#but got side tracked by writing my novel and going back to work at the school

[satorusugurugurl]

Never got a request for them you say…

I know i request way to fucking much but I can’t help myself I love ur writing🫶

Butttt hear me out adult trio gojo geto shoko with fem reader. I’m thinking professional reader, who has an exhausting but rewarding job comes home exhausted, but her 3 lovers cheer her right up <333

Could be fluff or smut, I just need them in my life Fr

-🍭

Welcome Home!

Character: Gojo Satoru, Geto Suguru, Shoko Ieiri, FAB!Reader

Word Count; 2,853

Warning: overworked reader, nipple play, oral sex, praising, making out, achohol consumption, Geto in a fucking apron has me FERAL

A/N: Thank you so much for the request! I had lots of fun with this one 🥵🌶 Spicy loved it 1000000/10 would recommend.

Everything hurt, from your feet to your back, as you exited your car, the garage shutting behind you. You had been gone for twelve hours, leaving at six and getting home when you'd left this morning. But you couldn't complain. Your business had taken off, and as CEO, you had responsibilities to take care of, which tended to keep you away from home longer than you'd like, but the paycheck was worth it.

You had started your own candle company in college. Book tropes, characters, and television series inspired the candles you made. Your shop had been small, and you were content with that. Until your partners suggested advertising on social media, reaching out to authors, broadening your horizons. You hadn't expected much, maybe a couple of dozen more orders, a few rejection letters from said authors. What you hadn't been expecting was for your products to go viral, and several authors jumped at the opportunity to commission you for custom character candles.

Your tiny little shop became a big-time shop so fast it had your head spinning. You shipped orders worldwide, made custom customer orders, and were featured on several podcasts. Your company was close to being a multimillion-dollar company with several locations. While exciting, and you didn't need to worry about money, it was exhausting. Long hours, dozens of meetings, and business trips were your new norm; it came with the title CEO. You loved your job! There was, however, one downside.

You missed the fuck out of your partners.

With your position, you could take care of the house payment and utilities. Allowing your partners to do whatever they want without worry. Shoko was studying to become a surgeon, Geto was working on a novel, and Satoru was your biggest investor; seeing as he was from a wealthy family, he could do what he wanted. And what he wanted was to help your company grow. Things were perfect; it justified you working so hard all the time. Some days were more exhausting than others, but it was also gratifying. Your partners could pursue their dreams, and as long as they were happy, so were you.

”I’m home.” You announced mid-yawn, removing your heels and setting them to the side. You ventured into the living room. The condo was clean and tidy, as per usual, thanks to your amazing partners. They took such good care of the house when you were gone.

“Welcome home.” Suguru greeted you from the kitchen. Both the mouth-watering aroma of prepared food and the sexy man stopped you in your tracks. “Thank you for all of your hard work today, Princess.” He wore gray sweatpants, his hair pulled into his signature half up half down style.

The best part of his whole outfit was the apron. Good god, it was illegal! The black apron went around his neck and tied firmly around his waist. It read, ‘My meat is 100% Going In Your Mouth’. It was a gag gift, one you’d need to thank Satoru for purchasing. Suguru was wiping his damp hands on it as he made his way around the island, wrapping his arms around you in a tight hug.

You melted in his embrace, your arms snaking around him as he kissed the top of your head. “Thank you. It’s good to be back.” You sniffed at the air, happily groaning at the scent of food. “That smells absolutely amazing, Sugu!”

“You had a long day, so I made one of your favorites.” You followed him into the kitchen, staring at the four neatly prepared plates of perfectly prepared katsudon and fluffy white rice. ”I was finishing up the salad. It should be done in a few minutes.”

A warm body pressed against your back; the smell of clean linen and musk followed the body's movements behind you as Satoru rested his chin on your shoulder. “I hope so, I’m starving.” The whiny tone that resonated from Satoru had Suguru rolling his eyes at his antics as he chopped up lettuce. “But not as hungry as you probably are. You busted your ass today, as usual.” Soft lips peppered your cheek with kisses.

“It was a very long day.” You reached forward, grabbing a slice of cucumber off the cutting board and popping it in your mouth. “But it’s well worth it.”

“Long day; I guess this calls for some sake,” Shoko added, handing you a glass of chilled peach sake.

You took a long sip, humming at the sweet taste that danced over your tastebuds. “Shoko, what would I do without you?” Your exhausted-looking girlfriend took a long sip of her drink before pressing a kiss against your lips.

”You would be stuck with these two idiots.”

“Hey!”

Satoru pouted, while Suguru just shook his head with an unbothered chuckle. The carefree atmosphere and warm aura had you relaxing, the tension leaving your shoulders as the four of you sat down for dinner. While you ate and conversed with them, your partners looked you over while you weren’t paying them attention. Suguru took note of the dark circles under your eyes before looking at Satoru from his peripheral vision. He had noticed the circles along with how your skin appeared paler tonight. Dark and blue-hued eyes focused on Shoko. Her dark brown eyes examined you as she would a patient.

The three of them reached the same conclusion: you were exhausted, burning the candle at both ends. They knew very well how seriously you took your job; your work ethic was nothing to be sneezed at. No matter how sick or tired you were, you constantly pushed yourself to do more, to provide for them. Your motivation was fueled by positive forces, and there was nothing wrong with being driven by a goal.

However, the moment your goal began to run you down, that’s when you had a problem. You needed a break—some time to rest properly and recuperate. The three of them set their plan into action just with mirror eye contact.

“All right,” Suguru stood, collecting the dishes off the table, “Satoru and I will clean the kitchen. Shoko, why don't you take our sweet girl and get her relaxed?”

“Oh, don't be silly, I can help.” You followed them, collecting dishes that were snatched away from you by Satoru. “Hey, I can help!”

Shoko gently grabbed your hand, her slender, delicate fingers interlacing with yours, pulling you towards the bedroom. “It’s not a matter of you being able to help or not; we all know you’re perfectly capable of that.” Shoko gently squeezed your hand before pushing you back against the bed. “It’s more of a matter that we want to take care of you.” Those same soft fingers that had gently held your hand began working at the buttons of your blouse. “So please don’t fight us on this. You’re exhausted.” Your chest moved up and down, your steady breathing quickening as she exposed your torso. “Just lay back and relax.”

A breathless sigh escaped you as her soft hands groped your breasts in both hands, squeezing the soft mounds. “A-alright, then, let me touch you too.” You reached for her breasts, her nipples erect, peeking through the thin fabric of her white t-shirt. Your fingers just grazed over the fabric, straining against her hardening buds, when she pulled back, out of your reach. “Shoko, why are—” Her lips met yours in a soft, delicate kiss, one that emanated her true intent and desires.

”Have you been hanging out with those two morons too much?” Soft fingers, unclasp the hook in the front of your bra. “What part of ‘lay back and relax’ did you not understand?” Warm caresses of your girlfriend's skin felt like a burning fire over your tingling nipples.

“But I hate not making you feel good.”

“Baby,” Shoko chastised, leaning down, gently flicking her tongue over one of your nipples. “You make our lives comfortable; you do so much for us.” She kitten-licked one of the buds, nearly sending you off the bed. “There will be plenty of other times for you to join in. For tonight, relax and enjoy being a pillow princess.”

You were hesitant to listen to her, but as you relaxed against the bed, you realized just how tired you were. Laying back, your head cradled by the pillow alleviated some of the throbbing pain in your upper back. Plus, you weren’t often told to be a pillow princess, to lose yourself in the pleasure. This might be precisely what you needed tonight.

Without any further protest, you melted against the bed, your hand gently running through Shoko’s long, silky hair as she suckled and nibbled at your nipples while her hands massaged your breasts. I felt so good to be touched so gently. It was a drastic contrast to the boys, who roughly groped and nipped at your sensitive breasts. No matter how many times they saw your breasts, they were still the teenage boys you met nearly a decade ago. Breasts were, and always would be, some of their favorite things. Shoko, on the other hand, knew what felt good, how to get those little moans and whimpers to escape your mouth. If the woman was given the chance, she very well could make you orgasm from your nipples alone one day.

”Oooh my god, S-Sho—” That day was today, “Shoko, f-feels so good, really good.” Your nails gently grazed her scalp before you tugged on the strands of her hair. “H-Holy shit.”

Your girlfriend giggled, sending vibrations to stimulate your already sensitive nipples. “Yeah? Feel good—“ her pink tongue swirling tantalizingly slow around them, “so good you’re going to cum like this?” A tiny whimper was the only response she received. “Such a good girl for me. Go ahead, baby.” She groped both your breasts, pushing them together, allowing her to suck and nibble at both your nipples at once. “Cum for me.”

Shoko pressed her knee against your clothed center, and that was all you needed to cum. “N-Nggh! C-cumming~ S-Sho! Fuck!” you withered and squirmed, your hips rocking g against her knee, extending the sweet pleasurable waves that rocked you to your core.

She was watching you get off from just the brush of her knee, and her mouth on your tits had Shoko giggling softly. Your face was twisted with pleasure, slowly shifting into a more lax face as you finished riding the waves. Once your heavy breathing turned into soft, content sighs, she pulled back with a grin. She’d like to see the boys try and get you off solely from your tits. Because she knew neither had the patience or skills for that.

“Good job, Shoko.” Your eyes fluttered open as the bed shifted. “Got her nice and relaxed for us.” Shoko sat back, watching as Suguru and Satoru crawled up the bed. “How are you feeling, sweetheart, better?” Satoru hummed as he unzipped your skirt, tugging it down.

“Mhmm, a lot better.” You lifted your ass off the bed. Allowing Suguru to tug your thigh-high stockings down. “Sho always takes good care of us.”

“Mmm,” larger hands forced your legs apart, “I can see that.” Suguru hummed, trailing a finger up and down over the wet spot on your panties. “She made you cum, and you did such a good job.” His fingers hooked under the lace hem and tugged them down, throwing them somewhere across the room.

Suguru’s fingers pulled your wet folds apart, admiring the slick coating of your lips and how your arousal seeped out of your tight entrance. His thumb pulled the hood over your clit back just enough, allowing him to rub sweet, gentle circles around the bundle of nerves. While he teased your clit Satoru nestled himself between your legs, kissing and nipping at your inner thighs up to your dripping sex.

“Mmm, I was wanting dessert.” His hot breath teased your twitching cunt. “Thanks for the meal, sweetheart.” His tongue dipped out, tracing teasing circles of your entrance. His wet tongue and Suguru’s thumb had you gasping, arching off the sheets. Your hips jolted forward, silently begging for more. “So fuckin’ needy~” Satoru growled into your pussy. “Normally, I’d make you beg, but you’ve been working so hard you deserve a reward.” His tongue dipped past your tight entrance, gently swirling it as he licked at your inner walls.

With Satoru’s tongue spearing you, working the muscle inside your pussy, Suguru takes the chance to lean down, kissing and sucking at your swollen nipples. “Fuck, you sound so pretty; make more sounds.” His teeth gently graze over the bud. The sudden sensation made your body jerk forward, here widening as his skilled mouth wrapped around your nipple, sucking on it hard.

“Suguru,” Shoko sits on your other side, “try swirling it gently~ like this.” A raspy sigh shakes through your entire body as Shoko demonstrates her technique on your other nipple. “This gets her going.”

“Oooh~ I see now.” The dark-haired man watched Shoko closely, nodding as he observed her momentum. “So I need to do—“ his eyes meet yours as he flattens his tongue, “—this?” His tongue matches Shoko’s face as pressure, sending tingles coursing straight to your pussy, where you clench around Satoru’s skillful tongue.

Blue eyes widen as feeling the gentle spasms of your cunt on his tongue. Your wetness seeped out, coating his tongue, mouth, and chin. “Mmmphmm~ yeah.” His voice is hoarse with unfiltered, pure need. “She fucking likes it~ her cunts hugging my tongue, keep it going.”

Hearing the filthy words, Satoru spoke motivated his best friend. Suguru kept his ministrations up, his eyes darting between Shoko and back to you, doing his best to keep up with her pace, mirroring her movements to the exact inch. In turn, Shoko’s hand dipped down, pressing gently on your lower abdomen.

“S-Shiiit!” You hissed, lifting your head an inch, watching as your three beautiful partners worshiped you. “Ooooh haaah!” You arched, squirmed, and twitched on Satoru’s tongue. Your partner's fingers, tongues, and lips moved faster as you screamed, one hand gripping the sheet as your other hand thrust into Satoru’s hair, tugging and pulling at the strands as you rocked against his face.

“Good girl~” Suguru growled against your nipple. “Goood fuckin’ girl~ cum all over Satoru’s face.”

Shoko nodded her head in agreement, her hand pressing harder against you. In doing so, she put pressure on the coil that was twisting and twisting inside you. Satoru groaned loudly inside of your pussy, feeling your walls twitch slightly around him; the tiny movements had his tongue lapping faster and harder, rubbing against your g-spot with every flick.

The combination of all three of their efforts made you scream and squirt. Coating Satoru’s tongue and face. Watching the stream of clear liquid coat, Satoru’s face had Suguru rubbing your clit faster. Extending your orgasm, making you squirt again again.

“Oooh, that’s it! Good fucking girl!” Suguru praised while Satoru glowered at you. Not in anger or disgust, but in feral fucking need. His mouth and tongue didn’t stop moving as he drank all of you in, working you over the dips and rises of the orgasm that nearly took your life. He only pulled away when you grimaced, shaking at the overstimulation of his mouth, and that only happened because you yanked him out of your pussy.

“Mmm~ such a good girl~” your slack mouth was suddenly being kissed by Shoko before Satoru crawled up, slotting his mouth against yours, allowing you to taste the sticky, tangy essence of your cum. “She was the best, wasn’t she, Satoru.”

The white-haired man pulled back, collecting the remaining traces of your cum with his pointer finger. “She’s the fucking best. No questions asked.” You lazily watched as he offered his finger to Suguru.

“Oooh, thank you.” Dark eyes trailed over you before he smirked, gently wrapping his hand around Satoru’s wrist and leading his finger into his open mouth. You choked on a breath as you watched Suguru bob his head up and down Satoru’s finger, ensuring all of your juices were clean. “Mhmm, so sweet. Shoko, have a taste.” Your girlfriend grinned slowly, leaning over your spent body, kissing Suguru with full tongue to get a taste of you. Their tongues swirled and massaged the other for what seemed like an eternity before they broke the kiss with a string of saliva and your cum connecting their tongues. “Isn’t she delicious?”

“She’s sweeter than the peach sake from dinner.”

With a gargled moan, your head fell back against the pillows as your lovers all leaned over to examine your face. Your pale skin from earlier was flushed a darker shade, your eyes were hazy and distant, and if this were an anime, they were sure you’d be spurting a nosebleed right about now. The trio exchanged knowing glances and gentle smiles. You did so much for them. The least they could do was give you a proper welcome home.

[honeybeefae]

The Way I Hate You (Lucien Vanserra x Reader)

KINKTOBER DAY EIGHT: HATE FUCK

Summary// He couldn’t stand you. Not in the Spring Court, not in the Night Court, and not in the Mortal Lands either. You and he had helped Feyre escape, and for some reason, Rhysand had sent you both as emissaries to stay with Jurian and Vassa. He obviously wanted to torture him more because even looking at you made him want to jump off a cliff. His hatred for you came to an all-time high when you were alone in the manor, your nails tapping against the spine of a book while he was trying to write. Something in him snapped, and he just needed to show you how much he hated you.

(It’s been a while since I’ve written, and I truly missed it, and you guys as well! I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Between the two of us, Eris might have a run for his money with my new-found liking for Lucien ;))

WARNINGS: 18+, smut, hate fuck, rough sex, slapping, fire bondage, degradation, they really hate each other, or do they?

The fire in the grand hearth was roaring as you lounged lazily in the library, legs dangling off the edge of the chair while reading the latest romance novel recommended to you by Vassa. You had lost track of time but from looking at the high moon in the sky, you knew it was quite late. Fortunately, with Jurian and Vassa away on some business, you didn’t have to worry about disturbing them.

However, the one-eyed redhead sitting across from you at the oak desk, flicking through papers at breakneck speed, was another story. Lucien had been a thorn in your side since you had met him. The two of you were constantly at each other’s throats, throwing snide comments and glares at each other whenever possible, so it mattered little to you if you were being too distracting.

You dared to spare a glance at him, the flames from the fire causing light to dance across his golden skin and capture your attention for a moment too long. He looked up and grimaced, his stare full of contempt.

“I know I’m the most handsome man you’ve had the privilege of seeing, but if you could stop ogling me and let me work, I would appreciate it.” Lucien snarked, ignoring how his body reacted to the immediate flush of your cheeks. 

“You most definitely are the most egotistical man I’ve ever met, but fortunately for every other woman on this earth and me, we could find someone much easier on the eyes just by walking down the street.” You clipped back quickly with a sarcastic smile, turning back to focus on your book. His gaze was burning into the side of your head, but you refused to rise to his challenge anymore.

Lucien huffed out an angry breath and went back to his paperwork. The tension in the room was thickening with every tick of the clock behind him, it was as if he could feel it in his bones. You were the very bane of his existence, he hated how much you got under his skin, but what truly drove him wild was how with every passing day, his desire for you grew and grew.

He tried to blame it on the loneliness, the stress from the events going on in the world, anything other than the fact that he could actually be attracted to you, but it was getting harder to deny.

It was making him slowly lose his sanity. Lucien had had plenty of other lovers before, but for whatever reason, you were the one who was causing him the most grief. He wouldn’t compare it to what he had with Jesminda, nothing would ever come around like that for him again nor did he want it to. But there was something there that created an itch that he couldn’t get rid of.

And on the other side of the coin, you were no better. At the beginning of your “relationship,” it was easy to nitpick everything he did. The way his voice sounded, his mean comments whenever you spoke or even looked in his direction, and even the way he walked. It was almost too easy how much you hated him, you could have written entire novels about it. 

But that loathing turned into something deeper and scarier over time. Where you used to sneer at him at dinner you now found yourself admiring how he licked his lips after tasting a new wine, or how large his hands were compared to the silverware. It had your mind and heart scrambling for dominance as you suddenly tried to get close enough to smell his scent or make a sarcastic remark just so he would look at you. 

Whatever had shifted between the two of you was growing every day and you were powerless to stop it. Even Jurian and Vassa had noticed it, both of them making bets on who would strike first though you had no idea. 

However, as the clock continued to tick and you began to innocently tap your nails on the spine of your book, the tension grew to a crescendo. Lucien’s fingers gripped the pen tighter and tighter, his jaw clenching in a mixture of rage and lust before he finally slammed the pen down and sent his papers scattering across the floor below.

“Can you please either stop that incessant tapping or simply leave me the hell alone?” He exploded, rising from his chair with his hands planted firmly on the edges of the desk. You jumped in surprise, confusion flashing across your face before swiftly being replaced with anger. 

“What the fuck is your problem? I’m not doing anything to you, Lucien. Why don’t you leave me the hell alone?” You retorted, tossing your book beside you in preparation for a fight. “I don’t know what’s up your ass but maybe you should go and-”

Before you could finish what was sure to be a very explicit suggestion, he was in front of you in two strides. That russet-colored eye was smoldering as he gripped a fistful of your hair and yanked, hard. You cried out in surprise and tried to shove him off but he was quick to all but ram you into the nearest bookshelf, pinning you between that and his body. 

“You, you are my problem Y/N,” Lucien said through clenched teeth, his lips mere inches from yours. “The way you walk, the way you talk, how every single time I look at you I can’t decide if I want to choke you or fuck you. It’s you.”

Your mind was trying to wrap around everything he just confessed to while your body screamed for more, your gaze flickering between his mouth and his eyes. Was this really happening? Had you fallen asleep while reading or did this man, the man who you equal parts hated and wanted, just admit to feeling just as you did?

His chest was rising and falling in quick succession, waiting for you to flee. However you knew this was a one-time opportunity, that you both just needed to get this out of your systems, and the last thing you were planning on doing was refusing him.

“Why not both?” You breathed out, looking him dead on with a raised brow. “Or does your lackluster performance of emissary duties carry over to the bedroom as well?”

Lucien may have had you pinned but you were the one with the upper hand, his arousal evident as it pressed into your hip. You weren’t going down without a fight and he was going to give you a full-out war.

“Who said anything about a bedroom?” He smirked before flipping you around so that your front was now pressing painfully against the aged books. “Whores like you would be lucky to get a floor.”

Two hands came up the back of your lounging dress and, with less strength than it took to lift a chair, ripped it clear down the middle until it fell to the floor and pooled around your bare feet. You had a flimsy bra and panty set underneath but Lucien got rid of those just as easily, leaving you bare before him.

“So take what you’re given like the good whore I know you are.” He growled into your ear as he grabbed a fistful of your ass, squeezing roughly as he slid down to gather your slickness on the tips of his fingers.  

Your eyes squeezed shut at the sensation, knowing you were absolutely soaked, while his taunting laugh sent a shiver down your spine. He didn’t have the gentle touch of a lover. He knew what he wanted, what you needed, and he took your body like his name was carved into it.

“Ah, fuck!” You hissed when two fingers slammed into you, the hand that had held your hair now coming to roughly turn your face to the side so he could see how he made you feel. 

Lucien curled them and dragged them back out slowly, his eyes closing briefly to memorize every crevice of your walls before he set a fast pace that had you crying out. 

“I’ve barely even started and you are about to cum around my fingers. You really are a desperate thing, aren’t you?” He teased, bending down so that his lips were at the shell of your ear. You glared at him from the side, your breasts aching as he bit down on your lobe. “And here I thought you would put up more of a fight.”

Using his cockiness to your advantage, you had successfully snuck your foot behind his foot and just as he withdrew his fingers for another thrust, you took him off balance and switched your positions. 

“And here I thought foxes were supposed to be smart.” You cooed while cupping him through his pants, licking your lips at the sheer girth and length you could feel. He moaned as you squeezed him tightly, your fingers making quick work of his ties that held him up. 

“At least you’ve got something to work with, little Lucien.” You smiled while watching his pants fall, his cock standing proudly against his stomach. It was the same color as his skin, with a rosy tip that had already begun to dribble seed, and one of the bigger ones you had seen. He also had a slight happy trail leading down to it, the hair as red as the ones on his head. 

His head fell back against the books as you stroked him slowly, licking the hollow of his throat as he tried and failed to come up with a response. Seeing him melt under your hands was like injecting drugs into your veins and you were quickly forgetting you were supposed to hate the man.

You bit down on his neck at the same time as you tighten your grip around the head of his dick, smearing the cum that had collected there across it, and almost buckled from his needy whisper. 

“Y/N…” He swallowed thickly, grabbing your chin and forcing you to meet his eye. Both of your cheeks were flushed, the room smelt like sex and embers, and you knew this game wasn’t going to last much longer. “If you want to back out, do it now.”

“I-” You started but he shook his head, pushing off the shelf as you took a few steps back. Lucien threw his shirt off and onto the couch, never breaking eye contact as he started to stalk toward you.

A primal thrill made your stomach flip as you continued to back up, the heat from the hearth wrapping around your legs like a snake. It felt like your entire lower half was on fire and when you spared a glance down you realized it wasn’t the hearth…it was actual bands of fire.

Your head shot back up only to find him right in front of you, your back bumping against the desk. “I’m only going to say this once so I need you to listen.” He ordered, his hands gripping your waist so tight that you knew you would bruise. “We do this once and get this out of our system. I’m not going to be gentle, I’m not going to make love to you. I am going to fuck you as you deserve.”

You could feel yourself grow even wetter from his words, your nipples brushing against his chest as you took in a deep breath. 

“This is the only warning I will give you. Take it or leave it.” Lucien growled, the pads of his fingers drumming impatiently against your skin. 

The tendrils of fire tightened around your thighs as you bit down on your bottom lip, desperately wanting to know what they would feel like wrapped around your neck. 

You needed to know, hating him be damned.

“I want you to fuck me like you hate me.” You whispered, voice hoarse. Lucien’s nostrils flared at your words, his lips tightening into a thin line. “Don’t disappoint me like the other women you’ve bedded.”

Without any warning he forcefully turned you over and bent you across the desk, the oak groaning from the weight of the two of you as he wrapped a fistful of your hair into his hand. He jerked it sharply, your neck craning backward, and lined himself up with your hole.

“I hate you.” He snarled before thrusting into you in one motion, the two of you letting out moans loud enough to shake the entire house. His cock had your cunt stretching to impossible limits, the burn only adding to your pleasure as he set into a savage pace.

Your hands scrambled for something to hold onto, the ink jar spilling across the floor as you grabbed the other edge of the desk. It was biting into your abdomen from the ninety-degree angle but you didn’t complain, your breaths coming out in pants as he grabbed another fistful of your ass before slapping it as hard as he could. 

“Such a fucking, ah-” Lucien groaned, throwing his head back in utter bliss as you sucked him back in greedily. “Whore. Look at how this greedy pussy swallows me, like it was made for it.” 

“I can’t, fuck, please!” You gasped as he hit the spongy spot inside of you, your vision turning white for a brief moment. “Mother above…”

A dark chuckle came from behind you as he zeroed in on that spot, his balls aching from the need to spill his seed inside of you. He could tell you were getting close from how your walls fluttered around him, but he’d be damned if he came first.

“Is the poor little emissary already close?” He taunted, letting go of your hair in favor of shoving your face into the desk sideways. You struggled against his grip, hating how you were losing the upper hand but also loving how he was making your body feel. “Are you gonna cum all over my cock, Y/N? For a man you despise?”

“Fuck you.” You grunted despite your legs spreading wider for him, letting him go deeper. He noticed, of course, and the smirk on his face grew. “I hate you.”

“That’s not what your cunt is saying, pet,” Lucien said as he looked back down at your union, snaking one of his hands underneath your body so he could play with your clit. “It’s practically begging for me.”

You didn’t respond, couldn’t really, because as soon as you opened your mouth he pinched your clit as hard as he could. The mixture of pain and pleasure made a guttural scream rip from your chest, oddly sounding like his name, as an orgasm wrenched throughout your body.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” You chanted as you rose to your tiptoes, your juices coating his cock as well as the floor as wave after wave of rapture flowed from your head to your toe.

Lucien grabbed your waist harshly and made sure to fuck you as hard as he could, the desk scraping across the floor as he followed close behind you. The fire wrapped around your legs grew so hot that you winced, feeling it burn into your skin, but you could care less.

“Take it, little whore.” He roared while spilling inside you, his hair sticking to the sides of his face from the sweat that coated his body. “Oh, Y/N, fuck…”

Even his cum felt like liquid fire, warming you up from the inside out as you came down from the best orgasm you had ever had. Lucien’s heavy breathing slowly came down as you started to wiggle away from the overstimulation, his hand shaking as he slowly pulled out of you.

And although he would never tell you this, he burned the image of your cunt dripping his cum into the back of his mind. It took every ounce of his control not to collect it on his fingers and shove it in your throat. 

You gingerly raised up on your arms, your entire body sore, before turning around to face him directly. Both of you look like you just had the fuck of your lives. Hair disheveled, cheeks flushed, and your bodies almost glowing from sweat. 

The room was now silent save for the clock that was still ticking. He shamelessly looked you up and down, admiring his handy work, while you did the same. After a few moments, you cleared your throat to get him to look back up at you.

“I suppose that wasn’t the worst time I’ve had in my life.” You mused, looking down at your legs that now had red, raised swirls around them. “Though your form needs some work.”

“I would thank you but like always, I did most of the work.” Lucien grinned, crossing his arms over his chest and standing tall. “It was good enough for a one-time fuck.”

A small laugh bubbled from your chest as you shook your head and walked past him to gather your tattered clothes, hips swaying in temptation. His eye followed like you were his favorite dinner, watching as you began to make your way towards the door. 

When you reached the door handle you stopped and turned to look at him over your shoulder, throwing him a very sultry stare as you said, “Imagine what we could improve with two, fox boy.” 

He inhaled sharply, his dick jumping to attention as he imagined all the different ways he would claim you, as you gave him a wink and left him to his own devices. Lucien ran a hand over his face at the situation as a whole, glancing at the scattered papers, spilled ink, and general mess left behind by you.

He hated you, hated everything about you, and if tonight was any indication…he needed to hate fuck you every day to make sure you knew it. 

And you felt the same way. 

[crescencestudio]

2023: A Year of Connection

Hi everyone!

As I told you last month, this month's "devlog" will be more like an end-of-year recap. For those of you who have known me a while, you'll know that I get ~in my feels~ and Very Nostalgic at the end of the year. And this year is no exception to that.

Looking back on this year, I realize I did much more than I thought I did. The year was filled with so many waves of uncertainty, burnout, and ruts, that I felt like I wasn't accomplishing anything in the moment. Now that the year has actually wrapped up, I can see that was Once Again my imposter syndrome whispering words of sweet nothings into my ears.

In fact, this year, I find that I did Way More than what I did last year. Crazy, considering how busy I remember 2022 being. Let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

Writing

If there is one thing this bitch did, it's fucking write LFMASODIJ. For all my complaining this year of routes taking too long, getting creative ruts, etc., I still wrote (what I consider) a Very Good amount. While I may not have hit my writing goals that I had set out, I still ended up writing around 255k words in total this year. Most of this being for Alaris, and some of it being for my dissertation (LOL) and other side games, like Intertwine and Jam Games.

This number also doesn't include deleted passages, edited passages, etc., so the amount I've spent writing, reviewing, etc. was Significant this year. Here's to hoping that momentum continues into next year and finishing the rest of Alaris!

Side Games

Something completely unexpected, but that I'll forever be grateful for, was my decision(s) to join game jams this year. It all started with Otojam, a visual novel jam I'd wanted to join for a WHILE.

Intertwine was, without a doubt, one of my most memorable moments from this year. The friends I made/grew closer to during that jam. The people I connected with because of Intertwine. The people I got to work with. Everything about the experience surpassed my expectations, and Van and Summer 2023 will always hold a very special place in my heart because of it. Thank you to everyone who enjoyed that game. It was my first full game I ever released, and I couldn't have been more nervous about it (no literally. I wasn't sleeping and I was nauseous for a week before release).

Knowing there was no "revision" afterwards that I could hide behind or promise that there would be a "better"/"enhanced" version made the release terrifying. But the reception you all gave to it and support from so many friends made me feel so connected and grateful for the community.

The other three side projects were... well, Unexpected. LOL. Before these jams, I'd never wanted to work in team settings, mostly because I have Mad Imposter Syndrome, and I've always imagined I'd be dead weight in any given game dev team. My skills on writing, art, and/or coding alone aren't "exemplary" enough for me to think I, well, deserve to be on a team. But when a couple of short jams were being held by a friend, and teams were being made filled with other friends, I thought maybe I could help, even if it's just to QA/playtest. But I've walked away from each of these experiences learning so much from other talented people and with very dear friends.

Each of these side games truly tested my chops in terms of writing, narrative design, and coding. But I'm glad I challenged myself to take part in each of these experiences because I've walked away with so much more than I would've expected.

Alaris

My Heart. My Soul. And at times, My Worst Enemy.

As much as I may have talked about how I Wasn't making progress on this baby. I, in fact, made A LOT of progress:

Art: 15 CGs, Updated Sprites, Kickstarter Artwork

Commissions: 20 BGs, Complete GUI, Personality/Affection Indicators, Editing, Voice Acted Lines, Complete OST (8 Tracks!)

Writing: Three Finished Routes

Shipped Kickstarter Merchandise

I'm going to be Real with you all. I'm not in the mood to recap everything for Alaris in the way I did with everything else LAFKMSDFOIJWOEI. Main reason being, I do that Every Month, and at this point, I would feel like I'm repeating myself for no reason. But let me tell you, when the Enhanced Demo comes out, you will see what I'm talking about with progress made. And I'm excited for the next year when I start getting to show things off (read: Demo Release and Route Beta Releases) now that assets have really come together ^^

I will say, thank you for sticking with this project for so long. It's easy to get bogged down in development when a project like this is as big as it is. It's just as easy to think that no one will care about this by the time I release, or people will start losing their patience with me as development goes on. So I'm forever grateful for how kind, supportive, and patient you all are, especially this year <3

Connections: The True Theme of 2023

If you've made it this far, I'm extremely impressed with you. And to reward you, I'll give you a moment of honesty and vulnerability which, to be frank, I Don't Do as a person and especially with my dev persona LMFAOO ((Before I do, let it be known, CW: mention of death, grief, alcoholism, chronic illness, suicidal thoughts))

Something I don't talk about much is that for all of 2022 and most of 2023, I was not in a good place mentally. At the beginning of 2022, I lost three very important people in my life back-to-back (I'm not exaggerating when I say back-to-back it was within 2 weeks, three separate deaths lol). That, on its own, was hard to deal with. But on top of that, I soon found myself having to cope/help with a family member's chronic illness and another family member's mental health (read: alcoholism, suicidality).

While this isn't a particularly unique situation, it was one that I found myself struggling with pretty severely on top of a pretty demanding work life. And it was a situation I found myself in until about midway through this year. Things have lightened up. I navigate a new life with some pretty severe triggers, and without the presence of some of my most loved ones. But overall, I at least feel like I can breathe and function, which is a state I didn't feel like I could exist in for over a year (and started to believe I may never exist in again).

Because of this new room in my life, I was able to connect with people again, in a more genuine way. I've grown closer to a lot of dev friends, to the point I consider some of them genuine close friends. And IRL, I've been able to reconnect with some of my dearest loved ones. The main reason I bring all of this up is because this year, I felt unbelievably connected to people, whether that was dev friends in the community, people who support my games, and IRL people.

And sometimes, when you interact with people solely online, it's easy to think they don't care as much about you as you do for them. But this has been disproven to me time and time again this year. And I've found myself in a state of appreciation for so many of the people I've been blessed to meet and befriend <3 I felt this especially so during some of the game jams, with the Secret Santa gift exchange, and with my recent Holiday Tree.

So thank you for everyone who has let me take up some space in their life. You literally Do Not Know how much it means to me and impacts me. This year, while I started it in a state of slightly hopelessness and numbness, I find myself ending it with gratitude and connection.

I hope the rest of this year (the very few couple of days we have left LOL) treats everyone well. I'm excited for how we get to start 2024 and what we'll get to experience together <3 Thank you again for the memories and support, love you all very dearly ^^

[lllivia]

But I wanted to go with you.

Wednesday Addams x fem!reader

Could be read as gn!reader too

Warnings: making out (?)

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°★.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°★.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆

I was making my way to Wednesday's dorm with a black dahlia flower in my hand, going over to apologize for ever ending our relationship and maybe if I got lucky she would agree to go to The Rave'N with me. We'd been very happy dating for about two months when she started to get very distant not even bothering to answer when I talked half of the time, her excuse was always that she was busy writing in her novel. So I couldn't take any more and broke it off with her, her reaction was honestly very unexpected, when I first pulled her over to tell her after fencing one evening her only response was "ok." Before she wandered off not looking too affected by it. But the next morning when you were leaving your room for class you almost stepped in a heart shaped box - that was obviously suggested by Enid filled with different kinds of chocolates with a note on top saying "I'm sorry my love. - W. A. ".

I was walking a little bit fast, being that is was almost curfew already. I was almost there when I overheard Xavier talking happily to Ajax about how Wednesday had asked him to the dance a few hours earlier by his art shed.

I stopped in my tracks, had I heard wrong? Did Wednesday really ask Xavier out of all people to the dance? I never even knew she liked him like that, I thought they were merely acquaintances who had a few classes together, and I could have sworn Wednesday was still interested in me.

I merely looked down at the beautiful flower I was planning on giving her before dropping it on the ground and stepping on it, then turning back and walking to my dorm again, feeling sad and a tiny bit betrayed. I just walked straight to my bed not even bothering to take off my shoes then falling asleep after crying of self pity a bit.

However what you didn't know that Wednesday really just had to ask Xavier to the dance to not be seen as suspicious to why she was in his art shed in the first place. So when you didn't show up after Thing said he saw you on the way there she almost went to look for you, but chose not to because she thought it would make her seem desperate.

The next few days I had been avoiding Wednesday like she was the plague, not wanting her to see how much the news about the ball affected me, always avoiding her glaring eyes from across the classroom and being the first to leave when the bell rang.

The only thing I needed now was to find another date to bring to the dance, well it wouldn't really be that difficult considering there was this girl I always caught blushing and making googly eyes at me.

After having to find out what her name was from Enid I tapped the gorgon girl named Aubrey on the shoulder while she was having lunch with her friends, she turned over to look for who it was and immediately a big smile appeared on her face, it looked like she had been waiting for me to talk to her for ages. "Would you consider going to The Rave'N with me Aubrey?" I said with a fake smile on my face "yes! Yes of course" she answered getting up from her seat and giving me a sloppy kiss on the cheek inwardly making me cringe. "okay well see you then!" I called over my shoulder walking away.

Shit I did not think that through.

Looking from the other side of the quad Wednesday was furiously glaring over at you talking to that girl Amanda or whatever her name was, she continued to glare even after you left, stabbing her food repeatedly with her fork really wishing it was your date, even tho she knew she really didn't have the right to be mad because you broke up and she was the one who asked Xavier first.

It was the night of the ball and I was actually a teeny bit excited, it was going to be fun to just dance and hang out with friends without having to worry about school work. I finished putting on my dress before walking over to look at myself in the mirror, smiling at the reflection. I had already texted Aubrey that I would meet her at her dorm so I walked over and knocked on the door, and it swung open the second I did, Aubrey standimg there with a smile in a gorgeous blue dress, but she was still nowhere near as pretty as for a certain short murderess girl. "Sha'll we? " I said putting my hand out for Aubrey to hold "yesss" she squealed grabbing onto my hand. We walked down to the hall, Aubrey talking for the most time while I only responded a few times before reaching our destination. It looked beautiful, most of the people wearing white to match the theme.

Wednesday had just entered the hall in a stunning black dress with Tyler after Thing had unexpectedly invited him after her and Xaviers fight. Her gaze flickering around trying to find you, finally spotting you dancing with your date. Her blood boiled, her want to rip Aubrey's head off was stronger now than ever.

Once I saw Wednesday joining Tyler to dance all I wished for was to go back to my dorm and cry, but that would make me seem weak, so instead I decided to continue dancing with Aubrey, flirting with her quite loudly hoping to get some kind of reaction from Wednesday.

After a while I actually started to enjoy Aubrey's company not thinking she wasn't that bad after all, I twirled her around just as I felt a few drops of liquid run down my forehead, I looked up curiously only to be met with a shower of supposedly blood. Everyone started to panic, bumping into and pushing each other to get out of there, people slipping on the floor and people screaming their heads off. I looked around rolling my eyes as I saw that Aubrey had run off with everyone else.

Wednesday saw this as a perfect opportunity and rushed forward pulling your hand and dragging you all the way to her dorm ignoring all the questions and protests you were throwing her way. She opened the door to her room just to slam you onto the other side of it again feverishly pulling your neck down to kiss you with such desperation you had never experienced before, her teeth biting onto your bottom lip making you moan accidentally. Your hands pulling her hips closer to as she continued traveling her lips down your neck ignoring the paint you were covered in. "You look so devine covered in this red paint cara mia, if only you knew how much I longed for you and missed you this last week, I apologize for getting so caught up in writing and forgetting about your beautiful soul... and if I ever see you with that other useless girl again I won't hesitate to cut her heart out" You only smiled at her rant before taking her hand, pulling her over to her bed where you both undressed and layed down getting comfortable, falling asleep in each other's arms happy that you were finally together again.

💗 Masterlist 💗

Not sure if I like this, might rewrite

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hiya! Not sure if you’ve answered something like this before, but if you feel comfortable answering, I’m wondering what tips you might have for writers with ADHD/ADD.

I haven’t been able to write well for years and thought it was laziness/lack of self-discipline, but it very well could be that my brain just wants to work a certain way and I didn’t know about it.

Of course, there’s no “one-fits-all” answer, but some ideas about where to start the journey of understanding what works for oneself would be nice.

Thanks!

Writing with ADHD

There are three sub-types of ADHD (inattentive/formerly ADD, hyperactive, and combined), so tips depend somewhat on which type you have. As luck would have it, I'm combined type, so I have tips for both. (And these tips can be helpful even for writers who don't have ADHD but still struggle with keeping their butts in the seat...)

Writing with Inattentive ADHD

My biggest struggle with writing is difficulty staying focused and getting sidetracked easily. Here are the things I do to work around that:

Dedicated Writing Time/Place - I'm fortunate to have a writing room with a desk, but even if you don't, just having a dedicated space for when you write can be really helpful. It also helps to make sure your chosen writing spot is tidy and free from built-in distractions, like people traffic or a distracting view. And, if you can aim for the same general writing time each day, that can help train your mind to go into writing mode when you sit down to write.

Minimize Distractions - this is a "must do" for me when I sit down to write. Phone goes on silent, no TV, no music with lyrics, no social media, and if it's a busy day outside I close the shades and put on headphones. Also, nicely ask anyone else in the house not to distract you during your writing session.

Regulating with a Timer - When I'm really struggling, I've found that timers are very helpful in keeping me on track. If I need to stop to research something along the way, I set the timer for 10-minutes. If I can't find out what I need to know in that time, I note it for later research and keep going with a placeholder. I'll also set the timer for breaks, writing sprints, or anything that might pull me off course.

Scene Lists & Timelines - Having a scene list to follow was a real game changer for me early on in novel writing endeavors. When I start to feel my mind wander, just putting my eyes on the scene list to see where I'm supposed to be and where I'm supposed to be heading can be enough to get me back on track. Checking off each scene and plot point along the way makes it more task-driven which also seems to help keep me on track. You could do this with a timeline, too. And even if you're not a planner but like to write organically, you can still keep kind of a general scene list or timeline to keep you on course.

Writing with Hyperactive ADHD

My biggest struggle with the hyperactive side of my ADHD is fighting the constant need to get up and be anywhere but in my chair typing. I've actually been working on this post for an hour because I haven't done any of my safeguards, so I've been out of this chair probably 20 times since I hit the answer button. Here's what I could have done to prevent this...

Start Writing on a Full Stomach - Nothing gets me out of my chair more often when I'm writing than feeling like I'm hungry. So, I get up, eat a small snack. Sit down and type for a few minutes. Then decide I need another small snack. Whether you write after you've eaten a meal, sit down to write with something to drink and munch on, or just make sure you've got your big water bottle there, eliminating hunger pains as a reason to get up makes all the difference.

Do Writing Sprints - Set a timer for anywhere from five minutes to an hour, and write as much as you can during that time without stopping to edit or evaluate your work. Writing sprints are a great way to focus your energy to make sure writing is getting done. Five-minute intervals work great for me, but sometimes I can do ten-minute intervals. When the timer goes off, I set it again and get up to do a few things like stretch or get something to drink. Preferably anything that won't take longer than the timer or snowball into something else. This way, if I'm only writing for an hour I still get a solid 30-minutes of writing in even if I'm up and out of my chair every five minutes.

Keep a Basket of Fidget Toys - This doesn't always work for me, but sometimes it helps to have something to fidget with during the moments when I pause to think. Thinking putty, fidget spinners, stress balls... Anything you can do for a second while you're thinking and immediately put back down. That way you don't get up out of your seat looking for something to direct that energy toward.

Speech to Text App - If you really need to be up and moving, try getting a speech to text app for your phone and writing your story verbally while you do other things.

I hope that these tips will help you be able to sit down and start writing again. If you need ideas for exactly how to outline your story or general ideas for how to get started, see my guide to How to Outline a Plot as well as my Plot & Story Structure master list of posts.

Best wishes on your ADHD writing journey! ♥

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[shunin-gumis]

Nagi Hachinoya Novel

Essence of a Bouquet

Track 02 - Assignment to reveal your Akashic Records

The assignment from Master Hideko goes like this:

"Write about your experiences up until this point in your life on your exclusive form and submit it before the next meeting."

However, I'm not good at using computers, an error is guaranteed to happen when I do. I could type, but it's slow and awkward, like raindrops hitting the keys one drop at a time. That's why I asked Buchi-san to write it for me instead.

Daniel "Eehh, I don't wanna. Sounds like a pain."

Nagi "I'm begging you… I'll massage your shoulders for every letter you type."

Daniel "Let's do this."

… I'm glad he accepted it so readily.

And that's how Buchi-san ended up right in the middle of my room, lying down on his stomach while he types away on the laptop.

Daniel "So, you need to write about your life? What's this even for anyways."

He side-eyes me with suspicion as he says this.

Nagi "For the sake of increasing my happiness."

Daniel "….Well, alright. Just make sure you don't join a cult or something."

He didn't seem all that convinced, but at least he went back to typing on the laptop. I close my eyes so I can focus on the assignment.

Daniel "Wait, isn't this giving away too much personal information…?"

While Buchi-san kept muttering about something or the other, I think back on my life.

At the age of 16, I started working at a flower shop.

Not the 'Flower Laundry' that I'm currently managing, but a different one. At the same time as I started working there, I got a license for two-wheelers as well, since I had to go on deliveries.

For someone like me, who's never even needed to ride the train before, my world expanded just a little. If I just tilted the handlebars in a different direction, I felt like I could reach the very edge of the world.

The possibility was right there… but I didn't do it in the end. I have a job to do after all.

Still, I couldn't stop my heart from pounding. I wanted one of my own, but it was too expensive for me.

I wasn't sure how he caught wind of it, but it was around then that a senior from my part-time job told me-

Senior "If you're alright with a hand-me-down, I can give you my old bike."

Nagi "Really?….. Thank you very much."

It was a second-hand bike. He called it a hand-me-down, but it was in a really good condition for a secondhand bike. I could tell he treasured it deeply.

I was so happy and grateful that I'd asked him what I could do for him in return, but he said he didn't need anything. Because of this overflowing happiness, a lion from the nearby zoo broke out of it's enclosure and came after me directly, but that's besides the point.

Nagi "Let's go."

I'd already decided on the first place I wanted to visit after I got my own bike.

Nagi "To the laundromat where I was abandoned."

Having written on the form up till that point, Buchi-san folds his arms and nods his head in agreement.

Daniel "I get how you feel, I would've done the same thing too. I'd try to see if I could find my mother, or at least find some clues…"

Nagi "Yes, exactly."

The first time I went, nothing magical had happened. Or rather, I simply hadn't done anything.

All I did was watch the laundromat that was empty at that time of the day, and went back without doing anything.

The second time, I decided to get off my bike and get closer. The smell of fresh laundry that hit my nose made my heart squeeze painfully tight, so I'd quickly left it behind.

Even though I never found my mother, nor did I get any leads, I couldn't help but visit that laundromat over and over again. On one such day-

Old woman "Oh my, you've dropped by again?"

Nagi "Eh? Ah, um…."

The old lady who'd been cleaning inside the laundromat called out to me. And from the sounds of it, it seemed like she already knew about my existence. Well, I guess that's obvious when I'd visited this place so often now. I'd never even gone in to do my laundry, I wouldn't be surprised if she found me suspicious and yet-

Old woman "You must have really taken a liking to this place, hm? I'm happy if that's the case."

Nagi "Ah, yes…"

The old lady, whom I assume was the owner of the shop, didn't try to blame me or find me suspicious. Instead, she smiled cheerfully.

Nagi "Um, I don't have any laundry with me right now…"

Old woman "That's alright. I guess you must love the smell of laundry too, hm?"

Nagi "Huh?"

Old woman "I understand the feeling. Whenever I caught the scent of detergent within town, I couldn't help but stop to bask in it and sigh at how wonderful it smells.

I couldn't give her an honest response at the time, so all I could do was vaguely nod.

Old woman "Feel free to drop by again!"

By taking advantage of that invitation, I started visiting the laundromat regularly. Of course, this time I actually brought clothes to wash with me.

Mrs.Minemori "Hello Hachinoya-kun, it's quite hot out today isn't it? Make sure you hydrate well. Here's 2 litres of barley tea for you, make sure you take it home."

Nagi "Oh, um, thank you…"

Her name was Minemori-san. She was getting on in the years, but she still held a certain sharpness to her.

Mr.Minemori "Hey Hachinoya-kun, play some shogi with me while you wait for your laundry!"

Nagi "Eh? Um, ok…"

Once in a while, her husband would drop by the store as well, though it was very rare. He would speak in an Edoitte manner, that is, he was straightforward and just a bit forceful.

Nagi "If you could keep in mind that I'm less effective than an AI-bot then ok…"

Mr.Minemori "You got it!"

The couple lived on the 2nd floor of the laundromat, and they had a bluebird that they kept in their living room… I've gone up there many times because I couldn't help but want to see the bird.

Mrs.Minemori "Isn't it cute?"

Nagi "Yes."

Mr.Minemori "Is that chickweed you've brought with you?"

Nagi "Yes. I heard they were good for birds, so I foraged them from the nearby riverbank. But if you'd rather toss it out I'd understand."

I got a little ahead of myself, because I couldn't help but think that if I had people like them in my life, it would be a lot more fun.

Little by little, I couldn't help but be more greedy towards them, as though I were like their own grandson.

Not that I'd know what it was really like.

Part 1 / Part 3 / Part 4 /Part 5

[queer-ragnelle]

I read for spoilers for The Bright Sword, it sounded self indulgent -- The Lady of the Lake is the girlfriend of unprepossessing OC, fix-it for King Arthur but also colonialism is bad... am I picking up the right vibes or should I just read it and form my own view? 😂

Hi anon! I'm going to put my longer answer under a cut since the book is still really new and people may want to avoid spoilers. But firstly, all good stories are self indulgent. Writing for the market is dead, writing for yourself is thriving! So that never deters me from any book or movie. Please do some whacky stuff, I love it! Secondly, I encourage you to ignore bad faith spoilers that only offer criticism without any bright sides. (See what I did there?)

The Bright Sword has the kindest portrayal of Sir Palomides ever written and that means something to me!! It should mean something to anybody invested in the Arthurian literary tradition, I think, as it's been a long time coming. It’s no small thing. I really enjoyed the main cast—Bedivere, Palomides, Dinadan, Dagonet, Nimue, Morgan, Constantine, and OCs Collum and Scipio—they’re all wonderful in their own ways! They're queer, dealing with mental illness, disability, all sorts of things I've wanted from Arthurian retellings for years and haven't gotten in a satisfactory way. I bought the book for those characters and Lev Grossman delivered!

TL;DR I recommend the book! There was more done right than wrong. I shared lots of samples on tumblr and in my Arthurian Theater Server as I read along so people could make their own judgement based on the text itself, and they also liked it.

So my longer answer is—I thoroughly enjoyed the first 30/40 chapters. I couldn't put it down! I was reading at work!! After 31 it crashed and burned a little. There were still a handful of flashback chapters to "the good ol' days" between 31-40 that I also liked, but didn't care for the main post-Camlann conflict resolution, unfortunately.

However, I think I understand how Lev Grossman ended up there. In his Author's Note he stated his inspirations—Mary Stewart, Bernard Cornwell, and Nicola Griffith. And in his Reddit AMA the other day, he said it took him 10 years to write The Bright Sword. I believe all of this culminated in a bit of a disconnected story, as the ending seemed to blindside me. Let me explain.

In Bernard Cornwell’s Warlord Chronicles trilogy, Lancelot is a huge piece of shit from the start. Cornwell’s clearly an Arthur enjoyer. I don’t prefer that approach, but I respect it, and I love Cornwell’s writing. His main character, Derfel, was also plainly a huge inspiration for Grossman’s Collum. That’s a good thing! What I didn’t enjoy was The Bright Sword seeming to shift gears suddenly near the end and make Lancelot out to be a villain that didn’t feel sufficiently foreshadowed. Prior to that, he felt much more like Mary Stewart’s poet-eyed Bedwyr (a hybrid with Lancelot) or Nicola Griffith’s sweetly awkward Lancelot, only to turn around and, literally, snap. BOOM! Cornwell’s garbage-tier Lance. [Insert “He would not fucking say that!” meme here.]

Now regarding Nimue: in Stewart's series, Ninian is with Merlin and then later marries the Fisher King. In Cornwell's series, Derfel is a childhood friend of Nimue and eventually her lover. And in Griffith's book, Peretur ends up with Nimue. So Ninian/Nimue has a long tradition as a spouse/lover of other characters and I enjoyed all of those examples. In The Bright Sword, she was a badass the entire novel, fighting in the battles with intense magic, and she even got her own pov chapters. I liked Collum well enough, he's not my favorite Arthurian OC, but I definitely didn't hate him! His back story was a little eye-roll worthy and his infatuation with Nimue was meh at times, but he’s literally 17 leaving home for the first time. That tracks. It’s not a deal breaker for me by any stretch. Cursed (2020) is where the worst Lady of the Lake romance is at. Nimue/Arthur with some weird shoehorned Gawain love triangle thing? Blech. Get it away from me. It can always be worse!

As a known Arthurian OC enjoyer, I’ll go on record in defense of Collum. He’s fine and characters like him are often paired with canonical characters. I much prefer Nimue end up with someone her own age, whether it be Pelleas or an OC, than stay with Merlin. And The Bright Sword goes to great lengths to show that Merlin is a creep and Nimue a victim who was in the right to bind him in the cave. So this didn’t bother me that much at all.

As far as "fix-it" King Arthur and colonialism bad, not sure what you mean by that. Arthur is dead. That's literally the plot. Did you mean writing Arthur as a decent husband to Guinevere in flash backs? Lots of books and films have done that already, Lev Grossman isn't the first to write Guinevere in love with her husband and an Arthur who is on-par or even better than Lancelot. Personally I prefer when it's balanced but this isn't new or noteworthy. Now, obviously colonialism is bad. That’s the point of King Arthur—the Saxons are colonizers he expels. Not sure what point the spoilers you saw were trying to make there. But it’s irrelevant since The Bright Sword doesn't touch on colonialism very much. Palomides travels west from Baghdad after hearing outlandish stories about Camelot but none of his friends have ever encountered westerners before and they have wildly inaccurate ideas. So Palomides wants to go there and write a book about it (which he does). There’s no talk of the west reaching east from his perspective, and the Saxons are moot, as the focus is a land in want of a king after Arthur’s death, not expelling the Saxon invaders. Could the spoilers have meant monarchy? I don't think anyone is reading Arthurian Legend, which is strictly fantasy, to dismantle the monarchy (or the crimes committed by real life monarchies, such as colonialism). Fantasy, and by extension Arthurian Mythology, is not true to life in any stretch. So that feels like an unfair criticism to make of the genre, even when it takes historical inspiration.

But anyway yes I think you should read the book for yourself! I always advise reading a book before passing judgement. Sometimes a trusted friend will read a book and tell you, knowing best what you like, that it’s not for you. That’s all well and good. But I generally don’t trust the internet’s opinions at large. Much better to feel it out on your own time. I’d love to hear from you again once you’ve read it! Let me know! Have a great rest of your weekend. :^)

[ladykf-writes]

So about that radio silence...

It dawned on me that I talked about this on my roleplay blog, but it never made it here. For shame! (JK we don't shame for memory fail in House Kat or nothing else would get done.)

Anyway. As you have likely noticed, I have been... absent. What happened, in short, was a friend gave me a much needed push to pursuing some non-fandom fiction I've been wanting to write pretty much since ever. I had actually laid it all out for this one in 2019 and then... well. Covid happened and I never got back on track.

FFWD to now, I am 71K / 33CHs into the first novel of a series that I might actually publish. At this time, further information is not being given out because I'm in-process. But I'm very pleased and excited.

That said, of course my fandom pursuits have taken a dive and I'm not sure when I'll feel ready to get into them hard core. HOWEVER!! My soulmate fixit fic, Waltzing Through Time, featuring Reeve/Genesis has only got twelve of the forty written chapters posted, so I'm going to start posting that again. That will give you guys something to enjoy, while I straighten myself out.

Because I will always come back to fandom, and hold it side by side with my original works in value. Never worry about that. 💜

[guardian-of-fun-times]

Ahh, Rise of the Guardians... Happy Birthday! I cannot begin to fathom my life without the books and/or the movie...besides a constant feeling of emptiness. I have no doubt in my mind that I would succumb to the fear of adulthood and not having an efficient way of preserving and expressing my childlike (not childish) nature. After seeing RotG in August of 2013, I found the closest character I have ever connected with. Distant but passionate...daring yet humble...intense but at the same time playful...He somehow manages to balance it all. When I first read "The Guardians of Childhood" novel series- I said to myself, "Y'know...if I were to connect with any other character on a spiritual level, it'd probably be Nightlight."

This was a couple years before William Joyce announced that [SPOILER] Nightlight later became Jack Frost...and then, from that moment, I realized that my connection with this character was MUCH deeper than I could ever imagine. Nightlight and Jack have this distant/ever-watchful dynamic in their personality...something I've always found myself doing. I love people-watching- it is very intriguing to me. Now this might have to do with my love of psychology/sociology and understanding how people work, but it is something I've always noticed about myself. In the movie, Jack is not the center of attention all the time...he is usually off to the side, trying to understand what is going on around him before he commits to anything. Of course I could write an entire essay regarding all my personal connections with Jack and how I can see life through his eyes...but perhaps that story shall be shared at a later date. In time I will share my story... The movie and the books have changed my life for the better. Thank you William Joyce, I grew up with you through "Rollie Pollie Ollie" and continued to admire your work without even realizing it was you this whole time.. .I'm inspired to go back and read all those books and watch all the movies. I'm sure I'll have a deeper connection the second time around.

I'm also inspired to read the books that inspired you! I don't recall you ever mentioning "The Little Prince", but I'm sure you've read it...especially by how much Nightlight reminds me of The Little Prince.

Your eye for the imagination and impossible is right up my alley. In an obtuse mindset, there was a time I felt my creativity and imagination fading- but I then realized it was pushed to the secondary tier of importance. Adulthood got in the way...not becoming an adult, but letting the fears of adulthood and the world fill my head with desensitized nonsense.

I have always believed that children know the secrets of the universe. They understand the secret writings of the "In Between"... the two lines of the theoretical and the fantastical! This knowledge, however, seems to fade slowly with time. The more a child is in the world- the more darkness is influenced. This is not a loss for hope! As long as we preserve this knowledge (like history), we will not forget who we are, where we came from, and what our individual purpose is.

Love, Light and Purpose has been my end goal to this channel. To reflect and remind other's of The Great Light- just as the moon does with the sun's light. To remind people that they DO MATTER, that they ARE LOVED, and have enormous amounts of POTENTIAL!

A handful of years ago, I promised myself that after the new Jack Frost novel came out, I would start directing my focus to The Guardians of Childhood tier of this fandom. More people must be made aware, for the whole story has yet to be shared! This is exactly why I'm building my Viking AU cosplay- to practice my skills with Worlba before I tackle cosplaying as Nightlight.

Getting back on track, I thank you, not only to William Joyce, but to all of you who, despite the common ridicule and doubt by others, continued to believe. That, my friends, is the most humbling truth...and is the driving force in my entire being. I will never cease to share these stories...I will be sure to tell the importance until MY memories are like twilight.

[andromedaexists]

WUPDATE: Desecrate

𝚆𝚎𝚍𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚍𝚊𝚢, 𝙾𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚋𝚎𝚛 ��𝚝𝚑 || 𝙰𝙰𝙰𝙰𝙰𝙰𝙰𝙰𝙰𝙰𝙰𝙰𝙰𝙰𝙰𝙰

HI! IT'S BEEN A WHILE!! a lot has happened! just a general life update first: I started my post-baccalaureate and then immediately dropped out of it because what the fuck. i've applied for a masters program at tiffin university that's designed with working people in mind so hopefully that goes better. i've gotten a really big promotion at work and i think i'm staring down the barrel of another promotion soon. my health has gone to hell and back and to hell again. i published another book!! and so much more but i think that's all imma go into here for now!

Because now it's time to talk about Desecrate! The big news: I completely scrapped what I had and started from scratch a few months ago. I mean like fully got rid of everything, bought a dry erase calender, and started re-plotting from there.

There were a lot of reasons for this, but the biggest one was that the pacing wasn't right. I started writing Desecrate as a novella, and the pacing was still going as if it was a novella despite being drawn out into a novel.

So where are we now? Now, we're roughly 13k into draft 2 of the story! I'm really pushing to have this draft finished by the end of November so that I can send it to editing and start getting ARCs together.

There's been a lot of changes to fundamental parts of the story with this overhaul, and I'm very excited to start updating my intro and character pages to reflect them! Some of these changes include:

Benny's looks changing

Benny's place in the story (from a one-sided attraction to a Queer Platonic Partner)

the introduction of polyamory to the story

giving Kit more issues

toning down the sexual content while simultaneously ramping up the themes of sexual freedom

THE CHURCH FINALLY HAS A NAME

the formatting!! god i'm so excited to talk more about the way that i'm formatting this book it's so cool!!!

and more!

And with all that talked about, it's time to get to the fun part...

snippies time!

“Oh my God!” Benny gasps beside him. “Kitty, you never told me that you were a cheerleader!” She points to a photo in the center left of the wall, one from eighth grade. The year before they moved. The year before Kit’s life changed. A pang of sadness resounds through Kit as he looks as the picture. He was happy, truly happy then. He misses those much simpler times when he didn’t know who he was but that didn’t matter, that didn’t stop him from doing what he loved to do with the people he loved to do it with. “Yeah, for a few years until we moved to the city. I miss it a bit,” he responds. Kit isn’t sure he’d ever willingly step back into the grueling days of practice again, especially not if he was forced to wear one of those suffocatingly tight skits, but idealistically he missed the routine and the excuse to find himself attractive.

and another

“Penny for your thoughts, Mr. Michaels?” “Just thinking about the excellent lecture, professor, and trying to plan out some extra reading for this weekend to dig deeper into the creation of the canons on my own.” Professor Leonard smiles at him, she had always enjoyed talking about Kit’s niche study interests. “What about them caught your interest?” she asks. Kit holds the door open for the professor as she situates her belongings in her arms so she can grab her cane.

and maybe one more:

Irritated, he answers the call. “Yes?” “Kitty!” Benny’s voice comes through the phone bright and loud. Kit takes a breath in, closing his eyes as he does so. “When are you coming to pick me up? You are coming to pick me up today, aren’t you?” “Shit, I lost track of time Ben. I’m leaving the library right now, I’ll be there in ten.” “Okay! I’ll see you then, love. Be safe!” she says before hanging up on him. Kit listens to the dead line for a moment before opening his eyes and setting his phone down.

and some texts, for good measure:

More updates to come!! I'm not sure if I'll be able to get these updates out every week, but I'll try!

TAGLIST

@lockejhaven @mr-writes @eleanordaze @flowerprose @starlitpage @dogmomwrites @annetilney @ceph-the-ghost-writer @inkspellangel @outpost51 @love-whatit-loves @bebewrites @smol-feralgremlin

Please fill out this form to be added or ask to be removed!

[etoilesombre]

Any plans for a What Lies Beneath sequel?!?

Oh the demon one?? 👀👀 So, the short answer is probably not, though I wish so.

My pace of actually producing writing has paradoxically slowed since I've started, I wish I could crank stuff out chill and easy but I have not yet cracked how to do that. And I have prior commitments. So. In order, here's the likelihood of sequels:

Flintmadi Book Thing: (By Faith of my Body, first chapter published) is the next real project I need to pick back up, I have it outlined, I have done all the research, I had momentum, and got side tracked. Because its HARD, god that one takes so much, they are both fuckin smarter than me, and they don't talk all that much in the show, making it Feel Right takes a lot.

Longfic (Another Troy to Burn): I need to wrap this up. I always said I would do it if it killed me, its my baby, its already a novel, its my Vision I had for them while watching the show. On the other hand, it has now been 2 (count them 2) years since an update, and honestly I have explored a lot of the things I wanted to explore in that in other places. When I think about just letting it go at this point, I'm more relieved than sad. But I do feel like I owe it to everybody, and also, it is the more practicing-for-writing-novels fic, I need to figure out how to wrap it up and actually do that, just to get my head back in that style of writing. But instead of following the whole way through canon, I will probably let this installation be the last and let it wrap up during the season break.

For to Fight the Cold: This one needs a sequel, it will be fun easy porn (this is a lie I'm telling myself, but, I do know in my head what happens next and I feel like I should share with the class.)

And then once all THAT (some part of that, at least the first two) is done, my plan is to work on Russia AU, which I am very excited about and I think will be totally able to be for real published with names changed.

And of course the thing I am ACTUALLY, CURRENTLY working on, has nothing to do with any of this (and is AwfulDark I'm so stoked)

Which is to say I would love to do followups for demon and also for cooking verse, but, I'm also happy with where I left them in those. FWIW, in demon, I did think a LOT when I was writing it about how Flint just is starting to come to terms with all this stuff about himself, but then when Miranda is killed.... he would very much give in to the darker side of a lot of those impulses, in a way that I personally am very interested in. I definitely have fun thinking about it and am happy to talk about it it's just... I have other obligations.

[sam-keeper]

Put out a new article on my Patreon

It's about some old articles entitled "Classics of Fantasy" that were published on the Wizards of the Coast book publishing hub site, back when that was a thing in, uh, 2003. Here's a cut from the piece about why I find these articles so interesting to revisit 20 years later:

Personal significance aside, I think the articles have a notable place in the history of Wizards of the Coast: they're from a period when Wizards harbored bold plans for the future of their publishing line, plans that ultimately fell through. With all the author interviews, craft discussion, and inside scoops into the industry, the articles from this period radiate a sense that WotC hoped to cultivate new authors. This makes sense: they were putting out calls for original fantasy fiction at the time and clearly aspired to be a "legitimate" publisher. They even published some original young adult fiction, though unfortunately I haven't been able to track down evidence they ever published independent fantasy fiction for adults. (On the Magic side too optimism reigned about the future of Magic's fiction--optimism that then head of Creative Brady Dommermuth would later tell us, after the cancellation of the entire novel line, was never backed up with solid sales numbers.)

I think we can see this series as fitting within the logic of cultivation that WotC has since abandoned. Their belief at the time was that things like the Open Game License would ultimately drive more players to their monopoly on Dungeons & Dragons, would further D&D as THE table top role playing game, and marginalize non OGL systems like World of Darkness. Their recent attempt to simply retroactively rewrite the OGL out of existence suggests they've long since abandoned this perspective. But the Classics of Fantasy series attempts to use older and often public domain works to broaden the horizons of their player base and indeed reader base, under I suppose the presumption that a rising tide raises all ships.

It's this spirit that feels bygone to me, much more so than any individual website. A loyal fan base with broad interests can't give you meteoric exponential growth.

The articles are weird, too, because while most have that tip section for Dungeon Masters, encouraging them to incorporate these books into their game, those sections can get pretty vestigial and half-hearted. Evidently, it was hard to imagine how to turn the fairy story Hobberdy Dick into a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Others, even more weirdly, don't bother with the pretext that "your game" is going to be D&D at all. One early article freely and confidently argues that "any MR James [ghost] story is a top-notch ready-made Call of Cthulhu scenario focusing on conventional horrors rather than the Mythos (thereby confounding those who see a Great Old One behind every mystery)." Not only is he reccing the work of Chaosium, WotC's competitor, he's got enough familiarity with the game to suggest ways of subverting player expectations! In fact, in the Unknown Kadath article he exclusively points DMs to Chaosium's products. Interestingly, in the MR James article he offers another suitable system: Gaslight, which as far as I can tell was a third-party, Open Game License powered Victorian setting. The setting apparently is still going, with a 5th edition D&D compatible OGL book released last year. The primary interest, though, seems to be in cultivating tabletop roleplaying *for its own sake* and as an artform unto itself.

This makes some sense given the author. John D Rateliff apparently is a doctor of literary studies, with a focus on Tolkien and the other "Inklings" that Tolkien hung out with. What do you do with a degree like that? Apparently, write a bunch of stuff for Dungeons & Dragons books. It feels like maybe someone at WotC had the thought, hey, we've got a literal doctor of fantasy fiction here, maybe we should get him to just write about books for us for a while. imagine that! a company actually utilizing its talent pool instead of squandering and burning it out!

Read More On Patreon

[owlberries]

may writing log 💫

totally flew past my ten day goal with seventeen whole days this month! it was really productive as well, considering I finished my regular one chapter a month of my current novel, and I got a long-ish fic published!

started out the month like a spitfire, but hit a really bad slump in the middle. wasn't even sure I would be able to finish my minimum goal. but~! I brought it back! shoutout to the dbd brainworms, you're a real one lol

already I'm feeling a slump again, but that's just how my mental health is dictating things right now I guess. there's a ton going on with a small move for me and my family, so we'll see how june goes! got a couple other fic ideas, one of which is almost finished, so hopefully I can get to work on those soon 🤞

also gonna try to trigger the uber competitive side of my brain by starting to track writing streaks to see if that jumpstarts me lol

[mandalhoerian]

last words on moth to a flame.

oh god i kept sleeping the whole day away on and off this fic really drained me and now i'm literally done with it i feel so empty. (if you dont know what im talking about, final part to ghost to its haunt is out)

like moth to a flame (as a series) is the first project i've completed EVER and i'm feeling so great (even though half of it was shameless porn) but also it's done now and idk what to do with myself hhhhh

no joke i've written a whole novel. the minimum words for a novel is 50K and:

It feels SO WILD.

Thank you so much for seeing this through with me, all the support and being patient with me as I scrambled to finish everything!

More blabbering thoughts below the cut for the final huzzah (i am giving this fic a send off after all. ur getting a huge author's note)

moth to a flame was the first leonxreader fic i'd written and no joke, my first smut too. looking back i was really writing it for ME lmao, practicing and playing around with leon's character and everything.

i am lucky to have it blow up this much (thanks to that one tiktok account who recommended fics you have my heart) because it t came out relatively early like right after re4r release. i received incredible comments on it. like PARAGRAPHS and whole essays picking it apart and appreciating the details and i never got around to answering any of that because i didn't feel deserving of that kind of praise. I've never gotten attention like that before and i felt unworthy of it? I didnt feel it was anything special, leon isnt a new character there are better works out there,

but i get that fics for re4r leon were being put out SLOWLY and mine just happened to be on the better side of the spectrum since i started working on it way before march when the remake came out and had months to revise and edit, so that's why it's much more superior to lamb to the slaughter and ghost to its haunt which are dopamine-fueled, weeks-old projects barely beta-read basically running on concentrated inspiration (and i've been dealing with cholecystitis for months waiting for surgery through it all. so it's really been a roller-coaster ride) 

to this day i have no idea why both ended up to be 25K words each dude 😭 i just wanted there to be a story i guess? like, when people said they wanted more in mtaf's comments i just wanted to deliver a decent plot and have a strong background on how the reader had ended up in a situation like that with leon, and things just branched out from there.

i took so much time on them because I FREAKED OUT over it being slightly popular. you guys know. lmao . its all i talked about on ltts notes BSDSJDS

by the time they came out though, attention and interest had fizzled out majorly, like, anons who were begging for a sequel did not come back after ltts dropped I CLEARLY remember (after getting what they wanted from me) AHAHAH but i did deliberately shoot myself in the leg with that one, i am AWFUL with expectations, so it was between "what the hell, let's go low-ER" and "let's go out with a bang"

i think i did get back on track A BIT with ghost to its haunt, but still, it's its own thing, you know? i did say it'd be a good ending, so it has a good ending... in moth to a flame standards.

this series ended up to be a choose your adventure type of story. it's up to you how it ends. if you like angst, just accept it ends with moth to a flame and reader and leon are done and go their separate ways. if you don't want to settle with that and want the story to continue, you have a dark romance with a doomed ending with lamb to the slaughter; and if you like a kinda hurt/comfort fluffy bittersweet conclusion instead, ghost to its haunt is for you.

So yeah. It's really over.

Thank you so much everyone. It's been a pleasure and a great couple of months. If you want to come talk to me in the asks or whatever about the series, you're more than welcome.

See you next time in potential new projects!

[pixies-and-poets]

I was going to send this ask earlier, but I got sidetracked by life.

I hope you're enjoying my Phandrow playlist as I am! I hope I did your story justice, and I actually wanted to tell you why I chose certain songs for this ship. Now, a good portion is self-explanatory (Phantom of the Opera, Edgar Allan Poe, dramatic love songs via Dracula and the Addams Family), but it's the very first four songs that I believe are truly the embodiment of "Of Curses and Verses".

The Gloom - a ballad of sorts about depression, describing a person who lives in the gloom. This is the introduction to Woodrow AND Phantom, two different characters who find each other within the shadows of their misfortune.

Disappear - a tragic and heartbreaking love song that holds on to whatever spark of hope (ha!) is left. Like The Gloom, Disappear is Phantom and Woodrow spilling their hearts out to each other while hanging out inside the fallen moon in Pallette Prime. They're both very unlucky in life and they reach out to each other, desiring to be understood yet worried about the limited amount of time they have.

The Dark Ones - Now this one is more of an fan interpretation, as this song is a combination of Phantom's quote, "...and damn the consequences", and Woodrow's overwhelming urge to write his poetry shown through creeping nightmares. The Dark Ones tempt our sad boi poet into giving up his creative abstinence and relish in its misfortune. Also, I imagined this as an animatic where the embodiment of unluckiness, in the form of Phantom, seduces Woodrow and thus driving him into madness a la running into the woods. 👉👈

The Dawn - The bittersweet end of the story. Things have been somewhat better, both lovers are still depressed and yet there's a sense of freedom between them. Their love didn't die with the Gloom, and they both live for each other as they comfort each other through their worst times.

I swear, every time I think about "Of Curses and Verses" or Phandrow in general, these two become more and more like a Gothic novel couple.

Oh I totally getcha, "Side-tracked by life" is the story of my... well, my life, lol

But YES, I appreciate all this so much- you really seem to understand the appeal of them as a couple in the same way I do, and what I was trying to do in the fanfic. Rest assured the playlist will serve me as plenty of inspiration in the future, for both drawings and fics :D Because I will be obsessed with them forever even if Phantom comes back in the Rayman DLC and looks directly in the camera and says "By the way, I met Woodrow. Can't stand him." I WILL STILL MAKE IT WORK. I BELIEVE

And by the way, when I get back to Music of the Night, it definitely focuses more on the monstrous/dark temptation aspect... it's a shame I'm going on a trip this weekend because I actually want to write more RIGHT NOW

[kazoosandfannypacks]

"Road Less Traveled" by kazoosandfannypacks

Chapter 3/12: Sparks Fly Between Pages Pairing: Beauty and the Puppet (Belle/August) [with hints of CaptainSwan] Rating: General Word Count: (557/8K) Summary: [Mid Season 4 Canon Divergence.] After becoming a man again to help the heroes track down the author, August stops by the library- only to realize he now has a crush on the librarian, who's working through some complicated feelings of her own. Chapter Summary: August and Belle share a moment together at the library Tags: season 4, canon divergent, fluff, beauty and the puppet, captain swan, anti-rumbelle, Author's notes: none Taglist: @zahara  @kmomof4  @jonesfandomfanatic  @booksteaandtoomuchtv  @jrob64  @tiganasummertree  @anmylica  @teamhook  @undercaffinatednightmare  @gingerchangeling  @lonelyspectator  @caught-in-the-filter  @ultraluckycatnd  @cs-rylie @silver-the-phoenix @kanerallels @accidental-spice @poptart-cat-78 [if you’d like to be added to or removed from this list, hmu in my dms or askbox!] Also on AO3!

 August's experiment in going to the library to focus had proven futile that day, and so it had the next day, and the day after that- so he took the logical recourse today of doing the exact same exact thing again and going to the library to focus.

 He wasn't going to lie to himself though- he wasn't intending to focus on his writing- he wanted the opportunity to see Belle again. He'd known her a little as a kid, but he wanted to get to know her a little better as a man. She seemed well read in both realms, the kind of woman he could sit with to talk about books for hours and still have more to say to, and to listen to. So, as soon as he'd finished a little woodworking with his dad, August hopped back on his motorcycle and was off to the library.

 He took a breath as he walked through the door and reminded himself that she was just pretty, but nothing special, nothing to be scared of.

 But then he entered the library and saw her pouring over stacks of papers and manuscripts, searching every one of them for some kind of clue to the crisis they were trying to solve, lost for a moment in the world within the words- taken aback by the beauty in seeing her in her element.

 "Good afternoon, miss Belle." August said.

 She started when she heard him, having not noticed his entry.

 "Oh, hi, August." She ran her fingers across her forehead and hair, apparently frazzled.

 "Didn't mean to scare you."

 "You didn't scare me." Belle said, holding a stack of papers. "I'm just trying to make sense of all this."

 "I'll leave you to it. I've got some work of my own to do."

 "What have you been working on these past few days?" Belle asked.

 "A novel." He was surprised at her curiosity, but also tried not to reveal too much, to see if she'd ask for more.

 "I'd gathered that much." Belle rolled her eyes.

 He smiled at her slight frustration and decided to follow his teasing with a teaser. "A crossover historical fiction of both realms. As if the characters of our realm grew up in this world's history books."

 "Ooh." Belle leaned on a tall stack of books and papers. "Mystery or action?"

 "Mystery." August leaned toward her a little too. "With a little romance sprinkled in to spice it up."

 Belle smiled. "It sounds intriguing."

 "That's my angle." August said.

 He smiled at her a moment longer, but she shook her head and moved away from him. He nodded a goodbye and headed back down to his usual study space.

 When he'd started this story before becoming a kid again, he hadn't even considered a Beauty and the Beast inspired character. Now he stared at the manuscript in front of him, and the side character pushing her way to the forefront of the story, a revolutionary spy whose enemies were taken by her beauty- but she could pick out the beasts among them from a mile away- a character cleverly codenamed "Liberty Belle."

 He leaned back on the chair as he did a few times a day and saw Belle lost again in her little world, pouring over her runes- until the library door opened.