#i miss my gaalee days when it was just me and my docs

[sio-writes]

Word Game!

I was tagged by @menagerie-of-monsters and my words were: steam, night, gray, and smart

I tag @vaya-writes, @kamaria-sweet-writes, and @kinomiakai with the words string, color, bath, and fright :>

This got a little lengthy, so I’m throwing it under a cut!

Steam: I dug into my early drafts of Botanist’s Guide and found this Kri perspective hiding in the back. Context: Cassie is very drunk and threw up earlier in the scene, so she’s in the shower while Kri babysits.

Night - This is an old oneshot I lost the passion for halfway through, so it’s been collecting dust in my WIP folder, lol

“Some day, huh?” Her nervous laugh echoes off the tile.

Please, stars above, strike me down so I don’t have to endure this torture.

“I suppose,” I say, teeth clamping down on my lower lip. My whole body is on fire. With Cassie speaking to me, every inappropriate image I had banished a moment ago returns in full force.

“I’d really appreciate you not, uh, telling anyone about this,” she says, and I hear her open a bottle. The bathroom is flooded with the scent of artificial lavender, and I am heavily debating ripping off my legs so they do not betray me by walking right into that smell.

“Why,” I try to sound conversational and wind up sounding angry. “Would I ever do that?”

She pauses. “I dunno, to embarrass me?”

I am doing just fine embarrassing myself right now, thank you.

“I do not need to do that,” is all I can manage.

Either in blessing or curse, Cassie does not respond. She opens another bottle, and a third after that, overwhelming my scent receptors. It's all lavender. I am reminded of the scent of her hair, the notes of soap on her skin, this must be the source.

Slowly, quietly, I take a deep inhale, wanting to sink into the scent, but the soap mingles with the steam and my brain unhelpfully provides me with the image of Cassie drenched head to toe. She's lathering her body with soap and I am behind her, pressing my face into her soaked brown curls and taking another long, slow inhale.

This is not helping. You are doing the opposite of helping, Khri'asxu.

Think, you lovesick idiot, so you can prepare for what’s next. She’s going to shut off the water, and humans dry themselves with terrycloth that she hung on that rod by the shower. I can keep my eyes closed for that as well, and I can take deeper breaths once the scent of her soap is gone. She will likely change into the clothes she set out earlier, and then—

The water shuts off.

“Kri?” Her voice sounds small and unsure, and I want to hold her.

I can only make out a small note of question. “Hm?”

“I’m sorry for all this, you deserve better.”

I frown. Always out of left field, with her. “I’m unsure what you mean.”

“A better friend, a better coworker, one who doesn’t throw up on you.”

My dearest cousin,

I write you this letter wishing you well, but also in haste and desperation. Over the past few weeks it has come to my attention that an otherworldly presence has made its home in, well, my home. The doors have been slamming in their frames, glassware rattles and falls from the cabinets, ghostly laughter echoes down the halls, and there is a horrid draft persistent throughout the whole manor. At first I believed the spirit to be my late husband, Edgar, but recent events have shifted my position.

I have narrowly escaped multiple instances of bodily injury of broken windows and falling portraits, each case more severe than the last, by quick wit and excellent timing. But I know my luck will run out eventually. I fear this presence, whatever it is, wishes me dead or at the very least out of its way. 

I'd hoped that given your…proclivities towards the macabre and demonic, that you may exorcize this demon back to the bowels of Hell. I've set up all the necessary precautions, crucifixes and sage and the like. I've also sent all but the essential waitstaff away for the month, and provided you with an allowance so you may purchase whatever materials you require.

You cannot begin to imagine my thanks for undertaking this project. I will sleep much better at night knowing the manor rests in your care.

Your cousin,

    Maude

The carriage drops you off in front of Becker Estate, a gorgeous two-story mansion at the top of a hill. The manor is red brick and timber, surrounded on all sides by thick, lush forest, the only estate for miles around. Your cousin has been Lady of the House for little more than a year, marrying into the Becker family at the age of twenty-four. She's a flighty sort of woman, prone to fainting spells and nervous fits, so you nearly wrote off her letter entirely, attributing it to grief and her anxieties over living alone in such a large estate. 

But something felt off. Maude was prone to hysteria, but she wouldn't write to you if she felt these occurrences were a simple trick of the mind. She wouldn't give you a month's allowance to do whatever you wished if this were a simple hindrance. So you decided it worth your time to at least visit the estate.

Gray - This is a touch of writing I did for my DND character. In the campaign she picked of a Belt of Dwarvenkind that acts as armor, but also gives the wearer a full beard. The beard makes her think of her late husband, who died when they were relatively young.

"I imagine you'd get quite the kick out of this. Probably even steal the belt from me so you wouldn't have to comb out your beard every morning."

Phyra opens her eyes and looks up at her reflection again. She's still not used to the gray hair, the new wrinkles. Smile lines and crow's feet, forehead lines and sagging skin. It all happened so fast, she hadn't been thinking. She wouldn't take it back, not in a thousand years, but she wished the spell had taken something else of hers. Running a hand over her wizened face, she bites back tears. "We were supposed to do this together."

Smart - I had to dig for a good quote that I hadn’t published already. This bit of Naruto fic has been sitting in my drive for years:

“Didn’t you cheat off me in Iruka’s class for that spelling test and we failed?”

“You failed,” Gaara corrected, lifting his chin. “You just dragged me down with you. It was a learning experience for both of us. I learned I need to pick someone smarter to cheat off of. You learned not to be a dumbass.”

[egregiousderp]

hi which are your fav naruto characters and ships ?? if you don’t mind me asking 🥺💖

I don’t mind! I just don’t have a good answer and also don’t check my box that often because nobody ever asks. (Sorry about that. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting long.)

/sweats

So uh. I write a lot of multiship, a lot of one-side-sideds, and very little het and uh... apparently missed the boat on all the popular Naruto pairings after starting it fifteen years late to begin with.

Things I’ve written and may or may not be sitting on: KakaGai, Kankukiba, GaaLee, and at one point, poly team Gai (NejiLeeTen), also technically Sakumo and Dai but it was like. A strange circumstance and maybe like. A reincarnation type thing from a certain point of view so. And there’s usually background NejiTen because it tends to fit neatly with the GaaLee, but with like. Sloppy emotions and protectiveness and Team Gai bonding.

Things I may write in the future: Oh man who knows let’s just have fun with this crazy shit, eh?

I read a lot more different kinds of things than what I write if that’s maybe another nuance of the question.

I’m also still in the process of watching, so, you know. Things could escalate in any direction at any time. (That’s maybe not very helpful aah.)

Sometimes these things just show up in the background and sometimes not. If you have a NOTP you want me to tag it’s probably just easier to slip it to me on anon or slide into my DMs and I’ll do my best to point it out if it comes up so you can read safely. (I mean. I have an entire tag for angst and I’m an angst writer so. It’s not going to be a problem.)

I can promise for sure you’ll never see teachers shipped with their students though coming from me. That seems to be a big one. Not talking about whether or not it’s moral, just... moral talks aside, it’s not my kind of thing?

Also, while I’m up here, not knowing how old you are, if you’re under eighteen please don’t read my E fics in any fandom? Not until you’re old enough, please. Or at the absolute absolute least do not tell me.

I’m not interested in policing people for their content consumption, especially considering what a squeamish adult I am but like. It would put me in a really gross position. Self regulate but also try and look out for the adults in your life who are trying to live responsibly, despite a past spent lying about their age, please?

I’ve sat on whole fics or excursions into fandoms because the fan base seems young or the concept gets too weird, honestly.

It won’t stop me from making the shit, but it basically ensures I’ll pass it under the table in google docs to only a handful of trusted and precious friends and you probably won’t be one of those if you’re hitting me up on Anon because most of the people who get hit up for sensitivity reads or thoughts are people I’ve known for years and talk with with a clear name and maybe even face on. ^^;;;

Also, please ask me for anything you need safety tagged so I can help you self-regulate, whatever your age or preferences, okay? I’m not so good at predictive stuff and sometimes end up in really odd directions trying to handle it about as safely as I can. I don’t always get it right and I know that, but I will constantly try to do better when it comes to making it easier for other people to regulate their content and what they can handle.

My anons are always open if you want that narrowed down any or have more specific ship questions! And so are my DMs. We don’t have to have spoken before for either of those to be open to you.

[sxpths]

some updates:

- well holy shit i finished nanowrimo yesterday and am currently at almost 51k so we’re vibing

- decided to turn the neji/kiba fic into a collection of all of the ships that are going to be in twbd verse that DON’T have their own fics (so everyone but obkk, gaalee, itanaga) bc i realized there wasn’t enough i wanted to do with them to warrant their own fic since, apparently, i only believe in long fics and want everyone to suffer through my bullshit w me

- WHICH MEANS i am now working on an accompanying timeline that will be a living document as things grow/change in the universe. it will encompass all (non-spoiler) info from the start of the 4th shinobi war to the most recent fic in the timeline (which will be the compilation). things addressed in tfiy — aka itachi’s “death,” pain’s attack on konoha, basically anything before the 4th war — will be added on a case-by-case basis & depending on how much of that fic is out and/or what is happening in the rest of the world at the time

- speaking of the neji/kiba… since i’m not doing it as a full fic anymore, this first drabble… which is STILL NOT DONE… is already at 12k so. lmao. imagine me as a writer who can keep things short and sweet and not ridiculously long All The Time. it truly ended up being WAY longer than expected, which is why tfiy and fine line have not gotten updates in the past couple weeks. my b, i got rly into it

- i miss fine line DESPERATELY and want to write more but i’ve been chugging through the njkb and haven’t had time for anything else. a fine line update is next, followed by (hopefully) a tfiy update and then the very first chapter of the gaalee fic! and then hopefully each one will have a monthly release similar to this sched for the next few weeks

- bc i just started a new job/have been catsitting/the holidays/a million OTHER things the past couple weeks, writing has been Hard to get done and i am honestly shocked i ended up winning nanowrimo or writing as much as i have at all. dec is also gonna be busy since i’m juggling two jobs until january BUT my goal is to remain somewhat on schedule/release things in the tentative order stated above (except for maybe at the end of the year, as i will be Abroad). send your writing vibes my way because i WILL need them

- i cannot possibly schedule when all of the non-twbd fics will happen rn but i do think about them constantly and add new ideas to my wip doc so.. one day. if anyone has any drabble concepts for me, message me pls. i am Itching to write some hashimada especially, so like 👁👁

ok the current writing plan for the next week (writing it down for posterity):

- finish ch.9 & ch.10 of fine line saturday and sunday, respectively

- finish tfiy ch.2by the end of the week, post friday?

- work on ch.1 of [neji/kiba wip], with plans to hopefully post it sometime the following week?

- honestly i know myself and there will be at least one other chapter of fine line in here at some point, but as of rn i am Seeing where it ends so i'm trying to pace myself

- start planning out next obkk au fic (that doesn't take place in twbd universe), obkkrin au & the obkk/genma roomies au. think about other twbd fics that are coming & when to start working on them

- figure out writing/release schedule for the next couple of months... tfiy once monthly, nk once monthly, fine line biweekly (or once monthly?), basically one different thing a week every month unless i get possessed by the writing bug like i did with fine line again