#do i tag this as meta or fic...i guess both

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

So we know that Wei Wuxian's treatment after his death was horrible. Even if nothing could impact him directly, there was still neverending slander, hatred, misinformation, theft...

But, for a while after he died, the sects did try to impact him directly – namely, frequently trying to resummon his soul. And today I'll explore the possible reasons for this, their likelihoods, and why I'm so, so thankful that Wei Wuxian's soul managed to resist the summons. Because, spoiler alert (or, you know. maybe not)... none of them are good.

(Long meta ahead)

In my opinion, there are four likely motivations for this: confinement, coercion, torment, and potentially destruction.

Out of all of these, confinement is probably the most likely motivation, at least for most sects (Jins and Jiangs excluded, though it was likely what the Jin sect said their motivations were – but I'll get to them later). This one is the most simple – we know spirit-trapping pouches exist, and we know the sects also placed 120 stone beasts on the Burial Mounds to prevent Wei Wuxian's soul from escaping. Therefore, this seems to be the most likely motivation – and fortunately for Wei Wuxian, probably also the best case scenario, though it still certainly isn't a good one.

For the second, coercion – this is where the Jin sect come in (more specifically Jin Guangshan with the help of Jin Guangyao). Due to their wealth and resources, they're likely the sect who played the largest role in the soul-summoning rituals. We know what they're willing to do to try to gain power – keeping Wen Ning under the pretence he was burned to death and trying to control him with the nails, and working with and helping Xue Yang torture people to help him refine his demonic cultivation, in order to have the Yin hufu fixed. Along with working with many other cultivators, alongside Xue Yang – Jin Guangshan really, really wanted that seal.

And so, Jin GuangShan sought after all those who imitated Wei WuXian in cultivating the ghostly path and gathered them under his rule. He spent a great amount of money and resources and these people, ordering them to study and analyze the structure of the Tiger Seal in secrecy so that they could replicate and restore it. - Villainous Friends extra, EXR

(Note that working with these cultivators very likely happened after Wei Wuxian's soul had failed to be summoned, since this happens some time after Wei Wuxian's death, whereas the soul-summoning ceromonies presumably started happening very close to it.)

In the previous paragraph, he's also quoted as having 'lusted after' the Yin hufu, which we already knew but it's nice to have a direct quote as evidence.

Now, would Wei WuXian willingly work with the Jin sect in doing this? No. We know that, and, given Wei Wuxian's actions in his first life (refusing to hand over the Tally, not being afraid to stand up to the sects, etc), I’m pretty sure Jin Guangshan knows that, too:

He beat around the bush a couple of times, using all his skills, yet Wei WuXian didn’t give in no matter what, and it made him run into a bunch of obstacles. - Villainous Friends extra, EXR

So this could actually make things go two ways. One, I'm wrong and that wasn't actually part of the Jin sect's motivations, since they know they wouldn't be able to control him (and in that case, had they managed to summon him, I could imagine them putting him in a spirit-trapping pouch and doing something similar to what Jin Guangyao did to Nie Mingjue's head. Which, also, not good). Two, it was a part of their motivations, and they hoped to find a way around that. After all, there are other guidao users out there now, and Wei Wuxian would now be a gui*. Also, cultivators can obviously harm ghosts – see the very existence of Night Hunts, and I'd include Xue Yang's talisman-caused destruction of A-Qing as well (while he isn't a traditional cultivator, talismans can be used by everyone).

Now, would either of these methods actually work? I'm inclined to think not really (and I expand on the former method in a note below). Would that stop Jin Guangshan/Jin Guangyao/the cultivators they employ from trying? Especially considering Jin Guangshan's lust for power?

I'm inclined to think no, too.

For the third, look no further than Jiang Cheng's reputation of capturing and torturing demonic cultivators after Wei Wuxian's death, due to thinking they could be him. And this does happen – Jin Ling knows and talks about it, and there's not real motivation for him to negatively lie about someone he loves. Also, when they come across each other at Dafan Mountain, we're told this in Jiang Cheng's inner voice:

A moment ago, Jiang Cheng was certain that this person was Wei WuXian, and all of the blood in his body started to boil. Yet, now, Zidian was clearly telling him that he wasn’t. Zidian definitely wouldn’t deceive him or make a mistake, so he quickly calmed himself and thought, this doesn’t mean anything. I should first find an excuse to take him back and use every possible method to get information out of him. It’s impossible for him to not confess anything or give himself away. I’ve done things like this in the past anyways. - MDZS Chapter 10, EXR translation

This mainly shows that he's tortured people before, rather than that he's tortured people because he thinks they're Wei Wuxian, but this reason is confirmed by Jin Ling in Chapter 24. Of course, the reason is also mentioned in this chapter, and there are other moments in the chapter that illustrate my point better**, but they come from second-hand sources which I know are easier to deny. Do take note of Jiang Cheng's expression both times he comes across 'Mo Xuanyu' (after he suspects he's Wei Wuxian) in Book One***, though:

After a moment, the corners of Jiang Cheng’s lips pulled into a twisted smile. His left hand started to unconsciously stroke the ring [Zidian] again. He spoke softly, “… Well, well. So you’re back?” - Chapter 10, EXR Although his face had always been clouded, marked with arrogance and satire, it seemed as if every corner of it had come alive. It was difficult to determine whether it was vengeful wrath, fathomless hatred, or raving ecstasy. - Chapter 23, EXR

This does seem to line up with what people say his attitude to Wei Wuxian is – there doesn't seem to be any happiness at seeing him again at all. The only time a word that could suggest that ('ecstasy') is used, it's accompanied by 'raving', and considering the context and the other possibilities of his expression, it's... probably not due to happiness at being reunited.

So, considering 1) this, 2) his contribution to the Siege specifically intended to kill Wei Wuxian, and 3) that at the time of frequent soul-summoning Jiang Yanli's death would be even closer for him, I feel pretty confident in saying that yes, this is likely a motivation for the Jiang sect in trying to re-summon Wei Wuxian's soul after his death. And, as mentioned earlier, cultivators can harm ghosts (and we know Zidian is able to remove souls posessing a body from that body, and that Jiang Cheng used Zidian on 'Mo Xuanyu' in Chapter 10. If it wasn't able to restrain/harm ghosts, or other methods weren't able to, why would he risk Wei Wuxian's soul escaping?).

And finally, option four: destruction. We're heading into much more speculative territory here, so don't consider this on par with the first three. But consider this:

We know there are some spells, like Xue Yang's talisman used on A-Qing and the body-offering ritual, that can ruin the returning soul’s reincarnation cycle by destroying it. Therefore, soul destruction is possible.

The 'main'/supposed reason for summoning Wei Wuxian's soul back is to stop the "cultivation world, or even all of mortal land" from being "faced with the most insane damnation and revenge, sinking into nothing but chaos and despair" when Wei Wuxian inevitably returns. While, as mentioned above, I severely doubt this is the motivation for certain sects – and to me is likely a rumour which the Jins (again, especially Jin Guangsha) fanned the flames of to justify summoning Wei Wuxian back for their own purposes**** – there are other sects which would take it more seriously.

Although likely disrespectful, people already thought it served Wei Wuxian right to die without his body intact by the time of the second siege – something believed to negatively affect your reincarnation in your next life*****. This is only the logical next step, and I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people would believe that, again, it would serve Wei Wuxian right, or would at least lead to less harm of the world in the long run.

For these reasons, I could definitely see this as an option for some sects, especially the sects who consider themselves more 'righteous' (cough cough the Nies under Nie Mingjue cough cough). After all, evil is evil and good is good, and the evil deserve what's coming to them. And what better way to prevent that than from preventing his soul from returning at all? So for the Nie sect – and likely some of the smaller sects involved in the Siege, since among them, additudes probably vary – yes, I do think it could be a motivation.

I’m not as sure about the Lans being willing to go this far, and that’s largely for two reasons. One, Lan Wangji’s presence and his relationship to Lan Xichen, who does (not always, but he does) let this affect how he treats Wei Wuxian. An example of this is that, when Wei Wuxian's return is made public, Lan Xichen does let him hide and shelter at the Cloud Recesses instead of trying to pursue him, likely majorly due to Lan Wangji. I'd argue that the aftermath of the Nightless City also acts as an example of this, although it definitely isn't perfect. But though he, Lan Qiren and the 33 elders do come to find Lan Wangji and do not let him continue to shelter Wei Wuxian (after they see Lan Wangji's feelings), Lan Xichen doesn't use this opportunity to kill/capture Wei Wuxian, despite Lan Wangji being in a worse condition due to having fought 33 elders, Wei Wuxian being catatonic, and Lan Qiren likely supporting this outcome (especially considering he was the one who led the Lan sect in the Siege – chapter 68, Wei Wuxian's POV). And he did let Lan Wangji take Wei Wuxian back to the Burial Mounds after:

After he went out of his way to send you back to Burial Mound and returned in such low spirits to receive his punishment, how long he kneeled before the Wall of Rules! - Chapter 99, EXR

Again, this was right after the Nightless City massacre – there isn't any goodwill towards Wei Wuxian at this point in time.

Of course, the Lan sect did participate in the siege after Lan Xichen knew of Lan Wangji's feelings towards Wei Wuxian, which Lan Xichen was no doubt a part of (although Lan Qiren lead the Lan sect in the siege, Lan XIchen had to have at least known/given his support, if not participated.) And it should be considered that Lan Xichen letting Wei Wuxian shelter at the Cloud Recesses was after Wei Wuxian had been back for a while, and had not caused the downfall of the Cultivation World, like many suspected he would after his death. And of course, as stated previously, his handling of the aftermath of Nightless City wasn't perfect either (though please note that his main motive here was to protect Lan Wangji from being potentially executed, rather than anything about Wei Wuxian himself). So caring about Lan Wangji doesn't mean he won't harm Wei Wuxian. But I do think he could find bringing Wei Wuxian's soul back to completely destroy it a bit excessive. There is, though, the chance that the elders of the Lan Sect would react to this differently, and of course they would have a sway on both Lan Xichen and the Lan sect as well.

The second reason is smaller, but there seems to be more focus in the Lan sect than in others when it comes to letting ghosts rest peacefully/helping them move on. And that could definitely lead to more resistance to the idea of summoning a soul back to destroy it as well, which could especially impact the elders. So I'd assume that the Lan sect would be the most likely sect to summon Wei Wuxian's soul back just for confinement, or just for some way of making sure any resentment is disippated, his spirit moves on, and he can't cause more harm to the world (eg via Inquiry)******. Not that he would or does as a ghost or as a reborn person, but that's unfortunately not relevant to this.

But yes, as a motivation for the Nie Mingjue-led Nie sect? Absolutely.

So, these are the main motives I suspect to be behind the attempted summoning of Wei Wuxian's soul after his death (and if I've missed any, please let me know – I'd love to have a discussion). And, of course, none of them lead to anywhere good. Because of course it wasn’t enough to besiege Wei Wuxian, murder the 50 non-combatants he was responsible for (and throwing them into the blood pit as a mark of disrespect because why not?), and lead to his death via him getting torn apart. It wasn’t enough to steal all his inventions, and use them commonly while still slandering him with no reprieve – or to steal his notes and give them to people like Xue Yang to study (Villainous Friends, again) and to use for their own, extremely extremely harmful, purposes. Of course, the cultivation world has to try to harm Wei Wuxian after death as well ((:

We don't know whether Wei Wuxian rejecting the summoning ceremonies was conscious or unconscious, but if it was the former, these are very likely reasons he refused to return in this way. If it was unconscious – for example, maybe during the frequent soul-summons his soul was in a weakened state due to him dying from a backlash of resentful energy and getting torn apart, and it healed over time but not before the soul-summoning rituals stopped – well, I can only be thankful.

Finally, let me leave you on the thought that – although it may well have happened since we don't spend much time in the immediate aftermath of the Sunshot campaign – there isn't even any textual mention of this happening to Wen Ruohan. Who, while not being a guidao user, was still very dangerous, still an extremely powerful cultivator, and still had a lot of reason to feel resentment. So.

:')

Thank you for reading!

--

*Considering what we see of how Wei Wuxian's guidao functions – redirecting the ghosts'/corpses' resentment into doing something they'd want to do, eg attacking people, and directing it towards a target – I'm not sure using it to force a spirit to do something 1) extremely specific, and 2) explicitly against their will would actually work. Iirc the closest thing we get to this in text is Wei Wuxian using the corpses of Wens to attack other Wens in the Sunshot Campaign, but he's still just directing their resentment to a target of his choice, and fierce corpses do tend to be on the less concious side of things (hence why Wei Wuxian had to awaken Wen Ning's consciousness). Considering how Wen Ning attacks Wei Wuxian and the Burial Mound Wens before his consciousness had fully awoken, I... really don't think those fierce corpses were able to differentiate (or didn't care).

Meanwhile, ghosts seem to be a bit more in control of themselves – see A-Qing, and Wei Wuxian's own descriptions of his ghost self.

That, alongside ghost!Wei Wuxian being able to resist his soul-summoning and the fact that pretty much all of the new guidao users are a lot weaker than he was, does make me think that this this wouldn't work. I do wonder about Xue Yang, since his methods are pretty different as well, but he's more of a modao user than a guidao user (he controls living corpses rather than dead people) and I don't think you can insert physical nails into ghosts?? Though if he was specifically instructed to figure out some way to control ghost!Wei Wuxian (who's probably kept in a spirit-trapping pouch in this scenario), he might be able to do something at least. Though also he was also struggling to piece Xiao Xingchen's ghost soul back together, so he may struggle with those areas?

Well, whatever the potential outcome, I'm so so happy once again that Wei Wuxian's soul managed to resist the soul-summonings...

**Mainly this:

Everyone in the cultivation world knew that the young leader of the Jiang Clan watched out for Wei WuXian in an almost crazed manner. He would rather catch the wrong person than let go of any possibility, and took anyone who seemed like they held the soul of Wei WuXian away to the YunmengJiang Sect, inflicting severe torture on his victim. If he wanted to take someone back, the opposition would surely lose half of their life. - Chapter 10, EXR

But I have heard people say 'you can't prove that it's just more rumours' before, and I wanted my evidence to be as watertight as possible.

(And, off-topic... isn't it really sad how Jiang Cheng, in the present day, is described as young? Because, for a clan leader, he is. And another thing he is, is close in age to Wei Wuxian – who was killed 13 whole years prior :') )

***And do note that the only other time they run into each other before Wei Wuxian's identity is revealed to the world apart from this is their brief interaction at Jinlintai, where he can't just act however he wants. The next time they run into each other after it, Jiang Cheng is literally taking part in another siege against him, and still extremely hostile ("surrounded by hostile energy, face insidious, staring straight at him" – from EXR chapter 60). Then he loses his spiritual powers and can't do anything. By the time he regains his powers, Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji and the Wen remnants' corpses have saved everyone during the Second Siege, and though public opinion hasn't properly shifted quite yet, it will soon after Sisi and Bicao tell the story of Jin Guangyao, and voila, a new scapegoat (do note that he doesn't completely bar Wei Wuxian from entering Lotus Pier after the Second Siege, though). Plus, throughout it all, Lan Wangji is still constantly present, which makes it hard for Jiang Cheng to really do anything. And then he's finally faced with the Golden Core reveal, which does alter his motivations towards Wei Wuxian (obviously the resentment is still there – read chapter 102 – but it's also mixed with other complex emotions, and he seems to start being able to move away from that a little in Chapter 103). I still definitely wouldn't describe Jiang Cheng's attitude towards him as positive, but it isn't at the point it was at the start of the novel (eg Chapter 10).

But even if his attitude does change, or would for whatever other reason apart from the reveal, that still doesn't change an initial motivation so isn't relevant to this meta. We know his intentions at the start.

****It's also possible they may have originated it, but I think WWX's reputation was bad enough for it to form naturally. Though you can trace a major part of that back to them, too.

*****That belief isn't outright stated in MDZS, but the fact people are specifically talking about the status of WWX's body in the aftermath of his death suggests that this belief does have some grounding in the MDZS universe, at least? And we know MXTX has included it in TGCF (though that doesn't mean it's definitely in MDZS), so she has used it in her works. If this isn't the case in the MDZS universe I am sorry (although that could also mean there's less importance placed on not disturbing the reincarnation cycle in the world of MDZS...? Which would work towards my original argument) – I don't want to spread misinformation that something is definitely true, I just think there's evidence to suggest it is true, which isn't the same thing.

******Again, I think this would depend on who ends up having more influence over who in the Lan sect. After all, normal resentful spirits only do what they do because of their resentment in death, whereas Wei Wuxian is 'dangerous' because of who everyone thinks he was in life – so him being reborn naturally could also 'cause a lot of harm to the world' during the time period this version of him would live in, unlike the resentful ghosts they appease. This could definitely lead to many advocating for confinement, I think.

[starlightguh]

The Sharpest Tongue

Word count: 2,822

Summary: What if the stone Sylus won hadn't been the right one to send him and MC home to Linkon? As MC struggles to learn the local language, she finds herself the subject of the other warriors in the clan. Too bad it seems like Sylus has the sharper tongue amongst them all.

Tags: Cunnilingus, Grasslands AU, Jealous!Sylus

A/N: This is a bit shorter than I had planned, but I wanted to write something for the grasslands AU and saw someone mention we needed more jealousy grassland stories, so here you go! 100% transparency, I could not find anything on Talanian language, so I used Mongolian words, I'm not familiar with the language so if there are mistakes, I apologize!! I hope you enjoy nonetheless. Find this fic on Ao3 as well!

The Khan had given Sylus the bright red stone for his victory in the battle against the best warriors in the clan. My worries weren’t for nothing as there wasn’t any trace of meta flux emanating from it. No matter how hard either of us tried, we couldn’t resonate with it.

So we were stuck in the grasslands.

For someone who should have been happy due to our victory, both me and Sylus held somber faces around the celebratory fires and festivities. I could feel his red eyes staring at my downcast face as he reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear.

“We’ll just keep searching kitten…As long as we’re together we can keep looking for a way to return home.”

I inhaled deeply and nodded silently as I turned to look at him, his expression was really soft and full of apology. I wanted to go home badly. But…Sylus had a point, wallowing won’t do anything. We’ll just make a plan to find a way back to Linkon.

I steeled myself by fixing my slouched posture and closing my eyes to take deep breaths. After a few moments I opened my eyes and smiled at Sylus, “Well I guess now is the time to embrace the nomad lifestyle…Until we find our way back home that is.”

Sylus stands, my eyes lingering on his distracting buff physique as he holds out his hand.

“Let’s not weep and try to make the most of our time together, hm? Shavanika.”

His baritone voice stirs an excitement in my belly as I take his hand and he begins to twirl me to the rhythm of the festive music the villagers are playing by the campfire. I feel the beads in my hair slap my cheeks as I spin around the orange hues of the warm flames near me. For a brief while as me and Sylus danced around the flames, my anxieties had drifted away. I was grateful to have him by my side and ease my worries.

My bare feet feel unsteady as I haphazardly try to follow the rhythm of an unfamiliar tune, but the warm and strong arms of the silver-haired warrior in front of me hold me steady. I smile and laugh at Sylus’ serious expression as we dance and lose ourselves to a night full of joy.

—————————

After the festival, we packed up and moved to travel alongside the rest of the villagers. Me and Sylus agreed we would adapt to our surroundings of the people around us as we tried to find any clues about a way home.

I was not the fastest learner, but I did get a few things down, the women taught me duties I was expected to help with, from herding livestock, sewing, cooking, and laundry, I was slowly earning my place amongst the others. However, I was struggling with learning the language. I could pick up a few words here and there, but I couldn’t really understand or communicate as properly as I would like.

Then there was Sylus, he was a polyglot so picking up the language wasn’t difficult for him. He must have been fluent only after a solid two weeks of study. I was envious, but also grateful since I relied on his help a lot to learn and understand.

The warriors happily accepted Sylus, he easily fit in and would help them with hunts for resources as well as military strategies and ideas. The Khan favored him a lot and Tara told me whispers of them wanting to promote Sylus to a general title.

While we hadn’t been traveling with our clan for more than a month, we easily slipped into our roles quickly. And now it seems we quickly have found ourselves involved in more politics than we would like.

It was like any other day, I was riding my cream-colored stallion through the grassy fields trying to get the flock of sheep on the right path. I called out the different sounds and commands I was taught while keeping a stead-fast pace on horseback.

My hunter's instincts kicked in as I noticed one sheep was away from the herd, and upon further investigation, it was being hunted by a hungry coyote.

“Shit,” I hissed to myself and acted quickly as I grabbed a rope from my satchel. As the coyote pounced, I lassoed it and used my strength to pull him away from the sheep.

I was heaving and sweaty as I just lifted the clueless sheep back to the herd. As I was getting back on my horse, I heard some whistles call out to me. I glanced around and noticed a group of four warriors walking up and cooing at me.

I didn’t really recognize them, I only knew they were of the same clan since their chest guards had the same color ropes that Sylus wore. The men spoke to me in Talanian, but I could only pick out words like ‘strong’ and ‘brave.’

“I uh…am not familiar with the language yet, chlaarai .”

They seemed to just smile as one made a comment to the group in Talanian, they laughed and just waved goodbye toward me as they rode off.

I didn’t think much of this encounter until the next day.

We had set up camps deep in the Northern Grasslands, orange was taking over the skies as the dawn broke. I was hanging clothes I had just washed in the river on a clothesline outside one of the elder's yurts.

Behind me I heard the sharp tongue of Talanian, I glanced and noted those same big warriors from the other day were talking. I had paid them no mind as I did my duties.

Suddenly I heard the sharp thuds of angry footsteps behind me and a strong pair of arms wrapped themselves around my waist. I glanced up and saw a very pissed-off Sylus glaring off in the direction of the four other men.

He yelled at them in Talanian and growled when the other men responded in what I could only assume was a taunt. Sylus let go of my waist and marched up to one of the men and grabbed him by his leathers. People started to gather to watch the rowdy commotion.

I turned and saw Tarna and sighed in relief since she could explain what was going on, “Hey, Tarna….What exactly is happening?” I asked her urgently as it sounded like the men were raising their voices.

“Well…It seems the Khan’s second son Gansu said something about your er….” She paused and looked shy when translating what was said, “birthing hips, and how he wanted you as a wife to bear his children.”

I stood frozen as it all clicked into place. I looked over at Sylus who was still arguing with them, a scowl marred on his face.

“Sylus came in and said they shouldn’t speak about you that way that you were his beloved. Gansu told him that it didn’t matter to him unless you two were wedded or you were pregnant.”

“Seriously?!? If he’s the son of a Khan he can marry whoever he wants. Why would he want me?”

Tarna shook her head at me, “That’s why Sylus is arguing, he says that you are with him and will never have anyone else’s children.”

The arrogant Gansu held a smirk as he practically hissed at Sylus, a dark expression glazed over Sylus’ face. I’ve only ever caught glimpses of Sylus angry, but never this murderous.

“What did he say?” I asked Tarna, my voice full of worry. I could feel the icy chill of Sylus’ anger even from a distance.

“Gansu just said ‘well whoever takes it keeps it’ as a threat… I think you should go over and stop Sylus, if he gets in a fight with the Khan’s son they could severely punish him,” Tarna warned me.

I nodded and without a second thought, I ran up behind Sylus and gently placed my hand on his lower back. His tense body seemed to ease up a bit at my touch as I tried my hardest to speak in Talanian.

“ Amarkhan bai….S-Shavanika …” Fight not, beloved . These were the only words I could best make out with my limited knowledge.

Silently he grabbed my hand and glared down Gansu as he turned to walk away with me. I felt his grip on my hand tighten as Gansu and his men still taunted behind us. We began walking off towards our yurt and it wasn’t until we were a safe distance away I had to whimper to Sylus.

“Your grip is too tight it hurts,” I cried.

He seemed to snap out of his trance and he softened his grip and rubbed his large thumb soothingly across my hand, “Sorry sweetie… I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

“I don’t exactly know what was said, but Tarna translated some of what you guys were saying. I didn’t realize the Khan’s son and his friends saw me herding sheep yesterday.”

“The Talanian language is very harsh, most of the words are very direct. The disgusting words from the Khan’s second son really got under my skin is all… Why didn’t you tell me you ran into him yesterday?”

“I didn’t think it was important… Also, I hardly saw you yesterday,” I sigh, “You came back to our tent pretty late… Are you sure you weren’t up practicing Talanian with the other village girls?” I hiss a bit. While the Khan’s son may be chasing my skirts, I can’t ignore the fact that all the girls of the village have been trying their hardest to catch Sylus’ eye.

Sylus stopped in his tracks and growled he turned to me and looked down with a sharp gaze, “How many times do I need to express to you I’m not interested in the other village girls?”

I match his glare and put my hands on my hips, “And how many times do I have to tell you I can handle myself, the Khan’s son doesn’t scare me. I’ll just refuse him.”

Sylus tsked his lips and leaned down to lift me up on his shoulder.

“Hey! Put me down!”

“No. It seems like I need to practice Talanian with the only village girl who matters to me,” he says sharply. He gives my butt a playful smack as I’m hoisted over his shoulder, my face in the direction of his backside.

I smack his butt back and he just chuckles, “You’re not getting out of this one Shavanika, so simmer down kitten.”

When he strutted into our tiny little yurt and set me down, his red eyes shined with a mixture of excitement and mischief. His hand remained on my waist as he spoke in a low and seductive tone.

My back arched at the feeling of his hands trailing down my waist and gathering my skirts up in his large rough palms. He set his other palm in the dip on my hip as he stared at me with almost an appraising look in his eye. “Let’s start with the lesson…What did that man call these?”

His left dominant hand was under my skirt caressing my thigh, I let out a shaky breath as I closed my eyes and tried to remember the foreign words spoken earlier.

“T-Toro? Kha-?” I sputtered out as his palm found its way to one of my bare-asscheeks. He squeezed it and tsked his lips as he brought his face closer to mine and he spoke lowly.

“Torkah Khongo,” the purr in his voice did nothing but further my arousal. I was being engulfed by the dominant energy Sylus was putting out. It didn’t take very much for me to become putty in his strong hands.

His other hand reached under my skirt as well and without further notice, the lengthy skirt that usually met my ankles were now scrunched up at my waist. Underwear wasn’t a common thing within the tribe, so I had been forced to forgo that luxury and be commando under my lengthy traditional clothing. I think for a situation such as a lustful Sylus, it was beneficial to be as naked as possible.

“Do you know what the translation is?” He quirked a brow.

“B-Birthing Hips?”

“Mhmm,” there was a slight growl to his response, “he said that you had the birthing hips to bear him many sons.” Sylus gripped my hips in a tightening grip. “Too bad for him these hips are miniikh.”

Sylus dropped to his knees in a squat as his mouth bit a part of my inner thigh, his hands rubbing the bare skin before him. “Do you know the translation?”

His mouth placed hot and wet kisses in my inner thigh, teasing me by being so close to where I actually wanted his mouth. I gasped out an answer as he was torturing me with kisses, “M-Mine?”

“Good girl, seems like you do know more than I thought,” he whispers breathlessly, “Let me reward you.”

He then licked my dripping slit, I let out a whimper in surprise.

“Tell me, who do these hips belong to?” He asked as he pulled away from licking my heat.

“Y-You.”

He smacked my thigh at my answer, “Ah-Ah-Ah, in Talanian sweetie.”

“ Ta,” I moaned out as he suckled on my sensitive pearl.

With a pop of his lips, he pulled away and smirked, “Hmm that’s a good answer, but I have a better one. Repeat after me: Nökhör .”

The pronunciation of the word feels strange as I try my best to repeat it, “noct-core?”

Sylus just shakes his head and repeats it slower for me, when I finally pronounce it right he rewards me by entering one of his fingers into my dripping center.

“Keep saying it sweetie, practice makes perfect,” he chuckles and his mouth finds my center again as he slowly devours me.

With his finger slowly pumping me and his greedy tongue flickering on my sensitive folds, my voice is nothing but a loud and needy whine of this new word he’s taught me and I haven’t a clue what it means. All I know is Sylus likes it as he happily groans into my dripping cunt.

“Louder. I want the whole tribe to hear you scream it, so everyone knows we belong to each other and no one else,” his lower face is dripping in my essence and his red eyes have a bit of a manic and desperate look as I look down on him.

“Sylus….” I lose my mind as he now has three fingers in me and the mouth of a sinner as he loudly slurps at my folds with his sharp tongue.

Ecstasy and euphoria wash over me as I come on his face with that new and unfamiliar word on my tongue. My knees shake and nearly give out, but Sylus stands and lifts me up so my legs are wrapped around his middle.

I lean my head forward as I pant into his ear, “What’s the translation of that word.”

He laughs as he rubs my back while I come down from my high, “Why, it’s my future title…It means ‘husband.’”

“Sylus! How bold of you to assume!”

He frowned at this and glared at me, “I'm not assuming anything, but unless you want to be the wife of the Khan’s son, then you must be mine…I can’t protect you from the leaders otherwise.”

I blush, “I-It’s just so embarrassing….I never thought about marriage.”

He smirks a bit, “Well I'm glad I can change your mind, at least while we’re here. Linkon has a very different culture from the grasslands, and we can talk about a proper marriage when we return home. Deal?”

“Fine but you’re not knocking me up while I'm here,” I huff at him as he lays me down on our pelts and strips off the rest of his clothes.

“I make no promises, but I’ll do my best. You’re just too tempting, Shavanika.”

“Only for you my Nökhör.”

That night Sylus made me scream so loud that the Khan’s son did nothing but glare daggers as Sylus confidently walked through the village the next day I, on the other hand, was forced to stay in bed due to my wobbly knees. When I finally returned to my duties after a day's rest, the other girls just giggled as they saw me.

Tarna translated a message for me that the elders are happy for whatever blessings me and Sylus marriage may bring, but to keep it to ourselves at night. I was horrified and embarrassed, while Sylus walked around as the proud warrior both in the grasslands and in the bedroom.

The strongest warrior and the sharpest tongue will always come out on top I suppose.

~fin~

Translation guide:

Shavanika - Beloved

Chlaarai - Sorry

Amarkhan bai - Fight not

Torkah Khongo - Birthing Hips

Miniikh - Mine

Ta - You

Nökhör - Husband

[femmesourdough]

You know, in a similar vein to what I said earlier, I was thinking...the Sandman fandom which I used to be more active in before I started to move on to vampires and also the Everything Horrible About the Author came out...it ironically makes an excellent case study for dismantling a lot of the really obvious excuses people come up with to argue that fandom sexism or racism totally isn't a thing anymore.

Because yeah the main character was male but this series? Chock full of women. Older women, younger women, women of all races who played various roles. You had your PICK and they weren't all written with the same level of depth but there were several characters with extremely interesting stories either present or implied in the past. Just in one family alone there was enough fuel for a thousand tragic fics and meta involving two of the lady characters who played a huge role in the plot (and Miranda may not have been onscreen long but cmon. The POTENTIAL.) And a lot of them weren't automatically attracted to the main guy, so they very much weren't reduced to love interests! It's everything fans claim they want...

And would you guess where all the attention both in terms of shipping but just *Any attention and time at all* for 98 percent of the (show) fandom went???

Oh you fucking know. Not to the male main character even, that's to be expected, but to a guy* who appeared in half of ONE episode, utterly disconnected from anything about the rest of the show minus his friendship with our main Sadboy.

Like it's actually kind of one another level, how hard all the women who played huge roles in this story were ignored, not just in fucking *shipping* because that doesn't rule everything, but in metas, in any posts at all. The entire fandom became basically the Dream-and-Hob, especially Hob fandom, more than anything else. And, it got to a level that meant it was literally impossible to avoid. Even if you didn't go into the main tags (which were all completely overrun EVEN OTHER CHARACTERS' TAGS. LIKE LUCIENNE AND ROSE which. Felt particularly galling) if you followed any fellow Sandman fans eventually your dash would be full of it. Unless you followed only the like. 10/15 people it seemed who actively didn't like this ship or Hob which. Is what I ended up doing. I had to blacklist so many tags, never go into the main fandom tags, and only follow a few people before I wasn't getting bombarded by nonstop posting about a character who appeared again, for maybe 20-25 minutes tops in ONE episode of a multi-episode series.

Meanwhile, the women who were in the rest, who made up the MAIN PLOT of the show? Most of the fandom had them as side characters for this pair or to be adopted by this pair. If they were lucky. They'd get passing mentions sometimes. Star in a few meme text posts. That was all.

You honestly can't make any of the usual excuses "female characters/nonwhite characters are just more poorly written" here because even disregarding the fact that poor writing literally NEVER stops fans from fleshing out some dude's backstory...well, that's just transparently not true in this show. Rose, Unity, Lucienne, Calliope??? Johanna Constantine Look me in the face and tell me all of them, every single one, was more poorly written than the male ones????

Nobody even pretended that this time, actually, as I recall. They just. Kind of carried on doing what they were doing.

*(OH and this guy literally participated in the slave trade in canon. No, I'm not letting that go. Most of the fandom did. They literally acted as if that never happened to the point I started to feel like I had imagined it. Like was that just in the comics and I'd projected that onto show!Hob and they'd taken that part out and I'd forgotten??? I had to go back and rewatch just to check that no, I wasn't imagining it, because there wasn't even discourse about that, there was NOTHING. Just everyone stepping over all the mainly *black women* in the show to love on him and make him their - I mean, Morpheus' dream boyfriend. Fandoms truly have not changed have they.)

[al-the-remix]

New ask game! Please recommend at least three of your favorite BuckTommy fic authors, artists, meta writers, gif makers, or edit makers. Maybe sing their praises a bit if you'd like. And if you want to, send this to a few other people and spread the good vibes 🥰

@thatmexisaurusrex thanks for the ask!

BuckTommy Fan Work Recs

Fic Authors:

(obviously this isn't a comprehensive list, but a collection of fics I've read recently and really enjoyed)

all the vices i can't give up by @starryeyedjanai - this one is so fun and hot, I love sexting/identity porn fics so obviously I clicked right away. I also really enjoy this author's Buck pov; just funny, horny, zero impulse control Evan Buckly and his dick pics against the world.

one way trip to the sun by @newtkelly - this fic felt like a special treat crafted specifically for me. Zombies are my all time favourite movie monster and I'm a big George Romero junkie so finding a bucktommy/dawn of the dead mashup was like striking gold. I also just really loved this version of Tommy and also the narrative structure of the fic. Some really cool stuff done here.

You’ve Got Me Up in a Frenzy by @emphasisonthehomo - Trans!Tommy. Trans!Tommy with bottom surgery, how I love you so. This is so sweet and hot and nuanced and also fun. 10/10.

bright as the morning, soft as the rain. series by @milominderbindered - these were some of the first buck/tommy fics I read and I really loved this version of an alternate first meeting. Buck and Tommy's dynamic here is so cute and fun and flirty, I enjoyed reading Buck's slower realization here that, yes, this man in flirting with him, and oh boy is he into it. Also, there's just something about this version of tommy that really gets me, it's like I can see through the screen how much of an absolute catch he is.

1-800-DAYBREAK by @epiphainie - (ngl I love all your fics) but this one especially. I just really enjoyed seeing a younger Tommy and Buck here where their dynamic is flipped--Tommy being the one unsure of himself and Buck reassuring him that what he wants is okay-- it was also very hot and sweet. I'm a big sucker for phone sex operator fics, so this just reeled me right in instantly.

Goon by @alchemistc - I did not foresee my venture outside of hrpf to end up with me reading hrpf... This has everything I love about the genre and it's best tropes: hotel escapades, and locker room intimacy, and the hero worship to sexuality realization pipeline (...and Sidney Crosby haunting the narrative). Looking forward to seeing how it ends!

Paint Me in Neon and Make Me Glow by @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels - Fun, sexy, caring, D/s kink-discovery. I love how out of his mind horny Buck is for Tommy in this, and for being watched, and specifically getting watched WITH Tommy. I loved every section of this fic and how the author kept upping the stakes as they built towards the climax (ha) of the fic, which I wont spoil but you should definitely got find out for yourself.

take guesses on exits, one has to be right series by @queermccoy - The trucker!Tommy / lot lizard!Buck AU I didn't know I needed but am now eagerly awaiting the next instalment of. This was surprisingly cute and as well as scorchingly hot.

bottom tommy pleasures series by winterbucky (WinterLadyy) (if anyone knows their tumblr @ i'll tag them) - Just what it says on the tin! Bottom!Tommy I love you 😌

Artists:

@kinardsboy - Their art is always so fun and cute! I love all the buck/tommy memes they make.

@blue-arts-stuff - Their art is both sweet and also manages to hit me in the feels every time.

@lazybakerart - All of their art is beautiful, but I especially love what they've done for the @kinley-cafe!

(And of course Kinley Cafe itself for doing an amazing job spreading positivity and engagement within the fandom.)

Gif Makers/Editors:

@lengthofropes - their gifs are all so gorgeous, I don't understand how they manage half the stuff they do, but I love staring at it an inch away from my face like brightly coloured visual candy.

@sunglassesmish - my Tommy Kinard / LFJ gif dealer and has provided me with enough images of the man to construct a 3D model in my mind to rotate while painting.

@xofemeraldstars - I always look forward to their daily kinley posts! My obsession is being enabled and i'm okay with that.

[takaraphoenix]

How do you deal with writing rare pair for PJO and being obsessed with Teen Wolf who seemed to end long ago? When I love a popular franchise and my enemy is seeing the nonexistent or 4 ship tags for my ship and no fanart 🫠 coping to feed myself

Two very separate pairs of shoes. I'll start with PJO.

I joined that fandom in 2010 when it was still very small and, quite frankly, most ships were rarepair size, if they weren't The Main Canon Ship. I elbowed my way in there when Nico/Percy had like less than 50 fics spread over LiveJournal and FFNet, sunk my teeth in and made the content I wanted to see. When a fandom is still young, you have to do the work. You can't just say "Well, there's nothing here, guess I'll move on", because then there never will be.

I did my part, and so did many others, and now Nico/Percy is at close to 4k works on AO3.

And I think that attitude goes for every rarepair. If you just shrug and move on, it'll stay at Barely Any Fics. If you love a ship and want to see more of it, you have to make more of it. Best case scenario is a feedback loop; other people who were discouraged by how little content there is will be inspired or motivated by your work to also create something and so the circle grows and keeps growing.

That's how fandoms are born and how fandoms keep going.

Now to the second part of your ask: Teen Wolf.

The show might have ended close to a decade ago, but the fandom never did. Like in most old fandoms, the people know the mentality of keep going. I check my ship tags on AO3 multiple times a week and there is always new content in the more popular ones and even in the rare pair ones I usually find a new work once a month. There are beautifully talented and dedicated GIF makers on tumblr who still regularly create, plus blogs that will circle through the older sets so you can enjoy sets made 10 years ago.

Teen Wolf, despite the show having ended, is a thriving fandom. There is still art, GIF sets, fanfiction, meta posts being made, there are Discord servers dedicated to it that are very active and invite discussion.

So, both of these cases go to say: Fandom is what you make it. You have to be active, in whatever capacity suits you, and keep engaging with others. That way, fandom will stay alive and rarepairs will grow.

Someone has to be the first to create content for something and someone has to be the last. If you are bold enough to belong to the first category, try to make yourself the second category too, because if enough people share that mentality, well, maybe none of you have to be the last, becaus you'll keep the fandom alive and it'll draw new fans in and will keep thriving.

[wandixx]

Ghost of fries and hero of cookies final part

All work words count: 14 643 Words in this part: 244 Summary of whole work: Duke wasn't expecting to wake up from his quick rooftop nap to some meta kid with fries. He also wasn't expecting kid to stay Or Danny asked Dani to stay safe while she was in Gotham. Where would she be safer than under the wing of local hero? And he looked like he needed bad day combo anyway This part summary: What happened to Dani (author needs a certificate for being little shit) Beta read by @audhumla-sailor though English is second language for both of us, so proceed with this in mind. I also know all of the charaters through fics alone, so probably ooc. Stay catious if it's something you don't like

First part, Previous part

Dani packed her stuff as soon as she got back from patrol. While doing it, she called Tuck and Sam to coordinate travel plan with them and to make sure she heard where and when correctly. Danny’s birthday were coming, an alien’s autograph would be a good present. Unfortunately she wouldn’t have time to get any of his merch on her way so the sky map she printed in Gotham’s Public Library would have to make it. Because of Sam’s demand she stocked herself in protein bars, other high calorie snacks and tons of drinks. Guy at the register looked disturbed but correctly guessed it wasn’t his business. Thanks for physics meets magic mess that made her backpack lighter. It worked like thermos in a way, though she didn’t even try to understand it.

This flight was going to be challenge not only to her speed but also, mostly, her stamina.

Ancients let her survive.

*

Turns out, phones couldn’t survive falling from over a hundred feet at around 60 miles per hour. Well she had all important numbers (Jazz, Val, Tuck, Sam non- and yes-emergency Danny) on paper phased inside her hip. From Sam’s money she could buy one in Los Angeles and explain the change of number then. She would have to come up with an excuse though.

She wasn’t going to admit she got distracted and bumped into a bunch of pigeons, got startled and dropped her phone like a silly child.

********

I know I could and should post it with previous part but I wanted to build the tension.

Batfam: We will finally meet our almost niece! Dani: Oh, look, plot convienient reason to leave city fast! Dani was setting up most intense and insane work-out playlist known to mankind to get her through her journey when she bumped with these pigeons face first

Starting notes are longer than this part.

Shit, I really should put it with previous part but the tension and potential for drama aaaa I couldn't resist

and @audhumla-sailor is an enabler

Tag list: @pickleking8 @mynameisnotlaura

[matan4il]

911 ep 707 first watch reactions

Oh man, I'm actually not sure I have that much to say about this ep.

The entire plot with Mara and her brother Tyson was very sweet, very nice, and way too convenient. One day, shows are going to stop using the phrase, "There must be something you can do!" like it's some secret magic phrase, that makes this sentiment into a reality, AND turns the person addressed into someone willing to risk everything, in order to do that one thing they can do, which is usually something they're very much not supposed to... That said, Denny was sweet, Mara was lovely, her with Tyson was very endearing, and Henren continued to rule.

The storyline with Maddie was nicely handled, both her trauma, and the way Chim helped her use it to figure out the case and help save everyone from the stalker. My little Madney heart absolutely loved it. And Maddie's distress over a baby involved felt very real and understandable, when she's a mom herself now.

But then in a sense, it was clear this has no long term repercussions, other than bringing Brad into contact with Bobby. With his burn scars, and what we know about the fire that Bobby caused in the past, we can guess where this is headed. I trust that 911 will delve into this coming clash with the same humaneness with which it tackles most storylines.

But I'll be honest, I don't really like where Eddie's headed. I know Shannon scarred him deeply, but he was able to let go of her, and allow her to walk away from him twice while she was alive. It's weird if it's now being implied that the reason why he was never able to move on to another serious r/s is that he was stuck on her. The way she died was traumatic and painful, and it made sense that, even accepting that they as a couple were over, he had a hard time dealing with her death, but Eddie seemingly moved on in s4 at the latest. It feels a bit like they don't really know what to do with him, and how to move him on, so they keep going in circles with his character. Kinda like they were with Buck in s6. None of what we saw in that season helped Buck get to some major breakthroughs that we've seen in this one, so this current storyline with Eddie might end in the same way.

I'm not saying it doesn't have the potential to move him forward, and I'm sure it will be presented as if it has whether it actually does or doesn't (kinda like how 618 presented Buck and Natalia as a move forward, even though it very obviously was not), but right now, I'm not enjoying it. I also... even with this idea of having Eddie run into a Shannon look-a-like, I feel they could have gone in a lot of different ways, and the one where he goes on a date with her while having a serious gf he's essentially cheating on, it just doesn't feel great, or true to Eddie's values. Which can be the point, right? That sometimes we're so shaken up, we do stuff that's uncharacteristic. If that's where they'll take it, then it's working, 'coz right now, everything about this feels a little off. Let's hope they do something actually constructive with this, and give Eddie real progress (rather than just give Tim an opportunity to re-use an actress he already said he really likes).

Small mandatory Buddifer moment was really lovely, even if far from what my shipper heart would want. Then again, I honestly feel it's so funny that Buck is dating Tommy, while being married to Eddie, his actual baby daddy. If there aren't a lot of fics shipping all three men already, then IDK fandom.

Thank you for reading! If you’re looking for more, you can find my s7 reactions tag here, and more of my Buddie meta and content in my pinned post. xoxox

[three--rings]

20 Questions with a Fanfic Author

I was tagged by @chocolatepot

1. How many works on AO3?

107. Some are meta, some are short, but whatever.

2. Total AO3 Word Count?

875,842

3. Top 5 Fics by Kudos

my soul brought to life by you - My MDZS wangxian omegaverse. I don't even know why people like it so much. I mean it's fine but I think its popularity was mostly timing.

pulses that beat double - My Yuri on Ice Victorian AU. Probably my proudest fic since it's the one that is basically the most like a Real Novel.

Fair Play - A wangxian PWP oneshot, the number of kudos are DEFINITELY timing. This was in the height of Post CQL fandom and one of the rare bottom LWJ fics at the time. I don't even remember it.

Temptation's Mask - MDZS Wangxian long smutfic, a camboy AU. I really, really wish I had finished this. I still mean to go back and tack on something.

Beautiful and New - YOI, the second in my Strangers to Love series. That series is probably my favorite stuff I've written. What I think is "best." But yeah this is a high quality fic imo.

4. What fandoms do you write for?

Present tense? None. Been in a real slump for over a year. I commit fic randomly now. Most recently I've been working on adding to my Persona 5 series and I wrote an Arcane oneshot a few months ago.

The only stuff that's been making me want to write for a long while has been Persona 5 though.

5. Do you respond to comments?

I do when I first post a fic. But then I start slacking and eventually every comment I get makes me feel guilty for not writing/updating and I don't want to go look at my inbox so I ignore them until I update again, when I either delete or respond to the old ones if it hasn't been too long.

6. Angstiest Ending?

I don't generally write angst and it's even rarer to have an angsty ending. Probably my Doctor Who oneshot "my body is a cage" is probably the worst. And the first P5 fic I wrote (which is excellent IMO) ends badly cause canon.

7. Fic with the Happiest Ending?

Most of them, if they HAVE endings. Beautiful and New, Pulses that Beat Double, my soul brought to life by you are probably the most happily ever after.

8. Do you get hate?

No. Not for fic. For meta sometimes and for other shit more often.

9. Do you write smut?

That's most of what I write. I've always enjoyed writing smut more than plot and it's still easiest for me. I prefer E-rated fics because they give my brain happy chemicals and that's where the really deep character shit lives, IMO.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Never. I mostly don't read them either.

11. Ever had a fic stolen?

I guess from that whole OFMD racefaker guy. And yanno AI bros.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I've had several people ask, but I don't give permission unless they only post on AO3, and they usually want to put it on another site.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic?

No. I'm not collaborative at all with writing. I don't really like even working with beta readers. I hate my own writing enough when I've just done it, if someone criticizes it I might just implode and delete it.

14. All time favorite ship?

I have a list of Forever OTPs. The ones that never go away and always live in my head.

Duncan Macleod/Methos from Highlander

Phoenix Wright/Miles Edgeworth from Ace Attorney

Katsuki Yuuri/Viktor Nikiforov from Yuri on Ice

Wangxian from MDZS

Shuake from Persona 5

A lot of my forever OTPs are for fandoms I wasn't really IN ever. I have Thoughts about why that is, but that's another time.

15. WIPs you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Temptation's Mask, Pretty Follies, Emboîté

I have half a chapter of both the first ones written that was never posted. I really want to do something to resolve them both.

16. Writing strengths?

Smut. And strangely enough as a result action, even though I really don't like READING action or watching action unless it's really great martial arts or anime. So I think I'm pretty good at the...he walks across the floor, sits down, opens the drawer kinda stuff.

I can do heavy emotional conversations but casual bantery stuff is not my strength and takes a lot of work.

17. Writing Weaknesses?

MOST THINGS. Dialogue. Plot. Anything that isn't pure id of emotions or sex.

18. Thoughts on mixed language dialogue?

I don't really have any. I don't love untranslated bits of language from a pure "it breaks the flow cause now I have to copy and paste or whatever". But I definitely believe in using the right word for the thing like using the correct name for things/titles/forms of address instead of an English translation.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

So technically my first ever fanfiction was for the original novels of The Vampire Diaries when I was in middle school and it only existed on notebook paper and was shared between me and my friend. Then Sherlock Holmes (original) in high school, also unpublished online.

My first published to the internet fic was for the show Forever Knight. What a great fandom that was. Too bad that fic got me almost kicked off the fanfic listserv for being Too Adult for the Adult filter and the embarrassment made me ghost the fandom.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

So I think it had to be either Pulses that Beat Double or the Strangers to Love series, both YOI fics. They really were I guess first successes for me at doing harder things, and written when I was able to write a WHOLE LOT quickly.

I've also got some pretty banging oneshots in smaller fandoms though.

Some faves:

villains that live in my bed - my first P5 fic, the voices are EXCELLENT here and the vibes and everything. It's also SUPER HOT and kinky.

if you want a partner take my hand - Beyond Evil post-canon get together fic. I just like it a lot.

And I can't decide which of my Penumbra Podcast fics, I think at least three of them could go here.

As far as tagging, I don't really know who to even tag I'm so out of touch with who is writing anymore. If you want to do this, say I tagged you.

[delicateartisantrash]

Hello!

I've recently found your TF fics, and they are *mwah*

Absolutely gorgeous, love what you've done with the characterisation and the plot, especially when you say when a character *cough Megs cough* just... comes in. I'm just giggling, kicking my feet, twirling my hair.

I also have a question. Or two, if you don't mind my asking.

In the tags for Leaking Spark and Why the Caged Bird Sings, it's stated as a 'Soundwave/Reader'. Does this refer to Butterfly, or Lightshow?

I'm just a little confused on that part, as Butterfly is definitely on for Knockout, and as seen in the latest chapters of Why the Caged Bird Sings, Soundwave really misses Lightshow (breaks my heart every time we see Sounders in a wreck). BUT, in the tags for Leaking Spark, there's 'Eventual Soundwave x Reader'.

So, I'd like to know, what's your plan on that? Or is that a 'lil spoilery? Would you mind giving us a 'lil peak into your plans?

Thanks for reading my questions, hope you have a great day <3

yes hello i LOVE answering questions (even if it's sometimes "teehee spoilers but i can tell u dis instead ;D" is my only non-spoilery answer I can give) about my absolute obsessions. Eeeeeeee!

Easy one to answer, first:

In the tags for Leaking Spark and Why the Caged Bird Sings, it's stated as a 'Soundwave/Reader'. Does this refer to Butterfly, or Lightshow?

In LS and WTCBS, it refers to Butterfly.

If that ever changes, I'll update tags and/or update some kind of notice at the chapter in question so it's not unexpected.

I honestly haven't decided yet if we'll have Lightshow as a total other POV like Soundwave for example has been, or if Meta Readers will get to be a Reader POV for both Butterfly and Lightshow. Do you by chance have a preference? XD

I currently lean towards keeping the "Reader POV" restricted to one character per story series (Gladiators of Kaon is technicaly a prequel to Leaking Spark, but Leaking Spark isn't neccessarily the *only* possible timeline outcome for GOK's origins ;D no i'm not planning a multiverse with my own fics what who me never i'm not THAT insane ha ha ha, I mean....)

Other question time!

SO.

I hesitate to confirm *exactly* what the final relationships will look like any time someone asks, because... I don't actually know. There are *so* many moving parts and little details and honestly even a slight interaction can have lasting ripple effects that change the story farther down the line in ways I never could have predicted or expected until I get to that point.

Case in point: Leaking Spark actually exists (and GOK, too, but for slightly different reasons than LS) purely because Knockout was *supposed* to get to be the MC's bestie ride-or-die friend in Star of the Show.... and instead he ended up scaring the ever loving SHIT out of poor Clara and yeah That's Not Happening (at least not anytime soon lmfao).

But I wanted to write a friendly(ier) version of Knockout, so we got Leaking Spark with him being our teaser pony introduction who eventually leads us to Soundwave. (and that mech is a slow burn romance with cryo-frozen molassas)

So... Rather, I know what *qualities* certain relationships will absolutely have, as it keeps me grounded and centered in writing, but that doesn't necessarily mean that character won't *also* end up with someone else before then, or in addition to (poly romance is something I have given up trying not to let creep into my TF fics They Are Very Determined I Guess??? I HAVE NEVER HAD THIS ISSUE BEFORE I AM GENUINELY CONFUSED BUT I LIKE IT APPARENTLY SO????).

So, I'll tell you what I *do* know is for certain;

[mild spoilers below. Topic: relationship outcomes]

-Soundwave is going to end up in a lasting, meaningful, permanent (insofar as they decide it is :P) romantic relationship with Butterfly. He gets his squishy soft Sparked lover. He also gets a not-so-squishy but just-as-soft-Sparked Lightshow... either as a friend or as a romantic partner as well, I genuinely don't know how those two will reconnect but it's gonna be CUTE. AS. FUCK. -Knockout is going to marry/Conjux/get hitched with his gay bae Breakdown and I can pretend TFP never had budget cuts for voice actors and politics that inspired Breakdown's gruesome death and end in TFP it Never Happened Here Okay? (sobbing weeping crying i'm okay I swear). He'll remain friends with Butterfly, and his romantic fling with her is honestly going to be *so fucking good for him* as a learning experience. In short, we're his Practice Girlfriend so he finally fucking treats his husband right. Dammit KO u HAVE HIM RIGHT THERE REEEEE--

-Megatron is gonna end up with Lightshow. So hard. He never stopped agonizingly crushing on her that mech is in LOVE. Obssessive possibly unhealthy love. You know. In that way Megatron does with Literally Everything In His Life, taking things to The Extreme. Lightshow's gonna be good for him is all I'm gonna say there heehee

-Lightshow IS THE ONE I HONESTLY HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE WHAT SHE'LL DO REALLY SHE MIGHT BE SOME KINDA LOVE GODDESS OR SOMETHING IDK BUT I CAN EASILY IMAGINE HER IN A POLY RELATIONSHIP WITH LITERALLY ANYONE SHE LIKES AAAAAAH HELP????

Lightshow's unofficial job in the Decepticon Army: sex therapy

-Lightshow and Butterfly are going to get along very well and that's all I'll say about those two ;)

[chromatic-lamina]

2024 Writing Roundup

I think I deleted my round up on the AO3-looking template, so, at the nnntthhhh hour, using it in text form, tagged by @hyperions-light . Thank you very much! I'm taking this from AO3. I've had a few meta on tumblr, but not many. I've got five fics outstanding for 2024, that I guess we'll see in 2025. I also didn't do any secret santas this year (I told myself I was too busy). It was a bit strange! Anyway--

words posted: 28,656 on main, and 12,362 on anon

additional words written: not sure what this means. I didn't have too many meta, so I'd say about 500? Ooh, wait, unpublished zine pieces: about 8000.

fandoms: One Piece

highest kudos: It's been a quiet year (no Bioluminescent Hearts this year!) so Heart Pirates' Week at 47 kudos. 72 on anon, and cumulatively, Dark like the North Blue Sea (aka The Sea-Hill you Die On) drew in 336 kudos. valuta , which was published in late December 2023, 92 kudos.

highest hit one-shot: Decomposers, my fic for the LawZo zine, has 586 hits. Fic on anon, 5,500 hits (but it's not a one-shot!).

new things I tried: I did the Davy Back Fight <- fic here, written with 3 others, and the remix project <- fic here. I was happy to try both!

fic I spent the most time on: Probably Welding, which was written for the KidLaw zine, just because the timeline/schedule on preparation for that zine stretched across almost two years. Also, it had a higher word count, and I really wanted to do it right (as with most pieces!).

fic I spent the least time on: Probably Sunk Cost Fallacy, which is a Heart Pirates fic written for the Davy Back Fight. Mostly because it was written between four people, and we wanted to keep a fairly low word limit. The ficlets I wrote for the Heart Pirates' Week took longer, but not that long.

favourite thing I wrote: It's a draw between three: Welding (6,767 words), my KidLaw fic; Decomposers (3,006 words), my LawZo fic; and water fills the shape of the holder (2,125 words), Law reflection fic, remixing one of @purplehairedwonder's fic.

I also had fun with the Kaidou, Queen, King and Black Maria piece (Remedy for Errors) I wrote for @crowbarsolo in support of Palestine, and Widi's Waddle (about Penguin's penguin), written for the OP Friend-Shaped Zine.

favourite thing(s) I read: Aw, a ton of stuff. I always like @anarchycox's LawZoLaw (also a great SmoLaw, but I'm not sure if it was this year), and all of the stories for the LawZo and KidLaw zines. I especially liked @alpha-hydra's Liminal Space (KidLaw), beautiful story by @/gammacavy from 2022 (The Caravel who Dared the Tempest) about Going Merry, but I just read it this year, and anything @crowbarsolo wrote, but especially the Cavendish/Nico Robin piece The Special Guests. ALSO! must mention home (the gilded lily remix) by @gladdecease who wrote a beautiful story springboarding from an older story of mine (house / yorishiro). Also loved Only You And I Remain (KidLaw) by @betsib and Give it to me, show me what you're feeling (show me that you need me) (LawZo) by @/CursedHoneyB. Maybe just check out my bookmarks (watch out for the kink!). Have been reading the multi-chap Warsong about my favourite rarepair, MarcoLaw, but it might've just gone beyond my word count limit (it's about 100K beyond my limit. Haha). It is beautifully written, though.

Give @hyperions-light's The Road(trip) to Hell Is Paved with Questionable Decision Making a read! It's a lot of fun, but all of their work is good (paying back, but also true!) They write under @flyiing-giraffe

Two more!

I'm really enjoying the Going Merry: A Poor Substitute for Romance series by Springtime4Persephone. Focus is ZoSan, and I'm not a ZoSan shipper, but I enjoy it, and what I enjoy even more is the LawBin, and side servings of ZoLaw and LawSan. Very empathetic, fun and also a good serving of angst. Also, @/TerrifiedAristocat's Somebody Write Down the Recipe (LawSan, vampire and creatures of wonder in a modern day setting) is very good. Ongoing. Last two are E ratings.

Also, there are a dozen things I've read and loved and haven't mentioned here. I read a lot less this year though. All of the stuff for the Heart Pirates' Week was great, and I really enjoyed the beginning of ghosts speak in whispers and lies; can't know what's real 'til you're the one who's died (E rated, LawBin) by @nehswritesstuffs (Nehszriah) on AO3.

writing goals for 2025: None so far. Maybe return to my own work (rather than fanfic). BUT, who knows :D

new works: Again, nothing lined up at the moment. I do have a story in the gorgeous Pigment of Imagination (ophuezine). Pre-sales open now (closing soon). And four ficlets for the upcoming Fate and Fortune, one piece anthology digital zine. Stay-tuned for both! OH, also, I have a piece for the Baltigo Manifesto zine (about one piece revs). Due for publication in 2025.

tagging: only do it if you want to! (and I know there's not much time, and I know you might've already finished!). @purplehairedwonder , @ninhaoma-ya , @anarchycox , @kookoofufu (even if you don't play on tumblr anymore :D), @fowlfics @starlightbelle and anyone, anyone who'd like to play.

[c-sand]

getting to know your mutuals 💁🏽‍♀️

thank you to @stelly38 for tagging me 🥰 i am very slow 🧍🏽‍♀️

what is the origin of your blog title: my blog title is "that's a beautiful thing to do" and it comes from the line, "you waited for me...that's a beautiful thing to do." which is in a movie called "a crime" from 2006, starring norman reedus. my blog is whatever i'm obsessed with in the moment (obvi lolol) and for a long while there i was mostly a walking dead blog and me and all my friends on here were obsessed with watching norman's absolutely bonkers filmography. anyway his character is a man called vincent, who's wife is murdered by a taxi driver (??) (it's been awhile idklol) and his neighbor is in love with him. and she waits for him ect ect. apparently i made gifs of the scene. (and good god, look at those old gifs 💀💀)

why is this my blog title? i literally couldn't say. i liked the line and whenever i went to change it, it looked weird with it gone. it's the same thing as my icon. i can't change it from ariel, it looks wrong 😂

otp(s) + shipnames: good god, buckle up 😩 (all of my main ones are probably on my ship edit list in my navigation, so people can look there.) but, for a general breakdown, i guess i'll start with the ones people know this blog for best:

jon snow x sansa stark (jonsa): my great loves.

the best fic, the best vibes. the complimentary arcs. the longing gazes and heavy breathing in full view other people? when they absolutely shouldn't be longingly gazing and heavily breathing in full view of other people?? because, um, they think they're siblings?? like...these two gotta calm down, it's borderline indecent.

i've never in my life read more meta for a ship and most are just brilliant. the way that these two echo each other throughout the story (both show and book) is just stunning and, because we don't actually have them in the books, yet (george, george please) just the imagined potentials of how they might interact and grow together in the original format is just so fun. (well, tragic and trauma, but fun.)

there's more elegant and substance built things to say, but for this i'll just say: perfection. y'all know how i feel about jon and sansa.

daryl dixon x beth greene (bethyl): the foundation.

again, the walking dead was my first legit fandom hold, here on tumblr dot com. like, all of my followers came from this era lmaoo. when i say daryl and beth are the foundation, i mean, like, at one point there were six of us in this fandom. people probably existed outside of tumblr, but on this hellsite there started with six of us and i actively remember us choosing what name to go with for their ship name andfdklsgkdfljghfdk. (i did have a soft spot for deth 😂😂)

i've never been a member of team d. (but, hey, shoutout to team d! 👋🏽) but, i legitimately sobbed during her last episode. it was so out of nowhere and so poorly done and i was absolutely miserable lmaoo. and i still solidly believe that these two are soulmates and should have been the next couple on the show. and that bitch ass robert kirkman destroyed everything 😀

buffy summers x spike (spuffy): don't even get me started.

legitimately, do not get me started. these are a foundation of my soul, to be quite honest. like... i think almost my whole life? has been spent loving spike and buffy??

this dynamic is so wild and complex. buffy summers and spike, individually, are two of my favorite characters of all time. (actually all of these ships are top characters, for me, which probably shows why i've loved them for so long). i feel like spike and buffy is not a ship for the weak, like, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. there is a lot of rain. but the journey they go on from enemies, to reluctant allies, to friends, to enemies, to friends, to lovers, to enemies, to friends, to soulmates. it's a ride. it's a long ride.

and very few ships could go through this arc, especially the low points of their relationship, and come out on the other side still being evvvvvvvverything. and they are. everything.

klaus mikaelson and caroline forbes (klaroline): don't piss me off.

the vampire diaries (and the originals following right along behind it) piss me right off 😂😂😂😂

this is another perfect example of literal gold in the writers hands that was absolutely squandered. a girl who no one ever puts first and is desperate for a boy to see her and choose her -- to pick her first -- meets an over a thousand year vampire who sees her and instantly falls at her feet. gold. perfection. absolutely thrown to the side for (coughs) mediocre replacements. (i love stefan, but boy, get someone elSE!)

i'll never forget that forest scene. to both win and lose in one fell swoop 😩😩 insanity.

jess mariano and rory gilmore (literati): okay, now this? this c-sand origin story.

i could scream. i could cry. rory and jess are simultaneously the greatest thing in the world and the absolute worst. my greatest love and my greatest trauma 😭😭 they're another lifer ship, for me. but, they also suffer from one of my most hated writers paths: incredible build up and subsequent back burner.

watching the build up of their feelings for each other; from his introduction in season two, to early mid season three -- it's so well done. they're obsessed with each other!! i'm obsessed with them!!!! dean gets to suffer!!!! and then they finally get together (in an absolutely iconic episode) and the writers then regulate their entire relationship to primarily off screen interactions 🧍🏽‍♀️🧍🏽‍♀️ we are simply told they're really great together and spend all of their time together, being a good relationship. before it's decided that "actually, jess could probably lead a spin off show" and they tank the whole relationship by making him essentially stop talking to her. and they do it on screen.

when you tell us they're great for their whole relationship, but don't show us them actually dating, and then SHOW US it falling apart -- it gives the impression it was a terrible relationship the whole time and it waSN'T.

(and it's so sad, because it's her only relationship where they decide to not actually...show the....relationship, once they together. hate asp for that.)

frank castle and karen page (kastle): i swear to god, if these two don't ever get together, i'm gonna jump.

first off, i run the @kastlenetwork, so that should probably give you an idea and what's going down with me. so.

daredevil: born again is about to drop and if these two. don't. interact. i need more longing looks. i need matt to hear their hearts racing. i need frank castle to stop being a punk and pushing my girl away. i'll keep this short. love them. i run a network 😂😂😂

ross poldark and demelza poldark (romelza): welcome to the club!

a new addition to my addictions. shout out to this beautiful walking perfection, that is demelza poldark and her husband ross, who i often want to punch in the face, but still love despite that. god, he pisses me off, but, he always brings me back in. the power of a dumbo man, i guess 😩 i barreled through this entire show in an embarrassingly short time.

if only this man could realize he has literally ZERO chemistry with a woman named elizabeth, the ship would have a lot smoother of a sail.

aragorn x eowyn (arawyn): i'll fight someone, i do not care.

i do not care. love arwen. love faramir. lovely. love those relationships. swell. aragorn and eowyn? this is it. i live in a whole other world where this is what thrives and i can be happy 🥰

💗there's so many more, like sookie and eric, jackie and hyde, lucy and flynn, zuko and katara, declan o'hara and me. but, i am rambling oh my god.💗

favorite color: my favorite colors and green, pink, purple, and brown probably.

song stuck in your head: the other day, i remembered that i like mumford and sons.

and also:

weirdest habit/trait: ummm, this is the kind of question that i have no clue how to answer. i feel like nothing i do is weird, even if it is to other people. anything i do feels normal, to me idk.

hobbies: trying to read and not take eighty months to finish my book. fluffing around in photoshop making sets. watching movies/tv -- my sister bought me a projector screen for christmas, so i watch everything huge. trying and failing to paint nail art onto myself.

something you're good at: maybe baking. sort of painting, i guess. not talking to people. pretending to laugh when members at my job think they're being hilarious.

something you collect: good pens, physical media of movies and shows that i love. apparently game of thrones funko pops, as long as they're jon or sansa. one sided enemies and rivals.

something you forget: the sentence i was about to say. the thing i was about to google, two seconds prior. the one thing i reminded myself that i needed, at the grocery store.

what's your love language: i guess acts of service, idk 😂😂

favorite movie/show: legitimately impossible.

avatar the last airbender

gilmore girls

bleach

lord of the rings/the hobbit

poldark

buffy the vampire slayer

smallville

that 70's show

friday night lights

the walking dead (seasons 1-4)

greek

game of thrones

house

moulin rouge

on and on and on

favorite animal:

cats. house cats. big cats.

giraffes

monkeys

bears

what were you like as a child: probably more talkative, i'm sure.

favorite subjects in school: art and english.

least favorite subjects in school: all math classes.

best character trait: ummmmmmmmmmmmmm

worst character trait: probably my disinterest in other people's liveskjdhfjkaldhfkdshfkjh like, if my coworkers keep going on and on about the same things, every day, all day -- i just totally zone out. couldn't be bothered.

if you could change any detail of your life right now, what would it be?: the list is endless.

if you could travel in time, who would you like to meet?: the idea of having to expel energy for time travel, at this precise moment, makes me want to go to die.

(this is the part where i say i have no clue who to tag, umm @esther-dot @riahchan @carry-the-sky @onhersleeve @consultingviking idk, you can do it or not 😂💗)

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Found a funny post. A ZK shipper complained that ZKs are being attacked while there are some much more terrible ships in the fandom – zucest, or Zhao/Zuko, or Ozai/Hakoda, or Zhao/Azula, or Ozai/Kya, or Jee/Zuko, or Ozai/Azula… there were probably more.

I guess you see the pattern. These are small ships (apart of zucest, probably, it seems the most popular in the list). They are nor, like, everywhere. I’ve only ever seen Ozai/Kya mentioned in a ZK fic, lol. And only ever seen Zhao/Azula fanart among the works of a ZK artist.

They do not pretend to be more than they are or to be something entirely different. For example, Hakoda/Ozai content would be either a crack scenario just for fun’s sake or an honest “these two characters are canonically incompatible, there’s absolutely no way they’ll have a sappy happy ending or a healthy relationship at all, so prepare for some serious drama” or “don’t look for a reason here, I just like them because they’re hot” (which is sexualization I guess but at least both characters are adults and not, you know, 14-years-olds). No “fixing the canon” crap here.

They are honest about their problematics too. Ozai/Azula? “This is incest ship, so if it’s not your kink, just don’t read”. Zhao/Zuko? “Here’s some really creepy shit. Yes, it’s extremely unhealthy, that’s the whole point. You were warned. Check the tags again.”. And so on. Not like the fics where Katara falls in love with Zuko after he raped her, you know…

They don’t shit on other characters. I can’t remember Mai being demonized in zucest fics as much (if she ever was) as she is in ZK fics. I’ve actually seen a devoted zucest shipper (hello-nichya-here) who defends Mai and Maiko!

They are just chill, create and enjoy content. Sometimes it’s amazing. One Jee/Zuko fic I’ve read was much more sensual and erotic than all the ZK smut I’ve ever read, combined (and the character dynamics was way more convincing, too).

Their shippers do not make up crazy conspiracies about how they were “robbed”. They do not write a kilometer long metas about how their ship is the actual canon, inserting Watson and Doyle’s names in every paragraph and lying about almost every event from the show. They do not comment “my ship is better!” under fics or arts featuring one character from their ship paired with someone else. They do not force their ship down everyone’s throat. As far as I know they don’t send death threats to people who don’t like their ship. Really, such terrible ships, why people attack the ZKs instead…

They try to use these as exemples of "worse" fandoms because they all have an element people could have issues with - a canonically abusive character like Ozai, a large age gap between an adult and a minor, incest, a controversial/disliked character, etc.

But like you said, these fandoms all mind their business, and anyone who does the same doens't have an issue with them, if they might have an issue with the ships. Meanwhile, Zutarians are hated not because the ship is controversial, but because the SHIPPERS are pushy. It's just going "Don't pay attention to my bad behavior, hate on these guys for having controversial ships!"

Seems it's time for this again: Hello, Nichya here! Unfortunatelly it was not at all uncommon to find Mai-bashing in zucest fics back in the day (honestly, most of the zucest fics back in the day were fucking terrible with both Zuko and Azula being wildly out of character) and it still hasn't disappeared completely. Thankfully that bullshit seems to be on it's way out, and I don't think the fandom ever reached the point of sending hate to Mai/Maiko fans like zutarians did, even if they hated the character for the same stupid reason - aka for "getting in the way."

[brown-little-robin]

ROBIN ROBIN ROBIN

watched all of S1 and most of S2 of Mob Psycho 100 and I am losing my MINDDDDDDDD legitimately I see why u love it so much now. It’s so. It’s so compelling. In the best way. I love it so much. It’s making all the wheels in my brain go brrrrrrrrrrr.

Do u have any MP100 fic recs or fandom posts/blogs you rly enjoy? Or personal head anons or analyses about MP100 u wanna talk abt? I’m really enjoying the show and I hope to finish it next time I get access to Netflix/Crunchyroll but that’s weeks away lol.

YAYYYYYYYY RIGHT????? IT'S SO GOOD OUGH ok SO I'll keep my rambling about mp100 and headcanons and analyses to our dms, but I'll build you a big list of links to my absolute favorite mp100 analysis and fics and so on, and hopefully it's not too overwhelming!!

my tumblr analysis posts:

In-depth breakdown of the "I'm the worst" moment

The color red in the anime

if you want more analysis, my tag #mob meta will lead you to all the analysis posts about mp100 that I've made or (more often) reblogged! #Mob Art 🖤🤍🖤 is my mp100 art tag. beware major spoilers for the entire story in both of these tags, though!

amvs:

I don't know if you like amvs but the mp100 fandom has a million of them, testaments to how beautiful the animation is and how deeply the story emotionally resonates with people. my favorites are:

Children's Work, THE defining Mob and Ritsu brotherhood amv, I have watched it so many times and it always makes me emo

(S1 only) Try to Change, an amv about Mob and ???%, waugh

Jealousy Jealousy, a very short very catchy Ritsu edit that punches SO HARD for being only 29 seconds long

(SPOILERS FOR S2) Karma (are you angry about how Mob is treated? guess what! so is he!)

(SPOILERS FOR S3) Love Like You, an amv about how Mob impacts those around him and the theme of isolation vs connection in mp100

(SPOILERS FOR S3) all of the amvs by @exilepurify but especially the heartbreaking world-changing You're In Ruins. Blue, you specifically will probably enjoy the Ritsu-centric I Sit By You On The Curb, but warning for s3 spoilers!

this one's an animation, not an amv, and it's so silly and fun and I love it: Hello Hello Hello!

and finally, extremely silly Reigen edit :]

My absolute favorite fics:

(warning for zombie-typical gore) my friend @quirkle2's zombie au, a MP100 AU where zombie-hood is a reversible disease that gives you (among other things) intense brain fog rather than something that truly removes your humanity. makes me CRAZYYYYY

A Breach of Trust, a massive longfic AU where Mob gets kidnapped by Mogami at age 10 to be his living psychic power source. It's gritty, it's sweet, it changed my entire brain chemistry, it changed my relationship with food for the better. read this incredible fanart comic of A Breach of Trust too—it's what got me into ABoT, which finally got me to watch mp100 all the way through!

Temporary Accommodations, a 14-chapter alternate ending to the story written before the manga finished! Reigen is forced to play host to Mob's soul, and he's not meant to have psychic powers, so he starts breaking down. Really REALLY good Reigen characterization.

Won't Repeat, a post-canon oneshot where Ritsu accidentally hurts Mob with his powers and has to deal with the fallout. very sweet yet so so real

(SPOILERS FOR S2) The Real World, a short fic about the catharsis of Mob returning to the real world from Mogami's nightmare land

(SPOILERS FOR S2) Petal-Patterned Reunions, a short post-canon fic about an adult Mob running into Minori again!

(SPOILERS FOR S3) schrodinger, a fascinating little 2nd-person POV of Shou Suzuki dealing with issues about his father.

(SPOILERS FOR S3) Childlike Wonder, In The Palm of Our Hands, a 1-chapter post-canon fic about Shigeo and Ritsu collaborating to really, truly test the limits of his powers. so so precious to me

oh yeah (edit) also, I wrote a mp100 fic!! Mrs. Kageyama Reaches ???%, a fic that retells all of canon and a little beyond from Shigeo's mom's perspective, with a twist headcanon that she's more Like Shigeo than it may seem :)

[moistvonlipwig]

Fandom Wrap-Up 2024

Total words of fanfiction published: 25,807

Fandoms written for: Once Upon a Time, Supergirl, Teen Wolf

Events participated in: Scottuary 2024, OUAT Appreciation Week 2024

Fanfic I’m proudest of: This one has to go to my Supergirl fic "the most recent evidence seems to favor the sea gulls" (AO3 | SquidgeWorld), not just because it's long as hell and covers a ton of ground but also because I really challenged myself to do new things with it (choose-your-own-adventure format! POV of a character whose canon version I sometimes struggle to really grasp!) and I think the end result turned out really well. So that's definitely my magnum opus for the year.

Other fanworks I’m proudest of: I'm really proud of my BtVS meta "Eternity, Growing Up, and Why Buffy Keeps Dating Vampires"; I think it's one of my best analyses ever. I really love this Amphibia edit I made to Mary Ruefle's poem "The Tenor of Your Yes." I think this OUAT edit showing the main characters as animals is just plain cute, frankly. And I'm incredibly happy with my second ever fanvid, my Amphibia AMV “In the 99” (Tumblr | YouTube), which was more ambitious than my first fanvid and IMO has smoother editing.

Events I’m looking forward to next year: Scottuary 2025, High/Low Zine

Projects for next year: Aside from my projects for the aforementioned events, probably my biggest priority for next year is finishing my Steven Universe WIP "Hard But Brittle," which I started almost two years ago at this point. I also have a Buffyverse fic and a Teen Wolf fic that I've made good progress on that I hope to publish relatively early in the year. I also have yet to finish out my fics from the Year of the OTP 2023 event; I got one of them done this year, but I still have four left. I know the basic premises of all of them at this point, I just have to write them. And...I have a ton of other WIPs that may or may not see the light of day in 2025, I guess we'll have to see what happens. I'm also planning 2 AMVs that I'm hoping to put out next year -- one for Revolutionary Girl Utena and one for Adventure Time. I'm super excited about both of them, but it takes me a while to plan AMVs, so I'm not sure when they'll actually get published.

I’m no-pressure tagging:

@nocticola, @02511213942, @loisfreakinglane, @jioinfocommlimited, @sideguitars

@spikeface, @rhyslahey, @all-seeing-ifer, @coraniaid

...& anyone else who wants to do an end-of-year fandom retrospective, whether it’s about fic, art, gifs, vids, meta, or whatever other preferred medium you work in. Feel free to use whatever format you want, you don’t have to use mine. But tag me if you do it! :)

[biowaredisasterbisexual]

2024 Writing Roundup!

Wooooooo! Time for an annual review of how many brain worms and which varietals got me this year! Thanks @hyperions-light for the tag!

Words Posted: 10,000, give or take

Additional Words Written: 12,450-ish, not including anything on here, meta, or outlining. I’m so sorry, @vael-fire. Please still be friends with me. ❤️ (At least I’m less feral than when we met? Hopefully?)

Fandoms: Dragon Age: The Veilguard got me, team. Literally hauled me out of fandom retirement.

Highest Kudos: After the Battle, sitting at 103 at the moment takes this crown.

Highest Hit One-Shot: Don’t Talk About After. Which I guess makes sense, since it was written and posted first and before there was much in the Neve/Rook tags.

New Things I Tried: Writing fic again. Engaging with fandom again. Like, in a dedicated fashion, beyond occasionally randomly reblogging things I found amusing to my main. When I say I was in fandom retirement, I really didn’t do much in fandom spaces, other than a couple (non-DA) RPs for a really, really long time. Like a decade. I’m really glad to have reengaged. Everyone has been awesome.

Fic I Spent the Most Time On: The long fic I’m working on that may end me, because planning is hard. Otherwise, probably I’m Fine, of my posted stuff.

Fic I Spent the Least Time On: Don’t Talk About After, for sure. I finished the game, felt like I’d been hit by a train, and wrote it in one fell swoop.

Favorite Things I Wrote: I am very torn between Fifth Date and Tempting Fate. So….both? Both. Both is good.

Favorite Thing(s) I Read: I’ve read so many good things, it is genuinely impossible to pick one, or even several. I wouldn’t know where to even begin. I’ve been enthralled with the stuff you all post in response to @hyperions-light and @thedissonantverses various prompts and challenges. Best problem to have.

Outside of DATV, I’d have to go with: Love Song for the Admiral, which made me fall in love with a pairing I hadn’t even thought of in DAI. My original love, the X-Men fandom has The Early Years by Lelia Burke. For original fic, anything @hawthornetaylor puts out, but especially the Superpowered Love series. Can’t recommend any of them highly enough.

Writing Goals for 2025: Manage to write this long fic. It’s simmering in my brain, won’t leave me alone, and so even though I’m nervous (it’s been…a very long time since I attempted something that wasn’t a one-shot) I wanna do it.

New Works: I’ve got…six? One-shots fully drafted, and one more in process at the moment. All Neve/Rook. And then the longer one I’m outlining, same romance, same universe as the one-shots just…not a one-shot.

Tagging: Anyone who wants to, really! But also @mageofquandrix, @thedissonantverses, @taashyvashedan, and @ofcrowsanddragons

[lamialamia]

a, g, i, and o for hbo war ask game <3

a. make a moodboard/edit/headcanon for who you think is underrated for any of the shows.

Bill Leyden is so underrated! I love that little man who just don't know how to quit. My HC for him: Leyden loves melodrama, after he gets a tv, he would be an avid watcher of soap opera.

g. masters of the air and generation kill both seem to have more discourse surrounding them than the other two. which did you enjoy more, and why?

oh this is a hard question. Because I enjoy the writing of GK a lot, it's so fantastically written but i'm not very fannish about it (i do ship BradRay and read their fics, but overall probably not that fannish). On the other hand, MOTA frustrates me with a lot of its writing decisions (enough for me to write meta analyses for it), but I definitely I'm more fannish about that show.

In conclusion: MOTA wins 'being entertaining'. GK wins 'satisfying writing'. Which make them both enjoyable lmao

i. tag some of your closest mutuals and choose a show portrayal from any of the miniseries' that reminds you of them.

ashdsahkj

@blood-mocha-latte Ray, with a little Roe in the mix. fun-loving but also intense and dedicated ;)

@ewipandora is it weird I think you are quite Talbert? idk but i see it

@gorgeousundertow i know you think you are similar to Nix, but I actually give you the joy of reminding me Burgie haha, with some serious Lipton vibe uwu

@screwby straightforward and very awesome. Doc Bryant. No doubt about it.

@ep6bastogne Malarkey! but maybe more introverted haha

@the-cinnamontography-is-amazing my partner in crime and other stuff. keep fighting the good fight! and for that, I see ack-ack in you, especially with his speech about 'war worth fighting for' xD

@staud harry welsh. he's fun, you're fun. such a darling, the both of you :D

o. say something nice about a ship that you don't understand.

this is hard, mostly because ship I don't understand i would just don't remember. but i guess i don't really understand Speirs/Nixon? however, goddamn those two are hot together, like their genetics might make some crazy out-of-this-world beautiful kids.

Ask me anything from this cool thing