#ashesfromashes

[anti-homophobia-cheese]

Hey friend!

Rec me your top 3 all time fave RWRB fics. I’ve fallen way behind and I’d love to catch up on something I may have missed.💜🥰

oooh you're very wise to cap this at 3 or this would've taken a while

top three all time fave rwrb fics:

Screw your courage to the sticking place (and forget macbeth is a fucking tragedy) I might never correctly recall the title of this fic in its entirety but the story? oh it hasn't left me in months

No Consequences my beloved. almost made me take a day off from work because i was a woman possessed

All that Glitters oof. my first foray into the fandom. i remember exactly where i was and what i was doing when i found this fic

sleepover weekend

[anchoredarchangel]

9, 16, and 20 please!💜

Hello Ash! Thank you for the ask!! 💫🤍

9. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

Hilariously, I consulted an outside opinion for this one, and because my time spent writing The Consequences was just described to me as "manic" and "deranged" I've been informed the correct answer was probably either fic in my series The Shadows They Frequent. Purely because they were little shots of porny dopamine that I did not work myself into a fine lather overthinking. Unfortunately, I cannot argue with this.

16. What's your favorite title of the year?

This is so tough, because oddly enough, titling fics is one of my favorite parts, so I'm unjustifiably attached to all of them.

For two very different reasons, I'm going to say it's a tie between The Cosmos in His Palms, because the romantic monologue it's pulled from means a great deal to me - as does the scene of origin. And on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, The Throne He Deserves, because the reveal of the titular line was so satisfying. The people were NOT prepared.

20. Share your funniest line

In the same vein, I’m picking the first thing that jumped readily to mind. And honestly, why shouldn’t my funniest line actually be during a very tender, emotional sex scene. That feels like my brand. From Valour and Cowardice:

Those last two brain cells appear to have left the building. Vacationing in the prostate, maybe. Alex can confirm it’s very nice there this time of year.

[kiwiana-writes]

13 for the end of year drabbles please!💜

#13: Every Day's a Saturday by Elemeno P

Alex never had the college experience the way a lot of other people did, but now? This time with Henry, now that they're free to be together out in the open, lounging around Europe swimming and getting tan and fucking in fancy hotel rooms in every city? It's basically spring break. It's good food and an alarming amount of alcohol and the best possible company; it's no worries and no responsibilities and not needing to think any further forward than tomorrow. In lots of ways, he's glad he didn't get this before—he wants to have it all with Henry.

[send me a number 1-100 and I'll write a drabble based off whatever song that corresponds to in my spotify wrapped apple music replay]

[bigassbowlingballhead]

Movie recs: Gonna go old school and rec the angsty queer trifecta that defined my early 20s, long before I even realized why they spoke to me so much. Velvet Goldmine, Party Monster, and Breakfast on Pluto. 🫡🥰

ash you're singing my song with angsty queer films.

[insecuregodcomplex]

Icy, pasta, and warm💜

icy: you're so cool and i wish i had the energy to talk to you more pasta: i want to steal your brain so i can unlock how you manage to be so funny warm: mutuals i would declare my platonic love to

:') thank you my friend!!

send me colors?

[cha-melodius]

If possible, firstprince #20, please! 🫂

(Another extremely popular one, also requested by @miss-minnelli, @nowords-world, @miharaikko, and @ashesfromashes. And it's another grad students/academia AU, because I couldn't help myself. read all the hug ficlets)

20: The “woah, hey, hello, hi” hug.

Alex is exceptionally drunk. Probably more drunk than Henry’s ever seen him, and that’s saying something, since they spent the majority of their graduate school years together. Henry’s seen him silly drunk at holiday parties, and sad drunk after committee meetings, and angry drunk that one time when someone scooped him in a publication, but he’s never seen him quite this ecstatically happy drunk.

He’s certainly earned it. His dissertation defense had gone perfectly—Christ, but he’d looked incredible up there in a sharp suit purchased just for the occasion, confident and brilliant as he explained his research. Apparently, his committee didn’t even give him many revisions, the lucky bastard (luck has nothing to do with it—Alex is just that good).

So he’s got plenty of reasons to be happy, and Henry is happy for him. If Henry’s also achingly sad, that’s his own business. Ok, yes, Alex is sticking around for another semester to teach, but all too soon he’ll get some fabulous postdoc or faculty position, and god knows where it will be, but it’ll almost inevitably be far away from Henry.

Henry has managed to keep his maudlin thoughts at bay for most of Alex’s defense party, but the night is winding down and so is he. He’s withdrawn to the edges after an unsuccessful attempt at distracting himself by helping to clean up—Zahra had told him in no uncertain terms to cut it out, she was paying someone to do that—chatting with a few people but mostly sulking. Fortunately, Alex hasn’t noticed.

Or, that’s what he thought.

One moment Alex is bopping wildly along to some pop song on the makeshift dance floor they’ve cleared by shoving Zahra’s living room furniture out of the way, and the next he’s making a beeline toward Henry. Henry barely has a chance to prepare himself before Alex is throwing himself at him, and Henry has no choice but to quickly abandon his drink in order to catch him.

“Woah there, love,” he says, because he’s more than a little drunk himself and his filter is shot.

Alex grins brilliantly up at him and simply says, “Hi,” as he wraps his arms around Henry’s waist and pulls him into a crushing hug.

“Hello,” Henry replies, unable to keep himself from matching Alex’s smile. “Can I help you with something?”

“You can come dance with me.”

“Oh, I don’t think—”

“Puh-leeeease, H?” Alex interrupts, batting those offensively long eyelashes up at him. “You gotta.”

Henry’s always been terrible at saying no to him. Still, he tries, “Oh, do I?”

“Yeah, ‘cause it’s my party, and I want you.”

He doesn’t mean it like that, of course—he just wants Henry to join them—but Henry’s stomach turns over anyway. Helpless to resist, he lets Alex drag him out onto the dance floor. Then someone (it was definitely Pez; Henry’s going to murder him) puts on a slow song. To Henry’s surprise, Alex collapses into his arms like all the frenetic energy has drained out of him at once, his arms looped tightly around Henry’s waist and his head resting on Henry’s shoulder.

“Hey,” Alex says after they’ve swayed aimlessly for a little while, “why’re you sad?”

So he definitely noticed. Henry shouldn’t be surprised. “I’m not,” he tries anyway. Alex lifts his head up long enough to glare at him. “Fine, I’m a little sad. It’s just… the beginning of the end, isn’t it? I’ll be finishing this year—I will, hush you—and you’re applying for jobs and leaving me…”

He means to say us, but it doesn’t come out that way. Alex just hums, a low rumble Henry feels more than hears.

“Take you with me.”

“What?”

“Y’know, like a spousal hire,” Alex says, yawning into Henry’s shirt. “Tell ‘em I need a position for you too. They’d be stupid not to.”

Henry’s head swims. The thing is, Alex is such a superstar that he probably could negotiate something like that. Except for, you know. The fact that they’re not married. Alex doesn’t even seem to realize the implications of what he’s just said, he’s too busy falling asleep on Henry’s shoulder.

“I think we need to get you home,” Henry manages eventually.

Alex rousts himself, blinking up at him. “Just think about it, ok?” he says, like this is a serious proposition.

“Okay,” Henry agrees.

What else is he going to do? Besides, it makes Alex smile at him again, and really, that’s all that matters.

[swaps55]

Tagged by @unfair-water-plane and @moosemonstrous to post a gif from 10 favorite films without naming them, then tag ten people. Thank you!

Tagging @urrone @screwyouflightlieutenant @vhenadahls @ashesfromashes @thedragonaspect

@dinchenrockt @jellisdraws @flightofthefaeriedragon @pancake-angst @scribblesandknots

And anyone else who would like to play!

[reallyquitestrange]

Happy N7 day ya'll!

Here is @ashesfromashes F!shep cuddling with Traynor! Loved working on this piece and making them extra cuddly! I have never personally romanced Traynor on any of my playthroughs but drawing this made me want to. (this was the Raffle winner piece from this post) Links: Commission page What I use My other art (careful some of it is spicy)

[iboatedhere]

(thank you @ashesfromashes for all your help!)

--

“Do you need something, Dr. Nichols?”

“Uh, no, no, not really. I was just…” He trails off, his fingers tapping against the desk as Jenny raises a brow. “Do you need anything?”

Jenny narrows her eyes. “No. I’m all set.”

“Good, that’s good.” He glances around at the empty waiting room and empty halls. “Slow night tonight, huh?”

Jenny sighs and sets the chart down on the desk before setting a hand on her hip. “Dr. Nichols, are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine,” he tells her. “Really. I’m good.”

He is, really, but there’s an hour and a half until his shift ends and there’s nothing to do. His patients are resting, his paperwork has been filed, and he’s already made the trip down to the cafeteria three separate times to grab a cup of coffee.

Nights like this are good. They’re appreciated and needed and Josh would be more than happy to ride out the rest of his shift on the couch in his office, trying to catch a few moments of sleep except…

He can’t sleep. He can’t really eat. Can’t really think about anything except for how everything has suddenly changed. A month ago he really felt like he had it all—like the missing piece were finally falling into place. He had a partner. A boyfriend. Someone who wanted to be with him—to make plans for the future with. He was rapidly falling in love and instead of running away, all he wanted to do was run toward it.

Now he has absolutely no idea where he has ended up.

Read More On Ao3

[onthewaytosomewhere]

pinterest tag game

go onto pinterest and select the first image the pops up when you search the following: breakfast, weather, drink, quote, clothes, house

thanks for the tag @tinyarmedtrex 💚

a gentle no pressure tag ur it to @adinarj @typicalopposite @girlwonder-writes @taste-thewaste @mylucayathoughts

@tailsbeth-writes @judasofsuburbia @priincebutt @piratefalls @anti-homophobia-cheese

@almightaylor @thighzp @ashesfromashes

[anti-homophobia-cheese]

12, 18, and 23.💜

Hi love 🩷

12. Have you ever stayed up 48 hours?

Oh god no. I NEED my 6 hours. Sometimes I'll self-sabotage and it'll come down to 4-5 but staying up two whole days?? I'd straight up die. ;_;

18. Are you scared of spiders?

Not if they're minding their business away from my personal space.

23. Do you have piercings? How many?

One on each ear. I'm too scared of needles to get anymore.

ask me horrible things

[faketrex]

💥Spite Club, part II💥

@ashesfromashes politely asked what happens next in this story and since I wasn't planning to write any more, I very nearly just typed it out in bullet points as an addendum to the original post... but then I realized that I wanted to write this scene, actually. So! Here's a little follow-up to the Spite Club six-sentence beginning. No sentence limit on this one, I didn't even try to restrain myself.

(Part I of Spite Club is here!)

...

In hindsight, he'll concede that maybe his plans had been a little over-the-top–but holy shit, Henry's plans had been something else entirely, a whole nother fucking level.

"Extreme," Alex gets out between kisses, while Henry's lips are sliding across his chin and his hands–one on Alex's hip, one pressing against his chest–are anchoring him to the cold stone wall of the castle–they're in a literal palace in Edinburgh and a literal prince of England has Alex backed up against a wall and his lips all over him, "fuck, yes, and... um, extravagant, and... and did I say extreme? This feels pretty extreme–"

"Are you protesting," Henry murmurs against the soft skin under the angle of his jaw, "or are you trying to creatively woo me via thesaurus?"

"Shut up and kiss me," Alex retorts, gripping the backs of Henry's shoulders and tilting his face to catch his lips once more.

A minute or ten later, maybe, Henry's hips are grinding against Alex's and he's trying to convince himself to call a time-out before he embarasses himself, when the whole thing comes to a screeching halt: "I've never had someone pursue me via aggressive philanthropy," Henry says in a conversational tone, annoyingly calm even while his cheeks are red and Alex can feel his overheated skin through the fabric under his fingers.

"Pursue–what are you talking about," Alex protests, pulling back and immediately banging his head against something. It at least has the helpful effect of calming him down a bit, kind of. "Fuck, ow–what do you mean, pursuing you, I wasn't pursuing you, I'm pretty sure I was just minding my own business when you seduced me–"

One of Henry's hands comes up to smooth over the back of Alex's head. His fingers card through Alex's hair, probably messing it all up, but it makes warmth spread down Alex's neck and into his shoulders and spine; he leans back into it, Henry's hand cushioning him from the wall. Satisfaction sparkles somewhere in Alex's chest as he notices that Henry's breath is just as shaky as Alex's is.

"I'm... I'm sorry, did you say you weren't pursuing me? Haven't you–"

"Don't get me wrong," Alex interrupts, trying to avoid any potential misunderstandings when they've both been thinking with their dicks, "I'm not opposed to this, not fucking hardly. I just didn't even have a hunch that you might be into guys. Until now, I mean."

The multiple emotions flickering across Henry's face aren't all easy to identify, but Alex can definitely pick up on the last one, the one that stays put: horny confusion. Alex knows it well, today.

"You weren't flirting with me?"

"Well–"

"You tracked my charitable donations and systematically exceeded them by the smallest possible increments for six bloody months!"

"Henry–"

"If you weren't–" Henry shakes his head, almost knocking his nose against Alex's. "By all means, Alex, please do tell me: exactly what point were you trying to prove?"

"Okay," Alex says as the facts slowly line up in his brain, click-click-click like a roller-coaster reaching the top of the big hill, "first of all, I want to repeat myself: this is great, this is awesome, and I absolutely want to do it again when we're not hiding in a stairway. You're, like, offensively hot. But... yeah, my nonprofit is called Spite Club. And I... well, maybe the name kind of speaks for itself?"

Henry huffs a laugh and shakes his head again. "It most certainly does not."

"Ugh." The roller-coaster of logic processing in his brain tips over the peak as Alex finally realizes the worst, most embarrassing thing–and then that he has to admit that same thing to Henry, right now. "I was–I didn't even see it. Can you believe that? All that organizing, all that sleep deprivation, all that paperwork, and I didn't even realize that I was trying to get your attention. And somehow you managed to figure it all out, too. And–ugh," he repeats, "you're going to be right all the goddamn time, aren't you? I can fucking see that already."

The smile on Henry's face is like brilliant sunshine in the grey Scottish winter. "Oh, am I?"

"Yeah," Alex sighs. "But I guess I won't be a sore loser as long as I get to kiss you about it."

"It was all for a good cause, at any rate," Henry says, still smiling.

In Alex's opinion, truer fucking words have never been spoken.

...

(Alex is a sore loser, in fact, but Henry does kiss him anyway.)

[kiwiana-writes]

3, 8, and 16!🥰💜

3. What piece of media inspired you the most?

Uhhhh RWRB? I guess?

8. What fic meant the most to you to write?

Someday your rainbow will come smiling through, which was not really written as a fanfic at all, but here we are lmao

16. What's your favourite title of the year?

I pictured you with other girls in love I thought was pretty fucking funny - it only makes sense because of the *next* line in the song, not the one I actually used for the title. But I think I might have peaked with Life was a willow (and it bent right to your wind)

[2024 in review]

[bigassbowlingballhead]

I did not mean for that to be on anon. It’s like 4 am and I’ve made several bad choices, shut up.

Ash do you know how much I adore you?

[cr-noble-writes]

Fave Movies

I was tagged by @unfair-water-plane @ashesfromashes and @dandenbo to post gifs of my ten favorite movies without naming them, so here we go!!

tagging: @imbiowaresbitch @bleuzombie @nickelkeep @rotschopf-thedrow @blakelyohgee @bardofheartdive and anyone else who sees this and wants to do the thing

[cha-melodius]

Top 6 movies I watched this year

Thanks for the tag @loki-is-my-kink-awakening! This said "movies I watched" not "movies released in 2024" so I did include some older ones I finally got around to watching this year. Because I'm gonna be honest, it was a little bleak movie-wise, for me at least.

Tagging 6 folks: @firenati0n, @youtastelike-sunlight, @justabigoldnerd, @ashesfromashes, @clottedcreamfudge

@wolfpup026