#for how they *might* be if I *did* have a modern!AU version XD

[egg-emperor]

What’s your opinion on boom eggmans and Sonic’s father and son relationship?, and how do you think Casino eggman would react since that’s his boyfriend

I think it's a weird funny choice that I'm okay with because it's a completely different canon and version. And it was hinted at as early the very first episode, that Boom Egg kinda just wants attention in a very different sense to modern Egg, like through close genuine bonds such as friendship with Sonic and co.

He had many scenes and even a bio hinting at that too, plus Boom Egg is just barely evil compared to game modern Eggman so it works there. I just kinda wish people didn't try to merge it with modern game canon Eggman when he literally deeply loathes and wants Sonic dead in comparison as I highlighted here lol

As for how Casino AU Egg would feel about Boom Egg's relationship with them, well I haven't came up with a lot of alternate versions of characters for the AU yet- including all of Team Sonic. So he's probably never met any equivalents in his own world before learning about them in Boom Egg's world as a result.

So while modern Eggman would immediately be asking Boom Egg "why on earth would you want to befriend SONIC and his friends?", Casino Egg wouldn't be as sure how to feel at first, though he might be a little wary after all he's heard about modern Egg's experiences with Sonic and co in his world.

Casino Egg would be very protective of Boom Egg like he always is. He better not learn about times they've poked fun at Boom Egg or made him upset like they did in the show because if they hurt his boy they'll be trouble. He'd stand around him like he's his huge strong bodyguard bear to make sure he's safe XD

I think Casino Egg would be quickest to accept Boom Amy as I recall that she was the one who was capable of being nicer to Boom Egg over the others and she had a sort of friendship with him over the fuzzy puppy game. He'd just be glad that Boom Egg has a friend and finds his interest in the game very cute.

He would probably take longer to warm up to Boom Sonic at all, though there could be a chance unlike modern Eggman as he doesn't have his own Sonic that he loathes. But he'd hear about the frenemies Boom Egg and Sonic have going on and want to make sure he doesn't end up breaking Boom Egg's heart.

Depending on how that goes and if Boom Egg finally gets closer and more friendly and on good terms with each other like some scenes and episodes in the show became more common, maybe even to the point they have a sort of father son type dynamic between them, Casino Egg would accept it.

And since Casino Egg is his boyfriend then as an extension that could make him become a father figure to him too, which he'd definitely be more open to accepting than modern Egg would be. He probably wouldn't be as involved as he is with their cute Chao family but he'd go along with it for him.

[eiseryn]

Happy Holidays from Lei

Lei but in a Happy Holidays card. I wanted to make a self-indulgent OC card to print and give to some friends and here is the digital artwork! The print quality is... questionable but my printer did it's best XD

Lei seems to be a little bit... TIED UP... maybe you might lend her a hand?

(more versions under the cut)

One without the text so you can see the BS I did with the background better LOL. And how IDK how to draw feet LMAOO. I mean.... at least I tried drawing those two things, right?

One more version that was given to Vail :3 Upon receiving this card he dropped what he was doing and rushed to "unwrap his present".

(I really like the addition of the lipstick print by her signature! Although it's really hard for me to write in Lei's writing cuz I imagine her to have a bubbly and very neat writing style... which is not my writing style LOL. I wanted her to be opposite of those stereotypical "You can't read Doctor's writing" LOL)

As for how she got herself into this position? Gigi probably tied her up, possibly as a prank. And unfortunately Lei is weak and it's hard for her to get out of any restraints. But it resulted in this image being taken which I think would be funny XD This probably took place in the modern AU.

[victorluvsalice]

Okay, I guess Thanksgiving is now Me Talking About How Much I Love Valicer Day! XD Because I do still freaking love it, in case it wasn't blindingly obvious. I mean, just this past year, I've:

-->Created another set of Valicertines -- and a bonus "OT3 Math" picture that wouldn't leave me alone and required me to set up a very specific photoshoot in Sims 4 so I could make the reality match what was in my head

-->Participated in BOTH OT3 Week and Polyship Week 2024 with stories about my beloved trio over a variety of different universes (the masterpost for the second is coming up tomorrow, BTW!)

-->Posted a bunch of "lookbook" posts featuring my version of the trio in Sims 4 (including Valicer In The Dark-based outfits, some swimsuits for the trio, some messing around with the Crystal Creations CAS assets, and a whole post just dedicated to Smiler and their goofy fashion sense)

-->Posted more Not-Incorrect Quotes collections for the trio (including multiple Valicer In The Dark-themed ones, a VITD/BG3 crossover, two sets featuring the residents of the trio's respective Wonderlands/Otherlands, and a couple of Modern AU ones -- one completely new one, one update to an old one)

-->Relatedly, designed Smiler's Otherland so they'd have their own set of domains, weapons, and outfits (because if Victor got an Otherland to go with Alice's Wonderland, Smiler deserves one too damn it)

-->Wrote up posts for more Valicer AUs, including the Hypothetical Smiler In Forgotten Vows AU; the Childhood Friends Take On American McGee's Alice Together AU; and the Valicer Severance AU (aka "I Owe My Soul To The Company Store")

-->Did a silly entirely-gif-based post on the trio's dynamics

-->Updated the Valice Wedding Masterpost with links to the Chill Valicer Save Valicer wedding (and a lovely screenshot of the gang's two wedding certificates on the wall and wedding photos on the dresser)

-->And, most notably, posted my first Valicer In The Dark story on AO3, "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of!"

Whew! Quite a lot of Valicer content there, eh? And that's not even getting into some of the other asks I've answered, or AUs I've mentioned, or Valicer In The Dark info posts I've done -- but this thing is probably getting long enough, so how about we call it there? XD Point is, I love my OT3, and I don't intend to stop loving them anytime soon.

...to the point where I think it might be time to update my user name on here a little...

A Gush About Valicer

So this is probably a bit of a weird post for me to make, given that it’s literally just me gushing about the weird OT3 I’ve had for less than a year, but – it’s Thanksgiving, and I feel like it’s weirdly appropriate to start talking about a ship that I’ve grown to be very fond of over the past few months. I’m thankful that it’s in my life. So, yeah – I’m taking this opportunity to say it –

I fuckin’ love Valicer.

I mean that. I’m the first person to say that I don’t understand how or why I got so into The Smiler coaster at Alton Towers, and I especially don’t get why I went from trying to use the roller coaster for some Valice AU funtimes straight into shipping a human/humanoid (depending on the AU) version of said coaster with Victor and Alice, but even with that…I just love it so much! Smiler’s been a fun coaster OC to develop through Sims and the Not-Incorrect Quotes posts and generally all the weird situations I’ve come up with for them in my head. They’re so different to Victor and Alice by being extroverted and loud and generally cheerful, and yet they love their boyfriend and his girlfriend so much and want to see them happy… Granted, they want to see everybody happy, but still. And Victor and Alice love them, despite their differences, and they have such a great dynamic! I really feel like Smiler brings out Victor and Alice’s more fun-loving, jokingly-feral sides (as seen in the Not-Incorrect Quotes), and it’s great. :D I love all the little variations I’ve made up for them:

–>The Sims trio, living in their haunted farmhouse: Smiler working on robots in the barn and sending out bursts of vampiric happiness, Victor tending to his plants in the greenhouse and practicing his magic, Alice painting on the porch and coming to grips with being a werewolf

–>The Modern AU with all of them in college, with them starting out just as friends and becoming more after that one awkward hypnosis session with Victor, and transitioning into a very happy polycule with a nice support network of Smiler’s friends and family and Victoria and Emily (excellent for dealing with Victor’s shitty parents)

–>The Londerland Bloodlines AU where Smiler initially looks like an antagonist, but as it turns out they’re being manipulated by their “friends” and they do have some ethics under their “I can manipulate emotions to help people be happier, so why shouldn’t I?” exterior. Smiler wanting to atone after Victor gets kidnapped just for knowing them and they see some of the horrors the Setites were visiting on the people they wanted to help, and slowly being integrated into the vampire/ghoul/zombie polycule in the process

–>The Fallout of Darkness AU where I actually lean the closest to the ride’s actual theming (with The Smiler itself being a mind control device run by an eldritch being), but even then Mar-Mal has enough ethical sense to understand that you don’t kill the people you’re trying to make happy, and enough sense of humanity to enjoy Victor and Alice’s company and want to stay in their robot form with them, and Victor and Alice go from being kind of scared of the robot run by an eldritch being to seeing it as a friend they want to stick around – and possibly, if Mar-Mal gets a handy Gen-3 synth body at any point, friendship might become something more…

–>The multi-fairy-tale AU with Victoria and Emily, featuring Smiler at their Fae best, just wanting to do nice things and make fun deals with these mortals to spread some joy, and slowly being sucked into genuinely caring for them, to the point where Victor’s “death” by poisoned apple nearly breaks them; Alice going from just surviving her awful tenure in Bumby and the Tweedles’ hell-house to having actual friends and loved ones; Victor and Victoria both escaping their toxic parents and finding that a simpler life, if harder, agrees with them SO much more, and finding so much love in that life; Emily reclaiming the happiness that she used to have on land, and finding real love after Barkis tricked her with his poisonous version

–>The upcoming Holistic!AU, where Victor and Alice are practically soulmates thanks to the universe bringing them together; and then Victor falls in with Smiler and their friends thanks to being kidnapped by Kelman and finds that his social circle doesn’t have to be just Alice, that the universe will let him have more friends and more loved ones, and Smiler’s happiness sense keeps giving them mixed signals about how okay it is to kiss Victor – until Alice finally shows up for the rescue and lets them know it’s all right, she’s willing to share (as are Victoria and Emily, who are actually starting to appreciate this mad ride)

–>The Blades In The Dark-inspired thing I’ve been poking at – this’ll get a proper write-up at some point, but the gist of it is that, after some incidents involving Victor getting kidnapped by a ghost bride on the eve of his wedding, Alice finding out Dr. Bumby’s horrible plans for the Houndsditch orphans, and Smiler just trying to help them both out, they end up as a criminal gang focusing on stealing from the rich so they can do things like create a community greenhouse (which I appreciate isn’t QUITE how you play BitD but this is fanfic not me actually playing XD) and go from friendly acquaintances to polycule in the process

–>All the various half-formed AUs that float through my head at night – Victorian AUs where Victor and Smiler meet thanks to Dr. Kelman dragging their “son” to a Van Dort party and end up secret lovers for a time, before either Smiler gets banished to rural Lithuania and Victor has to go through some Forgotten Vows-style shenanigans before they can get back, and Alice has to deal with the fact that this is Victor’s ex who still clearly loves him, but does that mean she has to give Victor up? (Nope, as it turns out, she doesn’t), or the two run away together to avoid Victor’s arranged marriage and end up meeting Alice in the process, and Smiler has to deal with the fact that Victor clearly thinks Alice is attractive, and she’s nice, and are they ready to share Victor with someone else? (Yup, they totally are.) Or modern AUs where Alice and Smiler were friends first, and they both meet Victor, and discover they’re both falling for him, and initially they try to be noble and push him toward each other, until finally Victor reveals he’s in love with BOTH of them and they realize that they don’t HAVE to give him up. All the different ways they can meet, and become friends, and fall in love that I can think up.

And this is getting REALLY long, and I’m not sure how coherent it is anymore. XD Just – the point of it is, having all this strange and wonderful Valicer (and Four Victorians On A Roller Coaster) stuff has really made me happier over the past year, and I’m really glad it’s part of my life now. I love my silly little Smiler OC, and I love my ship with them and my original OTP. So I hope you guys like it too, because it’s gonna be sticking around. XD

[eddsworld-the-masquerade]

a comeback, perhaps?

Yes, really. I’m not joking and I have three points:  1. I’m one inconsistent bitch with a brainrot;  2. I need my delusions and escapism cuz man do four blood-sucking dudes sound more in-reality than whatever the fuck is going on in the actual real world around me rn;  3. I forgot what was the third point. It’s all the more absurd given just in the summer of this year I was certain I wouldn’t come back to it any time soon. What can I say...life do be like that. A fun little story of its own, but I’ll leave it out of this post. For now, let me share with you what I’ve been planning, what’s staying and what’s changing and how I’ll be approaching this AU/blog this time around. 

So, to start off...

The 🅱️ has to go: 

While still set in Vampire the Masquerade (World of Darkness) universe, the renewed version of this crossover AU won’t have anything to do with Bloodlines video game. Don’t get me wrong, I love Bloodlines still very much, it’s the game with most of my replays and what got me into VtM in the first place. But also, it is restricting, trying to align everything with its small setting/scope and, let’s be honest, doesn’t make much of a sense. Eddsworld’s British, the hell are they all doing in America? XP 

The tag is now eddsworld vtm au, without the letter b. 

What else gets thrown out? 

Plot: Pretty much all of it. I came up with the biggest plot points and am currently rewriting the entire script. At its core it’s still “four dudes tolerate each other’s shenanigans to survive and later learn they kinda don’t feel like chopping each other’s heads off (friendship goals)” but the rest...out the window it goes. 

Setting: As I said earlier, it’s weird. So with the help of Fall of London V5 book and some other sources of info on London in VtM, I moved the cast back to where they belong. 

Characters and character writing: This one might surprise you, but I really, REALLY don’t like the way I did them back then. I can’t revisit old comics/the demo without cringing so hard my face breaks XD Fishmalk Edd gives me most pain if I’m being honest...

While I’m keeping the basest, the basiesest core (Edd being chaotic bastard Malkavian, Tom being mean and cynical Nosf, Matt being old-fashioned but also a rebel at heart Torrie, and Tord being far less infected with rabies compared to other modern Brujah) I’m changing lots of their characterization, backstories and relationships with each other as well. So don’t expect something you expected from their older versions.

The same goes for every other character, and I’m getting rid of some that don’t serve much purpose anymore.  

What’s in store? 

New script is in the process. And while it is slowly processing, I will be updating most pages on this blog: specifically “About” and “Characters”, with new relevant information and art. I have archived everything these pages contained, and I’ll put the link to the Google Drive folder up in the “About” page for anyone who wishes to look at the old stuff. I won’t be deleting any of the older posts on the blog though.

Update schedule?

Can’t promise one. Life’s hectic now as hectic can possibly get. I will update once there is an update, but please try to be considerate and don’t ask me “when”. I will most likely go on hiatuses from time to time but I will try to warn in advance if it’s going to take long. Overall, this passion project is just that, a passion project. Not my job. Not something that gives me anything but mental satisfaction. Not even a tip jar. I’m working alone, with occasional help from friends who are kind enough to proof read and brainstorm with me (Nina, Jazz, Engi, Hawa, long live you beautiful human beings). So all I’m asking is some compassion and understanding from all of you u_u If you can do it for me I’m sure it’ll take me longer to lose interest this time XD  Ask box stays closed for now, I’ll reopen it once I’ll update all the pages. 

That’s it for the moment! Stay tuned, if you’d like! 

[sergeantnarwhalwrites]

Masterlist Thing For My Major WIPs

I figured doing this would make everybody’s life easier. XD I also don’t have good enough summaries for my WIPs (in my opinion) to make WIP intros. I’ll update chapter links and stuff as I go along and will maybe probably make a taglist for my stuff (if I don’t forget). 

WIP Info

Space Don’t Dictate Fate (Reworking!)

Summary (We'll figure that out later 👍🏾)

Mostly post snippets. Will answer worldbuilding or oc asks for this one. Story basically just started over again from scratch.

Trailer for the og version here!

Hunter (Modern AU for SDDF) here!

Main characters: Arc (they/them), Tharion (he/him), Cosma(she/her), and Greeter(she/they)

Face Claim/Art for main characters here.

Robots and Gardens (still in the drafting process)

Summary: Imagine how the now present world was imagined and awed upon by previous generations mixed with how it actually is in the present world. Industrialization, overworked employees, coorporate slaves, so many robots, cool technology, hope for a better world. Until it all decides to collapse in a way no one saw coming. Who are we going to take down to stop everything from crumbling. 

You can ask me all kinds of questions about this one. XD It’s no where neardone though. I post actual chapters of this... sometimes. XD I’m trying my best. I have a couple chapters out so far which you can read here. Chapters 1/2/3/

Main characters: Digits (she/her), Green (she/her), Peace (she/her), Donnie (he/they), Hollis (she/her) 

Face claim/picrew for main characters here. 

Fucked at Five (my newest wip!) (may or may not change the title) 

Summary (that I have so far): Morphers. An extreme genetic modification that has been gifted by the impatience of the world and the power of science. Morphers have the ability to morph their form into a more animalistic form. All of these forms vary in composition and severity. Morphers are monsters to human kind. Human kind are monsters to morphers. Morphers might just be the new superior, humans are just far too arrogant to see it. 

You can ask me all kinds of questions about this one as well. XD I’m still figuring stuff out though.

Main characters: Elliot (he/him), Saz (she/her), Julie (she/her), Ian (he/it)

Face claim/picrew for characters right here.

Character Inspired Playlists here

Character info (General)

Voiceclaims sorta here

Awesome piccrews most of my ocs here

Digits Prosthetic Schematics here

Some art I drew of Digit's prosthetics. A little messy but very detailed descriptions.

Ramblings about fighting styles (Fucked at Five) here

Space Don't Dictate Fate Fits here

SDDF Body Mods here!

Random Writes! 

This is stuff that aren’t any of my major wips. This will be stuff like random prompts or random scenes that can or won’t be related to my main three WIPs. More often not related. This is a lot of the stuff I write, especially when I head back to campus. It can be a mixture of study’s (where I’m practicing a specific thing like action scenes, kiss scenes, grief, etc.), poetry, story’s that drop in at random ass points. Half of the time they won't have titles XD and the characters won't have names.

Cravings (the only finished one for real XD)

Can read that here! cw: blood, gore, cannibalism, sex mention. 

Melancholic Alcoholic (Poem from awhile ago) 

Can read that here!

Cute tag game I did with Green and Peace

Here

Untitled quick write story here

CW: Suicide, Suicidal ideation, suicide attempt mention, and gore.

Dero Was Here (story here)

CW: Violence, death, gods, fantasy religion

An Unwelcomed Gift here

CW: Violence, gods, fantasy religion, body horror (sort of), death, blood (a little), gore (eh a little not really)

Random Fucked at Five Stuff here! and here!

Crushing on the Mortuary Man here!

CW: Gore, necrophilia, cannibalism mention, body horror, vomit.

My Characters as excerpts from poems I've written here

Give it some love. I think this is a good insight on some of my characters! And it's a quick glimpse at some of my poetry that I rarely post.

Appetite here!

No content warnings I think. Just a short kinda violent little story. 👍🏾

Song based blurb here!

Cw: suggestive content, alcohol

Untitled Poem here!

Daughter here!

Another poem I wrote for creative writing class.

Weird Little Story here!

CW: Unsettling, vomit

Somethin' About Me here!

Cw: suicide mention.

A little poem I found in my notes app.

Soft Moment Between Friends here!

A little Robots & Gardens scene.

Random Robots & Gardens Thing here!

Just a random little thought that came to mind XD. Green fucked up.

Green and her knife here!

A couple random robots & gardens blurbs revolving around Green and her weapon.

Clothes Swap here!

Cw: nsfw

Peace borrows clothes from Green and other stuff ensues.

The Arrangement here!

Cw: nsfw

Saz and Julie have an agreement and they enjoy themselves.

Green and Digits Character Study here!

Green and Digits from Robots & Gardens first meeting each other. Gay bonding and acquaintanceship ensues

Saz's Fear here!

A quick little blurb about a goofy fear Saz has.

Dark's Love is Bright here!

A cool concept of Dark versus Light.

Halloween WBW Snippet here!

Kid Peace and Green show you a glimpse of what their Halloween's were like.

Saz and Elliot Big Post here!

Saz and Elliot start talking about morphing and training. Doodles attached.

Julie and Saz Mush here!

Julie and Saz being cute. Julie calls Saz pretty after a long day of getting insulted by the elder morphers. Saz's day brightens.

Julie Kicks Saz's Ass here!

Julie and Saz have a training match. And as the title says Saz get's fucking ruined.

A Morning Away here!

Peace and Green have a morning to themselves and decide to use it.

Cw: nsfw

The Worker And The Protestor here!

A dive into Digits at work and the protestor (Peace) that brightens her day.

Smut Scene Prompt Response here and here!

Saz and Julie's safeword sorta/Julie's shy under Saz's affection

Cw: nsfw

Green and Peace Prompt Responses 1 & 2

Green and Peace get busy at church/Peace gets sick and Green takes care of her.

Cw: nsfw

Unrequited here!

A quick poem I wrote while hella in my feelings

Cw: suggestive

Fighting it Out here!

A very brief fight scene between Ian and Elliot

Mighty Morphing People Eaters + here!

Something where I dive into the fact that most morphers have eaten people before.

Cw: body horror (kinda), human consumption

Leftovers here!

Very quick Saz and Julie thing where Julie both encourages Saz and brings her down

Cw: human consumption (mentioned), blood

Hollis the Multifaceted here!

Hollis character study

Cosma and Greeter here!

Space Don't Dictate Fate content for the first time in a long time holy shit

Cw: suggestive

Bookshelf here!

A quick poem I wrote clearing my bookshelf

Random poem here!

Who's Greeter to You? here!

Space Don't Dictate Fate content

Random Thought SDDF here

Space Don't Dictate Fate content

Quick Poem (No title) here!

Cw: suggestive

The Morphers (A series) 1/2/3

Cw: body horror, gore, death

Arc and Tharion here!

Space Don't Dictate Fate Content

Arc Asks A Lot of Questions here!

Arc actually trying to learn more about Tharion

Tharion Fucking With Arc here!

SDDF content

A bit of Saz and worldbuilding here!

Two Deer Morphers Walk Into a Bar... here!

Cw: nsfw

Green and Donnie Snippet here!

A bit of bloody admiration here!

Saz and Julie are gay and covered in gore

No Name's Learned Lessons here!

Cyborg vs Tech here!

I think I'm catching feelings again and it's beautiful here!

A short poem 👍🏾

[thisbluespirit]

James Maxwell TV/Film List

More of a guide than a recs list, because old tv/film depends so much on availability.  It’s also hard as there’s nothing surviving that’s really like SotT for him (his voice is always slightly different, too & rarely the grand one from SotT) - I found it hard to find where to start back in the day, so I hope this makes it easier.  However, I have starred my favourites (rated for JM content only). 

I’ve divided things into categories and @jurijurijurious​ (or anyone) can make up their own mind as to what to go for.  (Also @jurijurijurious I have NO idea what old telly you’ve already seen, so forgive me if I’m telling you things you already know.)

Where to find it:  Luckily in the UK, it’s not too bad!  Network Distributing are the DVD supplier to keep an eye on (they do great online sales), you can find secondhand things cheap on Amazon Marketplace & eBay, and several Freeview channels show old TV & film, especially Talking Pictures.  I’ll note if things are on YT or Daily Motion, but they come and go all the time, so it’s always worth searching.

***

Film serials (ITC mainly)

British TV made on film in the US mode with transatlantic cash, so generally pretty light,  episodic (continuity is almost unheard of) etc.  Some turn up on ITV3 & 4 on a regular basis (colour eps). 

*** Dangerman “A Date With Doris” (ITC 1964)  James Maxwell is a British spy friend of Drake’s (Patrick MacGoohan) called Peter who gets framed for murder.  Drake goes to Fake Cuba to rescue him by which time JM is dying from an infected wound and faints off every available surface, including the roof.  It’s great.  On YT.  (The boxset is v pricey if you just want 2 eps.)

“Fair Exchange” (ITC 1964) JM is a German spy friend of Drake’s called Pieter who helps him out on a case.  Not as gloriously hurt/comfort-y as the other, but it does have some excellent undercover dusting. (Why  Patrick MacGoohan has JM clones all called variations on Peter dotted around the globeis a mystery.)  On YT.

The Saint “The Inescapable Word” (ITC 1965) This is pretty terrible, but  entertaining and James Maxwell plays the world’s most hopeless former-cop-turned-security guard. With bonus collapsing.  On YT.

“The Art Collectors” (1967).  JM is the villain of the week.  It does include a v funny bit, though, where the Saint (Roger Moore) goes for JM’s fake hair (and who can blame him?  How often I have felt the same!)  This one’s in colour so should pop up on ITV3 or 4. 

The Champions “The Silent Enemy” (ITC 1968).  Surprisingly good JM content as the villain of the week who drugs sailors and steals their clothes before realising that maybe he should have worked out if he could operate a sub before he stole it.

The Protectors “The Bridge” (ITC 1974, 30 mins.)  Not worth seeking out on its own, but ITV4 seems fond of it and James Maxwell gets to do some angsting and wears purple, so it’s worth snagging if you can, but too slight otherwise.

*** Thriller “Good Salary, Prospects, Free Coffin” (ITC 1975; 1hr 10mins, I think).  James Maxwell moves in with Julian Glover and runs an overcomplicated murdery spy ring where they bicker a lot in between killing girls by advertisement and burying them in the back garden.  What could possibly go wrong??  Anyway, it’s solid gold cheese, has bonus Julian Glover and a lot of natty knitwear.  What more does an old telly fan want?  (tw: Keith Barron being inexplicably the very meanest Thriller boyfriend.)  On YT but tends to get taken down fast.

***

Films

Design for Loving (1962; comedy).  Can be rented from the BFI online for £3.50.  Isn’t that great or that bad (or that funny either), but does have JM as a dim layabout beatnik, which is atypical.

***The Traitors (1962).  This is a low-key little 1hr long spy B-movie, but it’s also thoughtful and ambiguous with a nice 60s soundtrack and location work (it’s a bit New Wave-ish) and the central duo of JM and Patrick Allen are sweet and it all winds up with James Maxwell going in the swimming pool. One of the things where JM is actually American. (Talking Pictures show this occasionally & it is out on DVD as an extra on The Wind of Change.)  The quality of the surviving film is not great, though.

***Girl on Approval (1962).  A Rachel Roberts kitchen sink drama about a couple fostering a difficult teenager.  It’s dated, but it’s also really interesting for a 1950s/60s slice of life (and very female-centric) & probably the only time on this list JM played an ordinary person.

***Otley (1969).  Comedy that’s generally dated surprisingly well & is good fun, starring Tom Courtenay +cameos from what seems like the whole of British TV.  JM is an incompetent red herring & there are more cardies and glasses as well as a random barometer. 

Old Vic/Royal Exchange group productions

(Surviving works made by the group that JM was involved in from drama school to his death, made by Michael Elliott or Casper Wrede.  I like them a lot mostly, but they are all slow and weird and earnest & not everybody’s cup of tea.)

Brand (BBC 1959).  The BBC recording of the 59 Company’s (the name they were then using) landmark production, starring Patrick MacGoohan.  This was a big deal in British theatre & launched the careers of everybody involved.  It’s very relentless and weird but interesting & I’m glad they decided it was important enough to save.  First fake beard alert of this post.  It won’t be the last.  On YT & there is a DVD, which is sometimes affordable and sometimes £500, depending on the time of day.

***Private Potter (1962).  The original TV play is lost and this film has an extraneous storyline, but otherwise has most of the TV cast & gives a pretty good idea of why as a claustrophobic talky TV piece it made such an impact.  Tom Courtenay is Private Potter, a soldier who claims to have had a vision of God during a mission & James Maxwell his CO who needs to decide what to do about this strange excuse for disobeying orders.  Tw: fake eyebrows (!) and moustaches.  Only available on YT.

[???]One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch (1970).  Again, no DVD release (no idea why), but it is on YT.  I haven’t seen this yet, but it’s another Casper Wrede effort starring Tom Courtenay and apparently JM is especially good in it.  (I’m just not good at watching long things on YT and keep hoping for a DVD or TV showing.)

Ransom (1974).  A more commercial effort starring Sean Connery & Ian McShane; it gets slated as not being a good action movie, but is clearly meant to be more thinky and political with the edge of a thriller. JM’s part isn’t large but Casper Wrede shoots his friend beautifully, & it’s a pretty decent film with nice cinematography, shot in Norway, as was One Day.  I liked it.

[I think this post might be the longest in the world, whoops.  Sorry!]

Cardboard TV (the best bit, obv)

One-off plays etc./mini-series

Out of the Unknown “The Dead Planet” Adaptation of an Asimov short story; this is very good for JM, but hard to get hold of unless you want the boxset.  I think someone has some of the eps on Daily Motion.  (His other OotU ep is sadly burninated.)

The Portrait of a Lady (BBC 1968).  Adaptation of the novel; JM is Gilbert Osmond, so it is great for JM in quantity and his performance, but depends how you feel about him being skeevy in truly appalling facial hair.  Do the bow ties and hand-holding make up for it?  but he’s in 5 whole episodes, and Suzanne Neve, faced with Richard Chamberlain, Edward Fox, and Ed Bishop as suitors, chooses instead to marry the worst possible James Maxwell.  Relatable. XD

***Dracula (ITV 1968, part of Mystery & Imagination).  JM is Dr Seward, fainty snowflake of vampire hunters, who falls over, sobs and can’t cope for most of the 1 hr 20 mins.  More facial hair, but not as offensive as last time.  Suzanne Neve is back again, although now JM is nice, she’s married Corin Redgrave, who’s more into Denholm Elliott. Anyway, I love this so much because it turned out that I love Dracula as well as shaky old TV with people I like in getting to fight vampires and all be shippy.  Good news - TP keep showing M&I, the DVD is out, and there are two versions of it up on YT.

The Prison (Armchair Cinema 1974).  This is the one with Lincoln in it, but it’s not that great & JM isn’t in it that much, so depends how curious you are for the modern AU!  (But my Euston films allergy is worse than my ITC allergy, and I watched this when very unwell, so I may have been unfair.)

Crown Court “Fitton vs. Pusey” (1973) - part of the Crown Court series, set in a town full of clones who all keep returning to court.  JM is on trial for his behaviour in (the Korean war?  I forget?) although he ought to be on trial for his terrible moustache.  It’s not that great, but it is nice JM content.  He probably did it, but for reasons, and he wibbles & panics whenever his wife leaves the courtroom.  Also on YT.

*** Raffles “The Amateur Cracksman” (ITV 1975) - He is Inspector Mckenzie in the Raffles pilot & is a lot of fun.  At one point when there was a Raffles fandom someone in it claimed he was too gay for Raffles, which I’m still laughing about, because Raffles.  Anyway, watch out if you try to get the DVD because it is NOT included in S1, whatever lies Amazon tells. It is up somewhere online, though, I think.

Bognor “Unbecoming Habits” (1981).  Some down marks for possibly the worst 80s theme & incidiental music ever, but fun & has been shown on Talking Pictures lately.  JM is an Abbot running a honey-making friary that is actually a hotbed of spies, murder, gay sex and squash playing.  This is the point at which he chooses to strip off on screen for the first time, because strong squash-playing abbots do that kind of thing apparently.

Guest of the week in ongoing series/serials

Since even series with a lot of continuity tended to write episodes as self-contained plays (like SotT), these are usually accessible on their own.

Manhunt “Death Wish” (1970).  This is one of the most serialised shows here, but this episode is still fairly contained.  WWII drama about three Resistance agents on the run across France.  JM is... a Nazi agent & former academic trying to break an old friend (one of the series’ three leads, Peter Barkworth) with kindness, possibly??  (Manhunt is very angry and psychological & dark and obv. comes with major WWII warnings (& more if you want to try the whole thing), but it’s also v good.)  Up on YT, I think.

Doomwatch “The Iron Doctor” (BBC S2 1971).  “Doomwatch” is the nickname of a gov’t dept led by Dr Spencer Quist that investigates new scientific projects for abuse/corruption/things that might cause fish to make men infertile etc. etc.  JM is a surgeon who comes to their attention because he’s a bit too in love with his computer for the comfort of one of his more junior colleagues.  (I think it’s perfectly comprehensible & a nice guest turn, but it is hard to get hold of outside of the series DVD.  Which, being a cult TV person, I loved a lot anyway, but YMMV!)

***Hadleigh “The Caper” (S3 1973).  Hadleigh is a very middle of the road show, but watchable enough (lead is Gerald Harper, who’s always entertaining) and this is pretty self-contained as it centres around an old con-man friend (JM) of Hadleigh’s manservant causing trouble by pretending to be Gerald Harper, for reasons.  JM seems to be having a ball.

Justice 2 episodes, S3 1974.  He guests twice as an opposing barrister & gets to be part of some nice showdown court scenes.  Again, a middle of the road drama, but stars Margaret Lockwood, who was still just as awesome in the 1970s as she was in the 1930s & 40s.  On YT.

Father Brown “The Curse of the Golden Cross” (1974).  JM is an American archaeologist getting death threats; stars Kenneth More as Father Brown.  Just a note, though, that 1970s TV adaptations tended to be really really faithful and this is one of the stories where Chesterton comes out with an anti-semitic moment...  (JM was unconscious for that bit and, frankly, I envied him.)  But otherwise lots of angsting in yet another fake moustache about someone trying to kill him.

The Hanged Man “The Bridge Maker” (1975).  Confession time, I have v little idea what this one was about apart from Ray Smith being an unlikely Eastern European dictator, as this whole series went over my head and was not really my thing.  (Ask @mariocki they’re cleverer than me and liked it & can probably explain the plot!)  I don’t know if it’s available anywhere off the DVD but on a JM scale it was v good/different as he was a coldly villainous head of security & it wouldn’t be too bad to watch alone, but there was an overarching plot going on somewhere.

Doctor Who “Underworld” (1978).  This is famously one of the worst serials in the whole of classic Who, but largely because of behind-the-scenes circumstances, not the guest cast.  There is some nice stuff, though, esp in Ep1 (JM is a near-immortal alien who’d like to lay down and die but still the Quest is the Quest as they say... a lot) & it’s bound to pop up on YT or Daily Motion.  The DVD has extras that include v v brief bits of JM speaking in his actual real accent (which he otherwise does in NONE of these) & making jokes in character.  Honestly, though, this is the only DW where the behind-the-scenes doc is genuinely the most exciting bit as they desperately invented whole new technologies & methods of working to bring us this serial, and then everybody wished they hadn’t.

*** Enemy at the Door “Treason” (LWT 1978).  This is a weird episode but I love it lots - from a (v v good) series about the occupation of the Channel Islands.  (So obv warnings for WWII & Nazis.)  JM is a visiting German Generalmajor, but he’s come for a very unusual reason - to ask for help from his brother-in-law, a blackballed British army officer (Joss Ackland).  It’s all weird and low key and JM is doomed and nevertheless probably my favourite thing of his that isn’t SotT.

* The Racing Game 2 eps (1979).  Adaptation of Dick Francis’s first Sid Halley novel Odds Against (ep1) + 5 original stories for the series.  This is an interesting one - JM plays Sid’s father-in-law & they have a lovely relationship that’s central to the book BUT Dick Francis loved this adaptation and Mike Gwilym who played Sid and was inspired to write a sequel Whip Hand, which he tied in with TV canon - and adopted at least three of the cast, including JM.  Which means that all the Sid & Charles fanfic is also JM fic by default and it’s quite impressive. (There’s not much but it’s GOOD.)  On YT.

Bergerac “Treasure Hunt” (1981).  Not a major role, but pretty nice & it’s one a Christmas ep of the detective show (also set on the Channel Islands) that involved Liza Goddard’s cat burglar, which was always the best bit of Bergerac.

His guest spots in Rumpole of the Bailey (1991) “Rumpole a la Carte” and Dr Finlay (1994) are both really just cameos, but both series come round on Freeview; the Rumpole one is funny and the Dr Finlay one his last screen appearance before his death the following year.

Not worth getting just for JM: Subway in the Sky; Bill Brand and Oppenheimer.

These films only have cameos but some quite fun ones and they come around on terrestrial TV: The Damned (1962), The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) & (more briefly) Far From the Madding Crowd (1967).  (I think his cameo in Connecting Doors must be at least recognisable as someone spotted him in it just based off my gifs, but it’s not come my way yet.)  I’ve never been able to get hold of any of his radio performances, not even the 1990s one.

ETA: I forgot The Power Game! This is the one surviving series where he occurs as a semi-regular (at least until halfway through S1 when he went off to the BBC to be in the now-burninated Hunchback of Notre Dame).  This isn’t standalone, but it’s a good series and it is on YT.  See how you go with crackly old TV before you brave it but it’s the snarkiest thing ever made about people making concrete and stabbing each other in the back.  JM is a civil servant who tries to run the National Export Board and is plagued by Patrick Wymark and Clifford Evans as warring businessmen.

***

[... Well, now I just feel scary.  0_o  In my defence, I have been stuck home bored & ill for years, and often unable to watch modern TV while trying to cheer myself up with James Maxwell, so I didn’t watch all of this at once.  It just... happened eventually after SotT. /waves hand 

But if anyone feels the need to unfriend my quietly at this point, I understand. /o\]

[prismarine-parrots]

Tree of Life Notes

Would this technically be a masterpost? Not sure what that entails so let’s just keep it as notes.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 3.5 Part 4 Part 5 (1) Part 5 (2) Notes

The basic ideas of ToL- function, plot, what happens to who... basically while I was writing ToL me jotting down everything I could think of to try and make this make sense XD

-in this AU, everyone's life force is tried to a tree. These are special trees that relate to the person.

-link to the Google Doc with everyone’s tree designs... except for a few I’m not sure of still (taking suggestions for those, comment on Google Doc!)

-whenever the player dies, the tree takes a small amount of damage eg. a leaf falling

-many deaths in a short amount of time can lead to the tree becoming more visibly unhealthy, but normally if you wait a couple days without dying the tree will heal itself and go back to normal

-the trees can be moved by using a special axe, similar to the armor stand book or the wrench tool. It's a iron axe that is enchanted and when you break one part of the tree, the entire thing disappears and it drops one sapling. When that sapling is replanted it grows immediately. While the sapling exists as an item, the hermits will still PROBABLY  respawn, but there is a lot more risk of perma-death or having complications.

CAUSES

1. Grian joining from an old version server brought glitches unknowingly (catalyst for all and at his never worked properly in the first place)

2. The ConVex using Vexnos to Thanos-snap the server probably doesn't help at all

3. Lag from all the redstone keeping the trees from healing (MUMBO?)

4. Exploring the world as much as the hermits have (literally like 30,000 blocks in multiple directions wow) has started to cause world corruption (like broken chunks and such)

This is a mess

HOW THEY FIX IT:

-no clue

-Xisuma rolls back the server to a time where this wasn't an issue? (Grian would still be dead/on his way to dying)

-EX becomes a hero and gives his life force to heal the others (originally plan but I couldn’t make it work so that was scrapped)

-heal them like you do a zombie villager?? Wait for the tree to die completely then use a potion/healing item on it to revived it? (This one!!)

CASUALTIES

-Grian is first death

-Wels dies soon after

-TFC dies but not a lot of people realize because he's still in his bunker

-Evil Xisuma nearly dies??? Or does?? (Yes he does)

-Xisuma gets sick but they solve the problem before he dies

-False tries to be a tough cookie and suck it up until she collapses and dies on the spot

-Doc dies right at the end but puts up a serious fight

-Tango dies

-Zedaph dies

-Scar dies and Cub is not okay

-xbCrafted dies

-Python dies

LIVING PEEPS (read: Dead-Only-On-The-Inside Peeps)

-Mumbo (he’s worse than he lets on)

-Jevin

-Xisuma

-Iskall

-Cleo

-Stress

-Rendog

-Cubfan (oops I’m sorry)

-JoeHills

-Impulse

-Jessassin but he doesn't know what's going on anyway so

**list is not comprehensive (as in I'm not sure I have all the hermits listed lol)

-not everyone knows what's going on. TBH some people probably don't even know about the trees in the first place, and some may have just randomly died or didn't know people were perma-dying in the first place. These are mainly the hermits that are actually hermits and dont do many collabs/I don't watch enough to feel comfortable writing/don’t do HC anymore in the first place XD

Hermits that are actually involved in the issue (AKA the ones I'm writing)

-Grian

-Mumbo

-Iskall

-Xisuma

-Stress

-False

-Cub

-Scar

-Ren

-Doc

-Tango

-Impluse

-Zedaph

-Joe

-Jevin

-Python

TIMELINE

-Iskall, False, Mumbo, and X discover Grian and his tree are sick

-Grian explains what he knows but passes out before he can finish

-everyone panics and tries to figure out how to heal him, calls Tango, Joe, Doc, and Stress to help

-Grian dies

-(side)Ren get footage of Grian's death message and keeps it in his video not sure of it's seriousness, Recap has it as the main part of their video and literally the entire fandom freaks out

-(side)almost all of the hermits go silent until this issue is resolved. Not everyone knows what is going on and are doing their own thing, so they continue to make their content until maybe some of them randomly die too. Innocence is a blessing. These hermits are Jessassin, xbCrafted, Python, TFC, and probably some others because I might shorten my list of hermits because that's a LOT of characters to write

-Xisuma calls every possible to a meeting ASAP to address the issue and figure out what caused it and how to fix it (they're assuming they can still get Grian back rn XD)

-no one knows what the heck happened, most people haven't touched their trees/forgot they existed

-Jevin is late and bursts in in a panic, saying that Wels isn’t waking up

-they get to the bone arch between shopping/modern districts on the way to medieval/industrial before they get the seat message that Wels had died

-they devise a plan to look for a cure, start preparations for a lot of traveling

-False gets exhausted and collapses, dying on the spot as her tree unknowingly gave out

-they start their mission to stop this madness

SOMEHOW—

-Scar and Cub go to the Woodland Mansion to see if any old books or artifacts there might have anything to help the situation

-They fight some Vindicators and start looking for what they came for

-Cub realizes that something is off with Scar and Scar says that he's not feeling well

-Scar suddenly sinks to ground but is still conscious

-Cub starts to panic and tries to help Scar

-Scar explains that he hadn't been healing properly after taking damage and assumed that his tree was broken as well, but had been hoping he could play it safe and hold on until they healed the trees but the fight with the Vindicators had really taken it out of him

-Cub tried to get Scar to heal but it isn't working

-Scar says something really sweet and brotherly to Cub before closing his eyes and going limp but still having a smile on his face

-Scar died.

SOMEHOW-

-When Tango's tree starts to die he goes insane and goes feral/demonic and starts attacking everyone with he demon features (horns, claws? Wings? That's a headcanon tho)

-in the frenzy Tango kills Python (I think I said he died earlier but I'm going with this here for sure)

-Tango pins Doc

-Impulse kills Tango before he can kill anyone else

-they find a clue that they can find a cure at a set of coordinates

-coordinates turns out to be EX's hideout

-EX is dying, Xisuma's tree is affected but he is safe until EX dies

-Xisuma convinced EX to help them to keep EX from dying

SOMEHOW-

-EX dies. Originally I had it that EX is some sort of salty anti-hero and gives his life to help but I couldn't find a way to make that work so he just ends up dying. Does he respawn? Idk up to readers

-they find a cure and head back to the settled areas of Hermitcraft. Some of them go and raid everyone's storages for potion ingredients to make harming potions and splash healing potions.

-Doc and Ren fly around the server and set up beacons (existing or new) to have regen activated

-Doc is killed by phantoms

-the cure is finished and tested

-Grian lives!!!!!!!!! :D

-Impulse goes to revive Tango and Zed

-Ren revives Doc

-Grian revives Scar

-Mumbo goes to get Cub and help him out

-Cub lowkey wants to die until he sees Scar and then yay no more dead Scar and dead-inside Cub! 🤠

-Jevin revives Wels

-Iskall, Stress, and Cleo revive False

-Joe helps out Xisuma, then they go revive TFC and Python

and that's all I had written down? Did I forget anyone?

-all this happens over the course of one very stressful week :D

[merlin-wolfgang-trades-hale]

I’ve owned this to @mireilleleerves for a while but I’ve only had time until now. Out of the series they asked me, I’ve only seen Hawaii 5-0 so:

1) Give me a show and I’ll give you my totally honest opinion: I love it. It easily became one of my favorites. I couldn’t believe how gay Danny and Steve were for each other, I kept having to pause and have a fangirl moment because I could not believe what I was canonly seeing. And I think a show is as strong as it’s side character and I love Kamekona, Flippa, Nahele, and even Gerard who I knew as Mozzie from White Collar and I looooove the little insiders/nudges to Mozzie. And of couse, McDanno is the center of my shipping world. Naturally, there are a lot of character choices I don’t like or agree with, no show is perfect and there have been some ups and downs, but looking into it, it’s so utterly human...and considering that a good 95 percent of the things I’m into are supernatural/mythologically based...Hawaii 5-0 is just one of my favorite shows. 

2) Give me a Book/Series and I’ll give you my honest opinion: Book series wasn’t mentioned but my favorite is anything by Uncle Rick Riordan. They’re easy to breeze through, the characters are amazing and diverse, he’s got a fun way to modernize Greek(and other)myths.  So many amazing puns!  ALL THE FEELS!!! And it has one of the few M|F canon ships I actually ship.

3) Give me a ship and I’ll give you my honest opinion: McDanno. I could probably write a thesis about these two xD They’re my favorite because a lot of what canon has given us. Sometimes with ships of the same sex the fans have to put in a lot of imagination and extract every ounce of the ship from moments shared but then there’s these guys...who canonly say ‘I love you’, who HAVE gone to the ends of the earth for each other more than once, they’ve given each other organs, in canon they gave us a Mechanic AU undercover, despite that the writers/showrunners don’t wanna make them a couple, everyone and their dog and their dog’s shadow thinks they’re a married couple. McDanno also isn’t perfect but they’re one of the healthier relationships...like if their fault is anything it might be that their co-dependency is VERY strong and if the other would be gone forever, it would literally break the other....these two are just so epic. Their relationship gives me hope when I am hopeless, it gives me faith and inspiration to be the Danny to someone’s Steve...to believe my Steve is out there. 

4) Give me a character and I’ll tell you how I feel/think about them: Danny Williams is my spirit animal. I love him. I love the snark, the sass, I love how he stands up for himself. He knows he’s a fish out of water but he’s a damn shark and will bite and is fierce even if he’s smol! And he’s also an amazing father. Mine...is not. I think a lot of why I love Danny really is with how strong my daddy issues are and the fact that Danny has been more of father to me through his portrayal than my own dad has been...kinda sad, I know. But I love how fierce and loyal he is. I admire that. I am too skeptical and paranoid and I don’t think well in a team dynamic. I want to be more like Danny. He’s my role model, my father figure, and I love his hair.  

5) Give me a character and I’ll tell you how I’d wish what part I had in their life: I wish I were Danny’s bastard child. Reasons stated above...I would love to slowly bond with Danny and his family and slowly become part of it, learning how to trust and believe in others. 

6) Which TV show would you want to live in? Hawaii 5-0. The rules are pretty much the same as they are in my life and I understand them. As good as I like to think I am to adjusting, I’m too old(26 but I’m an old soul :p) and I’m barely getting into a work out routine so like...anything post-apocalyptic or being in Marvel or Supernatural would most likely mean an early demise. I would rather be a friend of the team rather than a suspect or victim tho.

7) Which fandom vehicle would you want to have? (and why) The Impala from Supernatural. It’s a damn beautiful car. I got to sit in a replica at a con and it just felt like home. I’m saving up to eventually buy one. It’s a muscle car and If I ever get into an accident, I think I’ll be well protected. It’ll attract attention and people who are fans of supernatural might strike up a conversation with me and therefore I always have a wicked ice breaker. Plus...it always worked for Dean to get the babes. ;) 

8) Which fandom object would you want to have in your life(and be able to use it. Like it would work for you) Immediately I went to Harry Potter’s cloak of Invisibility. I’d probably use it for mundane stuff like getting into movies without paying... 

9) Whose love child would you want to be of your OTP’s? McDanno. I have a really amazing mom, but my dad...yeah, I’d gladly have Steve and Danny be my dads. I would be so loved and protected and be so damn happy <3 

10) Write a journal entry about a day in your life of your favorite fandom. A ‘what if’…and OC version of you living whatever would be a ‘regular’ life/day.

Dear Diary, 

I still suck at surfing. I feel like Stitch...me and water don’t seem to get along. But I’m not giving up. Steve is surprisingly a very patient teacher. I did kind of think he’d be more military-y. Danny’s invited to the next session and as much as I dread having another person witness my wipeouts...maybe advice from the Jersey Devil who wasn’t so keen on surfing either might be useful. 

Speaking of Danny, he’s paying me in cookies to babysit Charlie. Some may think it’s a sucker’s deal but they haven’t tasted Danny’s cookies. I’m constantly having to be on the lookout for Steve...he’s already snatched three...

Charlie’s having a blast watching Gravity Falls with me. We’re trying to convince Jerry to go as Soos in our cosplay group with Charlie dressing up as Dipper and me as Wendy. We’ve nearly got him to cave...

Later tonight we’re heading to the Grover’s for pizza night. Deep dish like all Chicagoans like...though we’re gonna be in another debate over the Cubs and the White Sox...I’m looking forward to it. 

I gotta go, 

xoxox

-Space 

[shu-of-the-wind]

rebelcaptain; foster care au vi

Whoops that took forever. 

No particular warnings for this one. Rey’s backstory has been modded for a modern AU,. XD 

She didn't think it was going to work out badly, per se, but there's a certain amount of relief in her gut when Rey comes home from the third or fourth meeting of the history club beaming and babbling about a girl named Rose Tico and a museum trip 

"Next Saturday," Rey says, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Jyn, struggling with the zipper of her jacket, grunts. "Can I go?"

"Which museum?"

"African-American History." She bounces some more. Out of the corner of Jyn's eye, Finn creeps into view down the hall. He's not been entirely sure what to make of Rey joining the history club--he might like Mr. A's classes, but he's more a taekwondo enthusiast than anything. Actually, Jyn's surprised that Rey is enjoying the history club so much. Rey's the type to take apart toasters and microwaves and put them back together again as her weekend activity, not go mad over old flyers from the Second World War. But still. "Can I go?"

"Are you taking the bus?"

"We're meeting up at the school and taking the metro. Mr. A's coming with us."

"So it's a school trip?"

Rey sucks her teeth. "Sort of? A club trip. But everyone's going. Mr. A says the Smithsonian museums are free, you just have to schedule tickets for some of them a few days before. And I have a metro pass."

Right. Jyn's not much of a museum person. She wins her wrestling match with her jacket, and hangs it, dripping, from the hook next to the front door. "Huh."

"Can I go?" Rey bounces again. "It's with Mr. A. And then Rose and me were talking about going to get food after."

She's thirteen, Jyn thinks. And Rey can take care of herself. Something clutches at her throat, and eases almost in the same moment. "I have a shift at the Cantina until six, if you want to come there after. So you don't have to walk back alone from the metro station."

Rey gives her a look that's altogether too self-aware, for a middle school student, but she just says, "Yeah, okay. Can Rose come?” 

Jyn shrugs. "Free country."

"Sweet."

"Let me know how it goes," says Jyn, as Rey darts off.

In the hallway, Finn's watching her with that weird look again, like he's trying to put together a jigsaw with only half the pieces.

The Cantina's kind of a shithole, if she's being honest about it. Not as much of a shithole as other places she's worked in her life--this, for sure, has nothing on the Wobani pub up in Maine--but it's still kind of a shithole, and the people who work there are only granted human status nominally in the eyes of everything holy. Nobody ever slacks off, at least. Maz would have them out on their ass with their spleens crammed up their noses if anybody tried. It makes up for the sleazeballs at the bar who try to palm handfuls of her ass as she goes by.

One more time. She breathes deep, in and out through her nose. One more fucking time--

"Uh-oh." It's Lando, eyebrows arched. Jyn's never been able to decide whether she wants to punch Lando in the face or not. It bothers her sometimes. She ought to want to punch him in the face. "Scowl power at nuclear."

"Fuck off," she says, and in the kitchen, Chewie snorts.

"If it's table six again I can take it."

"I don't need your help," says Jyn. Maz is fluttering around somewhere in the back. Going over supplies, probably. She's not about to get fired for reaming out a customer, especially one that keeps whacking her ass, but she'd really rather not let Maz know what's going on, and Lando will rat her out the instant he thinks he can get away with it. "Go do assistant manager things."

"I'm doing assistant manager things," he says. "I'm making sure our servers aren't being harassed. That's an assistant manager thing."

Jyn rolls her eyes, and jams a plastic cup with far too much force against the soda fountain.

"Jyn, come on."

"It's fine." There's no crack in the cup. Good enough. She sets it on the tray. "I'll deal with it."

Lando puffs out his cheeks, his version of I think you're wrong but I don't want a broken nose. "If you say so. I'm just saying. Intimidation is an option if you want it."

"That I can do all by myself," she says. "Considering your track record."

"That was one time."

"A toddler," says Jyn, and walks off while Lando makes kettle noises.

"You break anything, Erso, you're paying for it!"

She flips him off behind her back.

The Cantina's a place where people pass through, and tonight isn't much different. It's not exactly the kind of place that attracts people from the Hill or any surrounding newspapers. She's pretty sure she served bad bourbon to Jason Chaffitz in disguise once, but that's just something that happens in DC: you never know who you're going to run into that you might see on the telly the next day. Tonight it's fairly quiet: a few businessmen at the back, in one of the booths, making a deal to do with their air traffic control programs or whatever it is Lando keeps blatantly eavesdropping on; a handful of families who went out to the Smithsonian circuit, judging by their new T-shirts; a few locals; the gaggle of Howard Uni students who use the corner table to practice their Spanish conversation and usually bamboozle her with slang she'd be better off not knowing the meaning of. (The last person who openly hit on her, instead of just goosing her ass, wound up with a broken nose and filed a suit against the Cantina. As pissed off as she gets sometimes, she'd rather not have to have Maz settle out of court again because of her bullshit.)

All in all, it's definitely not the worst job she's ever had. In conjunction with what she makes from Mara, repairing cars and motorbikes for men who'd rather pretend a manly man does all the greasy work on their engine instead of a bird with too many scars and a stupid tattoo on her hip of a star, she makes enough. Maybe not quite enough to let Rey and Finn do as much as they want, but enough to keep them all comfortable. It's enough for her.

What do you want to do?

She shakes it out of her head, and snaps back over to table six to glare threateningly with a long knife in her hand. Better to head the bastard off at the pass early, before he decides copping a feel is a little less interesting than trying to pin her at the end of her shift.

The three year old at table thirteen has tossed a handful of salsa at her blouse and she's trying to mop herself up while simultaneously refilling three water glasses when the bell chimes, and Rey's chatter filters in through the rain. She's in infodump mode--about Prey, from what Jyn can tell, she's talking about aliens and weapons mods and that's usually Prey mode--but the girl next to her, a small southeast Asian girl with big eyes and closely bobbed hair, is listening very hard, which is better than anything that Jyn could have imagined. "Excuse me," says Jyn to table thirteen, and then shoves her tray of water glasses into Aphra's hands without a word, beelining for the door.

"Hi," she says, and Rose Tico's eyes about bulge out of her head. Jyn is not about to imagine what she looks like. "You're wet."

Rey shakes her head like a labrador. Water spatters Jyn's service apron. "It's raining."

"I can tell." She sucks her teeth. "Who's your friend?"

Rey blinks a few times, and then it rushes back to her, the social thing. She straightens up a little. "Mom, this is Rose. Rose, this is my mom."

Jyn bares her teeth. "Rey."

"She doesn't like being called Mom," says Rey, and bares her teeth back. "So she's Jyn."

Rose looks about ready to faint, but she steels herself, and says, "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Erso."

"Fuck," says Jyn, "that's worse. Both of you go sit in the back before I vomit."

"She's fine," says Rey, happily. "Cheers, Mom."

"I'm going to dump you off a cliff," says Jyn, "and I'm not going to tell anyone where to look."

Rose's big eyes get even bigger when she takes in Jyn's stained shirt. "Oh."

"Go sit, you yokel, I'll bring you something." Jyn can't help it. She scruffs her hand through Rey's sopping hair, pushing it back out of her eyes. "And a towel. Maz will skin you if you ruin her seats."

"I can't ruin vinyl, that's the whole point of vinyl in a café. Nobody can ruin vinyl with liquid things. Unless it's acid, I suppose." Rey frowns at the salsa stain on Jyn's shirt. "You didn't have that this morning, did you?"

"You think Finn would have let me out of the house if I had?" Finn's as scrupulous about laundry as he is about cooking. One of his old families used to make him do most of the chores. Now he just says it relaxes him. She hasn't pushed the issue, yet. "Go sit."

"Mr. A should be in in a minute," says Rey, and then darts off before Jyn can do more than blink. Rose looks between Rey and Jyn, somewhat bemused, before trailing Rey into the corner. Jyn opens her mouth, and then shuts it again before Lando notices.

You're fucking kidding me.

The door opens. The bell chimes.

Fuck!

She wipes her face clean. She can do that. She knows how to do that. She's known how to do that since she was a child. Jyn breathes, in and out through her nose, and then turns to face him. His hair is wet (though not as soaked as Rey's; Rey had probably been prancing about in the thunderstorm the way she usually did, daring lightning to come after her) and the fabric of his coat is damp about the shoulders, but it's the hesitation that makes her want to spit. He's eyeing her like a cat about to scratch.

"Hi," he says, finally.

Jyn, refusing to be intimidated, says, "Hi."

Cassian awkwardly stands there for a second or two. He says, "I wanted to make sure Rey and Rose made it here all right."

Rey. Rose, too, but more Rey. Don’t make it uncomfortable for Rey. Jyn nods, and pretends that he hasn't noticed the salsa stain on her shirt. She bites the inside of her cheek hard to keep her expression from shifting. He's not supposed to be here. There's a thin, high voice in the back of her head, one that sounds remarkably like a child. He's not supposed to be here. Not without warning.

She shoves the voice into a box, and locks it.

"I don't mean to intrude," says Cassian. He's interpreted her face right, then. Kindly fuck off, Andor. "I didn’t know this was where you worked. Rey didn’t--I'll go."

He's halfway through turning on his heel when Jyn thinks better of it, and rubs at the bridge of her nose. "Rey will be disappointed," she says, and doesn't look at him when he snaps a look at her. "She's sitting at the back with Rose. I'll get you a towel."

"You don't have to," says Cassian, but it trails off in a rather pathetic sort of way as she slams through the swinging doors to the kitchen, and ducks down to get more water glasses.

"Well." Lando leans over the counter, smirking at her a little. "He's cute."

"Fuck off, Lando."

"Ouch. She bites again." Lando lifts his hands. "Don't mean to intrude, Jyn, sorry. Just never figured you for the tall, dark, and accented type."

She's definitely going to hit him. Possibly in the next three seconds. "Fuck. Off."

"Fucking off," says Lando, and swans away whistling, hands in his pockets like he's just scored big in some gambling ring. Scratch hitting him. She's going to take the baseball bat Chewie keeps under the counter, and she's going to use it on the windscreen of his car. Jyn fills three glasses with water, snags a handful of dishrags out from beneath the drink fountain, and hipchecks her way back out onto the floor again, ignoring Aphra hissing "you owe me, Erso," on her way in.

Rey is still talking. She's also stimming, hands flapping back and forth in her happy stim, the one that means I'm excited and I'm going to be talking ten thousand kilometers a minute about this for the next five years. Jyn slows, and watches, for the three seconds she can grab. Rose is still just listening, nodding very seriously as if Rey's imparting the secrets of the universe. Cassian doesn't seem to have noticed, really. He's staring at the menu, and then at the ceiling, and then at the wall, in a show of discomfort she wouldn’t have expected of him. Not after the PTC.

Still. He is in unfamiliar territory.

Something strikingly close to pity swells up her throat. Jyn strangles it with her bare hands.

"Right," she says, and puts the waters down, dumping the whole handful of towels on Rey's head. Rey stops flapping, but to laugh, not to flinch. "Report."

"The museum was good." Rey disappears under one of the towels, and Rose, after darting another shy, confused look at Jyn, filches one for herself. Jyn refuses to watch what Cassian does. "The United States is bollocks."

"You're an American citizen," says Jyn. "Same as me."

"Not originally," Rey says, muffled. "We don't know what I was originally."

"Yes, you suitcase baby. Mysterious sprog, you."

Rose's eyes get very big.

"I was found in an airport when I was six," says Rey, very matter-of-factly. Out of the corner of her eye, Jyn sees Cassian still. "I don't remember anything before then. I think my birth parents must have left me there. They said they'd come back and get me, but they never did."

Rose's hands curl up into fists on the table. With surprising force, she says, "That's horrible."

Rey blinks at her a few times. "You're mad. I'm sorry."

"I'm not mad at you." 

"Oh." She darts a look at Jyn. It's only after Jyn nods that Rey says, "Okay. Cool."

Rose clenches her fists hard enough to look painful, and then rams right up against Rey's side to peer at the menu on the table. Jyn could cry. Thank fuck. Thank fuck. Thank fuck. It's working. She's not entirely sure Rey's even realized, but it's working. She might have a friend now. Other than Finn. Someone else she can lean on. Thank fuck.

Cassian's still watching her. Jyn can't help it. She catches his eye, and nods once.

He looks at the table instead.

"Museum," says Jyn, and taps at Rey's shoulder. "Good?"

"Horrible," says Rose, not Rey. "People are horrible. But interesting."

"That was the point," says Cassian, without inflection. "History isn't pretty. But it can show us patterns."

"Yeah, you said." Rey looks up at Jyn, and then peeps at Cassian, back and forth. “Mr. A knew more about the exhibits than the museum proctor did. He kept explaining things.”

“Really,” says Jyn, and tries not to feel uncomfortable. “It’s good that he’s teaching you, then.”

“If we go to the Museum of the American Indian for a field trip, you should come.” Rey looks completely blasé, but there’s a hint of—something. Not quite the cunning Finn has, the willingness to sneak. Rey looks schemey. Christ, not both of them. Tell me Rey hasn’t noticed the oddness, too. “You could help.”

“I don’t know if I can get the day off anytime soon.” She refuses to look at Cassian. “I’m going back to the kitchen, for a minute. I’ll be back.”

“’kay.”

She has no shame left, apparently. She bolts.

Jyn’s halfway to the kitchen doors and halfway to freedom when she hears the footsteps behind her. Aphra’s peering at her through the gap in the doors, and she’s laughing, a little, the way she always does when someone else is in for a hell of a lot of shit. “Jyn,” Cassian says, “wait a second,” and she’s not so much of a coward that she can ignore that. Not when it might come down to a fight. She slows, and then stops, and wishes that her shirt weren’t ruined. She wishes that she could run. He looks tired, all of a sudden, and lost, even if it’s just in hints��the lines around his mouth, the hidden tension in his shoulders when he puts them back. Like a soldier, she thinks. Regimented to keep the fear at bay.

“What,” she says, when he stands there watching her for too long. Cassian’s shoulders hitch, just a little. His hands fall loose at his sides.

“I wasn’t planning on organizing the class museum trip for at least another six months,” he says. He’s all clipped, now. “You don’t have to worry. If we need a volunteer, one of the other parents can do it.”

She jerks her chin up, and wipes her hands absently on the apron she has to wear. She can’t remember how they wound up so damp. Words fly out of her head. “Right.”

He hesitates. She can see it in his hands, more than anything. His fingers curl, and uncurl. “I’ll make an excuse to Rey,” he says. “I won’t make you uncomfortable.”

For some reason that, more than anything, is what snags on her temper. Jyn breathes, deep, in and out through her nose, but her control’s already shattered. She snaps, “For fuck’s sake,” and the family that had been sitting at table thirteen, halfway out the door, all yip in unison. Cassian blinks once. “This is stupid.”

“What is?” he says, but his voice is too tight to quite be calm.

“This.” She glances over his shoulder, but Rey hasn’t noticed. She’s still chattering with Rose Tico. “This—stupid dancing thing. It’s stupid.”

Something flickers in his face. She thinks it might be his temper. “I wasn’t going to mention it.”

“You can’t teach my kids if you’re always going to act like I’m about to explode,” says Jyn. “This doesn’t work if we keep doing this.”

“Keep doing what?”

She gestures, pointlessly, at the air between them. “Whatever the fuck this is.”

Cassian’s mouth goes tight. He looks back at Rey, now, too, faster, more subtle. She’d barely notice if not for the fact that he turns away from her to do it. He says, “I wasn’t aware there was an issue.”

“Jesus Christ, Cassian, you’re not stupid.”

Cassian blinks again. It’s different, somehow. Like shock, instead of evaluation. She’s not sure where the difference lies. Maybe in the speed. He swallows, barely visible.

“Look,” says Jyn. She roots herself to the ground, and thinks of Saw, of Steela’s photograph on the mantle. “My kids like you. That--they trust you. They don’t trust a lot of people. I’m not going to fuck up one of the best teachers they’ve ever had because of something that happened years ago.”

There’s another flicker, then, in his mouth. Cassian puts his hands behind his back. “I see.”

“They’re not stupid. They’ll notice something’s up, if they haven’t already. If this—” she jams a fist into the empty space, again “—keeps happening. So it can’t. Anymore. Otherwise they’ll work something out, and even if they’re wrong, it’ll just keep making things worse until we can’t do a damn thing for them, no matter what we want.”

He weighs that, carefully. Cassian looks at her, unblinking.

“Truce, then,” he says, in an odd voice.

He holds out his hand.

Jyn looks at it, at his long fingers and the skin of his palm. She looks up at him, too, and sees a question there she’s not sure she can answer. Still, she reaches out, and takes it, as firm a handshake as she’s ever given in her life. Twice, up and down, and then he lets go first, shoving his hand back into his pocket and watching her like she’s a Rubik’s cube. Like she’s a puzzle to be turned and contorted until it makes sense.

She turns.

“You’re a good mother,” Cassian says. He blurts it, almost. “They love you very much.”

Jyn jerks her shoulder in an acknowledgment, and vanishes into the kitchen. She can’t find the daring to look him in the face. Not after that.

[thespace-dragon]

I just wanted to say that I love your works on Ao3. They are so perfect in so many ways. The combination of fluff and angst kills me. The way you present a darker version of Lance and a more innocent/curious Keith makes my heart pound so loud because it fits so well. I love your ideas and don't get me started with the writing style. I hope you are ok :) (and if you have some advices for a bigginer in the art of writing I am glad to listen) Looking forward to reading more of your MASTERPIECES!

a;skdjgnasg fuck i got so caught up in chores today a;kngadfg, SOOrry this took so freaking long for me to answer jesus fu..

ANYWHOODLES THANK YOU AGAIN FOR LIKE THE BEST COMPLIMENT EVERY JUST AGHHHH i love to really play on how lance can get serious on missions and how keith is a little sheltered and go as far as i can with it. other than that i really try to stick with their canon personalities. (modern aus i dip into their fanon counterparts because theyre memes like holy fuck its awesome) and dude i feel like my writing style is all over the place dont get me started on it xD

but writing tips. gosh this will be long

write your ideas down, all of them, no exception. nothing is stupid, no headcanon not accepted, none of those thoughts. you thought it up, write it down and come back to it one day. who knows you can make it into a fic one day (look at the rift and ruins, prime examples)

write whenever you can, and strive for every day. im a little rusty with writing right now because ive been so busy i crash every time i get home and honestly im a mess, but i try to write as much as i can during my down times. it honestly helps so much.

READ. read a shitton, pick up things from other authors, other fic writers. since i dont necessarily have the motivation to write every day, i make up for it in reading. reading saves lives.

use your own experiences to add another level of depth to your fics. i do it all the time. i adapt some of my life experiences to fit into aus and such, sometimes a whole fic is a result of my life (see displaced)

let art inspire you. there have been so many times that i just let inspiration take me from art that its not even funny (i blame you @thesearchingastronaut

also let music inspire you too! just because song fics might be a little ‘outdated’ doesnt mean you still cant write them. i have a few that are based of songs completely. (which reminds me i still need to finish one of them rip)

scream and scheme. find someone that you scream ideas at and generally just bounce ideas off of them. itll help you find plotholes and what not.

plot your shit out. i cannot stress this enough. there was a time when i didnt plot and looking back on those fics now, theyre all over the place. now i typically have the main plot events all written down, and depending on how previous chapters went, i shore up plotholes in the next chapter. but main plot then break it down into chapters and create events that link everything together

let your characters grow and change. sure fanfics dont offer a lot of room for growht because we all want to remain true to the characters, but that doesnt mean you cant let them grow. its your fic, they will grow in response to how you write it.

let them have flaws too. in ruins everyone has flaws: shiro is terrible with his words despite being a great leader and a warrior. pidge has a one track mind, completely focused on the end result and not letting herself bond with the others. hunk can be timid and it makes it hard to be proud of his work. keith is stubborn, to the point where communication can be compromised because he doesnt want to listen. lance... sigh, lance is many things, the biggest being that he can trust too easily. (shiro and keith were exceptions to his rule of giving the benefit of the doubt because of their previous positions in the galra empire)but what im saying is, let them have weaknesses, let them learn from their mistakes. it makes the characters feel more 3 dimensional

dont give up. ever. if someone leaves a bad review on your fic, dont worry too much about it. you can take some of what they said into consideration, but dont let what they get you too down. on my first fic ever, i got a flame that called my original character for a universe a mary sue. did that stop me? obviously not because here i am still writing fanfics.

join group chats if you can with other writers. theyre always there to help and really give the best advice. ive met some great people by joining discord servers. some really great artists too! dont be afraid to reach out and start talking with people. my ask box is always open ^^

last but not least, and certainly not because 13 is my lucky number, but  DO NOT COMPARE YOURSELF TO ANOTHER WRITER. just dont do it. it will kill your drive ebcause youre too busy thinking of how youll never catch up, never be like the writer that you admire. everyone starts somewhere, and everyone grows at their own pace. not everyone is going to be spectacular for every fic, or right out of the gate, hell, my first few fics were awful, i hate them, but i keep them around because it shows how far ive come.

oh god, i think thats it. i hope thats it xD but if you have anymore questions, or want to scream in general, dont be a stranger!! Thanks again hun :D

[egg-emperor]

Decided that since I put Boom Egg's sexuality down as unknown, I might as well have that be the case in universe story wise for my stuff too for a bit.

I'm imagining that Boom Egg wasn't out to literally anyone he's ever around in his world because he didn't have any friends and there wasn't anyone for him to date on the island so it was never relevant. But when he starts dating modern and Casino AU Eggman when they visit his world, he still doesn't feel ready to come out to everyone, so they keep it a secret for a while. Plus the three do just consider each other friends for a while even after they start messing around because it was just casual but that changes over time when they realized they all want to be boyfriends.

It's easy to keep the relationships a secret when it's just modern and Boom Egg going to the village together at first, as modern Egg is often very reserved and private when it comes to affection, so there are no clear signs or hints at what they get up to together alone. In fact at first people just keep thinking they're related because they look so alike for obvious reasons which is awkward, so they have to explain the different worlds thing and how they're actually different versions of the same person. So even then, still nobody expects they're together at all and would date themselves like that.

But when it comes to Casino AU Eggman it's much different because he's extremely openly affectionate with Boom Egg at all times, vocally and physically to the highest degrees. So Boom Egg is nervous the first time they decide to go down to the village together. Casino Egg understands this and says he won't tell anyone but because he's the most openly gay of the three to the point it's unmistakable, Boom Egg wonders if that might give away his own identity. Because with the way Casino Egg gets with him, it'd make it immediately obvious that something is going on XD

He kindly asks if Casino Egg can try to tone it down with the way he flirts, looks at, and touches him, just while they're out but of course that's impossible and Casino Egg would never. Instead he just tells him not to worry because while it's only going to be obvious that he's gay, it doesn't mean they'll suspect they're actually together if Boom doesn't show that he likes him too. And he says that if he were to try to hide the way he acts around him, it would actually be much more likely to make people suspicious because it would be obvious that he was trying to hide something than it would if he did it.

They go to the village together so Casino Egg can see what it's like- he doesn't find it very impressive because it's not modern and doesn't have enough casinos for his liking. XD He keeps talking about how the land would be great for it though. Then they get something to eat like Casino Egg is most interested in but Boom Egg is nervous because he feels it'll be obvious it's like a date. Especially with how Casino Egg wants to sit closely and commonly touches him with a hand on his back, hand on top of his on the table, and puts his arm around him but he insists they just look like casual pals.

But it's impossible not to notice how lovestruck Casino Egg is by Boom Egg as he always has total adoration in his eyes when he looks at him dreamily and Boom Egg has to keep telling him to snap out of it when he gets too distracted lol. And because Boom can never get over how loved and special it makes him feel to get so much attention from someone at last and it's overwhelming, his reaction might give it away too. But Casino Egg can't change the way he looks at him so he jokes "I'll just have to close my eyes or look away then" and then Boom is like "No that'll make it more obvious!"

If anyone that Boom knows happens to see them together and approach to see what's going on, Boom Egg introduces him to them and Casino Egg quickly chimes in and proudly announces that he's been a really great friend to him already. But when they can't hear, he leans in to whisper into his ear "He's also my very cute handsome little guy~" and Boom Egg gasps and blushes hard like "What did I say‽‽‽" and gives him a little slap for his cheekiness for getting him flustered in public like this but Casino Egg is just amused and says he's not breaking his promise, it just had to be said!

Boom Egg pretends that he's going to show Casino Egg to the bathroom but pulls him aside somewhere more private. He then acts grumpy with him as he pouts and crosses his arms and tells him that he shouldn't be so cheeky and tease him like that so they both nearly give it away just like that, he should wait until they get back to his lair. Casino Egg just finds his attitude adorable and shrugs and says "Can't help it when you're my cute little strawberry shortcake" and Boom Egg just rolls his eyes and smiles and they share a few secret sweet kisses before they get back out there.

While they continue to sit and talk at the table, Casino Egg still can't help but say sweet things, put his hands on him, and look at him with hearts in his eyes and Boom Egg blushes and looks bashful, happy, and giggly in a way nobody has ever seen, so people might start to get a bit of an idea that something's up. But when they get lost in the fun together they forget everyone else is there, to the point Boom Egg almost ends up being the one to go in for a cuddle and kiss and Casino Egg stops him in time and says "Ah, ah, who's the one nearly giving us away now ;)" and then they're even!

They'll keep what they have a secret until Boom Egg feels ready to come out but Casino Egg is definitely very excited and eager for when he gets to hold his hand in public and show off how he's lucky enough to get to call him his boyfriend 🥰💜

[wandering-bitch]

Annotations on Falling in Love with Love (Again)

FiLwL(A) is my 3zun cinderella which is actually just about the importance of qin su and also reuniting with your exes. Here’s my behind the scenes/notes/lore for chapters 9-11. 

ch 9: nie mingjue being hot

i wrote this before i’d even written the Murder in ch 6;;;;; i just love nie mingjue

i so deeply believe in nie mingjue being smart and able to see through meng yao because he’s straightforward and strategic. 

“hmm” i said to myself. “how do i write the bois getting together??” after much thought i decided on “by stabbing one of them a bunch”

bits of this are still funny to me. rip meng yao sometimes you gotta be up close and personal with a hot dude’s bare sweaty chest 

also my version of “romantic and sensual” is just “doing math and deciding yeah, against your better judgement, you’re gonna smooch” because i love an overthinking murder twink

“on the bright side, the late-night guest was not jin guangshan’s type. unfortunately he was exactly meng yao’s type: nie mingjue” i can’t believe i let myself write this, bc it feels way too modern, but also the tone of this fic is just sarcastic enough that modern grouchy shit works 

ever since i discovered that camel was a delicacy in tang china i became OBSESSED with it. i nearly included it in ‘i have always loved the door’ and it makes an appearance in ‘blood in the cut’

the guan reappears!! or at least is mentioned.in case u forgot it from chapter 1 it is Definitely Not A Glass Slipper Or Anything

“i love ruining a twink’s life” i said in the author’s notes. i was not lying. my hobbies are making nie mingjue look cool and making jin guangyao suffer.

“xichen was disappointed when he didn’t see you there” “and you of course, weren’t” “on the contrary i was happy to see you” is one of the exchanges that was like. core to this fic. similar to “i met someone” “i don’t know what you want me to say to that” “neither do i”

when outlining fics i tend to include some key dialogue/exchanges that strike me as the Mood TM and half the time these exchanges go through incredible rewrites or just get deleted, but it’s always nice to see them survive

the xiangqi was so much fun to write, not bc i have played the game a bunch (i haven’t) but bc it gave me a fun way to talk about the conversation without talking about the conversation.

“a controlled leak qould have been very useful” makes me so happy it’s such a MOOD and nie mingjue immediately going heart-eyes over it is complete wish fulfillment. when will a hot sword lesbian be enamored over my ruthless scheming???? im taking sword lesbian gf applications over in my ask box

“But it hadn’t been easy” this paragraph originally included “Nie Mingjue had broadened his moral compass, and Meng Yao had learned to trust” or something but i couldn’t  really figure out how meng yao would describe his own personal growth since he left qinghe. like he DID grow he DID learn that he can trust the people he loves to trust him and that it’s worth bringing people in on your schemes and plans.... but he’s too dumb to describe this. 

the xiyao troll’s comment on this was “LMFAO that oocness from both meng yao and nmj where nmj is suddenly JGY levels of cunning and JGY is dumb enough to make mistakes XD”

this has stuck with me so hard

how do you read Falling in Love with Love and only discover after 16k words that i think meng yao makes mistakes?????

how do u consume any adaptation of mdzs and think that nmj isn’t smart enough to go “huh that cunning twink who is absolutely mooning over me and xichen and also plays weiqi like my old buddy seems REAL FUCKING FAMILIAR” nmj canonically sees thru jgy machinations all the time

anyway i love nmj and the xiyao troll

did you know there’s an exchange to celebrate the troll’s works??? i discovered it after signups closed but im going to enjoy reading all of them

ch 10: and with very little trouble

this took me like a month to write oops but that’s just because a lot has to happen

the opening where meng yao is being mean to qin su was so hard to write. meng yao getting overworked?? fine. meng yao getting abused??? cool. meng yao being slightly short with his sister, who is in no way hurt by this bc she can tell it’s not about her??? HORRIBLE!!!

the detective scene happened. there’s not a lot to say about it, i don’t think, except to note that han meilin did try to stand up for qin su

ch 11: impossible things are happening every day

cinderella time mother fuckers!!! this is another one that took time!!

ch 10 took time bc i wasn’t 100% sure how it would play out

this took time bc even though i knew exactly what would happen and how, it has to be Real Good, y’know? it’s tying up the entire fic. if these 2k words don’t work, then the rest of the fic will feel less good and ppl won’t come back to it

(please everyone come back to this over and over if only to laugh at my obvious qin su agenda)

qin su and meng yao fighting over who gets to take the fall for their joint murder. i love them.

i wasn’t planning for this fic to start the sunshot campaign but here we are. in the war. 

How did this version of the sunshot campaign go? Well. not good. because someone has no reason to invent necromancy. But not as poorly as you’d think. Jiang Sect isn’t destroyed, and the Cloud Recesses are functional (although not at full capacity), so they have more strength on hand. Plus, Meng Yao encouraged Koi Tower to funnel money and resources into the Qin Sect, specifically so if the war started before he expected it to (whoops!!! it did!!!!), those resources would be somewhere he could encourage to fight. 

on the one hand, the sunshot campaign’s territory is divided in half by the wens. on the other hand, that means the wens are fighting on both the northern and southern border (since, again, jiang sect is still alive)

anyway i’d say it’s a more steady war, as opposed to my recollection of canon where like. everyone’s fucking miserable until our sexy goth boi comes out with his corpses and wrecks shop. 

then han meilin and qin su look at their families and say “if you do not let us marry right now in a way that combines our sects equally...... we will just do it anyway.” 

(meng yao in the background, holding a thin knife: fucking try me. try me. i want you to be mean to my sister just so i can stab you with my knives.)

anyway it’s time for the epilogue where meng yao is vice general and there is no more wen sect

(have i thought about the dafan wens in this ‘verse? no. i probably should not, either, as wwx would be less ride-or-die for them and that means maybe wen qing and wen ning would die in a war camp)

never mind!!! happy thoughts only!!!! like how qin su and meng yao are getting ready to kill again bc they are the bi crime sibling club!!!! 

jin zixuan is invited to family brunch but he’s never invited to bi crime sibling club because qin su and meng yao refuse to let him lose his innocence. 

“ge, jie, i’m married with children, i don’t have any innocence to lose--” “oh didi, precious baby, our infant brother, shining beacon of our heart...”

mo xuanyu is also forbidden from joining bi crime club. he’s too baby. 

they do discover other jin bastards and invite them to lunch and sure, there might eventually be another bi criminal.

3zun visits each other in 2 month chunks, with one to two month breaks as needed. so the epilogue is the beginning of 2 months hanging out in meng yao’s house, and then later in the year they’ll hang out in the cloud recesses or whatever

qin su and meng yao both have secret lists of places to acquire babies for each other. han meilin knows about both of these lists and laughs every time she sees the same orphanages on both lists.

the final comment from the xiyao troll on this was: “Interesting choice to write a bland ooc AU, but I guess this is all you can manage with your writing skill. ;) This way you don't have to worry about JGY lying to Xichen for years, murdering NMJ, attempting to murder Xichen's family in the second siege, stealing secrets from the Lan sect, corrupting a healing song Xichen trusted him with, and fully betraying LXC's and NMJ's trust.”

like. yeah. of course i sidestepped the bad things. that’s what a fix-it au is for. it’s where i say “here’s an alternate universe, where certain bad things do not happen.” it’s where i say “if meng yao had always had qin su around to counteract the messaging his mother gave him, he might not have gone so far in his quest for power”. duh. 

also like kiddo, troll, friend. the pitch for this fic is “cinderella except with murder and qin su rights”. i’ve been clear from the top that this is an Indulgent Fic with No Pretenses of Quality. im proud of some sentences and passages, but this ain’t Blood In The Cut where im tryna Say something or either of my jiang cheng-centric fics where im focusing on good characterization. 

it’s a cozy murder where qin su gets to live and have a cool wife