#celebrating the passion projects of writers who do this for free | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

moranice-solvej · 6 months ago

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Answer the Questions and Tag 5 Fanfic Authors

Thank you for the tag, @rifle-yes <3

1. How did you get into writing fanfiction?

Got introduced to fanfic through an old forum dedicated to a TV-show I was low-key obsessed with as a teen all the way back in 2008. Around the same time I started to get an urge to express myself in writing as I was an avid reader and always had a vivid imagination, so the sheer fact that people just wrote stories to celebrate their favorite stories captivated me.

Since then, there were many attemps to write fanfic and original works alike, very few completed, and only my obsession with Rogue One that started after watching the movie and reading the novelization had put me on the path of publishing my writing and finally being able to complete writing projects.

2. How many fandoms have you written in?

Started in a TV-fandom a long time ago, but never had anything I wanted to publish, so mentally I don't even count it. None of those scraps of written down ideas remain; I deleted them and never once looked back. That leaves Rogue One and technically Star Wars as my sole writing fandom. I dearly love many other shows and movies and games, but none of them make me want to write in their universes.

3. How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

Technically 16 years. Yes, comprehending this number makes me terrified.

4. Do you read or write more fanfiction?

I used to read tons of fic before I came back to writing in earnest. Now most of my free time goes into writing.

In addition to that I have ran into a loathesome problem of not being able to find stories that I'd love to read. The ceiling has gotten too high. Now that I can finally shape the kinds of stories I want to read to life, I crave more stories with such premises, themes, writing styles, and character archetypes, and these days I struggle to find them in fanfic and in original books for that matter. My gremlin brain simply cannot connect to the vast majority of tropes that dominate modern-day fandom and culture. :(

Thus, I'm firmly in the mode of be-the-change-you-want-to-be-in-the-world and producing stories for myself to satisfy that need. Even if it routinely takes me over a year, usually two to finish a single story with a monster wordcount and create something I can one day re-read with glee.

5. What is one way you’ve improved as a writer?

I am now able to move an idea from a general concept and a set of pivotal scenes to a fully-fleshed out story and actually finish it. This used to be my achilles heel for ages and it feels mightily gratifying to finally get rid of it.

6. What’s the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Origins of blood transfusions in human history. Plus a large variety of niche questions of when thing a or thing b was first invented. Most of the times the setting of my current writing project allows me to disregard our reality and wing it for the sake of the vibes or plot, but I still like to research what we as a species develop and when to try and create a somewhat believable ancient fictional world without modern technology.

7. What’s your favorite type of comment to receive on your work?

I have a soft spot for readers who pick on teeny-tiny details of my writing and show their appreciation for it. I end up with monstrous word counts because I'm an extremely context- and detail-oriented writer, and knowing that my passion for it is noticed and enjoyed brings me joy in return.

8. What’s the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

My current project centers around a warrior woman in her mid- to late forties who makes peace with her trauma of motherhood and loss, finds new friends and love and new home, defies her nation's traditions and becomes the force of change for her people that will bring them out of stubborn isolation and little by little shatter their callousness and mold it into empathy.

I am well aware that the sole audience of this story is myself and my best friend whom I'm lucky to have along for the ride, but it has took over my heart and it will not let go until I finally bring this epic saga to a close.

9. What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

I am simply incapable of writing a traditional short story. Every one-shot I ever made was a stepping stone in a larger verse, and even so the smallest one is over 8k words. Anytime I try to write something small, I either need to put it down because it gets out of hand, or I need to finish it and by that time it grows into a monster.

My last attempt to write a short story within a story has spawned an epic saga that currently sits at roughly 380.000k words and will likely end up over 500.000k words when I'm finally done with it.

10. What is the easiest type?

Monster-sized epics. I think my creative brain cannot function in any other way but go-big-or-go-home.

11. Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

I've used MS Word for writing ever since I got my first laptop and keep at it. Started using Scrivener lately for establishing character sheets and writing down my notes.

For years now I write almost exclusively over the weekends, with occassional editing in the evenings after work. Between working, needing to keep my apartment clean and myself fed, and dedicating time to mastering my fourth language, I have no brain for creativity after I'm done with all these chores and I use whatever remains of my evening to read, or watch shows with my best friend, or do some gaming.

12. What is something you’ve been too nervous/intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

In the story I am currently writing, one of the secondary main characters is an ex-slave and a rape survivor. There is no shortage of hurt/comfort stories about a female character's experience with such kind of abuse, and in all my years of reading fic and books I often find that trauma stemming from it is either glossed over or healed through the power of true love. Even when a story follows a road to healing, it often ends in sunshine and rainbows after the all the travails. Well, for a long, long time now my gremlin brain wanted to explore what such trauma can do to a stoic male warrior, as well as to study how sometimes there is no easy healing from such ordeals, how deep these souls scars lie, and how they will keep poisoning the relationship he will pursue down the line and present major obstacles to both non-sexual and sexual intimacy with the woman he falls in love with. I'm a sucker for happy endings and I will not turn away from it, but this is going to be a scarred happy ending because those ghosts are never going to stay completely quiet in his soul.

I am daunted by the prospect of writing this spin-off like I've never been before, scared of not doing it justice, but something in me has latched onto this idea and really, really wants to at least try it.

13. What made you choose your username?

I needed something unique as a username and I have a habit of making up new names out of thin air for my writing. I liked this one and it had stuck. :)

If any writers who follow me would like to join in, you are welcome.

#tag game

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dogoodweirdly · 1 year ago

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WRITER UPSIDE!

“An OG Returns!”

One of our original writers with DGW, @up-sideand-down is back once more! Joining us this Saturday the 1st at 8pm CT, they say: “I'm feeling refreshed and ready to write. This is probably one of the most fun and rewarding events I take part in and I can't wait to give and celebrate with my fellow creators!” Writing in the FFVII fandom, Upside isn’t sure yet what she’ll be creating. “I have a lot of WIPS to work on...but I may also work on a new fic. I'll know for sure when I start.” Those who have watched them work in the past can tell you that whatever Upside chooses is going to be a TREAT! Every year Upside makes it further in the night—this year they’re hoping to hit 3am but would love to make it all 12 hours if they can! This year she’ll be working to benefit The Innocent Project--a group that is committed to freeing those who are wrongfully imprisoned.

Learn more about Upside and see more of their work by visiting [Tumblr] or [Ao3]

Do Good Weirdly is a twice-yearly fandom event, celebrating passionate creators and raising funds for good causes! Learn more or sign up yourself here: https://dogoodweirdly.carrd.co/, or meet more of our participants in the DGW Directory! https://dogoodweirdly.carrd.co/#directory

#dgwmidyear23 #upside!#fanfiction #charity event #author introduction #So excited that you're back!#FFVII

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pretentiousliterata · 3 months ago

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A Letter From Me to You

~A long overdue beginning in the year of the unexpected~

I'm often a skeptical one —negative, people say. Nonetheless, 2024 has proven to be the year of the unexpected and to surrender and go with the flow it's not as bad as I thought. It's easier said than done, though.

Optimism can be quite a force on itself. When there's many issues knocking at your door and you don't know where to start fixing what's wrong, positivism goes out the door easily. But to stay positive despite everything is the hardest thing, to tell ourselves it's gonna be okay.

And hey, if you're in this situation and you keep your head high (or you can do it with a broken heart like Miss Swift sings), I sincerely applaud you. We get celebrated only when we succeed, but when we're fighting, we often get told «things will get better» —and they can, I guess—, but celebrating the hard battles it's good too. That's what, in retrospective, makes the hardships valuable later, right?

Now, I know you're like, “what's the point of this?”

Well, with this year throwing curveballs at me, good, bad and heavy ones, the time to come out of the shell has come. Every year I put in my resolutions to finish a book, for 2024 I just wrote «write more». Guess who finally finished a draft for a full novel and it's rewriting it for the third time and is filled with regrets?

To keep the illusion and delusions alive —they feed the soul, not gonna lie—, I asked for a commission to have a little “do it for them” shrine. Yours truly has a bad habit of starting things she can't finish later and naturally, she's a crying regret in the flesh when things don't go her way.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 🖤 DAN | ilustradorx (@d_a_n_de.lion)

instagram

My babies...

Given how important this is, at least for me considering what I just told you, I wanted a visual to keep feeding the need to make this book a memorable journey. And when it was posted online, it was the unkind reminder that I never share my stuff and I'm expecting to publish a book I don't advertise. I know it's not even close to being published, but still, the work has to be done before and not until the moment comes.

With many close people also knowing what I'm working on, they've been suggesting I should open a blog, it feels the time has finally come and now, here we are. I don't mean to rant about how awful life is, at all. It can be rough and we're all entitled to go feral at least once in the year, but the idea is to share the honest journey of a writer who's also a Healthcare worker and the mother of a sick cat who's recovering slowly from surgery. Even when things can get tangled, I still want to honor the dreams of the little Ali.

So, welcome to the little space where I'll share my passions and how I deal with them, some bits of words I write and other things I enjoy too. If you're a fellow writer or a creator of some kind, feel free to read my shenanigans to know you're not alone in this rollercoaster we call life, especially in times when social media tends to show us perfect timed routines and not having one makes us feel we don't have control of our lives. Not everything we see is real and slowly, we're forgetting about the human side of us which is not perfect at all, and that's great, that's what makes us human after all.

I hope my words don't overwhelm you, instead, that you can resonate with them and know you're not alone out there. Feel free to share your burdens and your joys too, this is a space for everyone. And of course, I hope you stay for the beginning of this new journey.

Oh, and before I forget: nice to meet you. This is your friendly neighborhood Ali. Besides writing, I love music, films, books, languages (the reason why this blog is also in Spanish), and anything I find interesting. I'm currently working on this little project I have temporarily named “On the Night Transcending the Raging Light”, a dark fantasy novel with several storylines that come together to reveal the past and present. You can read a summary in the works section of the blog!

Until next time! x

P.S: Quite unrelated, but speaking of unexpected, the Oasis reunion was definitely not in my 2024 bingo card, so by now, I'm sure anything is possible this year. Naturally, the need to listen to them —as I cry for not being able to go on the tour— is there. If you fought for tickets and didn't manage to get some, let's cry together, a'right? (and before you say “don't you know other tracks other than Wonderwall?”, I do, oh you bet I do lol).

P.S 2: Hands down to the anthem of August. I know many people didn't like the song, but I adored it! Probably because it came out in a moment when I ached change desperately (and I still do, but before I swim into the new me era, there's a few things to do...)

#a letter from me to you #writers on tumblr #writer struggles #ali writes stuff #and also cries for not being able to go to the Oasis concerts #writers life #I feel so weird sharing this blog post #but anyways let's try this #Spotify

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savefilescomng12 · 5 months ago

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Jennifer Lopez 'Can't Wait' to Adapt Emily Henry's 'Happy Place' to Series

Jennifer Lopez is excited to get to work! On Tuesday, June 25, the actress, 54, confirmed that her production company Nuyorican was working with Netflix on a series adaptation of Emily Henry's hit young adult novel, Happy Place. In a post shared to her Instagram Stories, Lopez screenshotted an article announcing the news. After tagging her project collaborators, the multi-hyphenate decorated the photo with a sticker that read, "Can't wait!" Jennifer Lopez confirms her production company is adapting 'Happy Place'. Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas/Instagram The 2023 novel chronicles Harriet and Wyn, who have "been a perfect couple since they met in college — they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except now, for reasons they’re still not discussing, they don’t," according to an official synopsis. "They broke up five months ago, and they still haven’t told their best friends," the synopsis continues. "They find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the past decade, and continue to lie through their teeth to their friends about their relationship status." Adaptations of Henry's books People We Meet on Vacation and Beach Read are already in the works for the big screen. The #1 New York Times bestselling author has also written Book Lovers, When the Sky Fell on Splendor and A Million Junes. Her latest novel, Funny Story, was released in April. Lopez's Nuyorican Productions — which she runs with her producing partner Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas — inked a multi-year, first-look deal with Netflix in June 2021 to develop feature films and television series as well as scripted and unscripted content. Benny Medina also serves as a partner in the deal, which will put an "emphasis on projects that support diverse female actors, writers and filmmakers," per a press release shared by Netflix at the time. Jennifer Lopez in 'Atlas'. Ana Carballosa/Netflix The "Let's Get Loud" singer's latest movie, Atlas, is her third project under her deal with Netflix. The sci-fi thriller which was released on May 24, follows the story of Atlas (Lopez), “a brilliant but misanthropic data analyst with a deep distrust of artificial intelligence.” After joining a “mission to capture a renegade robot with whom she shares a mysterious past,” her “only hope of saving the future of humanity from AI is to trust it," per the film's synopsis. In a behind-the-scenes video shared exclusively with PEOPLE prior to the movie's release, Lopez opened up about why its story resonated on such a deep level. “The first time I read the script for Atlas, I felt very passionately about the story and particularly the friendship story at the core of it,” she explained. “At the end of it I was literally sobbing.It's kind of a big action movie, but it has at the emotional core a story about love and friendship.” “I always feel like the movies I do somehow mirror where I'm at in my life,” reflected the Hustlers star in the featurette. Atlas “helped push me forward into the next chapter.” Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Her character, she continued, “is used to shutting out the world and going it alone. She learns that it's only by letting someone in — and that someone happens to be AI — that she can feel the pain from her past.” According to Lopez, learning how “to take those walls down" is “the bravest and most beautiful thing you can do for yourself and for others.” Source link Read the full article

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celebrityoops1 · 2 years ago

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Stay in the Know: Celebrityoops.net Delivers the Latest Celebrity News and Gossip

Celebrity news and gossip have always been a hot topic among fans and followers of famous personalities. Whether it’s about their relationships, personal life, or professional career, people love to stay up-to-date with what’s going on in the lives of their favorite celebrities. Celebrityoops.net is a go-to source for all the latest news and gossip about celebrities from around the world.

At Celebrity oops, you can find breaking news about your favorite celebrities. From the latest red carpet appearances to the newest Hollywood couple, you can be sure that you won’t miss anything important. The site covers everything from A-list actors and musicians to reality TV stars and social media influencers.

One of the reasons why Celebrityoops is so popular is because it offers a unique and engaging approach to celebrity news and gossip. The site doesn’t just focus on the traditional news and gossip that you might find on other sites. Instead, it offers a more in-depth look at the lives of celebrities. You can find out what your favorite stars are up to behind the scenes, what they like to do in their free time, and what their personal lives are really like.

In addition to providing up-to-date news and gossip about celebrities, Celebrityoops also offers insightful analysis and commentary on the latest trends and happenings in the entertainment industry. Whether it’s a controversial statement made by a celebrity or a new fashion trend that’s taking the world by storm, the site has everything you need to stay informed and entertained.

Another great thing about Celebrityoops is that it’s easy to navigate and user-friendly. You can easily find the information you’re looking for without having to spend hours searching through pages of content. The site is also updated regularly, so you can be sure that you’re always getting the latest news and gossip about your favorite celebrities.

In conclusion, Celebrityoops is the perfect destination for anyone who loves to stay up-to-date with the latest news and gossip about celebrities. Whether you’re a die-hard fan of a particular celebrity or just enjoy keeping up with the latest trends and happenings in the entertainment industry, this site has everything you need to stay informed and entertained. So, what are you waiting for? Head over to Celebrityoops today and start exploring all the latest news and gossip about your favorite celebrities!

Celebrity oops has a team of experienced and talented writers who are passionate about entertainment and celebrity news. They work hard to bring you the latest and most accurate news and gossip about your favorite stars. The site also features a wide variety of content, including articles, videos, and photos, so you can choose the format that best suits your interests.

In addition to providing news and gossip, Celebrityoops also offers a community for fans to engage with one another. You can join the site’s forum to discuss the latest celebrity news, share your thoughts and opinions, and connect with other fans from around the world. The community is a great way to stay connected with like-minded people and share your love for your favourite celebrities.

The site also offers exclusive interviews with celebrities, giving you a rare glimpse into their lives and careers. You can learn about their upcoming projects, their inspirations, and their personal lives. The interviews are a great way to get to know your favourite stars on a deeper level and gain insight into their personalities and perspectives.

Overall, Celebrity oops is a must-visit site for anyone who loves celebrity news and gossip. The site offers a wide range of content, including breaking news, analysis, and commentary, as well as a community for fans to engage with one another. Whether you’re a casual fan or a die-hard devotee, this site has everything you need to stay up-to-date and entertained.

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rockingrobin69 · 2 years ago

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Drarry projects on tumblr appreciation

It’s summer, it’s hot, too many words makes head hurt, but. This is important. Did you know? That this fandom is blessed with so many cool individuals, who create the COOLEST projects? (Yes: really, really, really cool). Like:

1. @drarrymicrofic. I, for one, wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the sweat and tears and SWEETness of the people of @drarrymicrofic. Running such a large operation must be one hell of an endeavour, but they do it all with so much love, with so much passion for the craft and the people behind it. Sparking inspiration, cheering people on, giving a boost to new writers (and old!), changing lives. Yeah. To the people behind drarry microfic: thank you.

2. Tuesday TLC Zone – sometimes being kind is hard. Especially to yourself. @the-starryknight takes time and effort to remind us it’s possible, that it’s important, gives us a gentle push to explore the things we like, to spread love and joy and yes, kindness, into the world. To share positivity, and also share bits of ourselves. Because we’re allowed, because it’s fun, because it matters. Thank you, Starry.

3. @magicaltrans is doing such brilliant, remarkable work, creating a much needed safe space for trans individuals in this fandom, giving a hand and a boost and so so much support. We all know where the source material for our fandom comes from. And in this place, magical trans is here celebrating trans people, trans love, trans joy, trans being! Making a space! They also mod a discord server (if the link in this post doesn’t work, ask them for a new one). To the people behind magical trans: thank you.

4. Wizards Hearts is the @gameofdrarry community fest that celebrates existing works rather than creating new ones. It’s so easy to forget older fics when so much is being made all the time - which makes this initiative so incredible! Showering existing works with love, shining a light on new (to-you) fic, creating recs and generating joy: just, absolutely brilliant. Thank you!

5. @crazybutgood‘s Author Appreciation Project – CBG puts so much work and thought and heart into her origami art, using her incredible talent to bring people together, to give us the chance to flail about each other, to let us shower each other with love. Then she takes all that and condenses it into the world’s most enchanting, special rec posts. Thank you, CBG!

6. @drarryspecificrecs does incredible work organising SO MUCH information of drarry fic, whether it’s in the daily lists (at @drarryspecificrecsdaily, for example here for July 31st), the monthly longest-fic lists (see here for July this year), fest information (see here for 2022). Where would we be without them? I shudder at the thought. Thank you for the magic!

7. I know what you’re thinking: fests, Robin, what about fests? Well. The thing is, there are so many fests, ran by so many wonderful people who give us their time? Actually for free? There’s @hd-wireless and @hp-fearfest and @hp-bodiceripper and @hd-fan-fair and @lcdrarry and @hpdrizzle and @hdsudsfest and and and honestly I can’t even begin to—I can’t. So I’ll just say: wow, wow, wow, and also a sort of teary-eyed, misty, big thank you.

(Previous lists: writers pt. 1, pt. 2 || artists pt. 1, pt. 2 || reccers pt. 1)

#Robin recs #project appreciation post #I thought separating it from the reccing appreciation makes more sense #so it's a part... special #thank you for being here everybody!

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immortalwanderers · 2 years ago

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Today, Immortal Wanderers would like to join the community in celebrating an appreciation day towards all the talented fanfiction writers.

Writers of fanfiction are one of the many backbones of any fandom, sharing multiple ideas and worlds starring some of our favourite characters from all forms of media, and doing so for free. It is often a project of passion and love towards the original work itself, and much joy is shared with readers who read these stories.

To celebrate, Immortal Wanderers has invited some of those in our discord server to share either recent works they have enjoyed or which have become fond favourites over time, as well as allowing some of the talented writers in this community to share one of their works and talk a little bit about it. We hope you will join us in these celebrations, and share some love towards these works and their authors 💖 ⛰️

These recommendations come from across all three stories; both the original novels Qi Ye and Tian Ya Ke, as well as the drama Word of Honor.

AUTHORS SHOWCASE

@MINNARR

Calling us home across the open yards → Word of Honor fic

Summary:

Deciding to get married doesn’t involve anything dramatic, but Zishu stares at the earliest draft of the guest list with a sinking stomach. There’s a name that isn’t there, and he suddenly wants it to be with a desperate, yearning hunger. They haven’t spoken in years, but…

Well, Zishu’s been learning how to want things. How to make the things he wants reality.

“I want Jiuxiao there,” he says.

Authors Comments:

This piece was born from excited brainstorming in DMs with a friend and is part of a whole little headcanon universe, but even without that context I am just so fond of this fic. A slightly softer universe for our faves, plus sooo many Zhou Zishu & Qin Jiuxiao feelings, and I like the way it let me organically lay out all these pieces of a life Zhou Zishu has built with his chosen family, where he's working to be happy.

@MYRO

Unvarnished → Qi Ye fic

Summary:

“Zishu? I know you’re in there. Liang Jiuxiao told me what happened. We need to talk. I’ve brought wine and dinner, too.”

Zhou Zishu goes still when he realizes who it is. Jing Beiyuan is, at least, one of the few people who knows some of his secrets. Not all, of course, not even most—but the things he doesn’t know are unlikely to shock or anger the man. He’s also, however, the most ruthless person Zhou Zishu knows, and if Zhou Zishu can barely endure himself in this state, Jing Beiyuan is unlikely to be willing to do so either.

So that means he’s come...well.

Zhou Zishu takes a deep breath. He could flee, or fight—Jing Beiyuan is no match for him, physically—but he won’t. Because the thing is, Jing Beiyuan is just doing what he would, if their positions were reversed. And...it’s probably the right thing to do, if there really is no cure.

(In which Jing Beiyuan learns he can trust this life's version of Zhou Zishu.)

Authors Comments:

This is still one of my favorite Qiye fics that I've written. It started out with a discussion about how truth spells/serums in fics normally lead to characters divulging their secret crushes, but if ZZS in Qiye-era got hit with one it would be...much much worse. And then I had to write it...

@THEYILINGLAOZUS

In Every One Of Us Shines The Light Of Love → Word of Honor fic

Summary:

A few years have passed since that fateful moment in which Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu became immortals together, and Zhou Zishu is thankful for every new day he wakes to the infinite life they now share with one another.

The days are only made more special when their young family is able to visit them.

Authors Comments:

This came from me having finished writing two previous parts to this series and thinking ‘hey. What’s an average day like for Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu after they’ve settled into their immortality more?’ I wanted to create a piece which was an inside look into one day in their lives, while also considering subjects like the passing of time for the mortals they surround themselves with, how some ghosts of their past linger, as well as how a future with endless possibilities is open for them now. I had a lot of fun working on this, even if it did take me roughly three months to do so!

@NEIL

tease your mouth with kisses → Tian Ya Ke fic

Summary:

Before leaving, Wu Xi gave Wen Kexing a long list of ingredients and salves. The first was for him to cook, and the second was to be given to Zhou Zishu in case he experienced any pain during his recovery. He told Wen Kexing to mind Zhou Zishu’s recovery and to be good to him.

He didn’t have to be told. Wen Kexing might not be a good man, but he would be good to Zhou Zishu, just like Zhou Zishu was good to him. There was nothing else Wen Kexing would rather do now.

After everything, Wen Kexing takes care of his husband.

Authors Comments:

I wrote this for TYK Week, and I'm still super happy with this fic! I think a lot about post-canon Wenzhou and how they deal with Zishu's recovery, so I decided to write a fic about it. I'm particularly very happy with how I wrote Wen Kexing's headspace in this! His bland of obsessive and adoring is just so, so fun.

@NAD

I’ll always be there by your side → Qi Ye fic

Summary:

When Jing Beiyuan decides he has had enough with the Helian family and goes away, he meets a handsome stranger named Wu Xi.

Is Wu Xi really who he says he is? Or is he hiding something?

Now that Jing Beiyuan has established his own company, how will he face Helian Yi?

AU, where the Helians have a firm and Jing Beiyuan helps them. Jing Beiyuan goes away and creates his own company with the help of Wu Xi and Ping An. Apparently, Wu Xi is just an ordinary person, a secretary, but is he?

Authors Comments:

This is my first and only (for the moment) Qi Ye fic. As our fandom is quite small, it doesn't really get noticed :( It's my first work, and certainly not by best, but I'd always appreciate the feedback, and it even includes some pics at the end <3 thank you in advance if you decide to read it :)

@ALISA

Field Research → Qi Ye fic

Summary:

Helian Yi has given Zhou Zishu an assignment that will require some highly specialized knowledge.

Jing Beiyuan is a very enthusiastic tutor. (Zhou Zishu is an unexpectedly eager student.)

Authors Comments:

Anyone who has ever spoken to me about this fandom knows how obsessed I am with Jing Beiyuan and Zhou Zishu's relationship. From JBY's first life to post-SHL/TYK, from platonic soulmates, to friends with benefits, to shockingly tender lovers, I love it allllll. I love THEM and I love sharing them with you all. (I especially love sharing them with each other.) And this fic, I think, is some of my best work, showcasing the care and love they hold for each other, the tenderness with which they treat each other, and how that bond is rock-solid, even knowing they both have soulmates waiting for them down the line. (Allllllllssoooooo I'm really, really into the sex in this one.) Let these lonely boys care for each other! They both need it so much!!!!

READERS RECOMMENDATIONS

@CARMINE-SUNLIGHT

there’s a special providence in the fall of a heron → written by beansprout → Word of Honor fic

Summary:

In the outside world, there was a rumor about the Qingya mountains. It was said to be one of the holy places, auspiciously positioned for healing and favored by the celestials, who often descended amongst the people to perform miracles.

For Zhou Zishu, here was how things had played out: he wanted a way out of his service at court, the Emperor wanted immortality, and Jin-wang alone found a way to connect the dots.

Zhou Zishu had a theory. There must be a secret sect of healers who lived somewhere in the mountains of Qingya, the kind of sect who focused on learning solely for the sake of knowledge, with very strict rules against the ‘distractions’ of the outside world.

To solve the mystery, a certain white-clothed traveling doctor was the key.

Or: mythology AU. zzs is undercover in Qingya village as a woodcutter to investigate rumors of celestials who grant immortality. during his mission, he finds himself hopelessly tangled with a nosy, persistent traveling doctor who has a knack for getting past his guard.

Readers Comments:

Each time this fic updated I'd forget about my real life problems and went to the most magical place. The writing is so evocative and the plot is full of amazing twists, I love it so much!

long life and promise → written by Katharija → Tian Ya Ke fic

Summary:

On a summer evening, two men are watching the falling stars.

Readers Comments:

I read this fic recenly and it made my day instantly better. The atmosphere was spot-on, and there were so many tender moments that made my heart flutter. Such a lovely look into Wenzhou's future.

@MYRO

Like Pieces into Place → written by ghostybreads → Qi Ye fic

Summary:

“Hmm… How about this? I won’t stay mad, if I can have this for a few days,” Jing Beiyuan offered, stopping in his tracks and picking the sable up by its scruff. It gawked in surprise, before its expression soured into a glare, scrunching its nose up at him. Jing Beiyuan was a swindler and a cheat. It didn’t really mind if it could do something to help, but he worried Master so much! Wasn’t this just taking advantage?

Wu Xi hesitated. “Alright.”

The sable blinked.

// OR; Qi Ye and its characters, through the eyes of a sable.

Readers Comments:

This is essentially Qiye told from the sable's pov, but honestly it is so much more than that. It nails and is incredibly perceptive about all the main relationships involved (by which I mean those involving Jing Beiyuan, Wu Xi, Zhou Zishu, Helian Yi, Liang Jiuxiao), but also has gorgeous parts about Ashinlae and Nuahuar and Ping An and others.

experiments → written by sunbathing → Qi Ye / Word of Honor fic

Summary:

Zhou Zishu tries to see if the pleasure aspect of drunk life dream death works well. With Beiyuan. At a brothel.

(sometimes, you just need to get high and fuck your best friend)

Readers Comments:

This is a ZZS/JBY fic where the two of them hook up while testing drunk like a dream formulas. Besides being sexy, it just gets the dynamic of their relationship so well and I love it.

@THEYILINGLAOZUS

在天涯犹有未归人; those left at the edge of the sky → written by yiqie → Tian Ya Ke fic

Summary:

“Why would you inflict a Wen Kexing who has lost you,” asked Jing Beiyuan, “upon this world?”

Reader Comments:

This fic is beautiful, honestly. Set during Zhou Zishu’s three-month recovery period toward the end of the novel and told through Jing Beiyuan’s perspective, he watches as Wen Kexing slowly looses more and more hope for his beloved ever waking. And it is heartwrenching. Everything about this story is perfect in my eyes.

Five Moons → written by yicityslut → Qi Ye / Tian Ya Ke fic

Summary:

For five whole months, Jing Beiyuan and Wu Xi are staying on the icy mountain to help Zhou Zishu heal.

In those five months, new friendships are formed, old memories are revisited and plans for the future are made.

Reader Comments:

Okay, I admit. I may hold some bias towards this piece as it was a fill written for me for last years Qi Ye Exchange event, but my god. My own love does not take away how incredible this piece is, as this story is such a delight. The author somehow filled every request I had (even the ones I didn’t expect, such as the sable having an apperance!) and they did so beautifully. The voice of all the characters is incredibly on point, and this is another interpretation of how I can easily see Wu Xi, Jing Beiyuan and Wen Kexing being whilst Zhou Zishu recovers. Plus the slowly building friendships that are shown is this are just ((chefs kiss)) I couldn’t recommend this piece more, and often find myself re-reading and grinning into my hands like a small child at how in love with it I am.

@NAD

Begin again → written by seaprincess90 → Qi Ye fic

Summary:

Jing Beiyuan has walked his entire life alongside Helian Yi. He admires him more than anyone, he knows that his future is with him, that all the goals in their lives include the other, that there is no way that destiny can be rewritten. But then his life takes an unexpected turn when someone new appears in the life of the one he considers his eternal and one true love. Beiyuan will have to sort out if it is time to forget or if he must hasten his conquest, while a boy who has just arrived in everyone's lives, Wuxi, little by little tries to be part of his heart.

Reader Comments:

There are no words to describe how much I love this fic!! It deserves so many more kudos, comments and hits! The pacing is immaculate and you can really understand and feel what the characters are going through!

La joya de Da Qing → written by alone_in_the_moondust → Qi Ye fic

Summary:

Jing Beiyuan recibe una visita inesperada de Helian Yi mientras Wu Xi está en su habitación.

Una cosa lleva a la otra y Helian Yi se convierte en el ruido blanco para el intercambio de fluidos entre Jing Beiyuan y Wu Xi.

Reader Comments:

Despite it being in Spanish, i really encourage you to read this even if it's with Google translate. I consider this one to be one of the GOATs of Spanish, or even in general, short Qi Ye fics. There is not one day me and my bestie don't talk about it!

@LU

Possession → written by bluemorningsoup, art by mtkay13 → Tian Ya Ke fic

Summary:

In which it became unsure whether a ghost was possessing a body or a body was possessing a ghost.

—

This was not about relief. This was not about violence. This was different. Wen Kexing was not fucking Zhou Zishu as much as he was filling him up. Zhou Zishu was not being fucked by Wen Kexing as much as he was taking him in, showing Wen Kexing the hollowed, gouged parts of him, empty chambers that Wen Kexing was all too eager to filll.

Reader Comments:

a very intense journey through devotion and hunger, and how both exist within the other. the hunger to be possessed, the devotion to possess, and how it gets lost in the way who is the one possessing who. i wish i had words to explain how beautiful this writing is. plus, it's about fisting.

Written in the Red and the Green → written by Gileonnen → Tian Ya Ke fic

Summary:

Wen Kexing wins a duel and claims the right to top. Zhou Zishu is more than happy to let him.

Reader Comments:

theres mixed nastiness and gentleness between them in this fic thats very satisfying, they really are freaks who love each other so deeply, fitting together with pain and pleasure like pieces of a puzzle. and i adore every piece of fanwork that showcases zzs wrist bite scars haha..

@ALISA

Which to Cut and Which to Pull → written by sideB_track2 → Word of Honor fic

Summary:

A golden slice of light cutting through the night. A forbidden flash of pale limb glimpsed in passing. Impossible, surely, not to peek through a crack in the door to learn more of the secret transpiring within…

Dangerous things, secrets, to hold and to happen upon. Ye Baiyi almost wished he’d kept walking.

Reader Comments:

YeXie is always an achy, bittersweet sort of love story. This was, I think, the first YeXie story I ever read, and it *haunts me,* I swear, I think about it all the damn time. It's hard to verbalize why, but like... the alchemy between the characters here is so, so good. There's something about the way these two lonely, traumatized boys find comfort and healing in each other, and this story does a magnificent job of showing that warmth and care without losing the characters' sharp edges and claws that are so essential to their authenticity. Gosh, the romance... It's captivating and immersive and it is absolutely the fic that sold me on this pairing and I swear I could re-read it once a week and never get tired of it!

with inexplicable fondness → written by noelia_g → Word of Honor fic

Summary:

Wen Kexing is aware of the following things.

One, Han Ying would die for Zhou Zishu - and Wen Kexing likes that in a man. Two, upon their first meeting Han Ying dropped to his knees before A-Xu the moment Wen Kexing let go of his throat - and that is simply just interesting. Three, Han Ying is A-Xu's in a way no one else is anymore.

That last part, he could find an issue with. Or, he could use it for the best - he is not called Philanthropist Wen for nothing, after all.

Reader Comments:

Okay, so lots of people say "this fic changed my life," but, like, this one actually did. NOT ONLY because Jo is a staggeringly talented writer, and not only because this is one of the hottest threesome fics I've ever encountered in any fandom, ever, in my entire life, but because this fic and my resulting interest in HanWenZhou as a dynamic led me directly to meet a handful of magnificently unhinged people whom I now cannot imagine my life without. (I talk to them every day! Also... um... also we've written some of the most depraved porn I've ever had the joy of coauthoring.) Even if polyships aren't usually your thing I'd urge you to check this story out. You would not BELIEVE how much yearning and devotion and passion and filth and kink and SHEER UNHINGED ROMANCE Jo has managed to cram into less than 18k. It's truly next level and I cannot possibly recommend a story more highly.

#word of honor #qi ye #tian ya ke #lord seventh #shan he ling #faraway wanderers #山河令 #天涯客 #七爷 #community fic rec #fanfic writers appreciation day

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uomo-accattivante · 3 years ago

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Excellent article about bringing a re-make of Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage to fruition, and the twenty-year friendship that Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain share:

There were days on the shoot for “Scenes From a Marriage,” a five-episode limited series that premieres Sept. 12 on HBO, when Oscar Isaac resented the crew.

The problem wasn’t the crew members themselves, he told me on a video call in March. But the work required of him and his co-star, Jessica Chastain, was so unsparingly intimate — “And difficult!” Chastain added from a neighboring Zoom window — that every time a camera operator or a makeup artist appeared, it felt like an intrusion.

On his other projects, Isaac had felt comfortably distant from the characters and their circumstances — interplanetary intrigue, rogue A.I. But “Scenes” surveys monogamy and parenthood, familiar territory. Sometimes Isaac would film a bedtime scene with his onscreen child (Lily Jane) and then go home and tuck his own child into the same model of bed as the one used onset, accessorized with the same bunny lamp, and not know exactly where art ended and life began.

“It was just a lot,” he said.

Chastain agreed, though she put it more strongly. “I mean, I cried every day for four months,” she said.

Isaac, 42, and Chastain, 44, have known each other since their days at the Juilliard School. And they have channeled two decades of friendship, admiration and a shared and obsessional devotion to craft into what Michael Ellenberg, one of the series’s executive producers, called “five hours of naked, raw performance.” (That nudity is metaphorical, mostly.)

“For me it definitely felt incredibly personal,” Chastain said on the call in the spring, about a month after filming had ended. “That’s why I don’t know if I have another one like this in me. Yeah, I can’t decide that. I can’t even talk about it without. …” She turned away from the screen. (It was one of several times during the call that I felt as if I were intruding, too.)

The original “Scenes From a Marriage,” created by Ingmar Bergman, debuted on Swedish television in 1973. Bergman’s first television series, its six episodes trace the dissolution of a middle-class marriage. Starring Liv Ullmann, Bergman’s ex, it drew on his own past relationships, though not always directly.

“When it comes to Bergman, the relationship between autobiography and fiction is extremely complicated,” said Jan Holmberg, the chief executive of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation.

A sensation in Sweden, it was seen by most of the adult population. And yes, sure, correlation does not imply causation, but after its debut, Swedish divorce were rumored to have doubled. Holmberg remembers watching a rerun as a 10-year-old.

“It was a rude awakening to adult life,” he said.

The writer and director Hagai Levi saw it as a teenager, on Israeli public television, during a stint on a kibbutz. “I was shocked,” he said. The series taught him that a television series could be radical, that it could be art. When he created “BeTipul,” the Israeli precursor to “In Treatment,” he used “Scenes” as proof of the concept “that two people can talk for an hour and it can work,” Levi said. (Strangely, “Scenes” also inspired the prime-time soap “Dallas.”)

So when Daniel Bergman, Ingmar Bergman’s youngest son, approached Levi about a remake, he was immediately interested.

But the project languished, in part because loving a show isn’t reason enough to adapt it. Divorce is common now — in Sweden, and elsewhere — and the relationship politics of the original series, in which the male character deserts his wife and young children for an academic post, haven’t aged particularly well.

Then about two years ago, Levi had a revelation. He would swap the gender roles. A woman who leaves her marriage and child in pursuit of freedom (with a very hot Israeli entrepreneur in place of a visiting professorship) might still provoke conversation and interest.

So the Marianne and Johan of the original became Mira and Jonathan, with a Boston suburb (re-created in a warehouse just north of New York City), stepping in for the Stockholm of the original. Jonathan remains an academic though Mira, a lawyer in the original, is now a businesswoman who out-earns him.

Casting began in early 2020. After Isaac met with Levi, he wrote to Chastain to tell her about the project. She wasn’t available. The producers cast Michelle Williams. But the pandemic reshuffled everyone’s schedules. When production was ready to resume, Williams was no longer free. Chastain was. “That was for me the most amazing miracle,” Levi said.

Isaac and Chastain met in the early 2000s at Juilliard. He was in his first year; she, in her third. He first saw her in a scene from a classical tragedy, slapping men in the face as Helen of Troy. He was friendly with her then-boyfriend, and they soon became friends themselves, bonding through the shared trauma of an acting curriculum designed to break its students down and then build them back up again. Isaac remembered her as “a real force of nature and solid, completely solid, with an incredible amount of integrity,” he said.

In the next window, Chastain blushed. “He was super talented,” she said. “But talented in a way that wasn’t expected, that’s challenging and pushing against constructs and ideas.” She introduced him to her manager, and they celebrated each other’s early successes and went to each other’s premieres. (A few of those photos are used in “Scenes From a Marriage” as set dressing.)

In 2013, Chastain was cast in J.C. Chandor’s “A Most Violent Year,”opposite Javier Bardem. When Bardem dropped out, Chastain campaigned for Isaac to have the role. Weeks before shooting, they began to meet, fleshing out the back story of their characters — a husband and wife trying to corner the heating oil market in 1981 New York — the details of the marriage, business, life.

It was their first time working together, and each felt a bond that went deeper than a parallel education and approach. “Something connects us that’s stronger than any ideas of character or story or any of that,” Isaac said. “There’s something else that’s more about like, a shared existence.”

Chandor noticed how they would support each other on set, and challenge each other, too, giving each other the freedom to take the characters’ relationship to dark and dangerous places. “They have this innate trust with each other,” Chandor said.

That trust eliminated the need for actorly tricks or shortcuts, in part because they know each other’s tricks too well. Their motto, Isaac said, was, “Let’s figure this [expletive] out together and see what’s the most honest thing we can do.”

Moni Yakim, Juilliard’s celebrated movement instructor, has followed their careers closely and he noted what he called the “magnetism and spiritual connection” that they suggested onscreen in the film.

“It’s a kind of chemistry,” Yakim said. “They can read each other’s mind and you as an audience, you can sense it.”

Telepathy takes work. When they knew that shooting “Scenes From a Marriage” could begin, Chastain bought a copy of “All About Us,” a guided journal for couples, and filled in her sections in character as Mira. Isaac brought it home and showed it to his wife, the filmmaker Elvira Lind.

“She was like, ‘You finally found your match,’” Isaac recalled. “’Someone that is as big of a nerd as you are.’”

The actors rehearsed, with Levi and on their own, talking their way through each long scene, helping each other through the anguished parts. When production had to halt for two weeks, they rehearsed then, too.

Watching these actors work reminded Amy Herzog, a writer and executive producer on the series, of race horses in full gallop. “These are two people who have so much training and skill,” she said. “Because it’s an athletic feat, what they were being asked to do.”

But training and skill and the “All About Us” book hadn’t really prepared them for the emotional impact of actually shooting “Scenes From a Marriage.” Both actors normally compartmentalize when they work, putting up psychic partitions between their roles and themselves. But this time, the partitions weren’t up to code.

“I knew I was in trouble the very first week,” Chastain said.

She couldn’t hide how the scripts affected her, especially from someone who knows her as well as Isaac does. “I just felt so exposed,” she said. “This to me, more than anything I’ve ever worked on, was definitely the most open I’ve ever been.”

“It felt so dangerous,” she said.

I visited the set in February (after multiple Covid-19 tests and health screenings) during a final day of filming. It was the quietest set I had ever seen: The atmosphere was subdued, reverent almost, a crew and a studio space stripped down to only what two actors would need to do the most passionate and demanding work of their careers.

Isaac didn’t know if he would watch the completed series. “It really is the first time ever, where I’ve done something where I’m totally fine never seeing this thing,” he said. “Because I’ve really lived through it. And in some ways I don’t want whatever they decide to put together to change my experience of it, which was just so intense.”

The cameras captured that intensity. Though Chastain isn’t Mira and Isaac isn’t Jonathan, each drew on personal experience — their parents’ marriages, past relationships — in ways they never had. Sometimes work on the show felt like acting, and sometimes the work wasn’t even conscious. There’s a scene in the harrowing fourth episode in which they both lie crumpled on the floor, an identical stress vein bulging in each forehead.

“It’s my go-to move, the throbbing forehead vein,” Isaac said on a follow-up video call last month. Chastain riffed on the joke: “That was our third year at Juilliard, the throb.”

By then, it had been five months since the shoot wrapped. Life had returned to something like normal. Jokes were possible again. Both of them seemed looser, more relaxed. (Isaac had already poured himself one tequila shot and was ready for another.) No one cried.

Chastain had watched the show with her husband. And Isaac, despite his initial reluctance, had watched it, too. It didn’t seem to have changed his experience.

“I’ve never done anything like it,” he said. “And I can’t imagine doing anything like it again.”

###

#oscar isaac #jessica chastain #scenes from a marriage #hagai levi #michelle williams #elvira lind #behind the scenes #article

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will-o-the-witch · 3 years ago

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What do you think of pop culture paganism? Do you think fictional characters can actually form in the astral as a result of belief, and be worshipped and worked with, or is it an unhealthy relationship with capitalism? Not that I see it that way!! I'm actually considering it as a witch but I've seen both sides and you're a really trusted member of the community so I'd like to know your take on it!

I gotta be careful how I word this so a necessary disclaimer: these are MY beliefs for MY practice and other folks are obviously still allowed to do what they want!

I personally advise being very, very, extremely careful mixing any kind of corporate entertainment into your religion. They are designed to make us feel strong emotions and get attached, because that's how they keep you consuming media, buying merchandise, and giving them free promotion. Obviously passion projects still exist but it's important to remember that most popular media is designed to make money and wouldn't exist if a board of suits didn't crunch numbers and decide it was a good product for their target audience. I have an extremely loose definition of idol worship, but for me what does count is worshipping human beings or anything man-made, so objects, cult leaders, celebrities, politicians, and characters from works of fiction. (Again, other peoples' practice is none of my business, but as a Jewitch that's something I avoid.)

Can we still draw inspiration from pop culture? Absolutely! It's perfectly normal and fine for pop culture figures to resonate with us and feel meaningful. Take all the meaning, empowerment, lessons, and comfort you can from stuff, you know? Pop culture is part of our culture, and I think there's actually a lot of really interesting work to be done in the realm of pop culture magic. I can get behind the idea of thoughtforms, but I personally don't see deity figures being born out of it. I struggle to believe they'd have the same sort of cosmic place in the universe as figures like Aphrodite, Odin, Jesus, etc. who were explicitly born out of religious pursuit and with entire cultures built around their explicit worship. (I view HaShem kinda differently than pagan deities so I'm shelving that for now. Jesus also fits into my idol worship definition but that's an entire other industrial barrel of worms lmao)

I've heard some pop culture pagans argue that their deities have always existed and this is just the way their stories manifested in the world, which is my preferred explanation over the thoughtform theory. Between everything else it still doesn't sit right with me for my own practice (plus as a writer I would be very uncomfortable if someone told me my story was like that)

So all in all? Not for me, but don't take my word as gospel. Form your own opinions! I absolutely don't care what other people do. I definitely still warn everybody not to blindly simp for megacorporations in general but if you're going into things mindfully and with a genuine heart, who am I to judge?

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lokiondisneyplus · 3 years ago

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Disney+’s Loki debuted in June to critical acclaim and record viewership on the streaming platform. Starring Tom Hiddleston as the legendary God of Mischief, the series dives heavily into the concept of the multiverse and restores Loki as a major Marvel Cinematic Universe figure after dying in Avengers: Infinity War. That’s the same multiverse recently celebrated in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and it will undoubtedly factor into many Marvel projects to come.

But the series didn’t always rely on multiverse / time travel shenanigans for depth. Instead, Loki leverages a MCU framework to explore bureaucracy in a comic manner. It also forced audiences to consider hefty subject matter such as identity, mortality, and self-acceptance. As a result of this more serious (but still incredibly fun) turn, the series was recognized at multiple year-end guilds including the Screen Actors Guild, the Art Directors Guild, the Visual Effects Society, the Motion Picture Sound Editing guild, and the Writers Guild of America.

So, you think you know Loki? Well, here are six facts about the series that you may not have recognized.

1. After watching Avengers: Endgame, people accused Marvel of neglecting to tie up the Loki storyline.

As Marvel fans know, Loki dies at the hands of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. He’s seen again, though, in Avengers: Endgame as the team jumps into the multiverse to retrieve copies of the Infinity Stones. In Endgame and as seen in Loki, Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief grabs the Tesseract and disappears, not to be seen again in the film. Marvel Studios knew somewhere between Infinity War and Endgame that Disney+ and Loki were coming, but it hadn’t been announced publicly yet. Audiences began to revolt!

“One of my favorite things coming out of Endgame was people saying that we forget to tie up the loose end of Loki. Loki just disappears and we forgot to mention what happens to him at the end of that movie,” laughed producer Kevin Feige.

2. Owen Wilson’s first foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe became an eye-opening experience for him.

Wilson (Wedding Crashers) joined the Loki team without knowing about Marvel’s rabid fan base. He was unprepared for the extensive secrecy traditionally surrounding Marvel projects.

“I saw that the fan base is so revved up and passionate, and Marvel’s just so kind of committed to trying to surprise people,” Wilson said. “You definitely are kind of walking on eggshells.”

Director Kate Herron won Wilson over with a detailed phone call explaining the dynamic between Loki and Wilson’s character, Mobius. The backbone of their relationship provided the most entertaining aspects of the series, but it took Hiddleston’s teaching to ensure Wilson fully understood the trajectory of the characters.

“Tom very generously and patiently kind of taking me through the whole sort of MCU mythology and-and Loki. We were calling them the Loki lectures,” Wilson said. “I think that was really important and really helpful to our dynamic once we started filming the scenes. That was really helpful, going to Loki school before we began.”

3. Wunmi Mosaku’s character, B-15, doesn’t exist in the comics, and she didn’t know she was auditioning for a Marvel series.

Mosaku (Lovecraft Country) plays B-15, a high-ranking soldier in the Time Variance Authority (TVA). The character was constructed specifically for the Disney+ television series. She found, though, that it reduced the stress of expectations surrounding taking on a role within the MCU. Particularly since she joined the cast with two friends from drama school: Hiddleston and Gugu Mbatha-Raw who played Ravonna Renslayer.

“Being able to have a clear slate and just do whatever I want to do,” Mosaku said. “It’s great. It’s fun and kind of free.”

But the audition process was a bit of a mystery. Mosaku recorded her audition based on out-of-context excerpts from the script. She assumed the project was top secret, and when she received a call in the middle of the night letting her know she’d won a role in Loki, she asked the all-important question, “When did I audition for Loki?”

4. Film noir, including David Fincher films, inspired the look and feel of the series.

Director Kate Herron and director of photography Autumn Durald Arkapaw referenced a great deal of film noir when settling on a visual aesthetic for the series. Herron cites David Fincher’s Se7en as a huge influence, including a needle drop that she feels fans would immediately recognize. Zodiac and Silence of the Lambs also both provided visual frames of reference, which was odd for a comedy adventure series.

5. The series set out to fully explore who Loki is as a character. We think it did a great job.

What remains of Loki when fortune strips away all of his familiarities? In exploring that theme, Hiddleston referenced the absence of Thor, Asgard, the Avengers, or any real power in the initial episodes of the series. Those are all hallmarks Loki with which defines himself. In other words, what makes Loki Loki?

“Is he capable of growth? Is he capable of change? Do his experiences within the TVA give him any insight into who he might be? This mercurial shapeshifter who never presents the same exterior twice,” Hiddleston explained. “I hope the audience gets a kick out of where we take it.”

We certainly did. Particularly Alligator Loki.

6. Series creator Michael Waldron took his sense of humor from Rick and Morty into Loki, initially worrying he was “trying to step on the gas with the comedy” too much.

WGA-nominated Waldron served as writer and producer on the Emmy-winning animated program Rick and Morty before joining Loki. While Thor and Loki’s comic book adventures aren’t explicitly funny, Waldron found that the actors rendered the material in a naturally comic way, particularly with Hiddleston’s natural wit.

“That’s the great thing about this character — you don’t have to write jokes. Loki’s gonna make regular exchanges funny and fun and engaging, just with the way he interacts,” Waldron explained. “We just trusted Tom to do all the work.”

Loki streams exclusively on Disney+.

#Loki #guild awards #Tom Hiddleston

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greenmegsnoham · 3 years ago

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✨💕2022 Goals!!💕✨

Thank you @pennygalleon @corvuscrowned and @mystickitten42 for the tag! 😘

✨Reflection✨

Wow. What a year 2021 has been....insane.

I've appreciated being a part of this fandom more than you all could ever know.

I used to live where I could live my HP dreams in Orlando, FL, and although I don't regret moving back up north, I was in desperate need to re-connect with the stories I genuinely thank for the person I became. (but fuck jkr tho)

I started reading fic in September and writing in October of 2020, pushed out nearly 400k, birthed a podcast project with my best friend, and have worked tirelessly to build a community of love and acceptance in fandom that appeared severely lacking.

I've met so many amazing people and the love I feel here is just....ugh. I thank the Drarry community for being my gateway drug to far more content than I could even attempt to consume or create.

We all create and consume for our own reasons, and a huge part for me was to find my bliss in dark times, help myself through my depression and isolation. I've never felt so free and unapologetically me, and that wouldn't have been possible without all the beautiful members of fandom.

Thank you! 💕

✨Okay, yes. Goals.✨

💕No Fests, Except...

Being a part of various fests in this pat year has helped me grow as a writer, exposing myself to content and ships I never would have considered writing/reading and it's been an absolute joy. I'm so proud of everything I made. Especially [redacted] for HD Erised. I poured my entire soul into that work and it brought me just as much joy as exhaustion.

So! As much as I loved everything I made, I also need to acknowledge the stress that deadlines put on me and my personal wellness. Writing is something I am passionate about and my husband has always said "you're one of the few people I know that can make a hobby into a job."

He's right.

Fests = me putting my time and energy into something at the detriment of other wonderful experiences in life I've been missing because I "had to get it done".

IF I do any fests in 2022, it will be SELF-PROMPT and submitted if I have completed something appropriate within the timeframe.

Bottom line: Yes there are a million amazing fests happening all year long. It's so damn wonderful, but I have to know my limits and I need to get back and write for me at my own pace.

BUT! I have every intention of investing in the hp events/fest community regardless with events like @hpshipuary and @hpcestfest because, well. I want to! And, if I don't create anything for them, WHO CARES?! They are there for those who do!!

💕Which leads into...Fandom Advocacy...

Call me Helga Hufflepuff because I want everyone in fandom to feel seen, accepted, and loved and not judged base on what they consume or create.

I've been there for myself and I NEVER want anyone to feel like they don't 'fit' somewhere or that what they enjoy is wrong. You do not exist for someone else's approval. Find YOUR bliss and celebrate it. Don't give anyone the power to take what you love away from you, especially no-names on the internet. Like, bye.

If you want/need a space, @careofmagicalshippers has the space for you, growing into the space we all need and deserve: Join the Magical Shippers discord

💕Writing: for me, including original fiction

I had no idea I could love something as much as I love writing. I've always been a creative, with an Illustration BFA degree, but finding this however late in life has been one of the best things that has happened to me.

I have so many ideas for stories I haven't had the time to pursue (thank you fests 🤣) and WIPs that need love. I'm writing what I love on my terms and when I'm given that opportunity I know I'm at my best.

And as mentioned above, I often make hobbies into a job BUT I could see myself MAKING it a job. I want to keep writing and of course I will continue writing fanfiction. But the idea of becoming a published author for something entirely my own is so magical in itself. So, who knows!!!

💕Continue creating @careofmagicalshippers and @snapechatpodcast - with no end in sight.

What brings me more joy than writing and reading Harry Potter fanfiction and it's characters and ships? TALKING ABOUT HOW MUCH I LOVE IT!

Nathan and I have been having a blast with CoMS and we know you are too and that brings us so much joy. This world needs more love and laughs and we love to provide!

I also love that I can join friends like @snapecentric @danni-the-puff and @willwediejustalittle and others to share our Snapey love amongst ourselves and with others.

It's so much work but it is a labour of love that is worth it.

💕On a personal level...

I need to take better care of myself physically and mentally. There are several things over the years that I've let become lesser priority than they need to be. I need to take the time to recalibrate and find better balance in my life including relationships and health.

I need to be present with my husband and family.

I love the HP fandom and it isn't going anywhere. If I step away from my phone and discord or don't open Google Docs the world isn't going to burst into flames. In fact, by not doing so I create more fires than not. I acknowledge I've had a very selfish year - partly due to my manic depression and severe manic episode - and I need to remember my choices affect others.

Writing and interacting in fandom brings me so much joy, but it's okay for other things to bring me joy. I mean THEY SHOULD.

✨Here's to a Happier and Healthier 2022!✨

And remember...sticks and stones may break our bones, but words are just words. Don't give them more power than they deserve. 💕

Give power to the words that matter. Like how much I love you! 🥰

Pretty sure like everyone under the sun has been tagged already but oh well 🤣 @phenomenalasterisk @samunderthelights @avalonmoonshinesstuff @veelawings @oliverwilde105 @danni-the-puff @francis-sinbin @deaserkan @fuckboyregulus @screamingfae @rhiaflamesong @wheezykat @blue--dreaming @bronwenackeley @ronbinary @fw00shy @erlasart @quicksilvermaid @violetweasley19 @the-sinking-ship @mxmaneater @gnarf @swisstae

#2022 goals #Harry Potter #cw mental health #hp fanfiction #hp fandom #writing #podcast #self care #drarry #love not hate #resolution

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karanna1 · 4 years ago

Text

AU - Lena Luthor Saves Krypton

Lena is somehow sent back in time and finds herself on Krypton 30 years before the planet explodes. Kara doesn’t exist yet. Krypton has no idea what’s about to happen to them.

Lena realizes that with her knowledge of what’s to come and intellect to devise a solution, she can do two things. One, she can save an entire species from near extinction. Two, she can save Kara from ever having to experience the pain of losing her family, her home, and being abandoned. Kara could live a happy life and never know the burden of Supergirl or being the last daughter of Krypton.

So instead of trying to find a way back to Earth, back to her own time, she settles into life on Krypton, becomes fluent in Kryptonese, and sets about with a spectacularly single-minded focus of changing the future - to save this dying world (and Kara).

She succeeds...mostly. They can’t fix the damage that’s already been done to the planet. Their sun will die and destroy Krypton still, but with Lena’s help they’re able to locate a barren planet in another system that has a white star. It’s brand new, strong, and will live for untold trillions of years (provided Kryptonians didn’t try to harness its power again).

They terraform the planet and create “New Krypton” using the dome concept that Zor-El invented fused with Coluan bottling technology. All Kryptonians are instantly transported to their new home that’s identical to the old one save for one difference - the white sun grants them god-like powers that are beyond what Lena ever saw Kara and Clark capable of on Earth. Kryptonians are overwhelmed en masse by these powers. Some go power mad and attempt coups and form radical sects. Others realize the gift they’ve been given and, with Lena’s guidance, Kryptonian society develops under a new mission - to travel the galaxy and offer help to all those in need. Not just offering knowledge and technology this time, but themselves with their newfound powers.

Lena keeps her distance from the House of El as much as she can. It’s nearly impossible considering their standing with the Kryptonian High Council. Lena has to work very closely with the Council. Jor-El and his brother, Zor-El, are brilliant scientists and statesmen. Alura In-Ze is a rising star in the judicial system. Her marriage to Zor-El, second born son of the House of El, caused quite a few waves, but when Lara Lor-Van, a brilliant biologist and prominent noble of the House of Van, agrees to marry Jor-El, it’s all anyone can talk about. All 4 of them live very public lives due to their professions, their positions on the High Council, and their nobility.

They’re ever so fascinated by Lena Luthor, the human from Earth that appeared one day to save their entire planet. Their savior. The one their people have named “The New Dawn”. Lena wants nothing to do with the House of El. It’s too much. She can’t bear to be so close to Kara’s family without Kara. It feels wrong. Unfortunately, with how much Lena tries to avoid them, the 4 nobles think they’ve done something to offend her, and constantly attempt ways to make amends. It only makes Lena’s life that much more difficult.

But she still knows the exact date and time that Kara Zor-El steps into existence. Later, she will know the moment Kal-El is born (mostly because Lara’s natural birth is all anyone can talk about).

Lena meets Kara on New Krypton entirely by accident one day when Zor-El brings his brilliant young daughter, a prodigy in the Science Guild, to see Krypton’s finest laboratory entirely unannounced. The same laboratory that Lena founded and runs. She’s stricken, having tried to avoid this moment for as long as she could, knowing that eventually she’d have to see Kara as child, which would spell the end of every fanciful dream or slightest hope she had of a chance that someday she would find Kara, her best friend, again. Seeing the reality both warms her heart and breaks it all the same. This bouncing bundle of joy and inquisitiveness has the same blinding smile, in all its purity, with that same head of golden hair.

“You’re THE Lena Luthor?”

She kneels before her so they’re at eye level. “I suppose I am. And you’re THE Kara Zor-El?”

The ten year old gasps. “You know who I am?”

“Of course. I know all the important people. And you are a very important person, Kara.”

“I am?”

Zor-El interjects. “I’ve told Lena all about you, my dear. I’m sure she’s grown tired of my endless babbling about my wonderful daughter and her keen scientific mind.”

“Not at all,” Lena replies a bit flatly and tries to tune him out as she focuses on the young girl who will one day be a most extraordinary woman. “Do you enjoy the Science Guild, Kara?”

“Yes! I love to learn new things. As many things as I can! Sometimes father asks me to work with him in his laboratory at home and I help him with his projects!”

“That does sound like fun. I enjoy creating things as well.”

“You’re the most brilliant bio-engineer on Krypton! I’ve read all about you! You saved us.”

Lena shies away from the praise and instead fumbles her way forward, uncomfortable under the scrutiny of Zor-El, whom she’d never given the time of day until he walked in with his daughter.

“Tell me, Kara, do you like other subjects besides science?”

Kara fidgets, a little confused. “Well, I don’t...they don’t give you much time for other subjects. I-I do try to read about other things like art and history when I have free time, but I’m not really allowed—“

“She’s a hard worker and a wonderful student,” Zor-El interrupts again.

Lena ignores him. “Do you enjoy writing, Kara?”

“Writing?”

“Creation comes in many forms. I enjoy being able to create things with my hands. Machines. Technology. Things to help people. Science is my passion, but there are many other ways to help people. Ways that I’m not very good at, but others are. Writing takes a curious mind, creativity, and a way with words. I believe you might have a gift for that.”

“A gift for words?” Her little brow crinkles as she considers it.

Lena nods. “A writer can do a great many things that a scientist cannot. They are equally as powerful and important. What matters is doing what you love most, what inspires you most. You’re going to do great things one day, Kara. Maybe with the Science Guild, maybe with something else... The future is limitless for you.”

“You really think I could be that important someday?”

“You already are.” Lena smiles and breathes deeply. “Do you know what your name means where I come from?”

She shakes her head. “I have read about Earth. It’s very far away and my Aunt Astra says their civilization is primitive and filled with savages. They have my name there too?”

“Daughter, do not speak—“

Lena waves off Zor-El’s warning without looking at him.

“That’s not an unfair assessment of Earth compared to Krypton, but I do believe humanity would surprise a great many Kryptonians, including your Aunt. In my native language, Kara means ‘beloved friend’.”

Kara beams in a way that is so achingly familiar. It’s like an echo in Lena’s memory. Not exact, not complete, but the beginning of what it will become.

“I like that. Does that mean I’m your friend?”

Lena feels it in that moment. The melting warmth simultaneous with the absolute shattering of what was left of her heart.

“I will always be your friend, darling. Always.”

Kara leaves with her father and Lena’s coworkers are concerned when she goes off planet for an impromptu holiday without notice. She returns two months later and picks up as if she never left.

It’s around that time that one of the people she’s befriended in her years on Krypton remarks at how ageless she seems for a human that supposedly has a short life span. It sparks Lena’s curiosity. Indeed, it’s been nearly 30 years since she traveled back in time and found herself on a new planet. Yet you’d be hard pressed to find a single physical difference. Kryptonians aged slowly under a red star, and even slower still under the white star, but Lena was human. Her body wasn’t designed to accommodate solar radiation the way Kryptonians did. She was over 50 years old now, yet she still didn’t look a day over 28.

More years pass and New Krypton thrives. The galaxy is brought together through New Krypton’s diplomacy and thousands of planets and species are united under a banner of peace. There are always dissenters, but happiness and prosperity is widespread. Lena finds joy in friendships and attempts romantic relationships, but nothing ever really takes. Still, she’s content. She misses Earth, of course, and hopes to return one day before she dies, whenever that will be, but she’s found peace in knowing that she is able to be the one thing she’s always wanted - a force for good.

She’s at dinner with coworkers one night when Lara and Jor-El spot her. She sighs and straightens, preparing for their next attempt to get in her good graces.

“Do they never desist?” One of them mutters next to her ear. “Surely they’re intelligent enough to know when they’re not wanted?”

“Don’t be unkind, but help me keep it short if it goes on too long.”

“Lena! It’s wonderful to see you,” Lara says.

“You as well. How are you?”

“Very well, thank you.”

Lena’s table has gone conspicuously, and therefore awkwardly, silent.

Lara and Jor-El look around at the group uncomfortably.

“We were wondering...well, our niece is being inducted to the—“

“The Science Council as First Order,” Lena finishes for her. “Yes, I’m aware. It’s a great honor. I’m sure the House of El is quite proud.”

“Indeed we are,” Jor-El jumps in. “She’s a most remarkable young woman and we couldn’t be prouder of who she’s become.”

“We are holding a celebration to mark the occasion and were wondering if you might honor us by attending? It will be quite the event.” Lara does a slight eyeroll. “Jor is insisting on all the fantastical things.”

Jor-El nods enthusiastically. “My brother isn’t one for celebrations so I’ve taken up the mantle. Kara deserves all the praise she’s earned with her hard work and dedication.”

“You’ll have to forgive my mate’s enthusiasm. He’s quite invested in Kara since she can share his passion for his life’s work while our son is—“

“Disgustingly hopeless,” Jor-El grumbles.

“Oh?” She raises an eyebrow. “A great disappointment he’s been then?”

“Goodness no!” Lara shakes her head and shoots a warning look at her husband. “Kal is a fine boy. Just...a little lost.”

“Perhaps he is simply in need of a different path than the one his father has in mind,” Lena finds the words tumbling out of her mouth without thinking twice. The couple stares at her agape, but she continues without care. “I can certainly sympathize with the need to step out of the shadow of a family’s overbearing legacy.” She sighs. “While I thank you for considering me, it’s simply not possible with my days usually booked from dawn to dusk. Besides, parties have never been altogether pleasant endeavors for me.”

The disappointment on their faces isn’t what changes her mind. It’s that as soon as she says the words, she regrets it. She’s, of course, kept up with Kara’s doings and was concerned when she heard about the recent move in the Science Guild. Was journalism just a secondary passion since she couldn’t truly use her mind on Earth the way she could on Krypton? Or was this a woman just following in her family’s footsteps because she believed it was the right thing to do? Lena hadn’t seen or spoken to Kara in 16 years. Not since the day Zor-El brought her to the lab.

In the end, it’s Lena’s concern and curiosity for Kara’s well being that wins out. Though she very well knows that the woman that existed in another life, on another planet, is not the woman who lives here now on New Krypton. Even if she shared the same name and the same face...maybe even the same bright eyes and sunny smile. Even then.

“Send me the invitation. I’ll see what I can do,” Lena says, to the surprise of everyone at her table, including the two standing next to it.

They nod, stunned but pleased, and say their goodbyes quickly, walking away.

Lena’s coworkers all turn to her in surprise, but she refuses to answer their questions and excuses herself early for the evening.

She doesn’t show for the celebration. She torments herself for a week coming up to it and can’t bring herself to go. The fear of the past and her memories being trod upon are too strong. But somehow she finds herself in the Starling Grove anyway, just as it comes to an end. The evening is late and guests slowly make their exit after the long day of partying. Lena practically sneaks in, staying in shadows, not knowing what she hopes to find or what she could see that would make all her fears come true.

Is it any wonder that fate would intervene? That there would be no circumstance in which Lena could fly so close to the sun and not be touched?

“If avoiding people is your specialty, you’re very skilled at it.”

It’s almost terrifying to hear her voice again. It’s a different language being spoken, but the voice is the same. As if it’d been snatched from the deepest recesses of Lena’s memories, of a different life and a different world, and brought to the present in flesh and blood with a bolt of lightning.

She turns and it’s Kara smiling at her. Not the sunny smile. The soft, tender, reassuring one. The one that she used to share with Lena when she had one of her harder days. Kara was no longer the small and precocious child she met all those years ago, the one that she could almost convince herself was a complete stranger and that there was no connection between the child and the woman she knew. But that was gone now. The Kara standing before her was the same one she’d left behind on Earth. The one she’d given up in order to save her. The one who walked into her office so many years ago, trailing behind her cousin, and Lena knew she was done for.

Her eyes were so blue as she looked at her...bluer than Lena remembered and it seemed so impossible. Perhaps it wasn’t real. Perhaps she was dreaming. But she wasn’t...was she?

“My skills must be rusty since you were able to catch me.”

Kara put a finger to her smiling lips. “Shh. Finding people is one of my untold gifts.”

“I imagine you have a lot of those.”

Kara looks pleasantly flustered and she stammers over her words in a way that Lena knows so well that the sound of it squeezes her heart in a vise like grip.

She’s not the same person. She’s not your Kara. Your Kara doesn’t exist anymore. Over and over she repeats this in her head.

“Wait...” Kara finally collects herself and peers at Lena more closely. “You’re-you’re Lena Luthor! My Uncle said you might be here, but I never thought...”

“On my home world, they like to say it’s fashionable to be late. However, tonight was just a tad bit too far. I...I simply wanted to stop by and wish you well. A-and to congratulate you on your achievement.”

Did she manage to say that with any passing conviction?

“Thank you. That means a great deal coming from someone like you.”

“Are you happy?” She blurts before her good sense can kick in. “This life...does it make you happy?”

Kara looks at her oddly for a long moment, clearly thrown, but not put off. Lena doesn’t know what else to say that could fix her blunder.

“Yes,” she says, a serene smile creeps across her face. “I’m very happy. I love my family and my friends. I enjoy my work. I hope to have a family of my own one day, but I don’t mind waiting for the right person. Everyone always wants to rush me into something, telling me that I shouldn’t be alone, but I don’t mind it. When it’s right, I know that it will be worth the wait.”

Lena’s heart stutters and freezes. “I-I’m glad to hear that. Truly. I shouldn’t take up anymore of your time though. I’m sure you have somewhere to be and it’s late so I really should be going anyway.”

“Oh! Um. Yes, of course.” She looks disappointed, but Lena can’t think about that. “Thank you for being here.”

Her legs feel as though they’re weighted with cement as she walks away. Her mind screams at her to run, but her body doesn’t seem to get the message. She doesn’t want to leave Kara’s side. Not like this. Not after she’s found her again.

But it’s not her. Not really.

“My Lady?”

She turns around at once. Kara stands there, fiddling with her hands, her head tilted to the side.

“Apologies. I-I remember reading that you never liked that title. You prefer...what was it...” She closes her eyes as she searches for it. “Oh!” Her eyes fly open again. “Miss Luthor. I should have addressed you as ‘Miss Luthor’, yes?”

The ‘Miss’ was heavily accented and sounded nothing like how she used to say it, but it still tore Lena apart.

“I never forgot what you said.”

The voice in Lena’s head screams again for her to run, but instead she draws closer. She needs to hear it.

Her Kara.

No, it’s not her.

“What did I say?”

“I was a little girl. My father brought me to your lab to show me around.”

“I remember.”

Don’t let her do this. Don’t let her pull you in again. You can’t. For both of your sakes, you can’t.

“You talked about different ways of creating. Of passion. It’s silly, I know, and I’m sure you say it to all the children who read about you in school and have a serious case of hero worship, but...you told me I was important.”

“You are.”

It’s a reflex. She can’t help it.

“And you said that I had a gift for words. I never understood why you would say that. How you could know...”

Lena chuckles awkwardly. “Looks like I was off the mark since you’ve just joined the Science Council.”

“But you weren’t.”

Lena’s breath hitches.

“I’ve never told anyone else this...”

Kara steps closer, sharing a secret that Lena doesn’t know she deserves to hear. She wonders if she still knows how to breathe with Kara being this close after so long...so many years gone...

“I started writing that day. That very night I went home and I tried it. I never stopped. I’ve never been happier than when I’m writing. Imagining stories or just writing my thoughts, putting memories into words, keeping a record of each day and what I’ve done, who I’ve seen, what my first thought is in the morning and my last thought at night. All of it.”

Kara was so close. She could smell her. Nothing like what she remembered. It was something altogether new and still...still... Lena’s heart beat so loudly, she was sure every Kryptonian within miles was wondering what that raucous drumming noise was. What must Kara think? Surely she could hear it. Lena was embarrassing herself.

“You inspired me.”

Lena doesn’t know how she manages it, but she somehow strings together coherent words.

“But you continued to pursue...”

“The Science Guild, yes. I’m very good there. It comes easily. It makes my family proud.”

“It’s not your passion though.”

Kara shakes her head gently.

“What stops you?”

“Well, what if I’m not really good at writing after all? I’ve never told anyone about it. I’ve never let them read anything... What if I make a terrible mistake and humiliate myself and my family?”

“Following your heart isn’t a mistake.”

“That’s not a very Kryptonian sentiment.”

“No, but it is a human one.” Lena sighs. “I tried so hard, for so long, not to listen to mine. But it won out every time. Despite all the pain it brought me...I remind myself that it’s what brought me here. To this planet. To this time. To do good. To be good. Following your heart is the most terrifying notion, but in my experience, it has also led me to the greatest moments of joy and love that I’ve ever known.”

Kara stares at her in wonderment. Her long blonde locks flow over her shoulders. Her dress is white and flowing, almost luminescent under the glow of the evening flowers blooming in the garden. It became quickly apparent how very alone they were, the last guests and servers from the party were gone. The torches were still lit, but it was their own world.

Wasn’t it always?

It’s not her.

“I don’t think I could be as brave as you.”

“You have always been brave and I know that you are capable of the most extraordinary amount of courage...courage and boundless hope. You are the one who inspires me, Kara. You always have.”

“Me?” She replies in the softest utterance. “But I haven’t done anything nearly as incredible as you.”

“The kind of person you are is far more important than any sum of career achievements. Don’t let fear make you hide in the shadows, Kara. Step into the sun. You’ve always belonged there.”

“What about you?”

“Me?”

“When will you step out of the shadows, Miss Luthor?”

A voice calls for Kara in the distance. It’s jarring and breaks the spell that seemed to lock them together in time suspended.

They step away, now acutely aware of how close they’d been this whole time.

Kara blushes and opens her mouth to say something, but Lena can’t bear to hear it.

“Goodnight, Kara Zor-El. I hope you enjoyed your party.”

Another voice joins the first. Two people are calling for her now. Kara seems frustrated and turns back, yelling to them that she’d be there soon.

She turns back. “I—“

But Lena’s gone.

She leaves New Krypton again. Journeys to other planets under the guise of a holiday and scientific exploration. She wonders if now is the time to return to Earth. She can’t even call it home anymore, but it’s home...isn’t it? 45 years could be enough to make New Krypton home and maybe it was. Maybe it was more of a home than Earth. But New Krypton had spectres walking among the living. Lena’s past had caught up to her here as well. She was no longer alone. Would Earth be any better with a reminder at every street corner? A certain smell. A park bench. A pair of glasses. Food. All of the food on Earth. She would never truly escape there either. It has to be a different planet. Not New Krypton, not Earth, something else entirely.

She searches across galaxies for it. Finally, one appeals to her. She can see herself settling down there. She can make a new life for herself...again. She returns to Krypton with determination. She resigns from her position, ignores the High Council’s pleas, ignores their more pointed demands, and even their attempted orders when it appeared that nothing else was working. She packs her things and bids farewell to her friends. They’ll visit now and again, but soon she won’t be seeing them at all. It doesn’t bother her all that much. She’d find replacements eventually. No one had ever been like... Well, she’d never let anyone get close enough to try.

She was walking out of her building for the last time, her luggage already sent ahead, and was headed to the transport when she heard her voice again on the wind, calling her name. Of course she would hear her now. This was exactly why she needed to leave this place. The sooner the better to end this torment.

The transport doors were nearly closed when a hand shot between them. The metal alloys were crushed in a powerful grip and the doors were jerkily pried open again.

Kara stood in front of her. Her hair windswept, almost what it used to look like when she would fly to Lena at breaking speed to rescue her. Did she fly here? Was she really here?

“Kara?”

“Lena, don’t go.”

“What are y—?”

“That’s government property!” someone shouts at Kara from further away.

A Kelex zooms in beside her. “And you were flying within city limits which is strictly prohibited. Unfortunately, Lady Kara, this means we must place you under arrest.”

A patrolman, the one who shouted, walks up behind Kara, nodding his head in agreement.

“Arrest?” She rolls her eyes at the Kelex and turns to the patrolman. “The doors were an accident and sorry about the flying thing. I’ll pay the fines. I doubt Alura In-Ze will take kindly to you dragging someone in for petty infarctions, let alone that someone being her daughter.”

Lena finds herself walking out of the transport, entirely of her own volition, and watches it leave without her. Kara is arguing with the patrolman over what her fines should be, but suddenly Lena feels someone take her hand. She looks down and sees that indeed there is another hand holding hers. She drags her gaze up to find those blue eyes again. A ghost. A spectre. Everything she was trying to escape.

“I’m sorry to just...burst in on you like this. But you’ve been gone for months and I only just heard that you’d come back, planning to leave New Krypton for good. I didn’t...”

“You didn’t what?”

“I don’t know.” Her brow furrows in frustration. “I didn’t plan this. I just...when I heard, I felt like I had to stop you.”

Lena pulls her hand away and crosses her arms. She needs to get ahold of herself. This was all so out of control.

“Why?”

Kara is just as bewildered as she is. “Well, I...I’m not sure. But we’ve only just started.”

“What?”

“Don’t you feel it? I know you must.”

She swallows thickly. “Kara, I...”

“I think there’s a lot you haven’t told me. A lot that I hope you will tell me. You promised me once that you would always be my friend. Please, Lena. We both know that this...it’s not supposed to end here.”

“When is it supposed to end?”

“I hope not for very long time.”

“I’ve lived a lifetime already.”

Kara grins. “Then what’s one more? Should be easy if you’ve already done it.”

Lena shakes her head. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“Somehow I do...and I don’t. I know it’s strange. I know what I sound like. But I think you understand. Don’t you?”

“Kara...”

“Are you hungry?” She interrupts. “I’m famished. The flying thing is really fun, but I always get so hungry after. How about it?”

“I’m supposed to be boarding a ship in 20 minutes.”

“We can eat fast!”

“I know you can eat fast, that’s not the point,” she mutters. “I have to go.”

“But you see? You say things like that. Like it’s normal to just know these things about me, but it’s not. How do you know? We’ve only met twice and both times it feels as though you know everything about me.”

“Everything?” She scoffs. “No. Never.”

“Well, the important things anyway.”

Lena falters.

“Please? Just...for a little while? There’s always another ship if you really must go.”

No.

No, I’ve been through this before. I saved you. I saved your people. You’re happy. I don’t belong here. I’ve never belonged. This is your world. I don’t belong anywhere. I did what was right. I helped people. I still help people. But I won’t do this again.

“I’m pretty sure you know that a Kryptonian can tell when you’re lying. The white star brought us untold abilities. And the longer I’ve lived here, under this new sun, I’ve discovered more abilities. Would you like to know about them?”

Lena can only stare.

“If I’m close enough...and I concentrate hard enough...I can feel what you’re feeling. It’s not mind reading exactly, but something deeper. I can feel you right now.” She swallows hard. “What have I done to cause you such pain, Lena? I never thought that... If you have to go, I won’t stop you. I just thought...” She sighs defeatedly. “I don’t know what I thought. But it wasn’t this. It wasn’t pain. Or anger. Or betrayal.”

Lena’s eyes widen at the same time as Kara’s. She seemed to realize it only as she spoke the word aloud.

“Betrayal?” Kara whispers, half to herself. “I don’t understand.”

“There’s nothing to understand.”

“You’re lying.”

“Stop it.”

“I can’t! Tell me what’s happening. How can you be so angry with me, but also feel...like this...when we don’t even know each other?”

“But we do.”

At last she admits it.

In the quietest whisper.

“We did. Once. In another life.”

Kara nods slowly. “Where?”

“On Earth.”

“I’ve never been to Earth.”

“Not in this time. But in another...you were Earth’s Champion. Our Protector. The Paragon of Hope.”

“As you are the Protector of Krypton? Our Salvation. The New Dawn.”

Lena shrinks uncomfortably under the titles.

“Will you tell me more?”

“You believe me?”

“Of course I do. You’re Lena Luthor. Also, with my powers I can sense you’re telling the truth, so...” She shrugs lightly at that, a sheepish smile.

“Right. Well, I admit I’m still a bit resentful that after everything I’ve been through, I still didn’t get even a hint of those powers.”

Kara takes her hand again, tentatively this time. She probably thinks Lena will pull away.

She doesn’t.

“There’s been a rumor for ages that you’re immortal. Are you saying that’s not true? From what I’ve read, humans have a shorter life span than us. Your species only live about 85 years or so.”

“I’ve heard the rumor and, yes, the average human lifespan is shorter than a Kryptonian’s.”

“You look pretty darn good for your age if you’re preparing to join Rao in a few cycles.”

Lena has to laugh. She lets Kara lead her away from the platform and down to the street. They walk hand in hand.

“So you’re not immortal?”

“It remains to be seen.”

“Then maybe our white sun did give you a hint of something after all.”

“Maybe. I have yet to ascertain the cause.”

“I could help you with your study, should you choose to explore it further.”

“You want to study me?”

Kara blushes. “I...I didn’t mean it like that. I only meant—“

“I know what you meant.”

Silence falls between them.

“You’re still holding my hand.”

“You’re still letting me.”

“It’s strange.” She stares. “You’re different. You’re so different than you were before, a completely different person, but somehow...when I look at you, you’re exactly who you’ve always been.”

“Are you different now too?”

“Yes.” She shrugs. “I think so anyway.”

“But we’ve still found each other. That means something.”

“Are you sure you want to hear this? You might be angry with me. I...I made choices that changed your life. A great number of lives.”

“I want to hear everything. But even if I do get angry, I won’t leave. I promise.”

Lena starts at that. How could she know exactly—? The realization hits her.

“My fears...you feel them right now, don’t you?”

Kara nods. “I won’t betray you, Lena. Whatever mistakes I’ve made before...in that other life...I won’t make them again.”

“You’ll make other mistakes.”

“Of course!” She laughs. “I’m gifted, but hardly perfect. You’ll make mistakes too, even if you are the Great New Dawn.”

“Two prodigies...” Lena raises an eyebrow. “I don’t know how people stand us. We must be insufferable to be around.”

“I can’t be held accountable for the jealousy of others.”

Lena chuckles. “Good to know you’re as competitive as ever.”

“And you? Are you competitive as well?”

“On occasion...when it comes to the right things.”

Kara grins. “Tell me more about Earth.”

“Earth or...you on Earth?”

“Both. Or just one. Whatever you like. We have all the time we need. We’ll get to it eventually.”

“Kara?”

“Yes?”

“What do you want?”

“You.”

“How do you know that?”

“I just do.”

“You’re not afraid?”

“Of losing you? Yes, I’m afraid. I thought I did when you left me in the Grove that night.”

“It’s different this time though.”

“Different how?”

“You were afraid before. O-on Earth. So you lied to me. Hid things from me. You were afraid I’d reject you.”

“So I lost you anyway?”

“For a while.”

“I know who I am and I want to share all of that with you. I’m afraid I’ll lose you if I don’t. Do you think that means I learned my lesson with a second chance?”

“Even though you don’t remember the first?”

Kara tilts her head thoughtfully. “Are you familiar with the theological concept of reincarnation?”

Lena nods.

“Many species and cultures detail it differently, but the belief that a soul does not reside in an afterlife fascinates me. The idea that one could instead be reborn and is destined to learn new lessons with each life that it failed to learn in the last. Maybe we found a way to do that without needing to die at all.”

“Are you sure you’re the First Order of the Science Council? Because that sounds an awful lot like preaching I’ve heard from the Religious Guild. You’re in the wrong profession.”

Kara rolls her eyes. “If anything, I should have joined the Artisans. But it’s too late for that.”

Lena’s quiet for a moment. They’re walking along streets she’s never seen before and doesn’t care. It doesn’t matter.

“I think I’m learning...” she says softly, “that it’s never too late. If you want something enough, it’s never too late.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Lena looks around. “Do you know where you’re going?”

“No, I thought you did.”

“No. I guess we’re lost then.”

Kara shrugs with a charming, sunny smile that lights her whole face. It’s the one that Lena hasn’t seen in over 40 years and it takes her breath away.

“Oh well.” Kara squeezes Lena’s hand happily. “I suppose we’ll find our way together.”

#supergirl #supercorp #supercorp fanfic #supercorp fic #supercorp fanfiction #dont read this #im sorry #it was a rambling stream of conscious moment

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