#i have done So Much Research for this fic haha

[vikingsong]

WIP Wednesday (6/5/24)

Reforged (excerpt)

Merlin Bingo 2024 adopted prompt: “science fiction/fantasy”

Context:

When Albion’s greatest need arrives in the form of an alien invasion, the reincarnated figures of legend must deal with the consequences of their shared past even as they fight for humanity’s future.

Arthur ascends to the British throne after the invasion begins, and he works closely with the team of experts who are trying to determine why the only offensive weapons that have been effective so far against the reptilian aliens are medieval swords. Gwen is a museum curator specializing in medieval weaponry, and Merlin is a paleontologist at the same eclectic museum. Elyan studies materials science and has been called in to assist Gwen and Merlin with their research. They have a status update for Arthur…

“There’s something strange about these swords,” Gwen said, glancing at Elyan. “We’d never noticed it before, but once we started looking…”

Elyan picked up the story. “At first, we thought it was something in the iron itself—like an unusual isotope or something—so we ran a spectrometer analysis on a sample.”

Gwen nodded. “We were half-right. Turns out there is something in the chemical composition of the metal in swords forged in the late 5th to early 13th centuries that isn’t in any of our swords from other eras.”

“Or anywhere else on earth, as far as cutting edge chemists know,” Elyan added.

“So, for those of us who didn’t do A-level chemistry…?” Arthur prompted.

“It means,” Elyan said, grinning like a kid at Christmas, “that we found another element in there—an element that was previously undiscovered.”

Gwen nodded eagerly. “And it’s in all of our swords from that era, or nearly all. There are only a few that don’t have it, but they’re fragmented and terribly deteriorated, far more so than the rest. Interestingly, it doesn’t matter whether they’re katanas or arming swords; if they’re from that era and in even half-decent condition, then they all have that same element, no matter where in the world they were forged.”

“A new element?” Arthur repeated slowly, trying and failing to dig out a mental image of the periodic table from the recesses of his Year 9 memories.

“Yep! Element 120,” Elyan said. “We might even get to name it!”

Gwen’s eyes crinkled at her brother’s exuberance as she turned her attention back to Arthur. “Want to know what the best part is?”

“Uh, sure.”

“They found the same element in the bio samples from the aliens you killed.”

“What?”

Elyan nodded. “I swear, we’re not making this up.”

Arthur glanced between them. “You’re sure it’s not just, I don’t know, residue from the sword?”

“They tested samples from parts that were nowhere near where your sword struck,” Elyan said.

Gwen elaborated. “They tested samples from the teeth, the wing membranes, and a variety of organs and other tissues. Interestingly, the element was most prevalent in the lungs, followed by the mouth and teeth.”

“What are you getting at?”

“I think they mean dragonfire,” Merlin said, strolling into the lab.

“Exactly!” Elyan agreed. “The thing is, scientists haven’t been able to produce element 120—not even in particle colliders—because it’s too unstable. It would go through radioactive decay before the collider sensors could register that it had existed.”

Arthur glanced at the swords on the lab table—with no lead shielding in sight—and took a tiny step back.

“But the swords aren’t radioactive,” Gwen added quickly.

Arthur chose to ignore Merlin’s snickering, looking instead to Elyan for an explanation.

Elyan shrugged. “Even if that element theoretically existed outside of particle colliders, it would take an incredible amount of energy to get it to forge stable molecular bonds—like these—to prevent its radioactive decay.”

Gwen gestured to the sword. “Medieval forges definitely didn’t have the ability to heat steel that hot.” She tapped her gloved fingers against the nearest sword’s pommel. “So what could have forged these, then?”

“Dragonfire,” Merlin repeated with a grin. “When they told me what they’d found, I ran some tests on a couple of the fossilized pterosaur teeth in our collection. Same element.” He shook his head. “Just when I thought pterosaurs couldn’t get any cooler.”

Arthur looked from Merlin to Gwen to Elyan as the pieces clicked. “You mean to tell me that…that those aliens are pterosaurs and real medieval dragons?”

“Or something very, very similar,” Elyan confirmed.

“And that all of them breathed fire?”

“Yes!” Merlin exclaimed.

Arthur decided that Merlin was probably the most radioactive thing in the room; he was vibrating with enthusiasm.

“And, apparently,” Gwen said, leaning a hip against the table, “their dragonfire, this element, is their own kryptonite…or bane, to go a bit more medieval.”

Arthur chewed his lip. “Explains why none of the modern weapons will hurt them.”

“Exactly,” Elyan said. “And why replica swords—”

“Or swords from other eras,” Gwen interjected.

“—don’t have the same effect.”

Arthur couldn’t decide whether to fist-pump or head-desk. “We finally understand what material will work against them,” he summarized, “but we can’t make any more of it.”

“That is the one downside,” Merlin agreed.

“The one downside? You did see the alien invasion up there, right?”

“Yeah, but consider: dragons were real and they breathed fire.”

“The ones burning my kingdom look pretty real, too.”

(Note: I don’t know what source content was used in that gif, but I’m 99% sure it’s supposed to be a nyctosaurus…)

[thetriumphantpanda]

I Could Use Somebody | Joel Miller

The Checklist - Free Use

Chapter Summary | Joel, coming home from work frustrated and pent up, doesn't seem to care you're in the middle of a serious work meeting. He wants you? He'll have you.

Chapter Warnings | Basically porn without plot, this is a free use fic so please keep that in mind, consent conversations beforehand, oral sex (M&F), unprotected PiV sex, creampie, cum eating, fingering, these two get up to some questionable things on a zoom call, dirty talk, pet names (baby), established relationship, No Outbreak AU, No Use of Y/N.

Word Count | 3.2K

Pairing | Joel Miller x F!Reader

Authors Note | I'm going to out myself so hard by telling you all this specific scenario is such a fantasy of mine and imagining Joel Miller being the one to give it to me was too much. The amount of pacing I had to do writing this is not worth imagining haha. I know this isn't for everyone, but I hope those of you into it enjoy it! Shoutout to @swiftispunk for starting off the flurry of voting for this next part - enjoy y'all. If you do enjoy this, reblogs and comments are always appreciated, and if you'd like to support me further, you can donate to my Ko-Fi.

A reminder that whilst this is part of a wider series, this can be read as a standalone if you wish.

Beautiful divider by @saradika

I no longer have a taglist, to keep up to date with my work, please follow @thetriumphantpandanotifs and turn on notifications.

Series Masterlist | Main Masterlist | Ko-Fi.

You’re finishing up dinner, plate empty, sipping from a glass of water when Joel slips the now worn piece of paper over the table to you. Some things crossed off, some still waiting to be explored. You grin at him over your glass of water.

“Baby, I’m tired tonight.”

“I know, I ain’t fishing, I promise, just wanted to talk to you about this one.”

You look down at the little checklist, one of Joel’s fingers pointing to your handwriting, free use. You bite your lip a little, looking at him through your eyelashes.

“You know what it means?” He asks.

“Yeah,” You nod simply, “Means I let you have me whenever you want, right?” You shrug a little, “Why, you been doing your research, Miller?”

He snorts a little, shaking his head with a little laugh, “Sounds like you have too,” He takes a drink of his water, “Means you agree t’let me do whatever I want t’ya, whenever I want, but I need t’know if there’s anythin’ you don’t want me to do.”

You think for a minute, biting at your lip, “You can do whatever, just as long as I’m not asleep.”

Joel nods his head in agreement, sliding the piece of paper back over the table and into his pocket.

“I’m going to be living in pure anticipation over this now.”

“I know, baby,” He smirks, standing up to clear the plates from the table, dipping to kiss the top of your head as he pike yours up, “That’s part of the fun, right?”

You sigh, heel of your palm digging into our eyes. This meeting was dragging. This meeting definitely could have been an email. It’s now thirty minutes after you were meant to log off, and Jean from Finance won’t shut up about budgets and correct invoicing. Mark still hadn’t said his piece, and he’s known for droning on as well, so you’re going to have to wait at least another thirty minutes to give your update and leave.

Reaching over to pick up the now lukewarm cup of coffee on the desk, you hear the front door open. Sighing again, knowing that Joel is very rarely done with work before you are.

“Hello?” He calls into the house.

“Still in a meeting, baby!” You call back, office door ajar so he can hear you.

You can hear him climbing up the stairs, even without his boots on you can hear his heavy footfall coming down the hallway, his head peaking around the door frame.

“Camera’s off, thankfully.” You smile, turning in your office chair a little to reach your hand out to him.

“It’s late.” He comments, leaning down to press a kiss to your lips when you tilt your face up towards him.

Motioning your head to the screen, you say, “Jean won’t stop droning about budgets, I’m probably in it for the long haul.”

Joel runs a hand down the back of your head, fingers digging softly into the back of your neck which has you leaning back into his palm, rolling your shoulders as he works his thumb through the stress knot, “Did you say it was camera’s off?”

You nod your head, closing your eyes, leaning back into his touch. You can feel him running the tips of his fingers down your arm, fingers circling your wrist, which he then brings up, placing your palm again the front of his jeans where he’s already half-hard. The hand on the back of your neck is gentle, but firm, as it pulls you back a little, making you open your eyes to look up at him.

“You’re gonna suck my cock, baby,” It’s not a question, he isn’t asking, and he’s firm with it too, unbuckling his belt, “Been hard all day thinkin’ a’you, and I want you t’fix it.”

You swivel the chair a little, so you can bring your hands up to pop the button on his jeans and pull the zipper down. You pull his jeans down just to his mid-thigh, bringing your face forward to press soft kisses to the skin where the legs of his boxers are sitting, your palm rubbing gently up against the growing bulge tenting his underwear.

Joel reaches down, palm cupping your cheek softly, but when you look up at him, his eyes are dark, face stoic, “I said fix it baby, not tease me.”

You hook your fingers into the elastic around his hips, dragging the material down slowly, watching as his cock springs free when you’ve pulled his underwear down to meet his jeans. You can already feel the flicker of heat in your abdomen as you wrap your palm around his base, pressing hot, open-mouthed kisses to the skin around him, focusing your attention anywhere but where he wanted it, as your hand moves up and down his length.

Before he can chastise you again, you lean back a little, guiding the head of his cock to your mouth. You bring your lips the the underside of him, pressing your mouth all the way down, before using your tongue to lick all the way back up, relishing in the way Joel exhales, all shaky, when you flick the tip of your tongue to the underside of the tip of his cock. You let him rest on your tongue a little, fisting the base of his cock, before you wrap your lips around him, tongue swirling wet and hot around it.

Joel has always loved when you do this to him, and you’ve always loved the way you can make him come undone with just your mouth. He’s already groaning a little when you flatten your tongue against the underside of his cock, moving your head down, taking as much of him into your mouth as you can before you feel him nudge at the back of your throat. You drag your fist up his length as you pull your mouth back off him, pumping him a few times to wet his cock with your spit, before you carry on exactly as you were, slowly running your mouth up and down him, following the movement of your lips with your fist.

You’re still half-aware of the sound coming from your laptop next to you, you can still hear Jean talking, which is no surprise, but there’s something about her talking about the new budget codes for the next financial year, knowing you’re paying no attention to her and instead sucking your boyfriend’s cock, that makes you rub your thighs together. You’re so wrapped up that when Joel uses his palm to cup your chin, you think he just wants to look at you with his cock stuffed halfway down your throat, but then he’s tilting his head towards your computer.

“I think someone just asked you a question, baby.”

Joel is smirking as you pull your mouth off him, scrabbling to unmute yourself, “Sorry Jean, I didn’t quite catch that, could you repeat the question?”

She sighs, and you can see her in the tiny rectangle, shaking her head. Joel reaches down, taking hold of your hand to bring it back to his cock, his own hand covering yours as he guides your movements, jerking him off whilst Jean repeats her question.

“I said, can you send me your budget reporting by the end of the week so I can get it all imported into the master finance sheet ready for auditing?”

You’re keenly aware that although your camera is off, your hand is currently fisting Joel’s cock whilst you’re having a conversation about fucking budget sheets. You’re pretty sure if you put a hand in your panties right now you’d be soaked from the situation alone.

“Sorry Jean,” You apologise, “Yes, that should be fine, I can email those over before the end of Friday.”

You don’t even wait for her response, just click the microphone button again to mute yourself, turning back to Joel, who is moving your hand off of his cock, fisting the base of it himself to bring to back to your mouth.

He cups the back of your head in one of his wide palms, inching his cock back into the wet heat of your mouth, “What would Jean think baby?” He asks, starting short thrusts into your mouth, “If she knew you’d been jerkin’ me off whilst talkin’ to her?”

It’s a rhetorical question really, considering he won’t pull himself from your mouth to let you answer, but he knows her, he met her last year at the Christmas party, she’d be horrified, clutching the gold crucifix necklace she always wears and praying for your salvation probably.

“Want you t’get nice and sloppy, baby,” Joel coos, “Y’know how I like it.”

And you do, you know exactly how he likes it. You move your palms around his body, palms resting on the meat of his ass, fingers digging into the skin ever so gently as you you slacken your jaw around him, finally letting the head of his cock hit the back of your throat. He loves it when you get messy, when he can hear you gagging around him, when you pull back and he’s covered in your spit.

“Yeah, that’s it baby,” He encourages from above as the tip of your nose brushes against the soft skin of his tummy, “Takin’ me so fucking deep.”

His palm is still on the back of your head, holding you still as he starts those shallow thrusts into the back of your throat. You can feel saliva pooling at the corners of your mouth, the sounds of gulping and Joel’s hisses when you gag around him all that you can hear. You bring your hand lower, cupping his balls and almost preen when he gasps, massaging them gently as he fucks your face.

He pulls himself out of your mouth, holding you still, his cock still so close to your mouth, with trails of spit still connecting the two of you. As you take a breath, you’re aware that it’s now Mark’s voice you can hear, which still means you’ve got time until you say your piece, but time is running out.

Joel clutches your cheek in his palm, rubbing away the trail of tears he’s caused from fucking your face, “Gonna fuck you now, baby,” He says, stepping back to kiss your mouth, “Stand up.”

You do, Joel pushing the office chair away from you so he can stand behind you, hooking his fingers into the waistband of your leggings, pulling them down your legs to pool at your ankles, along with you underwear. He’s behind you, pressing himself against your ass before you know it, cock sliding through your slick folds. You’d be embarrassed that you’re so wet without him even touching you, but the way he slides himself into you, burying himself to the hilt in your aching cunt, has your brain blank immediately.

“So fuckin’ wet, baby,” He hisses from behind, hands holding your hips to keep you still, “All from suckin’ my cock, huh?”

Your palms are face down on the desk, body placed just to the side of where your laptop sits. You turn your head around to look at Joel behind you, catching Mark in his little rectangle on your screen - you have no idea what he’s talking about, but the thrill of knowing that you’re not paying attention because Joel is dragging his thick cock out of you, holding still before he slams himself back into you, and they have no idea that’s what you’re doing, makes your indifference to the conversation even more noticeable to you.

He’s rough with it today, not uncomfortably so, but you can tell he’s had a stressful day of it, you always can, when he grips your hips hard enough to leave fingerprints on your skin and does nothing but use you for his own pleasure. He’s always one to return the favour afterwards, getting you off with his fingers or his mouth, but there are just some times when he needs to let out his own frustrations first.

Joel snakes a hand up your spine over your t-shirt, letting his hand tangle in your hair before he pulls back harshly, arching your back into him, it causes a strangled cry to fall from your lips as his cock punches back into you, the thick sound of his skin slapping against yours as he brushes that spot inside you enough to cause tiny black spots to appear in your vision.

“Feel good baby?” He asks from behind you, leaning his chest across your back, tagging at your hair to pull your face to his, his teeth nibbling at the skin of your jaw, tongue licking across it afterwards.

The change in angle, with him led flat against your back is insane, his thrusts now deep and short inside you, his weight pushing you flat against the desk now as he presses his mouth to yours. You open against him immediately, tongue melding with his own, moans swallowed, breaths tasted as he keeps a firm grip in your hair.

“Fuck me,” He groans out, almost pained, “Feel so fucking good baby, gonna make me come.”

You gasp into his mouth, not so much kissing him anymore than you are just lips to lips as he presses further into you, head of his cock nudging painfully at your cervix as he chases his high. You can feel yourself clenching around him, walls tightening and fluttering around his cock as you can feel him start to falter, until he’s biting down on your shoulder through your shirt, groaning out into your skin as you feel him fill you.

It’s a feeling you’ll never tire of, unsure of how you ever went so long without letting him do it, when it feels this good to feel him pulsing inside of you, your name whispered into your ear with a press of a kiss behind it. The feeling of him so desperate and full for you that he’s dripping down your thigh before he’s even pulled himself out of you.

He doesn’t give you much time to recover. He’s pulling at the hem of your shirt to get you to stand, his other hand reaching behind him to get hold of the chair, which he guides you into.

“I think that’s pretty much it from me,” You can vaguely clock Mark saying in the background, signalling that you’re up next, “Does anyone have any questions before I hand over?”

Mercifully, someone does have a questions, which at least gives you time to smooth your hair and try and tamp down the fact you’ve just been fucked by your boyfriend when you should have been listening to the meeting. As you’re reaching down to your ankles to pick up your leggings and pull them back on, Joel’s hand circles your wrist.

“What do you think you’re doing, baby?” He asks, settling himself on his knees between your open ankles, pulling your leggings off completely, tossing them to the side.

“I’ve got to present in a minute.” You pant, pointing to the screen.

He nods his head in understanding, “You’re good at multitasking though, aren’t you?”

It takes a second for what he’s suggesting to settle in your mind, and you think about denying him, but then you remember the agreement, and the fact you’ve not come yet, and then a smirk appears on your face. You’re scooting your office chair further into him, widening your thighs as you do it, reaching out to drag your laptop to the edge of the desk as Joel settles his face into your cunt, tongue already flicking gently at your clit.

“I’m going to hand over to HR now.”

You take a deep breath, unmute yourself, and start talking, just as Joel sinks two of his fingers into your cunt, dragging a gasp from your lips, “Sorry everyone, my camera doesn’t seem to be working, but can you all hear me okay?” You ask, biting your lip at the end to stop a groan from escaping when Joel curls his fingers up into you.

There’s a muttering of agreement across the screen, so you launch into your usual end-of-month spiel, “We’ve had a good response to our employee survey,” You start, the flat of Joel’s tongue working over your bundle of nerves, you let out a cough to stifle the need to moan, “If you haven’t already, please encourage all of your team members to complete it so we can get an accurate picture of what people are feeling.”

You drop a hand to your thigh, where Joel’s hand is splaying your legs apart from him, squeezing onto his fingers as you whimper slightly, “We’ve also attempted to start streamlining our onboarding process, which we’ll test with teams who have new starters in the c-coming w-weeks.”

You look down at Joel, face between your thighs, looking up at you, his fingers pulled from you now, replaced with his tongue. You’re about to protest, tell him you’re a mess there, that he’d only just filled you up with his cum not minutes before, but the way his dark eyes are looking up at you, that familiar twinkle settling across them, and the fact you’re meant to be talking right now, you keep quiet.

“A-and finally,” You try and continue, feeling his tongue dragging through your folds, back up to your clit, “I know it’s only August, but we’re starting to plan our Christmas celebration, so keep an eye out for the date holder and please accept the meeting invite so we can have an idea of numbers, more information to follow.”

It’s a miracle that you mute yourself in time to complete fall apart when Joel sucks your clit into his mouth, rolling his warm tongue across that nub of nerves. The pressure, teamed up with his fingers back inside you, have you falling apart with a scream, your hand flying to his hair, tugging at his curls as he works you through it, thighs shaking, clenching together until he’s forcing them apart, dragging his tongue back down to your entrance, swirling through your combined slick and his cum. He pushed up from on his knees, clutching his palms to your cheeks before he’s putting his tongue on yours again, letting you taste the mix of you and him on his tongue.

“We taste good, huh baby?”

You bite your lip, “That was hot.”

“Yeah?” He smirks, “What about it?”

“Apart from you eating me out whilst I give a very serious company update?” You shrug, “The fact that you ate your own cum from my pussy probably did it.”

He leans forward, pressing another kiss to your mouth, “Sounds like that’s all done,” He comments, you look over his shoulder to the now empty Zoom meeting, with just you left in it, “You hungry?”

You reach over his shoulder and leave the meeting too, closing your laptop down for the night, “Starving.”

[tathrin]

@aroace-moron​ okay but now I want some unhinged written-at-four-am Silmarillion High School or University AU, where Galadriel is like a grad student or something and Finrod is her overly-perky breezing-through-it-all brother and Thranduil is the precious(ly annoying) freshman and Celeborn is this quiet dork who is just massively crushing on her so tired and Thingol is the stern, irritated principal and Melian is this unflappable teacher whose lessons no one ever fully understands but my stars is it interesting??? and Thranduil’s dads are constantly embarrassing him because Oropher shoots his mouth off in every PTA meeting and also they keep making-out like teenagers whenever he turns around omg dads stop!? and...

#this is so cool! #first of all #i love how you write thranduil and his dads #'then they started flirting ugh disgusting so i left' #amazing #thranduil as a teenager is a concept I have not yet considered before #but yes #you nailed it #also Galadriel and Melian's relationship is so cool??? #i too wish to be tutored by a magical being only for her to randomly collapse tell me the king is dead and the kingdom falling #than that she might meet me again if i don't fuck up or die or something and then #disappears #i like to think that i would mourn #but the last few weeks of my last school year have proven to me that my reaction would more likely be 'sorry am i dismissed? are you just #gonna leave? what about class???' #galadriel is a lot more tactful than I am i think #sorey that was a lot of random thought it is 4am and I am not sure why exactly i'm awake #just kinda woke up #huh #anyway #amazing work as always! #take your time but I will definitely read it

Is the Galadriel and Doriath wip current or Galadriel reminiscing?

It is set in the final years of Doriath, and focuses on both Galadriel's role as Melian's student and her future fate as well as on Celeborn and Thranduil's youthful friendship, and it ends just after the Second Kinslaying.

It's very wip-y, in the sense of being mostly "here's a quick transcription of ideas" rather than actual writing, and I'm honestly not sure when I'll get back to it...but here's the beginning at least. It's the most detailed part, although even still it's mostly just sketched-out scene-notes with some bits of actual rough-draft prose at the end.

Melian and Galadriel in the former's garden in Doriath in a courtyard outside the palace that spills out into the wild forest; Melian is teaching Galadriel how to feel the world within her, both of them barefoot on the grass, feeling the flow of the song rise up through the soles of their feet. A peaceful, soft, quiet moment…

Thranduil and Celeborn walk along one of the castle walls, Thranduil skipping on the actual wall and Celeborn scoffing at him from the walkway; they pass two guards, who laugh; no one is taking the guard duty particularly seriously, because they all know Menegroth is safe from harm. 

Thranduil says that his father doesn't think it's good that they allow Galadriel and Finrod to come here; Celeborn is shocked (and deeply crushing on Galadriel), why!? Thranduil shrugs and says that Oropher doesn't think that it's good to have Noldor here when a Silmaril is; his other father, he adds while Celeborn is drawing an outraged breath to argue, pointed out that neither Galadriel nor Finrod are Fëanor's sons and should not be judged by their deeds. Oropher admitted that was true, but points out that they are still his kin—and perhaps for their own sake, should be kept far from such possible temptation. Other dad was amused by this; does Oropher really think that just the sight of some pretty jewel will overcome them? At that point, Thranduil says, wrinkling his nose, they started saying mushy stuff about being overcome by your beauty, and that's when he left. Celeborn laughs and calls him a child. Thranduil scowls.

Meanwhile, inside the hall, Thingol and the dwarves clash over the necklace; we open at the end of the argument, when tempers have already flared. Thingol towers over one of the dwarves, trying to intimidate him; another dwarf steps behind him and swings a hammer, cutting him down at the knees; he falls with a cry of surprise and the dwarf raises the hammer over him again…

Melian gasps and falls, Galadriel half-catching her and sinking to the ground with her mentor in her arms. "Teacher!" she cries (look up Sindarin), startled and afraid; what could fell a Maia? Melian smiles sadly, her eyes far away. "Fear not for me, Galadriel. This is the day I have long foreseen come at last, and the darkness that follows will be for you to face, and not for me. I depart these lands now, and leave Middle-earth for a time in the keeping of the elves alone."

In the halls, one dwarf stares in shock and horror at another; what have you done? The second lowers his bloody hammer and says that Thingol would have kept their treasure for his own. Should they have let him? Are the elves to forever be their betters, because they were made first? We are the forgotten children, unwanted by the song; it is up to us to seize our place in Arda, to make our own place in the song. Will you be forever second-best to the elves?

No, the first agrees; he takes the necklace. No, we will not let our work be stolen or our souls unvalued. Not by the elves, and not even by the Valar themselves. We are dwarves, and we know our worth as well as we know the worth of our treasures; we will not let our value be dismissed. But come! We must away before the other elves learn what we have done, or it will not be our treasures but our lives that pay the wages of this working! They flee.

"Depart!" Galadriel cried, her voice ringing raw and hollow through the garden. "But why? Wherefore should you leave this place?"

"I follow my beloved Thingol's spirit, my dear student. I know that I shall find him again someday on the other side of the Halls of Mandos; for he has left this land, and my daughter is long lost beyond the Gift of Men; and now comes the time where I depart for the Blessed Realms, and return to my own teacher and my kind and kin."

Galadriel gasped, her mind reeling beneath the weight of Melian's words. It was too much; too much all at once. She seized on the simplest, cruelest part: "Thingol is dead?"

"His life's blood even now spills across Menegroth's stone," Melian murmured. She rose, and drew Galadriel up with her. The queen seemed taller now, somehow, but more insubstantial too; she stood like a pillar of cloud before the breeze and smiled down gently at the bewildered elf-maid standing lost and lonely before her. "I say again, do not be afraid, my brightest and dearest student. I will not say that we shall meet again, for far and away will come the chance that may one day lift the Ban that bars you from those blessed shores; and thin even as the blade of a silver knife that chance is. You may well fail it; you may not even live to face the test. " She clasped one of Galadriel's hands between both of her own and stroked the bare fingers gently. "But if you do come across fire and destruction to the moment of your measure, and you can overcome both power and pride, then I foresee that the Ban upon your head will be lifted and the Seas will open to bear you home again."

"I do not think that Aman will ever let me call it home again," Galadriel whispered.

Melian cupped her face between her hands. "Ask your heart again in later Ages where your home lies, and despair not before then," she said, and bent low to kiss Galadriel on her brow. "Now farewell, my dear. Farewell, and let not your heart be hardened. On the other side of every nightfall there is a dawn, and the light in you will never go out so long as you will it still to shine. That much, I promise you."

"Melian—" Galadriel began to say, but the queen was no longer there; only a shimmer of light where she had stood, a gleam of mist that might once have been a smile and a faint echo of a distant song; but she was gone, and Galadriel stood now alone.

Around the borders of Doriath, the girdle of power that had long defended the great green lands flickered and began to fade, following the flight of its maker. The earth beneath Galadriel's bare feet shivered at the loss of power, but Galadriel did not feel it; she had heart then only for her tears.

[minki-moo]

Oooh, your 'want to want you' fic was so good! I loved it!!

Can you pls write a fic about Chan teaching you to ride for the first time?

Because that's a skill in itself haha, you'll need help the first few times

the way i've been thinking about this for days 🫣

i also had to do research because i myself have also never ridden anyone so im sorry if this is biblically inaccurate

you and chan had been enjoying a relaxing day at home, catching up on a few shows and baking together (or you baking and him watching). but as the day wound down, you both made your way to the bed, lazily making out and running your hands on each others bodies. somehow during all this, you found yourself straddling chan, your hands on his chest and looking down at his swollen lips and wide eyes. you've never seen this view before; chan was always on top of you when you have sex, but you can definitely see the appeal.

"channie?"your face heats up a bit. "can i... ride you?"

chan's eyes widen, his grip on your thighs tightening. you were never really that bold when it came to sex; you knew what you liked and always told chan what made you feel good, but suggesting something new was something you've never done.

"are-are you sure?" you could see the lust and excitement under his concerned expression. you swallow down the doubt you had and nod. "i'm sure. i've never been so sure of something in my life." leaning over, you kiss him and whisper in his ear, "and the view from up here is amazing."

the flustered look on chan's face made you smirk; he was always so composed, but the minute you did anything, he didn't know how to act at all.

taking a deep breath, chan sits up so he's leaning on the bed frame, holing your waist and pulling you closer to his chest. "baby," he says in a low voice, "have you ever ridden anyone before?" you shook your head. chan was basically your first everything, so you never had the chance to try anything sexual with anyone else.

"thought so." he slides his fingers under the waist band of your panties. "can you take these off for me?" raising your hips, you let chan tug them off. once they're off, chan reaches into his boxers and pulls out his already hard cock. somehow, you always forget how big chan is; not overwhelmingly so but it was enough to make you nervous.

"baby," chan's voice is soothing as he rubs little circles into your hips, "it's gonna be ok. just do what feels right."

reaching behind you, you take chan's cock in your hands, lining it up with your opening. taking a deep breath, you slowly sink down, taking him inch by inch. once you finally bottom out, the quiet, breathy moans you were holding in leave your mouth.

"channie, 'm so full." you whimper as you lean your head into chan's shoulder.

"i know baby. fuck, you're so tight. so perfect for me."

when you've gotten used to the feeling, you place your hands on chan's thighs, tentatively raising your hips and lower them slowly, the drag of his cock igniting more pleasure inside you. the moan you hear from chan lets you know you're doing a good job, as he uses his hands to guide you up and down his length. after a few strokes, you start to pick up the pace, bouncing faster as you start to lose yourself in the pleasure. "that's it baby, you're doing so-fuck-so fucking well." chan's strained moans mix with your desperate ones, his fingers digging into your hips. feeling his release coming much faster than he wanted, chan thrusts up into you, making you cry out.

"ch-channie, fuck 'm gonna cum." you start to move frantically, meeting each of chan's thrusts as his cock hits your g spot every time.

chan grabs the back of your neck, pulling you down into a heated kiss. "fuck, that's it. cum for me, baby." his command was enough to make you spiral, your orgasm hitting you hard as you slam your hips down one more time. a loud groan from chan was the only warning you got before you felt his cock twitch inside you, the warmth of his cum giving you another small orgasm.

collapsing on chan's chest, you slowly catch your breath, the pain in your thighs finally catching up to you. "that, was amazing." you giggle at the awe in chan's voice.

"yeah, it really was." you give him a quick peck on the lips before leaning back into him, slowly falling asleep in his arms.

a/n ♡ they definitely slept with his dick still inside

tag list ♡ @kpopsstuffs @bxgylr @notastraykid @stolasisyourparent

[copper-16]

i know not to long ago you gave fic recs of mapi and ingrid as parents, but what are some of your favorite stories or writers in general? :D i absolutely adore your writing so i have full trust in your judgement hehe <3

Oh absolutely, this is such a fun ask thank you for sending it to me! Full judgement is a lot of confidence to have in me but I’ll do my best to give good recommendations!

I’m going to try to do authors with multiple fics, and this is definitely not exhaustive! This is in no particular order just random ramblings 😅

For ao3:

@summer-princess (literally ANYTHING she writes. Anything. The angst always makes me want to scream and cry on the floor it’s so well done)

@lucawrites11 (I’m super partial to all of their kid fics but anything they write is fantastic! The amount of thought and time and research they put in before writing is incredibly admirable, I am always in awe)

@catmiemy (again anythingggg pick ANYTHING! They also have some good y/n fics on here as well!)

@soiwatchyougo (amazing writer for Mapi and Ingrid. I’m especially in love with their story bodyguard, I highly recommend!)

amysparadise (love their work so much! They have some seriously sweet stuff)

@acornsquish (had some amazing mapi/ingrid fics I loved! They don’t write anymore but their stuff is still amazing!)

cbfj1s (this is out of left field because these guys write for Preath but their stories are PHENOMENAL. They write in a pair (I believe) and are genuinely so talented wow! They have a kid fic called the Scottie universe that melts my heart EVERY TIME! Probably my favorite author online, if I had to pick just one)

For tumblr:

@girlgenius1111 (do I have to explain myself? I don’t think I do literally read anything by them and you’ll be equally as obsessed as I am)

@wileys-russo (has SO many fics and they are all incredible quality in terms of writing! I am super partial to the fresa universe…it has me clawing my heart out and sobbing but also begging for the next installment at the same time! It is simply that good)

@ceesimz (another one that needs no explaining - writing is WONDERFULLY crafted and always so thorough and interesting. I can’t recommend enough)

@samkerrworshipper (again - so many fics and all SO well done? I am truly amazed at any and all times)

@muffinpink02 (if you’re in…that mood - look no further haha! No crumbs are ever left and at the same time you never want it to end because it’s so good)

@hgfictionwriter (they have some amazing Jessie fics! I love their multi part stories and how they portray more complex storylines especially)

That’s everyone on the top of my head - I am positive I am missing more though!

[ds9anonkinkmeme]

Interest check

Hi, just doing an interest check for an idea we have about making a DS9 anon kink meme! A kink meme is an ongoing prompt event where people can anonymously request fics and others can choose to anonymously fill any prompts they feel inspired by.

See below the poll for our initial thoughts on pros and cons and considerations.

On ao3 we could very easily set up a prompt collection open for anyone to add prompts or fill prompts anonymously. But we don’t know how easy it is to maintain momentum on an ao3 prompt collection. Maybe that doesn’t matter and it can be an ephemeral thing until people forget about it and it becomes inactive, and then the next generation of folks in the fandom can start up their own new one in a few years haha. If we do it on ao3, should we make subcollections for individual “seasons” or “rounds” (there would likely be no actual deadlines, it would just be whatever length of time it takes for the list of prompts to get too long and unwieldy to be usable), or should we have people put all the prompts into a single collection that just grows and grows and grows?

On dreamwidth there would be comment threads so there would be a way to anonymously register enthusiasm for a prompt even before it gets written, which seems really good for encouragement and feeding off of each other’s hype. (Dreamwidth might also tell you when new comments are added to the community, unlike prompt collections on ao3?) But we are less familiar with dreamwidth so we aren’t sure there’s enough ds9 fandom hanging out there (or willing to make an account there) to sustain it over there.

Tumblr doesn't seem like an option for a number of reasons (can't post fully anonymously to tumblr except via asks, and having everything be done via asks would make it difficult to organize and connect prompts with fills because to keep them both anon they'd have to be separated, and tumblr is a website with a famously terrible search function).

If a DS9-focused kink meme already exists, we’d love to hear about it! We’ve found a few seemingly inactive ones in our research. But if there’s an active one out there, we could absolutely just pivot to supporting/participating in that, instead of making our own thing and dividing up the fandom’s energies. (Another question we don’t know the answer to: Is it possible/desirable to work on reviving one of those inactive ones, just by encouraging a collective effort to start participating in one again? Or do we think the mods of these inactive ones have abandoned them and might be stressed out to suddenly see new activity?)

If you have something to say but don’t want to say it publicly, we also have an anonymous, slightly expanded google form version (that can be found in our pinned post) with space to leave freeform feedback. You can vote in one or both forms of this poll, depending on what you feel like.

We’d very much appreciate reblogs to spread this poll around since we just made this account, but no pressure to do so. We still want your vote in the poll if you’re interested in this idea, even if you don’t want to reblog a post about it. <3

Anyway, if you have any thoughts on this DS9 kink meme idea (or messages of encouragement!!!), please feel free to send them in! <3

[honeyhotteoks]

do you have any advice on like getting better with writing?

hey! i definitely do!! i’ve talked about this before but i have a lot of new readers, so ill start off by saying i’ve been writing for my entire life, and im 30 so thats a lot of years. if you’re a new writer, trust me i used to be there and good god if you guys could see the stuff i published in old fandoms 💀 really, really bad haha

i only say that because i by no means consider myself a great writer, there are fic writers in this space alone that i’m always so floored by and look up to…. but people have been very kind about my writing style and it’s something that took time to develop it’s not something i just “had”. outside of fic, i was a literature and creative writing major, and got very used to writing and workshopping pieces.

now! onto some actual advice —

1. read a lot and read more, but read stuff you actually like and not stuff you feel pressured to read. i love high brow litfic as much as the next pretentious english major, but i started writing a ton after reading a bunch of kindle unlimited romance because it was fun and it got me inspired

2. watch well written television for dialogue and pacing. people do not talk in proper english, they don’t say things eloquently, and there’s a lot of filler and fluff. that’s good! that’s real, so i love well written tv to show me how it’s done

3. get comfortable writing in weird ways. for years i used to sit down and be like “ah okay so chapter one” and then i was stuck, stalled out, and just felt bad about the process. when i started writing both aurora and tnt, i started in the middle. i had an image of a scene in my mind (for tnt it was actually the claim attempt) and i just wrote it out and then bounced around later

4. outlines are your friend! sometimes i’ll get a random line of dialogue in my head or an image but that doesn’t mean i’m ready to write it. i throw it in one big outline so i don’t lose it.

5. if you’re wanting to write really good smut i have two suggestions but please only do this to your personal comfort level. this is what works for me but do not make yourself uncomfortable— for good smut, i watch porn for reference and for good dirty talk, i listen to nsfw audio. i like to really write the visuals for smut and make it immersive but lol i haven’t experienced everything ive written about and logistics of the body are hard!! i usually find a video or an audio and let that help guide the imagery im writing.

6. be comfortable with the editing process. i know the temptation to post something the minute you finish it is there, but sleep on it. come back and edit it, read the dialogue out loud if you have to. i swear you’ll make the piece better just by leaving it and coming back.

7. don’t be afraid to post. most people are kind, and the worst thing that will happen is you don’t get a lot of notes. that’s okay, it’s a process.

8. research! as i’m writing anything, even a silly little oneshot, im doing research on something. i am hyper aware that im not korean and have never spoken korean or lived in korea, so for my fic i try my hardest to ground elements of that in reality. i truly cannot tell you how many hours ive spent reading like korean case law on revenge porn just for like 3 lines of dialogue. and you don’t have to go that crazy, i’m arguably too intense, but i do think some of that helps the story and the dialogue feel real.

9. describe something real- every place in my writing is based on something real. every apartment, hotel, cafe, venue, etc., they’re all either something i’ve found online or drawn from my life and use that to my advantage. i use apartment listings and save photographs, i do google map walks to see what neighborhoods look like, anything to get the feel of a place or an experience. for the christmas chapters of aurora, i watched hours of gwangju walking tour videos on youtube while i was writing just to understand how to describe their walk in the snow. it really helps me to have a visual that i can put words to.

10. find your weak points and see what other writers do differently. if you want to improve, you should find a small place to start. is it dialogue? overall plot? smut? etc. - i’ll never forget being on a creative writing retreat, and a very important writing professor said to me “everything you write is very pretty but you haven’t said anything. you have to decide to say something.” that feedback hurt, but sent me down a much better writing path when i realized where i was falling short and not challenging myself.

okay i hope some of this was helpful and if it’s a mess im sorry im on mobile. i really just love writing so deeply and will always talk about it, so i hope this was helpful 💗

[oraeliaa]

Fallout and Food - research for all fics

I've been meaning to type this up for ages (I have it as written notes on my iPad), so I thought I'd post this first and if people are interested I can post more research that I've done, since a lot of you said yes to seeing my research!

So I talk about food a lot, in my fics. That's because I love cooking. So one of the first things I did was research food, because as much as I love spam (no joke I miss it most since going vegetarian) I wanted to try and have some diversity in what Cooper and Lucy ate, especially once we got to the ranch, where the residents are permanently settled and food is part of life, rather than a mere thing of sustenance.

There were a few things I focused on in my research, wanting to have meals that could be left whilst work was happening, so I pictured a lot of stews and cassoulets, corn-based porridge, hearty breads etc - but there's no flour. Instead, Mesquite beans can be subbed 1:1 for flour to make a flatbread, and there's a lot of recipes using beer etc, which we know they have, as a raising agent.

A lot of the animals they're eating aren't exactly to our tastes, but knowing that peppers and tomatoes are grown lets us know they can make paprika etc, and the jalapenos in game gave me hope haha! I wrote a smoker into the farm and cold storage so they could a) dry age the meat via hanging, and b) smoke extra flavour into some of the less...appetizing cuts

And for the meat-

Here are some of the meal ideas I noted down-

Meal ideas

Cassoulet of wild beans and meat

If we have agave and corn we can have cornbread

Corn based porridge

Pinon nuts - pine nuts + Jalapeno and coriander could marinade Iguana Nicely

Pickly Pear - can be made into fruit/jelly/fruit cheese (named after the historic moulds, no cheese involved) or sauce for meat

Tacos with black beans and brahmin cheese

Nopales are edible pads of the prickly pear cactus, which can be stir fried

Tepary beans and cholla bud stew

And finally, 10 of my references since you can only put 10 links in, apparently!

[hollow-lime-green]

hi!! just wondering if you have any stsg fic recs you’d be willing to share? i’m currently gobbling up 2sorcs like a gremlin and looking for something else to read between updates but i only really trust your opinions and characterizations which 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼 anyways love ur work and hope you’re doing well!!

Ah! First of all, thank you <3 I do have some fics I really like! I shall rec them and give a little anxiety disclaimer at the end.

Fic Recs - Shorties

it would make a whole - by @diggingupgrave 8.8k, T, First Year, Pre-Relationship, Emotional H/C oh i love this fic so very much. this may have been one of the fics that really got me thinking about their characterization in the first place, tbh.

As You Wish - by @haha-funny-valentine 2.5k, T, Post-Star Plasma Arc, Emotional H/C wonderful characterization here and I am just such a sucker for H/C.

The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom - by @zombieheroine 16.3k, T, Prison Realm Gojo Character Study I took my skin off to check and I am shocked that this fic is not like, Doing Numbers. this fic is SO fucking creative and unique and I just. love. it. Definitely a big inspiration for FIYM. It's like Harrow the Ninth but for Gojo in the Prison Realm and like, oh my god so well done imo.

Longfic Recs with Caveats

and if you take my hand (series) - by @detta-pica 40k (Ongoing), T, Witch AU, Slow Burn Caveat: this is a WIP, and we're in the early part so very much Unresolved Romantic Tension. But I really like the worldbuilding in this and I'm excited to follow it as it keeps going, so big rec here if you like Plot and are down to follow some more ongoing fics. :)

coanda effect - by @bunniehoneys 250k, M, F1 AU, Slow Burn, Eating Disorders, Drugs, Bad Choices I am probably the last person in the world to read this fic so it feels silly to rec, but I'm doing it anyway because I'm a little obsessed. Caveat 1: also technically a WIP for another week or two

Caveat 2: TAGS check the tags. If you are at all sensitive to discussion of EDs, skip this fic, but I think it's done well and adds a lot to the characterization

Caveat 3: I am not caught up on this fic. it's one that I didn't let myself read for a while (see below) but F1 has a special place in my heart (my dad is into it, I used to live in a Gran Prix city, and I have watched WAY too much F1 Lets Play content).

I've been working really shitty hours for the past 48 hours (almost done) due to research that requires specific spans of real earth time. Because I don't have the focus to write right now, I've had the chance to read a little, and I've read about 75% of this gargantuan fic in windowless rooms on my phone, which has to say something about how much I love it lmao.

Disclaimer: I am a bad source of stsg fics because I actually don't read very many. If I read amazing fic then it tends to trigger the "you will never be as good as the old masters" part of the brain, although instead of real art like in the meme, my fic is putting gojo in a minecraft hoodie and making him do the gangnam style dance. Still.

I also get very unhealthy about metrics/numbers, which I mostly manage by using AO3 skins to block stats, but I still have some moments of weakness. So I try to avoid looking at stuff that I know might make me anxious/insecure about my own works and be unable to finish them (this has unfortunately happened to me before in the FE3H fandom, and that continues to weigh on me).

All that to say, there are some really big, nice, and well-loved fics by wonderful authors currently being updated, and I have read almost none of them. So this is absolutely not me saying I don't like their characterizations, I'm just kind of a hermit.

[jinnie-ret]

hii, its the anon who asked about lgbtq+ readers.

what i had in mind was a nonbinary 9th member who uses they/them pronouns and interviewers and talk how hosts etc keep misgendering them and using the wrong pronouns, saying how theyre the only female member. the boys are the one to keep adamantly correcting them, no matter how many times they have to do it. the reader would be annoyed at the interviewers but glad the boys had their back, maybe the boys reassuring them at the end.

obviously only write it if you feel comfortable, thank you for answering my original ask!! your writing is great and a big comfort, i honestly think youd be great at writing it but this is your blog and only write what you feel comfy writing <333

who I am

stray kids x ninth member non-binary!reader (platonic)

genre: angst, fluff

content warnings: ignorant interviewer, misgendering

word count: 1.4k

summary: the boys support y/n for who they are, and show them that they truly have their back when a podcast goes wrong.

Thank you so much! Ok! I finally wrote it! I hope that this brings you great comfort like my other fics do too! And please give me feedback that this was written okay because I would never want to misrepresent anyone or their feelings in my writing.

As always, like, reblog if you enjoyed, and my asks are open for any requests you may have. And let me know if you'd like to be tagged when I post :)

MAIN MASTERLIST

"Welcome back to the podcast! Today we have a special guest, or guests, should I say, Stray Kids! Everyone give it up for Stray Kids!" the interviewer, Oscar, introduces us, the camera panning to us all sat in a cosy studio setting. We were currently in LA promoting our new album.

"Thank you inviting us!" Bang Chan says bashfully. We all knew of the podcast, well, us English speakers did, and we were so excited to be on the show.

"So, let's get right into it, you're here to talk about your new album, right?" Oscar smiles, looking down at his notes before asking us the question.

"Yeah, we've just released our new album 5STAR, and we hope that our fans enjoy it, and, yeah!" Felix begins to explain, smiling as he trails off, not knowing what else to add on. You give him a rub on the shoulder, letting him know that he was doing a good job. That's what you loved about being in Stray Kids, no matter who you were, you had each other's backs.

"It really is so cool to have you all here, and may I say, this really is a unique bunch of members you have here," Oscar waves his hands as he explains.

"Well, we like to think that we all bring something different to the table haha," you laugh along politely.

"Well, that's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about, Y/N," Oscar turns his body towards you slightly.

The others go 'ohhh', making you blush slightly.

"You want to ask me?" you brush your hair back, your newly cut black mullet, which went down a treat with stays.

"Yes, the reason I say you're in quite a unique situation, is because, well, it's so rare to see 8 guys and a girl in one group together!" Oscar smiles.

Oh.

Your smile dropped.

Maybe you had gotten your hopes up, thinking he'd be talking about your input on the fashion of the group, considering it was quite well known, especially with the group's growing popularity that you created many of the pieces that yourself and the boys would wear.

But no. Somehow you didn't think that this topic would be brought up once again.

"Stray Kids is family, no matter what," Hyunjin spoke up, communicating as best he could in English that gender didn't matter.

The boys could sense your discomfort at Oscar blatantly calling you a girl. Surely he's done enough research that he knows you identify differently?

Even the less confident English speakers, Lee Know and Jeongin seemed to catch on what was happening.

"And what an interesting family you are indeed," Oscar didn't notice your unease or the slightly more defensive stances that the boys acquired from their seats.

"I also wanted to comment that I think Y/N is my bias, you guys!"

Seeming to think there was a more lighter mood in the room, Y/N themself to relax a bit and laugh along.

"Come on boys, don't be jealous, I just think she's got this special quality about her," Oscar continued, thinking the frowns on your members' faces were playfully jealous of his comment.

"They are very special to us, we feel lucky to have them in our group," Han spoke up, subtlely linking his pinkie with yours as a form of comfort. The boys knew that such situations like this still hurt you, because of how you struggled to understand why you felt different and finally knew why, it was frustrating when other people, who were clearly in a position to do some research, didn't know.

Of course you'd give the benefit of the doubt, maybe he didn't know and he might be apologetic, in which case it would all smooth over.

But it wasn't in this case.

"Actually, Oscar, Y/N is non-binary," Chan began, looking towards you to see if you wanted to continue.

"Yes, I use they/them pronouns and don't identify as either male or female, I'm just, me," you shrug it off and say casually, because that's how you felt it should be. It wasn't a big deal,.it was just who you are.

"Oh wow, that's quite interesting, so you don't look at it like she's your younger sister? Or you don't think that as a boyband you have a disadvantage having a female member?" Oscar furrowed his brows.

"We don't feel the need to recognise our member by a gender," Seungmin grabbed the mic provided by the studio and calmly spoke into it, it almost fully calmed you down, his soft voice as he spoke in English filling the room.

"It doesn't matter. We are a group. Just a group of people who like making music and entertaining our stays, and that's how they like it, so..." Felix's knee bobbed up and down, and you couldn't tell if the ray of sunshine was slowly turning into a thundercloud or if he was nervous to speak his mind. You were thankful either way.

"Right... I mean, it's funny, it must be weird, like having her as a novelty to the group, almost?" Oscar said genuinely, like he didn't see an issue in how he was conducting himself.

"They are best," Jeongin threw a cheeky smile your way, making the weight on your shoulders feel just a little bit lighter.

"We're a unit. A team. I mean, it's funny, we don't feel the need to separate ourselves based on gender," Chan passive aggressively said, using the man's previous words to show he would not take anymore ignorance to how his member was being treated.

"Look, I don't expect people to understand straight away, but I can appreciate them looking at me not just for what I believe is a socially constructed view, one that I don't align with, but for my talent," you slowly explained, nerves filling your body as you hoped the way that you had explained yourself had made sense and would get a message across to the interviewer.

"See, that's something I think would bring even more attention to your success! Y/N do you think that creating this facade has brought you more fans?" Oscar questioned, his kind intentions slipping away.

"Excuse me?" you were taken aback. Facade? He thought that you were pretending?

"Hyung? We can go now? Yeah, ok, great. We'll be leaving now, thank you for your time, I think," Chan sarcastically smiled at Oscar after getting the green light from their manager that they could leave.

"So, that wraps up our interview with Stray Kids today..."

You sighed as you all got into the van, leaving the studio all together. You sat in the back with Lee Know and Changbin.

"What did he say at the end?" Lee Know questioned, rubbing your knee soothingly.

"That I'm a fake," you scrunch your face, looking at the ceiling of the car to trap your tears and avoid them from escaping.

"He has no idea what he's talking about, Y/Nnie," Changbin turned to you as best he could at the back of the van.

"I just wish I could feel normal, but sometimes it's things like this that just alienate me from everyone else, you know?" you sigh, tapping your leg with your fingers to distract yourself.

"You're far from an alien, Y/N. We don't care about what other people say, you're a part of us. Chan hyung was right, we're a unit, and we'll stay as one forever," Hyunjin reassured you.

"Plus, if anyone is an alien, it's Hannie," Seungmin savagely chuckled.

"I'M AN ALIEN ON THIS EARTH!!!" Han took that as his cue to sing his song loudly, causing you to groan and cover your ears.

"Someone help him return to his home planet," you giggled, making the other boys laugh along with you.

"Seriously though, we've got you, hm? Stupid interviewers like that have no respect..." Jeongin shook his head, feeling irritated.

"He was nice at the start..." you trailed off, thinking about Oscar's bright personality which was for sure what brought in viewers and listeners of the podcast.

"But then he showed his true colours, he was rude, you didn't deserve the disrespect, end of," Chan said from the front of the car, making his voice a little louder than normal so everyone could hear.

"Thanks, Channie," you smiled, the two boys in the back of the car with you letting you relax against them as the stress seemed to leave your body.

They had your back, always.

tagged: @skz-streamer @hannahhbahng @backintomykpopphaseagain @kiraisastay

[ceilidho]

i love country roads so much, i feel really immersed into the old west whenever i read it! you are a fantastic writer and i smile real big whenever i see you post something :)) im sorry if someone asked this before but did you have an idea of what happened to the person john was originally supposed to marry? or are they just in the void of who knows lol

thank you so much!!! i need to do more research before i start the next fic in the series, but im rly proud of the atmosphere i created for country roads <3

haha stay tuned for that. im keeping my lips zipped until the fic is officially done (hopefully this week if i can muster up the energy to write the last chapter)

[diremoone]

cherry on top.

fushiguro toji x reader

in which your boyfriend of the last three years treats you to a birthday that he thinks you more than deserve :D

w — no curses AU, implied! Rich! Toji, a grain of angst, hair length isn’t specified but it’s enough to make a small bun, mentions of chubby! MC, and the hope that the fluff rots your teeth 🤭 not the best thing ever written by my hands but I love it anyway

a/n: happy birthday to me! this would’ve been out sooner today but I got a lil bit sick 😷 i’m unfortunately another year older but maybe another year closer to finding the man that’ll treat me like toji does mc in this fic haha. enjoy y’all’s reverse-birthday present lmao. this is a lil bit of self-indulgence btw so if it flops that’s why (but hopefully you guys like it too). I also tried to do accurate research on irl locations of the places that are mentioned, so I’m sorry if something isn’t correct 🙈

You don’t like the shake on your shoulder that wakes you up, nor the soft whisper of your name dropping from your boyfriend’s lip. You like it even less when you open your (very notably) tired eyes and look at the clock and see what time it is.

“What the fuck, Toji?”

He grins at your mumbled swears. “Happy birthday, cupcake.”

You know for a fact you have junk in your eyes, your hair’s a mess, your breath is borderline rancid and needs brushing, and that you overall look (and feel) like you just crawled out of a sewer completely deprived of sleep. So how this wonderful man squats beside the bed and combs his large fingers through your hair and gets his face so close to yours to attempt to kiss you is beyond your comprehension.

You cover your lips with the blanket, making him chuckle.

“Let’s celebrate, yeah?” Toji says, then stands to his full height. That’s when you notice that he’s dressed in regular clothes. “Gotta show my woman how much she means to me, don’t I?”

You quickly pull the blanket over your head to try and diminish his efforts. “If you wanna show me how much you love me, then let me sleep all day.”

Toji laughs as you snuggle into the pillow under your head. But the more you dig your cheek into the pillow, the farther away your ability to fall back asleep seems to be. You dig your nose into the soft material and let out a heavy sigh, hoping he doesn’t hear.

He’s won. “Come on. I’ll help you get out of bed and get ready, if that’s what it takes.” And when he chuckles after, you know he knows he’s won.

Toji lifts you by your outstretched hand to get you sitting on the edge of the bed, then proceeds to do the little things to get you ready that make your desperately-tired-but-desperately-in-love heart turn to mush.

Toji turns the sink on to get it warm so you can clean your teeth and face. Once you’re done, you realize he’s already got clothes already waiting for you to change into (one of his shirts that’s super baggy on you and a pair of red-pink floral leggings) on the bed. And once you change, he’s got your hairbrush in his big hands. He slowly combs his thick fingers through your hair, gently untangling the knots and brushing them out with minimal effort and pain.

You admit you nearly fall asleep again to his touch without shame.

“Don’t fall back into sleep,” Toji’s deep voice rumbles, which only soothes you further. “The day hasn’t even started yet.”

“You’re right,” you reply, yawning loudly. “It’s not even dawn yet.”

“Daybreak will be here when we get to the car,” he comments.

“Nice way of saying I’m slow,” you mumble.

Toji chuckles as he ties your hair into a bun, the stray baby locks being too short and left to dangle by your cheeks. He takes your smaller hand into his, and you still can’t help but feel flustered knowing how much bigger and warmer his hand is in comparison to yours is (read: you can’t help but feel flustered knowing you have someone holding your hand so sweetly with a hand as big as Toji’s).

There’s a small breeze when you step outside. And sure enough, Toji’s assumption is correct: the sun is starting to break over the horizon by the time you walk out to the car.

“Told you so,” Toji jokes.

You roll your eyes, but you can’t help but grin, too. “Shut up.”

He opens the car door for you like a gentleman, to which you feel your cheeks warm up in embarrassment.

When he starts the car and grips the wheel, it’s then he asks, “Where do you want to go for breakfast?”

You immediately know where you want to go. And you feel you know Toji knows, too. It’s been a place you’ve only been to twice because of how expensive it was, but it has the best waffles you’ve ever tasted. The thing about it though was, if you went, there wasn’t going to be a way for you to control your appetite.

You look to Toji, lips in a straight line as you internally debate with yourself.

“You have to promise me something.”

“Anything.”

“Don’t laugh at how much I order.”

Toji chuckles at that, to which you send him a playful glare. He holds his hands up in mock surrender, the scarred corner of his lip quirking up.

“I promise.”

“Or how I eat.”

“I’ve seen how you eat, don’t worry.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

Toji takes you to the fancy breakfast-only restaurant you murmur in embarrassment under your breath. And you were right: he already knows. Because the place was where you originally met—Toji’s umpteenth time with Megumi, while it was your second and last time.

Until today.

“You want me to take you here more often?” Toji asks.

You have a mouthful of syrupy waffles shoved into your mouth when he asks. You can’t help but feel embarrassed over the sudden focus on you while your cheeks are stuffed and puffed up like a chipmunk. But you nod anyway, slowly chewing the waffles and swallowing them.

“Don’t slow down on my accord,” Toji adds.

“You’re gonna make me fat,” you accuse jokingly.

Toji shrugs. And when that damned smirk appears on his face, you know he’s fixing to say something you aren’t gonna like.

“So what? You look good with rolls. More for me to love and grab during-”

“SHUSH!” you whisper-scream, eyes bulging out in hopes no one around you heard what he was implying.

The buff man only chuckles and smiles wider, happy with making you as flustered as he has.

You both end up stuffing a gut (on Toji’s even more overstuffed wallet) on the breakfast food before you two move on. Whatever he has planned next has you two driving for a good while after breakfast, which eventually leads you to ask, “Where to now?”

“To Narita.”

“Why?”

“To do one of the things you do the least,” he replies with a smirk.

You go blank. You admit to yourself you have no idea what he’s talking about. You try and think on it, and when he pulls into the Aeon Mall, a small lightbulb appears over your head. You look at him incredulously, while Toji looks extremely proud of himself.

“You’re taking me shopping?”

“Surprise.”

You belt out a small laugh. Of course. Of course this man would take you shopping. Of course he would do something that you felt so uncomfortable doing.

Shopping for yourself hadn’t been something you did for yourself often. Or really at all; only when you really needed to.

After being financially strapped for most of your life, from childhood until recently, you hadn’t spent much on yourself. You didn’t treat yourself to the finer things in life, even when you could’ve. And it left you empty, without a desire to be kind or do things for yourself. It left your birthday without luster, hollow, and without purpose, which led to you being so… uncaring about the day.

The day Toji, unknowingly to you, loved the most. Because it brought you into this world, into his and Megumi’s life. He’d be damned if he was going to let you act like it was just another day of the year.

Fuck that. His bank account was more than big enough to treat his woman to a proper birthday that she more than deserved.

Those thoughts were only reaffirmed by the bug-eyed, awestruck look on your face, your pretty eyes lighting up with a childlike wonder he’d only seen less than the amount of fingers on his right hand. He loved seeing it.

Oh yeah, he was going to spoil the fuck out of you.

You turn to him, mouth ajar with a twinkle in your eyes. But something crossed over your face for a split second—an emotion he knew too well: guilt.

“Toji…”

Fuck. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one little bit. Not the look that crossed your face, even for a second, not the sound of your voice as you called out to him. He wasn’t going to let your goody-two-shoes, guilty-feeling heart spoil his goal of reigniting your appreciation for your own birthday. Nope.

Toji wraps an arm around your waist and presses a sweet peck against the top of your head. “Don’t even try and do that shit—feeling guilty and all that. You ain’t taking advantage, woman. Now go shop. I ain’t got these big arms for nothing.”

“You aren’t my sugar daddy, you know,” you reply, brows raised with lips quirked up in amusement.

“No, I’m not. I’m a rich man that loves his woman and wants her to have the best birthday she’s had in years and take a massive chunk outta my bank account,” he boldly retorts. He grins that familiar, shit-eating grin, dips his head and neck and presses his lips against your cheek, and drags you forward, deeper into the mall. You can only help but throw your head back and laugh.

You spend several good, long-ass hours in the mall; a few hours pass what is considered lunchtime before you two do enough shopping that you both have to go back outside to the car to pack it with what has been bought before you can even think about getting anything to eat.

“What do you want for lunch?” Toji asks, stretching his burly arms before leaning against the car.

Your reply is instant, “KFC.”

Toji snorts, chuckling. He interlaces his thick fingers between yours and leads you both back inside.

Another few hours are spent buying clothes, a fluffy blanket you eyeballed and Toji was going to buy no matter how much you told him to put it back, and a few plushies of some of your favorite Pokémon. On the way home, Toji surprises you again by going to Mister Donut and practically taking half of what the store had. You died laughing in the car afterward because some of the other customers got offended as they watched him take so much.

“Toji, you shouldn’t have taken so much,” you giggle behind your hand as lean back against the door. “You seemed like an asshole.”

He smirks, holding the wheel with one hand and using the other to pinch your cheek.

“Don’t give a shit,” he laughs. You playfully swat at his hand. “You said you wanted donuts earlier, so you’ll get some donuts.”

“I didn’t mean the entire store.”

“Shoulda been more specific then.” Toji winks and the smirk on his face grows even wider.

The sky is painted beautiful oranges, pinks, and blues by the time you arrive home. The sun is setting beneath the horizon, under the green land and leaving behind the lights of the city and glitter of the stars dancing in the darkening sky to light the world. For some reason, it’s more… breathtaking than you remembered. You’d often spend time outside as the sun set, thinking nothing of it.

Maybe it was because of today.

Your eyes flicker to your boyfriend and the massive muscles of his arms bulging against the black shirt as he takes everything you’ve bought inside, and you can’t help the flutter in your stomach and the quickening pace of your heart.

Maybe it was because of Toji, and him making your birthday the most special it’s felt in years.

The smile that makes your lips go from ear to ear doesn’t go unnoticed by the black-haired man when he comes back outside. Nor does the sniffle and the backs of your hands wiping away at tears sliding down your cheeks. It makes Toji’s lips pull into a slight frown. This isn’t what he was expecting. Nor what he wanted to see.

He slides an arm around your shoulders, tugging you to his muscled chest.

“You ain’t supposed to be crying, baby,” he mumbles, big hands rubbing circles on your back to soothe you. “Come on. I’m going to start dinner. Shouldn’t be cryin’, sweetheart.”

“I know,” you mumur back, burrowing yourself deeper into his comfort, “but I’m not sad. Thank you Toji. Today has been the best birthday ever.” You stand on your tiptoes and press a sweet kiss to his cheek. “I love you.”

He stills, eyes widened slightly in surprise. You don’t make anything of it until the moment comes where you try and break free of his hold moments later and he doesn’t budge. Your brows furrow, and just as you’re about to ask him if he was okay, he cusses under his breath.

“Fuck it. Megumi can be the ring bearer.”

What he says doesn’t click until he gets down on one knee and pops open a small emerald green box, with a heart-shaped diamond ring nestled inside of it. Your mouth drops open and you feel eyes burn with more tears.

“[Name]—”

“What the actual fuck?”

You both laugh. Toji’s head drops as he sniggers at your foul language upon him getting on one knee; you laugh at yourself, at the reaction that came out of your lips faster than your brain could process.

“I don’t deserve you,” you whisper out, holding back a flood of tears.

“Nah, I’m the one that don’t deserve you. You’re fucking perfect. Who wouldn’t want you?”

You don’t deserve him, but he wants you anyway. Holy shit. This was really happening, wasn’t it? Were you about to say ‘yes’ and have a fiancé? Eventually become a married woman and help your to-be husband raise the sweetest, most adorable boy you’ve ever met? (It’s not like you aren’t already. You’ve heard him call you ‘Mama’ once through a phone call. Toji tried covering it up with a cough; you haven’t brought it up since.)

Toji clears his throat, regaining your attention. When you look down at him again though, he seems more nervous—all his moxie down the drain.

“So… Marry me?”

Your hands cup his cheeks and press your lips to his. He wraps his free arm around your waist, tilts his head to the side slightly and deepens the kiss.

You love him. You absolutely love him. There’s no doubt in your mind that you love him and your heart belongs to him. There’s no one but him by your side in the future you see. Every inch of you belongs to him, and he wants to belong to you just as much.

So, you pull from the kiss and whisper against his lips, “Let’s get married, baby.”

“Fuck yeah.”

You yell out in surprise as he picks you up with one big, strong arm and takes you inside. You wrap your legs around his waist in reaction, desperate to not fall.

But you know Toji wouldn’t ever let you fall. Not in a million years.

“Wanna go to the bedroom first?”

“You horny motherfucker.”

“Only for you.”

“Just put that ring on my finger and cook.”

He sets you on the counter like you’re porcelain. He takes the glimmering ring from the little box and slides it onto your ring finger. A perfect fit. You hadn’t even told him your ring size. His eyes are trained on it for several seconds before he mumbles, “Belongs right there.”

Whatever dessert he makes tonight, nothing will top this moment. This is the cherry on top to the sweetest birthday you’ve ever had. If whatever you went through was to get you here, to meet the man who’s the love of your life, you’d do it all over again.

@heresan here’s the birthday fic 🤭 i’ll get back to you vv soon, the last two days have been wild 👀

[girls-are-weird]

YR fanfic pet peeves (and corrections): latin america edition

so. i was originally going to post this in january as a kind of "new year, new opportunity to learn about simon's hispanic heritage" kind of a thing, but life got busy, and then my computer died and i lost my original list, so i've had to reconstruct this from memory as best as i could. there may be some stuff missing, so perhaps i'll just keep adding to this post as missing/new points come to mind.

disclaimer 1: if you've included any of the points made here on any fanfic of yours, please don't take this as a call-out. this isn't intended to shame anyone, but rather as an educational opportunity. it's very rare that a latin american nationality that is not mexican or colombian or puerto rican is showcased in an international show, especially outside of the US, and it's given me such joy to have all of you lovely folks make the effort to be open to and research and understand the idiosyncrasies of simon's (and omar's) heritage because the rest of latin america tends to go overlooked in most other fandoms. so i don't intend to scold anyone with this. we can't all know everything about every other culture-- lord knows i don't know everything about sweden, but i want to be respectful to the country and its people and that is why i heavily research anything i don't know and ask people who do know when my research doesn't quite cover it and am open to corrections when even that falls short. i expect most of you come to write about simon's family background in good faith and also want to be respectful to his family's culture, and so i thought i might make things a bit easier for you all by putting the most common errors/misunderstandings i've seen in one handy post. but once again, it's not a call-out, i don't get offended by these things, and i'm in no way implying, if you've done any of these things in fic or in life, that you are a bad person. i understand people make mistakes when they don't know things.

disclaimer 2: i am not venezuelan myself. i was born and raised in the same general region of latin america, though, and i have venezuelan friends and have worked with venezuelan people and have visited venezuela. generally speaking, i feel their culture is very similar to mine (though our spanish is much closer to spanglish than theirs is, haha xD) and feel a deep kinship with them. but of course, i'm no native, and if you're venezuelan and catch anything here that you feel is incorrect, feel free to point it out and i'll add a correction in your name.

warning: this is very long. christ almighty. DX if you can't make it to the end, tl;dr-- feel free to ask if you have any questions or if anything isn't clear. my ask box/messages are always open.

1- "mijo." this is the only one that legit has caused me to click out of several fics/chapters, at least in the beginning, but i've learned to grin and bear it by now. it's not so much that it's wrong, per se, but rather it's more of a location issue. "mijo" is, to my ears, very much a mexican (or, if you stretch it, northern triangle) slang. it IS used sparingly in other countries, but rarely used unironically. instead, if you hear the term used in the caribbean region of latin america (which my country is part of, as is a large part of venezuela), it's almost always used… let's say sarcastically. for example, if your grown-ass adult friend is being a dumbass and doing something reckless, you might call out "oiga, mijo, se va a romper el cuello" ("hey, mijo, you're going to break your neck"). basically, it's a way of calling someone immature like a child. it doesn't have to be ENTIRELY unaffectionate (kinda like the way someone might call their significant other "idiot" or "dummy" but mean it endearingly. in fact, in colombia it's way more common for spouses to call each other "mijo/a" than it is for them to call their children that), but you can also use it with complete strangers-- like if someone cuts sharply into your lane while you're driving, you might yell at them "oiga, mijo, a donde le enseñaron a manejar, en un potrero?!" ("hey, mijo, where did you learn how to drive, in a horse paddock?!"). but even in these sarcastic/neggy cases, it's rare. and EVEN RARER to hear a mother call her children "mijo" or "mija" in this region. it's just not a thing. so when i read it in fanfic, it immediately takes me out of the story because it's so weird to me that linda would sound mexican-- it's a very distinctive accent, which carmen gloria 1000000% does not have. (plus, "mijo" in spanish is a type of birdseed. so it gave me a chuckle the first few times i read it in a fic because i always have that brief second of confusion where i go "why is linda calling simon birdseed?" before it clicks. xD i'm a dork.) it's much more likely that linda would just say "hijo" or "mi hijo," instead.

1b- the way you decide on whether to use "hijo" or "mi hijo" is important because "mi hijo" can sound overly formal in the modern context especially, much like it would in english. in fact, you can use the english version of it, "son" vs "my son" to guide you on which of the two to use. like for example, if linda were to say directly to simon "i love you, my son," she would sound oddly old-timey and anachronistic, so you would just use "son" ("hijo") in that case. whereas if she's talking about simon with someone else, for example saying "i told my son to be here on time," you'd be perfectly okay to use "mi hijo" in that sentence in spanish. it's very transferable in that case.

2- speaking of non-transferable, though, you can't use "cariño" in all instances you would use "sweetheart" or "sweetie." it really depends on the grammatical construction, and it can be tricky to get it right, but it depends on whether you're using it as a direct address or as an object. for example, if you're using it in place of someone's name-- say, a mother telling her child "te quiero, cariño" ("i love you, sweetheart/sweetie") is perfectly fine, because in that case, she could also say "te quiero, hijo" ("i love you, son") or "te quiero, simon" ("i love you, simon"). but if, say, simon says to wille "you're my sweetheart," you would not use "cariño" there; you'd go instead with some syrupy way to say "boyfriend," like "eres mi novio" or "eres mi enamorado" or even "eres mi amor," and if sara tells felice "you're a sweetheart," that would also not involve "cariño" at all. in addition, "cariño" is also very rarely used in plural; if linda is using a term of endearment for both her kids, or for a group of teens her kids' age, she would use a different term of endearment altogether: "hola, mis amores" ("hi, my loves"), "hola, bebés" ("hi, babies") or "hola, mis tesoros" ("hi, my treasures") among some examples. one exception is when you say "cariños míos" ("my sweethearts"), but very rarely the plural by itself. in fact, "cariño" is often slang for gift or present, especially in the diminutive-- for example, if you go to someone's celebratory party for some occassion (birthdays, graduations, baby showers, heck even christmas), you might hand them a small gift and go "te traje un cariñito" ("i brought you a small present"), and if it's more than one gift, or you're bringing gifts for several people, then you'd say "unos cariños" or "unos cariñitos" in the plural.

3- simon's skin is tan, not tanned. this… doesn't personally bug me as much because it's more of an english grammar issue, but i know people who might actually feel very offended if you get this one wrong with respect to them. "tan" is a color; a light shade of brown. "tanned" implies the original color of your skin has darkened with the sun. now, i'm sure simon can tan (lucky goat, says she whose skin burns even while indoors), but about 95% of the time "tanned" is used in YR fanfiction, it's used as a descriptor of the color of simon's skin as we see it on the show. that would imply his skin used to be lighter at some indeterminate before-time and has been darkened by the sun. this is incorrect; that is the natural color of simon's skin. so stick to "tan skin" instead (not tan PERSON, mind you. his SKIN is tan, he is not). and i would gently suggest that if you take away any single thing from this post, make it ESPECIALLY this point, as someone more sensitive than me might interpret this error as some kind of retroactive whitewashing. and i don't want anyone here to get in trouble for simply not knowing.

4- pabellón criollo is one dish, yes, but it's four different FOODS. it's not something a newbie would be able to make off of a recipe (i don't know how to make it and i've been eating it all my life), and it's not something that's likely to be taught in just one day. also, if you're bringing it to a dinner or a potluck, you're bringing four separate food containers, not just one.

4b- also, venezuelan food, for the most part, is not particularly spicy. you CAN make it spicy if you want, but traditionally, it is not. it's flavorful, maybe even saucy depending on the dish, but rarely spicy. i know the joke of white people being unable to handle spice is funny, but there's also plenty of us hispanic people who are equally terrible at it, because there's different levels of spice in the food from different regions of latin america. besides, as a friend of mine perfectly put: we are living in the 21st century now. if you can eat mild mexican food, you should be able to handle traditional venezuelan food just fine. and i'm pretty sure there's mexican food in sweden. plus, wille would probably be more used to international food-- not only does he have the means, but having traditional meals in foreign countries is kind of part of the job.

5- while i'm at it: simon is definitely half venezuelan. this is canon as of S2. there is no other place in the world where that dish is called pabellón. please keep that in mind when you're writing and researching.

5b- this, along with several of the points above, is important because it's a bit of diaspora trauma that whenever we venture outside of latin america and people learn we're latino, they immediately assume we're mexican, or that our culture and traditions are the same as those of mexican people. it happens often, and it's incredibly annoying. not that there's anything wrong with mexico or mexican people-- they're lovely, and their traditions and culture and food are fantastic-- but we are not them, and treating us like we are is reductive. the rest of latin america can be very different and incredibly diverse, and it can be dispiriting when people treat us like we're all the same. so that is why it is important when writing about simon, his family or his venezuelan roots, that you take care to actually research things as they are in venezuela, and not just pick the low-hanging fruit of latino facts you might've learned through pop cultural osmosis, which eight times out of ten will be mexican-only because most hispanic people in the US are mexican and the US exports its media all over the world. i've learned to just roll my eyes at it by now, but some people might actually feel offended or hurt, and i'm sure nobody here intends for that to happen.

6- although simon speaks spanish, neither he nor sara nor his mother nor any aspect of his mother's culture is spanish. "spanish" is what people from spain call themselves. people from spanish-speaking latin american countries are not spanish; we are hispanic, or latino/a/e. "latinx" is… let's call it controversial, at least outside of the US. most people born and raised in latin america don't like it; i personally don't get offended if people use it, but i don't use the term myself. also, you can say "latin food" or "latin music," but we usually don't refer to PEOPLE as latin, but rather latino/a/e. if in doubt, just use latin american or hispanic. they're also conveniently gender neutral.

EDIT: @andthatisnotfake also brought up a very important point: "if you spell it latinx, it makes it harder for screen readers to read (or so I've been told) and some people depend on those, so there's another reason to avoid it." (the unpronounceability of that term is at least part of the reason why hispanic people who live in latin america don't like it.)

6b- never use "the latino/a" on its own to refer to people. "latino/a/e" is an adjective, not a noun, so you would say "the latino boy" or "the latino man" but never just "the latino." kinda like it would be weird to point out the one japanese man in a room as "the japanese." there are some nationality/ethnic terms that just don't work as nouns in english.

7- spanish is not simon's one native language-- or at least not any more than swedish is. he grew up in a mixed-race household, speaking two different languages. it's pointless to call spanish his native language when comparing it to swedish. both are his native languages. also, while we're at this, wille is probably at least bilingual (i'm assuming he can speak at least english), although he only has one native language. it's hardly a competition between the two boys as to who's more of a polyglot.

7b- simon wouldn't take classes on the spanish language-- like to learn how to SPEAK the language-- since spanish is one of his native languages. he wouldn't take them at hillerska, nor in university, nor elsewhere. he wouldn't be allowed. you're literally not allowed to take classes on your native language, nor get credit for said classes. trust me, those would've been an easy extra 24 credits for me in college if that was a thing.

EDIT: have been made aware (thanks, @rightsogetthis and @plantbasedfish!) that at least in sweden and in finland one IS allowed to take classes of your non-swedish/finnish native language, in certain circumstances. i have to say, i'd be pissed if i were taking my french classes alongside a french native speaker, but hey, the system's the system, i guess. ;) so i've struck this one out.

8- dear god please don't use google translate for your spanish translations. listen, i'm not judging-- i do it with other languages, too, when i'm in a pinch. but google translate is literally The Worst (tm) so i always try to either check with someone, or stick to the stuff i already know is correct. seriously, you don't want to know the kinds of crazy stuff GT can spit out that people actually put out in the real world; some of them are quite hilarious. if you're unsure, my ask box/messages are always open and i looooove helping people with this kind of thing, hispanic language and cultural stuff. i know it seems like i'm hardly around, but i do check my messages. don't be shy, even if it's something really small.

PS: while i'm talking pet peeves, malin is wille's bodyguard, not his butler. she's nice enough to attend to him at hillerska because there's no other palace staff around and she's literally stationed outside his door, but she wouldn't do that in the actual palace. there's other staff for that. she wouldn't even guard him at the palace, i don't think, because the royal palaces in sweden are guarded by the royal guard, not SÄPO. if anything, malin might spend the time while wille is in the palace grounds at a gatehouse (like in YR 2x03 and onwards) or at some kind of security office in the palace, and then get called whenever wille needs to go anywhere. she wouldn't be giving wille messages from the queen or walking guests to wille's room or anything like that. that's not her job. (sorry, i had to get that off my chest, lol.)

[eerieeccentricities]

Your Love is a Vice Grip

Il Dottore X fem!Reader

(A/N: This is a fic I've been playing around with for about 6+ months. Definitely needs a lot of edits and work done to it, but I just want it posted somewhere I suppose. Haha!)

(tw: Blood, Injury, bad workplace environment, foul language, confrontation, slight physical aggression, 18+ ONLY!!!)

DO NOT REPOST!!!!

Summary: Just another cog in the machine. That was all she expected to be. That was all she wanted to be. Anything more than that and her life would be on the line, more so than it currently was anyway. Being a part of an organization such as the Fatui always carried risks, but the pay was good, and the only thing she had to worry about was the eccentric Doctor’s occasional outbursts. Keep her head low and don’t get in the way of the 2nd Harbinger, easy enough, right? She thought so….until she found herself on the bleeding end of one of those outbursts. Suddenly, she can't seem to shake him, and she begins to wonder if it is what lies on the inside of these reinforced walls she should fear instead.

Medical Terminology: Prefix - Hema - Blood

‘Shit…’

She was bleeding. Quite profusely, at that. She watched only momentarily as the carmine liquid dripped down her gloved hand, which was now shredded beyond use, and onto the pristine white tiles below, reflecting on what had just transpired. 

It was her damn reflexes essentially, a grab at something that was thrown in her general direction, a moment of instinct before thought. It was laughable, considering thought was supposed to conquer all in a place such as this. To be a researcher, a scientist, who could still not overcome something The Doctor would surely see as ‘primitive’ was an unspoken folly amongst those here.

She squinted, now noticing it wasn’t just her blood that was dripping to the floor. Whatever it was she was attempting to catch was filled with something of an azure blue color, and that something was mixing with her blood and seeping into the open wounds. While it didn’t burn, it did leave a numbing coolness wherever it trailed, and any chemical reaction on human skin was always a cause for concern.

Regardless of her instinctual stumble, she needed to follow procedure and take the correct precautions now. Thick soles crunching the forgotten glass below, she hurried to the wash stations, arm held out to avoid getting the unknown substance on her person any more than it already was.

Ideally, a quick scrub in the sink would work, she’d rather avoid the emergency showers if at all possible. Although it did technically have a curtain, the thing was flimsy at best, and she would rather avoid stripping in front of her colleagues with only a plastic drape no thicker than a sheet of paper between them. 

Especially now of all times, when The Doctor, the Prime himself as indicated by his signature mask, decided to grace them with his ever-fleeting presence. While this was the primary laboratory it was still a rarity to see him, and not one of his segments, overseeing the ongoing operations here. 

 Each lab was dedicated to a specific area of research, the main branch, this branch, focusing on Cybernetics and Biological Enhancements. Also known as the birthplace of many, if not all, of the segments currently wandering all corners of Teyvat. Seeing Ruin Guard parts and other machinery scattered amongst that of biological specimens was the norm, ideas and experiments of them all working in tandem was the goal. 

It was a productive and, dare she say, quiet atmosphere to work in. Especially for those who worked on the machinery portion of the lab, like herself. 

Well, it was usually anyway. The presence of the Harbinger could only mean one of two things, there was a meeting that called for the Harbinger’s presence, or there was an experiment that garnered his attention and required their subject specialties.

She deeply hoped it was the former, as the latter would mean a much longer stay, overseeing and criticizing anything he deemed incorrect or foolish had a chance of ending in outbursts consisting of thrown objects and verbal lashings.

 Like today, the fading memory of his livid voice to a colleague close to her own station easily told her that something didn’t go as planned. That something failed. Failure wasn’t something he took lightly, and this failure ended in her being an indirect victim of his, dare she say, tantrum. 

 Rumors came to mind of those he deemed stupid being turned into test subjects themselves, thoughts of him ‘finding some use out of their miserable existence’ didn’t easily leave the brain. In fact, it clung to it, a reminder to not fuck up lest one could find themselves strapped to the surgical table at a moment's notice.

 A part of her wondered if she might see this rumor come to fruition with her own eyes soon, to walk in tomorrow morning with the vaguely familiar body of her coworker stripped of name and so kindly gifted a subject number. 

Even if that were so, it still wouldn’t matter, not in the long run anyway. They would soon be replaced and work would continue as normal, as it always did. Just another broken cog replaced.

Approaching the wash station, the tattered glove was quickly stripped and tossed into the closest biohazard waste bin, the other staying on as it wasn’t damaged and could still provide ample protection from the painful scrubbing she would have to endure on the other. 

Her eyebrows twitched for just a moment before relaxing once again, the stinging pain was starting to set in now, but she couldn’t bring any more attention to herself than she knew she already had. Even the slightest hint of weakness could be one's downfall in a place like this. Between the competitive nature that festered in the labs and The Doctor himself, any sign of weakness was not unlike that of prey being fed to a pack of starving wolves.

Preoccupied with getting the faucet on and preparing the correct cleanser, she failed to notice the ‘tink’ing of metal on the tile quickly approaching, following the mixed blood trail she inevitably left in her rush.

It wasn’t until a vaguely familiar gloved hand grabbed her wrist, pulling it back with such force she feared for a moment her shoulder may have been pulled from its socket, that she even noticed a presence even close to her. Looking back to the cause soon made her blood run cold, the mask of The Doctor leaning in, lips twisted in a snarl. 

“What was that?” His hand tightened into a bruising grip around her wrist, the odd mixture of red and blue staining his own bicolored gloves as he relentlessly squeezed. The gruffness of his angered voice with the gritting of his pointed teeth ever threatening, a reminder as to why she was one of the few who preferred to stay under the radar. While raising in the lab ranks came with its perks, mainly a huge pay increase, it also came with downsides. The wrath of The Doctor being the biggest.

“I…” She started, mentally kicking herself when her hesitation was noticed, as evidenced by his low growl. “ I apologize, sir.” She made sure to say it clearly, making it a point not to falter this time. “I was following lab procedure.”

“Do you take me for a fool? Or are you that dense? You know that’s not wh-!”

A reverberating slam of metal on concrete echoed through the large lab, the light from the hallway invading the natural darkness of the area. The intrusion silenced even The Doctor from his tirade, though the clenching of his teeth indicated the interruption made his mood drop even lower. 

In the middle of the large double doorway stood The Knave, her monochrome coloring stood out like a ghost, her red ‘X’d eyes landing on The Doctor before her face twisted into a sneer.

“What is it?” The Doctor called over his shoulder, annoyance dripping like venom from his voice alone. “Can’t you see that I’m busy?”

“The meeting has been called to order,” She stated, brows furrowed. “Yet you are still here dilly-dallying like a child refusing to leave the playground. ”

“Her Majesty-” He started before being abruptly cut off by the 4th-ranked Harbinger.

“-will not tolerate another absence, Doctor.” Then she was gone as quickly as she arrived, the clinking of her dangerously pointed heels down the hallway the only indication that the Harbinger was even there to begin with.  

“Tsk.” He threw her wrist down as if even touching her was a taint to his person. Shifting his heels, he turned to the door before glancing back over his shoulder. “I’ll deal with you later. Both of you.” He finished before he, too, disappeared down the hallway.

[firecooking]

Hello. Sorry if someone has already asked before, but how many languages do you speak? I’ve been reading through your TUGS series on AO3 and noticed you write dialogue in English, French, and Hebrew. That and using old 1900s slang… it’s such a neat facet of your works—it provides cultural richness and makes the stories and characters feel much more colorful. But it did get me wondering about the author!

Heyo!

Actually no one has asked me about this before!

I actually only 'fluently' speak English [tho that could be contested with my grammar and spelling habits], altho I'm somewhat capable of conversation in German and can do basic exchanges in Spanish. I've completed most of the duolingo course in Esperanto but my recall on it is rusty, and I've spent time learning Welsh, Canadian French, and Klingon lol

Fun fact about me is I had to teach myself to read and write [educational neglect for students with special education plans is VERY real]. All of the grammar and writing knowledge I have is from books I've read and my German classes in high school.

Most of the languages I use in my fics are very carefully translated! I think any successful internet user who wants to interact with non English speaking areas should be able to read up and learn the translation rules for any language you wish to 'speak' with. It makes it very easy to open a translation dictionary and then get the result you want! Other languages don't work like English you have to learn how to get it done.

That even goes for other ways we used to speak English! We used to speak almost a completely different language mechanically 100 years ago. It is a very careful balance of writing accurate dialogue in the fics where you both use the English lexicon of the time period, get the voice of the character across, try not to have the characters say anything out right offensive [altho that's a touchy subject, words I find offensive may not be for others or others might be offended by what I deem safe to write, its a very careful balance], and omitting words that meanings have changed significantly [like awesome was a very common 1920s word, but you can't exactly have Captain Zero saying that, it'd sound wrong to 2020's ears]

I take my historical research very seriously! I am now very disabled and kinda a loser; so I'm home bound and bored a lot of the time. Things like my fic and art are pretty much my full time time occupier, so I absolutely love spending time getting nit pikcey and specific!

I'm so glad you are enjoying my work! I hope that going forwards I can continue to excite and provide good fic, lord knows the TUGS fandom needs it. Feel free to drop a line any time! I love answering questions about my AU and TUGS stuff in general! Hell ask me questions if you need help with your own stuff haha

[dayseternal-blog]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. spread the self-love ❤

Bunny-senpai!!! 💕

I answered an ask similar to this one last year in March and I don't think my answers have changed...

I rewrote each blurb haha, so it's not an exact copy-paste from before.

1 “It’s No Secret” - Rated M, High School AU, Multi-chapter, Incomplete. Hinata returns to Konoha after 5 years studying abroad in the Moon Kingdom. She just wants to enjoy her last year of high school as a normal girl, but blossoming love forces her to confront her future. - My top fave. Back then, I wrote this like I was possessed. This story consumed my mind, and I was posting chapters every 1 or 2 weeks. I'm amazed at myself from back then. No, it's not my technically best writing, but I was having so much fun thinking up all kinds of scenes!!! Oh, to be a fanfic writing newbie all over again. Major love to everyone who's read this flirty teenage shenanigans mess and enjoyed it!!! One day I will write part two 🥺

2 “Nightdreams” - Rated E, Canon-Divergent AU, Multi-chapter, Complete. Naruto and Hinata find comfort in each other after the war. - This fic idea came to me sometime after I read agitosgirl's "A Special Friend," and I wanted Moooooore!!! I wanted more of this hurt/comfort dynamic between NaruHina!!!! So bam, the fic almost wrote itself, it flowed so easily (except for when it didn't). I'm so happy that people reread this fic, and then tell me that they're rereading it :D. Once in awhile I reread it, too, and think, oh, I should fix that sentence, or whatever loll, but I don't. I kind of think it's nice to leave it as it is, imperfect in little ways to bother me. Please read this fic and recognize that I was copying Katarinahime's writing techniques throughout.

3 “Awkward Jocks” - Rated G, 1990s High School AU, Multi-chapter, Complete. She knows that if he were to ever ask her out, she would accept in a heartbeat. After all, he’s the star quarterback and basketball player. Plus, she’s liked him since…forever. But when her home phone rings, and he’s on the other line, she hangs up. - It's interesting to me that even after all the fics I've written over the years, it's a few of my oldest fics that take the top 3. I guess I really have been trying to write for myself since the start. This one is based off of my ex-coworker's love story. Even though I don't work with her anymore, I still think of her as my role model for good leadership. When you read this, I hope you can feel how much I love her!

4 “About You” - Rated G, 1970s High School AU, One-shot. A summer job at the Dole pineapple cannery, graveyard shift 10 PM to 6 AM. A long bus ride into and out of town. Two teens, shy beside each other. - This is my most personal fanfic. Based on stories my parents told me and stories I found online from people of their generation, I tried to dive into their time using NaruHina. Ever since I was inspired to write after reading emmykay's "Torch Song," I had wanted to write a fic with Japanese-Hawaiian pidgin dialogue. This fic is close to my heart, but it's not higher on the list because there are inaccurate details that bother me 😅. I'm thinking of writing a fic about my great grandparents' generation one day, I've done a ton of research for it! Anyway, I'm so happy that others love this fanfic, too.

5 “Matcha” from “Shared Vows” - Rated T, Canon-Compliant, One-shot. Naruto calls Hiashi “father” for the first time. - According to my previous blurb, I picked this one because I loved how I structured it, I thought I wrote it really well. I also loved the notion of Naruto finding his own family. On deeper reflection, I think I also picked this one over "Finally Home" because I have a not-so-secret agenda for reconciliation between Hinata and Hiashi, fed by my own family's dynamic with my dad.

If I were to recommend any one of these for someone to read, I'd say they should start with Nightdreams or Matcha as an intro to some of my work since canon universe fanfic is always easier to digest.