#edited slightly because one of them WAS NOT SQUARE idk how that happened. fixed now tho

[talos-stims]

level 0 backrooms infinity box by harrybonez on tt | source source

[nitewrighter]

idk if you’re still taking the winter/holiday prompts but if you are how bout a 15 spiderbyte uwu

15. “You Clean Up Nice”

This fic also references my old Spiderbyte ficlet “Touching the Ground.”

—

In Talon, one had to be used to one’s coworker’s popping out of nowhere. Between Moira’s fade, Reaper’s shadowstep and wraith form, Sigma not even making footsteps, Widowmaker’s silent, slinking gait, and Sombra being, well, Sombra, Doomfist was used to being pretty much the only one people could hear coming–which he didn’t mind, of course. He made a point of turning heads when he entered a room, but he didn’t bat an eye when Sombra materialized in his office in a burst of pixels. 

“Hey. I need your help with something.”

Doomfist didn’t even glance up from his tablet. “We brought you on this team with your insistence on your own independence in your work,” he said, sipping his espresso.

“It’s only semi-work related,” said Sombra, “You know this stuff better than me.”

Akande would be lying if he said he didn’t find pleasure hearing that sentence coming out of Sombra’s mouth. He glanced up from his tablet to see Sombra projecting two purple-tinted screens over her outstretched palms, each screen displaying a dress. Both were perfectly decent dresses, on the left, a cocktail dress of opaque pink silk in origami-esque folds with black sequins starbursting out from a black sequined belt at the waist cut a few inches above the knee, the other a lavender tulle confection of equal shortness. 

“Is this for the New Ye–” Akande started

“It’s for the New Year’s party,” said Sombra, shoving the two screens forward a bit more insistently.

“Pink,” said Doomfist glancing back down at his tablet, “The lavender one runs a bit too close to ‘loofah’ territory.”

“I knew it,” Sombra hissed under her breath, her brow furrowing as she waved the screen with the lavender dress on it out of existence.

“I find it amusing that one who makes a point of getting in and out unseen would be so concerned with her–”

Sombra disappeared in another purple pixelated flash.

“…appearance,” said Akande before sighing a little and sipping his espresso.

He choked on that sip as Sombra suddenly reappeared in another flash. “One last thing,” she said, presenting two new screens now displaying two different shoes. “Pumps or strappy?”

Akande coughed on his coffee, “Pumps,” he managed, his voice hoarse.

“I knew it,” Sombra hissed again before disappearing.

Akande slumped back in his seat, set his espresso cup down, then started rifling through his desk for his heavily dog-eared and highlighted paperback copy of Managing the Unmanageable (47th Edition).

–3 Weeks Later–

Maximilien really did like his ‘Statement Parties.’ A skyscraper-top party in New York was daring, even by Talon’s standards. Widowmaker stood out in the cold, outside of the crystalline viewing room where most of the party had amassed out of the cold. Strands of her hair loosened by dancing and drink and wind rippled and wafted about her face and collarbones. The light pollution of the city turned the sky the color of dirty steel as snow flurries fluttered down. It was freezing, supposedly. The skyscraper they were in was high enough for them to see the big gaudy ball ready to drop and hear the din of the crowd below. 

“Hoo!” she heard a voice behind her and glancd over her shoulder to see Sombra stepping out of the viewing room, holding two cocktail glasses and clearly flinching in the wind, “You really mean that ‘I don’t even feel the cold’ stuff, don’t you?”

“…You dressed up,” said Widowmaker, arching an eyebrow.

“I dressed up,” said Sombra, turning around demonstrably, “All by myself.”

“Akande helped,” said Widowmaker, smirking a little.

“…Akande helped,” Sombra admitted, stepping up alongside her, “Here take this.” She held out one of the cocktail glasses to her, filled with a what looked to be a cosmopolitan garnished with a curled orange peel and gold edible glitter. Widowmaker took it.

“I’d say it would warm you up but… y’know,” said Sombra with a grin and a shrug.

Widowmaker just smiled and sipped it. “You look good,” she said after a few beats.

“Really!?” Sombra’s face lit up then she tried to play it off coolly, “I mean… I know.”

“No toe-leggings,” said Widowmaker with a wry grin.

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” said Sombra, looking down at her pumps, “I danced for like, two songs in these things and they’re already killing me.”

“You danced?” said Widowmaker.

“I’m a good dancer!” said Sombra. She kicked off her pumps and her shoulders bunched up with the cold as her bare feet touched the concrete of the roof. “Hoo! Cold!” she sipped her drink. Widowmaker looked at Sombra’s bare feet against the concrete. She remembered tossing her shoes off the night she and Gérard first met, the way he let her lean on him as she toed them back on before heading back into whatever party they were just in. Unconsciously,  Widowmaker languidly brought an arm around Sombra.

“…no offense, but you’re not that much warmer, Araña,” said Sombra.

“Consider me a windbreak,” said Widowmaker.

“I can live with that,” said Sombra, leaning against her a little more. Widowmaker’s own shoulders bunched up as she felt something tickle up the back of her sheer black stockinged leg, and glanced down to see Sombra was mindlessly playing footsie up her calf. Sombra’s own expression wasn’t at her–Sombra’s purple neural implants were glowing slightly as they did when she was deep in thought, but Sombra wasn’t looking to her for a reaction. Obviously she was a few drinks in, to be expected on New Years–not gone, but the defenses lowered–enough for her to ignore the cold this long, anyway. This wasn’t one of Sombra’s games, it was a mindless intimacy that frankly bewildered Widowmaker. She didn’t flinch away from it. She didn’t want Sombra to stop.

There was the blast of an airhorn and cheering from streets below and both of them glanced down. Not too long until the ball dropped now. “Always roofs with us, huh?” said Sombra.“How many cities have we been in where we haven’t touched the ground?”

“You’ve asked that before,” said Widowmaker, sipping her drink.

“And the answer is ‘too many,’“ said Sombra, “So let’s fix that before I get shot again.”

“…Don’t joke about that,” the words fell out of Widowmaker on instinct.

“I’m fine, you know,” said Sombra.

“You represent too much of Talon’s intel network to joke about it,” said Widowmaker a bit stiffly.

Sombra just made a ‘never mind’ expression, glanced off, and sipped her drink. 

“You sure you don’t want to see things on the street level?” said Sombra.

“More of this cold? Loud crowds?” said Widowmaker, “Cheap beer being sloshed on you? Vomit on your nice high heels?”

“Those heels deserve it for killing my feet,” said Sombra, grinning, then she shrugged, “But… can’t argue with sniper logic. Can’t argue with the view either.” Sombra sipped her drink again and looked at the Times square ball.

“It… is beautiful,” said Widowmaker, looking out over the city.”

“Any resolutions?” said Sombra.

“Talon made me perfect,” Widowmaker said on reflex and then she seemed genuinely perplexed by her own statement. She sipped her drink and looked down, thinking for a few moments, “I… I used to read more,” she said, “I liked it. It was… relaxing. I don’t know why I don’t read like I used to.”

It’s because Talon shut down those neural pathways so you literally can’t be bothered to, thought Sombra, but she sipped her drink and said nothing. She wondered if all the time Amélie used to spend reading was being used to put Widowmaker in suspended animation now. The thought depressed her.

“I’m going to read more,” said Widowmaker, firmly, “A book a month. That is my resolution. What’s yours?” 

“I’m going to eat better,” Sombra said a little sullenly.

“…really?” said Widowmaker, “You look fine though.”

“Yeah but… I forget to eat, or I eat crappy food, and then Moira goes on about the neural implants doing some shit to my metabolism, and whenever I stand up too fast and get lightheaded I just… I feel her near, you know? Like she can’t wait to inject me with something horrible that will ‘solve all my problems.’ So I gotta solve those problems first. Which means… eating food. Apples and carrots and whatever.”

“A noble cause,” said Widowmaker, smiling a little.

“15!” the call suddenly thrummed up from the crowd below, “14! 13!”

“Oh mierda– it’s happening–” said Sombra, looking over at the ball. They could hear the crowd of Talon and Talon shell company executives count down from within the viewing room as well.

“5! 4!” 

Sombra quickly knocked back the last of her drink and Widowmaker did the same.

“3! 2! 1! HAPPY NEW YEAR!” The city seemed to throb with the words and Sombra whooped, sticking her empty cocktail glass high in the air.

“FELIZ AÑO NUE–mm–” Sombra was cut off as Widowmaker cupped her face in her hands and kissed her, hard. Hard enough to be a ‘Okay you’re a few drinks in’ kiss, but not so hard as to be unenjoyable. Sombra leaned into it and the cheers from the crowd below and the pop of fireworks above turned to a hum around her before Widowmaker broke away.

“Happy New Year,” said Widowmaker, her breath fogging a little.

Should her breath be fogging? thought Sombra, Or did she just rob me of some body heat?

“Y-you too,” Sombra said a little breathlessly.

[five-wow]

Author Asks

Rules: answer these questions and tag five other fic writers to do the same.

I was tagged by the wonderful @novemberhush. Thank you, omg, because I love rambling about writing and this is the best kind of opportunity to do so, handed on a silver platter, ahh. 😊

-

Author Name: Square / Squares / SquaresAreNotCircles

Fandoms You Write For: I’m a fandom hopper! In the past year or so it’s been Hawaii Five-0 (a truly ridiculous amount), Shadowhunters, Venom, Harry Potter, due South and Stargate Atlantis. Other fandoms I’ve written at least one fic for are Twilight, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Glee, BBC Merlin, BBC Atlantis, Teen Wolf, In The Flesh, Star Wars, Supernatural, the MCU and High School Musical. And uh, Alexander the Great/Voltaire fic (which would be... history fandom? RPF?) and one (1) Judas/Jesus Biblefic. If we’re getting really technical, also a tiny little bit of One Direction fic.

It should be noted that all of this is about fic that ended up getting posted somewhere on the interwebs - there are multiple Star Trek (TOS/AOS and DS9) fics lingering in my drafts (!! one day I will finish one of them), as well as some How To Train Your Dragon, The Good Place and Deadpool stuff, and definitely more I’ve forgotten.

Where You Post: Since I made the switch to writing in English everything has landed on ao3, but I used to write mostly in Dutch, so there’s still close to a million words, I think, under my name on quizlet.nl (not to be confused with quizlet.com, which is a very different website).

Most Popular One-Shot: That depends on how you’re measuring popularity! Going by kudos, it’s Tell me I’m perfect (but tell me the truth), a Magnus/Alec Shadowhunters fic. It’s the truth is a really old fic about Percy Weasley/Oliver Wood from Harry Potter that has the most hits out of all my works, and That time Steve kissed every single Avenger (and also Bucky), an MCU Steve/Bucky fic, has the greatest number of comment threads.

Also, since this is an h50 blog: for my fic in this fandom Wanted: partner (in crime) has the most kudos and hits; You had me at meow has the most comments.

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: I’m working on one for h50 (going slowly, so slowly), but I don’t have any posted to ao3. I used to write a lot of multi-chaptered work in my quizlet.nl days, and I think my most popular fic there was probably the second fic I ever wrote, when I was fourteen or fifteen, which was a next-gen Harry Potter fic with shifting and overlapping POVs from the three Potter kids. It was kind of, well, not great, but it’s probably what really cemented my writing habit, it’s still my longest fic ever (over a 100k!) and I got my first fandom friends out of it, including one I’m still in contact with to this day, even though neither of us writes much if anything for Harry Potter anymore.

Favourite Story You Wrote: Ohhh, that’s such an impossible question, especially because I’ve been churning out one-shots like I might actually be getting paid for it, so there’s so much to choose from, which is a thing I have difficulty doing at the best of times, holy shit. Uh, I once wrote a 70k Remus/Sirius (Harry Potter) modern college-ish AU in Dutch that I still like; weirdly, I think that Biblefic holds up (also Dutch), and the HSM fic is fun to reread once in a while because of the fourth wall break, as is That escalated quickly, a Percy/Oliver fic. Ooh, and the fic about Shuri and Stucky and a goat!

For h50, it’s even harder to choose, because my preferences change pretty much weekly (a combination of newer fic being shinier, looking back at fic from even just a few months ago and finding things I would have done differently now, and comments influencing the way I personally look at my own fic), but right now, I’d say I still really like the fic where Steve adopts some guinea pigs, the one with the slightly tipsy team bonding by talking about mutual crushes and this 9.11 coda fix fluff getting together thing.

Story You Were Nervous to Post: That Biblefic, haha, because it’s a very complicated topic and my aim was definitely not to offend. People were really sweet about it, though! Mostly, they were kind of shocked it wasn’t crack, but that’s fair, because so was I.

Also pretty much anything I post in a new fandom, really, and low key just... anything at all. I’m always a little scared I tagged something super badly or accidentally copy-pasted the wrong text or unknowingly wrote something super offensive or whatever, despite my double- and triplechecking of the posting form. (I’m also still kind of scared people on ao3 will randomly decide they hate my fic and my writing and me personally (ao3 is really big and very anonymous and coming from the small town that was quizlet.nl even in its heyday, that’s scary), but that fear has abated as I’ve posted more, just because the data is showing pretty conclusively that thought is as irrational as it sounds. Everyone is always so nice, gosh.)

How Do You Pick Your Titles: Mostly, I steal lines from random songs. I have a small pile of song lyrics to use as potential titles, because going on a seperate hunt for every new fic would take most of my waking hours. Sometimes, I’ll use a pun (like You had me at meow or Retail Therapy) or something else that I think sounds good, especially if the fic is mostly comedy and/or has a specific premise that would do well in a title (like Five times the Governor of Hawaii suspects his taskforce leaders are violating fraternization policies (and one time they tell him they are)).

Do You Outline: I’m mostly writing fic of (sometimes much) less than 5k at the moment, so not really. I do sometimes write tiny bits of a bunch of scenes and then fill in the rest around that, which is a kind of outline, in a way. For longer works, I usually make a one page bullet point list of things that need to happen and work from there, because I can’t do really extensive outlining or I’ll just get caught up in the details and lose all of the oversight a tool like that is supposed to give you, as well as most of my enthusiasm for the project.

How Many Of Your Stories Are Complete: Of the ones posted? On ao3, all of them, because unfinished posted one-shot works would require some strange bending of those concepts. On quizlet.nl, I do have some abandoned works, but I think 80% is finished.

In-Progress: SO MUCH. Seriously, just, so much, oh god. I’d really like to write another Stargate Atlantis fic (and I have 30% of one done), and something more for due South, too, and maybe a small Percy/Oliver thing again some time because they were my very first OTP and I kind of miss them, but mostly I have, like, 100+ half written things for h50. I really wish that number was an exaggeration. There’s no way they’ll all get finished, but maybe... a third? Mayhaps?

That One Truly Long H50 Fic that I was already talking about way back in October last year is also eternally “in progress”. The thing is that it has about 25k now, after a year, and I think it needs... at least four times that. Probably. So either I’ll have to stick with this fandom and my slow progress for another three years to have a shot at getting it finished, or I’ll need to find a way to up the speed a little. Maybe I could try working on it for NaNo this November? That would be pretty awesome, but honestly, part of why it’s moving this slowly is because NaNo-style fast and messy writing for this scares me a little, because I might end up writing a lot, decide it’s not what I wanted for it, and become too intimidated to ever edit and/or rewrite the entire thing. But idk, I probably just need to get over my own fears, because I really do want to write Longer Fic again. Short stuff is fun and feels really productive and that’s great, but I miss the actual slow burn and build-up that only 50k+ words can give you.

Coming Soon: Hopefully a lot? For h50, that is. I have no idea what’s getting posted next, because I’m never entirely sure what’s going to be finished next and something really random might come jumping in, but at the moment I’m trying to direct most of my energies at a slightly longer fic I’ve been working on for months (not The Long Fic, a different one), a fic labeled “9.01 memory loss fic”, another one temporarly entitled “Perfect Kauai beach house vacation”, and maybe an ace!Steve fic I’ve been working on, if I ever manage to uh, actually finish that, instead of rewriting three sentences during every round of editing and never actually adding anything to fill in the gaps it still has. There will also be more season 10 codas, in all likelihood.

Do You Accept Prompts: I’ve never done that before in the traditional way, but I’m thinking about it! I’d love to try (and it would be a breath of fresh air, in some ways!), but the main thing holding me back is that I have way too much on my plate with just my own ideas to work off of, and I don’t want to disappoint people. Maybe if I do drabble-ish prompt fills? It’s definitely been on my mind.

Upcoming Story You’re the Most Excited For: I’m excited for a lot of stuff, but honestly, the top spot right now probably goes to the ace!Steve fic. I’m not even sure it’s that good, necessarily, but it’s, idk, really cathartic, I suppose. Seriously self-indulgent in strange but very good ways. I really like writing it. (Second spot goes to the beach vacation fic, because I haven’t actually written that much for it, but it’s been my go-to easy happy place for the last few weeks.)

-

I’m tagging @love2hulksmash @thekristen999 @stephmcx @girlonastring @flowerfan2 and @pterawaters, which is six people because I can’t count, but I’m about to make it seven because I’m also tagging you, the person reading this (hi there!). Say I tagged you and tag me so I can read it! I know that kind of thing can feel awkward, but it won’t be, because I’m cheering you on. Go for it, if you want to do it. :D

[thetaekswoon]

VIXX Ken| Warlock AU

Wow!  Two in one day???  Hope you guys love cutie college kenneth struggling to keep his powers hidden.

Jaehwan:

Present day wizard who is trying his very best to balance all the responsibilities of university and you know, not expose himself to the entire world.

See, over time people have become slightly more closed minded than they once were and refuse to believe in any magic.

And though Jaehwan knows that the trials were a long time ago and that times have changed, he's terrified of being exposed and then being sent to burn at the stake.  Like clearly people have moved on from burning people in public squares, but still...  he's seen Xmen.

Lowkey paranoid about the world, but he's doing his best.

But tbh, Jaehwan rarely uses his magic at all, only for the little things like warming up his coffee during late night study sessions after it went cold, and maybe every once and a while when he is really backed up from work he performs a little spell that makes his Professor come down with a little something that makes them cancel class for the day.

But he would NEVER, never EVER, use his magic to cheat his way through school.  He's heard stories from his parents and cousins, all magic folk, who may have cheated their way to success, but Jaehwan wants to earn his degree fairly and with dignity.

His familiar is a little gecko that he keeps in a little terrarium in his dorm room.

When he's studying he puts his little gecko on the back of his neck and he'll like watch over his shoulder at what he's doing.

If you put its face up to your nose it'll give a little reptilian lick lol.

Has a side job on campus fixing people's computer and other electronics, tbh it doesn't even have to be electronics if you need anything fixed he'll do it.  However, this he does use his magic for, like irl he has no clue how to fix computers, but he's gotten real good at pretending that he knows.  In reality he'll just do his little magic thingy while pressing a bunch of buttons and whatnot.

Now, this is actually how you meet Jaehwan.

See there's no way to explain how this really happened but... you literally dropped your laptop into a pool.  Like actually, it was the stupidest thing ever.  

And you've brought your laptop to literally everyone to try and fix it because you have some really important essays and stuff on there that are due at the end of the week that you haven't put on your flash drive and ughhhhh it's such a mess.

Everybody you've brought it to says that it is impossible to fix and that you should probably just get a new one, ha!  Like you could afford that!  

But you just aren't giving up on your laptop yet and that's when your friend suggests finding a boy named Lee Jaehwan.  That he supposedly is some kind of wizard when it comes to fixing computers and that he's another student so it's relatively cheap.

So you seek out this Lee Jaehwan and you find him in a little alcove in the library, a large mug of steaming coffee in his hand and he's studying on his laptop.

And you notice as you walk up to him that Lee Jaehwan is gorgeous, like almost angelic.  His lips are big and pouty, perfectly kissable and his nose is a smooth slope.

Carefully, you approach the attractive stranger and introduce yourself, saying that your computer is broken and that you heard he could help.

The boy agrees, and puts his stuff down, taking your laptop to look at it.

"What happened to it?  It doesn't even turn on?"

"Um it... uh,,, kind of was d-dropped into the ppool."

And Jaehwan just looks up at you and is like "omg that's rough, idk if I can fix this."  This is a complete lie he can no problem, but he knows that if he does so it'll seem so strange since it's impossible.  So he hands it back.

And you're like, "omg please please you're my last hope I'm a poor college student I can't afford another computer can you please like take it home and look at it?  Maybe you'll figure it out I'm desperate here."

Maybe it's the fact that you are literally begging him for your help, or maybe it's the fact that you are really cute and adorable, but Jaehwan agrees and is like "ok you know what?  No problem, consider it fixed."

And you're like, "here's my number please text me when you're done I have essays on there."

Later that evening Jaehwan uses a little spell and your laptop is back to normal, all he can think about is your cute smile and the way the skin between your eyes bunched up when you talked.

He finds you the next day and returns your laptop.

"Like brand new," he says.

And you're like, " omg you're my hero." And jump up to kiss him on the cheek.  Jaehwan blushes like a flower.

He just laughs it off, and now Jaehwan isn't an overly confident guy, but he somehow manages to strike up the courage to say,

"Now I wouldn't accept any payment from you anyway, but if you let me kiss you for real this time my services will be free for life."

<><> do not edit/remove anything from the original post <><> this AU belongs to me <><>