCE-894 / SECTOR G] BASE SYSTEM LOG: TIMESTAMP [SED:HR:MIN:SEC]: 85:06:02:35 AFTER ARRIVAL

System setting: NIGHT CYCLE [OUTER DOOR, DECONTAMINATION CHAMBER, LOCKER MONITORING]

Location: PLANET 326-OCE-894 - SECTOR G Base Setup Rationale: SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY, EXPLORATION Connection to HQ: STEADY Systems:

Outer Doors: LOCKED, [NIGHT SHIFT CREW] ACCESS

Decontamination chamber: SEALED, NO CREW ACCESS IN LAST [10] HRS

Lockers: SEALED, NO CREW ACCESS IN LAST [8] HRS

###~###~###

The world above the water was… loud. Bright. Heavy. The harsh cerulean void above had them yearning for the soothing abyssal blue below. But they couldn’t slip back just yet. They wanted to do some investigation of their own. So, to the surface it was. The creature floated a small distance from the coral shore, eyes just peeking out from the surf. They’d positioned themself just inside the shadow of the roosting flight-house. Not only did it provide the familiarity of darkness, it kept them out of sight of… other things. Their first set of eyes scanned the horizon and lazy clouds warily. The skybound terrors still hadn’t returned. The strangers didn’t seem to care- or even be aware of any danger. But the creature knew better than to get completely reckless. They’d take their shelter where they could, thank you very much. In any case, their second gaze was trained on the couple of strangers sluggishly scuttling about the coral. The day’s blazing light was still climbing out of the ocean. For some reason, these strangers needed light to upkeep their energy- it suited the creature just fine. It meant there weren’t too many around to notice in this early glow. Not too many to bump into. And if they really wanted to make a move, the best time was now. When the coral finally cleared out, the creature bolted silently from their shelter. Desperate tentacles slithered between the cracks in living rock, sliding them up and out of the water. They didn’t have much time to lose- any second, a stranger could spot them. A soft schmuck schmuck accompanied their movements, tentacles carrying them swiftly to a nearby tide pool. The steam rising from it made their snout wrinkle and ears flick back, but they kept moving. The strangers’ house passed right over it, a metal sheet filled with long, thin slits allowing the steam to billow inside. It made the sides of the tunnel above billow out slightly- but nothing too bad. They didn’t care much for the tunnel at the moment. Their gaze was only for the slitted metal sheet. They knew one edge of it was loose- they’d wrenched it open many times before. So they moved there now, tentacles easily sliding between the metal and strange crinkly covering of the tunnel’s sides. One quick yank, and a decent sized hole opened before them. They slid in without a second thought, tentacles twisting around to wrench it shut again. They stood stock still in the middle of a long, sagging tunnel. There were entrances on either end of the tunnel, but they needed to get in only one. The closest sported a familiar hatchlike chunk of metal. A thin line ran down its center- clearly sealed tightly closed. That was their admission into this strange house. Swiftly approaching, they spotted a squarish cluster of symbols against the right side. They’d watched the strangers jab at the symbols from the tidepool below more than enough times to catch the order. 2896468, their mind flashed, turquoise spots along their tentacles lighting up in an echo. Their sharp claws rapped lightly against the little symbols, the tingling amusement of how each bump depressed under their touch lasting only a moment. With a loud hiss, the entrance rent open, and the creature darted through the gap.

###~###~###

PLANET [326-OCE-894 / SECTOR G] BASE SYSTEM LOG: TIMESTAMP [SED:HR:MIN:SEC]: 85:06:26:18 AFTER ARRIVAL

System setting: NIGHT CYCLE [OUTER DOOR, DECONTAMINATION CHAMBER, LOCKER MONITORING]

Location: PLANET 326-OCE-894 - SECTOR G Base Setup Rationale: SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY, EXPLORATION Connection to HQ: STEADY Systems:

Outer Doors: LOCKED, [NIGHT SHIFT CREW] ACCESS

Decontamination chamber: UNSEALED WITH SECURITY CODE BY [ERROR]

Lockers: SEALED, NO CREW ACCESS IN LAST [8] HRS

…

Outer Doors: LOCKED, [NIGHT SHIFT CREW] ACCESS

Decontamination chamber: OCCUPIED BY [ERROR], CLEANING IN PROCESS…

Lockers: SEALED, NO CREW ACCESS IN LAST [8] HRS

###~###~###

A slippery, wet chamber greeted the creature, a small circle of pierced metal covering a hole in its center. Their lights glowed softly in fondness as a forceful mist began to filter in from the ceiling. It settled on them strangely- something in the watery substance stinging just a bit- but they didn’t mind now. It was wet. That’s all they cared about. They simply shifted to the side of the next hatch, waiting for it to heave apart. If they were lucky, there’d be no one on the other side. From their observations, there shouldn’t be. But… well. Pays more to be safe than sorry. When the entrance hissed open again, their eyes searched it with lightning speed. No vivid stranger’s coverings met their gaze. The coast was clear. As the entrance started to slide closed, the creature darted out, tentacles holding fast to the slippery floor. The lights made them squint more- why in the tides must it be so bright in here?! The harsh rays’ reflection against the pale gray and blue floor didn’t help matters. Focus, they reminded themself, find a spare covering. Their large ears swiveled around to catch the slightest sounds, and their smaller ears shifted backwards to keep attention on the sealed entrance. If anything close to the sound of entrance-hiss or stranger footsteps reached them, they’d jam themself behind the nearest large object. So far, though, the only sound was the schmuck of their tentacles against the ground. The creature made their way through a room with a fabric hanging wall half obscuring a set of four raised platforms. The platforms had soft, rectangular padding- but now was not the time to curl up on them. They continued, sliding past strange icelike containers arranged on another raised platform, odd depressions and metal sticks marring one of its sides. The glint of the strange, never melting ice drew one pair of eyes- but only until they passed it. From there the floor shifted to something altogether different. Not as hard as the other floors, but not soft either- they recalled a stranger pointing to it, uttering some sound like ‘whoodun.’ It was completely foreign. Completely otherworldly. But there wasn’t time to ponder the ‘whoodun’ surface either. The slippery, cold flooring returned, and a line of rectangular metal containers sat against one wall. The creature let out a pleased coo. Finally, the strangers’ covering storage. They kept one pair of eyes trained on the far door, the other eyeing the small gaps on the top half of the metal containers. Their dark-suited vision picked out colors immediately. And, to their dismay, only one of the containers yielded a different shade than the gaggle of strangers currently living in the house. Oh tides. This wasn’t good. Huffing an anxious sigh, the creature ran through the colors they’d seen scuttling about the strangers’ home lately, checking them against the array before them. Sure enough, all but one were taken- and twice over. But they only remembered seeing one orange covering- so taking it would have to do. After all, the strangers were very particular about their companions’ colors. They were just lucky an undoubled covering was left… Might as well grab it while they could.

###~###~###

PLANET [326-OCE-894 / SECTOR G] BASE SYSTEM LOG: TIMESTAMP [SED:HR:MIN:SEC]: 85:06:37:52 AFTER ARRIVAL

System setting: NIGHT CYCLE [OUTER DOOR, DECONTAMINATION CHAMBER, LOCKER MONITORING]

Location: PLANET 326-OCE-894 - SECTOR G Base Setup Rationale: SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY, EXPLORATION Connection to HQ: STEADY Systems:

Outer Doors: LOCKED, [NIGHT SHIFT CREW] ACCESS

Decontamination chamber: SEALED, LAST ACCESSED BY [ERROR] AT [06:26:18]

Lockers: ERROR, RELOADING…

…

Outer Doors: LOCKED, [NIGHT SHIFT CREW] ACCESS

Decontamination chamber: SEALED, LAST ACCESSED BY [ERROR] AT [06:26:18]

Lockers: LOCKER [19] UNSEALED AT [06:39:43] BY [ERROR]

###~###~###

The container swung open without too much tugging. Its metal was much softer than the hatches on the strangers’ houses. The creature held itself off the ground with one pair of back tentacles as it shimmied its way into the orange covering. Their feet stuck out oddly from the leg sheaths, and their claws threatened to rip through the fabric wrappings around their paws. But they simply curled their digits inward, letting the soft ends of their paws rest against the fabric, claws tucked away. Now they reached for the foot shells at the bottom of the locker. They attached to the main covering with a soft ‘hiss’- the creature didn’t so much as blink at the sound, now. They just tried to lay their feet flat against the shell bottoms. Such a strange way to walk… how did the strangers do it? And then, of course, came their least favorite part. After a moment of indignant glowing and chittering, the creature set itself on its feet, back tentacles retracting inside the suit. They reached carefully for the covering’s cap, which sat at the top of the locker. Putting the cap on over their snout wasn’t hard. It wasn’t! Their body was too soft for that sort of issue. Their snout and ears just- didn’t quite fit in their default shape. So they had to squash it all flat. At least the thick, clear membrane before their eyes dimmed the house’s lights. A little, anyway. Their lights flickered in resigned annoyance as they gave themself a once over. Foot shells attached, paw wrappings intact, cover cap locked into place… Seemed all was ready. Taking a deep breath, the creature turned toward the main door. A few colored bubbles stuck to the wall on its left. The top one, red, was glowing, while the lower one, green, stayed dark. They were still alone. Everything was still silent. But they were one of the strangers now- at least from the outside. With a little luck, they’d never realize one of the “eempostors” was walking among them. There was no danger anymore. With a satisfied chirr, the creature turned back towards the main building. It was finally time to further investigate those tantalizing objects… the ‘whoodun’ floor, the nevermelting ice, and maybe even those padded rectangles. Oh, this was going to be fun!!!

###~###~###

PLANET [326-OCE-894 / SECTOR G] BASE SYSTEM LOG: TIMESTAMP [SED:HR:MIN:SEC]: 85:06:59:59 AFTER ARRIVAL

System setting: NIGHT CYCLE [OUTER DOOR, DECONTAMINATION CHAMBER, LOCKER MONITORING]

Location: PLANET 326-OCE-894 - SECTOR G Base Setup Rationale: SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY, EXPLORATION Connection to HQ: STEADY Systems:

Outer Doors: LOCKED, [NIGHT SHIFT CREW] ACCESS

Decontamination chamber: SEALED, LAST ACCESSED BY [ERROR] AT [06:26:18]

Lockers: LOCKER [19] UNSEALED AT [06:39:43] BY [ERROR]

…

PLANET [326-OCE-894 / SECTOR G] BASE SYSTEM LOG: TIMESTAMP [SED:HR:MIN:SEC]: 85:07:00:00 AFTER ARRIVAL

System setting: DAY CYCLE [ALL SYSTEM MONITORING]

Location: PLANET 326-OCE-894 - SECTOR G Base Setup Rationale: SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY, EXPLORATION Connection to HQ: STEADY Systems:

Outer Doors: SEALED, [ALL CREW] ACCESS

Decontamination chamber: SEALED, LAST ACCESSED BY [ERROR] AT [06:26:18]

Lockers: ALL UNSEALED BY [BASE - SYSTEM]

ADDITIONAL SYSTEMS LOADING…

…

PLANET [326-OCE-894 / SECTOR G] BASE SYSTEM LOG: TIMESTAMP [SED:HR:MIN:SEC]: 85:07:10:29 AFTER ARRIVAL

System setting: DAY CYCLE [ALL SYSTEM MONITORING]

Location: PLANET 326-OCE-894 - SECTOR G Base Setup Rationale: SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY, EXPLORATION Connection to HQ: STEADY Systems:

Outer Doors: [ALL CREW] ACCESS, RECENTLY UNSEALED BY/AT [show entire list]

Decontamination chamber: UNSEALED, LAST ACCESSED BY [BASE - RED] AT [07:08:29]

Lockers: ALL UNSEALED, ACCESSED BY [show entire list]

show additional systems

NIGHT CREW CLOSING REPORT: There were a couple more instances of our system clashing with the tracking software on the crew of SKELD D34-H120. Will consult SKELD D34-H120’s PINK about possible older software interfering with recent software updates. However, I must note again that these occasional glitches happened also with newer model SKELD ships at the last supply dropoffs. My current hypothesis remains that SKELD ship software simply does not run well with BASE software. At end of shift, an unidentified individual was moving about the base. The lack of identification is likely due to this glitch- there were two members of SKELD D34-H120’s crew on the night shift. We must get this lack-of-identity glitch fixed before we continue our exploration and receive further supplies.

#au:c #cr3wm8ts #nubnub among us #yes im posting this at butt oclock. what of it <3 #i'll just q it for the morning LSDJFK #nyway. u WILL observe #arty writes

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inkabelledesigns · 3 years ago

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Sam and Jan’s Apartment - Nightmares are Reality Sims

So as of late, I’ve had a LOT of ideas brewing for yet another Bendy fic, and in some of my planning for it, I’ve built one of the locations in the Sims 4 to use as reference. It’s been busy at home, and I needed this to relax, so I’m glad I took the time to do that briefly. You may have seen my previous post about Nightmares are Reality, but if you haven’t, here’s the short version: Samantha Lorenzo from 2021 and Sammy Lawrence from 1946 wake up one morning with their bodies switched, and now both have to embrace the other’s friend group to not only find a way to get back, but also stop the inevitable fate of the studio staff as shown in the novel Dreams Come to Life. There’s angst, there’s fluff, and it get pretty rough, but there’s so much to play with for this story.

Come with me, and let’s dive into Sam and Jan’s apartment!

So first, we gotta talk about Sam and Jan themselves. Samantha is the curly haired one, and Janet is the one in the hat (she wouldn’t be caught dead without one). Unfortunately the Sims does not allow me to change heights (and I don’t have a mod for it), but imagine for me if you will that Jan is significantly shorter than Sam. I did not have a ton in mind in the way of colors for them, but together their wardrobes have a LOT of red and black, with a little white and tan thrown in. I have Sam with the lifetime goal of being a successful author, which falls in line with her love of storytelling in modern media. Jan on the other hand is a songwriter and musician that’s still trying to find her path. The two met in college and graduated not too long ago, and now they’re both hunting for work (which Janet has part time when the fic begins).

In addition to them, we have their cat, Figaro (named after the cat from Disney’s Pinnochio, Sam is a nerd like that).

Now, we move onto their apartment!

I chose the 1020 Alto Apartments lot for this, which came with the condition of the Romantic Fireplace that I can’t remove. But I added on Home Studio and Great Acoustics so they could bump up their skills a little easier. This is my first time playing with a lot challenge, and that is Spooky, which makes it so ghosts will come over now and again, which scares the crap out of both of them. And uh, funny story...

The ghost of Joey Drew was the third one to come, and he was VERY angry when Sam met him. X’’’D I did not see that coming, but now I kinda want to make more Bendy ghosts just to see if they pop in. Would you guys be into that? I mean Depths Henry is a ghost, so I probably SHOULD make him.

At any rate, let’s look at the layout. Bear in mind, I am not phenomenal at building houses, much less apartments, but I think this worked out.

It opens up into the kitchen, which is filled with all the essentials (these ladies are big on their caffeine). Currently I headcanon that Sam cooks while Jan cleans, but Jan is the better baker out of the two of them. Sam also likes to have fresh ingredients, and while I can’t do a window box on this lot, I can have some indoor vertical plants.

There isn’t much of a separation between living room and kitchen, but this is the living room! Some stuff is for playing with (since I actually play with my households now and then), like the dancefloor, but others are for actual use. They use a record player to listen to jazz and other music, and the furniture would be all mismatched like that (they were broke college kids, gotta sit on something, right? probably got it from a bunch of garage sales). The photo setup is something they use, but it belongs to their friend Vincent, which brings me to the first bedroom.

I haven’t made these two as Sims yet, but Sam and Jan have another duo living with them, Jess and Vincent, who are a couple. Jess is a makeup artist who often experiments on her friends, and she hopes to get into the makeup and wardrobe side of the cinematography scene. Vince on the other hand is a photography and film guy who’s an absolute sweetheart. Those two share this bedroom (Jess had more of a say in the decorating, Vince is pretty easygoing about the aesthetic).

I had to make sure there was a special corner for Jess’ makeup stuff, she’d want space to move around. The mirror is also something she loves, and they all borrow it a lot. Why?

Because of this creepy room nextdoor! X’’’D So I just learned mannequins are a thing, and I can dress them however I want, so I put some in this pretty much functionless closet. (Though the two masculine ones have been glitching in a way that turns their heads a little at certain angles, and it creeps me out a LOT) This is the cosplay closet, which mostly Jess and Sam use, but all four of them have some numbers in here. These four are a cosplay group, mostly for Bendy, but for other fandoms too. Jess likes going as Twisted Alice (heavy special effects makeup, go figure), Vincent likes Henry and Joey (he likes scruffy nerds and suits), Janet dresses as Jack Fain (though she’s also done some gender bends of other characters), and Samantha (as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now) is right there as the Sammy for their group. If I can ever learn how to work with custom content, I would love to have a cosplay for each of them on these mannequins, but we’ll save that for later. These nerds are absolutely the types to play around with cosplay photos and tiktok videos, I’m sure they duet often. XD

We have some bathrooms, which are pretty self explanatory, but then we have Janet’s room. She is big on the posters and loves having her instruments right there and ready to play. She plays guitar and piano, but I may have her pick up violin down the line. Both of them have the geek trait and are prone to playing videogames more often than not, but Jan is mostly found playing her music.

We have a small corner of the hallway for the cat. And then last but not least: Sam’s room.

This is Samantha’s creative space. Much like my space, when she’s working, it gets messy. She loves turning on some jazz while she writes, and while she’s crafting. I gave her and Jan the knitting supplies, since I don’t really know how else to simulate sewing for these characters, and they also have some clutter. Sam has one additional mannequin in her room, and she’s into figures, so there’s one of those on the desk. Her closet and bathroom are pretty simple, but that closet is gonna be really important when we get into the story, you’ll see why later.

As always, I have their Sims up on the gallery, along with the apartment, in case you want to play with them for yourself. Just note: because of how apartments work in this game, it’s uploaded as a room, so you’re going to have to fill some walls in and add doors if you want it to work like an apartment would (and you can totally turn it into a house if you want to, you don’t need to have 1020 Alto if you wanna use this). Just search for KatAlystDesigns in the Sims 4 gallery! I’ve also uploaded a few other houses recently, including the DCTL cast for my BATIM mermaid collection, and Buddy’s mother and grandpa.

I had a LOT of fun putting this together last night, and it’s given me a much better idea of how I want to work with things for this narrative. Bear in mind, Sammy’s the one who’s gonna have to live here and put up with it, so having these details established is gonna help me to make the fic go smoother. I may tweak some things, like actually using upper cabinets in the kitchen (which I always seem to forget about), but we’ll see. XD Either way, this was a good exercise.

I hope you’re all looking forward to exploring these two and their story as much as I am! As a quick final note, I actually have a blog set up for Nightmares are Reality to mimic the one Sam has in the fic, and I’m thinking of using it as a somewhat RP, somewhat fic and content delivery system for the story, so if you’ve got thoughts on that, or stuff you’d like to see, do let me know! Here’s wishing you are all wonderful day!

#long post #sims 4 #bendy sims #bendy sims 4 #batim sims #nightmares are reality #bendy nar #samantha lorenzo #janet fey #sammy lawrence #I wonder if anyone gets the animation reference in Sam's last name #throw me a message if you think you know it XD

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