#fanfic authors- i need you to get on this

[offensiunculaee]

Even When I'm Not With You

Chapter One: The Meeting

modern!Eddie Munson x AFAB!reader, college AU, strangers to friends to lovers

Summary: You meet someone in one of your college classes and it's love at first sight.

content warnings: swearing, it's a very modern AU

word count: 5.6k

author's note: this is technically my first fanfic. I began writing it in April of 2024 and only got around to posting it now. This is the backbone of the AU I've maintained in my head since I fell in love with Eddie. It takes place at the university I went to, involves all my friends, and some personal experiences. Once again, thank you to my two best friends @corroded-hellfire and @munson-blurbs for encouraging me to write and helping me out when I got stuck. Hopefully you guys like it because I have more to share in the future! ❤️

The cold February air was biting at your face as you hurried across campus, slow enough to avoid the ice that no doubt sat in the dark waiting for one careless student to step on it and fall flat on their ass. The walkways were lit just enough to allow you to see where you were going but not enough to help you spot any icy spots so this was as fast as you were willing to move. What should have been a relatively easy day turned into a nightmare the moment you woke up. It had snowed overnight and the university grounds crew had neglected to salt the sidewalks once again so you nearly fell twice just trying to get from your dorm building to the dining hall next door. Once you had a decent breakfast you made your way to work and learned that there was a bad cold spreading among the employees and had claimed three of your coworkers that you expected to work with today, thus leaving you with only your team lead to help you in your department. A good chunk of your morning was spent unloading consoles set to be released soon and left you exhausted. There were a fair share of unhappy customers that you had to deal with, and it only got worse when you finally got to go on your lunch and realized you left your wallet in your room so you had to eat the day-old bagels left in the break room. Five o’clock couldn’t come soon enough.

Your university was located in the middle of a metropolitan area so you were fully aware that the rush hour traffic was bad. To avoid the inevitable panic of wondering if you could be held up in traffic and be late to class, you built your class schedule around your shifts to leave an hour and a half for you to get home when the longest it could possibly take is twenty minutes with heavy traffic. Tonight’s class, Physical Anthropology, was on the other side of campus so you also had to factor in the time it would take to walk there. Still, you would be left ample time to get home, change out of your work clothes, and even have dinner without the need to rush. You were thankful that this was the last week before spring break so at least you could relax when you weren’t working.

Your careful planning had worked perfectly up until today because you couldn’t possibly account for the accident on the highway. Everyone was trying to get home before the storm came back to make the streets undriveable, but one driver was in such a rush that they lost control and caused a small pile-up. The drivers were all alright, thankfully, but this left you sitting in traffic for over an hour and your anxiety slowly creeping up. You were close to emailing your professor to tell them you weren’t going to make it even though the university was right in front of you. By 6:15pm, you were finally moving and rushed across campus. You weren’t even going to change out of your uniform and decided to just keep on the sweater you wore under your coat. All you had to do was grab your bag right by your door and make the trek across campus. Unfortunately once you grabbed everything you needed, you were now left with 15 minutes to make the 11-minute uphill trek to your classroom, assuming there were no obstacles in your way. 

You made it inside the building and into your classroom with two minutes to spare, but in your mind you were basically late to class. You preferred to get there ten minutes early so you could choose a decent seat and get yourself situated, but by the time you were inside all the good spots were taken and the professor was already setting up for her lesson. The only seats left were in the back so you made your way over and put your stuff down at the first open spot you see. As you begin unpacking your things, the professor turns some of the lights off and puts on a video on osteology that you had been focusing on for the last two weeks. 

You were never a very social person in school, always preferring to keep to yourself and only talk when other people initiate a conversation. This class was only on your schedule because it fulfilled a requirement, nothing else. Your only friends here were within your small program and none of them were in this class with you. You didn’t know anyone's names or faces, especially not the person you just sat next to. His only acknowledgement of you was in the form of scooting a little bit so he wasn’t taking up all the space at the table you were now sharing. He was focused on whatever he was frantically writing down in his notebook, a curtain of curly brown hair concealing his face from you. However, you were able to see what he was writing in. It was a beaten up spiral notebook full of carefully organized notes with color coded tabs. There were flowcharts, sketches of what looked like maps, and character information. He also had some pages printed out that were tucked between the pages. None of those things really stuck out to you, instead your eyes were drawn to a hastily drawn creature in the corner of the left page. It was a scaled, humanoid figure with wings and horns. You could almost mistake it for a gargoyle if it weren’t for its stature and flames surrounding it. It’s something you’d recognize almost anywhere.

You whisper to the person next to you, “That pit fiend looks really good.” His pen stops mid-sentence and his head shoots up to look at you. A woodsy smell mixed with a hint of tobacco and mint wafted towards you with his movements. It was almost intoxicating.The first thing you looked at were his eyes. They were wide open with shock and they were the richest, most beautiful shade of brown you had seen in your entire life. His lips were full, a little chapped either from biting and wetting them or the cold weather sucking all the moisture out of everything. He had light freckled across his nose and a small, faded scar on his forehead. The rest of his hair that wasn’t previously obscuring his face was tied back into a bun. You both sat there in silence for a moment as he struggled to put words together. He’s wearing chunky silver rings and a worn Slipknot hoodie. You could even see the edges of a tattoo peeking out from under the collar and another of a goat skull on his left hand. 

“Oh, thanks. Um…” He looked down at the page for a second, ringed hands fidgeting with the pen he was holding before pointing towards the large flow chart, “It’s for this week’s campaign. I didn’t have a lot of time this week to plan so I’m trying to get it all done right before we meet up tonight. My friend, Jeff, his character looted these cultists…” He glances up to check and see if you’re listening and smiles when he realizes you’re actively paying attention, leaning in to get a better look at the pages. He continues with a little more confidence in his voice.

“So his character, this Triton named Kaglas, found a really old book on one of the cultists. Turns out this book was a cursed tome belonging to a demon prince and well, he cut his finger trying to pry the book open because it was being held shut with these really sharp teeth. The blood from his finger dripped onto the book and opened a portal so a prince of hell kidnapped him and now they’ll have to get past this guy to gain access to the prison… I’m just trying to finish up the encounter tables for the rest of the prison because I always leave those until the last minute.” Before he can delve further into the story, the lights come back on and papers are being handed out to each row of tables by the professor. “The goal of this lab is to identify the species of hominid based on everything you’ve learned so far. I’m not going to pull anything funny by giving you two of the same species so don’t worry about that. Each skull is numbered. Work with the other person at your table to identify the species, write the number down, and explain your reasoning. Please be careful with these.”

The papers make their way back to your way and you hand one to your new lab partner. He accepts it, mouthing ‘thank you’  and quickly scrawls Eddie on the top of the page. Good, you tell yourself. You know his name now, progress. There’s some shuffling in the back of the room as the professor goes off on some tangent. Both yours and Eddie’s attention is drawn back to the topic of his campaign. 

You began speaking to him in hushed tones, “Your friend doesn’t seem very bright. Who in their right mind would try opening a book bound shut with fucking teeth? And they got it from cultists? Are they trying to get their characters killed or are they just dumb?” Eddie stifles his laughter and shakes his head. You’re sure the professor is saying something as she moves to the back of the room but your focus is only on the man next to you. His laugh is more beautiful than any song you’ve heard before. He begins to rock his stool back and forth as he continues to speak.

“Honestly? I’m not sure. We’ve been playing together for years and I think they’re getting more and more reckless as time goes on. At this point they can recognize when I’ve set up a trap and they take it every time just for the hell of it…”  so, do you play?” 

There’s some shuffling going on in the cabinets in the back of the room as the professor begins pulling out skulls and placing one on each table. Eddie takes the skull and begins looking it over. You hear a quiet, “These are really cool.” You glance over at it and note the size of the skull overall and the lack of a brow ridge, quickly jotting those down before moving your paper closer to Eddie so he can write them down as well.

“I just started recently, it’s me and a few friends. We just saved this sweet little dwarf bookseller named Barnes when these half-elves stole his book cart with him inside it.” You watch Eddie examine the skull, running his fingers along the area where the sagittal crest should be. His rings catch the warm light of the old overhanging lights of the classroom. There was black ink on his hands, or was that oil? You couldn’t tell. His fingers were calloused and you could only guess he was also a musician. 

“Barnes, the bookseller, huh? What’s his last name, Noble?” The only response he gets is an eye roll before putting the skull down. “By the way, I think it’s a homo erectus. There’s no crest and its teeth are smaller.” You nod and Eddie hands the skull over for you to examine. You open its mouth to get a better look at the teeth and nod to him, writing ‘homo erectus’ on the paper. The skull remained in your hands and you began inspecting it out of curiosity. 

You bring the skull up to eye level and respond to Eddie with a small smirk on your face, “As a matter of fact, it is. Y’know, it’s actually a family business. His father started it and he has a bunch of brothers with the same name. They all have their own book carts in different cities. Honestly, I think they’re gonna be real successful in the future.” The story makes you laugh. The book cart wasn’t meant to be anything more than a place for your crew to gain information on the area but your insistence on “getting to know the locals” to annoy your DM, Emma, led to them creating a character that you felt attached to right away.

He rests his head in his hand and gives you a look that you can’t quite read. He has this smile on his face and this soft look in his eyes that you’ve only ever seen in romance movies when the main characters are starting to fall for each other. It wasn’t something you had the chance to experience yourself, always too nervous to ask people out yourself. Dating apps were totally out of the question because you had only heard horror stories from your friends who had tried it. You open your mouth to continue telling the story and maybe ask Eddie about his own campaigns when your professor pipes up from the front of the classroom.

“Guys, just as a reminder. These skulls are REAL and are ON LOAN TO THE UNIVERSITY and they are VERY EXPENSIVE. Please be careful with them.”

If you were being honest, you should have realized this sooner. It didn’t feel like plastic at all and had small indentations and ridges on it. This was a person. The realization nearly has you dropping the skull that once held someone's brain but thankfully, you were holding it right above the table so there was no chance of it being damaged. A laugh rang out from the seat next to you which took your attention away from what you held in your hands. He’s smiling at you. A big, toothy, beautiful smile and you wish you could look at that smile all day long. He hasn’t been in your life very long, maybe 5 minutes in total, but you were infatuated with him. Once he manages to calm himself down, Eddie slowly reaches out and takes the skull out of your hands.

“Let me take that from you. We can’t have you hurting this guy, can we?” Once the skull was out of your hands, you hang your head low in embarrassment. You feel your face growing warm and pull at the loose strings of your sweater sleeve. You bought it when you first started attending the university and it had been through the wash more times than you could and somehow created a hole in one of the sleeves. The hole was just low enough so you would stick your thumb in it and pick at it, like you were doing right now. Eddie lowers his head a bit to get a better look at you and asks, “So I guess you never realized these were real.”

You reply, face still feeling slightly flushed, “I never really thought about it, but it feels weird… I mean, that was a person,” you reply, pointing to it with your pen as you begin noting the state of its teeth and the sutures on the top of the head, “this guy had hobbies, he had a family, he lived a full life!”

Eddie interjects, turning the skull around to the back to reveal a massive crack in the middle of it. You cringe at the sight of it with Eddie bluntly replying, “I don’t think this guy had a full life. Looks to be cut pretty short to me. This is probably from an axe or some other tool.”

The rest of the class period was spent finishing the lab and learning more about each other. The two of you  talked about majoring in history and your love for classical antiquity while he told you about his band and working as a mechanic with his uncle. You also learned that your music tastes were pretty similar, you had a love for rock and metal and even complimented his hoodie (“I’m gonna be completely honest, you do not look like a Slipknot fan.” “Wow, rude.”). It felt as if you had known Eddie your entire life by the time class was drawing to a close. You two were so immersed in your conversation that you didn’t even realize you were one of the last people in the classroom. Eddie unlocked his phone to check the time,  allowing you a quick glance at his lock screen with a red guitar on it. Your musician hunch was right. He shoots up from his stool, hissing “Shit shit shit” and begins shoving his stuff into his backpack. You look at him bewildered and he says, “I’m sorry, I need to go. Our session is supposed to start in five minutes and I need to be on the other side of campus right now!” Once his bag was hastily packed and he was pulling his jacket on, Eddie looks at you one last time and gives you a sheepish smile. “I’ll see you next week, right? No, two weeks. I’ll see you in two weeks. It was great to meet you!” You don’t even get the chance to properly say goodbye before he leaves the classroom in a blur of black leather and denim. All you hear is the sounds of heavy boots running through the hallway and out the nearest side door.

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The walk from Eddie’s class to the student center Tuesday night was usually a leisurely one. He always made sure he got out the moment class ended so he would be able to fetch the keys for the multi-purpose room down in the basement and unlock it before everyone else arrived. Eddie always preferred to have everything set up so it was less likely someone could sneak a peek at his notes. He learned his lesson after he arrived a few minutes late and Grant got a peek at his screen and saw their Arakocra guide that was helping them navigate enemy territory was actually a spy for the local warlord. Eddie was a stickler for punctuality (ironic considering how he was always absent in high school) and would rag on anyone that was even five minutes late. Hellfire was meant to start at 8pm sharp and Eddie was rounding the corner in the basement, keys in hand, by 8:07.

By the time he has the key and rounds the corner to their room, he sees everyone standing outside and their heads all turn at once. He honestly found it kind of disturbing. 

“Well, well, well. Look who finally arrived,” Gareth said with his arms crossed, “we’re glad to see you could make it.” Eddie doesn’t bother trying to justify his tardiness to him and pushes through to unlock the door and set his stuff down at the end of the table. 

Everyone agreed that the drama room back in Hawkins High was definitely more comfortable than their current room and was more aesthetically pleasing. Eddie thrived when he was sitting on that throne. He would have taken it home with him if he could. However, there were some cons to that location that were rarely brought up. They had to lug extra chairs into that room every week and always had to keep their voices down. Sometimes they’d arrive and find out the space was being used for something else that week and they had to cancel the meeting. It was also located in the one part of the school that lacked air conditioning so it became unbearable once the weather started to warm up. Also, the wifi was horrible.

Eddie considered this room to be an upgrade. It wasn’t as nice as the drama room with its white painted brick walls with absolutely nothing on them and the uncomfortable chairs, but he always knew this space would be open since he reserved it for them every Tuesday night. He also appreciated the monitor hanging in front of the tables so he could display the maps and character art he did himself. Yes, they did trade in a very hot room in Hawkins for a very cold one in a basement, but everyone thought it was worth it. 

Everyone began to filter into the room and take their respective seats at the long table. There was only one seat open since one of their former players, Ronnie, had transferred to another school at the end of the fall semester so her seat was being used by Jeff. Eddie is working quickly to pull up the necessary resources and load up the map they were using last week with twisting pathways and lakes of lava. He’s filtering out all the chatter around him in order to get everything set up as quickly as possible. Jeff sits down next to him with a box of pastries from the local Dunkin Donuts. They could usually get them for free in the evening since they were about to be thrown out and Jeff was friends with one of the cashiers. 

“So… what happened to you?” 

Jeff’s question is only heard by Eddie and Doug, Hellfire’s newest member. The rest of the club were busy getting their own materials out and digging dice out of their bags. Eddie could vaguely hear Gareth complaining about losing his own set and having to use one of the sets Eddie brought because ‘Munson always has the weirdest dice, I don’t want to spend tonight staring at dice with a bunch of tiny baby heads in them’. Without looking up from his laptop, Eddie simply replies, “I had a lab and lost track of time, that’s all.”

Jeff doesn’t believe any of this. He and Eddie had been friends since they were both gangly teenagers who got detention for trying to skip gym class. Jeff knew when Eddie was lying - Eddie would always bite at his lip when he wasn’t telling the truth. It wasn’t just a lab. Something must have happened.

Jeff begins to probe Eddie with questions. He knew the only way he’d get Eddie to confess to whatever was going on was by guessing until he got a reaction out of him.

 “A lab, interesting… So you weren’t able to finish it in time and that made you late?” Eddie says nothing. 

“Did you drop something and get in trouble?” Someone else almost did, but not him. No reaction. 

“Did you eat something and get in trouble?” Eddie reaches over to the box of pastries and grabs a boston creme donut.

“Did you meet someone? You found your soulmate?” Eddie pauses as he’s sitting back down in his chair. Bingo. Jeff is shocked. Throughout all the years he had known Eddie, the man was never known to believe in love. There was a girl he met when he was 18 but that never worked out so Eddie assumed he’d live the life of a bachelor. He grew up with parents who hated each other and always seemed to be fighting so he never knew what a healthy relationship looked like. Whenever someone asked about his love life he would brush them off and say it just wasn’t for him. He said it so much that everyone couldn’t help but believe him. 

“Oh my god, Eddie Munson is in love.” Jeff says this slowly with a shit-eating grin on his face. He also said this loud enough that everyone else in the room could hear him so all the conversations being held ended at once in favor of learning about this mystery person in Eddie’s life.

“You’re WHAT?” 

“I didn’t know you were capable of that.”

“What are they like? What’s their name?”

The group questioning turned into an interrogation that yielded no results. Everyone only stopped once Eddie had finally located the music he needed and drowned their questions out with the sounds of a haunting violin, creaking, and muffled screams.

“Ok, so where were we? Uh, Tayr,” Eddie looks up at Jeff and points his pen at him, “you’re still imprisoned deep underground. You had 7 hit points when we last left off and you said you were planning to break both your ankles to get out of your shackles so I’m holding you to that.” Eddie then turns to Grant and Gareth who are looking annoyed that their friend is ignoring them, but he persists. He has a campaign to run. “Hylbaez, I believe you and Ariver were going to attempt horse stacking to get up to that open window. I don’t know how the two of you plan on doing that without your horses and how you’re gonna reach the 7th floor even if you had your horses with you. You’ve had a week to figure that out.” He looks over his notes one last time before looking up at the group. Nobody appears to be ready to play. No pencils in hand, only a few papers out. Hellfire won’t start until they get what they want. Eddie was really hoping they’d all drop the group questioning but that doesn’t seem like it’s happening anytime soon. With a huff, Eddie rubs his face and gives them all a look of resignation. “Okay, fine. You want to know? There was a girl that sat next to me. She complimented some character art that I’ve been working on and we talked about D&D for a while. I’m gonna try to get her number after spring break. THAT’S IT.”

It’s almost like everyone’s ears perked up when they heard him mention Dungeons & Dragons. Doug puts a hand up as if he’s in class and asks the question that everyone is thinking. “Are you going to invite her to join Hellfire?” It’s a question that Eddie had been asking himself on the hurried walk from class to the student center. Sure, the campaign they were playing had already begun but he could find a way to write you in. He knew he was a good storyteller so it would be a great way to impress you. Sure, he’s no Matthew Mercer or Brennan Lee Mulligan, but he never struggled to keep everyone’s attention and he’s proud of the stories he created. 

“I’ll think about it.”

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It had begun raining by the time their session was concluded (the student center was closing) and the shuttles weren’t running tonight so Eddie had to make the mile trek on foot. He didn’t even care that the elevator was broken again. He’ll, he wouldn’t care if it was broken for the rest of the year because he’s pretty sure he found the love of his life today and nothing could dampen his mood. He rushed up the four flights of stairs and fumbled with his keys before coming inside and slamming the front door shut behind him. His backpack was thrown onto the floor with a wet fwump and his bomber jacket followed close behind as he hastily shucked it off him.

Eddie had a routine he usually followed after each Hellfire Club meeting. He would always change into his pajamas, heat up the food he had brought back from the dining halls and make that his dinner, and retreat into his room where he’d go over what happened during their session and tweak his plans for their next meeting if necessary. He did this every week for the past three years he’s been DMing at this school and the only time he ever broke this routine was during finals his freshman year where he was convinced he’d fail if he didn’t dedicate all his time to actually studying. This was the second time he would ever break that routine. Instead of making himself comfortable, he stormed down through their small living space and walked past his own room to barge into the other bedroom.

This was the second year that Steve roomed with Eddie and the first year that they got their own rooms. Since they were so used to sharing a room together, it was second nature for Eddie to rush straight to Steve when he had to tell him something. Thankfully for him, Steve never locked his door so Eddie was able to rush in unannounced and blurted out, “You will NOT believe what happened today!”

Steve was sitting at his desk, still dressed in his red school scrubs from his clinicals earlier in the day with his nose buried in his textbooks. His hair was tied back in a small ponytail, wearing his glasses, and headphones over his ears. When Eddie forced his way into the room, Steve nearly jumped out of his seat and ripped his headphones off his head and was glaring daggers at the other man.

“Do you ever learn to knock?” Eddie ignores the comment from Steve and goes to the other side of the small bedroom to sit down on Steve’s bed, still wearing his damp clothes and definitely tracking mud across the apartment. Steve is only angry for a moment until he sees the giant smile on his friends face. Eddie wasn’t exactly a grumpy person, but Steve hadn’t seen him smiling like that in a long time, probably not since Eddie got Metallica tickets from his Uncle Wayne as a graduation present. He was smiling so much that Steve was sure his face actually hurt. Eddie was beaming just like he was all those years ago.

Eddie’s leg began shaking from excitement as he began speaking, “I think I met my soulmate today. I was in my anthropology class and she sat down next to me and she’s perfect. I mean, first of all, she’s beautiful. She plays Dungeons and Dragons and we like the same music and she’s so fucking funny.” The metalhead then gets up from Steve’s bed and takes the few steps it takes to stand right in front of him. He’s wildly waving his hands around as he recalls everything that you two talked about during that lab. Steve swore Eddie didn’t stop to breathe even once during this entire recollection. As the story starts to wind down, Eddie removed his hair tie from his hair and ran his fingers through his dark locks. He sighs and says, “Honestly man, I didn’t think after Paige that I’d find anyone who I really connected with but she’s different. I don’t feel like I need to hold back when I’m talking to her.” Eddie finally stops talking and takes a breath before moving back to Steve’s bed and flopping down to lay on his sheets, wet hair and all. 

Steve fully turns around to face Eddie with an impressed look on his face as he closes his books, asking the other, “I’m happy for you, man. So what’s her name? Did you get her number?” Eddie hears this and his eyes widen, opting to look up at the ceiling rather than Steve. He realizes his horrible, horrible mistake and is kicking himself for hurrying off rather than taking an extra minute to get your name and contact information. His silence prompts Steve to scoot closer in his chair as his tone turns more serious. “Eddie, did you get her number?” Silence. “Her instagram?” Silence. “Snapchat??” Eddie purses his lips, too ashamed to say anything. “Munson, did you get ANYTHING from her??”

Eddie groans and sits up now, rubbing his face and tries to defend himself. “Listen. I was going to be late to Hellfire and I didn’t want to listen to anyone complaining about being late so I just told her I’d see her after spring break. I wasn’t thinking straight! I swear I’ll get her number the moment I see her in two weeks.”

It’s now Steve’s turn to groan and he shakes his head, getting up from his chair and moving to sit next to Eddie and begins to try to reassure his friend, telling him, “Ok, here’s what we’re gonna do. There’s like a missing connections instagram page for the school. You just need to message them and tell them you want to find her and get her contact information. Maybe she’ll see it.”

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You spent the rest of the week hopelessly searching for Eddie in the massive crowds of students. There were a couple instances of spotting a head of curly brown hair only to be disappointed when you realize it’s not him. There’s about 40,000 students in this school so you wonder why you figured you could just find him casually walking around campus. Your roommate, Elena, suggested looking at your school portal page to see if you can find him on your class page but your professor didn’t enable the ‘Students’ section, only opting for pages that were vital in completing coursework. One of your friends spent two hours scouring Instagram and Facebook convinced that they could find Eddie but came up empty handed. You told everyone you knew what he looked like and what his name was, but he wasn’t in anyone’s classes or in anyone’s dorms. It was like he just vanished into thin air. Elena reassured you that you’d see him in two weeks so all you had to do was wait.

Your search was paused during spring break and put on an indefinite hold when things went downhill. People all over the world were getting sick and you watched in horror as the virus slowly creeped closer to your home state. Then into your county. Spring break was extended for an extra week as the school administration worked to find a solution to keep the staff and student body safe. Schools around the country were shuttering their campuses while yours promised in-person classes would resume shortly but they soon changed their mind. You received an email by week three stating the remainder of the semester would be spent online and you needed to pack up your dorm room. The administration was unable to confirm if you’d be returning to campus in the fall. At this point, both you and Eddie came to the conclusion that you’d never see the other person again and it would take a miracle for you two to reunite.

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I’m not sorry

[maeaneke]

The key issue (and difference between fanfic and fanart) is what boils down to "market substitution".

A piece of fanart cannot substitute fandom media, generally. [1] That is, someone cannot meaningfully replace a fandom media via fanart illustrations, because an illustration does not provide the same thing the original medium does.

Fanfic, however, by its nature, can. I could replace a fandom media with fanfic and get the same thing as a consumer -- plots with these owned characters in this owned setting -- and in theory could then decide to stop purchasing the original media, because my needs are met by the fanfic.

This is also the reason media creators *cannot* meaningfully interact with fanfic -- it is a more complicated mess if there is an overlap of ideas if you know the lead writer reads fanfic, and pursuing it as the fic author puts that market substitution piece on the block in a bad way.

So, yes. It is frustrating. But there is a very good legal reason that Ao3, for example, has mentions of monetization explicitly against its ToS, and it is for the protection of everyone.

[1] fan comics could run into this issue too but commercial, self-published fan comics is less of a thing out of the US space, generally. Your Artist Alleys and Patreon spaces primarily involve singular piece works

For the love of all that you enjoy: DON’T PAYWALL YOUR FANFICTION.

Again, but louder:

DON’T PAYWALL YOUR FANFICTION

It’s getting more and more common. I’ve seen three posts about it in the last 24 hours - patreons where you’ll get “exclusive” fanfiction stories if you’re a subscriber.

Don’t.

Don’t do it.

It’s annoying, but mostly it’s fucking dangerous.

The whole fanfiction community prosper on someone else’s turf under “fair use” laws. In simple terms: we can play with other people’s creations for as long as it’s done for our own amusement, and that of our followers.

Once any kind of financial benefits are made, it becomes another abuse of someone else’s rights.

And look, I get it. It sucks, especially seeing the artists take commissions while the authors get nothing, and it takes hours and hours of our time, and I understand people are looking for a side hustle to make ends meet in this monstrosity of a capitalist society, but if we don’t stop it from happening, the rights owners will stop it.

And they’ll stop it for everyone.

It’s not worth it. Don’t do it.

[anarchy-and-piglins]

After u shared your favourite 3 techno tropes u HAVE to drop your favourite fan fictions for each of them!! Either your own or someone else's (...pls?🥺 I need more techno ff and those 3 tropes are also some of my fav)

I fear I'm going to be massively disappointing in my answer here but I basically suck at bookmarking fics and also don't really read as much fic as I used to (though I've been getting back in the grind as my 2025 resolution!) aside from a few very specific authors whose stuff just always hits right. So I'm not really a good person to come to for fic recs lmao.

Those fav authors of mine do cover these tropes too though so lemme just link them rather than particular fics:

I assume if you're reading my stuff you're also reading Floristkills' fanfics. If you're not, what the heck are you doing with your life??? /lh They're basically The Goat of Techno whump and Techno AUs, it's good stuff always all the way through

Same for CleanLenins, if you're reading my fic and not hers you've gone wrong somewhere /j Lenn writes mostly Dark SBI for those who do need that warning, but it's just so AAAAAA

Lastly, there's my beloved WhoEvenKnows. Their fics are usually a decent amount shorter and they fall more in the realm of fluffy hurt/comfort, but if you want something more easygoing and bite-sized compared to the above two, I highly recommend. Even is the king of Foster AUs and they write top-notch neurodiverse and disabled Techno rep, it's wonderful.

Anybody else is free to share their fav or promo their own Techno-centric fics (especially those with the mentioned tropes) on this post in the comments and reblogs if they want!

[lanibijou]

Sometimes fanfics just have the funniest things inserted into them.

Been into a lot of dcxdp fics lately (mainly consuming fics from the ship tag I enjoy - and also Jesus you all give Danny so much trauma and what's with the vivisections??? But I digress)

Tell me why this fic brings up a whole damn powerpoint in the chapter? That shit had me laughing so much actually. And then it reminded me of a jjk fanfic that actually had a math question in the middle of the fic. Not to mention how authors would be having artwork for their fics and I find that so cute and lovely. Or how sometimes you'd see like fake message apps to show text messages. I want to get back into writing fics so badly just to add stuff like this because I needed that laugh today

[chocochococoffee]

theres always the need for redeeming sqh because sy is the kinda character who trashed the author and the story too much, to geeling in the end he was more of a angry wojak angryposting (he is) than an actual reader (he can be both) but its not fair to shen yuan to always picture him as uncaring of shang qinghua, as in the end whatever it happens both sqh and sy dont know each other outside of minimal "i saw you on the internet" and having barely dialogued with each other outside of ways of getting a chance to survive in the pidw universe.

in my mind, the best idea to get that retribution would be making shen yuan, after his marriage with binghe and his encounter with bingge, try to write an au of pidw to give bingge a chance. he doesnt know how to write outside of the rants he did and the old cn like wuxia poems he had to teach to his students. in short, and he knows it, all his tries of doing something better than pidw suck.

he wouldve told qinghua about his encounter with bingge because if he was able to travel between worlds why wouldnt the original mobei-jun wouldn't be able to? and qinghua would know about his fanatism... cant help but think that shen yuan would still care about the original binghe even though he had tried to kidnap him and maybe more. So, obviously, sqh would notice his attempts of writing a better story for bingge, and boy he would laugh at them.

"bro i dont know what sucks more, your wnglish or the fact this can rival with a 12 y/o first fanfic!!"

[darlingpoppet]

Doujinshi event updates!!!

My books for Chthonios Epic 3 arrived and they look GORGEOUS!

I got gold foiling done over the titles on both covers and I’m really pleased with how they turned out! I also love how the paper texture makes Riptide’s art look like a real painting <3

I also posted some sample pages on Pixiv, so please take a look at those if you’re interested (R-18 content included, so you’ll need to be an adult logged into an account to view.)

I’m planning to distribute my book via pixiv BOOTH, which has international shipping available via proxy. The book will cost 1300yen (about $8 USD) plus shipping.

The link to my shop is here:

It will go live once the event starts :) I’ll also have the few remaining copies of my first doujinshi listed there too! Both of these stories are still free to read on AO3 (although for now the Japanese translation of my Hades story is exclusive to the book.) But also, for what it’s worth, this book version of Closest To My Heart also has a newly-written, 3-page afterword (in both English and Japanese of course), for those of you who enjoy reading author commentary :)

Here again is the link to Chthonios Epic 3 on PictSquare:

If you would like to attend but aren't familiar with PictSquare, I've found some resources on how to register and use the website. It’s free for non-exhibitors to attend the events!

YouTube video explanation: How to use Pict-Square - English Version

I found this YouTube tutorial to be pleasant and easy to understand, plus you get an idea of what the event space looks like in real-time.

Blog post: Navigating pictSQUARE as a general participant

This blog post explains how to register via twitter, but you can also register with an email account (that method is explained in the YouTube video). This post also explains how to set up custom avatar and effects, but these aren't required, there are preset avatars free to select from when you enter a venue.

The author of the above blog post also appears to have several guides on how to buy doujinshi from Japan... here is another one on how to shop with BOOTH (the storefront I'm using):

Anyway, I’m not the manager of this event, just a participant, but feel free to contact me if you have any other questions and I’ll do my best to answer <3

I’ll be at space う3 during the event! In addition to distributing my book, I’ll be exhibiting all the rest of my Hades fanfics, and I’ll be amongst a lovely and creative group of Japanese Hades fans! So please come say hello and take a look at all of our displays throughout the weekend of February 1-2!

See you there <3

Hades Doujinshi project news & Cover reveal!

来年2月1日〜2日のHadesシリーズWebオンリーイベント「クトニオス叙事詩3」のために、パトアキザグ(アキザグ、パトザグ、そしてリバ有りパトアキパト) 『Closest To My Heart』/『だれよりも心を許している男』という英和バイリンガル小説＆漫画の本を出させていただきます。表紙とコミックは、RIPTIDE様が描いてくださいました♡ どうぞよろしくお願い致します。

So I haven’t been around much on social media for the last several weeks, particularly tumblr (except for perhaps the occasional reblog or two haha.) Sorry about that! But the reason is because I signed up to participate as a circle for a Japanese Hades game series fan event, Chthonios Epic 3, currently scheduled to be held on February 1-2 next year. And after working hard on it nonstop for the last almost two months, I’ve just turned in my doujinshi manuscript: a bilingual physical edition of Closest To My Heart, including both the original English version and a brand-new Japanese translation. So good news if you liked that story and/or would like to give it a go reading it in Japanese!

I also got in touch with Riptide, who drew a comic version of the story, and I was so thrilled when they kindly agreed not only to draw a beautiful cover for the book version (as seen above!) but they also helped me prepare their comic for printing, AND they even re-edited the comic so it could have a proper Japanese version as well! Basically I couldn’t have done this without them and I am SO grateful!!! Along with DH who is my usual Japanese editor/beta reader, I hope we managed to put together a decent little book. It’s 114 pages total and I can’t wait to hold it in my hands!!!

I’m still in the middle of prepping for the event & making decisions about how to distribute and stuff like that, but if you’re interested in buying a copy (from an extremely limited print run lol), more details are forthcoming. Either way, for now I can say if you’re a Hades fan, you ought to come pay a visit to the event in February, since it’s all online! I believe they’re also still accepting sign-ups for circles to participate through mid-January… you can set up a booth even for things like fanworks not newly created for the event, merch, or just if you wanted to display your own Hades & Hades 2 artwork & stories <3

Anyways, back to my regularly scheduled fic writing!!!

[mochelisgf]

CHAPTER ONE —

ᰔ — pairing: morgan cheli x oc (mar williams)

ᰔ — word count: 1600

ᰔ — warnings: none, this chapter is mostly a introduction

ᰔ — links: character list, fanfic masterlist

ᰔ — story masterlist

ᰔ — authors note: pls be patient with me as this is my first ever series ! also pls leave feedback in the comments or on reposts 🩷 alsooo in the beginning of this chapter there was a Instagram set up but I couldn’t get the layout right so ignore that…

— INSTAGRAM —

@MRWILLIAMSSS

liked by r3neewilliams and 70 others

mrwilliamsss i fear i have to get out more

view all comments......

r3neewilliams you say that all the time and then proceed to stay in all day

— mrwilliams ....🖕...hater

georgiaeous ugh have my babies

— georgiaeous but yes you need to get out more!!!

— mrwilliams ugh i guessss we can go out soon

jujuwatkins wow

— r3neewilliams GAY !!!!! juju stop flirting with my cousin

— mrwilliams ree kys??????

MAUREEN MOVED ACROSS THE ROOM; on her body contained her backpack filled with books, papers and lunch for the day. She was sporting a tight-fitted white tee with a deep golden brown cardigan layered on top which she paired with dark washed baggy jeans and burgundy buckled loafers.

With her cousin finally graduating and moving out of the dorm, she had all the time and quietness she needed to focus on her studies and also herself. As she was making sure that she had all needed before walking out the dorm her phone began to ring, picking up her phone the phone read 'gia 🤗' answering the phone the first thing she hears is —

"Me, you, and ree – tonight at club rio and I am not taking no for an answer"

"what? no Georgia I can't go out tonight I have a study group and I have to finish a group assignment, I can't go" replied Maureen.

Georgia whined into the phone "Dude you so need a break, you literally replied to my comment earlier saying we could take you out!"

Maureen sighed before replying back "Yeah I said soon, keyword being soon? I love you and I would kill for a night out right now but I really got to finish this shit, look I can't afford to miss an assignment you know I'm on scholarship"

"Yeah, I know I'm sorry. How about Saturday? The last assignment you have to turn in is this group assignment right?" Maureen hummed yes "Okay then how about this Saturday, me and ree come over and we get ready together and go out? " Georgia continued

"Yeah Saturday is good, again I'm sorry I can't go tonight, I love y'all though okay? Have a good time, I got to go but I'll come by your dorm tomorrow morning, bye" Maureen said and in reply got a 'Okay, I love you too mar' before the call ended.

Maureen puts her phone away with a sigh, grabbing her drink, keys and flash cards she'd left on the kitchen counter that same morning before turning off the lights and walking out the dorm.

𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙉𝙀𝙓𝙏 𝘿𝘼𝙔

Maureen's day started at 5:25am. Being a law major meant her life was pretty hectic and exciting. It also meant having to wake up, get dressed and make it halfway across campus before the sun even finished setting.

Her first class was at 7:45am. Waking up more than early enough so she could stay with her current routine. Wake up, fix bed, take a 15 minute shower, brush her teeth, do her skincare, makeup and hair, eat an egg sandwich and lastly make sure she had all her shit together before walking out. She managed to do all that by 6:25.

Maureen's day yesterday was chaotic to say the least. Spending the entire day on her feet, whether she was at study group, completing her part of a group assignment for her computer graphics class or at her job at the campus cafe for the very few hours she's able to work – she was busy. And today – Friday would be no different; classes going from 7:45 in the morning all the way to 6pm, her law classes taking up 4 of the 11 hours she spent on campus in class.

Which is exactly why she said yes to going out on Saturday with her cousin and Georgia. It'd feels like it's been forever since she's been out and let loose. And after her conversation with Gia the afternoon before; she felt like she's been lacking in the friend department as of recently, so she thought 'why the hell not'.

Walking out of her dorm today, the weather wasn't the best; uncomfortably cold and misty but what else is to be expected in Connecticut. Maureen was wearing a loose-fitted short-sleeved yellow collar shirt, a pair of high-waisted soft denim colored jeans, a deep brown leather jacket on top and a pair of brown and white samba adidas shoes.

She was the third person to arrive at class that morning. She’d hoped to arrive to class a little earlier to continue reading on the case her professor had given her 2 days ago, today they’d discuss the details of the case, what they believed what should and should not have been done when working the case and then lastly discussing the what-ifs in the case. Everyone was given the same case, so when class would go into section, the teacher would start off by saying —

“Hello class, welcome back to law 101. Today we are going to be going over, inspecting and discussing a case file which you should have received Wednesday morning. I’d hope that you guys took the days you were given to read this case thoroughly, because I will be questioning you intensely; on the whys and why nots of this case. Please take your seats, gather all your notes and let us start.”

The class took 4 hours to conclude, after discussing the case, everyone taking turns, inputting their opinions on what they believed should've been done and others responding back with either agreement or disagreement. The professor—Professor Henley, released us a little past 12:05pm. Seeing as how Maureen had only eaten an egg sandwich hours prior to attending class and she had a full hour free before needing to return for the reminder of her classes, she decided to drop by Georgia’s dorm.

Since it's already been 12 pm and also a friday, Georgia was most definitely up. Making her way to the girls dorm, she’d met the gaze of many people, other students from her computer graphics class and her English class, and waved to the other as an act of respect and kindness.

Georgia opened the door as soon as Maureen had found herself face to face with it, hand lifted as she was about to knock. Confused, Maureen asks Georgia “uh ... .how did you know i was outside?”.

“Your location is on? It warns me when someone I know is near. Come on babe.” the other girl had answered back “Hey you have another class at like 2-ish right?” Georgia continues

“Oh yeah, english for an hour or two, honestly just depends on what we have to complete during class. Anyways, do you think I could make a sandwich or something? I only made an egg sandwich earlier before class.” Maureen professed.

“Yeah girl, go ahead this is as much your house as it is mine.” replied back georgia. In a rush, Maureen hugs Georgia, landing a small kiss on the girl's cheek before pushing past her.

“Ugh all that talking and arguing made my head hurt and left my mouth dry, I am so glad I agreed to go out with the two of you tomorrow.” Maureen complained as she opened the fridge, eyeing all of the ingredients she’d need for her sandwich; mayo, ham AND turkey (yes she knows) before closing the fridge back.

After she finishes making her sandwich she takes a seat on the couch, setting her alarm to 1:30 so that she’d have enough time to relax before having to get to her next class.

Her break goes by fast. Too fast if she’d say so herself, but instead of complaining about the lack of comfortability and relaxation she simply cleans up behind herself, says goodbye and goes about her day, just hoping it’d go by faster and she’d finally be able to relax.

Obviously life isn’t that simple because her teacher for English instead dropped a big analysis assignment on her insane workload and put the due date for next Friday.

Maureen’s not gonna let Ree and Gia down again though. So instead she spends the entire rest of her day after her English class which ended at 4pm, analyzing her text, writing down notes and then beginning her first attempt at her assignment.

She stops writing at midnight, wanting to get as much sleep as possible considering her schedule during the week isn’t the best…and that’s putting it mildly.

She quickly – but neatly puts away her papers on her dresser, laying them directly on top of her laptop. She turns, grabbing her phone and opens the phone screen, going to the clock app she clicks on the plus button, creating a new alarm and setting it for 10am.

Sure it was early, but early was her thing – checking to make sure her ringer was on; having to turn it off during her classes, and then closes her phone, setting it down on the window seal which laid above her bed frame and then turns her lamp off, the room going dark and most importantly, quiet.

[sunny374940]

Author Ask Tag

Thank you @sorrowsfallallaround for thinking of me 💖 (also wdym you already wrote a book! I never realized. You're so cool! I'm mutuals with a published author, what the hell, the honor ). Also your new book is gonna be really awesome from the bits I've seen💖

What is the main lesson of your story?

Dang. A hard question right at the start. Love, I guess? Taking love, even though you didn't expect to find it and just holding onto it, helping it grow.

What did you use as inspiration for your world building?

Ha, well, this one's easier at least. Dragon Age games, 'cause we are deep in fanfic land.

What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, or help them grow as a person?

Hmm. Rook is trying to just... have a nice life with his family. He never thought he would get to have this, yet here he is, with a husband and kids (one's a little bony, but that's fine) and he's loving every second of it. What am I trying to achieve with him? Oof. Show that there is love, whatever that might mean to you, if you are willing to take it. (Also I am having fun putting him in situations to satisfy the itch in my brain.)

How many chapter is your story going to have?

The one I'm working on right now (Alone with you, the honeymoon one) seems to be growing still, but since every chapter is centered about a single day of their adventures, I guess seven? (It was supposed to be a one shot. What the hell)

Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

It's fanfic. I'm posting them on ao3 and tumblr, though tumblr is probably going to just have links to ao3 from now on, since the stories keep getting longer.

When did you start writing?

Well, I used to like the creative writing assingments we'd do in high school, but then college happened and writing stopped completely. (It's been many years) And then I played Veilguard and I was POSSESSED with the need to create. Like extremely possessed, I hardly slept in December and was just writing writing writing. And there seems to be no end to it. It's awesome.

Do you have any words of encouragement for fellow writers of writeblr?

Write what you want to read, really. @sorrowsfallallaround you said it so well, there's not much to add. If your heart's not in it because you're writing things to be pretty instead of true to you, then the words will fall flat.

Tagging @lavender-tea-fling, @starfleetteddybear, @spinfins, @mercars-musings, @redheadsramblings because I am nosy as always :D

[gender-luster]

so you're telling me that two of edwin's love interests were a cat and a crow, two creatures famous for bringing their humans little gifts, but not once did either of those bitches try giving edwin like a cool shiney rock, or a dead mouse or something. goddd were they even trying??

[sendryl]

Thanks for the tag Maiika!

1. When did I start doing fanfic: Writing it? Waaaaay back in the year 2000. But I joined AO3 in 2015 (so I could leave a super long comment on a fic I loved) and I only started posting in 2019!

2. Of the 27 works I have on AO3:

6 are active in progress

1 is on hiatus (It's the Inception fic, jsyk)

0 are abandoned

0 are roleplay stories written with other authors

20 are complete

0 are novel length (80k or over)

0 are novella length (20k - 79k)

2 are one shot collections (although one only has one work in it so far)

3. I have written:

23 works for Naruto

2 works for Inception

1 work for Boku no Hero Academia

1 work for Teen Wolf

1 work for Altered Carbon (Naruto crossover)

4. My longest complete single work is: I See You When You Hide, my KakaObi Anbu and Detective au, at 9,737 words. I really like this one!

5. My most popular work by kudos is: There's Never Been a Moment You Were Forgotten at 909 kudos, as I suspected. SNS Soulmates Share Injuries fic, with a plot that avoids the Uchiha Massacre. People really like this one... I need to update it, lol.

6. My most common "additional tag" is:

Listen I have no idea what it was at the time, but this post has been in my drafts for literal *years* and I'm gonna redo it with my current stats and post it and tag all my current HH mutuals. So get ready for that madness.

7. My ao3 is Sendryl

8. I've almost hit 500,000 words overall on ao3. I've written 268,376 in 2024 alone. DP X DC has taken over.

Fanfic Stats

Tagged by: @fineillsignup​ who is a delight and a gentlewoman (read: gremlin)

1. When did I start doing fanfic: I started writing when I was about 14 and created dozens of unfinished works with all sorts of young cheesy cliches but I didn’t start publishing anything online until I was about 18 years old.

2. Of the 485 works I have on AO3/FF.net:

1 is active in progress

0 are on hiatus

2 are abandoned

3 are roleplay stories written with other authors

482 are complete

3 are novel length (80k or over)

13 are novella length (20k - 60k)

2 are one shot collections

3. I have written:

414 works for Naruto

55 works for CSI

12 works for Harry Potter

1 work for BBC’s Sherlock

1 work for Supernatural 

1 work for Final Fantasy X-2

1 work for Dragon Age 2

4. My longest complete single work is: War in Times of Peace coming in at 189,164 words

5. My most popular work by kudos is: Soulmate Story Collection with 12,643 kudos (o.0)

6. My most common “additional tag” is: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting for 48 fics

7.My AO3 username is: raendown because I try to have the same name across all platforms. I would add in my old FF.net account that had a different name but honestly how many of you desperately need my 2008 CSI bullshit? 

8. Bonus fact to get to lucky number 8: I also have a side account for posting a couple of Ploblematic™ pairings, though it isn’t much of a secret. I mostly made it so that I could post without making anyone who follows my main account uncomfortable if that’s not the content they want to see. 

Tagging: @officerjennie @sleepysenseis @kitsunekage88 @dimancheetoile @a-boy-named-mike @shiranuigenma

[code-dy]

Holy shit i have the capability to draw things for my favourite fanfic authors!!!

Here’s a quick sketch for that lovely author who wrote that absolutely lovely vampire thorin fanfic inspired by wwdits

[grovesnail]

no seriously if you are plugging your oc lore into chatgpt and reading the ai generated fanfiction it produces you don't deserve original characters and i say this with upmost sincerity and seriousness

[starwarjotta]

there’s a special place in hell for people who take the time and go through the effort of leaving negative comments on fanfics, like-- what is wrong with you, what is LEGITIMATELY wrong with you? I’m so angry and so devastated on behalf of everyone who has been harrassed like this and who is going through something like this right now. There’s no excuse for shitty behavior - if you intentionally leave a hurtful comment on something someone created and put out there for other people’s enjoyement, for free, after spending probably HOURS if not WEEKS or MONTHS or longer on it, you’re an incredibly shitty, disgusting, miserable waste of space of a person be better

[aqueerchronicle]

Turns out if you squint hard enough nearly every song on 1989 TV is actually inspired by Supercorp!

[danzainosolitude]

Once again I read fanfiction that seems to have been precisely written to deal psychic damage to me.

[dragongirluvula]

just found out about the hdg and I definitely don't vibe with it. It almost captures my interest but the hard stance opposition towards exploring the implications that come with a self designated benevolent empire that can solve the inherent problems that come from cultures who are supposedly inferior in some way by nature really like, both rubs me the wrong way and feels like a disservice to the setting itself.

idk just looking at every empire in history it's like, that's literally what they all say and how they justify colonizing others. It's kinda really fucking hard to just take at face value. If imperialist colonizers who just happen to be legimately nicies to the people they colonize is like, ur thing then absolutely jack off to it I'm not here to judge that, just like, own that I guess? But if your argument for them is just that narratively speaking it's just true then my interest in your setting, horny or otherwise just does not exist.

The contradiction of the setting also bothers me, 25-45% of any given species will be domesticated on average but the space between that and rebellion just doesn't seem to be accounted for in the wiki, what is the life of someone not opposed to the empire but also who doesn't volunteer for domestication? How much of their own cultures are retained within the empire? It really seems like the only option for any autonomy in the setting is rebellion but that's also only ever seen as a bad thing.

I just get caught on the whole "affini are imperial" and "affini are benevolent" thing in the axioms section of the hdg wiki. My mixed race ass cannot really look at an invading empire calling itself the good guys without my own personal baggage about it weighing in, ya'feel?