#and now that’s three things i have accidentally predicted when’s the fourth thing happening universe

[fiveredlights]

in light of recent events:

[duckapus]

It's Time to Raise the Curtains, It's Time to Light the Lights...

In a random, nondescript field somewhere in the Mushroom Kingdom, a portal opens, and SMG4, Mario, Luigi, Meggy, Tari and the Bobowski twins come through it, having just finished their trip to the new SMG universe (which went predictably off-the-rails, of course). However, Tari notices something strange about this particular field...

"Um, is it just me, or is this grass actually felt?"

Sure enough, when everyone stops to look it's revealed that the ground is made of bright green felt as far as the eye can see. The group lets out a collective groan as they each come to the most likely conclusion; they must have accidentally gone to the wrong universe.

"Goddamnit, this is the fourth time today." Bob turns to glare at 4, "You have got to start practicing your portals more instead of just letting 3 do it all the time."

"But he's so much better at it..." realizing his whining isn't helping his case, he shakes off the frustration and gets back to business, "Alright, this time for sure!"

Meggy leans over to Mario, "That's what he said the last three times."

Not hearing her whispers or Mario's muffled laughter, 4 readies the Command, visualizes the Showgrounds in his mind, snaps his fingers with a flourish...and nothing happens.

"...wot"

After a few moments of shock (and enduring everyone's blank stares) SMG4 chuckles nervously, "Lemme just-just try that again." once again, he readies the Command, visualizes, snaps...and nothing.

It's at this point that Luigi, predictably, starts getting nervous, "Ooooh boy."

"C'mon, this can't be happening..." snap! snap! snap!

While 4 and Luigi quickly spiral into a panic, Marcy realizes something, "So, I'm not exactly an expert on all these Computer Person things, but don't your powers only do absolutely nothing like this when they're being blocked?"

This snaps 4 out of his...snapping, and he pulls up his command box, "Yeah, that's right! Lemme just look here and...aha! Looks like the interference is coming from over that way!"

Now with a goal in mind, the group starts walking in the direction he points, occasionally passing trees and bushes that seem to be stage props rather than actual plants. Eventually, they crest a decently sized hill and spot what seems to be a small town.

"Alright, let's ask around, see if the people here have noticed anything strange lately."

However, as they walk into town, they discover that the inhabitants are plenty strange themselves. The fact that they're all made of felt and other fabrics is of course to be expected given what they've seen so far. The real trouble is that they all seem to have the same blankly cheerful expression, made immediately obvious due to every single one of them stopping in their tracks and turning to look at the group as soon as they pass the threshold...and the fact that some of them feel eerily familiar.

One of the townsfolk approaches them, suddenly much more animate during his greeting, "Well howdy there, newcomers! What brings you around here?"

Seeing that everyone else is still to unnerved to respond (not that she can blame them), Meggy takes the initiative, "Uh, hi! We're a little lost and were hoping we could get some help?"

"Why, we'd be glad to help you folks! What kinda help do you need?"

At this point 4 manages to get past his own nerves, seeing as this is actually going surprisingly smoothly, "Would you happen to know if there's something or someone around here that messes with computers? The travel method we use isn't working because of some kind of local interference."

"Hm...can't say that I know about anything like that. The king might though."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, the king knows all sorts of things, and he absolutely loves helping people find their way! Come on, I'll take you to him!"

"Thank you so much!" as she and 4 start following the townsperson, Meggy calls back to the rest of the group, "Let's go, guys!"

Mario, who's been inching away from another blank-faced townsperson who's been leaning into his space this whole time, runs to join the now-moving party, "don't have to tell me twice!"

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

As the group continues traveling, the townsperson (who hasn't actually given them his name, interestingly) has been chatting away. It's through this that they've found out that the area they're in is called Muppetopia, and that the king is a local version of Kermit the Frog. After some travel time, they reach Kermit's castle, a vibrant, welcoming-looking building. By this point, Marcy is the only one still on-edge. Something about this place just feels off to her. She only half-listens as the townsperson assures them that they won't have to stand on ceremony with the king, seeing as he is just Kermit at his core, instead focusing on the castle staff.

Due to this, she notices something strange out the corner of her eye; a figure in red and black with wild white hair that has some dark shapes sticking out of it. As she turns to face them more directly, they're suddenly gone.

"You okay sis?"

She shakes off her confusion and focuses on Bob, "I'm fine. Just thought I saw someone I knew for a moment."

"Yeah, I've been getting that feeling on and off since we got to that town. There's something weird going on here."

So she wasn't the only one who'd noticed. Good.

The two end their brief conversation as the group approaches the throne room. And what they see when they enter is...most unusual.

The king is, in fact, Kermit. He looks exactly how they'd expect, except for the crown on his head, his strangely glowing blue eyes, and the fact that he's about 15 feet tall, "Ah, newcomers! Welcome to Muppetopia! Now, my friend here tells me you're in need of help."

4 steps forward, admittedly a bit intimidated by the massive frog "Uh, yes your majesty. You see, we're from a place called the Mushroom Kingdom and ended up here by accident while trying to get back from a trip. And now some kind of electronic interference is keeping us stranded here."

Kermit takes a moment to think this over, "The Mushroom Kingdom, huh? You know, Muppetopia's actually had a few visitors from there before."

"You have?"

"Yep. They were lost, too, just like you guys. But thankfully, I know a great way to help the lost find their way. Observe!" He dramatically gestures to the door with a flippered hand, and into the room walks...

"Kaizo!?"

Sure enough, the person who walks in is very much Kaizo Koorumaniru. He is also very much a Muppet, with the same vacantly cheerful gaze as the inhabitants of that town.

"Hey everyone! Check out my awesome new look!" he...well, he almost sounds like the Kaizo they know, but there's something fundamental missing from his tone.

Mario glares at Kermit, "what's-a going on here?"

"Like I said, I helped him find his way. The true Way. And I can help you too, Mario, SMG4."

Tari steps back from him, "Y-your our version of Kermit, aren't you? This is the Mushroom Kingdom!"

"It was the Mushroom Kingdom. A lot's changed around here in the last few days. Allow me to demonstrate," as he says this, shadowy, extremely dark green hands emerge from the ground around him, reaching out to grasp the group.

"Oh tits!" Bob makes a break for the exit knocking aside Muppet Kaizo in the process, "RUN, BITCH! RUUUUUUUN!"

Everyone else follows his lead, dodging shadow hands and guards as they go.

Unfortunately, when they exit the castle they find more Muppets who've closed in from the surrounding area, many of which are now quite clearly people they know.

"What do we do now?"

Marcy takes a ready stance, her blades flashing in the sunlight, "We fight our way through."

"Through to where?" 4 gestures around them, "For all we know the entire planet's like this!"

Meggy then realizes something, "We could get to wherever that interference was coming from! You had a trace on it before we stopped to ask for directions, remember? Maybe it has a connection to whatever happened to Kermit!"

Now with a plan in mind, the group checks which way they should be going and gets to fighting, each using their usual skills to get past the Muppet horde. Unfortunately, there's a lot of Muppets to get through, Tari and 4 aren't exactly great at fighting in the first place, and the signal is still really far away, so they quickly start to wear down, made worse by the fact that Kermit's caught up by this point so his mysterious shadow hands are back in play.

4 bats away a Muppet version of Jubjub with his keyboard, then leans on it like a cane while panting, "It...it's no use. There's too many of them." As if on cue, a shadow appears over him, and he looks up to see Kermit's massive form looming over him.

"Don't worry SMG4, everything will be better soon." On of his shadow hands appears and begins to move down towards the prone Guardian...only to pause as another massive shadow passes over him, and the sound of propellers prompts him to look up, "What on Earth..?"

He and nearly everyone else look up to see a Mario-style Airship hovering over the battle. It holds position for a moment before opening fire, sending Bullet Bills screaming down to blast away Muppets and hands, taking the pressure off the tired group. A rope ladder is dropped to dangle off the side, and a P. A. system activates, blasting Kamek's voice.

"All right youngsters, get up here if you don't want to end up as Sesame Street rejects!"

That's all the prompting everyone needs to find their second wind and book it for the ladder. Bob is the first one there, but ensures that Tari starts up the ladder before him. Then 4 and Marcy reach it, with her having saved him from the frog king while he was distracted. Finally Meggy and the Mario Bros run together, only for Luigi to stumble and fall behind a bit. As they're the last ones for the pickup and are known for how well they can jump, Kamek and whoever else is piloting the airship begin to move up and away so none of the Muppets have a chance to climb up.

After Meggy and Mario jump for the ladder, skipping a few rungs in the process, Mario reaches down to his brother, "Take my hand bro!"

Luigi nods in acknowledgement and leaps for his brother...only to suddenly stop in midair. Mario and Meggy look on in horror, seeing that the reason for this physics-defying maneuver is one of the shadow hands reaching into his back, a pained, terrified expression set on his face. Before their eyes, he begins to rapidly transform. Skin becomes pink felt, trembling lower lip becomes a Beaker-like flap, fingers become floppy and indistinct. Throughout all of this, his arm remains outstretched, still reaching for the hand it will never grip.

"LUIGI, NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"

With tears in her eyes, Meggy forces herself to look away so she can drag the hysterical plumber up the ladder and ensure they won't share their brother's fate. The two tumble onto the deck, Mario sobbing uncontrollably in a fetal position while Meggy and the now-approaching Tari doing their best to comfort him.

As this is happening, 4 and the twins are greeted by the crew of the Airship, consisting of Kamek and some of the Koopa Troop (obviously), Eggman, Cubot and a few dozen badniks, Toadsworth, Toad, Juliano, Root and Lil Coding (Coding, of course, immediately snuggles into his dad), and finally Sig.

"Okay, what the hell is going on around here? Why's Kermet some kind of massive psycho puppet master all of a sudden?"

Kamek sighs and shakes his head, "I'm afraid that Muppetopia is the least of our worries."

To show them what he means, he brings the group to the other side of the ship, which is now much, much higher up. From there it can be seen that the Mushroom Kingdom is now a massive circle bordered by a dome force field, split into seven equally sized wedges that each have their own unusual biome (with Muppetopia being just one of them), and a tower in the center as tall as the dome and very clearly made of bits of Peach's old castle and the all-too-familiar meat moss.

The sight of this madness is enough to snap Mario out of his grief, "Dear God..."

To be continued...

(also here's a picture of King Kermit and part of Muppet Kaizo. it technically has a spoiler for how he became That but if you payed attention to the end of the previous post it's pretty obvious where his powers and madness came from.)

[alakeeffectgirl]

2019 End of the Year Fanfic Questionnaire!

I had to wait to write this until after Yuletide reveals but I don’t think I ended up mentioning any of my YT stories after all. 

This year I wrote and posted: THIRTY things across a really random spread of fandoms – so twice as many as last year. This was my fourth year of thinking, "I need a fandom," and finding a few things I wrote more than one story for, but not really finding a fandom in the community sense. Total wordcount: 100,761. \o/ Overall Thoughts: A few years ago, my writing goal was to be able to write across a wider spread of fandoms without getting too tangled up in having everything accidentally sound the same. I think that in 2018 and 2019 I really worked at this, and now I find it much easier to switch my brain from one thing to another. Am I mostly still writing in a close 3rd person POV? Yes. But I think I'm getting better at switching from one character voice to another. Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?: My goal for 2019 was to post 80k, and when I posted all my Yuletide stuff and saw that I could break 100k if I did a few thousand more words, it was an easy decision to attempt that. I also posted twice as many stories as was my goal, which sounds fancy but really just means I wrote a lot of shorter things this year. Which is actually okay – trying to tell less of a story in one go is actually something I’m trying to work on. What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?: I think I knew that Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood was happening in January, but not that I would go see it and three hours later post fic for it. Ditto Terminator: Dark Fate! Also, for as long as it’s been on my “write someday” list, I honestly didn’t think 2019 would be the year I finally did write Leia/Han/Luke - but when it came up as a pinch hit for F5K I knew it was meant to be. This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most: Pretty sure I had no theme again this year. Is "no theme" a theme? What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest? Possibly the Gringo story a simple, small building where I fixed the incorrect ending of the movie, and it’s just a simple, small story and the characters end up happy. And the reverse-chronology Triple Frontier thing never been afraid of anything since it let me work out more of a backstory for characters who hardly get any in the actual movie. Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?: Probably my biggest risk taken this year was to grab a F5K pinch-hit and write five thousand words of Star Wars threesome porn in four days. I learned... that I can indeed write five thousand words of porn in four days if I really want to. My best story of this year: Actual writing-craft-wise, maybe "never been afraid of anything"? I didn't really attempt anything super stylistic this year. My most popular story of this year: The first OUATIH thing I wrote, lose a little sleep at night, which is probably just a result of striking when that iron was very hot (and it being an explicit story), but is still a little surprising given that the fandom has under a hundred stories all together. Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Hmm, I really enjoyed writing the two Iron Fist things for NPT, but somehow even adding hits together for them is still less hits than the Jonas Brothers thing I dug out of my unfinished folder and wrangled into something post-able just for the hell of it. My least favorite story this year: I can't say I'm entirely satisfied with Talkeetna, At Three Rivers, probably because I was moving out of 1D things into other things at the time I was writing it, but it was still fun to write as a vague Northern Exposure AU. Most fun story to write: Definitely "the spark that shakes the wire", and emergence (or, the process of coming into view) was fun as well - I liked figuring out all the space station botany stuff. Story with the sweetest moment / Story with the single sexiest moment / Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story: This year’s “that’s wrong even for you” story has to be if it’s good, or if it’s fortune, the IT Ben/Eddie caretaking story that veers into vaguely dubious consent. Most overdue: DEFINITELY the PacRim AU! I started taking notes on writing it five entire years ago, and just wrote little bits of it on and off until it was like 75% done and I finally decided to buckle down and finish it off. Most eye roll-worthy title: "the spark that shakes the wire" sounds like I’m just ripping off that ridiculous "the spark that will light the fire that will burn the First Order down" line from SW:TFA (that line is just too long for it to be as rah-rah as they hoped!!) but instead it’s a line from a Boris Pasternak poem because I am pretentious like that. Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Hmmm, I don't think there was anything this year. Hardest story to write: I think maybe serve as my witness, which was something I'd wanted to write since first seeing Rogue One but struggled with even starting, but maybe the universe was just waiting for the right time and the right exchange assignment! Biggest Disappointment: IDK, I don't think anything was really a disappointment this year - the tiny fandom stuff has mostly performed as I'd expect tiny fandom things to perform. Biggest Surprise: I'm pretty sure that both the spark that shakes the wire and enough to feel alive have gotten recced somewhere, b/c there's no way they keep racking up multiple hits a day just via people looking for Star Wars stuff (this fandom is too big for that!) but I have no idea where they might have gotten recced. Fic-writing goals for the coming year: I'd like to break 100k again, finish the IT Richie/Eddie road trip story, write more Star Wars things, more OUATIH things, and more GK things.

[sterek]

I love Omega!Stiles, can you rec me some of your fav fics with this trope??

Sure can! :)

You Smell Like Mine by bleep0bleep [13k, E]

People talk about the alpha instinct, an alpha's head being swayed by a nice-smelling omega, or the desire to drop everything and show off. Derek's never felt any of that. He's just not that kind of alpha.

Then he meets Stiles.

Fight Fires In Your Best Clothes by standinginanicedress [67k, E]

The key isn’t actually being confident, he repeats in his head in Lydia’s breathy voice. It’s faking the hell out of it and looking as sexy as possible while you do it. For omegas, it’s easy. There’s a natural charm to all of us that only takes seconds to engage, and barely takes practice.

Walk into the room, he chants in his head. Own it, and look people in the eyes. Find the best looking alpha, have them buy you a drink, and the rest is easy.

Worth the Wait by Dexterous_Sinistrous [13k, E]

Stiles always had a thing for Derek, but then again, so did everyone else. Stiles just wanted to be seen as different, which was why he waited.

But maybe he waited a little too long.

The Fox & The Wolf by Dexterous_Sinistrous [79k, E]

The war between the fox and wolf clans has raged for centuries, ignited in a time before anyone can remember. Now both clans—tired of the bloodshed and hate—are searching for a way to end the war.

Crowned prince Stiles Stilinski—heir to the fox clan—has agreed with his father to meet with the Hales, the ruling royal family over the wolf clan. Under the counseling of the Druids, both clans are presented with a solution to the war: unite the Stilinski and Hale clans through marriage. To quell their people's anger, both Stiles and Derek—eldest living Hale Alpha—are urged to accept the other as an equal; as their mate.

For the sake of their people, both houses make the ultimate sacrifice by choosing duty over love. But, out of what was first assumed to be compromised, quickly turns to be a better match than either could have hoped for. But not all is easy for either clan, as some members refuse to believe that the war could end so easily.

Empty by DiscontentedWinter [48k, M]

Jordan Parrish is the new sheriff of Beacon Hills, a town haunted by its past.

(Note: it has Parrish’s pov but it’s Sterek and it’s brilliant!)

Leaving Paradise by NARKOTIKA [43k, E]

A boy dreams of freedom, a broken man finds home, and they learn to love in a world where it feels more impossible than water falling from the sky.

A Change of Plans by sunnydalewerewolf [12k, E]

Stiles and Derek had been best friends since they were babies, their parents having all been friends since college. Growing up, it had seemed very apparent that Derek would be an alpha and Stiles an omega. Stiles had just kind of always assumed they would end up together, and he thought Derek had assumed the same. No one ever said anything about it, but that’s just the way things would be.

So when they both end up being omegas, things get kind of complicated.

Flower Bomb by rispacooper [6k, M]

When an eligible omega glanced your way, you were supposed to glance back. Derek could hear an echo of his mother’s voice in his head, gently reminding him there were alphas who would kill to find themselves the focus of an omega’s interest.

Derek didn’t have the dominating personality or drive necessary to be classified as alpha, and there was no bright spark of appeal about him to say he was omega. He was tall and in good shape. He had a pretty face, dark hair and light eyes, good bone structure. But he had no need to get in fights or conquer the world. He didn’t even like arguing with his family. He was solidly beta, and wouldn’t have minded, never had minded, except for when Stiles was near.

You're a Mess, But You're a Catch to Me by jsea [11k, E]

The laws are clear: omegas are required to have an alpha guardian. So when the sheriff gets shot, Derek is roped in to stepping up as Stiles' temporary alpha while he recovers.

Derek knew it was going to be a bad idea, but he never could have predicted all of the ways that Stiles would end up turning his life upside down.

Someday Came Today by Fatebegins [81k, E]

"March 2, 1810. . .Today, I met the man I’m going to marry."

At the age of eight, Genim “Stiles” Stilinski showed no signs of Great Beauty. And even at eight, Stiles learned to accept the expectations society held for him--until the evening when Derek Hale, the handsome and dashing Alpha of the Hale pack, solemnly kissed his hand and promised him that one day he would grow into himself, that one day he would be as beautiful as he already was smart. And even at eight, Stiles knew he would love him forever.

But the years that followed were as cruel to Derek as they were kind to Stiles. Stiles is as intriguing as the Duke boldly predicted on that memorable day--while Derek is a lonely, bitter man, crushed by a devastating loss. But Stiles has never forgotten the truth he set down on paper all those years earlier--and he will not allow the love that is his destiny to slip through his fingers.

I Still Believe by IAmAVeronica [111k, E]

War is hell.Falling in love with enemy solider Derek Hale, secretly mating him, and then accidentally being left behind by him when the war suddenly and violently ends is a special kind of hell apparently reserved for one human omega Stiles Stilinski.But Stiles is determined to find his mate again, because Derek left more than just Stiles in a war-ravaged and werewolf-hating country - and with danger at every turn and nothing but Derek's gun and his own wits for protection, hell hath no fury like Stiles now.

Fire, Fury, and Flame by IAmAVeronica [124k, E]

Stiles Stilinski was never going to be the omega who got knocked up right after high school, and then he's accidentally artificially inseminated with a stranger's sperm.Awesome.And the father of Stiles's baby just so happens to be Derek Hale. Half-feral, quite possibly a murderer, and pursued by a gleefully sadistic band of hunters who are only too eager to use Stiles and his baby to hit Derek right where it hurts.Joy.

a mountain to climb by grimm [126k, E]

"Don’t do it,” he mutters. “Don’t do it, please, don’t do it.”

But there it is, a soft pink line appearing right next to the control. Stiles’ legs give out from under him; he sinks to the bathroom floor, hands shaking, his entire body shaking. It’s hard to breathe, his vision blurring around the edges. There’s a knock on the door behind him and then it opens and Scott sits down next to him.

“I’m fucked,” Stiles gasps, tears prickling at his eyes. “I’m fucked!"

The Chase by saltandbyrne for Akuneko42 [10k, E]

Derek's fourth Chase will be his last if he doesn't catch an omega this time. He's starting to doubt this whole soul-mate thing anyway, at least until someone from his past shows up and gives him the run of his life.

Commands and Contrasts by ravingrevolution [88k, M]

"Collared Alphas are Careful Alphas"

Seriously? What the hell was that? Because putting a collar on someone was supposed to make them manageable or something? Sure thing.

Or: "Mated Betas are Better Betas"

Again with the control issues. But then again betas were by far the most common classification type, so Stiles assumed that was mainly posted to keep things kind of even.

His least favorite was definitely: "Keep Omegas Pure - Report Uncollared Unmated Alphas Always"

Just wow.

Stiles attended all the home economics classes, like a good omega, and took all his pills, like a good omega, and outwardly submitted to authority, like a good omega, but he didn’t buy into the whole structure dynamic thing. He just didn’t.

In the Solstice of our Hearts by ravingrevolution [73k, E]

"You're not putting that up your butt," Scott told him flatly and Stiles couldn't stop the pissed off whine he made, but his friend continued. "Stiles, you can't put that up your butt, you know that. Your butt won't be ready for anything to go in it until-"

"Okay, okay!" he said, flailing his hands to stop his friend's lecture. "Message received, no butt stuff until I'm pounced on by some freaking animal in the forest and ravished to within an inch of my life. Got it. Thanks, Scotty, I mean heaven forbid I actually try to take control of my life and give myself a fighting chance or anything."

"Not all alphas are animals," Scott said quietly.

Maybe he was right, but Stiles wasn't holding his breath.

Ssshhh! (or the voice in my head will have to shout) by mirrorkill [20k, E]

Things in Beacon Hills are always weird, but Deputy Derek Hale is pretty damn sure he's getting the brunt of this week's insanity. There's a serial killer in town getting their kicks by posing people weirdly and maybe the local coven is to blame. His mom's setting up his sister with his new boss's cute son. There's some guy talking in his head. Oh, and his heat kicks in, four months too early. Also: he's pretty sure cell phones are the worst thing on the planet.

This is Derek Hale's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. All he wants is to enjoy his new apartment in peace. But you can't always get what you want. And if he tries real hard, will the voice in his head help him get what he needs?

The One With The Mail-Order Brides and A/B/O Dynamics by Stoney [16k, E]

Wolves aren't meant to be alone. Laura tells Derek this repeatedly. Which... is why Derek knows he's losing his mind, as Laura has been dead for more than six years. Wolves aren't meant to be alone.

And so he sends away for a companion. JUST for a companion, not for a mate. The universe, however, has a different plan in store for him.

Hello, Heartbreaker by astoryaboutwar [18k, E]

It’s a popular joke among Alphas: fuck an Omega, get heartbreak on your hands. Omegas are fragile little emotional things, needy and whiny. Stiles refuses to become that, or to believe that he’s anything like that.

Stiles and Derek have been fuckbuddies for a while when Derek loses his memories of the past three years - and them - in an accident. (Also - everyone's a werewolf, and everyone's alive.)

an exaltation of larks by llassah [25k, E]

There are times when he feels as if they could fall into bed together, easy as breathing. If Stiles were not highborn, if he were an omega without connections, Derek would be sorely tempted. As it is, he resists. Derek wants, he yearns, but he resists. Still, the sight of Stiles in his cot is enough to test him, even now that it is familiar. At the end of each lambing season, he sleeps for a week, worn down by months of hard work, of relentless struggle. He doesn’t know how he’ll feel by the time Stiles leaves, how he’ll feel after long days and longer nights spent resisting the insistent tug of Stiles’s scent and the inclinations of his own foolish heart.

All Derek wants is to get through the lambing season with his body and spirit intact. He had thought that the blizzards would be the main danger, not a highborn omega with beautiful eyes and a stubborn streak.

Settle Down by wearing_tearing, whatthehale [153k, E]

Stiles is a struggling author barely making ends meet.

Derek is a successful architect whose biological clock is ticking.

Enter a surrogacy agency, two packs, and a particularly sticky and toe curling heat week and you get a match made in heaven.

The Sanctuary by chase_acow [24k, E]

Stiles runs away during his first heat, right into the waiting and ambiguously scary arms of the Alpha's nephew, Derek Hale. He doesn't have any choice except to submit, but along the way, he digs up a mystery that threatens his family and even the town's safety.

Consort to the King by Ember [26k, E]

King Derek, alphas of alphas, ruler of the realms, lord of the city of Beacon Hills, has just asked newly discovered omega Stiles to be his consort and mate. And Stiles, being the lowly commoner that he is, has no choice but to say yes. Will the King's past allow him to love again? Will Stiles ever escape the confines of his new mate's possessive will? Can there be love once more in the castle? Or perhaps, yet again, another betrayal?

[njawaidofficial]

Elisabeth Moss on 'Handmaid's Tale's' Real-World Parallels and How She Became an Accidental Activist (Cover Story)

http://styleveryday.com/2017/07/19/elisabeth-moss-on-handmaids-tales-real-world-parallels-and-how-she-became-an-accidental-activist-cover-story/

Elisabeth Moss on 'Handmaid's Tale's' Real-World Parallels and How She Became an Accidental Activist (Cover Story)

With her Hulu breakout scoring 13 Emmy noms, including best actress, television’s reigning (and surprisingly foul-mouthed) star opens up about Season 2 and her political awakening: “I’m a staunch believer in women’s rights. I don’t really give a s— about anybody who isn’t.”

The morning of July 13 started like any other, with Elisabeth Moss trying to eke out a little more time in bed. She is not, by all accounts, an early riser, and this sticky Thursday was no different, save for the locale, South Florida, where she was enjoying a rare few days off.

Then came the midday text from her publicist: a GIF of Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, shirtless and clapping. “I knew it was good news,” says Moss, a fourth-generation Cubs fan, “because a shirtless Anthony Rizzo is always good news.”

And it was: The Handmaid’s Tale had just scooped up 13 Emmy nominations, including a best actress nom for Moss, the dystopian drama’s producer and star. In short order, she began scrolling through the 49 congratulatory texts that had already come in. Before long, there would be a lengthy email chain among the actors and a back and forth with showrunner Bruce Miller as well. By 3 p.m., Moss was still working her way through the deluge.

This isn’t new territory for the 34-year-old actress, whose pileup of critical hits — The West Wing, Mad Men, Top of the Lake and now The Handmaid’s Tale — has led to her media moniker: the “Queen of Peak TV.” She earned six nominations for what was once her career-defining role as copywriter turned feminist heroine Peggy Olson on AMC’s long-running Mad Men and a seventh for her star turn as a cop in Jane Campion’s 2013 Sundance Channel miniseries Top of the Lake. But for reasons that still confound a large contingent of TV critics, Moss has never won an Emmy. “It’s lucky number eight,” she teases, turning more serious as she continues: “But if you’ve been nominated seven times and lost seven times, you learn to be pretty excited about being nominated. You feel this sense of, ‘Well, at least I seem to be doing well consistently.’ “

What makes this round of recognition different is not simply that her odds of taking home a statuette are greater than they’ve ever been but also that the universally lauded Hulu series has redefined Moss’ career — as an actress, a producer and, at first reluctantly, an activist for women’s rights. “What I’ve learned is, now is not really a time to stand in the middle,” she says. “You’ve got to pick a side.”

Jumping so quickly into another series was not initially part of Moss’ plan. She liked the idea of dabbling in the film world, throwing herself into a string of indies within days of Mad Men wrapping, and then a second installment of Top of the Lake, which she was busy filming when her reps sent her a copy of Miller’s Handmaid’s pilot. His take on Margaret Atwood’s seminal novel — first published in 1985 and now back on the best-seller list — centers on Offred, the titular Handmaid, whose world has been overtaken by a theocratic regime under which all fertile women are stripped of their rights and forced into sexual slavery. Despite her initial hesitation, Moss, who goes by Lizzie, recognized that the opportunity was one she couldn’t pass up. Her one stipulation: She insisted on being an active producer as well.

The demand didn’t faze Miller and executive producer Warren Littlefield, who both chuckle at the mere suggestion that Moss’ could be a vanity title, as is often the case when TV stars transition to producing. “At the beginning, I’d send Lizzie five different films, and I’d say, ‘This one is just about color palette; this one there’s a tone.’ And she’s in Australia starring in Top of the Lake, and a few days later, I’d get these detailed analyses: ‘I completely see this, and I love this, and what about this woman as a production designer?’ ” recalls Littlefield. “I said to her, ‘Do you sleep at all?’ She said, ‘Well, I had a weekend here.’ ‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘but you could go to the gym, maybe out to dinner — I’ve been on location before. I also eat.’ She was quiet, and even though it was over the phone, I could feel her smiling, and she said, ‘This is really important to me.’ “

Some 300 emails and nearly as many conference calls followed before the trio first met face-to-face on the Toronto set in the summer of 2016. In that time, Moss also had weighed in on directors — recommending Reed Morano, with whom she’d worked on the 2015 film Meadowland, to helm the first three episodes — as well as on casting, marketing and even wardrobe. At one point, she had costume designer Ane Crabtree send her swatches of the handmaids’ robes so that she could chime in on the autumn-red hue. “I may have taken it just a little bit too far,” she laughs. (Her self-deprecating charm notwithstanding, it’s clear Moss has the instincts and the eye of a producer, which she is bringing to bear on a slew of other projects. More on that later.)

What no one involved in The Handmaid’s Tale could have predicted while filming last fall was just how relevant the drama would become in Trump’s America. Launched three months into his presidency, the series hinges on plot points — right down to the all-female street protests — that mirror the real-world news cycle with unsettling frequency. The handmaids’ robes and bonnets have become the de facto uniform for women’s rights activists, and references to the Hulu drama seem to be fueling the feminist movement. “This show has prompted important conversations about women’s rights and autonomy,” Hillary Clinton told a crowd gathered at Planned Parenthood’s centennial celebration in May, referencing a particularly poignant scene in which one character says, “We didn’t look up from our phones until it was too late.”

Along the way, the series has put Hulu on the creative map in the same way Mad Men once did AMC, and Moss, whose unflinching performance has lapped up praise as “chilling” and “brilliant,” was catapulted into the unexpected role of spokesperson — with which she’s only now getting comfortable. “I guess I just didn’t know anyone gave a shit about what I had to say,” she says with the kind of wide smile you rarely see from her onscreen.

•••

Over a late lunch at a cafe on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where Moss shares an apartment with her two cats, Lucy and Ethel, I wonder aloud how she handles the exceedingly dark world of Handmaid’s, rife with rape and physical abuse.

Moving a bed of lettuce leaves around her plate, she recalls how famously blunt French film star Isabelle Huppert responded (during a roundtable discussion for THR) to a question about whether rape scenes in particular can be more challenging to shake. “She was like, ‘Noooo.’ Like, ‘It’s my job, and I go and do my work and I go home.’ I was literally like, ‘Praise Jesus, she is my fuckin’ hero,’ ” says Moss, whose propensity for profanity can be jarring at times. “Some of the other actresses [at the table, including Natalie Portman and Amy Adams] probably wanted to answer like that, but sometimes you feel like you shouldn’t because you should take things seriously. But I just love that she is so fuckin’ French that she just was like, ‘Noooo,’ and that’s more of the camp that I subscribe to.”

It’s an approach to acting that Morano, 40, finds herself marveling at each time the pair is together on set. “Lizzie has this uncanny ability to transport herself, and it happens very quickly,” she says. “We’d be joking around, making fun of someone on the crew, and then two seconds later I’d have a camera on her and she’d be crying in a scene.”

Moss has felt comfortable pingponging between real life and make-believe, however grim it may be, for as long as she can remember. “Acting has always just been play for me,” she says, harkening back to her debut as Sandra Bullock’s 6-year-old daughter in a 1990 Jackie Collins miniseries. “All I remember is doing the scene where I find [Bullock’s] body in the pool,” she says. By 10, Moss was being snatched from her family in the Harvey Keitel movie Imaginary Crimes; parts in other disturbing flicks, including Girl, Interrupted, starring a young Angelina Jolie, followed. “So yeah,” she says, “I’ve never really done the lighter stuff, even as a fuckin’ kid.”

Initially, all of it was just a sideshow to her first love, ballet, which Moss studied at the School of American Ballet in New York and with Suzanne Farrell at the Kennedy Center in D.C. But having picked up some early lessons in discipline and hardship, she hung up her pointe shoes at 15 and by 17 found herself back in her native L.A., auditioning for a role on The West Wing before a fast-talking man who seemed particularly at ease with the material. “Later I found out that that was Aaron Sorkin,” she says of the series’ famed creator, adding in her own defense, “I didn’t know who the fuck anyone was.” Moss was cast as Zoey Bartlet, the president’s daughter, and over seven seasons on The West Wing earned a formative education in the power of good writing.

Upon its wrap, Moss jumped immediately to Mad Men as then-awkward secretary Peggy Olson. It wasn’t the simplest decision. Back then, AMC was known for airing crusty old movies, and her agents, since replaced, were trying to sell her on a forgettable indie casting at the same time. But Moss, who was struck by both the world and the script of Matthew Weiner’s series, was insistent: “I just kept saying, ‘Do not let Mad Men go.’ ” Over seven seasons, the drama about 1960s ad men (and women) helped usher in the golden age of television, with Moss’ character ascending the corporate ladder to become something of a feminist icon. The status still tickles her, she admits, as she searches her phone for her favorite Peggy memes. She finds one in which the Mad Men character, with shades on and a cigarette dangling from her lips, shares the screen with a bonneted Offred. “I fuckin’ love this,” she says with a giant smile.

The Mad Men cast became a de facto family for Moss, who’d been home-schooled during her early teen years by her mother, a harmonica player, and father, a music manager. Most of her 20s were spent on that downtown L.A. set; and given her dedication to ensuring everyone there was having a good time, often by way of competitive parlor games that Moss frequently would win, her fellow castmembers anointed her president of base camp. “I was like, ‘I’ll pay for the flowers,’ and they were like, ‘Done! You’re elected,’ ” she jokes. Her co-star Jon Hamm, base camp’s self-appointed sergeant-at-arms, recalls Moss being critical to the cast’s morale. “For a girl who has made her bones being a very heavy and very capable dramatic actress,” he says, “she has a wicked sense of humor, and she gives as good as she gets.���

During that time, Moss married — then quickly divorced — Saturday Night Live alum Fred Armisen. The tabloids attributed the relationship’s demise to Moss’ devotion to Scientology, a theory later dispelled by Armisen when he told Howard Stern that he was a “terrible husband” and then, on Marc Maron’s podcast, admitted that he struggled with “cheating and infidelity.” At one point, Moss chimed in, too, telling the New York Post, “The greatest impersonation [Armisen] does is that of a normal person.” While she learned quickly that “if you don’t want people talking about stuff, don’t talk about it yourself,” she can acknowledge it was a good line, adding with a chuckle: “I was holding on to that one for a while.”

Though the Armisen mentions figure less prominently in her recent round of press coverage, no profile of Moss is complete without reference to Scientology, which she was reportedly born into via her parents. New York magazine once called her affiliation with the church “the strange, odd fact of her biography, the thing that does not belong in her regular-chick story,” and sites like Jezebel have argued that it’s relevant that “the star of The Handmaid’s Tale belongs to a secretive, allegedly oppressive religion.” Moss has come to expect the line of questioning, even if she consistently declines to respond. “It doesn’t surprise me [that it’s always mentioned] because I think if there was anything unusual, it would be there [in a piece about me],” she says with a shrug. “So when it was my marriage and I was going through that, it was that. If something else happened to me, it would be that. And I [understand the interest], I’m happy to read about the thing that I don’t know anything about, too.”

She tucks her shoulder-length blond hair behind her ears, and continues, now with that smile reemerging: “There’s just not a lot else to explore here. I mean, my cat has asthma. It’s something that we’re dealing with: medicine twice a day and she gets a little inhaler. You want to talk about that?”

•••

You don’t need to spend much time with Moss to see that she still has reservations about her own soaring profile and the attention that comes with it.

She talks about stars as though she isn’t one and describes her life, though it includes such things as stylists on her payroll, as devoid of any glamour. One of the last times she can remember going out at night, she says, was Nov. 8, and that was only because she expected the first female president to be elected that evening. (See sidebar on page 64.) Any free time she does have these days is spent in front of the TV (Veep and This Is Us are current staples) or out to eat with her mom, Linda, who lives a couple of blocks away, and her small circle of friends, all of whom she has known for more than a decade and many of whom she has worked with at some point during her career.

“If Lizzie had her druthers, she’d probably stay in bed all day,” says her best friend, Susan “Goldie” Goldberg, a former AMC exec who met Moss on the pilot of Mad Men. Though the two text often and share a “borderline obsession” with Disneyland, there are a handful of subjects on which they don’t see eye to eye. “Lizzie’s a diehard Chicago Cubs fan, and I’m a longtime Mets fan, so we agree not to talk about that,” says Goldberg, now an exec at Annapurna. “Or I love hiking in L.A., and Lizzie dismisses the whole notion of hikes, making fun of me and my ‘urban walks,’ as she calls them.” Other Moss favorites: Central Park, sushi and a decent Moscow Mule.

Moss is equally skilled at downplaying her professional accomplishments. Ask about her first visit to the Cannes Film Festival in May, when her indie The Square, a satire of the art world, won the Palme d’Or and her upcoming season of Top of the Lake earned rapturous reviews, and she tries to refocus the conversation on the surrealness of the festival. (“It’s like a French Fellini movie,” she says. “Everyone’s walking around in tuxedos with people taking pictures of them, and you’re like, ‘Who the hell are these people?’ “) After a fair amount of prodding, she finally accepts that her recent track record is noteworthy. “Yeah,” she allows, “I recognize that I seem to be on a streak of finding really good stuff and people liking it.”

Looking ahead, that “stuff” will include many projects that she’ll be intimately involved in from the start — such as Fever, the story of Typhoid Mary, which she acquired the rights to and is starring in and producing with one of her mentors, Annapurna’s Sue Naegle, for BBC America. She has been busy meeting with other female producers, too, including Girls‘ Jenni Konner, who calls Moss “our generation’s Meryl Streep,” about potential collaborations; and she’s in the process of setting up a production company with two other women, citing actress turned prolific producer Reese Witherspoon as an inspiration. Though female-led projects will almost certainly be her bailiwick, she’ll continue partnering with liberal-minded men, too, including filmmaker Alex Ross Perry, with whom she already has done two films. The pair is quietly prepping a third, for which Moss reveals she’ll play the lead of a female rock group who’s also an alcoholic, drug-addicted mother. “Come on,” she jokes, “she couldn’t just be a rock star.”

Like Ross Perry, most who have teamed with Moss try to do so again. Campion wasn’t interested in returning to Top of the Lake for a second installment unless she knew Moss was on board. She proposed the idea on a coaster that she slipped under Moss’ hotel room door when they were both in L.A. for the Emmys. “An actor like her is often relegated to sidekicks, characters and best friends, but beginning with Top of the Lake, Lizzie proved she could be a lead — that she had the charisma and gravitas to pull it off,” says Campion, who adds that she’s accessible as an actress and humble as a human in a way that so many are not.

Weiner, her former Mad Men boss, has been busy writing his Amazon anthology series, about descendants of the Romanov family, and while he hasn’t begun casting, he has said publicly that he’d like to have past castmembers like Moss drop in. Though she has yet to have that conversation with him, she says she’d “love to do it.” Her current boss Miller says he can’t fathom doing another project without Moss by his side. Sure, he has been blown away by her talent onscreen (“She’s a miracle to watch,” he says), but it’s her contributions as a producer on Handmaid’s that he hadn’t anticipated valuing so much. “Lizzie brings something that you don’t normally get from producers, and once you get it, you never want to not have it,” he explains. “Someone who’s an expert on actors. A lot of the work that she did the first season was just managing this cast of players and getting a great performance out of all of them.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean it has always been smooth with Moss at the helm. She famously put her foot in her mouth when promoting the series at the Tribeca Film Festival in April. When asked whether the show’s feminist themes drew her to the project, she responded, “Honestly, for me, it’s not a feminist story. It’s a human story because women’s rights are human rights. … I never intended to play Offred as a feminist.” Within minutes, the Twitter mob had pounced, and the media began blasting her “striking and somewhat baffling” reluctance to associate with the feminist movement. The experience proved a wake-up call for Moss. “I was asked a question about my character, and I was thinking about my character and about the TV show,” she says, “not that I was speaking for feminists.”

In the months since, she has warmed up to her new platform, even if it can still leave her with a pit in her stomach. “If you’re spending a year on something and you’re thinking about it, you’re reading a book over and over and you’re having to do these scenes, it sinks in, this idea of like, what happens if we don’t say anything or what happens if I don’t speak up?” she says. She has started donating to both the ACLU and Planned Parenthood and has found ways to incorporate the organizations’ pins and ribbons into her red carpet looks and her Instagram feed for her quarter-million followers to see.

After the lunch bill has been paid, I ask whether she worries about alienating the part of her audience that might not feel the same way she does on these issues. Her response is immediate and emphatic: “I’m such a staunch believer in women’s rights, I don’t really give a shit about anybody who isn’t. It’s like, I don’t need them to watch the show. At a certain point, things are more important than your job.” Which is why when you see Moss back on the red carpet at the Emmys in September, you can expect some kind of political statement. “There will probably be a pin or a ribbon involved,” she says, giggling as her mind wanders. “Or maybe I’ll just wear a giant ACLU ribbon and a really good spray tan.”

This story first appeared in the July 19 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.