#i need more omgcp fics anyway

[forabeatofadrum]

Do you sometimes wake up and think to yourself: "Today, I am going to do something batshit insane?"

That's me today. I'm doing another WIP Wednesday Hospital. Since it's been 8 months since the last one, here's a quick reminder of the Hospital metaphor, copy-pasted from the previous Hospital post: "the WIP Wednesday Hospital is inspired by a post by @facewithoutheart​ called a WIP Wednesday Graveyard, where Christina put her abandoned WIPs to rest and I was obsessed with the idea, but I also realised that I wasn’t ready to put my WIPs to rest since I had the intention of finishing them. So instead of a graveyard, my WIPs reside in a (long-stay) hospital ward. All my WIPs are waiting for me to discharge them (aka finish them)."

As usual, I recommend people to do this as well, since it's a fun way to look back on older WIPs. Below the cut are 10 patients waiting for a visit. You can go say visit all of them, or just skip to the ones that interest you. I bolded the fandoms/ships etc. for easier browsing.

Leave your name at the desk and be safe: @quizasvivamos @blurglesmurfklaine @coffeegleek @esperantoauthor @otherworldsivelivedin @caramelcoffeeaddict @sillyunicorn @bazzybelle @dragoneggos @raenestee @tectonicduck @nightimedreamersworld @urban-sith @thnxforknowingme @captain-aralias @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @justgleekout @cerriddwenluna @tea-brigade @ivelovedhimthroughworse @moodandmist @whogaveyoupermission @bookish-bogwitch @confused-bi-queer @aroace-genderfluid-sheep @ionlydrinkhotwater @1908jmd @special-bc-ur-part-of-it @larkral @chen-chen-chen-again-chen ​ @cutestkilla ​ @nausikaaa ​/@wellbelesbian ​ @martsonmars ​ @facewithoutheart ​ @shrekgogurt @boyinjeans @rockitmans @bitbybitwrites @blackberrysummerblog @whatevertheweather @artsyunderstudy

I have two summer challenges that I signed up for, namely the Madison and More (OMGCP) and the Klaine Back-To-School AU (Glee) and both challenges are due in August and unfortunately for me I have written nothing yet. But that will change today!

I cannot tell you which prompt I claimed for Madison and More, since it's an anonymous fest, but I think this doesn't give away a lot:

Jack's tired. He's been tired for a while, which is why this vacation is needed. He's on the beach. He's lying in the water, but at the shallow part, enjoying the sun. Damn, he needed this. He can feel himself doze off.

I think I am allowed to share the prompt that inspired me for the Klaine Back-To-School AU. Like I said, I have written zero (0) words for this, but I have been thinking about this fic so here we go.

Kurt is about to lose his mind. He has no idea where it has gone wrong, but it's gone wrong. "Fuck," he yells, because he's fucked. He is so totally fucked. It's his third year as a pre-school teacher and this has never happened before. He needs to reel in the swearing before the kids arrive. He also needs to fix this mess before the kids come in. They will be devastated if they find out that ten of the classroom pets have gone missing. "Fuck!" Kurt says again. How did this happen? These animals are all cared for. They live here. This classroom is reserved for them. Kids come here to see the animals, not the other way around. Suddenly, Kurt hears a voice. "Everything all right in here?" he hears, "I heard swearing."

The joke is that I don't know how this fic ends (yet), because like Kurt, I also have no idea where the animals are.

Anyway, up to the next patient. It's the small fic idea that I came up with during my vacation. Here's Simon's POV of the "cat leaves paw prints on Baz's fancy car" fic:

Buttered Scone is a typical housecat, but every now and then I take her out for a walk. Yes, she wears a collar and a leash and she doesn’t complain at all. Penny says it’s a good thing, because this way I can keep an eye on her, since London is huge, and Buttered Scone doesn’t disrupt the local biodiversity by roaming freely. So yes, I have her under control. Most of the time. Except this time, I looked at my phone and when I turned back to Buttered Scone, she was atop of a car.

This made me realise that Buttered Scone's initials are B.S. Huh.

I am still thinking about my good ole Sarah Jane Adventures Extended Universe fic aka Luke Smith's Gay Adventures at Oxford (mostly) aka me exploring the alien side of Luke as an added bonus, so uhhh:

"Have you been up every night?” “I guess.” “That’s fine,” his mum says, “Just… please be a bit more quiet next time, okay?” “Why?” “Because you woke me up. From sleep.” Luke stares at his mum. Sleep. He’s heard of that. Maria once came over and she said she was tired because she didn’t get enough sleep. His mum told Luke that he can ask her anything. “Mum, what is sleep?” His mum looks dumbfounded. “You don’t sleep?” “I don’t know. Do I?”

Look, his super alien brain is the cumulation of thousand other brains, it makes sense that it is hard to turn off.

Patient no. 5 has been here for a while. It's Matty Chris D, our boy, aka Just Some Guy, aka the Snowbaz from an outsider perspective fic. MCD still doesn't care about the guys at all, but the existence of Simon and Baz is noticable. So what happens when Simon doesn't show up?

Simon Snow does skip class. I don’t care. But then he skips again. And again. And again. Not only that, but his friend Penelope Bunce isn’t attending classes either, and that’s extremely weird. Weirdly enough, she’s not the reason something feels off. Sure, she usually is very present in class, constantly asking questions and adding her own commentary, but it’s Simon’s absence that is weirding me out. I usually do not care about his presence in class, since he doesn’t participate as much as Penelope Bunce or Tyrannus- oh, I mean, Baz Pitch, but his absence is noticeable because there is a lack of magic surrounding us. I didn’t know I had gotten so used to the Chosen One leaking magic until now.

For context, this is the 3rd year, where Simon and Penny disappear for a few months. In the scene before this, Matt's friends lament that being the Chosen One must have some perks, cause it means you can skip class in order to save the world or something.

Okay, next one! I actually read The Sun and the Star during my vacation and it completely throws everything out of the window re: my Solangelo fic, but that's the beauty of fanfiction, isn't it? My version of getting-together is more angsty.

Nico leaves the infirmary before any more deaths occur, but they do occur in the days after. It feels like a blow to the camp that even days after the big battle against Gaia, people still die, but that is how it is. Nico spends most of his time in Cabin 13. It’s empty without Hazel, but he makes it work. He told everyone that he’s staying, and Nico is committing to that. He asks Annabeth for some decoration tips. The Stolls steal his shoes and he can’t even be mad at them. He congrats Clarissa La Rue when she gets her university acceptance letter. Jason tells Nico about his new plan for honouring the gods. Camp Half-Blood is still grieving, but life goes on.

Not going to lie, I do not know if I will ever finish this, but that's also what I said about, for example, aap noot mies.

I also published a Love, Victor fix-it last year after the series finale and I said I was going to write more fix-its (the ending really sucked, guys) and I did start one and I have been adding things to it every now and then:

Benji hurries to the bar and Victor does a double take when Benji comes back with a glass of milk. “Did… you just order that?” “You should’ve seen the barperson’s face,” Benji says with a wink and he raises his glass, “Good for your bones, you know?” “Cheers,” Victor says. “So, you come here often?” Benji asks.

I am somewhat a Venji-truther, but I just didn't like the way how they ended up together. It felt rushed and they didn't discuss why their relationship failed in the first place. They just kissed on the ferris wheel, which is a nice way to bookend the series, but come on! So in my fix-it, they meet again after 3 years of not seeing each other.

No. 7 is a quick check-in with the Glee/CO crossover. I mentioned it to @bitbybitwrites, who has recently read Carry On! In a shocking twist of events, I actually managed to come up with (a draft of) the summary before finishing the fic. The fic is far from finished, but I thought it'd be fun to share the summary:

Baz thought that his obsessive and insufferable Gleek days were behind him when the show ended, but when Simon accidentally transports the two of them into the Glee universe, his knowledge might pay off. Blaine is very confused when he realises something’s wrong at Dalton Academy and that there are two new people roaming around that clearly don’t belong here. He and Kurt try to understand what is happening. Can the four of them find a solution to this situation that doesn’t involve Baz outing himself as a Klainer 12? Will Simon finally make sense who he is now that he has Kurt and Blaine to guide him? And can Kurt and Blaine ignore the fact that their unwanted guests clearly know more about Kurt and Blaine’s lives than they let on?

No. 8 is a fic I have been stuck on for a while. It's a The Legend of Zelda fic and it definitely an example of the two cakes principle, because it's about Link being sad after Link's Awakening. I also don't know if this will ever get finished, but I like this:

Link’s playing his flute in the grass of the castle. It’s a lovely song and Zelda takes her time to enjoy it. She closes her eyes and she lets the music overtake all her senses. She lets out a happy sigh. The music abruptly stops. When Zelda opens her eyes, she sees Link looking at her with wide eyes. “Don’t stop on my account,” Zelda says. She sits down next to Link. “I don’t know that song. It’s lovely.” “Thanks.” “What is it called?” “The Ballad of the Wind Fish,” Link says and he shoots Zelda a serious and almost pleading look, as if he wants Zelda to recognise it. She has to disappoint him.

Hey, remember AU, Please!, the OMGCP fest all about AUs? I wrote Center Ice for it. I love that fic. But I actually had another prompt that I claimed, but I had to let it go since I didn't have time to finish it. It's about Dex's unusual power. The mods allow writers to publish it later outside of the fest, ....

His mother had sat him down when he was six years old. She crouched in front of him. “My son, one day, you will unlock the family’s secret power. It’s been passed through from generation to generation and only one person each generation has the power. We do not know how it works exactly, since it’s not passed down from parent to child, but it is within our family, and we have reasons to believe you are the chosen one.” Now, Will loved Superman, so he was stoked to hear that he had powers. Unfortunately for him, the powers of his family are less fortunate. “You will have the ability to turn into a lobster, my son. Use it wisely.”

And lastly, a returning patient who will be semi-discharged soon. It's my fic about Asian identity in Glee. It got some renewed interest after I mentioned it on my post about Jenna's comments on the racism she experienced. As a result, I am thinking about posting it as a series of standalone ficlets. The reason I haven't started doing that is because I don't have a title or anything. Classic.

Anyway, this was inspired by, I guess, my life, but it is in on my mind again after I saw someone wear a bamboo hat on the train station. I wish I had the courage to just... do that. Kinda messed up that I am too afraid to wear Chinese clothing in public due to backslash, but that is life.

Tina stares at her hanbok. It is beautiful. It is by far one of the most beautiful pieces of clothing that she's ever owned. It's to small for her now. Her mother bought it for her when she was in Korea with Mrs. Danvers and An Unnamed Character. That was years ago. Tina was still a child and she was so happy when her mother showed it. Times were simpler back then, because Tina would soon learn that others did not share her joy. Every time she would wear it in public, people saw it as a reason to target her with racially slurs. Tina wanted to feel pretty, but they made it clear that she was ugly in their round eyes. So Tina put it back in the closet and she could only wear it once a year during Halloween, when she would dress up "as a Korean" and she'd be surrounded by all the other white girls with cheap Geisha-esque wigs, taped back eyes, flimsy fans and whatever "Oriental costume" they bought from Target. It's such a beautiful hanbok, and it got reduced to a Halloween costume, and now Tina's grown too much to wear it.

I actually cleaned out my childhood bedroom today and I found the shoes that my mother brought from China (together with the cheongsam that inspired this snippet) and yeah, they don't fit anymore, just like the cheongsam.

Okay, damn, sorry to end this visit on a bummer, so have an extra snippet from the same fic that is more upbeat:

“Mike, it’s Wes!” Tina says excitedly and she clutches her boyfriend’s arm. She is completely ignoring the fight she had with Mike, since she is so excited. “AsianDancer?” Wes asks, sounding expectant, “Or just Mike?” Mike takes a look at Wes and he does a double take when he sees that Wes is wearing a Dalton uniform. “GavelMan92?" Wes nods. "You’ve got to be kidding me,” Mike says as well.

AsianDancer 🤝 GavelMan92 🤝 XxGothGirlTayTayxX BFFS 4 ever!!!

Anyway, if you've made it this far, have a flower 🌺 as well.

[urlocallesbiab]

tags via @generalized-incompetence:

#how did you post this on the day the assisfriedkin brainrot consumed me again

#my one rarepair offering is amanda and litzibitz but i have a million friendship pairings

#they're animated children's show characters to me and i am writing only filler episodes

#farah and estevez i think we've established but i haven't seen much fic about it (thanks kate though!!!)

#lydia and literally anyone. lydia and tina: shenanigans. lydia and farson: two children who tried to suceed where the adults failed. lydia #and mona: she just thinks mona's neat. lydia and hobbs: the father she never had.

#zimmerfield and wygar

#farson and francis!!! i feel like farson was a little bit of a francis stand in

#tina and panto and i also wanna say tina and panto's mom

#i feel like she would shock and appall panto's mom by like forcibly redecorating but eventually they would be wine friends

(this got way too long for prev-tagging it)

amanda and litzibitz!!! who knows maybe if amanda stayed in wendimoor to study extra magic..... maybe litzi would've snuck out to meet the mysterious witchacookoo... maybe farson would've introduced them! i think they would get along great, they're both very fierce young women willing to risk themselves / whats important to them if it means keeping people safe, burdened both by responsibility (the wise witch of her realm/the princess of her people) and by limited power to fulfill it (not enough control over her magic / over her father's decicions). what is shipping if not picking two characters with similar and/or compatible trauma and shoving them together! also given that i solidly hc manda as aromantic (and also bi and polyam but i digress) that makes me think what if litzi also was aromantic? 1 give it up for hot sapphic sex and friendship, 2 it's kinda funny to me to imagine litzibitz being on the fence abt her brother's relationship partially bc she just doesn't get why would he go that far for the sake of romance

LYDIA AND FARSON!!!! you're a teenager. your single parent has been keeping secrets from you. there's a feud that's been going on for years. you go out to meet up with the enemy: you want truth, you want peace, you want closure. it doesn't go well. you're kidnapped; your older sibling gets in trouble over it. your little stunt gets people killed. your body is changed in a way that's perfectly physically reversible but irreversibly traumatizes you. in the end, all is well, the day is saved and the problem is solved, but. you've gotten people killed. what's now, little heir?

in honor of tina & panto i tried to find more hcs from that one convo but it turned out we didn't share any, we were just picking roles for an omgcp au 😭 but anyway!! these two would get up to So Many shenanigans i know it. neither panto nor tina don't really need any more enabling as it is, but they'd absolutely enable each others and the amounts of bullshit would be Gorgeous. tina would hype him up bc she's a huge fan of hot people with weapons ("you're almost as badass as my girlfriend!"), and panto would have genuine deep respect for her skillset, and it'd be an iconic friendship! chaos queers at large: beware.

also on the topic of that au role assignements, i can't believe i forgot tina/amanda!! now That's a rareship. in that specific situation the ship wasn't actually prompted by "what would happen if we removed farah from the equation?", but in general i think that The most funny/interesting character dynamics can be achieved through taking a triangle-like situation (whether romantic or platonic or familial or whatever or a mix) and removing the centerpoint character, shoving the other two directly together. tina/amanda. silas & bart. panto × ken. todd × mike. NOW we're talking NOW THAT'S something!!! anyway i think that the fact that tina and amanda have never met and probably barely even heard of each other is the only thing that stopped them from instantly bonding for life. two bisexual weed-smoking musical subcultre girls in their mid-to-late twenties with debilitating mental and/or physical health issues and complexes over their older brothers, previously choking to death on boredom in their small and depressing enviroments and now getting embroiled in a terrible but exciting adventure larger than them? that relationship is writing itself!! y'all've heard about tina/farah parallels, now give it up for tina/amanda parallels!!!

on topic of tina & panto's mom, i don't remember the trosts having a mother? iirc they only had the father, jeppum, and the dengdamors only had the mother, lady frija. please PLEASE tell me you've invented a wendimoor oc for panto's mother and if yes PLEASE tell me about it i LOVE your hcs and incorporating them into my worldview

this fandom needs more weird and niche rareships. assisfriedkin, farona, mona/hugo, priest/adams, brotzman/estevez fans RISE UP i love eeeeevery single one of all so madly

honestly sound off your rareships in the notes i wanna see what yall got

oh and bonus round: people who hadn’t interacted once in canon but absolutely should've been friends (i will preemtpively mention tina & mona from kp's coffeshop au, tina & panto from i think that one conversation we had once, and bart & assistent from electricteatime's fic i havent yet read but heard a lot about)

[adamlynnch]

Check Please!: fic recs

these are mostly nurseydex heavy but there are some good ones. I’ll tag ships just incase.

*Crossed Wires by lecrivaineanonyme

14k, Oneshot, T (nurseydex)

Will snorts. "You are unreal,” he says, shaking his head. “I’ve had people in here crying because they downloaded a virus that can be removed in two minutes, and here you are with pie-filling in your computer, joking about how at least you didn’t fucking put rice in it.”

Derek grins. “It’s chill,” he replies, scratching the back of his neck. “Why worry? I know you got my back.”

Also known as the one where Nursey is constantly fucking up his laptop and Dex is the lucky Best Buy employee who gets to fix it.

*Mixing It Up by sinspiration

40k, Multi-chapter, M (zimbits)

Eric Bittle, of Bitty's Bakery, is very excited to have been chosen as a contestant for the Food Network Challenge. He's even more excited to find out that he's making a cake for the NHL new-Cup winners, the Falconers.

Jack Zimmerman, of the Falconers, doesn't know anything about cake, and will be the first to tell you that he feels wholly unqualified to judge a cake-making competition. At least Alexei is there to help ease things a little. Honestly, all he's really expecting is to be very awkward on camera for the entire segment, and to eat a lot of cake that's not really in his diet plan.

That's how it starts.

*how to not fall in love with your best friend + other holiday activities by quidhitch

7k, Oneshot, M (holsom)

When Ransom meets Adam Birkholtz for the first time he’s wearing a t-shirt that’s half a size too small for him, jeans that are worn out in the ratty way, and Birkenstocks that look about a thousand years old. His glasses are crooked on his nose and he introduces himself with a loud, booming laugh even though Ransom hasn’t said anything particularly funny. Ransom thinks it’s the kind of laugh that moves mountains, full and round and beautiful.

“Everyone calls me Holster,” Adam says, squeezing Ransom’s hand before he lets it go.

“Cool,” Ransom’s smile back is a reflex, the easiest, most natural response to Holster’s toothy grin. “I’m Ransom.”

“Sick nickname,” Holster tosses an arm around Ransom’s shoulder’s without warning. He is very large and very warm, and his breath smells like cinnamon. “You know what, Ransom? I think we’re gonna be tight.”

*I Know I Am, But What Are You? by sysrae

19k, Multi-chapter, E (nurseydex)

“I need you,” says Dex, “to be my fake date at my family Christmas. Please.” “Cool,” says Nursey, mouth operating on Chill Autopilot while his higher brain functions come to a screeching halt. “I can do that.”

first love, late spring by lehtonen

12k, Oneshot, M (holsom)

“Right.” Ransom still looks serious, but there’s a sinister glint in his eye that Holster gloomily recognises as contemplation. “What’s in it for us?”

Holster whips his head round to stare at him so fast his neck twinges in three different places. “Nothing is in it for us,” he hisses sotto voce, “or did you not hear the part where we’d be dating?”

handful of crazy stars by alwaysayes

2k, Oneshot, T (nurseydex)

your name is derek nurse and your world is on fire and will is your sun and your moon and stars and your entire virgo supercluster and you know that you are his too. your name is derek nurse and for the first time in your life you may have something other than hockey to keep you going because he makes you strong and you make him strong and together you are inescapable and magical and radiant and everything in the world that you will ever need because you have each other.

*The Huntsman and the Bard by rhysiana

9k, Oneshot, T (nurseydex)

Derek Nurse has cut it extremely fine on finding a cover story location for their New England travel magazine's fall issue, but he the pumpkin farm he just came across looks almost too good to be real. If only he can get the taciturn owner to agree to an interview...

Dex has no interest in an interview, or any kind of publicity. He's just trying to live a normal, mundane life, far, far away from the politics of the Faerie Court and his mother. But this journalist is proving oddly persuasive...

In which things go right, and then they go very, very wrong. Faerie queens do not like to be denied.

All I Ask by nickbonino

1k, Oneshot, T (holsom)

Ransom had been at March’s for a little under two hours, one last afternoon together before Ransom went to kiss the ice goodbye that evening, when he got the call. Bitty sounded almost frantic but was clearly trying hard to hide it.

“Ransom, I think you should come home. I don’t know what’s going on but I think you should be here.” Bitty’s voice rose as he spoke and Ransom heard what sounded like him banging on a door.

“Bits, I’m sorry dude but I’m kinda busy. Can’t you just sort whatever it is?” He tried to sound as apologetic as possible but Bitty was having none of it.

“Holster won’t open his door, Rans! I can hear him cr-. Just come home,” Bitty ordered, with a note of finality Ransom wasn’t prepared to argue with.

“Yeah, yeah okay. I’ll be there in five,” he sighed and hung up.

*and we dance like angels do by benvolio

7k, Oneshot, T

"Bitty is a literal angel. Not just the whole angelic metaphor concerning how his blond hair probably forms a wispy halo around him when the light hits him from behind or anything. Real deal angel."

Inspired by tumblr user cardamom 

all this war just to win by lehtonen

8k, Oneshot, E (nurseydex)

“You want me to shut up?” Dex takes a step back, triumphant, his eyes flashing. “Make me.”

Or: Dex and Nursey hook up, but they're still a mess.

*if we bite (the pain is sweet) by shellybelle

57k, Multi-chapter, E (nurseydex)

After two and a half semesters at Samwell, Dex has gotten used to people handling their stress in weird ways. Bitty bakes up a storm, Lardo is constantly covered in what Dex really, really hopes is paint, Ransom turns into a curled-up ball of anxiety on the nearest flat surface. He gets it: people are just weird here.

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t choke on his Red Bull when Nursey sighs, “God, I’m so tense right now. I just really need to suck a dick, y’know?”

(Or: five times Dex and Nursey really don’t quite know what they’re doing, and one time they’ve really, really figured it out.)

dots and dashes. by katarama

1k, Oneshot, T (nurseydex)

It took him a longest to warm up to Nursey, to feel comfortable with much more contact than a fistbump after a celly. There were the incessant “chill”s that grated on Dex’s nerves more than they should’ve. There was also the voice in the back of Dex’s head to be careful, because once everyone found out he liked boys, there was no helping the fact that things with Nursey would get weird.

Now, they’ve come far enough that he’s sitting on the grass with Nursey’s head in his lap by the pond, the sun finally warm enough in May to have melted all the ice and snow.

Cheiloproclitic by akadiene

1k, Oneshot, T (zimbits)

Cheiloproclitic - Being attracted to someones lips.

Jack really likes kissing.

all that you've conquered by whimsicalimages

10k, Oneshot, T (nurseydex)

“Drunk Nursey doesn’t write checks that sober Nursey can’t cash,” Nursey tells him very seriously.

Or: William J. Poindexter’s sister is getting married, which means, among other things, that he has to learn how to dance.

Close by tiptoe39

23k, Multi-chapter, E (zimbits)

They’ve been together for a month and a half. Now they need to learn how to be close.

A Madison/Fourth of July fic

[wrathofthestag]

There are so many great OMGCP fics out there that I love, read, and rec, again and again.  I decided to group some together, by theme, and share with you.  I’ll be posting one or two themes a month. Most of the fics are Zimbits-centric.

Theme: Outsider POV

The First Day of My Life  by orphan_account

Summary:  Terry likes Jack. This seems to mystify the sad bastard. And Terry can't figure out why.

OR

A Guide to Being an Emotionally Stable, Independent Young Man: By Terry Beaumont, Jedi Master, for Jack Zimmerman, Padawan

Just Guys Baking Pies by Jenrose  @jenroses​

Summary: Josh Urben is just a guy from Ohio who wants to play hockey in the NHL. It's an honor to stay with Jack Zimmermann during his rookie year. He never believed all that gossip anyway. And he has the nicest roommate, who is such an amazing cook. They're such good friends! If only they'd stop trying to get Josh on social media.

maybe i'm waking up  by  idrilka (One of my all-time favorites <3)  @idrilka​

Summary:  It’s almost funny. All he ever wanted was to play hockey, to play in the NHL, to win the Cup. This—Samwell, the team, the Haus—was supposed to be just a detour, but now it feels more like a destination he failed to realize he’s already reached.

(Or: Jack signs with the Falconers, graduates, and leaves. It's the hardest thing he's ever done. What comes after is even harder.)

Honors Thesis (4970H) – required course by BellaTheReal

Summary: Marisol needs to write her honors thesis but she put off asking a faculty advisor. Dr. Jack Zimmermann is an intimidating professor, but as Marisol procrastinates her way through the essay, she sees there's much more to the man everyone on campus either fears or wants to bang.

Ethics of Journalism by rosepetals42 @petals42​

Summary: When Dan Erikson is assigned to write an article about Jack Zimmermann's years in college, he thinks he knows what he's getting into.

Then he meets Professor Simpson, Jack's photography professor.

Production Values by chocoholic2

Summary: ESPN Films presents… as part of the widely anticipated revival of the acclaimed sports documentary series “30 for 2030”…

Out On The Ice: The Jack Zimmermann Story.

How Jack Zimmermann rocked the sports community and the world when he came out as the first openly gay professional hockey player in the NHL, all while living out his storybook romance with cooking star, Eric Bittle.

Produced and directed by Cassidy Hernandez

Reblog and show these amazing authors some love.

[everwitch-magiks]

Taking inspiration from @parvuls​ omgcp rec bingo, I hereby present:

The Red, White and Royal Blue Fic Recs Bingo!

It’s time to start the new year on a good note and rec some wonderful fics! Big shoutout to @im-captain-egg​ for helping me come up with fantastic bingo options when I ran out of ideas. ♡

These are only some of my favourite fics in this fandom, there are many more great ones out there and a whole lot of new works that I know people are coming up with right this minute. So much content to be excited about!

If you haven’t read Red, White and Royal Blue, please do. Please please do. It’s so romantic and sexy and wonderful, and just the exact flavour of escapism that we all deserve in these godforsaken times.

Here goes!

a fic with at least one turkey: The Total Agony of Being in Love by xslytherclawx (@xslytherclawx​) Henry’s point of view of Great Turkey Calamity. This is such a good take on Henry’s feelings at this stage of their friendship growing into so much more. It’s got this aching sweetness between the lines that is just plain irresistible. a fic that made you laugh out loud: what can i say (you're so gorgeous) by FangirlOfLetters A really fun coffee shop AU! Henry has a favourite customer, and said customer may or may not have something of a crush. What made me laugh? Oh fuck. Did he say that out loud? Iconic moment! a fic that you wrote: Born To Make History by everwitch A Yuri!!! On Ice inspired figure skating AU that I’m really proud of. It’s short and sweet, just a first meeting and some flirting and the hint of so much more, but if you are at all into the idea of Alex swooning over Henry’s score sheet and seeking Henry out to pay him compliments, this one is for you. a wip you read as it was updated: the poem you make of me by cmere (@omgcmere) You have to read the poem you make of me. You have to. Taking inspiration from the novel’s pivotal new years scene, where Alex and Henry talk about what their lives might’ve been like in another universe, cmere has created an irresistibly complex, gorgeously poetic AU where a model meets a poet and sparks fly. It is incredible, it is my favourite and it is going to be your favourite, too. a fic that made you cry: What Do I Know? by allmylovesatonce (@three-drink-amy) So this is a continuation to canon that includes amnesia, and that should tell you everything you need to know about why it made me cry. It’s the epitome of good angst: dark and painful but at the same time so achingly beautiful and heartfelt, and you cry and cry and cry. It’s so worth the pain, though, it really, truly is! a fic where Henry speaks French: Montmartre by sconelover (@scone-lover) An interlude in Paris, where Alex and Henry explore Montmartre. This is one of those stories that feels like it takes place in a liminal space, in a sort of in-between, on the precipice of something wonderful. Absolutely gorgeous writing! a fic that is pure fluff: what kind of flavour is birthday cake anyway? by captainegg (@im-captain-egg) A sweet, heartwarming birthday surprise, perfect for a rainy day when you need a lovely pick-me-up! a fic from Alex’s point of view: Searching by floatingaway4 (@floatingaway4) This one is a real gem, beautiful and romantic and just precious! They are so in love, and I am so in love with this.

There you have it! Almost a double bingo, too!

Participating in this by making your own rec list is highly encouraged! What have you been reading, lately? Which fics did the options on the bingo card remind you of? ♡

[parvuls]

* adapted from @librajiminn on twitter

a fun game to celebrate 2020 ending! the rules are simple: recommend your favorite omgcp fics so everyone can enjoy them, while trying to fill in enough slots to get a bingo! i ordered my recs starting from top left; my filled bingo card is at the end ✨

most recent fic you bookmarked don't tell your mother by seeingrightly [rating: unrated, probably t | words: 1k] essentially: jack is in madison, and things aren’t easy but at least they’re together. i have an unhealthy obsession with madison/4th of july fics, and every new one i discover brings me joy. i liked this one in particular because of the lovely, clean flow of the writing, and for its attention to the problematic environment: the (assumed) homophobic nature of georgia, and bitty's tension when he’s home as a result.

a fic that made you cry Your heart hurts, mine does too by the_p_in_raspberry (@thepinraspberry) [rating: t | words: 19k] essentially: this fic fills the prompt ‘what if bitty hadn’t come out to shitty?’ the fic deals with exactly the subject material implied, and is inherently painful. this what if version of bitty’s journey with his sexuality was so, so raw, but it was the good kind of pain. i’ll say that while this fic is jack/bitty at its core, i really think its real strength is the team dynamics. they are so there for each other, and it was a beautiful read.

a fic you’ve re-read multiple times Prove To Me You Got Some Coordination by amalnahurriyeh [rating: explicit | words: 17k; the series is 24.5k] “In which Jack Zimmermann has a favorite stripper, some very strong feelings about labour relations, and a good heart.“ when i prepared myself for reading a stripper au, this is not what i expected. this fic is one of my all-time favorites. i adored the politics angle, jack's awkward Helpless Good Guy gestures, and bitty being a complete badass. their soft flirting, the realistic (but positive!) take on sex work, and the careful handling of a potential unequal power dynamic. i don’t think i can count on one hand the amount of times i read this fic.

a fic from your to-read list Never Will You Ever by thefiveboxingwizards (@thefiveboxingwizards) [rating: explicit | words: ~25k (WIP)] essentially: during fall semester of Y2 the team plays never have i ever, which results in jack coming out to bitty. bitty decides to move on, just as jack starts to realize his own feelings. this is the first time i’m reccing a fic i haven’t actually read. i have a strict rule against reading wips for my own mental health (although i have great appreciation for all writers who decide to post them; kudos to you). the premise of this fic sounds so alluring, however, that i couldn’t help but marking it for later and then checking if it’s updated every few days. can’t wait to read it when it’s finished!

FREE SLOT and now what words do I have? by MyCupOfTea (@marchingatmidnight) [rating: m | words: 10k] essentially: jack and bitty love each other. bitty moves to france. jack and bitty continue to love each other, even when it’s hard. this fic could’ve fit several of my slots, but eventually i decided to just rec it on its own. it’s one of my absolute favorites in this fandom. i love it for the writing, the pacing, the decision to tackle a real obstacle in a relationship without unnecessary dramatization. i love the softness the pining trope is painted with; how the distance is awful but they deal with it so well, so healthily. i love when angst is used to build and show the strengths of a relationship, not just to hurt.

a pwp With New Eyes by luckie_dee (@luckiedee) [rating: m | words: 3.5k] essentially: mirror sex with a flavor of intercrural. this fic is set during bitty’s first visit to providence, which shifts the entire tone of the fic accordingly. everything is so tentative and new, and i just really liked how gentle jack and bitty are with each other, how they savor new things. the setting and bitty's thoughts and the whole thing was perfect, and so in character.

a fic that is pure fluff Over Heels by anonymous [rating: gen | words: 2.5k] essentially: jack and bitty and marriage. this is such a soft portrayal that it made my chest ache. it isn’t Y4-compliant, but it is so goddamn cute it doesn’t matter. i especially loved the communication between them, the choice of rings (plus the subtle mentions of jack stimming), and this sort of low key, understated proposal. the last scene with jack kissing the ring clinched it for me: i could picture it so clearly my heart flipped.

a fic with your favorite trope How to Blow a Fuck Ton of Meal Points in 1.5 Semesters. by YourPalYourBuddy (@ivecarvedawoodenheart) [rating: t | words: 5k] essentially: jack finds himself with more meal points than he could ever need, and proceeds to spend them on his team (read: bitty) - which leads to some realizations. the trope this fits is ‘year 2 canon-divergence getting together’, and it’s one trope i will never tire of. i absolutely loved the set up of this because it's so college. i loved jack's characterization, and also their conversations, how well bitty's feelings are translated through jack's eyes even when jack's not completely aware of them, and the ending.

a fic with a trope you don’t usually read Tipping the Scales by akaparalian (@floralegia) [rating: t | words : 7.5k] “Prince Eric, training for a tournament to prove his worth as a knight, goes for a ride in the woods. He accidentally finds a dragon, who accidentally became a dragon because he pissed off the wrong witch.” i’m not normally a fan of fantasy or royalty AUs, but something drew me to this fic anyway. i was not disappointed. i laughed out loud several times during this fic. i adored the translations of their personalities into a knight and a dragon (for example, jack's reaction to training - dying, dead, oh my god).

a drabble that made you want more Picture Us Together by RabbitRunnah (@doggernaut) [rating: t | words: 800] essentially: bitty sets a picture of his boyfriend as his lock screen during the madison visit, and jack finds out. it seems only fitting that i put more than one rec taking place during 4th of july on this list. the prompt was so simple, but the execution was so lovely i wished it would go on and on. things between them at this time were so new and fragile and sweet that i just never want it to end.

a fic with domestic fluff I'll settle in and dream by Stultiloquentia [rating: t | words: 9k] essentially: a future fic with emphasis on jack’s and bitty’s adult life. the realistic domesticity in this killed me dead. it is so, so lovely and soft. i enjoyed every detail, from the dog to the scenery descriptions to jack's hockey arc. every setting was so easy to imagine, and i really enjoyed the journey this fic takes the reader on.

[bittlicious]

mari’s omgcp fic reqs (:

some fics i’ve read lately and that i’m totes in luv with <3

— zimbits

i. you’re my amen, zimbits, by @/julibean19 https://archiveofourown.org/works/12801069/chapters/29218386

this crazy, 100k+ word zimbits fanfiction is just absolutely amazin. it has all of its highs and lows, and an insane plot twist that left me speechless and broken. but don’t be frightened! it has a happy ending, because that’s what our gay hockey boys deserve. also bitty is so absolutely amazin in this fanficion, my face hurts from smilin at him all of the time (: ps. shitty in this fic is just, like, absolutely hilarious and a friend that you just need in your life. he calls jack “mon petit fromage” (my little cheese) and i couldn’t breathe for like ten minutes after first readin. 

ii. bitty of goose lake, zimbits, by @/itsybitsybitty https://archiveofourown.org/works/17622797/chapters/41548541

this totally awesome and interestin 37k word au is everythin i love in a fanfiction. without givin away spoilers, jack is.. kind of in a honked up situation, and bitty jus loves his emotional support goose that eats all his pies and sometimes hugs him when he’s feelin sad. i’ve reread this fanfiction religiously and it never gets old. 

— patater

iii. put on my shoes and run away, patater, by @/maraudeer https://archiveofourown.org/works/27466612

YOOOOO KENT PARSON GETS THERAPY MOTHERFUCKERSSSSSSS!!! i’d call that a fuckin W. this 7k word oneshot is the cutest soulmate au i’ve ever read! and i LOVE soulmate aus, let me tell y’all. alexei and kent are jus the cutest together and along the journey of realization that their shared dreams have been with each other, alexei is the softest human being ever. did i mention how much i love alexei? gosh!

iv. two feet in front of me, patater, by @/maraudeer https://archiveofourown.org/works/17665718/chapters/41664608

i mean, babes, it’s a 19k word bachelors au. what else is there to say? alexei’s a gay mess and we’re ALL here for it. also i jus really love kent parson in this story, don’t know why. (we alr know i’m a kinnie,, movin on-) 

— nurseydex

v. everyone wonders what it’s like to be loved by you, nurseydex, @/jennycaakes https://archiveofourown.org/works/29450085/chapters/72342033

okay!! so i don’t really know what hang the dj is or what the au is inspired by but it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things (: basically it’s an incredibly angsty (i mean what do you expect with nurseydex, dudes?), cute story!! EESH CAN I BE ANYMORE BLUNT UHH it’s cute and fuCK IM BAD AT THESE THINGS !!!!! 

vii. love finds you, nurseydex, @/hockeysometimes, poindextears https://archiveofourown.org/works/22089940/chapters/52718095

i searched through 29 out of the 45 pages of my archive of our own history to find this fuckin book and anyways. OKAY this 200k+ word fic (please it’s worth it) is amazin nd i know the entire plot nd have read it more than thrice and please it’s so good. basically nursey loses motivation and goes for a nice drive and OOPS he ends up 60 years in the past and meets closeted cutie dex. kent parson is my favourite thing about this fic please and the side zimbits is absolutely fuckin adorable. i think abt this fic religiously.

— pimbits

viii. the camera tells secondhand lies, bitty/kent/jack, @/summerfrost https://archiveofourown.org/works/11199471/chapters/25011333

HOLY SHIT IT’S A BIG BROTHER AU SIDUFHG. i. love. THIS. i think about it ALLLLL of the time!!! kent’s super swag and i absolutely love jack’s character in this. bitty’s also rlly horny but like it’s fine cuz i would be too if i was near kent parson for longer than an hour.

— honourable mentions

all hail the underdogs, nurseydex, @/xiaq https://archiveofourown.org/works/15446814/chapters/35854725

do i even need to explain?

and i’m so furious (at you for making me feel this way), nurseydex, @/dharmainitiative https://archiveofourown.org/works/15194981

nurseydex hogwarts au WHICH!!! i don’t agree with the houses. dex is a slytherin and that is FINAL.

crossed wires, nurseydex, @/lecrivaineanonyme https://archiveofourown.org/works/8258459

another fic i think about religiously. bro it’s a dex!best buy au. he works at BEST BUY!!! i agree

love and insomnia, zimbits, @/wrathoftthestag https://archiveofourown.org/works/25391977/chapters/61573672

it’s a 2020 fic where zimbits meet during quarantine and it’s just adorable. also it makes me sad cuz the author wrote like an ending without covid-19 anymore and it made me sad cuz like,,, i need an ending pls

<3

[pongpalace]

too complicated for simple labels (but they sure do help)

So @ericfuckingbittle​ made these incredible aro!March icons and @abominableobriens​ mentioned something about aro!March in a qpp with Ransom while he’s still dating Holster in their tags and so I projected all my own grey-aro feelings onto March because I’m really not sure there can ever be enough fic about romantic identities and non-romantic relationships.

March has never understood the big deal about crushes.

She’s never had one if she’s being completely honest with herself, always staying quiet when her friends started talking about whose hand they accidentally brushed and if maybe that meant they should ask them to the school dance. There was that one memorable time in the summer before Samwell when March worked at an outdoor summer camp and got tired of staying quiet while her best friend wouldn’t shut up about how much she liked her new boyfriend, how great he was, how Annie still got butterflies when he held her hand, so March said she had a crush on one of the older counsellors. He looked much better when he kept his avatars on and his mouth shut, but his tattoos were pretty cool and with the long days she worked with him, she really didn’t have the time or energy to crush on anyone else and she wanted to try having a crush anyways.

March scraped the crush after the third time she found herself talking about his calves and his ass in the ugly basketball shorts he always wore when Annie and Félix asked her about her crush during one of their biweekly “we’re-overworking-ourselves-now-to-have-money-in-the-school-year-so-treat-yoself” nights. Annie kept talking about the flowers Greg had sent to her desk job, and Félix was going on and on about the eye contact he’d make with a new barista at his favourite coffee shop and March realizes that she never actually wants to talk to her “crush” beyond planning and organizing the activities so the next time it comes up she tells them that she’s gotten over him and that’s the end of March's crush.

♠ ♠ ♠

March goes to a Samwell Pride Society meeting with April at the beginning of the second semester of their frog year. April’s been a part of the Pride Society on campus since they started; she came to Samwell knowing she liked girls way more than she liked guys (“Anything is more than zero,” she’d say with a laugh when the topic of her sexuality came up) and was somehow able to balance being an active member of the club with their volleyball schedule. If she wasn’t at the team house or with March, it was usually a safe bet that April was in the Pride office, tucked away the corner of the Student Union building with the best view of the parking lot. April made sure everyone on the volleyball team knew that they always had an open invitation to go with her to the meetings every week, but because March’s Intro to Geography course in first semester was at the same time, it takes a semester to accept April’s invitation.

The Pride office is exactly what March pictured when she thought of a place for Pride: bowl of condoms and dental dams on the desk; a shelf on the bookshelf stuffed full of pamphlets on how to have safe sex with all genders; boxes of sex toys piled up under a sign that says BINGO PRIZES DO NOT TOUCH (Liam) ; and a giant rainbow flag pinned up on the wall.

“Guys, March; March, guys,” April says, waving a hand at the two guys on the couch before jumping up onto the desk to commandeer the mouse from the gorgeous dark haired girl at the computer.

“Uh, hi guys,” March says to the room at large, moving her arm in a half aborted wave and wishing that April was better at introductions. One of the guys on the couch waves back, cheeks dimpling and nose scrunched like he’s trying not to laugh at her. The other guy pinches him in the thigh and readjusts so they sit closer together, and March takes the invitation to go sit on the couch with them.

“I’m Mason,” the pincher says. He points over his shoulder to the guy whose lap he’s practically sitting in now. “This is Eli. That’s Isabella.” Mason almost knocks Eli in the teeth when he jerks his head back at the girl behind the desk. She looks up from the computer and offers March a warm smile. March finds herself staring as Isabella is drawn back in whatever April is doing on the computer. She shakes herself out of it when more people come into the office and Mason introduces them to March in between bemoaning the updated reading list his advisor has given him for his thesis.

Isabella starts the meeting when most horizontal surfaces have someone sitting on them by acknowledging the land they’re meeting on belongs to the Wampanoag people and thanking them and the Ones who came before them. Beyond that, March loses track of the meeting as they hash out housekeeping details for the upcoming fundraiser. Her eye gets caught on a poster with the same rainbow flag as the one on the wall at the top and a colourful assortment of other pride flags and their meaning underneath.

There’s apparently nothing else on the agenda other than the fundraising problem because as it gets solved, people start leaving. March stands when Mason and Eli stand, leaving with a fist bump and a salute, but April is still at the computer talking with someone so March continues to stare at the poster. She’s stuck trying to work out what aromantic means, when someone clears their throat. She jumps to see Isabella beside her.

“Oh sorry,” Isabella says, tucking a strand of hair behind her left ear from where it’s escaped her braid. “I just wanted to ask if you enjoyed the meeting.” Her smile is even better up close.

“I did, yeah,” March replies. She didn’t hear a word past the greeting, but she thinks she’s learned most of the identities that make up the LGBTQA+ acronym and their accompanying flags, plus some extras that she didn’t even know existed.

“Kinda overwhelming, isn’t it?” Isabella asks. She jerks her chin towards the poster, having seemingly followed where March’s gaze found the green-white-grey-black flag of aromanticism again.

“There’s so many labels,” March says.

Isabella laughs softly. “They’re are good for people who want them. Especially when you’re usually marginalized by the mainstream, it’s nice to have something to claim as yours, y'know?”

March nods absently, not sure she can really relate. Her experience isn’t much to write home about, but she does know that she likes doing things with men and women. No one has ever made her feel bad about either so she never really thought to give herself a label. Bisexual probably fits if she needs one but doesn’t know enough to decisively choose.

“What’s 'aromantic' mean?” March asks suddenly, stuck on the different ending.

“Do you understand what asexuality is?” Isabella asks. March hesitates before she nods, Félix was pretty vague on the details when he told her about himself, so Isabella explains anyways.

“So simply put, asexuality is the absence of sexual attraction right? Aro is basically the same except it’s the absence of romantic attraction.”

“Romantic attraction?” March hasn’t ever heard the two words put together like that.

“Uh, the part of you that wants to like um, date someone. Crushes and stuff.” Isabella gives March a moment to consider that before speaking again. “So you gonna come back to another meeting?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Isabella’s responding smile is dazzling.

After her second Pride meeting, March goes back to the apartment Isabella shares with two other poli-sci majors. They’re almost caught bare-assed on the couch but Isabella was smart enough to lock the deadbolt when they came in so March is able to grab their clothes and run as directed to the Isabella’s room (down the hall, second door on the right) while Isabella wraps herself in a throw blanket to let in her disgruntled roommate. The next time March goes to Isabella’s apartment, the same roommate, March now knows her name is Zoey, pointedly turns up her music when she sees March at the door. Isabella says she likes the feel of March’s blush under her tongue when they’re behind closed doors which only causes the blush to go further; a win for both of them really.

♠ ♠ ♠

April catches March on her way over Isabella’s after practice three months after March’s first Pride meeting.

“Off to Isabella’s?” April asks, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. The effect is ruined by the bruise she’s got across her cheekbone from a spike from the game before last. They won the set off the block so she wears the bruise proudly.

“Don’t wait up,” March replies, wrapping her wet hair into a bun so it’ll stay out of her face.

“Oh damn, it’s getting serious then?” April says.

“No?” March pauses in shrugging on her track jacket.

“Have you DTR?”

“What?”

“Defined the relationship.”

“Why?” March wrinkles her nose. She isn’t sure what to the make of the look April sends her.

“Aren’t you guys like, together?”

“We’re just friends,” March replies slowly, stupidly feeling like it’s the wrong answer even though she knows it isn’t. Her and Isabella aren’t so cliche that they don’t talk when they have sex, or before or after, but the topic of relationships or romance hasn’t ever come up since Isabell’s explanation of aromanticism.

“Oh.” April’s silence feels loaded, but March waits her out with furrowed brows. “You might want to make sure you’re on the same page,” April finally says. March’s frown deepens but she nods and slips her feet into her shoes and leaves the changeroom. She frowns for the entire walk to Isabella’s.

Zoey opens the door when March knocks.

“She’s in her room,” she sighs, rolling her eyes but stepping back to let March in. She goes back to the kitchen table and makes eye contact with March while she puts her headphones back. March can just barely hear a heavy bass coming from them that gets louder as March crosses the kitchen to the hall. She knocks softly on the doorframe, letting herself in when Isabella calls, “come in!”

Isabella, sitting on her bed and dressed only in a sports bra and pajama shorts, smiles when she sees March. “Hey babe, whatsup?”

The epithet makes March’s stomach clench unpleasantly even though Isabella’s called her that before. April also called her babe, but she calls everyone babe and now that March thinks about it, she’s never heard Isabella call anyone else babe.

“Can we talk?” March says instead of hello. She winces at the rudeness and quickly backtracks. “I mean, hey, I’m good. Can we talk?”

Isabella’s smile dims slightly and she stretches to grab the hoodie hangie beside her bed. “Sure.” She pulls it on and doesn’t make room on the bed for March to sit but that’s okay; she wouldn’t sit anyways.

March takes a deep breath. “Are we dating?”

Isabella’s smile is completely gone. “I’m gonna say no now, but know my answer’s changed in the last 2 minutes,” she says carefully.

“I’m aromantic.” March hasn’t said the words out loud before, but the more she thought about it after learning the word, the more the label settled in her bones. Saying it out loud lifts something from her shoulders and she can breathe deeper. March understood now what Isabella had originally meant by the labels being good for people; she just forgot that other people might find knowing your labels is helpful.

Isabella’s expression softens. “Oh.”

“I didn’t mean to lead you on,” March says. “I just uh, kinda thought it was the same for you?” Retrospectively she realizes how naive that is. She forces herself to look up from floor that she made the confession to and sees hurt flash across Isabella’s face. “It wasn’t just sex!” March blurts, stupidly realizing too late how that might’ve sounded. “I really do care about you. I just don’t have uh, feelings for you. And I don’t think I ever will.”

“I know what aromanticism is,” Isabella says softly. She’s looking down at the bed, idly picking at a loose thread.

“I’m sorry,” March says again.

“S’not your fault,” Isabella replies. “Not really.” She quiet for a beat. March watches her jaw work before she finds the words she needs. “I really care about you too. But... we can’t keep doing this.” She motions between them.

March nods. “I’m really sorry.” It comes out as a little more than a whisper. She meant what she said about really caring for Isabella and will really miss her as a friend.

She listened and laughed loudly at March’s jokes even when March laughed through the punchline. They had different enough movie tastes that netflixing and chilling sometimes turned out to just be netflixing and honestly, March will miss having someone to hang out with outside of her teammates.

Isabella must hear something in March’s voice because she gets up off the bed and pulls March down for a hug. “We’ll still be friends,” she says into March’s collarbone. “I just need some time to get over this.”

“‘Kay,” March says, mostly into Isabella’s bun. Isabella runs a hand up March’s spine once, twice, three times, before giving March a final squeeze and stepping back, well out of March’s space.

“I’ll see you around,” she says, smiling for the first time since it was wiped off.

“Not if I see you first.” It’s cheesy but it makes Isabella’s smile turn more sincere when March says it. She manages a real smile back too.

She leaves Isabella’s room, ignoring the questioning look from Zoey and letting herself out of the apartment. The walk back to her dorm is darker than normal, even though it’s not nearly as late it usually is when she makes the walk. She knows that she did the right thing but she’s still sad about having to do it.

If this what not getting crushes feels like, she can’t imagine actual romantic feelings being much fun.

♠ ♠ ♠

March meets Justin at a Student Athlete Leadership Seminar at the beginning of sophomore year. His name tag says Justin but he introduces himself as Ransom when they’re partnered together for the trust obstacle course. March eyes him skeptically at the discrepancy but he easily leads her around the course when it’s her turn to be blindfolded even after she accidentally makes him stub his toe. He’s really good at all of the other teamwork exercises disguised as games too. The woman running the morning session makes sure to compliment their teamwork, and March can admit the high five they exchange is pretty epic.

They sit together during lunch where March learns that “Ransom” is his hockey nickname because, “Bro, Ransom just rolls nicely off the tongue, y’know?” He spends the rest of the break trying to come up with a nickname for her and is weirdly frustrated when nothing sticks.

“What’s your last name?”

“Kobierzyńska.”

“Bless you.”

“That’s rude.”

“Right, sorry.” Justin sounds surprisingly sincere. “I can’t make a nickname outta something I can’t pronounce.” He taps at his bottom lip. “You’ll get one though, don’t worry,” he promises as they take their seats back in the auditorium for the lecture portion of the seminar.

“I’m really not that worried,” March tells him. The wounded noise he makes causes several people to whip around in their seats to shush him, causing March to stuff her fist in her mouth to stifle her laughter.

The lecture actually starts, and Justin is focused, though he mumbles to himself when the lecturer makes points he doesn’t agree with. March is inclined to second Justin's mumbles; the frat boy wannabe 40-year-old giving the lecture seems to have a lot of opinions about women’s sports in college for someone whose career never brought him close to actual women athletes.

“Well that was a waste of an afternoon,” Justin says when they’re allowed to leave.

“It was a full day thing,” March points out, squinting into the setting sun as they leave the building. They walk in the same direction without talking about it.

“Yeah, but the morning was okay. We kicked ass at the games!”

“They weren’t games. And it wasn’t a competition.”

Justin scoffs. “They were. Games rolled up as ‘trust exercises’-” he actually makes the quotation marks, two at the beginning with his left hand and two at the end with his right. “-are still games no matter how they’re packaged to make it seem like we were learning something.”

“Well I don’t know about you, but I learned a lot in the afternoon,” March sniffs, unable to keep a straight face for long.

“Fuck off.” Justin's grinning when he shoves March’s shoulder. She laughs brightly as she bounces off and then on the sidewalk.

They get dinner together at the dining hall, and Justin continues his pursuit of a nickname for March.

“Greater men than you have tried,” March tells him. “I’m unnicknameable.”

“Unnicknameable March?” Justin tries.

“‘S an oxymoron.”

“That’s what makes it funny.”

“No.”

When Justin has to run off to a late practice, he asks for her number just in case he thinks of anymore nicknames. March laughs at the excuse but happily gives him her number. Almost immediately Justin starts their message thread when he texts her about the unfairness of preseason practice with a captain who doesn’t believe in excuses. March has little sympathy for him, Becka has started the year with her sights set on a winning title and hasn't relented yet but comparing captain stories between sports is fun.

Volleyball season is in full swing so March doesn’t get to as many Pride meetings as she did last year. When she make it to events though, Isabella always has a smile for her, though it’s not quite the same smile as before. March will take it though; she missed her over the summer but understood there were boundaries she needed to respect.

April becomes the second person to know March that is aromantic during a tournament roadie and neither can sleep. March speaks into the darkness of their hotel room and April is quiet for so long that March starts to think their shared nervous silence hasn't actually been all that shared after all. April eventually replies and is exactly as supportive a best friend needs to be, though it takes a couple tries for her to completely understand the term.

“But you’ve had sex.”

“Yeah.”

“With Isabella.”

“Yeah. And other people.”

“And did you like her?”

“Yeah, but it’s not the same thing.”

“...start from the beginning again.”

“Okay, like, I liked--like Isabella. I like talking with her, and watching movies with her, and kissing and having sex but none of the feelings I have for her are romantic.”

“But that’s what Kara and I do and we’re very romantic.”

“Yeah but none of that is exclusively romantic.”

“Ohhhhhhhh."

The win the tournament that weekend.

♠ ♠ ♠

Through their excessive texting and snapping once they find each other on all social medias, March and Justin discover that they’re taking the same anatomy class, though in different sections. Weekly study dates become a thing that turn into twice weekly and then three times weekly right before midterms. Midterms finish and November hits and the hockey season is in full swing, completely overlapping the volleyball season and there’s a weird week or so where Snapchat is the only way they see each. After they have a weekend long sleepover to catch up, it’s volleyball finals and Justin brings half the hockey team to cheer when Samwell ends the season in first place. Then it’s Christmas and the new semester and Justin and March sit next to each other in the second half of their anatomy class. Their matching notebooks were gag Christmas gifts from Holster that they unironically use with the fancy pens they gifted each other.

Anatomy gets cancelled in the first week of February and because of their other class workloads, March doesn’t see Justin in person for a couple days. April tells March that she’ll never miss Justin because when he’s not there, March doesn’t shut up about him.

“Sounds like someone’s got a crush,” Nora says from across the cool down circle as March is telling April and Becka about the plans she had with Justin, froyo, and a movie that night.

March frowns at the word crush, her stomach swooping down.

“Not everything has to be about romance,” April tells Nora.

“Thanks A,” March mumbles, wondering if she’s been wrong in assuming a crush had nothing to do with her and Justin’s relationship.

Justin is hands down one of her best friends. They’re in contact constantly and he’s one of the first people March wants to talk to when she gets any sort of news. He knows her order at Annie’s and Denny’s--and she makes a lot of substitutions to the grand slam breakfast. He comes to her dorm if they both need a break from their respective teammates, to watch episodes of How It’s Made with her. They alternate who gets to be the little spoon depending on who has more deadlines that week.

March values her friendships with Félix and Annie and April and most of the volleyball team but she’s pretty sure none of them get her on a level like Justin is able to- he picks around the sun chips when they share a bag of Munchies just because he knows those are her favourite, while simultaneously handing her the orange skittles because he hates them and she doesn’t. And March has met the guys on the hockey team and no offence but they either have no emotions or too many emotions. She thinks Justin finds some relief from both extremes when they hang out together, but now she's wondering if maybe there's been another reason they spend as much time as they can together.

“I gotta go,” March says, getting up out of the butterfly stretch she’d been thinking in. April has wide eyes and kicks at Becka when she tries to stop March.

In the change room, March barely stops to pull sweats over her spandex. She doesn’t zip up her jacket over her crewneck sweater until she’s hit by a blast of February wind and even then she tries to do it up while she walks but just ends up fighting with the zipper for the entire walk to the Haus. She knocks on the door as she’s opening in, waving to Bitty and Jack in the kitchen, saluting Holster and Shitty on the green couch before taking the stairs to the attic two at a time, almost 90% sure that’s where Justin will be based on her familiarity of his schedule. He jumps at his desk when she practically kicks open the door.

“Jesus H. Christ you scared me,” he says, leaning the chair back on two legs like he does when he's ready to take a break from his books but hasn't let himself yet. “I thought I was supposed to come to yours?” His smile is confused but he doesn't look made about the interruption.

March crosses the room and knocks the chair back to four legs with a foot on the rung before she speaks. “Are we dating?” she asks. A wave of deja vu hits her, but Justin’s cheeks colour differently than Isabella’s did.

“Uh, no.” Justin draws the last syllable out while looking guiltily over at the bunk beds him and Holster share.

All the muddled up feelings that powered March’s walk in the cold over disappear and she can breath again knowing that she hasn’t accidentally hurt a friendship by not having romantic feelings again. She’s left with such a sense of relief that it drains her and it’s suddenly an effort to stay standing so she sinks onto the floor.

“Oh thank god.” She leans her head back against the desk, ignoring how uncomfortably her pony tail pushes into her head. The chair scrapes back as Justin joins her on the floor, but he sits, facing March. He grabs March’s ankle and rubs his thumb along the skin between her sock and sweat cuff.

“Um?”

“I’m aromantic,” March says and oh, it rolls off the tongue nicely the third time around too. “It’s like asexual except I can be sexually attracted to someone but I don’t understand or have romantic attraction.”

“Okay?” Justin’s thumb stills for a beat before continuing.

“I was talking about our froyo date night at practice-”

“Because it’s awesome.”

“-and Nora said I had a crush on you. And I don’t.” March makes a face, kicking half-heartedly when Justin clutches his chest like she actually offended him. “I mean I would if I could probably. I just... don’t. I love you but I don’t want to date you.”

Justin’s quiet as he processes. His thumb starts up again. “Same. I mean, I love you too but I don’t want to date you either,” he finally says. He inhales. “I’m dating Holster.” Justin blows the breath out of his nose.

March blinks, “Oh, wow. Uh, congrats.” The news manages to be surprising and unsurprising at the same time. Holster and Justin work just as well together as Justin and March.

“Thanks,” Justin blushes. He has a really dopey smile on his face. “It’s like really new- I was gonna tell you tonight actually, but…" He shrugs, trailing off. "I’m really happy.” The admission comes with a small smile that makes March's heart happy.

“I’m glad.” March surges forward and wraps her arms around Justin’s neck. His hugs are probably her favourite bar-none. “Does that mean froyo date nights have to stop?” She’s only half joking.

“Oh no,” Justin is quick to reassure. March can feel him playing with her pony tail. “Holzy knows you’re my other best friend. He’ll just probably want to come cuddle more.”

“Only if I’m the middle spoon.”

Her pony tail tickles her neck when Justin sighs into it it. “Only every second cuddle sesh.” He squeezes her once more before pulling back. March grabs his face when he makes to get up off the floor though, keeping him in place.

“Thank you,” she says seriously.

“Welcome,” he replies. He kisses her forehead before getting up and that’s not something he’s ever done before, but neither of them have ever said "I love you" to the other either.

“Froyo?” Justin holds out a hand. March lets him pull her up and she zips up her jacket properly while he struggles into his. They race down the stairs, almost taking out Jack in the process. Justin shouts a sorry, bro-ing up what little Canadian accent he has from Toronto, and fist bumps Holster on his way out. Holster offers his fist to March too. She bumps, and even does the explosion that the end just to make Justin laugh. Holster insists they try a three way first bump so it’s another 10 minutes before March and Justin are out in the cold, on their way for froyo.

Crushes to March are an abstract concept, kinda like the concept of doing her dishes right after she dirties them. She doesn’t understand crushes or romantic feelings and it’s sitting across from Justin, who’s got a red ring around his mouth from trying to lick the bottom of his container but gamely offered March a bite of his pineapple froyo when he thought she’d like it, that she really feels okay with that.

She doesn’t need a romantic partner when she’s got the friends she does.

[birlcholtz]

Fic Questions

tagged by @the-lincyclopedia thank you!! (fun game: watch my writing get progressively less formal as the post continues. by the end it’s like what is capitalization)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

77!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

434,378 as of this week but it does go up quite regularly

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Okay so in terms of what’s on my AO3, I have Check Please, All For the Game, Sharp Zero, HP, and Miraculous Ladybug. I also have The Forbidden LOTR and PJO Fanfiction (as in, I’ve written it, but it’s never seeing the light of day)

(technically there is a PJO fic out there that has seen the light of day but I orphaned it because I was tired of getting comments asking about when it would be updated)

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

and then i met you (and the whole world changed)

for the better

Knew It Was You

come home (to you, to us)

sin bin schematics

All of these are Check Please and all of them except Knew It Was You are part of my Zimbits Airport AU!

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! It’s actually a very recent thing that I’ve started not responding to literally every single comment. Mainly I respond because I love talking about my writing so I am going to seize that opportunity when it comes up

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oh, DEFINITELY Happy Birthday (HP). Check out that MCD tag ahah. (I say HP but what I really mean is that I write fic about Regulus Black. The Regulus Black-centric tag is my home in the HP fandom)

fun fact: this is a very short fic that I wrote when I was 15 and basically forgot about until recently, and then I reread it recently and went holy shit?? I pulled NO punches????

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the wildest one you’ve written?

Not a ton? I think a lot of the fandoms I write for don’t really mesh that well. That being said, the aforementioned orphaned PJO fic is actually a PJO/ML crossover, so there’s that

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope! Sometimes I get comments that are just.... really confusing? And a more common thing is that in my AFTG fic I’ll get comments from people who are so focused on Andreil (or the most common ships in general) to the point that like. they miss the point of what I actually wrote. Those are annoying but they’re not hate, they’re very enthusiastic, they’re just... enthusiastic about a story I’m not writing? So it’s a bit frustrating.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No sjflskgjhgf I struggle enough to write kissing, I think if I ever tried to write smut my brain would just shut down. I’ve managed some fade-to-blacks (which are mostly in WIPs that haven’t been posted) but they rely HEAVILY on the powers of implication

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, although I have occasionally made a brief go of it, not to post, more as an exercise for myself in a language that I’m learning. Anyway I never finish them so I’m gonna say no

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not really? I’ve definitely group brainstormed fics and then written them (the best example of this being Q&A (AFTG), which was the product of a truly off-the-walls group chat), but I tend to do all the actual writing myself. I think the way I write would drive a co-writer up the wall since it’s very disorganized and I don’t write stuff down because ~I know what’s gonna happen I don’t need notes~ and it would infuriate me if I was co-writing with me lmao, so I won’t inflict that on someone else

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I regularly move through ships I’m SUPER focused on, like it’s kind of a rotation. I will forever and always ship Percabeth though.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Okay so if you follow me at @birlwrites you may know this already, but i have this ‘warmups’ document that is just like, random ideas i get that i don’t necessarily want to finish but i just want to try out for a bit? and i have a rule that once a ‘warmup’ is more than 10 pages long (so 11+) then it has to be moved to its own document, just to make scrolling through the warmups doc easier. but usually, a warmup only passes 10 pages when i’m INTO it. so i have a bazillion wips i will probably never finish. i complain about this a lot. i have so many wips. i don’t need more.

here’s one: it’s titled ‘interrobang doesn’t know they’re dating’, it’s basically a full outline for a chowder/tango fic and it would be SO cool if i could ever like. get around to writing it. but i am constantly swamped with writing projects, so it’s probably not gonna happen. if anyone’s interested in adopting it though i’d be down for that!! i think it’s a fun idea i just almost def won’t write it myself

15. What are your writing strengths?

SNAPPY DIALOGUE AND SNARKY INTERNAL MONOLOGUE. my writing is COMEDIC, 90% of my ideas are based on a funny snippet that popped into my head, a lot of my worldbuilding is based on ‘hey you know what would be hilarious’ (whenever i explain how larai selects a chosen one in the rainfall universe i start laughing, which is a STARK contrast to how it plays out on the page), i love writing funny stuff!!

also i think my writing sounds nice, a lot of the time i pick words/syntax based on sound and flow so there’s that too. and i have lots of ideas! i don’t struggle much with writer’s block because a) i have a lot of strategies to deal with it and b) i have a lot of ideas to help get around it/work with it

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

PHYSICAL INTIMACY LMAO, sometimes in my end notes on shippy fics you can see me complaining ‘it took me literally 4 hours to write that very brief kiss’. also sometimes the humor in my writing gets in the way a bit, i have to very consciously put it away so characters can actually have serious, genuine emotions. also i don’t like outlining and i tend not to get betas for fanfiction so like..... i do my best continuity-wise but having really tightly plotted stories is just not my focus lol. (and i do put more effort into that for original stuff, it’s just fic where i kind of go wild)

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If the reader’s supposed to know what it means, then writing it in another language is iffy for me. (stuff like terms of endearment which come up a lot in fic are fine imo, you can just put a note in to translate them and your reader will prob remember)

If the pov character isn’t supposed to understand it, and it doesn’t matter if the reader understands it, then ig it’s fine? but unless you already speak the other language (and i am NOT confident in my ability to translate english into literally any other language), then i think it’s way easier to just note that a character’s speaking x language and provide tone indicators, body language cues, etc. so the reader understands as much as the pov character.

That being said there are def times when it’s used super effectively--the dialogue in spanish in cemetery boys comes to mind! that’s not fanfic but it’s still creative writing so w/e

so i guess it comes down to: does actually writing out the dialogue in the other language serve a purpose? if it doesn’t, then you’re filling up the screen with words your reader isn’t likely to understand, which i try to avoid doing

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

so the first fandom i actually *wrote* for was PJO, but i distinctly remember creating warrior cats OCs when i was little. i never actually did anything w them but i had them and my favorite was a riverclan warrior named shellstream i remember this VIVIDLY

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written?

oh boy. okay so this is hard because i feel like i’m continuously improving as a writer. like in the sense that my writing is getting closer and closer to really matching my own taste? my favorites tend to always be my current projects as a result. and i do really love set those ghosts alight (HP) but it feels a little like cheating to say a fic i haven’t even finished writing yet. even though it’s def not cheating, that’s just the direction my brain is taking it.

i’m gonna say and then what? (OMGCP) because i’m super proud of the prose (especially ch 2 aka the first actual prose chapter), survived by (HP) for SUCCESSFULLY WRITING AN EMOTION and making readers cry :), and Q&A (AFTG) because i’m literally the one who wrote it and yet it still makes me wheeze. those are all fics i reread occasionally, because i’m big enough to admit i enjoy rereading my old stuff! (just like. to a point. some of my old stuff i can’t look at anymore because all the mistakes stick out to me like they have spotlights shining directly on them)

this was fun!! i’m gonna do an open tag because i just started my fall semester and brain tired. i know sometimes people see open tags and assume the op didn’t really mean it but I MEAN IT, PLEASE DO THIS AND TAG ME!!!!! YES YOU READING THIS

[the-lincyclopedia]

* adapted from @librajiminn on twitter

A fun game to celebrate 2020 ending! The rules are simple: recommend your favorite OMGCP fics so everyone can enjoy them, while trying to fill in enough slots to get a bingo!

This is going to get long, so I’ll put it under a cut. Also, I’m too orderly to try to shoehorn my favorite fics into these particular prompts, so I’m just going to go right to left, top to bottom, taking the prompts literally, until it’s bedtime. 

1. first fic you bookmarked: “Here Comes the Sun” by @doggernaut, 19k, G, no warnings, Zimbits

For the past month, the man with the baby and the sad blue eyes has been stopping in for a cup of coffee an hour before closing. He always sits in an overstuffed chair in the corner and drinks his coffee while his baby sleeps next to him in the stroller. Sometimes he pulls a book out from the diaper bag he carries with him; other times he just stares straight ahead as if in a daze. He never asks for a refill, always respectfully gathers his things and leaves ten minutes before the shop officially closes. Eric desperately wants to ask him what his story is. 

My notes: I read Check Please over the course of two days in June of 2019. On the second day, right after catching up, I looked at @peppermintfeminist‘s AO3 bookmarks and found a fic by @doggernaut. Then I read just about everything @doggernaut had ever posted. It was glorious. This fic in particular is so cute. 

2. most recent fic you bookmarked: “Flight Check” by @edgarallanrose, 15k, E, no warnings (though there is a creepy/handsy guy at a club to watch out for), primarily Zimbits with most of the other popular pairings in the background

Flight attendant Eric “Bitty” Bittle has been working his way up at Samwell Airlines for the past four years, and his new promotion has provided him the opportunity to work with a brand-new crew. Unfortunately for Bitty, that crew includes an incredibly handsome but equally grumpy pilot, Captain Jack Zimmermann, who seems to want nothing to do with Bitty. Even worse, Jack refuses to eat any of Bitty's baked goods. Will Bitty be able to win the captain over? Or is there another reason Jack has been avoiding Bitty?

My notes: There are a lot of great things about this fic--Jack’s character arc, Lardo’s dialogue, that scene in Seattle--but the reason I bookmarked it is the scene where Bitty’s basically slut-shaming himself and Jack gently but firmly tells Bitty not to do that and that it was the creep’s fault. 

3. a fic that made you cry actual tears: “a little bit more” by @ivecarvedawoodenheart, 14k, T, no warnings, Holsom

“I just wanted,” he says, “a perfect day. With you. Because it’s our last day together and our last day being here as undergrads and we’re kissing the ice tonight, and the weather’s supposed to be beautiful, and you’re moving tomorrow and Holtzy I just — I don’t want to be missing you already.” Holster wipes his eyes before he even realizes he’s crying. Behind him, Ransom sighs. “One more day where everything’s the same,” he says, feeling around blindly for Rans’ fingers. He feels Rans nod as he laces their fingers together. “Yeah. Yeah, Rans. I’d like that a lot.” __________________________

Holsom after graduation and throughout the subsequent six months after Holster signs to an expansion team in Oregon, and realizes his feelings for Ransom too late. Holster's POV :) kinda angsty, but there's a happy ending :)

Inspired by shitty-check-please-aus: "Holster moves to Oregon while Ransom stays on the east coast. The time difference makes it difficult to talk and one day they wake up and realize they aren’t best bros anymore."

My notes: I almost never cry at fics. I searched “tears” in my fandom email account and only a handful of my fic comments came up, but Syd is a literal master of Holsom angst, always. 

4. longest fic you’ve read: “Like Real People Do” by @xiaq, 153k, M, No Warnings, Kent Parson x OC

Parson gestures with his spoon toward Hawke. “So am I allowed to ask about the service dog or is that not PC?”

“My medical history is more of a 3rd date conversation," Eli says.

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“Because. No one sticks around afterward and I like to live in glorious denial for a short period beforehand.”

It comes out more self-deprecating than he intended.

Parson looks…thoughtful. “Well, does this count as one or two?

“Pardon?”

“This. Ice cream. I mean, technically it’s a second location, but still the same night. So is this one date or two?”

“One,” Eli says firmly. “If it’s happening within the same three-hour period.”

“You’re the expert,” Parson says, which, he’s really, really, not, but ok.

“So still two dates to go then?” Parson continues.

“I—what?”

“We’ve got a roadie coming up but then we’re home for almost two weeks. When does your semester start?”

“You want to do this again?” Eli asks.

Parson stops idly twirling his spoon.

“You don’t?”

He does, Eli realizes. He really does. Because apparently he actually likes Kent fucking Parson.

My notes: Okay, this fic has my whole entire heart. I’ve read it multiple times in its entirety, and it’s almost twice as long as the full-length novel I’m querying. Eli is one of my favorite OCs I’ve ever seen in a fic (probably tied with Damian Navarro and Ari Paxton, both brainchildren of @fozmeadows). Anyway, this is probably going to be the next thing @themeaningoflifeischeese and I read out loud to each other. 

5. a fic you almost didn’t read: “when all else fails (i’ll still be right here)” by @whoacanada, 6k, T, Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings (and I don’t remember if I think there’s stuff to warn for, sorry), Zimbits

The National Hockey League is resurrecting the Quebec City Nordiques, and the expansion draft hits the Falconers much harder than expected.

My notes: Given that this was for @omgcpheartbreakfest, I was worried this would be all angst--all hurt and no comfort. Which made me sad, because I love @whoacanada‘s writing but I wasn’t up for reading unresolved angst. But @doggernaut reblogged the fic, so I asked if the ending was sad, and it’s NOT! There is quite a bit of angst but the ending isn’t sad. 

6. a fic that convinced you on a ship you didn’t ship before: “it drops with the gravity of rain” by @geniusorinsanity, 16k, T, Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings (attempted sexual assault by an OC), Nurseydex

It happens like this:

“I don’t--this is a bad idea,” Dex says, his lips still tingling, his hands shaking on Nursey’s hips where he’s shoved him away. “This is a really bad idea, Nurse. I can’t--We can’t do this.”

And there’s hurt in Nursey’s eyes and his bottom lip is swollen from Dex’s teeth, but he says, “Okay.” And then, “It’s chill, Dex. Just friends, then.”

It happens like this:

“Actually,” Nursey says, talking more to his granola than to them, “I kind of have a date.”

It happens like this:

When Nursey calls, Dex almost doesn’t pick up the phone.

My notes: So I was really confused and a little disturbed when I first found out people shipped Nursey and Dex. Like, Dex just wasn’t someone I trusted. But then I was moving out of the house I’d been living in, and I needed stuff to listen to as I packed and cleaned, and @khashanakalashtar‘s podfics came in clutch. I gave this one a try even though I didn’t like Dex, and @geniusorinsanity blew. My. Mind.

7. a fic from an unusual POV: “Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy” by @porcupine-girl, 8k, G, no warnings, Zimbits

Jesse Snowden knows all the best restaurants and gourmet food shops in Providence, so when Jack Zimmermann starts bringing in incredible baked goods, he's eager to find out where the new bakery is. When he meets the man behind the pies, he decides that there's no way Jack could really appreciate this guy's talent the way he does, even if they are friends. He starts hiring Jack's chef on the side, in the hopes that maybe once Bitty's done with college he'll come work for Jesse.

Good thing there is absolutely no way whatsoever that Jesse could possibly be misinterpreting this situation.

My notes: Oh my gosh this is so funny. The secondhand embarrassment factor is huge, but like, the hilarity. 

8. a comfort fic: “Don’t Need to Compromise” by @khashanakalashtar, 11k, E, no warnings, PB&J

“Hey,” said Kent, unknowingly setting off a chain of events that would change his entire life, “you said that like you know from experience. Have you done this before?”

Jack and Bitty have not done polyamory before, but they do know Ransom and Holster’s polycule, which contains March.

And March?

March is trans.

My notes: I’m in love with @khashanakalashtar‘s entire Directionverse series (and honestly a lot of their other writing), but “Don’t Need to Compromise,” which is the second fic in the series, just makes my heart swell especially much. The gender feels are so good, and all the characters are so good to each other, and when I listen to this on walks I have to actively try not to arm-flap. 

9. a fic you wish could be a movie: “Ice Crew Please!” by @petals42, 61k, T, no warnings, Zimbits

Jack Zimmermann was drafted first by the Providence Falconers when he was eighteen years old. He is good at hockey. Very good. His team won the Cup his second year and now, in his third year, they are looking good. Jack should be on top of the world. And some days, he manages to convince himself he is.

He’s not, of course.

Enter the Ice Crew.

AKA: The Ice Crew AU

My notes: This fic has its tender moments, but what I love most about it is the sheer goofiness. Ransom and Holster and Shitty are HILARIOUS in this one. I’d love to see their shenanigans in movie form. 

10. a WIP you read as it was updated: “Something Borrowed” by @fozmeadows, 48k, M, no warnings, Kent x OC

All things considered, Ari did his best to prepare himself for the advent of Kent Parson, Potentially Difficult Housemate and New Star Liney. The problem was that his best was an idiot.

My notes: So technically I didn’t start reading this until the first 19 chapters were posted. But there was still plenty of anticipation for the final few chapters. And like, @fozmeadows (as mentioned above) makes EXCELLENT OCs. And I love how their fics consistently convey that having bad things happen to you does not mark the end of your story. 

Okay, it’s bedtime, so have 10 excellent fics. I got bingo twice, because I went straight across on the top two rows.

[forabeatofadrum]

Are there Friday memes like “It’s Wednesday my dudes” and “Out of Touch Thursday”? But anyway, it is another Friday and I did some fic reading. Yeehaw!

If you follow my personal blog, you see that I have finally watched Ted Lasso. I had been thinking about it for a while and then I saw that they did an episode at Het Homomonument in Amsterdam and also @quizasvivamos has started publishing Game of Two Halves, a Klaine-i-fied take on Ted Lasso. It’s a WIP and I can’t wait for more. No rush, Beth, but *rubs hand* I’ll be waiting.

@wetheformidables also published the last chapter of half the time, a Snowbaz Meet-Again-Cute. It was so good and I loved how Max wrote Simon and Baz’s POVs. And yes, Simon, it could’ve been worse. You could’ve seen him on the bus.

@caramelcoffeeaddict has also been teasing Seven Minutes To Heaven in their SSS/WW posts and it is finished and I read it! I am a sucker for Klaine being oblivious.

I am still reading the AU Please! fics. So many challenges to catch up on. I don’t think I ever read all the Klaine Advent and Carry On Countdown ones I wanted to read. So many fic, so little time. But I did read nobody knows the trouble i’ve seen (glory, hallelujah) by queenofthestarrrs which was not what I expected but it is a beautiful tragedy. Jack dies and Bitty can see his ghost. Johnson especially pointed out the tragedy by spelling out the What If that underlines this all.

I also read hold me like you’ll never let me go by @hullomoon​. It was so sweet and of course both Jack and Holster would wear an orange puffer coat.

Lastly, I finally read Farewell, Aquarius by @tea-brigade​, which is a Snowbaz Apollo 13 AU. I.... needed to lie down. Well, actually, I cried about it in the shower instead. I am woefully ignorant of the space race stuff. I, uh, genuinely didn’t know this Apollo 13 thing was a real thing. Yes, oops? Maybe this was a good thing, cause this story was entirely new for me and I was hooked.

In non-fic news, I have started A Marvellous Light by Freya Maske. I am only 80 pages in and it is, in my opinion, a slow start, but I do like it so far.

As usual, here are the tags on my personal blog, for if you want to browse:

Klaine fics (klfics)

Brittana fics (bsfics)

general Glee fics (glee fic)

Whoniverse fics (dw fic)

Check, Please! fics (omgcp fics)

Simon Snow series fics (co fics)

general fic tag (fics)

original writing tag (writing)

[doggernaut]

For the WIP ask, did you receive a request for Fake Empire yet?

I have not!

Okay, so Fake Empire was going to be my fic for the 2018 OMGCP Big Bang, and I ended up writing Home Like Apple Pie for that instead. It started as an idea I had for an original novel years ago about a TV “family” on a long-running show that gets cancelled, and tries to move on with their lives, feeling like their TV family is more like their real family at that point. 

This lent itself really well to a Check, Please AU where Jack follows in his mom’s footsteps instead of his father’s but still follows the same basic trajectory.

Hence the name Fake Empire, which I took from the National song. I mean, look at these lyrics. Do they not scream Jack and Bitty?

Stay out super late tonight Picking apples, making pies Put a little something in our lemonade And take it with us

We're half awake in a fake empire We're half awake in a fake empire

Tiptoe through our shiny city With our diamond slippers on Do our gay ballet on ice Bluebirds on our shoulders

Anyway, in this AU Jack is a child star who plays his mom’s son on a family sitcom in the 90s/early 2000s (general plot is she’s a former model who gets roped into coaching her son’s hockey team, wacky hijinks ensue, Bad Bob makes occasional cameos as the husband/father who travels for work) and ends up becoming The Next Big Thing when he gets cast as the teen lead in a MCU-style franchise. Except he flames out exactly the way he did in the comic and his role ends up being recast with Kent Parson, who played his BFF on the sitcom.

Kent goes on to be a big action star. (And really does not factor into this AU beyond that.) Jack goes to rehab and therapy, goes to college, majors in film studies and decides he wants to make documentaries.

Except a streaming service comes calling and wants to reboot the show for a new audience, with Jack reprising his character in the lead role. It’s part of a production deal Alicia has signed, and Jack is not interested unless he can somehow leverage this into getting his documentary produced. His parents finally convince him to do it and it’s going pretty well except for one problem: the guy they hired to replace Kent is a YouTube personality, not an actor, and he does not know how to act natural when he’s reading lines. Jack is not a fan.

Bittle is struggling not to cry, Jack thinks. He should feel bad because he knows what it’s like to feel like you’re shattering into a million pieces, but instead he just feels a mean little flame of satisfaction burn somewhere deep inside his chest.

“How’s the new kid working out?” Papa asks. Jack responds with an unintelligble grunt.

“It doesn’t behoove you to sulk about it,” Papa says.

It was going to be about found family, and where the line between real life and fiction is. 

“None of this is real, Jack. Tomorrow we go back to our real lives and this’ll all be over.”

“Bittle … Bits. That’s not. This isn’t the end. Wrapping the show doesn’t change what any of us are to each other. I’ve known Shitty for years and I couldn’t get rid of him if I tried. Same with Ransom and Holster. We’ll see each other in a few months for the premiere, and all the press. Wrapping a season is kind of just the beginning, you’ll see.”

(In this AU, Ransom and Holster were pulled in whenever they needed child extras in the original series because their fathers were writers on it, and they've come back as junior writers for the reboot.)

You can guess where it goes from here. I had a hard time getting it to come together because I feel like there’s so much I don’t know about TV production I’m not really sure I can pull it off.

I feel like it’s a pretty solid plot, I just don’t know how to write it. I’ve been more interested in it lately because WandaVision got me thinking about TV escapism and fake empires again.

[unacaritafeliz]

📓

okay so nearly two years ago i wrote a fic called goodbye where the omgcp frogs graduated college, dex confessed to nursey and nursey turned him down. i promised a happy nurseydex follow-up by the end of the year (a sequel i had been working on since like two years before i published goodbye) but of course... it's not up yet. might as well explain it here:

so, hello takes place about five years after goodbye and begins with a phone call between nursey and chowder. chowder has asked nursey to accompany one of his friends to a wedding in new york, since said friend needed a plus one and nursey had agreed to go, because he trusts his best friend a lot more than he should. surprising no one, chowder's friend is dex - who nursey hasn't seen since graduation - when dex confessed to him and nursey responded with 'what the fuck?'. chris chow is a fucking menace.

anyway, because nursey is the kindest man on the planet - he goes to the wedding as dex's date anyway and... it's nice. dex has changed a lot since college, mostly because of the things nursey said to him when they said goodbye and nursey actually kind of likes dex, when he's being like this.

dex's brother, sister-in-law and niece also make another appearance - his sister-in-law priyanka's lehenga is absolutely stunning and is the talk of the party. priyanka is also very scheming - she knows immediately nursey and dex aren't actually dating, because she knows she would've heard by now if her dumb little brother-in-law was dating the man he's been in love with for like... years.

anyway they get together, they kiss, dex moves to new york and all is happy the end.

[srprincess]

Guess what!?! It’s Fictober time again! So – new prompts, but I’m still out here (making an attempt at) finishing my same old fic.

Prompt 1 – “No, come back!” // fandom – omgcp // fic rating – T for language reasons

Notes: This is actually chapter 19 of the Spookydoo AU I started last fictober. I can’t believe it’s been an entire year. I guess months worth of pandemic related block and a cross country move will tend to slow these sorts of things down, but, yeah – a year. Wow. Back at the start I had thought this was going to be a quick month long project, but here we are! If you’re still following me from way back then, here’s the long promised update. If you’re new this will make NO SENSE without the rest of the story - and honestly only minimal sense after - so I’ll drop a link to the rest of the story on Ao3 in the replies (since tumblr hates links)

---

“Are you sure I don't need to head back and get them?” Will asked, for the third time.

“Nah, they’re resourceful. Quit worrying,” Nursey told him, also for the third time. At least. Maybe he had asked a few too many times.

He, Nursey, Shitty and Lardo were gathered back around the table in his kitchen, while Sammy sat at the edge of the doorway leading into the mudroom, happily chewing on a length of rope that Will had knotted up for her. He didn't have much to offer in the way of snacks while they waited, but he’d managed to scrounge up a bag of not quite stale pretzels and some cold sodas. Not the best spread, but good enough he didn't think his mom’s memory would judge him too harshly under the circumstances. Said circumstances being that these particular guests and their friends had basically wiped out his pantry over the course of their previous visits.

They were waiting, with varying levels of patience, for Holster and Ransom to show up with their lunches, and - maybe more importantly, it depended on who you asked - to tell them what they'd found out about Lou’s place. Or rather the house that she had been...haunting? It was still hard for Will to think about it that way, about his longtime friend being a ghost, but, well, could he deny it anymore? Honestly? It was strange, but if she was a ghost - which she was - and had been staying in and around the house - which she had - what else could you call it other than a haunting? At any rate, finding out the property had been sitting vacant might have explained how it could have had a ghost-in-residence for so long without attracting too much attention, but it opened up a whole other set of questions. Who would leave a house on the water empty for years? Sure, it needed some upkeep, but still, it was a nice enough place in a great spot. Where were the owners? Why hadn’t they been trying harder to sell it? Or failing that, using the property themselves? He also wanted to know more about how Lou had ended up connected to the property, but that was going to have to come from her and not a simple property search. Unfortunately, she hadn't seemed any too eager to talk about her final days when he and Nursey had talked to her earlier.

After his stomach grumbled, Nursey checked the time, again, and sighed.

“I said I could head back in for them,” Will pointed out. “It’s not an issue-”

“Might be a while, but I’m sure they're on the way,” Shitty assured him. “I think they were looking for an excuse to rent that bike, and a ride’ll take them a minute.”

“Not the tandem!” Lardo shook her head, “I thought we talked them out of that.”

“Yes, the tandem, and you tried to talk them out of it. I, on the other hand, might have offered to pay the fee as long as they took pictures.”

“They'll never make it here in one piece on that thing.”

“Oh, ye of little stature and faith, they are perfectly synced. They'll make it fine.”

“Whatever. Then why did you want pictures, hmmm? A 20 says they'll crash and burn at least once.”

“Hopefully they don’t fall on my sandwich,” Nursey muttered under his breath.

“Because Jack can't be the only one with pictures of these trips, that’s why. So, deal?”

“Deal.” Shitty and Lardo were just shaking on the bet when the sound of tires on the rocks outside was followed by a knock at the door. They all turned to look at Will, who looked blankly back before it clicked -

“Oh. Yeah. My house. My door. Best be getting that.” He rushed to the answer, more to hide his blush than out of a hurry to let the two in.

He opened the door to the double whirlwind that was Ransom and Holster pushing through, arms loaded with bags.

 Shitty took one look at them before holding his hand out to Lardo. “All in one piece. Well, two pieces. As expected. Pay up.”

“Not so fast,” she told him, attempting to shove his hand away before turning to them. “How did you manage to carry all of that on a bike?”

“No bike,” Ransom told her.

“It was already rented,” Holster added.

“Ha!” She slapped Shitty’s hand down. “No payday for you.”

“You neither,” he pointed out.

“Hmmm. I still say you owe me ten,” Lardo argued.

“The hell I do,” Shitty scoffed back.

“But if they would have ridden the bike they would have fallen, and you know it.”

“Says you. Wrongly.”

“My. What an excellent defense. I can see why you're the high-powered attorney here.” Lardo pulled a face at him before stating her case, “If they had tried to ride that bike they likely would have fallen. If they tried to ride it while holding all those bags, they for sure would have. I see no possible way that they would have made it here safely, and so I still deserve half the original bet winnings.”

 “Incorrect,” Shitty took a final sip of his drink and a deep breath before standing. Full attorney mode. “First, both these fine individuals have a history of athletic excellence in a sport known for quick moves requiring great balance skills, coordination and teamwork,” he counted off each point in his hands. “Second, they've been known to safely carry much more than a few bags of food, over unfamiliar terrain, in the dark-”

“Well, I did fall on Rans that one time we-”

Shitty hushed Holster before continuing, “Shhh - You aren't helping the case.”

“Why are we even on trial?” Ransom asked, confused. “Anyways, I remember that. Kind of. You only almost fell, bro, and we were hella fucked up that night.”

“You,” Shitty pointed to Ransom, “are helping. Thank you. As I had said - teamwork. While, errr, shall we say inebriated? They were able to use teamwork to accomplish their goals. Mostly safely. Sober, and in the clear light of day, making it here safely would have been no problem. Thirdly, if the bet had been that they `likely’ would have fallen off the bike with their arms full, I allow that you might have won. Unfortunately, for you, it wasn’t and so you didn’t. In closing, your point is dismissed for being unprovable. Case closed. The End.” He, smugly, picked his cup back up to drain the drink.

“You can't just close the case yourself-” Lardo argued.

“And yet, I have,” Shitty shrugged.

She growled under her breath, “this isn't over,” Lardo pointed at him before asking Ransom and Holster, “So, no bike? How did you get here?”

 Will, who had been watching like the exchange like it was the most interesting show he’d seen in years, and, let’s be real, with television as spotty as it was out there it kind of was, turned to them, curious himself to hear the answer.

Nursey, who had been enjoying watching Will watch the others, said, “Probably an Uber.”

“No Uber round these parts.”

“Fine, Lyft, whatever.”

“Nope, don’t have those either,” Will told him. “We do have a Martha, but there’s no way that’s how they got here.”

“What’s a Martha?” Nursey asked.

“She calls herself a taxi service, but truthfully she’s just a busybody who got herself a fair reliable rig and a business license. Let’s her keep up on who’s new around, see what they're about and then give them a mandatory tour of her favorite places. Takes her forever to get anywhere. Guaranteed it would have taken them at least another hour to get out here with her.”

“An hour!? How is this town even big enough to take that long?”

“Well, if you drop her a ’tip’ she's sure to add your place on the route, yeah? Bunch of shops do every year. That's a lot of side roads and loops. Now me? I throw her some money every season to miss The Light entirely. She would have tried stalling and distracting them as long as possible before heading this way.”

 “So, don’t take ’a Martha’, noted for future.” Ransom cut in.

“We didn't need to anyway,” Holster told the group. “Did you know, if you order food for delivery, you can get yourself delivered along with it?”

“That's not a-” Nursey started to argue before looking to Will for confirmation. “Is that a thing?”

“No. Definitely not a thing.”

Holster gestured at the bags and then at himself and Ransom, “I do believe it is.”

Will frowned, confused, “You know what...I don’t even think they do delivery at all. Outside of town, leastways.”

“You’d be amazed how far friendliness and a smile can get you,” Holster said, flashing a near alarming display of teeth.

“Maybe you should try that sometime, Poindexter,” Nursey joked.

“Ha fucking ha,” Will said, flashing a smile that veered more towards frightening than not.

“Hope you tipped well,” Shitty told Holster, ignoring the shoulder shoving across the table.

“Pfft, of course dude.”

“Good, then. Now, important business, where’s my sammie?”

A whine came from the doorway.

“Sorry, I meant my sandwich, not you Sammy,” Shitty turned to tell the dog. She sniffed in their direction, clearly looking for attention in the form of food of her own but not wanting to leave her new rope unattended. “But, yeah, her food, where’s it at? Guys?”

But he’d lost the attention of Ransom and Holster. With a nudge and a head tilt to where Nursey’s ankle was practically hooked around Will’s, Ransom smirked at Holster, who in turn sighed and pulled some money out of his pocket to hand it over.

Nursery watched the exchange before he narrowed his eyes. “And what’s this about?”

“What?”

“The money?”

“That? He owed me for the, umm, dog dishes.”

“Yeah, sure he did.”

“Right, Holtzy?”

“Absolutely, the dishes. We were going halfsies. Because, uh, gift?”

Ransom scrunched his face up before he mouthed ’gift, really?’ back at him, but Holster just gave a small shrug.

Nursey still looked doubtful and Shitty, who had given up waiting and was rooting through the bags for himself, distracted them when he asked “Well, where are they?

“Where are what?” Ransom asked.

“The. Dog. Dishes.” he answered slowly and deliberately.

“Shit. Fuck. Damn. I, uh, forgot them?”

“Uh-huh,” Nursey shook his head. “You forgot to bring the dishes. That you just bought. As a gift. Suuuure.”

“Don’t worry about it. So long as you brought the food, I can find something to put it in.” Will got up and dug through a cupboard by the sink that was little more than a jumble of used butter tubs and came up with two bowls.

 One bowl he filled with water and set in front of the dog. The other he handed them to Lardo who filled it with some of the food Shitty had found in the bags, leading to a very happy Sammy, who flopped on top of the rope before digging in with enthusiastic messiness.

“Isn’t that uncomfortable? And look at that-” Nursey pointed out the puddles and food pieces spread all around the dog.

“It’s fine,” Will waved him off.

“What about your precious floor? All I did was drip on it the other night and-”

“Oh, let her be. Unlike people, she can’t help it if she makes a silly little mess.” Will ruffled the fur on top of her head. “Besides, she’s a good girl, aren't you Sammy,” Sammy wiggled at the good girl comment and went back to happily working to empty her bowl. Dog mess was fine, Will told himself, nothing he couldn’t clean up later. He wondered if maybe he should consider a dog of his own. The company might be nice. He shrugged off the thought for later and went to wash his hands before grabbing a stack of plates to take to the table.

 All business of bets and money exchanges temporarily forgotten, the gang worked as one to pass around the lunches.

A giant sub was split between Lardo and Shitty. She flicked an olive that had stayed to her half at him, which he easily caught with his mouth before flicking a pepper back towards her. When he went to grab a drink, she swiped another pepper and one of his tomato slices too. Ransom passed her his pickle spears, and she gave him half her lettuce. Holster split his bag of BBQ chips and the salt and vinegar ones in front of Ransom between them 50-50. Okay, maybe 60-40. But neither complained. Instead of being split up, a large bag of fries was just torn open and left for each to pick from as they wanted. Ketchup squeezed out onto one of the wrappers that had previously held a wrap. All the exchanges spoke to the habits of friends who’d shared a meal many times over. Will eyed the onions that Nursey picked off his sandwich, wanting them. Even though no one else had made a move for them, he wasn’t quite brave enough to push his way into their rituals. No matter, because as soon as the look was noticed, he found them deposited on the side of his own plate. Happily piling them on his own sandwich he spared a slice of bacon back, but just one. He wasn’t that generous.

Will had originally thought they had brought back too much food not realizing some of the others had gone, but the reason for the pile of random extra sandwiches dropped in the middle of the table became clear as each was picked apart and passed around until everyone was full.

 As the last scraps of their meal were being cleared away Ransom spoke up, “So, I got in touch with that realtor,” he told them. “The property is up for sale. Technically. Has been for a while.”

“What do you mean, technically? Then why isn't it listed anywhere? Being shown?” Will asked.

“Well, that's the thing. Apparently, they tried? But the seller wasn’t very motivated and only interest at the price was for a package deal.”

“A package-” Will paused and frowned. “Wait. What was the realtor’s name again?”

When Ransom told him, Will’s face clouded over and a hint of rage built up at the set of his jaw.

“So, I take it you do know him. He said you'd, hmmm, spoken? Before.” Ransom filled in the others, “There’d been a big deal in the works with a developer, but they wanted this whole area or no deal.”

 “Yeah. Those assholes. Not likely to forget them. Wanted to turn this place into some ridiculous restaurant.”

“Waterfront restaurants can be nice,” Holster tried to play devil’s advocate, “a good draw for the area.”

Will was having none of it. “My grandfather and father both would roll over in their graves if they knew I sold this place. After all the work they put in on the updates? Especially to some stiff from away. All so someone could open a restaurant we probably wouldn't even be able to afford to eat in? No way. No how. I think not.”

Shitty agreed, “I get it, yeah. People like that’ll suck the soul out of a place to make a buck. Fuck ’em.”

They’d only met recently, and it was hard for Will to tell if Shitty was motivated to agree with him in an attempt to stay on his good side, because he actually did agree or just because he couldn't resist joining in on a potential argument. In any case, fueled by the agreement, Will’s knew he was headed into full ’soapbox mode’ but couldn't help himself. “It’s the developers ruining towns like this all up and down the coast,” his voice rose and his arms flailed as he got more worked up. “For years we’ve helped our own. Didn't need anything from anyone other than basic neighborliness. Share and share alike, and everyone makes it just fine. Then some upstart comes in with his fancy ideas and a pile of money and, and, we’re supposed to sell up and then what? Go where? Do what-”

Holster, who seemed to have finally realized what can of worms he opened up, tried to back it up, “I didn't mean- not your place. Just, like, in general? Attractions, well, attract. But you're here, using the place. There's open land out there and they shouldn’t-”

Will steamrolled on, “-always say they want the authentic experience getaway but that’s not what they're really after. What they really mean is some bland cookie cutter experience that’ll get copied at every seaside town. So they can do the same things and share the same photos as everyone else. Nothing is genuine anymore. Where’s the originality of that? If they have their way every place will be the same as the next. Whatever happened to-”

Ransom held up a hand before interrupting, “Dex is right about that. It does seem to be what they were after here.”

Will grumbled out an “Obviously” but other than that let the other man continue speaking.

 “This particular buyer wanted everything from the lane out to the water. All the lots. They’d had plans to turn this place into a restaurant, private outdoor seating at the top. The couple houses as you’re coming out this way redone and connected by a huge kitchen in the middle to make a big bed and breakfast or inn type situation. And then uh,” Ransom paused, “well, your friend's house? That was going to be turned into a gift shop. Upscale souvenirs they told him. But, without adding the rest, there wouldn't have been the traffic to support a shop. So - all or nothing.”

“There was, and is, no way I'm selling up and moving out,��� Will shoved himself back from the table angrily.

“Hey, I’m not saying you should,” Ransom held up his hands. “Just passing on what he said. Pretty sure he knows that now.”

“Why do ya say that? I mean, good, but why?”

“He described you as - now keep in mind this is coming from him, and not me. I think you're great, and so don’t-”

“Spit it out.”

“he-called-you-the-lighthouse-lunatic,” came the quickly murmured answer.

“He what?!” Will yelled.

“Come on man, don't make me say it again,” Ransom said with a wince.

“He called me - Well that's - that’s rude is what it is. Imagine invading a man’s home, after he’s - then you're going to call him names? Rude. Even more glad I didn't sell. Lunatic,” Will huffed.

“I wouldn't call you a lunatic,” Holster said, as the others added their agreement. “You do get...excited, but no.”

“At the risk of getting you all, you know,” Nursey gestured vaguely at Will before scooting himself back to a safe distance and continuing, “I’m just saying, coming from a person you tried to forcibly eject days ago, is it completely inaccurate?”

“Yes!”

“Is it though?”

“I will throw you back into the ocean with my bare hands. Right now. Let’s go.”

 Nursey offered back a weak smile to show he was kidding, mostly, and the rest started to throw out other words in Will’s defense.

“Not lunatic.”

“No, of course not.”

“Excitable?”

“Touchy, edgy?”

“Nah, opinionated?”

“And, fiercely determined”

“Oh, good one.”

“And hermit like?”

“That’s territorial.”

 A woman’s voice from the other side of the room said, “he’s enthusiastically defensive.”

Nursey snaps his fingers. “Exactly!”

“Enthusiastically defensive,” Will repeated before turning and nodding in the direction of Lou, who had appeared over by the sink. “I can accept that.”

She smiled before disappearing again.

 “Okay, so, big picture-” Nursey tried to take control of the conversation, “it boils down to, without Dexy’s place here, the whole deal was off the table.”

“And other than that offer there wasn't any real interest,” Holster, who had listened in on Ransom’s call with the realtor, finished. “With no package deal, and the other house owners not willing to take the low offers coming in, he decided it wasn't worth coming all this way to show it to people who are never going to buy anyway. Without the potential sellers pushing him, he stopped promoting it. He’d almost forgotten about the listing himself because no one has ever checked up with him in the last few years. Said it was like the owners themselves had even forgotten about it.”

“Yeah yeah yeah, what he said, zombie property. But now back to THAT.” Ransom frantically waved his arms. “What the? Who the? Tell me you all heard that.”

“Uhhh well-” Will stalled.  

Ransom looked around at the rest of them, who were visibly trying not to react.

“Is no one going to mention the fucking ghost in the room?!” He shrieked. In a manly way. If you asked him, he would have called it a shout. A very high-pitched shout. That he made while pushing himself as close into the corner, behind the table, as he could.

“Oh, that’s - Lou?”

“Yes, Derek?” she answered from over his shoulder.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to call you, I was just telling him - but since you’re here-”

“Your friends seem a little troubled.”

Will snorted.

Most of them were only staring, quiet, and more than a bit shocked, but remarkable not freaking out. At least not externally. But Ransom - well, his face was doing its best fish impression and - try as he might - he couldn't manage to force another word out.

Holster tried to help by giving him a slap on the back and he managed to eke out the words `girl’ and `ghost’ before slipping under the table.

“Is he...okay?” she asked.

“Eh-” Lardo said, tilting her hand side to side.

“Not really.” Holster reached under the table and gave a supportive shoulder squeeze.

“Hi,” was all Shitty got out.

“Maybe I should go,” Lou said, slowly fading.

“Hi?” Shitty asked.

Will thought it was weird to see her fading, when he’d already found himself getting used to her quickly blipping in and out. Then he realized how weird it was he found himself getting used to anything at all to do with this situation.

“No, come back!” they all yelled. Well, all minus Ransom. He whimpered unintelligibly from his hiding place.

Lou faded back in, “are you sure?”

“Hi.” Shitty repeated, prompting a choked back laugh from Lardo.

“I think he means yes,” Will told her. “Stay a while.”

[sincerelyreidburke]

Is there any way “thrilled to be here” could stay up? I understand taking down others that are OC-centric, but to me that one in particular has always been a really nice nurseydex fic instead of an OC fic, and I’m sad to see it go :(

Hi, anon!!🤍

Thank you for asking! When I think back on “thrilled to be here,” it’s very funny to me how much I had no idea what I was starting. At the time, I was essentially creating a pretty passive OC, for the purpose of having an SMH freshman look up to Nursey and Dex. As may be clear if you’ve seen literally anything I’ve done on Tumblr in the time (just under a year, believe it or not!) since I created Nando, my OC dabbling didn’t stop there. In fact, it got so out of hand that I realized it couldn’t be in fanfic anymore!

For those who might not know, anon is referring to my process of taking down my Check, Please! OC-centric fics. It’s this series on AO3, which you’ll now notice has 2 fics remaining in it. Those are “you’re the one that i want” and “thrilled to be here,” which were the foundational short stories in what proved to be a huge creative endeavor for me. ICYMI, I’m writing a novel about those characters, set in the original, non-OMGCP universe I created for them, which has existed since I realized my fandom OC business was getting out of hand back in August.

Anyway. To answer your question. Anon, I’m terribly sorry, but I can’t keep it up. :((( It means so much to me that you’re sad to see it go!!!! Thank you for reading my work. I know that “thrilled to be here” is more a Nursey & Dex fic than anything else, but Nando is the narrator and the POV character, and it’s hard to have that fic exist without Nando in it. (Actually, it’s pretty much impossible.) My characters aren’t Check, Please! OCs anymore, so I need all my Check, Please! OC work to come down, and that means that fic, too.

Please DO, though, feel free to utilize AO3′s download feature if you’re sad about me taking down these fics. And if I’ve taken one down in the past couple of days that you didn’t get the chance to download, but wanted to do so, you can DM me... I have copies of them.

In the meantime, “thrilled to be here” will still be up for a little while longer. I’m really sorry, anon!

[poindexterchild]

ok i get it, nursey finds constellations in dex’s freckles and it’s super deep or whatever. well one time i found the bermuda triangle in my freckles. how’s that for deep.