#but an AU of an existing idea I've written is fine

[robininthelabyrinth]

I'm suffering from the worst jetlag of my life and also severe writer's block. Can people suggest some ideas (preferably in reply to this post, but asks are also OK if you want to stay anon), preferably involving LQR, NMJ, WRH or SMS?

[halfagone]

Thank you! So this next one is a risky just a DP x DC au. Basically, Dani joins the young Justice and constantly gushes about her father Danny, with her bragging about his achievements and causing both the YJ team and the league as a whole extremely curious about him (especially Batman). When Dani finally decides to introduce them to him, they were not expecting an 18 year old who’s already ruling the realms despite his young age. Naturally, shenanigans ensue from there. What do you think?

Hmm... *strokes non-existent goatee* Now this is an AU I don't usually do... (I have a threshold for angst, as I like to call it, for any given story, and I wonder if this would've passed the threshold) I think for best comical effect Danny shouldn't be super mature like he is in, say... Off With the Demon's Head, where we see a similar father-daughter kind of dynamic between Danny and Ellie. That way the YJ and JL are all the more shocked when they realize that this is the guy Ellie's been talking about all along. Also if Ellie and Danny are only, like, four years apart so Danny's 18 and Ellie's 14 and they call each other father and daughter that would be hilarious XDD

I have been extremely picky about my Ghost King AUs recently, however, so I don't know how I would go about this. There are so many fics with this concept, I've written a number of fics with it too, and not all of them really do it for me anymore? I don't know if I just feel burnt out from the idea thanks to oversaturation or what, so I don't know what I could do for you on this idea. But! I can have a really funny exchange/reveal. >:D

---

Ellie, otherwise known as Phantom ("The Second," Ellie would always tut. "It's Phantom the Second, and don't you forget it."), hopped around excitedly as they stood at the zeta tubes, waiting for her apparent father to arrive. More than a few of them were shifting around on anxious feet, wondering how this meeting would go. Ellie had never held back on boasting about her father, and well. Could you blame them for being intimidated? Even just a little? Many of them hadn't gotten the privilege of seeing his exploits themselves, but they had seen the ripple effect across the world nonetheless. It was nothing to scoff at.

Oh gosh, they were totally going to blow this, weren't they?

Batman remained as stern as ever, even though he was just as curious and intrigued by the stories Ellie had shared. What concerned him the most at the moment, however, was how Ellie had told them to wait here, at the zeta tubes, when Batman was sure that no outsiders should be able to enter the base without the assistance of-

Before he could even finish that thought, there was a blinding ripple of light concentrated around a seam in the fabric of time and space itself. Many of them had to shield or close their eyes to protect their sight from the glare, and when the light finally abated they looked back to see a figure floating above the ground. A ebony black crown floated about their head, wisps of black fire smoking from its gemstones. A thick black coat was thrown over one shoulder, lined with a shock of white fur. It hid the royal regalia underneath, but the quality of it could not be understated.

The mop of white hair couldn't hide the toxic green eyes, no matter the fringe that laid atop of it. Those eyes were piercing, staring into their souls without mercy. More than one of them swallowed; that was fine, only the Supers could hear them... Right?

When the figure laid their eyes on Ellie, they smiled, revealing fanged, glittering white teeth.

"Dad!" Ellie shouted with excitement, floating off the ground without realizing it.

In another flash of bright light, the intimidating figure was then replaced with a young teenager, whose black hair floated gently as they touched down on the ground. Bright green had turned into calm blue, and the royal garb had been replaced with... an uni hoodie with tattered jeans?

"Hi, baby! How are you?" The teenager exclaimed as Ellie threw herself into his arms. "Is it okay if we have McDonald's for dinner? Uh, there was an accident in the kitchen again."

"Don't tell me you and Pa blew something up again," Ellie groaned with exasperation.

"Don't be ridiculous, me and your mom did this time," Ellie's father remarked with nervous laughter. Ellie shook her head at his antics. It was then that the unknown teenager turned to them. "Oh hi! You guys must be the Justice League, and... Young Justice? I hope that's correct? Ellie's told us a lot about you guys. Has she been good? How much collateral damage has she caused?"

"She burned down a lab the other day," Superman commented distantly, his shock overwhelming him.

The teenager gasped, turning back to Ellie. "You did? Aw, I'm so proud of you." He pulled her into another hug, making the younger girl giggle in happiness.

Meanwhile, everyone else couldn't help but stare. What the actual what just happened?

[chuuyrr]

I saw the baby fushiguro ask box open and I got so excited! I’ve read every fic you put out (crossover or jkk world) and I can’t stop coming back to reread them!

Feel free to ignore this request because it probably gets tiring writing for that more than Gojo! Reader, but what if, and hear me out, baby fushiguro reader tried to go to the Bungo Stray Dogs universe, but accidentally ended up in the Beast! AU. If you haven’t read the Beast! AU, that’s perfectly fine! Like I said feel free to ignore this

Alternative idea though, baby fushiguro meets the hunting dogs (in honor of season four coming out in a few months)

As a fellow student, make sure you’re taking care of yourself and prioritizing your health, both physical and mental. If you don’t, you’ll make baby fushiguro reader upset (and we don’t want that). Have a great day!

scarlet witch! baby fushiguro! reader goes to BEAST! AU of bsd

jujutsu kaisen x reader x bungo stray dogs

masterlist of the series

╰➤ CW(s): major spoilers for bungo stray dog's beast manga, angst & the most detailed shit i've written in a long while that i have also may or may not have cried to while writing : )

╰➤ PAIRING(s): platonic! bungo stray dogs x child! reader

╰➤ SONG SUGGESTION(s): good parts by le serrafim

before you read: hi, in case you're new, you're megumi's younger half-sibling, and while you don't have cursed energy, you do have scarlet witch's powers and abilities! aside from that, as a special scarlet witch variant, you also have the ability to travel across the multiverse. how chaotic! furthermore, like your half-brother megumi, you are being cared for by gojo satoru, who also serves as your adoptive father. for more info, please see the masterlist.

being a multiversal being of sorts, you were aware of the vast range of universes that existed. however, you've never been to this particular alternative universe of bsd before, not until now. you made use of your dimensional travel ability and ripped through the seams of reality to see dazai and the others.

as usual when you entered the red portal you conjured, you were greeted with the ever familiar streets and atmosphere of yokohama. you immediately ran towards the reddish-brown brick building, climbing the stairs until you reached the fourth floor, and twisted and pushed the door open.

however, as soon as you stepped inside, you were immediately greeted by naomi who was near the door, carrying a stack of paper. you smiled and immediately wrapped your tiny arms around her to greet her, "naomi-nee!"

naomi's eyes widened, gasping softly in surprise at you and nearly dropping her papers, "h-hi?"

just as naomi was about to question you, you released her and ran deeper inside, only to find dazai missing. in fact, kyouka and atsushi were also gone, but what you discovered made you pale. your eyes widened as you stared at the familiar tall man with dark brown eyes, short reddish-brown hair, and a beige brown coat.

"odasaku-san?" you muttered, blinking.

before you could respond further, you felt a hand pat your head, prompting you to look up and notice kunikida staring down at you.

"what are you doing here, kid? how did you get in here?" he asked you with furrowed brows.

"uncle kunikida!" you exclaimed, gently removing his hand from your head and approaching him to hug his legs.

"me? an u-uncle?!" kunikida stammered in embarrassment with a bright red blush spreading across his face as he gazed down at you with wide eyes.

"since when did you become an uncle, kunikida-kun?" that was ranpo's voice.

turning around, you, kunikida, and odasaku saw ranpo, junichiro, yosano, kenji, and, to your surprise, akutagawa himself entering the office.

"i-i don't know this kid!" kunikida exclaimed, motioning at you, causing you to make a puzzled noise and tilt your head to the side, "she just appeared and hugged me!"

"you... don't remember me?" you asked, frowning as you looked up at kunikida.

"certainly not, kid," kunikida sighed, adjusting his glasses as he turned to the others.

you then cast a glance at akutagawa, and you can't help but be perplexed. what exactly is he doing here with odasaku? he appeared to be different. instead of the usual terrifying stoic expression on his face. he just simply had a blank expression on his face and was dressed in a gray overcoat, a black button-up, gray suspenders and tie, and dark calf-length pinstripe trousers that reminded you of both dazai and atsushi. for some reason, akutagawa appeared less agitated, or tamer, than usual

"aku-nii?" you muttered, blinking as you turned back to odasaku, "what's going on? why are aku-nii and odasaku-san here?"

"how do you know our names?" akutagawa questioned you, stiffening up at your words.

"akutagawa's right, who are you?" naomi nodded in agreement as she asked you next.

"i'm fushiguro [name]. i've come here before.. you guys know me.. should know me.." you explained, releasing kunikida's pant leg as you fiddled with your fingers, "but you guys don't.."

"are you saying we've met before?" yosano asked softly, tilting her head at you and placing a hand on her hip.

"yes! dazai-nii brought me here with sushi-nii and uncle kunikida!" you nodded, eliciting gasps and surprised looks from everyone in the room.

"who's 'dazai?'"

at that moment, a pierce of gray fabric had made its way towards you, but your reflexes kicked in and your eyes glowed red as red psionics held it in mid-air, much to everyone's surprise, preventing it from touching you.

"you're an ability user," junichiro gasped.

"where's dazai-nii?" you asked this time, your brow furrowed as you let go of the gray fabric that had shot out of akutagawa's coat, "why is he not here? why don't you like him?"

"I asked first, kid. who is he?" akutagawa grew irritated as he sent more tendrils of fabric from his coat towards you, but this time, odasaku had blocked each of them, standing protectively in front of you.

"akutagawa, that's not how you interrogate a child," oda exclaimed, using the metal ruler he stole from kunikida's desk to block akutagawa's attacks on you.

"dazai-nii is my dazai-nii. he was the one who protected me together with uncle kunikida when i saved sushi-nii from the bad guys!" you answered, getting annoyed as well as the red glow in your eyes dissipated.

"where's dazai-nii, odasaku-san? and why are you here? you're.. you're supposed to be..." you frowned as you looked up at oda, taking a hold of his pant leg and tugging at it.

"supposed to be what?" oda held a concerned yet confused look towards you.

you couldn't even mention it to him. instead, your lips trembled as tears streamed down your cheeks. he was supposed to be no longer alive. you were going to say that, but you couldn't. akutagawa is also not supposed to be at the agency. it's as if he took the place of atsushi. in fact, if you think about it, odasaku replaced dazai and kyouka was out of the picture.

"o-oh no! h-hey, kid! d-don't cry!" junichiro waved his hands in the air, "hey!"

"kid?" odasaku asked, watching you clench the fabric of his pant leg as you teared up.

everything was getting to you. what was going on here? why didn't they recognize you? why were they acting this way when you mentioned dazai? you didn't understand it at all.

"i want dazai-nii! where is dazai-nii?" you cried out, releasing a repulsive red energy created by your psionics. it shook the entire building and nearly sent everyone flying away from you, similar to a shockwave and earthquake.

as everyone shielded themselves and clung to strudy office furniture. ranpo took advantage of the situation by placing his glasses on the bridge of his nose with his free hand before staring at you, and that's when he realized what was going on.

"the one you're looking for is in the port mafia headquarters," ranpo exclaimed, dissipating the immense psionic energy in the air and reducing your cries to sniffling.

"he's there?" you asked, your tantrums subsiding as you cast a hopeful glance at him.

"yes, he's there," ranpo nodded firmly at you.

without another word, you activated your red psionics once more, but this time you used it to increase your speed as you approached the door. you fled the armed detective agency's office, with akutagawa chasing after you, but he was stopped by odasaku and ranpo blocking the door.

"what are you doing? the kid's escaped and they're heading straight to port mafia!" thrashed akutagawa in odasaku's hold.

"that kid wasn't lying when she said she knew all of us. she's someone from another universe who has seen and met our other selves from another universe," ranpo explained.

"alternate universe?" everyone chorused.

"that kid was either that "dazai's" younger sibling or someone close to dazai in the universe she's familiar with, which is why she was looking for him here," ranpo continued, folding his arms, "and if we didn't let her go, she would have most definitely destroyed the building and the entire area. her ability, whatever it is, it's dangerous."

as the detectives were left to mull over you and the existence of the multiverse, you made your way to the port mafia headquarters; a black building that towered over yokohama's ritziest neighborhood, which you were already familiar with. you were quickly stopped by the mafia's subordinates, men in black.

"oi, get out of here! this isn't a place for a child!" one of them yelled, shoving you away.

you ignored them and continued running inside. you yelped in terror, occasionally using your red psionics to boost your speed, but it was draining you as you ran away from the men in black who were chasing you. you closed your eyes and concentrated on feeling and sensing dazai. ranpo said he should be here, and you believe him. he must be here. he has to.

you opened your eyes again as you ran across a fancy high-pile rug fit for a throne room, eventually reaching the corridor after struggling to escape the men in black.

you had gotten a few bruises and scrapes along the way as they were able to catch up to you and snatch you in some cases before fleeing because you were tired. you came to a halt in front of a sturdy double door and realized you were getting close.

you turned around to see the men in black approaching you and yelling at you to stop. "dazai-nii! please open up! it's me, [name]!" you yelled as you returned to the door.

"this is not a place for kids! the boss will be furious when he finds you here, brat!" you cried out in agony as one of them finally caught up to you and grabbed your arm, lifting you in the air and gripping you tightly.

"no! no! dazai-nii, help me!" you cried, tears streaming down your cheeks as you squirmed.

"shut up, brat!" they scowled as another yanked on your hair roughly, "quit your yapping!"

finally, the solid doors that had been closed earlier burst open, revealing a large office with every one of a kind high-end oddity from candlesticks to the desk in the center of the office. the floor and ceiling were black, and it didn't take long for the presence of death to fill the atmosphere when a furious voice boomed,

"LET HER GO AT ONCE, NOW."

when the men in black let you go, you fell to the ground with a thud, whimpering in pain as you fell on your side. you looked up and froze as you saw the men groaning in pain as they were surrounded by a red glow caused by a familiar ginger-haired young man. before you could react, you were suddenly whisked into someone's arms, but it wasn't rough; in fact, you were handled with care.

as you realized who was carrying you, your eyes widened. you recognized his unkempt brown hair and features, but they were bandaged, especially one of his eye. it was dazai, but something was wrong. there was something sinister was emanating from him. his tone was so venomous that it made you tremble.

"i told you to let her go, not drop her. pathetic. you all know what happens next, right? to subordinates who disobey my orders?" he scoffed, gritting his teeth in rage as he drew you closer to his embrace and turned to the other, "get rid of them, chuuya," he said.

"got it, boss," the ginger-haired mafioso nodded before using gravity manipulation on the men in black chasing you to get them all out of your sight as the doors closed, leaving you alone with dazai.

the icy cold tension in the air immediately dissipated. you looked up at the brunet, whose glare had softened as he faced you.

"[name]-chan.." dazai murmured, reaching out his hand to cup your cheek, "it's really you.. you're here.. finally here.."

"dazai-nii..." you found yourself tearing up as you returned his gaze. with that, you burst into tears, causing him to panic a little.

"[name]-chan! it's okay. it's okay, little bella," he said as you buried your face in his neck and gripped the fabric of his clothes. he then rubbed shapes on your back to calm you down, saying, "shhh, they won't hurt you anymore. you're safe now, i promise."

"y-you remember me.. dazai-nii.." you cried out.

"of course i do," dazai's lips curved into a smile as he held you, cradling you, "how could i not?"

"uncle ranpo, uncle kunikida, and the others don't remember me," you explained to dazai, sniffling, "a-also.. odasaku-san and aku-nii were there too, but they don't remember me either.."

when you looked at him, there was an indecipherable expression on his face as his smile faded into a frown. dazai looked down at you, almost lost for words, but before you could open your mouth to speak again, he beat you to it.

"[name]-chan, would you like to go eat lunch with me outside?" your eyes widened slightly as you looked at him puzzledly.

however, you were hungry and exhausted, so something to eat sounded appealing. you nodded, which brought back dazai's smile. just as dazai was about to put you down, he noticed some bruises and scrapes on you, which caused him to come to a halt.

"you're hurt." dazai's eyes, or rather, eye, widened, "fuck, are you alright? are you hurt anywhere else, [name]-chan?"

"no!" you immediately shook your head and waved your hands in the air, "i-i'm okay, really!"

"those bastards deserved what's coming for them. they shouldn't have hurt you," dazai mumbled angrily, clicking his tongue in annoyance, but not towards you.

"huh? what are you talking about, dazai-nii?" you quipped, tilting your head in confusion.

"nothing!" dazai exclaimed with a smile, the dark glaze across his eyes gone, "let me just patch you up and then we'll go out for lunch, okay [name]-chan?" you nodded your head.

dazai sat you on the top of his desk while he called someone from his black phone to come over. it wasn't long before a man dressed similarly to auntie shoko from your house arrived. you quickly recognized him as a doctor and allowed him to treat your bruises and scrapes under the supervision of dazai, and speaking of dazai, you couldn't help but notice how he was staring intently, as if he was waiting for the said man to make one wrong move and he'll beat him up or something.

fortunately, the doctor treated you well and left after bandaging you and acknowledging dazai. with that, you felt much better and more at ease knowing that you had been treated.

"are you ready to go?" dazai inquired, ruffling your hair and softly chuckling. "i guess we kind of match now, too, since your arms have bandages."

"mhm!" you nodded your head as you hummed.

dazai assisted you in getting down from his desk and extended his hand to you, which you gladly accepted. you could see a genuine smile on dazai's face as he peered down at you. he squeezed your much smaller hand with his larger hand almost childishly and innocently.

as you walked down the corridor where you had been chased earlier, you realized that the office you had been to was supposed to be mori's and remembered how you used to play and draw with elise there. mori and elise were nowhere to be found and it made you curious.

as you recognized some of the men in black, you followed dazai and immediately hid behind him, hiding yourself in his long coat. this made dazai reach out for you, saying softly, "hey, hey! it's okay," seeing how scared you were, "they're not going to hurt you. i promise."

dazai thought it was a cute yet nostalgic gesture. with him remembering himself in the canon world, the one you were familiar with, he was reminded of how you gripped him and hid behind his coat when he first met you.

you reluctantly took his hand in yours and squeezed it, but you stayed close to him. you didn't like being chased and yanked away again. dazai's brow furrowed, and his gaze darted towards his subordinates for a moment, glaring, already making a mental note to make sure he gives them a warning so they would never think of hurting you again. you were scared and even tried to deny that you were hurt earlier, and dazai found it unacceptable.

"i got you, [name]-chan. i'm right here with you," dazai reassured you softly as he led you out of the headquarters, squeezing your hand back as a form of comfort.

the port mafia was taken aback as they witnessed their normally intimidating boss soften around you. just who the hell were you, and what did you do to their leader? they had never seen him switch up so quickly before.

outside, you and dazai got into a black car, and to your surprise, dazai had asked the driver to take you to your favorite restaurant in the city—the one he had taken you to before when he heard your stomach growl, much to kunikida protests of him being an irresponsible adult for using you as an excuse to slack off.

when you arrived at the restaurant, you both took a seat at a table, and as soon as the menus were handed to you, dazai asked, "is omurice your order, [name]-chan?"

your eyes widened slightly, but you nodded your head and smiled, "yeah! that one!"

"the little lady will have omurice, and I'll have a plain black coffee," dazai instructed the waiter.

"you must be hungry after getting here," dazai said again after the waiter took your orders.

"yeah.. a little," you nodded your head, a pout on your lips as you rested your chin on your arms, which were flat on the table. "and i had to run too from those scary men in black.."

"i'm so sorry about that, [name]-chan. i'll make sure it doesn't happen again," dazai smiled as he outstretched his hand and gently grasped your hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

after that, you became quiet. you had so many questions in your head. something was strange about dazai right now. he was unique. he had this horrible vibe about him. you weren't going to lie, you were a little scared, especially after hearing his murmur and seeing the dark glaze over his eyes earlier.

"is there something wrong, [name]-chan?" dazai inquired, watching your brow furrow as you stared at him, almost deep in thought.

"well, um... it's just that.." you scrunched your brow, not knowing where to begin.

"you're probably wondering why i recognize you and the others don't—that's one of your concerns right now, correct, [name]-chan?" dazai stared at you for a second, blinking before taking a deep breath and sighing.

"this world is just one of many others," dazai explained further, "and of all people, you should know, right? you're fushiguro [name]-chan. you're someone capable of traveling across the multiverse with your reality warping powers, which i can't even nullify."

your eyes widened as you realized what had happened. it was no surprise that the armed detective agency hadn't recognized you earlier, or that akutagawa and odasaku were present but not dazai or atsushi and kyouka. this world was an alternate universe, just like the others you'd visited, with a much older version of yourself as an example. bacause the multiverse is so vast, dazai's world would have alternate universes that similarly to yours.

"but.. if you're not in the armed detective agency with uncle kunikida.. and odasaku-san and aku-nii are there.." you muttered, putting two and two together, "that means they don't know you the same way they don't know me because you're.. you're.."

you closed your mouth. you got your answer the moment you discovered elise and mori missing, as well as the office looking a little different earlier, with dazai wearing the same exact clothes as mori.

"ever the clever little bella. you're not wrong, [name]-chan," dazai exclaimed, intertwining his hands on the table and smiling at you.

"but, why?" you furrowed your brows.

"because it's the only way, [name]-chan," dazai replied as the waiter arrived to bring you your omurice and his black coffee.

"i don't understand.." you exclaimed, frowning at dazai, "what do you mean?"

at first, dazai looked around. fortunately, there were no customers and the waiter had already left, which you found odd, but with that, he returned his attention to you.

"as i previously stated, this world is just one of many, but this world, this is the only one where odasaku lives, [name]-chan."

your eyes widened at the revelation and dropped the spoon you had just picked up.

"you know him. you've seen odasaku's ghost. you even had him and my other self reunite, even if it was only for a brief moment with your power," dazai continued, "and i saw it through my other self's memories."

so he already knows about you in this alternate universe, long before you arrived here. alright, you were getting a little scared now.

"i succeeded the previous boss to gain the advantage, to dedicate my life to protect what could have been," dazai stated calmly as he sipped his coffee, "honestly, i was surprised that you'd come here. i never would have thought, but either way, i'm grateful. this is also one of my universes that doesn't have you."

as dazai grasped your hand, you found yourself crying. you quickly had got a vision of what was going to happen to him because your emotions were amplifying your chaos magic. dazai planned to jump off a building. as you regained your composure, you drew your hand away, panting softly for air to calm yourself down.

"[name]-chan?" dazai stared at you with a baffled look, prompting him to reach out his hand to you to wipe your tears away.

you shook your head and continued to eat the omurice dazai had given you after wiping your tears. dazai frowned but didn't say anything. he just knew you saw something, and he hopes it wasn't about the book with his plan on set, because him knowing three or more people knew would destabilize this world. dazai let you eat your food and paid the bill when you were done. you and dazai got on the black car again, and the ride was quiet, even awkward.

dazai felt guilty seeing your eyes glassy with tears and slightly puffy from crying.

"[name]-chan, would you like to go to the park?"

dazai knows his canon self and his other variants, so it's no surprise that he knew you, and from his canon self's memories, he knows how much you liked to play outside and run, in addition to liking omurice and [favorite food]. dazai has the advantage because he has the book. he can make things work, at least in the best way he knows how. for the time being, what you saw with your witch abilities was the furthest thing from his mind. dazai wished to see you smile and be happy.

when he asked you the question, your eyes seem to light up. as you fiddled with your fingers, you slowly nodded your head. dazai smiled at this and asked the driver to take you to the nearest park in the city.

it was the same one you recognized when you and dazai were dropped and left the car. the same breeze, trees, and ambiance. the only difference was that you weren't with your usual dazai.

"so, what would you like to do first? wanna play zoomies? swing?" dazai questioned, crouching down at your height and ruffling your hair.

"zoomies," just as dazai had expected.

when you ran across the park with dazai—this dazai—it didn't take long for you to start smiling. he'd like to think that being with children was simple. it wouldn't take long for one to smile and laugh as if they hadn't cried or something if you knew how to play the right cards with them. you had so much fun running around and getting to know dazai that you openly suggested what to do next.

"dazai-nii! let's play on the swing next!" you exclaimed, running towards him and excitedly wrapping your tiny arms around his legs.

"alright, alright, little belladonna," dazai chuckled softly at his, giving you a gentle pat on the head, "i'll push you on the swing, okay?"

you spent the entire day with dazai, doing everything from zoomies to swings to slides. dazai's favorite part of the day was you playing with the slides because every time you slid down, he would catch you and pick you up in his arms, just loving the adorable smile and giggle you'd have afterwards. to see you so happy was just nostalgic and music to his ears.

you became tired at the end of the day, and dazai couldn't help but melt when you tugged on his pant leg and made grabby hands for him to pick you up. "up-up.." you said, exhausted.

"come here, [name]-chan," dazai grabbed you and cradled you in his arms, his heart melting as you wrapped your tiny arms around his neck and snuggled up against him. "is little bella tired from playing all day?" he cooed at you.

"mhm..." you nodded tiredly, pressing your face against his neck as you clung to him.

"let's go back, okay?" dazai patted the back of your head as he gently cradled you, "i got you, [name]-chan, feel free to sleep."

as dazai was carrying you to the car, you clenched the fabric of his collar, causing him to hum at you, "hmm? yes, [name]-chan?"

"please don't leave," you muttered quietly, now clutching his fabric even more tightly, almost desperately, as dazai could tell.

"i'm not leaving you, [name]-chan; we're going back to the headquarters together," dazai explained, chuckling at your clinginess.

"no.." you whined softly, "don't go ever."

dazai came to a halt, blinking in confusion. what did you mean when you said he was leaving? he was deep in thought when you spoke up again, saying exactly what he was thinking.

"i don't want you to die, dazai-nii."

dazai had heard you say it before, but it was to his other self, back in the canon world when he got hurt and you went out of your way, risking your life, to get to him at all costs as soon as kunikida mentioned it, even if it meant coming across port mafia.

nonetheless, it caused dazai to freeze. even if you weren't his little sister, niece, or family in this alternate universe, you still thought of him as your "dazai-nii" and cared about him.

you were too kind for your own good.

it made him even more guilty.

"i can't promise you that, [name]-chan," dazai muttered sadly, clutching you tightly in his arms, tears streaming down his cheeks, "which is why i want you to stay here. i'll take care of you like my other self did. you won't have to worry about anything because no one will ever hurt you, and no one from your world will either."

"i can't be with you forever. i have a home to go back to," you said, looking him in the eyes, "but the only way i can promise to be with you is for you to promise me that you won't go. i'll come back to you as many times as i can now that i found you!"

"[name]-chan.." dazai's gaze softened.

"i promise i'll save you, so you won't have to jump off and leave! i'll save this world if i have to even!" you exclaimed determinedly, your eyes glowing red, "i don't know exactly why or how you're doing it, but you're still my dazai-nii, and i know how much odasaku-san means to you."

"but, [name]-chan, i can only do so much," dazai exclaimed. he sounded as if he was about to cry. "odasaku and i are never meant to be together on the same side, but if anything, he deserves to be on the good, so he can become a writer, and me? i have to be on the bad, and the worst as possible.."

"don't you wanna see his works? see him achieve his dreams?" you asked.

"i do, [name]-chan," dazai nodded.

"then, promise me, dazai-nii. you won't ever be alone again," you flashed him a close-eyed smile as you cupped his face in your tiny hands, "i'll come back to you and help you the best i can with my wiggly-woos magic. after all, i did promise odasaku to look after my dazai-nii, so i'll save you. you're still my dazai-nii, even here!"

fresh, hot tears welled up in dazai's eyes and streamed down his face, unable to be held back. he hasn't had anyone in a long time. this world was very different from the canon world, where he had the armed detective agency and people like atsushi. even with chuuya, atsushi, and kyouka by his side, he was alone. this dazai had become so numb from witnessing odasaku's fate from across the vast universes that he had forgotten what love was like and how warm it felt.

had his prayers been heard by the universe? could it even be the book? is that why it brought you here to him by connecting the physical and outside worlds? was it not by chance at all?

but, in any case, he loved the feeling of being loved—of having a family of sorts, whether you were his little sister, niece, or daughter.

dazai remembered seeing one of his other selves as your biological father, another as your uncle, and you as his younger sister. he remembered being so envious of seeing his other selves happy despite the fact that they didn't have odasaku because of you, and dazai loved you in all those universes.

"thank you, [name]-chan," dazai whispered in your ear, hugging you tight as you heard him sniffle, "please save me.. save me too."

[ author's notes ! just to clarify one thing, no, you don't know about the book, you just know that BEAST! dazai knows you from the CANON! dazai's memories, and the fact certain universes existed wherein it had you.

the reason for this has something to do with the knowledge of the book. if three or more people would know, the world would be destabilized. this is also the reason why your witch abilities made you see the end, and not the whole picture.

the reason BEAST! dazai wants you to stay because he has no one. he might be the port mafia boss with chuuya as his right hand man, but he's still alone and also because his universe is one of the few where you weren't in it :( ]

[vala-dreams]

Daniel Masters AU

So this is brought to you by a fever dream at 6 in the morning. In this au, one Vlad Plasmius partakes in the noble and completely not illegal act of cradle robbing. And by cradle robbing I mean kidnapping toddler Danny because he is a batty old ghost with a family obsession and no morals. (I've decided to change his obsession from maddie to family. No I don't take criticism)

Vlad kidnaps Danny with the intention of turning him into a halfa too.......the only problem is that the portal he's trying to make isn't functional. yet. So in the meanwhile he's gotta juggle making the portal and taking care of Danny in his Wisconsin manor.

This leads to many shenanigans, sleepless and tired Vlad who has no idea how to take care of children + one baby Danny = c h a o s

A year passes by and finally, the portal is up and working and the big moment finally comes. Vlad places Danny as gently as he can, into the portal and turns it on.

.

Except he doesn't.

He can't

Because all he can see as his index finger hovers over the button are cold linoleum tiles of a hospital. Harsh florescence of lights overhead. Faces of people he doesn't know, covered by surgical masks. All he can hear are the squeaking of stretcher wheels, the beeping of monitors, muffled voices he cannot understand.

All he can feel is fire.

....

The next thing he knows, little Daniel is in his arms again.

His feet are lead, unmoving. His arms are steel, wrapped securely around Daniel's still slumbering form. And that's how they stay all afternoon, in front of the empty portal.

Thats fine. In the end, he cannot do it. That's fine. Daniel doesn't have to be a halfa to be his son. Little badger was his the moment he was born. Jack would never be a factor. Maddie would never be a factor. They wouldn't even be in the equation.

(And isn't that exactly what they deserve? They left him. They left him to burn and they never looked back they laughed as fire licked at his heels they left him they left him they lef-)

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

They never figured out what happened to their Danny. Years and years of missing posters and sleepless nights and tears and research– it was like he never existed.

The only clue to what might've happened to their boy was a single splatter of ectoplasm on the floor

They would find their son. Or they would die trying.

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

One fine sunday night, one Daniel Masters stumbles into a secret basement in his house.

........................................................................................................................................................

There's gonna be updates on this cayse I'm sleep deprived rn and it's not as well written as I wish it could be.

This started out as crack and kinda got serious and I'd like ro establish that Vlad isn't going to be a "good" character. He is narcissistic, self serving, controlling and deliberately keeps things from Danny. He basically just ignores the fact that he stole Danny and tries to convince himself that Danny is his. His ghostly nature only makes it worse.

However, he does genuinely love Danny. Not when he first kidnapped him, at that time he only cared about hurting jack and maddie and fulfilling his family obsession. But over the course of the year he spends with Danny, he starts to care for him. Their relationship will eventually be fixed. It'll probably never be okay but Vlad will do anything it takes for him to not hurt Danny anymore. He will find a way to be better. And even if no amount of apologies will make up for what he did, he will still apologize.

The Fentons aren't going to be good either. They have very fixed views on ghosts and it's only increased due to the cradle robbing. They are even more ruthless and cold. They throw themselves into their research even more. Danny is absolutely terrified of them. And they're completely convinced that Danny stole their kid. (Will elaborate later) But they too will learn eventually.

Jazz grows up with her parents constantly working on their ghost research and projects, and she doesn't really believe in it. She grows up with the faint memory of a brother she doesn't know. And even though he parents love her, she wishes that they could let go.

Sam and Tucker will be explored in later posts

@little-pondhead I did a thing

[pillowspace]

I need to bother you for y/n design advice. Since my clone au is the first one I've really had that's mine, I don't really know what to do to make them more like. Approachable as a y/n? And your designs are so cool and distinct from each other so

help? any advice? 🙃

Something that might help is literally just scrolling through photos of people. That can range from fashion to just completely normal stock photos. It can make you go "oh, I forgot that clothing item even existed. I could use a variation of that." You can also keep in mind not only what would look nice, but what your character would want to wear.

I can walk through how each of them were designed if it gives you an idea of what I do at all

ADAD Y/N - my default design will always be a sweater. I love drawing sweaters. They're fun. If I think I can give a sweater, I will. Also, due to their "companion" characters being Sun and Moon, the colours I work with are red, yellow, and blue. So I just decide where I want that red, yellow, and blue to go, and what colour I want more of than the other. You'll see they all follow that line of thinking except for CSD

HD Y/N - it's wintertime!! This means I get to play with a scarf and jacket. Also a good time for a bit of floof, which is always fun to use. The fluff on the boots were intended to be similar to the way the DCA has bells on their shoes, so sometimes you can look to what the DCA has for inspiration. I felt that they needed a colour contrast from Sun and Moon that still went along with them well, so the jacket was made cyan. A lot of colour usage is just me going "what will look fine next to Sun and Moon?" OH, and I didn't use earmuffs even though I wanted to, because HD Y/N relies on their hearing. They wouldn't want to wear anything that could muffle that

CSD Y/N - can't go the red yellow blue route, this is a medieval peasant, so I shall combine colours. Can't combine red and blue, that's purple, and purple is typically for royalty if I'm not mistaken. I could combine yellow and blue for a dull green however. I will also google image search medieval clothing for inspiration

Pre Loops Y/N - out of curiosity, I googled "daycare worker" for this. Why are they literally all wearing the same exact kind of jacket sweater thing in every image...? Whatever, I'll have Y/N wear that, sure. I also looked up colour palettes, picked the nicest one, and adjusted the colours to my liking. This character is tidy, so they will have plenty of details that show they care about their appearance (brushes hair, puts on hat, buttons the middle of their jacket, wears a belt, tucks in shirt, tied shoes, well-written name.) The inner shirt will remain a slightly darker orange so that it can still work with Mid Loops's darker colours

Mid Loops Y/N - darker colours to fit better with their new character. More disheveled to show a lack of concern for their appearance. (Messy hair, doesn't bother with hat, unshaven facial hair, unbuttoned jacket, no belt, untucked shirt, untied lace, hastily scribbled name.)

Post Loops Y/N - what would this character want? Maybe they like to grow out their hair to feel the change. Maybe they've forgotten why they even bothered shaving, and like the hairs now. Maybe they want a large and floofy jacket because it's comforting. And to show the tiredness of this character, there is predominantly dark blue with the only red being much darker than previously, making the colours more relaxing.

[velvetwyrme]

So OG Sans can play the trombone, Underfell! Sans plays a trumpet according to his creator. Do you think any of the other au skeletons play instruments? Part of me wants Swap! Papyrus to play the drums solely so he can make the ba dum tss sound. Other other half of me wants to give him an electric keyboard that is always set to the silly sound effects setting like duck quacks and dogs barking.

Ooooo that's a good question!!! 👀!!!!!!! I have many many thoughts on this and have settled on exactly 0 of them!! (I have multiple opposing headcanons and simply pick and choose whatever I think is funniest/most interesting for the situation)

ONE of them is "all the Sanses play brass wind instruments, and all the Papyri play percussion or strings" (One of the bits in the Papyrus QnA also reinforced this for me)

I love love love the idea of Swap!Pap playing drums!! He also strikes me as a guitar guy tbh (*pointedly looks away from the Bard in Flipping Fate*) I feel like he's also the most likely to own a kazoo or a ukelele though. Maybe even an omatone.

... Funny you mention using a keyboard for silly sounds! In a deleted scene from EOVD, Swapfell!Papyrus has a soundboard lmao. I can also see him playing a cello or bass... (or at least, for the way I write him.) Speaking of the way I write him- I've also made reference to him being a trombone player for a one off gag lol. Bwuuu.

In the same vein of "things I've written about/gestured at before", but I don't think classic Pap ever settles on an instrument. He tries out a bunch but never ends up playing one more than any other. So in a way I can see him with any and all instruments lol.

If sticking by the Sans=Brass rule, I feel like Swap!Sans and Swapfell!Sans would have either a saxophone (more like saxobone) or a tuba. Either combination works in my mind. If not sticking by that rule, I could see Swapfell!Sans playing a string instrument maybe? Or a clarinet lol. Swap!Sans also strikes me as a trumpet guy, if you don't mind overlaps.

Underfell!Papyrus ... I like to think he plays piano :] In contrast to the existing discussions about where the piano falls on the scale between percussion and strings; any instrument is a percussion instrument if you hit it hard enough.

Additionally. I think he was taught to play piano by UF!dyne and you can pry this headcanon from my cold dead hands !!!!!!!

Also as a bonus, I think Horror!Pap would play the harp. No particular reason, I just like the visual of it lol. Horror!Sans probably just... stopped playing his trombone, and after getting his head injury either picks it up again or resorts to humming/tapping along instead because fine motor control is harder for him :p

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Looking for opinions:

If someone leaves a comment, hoping to inspire a creator to update, is that manipulative?

Please note the comment would only be praise for the creation, and never mentioning anything about waiting for an update

This is a debate I'm having with a friend

I think as long as the comment is solely about what has already been posted and does not in any way insinuate/ask/reference what may or may not be to come, it's fine. Saying that you loved it, that you enjoyed reading it, reacting to something the author put in--that's all fine and good.

The moment you put something in about 'the next chapter' or 'an update' or anything at all that you did not read or does not already exist, that's where the walls start to go up.

Especially since authors can't read your mind over the internet! (Or in general but I have more confidence in the former than the latter.) You have no idea how someone is going to receive your words, intentions be damned.

I don't think it's inherently manipulative to leave a comment. I don't think leaving a comment and hoping it reignites the author's passion for the story is manipulative, so long as you do not reference an update in any way, shape, or form. I've had people leave comments or drop asks that make me want to go back to aus I'd written off as completed. I've also had way too many people going 'part 2!!! part 3!!! you can't leave it like this!!!' and hey that really doesn't make me want to write more of it.

TL:DR; no, it is not manipulative to comment and hope for a continuation, so long as you do not mention said hope in the actual comment itself. Comments should be about what the author has already decided to share, not what you want them to give you next.

[gryphonlover]

Curious about the guidemarks au 👀

Guidemarks AU - Main

This is one of my biggest projects so far, if not the biggest. It even has its own Scrivener project, unlike my other stuff. I've been working on it for months, and there are still a lot of things that need straightened out or fixed before I can start posting it. This is going to be a very long post, but like I said, it's a very big project.

It's kind of a mish-mash of a few different things, but I'll do my best to explain it. The setting is basically a modern version of Hyrule, an urban fantasy modeled after Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and of course the guidemarks themselves, which are kind of the point of the AU in the first place.

Every setting you see in the LoZ fits into the geography I'm configuring, which has some obvious problems. The Great Sea, for example, was never meant to exist alongside Hyrule and New Hyrule at the same time. This and trying to reconcile all the timelines makes me want to bash my head against the wall sometimes, but it's going to be worth it when I'm done.

Speaking of the timelines, everyone's backstories will be fairly accurate to the games, since the same people, places, and magic exist in this AU. However, I'm still planning on writing everyone's backstories anyway because I'm not letting all that planning go to waste, it'll be fun to give all the games that classic Percy Jackson and the Olympians flavor, and I want to be able to give more context for everyone's guidemarks.

The guidemarks is actually where I started with this whole thing. I was originally going to write a soulmates AU, but I've never had much of an interest in romance stories (I usually ship at random for random reasons and have minimal attachments to ships anyway), and I could have written a platonic version, but that's been done before, and I wanted to write something that everyone could relate to regardless of how they feel about different types of relationships. I love reading soulmate AUs, and yeah relationships are very important to people, but I sort of wanted to screw around with the idea of finding true love or finding the right person. So I decided I'd keep the idea of soulmarks, except instead of pointing you towards the most important relationship(s) in your life, it would guide you to the moments of crucial self-determination in your life and the moments that would ultimately change your life and who you become. So you still can have the equivalent of a soulmate, but it's not about matchmaking anymore.

It still needs some fine-tuning because there are one or two details I'm really thinking over, but overall I'm very happy with how it's turning out, even if it is taking approximately forever and a half.

So now that you've suffered through reading my entire info dump, here's a piece of the little bit I've actually written down so far:

Then the scent of blood hit his nose, jolting him at least partially back to reality. He lurched backwards, pawing the airbag out of his face, to be met with the familiar taste of blood dribbling down his face from his nose. That wasn't exactly great, but it could be worse. A quick mental check and he concluded that he'd gotten off lucky. He was stiff and sore, but the worst of it seemed to be concentrated in his neck and face. Whiplash and some bruises, if he had to guess. He sorted himself out, stiffly emerging from the vehicle to carefully stretch out his limbs and evaluate how bad the damage was.

[sequencefairy]

Writing Wrap-Up 2023

It is, once again, the end of the year! I wrote a lot!

First of all, I have officially published all my original stuff written for Space Fruit Press on Amazon Kindle under my penname, so if you enjoy my fic, I would love to encourage you to check out my original stuff, too, since all those dollars help me on the journey to doing that full time instead of having a full time job that really cuts into my fangirl time.

In addition to what is available on Amazon, there is another anthology of work coming from the press, and I will have a story in it! I need to write it, but it will exist. I'm very excited about this story, as well.

From a fanfic perspective, I have published only three things this year:

And I Was Never Afraid of the Dark (Oh, the Weapon You Made of My Heart) - shyan, wip, unfinished, 9.4k, demon!shane

Shane pulls Ryan out of Hell at 3:37 on a Tuesday afternoon. He’s not looking at his watch at the time, but he infers the time later after he’s finally managed to get up off the desert floor, and has hauled them both back to the car he’d parked in the lot at the trailhead a little over a week ago. Ryan’s a deadweight in Shane’s grip, head lolling back against Shane’s shoulder and body limp and unhelpful in Shane’s arms. His eyes are closed.

My Rivers Tilt Towards You - geraskier, fae!jaskier, 29k, strangers to friends to lovers, canon-divergent au

Geralt pushes the door open one-handed. As it creaks, announcing his presence, Jaskier looks up from the long table he’s sitting at. There’s a mug of something at the bard’s elbow and his songbook is open in front of him. “Geralt,” he says in greeting, and for a moment, Geralt is sure that the bard’s eyes shine in the dark, reflective like his own. He blinks, and the moment passes. Jaskier’s mouth curves into a smile. “Is it done, then?”

Coax the Cold Right Out of Me - shyan, complete, 4.1k, vampire!shane, established relationship

“Shane,” Ryan says, insistent, eyes gleaming in the dark. Shane lets his eyes fall shut, and sighs. The little red and white cooler they usually bring on shoots got left behind at the hotel, an hour and a half away in Jackson. “I’ll be fine,” he says, not looking at Ryan, and ignoring the ache in his gums. He’s gone longer without, he can make it through one shoot and then the drive back before being sated. “You don’t have to be.”

(more rambling under the cut)

So I spent too long making this, but whatever. Let's have fun with infographics, baby!

Anyway, interesting look at the last couple of years for me! I have clearly been in a quality over quantity place regarding wordcounts + things published over the last few years.

I have, over the past couple of years, been feeling like my writing has changed quite a lot, both in terms of what I am interested in writing, and also what I am interested in publishing both to AO3 and as original work.

I think there's also probably something in here about the fall out from the pandemic, as well as something about the fact that I've been medicated for the ADHD for a year now, and I've had to learn how to write in a way that is not an unhealthy coping mechanism and instead as something I do for fun, as a hobby that I enjoy.

What I have been producing lately, in 2023, is some of my favourite writing I've ever done, and I feel like I really levelled up this year in terms of tackling themes and ideas that the me of 2021 wouldn't have even imagined was possible.

With that said, the other fun comparison across years is this one:

Clearly, when you only publish three things in a year, it skews your stats, but I do also think that My Rivers was definitely a thing I needed to finish and write in order to become the person who is currently sitting on about 70k or so of active WIP for a different fandom altogether.

I adore, always, all the love that my shyan fic gets, this fandom is demonstrative in a way that no other fandom has ever been for me, and I've made the best kind of friends in this fandom. Even if I never publish another shyan fic ever (which I am certainly not saying is the case), I still treasure every single one of these fics which allowed me to meet people who've become extremely fucking important to me.

In addition to published fic, of course, the other thing to talk about is all that stuff I'm sitting on that hasn't been published (yet).

These are the seven most active of my WIPs. I am desiring to publish Moonlight on Broken Glass before the end of December, but since I'm the porn and instead of writing it, I keep going back to refine other parts of it, I have some doubts in my ability to get a draft done in the next few days.

All together, that's about 82k of wip, in various states of done that I'm working on. So, really, this year, I've written like, well over 100k, which is always my quiet goal going into any given year.

I don't have anything else to say about this, but I had fun making these little pictures and looking at all my wips. It was, all told, a good year for writing, even if it started off kinda slow.

[lenny-rambles]

About nothing in particular, a bit of Zolu in general, and some fics here and there

Holy smokes, I've had a week. In between exams, my cat getting lost, more exams and work I haven't got the time to actually ramble about anything, which is pretty sad (to me).

HOWEVER.

This doesn't mean to suggest I didn't read anything at all. Oh no, you'd be greatly mistaken to assume that's the case. I devoured a lot of fics this week, in an attempt to release stress because my house was also inhospitable for some days. So, I decided to read and re-read some fics, because that's how I deal with my problems (that is to say, I don't).

It's very interesting to see how their relationship's been depicted through the years! Like, one of my favorite tags for them is "Devotion" (because that's SO them), and the tag's got 60 works, barely. And it was first used in 2019, for a romance fic. That's barely any time at all in OP time! I don't know why though, maybe everyone knew it but struggled to put it into words (like them). As in, everyone would assume right out of the bat that that's their dynamic. Or maybe not! You can never know with fandoms, the fact that Agenda Piece exists still surprises me.

Also, I've grown the habit of reading through an author's works rather than just searching with tags. Like, if there's a fic I really liked I'll go into their profile and read more. And almost every time they have more! It's always a thrill when they have like old works, it comes to show how much they've improved, and how their characterization also evolves with them!

One of my favorite examples of this, that I discovered this week, is the series Fantastic Idiots And Where To Find Them.

Title: Fantastic Idiots and Where To Find Them (series)

Author: Mir4le

Relevant Tags: magic school AU, ASL brothers (my beloved), Law, Zoro, first person POV, on going, maybe there are ships maybe not

Now, disclaimer from me. No one here's endorsing the terf's work as in "go read her stories, they are good", because they aren't. And giving her money in anyway is terrible (in my humble opinion), she poses a lot of terrible ideas for both Trans and Feminism Activism. I hate the woman, and her story is not even that good. She holds A LOT of unethical and incorrect social theories (like eugenics, ew) in her books, AND REFUSES to reconsider or anything. She thrives in the attention she gets from that, I'm sure. Sadly, nostalgia is a bitch, and her books where probably the first I read entirely in english, and through piracy, so I still have some sort of appreciation for them, as terrible works of fiction as they are.

The good news is that the setting is so unbelievably generic that you could say "generic witch society" and that would do just fine, so that's what I'm doing. It's a generic witch society boarding school AU. Ah, the thing. The fic's written in first person POV (sighs), so if that's no your cup of tea you should stay away. The narration improves, the POV never stops being first person. I'm not exactly a fan of first person POV, but I was looking for fic with Law in them, so I picked it up.

Now, the first few chapters where... an experience. They were the author's first work, and you could tell. I don't mean anything mean with that, it's just Difficult to pin the POV for me, so I struggled a bit. Nevertheless, the prompt was interesting enough to keep me going, even if I kinda rushed through some stuff (sorry). It was also noticeable how much the author liked the characters, and the story, even early on, so that also kept me going. Rarely a story loved that much doesn't improve on quality, both because the strive to be better for the story and all the practice they get by putting it out in the first place. So congrats and thank you to the author for your work, it paid off.

Now, another thing about the fic, I'm not exactly what you'd describe a Law fan. I like his story, it was OP most angsty backstory for a while in my opinion (before Kuma, oh Kuma), so that just drew me in. Sadly, it didn't get me like I wanted to. Maybe it's because I binged the anime in an unholy amount of time (another day I'll talk about that) but by the time we got the why of Law, I just wanted Dressrosa to be done. So while I appreciate his character, the anime just made me want to get over with it. All of that to say that I usually avoid fics with Law, because I just don't like him that much. But I stayed. For the potential this had.

And my staying paid off!!!! It was awesome to see another take on ASL, and adding Law to the mix, not through Luffy, but Ace and Sabo was Not something I was expecting! It is also one of the key factors as to why the fic is so entertaining, you keep trying to imagine how the relationships in canon will translate to the setting. I got a lot of them wrong, it keeps you guessing, I love it. The way it shows Law involuntarily warming up to Ace and Sabo is so good. It feels a lot like something 11 y/o Law would write in his diary, it's cute.

Plot-wise it isn't that strong in the first installment (even the author said so), so you are really looking out for character interactions rather than worldbuilding. So it delivers on that, a bit chopped here and there, but by the time you get to the final chapters (there are like, 5) it's way more dynamic.

Ah, I've run out of juice, all right speedrun.

The whole thing, plot and narration improves a lot. Getting to a point in the most recent chapters where I can say that the author nailed down at least Zoro's and Ace's POV to the t, I can't say for Law though, not my area of expertise.

Surprising to no one, I like the Zoro POV chapters best, because we get Strawhat crew, and Luffy and Zoro, and I really like them.

I like the professors and classes they teach they teach. Who is which head of house and all that, nice, very in character.

Whitebeard's kids are a thing here, and I love it, they are fantastic.

Oh, Robin in particular has a lot going for her in the fic, you should also stay for her, if you are a fellow Robin fan.

The shenanigans are AU typical, that's not bad at all, I like how much emphasis they give to pranks and all.

CORAZON IS ALIVE AND WELL, more beautiful things.

Idk, I wish I could tell you more but I kinda read the whole thing for the experience and enjoyed it a lot. Even if it's unfinished.

Oh well, I guess that's it.

Also, "When All the Embers Die" also updated, as well as the other Zoro fic from the same author. And "Treasures for your Treasure (The Pearls Pale in Your Eyes)" ALSO updated, a Zoro update (thanks author) to say the least. I might say some things, I might not, probably I will, once I'm out of this hell hole called midterms.

Anyways, if you read this far thank you very much. Please read the fics mentioned above, even if it's for the experience, they are wonderful stories.

[toxinoire]

I've written stuff here...but those are simply ideas.

My ACTUAL Heathers AU however is a fantasy (as in, powers, magic, magic creatures, kingdoms) and they're adults in an oppressed kingdom.

This still needs some fine tuning so I'm not posting much about it yet.

But here's a glimpse.

~~~~~~~~

Powers:

Heather Chandler- Levitation and Radiation Waves (any kind of radiation waves)

Heather Duke- Illusions (as much as she wants) and Shield Type Force Field

Heather McNamara- Lightning (thunderstorm level lightning) and Super Speed

Veronica Sawyer- Ghost Like Abilities (as in, can pass through walls, be invisible, float and teleport)

Betty Finn- Super Stregnth and Magnetism (like Magneto ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ)

Martha Dunnstock- Healing (Self Explanatory) and Enhanced Eyesight

JD- Wind (as in, cyclone and tornado level winds) and Lazer Eyes

~~~~~~~

"Whatcha reading?" Asked Heather McNamara.

"Oh, it's a book called 'A Dramatic Tradegy" by the author Ron. It's a love story and all, but it's clearly also about corruption and systematic oppression. It addresses the very problems our kingdom has." Answered Heather Duke.

"Ooh sounds interesting." Said Heather McNamara.

"Elaborate more, would you?" Said Heather Chandler.

Heather Duke flipped through pages while keeping her index finger im between the pages she was reading. "Hold on, let me read a passage from the book...ah."

"The only reason why "heroes" and "villains" exist is because of this system...the inhumane and empathetic societal expectations everyone has planted in their minds in a harmful, toxic and traumatic way. If one were take away these parts of a societal system, keep traditions yet not force it upon anyone, it would lead to more peace. Less stone hearted people, less trauma, less reasons to want to do anything bad. Terrible people are inevitable everywhere, yet anyone allowing a terrible person to continue unpunished is worse."

"Okay damn..." Said Heather Chandler.

"That book will be banned eventually." Said a voice near them. They turn to the source. It's a woman in blue, currently throwing away a cigarette. "Sorry, I didn't mean to bother you. I just believe it would be."

"Why is that?" Asked Heather Chandler.

"Familiar with those moments Royal Guards just ransack the houses in a town? They usually leave with these specific books." Said the woman, pointing at Heather Duke's book. "The ones written by the author Ron."

"How so?"

"Hmm..." The woman scanned the people around them, and saw what would explain it for her. "Ah. Look over there. That man is reading another book written by that author. 'Cast Out The Devils.' And over there is Travis Fermont, a member of the royal court. Watch."

Heather, Heather and Heather's eyes widened as they see Travis snatch the book from the man's hand, presumably after seeing who the author is; the author leaves their name on the cover very largely; read something from the book, yell at the man, rip the book apart, say something to the royal guards near him and then...

The man gets killed.

"In a few days, the royal guards will ransack every house and book store to find the copies of that book and burn them. It's only a matter of time before A Dramatic Tradegy meets the same fate." Said the woman, who's lighting another cigarette. "It's quite obvious that the author has it out for the king, his cronies at court and...any form of corruption and systematic oppression. It's why any book written by that author is banned, or will be banned."

"What the fuck..." Said Heather McNamara.

The woman sighed. "I know. Pretty fucked up."

"At least they won't find her books, she keeps them crazily hidden, even we don't know where it is." Said Heather Chandler.

"I'd rather NOT have people know what I've been reading."

"Relatable." Said the woman in blue with a chuckled.

Heather Duke checked her watch. "This has been quite the informative conversation, but we should go."

"Oh yeah, we still have work to do." Said Heather McNamara.

"Alright. See you guys around."

Before leaving, Heather Chandler turns back to her. "By the way, what's your name?"

The woman smiled. "Veronica. Veronica Sawyer."

[whereonceiwasfire]

Landing Zone

Figured it was about time I finally did one of these, so hey, hi, hello, I'm Rees (a.k.a. WhereOnceIWasFire). You can find some general info about me, and a masterlist of fics in this post!

GENERAL

Any pronouns

I write fic (masterlist below the cut)

My brain has been chemically altered by: Danny Phantom and DBZ (though I typically keep Dragonball posts to my sideblog)

My DMs/inbox are open! Send me things, I'm friendly, I swear!

I'm always open to prompt requests (though I don't do crossovers). Feel free to leave me something in my ask box, and I'll get to it when I have a chance/if it sparks an idea!

FICS

(tags can be found on ao3)

Finished Fics:

Overshadowed - Long ass (140K) College AU, No One Knows, heavy angst, mystery w/ horror elements, mostly happy ending, but I also left it a bit open/ambiguous. I MIGHT write a sequel one day. Everything's Fine (And the Boss is Totally Not a Cryptid) - Outsider POV, intern gets hired at Vlad Co., shenanigans ensue. Oh so many Dracula references. H(a)unted - Weird, angsty little Ghost Hunter Danny AU. Separate Danny and Phantom. ALT ending. I have some ideas percolating to continue off the alternate ending. The Hazards of Being Hot High AF - Shippy Popular Psychology (Jazz/Dash) oneshot I found in my fics folder. Jazz visits Dash in the hospital after a football injury. Elementary, My Dear Fenton - Ecto-Implosion fic. A goofy comedy-mystery where Danny and the trio try to track down who left an anonymous gift in his locker. They get WAY too into it.

WIPs:

Not So Bitter Reunions - AU, canon divergence, badger cereal. The college reunion goes decidedly less off the rails than in canon, leading to some nefarious consequences. I'm just kind of vibing with this one. High School's a Beach - **AGIT SPOILERS** Dan's in high school. This one is so very unserious, but I think I've got a few more chapters left in me. Needs Must (When the Devil Drives) - Canon divergence. AU. Vlad and Harriet reconnect at the college reunion, but since Vlad's technically an evil spirit, he's adversely impacted by things like salt, windchimes, running water, etc. Bad News (Vlad/Harriet) shipfic. I just...I think they're neat. Bearer of Bad News - Post Phantom Planet (not AGIT compliant). Bad News fic because I have an illness and these two live in my head rent free. The GIW enlist Harriet's help in preventing Ghost King Danny from destroying the earth.

Drabbles/Ficlets:

DannyMay 2022 - I don't remember any of these being particularly good, but they do exist. I very much did not last the entire month. Drabble Dump from Tumblr asks - this is just what it sounds like. Though, in general, I'll probably start trying to post oneshots and/or collect the separate, individual Tumblr ask ficlets on this post now instead of just clumping them in a drabble dump on ao3. Monsters Don't Exist - horror vibes. AU. Vlad didn't peace out after the accident and he's keeping his enemies (Maddie and Jack) close. Jazz suspects their babysitter, Uncle Vlad, is more dangerous than everyone else in the family seems to think. Cheese Melt ficlet - Outsider POV. Dani has a parent-teacher interview. Cheese Melt ficlet #2 - Dani doesn't like the toy she got at Nasty Burger. Vlad gets her a new one. Badger cereal ficlet - No one knows AU. Danny works as a cashier and Vlad accidentally outs his supervillain indetity by infodumping to him when Danny makes idle customer-servicey smalltalk.

Unwritten/Unposted:

I'm not going to list out all my filenames and ideas, don't worry lol. But I do have a couple (*cough* couple hundred *cough*) ideas percolating or half written in my fics folder, so that is a thing. I want to jump on WIP Wednesday and such, but like. IDK. Feel free to ask/harass me about my unposted WIPs too, I am motivated by peer pressure.

[joshbruh10x]

Ok first how long have you shipped Fazcule

second did freddy and Bonnie see Monty at the same time and go " yup he's ours now" or did one fall then the other,

Thirdly did you ever write out or draw out how that kind of relationship affects the game or does it exist separately

And finally ( sorry it's long) I have a dumb, probably not funny doodle comic idea I'd like to draw and it would cross over our characters so I'm asking for permission to draw your characters totally fine if you rather I didn't

Oh my asks about the Fazcule <:0

It's been a while!!!

(warning, very stupid long rant, I didn't realize how long I've written, oh dear god I'm so sorry)

Ok firstly, when I went to Tumblr with the help of @lmaojune (hi bestie if you see this). I was completely blind to the fandom, I used to be in a Pokemon Amino and posted whatever, what're aus? What're fics? Ships? Didn't know em. Then saw all the Monteddy art and was like y'know what? Why not draw them. Then it dawned on me I could basically draw anything I wanted , didn't matter how goofy (yes it took me that long to realize, I was a very serious artist back in Amino). Not long, I saw everyone's Glamrock Fronnie, as a Monty enthusiast I was like NOOOO HE WAS LEFT OUT :( but then I stumbled upon other people's art with Monty and Bonnie, I've read so much fics about them being enemies or fics where Bonnie's the abusive partner of either Monty or Freddy but I didn't see him as how I see him today (the sweet idiot hornball). Then I started drawing Bonnie more but then I saw Izzy (holidayturkeyy who which I will NOT tag I do not need them seeing this rant guys, pls save me the humility) and their idea of a polycule with the three guys, polycule and Fazbear? BOOM FAZCULE (also it's a reason I don't call the ship Gatorbearbun, I think that derived from Twitter? The hellscape land of musk :> /hj), and THE ART WAS TOO SWEET I COULDNT KVMDKDLS then dots aligned and I got hooked. Sorry for the long answer but to cut this short, I've been shipping them ever since I've discovered the ship's exsistance, that being like 2 years ago already (geez time is fast)

Secondly, yeah that was my first impression of the ship, Freddy and Bonnie are ogs and they find this new guy they both really like so they were both like YEAHHHHH we'll just uhhh talk to him. And then they started to become a polycule. Although I did have ideas back then where Bonnie and Monty drag Freddy into their relationship. This is actually canon to the TOH au me and June share.

Third, yes actually! If you go to AO3 and see my Fazcule Drabbles (short Fazcule Oneshots which I have yet to update lcsmdmldnfk), multiple times have I mentioned about the effects of a polycule relationship to their modern lives, I'm about to do the same thing with a new fic series I am about to write (still on break from writing lol)

And lastly HELL TO THE YES I WOULD FRICKIN LOVE THAT And I've mentioned it before, I WOULD LOVE FANART/IF SOMEONE WERE TO USE MY CHARACTERS/IDEAS

I don't see anything wrong with it (unless people yoink my art and claim it as theirs, ya know those kinda stuff)

Sorry for the long rant lmao :p

[love-fireflysong]

as one fellow 'imagining shmoopy gushy shit between fictional characters while trying to fall asleep' enjoyer to another, /i/ for one would LOVE to know about the shmoopy gushy shit your brain comes up with when you're trying to fall asleep 👀 hehehehe

(so sorry about how long it took me to answer this 😭 i'm a sham of a person)

Oh god. I mean, if I've gotta be *real* honest over here, you've likely read pretty much all the shmoopy gooshy stuff I think of at night. Cause that's when I do like the majority of my plotting and scene setting aksdjaklsjdasjd. And unsurprisingly the bits I like to roll over and over and over again is the tender, fluffy/angsty shit 😅

Like the ones I got on repeat are all scenes I'm looking forward to writing the most. The most appropriate for the whole shmoopy gooshy feelings hilariously enough being two scenes from the second chapter of To Have or to Hold (til death do us part) aka outlast au shit. The first of which is just the three of them trying to clean each other up the best they can/refamiliarize themselves with one another in one of the bathrooms (which as you can imagine the whole cleaning part isn't going *great* thanks to the whole sinks being half filled with blood and all but it's fine cause its the touching thats more important to them by far). And the second being the scene with the three of them squeezed together on a single twin bed and finally falling asleep wrapped up in each other's arms after far too long (aka the entire reason this fic even exists LKJSLKDJLAJ).

...And that's where this would have ended. If not for a couple of days ago where my sleepy little brain decided to give me a new tender image all together. Namely, Ashley doing her best to comfort Chris in the safe room in the period of time between Sam leaving to catch up to Mike and whenever they got chased out. And it's got all my little fav tender moments. Hands cupping faces as the other person can't help but lean in near desperation to the touch. Foreheads touching, noses bumping as they're so close that they're basically breathing the same air. Kissing the forehead in both a promise that they're not leaving and to see how hot/cold the skin may be. The hugs so tight that they can't help but tuck heads into the other's neck in an effort to be even closer.

Ashley doing everything in her power to help comfort an injured Chris who is just starting to fall into shock as the events of the past few hours finally hit now that things have seemingly started to quiet down. Even as she fights against the realization of not only how close she was to losing him, but also how close she was to watching it happen.

So yeah. That last one's been REALLY taking over my thoughts at night to the point that I've been having trouble falling asleep if it wasn't obvious SKDKJSLJD Haven't written a single word down for it cause I'm still not sure if I wanna write it yet, but I get the feeling that this is gonna be like baby it's cold outside all over again. AKA, an idea that drives me crazy until I finally can't take it anymore so I just roll out of my bed to grab my computer and start writing the first like five pages at 3am 🙃

[lifesver]

𝘒𝘕𝘖𝘞𝘐𝘕𝘎  𝘠𝘖𝘜𝘙  𝘗𝘈𝘙𝘛𝘕𝘌𝘙  𝘞𝘌𝘓𝘓  𝘊𝘈𝘕  𝘗𝘖𝘛𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘐𝘈𝘓𝘓𝘠  𝘔𝘈𝘒𝘌  𝘞𝘙𝘐𝘛𝘐𝘕𝘎  𝘛𝘖𝘎𝘌𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘙  𝘈  𝘓𝘖𝘛  𝘌𝘈𝘚𝘐𝘌𝘙.

NAME :  kels

PRONOUNS :  she/they/he

PREFERENCE  OF  COMMUNICATION : ims on here are fine, im kind of bad at discord until i know people better, but i prefer to talk to my pals on discord obvi

NAME  OF  MUSE(S) : leland mckinney, tommy jarvis, jake park are most recent. but we were also out here for a long while w richie tozier and five hargreeves.

EXPERIENCE  /  HOW  LONG  (  MONTHS  /  YEARS? ) : oh god uh........... it really goes back to something like 2013? like i started in oc rp groups on and off mostly, i think i didn't get into actual tumblr rpc until maybe 2018? and w leland well we have been out here since last may agjsdk

BEST  EXPERIENCE : honestly like... as much as i sometimes still get embarrassed trying to explain [scare chord] Tumblr Roleplay to people outside of this particular circle, it's been such a large part of my enjoyment online for years and years. i've met some really close friends here, i've done some of my best writing here. and a lot of it is just the ability to bounce off my friends and their huge brain ideas. collaborative writing, to me, is just so much more fun than doing it alone. i really like taking one character and getting just way too deep into who they are, i like learning and picking things up from the variety of other writers on here. improving my writing from reading what my super talented friends do... and in particular this last year has been probably??? one of my most positive rpc experiences in a long while. having people jump into the tcsm rpc, making new friends, and putting together just completely off the shits wild aus and whatever. idk! my creative brain loves to go stupid mode in the paint. and besties we have written some good fucking horror narrative on this stupid website.

and also i'm cringe and i'm free (:

RP  PET  PEEVES  /  DEALBREAKERS :  i'm kind of just chilling like i really am very much non-confrontational in this space because it's... for fun. it's just imaginary internet collaborative writing hobby. mainly i just don't need passive aggression of any kind. i believe that you kind of get back what you put in on this kind of space, so make it comfortable for yourself, be kind to others, and understanding as often as you can be. if people aren't hurting anyone, let them vibe in their own space. not everyone has endless time anymore for rp, so don't make it weird or take it personally when people take time to get back to you about plots, or if they never get time. soft and hardblock as you need to to make your space chill for You it's just never that deep

MUSE  PREFERENCES  FLUFF,   ANGST  OR  SMUT : we like a bit of everything in this house (except anything remotely usfw goes to usfw shadow realm blog). like be serious i am always in the horror rpc for the angst and suffering and exploration of trauma but that needs to be balanced out by fluff and gentle vibes. [loudly into the megaphone] its about LOVE and HORROR-

PLOTS  OR  MEMES :  i like both! i think it's easiest to get things rolling with just whatever memes thrown my way and vice versa. i love plotting stuff out, but sometimes that takes a bit of existing in each others rpc space for a while. so i can be sort of slow w building dynamics, but i do like to!

LONG  OR  SHORT  REPLIES : i don't mind either, it's kind of refreshing to switch between the two, more rapid fire stuff is nice esp to start with, though i am known to be insane in the reply lengths for some prompts once stuff is plotted out.

BEST TIME TO WRITE :  i'm a morning person it's very cringe

ARE  YOU  LIKE  YOUR  MUSE(S) : idk if much really? but i do bring a sort of idiot jock(joth) energy to the function at times. i def project on him on the emotions side i think. and truly whoever i write at a given time reflects a bit on me bc hyperfixation go brrr

TAGGED  BY  :   did steal this from tsari thank u legend TAGGING  :  hands u it

[yandere-monoma]

should i be insane and start the kill your masters commentary now

i am gonna be insane and start the kill your masters commentary now

hi this will contain spoilers for the killswitch au which imo is fine because i have no intentions of writing it in its entirety so HSJKFGFG

god. rose strider.

rosie rosie rosie rose strider UUUUUUGH.

fun fact i actually attempted to go off about all this weeks ago but tumblr deleted the fucking draft but now im drunk (or i was drunk when i started this at 1am and now its fuckin noon LMFAO) and trying again so LET'S GO!!!!

so. actually. my iteration of rose strider was first sparked after reading BGB by MermaidMayonaiise oh god bless tf out of them

like, guardianswaps is an ancient concept in the fandom so it's not like i've never considered her or any other strider kid before but GOD. this one line from BGB absolutely blasted through my soul:

You never knew her, but a Rose Strider would have been a killing machine. Considering the multiverse, she exists. Just not in any timeline that matters.

as i lovingly say in the comments of that fic, i literally copypasted that line to every hs friend i know. it drove me crazy

it'd still be a couple of weeks (months?) after reading that fic that i actually conceptualized her, though. rose strider was born via the homestuck renaissance chat which i will reference 6738459634563456 times in this commentary because killswitch would not exist without it. the renaissance chat went off with a million and one headcanons about a million and one different guardianswaps and my impulsive ass couldn't help but actualize them in some sort of written form, complete with ridiculous long ass plot and even a couple of sburb sessions that i'll never write cuz it'll take me years. like. the ideas were just so good.

ironically, our first official swap we discussed was actually john strider, who i hopefully will get to at least allude to in the next iteration of killswitch, along with dave lalonde (WHO I FUCKING LOVE AAAAA), jade egbert and rose harley... then we actually discussed jade before i finally revealed how insane i was about rose strider rose rose rose rose ROOOOOSE

from that first initial outline to the first chapter of kym, it took about two months of plotting and dragging through drafts which is CRAZY cuz it rly does feel like time has fucking flooown by. a lot of that time was also dedicated to the first installment of killswitch, which got interrupted because the third chapter of kyd got tragically deleted and i've never recovered and i only recently healed past the hurt enough to start to rewrite it. god. trauma.

anyway.

before i get to the first chapter, i wanted to talk about rose's initial concept as a strider and what it meant. as i've said 738596356 times already, nature vs nurture was how i approached every placement within the au. it was very important to me to blend every character with who they initially are in canon and who their guardian's influence turned them into. this made for an incredibly fun process that lent itself to a pretty easy formula characterization-wise.

for example, rose strider's excessively extreme experiences with self-harm are born of rose lalonde's early act 1 habit of engaging in empty suicide threats towards her mother. i took that tendency to act out and cranked that fucker up to 11 because there is nothing passive aggressive about how bro raised dave.

every killswitch character features this pairing blend approach to their writing. jake lalonde, for example, inherits roxy's hyperactive silly energy, though he lacks the grace, ease and confidence to carry it out without stumbling. however, rose is especially special because i wasn't just trying to blend rose and dave. because of rose's identity blurring motif, i had to build her up using elements of rose AND dave AND dirk AND, most importantly, bro. that made her, honestly, really fucking hard to write because i still wanted her to be recognizable enough, while still sounding like a carbon copy of bro, simultaneously perfect and flawed all at the same time. and, ngl, it's super interesting to me, the way she deviates from the formula and refuses to follow the easy pattern i followed for literally every other character in the au. it's just so fitting for her to fuck with the meta like that JSKFG

anyway LETS START READING

fucking with the commands was actually a last minute choice done right at the very final edit. so much of the narrative fuckery that happens in kym is very on the spot, lots of last minute decisions that start with the impulse of 'oh shit yknow what'd be cool' and end with a big ole internal ramble of what it could all ~represent~

in this case, i thought this was nifty, i've been using this same one fuckin glitch generator for YEARS at this point: but also, i think it was a fun way to allude to her classpect, even though it's never really discussed outright

yeah see this was actually supposed to be a description of her room but in the very last draft as i was cleaning it up i saw this section that i still had to write and went nope. JHSKFGSDFG which is hilarious to me because doing so literally transformed how i approached the rest of the piece. originally this chapter really was supposed to just be a pretty direct copypaste of act 1, but god. GOD i'm glad it isn't. i've had so much fun with this style and it's so amusing to me that i have laziness to thank for that JKGFG ah yes the creative process

facts about john harley and his first conversation with rose!!

i suck at chumhandles and enlisted help from the renaissance chat for a lot of them. other handle options suggested to me at the time include: garrulousGallivant, groovyGallywag, galleyGaffer, giddyGelogenic (this was in second place to me i rly loved it sob)

(rose's handle was incredibly easy in comparison, largely because i hardly put any effort into it. i just wanted something suitably edgy and what could be edgier than naming yourself after genocide HJGKF)

his initial character premise:

the hardest part about starting the fic where i did is that there was just so much imagined backstory for rose and so little time to actually get to detail with it. the purpose of the first few pesterlogs with john and jade was to establish something that honestly i don't think got as much spotlight in the fic as i would have wanted: the fact that rose strider is a compulsive liar who actually tries her hardest to seem normal to her friends, both out of habitual manipulation and out of a subconscious urge to escape her life. it's an attempt to sprinkle her with the void traits that she clings to at the beginning of her arc (guess what her classpect is >:3) before embracing what she really is, but damn. if i could have, i would've written 100k of cute casual conversation with rose seeming like the sweetest most thoughtful friend in the world, only to reveal what she's really like

anyway! we get to see her make up a life for herself first through john, as she lies about going to school when ngl i don't think she's been since like. idk. the 3rd grade. GJKFLGS

this is always an interesting pesterlog to reread remembering how much i fucked with rose's dialogue jesus christ. i did NOT want her to sound like herself in the rougher drafts. she was honestly just a straight up blend of bro and dave, very casual, very ramble-y, however at the last second, i incorporated a touch of her usual more formal vibe/dialogue. again, because i was blending four different characters rather than two, it was difficult to find a balance i really liked. i definitely got there eventually but. hoo.

ro-stri originally used to copy the punctuation of anyone she spoke to. there are still aspects of this in the current draft, rose plays along and sprinkles more exclamation points in than usual to match john's hyperactiveness despite the fact that she feels like roadkill atm. however, in the end, i thought it was a little too subtle and wanted her to have a more uniform sound to her, rather than disappearing into anyone she encountered.

john harley thinks the funniest possible thing to joke about in the world is the fact that he's pretty much a feral kid who has never touched humanity and thus doesnt know the most basic things. he does this 9356354963 times a day. he loves playing dumb. in truth he's experienced a Lot through movies but sometimes he simply cant resist the urge to pretend he doesnt know what a fork is. jsdkfgsfg he was such a delight to write, jesus christ.

despite rose's attempt to fade into the background a little, all of her friends depend on her massively to fill a hole in their lives, which she ends up using to further manipulate and control the topics of their conversations. for john, he's just so incredibly hungry for what life in the real world is like. so rose fabricates a normal school life for him. and she's not even doing that for him. it's completely coincidental that they both just desire the same thing of each other and ngl i really adore and am fascinated by their dynamic. johnrose fuckin sneaks up on me i SWEAR.

rose calling herself a bishounen is the first hint of her weird gender fuckery. it is a hilarious hint that i'm so very proud of cuz it's so dumb HAHAHJKFS

john's flirtiness towards rose is inherited by (epilogue) jade's sexual promiscuity and slight pushiness towards the people she's attracted to. it also just seemed like so much fun lmfao it rly snuck up on me as i was writing and i couldn't help but go all in once i realized what was happening. like, john really does just find one bad joke (usually at someone's expense) that he really likes and does it over and over and over and OVER cuz so much of the joy for him is knowing that he's the only one fucking laughing and that everyone in the vicinity wants to throttle him. but they can't :P

someone tell me why :B emojis are so cute. the very first time i went >:B as john harley i went oh no because i fell so hard at that point HAHA

jade lalonde!!

can you believe this is the first time i've ever written jade in my life jesus fucking christ

other chumhandle option: tipsyTurvey

rose's canon handle is a pun that fucking murders me every time i acknowledge it and i desperately wanted a cute pun for hers. i am bad at puns. i am so very bad at puns. telekineticTactoe is the first pun i've made in all my decades of living. i am so proud of her fucking handle jesus christ GHJFKGS

something that's fun but also agonizing about pesterlogs like these is, again, i don't really get the chance to explain things. so much show, so little tell, which works out great for the narrative but makes the part of my brain that built up so much of the world pout so much. so i never actually go into detail about the fact that the 'update' jade is working on is to a webcomic that she has picked up and abandoned 87593456 times. this is seen more in her later conversations but one of jade's whole shticks is that she has tens of thousands of hobbies and she can't commit to a single goddamn one. she is absolutely CRUSHED by how much she wants to have a perfectly successful career like her mom. everything she tries just isnt perfect enough and it frustrates her endlessly. she is so so very cute i love herrr

it is SO fun discussing the lalonde issue through someone who is earnest and honest about their feelings and who airs them out the second they feel them. it's so fun to interpret some of the issues rose perhaps had with her mother, while also just poking at issues i think would have just. always bothered jade because of the type of person she is. she is going to be an incredibly fun perspective to write through the rest of the au and i rly hope i can figure out a way to focus a fic on one of her iterations one day

jade having a having a habit of traumadumping and rambling was supposed to be a play on just how excessively wordy rose can be. idk how much that shows (people associate rambling way more with dave imo) but either way it was super fun to write

rose's manipulative streaks are more obvious here. jade is incredibly vulnerable and rose jumps at the opportunity to attempt to further isolate and pit her against her mother. she's doing that completely out of habit, too. she has no malicious plan behind it all, it passes the time and it keeps jade close and that's really all she wants. she can see the way jade suffers under the weight of her work and she makes up her own stressful worklife, just so that jade can relate to her more than she can relate to the others.

DAVE FUCKIN EGBERT LET'S GOOO

the first words uttered about dave eggy in the gc:

and what his character ultimately turned into:

there is so much to say about dave i love him i love him i love him let's gOoooOooOOo

first off, i wanna explain why he's an egbert rather than a lalonde, since swapping the strilondes is way more common:

dave lalonde would have taken up too much screentime which would not have worked for the fic/verse. he is. god. an INCREDIBLE and fascinating specimen that i need to specifically write 100k about and pairing him with someone like ro-stri would just be a disservice to either of their stories. they simply can not exist together in a way that i would find narratively satisfying because they both just take up too much SPACE. GOD!!!

dave egbert is just cuter LMAO.

i am a dirty dirty multishipper and making him an egbert means i get a version of johndave and a version of daverose all at the same time

(and this doesnt even also allude to the fact that john strider and dave lalonde are also a hugely amusing dynamic like i rly needed the homophobic af angy boy paired with the darling excitable lil femboy ok

but really, my approach to dave is this: as much fun as tragic backstories are, sometimes a really fascinating narrative can be watching someone getting actively traumatized in the present for the very first time. being a bystander to someone you love's suffering, the survivor's guilt of not being the abused one, the overwhelming stress of being someone's sole confidant, the way it feels to be crushed by codependency and forced to witness unrelenting suffering when you are so woefully unprepared to provide proper support. dave just being a normal boy in an incredibly toxic relationship with his first love is just. GOD. so fun to me. so so fun it's honestly one of my fave decisions coming into the fic

there's also something to said about the fact that dave finally gets to experience normalcy and familial love at the expense of his sister taking his role in the narrative. there is a point in the au where the killswitch characters (who i also refer to as the 'zeta' kids) are made aware of their canon counterparts and thinking about what dave eggy will think about dave strider is SO exciting to me

anyway, again: this was a hard pesterlog to incorporate. i needed a quick summary of their dynamic and a quick summary of both of their characterizations: dave egbert being dryer, quieter, more withdrawn and blunt with his words, rose strider being abrasive and quick to anger and almost sadistically playful in the way she immediately seeks to tease and degrade her boyfriend. i also needed to show this without making rose the most unlikeable character this side of homestuck HGJKFGGS. fun fact, so much of how they talk to each other and exist in general is based on the fact that i think both of them just, like. fuckin LIVE on 4chan. rose is a 4chan troll while dave is just, like, a lurker. and i do wish i could have showed that more and showed even more of both the cruller kinds of dialogue rose can dish out and the more weird/fond/playful parts of their dynamic, because to me rose is the type to just constantly drop slurs and insult people and speak in a way that's designed to shock and horrify people and dave was her punching bag as much as he's her stuffed animal, and he's just so in love with all the ways she overwhelms him. he has so much fun trying to just desperately keep up with her and it all just creates this intense atmosphere that he's absolutely addicted to.

like, it's tragic that her talking like this never shows up in the fic itself but alas. alas, alack...

anyway

HOW CAN I FORGET HOW FUNNY DAVE'S HANDLE IS TO ME dave making his whole personality around himself being a npc is so funny to me ok godhjskfg

There is no excusing what must have occurred the previous evening, but there’s no point trying to contend with what happened. 

considering 'what happened yesterday' is a big huge plot point in chapter 2 i'll leave it to the chapter 2 discussion but just know that this is one of my fave part's of rose's characterization that i ALSO mourn its lack of focus in the fic. i think it's present enough but UGH i wish i got to write it so much MOOOORE, DAMN!

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

there were so many versions of this line and this introduction in general HJGKFGS happy with what i settled with

this section was hard because, again, had to quickly establish all the things i wish i could have spent time just slowly building up. i do enjoy how the final product looks, though. one of my favorite styles to utilize is a very compact, slightly minimalistic type of prose that leans

lil cal as a corrupting force is one of my fave hs things in the world it drives me insane to think about, so it was incredibly fun deciding that this was one of the biggest and most important differences between dave and rose is that dave fucking hates lil cal but ro-stri is not scared of puppets :D she loves them :D

When you sleep, if you sleep, your gaze never breaks from his, and you spend your nightmares drowning,

rose having an eternal staring contest with dream cal amuses the hell out of me especially thinking about dave going to derse just to watch in horror. it's also another aspect of that internal soul flaying she keeps forcing herself through, trying to create a perfect ouroboros between herself and what bro has been turned into. trying to fuckin speedrun through her own corruption

gurgles blood.

this next section about all the ways rose attempts to cope with her trauma was so nervewracking to publish. a lot of parts of this fic was but jesus christ. was really worried i'd get flack for a few of the ideas that got tossed out there, but i couldn't remove them even despite that anxiety. there is such a specific vibe to the 00's that i really wanted to incorporate into the fic... just, how it felt to be an absolutely insane teenager, always overwhelmed, constantly abused, and gifted with unadulterated unsupervised internet access to do terrible AWFUL things to. i wanted to depict it because it's what i relate to, what i've experienced, what i've seen and heard from others.

it's also just generally rly important to me to sprinkle darkweb references into as many of my strider fics as fucking possible cuz i know those boys LIVE on it LMFAOHJGKFG

In reality, you have no hobbies your brother hasn’t given you.

short but important: the fact that rose just does not get the opportunity to start creating her own personality like dave does was very important for me to highlight, though it's also not necessarily true. since the narration is filtered through rose's perspective, and rose is the one that is so adamant (especially at this part of the story) that she is a perfect clone of her brother, she skips past the experiences she has where she's strayed from bro's influence.

the end of this chapter was a very fun escalation that i'm very satisfied with. ahh, my killing machine 🥰❣️ how i adore you... now that i think about it, i forgot that originally i really did just want to make a quick oneshot summarizing all of my thoughts on her. as i was writing, the ideas got bigger and bigger, the hcs spiraled more and then my friends in the chat [shakes fist] dropped a huge BOMB of a plotline right into my lap that forced me to extend it way past its original plan but ughsjfgdfg i'm so glad that they did because this is a story that i'm so incredibly proud of godddjksfg

AND THAT'S CHAPTER ONE, STAY TUNED FOR MORE