#help me kill my plotbunnies

[gjdraws]

Incredibly into doing @ckreversebang art incredibly confused also pls help out a buddy

[inexplicifics]

Hiya! I was wondering if you’d been having any luck making the Cats Among Wolves bunnies cooperate lately? If not, that’s cool. Plot bunnies are not the most cooperative creatures, but I figured I’d ask. I was also curious about what the writing process usually looks like for you if you were willing to explain it a bit. Do you tend to jump around between projects just following the inspiration, or do you write out at least a whole scene or chapter before letting yourself move around? How many times do you usually send a fic to Rose for betaing before you feel ready to release it? I always find different people’s processes so interesting.

So Cats Among Wolves is mostly not cooperating at the moment - I am weirdly low on Brain and the bunnies are not doing long-form very well just now. But here's a snippet from the Cedric & Axel fic:

Fuck, this is good, Cedric opines, sipping greedily at the soup Gaetan is holding for him. “The old Wolf knows his way around a kitchen,” Gaetan agrees, nodding. “I think I gained most of a stone the first winter I spent here.” “You needed it,” Eskel puts in. “All you Cats are too damn scrawny.” “Wolves are just absurdly big,” Gaetan sniffs. “And what are Vipers, then?” Eskel - teases. And Gaetan is grinning. Axel has never seen Gaetan so relaxed around an alpha before. Not even Cedric. But there’s not even a hint of tension in his littlest brother. He’s utterly unafraid. “Vipers are mostly perfectly normal sizes, Letho’s just special,” Gaetan says cheerfully. Letho smirks.

As to my writing process - oh gods, it's like a pogo stick. I often have eight or ten docs open, and I create a new WIP at least three times a week. (I am very easy to plotbunny. And I am surrounded by enablers.) I write until I get stuck and then I go to something else. Sometimes, if something really grabs me, I can get a whole longfic out in a week; sometimes I have to come back to it again and again until it clicks. My personal feeling is that as long as words are ending up in a row, it's all good.

I don't outline. Outlines kill fic for me. Once I've written down what's going to happen, why bother writing it again? Even for something like MBtT, I had the very loosest possible sketch of the plot and the desired relationships. I also can't estimate how long a fic is going to be to save my life. I thought MBtT was going to be 50K. I have to very deliberately keep from putting plot into things like prompt fills and flash fics, because once I've added plot, that fic isn't getting done in less than 10K.

I usually send the fic to Rose when it's completely done, and then do a pass through it once she's left comments, fixing all the plot holes she finds. Then she checks my work and I put it in the posting queue.

One thing I have found that helps me is that I color-code my docs. Blue is in progress, purple is ready for beta, and green is ready to be posted. It makes it easier for me to track things visually.

The other thing that really helps is cheer-readers. Because I try to only post finished fics, sometimes I'll start wondering if what I'm writing is really any good. Rose and Twist and Ray have all been wonderful at Encouraging me enthusiastically to keep going, and suggesting directions when I get stuck. Cheer-readers are great and I encourage writers to find them if they can.

Hope that was interesting!

[dira333]

Hi! How are you? Hope everything went well with the guy!

If the plotbunny game is still going, could you do something with Kakashi? Thanks!

That will happen on Sunday, but thanks for asking. The plotbunny game is ongoing this whole week.

It's too hot to be thinking.

It's too hot to be alive, too, but you can't really help that at the moment.

"I'm gonna find the person responsible for this mission," you groan, stretched out on the floor, "and I will kill them."

Something warm touches your ankle and you'd kick it if you had the energy. "Do me a favor and be quick about it," Kakashi grumbles.

"You're the reason we're wasting away our time? In this heat?"

"In my defense, it sounded like the perfect mission," he whines. "Just sitting around, waiting for the Daimyou to finish his business."

"Everyone knows that the Village hidden in the Sun is hell on earth. You could have asked me."

"It was supposed to be a surprise." He points out, his thumb now rubbing a circle onto your ankle. "I wanted us to have time to cuddle."

He sounds so sweet that you can't stay mad at him.

"Do you want to cuddle now?" You ask, foregoing your own misery to make him happy.

"God no, it's way too hot for that."

[astercontrol]

so I was brainstorming what sorts of creativeness I could try for next year's Mission Day, if I wanted to try and help reclaim that for the fans

which is me being SUPER overzealous, because I only just found out about the existence of Mission Day yesterday

lol who am I to even get involved in this

(BUT who am I to do anything... and yet I still do.)

... For those who are just a few days more behind-the-times than me:

apparently, back in 2016, there was a line in a TRON game which said that May 14 was "Mission Day." Some fans got excited that maybe something cool was gonna happen that day

akin to the Flynn Lives ARG starting in 2009 where fans were led on a whole fun adventure, following clues through a network of webpages (seriously, if you don't know about THAT, take a look)

but no, this time it turned out nothing happened, and people were disappointed.

and when I heard about that, my own rebellious side went:

Who wants to do this with me?? Like a fanzine but more... interactive, multimedia

Maybe it'll take a year, or more, but, like... what if some May 14 you start seeing fanfics posted on AO3 with mysterious clues in them, leading to a webring of Neocities sites all mysteriously connected in their own cryptic ways

Fanlore, fan-made stories, drawings, maybe even animations and games. Fan OCs getting their own place in all of it

Not beholden to whatever f'd up version of the Hays Code the mouse is currently following. So there'll be all sorts of LGBT stuff, all colors of the rainbow and all colors of circuits....

aaaand THEN

then my brainstorms got tornado-strength and I came back to reality some unknown time later with a mess of crazy plans just for the STORIES that could start this scavenger hunt

(the websites are breeding their own plotbunnies and I will face that later)

(I am still not even slightly convinced that I will have the time or energy for ANY of this)

BUT... there is a whole year til next May 14

so....

just a whole disorganized pile of ideas, starting here

Multiverse

Hypothesis: the spiritual energy that makes programs alive is something that functions on many planes of existence, and can connect different realities.

Someone finds out a way to tap into this with the laser technology, enabling travel between different Tron worlds and different alternate timelines.

(Maybe the "miracle" of ISO DNA somehow ends up being relevant to this? Alan quoted Flynn saying this was supposed to revolutionize everything; he even mentioned quantum teleportation? seems like a powerful mcguffin that never got used, might as well use it)

Some Tron AUs that may connect here:

Post-MCP scenario where the originals of the programs that were copied for the Legacy Grid go on living happily in the ENCOM system (my main headcanon that I write in)

Other scenarios where the programs brought to the Grid were eliminated from the ENCOM system and there's no original left behind

Variations on 82, Legacy and Uprising:

Different interpretations of how digitization works, how consciousness forms within the system, etc.

Post-Legacy extrapolations of Tron's future on Flynn's Grid

Tronzler restored by Alan and Sam;

Tronzler regenerated as an ISO by the Sea of Simulation;

Tronzler regenerated into an eldritch horror by the Sea of Simulation;

Tronzler dead;

Tronzler emerging from the sea still broken and half-rectified

etc

Other post-Legacy possibilities

Clu survived in some form after the reintegration;

Flynn survived in some form after the reintegration;

Clu and Flynn both survived in some form after the reintegration;

Clu and Flynn are one merged entity after the reintegration;

Clu and Flynn are dead;

Sam comes back again;

Sam comes back and brings Alan and Lora and Roy;

Sam never comes back and someone else has to try and make things work;

Yori and Ram are still there;

Yori and Ram are not there because they were never brought;

Yori and Ram are not there because they were killed;

Yori and Ram are still there but different because they were rectified;

Zuse survived;

Zuse survived and he turns out to be an amalgamation of an interpreter program hacked and taken over by Ram and he has an epic bitch session with Tronzler about their various struggles, betrayals, split personalities and changes of identity

ETC.

Various post-Uprising and pre-Legacy possibilities:

Beck and Paige eventually join forces and/or fall in love;

Beck and Paige eventually kill each other;

Mara and Zed find out who the Renegade is;

Mara and Zed die or get rectified before they can ever find out who the Renegade is;

Tron becomes Rinzler because he is later caught and rectified while Beck is forced to watch;

Tron becomes Rinzler because the rectification process in the last episode managed to infect him before he was saved and he ends up suddenly turning bad at the worst possible time for Beck;

Beck becomes Rinzler instead of Tron;

Dyson somehow comes back;

the Uprising team meets Zuse,

etc

Various non-canon-compliant AUs in all these settings

Ram didn't die in 82;

Ram did die and so did Flynn and then Tron defeated the MCP on his own;

Tron tried to defeat the MCP on his own but failed and MCP was never beaten;

MCP was beaten but Flynn died in there and died in real life;

Flynn survived and got out and tried to build the Grid but Alan and Lora managed to stop him from ruining his life by trying to do that alone;

Alan went into the Grid in Legacy instead of Sam;

Tron never becomes Rinzler;

Flynn or Ram becomes Rinzler instead of Tron;

someone else becomes the tyrant instead of Clu;

Able didn't die

etc, etc.

....anyway

imagining a scenario where various versions of characters from all these timelines connect via the Laser (Head)Cannon

(terrible working name, but it amuses my terrible sense of humor, so there)

....gonna re-read Ram: Expanded by kesomon because there's a fic in there (Interlude- Reprieve) about a similar connected multiverse

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25366543

there are many stories one could tell within this.

But I think I want to tell one with the theme of rebellion, throwing off oppression, expressing freedom and autonomy

...

example for one storyline within it:

the "In Ram Jurisdiction" plotbunny

After Ram is recovered and comes back to life in the Encom system, his original insurance company calls for his destruction.

they have their own backup and don't need the Encom copy returned, they just demand that Encom delete theirs.

because he was stolen from them by MCP

even though Roy wrote him at Encom, they bought exclusive rights to his code so they own him.

Ram and Roy and their friends launch a legal battle.

maybe upgrading Ram in the process so he can be considered a protected derivative work under Fair Use

...

also could take some inspiration from the brilliant fanfic "Anthem," a reprise of the story of TRON 1982 for the world of DRM and musical copyright

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28223541

…because

...this theme of seeking freedom comes up in every iteration of Tron

and the feeling behind this whole over-ambitious idea here… is a celebration of the vast diversity of fan-created content

an overarching theme of wanting to claim this world for the fans-- a theme of the copyright-holding corporation as Oppressor

Fan Mission Day Fission Day

(day of splitting, separation, becoming independent)

TRONdependence Day

[laufire]

I'll preface this by saying I haven't read the arc where Bruce shoots and kills Darkseid; I'm fuzzy on the details. the sources I've looked up here and there whenever the topic came to my mind seemed contradictory; I get the impression there was collaboration from some other heroes and it might've not been that clear cut? either way, I'm not going to read the arc rn (might in the distant future, if I choose to do something with it), but it seems there's agreement that this was the one time Bruce canonically planned to and followed through breaking his most sacred rule.

and I remember at one point I thought: what if this plot was used to give Bruce a better understanding of Jason's choices? what if it could make him not just willing to find a middle ground between them, but intentionally seek it? it wouldn't, couldn't be blanket acceptance, but if there's one point in canon that will even nudge him way from his increasingly uncompromising stance during the post-crisis/new earth continuity (1), it would be the one time he found his line in the sand, and realised that, unlike he always feared, he could walk back from it.

at the time it was no more than a passing thought, but just today, to close that chapter with the year, I read the very last few comics including new earth!Jason, in my completitionist quest of reading every single one of his (and every other version of Jason's) appearances. and two (technically three) of them reminded me of this.

one is his arc in convergence: batman and robin #1-2, published circa 2015 (revisiting new earth after 2011's reboot). it's part of a larger event that I can't be bothered to read fully rn (this ain't about them), but the gist of it is that Red Hood and Scarlet return to Gotham as some apocalyptic level shit is going down, helping Batman and Robin (Damian). Bruce accepts Jason's help, which bothers Damian, although by the end of the arc there's a truce between them and a clear willingness from everyone involved to work together going forward.

the other one is in batman incorporated vol. 1 #6, the last proper appearance of new earth!Jason before the reboot in 2011 kickstarted (the arc seemingly continued in vol. 2, but from what I already know about, and what little I've personally experienced from, the new 52, I'm not getting my hopes up). it consists on just a couple of panels where we don't see Jason's face or hear his name, and just see Bruce recruiting someone as "Wingman" (2), offering him a opportunity to "salvage a reputation" by joining his international bat-initiative, on a few conditions like keeping Jason's identity a mystery (3).

and I'm sure that if (when?) I read the aforementioned Darkseid's arc (and the subsequent time traveling shenanigans) there might be plenty to be found to contradict this post, because I do have some experience with detective comics comics. but these two instances are so easily aligned with my own take (4) that I had to post about it.

unfortunately, this is just making me mourn what-could-have-been, had the reboot never occured, even more than I ever did.

(1) pre-crisis/earth one!Bruce had a different attitude. and sometimes it feels that things like self-defence (batman vol. 1 #400) or defence of others (detective comics vol. 1 #411), two incredibly understandable motives, seem beyond the grasp of new earth!Bruce.

(2) if I ever do something with this plotbunny, I refuse to give him such a generic codename, just so we're clear.

(3) "we're building a ghost –a bogeyman too big to be clearly seen. its edges indistinct, it's full extent and purpose uncertain. a rumor. a terror made of shadows and flapping wings." MOURNING, I said 😭. also do you see why I think this deserved a much cooler name smh.

(4) the other things Jason did in between Bruce's not-so-dead experiences and this were during his Evol Era (battle for the cowl, batman and robin vol. 1). obviously nothing there would convince Bruce to suddenly approach him with more generosity than he did even in UTRH lol. but it'd make sense for it to be something Bruce did.

[myidlehand]

Hey guys.

Since The Witcher is back on I decided to share a couple of my fanfics again. I'm having a really hard time being even slightly visible on AO3 so I'm hoping this will help.

Tonight I Belong To You (2654 words) by Hestia

Rating: Explicit

Length: takes about 15min

Summary:

Eskel is not entirely sure how he ended up in bed with Jaskier but they are both enjoying it a lot.

Basically PWP but with a lot of Fluff. Like seriously they are so sweet to each other.

I've also got a couple freestyle Geraskier ones if you want something a bit more poetic and written in a format that's different from what you usually read.

I've also got a soft Geralt/Jaskier story if you fancy

I'd also love to remind people that I've got lots and lots of free-to-use ideas on my pin post "Masterpost" if you're looking for free plotbunnies.

Just please give me a shot? Most of my fanfics are short, perfect if you have 5 to 15mins to kill. I just want to know if some people enjoy them

[sidleyparkhermit]

@stellerssong I think I should do these separately since the first one is already getting long and is basically just complaining. XD

8. Is there a story idea in your mental vault that you’ve never been brave enough to try writing? Is this the year? Can you tell us about it?

Hmm. In terms of fanfic and not origfic — the only story ideas I can think of that I would say I didn’t feel “brave” enough to write are certain MCU plotbunnies that I found personally compelling but that would have no audience and cause me to get lots of hate messages from MCU Leftists.

I’m thinking specifically of two that sprang from my mind trying to somehow approach the very conspicuous and poisonously incoherent politics of TFATWS, and three years down the line I can still remember a quick plot capsule for both.

(Even the summaries are probably incomprehensible, as the Venn diagram of people who have some fucking idea how a government on planet Earth actually in any way works and people who watched The Falcon and the Winter Soldier all the way to the end is maybe just me. But, you know. The action sequences were super good and I really wanted to see if Bucky was gonna be okay. [Spoiler: Bucky is okay.])

Bucky’s long-suffering therapist Dr. Raynor, who is also a military veteran, slowly unravels the truth behind the character that is, I swear to god, named “Government Official” and appears to be a U.S. senator, a representative to the Fake UN That Is Also The One-World Fascist Government, the head of the CIA, the head of the Smithsonian Institution, and who knows what else. (He's also the guy that Sam Wilson literally says the sentence "You control the banks" to while lecturing him not to refer to the people trying to kill all the civilians at the UN as "terrorists.") Anyway, my explanation for him is that during The Snap, a faction of Hydra used the mass breakdown in communications to establish little pockets of shadow-government, aided by specialists like Government Official who have a mild level of genetic mind-control powers that helps induce people to accept “ah yes, that is a Government Official” and just kinda do what they say. Post-Blip, they continue to be treated like they have the authority that they usurped, even though it makes no sense; as Robert Anton Wilson said, reality is what you can get away with. But with a tip-off from Bucky in his goodbye card, Dr. Raynor begins to see through the fog...

John Walker, in his final confrontation with Flag-Smasher, gets ahold of himself enough to really listen to what she is saying for a moment, and then starts asking her to explain what the fuck she is actually talking about, seeing as she seems to think, among other things, that the Not-UN vaccine distribution program that she’s been bombing is run by “the corporations.” As he listens to everything bounce off her incomprehensible ideology, two things happen: 1) He starts to realize this terrorist leader is like 17 years old and 2) the actual combat is stalled long enough for Spider-Man to show up and web everyone and save the day. Spider-Man hauls John away and webs him to a rooftop someplace, where he has an imagined talk with the memory of Lemar Hoskins, who helps him ponder how and why this random teenage terrorist got all the power she has access to, leading him to have a lightbulb moment about the Power Broker's identity. (Don't get me started about the Power Broker's identity, but it's canon, so I'd make use of it as best I could.)

I guess really those kinds of ideas aren't so much a matter of "not brave enough to write" as "not masochistic enough to bother." But the fic ideas I have that are in the "artistically ambitious" vein of bravery are all things that I've actually written a ton of material for. It's the finishing that gets to me.

[amethyst-noir]

I’m not sure if this is how the game is supposed to go, but give me the top f/m/k of all of your wips? Like top fuck, top marry, and top kill 😊

Haha, perfect! All of them at once! Thank you! 💜

fuck - the story you just want to read instead of having to write it yourself

Death by Moonlight - the chronologically last (so far) entry in the Silver & Silk AU, aka the long-awaited reunion between the Twin Jades.

marry - the story you're obsessed with writing and never want to stop working on or thinking about

The Silver & Silk AU in its entiety. I've had a one-track mind lately, totally not helped by @inthegreyspaces taking over writing so much backstory for it. I'm not in the right headspace to write right now but it's so much fun to exchange ideas and plotbunnies and then getting to read what comes from it! It's been a lifeline over the last two weeks.

kill - the story you're most frustrated with and would rather just put in the trash (or maybe just on a high shelf somewhere so you can forget about it for a really long time)

Weaver of Dreams - the WIP that stands at about 5,3k since forever. It was started in October last year and last worked on 2 months ago. It's a PWP in the sense that the porn is the plot but there is an intro and roleplay that starts great and then gets off the rails but is still great for its participants, Lan Zhan drinking fake alcohol (aka water) in the context of the mentioned roleplay and some d/s elements and did I mention the baby bunny? I put so much in and it was so much fun but I'm totally burned out on it now.

(This is also the story that directly inspired the whole Silver & Silk AU as well as my massive 10K PWP Unadorned. It's probably because I took two major plotpoints of Weaver of Dreams and made them into stories of their own that I'm stalled on the original now.)

[fandomfluffandfuck]

tRuST tHe STucKIeS TO maKe it SaDdEr 😭😭😭😭 ur plot bunny tags i can't

related to my tags on this post

Prompt credit to @shrunkyclunksbang

"plotbunny alert

reincarnated/cloned bucky sitting a university history class studying the great Captain America and the Howlies getting struck by major déjà vu he can’t explain. Coincidentally, Steve Rogers is coming into his class to be a guest lecturer. This shouldn’t be awkward at all."

My tags:

"okay but this implies that bucky died somewhere along the WS canon route for Steve to be alive in the 21st century as cap... when he dies depends on how we look at reincarnation. do you instantly get reincarnated once you pass? do you have to wait a while? a few years? if its instantaneous then to make Bucky college age when Steve is cap (and cap!Steve adjusted enough to the 21st century where he wants to educate people) that means Bucky WAS the WS at some point so [I hate me for this but-] that means he died when he was still under HYDRA right? maybe a mission where his injuries were too much for his body or HYDRAs abuse pushed him too far? so he dies and becomes someone's kid, just before Steve is found. putting him college age at the time of deja vu. okay. age delt with. next the situation itself. does bucky ever find out who he used to be? itd be more interesting if he does so I'm going that path. in the lecture hall during class is there a moment of KNOWING? is it both of them that know like soulmates? does Steve look into those eyes and understand /thats home/? the same grey-blue that his Bucky had. does Bucky double over in pain when their eyes meet because all of their shared memories rush back and he knows his past life again. the pain. tourture. loss. do they talk? do they connect again? or do they remain surface level strangers because soulmates have to both be reincarnated before they can love again in another life. is Steve the one trapped- trapped in the past? or is Bucky trapped in the future? does Bucky walk the earth still alone if they don't connect again? alone and tortured again. tortured emotionally by his past life because of the physical and emotional torture then. And while we're on the topic... was bucky pushed to majoring in history in college, perhaps on the way to being a historian, because he feels such a Strong Connection to the past and has had a good mind for remembering small details of the past in a way no one else seems to? then he knows who he was in his past and he curls in on himself probably. for the first time wanting to NOT study history because he doesn't want to find out more now. his curiosity has been killed."

So, uh, yeah, sorry not sorry. I couldn't help myself. My brain instantly ran away with the idea lol

[amlovelies]

listen, 'victories' has been living rent-free in my mind for d a y s, so #42 for romi and the spotify drabbles, please?🥺💜 (or another pairing you'd rather do/that fits the song better! i'm just a flystep clown)

🥺🥺🥺 thank you so much I'm always so nervous about writing a new pairing. I'm so glad you liked it 💜

Send me a pairing and a number between 1-100 and I’ll write a short scene based on my Spotify Top 100 playlist

I need you to know that I straight up gasped when I saw what song #42 is. still doing these as half hour flash prompts.

42. the harold song (deconstructed mix) - kesha

They say that true love hurts Well, this could almost kill me Young love, murder That is what this must be I would give it all to not be sleeping alone

Doomed

pairing: Herald/f!sidestep (Romi Brown) rating: general words: 389

All it took was one wrong move, one mistimed reaction, and it was over.

Hadn’t counted on Argent showing up to that fight, you were already tired, and she’s gotten better.

Your face still stings where her claws tore into your cheek as she unmasked you. Surprise and recognition a brief flash on her face so rapidly replaced by fury. You’re lucky you escaped alive.

Too many missed calls from Ortega to count. No idea what he thinks there is to talk about. The phone was untraceable, but you smashed it anyway.

No need to pretend anymore, to play the role of the Romi he used to know. You had thought it would be a relief, to not need to be her anymore, to slip into your role of Heartbreak and leave the rest behind.

But you hadn’t counted on Danny. How could you? Would you have made different choices knowing what you would end up losing? You knew it was doomed from the start, had prepared yourself for the inevitable end, or so you thought.

You used to always walk with your eyes down, but not now, can’t help yourself. Searching the skies hoping for just a glimpse of him.

He’ll never forgive you. It’s useless to even try and explain. Maybe if you had at the beginning, really told him about the farm, about what they did to you, about what they made you to be.

So many what-ifs but none of them matter.

A week passes, then two. You repair your armor and keep out of sight. Let your injuries heal and try and forget. The nightmares are worse than you remember, worse when he’s not tucked warm against your back. Never thought you would feel comfortable trapped in someone’s arms.

Can’t stop yourself from watching the press conferences, does he look any different? If your betrayal has marked him in any way the media team has been sure to cover it up. Still handsome, charming the masses with that smile.

He used to smile for you, because of you.

Not anymore.

You get back to your work, take your pain out on the vigilantes and heroes of Los Diablos. Leaving a trail of broken bodies behind you as if that would fix your broken heart.

There are no more butterflies when he finally finds you.

tagging: @lord-king-saint @lilyoffandoms @roses-and-roux @plotbunny-bundle

[concerningwolves]

Hej, I actually have three questions: How do you handle plotbunnies? I currently have 14 - more or less fleshed out. But they are mere notes. Secondly: I'm in a bind with some of my pieces. The introduction is more or less there and I have a cornerstone (an important scene) but I don't know how to get there. Thirdly: Is there a tag or so for beat readers and how much research is good? I can sink week into research a single detail. Thanks.

(A note before I begin: as of 02.04.21, asks like this violate my ask guidelines. This isn’t a personal scolding, @quamatoc, but I just want to make you and readers aware that I won’t take multiple unrelated topics in a single ask anymore. More on this AG update here.)

Handling Plot Bunnies

Honestly, the most helpful thing I've learned is that it's okay to just... let your plot bunnies be. Leave them grazing on your metaphorical mental lawn. You don't have to do something with them straight away – in fact, managing which projects you work on and when, instead of chasing down every plot bunny you see, is an important skill to learn.

I like to keep an Evernote notebook for each plot bunny, so I can update it whenever I get a new idea but don't feel like I'm abandoning the ideas or like I have to work on them Right Now. You could keep a physical notebook, a file, a digital folder full of word documents – it doesn’t matter what you use, so long as it’s something you can access easily and keep relatively organised. Sometimes fresh inspiration will strike and I'll realise that an apparently unrelated plot bunny is actually really useful for a current project, or I'll get struck with a full plot for a previously fragmented idea. Either way, it’s been really liberating to realise that I can just keep plot bunnies safe somewhere for later on.

Getting from Point A to Point B (Building the Plot)

► PLOT STRUCTURES & GENERAL NOTES

To get from place to place in a story, you need to think about what makes it tick. You don’t need to write scenes in order, though! For me, figuring out a plot is really just me asking myself a very, very long series of questions. If I know what the Big Scene is, I’ll work backwards, asking myself things and seeing how the answers could get me from point A to B.

You don’t have to figure out a plot freehand, either. If you’re struggling, you might find it useful to use a pre-made plot structure outline such as the. There are loads available online. Print out several different ones and see which fits best, put your important scene where you think it goes and work backwards, write all over them, use a giant whiteboard, write on the wall – if it helps, use it. Here’s a blog article on different types of plot structure.

I also think it's important to actually write. It's so easy to get caught up in plotting that you don't put your thoughts to paper. Make sure you don’t fall into that trap! I'm a plantser, meaning I like to do a mixture of pre-plotting and flying through drafts by the seat of my pants. Even if you’re a rigid planner, be sure to see how your ideas look in action by drafting out scenes.

► “WHAT IF?” QUESTIONS

“What if character A and B discover a secret? What if they have different opinions on what to do about the secret? What if this becomes a friends to enemies to friends to lovers plot?? – wait, no, what if they’re already enemies and this secret forces them to work together? What if—”

Brainstorm  "what if...?" questions and explore various options. You don’t have to make any final decisions – that’s the beauty of drafting! The point is to put together subplots and main plots, and see which one works best in getting you to where you want to go.

► GOALS, WANTS & AMBITIONS

A character’s ambitions, wants and goals are very important to a story. They help hook the audience in by giving them something to root for. Knowing what a character wants and what lengths they would go to to get it is crucial to driving a plot forwards, especially if your story is character-driven.

What does a character want? → A character can have multiple desires, but it’s helpful to pick one key thing that undercuts most of their actions. Maybe they want to find out who killed their mother, or escape from somewhere. Perhaps they want to steal a pretty gem. Maybe they want to be king, or they want to escape from their responsibilities as a ruler.

What steps is a character willing to take? → Some characters are willing to do anything to achieve their goals. Maybe they commit a crime, end up in prison, get nudged towards more heinous actions, and find themself in a situation they never would have expected. Other characters are more cautious, but get pushed to breaking point – and then make a Bad Decision that bring about a major plot point. The steps a character makes are what puts them on the path of your plot.

Could anything change a character’s desires, or influence them to take different/more drastic measures? If so, what, and how would this change plot events? → Let’s say that your cornerstone scene is when character A steals from character B, but A starts the story unfailingly loyal to B and only wants to protect them. In order to get to that cornerstone, you’d need to work out what could happen to change A’s priorities. Change is invaluable in getting from plot point to plot point. If something happens that changes what a character wants – i.e., a betrayal, a sudden exile, or a change in fortunes – it can push them down paths they wouldn’t have otherwise considered.

► CONFLICT & OBSTACLES

Just as characters need to want something; plots need conflict and obstacles to make them interesting.

What could go wrong? How would the character(s) try to solve the problem? → “How can I create problems?” is probably the most valuable question an author can ask when building the plot; asking yourself how the characters try and solve said problem just pushes it even further, like this:

Does the attempted solution work? Whether it succeeds or fails, does it have any unexpected consequences? → Say that your Important Scene takes place in a different location to where your characters start out. So, the thing that goes wrong means your characters need to flee (the solution), and it works! They’ve escaped! Only now, they don’t have anywhere safe to go, and so they end up going into the place where Important Scene happens. Or maybe they don’t escape, and their attempt means that they’re transported to a more secure location, which in turn gives them an opportunity to get to Important Scene Location.

Do A’s goals conflict with another character’s goals? What would the other character do to protect their own interests? → If your cornerstone scene involves a clash of two armies, you need to think about what could ramp up the tension between the two sides, and conflicting interests is a great way to do this. Maybe your protagonist is trying to save the world from impending doom, but the queen of a neighbouring land is blinded by hunger for more land and riches. Or, the protagonist is a queen-in-exile trying to wrestle the throne back from the tyrannical relative who usurped her. Think about how each characters’ moves against the other could drive the plot.

The key is to think of it as building a structure out of bricks or slabs. You have your cornerstone – great! – now you need to work out what parts go where.

Research and Beta Readers

Research is something I wholeheartedly and unironically love. I will actually give myself research days a treat for reaching certain writing goals! So, naturally, I'm going to say that there's no limit on how much research one should do to create a story. That said, there is one caution to keep in mind: research is good, so long as you don't let it stop you from actually writing OR let it turn your writing into something akin to an instruction manual. In early drafts, try replacing any specific information you need with a code such as [ELEPHANT] or [KX] – basically, something you can find easily with the search function later on when you’ve researched it.

To find beta-readers, I recommend using the writeblr tag. It's where the bulk of the community puts their stuff. Make a post like "call for beta readers" with information about your project and use the buzzword tags like "writeblr" "writers on tumblr" "writers of tumblr" "beta readers" and whatever genre is applicable. Avoid external links in the post, otherwise it won't show up in the tags.

[ASK GUIDELINES | KO-FI]

[frustrated-writer-skyeknight]

JiMitri AU - More plotbunnies, basically

A Dramatic Parody of 'The Prince and the Pauper'

Dimitri has a previous arrangement to marry Anastasia Romanov. But he is in love with one of his sailors. On the day he finally decides to break of the engagement, he stumbles upon a two fae folk in a sword fights of sorts.

Or,

The one where Captain Dimitri and Prince Cornelius switch bodies when day turns to Dusk and it made their lives complicated.

Dimitri: Come on, Hawkins. I know you love me.

Jim: When you're not an obnoxious prick, I can manage tolerating you, at least.

──────────────────────

Anastasia: Grandmama wants us to officially start planning the wedding before your expedition to Treasure Planet.

──────────────────────

Dimitri: I have to break it off today...

──────────────────────

Roland: Let me take Thumbelina as my bride.

Cornelius: No, big brother, I'm the one who loves her. You just want her so you can finally ascend the throne!

Dimitri: What on Earth- fairies?!

[Roland’s magic charm broke, intending to have their bodies switch. At Dimitri’s sudden appearance though, Dimitri and Cornelius ends up switching instead]

──────────────────────

[Roland’s new plan is now to reveal that Dimitri is inside Cornelius’s body, making Dimitri have to play the role of Cornelius as convincingly as possible. Not easy, especially for a guy who’s not into women and now might have to marry one after all.]

──────────────────────

Thumbelina: Cornelius, love? Are you ill?

Dimitri (in Cornelius's body): (Kill me now)

──────────────────────

Dimitri: This is driving me crazy!

Cornelius: I concur. We must figure out how to break the spell. Do you know a wizard, by any chance?

Dimitri: Do I- You're the fairy! Just cast your own magic and fix this!

Cornelius: I believe I already mentioned not all fae folk are magic... I do have this however. Maybe it can help for the mean time.

──────────────────────

Jim: Captain? You don't seem yourself.

Cornelius (in Dimitri's body): Hm? Oh, you mean me, don't you? Uh, Dimitri?

Jim: ....

Cornelius (in Dimitri's body): What?

Jim: You seem... More of a dimwit than usual.

Cornelius (in Dimitri's body): You dare address your commanding officer that way?!

Jim: ?!!!!

Dimitri:  *through the communication crystal Cornelius gave him* (YOU IDIOT! THAT"S THE LOVER I TOLD YOU ABOUT! HE'S ALLOWED TO TALK TO ME THAT WAY!! FIX THIS! WOO HIM!)

Cornelius (in Dimitri's body): I mean... You're looking lovelier than the moon this evening.

Jim: ???!

Dimitri:  *through the communication crystal Cornelius gave him* (NOT LIKE YOU'D WOO A WOMAN!)

Cornelius (in Dimitri's body): (HOW DOES ONE DO THAT?!)

Jim: ....You need a nap.

[tanoraqui]

⭐star!⭐

director’s cut includes deleted scenes, right? Here’s a scene that didn’t make it into Chapter 4 of Three Can Keep a Secret. (Note: I’ve been saving this in my drafts until the asker finally caught up with the show, and thus could read my spoiler-ful fic, and lo!) 

How to carry a spiritual dog, for hours at a time if necessary. 

As usual, it started as Jin Chan’s fault.

“That’s so stupid,” he sneered, as Jin Ling practiced directing Little Fairy towards corpses to fight—that is, training dummies sprinkled with grave dirt to have the right scent of death. “How are you going to take a dog on a real night hunt? Real cultivators fly, not run with the hounds.”

“Little Fairy will fly with me!” Jin Ling said hotly. “On my sword!”

“Dogs can’t stay on swords,” another cousin, Jin Ping, scoffed.

“I’ll carry her! Look—Little Fairy, come here!” Jin Ling waved his arm and Little Fairy left off nibbling at the “fierce corpse”’s sleeve to race back with an excited bark.

“Come here,” Jin Ling repeated, kneeling. Little Fairy leaned up to lick his face, and he gathered her up in his arms and stood again, carefully supporting her hindquarters. He staggered a little—dogs grew a lot faster than human boys, and she wasn’t a little ball of fluff anymore. Her head already went all the way over his shoulder. But he managed to step into the first stance of Firelight sword form anyway, 

“See?” he demanded, as Little Fairy nosed at the back of his neck. “She can come anywhere I do.”

Jin Chan just kept sneering. “And what use would she be? Go up to the fierce corpses and lick them?” He pointed at the training dummy across the yard, which Little Fairy had been nosing at politely rather than mauling. 

Jin Ling stifled a satisfied smile. That dummy, he hadn’t just put grave dirt on, he’d also sprinkled heavily with lotus-scented perfume (borrowed from Qin Su’s dressing table when she wasn’t looking) and used a purple ribbon to tie a piece of jerky where a hand would be, so Little Fairy would know it was a friend. She had done exactly like she was supposed to.

“She’s still a puppy,” he retorted, putting his nose in the air at Jin Chan and his cronies and hoisting his dog a little higher against his shoulder. “I bet she could still kill more things than you.”

this scene gave us three important elements of Jin Ling’s childhood:

the cousins who didn’t stop being shitty bullies

the difficulty of integrating Fairy’s protective instincts as a spiritual dog with Jiang Yanli being a fierce corpse

the mental image of Jin Ling carrying a husky half as big as he is while riding a sword. like, this

Jin Ling’s very Jiang willingness to go above and beyond in both stubborn perseverance and dramatic in-your-face-ness, especially for the benefit of his loved ones

I ended up making the Fairy vs. JYL conflict more aggressive, giving Jiang Yanli a badass-in-a-slightly-worryingly-uncontrolled-way moment there rather than on a night hunt, mostly because of, like...pacing? This chapter was a montage with few points in time clear, but I still wanted it to be a roughly chronological progression through the years. And I wanted to establish JYL’s fighting chops early, but I knew they wouldn’t actually take Jin Ling on anything like a night hunt until he was like 12. So, accidental confrontation it had to be! 

As you can see, I ended up sticking the bullying cousins in with Jin Ling being a talisman nerd and JGY being a lowkey menacing mentor in Scene 4, and let Jiang Cheng carry the dog in Scene 5. A little less funny - he’s distinctly bigger than Fairy, rather than, like, just barely outweighs her - but also more touching bc does Jiang Cheng want to be carrying a dog while he flies halfway across China, looking ridiculous the whole time? No. Is he gonna do it for his nephew? With only mild complaining, yes.

I think Jin Ling’s nature comes through pretty well throughout the story.

EVEN MORE DELETED SCENE, specifically from Scene 2, with the lotus soup and abovementioned Fairy fiasco: Jiang Cheng was originally there, too! 

“Why is it so hard for these people to pay their night hunt fees on time?” Jiang Cheng sat at the table behind them, grousing over some letters while Jin Ling had his cooking lesson. “The harvest was good. They pay their taxes on time; I know it because otherwise the imperials would make it everyone’s problem.”

“Make a show of hunting there next week, clear the area thoroughly and then ask if there’s any other problems you can help with, that might be causing the delay,” Jaing Yanli suggested. “They will be shamed by your kindness.”

“And intimidated by our swords,” Jiang Cheng muttered, though not without relish.

“That’s how Mother did it,” Jiang Yanli said. She turned back to the stove. 

[...]

Little Fairy and Jiang Cheng both yelped when Littlw Fairy hit the table.

[...]

At the same time, Jiang Cheng was standing and putting his hands on his sister’s shoulders, carefully positioned so she could see past him to Jin Ling.

“Shijie, you have to calm down,” he said firmly. “Nobody’s in danger—it’s just that dog Jin Guangyao gave him.” He cast a sharp look over his shoulder at Jin Ling. “I thought you left that dog in your room.”

“I did!” Jin Ling protested. “She must have woken up and come looking for me!”

I eventually decided he didn’t add that much to the scene and Jin Ling deserved alone time with his mom, particularly as he got older and Jiang Cheng relaxed his need to helicopter every moment Jiang Yanli might potentially be seen by living people and thus in danger. I do regret leaving out him calmly talking her down from murder mode like it’s a regular thing (it is a bit, when they hunt together), and especially regret leaving out her giving him political advice, which is definitely a regular thing. Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli have an entire messy sibling relationship going on for 14ish years that Jin Ling is mostly not privy to, because, shockingly, they both sometimes prefer to discuss things without a child there. I look forward to exploring that a bit when I’m forced at gunpoint by plotbunnies to rewrite several dozen thousand words of canon for this au. 

[yaz-the-spaz]

Purgatory (it's our paradise)

summary: liam has made a grave mistake, one that’s cost him everything. or so he thinks...

[or, what happens when fallen angel liam meets ifrit zayn]

a/n: This was alternatively going to be called ‘heaven in your eyes’ as the original parenthetical part of the title, but then I remembered the obvious line from pillow talk and couldn't resist

inspired by my friend @lstarry​ who originally sent me the liam pic and got the conversation rolling on fallen angel liam, which ofc forced this plotbunny into my head lol

fyi angels cry glittery tears in this

and also, to be clear, this is not exactly meant to THE purgatory, but just something like it/equivalent to it, a place on a similar plane but separate from all the other creatures/souls that would be in actual purgatory

rated: T (only for some slightly graphic descriptions of blood and gore, other than that this is mostly just G rated angsty fluff)

______________________________________________________________________

He shouldn’t be here.

That is the only thing that keeps running through Liam’s mind as he traipses on an endless journey through this foreboding forest, whipping thickets of thorny branches and brambles away from his face and arms, trying his best to shield his body from the worst of the blows with his wings. His wings which have already started to take on a mottled dark tawny color, slowly and steadily blackening the longer he spends here. It won’t be long now. Before they’re fully black. Before the ether of this place has turned his very soul into something dark and twisted. Or at least those are the stories he was always told. He doesn’t know how true they are. But he supposes he’s been spared an even more wicked fate. He could be in a place much worse than here. A place full of nothing but…the most absolute vile depravities and monstrous abominations, a place full of nothing but endless suffering and torment. Here at least toes the line, not quite pure, not quite evil, but rather hovering delicately somewhere in between.

It’s his own fault though. All of it. He just couldn’t keep his stupid mouth shut. He’s always done his best to be so good. To fall in line. For so long he’s played the obedient little soldier, never questioning, never disobeying. But he just couldn’t do it any longer. He couldn’t do it. And now he’s gone and gotten himself cast out. Forever. Lost the only family he’s ever known, the only home he’s ever known. Traded it for this place, condemned to an eternity of loneliness, darkness.

He doesn’t want to cry, doesn’t want to give Father the satisfaction—because Liam knows He’s still watching, even here. But he can’t help it. He grieves for all that he’s lost, all that he’s given up in return for a life of squalor and desolation, tears sparkling at his eyes.

It wasn’t worth it.

If he could go back and do it all again, he wouldn’t. He’d keep his mouth shut, play the good soldier for the rest of eternity no matter the personal cost to him. He’d rather suffer in miserable silence the rest of his days, surrounded by his family, than be trapped here alone in this awful place, with no hope, no chance for redemption. This cold, dark place that is slowly sucking the light right out of him, leeching on all the tendrils of good still remaining within him.

Abruptly he reaches the edge of the forest, the heavy darkness ebbing away only slightly to illuminate a large clearing before him and he gasps, stopping short at the sight in front of him.

In the middle of the clearing is a creature, crouched down over another. The fog is too thick at the moment to make much out for certain but Liam can smell death in the air. Terror-struck, he darts back behind the trunk of the nearest tree.

But it’s too late. They’ve seen him.

A wicked-sounding laugh carries itself on the current of the air, almost as if tangible, as if latching itself onto the fog until it reaches Liam, sounding as if coming from right beside him. He jumps, darting to another tree, the taunting laughter somehow seeming to follow him, his own panting breaths coming short and fast in his ears. Back and forth he weaves between the trees, the laughter still seeming to echo behind him no matter which direction he goes, until finally it fades. And then a sudden thought occurs to him. He doesn’t know how much of it is the steady darkness creeping in, taking hold of him. He’s never thought anything like it before. Never had reason to before now. But he realizes that if the thing, the creature, in the clearing has killed another, then it is possible to be killed here. Not just hurt or maimed, but killed. He has never known the threat of death before. It was not a possibility for him back home, with Father.

He’d thought himself condemned to a miserable eternity here, but…perhaps not. Perhaps…there is another way out. Perhaps Father has given him some chance at solace after all. Surely ceasing to exist would be a better fate than endless millennia of this? A peaceful respite from a lifetime of loneliness and suffering, a lifetime of being consumed by immeasurable guilt and regret.

Resolute in his sudden decision, Liam steps out from behind the tree and ambles forward. If he is to meet his end today, he will meet it head on, like the soldier he was bred to be.

As he steps forward, however, the fog starts to clear a little and he realizes that the creature is not what he thought at all. Not the ghastly beast he was imagining, but a thin waif of a thing. Like him it has been made in Father’s image. Two arms, two legs, a face with a congruence of features not all that unlike his own. Two eyes, a mouth, a nose, even ears. Though, unlike Liam, it has no wings.

“What has Father sent me?” it calls out into the foggy darkness, in the deep voice of a male entity. “Come closer, let me see my gift.”

Curious, Liam steps further into the clearing, the fog wafting and parting around him, creating a path of sorts between them, allowing them to view each other more clearly.

“An angel?” the creature inquires aloud, his smile wicked-looking as he sets his sights on Liam. “Come, little angel. Don’t be afraid.”

As Liam edges closer more details start to come into view. A dead thing, more animal-like in nature, lays before the creature, body crumpled and twisted, covered in blood. It is obvious from the state of the carnage that there was a struggle, though whether this kill was for food or for pleasure, it is unclear.

But Liam is not afraid.

Moving forward still, his eyes meet the other’s, close enough to take him in fully. He is beautiful, Liam realizes. A particular, sharp, striking sort of beauty that Father only reserves for a lucky few of His creations. Already Liam was ready to meet this creature head-on, to accept whatever fate may befall him in their encounter, but strangely he finds himself being drawn in even more by the other’s gaze. His eyes are a warm brown, again not unlike Liam’s, but there is something else, something…volatile and fervid lurking behind them, something almost intoxicating in its intensity even.

Gaze still trained on Liam, who is still edging closer, the creature lifts his hand to brandish a dagger fashioned out of sharp-cut bone. He holds it purposefully in front of him, but somehow Liam can sense there is not a threat in it. Though he’s unsure if that is a good or a bad thing. A part of him wants the threat, wants the assurance of a welcome death, without the hindrance of games and dalliances. But still he moves forward, their eyes still trained on each other, the dagger still held firmly, but somehow also playfully, in the creature’s hand.

When Liam is only a few arms’ lengths away the creature’s smile briefly turns from wicked to animated—a strange, almost frenzied glee in it—before softening again, returning back to that more mischievous air as he brings the dagger toward his mouth. Eyes still reeling Liam in, he waits for Liam to get closer, closer. And then he licks the dagger, slowly and languidly, watching Liam like a taunt. And that's when Liam realizes that it's blood he's licking, all the while still looking Liam right in his eyes. Liam can’t look away. He shouldn’t find the sight so enticing but he does. This place is already starting to turn him, he realizes. Or perhaps it is whatever hidden power lies behind this stranger’s gaze. He doesn’t know, but he suddenly finds he doesn’t care.

Drawn in by those magnetic eyes, Liam stands there. Watching. Waiting. For what, he isn’t sure, but oddly he feels he could be content to watch this creature forever. Even if the creature was doing nothing at all, Liam thinks he would still want to watch.

When he has licked all the blood away, he sets the knife down and digs his other hand into the animal, pulling away neatly-cut strips of flesh that he must have already carved up earlier, before Liam arrived. Then he sticks his bloody hand out toward Liam, long strips of flesh dangling over his palm.

“To share,” he says simply.

It is nothing like the food Liam would have eaten back home, the sweet fruits that blossomed with flavor in his mouth. But he has been wading through the forest for what he is certain must have been at least a handful of millennia, if not more, and he is so hungry. He may not have view of the humans’ world any longer to help him mark the passage of time but he remembers what a millennium felt like and his journey through the forest had certainly not been a short one, even by his own kind’s standards of time.

Longingly, he drops to his knees, mouth watering, and takes the helpings offered to him, sinking his teeth in.

It is not altogether pleasant, but it is not entirely unpleasant either, and he finds it warms his belly in a rather soothing and satisfying way that the food of home never did.

When they have eaten their fill, and there is nothing left but bones and discarded scraps of skin, they settle back against the ground, faces tilted up to the sky. Through the fog, the faint twinkle of stars is still visible and it makes him long for home, a strange ache to his body. But a sudden soft touch to the feathers at the edge of his left wing startles him out of his thoughts and he abruptly sits back up.

The other creature mirrors him, sitting up to face Liam and they simply watch each other for a while before he reaches out again. Liam’s wing flinches a little, unused to such a touch from someone who is not his family.

“What are you?” Liam asks, the creature eyes still set on Liam’s face even while he pets delicately and curiously at Liam’s wing.

“I am ifrit. Born of fire.”

Liam only distantly remembers learning of the ifrit. There are some of Liam’s kind who have been around since the time of their creation, who remember when their own kind and the ifrit roamed earth freely with the humans, before there was so much separation of all the different realms. But that was long before Father created Liam, and he has never known a time of such freedom himself.

“What is your name?”

“I am called Zayn,” the creature says, still enamored by Liam’s wings. “And you?”

“Liam.”

“Liam,” Zayn repeats. “Hello, Liam.”

“Hello, Zayn.”

The fog around them has dissipated a bit more and Liam looks around, curiously. He wonders if this is the ifrit’s home. And if so where is his family? Surely there are others of his kind here that he lives among? Unless perhaps he is from another place, but has been cast out too, like Liam. He wishes he could remember more about the stories of the ifrit but he supposes it is really of no matter. They are both here now. They must make the best of it. At least he seems friendly, and willing to share.

“So soft,” Zayn says, still petting at Liam’s feathers. He smiles again but there is no seeming wickedness or deviousness to it this time, no manic excitement. Instead it is gentle, almost a wondrous, joyful sort of expression. “Father has sent me such a lovely gift.”

Liam frowns. “I am not a gift.”

“Of course you are,” he says, as if Liam is the one being silly. As if he can’t even fathom that Liam has only been sent here for punishment.

Liam sighs. Stupid ifrit. Perhaps he’s gone mad in his time here. Liam hopes that is not the fate that awaits him too.

“Where are you from?” Liam says instead, voicing his thoughts aloud. “Is this your home or were you cast out from your family too?”

“I am born of fire,” Zayn repeats.

Liam sighs again. Of course. The very moment he thinks he’s found solace in a possible companion, and it turns out Father has only cursed him yet again with a half-mad fire creature.

“Poor angel,” Zayn says sadly, still petting at him, but further down, where the feathers are still white instead of black or faded brown. “You are born of the light, but your light is fading here.”

Liam looks back at him, surprised but still resigned. He may not be all there, but at least he isn’t as dim-witted as Liam had worried he might be.

But then he dashes even that hope, saying, “That must be why Father sent you to me.”

“He didn’t send me to you,” Liam retorts. “He sent me here as punishment, and I only happened to run into you.” He’s annoyed that he even has to explain any of this, but the slow-witted ifrit just doesn’t seem to get it.

Zayn smiles, shaking his head at Liam. “Funny little angel. You were born directly in Father’s light but you still don’t understand Him at all, do you?”

Liam’s mouth drops open. How dare this daft creature insult him in such a way!

“Come,” Zayn simply says, suddenly standing and sticking out his hand for Liam to take.

Liam staunchly refuses, shaking his head and staying seated. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Come,” Zayn repeats, more insistently, flexing his outstretched hand a bit for emphasis.

“No.”

“Would you rather take your chances alone with a full pack of those?” Zayn juts his head toward the now-bare carcass of the animal they ate. Liam blows out a breath through his nose, frustrated. He supposes Zayn has a point. He’d been lucky enough to avoid any dangerous encounters during his time in the forest. But if he lets Zayn leave without him now, he’ll be stuck here all alone in an area he’s guessing those animals are more likely to frequent, and with none of his angelic weapons—they’d been revoked upon his banishment—to defend himself with. He has no desire to die that way. He may have welcomed the idea of death before, with Zayn, but at least that would have been a warrior’s death. Not so with a pack of wild beasts.

Reluctantly, he stands, taking Zayn’s hand and they start to walk...

[Read the rest on AO3 here]

[southern-continent-skies]

Not quite a Vorkosigan plotbunny, more of a Suddenly Attacking Vorkosigan Headcanon:

In the books it’s heavily implied (stated?) that the reason Gregor doesn’t get married until he finds Laisa at 35 is a cross between not wanting to have children with anyone he’s that closely related to (aka basically all the Vor), and also holding out for a love match. After all, why else would he so vehemently refuse to solidify the succession, when his own life is the only thing standing between Barrayar and a messy, six-sided civil war?

Well, maybe because it actually works to his advantage to have his life be the only thing standing between Barrayar and a messy, six-sided civil war.

Additional ramblings under the cut for length, and also references to Gregor’s canonical depression and associated suicidal ideation.

<br>

Let’s think about Vordrozda for a second. Vordrozda went after power by trying to replace Aral as the main voice in Gregor’s ear. He didn’t try to do it by assassinating Gregor, because that would have done nothing for him; Aral would have slid right into the power vacuum, whether he named himself Emperor or put Ivan on the campstool as a figurehead. Whether or not Vordrozda got away with regicide, he wouldn’t have been any better off afterwards.

Anyway, Gregor knows all this. He also knows, once he lies awake at night obsessing over his failures and inadequacies thinks about it a bit more, that if Vordrozda had gotten what he wanted, it eventually would have been very bad for Gregor. Here’s a scenario for you:

Vordrozda takes Aral’s place.

Vordrozda convinces Gregor to get married to a nice, unambitious woman of Vordrozda’s choice

Gregor and the Hypothetical Empress have one (1) son and heir

Gregor gets pushed down the stairs dies tragically young

Vordrozda, as the established Imperial Insider, is the obvious choice for Regent

Best case outcome, Vordrozda raises Gregor’s son to be a puppet for the rest of his life

More pessimistically, the son also gets pushed down the stairs dies tragically, and then Vordrozda marries the Hypothetical Empress and has his own son, and Vorbob’s your uncle, that’s Barrayaran social mobility.

And of course, this isn’t just a hypothetical for Gregor - this is the Pretendership. That happened, in his lifetime, and it killed his mother and almost killed him, and there hasn’t been nearly enough intervening “business as usual” to make it unlikely that it would happen again.  And while he’s certainly learned some lessons from Vordrozda that would guard against it happening in that specific way, there’s nothing preventing someone else from stepping in once he’s got to Step 3, Produce An Heir, on his own.

So he’s not getting married, to anyone, because the minute he has a son, he’s vulnerable. And while he might or might not care about dying himself on any given day, the one thing he absolutely WILL NOT do is let his own son grow up in the private hell that is being an orphaned child emperor. And the only way he can realistically prevent that is to either never have a son at all (not realistic, and he won’t do that to Ivan), or to wait until he has enough power of his own to protect himself, and by extension to protect his son.

And coincidentally, that amount of power is also the amount of power necessary to tell his advisers to shut up about his getting married. So, by the time he’s ready politically, he can afford to take the time to look for someone that fits all his qualifications, which by this time include not only a) isn’t his cousin, and b) isn’t a Trojan Horse for her father’s political ambitions, but also c) could run the Imperium herself if she had to, and d) could, at minimum, stand between their son and the horde of political vultures that would descend after his hypothetical untimely death.

And then Dr. Laisa Toscane, a politically-savvy Komarran with all the right connections and also a doctorate, walks in and smiles at him, and that’s it, he’s done looking. (This is also why I like the literally 3 Gregor/Ekaterin fics that exist, because she fits all those criteria as well, even if it’s not as obvious on paper.)

tl;dr - it’s not romantic sentiment that makes Gregor wait to marry, it’s political calculation, with a side order of The Next Generation Will Be Better So Help Me.

tl;dr 2 - Ezar’s Grandson But With Morals is my favorite Vorkosiverse character, fight me

[nyxelestia]

Fanfic Authors Tag Game

Tagged by: @princeescaluswords and @clotpolesonly

Tagging: why are half my friends already tagged gdi @athingofvikings, @liveandletrain, @demonzdust, @faiasakura, and anybody who sees this and wants to do it but I forgot to tag because my brain is currently melting

AO3 Name: Nyxelestia

Fandoms: 14 (that I’ve written for)

Number of fics: While I’m sure at least half are the same story cross-posted across multiple platforms... 84 on AO3, 45 on LJ, and 86 on FFN,

Fic you spent the most time on: Winter Wolves/Frost Bite at this point

Fic you spent the least time on: No idea, probably one of my drabbles?

Longest Fic: Frost Bite, 141k and still WIP

Shortest Fic: Welcome Home, 100 words, drabble

Most Hits: Frost Bite (next most hits after Frost Bite is Talking Cure)

Most Kudos: Besides Frost Bite and Talking Cure, since they were already mentioned, it is much to my surprise Tear the Lies Asunder, my Merlin fic.

Most Comment Threads: Also after Frost Bite and Talking Cure, it is to my even greater surprise my Spider-Man Homecoming fic Crash Landing

Favorite Fic You Wrote: Besides some already-mentioned fics, it would have to be my Young Avengers/MCU crossover, Children’s Crusade

Fic You Want to Rewrite/Expand On: So many! I have so many more ideas for the universe of Children’s Crusade, my sequels/series for my old modern AU Merlin fic Britain Boys are still rattling around in my head, and lots of plotbunnies for my time-travel Teen Wolf fic Rewind Electric.

Share a bit of your WIP or share a story idea that you’re planning:

“Did you really pretend to be…me?” Steve asked. Knowing he had fans was one thing; somehow, it still through him for a loop to find out someone he knew, had known of him for far longer.

He tried not to think of a set of mint condition trading cards, covered in blood.

Hale- Derek snorted.

“Pretty common, honestly,” he said. “Hunters being what they are. When you need to train kids to potentially run away from well-trained and heavily armed people trying to kill them, without alerting or drawing the attention of local authorities…and don’t want to terrify them in the process? Pretending to be Captain America and the Howling Commandos infiltrating Nazi Germany was a pretty good way to do it.”

Steve tried not to wince at the thought of children having to learn that…even as he could see why.

“Is that what you were trying to do?” Steve asked. “Remake the Howling Commandos?”

Derek blinked into his drink.

“…maybe,” he admitted. “I never thought of it that way, but…that’s how I learned how to survive.”

“I’m sorry that’s something any of you have to learn at all,” Steve said. “Let alone so young.”

“Too little, too late,” Derek spat, still not looking up from his drink. “Most of my family is dead, anyway."

Steve couldn’t think of anything graceful to say, so instead he just muttered, “I’m sure your sister made Dum Dum proud.”

Rolling his eyes, Derek turned his attention back to his drink. The ice had nearly all melted now.

“…maybe that’s why I failed so badly,” Derek said. “What the hell is a Howling Commando without Captain America?”

“Historically speaking?” Steve asked. “Or fictionally speaking? Because I haven’t picked up a Captain America comic since 1943.”

Derek seemed dumbfounded. In the face of that stunned silence, Steve carried on.

“Historically…all I really brought to the table was superpowers and thick-headed stubbornness,” Steve said, losing his gaze in the grain of the smooth wooden bartop. “And it seems to me you’ve got enough of that already. The rest all had military careers before I did, and taught me everything I learned about being a soldier in World War Two. Gabe got me fluent French and German, Dum Dum drilled stealth into all my operations, Jaques made sure I knew how to use explosives without blowing ourselves up, Monty introduced me to field engineering, Jim taught me communications technology, and Bucky…he was my first teacher. Even before the war, he did his best to pass on some of his dad’s lessons to me, and after Rebirth? He’s the one who taught me how to shoot and how to fight…how to protect myself and anyone else I can.”

“The army didn’t train you?” Derek asked, looking even more lost and confused.

“I got some special training from the army, too. But everyone thought I was doomed to be a show-monkey back then, so it wasn’t much. Basics of things like jumping from airplanes, firearm proficiency, that sort of thing.” Steve huffed as a barrage of memories raced towards his lips, stalling somewhere between his heart and his throat. “I read a lot, too. But regulation manuals and Sun Tzu didn’t go nearly as far as all the fist-fighting Bucky’d taught me over the years…or what he taught me before we went back into the field.”

Steve finally looked back up at Derek.

“I didn’t so shit on my own,” he said finally. “Even rescuing them in the first place, I did it with Howard and Peggy. After that, I learned from my men as I lead them. I learned from them to lead them.”

Derek…frowned, eyes narrowing in slight suspicion at Steve. Steve decided to prove him right.

“Erica, Isaac, and Boyd need you,” Steve said. “Just because they’re pissed at you using them, doesn’t mean they don’t care about you. They want to help you, and have plenty to offer. Let them.”