#i may just finish the last two chapters and then start a rewrite and expansion

[thebirdandhersong]

darlings i just realized that now that I've finished the Inklings Challenge (October 2022) and my Summer Project (August to December 2022), I have no excuse.... it is Time to finish the 2021 Inklings Challenge story

[hopeassassin]

Rally’s Scribbles in the Work

So after that lovely anon blew my mind away with their kind words and wonderful support, and because I keep telling you guys about my writing plans without actually giving you even a teensy little detail, I have decided to stop being coy and actually likely get your hopes up a bit by dilvulging small details and bits of plots of what is currently going on in my G-Drive. 

This will be a brief recount of what I have currently baking in the AoMomo oven, so let’s dive right into it! Please note that the numbers are in no particular order - I just keep revisiting each of these stories and writing a bit more to them whenever I feel like it. So there’s no ranking and no importance, just a number to keep proper count.

1. “Knight of Renown” Dragons and Knighthood AU, based on that one AoMomo pic with Momo ithe Knight and Dragon Aomine that I reblogged a while back and I actually let me imagination go a bit too much in the tags. I ended up actually rather enjoying the premise I set up in the tags so I actually started writing that one out!  Completion rate at about: 5%? I’d say? Less? :D 

2. AoMomo Music AU - a dearly beloved project that I am pouring a lot of love and attentioin to. That’s why it’s coming along super slow. It’s been in the making since November and I chewed it and mulled through it so thoroughly that I’ve grinded to a halt with it. Intending for there to be 2 chapters, and I am at about 25-30% of chapter 1 currently ready currently. At the pace I’m going, it might be another full year before you actually get to see this bad boy up, but when you do, I’m sure you’ll see all the care and effort that went into making it perfect. Honestly, no joke here, I am intending for this to be one of my rare masterpieces in this tag. So I’m not gonna rush it!

3. AoMomo Car Accident AU where Daiki barely manages to save Satsuki from being run over by a hit-and-run and ends up being the one run over instead. This was my first piece of writing after coming back to AoMomo last summer and yet completion rate is a sad thing. I want it to be flawless, a perfectly agonizing, thrilling type of torturous read that gives you a great sense of relief by the end of it. Needless to say, the clusterfuck of negative feelings is a bit difficult to hold onto for a prolonged period of time and the work is coming along slowly. Planned at about 5 chapters, I have 2 complete ones and the 3rd one is at about ... 30%? Hopefully before this year’s whumptober, we’ll have a finished piece!

4. AoMomo bond character study, which went in a direction I did NOT expect nor intend. It was suppsoed to be an idea that you will see also listed below. But I started this one from their early childhood and somehow, instead of focusing on the kids and their bond and their weird interactions with each other and their first moments of realizing they are of opposite genders, it turned into something much too fun to let go of and the ideas for scenes just kept piling. It’s going to be a long one, very explorative and very in-depth character study on the bond between these two and how it changed over the years, and their first encounters with their sexuality inbetween (because that was really the main idea that I started with... xDDD;;;) Currently at 1 chapter complete, chapter 2 somewhere around 50-60% completion, and at least 6-7 chapters to come after that, soooo.... :’DDDD YEAH. THIS ONE AIN’T SEEING THE LIGHT OF DAY ANYTIME SOON.

5. AoMomo deciding to practice stuff on each other, because I am a sucker for this trope.THIS will be what the idea under previous number 4 was SUPPOSED to be like, but it instead spun out of control. So this one, under number 5, is going to be the smutty, idiots bumbling through physicality to discover that they actually have serious feelings for each other kind of piece. Chapters are planned at about at least 6-7 or so, but not my usual monstrocities! :D First we start with practice kissing, and we move our way up from there! 

6. “The Evil of Humanity” AU - a dystopian futuristic kinda mecha AU, sort of an amalgamation of some of my favourite anime in the genre - a bit of NGE, a bit of Gurren-Lagann, a lot of Darling in the Franxx rewrite and improvement, in distinctly AoMomo colors. I poured a lot of thought and love into initial outline of main moments for this one, and I really hope to make it an epic, thrilling action/adventure with a big dash of romance kind of read! Chapters currently not even planned properly, because I need to sit down and consider this seriously. It will definitely be more than 10-15 though, and they will be my usual chapter lengths so.... likely no time soon. :D 

7. Aomine Fanclub - I got a plot bunny some time ago and I shared it here and my friends were spurring me on with it, so I started trying it out a little more. I’ve written out like... maybe 30% of this one as well, but need to re-read and reconceptualize to get it back on track. The issue with this one is that I’m not really sure where I want to take it, thus it’s on the back burner at the moment.

8. KagaKuro AoMomo double-date kind of story, where Aomine is asking some curious questions of Taiga about going to America and pondering if any of his immediate friends know what Satsuki wants to do with her life. I’m really invested in this one but haven’t started properly writing it out yet beyond just sketching out the idea so I don’t forget it. (I’d say 1% complete here.) Really looking forward to using the idea of Kagami being super impressed with AoMomo perfect sync when playing as a team in arcade games!

9.Laws of Attraction Chapter 2 - You might be surprised at this, but I’m actually super invested in this one. Likely the reason why I am delaying so much working on it - I feel like all my great scene ideas are just too chaotic and I have a hard time starting the chapter flowing properly. I had like 4-5 false starts already and I’m feeling a bit skittish with picking it up. But I have such AMAZING concepts on where to take it after it revvs up the engine, so... Maybe sometime this year! Completion rate: 0% written, but at least about 30% ideas built up for the installment!

10. AoMomo college rooming together story - sort of an expansion on my fill for one of the prompts way back those years ago in AoMomo week. I really dig the concept and the trope of sharing spaces with someone you consider nothing more than a friend and then gradually learning to appreciate each other for something so much more. I am definitely doing this one some day, but not anytime soon, likely.

11. A random idea bit me the other day (read: a month ago) and I actually wrote out like... maybe 25% of it already as well. A random comment from Wakamatsu miffs Satsuki but then she realizes why he’s asking dumb questions and she comes to realize that something is wrong with the equation: either Dai-chan likes someone really close to them and she hasn’t realized, which is unlikely, or Dai-chan likes HER and is super blase about it in a way that betrays his feelings not at all, which is even more unlikely. Being a curious  individual, she sets out to find which it is! Some hilarity should ensue but mostly just some mess-with-Dai-chan fun!

12. Touou summer training camp at the sea - progress is practically 0, I wanted to write a summery piece and set my mind on this, but nothing beyond has come to me, so I’m not forcing it.

13. AoMomo cultural festival fic in second year of high school (meaning something approx end of Oct -> beginning of Nov.) with Daiki being in a distinctly Haruhu Suzumiya role at that festival (has anyone even seen this anime? I adored that episode to freaking bits, man, it’s engraved upon my soul) and singing Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” and one more song just like Haruhi did. And Satsuki just beholding the phenomenon he becomes in no time flat while he lays bare his passion for life for all the student body to see. Shippiness will happen in private afterwards!

14. You Can Leave Your Hat On Chapter 2 - Probably like 2-3 years ago while I was still in the damn woodwork and wrestling with real life and adulting being crap, I remembered this AU premise and I got super hyped on the idea of Club Owner Dai-chan being a flirt with innocent Satsuki who got dragged to his joined and fell in love at first sight with his shenanigans. I’ve already played around for like 7k words with the second chapter of this but I’m still not where I want to be at, so it will take a while longer to flesh it out.

15. Idol Worship - a story that I promised my mate aricana some 6 years ago the premise for which I am super hyped for but not quite engaging with it yet. The idea was that Momoi finally starts gettiing the dates she has been pesting Kuroko for for years, and Daiki feeling terrible about beholding that, whilst Kise is being pestered by Horikita Mai for a date and instead ditches her with Daiki because he knows his former Teikou classmate is a huge fan of her. Mai-chan isn’t particularly happy but somehow ends up enjoying her time with Daiki and starts considering actually pursuing him instead of Kise when she sees what an interesting soul he is, with the torch that he’s carrying for some girl in his life he doesn’t really talk about but is evident from the little things he drops off as hits. AoMomo shenanigans will start to ensue properly when Satsuki realizes that Daiki is actually having a close female friend who is not her but is Horikita Mai instead, Dai-chan’s perfect woman, practically. She doesn’t take well to the news and has to grapple with why that is! And what to do with these newfound frustrating emotions!

16. Obstruction of Justice Chapter 3 - MAYBE SOME DAY, I WILL GET TO WRITING THIS. Last summer I inteded to do just that but instead, Wild Side of Justice was born. And it became a spin off of sorts on its own. ORZ. I WILL FINISH THIS SOME DAY, I do have some plans for it and I do have the desire to pursue them. I just need to be in the right headspace for it ahsjkfhkjaf

17. A PWP story of Kagami arriving early for a practice match at Touou and somehow walking in on AoMomo getting busy with each other in very unexpected and explicit ways that Kagami did not see headed his way. Because, we need more PWP in this fandom, honestly.

18. And since we DO need more PWP, recently when checking the 30 lemons community on LJ (shut up, I’m not ancient, YOU’RE ANCIENT) I was wondering how exactly a smut plot around the “Taken by the Faceless Stranger” could work for Aomomo and I came up with this Masquerade ball that they end up both attending because of their friends and meeting each other and hitting off fantastically just chatting the night and then banging in a niche in the long castle-like premise of the ball. :’DDDD Cuz it’s me and if I don’t have something like that in the works, you know i’m likely sick.

ALL OF THESE I am planning on eventually finishing one day. ONE DAY!

For now they are in various states of completion and in various stages of being cared for and improved on with more ideas added and fleshed out.

I am not joking when I say I am very invested in this fandom. I just have difficulty getting to writing out these ideas when I spend like 60% of my free time playing my mobile games. :D 

So there you have it. I didn’t want to say anything about these because 1) I don’t want to get your hopes up. You Can Leave Your Hat On 2, for one, has been in the making for 3 years, very on-again-off-again kind of way, and I just... can’t do that to you guys. I have decided against posting any incomplete fics so I don’t torture you guys and my muse doesn’t abandom me forever for them. So when something is complete, it gets posted promptly for your viewing pleasure!

And 2) If I divulge too much of the story, I feel like my hype of it may disappear completely. Ehh, my muse is a willful creature, what can I tell you... 

So let’s hope at least SOME of these get to see the light of day soon!

[anistarrose]

Some Sunny Day - Chapter 9: Duet (Gravity Falls - Same Coin Theory)

Summary: Just a silly, upbeat musical episode where no one remembers anything important whatsoever.

Warnings: None

Previous / Next

The Beginning (see here for AO3 link)

The shortest chapter, but also my favorite chapter.

(The Same Coin Theory is by @dubsdeedubs and @renmorris!)

Everything was shadow, everything was black. The waves tore straight through Stan’s skull, letting out a guttural, desperate roar as they slashed through his thoughts and

struck

everything

out

Yet the memory of one sound still reached him in his self-imposed prison — one sound too engraved in his consciousness, too loaded with guilt, to ever truly wash away. The hollow, haunting rattle of a chain still echoed in Stan’s ears, and that was just too much to bear.

Stanford! I DIDN’T MEAN TO! Not AGAIN! Stanford, you’ve gotta be okay — Stanford? STANFORD?! Sixer, I’m so SORRY —

A second noise crept its way into the edges of Stan’s awareness — a gut-churning, horribly familiar noise, resonating and harmonizing with his own memories as it formed whining, echoing words…

“We’ll meet again…”

Each background piano note was soft and gentle on its own, but together they grew deafening as they wove into a melody, burrowing through his mind like a parasite and dredging up long-buried truths, forcing his terrified eyes to open blink open —

“Don’t know where, don’t know when…”

He stood face to face with Bill Cipher, watching in a helpless trance as the demon’s hands deftly ran across black and white keys. Simultaneously, he felt a faint pressure against the tips of his own fingers, as if they were pressing against smooth ivory.

“But I know we’ll meet again —”

The piano keys kept moving on their own as Bill rose up from his seat and turned to look at Stan, eye wide with a delirious, terrifying glee.

“Some sunny day!”

He snapped his fingers and in a flash, Stan was facing a triangular mirror, staring at a middle aged version of himself. He wore a dressy shirt and gaudy, question-mark covered tie, and his smile was wide and blatantly fake.

“Keep smiling through…”

His reflection began to age, and as it did, the smile grew wider and faker — stretching from ear to ear and brimming with showmanship and faux charm. Bill floated behind him, resting a hand on his shoulder.

“Just like you always do…”

says he’s happy, he’s a liar

lie until you aren’t lying anymore

for courtesy

The image shimmered and flickered, melted drops of silver pooling on the floor as the mirror — and Stan’s facade — went up in cold blue flames.

“‘Til the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away!”

Bill leaned closer to Stan and squeezed his shoulder more tightly, black fingers blending in with the fabric of Stan’s suit.

“So will you please say hello…”

He held out his other hand where Stan could see it, and within the blue blaze, a series of familiar faces appeared: Ford, and Soos, and Dipper and Mabel —

“To the folks that I know…”

He let go of Stan’s shoulder and swung around to face him, eye closed and arms stretched out wide.

“Tell them I won’t be long!”

Then he opened his eye and laughed, and something felt just intoxicatingly contagious about it. A bitter chuckle began to form in the back of Stan’s own throat, threatening to burst out like an echo —

“They’ll be happy to know…”

Another snap of the fingers and their surroundings changed, blood-red bricks replaced with peeling wallpaper and searing blue-white embers. Bill stood just where he’d been destroyed in the mindscape, but didn’t panic this time as the door of the memory swung closed behind him.

“That as you saw me go…”

A-X-O-L-O-T-L MY TIME HAS COME TO BURN

“I was siiiiinging this song!”

I INVOKE THE ANCIENT POWER THAT I MAY RETURN

Stan clutched his head with one hand, and swung at Bill with the other — but Bill dodged with ease, continuing to sing without missing a beat as they once again found themselves in the red-bricked penthouse suite of the Fearamid.

“We’ll meet again, don’t know where…”

He grabbed Stan by the hands and swung him around like they were partners in a dance. Between their intertwining fingers, blue sparks flickered back and forth, and Stan found he couldn’t tear his eyes away from them.

“Don’t know when!”

Bill let go, floating in a circle around Stan’s head for one more cycle as he drifted to a stop. “But I know we’ll meet again, some sunny day!”

“We’ll meet again…” Stan echoed. His voice started as a whisper but quickly swelled out of his control, growing louder and taking on the melody. “Don’t know where…”

He began to pace in a circle with Bill at the center, mirroring how Bill had revolved around him. “Don’t know when…”

Somewhere in his mind, somewhere deep within a winding maze or at the bottom of an ink-black ocean, somewhere near where the song had always rested, half-remembered, since the moment of his birth —

Somewhere, something cracked.

“But I know we’ll meet again, some sunny day!”

The barrier of denial that he’d so diligently, so desperately maintained was finally crumbling, and being replaced by something that was so much… more.

“Keep smiling through…”

It was overwhelming if he tried to focus on it, tried to think about it — so he didn’t think and just sang, letting everything become clear in time with the song’s slow tempo.

“Just like you always do…”

He grabbed ahold of Bill and swung him around, tongues of flame once again wreathing their fingers.

“‘Til the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away!”

Bill let out another ecstatic cackle — and this time, the same laughter spilled forth from Stan too, creeping into his voice as he and Bill belted out the next verse together.

“So will you please say hello…”

He had spent so long in the dark, so long shutting himself away from the truth — but now, he understood. Now, at last, he remembered.

“To the folks that I know…”

Unable to restrain his glee, he made a finger gun at Bill — just for old times’ sake — and Bill’s hand simultaneously shot up in the same gesture, mirroring Stan as closely as his different form allowed.

“Tell them…”

Around both their index fingertips, identical blue flames began to flicker and grow.

“I won’t be loooooong!”

They moved in perfect unison —

“They’ll be happy to know…”

Sung in perfect harmony —

“That as you saw me go…”

Too perfect to be anything but two parts of a whole. Two sides of the same coin.

“I was siiiiinging this song!”

Gone were the pyramid, the chains, the piano. They stood in a forest’s sunlit clearing, the sky above them an endless expanse of pure blue.

“We’ll meet again…”

But really, there was no they anymore. There had never been.

“Don’t know where, don’t know when!”

For the last time, the two voices rang out separately:

“But I know we’ll meet again…”

A single snappily dressed figure appeared in the place where had once been two, his angular features illuminated by bright afternoon light.

“Some sunny daaaay!”

***

This chapter… gosh, I first envisioned this chapter close to a year ago now, and while it’s not the main reason I started writing this fic in the first place, it definitely helped motivate a lot of my work on this WIP — just so I could get to this scene. It’s gone through a couple rewrites, and influenced the themes and symbolism throughout the fic far more than I first anticipated, but I can’t imagine this end result any other way.

I’m going to aim for updating every other Monday, starting with this chapter! No promises, but I’m cautiously optimistic that I’ll be able to wrap up Chapters 10-13 by the end of June! (And if I plan correctly, I may even be able to finish it on June 24th, the day the story is set!)

Anyways, comments/feedback are appreciated as always!

[gingerbread-in-july]

About Time Ch. 2

Here is the next chapter! Thank you so much for your feedback! <3  Warning for this chapter: No smut yet, but this chapter does contain sexual tension, a few crude remarks, and a couple of scenes that are a bit on the suggestive side that did make me blush just a bit! Also, feels.

I hope you like it!

You had picked out a dress for the wedding a month ago. Although it was nice enough, you decided that it just wouldn't do. One doesn't just wear a dress for a date with Chad on a date with Rich fucking Tozier. Oh, no. You couldn't just bring your A game; you had to throw out the rules and rewrite the game entirely.

The strapless wine red gown you had picked out was certainly classy and sophisticated but it had a sexy, scandalous edge that was undeniable. You weren't about to starve yourself just because some butthurt bitchboy had called you fat when you wouldn't do what he wanted, but you made it a point to drink plenty of water and work out every day leading up to the wedding.

You scheduled a hair appointment for the morning of. You hadn't planned to bother with as much for Chad but you knew you didn't have the skill to create something of the caliber you wanted on your own. "Make me the hottest bitch there," you told the hairdresser.

You did your makeup far more elaborately than you typically did, but there could be no stone left unturned. Not when you had to keep an old flame in his place and make him eat his heart out; certainly not when you were showing up on the arm of the one and only Rich Tozier. You made sure to use the most bold, provocative perfume you had and you did not use a light hand; there was no place for subtlety this evening.

The doorbell rang. You surveyed yourself in the mirror one last time, struck a pose and answered the door. There stood a dashing, impeccably dressed Rich Tozier...

...and there on the ground in front of him lay his jaw.

You twirled around for him. "What say you, Mr. Tozier?"

"Wow," he breathlessly gasped before rediscovering his voice. "What did I to to be lucky enough to score a front row seat to this smokeshow?"

On another day, you would have blushed. "You don't look so bad yourself, Richie." "(Y/N), I can promise you that nobody there will be looking at me," he said, unable to keep his eyes from wandering all over you. "I will. Damn, Richie. You're making me wish we didn't work together."

"Then I'll wear sweats to work Monday. Then you'll remember who you're working with."

"And you'll still be Rich Motherfucking Tozier. I knew what I was doing when I invited you to this wedding."

"You obviously didn't know me in Derry, Maine throughout the 80s and most of the 90s."

"Yeah, well I wasn't always the smokeshow you see in front of you, either. Hell, I'm not even this smokeshow ninety percent of the time these days."

"(Y/N), hot stuff, I'm going to be choking on all that smoke for weeks to come, if not months."

"Then I'll wear sweats to work Monday myself."

"Go ahead. The damage has already been done. Don't you know that secondhand smoke kills?"

"I see my lectures have finally gotten through. You ready? As much as I'd love to stay here and keep enjoying the view, we've got a wedding to attend."

"I hope you're not too attached to the bride because I don't think she'll be wanting to stay friends with somebody who shows up to her wedding looking that good. That is, if she doesn't decide to run off with you."

You took Richie's arm. "Let her try. There's not a man or woman alive or dead that could stack up to my date," you said as you walked to his car. You could have sworn that you saw Richie blush just a little bit before he looked away.

You wound each other up the entire drive to the wedding, neither of you letting the other lose sight of your mission or of just how goddamned stunning the other looked. By the time you arrived, the two of you were ready to take on the world, already fully absorbed in your plan and enjoying every split second of it.

(Y/N) (Y/L/N), you wrote in the guest book before handing the pen to Richie. He signed the book and set the pen down with a satisfied smirk.

You guffawed when you saw what he had done, adding onto your entry so that it now read (Y/N) (Y/L/N) and the luckiest son of bitch in the place, in two differing scripts. "I could kiss you for that," you whispered, never more thankful in your life that Rich Tozier could be utterly shameless at times.

"Hope you wore smudge proof lipstick," he whispered back, giving a shit eating grin to all passersby. Yes, all eyes were definitely on the two of you. Chad's would be too if he indeed possessed the balls to show up; if he did he sure wouldn't have the balls to say jack shit to either of you.

Not surprisingly, the professional photographer that had been hired for the event stopped the two of you for a photo. "Enjoy the view from behind, it's just as sweet!" Richie exclaimed to the photographer as you walked on, causing you to blush and cackle.

"You're amazing, Richie," was all you could say.

You took your seats and waited for the ceremony to begin. "You see him?" Richie asked.

"No, and I don't care to look. I've only got eyes for you tonight."

"That's true. We do have a show to put on," he said, giving you a look that you were sure had caused you to soak your seat. In fact, you even said as much.

"Don't make me soak my seat, Tozier."

Richie didn't say anything, just gave you a smoldering smirk, knowing damned well what he was doing. He may have come a long way from the scrawny, bespectacled trashmouth with the target on his back but he would always have a bit of the little shit left in him deep down.

You decided to give him a taste of his own medicine and leaned in, gently grazing his lips with yours. God, they were fucking soft. They felt every bit as great as you always imagined they would. You kissed him again, gently taking his bottom lip between your teeth before releasing it and pulling back.

"My God..." Richie marveled, as if meeting you for the first time. "Who are you? I always knew you were something, doll, but Jesus Christ..."

"Why, Mr. Tozier, I'm yours, don't you know?" you answered with feigned innocence.

Richie smirked and gave your leg a squeeze. "Let's take it down a notch, I don't want us to get kicked out before it's even started," he whispered before placing a quick kiss on your neck and turning to face forward.

You took his hand and the two of you made small talk about your surroundings. You sat through the wedding, unable to really focus on anything that was happening. All you could think about was the man beside you that you craved more than anything and the tension building between your legs. You clapped with everyone else when it was done, though, truthfully, you only knew to do so by watching Richie.

The wedding may have finished, but the fun was only beginning for you and Richie. Everyone knew that the reception was where the good shit really went down and it was there that the two of you would have to give your strongest performance. Thankfully, you were both warmed up.

You watched as the bride and groom made their way to the floor for their first dance and you couldn't help but feel a tug at your heartstrings. You'd never seen laid back, sweet-faced Tyler look so dashing and sophisticated and Amy, ethereal in her white gown with her flaxen hair gleaming in the light, looked like the angel on top of the Christmas tree.

"Doesn't she look beautiful?" you asked.

"Yeah, she does," Richie agreed and you had to give him credit for not adding on a crude remark like he typically would have done. The opening notes of Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud filled the room and the couple began their dance. Richie groaned in annoyance.

"Really? This song? Why did I let you drag me to a millennial wedding?"

"So basic," you concurred, although you felt your eyes misting regardless. "I wouldn't have picked it...but it's a pretty song. Well, it was the first two hundred times or so."

Richie saw you lovingly admiring the couple, lost in the moment and he smiled at the chip in in your tough, sassy exterior. He couldn't help but wrap his arms around you from behind and rest his chin on the top of your head as he watched them with you. "Yeah, it is," he admitted.

Throughout the evening, Richie played the doting date to the hilt. At your table, you made a show of feeding one another bites of cake by hand, dragging it out as long as possible, neither of you admitting aloud that it was just as much for your own benefit as it was for that of onlookers. A downright devilish grin broke across Richie's face as he finished languidly sucking a dollop of frosting from the finger you had between his pillowy lips, in his soft mouth as you simultaneously did the same thing, thoroughly enjoying the feeling of his finger wrapped in the velvet expanse of your tongue, reluctant to let it go. He released your finger from his mouth and kissed your fingertips before speaking. "I see him." His dark eyes were alight with mischief.

"Oh yeah? Does he see us?"

"I don't see how he couldn't have clocked such a babe, especially as she sucked the frosting right off my fingers."

"You know, we haven't quite finished if you want to keep it up because I'm enjoying the hell out of this."

"Tempting, but I've got something else in mind."

"Is he alone? Did he bring a 'real woman?'" you asked with amused derision.

"If by 'real woman' you mean what is quite clearly, as I called it, a paid escort and what appears to be a discounted one at that, then yes."

You rolled your eyes, heavily make up for the occasion. "Okay, what are we going to do?"

"I'll tell you what we're going to do, you're going to get your sexy ass out of that chair and we're going to get out on that floor and give everyone an eyeful."

For the first time since you'd been there, you faltered. "Richie, I don't know..."

"What, you aren't backing out on me now, are you? What happened to my hot piece of ass?"

"I won't look like such a hot piece of ass on the floor, Richie, I can't dance!"

"Sure you can. Anyone can."

"Can and should are two very different things!"

"You can. You will." He stood up and extended his hand down to you. "May I have this dance, beautiful?"

If there was one thing you couldn't do, even more than you couldn't dance, it was deny Rich Tozier.

"Of course, handsome. But you're leading."

"Absolutely. Gotta take care of my girl," he said as he led you out onto the floor.

You sure as hell couldn't dance and, truthfully, you didn't know if Richie was really all that much better, but he had more than enough confidence for the both of you. You followed his lead, never breaking eye contact.

"See, (Y/N)? You're doing it."

You had no idea what was going on around you. Everyone else could be dead for all you knew. All you knew was that there was music (you didn't even know what song) and motion and that you were being held and twirled by your love and, goddamn it, he sure was the most charming man you had ever seen, you sure wanted to kiss him, and you wished more than anything that this was for real and not just for tonight.

The song ended. "See? That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Richie, I-"

You were cut off by the announcement that it was time for the bouquet toss. Richie's face lit up with mischief and he pushed you into the crowd of rabid single women who were desperate and ready to knock some lights out for some meaningless bundle of flowers that didn't truly foretell a thing. "Go on! Get it, (Y/N)!" he exclaimed in mock enthusiasm.

You want it, Tozier? you thought. Then you've got it. You couldn't have cared less for the tradition, but didn't you have an act to uphold?

Amy tossed the bouquet and you leapt for it, damned if you were going to let Chad's third rate hooker come out with it or anyone else, for that matter, since Richie had wanted to be cute and shove you into that sea of lunacy. No, that bouquet was your target. You leapt like a gazelle, swerved, and took ahold, yanking it out of the path to another woman's hands.

Everyone cheered and a few women shot death glares as you held up the bouquet, smiling smugly as you made your way back to a smarmy, smirking Richie who was clapping exaggeratedly. You tossed the bouquet at him. "As requested, your bouquet," you said before grabbing his hand, holding it up in the air and shouting, "Here he is, boys, come get him!"

Once the laughter died down, you mirrored the smug expression Richie had just been giving you.

"Laugh it up now, sweet cheeks, but you're about to be really sorry," he warned.

"Oh, yeah? What are you going to do?"

"Wait for it..."

An amplified voice filled the room. "All right, all you eligible bachelors, line up!"

"That's me," Richie said, handing the bouquet back to you and giving you a wink before joining the crowd of men who were gathered as Tyler removed Amy's garter.

That doesn't mean anything, you thought. There's plenty of men. Richie probably won't even get it.

Richie, however, had a height advantage over the other guys in the crowd, men just didn't care about things like this the way women did and you came to the sudden realization that you and Richie's plan had worked a little too well. The two of you had already established yourselves as the it couple of the evening, second only to Tyler and Amy themselves. Everyone had taken notice of the two of you and you could have sworn that you saw Tyler, that cheeky son of a bitch, deliberately toss that damned garter directly to Richie- who caught it, of course, much to the delight of the entire building.

Richie made his way back to you, victory all over that gorgeous, immaculately sculpted face of his. "Are you gonna sit down and make this easy for me?" he asked, teasingly.

You weren't about to give him the satisfaction of besting you. You sat down without protest, eyes smoldering, unable to contain your smirk as you lifted your dress to expose your legs, commanding Richie to the ground with a nod of your head.

The crowed ooohed and Richie made a show of dropping to his knees and crawling the brief distance to your feet, the garter clenched between his teeth. He reached up to gently take your ankle into his hands and slide the garter over it, taking his sweet time gliding it all the way up to your thigh, never once letting the garter slip from between his teeth.

"I gotta get a shot of this," came a voice near you, obviously the photographer. Richie looked at the camera, still on his knees, garter at your thigh still held between his teeth, and gave a very satisfied thumbs up to the camera as the photo was snapped. Only when the moment had been immortalized did Richie, at last, release the garter from his teeth. You let your dress fall back down over your legs.

"You bastard. You fucking bastard," you said breathlessly, smiling in spite of yourself.

"Hey, is that any way to talk to your future husband? We're next, dollface."

"Well played, Tozier," you commended, clapping slowly.

"What do you say we give the people a little victory dance?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

And so it went, dance after dance the two of you shared, long since losing track. Song after song, fast and slow until, at last, you looked up at him, towering over you, all lips and cheekbones, hair unkempt and sexy after an evening of activity. Dark, beautiful eyes were looking right back at you, soft, round and bearing into you. Eyes that had never looked into yours so long without saying something or, perhaps, had never looked into yours so long, at all. Richie was usually so good at talking, usually knew exactly what to say, so unlike you. Come on, Richie...say something... But nothing came out of him or you. All you could see was him, all you could think about was that moment, and all you could feel was everything you had ever felt for Richie, all at once and amplified, running through your blood, through every atom of you.

So, you kissed him.

Not for the sake of putting on a show, not for the benefit of any onlooker, but for you. Just your lips on his. No thought, just feelings, kissing him until you thought, at last, that you might die if you didn't stop for air because God knew you had forgotten to breathe.

You pulled away. Richie blinked, absentmindedly running his tongue over his lips. "Damn," he muttered offhandedly before returning to his senses. "Was Chad watching or something?"

You didn't know what to say. Truthfully, you had no idea if Chad had been watching or not, nor did you care. You had long since lost sight of your initial reason for bringing Richie to the wedding in the first place. You couldn't ruin things forever between you and Richie, but you couldn't lie to him, either.

"I don't know," you answered. "It just felt right."

"Felt right?" Richie didn't sound upset; just confused.

You couldn't just stand there not knowing whether or not you had just made the biggest mistake with Richie that you possibly could have. "Yeah, you know how it is," you cheerfully dismissed. "Doesn't it just feel right sometimes? Don't overthink it." The irony was not lost on you; you knew you would do precisely that. "Anyway, I'm sorry about that, Richie. I didn't mean to upset you. I'm gonna go to the bathroom. Do you want me to get you anything on the way back?"

"A drink."

"Anything in particular?"

"Surprise me."

"Ice?"

"Tons."

"Gotcha. Be back in a few." You headed toward the ladies' room as quickly as your dress would allow which, for the sake of appearances, was not very quickly, thankfully.

You locked yourself in a stall. "Fuck,"you whispered, dropping to a seat on the closed toilet. No matter how you fought them, tears sprang to the surface. You were glad that you had worn waterproof mascara. You allowed yourself a few moments of panic and despair before forcing yourself to dry up and get out. You touched up your makeup in the mirror until you were satisfied.

"You better get back out there to that man of yours," a woman said in passing, "or somebody else will be glad to take your place."

You laughed dryly. "Don't I know it?" you muttered to the empty bathroom.

You stopped to get Richie his drink, putting about as much thought into making it as he had into requesting it. You were sure to fill the cup with enough ice that it didn't really matter what else was in it, anyway. You scanned the room for Richie, perplexed that he was nowhere to be seen. Fuck, you thought. I've gone and run him off.

Just when you were about to dig your phone out of your purse, you felt a hand gently touch your arm from behind. You turned to face Richie, all smiles, back to his old self. You smiled and handed the drink to him. He set it on the nearest table.

"No time for drinks now, my love. While you were away, the DJ announced that after a brief intermission, the last song of the night was coming up."

"Thank fuck. That guy sucked. If it were my wedding, I'd pay him to stop. He's no Rich Tozier, that's for damn sure."

"Cut him some slack. I don't think Rich Tozier could have done any better, seeing a fox like you out on the floor."

"Nonsense. Rich Tozier is the king. He's been carrying both of us on the floor all night."

Richie smiled and offered you his hand. "I see the guy coming back. You ready to show them how it's done one last time?"

You took his hand. "Been ready all my life."

You made your way to the floor as the music began. It was a slow song, thank goodness, and you were ready to savor every second of the dance. It wasn't lost on you that it was the end of the night, the final encore, and you and Richie would soon take your last bow. It wasn't a show for you, though. It never was, and it had never been more plain to you than it was at that moment.

You looked into Richie's eyes. They were sparkling as he smiled at you. You smiled back and laid your head on his shoulder, playfully nuzzling his neck before settling. You felt a soft, whispering laugh in his chest before you felt his lips place a chaste kiss on the top of your head and then your hand that he held as you danced. He held his head down, his face resting gently in your hair.

In that moment, you could have sworn that he was enjoying this every bit as much as you. Deep down, however, you knew better. If he was loving this with you, it was no different than the way he had loved so many others for a moment or two before going back to his same old single life.

I love you, you thought. You mouthed the words against his shoulder, only because you knew he couldn't see. Was this how people felt on the way to their executions? Desperately clinging to every fleeting second of precious time as the end grew ever more imminent? You thought that it may very well have been; to some greater extent, of course, but still in the same vein.

You felt Richie's hand on your back, rubbing softly as your hand slowly traveled up to rest securely in his dark curls. Inevitably, no matter how fervently you wished that you could have frozen time, the song reached its end. Your heart began its slow break. Richie smiled down at you and kissed your forehead before wrapping an arm around you as you began the agonizing walk back to the car.

"What a night," you marveled aloud once you were both in the car.

"I'm sure Chad is eating his heart out and choking on it," Richie assured you.

You blinked, giving Richie a mischievous sideways smile. "Chad who?" You were playing coy but the truth was that you had hardly given him a passing thought the entire night.

"You pulled it off without a hitch, (Y/N)."

"Easiest thing I've done in my life- thanks to my fantastic partner, of course."

You raved about one another the whole way back, rehashing the evening, not wanting to let it go just yet. Unfortunately, you had to.

"Well, Mr. Tozier, it's been grand but I'm afraid this is my stop."

"Let me walk you to the door." That was just Rich; ever the gentleman.

He walked over to your door, held his hand out, and smiled once you stood before him. You took his arm and made your way to the door, thankful for once in your life for how much of a pain in the ass it could be to get to your apartment.

At last, you were at the door. The clock was ticking, the spell was breaking, and in spite of your dress, your professionally styled hair, and all of the makeup, you were starting to feel increasingly like your true self. "Thanks for doing this, Richie. It really means the world."

He smiled softly. "Nothing I would have rather done, dollface." You smiled up at him before yawning in spite of yourself. He laughed. "Go get some sleep, (Y/N)."

"You too, Richie."

He leaned in and placed a soft kiss onto your cheek. "I'll see you at work, baby." You thought he sounded as if he were talking to a child.

"Drive safe, Rich. And thanks again," you said before letting yourself in, not looking back for fear that Richie would see your heart all over your face.

The clock had run out, the coach had turned back into a pumpkin, Rich Tozier was just your older, wittier, more charismatic and successful friend and co-worker, and you? You were just you again, in your pajamas, sensational red dress discarded in the corner. Face bare. Eyes round and innocent. Lips returned to their natural shade. Bye bye, smokeshow, you thought.

You brushed your teeth, pulled your still styled hair into a messy bun at the back of your head, and climbed into bed. The sultry scent of your perfume still hung in the air. You knew it would be back to reality come Monday but, for now, you allowed yourself to drift to sleep on a cloud.

@caitlin-la @princessvulpecula13 @campcampie @itstheamandashow

[rielity]

2017 Writing Round-Up

source

Total year-long word count: 90303

Word count by fandom:

BNHA: 4891, 4 fics DGM: 3414, 2 fics Haikyuu!!: 81998, 36 fics

Fics completed:

39/42

Works-in-progress:

3/42 - Of Demons & How to Chase Them | twenty-four hours | for the voiceless (though this one... is debatable) crossfire is also, technically, a wip. but at the same time... it's not, lol.

This year I wrote and posted:

Timeless: 4 Across the Ages At Sunrise Back Home Beyond Nightfall

soft kitty warm kitty: 2 cat that got the cream catching catnaps

writing with snowdrops & others: 21 the little bits and pieces of this world with nothing in our hands Of Demons & How to Chase Them (DGM, chapter 3) on eggshells crossfire Runaways (chapter 2) Role of a Captain People You May Know forever is a mighty long time one-way ticket destination: forever the longest, darkest night the weight of you (DGM) cold (BNHA) safe (BNHA) twenty-four hours herding cats (BNHA) for the voiceless molten gold spring (BNHA) when I think of winter

SASO: 15 the owl and the duckbutt at the end of the world terms and conditions count on me, count on you best-kept secret light years from home (you) fear and bravery midwinter silence two chairs to a table crying is contagious phantom passing the baton control, and the lack thereof mirror

Total: 40 fics + two updates to old fics

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?

At the start of 2017, I wrote on Lofter and Tumblr that my target would be to hit 60 published works on AO3 by the end of the year. I have 79 now, so I wrote twice as much as what I was aiming to. I definitely didn't expect to write so much, and I have SASO to blame (thank?).

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?

Anything to do with the Miyas (duh!)... and also Seijou. But I guess the one that I would have never expected myself to write would be Matsu//hana: I wrote one-way ticket on a bus ride home after reading chapter 258. I hardly ever read Matsu//hana fic, much less ever feel inspired to write it, so one-way ticket really caught me off-guard.

What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?

I thought about this question for a long time and skipped ahead to answer a few before I came back to this. At first I thought it was a really hard choice to make - how can you ask me to choose a story out of all 40 that I've written this year? - but then I realised the answer's always been really clear. 

It's the weight of you, my Laviyuu fic based off of Vienna Teng's Enough to Go By. I wrote it in one sitting, with hardly any problems in terms of storyline or thematic exploration. it was one of those fics that just. came to me and let me embrace it. half a year later, I'm still incredibly proud of what I achieved in that meagre expanse of 1000 words. once in a while when I need to be reminded of what my writing can achieve, I reread it.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

I signed up for SASO. I was definitely not planning to write as much as I did, LOL. It taught me how to write fast, and to not be as hung up over the editing as I always do. I'm a slow writer because I like to write and edit at the same time, but with SASO it was just writing and minimal editing. I also got a bit more comfortable with working with prompts, though I'm still terrible at it.

I also signed up for two zines this year, one of which was for Kacchako, a pair I'd never written before. And to top it off, I was struck by writer's block when I was working on my submission. I don't know, it taught me to not sign up for zines when I'm drowning in schoolwork and that impulsive decisions are never a great idea (but are they really?).

Your best story of this year:

What's the difference between favourite story, best story and most popular story? I'd say it's either the weight of you or molten gold. the former for reasons stated in the earlier question, but molten gold because it's a fic that clearly shows how far I've come in writing ever since I started writing for HQ last year. when drawn parallel to Storm, my first Noya character study (and my second ever HQ fic), the difference is stark. It's still not perfect, and there are still things I wish I could've included, but I'm proud of what I achieved in it.

Your most popular story of this year:

By 'most popular' I'm assuming most kudos.

herding cats for BNHA and overall, and the little bits and pieces of this world for Haikyuu!! - neither of which are surprising results.

herding cats is a lighthearted and fun fluffy piece written for a ship that is gaining traction in a very thirsty fandom, while bits and pieces has the HQ fandom favourite trope of enemies to friends to lovers, and the benefit (?) of it running parallel to canon story.

Story of yours most under-appreciated by the universe, in your opinion:

At Sunrise. previously I would've said Across the Ages, but as I read and reread my old works, I've come to realise that At Sunrise is a piece that delves very deeply into the emotions of my characters, and really builds up an emotional bond not just between my characters, but also between my story and my readers. The amount of actual emotional pain that I inflicted on myself while writing it really shows in my writing, and my readers can feel it too.

I get why people don't read it. I really do. I've said it before, a few times now. Major character death scares a lot of readers away. Being a fantasy AU, and a Part 2 in a series turns people off. And it's Kage//hina, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it being a major ship means that a huge amount of the people who click in soon find that they're not here for this content.

Even so, I still think it deserves better.

I published it on April 1. It's December 28 now, and these are its stats.

Hits: 614 | Kudos: 37

Go figure. *salt

Most fun story to write:

Honestly, any story with Futakuchi as a narrator is great. It's a toss-up between when I think of winter and People You May Know. with nothing in our hands comes close as a runner-up though.

Story with the single sexiest moment:

You're asking me, a writer who can't even write kissing scenes, about a sexiest moment...??? I guess it'd be Back Home, if only because it's the fic with the most snogging.

Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:

mirror. It's not wrong per se, just not what I would have usually done for a Haikyuu fic. I think a lot of readers were taken aback by its hidden twist.

Story that shifted your own perceptions of the characters:

I don't really have an answer to this. It might be cold, my first ever Todo//baku. Writing it gave me a lot of insights into the Tod//obaku dynamic and understanding them better, but shifting my perception? I'd be hard-pressed to name it as such.

Hardest story to write:

on eggshells, At Sunrise, midwinter and molten gold. The first two because of how emotionally taxing they were, the latter two because of how difficult they were to actually write. I set out on each of these stories with a clear image of how I wanted to end it, but the process of going from start to finish was a long, long winding road, whether in picking the words that I needed to evoke the exact nuance and atmosphere I wanted to portray, or in letting myself hurt for my characters as I wrote. Sounds dramatic, but unfortunately true.

Biggest disappointment:

I hate to say it, but, Beyond Nightfall. I feel like I could have done a lot a lot a lot more with it, but I also don't know what exactly I could have done. I realised my biggest problem with writing longfic manifested when I was writing Beyond Nightfall - the incessant need to make everything tie up perfectly, which on hindsight was not the best decision because it made everything too neat, and also forced my story in a way that it didn't necessarily want to go. 

Moving forward, I hope I can work on this (I've already started to do so starting with when I think of winter) and I eventually plan to come back and rewrite Beyond Nightfall.

Biggest surprise:

forever is a mighty long time. I'd been toying with the idea of a reincarnation AU for Kuroyaku for the longest time, but never really wanted to actually start on it (...as is the case for 80% of all my fic ideas...) because I'm not a fan of writing tropey AUs (oh, look at that holier-than-thou attitude in that sentence LMAO JK). But when inspiration struck for me to put a twist on what would otherwise have been a very standard reincarnation AU piece, I decided to sit down and get to work on it.

Looking back, it's a good fic. not my best, but it's good.

Most unintentionally telling story:

on eggshells. It wasn't unintentionally telling, though. It was intentional, every bit of it. eggshells was the first time I dared to dig deep within myself to write a story based off my own emotional experiences, and while I found it cathartic, it's certainly not something I hope to replicate anytime soon.

Favorite opening line(s):

Futakuchi was not pining. He was absolutely not pining over Karasuno's vice-captain with the shaved head and rumpled training vest - what the hell, they even shared the same number, ew. - People You May Know

Favorite closing line(s):

kuroo stretches a little, his toes touching the calf of yaku’s leg, warm, solid and present, and very much alive. very much here. “yeah, i know.” - forever is a mighty long time

And the worst part of it all is that when he looks into the shards of broken silver lying on his bedroom floor, he still can’t stop seeing ‘Samu looking right back at him. - mirror

But in fact there is nothing much to say at all, when those shoulders that have been tempered with fire are more than capable of holding its weight. - molten gold

Favorite 5 line(s) from anywhere:

Moonlight scatters on the floorboards, a miniature Milky Way filling the space between them, but Yaku takes a step, then another, and then he’s falling into Kuroo’s arms, no longer a cold ephemeral spectre for Kuroo to gaze at from afar, like the twinkling stars through window grilles, but a warm, solid and real body that fits right against Kuroo’s own, a puzzle piece slotting back into place. - midwinter

And he would have liked to think himself invulnerable, with a mask stoic enough that nothing could shatter, a heart cold enough that nothing could touch, disillusioned with the evils of humanity that he had borne witness to. - the weight of you

where issei would usually retort with some comeback about takahiro’s birthday, today there is only silence. the train pulls to a stop, doors beeping an arrhythmic melody as their knees knock together with the movement. issei’s pulled out his phone now, the bend of his arms making his elbow dig into takahiro’s side; takahiro wonders if he, like him, is trying to feign deafness to the echoing chasm that seems to have opened up between them over the course of five sentences. - one-way ticket

His hands clutch at his throat, run ragged and raw by the smoothness of poppy petals. What an apt irony then that poppies should signify peace, because Aone is and has always been the peaceful, stoic rock to the swirling tempest that Kenji is, but their mere existence is doing the exact opposite in calming Kenji’s raging heart, their stem a noose around his neck. - fear and bravery

He takes a deep breath, and steps onto the court, into the fray. He can feel eyes on him - from his teammates, from his opponents, from the stands. The numbers on his jersey feel like they’re branding himselves into his back, and he squares his shoulders, embracing the burn. He’s not Nekoma’s number 3, but he’s Nekoma’s number 12, and he’ll show them what it means to be Nekoma’s libero - what it means to be guarding Nekoma’s backs. - passing the baton

Top 5 scenes from anywhere you would choose to have illustrated:

Lavi in front of Kanda's grave, at the remains of the old Black Order - the weight of you

Kuroo and Yaku doing work at the kitchen table, their legs barely touching - forever is a mighty long time

Oikawa and Futakuchi in front of the irori - when I think of winter

The moment when Shirabu and Kawanishi realise that Futakuchi's read the map upside down and they're now hopelessly lost - with nothing in our hands

Hinata, through Kageyama's eyes, when he tells Kageyama that he won't forget him - At Sunrise

Fic-writing goals for next year:

15 fics in total. It's a downsize from this year because the first half of next year will be occupied by uni and transition into adulting, so I don't want to give myself too much pressure. I'm still on the fence about signing up for SportsFest (SASO's successor) but I'll think about that when I get there.

I'm also going to take a break from fandom events for the time being. I've learnt from this year that I write terribly when given deadlines, and I admit that it was bad planning on my part to sign up for HQSS and a zine on top of my own schoolwork, especially when I was already taking a module on creative writing. Creative drought hit fast and furious and made the last two months terrible for me, writing-wise. Next year, I want to make sure that I can give my writing the due time and effort that it deserves, rather than forcing myself to churn out work.

Most importantly, I want to keep growing as a writer. I'm happy with how my style has developed this year, and I want to continue growing. Besides improving my dialogue writing and visual descriptions, I also want to venture into writing more challenging AUs and also characters that I've never dared to try.

I also want to attempt long fic, in particular the fic that I'd outlined for Nanowrimo this year but never had the chance to start on. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that I'd make that Nano fic my year-long project for next year, except I don't know if I'll actually be able to make it draw out for as long as I want it to, and also because I doubt my discipline in sticking it out with one single work for a whole year.

Besides all that, I'll be slowly chipping away at making the Kuroyaku anthology a reality. That means REWRITE REWRITE REWRITE. With writing style changes come inconsistency in storytelling. I think I need to find some time and give myself the chance to standardise everything, and fix any glaring errors I might find.

We shall see. 2017 has been a fantastic year for me in fandom, both in writing and in finding a community. I hope 2018 is even better.