#but like this specific image popped into my head fully formed

[thepringlesofblood]

[gin-juice-tonic]

can i ask how youre able to make so many comics or if you have any tips for aspiring internet funny comic makers? your gag comics are always so creative and funny and well-executed, and your longer form stuff is just a delight to read, i would love to know if u have any advice/insight into yr process

I'm not good at advice so you will have to bear with me here. Also I'm putting it under a readmore cause images make it into a long post. The like first 3/4th of this I talk about specific comics I did, but if you scroll to the end I tried to give some general advice.

My stuff is unfortunately very inspiration-based as opposed to planning-based. So my process might not be helpful if you're looking for something structured... The first thing I should say is I write down basically anything that pops into my head ever. I have a bunch of nonsensical tumblr drafts,

I have stuff in my phones notes app,

I have pages and pages of papers and post-it notes littering my apartment (if you want to know the extent, my sister asked me how I could live with my apartment being so "messy". The only messy thing in it is my papers scattered about). I find the paper stuff the best, because I can draw instead of just writing down concepts.

This is the page I did for the comic about Stan "comforting" Dipper over his unrequited crush on Wendy. (The tumblr version being here)

You will notice aside from the order on the page being strange and some scratched out dialogue, there's not really evidence of a 'plan' here. That's because I was just drawing this as I was thinking it. You will also notice there are two random unrelated Ford drawings in the middle of the page. That's because I was drawing ANYTHING that I was thinking of.

And when I say write down anything, I do mean it. Write down something you did that week, something you remember from when you were 8, something you said out loud and laughed at, things you thought about in the shower, a fact you learned, what your friend had for dinner. See if you can apply it to something. I've mentioned before that this comic only exists because I ran out of toilet paper and went to buy a large bulk pack of it...

When I already have a base idea and just want to expand on it, I usually draw first ask questions later, and things seem to just snowball into being a story. As an example, for the comic I did about Dipper's swimsuit, the base idea was just "Dipper and Stan both wear fully covering swimwear - because they're trans and its what they're comfortable with." But when I went to look up what Dipper wore to the pool, i noticed mabel had a Star one piece suit

Dipper has a star hat in the first episode that he loses, right? SO why don't we give him a matching star one piece that he abandons.

Of course then that single drawing CREATES the story, because we have to explain how he eventually ends up in what he's wearing in the episode. And then I just draw and draw and draw until either the comic ends or I can't continue for whatever reason. The outline for the full thing usually forms while I'm drawing. If I'm worried about forgetting, I'll write down what comes next.

Some of this stuff I didn't stick to, or greatly expanded upon. It's good to be flexible with what you're doing. If something you originally intended only to be a throwaway bit inspires you, roll with it and keep going. (If it ends up being nothing, you can always discard it or turn it into something else later anyway)

I did the swimsuit one basically fully on my computer, but if you want to see another paper based one, a lot of the comic with the kid stans and crampelter I'm doing currently is down on paper.

If you can make out my writing, you can see it says "Crampelter has found out about Stan and Ford's boxing identities" at the top there, which was the general main idea of this part of the comic. This one was a lot more planned than the dipper swimsuit one. There's multiple pages of this sort of stuff, and I knew the idea I wanted was "If Ford and Stan are trans, why would they still be called those names as kids?" (So I guess the takeaway from this one is if you're wanting a structured comic, write down the main idea on the top of a page and brainstorm dialogue and drawings on it?)

There's a lot of sort of floating heads with dialogue, all that matters is I get the emotions or general idea drawn. They're important for me to draw out because being able to "see" the scene (even if I'm seeing it heavily unfinished) is what usually inspires the next bit of the comic.

And I know I talked like a lot already but some general other advice:

Draw, ask questions about what you've drawn, draw more to answer the questions, see if those new drawings ask any new questions, continue this process till you come to a satisfying resolution.

It's fine to not draw something immediately after you've thought of it. I have a lot of things I've just squirreled away for later. And in the same vein its okay to drag something old up that you've never used and try to work with it.

I almost always put on music while I'm trying to think of things. Something I feel fits the mood of what I'm doing tonally. And then I usually just put the same song on repeat, though some people im sure would feel like that is psychological torture. But its helpful to me.

This might sound silly if you're someone who leaves the house a societally normal amount, but I try to go out into the world and do things so I get new ideas and experiences I can build on. Sometimes those things are literally just "go to the park", but sometimes it's venturing out somewhere several hours away or doing an activity i'd never care to do normally... I try to take note of anything that stood out to me and write down thoughts or feelings I had during.

When it comes to trying to be "funny", you should try to make yourself laugh first. Not only because you want your comics to bring yourself joy, but also because its just hard to make stuff you don't care about (And harder to be consistent about it). Though if you think of something and you don't really think its funny, you don't have to throw it away! You might be surprised what other people end up liking. So don't kill yourself to write jokes you yourself don't really get, but if your brain spits out something on its own you dont care much for, it still may be gold to someone else.

It's okay to make comics about simple and relatable things. People love relating. And depending on what you're writing about, that relatability may be really needed!

Everyone has something of value to say. Even if you yourself don't feel like the things you're saying matter, or that they're too silly or un-serious to matter. They matter.

[ohmeadows]

Hey meadows! Hope you're doing well and (bc of recent hyv happenings) inspired. I know that every writer's process is different, but what is your brainstorming/research personally like when you've got an idea for a piece of work? Do you have a bunch of concepts that you wanna narrow down? Or is it a lot of 'uhhh' and then an 'aha!' moment?

hi anon! i'm doing ok, hope you're having a fine day !

my brainstorming/research process often starts with drawing a wide circle. this isn't very precise, but i want a few images to form in my head before i start researching proper. say for ruanliu, it was "mara as flowers bursting from the body" and "cold sterile hands handling a feral jingliu" and i let that marinate for a few days, letting the images become clearer in my head.

then one day i headed to the local uni library and went browsing the natural sciences shelves, picking out some heavy books (on moss, phylogenetics, a textbook on how classify plants) and brought them to a table to flip thru. i browsed through them, allowing myself to just look for anything i found interesting, jotting down words and phrases as i went along. specifically remember saving this img even though i didn't understand it fully just to let it simmer.

i read a lot in the time between original idea and first publishing, as always when i read i mark words and sentences i like and think about how those words work, what they did in the scene, how can i transport that to my own work. i watched a lot of hannibal. i went to plant nurseries and stores just to touch petals and note down how things felt. i looked up recipes for pastries based on flowers. i bought a floral tea and drank a lot. i have a lot of chronic pain and hypermobility issues, so when it flared up during long walks i'd pretend it was flower buds blooming just to be able to write the sensation.

there's an essay i think about a lot when writing these days, where brandon taylor wrote about embodiment in writing, how to transport the characters out of their heads and into action, physicality, into their bodies, and how to marry the interior and exterior in fiction. even if i don't do it perfectly myself, i think about that a lot: what do the actions signify about their internal states? how do their thoughts translate into bodies?

my ideas don't have to be super-clean when i start writing. about 25% is thought up in advance, and the rest comes forth in writing. whatever idea pops up while i'm in the writing process, fingers on the keyboard, i let it flourish for however many paragraphs it wants to test its wings. i edit out a lot later, but in the first draft, everything goes. pour it in. contradict myself. i prefer to get as much on the page as possible before i start fixing and knitting it together.

this answer got away from me again, sorry, but yes. my brainstorming stage is more a string of ideas dumped into a stew and left to simmer for way too long. i seek out physical sensations connected to the story as a way of grounding it in reality. when i'm too tired to write i browse pinterest and look for quotes, making moodboards (the ruanliu one had a lot of decaying flowers, flash-frozen flowers and fashion photography involving flowers).

[thelemoncoffee]

okay so like- i keep seeing these videos of this cute trickster waitress bumping around on the internet, and through some digging i got both alot of and no context.

the girl's whole thing is she's dressed as a chinese trickster spirit with a mask of said spirit on (sometimes she also wears rollerskates), and she taps (or kisses the cheek of) her customer to engage them in a game with her. from my understanding while she's doing a little perfomance for them- be it pouring tea out of a long-spouted pot or popping beer bottles with her clipboard- the customer can offer her a bite of food, and if she takes it the customer can try and nab her spirit mask while she tries to jump away so they can't. i'm like 90% sure the goal of this is if you can take her mask fully off you get a free dish/drink, but it's really difficult to do it because of how quick she is.

the no conxtext part is i have no fucking clue if this is a full on restaurant chain gimmick or just something this one shop does, and nor do i know the details of how the rules and customer/waitress boundries are set up, or even if this a normal thing or a requestable perfomance or just her staging it. google is giving me nothing so i had to scrounge what info i do have out of youtube comments, reddit threads, and video context clues.

but- it's really neat and perfect for Saiouma cat and mouse shennanigans. i think this would be a fun scenario for them to meet under, maybe Shuichi getting dragged to the dinner by his friends cause they want him to get out more, and he finds himself the primary target of their trickster waitress (Kokichi crossdressing like a boss).

throughout out the night his friends try to get Kokichi's mask to no avail, and just before they're thinking about paying and heading out they manage to convince Shuichi to give it a shot. Shuichi gives it a try and actually fucking snags the mask, surprising everyone in the situation. as prize their table gets a desert on the house, but Shuichi also got a bonus prize in the form of Kokichi's number.

Shuichi now has the face of the cutest guy he's ever met living rent free in his mind, and said cute guy's number in his pocket- he has no fucking clue what to do about this and his friends are no help.

i do want to add that i think for the sake of making it easy, it'd make sense if this was a gimmick for one of those themed restauants Japan seems to have a decent sized marker for. having it be a clear gimmick people go there specifically to see at a place themed around it takes any weird customer/waitress consent stuff and makes it easier to deal with. you don't want a kitsune waitress messing with you? don't go to the kitsune waitresses who mess with you restaurant

regardless it's a delightful concept and i really like the mental image of Kokichi rollerskating around a restaurant with a kitsune outfit on getting paid to be a little shit while serving people food.

[kittttycakes]

Hello! Just popping by to say hi.

I read an imagine that someone posted today about sitting on Morpheus’ lap on the throne whilst both reading a book. And it got me thinking (and I had no one to share this with so I’m sharing it with you now sorry)

Thinking specifically about Grace and Morpheus. And Morpheus slouching on his throne, lazily reading while Grace is curled up in his lap (let’s pretend this is besides the fact it’s a stone throne and a thin and bony Endless she’s somehow sitting on and would actually be comfortable) either with her own book or reading/sharing in the book that Morpheus has.

And then Hob wanders in and sees them and can’t help but smile at the sight. Maybe he comes up and leans over the back of the throne to peer over their shoulders and see what they’re reading and runs his hands through Morpheus’ hair. What would they be reading I wonder?

These three are still living in my head rent free (and are very welcome at that), and I was wondering if you still had time, plans and/or inclination to write any more for them?

It’s very entitled of me to ask I know, but I’m blaming Desire’s influence there, as it’s something I’ll always be keen for more of!

Hello!!

I love this image so much. There’s a few ways this could go down:

1. Grace is reading something that’s relevant to her work, and she’s comfortable but also very focused, so she isn’t really paying attention to anything but her book and the words on the page in front of her, which gives Morpheus the perfect opportunity to just…look at her. He can catalogue all of her visible freckles, he can map the exact slope of her shoulder, he can just take all of her in without feeling like he has to look away because humans find it unnerving when you stare at them, unblinking, for any extended period of time. (Grace wouldn’t find it weird, she’d think it was deeply romantic that he knew exactly how many eyelashes she has on her left eyelid and an approximate average of how many times she blinks per minute but that’s because Grace is secretly kind of odd, and we love that for her.) One of Hob’s favorite activities is absolutely draping himself in improbable positions over the back and/or arm of the throne, and this situation is no exception to this.

2. Morpheus is reading something relevant to his work that may or may not actually be in a language that Grace can also read. Is that even a recognizable, existing alphabet? Grace isn’t entirely sure, but she IS determined to find out, and she’s going to keep looking at those pages and watching him read until she can figure out the pattern, damn it! This situation also features fully focused Grace: the slightly furrowed brow, the tongue caught between the teeth, she’s locked in. Hob is a lot in love with both of them.

3. Grace is reading something for fun. This can take many forms: literary fiction, something fun from the library that Lucienne pulled out for her, or a romance novel to blow off a little steam. She needs inspiration for her daydreams and that’s a wonderful way to get it. Morpheus is too focused on just being relaxed with Grace, but Hob is walking in on the absolutely X rated scene Grace is reading with a straight face, and he’s only looking so intently because he has to make sure that what he read was actually what’s on the page (and he maybe keeps reading over the top of Morpheus’s head, because maybe he’d like a little inspiration, too). (Morpheus is also reading it. He has Plans for later.)

I love hearing about scenarios so please please feel free to drop them in my inbox any time!

Please don’t feel like you’re being entitled at all, this is a completely fair question! The short answer is yes, I absolutely do have more plans to write for them and I am far from done with the three of them. The long answer is under the cut, to save everyone’s dash.

I have some plans for them that take place chronologically and fall in line with as heart for heart, the main two of which are 1. a family dinner (this is currently sitting at about 1.8k in draft form and is actively being picked at, it definitely won’t be as long as the chaptered work but based on my outline, I’m anticipating between 5-10k for this one-shot) and 2. the promised sequel that includes the mentioned pregnancy (I haven’t fully 100% outlined this one yet but it is marinating upstairs in my brain, with an anticipated 5 chapter structure, definitely shorter than as heart for heart but still hopefully fun for those who enjoy pregnancy fic)

I also have ideas that fall in the as heart for heart universe, but that don’t take place at any specific point, other than being after they’ve established a relationship, which include a. Many and varied smut pieces, including two keys one lock whenever I have the courage to write it; b. An outsider POV of the trio once Hob and Grace eventually have to move out of the flat and move somewhere new from the point of view of their new next door neighbor; and c. Many and varied domestic fluff pieces, because I want them to be happy together forever.

There are also a not-zero number of fun one off AUs that I’d like to do with them, including but not limited to i. Ancient Rome style AU with Morpheus as emperor, Grace as empress/consort, and Hob as a gladiator; ii. A dubiously historical AU of uncertain time period featuring Morpheus as a marble sculptor, Grace as his muse, and Hob as a newly rich man who’s looking to commission some work; iii. What I’ve been referring to in my head as the mundane AU aka the all humans all the time AU, featuring established Grace and Hob and Hob’s unusual friend Morpheus, currently titled in my drafts as “polyamory: it’s good for the economy”; iv. post-The Wake AU featuring newly human Morpheus and how this impacts his relationship with always human Grace and Hob, and (I’ll stop here but there are more) v. a document I currently have titled as “timeline fuckery” featuring Grace meeting the Hobs of every era.

This also is not including the wrap up of Promptober 2023, which I do fully plan to still do, even if it becomes uh…2024’s version.

I also have tentative plans for a small sequel to “red currant,” which was just strictly Dreamling, and I am lying to myself about not writing a chaptered Dead Boy Detectives fic.

I unfortunately found myself in a bit of a slump post-completion of as heart for heart, but the desire to write is 100% still there, and will happen as soon as I can get my brain to cooperate with me!

[bonesandthebees]

hey!! do you ever have images of apartment/houses in hand when writing fics?sometimes I struggle to imagine/think of how the floor and or house planning is 😅

honestly my brain has this very convenient feature where it can often just... autofill houses/rooms for me when I'm writing? like most of the time I don't consciously come up with what houses or rooms look like when I make a new story, it just kind of pops up fully formed in my head (ie: tommy's apartment in clinic wasn't one I thought about at all it just popped in my head fully formed). now if I'm going for a very specific atmosphere I might need to alter these locations to make them better suited to the vibe I'm going for and make them look cooler, and usually I do that by looking up images on pinterest of environmental inspo for rooms or architecture. then because I have a very powerful imagination, I'll mentally walk through the entire setting and build it according to the inspo I just looked at

like I did this for glass. I can tell you exactly all the pieces of furniture in wilbur's cell and where they all are. I can give you an entire layout of the temple, I can tell you the lighting in every single room, I can tell you wayyyy too many details about the space my characters occupy

if you need inspo though I recommend going on real estate websites like zillow and looking at houses for sale! or pinterest is a great resource too. and pay attention to the houses around you! whenever I travel to a new place I pay attention to the architecture style of the houses so I can add new environments to my mental library so I can pull them out for stories later

[blanketempress]

Anton multiples of 5, Enzo multiple of 3, Arzel everything else.

I'm just going to ignore your attempt at making me do math and answer with whichever character I think is more interesting <3

What memory would your OC rather just forget?

Arzel : killing his boyfriend in a frenzy

What's something about your OC that people wouldn't expect just from looking at them?

Lorenzo : He’s a pretty good physical fighter. Not the best, but he’s good. People expect him to give out orders and have goons and use magic but his first instinct is to run headfirst into the fray

What is your OC's fatal flaw? Are they aware of this flaw?

Arzel : bleeding heart. You look at him with sad eyes and he wants to help you out. It already brought him a lot of trouble, so he's aware of it, but there's nothing he can/wants to do about it

When scared, does your OC fight, flee, freeze or fawn?

Anton : freeze then flee (nobody is surprised)

How far is your OC willing to go to get what they want?

Lorenzo : as far as it takes. The list of what he's unwilling to do to himself and to others is shorter than the list of things he's willing to do to get what he wants

How easily could your OC be convinced to do something that goes against their moral compass?

Anton : almost impossible, he'd rather like you to kill him instead. Good thing his moral compass is pretty weak

What's one way your OC has changed since you first came up with them?

all my OCs pop fully formed into my head, I just have to get to know them but they don't change

Would your OC ostensibly be able to get away with murder?

Lorenzo : he worked as a ghoul for 5 years and he has a spell to turn corpses into dust, he's VERY good at it

Do you have a specific lyric or quote which you associate with your OC?

not really but I have a voice claim for Arzel : A Hull full of Oil and Bone by Listing Ship

What's an AU that would be interesting to explore with your OC?

Anton : SHOVELHEAD ANTON AU

What is your OC's weapon of choice? Have they ever actually used it?

Arzel : his fists. He's very good at hand to hand combat yeah

Is your OC self-destructive? In what ways?

Lorenzo : kind of but he’s not aware of it. He almost died a couple times pushing himself way over his limits due to being full of hubris

How does your OC want to be seen by other characters?

Arzel : oh he's VERY concerned about the image he gives out. He wants to be seen as a Blue Blood, as someone reliable and non threatening but powerful nontheless, he wants to make everything he does look effortless, he's a bit vain like that. He has a some insecurities due to his origins and his lack of education, he does his best to hide them

Does your OC have a faceclaim? If so, who?

nope

What is your OC's pain tolerance like?

Lorenzo : extremely high. He'll shrug off pain and fight until he can't get back up

What is the worst thing you have put your OC through story-wise?

Anton : his entire life sucks so fucking bad I can't even pick I'm sorry Anton. Getting killed wasn't even the most traumatizing thing on the list.

Is your OC more cold and detached or up close and personal?

Lorenzo : both. He’s very cold and keeps everyone at arm’s length (or even further away if he can), but he takes everything very personally

How does your OC behave when enraged?

Arzel : it's pretty hard to enrage him, but he is a pretty proud man, and very Ventrue. He does give warnings that he's getting pissed, you do get a chance or two to back down, but if you don't take it, he might decide to tear off your limbs about it, depending on the setting.

Does your OC have a tendency to get jealous? If so, how does this manifest?

Lorenzo : he doesn’t know it himself because he’s Lorenzo but he actually feels inadequate in his relationships. He feels as if he can't offer anything to his friend/partner. So if he sees someone getting along better he gets jealous but it only translates in him clamming up and distancing himself.

Does your OC have any illnesses or disorders? How do they handle it?

Anton : he's malkavian so. it's a cocktail of things. He handled things by getting high when he was human, now he copes by getting himself into toxic situations/relationships. Therapy never really did anything for him

What character alignment would you consider your OC to be?

this is vtm, everyone is a flavor of chaotic or evil if not both

What emotion is the hardest for your OC to process? How about express?

Arzel : not exactly an emotion, but knowing he has failed is the hardest thing for him to process. Failing expectations in general. On the other hand, he's pretty alright at expressing himself and his emotions

What is an alternative life path your OC might have gone down? How different would their life be if they'd made those decisions?

Lorenzo : he almost became a mage, he even had a few astral journey dreams, though he has absolutely no idea. His family prevented that from happening by ghouling then embracing him. Unsurprisingly he would've still been a necromancer

What is your favorite thing about your OC?

Anton : I think it's pretty fun to play a pathetic little man

[thewatercolours]

Aww man I kinda want a full essay of like, every answer for the meme ask. I suppose I should be more specific. Let's go with 2, 15, 18 (published authors perhaps), 29, 35. I held myself back to just five!

2. How do you come up with your plot ideas?

Search me! Often it starts with a desire to write a fic, and that desire has to stew for a few days before something pops out of nowhere. I don't usually remember the moment an idea occurred to me. Sometimes I get it from a moment in someone else's fic. And I know I've had at least one occasion where an image popped into my head fully formed (Graham sitting on top of an elevator trying to ignore one of his hands because it wasn't human. And that, dear friends, is why he had an elevator. No rational explanation - my brain was on shuffle mode when it came up with that one.)

15. Do you plan your fics or prefer to let the story unfold as you write?

A mix? i often know the big beats in advance and have to connect them up as I go.

18. Are there any (published) authors that have been particularly influential or inspiring to you?

Hard to separate who influenced what in my writing - it's a leafmeal at this point! But let's focus more on the inspiration side. If I could steal the skills of some published authors who I think would specifically help me write better KQ fic:

I'd want Frances Hardinge's imagination and lyrical prose style. Her books always make me wish I had written them, and I think her whimsical, floral, and yet oddly grounded style would mesh well with KQ.

I would want Vivian Van de Velde's ability to notice the holes in a well known story that give room to craft a story just to fill in the missing elements. (admittedly, the only book I ever read by her was The Rumpelstiltskin Problem, but in that book she's doing what I often try to do with KQ.)

I wish I could write banter and rapid fire dialogue like George Bernard Shaw. Yes, he's a classic author, but the sheer facility for incredible wit and rapport is incredible, and adaptable, and yes, yes, I want it.

I really look up to G. K. Chesterton's ability to write the most crazy, farcical situations and add this layer of depth and reflection to them without spoiling the fun.

If I could write like Peter S. Beagle... gosh. What do I say. I just wish I could steal everything from him. I don't even have an idea of how I'd apply it to KQ. I just wish I could get away with doing what he does.

I think each of these in their own ways might have influenced some of what I'm going for in my fics, though I'm nowhere near on their level. Tolkien's probably somewhere in the background, drumming in my head about hope and love and what makes things meaningful.

29. Are there any characters, relationships, or general character dynamics you've never written about but would like to try?

Hm, I'd love to play around with Valanice interacting with the townsfolk. Also - I don't know if I've ever written Roberta outside of @captmickey's Immortal Guards continuity, so I am looking forward to her appearance in an upcoming chapter. I need to have some fun writing her and Graham in a scene together. I also have a partly written scene that's been in my drafts forever where Graham lost the tournament and seeks out his sister Anisette and hopes she'll take him on as a member of her crew - should return to that sometime.

35. What do you enjoy most about being a fic writer?

Those rare moments when I get in a flow state, and the story is just rushing out like the river after the ents destroy the dam, and writing it feels almost like reading someone else's story. That doesn't occur very often, but when it does - oooh. I also love when it's coming slowly, and something shifts, and the solution is right there, already set up in the story, as though I had known I was going to use it. I also love the community aspect of fic writing. Brainstorming with my brother, trading author highs and lows with the others in this tiny little fandom, and yes, the thrill of reading a comment for the very first time (for it is never the last time.)

[elgringo300]

3, 25, 35

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

Ritual? My writing ritual is I sit down to get homework done and then the Muses, Apollo, and everybody else all strike at once at my brain and I have to quickly write it down before I forget it in a notebook I’ll misplace later. The last time I wrote a chapter for my fantasy WIP was like two years ago.

I do I have a sort of ritual, although I haven’t worked it out in a while. Typically I don’t really have control over what I want to write about: I see something cool on the internet and a scene pops fully formed into my head. That’s not the end of the ritual, because as you know, between imagining the scene and sitting down to write it the image has a nasty habit of vanishing into nothingness. So I usually sit down and write down a very short idea of what I want this to be. Maybe just as long as a title. Just something to jog my memory every time I look up. Less something I came up with and more a habit my English class left with me. If I get stuck, then I write down an outline of what I want to happen next, just a few sentences long. Basically defining the next point that story has to reach. And then I connect the dots.

As for what my environment has to be, I have no control over that. Epic orchestral music used to be really good but now I listen to it casually so I think it's lost all power over my creative brain. 

The only thing that's really consistent is that all my best ideas come to me when I ABSOLUTELY NEED to be doing something else. 

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

… I don’t think there is one. I’ve done my best to build these characters solely for the story I want to tell, which means that there isn’t a bit of fat on them that doesn’t need to be there. 

I’m not certain this is the best method. It kind of means that each character exists in this nebulous, uncertain state where any detail about them might change at any second each time I rethink my plot and worldbuilding. As such, I’m not certain I can say I know my characters very well at all.

35. What’s your favorite writing rule to smash into smithereens?

Recently, it's the one that goes: Just Start Writing. I’ve been watching this video series by a youtuber named Local. (if you look up Avatar: Way of Water you should find a video essay of his). His thought is that the popular advice “just start writing” does more harm than good, because if you write without knowing what your story is about then you increase your risk of burnout and of getting attached to scenes and ideas that make your story weaker, meaning they don’t serve the central theme. I don’t completely agree with every idea of his, but they’re very well thought out and you should totally give him a listen. 

So I’ve been outlining like mad recently. Rethinking a lot of my worldbuilding and plot so that it revolves around a single theme. I could probably shave a lot more off of it, but just rethinking the world in this light makes it easier to slide in things I like without worrying about what the audience will think. 

[iwadori]

hello! I love your works so much! Can I request an angst to comfort scenario for #21 on your prompt list?

“It’s my fault for trusting you”

Feel free to use whichever character(s) you like!!

When the haikyu boys neglect you for another girl PT 3

Part One Part Two Part Three Part four Part Five

Word Count: 2.7K

Genre: angst,fluff

masterlist

Akaashi

You and Akaashi were beautiful people

Probably the most attractive pair of young adults that anyone can find

You were both top tier models in the industry

You always had a little rivalry between you but you always promised each other to never let it affect your ‘relationship’

“Beautiful darling, your beautiful” praised your photographer as you finished your shoot giving you air kisses on your cheeks. You thanked him and the rest of the staff and entered your dressing room sighing.

“Rough day?” Asked a voice, startling you a bit. You looked up to see your boyfriend, Akaashi Keiji sitting in the corner of your dressing room on a love seat.  

“Gosh Keiji you scared me” clutching your chest dramatically “But yes, the day has been tiring Fabio has really been overworking me lately” you complained. Akaashi walks towards you and gave you a peck on the cheek “Aww poor baby” he cooed mockingly, “but don’t worry ‘bout it Y/N your sucess will be all be worth it eventually” he says making you smile.

“and besides, you’ve got a shoot with me soon anyways” he winks, making you chuckle. You finished removing your make-up as Akaashi tells you about his shoot today and Bokuto’s (your fellow model friend) antics.  

You and Akaashi first laid eyes on eachother when you were both up and coming models, you both are under the same company. At first, both of your agents decided to make you spend time with each other to push the narrative of you being a couple anyways. However, since you and Akaashi had great natural chemistry it made your relationship great and made for a great photo too.  

As much as the public loved your relationship and the saucy photos you tend to make together, they also thrived of the slight rivalry you guys had together or the times when you guys bother shot with other people (since it was easy for a fan to make a new ship off of two people literally standing next to each other.)

You spent the next day having what you and Akaashi called a ‘rest day,’ you both specifically clear your schedules for every 2nd and 4th saturday of each month to not do any work-related for the day and just bask in each other’s companies (as you were both busy and barely got enough time to see one another.)

You watched multiple movies, made your own homemade cookies and dinner, had pillow fights, built forts. You both were having so much fun, until you both got a call...Just then, the vibe changed you went from your free-spirited fun selfs back into work mode.

Your agent told you that two brands *Insert big fashion designer brand here* and *Insert another big fashion designer brand here* were having some form of standoff. To be honest, you didn’t really care about the context of the shoot(s) in this case, as your agents call ruined your day. They wanted you and Tsukishima Kei, to do some competing shoots and promotional videos for their brand against the other designer.

After getting all your information from your agent, you go back into the living and see Akaashi sitting down thinking deeply about something. “What was your call about?” you inquire sitting down next to him.

“Oh just some silly designer brand competition thing.” he mindlessly replies, still thinking deeply.

“Yeah same. So what’s got you thinking all deeply then?” you ask

“My fellow model is going to be Kiyoko Shimuzu” he sighed, making you blink repeatedly before immediately saying “You can’t do the shoot”

Kiyoko Shimuzu was japans beauty. Everybody loved her, she’s been a model since she was a child everyone wanting a grasp on her looks. The guys wanted her, the girls wanted to be here. Kiyoko Shimuzu was a force to be reckon with.

The real problem at hand wasn’t her stunning looks, popularity and fame. It was her connection with Akaashi. Before Akaashi went big and met you, he was Kiyoko’s boyfriend (well ex-boyfriend now) and they broke up because of long-distance or something like that.

However, to you, Kiyoko’s feelings for your boyfriend have never went away. Whenever you guys bumped into each other at red carpet events or runway shows, she always seemed to linger a bit too long around your boyfriend, which definitely wasn’t to your liking.

Akaashi lifted up his head from inside his palms and looked at you as if you had grown another head. “What do you mean, ‘I can’t do the shoot’” he asked in disbelief

“I mean, you can’t do the shoot” you reiterated not understanding why he didn’t understand.  

Akaashi sighs before putting his face back in his hands to think, “Well I know you got to the shoot aswell Y/N who’s yours with.”

“Tsukki” You said nonchalantly say as if it was nothing, making Akaashi look at you again as if you were fully crazy before he had a chance to speak you cut him off saying “Don’t even start Akaashi.”

You and Tsukishima Kei, have best friends since you were kids. You weren’t romantic in any way shape or form, well at least you weren’t. Akaashi always claimed that that Tsukishima was in love with you, that you and Tsukishima were the perfect example of every ‘childhood friends-lovers trope’ ever, which to you wasn’t true. Everything between you and Tsukishima was and still is completely platonic which you can’t say the same for Akaashi and Kiyoko.

“You’re not doing the shoot” he says firmly as if he was your father.  

“Oh so you can do your shoot with your literally EX GIRLFRIEND, but I can’t do mine with my best friend... yeah make sense” you say standing up, astounded.

“Y/N chill, If you’re so adamant about me not doing it with Shi- Kiyoko, then I wont” he says pulling your arm down making you land on him “and you better not do it with ‘Tsukki’” he mocked.

“Okay so none of us are doing the shoots?” you ask looking up at him  

“Yup” he says  

“Pinky promise,” you joked sticking out your pinky in his face.

“Pinky promise” he agreed hooking his finger around yours.

For the next month it seemed you were booked busy, you barely got to see your boyfriend as his agent had him running around all of Japan and even had him booked in some places in Europe for this month. Of course, you missed him, but you understand how busy it can be doing your line of work. You’ve been quite busy too, doing the usual shoots and runways.

Although he was busy, Akaashi basically went radio silent on you. You still expected him to reply to some of your messages or at least call once or twice when he had the chance, since he must have 10 minutes of break time and that's the bare minimum.

It’s been two weeks since you last saw Akaashi (and that was on your saturday rest day) and you were expecting him to come over today so you could have another. Since of course, Saturday ‘rest days’ were basically a tradition for you and Akaashi before you even started dating.

You had no text from Akaashi explaining his lateness/absense, so you just figured he wasn’t coming putting a damper on your day. You spent the day lounging around and shoving your face with your favourite snacks and food.

You get a text from Tsukishima which read:

Tsukishima: 1 Image Attached  

Tsukishima: Looks whose boyfriend stumbled on set...

You didn’t respond as you were shocked at the sight you saw, the image was a picture of Akaashi and Kiyoko on set doing shots for the *insert the other rich designer brand* the shoot that you both agreed you wouldn’t do, which was also a LINGERE brand.  

You felt betrayed, you both agreed to not do the shoot and it’s not like you did do yours. You made sure to turn it down the day you made your agreement. And he skipped on your traditional saturday ‘rest day’ without even giving you any word of him not planning on arriving.

You didn’t know what to do, do you confront him about it? Or do you wait for him to approach you? Since he would plan on telling you about this right? You eventually messaged Tsukishima a ‘thanks’ and you decided how you were going to handle the situation. Pop up on Akaashi and Kiyoko at the photoshoot.

You knew where it was at, since you had the address already from when your agent first offered you the idea. You drove to the place in a breakneck speed, strutting in there like a woman on a mission (which you technically were.) You decided to wait in Akaashi’s dressing room, not wanting to cause a scene at the shoot which would be bad for yours, Akaashi’s and Kiyoko’s image and would be a waste of the time of the staff and photographer there.

Akaashi finally finished the shoot and entered his room with a sigh not realising that you were sitting in the corner of his room. “Did you have a rough time?” you ask mockingly making him jump and his eyes widen as you were the last person he expected to be there. “Why so shocked, you weren’t expecting me?” you still keep the same mocking tone in your speech.

“Y/N I-” He started  

“Y/N what?” You interrupted “Y/N I’m sorry for basically ghosting you for a month? I'm sorry for doing a shoot with someone who I know is still in love with me? I’m sorry for lying to you? I’m sorry for skipping out on our rest day with no explanation on where I am?” you stare at him as he stares back speechless.

“Oh, am I missing something?” you continue “Oh yes ‘Y/n I’m sorry for doing the shoot that we both agreed that we weren’t doing’” you sit down and wait for him to reply.

Akaashi puts his head down in shame, not really knowing what to say. Because of his silence, you roll your eyes and get up fed up with his lack of explanation. Before you fully leave Akaashi blocks your way with slight tears in his eyes “I had no other choice Y/N, I had to do all those shoots and travel other places with Kiyoko because sh-”

“Wait, that’s where you were?” you shout “Gallivanting around the country with HER!” you extend your arm pointing outside the door before you turn trying to leave again.

“N-No No Y/N you’ve got to listen to me” he said putting your hands on my shoulder “She has something, on me and I-I couldn’t I can’t get out of it. It’s deeper than just a simple shoot.” You were confused but you were so upset you just didn’t want to hear it so instead of listening to your boyfriend you decided to say “you’re so full of shit Akaashi” making him gasp at your coldness and the use of his last name. “ but hey I guess thats my fault for trusting you”

You finally left the room and went to go get a breather for a second with tears sparking in your eyes. You leaned against the wall and whispered “fuck” frustrated with the whole situation. Making you jump, Tsukishima said “you should go talk to him you know.”  

“What do you know Tsukki” he cringed at the nickname

“I know more than you Y/N, just go talk to him.” he said making you squint your eyes at him wondering what information he held.

When you walked back to Akaashi’s dressing room practicing an apology in your head. But you paused your arrival hearing Akaashi talking to the one and only, Kiyoko Shimuzu in his room.

“Let’s face it Akaashi, now that I’ve got this sex tape of us, I basically own you.” she said to him making your eyes widen.  

You decided the smartest thing to do was to pull out your phone and record as much as the conversation as you possibly could. Because you could already tell Akaashi was in a bind.

“The next thing I want you to do is...” she continued acting as if she was thinking “break it with Y/N!”

“No certainly not Kiyoko, you’re going too far.” he said making you smile internally that he still defended your relationship. “Me and Y/N are definitely NOT breaking up.”

“Akaashi are you forgetting that I have something over you.” she pulls out her phone and she plays a video, which you can only assume is the sex tape. You can hear a bunch of moans and groans which made your stomache ache.

Tired of hearing this, you burst into the room and say “What the fuck are you doing Kiyoko”  

“Oh Y/N how lovely for you to join us...” she said with a smile, “I was just discussing with your ‘boyfriend’ plans for our next shoots.”

“I always knew you were a bitch.” you say shocking your head at her.

“What do you mean Y/N?” she says with a fake smile, not knowing that you were listening in on your conversation “Actually Akaashi was telling me something he had to tell you... isn’t that right Akaashi.” you both looked over at him and he was scared and speechless.

“Oh you mean how you’ve been blackmailing him for the past two weeks...” you accuse  

“You have no proof of that.” She taunted  

“Oh do I..” you rebuttal then pressing play on the recording you just took watching as both Kiyoko and Akaashi look shocked. Kiyoko scurries out the room knowing she’s been caught leaving you with a triumphant smile.

You sit down, gesturing Akaashi to sit next to you. “Akaashi, I’m so sorry for not listening to you earlier I felt so betrayed thinking that you went agaisnt out agreement, but I guess I was just being a self-obsessed bitch” you say with you now looking down in shame.

“Y/N” he says with you still not meeting his eye “Y/N look at me” he lifted your chin up so you met his eye “It’s fine, It’s completely fine you didn’t know of course you didn’t know, how would you know of sex tape I unknowingly did back when I was 16!” he exclaims “Its fine, we’re good” he pulls you into a hug and kisses you on the forehead.

After you both calm down, Akaashi explains how Kiyoko started to blackmail him and how the agency loved the idea of them two being together (not the blackmailing) as it created a jealousy storyline between you and her and how every time they met she kept proposing ridiculous demands.

“Also, how did you know I ended doing the shoot?” he asks

“Oh a little bird told me” you tease  

“You mean a 6ft2 bird with blonde hair and a shit personality.” he retorts making you laugh  

“Heyy don’t be so mean, if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t of came to save the day.”

“True, I’d give him that.”

Eventually, you and Akaashi go to your agency and present all your evidence and claims that Kiyoko was blackmailing Akaashi. Although they were upset, that Akaashi did partake in a sex tape they knew that they’d be an even bigger scandal if you presented your news that Japans sweetheart Kiyoko Shimuzu was blackmailing Akaashi Keiji. So the agency thought it was in everyones best interest if they got Kiyoko to sign an NDA saying that she will never bring forth or share the Sex Tape to anyone and she’ll agree to be dropped from the agency.

Your life was great now, with Kiyoko off your back and Akaashi being back to his usual self you couldn’t wish for anything more. You ended up doing the shoot persuading the design brand person (whatever the name for it is) to agree to let you do the shoot together instead of with other people. Both brands let you, because who wouldn’t want Akaashi Keiji and L/N Y/N to do a shoot together?

AUTHORS NOTE: this is the longest work ive written for a single character and i am TIRED lol..I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed my other works so I hope you enjoy this one.. to be honest I think with my works I start off strong and end shitly :// However I wanted to do something different today by making them models instead of students so I hope you like it. Now im off to read some fanfic so you guys have a good day!! <3 

[adashofniallandasprinkleoflunacy]

i had a craving for some warm apple cider and it reminded me of etrry. he would fuck that shit up omg omg christian girl fall is totally alienrry he would love going to the apple orchards and shit

The first time he tries a pumpkin spice latte, his feedback makes Y/N’s stomach flutter with endearment.

Harry smack his lips as he savors the spices and cozy notes in the drink, furrowing his brows in thought as he picks through all of the different emotions the taste produces. After a moment, his entire body relaxes, and a homey smile makes its way across his dimpled cheeks. “It tastes the way a warm hug feels.”

Y/N’s lips twitch as she sips from her own drink, letting his interpretation sink in. He’s recently taken to relating flavors to feelings and experiences, and the analogies he conjures up always amuse her to no end. “That was pretty poetic of you.”

Harry simpers over the brim of the coffee cup, hugging it with both hands as indulges another gulp. “Thank you, I think.”

She can’t help but notice how big his hands are— how they easily dwarf the paper mug, and how pretty his nails look covered in sage green polish (she’d painted them that color for the sake of irony, and he’d thought the joke was hilarious). The more she dwells on every detail of his hands— the veins that chisel over the back as he tightens his hold, or the length of his nimble fingers, or the small alien hieroglyphic tattoo along the area between his index finger and thumb— the more her thoughts derail towards the graphic end of the spectrum. Specifically, how he’d had those same hands all over her body the night prior.

How they had been tangled in her hair as they stumbled towards her room blindly, too lost in the sensation of each other’s lips to give anything else much attention. How his hands had felt as they hurriedly coasted down her chest and along the bottom of her sweatshirt, pulling it off in one swift motion so he could taste every inch of her skin, his tongue leaving a sweltering heat along her cleavage. How they had gripped her knees and spread them open as he situated himself onto his stomach on the mattress, a faint white cast sheathing his irises as he’d seen the way she was already dripping in anticipation. How his palms had held her down to the bed as he’d bobbed his head between her thighs, his tongue lapping at her sloppily as he’d moaned into her clit, the sound wet and guttural as his back muscles visibly tightened while she’d tugged at his curls and scratched at his scalp. How one hand had grasped her hip desperately as the other wrapped around her throat, its first two fingers weighing on her tongue as she’d sucked on them feverishly, wisps of his name escaping her throat as he’d pounded raw pleasure into the pit of her tummy. How he’d whimpered and gasped into her ear as his nails dug memories into the skin of her waist, and how she’d caught a glimpse of his fingerprints this morning in the mirror, dusted across her flesh in the form of bruises.

Harry’s voice yanks the girl out of her head. “What are you drinking?”

Y/N isn’t really one to crave coffee during the afternoon, so she’d picked up a bottle of rosé on the way home from grocery shopping, right before going to the drive-through at the nearest Starbucks to get him his beverage. He’d seen a commercial for it on TV the other day, and had expressed his interest for it during breakfast as she’d shoveled scrambled eggs onto a plate while he cut up a green apple across the kitchen island, popping a slice into his mouth while neatly organizing the others along his circular platter. And how could she say no to him, especially when he’d been standing there with such a hopeful look in those olive green puppy eyes, his cheeks puffed out with fruit and her teeth marked all over his neck and chest.

“It’s, uhm—” She clears her throat roughly, expelling the image of Harry’s toned stomach and thick happy trail from her brain. She snaps her gaze up to meet his, and the blissfully unaware innocence behind his tone and over his features makes blood rush to her cheeks. “It’s rosé.”

Harry sets down his cup carefully on her coffee table, shifting further back onto the couch and slouching into the cushions, his legs spreading open casually as he settles in. “That’s a type of alcohol, correct?”

Y/N glances down at his thighs momentarily, where his mesh shorts are riding up dangerously high. “Yep.”

If he notices, he doesn’t to show it, seen in how his accent maintains the same nonchalant curiosity as before. He throws an arm around her shoulders easily, scooting his body closer to her own across the sofa. He’s gotten way touchier since they started sleeping together, and she can’t say she doesn’t like it. She likes it more than she should, probably.

“The same liquid in those spiked ciders you got me last time? The sour one that incapacitates you?”

Y/N scoffs lightly at his accurate description, willingly leaning into his torso and folding her legs up under herself as she props her wine glass on her knee. “Mmhm. But that only happened because you drank the entire pack like a moron, remember?”

Harry rolls his eyes at her chastising tone and flat expression. “How was I supposed to know?”

“Maybe you should have asked me before randomly drinking things from that shelf in the fridge.”

“You were in the shower.”

“You could have waited.”

“I was thirsty.”

“There’s a water filter at the sink.”

“I wanted juice.”

“There was grape juice beside the milk.”

“I wanted apple and the bottles had pictures of them on the label. My apologies for using my practical thinking skills and measures of deduction.”

Y/N sighs in good-natured exasperation, shoving him with her shoulder as revenge for his snarky comebacks. “Well, look where your practical thinking skills and measures of deduction got you— bent over the toilet bowl with puke shooting out of your nostrils. Now you know that anything with the word, ‘alcohol’ on it needs to be taken in moderation. Right?”

“Absolutely.”

“Good.” The young woman takes a sip from her glass, savoring it patiently as the sweet and tangy flavor filters through her taste buds. “Lesson learned, then.”

“Unfortunately.” The alien deadpans, pinching along the underside of her underarm just to feel her squirm and squeak. He smiles childishly at her reaction, giggling as she curses at him under her breath.

“You almost made me spill my drink.” She grumbles, getting comfortable once more against his warm body. “And this is the good stuff, too. I’d break the bottle over your head.”

“A bit rash, I think.” Harry snorts sarcastically, eyeing the pink moscato for a moment as it swishes inside her chilled cup, her fingers leaving smudges in the condensation. He then lilts his gaze back towards her own, his tone soft and full of wonder. “Can I try?”

“Promise not to throw up all over my floor again?” The girl quips tauntingly, jutting her chin towards her rug symbolically.

Harry exhales in surrendered embarrassment, lifting his hand and hooking their pinkies together. “Pinky swear.”

Y/N nods her head in the agreement, fending off a fond grin as she lifts the glass to his plush, rosy lips. “Go ahead, then, Area 51.”

The alien snorts softly at the nickname, well aware of its origins now that he’s learned more about Earth’s relationship with extraterrestrial components. Those documentaries on the Discovery Channel are quite educational.

Harry sifts his mouth over the rim of the glass, making eye contact with Y/N to let her know he’s ready for her to pour the drink in. She tilts the wine, watching it funnel past his lips to gauge how much is an adequate amount. She pulls back, observing as he nurses the liquid pensively, his brows creasing like before as he distinguishes all the different flavors present. He smacks his lips again, blinking slowly as he forms his opinion, licking at a drop that had escaped the corner of his mouth.

“So?” Y/N inquires, raising an eyebrow expectantly. “What’s it taste like?”

Harry cranes his sight over to her, the studious expression on his face melting into one of slight smugness, as if what he’s about to say is something amusing. The left edge of his mouth jolts upwards, a sly smirk carving its way across his face as he presses his tongue along the inside of his cheek almost arrogantly, his eyes raking down her body in an objectifying once-over. His descent stops at her clasped thighs, which he focuses on for a few seconds longer than she deems acceptable, and then his gaze travels back up to lock with her own. There’s now a different type of darkness to the jade swirling around his pupils, electrified by something he has yet to express to her fully, but seems excited to do so.

The young man leans forward, and Y/N almost falls back at the sudden closeness of their proximity. He ghosts his lips over the curve of her jaw and across the slope of her cheekbone, stopping at the shell of her ear as if he wants to share a secret. He drags his pillowy lips over the area with every intention to rile her up, his skin cool and damp from the beverage, but unbelievably warm beneath the initial shock of that caveat. His breath carries the same juxtaposing sensations— it’s cold on impact, but heats up the farther it travels across the side of her face and down to the pulse in her neck. His words are low and heavy, but sultry and smooth like the wine they’d shared; a seductive whisper that intoxicates her in a fiery manner that no amount of alcohol ever could.

“It tastes like sex. It tastes the way you do between your thighs, and it feels the way you feel when I’m buried between your legs. And if I close my eyes and savor it, I can taste you whining my name into my mouth, and I can taste you begging for it on my tongue.”

[chaotic-jjk-fiction]

Perfect Puppy

Gojo Satoru x Fem Puppy reader x Nanami Kento

Happy Valentine’s Day! This fic isn’t specifically theme for Valentine’s day, but it is cute and fluffy. 

TW: Poly Fic, Puppy reader, Reader is adopted from shelter, she/her pronouns used, Reader wears a collar, Reader is essentially just a pet, cute fluff

Gojo sat on the counter as Nanami cooked, swimming his legs and watching his lover work. Despite the fact that the two of them worked together, it felt like they barely spent any time together. Domestic moments were a rare occurrence for the two, and Gojo was enjoying it fully. He also figured it was to the perfect time to bring up something that had been on his mind for a bit. He sighed loudly hoping to get his lovers attention. 

“What is it?” Nanami asked rolling his eyes at his husband’s antics. Gojo chose to ignore that and express his thoughts anyways,

“I want a pet.” He then paused to see how Nanami would react. 

“Like a goldfish?

“Noooo,” Gojo whined, “Like a dog or maybe a cat.” Nanami stopped for a moment to take in what he had just heard.

“We can’t get a pet like that with our job, you know that.” He paused, “And what makes you bring this up now anyway?” Gojo pushed himself off his perch and wrapped his arms around Nanami’s waist as he stood at the stove. 

“I’ve always wanted a pet but I was never allowed to have one as a kid. I brang it up now because we’ve finally got a house where we have the space.” Nanami pondered Gojo’s explanation before moving to grab some plates out of the cabinet, breaking free from his lover’s embrace. 

“You do know you’d have to feed it, walk it, and take care of it in every other way?” He continued to serve the food as he waited for Gojo’s answer.

“I know that. And of course I would take care of it.” Nanami sighed as he placed the plates of food on the table at their respective places. 

“Alright Satoru, I suppose we can look into getting a pet if you really want one.” Gojo was ecstatic. He spent the rest of the night talking about what he wanted in the pet. 

“I want them to love me, they have to be good with cuddles, I want them to like walks, but not need them, ooh and maybe just a touch of separation anxiety so that they are always happy to see me!” Nanami was happy to see his husband so excited and he just hoped it wasn’t just another one of Gojo's whims, a pet was starting to sound nice.

The next day Gojo didn’t bring it up as they got ready for work and he didn’t seem a bit more excited than normal. Nanami couldn’t help but wonder if his partner had forgotten their conversation. They didn’t see each other until it was late into the afternoon. Gojo was bounding up to Nanami with a folder in his hands.

“I printed out a list of the adoptable pets at this shelter so we can look over them on the way there!” Apparently, Gojo had not forgotten their conversation at dinner, and Nanami soon found himself being dragged into a waiting car. On the way to the adoption center that Gojo had chosen the two of them poured over the file. 

“Look at how cute that one is. Oh, but look at that one’s ears. AHHH they’re all so cute!” Nanami couldn’t help but feel his heart warm at the sight of his overexcited husband. They had to quickly stop back at their place first to take some pictures of their living situation as proof that they had a suitable home to own a pet. As soon as they had done that they were right back on course to the shelter.   

“I really can’t decide which of them I like more. Do you have a favorite so far?” Gojo turned to Nanami hoping to get some input on the pets they were looking at. 

“Actually,” Nanami paused “There is one that caught my eye.”

“Which one?” Gojo was eager to know which pet he found of interest. Nanami ruffled through the papers looking for their page. Upon finding it he held it in the middle of the two of them so that Gojo could see it too. 

“She’s so cute, I see why you like her.” Nanami nodded to affirm Gojo’s words. The pet that had caught his eye was a puppy girl. 

“We’ll request to me meet her when we get there!” Gojo was pleased by his husband’s choice and was hoping that you would be everything he wanted in a pet so that it would all work out. 

As soon as they arrived, Gojo was bounding up to the front desk asking the receptionist to help them meet you so they could assess compatibility. The receptionist handed them the proper paperwork so that they could do just that and Nanami filled it out while Gojo handed him the photos of their house to keep on file. Once Nanami handed the paperwork back they looked over it before directing the couple to follow him. They walked into a back area with a long hallway of rooms where prospective adopters could meet the pets they were thinking of adopting. 

“Please wait in here while I bring her to you.” The receptionist bowed before closing the door to the room they had been given behind him. Nanami and Gojo sat down on the sofa-like-bench in the room. Gojo was getting antsy, “I can’t wait to meet her!” His excitement was a little contagious and Nanami found himself also with a swelling feeling of anticipation. They didn’t have to wait for very long though, and soon the receptionist was opening the door to reveal himself and you standing right next to him. You looked just like your picture, almost cuter if they were being honest. The receptionist guided you into the room before making his exit once again. 

“If you need anything please don’t hesitate to push the button on the wall.” and with that, he was gone. Gojo and Nanami now focused their attention on you.  You stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, tail down unsure of whether or not to trust the gentlemen in front of you. Gojo motioned for you to join them, you hesitantly took a few steps forward before freezing again. Gojo was loving how shy you were, while on the other hand he just wanted you to love him immediately. Gojo once again patted the space in between him and Nanami eagerly inviting you to sit there. You took a few more steps, finally reaching the end of the bench, before turning around and sitting down. Although you felt awkward being in-between the two complete strangers, you couldn’t deny that your heart was pounding with excitement at the idea of being adopted. Gojo couldn’t stop himself and he brought his hand up to your head, lightly petting your ears. His action made you shiver and lean into his touch. This only served to fuel his eagerness in touching you, and his light strokes turned into a much more vigorous scratching of behind your ears. Nanami watched the way your tail started wagging and how content you now looked under Gojo’s touch. He realized that you were the one, at least in his mind, and he hoped that Gojo would agree. 

“Aww, does puppy like that?” Gojo cooed as he continued to scratch behind your ears, the little rumble coming from your chest was enough of a confirmation for both of them. Nanami did not personally feel the need to join Gojo in petting you, seeing how happy his lover is was enough. He continued to watch over the course of 30 minutes as the two of you bonded. He knew that Gojo and him would be adding a third member to their family.  

“Have you made your decision?” Nanami asked looking down at the pair who had ended up on the floor of the room. Gojo and you paused your petting/cuddling and looked up at him. Nanami elaborated,

“Would you like to look at other pets, or have are you made up you mind Satoru?” You looked up at Gojo with your biggest puppy eyes. You longed for adoption, and the attention Gojo was giving you was all you ever wanted. One look at your cute expression was all too much for Gojo, 

“I’ve made up my mind! I want her.” Nanami nodded in agreement and pushed the call button on the wall. Nanami stood when the receptionist popped in a minute later, 

“Did you need something?”

“We would like to adopt her today,” Nanami stated looking from you and Gojo to the receptionist in the doorway. 

“We need to review the images of your home you provided and there is more paperwork to fill out-”

“That is ok, can we start on the paperwork while the photos are being reviewed?”

“Of course, I’ll go get it right away.” He bowed and quickly exited the room. Nanami was immediately encased in his lover’s arms as Gojo threw himself at Nanami. 

“Thank you!” Gojo sang burying his head in the crook of his lover’s neck. Gojo soon broke away from him though and returned his attention back to you. 

“Did ya hear the puppy? You’re going to be coming home with us!” You couldn’t control how fast your tail started wagging at his words. It didn’t take long for the receptionist to come back with the required paperwork. Nanami filled it out as Gojo resumed playing with you, all the while telling you how perfect your life was going to be and all the nice things you would have. It didn’t take too long to fill out the forms and soon Nanami was once again pressing the call button. He handed the man the completed forms, 

“Your house has been approved. You may come out and get your care instructions packet, please look over them and make sure you don’t have any questions before leaving.” The receptionist opened the door wide for the three of you. Gojo took your hand and lead you out of the room, Nanami followed behind the two of you. Once back in the main entrance area of the shelter where they had first entered, they were handed a small stack of papers. The care packet turned out to be very straight forward. It had a section on feeding, training, your immunization record, medical things to look out for, and so on. 

“Are you ready to go to your new home?” Gojo cooed to you, watching your ears perk up. 

“Not so fast,” Nanami interjected, “We still need to get you a collar.” 

“Oh right,” Gojo remembered. That didn’t take very long though as the shelter had an attached store. Soon you were fitted with a cute collar that Gojo had chosen with your input, and had a name tag with your name and their numbers. 

“Alright puppy, let’s get you home,” Gojo chirped. He had insisted that you sit on his lap for the entire car ride back to their place. Gojo continued to play with your hair and ears, while Nanami finally made a move to touch you, silently allowing his hand to rest on your thigh. It didn’t take long to reach their apartment. Once inside Gojo was eager to give you the full tour of your new living space, 

“This is the living room, we watch movies and relax there. This is the kitchen where we eat. This is the guest bathroom. Oh! And this is the bedroom. You’ll be sleeping here with us.” You were at Gojo’s heels the entire time, joyfully following him and experiencing your new home. 

“Hmm… according to the schedule the shelter had you on, it’s about time for you to eat dinner. Are you hungry?” Nanami asked looking up from the papers in his hand. Your tail halted its back and forth motion, taking in his words before it resumed its wagging. You nodded your head, bringing your hand to your tummy to emphasize your hunger. 

“Alright then, let’s fix that.” Nanami made his way back to the kitchen and pulled out the leftovers from last night. As he heated them up for the three of you, Gojo lead you to the table and promptly pulled you onto his lap. It didn’t take Nanami very long to prepare the food, and soon he was setting down two full plates for them, and just one bowl of plain rice for you.

“The instructions said to stick to plain food for the first few days to make sure that the stress of adjusting to a new environment, your doesn’t upset your stomach,” Nanami explained noticing your pouty expression at the dull meal. 

“Cheer up puppy,” Gojo chimed in, “close your eyes and I’ll feed it to you so you can pretend it’s something yummy.” You obliged, closing your eyes and opening your mouth allowing Gojo to feed you. Nanami watched as his husband praised you for eating all your food like the good girl you were. Not too long after finishing the rice, you felt yourself growing a bit tired. You were still on Gojo’s lap as he ate his food, and you took advantage of your position. Nuzzling your nose into his neck before resting your head on his shoulder and falling asleep. Gojo had to contain his excitement as not to wake you once he realized what had happened.  

“Look at her,” Gojo whispered with glee to Nanami. 

“She’s definitely adorable.” Nanami agreed, standing up after taking one last look last you as began clearing the plates. After he finished cleaning up, he made his way back to his lover who had remained in the exact same position as not to disturb you. 

“Here, let me take her.” Nanami moved to lift you off Gojo, cradling you to him in bridal position. He carefully started walking to the bedroom, Gojo following behind him. The way your hand took hold of Nanami’s suit jacket as he carried you was enough to make him melt. Gojo pulled back the covers on the bed and Nanami gently laid you down on the mattress. He had to remove the hand of yours that was gripping him and guided it down with the rest of you. The two of them changed quickly so they could join you in the bed. As soon as Gojo was changed he made his way to your side, wrapping his arms around you, pulling your back to his chest. Nanami followed his lead and laid on the other side of you on his back. What he was not expecting was you to wiggle away from Gojo in your sleep and cling to his chest. Gojo frowned, 

“That’s not fair, she’s supposed to love me more.”

[mrs-gucci]

A Different Kind of Urgent {Charlie Barber x Reader}

author’s notes: hellooooo! my penpal friend, a fellow adam driver rat, sent me a print of a charlie picture (that I’d seen a gajillion times before, mind you) and for some reason, I thirsted hard. so, naturally, I wrote a fic inspired by the picture. the reader in this story is a college professor, but it doesn’t really contribute to any ‘essential’ parts of the story (aka the smutty parts). it’s just her job lol

warnings: smut. some fluff. masturbation. semi-public smut. the sending of nudes (well, lingerie pics, to be specific). charlie’s dad outfits™️. cigarette smoking during sex. uhh tennis shoe kink??

(possible) tw’s: semi-public sex. semi-public masturbation. tobacco use (as is canon for Charlie’s character). implied age gap (everyone’s over 21, no more than 10 years).

You’re in the middle of class when Charlie texts you. Your phone buzzes and buzzes on your desk so much so that you have to stop your lecture for a few seconds, worried that something urgent has happened.

Well, something did happen, and it was pretty urgent, but not exactly in the way you’d expected.

-Charlie: I know you’re teaching class right now kid.- -Charlie: But I need you.- -Charlie: Right now.-

A shiver runs down your spine as you read his words on the screen.

-Y/N: I’ve got like 45 more minutes of lecture, baby, I can’t.-

He growls under his breath, cock straining in his tan khakis.

-Charlie: Fuck.- -Charlie: Can you send me a picture? Just need to see your pretty body, kid.-

-Y/N: Say please, Charlie.-

Charlie groans in sexual frustration, hips bucking up in his desk chair.

-Charlie: Jesus fucking christ, fucking brat. PLEASE! PLEASE send me a picture!-

You smirk, picking out one of the lingerie photos you’d taken when you were home alone one night. You’ve been waiting for the right time to whip them out and...well, this seems like the right time.

-Y/N: Attachment 1 image- -Y/N: Knock yourself out. Take a picture when you’re done, and I’ll be over as soon as class is finished.-

His shaky hands scramble to type in his phone passcode and click on your message, a strangled moan leaving his lips at the picture you chose. He’d never seen this one before, never seen this set of lingerie before.  He unbuckles his belt and almost tears the button clean off his khakis as he pulls his cock out, tip already red and drooling with precum. 

Before he starts anything, he quickly runs over to his office door, locking it to keep anyone from walking in. 

His navy cardigan suddenly feels almost suffocating and he sheds it without hesitation, unbuttoning his dress shirt and parting it, revealing his undershirt. 

Wait...you want a picture. Fuck.

An idea comes to him and he whimpers, equal parts aroused and nervous about giving it a try. God he hasn’t touched himself since the divorce proceedings, just needing to blow off some fucking steam, but you’ve reignited his sexual passion, overwhelmingly so, and seemingly even more than before. Maybe even more than ever, if he’s honest with himself.

He feels like a teenager again, both completely smitten with you while at the same time incredibly horny for you.

Charlie stands up on shaky legs and shoves all the paperwork off his desk, clearing a roomy spot right in the center. He bites his lip as he props his phone up on his desktop computer with the picture of you pulled up. Jerking off with just his hand wouldn’t be enough this time around, a small part of him just knew it. He needs to fuck you, fuck something.

He positions his hands around the edge of his desk, leaving his thumbs right at the top, putting them in a wonky sort of ‘o’ shape. He adjusts so that the sharp edge is pressing against his palm before experimentally thrusting his length forward into the hole he’s created with his thumbs, immediately groaning in pleasure. 

“O-Oh, kid.”

He whispers, picking up a slow thrusting rhythm, eyes squeezed shut as he imagines your pussy.

“Such a good little pussy, my good f-fucking girl.” A line of sweat has already begun forming on his forehead as he moves a bit quicker, growling wildly with each thrust. He’s embarrassingly close already. “God, j-jesus fucking christ, gonna make me cum so f-fast, kid. I’m already s-so close, damnit.”

His hips grow desperate, bucking erratically into his grip. The drag of his cock against the faux wood surface feels absolutely incredible, and he barely even hears the desk begin to groan and shift against the floor of his office, too consumed with his impending orgasm.

“Yeah, you ready? Y-You fuckin’ ready for my big fat--fuck!--load in this pretty little--shit!--k-kitty?”

Just hearing him say the word aloud, his nickname for your cunt, has him cumming within moments. His vision blacks out for a second as his hips rut forward, a seemingly continuous stream of warm white cum painting his desktop. 

“Ahhhhh, fuuuuuuuck.”

He has to bury his mouth into his shirt arm to hide the cries that come from him, eyebrows knitted at the center of his forehead. His breathing is heavy as he begins coming down from his high, eyes flitting open and looking down at the mess he’d made. 

His load had gone across the entire width of his desk, and his eyes widened for a moment as his brain somehow comprehended to grab his phone and take a picture of the spread. 

-Charlie: Attachment 1 image- -Charlie: Come straight to my office when you get to the theater.-

You take a quick peek at the message from Charlie as your students pull out their workbooks, jaw dropping when you open the picture full-screen. Holy shit, he really did need it.

-Y/N: You sure you still have enough to fill me up with when I get there?-

-Charlie: I always have enough for you, kid. Gonna have it leaking out of you when you leave.-

You chew your lip, thinking of a quick yet clever response.

-Y/N: Is that a promise?-

He groans under his breath, chuckling lightly with a small smile.

-Charlie: Absolutely. Can’t wait to see you, kid.-

-Y/N: I’m excited too. I’ll be there in 20.-

The twenty minutes it takes for you to finish class and walk over to Exit Ghost feels like some of the longest in Charlie’s life, knee bouncing impatiently and eyes glued to the door. He twirls the Marlboro package in his hand, the clock behind his desk tick-tick-ticking the seconds away. 

Finally, a soft knock comes and, just in case it isn’t you, he stuffs the carton into his pocket. “Come in.”

Your head pokes through the door and you smile at him as you walk in, shutting and locking the door behind you. You immediately notice his outfit, specifically his shoes, which are propped up on his desk. 

He knows that you like how he dresses, especially when he dresses very dad-like. And those sneakers he has, the white ones with the blue lines on them...god, they drive you absolutely crazy and you have no idea why.

Your bags are quickly shoved off your shoulder by the impatient director, pulling you into his body as his lips attack yours fiercely. He notices the way you’re eyeing his outfit, and it’s then that he realizes what shoes he has on, the pair that you like so much. Oh, he could use that.

His grip on the meat of your hips tightens increasingly as the kiss heats up, lips eventually moving down to your neck. 

“Well, hello to you too.”

You say, laughing softly.

“Mmmm,” He hums onto your skin, lips littering kisses and small nibbles everywhere they can reach. “I missed you, kiddo, feels like forever since we’ve had time for something like this.”

Charlie’s large body presses you up against the door, hands eager to rid you of your pants. He quickly yanks them down to your ankles, fingers finding your clothed folds.

“I’ve got a staff meeting at two, baby. We h-have to be kind of quick...sorry.” You breathe, hand wrapping in his hair, tugging at the silky raven locks.

A small and slightly disappointed sigh leaves his lips, but nothing more is said on the matter. His movements do become a bit more rushed, though, digits dipping beneath the fabric to shove up into your entrance. 

Your legs spread instinctively, knees shaking as he finger-fucks you, thick digits scissoring inside you to prepare for his girth. Meanwhile, you try to focus on getting his belt and pants undone, but it’s awfully hard when his fingers feel so damn good.

He pulls away suddenly, sucking the juices off his fingers as his hungry eyes roam your figure. The carton of cigarettes presses against his thigh and he smirks, pulling his digits out with a lewd pop.

Charlie suddenly pulls you off the door, putting himself in your spot instead. He smirks, fingers running under your chin, keeping your head tilted up at him.

“Will you go open the window for me please, beautiful?”

You nod, rushing over to push it open, then come back over to stand in front of him.

“Good girl. Thank you.”

His pointer finger twirls and points to the floor while the other hand grabs the pack and lighter from his pants pocket.

“Now, turn around and bend over right here, hold your ankles or feet, or whatever.”

As you position yourself accordingly, he leans back against the door, legs spread and sneaker-clad feet planted on either side of you, right within your line of vision. He’s almost fully hard again already as he moves to free his cock from its khaki confines, undoing his pants just enough to have it out. 

Again, his cardigan feels suffocatingly hot, so he quickly pulls it off and tosses it away. He rolls the sleeves up on his button-up, a sight that makes your insides clench.

He jams a cigarette between his teeth, jaw clenching when he looks up and realizes that you’re bent over for him, in just the way he asked. Your glistening pussy’s on full display as you wiggle your ass a bit, his cock bobbing and twitching with excitement. 

“Oh kid, you’re dripping.” Charlie whispers, almost to himself, hand kneading one of the globes of your ass.

You chuckle softly. “Hey, baby? As much as I love hearing and feeling you, my legs are getting kinda tired.”

Laughing, Charlie says a quick ‘sorry’ before holding and pulling your hips back, lining himself up with your soaked entrance. He pulls you back some more, impaling you on his cock, head falling back against the door as he does so. 

His hands shakily ignited the small flame on his lighter, bringing it up until the tip of the cigarette turned orange before flipping the cap back on and shoving it back in his pocket. He takes a long drag, groaning on the exhale. 

He keeps one hand on your hip while the other spreads out on your lower back, guiding you back and forth over his shaft slowly, gently.

“Thaaat’s it, just like this, kid.”

Your eyes roll into the back of your head, the impossibly deep angle created with this new position has it feeling like he’s reaching into your guts. Plus, with the natural up-curve of his cock, he’s brushing all the right spots inside you.

“C-Charlie…”

The familiar and comforting scent of Charlie’s cigarettes fills your nostrils, a haze of smoke surrounds your joined bodies. He continues to move you up and down on his length, buttocks clenching as his hips naturally rock forward, burying himself to the hilt each time you sink down.

“God...jesus christ...love this little pussy of yours, kid.” He breathes through his gritted teeth. “Taking me so nicely, always wrapped around me so goddamn tight.”

You quickly begin moving yourself up and down his stiff rod, bouncing as fast as you can manage. The sweet burn in your thighs only grows more prominent with each passing second, but you don’t care, too consumed in pleasure.

“Mmmmmyyyeah, baby, all for you.”

His hand comes down on your ass, giving it a firm smack before taking another quick drag, exhaling through his nose.

“That’s f-fucking right, all mine. You love being a little slut for this cock, huh? I know you do, you love when I bring you in my office and fuck your pretty cunt in the middle of the goddamn work day, can’t even wait until I get home, this f-filthy slut cunt needs to be split open and stuffed nice and full. Can’t go one fucking day without my cum fucked in you, always needs to be filled up and leaking, hm?”

Charlie was never able to do stuff like this or talk to Nicole like this. She was pretty vanilla when it came to sex, just like to be fucked quietly in bed. He called her a ‘slut’ once and she almost cried, lecturing him for half an hour afterwards on how disrespectful it was.

But now, he gets to explore everything he hasn’t gotten the chance to with you. You love it all, love the way he talks filth in your ear, calls you naughty names. You love getting fucked in all sorts of places, which at first made him a little nervous, cheeks and the tips of his ears bright red when you asked him to fuck you in your classroom or finger you under your dress on the subway. But, after almost a year and a half together, you can safely say that he’s a full-on exhibitionist deviant.

Your walls clamp down around him, eyes still squeezed shut as you feel his hips begin to thrust forward. Soon, he holds you almost completely still, moving his hips as fast as he can. His cigarette is almost ashes at this point, and he kicks himself for not thinking of a good disposal plan beforehand.

“Oh baby, oh baby...f-fuck!” You whine, hips squirming and gyrating as your impending orgasm grows closer. “Y-Yeah, I love it, love everything you do to me. Wanna take every s-single fucking drop of your cum, Charlie, want it inside me, want it dripping down my thighs.”

He almost loses his mind over your comments, drilling into you at an impossibly hard and fast rate, the lewd slapping squelching sound of your hips colliding overwhelmingly prominent in the space around you. 

“You’ll go back to work with so much cum shoved into you, make you sit through your stupid fucking meeting with my cum dripping out of you. B-Better hope no one notices, huh? Better hope your boss doesn’t find out what a good little cockslut you are, how much you love having a pussy-full of your boyfriends f-fucking cum.”

A few muted cries leave your lips as he pounds you harder, his own words spurring him on. He can feel your walls pulsing around him, a sure-fire sign that you’re about to cum. 

“C-Charlie! Charlie, I...I’m close.”

“K-Know you are, kid, I know you are. You’re doing so f-fucking well for me, Y/N, squeezing my big cock like a fuckin champ.” Charlie growls, quickly tossing his spent cigarette in a coffee mug on a nearby table. “And now you’re gonna rub your little clit and cum for me like I know you want to. C’mon, kid, wanna feel you come undone around me.”

You quickly begin rubbing your clit and, despite the odd angle, it brings you right up to the edge. You just need something, just a little something, to push you over the edge. Your eyes flutter open to look up at him, but then, you’re met with the sight of his sneakers.

“Goddamnit!” You’re cumming almost instantly, flooding his shaft with your release. “Yes! Oh god, yeah, c-cumming for you baby!”

His hips keep pumping, taking you right through your climax before abruptly coming to a halt when they’re buried as deep inside you as they can possibly be. His eyes go wide before squeezing shut, a guttural groan ripping through his chest as he pumps and shoves his thick creamy load into you.

“T-Take it, f-filthy whore!” He groans, rutting his hips the whole way through, making sure every drop is put inside you.

Once he’s finished, having ridden out his high to its fullest, he tucks himself back into his pants before helping you stand back up. He holds you close, looking down at you with a bright, genuine smile. 

“You’re amazing, incredible...just so perfect.” He kisses all over your face before landing on your lips.

Your cheeks heat up at his compliments, hands weaving through his hair as the kiss deepens. 

Suddenly, someone knocks on your office door, jiggling the doorknob.

“Charlie?”

His eyes fly open and he pulls away. Shit.

“Yeah, I’m h-here, just give me a minute!”

You quickly pull your pants up and jump under his desk to hide just as he opens the door, running a hand through his hair. 

He talks to the person on the other side of the door in a rushed voice, answering their multitude of questions before quickly shutting the door, sighing as you crawl out from under the desk. 

“At least we both got to cum, unlike last time.” You walk up and put your hands on his pecs, rubbing them over the fabric. “I gotta get going though, baby. I wanna grab lunch from the deli before my staff meeting.”

Charlie nods, dipping his head down to kiss you one last time, nuzzling his large nose against yours. 

“Come over tonight, though? Nicole’s in town and she’s got Henry, so we’ll have the house to ourselves. I feel like we haven’t spent any quality time together lately.”

Nodding, you smile. “I would love to come over. I’ll text you when I get home.”

“Great.” He smiles, pressing a kiss to your forehead. “I’ll see you later, kid. Have a good meeting.”

You laugh as you grab your bag and head out, turning back to wave and flash him a soft smile.

“See you tonight.”

[birlwrites]

The Spiral Method: For When You Really Just Want To Start Writing

Thus commences my formalized foray into offering writing advice!

This is the method I use for pretty much every story I write. If you tend to come up with a really specific character or scene or snippet of dialogue with literally no other context for the story it’s in, but you still want at least a little bit of a plan in place when you write, this is for you!

Step 1: Write out your idea

This might seem obvious, but take whatever seed of a story has popped into your head, no matter how small or intuitive it may seem, and write it down somewhere. This is your starting point and you don’t want to lose track of it. If you’re like me, and a fully-formed scene springs from your head like Athena from Zeus’s, you might want to just write it out now, before you get bogged down in planning and forget that really awesome sentence you just came up with.

If you start writing it down, and one thing leads to another, and suddenly you have an entire chapter in the middle of a story you haven’t written, with no idea what comes before or after, awesome! You know that much more about what you’re doing.

Step 2: Figure out WTF you’re talking about

If you’re starting with an idea for a character, what genre of story do they belong in? (Or not belong in?) What drives/motivates them? Are they a protagonist, antagonist, both, or neither? What’s working against them? Why do they want what they want?

If you’re starting with a piece of a scene, who’s there? How do they feel about the other people/things/etc that are there? What’s happening in the scene, and why is it happening?

If you’re starting with a world, what kind of world is it? What makes it function? What is a threat to it? Who and what inhabits the world? Why is it the way that it is?

Really, this can be boiled down to two questions: what’s happening, and why is it happening?

Write down your ideas in a new document. Give yourself permission to make this document messy. It should be more brainstorming than outlining. To keep track of important bits (for example, events you really want to foreshadow, or key pieces of backstory or worldbuilding), you can either put them in a dedicated Sparknotes-like section of the document, or you can put them in a separate doc entirely. (Personally, I use private Discord channels, both for the brainstorming and for the Sparknotes.)

Don’t stress about figuring out absolutely everything. A couple of ideas are enough, and they can be broad or vague, especially at the beginning!

Step 3: Explore!

If you haven’t started writing prose yet, now is the time. Write a scene! You don’t need to know exactly where it goes in the plot, or even if it’ll make it into the actual story - it might be backstory, or aftermath, or something that happens ‘off-screen.’

The goal of this step is to explore what you’ve come up with so far, and let the story develop in an organic way. Don’t edit as you write. Think of it as snapshots - you don’t need to know exactly what’s going on or have a clear mental image of how it fits into the plot. Just put it on the page.

In fact, it’s better if you don’t know 100% of what’s going on, because this brings us to...

Step 4: See Step 2

Now, look at what you just wrote and again figure out WTF you’re talking about. You should have a slightly better idea of what you’re writing now - maybe the plot hasn’t taken shape but you know a few of the characters, or maybe you have fragments of a plot and nothing else, or maybe you’ve got a better sense of the atmosphere of the story.

Put that in your messy brainstorming document. If it leads you to any new ideas, put those in there too. Add to the Sparknotes version as needed.

Step 5: See Step 3

Hopefully the reason that this is called the spiral method is becoming clear! The prose builds on the brainstorming, which builds on the prose, which builds on the brainstorming, which builds on the... you get it.

As you write, you’ll discover your story: characters, plot, context, the type of story you want to tell. Rather than creating a plot and then trying to get your characters to conform to it, let them take control. A story is really just one long chain of an action and subsequent reactions. If you have one link in the chain, you can work outwards from it until you have the whole picture.

Tips

Be prepared to scrap things. Scenes, characters, plot arcs, all sorts of things. You may discover that something you came up with really early on just isn’t going to fit. My best suggestion here is, instead of deleting it, copy it into another document. It’s much easier to remove a section from your WIP if you’re just moving it somewhere else. (And maybe you can post deleted scenes later!)

Don’t force it! If you’re bored with step 2, or feel lost on step 3, then just move on to the next step, even if you feel like you haven’t done enough with the one you’re on. This is a very flexible writing method, and the right proportion of step 2 to step 3 will be different for everyone.

Write what you want to write. Follow the bits of inspiration as you get them, and see what happens - if they don’t work out, you don’t have to keep them! That’s why step 3 is called exploring instead of drafting. Even if you don’t use something you wrote, it still gives your story a little more depth and detail that you can draw from later.

Do a continuity read. This approach lends itself really well to writing out of order, and since you won’t have an outline that you sat down to write start-to-finish, it’s super important to take a break from your completed draft (ranging from a few days to a couple of weeks, depending on how well you feel like you know the plot - the goal is to look at it with semi-fresh eyes so you catch mistakes) and read all of it in order to make sure it makes sense.

Enjoy the process! If you’re dragging your feet, figure out why. Don’t write things you aren’t even a little enthusiastic about, because that means you aren’t really connecting with them. Maybe you feel like they need to be in there, but you don’t want them to be in there. 99.9% of the time, they don’t need to be in there, and there’s another way! Don’t let yourself start to dislike what you’re writing, or the process of writing it.

I hope this is helpful! If you have questions or want me to elaborate on any of this/give more specific examples, by all means let me know.

[lunar-wandering]

Lanterns and Lies

surprise!! here we go, the sequel to Glamours and Gauze!

Word Count: 7k

Read on Ao3

-

Macaque had lied, when he said the shadow lantern was gone.

When the Lady Bone Demon had caught him, she had made a specific note of needing the lantern.

And, well, Macaque wouldn't let that happen.

So he'd shattered it, again, and during the Lady Bone Demon's momentary shock, he'd taken the opportunity to gather the broken pieces and run.

One of her minions had cut him with the cursed knife while he was running away.

That didn't matter now though, his injuries had been healed, and the Lady Bone Demon had yet to make another move. For now, sitting on the roof of the noodle shop, he was safe.

He starred down at the shattered pieces of the lantern in his hands.

With a sigh, he carefully extended his magic, putting the pieces back together again, reforming the lantern. He held it gently in his hands as he looked around the roof.

Now where was he gonna hide this-

"Macaque, I brought plums!"

Macaque startled upon hearing MK's voice, he'd been so distracted focusing on putting the lantern back together, he hadn't even heard the other climb up the ladder to the roof.

The.....lantern....

Which he told MK was gone....

In a rush to avoid MK seeing the lantern, Macaque did the first thing he thought of.

He shoved the lantern into himself, letting it mix into his own magic. Not the smartest way of storing it, it was a highly magical item, who knows how it would act while in direct contact with his magic, but it was the first thing he could think of, and this was only a temporary measure, so it should be fine.

....Probably.

"Hey bud, what's up?" Macaque asked, turning around to face MK, who was setting a small bowl of plums on the ground. "...What are the plums for?"

"You said that if I brought you some plums, you'd tell me about the time Monkey King walked into a tree." MK said, "And I fully expect you to keep your end of the bargain."

"Yeah, yeah, okay." Macaque said, grabbing the bowl of plums. "Well you see, what happened was-"

-

"That had to be the stupidest shit you've ever pulled, Wukong." Macaque said, breathing heavily as he leaned against a tree. Wukong for his part, just smirked.

"I didn't see you try to stop me." He said, laughing as Macaque glared at him.

"I did try to stop you. Multiple times. But you didn't listen." He said, "You really need to stop picking a fight with every random person you meet."

"You're no fun at all." Wukong said, yawning as he stretched. Macaque rolled his eyes.

"Whatever." He said, "Anyways, we should probably head back to the cave, get some rest-"

"I'm not tired." Wukong said.

"You literally yawned a few seconds ago."

"Doesn't mean I'm tired. Besides, there's still more stuff to do." Wukong said, turning and walking off further into the mountain's forest, Macaque trailing behind him. As they walked, Macaque noticed Wukong start slouching, little by little. He didn't say anything though, knowing that Wukong would only deny it if asked.

It would be better just to watch and deal with the consequences when they came.

And oh boy, did the consequences come: in the form of Wukong turning a corner and immediately walking directly into a tree. The tree snapped in half, falling to the ground, with Wukong tumbling down after it. There was a loud thump, as dust and leaves were sent flying into the air. A few nearby birds called out in concern.

"Timber." Macaque said, a smirk on his face, walking over and crouching down beside where Wukong now lay on his back with a dazed expression on his face. "So. Not tired, huh?"

"Shut up." Wukong hissed, sitting up, pulling dirt and leaves out of his fur as he did so. "The tree just. Got in my way, that's all-"

"You're expecting me to believe that a tree got up and put itself in your path?" Macaque asked, "Wukong. I'm not stupid. Let's just hurry up and go back to the cave to rest already."

"I'm fine." Wukong said, moving to stand up, but wobbling a little, tipping backwards again-

Macaque caught him, keeping him from having another close encounter with the ground.

-

"I ended up having to carry him all the way back up the mountain." Macaque said, making little images with his shadows in order to give MK a better visual of what happened. "He ended up sleeping for like, 3 days. Took him still being tired when he woke up again for me to realize he'd gotten cursed. Wasn't hard to break it afterwards, but boy did Wukong protest the whole time. Practically had to tie him to his bed."

MK scribbled in his sketch book, and Macaque, out of curiosity, moved closer, looking over MK's shoulder to see a sketch of what Macaque had just described.

"....You're drawing this?" He asked. MK nodded.

"Yeah! I've got a lifetime goal of illustrating all of Monkey King's adventures!" MK said, pausing his sketching to show Macaque a quick flip through of the rest of the book. "...You got any other stories?"

"Lots." Macaque said, leaning back. "But you're gonna have to bring more plums if you want more stories. I'm not just gonna hand this info out for free."

"Of course, of course." MK said, standing up and walking back over to the ladder, mumbling to himself as he climbed back down. "I'm going to have to permanently add plums to my shopping list...."

Macaque stayed where he was, waiting patiently until he couldn't hear MK anymore, before letting out a relieved sigh.

That had been close.... No matter what, he couldn't let the others know that he still had the lantern. Revealing that would probably cause the others to push him away, they wouldn't trust him anymore, and he really couldn't have that. Hanging around them was the most advantageous position for him to be in right now, and he wasn't about to give it up any time soon.

...He still needed a place to hide it permanently, keeping it inside of himself probably wouldn't be a good idea in the long term. With that thought in mind, he mentally reached inwards with his magic, shadows starting to surround him as he prepared to take the lantern out-

"Hey, Macaque!"

Macaque startled again, the shadows that had condensed around him vanishing as though they'd been popped like party balloons as he whirled around to see-

Mei, who giggled at his shocked expression, holding up her phone and taking a quick picture of him before pocketing it.

"Would you two stop doing that?" Macaque asked, sighing as Mei circled around him.

"Hey, it's not my fault you didn't hear me coming." Mei said, giggling at the expression on Macaque's face. "Seriously, with all those ears you have it's a wonder you didn't-"

"What do you want." Macaque growled, "You wouldn't be here if you didn't want something."

"Wouldn't I?"

That. Wasn't a question Macaque felt that he could answer. He honestly couldn't think of a reason why any of MK's friends would want to be around him, but they hadn't really been pushing him away either....

Mei seemed a little concerned with how he'd suddenly gone silent though, so it was probably best to quickly change the subject.

"Ah, anyways, I have some stuff to do, so I don't really have time for you." Macaque said, walking past Mei and over to the edge of the rooftop. Distantly, he noted a weird tingling sensation come over him, but he ignored it, figuring it wasn't important.

"Oh, now that's a lie." Mei said, a smirk on her face. "You never do anything other than lounge around up here."

"Do not." Macaque said, crossing his arms. "I do plenty, you just haven't noticed."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

Macaque pondered for a moment on how best to answer-

And that was when his foot started sinking into the shadow underneath of him.

Outwardly, Macaque remained perfectly calm, not letting Mei in on the fact that anything was amiss.

Inwardly, he panicked.

That was definitely not supposed to be happening, why was it happening it shouldn't be happening why was he l o s i n g  c o n t r o l-

He was snapped out of his panic when he heard the sound of an engine starting up behind him. Subtly looking over his shoulder, he could see MK, ready to drive off, probably to deliver some noodles.

Macaque made his decision in a split second.

Turning and pulling his foot out of the shadow it'd been sinking into, Macaque jumped off the roof. Ignoring Mei's shout of "Hey, wait!", he slipped into the shadow of the tuk tuk, just before MK started to drive away.

-

Macaque hung out in the shadow of the tuk tuk for about 15 minutes before he actually bothered to wonder where exactly MK was going.

MK slowed down a bit as he turned a corner, and Macaque figured it was as good a time as any to ask.

Carefully, he materialized on the back of the tuk tuk, then, after making sure there wasn't anything around for MK to accidentally hit should he swerve, asked;

"Where are you going?"

MK's foot slammed on the brakes, the tires screeching and Macaque almost falling off from the sudden inertia. As soon as they were still, MK whirled around, staring at Macaque, shocked.

"How long have you been there?" He asked, and the expression on his face genuinely made Macaque laugh.

"Oh, not very long." Macaque said, "I was riding along in the shadow for the most part."

"...You can do that?" MK asked, "You probably save like, so much money when traveling then-"

"Bold of you to assume that I have any money at all." Macaque said, "Anyways, you didn't answer the question. Where are you going?"

"Why do you want to know?" MK asked, crossing his arms. "And why are you here anyways? Usually you just stay on the roof, what changed?"

"Nothing! What, can't I just want to go for a ride once in a while?" Macaque said-

And his hand started sinking into the shadow beside him. Swiftly, he pulled it out, rubbing it to get rid of the remaining tingles. MK watched this happen with a look of suspicion.

"...Uh-huh, sure, like I believe that." He said, tone as dry as the desert. "And anyways, I don't think you'd want to-"

And then he paused, looking as though he'd just been hit with some kind of realization.

"Actually-" MK started, "I think it would be good if you came with me."

He turned back around, taking his foot off the break and turning back onto the road, speeding up a little.

"You still haven't told me where we're going." Macaque said.

"Oh, you'll soon find out."

Macaque had a feeling he wasn't going to like this.

-

He was right. He hated this.

Staring up at a temple that quite obviously belonged to Sun Wukong, Macaque regretted every decision he had made in his life that had led up to this moment.

He regretted it even more when the monkey himself opened the front gate.

"Ah, there you are kid!" Wukong said, "I was beginning to think you'd never show up!"

"I'm only 2 minutes late..." MK muttered, and Macaque couldn't help but laugh a bit at that.

Sun Wukong was not, exactly, known for being very patient after all.

"Oh, I see you brought... an audience." Wukong said, finally noticing that Macaque was, in fact, also there.

"Audience? Please, if anything I'm the lead actor." Macaque said.

"Yeah, sure, keep telling yourself that." MK said, and Macaque would've hit him where it not for the warning glance Wukong gave him.

-

Macaque ended up being dragged to MK's training sessions with Wukong, again and again. Some days it was because MK himself forcibly brought him along, and on other days it was because Macaque was simply avoiding Mei. (He denied the accusation that he was avoiding her when asked...and then almost tripped as his foot sank deeper into the shadows. Luckily he'd managed to blame it on a stray tree root, but he wasn't sure how long he could keep it up...) 

Over the course of said days, Macaque had tried multiple times to find a better place to hide the lantern than within his own magic. (He'd long since figured out that the lantern was reacting whenever he lied, thus messing with his own magic. He had no idea why it was doing this, but the why didn't really matter so long as he could find a way to stop it.) But of course, since karma was apparently out to get him, he was interrupted by someone every single time, forcing him to keep the lantern within himself, lest the others find out about it.

Honestly though, he was shocked that Wukong hadn't noticed, considering his golden vision and all, he should've been able to see the fact that the lantern's magic was contained within Macaque.

(Macaque had nearly panicked when, on day 2 of him following MK to his training, Wukong had leaned close to him with a contemplative look on his face.

"...Why are you so close to me?" Macaque had asked, and huh, how long had that slit been in Wukong's eyebrow? Had it been there for a while and Macaque had just never noticed or-

"I'm checking to see how much of the glamor you're wearing." Was Wukong's response, as he studied him. "You're still recovering, you probably shouldn't be using magic to cover all of it."

So....Wukong was concerned about him. Macaque couldn't really imagine why, but still-

"You didn't need to get so close to me- can't you obviously see I'm wearing it?" Macaque had asked, gesturing at his own face. Wukong, surprisingly, winced at that, finally backing up a bit.

"Well, I guess you seem fine." He'd muttered, turning away, "Don't know why I was even worried."

And Macaque should've been relieved, but for some reason-

For some reason he felt like something was wrong.)

-

Macaque relaxed in the shade of a tree, watching Wukong train MK. It was almost soothing to watch the mentor and student trade hits as they sparred.

But of course, being relaxed didn't mean that Macaque didn't notice things.

Like how Wukong was a full 2 seconds slower in blocking MK's attacks than he'd been when Macaque had stolen MK's powers. Which wasn't really something that would normally raise concern- he probably just wasn't being as serious as he would be when encountering an actual threat, but.

Something about it was making the alarm bells that had been constantly ringing in Macaque's head louder. (Something he, obviously, didn't appreciate. Loud sounds, even mental ones, weren't very pleasant for him).

Macaque, of course, was never one to miss an opportunity to call Wukong out.

Which was why it was so surprising when MK beat him to the punch.

"Monkey King, are you okay?" MK asked, and Macaque sat up straighter, paying more attention, because oh, he wanted to hear this.

"Of course bud! Why do you ask?" Wukong said, and despite the fact that his back was to Macaque, the shadow monkey just knew that the other was lying.

"Well I don't know, you've just- seemed off, is all." MK said, shifting back and forth as he seemed to contemplate what to say. "Like, a little slower maybe? And I haven't seen you use your cloud in days, which is kinda weird, since you normally seem to use it-"

Wukong stiffened, and it was at this point that Macaque got genuinely curious, deciding that he had to see what kind of expression the other monkey was making right now. So, he slipped down into the shadows of the tree, and reappeared out of MK's shadow, startling the both of them as he slung an arm around MK's shoulder. 

"Kid's right y'know." Macaque said, putting on a smirk as he looked at the other. "Even I've noticed, and I've barely even been paying attention."

That was a lie, and he barely kept himself from wincing as he felt the tingle of magic flow through his body.

Only for nothing to seemingly happen. That was...mildly concerning, he'd felt the flow of magic, so something had definitely occurred, he just couldn't tell what.

...Well, whatever. If he couldn't notice it then it probably wasn't important.

Macaque refocused back in on the subject at hand, studying Wukong's expression. Nothing he hadn't expected, the usual nervous smile and look in his eyes that indicated he was lying where all there.

Or, well, most of it was expected.

The slight twinge of fear was new.

"I'm telling you, there's nothing wrong!" Wukong said, taking a slight step back. "I'm fine, really!"

Both MK and Macaque rolled their eyes in sync.

"If you're so fine, then explain to me why you keep waiting until MK is almost right in front of you before blocking him?" Macaque asked, MK nodding along as he spoke. "Seriously, it's like you can't see it unless it's close-"

Both Macaque and MK froze, coming to the same conclusion at the same time. Wukong, seeing the expressions on their faces, scratched his cheek nervously, avoiding their gaze.

"Oh my heavens." MK said, "You need glasses."

"I do not-"

-

Tang had been having a peaceful day at the noodle shop.

Having, being the key word.

Because suddenly, said peaceful day was interrupted as Macaque appeared out of nowhere beside him. Tang barely kept himself from startling out of his stool. (He'd started to grow used to the shadow monkey's sudden appearances, but that didn't really make them any less startling).

Macaque, for a moment, looked confused as to where he was, looking around in surprise, before taking notice of Tang and schooling his features into something unreadable.

"Oh." He said, "Uh. Hello?"

"Hello to you too, Macaque?" Tang said, a little confused, before finally taking notes of one important fact.

Macaque's eyes were fully purple.

"...Ah." Tang said, "Not Macaque."

"Hm, smart man." 'Macaque' said, leaning back, "Nope, I'm not the original. Just a shadow clone, that's all I am."

"Why are you here? Is there trouble?" Tang asked, worry seeping into his voice. The clone just shrugged.

"Dunno." 'Macaque' said, "One minute, I didn't exist, the next, I'm here."

"How can you just not know?" Tang asked, blinking in disbelief.

"He probably created me on accident." 'Macaque' said, almost as casually as though he was reading out a morning newspaper.

"That can happen??"

"Well, not normally, but in certain cases-" The clone started, then paused, eyes narrowing. "Well, actually, if that's the case, he probably doesn't know I exist right now..."

"Shouldn't you... tell him?" Tang asked, and watched as the clone contemplated it.

"Well I mean, not telling him would be kind of funny." He said, before shaking himself out of it. "No- no, you're right, I should probably tell him."

The clone proceeded to go completely silent, and Tang watched him with thinly veiled concern. After about 2 minutes of silence, with the clone making increasingly dramatic facial expressions, Tang decided to comment again.

"...Are you actually contacting him right now?" He asked, and the clone broke out of whatever state he was in to glance at him.

"Hm? Oh- yeah." He said, "Mental connection, y'know?"

"Then how come MK doesn't ever-"

"Cause he doesn't know it exists."

-

Of course. Of course the lantern had made a clone.

That certainly explained why there hadn't been any obvious reaction after the magic tingle.

Although, it was weird that the clone had ended up in the noodle shop. Why on Earth would it have formed there?

(In all honesty, it was probably because, once again, Macaque felt safe there. But he never planned to admit that fact, not even to himself, so he slid that thought back into the deepest part of his mind.)

As it was now though, Macaque sat back under the tree, head in hands, mentally communicating with the clone as MK and Wukong continued to argue about whether or not the Monkey King needed glasses.

"C'mon!" MK said, stomping his foot on the ground, "Just admit that you're nearsighted already! It's obvious!"

"I don't need glasses!" Wukong said, hopping backwards as MK tried to tackle him. "I can see just fine!"

This statement was contradicted, as MK suddenly moved backwards, distancing himself from his mentor. Macaque could see Wukong squint, something he wouldn't normally do-

And then MK moved forwards, with a speed Macaque honestly hadn't seen him use before (and wasn't that funny, that somehow this argument was actually causing MK's speed to improve) and managed to tackle Wukong to the ground.

A roll of parchment fell out of one of Wukong's pockets.

"Oh?" Macaque said, standing up, temporarily blocking his shadow clone's messages out of his mind (it was fine anyways, it seemed to have gotten distracted), he walked over, picking up the roll of parchment. "What's this?"

"Wh-Hey!" Wukong said, looking up from his position of being pinned to the ground by MK, squinting his eyes as he focused on Macaque. "Don't- give that back!"

"Well now, if you're so pressed over it then I kinda have to look, right?" Macaque said, slowly unrolling the scroll despite Wukong's protests. MK, surprisingly, kept Wukong pinned, watching with curiosity as Macaque looked over the parchment's contents. "....Huh."

"What is it?" MK asked, and Macaque turned, holding out the unrolled parchment so that MK could see it. Wukong, at this point, stopped struggling, simply laying on the ground face down.

"Tell me, Wukong, why exactly do you need a map?" Macaque asked, crouching down in front of the other. "You planning on going on vacation again or something?"

"You're going to leave me again?" MK asked, and maybe Macaque was just hearing things (rather unlikely....) but there was almost a note of panic in MK's voice.

Wukong must've picked up on the panic too, as he quickly jumped into reassurance.

"Woah, hey, I'm not- I'm not vacationing any time soon." He said, attempting to shift around a little, before sighing. "...Could you get off me now, please?"

MK scrambled to get off his mentor, Wukong slowly sitting up and stretching a little. Macaque rolled his eyes at the display, shaking the map a little to draw their attention back to it.

"Hey, I'm not letting you off that easily." He said, "Explain the map. Now."

Wukong sighed again, avoiding both Macaque and MK's eyes.

"...Fine, so maybe I.....wasn't exactly on vacation...." Wukong muttered, "I was...searching for something. A weapon."

"...To fight the Lady Bone Demon, right?" MK asked, and Wukong looked at him in shock.

"How'd you-"

"Maybe leaving your successor alone when there's a powerful demon on the loose isn't the best decision, Wukong." Macaque said, rolling up the map and putting into his own pocket, before lightly rubbing his arm, a few specific... memories running through his mind. "Seriously, be glad she still hasn't gotten everything she needs."

"What do you know about what she-" MK started, then cut himself off, looking at Macaque as though he'd been given the answer to everything. "She's the one who hurt you."

Macaque didn't respond, turning around and walking away.

"Hey wait- where are you-" Wukong started-

"I'm going back to my spot under the tree." Macaque said, "You two can sort through whatever your 'vacation' was about on your own."

-

"...Huh." The shadow clone muttered, eyes closed as he seemingly listened in on whatever was happening to the real Macaque. "That's.....interesting."

"What is?" Tang asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Nothing really important." The clone said- and started melting slightly. Tang looked on in confusion as the clone suddenly panicked, stumbling over his words. "Wait- no I mean- it, it is important, but not really something I should be the one to tell you about?"

The melting stopped, the shadow clone returning to normal as he let out a sigh of relief.

"Does that....usually happen?" Tang asked.

"No." The clone answered, but didn't elaborate. Tang figured he'd just have to ask the real Macaque about it later. "...Anyways, do you think you could help the real me out with something?"

"Depends on what said something is." Tang said, crossing his arms.

"It's nothing bad, I promise." The shadow clone said, chuckling. "But, would you happen to know where I could buy a pair of glasses?"

-

"This is dumb. I look stupid."

"Aw come on Monkey King, I think you look cool!" Mei said, MK nodding along with her. "The glasses suit you just fine!"

Wukong sighed, sitting in the noodle shop with his arms crossed, leaning on the counter.

"What's with the sudden need for glasses anyways?" Pigsy asked, sliding a bowl of peach slices over to the monkey. Subtly, he also handed a bowl of plums over to Macaque, who was sitting slightly off to the side in the shadows.

Wukong stiffened, pausing for a moment before opening his mouth to answer-

"And don't lie to me." Pigsy added, and Wukong slouched a little.

(Macaque had to admit, it was kinda fun to watch the Monkey King basically get reprimanded like a child.

The only reason he didn't comment on it was that he was sure that if he did, he'd get the exact same treatment.)

There was a moment of silence, before Wukong groaned, laying his head down on the table, and muttering something that was too quiet for the others to hear, but nearly made Macaque choke on the plum he'd been chewing on.

"What?!" He said, in pure shock, "You- you're losing your powers?!"

Almost instantly, there was pandemonium.

"What do you mean you're losing your powers!" MK practically screeched, "That can happen?!"

"I don't know, but it's the only explanation I've got!" Wukong said, throwing his hands up into the air. "I can't use my golden vision or my cloud anymore- and I don't know why!"

"How, exactly, does this relate back to you suddenly needing glasses?" Pigsy asked, completely ignoring how the others where in varying states of a mental breakdown.

"I- I usually just use my golden vision to make up for it." Wukong said, "Like, magic contacts, you know?"

"...And now you can't do that anymore." Tang said, "Because you can't use your golden vision."

"......Yeah." Wukong sighed.

"Is there...anything we can do to help?" Sandy tentatively asked.

"Well, I was planning on going out and finding.... something." Wukong said, turning to look at Macaque. "Speaking of which, you promised you'd give me the map back once I got glasses, and I'm wearing them now so-"

Macaque tsk'd, pulling the map out of his pocket and tossing it over to the other monkey, who caught it and placed it upon the counter. 

"It's not like I can go and get it now though." Wukong said, the others staring over him to look down at the map. "Since I can't use my cloud anymore..."

"I have an airship." Sandy said, and Wukong turned to look at him in confusion. "We could use that, to travel there."

"What- no. No. Absolutely not." Wukong said, jumping up onto the counter (ignoring Pigsy disapproving glare), and staring down at the others. "In case you don't remember, you guys have something called mortality. I'm not going to just bring you guys with me-"

"Like you have much of a choice." A new voice said, and Macaque barely kept himself from startling as he suddenly noticed Red Son beside him.

"How long have you been there-" Macaque hissed, but was ultimately ignored.

"You coming too, Red Boy?" Mei asked, despite Wukong's faint protests that nobody was coming with him, thank you very much-

"I have nothing better to do." Red Son said, shrugging. "My parents went on vacation a little while ago, I've just been hanging around since then."

"So, we're all going?" MK asked, glancing over at Macaque, who, realizing he was being stared at, sighed, standing up and stepping closer to them, in the light.

"Fine, whatever." He said, "If you guys want me to go, I'll come, but I'm not happy about it."

The others stared at him, with a mixture of confusion and shock.

"....What?" Macaque asked, already dreading the answer. MK slowly pointed behind him.

"Has your shadow always moved like that?" He asked, and Macaque didn't even bother to look, instead immediately slamming his back against the wall to cover it as he threw a glamor over his own shadow. He wasn't sure what it had been doing that the others saw, but he absolutely refused to let it be seen any longer.

"...Whatever it was you saw, forget about it." He said, and while most of the others simply shrugged, accepting it as just him being weird, looking away-

The look in Mei and Wukong's eyes did not promise good things.

-

The first day on the ship, everyone was mainly focused on settling in, making sure all their stuff was where it needed to be, choosing rooms, so on and so forth.

And so, for the most part, Macaque was free from whatever Wukong and Mei were planning.

The second day on the ship, however.

The second day on the ship made Macaque wish the airship had a plank so he could jump off of it.

It had started small.

"Hey, Macaque?" Mei asked, grabbing his attention before practically shoving her phone into his face. "What do you think about this?"

Macaque could barely register the image in front of his face, but eventually parsed it out to be a picture of- a kitten??

"I hate it." He said, instinctively, and almost immediately started sinking into the shadow beneath him. Mei, being so close to him, immediately noticed, confusion flashing on her face for a brief second, before a smirk took over.

"If you say so." She said, and backed off, turning away as Macaque hurriedly pulled his feet out of the shadows before he could sink any further.

Some part of him hoped that would be the end of it.

As soon as he ran into Wukong though, he instantly knew that this wasn't over by a long shot.

"Macaque." Wukong said, leaning against the wall, and Macaque instantly noticed that his glasses were missing.

"You owe Tang 5 cents." Macaque hissed, it was well known that Tang had made the Monkey King promise to pay him whenever the monkey was caught not wearing his glasses. Macaque, of course, didn't really care, but he was looking for some way to distract Wukong from whatever he was planning to do to him.

"I'll pay him later." Wukong shrugged, and Macaque mentally cursed. "So. How'd you sleep last night?"

Macaque wasn't going to be led into the trap this obviously was.

"How did you sleep last night?" He shot back.

"I didn't." Wukong said, perfectly honest. "I did see you walking around for a bit though, so I'm curious as to whether or not you slept. You need it more than I do, remember?"

That.... was true. Macaque did need to sleep more than Wukong did, but-

"I slept just fine." Macaque lied, sighing as he felt the glamor over his ears fade away. Wukong crossed his arms, a concerned look on his face, but Macaque ignored it, choosing instead to walk into a nearby shadow to teleport to another location on the ship, throwing his glamor back on as he did so.

(He, in truth, was in the same boat as Wukong, both literally and figuratively. He hadn't slept at all, instead laying awake all night, worrying.

Wukong was losing his powers. MK was not nearly close enough to being ready. The others, outside of Red Son, might have some powers or abilities, but they are no where near close enough to being capable of beating the Lady Bone Demon.

He'd have to rely on the unknowns of this weapon Wukong was seeking out.

Macaque didn't like relying on unknowns.)

He emerged in the ships engine room-

And very nearly fell right on top of Red Son.

"Watch where you're going!" Red Son huffed, dodging out of the way and angrily brushing non existent dirt off of his jacket. "Seriously, what is with you guys and trying to knock me to the ground?"

"Maybe you just look very squishable." Macaque muttered, not really intending on giving Red Son a proper response. He actually didn't want to interact with anyone right now, especially not Red Son, so he turned, moving to leave the engine room-

"Not so fast." Red Son said, stopping Macaque in his tracks by grabbing hold of the back of his scarf. "I've got some questions for you."

Hm. That didn't bode well.

"What makes you think that I have any answers?" Macaque asked, only to be met by a deadpan look that promised-

That promised fire if he didn't co-operate.

If there was a list of things Macaque strictly didn't want, fire would be number one, at the top of the list.

"...What do you want to know?" He asked, slumping a little in defeat.

"Why you stayed." Red Son said, elaborating when Macaque only looked at him in confusion. "Your wound healed. You were perfectly free to go. And yet.... you stayed. Like you were....trying to protect something."

"Uh, yeah, myself, obviously." Macaque said, shrugging. "Hanging out around the Monkey King and his successor is the safest place to be after-"

"That's not it." Red Son said, and Macaque froze. "Sure, staying around them while you're weak makes sense, you'd need someone to protect you. But after you've recovered? Once you're strong again? Sure, I can understand you getting attached, but always staying around them is a little strange."

There was a glint, in Red Son's eye, and Macaque suddenly remembered a moment, yesterday, where Mei had dragged the fire demon off to the side to have a little conversation. He'd thought nothing about it at the time, but now-

"You say that you're protecting yourself....But at this point, somehow, you're mostly protecting them, aren't you?" Red Son asked, "Whatever it is you're hiding, you're hiding it to protect both yourself and them."

Macaque didn't answer, instead staring at the floor.

Whatever Mei and Wukong had been planning, Red Son was in on it.

And he was very clearly not as interested in taking a subtle approach.

"Your powers have been on the fritz lately." Red Son said, almost like it was an afterthought to his whole theory. "Don't think that we haven't noticed. It's different from Wukong though, in that you're not losing your powers, if anything, it's like they're getting stronger, almost as though they're being drawn from a different source-"

Macaque didn't want to stay here any longer.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He lied, and didn't resist as his powers fluctuated in response, letting himself completely fall into the shadow behind him.

-

He ended up falling out of a shadow on the ceiling.

Luckily, it was in his own room, so no-one else was there to witness it.

Didn't mean it didn't hurt though.

"...That's gonna bruise later...." He muttered to himself as he slowly pushed himself off the floor and stood up.

For a moment, he just stood there, slightly dazed.

And then he started pacing.

This was not good, the others were onto him, he wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer.

Not to mention the lantern, it's influence on his abilities was getting stronger the longer he left it inside himself. There was literally no telling how far it's influence would go.

(He'd already started noticing some strands of his fur turning purple. It wasn't anything that couldn't easily be covered up by a glamor, but the fact it was happening at all was incredibly concerning.)

He had to find another place to hide it. But where-

And suddenly, Macaque was struck by an idea. A rather bad idea, honestly, there was sure to be consequences from this, but it was the only idea he had right now.

-

The ship's clock struck 4 am.

Macaque slipped into MK's room, holding the faintly glowing lantern.

For a moment, he stood there, beside MK's bed, letting the lantern hover over top of him, thinking.

Maybe......maybe he shouldn't do this. He could probably find another way, something more reasonable than a hastily made, sleep deprived, decision. After all, the lantern had proven that it came with side effects, who knows how it'd affect MK?

Well. If he's actually being honest, he was hoping that the Monkey King Magic MK had would effectively cancel out the lanterns effects.

...He had no way of proving that it could do that though.

After a few more minutes of standing there, mentally debating, Macaque finally came to the decision that, yeah, this wasn't a good idea, he should just go back to his room and try to sleep for the few remaining hours of the night, come up with a better plan tomorrow-

A loud sound clanged from the engine room, and Macaque startled, barely keeping himself from squeaking as the sudden noise surprised him, squeezing his hands on instinct-

And snapping the lantern in half, the bottom piece falling and merging into MK's magic.

For a moment, Macaque just stood there in shock.

Then MK curled up, letting out a small noise of pain as little golden and purple sparks started shooting across his body, and Macaque panicked, reaching into MK's magic and hurriedly pulling out the other half of the lantern, shoving both pieces back into himself as MK started to stir.

By the time MK was sitting up, blinking his eyes open, rubbing his arms and looking around the room in confusion, Macaque was gone.

-

The next day, Wukong practically broke down Macaque's door, MK in tow.

"Mine explaining to me why there are traces of shadow magic all over MK?" He asked, before pausing as he registered the scene in front of him.

Macaque was curled up under his blankets, a pillow over his head effectively hiding him from view. The only part of the other monkey that Wukong could actually see was his tail, which was dangling over the side.

This wasn't really that weird, Wukong fully remembered that the other monkey was in no way a morning person.

...It was slightly more weird due to the fact that it was lunchtime.

"Is he...okay?" MK asked, leaning over his mentor's shoulder.

"You tell me." Wukong said, "You're the one with the golden vision right now."

Macaque's tail, which had been swinging idly, froze, and suddenly there was a mad scramble as he tried to pull all the blankets off of himself and sit up at the same time. Essentially, he ended up rather tangled, and was far too late to stop MK from using his golden vision.

-

At first there was nothing MK hadn't already expected. The bags under the eyes, the mussed up fur, the six ears and the scar. These were all things he knew that he'd find.

The purple streaks in Macaque's fur was surprising.

But not nearly as surprising as the lantern that lay intermingled with Macaque's own magic.

"What do you see, kid?" Wukong asked, and MK watched as Macaque sat up straighter, finally managing to pull the blankets off of himself.

"Nothing! He sees nothing! Right, bud?" Macaque asked, a panicked twinge in his voice, and-

MK could see the lantern flare, the magic traversing Macaque's entire body, before condensing around his arm.

Which proceeded to sink into the shadow on the bed.

"...Well." MK started, staring as Macaque pulled his hand out of the shadow and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "That's not something you see every day."

-

"So I was right then?" Red Son asked, "He's been storing the lantern within himself?"

"How'd you even know about the lantern..." Macaque muttered, from where he sat at the kitchen table, leaning back with his arms crossed. His glamor had been taken down, allowing everyone to see the purple streaks in his fur.

The lantern sat on the table in front of him.

"I have my sources." Red Son said, looking overly proud of himself. Macaque huffed, looking away.

"I thought you said the lantern was destroyed?" Mei said, using a spoon to lightly poke the lantern, almost as though it would grow legs and run away.

"Yeah, like, I saw you break it-" MK started, and then was stopped mid sentence as Macaque raised his fist, before harshly crushing the lantern, breaking it into pieces. A few of the others jumped. "What did you do that for-"

Macaque simply raised his hand, letting his magic call out, and letting the pieces slide back into their proper place. By the end of it, the lantern looked as good as new, as though it'd never been broken. MK watched the display with wide eyes.

"I did break the lantern." Macaque said, "It's just not that hard to fix."

"Regardless-" Wukong started, grabbing the lantern out of Macaque's hand, the lantern switching from it's usual purple to a soft golden glow as he did so. "You seriously should've told us that you have this. It would've saved you so much trouble."

"Would you have trusted me, if you knew I still had it?" Macaque asked, only to be met with silence. "...Yeah. Thought so."

There was a moment of silence as Macaque sat there, looking down, not meeting anyone's eyes. Then Sandy softly placed his hand on Macaque's shoulder.

"It's not that we wouldn't have trusted you." He said, gently. "We would've just taken a bit longer to come around, is all."

"Uh-huh, sure, keep telling yourself that." Macaque said, still looking at the floor, and thus missing the entirely silent conversation everyone else shared.

They all agreed they probably weren't going to get very far with this issue any time soon, by the look of things. (That didn't mean they wouldn't bring it up later, though.)

"If you thought we wouldn't trust you if we knew you had the lantern, then why didn't you just, I don't know, throw it away?" MK asked, and Macaque sighed, slouching down in his chair.

"...Lady Bone Demon wanted it." He muttered, and everyone immediately stood up ramrod straight.

"What?" Wukong hissed, staring down at the lantern in his hands as though he was seeing it in a new light. "Why- what could she possibly want with-"

"Don't know, didn't stick around long enough to find out." Macaque said, shrugging. MK and Red Son both looked horrified.

"That's how you got injured." MK muttered, "She must've captured you because she wanted the lantern...."

"The Lady Bone Demon has a cursed blade..." Red Son said, under his breath, only Macaque hearing him.

"Yeah yeah, I got captured, I got injured, whatever, it's all over with now." Macaque said, waving a hand around as though he wasn't making light of something horrifying. "Anyways, anyone else got any bright ideas on where to hide the lantern?"

"....Was that a pun." Wukong asked, "Seriously. You reveal that the Lady Bone Demon is after both you and the lantern and then you swap topics with a pun?"

"You got a problem with that?" Macaque asked, a smirk on his face. There was a moment of tense silence as the two of them stared at each other.

Wukong set the lantern back down on the table.

And then tackled Macaque out of his chair and onto the floor. Macaque let out a startled yelp as they went down, before quickly switching to clawing at the other as Wukong easily pinned him to the ground-

And then suddenly Wukong's grip weakened, and Macaque easily reversed their positions, pinning Wukong to the floor. For a moment the Monkey King looked confused, before a look of nervous realization appeared on his face.

"Uh- guys?" He said, nervously giggling as Macaque and the others stared at him in confusion. "Um. I think I just lost my super strength?"

[bts-weverse-trans]

The Life of BTS Writes a Story Review of BE 2020.11.30

BTS released its new album, BE, on November 20 after RM announced the band’s plan to produce the record on BANGTANTV’s Log (ON) on April 17. The group was working on the album even as “Dynamite”, the single they dropped on August 21, was topping the Billboard Hot 100. This order of events is given a fresh new meaning when “Dynamite” closes BE as opposed to standing alone as a single. While the group was busy sending messages of hope by reminding us of the past where heading out happily after a cup of milk was possible and giving us a glimpse of the future that will eventually come, they were recording the emotional ride they have been on while being off stage via different tracks on BE. Such changes in emotions can be seen through different portrayals of Jung Kook’s room—the way it looks during the first verse of both “Dynamite” and “Life Goes On,” the title track of the new album. Jung Kook is captured looking chipper as he ties his shoes getting ready to go out and dances in his sunshine-filled room in the music video of “Dynamite”, but in the latter’s video, Jung Kook stares blankly out the window. BE tells the story of how Jung Kook and other members navigated their lives, which includes their time singing “Dynamite,” during the pandemic by stepping out of rooms that are distinctively less colorful than the scenes in the music video of “Dynamite”.

The seven tracks, not including “Dynamite”, embody BTS’ emotional shifts and draw what looks a lot like a V curve, with “Skit” separating each section of three songs. The album opens with “Life Goes On” where BTS asks, “there’s no end in sight / is there a way out?” to live through a reality devoid of hope and arrives at “Stay” where the group expresses their intense longing for a reunion with the fans by saying, “Thinking of you now / No matter where you are / That’s not important.” And during this journey, BTS responds to the physical limitations imposed on their daily lives by saying “They took away this whole year” while also trying to put a positive spin on it by singing, “Thoughts can change by thinking,” in “Fly to My Room”. What follows is “Blue & Grey”, where they reveal inner feelings of depression and anxiety with the line, “Still don’t know this sharp blue / Hope it’s not covered over I’ll find the exit.” “Skit” then offers a shift in direction, and the next song, “Telepathy” reveals their eagerness to meet people again, highlighted by the lyrics, “Every day’s the same and I’m happiest when I meet you.” BTS also takes a moment to let out their complex thoughts on work to reach “Stay” ultimately. It is only at the end of this process that the optimism in “Dynamite”, which feels like a conviction of hope in a time of pandemic, appears in full.

“Life Goes On” allows those who don’t know whether they should hold on to hope or give up on hope to feel what it is like to go with the flow when you don’t know what to feel. Those who want to find a reason to be positive in life affected by the pandemic can find solace in “Fly to My Room.” But it is when you listen to the album as a whole that you can get healing from the pain the pandemic has inflicted on us. The soothing ambiance offered by “Life Goes on” transitions into heavy, slow, and dark tunes in “Blue & Grey,” which is followed by faster rhythm and airy sounds in “Telepathy” and “Stay.” Then the album finally culminates in “Dynamite” where the bright sunshine lifts you up. The record in its entirety offers the chance to experience at least indirectly the emotional ride taken by global superstars BTS themselves. “Dis-ease” is the classic example of the storytelling style BTS chose for the album; the moment they let out their angst and fully devote themselves to work is when the song reaches its climax. When BTS sings, “Get up one more time / It’s morning again we gotta go out / Let’s go one more night,” towards the end of the song, the arrangement drives up the song’s tension for the peak moment, “Everyday I console myself / We’re all the same people ain’t so special / Ay man keep one, two step keep calm and let’s heal up” which tops the song off like fireworks. This ironic way of storytelling mirrors BTS’ life at the moment. There are a lot of thoughts about work and life on their mind, but they try their best to work through them. And just as they do this, their energy transforms into a musical blast.

With “On,” the single track on their previous album “Map of the Soul : 7,” BTS says “Where my pain lies / Let me take a breath.” The album covers how BTS has traveled from the past to where they stand now, and “ON” tells a story of the members having to live with the “shadow” that comes with enormous fame as discussed in “Interlude : Shadow” on the very same album. With BE, BTS finally tells the story of their lives that are still unfolding. It’s not clear whether their questions about work asked in “Dis-ease” now found answers. It’s not known how long this will last, just like no one knows when this pandemic will finally run its course. We have no way of knowing if they are still in the mood expressed in “Blue & Grey” or they’re feeling the positivity of “Fly to My Room.” One thing that is clear is that while they battle work as one would with “Dis-ease,” they still wrote songs like “Telepathy” and “Stay” to send their messages to the fans, and kept busy getting ready to perform “Dynamite” on numerous stages. BE is the album that ties together all of their real-life events, both on and off stage, as one narrative. They started as an idol group and now their lives are intertwined inseparable from their music, their very existence becoming the stories they tell.

The way BE sets up different songs is directly linked to the musical changes BTS has undergone, and thus, are evident in the album. As the members’ stories take center stage, the arrangement focuses on getting their lines and melodies across and adjusts itself flexibly to each member’s part without following a certain trend or form. The arrangement filled with sounds of guitars, synthesizers, bass, drums, and pianos or sounds similar to real instruments is fitting to songs like “Fly to My Room” and “Blue & Grey”, in which auditory shifts accompany each member’s part. The smaller number of sounds used in

BE

compared to previous albums further emphasizes vocals, such as by accentuating the sound of Jung Kook inhaling in the beginning of “Life Goes On.” If J-Hope’s part in “Fly to My Room” reminds you of a gospel song, it’s not just because the synthesizer highlighted the gospel-like vibes but also because j-Hope’s voice that faithfully delivers his emotions as if giving witness to an epiphany with the line, “Thoughts can change by thinking.” Just like the auditory shift that takes place with SUGA’s rap part in “Blue & Grey” where the drums begin to layer, the arrangement of BE evolves constantly in line with each member’s part.

BE also takes on new challenges in format.. The chorus in “Blue & Grey” has such long melodies that it has no clear ending, and it fades out for the post-chorus that triggers an image of a lonely winter night with gloomy vocals. The post-chorus might seem like an abrupt shift but many devices contribute to giving this song the bleak wintery night vibe: RM’s somewhat distant rapping delivered through left and right on stereo that echoes through the room as well as the vocal recording that applied different echoes depending on lyrics and the solemn sounding cello. “Life Goes On” progresses in a similar fashion, starting with percussions ringing right next to your ears that create multi-layered sounds and taking you to an imagined space by blending the chorus and synthesizer. The story they tell resembles confessions about emotional states or specific circumstances, and the melodies unfold and rap flows in new ways as the story progresses While there are a lot of shifts, there is consistency in that sounds build the same sense of space. “Stay,” while being an EDM piece, ends on a rather blue note after phasing out beats that earlier set the stage for the dancefloor stomper. It makes sense given that the song is Jung Kook’s imagination of performing in front of the fans; Festivities in the song are interrupted by the fading out of vocals and overall sound layers. “Telepathy” offers a catchy hook in a song filled with bouncy spirit, just like “Dynamite” does. But the difference lies in that “Dynamite” brings out the explosive energy through repetition of melodies and variation of rhythms and that “Telepathy” phases itself out by reducing the number of sounds. “Fly to My Room” is about coming to terms with life in the pandemic, but the acknowledgment doesn’t necessarily make such a life enjoyable. Adding vibrant melodies isn’t a solution to challenges that accompany work, which are conveyed in “Dis-ease.” Such are the mixed feelings we experience in life—in which we have no control over a break or our approach—that are clearly expressed in the album by highlighting each member’s part and various shifts. Despite the numerous musical turns, the album has been produced in a way that ensures its consistency throughout the entire work; “Life Goes On” leaves you with the chorus where the seamless melodic flow seems like it’ll just keep on going.

In “Skit”, BTS is talking about how they’re practicing their debut song for performance eveon on the day after “Dynamite” became No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100. After they topped the chart with “Dynamite”, they came back with an album filled with songs seemingly the polar opposites of their hit single. Life seems to be on a loop but changes suddenly appear, and previous routines end up different because of this newness. BE is an acceptance of such peculiarity of life rather than an answer to it. BTS began with K-pop and now have become superstars of pop, and they’ve harnessed the power of their own story in the album by choosing neither path. The team that began its journey with “No More Dream” and have traveled to “Dynamite” leaves an open ending as to where they will head next. Still, the next chapter will be shared regardless of what it shapes up to be. That is why they can leave us wondering what comes after BE.

Trans © Weverse