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chuuyagum · 3 years ago

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Here's a writing process question - you have been writing WGYTR with regular updates for like 3 months now and you said you had the overall plot planned out beforehand, so what I'm wondering is how long did it take to make the outline for the whole fic/basically how much prep work did you do before posting the first chapter. Did it take a long time to decide on everything that will happen? Not just WGYTR, the other fics too, and are there some fics that are easier to plan out and then some that are harder because the plot doesn't come as easily? Thank you so much for your wonderful fics and good luck with whatever personal things you have going on🤗💓

thanks so much for this question!! to be honest, i do very little prep before posting my first chapter! clearly this is all in relation to writing multi-chapter fics, as i haven't tried my hand at one shots lately. in that situation i think my process would be different, so keep that in mind!

i like to let my first chapter dictate the tone for the fic, so i tend to start writing it as if it's a one-shot then make sure i end it in a way that gives me room to keep writing. then my second chapter is where i do my real plotting and create my solid outline for the overall fic so the process tends to go like this;

[the explanation below does have mild spoilers for WGYTR however it's nothing specific, only vague plot elements]

come up with an idea - can be very specific or just a vague concept

ex: "Mecha Senku and the magic of lying" just came about because i saw several fics where Gen is Senku's robot and i wanted to try the inverse

decide on tone - will it be fluff, angst, ect?

write the first chapter! i just type this out quickly and with little care for details, its a rough draft so it's just meant as a mental starting point. overall i spend maybe 1 hour total on this draft - i type furiously and just let whatever comes out flow onto the page

outline! now that i have an idea of where i want to go, i can lay out my plot points. but first i jot down overall vibes in no particular order - it can be specific lines of dialog i want to use, specific scenarios or events.

ex: WGYTR - the title itself, "Who gave you the right?" i wanted this one line to define the character interactions. ultimately it's Senku who says the line, but in my outline it was originally Gen! but when i got to the chapter it made more sense for Senku to say it. this fic is all about the characters opening up to one another and allowing themselves to be seen as they are. so, in a sense, Gen was only able to fall in love with Senku because Senku allowed himself to be seen for his true self. and the same applies to Gen. Senku only fell in love with him for the same reason, Gen allowing himself to be seen in turn

plot! this is the easiest part for me in terms of outline, but my explanation may seem kinda daunting. first i lay out a general order of events. this is easier when the fic is canon compliant like WGYTR, but much harder when it's an AU like Mecha Senku. with events i always like to consider what actions logically lead into one another.

ex: WGYTR was quick for me to plot events since it's canon compliant. i chose where in canon it would start, and where it would end, then filled in the rest.

my overall outline looked like this;

- Gen joins the KoS

- Gen plots how to manipulate Senku for everyones benefit

- Senku largely tries to ignore Gen, too focused on his work

- it's still storm season, they get trapped indoors, forcing them to spend time together

- Gen makes a game to play (hadn't decided what game)

- Senku starts to relax as they spend more time together

- Gen develops a crush on Kohaku at the same time he develops a crush on Senku. deliberately squashes the feelings for Senku down

- Winter prep aspects

- Senku accepts Gen as a friend

- Gen accepts his feelings for Senku

- Senku faces his trauma

- Senku accepts his feelings for Gen

- Christmas

- Observatory & Gen's confession

- Finish the phone, fake Lilian

- Chrome is captured & the car

- Stone Wars

- ends just after Stone Wars

start writing chapter 2! now that i have a general idea of where i'm going, i go ahead and write my second chapter. here is where i make any necessary corrections to the direction of events to better fit my general outline

go back and edit chapter 1! nows the time to fix any problems in consistency, tone, direction, ect!

after i have my general points and have started writing, i break it down even further! this is where i start looking for symbols i can use to further my plot, and do research on more specific topics i plan to touch on

ex: WGYTR takes place largely within a huge time skip in canon. they literally jump from late Summer directly to Christmas of all things. so i thought about everything they had to do to get from Summer > Winter. they do show us some of what they did in between in canon, but they really gloss over it quickly, so for my fic i buckled down on the winter prep aspects that took the entire Fall to get done. from there, i broke it down further. if you look at each invention, it follows a process.

- Gen remembers paper is a thing

- Senku sets him up for the process

- the process brings Gen closer to some of the villagers (Ruby, Garnet, Sapphire)

- Gen starts fooling around with the paper and makes pinwheels for the children

- this action signifies to Senku how kind Gen genuinely is

- Gen makes a log book for Senku and a notebook for himself

- Gen uses his notebook to help Ruri and later to do the math for calculating Senku's birthday

if you follow that process linearly, you can link it to three upcoming canon events related to the paper making which tie it all together. since this chain of events begins with Gen, it'll end with Senku. can you guess what he's going to do with the paper next to wrap up this up? ;)

continue writing! i always have one buffer chapter, so i'll have chapter 11 written before i edit and post chapter 10.

now to answer some of your other questions;

did this take long? not really! this whole process, minus the last two steps....takes me maybe 1 day to 1 week total. WGYTR took me 2 days. by day 3 i had my first two chapters ready and the first one was posted! but those last two steps? i do those as i go along! which probably sounds insane now that i think about it lmao

as for fics that are harder to plan - any type of modern AU is much harder for me! im not sure why, but i struggle with it a lot. my soulmark AU, although i haven't felt inspired to write for it lately, was easy for me to plot out since it fits within the larger canon events. so was my short TsukaSenGen AU. but for a modern AU to make sense, there's a lot of elements to consider that aren't provided by canon, like professions and events and existing dialog, which is why i haven't worked on Mecha Senku in months rip

thanks again for your questions, anon! i hope i did well answering them all!! ♡

#asks #answered #dr. stone #yes im putting this in the main tag #dcst #my fics #writeblr

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cozy-the-overlord · 4 years ago

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Crimson Curls

Summary: A barista at the Avengers Tower coffeeshop goes missing. Her boyfriend, prominent Avengers engineer Michael Hauer, headlines a desperate campaign to find her, aided by the support of Tony Stark and the rest of the super-powered team. But as Hauer's narrative begins to unravel, it becomes clear that a certain Asgardian prince knows more than he's telling.

Pairing: Loki x Original Female Character

Chapter 1: Disappearance

Previous chapter | Next Chapter

Word Count: 3,138

A/N: This is definitely something born out of my obsession with true crime and missing persons cases... I'm not sure if anybody else is as interested in this concept as I am, but I had the time of my life writing this story, so I hope that translates to you in some way.

Also, this is my first multi-chaptered fic (I know, exciting, right?!)-- part 2 should be up within the next week.

Thanks for reading!

TW: domestic violence

Read it on Ao3

Kristine Ververs was first reported missing at 6:07 AM on Tuesday, March 17, by her boyfriend Michael Hauer. He was a bit worried, he said, because she had stormed out of their apartment the night before after a fight, and he had only just realized when he woke up that morning that she never came back. His attempts to call her led him to discover that she had left her cell phone on the kitchen counter.

The dispatcher asked him to wait at the apartment for investigators to arrive. He told her he couldn’t. He had to go to work. A bit befuddled, she asked if it was at all possible for him to wait until police arrived so they could ask him some questions.

“You don’t understand,” he said. “I work for Tony Stark.”

Michael Hauer was considered to be fairly acclaimed at the Avengers Tower. He had been one of the first engineers hired when the Tower opened, picked out by the infamous genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist himself. He spent his days in the restricted upper floors, designing and testing projects so confidential that his girlfriend didn’t even know what they were.

He had met Kristine at the Tower. She worked in the coffeeshop next to the cafeteria, where the employees of all 93 stories flocked to with bleary eyes each and every morning. Kristine was hardly the most talkative barista there (on the contrary, she appeared to make it a point to say only the bare minimum), and yet she was the girl everyone thought of when they thought of their morning brew. Her wild mane of curly red hair stood out in a crowd. Even when she wasn’t in uniform, people knew her as the coffeeshop girl.

It was unclear what she thought of this. A lot of things about Kristine were unclear—she spoke very little, and never about herself. Her coworkers often wondered why someone so shy would choose to work a job that so heavily relied on social interaction, but she managed just fine. Despite her natural demeanor, she would put on a smile and speak in that bubbly barista voice people found either endearing or irritating for the customers, and no one thought anything of it.

When she disappeared, people were shocked.

“You mean the redhead from the food court?” asked Bruce in the apartment story of the Tower when the news broke. “She’s the one?”

“Yeah,” said Tony. They were crowded around the TV, the newscaster flashing a photo of Kristine shyly smiling at the camera as the tip hotline ran across the bottom of the screen. “Poor Hauer. He was a mess. I can’t believe he even came in today.”

“I didn’t know they were dating. I don’t think he’s ever mentioned her.”

“Yeah he has,” Steve turned around in his chair to face the doctor. “He brought her to the Christmas party, remember?”

Tony frowned. “Did he?”

“Of course! I remember!” Thor lit up. “She danced with my brother!”

“Oh that’s right,” Tony chuckled. “Poor girl. She didn’t say much, did she?”

“She did strike me as a bit shy,” Steve said. “I hope it’s all a misunderstanding. Maybe she’ll be back on her own.”

But she didn’t. As the days passed with no news of Kristine Ververs, media attention snowballed around the Tower. On its own, there wasn’t much to the case, but the fact that both the missing girl and her boyfriend worked for the Avengers caught the attention of the public. It seemed so impossible. How does someone who walks among superheroes vanish without a trace?

Missing posters lined the hallway walls: HAVE YOU SEEN KRISTINE? People rushed to news stations for interviews, most of which had no connection to her beyond the fact that she sometimes made their lattes in the morning. Hauer held emotional press conferences, begging anyone with information that might lead to Kristine to come forward. Everyone looked at him differently now. The standoffish, stiff engineer that had once been considered uncomfortable to be around was now a grieving boyfriend. They sent him flowers and patted him on the back in the halls, telling him they’d be praying for his girlfriend, promising to help keep the story alive.

Although that probably wasn’t an issue. Stark himself got in front of the camera, making international news as he expressed the Avengers’ concern for the Ms. Ververs and offered to help the police in their investigation in any way they could.

The investigators would have happily accepted this help if they had found anything for Stark to help with. But the fact of the matter was that there was nothing: no clues, no sightings, not even the slightest trace that Kristine Ververs had ever left her apartment. The security cameras in the lobby showed her coming home from dinner with Hauer at 8:13 PM that Sunday night, but had no record of her exiting the building around two hours later, when Hauer saw her storm out. They considered that she may have been pulled into another room, that for some reason she left through a fire escape, but the few cameras in the hallway showed nothing and witnesses were nonexistent.

Kristine had seemingly vanished into thin air.

“Do you think there’s something supernatural at play here?” Natasha asked one day. “Like, a leftover portal from the Convergence or something?”

“Unlikely,” Bruce said. “The Convergence caused our tech to go haywire. We’d definitely be getting noticeable readings if there was a portal down the street.”

“But something like that is still possible,” Tony interjected. “What with all the crazy shit we deal with on a regular basis. Someone might have been going after Hauer—he’s one of our top engineers, it wouldn’t surprise me.”

The fact that she had left her phone was strange, as well. The screen was cracked rather badly—Hauer explained that had happened a few weeks ago when she dropped it on the bathroom tile. Her call history showed that the night she went missing she had phoned an unlisted number. The call hadn’t been long—likely, it had been cut off before the other line even had a chance to answer.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be no clue as to who was on the other line. The number was so badly scrambled that it was untraceable, even with Tony’s resources. In fact, he was relatively certain that whoever she had called had been using his tech to hide their number—leading to a heightened suspicion cast upon the higher-ups at the Avenger Tower.

When after two weeks there were still no leads, Tony held another press conference to announce that he would be posting a one-million-dollar reward for any information that led to the safe return of Kristine Ververs. Hauer joined him, thanking Mr. Stark profusely and pleading once more for help from the public. In the Tower, the others watched the broadcast from the television in silence.

“Filthy weasel.”

No one had noticed Loki entering the room until he spat the words like venom, glaring at Hauer’s distressed face on the screen.

Nat frowned. “What’s your problem?”

The Asgardian made his way to the kitchen and set about boiling water, still scowling darkly. “He has the audacity to sit there and wail as though he’s the victim of some great crime,” he said. “As if he’s some tortured soul wracked with fear.”

“Brother, the woman he loves has gone missing,” Thor said. “Can you not blame him for being in pain?”

“Oh yes, he’s in such pain,” Loki rolled his eyes as he prepared a mug and teabag. “Stark is close with him, is he not? Has he asked him what it was they were quarreling over so passionately that his lady felt compelled to run out of their home in the middle of the night?” He mixed the water in the mug. “Or has no one thought to question that?” With that, he slipped down the hallway with his tea, leaving the others and their gaping expressions behind.

Loki wasn’t the first to doubt Michael Hauer’s authenticity. His neighbor, Colleen Donalds, had come forward to the police shortly after the case went public to voice her concerns. She lived across the hall from the couple, she said, and a lot of times she’d overhear their arguments. They were always incredibly one-sided. She told the police that she very rarely made out Kristine’s voice during these exchanges, but Michael’s boomed all the way down the hall. He called his girlfriend the most demeaning things, throwing out words that Colleen was ashamed to repeat. She felt sorry for Kristine.

“She’s always so quiet,” she said. “Even when I run into her when Michael’s not around, she barely says a word. I can’t believe she stays with him.”

Colleen Donalds attempted discretion. Her story was to the police and the police alone, avoiding making any direct accusations and trying to stay out of the entire situation as much as possible. Marlon Arcardi had no such interest.

“He hits her,” the couple’s next-door neighbor told the tabloid reporters. “I hear it through the walls. I’ve called the cops on him a couple times, but they never do anything about it. He was doing it the night she went missing, too. I heard the crashing. He’s a complete piece of shit.”

The magazines that hit the stands next to the grocery store checkout lines screamed in red ink: AVENGER ENGINEER RESPONSIBLE FOR GIRLFRIEND’S DISAPPEARENCE?

When questioned about it, Hauer denied all allegations. “We’d get into fights,” he said. “What couple doesn’t? It was nothing serious, and the more we focus on it, the more distracted we become from the actual issue: Kristine is missing.”

“Are you saying Mr. Arcardi is lying in his statements to the press?”

Michael Hauer shrugged bitterly. “He wants attention. He’s getting attention. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He’s trying to derail the investigation so he can have fifteen minutes of fame. It’s sickening, because we right now we need to be concentrating on Kristine.”

Hauer managed to skirt by on this explanation for a bit, but the investigators soon discovered that Marlon Arcardi was telling the truth—at least, about calling the cops. In the two years that Kristine and Michael had been living together, the police had been called to their apartment nine separate times: seven public disturbance calls from a smattering of different neighbors including Acardi, and shockingly, twice from Kristine herself.

The police refused to release these calls, saying only that each time there were no charges pressed. The public was left to draw their own conclusions as they called in Michael Hauer for more questioning. Suspicion began to blossom.

“If they’re this perfect, happy couple like he wants us to believe,” asked one newscaster. “Then why is she calling 911 on him? Why is she running out in the middle of the night? The whole thing is extremely concerning.”

More people began coming forward. There seemed to be no end to the neighbors who overheard crashes and cursing coming from the Hauer apartment. The baristas Kristine worked with started doing interviews as well.

“We used to have like, you know, night outs on the weekends sometimes,” said Curt Chambers, one of her coworkers. “We’d always ask Kristine, but she always had some excuse. Like, she was sick, or she already had plans, or something. I joked with her once, like ‘you can just say you don’t want to go, we won’t be offended.’ And she said something like ‘no, it’s not that. It’s just my boyfriend doesn’t like me being out too late.’ And I remember thinking that was a really weird thing to say.”

Elaine Janson, another coworker, had more to add. “Something always felt off about that relationship,” she said. “They’d come in together, and then he’d come down a couple times during the day. It was like he was checking on her. It was weird. And they always left together. If he was working late, she’d wait for him.” Elaine shrugged. “Kristine always seemed so tense when he was around. I mean, she was shy to begin with, but when Michael came by it was different.”

It was also revealed that Michael Hauer had failed two lie detector tests: one taken on March 19th, within days of his girlfriend’s disappearance, and another on March 27th.

Tony Stark was inundated with calls: from reporters, from employees, from concerned citizens, some asking if he still supported Michael Hauer in light of new allegations, others demanding that he fire him immediately. He responded in a press conference in front of the Tower.

“As of right now, I’ve been shown no evidence indicating that Michael Hauer is in any way involved in Kristine Ververs’ disappearance. If and when that evidence comes to light, we will reevaluate the situation and take appropriate steps.”

Then somebody leaked the calls.

No one was quite sure who got ahold of those tapes, but by morning they were being blasted on every single news broadcast under the sun. It was the first time that the public was hearing anything in Kristine’s own words, and it didn’t bode well for Michael Hauer.

“Can you please just send someone?” she whispered into the microphone, breath labored as she struggled to get the words out. “He’s really mad, I think he’s going to break down the door. Please, is someone coming?” In the background, a masculine voice was yelling something intelligible, clobbering at a wall.

“Does he get mad often?” the operator asked after assuring her that the police were on their way.

Kristine Ververs gulped back a sob. “He’s always mad.”

The second call didn’t even have words. A scream, the crash as the phone tumbled to the floor, more yelling, pleading, crying, pounding, the operator tracing the call and sending in a unit…

Michael Hauer was formally asked to resign from his duties at the Avengers Tower. When he refused, he was terminated.

Still, he remained steadfast in his story. “Kristine has been missing for nearly a month now,” he stated in a recording posted to social media (press conferences were out of the question now; so many people showed up to protest that he couldn’t get a word in edgewise). “On occasion, we would get into violent fights, but I would never do anything to hurt her. I loved her more than anything. Please, don’t allow my mistakes to derail the investigation. We must not lose focus.”

A tweet of the video link with the caption “You loved her?? Enough lies. Where’s the body, Michael?” shot up to over 2 million likes in a day. #WheresTheBodyMichael and #JusticeForKristine began trending. Petitions for the arrest of Michael Hauer racked up signatures by the hundreds.

On April 21st, over a month after Kristine Ververs was first reported missing, a second, more in-depth search of the Hauer apartment was conducted. They noticed some things that had been missed the first time. The door lock had recently been replaced. The television screen was scratched. But, most critically, there was kitchen knife missing from the set atop the refrigerator. When questioned, Hauer claimed he had no idea what could have happened to it.

Detection dogs were brought in. While the cadaver dogs found no sign of the presence of a corpse, two different blood hounds alerted to the scent of human blood in the kitchen area and indicated a trail leading towards hall. A sample was taken from the carpet and sent to the lab for analysis. With the help of the advanced technology offered by the Avengers Tower, it was conclusively identified as Kristine’s blood.

As if that wasn’t enough already, a few days later, on April 25th, a trash collector turned in the missing kitchen knife to the police. He said he had noticed it in a dumpster earlier that day and recognized it from the description in the paper. There were three sets of fingerprints on the handle: Michael Hauer’s, Kristine Ververs’, and an inconclusive set assumed to be the trash collector’s, despite his insistence that he was wearing gloves when he picked it up. Kristine’s DNA was found on the blade.

The public had been screaming “GUILTY!” ever since the phone recordings were released. Now, they roared.

Michael Hauer was arrested on April 29th and charged with the murder of Kristine Ververs.

It was a shocking turn of events. Technically speaking, there was still no proof that a murder had taken place: there was no body, nor any sign that one existed. And just as there was no evidence of Kristine Ververs leaving the apartment that fateful March 16th, there was no evidence of Michael Hauer leaving the apartment that night either, especially with something as cumbersome as a human corpse.

The twitter hashtag found its home in newspaper headlines: Where’s the Body, Michael?

In the penthouse of the Avengers Tower, Tony rubbed his forehead. “This is such a fucking mess.”

They were gathered once again in the living room, watching as the newscaster recapped the last month and a half, breaking news that was already known. Kristine’s picture, with her downcast cerulean eyes and her frizzy red curls, flashed across the screen once more.

Tony sighed. “He just seemed so normal. I never would have thought—”

“You think he did it?” asked Steve.

“Well, he did something,” Tony snapped. “Clearly. He’s got a history of violence, her blood’s all over the floor—”

“No one’s debating that he did something,” interjected Bruce. “But if he killed her, what happened to the body? He never left the apartment that night, and there’s no evidence that a cadaver was ever stored there”

“He’s smart! That’s why we hired him, he’s a freaking genius! He probably thought of something—”

“Thought of what?” the doctor asked, throwing up his hands. “Teleportation? How the hell did he get the body out?”

“He didn’t.”

The group turned around to find Loki lurking in the back, studying them carefully from the shadows.

Bruce was the first to find his voice. “What?”

“He didn’t remove the body, because there was no body to remove,” he said deliberately.

“But, Loki,” Thor said uncertainly. “Weren’t you convinced Hauer was a killer from the start?”

“I never said he was a killer. I said he was a filthy weasel,” Loki said. “And he is, clearly. He's a slimy, abusive, manipulative, wretch of a man, but he's not a killer—although he likely believes himself to be."

Tony frowned. "What are you talking about, Loki?"

"He cannot be labeled a killer if his victim survived his attempt on her life. Which she did,” Loki paused a moment to let his statement sink in. “Despite Michael Hauer's best efforts, Kristine Ververs is very much alive.

#loki x ofc #loki marvel #loki fanfic #avengers fanfic #crimson curls #cozy writes

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hrfiction · 4 years ago

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Author Interview Tag

Tagged by @ariaadagio. Thanks! <3

Name: HaleyRoss

Fandoms: Lucifer

Where you post: Ao3 exclusively

Most popular multi-chapter fic: How are we measuring popularity? By reader engagement, kudos? Hits ? That’s a very subjective question. That being said, What are Partners For? Is consistently in my top two fics with organized by hits and kudos, and it also has the most comments. So, I would say it would be the most popular at the moment.

Favorite story you’ve written so far: My favorite story I’ve written so far has to be my longfic, the View from the Observatory series. It is the first fic I have ever written for public consumption and I learned SO MUCH from it. Does it have its problems? Absolutely, but it was so fun to write and I think most people had fun reading it. It is EXCEPTIONALLY long and even if you don’t like it, anyone who finishes it deserves a gold medal and a star on the hollywood walk of fame. I learned my lesson about long fics, but it has a special place in my heart.

Fic you were nervous to post: Every single last one of them. Honestly, I will never get over the posting anxiety. Having another pair of eyes to look over my writing and give feedback helps, but most times I just post it without a beta. That is why I post most of my fics at night, so that I go directly to bed afterwards and aren’t tempted to hit refresh or constantly check ao3, biting my nails and hoping people like it.

How you choose your titles: It depends. Usually by the time I am posting I have a finished or mostly finished story and my title reflects the general theme of the story. My Like a Prayer uses a line out of the fic, but I had the title before I had the line so it works.

Do you outline: Always. It’s not so much an outline as a synopsis. I know where the story is going, I know the visuals I am going for (i.e how graphic I want something to be because I do write a lot of smut), elements of foreshadowing, separations of scenes ... everything. The longer the story, the longer the synopsis. Everything is color coded, so I know where characters sit in a story and a general timeline. It is detailed because I have a backlog of stories right now all the way to the end of next year (because I can’t stop coming up with ideas) so I need to make sure when I revisit my notes as I begin to write these fics that I know EXACTLY what I had planned and am able to tweak that as necessary. Will the notes change as I write? Absolutely, but it helps not feel as though I’m writing in the dark.

Complete: 9 in total. 4 are from my longfic, 3 are one-off’s, and 2 are short multi-chapter fic.

In progress: I am currently working on a wingfic titled “The Things God Gave Us.” The first chapter is already in my drafts on ao3 and I am just waiting until chapter 3 is proofread and ready to go before I start posting. I am also working on a short Christmas themed smut fic called ‘Tis the Season, which should be posted within a week or so.

Coming soon/not yet started: Uhhhhhhhhhhhh. Do you want the real number or one that doesn’t make me look crazy? I have 20 fics, not including the two mentioned above, that are in various states of writing. Some are almost done while others only have summaries. I’ll be doing quite a few one-offs for the upcoming Fuckruary challenge, then I will be working on my Office AU fic which will most likely take up most of my year next year. I also have a short and fluffy camping fic and a whumpy/angsty fic starring Michael and Lucifer that I am really excited about.

Do you accept prompts: Not actively, no. If someone says something that sparks an idea I will definitely credit them. A lot of my WIP’s come from prompts made by just talking to people and having fun with silly ideas. Prompts are meant to spark an idea but its easy to mistake a prompt for a summary or synopses if you yourself aren’t someone who writes. “Lucifer drives Trixie to summer camp where he discovers a strange affinity for pottery,” is a prompt. Adding on what he does at the summer camp, who he meets, funny lines he might say, a specific thing that might be cool to see …all of that takes away the creative freedom of the person you are prompting and makes it less fun or interesting. If you want to read a specific scene, write it! I love reading stuff from new writers and seeing how their mind works.

Upcoming story you are most excited to write: I’m actually really excited to start working on the Office AU. There are some really interesting ideas I plan to explore in it that are canon-adjacent. It will also be exceptionally inappropriate and smutty and I’m excited to put these two idiots into crazy scenarios.

Tagging: Unfortunately all the authors I follow on tumblr have already been tagged :C So if you write and see this, I officially am tagging you! Tell us a bit about yourself and your stories! and added bonus, i’ll recc some great Lucifer fandom authors and their fics so you can check them out if you haven’t already:

Fluffy/ Funny

Wing (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) by startingatmidnight

The Royal Treatment by elleflies

Premature Unfurling by legendarytobes

Smutty

come,babe, let love have this evening by incalyscent

lay me down by unusuallysunny

#tag #lucifer on netflix #ff #ao3 #fanfiction #tag game #lucifer #tumblr game #fanfic #interview #reccs

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toloveawarlord · 5 years ago

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Author Interview

Eeeek! I was tagged by @alloveroliver and @claire-maccarthy Thanks for the tag!

Name: My blog name is listed as Ruka, but my real name is Bekah so you can call me either. When I first made this blog, I wasn’t comfortable sharing my name online but now, I don’t mind.

Fandoms Now:

Ikemen Revolution, Ikemen Sengoku, Ikemen Vampire, Obey Me, Nightmare Harem, Several Shades of Sadism, Midnight Cinderella, Romance MD, Star Crossed Myth, Kings of Paradise, Scandal in the Spotlight, Kissed by the Baddest Bidder, My Wedding and Seven Rings. Probably a few more that I’ve got on my phone and log into once in a blue moon.

Want to do in the future:

Any of the Cybird games (they own my soul and wallet), So many voltage games I plan to start in the future, too many to name.

Where you post:

Mostly tumblr but I have an Ao3, Fanfiction and wattpad account (under the name moriartyswife)

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story:

“And So They Met” which stars my little baby Alara at 6 years old coming to the mansion under bad circumstances and being adopted by Comte and the boys.

Favorite Story You Wrote:

Can I choose? As far as one shots go, Made a Made is by far a favorite of mine. Multi-chapter... how can I choose between my babies!? Personally, I love The Red Army Princess and The Black Army Mischief Maker. I have to name them both because there made as two sides of a coin, my first ikerev next gen. Eden and Finley will always have a special place in my heart.

Story You were Nervous to Post:

All of them I could probably say Telling Luka. It’s a mini series about Emery dating Luka and getting pregnant with Jonah’s baby. I was afraid of how it would come across. It seems to be pretty popular so that’s good.

How You Choose Your Titles:

It’s a roulette, I throw a dart and just go with it... Just kidding. I try to make all my titles have some meaning within the story. It might be a description of something that happens, or have something to do with the character themselves. Most of my titles tie in to the story. Sometimes with one shots, it’s just word association, but typically, I try to make them mean something.

Completed:

I have 141 One Shots completed.I do have other things for other fandoms posted on my other writing accounts, but for this blog, that’s all I have for now.

Incomplete:

I have posted 77 chapters of various multichapter fics. All of those and add in the amount of OC’s I have in the works which is over 100 (not including all the ikerev next gen babies). Plus, I have some one-shots and requests to fill so I have a lot coming up.

Do you outline:

Yes and no. Most of the time, I wing what I’m writing. I jot down ideas and things that might happen in the future of the story when they come to me. It’s less of an outline more like a pile of notes that I forget that I have until after I’ve written it. I do get ahead of myself when I’m writing, so I’ll grab a little piece of paper and write down some dialogue or scenes that come later in the chapter. And there are rare occasions were I’ll write out an entire chapter, but that’s very rare.

Coming Soon/ Not Yet Started:

I have 3 new Ikevamp Ocs coming in the next few weeks. Amelia Earhart, Mina Van Gogh, and Asha. I’m not sure what order they’ll come in, but they’ll be making their debut soon.

As for Ikerev, Atticus Kingsley is getting his story, which I’ve been nearly completed with for a few months now. Also, my witch Sage is going to be having her first chapter published.

Also there are some Voltage fics I want to publish. I have a romance md first chapter for Hosho’s daughter but I’m unsure if I’m going to post it. Some star crossed myth and Kings of Paradise are on the backburner but I want to post them as well.

AND OBEY ME! I’ve already made 12 ocs for the game and I have a few stories started. My little succubus is definitely my favorite.

Do you accept prompts?

Yes, but I rarely do them. Sometimes if I get in the mood, I’ll start working on them but I just have so many ocs and stories to work on that requests get forgotten about. That doesn’t mean I’ll never do them, it just means that it will take a while. I used to stress about requests a lot. Please feel free to send me a request as my box is always open but I don’t fill requests often. It’s a little hit or miss, because I switch between what I’m obsessively writing, so you kind of have to catch me with whatever I’m posting the most about at the time.

Upcoming Story You are Most Excited About:

Mina Van Gogh! I’ve worked super hard to make the story as accurate as possible, doing research. It’s a story more focused on platonic relationships at first, although she does have a suitor (Charles) but that is not in the foreground in the beginning of the story.

What do you use to edit?

A human being. I don’t do near as much editing on these fics as I do with my original writing. Unless something needs a major overhaul, I simply write what I want and check for mistakes before posting. If I’m looking for a word, I’ll google and search through the Thesaurus for a synonym. Nothing fancy here.

As for actual program that I write with, I used to exclusively use word. Now, I tend to use Tumblr and save the post as a draft. It’s super easy to access from anywhere and I can type on my phone if I want to. I’ve made the mistake more than once of tumblr glitching and eating my posts, so it’s not the most ideal situation..

Writing Set up:

Up until July of 2019, I exclusively sat at my desk. I get distracted very easily, so having a workspace that I only used for writing worked wonders for me. Now that I can’t sit for very long in hard chairs (thanks herniated discs), I usually sit in an arm chair with a little box to put my feet up on.

Most the time, I write with headphones in and listen to piano/instrumental music. Occasionally, I’ll pick one song that fits the story but I find myself singing along and getting distracted if there are words.

Do You Use a Beta Reader?

I have my best friend read over for any mistakes, so I guess, yes. Sometimes if she is busy, I’ll let Word read it out loud to check for missing words.

Where Do You Get Your Writing Inspiration?

From everything. Reading, other writing, tv/movies, real life. I’ve said before that a lot of the speech and actions of the children that I write are based on things I’ve witnessed while working for 10+ years with young children. Talking about the fics with friends also helps. They can help to figure out an ideas.

I would say that a lot of the time, it just comes to me. I’ll be writing something completely different and then an idea will come to mind about another character or story. Like poof, it’s there.

Can we get a quote from an upcoming WIP? Have a few!

Obey upcoming fic:

Verena knew how incredibly lucky she was to have his attention, his touch. Though he cared for all his incubus and succubus but never had he done this. Observing and critiquing, but not joining. “Lord Asmodeus, I-um-”

“No, no. All I want coming from these lips are those sweet, delicious sounds of pleasure.” Golden eyes were filled with delight. This was new, a succubus a completely blank canvas begging to be painted in his colors. Her mind lingered in a muddled state of uncertainty. “I’ve not used an ounce of my charm and yet you’re grinding your hips against mine, clinging to me tightly. You don’t want me to let you go.”

Her cheeks flushed red. It was like she had turned on autopilot, unable to stop her own body from wanting to drown in him. “Please…“

The word drenched in absolute urgency for more.

Ikemen Revolution New OC: Wren Blackwell

“Uncle Fenrir! Uncle Ray!” The ten year old’s voice echoed through the small building laced with surprise and joy. Abandoning his schoolwork for a chance to spend time with his two uncles. Amber eyes sparkled up at the two. Rarely did he get a visit from his family.

Fenrir beamed a grin at him, accepting the welcoming hug. “Reece, ya got taller!” He stopped by any time he came down to the ports, pitching in to help if Wren needed it.

Which meant today must be business. Never did Ray come by her work without warning. Placing down the files in their proper piles, Wren maneuvered through the chaos to emerge from the office. “Reece, you can go out for a break.” She didn’t want him to hear any military discussions, lest he want to join.

“Come on, I’ll buy ya a treat if it’s alright with your mom,” Fenrir offered to the eager boy, glancing to her for the okay.

It was like looking at two needy puppies. “That’s fine.” As Reece raced out the front door, Wren called to the ace with a serious tone. “No guns this time. I’ll kick your ass if you even think about it.”

She received a salute paired with wicked grin. “Yes, ma’am.”

“This time?” Ray questioned, emerald eyes moving from the vacant doorway to his sister.

Ikemen Vampire New OC: Juniper Haywood

Juniper tugged at the door handle, heels digging into the plush carpet as she put all her strength into trying to open the door. It refused to budge. Locked? Unlikely. It must have something to do with why the door only appears at certain times. Now, she was surely stuck until the stars aligned again.

Here’s what she knew.

The hallway led to a mansion. How? Unclear. Why? Also unclear.

In hindsight, there was very little that she actually knew.

**********

Tagging: @plumpblueberry @rikumorimachisgirl @mythiica @emeraldtawny and anyone else who wants to do it! ^_^

#author interview #i write things #sometimes #ikemen revolution #ikerev #about me #ikemen vampire #ikevamp #obey me #other otome games

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smellycinnamonthundahfudge · 5 years ago

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10 things i hate about you!spideychelle au pt 3

whhewww here we have it, folks, the last we’ll see of this very very lovely au that i care so very much about in a while (from me, at least) haha

i’ve been thinking about this au for so long but i still haven’t decided if i want mj to be in on the whole her dates are getting paid to date her thing hahaha

cus like i feel that if ned and peter have been trying to get mj on a date that lasts longer than 5 minutes for like 2 years, she would have noticed by now, right?

like i don’t know, the thing about the film was that patrick getting paid to date kat was so very wrroongg. but if mj was in on it, and knew it was happening, i think it takes the piss out of itself and gives her some agency, no?

like, i like to think that peter, mj, and ned are still their group of friends since they’re the ones in the same year. and i don’t know maybe mj makes bets with them on how long the dates they have for her are going to last hahaha

suffice it to say, aside from the money they lose paying the dates, peter and ned loses some more, from the fact they never win against mj hahaha

but then they start to get their money back when parker arrives and completely holds his own against our illustrious mj haha

the issue i have with this au is the liz and peter of it all

once parker and mj start going on dates, liz and peter would be dating as well too. but here’s the thing, what if pretty responsible popular liz is just a bit of a people pleaser and she didn’t want to let down peter until she absolutely had to. which was why she insisted she help her sister get out of her shell first and prioritize other responsibilities, instead of breaking poor ol sweet peter’s heart

meanwhile, parker starts falling for mj and vice versa

they find the fact that neither caring about what other people say about them refreshing and it feels good to be seen for who they really are and not just the gossip that’s been told about them

and then ofc all of this happens at bogey lowenstein flash thompson’s party haha (date night and revenge on their bully in one night? sounds like 2 birds with one stone for peter and ned to me hahaha)

by the end of the night, peter is no longer interested in liz and thus no longer paying parker to date mj. but by that time, he isn’t really doing it for the money anymore

however, when parker takes mj home and mj takes a risk to go for a kiss, he remembers what happened in his universe, how he’s lost every single person he’s loved, and on instinct, doesn’t reciprocate the kiss

mj storms out of the car to her house and parker regrets what he did immediately

cue the iconic heath ledger patrick verona musical number, embarrassing himself to even the score between him and kat.

ofc cus this is spideychelle, parker’s version has him webswinging all over the place while at the same time also tapdancing across a field haha

and then cue mj getting him out of detention

and then ofc there has to be a version of the paintball scene. OFC THERE IS. HOW COULD YOU EFFING NOT?

it’s set to FNT (fascinating new thing) by semisonic, they’re adorably playing paintball with each other, laughing and chasing each other around, and it ends with with him tackling her to a bale of hay and them finally sharing their first kiss

but haha just when you thought things were finally going well for parker in this new universe he found himself in, parker sees an old familiar face... Dr. Strange.

dr. strange informs him that all the trauma parker went thru has now been undone and that they won in their universe because of the og avengers’ sacrifices (essentially what happens in endgame) and so now, dr. strange has come to take him home, back to his rightful universe

parker pleads to give him some more time to say his goodbyes at least and dr strange agrees, parker has till prom to say goodbye

the thing is, is that mj sees all of this happen from a distance and so ofc she’s going to question parker about it. however, parker doesn’t want to talk about it (explain so much insanity about how he’s from another universe??) and he just wants to go to prom with mj, have one last amazing night with her before leaving

but, mj, with her convictions reminds parker that she doesn’t want to go to prom and never has and mj wants to know why peter wants to go to prom so bad but peter doesn’t want to tell her

their fight ends on a standstill and they both just end up leaving to give themselves some time to think

on the night of the prom, peter decides to tell her why prom is so important to him. the fact that it was his last night in her universe, the fact that the brief relationship they had was what brought him back to life after the hell he went thru on his universe. the fact that being with her, was the thing that gave him hope for the first time since losing everything. and the fact that he knows once he returns to his earth, he wouldn’t have his date with mj in prom. he wants to feel like he’s still a high schooler one last time before going back to his superhero avenger double life. can you blame him for wanting to take the girl he likes to prom?

so mj agrees

they go to prom together, dance their night out, and mj is there when parker meets dr. strange.

parker thanks mj for everything one last time and mj thanks him for making her feel less alone, for being the first person outside of her family, to love her for who she really was and saw beyond the superficial bs people spewed about her

they say their tearful thanks and goodbyes, share one last hug and kiss, and parker returns to his universe.

and that was it, prom was over

PRROOLOOOGGUUUEEEEEEEE HAHAHHAHA

while all of this parker and mj stuff was happening, peter was getting his spider-man origin story.

i like to think, dr strange entering their universe, triggered all the superhero craziness to start and so peter become’s spider-man

mj notices her peter getting weird, exhibiting the same things parker told her he did once he got his powers

and so mj finds out peter’s spider-man, like she does

and so in this universe, the spideychelle train gets back on its track

in parker’s universe, he eventually graduates, and ends up going to nyu. where he spots a very familiar girl with her curly hair tied up in a pony tail. he’s confident approaching her, since he already knew a version of her

but his confidence fizzles into nothing the the second he tries to talk to his mj, and he finds like he’s back in high school again, filled with nerves talking to a girl he likes

maybe lost love can be found again, can’t it? maybe the universe just finds itself putting the same people together, because they’re destined to be with each other.

so basically i wrote this because i want to believe spideychelle is canon in every universe hahaha

hope someone enjoyed reading this, cus i certainly enjoyed writing it haha. this whole ass story is definitely made for multi chapter fics and it’s exactly why you won’t be seeing it for a while. it’s cus i just ain’t ready for that yet hahaha. but we’ll see what happens after we finish spideychelle month. i want to finish all spideychelle month prompts first, and then i might follow up on any stuff i mentioned there haha.

this au’s just a whole ass mess, innit? it’s a romcom au, a spideychelle month prompt, it’s got multiple posts, two universes within this alternate universe, and even a little of a soulmate au in the prologue there hahaha. my brain is just so cray sometimes and i love it. i’m so glad spideychelle month gave me the opportunity to be forced to explore this au because i genuinely truly love it. 10 things i hate about you is one of my top 3 movies of all time and i’ve watched so many movies (<- goes w/o saying haha)

i hope anyone reading this found this interesting and nice cus i really did and i actually think it’s pretty good hehe. i hope to come back to this and give this story the coverage it deserves. but for now, spideychelle month week 1 day 5 is DONE! whew onto week 2, lovelies. i’m excited to show yalls what i have planned :’) (but i think i already teased it in my first spideychelle month entry tho haha)

all hail spideychelle and let’s keep this fic train going people! toot toot

#spideychelle #spideychelle is canon bitches #IN EVERY UNIVERSE #HAHAHAHAHAHA #or at least in every one of MY universes hahaha #spideychelle month #spideychellemonth #to keep the spideychelle dream alive #<3 #:')#10 things i hate about you #peter parker #michelle jones #spider-man #mj #liz allan

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modern-sybil · 6 years ago

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Wholesome Entire Magicians Cast Fluff - Chapter Two

Okay, the response to this post was pretty sweet (thank you everyone, you rock!!), so I’m making my idea a multi-chapter thing. Chapter two extends below the cut (this bitch was over 2,000 words, haha)

AO3: In The Happy Pause of it All

Chapter Two - Thanksgiving Competition: Penny vs Eliot

Josh has reviewed the rules, made his changes, and they were ready to go- one week of prep until Thanksgiving. Kady started taking bets on the side as to who everyone thought would win, and was surprised when even Fen got in the game. Who was gonna turn down the High King of Fillory? Even if she bet two silver and jewel daggers, which was a little unorthodox and would be difficult to split among the winners. But they were really pretty, and bad ass (like me, Kady thought, and laughed), and Kady was certain she could figure out how to make sure she ended up with them.

Quentin decided that Penny and El could get two people each to help them make all the food. Josh concurred, a sous chef and a second assistant were well within their rights to have. It took Penny days to make his final decision, but Eliot knew instantly who he wanted.

Q was only a little put out when Eliot chose Alice (I mean, she can cook and all) and Margo instead of him. Alice agreed, albeit grudgingly, and Margo was pretty sure it was because Kady had talked last weekend about how Penny looked really hot when he was cooking, but of course Margo would never say that out loud… Except she did, because she is Margo. Alice blushed and left the room to go make some tea, happy that Kady was out dealing with Hedgewitch business.

Q put up some token resistance at not being chosen, but his heart wasn’t in it. At least this meant he could watch excitedly (and taste test a lot on both sides) and he did not have to worry about accidentally setting something on fire… Like he did that time he tried to make popcorn on the stove. Which was an event Eliot quickly reminded him about.

“Come on, El! It was ONE time!!”

“Yeah, but the loft smelled like burnt popcorn until Alice came home and spelled it away. We do not need a repeat when the stakes are this high, Q. Alice is gonna be too busy ensuring my INEVITABLE VICTORY to spell away the smell of burnt roast duck.”

Penny went with Julia (no one was shocked there). But for his second person, he chose Zelda, which was definitely a twist no one saw coming. Especially Zelda, but everyone could see how happy it made her. She took the time to adjust her glasses before agreeing, trying to act as though she had seen it coming.

He denied it, but Julia was pretty sure he picked Zelda to make her feel more like one of the group, rather than for a tactical advantage. He claimed that her speed reading would come in handy, and handed her a stack of cookbooks to memorize before the big day.

The night before, at a light dinner of salad and soup (everyone was saving room for tomorrow) El suddenly threw down his spoon - “Fuck!! We never decided on what the loser has to do!”

Penny looked up from his not-so-subtle staring at Julia, shaking his head “I thought we were just doing this for bragging rights? And to know for sure who is the best. Which obviously is me.”

“Well, yeah,” El scoffed “but that is for the winner. What will you… I mean, the-as-of-yet-unknown-loser… have to do when they fail miserably and get CRUSHED INTO DUST?”

Marina, who had been crashing the dinners so often lately they just set a permanent place for her at the table, smiled. “I know.” She said. “And it is perfect. Loser has to clean up all the dishes and the entire kitchen - no magic.”

It was agreed, this seemed perfect- completely in harmony with the spirit of the event. And Alice had agreed to be a sous chef, so it wasn’t fair to assume she’d clean the kitchen as well.

Josh dragged a chair over so he could watch the whole event “to prevent cheating/maintain his unbiased outlook and ensure no travesties against food were commited” but everyone knew it was because he wanted to enjoy every second of being valued so much for his skills, and it was kinda cute tbh.

Penny went with a classic Thanksgiving feast, the only time he ran into an issue was when he wanted to have canned cranberry sauce - Josh said that was a no-go because it was a cooking competition. After a quick team huddle Penny had to send Jules out for more ingredients and he thanked his lucky stars that Zelda had memorized 6 different recipes for the jellied berries, so they put their heads together to come up with the perfect combo recipe.

Quentin kept stealing marshmallows that were supposed to be for the sweet potato casserole, until Penny shot him a look that was so reminiscent of back when they were roommates that Q backed up all the way over to Eliot’s prep station and stayed there for a good fifteen minutes. Peeking out from behind El’s back he waited Penny was adequately distracted and swooped in again. Zelda was making candied nuts, and all the wrath in the world couldn’t stop him from sneaking a few here and there.

Eliot was going all-out. This was a gourmet feast that would make Emeril Lagasse quake in his boots. Alice was a whirlwind behind and around him, definitely not putting on any extra flair for Kady, who was watching while leaning against a pillar, smiling gently. Margo was the most focused she had been since her quest in the dessert, attacking each task Eliot gave her with a voracious passion that made Josh shift a little in his chair and Fen bite her lip and unconsciously twirl her hair around her finger.

Of course Eliot also had themed drinks which he was crafting with care, crushing the mint delicately and lining the cup rims while keeping an eye on Quentin to make sure he wasn’t eating all of the sugar crusted flower petals because those were for garnish goddamnit. But he had to smile, because thinking back to the start of it all, his plan definitely worked. Q was eating regularly and his clothes all fit again. Taking a quick pause to look around, El was filled with a happiness that he never had in the mind-palace-situation, even in the physical kids college, because this? This was home. This was a family that knew him and loved him for who he was. This was everything…

“Quit your fucking daydreaming and mash your goddamn potatoes, Eliot” Margo snapped, hands never stilling from perfectly slicing apples and arranging them into rosettes. But then she looked up at him and smiled, and he knew that she once again saw him and understood where he was at, what he was thinking… But that this was a competition, and they had priorities.

Soon the entire apartment filled with the scent of happiness and home and good cooking, the savory notes of rosemary and turkey mixing with the sweetness of apple and pecan pies, offset with the spiciness of cardamom and ginger. Q was hopping all over the place at this point from the sugar high of his taste-testing, and eventually both Julia and Eliot agreed they had to banish him from the kitchen because he kept getting underfoot. But even as she made him leave, Jules smiled and snuck him another handful of marshmallows to tide him over.

Quentin decided to use all this energy to set the table, and as he was setting down the last of the dishes, everyone started trickling in. Fogg had brought his record player, and got some mellow tunes going in the background. In the past, none of the group would have thought Frank Sinatra was thanksgiving music, but after today everyone would smile and remember every time they heard “the way you look tonight” on the radio. Alice even sometimes added it to the queue of the playlist they normally had softly going in the evenings, just to ease tensions. She thought the way everyone’s face lit up was even better than the taste of bacon.

Marina came with a box of little gifts for everyone, which made everyone think that the universe had flipped upside down and pigs had wings, until her girlfriend came in behind her, all smiles and happiness and Marina passed off the box to Fen with a smile and a muttered “the things I do for love,” shuddering slightly before going to collect her girlfriend’s jacket to put in the other room.

Harriet came with a couple other Hedges that only Julia and Kady knew, so they added in the extra panel to the table and set more plates, and made sure they knew about the competition and why there were two completely different but complete meal options currently being prepared. Harriet pulled Kady aside and told her that these Hedges had nowhere else to go, and Kady just smiled and said “well, it is good that we have enough food for an army, then!”

Tick followed Fen around asking questions about absolutely everything until she got frustrated, he was distracting her from watching Margo…. uh, hanging out with the whole group as they finished up with the cooking. So she set him in front of the TV and showed him how to work the remote and left him to his own devices.

Dinner was eaten, everyone was lazing about the living room in various stages of food-coma, and the time for judgement had come. Josh was making a big deal of it, which made Penny frustrated, but Eliot saw as only right given the seriousness of his task. As he ate Josh had been writing notes in a notebook and he spent a good thirty minutes in his throne, er, chair, listening seriously to the input of every guest before adding to the tallies he was keeping.

After an hour, Margo started impatiently tapped her foot, staring at him and caressing Sorrow and Sorrow with a meaningful look. Clearing his throat and nervously adjusting his collar, Josh spoke. Finally.

“This was a close one, and opinions were widely split between the contestants.” He started, as Kady pulled out her list of who bet and what they bet. “In the end, I had to step back a bit. I had to take taste alone out of the competition, and go back to what Thanksgiving is all about. How it is the taste of childhood, the memories of years gone by…”

“And for that reason, sorry El, Penny is the clear winner.”

Penny and Julia let out a whoop from the corner where they were standing, grabbing her around the waist Penny spun her in a circle. Then, catching himself, he put a solemn look on his face and said “well, if you are sure.”

Kady started making the rounds, collecting money. Fogg handed his over with equanimity, Zelda was sheepish, making sure she told the room that she placed her bet BEFORE being chosen for Penny’s team, and thought it wasn’t fair to the spirit of the competition to change her mind. Margo scoffed and sat back in her chair, eyeing Josh up and down as though she had never seen anyone more ridiculous. Eliot dramatically draped himself over the couch, putting his head in Q’s lap. “I’m ruined,” he sighed, placing a hand against his forehead. Q ran a comforting hand through his hair, soothing the taller man as best as he could in the moment of his defeat.

“Josh,” Margo said , “you better explain why I, I mean, Eliot, lost… Right fucking now.”

Laughing nervously, Josh continued “Well, you see, Eliot’s dishes were amazing, no doubt. But Penny’s tasted more like Thanksgiving, and after hearing what the people had to say” he gestured around, spreading the blame as best as he could “I had to go with the meal that best fit the theme. The actual flavors were too neck-and-neck, I couldn’t pick on that alone in the end.” Margo nodded, once, reaching behind her for her purse to pay up, and Josh sighed in relief.

“Fair is fair,” Marina said, her girlfriend sitting in her lap contentedly, “Penny gets the bragging rights and Eliot cleans the kitchen - no magic.” Quentin could swear her eyes were a bit extra gleeful at the outcome, but he couldn’t be sure how she would have reacted if Penny had lost, so he kept the thought to himself.

Pulling himself up from the couch gracefully, Eliot exclaimed “never let it be said that I am a sore loser!!” With a flourish he created a trophy magically, and presented it to Penny. As Margo laughed and rolled her eyes, Penny smiled and polished it a bit with his sleeve. “I now will go… wash dishes and clean floors.”

Walking away, after grabbing Q’s hand to pull him along, Eliot turned around “But rest assured, my friend… There will be a rematch.”

#the magicians #the magicians fluff #the magicians tag #the magicians fanfiction #magicians ff #katie had thoughts #kady x alice #julia x penny #quentin x eliot #fargo

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fuwafuwamedb · 5 years ago

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When will the Forelsket sequel be posted?

Right now, it’s named Kjaerlighet. I believe I mentioned that in the comments section of one of my stories that I was posting after Forelsket ended.

It’s ready to go, I just don’t want too many stories going at once. I want to let you all enjoy what’s going and see things through to the end. Some people like reading all of an author’s work or multiple works by one author and I think it’s a bit hectic when there’s a lot going at once. Posting all of a multi-chapter story at once is great for short term reading, but I like building the hype. You’ll have to forgive me for that.

At this time, this story is done, but I’m editing in little bits of Sumerian culture like I did for Forelsket and I am debating that title because sometimes readers can’t figure out how to pronounce my titles (I’m sorry).

It has been a while since we saw anything in that AU and I think some may be eager to read so…

Here’s the first chapter. Consider it like licking the cookie dough spoon before the cookies are baked and out for public consumption.

Five weeks.

No new changes: no sudden exclamation of a child on the way,no shocked expressions or shouting from the king of heroes. Hakuno didn’t notea thing about herself changing. They laughed, they indulged in baths together.The lot of them bundled themselves in bed when Hakuno was feeling a little bittired.

Gudako watched them all simply enjoy the company of oneanother and sighed.

“Are you thinking about the time in Babylonia again,” Dantesasked, pulling his shirt off as he prepared for bed.

“A little bit.”

Caster had meandered off to Uruk once more, but mostly toalter this and that in the palace. Archer had been trusted with Hakuno for acouple days, but he had successfully built a temple within the palace to go alongsidethe main temple so that he and his other selves would have a better place to takepleasure in their goddess.

Hakuno had smacked him.

Caster had berated him.

Archer had high fived his child and teenaged selves.

The nobleman nodded at her though, dragging her back toreality. “They will find out soon enough. They are very lucky that Gilgamesh’sgood friend is being so kind as to keep it quiet. I cannot imagine what the manwould decide to do if he found that he was allowing Hakuno to run around withhis heir inside of her. Last week’s mission and the wounds that Hakuno receivedwould have been received poorly.”

Gudako nodded, quietly. This was true. It probably wouldhave.

Dantes hummed, “If my Mercedes had been carrying my child, Iwould have wanted to know immediately. I would have wanted to take hersomewhere safe and not risk our child. Too many women lost their babies tohunger or a bad fall. They are fragile things, unable to protect themselves.”

“They are.”

“There is also so much to plan. I do not envy the king ofheroes. Trying to decide where and how the baby will be raised. Will the babebe handled by a servant or will the mother take responsibility for lookingafter the child? Tutoring? Chaldea has many heroes as well as tyrants. It wouldbe unfortunate for the child to be near one of the lesser servants in thisplace. Myself, for example, wonderful, but I would instill upon that child farmore importance upon the bonds that they create and the importance of going afteranyone that wrongs you. That saint, Jeanne , would preach forgiveness. Auseless concept.”

“It is… It is…” She hummed though, glancing towards the door.

Hakuno was the goddess of wine and drink. If she indulgedtoo much… God, if she had Gilgamesh have too much fun with her. Or if theothers got too rough. She had seen bruises on her friend before. All it wouldtake was just a little too much liquor one evening and one of them doingsomething stupid.

Was Enkidu always watching?

“Uh huh.”

Fingers snapped before her face. “Ici! Ici! Gudako. I wasnot saying anything.” The white haired man glared at her. “You are no longerlistening to me, ma Cherie.”

“I’m thinking.”

“I see that you are. It is good. You are going to go andinform them of the little offspring that grows in the woman?”

“Maybe if we just go check on them?”

Edmond didn’t even move, merely gesturing her towards thedoor. “I will await your return, Master. You are making the wise decision, ininforming the young woman that she is carrying the prince or princess withinher. She will be able to prepare and bring the child into this world safely,with more preparation.”

Yeah.

She pressed her lips to the man’s cheek before heading outthe door. Most of the facility had become quiet now. It was the evening. They allwished to merely rest.

Well…

Gudako saw the light pouring forth from the crack in the youngwriter’s room, her lips pursing at the implications.

“Hans! Shakespeare! I swear to god if you’re writing withone another!” She banged on the door, listening to the sounds of curses beforethe light flickered off.

They were going to wait her out.

She stomped, lightening the sound before she stopped.

The light flickered on again.

“HANS!”

A screech came, the two opening the door and peering out ather.

“Bed.”

“Now see here, you wily liver-spotted temptress,” Shakespearebegan.

“We don’t want to go to bed,” Hans informed her in that deepvoice. “We are working on a project together that will require the midnight oilin particular. It is a tale of depth and emotion. It is nothing that can adhereto your absurd sense of daylight hours.”

“I will swaddle you like a five year old,”Gudako warned.

Shakespeare snickered, earning a glare from the young writer.“…We shall adjourn for the night. But we are writing into the night tomorrow.”

“Write me a good formal letter why I should allow it and I’llhave Caster Gil read it.”

Hans groaned. “I hate that man. Shove off, William. She isgoing to be unreasonable.”

The playwright laughed, waltzing off into the hallway anddown the way she had come. No doubt, he and Edmond would find themselvestalking about French and English culture by the time she returned.

Children, the lot of them.

God, Hakuno didn’t even need to worry about whether or notshe could handle a child. Between the surly Hans and the younger versions ofthe servants roaming through this place, she already had the basics of childcarehandled.

Hakuno would be fine.

She was a professional. An absolute expert. There was nodoubt in her mind that she could probably handle whatever little divine shitcame out of that woman.

There was the sound of movement as she turned the corner.The red curtains draped thematically around the doors to Gilgamesh’s chamberswere closed, indicating that the collection of Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and theiryoung master were already enclosed within.

Or were going to be.

A green-haired being stopped just before the curtains,pausing in entering to look over at her. “Gudako? What brings you to thiscorner of the facility?”

“Are the grapes for Hakuno?” Gudako moved closer, avoidingthe question.

“She was hungry, but has been having a time of it. Everytime she wishes for something sweet, her tastebuds have been leading her to bitterthings. It is food cravings, from what my Shamhat has informed me. I thoughtperhaps grapes would not upset her. The grapes we have been getting are less sweetthan usual.”

She nodded.

“But you are here for a reason, I’m assuming?”

“Does Hakuno know that-“

“No.”

Gudako nodded at the blunt response. “Then I’m here to tellher. I think she needs to know-“

Enkidu shook their head. “Do not bother. It is not the besttime to inform her about what is going on. She merely thinks that her midnighteating is starting to cause morning sickness. Her emotions are from Archer andCaster being particularly stubborn with her new role and how often she shouldbe in Uruk.”

“She needs to know, Enkidu. If we don’t tell her-“

“I will tell her when it is time.”

“When is the time?”

The being hummed. “We have begun week six…. I believe weekthirty-nine would be appropriate.” They paused, staring at her. “…I ammonitoring the progress. The child’s soul is slowly forming right now. I knowthe gender and I know of its slowly forming preferences, although it may notrealize itself. I have been keeping Hakuno near Prototype since he is being themost appropriate and has been giving Hakuno a great deal of emotional support.”

“Enkidu!”

She needed to know.

God, she would want to know!

Those green eyes were narrowing though. The being leaned inclose. She couldn’t see anything around the hair and those strangely glowingeyes.

“Do not tell her.”

“…E-Enkidu…”

“She will fret. My friend will fret. They are happy rightnow. They partake in the now of things, leaving the future where it needs to be.If you take that away, I will become quite cross.”

Okay, that was fair, but Gudako shook her head. She gesturedat the door. “If they could just know about-“

“No.”

“Enkidu!”

The being turned her around, giving her a rather rough pushtowards her rooms. “Return to your bed, little master of Chaldea. My masterneeds my attention and needs our silence. Do not think to intrude upon Uruk’sbusiness again. It is my secret to keep and my friend’s future to watch form.”

“Fine.”

“Good night, Gudako.”

“Good night, Enkidu.”

She waited the half second for the being to turn before sheslipped around the curtains, pushing them at the being before she slammedthrough the door.

Caster glanced over from his desk.

Child Gilgamesh, Prototype, and Archer looked up from theircard game.

Hakuno glanced over from the sofa, pouring herself-

“Hakuno, you can’t have that!” Gudako avoided the clay being’sgrasp, hurrying over and taking the goblet of wine from her side.

“What are you talking about?”

“Gudako!”

Oh, but the clay being was coming for her like a freighttrain from hell. She was going to be in for it. That face and that glarepromised a revenge that would have Dantes taking meticulous notes.

“You’re pregnant!”

A silence filled the room.

The weight of fury lifted from the being’s shoulder, leavingthem standing awkwardly in the center of the room.

A snicker.

A snort.

Archer was the first one to begin laughing, shaking his headas the others joined in. The room seemed to have surround sound with the waythey were all laughing. Child Gilgamesh was the first to fall onto his side.Prototype was doing an awkward laugh, blushing at the very idea.

“Hakuno? With child?” Caster paused from his amusement. “Haveyou gone soft? We are all servants here in Chaldea. She is hardly human herself.You may have partaken in Hakuno’s sweet wines and my mother’s conversations ofchildren a bit too often.”

Child Gil nodded. “I went with that idea for two days untilI figured it was wrong. Hakuno is too precious and divine for that. She would havehad to have been blessed by Ishtar for that and that goddess hates Hakuno for messingup her temple. She’s also guilty as hell for her father interrupting thewedding ceremony. She wouldn’t bother!”

Gudako glared over at Enkidu.

“Ask them,” she demanded.

The four blonds looked at the being in matching amusement.

Meanwhile, blessedly, it seemed Hakuno had some sense inthis lot. The woman was closing her eyes, no doubt thinking carefully aboutthis and considering the truth of it. Her attention flickered to her a momentbefore she sat up.

“Oh no.”

Progress.

Thank the gods for Hakuno.

She returned her attention to Enkidu.

“Well?” She prompted. “Tell them.”

The being shook their head.

“Enkidu has known since the conception,” Gudako informedthem. “Knows gender too, from what they told me outside the room. That’s whyHakuno is having food cravings and morning sickness.”

Hakuno was paling.

The Gils were all paling.

Prototype rushed to the bathroom.

Gudako looked around before clapping her hands. “Thank god.”She smiled. “I was thinking about that for like a month. It was a long assmonth too. Like when Hakuno was slashed in the stomach by that dragon lastweek, I was like “yeah, that kid’s a goner” or like when she was knocked intounconsciousness about three weeks back by that boar while working with CuChulainn. I was also like “that kid’s dead.” But now I feel better. We shouldbe good now.”

She plucked a grape from the bowl that Enkidu was stillholding, glancing around at the silent room.

“I feel- SO- good right now. It’s amazing what happens whenthe truth is out there. No wonder Edmond fought for revenge and for the truthabout those other noblemen to be revealed. It just feels so good. I’m gonna gofind him before Shakespeare steals him for an insult contest.”

She waved at them as she headed for the door.

“Just so you know, I am a great namer. I nicknamed Arash “Ozy’sBoom Rocket” and I have been laughing for days about it. Night night!”

The door shut behind her.

And then the sound erupted from within.

#gilhaku #I'll tag this properly #fuwafuwamedb story time

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artificialqueens · 6 years ago

Text

The Language of Flowers, second half of Chapter 1 (Multi) - Albatross

AN: Alright, AQ and AO3 are finally caught up to each other. I’m pretty much set, as far as ordering the chapters goes, on having the Witney-centric parts labeled as .5 when I post on here (2.5, 3.5, 4.5, etc). The Witney side should start popping up in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 at the latest, because I’m trying to figure out right now where’s the best place to break up what I have written into new chapters vs. different sections. Its probably going to be late next month before I post the next chapter anywhere because I want to get most of the story written and reviewed before I start posting on a regular basis. I’ve made that mistake plenty of times already so I’m finally starting to learn from it. I’ll let you know the posting schedule in the next chapter! And thanks to everyone for the support, it really means a lot, honestly. I’m beyond flattered that you guys take the time to read these stories :)

With the help of the other women, Jinkx quickly became accustomed to the shop and settled into her new job with relative ease. In just a few weeks, both she and Ivy had garnered quite a reputation as being on par with some of the best florists in town and foot traffic for the shop had increased several times over. Their unique arrangements combined with the very reasonable pricing made the store a local hot spot, especially among those who preferred to support ‘family’ businesses rather than chain stores. Pretty soon there was even talk of hiring a third assistant but to date, no serious prospects had emerged. If she had to be honest with herself, Jinkx actually preferred it that way. She liked feeling busy while she worked; the days where the shop was empty and there were no orders to be filled were pretty boring to her.

Plus, and it was entirely selfish; she liked the dynamic that was going on between the four of them. She adored spending time with Ivy as they worked on arrangements together, she loved listening to Sharon and Violet bicker endlessly about the stupidest things, she even looked forward to the times when Violet would fall into 'business mode’ and argue with suppliers for better prices or products…also, quickly becoming her favorite was the few minutes in the morning where it was just her and Sharon chatting in the break room before the shop opened for the day.

The first time Jinkx was officially left in charge of opening the shop, she was quite surprised to see the lights already on in the break room. Part of her had thought that perhaps one of the other women simply forgot to turn it off the previous night and was tempted to leave it at that but curiosity compelled her to walk into the room and investigate. To her astonishment, she found Sharon sitting at the table, mug in one hand and cigarette in the other, dressed yet again in a rather thin camisole and tiny shorts that hugged tightly at every curve. A book laid open in front of her but Jinkx wondered if even a single word was registering with her, if the glazed-over look in her eyes was anything to judge by.

She was almost backing out of the room in embarrassment when Sharon’s voice echoed in her ears, “Gonna grab a mug or just keep staring?”

Meekly, Jinkx shuffled into the room with pink cheeks and poured herself a cup of coffee (black because she could feel Sharon’s eyes on her). As soon as she turned around from the coffee pot, her suspicions of being watched were confirmed and her gaze locked with Sharon’s. The older woman gave a small jerk of her head towards the empty chair across from her and within seconds Jinkx found herself facing the blonde and trying not to let her eyes drop any lower than Sharon’s slightly smeared crimson lips.

The situation felt vaguely reminiscent of the few times she had been called to the principal’s office as a child but like then, she was certain she was not in trouble. Even with that rational line of thought, Jinkx still felt an unusual queasiness in her stomach as she sat opposite from Sharon. Noticing her discomfort, the older woman gave her a calming smile and told her, “Don’t look so scared, I just wanted to check in with you.”

Feeling somewhat at ease, Jinkx answered the polite inquiries, slowly allowing herself to become more relaxed in Sharon’s presence. Before she realized it, their work-related conversation had turned into a personal one albeit in a somewhat limited fashion. They were just beginning to discuss less generic topics when Jinkx chanced a glance down at her phone and found that the shop was due to open in just a few minutes. She excused herself, downing the last of her lukewarm coffee in a quick gulp, and dashed out to finish preparing the shop for the first wave of customers.

Slowly but surely, the early morning conversations became a welcome part of Jinkx’s routine. Whenever she found her name listed under the rotation for the first shift, Jinkx felt a little jolt of anticipation for another chance to chat with her boss. That wasn’t to say they didn’t speak during their afternoon or night shifts, it was just that those conversations tended to be more subdued. It was the peace and solitude as they conversed over their coffee that Jinkx felt she really got to know Sharon, blunt behavior aside. Ivy and Violet would gladly fill the afternoon or evening with their own chatter, but Jinkx felt the morning ought to be reserved for Sharon alone.

In the beginning though, Jinkx was admittedly a bit suspicious of the behavior. A few weeks after their coffee breaks had become a regular thing, paranoia creeped at the edges of Jinkx’s mind and she decided to broach the topic with Ivy. She longed to know if Sharon was just being courteous or if she actually was trying to be friendly in her own brusque way.

“Hey Ives,” the redhead began one day as they worked in the alcove on the day’s orders, “When you open the shop in the morning…do you ever see Sharon in the break room?”

“Mm…sometimes,” Ivy said distractedly as she carefully positioned the more delicate flowers of her bouquet amongst the filler greenery.

“Does she…do anything while she’s in there?” Jinkx asked, trying to sound casual as she cut the stems for her newest project.

Tying the ribbon around her vase, Ivy replied, “Usually she’s just parked in front of the coffee pot…I think I’ve seen her smoking at the table once or twice. Why?”

Flustered, Jinkx covered for herself by saying, “I was just wondering…I’ve seen her back there when I open…Does she ever talk to you?”

Ivy’s head immediately shot up at the question and she took a moment to study Jinkx’s expression. Coming to the entirely wrong conclusion, Ivy said sympathetically, “Oh, Jinkx, it’s nothing personal! She’s just not much of a talker in the morning. Neither is Violet really. Those two are practically zombies whenever they’re up that early. I don’t think they really wake up until closer to lunch, to be honest.”

Blushing, Jinkx muttered, “That’s not really-I mean…Thanks, Ivy.”

“Try talking to her in the afternoons,” Ivy put in helpfully, “I’m sure she’ll be happy to chat then. And really, don’t worry about it; she likes you, so does Violet…and me of course!” she added with a bright smile.

All Jinkx could do was nod and hope her face wasn’t as red as it felt. She had no idea how to explain to Ivy that she had the completely wrong idea as to what Sharon was like with her in the mornings; a zombie, yes, but more than willing to chat. As that realization dawned on her, it made those moments she shared with her boss feel just a little more special. Particularly as Sharon was occasionally willing to lower her guard and reveal some of the anxieties she has about running the shop. Most of it was pretty normal; will business keep up, do they have enough security at night, and the most recent cause of concern; should they hire another assistant? Sharon was worried about the financial aspects of adding another florist and the more interpersonal reasons; would lightning strike a third time and provide someone that is both talented and fits in with the shop?

Either luckily or unluckily, Sharon didn’t have to ponder the situation for very long before Violet took a hand yet again and hired their third and final addition to the shop’s family; a cute little blonde that sounded as though she were fresh off the boat.

Jinkx had just walked through the front door to begin her afternoon shift when she heard Sharon’s sarcastic voice resonating from behind the counter, “Let me guess, this one’s name is Daisy or Lily or some shit?”

Jinkx could practically hear the smirk through Violet’s tone as she replied, “Nope…it’s Courtney.”

“Right,” Sharon said un-amused, “And what’s her last name then?”

“'Act’,” the blonde replied politely. Even though it was just one word, her accent was quite apparent and it seemed to catch both Jinkx and Sharon by surprise.

Jinkx did her best to remain unobtrusive as the two owners hashed things out but every so often she found her eyes wandering back to the Aussie as she set to work on the day’s orders. From the brief glances she stole towards the front of the shop, she quite surprised by how adorable the young woman was. It was rather obvious by now that she had not expected to be interviewed that day (or perhaps interrogated is more appropriate) but she still looked very well put together. Her entire look was not as meticulously crafted as Violet’s but the two could easily evaluated on the same scale with little distinction.

Today Violet was wearing a very unique, if somewhat vintage, dress that undoubtedly would turn heads when she left the shop while Courtney had on a more casual, off-the-shoulder cream sweater and dark jeans. Violet was in her usual plain stilettos that gave her at least an extra 4 inches while Courtney made due with a pair of strappy kitten heels that could easily be mistaken for sandals. Her hair was left in loose curls that fell to her mid back while Violet’s was carefully styled and pinned up to keep from brushing against her neck as she worked. The final difference between the two was their choice in make up. Courtney clearly favored a more natural look, almost as if she weren’t wearing any at all, whereas Violet sharply contrasted with her very exact, very precise style using bolder colors perfectly contoured to suit her face. In all the two looked like complete opposites, yet standing together they seemed to complement each other very well.

Even with the distance she kept from the three, Jinkx could see that Courtney was feeling quite intimidated by the older woman. Still, she was trying her best to make a good first impression and kept her bright smile firmly in place as Sharon glanced suspiciously between her and Violet. Jinkx was fully expecting the owners to escort the young blonde to the work benches for the same type of trial run she and Ivy had been given but to her utter shock, Sharon simply gave a defeated sigh and turned around to begin printing off another copy of the new employee forms. Her jaw actually dropped slightly as Sharon handed over the papers without a fight and began instructing the Aussie where to sign and initial. Jinkx couldn’t even bring herself to pretend to work as she watched the older blonde glaring at her business partner in silence as Courtney focused on completing the paperwork as quickly as possible.

As soon as she was done, both she and Violet left the shop rather quickly with Violet pausing to send a pointedly smug smirk towards Sharon. The second the door had shut, the older woman bolted away from the counter and called out to Jinkx to watch the shop for a few minutes while she took a smoke break. She nodded her head in confirmation but she doubted Sharon saw it as she sped across the shop’s floor towards the back. Jinkx longed to follow after her to try and talk or calm her down, her heart actually ached to do so, but her body remained firmly in place. She had never seen anyone so obviously seething before; it was almost a wonder that she had kept her voice and expression as calm as she did while Violet and Courtney were present.

Within a few seconds of Sharon entering the back room, Ivy came bursting through the door as though she were being pursued by an unspeakable monster. Spotting Jinkx at the work tables, she immediately made her way over to find out what the hell had happened in the 10 short minutes she had been back there taking a break. “We have a new assistant,” Jinkx replied ominously.

#albatross #shinkx #witney #trixya #one-sided jivy #jinkx monsoon #sharon needles #willam belli #courtney act #trixie mattel #katya zamolodchikova #ivy winters #fluff #angst #flowershop au #rpdr fanfiction #the language of flowers #lesbian au

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cdelphiki · 6 years ago

Note

Fanfic writer asks: 1, 2, 5 (link it maybe), 7, 11, 12, 13, 20-23, 25, 28. Also, do you think fics should be fully written before the writer starts the publishing process? Why or why not?

Oooh, thanks for the asks. Let’s see:

1. How old were you when you first started writing fanficiton?

It was earlier this year, just about a week before my birthday so technically I was 25.

2. What fandoms do you write for and do you have a particular favorite if you write for more than one?

So far I’ve only published in the Batman fandom. I’ve written in the MCU fandom and not published because they are still too drafty. (A Peter & Tony and a crossover between Batman and Avengers). The batfam is my favorite, for sure. Just love those kids.

5. If you had to choose a favorite out of all of your multi chaptered stories, which would it be and why?

Life Happens, for sure. I only have three long stories so far, and then kind of that little side fic to Life Happens, but out of the three I prefer this story. The Missing Piece was my intro into FanFiction writing. I had only ever written original works, so it was this nice transition to writing characters I did not make up. Cracked Foundation was some random story that popped into my mind when I was working through the plot for Life Happens, actually, and was more of a distraction to me than actual story I loved and worked hard on. There’s a lot about it I really dislike. Actually, I wrote all 20k words for that story in the span of a couple evenings, which probably contributes to my dislike for it. Life Happens has been my baby for months now, and I’ve still not lost interest. So yeah.

7. When is your preferred time to write?

Friday evenings, Saturdays, and Sunday early afternoon/evenings. It kind of sucks because that’s also the time friends like to hang out, and I can’t do both. So really, I try to squeeze it in whenever I can. Usually evening/night time is when I do the best work, though.

11. Have you ever amended a story due to criticisms you’ve received after posting it?

Yes! I added 800 words to a chapter of Life Happens based on feedback that it ended too abruptly and moved too quickly. I have never and will never change the ending of a story, however, because people are mad at me that I didn’t write the story they wanted. I will, however, write fan-service alternate endings. (hint hint wink wink)

In my original work, I have also done major rewrites based on criticism. That’s how writing works. You get feedback and you respond how you see fit.

12. Who is your favorite character to write for and why?

Uh, wow, that’s difficult. I freaking love Damian to pieces. Adore that stupid little brat. But Tim now has a special spot in my heart because I’ve been stuck in his head so long, and Jason is so damn funny. I think my favorite relationship to write is Tim & Damian, and that’s about as close to answering the question as I can get, because I can’t really pick between the three.

13. Who is your least favorite character to write for and why?

Dick, probably. Just because I haven’t quite figured him out. Reading character studies on him has helped a ton, but I just never feel like I hit the mark well with him. I still love him and would put him above all the other characters in the Batman fandom (excluding Bruce, I’d put him squarely between the three other boys and Dick). I tend to just avoid characters I don’t know.

20. Are there any stories you wished you’d ended differently?

Hmm. Not so far.

21. Tell me about another writer(s) who you admire? What is it about them you admire?

Oh, this goes so against my shyness. Eek. I can’t really order them. Looking at my user subscriptions, I’m subscribed to ten people within the fandom, and they are audreycritter, autumnhobbit, bandgeek18, dawnseternallight, dreamersmyth27, fishfingersandjellybabies, lemonadegarden, lowflyingfruit, raberba_girl, and wingfeathers.

Okay, and I’ll just pick a couple to say why I love them so much, but I really do love all these writers. I’m very likely to read whatever they post within the fandom, unless it’s just a ship I really cannot stand. (sorry heh)

With LemonadeGarden, I love the way her stories feel like a dance when you read them, swaying back and forth between dialogue and exposition and whatnot. They are almost dreamlike they are so graceful.

Audreycritter was author of the first fanfic I ever read, and it’s what drew me into FanFiction in the first place. I had been searching for a book about Damian Wayne, because while I love comics, I really wanted that inner dialogue and longer story, and came across Let There Be a Bruise on google. I was actually away at training for work, and I remember spending every single free moment I had reading through one shots on my phone after. I was so entranced. Audrey does Damian’s character justice and I love that about her.

22. Do you have a story that you look back on and cringe when you reread it.

Yes. All of them. There are aspects of all my stories I cringe at, even my current WIPs. It’s just how I am with any form of art I do.

23. Do you prefer listening to music when you’re writing or do you need silence?

It varies. I have ADHD and sometimes listening to music helps me tune the world out and focus, and other times I get really caught up in the music and start paying attention to it instead. Just depends on the day, what my mood is, and what kind of music I put on.

25. Have you ever cried whilst writing a story?

Yes. I’ve cried a couple times writing Life Happens. By cry, I mean I teared up pretty heavily. I did so many times while plotting it out, too. Some of my whumptober fics have had the same effect on me. I’m weird and love when that happens.

28. What is something you wished you’d known before you started posting fanfiction?

I can’t really think of anything, to be honest. I’ve only been writing FanFiction since March. Maybe that Tumblr is such a great place to read about the various characters and learn more about what makes them tick.

And finally, do you think fics should be fully written before the writer starts the publishing process? Why or why not?

I have done both ways and I see the pros and cons of each. For me, the comments are what drive me and keep me motivated, so with my longer two works there is no way I would have found the ability to focus and stay driven to finish out the story if I didn’t have someone there reminding me that they want to read what happens next.

But, when you write the entire thing out first, you can make sure the entire story flows well, nothing is mismatched, and the beginning and end lend themselves to each other. So yeah. Also, you don’t give the audience 10 chapters and get right to the climax then quit and leave every hanging forever. I know we’ve all read stories like that.

I don’t see an issue with writing chapter by chapter, as long as you keep in mind that it’s perfectly okay to go backward in the story and edit. In ‘real’ fiction, authors are constantly revising earlier chapters to fit with how the story went, so there’s nothing wrong with doing so in fanficiton, even if you’ve already ‘published’ it.

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whimsicallyenchantedrose · 6 years ago

Text

The Strongest Magic--pt. 3

The Strongest Magic

Pairing: CS (duh! That’s pretty much all I ever write!)

Setting: Neverland, just after 3x8

Rating: Somewhere between K+ and T

Summary: Pan has stolen Henry’s heart, but all is not yet lost. Emma, the Charmings, Hook, Regina and Rumplestiltskin must defeat Pan within six hours or Henry will die. Pan discovers the heart of the truest believer doesn’t contain the strongest magic of all. For that, he will need Emma’s heart. When Hook realizes what Emma’s planning, he makes a desperate plan to save her life.

Previous sections: (Part 1) (Part 2)

A/N In honor of the Neverland Renaissance that seems to have swept Tumblr (I approve; I definitely approve!), and in honor the fact that it’s Throwback Thursday I decided to revisit one of my early CS fics. (In fact, this is my very first fanfiction of any kind, so be gentle, lol.) It was written during the 2 week break between 3x8 and 3x9, so it’s canon to that point. This was written long before I joined Tumblr, so I’ve never posted it here, and I figured, with the resurgence of interest in Neverland, why not? Anyway, it’s a multi chapter, but rather than spam your dash with 9 separate posts, I decided to divide it up into 3 sections. Enjoy!

A/N 2: Okay, so apparently I either never posted part three of this story back when I posted it for Throwback Thursday, or Tumblr ate it. So, in order to rectify the situation (I kind of left Killian dead at the end of the previous part, and we know that can’t stand!), I decided to post/repost. Enjoy!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chapter 7: A Change of Course

Emma sat heavily on her bunk below decks of the Jolly Roger. The ship had taken off ten minutes ago, Neal at the helm. Emma clutched Hook's letter firmly in her hand. She'd already read it three times. How had it come to this? How had Captain Hook come to matter to her in such a profound way that it seemed she was leaving a vital part of herself behind on Neverland. Hook had given his heart for her, but she was the one who felt like she had a giant gaping hole in her chest.

This is what happened when you let yourself care for someone. No use denying it now. She did care about him. He said he wanted her to go home and live a joy-filled life, but how exactly could she do that under the circumstances? She would never be able to explore the…whatever…that was starting to develop between them. She would always wonder what could have been. And she couldn't even pretend she hated him, like she had with Neal. Hook hadn't betrayed her; he'd shown selfless devotion to her.

It hurt to care. Oh, how she longed for an average boring life. She wished she'd never met Hook. No, that wasn't true. Her life was infinitely enriched from having known him, having been loved by him. If only she could just stop feeling. She just wanted to go numb. Too bad Regina was out of sleeping curses, she could use the peace you could find in sleep.

The tears began to flow again. She had cried more during the last few days on this bloody island than she ever had before in her life. She laughed grimly to herself. She'd called it the "bloody island;" she was even starting to think like him!

There was a soft knock on her door.

"Come in," she called listlessly.

"I thought you might like some company," Mary Margaret said as she walked in and sat on the bunk beside Emma.

"Yeah," Emma said, running her hands through her hair and sighing. "Maybe it would be better not to be alone right now."

Mary Margaret put her arm around Emma, and Emma laid her head on her mother's shoulder.

"He loved me," Emma said bleakly.

"Yes," Mary Margaret agreed, laying her cheek against the top of her daughter's head. "Long before…well before what just happened, that was becoming obvious. The question is, what are your feelings for him?"

Emma was quiet for a long time. When she did speak, her voice was so soft Mary Margaret had to strain to hear it. "I…I think I love him too."

"Oh, honey," Mary Margaret said gently, "I'm so sorry. I can't imagine the pain you're feeling right now."

"Yeah," Emma said brusquely. "You know what the hell of it is? After Neal, I swore to myself I'd never love another man, never let another man have enough power over me to make me hurt, yet here I am. I almost wish I could hate Hook. Hate would be easier to deal with."

They were silent for several minutes. Emma appreciated Mary Margaret's silence. She was glad her mother wasn't throwing stereotypical words of comfort at her. Sometimes sorrow is too deep for words.

Mary Margaret chuckled softly to herself.

"I was just thinking about the day we met Hook," Mary Margaret said. "Who would have thought that debonair, ruthless pirate would one day save your life?"

Emma smiled. "He was so full of crap. He had so many one-liners up his sleeve, it was a wonder that black leather jacket fit over his arms!"

"What happened up on that beanstalk?" Mary Margaret asked, rubbing Emma's back. "You seemed different when you got back. You seemed to think even worse of him than when the two of you went up."

"I don't know," Emma said evasively. "I guess I just got scared. We worked so well together up there, and there was already, I don't know, a spark, I guess. I could see already that he would help me in any way I needed, and it scared me. I was scared I might be wrong about him. Then, afterwards, I guess I was kind of ashamed that I'd chained him up there. He had, after all kept his end of the bargain. I'm kind of surprised he even wanted anything to do with me again after that."

There was silence again for several moments, and then Emma spoke up again.

"Mom?" Emma could tell Mary Margaret was pleased to be addressed like that. "Is love really worth it?"

"I wouldn't trade a moment I've had with your father for anything in the world," Mary Margaret said simply. "It wasn't always easy. His step father was against the match; my step mother was against…well, me and anything that might make me happy; the curse made him think he was married to another woman; I was stuck in a different realm when we were sucked into the Enchanted Forest. Through it all, I always had that faith that somehow, your father and I would always find each other."

The anger started then. Anger at her parents for their "happily ever after." Anger at herself for falling in love again. Even anger at Hook.

"He lied to me, Mom!" Emma ground out. She balled her hands into fists. "On the way back from the Swamp of Despair, he lied to me. He promised me he would never leave me. He swore it to me! Now look. He has left me!"

"No, Mom," came a voice from the door. Emma hadn't even heard Henry come in. "He didn't leave you; you left him! You're the one who left him on Neverland."

"Henry," Mary Margaret said gently, "now isn't the time. Your mom's pretty upset."

Henry paid no attention to Mary Margaret, but walked into the room and stopped right before Emma. "He saved my life. I couldn't believe it, but Captain Hook saved my life! We have to save him!"

Emma felt the lump in her throat grow larger. "Henry," she said taking his hands and looking into his face, "there is nothing in this world I would rather do, but I just can't. Pan's won. Hook's body has gone cold already. If it was just me, I would go back and try anyway, but it's not. I can't put you in danger like that."

"Mom, you love him, don't you?"

"Yeah kid, I do." Emma answered simply. One solitary tear trickled down her face. She briskly wiped it away.

"Don't you see?" he asked earnestly "That's it! True love is the strongest power on earth. Love is strength. Believe in your love. You can use love to save Hook!"

Believe in your love; love is strength. Those phrases tugged at Emma. She gasped. Love is strength. She had said those very words to Cora when she performed her first bit of magic. She had pushed Mary Margaret out of the way…out of love…and Cora was not able to take her heart. She thought of the fires she'd finally been able to start in Neverland. She produced the fire when she thought of Henry, when she thought about how much she loved him, how much she wanted to protect him from Pan. What about what happened at Dark Hollow? She'd been able to light the candle only after Hook was taken by the shadow. It was fear for him, love of him that had allowed her to light the flame.

Regina was wrong. The strongest magic wasn't fueled by anger, it was fueled by love! Love was the source of her magic!

"Henry's right," Emma said animatedly. She jumped to her feet. "We've got to go back. We've got to save Hook. It may be crazy, but I've got to try!"

Emma raced toward the helm. Neal stood at the wheel talking and joking with Tinkerbelle.

"Neal, turn around!" Emma shouted. "We've got to go back! Hook needs our help!"

Suddenly everyone began talking at once.

"Emma, what are you talking about?"

"Have you lost your mind, dearie?"

"Not a chance, Miss Swan."

"Emma, we've already talked about this…"

"David, she's right."

Could they all just shut up for a second? They were wasting time!

"GUYS!" she shouted loud enough to drown everyone out. They all fell silent and turned toward her. "We can't just leave him. You know we can't. Look at all he's done for us, all of us throughout this whole Neverland nightmare! He's been our guide. He's saved Henry's life and David's life, and my life. He's rescued Neal. He's been my rock, and…I love him."

Neal's face clouded, and Tinkerbelle discreetly stepped back.

"Emma, what are you saying?" Neal asked in a pained voice.

This was neither the time nor the place for this discussion, but then, she supposed there would never be a good time or a place for it.

"Neal," she said gently, stepping forward to touch his arm. "A part of me will always love you. You never quite forget your first love. But things have changed. I've changed. I'm not the same person I was 11 years ago. Neither are you. Look, I know you had the best of intentions and everything, but what happened back then, you letting August convince you to send me to jail…well, it left a scar. A deep, painful scar, that is only now beginning to heal. Neal, I do forgive you for what happened, but there are some things a person just can't ever forget."

"Emma, please," Neal pleaded, his hand gripping hers. "I know I was wrong. I know I hurt you, but our love can overcome this."

"That's just it, Neal," Emma said sadly. She didn't want to hurt him, but she had to make him understand. "What we had was beautiful, and I'll never regret it because it brought us Henry, but I don't think it was true love."

If possible, Neal looked even more wounded.

"I've seen the love my parents share," she continued. "They'd do anything for each other. I thought I'd never be able to find that kind of love, but I have. It's like…I don't know…it's like there has always been this piece of me that was missing. When Hook gave his life for Henry, for me, well, I knew he was the one that completed me."

Neal dropped his eyes.

"Neal," she said touching his arm again. He looked back up at her, "you deserve to find the woman who completes you like that."

He merely looked at her for several moments and then nodded. His eyes flickered briefly to the side. Toward Tinkerbelle? What exactly happened on that trip to Pixie Hollow?

"This is all very touching, dearie," Rumplestiltskin said striding forward, "but you can't honestly be suggesting we go back and take on Pan for a man who is already dead!"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Emma said earnestly. "Look, there's never been any love lost between you and Hook. I get that. But what about Pan? Do we just leave him there…all powerful? Do we let him bask in his victory? Give him the power to terrorize other people, other families the way he's terrorized us? We need to defeat him, so that he can never hurt anyone else again."

"Emma," Charming said firmly, taking a step forward, "we just can't do this. It's too late."

"No," Mary Margaret said firmly. Emma shot a grateful look at her mother. "Charming, what is it we always say to each other? I'll find you. I'll always find you. Our love has always been strong enough to overcome any obstacle. It's time we let our daughter go after her true love. She believes her love can save him, and I believe in her."

They looked at each other for several moments. Finally Charming nodded.

Rumplestiltskin growled deep in his throat. "Regina," he said, "talk some sense into them!"

Regina looked at Emma for a moment, an assessing look on her face. Finally she rolled her eyes. "Sorry Gold," she said grimly, "but I've found it to be fruitless to try to change Miss Swan's mind once she's made it up."

"Alright everyone," Neal said, turning back to the wheel. "Prepare for a change of course. Neverland, here we come!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chapter 8: The Final Battle

"I'll stay with the boy," Tinkerbelle offered. "I have no desire to confront an angry and immortal Pan."

"Thank you," Emma said gratefully.

"Mom," Henry said earnestly, "I want to come too. I can help."

"No!" said Emma, Regina, Snow, Charming, Neal and Rumplestiltskin.

"Kid," Emma said, crouching down so that she was on eye level with her son, "We need to know you're safe. This is going to be a difficult and dangerous mission, and we'll need to focus all our energy on saving Hook and defeating Pan. We can't worry about you being in danger."

"But I can help!" Henry insisted. "I have the heart of the truest believer. I'm not afraid of Pan."

"Henry," Charming tried, crouching down so that he was next to Emma, "do you remember when your mom and grandma were stuck in the Enchanted Forest and I started teaching you about becoming a knight?"

"Yeah," Henry said uncomfortably, shifting from one foot to the other.

"Remember, what I said about courage?"

"Yeah," Henry said with a sigh, "You said that sometimes courage means not acting when you want to. Sometimes it means staying behind."

"Exactly," Charming said. "This is one of those times. I need you to stay on board the Jolly Roger and protect Tinkerbelle. I need you to guard the pixie dust and make sure the ship is ready to make a quick getaway as soon as we return."

Henry sighed. "Okay. Just be careful, okay?"

Emma hugged Henry once more and looked up at Charming. Thank you, she mouthed. He nodded in acknowledgement.

The rescue party, led by Emma cautiously walked off the gangplank and onto the shores of Neverland. Would Pan know of their return already? Would he set a trap for them? As they carefully walked across the shore, their confidence increased. No one was there to meet them.

"Come on," Emma shouted, breaking into a run, "We've got no time to waste."

They ran at a breakneck pace until they reached the mouth of Skull Rock. Emma rested for a moment in the entrance, leaning against a wall to catch her breath.

"What's the plan, Miss Swan?" Regina asked breathlessly.

"I need to make sure Hook is here," she said, her glance encompassing the whole group. "And…I need a moment with him."

Mary Margaret rubbed Emma's shoulder. "Go on honey. We'll guard the entrance of the cave until you call for us."

Emma walked slowly forward. The cave was well lit, both by the sconce burning on the wall and by the brilliant green pillar of light in the center. She had barely entered the cave before she saw Hook's lifeless body lying awkwardly on the floor. No one had arranged it after he fell; he looked so uncomfortable.

Emma ran to him and collapsed beside his body. She clasped his cold hand with one of hers, and gently brushed his dark hair from his brow with the other. She'd known what he'd done for her and for Henry, but seeing him here brought it home to her all the more vividly. The tears filled her eyes again, but she ruthlessly pushed them away. If she was to defeat Pan, she had to stay clear-headed. She couldn't afford to indulge in emotion.

"Hook…Killian," she whispered caressing his icy cheek, "I will find a way to save you. I love you."

She leaned forward and gently kissed his still lips. A wave of magic, warm and rose-colored erupted from their joined lips, and quickly spread to fill the entire cave. Of course! Emma thought to herself. Why didn't I think of this before? True love's kiss! Could it restore Hook? She watched him intently. Color slowly came back into his face and hands. Emma hastily cupped his face in her hands once again. He was warm!

"Wake up!" she whispered, "Come back to me!" She waited several minutes, caressing his face, his hands, his hair, but he never stirred.

Emma knew a moment of disappointment, but then she gathered her resolve back around her. If true love's kiss could revive him enough to bring warmth back into his body, she knew her love could defeat Pan!

Peter Pan abruptly stopped playing his pipes and raised his hands for quiet. The lost boys immediately stopped their dance.

"What is it?" Felix asked.

Pan clutched at his chest, where Hook's heart had suddenly begun to pound. "They're back, and they've reached the captain."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Felix asked with a cold smile. "Let's go show them what happens to those who refuse to heed Pan's instructions!"

Emma had gotten to her feet and was striding toward the cave's entrance when she heard her mother's shout.

"We've got company!"

"We've got to guard his body!" Emma shouted back. "Help me."

Snow, Charming, Regina, Neal and Rumplestiltskin poured into the cave. Each took a place, until they had Hook completely surrounded. Emma was in front facing the opening of the cave.

"Take care of the lost boys," she ordered, naturally falling back into the role of leader, "Pan is mine."

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than the lost boys rushed into the cave, their war cries echoing along the stone walls. Emma expected them to attack immediately, but they didn't. They surrounded them, raised their weapons and then waited.

Pan flew in on a jet of yellow-green light. He landed before Emma. The mocking look that she was used to seeing on his face was gone, replaced with a deadly earnestness.

"I thought my instructions to Henry were crystal clear," Pan growled, "You should be halfway back to your beloved Storybrook by now."

Emma shook her head. "That's not how true love works. I won't leave Hook to rot on this island. He's coming back to Storybrook with us…him AND his heart!"

"You're weak!" Pan spat back at her, "You let your heart dictate your actions. You think your love can save him? Well, you're about to find out how worthless your pathetic love is!"

"Well let's get on with it then," Emma ground out.

Pan gave a sign with his hand, and with a cry, the lost boys attacked. Emma drew her sword and advanced on Pan. The cries and shouts of pitched battle were going on all around her. She heard the metallic sound of swords clashing. The whooshing of an arrow leaving it's quiver, the crackling of a fireball, and some sort of crashing sound that must be Rumplestiltskin's magical weapon of choice.

She swung at Pan, but he disappeared and materialized several feet away. How the hell was she supposed to fight an enemy that she couldn't even seem to touch? She advanced and tried again, but her progress was stopped by a lost boy who fell at her feet, an arrow protruding from his shoulder.

"Looking for me?" came a voice from behind her. She whirled and raised her sword in both hands.

She realized her mistake immediately. Pan was there, far too near her. With both arms raised, her chest was exposed, and Pan held a knife high, poised to plunge right into her heart!

"Emma!" she heard her mother scream. It seemed like time moved in slow motion. She saw Pan's arm swing downward, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She closed her eyes, bracing herself for the blinding, screaming pain.

But it never came. She abruptly opened her eyes and saw a brief look of shock on Pan's face. He struck out again, but the knife stopped two inches from her chest as though it had come in contact with an invisible wall. Pan uttered a cry of rage.

What was going on here? Suddenly, understanding dawned on Emma's face. "You can't touch me!" She said in wonder, her eyes widening. "Hook's heart beats in your chest, and it won't let you harm the woman he loves!"

Charming hurtled through the sea of combatants, clearly coming to her aid.

"Stay back, Dad," Emma yelled. Charming stopped abruptly. The lost boys must have sensed that something momentous was about to happen, because almost as one they dropped their weapons and turned toward Emma and Pan.

Emma sheathed Neal's sword. She knew, she suddenly had absolute confidence that it would be the magic of her love and no other weapon that would defeat Pan. The boy stood still, wearing a look of utter bafflement on his face.

Emma closed her eyes and extended her hands. She thought of Henry back at the ship. She thought of her parents fighting with all their might to help and protect her. She thought of Hook lying still and dead on the floor of the cave. Love welled up from the very depths of her being. She felt its force and power flowing from her heart, through her arms and out her fingertips.

Pan gasped, and Emma opened her eyes. Rose-colored light flowed from her fingers and coiled around Pan like a rope. He struggled, but he was completely immobilized. The love light bound him from the neck down. Only a small space just over his heart remained free of the entanglement.

"Regina, get over here!" Emma ordered. "We need Hook's heart!"

Regina stepped forward and extended her open hand toward Pan's chest, but she couldn't reach inside.

"Emma, honey," Snow White breathed, "It has to be you. The heart belongs to you. You're the one who has to retrieve it."

Shaking slightly, Emma extended her hand. It slipped through Pan's chest as easily as it would slip through warm water. She grasped Hooks warm, beating heart, and gently pulled it out.

"No!" Pan shouted. The column of light faded until it was almost nonexistent.

Emma looked at the heart. It was bright red and strong. Not a smudge marred it. Here was proof, if anyone needed it, that Hook was a hero.

Gently, Emma slid to her knees before Hook. She extended her hand and slipped his heart back into its place in his chest. Emma watched and waited a beat. Two beats. Suddenly his eyes opened.

"Emma," he breathed gently, smiling and reaching up to cup her face.

"Hook!" she yelled, tears streaming down her face. She raised him up and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. His heart beat strong and steady against her ear.

"I love you!" she whispered over and over again.

"Look!" Neal called out, gesturing to the center of the cave.

Emma pulled herself back from Hook far enough to see where Neal was pointing. The light in the center of the cave was suddenly extinguished. In its place sat the giant hourglass Emma remembered seeing during her first trip to Skull Rock. The top of the hourglass was more than half empty and the sand rushed out at a breakneck speed.

"No!" Pan shouted.

It took only minutes for the last grain of sand to settle into the bottom of the hourglass. Pan fell to the ground and closed his eyes. A wave of green light settled over his still form, and when it lifted, Peter Pan was gone. In his place lay a middle aged gentleman with longish brown hair and a red coat.

"Papa," Rumplestiltskin breathed in an agonized whisper. Then, he firmly turned his back on the man who had abandoned him for a chance at eternal youth.

Peter Pan was no more.

Half an hour later they were on the docks where the Jolly Roger awaited them. It was over. It was finally over. Peter Pan could never harm anyone again. Hook was surprised at the extreme wave of relief that suffused his entire body. He was only a few minutes from leaving Neverland…for good this time.

They were walking up the gangplank in groups of two. Snow and Charming led the way followed by Regina and Henry. Rumplestiltskin and Neal, talking animatedly, came next, followed by Tinkerbelle and Wendy. Hook, walking near Emma, took a step onto the gangplank, but she stopped him with a hand to his arm.

"Hook," she said looking him straight in the eye, "For the record. You are the most honorable man I know. What you heard in the swamp was dead wrong. You're not a villain or a looser. You're a hero. Thank you. For all you've done for us. Without you, Henry would have died."

Hook dropped his eyes. He had been a "villain" for so long, he hardly knew how to receive praise and thanks anymore. But it gratified him. Particularly from this woman, it gratified him. The "charming rogue" mask he'd worn for so long to hide his true emotions slipped into place.

"Well, love," he said with a grin, "I seem to remember you offered me a display of your gratitude for saving your father's life not too long ago. I wouldn't turn down a repeat performance."

Her grin matched his. "I don't know," she flirted, "I kind of thought saving your life back there at Skull Rock was thanks enough."

"True enough, lass," he returned, "It would appear I'm the one who owes you a debt of gratitude."

Hook brought his good hand to Emma's cheek and moved forward. He waited when he was a hairs-breadth away from her and looked into her eyes. If she pulled back, he would step away. It would nearly kill him, but he would step away. But there was no hesitation in Emma's eyes, only invitation, and a deep abiding love.

Hook closed the distance and settled his lips onto hers. This was a slow kiss, a gentle one. It had none of the urgency and fire of their first kiss, but in some ways it was eminently sweeter. Emma's arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer, and his encircled her waist. The kiss went on and on, but eventually he ended it. He rested his head against hers for a moment, trying to catch his breath.

"That was…" he began, just as he had after their first kiss.

"A three time thing?" she replied, and he could hear the laughter in her voice.

"Not hardly!" he growled, and planted a quick peck on her lips as a punctuation to his sentence.

"Let's go home," Emma said with a radiant smile. It was like the sun breaking out on a cloudy day.

Hook sighed. "I've had no place to call home for as long as I can remember. Are you sure you want me with you when we get back to Storybrooke?"

Her smile turned tender. "Hook, don't you get it? With the strongest magic in all the realms binding us together, how could I want you anywhere else?"

The End!

#cs ff #cs neverland ff #my fanfiction #my very first fanfiction #throwback...friday?#the strongest magic

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aroworlds · 7 years ago

Text

Aro-Spec Artist Profile: Alex

Today I have the delight of introducing Alex, better known to aro-spec Tumblr as @arotaro and @mutant-jojos!

Alex is a bisexual, half-Puerto Rican multi-disciplinary aromantic artist and creative with severe ADHD. You’ll find her prolific fanworks on AO3 as EmeraldTrash666, writing primarily for the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fandom. Her bold, colourful art for the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Fullmetal Alchemist, Hetalia, Pokemon and Vocaloid fandoms is also available on Redbubble under the name StellaHagane.

She writes, she creates digital art and she dabbles in music, sewing and fashion design, single-handedly proving that there’s no such thing as too much creative awesome for any one aromantic!

With us Alex talks about finding the word aro, the power of fandom and creative fanworks, her love of aro Jotaro, the challenges of creating with ADHD, the struggles of being an aro gen writer in fandom and the importance of expressing our aro headcanons. Everything she says is absolutely on point, so please let’s give her all our love, encouragement, gratitude, kudos and follows for taking the time to explore what it is to be aromantic and creative.

Can you share with us your story in being aro-spec?

I guess in some ways my “story” starts out pretty typical. Got older, kept waiting for my First Crush™, never got it, started worrying and trying to force myself to develop crushes. I actually was in a relationship with another girl on a forum I was part of as a teenager, but eventually I realized that I didn’t really like her romantically, and the relationship started to become really unpleasant for me. I eventually felt so miserable that I didn’t even want to talk at her at all, even though we were close friends, but I didn’t want to break up with her - partly because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, partly because we were everyone’s “OTP” and I didn’t want my friends to hate me for ruining that. But eventually I did break up with her, and I’m happy to say she took it with grace and we’re still close friends today! (She’s ace and a great writer/artist herself, too!)

I was part of a very nice LGBTQ+ group as a teenager, but I could never figure out my identity. I felt really ashamed and alone. Whenever I brought up how messed up I felt because I’d never had a crush on anyone, everyone was like, “Oh, sounds like you must be asexual!”, but I knew I wasn’t, and that was the worst part. Even though I knew aromanticism was a thing, nobody ever talked about it. It was only ever in the context of aroaces, so I didn’t know I was aro. I thought I must have had some sort of mental illness or something, but certainly not a legitimate orientation, nothing to be proud of like everyone else.

During that time, I found myself connecting on a deep emotional level to characters like Alphonse Elric, Fujiwara no Sai, the X-Men in general (although I’ve been an X-Men fan since I was literally a baby), basically anyone who was somehow “different” from the rest of humanity, even though I never understood why, since I was a fairly privileged kid who had never experienced much bullying or anything. Weirdly enough, it was Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure that helped me realize I was aro and come to terms with it; I saw an interview with Hirohiko Araki, the author of JJBA, where he was asked what type of girls Jotaro Kujo likes, and replied that he didn’t think Jotaro liked girls. The obvious interpretation would be that Jotaro’s gay, but somehow, one way or another, I decided to go with the idea that Jotaro’s aromantic. Jotaro also happened to be a character I really related to for reasons I couldn’t quite articulate, so around the time I was 18 I put two and two together and was like ... oh shit…

Please click keep reading to continue Alex’s story!

Can you share with us the story behind your creativity?

I’ve always been weird in the way I’m very creative, but tend to kinda bounce around from hobby to hobby. Other people draw, or write, or sing, while I draw for a month, and then write for a month and sew for a week and play video games for a week, and then I draw some more, and then I try out something completely new, and then I write again. I think it must be an ADHD thing, idk. In any case, I’ve just always been really passionate about making stuff, whatever that stuff happens to be.

I’ve also always been very much fandom-oriented. Ever since I was a toddler, I used to dictate fanfiction to my mom (back then it usually involved Winnie the Pooh, the Powerpuff Girls, Godzilla, and my dog). I mostly draw fanart. I find that I’m not really capable of writing original stories, but I’m great at getting fanfics in character, and I love writing them. I love taking stories I already love and reinterpreting them, seeing what it would be like if the characters were put into different situations, etc.

Because of my ADHD, I really struggle with actually finishing things. I try really really hard, I really do, and I’ve been trying to push myself even harder these past few years. I’ve made progress, but it’s still extremely difficult, so I’m very sorry for all the projects I’ve abandoned over the years. Sorry I still haven’t finished the fic that was supposed to be done in early March. I’m trying, really. I promise I’m working on the next chapter of BLaD, too.

Are there any particular ways your aro-spec experience is expressed in your art?

Of course, pretty much everything I write is gen. Even if I include romantic relationships in my fics, I never write about romance, just stories which also happen to include some characters who might be dating someone. And obviously I always write Jotaro as aro! That’s really important to me. No matter which AU I’m writing, he’s always aro. (And autistic, but that’s off topic.)

I’m also not really into shipping because of my romance repulsion, but I ship Joseph Joestar and Caesar Zeppeli. The thing is … I’ve always viewed it as a unique relationship, sort of difficult to define as being strictly romantic or platonic or sexual, just kind of their own thing that defies words. That’s how I’ve always written it. I had the sudden realization recently that this strange view on the only ship I really actually like (at the moment, anyway) is probably due to my being aro, lmao.

What challenges do you face as an aro-spec artist?

People don’t read gen fics, and people aren’t interested in aro stories. That’s just the way it is. I do have some dedicated readers, whom I love deeply, but in general… I could post something with a deep plot, something funny and dramatic and witty and touching, something I poured my heart and soul into for months, and it’ll get very few hits/comments/kudos, while someone else could post the same generic 2,000-word romance fic everyone’s seen a dozen times over, with no editing or anything, and get twice the amount of traffic my fics do in half the time. It’s really crushing.

How do you connect to the aro-spec and a-spec communities as an aro-spec person?

I dunno… The aro community feels so small. Online, I have a small circle of aro mutuals who all kind of vent collectively, and I’m part of Arocalypse and a few aro/aspec Discord servers, but I still feel like there isn’t really much of a larger community to be part of in the same way that there is for other orientations. Offline, I’ve never met another aro, or even anyone who actually knows what aromanticism is prior to me explaining it to them.

I also don’t feel like there’s a very unified “aspec community”. As an allo aro, I feel very rejected by the ace community - not to say that I feel like I should be part of the ace community, since I’m not ace, but I feel like they throw aros under the bus a lot. I mean, we’ve all seen the “asexuals can feel love, just like anybody else! … oh, except for aroaces, I guess. But the rest of us are normal, so you should accept us!” rhetoric. Both within and outside the aspec communities, aros are rarely treated with the same priority as aces, even though we’re arguably in a much more difficult position than your average allo ace.

That being said, I’m glad there is an aro community at all. I don’t know where I’d be now if I were still questioning. Probably not in a very good place.

How do you connect to your creative community as an aro-spec person?

As I mentioned, there’s a general lack of interest in gen fics or sympathy for romance-repulsed people in general. It’s really difficult being romance repulsed in fandom spaces, because nobody cares about anything other than ships. There are very few gen fics, and even less that are a decent length, not abandoned, or cater to my specific interests, so I have to write my own. I don’t often have anything good to read; most of the big fics, the ones with cool plots and long word counts and ongoing updates, are ship fics. If I’m lucky, maybe two gen fics will be posted in one week, and maybe one of them will be longer than a few thousand words. Maybe one might even have my favorite characters. But usually genfics are few and far between, and kind of random in terms of what you’ll get. Sometimes I get so bored that I read ship fics anyway, and then I always wind up feeling really awful afterwards.

I’ve written, over the course of the past two years alone, over 20 gen fics. But whenever I vent that sometimes I’d like to actually get to read something, I always get someone telling me, “Well if you want gen fics, write some yourself! You have to make the change! You can’t demand people write stuff for you!” And of course, at the same time it’s totally acceptable to request ship fics from your favorite author, and if you complain that there aren’t enough fics for your rarepair, it’s seen as relatable and totally valid.

Fandom is just … really, really amatonormative, tbh. I hate it. I’m trying to make a difference (I did organize Gen Jojo Week along with my friend Rachel last year, and hopefully will again this year), but there’s only so much I can do.

How can the aro-spec community best help you as a creative?

Aside from reblogging my art and promoting my fics? Talk about stuff. Talk about aro stuff in fandom. Seriously! I know it seems obvious that aro people would like aro headcanons and gen fics and all that, but we need to talk about them more. Nobody outside the community gives enough of a shit about us to have aro headcanons, so let’s get them popular. Talk about your favorite aro headcanons. Talk about your favorite gen fics. Talk about how such-and-such character is totally aro; talk about how excited you are to see aro characters in fics. My dream is for aro headcanons to become just as common and popular as any other type of headcanon.

Can you share with us something about your current project?

This is old news to most of the people who already know me, but my current big project that I’ve been working on for several years now is Between Life and Death, a drama/horror/supernatural JJBA fic.

(WARNING: PHANTOM BLOOD AND STARDUST CRUSADERS SPOILERS BELOW.)

The plot of the fic is that Dio wins at the end of Stardust Crusaders, and after realizing that he has no hobbies other than harassing the Joestars, he decides to bring Jonathan back by sticking his head (which… we’ll just assume Dio preserved for plot purposes) onto Jotaro’s body. Obviously, Jonathan is NOT happy with this arrangement, but it also turns out that Jotaro’s still alive, just not in control of his body. He can still use his stand, so he essentially uses Star Platinum as a sort of proxy for interacting with the environment around him, even though he only comes out when Jonathan’s alone since he doesn’t want Dio to know he’s alive.

Basically, it’s the story of a depressed vampire and a traumatized ghost. It’s a very introspective fic; most of the story consists of conflicts between Dio and Jonathan, and Jonathan and Jotaro struggling to come to terms with their new existences - Jonathan being unable to reconcile vampirism with his personal morals, and Jotaro having one hell of an identity crisis while also mourning the deaths of his friends and family. The plot is picking up, though, and there is an end goal in mind, as well as an eventual sequel!

As for where the story-in-progress is at right now … well, the next “stage” of the plot is hamon training for Kakyoin and Avdol, which will be fun. This chapter also includes several dream sequences, including an extended appearance by Mary Joestar (Jonathan’s mom), and a very serious and dark scene which I almost ruined by having dream!Will Zeppeli refer to Jonathan as his padawan. Yeah.

Have you any forthcoming works we should look forward to?

As mentioned, I’m working on chapter 9 of Between Life and Death! And working on and off on some stuff for the mutants AU. Most recently, on a whim I rewrote the lyrics to Handbeat Clocktower by MOTHY to be about Jonathan Joestar. Somehow this went far enough that I’m making an actual UTAU rendition of this “parody”, and hopefully it’ll be done sometime in the next few weeks. I’m really having fun with it and I hope people like it!

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what-even-is-thiss · 7 years ago

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Sanders Sides Avatar Au, Part 13 (final chapter)

This is the conclusion to a multi chapter fic in an AU where Thomas is the avatar in an atla type universe. Refer to the intro and chapter list post for more details.

So, this is the end of the story. Well, stories never really end but you know what I mean. Sorry for taking so long to update and thank you so much to everybody that commented on these chapters. It’s what keeps me writing. Normally I only write short stories so thank you all for sticking with me on this bittersweet little adventure.

Tip Jar

Intro and chapter list

Warning for a small fight. 1,685 words.

Back, and then jump. Freeze. Water blast. A hit. Sorry. It’s like dancing, only easier. Wow. Jump again. Go with the flow. Heh, flow.

Thomas dodged another ice pick. He knocked his last opponent over and stood panting. He turned to Kana, who was waiting up in the stands. Everyone else looked to her as well.

The old warrior smiled half a smile and nodded.

Thomas stood in shock. He started laughing. Several friends jumped over the barrier and ran across the arena to him. He couldn’t keep track of who was hugging him when until he felt himself lifted up and lifted onto a pair of shoulders. Leo’s shoulders.

“Let’s hear it for Thomas!” someone yelled.

Although the crowd was small it was enthusiastic. Thomas got Leo to put him down and then started crying. It was over. After all this time. He passed.

Thomas held his parents in his arms for almost a full minute. He left after he finished visiting with them to where Leo was staying. He took a good look at the scar on his leg.

“Man. So they couldn’t prevent that?” Thomas asked.

“Nope. Unfortunately not.” said Leo. “But I’m back on my feet with all my limbs. So how are you doing?”

Thomas looked at the hotel ceiling and thought for a minute.

“Different. Changed. It’s not bad, though. I don’t think it is. We got back safely. The water tribe fixed their wall. I passed my exam.”

“Are you okay though? You’ve been well, not quite as bubbly I guess.”

Thomas thought about it for a minute and then smiled.

“Yeah. You know what? I think I am okay. I am. It was scary, and I remember the whole thing from four different perspectives but I think I’m okay. Or I’m going to be.”

Leo gave him a hug. They talked for the rest of the night.

“So when’s your movie coming out, again?” Talyn asked.

“A week from tomorrow.” Joan said, crawling across the carpet to turn the dial on the moving picture box. “Just for one day though.”

“Is it just me, or is it weird suddenly living normally again?” Talyn asked.

“It’s not just you.” Joan said, flicking past another news station.

“Is Thomas coming to the screening?”

“No, I think he has a speech or something. Going to Republic City to talk to the senate or some other important Avatar thing. I’m not entirely sure. We can’t go. I already checked.”

Talyn sighed. “Well that blows. What do you think Patton is saying about all this?”

Joan smirked. “Probably crying.”

Thomas took a deep breath.

“Come on. Just like those stupid plays we were in, remember?” Leo said. “Only easier.”

“Sounds like what Logan is saying. No real reason to be anxious.” Thomas said. “Thanks.”

Leo went back into the main hallway to wait and watch on the television monitors outside. Thomas waited on a bench outside the doors to the senate hall. His heart was racing. Important looking people walked past him to go inside. He tried to make himself look as small as possible so not to look like the avatar. None of the important people noticed him.

He tried talking to himself. “Worst thing that could happen? Yeah I know that, but will it happen, Vir-”

“Avatar Thomas?”

“Ah, hi!” Thomas said, standing up a little too quickly.

“They’re uh, ready for you.” said the man in formal looking robes.

Thomas suddenly felt self-conscious about his lack of formal clothes, but took a breath and walked in. He barely registered that someone had announced his presence, but walked up to the front of the chamber just as he had been instructed and stood at the podium, looking at his index cards. Cameras pointed at him, recording this for later. To be broadcast. Yikes.

He took another breath. Then he smiled the most winning smile he could manage and was as happy as he could be.

“Uh, hi. Esteemed people of the senate. You probably know who I am, but, I’m Thomas, and I just recently became, officially, a fully realized Avatar. Now, I’ve never really given a speech before but I know that it’s important. So I’m here. And forgive me for maybe being too much of an actor. In addition to finishing my waterbending test, I kind of went on a journey recently that ended in quite an international upset. I’m here because I don’t know much about politics, but I do know one thing. Non benders are amazing people. Two of the people in my life who have helped me the most on my journey to being the avatar are non benders. Without them, I could be dead, and you would be out there looking around in the fire nation for someone else. Who probably wouldn’t be up here giving a speech.”

There was a small chuckle from some in the crowd. Thomas let out a little exhale laugh in response and then the chuckles picked up again. He fixed his hair out of a nervous tick and then kept talking.

“I’m not ready to go into detail about what exactly happened out there, who I was, or who they were. Anybody up to date on current events knows and yeah, I’m still confused about it. But if you want my opinion on what has to be done, talk about it. Don’t… don’t fight. We’ve been fighting for too long. I think I have been fighting for too long. We need to talk to each other because, our differences are what makes us... better. The differences between each other, and the differences within ourselves.”

Thomas took a breath and tried not to look like an emotional internal interaction was going on.

“And I know that sounds like a motivational poster, but I’m basically a walking cheesy inspirational quotes generator. Just ask any of my friends. And you should, by the way. They’re awesome.”

Another chuckle from the crowd. Thomas smiled a little wider again.

“But I really do believe that the world is getting better in spite of all that’s going on. And… to non benders that might see this, that might be scared, I’ve got your back, and you’re worth a lot. And whatever it takes to move on from here, I’m willing to help Republic City, or any of the other nations in any way I can.”

He jogged his index cards against the podium.

“So, yeah. That’s my speech. Peace out.”

He waved and then walked off the stage. The senate laughed in good humor and he shook at least a hundred hands before he was able to break away.

When he finally got out after at least an hour of talking to important people he couldn’t remember anything about he ran to Leo out in the hallway and they hugged.

“Oh, I’m still shaking.” Thomas laughed.

“You’re such a doofus. Let’s get out of here.” Leo said.

“Dude, that was the most casual speech I have ever seen.” Joan said over the phone.

“Yeah, but this is me we’re talking about, right?” Thomas said. “Hey, how did your screening go?”

“Awesome. I got invited to a film festival in the fire nation next year.”

“What’s a film festival?”

“This new thing where it’s like just a week of new independent movies. They’re kind of a big deal.” Joan said.

“Well, I’m happy for you. Even though I’m still not sure what that is.” Thomas said, petting his tiny dragon absentmindedly.

“Yeah, well I gotta go. I’m expecting another phone call.” Joan said.

They said goodbye and then Thomas hung the hotel phone back on the receiver. Niddy stretched and yawned in his sleep like a dog.

“I love him so much.” came a soft voice full of feeling.

Thomas looked up. A see through version of Patton, wearing round glasses and a sky blue t-shirt was sitting on the bed in front of Thomas, not making an indent in it.

“I know.” said Thomas. “How are you feeling, Patton?”

“A little bit lost, but hey. I’m feeling a lot better, kiddo.”

“I thought so. Just wanted to think about it some more.” Thomas said, gently rubbing some dirt off of Niddy’s scales with his fingers.

“One question.” came a voice from by the window.

It was Logan, wearing a black wrap shirt and steampunk like glasses that looked like they could zoom in on things.

“Why weren’t we dressed like we normally are when we were split up?”

‘“Is that really what you’re worried about?” came a voice sitting next to Thomas on the bed.

Thomas gave a little salute. “Hey Verge. How’d you like the speech today?”

Virgil pulled one of his knees up to his makeup covered face and leaned his nose against the black pants.

“I guess it didn’t completely blow. You think Joan was getting tired of talking with you just now?”

“They never get tired of talking with us!” came the last voice from the foot of the bed, its owner dressed in formal attire like Thomas wished he had.

Thomas’ thoughts wandered to what comes next. Somehow it was easier to imagine where all the thoughts were coming from now. After a while of making them argue he made the visions disappear.

That’s all they were now. Visions. He placed Niddy on his shoulders, who sleepily adjusted himself and then dozed off again.

He gripped his fists and then looked at his hands. He stood up and opened the window, looking out at Republic City. Taking it all in from one angle. He smelled the tea shops and noodle shops and bakery that made him think of soda bread and bread pudding.

He felt… quieter. Maybe. Maybe not. It really was such a beautiful day.

He started crying slowly. He realized that he felt relieved somehow. Like he hadn’t let himself feel it until now. He chuckled to himself. Niddy woke up and went to stretch on the windowsill. Thomas locked his fingers behind his head and watched the sun set over the skyscrapers.

“I’m back.” he said, letting out another smile as the tears came harder.

Fin.

Previous chapter

#sanders sides #avatar au #sanders sides au #thomas sanders #fanfic #fan fic #fanfiction #fan fiction #roman wrote a thing

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mittensmorgul · 7 years ago

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I'm so sorry if this sounds ignorant, and I'm sure you're tired of explaining it, but do views or "hits" on Ao3 mean anything? Because i'll see the posts about authors needing kudos and comments (which i understand completely) but i'll also see the view count and i'm like "but it's got so many hits, just go by that too!" So what goes into an author truly knowing how well they're doing?

Hi there! And yeah, I’ve explained how this works before, but I’m always happy to explain it again. Because it bears repeating. :)

Hits on AO3 mean very little. Someone clicks through to the fic, reads the tags and summary, maybe the first few paragraphs of a novel-length fic, and then nopes out without finishing. It still registers a hit.

Writing a multi-chapter fic posted in weekly installments that has a significant following? Yeah, hits are also meaningless here, because every time you post a new installment and all your dedicated readers click through to read the next chapter? They each register new hits. They’re not UNIQUE viewers to the entire fic, yet it can still look that way in the hit counter. And if it’s a 50 chapter fic that posts over the course of a whole year? The “compound” hits really start to add up, despite each of those unique readers only being able to leave 1 kudos (albeit multiple comments, if they so desire).

If something we post generates a thousand hits but only 100 kudos, it can start to feel like a lot of readers may not have bothered to read to the end, you know? If I make it to the end of a fic, I hit the kudos button. It takes literally one second, and in my mind it’s the equivalent of saying, “Thank you for writing this and posting it for free for my enjoyment.”

I personally don’t have the “false hits equivalency” problem that writers who post WIP’s do, because I always post complete works. Even when I’ve tried to post serially, I end up giving up after a few days and just going ahead and posting the entire thing. I tried to do that with Ultraviolet, posting a chapter a day, and lasted five whole days before just posting the rest all at once. I have no patience for drawing things out unnecessarily. :P

As a result, the hits count on it are artificially inflated:

2269 hits as of today, when I posted it back at the end of June. But heck, there’s more than 10% kudos-to-hits ratio, so even considering that I know a number of people had been reading along as I posted the first five chapters, that’s still a pretty decent average. Believe it or not, that’s considered to be fairly excellent as a hits-to-kudos ratio.

Now on to the thing I just posted a few days ago, Dean’s Days Off. I posted it all at once (note the posting date):

That’s a lot of hits, considering I can assume that most of them are not redundant, with the same readers clicking back through to read a new chapter. Still, even working under the assumption that A LOT of those are unique hits from different people, I’m left with the assumption that less than 20% of them actually read all the way to the end, because of the kudos.

This theory works FOR NOW, because this is a new story. I doubt many people have had a chance (even if they loved it and intend to read it again someday-- which is just wishful thinking on my part, but whatever) have had a chance to go back and read it again already, you know? So these are largely most probably original hits. But over time, there may be a fair few people who return to read it again and CAN’T leave kudos again. The hits-to-kudos ratio will inevitably drop over time.

Plus there’s also the factor in the other direction-- readers who click through and then download the story (I always do this with fic I love, partly because it’s easier to read on my kindle, but also because I’ve see too much fic I love get taken down by the authors, and I like to make sure I have a copy in case that ever happens). I have fic I’ve reread NUMEROUS times, but the author has no way of knowing how much I adore their writing in that case UNLESS I EXPLICITLY TELL THEM.

AO3 doesn’t keep statistics for downloads. Unless a reader tells me, I have no idea that they may have downloaded my story to read again. It doesn’t even generate another hit in that case, you know?

In any case, kudos, comments, OR hits-- none of them is a perfect gauge for readership. Hits may be meaningless. I think 3 of the hits for T&S were generated by me-- one of which was me noping out within a page or two of starting because there was no way in hell I was gonna keep reading, and two of which were unlabeled links to the effect of, “OMG I JUST READ THIS THING AND I NEED A MOMENT TO RECOVER,” which is an intriguing sort of post where the words “THIS THING” were a link to it... I had no idea, but lo and behold, I generated a “hit” to it. >.>

I’ve clicked on fic recs that from the description in the post sounded right up my alley, only to see something in the tags on AO3 that made me nope out of reading, or got a short way in to the story before realizing it just wasn’t my thing and closing out. All of that generates hits. Meaningless, meaningless hits.

I have opened fic, decided to “Mark For Later” so I can open it again and read it when I’m in the right mood, or when I have time to devote to it, or whatever. I have A LOT of fic Marked For Later. Still, opening it to mark it and add it to my list generates a hit. It’ll generate another hit when I do eventually go back and read it. Possibly generating another hit when I open it yet again trying to remember if I’ve read it...

Or the worst-- I’ve had the thing open in a tab for two weeks hoping to find the time to read it, and every time Chrome refreshes the page (because Chrome does that) it generates a new hit... I kinda feel guilty about that...

Hits are ultimately meaningless.

Kudos at least have SOME meaning. A unique reader read the entire thing, got all the way to the end, and felt good enough about reading it to hit what essentially amounts to the THANK YOU NICE WRITER PERSON button.

Some people are willing to spend a little more time writing a comment. Anything from a “Thank you for writing this” to “Oh gosh I love this story, and xyz was my favorite!” all the way to leaving a running commentary on every chapter or a five paragraph book review at the end. Or heck, just an incoherent keysmash with a bunch of exclamation points.

Or one of my personal favorites, “I just read this again and can’t leave more kudos, so have this

I don’t understand the resistance to clicking the kudos button if you read the entire story and derived any enjoyment from it whatsoever. If you’re embarrassed about it, you can always log out of AO3 and leave kudos anonymously. No one will ever know it was you. :P

But I’ve had people ask me this before, wondering why they should even BOTHER hitting Kudos, and it’s like... you read this entire story, for the low low cost of zero dollars, and can’t be fussed to even click the Instant Thank You Button? That’s... shocking and frustrating as a writer. Some of my longer fic may have taken me HUNDREDS of hours to write, edit, etc. And it doesn’t merit half a second of time to click a button. I mean, sure, Dean’s Days Off is kinda short compared to some of my other work, but it still represents about 80 hours of my life. I spent about 80 hours working on that story. I spent several hundred hours working on Revenge of the Subtext. And even more than that working on Around the World in 24 Days. That’s a lot of hours. Can I get half a second of your time as an acknowledgement that it was worth it?

If I make it to the end of a story of any length, that’s automatically kudos. Job well done, Writer Person. You have suitably entertained me.

I admit that I am still personally weirded out by leaving comments, but I do try and force myself to, especially if it’s a longer work. I get this OH GOSH PLEASE DON’T LOOK AT ME BUT YOU HAVE GIVEN ME FEEEEELINGS mentality about leaving comments. I turn into Dean Winchester and clam up. I TOTALLY GET THAT REACTION to leaving comments. That’s why the kudos button exists in the first place. No embarrassment required. Just a Thank You that writers can acknowledge in a measurable way. Unlike hits, which honestly we have no idea how many of them even read past the introduction let alone the entire story.

I wish there were some more accurate metric for calculating just how well received our works are, but really this is all we have. We don’t have bestseller lists. Our readers don’t have to pay for our work. Leaving kudos or liking our tumblr posts is great, and lets us know at least our followers appreciate what we’ve written. Leaving comments is fantastic because we can share the joy, answer questions, reply to theories y’all have about our stories (heck nothing is better to me than having someone meta-analyze my writing! I LOVE THAT AND WOULD LOVE TO SQUEE WITH JOY AT YOU!). Reblogging our tumblr posts is like the ultimate recommendation. It says not only someone read and enjoyed what we wrote, but wants other people to find the thing too.That’s how we find new readers, especially if the post ends up tagged with stuff like, “OMG THIS WAS SO EXCELLENT!” or whatever. Damn near makes my week. :P

But if we post something, even if it gets tons of hits, if no one bothers to hit the kudos button at the end, it can very quickly start to feel like maybe nobody ever read all the way to the end, so why even bother...

I probably shouldn’t have turned this into an essay, but since that seems to be my trademark, I guess I’ll just go ahead and post it...

#ao3 #adventures in fanfic #this may or may not be completely coherent as the author may or may not still be drinking >.>#Anonymous

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allenmendezsr · 5 years ago

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Get Your Book Accepted On Amazon KDP the First Time! Getting your eBooks accepted on Kindle, iBookStore, LuLu, Smashwords and Barnes & Noble is probably one of the most difficult tasks you will encounter. Don’t believe me? Just do a simple Google search on say “iBookStore formatting” and you will read tons of blogs and stories about people struggling with the iBookStore. Here’s the process. You upload your book using a service like lulu.com. Wait 3-4 weeks to get your eBook validated. If there is even one error, your eBook will be rejected! But here’s the kicker. They DO NOT tell you ALL the errors at once. Then you fix that one error and submit again. Wait another 3 weeks to see if your eBook got accepted. This goes on and on until you fix all the eBook errors… PAINFUL!! Not with UEC though. I have so many UEC customers who email me back and say “Hey Nitin, my eBook got accepted the first time! And I only had to wait 4 hours!”.

Publish to iBookstore, Smashwords and LULU the First Time! If you think publishing to Amazon is hard, wait till you try the other platforms! I have had so many customers tell me that UEC is probably the only software available that publishes to Apple’s iBookstore, Smashwords.com and LULU.com the first time. You see UEC compiles 100% perfectly validated EPUB files, so no need to spend money on services that do this for you.

Never worry about eBook Formatting again! Here’s the good news. Ultimate eBook Creator takes care of all the complexities of formatting your eBooks once and for all. This is because UEC creates your eBooks from the ground up and generates 100% clean and lean XHTML code – unlike Calibre that tries to convert a Microsoft Word document with all that junk formatting hidden characters that make your eBooks look like c***! I hope, you know what I’m trying to say! Even though your eBook formatting may seem to look ok XHTML code it creates is really bad and bloats your eBooks with junk code that increases the size of your eBook. Amazon KDP has a 50MB limit and other platforms have a maximum size limit too. Your eBook will be rejected if it exceeds the max size limit!

Creating Adult Coloring Books UEC has built in templates to help you create Adult Coloring Books. Once you have your designs ready, UEC has built in tools to automatically bulk insert all your images at once onto alternate pages and format them to be center aligned. Learn more…

Creating Interactive eBook is Easy! The latest eBooks that are selling like hotcakes are INTERACTIVE eBooks! With the Ultimate eBook Creator, you can now easily create Interactive eBooks. Quiz books, children’s books, puzzle books. The list goes on and on.

Do You Really Want to Read the Kindle Publishing Guide? Without UEC, you would need to read and understand the 100s of pages of documentation to get it right. If you GET IT WRONG and your book can be rejected because it will fail the MOBI/EPUB validation!

If you get it wrong AND somehow manage to get through the Amazon’s evaluation process, people who buy your book will not only leave HORRIBLE reviews and ask for an immediate refund! Seriously the worst thing that can happen is getting a bad 1 star review. I would rather Amazon reject my book, than getting a 1 star bad review. The review will REALLY effect your sales. Trust me I’ve been there!

Adventure Path eBooks UEC can create simple Interactive eBooks. Here’s an example of a sports trivia interactive eBook that my son created on Amazon KDP – NBA Interactive Trivia.

Multiple Language User Interface UEC user interface supports the English and German languages. In the future French and Spanish will also be added. Remember I am not talking about the spell checker which supports more than 80 different languages!

Multi Language Spell Checker UEC has a multiple language spell check built in. So whether you write your book in French, German, Spanish, Italian and many more (around 80 other languages) – UEC’s got you covered!

MAC Users? Ultimate eBook Creator is a Microsoft Windows Desktop Application (Windows 10,8,7). However it will also run very well on a Mac computer provided, you have a PC emulation software installed – I recommend Parallels. In fact I have many customers who use a Mac and they tell me UEC runs perfectly on the MAC with this Parallels PC emulator.

UEC CD-ROM Now Selling on Amazon I am very excited to let you know that UEC is now selling on Amazon on a CD-ROM. Click Here to Purchase CD Version from Amazon.com.

After Sales Support I am very serious about serving my customers and I will always try and help as much as I can. I answer support questions usually within the hour or sooner. But of course even I need to sleep, and then I answer the next day. Here’s what my customers say about my support Click Here ….

60 Days Money Back Guarantee You have a 60 day 100% no quibble money back guarantee. If you are not happy with the UEC for any reason, just email me within 60 days and i will refund 100% of your money! After refund, the software will be deactivated and so will not work any longer.

FREE Lifetime Software Updates! Here’s another guarantee. You only pay a ONE TIME FEE – but you will get FREE lifetime of updates! This means all the new features I add to UEC such as embedded audio and video support will be free for all customers!

Over 3000 eBooks Created with UEC on Amazon KDP I am so excited and proud to tell you that collectively my customers have used Ultimate eBook Creator and published over 3000 eBooks on Amazon KDP and other platforms such as Barnes & Noble, iBookstore, Smashwords and more. Here is a very small sample of eBooks published!

Ultimate eBook Creator Features

System Requirements

Built in Pro Editor like MS Word

eBook Generator

MS Word Conversion Tools

PDF Conversion Tools

Writer’s Studio

Customer Testimonials

youtube

Lisa Orban – Indie United Publishing House

System Requirements This software application is ONLY for Microsoft Windows For Mac users read this.

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