#i did a deep dive through some stuff looking for a really old wip that i was reminded of by a discord server | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mercuryislove · 3 years ago

Note

Don’t hate me but… I kinda want you to answer all of the deep dive WIP asks 🥺 if that’s unreasonable tho, just 2, 9, and 10 please!

I am SORRY for the delay!!! i answered every question for BOTH projects so you're in for like.... several thousand words of shit that makes absolutely no sense, but i hope you you enjoy it! :)

1. Who are two characters that don't like each other? What do they reveal about each other to the readers? Will they ever learn to put aside their differences?

White Crane: okay this is hard because like. so many people do not like each other. (I know I made a post once about how terrible it would be to be one of twenty-eight people that have the power of dead gods but are trapped in stupid human bodies and you're all a thousand years old and hate each other so so so so so much because you all SUCK.) But for the sake of simplicity, I will talk about Ciaran and Sihla who never got along but only played nice to keep Anwei happy. They absolutely do NOT put aside their differences lmao once everything kind of, um, blows up between the three of them, all they want to do is KILL each other. She makes it her life's goal to make him suffer, and he basically loses his sanity in the process of trying to find a way to kill her for good. The beef is unbelievable. ANYWAY, what they reveal about each other is that Ciaran is not nearly as innocent in anything as he likes to pretend and Sihla is not as guilty as everyone says she is. I mean, she is still a terrible person in many ways, but that does not excuse the things he did to her all those years ago. She hates him for many, many good reasons.

Old Blood: Andhira HATES the entire Ekion family, but specifically the oldest son (who does not have an official name yet.... oops). He doesn't much care for her either but is usually too busy trying to better his social standing to worry too much about her. Except when they're in the same room together (which happens semi-regularly because her brother is kind of in love with him lmao). They hate each other for the exact same reason and it's that they're both SO arrogant. They look down on everyone around them (which in Andhira's case is like. fair. She's the firstborn of the two most powerful people on the planet, and the only person that comes close to that level of power is her twin brother who was born a mere fourteen minutes after her) but think the other is completely unjustified in their actions. Really all it reveals to a reader is that they both kind of suck and need to get over themselves because all that behavior does is make people resent you. They only put aside their differences because she does kind of need his help once or twice, but they would gladly spit in each other's face and/or push each other down a flight of stairs in the name of pettiness.

2. What do you hope your readers will take away from your wip? Is there an intentional theme to the story?

These can be answered together! I started writing these stories because I wanted to have fun but they've both kind of morphed into a long-winded way of saying that like. it's okay to be messed up and hate yourself and have major internal struggles because there are people who still love you. I KNOW it doesn't sound like that from uhhhhhh literally everything I've ever said about this stuff but bear with me. The BIG theme is that love is EVERYTHING. All kinds of love. It's the reason to keep on going. You are never alone, even strangers can love you in their own way, etc etc etc etc. Also gay love fucking prevails always and forever.

3. What do you love most about your protagonist?

Yixing is funny and weird and definitely a horse girl and he kind of sucks sometimes because he's stubborn as hell and has terrible people skills and maybe also a drinking problem, but he is kind and empathetic and despite the absolute hell he's lived through, he still sees the good in people and knows that it's easy to make mistakes and that most people deserve second chances in life. Also I like him because he is without a doubt the ideal man and I made him that way on purpose. And god I wish we could drink together. I'm talking stumbling drunk, crying on the bathroom floor, please-hold-my-hair-i'm-about-to-throw-up kind of drinking. We would have a great time being stupid together I think.

Vera is resilient and mean and stubborn and cold and off-putting and hard to get to know, and she sucks for those reasons but it's also why I love her so much. She has also lived through hell and it didn't make her try to see the good in people like Yixing does. It just made her bitter and resentful. She warms up over time, but she fights tooth and nail against it. I also love her so much because she is the archetype of like. the washed up former prodigy that has to return sort of against her will to her old life, and she realizes that she misses it in some ways but also remembers exactly why she left. I would Not want to drink with her (because she doesn't drink anymore), but I would love to take one of her art classes.

4. Is there anything in the story that is implied but not directly stated? Will this become more relevant later on? How perceptive would a reader have to be to pick up on this?

White Crane: This is hard because I'm so invested in my own shit that it feels obvious to me, but I try to lay out a little candy trail that tells the reader that Ciaran and Anwei are Not What They Seem right from the start. It’s hard to explain without specific examples but it’s in the way they talk, they way they interact with other people, the way certain things they say don’t line up, etc etc etc. And there is a Big Hint of what will happen to Ciaran in the second and third installment, but idk if that counts. Also there are definitely implications that Yixing is trans but that's neither here nor there (honestly I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not he should be explicitly trans or if it should be left to reader interpretation because well... I don’t know if I'm capable of writing the nuance of transness because I'm not trans despite my complex and confusing relationship with gender but I'm also not a thirty-something year old Asian man NOR am I a god NOR am I a former vampire hunter NOR am I like. any of the things I write about other than a mean lesbian so. who knows?)

Old Blood: TRUE FANS already know this one, but regular degular readers that haven't participated in funny question friday or read my random late night posting would not immediately know that Josef and the Sovereign were once involved. Basically the only characters in the story that know are Josef, Luka, the Sovereign himself, and Tahire. But there are definitely some hints peppered throughout conversations and perhaps some photos and trinkets that Josef has kept after all this time... It has like no weight on the events of the story but I just think it's fun. Once again I am way too invested to know if it's easy to pick up on or not but I think it takes some theorizing about maybe? Other than that there aren’t any significant secrets.

5. Which character has the most intricate backstory? Is this backstory common knowledge from the start, or is it revealed later on? How does the backstory affect the narrative?

White Crane: this is unfair because some of the characters are almost a thousand years old and some of them are like. 35. I DO have a full timeline written out of the thousand years of history that Ciaran and Anwei have lived through, if that counts as an answer. Like it doesn't have every single day and year, but it has all the big events for sure. Barring that, Yixing definitely has a pretty complex backstory. The man gets around lol and I try (and maybe fail?) to make him seem not too complex initially but then things get revealed and you learn more about him and are like “oh my god no wonder this man has Problems.” Also if he was like. “normal” and perhaps “well-adjusted” the story would not exist at all because he is the way he is and makes some of the stupid decisions he does because of his weird little life.

Old Blood: ONCE AGAIN, this is unfair because the Sovereign is like older than god. And Vera is 37. But like. I haven't fleshed him or any of the old ass vampires out nearly as much as Vera so there's your answer I guess? And I guess the important things are known from the start (that she was a prodigy, that she retired because terrible shit happened and she couldn't handle it, that she suffers from significant ptsd because of it, etc), but there is a lot of detail that doesn't come out until much later when she has to confront her Feelings (ewww feelings). Uh... the backstory affects the narrative because it wouldn't exist at all if Vera wasn't plagued by her fucked up blood nightmares lol

6. Which two characters have the most complicated relationship? How does their relationship develop over time?

White Crane: Ciaran and Anwei totally. They love each other because they're brother and sister and were all the other had for a VERY long time (and even when they were still uh mortal, they relied on each other constantly), but also they hate each other because they're brother and sister. You know how it is with siblings. I love my brother and sister to pieces but I can't imagine being immortal and having to put up with the both of them for all eternity (sorry guys if you are reading this somehow.... I love you but we are all so annoying god bless). They handled their newfound godhood very, very, very differently and it kind of colors their relationship for the rest of time. There were times where they were extremely codependent and other times where they didn't speak to each other for DECADES. At the start of our story, they're on much better terms and have buried all their hatchets, but it doesn't take much for that to change....

Old Blood: Probably Vera and Andhira? They're only brought together because of their shared fucked up blood nightmares, and neither of them like that thought. They both resent the other for everything they are, and Vera is pretty much completely hostile to Andhira about it for a long time (and Andhira is only just barely cordial lol), but obviously a significant part of the plot revolves around them like. falling in love so they DO get over it after a while :)

7. What is the most heart-wrenching scene in your wip? Why?

White Crane: When Yixing fucking DIES. I feel like this one should be self-explanatory. But I mean if you would like further explanation, it's unpleasant and slow and agonizing and nobody can do anything to stop it (haha....... unless?) so Ciaran gets to hold him for a long time and feel really bad about it lol

Old Blood: idk if there are any really heart-wrenching scenes but there are definitely some miserable and uncomfortable scenes like where Vera relives in vivid detail the days that she witnessed the gruesome deaths of her young apprentice and her last lover. They're upsetting because those are the two days that basically ruined her life (and one was the final straw that sent her spiraling completely out of control) and it's painful to watch her have to live with the guilt of what happened even if it wasn't her fault.

8. What is a song that you associate with your wip? Explain.

White Crane: not to be basic but absolutely without a doubt in my stupid mind “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears lol it's because uh. well. Everybody wants to rule the world right? Basically way back in 2019 when I was crafting the ideas for the dnd campaign that became this thing instead, I was definitely having a metal gear moment (honestly I’m about to have a metal gear moment NOW lol) and was listening to a lot of like. mgs adjacent music and latched onto this song (and also promises, promises by naked eyes lmao) as some like thematic element. Like my brain making amvs. You know how it is. ANYWAY the point is. The concept was originally way different and was supposed to be more about the immediate aftermath of the so-called end of the world (yes Yixing was still there and yes he was still just some guy), and it focused a lot more on power struggles between all of these insane people that were granted godhood in the wake of the dying world. Which........ is something I'd like to write about at some point because it's intriguing in its own way but at the time I was unequipped to write about that when I really just wanted to write about people who are, for all intents and purposes, quite average getting caught up in the batshit drama of higher powers. (fun fact: Ciaran was supposed to be a tyrant king that ran a death cult and Anwei and Yixing were working together to figure out a way to kill him. Which is. Kind of what my dnd campaign is like now lol BASICALLY he's like if Big Boss was unkillable and could also rip souls out of people's bodies and eat them. I absolutely do not remember what this question originally was. Something about a song?)

Old Blood: THIS is the reason it took me so long to answer this whole thing. I thought long and hard and looked through all my playlists and listened to random songs that came to mind but it turns out the song I was looking for was right in front of me the whole time. DUH. It's “Golden Light” by Twin Shadow :) In my humble homo interpretation, I think it's a song about being afraid to fall in love and. Well. That's the whole point. Also #spoilers but the first time Vera sees Andhira and is like “oops I think I have feelings” is when they've just arrived at Andhira's home and the sun is rising and she looks over at her as they stand at the top of a hill and she has her eyes closed to the sun and she's bathed in golden light and OOUGGGGHGHHH poetic cinema. (honorable mention goes to “Groove is in the Heart” by Deee-lite because it’s quintessential early 90s music that Vera would be super into)

9. What does your protagonist want most? What would they do to achieve this? What is something they wouldn't do to achieve this?

White Crane: Yixing wants to be happy for once. Like actually really happy instead of just. getting by. There's a scene where they're making wishes for the next seasons during the summer solstice and someone asks what he wants and he's like “uh I guess I want to still be alive at the end of the year?” and the other person is like “isn't that what everyone wants? Raise the fucking bar please. What do you REALLY want?” and he's stands there for a really long time and thinks about it before finally saying “I think I just want to be happy for once” and everyone else is like. wow. Way to kill the fucking mood dude. Anyway. He has had fleeting moments of happiness in his life but wants nothing more than to feel that way forever. It's kind of hard to say what he wouldn't do for that because like. there's not really much you CAN do in the first place, so I feel like there's even less you couldn't do. I guess he wouldn't like sell his soul to the devil or something lmao (though by being involved with Ciaran he's pretty much halfway there)

Old Blood: to be left alone. Vera just wants a normal life. She really truly does want to pretend that none of the horrible shit happened to her and that she was never a world-famous hunter. And she wants to teach art classes and live a quiet life!!! I mean, she is already mostly doing that exact thing when we first meet her, but obviously she has some hindrances (aka fucked up blood nightmares). She is begrudgingly helping Andhira because she assumes that will fix her problem and that she'll be able to get to that quiet living as soon as all is said and done. The only thing she really wouldn't do to get what she wants is like... live somewhere far away from Josef and Luka lol She likes having them close by more than she wants to be left alone.

10. Within your story's world, were there any events that impacted every character (or most characters)? How would they be different if this event never happened? (Alternatively, erase an important even from on character's backstory and imagine where they'd be now.)

White Crane: well. If the stupid old gods didn't all kill themselves and almost end the world then I guess none of this story would exist lol But the actual answer is like. If Yixing had never run out on his girlfriend of ten years then he wouldn't have moved across the continent to Jengmi and wouldn't have made a name for himself way out there and wouldn't have been scouted and recruited and wouldn't have met Ciaran or Anwei and wouldn't have gotten in the middle of the batshit grudge between a bunch of ancient petty gay people and wouldn't have DIED and wouldn't have made one of the ancient petty gay people in particular lose his grip on his humanity via a lust for power in a desperate attempt to guarantee his safety and wouldn't have been the reason that tens of thousands of people die in his name and wouldn't have accidentally set off a chain of events that resulted in him having to hunt down and kill the Actual God that started it all in a fit of jealous rage. So like. maybe he should have just gone through with the wedding. All things considered, his life would have been way less stressful.

Old Blood: uhhh, that's tough because the stuff that happens only really has any effect on the mortal characters (I mean yeah people still try to kill the Sovereign but they're too dumb to know the ACTUAL way to kill him.... haha unless??), so it would be more like a what if Vera didn't witness the violent deaths of both her apprentice and her lover and have a full blown nervous breakdown and abandon her career? Well...... I think most things in the plot would transpire more or less the same, except she would be WAY less pissed off about it. In fact, she would probably be hyped as hell to get the chance to make the acquaintance of the Sovereign's family like Josef had before her. The thought of Vera being upbeat and not a sleep-deprived asshole that hates being dragged back to her old life..... ew. Not that I enjoy her suffering but you know what I mean. It just wouldn't be the same.

11. What is something from your wip that you just really want to ramble about?

Are you sure you're ready for this. This is going to be so so so so long I'm sorry in advance. It's Saturday night and I'm alone and kind of sad so I'm just going to let loose.

As I hone down plot elements for next two installments in my little trilogy, I have kind of become obsessed with the passage of time and how different it must feel to someone that, well, lives forever. One of the ways I'd written (that has since been kind of changed) for Yixing to start to figure out what Ciaran really is was that he would casually be looking through his bookshelf and find an old photograph of Ciaran, Anwei, and their mom standing backstage together after one of his performances. And when he eventually asks Ciaran about it, he gets upset because how dare you touch the one thing I have left to remember my mother? To remember what my life used to be like? There are so many names and faces and places and foods and sensations that I've forgotten in the 940 years I've lived like this and I would give anything I have to see any of it just one more time because I didn't know that the last time I would ever speak to my mom we would have an argument on the phone about how I need to go to the temple and pray for good fortune on my birthday, or that the last time I would ever see my best friend would be at 6am when we both came into the studio to practice and he asked me to go out to breakfast and I said no because I thought a nap would be more important. And there are so many people that I've watched die whose names I never learned and whose faces I forgot the moment I turned away, and there are so many others that I loved so dearly that I had to leave behind because they grew old and I didn't. And I have lived lifetimes in solitude to keep myself a secret from other people and I have died more than any person should ever have to die and I have witnessed atrocities no one should ever witness and I hate everything about this life so much but I love everything about this life so much and I wouldn’t trade it for anything but I think I would give it all away in an instant if only to remember the scent of my mother's favorite perfume and I think I would give it all away in an instant if it meant I didn't have to watch you turn to dust in my arms.

ANYWAY. I think a lot about the agony of loving things that aren't permanent and how it really DOES drive you mad because lately I have been unbelievably nostalgic for certain things that weren't even that long ago but..... I didn't appreciate them at the time and I feel so guilty about it. (And like. I too would give up my entire life to be able to remember the scent of my grandmother's favorite perfume.) And all my pent-up sadness is for things that only happened in my childhood. I have pictures and videos and other people to share those memories with, but what does it feel like to be one of very few people that watched the entire world fall apart and rebuild itself and have nothing to hold onto from that time? What does it feel like to foster dozens of generations of children and outlive every single one of them? What does it feel like to have only fragments of memories of entire lifetimes? How lonely is it? I mean, Ciaran and Anwei have each other and that makes a difference but it still has to be the most isolating feeling. And then there's the pain that comes with memories that have faded or otherwise become hazy. I doubt either of them remember their father's face. They hadn't seen him in years even before it all happened. If it wasn't for that single photo he has, they wouldn't remember their mother's face either. Do they still remember her name? Or her birthday? Do they remember anyone else? Cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends, coworkers? If they do, do they even want to talk about it? One thing I worry about in my own life (and this is how I know I have Problems) is that I'm so afraid that talking about memories will alter them somehow. There are so many things that I don't even like to share because once the words are spoken the little vhs tape that has all my memories has been recorded over, even if it's just by a single frame. Something about it has been changed forever each time I talk about it. Do they feel the same way and keep things to themselves instead of sharing the sadness? I think maybe they used to talk about the “old days” or whatever much more often back in the past, but as the years went by.... they just learned to keep it to themselves.

I think maybe I have a lot of anxiety about the passage of time and of being forgotten!

Anyway again. The passage of time drives me insane. And I think it would make me even more insane if I had been chosen to carry the mantle of a dead god and would live forever. My dog died a year ago and I still cry like every single day thinking about her. If I was doomed to live forever I don't know how the sadness wouldn't swallow me whole! No wonder all the people in this book are fucking CRAZY!!

And don't even get me started on the Sovereign lol he's like “oh boo-hoo you've lived for not even a thousand years? Bitch they hadn't invented fucking GLASS yet when I was born. The horse wasn't domesticated yet. Cry harder!!”

#oc talk #4000 words later!!!!!#uh i hope this makes ANY sense at all lol #i wrote the responses to all of these at like 1am last night and the night before so. you'll have to forgive me if they're stupid

6 notes · View notes

gumnut-logic · 4 years ago

Text

Gordon the Octopus

I finished one of the WIPs on my list. Admittedly, this is an older one amd I had a good chunk of it written, but I found an end to it tonight :D

Totally @godsliltippy ‘s fault. She sparked the idea back in August last year, I just took a long time to see it through.

Marks & Wings AU, lots of Virgil and Gordon, complete fluff, silliness and self indulgence. The first bit has been posted before, but that was ages ago and it works better as a whole rather than in bits so I’ve reposted the whole thing. 2332 words.

Thank you to all the kind Thunderfam who commented on my WIP list ::hugs you so much:: You guys continue to be amazing.

I hope you enjoy this :D

-o-o-o-

The sun touched the horizon and lit up everything in gold.

Virgil closed his eyes and let its waning warmth soak into his skin.

The breeze was gentle, little more than a tease. It caressed his cheeks, lingered in his hair and tantalised the tracings of his mark across his bare back.

He shivered.

He was wearing only an old pair of cut-off jeans between himself and the warm rock. His feet were bare and dangling in the cool water, his toes teased by the ebb and flow.

His soundscape was filled with that water. The ripples of the lagoon splashing against the rock he was sitting on, the distant surf outside the safety of the caldera.

The squabbles of the petrels on Mateo as they argued about roosts for the night.

It was home.

The day had been a good one. No rescues. A moment to relax and sit back. Each of them had disappeared to their own corners, dabbling in their own pastimes in order to wind down.

Alan had taken to the air in the morning. He hadn’t managed to escape a cautionary word from Scott about staying close to the Island, but that was nothing unusual.

Scott said that to all of them.

Their youngest hadn’t been gone long, choosing only to stretch his golden wings with a few loops of their tiny volcanic rock in the middle of nowhere. Virgil had taken the moment to look up and watch his little brother swoop and dive, golden wings quite a sight in the early morning sun.

Scott and John, of course, were all about catching up on work. Virgil had to intervene at about midday and demand they eat. John was yanked down from orbit with a little extra threat from Grandma.

Virgil had been so happy to see his space brother. A little math and he realised he hadn’t seen him in the flesh for over two weeks.

John indulged him a hug as he knew Virgil craved a physical connection to ground him. Virgil was gentle, knowing that those two weeks in zero gravity would make his brother sensitive to touch.

But he had to.

The spark of connection as their minds reacted was like a tension release. Virgil sighed into his shoulder with relief.

John held him.

But after that, it was all Grandma and eat something, kid. Fortunately, lunch hadn’t relied on her cooking. Virgil had done a supply run on the way back from a minor situation just the day before and the larder was stacked with lazy day goodies.

It was a good meal. For once, everyone was there.

They had spent a good part of the afternoon just lazing about the comms room talking. While they lived most of their lives together, it had become rare being together all at once with no dire emergency needing attention.

There had been sun, conversation and rest.

John. John, of all people, had fallen asleep on the couch.

That had prompted a number of things. Lots of quiet. An interrogation of Eos from the kitchen regarding their brother’s sleep schedule.

This was promptly followed by grounding him for a week to play catch up.

Grandma was not happy.

And no doubt, John would be even less when he woke up.

But hey, the man needed to take better care of himself.

A blanket had appeared.

Virgil may have snuck in a medical monitor and gently clipped it to his shirt to boost the basic vitals his gravity wear provided.

John slept on.

So, they left him there and returned to doing their own things in other parts of the house.

As always, Gordon gravitated towards the sea as late afternoon rolled in. This time Virgil followed him to the water’s edge.

His fish brother’s forays out into the ocean always made Virgil just that touch nervous. There had been times where the aquanaut had gotten himself into trouble…alone, out in that vast wilderness under the surface.

It wasn’t that Gordon didn’t know what he was doing. It was just…Virgil couldn’t reach him.

And he worried.

But Gordy was as much a part of the sea as it was part of him and while the brat respected his concerns, he was still a brat. When he leapt up, morphed into his favourite eagle ray form, and made a splash large enough to soak his engineer brother, it was not unexpected.

There was a reason why sting rays always looked like they were smiling. At least this one thought he was funny.

The smart ass.

A flicker of shadow beneath the surface and Gordon was gone.

Virgil felt him grow distant, only to have a sun shower of mental energy thrown in his direction.

Clearly a ‘cheer up, Virg, I’ll be fine’.

Virgil grunted as he stared out at the water that had swallowed his brother. Gordon would be gone a couple of hours at least. Virgil would occupy himself for the rest of the afternoon, but he knew that come sunset, he would be down by the shore, waiting for him.

And here he was.

Staring out at the sea and the sunset, waiting for that little spark to return.

It wasn’t a chore. It was just something he felt he had to do.

Part of him wished he had brought his sketchbook or his tablet, but the risk was too high. Gordon wouldn’t intentionally soak his stuff, but accidents did happen.

And besides, he didn’t mind taking a moment to just...be.

The sun’s warmth was a caress on his skin and he revelled in it. He let his eyes close and just felt and listened.

Sun.

Water.

Wind.

Birds.

A wet touch on his shoulder.

He couldn’t help it, he flinched. Instinctively he knew what was happening, he knew his brother was being a little shit, but evolution tagged human receptors with flight response for a reason.

Suckers grabbed at his skin.

He stumbled on the rocks as he flung himself to his feet.

The tentacle did not go away.

It had friends.

Virgil suddenly found himself wrapped in several long, wet, suckered appendages.

“Gordon, what the hell are you doing?”

But then cephalopods weren’t the greatest of listeners since they didn’t really have ears.

Gordon, fortunately or unfortunately, did have the ability to transmit emotion to his brother, despite the muffle of transmutation, and the laughter sparkled across Virgil’s mindscape like a rain of sunny stars.

The evening was still golden and warm, but just a touch less relaxing. Virgil stood amongst the rocks with a giant Pacific octopus wrapped around his torso.

He idly stared at the flickering colours of laughter strobing across the chromatophores he could see.

“Gordon, you’re a shit.”

That, of course, only increased the mirth.

Virgil settled his mind and came to terms with the fact he was currently wearing a cephalopod and instead turned to problem solving.

The giant molluscs were quite fascinating. If there was one thing Virgil shared with his fish brother, it was a fascination with life in general, and because his brother spent so much time underwater, Virgil had done his fair share of reading on the topic. Unbeknownst to Gordon, Virgil found cephalopods quite fascinating, both in their communication methods and for painting subjects.

But then, this kraken was a whole different kettle of shellfish.

Virgil stood still for a few moments, waiting to see what his brother would do and, if he was honest, see if his brother would simply let him go.

The mental snickering pretty soon negated that response, so Virgil had to look for a more proactive retaliation.

He prodded a tentacle wrapped around his belly. It wriggled back at him.

Virgil was ticklish. He stifled the thought that his brother might take advantage of that while possessing eight arms.

He could lift. That would bring eight metres of black feathers into the equation, but Gordon was physically in contact with his mark, the feathers would likely phase through him like a piece of clothing.

A tentacle caressed his ribcage and he shivered.

He felt Gordon’s outburst of glee and before he knew it, all of those tentacles were moving, suckers puckering along his ribs and belly, a riot of tickle and tease. There was even one in his hair, its tip dangling in front of his eyes.

His brother’s maniacal mental laughter was all consuming.

Swearing, Virgil spun and leapt into the lagoon, the drop-off immediate enough to take the dive.

His world became a rush of bubbles.

Several tentacles came loose in the chaos and Virgil twisted in the water, hoping to dislodge the rest.

But the water was Gordon’s native environment, and the engineer didn’t have a hope.

The giggling was obnoxious.

Breath soon became an urgency and Virgil pushed towards the flickering light above. He surfaced with an octopus head bopping his nose. Somehow Gordon had slithered around to hang off his front instead of his back.

Virgil glared at his brother through the hair dripping in his eyes.

The head tilted and squirted water into his face.

“Gordon!”

Damnit, Kayo needed to show him some self-defence skills against cephalopods.

The thing was octopuses were strong, but their bodies were somewhat fragile and part of Virgil was worried he might hurt his brother.

Knowing Gordon, he knew that and was playing it to his advantage.

“Why are you doing this?”

Because I can.

Virgil didn’t need telepathy to answer that.

But there was a spark of something beyond the humour. Beyond the rain of sunshine sparkles there was a deep red, a welling of emotion his brother was reluctant to share.

A frown and Virgil reached out mentally to his little brother just that little bit more.

The octopus scrambled up his torso, over his face – to Virgil’s muffled protest – and perched on his head like a turban.

Virgil spat into the water and rubbed his face with both hands. “God, Gordon! Why?!”

But the answer wasn’t built with words, it was built with emotion and it suddenly washed over him.

An overwhelming need to touch, to hug and to feel.

But…?

Virgil reached for his cephalopod hat, but Gordon slipped off into the water with a splash and darted away.

Virgil dove to follow.

He didn’t have a hope in catching up, no matter his brother’s form, but it didn’t stop him from trying.

But Gordon had disappeared.

Damnit!

Oxygen became a necessity far too quickly and, yet again, Virgil cursed his inability to follow his fish brother.

Surfacing dragged his hair into his eyes.

How had he missed it? Gordon could be as in need of touch as Virgil was at times. How had Virgil not seen that his brother just needed a hug?

He mentally kicked himself.

“Virg, it’s not a thing. Don’t tie yourself in knots.”

He spun to find his little brother in human form treading water quietly behind him.

“Why didn’t you tell me you needed a hug? Hell, why didn’t you just give me one?”

Gordon snorted. “Is that a prescription, bro? You dispensing brotherly hugs?”

“I’m dispensing whatever works, Gords.” His head tilted just a little as he stared at his brother. “C’mere?” He held out his arms, his legs doing the best to keep him stable in the water.

Gordon rolled his eyes. “Don’t drown yourself.”

“Gordon…”

When his brother didn’t respond, Virgil took matters into his own hands and dove at him. The fact he was successful in grabbing a flailing leg proved that Gordon didn’t really want to escape.

A little manhandling and Virgil had his brother in the biggest hug he could manage. It was complicated by the fact that hugging was not conducive to swimming and if Virgil didn’t surface soon, he was going to start losing brain cells, but it was the best he could do with a wriggling fish brother.

Ultimately, it was Gordon who threw them to the surface with a spark of exasperation.

“Virg, I’m fine! What the hell?”

But the emotion bouncing across their connection told the truth. There was little but fondness and love for his silly brother.

“I’m not silly.” Virgil wrinkled his nose.

“Never said you were. However, you did nearly drown yourself trying to give me a hug.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Not.”

“Too.”

“Gordon!”

“What?”

Virgil glared at him.

Predictably, Gordon just smirked at him.

It was Virgil’s turn to be overwhelmed with fondness and love.

Gordon groaned. “Oh god, you are so soppy.”

“What? You’re my brother. I’m allowed to care.”

Gordon fell silent, and for a moment, those brown eyes just stared at Virgil.

Then he found his arms full of brother again. “Love you, bro.”

Surprised, but touched, Virgil’s arms tightened around Gordon and again they dipped below the surface.

Hugs were really conducive to drowning.

And disturbing to sleeping brothers as John startled awake with a rain of confused midnight stars.

Oops.

Virgil made to kick back up to the surface, but suddenly found his arms full of cephalopod again.

Damnit, Gordon.

The sparkling sunshine giggles were back and it was with resignation that Virgil kicked towards the surface.

Perhaps Gordon had a reason for the change and for the cling because when Virgil walked back to the villa and into the comms room wearing his rather heavy cephalopod brother wrapped around him, it brought Scott’s tirade of lecturing John to a sudden halt.

Both brothers stopped and just stared.

Virgil stared back. “What?”

“Is that Gordon?” Scott pointed with both hope and a little fear at the octopus back-pack headwear combination.

A tentacle poked at Virgil’s nose from his forehead. He ignored it and shrugged. “Gords wanted a hug.” He turned away. “I’m going to go have a shower.” An absent wave of a hand.

If his brothers stared as he walked out, he could only smile to himself.

The rain of sunshine laughter from his hat just turned his smile into a grin.

-o-o-o-

FIN.

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #Virgil Tracy #Gordon Tracy #John Tracy #marks and wings

28 notes · View notes

porcupine-girl · 4 years ago

Text

Untamed Fic Rec List

Look, most of these are reasonably popular fics already, so if you’ve been in this fandom for a couple months you’ve likely read them. Which is not how I normally do rec lists, but I’m new enough to Untamed that I’m still reading through all the fics by authors I know from other fandoms plus ones that have been personally recced to me, so I haven’t made it into the deep dive of underappreciated fics that I normally like to rec.

It doesn’t help that one of these recs is 445K, so for like two weeks straight it was basically all I was reading.

BUT if, like me, you are rather new to this fandom and its fics, here are some good ones:

The Same Moon Shines Series by sami

This is the 445K behemoth, made up of 23 works, and is technically made up of three interrelated series. The first fic, which establishes the whole universe/multiverse, is 139K on its own. Basically, decades into the canon future, WWX invents time travel.

He goes back to being born, but is reborn with all his memories intact. And he fixes, like, fucking everything and it’s so, so fucking satisfying. Everything’s not perfect though - for example, he like lowkey (highkey?) traumatizes LXC by showing him his previous life via empathy and that has some consequences eventually. Featuring ace poly JC/LXC/WQ triad.

Then in a cracky subseries, appropriately called “ridiculous future bullshit”, we assume that the main six from this universe (WWX, LWJ, JC, WQ, LXC, JYL, & Lan Sizhui) all achieve immortality and find out what they’re up to in the modern day, where they’re revered in the Five Nations (this does a great job of staying in the canon world instead of ours) but of course white Western assholes do things like try and make a disney movie called Hanguang-Jun and the Yiling Patriarch where they marry LWJ off to a girl.

And then in a third subseries, which so far has only one WIP fic, we go back to the canon universe, find out that JC and LWJ were stuck there watching WWX disappear in his time machine array (so WWX actually split off into another universe, he didn’t rewind his own), and so they get into the array having no idea what it will do but wanting to chase down the asshole they love. And so a third universe is born, where they are both born with their memories but WWX is not. I absolutely love seeing how different their priorities are from WWX’s in terms of what they want to change in their new life.

(Also: This is technically a MDZS fic that usually goes with novel canon over show canon if there’s a discrepancy, so if like me you haven’t read the whole novel you might need to look up some plot points now and then.)

The Vermillion Ribbon by @unforth

AU where Wei WuXian was taken in by Wen Qing and Wen Ning’s parents instead of the Jiangs. LWJ (who is the POV character) is a super DUPER dick to him at first, like even moreso than in canon, but the speed with which he regrets his choices is breathtaking and extremely satisfying.

LWJ is a VERY unreliable narrator. He has absolutely no idea what is going on with himself or anyone else at any point in time. Eventually he at least becomes self-aware of this fact, and can at least go wait am I missing something? I think I’m missing several somethings but fuck if I know what. Wei WuXian not understanding this about him leads to some miscommunication, because WWX doesn’t get that LWJ needs absolutely everything spelled out to him in single-syllable words with crayon drawings and y’know, WWX isn’t going to be straightforward anytime he can pretend he’s TOTALLY FINE :D :D :D instead.

LWJ’s friendship with NHS is magical, and NHS in general gets 810% more opportunity to scheme and plot pre-time-of-NMJ’s-canonical-death than in canon and is honestly living his best life. It’s also valuable for LWJ to have a scheming friend because, aside from realizing he misjudged WWX, this is how he starts to figure out that he’s a dumbass who has no idea what is going on ever. But he can count on NHS to always be ten steps ahead, so it’s okay.

(ETA: I’m sorry, I made unforth feel like maybe LWJ was too dense, and no, he’s very much not stupid in general. Like, honestly the fact that he becomes so self-aware of the things he’s bad at, and does things like trust NHS to always understand the stuff he’s missing, makes him come off as very intelligent. It’s just in the specific realm of understanding anything that people say or do that isn’t 100% honest and straightforward that he is just entirely hopeless in a rather relatable way, and like I said, WWX’s go-to is hiding any and all pain so that is a bad combo.)

The Fire Lapping Up the Creek by notevenyou

This diverges from canon when WWX is on his way to Jin Ling’s one month celebration, but doesn’t bring Wen Ning along. So when Jin Zixun attacks it goes very poorly for him, poorly enough that Jin Zixuan thinks he’s dead and it’s reported back at Carp Tower as such. Sending LWJ into a dissociative state. He manages to break through to reality just long enough to find out that Jin Zixuan took WWX’s body back to the burial mounds and left it with Wen Qing, and to get on his sword and go directly there. Thankfully, it turns out that WWX is not dead, but only just barely so.

So LWJ stays there, because now that he spent some amount of time (he isn’t really sure if it was like five minutes or two hours, because dissociation) thinking WWX was dead he now knows that he should never, ever be anywhere but with WWX.

Honestly, it almost feels like a spoiler to say WWX doesn’t die, but there’s no major character death warning while there IS one for graphic violence so it’s not a chose not to warn either, so that’s technically not a spoiler. But things are touch-and-go for him for a very, very long time. And the romance is a slow burn with pining galore. And you get to see LWJ teaching A-Yuan to play the guqin, so like imagine being WWX and you wake up from almost dying to see that going on in your cave.

Velle: to will, to wish by @aerlalaith

This one is actually canon-compliant, and as it’s both quite a bit shorter and more straightforward, plot-wise, than the others, my writeup will be short but that doesn’t mean I loved it any less. Basically, it’s the process of LWJ deciding to adopt A-Yuan in the aftermath of WWX’s death. It starts just after he’s been beaten for turning against the other cultivators, and at first it’s mostly his grief and both physical and emotional pain. A-Yuan starts slipping in to visit him. and LWJ isn’t sure if he’s really okay with that at first.

Of course he becomes very okay with it, but the Lan elders and Lan Qiren and all aren’t just going to be like “ok sure you can barely walk you should def adopt a four-year-old of unclear origins who may or may not have something to do with your demonic dead boyfriend and the evil people he helped, that’s cool,” so it’s not that simple.

There’s a followup fic where, years later, LWJ chooses the courtesy name Sizhui and Xichen gives him shit for it.

save a sword, ride a socialist by sysrae / @fozmeadows

Continuing on my grand tour of Untamed fics by my fave writers from other fandoms, I get to enjoy having overlapped with foz on a third straight fandom which is just fabulous. I totally thought I wasn’t gonna read AUs and then this asshole comes along and writes AUs, which is not playing fair.

I especially love this because it’s modern day but much like ridiculous future bullshit it’s modern day in (more or less) a canonish world, not our world. So like, they fly on swords, but not long distances because it’s easier to take a train or drive rather than use up all that spiritual energy.

Lan Qiren and Jin Guangshan miss the old ways, though, and they think the best ancient tradition to bring back is arranged marriage! Because that will go over well with today’s youth. They try to make LWJ marry Mianmian but he’s like “um I’m gay” and LQ throws a hissy fit about that so Jin Zixuan (who is LWJ’s bestie and is fucking hilarious) hatches a plot for LWJ to cause LQ to stroke out by bringing WWX to Lan Xichen’s birthday party as his fake date.

But when LWJ and WWX meet up to talk this over, LWJ is instantly fucked because WWX has a small child with him and it turns out that this small child is the orphan he adopted. He doesn’t notice he’s fucked until a few days later, though, when WWX comes over for “kissing practice” and they fuck and he calls Jin Zixuan all “I think I caught a feel, what do?” and JZX is like idk, you’re a moron, don’t ask me to clean up your moron messes. And the next day LWJ buys a car seat.

Lan Wangji heard about Jack 110% Zimmermann and said “challenge accepted,” is what I’m saying here. And now I’ve written as much about this 33k fic as I did about the 445k, so I’ll shut up before I just recount the entire plot.

#the untamed #fic recs #wangxian #if I haven't recced your fic I probably haven't read it yet #literally this is most of the fics I've managed to read so far #when I say the same moon shines took up all of my reading time for 2-3 weeks I am being entirely serious #and then vermillion ribbon is 220+k so it took a week or two too #so like i've got ao3 emails waiting in my inbox for fics by tippy and moosefeels and through_shadows_falling and a few others #I promise I will get to them!

50 notes · View notes

in-arlathan · 4 years ago

Text

Fic Writer Question (#3)

I was tagged by @kunstpause again. Thank you for thinking of me. Doing this tag was a joy!

Today’s topic: Stories you want to write but for some reason haven’t (yet)

I will focus on fanfiction because I have way too many ideas for original works that never went anywhere or have been set aside to age like a good wine. But that’s okay. When I looked into my old fanfic folder, I found some gems from back in the day that made me cackle like the fandom grandma that I am.

But why do I put stories on the shelf? When I started writing, the main reason for abandoning a project was that I simply lost momentum or hadn’t thought the story through to the end and therefore ran into some kind of roadblock. If that happened, my burning hatred for revisions kicked in. I loathed editing with all my heart. Sometimes I made the effort to edit stories I really liked but that often lead to me finding even more stuff I wanted to change so it all spiralled out of control and I got discouraged.

This changed when I picked up copywriting as my profession. Through my daily job, I learned tp persevere and to stick with difficult projects when the rubber hits the road. It also taught me that not every idea is suited to be turned in fiction. From then on, I chose the stories I wanted to work on a lot more carefully and stored the plot bunnies in a swipe file until they either blossomed into a full-fledged concept or withered away.

The result is a much slimmer WIP folder. I collect a lot of notes and see if I can evolve them or include them in running projects, but I don’t hesitate to toss stuff into the garbage.

And now on to some of the stories that never went anywhere (yet). I had a pretty wild selection of fandoms in the last 15 years, so I picked a few fics that stuck with me for one reason or another. Added gifs for that certain je ne sais quoi.

The fun begins behind the cut.

Dragon Age

Since DA is the only fandom I actively write for a the moment, the list of projects is rather short. But these two are definitely on-hold for the near future.

Demon’s Dance – I shared a bit about this one during the WIP Title Game. It’s a one-shot idea set during Inquisition with some hot takes on the magic system in the Dragon Age games. I shelved it for now because that would require a deep dive into a system that is so very inconsistent that it slowed me down. I do want to get to it one day, but I have other stuff I want to focus on right now.

Running With The Halla – Another fic set during Inquisition, but this one is supposed to be a multi-chapter. If I break it down to its very core, then this is a fix-it fic for my Lavellan after the loss of her clan. I did write a few scenes for this but I’m not sure if this fic isn’t best kept in the realm of head-canons.

Moving on to the older stuff...

Star Wars Legends

Hahaha, yes, I’m ancient. I wrote Star Wars fan fiction when there still was an Expanded Universe (aka “Legends”). One of my bigger projects back then was an old LJ claim for which I had to write 100 one-shots for a pairing of my chosing, in that case Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. I got around to writing 25 of them before abandoning this undertaking because me one-shots get way too long and therefore take a lot of time to write. I always told myself that I would get back to it because I had way too much fun, but when the EU was all but wiped out, it totally killed my momentum.

I also had a long fic titled “No Good Deed” that was AU take on the gap between the OT and the prequels. The main twist being that Qui-Gon Jinn had survived. That thing was dark and angsty to no end because, of course, it was. I orginally planned this to be a three-part series but only managed to write about 2/3 of the first part. I don’t know why I put it aside though. It must have coincided with my move to Hamburg and my change in profession. I work a ton in that year and stepped away from writing fiction for quite some time afterwards. But I still think of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in that fic very fondly.

If you want to see me embarrass myself: I’ve made a cover for ff.net back in the day for that fic. I might share it if someone asks. My Photoshop skills were subpar but I was enthusiastic! :D

Speaking of embarrasing WIP that never went anywhere...

Honorable Mentions

There was a CSI: Miami long fic that I used to write with my best friend back in the day titled “We Never Close”. The year 2006 was wild for us, let me tell you. I’m still not quite sure what we were thinking. But we outgrew that fandom and that fic very quickly...

There also must be a ton of Harry Potter fics lurking around somewhere that never went anywhere. One was my first attempt at writing in English and I remember that it was the hardest thing ever. Must have shelved that one back in 2008.

I think that’s all I got for you today. :)

Time to tag a few people, haha. As always, feel free to skip this one or join in. This is supposed to be fun after all: @johaeryslavellan, @kittimau, @charlatron, @serial-chillr, @faerieavalon, @cornfedcryptid, @deathvalleyqueen, @midnightprelude, @tessa1972, @elfrootaddict, @noire-pandora, @wardenari, @irlaimsaaralath, @solas-disapproves

Thanks for reading this far. Much love to all of you <3

#fic writer questions #writing and rambling

12 notes · View notes

dragonnan · 4 years ago

Text

Author Interview Tag

Tagged by @aelaer a week or two ago, thank you!

Name: Tanya (among family I'm Nan or Auntie Nanny)

Fandoms: Sherlock, MCU, Psych, Prodigal Son, and a goodly collection of others

Where you post: For a number of years I posted on FFN but between the really shitty reviews and extremely cumbersome posting process I finally quit. I posed on Psychfic while still an active part of that fandom but that, too, has pretty much ended. I put a few stories on Wattpad but found it to be pretty meh. I now post exclusively to AO3.

Most popular multi-chapter fic: It's a tossup between “Fury” on Psychfic and “All Nighter” on AO3 – one based on comments and the other on Kudos. Frankly “popularity” is really subjective because there's also stuff like read count and with comments, at least nearly half are replies from me and read count also includes re-reads as well as every time I clicked on the damn thing to edit so....

You know I'm just really not sure how to properly answer this??

Favorite story you’ve written so far: Like others have stated you can ask me this on three different days and get three different answers and there will be more than 1 fic mentioned every time so.... Because I write in different fandoms I just absolutely can't list a single fic. The best I can narrow it would a fic from my top 3 fandoms.

Psych: Paint it Black. I had read a fic where Shawn was gradually going blind and had really been enjoying it and the challenges it presented. Sadly it was never completed. As has happened before I decided I would write my own damn fic if I couldn't get a completed story so that was the primary motivation to start this. What I most love about this is writing from Shawn's perspective as he navigates being blind and not knowing whether or not his condition is permanent. I did my best to honor the experience of blind and partially blind people and tried to look beyond the cliché.

MCU: I have so much fun writing these stories! In spite of the dumpster fire the film canon became I do so love this sandbox and employing various forms of unfucking it. So I'm gonna cheat a little and pick two for my faves here since one is a WIP. Sed Diabolus. I don't need to have completed it yet to know this will be my all-time favorite. This is the first fic that has been entirely plotted out and OMG I'm so excited for iiiit!! The second is Simple Math which seems like an odd choice given there's zero action – mostly just one character – hell, not even any whump. But there is something about that deep dive into Tony's mindset that keeps this as a fave even though it was the first thing I ever wrote for the MCU. I learned about Tony as I wrote this and I also worked my way through those motivations that bothered me regarding Stane. Even years later I still mentally go back to this fic whenever I write Tony because I feel encapsulates the essence of how I see him as a character.

Sherlock: Compared to other fandoms I'm still quite new to this fandom so I don't have nearly as many fics. But I still have a favorite! And, like with the MCU, it's the first story I ever wrote for this fandom; The Tiger and the Shark. Returning to a plot device I've employed in other fics, this one is built around a sexual assault and taking the character on a journey from that terrible event to the point where they rediscover themselves. PTSD ever being my favorite form of whump I employ that fairly a lot in this story and employ some kinda radical methods for coping with those memories.

Fic you were nervous to post: I mean until I start getting comments I'm a world of anxiety with every story I post. But grabbing a specific fic that hit my nerves – that Sherlock fic I'd said was my fave certainly qualified. Not only was it my first Sherlock fic – it also was charging out of the gate with a very heavy topic so yeah – I wasn't sure if people would absolutely hate it or find my characterizations totally off or what.

How you choose your titles: It varies a bit. In some stories, like Sed Diabolus, I actually consult friends on various ideas. Other times I'll consider songs or lyrics and my favorite thing is if I can alter the known title just a bit to make it more relevant to the fic (I did that a LOT with Psych fics which was the method the show also employed for its episode titles). One of my favorite Psych titles is “The Wizard Was the Wicked Witch and the Scarecrow Lost His Courage”.

Do you outline: Almost never – not until “Sed Diabolus”. That story, though, is so astoundingly complex that without an outline I'd be hopelessly lost. I am, though, trying to make a practice of outlining more because it helps SO much!

Complete: If we count every one-shot collection and challenge collection it likely is over 200 stories. Of course a lot of those are one-shots. My total completed chaptered fics number maybe around 34?

In progress: 16 – between Psychfic and AO3. All Psych stories are on long-term hiatus for the foreseeable future (some, honestly, I will never finish as they are many many years old and I've lost the inspiration for the plot). Several MCU stories are also on the back-burner while I focus on “Sed Diabolus”. I admit I get LOTS of story ideas and staying focused on a single fic is not something I've ever been greatly successful with.

Coming soon/not yet started: I meaaaan.... lots?? I have probably several hundred ideas and partially started fics across many fandoms. As to “imminently coming soon...” I don't think I currently have an active story that I haven't already posted at least a first chapter. Sadly I have zero patience for developing something for months before posting which is why I have so many WIPs. That said I DO have a Sherlock au that has been poking at me now and then involving the witch trials that started in Denmark and, eventually, made their way to Salem. The idea would be that Molly Hooper is accused of being a witch. She, of course, is innocent but cause this unfortunate attention due to her “uncanny” ability to heal the sick and injured (not so much uncanny as opposed to employing methods that aren't so reliant on superstition and folklore).

She is scheduled to be tortured and executed but is saved by Sherlock – a strange recluse primarily ignored and given a pass as he solves mysteries for people. He and his friend John save Molly from this awful fate. The twist is that Sherlock is a sorcerer (bit of marvel crossover-ish) and able to transport them to safety.

Do you accept prompts: I wish I could cause I love ideas but I don't have the time/energy to always work on what I already have and I'm awful at follow thru. Like I will never turn away an Ask wanting to share ideas but I can't promise that I can actually write anything.

Upcoming story you are most excited to write: As was the reply to a previous query – I have lots that are ideas that will linger in partial stages for sometimes years. If it's “upcoming” I've already posted the first chapter lol! But, again, I have several story ideas that whenever I poke through my folders I get excited about someday actually writing them. Here is a teaser for an MCU fic involving Tony Stark and Obie (I still feel this was never explored enough – certainly not in fic):

They were doing a retrospective, ten year anniversary kinda... whatever. Unofficial, of course. Certainly nothing Pepper would have dreamed up even at her most drunk (which, honestly, was never her scene. Tony had sorta owned that space well beyond the time it had started owning him). Whose idea it ultimately had been? Frankly Tony couldn't give a fuck. That he was asked to be one of the speakers was slightly more... awkward. Awkward was the right word, yeah? Nauseating was certainly another and possibly a bit more accurate.

Dead for a decade and Obadiah Stane still managed to fuck with his life.

But... it hadn't always been that way. At least, not as he'd believed back when the Walkman had been on every kid's Christmas list.

He'd thought it was bonding; at the time. His dad had never been one for just hanging out; shooting the shit; telling tales out of school. No, Pops, when he bothered to interact, led with questions. “You keeping your grades up?” “You still seeing that floozy?” “When are you going to pull your head out of your ass and grow the hell up?” “You do realize it's my name you're disgracing every time you go on a bender?”

With Obie it was just, easy. Obie might ask about school but it was always with approval and pride. He would discuss Tony's conquests as though Tony had climbed Kilimanjaro wearing nothing but underwear and a cape.

Obie was there when his father wasn't. Which meant that Obie was always there. The first time he got astoundingly drunk on his father's scotch, Obie was the one to help him hunch over the toilet and vomit expensive, aged booze into the toilet. Obie was also the one to replace the depleted bottle to keep Howard in the dark. For a fourteen year old kid still trying to gain his dad's favor, that had meant everything.

He saw his first porn with Obie; sex education ala Traci Lords, three months shy of his fifteenth birthday. That was the same time he was introduced to weed. Obie had cautioned him to use it sparingly; didn't want to fry that genius brain, he'd say, and ruffle his hair. The porn had made him uncomfortable. Obie had turned it off and told him they could watch whatever Tony wanted. They'd ended up changing the station to Knight Rider; smoking and munching Cheetos and laughing over their orange fingers.

It was Obie who was there, arm around his shoulders, after his parents died. He desperately didn't want to sob in front of the man. Things were so complicated with his dad that all he felt was blinding guilt... as though some part of him had caused this. But Obie had filled him with bourbon until the emotions got soft around the edges and he'd sat beside the older man, head tipping gradually to the right until he was held up by Obie's shoulder. Obie had just slung an arm around him and let Tony pass out while he rubbed a broad hand up and down his bicep.

It was strange, now, looking back with adult perspective. A perspective that included Afghanistan and his intended execution while Obie talked about legacy and responsibility while Tony's lungs slowly seized. He'd taken the time to sit there – arm around Tony's shoulders while one broad hand traveled up and down Tony's bicep – just like when he was a kid and Obie was the whole world.

He'd tried to remember if it had felt so... tainted... at the time. Or if he'd always believed it was love.

Obie had never quite crossed that line. Though hindsight offered a peek into that possibility with enough clarity Tony had fought with his cramping gut for nearly thirty minutes. He'd staved off vomiting though he was fairly certain his dignity had still been in tatters what with Bruce wandering in on his misery.

Upcoming story you are most excited about (this is basically a repeat of the above question so I decided to change it. Do you have a future story idea you'd like to write that is not yet beyond the vague idea stage? I love stories that put Molly in some sort of jeporady and I have a barely formed idea to someday write a “stalker fic” of some sort and not I don't care that this trope had been done on repeat – I still love it lol! I have a smidge of writing for it:

“I need your help.”

As afternoons at Baker Street went, this was a mundane request heard so often that Sherlock's typical reply, “Obviously, or you wouldn't be here”, could have been printed on flash cards. The detective had actually made the suggestion after a particularly full day at the flat and having heard the statement no less than twenty times.

Today, however, Sherlock merely blinked for a moment. Then, with an awkwardness rare to a man with a lethal sort of grace in his movements, Sherlock gestured to John's chair, JOHN'S CHAIR, before taking his usual seat.

Molly didn't exactly smile but her lips edged up a bit before she sat.

John cleared his throat before pointing a vague hand towards the kitchen. “I'll just go make some tea, shall I?”

“No, please, I...” The stammer in her speech was not uncommon; though John couldn't recall such obvious fear. Forgoing the kitchen he, instead, took the hard wooden chair facing the other two.

“Molly, what's wrong?”

Tagging: @kitcat992 @mizjoely @sgam76 @ariaadagio @hanuko @ceruleanmindpalace

1 note · View note

hazzabeeforlou · 5 years ago

Text

11 questions

Yes I did this a bit ago but @helloamhere (thank you, ily, have fun bussing around Europe, did that once, had to follow apple maps to know where to get off ‘cause I speak ZERO German...) tagged me and I’m an anxious mess waiting for medical news today so WHY NOT!

Rules: answer 11 questions then pose 11 of your own.

1. What do you think fanfic does better than published fiction (if anything?)

Okay obvious answer and not very high brow, but SMUT. You will not see me perusing the gay aisles of Barnes and Noble romance novels :) For various reasons :)

2. What do you think it does worse

I think (maybe it’s just this fandom) overall it’s quite a bit more sanitary than novels, both in morality and subject matter. I hate to think what the purity police would say about some of the books I’ve read... especially the old ones? But then I usually come here looking for fluff and happiness too so perhaps that’s just the major draw of fanfic, idk.

3. What’s something another fandom has or does that you wish your fandom had or did?

To be honest I’m not well versed in other fandoms, but I’m going to go with I wish this fandom didn’t have constant infighting. Seriously in all my born days I have never seen a group of people claim such a similar goal and yet devour each other so viciously. Hence I usually avoid anything incredibly explosive or triggering here; I deal with and confront radical people (religious extremists, right wing extremists) in my everyday life and I cannot bring myself to turn my escapism into that same vortex of endless arguing, though I appreciate and support those who fight the fight. I often have very sharp opinions and fall to one side or the other of the fault line, but I draw a personal boundary at a point.

4. Do you consider yourself a “fandom” type of person in general, or committed to only one, and if so, tell me more about what this means to you.

I have been a HUGE fandom person my entire life, though this is the first time I’ve ever been in a community for it. Star Wars and Narnia consumed most of my adolescence, along with Lord of the Rings. I briefly dabbled in Dr. Who and Merlin (as one does) but because I didn't read HP until nearly the end of college, I kindof missed out on that one. Basically anything geeky or fantasy driven I have always loved, and I can’t really explain how I ended up here? But this is the only fandom I’m active in socially. The power of HL I guess...

5. I’m trying to get through writing a first draft right now and it’s a slog. How do you stay motivated for long projects, writing or otherwise?

Ah. A call out question! Like any good Aries, I love starting new things! And then letting them to languish unfinished. I have, however, trained in classical music, and thus I’ve programmed myself to just keep doing the thing because pieces take months and months and months to perfect and if you can’t stick with a project, you go nowhere. I also operate on a reward system, as in writing is the reward for practicing, then when I’m sick of words I go back to music, and so the turn tables. I have learned to ignore (I’m great at ostrich-ing) the crushing self doubt of creativity and just bulldoze ahead and do the thing, which results in very messy first drafts and often bad habits in my musical technique and a tendency to overplay, which wastes energy, but rehearsals wait for no one. I also thrive on last minute deadlines!

6. Tell me about what you read as a kid. Favorite book? Or if you weren’t into reading then, favorite TV show, etc?

I HAVE SO MANY. Narnia was my first love. I also adored George MacDonald (At The Back of the North Wind is a fucking masterpiece). My mom hardly let me read Redwall (see: hints of magic) but when she caved I devoured all of those. Anne of Green Gables. American Girl stuff (lots of it, yes Josefina and Kaya were my faves). I read far too many Star Wars expanded universe novels (New Jedi Order shaped me as a person, esp Traitor). I remember reading all the Eragon series, though these were dubiously approved... and I read various classics, as one is supposed to. In high school I printed out the entire Beowulf in Old English, got a CD of a dude reading it, and proceeded to memorize the first several lines. I can still recite Anglo Saxon but I have no clue what it means (see: I’m a good mimic). Everything non-Christian-magic-related I read during or after college, sigh.

7. Have your tastes changed?

This sounds bad but not really. I rarely read non fiction, oops. Biographies are a slog for me. I dislike historical fiction and I don’t have a good reason for that. I do love a good mystery, but usually not in book form (audio or visual Agatha Christie is my mana). I do adore socio-policial books, though (The Better Angels of our Nature a good example) or books doing a deep dive into a historical topic. These days I enjoy a good satire more than much else, and since I started on Terry Pratchett in 2016 I haven’t looked back.

8. I’ll steal your question above--tell me about a fic that changed you, or became a “touchstone” fic that you go back to!!

I didn’t read fics period when I entered the fandom, and stubbornly maintained that for a while, but the fic that changed my mind was (Take Me Home) Country Roads by @a-writerwrites (Awriterwrites). I read it during a drive through the very parts of the USA it’s set in, and I couldn’t put it down, spotty internet be damned. From there @horsegirlharry birthed me into the gay 1D world, though I can’t for the life of me remember which of hers I first read! (Does it matter? They’re all so beautiful...)

9. Tell me about a WIP, if applicable. How’s it going?? It sounds great.

I’m plodding along on The Garden, it’s going well, but urgency isn’t a priority. It’s going to be one of those things that I finish and then go in and make matter because right now my ideas are half formed and I know I’ll eventually know where I’m going but it’s a case of blind trust in instinct at this point!

10. What’s your favorite place to read and sitting position?

Like a true gay I cannot sit normally in a chair, coupled with my pain issues means I’m usually draped over the back of something with a cushy lumbar support, massive pillow, or propped sideways lying down. I love reading outside, but have a tendency to attract bugs, also I’m very light sensitive so my eyes hate the sun, especially if I’m reading from a screen.

11. Do you feel like fic reading and writing is social for you? E.g. do you share with friends (in or outside of fandom), or are you a lone wolf seeking out your fics in the dead of night??

I LOVE the social aspect of fic reading and writing within fandom! I have shared PITS with only two real life friends though; I am very tight lipped about the fact that I write fic. People are cruel and musicians are judgmental arseholes and if I prefer to spend my days dreaming up love stories for my OTP instead of pouring over scores, that’s my fucking business.

Alright, 11 from me (I wanted to include artists too so!!):

1. Are you a start small-work larger type creator, or map everything out then attend to detail?

2. What style of art/writing has most influenced your creative choices? (Genre, time period, muse)

3. How long have you been writing/arting? Is this something you knew you’d do your whole life?

4. What is your favorite thing about creating for your fandom? (reception, excitement, newness, etc.)

5. Have you met any recent creative goals that you’re really proud of?

6. What is your creative baby; what work do you want stamped on your proverbial gravestone as I MADE THIS (or have you made it yet?)

7. Do outside forces (politics, culture, hegemonies) play into your creations? Do you intentionally or subconsciously subvert norms or explore ideas?

8. Your creative mind is a garden. Describe what kind it would be and what it would contain (i.e. rock garden, palace garden, wildflowers, rose... etc.)

9. Do you believe that creative art has power and if so, how do you hope yours impacts others?

10. I’m double stealing this question: what’s a fic or fan art that changed your life or was a touchstone for you?

11. If you could pick any hero of yours to read/look at your creations, who would it be and why?

TOTALLY only if you want to, but @13ways-of-looking @twopoppies @alienfuckeronmain @prettytruthsandlies @pattern-pals @newleafover @disgruntledkittenface @lesbianiconharrystyles @lululawrence

#writing stuff #about me

11 notes · View notes

anomaly00-archive · 5 years ago

Text

When Comes the Dawn Writing Update #1

Word Count: 1582 out of ?

Pages: 6

Status: Drafting

Hey! Hi! So...this is a thing now.

Imma be honest, I totally procrastinated on Ch.5--like, I haven’t even finished writing it. I just have a vague idea of cinematic scenes that I want to put in. But, uh, progress is progress, right? Even if it is like five and a half pages of crap. But before we dive into what the happens in Ch. 5, I should probably give you some context.

-----

LAST TIME ON WCTD...

The story starts with Fenice, 15 years old and absolutely craving for a life outside of her comfy countryside manor, having something similar to a panic attack (I say similar, because I didn’t do much research on panic attacks on writing this scene because I wanted to capture the emotions I wanted without getting side-tracked) because she may-or-may-not have accidentally poisoned her own mother.

After being helped to calm down by her governess Misstress Leda, Fenice is told that her mother is still barely alive but will probably not survive through the night.

Mother and daughter have their last moments together, during which her mother (Titania) warns Fenice to be careful, as the people who targeted her may come after Fenice next.

Titania die at the end of the day

A funeral was held at the capital where Fenice meets her estranged father (the king) for the very first time.

After the funeral, King Dantalion can be seen stressing in his study because oh gods his ex-wife is dead, he just met his daughter after more than a decade and when did she get so big??? and what in the abyss is he supposed to do with Fenice??

Fenice plays a game of chess to prioritize her goals. Strangely enough, it works

-----

AND NOW, BACK TO THE PRESENT

So, chapter five is primarily to introduce the second main character (who is also, technically, the antagonist?) Prince Charles, the de facto heir apparent. A regular ol’ prince charming with a penchant for sneaking out of the palace walls to have some fun and becomes insanely curious of his new neighbor. You can check out the character intro I made for him here

-----

Scenes

As of now, Ch. 5 has only two scenes, most of it being comprised of

Scene 1: There are rumors about the palace of a deadborn, a word that Charles doesn’t exactly know the meaning of, thinking that it means a ghost. He doesn’t believe in spirits but does start putting some stock into the rumors when he notices the presence of another person living in his wing of Erthain palace. A wing that he and his servants has been the sole occupant of for twelve years.

It’s not that he’s the sort of person to believe in spirits and superstitions--really, all that stuff is nonsense people say to scare children--so the first few days of people talking about the deadborn was met with scoffs and rolled eyes.

Then Charles started noticing things. Erthain palace held a separate wing for royal children and visiting royalty, and for most of his twelve years of existence, Charles was the sole occupant. It’s why he took note of the extra guards stationed in the wings or the two new maidservants milling about the halls. The maids--twins from the looks of it—always report to the chambers a couple of doors away from his, but whenever he’d ask about his new neighbor, they’d always give a vague answer.

A slightly extended version of this scene is in the character intro post I linked above.

-----

Scene 2: A flashback scene where Charles iterates his first-ever encounter with the ‘deadborn.’

The distance between them and the shadows that streaked her face obscured the woman’s features from his sight, but her red hair could never be missed. In Aetier, or even in lands of Southern Raia, the people’s hair ranged from palettes of a sandy brown to deep obsidian; a rare few, those whose blood originates farther north, could flaunt fair and golden hair. But never red.

To Charles’ knowledge, he only knew of one Aetierian that could boast hair so red.

And the king held a proper funeral for her mere weeks ago.

Shock, awe, indifference, he could not say what emotion it was that came over him at that moment. Only that her gaze rooted him to his spot--that is, if she even noticed him--as if she had cast a spell to turn him to stone.

Who was she?

-----

This is also the chapter that everyone including the author is introduced to Gwyn Aelid, a young Witch Doctor-in-training (or just Witch), whose serving as the apprentice to the Royal Healer/studying to become a Healer (So like, think a nurse practitioner studying to become a doctor). I don’t really know how the hell he came to be, but I blame it on Charles. Gwyn, from an author’s point off view, is like that one character that just randomly appeared on the page. Like, you never planned for him, never thought of his existence, but then he’s there and you already named him, and well, I guess he can stick around. He may or may not become one of my favorite children in the future.

He’s about a year older than Charles, skinny in the way that mothers and grandmothers everywhere are affronted and want to start shoveling food in his mouth, and whose sharp features contrast with his overall soft personality. Despite his somewhat respected status as an apprentice, he comes from humble origins and mostly relies on his benefactor (the Royal Healer) for necessities.

He’s also the unwilling accomplice to prince Charles’ escapades.

“Look, I need a favor from you.”

At those words, Gwyn slumped his shoulders. His eyes lowered, lips twisted as if he was about to release a groan or a sigh but then thought against it. Charles has seen that look more than enough times to know what was coming next.

“Again? Sir, you cannot keep asking me to do this,” he hissed, eyes shifting at their surroundings. “If anyone--or gods forbid, the king— found out my role in your ‘disappearances’ they’ll have my head! Or worse, my career!”

Charles smiled, the corners of his mouth stretched to the corner of his eyes in that charming way the ladies at court praised him for. “Oh don’t be such a worrywart, Gwyn. I’m a prince; nothing is going to happen to you while I’m around.”

“No, of course not. But what if you’re not around because you died or got kidnapped, and the king found out and arrested me for treason. I’ll be a traitor, a criminal! Then I’ll never be able to finish my apprenticeship because I’ll be rotting in a cell and no healer would ever take a prisoner as an apprenticeship because— “

“Gwyn.”

“Shut up?”

“Good lad.”

The Witch sighed, his free hand pinching the bridge of his nose. “Look. I get it. You want to go out, but you have to understand that this—” he waved his hands around— “thing isn’t just affecting you.”

As you can see, I’m absolutely shitty at dialogue.

That last bit of conversation (the shut up part) was actually inspired by the dynamic between Prince Arthur and Merlin in BBC’s Merlin, though a more tone-downed version because Gwyn is very much a law-abiding/respect your betters type boy.

-----

Fun Fact: I wrote the entirety of Ch. 5 on a plane during the start of my vacation and haven’t touched it since, except for doing a few read-throughs. I’m probably going to end up changing a lot of this by the time I finish the chapter.

Also, how do 12/13-year-olds talk????? Like? They sound so formal in my wip? But that makes me see them as a lot older than they actually are which really goes against my “timeline”?? Maybe it’s the cause of a strict upper-class education and a sheltered childhood...yeah...

That’s all I have written so far. The next scene I have planned introduces Fenice’s secondary antagonist, Queen Kathleen? Adelaide? Elizandra? god she’s gone through so many names I give up

-----

Here’s a dialogue snippet I’ll be writing/expanding soon:

“Mother?”

“Yes, dearest.”

“What’s a deadborn?”

“Someone you should be grateful for.”

-----

Taglist (Message me if you want to be added/removed): @schwarzekatze1999

@aloonycynic

That’s all for now folks! I’m still trying to figure out where I want this chapter to go, but I think I’m getting close. It’s going to be a bit difficult to continue writing through with school just around the corner, so I’ll be praying for some time and motivation to push me along. Either way, I’m pretty happy with how some of the scenes turned out :)

Signing off!

-Maddie

#writeblr #writing struggles #writers of tumblr #creative writing #original writing #am writing #whencomesthedawn #WCTD #wip:wctd #my wip #wip #historical fantasy #fantasy #writing update #excerpts #spilled ink

2 notes · View notes

smartcookie727 · 6 years ago

Text

Starfarers: Chapter 2

Happy gajevy day yall! I am so excited for all the love for my dear gajevy. This is where I finished off the original prompt for my Eden’s Zero crossover fic but we have now turned into a multichap. Levy dives into the deep end this time, and we finally meet Gajeel and a few of the crew members of the Iron Dragon. I hope yall enjoy. Leave me a comment, reblog, tag, anything so I know what yall like. Be sure to check out my writing blog @luminescent-words for all fics, WIPs, and everything literary!

Pairing: Gajevy

Length: 2.2k

Levy McGarden has a thriving business and a comfortable life on Blue Garden. But that life was turned upside down the night she crashed into the Captain of the Iron Dragon. Space pirate: Gajeel Redfox. She saved his life that night, and they’ve only grown closer since. Now, he’s got a proposition: come with him and he’ll take her to find what she’s been searching for her entire life.

Chapter 2: Captain

Levy whirled around.

Gajeel.

“Of course I got the note.” Her words tried to come out harsh, but the warmth spreading through her heart dulled their bite.

He was everything she remembered and more. Clad in a simple black shirt and leather jacket, he exuded confidence. Wild raven hair cascaded down his back, tempered by a thick gray bandana that matched the studded embellishments on his clothes and face. His red eyes pierced straight through to her heart. Tall and muscular and tanned from hours outside, he looked like he’d stepped straight out of one of her romance novels—only better.

The curve of his lips sent a shiver down her spine as he inspected her over too. Six weeks was such a long time, and there were so many details that had faded from the picture of him in her mind. The tiny scars on his hands, the sparkle of metal against his skin when his piercings caught the light. Holoscreens and wanted posters could not hope to do him justice.

Then there was his arm. Entirely mechanical, it stretched from the top of his left shoulder all the way down to his fingers. Dots of color and symbols speckled the entirety of the prosthetic, hiding the many gadgets—and weapons—his disposal. Dangerous, alluring, exciting. Real and right in front of her.

Gajeel flashed a wicked smile. “I knew you’d come. You were never afraid, not even that first night.” He took a long drag of her coffee. The cocky grin plastered across his face vanished in a twist of lips. “That’s no good. Needs whiskey.”

Lifting onto her tiptoes, Levy swiped the cup back. “I’d thank you to not take my things.”

“Ah,” he sighed, “but that’s what pirates do, little Levy.”

She glared up at him. He knew how to push her buttons far too well.

Gajeel laughed and tucked a loose wisp of hair behind her ear. “So, you ready to fly away with Captain Black Steel Gajeel?”

The challenge sparkled in his eyes. Nodding, Levy tossed back the rest of her coffee and raised her leg in a playful kick.

“Will these shoes work?”

He caught her ankle at the top of its arc, tugging just enough to examine the sneaker and her flexibility. Levy hopped to stay upright but managed not to break eye contact.

“Perfect.”

In one swift movement, he released her foot and slid his arm around her waist. Electric whirring filled the air. Then, they were gone.

Levy’s heart raced as her feet touched the floor. Travel by rift always made her nervous, but right now, that wasn’t why her pulse was pounding in her ears. Pressed into his side in a protective hug, Levy could feel the strong, smooth muscle hidden just beneath the fabric of his shirt.

“Wow,” she breathed.

Gajeel glanced down and cracked a devilish smile. Her hands still clutched him for dear life, and she could feel the burn of blush across her cheeks. Levy released him with a huff.

“I, uh, didn’t know you had a micro-rift. They’re really rare, ya know? And I didn’t even see you had it with you; I feel like I would have noticed—”

Gajeel lifted his mechanical arm.

“Built right in.” Tentatively, she took his outstretched hand. “Pirates like shiny toys, and this one has gotten me out of plenty of pinches since I got it installed.”

Levy’s fingers drifted over the cool metal, tracing the complex command sigils that covered his prosthetic in awe.

“Then why did we have to run?” she asked softly, almost to herself.

Gajeel chuckled, lifting her chin to look her in the eyes. “Smart as a whip, miss McGarden.”

There was something hidden in the depths of his ruby gaze she couldn’t quite place. Something that felt awfully like the burning desire of more. Breath stalled in her chest for a single heart-stopping second as she waited. But nothing came, and the moment dissipated around them like stardust.

Exhaling hard, Gajeel leaned against a nearby panel, tipping his head back and crossing his arms over his chest.

“I gotta modulate the frequency on it every once in a while or the alliance force will lock onto the signal. If that happens it would be too easy for them to find me and my crew.” His eyes grew dark and solemn, lost in a far away memory. “This ship’s my home.”

His ship.

“And I can’t have anyone finding us.” Standing to his full height, he shrugged off the feeling of gloom that had gathered around him. “I was going to Lily’s for a tune up. He’s a wizard when it comes to anything I need to keep the ol’ arm working. But no, he wanted to be a baker.”

They were on his ship.

“And until I can figure a way to build him a confectionery with a delivery vessel off the side of the old girl here, he refuses to close up the shop he’s got on solid ground.” Smiling, he rubbed the back of his neck. “But I’m working on it. Never had a better first mate, though.”

She was on a pirate ship.

“Ahem,” came an icy voice laced with annoyance.

Levy jumped in her shoes. She hadn’t noticed anyone come in.

“Not that you’re not a great first mate, Juvia,” Gajeel groaned, turning to face the newcomer, “but Lily was the better sparring partner.”

The woman strode toward them briskly from across the bridge of the ship, long blue curls bouncing with every step. She acknowledged Levy with a smile that reached all the way to her aqua eyes, before directing a glare at Gajeel.

“Juvia does not take you up on requests to fight anymore because she could incapacitate you in the first few moves.”

“Only cause you’d short circuit my arm.”

Juvia raised a hand to the ceiling. Faint blue sigils flared against her skin and storm clouds gathered above her head.

“Don’t test my patience, Captain. You’re being rude. We have a guest. You haven’t even told her where she is or made a proper introduction.”

“And how the hell would you know what I have or haven’t—”

Gajeel’s eyes ticked back to Levy, who had tucked herself against a nearby corner. “Shit, Lev, this is my ship, and this Juvia. You remember me telling you about her?”

Levy’s heart skipped a beat as all attention focused on her. “Um, hello,” she said with a nervous wave. “Gajeel’s told me about everyone. It’s nice to put a face to the name.”

Before she could step forward to shake the Juvia’s hand, Levy found herself lifted into a hug. Apparently none of his crew had any qualms about separating her from the floor.

“Welcome to the Iron Dragon, Levy. You’re officially sailing with pirates. I’m so glad you’re finally here. Gajeel hasn’t been able to stop talking about his friend for weeks now.” She giggled as she set Levy down. “Any longer and I was coming to find you myself. I’m Juvia. Please come to me if you need anything.” Stepping back, she lightly punched Gajeel’s arm. “Lugnuts might get to call himself Captain, but I take care of most things around here.”

“Hey!” Gajeel barked, “I do Captain stuff all the time.”

Mist gathered above his head, and a large drop of rain landed squarely on his face. Gajeel grumbled something about rust and swatted the cloud away.

“Juvia is first mate around here. She uses weather ether gear. Don’t get on her bad side or she’ll send a shower to follow you around for days.”

“Thank you,” Levy squeaked, “I’ll be sure to take you up on that once I know more about this place.”

The remark seemed to satisfy Juvia, and she turned her attention to a monitor off to the right.

Levy exhaled long and slow, turning in a circle to examine everything. She was on a pirate ship, with Gajeel, the promise of adventure right in front her if she was just willing to reach out and grab it.

“Wow,” she said under her breath, eyes lighting up like stars. “So, this is what you wanted to show me?”

Juvia tried and failed to stifle a laugh. “Smooth, Captain.”

Gajeel shot her a glare that could vaporize anyone else on the spot.

Unfazed, Juvia continued her work at the console. “You pick up everything we need or just that special item you wanted so bad?”

He nodded silently, daring Juvia to try her luck.

With a giggle, she shut off the screen and skipped out of the room. “Well, I’ll go tell Metalicana we’re ready then,” she called over her shoulder before turning down a passage out of sight.

Gajeel pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, turning to face Levy.

“Don’t mind Juvia. She’s quirky, but she’s as smart and loyal as they come. Her favorite pastime is making jokes at my expense, though.”

“We’ll be fast friends then.”

That earned her a deep chuckle, and the air in the room seemed to relax.

“I did have something I wanted to show ya, Shrimp.” Gajeel took her hand and lead her over to a command panel in front of what could only be the captain’s chair. “You’ve been searching for some real specific scrolls, right? The ones you were so upset about that night. Well,” he pulled up a small section of space on the screen. “I happened to catch word that there’s some ancient scrolls on a planet, right here.” He gestured to a blue sphere on the screen. “Litulla. It’s on the outskirts of the cosmos. Some adventurers with a talking blue cat traded me this as proof.” Bending down, he removed a weathered roll of linen held together with an intricate wax symbol from the large iron chest beside his chair.

Levy’s eyes widened and the familiar words escaped in a hushed breath. “The midnight dove flying across a crescent moon.”

No. This couldn’t be real. They were all supposed to have burned, and yet here it was in the palm of her hand. Gently, she ran her fingers over the symbol.

“I can’t believe you found one.” Levy could feel the pull of ink and stitches in the back of her mind, itching for her to let them in. “They were used by the old council to mark documents of great importance. No one’s seen one in centuries.” Unbidden, a tear fell down her cheek. “This is amazing.”

“So, you ready for a real adventure? Let’s go to the edge of the universe together. Let me take you, Levy.” Gajeel squeezed her shoulder, and she shivered at the sudden coolness of metal against her skin. “Special delivery.”

Levy placed the scroll down and whirled around to grab him in a ferocious hug. She buried her face in his chest.

“Yes.”

His arms settled around her waist, and they stood there for a long moment, just holding each other. Levy bit back a sob. This was more than she’d ever expected. He’d remembered. He’d cared. A small part of her had given up hope on the search a long time ago, just like everyone else. But Gajeel believed. He was going to help her find the answers she’d resigned to live without, and there was nothing she could could do to show him how grateful she was—except go with him.

“Anchors away,” she said with a sniffle.

Bursting into laughter, Gajeel clutched his stomach and fell back into his chair.

“This is a spaceship, Shrimp, not some seafaring boat.”

“Starfarers, then.”

“Yeah”, he chuckled, “I guess so.” Taking a moment, Gajeel gathered his composure and called up a video labeled “Mechanics”. A tall, scarred man with wild salt and pepper hair appeared on the screen.

“Get her roaring, Metalicana!”

The man stared at Levy through the monitor then responded with a raspy grunt. “So this was the sweet you so desperately wanted to come back to this planet for?” He tossed his head back, laughing. “An’ here I thought you were talking ‘bout something Lily was makin’ us.”

Levy gaped as Gajeel turned red as his crimson eyes.

“Just do it, old man,” he barked.

“Nice ta meet ya, kid,” Metalicana said, addressing Levy with a bow. “Don’t let this one push ya around. He’s just a big softie under all that metal.”

Suddenly, the video cut out. “Pops,” Gajeel grumbled.

The floor hummed beneath their feet; Levy felt the prickle of excitement race to the tips of her fingers. Every risk she’d taken on Gajeel had steered her into something wonderful. Now, she was more ready than ever to dive headfirst into the unknown.

A smirk curled the edges of her lips, and Levy gestured with her thumb for Gajeel to get out of the seat. She was always the one who flew and he knew it.

Slowly, Gajeel stood. “My dragon’s a lot harder to handle than that little planet hopper of yours, short stack. Sure you wanna give it a go?”

Levy sat down with all the powerful grace of an oncoming storm. Command screens flickered to life around her, and she set their course without missing a beat.

“You’re not the only one with a few surprises up your sleeve, Captain.” Closing her eyes, Levy breathed in deeply. Her fingers curled around the controls as her smile deepened. “Yo, ho.”

#gajevy #gajevyday18 #gajevy fanfiction #fairy tail #fairy tail fanfiction #cookie writes #levy mcgarden #gajeel redfox #gajevy fics #happy late gajevy day!!!!!#*i had to work nonstop last few days and wanted to be sure i had this edited nice*#idk where this plot it going tbh #but its taking us on an adventure #juvia cameo #starfarers collection #starfarers; captain #metalicana cameo

50 notes · View notes

epersonae · 7 years ago

Text

ye olde liner notes

A whole bunch of meta for The Truth or Something Beautiful, which @magcretia and I posted two months ago? Sure why not?

It’s hecking long, so more under the cut....

Elaine: so I guess at this point (almost 2 months later) this is more of a retrospective, yeah? But we both want to take a look at how this thing happened, so it's all good.

Kath: Yeah, I mostly thought it’d be useful to us as we’re working on this big WIP of [redacted] where there’s gonna be some intense feelings to kind of take some “emotional inventory” for Taako and Lucretia, and maybe also ourselves? And remind ourselves where we came from and where we’re trying to go.

E: I think we were both pretty wiped out after finishing this, so a little distance is good. I’m trying to remember what the bit was where we decided, fuckit let’s just publish after trying to cut and then put back blah blah blah? Was it “But we — we keep choosing Forsake,” ? We cut because it seemed like a weird turn, but then it turned out to be important?

K: I think it felt like a beat we were hitting without it flowing naturally there, which happens sometimes? But I think with these two, there just isn’t always a flow, because they’re in their own heads so much and say so little of what they need to say aloud. So a lot of times it just comes out abruptly and feels uncomfortable, which isn’t pretty, but it’s true to life. And a LOT of writing this was uncomfortable, I think.

E: Ok, I’ll just dive right into that, then. We both went into this thinking it was going to be an easier conversation than Find the One Safe Way and NOOOOOOOOPE.

K: YEAH UHHH LOL.

E: I had this moment of absolute low where I thought: we broke it, the thing that we thought we’d fixed, we absolutely just broke it, and personally (hi overidentifying with Lucretia) I just kept thinking WOW that was a mistake bringing up Lup.

K: Yeah, I had that same feeling, and I remember talking about it with you like “do we scratch this? Are we really going to keep this?” and I think it was that uncertainty of letting Taako and Lucretia do what they do, the same way we wrote Safe Way, that was scary.

E: these chucklefucks. And the moment where Lucretia dives to the bottom of the pool and, look, I try really hard to stay away from the suicidal stuff when I write Lucretia, I’m just too soft to really handle it, but I was right there in it. (which was super surreal having those feelings at work, LET ME TELL YOU) But I had to trust that “no way out but through” was going to work.

So, ok, this “How could you not do something?” hit me, personally, so hard I could hardly breathe, because duh, of course. sigh

K: So, that all started from your coke!Taako fic, The Mirror, which really stuck with me for… clearly a long time, for a lot of reasons, but I hadn’t really explored those feelings until I started writing my longfic, Another Beach Year. And in ABY, in a scene that I never finished and probably never will, Taako has a nightmare that’s actually a memory of Sizzle It Up days, where Lucretia was watching him from the crowd (as she did in The Mirror) and she sees just how messed up he is, how poorly he’s doing, and she does nothing. And I think that stuck with me even though this series isn’t necessarily in either of those continuities, and I wanted to incorporate that, because I feel that a lot of times the Taako and Lucretia conflict is boiled down to the “you made me forget my sister” thing, and that’s not the whole thing. At least for us, (ESPECIALLY for us?) it’s, “you were my best friend, and you did all that, and you knew I was doing badly, and you still didn’t do anything.” And I think Taako didn’t know how to articulate that in any way that wasn’t accusatory, but it was (and I am biased) perhaps deserved? Definitely necessary, regardless.

E: So I think what made that as difficult as it was on my end was that she felt bad about what had happened, but what she was sorry for wasn’t the thing that was hurting him the most. She thought she knew but she had no idea. I don’t even know how to articulate the dawning horror of “I’ve been sorry about the wrong thing this whole time” except I guess how I actually did? And I think of Lucretia as someone who very much wants to be able to fix things, to make a plan that comes through and improves everything, and to be hit with “this is bad and I can’t do anything about that” is a heavy hit.

K: Mmm. I think it’s hard for Taako to admit that he’s hurting at all, so when he does, it’s kind of a “well I guess while we’re doing this, I’ll get it all out” deal. And so he has all of these feelings about the forgetting, and about Lup, and about a decade being essentially a shell of himself, but what we’re bringing to the table here is this added dimension of their relationships with Magnus, and consequently their friendship with each other. So I think it’s almost easy to lose sight of what exactly he’s hurting about and default to the Lup stuff (and, wow, yeah, there’s so much more there that in True Taako Fashion, even I am avoiding) but fixing the Lup stuff still won’t fix the Lucretia stuff, because he has his memories back. It’s not the forgetting that’s hurting him now, it’s the betrayal.

E: “it’s hard for Taako to admit” — so this. At one point, I was questioning whether he really would have pruney fingers (from the pool) because the amount of actual dialogue wasn’t long enough, and one of the curious things about this whole thing is how much goes unspoken. They take soooo much time to say honestly the briefest things. It’s tremendously frustrating, on some level, because god just say a thing already but it’s also artistically satisfying because it feels true to them, that they dance around their feelings until something just breaks. Usually because I have Lucretia just blurt out some godawful thing. (There’s a bit in the WIP where it’s WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT, but I just feel it.) Of course Lucretia would ask if he’s talked to Lup, and then instantly regret having asked.

K: Oh no girl she didn’t ask, she just abruptly said “I’m sorry about Lup,” which is maybe? Possibly? The worst thing she could have done in that moment. Which makes for good radio but not a good emotional state LOL.

E: Ha, I was thinking about the bit later.

K: YEAH. TWICE. OK LUCRETIA. I think it really does attest to how much she wants to fix things, and all her good intentions, but she can’t do it her way. That way doesn’t work with Taako… They’re the same in that they can’t handle being blindsided with feelings, but that doesn’t stop either of them from doing it to each other? And that’s why these conversations keep happening with the intensity that they do, is they have such a hard time navigating those feelings in the first place. To which we just say, at this point: these chucklefucks.

E: With so much love, but yeah. I can’t believe we thought this one was going to be more lighthearted. Because they were less defensive, maybe? Safe Way they were both on guard because it was a planned encounter, but this was accidental.

K: And they were getting along. For pages, it was like, wow, fuck, this feels good, they’re chatting? Laughing? Together? And then it was, (and wow this is a theme, huh?) talking about family, and ultimately Angus, that caused this whole… thing.

E: There’s so much I have to say about Angus in [redacted], because I’ve fallen headlong into the idea that out of all the adults in his life, Lucretia and Taako are the most parental. But even here, he’s almost a proxy for all this other stuff that’s hanging between them. The theft of the silverware ends up being about what Taako is like on his own, and how Lucretia made her friends into her employees. Angus as a kid on his own is both a thing that Lucretia feels guilty about and a reminder to Taako of his own childhood, and being a kid with Lup.

K: And that was something that I really only scratched the surface of here, because I think that feeling runs deep for Taako. And I think it’s not only why Taako winds up as the parental figure that he is in our timeline, but it’s also why he is so insistent on doing what he can to give Ango a normal life, or to somehow make up for the time Ango spent “alone,” so to speak. It’s hard to articulate, but Taako definitely feels a kinship with Ango in that way, and I think he is projecting some of his own feelings about his own hardships of childhood onto Lucretia? In the way that he blames her for… kind of many things lol. It’s something I want to explore separately later on, for sure.

E: Something that I’m noticing on re-read is that they have this common thread of “you’re the only person I can tell how shitty I know I am” — that might not be exactly it, but something in that neighborhood. That they look at themselves and think “I’m not a good person,” and everybody else is yeah yeah whatever, but they can say it to each other. Which is kinda fucked up, but interesting.

K: YES. I think for Taako it’s mostly “I can say I’m a shitty person to you because there’s very little shit that I could do that’s worse than what you did to me!” Which, yeah, fucked up and interesting lol. And for Lucretia, probably “You already know I’m a shitty person and are the first to tell me so, so I’ll say it anyway”?

E: I don’t think she means it to be calculated, but there’s definitely an aspect of “I’ll admit to it before you accuse me” on her part. I also sometimes see a bit of “you helped make me this shitty” from Taako. And for both of them, they feel like they’re comparing themselves to the people they see as whole-heartedly good, ie Magnus and Lup. (Having this set in Magnus’s yard turned out to be a hell of a thing.)

K: Yeah, I think Taako is a bit more calculated about it, but also I think he’s always been quicker to admit that he’s not really good. (Justin saying “Taako’s not a good person, though, Taako’s not a good person,” on air was like. A LOT to take in. But also, my qualms with Justin’s Canon are well known lol.) I don’t think Taako’s a bad person. I think I summed it up nicely through Kravitz in The Way We Really Are, where he basically says “we’re not good, we’re not bad, we just are.” I think Taako really needed to hear that, especially considering he is Constantly Comparing Himself to everyone else around him, and he honestly believes everyone around him is just… Good. Capital G Good. It’s hard not to compare yourself to your twin.

E: They both have this comparison thing that WOW do I relate to, and actually that circles all the way around back to the thing that was such a difficult editing experience: Trust or Forsake. It was sort of a sideways swerve in the conversation, but it’s such a good metaphor. That they’re both good at calculating the odds and thinking in a very pragmatic way, but then experience the feelings backlash later. They’re both coping with the “rush of shame”, as you put it.

K: I was about to say, I always seem to gravitate back to the robot world, with Taako’s “Am I the only pragmatist here?” and how that was the only time we ever saw him actively disagreeing with Lup. The fact that he was almost angry with her there really stuck with me, and subsequently how he conceded after and promised (with the rest of the team) not to get “scary” like that again. It stick with me, and because of that, it sticks with Taako. I think he feels guilty for a lot of stuff that he knows had to be done. And for that reason, he and Lucretia have a lot in common.

E: That’s one of the core theses of our work together, this commonality. And it’s always such a visceral pleasure to play on that in the interior monologue. Maybe most of all in the new things/good things bit? (Bringing in Kravitz always makes me cry.)

K: Any excuse to bring in Krav. And it was really nice for me to tie him in with a callback to one of your pieces (which you gifted to me!) that was also mentioned in Safe Way. We’ve done a lot of talking outside of our works about how the seven, but particularly Taako and Lucretia, didn’t wind up with the lives they expected, but they wound up with something new and good, and I think that’s a big part of how Taako arrives at his conclusion of “we can’t fix this but we can build something new, maybe.” He knows the power of these new good things, and perhaps the Newest and the Best thing is Kravitz.

E: As I’m thinking about this, and rereading that part in particular, I’m actually reminded of some personal conversations that we’ve had, and this conclusion that they get to resonates: there’s a lot of Bad Shit in the past, and we’re/they’re kind of broken, but there’s enough good now to keep going. Which is a pretty …….. weird? conclusion to end up at, but for me personally it’s oddly hopeful. That it’s better to keep trying than to give up.

K: For sure. I think part of what attracts me to Taako as a character is that he’s the embodiment of the “third option.” Like, no matter how much shit is absolutely fucked, he finds some way to break the game and get the hell out of dodge (and sometimes save the day. But only sometimes.) And I think despite the fact that he struggles so much afterwards (and… basically all of that is my own doing bc lol projecting on fic) he still manages to find a lot of good. It reminds me of a thing you tagged me in that said something like “you don’t have to be hopeful about the future, you just have to be curious enough about what could happen if you stick around” which really rang true for me personally. And for Taako, I think it’s almost a matter of “well, my life was buckwild enough so far, might as well see it through.” (The ravishing boyfriend is a plus, tho.)

E: And honestly, Kravitz’s presence in Taako’s life is something that Lucretia cherishes as well, not that she can take credit for it, obviously, but seeing him happy makes her feel a little better about how everything went down.

K: Absolutely, and I think that gratitude comes through in some small moments in both of our individual works, as early as To New Beginnings which I wrote in October (!) and perhaps even before that? But I feel like there’s this unspoken understanding, almost, between Kravitz and Lucretia (which also came through in Copper for Your Thoughts, in a way) that I think comes with the territory of being the wise characters they are, always laden with such gravitas lol.

E: To zag on you: THE TEA? (which, actually, I’ve never had rose tea, I don’t think? But you made it a Lucretia thing in To New Beginnings at least, and it crossed over into this continuity.) This is another “third option” that changed the whole thing, and I love it.

K: Hah, I never even thought about the symbolic “third option” for tea. (There’s a lot of threes with these three, lol.) Rose tea tastes how roses smell, and it’s weird, but I’m kind of into it? It just always felt like a Lucretia thing to me. BUT YEAH THE TEA, I was having him transmute the juice into tea and I was gonna have him make rose tea, but he already did that in Safe Way, so I was sitting there musing for a minute and thought, oh, what if they had Magnus’s tea? (Oolong, if you’re playing along at home.) And then it hit me: oh, I don’t even know what kind of tea Taako drinks, because he’s always making two cups of whatever the other person wants, which I then raised to you outside of the doc, which then we were both just kinda like “oh… fuck… that’s a thing now” lol.

But I do want to go a little deeper into that, bc I think about it a lot, how Taako isn’t good at saying how he feels. This is known. And that’s another aspect that draws me to him, because wow, fucking same. I used to have quite a knack for naming my emotions, and then somewhere along the line I kind of lost that. And it’s not just about the negative. It’s absolutely a Thing to have a hard time showing people how you feel positively. And I think a lot about that in my own life and have done musing on “love languages” and all that jazz and I think for Taako, he does that in really subtle ways. Doing little things that he almost hopes people won’t even notice. He doesn’t want that “aw that’s so sweet” reaction. He just wants to make that person feel good and move on— which is quite different from the showboating Taako from TV. It’s an interesting contradiction that was so nice to be able to explore so naturally here. Lucretia’s spent a century with him and it hits her all at once that she’s never had the tea he likes, because he’s always taking part in hers. It’s so meaningful and says so much about him. (And maybe he’s not as Bad as he thinks.)

E: And she absolutely notices, first with the mugs — which AAAAAAAAAH the Moon’s Best Director mug, please — because it’s such a little detail that shows that he’s paying attention to her and to her relationship with Magnus, and then the tea and what that means. Again: trust. That she’s going to not try to protect herself or hide from him, she’s going to trust that she can be open and let what happens happen. Ok, I also have to say, we haven’t talked much about the actual process of writing, but the part where Taako says he’s sorry, I read that in the grocery store and then I just wandered the aisles in a daze for like 10 minutes trying to even figure out her response. (In the vein of “leaning into the feeling”, that sound that might’ve been oh or no was literally me in the frozen food aisle.) But they pull back from that brink so quickly! And I think what we’re both noticing in really digging into this again is how actually unresolved it is.

K: I am a big fan of Observant Taako, who cares very deeply but won’t admit it. Even if he’s not in a good place with Lucretia, I think at this point he’s moved forward for his own sake and everyone else’s sake enough that he can appreciate that she makes Magnus happy, and at least that much they will always have in common.

But um, yeah, that apology. It’s loaded, and it’s (appropriately) multi-dimensional. I had Taako feeling sorry during Safe Way, and not understanding why, and not being able to say it. And so here, he feels it again, and he’s ready to say it, but he still doesn’t know why. And it partially comes from a personal place, but it also comes from a lack of emotional literacy when Taako is taking stock of his own feelings? It’s a complicated apology that (you pointed this out, really) he thinks is surface-level for the emotional distress this conversation caused (re: “you spooked me” etc) but in reality it’s more than that. But the rest might be [redacted] here bc I’d like to explore that more in later installments. But yeah, the way they wrap up is… more unresolved than I ever realized? Like reading this back, they didn’t talk about half the shit they brought up, they kind of just threw it out into the arena. Which, for Taako, is more of a “well nothing else is gonna budge til I talk to Lup” thing.

E: In a way, it’s good to see how everything is still so half-formed, because it resonates so nicely as we get into [redacted]. It makes some of the interpersonal weirdness? unevenness? that comes out make actually a lot more sense. Also, if I may say it again for the Nth time: THESE CHUCKLEFUCKS.

#taz fic #my fic #writing about writing #actual tag: these chucklefucks #fwiw writing this influenced a scene we just worked on #so yay us?

4 notes · View notes

memorytile0-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Studio Tour!

Hey everyone!

It’s been over a year since I moved into my new house, so you know what that means – time for an updated studio tour!! Yeahhhh!!

Same as with my last delay, I kept putting off sharing this room with y’all because I really wanted to feel like it was “done” first. Even though, realistically, nothing is ever finished in my home – I’m always moving things around! I had a little kick in my pants via a Sewing Space feature over at Tilly & the Buttons , which forced me to suck it up and take the dang photos already. What you’re about to see is my studio in it’s natural state – it’s tidy, but not show-room perfect (i.e., I really should reorganize my fabric shelve, but, priorities).

While I was compiling the photos for this post, I ended up falling down a pretty deep rabbit hole of my past studio spaces. You may not be aware of this, but I’ve had a dedicated sewing room in some shape or form since 2006. My tastes & decorating have definitely changed a lot over the years, which I personally find pretty interesting! I think it’s also relevant as a lot of people comment on how well-organized my space is – which, it should be, I’ve been working on it for over 12 years! 😛 So before we jump into the NEW studio, I want to share a little bit of my evolution first!

Apologies in advance for the poor photos – it looks like my photography skills have also evolved, at least a little 😉

2006: My very first dedicated sewing space, back when I lived in Midtown in Nashville TN. I loved that apartment so, so much and stayed there for several years – it was a beautiful old building with crazy cheap rent. I eventually couldn’t handle the poor maintenance or the noisy bars getting built up around me, so I moved… but not before moving my sewing room all over this one apartment. First stop was in what I think was the dining room – or possibly a small servant’s quarters (it was a 100+ year old building right by Vanderbilt with a layout that suggested this might have been the intention). It was a VERY small room – like I’ve had bigger walk-in closets than this space – but it was perfect for a tiny sewing set-up.

Also, if you are curious – the dress I’m wearing is New Look 6557, which was the first proper sewing pattern I made by myself and I made DOZENS of that dress lol

2007: Still in the same apartment in Midtown, but I moved shop into what was the bedroom (with my bedroom in the living room, and the tiny dining room being a sitting room). My ex boyfriend and I painted the room orange, and then he claimed it for his office (a bold move considering he never paid any rent). As soon as I kicked his ass out, I reclaimed the room for myself. So this is my “fuck you” sewing room haha. I also got Amelia, my cat, around the same time – for the same reason 🙂

Very little of this room is still in my possession! I have all new sewing machines and furniture. The only things I still have are the desk chair and that Little Prince poster. Also, lol at another New Look 6557 being on the dress form. And, yes, I had 4 irons. I did a lot of dumpster diving at Vanderbilt University back then and irons were a popular thing to throw away I guess.

2008: Decided I was DEFINITELY worth the biggest room in the apartment, so I moved my studio to the living room (and took back the bedroom for, well, my bedroom). This room was massive and I looooved that space so much. Painted it green, which in retrospect… not my best idea. I built a makeshift long table out of some old cabinets and a piece of plywood covers with peel and stick tile. And I upgraded my machines – I still use both of those today! Actually found the receipt the other day while I was cleaning out my files; I bought them at the end of 2007 :3

For funsies, here’s a photo of me at that time – scene hair and all! I made that dress with knit fabric from Walmart haha

2009: Same room, with some updates! I repainted the entire thing bright turquoise (which became “my color” as far as studios are concerned!), as well painted my furniture. Got a cutting table (just one of those cheap ones from Joann’s), some new storage, and made curtains. This was taken over Christmas, hence the sparkly tree (which I still have today!)

2010: Ok, last one! This is the saddest looking photo ever, ha, but it’s literally the only one I have! I ended up moving out of my Midtown apartment and in with a friend who lived in South Nashville. He never used his living room, so I took it over as my sewing room! I had to work around the existing furniture, but I made it work. Lived here for about 2 months and then I moved to East Nashville to live with my BFF.

Other sewing spaces have their own blog post! 2011: Yellow Sewing room in East Nashville, TN 2011: Pale Blue sewing room in East Nashville, TN 2012: Giant Turquoise sewing room in West Nashville, TN 2015: Oddly Shaped Turquoise sewing room in Kingston Springs, TN 2017: Apartment sewing room in West Nashville, TN

Whew! Ok, this post has gotten long already and we aren’t even at the good stuff yet!

Anyway, here is where I am today! I moved into this sweet 1935 Tudor in 12 South/Nashville a little over a year ago. It’s a wonderful house + neighborhood and I really love living here. I use the second bedroom as my studio – it’s very small (just barely 11′ x 11′), and there are two doors, plus a closet, which made furniture arranging a little bit of a challenge! I had to take a lot of measurements and draft up a few room layouts before I figured out a good fit for everything, but it was definitely worth it.

The back half of the house was originally carpeted, and before I moved in I negotiated with the landlord to have the carpets removed (they were gross. Not, like, “ewwww carpet, gross” but like “10+ year old covered in stains gross”) and we were both delighted to discover the original hardwoods underneath. I also had her paint the walls a bright white, which really helped the overall vibe of the room. Before I moved in, this house was dark and dirty… it’s pretty fabulous now, though. I love it so much.

Also, because this comes up often – yes, I move a lot. I’m a renter, and my city is unfortunately going through some growing pains with skyrocketing rents + half the affordable houses either getting bulldozed (to build more $1M houses) or turned into AirBNBs (do not even get me started on the tragedy that is AirBNB over here, omg. It is a big, big problem and I encourage you if you visiting a popular city like Nashville to be very weary of any AirBNB that clearly is *only* an AirBNB and not someone’s home). I would love to buy and stop moving, but right now it just is not feasible. I like to think I’ve found a great long-term home here, but this is an expensive/trendy neighborhood so fingers crossed my landlord doesn’t try to turn it into a short term rental or sell it to the highest bidder.

Details about all products (including furniture & decor) are at the end of this post!

Here is the studio when you enter through the hallway in the back of the house!

As full of a view of the room that I could get!

The back wall (facing the door you enter through) holds all my sewing machines. I built the long table with IKEA components (this will be a running theme in this room haha), because I wanted to house all my machines on one single table that I could just roll down in my chair. There are lots of drawers which is great for storing notions and supplies. The windows get a lot of light and a very pretty view, but there are several mature trees in front so I also get some privacy.

Another view of the table and machines. You can also see part of the side porch through the window.

Above the machines, I hung lights for some extra brightness in the room. True story – I rarely use these lights, as I realized immediately after that the main overhead light could hold 3 bulbs and 2 were blown out. I replaced all the bulbs with super high wattage daylight bulbs and HOLY SHIT BRIGHTNESS BATMAN. It’s like high noon in this room now, all the time! It’s amazing!!! Y’all can have your ~ambient lighting~ all you want but I am all bright, all the time haha

Looking to the left of the machines, this is where I keep my bookshelves that hold sewing/knitting/art books, Papercut Patterns, and knitting supplies. All my yarn fits in that one big basket 😛 I also keep WIP patterns in the magazine holder on top of the bookshelf. Over the book shelves, I hung two long wall shelves – the boxes store swatches, zippers, and lingerie supplies, and the top shelf is purely decorational. Those plants are fake as fuck, btw.

Here’s another angle – thread racks, an extra stool, and a lamp that rarely gets used (again, daylight lightbulbs are the BOMB you guys).

If you continue down that wall to the left, you’ll end up back at the door in which you entered. There is a door in the middle of the wall that leads to the side porch. This is where my dressform lives. I wasn’t crazy about the large blank wall, but didn’t want to spring for wallpaper (or bother painting… I like painting, but I’m not a fan of painted accent walls and I didn’t want to paint the entire room), so I bought these wall stickers on Amazon and made a dotty wall! It makes me so happy! 🙂

So, going back to the machines and swinging right – you will get my fabric stash! Really thought about reorganizing this for the photo (it actually does need to be sorted and culled), decided not to haha. My old shelf that I’ve been using since 2009 wasn’t going to fit in this room, so I passed it on to a friend and bought something a little more modular. This area holds my fabric, PDF patterns, embroidery and art supplies, and my snap setters.

Next to my fabric is my ironing station! I started out in this room with a proper ironing board, but I desperately needed more storage so I swapped it out for a tabletop ironing board. I can’t take credit for this – I totally took the idea from Jasika as she made the exact same thing. It’s perfect! I padded out the top of an IKEA kitchen island with a few layers of cotton batting, then wrapped fabric (it’s Robert Kaufman Essex linen, specifically, if you are curious lol) around the whole thing and stapled it down. The station has drawers that hold ironing supplies and camera equipment, and shelves to hold my current projects and my Cricut Maker. The bucket of fabric next to the table holds scraps that are too big to throw away but not big enough to justify putting back on the shelf.

My iron is a gravity feed iron (I’m still using the same original one I got back in 2012!); the tank is suspended from the ceiling with a heavy duty plant hanger. Rather than keep the iron on my table, I found a small metal shelf on Amazon (used to house tv speakers) and attached that to the wall. This frees up space on my board, plus makes me feel a little less wigged-out about having an iron on top of cotton + wood. Over the station, I have a hanging light that is plugged directly into the same power strip that powers the iron. This way, I always know if the iron is on or off – and I never leave it on by accident!

The ironing station my cat’s favorite place to perch (second favorite is behind the sewing machines), so she can look out the window! I have a really great back yard, but unfortunately my crappy back neighbors tore down the entire tree line that separates us so I now have to stare at their house instead of beautiful green trees (and now no privacy! Boo!). Also, unfortunately for them, this has not deterred me from changing directly in front of that window haha

Next to the ironing station is my desk! This is where I get all my work done, unless I’m sitting on my porch (which is equally pretty great). On the wall beside my printer is where I hang my rulers, as well as an inspiration bulletin board and my fabric swatch board (where I keep track of the fabrics I want to sew next).

Next to the desk is the tiny closet. Sorry about this picture – this was the only way to not make it loo horrifying haha. I keep the rest of my patterns in here, organized in boxes. PDF patterns that I am working on are hung with clips on a small tension rod, and rolled PDF patterns are stored in a small trash can on the floor. I also keep supplies for my other job in here, on the top shelf. Rather than stack things, I built shelves with plywood so this closet is basically a giant shelf behind a door.

For more info about how I organize my patterns, please check out this blog post!

One side of my cutting table has drawers (holding pincushions, muslins, extra interfacing scraps, and lesser-used sewing tools) and bins (holding swimsuit fabric and… well I just realized that other bin is empty lol it was holding a WIP that I finished).

The other side of my cutting table holds all my scissors, and more bins (boxes have leather scraps and silk scraps, bins have classroom supplies and supplies for when I need to take my machine on the road for my job).

Finally, under the table is space for a big trash can and a rolling kitchen cart, which I use to hold sewing supplies and general art supplies.

Some detail shots:

This wall makes me so happy! That jar is holding all my broken/used needles and pins.

These lights make me happy, too! I could only find them in black, so I spray painted them gold.

Embroidery designed and stitched by me 😛 😛 😛

Ok, so almost done! Finally, here are the links to sources for furniture & other stuff. Most of the things in this room are either from IKEA, or secondhand. Spoiler alert! Also please be aware that a lot of these links are affiliate links, meaning I will get a small commission if you click them and end up purchasing something. Just a head’s up!

Wall paint color: Seriously, I have no idea. White?

FURNITURE: Sewing machine table: ALEX drawer unit + LINNMON table top Vintage desk chair: Thrifted Cutting table: 2 KALLAX shelves + LINNMON tabletop + 2 KALLAX drawers + 4 KALLAX casters. Scissor rail is BYGEL RAIL + s-hooks Fabric Shelves: HEJNE shelving unit Bookshelves: thrifted Ironing Station: FORHOJA kitchen cart + metal dvd wall shelf Printer table: KLIMPEN drawer unit Writing desk: Nashville flea market Desk chair: Nashville flea market, spray painted gold and white Wall shelves: EKBY JÄRPEN / EKBY BJÄRNUM Turquoise utility cart: RÅSKOG Dressform: Professional female dressform with collapsible shoulders (also: full review here!)

ACCESSORIES & DECORATIONS: Yellow & white storage boxes: DRÖNA Large white storage boxes: IKEA, discontinued (these are similar) Small white storage boxes: IKEA, discontinued (these are similar) Fake plants: FEJKA Industrial paper roll: Given to me when my old job (advertising) was downsizing and clearing out the art room! Ceiling light (over ironing board): KNAPPA Ceiling lights (over machines): Geometric Light bulb cage pendant (spray painted gold) + Edison light bulbs + HEMMA cord set DMC thread organizer: thrifted Thread racks: given to me by Elizabeth Suzann, but here are some similars on Amazon- thread rack + serger thread rack Sewing room art: Joanna Baker, via Madalynne giveaway “I’ve Made A Huge Mistake” chalkboard sign: Custom made by Kaelah Sewing machine print: Madalynne Polka dot stickers: Gold polka dot wall decals Baskets: thrifted & spray painted gold White floor lamp: NOT floor lamp White desk lamp: Another score from the art supply room cleanout at my old job Small turquoise/white stool: Nashville Flea Market White cutting mats: The Shop Company White deer head: Gift from Elizabeth Suzann Snap setters (only people people always ask!): Purchased secondhand from Elizabeth Suzann

Ok, I think that’s all! Hope you enjoyed the tour 🙂

Like this:

Like Loading...

Tags: sewing room, studio

Source: https://lladybird.com/2018/09/07/studio-tour/

0 notes

xfilesnews · 8 years ago

Text

FanWorks Wednesdays - mimic117

by Keva Andersen

If you’ve ever needed help finding a fic you’ve read but can’t remember the full title or author, chances are this week’s author has helped you find it. Meet mimic117! She’s a wonderful author and also a prolific beta who helped shape some of your favorite stories. Mimic117 also runs The X-Files Lost and Found which is a great resource if you ever need help tracking down a story.

Look through her extensive list of work and you’ll find everything from casefiles, Mulder Torture, and heavy angst, to humor, family fic, and even an X-Men crossover. And there’s a little *ahem* adult activity as well if that’s what you’re looking for. One of my personal favorites is the “Chip Off the Old Block” series which brings Charlie Scully back into the picture shortly after the start of Season 9. But don’t let that S9 throw you, Mulder is still there. If terror is more your thing, “Only Skin Deep” dives into the mind of an obsessive stalker and it may just keep you up at night.

I could offer more recommendations of her work but this week I prefer to let our author do the talking. Mimic117 is a long-time member of the fandom and has done a lot to preserve many of the stories we first read on geocities and other sites that are now long-gone. We talked about writing, fandom, and how fanfiction has changed over the years and I hope you enjoy her perspective as much as I did.

How long have you been a Phile?

I didn't start watching the program until season 4 because Friday was always grocery shopping night. We only had one car so I didn't go shopping until Mr. Mims got home from work. Then we'd eat supper, throw the kids in the car, and not get back home until after 9 PM. I distinctly remember #1 son running inside to watch as soon as we pulled in, which is why he never helped unload groceries because "The X-Files is on!" He kept telling me how good it was and that I should watch. I finally got the chance when they moved to Sunday night and watched all the way through to the bitter end.

What was your first episode?

“F-Emasculata” – the one with the exploding boils. ~gag~ I have no idea why I continued after that but I did. I've always been more of a MOTW fan than the mytharc but I do wish they hadn't written so many with exploding boils and maggots.

How long have you been writing fic?

I actually had to look it up on Gossamer. LOL, I posted my first story in 2000. It seems like I wrote for a much longer time than that but I think overall it was almost 10 years. I just posted the second half of a story last year that was actually five years overdue, but nothing between about 2009 and then.

What inspired you to start writing?

I came to fanfic late too, and read obsessively for a good three years, encountering a lot of frogs in with the princes, before I said, "I can do better than that." I'm not really sure I did considering how out of character Mulder is in that first story, but the fire was lit and I just kept going. I like to think that leaving my oldest immature/flawed stories up helps to show how much my writing has improved but I have to admit it's kind of embarrassing when somebody recommends one of those.

Who is your favorite XF character to write?

Mulder. Always. I love his snarky dialog and the way he views the world. I was a lot less comfortable with Scully early on, although giving her the flu in "Getting By" was great fun, and using her POV in "Unfolding" felt very natural. I became more comfortable with her the older I got. I did a short piece from Frohike's POV in "Bare Ruin'd Choirs," which I really enjoyed, and I've got a decent start on a long piece from Doggett's POV. I've enjoyed being in his head and hope to get that one done some day.

Are there any XF characters you dislike or find too difficult to write?

As much as I like Skinner, I've never tried his POV because I'm not sure I understand him well enough. I'd be too afraid of getting him wrong. I've always disliked CSM and would never even consider writing from his POV. I'm not even sure I want to write about someone else encountering him. ~brr~ There are so many XF authors who do both beautifully that I'll leave these guys to them. I'm not sure I'd ever write Reyes either, for the same reasons as staying away from Skinner. She never appealed to me as a character.

Is there a story you're most proud of or that's a favorite?

Geez, that's like asking which son I like best. In general, I tend to like my original-character stories best. Maybe that's because *everyone* writes M and S and Sk, but only I write my OCs. Out of the stories I've done, I think I'm most proud of "Only Skin Deep," the stalker story. That was a very intense piece to write for many reasons, most of them having to do with getting inside the head of an obsessive psycho stalker. I loved it in there! It also scared the crap out of me. I've always read mysteries/casefiles, both in fanfic and RL novels, and I've wanted to write one for years. This story gave me the chance to try, even in a short format, and I found out how hard it is. I had to figure out all of the mechanics of the casefile, set the pacing, deliver the thoughts and dialog, make sure there weren't any loose ends – it took close to a year to complete. I'd have to say it was worth the work and this is probably my favorite story as a result. I've had a sequel planned for years but now that I know what to expect from getting into Julie's head, I'm finding it hard to commit.

With so many archives to choose from these days, where is the best place to find your work?

I've still got my own site, recently stripped down, renovated, and moved off Wordpress (I HATED the way the stories were displayed there!). http://mimicsmusings.com I decided the overhaul was needed when Gossamer stopped updating and I realized that I'd forgotten how to post at Wordpress. LOL, I know a lot of authors are gravitating to Archive of Our Own these days, but I prefer to keep as much as I can in one place. That used to be Gossamer, but my newest stories were missing from there and my old site, so moving it seemed like a good idea. I may get around to adding my stuff on AO3 when I need a new challenge. I do have a Live Journal but there's not a blessed thing on it. In fact, the screen even says, "Nothing to see here. Move along please."

You've been well known in the fandom for a long time, do you still write for XF or have your skills been focused elsewhere?

As I mentioned before, I haven't written anything in about 6 years, other than to finish something that was due 5 years ago. When I hit my senior level of college around 2008, I started having less time and motivation to write fic. Then I went on to grad school in 2011 and lost what little urge I had left. All of my writing was focused on my thesis, but I often looked longingly at my stash of WIPs and wished I could work on them instead. I've been out of school for almost three years now and have only picked at old stories every so often. I suspect if other things in my life ever settle down, I'll definitely go back to it. I've got a solid dozen WIPs on my hard drive and new ideas aren't gone, just the urge to write them down.

Is there anything in particular that caused you to stop writing?

Grad school, plus Mr. Mims needing two major surgeries in as many years, were the first things to put a real crimp in my fic writing. Trying to come up with ways of earning a living so that he can retire without having to worry about bills. Branching out into photography, which didn't go quite the way I'd hoped but did satisfy my creative urge. Just kind of life, in general, some days. In an old interview that's up on my website, I said I didn't see myself stopping. Ever. Boy, when I get it wrong...!

Have you written your own original characters outside of fandom?

I've had a supernatural mystery/thriller in process for a good 20 years now. The heroine is weak and I haven't even written a hero yet. The best thing about it is the bad guy and the secondary characters. I've written an entire scene with the villain and another with the bit players but other than that, the novel is going nowhere fast. I suspect I'm not cut out to be a best-selling novelist.

Anything you’d like to share about your writing process?

I've never been a very efficient writer, but grad school taught me a lot about what works for me and gave me a couple of better habits. I've only ever written one outline because the research paper I was doing would have been hell to keep straight without it. For most other pieces I write what comes to me, as it comes to me, then stitch it together when I've got enough. Sometimes this means that I've written something good but put it in the wrong place, so moving text "Legos" is a big part of the process. If things get too complicated, I've even printed out a piece, cut it apart, and then taped it in the right order. I often finish the end first, because I have to know where I'm going. Sometimes it changes, most of the time it doesn't. Many stories come to me through the title. The right one will tell me what the story is about, so I usually have the title before I even start writing. Other than that, it's a question of not pushing it. Trying to force myself to write often means not being able to write, so if I'm not in the mood or the words won't come, I do something else unless that changes.

What do you find most difficult about writing?

Getting started. I'm always beginning pieces in my head, then something comes up so that I can't write it down. I frequently get great ideas/lines as I'm trying to fall asleep, which means I either have to get back up and write it down or accept that it'll be gone in the morning. Getting started is a daily struggle when actually in the process too. Our brains are lazy and will find anything to avoid doing what we want. The Internet is great for wasting time so when I'm writing, I can't even go online for a few minutes or I'll be there for hours.

Do you have a favorite author? (fanfic or published!)

Another "pick a favorite child" question! I think I need to split this up a bit. Published authors: Since I'm a huge mystery/thriller fan, right now my favorites are Sandra Brown and Mark de Castrique. I got free books by both through daily download sites and I'm hooked. Sandra does really good romantic thriller characters, and Mark has two incredible thriller series set in NC with amazing characters and settings. I've read every book he's published and I'm jonesing for more.

Fanfic authors: This one is really really tough. For overall quality of plot, dialog, characters, settings, etc. it's gotta be aka "Jake." Her casefiles are so spot-on I can see them as if I'm watching the show. Brandon Ray is right up there, too. He really understands Scully and writes her so well a lot of readers didn't realize he was a guy. David Hearne is the master of humor and quirkiness. dee_ayy, Jo-Ann Lassiter, and Peggy did medical Mulder!Torture that isn't over the top. Yeah, picking one ain't gonna happen. LOL, I've heard of some really good newer authors, too. I need to check out some of them.

Is there any advice you'd give to aspiring writers?

Go for it. If you sit around wondering if you should, you can save time by just jumping in and doing it. Don't try to figure the "right" way to work. Do it your way, and do it whenever you have time, even if it's just a few minutes in between doing something else.

When you're not writing, think about what you want to write. Go over it in your mind, set up the dialog, see the scenes, then consciously put it away. When you sit down to write again, something will be there. It might not be exactly what you were thinking of, but you'll have something. This is what your brain does best. It's often called the "Eureka!" effect, but it's really just your subconscious working in the background. Trust it and learn to rely on it.

Don't fight the story. I think the biggest mistake fic writers (especially) make is asking "What do I want these characters to do?" If you're working with canon characters, the question should be "What *would* these characters do?" All characters have their own personalities, motivations, moral sense, background, especially characters that were created for a show. Know who your characters are, even the ones you create yourself. You'll only use a tiny portion of their background, but you have to know it ahead of time so you'll know how they would react in a particular situation. I found many times that a story I was having trouble with came from not listening to what the characters wanted to do. That usually meant I was trying to go in the wrong direction, and once I listened to the character, the writing became easier.

Do you think fic has changed over the years? You run a popular message board, X-Files Lost and Found, that helps track down missing fic....has the demand for that changed at all?

Oh, fic has definitely changed! For one thing, NoRoMo was the accepted standard back in the early days of the fandom. Shippers were the minority, and not necessarily well thought of. After the first movie, things started to swing the other way until the 'ship was the primary genre for XF fic and UST fell by the wayside. The advent of binge watching the series on DVD/Netflix/whatever resulted in a new genre of fic based on M&S-were-meant-to-be-together-and-have-a-baby (or a bunch of them). The newer writers didn't experience the weekly relationship struggle and sort of just skipped right to doing the wild thing and having William. The fic coming out of this viewpoint is radically different from the previous 15 years or more of Phile fic.

All of the message boards are seeing less traffic these days, although Lost & Found can always count on someone showing up with a description or title for us to hunt down. It appears the action is now on Tumblr and AO3 rather than L&F or Haven, but there's still enough interest to make it worth keeping the board open. My only problem is that I haven't read a lot of the newer authors so my rep as a fic-finding guru is suffering.

Anything else you'd like to share that I missed?

I'd like to extend a challenge to all Philes – help us save the stories. Yes, AO3 is doing a fantastic job of archiving these days, but they can't possibly hang onto everything out there. It seems like it's mostly new stories being added, while a lot of the older fic either languishes in obscurity or disappears into a black hole. Slash and Doggett fiction have always been the ugly ducklings in the fandom, which makes those kinds of stories much harder to find. Something that each of us can do is to create collections of fic on our computers, in a cloud storage device, or elsewhere. If you like a particular story, save it, then track down the rest of what the author wrote and save that too. A few of us are still gathering old sites to rebuild and we always need people who can either find a fic or have a copy to share. Some day the fandom may be mostly on peoples' hard drives, but at least it would still exist. This is one of the longest-running fandoms out there. Let's do our best to keep it that way.

Thanks to mimic117 for talking with us!

#xfn #fanfiction #fanfic #The X-Files #xfiles #FanWorks Wednesdays

13 notes · View notes

summerb4jc · 6 years ago

Note

Fanfiction Writer Asks: 5, 8, 16, 19?

WOOHOO! Someone asked. I’m so excited. Let’s do this:

5.) If you had to choose a favourite out of all of your multi chaptered stories, which would it be and why?

Ok, so...full disclosure, I have only one fic so far. I got a late start and, unfortunately, Star Wars 3.5 (my Magnum Opus that Never Was, written shortly after I saw Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and had my tiny, little 12 year old heart absolutely decimated), never really got past the opening line “Darth Vader stood over Padme’s grave...” SO my favorite multi-chapter fic is my current WIP The Private Letters of Christine Daae.

8.) Where do you take your inspiration from?

Cool question, nice choice, anon. I get my inspiration from a lot of places. Most obviously Phantom of the Opera, because my one-and-only-fic is a modern day retelling of Phantom, but I also try to pull from life when it comes to like...emotions and stuff. (e.g. I have thankfully never lost a parent, but I try to write Christine’s feelings based on how I have felt in tough or dark times, and run them through the same filter in my head I did/do when I write poetry). “I write feelings based on how I feel” sounds super obvious and maybe goes without saying, SO ANOTHER EXAMPLE IS THIS. Right at the beginning of Chapter 10, I wrote a scene where Christine is riding the subway (since the story is set in NYC) and I wrote those opening paragraphs while riding the Metro (LA’s version of the subway). I was like “Ooh! I should write this down!” and just tried to describe the scene as I was experiencing it.

16) How did you come up with the idea for xxx? (The Private Letters of Christine Daae)

Ooh! This one is also super fun. Ok so. For years I had this argument that if I was ever given 3 weeks to just do nothing at all, I would start being creative at some point. Well, it turns out my breaking point for doing nothing was about 10 days. I had just had major surgery and was required, by doctor’s orders, to basically just sit around for two weeks and heal. It was summer time, so I didn’t have school to worry about, and I had two weeks off work, so I just took it easy, watched a lot of tv and ate a bunch of barbecue chips.

CUT TO: Me, on my phone, 10 days into my recuperation at the height of the literary vlog adaptation craze. I came across a list of literary web-series (which was good, because I had finished Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Emma Approved, and Frankenstein MD) and there, what did my eyes behold, but a web-series called Notes by Christine. I was FLOORED. I was SHOOK. Was there actually a Phantom web-series? Could dreams really come true???? So I clicked on the first episode, but it was taking a long time-to load because the wifi was terrible. And in those seconds, with the little loading symbol spinning and spinning and spinning, I had the thought “What if I just made my MY OWN SERIES.”

The thought hit with so much clarity, such a sense of rightness, that I knew I had to do it. I exited out of the video before it started playing, because I wanted to tell the story in my own way, without being influenced by the other series (I did eventually watch it the night after I aired the final episode of my series, and I very much enjoyed it. 10/10 would recommend.)

I had the first six episodes written that day. The outlining and planning took a good portion of the remainder of my summer, and the writing, filming, casting, directing, and editing took up the rest of my senior year of college, but it was SUCH a turning point for me creatively, as I had never worked on a project so big, let alone completed something like it.

A few years passed, I was out of school and living in LA, sort of drifting creatively as I dealt with the existential crisis that is your early 20′s, and I knew I wanted to be writing more. One of my college mentors had said I should write the story down as a book back when I was still releasing new episodes, fanfiction.com was right there, and I had a ton of left-over details that I had come up with while modernizing the story that I hadn’t been able to fit into Single-Camera vlog format on a budget of about $150. So here we are, 11 chapters/episodes in, I’m having a ton of fun and learning a lot, AND THAT is how I came up with the idea for The Private Letters of Christine Daae

19.) Are there any stories that you’ve written that you’d really love to do a sequel to?

Ah, we are looking towards the future now, anon. And we must turn away from fic and to my original WIPs. If you dive deep into my instagram to Inktober 2017, I based my drawings around a character I named Victoria Von Damsel, and all the drawings tied to her perilous encounters with the wicked Lord Spookenheim in a sort of play on the art/story of gothic novels. I’m working on turning it into an actual story, and with the current threads I have going, there could definitely be sequels.

ANYWAY, thanks anon, I hope you enjoyed these answers, and if anyone wants to reblog the ask post, (or ask me more questions) the list of questions is here.

0 notes

iam-constant · 8 years ago

Text

Better Ends

#4 (WIP)

I swear its the little thing that got hold on me. It used to be so much easier before, I’d just wake up and I could just tell you what was going on, you’d say stuff that happened and we’d both hide a lot. It was fun while it lasted. Little things like the way you’d bury your face when I’d look too long, or those adorable socks you wore, that coat and clothes that made you look bigger than you were. Don’t get me started on all your badass fighting moves, leaving me speechless and bruised from time to time. Did you even understand that I saw all of you? Now I have all the fishing lines on me and hooks in all the right places, except nobody’s reeling the catch. A fish in perpetual flow.

You’re probably wondering why I’m still not over it after everything? Why I don’t just fold. I guess, I can try to explain. Think about any old cliché drowning scene, from any movie. When they drag out the body and they try to resuscitate. They do the whole CPR procedure once, twice, three times, maybe even more. Eventually they stop, the scene is over and person is pronounced dead, cut to the next clip. When I was a kid, I’d always have this unfulfilling feeling, like they had to try it one more time. Like, it would make all the difference in the world. But they wouldn’t do it and it would just make me so mad. Who told you to stop? Why are you relaxing? Try one more time, try it until your lungs give out, until your lips are blue. Try again and again until they pry you off the body, fight as they tell you that you’ve done enough. There wasn’t any amount to be enough for me. I wouldn’t recognize my own limitations and now I’ve really become a stranger to them.

Who can really tell when enough is enough anyway? For me, the line seems too blurry.

I’m lying on the ground, looking up in the sky, waiting for your decision. It makes me remember the old times and not in the good way. I barely see you, walking towards me. You must have decided to help me right? Probably decided that I could be of some use, it makes me happier than I’d like to admit. You look down on me and I somehow hate the glance you are giving me, is that anger, resentment, annoyance or all three? And now I’m scared to know what you had to go through, to be able to look at me like that. You lean forward, and kiss me on cheek.

- Sleep well. - I hear whisper in my ear.

I guess that means I’m wrong again. I have to somehow get used to that. You stand up and dawn the mask of the squirrel again. I wonder why do you even do that anymore. Squirrel face, hah… it brought smile to me every time I thought about it. I smiled this time too. I guess it counts on the cheek too, gave me some low amount of statis, a minute or two maybe. You should be really annoyed right about now, I can’t even die properly. I’d like to consider it as one of my many charm, you’d probably like to kick me in the face with your boots. I guess we can’t always get what we want, and that’s when you hit me with the boots in face, so I guess I take that back. But it’s not like it hurt, positive side of being in statis is that, you can’t really get physical pain, but it did shorten the statis span. Did nobody tell you, not to kick a dead man, when he’s down? My head is looking at the road now, change of view is always nice, but my eyes are going dark and I can feel nethers pull.

I don’t see anything I just hear the sound of the body crashing the water. Without thinking, I rush towards it and jump right in. Swimming towards distress call, as fast as I can, because I’m so fucking heroic, right? As I get to the epicenter I don’t see anybody, only the sound of water. Deeper I go, dimmer my vision gets, so I just wave hands, if you reach I grab, but nobody’s reaching out. I have to dive further. As I get to dark water, the cold cools my head and that’s when I start remembering, I don’t think you were there at all, with me. I think I just heard some splash sounds of waves crushing into each other and imagined you drowning, crying out for help. If I made it all up, I must look so stupid right now. Some fucking hero alright, just a fool waving hands in the deep waters, fighting darkness away, out of breath and drowning. Barely have the power to look back up. Already one with the idea that nobody’s coming for me, nobody even knows I’m here. But, I feel like I’m about to have the best sleep I’ve had in years. Just as I’m about to receive this nap of a lifetime, I feel my body burning up, then I see surface coming towards me. I hear screams of a familiar voice – mine.

- He’s back, Mike turn it off. – The pain of burning up goes away as I open my eyes.

- Well, I think this officially makes you the luckiest man, I have ever met. – I recognize the voice, I try and sit up.

- No Margot, that would be your husband. – I can barely speak, but I feel energy coming back. I look around and then at my hands, I’m wearing some weird watch on my hand, but I’m not statis anymore, somehow I’m back into my body. I look at my chest and it’s healed. I see a lot of Scars, but I’m not going to complain about that.

- You can cut with flattery. I already did everything I could. How are you feeling?

- Like a blast, ready to roll out after fallout.

- Slow down cowboy. You were just brought back to life. You are not going anywhere just yet.

- How am I back into the body? I thought I was a goner for sure. - I look around the room again and see Mike staring.

- That makes two of us. Mike here saved your statis on the brink. But the call wasn’t strong enough so I had little time. My guess is either it was too late or soul call from a man isn’t your thing.

- That explains the taste in my mouth, how about the body?

- Healing chamber and trading secret, but now, you have to put some flowers on Frankensteins’ grave. And by the way, you are not alive.

- What are you talking about? I feel fine.

- You should, but you are not alive, just animated. See that watch on your hand? Do not remove it for too long. That’s what binds the soul to the body.

- What happens if I do?

- Soul leaves the body and you receive another call from nether.

- Got it, watch stays on.

- I’m sorry, but this was the best I could do. Your body and soul were both at the limit, I had to rush.

- Don’t worry Marg, you did good. I’ll somehow figure the rest. - I close my eyes for a second.

- Tell me. - Margo was looking at me with the pity eyes. - You jumped in again, didn’t you? - I nodded.

- What can I say Marg, it gets me every time. – I said it, like I was ashamed.

- Yes, yes she does. – She looked at Mike. – He told me that she was inside the pub with you.

- Well Mike, I guess you kiss and tell, you should be ashamed of yourself.

- Fuck you man. - Touchy as ever. - without me you’d be dead already. I carried your statis and your body here.

- OK, knock it off Mike he’s just joking. Go up and wait for me.

- I’m going out, but I’m telling you, I should have left his dead ass back there.

- Thanks that you didn’t. – I told him sincerely. He looked at me confused. – I do mean it Mike, I can be hard on you sometimes, but I do appreciate you looking out for me.

- Ye, whatever man, I do it because Margo asked. But one of these days nobody will be there and then you'll die for sure. I’m out Margo, call me if something.

- OK honey, take care. - He walked out of the room. - He’s right you know. I don’t even understand why you survived this time. You should be with nethers right now.

- Oh, yeah she must be so pissed.

- Who?

- Nether, I’ve evaded her so many times.

- Wait, nether is a she? And you know her?

- Yeah, it’s a long story and I’m kind of in a rush now. How long was I out?

- About half an hour. Why are you in suck a rush? Don’t tell me you’re going to meet her?

- Yes, she is probably at my house.

- You are kidding right? She left you to die and you’re still going to her. What does that girl have on you? - She rolled her eyes. - You know that this is getting really pathetic.

- Well you know Marg. Some see it as pathetic, some see it as romantic. Where are my clothes?

- Over there. It’s all bloody and torn up. – She pointed to a chair. – No, this is not romantic, this is plain pathetic.

- Well I hear pathetic is the new sexy. – I started dressing. – I’ll lick my wounds and live to die another day, you don’t have to worry.

- The hell I don’t? You were dead 3 minute before and right now headed towards another kind of death.

- OK then, you shouldn’t be worrying right now. You should be thinking about yourself and that stomach of yours soon to be child. Where is Mr. Franko by the way?

- I don’t know, on some road trip. Said we need more money for the baby.

- Oh that’s good, he’ll be so pissed that I made you worry again. But I’ll take care of myself now. – I started putting my shoes on. – I just have to see this thing through.

- Honey, we both know, you are the worst person to take care of yourself. But I know you have to do it. I just wish you could understand. She made the choice and you have to let it go.

- It’s not about that Marg, it was never about that.

- It’s about that and don’t tell me, you don’t want to be with her. Every time you get drunk you start talking about her. Everybody in town knows your story.

- I won’t lie. I want to be with her, but I also know what reality is. At this point I can’t even dream about that, it more like fairy wish or Jesus miracle. We both know that world is fresh out of fairies and Jesus is not coming until the big doom event.

- You can joke around all you want, I can see the truth, you are lying to yourself.

- At least, I’m getting pretty good at it.

- Why did she even come here for?

- I don’t know exactly. I think I called out to her. She was standing over my dead body when I passed statis.

- She was standing over your dead body? What if she’s the one that killed you. Have you thought about that?

- That’s not funny. - But the thought did cross my mind. - I don’t know how I died though. It’s all jumbled up.

- Yeah, you lose some memory before statis. Now that you’re alive, it’ll start coming back.

- Oh that’s right, she did ask for the key. But it’s possible she was lying and wanted to make me think that the key was the only reason she was there. I’m not sure though.

- Wait, she asked for the key and left you to die? Maybe she was actually the one who killed you.

- Can you not say that? She didn’t kill me, I was already dead and she saved me from Nether in first place. Besides this was a child’s play compared to things she has already put me through.

- There you go defending her honor. Knight in the bloodied armor.

- I’m not def… I’m going out, OK. Is there anything I should know? Anything else I shouldn’t do after the procedure? I wouldn't want to accidentally undo, what you did.

- Not besides the obvious one. Don’t go to her.

- Yeah, well, I can’t do that for now. Wish me luck.

- I would, but I think you’ve used up the entire luck world has to offer. Now we all get to be unlucky for some time. Just watch your back; someone might try to kill you again.

- Will do Marg. Say goodbye and thanks to Mike for me. - I took the torn jacket off the chair.

- Bye and please try to make it at least full month before I have to bring you back.

- I’ll do my best. – I walked out on the street.

It was raining hard. Suddenly the scars on my chest started to feel weird. I guess it wasn’t fully healed yet. I stopped the cab and went towards my house. I wonder if she’s still there. Will she be happy now that I’m alive(animated whatever) or annoyed again? What should I even say? What will she say? I was in these kinds of schoolboy thoughts when the cab pulled up to my house. I paid the cabbie and stepped out on the street. The building is pretty old so, obviously the lift is dead. I had to walk up to the 6th floor. Then weirdest thing happened. The door wouldn’t open. The lock Wouldn't budge. After trying like 10 times, someone opened the door from the inside. It was my neighbor from upstairs, Mrs. Bulkin.

- Is everything alright son?

- Oh, hi Mrs. Bulkin. I’m sorry I must have mixed up the floors.

- Are you alright? Are you drunk?

- No, I’m fine. Just little tired that’s all. Sorry to disturb you.

- It’s OK, I don’t get a lot of work with this door and it’s always refreshing to meet accidental guests. Come on in, don’t be shy.

- I can’t Mrs. Bulkin, maybe later. I have to get home now. Goodbye and I'm sorry to disturb you.

- It’s alright now, take care. - Such a nice lady. She locked the door. I went down the floor. Now guess what happened when I tried to open the door. My goddamn neighbor from downstairs grumpy Garry opened the door and he wasn’t as trusting or happy to see me. I had to run like a dog down the stairs. I ran outside and crossed the street, took shelter from rain under the bus stop, thinking what the fuck was going on. I can’t be that stupid to mix up the building. No, Mrs. Bulkin is definitely my neighbor for years. I walked down exactly one floor and who can forget grumpy Garry. Then I looked at the building. When I realized what had happened, I took one of my survived “sweet pills” from my torn up jacket pocket and gulped it down. I could really use a cig, right about now. I'm looking at the building and my fucking flat is gone. The building is missing a fucking floor, how about that, huh? I count it ten times and it's one floor shorter. It’s supposed to have 13 floors and it has 12. How the fuck did that happen?

- What kind of mess did you get us into this time, princess?

0 notes