#dialogue prompt are always super inspiring to me for some reason

[prokrastinartiya]

✨✨positivity chain! tag some of your favorite creators (artists, gif makers, writers, etc) and say what you love about them. Share with as many people as you’d like✨✨

i warn you, i'm not very good at compliments (especially in english), but i'll try my best! and i'm a little embarrassed to tag some people, but you should definitely visit their profiles anyway, it's worth it!

artists:

dokidokistart i admire her ability to accurately capture facial features and seamlessly integrate them into her work. she skillfully combines colors, and the result is always harmonious. i especially like the glow effect that she creates in her drawings!

@dumbf1sketches i'm absolutely delighted with how dynamic the poses in her drawings look and how vividly emotions are conveyed! i remember reviewing her speedpaint many times and each time i was surprised at how anatomically accurate she portrays everything the first time!

@mecachrome not only is she a cool artist, but she also makes amazing gifs! i really like her style! sometimes i review her drawings to find inspiration for a cute background designs.. i think i've already told her that i'm amazed at how she thinks and looks at things. i love reading her reasoning!

@zazhitigertasha т��шша, я обожаю твоих гаксо�� и как работает твой мозг! мне очень нравится как динамично и легко выглядят линии на твоих картинках и цветовые палитры, которыми ты пользуешься! и тот факт что ты можешь рисовать пальцем прикольные скетчики!!

28220-c i really like your style! The way you design your work and what unusual ideas you have is just great!

souriadraws AGAIN, i'm delighted with how airy her drawings looks! just a couple of lines and the main facial features are ready, and a couple of strokes add volume. i often look at her work and try to figure out how she does it

i don't follow many people here, i just like the drawings i like... i know that there are really a lot of talents in this community!

and non f1 relared, but i wish i could draw like them one day: tokillaking13 and martyfive. i love the atmosphere in their work, the dynamism of line and color! how they skillfully use textures and light!

writers:

i'm very embarrassed,  but this is a super short list.. i rarely look at who wrote the fic, and there are no clear favorites in the bookmarks.. but!

@kingkestrel when I see that you post a fic, i'm 100% sure that i'll like it! sometimes i even wait for the right mood so that nothing spoils the reading experience! i really like the settings you put the characters in, how easy it is for you to describe the setting and how lively the dialogues sound. and i always giggle when we exchange compliments in messages after reblogging!

@wanderingblindly another writer whose work I like even before reading it! i really like your artistic descriptions (although it's hard to me to read them!), the way you create tension between the characters, and your director's cuts is just a delight! i admire your approach to fics!

vroombeams i love your tumblr prompts!!

[cashmoneyyysstuff]

hi bestie do u have any ff writing advice ?? ur flow and imagery and STYLE is so so good i love it. how do u come up with such good ideas??

hi ! first of all thank you SOOOOOO much that means sm to me it genuinely makes me so happy to know that you enjoy my writing. !!

speaking of writing..it took me a while to figure out a system i was comfortable with. i'm a little all over the place in general and that translates a lot in my drafts ESPECIALLY LMFAOO if you caught one glance at my drafts it's mostly just a prompt of a few sentences and w spelling mistakes in every word cus i write them down so fast so as not to forget them LMFAOOO. but it really works for me !

i know a lot of people say it but it really works, literally just write ! it doesn't have to come out as a full beautifully crafted piece immediately, just write down anything you can and polish it up all you want later ! forcing inspiration to come to you almost always has the opposite effect, for me anyways !

for flow, i think i like to mostly write dialogue between characters out first and then write my descriptions and actions around that ! i always get more excited about writing dialogue more than descriptions (not that those can't be fun ofc !)

oh , this might help for imagery ! and idk if you've noticed but the structure of a lot of my writing is heavily based on animes and manga. like the set ups and punchlines. (massive nerd ik) like if you read some of my one shot's like this one, this one (probably one of my fav fics i've done btw) or my first born series FBRC, (especially this part) (this part was actually the one i was most excited to write, and it's heavily based off of kobayashi's dragon maid's actual good and not weird moments and soundtrack, listening to music also helps me out a lot too!)

i try to model my speech to what i think an anime episode of the scenario i thought about would look like. visualizing my writing helps me write a lot as well, if that helps ! a little fun fact for you, fujimoto's writing has influenced a lot of the way i describe situations in fics, since i really like the sorta 'childish' descriptions over super fancy ones (cus i can't write those, but i don't really like them veerry much, but a lot of them are enjoyable to read!!) i find it very endearing and it's one of the reasons why i enjoy writing childhood friends to lovers so much. it's this sorta simplistic level of thinkin that kids have if that makes sense and it works out really well if you wanna write fluffy pieces if that makes sense

some examples ! :

"he drags you around a little too hard but it's to show you something he knows you'd like and you repay him by being patient with him and letting him drag you around to his hearts content. he let’s you use the crayons he’d just denied another classmate seconds ago and when it’s really early in the morning and you’re still sleepy unlike your more energetic friend, he waits for you. sitting with you in the reading corner quietly commenting on a little bit of everything in the book you’re sharing until you’re awake enough to start the day because katsuki wanted you to be together through anything no matter what, starting the day without you was simply unimaginable."

"despite his quieter presence he always seemed to stand out to you. his bag is big enough to carry everything he needs without having to shove anything inside or leaving it half opened. he wipes his mouth with a tissue after he's done eating his lunch alone and his handwriting is pretty. his lashes are long and he's pretty."

"you hated it when people said that because the shoto you knew wasn't like that. he knew people talked about him and he hated being associated with his father. he likes the caramel you sneak in for him at school and you like the way his eyes light up when he guesses the flavour of fruit candies you make him taste. the shoto you know that ties your shoes for you and shares his umbrella with you, the one who half heartedly stomps into wet puddles with you, the one with the pretty lashes and pretty smile and pretty handwriting isn't like that."

there are a lot of other examples (im OBSESSED with this trope can you tell.) i like these sorts of simplistic childish ways of love. tiny little specks of affection that make the heart so much fonder in such little big ways..if that makes sense :>

i dunno if im just very..special, but since i have a lot of oc's and scenarios constantly flowing in my brain, most of my ideas just tend to be what i dreamed about the night before, or what i daydreamed about LMAOO. even random things that happened to me at school sorta go from "oh it would be funny if this happened to [insert character]" and then they snowball into more and more thorough ideas !

and of course as cheesy as it is the most important part is to have fun ! i cannot stress enough how important it is to be in the mindset when you're writing. it's like when people say to force yourself to draw so you don't 'lose it.' and i do think it can work to jog inspiration, but i believe that as long as you enjoy it, you'll never truly lose it. so i say, write when you feel like it and don't write if you don't, it can truly be very draining. but it's all up to what feels better for you !

anyways, i hope my insane ramblings helped you out a little bit, and have fun writing !!

much luv xxx

[eventinelysplayground]

This is my first of idk how many entries for @lorei-writes and @wordycheeseblob Wish Upon an Aide challenge. I don't normally finish and post a fic in a few hours but I was super inspired for some reason by this. This fic is set at the end of Theo's route chapter 6 the start of Chapter 7, no major spoilers if you haven't read it yet. Most of Theo and Mitsukis dialogue is pulled from the chapters except for at the end and it's written from Kings pov. I chose the yellow prompts Joy and Warmth, they are a bit subtle maybe but overall I think they come across okay. I use italics for when the pets are 'speaking' WC approx 1984.

Nice to Meet You King

Just a bit more…and got it!

There was a metallic clank and soon the door was being pushed open.

Where are you going?

That should be obvious, just look outside.

Cherie stood up on her back paws and strained to look out the window.

Vic be nice, I'm going to greet Theo of course!

Oh, have fun King.

Cherie pouted a bit and King slipped his paw through the bars of her kennel to pat the cub on the head.

I'll be back soon and I'll tell you all about it.

Do you want me to tell you a story until he gets back?

Yay!

King strode out of the kennel shaking his head leaving his friends behind. Vic would never admit it but King knew he was fond of Cherie, even if she was a cat.

Now he should be home soon. I just have to make my way to the gate and hmmm that scent…

King stuck his nose out and sniffed the air around him as a faint scent tickled his nose.

Theo has that scent on him lately…it must be her!

King started bounding across the yard at an incredible speed all while continuing to sniff at the air. The scent grew stronger and he came to a sudden stop near some bushes. Slowly he crept forward while taking a deep breath as if to steady himself.

She should be just on the other side, I wonder what she's like? If Theo likes her she must be nice.

King shook his head and peered around the bushes. His eyes widened as he examined the lady standing there. He had been wondering what she looked like, she was a bit smaller than he thought she'd be but she seemed strong and she had a gentle face.

She seems nice, I bet she'd give me lots of treats and belly rubs. I like her!

Just then King heard the distinct sound of the gate opening. He looked up tail wagging but as soon as he saw the look on Theo's face his tail stopped and head drooped.

He looks that sad-mad again, I wonder why he's always so-ah oh no!

King noticed that the lady was moving and he darted further back. He was confused, she had clearly seen Theo and yet she was hiding from him.

Why is she hiding? Does she not want to see Theo because he's sad-mad? Hmmm, oh I know how to fix this!

King bounded out from his hiding spot and leapt at the lady's back.

“Eek!!!”

The lady turned around and King got a good look at her eyes.

“Bark bark!”

Oh boy she smells even better up close, and her voice and eyes are really gentle. Sorry I scared you, I didn't mean to. I'm sure you can help me make Theo feel better though!

King knocked the lady over and began licking at her face.

“H-Hey that tickles! Shh…”

Nope, he'll notice any second now I know he will.

“King! Did you get out of the kennels again so you could come welcome me home?...Hm? Oh, Hondje. I didn't see you down there.”

See, I knew he'd notice any second! Hey what are you doing Theo? No, I want to cuddle her more!

King was wrestled off the lady by Theo.

No fair, and why do you look like that now?

“W-Welcome back. Is this your dog Theo?”

You didn't tell her about me! Why didn't you tell her about me?!

“Yes, that's right. Af, King. Hier.”

I want to go back! Better make a good impression on her though.

King swiveled his head at Theo's command and stood at attention.

Treat now? Please, I made you look good!

King gave Theo the very definition of puppy eyes.

“...All right, fine.”

Oh boy oh boy!

As soon as King saw the bone he pounced on Theo placing his big paws squarely on his chest.

This should work!

King bounced enthusiastically trying to get the bone from Theo.

“...Af! Nee, King! Sit! I said sit!”

Good boy Theo, it's working! Just a little bit more.

Just as King had planned, the lady started laughing uncontrollably.

“...Hey! What do you think you're laughing at?”

King looked between Theo and the lady anxiously waiting to find out if his plan worked.

“I can't help it! He won't listen to you at all! I think King’s the perfect name, because he's clearly the one in charge!”

Hehe, oh I really like her. I hope we get to keep her!

The lady kept laughing and King heard Theo sigh.

“... I don't even care anymore, not after seeing that silly look on your face.”

Oh good it worked. Theo's not sad-mad anymore.

“I had no idea you really had a dog, Theo”

Guess even though you spend a lot of time with her you still aren't there yet are you?

“A painter I knew just up and left, leaving King behind. So I took him in. I keep him in the kennels by the horse barn.”

Whoa!

Theo lifted King up and nuzzled his fur.

I love your cuddles. I bet she gives awesome cuddles too.

“I never thought you'd get big, that's for sure. No, I didn't!”

Cut it out, you're gonna embarrass me in front of…wait a minute what’s her name? She has a name right? Look Theo, the way she's smiling at you! Now it's gone, why did she stop smiling like that?

“He just left? And you don't know where he went?”

She's sad for me?

“Struggling artists lead very rough lives under intense pressure. He probably fled at night because he couldn't pay rent.”

Don't tell her that you idiot, you'll just make her more sad! Don't be sad nice lady, I'm really happy here with Theo and everyone else! Well I could do without Arthur, he's always with Theo though and I guess he's a good friend but. I don't like how he always seems to smell like death. Did you know death has a smell?

“But to this little one, his owner was all he had. …And I know how painful it is to lose someone who was your whole world.”

King hung his head for a moment and let out the softest whine.

At the time maybe, but not anymore. Now you're my world Theo, I just wish you weren't so sad all the time.

The three of them stood in silence for a moment. Clearly the lady didn't know what to say to help Theo at the moment and King watched as the leaves blew in the breeze.

“I’m sure he likes his old owner better.”

What? No Theo! Why do you always have to think so-

“No, I'm sure King was so happy you found him and gave him a new home, Theo. Otherwise he wouldn't sneak out to greet you, right?”

That's right! Oh your hands are soo soft.

King closed his eyes for a minute but partially opened one up just in time to see a smile on Theo's face.

“I hope you're right.”

Don't worry she is.

“...Ah, I almost forgot.”

Aww why are you putting me down? Oh is that another bone?

King wagged his tail in anticipation of another treat but instead Theo pulled something out of his bag instead.

What's that, not food. Is it for the lady? You got her a treat too!

“... That's an awfully pretty magnifying glass for you, Theo. Did your other one break?”

….I can see why you wouldn't think it was a gift but-

“No, silly. This is yours.”

Uggh don't call her silly.

“What…? It's for me?”

Ok if you keep saying things like that you're not helping yourself.

“You're helping me with work for a month, right? You need the proper tools if you're going to be examining paintings so much.”

That's right, wait what? She’s helping you with work? And what do you mean for a month? What happens after a month Theo? Theo?

King tilted his head to the side and started to look nervously between the two.

“Hey, Theo. Why are you letting me help you with work?”

King looked at Theo.

“I already told you. So I can keep an eye on you.”

“Are you sure that's it?”

No, he's lying! I don't know why but go on, tell her the truth. See she can see your holding back in your eyes.

“...Yes, that's it.”

Uggh now who's the silly one. Look you made her upset now, why can't you just be honest?

King hung his head and let out a silent growl.

“But if you don't like it you can quit at any time."

No, no she can't! Don't say something so stupid, bad Theo!

“... What?”

“Everyone's been on my case saying I'm forcing you to come with me. What? Isn't that why you asked? Because you don't like it?”

No, that's not it!

“No, that's not it at all!”

See? Are you really that clueless as to what's happening here, or do you just not want to see it?

King sat and stared up at Theo and tilted his head ever so slightly in thought. Theo started to put the magnifying glass away but the lady grabbed his hand.

“Oh? So you do like it?”

She likes you.

“I never hated it, Theo. I mean I still don't know what I'm doing-”

Heh you're not the only one.

“But coming with you to look at paintings is, you know…fun.”

Theo, Theo do you see that! Do you hear how fast her heart's beating?

King stood up wagging his tail furiously but it stopped as soon as he heard Theo laugh.

“I was only joking, Hondje. Don't worry, I'll work you extra hard tomorrow, so don't be sad.”

“Who said I was sad?!”

That wasn't funny, if you mess this up Theo…

“Go on and take it. It's yours.”

“Thanks. I'll take good care of it.”

“What are you smirking for, hm?”

“Hehe…nothing.”

King continued to look between the two watching their changing expressions. He noticed the lady's cheeks turning progressively redder before she spoke again.

“I should really go help Sebastian with dinner.”

The lady bent down to King and he sat for her as she scratched him behind the ears with her dainty fingers causing his tail to wag furiously.

“It was nice to meet you King, I hope I get to see you again later.”

Yes please, I would love to see you again and get more scratches.

“You can visit King any time, Hondje. What kind of owner would I be if I didn't socialize you properly.”

No no no, very bad Theo!

“Very funny Theo.”

King saw the lady roll her eyes before she headed back to the mansion. Once the lady was out of sight completely he hung his head and whined. Theo sighed then reached down to stroke his head.

“So what did you think of Hondje boy?”

King started to wag his tail and pant.

I liked her a lot. She's so full of life and joy and warmth.

Theo was still looking in the direction the lady had left in, he seemed to be thinking about something.

“She looked so lost and frightened when she got here. I just want to help her, make her happy if I can.”

Theo…you can.

King looked up at Theo just as he cleared his throat.

“ There's something special about her you-whoa.”

King got up on his hind legs resting his paws on Theo's chest just as he had done earlier and looked right into Theo's eyes.

She really is Theo. She was so kind and warm and gentle, do you realize how fast your heart's beating? She's everything you need and she could bring you so much joy Theo if you only let her so please, please don't mess this up.

[currently-kraken]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. spread the self-love ❤

Thank you so much for the ask @rinn-e ! Sorry it took this long to answer.

Abandoned [Game of Thrones] -> Ironically my least popular fic. But I love it because of an argument between Robb and Catelyn that I'm super proud of. I think the dialogue is realistic and holds up from both sides. NOTE: The fic's NOT abandoned lol (on the contrary, it's completed) that's just its legit name, but I understand it may be the reason that turns people off it and explains the unpopularity.

Fit [Game of Thrones] -> This one's pretty popular, I think it's my most popular fic. Inspired by a prompt I saw here on Tumblr that ticked all my boxes. I'm pretty pleased with it even if I consider some parts of the ending a bit clunky. But it had sat on my draft folder for like two years, it was time to get it out there.

So baby, tell me... Who do you love now? [Game of Thrones] -> This one’s funny. It all started with 731 words in my notes app (meant to be a one-shot) and then grew into 4,524 (spawning a second and then third surprise chapter). Inspired by The Chainsmokers ft. 5SOS song of the same name. I really like the first and third chapters, though still cringe on the second chapter from second hand embarrassment since it’s a 1st person POV fic.

Thramsay Mermaid (Siren?)!AU [Game of Thrones] -> I can’t remember what led me to write this one but I got several comments praising it, which is always nice and appreciated :3

Dinner [Game of Thrones] -> My first fic on AO3 after I created my account! Short but sweet, this one is my second most popular fic.

Shout-out to everyone that has read, kudo'ed or commented on any of my fanfics!

Tagging: @selkiewife @owlsinathens @attaining-fic @p-totel If you guys wanna do it! (No pressure though)

[almsspring2023]

Creative Writing support group

This post is about what I did in the Creative Writing support group (and why I picked it).

One of my support groups of choice was Creative Writing. The support group started on February 7th and was held via Zoom. I picked this group as I’ve always enjoyed writing original texts but haven’t really done any for years now. I’m not talented at all or even any good, but it’s a fun way to work your brain. I like coming up with new worlds and stories but also writing about all kinds of issues; political, cultural, and so on. I’ve always liked text as a medium in its various forms and genres and I hope to improve my writing.

7.2.

We met over Zoom and learned about what the group would entail. We did some short introductory creative writing exercises, which were a lot of fun.

We started by writing about why we joined this group – for me, it’s because of the reasons mentioned in the beginning. I’d like to write some more and flex my writing muscles! It being creative writing in particular is more motivational for me. We wrote short prompts after; writing different little blurbs of text in a chosen style, like an introduction in a personal ad style and thoughts on personal English skills in the style of a diary (for fun, I chose a historical style of writing a diary entry). We also came up with some ideas for what to do in the group on the next time, like getting prompts from a word randomizer and so on.

The writing exercises were nice, as the short time period really let me write. It tends to be a bit hard for me to focus and really get started, and even when I do, I get distracted super easily. I’m really slow not in technique but in practice. While a text written in just a handful of minutes will rarely be anything profound it’s nice to get something done and a short existing text gives more concrete idea to where to go from there. I’m also noticing that even if the first task is a bit difficult, the sequential ones are a bit easier when the writing brain really gets going. I hope we’ll have more of these writing tasks!

21.2.

There was a long break before the next meeting, and we communicated only a bit through the Telegram group we established with the group A I was assigned into. I did a few of the exercises listed on the Moodle page but was a bit busy so I didn’t have time beforehand to write anything more complex to evaluate, unfortunately.

During the meeting we did a writing task with a random prompt generator. We got some random picture dice, based on which we had to write a short piece within a time limit of 10 minutes. It was kind of interesting that most people’s minds (including me) went to an American diner – one of the prompt images was a car and another was a burger (which did have an U.S. flag on it). I wrote about a British lady who had eaten a bad burger while abroad in America. When time is short, you kind of have to go with one of your first ideas and the end result usually isn’t too spectacular. Mine certainly wasn’t. But it was fun to produce some writing, and these kind of prompts and limitations really drive you to do it! For the next attempt, we had 5 minutes more and as the prompt dice included playing cards and a car, I wrote about a regretful gambler watching cars pass by. While this time I don’t think everyone’s stories were as much alike, several people (like me) had combined the two food-related prompts of a banana and ice cream into banana ice cream. Two birds with one stone, and all that.

Before we concluded for the day, we decided if we would have one moor meet-up: pretty much everyone thought it’d be nice, so we agreed to meet next week as well. We also got a list of writing prompts to pick from for the next time. I chose the prompt to write a telephone call dialogue. To be honest, I didn’t feel particularly inspired, and it wasn’t anything special, but at least I got it done! It did make me think of how a conversation in English is built and keeping the flow natural sounding. I also did a few of the other tasks by myself, like came up with a character and what they’re like, and then checked out some of the linked sites. I did also find my own links to post: my first link was for an article about creative writing under pressure or time constraints and the second one was not a link, but a general tip for writers on how to find information on all kinds of subjects (that is, to add “tips for writers” or something similar to your Google search).

28.2.

Our final meeting was on the next week’s Tuesday. We were supposed to have a piece of text to bring for show, but most people didn’t have anything, so we skipped that part. I did actually translate and edit an old poem I wrote years ago in Finnish but didn’t get to use it. I am not bummed though, it’s kind of embarrassing to show anything old and crappy like that to people…

The first task was to do “constrained writing”. What that entailed was to choose a sentence, then write a text with each of the words of the sentence being a start of the new one. A bit hard to explain, but an example would be, if the subject sentence was “he was fine”, you’d start the first sentence with the word “he”, second “was”, et cetera. I used a random sentence generator for my prompt sentence and just picked the first one. Some of the words were a challenge to start a sentence with! I think I managed somehow, even if I’m not sure it all was grammatically right.

For the next exercise we chose a prompt from the same prompt list as the task was the previous week with a few new prompts added. We had 15 minutes to write this time. I thought about writing a poem about the view from my window, but ultimately ended up writing a short manifesto about religion for the prompt “What if there was no religion?”. I found it really fun and very good for vocabulary usage, as I got to use several less common words and weird sentence structures. It’s impossible for me to write a long text or really anything “complete” in that time, but it was a work the end result of I was okay with – which for me is pretty rare!

For the last task we wrote lyric replacements. The song was NIB by Black Sabbath, and we had the beginning to “edit”. The exercise was to replace every other line with your own, and for a more difficult challenge, make the lyrics rhyme like the original do. I of course went for it. It was very fun, even if the short time limit forced me to go with the first thing I came up with. I’m still very, uhm, proud of the lyric I wrote to rhyme with the word real: “unlike an orange my love’s a banana to peel”. The deep symbolism here is obviously that unlike a messy orange, bananas are very easy and convenient to peel. How profound. 😂

Final thoughts:

The group was a ton of fun and I think really good exercise for developing writing and creativity (and creativity in English!). It’s a good test for vocabulary to do these kinds of little tasks as we did on the meetings. Discussing them with others in the groups was nice and the teacher was helpful too. Maybe there could've been some more meet-ups – I think a lot of us were busy or a bit lost on our free time. The meetings were really great, though. Robert was very encouraging and gave good feedback and also shared his writing. That was great as he’s a native speaker. The tasks weren’t anything I would’ve come up with on my own, so it was nice to write something “unexpected” especially as I hadn’t written much in a long time. I also got a lot of good tips for future endeavors! I think it all gave me perspective and made me more courageous towards writing. Altogether I did 9 hours worth of work for this group.

[rosebrightside]

Some short Ajay Bhandari x MC drabbles 

Inspiration taken from these dialogue prompts by @akp-1327 (they’re seriously amazing, go check them out!)

Ajay Bhandari x m!MC (Lyall Turner) 

Fun & Lighthearted #7 - “Sprinkles are for winners.” 

“Why don’t we make this interesting?” Lyall proposed. 

“A bet?” Ajay raised his eyebrows. “You’re on. Any ideas?”

Lyall thought for a moment before grinning mischievously. “Winner gets to put those rainbow sprinkles on their cupcakes. Loser gets none.”

Ajay’s eyes widened in horror. “How can you say that?! You know I love those sprinkles!”

“That’s what makes it interesting,” Lyall laughed. “But we don’t have to bet the sprinkles if you’re scared you won’t be able to beat me. I totally understand.” 

Ajay knew he was being baited. Lyall was wearing that dumb half smirk he tried to pass off as an easy smile that meant he was challenging Ajay. And Ajay wasn’t about to back down now. He scoffed. “Please. I could beat you in my sleep. Let’s do this. For the sprinkles.” 

“For the sprinkles!” Lyall cheered, jumping onto the couch for dramatic effect as Ajay went to fetch the controllers. “I will become the Sprinkle Lord!” He brandished the remote control like a sword. “I will lead my sprinkle soldiers into battle!”

Ajay laughed at his boyfriend’s antics. “Not if I become the Sprinkle Supreme first.”

Lyall took a controller from Ajay. “Sprinkle Supreme? What are you, a Star War’s character?”

“That would make me the Supreme Sprinkle.” Ajay paused. “I actually like that better.”

“Well then, Supreme Sprinkle, prepare to have your ass kicked.” 

“Don’t count your sprinkles before they sprinkle, janu.”

“I don’t know how to tell you this but that was probably the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever said.”

“I can’t believe I lost,” Ajay groaned. “It’s impossible! Improbable! Inconceivable!”

“Ok, Princess Bride, dial it back with the adjectives,” Lyall said. He bumped Ajay’s hip teasingly as Ajay passed, holding a pan of cupcakes fresh from the oven. “No one likes a sore loser.” 

Ajay huffed. “I’m not a sore loser! I just regret picking Rainbow Road.” 

“Interesting,” Lyall mused. “You lost on Rainbow Road and the sprinkles you could have had if you won are rainbow coloured.” He gestured with the icing filled piping bag, putting on a philosophical air. “Irony, thy name is Ajay.”

“Why you – !” Ajay lunged and grabbed Lyall around the waist, swinging him off his feet and around the kitchen. “Turn Shakespeare against me, will you? ‘If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge!’” He began poking Lyall’s sides and stomach, making him squirm and shriek with laughter. 

“‘Pray you now, forget and forgive!’” Lyall cried between gasps. 

“Never!” Ajay moved his hands more rapidly, taking advantage of Lyall being unable to tickle back while holding the piping bag. Lyall retaliated by squeezing some of the icing onto his hand and wiping it on Ajay’s face. 

“Now the war truly begins!” he shouted. 

The tickle fight rapidly dissolved into a competition of who could smear more icing on who. By the time Lyall stopped the fight so they could still have enough for the cupcakes, both boys’ faces and clothes were splattered with various coloured icing and Ajay was declared the winner. They iced the cupcakes in comfortable silence, broken only by the occasional giggle when they flicked spare icing or crumbs at each other and comments about the piping design. When they were finished, Ajay reached for the rainbow coloured sprinkles, eager to decorate his cupcakes, only to have Lyall swat his hand away. 

“Nope. Sorry, babe,” Lyall grinned. “Sprinkles are for winners.”

“I bet I can convince you to let me have some,” Ajay coaxed. He stepped closer to Lyall, one hand ghosting over his waist.

Lyall crossed his arms with a self-assured smirk. “You can’t. I have a will of iron.” 

“Well, what if I do this?” Ajay kissed his forehead. 

“Nope.” 

“What about this?” Ajay kissed a smear of pink icing off the tip of his nose. 

A tiny smile twitched at Lyall’s lips. “No.”

“And this?” Ajay placed kisses on both of Lyall’s cheeks.

Lyall was fighting a losing battle trying to suppress his smile now. “Nuh uh.” 

“This? Or this?” Ajay peppered Lyall’s face with kisses, trying to kiss every inch of it.

“Nooooo! Ajay!” Lyall laughed, squeezing his eyes shut and scrunching up his nose as he tried to twist away.

Ajay ended his attack with a gentle but firm kiss to Lyall’s lips. Lyall melted into it with a pleased sigh, arms looping around Ajay’s shoulders. 

When they pulled apart, Ajay cocked an eyebrow expectantly. “How about that?” he grinned. “Does that get me sprinkles?”

Lyall laughed, burying his face in the crook of Ajay’s neck. “Yes, that gets you sprinkles, you persistent weirdo.” 

Ajay smiled and pressed a kiss into Lyall’s hair. “Your persistent weirdo.”

Sweet & Sappy #25 - “C’mere, you can sit on my lap.” 

“C’mere, you can sit on my lap.” 

Ajay raised his eyebrows at his boyfriend’s words. His eyes flicked sceptically over Lyall sitting expectantly on the couch. “Um, janu, you do realise that I’m around ten inches taller and definitely heavier than you, right? I’d squash you.”  

“No, you wouldn’t,” Lyall protested. “I’m stronger than I look, I swear! Remember how I dipped you at homecoming? I can handle it.”

Ajay still hesitated. “I’m not sure that amounts to the same thing.” 

“Come on, Ajay! Just try!” 

“Please try,” Lucy grinned. “I love seeing my twin proved wrong.” 

“Prepare for a Lyall shaped pancake on the couch,” Rory joked. 

Lyall huffed, annoyed. “You people have no faith in me. Come on, Ajay.” He patted his knee invitingly. 

Ajay could never say no to those big brown puppy eyes. Lyall could get whatever he wanted when he used those eyes. “Alright,” he relented. 

Carefully, Ajay lowered himself onto Lyall’s lap, settling his full weight onto him. He felt a bit stupid and uncomfortable. Lyall was quite a bit smaller than him and he could tell that he was crushing him. 

“This is fine,” Lyall squeaked, tucking one arm around Ajay’s waist.

“How’s it going, Lyall?” Skye smirked. “Still breathing?” 

Lyall shot her a glare. “Yes! Ajay’s not heavy.” 

Ajay leaned down to murmur in Lyall’s ear. “You’re sweet, but let’s switch. Your lap is too small for me anyway.” 

Lyall’s face flooded with relief. “Yeah, ok. That sounds good.” 

Ajay stood back up and they quickly switched so that Ajay was sitting on the couch with Lyall on his lap. Lyall snuggled into Ajay, wrapping his arms around his neck. 

“The glorious fall of Lyall’s ego,” Lucy snickered. “The world mourns the loss.” 

“And yet I’m being cuddled by my amazing boyfriend while your girlfriend isn’t even holding your hand,” Lyall shot back good-naturedly. 

Erin perked up. “Is that a challenge? You guys are going down!” She immediately wrapped both her arms and legs around Lucy in a full limbed embrace. 

“This week on ‘Let’s Make Rory Feel Single’,” Rory deadpanned. “Local couples invent a new sport – extreme cuddling!”

Sweet & Sappy #19 - “I’ve always imagined my future with you.” 

“I actually wanted to give you something,” Lyall said. His hands were fidgeting and he was shifting from side to side, clearly nervous. 

“Ok,” Ajay said, sitting up properly from where he was reclining on the bed. “What is it?” 

Lyall’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “Ok this is fine, I can do this.” He reached over and took Ajay’s hand. “Ajay, I love you so, so much. I can’t even describe how much. And this may seem strange for me to know because I’m still just a teenager, but I already know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” He smiled shyly. “You’re the one for me. I don’t ever want anyone else.” 

Ajay smiled back, heart filling with pure joy and love. He didn’t think it was possible to love someone this much. “I feel the same way, janu. I’ve always imagined my future with you. You’re the only one I want.” 

Lyall let out a shaky breath, seeming to become more confident. “I’m glad. That makes this a lot easier.” He reached around his bed and produced a small black drawstring pouch. He opened it and tipped the contents into his palm; two silver rings. 

Lyall glanced up at Ajay with a blush. “I – I know we’re too young to get married, obviously, and that’s not what I’m asking. So for now I got us promise rings.” His blush deepened. “It’s kinda cheesy and dumb but I thought it would be cute and this way every time I look at my hand I can think of you, but it’s totally ok if you don’t want – mm!” 

Ajay cut off his rambling with a kiss. “I love them,” he whispered. “Almost as much as I love you.” 

Lyall smiled, resting his forehead against Ajay’s. “That’s a lot then?” 

Ajay laughed. “Definitely a lot.” He cradled Lyall’s hand that held the rings in his own. “Janu, this is such a beautiful idea. I love the idea of being so committed to you.” 

Lyall beamed. “So you want to wear them?” 

“Absolutely. Here, let’s put them on.” 

“Wait, I have to ask you properly!” Lyall scrambled to his knees on the bedspread and held up one of the rings. “Ajay Bhandari, will you promise to marry me someday?” 

Ajay’s cheeks were starting to hurt from how much he was smiling. “I will.” He took the other ring from Lyall. “And will you, Lyall Turner, promise to marry me someday?” 

“I will!” 

They exchanged rings, carefully slipping them onto the fourth finger of their right hands. Ajay raised Lyall’s hands to his lips and kissed first the ring and then the bare ring finger on his left hand. 

“One day, a ring will be on this finger too,” he murmured, flashing a smile at Lyall. “And you’ll be my husband.” 

Lyall’s breath caught. “My husband,” he repeated softly as if in awe. “That sounds amazing.” 

Ajay kissed him softly, smiling like the lovesick fool he knew he was. “It does. And I can’t wait until it’s real.” 

Angst #39 - “Maybe you should try to tell him/her that.” 

“I feel so terrible for how I treated him. The way I just... let myself get swept along with everyone else in blaming him for the accident was appalling. Especially with how close we’d gotten before. I should have known that Lyall would never sabotage anyone like that on purpose.” 

“Maybe you should try to tell him that.” 

Erin’s wise words rang in Ajay’s ears. Today was the day. He couldn’t put it off any longer. The apology had gone unsaid for long enough and Ajay would be damned if he let Lyall go one more day without making sure he knew how sorry he was. He only prayed they could move past it and at least be friends again. And hopefully one day something more, his brain added helpfully. Ajay told it to shut up. 

Taking a deep breath he grabbed his bag, double checking the contents one more time before climbing out of his car. Immediately as though his eyes were drawn by magnets, Ajay spotted Lyall disembarking the bus, chatting with Skye. He really was gone for this boy if he could spot him from that far away among a decent sized crowd. Ajay shut his car door and jogged to catch up. 

“Lyall! Skye!” he called. 

The two freshmen stopped, turning to face him. He skidded to a stop and nodded to them both. “Um, good morning. Skye, would you mind if I talked to Lyall alone for a moment?”

Skye shrugged. “Whatever. I’ll see you in homeroom, Lyall.” 

Lyall turned back to Ajay, brown eyes full of questioning. “What’s up?” he asked. “Is everything ok?”

“Everything’s fine. It’s just…” Ajay gently pulled Lyall off to the side of the path onto the grass. “I haven’t apologised for how I treated you.”

Lyall shrugged. “Oh, don’t worry about it. Erin told me that you probably felt like you couldn’t take sides because you’re the director. I get it.”

Ajay shook his head firmly. “While that may be partially true, I should have done more to hear your side of the story. I wasn’t as impartial as I could have been. I shouldn’t have believed that you would hurt Jordan on purpose.”

“Ajay, it’s ok,” Lyall said. “Everyone thought I had done it.”

“Just because everyone believes something, doesn’t make it right. You’re my friend and I should have trusted you when you said you didn’t do it,” Ajay said. He looked Lyall in the eyes, trying to show the emotions that he couldn’t speak through his gaze. “I’m so sorry, Lyall. And even though, I know that this isn’t nearly enough, I hope that this can help you to find it in your heart to forgive me someday.” He slung his backpack off his shoulder and pulled out a bulk pack of fruit snacks, holding them out to the younger boy. 

Lyall stared at the package for a moment, then burst out laughing. Ajay blinked in surprise. That wasn’t been the reaction he had been expecting. 

“What?” he asked in confusion. “You said you liked these fruit snacks, right? I remember you said they were your favourite brand when we were stuck in the theatre.”

“Yes,” Lyall laughed. “They’re my favourite. I love them. Thank you.” He took the package and hugged it to his chest. “You’re too much sometimes,” he said, still grinning. “But I mean that in the best possible way.”

Ajay swore to all the theatre gods, those dimples were going to be the death of him. He looked at Lyall uncertainly. “So you forgive me?”

“Of course! I’m not about to let Danielle of all people come between us.”

Ajay nodded slowly. “But I still feel awful…”

“Then get over here and hug it out,” Lyall ordered, setting the fruit snacks down on the grass and holding out his arms. 

Ajay smiled for the first time in the conversation and embraced Lyall gladly. “Thanks for forgiving me,” he said, voice muffled slightly by Lyall’s shoulder. 

“Always,” Lyall mumbled in his ear. “Just don’t go doing that again,” he teased. 

Ajay chuckled, pulling away. “Promise.”

“But some good did come out of all this,” Lyall said. 

Ajay raised an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”

Lyall grinned, picking up the fruit snacks and gesturing with them. “I have real, tangible proof that you do actually listen to me when I talk.”

“Hey!” Ajay protested and Lyall bumped his shoulder playfully as they walked up to the school.

[glowingbadger]

Hi it’s me, crawling through the window. Would it be possible to get a crumb of arranged marriage w/ Hubert? His line w/ Dorothea about being willing to get married for politics sake has fueled my brain rot for him.

Good God I need to secure my windows-

I mean HELLO FRIEND ANON YES IT WOULD BE MY PLEASURE

Lol actually though, I have been thinking about this for Hubie since we all started chatting about that arranged marriage stuff! I think it's a perfect concept for him~

This like... got weird while I was writing it though?? Idk man hahaha it ended up on the less-spicy side of what I usually write, and with some very weird dialogue in places... Idk, I hope y'all like it. Maybe if there's interest, I'll follow this up eventually with a more smut-focused piece?

I've been traveling and working so much lately that I just don't even know what writing is anymore or how it works hahaha

TW: A brief mention of non-con

Hubert (FE3H) x Reader ("wife," neutral pronouns)

Arranged Marriage - semi spicy i guess?

"Frankly, he's a pain," Linhardt must be able to see your surprise and confusion written across your face. He goes on, "He's reliable and capable, of course, but also the most persistent nag you'll ever meet. Actually, no-" he glances upward as though to cross reference his own thoughts, "No, her Majesty is worse. But Hubert is a close second to be sure. Always on and on about sleep schedules and proper nutrition and etiquette..." He sighs and closes the massive tome on his lap, as though to close the conversation with it, "frankly, he's an insufferable mother hen. Does that help?"

"Well, it's... Not what I expected," you admit with a shrug, "but thank you all the same."

~

It's been several weeks since the papers binding you in marriage to Hubert Von Vestra had been signed- and this alone had sufficed. No ceremony, no grand ball, just paperwork and a handshake with your father. A handshake that ensured that, even under the Empire's unification, he would maintain nominal control over his considerable portion of land, and in return, would swear absolute loyalty to her Majesty. It was a beneficial arrangement for all parties, and you were not ignorant to the part you played. You were hardly even a bargaining chip- moreso, a hostage.

Your new husband had made no secret of what manner of harm may befall you if your family were to renege on their deal. Fortunately, you know your father to be a reliable coward, so you have no reason to believe he would be bold enough to step out of line.

Hubert Von Vestra is a terrifying man. A zealously loyal man of storied cruelty and a frigid disposition. His frame looms over you whenever he's near, and though he's hardly placed a finger on you since you'd been given over to him, his mere presence is... arresting. There's a sort of charisma to him that's equal parts frightening and fascinating. Perhaps it's madness brought on by your circumstances, but you can't help wanting to glimpse just the slightest bit into that brilliant, ever churning mind.

Unsurprisingly, he has been resistant to your attempts to understand him. He hardly indulges you in small talk, and if you were the paranoid sort, you'd think he intentionally makes himself busy when you're around. Eventually, perhaps out of sheer stubbornness, you'd settled on a routine of bringing coffee to his study adjoined to your bedroom in the evenings. He'd been visibly surprised the first time. It wasn't until the fourth night that he'd given a curt "thank you." About two weeks in, he'd actually sat back in his chair and laid down his quill pen to receive the cup from your hands. After a month, he'd leveled his narrow gaze at you and said,

"I cannot begin to fathom what satisfaction you glean from playing 'maid' to me."

"Well, I, uhm," you hadn't expected him to address you so directly, but you managed to say, "You... work so hard, I wanted to do something for you, I suppose."

His expression is inscrutable as he replies,

"You are aware that my work was much the same before you arrived."

"I am," you say softly, "But- all the same..." you trail off, and Hubert seems content to let the matter rest. And so you leave him be amidst his reports and correspondence, coffee at his side on the desk. Yet for as unproductive as your exchange might have seemed, it does leave you with an idea. The thought to learn about the man from those who knew him long before your arrival at the capitol.

~

Your investigation into the true character of your husband does not stop with Linhardt. In fact, his testimony only leaves you with further questions. But perhaps the others would say otherwise; perhaps the United Empire's most up and coming crest scholar simply inspires maternal behavior. This has to be the case- you simply can't imagine that the notoriously ruthless heir of the even more notorious Vestra lineage would be so... Doting.

And yet the more you learn of him, the more contradictory he seems.

Caspar's take is much like Linhardt's- a picture of a man far closer to a school marm than any assassin or master of torture. Ferdinand seems both smitten and incensed by him, oscillating wildly between the two. Then eventually, to your shock, Bernadetta takes the initiative to speak to you about Hubert of her own accord.

"I'm, uh, really so-sorry to bother you!" she approaches with arms drawn close to her chest and eyes resolutely avoiding yours, "I- I just heard that you were... asking about Hubert, so, I, uh..."

It takes some time to prompt her further. You assure her again and again- no, this isn't intrusive at all- yes, you'd very much like to hear her perspective- no, you're not mad at her. In truth, you're endlessly intrigued about what a gentle soul like Bernadetta would have to say about a man feared across the continent. Finally, she manages,

"He's... actually really kind!" she blurts out, as though the words would abandon her if she gave them the window of opportunity. Your eyebrows raise slightly.

"You think so..?"

"Yes, completely-!" she stammers, "I know he's super, super scary, and powerful and spooky and cold and, uh, all of that. But still," her voice falters as she continues, "He only scolds people when they do something dangerous. And he only hurts people to protect others. I... I know he's done some te-terrible things. But... he's always been nice to Bernie," finally, she meets your eyes with an imploring look in hers, "So, uh, I'm really grateful to him. And I think it would be really nice for someone to reach out to him. If... if that's not too weird or anything. For you."

You smile warmly and nod,

"Thank you, Bernadetta. I know it can't be easy for you to come to me with all of this, but... I'd like to try, if I can."

The opportunity doesn't come in the way you expect.

At first, it seems the night will proceed like many others before. You bring a cup of coffee to your husband's desk, setting it down quietly so as to not disturb him. He's silent, but this is common enough, so you head back to the bedroom to undress for the evening. All nights prior, he would lay beside you long after you'd settled in, then rise to resume work in the morning before you woke up- all the while never allowing your bodies to interact in any way.

Tonight, just as you're about to close the door to Hubert's study behind you, long fingers catch around your wrist, visibly startling you.

It's the most physical contact you've had to-date, but he only says,

"One moment."

You whip around to face him, a touch of anxiety evident in your eyes. It's clear in his own that he notices, but if anything, he only seems amused. He steps forward, his taller frame menacing you as he speaks,

"I understand that you have been busying yourself with some manner of investigation as of late."

It takes a moment for his meaning to reach you. When it does, your face burns and you can't bring yourself to meet his scrutinizing gaze,

"Oh, uhm..."

"I assure you, my dearest wife," he says with barely concealed venom, "anything that I do not wish for you to know will be kept from you. Aside from which, your efforts thus far have proven amateurish at best."

Something seems off about his tone. You could understand if he felt uncomfortable or hesitant about your efforts to learn about him, but this seems far more grave, more... business-like. He steps towards you once more, and you step back in turn. Yet before long, you feel your legs bump the edge of the bed. A gloved hand trails a fingertip down your jawline to your chin, then urges you to look up at him.

"Whatever you are planning, my dear, I promise it will be fruitless. You had best rethink how you spend your days before your actions bring you to harm."

"No, I-" your brow creases deeply, your face burns, your body burns hotter and you don't want to consider why, "I've just been trying to learn about you as a person, nothing else. We're- we're married, after all, so..."

He gives an abrupt, dry laugh.

"Ah, so I am to believe that you've been interrogating my allies out of some misguided affection, is that it?"

"Hubert, just listen to me!" for a moment, you feel bolstered, defiant, and you straighten your posture, "You won't tell me the first thing about you- the only way to learn so much as your favorite color is to ask someone who's known you for a decade!"

Briefly, he does seem to consider your words. But his eventual reply is as aloof as any prior,

"If you're no spy or politician, then you're worse- a fool." he says, and before you can respond, he's seized both of your wrists and pushed you back onto the bed. For a moment, the room spins and your voice leaves you. A shrewd eye watches you with cruel condescension as he pins you against the sheets.

"I should think that you'd be well aware what I'm capable of," he nearly whispers, "I personally ensured that the rumors spread through your father's territory and further still. Do you think that anyone would even dare lift a finger to help you if I chose to seek retribution for this recent behavior?" He draws nearer, his grip tighter at your wrists, "Perhaps as punishment, I'll simply take my pleasure from you by force."

Your lips tighten, you take a breath. Then, meeting his gaze directly, you reply,

"You won't."

His visible eye narrows.

"And what evidence do you have to prompt such unfounded confidence? Perhaps you have crafted a flattering falsehood of me in your mind," a mocking smirk curls his lips, "Am I a misunderstood sentimental sort to you, then? A sad, lonely man for you to save?"

You scowl, though you suspect it looks more like a pout to him.

"I don't know what I think of you yet- not completely. But I don't pity you like that, and I don't think you're sad or lonely. I know you're not."

For the first time, it seems that you've caught him off guard. That frigid mask falters for just a moment, and you go on before he can replace it,

"You're surrounded by people who care about you. I've seen it for myself. Whatever you've had to do in the service of your ideals- it hasn't kept the people around you from wanting to know and understand you, even if it's despite you."

Hubert is silent for a moment. His gaze bores into you like he thinks he'll discover some hidden layer if he can just keep digging. Then, he sighs,

"How did I ever become bound to such a troublesome spouse..."

When you wrest your arms from his grasp, his hands fall away with little resistance, and you think that perhaps he had never truly intended to keep you in place by force to begin with. He moves to leave the bed, but your fists find the front of his clothing and tug him back down to you.

You press your lips to his without hesitation, and you can feel him inhale sharply, his entire body rigid above you. His lips are surprisingly soft, his scent like coffee and old parchment, and though your heart threatens to burst from your chest, you hold firmly to him by his clothes. Near imperceptibly, he leans down against you, and your fear, along with any remaining doubts, begin to dissolve. Knowing he won't pull away, you let your hands relax against him, running up his chest where you can feel his own pulse pounding. It's so human, so entirely reasonable and normal. Now, at last, Hubert Von Vestra is merely a man of flesh and bone.

Your tongue meets his naturally, your lips parting in time with his as your kiss deepens to a fevered pace. One hand reaches that sharp, handsome jawline, reveling in the erotic sensation of his mouth moving against yours. And yet, all the while, his hands remain staunchly on the bed beside you. He doesn't touch you- doesn't even let his body meet yours.

It's impossible to tell whether passion or madness drives you to bring your teeth to his lower lip, a single insistent bite communicating desire mounting faster than you can contain. And for a moment, you sense something new; a sound catches in Hubert's throat, a reaction he fights to stifle. Then, he pulls away. His pale skin is tinted a rare shade of pink, and his hair is ruffled out of place enough to reveal both narrowed eyes. His cloak has spilled around his frame to surround you both, and somewhere in your frazzled mind, you imagine that you're caught in some beautiful, velvet-lined trap.

"I- must... return to my work." Hubert says stiffly. He pushes up from you and turns away, leaving you still flustered on the bed behind him. You sit upright, holding your arms tight around your body as you watch him straighten his hair and clothes.

"You, uhm..." your face reddens still as you search for the right words, "you could... join me in bed, if you liked."

Hubert turns to the door of his study, speaking without daring to even glance your way,

"Anything that you offer to me now will be born from the impulse to survive. I have been bargained with before." His shoulders slack just slightly, his voice low and sober, "The proudest nobleman will even sell off his own child to a monster if he feels it will spare him its teeth."

You open your mouth to protest, then shut it without a word. You feel that you know your mind and heart, even in this moment, but you lack the words to convince a man like this. In a feeble attempt, you murmur,

"You don't frighten me, Hubert. Not anymore."

He half turns toward you, though his hand remains on the handle of his study door.

"You yourself said that you do not know what you think of me," he says, "As such, I will not lay a hand on you until the day that you do."

You stare down at your hands in your lap, barely registering the sound of the door clicking shut as he leaves you in the bedroom. No matter how you try to sort out your tangled thoughts, the memory of his lips on yours won't leave them. If anything, it eclipses any sense of reason, standing resolutely in the way of your path to clarity. Letting out a groaning sigh, you fall onto your back on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling as if it could offer you any advice.

What do I think about my own husband? You wonder, the thought nearly enough to make you laugh. Well for one, he's a pain.

[anniesocsandgeneralstore]

Can I get 10, 13, 22, 24, 49 please? And safe travels! 🙂

Thanks baby! You are the best 🥰🥰

10. How do you stay motivated to finish what you’ve started?

I am one of those people who will think an idea to death until I can’t stand it anymore. So I gotta get it out of me and out on the page or it’ll kinda eat me alive lol

13. What is your planning process?

Depends on what I’m writing! Requests or just little pieces it generally goes title (can be changed) then summary of the whole thing, very general, then a slightly more detailed planned that mostly includes dialogue cause conversations between characters always come to me first for some reason, and I take that plan and write the real thing.

22. Do you listen to music during your writing process? What music do you listen to while you’re writing?

I do! Never anything with words, though. Too distracting for me lol but I listen to a playlist I made of like movie soundtracks that I’ve gotten inspiration from. It includes Pride & Prejudice, The Witcher, Lord of the Rings, and Pirates of the Caribbean!

24. How many WIPs (work-in-progress) do you’ve got?

That are like guaranteed to be posted and are in my drafts currently? About 11! It includes 9 Christmas prompts (that I’m super excited for!), a piece about Rick’s tattoos, and an A/B/O AU thing…

49. Where do you draw inspiration from?

Oh gosh…everywhere? I consume a lot of media in a lot of different forms. I draw a lot of inspiration from movies for dialogue and how it should sound and for action scenes. But I also, obvs, draw inspiration from the books I read. My favs are Michael Crichton, SA Chakraborty, and Neill Gaiman.

[flurrys-creativity]

Jungkook + Scenario 1 + Dialogue Prompt 13 please!

Thank you for your request!!! I got really excited and my heart basically didn’t stop pounding like crazy!!! Anyway I finished your request and it’s definitely not a drabble.. hope you don’t mind 😅

Sailor Kook

Pairing: Jeon Jungkook (BTS) x GN!Reader; Genre: Fantasy, Superhero AU, Angst, Fluff, Humour, a pinch of romance; Rating: sfw, PG-13; Warnings: mentions of possession, brainwashing, criminal behaviour in general, the danger of walking alone at night, a drunk person, mentions of monsters, a real monster plus description of it, fear of being attacked, a curse word and lastly Jungkook in his “My Time” second concert day outfit!; Wordcount: 3.495; Inspiration: Sailor Moon

Summary: Rumours about monster attacks spread through the town and become the most discussed topic - even within your friend group. When you get attacked one night you didn’t expect your saviour to be someone you know.

“Have you heard the news recently?” Taehyung asked and dropped into the same booth you occupied. “There was another incident.”

“Incident?” 

“Yeah, here, look,” Taehyung shoved his mobile phone towards you, pointing at an interview, “this woman said, she got attacked by some kind of monster, which then started to control her actions.”

“She’s just making things up,” Yoongi groaned, “it’s obvious she is trying to plead insanity to avoid any higher sentence.”

“What about this man last week though?”

“Yeah, it’s not the first time the victims are claiming to be attacked by a monster.” Taehyung agreed with Jimin, nodding eagerly.

“This man won his case and didn’t get charged for what he had done.”

“And that is why all the others are trying his tactic as well. One got away with it and now every criminal thinks they can use this to their advantage.”

You listened intently to the points Namjoon and Yoongi made, guessing they had some pretty good ones. Especially as law and psychology students they appeared even more believable.

“Didn’t this one reporter discover there were even incidents like that prior to this man? With victims claiming to be attacked by monsters or something equally evil,” Jin asked, tapping his chin in thought.

“And equally fictitious.”

“Yoongi, what if it’s not? What if there really are monsters or evil beings out there possessing innocent people?”

Taehyung and Jimin immediately agreed with Hoseok’s question, pointing out that even the most dumb criminal knows when a specific tactic won’t work anymore.

“Is it possible these people are all related in some way to each other?” You asked, scrolling through the article with little interest. “What if all of them go to the same place, a church, a therapist, a hairdresser, whatever. What if the connection between all of them somehow brainwashes them? And in the end they believe a monster attacked them?”

For a moment all of the guys stared at you, each of them considering your suggestions.

“It sounds more plausible than the idea of actual monsters.”

Yoongi nodded in agreement, making you grin slightly. Namjoon and Yoongi always thought of logical reasons behind strange behaviours and couldn’t get moved by the idea of monsters.

“Are you saying there is absolutely no possibility that monsters exist?”

“I didn’t say that,” you argued quickly, once you saw the disheartened look on Taehyung’s face, “I just thought of another possibility.”

“I say that,” Yoongi deadpanned, making Jimin and Taehyung gasp loudly.

“Jungkook! Say something! You need to back us up here!” Jimin hit the youngest group member on the arm, trying to get some kind of reaction out of him.

All eyes turned to Jungkook, who finally looked up from his food with wide eyes, still chewing on the bite he had taken just a second before. “What?”

Hoseok laughed loudly, clapping his thigh in the process and basically throwing himself into Namjoon. “He didn’t listen at all.”

“I can’t believe you! This is super important news and you didn’t even listen to me?”

“He didn’t listen to any of us Tae. No reason to get upset about that.”

“You do know that made it even worse, right?”

You shrugged with your shoulders in response to Namjoon’s accusation, turning your attention back to Jungkook as he swallowed and cleared his throat.

“Sometimes the things that matter most are right in front of you.”

With that he grabbed his food again and took another bite, making everyone around him laugh loudly; even Taehyung, after he scoffed in mock offence.

The guys still argued a little back and forth on the possibility of monsters, while Jungkook kept awfully quiet. Normally he’d jump right on the topic, telling everybody one conspiracy after the other, but this time he just focused on his food.

You didn’t think much about it because you knew when Jungkook felt hungry nothing could stop him from eating; and you just thought this had been one of those moments. Still, you couldn’t shake off this feeling that he was more reserved than usual.

Even days after that meeting Taehyung didn’t let go of the topic of monsters and evil beings, using every chance he got to bring it up again. At least he tried to talk to anyone, who was willing to listen; a.k.a you.

You just got off from work and exited through the back door, checking your phone for any new messages. 

Taehyung had tried calling you several times. Despite musing he would talk about the same topic again, you decided to call him back. Having him on the phone while you walked home felt somewhat safer than walking alone.

Normally you didn’t mind getting off late at night, and walking the twenty minute distance to your home, but the continuous attacks and strange incidents did freak you out a little.

“Hey Tae,” you greeted him once he picked up his phone, “you called?”

“Thank goodness!”

“What’s wrong?”

You immediately tensed and stopped in your tracks. This wasn’t the response you had expected.

“I thought something might have gotten you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! You always pick up your phone when I call and you don't, so I got worried.”

You sighed and closed your eyes for a moment, needing the time to calm yourself again. “I was working, Tae.”

“You were? It’s pretty late though? Don’t you get off earlier?”

“I get off when the last guest leaves the restaurant.”

“Don’t you have something like opening hours?” Taehyung scoffed, sounding almost angry with you. “Send them home when it’s closing time.”

“And lose a paying customer for the future? It’s okay, Tae. He didn’t stay for long,” you explained and continued walking through the back alley.

You quietly listened to Taehyung rambling on and complaining about your work system when you suddenly heard glass shatter behind you.

“What was that?”

You turned around, ignoring Taehyung’s question, and scanned the alley. You even took your time to look over it once more until you came to the conclusion that a stray must have dropped something. “Nothing,” you mumbled and turned back forward, “must have been a stray, I guess.”

“Y/N?” Static interrupted the conversation with Taehyung. Instead loud cracks and whistling could be heard from your device.

You winced and brought some distance between your phone and your ear. With a frown on your face you violently tapped onto the screen, hoping to somehow fix whatever was wrong with your phone.

Deep in concentration, you missed the fact that you weren’t alone in that alley anymore until another glass shattering caught your attention.

You looked up in alarm, head turning in every direction until you found the source of the noise. Still wary of the situation, you stayed where you were, making yourself ready to fight or run. 

The last customer from the restaurant stumbled forward, slurring his words and laughing to himself. 

You knew he drank too much and you even offered to call him a taxi or an uber but he had declined and told you he would walk home since he didn’t live far from the restaurant. Though you didn’t expect him to be here, half an hour after he left.

“Are you alright? I could call an uber, if you still need it.”

He ignored your words and just stumbled further towards you.

You clenched your jaw and quickly fumbled with your bag, changing your phone for the pepper spray and a key as weapons for your defence. 

Fear crawled over your skin and made the hairs on your body stand up, while your stomach rumbled with nervousness, leaving a bitter taste at the back of your mouth.

“Sir? You are fairly drunk and need someone to pick you up!”

He still ignored you, making your muscles tense and your heart beating rapidly. You took a deep breath, trying to steel your nerves.

“Sir, I want you to answer me!”

He came closer, still stumbling around.

“Do not come closer! I won’t hesitate to defend myself.” Despite your desperate attempts to sound as confident as possible, your voice cracked and trembled once the man got close enough to see him properly.

His skin was sickly pale while his eyes almost glowed red. He tilted his head and upper body to one side, grinning painfully insane at you.

You swallowed harshly, a scream basically stuck in your throat. You couldn’t tear your eyes away from this monster, since you knew the man had looked different when he visited the restaurant. Another wave of fear rolled down your back and froze your feet to the ground.

“Taehyung was right.” You thought while you looked at the thing in front of you. “There were monsters in town attacking innocent people.”

Your heart dropped into your pants and your mind ran a mile a minute. You didn’t know about the capabilities of monsters and you worried it might be faster than you, making it impossible to run away. And you really didn’t want to think about its strength.

It suddenly leaped forward and you ducked down with a scream, holding your hands over your head for protection.

The monster fell down behind you with a loud thump, followed by a mix of groaning and growling.

You quickly glanced behind you, seeing how it tried to get up again. Without any hesitation you jumped up as well and ran as fast as possible into the opposite direction.

Tears brimmed at the corner of your eyes, when you heard the closing footsteps and the heavy breathing following you.

“No, no, no, no.” You whimpered, trying to ignore the strain on your muscles and feet and focusing instead of bringing some distance between you and this thing.

Another scream left your lips when you saw a shadow above your head, making you stumble and fall to the ground.

You heard a loud thud behind you and the footsteps slowing down until they came to a halt. You didn’t dare to look behind you and you didn’t dare to move, fearing any movement would bring their attention back to you.

“With the magical power given to me..” A low voice called behind you.

You whimpered at the sudden voice and pulled your legs to your chest, trying to make yourself as small as possible. You trembled violently and your ears started ringing. For a moment you thought you were done for and would faint, since even your breathing came irregular, but you clenched your fist around the key and forced yourself to focus on the metal cutting into your skin.

When you calmed down enough for the ringing to disappear and for your breathing to become regular again, you slowly raised your head and looked behind you.

The monster had vanished. Instead a dark figure stood in the middle of the alley, keeping its distance to you.

Your heart still pounded like crazy but your senses somehow felt calm around this figure. You slowly sat up, eyes never leaving the shadow-like person. 

“You saved me,” you stated once you stood again, dusting off your clothes. Despite trusting them you didn’t put the spray or keys back, in case you misjudged them. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

You tensed, hearing their voice, and squinted your eyes. You knew that voice, though you had trouble placing a finger on it with all the adrenaline still pumping through your veins.

“What was that thing?” You asked, almost casually, to get the figure to talk more.

“A monster.”

You sighed. “Yeah, obviously but did it possess that man? I saw him in the restaurant a little while ago. And he looked normal.”

The figure shook their head. “The man didn’t get possessed. This monster just used his appearance to attack you.”

You definitely knew that voice. Calm, deep, melodic and so, so familiar. 

“What about the man? Is he okay or did he get attacked before me?”

You watched the figure shrug with their shoulders. They stood in a shadow and made it hard for you to see anything specific. Your curiosity got the better of you and you slowly took a few steps towards them.

“Don’t you know? I mean, shouldn’t you check up on him? Isn’t that important for a hero like you?”

“Sometimes the things that matter most are right in front of you.”

You stopped, almost getting whiplashed from the sudden click inside your mind. Still, you couldn’t wrap your head around the fact that one of your closest friends stood right in front of you. 

“Jungkook?” You hurried towards him and grabbed his hand, making sure he wouldn’t just disappear in front of you.

With the closeness you finally could take a better look at your saviour. Black skin tight leather pants, a loose black button up and a red flowy jacket, dare you even call it a kimono. His dark locks fell into his eyes, which were covered by a black mask as well. Despite the dark you were close enough to see the mole underneath his bottom lip and the little scar on his cheek.

“What? No! Who is that Jungkook you’re talking about?”

You stared at him pointedly.

“Okay, okay. Fine. Yeah, you’re right. How did you know?” He quickly dropped his act underneath your gaze, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

“Did you really expect a friend wouldn’t recognize you?”

“Well,” he avoided eye contact with you, “I am disguised.”

“You are not disguised,” you deadpanned. “A simple black mask is not a disguise. And I recognized your voice. You made it even painfully obvious by saying the same thing you did a few days ago with your food.”

Jungkook laughed awkwardly.

“Good to know, I’m on the same level as food in your ranking.” You teased him with a big grin, starting to laugh loudly when Jungkook stuttered some sort of excuse.

“How did you even turn into”, you once again looked over his costume, noticing how stunning he was like that, “a superhero?”

Jungkook looked around warily. “I’ll meet you at your place in an hour, okay? Then we can talk.”

You squinted in suspicion at his ominous tone, even checking your surroundings for anything out of the ordinary. Though you couldn’t find any you nodded in agreement.

It was probably for the best. You never knew who might be lurking in the open streets. Especially with this topic the confinements of your apartment might be a wiser choice.

Jungkook escorted you home, keeping a safe distance from you so he wouldn’t attract any attention towards you, or himself.

You felt his presence near you until you reached the door to your apartment. You turned around, despite knowing he had gone, and looked around once more before you entered your apartment and closed the door behind you.

With a sigh you dropped your keys and bag near the entrance door, kicked your shoes off and walked to your bedroom, deciding to change into something more comfortable before Jungkook would come back.

For a moment you wondered how he actually would return. You glanced towards your balcony, pursing your lips in thought. “He wouldn’t, would he?” 

You got interrupted in your thoughts, when a knock sounded from your front door. “Huh.” Still a little wary of the whole situation, you carefully walked back to the entrance and peeked through the spy hole. You sighed and visibly relaxed when you saw the familiar face of Jungkook.

“What took you so long?” Jungkook asked and slipped inside of your apartment. “Did you think I’d come through the window or something?”

You froze and stared at him with wide eyes, feeling caught by his question.

“What? You did?” Jungkook nearly doubled over from laughing. “I can’t believe you.”

“Yeah, well! I can’t believe you! For how long have you been this..” You waved your hand over his body and stopped, noticing he didn’t wear the same clothes he did before. Instead black sweat pants and a large black hoodie adorned his body.

Jungkook shrugged with his shoulders, passing you and walking into your kitchen. “For some time, I guess.” 

While you followed his movements with a dumbfounded expression, he raved through your fridge, filling his arms with snacks before he crossed the hallway and walked into your living room to flop on the couch.

“I lost track of time.”

“But,” you followed him and sat down next to him, “how did this all start? Did you just wake up one day and poof?”

Jungkook snorted. “No, definitely not! Somebody gave them to me.”

“How does it work? Do you have the powers all the time? Can you switch it on and off? Are you doing this every night? Is there anyone else with you?”

“Nah, I’m all alone and I only do it when I’m needed. Which means I don’t have them all the time. So yeah, it’s like an on and off switch.” Jungkook stopped mid thought, glancing at you for a second. “I could show you?”

Your eyes widened in surprise and you nodded eagerly. You leaned forward and almost lost your balance from your own excitement.

Jungkook snickered and stood up, moving to the middle of your living room. He quickly pushed some of your furniture aside, turning around to make sure he had enough room. He then smirked towards you. “Be prepared for something amazing.”

You raised an eyebrow at his cocky tone, crossing your arms in front of your chest. “Sure, be my guest.”

Jungkook took another deep breath, raising one arm so he pointed at the ceiling. “Magic Power Transform.”

A bright light surrounded his form suddenly and you had to shield your eyes with your hand, peeking through your fingers so you wouldn’t miss too much.

Every colour of the rainbow washed over Jungkook’s body while his loose clothes disappeared. You gulped harshly upon seeing the outline of his muscular body though your attention quickly shifted to Jungkook turning and spinning around until he stood in the same outfit from the alleyway right in front of you; though his back was turned to you. He slightly twisted his upper body around, grinning at you. Additionally one hand formed the shape of a pistol and he held it right underneath his chin while the other was held like devil's horns and raised next to his body.

You stared at him with an open mouth, blinking a few times. With the light of your living room you had the chance to take a closer look. 

The leather of his pants hugged the tight muscles of his thigh in all the right places, the button up basically wasn’t buttoned at all and showed his pecs and even the top of his six pack and his hair was tousled just perfectly to complete the look.

“So?” Jungkook dropped his arms and fully turned to you. “What do you say?”

“You just did a magical girl transformation.”

“I know, it’s amazing the powers.. what?”

“You did a magical girl transformation. You’re basically like Sailor Moon.” You gasped loudly and clapped your hands together. “You’re Sailor Kook!”

“I am not Sailor Kook!”

“Yeah? So what is your hero name then?”

Jungkook mumbled something inaudible for you.

“What?”

“I don’t have a hero name.”

“Then it’s settled. You’re Sailor Kook.”

“Do I have to? I prefer to stay hidden. Nobody needs to know my name because nobody knows I exist.”

“I know.”

Jungkook sighed and dragged a hand over his face. “You’re different. You don’t count.”

“Tsk,” you clicked your tongue in annoyance, “I should count though. First of all you look exactly the same. I still know it’s you. That puny mask doesn’t hide shit. Second of all you need a voice changer so nobody hears your real voice and draws a connection. And lastly, oh wait no. We have a name now, so we’re fine.”

Jungkook stared at you, confusion washing over his features.

You smiled gently. “Don’t worry. I’m going to help you.”

“Help me?”

“Yeah, you definitely need me to keep your identity a secret.”

Jungkook blinked a few times, stunned into silence.

“With the power given to me, I will help you as best as I can, so heed my every order!”

“With the power given to you?”

“Yeah, with the power given to me!”

“You don’t even have any power!” Jungkook exclaims, his voice cracking slightly in despair.

“Say that again?” You crossed the distance between the both of you in an instant, grabbing his earlobe and pinching it hard. “Don’t test me.”

Jungkook whimpered and writhed in your hold. “Fine, okay, okay. I’ll listen. Can I ask a question though?”

You nodded. “Sure.”

“Why are you even helping me?”

You let go of his earlobe and grabbed his button up with your hands instead, pulling him down to your eye level. “You have a town to save. And because sometimes the things that matter the most are right in front of you.”

© all rights reserved

[jay4firefic]

I wish you would write a fic where 51 (or part of it) came out to LA to celebrate LA Pride with Buck. I wish you’d write a fic where the 118 got confronted by this group of individuals who come together to support and cheer on Buck and each other without having to drag Buck down to do it.

In season one Boden tells Mills that Severide has slept with half of Chicago, and he’s not judging for it, he’s commending him for not sleeping with anyone for two years while he focused on his candidacy and joining squad. Severide and Shay where never judged for how many people they chose to sleep with but for those they chose to keep around, and Buck has always been judged more for the quantity of people he slept with and less for the quality of the people he chose to stick with. I feel like a lot of the relationships he has romantic and otherwise are all very one sided and focused on what he can do for them, with out Buck getting much back in return.

It’s kind of like when Captain Paterson told Boden something along the lines of: “I’ve seen a lot of houses call themselves a family but 51 is the first one I’ve really seen that means it”. Like, when Herman was stabbed, they set up a shift schedule for who would watch his kids off shift so Cindy could be with him at the hospital, and when Otis was shot, Boden had him back in the house as soon as possible, even though it wasn’t as a firefighter. I feel like 51 shows up for each other and their community in ways that the 118 just doesn’t. There’s so few, and almost all of them have lives and families outside of the firehouse that Buck is like the third wheel.

I don’t know what Chicago has by way of Pride but I will be researching it and we will be having a lengthy bit on Pride because I love it, Buck would THRIVE at Pride, Kelly would be grumpy about the whole affair - it’s gonna be great. I may eventually do something at LA Pride too but I don’t feel super inspired to do a 51-comes-to-LA-Pride fic right now. 

I love how much thought you’ve put into this and I think it would be great if you decided to write this specific fic! In general, I’m always super happy to discuss fic ideas and meta with folks but I’m not likely to write for a prompt that is super lengthy and specific. It doesn’t really feel like my fic at that point and it’s hard to make decisions without feeling like I’m letting the prompter down. Prompts this detailed also lend to being a super long fic and I’m in the middle of two lengthy WIPs and a few other shorts, so I just don’t have time on top of everything else. 

The kind of prompts I’m used to from previous fandoms where I’ve done a lot of prompt fills are more like “character(s)/pairing, one or two line scenario or dialogue prompt.” It gives me a lot more room to decide length and tone and flesh out the details myself and I’m much more likely to be able to knock out a short fic for a prompt like that between doing other things.

That being said, you’ve hit on a couple of things here that really highlight the difference in the shows for me. I love them both, but Chicago Fire far and away does a better job of showing us the firehouse as a found family who are integral to each others’ lives in and outside of the firehouse. 51 fights like family and they support each other like family in a way that I find both much more compelling and much healthier despite all of their ups and downs. Part of this is probably b/c 9-1-1 spends a lot more time focused on truly ridiculous on the job scenarios rather than developing their lives and showing their interactions outside the job or even their day-to-day at the firehouse. With 51 we’ve got years and years of their backstories, their neighborhood bar, their shared business ventures, the way they go to bat for each other and for random victims they get wrapped up in helping, them at charity events and concerts and hockey games together and them always always there at the hospital bedside that we don’t see the same level of development of w/ 9-1-1 in my opinion. Which is ok, because they’re different shows with different focuses and *cough*different levels of quality*cough*. But I could also probably write an entire essay about Boden as healthy work dad vs Bobby as toxic work dad (in large part b/c instead of being ‘work dad’ he has an incredibly specific and toxic father-son dynamic w/ Buck that I think 9-1-1 handles badly).

Part of the reason for starting my Chicago: 9-1-1 series in Chicago is that I think it would be a much better environment for Buck to grow and learn and develop relationships and a support network in! There are a lot of ways that he’s like Severide (sleeping around, spiraling and making really terrible choices when things go wrong) and Gallo (impulsive, daredevil risking his/others lives) and others who really learned and grew there over the seasons with the house’s support and guidance. And it’s a place where I’m going to enjoy exploring his mental health issues before sending him to LA and the 118 as someone who knows himself a better and is not as desperate for that substitute family that the 118 isn’t set up to provide in the same way.

Buck is a mess who can and should and will struggle and get judged at 51 in anything I write. I think some of the interpersonal dynamics in 9-1-1 are really toxic in ways that end up getting treated as cute and familial in fic but YMMV and if that’s what people wanna write I don’t judge I just backspace outta there. 

[thegoodomensdumpster]

I WATCHED GOOD OMENS IN FRENCH SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO

and it wasn’t that bad. Here are my thoughts, barely edited as I wrote most of them while watching the show.

EP 1

OK i like god’s voice so far

possibilité d’embarras gastrique is a good formulation, I wonder if it’s the same in the book ( I think I kinda need to read it in french now...)

aghghdhgs « primo-délinquants »

of course subtitles don’t match the audio for a variety of technical reasons but when you get things that have very different underlying meanings i find it… not good This one about Crowley being evil / a demon : subtitles : « c’est ton travail » - « it’s your job » audio : « c’est dans ta nature » - « it’s in your nature » i mean dang

crowley sounds like a little shit asking az about his sword

« T’AS FAIT QUOUA » - he just loses his shit (kinda giving me some le coeur a ses raisons vibe)

ok crowley sounds very nerdy when he tries to explain that he took down the phone network, i think i actually like this voice acting

ligur sounds… very suave (im a little ill at ease)

crowley getting called mon chou by satan freddie mercury is a thumb up from me

i see the part where aziraphale speaks japanese wasn’t dubbed over and we can still hear michael sheen. it’s a bit disturbing considering french aziraphale has a higher pitched voice (and he sounds soooo much more anxious than sheen, give this angel a xanax )

“sandwich bœuf cresson” ( beef and cress sandwich ) deirdre really who makes this kind of sandwiches

im being reminded that the chattering nuns prepared little cut outs for their explanation about the antichrist switch… such dedication to useless crafts (it made me laugh on my first viewing and it’s still funny to imagine that some of them either ordered or built these things themselves just so they could make this two minutes long presentation for the most important act of their satanic nun careers)

retire-toi vil démon infernal, créature des abysses XD i swear az doesn’t sound even remotely convinced when he is saying the « get thee behind me foul fiend » line in french, it’s just too over the top for credibility, it sounds like it’s straight out of some super intense dnd session

they still can’t say bouillabaisse (which, like, weird because french, but still valid). nice touch is crowley couldn’t say soupe de poisson (fish stew) either and said poupe de soisson (sish ftew)

warlock mah boy how can you be a teenager and not like dinosaurs

c’est un dinosaure un nullosaure plutôt - apply burn heal

La façon dont warlock s’est exclamé « C’EST NUL » m’a fait penser au nain de naheulbeuk

the english version has nothing on french speaking aziraphale for the second hand embarrassement during the magic tour. it’s over 9000 i literally hid my head in my jumper when he was presenting harry the bunny. Horrible experience, 0/20, would not recommend

EP 2

oooh agnes has a lovely voice !

why is young newton having such a quality dub for the three sentences he has to say

dick turpin’s name is jesse james (tbf dick turpin is not known AT ALL in france, i discovered him reading good omens)

shadwell is pure chaos (as expected). No particular accent for him though, the chaotic energy was probably enough. Would have made me laugh if he had like, a chti or a marseilles accent.

aziraphale is so fucking stressed out by crowley’s driving i thought he was gonna explode

« tu es un gentil garçon » => « you’re a nice boy » said az to crowley DANG THAT’S SO INFANTILIZING AZIRAPHALE YOU’RE TALKING TO A DEMON FROM HELL NOT TO PINOCCHIO

ARGH FIRST MON ANGE OF THE SERIES i’m hit straight in the heart

anathema’s mom doesn’t have a spanish / latino accent at all when talking in spanish…. why...

dog being called toutou is definitely adorable (it’s basically « doggy » but way cuter imo)

tickety-boo has become ça gaze. that’s valid. it’s corny but i still use it unironically from time to time so ... i stan

EP 3

« je répands la fomentation » « i’m here spreading foment » « quoi tu fais des crêpes au froment ?????? »  « what you’re making crêpes with wheat ??? » love the fact that we shoehorned in one more ref to crêpes

az called crowley mon cher camarade, unintentionnal communist propaganda ftw

« pas de repos pour les… bah, pour les bons » « no rest for the… good »  – az was so deflated about the ineptitude he realized he was saying, he felt zero percent commited to his sentence

i was wondering how they would play aziraphale not being able to speak french in the bastille and they opted to have him stutter a bit and say to his executionner « excuse me i’m anxious » XD

« vous êtes le 999e aristo à mourir par mes soins. Mais vous êtes le premier en costume beige » « you’re the 999th aristocrat I’m going to kill, but the first one in beige attire » yeah i guess now that az isn’t english anymore his most noticeable feature is his cream aesthetic

« c’est au cas où ça tournerait en eau de boudin » « j’ADORE le boudin » => « in case it all goes pear shape » - the literal translation featuring food in french is « turning into black sausage water ». I don’t know what pear shaped inspires to english native speakers but the mere mention of boudin always make me giggle, it’s such a funny word and such a funny food

OH !!! no terrence rampa for the tv series, we’ve got anthony J. rampa. Rip terrence petit démon parti trop tôt :’(

« tu roules trop vite pour moi rampa » SERIOUSLY i know we can still infer « rouler » (here as in driving, but literally rolling) as a metaphor for their relationship but you could have said TU VAS TROP VITE that would have been so much better argh

has anathema got an emergency stock of potteries to break in case of emotionnal crisis ?

« Rampa, un démon très futé, il m’oblige à redoubler d’effort » « crowley, a very clever demon, he forces me to make double the amount of effort » oh so admitting you’re making an effort there aziraphale ? :))))))

dang i really want to know how shadwell said that major milk bottle died because not only did he die in combat but aziraphale’s reaction is a bit intense, it must have been quite a tale (this could be a crack fic prompt : «The Epic Tale of the Death Of Major Witchfinder Milk Bottle, by Sargent Witchfinder Shadwell» )

des sorcières et des phénomènes sorciéreux x)

CROWLEY CALLED AZIRAPHALE DUCON ?????? EXCUSE ME ????? #NotMyCrowley #CrowleyWouldNeverDoThat  #CancelAnthonyJRampa2K20  => ducon would be an insult, the gathering of du and con, con being a very nasty but common swear word, and associating it with du- makes it extremely patronizing. it’s like « absolute pathetic digraceful moron +++ ». thanks i hate it *frowny face *

EP 4

l’apocalypse c’est pour aujourd’hui juste après le goûter : it could be translated as « apocalypse is scheduled for today right after tea time » except that « goûter » is not quite tea time but rather the little sugary snack kids take when they come back from school and that most adults drop out of (i haven’t and i’m sure az hasn’t either). thanks aziraphale for having exclusively food related notion of the time because tbh same

ligur has no right to be this sexy between ariyon bakare and his french voice actor that’s just not allowed

radio crowley’s voice vs french ligur’s voice, who has the sexiest voice : FIGHT

(jk french agnes nutter’s voice is by far the sexiest)

gender neutral doesn’t ‘quite’ exist in french but pollution has been assigned a female voice actress and masculine pronouns (i’m saying it doesn’t quite exist because officially we have no gender neutral, but it’s a serious wip among lgbt+ circles to the point where it’s started being used in a few medias)

hastur « en attendant qu’un plombier vienne » / « while waiting for a plumber to come » does hell have a special plumber unit or do demons have to call on human plumbers for their pipes damages ? Dang hastur having to call a human plumber for hell’s plumbery is another damn good writing prompt for a crack fic

Michael is called Michel in the subtitles but Michael in the audio *shrug emoji*

EP 5 

to get a wiggle on has become « il faut qu’on se remue les fesses », literally « we need to shake our butts » like, yes, se remuer les fesses is a common expression to say « we need to act in order to get things done » but it really casts the image of people shaking their booty to some music and obviously crowley thinks the same Weirdly enough I have almost nothing to say for that episode. Sorry. But we’ve discovered most voice actors and actresses so far and no bit of dialogue really struck me as worth discussing or pointing fingers to mock it.

EP 6 

« on va BROUTER quelques derrières » - « we’re gonna lick some butts » OK THIS IS UNQUESTIONNABLY FAR SUPERIOR IN FRENCH THAN IN ENGLISH you thought LICKING butts was good ??? you really thought that ???? AZIRAPHALE HERE SUGGESTS TO GRAZE BUTTS. TO NIBBLE THEM. TO EAT THEM. TO. MUNCH. ON. THOSE. BUTTS!!!! not just licking, guys. This is as serious step beyond licking. (oh yeah he should have said « botter » instead of brouter btw, which is really just kicking, fyi)

« moi je crois en la paix, pétasse ! » wow, language, pepper (fyi i think « pétasse » is far far worse than « bitch » even if it means roughly the same, pétasse is almost never used while bitch is rather common, so it’s a swear word +++)

Dagon sounds like she’s got a nasty cold. #GetDagonIbuprofen2K20

I can confirm that Crowley offers Aziraphale to not just stay at his place, but to move in with him. « tu peux t’installer chez moi si tu veux ». omg they were roommates.

Bad translation strikes again : i don’t know why, but the french dub doesn’t have the « tickety-boo » / « ça gaze » being referenced as Rampa / Aziraphale is being knocked down, which is… a real mistep. It was narratively significant and I’m quite mad the translators missed it.

The Jesse James explanation from Newt has become very nonsensical, instead of the neat and to the point pun « wherever I go I hold up trafic » we’re getting a circonvoluted « because it’s a crime to mechanic’s diligence ». I’m not judging that one too hard, I have no idea how to make it better, and that’s probably how it was translated in the book as well thirty years ago, but it definitely doesn’t have the same impact. On the other hand, it definitely IS a very bad joke that doesn’t even deserve a chuckle, so Anathema’s embarassement really matches the audience’s (aka mine).

OVERALL :

I wasn’t convinced by Crowley… I mean, Rampa’s voice at first, but as the nerdiness showed up it really grew on me. I still think that french dubs have often problems with some voice inflexions every here and there, and for instance in Rampa’s case it was when he was annoyed or frustrated ( at the Globe when complaining about horses and Shakespeare’s plays that aren’t comedies, and also when discussing Azirphale’s magic tricks, it’s like… there is a step between having the right amount of grumpy complaining and overdoing it that is overlooked. It’s overacted, it should have been a bit quieter imo. I don’t mean to criticize voice actors too hard either but as an audience watching french dubs this is a very recurring problem and it always feels off to me. It’s actually one of the main reasons I avoid french dubs whenever possible.)

I have a hard time judging Aziraphale’s voice dub because it clashes so much with both the idea I had formed with it when I read the book and Sheen’s delivery that I just… kinda filtered it. It was too high pitched for me, and too anxious (though for this last point I must admit it could be funny at times, but I’m not fond of this character portrayal). The rest of the cast was rather good, nothing to complain about. There wasn’t anything stellar either, but everything that needed to be conveyed was and it was professionnal. It was also very homogeneous, no voice really struck me as being way too bad or way too good compared to the others, so it was really consistant.

So I don’t have much to complain about overall despite a few wonky translations here and there, BUT there is one thing I felt very robbed of : Crowley calling Aziraphale « mon ange » happens only once, when giving a lift to Anathema, and I’m almost certain they translated it that way because otherwise the joke about Anathama mistaking them for a couple wouldn’t work. So, they were forced to make it that way. The rest of the time Crowley calls Aziraphale « l’angelot », and despite being literally translated by « little angel », it feels sarcastic more than anything else ( the « L’ » in front of « angelot » is part of the reason why, it creates some distance, the other reason being that this word in itself has a very corny vibe and people being affectionnate to each other wouldn’t use it as a term of endearment). So, that’s a shame.

I like the English dub much much MUCH better than the French, but the french wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be. The voice actors and actresses were quite good, the dialogues mostly faithful and endearing despite a few really missed steps. It really had its moments. Props to brouter des derrières, that one was fantastic.

[furymint]

All Prompts

#02: Sway

#03: Muster

#06: Bonus

#08: Clamor

#09: Lush

#12:  Tooth & Nail

#15: Ache

#16: Lucubration

#20: Bonus

#22: Argy-Bargy

#24: Beam

Header  | Reflection of some of my favorite peers’ prompts under the cut!

@aethernoise​ -- #11: Ultracrepidarian

tired curses!!!! i also really love this contrast in their work..... its rly cute. alyx just saved the world and aymeric is hating the dictionary. i like how rough his narration is and then alyx calls and everything speeds up, and i especially love him staring into the empty room. it put another contrast between their circumstances, but its also rly damn accurate abt how it feels to share a moment over the phone w someone. it made me smile a lot

@ahlis-xiv​ -- #23: Shuffle

this one made me laugh ksjdf ahlis’ distaste for the saucer despite being drawn to it is hysterical, but it also mirrors a lot of her character flaws: avoiding vulnerability, placing stoicism before genuineness, planting her frustration on external things instead of herself. even confronting her own feelings draws some curses out of her, and i love that display of her personality.

@autochthonousone -- #09: Nonagenarian

i love me some reflection and mentorship. also im obsessed with “let ‘lone this ‘n”.........dialect is such a hit or miss thing when writing or reading, but god youve got it and i love that line so much. barry’s relationship w stalwart is even better tho, and i cant repeat enough how much i love their dynamic of fair/stern/wise and distant/brutish/actually-paying-complete attention.

@brave-horizon -- #12: Tooth & Nail

talk abt using the setting..............i rly struggle w incorporating setting so this was a little mind-blowing to me. we got a really cool action scene plus established an entire town and conflict all at once?? battle scenes are hard. but ur vocab is so precise and stuff like “seized midstride” and “spilling its pilot” are rly inspiring me rn!! wind magic is smth ive brainstormed in the past but u have such good ideas w it and im so pumped just rereading it. its so good

@erstwhile25 -- #05: Matter of Fact

oh my god. some kind of dialogue god comes down and hands kail all his words, or else he’s just the dialogue god himself. im leaning towards the latter. i wish to god i could say “very small dogs with the barest streaks of sanity” in daily life, and honestly i might start to. the crew of the rook are always a joy to see + the development of their conversation takes such a meaningful turn that it really sticks after the laughs

@endangered-liaison​ -- #05: Matter of Fact 

sorry not sorry jaejh is cool!!!! he’s super nasty and terrible and interesting and i loved his voice, but i esp love how well he pushed the conflict and just Ruined Everything. i rly live how his influence bleeds into the others through their fear. The kids go from hoping or expecting to smth better, to not even debating that he’s lying bc it will just turn out worse. the berry stains as a gun on the wall never struck me either, and i was SHOOK

@high-and-away -- #10: Avail

honestly this was the hardest one to pic a fav for. i rly loved so many of these bc they check a lot of boxes for my Brand. this one sits the longest with active conflict + does a fantastic job staying clear despite all the trails it picks up w max’s foil n comradeship, the chocobo’s higher level of pity over people, the chaotic pack of Resistance members, and the highlander that vicky reasons over n kills. i love that word “limning” now; ur vocab always finds ways to surprise me w the way u use them (esp in describing settings)

@holyja -- #03: Muster

usually when i think of lizzy writing, i think of how perfect ur verbs are, but this time i really liked the visuals and tone. hyana pushing food around her plate and sitting on the rooftops had such a lonely feel to them, but at the same time were rly enjoyable and clear imgs despite not having to be described forever. serella’s dialogue was perfectly on-the-nose, too. usually i rly linger on what is given too much detail, but this rly showed me how nice it is to air things out n leave the thought monologue unsaid.

@karoiseka --  #24: Beam

hell yeah memory lane time. i loved seeing CT from karo’s pov and seeing where her priorities lay or moved. i also liked the life u gave to the little parts left untouched by the narrative, like walking through CT and the heartbeat in the soul vessel. idk what could be more satisfying that a reunion either, so following karo into the ocular was some Good Shit

@mythrilreflections -- #15: Ache

does this get bonus points just for being in o’ghomoro? yes. i love how the tunnels are characterized by the senseless kobolds in them. the added pressure from their reasonings for being in this hellhole is even better, and i love the sigils concept. jace’s narration is so cold, too, which makes both the kobold’s ferocity and the team’s desperation more poignant: he doesn’t sound the type to exaggerate.

@norhimorovine -- #14: Part

this one just screams fairy tale to me. the others do too, but the repetition of events rly knocks this one up the flagpole of ‘belongs in some mid 19th century kids story collection.’ i LOVE the sisters’ banter, and how the younger daughter gets incorporated a bit further for her attention. having the soldier take little pieces of each environment to prove they were real made them a lot more real to me, too.

@snowbird-down -- #03 Muster

if u think im NOT gonna lose my mind shrieking over stream of consciousness as one of the #1 ways of writing trauma, u have not been around me for very long. the varying sentence length is rly successful here, and i esp love the part where people are rushing into the ship and she has to stab a dude to keep him from coming aboard. it’s such a back and forth determining who is humanity and who is the faceless antagonist for a minute, n ofc i love that.

@stars-bleed-hearts-shine​ -- #28 -- Irenic

i was p surprised that my fav of urs came so late, but i feel like this piece has a lot of what your really good at, and which i admire a lot: you aren’t afraid of emotional dialogue or arguments based in more than factual debate, and you capitalize on casual thoughts that reveal a lot more than they do at face value. i esp like that you rly make the most of two characters that overlap in values and personality so often--they acknowledge that overlap and work together with what they share.

@yunkinko​ -- #05 Matter of Fact

im gonna forget abt that little rat line bc the last line is a kick in the teeth. i always admire ur ability to expand tiny details into lasting events. x’arhll’s musings also cut so different from the rest of the scene, separating her from the others and mhifa even further from her, so i love that contrast. the “arc of water” stayed with me for a while too.

[falsegoodnight]

~ interview with a writer ~

thank you @allwaswell16 for tagging me to do this!! 

name: ris! and i post under falsegoodnight :)

fandom(s): pretty much exclusively one direction but i’ll incorporate other universes (ie: works like a charm, my hogwarts au) sometimes!

where you post: ao3! exclusively - can’t imagine myself posting anywhere else!

most popular one shot: that’d have to be sleeping on our problems if we’re talking hits and before we knew if we’re going by kudos! 

most popular multi-chap: i haven’t posted very many mult-chap fics (yet) so the only one that qualifies is Don’t Let It (Me) Break which is 33 chapters and also my most popular fic in general going by hits!  

favorite story you’ve written so far: i’m proud of every fic i’ve posted so far and love them all for different reasons but i think my favorite is just a flicker in the dark which incorporates all my favorite things: exes to lovers (favorite trope), enemies to lovers, mystery, paranormal elements, magic, pets, ghosts, worldbuilding, sharing a bed, protective (and a smidge of jealous) harry, and a lot more!! 

my second blff which has yet to come out: feeling borrowed, always blue is also one of my favorites!!! (another exes to lovers dhjdk ft. a fake relationship, wedding planner harry, fashion designer louis, a baby, and lots of angst!! with a very happy ending!)

fic you were nervous to post: ...all of them? i’ll say the top three would be before we knew (wrote it super fast; also it was a rough time of year for me :/), bruise you like a peach (so many people whose opinions i care about over on twitter were excited about this one and i was feeling the pressure hdjkdk - it worked out well though!!), and my most recent one, sweet like honey (mainly because i’ve never posted in a collection before nor participated in a fic fest! but thankfully i’ve gotten over the nerves for the next one!)

how do you choose your titles? not very well! no but seriously, choosing a title is always such a difficult part of the process for me! i tend to use song lyrics but sometimes i just come up with something that references an event/dialogue in the fic or a theme that’s relevant! 

do you outline? Y E S! not going to lie, but i genuinely wouldn’t be able to write without a decently detailed outline! it’s different if it’s a shorter fic but for the longer ones, my outlines average about 3-5k! that’s not just including character information and scene lists! it also includes any important worldbuilding details, any links to articles i’ve referenced and might come back to, other lists about certain parts of the story, and anything else i need to keep in mind!

complete: i have 16 fics posted to ao3 + one unrevealed blff fic which is also complete so 17!

in progress: uhhhh, let me go count -

EIGHTEEN! hdjkdk 18 fics that i’ve begun and have at least 500 words of! some have only 1k and others have closer to 10k! but they’re all technically “in progress” so... hehe. 

coming soon: those 18 for starters... and also hopefully eventually the other 10 fics i have on my main wip list... but in the *nearest* future: my tangled au, sky high au, and perseus/medusa inspired au!

prompts? i’ll gladly accept any prompts! can’t promise you i’ll ever write them but not counting fest fics which have to be written from a prompt, i have about five fics i’m currently intending to write based on prompts from other people and two that are already posted: before we knew, yet again, and in a world alone!

upcoming work you’re most excited about? at the moment: my tangled au, perseus/medusa au, and also a potential mandalorian au... hehe. these are all wips, though so for actual upcoming fics, the only one i can guarantee is feeling borrowed, always blue which is set for december!

tagging: @hadestyles, @raspberryoatss, @thepolourryexpress, @tllthesundies, @tomlinvelvetfics, and @yvesaintlourent! and anyone else who sees this and wants to do it!

[espisayer]

Writing Tag Game

@alectoperdita tagged me thank you (*°▽°*)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

a sad 6 but I’m hoping October will inspire me to write out some spooky bullshit

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

38,866

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I only have 6 fics up and most of them have almost the same amount... except for Bury the Hatchet which has three times as much for some reason. (First yugioh fic I posted, and it’s only a year old but for me it’s not aging well 😅)

4. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Uhm comments will make my entire day. I usually don’t have the mental capacity to say anything intelligent back but I always try to. (barring something rude, but that’s pretty rare)

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Okay wait I can cheat on this one. If you count my ongoing 30-prompt challenge it’s definitely the raging jealousy in #10. Don’t ask me how that happened when the prompt was “animal ears.”

Without cheating it’s probably Never Idle, plus I never wrote a resolution for that...

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

uh. uhhhhhh. I’m realizing I write a lot of angst, not necessarily with bad endings, but more like open-ended positive? I don’t know if that counts. I guess my Yugi/Ryou fic, if I had to choose one but that’s mostly because they give me more positive vibes

7. Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

Not yet. If I do it’ll 100% be super self-indulgent like yugioh x fire emblem, and probably not three houses so no one would read it. so like it’s on the list, just not very high on the priority pole.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Fortunately, no

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yes 😅 but I hesitate to post it. "What kind” depends entirely on whatever else is going on. I respect people who do PWP but I have a hard time not tying it in with something. Otherwise, it’s really not that out there. Unless you count vampires as particularly out there.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Definitely not

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Oh god that sets off my social anxiety. no. Well, yes and no. i took part in a big bang once but i didn’t do any of the writing.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Outside of hyperfixations I don’t actually ship that much, so I guess the default win goes to kaijou? I only started reading yugioh fics last year. (They did jump out at me right away with almost no biases though)

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

The resolution to Never Idle 😢 never say never though

15. What are your writing strengths?

😶😶 I wanted to say dialogue but lately I’m feeling kind of uncreative with  my dialogue so...

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Plotting for me (or just trying to finish a chapter sometimes) is just a nightmare. It's indecisiveness but also, you know how people say they have racing thoughts? Mine are constantly tripping over each other, disorganized and inarticulate and I don’t know what that’s about but it’s real frustrating.

I feel like I answered a question like this a while ago and I think I said something similar but. yeah.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

At best you’ll piss readers off because now they have to fucking google translate it? I’ll click out. If you don’t know a language, don’t throw it in there. It’s easy enough to suggest someone is speaking in a different language.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

If you count my 10- or 12-year-old self who did not know what fanfic was, yugioh. If you count posted, I think it was Mario.

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Probably Good luck bad luck schmuck. It’s nice when you can go back and make yourself laugh

I’ll tag @faelynny and @chaosmax if you guys wanna do this

[star-sky-earth]

My top tips for writing smut

Inspired by the following question from the Author Asks meme. Thanks for the question @marauders-groupie !

20. What is your best piece of advice for writing smut scenes?

I’ve not been writing for very long, but these are all the things that I’ve learnt about writing smut over the last year, that I wish I’d consciously realised before. 

The majority of these are about smut scenes in longer, chaptered fics, not shorter one-offs/prompt fills.

1. Sex doesn’t mean anything unless it means something.

When writing sex scenes in a long-form fic, think about why you’re including it. Is it purely because its hot or kinky (so, a focus on relationship dynamics or plot or the situation)? Is it to show character progression or relationship development (so, a focus on internal monologue, interactions, dialogue)? Is it both? What will be different after the scene? To write a good sex scene, you need to know yourself why you’re including it, what you’re trying to show, and why you’re including it now at this point in the story. It’s writing 101, but it’s important, and it’ll make your writing much more interesting and smoother. 

If you’re just including a sex scene because you think it’s expected or you don’t know what else to do, it’ll probably show in the finished work.

2. Write as much, or as little as you want.

This applies two ways: a) how many sex scenes you write and b) how explicit you make them. Write what you wanna write, and don’t feel like just because you wrote a super explicit sex scene last chapter, you need to write a sex scene this chapter or be that explicit again. It’s all about variety as a reader and a writer, and mixing it up often works surprisingly well, especially in long-form fics.

3. You don’t have to write everything from start to finish.

You don’t have to write the entire sex scene from start to finish if you don’t want to! You can ‘fade in’ halfway through to show the ending, or fade in halfway out and just show the beginning. Sometimes you just wanna show a certain moment because it has a specific emotional beat you wanna hit, and the rest of it isn’t that special. Once I realised you could do this, it took so much pressure off me as a writer and stopped me feeling that I had to write sex ‘just for the sake of’ writing sex. Also, this way readers get to imagine the rest of it exactly how they want to.

4. Sex isn’t tit for tat.

Sometimes sex scenes can feel a bit formulaic, because the writer wants to show that each partner is equally into it, and they’re not sure how to do it, so they feel pressured to a) make sure they both come an equal number of times or b) they both do the same things to each other. So - petting/petting, handjob/handjob, oral/oral, then sex. And yeah, naturally, if that’s what your characters actually want to do and you want to write, fine. That will come across perfectly. But if you’re just writing it because you feel like you have to get everything in there, and it’s somehow unfair for one person to get oral and not the other, then you’re bored and disengaged and the readers can tell. 

This reminds me a lot of porn, where a lot of videos hit exactly the same beats and show the performers doing every act. Porn films don’t do this because it’s sexier - they do it because it’s value for money, and they’ll increase their revenue/viewership by having something for everybody. It also, to be blunt, makes it easier for people to get off to it because they can time their actions to what they already know is gonna happen.

5. Once people have sex, it doesn’t mean that they *have* to have sex.

I feel like I see this so much in long-form fics, especially slow burn fics or ones with lots of UST. Two people meet each other, there’s thousands of words of pining and meaningful looks...they start off slow with just a couple of kisses...then there’s some heavy petting or oral or hand-jobs...then they have full penetrative sex...then suddenly it’s just all full penetrative sex, all the time. Even if they do continue to do other acts, it tends to be ‘foreplay’ and just one of the ‘steps’ towards penetrative sex. And suddenly, I’m bored.

In my experience, this isn’t the way that sex or relationships work. People seek sexual contact for all kinds of reasons, and sex doesn’t look the same every time. Maybe you just wanna sleepily snuggle and rub together, and make out a bit. Maybe you wanna give someone a quick blow-job and you’re fine until later. Maybe you’re drunk as fuck and you know you can’t get it up, but hell yeah, let your partner get their toys out and go to town and you’ll just enjoy the view. As a reader, mixing it up with different types of physical and sexual contact is far more interesting to read, not just because it’s more variety, because it speaks to the different moods and emotional states of your characters over the length of the story. Tension doesn’t just go away because someone penetrated someone else, or at least it shouldn’t. And as a writer, once again, it’s more fun to write a variety of different scenes!

6. Everyone doesn’t have to come every time.

As I said before, people have sex all the time for lots of different reasons. Sometimes (often) it’s not about the orgasm. Sometimes it’s about seeking comfort or emotional intimacy, or because it’s an exciting and dangerous situation, or just to show appreciation or love. Sometimes (often) one partner won’t come. And that’s okay! And that doesn’t mean the sex was bad! If both parties got what they wanted from it, then it was good sex. 

Also - orgasm denial (self denial, or denial from others) can be very sexy. The tension itself can be pleasurable.

People’s opinions will vary on this. For some people, they read smut for the fantasy and want the sex to be a bit more ‘perfect’ and aren’t so bothered about being able to see themselves in the characters. For others, they want/crave realism and for things to be a little bit more messy. Both ways are fine, I guess I just verge towards the realism a bit more.

7. Find the little ways to show emotion.

It’s not always about big declarations of love, or massive internal monologues about how this is the best sex ever and everything previously has been shit by comparison. Sometimes, the best way to demonstrate how characters feel about each other is the tiny gestures or actions. Like, a character adjusting their stance so that the other person is more comfortable. Someone brushing their hand over the other person’s hip. A character checking in mid-scene to make sure that the other person is still into it if it’s getting kinky - maybe not even verbally, but glancing at their face to check their expression and their body language. Your readers notice what your characters notice, so get them to note the little things and it’ll be far more effective than shouting ‘I love you!’ at climax. 

As I said, I’m just a beginner so if anyone else has any tips or lessons on writing smut, I’d love to hear them!

[doitwritenow]

I'd ask all 35 of the ask game, but I feel that might be a little too much. Instead, I'll choose: 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 23, 29, 31, 33, and... oh that's way too many. Uhhh, feel free to not answer some if you feel overwhelmed. If not, go ham! I'd love to read more about your writing/writing process. :)

Oh WOW thank you! These are so fun. Hm...

2. Why do you write fanfiction?  Recently answered this one! Here’s what I said: I write fic because of the spaces between the lines of a story. The gaps and unanswered questions in canon encourage me to come up with deeper mechanics, more complicated lore, and complex character motivations in order to explain. Sometimes, one of those pieces will click into canon so well that it becomes inspiration. And then there’s nothing else to do but write! Lol. Stories are so wonderful because of what we can do with them, individually and all together, and I really like being a part of that. 

5. What’s the fic you’re most proud of? While EoI is kind of my magnum opus, I really really adore Sunrise Loves To Go Down. Something came together in that fic, some tone and some thread of style, and I am immensely proud of how it turned out. I started writing it when I had been evacuated from my house due to a wildfire, lying on a hotel bed and typing on my phone in the middle of the night, and so it felt different to write than my other works. Maybe that’s why it feels different to read, too.

6. What element of writing do you find comes easily? Easily? I have to say dialogue. It’s often my favorite part of any scene, and I love the way it determines tone and establishes character. Though it’s not my absolute favorite part of writing, I dance through dialogue scenes feeling like I’m on a caffeine high. Of course, lots of times getting dialogue right is a lot of work, but there’s an ease to it that some things don’t have. 

7. What element of writing do you struggle with most? Hnnnngk the answer is pacing. It’s pacing. I struggle to pace things. I do enjoy long projects and feel proud of my ability to commit to them, don’t get me wrong. But I’d love to get better at structuring a plot to allow for the same tone without needing an overly generous amount of words. My go-to answer with pacing is always ‘write more’, but I don’t think that’s always strictly necessary. I want to be able to use the other tools in my arsenal to tell a story that’s just as complete but even more gripping.  Me: *challenges pacing to a death battle* Me: *dies*

12. Tell us about a WIP you’re excited about. Okay so a friend and I were laughing about how funny it could be to write about what happens to Odin after Loki sticks him in a retirement home on Earth. The Mystic Artists would obviously know he was there, what with all that cosmic threat sensing bullshit, and things would devolve from there. Like, can you imagine? The Adventures of Odin Allfather and the Home for Elderly People. Series of one-shots. Each titled something like: Odin vs. Thursday Bingo. Odin vs. His Roomate. Odin vs. the Grumpy Wizard. Odin vs. the Craft Store. And slowly other characters start to show up. Ned’s grandma is in the same nursing home, and he and Odin hit it off, so obviously Ned introduces him to Peter. Stephen comes to check up on him occasionally and Odin stages the most dramatic escape attempts of all time with no real intention of going anywhere. Now I dislike Odin in canon but how comical could that be I’m serious--

23. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas? I like prompts and challenges, but generally I work best with completely independent ideas. I can’t force my one-shot muse, so whenever it strikes I buckle down and write there and then. So yeah, prompts and challenges are really fun, but the inspiration has its own plans for my hapless self.

29. Have you ever gone outside of your comfort zone for a fic? How did it turn out? Comfort zone? What comfort zone? Lol. I suppose I do have bounds of what I’m willing to write and share, but they’re not particularly limiting. Each story I write extends the limits of what I’m used to; I try not to hesitate. And most of the time, I like where things end up! 

31. Do you have any OCs? Tell us about them! OCS YES I DO HAVE OCS THANKS FOR ASKING. Most of my Marvel OCs show up in EoI or were created specifically for it. But I have some other lovelies floating around, my three favorites being: - Silas Ewyn, a necromancer detective. He’s basically a vigilante archeologist, using his abilities to interact with bones to solve the mysteries of foul play victims. Silas doesn't care about politics or reasons; all he cares about is facts and bringing voices back to the dead. In the lawless Roughs (yeah, he’s a cowboy, fight me) he takes that justice back into his own hands. Though he doesn't kill, he'll go to great lengths to punish perpetrators, and he always takes a bone of the murder to bury with the bones of the victim to ensure the victim gets their justice in the afterlife, too. Which bone depends on the severity of the murder. During one of Silas’s investigations, however, he was murdered himself. Oops. But he woke up three days later with his soul rattling around in an entirely different body with no memory of the event. The only way for him to discover the truth is if he finds his old bones and solves a whole new murder... His own.  Anyway I love him and I could talk forever about the truth behind his murder and all the details of the Roughs and everything but we’ve got a limited amount of time and I still have to tell you about: - Sohcahtoa and Pemdas! If their names look like math acronyms, that’s because they are. Sohcahtoa and Pemdas are kind of children’s comic book characters in my mind? Sohcahtoa is a superhero; she travels through the Sciverse bringing people together and solving scientific and mathematical problems between others who are concepts come to life. With her meter-stick sword and her protractor throwing star, she’s a force to be reconed with!  Pemdas is her trusty sidekick. He’s a cuttlefish with immense knowledge of operations and formulas, and Sohcahtoa keeps him in a cube on her belt. Pemdas checks her math and gives her any theorems or formulas she might need.  Lol I’m a nerd next question.

33. Is there anything you wish your audience knew about your writing or writing process? Just want to say: I’m not some sort of warlock, I promise! The reason I can post so consistently for EoI is not always because I write consistently; it’s because I have a cushion of chapters between what I’m writing and what I’m posting. Sometimes I’m completely barren of words and I can’t write for days on end, and sometimes I just fly through things in hours. But all that inconsistency balances itself out in the end and keeps the chapter cushion intact, so my readers get to see only me looking like I have everything under control. I’m just as chaotic as you, I promise.  (Prophets is not like this with the chapter cushion. I am a bad girl when it comes to Prophets. XD instant gratification is my arch nemesis.) 

Anyway! This was super fun Ish. Thanks for the ask!