#and then i look and without fail it's just one of my WIP playlists nearly song for song

[unnonexistence]

fic writer asks number 14!! tell me your inspiration

[fic writer ask meme]

14. where do you get your inspiration?

music!!! music is the biggest & most obvious source. I owe a lot of my newmann headcanons & interpretations to, like, 10-30 pacific rim playlists that i listened to over and over again on 8tracks when I was in uni. they gave me something nice to think about while I was doing the dishes, & I will forever be grateful lol.

I make my own playlists as well, both for longer fic projects & specific characters/specific parts of the movie/et cetera. often i'll have a song that captures the vibe i want for something PERFECTLY, and I like to look at the song and go "okay, how exactly is it doing that?" and use that as a starting point (i.e. steal their storytelling techniques haha).

for The Big WIP, one of the songs I took a lot of inspiration from is Home To Me by Madeline. it has this repeated idea of, like, something romantic happens & the narrator is like "this is lovely, but I know it's not really about me," & I definitely used that. it also inspired a specific detail that's going to be obvious when I eventually post the relevant chapters lol.

another song I took much more abstract inspo from is A Small Fruit Song by Al Stewart. it's got this whole long & complicated instrumental that leads up to two verses expressing a feeling in as straightforward a way as I think it can be expressed, and like... yeah. that is a shape I'm trying to write too. sometimes you have to dance around something for a while before you can say it concretely.

playlists also help me stay on track with the story, because my first drafts often don't quite hit the emotional beats I intended them to. like there's one scene I've been messing with for ages because it's just not quite right, and I realized after listening to an old playlist again that I had the wrong reasoning behind Newt's feelings, & it was throwing everything off. still gotta fix that but I know what the problem is now!

aside from music, reading genres I don't write (mostly mystery & various types of nonfiction) really replenishes the writing well for me. they're hard to pick out as direct influences, but it all goes into the blender & a smoothie comes out, you know? gotta have a variety of ingredients in there.

thanks for asking!!

[valentinerose529]

Tag Game: Oc Ship Songs

thanks to @dancinginsepia for the tag, and also for making the tag game!

rules: write about two to five songs from them that represent your a ship between your ocs (it can be platonic or romantic or a secret third thing). then add a quote from said wip (if possible!) underneath it.

and boy oh boy this is the right tag because you know who's been making playlists and imagining music edits instead of, yknow, actually writing something? this gal!! Anyways, relationship: Coraline and Ixora because I am Unwell over them. They're a bodyguard and a charge that eventually turned into like platonic soulmates sorta thing, in that they know each other so well but still insist to strangers it's only a job. This is gonna be fun to decide on anything because i have pages and pages of backstory but very little current dialogue and interaction written between these two--they've actually spent more time apart and affecting each other's lives than they have interacting on page! (the solution is to write more of them interacting. i'll get back to you on that)

1. Die For You by STARSET This has been an Ixora theme song for like. Years. The man's loyal as hell. And in a relationship like theirs, how do you determine the line between Ixora-specific loyalty or bodyguard-general dedication? He'd follow her into hell if she asked. (She did, once.)

"You promised to protect me," Cory gasped, and the words were a knife in his own heart. "I failed," he replied. Words clawed up his throat, but he couldn't get them out—how could he say what she meant to him? He would have given her everything before today; he made himself her protector because he believed in her. Because he trusted her.

2. If I Killed Someone For You by Alec Benjamin I haven't quite gotten under Cory's skin yet to get a writing handle on how she ticks,but I know she's very self-centered and righteous. I love exploring their dynamic--here's a power imbalance with two irascibly stubborn people on either end--and how much Ixora will simply cede to her rather than arguing. And how far would he go for her without her needing to ask?

“I thought I’ve been banned from your events,” Ixora said, in a tone I’d only ever heard when he was trying to start a fight. “You’ll behave yourself tonight, won’t you?” [asked Louise.] "I'm not coming anyways. I can’t leave Cory; I’m her protector, remember?” "Oh, but you're invited too, Miss [Coraline]." All eyes turned to Coraline. She and Ixora looked at each other. Her eyebrow twitched in question, he set his jaw in response, and Coraline replied smoothly, “If you insist, Miss Louise, then it’s in our best interest to attend.” Ixora’s wings quavered; I couldn’t tell if he had agreed with Coraline or not.

3. House of Memories by Panic! At The Disco This one ends up on a lot of my oc playlists cause everyone's got backstory and lore. But these two for sure really have a plethora of memories together! They know nearly everything about each other--the way they move and fight and their daily rhythms. But when strangers ask, they'll insist it's a strictly professional relationship.

“How do I look?” “Like you walked off the cover of a dime romance. Impractical and useless in a fight,” she added coolly, shutting down Ixora’s dreams. “You flatter me, sweetheart,” he informed her, and tossed an apple at her from behind his back. “Here, I know you skipped breakfast.” He read her thank you in the flick of her ears as she caught it. “Are you all packed?” “Since yesterday. You? That bag of yours doesn’t look big enough.” “I can borrow something of yours if I need.” “See, I knew you’d say that, just like last time, and the time before that, which is why I packed that red shirt you hate.” “God, with the shiny buttons? You’re a menace.” “It means you won’t steal it, yeah?” he shrugged, the movement carrying through his wings.

I ran out of quotes (i really need to write more of this story instead of letting it grow a full-on mold colony in my head) so i couldn't add all the songs i had in mind.

Gentle tagging if you want to participate, plus open tags! if you see it then join in! ♥ @isilee @inked-fables @lame2882 @sarah-sandwich-writes @sabinabardot @eldritchpiper @1legitconnor @nascentmorimur @sam-glade @sparrow-orion-writes @cat-esper

[kmomof4]

Ooh, #s 3, 18 and 25. I can’t wait to read more from you.

Thanks for the ask darlin!!! And thank you so much!!! I can’t wait for you to have more to read from me either!!!

3. Favorite line/scene you wrote this year.

Oh man... that is TOUGH!! I can’t pick just one!!! I’m just gonna list all my favorites, sorry...

From True Love Song: David’s reaction to Killian being the True Love of his daughter.

From State of Emergency: Henry’s sass at the beginning, Killian choking on his sandwich when he first sees Emma, the explosives going off, and kiss at the end.

From CS Prompts and Drabbles: Neal’s beatdown in ch3, and all of ch5 the State of Emergency Future Glimpse.

From Somewhere Out There: Killian following Cygnus to his Swan, TLK, and Henry waking up.

From Time and Again: all the dreams, but especially killing Walsh, twice... the big reveal (no spoilers), the dolphins, all of chs 9&10.

From Choices, I was especially proud of this exchange: “What if I can’t save him? What if he really is a Lost Boy?”

“Nonsense, Emma,” he assured her. He desperately wanted to take her in his arms and comfort her, but he knew exactly how that would go: an even further fortification of the wall around her heart. The one he’d sworn to take down without manipulation or trickery. “Henry knows that you are here to get him back. That everyone here loves him. He’s not lost. Not by a long shot.”

The sadness tinged with hope in her beautiful green eyes nearly broke his heart. “How do you know?”

“I know because I’m looking at you,” he whispered, staring into her eyes. “As I said earlier, I’ve yet to see you fail. Your love for your son, your determination to get him safely home can be felt all over this island. Why do you think Pan has been visiting you so much?” he continued. “He fears you, Swan. He knows that the only way he’s going to keep Henry is to get you out of the way. Your mother’s heart,” he said, nodding toward where her heart beat, “simply won’t allow that. You’ll get him back. I have no doubt. And probably a lot sooner than you think,” he promised her, trying to pass the assurance he felt in her success on to her.

From Arise, My Love: the actual turning of Emma.

18. Number of WIP’s you currently have.

Two. A Christmas fic that will hopefully drop in the next week or two and the backstory and resolution of Arise, My Love that will be published next summer as part of CSSNS2020.

25. A fic you read this year that you’d recommend everyone read.

Uhhh... all of them? We are an INCREDIBLY blessed fandom with the amount of talent that is still producing such incredible and wonderful CS content!!! And we’ve added to that talent pool since the show ended and also this calendar year! Some particular favorites published in 2019 include

May the Lord Open and We Make Our Own Fate by @hollyethecurious

Their Way By Moonlight, Honeysuckle, Schadenfreude, and The Great Grammar Caper by @profdanglaisstuff

Break Me, We Kill the Flame, The Unexpected Life, and At Extremum Terrae by @thisonesatellite

The Swan Scandal by @kymbersmith-90

Catch Me If You Can by @let-it-raines

@searchingwardrobes Fandom Birthday Playlist is FANTASTIC!!!

And finally, ALLLLLLL of the offerings for @cssns, @cspupstravaganza, and @cshalloweek three fantastic events held this year with yours truly, @profdanglaisstuff, and @darkcolinodonorgasm at the helms, respectively.

I hope you didn’t mind the length of these answers, but they were great questions and I just had a lot to say about them... sorry, not sorry...

Send me a end of year fanfic ask!

[ficsideblogbecauseanxiety]

Starlings (Finished Vers.)

A few months ago I posted a WIP drabble that, at the time, I couldn’t be bothered to finish. Well, tonight I had a writing date with my girlfriend, so I did! To repeat, this is vaguely based off of a personal experience with the song Starlings by Elbow (sudden volume shift warning if you decide to search it; which I recommend as it’s a great song, and also this fic won’t really make sense without it).

Pairing: LawLu Rating: T, for cursing Setting: Modern AU Wordcount: 2023 words

The streetlights passed overhead one by one, each in an orange blur, as Law drove closer and closer to home. He knew they'd cross the outer limits of his hometown any minute now, and once they did it would only be a little while after that before they made it to his parents' house. He glanced over at Luffy in the passenger seat; he wasn't one for long car journeys with few stops, so he'd settled in for a nap a couple of hours ago. Law knew he'd have to wake him up soon. He grinned mischievously. 

As he braked at the next stoplight, he grabbed his phone from the dashboard, plugged it into the front console and selected a track before replacing back in its windshield stand. The song began quietly and calmly with soft, music box-esque tones, and it slowly grew to include muted percussion, dulcet vocals, and a gentle piano, until...

BARAAG!!

"Daah!! What the fuck!!!" Luffy shot awake at the sudden noise of an enthusiastic horn section blasting from the car speakers, his arms flailing about him and kicking his legs out in front of him. He grabbed his chair and sat up, eyes wide and breathing heavy with shock. He turned an angry glare on Law, who was desperately holding back laughter next to him.

Law swallowed his laughter and pressed a switch on his steering wheel to pause the song before it got to the second loud trumpeting. He breathed a satisfied sigh, turned his head briefly to look at Luffy and said, "Oh, Luffy, you're awake. Good, we're almost there."

"You son of a bitch." Luffy sat up properly in his chair again. He could hear Law snickering and give him a sideways glare. "I'm gonna tell your mom you did that."

"Please," Law scoffed, "She's my mother. She both birthed and raised me. She knows I'm an asshole." Stopping at another light, he leant forward and flicked back to his travel playlist. "Not that she would say as much, mind, but trust me. She knows."

Luffy's eyes were still narrowed at him from across the car. "Even if she didn't know, it wouldn't come as much of a surprise." With this Luffy crossed his arms and flung himself back against the seat, huffing. 

Law rolled his eyes and pulled away as the lights changed.

The rest of the drive to Law's childhood home was largely uneventful and deathly silent, save for the sound of the car engine. Damn if Luffy didn't hold a grudge when he was in a mood. Law felt maybe they were too alike on that front, but that's love for you. You can't just pick and choose. Not really.

They drove past retail parks and through many long suburban streets before pulling in front of what Luffy could only ever describe as a "big fucking house". It truly was a big fucking house; not quite what one would call a mansion, but still quite a sight to behold. Bigger than anywhere Luffy had ever lived, at least.

"Coming?" Law prompted, opening his car door, "Or are you just going to sulk in the car all weekend?"

Luffy withdrew eye contact with a huff and got out, making exaggerated movements as he stood up and slammed the door. He carried his own bag, thank you very much, and went ahead of Law to wait on the doorstep, pointedly facing the door. He leant away from Law's attempt to peck him on the head. Damn, he was being stubborn about this.

Law rang the bell and, predictably, as his mother came to answer it Luffy lit up again. Most people would say that Luffy was a terrible liar, and for the most part, they were right, but they were the people who had no clue about his mental health. Law knew better. Luffy was a shitty liar when it came to getting caught out for things he had done, sure, but he was an expert at covering up his low moods with a big, cheesy fake smile. He'd had a lifetime of practice with it, after all.

After exchanging the usual pleasantries with Law's parents they made their way upstairs to set their bags in his old room. The second he was over the threshold Luffy's smile dropped into a frown again; like an actor finishing a scene. He flung his bag down he lay back on the navy bedsheets and glared up at the ceiling.

Law watched him from the doorway and sighed. Sometimes he could just be so difficult. He started humming absentmindedly as he set down his own bag and closed the door behind him. He set to work getting the room ready for a proper stay - fixing the curtains and fishing the tv remote out of one of the multitudes of drawers in his admittedly inconvenient dresser - and as he did so he began to sing softly to himself. Perhaps subconsciously trying to lighten the mood.

"How dare the premier ignore my invitations-" He finally found the remote in the tenth drawer he checked - his dad liked to hide it between visits. "He'll have to go."

"Don't."

Law turned around at the sudden harsh utterance. "Hm?"

"It's that song from before. Don't."

Was it? Oh, yes, of course, it was. He hadn't realised. Law briefly considered cutting it out so as not to anger the beast further, but then he remembered that sometimes you've just got to turn into the spin.

"But you like my singing voice, usually." He smirked, turning back to the dresser to dig through the drawers for the remote for the DVD player.

"If you were singing anything else, it'd be okay. Just not that." Luffy's voice was still thick with stubborn annoyance.

"But it's a nice song, and I want to sing it." Playing 'poke the bear' with Luffy was a dangerous game, but Law would be lying if he said he didn't have a secret love for high stakes gambling.

He heard Luffy huff and turn over on the bed behind him. The gamble had paid off. For now. Law took this as a signal to continue with the song.

"So, too, the bunchy luncheons with its second on my list of things to do." His accent didn't fit especially well to the original Mancunian pronunciations, but he hoped the weird way it sounded would help lift Luffy's mood.

He made his way across the room to his bag, unzipping it and rooting around inside for his pyjamas.

"At the top is stopping by your place of work and acting like I haven't dreamed of you and I, and marriage in an orange grove."

He found them and made his way back across the room to set them down on the pillow on his side of the bed. He looked up at Luffy's figure, lying with his back to him, arms still crossed in front of him. He was all tensed up and rigid. Law smiled.

"You are the only thing in any room you're ever in." He sat himself down on the bed, too, facing towards the covered windows and away from Luffy for dramatic effect. "I'm stubborn, selfish, and too old."

"It's not gonna work."

Another utterance Law wasn't expecting. Luffy usually stuck to his guns more when it came to giving the silent treatment. Which meant that, actually, it must be working.

"I sat you down and told you how the truest love that's ever found-" He looked back at him out of the corner of his eye. "Is for oneself."

Luffy tightened the curl he was working himself into, and in his glance Law could see him clenching his shirt sleeves. He was pissing him off for sure, but it wouldn't be much longer now until it came full circle. He faced his eyes forward again for the next line.

"You pulled apart my theory with a weary and disinterested sigh."

At this point in the song when he had sung it to Luffy prior, he would sigh dramatically before chuckling to himself and revelling in his genius comedic timing. It never failed to make Law smile. Sometimes he would even laugh. Luffy was so, so good at making him laugh when he otherwise didn't feel like it.

Law thought he heard a sigh behind him, but if he did it was definitely not the usual jokey one. More of a real one, heavied with real irritation. Law let out a sigh himself and soldiered on. Not long now.

"So, yes, I guess I'm asking you to back a horse that's good for glue-" He stood up, stretching his back and turning around. "And nothing else."

Luffy's mass on the bed was curled up even more, now, but did seem to be softening a bit. Law folded his arms across his chest.

"But find a man that's truer than, find a man that needs you more than I."

Memories shone in his head of the expressions he had seen of Luffy's when he had previously sung this song. Soft eyes, soft smiles. His whole face radiating warmth and love. Law had sung feeling into these lines more than most songs he would croon around the apartment. It's one of the few songs he would serenade him with. Law was much pickier with those sorts of songs than Luffy was.

Law began making his way around the bed, fingers dragging lightly across the sheets.

"Sit with me a while and let me listen to you talk about-" He perched on Luffy's side of the bed, lightly tickling the soles of his feet, which he quickly retracted out of Law's reach with an annoyed grunt. "-Your dreams and your obsessions, I'll be quiet and confessional." 

He was projecting louder as the original song did, leaning over Luffy's huddled up form that was becoming ever more tightly coiled so as to avoid his touch. 

"The violets explode inside me when I meet your eyes-" He reached out towards Luffy's hair-cloaked face, nearly shouting the words at this point. "-Then I'm spinning and I'm diving like a cloud of starlings."

He gently moved the hair from across Luffy's eyes and as the music dissipated in his head he saw Luffy's averted gaze and deep blush spreading from his cheeks across his nose, as it always did when Law did cheesy stuff like this, though it was usually accompanied by a smile. The picture before him was too perfect as it was, though. He felt his heart quicken in his chest and a smile uncontrollably tugged at his lips.

"Darling is this love?"

The words fell, soft and low and sweet from his mouth. Luffy finally looked at him and pouted. He really was so irresistibly sweet when he was angry and flustered at the same ti-

"BWAAAAAARN!!"

Law toppled backwards, falling off the bed and nearly cracking his head of the big wooden bed knob. He sat there on the floor for several seconds in a state of mild shock as Luffy erupted with laughter on the bed above him. He shook it off and smiled up at him.

"You son of a bitch," Law chuckled, pulling himself off the floor, "That scared me half to death!"

"Well, you deserve it!" Luffy had tears in his eyes from laughing so hard. He had thrown himself right back onto the bed and was gripping his sides as he choked out his words through the throes of laughter. "Now we're even!!"

They both continued to laugh it off as Law pulled himself up onto the bed. He crawled his way over to his now incandescent boyfriend and as the mirth began to peter out they both lay beholding each other, breathing heavily and smiling wide. 

Law breathed an "I love you" and Luffy beamed in response before returning it.

Luffy was happy again, and all was right with the world.

But Law would be damned if he wasn't ever going to do it again. The reaction is always just too priceless, and Law was never one for learning lessons the easy way.