#doomed for tragedy but kiss kiss while they can

[ruporas]

kiss (ID in alt text)

[ariiadnes]

ㅤ╭ ⿻ ･ FOREVER , YOU & I

i've hoarded your name in my mouth for months ; LOOK HOW LONG THIS LOVE CAN HOLD ITS BREATH.

ଓ.°・・・ synopsis : BECAUSE THE WORLD IS FULL OF MADNESS & WRETCHED EVILS , A SURVIVOR FALLS PREY TO THE DEPTHS OF GRIEF & GUILT INTERTWINED. but in the midst of chaos , beneath the catastrophe , leon knows where his heart lies all along , knows that there is always a home to return to.

it'll always be you , he tells you. it always has been. -ˋ ♡ ◞ leon kennedy. resident evil 4 remake. female reader. nsfw. MDNI. quote cr : sierra demulder. repost. i want what this reader has for myself. happy kinktober ( the kink is love and affection )

THE PROMISE OF A TOMORROW DOES NOT EXIST IN A WORLD WHERE THERE IS AN EVIL WALKING , the dead among the living , tragedy upon tragedy in the renewal of man and MONSTER. the promise of a future does not exist in a world where the end lingers in the shadows, hungry for doom and damnation.

leon kennedy knows of horror and loss as it flourishes in his existence, feels the end of days surge in his bloodstream, but even then, he would endure heaven and hell if it meant coming home to you.

there is no belonging without you, after all, and it is in reunion that you are both reminded of this.

YOU LOVE LIKE IT IS A DESPERATION, a need, a wanting, & you are almost afraid you will choke on this heavy desire, but you succumb to the feeling, drown in the waves. lower and lower and lower you go, mind sinking until everything has consumed you and all you know is the feeling of him inside you.

"leon--" your voice is so fragile in this moment, the longing so prominent in the way it breaks, "i need you so bad--"

it's not enough-- god, this isn't enough. the distance you have shared all these months has weighed too much on the heart, the pressure so hideously insufferable, and even with him beneath you now, your palms resting on his chest as your hips move on instinct, it's still--

god, you can't even think straight, gasps harsh and haphazard, frustration pooling between your legs no matter how much you touch him. you need him more than he needs you, but if you ever dared tell him that, you're almost sure he would spend the day desperately fucking you in means to prove you wrong. your back arches at the pleasure that rushes up your spine, but you can't chase it, thighs trembling as you sink down onto him, feel his cock hit all the right angles.

"please, i--" and you just sound so pitiful ; the whimper that escapes drips with such need that you almost sound love drunk, and maybe he'll tease you, make you do all the work, but you swallow your pride anyway because damned if you do, damned if you don't.

"easy there," he tells you, hands on your waist, voice far more gentler than the way his hips thrust up into you, "you've already got me, baby. hope you didn't forget that while i was gone."

and the way he looks at you-- there is something so excruciatingly tender in his gaze, the corner of his lips slightly raised in a knowing smile. there is something about this all that makes the tears surface before you can even realize you're crying ; maybe it's the way his hands are on you or the recognition that he's home safe and sound, or maybe it's the way you are still left wondering when he has to leave again. you swallow that lump in your throat, imagine that you can rid of that sorrow and selfishness and bite your lip so hard that the taste of rust threatens to come. but leon notices all too quickly, a faint flicker of concern on his visage as he pulls you forward until he's kissing you. it's that muddled mess of love and heartache and familiarity that binds you together, and you both wonder how you have survived this loneliness.

"you've got me." he mumbles against your lips, smiling when your body rocks against his once more at the mere words of comfort. "i'm not going anywhere, so be a good girl and show me how much you missed me."

you shudder at the way his hands fall back to your waist, lips peppering kisses along your jaw, voice low and heavy with want. you inhale, shaky, nod aimlessly as you straighten your posture, nails gently trailing down his chest as you sit up. your hand rests over his heart for a brief moment and you almost think you feel that wild beat beneath it all, remind yourself of the humanity that lies under the greatness and kindness and devastation of it all. he trembles at the feeling, laughing softly at that little spark of surprise that lights up in your eyes at his reaction. his thumbs trace lazy circles into your hips as he lightly guides your movements, allows you to take control as you find your rhythm. it's slow and agonizing and tantalizing, this dance between lovers, but leon has always been patient, watching your expressions with adoration as you find the motions, head lulled back and eyes shut as you surrender modesty and humility in sacrifice for euphoria.

patience soon turns to pleasure, dwindling self-control quickly spiraling beyond recover. leon's grip tightens as he tests the waters, resolve thinning and weakening at the sight of his forever taking all of him so well. when he slams your hips down on his, he cannot tell what he loves more: the feeling of you tightening around him or the flustered cry that he drags out of you with each thrust.

"you--" you gasp when he goes faster, feel your face heat up with shame and exhilaration at the noises that fill the bedroom. "i thought you wanted me to prove how much i--" the words die down into yet another whimper at the sound of his groans beneath you. his movements become more aggressive, needy, and he shows no sign that he's willing to be merciful. "--fuck, leon-- you wanted me to prove how much i missed you, not the other way around."

heartbeat to heartbeat, skin against skin, leon knows damn well what his request was, but you are entirely too captivating that he can't help give into his senses, urged with the need to see you come undone.

"sorry," he says, breathless, grinning when you grab his hand as if it could anchor the sanity that gets lost in the flux and flow, "i'll make up for it, angel."

with one hand holding yours, the other releases its grasp on your hip, slides up your waist, frantic touch dancing across your bare skin as it grazes your stomach, pressing firmly as you jolt in response. the sound you make causes your body to burn in embarrassment, but the way leon looks up at you almost resembles something of worship, gentle reverence in blue hues. there's something so incredibly warm in his eyes that draws you in, lures you like sirens in the seas, but before you can even think to lean down and kiss him, he wets his thumb with his saliva and brings it to your clit, the dreadfully slow drawl of the circular motions making you lose your senses entirely.

you're biting your lip again, unable to silence yourself at the newfound high that sends tingles through your body, makes your skin feel like it's on fire.

"you're doing it again." leon tells you, and somewhere in the softness and concern in his voice is an underlying command to relax and give in.

you want to blame him, tell him that your first thought was to cover your mouth, silence all those filthy noises you didn't know you could make. it's his fault, you decide, because he knew exactly what you would do and held your hand tighter because he wanted to hear you. it takes you a little too long to regain your composure, but the moment you think to speak, he's picking up the paces again. you feel him so much, feel the way he fills you up as he thrusts in and out at a sickening sweet pace.

now you're the one squeezing his hand like your life depends on it and it takes everything for you to not move away, because it's all an overload on your senses-- the fullness of it all and the way his thumb applies just the slightest bit more pressure on your clit, movements quickening.

you're so close, so close so close -- and he knows this, intends to be the reason for your undoing and ruin, so he tells you it's okay, that you can let go and that you're doing so well for him, taking him so good just like he knew you would. he tells you that he misses you, misses the feeling of you, and maybe those declarations are what pushes you over the edge when you finally come, throat ravaged and raw from all the moans and pleas that spill from your lips. it's the way you clench around him, body twitching as you ride that high out, feel him follow you soon after in desperation.

his movements slow, eventually come to a stop. the silence in the bedroom is deafening -- a significant contrast to what it was minutes before, save for the labored breaths that fill the air.

something snarky lingers on the tip of your tongue, but when you open your eyes and look down at him, he's looking at you like that again -- like he's learning what love is again, like he's realizing all over again that you're his happiness, his end game, his ever after, and your mind goes blank, the haze of euphoria all too powerful. so instead, you let out a shaky exhale, smile blithely as you lean down and kiss him.

it's careful, cautious-- quiet, reverent, wanting. it's love, you think, and he tastes like safety and divinity and all you've ever wanted. you lie on top of him for god knows how long, fatigue settling in as his hand wanders up and down your back, slowly lulls you to the edge of slumber.

"i missed you, leon."

he presses a kiss against your temple, tells you he reciprocates the feeling tenfold, pulls the blanket over your bodies to shield you from the cold air.

"...love you." you mumble, body relaxing against his in the surrendering to exhaustion. "might fall asleep on top of you, sorry."

"right where you belong." leon laughs when you absentmindedly smack his chest, words of protest dying down when he holds you closer, warmth shared and known. "love you, too."

[blorbocedes]

why am i getting stressed about this hunger games au.......... how does the games end? they're getting to the final few tributes... they know they have to kill each other..... i dont like this mom come pick me up im scared

they stop wearing their weapons to sleep. Its still within hand's reach but not on their body. the gamemakers make it unreasonably cold at night and they can't light a fire and have the smoke give away their location so they have to conserve body heat by holding each other.

one of the final jobs is a couple from a district. they got together during the training games allegedly. brocedes each take one, and their teamwork is better. nico tells lewis its a strategy, previous games if two people claimed they were in love, hapless people in the Capitol kept them alive for longer to see the doomed tragedy work out. probably weren't even actually in love.

nico's first kill had been the girl from his district -- equally trained to be a Victor and thus his biggest enemy. lewis hadn't connected with the older woman from his district, focusing on his own survival, and she died pretty early on. now he feels a pang of guilt, that he chose nico over someone from his own district.

paranoia starts creeping in. the final tribute is missing. they make a pact to kill him together so neither gets a head start when it's just the two of them left. nico dreams of his father, what the games must have been like for him, no footage of his father's games exists ofc because of the nature of how he won, of nico being nine and taught how to put down a dog. lewis dreams of his family, his district, how he can help them when he wins — bring prosperity. and sometimes they dream of each other, somewhere far away from here.

every night they don't kill each other is like waiting with bated breath. lewis gets more sponsor gifts now. keke hasn't sent anything in a while. Is he disappointed nico isn't getting the job done? did the stress of old age catch up to him in a heart attack? the silence feels pointed.

nico realizes lewis is the better story, the better underdog to root for. lewis thinks nico is the legacy, son of a Victor, the face that breaks a thousand hearts and sells even more advertisements. they're both hyper aware every night can be their last and every night they hold each other a little tighter, clawing into the other trying to leave a mark. when lewis moves to kiss him, nico looks beyond him - at the cavern walls - and tells him to make it a good one for the show. the cameras that are constantly watching them, out of sight. but lewis can feel nico's heart thudding faster. its real enough.

the next morning there's two silver parachutes on opposite ends of the arena. one is sent by keke. the other is sent by lewis' entire impoverished village collecting their savings to send one sponsor gift. they both set out. they're both separated.

there's a cannon fire and then the hologram of the final tribute.

someone broke the promise.

and then there were two.

[smaeemo]

NO. I DONT WANT TO SEE THEM HAPPY AND LIVING THEIR BEST DOMESTIC LIFE. I WANT TO SEE THEM LIVING IN AGONY FOREVER TOGETHER. I WANT TO SEE THEM CANONICALLY WANT TO KILL EACHOTHER WHILE STILL LOOKING AT EACHOTHER LONGINGLY BECAUSE THEY ARE TOXIC UNHEALTHY AND TRAGIC. I DONT WANT FLUFF OR HAPPINESS FOR THEM. I WANT LOVE TO BE A SICKNESS. AN INJURY. SOMETHING THEY COULDN’T WISH AWAY. I DONT WANT A DOMESTIC DISPUTE ENDING IN A SWEET KISS. I WANT ONE OF THEM TO BE BLOODY OR DYING. ANGER OR GRIEF STRICKEN. I WANT THEM TO BE TRAGIC. THEY DESERVE SO MUCH BETTER. BUT THEIR TRAGEDY AND THEIR ENTIRE RELATIONSHIP IS BUILT ON THE GROUNDS THAT THEY CAN NEVER HAVE IT. SO YEAH, I WISH THEY COULD BE HAPPY. BUT IF THEY WERE HAPPY, THERE WOULD BE NOTHING SO TRAGIC IN THE FACT THAT THEY CANT. DONT GIVE ME BREAKFAST EVERY MORNING AND DATES. EVEN THOUGH THATS ALREADY CANON. ITS CANON YES. BUT THEY AREN’T MEANT FOR DOMESTIC LIVES. THEY ARE DOOMED. And that’s what makes them interesting, unique, and a tradgedy that can rival shakespeare.

[little-pissbaby]

@amazingphil @danielhowell just making extra sure these words gently caress your eyeballs. there's also a special message for viewers at the end.

That sense of impending doom is TERRIFYING. There is no feeling quite like knowing your life is very possibly about to end. It makes whatever pain you were feeling at the time forgettable, all that's left is every alarm bell going off at once saying something is deeply and dangerously wrong.

I had a heart attack when I was 21. I talk about it all the time, it was the catalyst for having genetic testing done and revealing that I have a brand new genetic variant causing Long QT Syndrome type 11. All I remember from that day was the feeling deep in my chest that something was wrong, but I was in a hospital so I was going to be fine. I'm terrified of overexerting myself and having a second one.

I had a stroke when I was 24, it was a stupidly rare complication of my wisdom teeth extraction. I know it was the worst headache I'd ever had up to that point, but all I remember is staring at florescent lights and screaming that I needed a hospital.

I've had several anaphylactic reactions before, once where I stopped breathing completely. It took two doses of epi to get me restarted. All I can hope is that my brother wasn't too traumatized by basically watching me die.

I've faced death countless times and it does not get easier. My partner couldn't sleep if I coughed even a little, it took three years for him to be okay sleeping as long as I was awake if he want. Three years for him to stop lurching upright in bed at the slightest hint of a cough or whispered "help me".

My point is that both sides of this are immensely traumatic. Tell your people you love them, hold them a little tighter, a little longer, give the homies extra goodnight kisses. Anything to help keep the trauma at bay while you fulfill non-reschedulable obligations like, for instance, an entire world tour.

I wish I could lend an ear to listen and a voice to commiserate with. I wish I could provide a comprehensive list of banger jokes relating to medical trauma and the lives led by both those of us who are sickly and not meant for this world, and our partners who live in a constant state of Hospital Time™.

Enjoy that olympian blood, philly 💪use it to win an athletic Dan vs Phil 🥇

p.s. Phil, if no one has told you yet, you should definitely see a rheumatologist about the possibility of you having Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. I think Dan will have lots of fun reading articles about it and going "SEE? I TOLD YOU THAT'S WEIRD", which is exactly how my partner reacted to my LQTS and EDS diagnoses

p.p.s. to everyone who listened to Dan and Phil tell a genuinely terrifying story that nearly ended in tragedy, it's okay and very normal for that to make you anxious and afraid of your own upcoming tests and procedures. my inbox is always open if anyone needs to talk, whether it's about upcoming medical things and the fear they bring or it's about literally anything else because you just need a distraction. love you guys 💙💜

[ghost-bxrd]

The Mer series Jay, Dick and Bruce are just so chefs kiss, I'm going to probably weep abt the doomed romance and tragedy,,, it's going to be lovely<33 the writing for that series is immaculately gorgeous 😭💞 just came across ur acc on ao3 6 hrs ago and I'm a losing it

+ JAY IS GOING TO BE SO HUGE GOODNESS GRACIOUS, SJSJSJSKEKWKWK JUST GINORMOUS, GARGANTUAN 😭😭😭 I just can't stop thinking about it, I know family dynamics and everything will be fucked after some time (sobbing abt it)

But. He's just. BIG. It's so funny, he's so baby in my mind,,,,, but biggest creature ever,,, need to give him a smooch on the cheeks <333 also just imagined a very teeny damian or tim near him and it's 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

loving how so many folks instantly wanted to toss selkie Jason at him in the earlier asks. We all have the same brain 😘 we should especially throw Robin selkie jay at like... adult leviathan him. tiniest little white coloured BABY. HE WON'T DIE... ROBIN JAY, U ARE POWERFUL, I TRUST U.

MAKE JASON ADOPT HIMSELF 2024 ROBIN JAY DOES THE ADOPTING

side note, love ur creativity and just everything that you put in ur aus they're so full of love muah muah

thank you I’m really happy you’re enjoying the au! 💚 “To Those Willing To Drown” is definitely gonna be an experiment on how many salt/drowning/abyss metaphors I can fit into that bad boy along with all the doomed love vibes ksksksks

And it’s still going to be a short while until we see our big leviathan Jay, but yesssss, ginormous (eldritch) fish boy is gonna wreck shit! (Tim’s gotta watch out… and Dami, if he exists. Calvin is a lost cause as we know sorry sweetheart)

[fuckyeahisawthat]

Got tagged by @chaotic-neutral-knitter to share my favorite fics I've written and I feel a little bad not putting any of my 3 OFMD fics on the list. But in my defense it was very hard to choose between my 116 slutty slutty children, and while I like my OFMD fics a lot (especially Learning and Remembering) I decided to limit myself to five fics across all the fandoms I have written for over the past nine (!!) years, and there are some that stand above the rest.

Maybe I'll Show You the Way (Dune, Paul/Chani). Maybe my recency bias is showing but I really think this is one of the best things I've written. Paul and Chani's whole "falling in love while fighting side by side in an anti-colonial armed resistance movement" romance in Dune Part Two felt like it was designed in a lab to appeal to me specifically, and I just wanted more of it! What started with a simple "5 times they fucked in between fighting the Harkonnens" premise has become a novella-length character study about war, politics, solidarity and resistance to oppression in all its forms, interlaced with a very sweet, youthful first-love romance that always has a bittersweet edge because we the audience know these characters are living in a tragedy. This fic is one chapter from completion and I've been stalling because I really wanna stick the landing on this one, but it will get finished!

a narrow door, swiftly closing (Dune, Paul/Duncan) Different ship, different era (post-Dune Part One) and a very different vibe. The fun of this ship is the multiple power imbalances running in different directions (younger/older, student/teacher, lord/vassal, end product of a 90-generation eugenics program with a mind that can bridge time and space/Just Some Guy). It's also got that chewy age gap thing where the older character has watched the younger character grow from a child to an adult and has to wrestle with the realization that they find them sexually attractive now. Peak forbidden romance and mutual pining in this one and not just one but two of my favorite finally-crossing-the-line kisses I have ever written.

Three Times Is a Habit (Trust, Primo/The Other Paul) Ah yes, my "which doomed curly-haired teenage twink heir to a powerful dynasty named Paul are we talking about?" era. For a hot second (most of 2021) I was really into this hidden gem FX limited series Trust, based (with many creative liberties taken) on the real kidnapping of John Paul Getty III in Italy in the 1970s. The fun of this fandom is that every ship is an absolute garbage fire of bad decisions, and writing the trainwreck emotional logic that leads to a traumatized teenager repeatedly hooking up with his kidnapper was an adventure. There's also a fun meta layer at play in the relationship between our reality, the fictionalized "true" version of the kidnapping that happens in the show, the lies the characters tell about the fictionalized version of the kidnapping in the show, and the version of the characters I'm writing, some of whom are based on real people and some of whom are made up. (Is this RPF? You decide.) This fic will make zero sense if you haven't watched the show. But you should! It's a wild ride with a great cast (Donald Sutherland presente!)

Salvage & Scrap (Mad Max: Fury Road, Gen) Two minor characters who have a combined total of maybe five minutes of screen time produced what was until recently my longest fic on AO3. This fic was based on a fantastic prompt: what if Ace (the older war boy who seems to be Furiosa's second in command on the War Rig) and Valkyrie (Furiosa's Green Place gal pal) both survived their violent vehicular encounters and met each other? The idea was immediately appealing to me because they both care about Furiosa but have known such different versions of her, and the way their worldviews would clash seemed like great story fodder. I still love the imagery of them meeting at the place where their worlds have literally collided--the wreck of the War Rig in the Rock Riders' canyon. Also I recently reread this and I forgot how devastating the tiny glimpse we get of Furiosa is in this fic.

Fightplay (Mad Max: Fury Road, Max/Furiosa) You know this list wouldn't be complete without a smutty Maxiosa fic. It was really hard to pick one piece of the 127k smut novel I wrote about them in non-chronological order over the course of about 3 years (2015-2018). But Fightplay was definitely the start of writing uhhh a certain kind of dynamic for them. The prose is very spare and exacting in a way that I still find hot 9 years later.

Tagging @thebyrchentwigges, @thetardigrape, @nandamai, @bethagain, @demolitionwoman-blog and anyone else who wants to do this!

[kryptonbabe]

Superman's love life archives: Lyla Lerrol's tragedy

From Superman #141 (1960) by Jerry Siegel & Wayne Boring

Lyla Lerrol is one of Superman's briefest and lesser known love affairs, but one that carried a lot of meaning for Kal-el, at least while he was with her, for their love story happened in a Krypton before its doom. Lyla would only appear on this one issue for a long time, until getting mentioned post-crisis and appearing as a sort of villain. In her origin her imminent death is not exactly a surprise given what we know about Krypton, still, the story packs a punch, if not for her and Kal-el's love story, for the personal perspective we gain seeing Superman exploring and getting to know the people of his planet before its destruction.

So this is my long and unnecessary deep dive into Lyla's first issue.

After a freaky accident, Superman goes back in time to Krypton, gets stranded there due to the effects of the planet's red sun, is mistaken for an extra in a sci-fi movie, and finally meets Lyla, the famous actress on the set. All of that on the first pages, and I'm skipping lots of things. This is fast-paced!

After that, Kal-el gets to go to his biological parent's wedding and there has one of his many introspective moments in Krypton. In fact I felt most of the heartbreak and sadness of this story during these moments in which Superman is thinking about how he wishes he could tell Lara and Jor-el how much he loves them, without inevitably telling about their tragic end, how he wishes he could save this planet from its doom. After avoiding them at the wedding, he broods and decides to spend time with his parents no matter what.

Introspective Superman is a real mood, I can almost hear the most melancholic classic rock jams of Krypton playing on the background, while the night cityscape of his home planet slowly moves.

Despite admiring the artist, I don't think the stern aesthetic Wayne Boring gives his art always matched the tone of the silver age stories he drew, in this case though, it is perfect.

(I had to include Superman meeting Krypto, the superdog, parents!)

Kal actually manages to work for his dad while in Krypton, he becomes Lara and Jor-el's close friend and when they realize he has thing going on for Lyla they become obsessed with making the two a couple, and inevitably, after several attempts, they succeed. I mean her initials are L. L., he has no other choice...

The word love is used often between these two, it takes a little time for their relationship to fully blossom, but once it takes off it's all or nothing, true love forever, which is par for the course in romance comics of the time. Lyla has her own career and social life, but once she meets Kal-el these things become somewhat secondary. Her character is not unlikeable, there was room for further development, however there's a lot going on with this issue already and the focus is never fully on her as a person, but rather as a love interest.

Time passes and yes, they kiss a lot. This page is so beautiful, it stands out for how the art and writing combine to make a metaphor between the burning passion of Superman and Lyla and the cataclysmic forces of nature working to destroy Krypton at that very moment. How two powerful forces can coexist in antagonism to each other. The planet often gives signs of instability, constantly reminding Kal-el his time is running out. Later he will choose to save Krypton, building a huge ark to save its people, but Brainiac will steal the whole city the ark was built on. Which was really funny to me, I mean Clark you simply don't make plans involving Kandor unless you want to get kidnapped by Brainiac!

It's a slow process of acceptance for Superman, he broods a lot, carrying the heavy weight of his secrets, but after Kandor's fiasco he accepts to die with his parents while basking in his love for Lyla. More time passes, it is not clear how much, but it is implied that Kal-el spends months living on Krypton.

Meanwhile he discovers Jor-el watches Martha and Jon's life as a soap opera, knowing every detail about their lives, not creepy at all... Then, things escalate and Superman's uses a gun to break the statue mentioned above to reveal Jon's rival is a swindler and make Martha love Jon instead of him. Absolutely convoluted and so very entertaining.

Also Kal-el caused such an impression on his parents, that Lara has a dream about him and decides to name their future kid after him (while Jor-el basically ignores her). So Superman's Kryptonian name was inspired by himself. Which made me think just how many time paradoxes did Kal-el provoked on his little trip to Krypton. We've been blaming Barry Allen all this time for the New 52, but what if...

At this point everyone knows about Krypton's imminent destruction, but Superman and Lyla are so in love they decide to get married despite of it. Kal-el is not willing to ruin the mood with his bummer origins so he also decides to keep the secret. There's a melancholy in the air, but he accepts his destiny, and they all dance in this futuristic jazz club.

However, fate had other plans and after a freaky accident... Kal-el is thrown into space, eventually accessing the yellow light of another sun, recovering his energy and going back to Earth. While Lyla, who could not possibly imagine her lover could survive such an accident, is left in tears, doomed to die soon, without ever seeing Kal-el again.

Superman gets back to Earth reminiscing about the time he spent on Krypton, the happiness he shared with his parents and his love for Lyla. Although he seems quite relived on the last panel, he has so much going for him on Earth, a girlfriend, friends, his job and superpowers. This story is rarely mentioned and I think that's actually a healthy choice, to languish over what he lost on Krypton, his biological parents and a lover, could become a burden, a weight he could not afford to carry as a superhero. Or the other writers simply didn't care to bring back this story line.

The issue was written by Jerry Siegel himself, one of Superman's creators. I already loved him for his contrived sci-fi and the working class Superman of the golden age, but I was positively surprised by his talent for melodrama, despite the lack of depth in Lyla's character, this was an emotional story with a good amount of action, although my intention with this post was to focus on the drama. Wayne Boring's art in the textless panel of Lyla crying while looking at the sky, searching for Kal-el's body is heartbreaking, and his art overall is really good on this issue. It is an obscure entry in Superman's love life, but an interesting and entertaining one. Worth reading. Thanks for reading this!

In case you're interested, Lyla's post-crisis appearance is on the story arc Superman: Godfall (2004) by Joe Kelly, Michael Turner & Talent Caldwell.

[mayberobbsa]

some robbsa fic recs

mostly doing this because while i've read some of these, there's a lot i haven't had the time to, and my ao3 bookmarks are overflowing with various fandoms so it's hard to find bookmarked works for this niche ship :,) if this helps any other robbsa lovers out there, then it's all well and good <3 (they're in no particular order btw) some are pwp, while others have plot; some are modern au, while others are canon aus will probably come back to this to add works that i really like or that i really wanna read not SoHereWeAre doing god's work btw :,) NOTE: please read the tags of any fic you start reading off of this list :,)

A Soul Of Ice And Fire by AnnaLiss17

Summary: Some say it is where you step in and never come back as it is a gate between the living and the dead. Others claim it to be the home of the wildlings and the wildest animals and a few of them claimed to hear their howl at night. But the elders have the most interesting story about it. They say it is both, a gate and home for the wildest, not to wildlings or other beasts, but to the White Walkers. As far as the stories go, the Forbidden Forest is where some White Walkers lose themselves from the rest as it is a gate between the living and what is beyond the Wall. They are said to be wandering around looking for new victims to fill the loneliness as well as the army with new members and that with a single touch to your skin... they can make you one of theirs. When Rickon Stark gets touched by one, he remains unchanged. Trying to discover what's so special about him, he learns that he actually has five siblings and not three...

When a Man's Blood is Up... by ShadedSteel

Summary: Robb is storming King's Landing, and Sansa calls to mind advice she was given by Cersei during the Battle of the Blackwater. She really hopes that Cersei spoke true...

Bearing Down on Blackened Skies by WolfEris

Summary: Arya watches the men who watch her sister.

Wolfish Desires by Red Wolf (thewrittenfae)

Summary: Something changes between Robb and Sansa in a spark of an instant and their relationship becomes something so much more during the heat of the night, and the teasing minutes of the day.

Summer Wine by Anonymous

Summary: Robb was always her favourite. Her first kiss in the godswood. His lips upon her own. A secret neither of them could share with anyone but each other. One small request of her brother, that he bestow upon her a simple kiss, ignited a fire between Sansa and Robb that could not be extinguished. Sansa and Robb's relationship became something more than mere innocent love between brother and sister. A passion that even the gods would tremble to witness blossomed between them. Their forbidden relationship was doomed from the very first moment their lips met.

Work No. 3 by MrDark

Summary: "Maybe I want to get laid while I'm in town. Someone new for a change. I'm tired of southern men."

Paper Thorns by Jeanettesc for kittensjonsa

Summary: A Robbsa fic based on Flowers in the Attic. For Jonsaforlife by request The Stark's are happy in their lives when tragedy strikes and they are forced to leave everything they have ever known. Putting all faith in their mother, the Stark children, in isolation, come to rely on each other far more than they ever thought possible.

I'm always watching you out of the corner of my eye by shamelesssmut

Summary: Robb smiled at Margaery and took her hand in his, leaning to kiss it softly before he let it go. He glanced at his mother and from the pleased smile on her face he knew that he was fooling his parents well enough. He had brought Margaery over to spend the weekend with his family and had introduced her as his girlfriend. And she certainly wasn't his girlfriend. Not even close. He had someone else in mind. Someone who was currently sitting across from him, talking to Arya and Bran. She laughed softly at something Bran had said and then pushed her red hair out of her face and Robb let out a quiet breath before he looked away. Feeling like he was getting drunk on simply the sight of her he reminded sane enough to remember that he shouldn’t be caught staring at his sister for too long. Yes, he was talking about his sister.

that gold mine changed you by orphan_account

Summary: brotherly love

Table Manners by badkingdom

Summary: Robb catches Sansa in a compromising position with Jon and decides to lend a helping hand. Unfortunately for Sansa, Jon and Robb aren't the only ones at the dinner table intent on seeing her suffer.

The Middle Child by jctn1234

Summary: Arya has a hard time relating to people in her family, especially her two older siblings. After a big fight, Robb and Sansa may regret the things they say to her.

No other place to be by snowflakesandloverskisses

Summary: It is Jon's duty to guard Sansa's door and make sure she's safe when there are visiting Lords at Winterfell. He's expecting a calm night, nothing ever happens, anyways. Instead, he witnesses her and her brother in a position no pair of siblings should be in.

Rows of White by WolfEris

Summary: The King in the North is handsome and young and unmarried. The Queen in the South, Daenerys, comes to Winterfell in hopes of a closer alliance with the Starks. While there, she and her court struggle to make sense of the worst kept secret in the North.

Not Be Long Hidden by honey_wheeler

Summary: “Are you never to be sated?” Jon asks with a groan when he wakes in the night and finds Robb pressed against Sansa’s back like a spoon in a drawer, his cock moving inside her as she half-sleeps, humming vaguely with drowsy pleasure. Robb doesn’t respond. He’s begun to worry that the answer is no.

Snow in our Bones by charleybradburies 

The Heart Is A Wolf by SoHereWeAre

Summary: The Wars have ended. Jon and Sansa are King and Queen in the North to subside unrest and Winterfell has risen from its ashes. Winter has finally ended. Spring has come and with it an entity to awaken the deadened hearts of the living as a feral, powerful man emerges from the Wolfswood to rescue Sansa from peril. Sansa discovers Robb has come back an altered, dangerous being with dark desires and an intense obsession for his sister. She, in turn, experiences a forbidden awakening of her own as she is inexplicably drawn to her estranged brother with an illicit passion she cannot resist. Jon is not immune to the upheaval the eldest Stark brings as he struggles with the realization of Robb's rightful claim to King In The North and Winterfell. Deeper than the political ramifications of his brother-turned-cousin's presence is the unexpected unearthing of buried feelings and yearnings which he is forced to confront as he observes Sansa growing closer to a resurrected Robb.

Close The Distance Before My Eyes by SoHereWeAre for sansafeels

Summary: Sansa Storm is just trying to make her way in the world with the support of her adoptive brother, Edric. Leaving an unhappy and abusive childhood far behind, she just wants to find love and happiness in the big, bustling city of Winterfell. One night a terrifying situation turns into a chance encounter with a handsome stranger who seems to be the answer to all her dreams. However, he is not all he seems...or is he something more?

the castle by Janina

Summary: Robb and Sansa escape Winterfell to a place where they can be alone and away from prying eyes.

A Gown Of Gold, A Bed Of Red by SoHereWeAre

Summary: Sansa is Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, but unfortunately Joffrey is her husband and King. Robb has been forced under obligation to join the Kingsguard as part of the agreement to spare Eddard Stark's life and adding insult to injury, Joff appoints him to stand guard at the Queen's solar while the King exercises his martial rights. However, one night Joffrey demands that Robb enters the Queen's solar, and Robb learns a terrible and damaging secret that both he and Sansa are ordered to hide from the Kingdom. (Repost)

8 by antisjw

Summary: [ Jon/Sansa & Robb/Sansa - Angst - AU with Modern Setting - Collection of Drabbles ] Robb and Jon want to protect Sansa from Joffrey. How will they do it?

Touch Of Petals, Taste Of Dew by SoHereWeAre for sansafeels

Summary: When Ned becomes Robert's Hand, he sends Sansa to Highgarden rather than taking her to King's Landing with the rest of the family, leaving Robb to oversee Winterfell in his absence. Sansa leaves home a girl but returns home a woman... a woman with a secret want that has been unearthed. She recognizes the same passion in Robb and soon he also gives in to his heart's desire.

If Love Now Reigned As It Hath Been by SoHereWeAre

Summary: Set against the backdrop of the political and religious dangers in the time of King Henry VIII of England, Robb Stark and Sansa Stark find themselves at the height of favor following Robb’s ascendance as patriarch of the Stark family and Sansa’s arranged marriage to her cousin, Jon. However, family secrets loom and loyalties are tested within the Court and at home. Warning: Contains incest. Robb and Sansa are the main pairing. Please take this in consideration before starting to read this fic. Actual historical events/people intermixed with the Game Of Thrones world. (Repost) *Marking as complete. I have no intentions of working on this. See end of fic for notes.*

The Pack Survives by AnnaLiss17

Summary: Alternate Universe where the Red Wedding doesn't happen, Theon was loyal from the beginning, Jaime keeps his word and Sansa leaves King's Landing with Sandor. Warned by Bran whom Theon was sent to protect at Winterfell while Robb was at war, through his greenseeing powers, Theon rides to the Twins and warns Robb that he is going to be murdered at his uncle's wedding. Together they defeat him and the Red Wedding doesn't happen. Under Jaime's command, keeping his promise to Catelyn, the Hound brings back Sansa to his camp after she leaves with him King's Landing during the Battle of The Blackwater. Sansa is physically and mentally scarred and Robb doesn't recognize her anymore.

Then Love Is Sin, And Let Me Sinful Be by SoHereWeAre for sansafeels

Summary: Father Robb Stark has settled into his new Parish, beloved by his parishioners and the townspeople alike. His quiet, seemingly charmed life is turned upside down when his sister Sansa arrives in town. While she manages to assimilate herself into the community as a paragon of generosity and goodness, she shows an entirely different side to her priest brother in an attempt to reconnect with him and confront the past after a decade apart. Warning: Contains incest (of course) and dark themes. Fic title is from Phillip Sydney’s work: Astrophil and Stella, Sonnet 14

Night by fanetjuh

Summary: The Stark children try to rebuild their home at Winterfell. Sansa takes care of Robb's daughter Jeyne after her mother died in childbirth. And with every day that passes, Robb realises that he feels things for Sansa he shouldn't feel. And yet. They feel so right.

Silk by SoHereWeAre

Summary: For the Asoiafrarepairs Event: Day 4 : Silks/ Furs I chose Silks: Robbsa: Robb and Sansa's denials and restraints over their true wants and desires come to a head (pun intended) one night, with the assistance of some silk items.

eyeless in gaza by thefudge

Summary: She eats their seed, cries rivers of seed. Robb/Sansa/Jon

And I Will Let You In by SoHereWeAre

Summary: For Anon's Prompt on asoiafrarepairs on Tumblr: "Robbsa + Accidental Pregnancy"

Warm My Flesh With Your Furs by SoHereWeAre

Summary: Robb Stark rescues Sansa from King's Landing after forming an uneasy alliance with Stannis Baratheon. Sansa is reunited with her brother whom she thought was dead, an action that changes the course of their lives forever. After returning to Winterfell safe under Robb's protection, Sansa's love for Robb develops into something more, pulled in by the strong mystical connection they have with their direwolves. The Young Wolf also gives in to the love for his sister, determined to keep The Red Wolf at his side at all costs. **** Contains Bestiality and Brother/Sister Incest. Go no further if this offends you or freaks you out. You have been duly warned.**** Everyone else.. enjoy! **** Also contains a VERY NSFW/Explicit Moodboard made for me by the ever talented sansafeels. All kinds of naughty with this one. ****

Keeping Count by emmaliza

Summary: Robb might understand Sansa goes out with other boys to keep attention from them. That doesn't mean he has to like it.

Sorry. What was the question again? by shamelesssmut

Summary: Sansa could feel Robb's eyes on her from where he was sitting across the table. She looked at him and gave him a small smile before she turned toward Jon who was sitting next to her and nodded to what he was saying. She found it a bit hard to concentrate on his words, however, because she could still feel Robb's eyes on her. What has gotten into him? He was obviously staring at her and now was not the time. Scratch that, it's never the time to have your brother stare at you like that. She looked at him again and raised an eyebrow, which made him smile a bit behind his glass of wine.

Don't Stop Swaying by SoHereWeAre

Summary: Robb and Sansa Stark attempt to handle their forbidden love for each other that developed after the tragic death of their mother. While doing their best to lead normal lives, they still cannot deny how they feel. Their relationship is tested when one traumatic night threatens to destroy them and the lives of those around them. Gentle Warning: Not a fluff piece. This has extremely dark themes. Contains incest. I can be found on Tumblr: SoHereWeAre1 Graphics made for me by the lovely Sansafeels. Thank you!!

flowers in her hair by xoxoCorinne for sansasnow

Summary: Robb braids Sansa's hair.

Starting The Pack by ASongofIceandHope

Summary: When Sansa is betrothed to Prince Aegon, Robb and Jon feel the need to take what's theirs. Not with fire and blood, of course, but in their own way.

The Northmen's Wife by kittykatknits

Summary: Sansa Stark always thought she would marry her golden prince as the songs promised. Instead, she will wed both of her brothers tomorrow. The Stark words remind all three of the battle that will soon be upon them and it's a different kind of story that leads them to their destiny. --OR-- I had an idea for an arranged marriage AU for the three of them and this reason made the most sense.

Take what's mine by Sarah_bell

Dark Nights by Jeanettesc

Summary: Robb never intended on feeling this way. Sansa, being the only family he has left in the world, craves the kind of closeness that he tries so hard to resist. Just as their relationship develops, she ends another one, not knowing the consequences will change multiple lives. This fic contains both pairings: Robsa/Jonsa (as the tags clearly indicate) it is raw and heartbreaking, and interlaced with smut.

Up for Anything by Jeanettesc, kittykatknits for Janina, angelwings80, RedMandaPanda

Summary: Sophie is back in Belfast to film retakes with Kit. Richard surprises her with a visit. The moment Sophie utters the word "Jonsa" he suggests looking up just how far GoT ships go. One search will lead to an allnighter that none of them prepared for. Or-what happens when old friends drink and discover fanfic based on the characters they play(ed) and decide to imitate art.

Yes, Your Grace by Sarah_bell 

Summary: Sansa gets ready for a dance full of suitors. Robb, her King, pays her an intimate visit in her chambers before the event, to remind her who she belongs to. Afterwards, Robb rewards her. Copious power games throughout.

You are My Everything by Janina

Summary: A prompt fill from Tumblr in which pinkpixiedust2109 asked for another mobster AU where Robb is the boss. I decided to do a continuation of the first Mobster Robsa AU did, and this time Sansa was kidnapped by the Lannister's after Robb captured Jaime Lannister. Now Sansa is being returned to him. Thanks for the help, qinaliel!

I Had Me A Girl by Jeanettesc

Summary: Sansa starts it all, the passionate, forbidden physical attraction to her brother. Once Robb succumbs, emotions burn as hot as the sex. Sansa chooses flight so much more than fight leaving Robb confused and broken hearted again and again. This is RobbxSansa and there is smut in every chapter.

Close your eyes and imagine he's here by Sarah_bell

Summary: Sansa loves it when Robb whispers in her ear as he takes her. Tonight, though, he's about to plant the seed of an idea in her mind about her brother Jon...

please forgive me, father by kingandqueeninthenorth

Summary: Her voice was distinct. The sound was full and penetrating, and Sansa could hear an accent. “I see you, Sansa Stark. And I see your brother.”

Rise from the Ashes by Janina

Summary: Robb and Sansa lose their family in a house fire, and as they grieve they find themselves becoming increasingly dependent on one another. Feelings begin to develop that neither planned on or know how to deal with.

No other place to be by snowflakesandloverskisses

Summary: It is Jon's duty to guard Sansa's door and make sure she's safe when there are visiting Lords at Winterfell. He's expecting a calm night, nothing ever happens, anyways. Instead, he witnesses her and her brother in a position no pair of siblings should be in.

Caught by bonnieisthebaddestbleep

Summary: Sansa has been acting strange lately and Robb isn’t sure what to make of her behavior.The unofficial sequel to "Shuttered In" by emmaliza

[that-homoerotic-blouse]

HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT DOCTOR WHO??

OKAY FIRST THINGS FIRST HELLO!!!!

SECONDLY-

CAN'T BELIEVE WE JUST WITNESSED ONE OF THE VERY FEW TRULY HAPPY ENDINGS IN THIS SHOW

This is the perfect excuse to tell you about a recurring thought I've had while watching new who time and time again, and while watching devastating season finales and companion exits, which is the following (and bear with me because it's long): "there is already so much tragedy in doctor/companion relationships, they're so doomed-by-the-narrative, so one-of-us-has-to-leave-first by their very nature that it seems impossible to imagine any other way. However, and precisely because of this, one of the very few things that could revolutionize this show would be having a lifelong Doctor/companion story. Allowing just for once a gentler quieter resolution, having the companion stay, and letting the Doctor stay beside them too"

AND GUESS WHAT

The state of euphoria those last 15 minutes of the ep sent me to is absolutely undescribable and it felt DIFFERENT and EMOTIONAL and FREEING! It was a rush of fresh air and a balm to my wounds!

So yes, I think Russel did something new and most importantly, something good. The final theme of the 3 specials being healing and home and found family mean the world to me, and I don't know, being a queer ace person even more so! It feels achingly true to Tennant's Doctors, and having it be confirmed that his incarnations were the ones that yearned for a home and domesticity the most is absolutely SPOT ON NAILED IT CHEF KISS

THAT SAID, finales have never been the strong suit of RTD, and I think this one is similarly flawed. I think he has rehashed some of his tropes, he has trouble reconciling the multiple conflicts of the Doctor and he only knows one way of solving that. Not gonna go over that here, because I'd be damned being pissy and shit at a time such as this. We got a happier ending than any of us could've ever imagined, and in a show that rarely indulges in that, well, how can I complain?

[fandomrecycling]

Well. I lost my blog chain but guess who just finished Stampedeeeeeeee

Okokokok um god okay so okay okay

- MILLIE REFERENCE OH THANK GOD good we need her to be the sunshine for the next season bc oh my god Vash

- sPeaking OF OH GOD VASH/ERIKS BESTIE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

- related but holy shit his fucking wings. I - holy shit his wing. It’s so perfect his and Nai’s duality. His white hair and suit and his lacking of hope, his design being an outright statement of a rejection of humanity. White as an absence of life. Whereas Vash’s messy wing, outfit and maternal shaped titan are all black. Black is the summation of every colour, every pain, every loss, every love, of everything that is Vash. Black as an abundance of life. And there is no touch of either colour in either of them. No black, no white, no balance.

- a L S O NAI??!?? UMM NO???? NO YOU DONT GET TO DIE STARING INTO YOUR BROTHERS EYES

- Meryl god you’re so perfect never change your perfect pls lemme give you a kiss you deserve it

- WOLFWOOD where the FUCKare you your husband needs you get your stupid ass back there and give tongari a hug

- “Half a century and you couldn’t come up with a better excuse.” I. I don’t - I want to cry I want to scream I want to hate you so fucking much because all of Vash’s suffering is because of you.

- I want to hate you so much Nai. But I can’t. I can’t hate you. You love your brother and Vash still loves you and all I can say is that I am so, so fucking sorry your happiness was ruined. I’m so sorry you became so scared of humanity that your only solution was to destroy it. I’m sorry Nai. You did so many awful things and because of your brother all I can see is the tragedy. All I can see is two brothers who love each other so much it destroys the world.

- okokokok that end scene though;

I’ll assume that this has something to do with Maximum which - despite it being awful for my health - I will attempt to read as much of it as I can before I am reduced into a blubbering mess of emotions and feathers. But also - and I cannot believe I am saying this - but god I hope Nai isn’t dead only so that I can hope for a better ending for these doomed twins.

I’m not gonna be okay for a while I already have a fix it fanfic planned

[mari-lair]

For @kittytheartist-rambles

(Kannagi AU: Part 1 . Part 2)

Teru tracks them down by the bracelet he has given them, angry and worried by their reckless escape. As a kannagi, Aoi attracts supernaturals like sugars to ants, even Akane can tell fighting them all to protect Aoi would take too much time at best and kill them at worst, so he chose to run. At this point, Aoi has stopped resisting, running with him into the unknown.

Akane knows Aoi blames herself for a lot of tragedies in their lives, so he keeps it a secret that the clock is his life, not wanting her to feel like the deal he doomed himself to save her was her fault. Aoi doesnt know the clock is cursed, but she does understand the clock can stop time and it must have some limitations, since Akane wasn’t stopping the time of every monster running after them, very hesitant to use his power.

The elders made sure to hammer home that Aoi couldn’t be 'tainted’ by anyone in the village, so the only times she had touched Akane was when Akane first tried to invite her to play at 5 years old, when they tried to escape at 10, when he threatened Aoi in an attempt to make her unfit as a sacrifice at 15, and whenever Akane was unconscious and Aoi cleaned his injuries, it left her touch starved. When they reach a safe space, away from anyone’s eyes, Akane hugs her tightly, only allowing himself to process how scared he had been of failure now that he could rest,and crying in relief. Is an overwhelming whiplash from what Aoi had been prepared for, so she gets misty eyed too, happy to be alive.

Aoi knows Teru will reach them, sooner or later, even if they never sleep, but she wants to enjoy this, curling up in Akane’s lap to rest as he brushes her hair. Part of her want to kiss him, do what she had always been told she isn't allowed to, but another felt scared of getting too comfortable in this dream like moment, so they were satisfied cuddling.

Akane planned to only rest a bit, needing to grab food and find a place teru wouldn’t find them, but he end up falling asleep, having spent too much energy using the clock's power, trying to run away, and making sure no harm comes to either Aoi or himself, all while barely getting any sleep that week.

When Teru finds them, the two are curled up for warmth. It makes his frustration disappear, and his heart clenches, wanting to lay by their side and rest as well, watch over them. He watches them for a few minutes, conflicted, but ends up trapping Akane in his bracelet beads and adding seals to make sure he couldn’t escape. He then grabbed Aoi, surprised to see her struggle so hard after years of obedience and peaceful behavior, punching his arms and kicking his knee, even trying to use her bracelet on him

Their punishment for escaping should be Akane’s execution, which Teru would have been able to do a few years ago, trained for situations like these, but he can’t now, not when he will already lose Aoi, so he ties Akane to the cave ceiling and declares that he’ll get his punishment tomorrow when the sacrifice is done, which will give Teru time to make a decision.

Aoi knows the elders have given Teru permission to kill Akane, and she remembers how angry the exorcist had been when Akane showed up with the clock, but she wants to believe on his promise to look after him when she’s gone. Teru says he’ll stay by his side till his end when asked but he can’t promise Akane’s safety, he is a realist after all, even if he vouches for him, the boy will be punished for making Aoi late for her sacrifice, and giving her legs many superficial scratches from their panicked escape.

Aoi panics and tries harder to get out, yelling for the clock to stop Teru’s time, but it is no use, only Akane can use the clock, and he must be touching it to do so. Teru put protective charms on the cave entrance and takes his clock, ignoring the weight of Akane’s glare and the venon in his voice.

Aoi can’t stop crying on her death day, so they give her a drug to brainwash her, sure it would lower her fears like with every other Kannagi and make her docile as always, but while it does lower her empathy and take away all her fears, they aren’t aware she craves for more than death. She falls into the pit, but she tries to drag Teru with her. This way she will have someone dear to keep her company in the afterlife and Akane binds (fed by teru energy) will disappear, he will survive. She nearly succeeds in killing Teru, but he grabs onto the edge of the cliff at the last moment and manages to climb back to the surface.

Teru showed the elders the cursed clock when his competence came into question, shutting them up, and surprising everyone that a peasant like Akane got help from the keeper of time. Teru kept the clock hidden and safe, aware it was connected to his lifespan, and lied that it had been destroyed and Akane have died for his crimes, deciding he would keep him safe and away from the village.

Teru visits his family for the first time in a while, reconnecting with his dear siblings with a mix of joy and a heavy heart, and sneaks out at night. When he frees Akane from the cave, he let the boy punch him a few times, sitting by his side with a broken nose when he curls up in grief. Teru shares this overwhelming sense of loss, but is unable to cry or say anything, since this is his fault.

[deathfavor]

Like the previous years, this is going under the read more or its the only thing that would be on anyone's dash ( and really, what else could you want to read?? ) but these two are eternally precious and deserve all the spotlight

@yeonban​​ said: One more year has passed, perhaps the hardest in Hi no Moto's history and certainly one neither of them had quite expected to survive, yet the rays of a new dawn shine on them and against all odds signal a second birthday they can spend together. Whereas only one year ago Soma had obliviously commemorated Seiroku's birthday while completely unaware of his true identity, he is now consciously celebrating the day regardless of the bloody trail it has left on the bushi world at large. Although his existence may have heralded doom and tragedy for the majority of the bushi; for Soma, and for the Date as well, Seiroku has been nothing short of a blessing.

A low hum leaves Soma at the thought, little consideration spared for his unfortunate childhood friends, and crimson eyes glance down at the sleeping figure in his arms when it begins to stir awake, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as he leans down to kiss the top of Seiroku's head in greeting. ❛ Good morning, ❜ Rather than give him space though, the red soul adjusts his position to gently press his forehead against Seiroku's, taking advantage of his sleepiness to burn this memory into his brain with each of its minuscule details. But even so, no matter how many times he's already had the opportunity to admire his beloved's beauty and no matter how perfect his memory might be; the sight in front of him always finds a way to portray Seiroku as even more beautiful than he can remember; a quite a commendable feat indeed when the one in front of him isn't even trying in this half-awake state.

❛ Slept well? ❜ The words are whispered softly enough to not irritate Seiroku's ears first thing in the morning, and Soma waits patiently, fondly staring at the yellow soul throughout his waking process before giving him a proper kiss. ❛ Any plans for today? ❜ Unlike last year, there is nothing urgent or monumental to attend to this time around, as had been the band-wide birthday cheer back then. Or at least, so should Seiroku be led to think. ❛ If not, do you want to come with me? There's something I haven't had the chance to show you yet. ❜ A carefully picked set of words, ones that don't imply a birthday gift, even though the surprises in question were very much prepared with this exact day in mind.

Once they leave the warmth of the futon and start preparing for the day ahead, Soma begins to linger near Seiroku, waiting for him to reach for his clothes and realize that atop his usual garments lies a brand new outfit, made out of Hi no Moto's finest materials and bearing a striking resemblance to the belt Soma had gifted him long ago. The outfit and its patterns are also in white and black, as the belt had been and as the yellow soul's wardrobe typically tends to be, but with tasteful bits of real gold sewn in here and there as well, meant to prove Seiroku's newfound prestige as a soon-to-be member of royalty. To harmonize with the gold, dozens of different accessories made of pure gold lay above the outfit too, from hairpins, to necklaces, bracelets, anklets and even face veils, for the other to choose from at his heart's content.

❛ Happy birthday, Seiroku. May you continue to have happiness for a long time, ❜ Soma states when he notices his love has laid eyes on the (first) gifts, the smile from before once again finding its way on his face as the general decides to re-enact what he'd done the year prior by stepping closer and reaching for Seiroku's hand in order to kiss it, reverence shown in how he carefully kisses each knuckle before settling on the back of his hand. If seen from any other person's perspective, it might well appear as though Seiroku is the royal between the two of them, and Soma the one vying for his affection. ❛ I love you. ❜ And it would seem the truth isn't too far off if the rare words he spews, alongside the admiring glint in Soma's eyes when he looks up, are of any indication.

Once they are both ready to leave, Soma unexpectedly offers his hand out for Seiroku to hold, much unlike in their previous year together and despite the potential to be perceived by other members of the band, and begins to calmly steer them towards the castle's main hall. There isn't anything out of the ordinary in his subsequent actions, except for when he brings the both of them to a halt next to the series of immense portraits made in his family's likeness and depicting every noteworthy member of the Date (be they past captains or otherwise considered valuable additions to the band thanks to their accomplishments), with the current captain having been the most recent addition... until not long ago. Right next to Soma's portrait now lies a recently painted portrait of Seiroku in the very clothes he was gifted earlier, the portrait's gold frame subtly tied to Soma's own. ❛ Not bad, right? ❜ Soma utters, looking up towards the painting as though Seiroku's presence on that wall is a given. ❛ I'd say the royal painter got everything right this time around. ❜

But it isn't long before Soma decides to continue their walk after only giving Seiroku enough time to take the portrait in, and proceeds to bring them to a part of the castle which had generally hosted industrial buildings... only for there to no longer be any in sight in that corner of the band. Instead, as perhaps one of Soma's most daring endeavors yet, lies a large, man-made swimming pond implemented specifically for Seiroku's leisure. It had been a test of both Soma's patience and the Date's technology, but at last they have managed to create something similar to a smaller artificial lake within the flying castle's grounds, thus sparing Seiroku from either having to postpone his visits to bodies of water, or being forced to leave the castle each time he wished to be near one. ❛ What do you think? I figured it'd be easier for you to relax if we didn't have to be floating around bodies of water for you to be able to take a swim. No fish to pester you here either, unless you want to add some. ❜

Soma glances up towards the sky after a while, and after the novelty wears off he gently pulls Seiroku in the direction of the plateau where their yearly bushi festival takes place; with their presence signaling the start of a fireworks show taking to the sky, alongside the bustle of the band members' loud birthday wishes for Seiroku. Soma squeezes Seiroku's hand then, and it isn't long until the rest of the members let the birthday man in on the secret they all already know. Namely, Seiroku's birthday is no longer to be considered simply a birthday anymore, but it has been officially decreed as a festival for the Date to celebrate for the rest of their history as a band, which becomes evident in the amount of people gathering for the festivities instead of working; and in the stalls scattered throughout the area. And unlike during the last year cheer, the Date members have positioned themselves evenly on two sides of the road, with a path left in between them for Soma and Seiroku to tread on, which blatantly leads up to the entrance of a building mainly used for ceremonies, where those willing have placed their own gifts for Seiroku. Though they may vary from silk clothes, to medical equipment, to homemade meals and so forth thanks to the difference in everyone's respective assets, what is clear is that everyone who has contributed to the pile, has done so from the heart.

Slowly sleep uncurls its grasp on the slumbering doctor, though it's never a particularly quick process. Certainly not when Soma is still with him and the body heat has him yearning to melt into it and never move again. ( Well, till he inevitable got restless. ) He gives a half-awake hum in response. " Good morning. " He replies, voice soft and a bit slurred with the part of sleep that still clings on. He smiles at the kiss though, and a soft little laugh, sweet and delicate as a small stream leaves him when he feels Soma's forehead against his. He presses back just a fraction, just to show that he is paying attention, that he's aware and the gesture is reciprocated in kind.

He's safe, and he's loved, so he can indulge in this peace he's craved at the root of his soul for so long. Soma seems entranced and Seiroku lifts his hand, fingers gently brushing over his jawline. " You're so handsome. " He murmurs, and he's said it before but he'll never stop saying it. He's always entranced by the other. It makes his chest tighten to think he once thought he'd never get this ever again. Once he would have accepted a sword through his chest and called it love even then. What more can you give to someone than your dying moments, to greet death not with defeat or hatred but a bleeding heart full of love and wishing them nothing but the best? You are my ending, even in violence. But he gets this and it is so much BETTER than what he had once expected.

" I always sleep well when you're here. " Seiroku nuzzles against Soma, tucking his lithe frame against the much broader one to indulge in just a few seconds longer. He grins into their kiss, blue eyes bright and alert to signal he's truly awake. " Mmm...Nothing in particular. " Seiroku answers with a small shrug. Maybe something with the medical team later, enjoy the day off the team had insisted he'd take. Chima had seemed particularly insistent. It might not be anything as big as last year, but Seiroku didn't need that. Never asked or demanded anything. The fact Soma was lazing about with him some was a gift in of itself. Curiosity grows in his chest at Soma's words, intrigued and invested in whatever it might be. " Sure. I'd love to. " He agrees easily, and decides that is enough motivation to encourage him to get up and playfully tug Soma up with him. Mostly only achieved when the red soul goes along with it.

His hair is always the first thing he fixes, brushing out glossy locks and pulling it back into his signature ponytail. It's only then he reaches to go for his usual outfit and STOPS when he sees that there's something new there. Many new things, actually. His fingers linger over the fabric, eyes drifting over the accessories with a smile. The style similarities certainly aren't missed by him and he knows better than to think it was an accident. If it hadn't been for the timeline, he might have otherwise believed it to be an especially long plan. He doesn't really need all this, but he's learned gift-giving seems to be a major love language and he's not inclined to comment otherwise when such care and effort has been made for him.

" You spoil me. " Affection lays heavy in his voice as he smiles and turns to Soma, a gentle shade of pink painting his fair features. " Thank you for this. " He says, voice a soft musical note. He instantly recognizes what Soma is doing, the memory unfurling warm and sweet in his mind as he watches Soma do it again with the same look of awed wonderment. This is his. This isn't a dream. This is his. His eyes widen a fraction at the words; he knows they are true in the depths of his heart even without them being spoken aloud. But it is a joy to hear them every time, rich and sweet. He bows his head with an almost shy giggle as he stands up, up, up onto his tippy toes to properly kiss Soma again. " I love you too. Every piece of my soul. "

It takes a moment to part and get dressed - his hesitation lingering on all the accessories he has to choose from. One of the golden face veils is a given, a bracelet, a hair piece- but his eyes linger on the necklaces for a long time. His scars still linger, when it had bene silver not gold that rested there. A collar of obedience and control, inflicting pain for the stubbornness of another. A reminder that he was a dog on a leash. The scars itch at the thought. There is no demand he wear this - there's far too many accessories for him to even wear all at once. But he wants to do this. Maybe no one else will understand the meaning or weight of it, but Seiroku will. He's not forced to stay, this is his choice. What is love if not a wild animal willingly trusting another? He picks up the lightest looking necklace and hesitates a second before he puts it on... And the itching stops. His scars are soothed under the cool metal and it isn't heavy like silver. He barely feels it and it feels like one more arrow in his side that he's pulled out. He looks at the mirror one more time to ensure he's satisfied before he turns to Soma.

The extended hand is a surprise - one he gladly takes and laces their fingers together. He doesn't know what's changed, he doesn't mind. He's content to follow after Soma as they walk together till they stop alongside the portraits. He remembers the awe the first time he'd seen it all, and he's spent countless hours studying, memorizing, learning. The history of the clan was as important as the future ; something to be valued and respected. He doesn't expect to see his own face. The days of Seiroku having been someone important in the world had died the day the oni and demon metal had arrived. From the very top into the pit of despair. He stares at his portrait in open shock, every paint stroke perfect and flawless. He looks....beautiful. Of course Seiroku knows he's attractive, but that's different. This is beautiful in the way nature is, in something that is felt. And to think he's on the wall with everyone else that's so important. He wants to ask is this how you see me? but swallows instead. " Not bad? I think the painter deserves a little more credit. " He manages to find his voice with a smile. " It's gorgeous. " He should have known outfits and accessories would never be all from Soma. It's still overwhelming how much he is gifted, and everything no matter how small or big always earns the most genuine thanks - never taken for granted nor greed ever present.

He allows himself to be led again, wondering just what Soma has planned. It's not a part of the castle he recognizes as much. Familiar - but one he's only been to here and there. But the buildings are all gone. Seiroku gasps, the veil doing nothing to his his open-mouthed shock at the glittering light of the pool. " How- You- " Seiroku's rarely caught without a coherent remark, but every though and question stumbles over themselves into nothing particularly coherent. It doesn't matter. His happiness is OBVIOUS, when his bright blue eyes rival the very sun or the most perfect blue diamond. He squeezes Soma's hand with a breathless laugh of admiration and shock. He can't fathom how long this must have taken. He feels like a child again, giddy with joy. " What do I think? " He gives an incredulous noise. " That it's beautiful. And that I am going to be a lot easier to convince to relax and take proper breaks. " He adds with a genuine laugh - he's gotten BETTER but there's still times where he's stubborn. " That is true, it is much easier now. I can't believe you managed this - " He pauses only a fraction of a second before " - actually, i can believe it. " Because it's Soma. He hasn't stopped smiling and his cheeks hurt but it's perfect. No one else is around - so Seiroku tugs Soma down a bit closer to his level and gently lifts the face veil to press another kiss to Soma's lips. " Thank you. We're definitely coming here later. Or tomorrow. " It's a statement he intends to be cemented as fact. He smiles and affectionately bumps their noses together before turning back to soak in the awe of the water a little longer. The joy is still flowing in his veins but it settles, no longer a frantic rapid of emotion but a gentle current weaving through his chest.

Intrigue grows when he sees them heading for the plateau, and then he has his answer. The fireworks catch his eyes for the first few before he lowers his eyes again to greet the birthday congratulations that he answers with a smile. His throat feels tight with emotion and he can feel the tears at the corners of his eyes. Happiness lingers in the air so intense that he can practically taste it like a delicious sugary confection. Everyone had known. Everyone had remembered. There's so many stalls and so many people - and that's what he cares about most. It's not the gifts ( though he treasures them all ) , it's not the fireworks, it's not about it being his day. It's about having so many people around celebrating and enjoying each other's company. THAT'S what is most precious to Seiroku. His free hand lifts to delicately wipe away at the tears in his eyes ( and he spots the medical team with knowing grins on their faces that has him swallow back a laugh. ) " I didn't expect happy tears to be a yearly tradition too. " He whispers to Soma with a trembling laugh - but his voice is rich and warm and happy. It touches his heart to see the heartfelt gifts everyone has given him ; not because of what the gifts ARE so much as what they REPRESENT. Love, acceptance, a place where he finally, finally, belongs. He turns to everyone with a shout of thanks and a beaming smile, his chest so warm and full when everyone cheers that he'd almost fear it would explode. He turns his head just slightly as everything really picks up to try to hide the few more tears that escape, but his smile had never once faltered or faded. No, this is simply perfect.

[gealach-in-a-misty-world]

After his betrayal with a kiss, Judas Iscariot dies in despair and goes to Hell. When Christ saves other souls during the Harrowing of Hell, he leaves Judas behind—but not alone in the ninth circle, where the most detestable traitors go. Callous, resigned, and abandoned by God long ago, the Devil sees Judas as a pathetic wretch, but he soon finds a kindred spirit. As the centuries pass, they struggle to find even a sliver of happiness in Hell. Doomed by the narrative, will they find happiness, or will their story continue to be a tragedy?

My thanks to the author for providing an ARC copy.

Morgan Dante's The Saint of Heartbreak is a story some might find blasphemous, but at its core, it's a story about finding companionship in the direst circumstances, and finding forgiveness within oneself. The first chapters, depicting events from the New Testament, set quickly the scene, introducing the reader to Judas through the eyes of Yeshua; the rest of the book is from Lucifer's POV, and it does get the reader to sympathise with the Devil. Morgan Dante's Hell is not Dante's Inferno, but a gentler place than one might expect - while being very clearly a place of eternal torment.

The relationship between Judas and Lucifer grows organically, from a tentative fascination to a kind of friendship; transactional sex becomes tender as all veils fall and their souls are laid bare. The choise to never have Judas' POV is interesting, because we only see him through someone else's eyes: he's tormented by what he's done, by his betrayal, by the loss of Yeshua, and he often seeks way to punish himself, but slowly finds a way to forgive himself. And Lucifer, in turn, grows to make peace with his past.

This book wouldn't work without the presence of Lucifer's fantastic supporting cast. Hell isn't explored thoroughly, but rather painted with a few vignettes, exploring other circles, other damned, and the Dukes of Hell. Lilith in particular makes for an incredible secondary character. Even a few Angels make an appearance, and the little snippets of the Fall are harrowing, showing the casual cruelty of the so-called good side.

Dante's writing is, as usual, exquisite. There's a few odd turns of phrase, but generally speaking, the vibes are always immaculate with this author.

The Saint of Hearbreak is an unexpected treasure.

✨ 4 stars

[You can find more of my reviews about queer speculative fiction on my blog MISTY WORLD]

[noliaert]

NOLIAERT'S IWTV WIPS

Okay so I thought to show off some of my WIPs for IWTV (amc), especially since I've not managed to finish off most of my WIPS regardless of how excited I have been for them :/ IWTV in 2022 was like a muse to me! I had so many wips! But little or nothing to show for it (cause extensive projects got overwhelming) 😔 I have however finished off 2 loumand pieces since S2 started off, 1 that had too been a wip from 2022 (I'll edit in a link once I post it, I've done so on twitter, but I feel the need to fix on some things... majorly is the issue one of the louis-es as it was a 3, initially 4,-in-1 piece :/ was rushing cause of the looming loumand divorce and doom, otherwise known as S2 "trial" finality, was approaching... and I was feeling 😅 about the reception of softer loumand kisses at the time. Like- timing!)!

1. Batnight: I worked out this timeglass composition to symbolise Louis' transformation into vampirism after he entered that church one fateful night. The trifecta of the vampfam, the time encapsulated by death and by blood, something which Louis seemingly has a different relationship to than most living vampires as the "tortured vampire". All focusing on the drop of blood, but with different expressions. Idk if i should do anything with the background of the bottom half of the timeglass though 🤔I'm meant to sketch out Louis' family and community from the wedding on the top half, as the sun sets (or rise...) behind the family home (sorry), a life now closed off to him. Vampires and bats- uncontested. The church? It is one from New Orleans S1 and I remember asking for the ref, but I am uncertain that it is the correct church when thinking back on it. Which is 🧍 Also as I started on this late 2022, I had only Bailey!Claudia to go off of, which I'll probably stick to for this one. Would be cool with both! But idk if I can extend that energy. I do need to figure out which of her hairstyles to do though 🤔 and I've been learning more about how to draw black hair so that's fun too

CLAUDIA WIPS! (Both from late 2022)

2: For the first one? Something about the tragedy of claudia, for S1, leaning towards the middle, Claudia the child, the eternal teenager, but a breaking into maturity and adulthood, on... the child witnessing the troubles of their parents, and of the child failed by their parents. Claudia standing in ashes alone (oh not the born from ashes turned to ashes 😭 at least she wasn't entirely alone by the end but had someone choose to face the same fate with her over her own living ♡), looked down upon from our pov to showcase her continued positions of disadvantage. Not the most thought out composition or anything, just wanted to draw Claudia, but these were the things I was thinking about while doing so. Also just really want to try make more dynamic compositions. Try that is.

3: The second one is me wanting to either do a 3-piece with smaller edits, or a 3(+?)-in-1, showing off a little vaguely different stages in Claudia's life back in S1. Or maybe a combined 1 if I figure it out. Combining the cutesy and the horror ✌️ Since these were majorly just sketches, I should be able to try draw Delainey!Claudia! And though S2 makes for SO MUCH inspo too, I'm scared to start on more new things. An irony. But I'd like to finish some more ideas.

4 & 5: Lestat wips! First one is really just a sketch trying to capture his face, buuut the second one? My attempts at a gorier more horrific looking corpsestat since I was feeling robbed by the S1 finale? Oh certainly 🙏 gotta figure out how best to pose Claudia and Louis though, to make sure I make the right impression I wanted 🤔 may have to flip him over too... idk just... extensive work, but I've been especially excited about this one as well as batnight (and the soon-to-be-posted loumands)!! Both from late 2022.

6: St. Paul! Ah the brothers! 🙏 the impact his family, and specifically Paul, has on Louis cannot be understated (S2E8 final dubai scene 😊). Kinda get so emotional when I've been rewatching S1E1 too ;-; another wip from 2022! I so rarely have seen pieces of Louis' family, or human family, which is a shame. I really wanted to do one for Louis and Paul though, and so I ended up with this wip meant to symbolically (far from vague though hah) capture some of that "confessional relationship" (can't escape the catholism) they had, but in a more playful youthful setting. Lowkey pointing towards an elevated sainthood of the future dead too. Paul being Louis' closest confidante, and someone who wanted to be a priest. Many thoughts on Paul really. Paul practicing I suppose, during their teenage years, Louis happily entertaining him and then glancing over his shoulder at- I am thinking Grace, their sister. I found the angle of Louis' head challenging though (been feeling intimately on my limitations), and as it is, I need some refs of Jacob to actually capture HIM too, and not just the angle.

Now unfinished iwtv wips from 2024...

Armand wips! But yea, I already had ideas, but I've felt prompted during S2 to draw more Armand due to the whole Assad Zaman fanbook thing that I thought could be nice to join in on. I've struggled to draw though, even if I have finished the 3-in-1 loumand thing and the spontaneous loumand cig-kiss piece, so I was really damn rushing 😅

7: It's possible I'm mixing ideas... different intents. So I'll have to review it again. I wanted one more bitey one, I was thinking of the "easeful death" scene of E5, but with a different angle. Was initially thinking active feeding I think, with half-lidded eyes or direct eye contact... to put emphasis on the darkening of his eyes in those moments. It's funky and I really wanted to draw it, though I guess this is getting too distant to really see it much. Something something generally about vampirism, a general victim, putting emphasis on the blood that they provide. First by extended blood dripping down the throat, now by the body being the blood fully visually. Something classy, yet... I want to reposition the arms and have the head burrowed further into the neck to actively feed as first intended. I also think I am certainly thinking about an intimate art piece for the whole gentlemanly death feel, so maybe i should try actually find the piece for reference. Also, it's not exactly in this sketch, but I too want to have him in that E2 or E3 coven suit, with vague coven/cult figures in the background. We never really see him feed (properly, of a human), but I've been thinking about the... parent providing food for his children thing (motorbike scene E2), or the "let me teach you" of E3... So a "lead by example" sort of thing, like pre of the picture of the mountain lion and her cub feeding of a carcass sort of thing XD leant too much into the whole typical romantic imagery as I kept going and finally got some of that posture right (and so I tought). But these are the ideas ✨️

8: Armand too got ahold of a switch btw <3 Armand and electronics huh, or... not necessarily only electronics and technology. There's a general almost manic curiosity, which is especially found in that one DM chapter that I kind of adore (smh to private island and blabla tho). A mood, though I'm not making ratshakes 🫢 Assad was talking about it too in an interview though, relating to that fascination, so I kinda wanted to make a piece leaning in on that. Had a few vague compositions, some with more of that almost cold intensity of E5, but here he's more just chilling (doesnt mean it doesnt get intense) ^^ I also wanted to display an evolution of technologies, at least within a certain timeframe, so physically stacking a room with different stuff? Like that works XD because I was rushing for the deadline, I fear I only got to send in the wip (one in an even earlier stage than this one)... which is a real shame 😔 I am excited to finish it though!

Anyway 👍

[superconductivebean]

#1118

Okey @infernalrusalka @limonnitsa, The Ficbооk Post. I think you @theladyofshalott1989 might be interested in reading this, too.

So.

While I was away, the site managed to up a mirror but still, its block is certainly a tragedy for the fanfiction written in Russiаn and Russiаn fandom in general. It's our history; and our queer history, too, despite the quality of the discourse ensuing over the years was as bad as you can remember from the LJ days (if you weren't around then or weren't catching up, recent аnti vs prо-shiр is basically the nth wave of it). However, the tragedy hasn't had its first act premiered today.

Or rather, yesterday. I fell asleep mid-writing.

Anyway.

Some will say, Ficbооk was doomed at its inception, June 22d, 2009. Unlike AO3, Ficbооk wasn't created from the ashes of the fanfiction archive purges. Its birth is attested to the state of the runet's fandom and social spaces in general and most importantly, runet didn't have its own fanfiction.net.

The Inception

Slowly, LJ was becoming an ad-riddled retirement house as the most prolific authors were moving to Facebook or building their own sites to work the work, leaving regular diary owners behind. Those, in turn, were either going off the site, or migrating to the wellbeloved Diаry.ru that embraced them with open arms as it did former forum dwellers. However, neither of those platforms was well-equipped for hosting fanfiction — or any work of literature whatsoever. Not that it was an impossible mission to publish anything at all but you must agree, the search function on those websites wouldn't bring up everything that was ever posted. Forums and blogs being what they were, the hoster could've and often did restrict certain topics thus an entire fandom group could be wiped one day. For runet, it wasn't something people only heard about; not many fandom spaces faced this treatment but for the Ficbооk admin and perhaps many others, it was enough.

So in the summer of 2009, the admin, Entrery, launched Ficbооk.

I must mention that Entrery was the admin for the early period of the site's life, selling it to the man named Kostya in 2014. Until that point in the site's history, I'm giving a short overview of the site and how people used to view it; consider 2009-2013 as an exposition to the entire drama.

Speaking of the runet fandom spaces, Diаry.ru, LJ (and numerous of its competitors like Yа.ru, LiveIntеrnet) and forums weren't the only platforms that existed then. Everyone knew Aeterna and Beon, but Aeterna was a quiz website, and Beon was a kid's version of LJ with sparkly graphics and bizarre public chats. There were also groups in vkоntаkte, оdnоklassniki and mоimir, plus, fandom websites on the ucоz engine. As an English-speaking fandom person, and I mean the one familiar with English-speaking fandom spaces, you'll quickly find equivalents to all of those; but keep in mind those are close matches.

At this point in time, runet had never had a platform dedicated to fanfiction, entirely. We only had General Publishing Websites. Those were:

paleolithic sаmlib. Seriously, just search it up and look at it;

prozа.ru, the one for the prose one;

there were few more of the less-known sites but not a single one dedicated for fanfiction besides blogs.

I think it's important to mention:

runet's queer culture is deeply rooted in fandom and subsequently in fanfic. it doesn't matter if GL novels are silly or funky those yaoi fanfictions if they are or were an augenblick realisation for people. boys can kiss boys. girls can do girls. it can be for real, in real life. im not going on a long tangent here but feel free to ask away.

Entrery wanted us to have a multifandom fanfiction archive. It ended up supporting original works as well as translations, poetry, meta but sadly, no artwork support. Even to an extent AO3 allows it, no. It did not really matter, though, albeit people were used to look at fandom websites and see sections for artworks, gifs, fanfiction, vids, forums, chats, guest rooms. Everyone accepted it, at some point. But before that would happen, Ficbооk's launch was met lukewarmly.

Entrery's project didn't create much of a hype for the fandom people.

The notable Diаry.ru was the site of, you know, clique behaviour. LJ users inhabiting it were rather supportive of it as well. Drama and the couloir games thrived in that community; locked blogs, userlists, do you remember that? People from there wanted Ficbооk to introduce exclusionary policies of any kind to keep those Beon and Aeterna children out of the site, saying kiddos needed to finish school at the very least before they could open Word and type any kind of fiction.

Entrery never did set any such policy, instead he let everyone in.

His project was quite literally an archive. Everyone could post and as there wasn't list-based access, there wasn't such a thing as posting exclusively for a certain number of people (with a subsequent drama of that posting being a spite-vague-fic written specifically for those who people used to call the rat-kun). However, Ficbооk had its own pits of despair: The Dislike Button and The Popular Of The Week.

Other things included:

edit records are kept for months. It was and is rather easy to work with betas and see what has been changed, although it could've been significantly improved by the time 2024 rolled around, back in 2009 it was fine as is;

Public Beta is a feature I think every single archive should have, it is a must. Imagine you spotted a typo but instead of going into the Edit Text and rewriting everything you just send yourself reports? and then run through them? fixing only those things that are easy, quick fixes?.. brb gonna cry;

drafts are kept indefinitely;

private and live chats;

User Moderation, a feature that has become the site's first flag for eventual downfall but until then, everyone's favourite pastime: it meant you would scroll through an endless flow of fanfiction and flag those works that violated the rules (then similar to AO3's TOS).

Many of those were largely unknown to the blog fandom people but social features, moderator status and ease of work were calling cards for those who weren't prejudiced or was in searches for a better place to be than — ahem — every platform in runet is infernal. There aren't any exceptions but while the new place hasn't developed any cliques, it's totally bearable.

What's 'moderator status'? If you were helping the site to filter out spammers and trolls, Entrery thought you needed to be rewarded somehow. It basically meant ad-free experience and all you needed for to achieve it was to successfully pass a test. Yours truly became a mod at 11 or 12 yo, to give you a gist of how trivial that test was. If you think I was an outlier, no, Ficbооk became a significant part of life of many fandom kiddos my age.

It's crucial to bear in mind because we were part of the reason the site faced prejudice and was constantly reprimanded for letting us punks in. No one believed a website where any child could post something wasn't full of children writing Investigation Discovery kind of fiction about their pixel anime dolls. Then, authors who somehow weren't children were thought to be people not able to write anything but trashy pulp. If your primary platform back then was Ficbооk, you would be told that you're either of those and you couldn't be neither.

Obviously, it wasn't true. But I will smother my nostalgia if I'm not mentioning Entrery's communication policies.

Bans weren't a thing unless you were a spammer. Comment removal wasn't a thing as well, you had to send reports and wait for the site mods — not content mods — to remove them for you but only if the mod deemed the comments inappropriate, too. In 2013, these things were introduced but wasn't it too late? Certainly was.

Aversion from receiving any kind of critique or criticism weren't an argument to bring up the table; you had to suck it up regardless of how stupid, blood-thirsty, or utterly brainded was that comment. Nor you could delete the consequences of a randomly opened floodgate.

Rules prohibited flooding and flaming but each site mod had their idea of what that entailed. Good luck to get everything you didn't need removed. Re-publishing the work wouldn't solve this. So yeah, bullies were thriving in that environment.

Any talk with the Support could turn a heated discussion because those people, including Entrery, did not know tact nor they had any awareness regarding how to work thousands of people. They would dismiss you, be rude to you, they would never listen.

Later, this prompted Entrery to think the site's userbase was a bunch of grown manchildren Who Certainly Knew Better aka if you told him the search could use some improvements and perhaps more tags, that would be called something in the fashion of We Aren't Turning The Site Into A Kink Encyclopedia. Yes, Entrery, I still remember this and will take that to my grave idc if it was 10 years ago.

Long story short, Entrery created a pit of infernality we all grew to love at some point. In the best post-U2SR tradition, we weren't really presented a choice; It was this or nothing but Diаry.ru's stuck-up bitches or LJ's grandparents calling you a sweet summer child.

I will mention these two fandom population were known for writing the Big Game Of Albus Dumbledore theory and asking questions such as Will I Be Able To Fuck Someone After Ripping Their Spine Cord Off Their Body And Will They Be Able To Feel Everything Still🤔? After reading threads like this I'm practically emotionally immune to whatever people can put up online. They, too, were deranged.

Fandom Kоmbat

Rocky start gravely injured Ficbооk in the management department but we were yet to realise this in the sweet sweet years of 2010-2011. The site grew in popularity, some authors were becoming popular — everyone didn't just know their names, they could easily look them up in the Popular Authors section.

This feature was originally planned to be a kind of motivation for the people to write more and compete against each other. To keep the engagement numbers up. To build a community. What could possibly go wrong (tldr; turned out the dislike button was an excellent tool for bullies to live someone off the platform hence it was disabled, 2012).

The community around the site's popular fanfics, originals & authors was toxic beyond comprehension, as you can imagine. People were doxxing each other, submitting dirt to the Confession Page, ripping apart the most popular works, building up the site's user stereotypes and documenting history in memes. The usual gist of things in every community; except runet being an infernal thing it is, it was viciously cruel. Some attribute it to the generational trauma, I personally think we are stuck living in the slum fiction, but anyway, by the time 2013 rolled around, the site was alive as ever. Even the Apocalypse of 2012 didn't crash its spirits, instead it busted the sense of community in its users for the first — and only — time in the website's entire history.

In December of 2012 the server fucking died and took an entire month worth of data with it.

However, 2013 was also the time of this Old Ficbооk — a pool of toxic brine — beginning to dissolve. Everything we were used in 2011-2012 suddenly wasn't there. Old heroes faded, new figures were aririsng. But they were becoming increasingly more local and less known to the general public.

And then, came the people from Diаry.ru. Fandom Kоmbat writers.

You could see these people, too. Ever seen a titled that looked like this?

WTF [Fandom Name] - 20XX

That's Fandom Kоmbat event. It's held twice a year, every fandom can participate, for those who are unlucky to have one can write for multifandom Kombat teams. Amazing thing, English fandom could never, honest. I'm rather bashful of Diаry.ru but I'm ready to forgive them a lot for this event's inception alone. Anyway. The event had (and it has) an annual crop of fanfics and original works and at some point — 2014, but first harbingers flew in 2013 — people needed a safe place to store their work.

Ficbооk claimed to be operating from Latvia, Riga. So people flocked to the .net domain from a seemed-finicky .ru, hoping it will protect their work from a potential deletion.

It brought many people to the website and eliminated many past problems it had. Diаry.ru bitches spat critics in their faces and called them out on being cheap good-for-nothing egomaniacs, didn't tolerate usual Ficbооk bs and could destroy anyone. Besides, they were wonderful writers and aspirational models for many writers.

However.

Communication Breakdown. Act 1

2014 was the year of unanswered questions, constant server issues and mad commenting.

Ficbооk was about to turn 5 years this year but it was stuck in its development. Changes were minor at best but and rare gems could not sweeten the sad realisation the website wasn't interested in any kind of conversation with its users.

What's the point of having the best bookmark system among all fanfiction sites and pride itself on having built-in request pool if the servers are crashing down every evening and the admins wouldn't hear any ideas on how to improve social experience, fix the search, add any kind of limited CSS support, fix co-author feature, etc etc.

If you recall, 2014 was the year The War began. Draconian laws were passed along with it. Ficbооk had to be complaint, promptly banning all underage (=the police cares more about pixels because it's easier than solving real cases => don't push your law enforcement to fight pixel hurters, I beg of you, don't be stupid) but for whatever reason, everything queer remained in a relative safety — until 10 years later.

Deaf to complaints, refusing to talk, thinking everything's done and not done was not in vain, Entrery perhaps grew tired of us. Diary.ru was worried more than we did, however, and they were the most interested party in improving Ficbооk's UX; and they were especially curious about Entrery's desire to keep the underage change rather hidden, besides, there was another new rule set.

On Ficbооk, you can't write about real life tragedies until 6 months will pass — or the tragedy would end, and then, 6 month later, you can begin posting something about it. Wild policy.

Nothing has been done, and in the very end of 2014—early 2015 the site was sold to Him. Quietly. Nobody knew until years later.

Kostya. Act 2

All previous problems weren't ever addressed, and people began to grow weary of the site's stagnation. 2015, 2016, 2017 were years of eerie quietness. Everyone thought Ficbооk might die soon because the only signs of life we had had seen were increasing numbers of ads and rarely, major updates, such as the design revamp.

Remember I said The User Moderation was a precursor of doom?

At some point in between 2014 and 2016 the moderation's main perk — no ads — was challenged by the update where a new feature was introduced. That feature was 'acquire 100 kudos and see no ads'.

Kostya, now the admin, decided the content mods needed to be compensated somehow else. Thus he introduced Coins. Not the cryptocoins, the in-site currency. With it, you could buy in-site gifts, change you nickname, stuff like that. Certain amount of the approved moderation decisions converted into 1 Coin.

For many, moderation thus turned mindless tippy-tapping just to get a huge portion of them.

It quite literally broke site's economy, so to fight it, this genius man began thinking of a number of premium features. Coins were turned into an in-site purchase; moderation was promptly disabled and was never reinstated as its own, separate, currency-free feature.

Nobody really minded it at the time, however.

Moderation was a remnant of Ye Olden Days, many old users were gone for good, and old farts like me at the time were considering other places to move to in case Ficbооk would go under.

Premium Accounts. Act 3

During 2017, 2018 and 2019, while site's functionality remained the same, Kostya tried to implement various paywalls.

2017 was the year when fests were implemented. Basically, you'd submit your work to receive 3 comments but in exchange, you'd have to comment on 3 random works in the same genre. It was fun. While it lasted.

The system required improvements and new features, rulesets and other things, but instead of working on it, the feature existed as is until in late 2018—early 2019 it was removed for good. Individual groups of writers and readers alike tried to keep the idea afloat but many of them either died out, or turned cliques.

Meanwhile, Kostya was filling the site with ads, tried to make the 'online' status behind the paywall, and although he changed it later to be available for everyone, things like basic customisation, detailed stats and custom fandom feeds went behind the paywall.

If I remember, 2019 was also the year of introducing covers. Also a paywall feature.

In that same time window we also saw the inception of the new work selection, The Hotties. It's a separate feed in every fandom where you can place a work for a humble price sum-for-views-amount.

With no social activity, but ads and general sense of people actively leaving the site, Ficbооk looked as grim and sad as ever.

Clicks Clicks Clicks. Act 4

2019 and 2020 were years of investigations. Long stories shortened, Ficbook made six digit number in ad revenue. I'm no stranger to how a business would allocate funds but Ficbook didn't see any money put into its development. Same features for so a lot of years, no ad campaigns, no socmed presence, no moderation on its public pages mane of which were abandoned.

Seeing this made people to turn away from the site for good. I was among them. There was no future, only the consequences of an one greedy man actions.

Kostya perhaps felt proud in making the UX unbearable. Everything is designed to keep you at the site for as long as possible. Modern site-building wants you to either look at the front page, or browse quickly to find what you're looking for, because faster looks means more buys and calls. Ficbооk, living off the ads, couldn't afford that.

It wants you to stay everywhere. You can't click away on the link to another site. It will ask you for confirmation. Moreover, it places ads in text, in headers, in footers, in comments and masks its ads as the comments; every free space is used to be filled with an ad like they do on every single shady website, e.g. those for gamblers.

When people are this obsessed with money, they will do anything.

Fake Riga. Act 5

Ficbооk now is a child of greed and love malnutrition.

In 2021, Kostya introduced Promo slots. Your work would be added to the daily roster at a certain date so people could stumble upon it on the site's front page. Later, this roster will invade other pages of the site. Overall, this year was uneventful and quiet, if you don't count the socmed where the admins finally learnt you can ban duraks ebanyis.

Anyway.

You are all aware of the '22.

And what do you think Kostya did?

Quietly, in the dead of the night, he purged our hopes in being safe on that hellsite. He sold us out. All of us. There his loyalties lied, and as it often goes with fleabags like him, he hoped he would save his business this way. And what does it cost to give out someone's info.

Correct, nothing.

Business people here have no dignity. He doesn't either.

So people stood up, purged their works, and left.

Its Ban Our Comedy

Ficbооk never allowed multilingual posting. It naturally drove away not just English-speaking folks, a rather rare sight in runet, but all the people speaking other languages. I'm not asking a fanfiction website to be a linguistic treasure trove but it did a lot to the queer history and online history here, and 'here' includes more than one language.

Evidently, it meant Ficbооk would eventually give a cold shoulder to anyone hoping their favourite escape will have them a safe retreat.

Instead, it spat them in the face.

That little number of us who hoped something might work out from Ficbооk and supposedly Kostya being in the EU; we were shattered to know this moron valued his digits more than everything we built, had and could have. This site wasn't ever his creation yet he claimed to be its admin since its inception. I mean. No words. Only swearing.

Kostya tried to handle the situation but no damage control business he is, when he reverted the Private Info Disclosure section back to how it was before, it was already too late.

Few days ago, the site has been officially banned.

It was impossible to avoid. Either up a mirror, or teach people how to circumvent the blockage. That it took two whole years was a result of a scheme of Kostya's (he was turning links into gibberish).

Kostya saved himself enough time to, perhaps, sip off enough gold from this dying cow to soon close the site down — a long page of our Internet history — because he doesn't care, and never did. Or this all would've been prevented. I might be wrong and pessimistic but I lost all my hopes for this place many years ago now to ever rekindle it.

To Conclude

I'm evidently sad about the site's demise. But I'm happy this bloody arsehole may perhaps loose his income and as he's entangled, more than this. We live an infernal life here; he should've never come.