#i had one fanfic saved on a tab and i clicked on it and it tried to reload and now i have nothing

[hesitantsorrows]

Is Ao3 down for anyone else or am I just getting this late

[devskindawritingblog]

Hi,

I feel like there’s not enough misty x reader fanfics so I would like to request one with her and if it could also be a jealous one. I really like reading ones with misty being jealous or a bit possessive. I regret nothing lol. Thank you!

Click to help Palestine 🇵🇸 Jealous? (she is with it)

Adult Misty x Yellowjacket!reader

An: Hello everyone. It’s been so long since I have posted. I went on a trip to Europe but now I’m back and finally making a dent in my requests. For this one it took me longer than I thought 😅😅 but I got it done. I added some platonic Van because who wouldn’t want to be her friend. Also Natalie is the one that Misty is jealous about, sorry nat she always gets picked but she’s a good option 😂😂😂😂. I didn’t want to do the text colour thing because I feel it’s straight forward. And yes the title is based of the Chromeo song Jealous ( I ain’t with it)😂😂😂. But the fic isn’t based off that song I just think I’m funny. Also it’s not grammar checked, I didn’t want to 😭.

Word count rounded: 1.4K 

Ever since Misty was a kid she was always jealous. Jealous of popular kids who got praised and adored. Jealous of the girls who got everything and anyone they wanted. Jealous of never being included. Misty wanted to be helpful , she craved to be needed and that’s what the wilderness gave her.

Soon all of her classmates needed her help and they praised her for it. As messed up as it sounds she was her most happy the first few months of the wilderness. And that’s how Misty became “best friends” with you. You were badly injured after the plane crash. Your arm had broken and Misty didn’t hesitate to help.

She pulled you out of the plane and was the one to reset your arm and put the makeshift sling on you. She was the one who volunteered to help you get dressed and do stuff for you. You and Natalie were best friends having grown up in the trailer park with her and Misty hated that.

If you need anything you would always ask Natlaie first. It was always about Natalie. So when the time comes to choose between Lottie’s cult nonsense you choose to stick with Nat. The two of you were the outliers for a while until Javis death. After Misty saved Natalie the three of you became a little trio. Misty liked being around you but she wished she didn't have to share you with Natalie.

Even after 25 years it was still the same. Misty and Natalie have come to see Lottie at her compound to try and get information on Travis' death. Seeing Lottie after all those years brought back memories of those awful months out in the cold. After Misty called Shauna, it was like a weird highschool reunion. No one really kept tabs with you and Misty was worried that you wouldn't show. But to her surprise here you were, you looked the same, just much older, wrinkles and smile lines sprouting around your face from all the years. But somehow you're still the young highschooler, you still walk the same way and your smile still makes her heart flutter.

You and Van kept tabs on one another and you were a frequent customer at her video shop, so you ended up going with her and Tai. Here you were standing in front of your old highschool teammates. Misty’s eyes widen when she sees you. Her jaw drops a little and she rushes over to pull you into a bone crushing hug despite her small stature. “Oh my god!!!! Hey! It's been so so long.” She smiles widely as she pulls back her hands gripping your shoulders. “Yeah it has, it's.. Nice to see you Misty.” You smile back at her as she lets you go and you go over and hug the other girls.

You finish with Nat and she pulls back with a big smile.” Wow dude!!! You sure grew up and got hotter.” Nat smiles, wiggling her eyebrows making you laugh as you give her a little shove “ I see you're still the same huh scatorccio?. “Yeah, just less blonde.” She remarks back. The seven of you all catch up together as you make your way toward the main building at Lottie's compound. All of you gather round as Lottie explains the 4 treatment plans. You end up picking forage with Van because you had to double up at some point. You go off with Van and as soon as you're given the task, she smiles “C’mon we can go “forage” for something in my truck”. You shake your head and follow Van as you sneak off to her truck and she reaches under the front seat grabbing a bottle of whiskey.

“Why did you bring a whole bottle of vodka Van?” You ask but shrug and take a swig when she offers it. “Why wouldn't I? A highschool reunion with all of you guys.Im surprised I'm not drunk already.” “True, it brings back some memories that I'd rather not remember.” You say as you pass the bottle back to Van and it goes on like this for a while. Soon you see Taissa saunter over and you nudge Van, taking it as your time to head inside and leave them alone.

You find Misty and Shauna and pass them the vodka and soon after Van and Tai show up as well. After Lottie shows up you all settle in your little “trauma” circle. It slowly moved into gossip as if all of you were gathered around that fire all those years ago sharing secrets. The topic quickly moved to your life, after all those years without seeing any of the girls except Van, you're sure they were curious. “Sooooo…. Did you meet any girls in college?” Tai smirks nudging you. “Um.. well I guess, I dated my fair share of girls but none ever lasted. After I just never found anyone I wanted to keep around.” You shrug and the girls nod, you look over and lock eyes with Misty before she adverts her eyes and takes another swig of vodka.

The song changes over the speakers and Van perks up. “Oh!!! This is my favourite song.” Van smiles and jumps to her feet and soon all of you follow. You grin laughing a bit as Nat comes over and spins you around dancing with you. You laugh as Nat pulls you closer and you sway around together to the music. Nat’s hands run down your back as she smiles, you might have noticed if you had not had so much vodka earlier. You never thought Nat would ever like you because she was so focused on Travis. She spins you back out and that's when you lock eyes yet again with Misty. She takes one last swig of vodka before she frowns and stomps over. 

“Hey! I uh- need to talk to you.” Misty says and before you can even say anything she grabs your hand tugging you outside to the soft snowfall. “Misty!?!? What’s wrong?”

“ What's going on with you and Nat?” She asks when she finally pulls you a distance away and lets your wrist go. “What? Nothing, we were just dancing, having fun.” You counter back at her. “Well you might want to tell her that she was about an inch away from your ass?. 

“Why do you care? Are you jealous?” You ask putting your hands on your hips getting fed up with her attacking you. “Yes!! I am, ever since the crash I've been obsessed with you!!” Misty yells, raising her voice as she quickly regrets her confession as you stare at her confused. You both stand there in silence, Misty turns to leave clearly worried she fucked everything up. But as she turns to walk away you grab her wrist and pull her back into you. She whips around confused but before she can speak you beat her to it.

“Wait! Why didn't you tell me sooner, you think I don't feel the same way?” Misty stands stunned. There's no way the yellowjacket she's been crazy about since highschool actually likes her. “Can I kiss you?” You ask, holding Misty’s hands in yours and she nods almost in shock as you lean forward, capturing her lips and wrapping your hands around her waist. She kisses back softly at first but as you too keep going she gets more passionate with it wrapping her arms around your shoulders. 

You pull back and smile as she pulls you back in for another before she finally pulls back too. “Wow” Misty says breathlessly. You smile and grab a hold of her hand. “Yeah,that’s about right” you smile and before you can kiss her again you hear a snicker behind you. You both turn around to see Van standing there. “ I see you too are enjoying yourselves.” She smirks and you playfully roll your eyes at her.

“Why don’t you and Tai go “enjoy yourselves too?” You counter back with the same smirk Van had. Van blushes and flips you off, laughing.” Well maybe I will” she announces before she turns around and heads back inside. You turn back to Misty and smile. “How about we go to bed?” Misty nods and grabs your hand again tugging you off to where she is staying. 

[aquilacalvitium]

hello! i saw in one of your reblogs that you use focuswriter to write and i would like it if you would elaborate a bit on how it looks and what are its functions, maybe even something that happened.

i saw that you can change the background and set a word goal, which is very helpful, but i would like a bit more than that if you would feel comfortable doing so. the experience of someone who already uses a program or app that i want to download is invaluable to me.

of course! feel free to respond to this as you see fit. there is no pressure to answer this ☆

Oh I would LOVE to talk about FocusWriter! My personal opinion is that every writer would benefit from using it.

So! It is entirely free to download, includes no purchases whatsoever and hardly takes up any space. It gets running quickly and throws you right back into whatever you had open last at the exact point where you left it.

Now, it does not have any instructions so a first-time user will have to figure things out on the fly. Luckily! I'm here to help!

Now, this is what the program looks like upon being opened. Minus all the text - that's my fanfic I'm working on right now.

Moving your mouse to the very top, very bottom and very left of the screen will show you a few toolbars. The top toolbar includes all of your generic options like file, edit, settings, etc. (also has a very nifty find and replace option). The bottom toolbar lets you change between documents - yes you can have many documents open at a time and I personally am yet to find a limit. And on the far left, you will see a tab which you can use to navigate the document you are currently on.

In order to navigate, you will need to put a double hashtag [##] at the necessary points such as between chapters. This will differentiate the paragraphs and allow them to show up in the navigation bar.

Now, my personal favourite feature, the themes!

You can change SO MUCH and then save all of said changes in a template to switch back and forth between whenever you want! I like to stick with a generic grey background with large black text, but with just a few clicks...

I suddenly have a new wallpaper! I could also change the font and the background of the text and the colour of anything I want. Although, I did have to put these images together in a picture editing software before being able to use it as a wallpaper - FocusWriter will let you use any pre-saved image on your computer but will not let you scrapbook something together out of multiple images. You'll need to use something else for that.

This feature is PERFECT for getting into the right zone. I've made custom backgrounds for most of my fanfictions, and intend on making one for my original novel to help me write that.

In the bottom toolbar you will also see a wordcount and a daily word goal which can be adjusted in the settings.

The whole point of FocusWriter is to keep you Focused on your Writing. It's just you and the words! But it's easy to minimise or close out of when necessary. To minimise, I personally hit the windows key which brings up my regular desktop toolbar.

And to close the program, you just need to tap the windows and Q keys together. And when you open it again, as I said before, you will be exactly where you left off.

And yes, all documents created and saved in FocusWriter are saved as Word documents. This means that you can open anything made on this program in Word and vice versa. Which has definitely saved my writing a time or two, let me tell you.

I've been using FocusWriter for around seven years now, probably even longer, and I have no intention of stopping any time soon.

You can download it here!

I hope you find it as useful as I do. Happy writing!

[carlos-tk]

nice ask week

hi D! it's nice ask week! What made you start watching LS and what was it about the show that made you spiral into fandom?

Hi Rae! Thanks for the question! 💗 Apologies for how long this took me to answer. Work took over my life this week 😢 Now buckle in for a stupidly long story 😅

Firstly, I had watched the original 911s first and half of its 2nd season whenever they aired (2018/19 thanks Wikipedia) and then totally forgot all about it because again #life 😅 I did hear about a spin off whenever they announced it but I guess the only info was that it was coming soon. Wikipedia is helping out and it seems it was May 2019. I didn’t really pay it much mind because by then I had already stopped watching the og.

So I move on with my life and don’t think about either series until September 2022. I saw a youtube clip of a scene: the throwing each other against the wall hookup from 1x02. I watched it and I was like.. OH?!👀🔥🥵 Saved it to my YouTube watch later and again forgot all about it because back then I was doing full time shift work and had no time to breathe let alone watch anything new 😂 (kicking myself because I could’ve been here a year ago) 😭

Cut to this year. I can give you an exact date i rediscovered 911 verse. May 17th 2023!! 🥳 All because of the Tarlos wedding.

Twitter is probably the platform I use the most cos it’s got all my sports content😅 Anyway I happened to be on the discover/trending tab and one of the top hashtags was #TarlosWedding which was airing that day. I clicked it to investigate and scrolled through. It was full of pics and fanvids of the wedding and again I was like OH 👁👁. I liked a bunch of the tweets to revisit and moved on with my day. A few days later because I had liked all that stuff, Twitter keeps recommending me more content. So I find myself back on YouTube and watched these:

and then a series of random scenes and I was like... okay I need full context for all of this. Another month passes and it’s probably end of June/early July and I’m like let me see if this is available anywhere to watch in Australia. I find it on Disney+ and they have seasons 1-3. This is finally when I watched the show. And then I could not stop thinking about it. S4 is no where to be found though. So I google and see it’s halfway through airing on Channel 7 here which means it won’t be uploaded to Disney+ for a while. So then I’m like UGH 😒😩😤 I wanted to binge the whole season like I had for the others. I kept tabs on when it would finish airing on TV and eventually the finale airs August 14th. The next day I start it and binge the whole season on 7Plus over a few days.

Now that I had seen their entire story so far, I was full blown hyper fixating. Like they’re on my mind ALL the time. I’m reading a book or watching a movie/show and thinking about Tarlos in place of the characters. I’m listening to a song or reading a poem/lyric and being like oh that’s so Tarlos coded😂😂 At this point i’m like oh no 😅😅 The fandom life is coming for me.

Then the biggest surprise of all I start getting the urge to write fanfic again! Which is insane because I had not written anything in (redacted) years. Like nearly every time as I was about to sleep, I start having ideas and rambling it out in my notes app at stupid hours like 2am 😂😅

Next we have the writers/actors strike and I’m like 👀trust me to find a new obsession and everyone is on strike and I’m gonna get nothing new for ages. Then I remember AO3 is a thing that exists and find my way to the 911 Lone Star tag and start reading fic again. Any spare moment I had I was itching to read whatever I could get my eyeballs on. I said to you the other day that I read your gym!AU first and look I might’ve read a random 1k word one shot or two but nothing I can actually remember like yours 😂🥵 I think the added pictures and texts made it so memorable because 1. I did not know you could do that on AO3 2. Rafael is like the hottest guy I’ve ever seen 😅😅 and 3. It was just so damn good 🥵 Sm*t with feelings and I am there. You teased the feelings a little and if/when (no pressure btw) you decide to revisit this universe just know I’ll be first in line 🙋🏼‍♀️ and the reason I can recall it as the first is it’s the oldest AO3 tab saved to my safari reading list 😅

By this point I’m reading fic through the end of August and September constantly. A few I read had peoples Tumblr links in the end notes so then I remember that Tumblr also exists 😂 I come over and lurk, explore the tags, look at all the beautiful gifs, look at a few peoples blogs and make a mental note to maybe join Tumblr again. I had 2 blogs back in hs, 1 fandom specific blog that got abandoned during my last year of hs and a sports/tv-series one I used a little in the years after hs but then again #life and I didn’t touch it after like 2016.

Come September 2023. I made a new email, signed up to Tumblr again, and requested an AO3 invite. Learning how to use this site again was wild because so much had changed since I last used it. I saw something about getting mistaken for bots so I spent a little time making the blog look nice and like an actual person exists before I bothered to follow anyone or any tags. October rolls around and I finally start using it every day and now I’m here with all of y’all 💗

Sorry for the extremely long story and again sorry for how long it took 😅😅

[thesummerstorms]

32, 38!

32.how many tabs do you have open right now?

on my actual computer, which I woke up to answer asks, only four.

.... on my phone where I am reading fanfics, 20?

In my defense, when a fic sounds interesting but my brain just won't cooperate right at that moment, I just open it in a new tab to wait until I have the patience/focus for long fic/the fandom I'm not thinking about right now/whatever made the fic not click in the first place.

If I mark it as "Save for later" on AO3, I will likely not remember it because I only interact with AO3 on mobile, and often from bookmarked searches with all my exclusion filters already built in.

38. fave song at the moment?

so, I spent about 48 hours very recently with The Killers album Hot Fuss on repeat, and the songs "All the Things I've Done" & "Smile Like You Mean It" very specifically on repeat.

Plus like a solid half hour bouncing back and forth between "Seventeen" and "Dead Girl Walking (Reprise)" from Heathers, a musical I don't actually know anything about, last night.

So if I had to go by that data, probably one of those four?

But if I was just saying something, maybe Heat Stroke by Black Math. It's too damn catchy.

[legobatjoker]

btw went thru a fun little journey thru my ao3 subscriptions (bc for some reason instead of bookmarking it whenever i wanted to save a fic id subscribe to it) and like. the thing is i was trying to find cs fics mostly bc i rly stopped reading fanfic esp for cs (mostly bc so many people out there unfortuantly do not get it. and i dont care to expose myself to those fics and i am scared that thats what most of the carula fics out there are) and i wanna find the fics i rly loved again to so if id still like them but i didnt wnat to like. go through every single work i had subscribed through to see waht fandom it was for (bc you cant see that w subscriptions until u click on the fic itself literally why tf didnt i use bookmarks -_-) so i want mostly skimming through and opening fics with titles that intruged me or i thought were fics id want to look at again (bc i was quite liberal w the fics i wld subscribe to which makes me wonder how i ever found the fics that i really realy loved) and after doing this for a while i literally said out loud "i swear all of these fics are coco or she ra" bc the fact that my ao3 is the sma e from when i had a year and a half long coco obsessetion and just bc she ra was so huge ihad more fics to read for that fandom than any other meant that was true and then i saw a fic titles "red roses" and then went "BUT NOT THIS ONE!!!" and made like the exact face of the comic abt thinking the word penis while driving as i opened it in a new tab bc that literally had to be a carulia fic and i tell you the scream i scrumpt when i switched to that tab and saw it was infact a prinxiety fic (not even a good one if memory serves correctly. i just saved it bc i was abt roman leaving red roses outside virgils door and as a carulia and prinxiety obsessed girl who is also obsessed w parallels i saved it just for that)

STOP BCUZ THATS ALSO SO GOOD okay the way i have been thinking abt prinxiety lately. like ok they were so real

[buckys-other-punk]

Hold on..THIS IS YOU?!

Pairing: Sebastian Stan x Reader

Request: where she is a fanfic writer and Sebastian stumbles upon her blog and messaged her as well not letting her know who he was but being an open person she is as to who she was, sending pictures and all, and until one day, decides to meet with her and she is surprised that it was the one she was writing for?

Word Count: 3.6K

Warnings: fluff, sarcasm (of course) and cussing? i think that’s all

A/N: Hello my lovelies. I am sorry I haven’t been posting as much, but that’s usually how I roll..no jk I legit had no time to write because of my classes this semester, so if this sucks I’m sorry lol. I’m still trying to get back into my writing groove...Also don’t mind my minor mistakes 😅

A/N 2: Anyways I AM BACK AND this is my first request ever!! I’m so excited to write this, I am soo sorry this took forever, but hope I did your request justice and that you like it (and so do others). I feel like I wrote this kinda cheesy, but whatever.

[Y/B/N = your blog name]

As always lemme know if you wanna be tagged in my future works and feedback is very much appreciated. Enjoy! <3

Just another normal day without stress and a less anxiety filled world...no, today was actually awful. You were swamped with work and your best friend was complaining about her boyfriend. Let’s just say that the stress she was having with him was making you feel happy that you were single. Trying to relax you heated up some coffee (a/n: or tea) and sat on the couch of your small apartment. Grabbing your laptop you wanted to unwind reading. Probably some fanfics on Tumblr usually does the trick. 

After reading some pretty good marvel related fics by your mutuals, you got inspired to write some fics yourself. Opening up a new tab you began writing about your favorite actor, Sebastian Stan. That man literally makes your miserable day a little better. Sadly, like all the girls and women who fantasize over him, he doesn’t know you. But, whatever right? You can always use your imagination and conjure up a make believe world where the two of you are happily engaged and have a German Shepard puppy named Stitch. Shaking your head to clear your thoughts, you opened another tab on your laptop to pull up your writing playlist, you began typing away on your keyboard writing a new AU where you’re the celebrity of the world you were creating and he was a huge fan of you. After you finished your new fic, you posted that immediately without edits because you were so excited to see people read it.

*across town*

“Have you guys ever read any fanfiction about your characters or yourselves?” the interviewer asked the pair.

“You know I’ve seen a few that were quite impressive. These writers are damn creative.” Anthony replied with a smile. “I will also not lie. I’ve read a few steamy ones and y’all are dirty.” he added with a slight disgusted face shaking his head towards the camera.

“What about you Sebastian? Have you read any?” the interviewer lady asked, looking over to the man.

“Honestly. I haven’t.” Sebastian chuckled looking back at her. “Maybe, if Mackie here finds a good one about me I’ll give it a read.” shrugging towards his friend.

“Oh man, I got a few that are worth reading.” Mackie laughed, rubbing his hands together.

“Hey, might as well share them with the world. Let’s give that writer a shout out!” she exclaimed, placing her notecards on her lap.

“Well, like I’ve said I’ve only read a bit, but I do have some blogs that I’ve saved. Maybe next time I’ll name drop a few and give fans some well deserved praise.” Anthony smiled looking at the two.

“Alright, well you better have a huge list for me.” the lady said with a smile looking at Anthony. “Thank you both again for your time. For everyone watching Falcon and the Winter Soldier comes out in March 2021.” She finished off the interview smiling and waving at the camera and the two men followed her actions as well. Once the cameras and mics were turned off the lady came back to the two men.

“Thank you again guys for your time” the lady said to the pair shaking their hands (a/n: ok let's pretend there is no corona in this world so yeah. Everyone is healthy and so is the world!). The two replied with a simple you’re welcome and another thanks in return.

“Wait, have you really read fanfiction before?” Sebastian asked his co-star as the pair walked towards their manager, who was waiting for them outside the room, getting their schedule for the pair’s next interview.

“I mean yeah. I got curious on what people were writing about us and our characters.” Anthony responded with a shrug looking down at his phone.

“Aren’t most of those like fifty shades of grey?” Sebastian asked, staring at his friend as stood near their manager.

“Only if you want them to be..” Mackie stared at his friend with a blank face as they came to an abrupt stop. “Nah man, I’m just playing. Some of them are steamy, others can be sad, like crazy sad and some are like tooth rotting cute. Like I recently read one that was with Captain America and this original character that the author came up with and it made me say ‘aww’ when I finished it. Me. A grown man said ‘aww’ after reading a fanfic. A FANFIC!” he added. Their manager quickly explained their schedule and walked them over to their car to head off to the next location. The two were seated at the back, while their manager sat next to the driver.

“You know what. Send me that story you read.” Sebastian said to Anthony.

“Are you sure Seb?” Anthony asked with a chuckle.

“Yeah, why not.” he replied with a shrug. “Might as well read a good story before our next interview.”

“Alright let me send it to you right now. Honestly I think this writer is one of my favorites. I don’t know if it's her writing style or how she portrays our characters, but she’s amazing.” Mackie said with a smile getting the fic he recently read and sending it to his friend. 

“So all her stories are good?” Sebastian asked, looking at the notification.

“I just said that she is my favorite writer.” Anthony looked at his friend with a ‘are you serious face.’ 

“Okay. Okay.” Seb said with his arms up in defense. After a few minutes of reading the fanfic Sebastian actually said ‘aww’ aloud just like Mackie after he first read the story.

“It was good wasn’t it.” Anthony asked with a toothy grin.

“Yeah this was really good. Y/B/N is a pretty good writer.” Sebastian said looking through your feed.

“You should tell her!” Anthony exclaimed.

“What, like make an account?” Seb asked.

“Well yeah, but I mean not your actual name of course. Make a fan account. Show these writers your appreciation, I know that if I were an author I would love that (a/n: wink wink). I’ve messaged a few writers complimenting their work without actually telling them who I am.” Anthony said, placing his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“I’m gonna read more stuff from her before I message her.” Sebastian chuckled. Sebastian clicked onto your main blog page to find that you had just posted a new fic about him. “Wait, dude she just posted a new story...About me!” Sebastian exclaimed, showing his phone to Anthony. 

“Nice, but we have to finish these interviews. You gotta read it during your free time man, sorry to crush your dreams.” he chuckled, unbuckling his seat belt and getting out of the car. Sebastian sighed and followed his co-stars actions getting out of the car and continuing the rest of his day filled with interviews.

*later that evening*

After the interviews Anthony and Sebastian had dinner together at a fancy restaurant. During their dinner they talked about how crazy some interviews were. Sebastian brought up the subject of how Mackie publicly announced that he had read fanfiction. With that still stuck in his mind the two finished their meal and after parting ways. Sebastian took a cab and arrived at his apartment, changed out of his fancy suit to some comfy clothes and grabbed a bottle of water from his fridge. He walked over to his couch turning on the tv, not really paying attention to what was playing, grabbing his phone he opened the tumblr app finally creating an account.

*one week later*

Sebastian has read almost all of your works and texting Anthony almost every time after he has finished a new fic giving his reactions to each. He has liked and reblogged everything he has read from you and other writers, but he favors your stuff the most.

Mackie: dude you should tell her you like her stuff and stop texting me!

Seb: Alright I will, I just don't know what to say.

Mackie: Just say you like her work. It's as simple as that.

Seb: okay okay I will

Mackie: ok good, no stop texting my its legit 2 am

Seb: fine

Sebastian opened up the messaging area of the app and began typing away his appreciation to you. He didn’t know why he felt so nervous after he pressed send. Getting out of the app completely he tried to focus on whatever was playing on the tv. Then all of a sudden he heard a notification go off and his phone light up. Looking down on it he saw that it was a notification from you. Again his nervousness took place as he unlocked his phone to read the notification. The app opened and the direct message filled his phone screen.

(a/n: this is my first time using a fake dm thingy so just imagine that Seb is following you)

Seb: Holy shit dude, she actually replied back to me!

Mackie: Well of course she did, she's not a robot. But maybe she is since she’s up so late...

Seb: shut up and why are you still up? I though you were mad at me for texting you

Mackie: well you woke me up so what am i supposed to do

Seb: whatever I’ll let you go

Mackie: alright. bye lover boy 

Sebastian shook his head at the text, he went back to the app to reply back to you. “What should I say?” he said to himself. “Maybe she’s in a different time zone or lives across the world or something… Okay okay. Maybe be chill and say I hope i didn’t wake you? No that sounds weird.” he shook his head trying to come up with something to say. Eventually he fell asleep trying to think of what to say to you.

*the next morning/later that day*

Sebastian woke up with his phone gone from his hand. He quickly got out of his bed in panic to look for it. Maybe you had said something to him or he had said something dumb to you. Once he found his phone he quickly unlocked it to check and thank god he didn’t say anything stupid. But he didn’t say anything. He shook his head clearing his thoughts. “Alright I think I know what to say.”

Y/N’s POV

You woke up to the sound of cars honking, groaning you looked at your clock. “How is it already 10 am?” you said aloud to nobody in particular. You sat up on your bed and grabbed your phone scrolling through various social media apps. At the top of your screen you saw a notification from tumblr. Opening the app to the notifications section, you noticed it was a blog that had messaged you from earlier in the morning.

sebstan_fan: Nice to meet you Y/N. I’m Carter. I don’t know where you live, but I just woke up and had a dream about one of your fics. (wow I hope that didn’t sound creepy)

You smiled at the message, since you loved interacting with your followers.

y/b/n: haha its ok. I actually live near New York City and I also woke up. What was your dream about? (if i can ask)

Sebastian’s POV

Sebastian had just finished taking a shower and began preparing his late breakfast. “Holy shit she replied again!” he said to himself looking at the message.

sebstan_fan: Wait, you live near NYC! Me too! Wow such a small world. But anyways my dream was honestly just a reenactment of your fic.

y/b/n: that’s so crazy how we live near each other lol. But that's so cool how you dreamt about my work. You must have really liked it.

sebstan_fan: yeah it was really interesting how you wrote such a life like scenario.

y/b/n: thank you Carter <3

sebstan_fan: ok I now this is random, but what’s your favorite place to eat in New York?

y/b/n: ooh that’s tough. Let’s go with Lombardi’s since its the very first pizza place to open in the US

sebstan_fan: oh wow an excellent choice :)

*a couple weeks later*

You and your new tumblr friend have been talking about one another’s favorite hobbies and interests for the past few weeks. You feel like you have grown a new connection with your new friend and telling them about your shitty days at work. Today your best friend wanted to bring you with her and her boyfriend to some fancy restaurant. 

y/b/n: Carter, I’m practically third wheeling with her and her boyfriend. 

sebstan_fan: well that sounds awful. Where is she taking you?

y/b/n: idk to some fancy restaurant I’ve never heard of. Anyways she’s making me wear fancy clothes, but I just wanna wear my pajamas!

sebstan_fan: y/n come on. you gotta dress nice if other people are dressing nice too 

y/b/n: ughh ok I think I found something nice. *sends picture of yourself in an elegant dress* what about this?

Seb’s POV

Sebastian got a glass of water and sat back down on his couch. Unlocking his phone to see the new dm from you he spit his water out of his mouth wetting the coffee table in front of him. “HOLY SHIT SHE’S GORGEOUS!” he yelled aloud staring at his phone in awe of your beauty.

sebstan_fan: Y/N, you look amazing! That dress is literally making you glow!

y/b/n: stop you’re making me blush..my friend just pulled up. I’ll dm you later once this stupid night is over. 

sebstan_fan: alright have fun 

y/b/n: <3

Sebastian quickly called Mackie to tell him that you sent him a photo of yourself. 

“Dude, she is unbelievably gorgeous. I actually spit my water out all over my coffee table when I saw the picture. ” Sebastian said on the phone.

“Man you are so obsessed with her, it's kinda creepy.” Anthony replied through the phone.

“What? No man, we just clicked. We have a bunch in common and she’s really easy to talk to.” Sebastian gushed to his friend.

“Yeah, but she doesn’t know that you’re lying to her about your real identity. You’re like fucking Superman with a secret persona!” Anthony snickered at the man on the other line.

“Dude no, but I’ll tell her eventually that I’m me.” Seb replied back to Anthony.

“Well you better do it soon because I’m tired of hearing about you gushing over this woman.” Anthony huffed under his breath. “Anyways I gotta go so bye bitch.” 

Sebastian laughed at his friend hanging up the phone and heading to his room getting ready for bed. As he laid on his bed he couldn’t take his mind off of you in that dress. You were so open with sharing your life to him, a complete stranger, yet he couldn’t do the same.

*the next day*

y/b/n: Carter! I forgot to dm you once I got home, but that dinner was terrible. I hated every minute of it.

sebstan_fan: what happened? Also good morning :)

y/b/n: good morning, sorry if I woke you. But anyways my best friend and her boyfriend brought some dude to make it a double date and the guy was a complete douche. I couldn’t stand a minute being there.

sebstan_fan: damn I’m sorry to hear that. I bet if I was there with you the night wouldn’t have been so bad haha

y/b/n: creepy..jk But I bet we would have completely ditched my friend and her boyfriend lol

sebstan_fan: wait, I got an idea! I mean since we live around the same area why don’t we meet!

y/b/n: what like in person?

sebstan_fan: no through zoom, yes in person!

y/b/n: wow the sarcasm in this one, but that sounds like a lovely idea. I feel like I already know so much about you tho...

Sebastian huffed under his breath, “not everything.”

sebstan_fan: lol yeah but it’ll be different to meet in person. Anyways where should we meet?

y/b/n: lol that’s true. Well I know this small cafe that’s so cute and I heard they have pretty good pastries. It would be awesome to meet there :D

sebstan_fan: alright how about Saturday afternoon? You don’t have work right?

y/b/n: nope I’m off! but that sounds good to me! I’m so excited and nervous at the same time. Like what if you’re some creepy stalker...

Sebstan_fan: why would you accuse me of such a thing?!

y/b/n: lol you know i’m just messing with you. But I gotta go my friend is now calling me, probably about that douche from last night...but I can’t wait to see you Carter!<3

“Yeah, me too.” Sebastian said to himself smiling.

*Saturday*

You sat at the cafe where you told your new tumblr friend to meet you. You ordered a drink and once it was finished, you grabbed it and sat near the windows saving a seat for Carter. As you waited you pulled out your laptop and began on typing away a new fic idea drawing inspiration from the small cafe and the gloomy weather outside. 

“I’m sorry that seat’s taken...” you muttered to a man who pulled out the chain next to you, looking up at the figure. “Holy shit!” you exclaimed to the man who sat next to you.

“Shhhh...Please don’t say anything.” Sebastian whispered to you, sitting on the chair next to you and taking off his sunglasses.

“What? But how? You’re!? I can’t breathe.” you exclaimed erratically looking down at your drink.

“Hey, hey Y/N, just calm down and take slow deep breaths.” he said calmly placing his hand on your back.

“How the fuck do you know my name?!” you exclaimed again staring wide eyed at the actor. “Am I getting pranked or something? Where are the cameras?!” you nervously laughed looking around the empty cafe.

“No, you’re not getting pranked. It’s me Carter…” he said quietly rubbing the back of his head.

“You’re Carter?! I thought you were a girl!” you said looking into the man’s blue eyes.

“I may have lied about who I was, but I wanted to meet you.” he started as he stared down at the ground. “I didn’t want you to freak out knowing that it was actually me.” he said looking back up at you.

“Let me just gather my thoughts for a sec.” you said, putting your hand to your temples.

“Wait, why did you assume I was a girl?” he asked with a smirk.

“I don’t know! Carter is a unisex name.” you frantically said with a shrug. “And I mean most of my followers are female, so I just assumed you were one too.” you added grabbing your drink and taking a sip to calm your nerves.

“That makes sense I guess.” he said chuckling, looking out the big window of the cafe.

“This is so crazy that you are here. Sitting next to me and talking about my stupid tumblr blog.” you uttered. “Like you’re famous!”

“Yeah so what.” he looked back to you. 

“I mean aren’t you busy filming and stuff?” you asked the man.

“Nope, we just wrapped up the interviews a couple of weeks ago. I’m on vacation.” he said with a toothy grin, which made you blush. “Aww look she’s blushing.” he said sweetly towards you.

“Shut up. It’s not like I get to meet my favorite actor who I’ve had a crush on since forever sitting next to me and casually conversing with.” you muttered quickly hoping he didn’t hear your profession of love for him.

“You got a crush on me?” he smiled at you.

“Fuck you. I do not!” you exclaimed looking away from him.

“Aww I think you do.” he said, nudging your shoulder.

“Whatever.” you said under your breath trying to hide your embarrassment.

“Hey, I’m in awe too.” he began, which made you look at him. “It’s not like I get to see a beautiful woman who I like.” he smirked at you.

“I think I’m dreaming. Did you just say you like me?!” you asked pinching yourself back into reality.

“I mean yeah. I really like your work as a writer and the past what month we’ve been talking I think you’re a really cool and sweet person.” he said now blushing. 

“I bet you say that to all the women you meet.” scoffing at his comment.

“No I’m serious Y/N. I think you’re a really talented writer. And I think you’re also really pretty.” again blushing, but this time he looked straight at you.

“Oh, wow. Thank you so much Sebastian.” you hesitated, your cheeks heating up. “That means a lot coming from you.” you smiled.

“Of course. And also I wanted to ask you in person if after coming clear about who I actually am, if you wanted to go out sometime. I know its weird and all sudden but-”

“Yes!” you exclaimed quickly cutting him off. “I mean. I would love to.” you said more calmly. “God, I’m trying so hard to keep my inner fangirl in.” you huffed under your breath. 

Sebastian laughed at your comment and then asked, “Alright then. What about tomorrow I take you out for dinner?” 

“That sounds delightful.” you smiled at the man. The two of you fell silent watching the people who passed by the small cafe.

“Oh, but can I ask you one more question? Why are you wearing a hat? And shades earlier? It's legit rainy and cloudy as hell outside.” you asked, looking at the man with your head resting on your hand.

“I’m going incognito. I don’t want my fans to recognize me.” he replied, taking a sip of his coffee.

“Are you embarrassed of them seeing you with me?” you hesitantly interrogated.

“No, I just don't want them to interrupt our first date.” he responded with a smirk looking at you.

“Wait, this is a date?!” you exclaimed with wide eyes.

“Only if you want it to be sweetheart.” Sebastian smirked, winking towards you.

“Fuck you.” You said with a smile.

A/N: Yay you finished! Was that good? bad? cheesy? lemme know lol Again if you wanna be tagged in future fics, have any requests or just wanna chat hit me up! Thank you guys for reading and I hope you get excited for more stuff to come.

Tags: @lostinthoughtsandfeelings @sebtheromanianprince​ @aquabrie @who-the-hell-is-sebastianstan​ @princess76179​ @anbrax5553​ @wintersoldierissucharide @caplanbuckybarnes​ @miraclesoflove​ @kitkatd7 @msgreenverse @saiyanprincessswanie​ @fandomsandxfiles @hailmary-yramliah @coffeebooksandfandom​ @thefallenbibliophilequote

^please lemme know if you wanna be added to future works or removed for tags^

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] To Save A Brother

 He has the other half.  Darkness's fingers brushed across the medallion that hung around his neck.  He wanted to duel this person.  He could sense other things as well - this carrier of a Spirit Gate Key was a powerful Firestarter as well as -  he frowned, taking one more step forward.  Perhaps being closer would tell him if he read this correctly.

Oh.  He was.  It wasn't something he'd expected, not here and not now.  Darkness did not like this.  The bearer of the Gentle Darkness, here and now?  That would make for an excellent duel without a doubt, but it would stand a risk of awakening the power itself should it still sleep.  He didn't want to take the chance on facing his old adversary without being properly prepared.

A movement in the shadows caught his attention.  Someone walked towards the dorm building - Osiris Red, he knew from the memories of his current host - though it didn't seem that this person belonged there.  They wore a blue uniform, and though he was too far away to see the tab on their collar, another part of him whispered strongly that they too were a Firestarter.  Perhaps not quite as strong as the one who wore the other half of the medallion, but still quite strong.

His host twitched harder inside of him.  Darkness took a better look at this new person as they came closer to the dorm.  He had access to all of memories of his host and it took a few moments to click.

Well.  It seemed that this was the sister of his host.  How interesting.  He'd been aware that his host had a sister, who was a Firestarter, but he'd never thought that he would encounter said sister on this mission.  He considered for a few moments, then made up his mind.

Power stretched outward, encircling both the girl and those in the building who he could sense as being awake.  There were only four of those, and one of them was the other Key Carrier who wore the half-medallion.  Once he disposed o the girl, Darkness, decided, he would duel that one as well.  If they knew one another, then seeing her defeated would dishearten him and give him a better chance to win without awakening the other Darkness.

Not to mention, he just couldn't resist the urge to cause despair and heartache no matter what.  The thought of doing so to his host and his host's sister at the same time was far too tempting to resist.

Asuka had been on her way to talk to Juudai, worried that he would be the first one targeted by the Seven Stars.  After all, he was an Osiris Red, and while he'd proven his talents more than once over the last handful of months, these strange evil duelists might not be aware of that.  She fidgeted with the Key that hung around her neck, wondering again what it would be like to duel in one of these Duels of Darkness.  She'd heard they weren't the sort of duel that Duel Academia had all the time, but she wasn't certain of what they would be like.

The circle of dark energy engulfed her without warning.  She'd barely even reached Juudai's door when it swept over her and into the room beyond.  When she could see again, she stood on a silvery disk, and she wasn't where she'd been before.  It took a moment to grasp where that was - at the volcano.  Right over the lava, in fact. 

"Asuka!"  She jerked her head around to see Juudai, Shou-kun, Hayato-kun, and Theodis-san a distance away, also on a disk like hers, but theirs was more enclosed.  The Healer Cat sniffed around, tail lashing, clearly uncomfortable without solid ground underneath her.

She started to take a step towards them.  But before she could, lava leapt up all around, arching in graceful smooth arcs over the shining disk beneath her feet.  The lava shaped itself into something that resembled dragons, roaring fiercely before they splashed into one another and out of the lava there stepped a new figure.  He stood taller than Asuka, with brown hair tinged by the light of the lava. 

Most of his face was hidden behind a black mask that resembled a dragon's features.  Around his neck there hung a medallion similar to the one Juudai had taken to wearing after their experience in that other world.

"You're one of the Seven Stars,"  Asuka declared, staring at this stranger. He smiled - it wasn't a smile that fit on his features.  What little Asuka could see told her that he should smile freely and happily.  This near-smirk wasn't his at all. 

"I am Darkness,"  he introduced himself with a tiny nod of his head.  "And you are one of the Keepers of the Keys.  I challenge you to a duel."  Before she could answer, he raised one hand, and a card flickered into existence there.  "The loser will have their soul sealed into this card."

Asuka tensed herself at once.  She'd not thought that she would be one of the first challenged.  But she'd been entrusted with this key and she refused to let it go without a fight.

"If that's what you want, then I'll fight you!"  Asuka declared. She glanced once again to where her friends stood surrounded by lava.  "But when I win, I want my friends released!"

Darkness chuckled, a very low, dark, smooth sound.  It didn't fit him any more than the smirk did.  "Of course.  But the question is, can you win fast enough?"

No sooner had he asked that then Shou yelped, and Asuka looked in time to see him pulling his hand away from the lava.  It didn't look as if he'd been more than mildly scorched but she could tell Juudai was the only one who might be enjoying the heat.  She squared up her shoulders - time to fight.

"I will take the first turn,"  Darkness declared, shuffling his deck.  Asuka got ready.  This wouldn't be an easy duel at all.  "I summon Spear Dragon, in attack mode, and set one card face-down."  Spear Dragon appeared, mostly brilliant blue wings and a long sharp beak, pointed towards her.  "Turn end.  Do make this interesting, Tenjoin Asuka."

How does he know my name?  She hadn't mentioned it.  Perhaps they all somehow knew the Key-Keepers?  She didn't have time to worry about it now.  Instead, she drew her first hand and checked it out.  She could work with this.

"I summon Cyber Gymnatics!"  Before her there appeared one of her favorite monsters, clad in a tight-fitting black outfit, well-muscled, and long blonde hair.  She didn't have the highest attack but what she had to make up for it was her effect.  "I activate her affect by discarding one card from my hand.  I can destroy one face-up attack position monster my opponent controls - in this case, Spear Dragon!"

Cyber Gymnatics leaped upward and spun towards the far side of the field, slamming one foot hard against Spear Dragon's neck.  The dragon let loose a cry of pain before vanishing in a spray of light.  Asuka wasn't done yet, though. 

"Now that you don't have any defenses, Cyber Gymnatics attacks you directly!"  Once again her monster leaped forward, and this time slashed her hand directly into Darkness, who barely flinched back.  He chuckled as the attack ended and Cyber Gymnatics returned to Asuka's side of the field.

"Is that all you're going to do?"  He asked.  Asuka didn't like the way that he smiled. 

"I set one card face down and end my turn,"  she said.  Whatever he tried on his turn, she'd be able to handle it.  This wasn't as terrifying as she'd feared it might be.

But Darkness quickly disabused her of that.  "I activate Call of the Living Dead, summoning Spear Dragon back from my graveyard!"  Once again Spear Dragon appeared before him.  Asuka tensed even more; he could have done that earlier and prevented all damage to himself if he had.  What did he have in mind? 

"Next, I summon Mirage Dragon!"  The second dragon appeared there now, this one a half-see through creature of gold scales and silver hair.  "While Mirage Dragon is on the field, you cannot activate trap cards during the battle phase."

Asuka's eyes widened and she took a step back.  Her eyes fell to her face-down card - Double Passe.  If she couldn't activate that, then she would have to revise her strategy and fast. 

Darkness laughed.  It scraped against her soul, like a sound that she knew should be pleasant and yet it had been warped beyond all understanding.  "Are you afraid?  Do you understand that you're going to lose now?"

"Don't listen to him!"  Theodis snapped, voice rising above the sound of the lava.  "You haven't lost yet!"

"She's right!"  Juudai agreed wholeheartedly.  "You can take this guy, Asuka!  We all believe in you!"

Shou nodded, casting repeated nervous glances to the lava.  Juudai had slipped himself in the front of the little group, one hand resting on Theodis' head, staring at the duel displayed before them, as if he weren't surrounded by boiling lava.  Asuka wondered for a heartbeat if he could hear the voices of the lava.  Any Firestarter could hear the voice of fire, but lava was another thing altogether.  She knew she wasn't that strong, but Juudai wasn't a normal Firestarter at all.

She shook her head to clear it, focusing back on what was happening before her.  Darkness wasn't finished at all.

"Battle!"  Darkness declared, pointing towards her.  "Spear Dragon, take out Cyber Gymnatics!  Spear Crash!" 

At once the blue dragon surged forward with a mighty flap of its wings and stabbed that long sharp beak right into Cyber Gymnatics' heart.  Asuka screamed as pain racked her, flowering outward from her own heart.  She didn't fall but only by sheer stubbornness.  Slowly she shook her head again, trying to think instead of just suffering.

"Wh-what was that?"  She murmured.  Darkness chuckled. 

"This is a Duel of Darkness.  The pain of your monsters - that's your pain too.  You'll feel every bit of damage done in this duel.  And so will I, of course."  Darkness waved one hand casually.  "But I think you'll not enjoy it the way that I do."

Had he felt this when she'd attacked him directly?  He hadn't acted like he did.  Was he lying about that?  Asuka couldn't even begin to guess right now and had no time to think it over. Not when Darkness hadn't finished his Battle Phase.

"Mirage Dragon!  Attack her directly!  Mirage Crush!"  Forward it surged, claws raking her from head to toe.  Asuka screamed, falling back again, dropping down to one knee as her life points dropped to thirteen hundred.  She almost expected to see blood when she looked down at herself, and only when that didn't happen did she remember that to some extent, these were still holograms.  They weren't solid - yet she'd felt the weight of the claw sinking into her flesh and ripping through her.

"If you want to surrender,"  Darkness told her, "then I will take your Key and seal your soul into this card.  The pain will end.  You'll know nothing, ever again."

Asuka's eyes narrowed.  Slowly she pushed herself to her feet, swaying ever so lightly as she did.  She'd never heard the voice of the lava, but the fire it sparked called to her.  The volcano had always been friendly to the Firestarters of Duel Academia and now wasn't any different.  She could also hear the voices of her friends, Juudai and Theodis, Shou and Hayato, demanding to know if she was all right, encouraging her to keep on going.

For his sake,  she told herself.  I can't find my brother if I don't keep on going.  If I lose this fight, I'll never see him again.  She'd waited too long, searched too long.  She wasn't going to let that happen.

She glanced towards Darkness, and thought she caught a glimpse of brown eyes behind the mask.  The light of the lava made her uncertain of what she saw, but - was it?  Fubuki wasn't the only person with brown hair and brown eyes in the world.  But he did play a dragon deck.  It had been a long time since she'd seen her brother duel, so she couldn't be certain.  But - she pressed her lips together.

"Is that all you've got?"

Darkness laughed, and the heat around him rose, to the point even she noticed it.  That was wrong by itself; Fubuki was a Healer, not a Firestarter.  This heat felt wrong.  Not like a Shadow Flame; but something else altogether. Asuka had no names for it, but she knew wrong when it presented itself to her. "Turn end.  Do your best."  Darkness taunted her.  Asuka fully intended to.

She drew her card for the turn and relaxed a fraction.  She had cards enough to deal with the situation but this would make it that much easier.

"All right, Darkness, you'll see just what my best is!  I activate Cyclone, targeting your Call of the Living Dead!  When that goes to the graveyard, it takes Spear Dragon with it!"  And that removed the strongest monster from Darkness's side of the field.  All she needed now was a way to get rid of Mirage Dragon - and she had that already in her hand.

"Now, I summon Cyber TuTu!"  Before her there appeared the low-level ballerina, who spun into place delicately and fiercely, regarding the dragon before her without a scrap of fear. 

Darkness chuckled as he regarded her.  "She's not very powerful, is she?  I don't think my dragon has anything to fear from her."

"No, your dragon doesn't,"  Asuka agreed, allowing herself a grin.  "But you might.  I'm not attacking with Cyber TuTu.  She's not here on the stage for long.  I brought her out in order to call someone else!"  She flicked out another card.  "By the effect of Prima Light, I sacrifice Cyber Tutu!  Cyber Prima, dance on in!"

A tight silver bodysuit covered her new monster, along with golden hoops that hovered at her hips, and smaller ones in the form of bracelets at her shoulders and wrists.  A fall of silver-white hair gleamed bright in the lava-light, and she stood fiercely in front of Asuka, ready for battle.

"Cyber Prima!  Take out Mirage Dragon!"  This wouldn't cause nearly as much damage as she would have liked, but even seven hundred was better than nothing.  She couldn't guess yet what his ace card might be but the sooner she finished this duel the better.  If she kept feeling the same damage that her monsters did, then she wasn't sure of how much more she could take.

Mirage Dragon vanished in a puff of sparkles as Cyber Prima slammed into him, Darkness's life points dropping down to twenty-five hundred.  Still a long way to go, but Asuka believed she could do it.

Darkness brushed it off easily though as she set her last card face down and ended her turn.  "You're not that bad.  I might almost regret finishing you off - but probably not."  He regarded her thoughtfully before he drew his own next card and then pointed towards her.  "Do you hear the cries of those dragons that you've destroyed?  They shriek from the graveyard, demanding vengeance for their passing!"

"You're getting into this a little much,"  Asuka muttered.  She'd never been fond of those who were too over-dramatic in duels.  Spirits or no spirits - and she hadn't made up her mind on that - it was still a game.  Though a very deadly one right now.

But Darkness continued as if she'd not said a thing.  "You will suffer for what you've done! The souls of the dragons demand it!  Now it begins!  I summon Black Dragon's Chick!" 

In front of him there now appeared a large red egg, From the egg there burst a small dragon, not quite small enough to hold in one's hands. It glared at her and Cyber Prima, hissing in anger as it did.  Darkness wasted no further time.

"I send Black Dragon's Chick to the graveyard and summon Red Eyes Black Dragon from my hand!" 

The chick explode into light and that light coalesced into a gigantic dragon, sleek and black of scale, with sharp red eyes that peered as her as if she were the source of all it hated in the cosmos.  Asuka's attention shifted from the dragon to Darkness's mask and back again.

It's the same.  He's wearing the Red Eyes Black Dragon Mask.  Something else clicked.  She couldn't see his face properly still, not with the mask there, and the shadows cast by the lava made it even more difficult to be sure.  But the more she listened to his voice and the more she stared at him, the more certain Asuka became.  She wasn't sure at all of how or why, but - but she'd done it.

She'd found her brother.  Now she just needed to find a way to find him inside of whatever it was that used his body.  She didn't know how this Darkness entity did it, but he wore her brother like a suit, and that wasn't going to happen any longer if she had anything to say about it.

"Your dragon only has a hundred more points than Cyber Prima,"  she pointed out.  "That's hardly anything at all."

"Oh, you're quite right on that."   All around Darkness, shadows cast by the lava stirred and twisted and rose upward, dancing in a frenzy that sent chills down Asuka's spine.  "Therefore, I send Red-Eyes Black Dragon to the graveyard to summon Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon!" 

The shadows converged on the great black dragon, wrapping all around it and blocking it from sight.  When they pulled away, the dragon looked larger, but slimmer, with a sense of intelligence that Asuka didn't find reassuring in the slightest. 

"Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon draws power from every dragon that's been sent to the graveyard," Darkness declared.  "With Spear Dragon, Mirage Dragon, Black Dragon's Chick, and Red-Eyes Black Dragon, that makes his attack 3,600!"  He regarded her carefully.  This strike would finish her, taking her last thirteen hundred life points in one fell swoop. "Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, attack!  Bring me the victory with Darkness Giga Flame!"

"Not so fast!"  Asuka declared, gasping the words out as quickly as she could.  "I activate my traps!  Spirit Barrier prevents me from taking damage at all, and Doble Passe allows me to make this attack on my monster a direct attack on me - and then I can directly attack you with Cyber Prima! Go! Closing Reverence!"

Even as Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon blasted a stream of intense black fire at her, Cyber Prima leaped over the flames, dodging them gracefully, and landed in front of Darkness, striking at him with all of her might. Darkness fell back a step himself, his life points dropping to a mere two hundred, and he snarled, eyes flashing like red coals.

"You won't do that again next turn,"  he promised. Asuka knew he was right.  Doble Passe would go to the graveyard at the end of this turn.  Spirit Barrier would remain, being a Continuous Trap, but it required her to have a monster on the field.  If he could destroy Cyber Prima, then she would have no defense whatsoever. 

If this were her brother - if he used Fubuki's deck - then she knew that in that deck rested cards that could either destroy Cyber Prima, destroy Spirit Barrier, or inflict effect damage, which Spirit Barrier wouldn't negate. 

He wasn't done with her now.  Two more cards remained in his hand.  He tugged out one of them.  "I activate Fire Dragon's Blazing Bullet, and choose the effect of dealing eight hundred points of damage to my opponent!"

Asuka had time to think of how petty this was before fire engulfed her.  Firestarters weren't burned by fire, no matter how weak they were, and she'd always been one of the strongest.  For the first time in her life, she knew what it felt like to burn, and not in that glorious way that Firestarters did.  She screamed, falling face forward, trembling from head to foot.

Firestarter.  Firestarter.  Another voice whispered to her.  She flinched at first, but then others joined in.

"Asuka!  Asuka!  Stand up!  You can do this!" 

"Yeah!  You've got this!  He's only got two hundred left!" 

"Idiots."  That voice cut over the other ones.  "She's lost already.  All she has to do is stop breathing.  Then I will duel you, Yuuki Juudai."

Slowly Asuka's head cleared.  She dragged in a breath.  The fires called.  She glanced over to where her friends were and saw that whatever it was that protected them from the lava had drawn backwards. They'd not fallen in yet but it wasn't that far away.  So she needed to finish this.  She needed - she didn't know what she needed.  All that she could think of right now was to win, to overcome that dragon and destroy those last two hundred life points.  But Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon had thirty-six hundred - even with Cyber Blader, she had nothing that could top that.

Wait - wait.  One card. One hope. 

"So you don't want to peacefully lay down and die?"  Darkness taunted her as she swayed to her feet, small flames of her own beginning to dance around her.  "I'm going to extinguish those fires of yours!"

"My fire will cut through your shadows to what lies beneath, Darkness!"  Asuka shot back.  "All I need is one card to finish you off!"

"Try your best!" 

Asuka drew her card.  "I activate Pot of Greed, and draw two more cards!"  She knew how slim her odds were, but if she were going to go down, then she'd go down fighting every step of the way.  She smiled at the sight of her two new cards - exactly what she needed.

Juudai always thanked his deck when he got a good draw.  Asuka wondered if she should start doing the same thing.

"I summon Cyber Petit Angel! When this card is successfully summoned, I can add Machine Angel Ritual from my deck to my hand!"

She'd only recently added Ritual monsters to her deck.  Perhaps this was why she'd wanted to do so.  Regardless, it was time.  Cyber Petit Angel wiggled little metallic wings and the card she needed appeared in her hand from the deck.  She moved on; better to get this done before Darkness could counter her.

"I activate Machine Angel Ritual!  By tributing Cyber Prima and Cyber Petit Angel, I Ritual Summon Cyber Angel Dakini!"

A tall armored woman spun into existence before her, blue-skinned and red-haired, with armor of gold.  The top two of her four arms held swords while the bottom two held a long staff.  "When Cyber Angel Dakini is summoned, then you select and destroy one of your monsters."  Asuka smiled a thin-lipped smile.  "And you only have one monster."

Darkness jerked in surprise as Dakini struck his mighty Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon with her staff, and it exploded into a pile of scales and dust that faded away a breath later.  She could see his eyes widen as he understood what was about to happen.  Asuka didn't give him time to fear it.

"Cyber Angel Dakini!  Direct attack!"

At once Dakini leaped forward again, this time swiping both of her swords across him.  His life points drained away entirely, and he fell, screaming, the card that he'd declared would hold her soul on her defeat now glowing ever so softly.  Asuka wasn't sure how she stayed on her feet, but she tottered towards him, even as light flared up around them.  When that light cleared, they weren't over the volcano anymore, but on the side of it.  Her flamelets faded away and she collapsed next to the black-clad body.

"Asuka!  Asuka!"  Ryou hurried closer, Misawa and Professor Chronos with him.  Juudai, Shou, Hayato, and Thordis hurried as well, coming to check on her.  She didn't care; she was fine.  But she pulled the body into her arms, noticing vaguely that he still breathed.  She slipped the mask off of his face, hardly able to think or breathe right now, especially as she saw that it was Fubuki, it was her brother, he lay there unconscious, but alive.  Tears coursed down her cheeks and she didn't care.  She'd held those back far too long over the last two years.

Slowly she looked up at Ryou, the only other person who might understand how she felt right now. "It's him,"  she whispered.  "It's Fubuki.  That other soul - Darkness - it's gone now."  She could see the card discarded to one side.  There was Darkness, staring back at them through the chains. Maybe 'gone' wasn't the right word, but it would do.

Asuka closed her eyes and let herself slump forward, her mind going dark and restful.  This time when she woke up, Fubuki would be there, and she could get answers on what happened, how he'd vanished and why he'd vanished, where he'd been all this time, and why he worked for these people wanting powerful and evil cards. 

She'd done it.  She'd saved her brother.

The End

Notes: Okay, let's face it. Asuka was robbed when it came to her search for Fubuki. All it really did for her in canon was get her kidnapped by Titan (an event I can assure you didn't happen in this AU), and then after that she just kinda floats around uselessly in the plot. She wasn't even allowed to be the one to set Fubuki free. No, that had to take second place to Juudai and his eternal need for fun duels! Not this time, though. Also, I mainly set this in my Healer/Firestarter AU for the grins and giggles. This might not be the best duel but I think it works.

Lastly, I sorted out this duel and wrote it all today. The idea has floated in my head for ages and it just slammed in that this would be perfect for today's prompt, even though I had my other fic ready anyway. Meh, ideas.

[theewildflowers]

dramione fanfic recs

I’ve fallen into the Dramione fanfiction hole lately due to a friend’s recent obsession with Dramione and Draco Malfoy tik tok, so I wanted share some favorite stories I’ve read, especially with those who are also new to the pairing. Many of the fics below are pretty popular within the fandom, but maybe there will be something new as well for those who come across this post.

I’ve included the rating and word count in parenthesis, and the fics are set in the magical universe unless otherwise noted. Please mind the tags when you click through—many fics may have triggers. Happy reading!

wait and hope by mightbewriting (M, 95k) “Harry,” Hermione began, voice very controlled, but she could feel the blade of panic slicing at her vocal cords. “Why was Draco Malfoy just screaming bloody murder about his,” and the word almost strangled her as she said it, “wife?” Harry's green eyes blew wide. Healer Lucas pinched the bridge of her nose, clearly displeased with the recent series of events. “He was referring to you, my dear,” she said. “That was the other question you got wrong. Your name is Hermione Jean Granger-Malfoy.”

Part of the Wait and Hope story universe. Draco’s POV, Beginning and End, is a WIP. (I’ve read and reread Wait and Hope multiple times in a few weeks span, so it’s safe to say that it’s my favorite Dramione story universe.)

the politician’s wife by Pir8fancier (M, 66k) This story is set twenty-three years after the fall of Voldemort. Our main characters are Ministry employees, middle-aged, and the majority of them not very happy. (This was the first Dramione fic I’ve ever read and is still one of my favorites)

the right thing to do by LovesBitca8 (E, 176k) Hermione felt the pounding in her ears again. She would see him for the first time since the Great Hall, gaunt and stricken at the Slytherin table with his mother clutching his arm. She hadn't meant to look for him. Not in the corridors, not beneath the white sheets of the fallen, not on the way to the Chamber of Secrets with Ron, but she was a stupid girl. Part of the Rights and Wrongs story universe (highly recommend Draco’s POV, All the Wrong Things, as well).

remain nameless by HeyJude19 (E, WIP) The monotony of Draco’s daily routine had become both a lifeline and a noose. But this new habit of grabbing coffee with Hermione Granger is quickly becoming a reason to get out of bed and is unfortunately forcing him to re-evaluate his inconsequential existence.

seeker fit by selinyu and etlithien (T, 2.6k) “Will the Head Girl grace the pitch with her presence for today’s match?” The timbre of Malfoy’s cool lilting drawl slid down Hermione’s spine. I recommend all the fics in the SenLithien Dramione Collaboration collection.

breath mints / battle scars by Onyx_and_Elm (E, 148k) For a moment, she's almost giddy. Because Draco Malfoy's been ruined by this war and he's as out of place as she is and — yes, he has scars too. He's got an even bigger one. She wonders whether one day they'll compare sizes.

apple pies and other amends by ToEatAPeach (M, 76k) It’s not until she’s brought a basil and strawberry sponge cake to Neville Longbottom and his new girlfriend, Hannah Abbott, a dozen rhubarb hand-pies to Luna and Xenophilius Lovegood, and another basket of ganache-covered muffins to Dean and Seamus, that Hermione admits to herself what she’s actually doing:  she’s making a thing of this. It’s a veritable PTSD tour. With pastries. And hand-skimmed clotted cream. And she has no idea why she’s doing it, but it’s becoming very apparent that she is.

clean and marked by olivieblake (M, 118k and 178k) Malfoy's handsome face was contoured into a condescending smirk. "No faith in that giant brain of yours, Granger?" She looked up at him defiantly. "Maybe I don't have faith in you!" she said, raising her voice. Malfoy only looked at her. "You'll find I'm very surprising." Basically a sixth year retelling.

the best of me by MrsRen (E, 148k) Officially, Hermione Granger was killed in action during the Battle of Hogwarts. Unofficially, Draco Malfoy has never stopped searching for her. Years after the war during a mission in France, his salvation comes in the form of a little blond boy and a familiar half-Kneazle.

fortuitous by MrsRen (M, 93k) Recently divorced Draco doesn't believe in the ideology of having one true love. He certainly doesn't expect to meet his match in a Halloween themed coffee shop, but fate has a peculiar way of giving you just what you need.

bring him to his knees by Musyc (E, WIP) Draco is on the case of a murderer, but to investigate, he needs a fake relationship - and a kink club play partner. When Hermione volunteers to take the role, both do their best to maintain the lie without letting each other know the truth: neither of them are acting.

looking glass by kyonomiko (M, 99k) No one knows what happened to Draco Malfoy in the final battle, but, when his portrait shows up at Harry Potter's house, it's readily assumed he didn't make it. Hermione's perspective on the wizard starts to change as she learns more about who he really was. The more she knows, the more tragic his apparent demise seems to be.

isolation by bex-chan (E, 264k) He can't leave the room. Her room. And it's all the Order's fault. Confined to a small space with only the Mudblood for company, something's going to give. Maybe his sanity. Maybe not. "There," she spat. "Now your Blood's filthy too!"

thirty-five by raven_maiden (M, 2.3k) It's Draco Malfoy's birthday, and you'd think he'd have some say in the matters concerning his birthday. Then again, the will of four other Malfoys is hard to overcome. Part of Meet the Malfoys collection.

apples & cream by LovesBitca8 (E, 1.4k) She could have taken her things and gone through his Floo without a word. She could have ignored him on Monday morning, as though last night had been no more than a fever dream and too much Firewhisky. But she’d come back to bed.

universal truths by scullymurphy (E, 145k, pride & prejudice inspired AU) Hermione Granger is a woman of intelligence and spirit. Draco Malfoy is a man of wealth and privilege. When they meet again, a decade after the second great wizarding war—they are not impressed. But when circumstances throw them together, dislike turns to attraction, attraction turns to passion and passion may turn into something more... If they can stay out of their own way and let love take its course.

my brown-eyed girl by PacificRimbaud (M, 2k) "Give it up, Granger. We've had our N.E.W.T. results for a week. What can possibly have earned your continued academic devotion in the last four days of term?" Draco and Hermione have a lazy snuggle in the grass behind the Quidditch pitch.

bite marks by provactive_envy (E, 19.4k, muggle AU) Draco’s mouth falls open. He clutches his cookie and ignores the shower of crumbs littering his grey cashmere fingerless gloves. He can’t decide if he wants to fuck this girl or fight with her. Maybe both? Maybe at the same time?

thirteenth night by Nelpher (M, 78k) When Hermione is assigned to keep tabs on a memory-charmed Draco, she is faced with a decision that could change her life forever.

familiar faces, worn out places by LovesBitca8 (E, 7k) “You are at St. Mungo’s. You were in a coma.” He looks me over again, taking a pause. “I am a Healer here now,” he says, like it explains something. My fingers stretch, drifting across his sleeve. He looks down, like I’ve thrown mud at him. Forcing my vocal chords together for the first time, I whisper, “What’s your name?”

bone mortar by mightbewriting (M, 10k, muggle AU) Draco clenched his teeth, forcing sharp, shallow breaths through his nose as he ripped open the door to his usual lecture hall only to find— someone at his desk. Well, he supposed it was technically less his desk and more the desk as he didn’t actually own this particular classroom. But since he’d taught in it for the last four semesters in a row he at least felt like he’d earned common law ownership of some sort.

of mongolian fireflies and russian sharpclaws by barnettdidit (T, 37k) As colleagues for the F.A.U.C.E.T. (Fetching And Uncovering Creatures Experiencing Terror) department, Draco and Hermione have had their fair share of arguments. When they face their hardest case yet, mixed with an odd swarm of fireflies that glow in the colour according to how they feel about each other, Hermione is struggling to keep a straight mind.

a muggle-born magic by Musyc (M, 50k, regency era AU) Physician's daughter Hermione Granger finds herself in need of a way to pay off her father's debts after his death. Draco Malfoy, retired from the politics of the Isolationists, a group of pure-bloods bent on separating 'true' magic from lesser folk, finds himself in need of a tutor for his son, Scorpius, who appears to be incapable of magic and must learn to survive in a world without it. Draco also needs a wife and mother for Scorpius, to satisfy a promise to his unwell father. After she saves his son from an attack by Isolationists, Draco hires the Muggle-born Miss Granger for the former, and after a riot in Vauxhall Gardens and a scandalous discovery made by his mother, weds that selfsame Muggle-born for the latter. While making the best of her marriage of (in)convenience, Hermione discovers that Scorpius' history of wild imaginings and dreams is more than just imagination. As she attempts to teach him about magical abilities no one expected he would ever have, she and Draco work together to raise Scorpius and learn to trust each other.

aurelian by BittyBlueEyes (T, 255k) Two years after the war, a young stranger pays a visit to the burrow. His arrival alone is baffling, but the news he brings of an upcoming war turns the world upside down. Hermione's quiet, post-war life will never be the same.

malfoy shrugged by uselessenglishmajor (E, 11k) February 14th is just another day at the office for Hermione Granger. Shame no one else got the memo.

distance by In_Dreams (T, 138k) She’s a novice Unspeakable trying to earn her stripes. He’s a shafted Auror desperate to prove himself. When they end up forced together on a shared assignment, neither is willing to back down. But when the mission pulls them into an ancient world of mystery and adventure, they find themselves depending on each other in a race against time.

nonscents by In_Dreams (M, 10k) Granger's Amortentia smells like him and Draco can't understand why. More importantly, he can't let her figure it out.

correspondence by olivieblake (T, 5k) Every year, Draco insists that Hermione take a picture for their Christmas card. Why? Hell if she knows, but if it will make him happy, so be it.

sandalwood and gardenias by secondbutton (E, 9k) A balanced fragrance of sandalwood and something musky and earthy followed him like a shroud. Draco Malfoy smelled like a magical forest’s best kept secret. Like the moment following a storm when the sun peeks back over the clouds and living beings stop what they’re doing and pause to marvel at being able to roam outside again. It was a crisp top note with more robust undertones, and just a hint of sweetness. She thought she might love the scent if it lived on anyone else other than him.

[just-mirko]

BINARY BNHA HACKER AU - CHAPTER 1

MASTERLIST

Mirko x F!Reader

Warnings: swearing. nothing much yet ;)

WC: 1.3k (short because its just the beginning)

—

You were just a simple hacker. Exposing buinsess leaders and gathering information for whoever offers the highest amount. But when you take a strange job and are suddenly invited to an underground school for the best hackers in all of japan, Life is suddenly far from simple.

—

Hey so I basically stole most of the school design and hierarchy from Kakegurui (the amazing gambling anime 10/10 would recommend) but twisted it to match a hacker style au. Idk I guess 707 is getting to me. Reader is female, but there isn’t any lemonade here so if need be I can change the pronouns if anyone wants. :) Other than that, I hope you like the first chapter! I hope to make this a series Maybe like 50k max. Anyways, lets get onto the story. This is my first dedicated fanfic so bear with me if I don’t update that much! 

—

The consistent waves of tapping sounding from the keyboard below me was the only sound present in the room, save for the occasional rubbing of my blinds up against my windowsill. The slightest breeze flew through the crack in my window, billowing and swirling around my fingers.

          It was something I knew I should not be doing. God knew it was all forms of illegal, but of course, that would not stop me. I mean why would it? I got a burner drive, 2 VPNs and at least a dozen forms of encryption on my ip address, but something felt off. This job was too easy.

          From the beginning I knew it would be simple, but that never meant a simple job could not take hours. It had only been 30 minutes sitting at my computer before I cracked the first firewall with ease.

          An “anonymous” (or so they thought, I could back-trace to their identity within a minute) client had requested for a high-risk job. My brain instantly told me to turn it down, as messing with companies was one thing, but the government was another. Lucky for them, the hefty offer of almost $3,000USD easily swayed me.

          I continued my assault on my keyboard before a small little black tab on my screen showed up and began spewing out information. To anyone who did not know what to look for, they would see it as mindless code, but there. Right there, nestled between two little brackets was a chain of numbers. Copying it by hand onto a scrap of paper then switching onto another computer monitor, I entered the digits onto a pre-determined code with one purpose. To track.

          Normally this phase could take up to 1 hour depending on how hard the person on the other side of the screen was trying to hide their dirty little secrets, so I sat back, and watched the progress bar begin to tick forward in slight increments.

          I had to stop taking money orders. One day I would be found, and with how often I accepted the jobs, and how little I cared these days to change up my encryption methods, it’s not going to be long before I got caught. Yet I still did it. Was it the headlines on the news? “Local millionaire exposed to embezzlement?” I found that out, the work had my name all over it. Was it the knowledge that I maybe, just maybe, might be helping the world just a little bit?

          No.

          I knew it was not. Deep down, I knew it was the thrill. God each time I feel the power. I can break down corporations. I can break down people! I can destroy careers and I can mess shit up. Ha!

          Maybe the pride was getting to me. My popularity was rapidly growing on the black market as more and more people demanded to have their enemies exposed. The thing is. Only rich people can afford to get rid of their enemies, which puts me in a very profitable place.

          Another factor was a few special rumors going around. Apparently, there were ‘hacker hunters’ trying to match people’s signature corrupt handiwork to a name. Online we all went by pseudonyms and pen names mine being Shad0w, but in the real world I guess we all were people too, none of us  aware of what we were capable of.

          At the amazing age of 17 I became the 12th most popular hacker-for-higher. And at the opportunist age of 18 I got my first jab to the neck. I guess got paid by a pretty sketchy person and faced his consequences. That day I had to physically destroy one of my old hard-drives just out of fear that someone was still coming for me. I did not get hurt physically of course, but the threats they shot left a deeper mark than a bullet could of. Since then I have been careful. Always covering my steps and hiding in the shadows of the web. No matter how hard I tried though I cou-

BRZZZ!

          A loud hum from my computer snapped me awake, and after further inspection, the loading bar was complete. The neon colors were taking their toll on my eyes. What a struggle it was to keep them open.

          The whole ordeal barley took an hour… and I was getting paid $3000? No. That could not be right. My cursor stood above the ‘next’ button that would retrieve all the data from my target, and hesitantly, I clicked it.

          The little loading circle of doom (kasdjfkdjkdfd) spun around my screen before disappearing leaving nothing but white.

          Nothing but a white screen.

Just a second. Did my computer crash? What is this.

          Nothing but a white screen.

          What is happening? This CAN’T be right. It was supposed to lead my to the retrieval page. I should be collecting my pay right now.

          “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuuuuu” I whispered to nobody other than myself. As I clicked around the screen, even tried existing before sitting back and looking at it. It was dauntingly blank, and panic was slowly beginning to creep it. It must have been a trick. They have all my information now. Is it just a virus or something more what is going on?!

          As if the computer could read my mind, it began to release a distorted sounding audio from the speakers before a voice finally came through. Obviously having gone through software to make it unidentifiable, the voice was deep and smooth.

          “Dear (y/n) (l/n). Hello. We have been watching your progress for a while.”

          Oh no. They know my full name. At this point, they might know everything. This is bad… really bad.

          “Since you began at 17 years old, you have successfully destroyed a lot of people’s lives. Good for you.”

          As dull as the computer augmented voice was, it was dripping with sarcasm.

          “Despite this, you have led to the downfall of quite a few toxic corporations. No matter your good though, these actions are obviously quite illegal. If you have no intention of getting well hacked yourself then it would be in your best interest to accept.”

Accept what? The voice paused before all noise cut out completely. What screen dimmed slightly before text began showing up line by line in the blandest of fonts.

The text only read:

This is your request to attend UA, the prestigious underground academy for the architypes of modern genius.

We welcome you to our decryption and data collection course.

Below we have attached the address and date for when courses start.

Should you choose not to attend, pretend you never saw this.

Should you choose to hand the address over to authorities, We will know and stop you before you get the chance to.

We look forward to seeing you in class.

Principal Nezu.

UA High

222 Enshu St.

Musutafu Japan

First semester start date:

April 14th, 2276.

You may arrive at the school 1 day before to set up in dorms. Failure to arrive on time on the fist day will result in termination from the course.

Welcome to the class of 2280 (y/n)(l/n)

[inevitably-johnlocked]

hii steph!! do you have like an ideal version of s4? Like what would have happened if you wrote it or Mofftiss didnt screw up:@:/

Hey Nonny!

Ahhh, see here lies the big question, Nonny, because honestly, the umbrella answer to this question is “as long as it followed the narrative arc that they were setting up in S3 and TAB, I would have been happy”. It’s really vague, but I’ll try my best to summarize my Big Thoughts™ on this… I inevitably want to write my own fanfic, but I fear that the time has long passed to do so. *shrugs*

Most, if not all, of what I believed what was going to happen can actually be found on my MASSIVE S4 Receipts Masterpost Permalink here. Check out all of that if you want more details.

Okay, so here’s what I PERSONALLY believe they were setting up in S3 and TAB (and this isn’t to say that it SHOULD have gone this way):

that Mary was going to be either The Big Bad or at least play a MAJOR role in the Moriaty narrative. She was going to be either a Moran-type character [here too], or she was the next Moriarty, which I believed was actually a handle or company that was passed on, like the Bond moniker.

That the pregnancy was fake and was going to be the catalyst for John and Mary’s ultimate confrontation.

That in turn would then lead to John and Sherlock in an epic showdown with Mary that leads to the 3G moment and Mary either being killed or arrested.

Another theory I had was John ends up working with Mycroft because he’s tired of being left out, and John ends up saving Sherlock from Mary.

And on the side as like the small background subplot, I believed that Lestrade and Molly (mirrors for Sherlock and John respectively… Holy shit it JUST clicked to me why they didn’t make them a canon thing in S4) were going to be confirmed a canon relationship, which would then be foreshadowing Sherlock and John’s confessions as the cliffhanger for S4.

WHICH then leads to: I ALWAYS believed John was going to be shot in S4, to mirror Sherlock’s in S3 (shooting Sherlock’s heart) and as the big cliffhanger for S4 to build anticipation for S5, which would be the season where Sherlock was doing cases without John and we find out only at the VERY END of S5E1 that John DID survive the fallout with Mary, with Sherlock going to the hospital to tell John about his day or whatever.

I had some theories at the end of TAB that I suspected something big was going on with Mycroft, either he was part of “The M���s” or that he was going to die. I wasn’t really sure.

Janine possibly playing a role in all of it as well, and it being discovered she’s Moriarty’s sister.

So yeah, essentially, an ideal S4 for me would have been a Badass Villain Mary, Moriarty is actually dead and no longer in the picture but his legacy lives on with Mary avenging him or working for Janine who took over, John and Sherlock finally taking down the empire of Moriarty once and for all, and John inevitably triggering the confession out of Sherlock. 

I don’t know, looking back now it seems a bit weak of a plot, especially now that my brain is a bit fuzzy on what I believed may have happened… I do have a Plots section on that Masterpost, so check that one out for some thoughts there, definitely a bit more fresh than right now, because I’m tired and sleepy and it’s been 4 plus years since I wrote that stuff, so it’s all a bit fuzzy, hah hah.

Basically, I felt that S4 was a season that was supposed to have the big climax, the penultimate season of their 5-act structure, and S5 is to be the resolution season, where everything gets tied up in a nice neat bow. The S4 we got certainly had the climax feeling 10 times over, but then it tried to convince us that there is a resolution already, so in turn, it being the ONLY season without a proper cliffhanger, it left people thinking… is this… it? Yeah. I dunno. I’m not a professional writer so what do I know LOL. I just like stories to have a good narrative, is all. 

Cheers, Nonny. Sorry I’m tired and want to go to bed now LOL.

[bennyboyjones]

THE GETAWAY (Ben Hardy FanFic) Prologue

A/N: Hi! So, here is the prologue to my Ben Hardy  AU Fanfic! There are currently several chapters written, which you can find on Wattpad if you click on the link below, but I’ve decided to also upload it here as well. It might be a bit behind, but you’ll still get all the chaps eventually. 

What it is: basically, a girl from a small town who is bored of her life decides to take a trip to Nice where she runs into ben, who is also running away from some shit and some romance ensues. 

Word count: 1.6k

In this chapter: just some background to get us started. You probably don’t have to read this to understand what comes after, but it will help you understand the main character better. 

WATTPAD LINK IF YOU WANT TO READ AHEAD

Here we go:

prologue

I brushed my thumb over the twenty year old bonds clutched between my fingers. My eyes swept over the bank tellers, my weight switching back and forth from my right to my left foot. These people were taking forever; I figured it would be slow since it was a Monday morning, but apparently this was when all of the housewives did their banking. I had been next in line for the past fifteen minutes and as time went on, my nerve was steadily draining out of me. 

Last night, after a bottle of wine, I sat on the floor of my bedroom and reached under my bed for the manilla folder that held the contents of what I would consider the best six months of my life.  The folder was worn, soft, had both coffee and wine stains, and looked way too aged for something that had only come into existence a year ago. I placed my glass next to me, on the equally stained gray carpet, and pulled out endless postcards, bookmarks, pamphlets, plane tickets, museum and park and exhibit passes, and polaroids. I sifted through them, running fingers over my best friends’ smiling faces, rereading postcards to my family I had already memorized, focusing on guides to museums in Copenhagen, Paris, and London as if studying them could magically teleport me back. Instead, I was stuck here, in Rye, a small town that I was so, so bored of. 

I had lived here my entire life, and so had my parents. We went to the same elementary school and high school, we lived a thirty-second drive and a five minute walk from where my dad grew up. Everyone I had gone to school with had parents who graduated with or around the same time as mine. I felt so suffocated by sameness, by the ordinariness, and was terrified of repeating the pattern of monotony. 

When it was time to go to college, I was sure I would end up in New York City—somewhere not too far, but far enough, different enough from everything I wanted to get away from. When I was in high school, I decided that I was made to live there. For nine months out of the year, I’m a New Yorker—but during the summer I’m always back in Rye because apparently it’s financially irresponsible to take out loans to dorm over the summer and I can’t afford an apartment on a waitress’s salary, nor do I have the time to take up a second job and go to school full time, so Rye it is.

I only ever missed New York seasonally, but I missed London all the time. 

I missed living in London. I missed walking the three blocks from Queen Mary to the Co-Op to grab mushrooms, flapjacks, and a bottle of wine. I missed sitting on the Central Line at 11:30pm drunk, with Sarah and Annie on our way to our favorite club near Tottenham Court Road. I missed walking to Rinkoff’s hungover and grabbing a cronut. I missed Brick Lane on Sunday mornings. I missed a past life. 

For the past year, I’ve been saving up to get it back. When I came home last June, I worked a waitressing job at a small restaurant on our main street, as many doubles as I could—six days a week—and I refused to spend a single dime of it. I worked part time the past two semesters and saved as much as I could, but metro cards were expensive and a girl needed to eat, and also have a social life, and instead of “throwing away” my left over aid money on spring break vacations like my friends did, I hoarded that $1,231 and pretended I wasn’t bothered by the Miami Beach pictures even though I knew I was missing out. 

London was expensive, that much was clear; the only way I survived six months on $6,000 was because my financial aid paid for my housing and tuition, traveling around Europe while living in Europe is cheap, and my mom was sending me $100 a week for groceries because she was worried that all the jokes I made about not eating so I could afford to party (or financial drinking, as it’s been called) were serious (they were, and often the money that was supposed to be meant for groceries went to more fucking around—you only go abroad like that once in your entire life and I was so not going to waste it). And still, despite the weekly allowance from my mom, I still came home with $82 left in my bank account. Towards the end of the six months I was barely hanging on financially. Basically, what I’m saying is that I knew going back was going to cost me a lot of money, especially since I knew I wouldn’t have the same kind of help that I had the last time around. 

So, I saved and refused to do the math to figure out how much I would need to go back to London for at least two weeks. Well, last night, I did the math—and, oh boy, I am not going back to London until I have at least a few thousand more dollars to my name. That crushing disappointment is what led me to that manilla folder. 

The past few months, going back to Europe was all I could think about; I was graduating in December and this was my last summer to really do whatever I wanted before I had to be a real adult. Granted, I was planning on going straight into grad school, but the statement still stands. 

I took another sip of the cheap-ass red I regretted buying before grabbing my photos from Nice. I slowly went through them, and my eyes misted at the landscapes, the crooked self portraits taken on both disposables and my barely functioning digital, the photos of food, and coffees perfectly placed next to pages of my open journal. 

It was the one place that I had gone alone, in the middle of January, for only three days. It was a trip I took out of convenience (student visa issues) and I had only chosen Nice because it was both relatively cheap and small, but it ended up being my favorite place. The place I named first when people asked where I went, the place I talked about the most, and the place that meant the most to me. 

I put the photos down and opened my laptop. I opened a tab for SkyScanner, one for AirBnb, and one for TripAdvisor and started doing the math.

Flight: $1,214 (round trip)

AirBnb: $2,056

Other Expenses: $3,000

Approx. Total: $6,270

I knew how much I had in my savings and knew I had bonds somewhere from my baptism or some other religious sacrament I was forced to endure that I could cash for some extra money. I had enough for three weeks, but didn’t have much of a financial cushion should I need it. 

I downed what was left in my glass and booked my trip. I felt my hands shaking as I took them off my keyboard to rest them on my cheeks. My face was flush from both the wine and the excitement. I wiped my feet against the carpet, the nervous sweat on their bottoms making me uncomfortable. I was never one for impulsivity; I was a planner, a control freak, a perfectionist—a full blown virgo for fuck’s sake and the longer I sat there, staring at the confirmation page before me, the more nauseous I felt. I refused to let the regret set in, the doubt, and the fear. Instead, I stood up, hopped down the stairs with my empty glass in hand, and upon refilling, announced to my mom that in three weeks time, I would be on a plane to France. 

Earlier this morning, she rifled through the safe in the back of her closet in search of the bonds. When I told her about what I had done, she didn’t have much of a reply—she simply raised her glass to me and muttered a soft, “Jesus Christ”. I knew she was slightly concerned, but also excited for me and I really couldn’t have asked for a better reaction. She was a supportive mom, always, no matter how questionable her children’s choices were (and mine and my brothers’ choices were always questionable). 

Once she found them shoved into an envelope from the ‘90s, I got in the car with my younger brother and went to the bank. 

“You need to chill out. You’re going to make everyone in there nervous if you go in there all shaky and sweaty. You’re making yourself look like a criminal,” Noah said as he put his crappy car in park. 

“I’m just nervous. I know this is a stupid idea, isn’t it? I should just keep saving and go back in, like, another year when I really have the money, don’t you think?”

He rolled his eyes, “No. I think you need to do this now. It’s all you ever fucking talk about, and honestly, visiting you last year was the best thing I’ve ever done and it was the happiest I saw you. Just stop being a dumb bitch and go in there and get your money.”

Ignoring the “bitch” comment, I pushed the car door open with a loud creaking and clutched the bonds so tight they folded in my hands. 

When it was finally (finally!) my turn to be helped, I stepped up and handed the bonds over, crumpled and slightly damp with sweat, “I’d like to cash these, please.”

[ilguna]

hi- I’m not sure if you’re the right person to ask, but I wanted to know how to start a fanfic writing tumblr- I mean, I’m just not sure how to start since I’ve never posted anything on my account- I’m sorry if this is an inconvenience-

Don’t worry about it. I’m a little offended that you would think you’re coming to the wrong place 😂.

Imma break it down for you.

BTW this post is long bc I wanted to cover all bases

—

First of all, if you’re on tumblr mobile, then that’s fantastic and we’ll start with that first. If you’re on desktop, I would like to suggest getting it on your phone because it’s more accessible and easier to manage than doing it on the computer. The only time I go to the computer is when I’m going to post fics, but we’ll get there.

I know you said you’re wondering how to start posting fics but I gotta give you some advice before that. Because there are just some things I cannot stand when it comes to some fanfic blogs, alright?

Be easy on your color scheme. I wouldn’t put any bright colors because it could hurt someone’s eyes, and sometimes it looks really bad. Going along with that, you should be careful what your second color is on your blog (let’s say that your base color was a maroon, and then you’d choose a color similar to that/darker than that. It’ll be hard to read the things in your bio, and it’s frustrating)

This is obvious, but make sure you have a profile and header picture, it’s more appealing rather than tumblrs default.

Turn ON asks and then proceed to do it for anonymous questions, because that’s the only way you get requests. Some people do it off anon but that’s not as common.

You can do this on desktop and a safari browser. It’s not possible to do on mobile just yet. Open up safari > log in > little person icon in the top right > edit appearance. Scroll until you see “let people as questions” turn that on. Turn on anon, and edit the box to whatever you want. Keep it short

Turn off “share posts you like” and the following one below it. It’s a risky game to play when it comes to what you’re looking at and liking.

No submission posts, normally people don’t submit things anyway. Turn OFF “on blog advertising” and then that’s it. It automatically saves so you can just leave to the next screen imma bout to tell you about

IF you go to my blog on desktop, you’ll see that there’s a theme. My font is different, I have a different set up than most blogs, etc.

If you wanna mess around with that, scroll to the top of page (you should still be on the same page from the anon instructions) and tap “edit theme”

It might take a second to load, but you’ll get there.

THIS SCREEN IS VERY IMPORTANT.

Besides the fact that it lets you edit your theme, this is how you put in a Masterlist, and all other links you might want in your bio.

You said you haven’t written anything yet, so there isn’t a need for a Masterlist just yet. But when you DO start posting, please come back to me and I’ll let you know how to put one in your bio, okay? Nice and shiny for your future followers.

If you wanna change your theme go to browse themes, change it from “all themes” to “free themes”. If you like mine, it’s called “Accesible”. If you just want the font, get out of the theme screen and scroll the screen on the left. Turn ON “open dyslexic

Remember, you can do all of this on desktop too, it doesn’t have to be on safari

—

Now onto posting, I have some opinions that might offend my mutuals (oopsie)

I can’t tell the difference, but PERSONALLY, I think posting fics on tumblr from my phone is gross. But that’s also because I’m writing 1000+ words normally and it gets difficult to post

If you want to post fics with more than 100 paragraphs, then you have to go to desktop or maybe safari tumblr (I don’t post from safari tumblr so idk if it works) because tumblr says NO paragraphs after 100 on mobile. There is no restriction on computer

I write in Google Docs, because it’s neater and I’ve discovered some hate for Word after deleting some of the shit I wrote over and over. Plus it’s an app, and you can open it up on computer. Easy to use.

If you use Notes on your phone, or type directly onto a tumblr post, then that’s fine but you don’t know your word count and it’s a little difficult to navigate.

When it comes to formatting, I used to have it be really long. But I’ve narrowed it down to 3, sometimes 4 things.

Summary: this is where I put the request so the anon/person knows that it’s their request. (I copy n paste the entire request in the summary part, I don’t answer asks (requests) anymore because it’s easier to answer them after I posted).

Warnings: my permanent is swearing, and then I add on (what type) violence, murder, suic*de, gore, etc DEPENDING ON THE REQUEST

Word count: and I do this because I write long imagines sometimes and some people don’t want to sit through 5k words of boring shit

And the optional—Note: I put this if I thank someone for their patience on the request, if I say happy holidays or some shit like that. I don’t have notes on every post anymore because they just turn out being the same every time

Apart from that, give it a title (make it unique but not too long!) who it’s for and then copy and paste the fic in

I’m using my own posts as an example right here, okay. But I have the summary and all of that bolder because it’s easier to see, and I want it to be different from the actual post. Most fanfic writers do this.

I also put 2 —‘s between the authors note at the top and the fic to also make a difference there

Don’t have the entire fic italicized, it takes away the special part of italicizing a word

Finally, it’s tagging.

I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT tag things that have nothing to do with the post. It’s my biggest pet peeve and it’s because I can’t comprehend why people tag (for example) Katrina Stuart when it’s a fic OR A RANDOM POST about someone else

Instead, let’s keep it simple.

🌸 STOP 🌸

I forgot to mention this. But choose your username wisely. You can change it later on, but it’s a goddamn pain in the ass when you have 50+ fanfics you wrote and your Masterlist is nice and clean only to realize that you have to RELINK every post individually

Listen, I changed my username on my old blog, and it took me 8 hours ROUGHLY to relink and fix every individual Masterlist. I had to create new masterlists, with so many tabs open to fix it

Instead, change it before you start fics

If you wanna be a colby brock blog, I have a canon url (which means that it’s so fucking GOOD and I’m angry that i realized it was open only a month ago rather than when I created this account) and it’s colbysbrocks (it’s a plural canon url). And I have colbysecrets too. If you don’t like either of those, I have a couple of other ideas that I wrote down if you want them

🌸 okay continue 🌸

This is how you should tag:

(I’ll give an example after this)

Your username first, the person it’s about, the fandom (if it’s not Colby brock, then something like marvel, etc). Then the persons name, imagine, fanfic, x reader, and oneshot. Then if it was requested

EXAMPLE ONE:

Azurebrock, Colby brock, Colby brock imagine, Colby brock fanfic, Colby brock x reader, Colby brock oneshot, requested

Simple, right? You can even use this method for Wattpad too.

EXAMPLE TWO:

(This is Star Wars, im using my own username again)

Kylorenlovesyou, Kylo ren, Ben solo, kylo ren imagine, kylo ren fanfic, kylo ren x reader, kylo ren oneshot, Ben solo imagine, Ben solo fanfic, Ben solo x reader, Ben solo oneshot, Star Wars

Notice that I tagged both of his names. I do this because it draws more people in, and more people will be attracted to it (however, in the Star Wars fandom there’s a difference between Ben Solo and Kylo-Ren, so you would have to specify in the title Ex. Resistance (Ben Solo) or Struggle (Kylo-Ren). It would depend on which persona you’re using

This works for a couple of fandoms, like twilight and shit like that

EXAMPLE THREE:

(Final one, I just wanted to cover this base just in case)

If it’s a request for more than one person. Let’s say Colby Brock and Sam Golbach (like a Polyamorous relationship, if it’s just about a bunch of people, tag the people in it and don’t put the imagine, fanfic, x reader, oneshot after any of them, it doesn’t apply)

If it’s a poly relationship (or maybe more) then do everything you normally do for one person, and then just add on the second;

Azurebrock, Colby brock, Sam Golbach, Colby brock imagine, Sam Golbach imagine, etc

If you’re on desktop, I would suggest putting in a Read More (this goes BEFORE your fic but after the authors note, below the 2 —‘s). The way you do that is press enter, and hover over the new break in the fic.

Off to the right you’ll see a . . . Click that and then you have the read more. I would only suggest using this if there’s more than 500 words, so that if the fic is super long, it doesn’t take up the entire dash for the follower (it takes forever to scroll and it’s annoying

If you’re on mobile, it isn’t possible. Just post and you can go back and edit later if you have a computer

[thetv-junkie]

Keeping Track of Fanfics (99 % Offline) and How to Organise Them Neatly

Without a doubt, fanfiction has become an undeniably popular phenomenon in modern pop-culture. Every day thousands of avid writers provide us with their entertaining adventures, allowing us to interact with like-minded fans and friends and secretly indulge in collective swooning. ヽ( ⌒o⌒)人(⌒-⌒ )ﾉ

But then again, the sheer abundance of stories makes it hard to not be confused at times. Have I read that fic before? Did I like it??? Had there been an update that I might have missed? Where the heck did I stop reading? Damn, that story has been deleted; I wished I had saved it! ( ಥ ʖ̯ ಥ)

Especially in devastating times as this, with the corona virus running rampant on the whole globe, forcing millions of people into quarantine at home, the fear of the internet collapsing is palpable everywhere. In China, readers didn't/still do have no access to archiveofourown.com anymore.  (o_O) !

But fear not, here's a great solution for the problem. – The FREE offline programme "Calibre". Some of you might have heard of it already and shy away from its usage as it seems confusing and cumbersome at first glance. (•ิ_•ิ) ?

In this tutorial, however, I will show you that, once you've gotten through the necessary set-up (which I will guide you through step-by-step) it will be well worth the effort and you're going to love “Calibre” forever for saving your fanfiction treasures and allows you your daily fix of smutty goodness, even if being online is no longer an option.  (๑˃ᴗ˂)

So, here we go:

First, you need to download "Calibre" (either the regular or portable version):

https://calibre-ebook.com/download

and install it.

ヘ(￣ω￣ヘ)

Follow the instruction and select your device (output format is usually .epub but than can be changed to pretty much every other common format.) and click on “Finish”. If you’re not sure which device you use (or use more than one), simply stick to “Generic”.

An interface will appear:

You need to click on the three dots on the right (see arrow). An additional row of plugins will open which holds the button “Preferences”. Click that.

Scroll down to “Advanced” and select “Plugins”, “Get New Plugins”.

In the list of new plugins chose “FanFicFare” and install it (Ignore the warning.). As for the toolbars - best go with the pre-sets.

You can pick as many plugins as you like; “EpubMerge”, “Find Duplicates” and “EpubSplit” are useful additions, but see for yourself. Whenever “Calibre” asks you to close and re-open the program, do so (might happen a couple of times).

Next, go back to “Preferences” (remember the three dots on the right of the toolbar), find “Toolbars and Menus” and choose the main toolbar.

You can now pick the buttons you want to show up in your main toolbar, then click “Apply”. My toolbar looks something like this:

If you can't see all of your plugins, click on the three dots on the right, just as before. An additional row of plugins appears underneath.

Now we’re going to add the columns that are individually important to you and which will give you the information you need in order to pick the right book for your reading session.

Go to “Preferences”, “Add your columns”.

First tick and un-tick the pre-set columns that you want to keep or get rid of.

__φ(。。)

Then, click the green “+”-button on the right. An new window pops up that allows you to create new categories. Here's an example:

In my case I've picked a column that can be answered with a yes/no, but of course you also could opt for a text version instead (which is helpful when you want to sort stuff by pairing). Just make sure the lookup name is written in small letters (otherwise you'll get an error message) while for the column name you can write whatever you wish. When you're done, click "Apply".

Repeat the process as often as desired, here's my columns to give you some ideas:

ID

(like 008, so I can give individual IDs to my books which makes finding them easier.)

Title               

(No big brainer here – once you download a fanfic, this will be filled in automatically.)

Read? 

(Again, pretty self-explanatory, easy to answer with the yes/no option)

Rating               

(Now that is probably the most important column since it gives me an idea whether that fic is worth a re-read, or not. You can chose the ★★★★★-rating system in your personalised columns)

Time                    

(This column is only necessary if you know if you're a fast reader or not. We only need this column if you intend to add “Pages” as well:)

Pages                  

(That feature comes in handy when you're reading on another device like your mobile phone or tablet. Some devices show either the number of pages or the estimated reading time. In case it shows only the number of pages (just for example's sake, let's pretend you need one minute for reading one page which leaves you with e. g. 900 pages. Go to this site to break it down to hours and minutes:

https://www.unitjuggler.com/convert-time-from-min-to-h.html

900 minutes/pages leaves you with a total of roughly 15hr of reading time. You might want to note that down in your Calibre columns in order to have a vague idea if you're in for a lazy half-an-hour-read or better get settled for a marathon.)

Pairing?              

(Does what it says on the tin – If you have more than one fav pairing in the same fandom it is useful to be able to sort by pairing for easy selection when you're in the mood for certain protagonists without wanting to scroll through your library forever. Btw, I recommend to use different libraries for each fandom. (Click the arrow on the right of the button "Calibre Library", "Switch/Create Library" and follow the instructions)

NSFW?              

(Personally, a really important column for me. 'nough said. (^_<)〜☆ )

Okay, so now that we got the most important stuff done, let's finally download a fanfic!!! Leave Calibre as it is, open the internet and go to your site and fic of choice. Select the according url in your browser, copy it, switch back to Calibre.

Click on the arrow button on the right side of your plug in fanficfare, "Download from URL", the download url is automatically added, then press OK.

Now one of these two things can happen:

If you're lucky, on your bottom right corner, there's a pop up, letting you know that your FanficFare download is complete. All you have to do is press "Yes" and ét voila – you've imported your first fanfic!

All you need to do now is to double click on the title and start reading (I recommend to use E-book viewer). Enjoy !

However, if you're not lucky, you might get messages like how the sites want you to enter your username and password or that it's adult content blah blah blah, yadda, yadda, yadda. Having to fill in the information for every single fanfic is annoying, time-consuming and, most of all, incredibly annoying!

凸(￣ヘ￣)

Hence, here's the work-around:

Click on the arrow right to your plugin "FanFicFare" in the tool bar, find “Configure FanfFicFare”.

Go to the tab that says "personal.ini", then "edit personal.ini" Scroll down in the small pop-up until you can see this pre-set:

Edit in all the sites you're usually browsing for fanfiction. Always make sure that the letters of the sitename are blue, not red. If you want to make sure you aren't bothered with any verification pop-ups and such, double-check to work all of these in:

[Your fanfiction page like hp.adultfanfiction.org]

#username:YourPenname

#password:YourPassword

## default is false

#collect_series: true

#is_adult:true

#fail_on_password: false

That should do the trick and you can now easily keep track and enjoy your fics!

☆*:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:*☆

Bonus:

When you're done reading you might want to fill in some information for later use.

For that, fill your columns on the main screen by simply double-clicking on each category. So far, so good. But we need more metadata.

Choose a fic so it’s highlighted in blue. Then go to "Edit Metadata" in the main tool bar.

A window opens:

Some information will be pre-filled but you can always edit them. Also, I highly recommend you to change the tags to your liking, same as you can add a book cover of your choice via the browse function.

On a final note: When you're following a fic that is still in-progress, you can simply click the button "FanFicFare" (NOT the arrow next to it!) to update it.

♡( ◡‿◡ ) ENJOY YOUR READ!

[vashti-lives]

do you ever go looking for fic you read a long time ago and you find it on lj or whatever but then you see the author has added it to ao3 and it’s apparently like, 160,000 words and you had no idea because you read the entire thing, chapter by chapter and it’s just like, wtfff??? 

or is that just me

[artificialqueens]

That’s Just The Way You Make Me Feel (Ninex) - Mac

AN: I started writing this a while ago when Mia and Meggie first started talking about Ninex being a thing. And here we are, after like three months.

Summary: Nina stumbles upon the wonderful world of fanfiction, and discovers the most unusual pairing.

She hadn’t meant to stumble upon it.

Really, she hadn’t. It was late, or was it early? She couldn’t remember. She does however remember how she felt seeing her name pull up over 100 works. She felt… proud. Proud wasn’t really the right word, but she couldn’t think of a better one.

In most of them she was a voice of reason or a plot device to force a love triangle. Which she was fine with. But some of them, some of them she was the main character. It followed her perspective and spoke in her voice.

It was weird and wrong. These people wrote her as if she were some kind of fragile thing that would break if the wind blew too hard.

It was so accurate it was unsettling.

The whole thing was unsettling now that she thought about it. People putting themselves where she was, as if they knew. As if they cared enough to know her.

Some of them did. Only a handful seemed to know her story. Seemed to get her voice. It was strange seeing herself be this utter force. This unstoppable being. This… desirable person. She stumbled across pairings she expected. Her and Brooke. Old news she thought to herself, ignoring the clawing in her chest to just read it. Then she stumbled upon a most unusual pairing. Her and Monet X Change.

She couldn’t help her curiosity and clicked the first link she saw. The setting was a bar and there was the usual trope of jealousy over someone dancing. They had an altercation in an alley that led to kissing.

It wasn’t anything remarkable.

Just a story.

However, the more Nina read and thought about it, the less unusual of a pairing it seemed.

They had great chemistry. When taping The View, they riffed back and forth with hardly any interruption or awkward silence. They were both Miss Congenialities. It kinda… made sense.

Monet was kind and funny and really cared about her-wait-no that wasn’t true. That was a line she read. Fuck. This had been a bad idea.

It proved to be even worse of an idea when they saw each other next. Nina felt the usual warm feeling she felt in the company of the younger queen. It was a familiarity. A kinship. They really did work well together.

Monet smiled and chatted animatedly with her fellow sisters. Nina watched her. She really was beautiful. In drag she was stunning, of course, but outside of drag she looked even more so. Monet had that charm about her that made anyone’s nerves fall away. Nina appreciated that, as she was the most anxious person she knew.

When Monet plopped herself down beside Nina to do her makeup, Nina tried not to think too hard about it. Tried to not let the voices of all the writers she had read plant any ideas in her head.

“What you doin all the way over here, Miss Thang?”

Nina nearly jumped at the sound of Monet’s voice next to her ear.

“Nothing, I just like being alone sometimes.”

“Oh, then do you want me to-” Monet made the motion to leave.

“No!” Nina spoke too quickly.

Fuck, that sounded desperate.

“I mean no… you don’t have to go… If you- If you don’t want to.” Nina was stumbling over her words like a goddamn middle schooler. She really needed to stop reading those fanfics.

They were turning her into a parody of herself.

“Okay.” Monet said, looking somewhat skeptically at Nina.

Nina put her foundation on quickly to hide the blush that was reddening her face and neck.

Monet stayed silent beside her, humming here and there to church songs that Nina recognized but couldn’t name.

Nina finished first and awkwardly got up to dress. Monet smiled up at her as she left.

The warm feeling in Nina’s stomach was starting to feel a little bit less like kinship and a lot more like butterflies.

The performances went off without a hitch, and Nina managed to get Monet’s phone number at the bar they went to afterwards to celebrate.

She thought nothing of it. It was a gesture of friendship and nothing more.

But the fanfics she read made it seem like more. She had this direct contact with Monet that no one else was privy to.

Nina sat awake in bed for a while, letting her mind spin intricate tales of future numbers and all the engagements she had to be up for tomorrow. She couldn’t sleep, so she opened her phone and paused when her most recent safari tab looked back at her.

She felt her face flush at the gnawing desire to read more.

She closed the tab and fell into a fitful sleep.

Nina read more fanfiction. She didn’t read a lot, but occasionally, when her sheets felt a little too much like a caress, or her heart felt a little too heavy in her chest, or she was lonely. She read stories about herself falling in love.

It was nice and it was weird. It was probably a little more weird than nice, but Nina didn’t care.

She didn’t see Monet again for a month.

It shouldn’t have meant anything, but it did.

Nina had opened her chat conversation with Monet nearly every night, words that weren’t hers begged to be typed, to be sent and received.

She never sent them.

She let the words stew in her head for a month until they met again.

It was another gig, but with less queens this time.

The local queens swarmed Monet, always the charmer, asked her about Drag Race and her numbers and her life.

Nina sat back and listened, making mental notes about particularly funny stories or comments.

She let them warm her from the inside out.

“You’ve been quiet all night. Everything good?”

Nina looked up to find the dressing room empty save for herself and Monet.

“Yeah, yeah, of course.” Nina tried to cover.

“Well when you decide to come out of Ninaland,” Monet tapped the side of Nina’s head gently. “and join the rest of us mere mortals, let me know.”

Nina smiled and nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

They did their makeup together again in silence, catching each other’s eyes in the mirror every now and then. Nina would blush and duck her head but look up a moment later to see Monet giving her a winning smile.

After the gig, Monet pulled her aside to the bar. They chatted for a bit, normal things, the future, Nina possibly going on AllStars, gossip they had learned from other queens.

It was a safe conversation. Safe and normal and not at all tinged with sexual tension.

Monet was three drinks in when she offered to show Nina the dress she was making. Nina, having been five drinks in, nodded a bit jerkily.

Nina thought they were just going back to the dressing room, but when she found herself on the street corner with Monet pulling her into an Uber, she realized her mistake.

Monet lead her by the hand to the elevator and up the six floors to her hotel room.

The dress was beautiful, but Nina hardly got a chance to look at it because she was being kissed within an inch of her life.

Monet pulled back when Nina didn’t immediately reciprocate. “Sorry, fuck I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have-”

“No. Keep doing it, sorry I was-”

“No, we shouldn’t- I’m drunk, and I don’t want to pressure you- I just.” Monet sighed. “I thought I was picking up something… I’m stupid. You can leave if you want.”

Nina took Monet’s hands that were hiding her face. “No, hey… I’m supposed to be the nervous wreck here, okay?”

Monet looked up at Nina.

“I want to stay. We don’t have to… do anything, but I want to stay.” Nina looked at her seriously. “If you want me to, that is.” Nina added quickly.

Monet smiled a bit at Nina’s nervousness. “Okay then, Miss Nina West.” Monet stepped back a bit and held one of Nina’s hands to her chest. ‘Would you do me the honor of staying the night, and cuddling until the sun comes up, or until one or both of us has to wake up at an ungodly hour and catch a flight?”

Nina giggled, she felt like a thirteen-year-old with a crush. She didn’t mind the feeling. “Lead the way.” She teased back.

They curled up in bed and Nina tried not to think that they fit together like puzzle pieces, but they did.

When Nina went to plug her phone in, she closed the safari tab.

The real thing was much better than any fiction could ever hope to capture.