#i have 2 days to write up at least 6 discussion posts from 2 weeks ago + write at least 2 journal entries on books i didnt get time to read

[silverislander]

symptoms disorder is causing symptoms of a disorder to me once more. shocking and tragic. who could have predicted this

[eclairfromleclerc]

Hello everyone. It’s been a long long time since I posted here but I guess life has caught up. I have been writing this chapter for god knows how long because I just couldn’t bring myself to write certain scenes. I still have so many ideas and directions about where this fic can go but as you understand, I need my time to actually try and write those ideas. I am now giving you the 8th chapter of this story which is a generous 14.6 K words to make up for my long long absence. I really hope there will be people still interested to read this. Always keep in mind that english isn’t my native language so pardon any mistakes or inclarities. I hope you will enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Wait patiently for the next part. Take Care, xx.

All’s Fair

(Toto Wolff x Reader) Chapter 8

chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 chapter 4 chapter 5 chapter 6 chapter 7

Landing in Jeddah feeling like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders, after closing the deal with the Bahraini investors from your Monday meeting, is the only thing you could have asked for. Nothing has been bothering you for the past few days but the fact that Christian still hasn't said anything about you being late to your meeting, made you feel a little weird. Your little text exchanges with Toto made up for the whole madness.

As soon as your phone connects to the network you see a new notification popping up.

Christian Dad Horner 

No need to come over today, I got everything scheduled for the press, me and Helmut will handle it

Get some rest.

You raise your eyebrow reading , not knowing what your father is up to. Is he drunk? Is he out of his mind? You lock your phone and get off the plane. You check in your hotel, go to your room and settle in. As you take your clothes off your suitcase you find once again Toto’s Mercedes shirt in it and you take it out and put it on a hanger and in your closet. Thursdays are supposed to be a fun day in the paddock because of all the media and generally relaxed vibe that everyone has. The fact that no sessions take place on Thursdays doesn’t mean everyone isn’t working hard but still Christian thought your presence was not necessary, so here you are. Your phone rings with a new notification

Wolff

What’s your schedule for the press today?

You 

Christian told me he and Helmut will handle it, I won’t be joining today

I am just bored, sitting in my hotel room 

You open the camera on the app and snap a picture of your computer on your bed and some snacks nearby and you hit send

Wolff 

So you get to relax.

Enjoy it for all of us who have to work

You 

Will do :)

You spend the rest of your day in your room and meet Max to grab dinner at the hotel restaurant. Much less eventful for a usual race week Thursday. 

The next day you wake up, have breakfast and get ready to leave for the track. You check you have everything you need with you including your iPad and your badge to get in the paddock and you drive the Aston Martin, you lease for the weekend, to the track. You get to the entrance and scan your badge. To your surprise the screen in front of you shows a red cross and a message saying ‘Access Denied’. You try once again but the same message appears. You reach for your phone to call Christian to get you from the entrance. You wait for a couple of seconds before you hear his voice, the noise from the garage familiar to your ears. 

“Hey Dad” 

“Hello” you hear him answering

“It seems like my pass isn’t working, can you please come here and let me through?” you ask

“Oh I am quite busy right now sweetheart.”

“Can you send someone else instead?” 

“Um, I am sorry I have to tell you this but there’s a reason why your pass isn’t working.”

“What ?”

“It is going to remain like this for sometime, before I trust you to come back to the team”

“Did you cancel my pass because of what happened on Monday?”

“You should have been ready for this. I can’t discuss it more right now, we are having a meeting before FP1”

“Can you at least let me know about the meeting?”

“No, you are not in the team currently so, nothing to share. Feel free to fly back to England or Monaco with the next flight you find” Christian tells you and then ends the call. 

Thank god you thought about moving a bit further from the entrance so no one heard your discussion with your father. You feel a rush of anger coming at you but you hold yourself and walk as gracefully as you can back to your car, as people are watching you. You drive off the track and you pull over at the first parking space you see. You sit there in silence, since you were so confused that you didn’t even think to put some of your playlists on, and you try to realize what is happening. You let out a scream and tears roll over your face as you think of your father and all his five year old antics. But then you get the best and the worst idea you could possibly come up with. You drive fast back to your hotel and you run to your suite. You open the closet, grab Toto’s Mercedes shirt, stuff it in your new bag  that you haven’t worn in public, put on some tight black pants, some flat shoes and search furiously for that Mercedes face mask that Toto gave you that day in your travel bag. You get back to your car and drive to the track again, pulling over to wear the shirt and making yourself look like a mercedes employee. You leave the car a bit farther than usual so that fans don’t recognize you coming out of the car with the Mercedes gear. You once again walk to the paddock entrance. Hair tied on a bun, face mask and huge Gucci sunglasses covering your face. You get there not having thought of a way to get in. So you go with your instincts. 

“Hey” you say to the security guard. 

“Hi, how may I help you?” 

“Um, I am a new employee for Mercedes but I can’t seem to find my badge to get in.” you say with the best American accent that you have. Not that it mattered since the guard was Saudi Arabian. “Can you maybe call Mr. Wolff to come here? I’ll explain the situation to him” 

“I’ll reach Mr Lord.” he says

“No, no. You should call Mr.Wolff instead. I am not sure Mr. Lord is aware of my arrival here.”

“I’ll try to call Mr. Wolff then.” 

5 minutes later you see the Austrian walking to the entrance of the paddock and on his way there he waves to people, greets others and takes some photos. 

He goes to the security guard that called him

“What is it?” he asks

“This lady claimed that she’s a new employee for your team but she seems to have lost her badge, she insisted that I should call you instead of Mr. Lord.” 

Toto turns to look at you and you don’t hesitate. If you are going to get in, this is your chance. 

“Hello Mr. Wolff. My name is Mindy Roosevelt, I am here from the American branch of Daimler.” you say-again in your american accent- not being even 1% sure that you are making any sense. “I was sent here to assist you but it has been a really tricky week for me.” you look at Toto and he looks as confused as ever. “I was supposed to be here yesterday but my flight was canceled so I had to travel to Abu Dhabi to catch a connecting flight.” you try to give him hints of who you are, not being sure he understands. “ I had to look for the advisor of Daimler US Anri Hakkassan to give me my badge but then my wallet got stolen at the airport so I was left without a badge and my ID to show you who I am.” you see Toto’s eyes getting wider and wider as he realizes who you are. Your story seemed convincing for the security guard but Toto can’t leave you outside. He takes a deep breath 

“Ah yes miss Roosevelt I was waiting for you all day. Sorry to hear this. Come on.” he says and signals to the guard to let you through. You walk in the paddock and to the Mercedes hospitality, Toto not hesitating for a minute at the thought of you coming from another team. As soon as you both get in you see Bradley drinking coffee in the main lounge area of the motorhome and he greets you.

“I don’t want anyone bothering me for the next half an hour at least” he says to Bradley and he walks to his office as you follow him closely. You close the door behind you and Toto reaches and locks it. You take off your mask trying to apologize for the mess you’ve created. 

“I am so sorry Toto” you say and you hear him laugh 

“What is this?” he asks as he continues laughing

“Are you mad at me?” 

“No, I am just wondering how the hell you got yourself in this situation.”

“Christian blocked my paddock pass”

“He did what?” he asks looking slightly amused 

“This isn’t funny Toto, you know how much I love being in the team”

“That’s why you are hijacking my team?” he asks

“Christian thought that removing me from the team for a couple of races is a good way to punish me for being late at that meeting we had.”

“He did it just because you were 35 minutes late?” 

“You don’t realize Christian has a mind of a five year old when it’s about work right?”

“You said the investors were not mad that you were late, you even managed to charm them into signing a deal.”

“Yeah but Christian was mad, and he says it’s not about the investment, it’s about basic work ethic. Anyways, I can’t buy a paddock pass because I am not the type to sit in the lounge to watch the race. I need to be in the team. Plus I can’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me depressed because I am not at the pitwall or the garage.”

“How stubborn.”

“Yeah I am.”

“That’s very Horner of you.” he tells you and you roll your eyes at his obvious reference to your father’s stubbornness.  

“You are my only chance Toto, the other teams don’t even have a reason to accept me, except from Alpha Tauri, but I can’t go begging Franz about a paddock pass when he is clearly influenced by my dad.”

“Why are we even your only chance, we are your main competitors.” he asks

“I swear to god Toto I will do anything just to be here until Christian decides to drop the farce that he started. I will sign an NDA, I will keep my mouth shut about anything I see, I will delete it from my mind. Just let me be in the garage for the next few races.”

“How many races?” he looks at you

“I don’t know 3 maybe 4?” you tell him barely whispering.

“That’s a lot.” he replies “But for you I’ll try to do my best.” 

You try not to scream as you stand up from your seat, walk to his chair and hug him. You catch him off guard as he widens his eyes but then you feel his tension leaving him. 

“From now on you are Mindy Roosvelt and you came here to assist me as a part of your internship at Daimler US. You studied in New York, and you are American. You don’t know for how many races you’ll be here but it’s not long term.” Toto says taking his teacher look

“Understood.”

“You should never remove your mask in front of others, just tell them that you are at risk or something. Don’t wear high heels. We should do something about your hair so that people won’t realize it’s you and I advise you to wear sunglasses as much as possible, I’ll have Lewis hand me his collection from the Police Collaboration.”

“I’ll buy a wig. Can I have some more shirts and a couple of masks?”

“Is this shirt mine?” he asks and you nod “Looks good on you.” he says

“I’ll use yours then.” you tell him and you see him grinning. 

“I’ll have someone send you a couple of shirts, pants and shoes. I'll request your new paddock pass and I will be printing your NDA.”

“If anything leaks into Red Bull I swear I’ll be the first to go to court even if I am innocent.” you tell him and he laughs “Don’t laugh, I need you to see how serious I am about this. I won’t be saying anything to anyone.”

“I trust you. The NDA part is only about the team having to be legally protected.” 

“Okay” you say 

“Your office must be ready. It’s just the room next door, please lock it when you’re in.” he advises you “And please don’t forget your American accent once you go outside.” 

“I won’t forget. If we happen to see Christian around, just stay calm, I’ll handle it.”

“Okay” he says and you sit in silence for a couple of minutes. 

“I’ll go next door now.” you say and you stand up. “Oh sorry Toto, can I ask you about one last thing?” 

“What is it?” 

“Christian told me that I am free to leave with the next flight so I will be checking out of the hotel and I thought maybe I should be at the Mercedes hotel?” 

“I’ll arrange it. See you later.” he replies as you put on your mask and go to the room next door.  

20 minutes later you hear the door knocking, you stand up and reach for it 

“Who is this?” 

“Miss Roosevelt, I am Mariah. Mr. Wolff gave me something for you.”

You put your mask on and open the door 

“Come on in.” you tell her and she steps into your fake office

“I have this new iPad for you, Toto wanted you to have this. It has all of the passwords you’ll need and direct access to Toto’s schedule so you’ll know where you will be going and what you’ll be doing.” 

“What passwords are there?”

“Company email, team communications and private accounts.” 

“Okay thank you Mariah.”

“If you need anything else please do not hesitate to ask me, have a nice day.” she tells you and she leaves the office as you lock the door and remove your mask

You reach for your phone and text Toto 

You

Didn’t need to have access to all of this

Wolff

You have to If we are planning this lie correctly. 

I also sent you the details on your company email about the hotel room. I arranged it.

You 

Give me a minute I’ll have to get used to all of this.

The iPad is nice, I’ll give it back once I get all the details.

Wolff

Adaptability is key

Keep the iPad I don’t want you walking around the paddock with your old one, it’s practically a part of your looks, everyone will realize it’s you

Wolff

Anyways gotta work, I will be in the garage with Nyck for FP1, you’re welcome to hang by the fantasy island if you ever get the energy. 

For any question just text or call. 

You sit around for a while until your phone rings with a new notification from your calendar for the session starting in 5 minutes and as soon as you get it you stand up and leave for the garage. This time though it feels different. You used to take all your stuff with you in your pit wall seat but now there’s no pitwall seat, you’ll be just standing next to Toto, in the garage. You never got to stay in the garage, Christian always made sure you had a place at the pitwall, the garage was essentially a passage to get from the hospitality to the pitwall. You never spent a whole session in there, but now you will. The difference is the garage is not the one you are used to. It’s the Mercedes one and it’s clean, organized and much more hospitable than the one at Red Bull. At the long entrance of the garage there’s someone looking at you, making sure that you’re one of them. Little does he know, you think. 

“I am looking for Mr. Wolff.” you tell him

“He’s sat at the fantasy island with Nyck. You’ll see them once you get in.”

And you certainly do. The fantasy island splits the garage in two smaller ones for the two drivers of Mercedes, you get next to Toto and you don’t say a word. You look around you trying to take everything in, how the garage looks, how everyone is focused on what they’re doing and Toto next to you trying to manage everything that’s happening. He’s too far in to realize that you’re next to him and he nearly jumps as you touch his arm. 

“Sorry” you say quietly behind your mask. 

“It’s okay, I never realized that you came.”

“Well, I couldn’t turn down the proposal, plus I am supposed to be your assistant so I have to be with you.”

“I am not complaining.” he says and thank god Nyck is too busy chatting with Bradley next to you. Bradley hasn’t asked anything about you, he just keeps looking and staring at you but he’s not saying anything. 

For the next half an hour you see Lewis and George doing their laps, coming and leaving the garage during the session but during all this time you realize that you haven’t looked at the RedBull’s performances. The Mercedes garage felt like home for some reason. You weren’t doing nothing, you were just standing with your headphones on hearing comments about the car that you swear to yourself that you will never reveal to your team. Next to you Toto sits and watches the whole team working like a well oiled machine that he engineered. You are sure that he feels proud of himself, he has that grin on his face that makes you think so. You don’t know him really well but you have learned to pick some of those signs from the times that you’ve seen him around or that you’ve hung out with him. Again all of your thoughts are interrupted by a vibration from your pocket where your phone is. Goddamn it.  Another calendar reminder but this time it is from Toto’s calendar that you’ve managed to sync to your iPhone earlier. 

Meeting: Team Principals, FIA and F1. (1 assistant is allowed to attend) 

You widen your eyes at the notification and you tap Toto’s shoulder who is watching the timings and the data in front of him. He turns to look at you and removes the headphone from your side. You do the same but you realize Nyck is looking at you. 

“Sir, I just got a notification about your meeting with the F1 and FIA execs.” 

“It is half an hour after the session ends right?” 

“Yes but am I required to attend?” you ask

“Miss Roosevelt I believe that you were asked to be here as my assistant so since the meeting allows assistants it is your duty to be there.”

“Okay Mr. Wolff” you say and put your headphones back on to watch the rest of the session. 

“If you feel uncomfortable just excuse yourself and leave.” he turns and tells you and you nod. 

After the session in which your cars -yes, Mercedes cars- finish 1 and 3 you leave the garage and go back to the hospitality while waiting for Toto to finish his press duties.

Wolff 

I am done with my interviews, meet you outside our hospitality in 5?

You

Yes, I will be there. 

You leave and find him at the spot he told you to. You walk side by side to the race control building where the meeting is supposed to take place, him towering over you and you feeling miniscule beside him. When you are just outside Alpha Tauri’s garage you see your dad discussing with Franz and you roll your eyes praying that they will just let you go by. You get temporarily relieved when you are already past them but of course Christian has to talk to you. The man is trouble without trying. You hear him yelling “Hey Toto” from your back and you turn to face him. Toto frowns a bit but his expressions are mostly covered by his sunglasses. 

“Are you heading to the meeting?” Christian asks

“We are, yes.” Toto replies as you keep walking, Christian catching up with you. You take a sharp breath trying to persuade yourself that he won’t understand who you are. You’ve got your face covered after all. 

“I’ll join you.” Christian announces not even asking Toto who is clearly getting angrier. “I don’t believe we’ve met before” he says and turns to you.

You freeze but you regain your strength and reply to him “No, we actually haven't.” 

“I am Christian Horner, team principal of Red Bull Racing.” 

“Mindy Roosevelt, nice to meet you.” you say in your best American accent hoping that you won’t get recognized. 

“And you work for Mercedes I see. Let me guess’ Public Relations?”

“No, I am here to assist Mr. Wolff for a couple of races, it is something like an internship from the American branch of Daimler.” 

“I figured from the accent that you might be American.” Christian replies “Are you planning on staying at Daimler or leaving to get a job at motorsport?” 

“I don’t know yet I’ll see where it gets me.” you answer

“If you plan on staying here please text me your details, I got a very interesting assistant position for you.” 

“You had your daughter as your assistant from the beginning of the season, what happened to her?” you ask, trying to understand what he’s doing but you hear his phone ringing. 

“It’s complicated with her, I need something stable, and I know Wolff always gets the best of the best so I might have to get a taste.” he replies as Toto, who was silent before, scoffs in the background. Christian checks his phone and excuses himself as he runs back to the Alpha Tauri hospitality center. 

You let out a breath that you didn’t realize you were holding as you are walking to the meeting. 

“Red Bull will be trying to have technical directives for the next few races to try and stop us.” Toto says. 

“I know, I built that case and all the arguments. I know exactly what to say to convince the FIA in favor of Red Bull.” you reply “Can I talk during the meeting?” you ask

“What do you mean talk?”

“Like defending our team’s points, why technical directives shouldn’t be changed, and counterarguments.” 

“No, your role is the one of the assistant, not the meeting participant. You will only be allowed there to keep notes.” 

“I can write my points to you and you can read them and elaborate more, can’t I?” 

“Yes, you can write notes for me to read.”

“Nice, let’s get no regulation change for today.” 

“Isn’t this bad for Red Bull?”Toto asks

“Right now I am working for Mercedes, and Mercedes is only treating me right.” you answer

Toto raises his eyebrows “I am both flattered and surprised by the fact that you want to favor us.”

“You know what Toto? I am tired of thinking how Christian and Helmut will be using my case to present in this meeting. I worked hard for this and I was supposed to present my point. This meeting was supposed to be my first one.”

“Didn’t you go when you were younger?” 

“No, I didn’t Christian always had his assistant with him and never managed to get me in even when I started working part-time for him. It is frustrating to see how your own father looks to replace you at a job. And now the team that I accidentally got in, even has the ability to read my notes and present a solid case.”

Toto doesn’t say anything, he just looks at you, his body language revealing that he is scared to say anything to you. 

“Am I really that bad?” you ask 

“No. Don’t you ever say that again. You were great, you got a deal with some investors, you helped run a team and you are doing a good job at even being an assistant in the team you probably hated the most.”

10 minutes later you are already sitting at a long table. Toto is sitting on your left. You take your new iPad and a Mercedes notepad with a matching pen and rest it on the conference table in front of you as team principals and other officials are taking their seats to start the meetings. Once everyone is gathered there Stefano starts the meeting with all the formalities needed the conversation starts and after a while you start discussing the burning issue. You open your updated document that you had created this morning with all the arguments and the possible answers that could be said from Mercedes’ side, those ones you hadn’t given to your father. This was only to help your presentation to get the regulations changed but now you are using it for the opposite reason. Christian finishes presenting all the planned points and it’s time for Toto to express his opinion. You managed to write a couple of things on paper and showed him some of the points that he needs to discuss. The man has done this countless times you’re sure but he’s totally letting you handle this. 

“Okay, this is an answer to Christian’s concerns about how the regulations right now are not in the right direction. I do not have an exact answer to each and every point of Christian’s speech but I will be trying to get most of them.” he says and glances at the paper in front of him “I’ll start by Christian’s point that the issue affects multiple teams, when in fact it’s not even the majority of the grid that faces the issue that you are aiming to get changed. I can’t see the reason for the regulation change, clearly it’s not that dangerous to drivers health according to doctors and also it would be a huge waste of our resources to just redesign certain aspects of the car when we have the budget cap this year. That’s how I see it.” Toto finishes his monologue and all the eyes are on him. 

“Clearly there will be a vote for this.” Stefano says 

“Thank you for the notes.” Toto says turning to you and you nod back

Later on the vote takes place and the results are the ones that you expected. That means increased performance from Mercedes and Red Bull chasing them right behind. In other circumstances you would be fuming but now you are happy Mercedes got the chance to stop the regulation changes with your help. The meeting ends and you lobby around for a little longer but afterwards you are back to the paddock walking to the garage for the second practice session. Toto walks by your side and you feel he wants to ask you about what happened there but before he can you inform him you will need some time in your office and you leave him behind. 

You get back to your office and you text your friend Sara who lives in Monaco

You

Are you in Monaco?

Sara

Of course I am in Monaco.

The question is where are you?

You 

Issues with dad, he won’t let me enter the paddock because I was late in a business meeting and now he removed me from the team

Still in Jeddah though

Listen, I need a favor from you and your magic contacts in Monaco

Sara

I don’t wish to know more about the dad-daughter drama

But I am here to help you with whatever you want

You

I need a place to stay in Monaco

Sara

You can crash on mine or I’ll book you a hotel

You 

I am thinking more of an apartment tbh

Sara

How long do you plan on staying here?

You 

Permanently?

Sara 

OMG, you’ll become a fellow Monegasque?

I will be in contact with my estate agent

You

Yes, I am planning to finally start living in Monaco. I don’t even know if Christian will take me back to the team to be honest but even if he does I can still live in Oxfordshire or in my apartment in London.

Sara

How fast do you need it?

You 

As soon as possible please 

You lock your phone as you take a deep breath to realize the decision that you just took. Moving to Monaco has always been your dream, since you have been to the Grand Prix there you fell in love with the place and you have spent quite some time in Sara’s house during the summer when you were younger. But now you want to do this alone, you want to feel independent in the country that you loved so much. You immediately think of contacting your father. You decide email is the best option. If he wants to be a bitch so will you

Hello father, 

I am sending this email to inform you about my decisions. I will be moving to Monaco in the next couple of weeks, on my own. I believe I will be able to make my own living with the money I currently have. I am requesting my last paycheck from the team since I have been fired and I am not aware of your intentions to hire me back or not. I wish that my personal space in our estate in Oxfordshire remains unchanged in case I am able to return to my obligations to the team, and I inform you that the apartment in London will still be mine. I am still in Saudi Arabia arranging my flight to Monaco. I will be quite busy during the next few weeks so I will not be able to contact you. Should you decide that I am able to come back to the team please inform me. 

Wishing you the best. 

And send. 

You go back to the garage 20 minutes in the session and you spot Toto sitting alone at the top of the fantasy island wearing a pair of headphones while another one is resting  on the desk in front of him. You go to his right and check the timings. Currently Mercedes 1-2. He looks at you and removes the headset so he can listen. He hands you the spare headset.

“Isn’t this Nyck’s?” you ask

“No this is yours, Nyck is not joining us at this session.”

“Thank you” you say and you wear the headphones 

During the rest of the session Toto shows you all the graphs about the car performance as well as all the communications systems in the team. You are convinced that he is not supposed to do that, it’s knowledge that an assistant could live without knowing and wouldn’t affect their job but still he seems so invested in letting you understand how the team works. This experience is not about gathering information for Red Bull, you think. It’s more about how a team should be and how correct management is done. Something that you feel is missing from Red Bull. The session finishes and Lewis and George are back to the garage with another top 3 finish for the team. 

As soon as your day ends you drive your Aston Martin back to the Red Bull hotel, pack your baggage, check out and drive to the airport where you are supposed to leave the car. When you manage to do so you go to the car rental area of the airport and visit the kiosk of the company Toto texted you about and get the keys to a brand new Mercedes AMG. Shortly after that you get dressed with your Mercedes gear once again and drive to the Ritz-Carlton to check into your new room. 

Turns out Toto has not only arranged a room for you but it’s also a huge fucking suite that you’re sure most Mercedes employees wouldn’t even consider having. You take a look at the suite and you open the closet door to find it full of Mercedes team shirts, hilfiger pants and the usual Mercedes designed puma shoes. You snap a picture of the closet and you decide to document those weeks of alternate reality that you are currently living in.

When the anxiety of the weirdest day you’ve lived wears off you check your phone for your newest messages

Sara

Gerard just reached out to me.

He has a wonderful loft 2,5 km from the Quartier Du Port.

Generally peaceful location

Sea views as well

Let me know if you want to see it.

You 

If you can go there and get some pictures please do. Thank you <3

After that long day you realize that you didn’t get the chance to have a proper meal so you decide to order room service to finally eat something. You think of how pathetic it would look if you eat alone in this huge suite and before you can even cope with that thought you reach for your phone and call Toto. He picks up after 2 rings

“Hello” he says

“Hi, how’s everything?”

“Good, I am getting ready to go downstairs to the restaurant to have dinner, how are you?” “Oh same I was thinking of getting some room service for dinner since I can’t actually go to the restaurant to eat, but the suite is big enough to not feel restricted in one room. Thanks for that by the way.”

“I am sure you’ve only lived in suites for the whole year now so I thought why not. Don’t let the rest of the team know that though.” he says and you hear his laugh on the phone. You stay quiet and he does the same but when you actually decide to say something he speaks again “Maybe we can have dinner together now” he says.

“That’s why I called you in the first place” you admit, but you think you definitely sound a bit in despair. “I can’t order food for two people though it might seem weird.”

“You can come over to my suite, I’ll make sure that it will look as if I am having a meeting with either James or Shov.” he suggests

“Is it okay?” you ask again

“Definitely, I will be ready in 10, suite 264. See you.” he says and terminates the call.

You take a look at the closet trying to decide what to wear. You choose a graphic t-shirt and your most comfortable pants paired with your white sneakers, the only flat pair of shoes that you carried with you. You take a look at the mirror, readjust your hair, put on a nude lipstick and after 10 minutes you are finally ready to leave. You put on your mask because your goal for today isn’t getting caught from walking in some hotel corridor and you navigate your way to suite 264, you knock on the door and Toto is right there letting you in. He’s wearing a pair of black sweats and a gray T-shirt but he is barefoot. 

“Hey” you say and you walk in the suite looking around. It does look like your suite when it comes to furniture but the rooms are a little more private. There’s a desk that has turned out to be more like Toto’s office for the weekend. You sit on the couch while he closes the door behind you and walks in the living room. You take your mask off and sit there looking at the ceiling. Toto stands in front of you with a menu card in hand.

“I was thinking, maybe pasta?” he tells you

“That’s what I planned to order today.” you laugh as Toto reaches for the phone on the table next to the couch and orders 2 plates of pasta ai funghi with two glasses of red wine. 

“They’ll be here in 30 minutes” he tells you

“Great” you reply and stand up. You look at the place around you, stand up and walk to the desk. You sit on the only chair there and you put on his round glasses and put on your serious face as you move your fingers on the mousepad of his mac which -to your surprise- is unlocked so you are able to navigate in his computer. You open up his email but still he doesn’t react even though you are looking at you closely and you start typing and reading out loud. 

“Hey Michael, I am just sending you an email.” you say and you keep being serious while you hear Toto bursting in laughter at the couch.

“Lewis is the best of all time, he did nothing wrong, everything is red bull's fault.” you say again and he keeps looking at you. 

You keep joking, acting like you are typing a new email “Hey FIA, it’s Toto, please let us use the das. It's a great innovation and we are so smart to think about it. We are not illegal, or at least that’s what James Allison and Shov said. It’s not our fault that we are both smart and sexy. Thank you in advance.” 

“That’s not what I said” he laughs

“I’ll need proof for that.” you say “Would I make a good Toto Wolff?” 

“The best. I’ll be sure to leave you in my position once I retire.” 

“What will Daimler say for that though?” 

“You are doing your training so why would they have an issue?” he replies and you laugh. 

“Isn’t this suite a bit too big just for you?” you ask

“You have the same one but yeah it is a bit big.”

“Mine isn’t as big.” you say “Most times I feel lonely in those suites. Mine don’t have kitchens though.” 

“You cook? Too bad we have ordered already.” 

“Maybe another time.” you say and you hear the door knocking. 

“Quite fast.” Toto says and he stands up to open the door. 

You walk around the suite once again and enter his bedroom and look at the open closet which is once again full of Mercedes button ons so you grab one and put it on. You hear Toto talking and you go back to the living room but he’s still talking to the person outside the door. 

“I am kinda busy here Cynthia. I am sorry.” you hear him say

“Please Toto.” a female voice replies “Is there someone else? Is that why you ordered two plates, two glasses of wine?” she asks

“Cynthia I am in the middle of a very important business meeting, it’s about tomorrow’s qualifying and James is waiting inside to eat so that we can continue our meeting. Thank you for the service.” 

“Will you call me when you are done?” 

“I will be asleep when we are done.Thank you” he says and closes the door. 

You stand there in his living room wearing his button up feeling stupid for believing this thing could go anywhere further. 

“I should get going.” you say 

“Now that the food is here?” he asks but you don’t reply, “Is this shirt mine? Are you going to take this one too?”

“I will get back to my suite and you can call Cynthia, or whatever her name is, and tell her that James is gone and that you are okay for her to come back and do whatever you two do together.” 

“Wait, are you jealous? Of Cynthia?” 

“I am not jealous, just not in the position to get involved with someone who’s fucking around with the girl who brought him room service 3 times.” 

“I am not involved with her.” he says

“Well she seemed awfully too comfortable to be just a stranger Toto.” 

“What do you want to hear?” he asks

“That you’ve fucked her?” you tell him

“We slept together once last year.” 

“That’s all I needed to hear. Goodbye Toto.” you say as you walk towards the door, his shirt still hanging on your shoulders but before you can leave he manages to grab your hand 

“I only saw her once this year and I just said hi. We hadn’t spoken since last year but as soon as I arrived she didn't stop appearing in my way. She had reached out several times since we left last year but I never got back to her.” 

“So she’s nothing to you?” 

“She was just a fling.” he replies and you turn around to sit on the dining table. 

“Fine” you say, irritation apparent in your voice “Am I just a fling?” you ask yourself in your head so you decide to ask the same to Toto who is holding the pasta plates leaving one in front of you and one opposite to you  on the table. He doesn’t answer, instead he does the same with the two glasses of wine. His silence makes you feel like his answer is not the one that you want to hear but as he leaves the glasses on the table he doesn’t sit down, he stays there towering over you and looking at you. 

“If it was just a fling I wouldn’t risk destroying my team for it. Also I wouldn’t have done anything that I’ve done for you in any case.” he replies. “Technically you can’t even call it a fling because we only made out two or three times and we were drunk.” he says and just stays still “And still there are two glasses of wine that I ordered on that table. I am never going to learn, am I ?” he laughs

“Sorry ?” you ask but he leans in, reaches for your face and kisses you catching you off guard. You stay still in your chair as he sits opposite to you not saying anything

“The wine is red” he says then

“I can see that.” you reply

“They say that red wine can get you drunk easier.” 

You try to understand where he’s going with this

“And?”

“We haven’t drunk any of it yet so we are sober”

“Why are you explaining this to me like I’ve never drunk before?”

“This is the most sober that I will be tonight and you said that I didn’t have the guts to make a move without being drunk.” he says

“You won’t get drunk with a glass of wine Toto.”

“I know I won’t but still I didn’t want you to blame this on a single drop of alcohol.” he replies and you smile and you start eating. No one talks during dinner but you are laughing at each other when you’re struggling with eating the pasta without actually making a mess. It feels natural to just sit there and eat with his company, like you are finally where you are supposed to be. For this moment you forget everything else and you focus on what you are currently living. After some time you both finish your food and you see Toto standing up. 

“We should finish our wine on the couch.” he says, taking his glass and you copy his moves. He sits on the couch and you do the same but you don’t sit close to him. You rest your back on the couch arm and lay there putting your feet on his lap. He turns and looks at you but he doesn’t say anything. He rests one hand on your feet and he grabs his phone with the other one unlocking it and looking at his mails. 

“Do you want to work?” you ask

“It’s Friday night so no.” he replies

“Then close your phone”

“What can we do instead?” 

“Talk like normal people?” you tell him

“About?” he asks

“I am thinking of moving to Monaco” 

“That’s a bold choice, have you thought about it enough?” he asks

“I have and I think it’s the best thing I can do to be honest, I have some of my friends there and I really want to leave home, I really can’t deal with Christian while he keeps treating me like this.” 

“That’s good.” he replies “What about going to the factory ?” 

“How are you doing it? You live in Monaco and you also have to go to England at the factory.” 

“It’s really tiring to be honest, you need to have a place to stay close to the factory “

“I have my apartment in London available.” you tell him

“London to Milton Keynes isn’t that easy to do on a daily basis.” 

“Anyways, going to the factory isn’t my main priority right now, I am not even on the team.” 

“You are on Mercedes.” he says

“Is this an invitation to Brackley?” you laugh

“You swore it was just for a few races, not that you will be staying permanently” 

“It was my masterplan to get hired by Mercedes.” 

“We don’t want you with us.” he jokes

“Why?” you ask 

“You are distracting the team Ms. Horner.” 

“How am I even distracting the team?” you say whining “People don’t even know who I am except from you.”

“You answered for me.” he tells you “And now I have to deal with you walking around Monaco.” 

“Oh sorry, I’ll cancel my plans then.”

“Oh no, Monaco needs a twist.” he says and you look at him but say nothing. He doesn’t attempt to start a new conversation, he just readjusts on the couch, grabs the remote and opens the TV. He navigates through Netflix’s homepage and you eventually make him watch a movie which he tried to convince you not to watch. Again, none of you speaks during the movie. Halfway through, you realize you’re far too invested in the movie and turn to look at Toto who is fast asleep on that same couch. You decide that there’s no point in staying longer in his suite and you remove your legs from his lap as smoothly as you can, you grab your phone and your shoes which you had earlier taken off and head to the door tiptoeing. 

“Stay here tonight.” you hear his raspy voice which takes you by surprise and you almost scream

“It’s better that I leave, you are tired and need some sleep.” you reply

“There’s a spare bed if that’s what you’re worried about.” 

“And there’s an empty suite down the hallway.”

“Come on, aren't you bored to leave when you can just sleep here?” he tells you and well, he’s kinda right. Plus it’s not like you don’t want to spend some more time with him and it would definitely be questionable if someone saw you leaving his suite at midnight. You don’t go back to the couch but you leave your shoes down while Toto eyes every single move you make. 

“It’s quali day tomorrow, we need to sleep. Come on.”  you tell him and you walk to his room. Seconds later he follows you and enters the room. 

“I’m taking the left side.” you say and he smiles at you with a sleepy face. 

“You’re sure you don’t want to sleep in the other room?” he asks

“It’s not like it will make any difference. Except if you have a problem.”

“No, definitely not.” he replies and both of you lay on the bed, facing each other. 

“I’ll wake up earlier to go to the gym, then we can get ready and hit the track. We’ll have breakfast there.” he says and you nod. He seems very calm, eyelids heavy with sleep so you decide to lean and kiss him goodnight. As you come closer to him you can now feel his scent and warmth and you put your lips on his. The kiss is slow and sweet, somehow different from the rest that the two of you had shared up to this moment. 

“Goodnight Wolff.” you say

“Goodnight Horner.” he replies and both of you drift to sleep. 

The next day you wake up without an alarm and you find the bed next to you empty. You hear water running and figure out that Toto must be taking his post gym shower. You keep laying there and grab your phone to go through new updates and messages. Not a lot of time passes until he emerges from the bathroom wearing nothing but a white towel wrapped around his waist and he holds another one trying to dry the water off his hair. You admire the sight for a while and you say “Good Morning”. He looks at you and replies

 “Good Morning Horner. Slept well?” 

“Very much thank you” you say “How about you?”

“Slept really well, and I started my day with a good session at the gym with George and Lewis.”

“Oh that must have been interesting. I would have loved to join you three.”

“It would be funny to see their reactions.” he replies as he dries his hair on a smaller white towel while he’s looking at the nightstand on your right where his things rest . He tosses the towel he was holding on a white chair in the room and he approaches you. He climbs on the bed and puts one hand on the headrest while his other hand is stretching to reach the IWC watch on the nightstand. His already toned muscles are a little more observable now that he’s lingering above you. You draw a sharp breath at the sight trying to contain your thoughts and your self but you still look up and stare at him while he makes sure that he gets the watch. When he actually does, he looks down at you and he catches you staring. 

“What?” he asks, staying still in the same position and you don’t answer but instead you scoff. You take a quick glance on his body and you let your instincts take over. You grab him from his neck and pull him down for a kiss. He immediately reacts by holding your face with his now free hand and he pulls you closer as he deepens the kiss and bites your lip. You melt into the kiss still laying down as you feel your heart racing faster than any racing car you’ve ever seen. Your breath gets quicker as you get the sheets out of your way trying to feel his skin on yours. Toto mutters “Fuck” in between your kisses making you a little crazier. He breaks the kiss and walks to the end of the bed, he grabs your legs and starts leaving trails of  kisses all the way up from your calf to your upper thigh until he stops and looks at you, eyes full of lust. He lingers above you for a second or two and he looks at you intensely trying to make sure that he has your consent for his following actions. Once you understand what this is about you nod while you're trying to regulate your breath. 

"Stay still for me baby" he requests and you try to follow his order by just laying there as he dives his head between your thighs. Your breathing gets faster and deeper as he works his way down on you making you feel like you’ve never felt before. You sense his smile while his tongue makes circles down on you. It’s more sensual than you’ve imagined it to be. And god the man definitely knows what he’s doing. He keeps going on for a while with the same dedication as he started and you feel getting closer and closer to your absolute limits. You look down on him as he now uses his hands on you, and you see him staring back. “You look so good baby” he says and all you can manage to say is his name followed by a moan. “Toto I’m so close. Fuck” you say out of breath and he dives in once again as if he heard the magic phrase. He works his magic and shortly after you probably have the best orgasm you’ve ever had. Then he stands up, his hardness still apparent. You manage to regain your strength and crawl at the end of the bed. “Time to take care of you love.” you tell him and he looks at you with a sparkle in his eye. You reach for his neck and pull him in for a long kiss as you move your hand down his torso and on his crotch. You feel him, how hard he is, and you’re secretly taking pride in your effect on him. You start touching him, trying to make him feel good in your hands. His breathing gets faster as you continue and you can sense him coming closer and closer. You want to give him your best so you slowly lean down but he stops you. “Let me feel you?” he asks, almost sounding tortured. You feel a burning desire in you. You’ve imagined this for some time. You cannot say no, not now. Instead you say “Yes please” and get on his lap. You kiss him, while you’re repeating in your head “i am actually fucking Toto Wolff”. You give him one or two strokes getting ready for him but instead of following he looks around, probably for protection. “I am on birth control” you tell him and he turns his attention back to you. You place yourself in the right position as you feel him pressuring your entrance. Once he’s in you start riding him until  you feel yourself getting out of breath. All this time muttering his name like a mantra and he is just repeating something in the lines of “God you feel so good.”, both of you feeling like you’re in another world. As soon as he gets that you are tired he lifts you up and lays you down on the bed. Now he is on top and he’s thrusting in and out in a rhythmic and satisfying way. He looks you in the eye. It’s not awkward. Not even close. You both seem to enjoy it quite a lot. It’s not after a long time that both of you finish at the same time, in an almost poetic way. 

Now both of you lay naked on Toto’s queen sized bed. No one is talking. You just lay on his torso while his hand is round your shoulders. At some point you decide to break the silence

“That was a decent start to the day.” you say and Toto looks down on you 

“Beats the early gym session to be honest.” he says

“I would be angry if you preferred going to the gym with Lewis and George to having sex with me” 

“If it wasn’t for the gym you wouldn’t be here now”

“You think it was the ‘semi naked with a towel’ appearance that made me want to sleep with you?” you laugh “I would give it to you any time of the day, even if you were wearing a garbage bag Wolff.” 

“Nice to hear that you are unreasonably horny.” 

“It’s not without a reason though. I think you’ve figured out that I do not consider you a bad looking man.” 

“I have yes.” 

“All I had to do is to just find the courage to just throw myself at you.” you laugh 

“And you kind of had to be drunk to do so?” he asks

“Yes”

“Isn’t it ironic though?” he says “That we actually slept together during the moment of our biggest clarity and sobriety?”

“What is it with the philosophical questions Toto? I just wanted to have sex with you for a long time and I did.”

“Long time I hear?” 

“Yes, are you surprised?” you ask

“No, just glad that I am not the only one. Was it good at least?” 

“God Toto, you’re asking the cringiest questions.” you say “Yes, god, it was perfect.”  you answer and you hear Toto laugh. 

“Now as much as I want to stay here and repeat this through the day, we have to go to the track” he says

“Ah yes, I am dying to get some breakfast as well.” you say and Toto laughs 

“I’ve already had mine” he says with a smirk and as soon as you get what he’s talking about you grab your pillow and start hitting him playfully. 

“Come on, let’s get ready.” 

A hour or so later, you find yourself parking a shiny black Mercedes at the track's parking area while being already disguised as your alter ego, full on Mercedes’ gear.  Today you are wearing Toto’s shirt, which is a little oversized but you manage to style it in a great way. You grab your bag, draw a sharp breath and open the door. You walk to the paddock and scan your pass as you go totally unnoticed by people around you. To them you look like a regular Mercedes employee that they have no reason to care about. Little do they know that this is actually you. To be honest you kind of love the calmness of it, how no one is chasing you for a photo or a statement on a recent drama or event of the F1 world. You just walk unbothered. You get so caught up in that thought that you don’t actually notice how fast you got to the motorhome. You get in and put on your show, greeting the majority of your colleagues that also seem ignorant to your presence there. You go to the buffet area and grab a tray for your breakfast which you eventually bring to the small office that Toto managed to provide you. Once you settle in,  you sit down to eat but you take a photo of the breakfast as a part of documenting that crazy weekend. You also decide to send the photo to Toto. 

You 

[photo]

Grabbed breakfast and brought it to the office. Drop by if you don’t have anything better to do. 

Wolff

Just walked in. I’ll grab my coffee and be there in 5. 

You 

Cool.

Five minutes later you hear a knock on the door followed by “Miss Roosevelt it’s Wolff here.” 

“Coming.” you say and unlock the door for him to come in. 

“Hey” you say

“Hello” he answers and looks at the full tray “You got quite a lot of food there.” 

“Yeah, that start to the day just opened my appetite.” 

“That’s good to hear” 

“So, what am I supposed to do today?” 

“Well, practice starts in 45 minutes and then we have qualifying.” 

“I am aware of the program, thank you.” 

“You won’t let me finish my thought will you?” he says

“Sorry” you tell him and look at him 

“I am thinking, maybe you can join me and Nyck in the garage for practice.” he pauses to think “And then you can take a look at the data before qualifying.” 

“No I cannot do that” you say 

“Why not? I know you can read data, you have the basic skills and knowledge to judge a performance run.” 

“I don’t want to be involved with your data. It’s confidential.” you reply.  It is actually crazy that Toto is okay with the idea of you handling the team’s data, as if you are not his number one opponent. 

“I know it is. But I trust you, plus there’s an NDA that you’ve already signed. And the fact that you deny reading the data makes me want to give you access to them more than before. Because I know how serious you are about not leaking stuff.” 

“Okay I will take a look, but only for a short time.” you tell him 

“Oh and then I want you to do a tour to a group of visitors that will be coming to the garage.” 

“Aren’t there people responsible for this?” you ask, reminiscing the fact that in Red Bull you have people who are responsible for the hospitality packages. 

“There are but they are shitting their pants because Christiano is dropping by later.”

“Who is Christiano?” you ask, slightly confused

“Ronaldo” he replies

“He’s coming to the race?” 

“Yes. He’s actually coming both today and tomorrow and the team is invested in doing everything perfect for him.” he says and you are still staring at him with your mouth open “We are a bit short staffed in that team so an extra help would be amazing.” 

“Good. I’ll do that too.” 

“Great, thanks love” he says and you freeze at the name but before it gets too awkward the door knocks. 

“Toto, this is James, do you have some time to review the quali strategy?” you hear through the door

“Yes, I will be there in a sec.” he replies “Gotta go now, i’ll see you in 45 right?” 

“Right” you tell him and he is out of the office. I

You spend the next 30 minutes scrolling through twitter and eating the breakfast that you got earlier as well as taking a look at Toto’s schedule for the day. Later on you leave the office, mask on once again, and make your way to the garage and to the top of the fantasy island where Toto and Nyck are waiting for the session to start. Both cars are in the garage waiting for a sign to leave once the lights at the end of the pitlane turn green and at the same time all the mechanics are making the final touches on the set ups. You greet everyone sitting on the fantasy island and put on the spare headphones as you did the day before. The session is done as usual, the drivers  going in and out of the garage to change setups on the car to find an optimal one for the qualifying. Performance runs are also on the programme but only during the last fifteen minutes of the session. Everything concerning telemetry is being sent directly into Toto’s computer on top of the fantasy island as soon as each lap ends so that he can see how they are done and areas where they can be corrected. The session ends quicker than it usually does when you are at Red Bull because suddenly all the chit chat becomes interesting and not as boring as it is with Christian. 

“P1 and P2 huh?” you ask him. Nyck is already out of the garage, something about having to talk to some foreign media made Toto let him leave before the small pre qualifying debrief.  

“It isn’t bad is it?” he asks back.

“It is not for us” you tell him “ It is for the rest of the grid though. I bet Christian is fuming right now.” 

“It is not bad for them. If we are in front they will have to innovate more to reach us. It motivates them.” 

“I bet they are not seeing it this way though.” 

“Is Christian really fuming if we finish in front in practice?” 

“Yeah, he’s not a fan of coming second in any session of this sport.”

“Too bad for him.” he says and you laugh. At this moment your phone rings with a notification from the calendar app reminding you of an interview Toto has to attend. 

“Oh, I am seeing now that you should be outside the media pen for an interview.” you tell him

“I am very much aware, thank you.” 

“Well, why are you not there now?” 

“I prefer to hang out with my beautiful assistant instead.” he compliments you

“Oh my god, shut up” you laugh and he does the same “Come on, interview, now!” you say as you tug him and try to push him to the corridor that leads to the paddock playfully. 

“That’s unfair. I am the boss. You are not in the position to prohibit me from doing anything.” he laughs as he walks reluctantly to the paddock. 

“Well, it seems like I am in charge of what you are doing so technically I am allowed to tell you what to do.” you tell him “I will be enjoying a cold cup of coffee in the meantime.” 

“Once again, that’s unfair Horner.” he says the second part whispering so that people are not able to hear. “Also, you have work to do. The telemetry data is already in your email inbox waiting to be read and commented on, so if I were you I would actually save the coffee for later.” he says and you look at him flabbergasted. “Oh and as soon as you are done with that you have the little tour to do in an hour and a half. Take care Ms. Roosevelt.” 

Before you are able to form a sentence he is already gone, more like running to the media pen. You on the other side, walk back to your office, open your new iPad and take a look at the data. The lap times look good, still slower than the lap time that you calculated the pole position would be on, but they look good. In the data you can see clearly that the engine mode is in a much less aggressive setup that you are sure will change during qualifying. You add some comments using your iPencil concerning parts of where you think the drivers can gain time, as well as some questions for the strategists and the mechanics. When you are done, you forward your notes to Toto’s email and check the clock to see that it has actually been 1:30 hours and that it is actually the time to go meet the people you will be giving your tour to.

You find them all standing on a circle by the garage entrance at the paddock, discussing, taking pictures and being excited. There are 5 of them, 3 guys and 2 girls, all of them close to your age. You approach them and greet them. One of the girls looks gorgeous. The boys aren’t bad either. 

“Hello everyone.” you say “You must be waiting for a paddock tour right?” 

“Yeah” one of the boys says and the rest of them nod. 

“Okay!” you say in an excited tone, trying to engage with them. “I am Mindy. I will learn your names during the tour I suppose.”

“Nice to meet you” says one of the girls “Likewise” you answer “So, should we start? Are you all excited?”

“Very.” one of the boys says.

 The tour starts and you take all of them for a walk in the paddock to see all the motorhomes and where you actually work and you are actually describing all the details about what you are showing to them. You take them by the media pen, where you spot Toto giving another interview for pre qualifying. All of the guys and the girls get very excited and try to snap a picture even from far away. Then you take them by the garage but just before you manage to get in, you receive a new notification on your watch

Wolff

Just finished the interviews at the media pen and managed to see your notes and questions on the telemetry data. I forwarded them to James and he immediately got back to me asking who made all those brilliant notes and questions. I guess you are wasting yourself with management, you should become a mechanic instead. 

Oh I also caught a glance of you and the guys during the tour. I hope that you are doing alright. We don’t want to make Ritz’s employees sad, we still have a few days left before we check out. 

You read the message and realize that the people that you’ve been interacting with are people working at your hotel. So you decide to stop the tour and actually get to know them. 

“You know what? Let’s introduce ourselves before going into the garage.” you tell them and walk back to a bench located at the paddock. 

“So as I told you before I am Mindy Roosevelt, I am currently working at Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 but my position is totally different to what I am doing right now. I am actually working as an assistant to upper management, but the hospitality team has a very special guest for this weekend and they were busy enough so you are left with me.” you say  “Go ahead, introduce yourselves.” 

One of the guys starts talking “I am Ahmad Hussain and like everyone here, I am working at the Ritz-Carlton in Jeddah. I am working as a cook in the hotel kitchen so everything that you’ve tasted in the past few days might have had to do something with me.” 

“I loved everything that I’ve tried, thank you Ahmad.” you tell him

“I am Benjy Ayad, I am half american half saudi arabian and I am currently working at the Ritz-Carlton as an economics advisor.” he says

“Mohammad Dawoud, and I am working at the Ritz-Carlton in room service.”

“Oh, I will be requesting for you Mohammad.” you laugh and he takes a bow showing his honor. 

“I am also working as room service at the Ritz.” you hear one of the girls saying. This time it’s the pretty one

“That’s nice. What is your name?”

“I am Cynthia Jones.” she says and you freeze as you realize that the girl standing in front of you has slept with the man you slept with this morning. Jealousy as well as curiosity are your main feelings so you ask for more information. 

“Sounds very non-Saudi Arabian. Where are you from Cynthia?” you ask

“I am from the UK actually. I was born and raised there, my parents are British but all of a sudden I ended up here. I was looking for a position in management in some big companies here in Saudi Arabia and I got this job as a part time until I figured things out but I ended up staying for two years.” 

“That’s crazy. And why management? Do you have a degree?” 

“Yes, I actually do. I got my degree in Switzerland and I tried pursuing it but right now I haven’t found anything that I like.” 

You nod in agreement, trying to register all the information that you’ve learned from her directly. Toto was secretive about their relationship so learning even the slightest about her is important. Finally you turn to the last girl left

“Alina Mohammad, I work as a receptionist at the Ritz. Nothing to know exactly. I was born and raised here and I got a degree in touristics so I got the job of my dreams.” 

“You guys seem really happy with what you are all doing. I hope you keep doing what you love.” you say “I mean you all managed to buy a paddock pass that most people wouldn’t dream buying at what? 24?” 

“No actually we didn’t buy a pass, the team invited us to join today’s action.”  says Benjy

“Oh shit, I didn’t know that.” you say 

“Yeah they came in last night and handed us the passes just before our shift ended. We went crazy.” says Cynthia and you look at her. 

“Sorry Cynthia, if I may ask, what time do you finish your shift on average?” 

“I don’t know, maybe like 11pm or something? Yesterday I finished at that time.” she replies. At this point you are now sure, Toto asked her to come there today. There’s no other explanation. As soon as he saw her he wanted her to come back. That’s why he invited her. It wasn’t planned for you to do the interview, but he changed it to make you interact with Cynthia, to actually hurt your feelings. 

“Mindy, is everything okay?” Mohammad asks as you have totally zoned out

“Sorry, I spaced out for a bit. Yes, everything is good. Shall we continue with our garage tour?” you ask and they nod. You go back to the garage trying to explain as many things as you know about the things there. To be honest, your mood isn’t quite the same as it was before you knew who the beautiful blonde by your side was. Luckily, the tour comes to an end 30 minutes later but sadly it is qualifying time so you have to be by Toto’s side by the time the session starts. Cristiano Ronaldo is also there by Toto’s side. You nod and greet him as Toto introduces you and you just get back to work. 

During qualifying you sit there, not talking, just looking at the screen and the timings and occasionally checking your burner twitter account for any comments.  Although you are pissed at the man next to you you definitely don’t want Mercedes to qualify in bad positions so through Q1 and Q2 you are relaxed since it is obvious that both cars will be through to Q3. During Q3 you keep your fingers crossed and mostly during the last runs for pole position you keep praying as you usually do in Red Bull. When the timer runs out Lewis and George are sitting P1 and P2 respectively, locking the front row for tomorrow’s start and as soon as the team figures it out, the whole garage erupts in cheers. Toto reaches Ronaldo for a handshake, celebrating the results.  Your eye catches the guys from earlier cheering and hugging each other, taping with their phones. Toto turns to you and you do a high five with him as he smiles at you. You remain indifferent in his reaction, keeping yourself busy until George and Lewis are back to the parc ferme to congratulate them. Once you are done with that you simply say goodbye to everyone there and leave. 

You go back and grab all your things and without saying a word to anyone you drive back to the hotel. When you are ready to go back to bed, you see a new message

Max Emilian Verstappen

Where are you? I missed you on track these days. 

You

Sadly Christian thought it was a fair deal to throw me out of the team for god knows how long.

Happily for you I will be out of your way for that time so you will relax. 

Also congrats for the P3 today, it was a decent run but the mercs had the pace. 

Max Emilian Verstappen

Oh Christian…

Shut up, I already miss you. Are you in England?

Thank you H.

You

I am in Monaco, at a friend's house. 

You feel kinda terrible for lying to him but there’s not much you can do. 

After you chat with Max for a while, you order some food to eat but then get another message. 

Wolff

Lost you after qualifying and when I asked they told me you had left. That wasn’t a bad result. 

Anyways I am going back to the hotel and I am planning to order something to eat, you can hang around my suite if you want and we can discuss strategies for the race. 

Let me know what you are about to do 

You 

I’m not feeling very good, sorry. 

And tomorrow I will be coming in late, probably an hour or so before the start

Wolff

Okay. Do you need any help? Should I drop by your suite? 

How am I supposed to work without my assistant?

You 

I am not your main assistant Woff, you have a hundred people helping you, me not being there won’t be a huge issue

No, don’t come. 

Just let me fucking be for once okay? 

Later on you see that he read the message and didn’t reply. You take a hot bath and go to sleep for tomorrow. 

You wake up the next day pretty late but just in time considering the fact that you are planning to leave in 2 hours. You order breakfast to avoid having something at the track and start getting ready as you are waiting for room service to arrive. You eat and then leave. 

Since you left the hotel earlier your time of arrival is estimated earlier than you actually planned so you decide to take a drive in Jeddah’s streets to soak in the country. An hour or so before the start you actually arrive at the track. You park your car and walk to the hospitality. Then you lock yourself in your office and just read notes for the race. Later on you hear a knock on the door. 

“It’s Wolff” you hear him say and you open the door even if you don’t want to. You don’t speak. You stay there and look at him. “Are you feeling okay?” he asks 

“I am okay, yes.” you reply “Do you want anything else?” you ask him since he’s standing there just watching, 

“Why are you acting like this?” he asks

“Like what?” 

“Like Christian Horner’s daughter?” 

“Yeah, you should be expecting that since that’s exactly who I am” 

“You haven’t been like this since Bahrain.” he says

“Well if you don’t like it then you should call Cynthia.” you tell him

“Is this what this is all about? Are you jealous?” he asks

“Listen Toto, if you want to discuss this I will discuss it outside this office please.” you tell him

“Okay then, follow me.” he says 

“What? Now?” 

“I want to solve this right now if it’s okay.”

“The race starts in 30 minutes.” you say 

“It will take less than 30 minutes, follow me” he says 

Both you and Toto walk in the motorhome before he manages to open a door at the end of the hallway. You climb off the stairs and you reach a place somewhere in between a wall and a closed section of the motorhome. 

“Speak” he says 

“Bossy much ?” you ask

“Yes, now please tell me how did the whole Cynthia thing reoccur after yesterday morning?” 

“Don’t tell me you don’t know.” you tell him

“I do not have a clue.” he says 

“You don’t have a clue about inviting her here?” 

“Who?” 

“Yesterday you made me do a paddock tour to a group of people.”

“Yes, they were the Ritz employees, I am aware of that”

“So you are aware that Cynthia Jones was proudly here watching F1 and enjoying qualifying with a VIP pass right?” 

“I was not.” he says and honestly he seems like he’s telling the truth. 

“You didn’t see her in the garage?” you ask

“Well, believe it or not I do not see everyone who is in the garage.” 

“You didn’t invite her ?” 

“Nope.” 

“She said that she got her invitation right after her shift ended. And her shift ended after you saw her.”

“I was aware that they were going to be here. Just not the names of who was coming. The hotel management was supposed to do a draw and pick 5 people to join us as a gift. It’s part of our contract.” he replies

“So you didn’t know she was coming?” 

“I am going to say no once again.” he says “You can search my messages if you want to.” he says as he hands you his phone. 

“I trust you.” you tell him and you hand him his phone back 

“After all I am not that big of an asshole to invite an ex fling and then sleep with you the next morning.” 

“Don’t you dare do this again.” 

“Invite people or sleep with you?” 

“Oh Wolff fuck off.” you joke

“With you, gladly.” he replies

“Shhh” you tell him 

“You are not going to shut me up this way.” he says and then looks at you “Also take off this goddamn mask now that no one can see us, I am tired of seeing you with it.” 

You take of your mask and smile at him

“You’re sure that no one can see us here right?” you ask and he nods. 

You lean on him and kiss him, catching him off guard. He returns the kiss as he smiles in it .

“I am sorry, Wolff. I won’t overreact about Cynthia again.”

“It’s alright Horner.” he tells you. 

“The race starts in 15, should we go?” 

“Let’s go.” he says and both of you walk back to the garage and your usual places. 

At the start of the race both Lewis and George start off well, keeping their initial positions with Max lurking just behind George. Standing next to Toto, you have access to everything on his computer so you see lap by lap each and every thing you’ve learned to look for in order to plan a strategy in your head. When things get tough and Max gets behind Lewis in P2 your brain is running as fast as it can. The Mercedes strategists are proposing possible pit stop strategies based on the data that they have. However they don’t know one thing that you do. As an executive at Red Bull you have to be aware of code phrases over the team radio, which to be honest can’t be forgotten in a day. So as you’re seeing in the data Lewis is trying to manage his tires and you hear the message “Okay Max, it seems like we are going for a one stopper here.” , you feel the bells ringing in your head. 

The “It seems like” phrase is a code name for doing exactly the opposite that the phrase says so you are 100% sure that they are going for a two stopper in order to win. Something that Mercedes has done countless times. 

Toto had told you earlier that if you want to intervene you can press the button and speak but he thought that you wouldn’t be crazy enough to actually do it. When you crack the code of the Red Bull strategy you immediately press the button saying strategy and speak. 

“Red Bull is going for a two stopper.” you say and Toto looks at you with his eyes wide open. “In about 5 to 10 laps they are going to be back on the softs to chase us. I would suggest pitting Lewis for a second time, turning the engine up and trying to chase him.” 

“Are you sure?” he asks

“The “It seems like” is the key phrase Toto. Please let Lewis know. ” you tell him

“Okay. Do what she said. I am waiting for your calculations. Get back at me in two minutes.” he says while pressing the strategy button 

“Thank you.” he says. 

Later on it seems like Red Bull is caught off guard by Mercedes’ move and they try saving it as well as they can but they fail. At the end of the race the checkered flag is out and Lewis wins the grand prix in Jeddah. 

“Yes boys, come on. Amazing strategy” says Lewis through the radio as everyone in the garage is celebrating. George finishes P2. 

“Thank you for the amazing drive Lewis.” says Toto 

“Get in there Lewis!” says Bono through the radio. 

Toto turns to you and says thank you while he’s off to congratulate the other team members. After Lewis gives his post race interview to Naomi Schiff, you storm off to the pitlane to watch the podium ceremony. Max is also there and he seems a bit disappointed by his streak of P3’s during the season, but you’re barely worried. Right now you are celebrating about Lewis and George. You take your phone out and snap a picture or two. After the champagne opens and the trophies are given you go back to your office and lock yourself there once again. You’re hearing all the congratulations from people in the hospitality center and you sit on the office couch feeling that happiness and euphoria of winning. You haven’t spoken to anyone since the race ended but you are now just laying there happy. A long time after, you hear a knock on the door. You’re sure it’s Toto since the race debrief and the interviews must have ended by now. You ask who it is though.

“It’s Lewis. Can you please open up?” he says and you freeze, stopping dead in your tracks. You put on your mask and you open the door. 

“Oh my god Lewis hi. Congratulations on your win.” you tell him

“Thank you Mindy. It’s Mindy right?” he asks 

“Yes it is.” you tell him

“And you’re a Daimler intern?” 

“I am yes.” 

“Can you please take off your mask so that I can remember your face?” he asks and at this point you are pretty sure he knows that you’re not who you say you are. 

“I am sorry but I am at great risk, I don’t want to get COVID or anything.” you tell him trying to avoid the situation. 

“Don’t worry, I am wearing masks and I also tested negative this morning, so you can take it off.” 

“Is it okay if I don’t want to?” you tell him

“Yes it is.” he says and he turns to face the door, finally going to leave. “We will be outside celebrating the 1-2 with the team, it will be amazing if you come, even for the picture.” 

“I am not sure I have to be there.” 

“I know you had something to do with that win, this strategy didn’t make itself Horner.” he says and you freeze as you register how he called you. 

“Excuse me?” you tell him 

“Next time that you fight with Toto, don’t do it outside my driver’s room Horner.” he says. “I know what happened between you two, I saw you without your mask and I saw you kissing my Team principal, there’s no denying.”

“Shit. Toto said no one could see us.” 

“I could see you but Toto thought I would be at the grid by then when I clearly wasn’t.” 

“I am sorry. You can’t say this to anyone.” you tell him

“I don’t plan to, I just find it funny that you switched teams.” he says

“Yeah, I had to because my dad’s an asshole.” 

“Okay, now you get what everyone’s saying right?” he laughs

“Yeap.” 

“You should come outside, let’s celebrate. You earned this victory as much as I did. Plus I want to have you in the picture. You can wear your mask.” he says and he extends his hand to make you stand up from the couch. 

“Okay” you say and you walk with him 

“Oh and by the way, Wolff is heads over heels for you, I am pretty sure he’s liked you for a long time and he hasn’t stopped thinking about you. That Cynthia thing is completely bullshit.”

“Really?” you ask him and he nods smiling. 

Both of you walk outside to celebrate that amazing day with your amazing achievements. Mercedes really feels like home for you. Toto’s eyes light up when he sees you outside, in between the mix of employees. He stands by your side for the photos and then all of the team starts playing with champagne. It’s a really great night in the desert that makes up for the craziness of the weekend which makes you relax ahead of the new week coming up. 

[mysticsparklewings]

Terror in Six Words

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He didn't know

she'd been bitten.

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Hey, this isn’t an Obscutober piece! 😦

No, but you’re getting 2 art things from me today because there were some community events on DeviantArt I wanted to partake in, & as it happens a “scary” 6-word story in poetry magnets felt like a good way to do that. 😉

Same as the Obscutober pieces, if you’re curious to hear more about my process for how this all came together—and I promise it was much more involved than you’d think!—Click the "Keep Reading" and we'll talk a bit more about my general thoughts/process. ✨

⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

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So, again: Hmm. This doesn't look like an Obscutober piece, and yet...it looks kind of familiar, doesn't it? 😉 We all probably should've known that I'd break out the mini-magnets at least once this month, sooner or later. 🤭

This was actually supposed to be kind of a 2-in-1 piece, but this has been such a busy month and busy week in particular that I got my days mixed up and thought I had more time than I actually did...So it's no longer a 2-in-1, but it wasn't totally a waste, either.

DeviantArt, in typical fashion, is holding a Badge Event this month, and loyal Sparklers will know if it's a badge I like I have a hard time turning those down—We went through something similar last year! And on top of that, @CRLiterature was also holding a Tiny Tales of Terror Challenge...which ran through the 24th, and you'll notice today's date is the 26th. 😅

And to be clear: I'm mentioning the Tiny Tales Challenge not because I expect any kind of exception or what-have-you to be made for me, but just to be transparent about my motivations. It's my fault for missing the deadline and I accept that. The only reason I'm going ahead and posting it now, so soon after the missed deadline, instead of holding off until Halloween is because I am hoping to maybe squeeze in something else just for Halloween, and I've got a bunch of other things to try and scramble to get done on my to-do list before then; If I don't post it today, it may very well not get posted at all. 🫠

[Plot twist: I was thisclose to posting this yesterday, even, but yesterday was a particularly chaotic day so it just wasn't possible—yet more evidence that if I'm not careful and quick about it this artwork may be doomed to live behind the scenes forever.]

It would also be kind of disingenuous to discuss what I made without mentioning that challenge as that's where I got the entire idea to make this specifically a six-word-story from.

DeviantArt's Badge Event, for those who don't know, is encouraging people to make something inspired by some short stories they commissioned. So there was my starting point, and I had been considering breaking out the poetry magnets for a Halloween-ish one-off piece anyway, since I have really been missing them this month while I handle Inktober/Obscutober in a magnet-less way for the first time in years.

While I had those two thoughts at the back of my mind, the Tiny Tales Challenge came up, which asked people to write a scary story in six words or less. And since I'm personally most familiar with six-word-stories from magnetic poetry, it all just kinda came together as a perfect storm in my mind: A six-word story, told in magnets, inspired by one of the stories for the badge event. 💡

Now, that said, if you've read the four short stories for the badge event, you might be scratching your head and trying to figure out what my six words here have to do with any of them. I won't deny for a moment that any connection to the story I picked really isn't obvious, but all I can tell you Sparklers is that my brain is a strange place and you never know what off-the-wall connections are going to be made in there. 🤪

Of the four stories, the one that stuck with me the most was Survivor's Guilt. It has a kind of somber, Twilight-Zone-esque quality to it, and that's more what I personally favor in "horror" story over the typical heart-racing-scream-your-head off variety. [As I've probably talked about a bit before but I don't remember where.]

Somehow, I left that story with one of my favorite My Chemical Romance songs in my head—Early Sunsets Over Monroeville, which itself was inspired by Dawn of the Dead. And I was also reminded just a little of Carmilla, a vampire tale that actually predates Bram Stoker's Dracula.

As I said, my brain is a strange place that makes strange connections. 🥴 My best guess is that my subconscious really hitched onto the ending revelation of Survivor's Guilt, which I won't spoil for you here if you haven't read it. (You should though, it's good!)

Suffice to say: Something about how we don't know what we don't know and we want to understand, but sometimes gaining that understanding is it's own special kind of horror.

But just having those inspirations and making those strange connections alone wasn't enough, of course. I still had to string some actual words together, not just feelings. 😆 So I broke out my notebook for mini-magnet brainstorming and started scribbling.

Well, okay, first I had to search up and read some existing six-word-stories from across the internet because it's been so long since I last tried to write one that I was having trouble getting in what felt like the right headspace to work with so few words. Then I got scribbling.

In said scribbling, I was reminded very much of a few years ago—ironically, the first time I followed an Obscutober list—when I made another one-off mini-magnet piece that was also meant to be a scary story in few words. Granted, that was 50 words or less, so still a very different experience.

That is to say though: I was reminded that "scary" writing is not my strong suit. 😅 I just can't even seem to quite grasp the "punch" to properly shift the words from ominous into actually spooky territory. And that was not made any easier by having to work in so few words.

My main take away from my efforts in the notebook is that it's not actually that hard to come up with six word (or less!) sentences that sound spooky...if you think of them within a scary context. For example, "They ignored the warnings," can be scary if you're thinking of it as people ignoring warnings that will inevitably lead to something dangerous/harmful happening. But it can just as easily be not very scary at all if this "they" is just ignoring warnings of "Oh don't touch that, the paint's still wet and you'll get paint on your hands."

Context is also very important in the words being anything close to a story, and not just...well, just words, if that makes any sense. "There was a body," is a sentence, yes, and it could definitely lean scary if you picture "body" as a non-living person. But it's still a relatively "flat" statement of fact.

I think that's a large part of why I kept thinking of Early Sunsets, and kind of songs in general as I was trying to figure out where to go with my ideas and feelings. Good song lyrics can squeeze a whole lot of story and metaphor into just a few words, and I feel that's especially true with My Chemical Romance. [One of many reasons why they're my favorite.

"They're building a coffin your size," is what I would consider a pretty much perfect scary six-word-story, straight from their song Mama, to give you a better idea of where I'm coming from. And if this could have just been a recycled song quote, I totally would've used that—but this was not the time nor place. 😆

To be fair, despite everything I just described about my thought process, in the end I'm not sure I totally succeeded in getting everything I wanted out of my six words, but of the options I wrote down (that were actually my words to use), this was the one I kept coming back to.

It puts vampires in my head first and foremost—Most certainly because that's my favorite "traditional" monster archetype, and if you know me at all that comes as no surprise at all, I'm sure. But there are plenty of other instances where the answer to the unwritten question of "Bitten by what?" Would be rightly terrifying: Zombie (as more directly related to Early Sunsets), Werewolf, even non-Halloween-ish things like a rabid animal or disease-carrying mosquito.

...Okay the rabid animal could still be Halloween-ish if it was a rabid bat or something, but you get the idea.

Yet there are still ways to put a more metaphorical spin on it; That this "she" could've been "bitten by a bug" as in something that changed her way of thinking or motivations in life and made her into a scarier person than she was before, or something like that.

So perfect, no, but it was the closest to striking the right balance of all the different things I wanted that I was able to come up with.

Which leaves us with the visual component. The magnets are what they always are, but what is this background?

Well, if you remember when I mentioned I've done this short-story-in-few-words kind of thing before, there's actually a touch more irony there. Last time, I used a photo is from a "Tezza College Kit" that I actually won from a past DeviantArt contest as my base and made some additions and modifications to better fit the mood I was going for. Since I knew full-well I wouldn't have time to come up with something from scratch for this, that was the first other option that came to mind.

So I sifted through those photos for something that felt like either a good fit or at least a good place to start.

And I must disclose that at that point, I was actually still strongly considering one other assortment of six words—I was thinking of "cheating the system" and submitting two separate six-word-stories that kind of went together. I ultimately decided not to because the more I thought of the two together, the weaker the other one felt compared to this one.

But I mention that because my initial photo pulls from the kit were pretty different because I was hoping to get two photos that seemed to go together and still felt right thematically. As much as I love the base photo I picked here��so much so I strongly considered it at the time for that 50 word story I keep referring to—It wouldn't have worked for the two-story idea really at all because I just didn't have another photo that would pair well with it for what I wanted.

That said, the photo was a little plain—pure black and white—on it's own, so I ended up fiddling with the colors a bit and bringing up the reds for some more drama.

I will note though that dramatic red wasn't actually my first choice. I had planned to just use the fact that photographing black and white things without a filter is challenging to my advantage, but the photo that was the best of the ones I took in other ways didn't have much color alteration going on. Originally, I was just going to add a little warmth/hints of sepia like happened naturally in one of the other photos I took, but since I had Photoshop open anyway I decided to play just a little, and the red came about as a result of that playtime.

I very nearly actually went with an all-over red tone (except for the white space in the middle), but thought the look was ultimately too dark. I did the spot red after thinking things over and deciding I really didn't want to artificially brighten the image up and mess with the black contrast if I could help it.

Whew. 😮‍💨 ...Leave it to me to make six little words so complicated and particular, right? 😆

I think I ended up trying to make up for "lost time" in not doing more with magnetic poetry this year, even though they're only a very small part of the process. My subconscious thoroughly missed the memo that that wasn't necessary. 😅

Still, frustration at myself for getting the timeline jumbled up aside, I had fun. 🙂 The length of this description might speak more loudly to that than anything else. 🤣

Speaking of, I hate to end this kind of abruptly, but I think I have finally covered everything I wanted to about the art at hand and I still have to cross-post this and do the Obscutober piece for today, too. So if you Sparklers don't mind, I'll leave you to ponder these words, encourage you again to go check out Survivor's Guilt—and the other 3 Terror Tales, too!—and be on my way.

Don't you Sparklers get unknowingly bitten by anything in the meantime, alright? 😉

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Poem © me, MysticSparkleWings

Inspired by FridgePoetProject

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⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

[choicesficwriterscreations]

CFWC Writer of the Month: Jamespotterthefirst

Each month CFWC highlights one of our talented fanfic writers, and this month’s writer of the month is @jamespotterthefirst! We hope you will enjoy learning more about her and her work below! The writer is selected at random. More info can be found on the navigation page.

Quick Links:

Tumblr Blog: Jamespotterthefirst Blog Masterlist

1- When did you start playing Choices? What's the first book you played? 

I started playing back in 2018. I kept seeing this thing called “playchoices” trending as number 1 on Tumblr (lol remember those days?). This would happen, without fail, almost every week! When I clicked on it, the posts were all about the finale of a royal story (The Royal Romance!). People made the most hilarious posts, complete with memes. I had no idea what it was, but I gathered it was an app. I downloaded it, and the rest is history. 

The first book I played was Desire and Decorum. It was absolute torture because it wasn’t completed yet. So I binged the available chapters. Yes, I spent real money on keys and diamonds, telling myself at least I wasn't spending that money on drugs. It was so much fun waiting for a new chapter every week, even if I’m an impatient mess. 

2- When and why did you join Choices fandom?

I joined the fandom almost immediately after downloading the app. 

As I sat in my living room, tapping my foot and waiting for the new D&D chapter to drop, I went back into the playchoices tag for content. It felt good to find other people who loved the story as much as I did. There were other users out there who were also waiting impatiently for the new chapter, writing fics and discussing theories in the meantime. There were also some of the funniest memes I have ever seen in my life. At first, I would quietly read and reblog. Then, I slowly started posting my own thoughts and theories (which were not very good lol but hey, this is tumblr after all).

3- How did you pick your url name? 

My life is one hyperfixation after another… The one before Choices was Harry Potter. More specifically, the Marauders era. I used to write for the pairing called “Jily”, composed of Harry Potter’s (dead) parents. Kelsey (@takeharryandgo) is a witness of just how much I love James Potter, Harry’s (dead) dad. In fact, our shared love for the pairing and character is one of the things that brought us together. 

In short, this URL is a reference to James Potter the first, Harry’s (dead) dad. Not James Sirius Potter the second, Harry Potter’s (living?) son. 

I saved it as a sideblog, meant only for writing resources for me to use at a later time. One day, I decided I didn’t want the followers on my main page to see all the Choices spam I was posting, so I resurrected the JP blog. 

4- Go back to your archive and tell us about the first post on your Choices blog. 

My first Choices post was a shitty theory about Desire & Decorum: 

5- How long have you been writing fanfiction?

I’ve been writing fanfiction since I was a literal child. I used to write in a notebook and my friends would read during recess. It was awful but they were into it. One day, I used up the whole notebook and my friend was desperate for the next part of the story. I told her I needed to wait until my mom took me to the store (literal child) to get a new one. My friend got me a new one by the end of the day lol.

TL;DR that puts me at about 20+ years of writing. 

6- What is your favorite Choices book to write about?

Without a doubt, Open Heart! 

7- Share the first fanfic you wrote with us. Do you still like it or would you change anything about it?

Oh god, the first fanfic I wrote was Lily Evans and James Potter from the Harry Potter universe. I forgot the exact title, but it was named after an Avril Lavigne lyric. Again, I was a child, don’t judge me lol. It’s handwritten in a notebook I still have somewhere, but I will never open it again lest I die of cringe. 

My first Choices fic, on the other hand, was a Desire and Decorum fic called “A Wedding Gift” that only like 5 people read at the time. 

8- What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

Oof. This answer changes depending on the day you ask me. I always overthink it and end up saying picking a favorite fic is like picking a favorite child. To avoid being here all day, however, I’m going to say: Fake Husband, She Walks in Beauty, and Lovely.

9- Do you have a fic that you didn’t expect to be well received, but it was? What about one you expected to be but could use a little more love?

Definitely, the fic I didn’t expect to do well at all if my first Open Heart fic: Lovely. 

I was so naive back then, knowing nothing about the Open Heart writing fandom. I had no idea what format or tags to use when posting. I was afraid there would be no readers out there who wanted to read a silly little story about my MC posting a thirst trap. All I knew was that the latest chapter of Open Heart Year 2 inspired an idea that wouldn’t leave me alone until I wrote it. 

I posted it and I was so incredibly lucky to receive so much support. Words cannot explain how special that was. To this day, I cannot verbalize how grateful I am for that. 

There isn’t really a fic I can think of that could use more love. It always amazes me that anyone gives my fics their time. So any feedback my fics get will always be valued and treasured by me. 

10- If you could write only angst, fluff, or smut for the rest of your writing life, which would it be and why? 

Oh no. 

If forced to choose, I’d say fluff. 

11- Do you ever recognize yourself in any of your MCs or in your writing?

Absolutely! While I try to make every MC different, I often pull from experience when I write. My Open Heart MC and I have a lot of things in common (heritage, hometown, astrological sign, etc.) But I also wanted her to be her own character with life choices that are different from mine. Since I'm very boring, it definitely makes for better fiction that way. 

12- What element of writing do you struggle with most?

It depends on the day. Some days I struggle the most with dialogue. Others, my biggest struggle is descriptions. It's rare when I feel confident in both when I write. 

13- Do you have any neglected work you really want to finish?

*laughs nervously in unfinished series*

There are a few series I have yet to finish. Once again, I apologize for leaving them untouched for so long! I plan to get my shit together soon! 

14- If someone you know in real life (who isn’t involved in fandoms) asked to read your work, would you let them? If yes, what would you recommend they read first? 

No! 

I don't think I could look anyone in the eye if they read some of the stuff I've written, especially for Choices. 

15 - Are there any writers (published authors and/or fanfic writers) who influenced your writing?

I strongly believe that one of the best ways to learn as a writer is reading. As such, I believe I've learned from most pieces I've read, particularly published rom com novels. In the fanfiction world, I admire my lovely friend @takeharryandgo. I've had the absolute joy of following her writing for over a decade. And with every work, I am still amazed by her masterful way with words! And her characterization is always spot-on. I simply love to read her spellbinding work and learn from the master! 

Other writers/creators I admire are:

@heauxplesslydevoted- one of the first OH writers I've ever read! Her smut is top-tier!

@jerzwriter - her stories, dialogue, and characterization are a delight to read. Her angst is painful. Her smut is sizzling hot! 

@liaromancewriter - a true master at romance! Her writing style is magical and synonymous with the best of rom-coms! 

@genevievemd - I bow down because the amount of love and care she puts into every piece truly makes her work special! 

 @lucy-268 - I have always respected the amount of research she puts into every piece. She pours so much care into it so that the narrative flows seamlessly! 

@a-crepusculo - her writing is so vivid and immersive. Reading her work is like listening to the most beautiful of symphonies!

@writer-ish - she is such a master at the craft! Her characterization is so vivid that the reader will fall in love no matter the format. Her text edits are legendary! 

@bex-la-get - such a talented and dedicated writer! She also pours hours of research into her work, ensuring every detail makes sense! 

@potionsprefect - she's such a creative and talented writer. She develops writing ideas like no one else I've ever seen! 

@headoverheelsforramsey- I love her storytelling and characterization! She's created a beautiful, inspiring, and intelligent MC for all of us to adore!

@gryffindordaughterofathena - her writing style is one of the most original I've ever seen. Reading her work feels like reading the loveliest of poetry! 

@coffeeheartaddict2- the dedication she puts into her work blows me away! She's daring when exploring themes in her writing, and she's not afraid to pull from personal experience. 

@lsvdw-blog - the person I'm sending my therapy bill to. Just kidding! Her writing is beautiful, even when it's the most painful angst. 

@trappedinfanfiction - she is such a lovely writer. The amount of detail she's given both of her MC's back stories has my absolute respect! 

@quixoticdreamer16 - I adore her MC and the wholesome, beautiful background she's given her! 

@mysticalgalaxysstuff - Another MC that has stolen my heart. I am so happy she started writing this past year because she's a real talent! 

@peonierose - love her beautiful MC and the beautiful love story she built for her with Bryce! 

@cariantha - a brilliant writer with talent for days! 

16- Which one of your stories would you most like to see as a movie/series? 

I would love to see She Walks in Beauty along with its series (1800s AU) in live action. Imagine Ana de Armas and David Gandy in period costumes? That alone would be worth it! 

17- Do you write original stories? 

I've crafted and outlined original stories before but I've never actually written them. One of my biggest goals for the new year is to finally start. Wish me luck! 

18 -  What other hobbies do you have?

I love reading, hiking, and dancing! 

Yes, I picked the most “impressive” of my hobbies to seem cool. On most days, you'll catch me cuddling with my dog or bf watching YouTube/TikTok/Hell's Kitchen reruns lol. 

19 - What’s your favorite emoji? 

I used the orange 🧡 and purple 💜 hearts a lot because they're my favorite colors!

20: BONUS - tell us anything you’d like (if you want to).

For the record, I am also contractually obligated to read anything Kelsey writes 😘 

Thank you so much to every single reader who has given my work a chance these past three years!

Thank you to the wonderful mods of CFWC for all you do to support writers in the Fandom! 

[darkrpfinders]

Hello there!

(I) About Me

Hello! Thank you for clicking on my post and giving this a read! I am a college student but that doesn't really hurt my availability too much. I am on everyday, even if it is for just an hour or so. I could even send posts multiple posts daily or at minimum, a post every other day. I am someone who loves OOC chatter! I love to make character boards, send music that reminds me of the roleplay, and just gush about what is going on in our story! With that little introduction out of the way, let's move on!

(II) Rules

1. Please only contact me if you are 18+.

2. Characters used must also be at least 18. If not, they must be aged up.

3. Please be engaged in the discussing process. If you don't show much interest before the roleplay begins, I will believe that you don't have much interest to the roleplay itself.

4. Please write with proper grammar and pronunciation in your posts. I don't mind if that is not shown in regular messages but please come with it for the thread.

5. No one-liners. I personally don't like to write less than 3 full paragraphs and one-liners do not provide me much to work with. However, I do give the option for mini roleplays to go along with our main roleplay to help expand the world. For that, I am perfectly fine with shorter responses like one-liners. I love writing and I figured this would be a fun way to do that and further along the story!

6. Please post consistently. If replies are inconsistent, sadly my interest in the roleplay wavers. I prefer more frequent posts but if you let me know that you only post once a week, or even once a month, that is perfectly fine with me!

7. I prefer to write on discord servers as that allows everything to be more organized BUT if you prefer to write somewhere else, I do not mind writing threads there. However, I do request a place where we could have things be organized.

(I promise I'm not going to be stern when we talk! I'm very easygoing!)

(III) Fandoms

If a character is below the age of 18, they WILL be aged up to at least 18.

Dragonball Z/Super

Who I'm looking for: Android 18, Android 21

Who I can play: OC. Krillin, Vegeta, Goku, Gohan

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Android 18, OC x Android 21, Krillin x Android 18, Vegeta x Android 18

Metroid

Who I'm looking for: Samus

Who I can play: OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Samus

Naruto

Who I'm looking for: Sakura, Ino, Temari

Who I can play: OC, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Kakashi, Itachi, Neji

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Sakura, OC x Ino, Naruto x Sakura, Shikamaru x Temari

Pokemon

Who I'm looking for: Cynthia, Protagonist CC/OC

Who I can play: OC, Protagonist CC/OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Cynthia, Protagonist CC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist OC

Stranger Things

Who I'm looking for: Eleven

Who I can play: OC, Hopper, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, Jonathan, Steve, Billy, Nancy, Robin

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Eleven, Hopper & Eleven(STRICTLY PLATONIC)

Teen Titans

Who I'm looking for: Starfire(DCAMU)

Who I can play: Nightwing(DCAMU), Batman, Superman, Flash. OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Nightwing x Starfire

The Legend of Zelda (Please have a knowledge of most of the games/story)

Who I'm looking for: Zelda

Who I can play: Link

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Link x Zelda

Yu-Gi-Oh

Who I'm looking for: Akiza, Alexis

Who I can play: OC, Jaden, Chazz, Zane, Yusei

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Akiza, OC x Alexis, Jaden x Alexis, Chazz x Alexis

(IV) Goodbye

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read through this! I'm excited to hear from any and all potential partners! If any part of this had interested you, please go ahead and interact with this post! I hope you all have a wonderful day! Happy Writing!

✨

.

[drarrygirl27]

Hello Peeps!

I haven't been on here in a long ass time once again. At this point, I think it's just to be expected of me. LOL! 😆

Anyway, a lot has happened since I last posted. So... First of all, Nezuko is doing well. She's already a year and 4 months old already. Where in the hell did the time go?! She hasn't gotten too much bigger though which is why Doug and I both refer to her as our forever kitten. She's on the lean and petite side which is pretty common when it comes to female cats. She has recently gotten fixed, but if her surgical site looks like it is mended at least for the most part (It's been healing very well from what Doug and I have seen throughout this week.) by the time Doug gets back from work today (This is officially her 7th day of recovery since we had her fixed.), she'll finally get to be completely free and not have to stay in a relatively well sized dog kennel for most parts of the day anymore which would be awesome for all because she's missed her freedom to do as she pretty much pleases in the apartment and Doug and I have missed her and her kitty cuddles and such and she has missed that as well. We have fairly recently allowed her some supervised time out of the kennel in our bedroom with the door shut so she can get a little exercise and such which of course she has really liked and just yesterday, she went back and forth here and there between where Doug was at and where I was at in our bedroom to get some good quality time and get nuzzles, snuggles, and cuddles in too as well.

Second of all, we've had another cat for probably about 2-3 months now considering that he was estimated to be 6 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days old on May 30th for when him and Nezuko both got fixed. His name is Tanjiro. Unfortunately, with a lot of things that were going on at that time and the time before then, we couldn't seem to find the time, money, and or energy in some cases to get some things done including getting both Nezuko and Tanjiro fixed at technically a good or decent time so that by now, they could have been properly socialized and such, but recently we've been getting some things going and prepared which is good because of the 3rd really big thing that has been going on for a long while now. However, before I get to that, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers for when it comes to anything and everything pertaining to all of these crazy changes. We are most definitely going to need it for many reasons. You'll see why for when I mention the 3rd and biggest change that is very life-changing in and of itself that is happening in the Jones and Filkins household.

Third of all, I'm pregnant! Doug and I both have been trying to get pregnant from June 1st of last year. I officially stopped taking my birth control pills on that day after we discussed it with my OB prior to that. I started feeling mild nausea for about 3 months starting in August or September I want to say in the early morning hours to about late afternoon hours of the day everyday and around that time and sometime after my period had started to regulate naturally, my flow was starting to fluctuate in quantity here or there (I made myself some charts that went from that specific pack of my birth control pills, including listing the last day I took one, and the day I stopped taking them altogether, that I was stopping on to June of next year because that's what my OB suggested for Doug and I to do before looking into our fertility and such like that (Not the detailed month charts. Writing down the month charts was my idea to keep track of things.). Then there was some spotting here and there happening more and more frequently as the months went by until there was almost nothing to absolutely nothing really showing up sometime in September or October if I'm remembering the months correctly so Doug advised me to take some pregnancy tests. I took the first two from the package on Nov. 5th and both the digital and + or - said positive. Well I did my due diligence just to be on the safe side of things and waited exactly a week after Nov. 5th to take the second two from that exact same package (a digital and + or - one) relatively around the same time in the morning that I took the first two and both of those also said positive.

We both were pretty sure that I was pregnant given my symptoms and the 4 positive tests that were taken exactly as the directions written in the pamphlet, but whenever we told his immediate family about it, we did both say that it's still just a possibility that I could be pregnant and that this wasn't technically an official announcement and that we won't know for sure for sure until getting it officially confirmed with my doctors so to please not say anything about it to anyone else until we get confirmation on it. They were of course very excited just like we were about the real possibility that I could be pregnant.

Fast forward to Nov. 28th, where we get told by my primary physician that the pregnancy test that they just did had come back positive. So... By that point, we have 5 pregnancy tests in total all saying positive which in and of itself was incredibly surreal, but nothing and I mean absolutely nothing could have prepared me for how more surreal things could get until I went to get my first out of 4 total ultrasounds I've had done where I got to see my baby for the first time right there in front of my eyes on the screen and hear their heartbeat on Dec. 7th. No words that I could ever think to say would be able to describe even a little bit of the feelings that I felt hardcore while I was seeing this little human inside of me and hearing their heartbeat especially for the first time. That was the moment it felt incredibly real, but still so surreal at the same time. After trying to conceive for just a small number of months, Doug and I were officially on our journey of parenthood.

So... As you can see here a lot of changes are heading mine and Doug's way and any day now I'll be having our baby because I am now according to the What to Expect App, 39 weeks and 5 days along and the estimated due date is literally this Sunday, June 9th which is insane because my own birthday is this coming Monday. Either way, you look at it Doug is going to be dealing with not only two Geminis (We be crazy sometimes. We're fun, but things can get crazy with us here and there.), but two female Geminis. May the Lord and all the highest, bless him and his soul is all I have to say. LOL! 😆

So... Yeah those are the biggest changes from last year to now that has happened and or is happening still. Oh and Doug and I both have a raise coming up in September and it's actually a really good one to be honest especially his because he gets paid more as a Plumber for the school district than I do as a Custodian for the school district, but what I have coming my way per hour is pretty damn good. I'm not at all complaining about it. Oh and another thing, whenever I get back to work from my maternity leave, I'll be at a different campus. I'm going to miss my boss and my co-workers and the people I've cleaned for and such, but I have to do what is best for my daughter which is why I'm being transferred to a different campus so I can work the morning shift while Doug works the evening shift. I'm a bit nervous and anxious about it, but a tad bit excited too because while the morning shift custodians get paid a little less than evening shift custodians do, it's also usually from my very little experience doing it at other school campuses a bit easier cleaning wise so that's a plus in my book especially being a new mom and all. My new work shift will be 6 am-2:30 pm instead of 2:30 pm-11 pm, but I know I'll be all right. I adjust to different work shifts relatively well. It'll take me, mind and body wise probably at most 2 weeks to adjust to that time difference especially as long as I allow myself enough time to eat a good breakfast and enjoy a cup of coffee before getting my work day started.

Well... I believe that just about covers it really at least for now. Have a good day and Ttyl, Peeps!

Sincerely, Kendra E. Jones

[prpfz]

Hello there!

(I) About Me

Hello! Thank you for clicking on my post and giving this a read! I am a college student but that doesn't really hurt my availability too much. I am on everyday, even if it is for just an hour or so. I could even send posts multiple posts daily or at minimum, a post every other day. I am someone who loves OOC chatter! I love to make character boards, send music that reminds me of the roleplay, and just gush about what is going on in our story! With that little introduction out of the way, let's move on!

(II) Rules

1. Please only contact me if you are 18+.

2. Characters used must also be at least 18. If not, they must be aged up.

3. Please be engaged in the discussing process. If you don't show much interest before the roleplay begins, I will believe that you don't have much interest to the roleplay itself.

4. Please write with proper grammar and pronunciation in your posts. I don't mind if that is not shown in regular messages but please come with it for the thread.

5. No one-liners. I personally don't like to write less than 3 full paragraphs and one-liners do not provide me much to work with. However, I do give the option for mini roleplays to go along with our main roleplay to help expand the world. For that, I am perfectly fine with shorter responses like one-liners. I love writing and I figured this would be a fun way to do that and further along the story!

6. Please post consistently. If replies are inconsistent, sadly my interest in the roleplay wavers. I prefer more frequent posts but if you let me know that you only post once a week, or even once a month, that is perfectly fine with me!

7. I prefer to write on discord servers as that allows everything to be more organized BUT if you prefer to write somewhere else, I do not mind writing threads there. However, I do request a place where we could have things be organized.

(I promise I'm not going to be stern when we talk! I'm very easygoing!)

(III) Fandoms

If a character is below the age of 18, they WILL be aged up to at least 18.

Dragonball Z/Super

Who I'm looking for: Android 18, Android 21

Who I can play: OC. Krillin, Vegeta, Goku, Gohan

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Android 18, OC x Android 21, Krillin x Android 18, Vegeta x Android 18

Metroid

Who I'm looking for: Samus

Who I can play: OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Samus

Naruto

Who I'm looking for: Sakura, Ino, Temari

Who I can play: OC, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Kakashi, Itachi, Neji

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Sakura, OC x Ino, Naruto x Sakura, Shikamaru x Temari

Pokemon

Who I'm looking for: Cynthia, Protagonist CC/OC

Who I can play: OC, Protagonist CC/OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Cynthia, Protagonist CC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist OC

Stranger Things

Who I'm looking for: Eleven

Who I can play: OC, Hopper, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, Jonathan, Steve, Billy, Nancy, Robin

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Eleven, Hopper & Eleven(STRICTLY PLATONIC)

Teen Titans

Who I'm looking for: Starfire(DCAMU)

Who I can play: Nightwing(DCAMU), Batman, Superman, Flash. OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Nightwing x Starfire

The Legend of Zelda (Please have a knowledge of most of the games/story)

Who I'm looking for: Zelda

Who I can play: Link

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Link x Zelda

Yu-Gi-Oh

Who I'm looking for: Akiza, Alexis

Who I can play: OC, Jaden, Chazz, Zane, Yusei

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Akiza, OC x Alexis, Jaden x Alexis, Chazz x Alexis

(IV) Goodbye

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read through this! I'm excited to hear from any and all potential partners! If any part of this had interested you, please go ahead and interact with this post! I hope you all have a wonderful day! Happy Writing!

✨

give a like and anon will get back to you

[rp-partnerfinder]

Hello there!

(I) About Me

Hello! Thank you for clicking on my post and giving this a read! I am a college student but that doesn't really hurt my availability too much. I am on everyday, even if it is for just an hour or so. I could even send posts multiple posts daily or at minimum, a post every other day. I am someone who loves OOC chatter! I love to make character boards, send music that reminds me of the roleplay, and just gush about what is going on in our story! With that little introduction out of the way, let's move on!

(II) Rules

1. Please only contact me if you are 18+.

2. Characters used must also be at least 18. If not, they must be aged up.

3. Please be engaged in the discussing process. If you don't show much interest before the roleplay begins, I will believe that you don't have much interest to the roleplay itself.

4. Please write with proper grammar and pronunciation in your posts. I don't mind if that is not shown in regular messages but please come with it for the thread.

5. No one-liners. I personally don't like to write less than 3 full paragraphs and one-liners do not provide me much to work with. However, I do give the option for mini roleplays to go along with our main roleplay to help expand the world. For that, I am perfectly fine with shorter responses like one-liners. I love writing and I figured this would be a fun way to do that and further along the story!

6. Please post consistently. If replies are inconsistent, sadly my interest in the roleplay wavers. I prefer more frequent posts but if you let me know that you only post once a week, or even once a month, that is perfectly fine with me!

7. I prefer to write on discord servers as that allows everything to be more organized BUT if you prefer to write somewhere else, I do not mind writing threads there. However, I do request a place where we could have things be organized.

(I promise I'm not going to be stern when we talk! I'm very easygoing!)

(III) Fandoms

If a character is below the age of 18, they WILL be aged up to at least 18.

Dragonball Z/Super

Who I'm looking for: Android 18, Android 21

Who I can play: OC. Krillin, Vegeta, Goku, Gohan

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Android 18, OC x Android 21, Krillin x Android 18, Vegeta x Android 18

Metroid

Who I'm looking for: Samus

Who I can play: OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Samus

Naruto

Who I'm looking for: Sakura, Ino, Temari

Who I can play: OC, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Kakashi, Itachi, Neji

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Sakura, OC x Ino, Naruto x Sakura, Shikamaru x Temari

Pokemon

Who I'm looking for: Cynthia, Protagonist CC/OC

Who I can play: OC, Protagonist CC/OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Cynthia, Protagonist CC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist OC

Stranger Things

Who I'm looking for: Eleven

Who I can play: OC, Hopper, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, Jonathan, Steve, Billy, Nancy, Robin

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Eleven, Hopper & Eleven(STRICTLY PLATONIC)

Teen Titans

Who I'm looking for: Starfire(DCAMU)

Who I can play: Nightwing(DCAMU), Batman, Superman, Flash. OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Nightwing x Starfire

The Legend of Zelda (Please have a knowledge of most of the games/story)

Who I'm looking for: Zelda

Who I can play: Link

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Link x Zelda

Yu-Gi-Oh

Who I'm looking for: Akiza, Alexis

Who I can play: OC, Jaden, Chazz, Zane, Yusei

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Akiza, OC x Alexis, Jaden x Alexis, Chazz x Alexis

(V) Goodbye

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read through this! I'm excited to hear from any and all potential partners! If any part of this had interested you, please go ahead and interact with this post! I hope you all have a wonderful day! Happy Writing!

.

[findroleplay]

Hello there!

(I) About Me

Hello! Thank you for clicking on my post and giving this a read! I am a college student but that doesn't really hurt my availability too much. I am on everyday, even if it is for just an hour or so. I could even send posts multiple posts daily or at minimum, a post every other day. I am someone who loves OOC chatter! I love to make character boards, send music that reminds me of the roleplay, and just gush about what is going on in our story! With that little introduction out of the way, let's move on!

(II) Rules

1. Please only contact me if you are 18+.

2. Characters used must also be at least 18. If not, they must be aged up.

3. Please be engaged in the discussing process. If you don't show much interest before the roleplay begins, I will believe that you don't have much interest to the roleplay itself.

4. Please write with proper grammar and pronunciation in your posts. I don't mind if that is not shown in regular messages but please come with it for the thread.

5. No one-liners. I personally don't like to write less than 3 full paragraphs and one-liners do not provide me much to work with. However, I do give the option for mini roleplays to go along with our main roleplay to help expand the world. For that, I am perfectly fine with shorter responses like one-liners. I love writing and I figured this would be a fun way to do that and further along the story!

6. Please post consistently. If replies are inconsistent, sadly my interest in the roleplay wavers. I prefer more frequent posts but if you let me know that you only post once a week, or even once a month, that is perfectly fine with me!

7. I prefer to write on discord servers as that allows everything to be more organized BUT if you prefer to write somewhere else, I do not mind writing threads there. However, I do request a place where we could have things be organized.

(I promise I'm not going to be stern when we talk! I'm very easygoing!)

(III) Fandoms

If a character is below the age of 18, they WILL be aged up to at least 18.

Dragonball Z/Super

Who I'm looking for: Android 18, Android 21

Who I can play: OC. Krillin, Vegeta, Goku, Gohan

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Android 18, OC x Android 21, Krillin x Android 18, Vegeta x Android 18

Metroid

Who I'm looking for: Samus

Who I can play: OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Samus

Naruto

Who I'm looking for: Sakura, Ino, Temari

Who I can play: OC, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Kakashi, Itachi, Neji

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Sakura, OC x Ino, Naruto x Sakura, Shikamaru x Temari

Pokemon

Who I'm looking for: Cynthia, Protagonist CC/OC

Who I can play: OC, Protagonist CC/OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Cynthia, Protagonist CC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist OC

Stranger Things

Who I'm looking for: Eleven

Who I can play: OC, Hopper, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, Jonathan, Steve, Billy, Nancy, Robin

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Eleven, Hopper & Eleven(STRICTLY PLATONIC)

Teen Titans

Who I'm looking for: Starfire(DCAMU)

Who I can play: Nightwing(DCAMU), Batman, Superman, Flash. OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Nightwing x Starfire

The Legend of Zelda (Please have a knowledge of most of the games/story)

Who I'm looking for: Zelda

Who I can play: Link

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Link x Zelda

Yu-Gi-Oh

Who I'm looking for: Akiza, Alexis

Who I can play: OC, Jaden, Chazz, Zane, Yusei

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Akiza, OC x Alexis, Jaden x Alexis, Chazz x Alexis

(IV) Goodbye

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read through this! I'm excited to hear from any and all potential partners! If any part of this had interested you, please go ahead and interact with this post! I hope you all have a wonderful day! Happy Writing!

-

[fandom-rpfinder]

Hello there!

(I) About Me

Hello! Thank you for clicking on my post and giving this a read! You can call me Rinne(he/him/they/them). I am a college student but that doesn't really hurt my availability too much. I am on everyday, even if it is for just an hour or so. I could even send posts multiple posts daily or at minimum, a post every other day. I am someone who loves OOC chatter! I love to make character boards, send music that reminds me of the roleplay, and just gush about what is going on in our story! With that little introduction out of the way, let's move on!

(II) Rules

1. Please only contact me if you are over the age of 18 as I am over 18 myself.

2. Characters used must also be at least 18. If not, they must be aged up.

3. Please be engaged in the discussing process. If you don't show much interest before the roleplay begins, I will believe that you don't have much interest to the roleplay itself.

4. Please write with proper grammar and pronunciation in your posts. I don't mind if that is not shown in regular messages but please come with it for the thread.

5. No one-liners. I personally don't like to write less than 3 full paragraphs and one-liners do not provide me much to work with. However, I do give the option for mini roleplays to go along with our main roleplay to help expand the world. For that, I am perfectly fine with shorter responses like one-liners. I love writing and I figured this would be a fun way to do that and further along the story!

6. Please post consistently. If replies are inconsistent, sadly my interest in the roleplay wavers. I prefer more frequent posts but if you let me know that you only post once a week, or even once a month, that is perfectly fine with me!

7. I prefer to write on discord servers as that allows everything to be more organized BUT if you prefer to write somewhere else, I do not mind writing threads there. However, I do request a place where we could have things be organized.

(I promise I'm not going to be stern when we talk! I'm very easygoing!)

(III) Fandoms

Before I share the fandoms I am in, I would like to state now that I am not the hugest fan of doubling. I have just had bad experience after bad experience after bad experience. With that said, I know that everyone is not the same and I will not be completely eliminatiing the option to doubling although I may prefer not to. I will still list canon characters I can play. If a character is below the age of 18, they WILL be aged up to at least 18. I prefer to write MxF pairings but I don't mind whatever pairing we do for the half you bring if we double. If there is an OC you would like to use or a ship that you want to play, I will ALWAYS offer the mini roleplays. I also have a new way of doubling which is transitioning from scene to scene like a show or movie would. Both sides must exist in the same universe as well. I feel as though my writing is lesser if I'm writing for two roleplays at once and I also feel a bit drained after a set of posts and I feel as though this is a great fix for the issue.

Dragonball Z/Super

Who I'm looking for: Android 18, Android 21

Who I can play: OC. Krillin, Vegeta, Goku, Gohan

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Android 18, OC x Android 21, Krillin x Android 18, Vegeta x Android 18

Metroid

Who I'm looking for: Samus

Who I can play: OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Samus

Naruto

Who I'm looking for: Sakura, Ino, Temari

Who I can play: OC, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Kakashi, Itachi, Neji

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Sakura, OC x Ino, Naruto x Sakura, Shikamaru x Temari

Pokemon

Who I'm looking for: Cynthia, Protagonist CC/OC

Who I can play: OC, Protagonist CC/OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Cynthia, Protagonist CC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist OC

Stranger Things

Who I'm looking for: Eleven

Who I can play: OC, Hopper, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, Jonathan, Steve, Billy, Nancy, Robin

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Eleven, Hopper & Eleven(STRICTLY PLATONIC)

Teen Titans

Who I'm looking for: Starfire(DCAMU)

Who I can play: Nightwing(DCAMU), Batman, Superman, Flash. OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Nightwing x Starfire

The Legend of Zelda (Please have a knowledge of most of the games/story)

Who I'm looking for: Zelda

Who I can play: Link

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Link x Zelda

Yu-Gi-Oh

Who I'm looking for: Akiza, Alexis

Who I can play: OC, Jaden, Chazz, Zane, Yusei

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Akiza, OC x Alexis, Jaden x Alexis, Chazz x Alexis

(IV) ORIGINALS

This is not going to be like the Fandoms section because... well, it's been such a long time since I had done an original plot! For an original plot, I would love to do a modern slice of life! I would also enjoy a medieval setting as well! Particularly with a Knight and a Princess. When it comes to tropes, I don't have specific ones that I'm dying to do. I enjoy most of them but I do enjoy a slow-medium burn. As for genres, as I mentioned before I would love a slice of life but I also like fantasy, action, even horror! There isn't much I'm not open to when it comes to originals!

(V) Goodbye

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read through this! I'm excited to hear from any and all potential partners! If any part of this had interested you, please go ahead and interact with this post! I hope you all have a wonderful day! Happy Writing!

💛

[the-sinking-ship]

Hi hiiii! I'm sure you've answered this before, but what's your writing process/timeline look like? :) How long does it take you to usually write one of your fics word count wise? I'm always so intrigued you're stories are AMAZING and lengthy and beautiful.

HI!

I’ve discussed this a bit in the past, but I love talking about, hearing about, and learning about other people's process so I’m more than happy to elaborate!

For fics under 20k, I can usually pump those out in a couple months. It is, however, rare for me to keep my word count under control and everything that I hope to keep under 20k usually ends up 50k+.

So if you want to know how long it takes me to write long fics (which, for me, is anything 50k+), the short answer is YEARS. The long answer is also YEARS, but with varied levels of focus. I plonked away at Criminal for 2 years before I decided I was ready to post the first chapter. Dwelling on Dreams was the same and was redrafted at least 3 times before it reached its final iteration. That timeline includes weeks (months?) where I won’t work on the fic at all. It includes the time spent daydreaming, making playlists, free writing concepts, and outlining. I’ll simmer in the ideation phase for months, writing random scenes with no real plan for how they’ll fit in or if they’ll fit at all.

Once I have a deadline, everything kicks into overdrive. That’s when I’m writing, rewriting, rewriting again before editing, editing, EDITING, crying, beta reading, sleepless nights, a few tantrums. This part requires intense, singular focus and usually takes 3-6 months, depending on how much research needs to be done and how messy my draft is. When in this phase, I’m usually working on my fic daily (or almost daily) for anywhere from 2-8 hours a day.

So yeah! In summary, on the rare occasion I write short fic, it takes me a few months. The novel length fics usually take me 1-3 years before they make it to AO3 and I’m practically delirious by the time they’re done. But odd as it may sound, those super intense, hazy, stressful writing days are something I cherish. It’s why I love writing long fic and why I consider my longer works some of my best. I truly live in those worlds with my characters and the catharsis I get from completing long fic is my drug.

Thank you so much for your ask and your kind words!!! And thank you for reading! You are the reason I keep pushing through the block and actually finish anything.

[hello-eeveev]

How to Rest: Director's Commentary—Chapter 4

| Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 |

I always knew this chapter was going to be the problem child. It was the least clear snapshot next to Chapter 6. But unlike Chapter 6, Chapter 4 is the emotional nadir rather than the high, and I did not have a great idea of what form that low point would take for a very long time. So writing this was very much a process of discovery that sometimes felt like pulling teeth, but I still feel like I got a good chapter out of it, and there are some moments and choices I’m excited to discuss.

So let’s get into it! 

(spoiler warning for the entirety of How to Rest)

We start off with a bit of scene setting—Caleb is trying to read a book but is distracted by the ever-present countdown to Essek’s departure—before properly establishing how we got to this point.

It’s a bit of a departure from the format of the rest of the fic because of the cut to a past event rather than it being one continuous scene, but I felt this was justified because 1) it’s also just Caleb remembering what happened this morning, 2) Essek and Caleb do not separate in between these scenes; Essek is there all day, and 3) it aids the narrative. And 4) I like it :)

I have a whole 1644 words laying out what Caleb and Essek are individually doing during their six weeks apart (Caleb’s is week-by-week; Essek’s is a more general summary of his emotional state over the month), which is far too much to include here and largely irrelevant to the story, BUT I can offer you a glimpse into Essek’s perspective as he shows up to Caleb’s house in the middle of the night.

First off! He is somewhere in the Menagerie Coast when he gets the message from Astrid that it is likely safe to return to Rexxentrum. He is also in the middle of his trance, because you’re lying to me if you think Astrid has a normal sleep schedule.

(I don’t think I’ve explained my thoughts on Essek’s relationship to Astrid and directly tied it to How to Rest, but this post was made from my planning for this fic and this chapter specifically, and sums it up well.)

So Essek’s trance-addled, anxiety-ridden brain gets a rush of relief and adrenaline, so he’s not thinking clearly at all, and he gets as far as “Rexxentrum = east = later” before he has his go-bag in his hand and he’s teleporting away. It only occurs to him that “an hour later than the middle of the night” is still very very early in the morning once he’s at Caleb’s door and knocking on it (probably harder than he intends to because again, he just woke up and is tightly wound coil of paranoia and stress regardless). But that’s all right because Caleb is there despite the hour, and is pulling him inside and holding him so tightly that Essek both feels like he is at risk of exploding and being put back together at the same time. 

Six weeks of hell is worth it if it means he gets to keep this.

Essek spends a looong time in the bath to make up for all the quick, cold ones he had to take in the road. Warmth seeps into his muscles, his bones, his heart. He closes his eyes and accidentally trances for fifteen minutes or so, and even that is better rest than he had in weeks. 

He finally takes in the state of his hair. He was aware that it was long and unruly, had felt it tickling his ears and neck for the better part of a fortnight now, but taking a razor to the unkempt hair was like washing away the last of the muck and grime. 

He emerges from the bathroom and sees Caleb asleep on the couch, and what a joy it is to be overcome with tenderness and…

(This is one of the first times that word has crossed Essek’s mind with the full romantic and devoted meaning behind it. He recognizes it and sets it aside with the knowledge that it may well be the just product of a long-awaited reunion.)

He sits with Caleb and finishes his trance knowing that they are both safe and he is cared for here. 

Now let’s talk about lines and scenes from this chapter:

Essek held his spellbook in his lap, propped up against one knee, an invisible Mage Hand keeping the book he was referencing floating in the air just to his left. 

I have given Essek the Telekinetic feat (as shown by the invisible Mage Hand) because I refuse to believe he used a whole-ass 5th level Telekinesis to take the cupcake from Jester in c2e74.

[Essek] was chewing on the inside of his lip, Caleb noticed, and the pen he tapped against his chin pointed directly to the slight pull of his skin beneath his mouth. This—Essek in the Tower, bathed but unstyled, comfortable and focused and brilliant—was perhaps the loveliest sight Caleb had ever seen.

Caleb is down so bad he just likes to look at Essek and honestly I don’t blame him.

It’s about comfort! And feeling like you don’t have to put on airs around each other!! Essek doesn’t have to look or behave like anyone but himself here!!! And Caleb thinks he so beautiful for it!!!!!

He moved across the couch and wrapped his arms around Essek’s middle, shifting him just enough that he could hook his chin over his shoulder. Essek went along with this repositioning without hesitation; he leaned fully into Caleb without taking his eyes off his work. He tilted his head to the side, his cheek warm against Caleb’s own.

It’s not just comfort in a space, but comfort in an interaction! It’s like second-nature to lean into an embrace now AHHHH

ahem.

anyway.

“If you think they would be of use to you, you are more than welcome to my notes on the Happy Fun Ball.” Caleb made to summon one of the cats to retrieve them, but Essek laid a hand on his arm, stopping him.  “I appreciate it,” Essek said, “but I don’t think there is time to go over them tonight.” Caleb lowered his hand, and his heart fell alongside it. “Right. Of course.”

Caleb was not intentionally trying to get Essek to stay longer, but he certainly wasn’t trying to get him to leave sooner. Poor buddy :( and then he’s having a resurgence of the dread with added anxiety about Essek’s well-being while Essek’s still in spell-mode :(((

In this next section, we stumble into a misalignment of Caleb and Essek’s goals, at least in this moment. They’re both trying to recuperate from a very stressful six weeks apart, but they’re approaching it from different angles. Caleb’s way of making himself feel better is trying to convince them both that it doesn’t need to happen again, but Essek’s is reminding them of the reason it happened in the first place. It is Essek’s desire for Caleb’s rest and peace of mind vs. Caleb’s desire for Essek’s safety and well-being. Essek’s mindset is, “I will not subject you to a life of transience and paranoia. Maybe I deserve it, but you do not. After everything you’ve been through, you should be allowed to create a comfortable life for yourself. I love you care for you too much to let the consequences of my poor choices jeopardize that.” While Caleb’s is, “I am fully aware of what you have done, and I have known that refusal to let anyone else shoulder any of the burden. And it’s bullshit. I know what you are facing, and I am here. I accept the risk that associating with you brings because I love you care about you a great deal. I have the resources to keep you safe, and if there is a gap, I have the resources to fill it. I will do whatever is within my power to protect you.”

They try to comfort each other, but they’re also frustrated. Mostly at the situation, but kinda at each other and kinda at themselves. And a big part of what made this chapter difficult to write was finding the balance between showing frustration and showing concern, because honestly, the frustration wasn’t planned. It kept showing up, and I, Eve, the author, had to figure out how to incorporate it in a way that felt true to the characters, the scene, and the fic as a whole.

“You are leaving soon.” Essek’s mouth went slack before pinching into a frown. This close, Caleb could see the remnants of his earlier exhaustion, the faint circles under his eyes, the redness around his irises.  “Ah,” Essek said, closing his eyes. The weariness seemed to settle into his body anew. “Yes.” […] Essek covered Caleb’s hand with his own and nudged closer. “But I will return.”

Caleb is not the only one dreading Essek’s departure. But Essek is trying his best to stay optimistic, partially for his own sanity, partially because both of them having a breakdown about how much stress Essek being on the run is causing them would be a really sucky way to end this visit. It wouldn’t help Caleb at all, and Essek just had six weeks of stewing in the misery of his situation, so he can put off the next breakdown to when it’s not going to cause both of them to lose all sense of reason.

“Caleb.” Essek’s hand was gentle as it came to rest on Caleb’s knee, but his voice was tight. Concerned. “What do you need from me?” […] Caleb opened his arms, and Essek fell into them. He wove his arms between Caleb and the couch and squeezed him tightly around the waist before settling his head against Caleb’s shoulder, his breath skimming across Caleb’s neck.

This is something of a call back to All Things End, specifically this moment:

“Is there anything else I can do?” Caleb pressed his lips together, looking down as he placed his elbow on the armrest and extended an open hand towards Essek. Taking a deep breath, he glanced up. “Stay with me a while?” Essek softened and took Caleb’s hand in his, wrapping cool fingers around a warm palm. “Of course.”

Like. Please note: Essek is more confident in both his readiness to ask and in his ability to provide comfort. Caleb is less nervous to accept it. Holding your crush’s hand vs. laying on your dear friend/bf/doesn’t-matter-what-you-call-it’s chest like a weighted blanket.

But also, unfortunately: the “of course Essek can stay” of then vs. the “Essek must go” of now :'(

“I miss you,” he choked out.

Not “I have missed you,” not “I will miss you,” but “I miss you” less as a current emotion and more as a state of being. Essek is away more often than not, and even when he visits, it is for such a short amount of time that he is not truly able to reprieve Caleb of missing him. This is the essence of what is bothering Caleb in this chapter, and saying “I miss you” while Essek is here is the closest approximation he can get. He’s throwing darts trying to pinpoint his emotions.

“I…” Essek’s confusion filled the silence. “I am here.”

But Essek doesn’t know that. How could he? “I miss you” is surely not an unusual thing for them to say, but it doesn’t make sense when Essek is here, holding him. I think Essek recognizes that there is some further meaning, but he cannot figure out what that may be. 

Caleb throws another dart and gets a little closer to center:

“You don’t have to go.” Essek sighed, resigned, and pressed his forehead against Caleb’s neck in what felt like an apology. “Yes, I do.”

And Essek finally understands that Caleb has been trying to say, “I want you to stay.” Essek cannot promise him that, and they both know this, so there no point in pretending it's that simple. But there is something about knowing this that allows Essek to let down his own walls a bit and let Caleb see how the separation affects him, too.

“I have only just confirmed that the Assembly is unaware of my movements. It would have been better for me to stay away for at least another week, so as not to give my hand away immediately, but I—” His voice faltered. “Well.” He tightened his arms around Caleb.

The unspoken sentiment here is “I needed to see you.” But he can’t say that out loud. Not yet. He’s too emotionally stunted. The earnestness and blatant sentimentality would give him hives.

I don’t know what else to say about this. I am in my own walls. You know that image of someone biting a laptop? Yeah. That. 

Cut content (1) “It’s not easy being a weighted blanket”:

A brief rush of vertigo suddenly came over Caleb. He tried to blink it away, and while the initial sensation faded, a slight sense of floatiness persisted. “Apologies,” Essek said, running his hand along Caleb’s spine more easily than he should have been able to with the weight of both of them pressed against the couch. Ah. Adjust Density.  “I was losing feeling in my hands.”

Cut content (2) “Essek flexes his shadowhand skills”:

“The Assembly is not looking for me officially, so any tail Ludinus sends after me must be small and likely has some limit to their resources,” Essek explained. “Becke has her fingers on the pulse of the remaining Scourger contingent and is disinclined to believe that any would be working under Ludinus without her knowledge.  “Regardless, a target teleporting erratically across the continent is difficult to track at all, even more so without the force of a government to bolster the effort. After six weeks, they have certainly lost my scent. With some skill and some luck, it will be a long while before they are able to pick it up again.”  Essek lifted his head to meet Caleb’s eye. “That is why I was gone all that time. I had to be sure that shaking them off would last, and that no suspicion would fall on you or any of the Mighty Nein.” 

(a/n this is very hot of Essek tbh)

“This is the longest I have stayed in one place in quite some time.”

I wrote this line at 3am. It destroyed me. This line is what led to this post. I can’t believe I did this to my boy. He spent 6 whole weeks never staying in one place for more than 18 hours. How dare I. I’m so sorry, Essek.

“There is always a place for you here.” He felt Essek smile.  “Someday, maybe.”

This is the rewrite of this short exchange that, for the longest time, was the only solid I had written for this chapter. 

“You don’t have to go.” “I do. I wish I didn’t.” “Someday, maybe?” “Someday.”

No matter what, I knew that I wanted the “someday, maybe” sentiment. It’s kind of the core idea of this chapter, and it’s all they can really offer to each other at this point in time. We will discuss the first line more in Chapter 5, but the seeds have been planted.

Their foreheads knocked, and Essek’s eyes fell closed. “I will miss you,” he breathed, “most dearly.”

Yes, this is a not-so-subtle nod to Miss You Dearly, but it is also a nod to the fact that for the better part of 3 years now, I have headcanoned that Essek and Caleb use “my dear friend” when they refer to the other. Not “boyfriend,” not “partner”, though they’re not really going to correct anyone about it. It’s not wrong, it’s just not what they say.

Does this line really work as a reference to that headcanon? No, I am realizing. Nevertheless, that was part of my intention. I’m just thinking of it constantly, and I have yet to figure out a way to properly incorporate it into my fics.

With a tilt of his chin, Essek pressed his lips to Caleb’s.

This post sums up what happened here. I didn’t mean for this to happen. In some ways, I was trying to avoid it because I… kinda feel bad? that all the big kiss scenes seem to happen from Caleb’s perspective? Yes, this is silly. Yes, I have a How to Rest coda fic in the works that amends this somewhat.

“It will not be so long this time,” he said. “I promise.”

Essek cannot promise Caleb that he can stay, but a promise to visit more often and more frequently is not impossible, especially after the work he put into getting ahead of a tail.

While Essek put on his boots, Caleb went into the kitchen to scrounge together food that would keep well to send with him—half a loaf of bread Caleb got from the market the other day, some dried meats, the last few hard candies from a tin given to him by a student, and a puck of fermented tea from the Blooming Grove that he knew Essek liked—and bundled it all together.

This scene didn’t exist until I was sitting down and writing the transition between “they leave the Tower” and “Caleb starts to teach himself Private Sanctum,” but I love it. The care package, somewhat hastily assembled on account of zero notice that Essek would be showing up, is both practical (Caleb knows what keeps well on the road) and indulgent (candies and a favorite tea for a man on the run). The tea is pu-erh tea, which Essek tried back in Chapter 3 and which Caleb keeps in his house specifically because he knows Essek likes it. This is very important to me.

Caleb slipped into his study and tossed a few pearls in the tin with the candies. He didn’t doubt that Essek had enough, but, well, one could never have too many.

c2e135 01:07:05!!! “How are you on pearls?” “I will always accept more.” “They go fast.” hhhhhhnnnnnnngggghhhhh

Plus, Essek’s gets a little surprise present when he opens the candies the first time, and I think that’s nice :)

He looked down and ran his fingers softly across Caleb’s wrist. “I suppose it is time to say goodbye, then.”

For all his talk about how he has to go, Essek is procrastinating. He put on a very brave face, but he had a miserable time for the last 6 weeks and he’s worried that might happen again. It won’t get that intense again, I know, but he doesn’t. And even if he did, he’s allowed to steal a moment or two more. Like the Beacons :)

Essek reached into one of his pockets for a stone whose origin Caleb could not begin to guess, and rolled it around in his palm. “Goodbye, Caleb Widogast.”

It is important that Essek uses Caleb’s name—his full name—before he goes, as he will not be able to until the next time they see each other. We see that in the message Essek sends a bit later, where he says:

“Goodnight, my friend. I will see you soon.”

“My friend” isn’t really an Essek-ism. He most likely picked it up from Caleb. Other endearments with more romantic connotations aren’t really a good idea for someone on the run to be using openly. “My friend” is generic enough to the average eavesdropper, but you and I both know he’s really saying, “Goodnight, my (dear) friend (Caleb Widogast).”

Caleb opened his notebook and got to work, a small seed of hope sprouting in his chest.

I used a plant metaphor to describe Caleb’s feelings in Chapter 6, so I wanted to repeat that here to create a bit of a throughline. A leitmotif, if you will. Essek gets the fire/spark descriptors, Caleb get the plants ones. We have a little fun here. We get a little silly.

[onyx-archer]

A Follow-Up Post About Stringbean (Sort Of)

Well, I didn’t expect my first real post on Tumblr in... *checks notes* about 4 years (that wasn’t just OC art related stuff) to get any steam, but it’s doing pretty okay. Probably because it’s about The Owl House, but hey, so far (at time of writing), nobody has said my take is bad or anything. I look forward to eventually seeing that, but until then, I wanted to make a follow-up post to address Stringbean’s role in the story, and why it’s one of the few things that I was disappointed by in the specials. Spoilers will be discussed here, much like the last post, but I’ll put it under the cut as per usual.

So... Stringbean. If there are any specific things that I can point at and say “the cuts really hurt this,” Stringbean would be one of them. In fact, of the things cut, Stringbean is the biggest casualty of Disney’s Apple Blood fueled bender. The Collector and Hunter are the other big two casualties, as far as characters are concerned, and the stuff involving the Human Realm is the biggest bit of the story next to Luz’s Palisman as far as I’m concerned. I might make a post about Hunter in the future, since he’s a topic I have a lot of thoughts about too, but that will have to wait. If people actually want to hear my thoughts, then by all means, let me know.

Now, before I get too deep into this, I want to address the Owlbeast in the room: I’m speaking from a place that involves a great deal of speculation on my behalf, and unless Dana reads these posts and tells me I’m right, take stuff I’m saying with the appropriate amount of salt you deem necessary. Obviously, when talking about a character or plot element that had it’s potential affected by the powers that be in a negative way, you can only really speculate on these things. I’m looking at how things could have been in relation to how they are, and I’m far from an authority on the subject of the story of The Owl House.

Stringbean, as previously mentioned, is a plot element that I feel was cut off at the knees when the show got cancelled prematurely, and naturally didn’t have the most room to breathe as far as plot is concerned. It’s clear that she, much like Hooty’s Origin Episode (which we know was a thing Dana and the TOH crew wanted to do) was more or less cut. I say it that way because of the imagery within The Titan’s eye in the realm in-between seems to imply Hooty was a creation of the Titan, and Stringbean DID appear, albeit in a functionally neutered form. This is basically how most plot/character threads that could have gone somewhere that were set up in Season 2A ended up by the end.

As stated in my previous post, I firmly believe that the early stages of Season 2 (i.e. most, if not all of the first half) were written back when the show got greenlit for a second season. A lot of media, especially cartoons, have a long period of preproduction before we hear so much as a peep from the creative team or the production house reveal that stuff to the general public. Cartoons in particular generally have a long creation pipeline. Unless you’re South Park, you typically can’t get away with lackluster writing. Disney, being one of the cornerstones of animation, likely has tight production schedules, but they’re likely still at least 6-9 months on the low end.

Dana has said that she was just told one day, likely weeks after it was decided, that the show was getting cancelled. I’d hazard a guess and assume that she and her writing team for the show had already submitted plot outlines and basic script stuff for approval for early episodes of Season 2, up to a certain point. I believe this to be the case because Standards & Practices are pretty quick to demand rewrites and the like, as seen with Alex Hirsch’s little montage of actual things they told him to change on Twitter on Gravity Falls’ 10 year anniversary. 

That’s the thing with creative projects where you have to answer to a studio with investors: you have to do what they say, and while you can fight certain decisions, you’re ultimately not in charge of your own creation from a business angle. This isn’t always a bad thing, but it largely depends on the state of a show. This can ultimately save a show from having a terrible conclusion, or it can highlight just how little the team had left in the tank (see Star Vs.). Either way, you are beholden to people who are largely not creative types, and are more about doing smart business. Whether or not the business decisions they make are actually smart or not is irrelevant, as the intention is doing right by the company’s pocketbook.

Now, none of this is to say that I’m gonna kiss Disney’s ass and say that Dana should have planned things better just in case the show got cancelled, because that’s often not how I think creative people think. It’s my belief that if you get a single season, or even a single movie, to make what you want to make, you’re going to do your best to have everything fit within that timeframe, and you’ll kill your darlings more liberally because you want to make the best possible representation of your vision within that limited amount of “space.” When you get greenlit for more though, you start thinking about those ideas that you had to push to the side, and you want to do more with them. You then start thinking in a more “long-term” sort of way, insofar that you’re thinking with what I like to call “trilogy brain.”

I think this is something that is born from how a lot of stories tend to have conventional 3 Act Structures, and seeing a trilogy of things rather than a duology slots into that part of your brain that recognizes the 3 Act Structure. It’s one of those “you may not have noticed it, but your brain did” kind of things. That why I firmly believe that if you’re greenlit for a second season, and you have the ideas for more story beyond the first season, you immediately push for a third season before you so much as lift a finger for season 2. This way you can fulfill the feeling of a 3 Act Structure, and you get room to tell your more complex ideas. Don’t push your luck beyond 3 seasons though.

“Well Onyx, that’s all well and good, but how exactly does this relate to Stringbean?”

Simply put, I believe Stringbean is one of those things that was written before the cancellation was finalized that was set up and needed to be resolved in some capacity, even if not the way that Dana wanted, because the set up was likely already approved. I feel this because Season 2A and Season 2B feel like they were written with two different mindsets: 2A is pre-cancellation, 2B is post-cancellation. While they could certainly edit parts of the plot for 2A to minimize the damage dealt by a cancellation, it seems pretty likely to me that some things just couldn’t be cut out without pissing off the fans. It was a very “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” sort of things.

Stringbean’s eventual existence ties into Luz’s growth as a Witch, and the idea that Witches earn their magic staffs (aka their Palismans) when they are “ready,” which presumably refers to a point of magical maturity or something to that effect. Eda directly says that Luz will earn her staff one day, and that was enough to get people thinking about Luz earning her staff. It’s kind of like how Hunter appearing in “Young Blood, Old Souls” was written before the team even knew they were cancelled. That episode was already in the can by then after all. They couldn’t just not use him going forward. Yeah, they could have downplayed the role in his case, but the fact that they didn’t tells me that Season 2A was written without the knowledge of that cancellation in mind, and by the time they knew that was a thing, they’d likely already been greenlit to start production with what they had, and could only make minimal changes to reflect the truncated run time.

Stringbean’s role is very clearly trimmed down to the bare minimum, and you need only look at how Stringbean is used in the episode following her debut (aka, the finale of the series) to see what I mean. Her impact on the story had served what little purpose was left after the cuts in “For The Future,” as I have to assume that Titan Luz was something that was planned for the finale before the cuts. I imagine elements of the Titan form date back to early planning for the series, and were considered the logical endpoint for the way Glyphs work lore-wise.

Now, I want to briefly explain why, in my last post, I think that Stringbean would have been used in a more climactic moment than what we got in “For The Future,” had the series not been cancelled too soon. Or rather, I want to address a misunderstanding caused by that thought. As stated near the beginning of this post, I was speaking from the stand point of what I assume would have been the case, based on my reading of the way the series was set up versus how it ended up because of the cuts. I don’t think we would have gotten “For The Future” had the cuts not been made. Maybe we would have had an episode by that name, sure, but the events of Season 3 are very clearly speedrunning through things to make the best possible end product within the very tight restrictions born from the circumstances of the show’s cancellation.

As said earlier, I think that Season 2A and Season 2B were written largely pre-cancellation and post-cancellation respectively, so the story we got in Season 2B is likely a truncated version of what we were going to get had we got a proper Season 3. They had to make the best of a bad situation, rather than continue on like nothing changed and hope Disney would change their mind. Otherwise, The Owl House very well could have ended on the same sour note that Star Vs. did, and it would have likely stung more than that show’s ending did due to how much better a show The Owl House is considered to be when compared to Star Vs. I obviously don’t much care for that show, but I’m sure even the most devout fan of Star would tell you the show lost it’s spark somewhere along the way.

Stringbean’s execution very much feels like they planned to have the reveal likely serve as the Season 2 finale or even the mid-season finale for Season 3, had we got the story as the team likely intended when stuff like Eda’s mention of Luz being able to earn her staff one day, or when Luz got her piece of Palistrom Wood in “Hunting Palisman.” Otherwise, Luz could have just gotten a Palisman in that episode. It very clearly was something that was written before the cuts, and couldn’t just be swept to the side either. If they scrapped that part of the episode, then Luz would have been better off adopting a Palisman like everyone else. If they didn’t, but then act like Luz never got the piece of Palistrom, the audience would be like “hey, wait, why hasn’t Luz carved her Palisman yet?” Likely, as a result of the cuts, they were stuck in a tricky situation, and ultimately decided to go with what we got because at least then we’d get something rather than nothing.

The reason I suggested adding the idea of Luz and her Father coming up with the idea of a Snakeshifter together was, in part, to give Stringbean’s debut an extra layer of emotional depth. It’d do more to make the best out of what we got, it would have potentially had Camila’s words about understanding her daughter mean more, and it would give the mention of Luz’s dad being dead more narrative and emotional impact. Of course, I’d ideally prefer this to be part of a more fleshed out Season 3, and a less truncated Season 2B, but that’s what fanfiction is for.

Anyway, I spent a lot of this post talking about industry stuff, and less about Stringbean, but to be fair, the industry stuff is why I feel Stringbean was narratively kneecapped. Anyway, as always, feel free to let me know what you think. You can reblog it without writing that stuff in the tags if you want by the way.

[she-daemon]

Office worker AU - Nero x Fem Reader - Chapter 2

Previous chapter here

Summary:

Nero answers the phone, they go on a date, yeah End of this chapter gets spicy

Notes:

Okay okay so I haven't written anything in months (sorry for not posting in like 3 months) but I'm finally back!!! Since its been a while my writing should hopefully be a little better, or at least the smut should be (I have done a lot of uhh *research* lately)

Slight nsfw at the end!! You have been warned!!

After briefly listening to the dial tone, you heard someone pick up.

"Office of Nero Sparda, state your business please..." Its a woman's voice. You're disappointed it wasn't Nero, but its normal for someone like him to have a secretary.

"Hello, this is Y/N of _____ corporation, I was hoping to schedule a progress report meeting with Mr. Sparda ... possibly tomorrow?" Good, you said everything correctly.

"Just a moment please..." You heard her receiver brush against something, and you assumed she was checking Nero's schedule. Hmm. Nero's secretary. Jealous thoughts started to intrude into your mind. You waved them away, but the thought of being his secretary instead of her persisted. Imagine being so close to him ... being in his company all day ... all the things the two of you could get away with. Your thoughts were interrupted by her:

"Sorry, but it seems Mr. Sparda will be busy all day tomorrow. In fact, he doesn't have any available time slots for the rest of the - " Something interrupted her, and she got off the phone again. Was he busy for the rest of the month? Week? You listened closely. Suddenly, you heard a man's voice in the background:

"Who is it?" You heard her say your name, and then shuffling on the other end. Someone spoke.

"Hello? Is this Y/N?" It was Nero. Just hearing his voice talking to you made your heart leap.

"Yes, its me. Your secretary said you'd be busy, so I was wondering when we could arrange a meeting to discuss the progress report?" You knew it was far too early for Nero's team to have made any real progress on the project. Hopefully, he'd get the message.

"Well, I am busy the entire day tomorrow. But maybe I could take overtime and meet you for dinner. How's that sound?"

"Wonderful. I'll see you at Dorsia's." you gleefully replied, "Do you think you could manage 6?"

"Hmm, maybe 7?"

"Oh, okay, sure. I'm free the whole evening to be honest. The whole weekend, even." You cringed a little from how desperate you sounded, but you swore you could hear Nero's lips curl into a smile at those words.

"Guess I'll have to take a look at my plans and maybe take you up on that offer." Thank god he took that with a stride. And after a brief silence, he said:

"See ya then." And hung up. You processed that call, thinking over your brief interaction with him. If you weren't feeling all these stupid, fluffy emotions, you would've been worried about flirting over the work phone, and eavesdroppers. But Nero had you dumbly smitten with him and you were just paranoid anyway - right?.

It was still around midday, so you couldn't get off work just yet. Your mind drifted back to the secretary fantasy. You knew it was impossible to be his secretary because you were busy working for your father. And that was just temporary, until you took over the company anyway. And Nero's company was just an affiliate, you couldn't be transferred even if you wanted to. But still, damn if that wasn't a hot fantasy.

*~ *~ *~ *~ *~ *~ The next day around 7 *~ *~ *~ *~ *~ *~

Wearing your nicest (and possibly most alluring) clothes, you entered the familiar high end restaurant. You've been here before for past meetings, but this day was special. 

Looking around, you're almost afraid you won't find Nero. But there he is, dressed in a nicer suit than the one he wears for work, a dark shade of navy, almost black, and a matching light greyish-blue tie. You meet eyes with him and he waves to you, signaling you to join him at a booth.

"Hey, glad to see you here, I just got off work." Nero looks so happy to see you, it fills your heart with joy. You make sure to greet him and let him know you feel the same. You talk about the "progress" of the project for about a solid five minutes until the waiter showed up to take your orders. For yourself, you decided to play it safe and order a Caesar salad with a medium rare steak. Simple, yes, but hopefully still dignified. You didn't have to worry about that for long, because Nero ordered pasta - plain spaghetti and meatballs - and you nearly choked on your water. As if it would save face, the both of you decided to share a bottle of wine, courtesy of Nero (but you were definitely going to pursue Nero for his food choices later).

The two of you were illuminated by the warm yellow lighting of the restaurant. You took a sip of your wine and leaned in toward Nero.

"So, Nero, I saw  you have the same last name as the CEO of your company - Vergil Sparda. Are the two of you related? His nephew maybe?" Nero gave you a questioning look, before responding.

"Ah, you caught me. Vergil's my dad." He surveyed your face for a reaction, and he saw your eyes widen as you connected the dots. The two of you were in the same position, your lives were essentially the same. Trying to build your own career in the shadow of your parents, shunned for who your family was. "Oh, that makes sense. Guess we're in the same spot then. Small world." You could barely contain your excitement, you had so much to talk to him about.

"Haha, as much as I hate it, nepotism really does rule the world." You wanted to know more about Nero - so you asked:

"So how has that affected you or your life? Or... what do you think of it?"

And the two of you fell into a deep conversation about your lives, your pasts, and relating to each other. You really did have a lot in common with Nero. His father had also brought him up to take over the company some day, he also hated his business classes for being too easy (he had graduated a year earlier), and most importantly, the both of you had felt the same loneliness and isolation as a result of being next in line. But now it was clear you had each other, whatever that might imply.

Finally, the waiter returned with the long awaited food. As promised, he handed you a beautifully plated salad beside a tender steak, with various garnishes and sides, and for Nero, a heap of saucy spaghetti and meatballs. They actually made it for him! It still shook you. As a businessman of his level, you never would have expected Nero to order simple pasta and meatballs. Sure, this is an Italian restaurant so it's a valid choice, but still. Not only that, but as he was eating, Nero got sauce all over his mouth, his chin, even a little on his cheeks. Honestly, it was the most adorable things you've ever seen. Besides puppies. But he was kind of a puppy too. Hearing you giggle, Nero stops just as he was scooping another round of pasta and looks up at you.

"What?" he asked cluelessly. 

You didn't say anything, just looked at him, smirking, amused. But he really had no idea.

"C'mon, seriously." Now he was grinning too. It was infectious.

"... you have pasta sauce all over your face." And for a moment he froze, genuinely surprised.  Laughing, you reached for a napkin and wiped the corners of his mouth, like a little kid. It was too much for your heart.  Doing this you froze, with your eyes locked on Nero's, noticing how much you had leaned toward him, how close you were. Nero's cheeks burned a little red, and he averted your gaze. You quickly moved your hand away and blurted out: "Oh! S-sorry about that, I don't know why I did that. It just seemed natural."

"No, no its fine, that one's on me." But there was still an uncomfortable, bashful, silence. "Is there a story behind the spaghetti and meatballs?" You interjected, cutting the silence short. It was almost like you flipped a switch, because Nero's face lit up enthusiastically and he began to explain how it was his favorite food, how he'd been eating it since childhood, how Kyrie used to cook it for him... Wait, Kyrie? *~ *~ *~ *~ *~ *~ A few hours later *~ *~ *~ *~ *~ *~

The two of you decided to head to a bar, after the restaurant nearly kicked you out for sitting there so long.

Nero was a bit of a lightweight, you had noticed, and you could see he definitely had his share of alcohol for the night. So did you.  "I think we've both had enough for tonight. " "Mmmyeah." Nero slurred. Unlike you, it seemed like he had a nice buzz going. Lucky him, because you only felt woozy. The two of you hailed a taxi, and it quickly became clear that you were going to end up escorting Nero to his home. The two of you entered the taxi cab, and as Nero barely managed to tell his address to the driver, you worried that this whole thing was too forward, but it was too late to turn back. That, and Nero was glued to you.

"Aww, you were gone for so long~" Nero crooned into your neck, half tipsy, half asleep. "I missed you~..." The warm breath tickled your neck, and you had to suppress a little squeak from escaping your lips when you felt his mouth just barely graze your skin. That was new, and it was nice.

You kept looking at his chest, his tie coming more and more undone with every drunken sway of his, seemingly shifting with the movements of the car. It was so ... distracting. The looseness of his suit exposed his chest, and when you tried to straighten his collar, Nero pulled you in for a hug. Nero gets clingy under the influence - noted. And it was getting to you. You could feel Nero's warm, shapely body, and the sleek fabric that outfitted and outlined it in the most delicious way. Not to mention you hadn't been hugged in years. Damn if it didn't feel good - almost too good, a blush spread to your face and you couldn't think of anything to say. Not that you needed to, since Nero occupied himself with saying strings of gibberish that faintly sounded like praise. You could only pick up words like "nice" and "warm" in his purring, until you felt Nero's weight shift onto you. He had fallen asleep. He left you there, frying your brain for the rest of the ride until the cab pulled up to a large apartment complex. You woke Nero up, much to his dissatisfaction, and paid the driver. You led Nero out of the car and into the complex, sternly holding him by the arm to support him. After a few steps though, he was flush against you, and it was almost like he was enjoying this - not that you secretly were too. Maybe his whole "tipsy" thing was just an act.

Walking him to the elevator, it seemed like Nero had sobered up a little from the fresh air, recognizing his surroundings and selecting his floor once the two of you were inside the elevator. 

 "You doing all right there Nero?"  "Hmmm...?" He blinked sleepily, not as buzzed as before - just tired.

He unlocked the door with his key, given a few clumsy tries as he worked his way through the wooziness. You stifled a giggle, and Nero murmured as he opened the door:  "What's so funnyyyy...?"  "You're such a lightweight, Nero." Hearing this, Nero scrunched up his face and swiftly turned away his head, pouting.   "No I'm not."  "Admit it, you were almost wasted after two glasses." You smirked, satisfied from drawing such a reaction from him. You wanted to poke at him a little more, but push far enough and you might find boundaries.   "I. Am not. A lightweight." He huffed, eyebrows furrowed, and it seemed like he was a little hurt. Did you hit a nerve? Okay, despite how cute he was, now you felt bad. You walked up to him, and cupped his pouty face with your hands.  "Okay, okay. You're not a lightweight Nero." You tilted his face so his eyes would meet yours, and you squished his cheeks a little.  "Better?" Just as you were about to pull away, Nero grabbed you by your shoulders, and leaned forward to kiss you on the lips. Shocked at first, you received the kiss, pulling on his lower lip and biting gently. You wondered if you should be doing this at all, but Nero let out a sigh and continued to kiss you - and it felt so good, so right. Nero pulled you close, and you felt your body grow heated, bothered from his hand gripping tightly at your waist. Eventually though, you both pulled away for air. Nero smugly showed you a shit eating grin, his lips a slight pink - thoroughly kissed.   "Now that's better."   "Oh yeah?" You tilted your head. "Are you gonna forgive me for being a bully?" You leaned your face toward him, gazing into his eyes. With a dark look in your eyes, you continued: "And there's really nothing else I have do to make you feel better?" You could see calculations running in Nero's head, and he suddenly picked you up in a princess carry. He took you into the bedroom and the next thing you knew he had put you down on a soft bed. You were sad you weren't in his arms anymore, but only for a moment because he leaned down to kiss you again, one hand sifting through your hair, the other squeezing your hip.  "I think you already know-" He said as he brought his knee to the apex of your thighs, suggestively brushing it, " -what you have to do to make me forgive you." His eyes looked back up toward your face for a reaction, and you noticed his erection pressing against your inner thigh.

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

There it is! I'll try to get the next chapter done as soon as I can, and the promised smut will be in it ➳➳➳➳ I only managed to proofread once or twice at 1 am so sorry about grammar and inconsistent spacing, yeah

View this chapter on ao3

[bottlecaprabbitgames]

Weekly Update for 3 April, 2023

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the first weekly update of April!

Mind Games: Trepidation

So, where are we with MG:T?

As of earlier this week, I fully finished fleshing out Scene 1/4 of Chapter 6! I'm also on the very last choice of Scene 2 and it'll be finished, but it is a rather varied section as it changes depending on a choice you made earlier in the chapter, so it might take me a hot second to finish it off. Very exciting, however!

I'm also half-way done with Scene 3's roughdraft, and then all we'll have left is Scene 4, but Scene 4 is an alternate POV so there likely won't be any choices to write, just some variations, if any. We have only a little left to get through, so I'm very hopeful that Chapter 6 is still on track to be released this month!

Chapter 6 is also sitting at a little over 10,000 words! My goal is to hit at least 12,000, but I do feel this will be a shorter chapter, which is totally fine! There's quite a bit I want to go back later and add to, but for now, I am happy with how things have gone so far. Super happy, actually, as almost all the choices I've written so far will have impact as the series progresses, either from you guys setting up more customization or by what you choose to reveal... or keep hidden. And some other interesting things, hehe.

But, overall, I am very satisfied with how Chapter 6 is progressing, and it will all be released as one major update (might also add some other stuff to update along with it, maybe more achievements, other stuff tbd). We will be following the same update pattern as last time: Patreon, Discord, public. I'm really excited to get it out to y'all, as the friend I drop snippets to and discuss stuff with to brainstorm has been STOKED the entire time we've talked!!

Now, as a fair warning, progress this coming week is very likely to be slow. As I posted on here before, my mom has only been home a few days after a 16-day stay in the hospital as she developed gangrene near her broken hip, and she has a lot of care we have to give her. I'll be going this week to finish my training on how to change her bandages (I actually know how to do it, there's just one specific part I'm not so good with, so her wound care nurse is gonna make sure I have that down pat), as I will have to do so on the weekends and any day her home health nurse or wound care nurse are unavailable. Quite a bit of pressure!

And, I also know most of you guys are aware The Wayhaven Chronicles by the amazing @seraphinitegames (just in case you aren't) has its third book releasing this week, and I am gonna be very honest, I'm gonna be absorbing it through my very eyeballs LOL. I am going to be diving in whole-heartedly to enjoy Mason's route and possibly A's or Nate's.

I've also really been in the mood to play games lately, so I'm planning to take time out to indulge a little bit, as I took a good... 5? 6? months or more away from gaming much outside of recording, and given I have Fatal Frame 4 and the OG Resident Evil 4 to lets play... WELL, I am definitely considering dropping loads of time into both and just relax when I can this week!

Alright, I'll see you guys next Monday!

[darkrpfinders]

Hello there!

(I) About Me

Hello! Thank you for clicking on my post and giving this a read! You can call me Rinne(he/him/they/them). I am a college student but that doesn't really hurt my availability too much. I am on everyday, even if it is for just an hour or so. I could even send posts multiple posts daily or at minimum, a post every other day. I am someone who loves OOC chatter! I love to make character boards, send music that reminds me of the roleplay, and just gush about what is going on in our story! With that little introduction out of the way, let's move on!

(II) Rules

1. Please only contact me if you are over the age of 18 as I am over 18 myself.

2. Characters used must also be at least 18. If not, they must be aged up.

3. Please be engaged in the discussing process. If you don't show much interest before the roleplay begins, I will believe that you don't have much interest to the roleplay itself.

4. Please write with proper grammar and pronunciation in your posts. I don't mind if that is not shown in regular messages but please come with it for the thread.

5. No one-liners. I personally don't like to write less than 3 full paragraphs and one-liners do not provide me much to work with. However, I do give the option for mini roleplays to go along with our main roleplay to help expand the world. For that, I am perfectly fine with shorter responses like one-liners. I love writing and I figured this would be a fun way to do that and further along the story!

6. Please post consistently. If replies are inconsistent, sadly my interest in the roleplay wavers. I prefer more frequent posts but if you let me know that you only post once a week, or even once a month, that is perfectly fine with me!

7. I prefer to write on discord servers as that allows everything to be more organized BUT if you prefer to write somewhere else, I do not mind writing threads there. However, I do request a place where we could have things be organized.

(I promise I'm not going to be stern when we talk! I'm very easygoing!)

(III) Fandoms

Before I share the fandoms I am in, I would like to state now that I am not the hugest fan of doubling. I have just had bad experience after bad experience after bad experience. With that said, I know that everyone is not the same and I will not be completely eliminatiing the option to doubling although I may prefer not to. I will still list canon characters I can play. If a character is below the age of 18, they WILL be aged up to at least 18. I prefer to write MxF pairings but I don't mind whatever pairing we do for the half you bring if we double. If there is an OC you would like to use or a ship that you want to play, I will ALWAYS offer the mini roleplays. I also have a new way of doubling which is transitioning from scene to scene like a show or movie would. Both sides must exist in the same universe as well. I feel as though my writing is lesser if I'm writing for two roleplays at once and I also feel a bit drained after a set of posts and I feel as though this is a great fix for the issue.

Dragonball Z/Super

Who I'm looking for: Android 18, Android 21

Who I can play: OC. Krillin, Vegeta, Goku, Gohan

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Android 18, OC x Android 21, Krillin x Android 18, Vegeta x Android 18

Metroid

Who I'm looking for: Samus

Who I can play: OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Samus

Naruto

Who I'm looking for: Sakura, Ino, Temari

Who I can play: OC, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Kakashi, Itachi, Neji

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Sakura, OC x Ino, Naruto x Sakura, Shikamaru x Temari

Pokemon

Who I'm looking for: Cynthia, Protagonist CC/OC

Who I can play: OC, Protagonist CC/OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Cynthia, Protagonist CC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist OC

Stranger Things

Who I'm looking for: Eleven

Who I can play: OC, Hopper, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, Jonathan, Steve, Billy, Nancy, Robin

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Eleven, Hopper & Eleven(STRICTLY PLATONIC)

Teen Titans

Who I'm looking for: Starfire(DCAMU)

Who I can play: Nightwing(DCAMU), Batman, Superman, Flash. OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Nightwing x Starfire

The Legend of Zelda (Please have a knowledge of most of the games/story)

Who I'm looking for: Zelda

Who I can play: Link

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Link x Zelda

Yu-Gi-Oh

Who I'm looking for: Akiza, Alexis

Who I can play: OC, Jaden, Chazz, Zane, Yusei

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Akiza, OC x Alexis, Jaden x Alexis, Chazz x Alexis

(IV) ORIGINALS

This is not going to be like the Fandoms section because... well, it's been such a long time since I had done an original plot! For an original plot, I would love to do a modern slice of life! I would also enjoy a medieval setting as well! Particularly with a Knight and a Princess. When it comes to tropes, I don't have specific ones that I'm dying to do. I enjoy most of them but I do enjoy a slow-medium burn. As for genres, as I mentioned before I would love a slice of life but I also like fantasy, action, even horror! There isn't much I'm not open to when it comes to originals!

(V) Goodbye

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read through this! I'm excited to hear from any and all potential partners! If any part of this had interested you, please go ahead and interact with this post! I hope you all have a wonderful day! Happy Writing!

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