#but idk the last several years that hasn't really been the case. occasionally i want to eat something for reasons other than hunger

[coquelicoq]

i wish i cared about food because as a living organism i do have to deal with food every day...seems like it would be easier to deal with if i actively liked eating it and thinking about it. but instead food is just the most annoying of all the chores that life consists of because it's impossible to ignore for very long. i resent having to think about it multiple times per day. not going anywhere with this just vaguely jealous of people who like food lol.

[sugareey-makes-stuff]

It's that time of year again. Turning another year older means age is just a number, right? I'm not doing anything crazy today (sadly I'm working rn), but hopefully I can enjoy the rest of the evening and make it into a birthday weekend, as long as RL cooperates. It could certainly be a better year for me, but I'm grateful with what I have. Since fandom has helped me a lot throughout the years, blessed me with some of amazing friends and made me who I am today, I thought I'd give back and do something simple and slightly different for this year's birthday fic rec list. Some of you follow me for Harry Potter, Teen Wolf or both (or maybe you just appreciate my dry humour, sarcasm and shenanigans, IDK). And so, here's are 14 multi-fandom and multi-ship fics that I like rereading on repeat because they're made of awesomeness. There's Drarry, Perciver, Wolfstar + rarepairs and Sterek, with the occasional dash of hurt/comfort and angst I love so very much. As always, please give these authors some love by leaving kudos and/or comments!

Maybe you'll find a new fic to add to your TBR (or ship/dynamic you want to explore more of). Check out last year's rec list for your HP fix (lol, get it?). Cheers, and happy reading!

HP- Drarry

🎉 And an Owl Named Romeo by Rickey (E, 26.5k)- Romance, Comfort, Coming Out, Case, Case Fic, Drama, Epistolary, flangst, Auror Fic, Animals, Drama/Light Comedy, Owls, Magic

Draco breeds owls, Harry's an Auror, and an owl named Romeo is going to bring them together.

🎉 Bound To You by agentmoppet | @agentmoppet (E, 28.1k )- Accidental Bonding, Cursed Bonding, Curse Breaker Draco Malfoy, Cartographer Harry Potter, unusual careers, lots of sass, Mild Angst, Pining, Slow Burn

Hag magic is capricious and unruly, and Harry and Draco are bound to stay by each other’s side until they can solve the riddle. In between long car trips, misty rain, and midnight star charts, they begin to understand each other.

🎉 you've got the antidote for me by Kandakicksass (M, 20.7k)- AU - Soulmates, Soul Bond, Red String of Fate, Heavy Angst, Terminal Illnesses, Major Illness, Angst with a Happy Ending

When Harry Potter unintentionally severs their soulbond before it can fully form, Draco Malfoy resigns himself to a slow death and decides not to burden Harry with a soulmate he's made it very clear he doesn't want. He's never been selfless before, but for Harry, he can try.

HP- Perciver & Rarepairs

🎉 A Journey Home by edelweissmar (Perciver, T, 28k)- Post-War, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Post-Hogwarts, Falling In Love, Weasley Family, Family Drama, Cute Kids, Fluff and Angst

Almost ten years after the war ended, Percy Weasley is Head of the Department of Magical Transportation and buries himself in work. It is the only way he knows to forget for a while about the mistakes he made, the family he failed, the brother he lost. Oliver Wood, once the promising keeper of the Puddlemere United, had his hand badly injured in the Battle of Hogwarts, and could never play professionaly again. But if there is one thing Oliver doesn't do, it is giving up. (Or, in which Oliver performs illegal magic on his broom and Percy, instead of having him arrested, falls in love)

🎉 Still Standing by eleventy7 | @tinyhistory (Perciver, G, 16k)- Slow Burn, Eventual Romance, Isle of Skye, Scotland, Witness Protection, War-related PTSD

After the war, Percy testifies against his corrupted Ministry colleagues and is sent to the Scottish lowlands to live under the protection of a witness security program.

🎉 What Keeps the Stars Apart by MangoMartini (Perciver, E, 8k)- First Time, Blow Jobs, Light Angst, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Canon Compliant, Post-Canon

Percy Weasley attends his brother George's wedding, even though he has doubts as to if he's really wanted there. The night takes a turn from bad to worse to surprisingly better when he runs into his old best friend, Oliver Wood, whom he hasn't spoken to in five years.

🎉 that's all i'm asking. by Idnis | @idnis (Deamus, T, 20.3k)- Angst, Kissing, Spin the Bottle, Pining, Emotional Hurt, 6th and 7th year, Wizarding Wars

‘No,’ Seamus replied in a hurry. ‘No, it’s not. Come on. When’s the last time we played something stupid like spin the bottle or seven minutes?’ ‘Really?’ Hermione said. ‘That’s what you want to play?’

🎉 Fire On Fire by WolfstarGarden (Wolfstar, E, 11.3k)- AU - Modern Setting, AU - Ballet, AU - Non-Magical, Ballet, Smut, Rimming, Anal Sex, Control Issues, Social Anxiety, Desire, LGBTQ Themes, Comfort, Crushes, Getting to Know Each Other, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Pining, Romance, Dancing, Bottoming, Feelings, Light Angst, Remus Lupin & James Potter Friendship

Sirius’ frown deepened. After a moment he murmured in a low voice, “I don’t understand you at all, Remus Lupin. Oh, but I would so very like to.” A flush crawled boiling heat up Remus’ neck as he fumbled for an answer. “Goodness Sirius ... I’m no one special.” Sirius’ gaze didn’t waver. He said simply, “I think you could be very special to me.”

🎉 quite like us by alarainai | @alarainai (Jegulus, T, 67.3k)- AU- Modern Setting, Texting, Wrong Number AU, Background Wolfstar

[18:12] Seriously, wrong number. Don’t send shirtless pictures to strangers. [18:13] Padfoot, this rejection hurts. [18:16] What’s a Padfoot? [18:17] Wait, is this actually not Padfoot? [18:19] I don’t even know what that is, but no. I’m not a Padfoot.

🎉 Leathers and Lace by doshu | @vdoshu (Flintwood, E, 7.7k)- POV Marcus, Post-Hogwarts, Professional Quidditch, Injury Recovery, anger issues, Toxic Masculinity from side characters, Misunderstandings, Idiots in Love, Getting Together, Explicit Sexual Content, Lingerie, Anal Sex, Exhibitionism, St Mungo's Hospital

Things were much less complicated when Wood played for a different team. “Fuckin’ twat,” Marcus mutters, glaring at his teammate. Wood can’t hear him, but it still feels good to say the words. He wishes he could punch the git but knows that doing so here, at St Mungo’s, when the Keeper’s out cold and there’s a Healer standing hardly three feet away, wouldn’t be one of his finest moments. No. He’ll wait until Wood’s released, and they’re back on the pitch. Not even on the pitch—the second they run into each other in the change rooms he’ll get Marcus’s fist in his stupid face.

Teen Wolf- Sterek

🎉 it took new york to make me a cowboy by piratetattoos (M, 15.2k)- Post-Season/Series 03, AU - Canon Divergence, Derek Hale Leaves Beacon Hills, New York City, Recovery, Trauma, Writer Derek Hale, Photographer Stiles Stilinski, POV Derek Hale, Healing, Slow Burn, Postcards, Vonnegut References, Long-Distance Relationship, (kind of), Poetry, Identity Porn, AU - Writing & Publishing, Photography, First Kiss, Getting Together, Inevitability, Happy Ending

After Beacon Hills, Derek heads back to New York. He doesn’t look back, lest he be turned into a pillar of salt. He leaves it all behind, a monument, a tomb, a thousand fuck ups and betrayals left to gather dust and slowly rot away to nothing. He read somewhere once, that time is cyclical, that the universe repeats over and over, and that he will be reborn and make the exact same mistakes over and over again, helpless to change anything. He thinks Stiles told him about a Vonnegut novel like that once. He doesn’t think about Stiles. (or: Derek leaves Beacon Hills, finds himself, and waits for Stiles to find him.)

🎉 Don't Talk About the Bachelor Party by snarkatthemoon | @snarkatthemoon (E, 29.5k)- AU - Canon Divergence, Post-Canon, Future Fic, Scott is a Good Friend, Deputy Stiles Stilinski, Pining, Angst, Fluff, Weddings, Stag Nights & Bachelor Parties, Emotional Constipation, Drunken Shenanigans, Getting Together, Sex, Derek Hale Deserves Nice Things, Stiles Stilinski Deserves Nice Things

“Hey look, I kinda need to run something by you,” Scott starts, sounding sheepish, “You know how I said the venue only has eight rooms?” Stiles ‘hmm’s’ absentmindedly, half-distracted by his work phone that’s pinging with emails. “Well, my Dad has decided he wants to stay the night of the wedding now, so we’ve had to make a few changes to the sleeping arrangements.” Stiles groans, throwing his work phone across the bed. He has a feeling he knows where this is going and he knows that Scott knows he’s got him backed into a corner. “Really, Stiles, we couldn’t figure out how to do it another way, and I know it’s not exactly the best timing in the world—” “Just come out with it, Scott.” “We need you to share a room with Derek.” Or, the one where Stiles tries to deny that he's emotionally constipated, there's a wedding, and no one will shut up about what happened at Scott's fucking Bachelor Party.

🎉 Hale of Heart by Nahara (E, 23k)- AU - Future, Future Fic, Witches, Falling In Love, Emissary in Training, Stiles Stilinski, Bad Poetry, First Time, Blow Jobs, OCs, Jealous Stiles, Derek Feels, Derek Hale Has a Heart

Derek’s heart is cursed into a jar (because why the hell not? this is Beacon Hills) and Stiles is an Emissary (in training) who finds himself heart-sitting for Derek. Stiles would like to make it clear that while yes, Derek did give him his heart, he obviously didn’t mean it like that, so stop making those faces, guys.

🎉 Loving You (Losing You) by whentheywrite (T, 11.9k)- AU - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, oblivious idiots, Curses, Pixies, Canon-Typical Violence, Monster of the Week, BAMF Stiles, Protective Derek, Idiots in Love, Memory Loss, Mind Manipulation, Derek Hale Deserves Nice Things, Stiles Stilinski Deserves Nice Things, Scott McCall is a puppy, The Pack Being Idiots, slight angst, Crack, Stiles Stilinski is Derek Hale's Anchor

Derek is cursed to lose what he loves, the pack doesn't know how to react, and Stiles is concerned. Rightfully so, since nothing seems to happen. And then everything goes wrong.

[vegapunk-aurora]

Can someone please just say the Ask Tales blog is permanently closed? It honestly hurts to look back at it with even the slightest optimistic glimmer of hope.

Hi Anon,

I'll go ahead and field this, IDK if any of my fellow former ToA mods got this message as well or not but hey, I was kind of unofficially looked to as the Owner so it's on me either way.

The short answer is yes, it is safe for you and anyone else still wondering to consider Tales of Answers over. All of us mods, while we still keep in touch, have largely moved on to other projects and gotten much busier in our personal lives, to the point where even with all hands on deck maintaining the blog at the rate we did at its peak is unfeasible.

It's also a matter of loss of interest. I still love a lot of these characters and I had a blast getting into their heads while it lasted but my interest in the Tales series as a whole has waned significantly since those days, and I think I speak for the whole ToA moderation team when I say that. Part of it is we agree that there is/was an overall severe decline in the series' writing quality for a while, but it's also just that naturally people move in and out of interests as their lives go on. Our hearts aren't in it anymore to the extent that we could produce content for this fandom with any kind of consistency and quality, and it wouldn't be fair to us or anyone who remembers our work fondly if we tried to go back to it without the passion we had when the thing started. Or, worse, start using ChatGPT or some bullshit. Honestly, that had already faded pretty significantly by the time we put a pause on the project, which was most of why we did it in the first place.

On that note, there was also a lot of Fandom Drama and toxicity to deal with back then. I've been somewhat disconnected from the wider Tales Fandom for the past several years so I don't know if it's cooled off, but at the time it was pretty exhausting to be entrenched in. For what it's worth, I don't think we were completely devoid of fault in any fandom drama that ensued, and I apologize if we ever did anything particularly incensing to anyone reading this.

In any case, I will say that yes, Tales of Answers is considered closed by its former moderation team. We consider passing it on to new mods out of the question, as it was a personal project by a group of friends and we don't really want to pass it to someone we don't know and can't guarantee would operate it in line with our own views and wishes. However, the good news is that there's absolutely nothing stopping someone else from starting a new Tales mailbox blog and taking up our mantle themself! In fact, if anyone is interested in doing so, please feel free to make use of all our character animations, which you can find on the blog itself. Most of those weren't even made by us, it was kind of a free for all to begin with.

Will we ever return in ANY capacity? Hard to say and I wouldn't count on it. For my part, I've considered occasionally popping in to make little unprompted skits whenever the inspiration strikes, but as y'all can see, said inspiration hasn't struck significantly enough in the past eight years to actually do it. Maybe I will some day, if any of the other mods still attached to the blog want to they're invited to as well. We're probably not gonna open the mailbox back up, though. Sorry.

ANYWAY now that I've disappointed everyone, if for some reason you still want to keep an eye on whatever I'm doing, I'm pretty inactive here these days. You can find me on Twitter (for however long it takes for Muskrat to kill it) at @aceofplaces, or on CoHost at @vegapunk-aurora. I have a lot of little projects I don't talk much about in public brewing in the background, hopefully some day I'll have one congeal enough to actually be worth sharing.

Now go, be free. Thanks for holding a candle for us for so long and sorry for making you do it for nothing, it is sincerely pretty validating to know this weird little shitpost factory my friends and I made when I was in high school ended up meaning something to somebody even now. Take care of yourself.

-Aurora (formerly Mod Ace)