#i smush a bunch of fandom into things

[capsensislagamoprh]

And just like that Victor found himself enrolled in a competition, waiting to find out the time, and having to work on a routine. It would not be for a few months, yet he found himself tingling. He'd managed to get a lutz under his skates, but wanted more rotations.

"It's all technical," Victor complained to Christophe one storm filled night.

"Yes, short programs have to be. You'll have more fun with the free skate."

"It's just so much to add. I know I can do it, but the order of it. I despair."

"What music are you using?"

"Something Lady Baranovskaya has decided on. It plays a melancholy way."

"Sounds like drama."

"I know. And I love drama! How is this so nerve racking?"

"Probably because you haven't ever had to compete for anything before. The chance of loss has never hung over your head." Victor was quiet for a time. "Are you still there?"

"I need something sweet."

"Hot chocolate?"

"I have never had. How do I make it?"

Christophe blinked at the laged video call connection. "Well, I don't know. I have some one make it for me."

"You got boggans?! I didn't get boggans," Victor pouted.

"Honestly. You're lucky they didn't give you a knocker."

Victor gasped. "How dare you."

"I dare because I care. Do you even have coco in the house? Milk? Anything you'd need?"

Victor looked thrugh his cupboards. Sulking back, he sighed. "I just need to figure this out. I need this dross, or I will be to weak to help Yuri."

"Or get the Hero back. Honestly. You're only on half the problem," Christophe grumbled. "I love you dearly, but you need to look at the whole problem. Did you know just last week a dragon attacked the forest glen?"

"So? That happens every year."

"This year there was no Hero to stop it." Victor was quiet. "This year," Christophe continued, "the villagers had to ask the Silver Falls for help to rebuild."

"They did rebuild, tho. Right?"

"The seelie are not handing back power to the unseelie."

Victor froze in more than one way. "What?" he whispered, voice choked somewhere in his midsection. Christophe waited for him to process. "They. WHAT?!"

"They say that with out samhain, there can be no hand off."

"Samhain still exists, Chris."

"Not to them. You took their Hero, lost him, and now they have no one to accept the burden of burning spring."

"Of course they do! Let them pick someone interea."

"Would you pick someone interea for Yuri if things were reversed?"

"I -" he could see Christophe staring at him. He could feel him hoping Victor wouldn't lie. Victor let out a huff of breath, blowing his long bangs off one eye. "No."

"Then why should they. Anyway, Silver Falls reports that things are moving far to fast in the Dream and to slow in the material realm. You should know this. Are you not reading your reports?"

"Reports?" Victor made a beeline for the mail pile. Sorting thrugh it as he returned, he humpfhed. "I don't see any reports. Where are you getting yours?"

Christophe sighed. "Okay, you know what, you need an assistant. You really do."

"I know, right? But the embassy wont give me one."

"You have to find one on your own. And pay them. Since you have mortal money I think you'd need that sort, but they do react weird to incidental happenings, let alone things on purpose."

"Sounds tedious. I dunno, Chris. I just feel like there isn't much wonder in the world for me. Snow and Ice used to mean something to this world, and it fueled me. Now it's like some kind of cheep escape. All they say is 'Don't in Winter' here."

"Well, you are terrifying."

"I'm Russian. This goes with out saying."

"Sure, but it also goes with out saying that people age. Mortals die, Victor. The wonder has to come from with in or it wont stand the weight of age."

"Which is why we're always young. I know. It doesn't help any to know I have such power and cannot access it save for the weak dream of mortals who themselves forget how precious those dreams are."

"Still can't find your reports, can you?"

"No! Where are they, Chris! Where do they put them?"

"Ask Phichit."

"I would but he keeps dodging my calls."

"Really?" Concern crept into Christophe's voice. "That's not like him."

Victor's head snapped around to face the screen. It wasn't? "Right. When can we check the embassy?"

"I have a juniors competition coming up soon. Where is yours?"

"ISU world Juniors... Some place called Megève? Sounds fancy."

"France! Ah ! Comme j'apprécie les vues de la passion et de la mode ! Mon ami, tu vas l'adorer ! AH! But that's a few months off. Hopefully Phichit's just lost in the stacks or been taking hostage by his hamsters again, but just in case, check your connections and I'll check mine. We can't start loosing our allies. Not when we're about to start gaining the power we need."

"Right. I'll see what Lilia knows, and possibly sneak in a visit if I can."

"Good. I'll do the same on my end. If nothing else, I'll see you at worlds. Be prepared for a hell of an adventure."

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 12, part 13, part 14, part 15, part 16

[corinthianism]

everything has changed | dean winchester (1)

pairing: dean winchester/f!reader additional tags: reverse isekai, fluff, crack, meet cute, slight angst

summary: once again, dean lands in the reality where he’s just a fictional character played by jensen ackles. it’s annoying the hell out of him and he just wants to go back home, until he doesn’t.

masterlist | next chapter | ao3

CHAPTER ONE: A SIMPLE NAME

Today was supposed to be a normal day. It was your day off and you were on your way to check out a new shop that had opened downtown. They sold a bunch of fandom merchandise, which wasn’t special or anything, but you were hoping they had a nice keychain that you could clip onto your bag. The paint on your old green lightsaber keychain had flaked off, leaving behind an ugly gray rod of steel instead of Luke Skywalker’s iconic weapon. 

The shop wasn’t far; in fact, you could’ve walked it, so you did. It was nice out today, and it was one of the rare opportunities you had to actually get out and get some sun, what with work eating up all of your hours. You’d barely made it a few blocks when you noticed a man lying face-down on the ground, his cheek smushed directly against the hot concrete. 

You panicked, not sure if you should rush in and help or run away. Very far away. While you were busy in your own head, the guy in question rolled to his side, revealing a very familiar face. 

No fucking way.

“Jensen Ackles?”

Jensen groaned, pushing himself up from the ground, “What’d you say, lady?”

You swallowed and repeated what you said, “You’re Jensen Ackles, right? The actor?” 

The man in front of you was no doubt Jensen Ackles, from the green eyes to the freckles that were dusted all over his nose and cheeks. It’d been years since the media last heard about him; him and Jared Padalecki basically shut down Supernatural when they quit out of the blue, after Misha Collins was murdered. Their representatives all said the same thing: that they were just having a hard time mourning their friend and that they needed to take some time away from the limelight.

But neither of them came back or at least, no one had heard from them since. Until now, that is. And for some reason, Jensen was all dressed up as Dean.

“No, I’m… Goddamn,” he winced as he tried to stand up, clutching his side with one hand. When you approached him to help him get up, you saw the crimson liquid that oozed from underneath his clothes and all over his hand. “I’m… I’m fine, lady, don’t worry about it.”

“Jesus Christ!” you staggered back at the sight of blood, the starstruck feeling suddenly replaced by shock. “You are not fine, dude, you need to go to a hospital!”

“No, I don’t,” his voice was gruff, more so than when you heard him in person the last time there was a Supernatural convention. That was years ago, back when you were still in braces and listening to Panic! at the Disco. Now, he sported a somewhat-noticeable Midwestern accent and asked you question after question that you weren’t really processing, all while keeping a mostly straight face despite his heavily bleeding wound. He spoke again, “What year is it?”

The question was odd enough to finally snap you out of staring at the bloodied patch on his jacket and out of your inevitable freak-out, “What?”

“I said,” he planted his feet firmly on the ground. “What year is it?”

“It’s… 2024?” you raised a brow, but your primary concern was getting him somewhere safe so he could be patched up. “Sir, I think you need to get some help.”

He fully ignored you, opting to instead frantically look around and march away to God-knows-where. You weren’t sure what to do except follow him, worried that the wound on his side was much worse than it looked. Judging from how much blood there was, it had to be deep. Probably a stab wound.

You really didn’t wanna think about it.

Following Jensen led you to a newspaper and tabloid stand, with him haphazardly flicking through today’s newspaper to find whatever it was he needed to find. You debated on whether or not you were gonna call 911 because of the wound, but he seemed entirely unaffected, or if he was, he did a good job of not showing it. 

You both just stood there for a few minutes, and you couldn’t help but notice how he became more aggravated the more he read through the papers. 

“Um, sir?” you cleared your throat, trying desperately to calm the panic rising in your chest.

He didn’t listen.

“Mr. Ackles… can—” you took a deep breath, “—can you please calm down and tell me what’s going on? Sir?”

He only frowned even more, clenching his jaw as he tried to absorb the words on the pages, instead of listening to you. Christ, this man was stubborn. Not at all what you thought he’d be. Then again, celebrities weren’t your friends.

You were getting frustrated, too. Then, an idea struck. You weren’t sure if it was going to work, it was stupid as hell, but you had to try.

“Dean?” you said the name softly.

He finally looked at you, though in all honesty, it was more like a side-eye. But it was something, so you kept going.

“Dean,” the name felt weird on your tongue as you repeated it. You were calling an actor by his character’s name. Who does that? “Can you please tell me what’s going on? I only want to help.”

“Sweetheart,” he gave you this big charming smile which you could only assume was a bit mocking.

“Dean…” you returned the favor, saying his name as sweetly as you could but the pettiness in your tone vanished as soon as you saw him wince again in pain. It would’ve been easier to let him go and to just go home, but you couldn’t leave him alone like this. He didn’t seem to have a car or even a working phone. “You’re clearly hurt. Please, just let me help.”

He let out a sigh of defeat, accepting that yes, maybe he needed some help, “If you want to help… where’s the nearest burger joint? And do you have a first aid kit?”

So there you were, sharing a burger with Jensen Ackles, except he only answered to the name Dean. You led him to a small diner, which was becoming increasingly rare in the area. The sign outside spelled out SMITH’S BREAKFAST DINER in a retro font, though the lights didn’t work anymore. The place had been operating since the late 80s, and never really got around to keeping up with the trends. Regardless, you kept coming back. They had good food, good music, and Suzanne always called you “darlin’” in a sweet Southern accent every time you came in for a quick bite.

You chewed your burger slowly, your mind wandering to the crazy possibility that you were actually sitting in front of Dean Winchester, not Jensen Ackles. If that was the case, you hoped the diner would bring him some comfort. From what you saw in the show, him and Sam always frequented places like these. The thought that he might actually be the character and not the actor was still so insane, to the point where you couldn’t even really enjoy your food like you normally would.

He was also munching on his burger, shamelessly groaning in delight. His eyes were even closed… which was definitely a good thing because you’d been staring at him the whole time. It took him less than two minutes to chow the whole thing down.

You knew some people who’d met Jensen at conventions, back when those were still a thing. They always said he was nice and considerate, and all that. Or that he smelled nice. Sitting here in front of him, there was only one thing that was stuck in your head.

This man, whoever he was, Jensen or Dean… he was incredibly attractive. But that wasn’t the point.

The point was, he looked like he needed help and honestly? You didn’t really know why you wanted to help. Perhaps you just had nothing better to do. Maybe it was something deeper than that. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to have “saved a celebrity” on your resumé.

“Dean” took a big gulp of the Coca-Cola in front of him, letting out a refreshed sigh. Then, without warning, he pulled out whatever was lodged in his side. The suddenness of his movement, combined with his pained groan, startled you. A few of the other patrons of the diner cast confused looks your way, which you tried to play off with a nervous smile. 

A sharp clunk caught your attention and when you looked back at the table, there was a bloody shard of glass right next to your iced tea. 

“What the fuck?!” you whisper-yelled, quickly covering up the glass with some napkins before someone else could see it. You turned your attention back to “Dean”, who was taking a few breaths to calm himself down as he began discretely disinfecting his wound. You wanted to be mad, you really wanted to, but your fourteen year old self would scream at you if you did not help this man. And the way he flinched every now and then as the hydrogen peroxide pricked at his wound certainly earned him some pity points.

“So… uh, do I really call you Dean?” you started lamely instead of reprimanding him for his callousness, still trying to wrap your head around the possibility that this might really be Dean Winchester. “Like the guy from Supernatural?”

He groaned at the mention of Supernatural, briefly stopping his movements to cast an unimpressed look at you, “Yes, you call me Dean, ‘cause it’s my name, lady.”

You steeled yourself as he went back to treating his wound, “Yeah, well, you don’t have to be a dick about it.”

Dean stopped again, his brows relaxing into a more neutral yet somber expression, as if you’d just hit him with a sobering truth, “...Yeah, you’re right. Sorry.” 

The two of you simmered in an awkward silence for a few moments. 

“I just want to help,” you spoke first, trying your best to convey your sincerity to him, “but if you are who I think you are then I understand why you might be hesitant to clue me in on what’s going on.”

“And who do you think I am, exactly?” he spared you an intrigued glance, unflinching as the needle pierced his skin. 

You popped a fry in your month, chewing slowly as you eyed him up and down, “Well, I doubt Jensen Ackles would get himself injured like that and walk around in broad daylight where the paparazzi could see him and say all sorts of things. Dean Winchester, on the other hand…”

He shifted in his seat to fully face you, a smirk playing across his lips.

“So what? You’re just gonna believe that I'm Dean Winchester?” he raised a brow, squinting his eyes at you accusingly as if to test you. You had to give it to him, it made you waver in your belief, but you stayed firm.

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,” you offered with a small smile, feeling that the quote described your thought process pretty well. It made you feel smart in the moment, even if you knew full well that it was your teenage self’s delusions resurfacing. 

He nodded in understanding and laughed, “Ha! Nice Velma quote.”

You were the one to raise a brow this time, “It’s a Sherlock quote.”

“Oh,” his smile faltered. He cleared his throat, avoiding your gaze out of embarrassment, “...Yeah. Yeah, I knew that. Totally.”

You held in your laughter, biting your lip as you watched the faintest blush spread across his freckled cheeks. The moment sizzled out after a while, leaving you two in a semi-comfortable silence. You noticed how guarded he was, sneaking a glance at you every now and then as he patched up his wound. You understood why; he didn’t wanna be vulnerable in a room where it was only the two of you, so as weird as it was to have a man bleeding out in a breakfast diner, it was still much safer. 

It wasn’t like he was the only one with doubts. For all you know, Jensen Ackles had just gone crazy after Misha Collins died. Same thing might’ve happened to Jared Padalecki. You still wondered what on Earth happened to them, but there was something about the man in front of you that made you feel safe. Your first instinct was to trust him, and that had never happened before. It scared you.

Whatever it was, you just had to give this a shot. Maybe it was the feeling that this whole thing was a lot bigger than you could’ve ever imagined.

“What will you do after this?” you asked him, eyeing the needle in his hand.

The question seemed to upset him, even if he was trying his best to hide it. Something shifted in his gaze, his resolve seemingly faltering for a split second. It only intrigued you even more, getting caught up in his every little move like he was a movie you’ve never seen before.

“You don’t need to worry about that,” he offered you a tight-lipped smile, finishing off the stitch with a secured knot, “I’ll be out of your hair in no time.”

That answer didn’t make you feel any better. Then, something clicked into place.

When Misha Collins was murdered a few years ago, a “script” for Supernatural was leaked by someone on Tumblr. It spread like wildfire then and you remembered the amount of hate comments the poster got. People assumed it was a weird fanfic to explain how Misha died since the case was never solved and for the longest time, people just stuck with that. A chill ran down your spine as you tried to recall what was in that leaked script. 

Sam and Dean were sent to the “real” world by Balthazar using a spell. They were being chased by some angel whose name you couldn’t remember. Misha was killed while the brothers ran away from the angel. You racked your brain to figure out the last piece of the puzzle. 

“Wait…” you started, doubt blocking you from saying the rest of the sentence. It was crazy, fucking insane, but if your Supernatural knowledge was as solid as you thought it was, then there was only one explanation for his sudden but subtle change in demeanor. “Please don’t tell me you’re stuck here.”

The frown on his face told you everything you needed to know. He was stuck here until someone from his home universe managed to bring him back. 

“Oh my fucking god.”

He chuckled, “Right on the money there, sweetheart.” 

“I shouldn’t be believing you just like that. Why am I believing you? You’re not real. I’m going crazy,” you said out loud, half of it going towards yourself and the other half going towards him. “Monsters aren’t real. Hunters aren’t a thing—”

He frowned, “Hey, I know we got off to a bad start but you can’t just be saying that I’m not real.”

“Prove it to me, then,” you hardened your gaze. “Prove to me that you’re Dean Winchester.”

“What?”

“You heard what I said.”

“Dean” sighed, shifting in his seat so that he was sitting a bit more upright and was fully facing you. Then, he tugged down on the collar of his shirt, revealing a very real anti-possession tattoo on his chest. It was blurred around the edges a little bit, having faded with time. A small gasp left your lips as you took it all in. 

“That’s…” you looked back up at “Dean” and for the first time, you noticed how much older he was compared to the last time you saw him. Or the last time you saw Jensen Ackles. His wrinkles were deeper, his eyes more tired. There were a few tiny scars littered across his face, nearly invisible if you weren’t watching them so closely. His mousy brown hair had a few grey strands that poked out, as well as some grey peppered around his clean five ‘o clock shadow. 

He chuckled once he saw your shocked expression, tapping on the tattoo, “Yeah. Got this bad boy in 2007. Probably saved my ass more times than I can count.”

“What do I even say to that?” you stared at him dumbly.

He realized that you were right. As weird as it was for him to be in a world without monsters and magic, it was probably weirder for you to find out that the world from a TV show was real. He smacked his lips and avoided your gaze, “Um. Yeah. Weird, I know.”

“Weirder than weird, dude,” you sighed, wiping your face with your hands. “I mean, I wanna help, but how the hell am I supposed to help you? You fight like… demons and vampires and stuff. I work from home! On my laptop!”

He looked back at you, smiling awkwardly as you had a mini-existential crisis, “I just, um… Do you have some cash? I got like, twenty bucks in my wallet right now. I just need to get to a motel and you’re never gonna have to see me again.”

Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best way to console a woman in the middle of an existential crisis, but to be fair, the sooner he was gone, the sooner you could get back to your life.

He put back all of the stuff he used from your first aid kit back into its bag, pushing it towards you as he wiped his hands clean with a tissue. He called for Suzanne with a smile, his charm dialed up to a hundred, “Hey, sweetheart, can you pack this up for me? Thanks.”

“Oh, sure thing, sugar,” she beamed at him, before leaning towards you to not-so-quietly whisper, “You done good, hon. Your date right here is such a looker!”

Dean only chuckled lightheartedly at her comment. Suzanne sashayed away with a satisfied giggle, and you had to fight the urge to explode right then and there. You couldn’t believe what was happening to you right now.

You mustered up the courage to speak again, “He shot you a curious look, “What?”

“I…” you deflated. “You can stay at my place. I’m sure I have some clothes there that can fit you.”

“Sweetheart, I appreciate the offer but it’s not safe. Something could’ve come back with me, for all I know,” he leaned back against the faux leather. “I don’t wanna lead it right to you.”

“You’ll keep me safe,” you affirmed, moreso to yourself than to him. “And I’ll sleep better at night knowing you’re comfortable and fed and not in a motel in the middle of nowhere. You don’t have your brother with you.”

He nearly forgot that you knew a lot about him because of Supernatural, scoffing a bit at your words, “What am I? A child?”

“No, you’re a hunter and I’m not,” you reminded him. “I can’t fight against anything that decides to break into my home, but you can. It’s not just about you, I already shot myself in the foot by staying with you this long. Granted, I thought you were some actor who’d gone crazy but—”

“I get it, I get it,” he took a deep breath in, cutting you off. He processed your words, feeling a sense of protectiveness wash over him. It was still risky, yeah, but he couldn’t think of a counterargument. You were right, you were a civilian and if there was something that came after you, it was unlikely you’d survive. “Okay then. You got a deal then, lady.”

You couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief, “Well then, I guess we’re roommates, Winchester.”

“Yeah, I guess we are.”

author's note: and that concludes the first chapter of everything has changed! unlike last kiss, i won't be publishing all the chapters all in one go (since i'm still writing them), so please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments! of course, reblogs are much always appreciated. see y'all for chapter two <3 p.s. should i start a taglist? let me know as well!

[weirdocat83]

*kicks your door down* YOU. I need to write a silly oneshot so I can fall back into writing because Losing Hope is dramaful and I can't comprehend the words I am writing. I need something goofy. Something silly. Issue? I can't think of any silly plot ideas. SOOOO, I come to you, the au/headcanon master, as a mere writer hoping to find motivation. Do you have any silly ideas that you'd be willing to let me sculpt into a quick oneshot?

Whenever I think silly ideas I default to cumplane because they’re ridiculous and them quoting memes wwhile nobody knows what they mean will never not be funny to me. I mean, imagine explaining a meme without the internet! Bonus points if some of them start picking up on how to use the memes without knowing the context.

A friend of mine told me about a svsss au they don’t intend to write where Shen Jiu is a strict teacher and Shen yuan is the TA that grades his students papers so LBH and SY end up communicating through notes and doodles :)

*takes a Quick Look at old posts because I had ideas then and I don’t have any rn*

Not really that fluffy but Any Hualian time travel or truth serum. There’s like, one truth serum fic in the TGCF fandom that’s good and Xie Lian has both so many secrets and also the sassiest thoughts. Also Xie Lian and Hua Cheng meeting while still alive (and possibly ascending together??).

I would also like to direct you to this post and this post because some aforementioned things are there but also various other ideas that could work. It was an idea day and today isn’t (unfortunately)

Any scenario in which anyone gets drunk. Literally pick a character and choose how they embarrass themselves and regret their decisions in the morning. Xie Lian could harp on about the dirty things he keeps to himself as well as insulting *so* many people, Hua Cheng could be very soft and emotional but also really kind and ends up giving so many compliments even to Feng Xin and mu qing (much to their shock and amusement) speaking of mu Qing, get him wasted. My man has so many emotions and unnecessary thoughts. Cuddle the man and make him laugh. I think he’d be a little more insecure openly but also happier. We’ve seen LWJ drunk but imagine wwx drunk. Idk if that’d be angsty or not but up to you. I think he’d be soft and VERY cuddly. Half of what he says is completely nonsensical but the other half is very sweet. Binghe would be clingy and Shen Yuan would probably be singing some modern pop song with airplane (who is equally wasted).

Outing myself here but non-explicit abo is probably one of my fav types of fluff. Idk something about people being intensely cuddly while surrounded by soft things and being incredibly vulnerable always gets me. Like, ‘nope, you’re mine to cuddle for the rest of the week. Live with it.’

Chatfics are my preferred crackfics because hell hath no chaos like a bunch of people smushed together in a gc with naming privileges and being unable to leave. Bonus points if it’s in high school so there’s extra drama and humor. Imagine Hua Cheng and Xie Lian haven’t confessed but everyone else knows? Hilarious. Mu Qing and Feng Xin fighting in the halls (again) over something stupid and getting suspended? Hilarious. SQX being girlfriends with HX and going on dates (they had a rough start with their relationship because Shi Wudu pulled some shit that was NOT run past SQX which led to a lot of difficulties but eventually they did become friends again and eventually lovers.)

Anyhow that’s all I can think of. I also had some fluffy-ish ideas for losing hope if you want those ;3

[dayurno]

i like the fact that everyone sees jeremy as this heart of gold boy who's going to be good for kevin or jean (and i do rly believe that's true) but i'm so glad you're also seeing the potential of him being an awful tease like just pushing at ppl for the fun of it because it's fine since he's there to catch them also. he'd annoy kevin to no end and relish in watching the self-disappointment on kevin's face as he realizes he wants to fuck jeremy despite all of it

LISTEN me and the fandom have had very different ideas of what a sunny personality entails for a long time now, and i (personally!) think there is nothing more boring than a jeremy with no grit of his own. he does not need to be fox material, but he desperately needs a personality that goes beyond smiling and supporting jean. this is not just from a personal fancy; in any story worth telling he needs to be as much of a powerhouse as kevin and jean for it to work

that's what's making him so hard (but so fun!) to write for me. yesterday me and my beta went over the first chapter of my fic and added a bunch of changes to jeremy's voice, and i'm expecting to have to add a lot more in further chapters. it is REALLY fun though to imagine a jeremy that gets to have all these flaws: takes things too far, is an incorrigible tease, is neurotic and vain and vapid and can talk to you for hours without saying a single thing about himself. writing him and jean clash has been some of the most fun i've had in weeks with writing and i'm loving my new dolls to smush together. i love men who are dogs

but yes. re: kevin, i think he really makes jeremy worse :=) he likes running kevin in circles with words and flirting with him and flustering him and he specially loves competing with him. they're adoring rivals after all.... what's a girl gonna do. i will stop handing out snippets because i have to actually finish and post this eventually but heres a part that had me smiling for hours on end

[anavatazes]

They found Abby TLOU2

https://www.ign.com/articles/hbos-the-last-of-us-season-2-finds-its-abby-in-kaitlyn-dever

Now, can all the ASSHOLES that hate Abby LEAVE the actress the FUCK ALONE! After the immense hatred that poor Laura Bailey received for playing a fictional character in a video game, I am fearful how poorly Kaitlyn Dever will be treated, in particular concerning her connection to Pedro's Joel.

⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️SEASON 2 SPOLIERS⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️

You are warned. If you don't wanna know what happens, don't go any further.

⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️

Ok. Now, for that already know what knows what happens in Part 2, Abby kills Joel in a very horrific manner. Not rehashing it, nor do I really want to turn this into another Abby bashing post. Not my favorite character, but I don't outright hate her, and won't tolerate that shit right now. Time and places, people.

I am concerned because of the absolute hate STILL felt for the character, that it will seep over to the actor in full force, much like it did for LB. Many can't seem to be able to separate the actor and character from each other. They still body shame Abby to no end. I've already seen a bunch of comments where they began body shamming the live action actor before she was even cast.

The misogynistic idiots can be ignored to a degree. But what really worries me are the Pedro fans, similar to the Joel fans, are gonna be so pissed when they see Abby kill Joel. And they didn't know it was coming. Some people can remain oblivious, somehow, in this day and age. How feral are they gonna be? How reactionary are they gonna be? Are they gonna be able to separate the actor from the character? And, more importantly, are the rest of us Pedro fans gonna be mature enough to help guide them to a safe place to get their emotions out where it won't be a complete nightmare for KD AND Pedro?!

Because, c'mon, you can't tell me, that when Pedro sees any fan of his hurt anyone that it doesn't hurt him? The big smush pillow that he is? I see so many people passing around videos and memes about how they're not responsible for your reactions to their actions. That may be so, but you do need to be held accountable if those actions are causing harm. A point that is sorely missed those. The Pedro Fandom is overall protective of our Pedro.

So, I want to kindly ask the Fandom, with love, that when we see this shit happening, and especially when it happens when the show airs, (picture lots of mom/grandma finger pointing here, because that's me), to be nice, be mature, ask them to remember what our Squish Pillow would do (even if he is more chiseled and less squishy right now 😉)? Are we adding to his anxiety? We don't need to do that. The man has more than enough for all of us and don't need no more. Nor does he need another fucking excuse to shrink more away from social media!

Besides, I don't know Kaitlyn Dever. I've never heard of her. I look forward to learning more about her, and seeing what she brings to Abby. Do she and Craig make me see what Neil wanted me to all along? Or is it the same old? But I know this. I won't hate her. She's a human being. Very few things on this planet could make me hate her, and her playing Abby is not one of them.

[cookinguptales]

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

You know... I put off answering this for a while because I just could not choose five. And I still can't?? I have so many fics I've written, many of them for fandoms of one, and I find that I actually love a lot of them.

So... if you'll forgive me, I think I'll just talk about a whole bunch of fics that I love for a whole bunch of reasons.

(cut because... I really do talk about a lot of fics lmao)

I think these days a lot of people follow me for WWDITS/nandermo fic. It's one of my current loves, and I've really enjoyed writing for this fandom. I do wonder if I'll keep writing after nandermo becomes canon (or gets sunk for good) but in the meantime... I guess I'll just keep having a good time?

I think my favorite fic I've ever written for WWDITS is Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, Too. I was looking at a bunch of prompts for the Trick-or-Treat Exchange (more on that later) and I ended up smushing several of them together in my head. But then the story really got away from me, I guess, as I really started to delve deep into Nandor's mind (a WILD place to be, I'm telling you) and it ended up not being posted for another month. Whoops?

Either way, though, I feel like I was really able to get at some of the ideas I'd been juggling with the characters for a long time at that point, and I think the prose itself was very nice at times. I did complicated things with that fic that I haven't done before, and in the end... I think I did a good job! It's probably the fic I'm proudest of in this fandom.

That said, I'd like to give Honorable Mentions to both When We Sway (I Go Weak) and Five Times Guillermo Helped Nandor Collect Semen (And One Time He Didn't) just because both of those fics involved me getting wildly out of my comfort zone. I think both of them seem a bit... outdated, maybe, after s4 and s5, but I think they match the tone of s3 nicely.

Sway was heavy on pining, something I feel like I'm good at writing, but also very heavy on physical action. As many of you know, I'm disabled! I have never waltzed. The kind of movement I described in that fic is not easy for me to do myself, and action scenes have always been difficult for me to write fluidly. So the fact that I was able to write both dancing and fighting convincingly in that fic made me really relieved. I got several comments from dancers telling me how well I'd captured dancing with a partner and like. PHEW. I did a ton of research and bro I was RELIEVED. So I do feel very proud of that.

Even more outside of my wheelhouse was both 5+1 things fics. I'd written a little bit of porn before this, even some for nandermo, but not much and I was largely dissatisfied with it. But boy did I get a lot of practice with those fics. lmao. It was essentially 11 sex scenes of various levels of filth loosely strung together with longing, and like... honestly, I'm very pleased at how most of them turned out! And I think I'm a lot better at writing porn now, even if it always turns out very fucking weird and introspective.

Speaking of weird.

The other fandom I love dearly these days is Sleep No More, which I've been writing for for several years. For a long time, I mostly just wrote this one for exchanges? Mostly ToT and Yuletide. I love writing for SNM, an interactive theater situation in NYC, because I can really fuck around with writing styles. I can play with ideas about religion and folklore and magic and blood and storytelling and tradition, and I can do it while writing some of the most fucked-up relationships that exist. I can play with a show that has very little spoken word, where a slap and a kiss might be in the same loosely choreographed dance, where I get to be a part of this haunted house, but only as a ghost...

While I'm sure the very few people who usually read my SNM fic might disagree, I think my favorite thing I've ever written for SNM is It's A Sin to Tell A Lie. It was my first time really trying to assemble a semi-coherent narrative from the show (largely inspired by some things that I realize now were not always common experiences in the show lmao) so I'm not sure it always aligns with how I see the characters now, but I feel like I wrote a really haunting fic that used the source material in interesting ways.

The Honorable Mention this time goes to The Consequence of Sounds, which is probably the strangest thing I've ever written. A friend of mine joked that she'd like it even if someone wrote like a haunted space hotel AU for the show and that apparently scratched something insane in my brain, so... I wrote a fic that combined space opera, Macbeth, Scottish folk magic, and the music of the spheres.

It's....... very weird. But it was also so fun to write, and I think it was fairly successful. I think the point of fanfiction is weaving together a familiar canon in a brand-new way, and I had fun bringing odd little allusions and old ideas into a new AU. I had to get really creative and that was so fun.

Speaking of weird AUs... I wrote a lot of them when I used to write karabita. haha. This is another one of those fandoms that I picked up a lot of followers with, though idk if any still follow me. Osomatsu-san was a weird comedy show that threw itself into surrealism and AUs very often, and that allowed me to do the same. I think... out of the many, many karabita fics I wrote, my favorite might be Love's Carriers, which is a flower shop AU I wrote out of spite after someone told me that all flower shop AUs are terrible. I worked really, really hard to make the AU suit the characters rather than the other way around while also incorporating flower language, one of my favorite stupid tropes. Again, I think this one came out surprisingly well, especially considering I wrote it in like... 24 hours in a fit of pique. lmao.

Other fics I remember being very proud of in that era... uh... The odd karabita KH AU that no one read because there is basically zero crossover between those fandoms... The soulmark AU because I am WEAK to those... The wingfic... ah... the wingfic... I don't know if I'd use words like "best" or "favorite" for that wingfic, but... I do think it's probably the most I've ever put of myself into a fic. The anxieties re: love and disability that I put into that fic were so real that I still cry every time I look at certain parts of it. I've grown as a person since writing it, but... yeah, those are still fears that haunt me. So I guess I could say it feels the most "me" of any of them I ever wrote.

Other than that... I guess we end up in my exchange fic era. I spent many years writing fic of extremely variable quality for exchanges lmao. I think the most successful was undoubtedly there's not a word yet (for old friends who just met), the muppets slash fic that launched... god, honestly. like. I know I did not create a fandom, but being in at the ground floor and being the one that everyone came to talk to when the pairing DID get off the ground was surreal. lmao. I created that tag on AO3! Everyone said I was crazy for writing that fic! Then they read it and they fell in love a little bit! Then the pairing became canon and everything went bananas! What a weird, surreal, delightful fandom experience.

That Muppets fic really came from the heart and really just came from me writing a fic during a very difficult time in my life and wanting to create a love letter to the characters that got me through it. I wanted to make other people feel the way The Muppets made me feel, and the fact that I succeeded in that (against all odds!) really does make that one special to me.

But... I wrote a ton of exchange fics for tiny, tiny fandoms that most people have never considered! Weird spooky crossover f/f ships, like my Crazy Rich Asians/Ready Or Not Astrid/Grace fic, or my Stoker/Sharp Objects India/Amma fic! Rarepairs like my Kimi no Na wa (Your Name) f/f Mitsuha/Miki fic! An unhinged lost episode of Puppet History! Character studies of dear little elderly murderers in Arsenic and Old Lace!

I also wrote sort of quasi-original fic, especially for the ToT exchange. Ghosts of dinosaurs falling in love with each other in a museum (inspired by a real historical case of the wrong skull being on a skeleton -- and god, that one has a hilarious IRL story attached to it) and a pet shop full of the ghosts of animals longing for companionship and grim reapers grappling with life and death and forbidden love. Mann I loved writing those.

And honestly??? I could write entire posts about any of the fics I'm talking about here. I love them, especially the ones that weren't really loved by anyone else. Hell, I'm turning that pet shop into an extended f/f origific right now.

Writing fic for tiny fandoms of one or two for an exchange feels so bittersweet because you can make that person really happy (and, not to toot my own horn, but I tend to make recipients really happy in exchanges) but it just kind of... fades away. Those stories sometimes have very short lifespans just because they're really just for one person. It's not a good or bad thing, just the nature of exchanges. I love designing a fic that's tailored to one person's likes, dislikes, and deepest desires. It's so fun for me. But it is kind of sad to see those fics fall by the wayside after. So I have to love them enough to make up for it. haha.

Finally... a fic I adored writing, that absolutely consumed me, and it's for a fandom that is basically nonexistent. I loved going to Meow Wolf's House of Eternal Return and experiencing the work of hundreds of artists all coming together to make something great. I wanted to add my art, too. No one is out here looking for HoER fic, especially not for the pairing I wrote, but like. BOY, if there's any fic I've ever written that's the definition of "I wrote this for me", it's Gnosis.

Anyway, yeah, I've been posting fic on AO3 for *checks* almost 15 years now, so I guess it makes sense that I can't narrow this down to just five, lmao. But I'm also trying not to go on too much.

But seriously, seriously, if anyone wants me to talk more about these fics or any other that I've written, I would be so incredibly happy to give you a play-by-play of what I was thinking, what I was trying to do, what I liked, what I disliked, what I'd change now, what changed me, etc. I think any author would be haha.

But I'll cut this short now!! As for who to tag... honestly, since I read so much fiction for a living these days, I don't really read fanfic anymore. I'm not sure who I follow writes it anymore. I have most fic tags filtered, being real with you. So... how about this. If you are a writer and you want me to tag you, just lmk!!! And I will send you the message.

[fic-history]

2000's and Beyond: Modern Fic

In this iteration of Fic History, we’re going to be exploring the fic culture in mega-fandoms from the early 2000’s and beyond. That’s a big field to cover, I know, so each section is probably going to be a bit less detailed than usual in order to make things easier to digest. To begin, we’re starting with:

Harry Potter

I think it goes without saying that the HP fandom is probably the fandom of the 21st century. No book series has become so ubiquitous as HP, and there are still more HP fics on FF.net than from any other fandom. Since HP was published when the internet already existed, most of the fandom’s fics were published online, although a few printed fanzines were created. HP fic is also extremely varied, most likely due to the wide cast of characters and length of time covered by canon lore. You could find fic on anything from coffee shop AUs of the Hogwarts founders to explorations of the main trio’s children when they eventually attended Hogwarts. Like most fandoms with a large internet presence, the HP fandom had its own fic sites, some of which were dedicated to specific attributes like certain ships or tropes, but fic was also posted en masse to multifandom archives like FF.net and AO3. In fact, as of 2017, there are still more Harry Potter fanworks on FF.net than any other fandom.

Twilight

If HP is the fandom of the century, Twilight is probably the fandom of the 2000’s decade. At least in the media, Twifans were portrayed as either feral teenage girls or feral middle-age women, but the fandom is actually much more diverse. In terms of fanfiction, it goes without saying that the most famous fic within the fandom is probably Master of the Universe by Snowqueens Icedragon, more commonly known by its profic title of Fifty Shades of Grey. Snowqueens Icedragon, A.K.A. E.L. James, filed the serial numbers off of her fic and sold it as an original piece of fiction to massive critical attention and success. You can read a bit more about Fifty Shades here.

One Direction

This is the odd fandom out of the bunch, as it’s the only one listed that’s completely focused on real person fic, or RPF. According to FanLore, since there isn’t traditional source material to function as a canon to write fic about, canon in the 1D sense consists of “One Direction's members' original appearance on the reality show, plus their concerts, albums, music videos, video diaries, interviews, books, photo shoots, award ceremonies, other television appearances, band members' and families' personal twitter accounts, media gossip, authorized candid photos and selfies, and unauthorized candid photos by paparazzi and fans.” 

RPF already has a bad reputation in fandom spaces, but since 1D is an engineered boy band adored mainly by teenage girls (fandom’s least favorite demographic), the 1D fandom reputation is in the pits (Jamison 2013). Despite this, the fandom is still quite large, and produces a lot of fic, especially on Wattpad, where the fanfic series turned profic After by Anna Todd was published from 2013 to 2014. The most popular ship amongst directioners is Larry Stylinson, or Harry/Louis. 

Finally, we have

SuperWhoLock

Behind HP, this is probably the largest fandom on the list, simply because it’s actually three fandoms smushed together: Supernatural, Doctor Who, and BBC’s Sherlock. Fans in this fandom are called SuperWhoLockians. This fandom was especially active on Tumblr in the early 2010’s, and while the main form of fanwork was gifsets, lots of fanfic was produced in each fandom individually as well in crossovers. The most popular Supernatural ships were Castiel/Dean (Destiel) and Wincest (Sam/Dean, who are brothers, hence the portmanteau between Winchester and incest), while Sherlock’s most popular was Sherlock/Watson or Johnlock. Doctor Who is different, as each individual reincarnation of the Doctor is considered a different character, so each Doctor has different pairings, usually with their respective companions or the Master. SuperWhoLock has a reputation for being cringy due to member’s repeated hijacking of Tumblr posts with fandom related GIFs, but now that the fandom is much less active, the cringe has turned into a feeling of nostalgia.

There are so many more fandoms I could talk about, which just goes to show how fandom spaces have only exploded in size as time has passed. Even though these descriptions aren’t the most detailed, I hope you found them informative and interesting!

Happy reading,

-KP

[phoebe-delia]

I'm realizing more and more as I embrace adulthood that it's so important to have safe places where I can experience things that are entirely self-indulgent.

I am so grateful to have stumbled back into fandom spaces as I enter the workforce because it's been such a haven for me to explore sides of my creativity that used to intimidate me. It's been a place where I can try things out without (too much) fear of criticism, anger or judgment.

I can make lists of my favorite Taylor Swift lyrics, and no one will bat an eye.

I can ramble about musicals or Drarry or my favorite fics or the West Wing or literally any number of interests and I'll have people who want to talk to me about them!

I can write literally anything in the world I want to. My god, the FUN I've had writing fics that are just a bunch of things I love all smushed together is unlike almost any other high I've felt.

I was so worried about getting into fandom. I had so much internalized shame over it. And now I want to go back in time and hug poor Phoebe for denying herself so much joy for so long.

I'm glad I pushed past it. I'm glad I let myself do something just because it's fun and because I wanted to. I'm glad I was right to try it, and that I've found a fun sandbox to play in.

Thank you all for playing with me.

[thejudgingtrash]

Annabeth is a good person,but not a nice or pleasant one,IMO.

YES.

That’s it. That’s the post. Pack it up everybody, we just cracked the case and cleared up one of the most compelling fights in the PJO fandom since forever. Good job everybody, clap it out and there’s the door! Don’t forget ordering the drinks at Starbucks, Mitch! They’re on me!

Okay, but on a more serious note: YES. YES EXACTLY.

And before some of you roll your eyes or grab your pitchforks – put your biases aside and hear me out for once. I like Annabeth. She’s my in my top three characters only second to Percy himself. I love Percabeth. It’s my favorite ship in the entire series and to be frank, the only ship that I care about PJO wise. Hell, I spend my time creating my own headcanons or writing my own fanfics with Percabeth being the star in them.

But that is not to say that I’m unable to see how certain things have developed over the years or where they stand now in regard to Annabeth. I’m not here to ignore things that have been said and/or done due to or in the name of Annabeth and I’m not here to vilify anyone that doesn’t like her. And I’m here to admit that I’m guilty of some of the things that may be addressed in this meta essay that you will read in just a second. However, I try my best to assure you, that I’m for once able to recognize my own bias.

Warning: a monster essay lies right upon you.

This should count as a paper of its own.

Back to the statement on top: I would go out even further to reframe your claim, anon:

Annabeth Chase is a good character but not a nice or pleasant person.

Annabeth is a wonderful character but she isn’t a nice one. Or at least not nice to everyone. She is (construction wise if I dare say) the best character out of the series. She has her positive traits (she’s caring, she’s emotional, she’s encouraged and volunteers, she fights for what she believes in, she forgives (even if doing so begrudgingly)) but she also has her negative traits (she’s stubborn, she’s brash, changing her mind takes forever, she is prejudiced, she baits others). That balances things out. She is branded as the intelligent kid but does irrational things (like I’ve just said a) she’s a kid and b) she’s not a robot). She should probably know better, but we all make mistakes and hopefully grow and learn from them. The clouds in the sky do blur and cover our visions sometimes.

Annabeth had clashes with other characters or was about to have fights due to her stubbornness or jealousy (Rachel, Reyna, etc.) and has of course her problems with the mortal world and her family but she also found new friends, some things cleared up throughout the narration and she was/is quite popular in Camp Half-Blood.

The thing is: she doesn’t have to be nice or pleasant (as a character). Or at least not all the time. Her character is humanized. That is what or who she is. Human. She does stand out as a character, not just because she’s the (future) love interest. She feels like someone you could meet in real life and either adore from the top to the bottom or declare as your biggest enemy. And that’s totally okay if you lean either way – liking or disliking her. Or even feeling indifferent about her. Also great!

To say that she has been the best character that Riordan has crafted is easy to say, because she has been sculpted after Riordan’s wife. He had a model he could rub some of real-life events or traits on. That’s not the problem. The problem truly doesn’t lie on Riordan’s side for the most part for once.

The problem is inherently on the fandom’s side. What the fandom does, how it acts and how it treats Annabeth as a character is the problem. The problems vary but it’s mostly the mischaracterization of Annabeth, starting fights and fan/ship wars, internalized misogyny (in some cases) and how some of the Annabeth stans lash out (ha, got firsthand experience in that field among many of my friends and mutuals!). There is a reason why many people are wary of people that have Annabeth or Percabeth related URLs.

The fact that we see Annabeth mostly through Percy’s lens and (until the Heroes of Olympus saga hits) we never really see her in chill everyday situations is essentially Riordan leaving the back door of the house open, ready for all of you asshats to rob his mansion in Boston. Because a frame on a character means that we don’t get to see the character in its entirety (unlike we do with Percy in PJO for the most part). That means a bunch of stuff is left open for interpretation which is the reason why Annabeth gets so many polarized headcanon and opinions tossed around. I think that is one of the true appeals of Annabeth. You can add on stuff and it necessarily doesn’t have to contradict itself.

We have people calling her abusive due to a (n admittedly stupid and unnecessary) judo flip and we have people that act like she’s never done anything wrong. People sorta use this excuse to form and shape Annabeth however they want and distort her characterization.

People in the fandom act like Annabeth is some weird prized possession. We perceive Annabeth mostly through the eyes of others (Percy, Apollo, etc.) and when we had some sort of insight in her ways (MOA, HOH) it felt… weird? Somewhat? Like Riordan left two bullet points of her characterization and told the ghostwriter: aight, fuck it up, gringo, see you on Tuesday and greet Fred the next time you see him for me. 

There have been many posts lately (by Tharini, Simi, Sawasawako, Jewishpercy and Annie I believe?) that HOO Percabeth felt weird. That they felt weirdly constructed, that there was no conflict, no growth. It felt stagnating, like we’re turning back. We had five books prior where we had Annabeth and Percy slowly shifting from disliking to liking and crushing each other. True development. And when we finally got the cake it felt… dissatisfying. Like the cheap box stuff and not the delicious exquisite taste that we were promised.

I said it previously in my Percabeth ship roast, but let me repeat myself: many Percabeth related things are straight up fanon. Some of it is very old fanon so that’s been unable to distinguish unless you’ve read the books recently and subtract nearly 99,9% of things you see on Tumblr (and occasionally the other shitty parts of the fandom like Reddit, IG, Twitter. Although they mostly steal and recycle tumblr stuff oh well. But back to the topic).

The way people treat Annabeth is so strange. She’s either an innocent fluffy smush baby that’s never harmed a fly and all that she wants for Christmas is being Percy’s lapdog or she’s the devil incarnate, broke into your house, killed your parents Batman style, kicked your puppy and didn’t flush the toilet on the way out. I think this is what mostly makes people hate her or the ship Percabeth. And both extremes are wrong and right at the same time? She is multifaceted so both stereotypes are true and untrue and sorta cancel each other out in the same way.

The true reason why people dislike Annabeth is because the stans are doing the most. (The haters as well, don’t get me wrong, but oh boy. Piss of a stan and you’ll know what I mean). That isn’t inherently new. Are you guys old enough to remember the ship wars that have happened cross platform? Perachel vs. Percabeth? Oh boy, oh boy. I saw some kids on tumblr a few months ago trying to infiltrate both tags and start shit (and also fail). The fact that Rachel still gets used as the bitchy (ex) girlfriend in fanfics? It’s 2020 guys. I know this apocalyptic year is far from perfect and over but I think we can let this trope die, right? Right? I thought we’ve established that Rachel is a pretty chill charcter by now… right?

If you posted your stuff on FFN back in 2010-2013 and it wasn’t the typical cutesy Percabeth story (Goode High, the gods read TLT, punk/prep Percabeth, college AU, etc.) people would’ve come for your fucking throat. Not because the story or the narration was shit. But because the pairing wasn’t Annabeth and Percy (in the sense that Annabeth had to be paired with Percy. I mean Percy gets shipped with everyone and their mother but for Annabeth it was strictly Percy. As annoying as this whole Connabeth thing is – the people behind it actually had a point. She never had a different love interest unless it’s a Percy centered story and he goes off dating Athena, Artemis and Zoe at the same time for some odd reason. Yeah, FFN Percy ships are something). Or it wasn’t the action filled canon compliant story or it wasn’t an AU that was popular.

People were really stubborn, snobbish and wanted their stuff in the four five boxes that were the most popular ones and that’s it. People have been bullied off the site in many fandoms, so it’s not a PJO-only thing but it’s still sad that it happened. (Off-note: most of these FFN tropes are still alive and well and thriving on AO3. Don’t be so snobbish and pretend that every piece you’d find there is a holy grail. There’s a lot of trash you have to waddle through. Same with Wattpad, Tumblr or anywhere else where fanfics get posted. Also had this discussion with Annabeth stans. Sigh).

And Tumblr back then? Forget it, wasn’t much better.

That view has sorta changed (at least for people that have been in the fandom for several years or have managed to find a way to navigate through it) but some of the negative sentiment from back in the day has survived. Be it by new fans coming in or from old fans that never let their stance die. The aggression feels differently and somewhat not. (I don’t know if the anon function had been abused that much back in the day. I was an observer not a participant in the fandom).

Crack a joke at Annabeth’s expense (Kal’s famous “Annabeth is a Republican” post or Dee Dee’s and many others “Annabeth has the education of a second grader, chill with the college plans, girlie” stance) and you have people insulting you, making callout posts, unfollowing and blocking you (based on only that? Okay, honey), making aggressive counter-posts, etc. in a minute. If you respond with “It’s a joke, it’s not real” you have a 50/50 chance of either getting blown off or embarrassing them so that they apologize for once.

This isn’t just about jokes. You can make a headcanon that’s not the cozy cute convenient mainstream saga and people would react the same way. Or art piece (no, not including the whole Tannabeth Blackchase shtick done by Viria and others) or fanfics.

People project so much onto the unfinished canvas that is Annabeth Chase that any form of negative sentiment as little as someone not liking her to straight up criticism, regardless of how tiny it may be, seems like an affront. Like an invitation to a fight. Like an insult to them, their character, everything they believe in. Let me state something:

You are NOT Annabeth Chase. Annabeth Chase IS NOT you. Annabeth Chase is NOT real. Her feeling cannot be hurt. Someone criticizing, disliking, joking about her or even insulting her will not bother her. Someone making a statement about her is not an insult to YOU.

Let me repeat that:

Annabeth Chase isn’t real. Annabeth Chase isn’t you.

So think a little before you act? I get it when you’re a kid and new to fandoms or haven’t been up with fan cultures in the past and are back in the scene. But if you’re in your late teens or even older as an adult and you’re unable to understand that you aren’t what you like – you aren’t the extension of a fictional character – I feel incredibly sorry for you. Because that’s just incredibly sad. Someone disliking something you like isn’t an attack of your character. It shows you that you are you and the other person is a human just like you. That they just have different taste. Disliking something you like isn’t a crime, you know? But me feeling sorry for the way some of y’all act won’t mean that that’s even remotely okay. Especially if you’re no longer in the intended audience for PJO age wise and should know better.

This isn’t a “white stans” only thing. I’ve seen and witnessed firsthand how people of color, mainly women of color, act the same or not even worse when it comes to her character. People have projected their problems and real-life occurring events into her character (I’m sure that she isn’t the only character nor that this is the only fandom where this is happening) and in some cases like I’ve said cannot separate their own personality from the fictional world. Fights with woc happened because of Annabeth fucking Chase. So many things have happened in the fandom the past few months, mostly due to people being forced staying at home because of the quarantine but I’d say it’s 10% on quarantine and 90% on people for acting up like this.

So here’s a little story: There was the act of Riordan blowing the fandom up because of his own stupidity and being unable to apologize for his mischaracterization and lack of research (the whole Piper fiasco) back in June (?) and admits the upset fandom, people on Twitter, Tumblr and Discord legit thought that none of that mattered and that the outcry was destroying Annabeth Chase’s birthday. That’s right. People thought that Annabeth Chase’s non-existing birthday because she’s a fictional character had a higher priority than the rupture and prevalent racism in the fandom. Okay. This isn’t a great look, Annabeth stans. And this of course pissed a lot of people off. I made a post about it and someone not only berated three other people on said post but no, we had a mighty argument which had disrupted many friendships in our circle which haven’t recovered until this very day. We both had our parts in it and no one is innocent. But the cause of this still remains Annabeth Chase or how people prioritize her non-existing well-being. Anyway. I’m getting agitated just thinking about it.

Let’s go back to the characterization thing with Annabeth. Let me remind you:

Annabeth Chase is an asshole. There I’ve said it in a post ages ago (too lazy to look it up, sorry) and I’ll say it again. And that’s not me insulting her. That’s me actually loving that about her. Annabeth is one of the very few unapologetic female characters that really showed all young readers across the world that you can be a girl, a badass, smart, strong, standing up for yourself and what you believe in. You don’t have to be nice. You don’t have to hide your feelings. You don’t need a man in all cases but it’s also okay to accept help and defeat.

A large reason why I think she’s an incredibly important character in children’s literature/YA because many other novels (mostly (sadly)) have the “Oh, I’m a white skinny dark-haired girl that likes unconventional things like READING. I’m not like the other girls, that take care of themselves and pamper themselves by enjoying shopping and wearing make-up. No, I’d rather be one of the boys but a sweet cute little boy and not the jock fuck that drank vodka shots out of a filthy shoe once. Despite me calling myself hideous every man in a 10-kilometer radius falls in love with me and tells me I’m oh so sexy and by the way I’m only 16 years old” shit going on for no goddamn reason.

Yes, I do blame Twilight for this mostly in recent years, but this trope isn’t by any means knew. Pretty sure that you could even use classics as Pride and Prejudice and dissect them in the same manner (Bold statement: Lizzy Bennet is the OG Bella Swan. There. Go fight somewhere in the corner, people). The new wave of YA focuses on girls belittling themselves and only starting to believe in themselves because someone else (mostly the male love interest) tells them they’re worth it. And these books hit the mainstream because they’re incredibly bland and picture perfect white.

With Annabeth it’s different. She shows up for the job and is done with it. (Brie Larson would probably be the perfect in real life version of her. You either like or dislike her. Or you really don’t care). That is what is so refreshing about her. Her unapologetic nature. Can it be off-putting? Yes. Is it annoying? Yes! Hell, every time I read The Lightning Thief, I want to rip her goddamn head off. And it’s just so well written. Her shift from mistrusting Percy but secretly still believing in him to her opening up. Wow, Riordan did something right there.

Annabeth Chase isn’t a young character. She has existed along with PJO for 15 years. She’s on her way to the second decade. I’m pretty sure that with the success of Percy Jackson (and Harry Potter) many lives have been warped and shaped.

But when I say the problem lies mostly in the fandom, it doesn’t mean that Riordan’s completely innocent. The only problem that I have with Annabeth lies not truly with her but the fact that Riordan is only able to produce three variations of female characters:

The sweetheart (Hazel, Silena, Calypso, Hestia)

The strong feminist (Annabeth, Piper, Thalia, Reyna, Artemis)

The bitch (Drew, nearly every female goddess in the goddamn Riordanverse next to every female monster)

And these female characters only know three endings:

End up married with a mortgage, three kids, two dogs and a cat somewhere in Connecticut by the age of twelve

Get dumped into the hunt

Chill on Mount Olympus and only come down to be a nuisance and/or give a cryptic message before going back and doing a godly rave party or something

We know Annabeth as the badass strong female first (or the bitchy character we’re supposed to actually like. Choose your approach), the blueprint so to speak, so some of the other characters feel almost pale in comparison and almost not needed? Doesn’t mean that other characters can’t behave similarly, but it feels kind of redundant especially if their character arcs end in a rather anticlimactic way (Thalia, Reyna). The new additions are the much needed woc as the main story with PJO was inherently white (anyway stan black!Percy and Grover, folks). So it’s not to bash on the new characters, it’s more Riordan’s fault more than anything.

Since Riordan only knows three female character arcs it feels like he tried to copy the formula several ways with different nuances. Some more or less successful. This is where fandom actually comes in handy and helps create more distinguished and fleshed out characters in form of headcanons or fanfiction.

But even in these cases people still make it about Annabeth when it’s time for characters of colors to shine. Remember that whole spiel and discussion that broke out when people (Kal, diver-up, Caitlyn, Bee, reynaisalesbian, etc.) joked about or criticized that Annabeth thinks that she’s having it harder because she’s a blonde? In front of Hazel and Piper? If she would’ve been a real person that’s an invitation for getting decked. And then all hell broke loose because Annabeth stans couldn’t accept the fact that in the real world and/or in fictional worlds the woc/coc have it harder? That the white woman wasn’t the victim that needed the coddling? Yeah, that was mad pathetic.

I hope you people get my point?

Well fuck. I wrote so many things and have the feeling I’ve said nothing. Anyway, I hope I made sense. This is way too long.

TLDR: Chill about Annabeth please. She’s an important character but that doesn’t mean that everyone has to like her, regardless of being a character in the books or a reader/fan of PJO in real life. She isn’t nice or a sweetheart all the time. She also isn’t the monstrous asshole that some try to make out of her.

Peace out.

[ithinkofnealcassady]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin/James Potter Characters: Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, James Potter, Marlene McKinnon Additional Tags: a quick little tumblr drabble xoxo posting here for those of u who dont have tumblr, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), theyre in love!!! and adorable!!! Summary:

Remus sticks his finger right through the wall of James’s pot. “Glory hole,” he says.

James looks up at Remus, wounded. Sitting on the short wooden stool as he is, his knees are bent up by his ears. He has wet clay smeared to his elbows, on the lenses of his glasses, at the tip of his nose. “Dude,” he says.

“I think we’re doing quite well, really,” Sirius says. He lifts his own pot, currently the least lopsided of the bunch, but the too-wet base sticks to the table. Sirius peers at them through the open bottom like using a telescope. “Here I am, eating my words.”

drabble commissioned by @gilflupin carter mlove... genius big brain carter... best commission idea ever... i hope this satisfies your prompt, which was (for the sake of everyone else) sirius, james, and remus making pottery together!! xoxoxo wolfstarbucks nation wake up!!

FULL TEXT UNDER CUT!

Remus sticks his finger right through the wall of James’s pot. “Glory hole,” he says.

James looks up at Remus, wounded. Sitting on the short wooden stool as he is, his knees are bent up by his ears. He has wet clay smeared to his elbows, on the lenses of his glasses, at the tip of his nose. “Dude,” he says.

“I think we’re doing quite well, really,” Sirius says. He lifts his own pot, currently the least lopsided of the bunch, but the too-wet base sticks to the table. Sirius peers at them through the open bottom like using a telescope. “Here I am, eating my words.”

“This was going to be a nice pot,” James says, watching his damaged piece buckle on its weak side like Pisa.

“It’s still a nice pot,” Remus says.

“What, are you guiltless?” James says. “You destroy the fruits of my oh so earnest labor and then you sit there like doing so didn’t snag a single thread of your luscious moral tapestry, fuck you, Remus.”

Remus offers a big, bright grin that catches on his eyeteeth. “It’s funny. That’s more important than whether or not it hurts your pride.”

“This—this is my pride,” James says. “Understand, Remus, that there is a subliminal metaphor within everything. You single-handedly—single-fingeredly, even—just eviscerated everything I have worked to create in my seventeen years of life.”

There’s a rap on the edge of their desk. James startles about a foot into the air.

Sirius, beside him, looks lazily up through his lashes, then offers Professor Burbage a charming smile. “Hello, dear.”

“I should’ve known better than to propose a creative assignment,” she says, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Make art like muggles do! Get into the cultural mindset! It’s hands-on, a break from the readings, the kids will love it! Am I an idiot?”

“It wasn’t your best idea,” Remus says.

“Just don’t make… a mess,” Burbage says, slumping away like they carve years off her life.

Sirius pinches a piece of clay off his fallen pot and hucks it at Burbage’s retreating back. It sticks in her hair.

Remus huffs. “Boring, Padfoot,” he says. He holds his palm out expectantly. Sirius delightedly hands over another wad of clay, which Remus places on the neat stretch of the second phalanx of his middle finger, then flicks it at Marlene one table over. It hits her ear, a glancing blow, before dropping to the floor. Marlene swats a hand mindlessly, like she assumes a fly or a loose strand of hair is the culprit. Remus waits a moment, then flicks a second piece of clay with the skill of a trained marksman; it hits the same spot. A third piece, and Marlene scowls into the air, looking for the origin. She finds, of course, nothing telling, as Remus is hunched over and carving zig-zagged stripes into his pot with singular focus, Sirius is forming a generous clay phallus, and James has dropped his head onto his folded arms, staring despondently at his ruined pot.

“I’ll kill you all with one blow,” Marlene says anyway.

“Good afternoon to you too, Miss Presumptuous,” Remus says.

“Mar, Remus ruined my pot,” James says, holding it tenderly aloft, the corpse of a child. So new to life. So naive yet. “Look at this.”

“Ha, glory hole,” she says.

“Ha!” says Remus while James scowls.

“Unbelievable,” James says. “You all prefer it when I’m miserable.”

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll make it up to you in droves later, you wet fucking fart,” Marlene says. “Now stop throwing stuff at me, I’m trying to finish this drawing and frankly I think it’s going spectacularly well.”

“I hope someone pokes a glory hole in it,” James says.

Marlene flips him the bird, then turns back to her desk, where she finds Dorcas doodling stars and hearts on her paper. “Well, fuck. This was going to be art, Dorcas. The fruit of my labor, Dorcas.”

“Karma,” James says. He reaches out a hand and Sirius gives him a bit of clay. James smushes it against Sirius’s cheek, which has Sirius snapping his teeth at James’s fingers. James withdraws sharply, tucking his hand to his chest with reproach. “Stay away. I haven’t had my tetanus potion recently.”

Remus presses his knee to James’s under the table. “If you add a little mouthpiece to that abomination of a pot, I reckon we could smoke out of it.”

James’s mouth falls open. “I forgive you. I forgive you, I forgive you—” he leans forward to smack a kiss onto Remus’s lips, grabs a fresh hunk of clay from the wet pile at the center of their table, then gets about rolling it.

Remus, meanwhile, has lost his aloof veneer; he’s bright red from forehead to collarbones, lurid enough to hide his freckles. Sirius looks between the two of them consideringly, then leans forward, presenting his cheek to James, who drops a kiss there to keep things even.

“We are going to figure this out,” James says, grinning with his bright madman eyes and his tie askew, “and we are going to get absolutely snockered. Lily taught me how to smoke out of an apple, you know, and this has got to be easier than that. It’s just got to be.” He rolls the now flattened piece of clay around his pinky finger, then presses the bottom of that cylinder to his pot’s glory hole. Sirius gives a fake, high-pitched, sexual whine that has half the class shooting them looks, but James doesn’t notice. He inches his pinky out of the clay tube. It promptly collapses. He stares at it, crestfallen. “Aw, pot,” he says. Then, affronted, to Remus, “Well, yours is good!”

Remus pokes his pot. It had better be good; his mother is a ceramicist by trade. “Yeah,” he says. James stares at it, brows knit. “Jamie, you can have mine,” Remus says. “Alright? Does that make you feel better.”

James’s scowl softens at the edges. “Yeah,” he says.

“What about me?” Sirius says, fringe falling in his eyes as he violently chucks another clump of clay at Mary MacDonald across the room. She hurls one back, hitting Sirius on the forehead, then pumps her fist proudly. Sirius is wiping splatters of wet clay out of his eyebrows as he clarifies, “What do I get, then?”

James holds his failed pot out, spout hanging elephant-trunk limp. “Glory hole,” he says.

[maryellencarter]

Okay, so with all the reblogging recently, I have quite a few new followers from the Lupin III fandom. I'm too lazy to update my blog header but once every five years or so, so I figure an intro post is in order.

(It will almost certainly not be a pinned post. I haven't figured out how the hell you make one of those. Fucking Tumblr.)

So! About me. I'm in my thirties. I don't tag ns//fw posts on here because then Tumblr janks it all up, so if you're a minor you might want to be advised. Also I swear a lot, but if you're here you've already noticed that.

I'm a "fandom old", been in one fandom or another since 2008, and my online manners reflect that. I don't give out my exact age or much identifiable personal information, because I've been doxxed once already and once was enough. I do occasionally admit to being a Scorpio for tag meme purposes. (Not that I'm very Scorpio-like in the tag memes. Someone at work once called me "the least Scorpio Scorpio ever" and that's about accurate.)

I've got clinical depression, anxiety, and PTSD. The first two are pretty well treated with meds. I really need to get back into therapy for the third one, because there's a *lot* of it and I don't always handle it well, but I have to get a schedule change at work first and they're dragging their feet.

(You eventually pick up on a bunch of my PTSD triggers if you hang around me long enough. You will also find out that triggers and squicks are *extremely* different and I will die on that hill. For now, let's just say I had an extremely abusive family.)

I'm aromantic, specifically repulsed aromantic, with a side of aegoromantic. What this means in practice is that my visceral response to character/reader stuff is "ewwww no, I don't want him to be in love with *me*, I want him to be in love with that idiot over there". (See, that's a squick. Character/reader isn't Problematic to me, honestly I admire y'all for putting it out there, it just grosses me out, so I either don't read it or I imagine one of the canon characters in the role of "character's s/o".)

(I understand that we use "character x reader" around these here parts. Old habits die hard, and I learned to use / in pre-tumblr fandom, so it's still what I use in my head, but Tumblr being itself, I may start using "character x character" as a tag so I don't have to try to learn smush names.)

Orientation being the complicated thing it is, I'm also partnered. @camshaft22 and I are co-authors; we'll have been writing together for four years this coming March. We've also been partners for three years and counting. We're both genderfluid, she's a lesbian, I'm probably about 90% transmasc and bisexual with maybe 75% masc-attracted, we make it work. Like I said: complicated.

I work in the cell phone industry for a large and well-known telecommunications provider. I don't talk much about work publicly, for deniability reasons, but I'm work at home, I recently got into a position where I'm no longer taking calls (after several years; I'm a fucking badass to have made it that long and I never want to go through that again), and I'm *really* good at my job.

Part of the reason I'm that good is, I have a near-photographic memory for words. It's functionally a superpower. I remember anything I've seen written down that I was interested enough to tuck into memory, and I remember the spelling of words perfectly, too. For the past several years I've been in a quiet corner of Star Wars fandom, writing fic for a set of four Rogue Squadron tie-in novels from the '90s, and granted it's about a dozen people and a bag of chips, but I've been *the* go-to person for abstruse questions you can't google, such as "hey, is X a lefty?"

My focal character there is a sharpshooter, too, but an extremely bubbly sharpshooter, which means I have a bunch of plotbunnies that haven't quite worked in tone for him and now I'm sort of trying them on Jigen like paper doll outfits to see if they fit.

(Sharpshooter, smartass, more intelligent than he lets on, and the reliable backup person who gets all the moving parts in order to make his leader's big ideas work in practice. I have a *type*.)

Uh. Does that about cover everything? Oh, I'm autistic. It mostly doesn't come up too much online, although I definitely appreciate tone indicators when someone's being sarcastic, and I really hate April Fool's jokes because I've been bullied too much for being "gullible". (I'm the reason one of my friends very kindly tags rickrolls.)

The big effect being autistic has on my media consumption is that I have pretty severe auditory processing disorder. In effect, you know how it feels when you're watching something subtitled with the audio in a language you kinda understand, where you can pick out a bunch of words but you'd definitely be lost and scrambling to keep up without the subtitles? That's me watching anything in English. It's my first language, but trying to go from hearing to understanding without being able to see the words written down is such an effort it's physically draining. I have to have captions whenever possible.

(Yes, being a call center worker for three years was utter hell. Background conversations are a special torture for me, too. I'm so glad I'm not in that job anymore. My new role involves typing amswers to customers, which fits my skills way better.)

On the sharpshooter-writing-reference-specific front (you can tell I'm a beta reader by trade and preference, we do like our stunt punctuation, although I don't do it much these days except for our cowritten fics), I never have managed to get into a gun safety class and learn about shooting specifically, but I have really good aim for throwing things and playing sports. It's been about ten years since my dominant eye switched, and I'm finally back up to the level I like to be at, where I can pick a spot and land the thing I'm throwing within a couple inches of it. (Depending on the aerodynamics of the thing, of course. Fluttery paper things like used kleenex and candy wrappers are still a pain in the ass.)

Hm. Maybe I'll take another poke at gun safety class options. It'd be really fun to actually know things about guns and gun use for writing purposes. Wasn't as big of a deal in Star Wars, but having a physical reference for how it feels to shoot and clean a proper 21st-century gun would be very useful for many of my fandoms.

Anyway, this thing is getting long enough. I've probably forgotten something major, but y'know, I'm around for questions as long as you have basic manners like not expecting an instant answer.

(Shit, I don't think I went over the Remodel of Doom. Uh. I mentioned my family was really abusive, right? About the age when other people are attending college, I was being starved, manipulated, isolated, overworked, and taught I was a psychopath whom the world needed protecting from. I think that about covers it. I've got a seriously complicated backstory, okay, and a lot of it is pretty distressing to go over in detail. Also I've been homeless multiple times so there's that. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.)

Edit: Fuck. I didn't even mention I'm disabled. Well, mobility impaired. I can usually walk, but it's fairly common for my hips or knees to crap out on me at inconvenient moments, and my feet are just a complete goddamn mess. Doesn't come up a lot online, obviously, but I wind up bitching about it every so often. I'm not looking for advice when I do.

[earstwo]

     ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

I hit 7k recently after losing almost 1.5k followers when I converted to a Reylo blog (not sorry in the slightest) and decided it was time to finally compile some of the INCREDIBLE fanfics that I’ve read since joining the fandom in December. 

I’m constantly impressed by the talent around here and I'm so grateful to love a ship that has some of the most amazing content I’ve ever seen. The creators in this fandom are second to none. I’m so thankful for all they do and all that they give to us. 

Please keep never stop sharing your gifts. <3 

**Note: Most (pretty much all) of these are rated E. 

Without further ado, here are (some of) my favorite stories: 

The Jedi Path  by SouthsideStory | 19k | E | I am such a sucker for Jedi Academy Ben and Rey. It’s everything I never knew I needed, and this fic is a beautiful rendition. If you know me at all, you know that I devour Angst with a Happy Ending stories, and this is no exception to that rule.

Exile by Ernzo | 22k | E | Oof. This one hurts. Leia sends Rey to the planet where Ben is exiled. It’s angsty and sad and cathartic in every way. I’ve read it dozens of times. 

Before the Saber Swings by @waterlilyrose​ | 28k | M |  Fuck. When I tell y’all that this story fucked me up, I mean it from the bottom of my s o u l. It stayed with me for days. I literally couldn’t get it out of my head. It felt so real to me that I was in physical pain while reading it. I also made an AU gifset of the fic with a quote from Buffy because I’m extra and love pain. 

penitence by @bettsfic​ | 16k | M | Look, Betts is one of my favorite fanfiction authors of all time. Her Bellarke works are some that I’ve read dozens of times and I was fucking ecstatic when I found out she also writes Reylo. This is an A+ TROS fix-it that is lovely and soft and sweet. 

The Writings of Ben Solo by BurnedStars777 | 39k | E | This was recced to me by the fabulous @galacticidiots​ and is just a fantastic story all around. Rey finds Ben’s journal whilst stuck on a planet with Kylo Ren and she (eventually) connects the dots. Rey falling in love with Ben sight unseen? Here. For. it.  find a thread to pull, and we can watch it unravel by again_please | 17k | E | A fantastic post-TLJ story with angsty and broody Ben and just some all around quality smut. I devoured this and have read it multiple time since. 

We Could Plant a House, We Could Build a Tree by @likeadove​ | 124k | E | I will probably never stop reading this fic. It’s such a beautiful coming of age story for Rey and her relationship with Ben as she grows up is just... gah. It’s fantastic. Please read it.    

Soul Searching by OptimisticBeth | 205k | E | Soulmates AU where Ben is Rey’s teacher? Sign me the fuuuuck up, and Soul Searching is so fucking well written. I go back to this one every few weeks and just gush at how great the world building is. I love the relationship Rey has with Leia and Han. It’s rich with love and angst and fluffffff. So good. 

Coveted by OptimisticBeth | 82k | E | WIP | OptimisticBeth is just an incredible writer, so you should honestly read all of her stuff, but I am so, so, so into this fic. It’s A/B/O and Ben’s Rey’s pack leader. He, along with a bunch of other Alphas are trying to court Rey, a highly desired Omega. It’s so fucking delicious, y’all. Alpha Ben Solo is just...it doesn’t get much better. 

A Treehouse Covered in Salt by violethoure666 | 34k | E | This fic made me cry my eyes out. I’m not kidding. It’s so raw and real. It hurts to read at some points, but you care so much about Ben and Rey in this that you fight through the pain. They grow up together as neighbors and Han builds them a treehouse where they meet throughout their childhoods/teen years. Prepare to cry but also be so fulfilled and satisfied. It’s wonderful. love it when you call me lover by @kylotrashforever​​ | 66k | E | WIP | First, let me say that anything by KTF is going to be gold. These fics I have listed are just a few of my favorites at the moment. Lover is hot as fuck (as is all of her stuff) but also fluffy in the best way. It’s in Sadsville right now so I’m fucking PUMPED for her to update. Ben’s a doctor who basically gives Rey a sexual awakening when he proves her statement of “I just don’t think I can come from (insert sexual act here)” very, very wrong.  

mountain at my gates by @kylotrashforever​ | 26k | E | More A/B/O goodness. Omega Rey’s car breaks down on a mountain. Ben is a mountain man Alpha. You can probably guess what happens from there. *fans self* 

take me to church by @kylotrashforever​ | 26k | E | I love this story so much. Ben is the pastor’s son at the church Rey grows up in. They start hooking up in secret and are terrrrrrible at communicating with each other which leads to angst. But it’s so sweet and soft while also being super hot. I love this Ben and Rey so much. 

Your Pretty Little Heart by @ever-so-reylo​ | 64k | E | The A/B/O Reylo bible, I feel like. They’re doctors and he’s a grumpy as fuck Alpha. Shenanigans ensue. And by shenanigans I mean a lot, a lot, a LOT of sex. 

The Food of Love by @lovesbitca8​ | 60k | E | Y’all. If you haven’t read this yet, please stop what you’re doing and read it RIGHT NOW. I ate this fic up in one sitting because holy SHIT it’s amazing. It’s so well written and the story is just... absolutely exquisite. Ben is cellist that’s also a famous rockstar and Rey’s an up and coming violinist and they fall in loOOoOOve in the best, most angsty, sexiest way. Please just read it right now. The scene when she firsts goes to his apartment and plays one of his cellos............you guys. It’s a lot.

Already Home by AttackoftheDarkCurses | 81k | E | This is soulmates + A/B/O so naturally I am obsessed with it. Rey gets connected with her soulmate via a website and he’s going by the name Kylo Ren. At the same time, she’s also moving in with grumpy librarian Ben Solo. She falls in love with both but has no idea that they’re the same person. It’s INCREDIBLE. 

Tangled but Unbroken by AttackoftheDarkCurses | 20k | M | I read this the other night and it’s so fucking soft. I am such a fucking sucker for growing up together fics and this is just such top quality. The braiding kills me every goddamn time. Also, I’m making my way through all of Attack’s works right now and they’re all incredible. Highly recommend. 

Dear Mr. President by @shmisolo​ | 89k | E | I love this Ben so much. The characterization is so on the money. The angst is absolutely delicious. The smut is top brass. Oh, and did I mention they’re soulmates? It’s everything you need, I promise. 

Good Day, Professor by @faequeentitania​ | 38k | E | One of the best Professor Solo fics out there. I’m such a sucker for age difference fics. Of course there’s angst, who do you think I am? 

Embers by sciosophia | 34k | E | Breaking up/getting back together fics are some of my favorites and this one is fantastic. The pining with these two is ridiculous. You just want to smush their faces together. It’s a beautiful love story. 

Reclaimed by @bettsfic​ | 14k | E | Ughhhhhhhhhh, Reclaimed. I am so in love with Reclaimed. Alpha Ben adopts Omega Rey after she’s rescued from this terrible Alpha that held her captive for most of her life. She doesn’t talk and Ben has to help her learn to be a human being and not just a subservient Omega. This Ben is the Ben of my dreams. No contest. 

the following are all written by  @kylorenvevo​. please read them all if you haven’t already. 

landscape with a blur of conquerers | 362k | E |  Y’all know this shit is fire. It’s basically the bible. If you haven’t read this yet, consider this as me yelling at you to do it NOW.   

like young gods | 84k | T | fuck, the Sword of the Jedi series is incomparable when it comes to in-universe fics. I cannot begin to express how much I love this story. It’s so soft and intense and sad. Like, gut wrenchingly sad. Ben senses Rey on Jakku when she’s six and he and Luke take her back to the Jedi Academy. She grows up with Ben. 

to kingdom come | 145k | M |  The sequel to Like Young Gods. I’m not gonna spoil much here, but just know I cried through most of this fic. I downright SOBBED at the end. It’s gorgeous and I will never stop rereading it. The love these two have for each other... it’s unreal. 

i kill giants  | 34k | E | WIP | The TROS fix-it we all need. Ben is alive and finds Rey on Tatooine. It’s soft and Thea does a great job of soothing so many of the gaping wounds we were left with after TROS. My heart soars every time I read a new chapter. This is what we deserved. :( 

the heartbreak prince | 58k | E | WIP |  Harry Potter AU. Professor/student. Size kink. Virginity kink. ANGST. All the good things life has to offer. Professor Solo is fucking filthy in this and I (along with Miss Niima)  am here 👏 for 👏 it. 

place the moon at my eyes (and her whiteness shall devour)  | 29k | E | Another breakup/get back together fic that I absolutely adore.

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

Thank you to everyone that’s been so kind and welcoming to me the past couple of months! I love this fandom and its energy and enthusiasm and how much everyone seems to care for each other. I hope that I can continue to create content for you forever <3 

[zet-sway]

WIP DAY

I've been tagged by like, a bunch of people for WIP sharing but I haven't shared anything because I'm a steaming pile of I feel very inadequate at literally everything. I'm NOT fishing for compliments, I just want to be honest. If anything, constructive crit would be more valuable cause at least it might be stimulation to grow past this giant brick wall I seem to have found myself smushed on ajfjksjf

Also real life? Not great. Thank you everyone who has offered kind words about my family situation. I'm trying to take joy where I can find it. Recently that's been in fic reading, so thank you especially to all you amazing writers I share this fandom with.

It might be a while before I have something substantial to share. But here's something I've been chipping away at.

When she finally stood, he held her firm on wobbly legs. The dim lights of the console bloomed like headlights through a fog, glinting off his scales, each one like a gleaming raindrop rolling down a window. She touched his face. "Thane, you're fucking beautiful." Moments later there was a dull bump on the shuttle interior and they both rushed hastily to fix their various states of undress. The cockpit door opened as her zipper closed at her neck, flooding the darkness with light so harsh she winced and covered her eyes. "Something wrong, Shepard?" Zaeed asked. "The shuttle doesn't have keys, you shitass."

Thank you @barbex and @spookyvalentine and everyone else who continues to tag me in things while I'm figuring my shit out!

I'm tagging @quietonewisp @irikahkrios @shut-up-alexa @rosenkow @yennas @skjeter No obligations!!! Is just for funsies.

[hsavinien]

Fanfic Review

Tagged by @rupzydaisy​

Tagging: (if you’d like to) @notfromcold, @maybetwice

How many works do you have on AO3?

248

What's your total AO3 word count?

235,871

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

44, if you lump all Marvel/MCU, all DC, and all Tolkien into one each. My top 5 by number of works are:

The Old Guard (Movie 2020) (54)

Good Omens (24)

due South (24)

The Hobbit (21)

Marvel Cinematic Universe (13)

Are there any new fandoms you want to write for?

I have a couple more ideas for Encanto, but I really go by what I have inspiration for. I don’t plan a lot of it.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Silver is the Moon  (The Old Guard (Movie 2020)) (595 words) Hits: 3229 Kudos: 467 - Joe being a mushball poet.

Calling Across the Sea  (Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett) (1347 words) Hits: 5522 Kudos: 376 - With Aziraphale hanging out in pre-colonial South America, Crowley invents a...shellphone. Also phone sex.

Teasing Means We Love You, Irritation Means You're Still Alive (The Old Guard (Movie 2020)) (625 words) Hits: 1690 Kudos: 299 - Guard family teasing.

Remedy (Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)) (2011 words) Hits: 5652 Kudos: 294 - Jim’s squirrelly, Bones “helps.”

Such Simple Trials  (Captain America (Movies), Agent Carter (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe) (897 words) Hits: 1970 Kudos: 290 - Steve referees a push-up match and is hot for Peggy and Bucky.

Which of your fics do you want more attention for?

Ummm, all of them, I like attention. My Dragon Age Inquisition fics, probably. I love my big cheerful mercenary Adaar, you see, and like writing worldbuilding explanations for game mechanics.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes! I like hearing what people think and encouraging them to talk to me more. ^_^

What sorts of things do you normally write?

Character study and worldbuilding.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Menarche (Loki (TV 2021) - Sylvie in the early days of her childhood trauma tango...

What's a fic that pushed you out of your comfort zone?

Ehhh...

Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you've written?

Yup. Probably Girl Genius & Unstoppable Wasp, if only for smushing two tiny fandoms together.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not to my knowledge.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yup. A Jim/Scotty Star Trek fic with @intosnarkness​ and some other things not on Ao3. Nothing recent, though.

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

Lost some of my taste for the Discworld Watch (not the tv show) stuff I was floating around. Not writing cop-fic right now.

What are you currently working on?

A meet-the-new-immortals fic set between the current stories in The Guard goes to Space. And like five other things, but that’s the one that I’m focusing on.

What are your writing strengths?

Good words, feeelings.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Long stories. I can’t sustain a plot like that.

What was the first fandom you wrote for? Most recent?

Good Omens. Encanto.

What's your favorite fic you've written?

Currently Dates and Almonds (The Old Guard, Joe solves a problem) or Maudlin and Tipsy (Dragon Age Inquisition, Adaar’s unrequited crush).

What fic are you most proud of?

JL-6474 Clothes Company 77 (Star Wars, renegade stormtroopers build a community). I did a bunch of research for it and I really like the worldbuilding I put together.

[theworldthatneverwas]

What a Surprise

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Ephemer & Skuld & Player Character (Kingdom Hearts)

***

When you open a portal back to Daybreak Town, you’re surprised to find it covered in a light dusting of… snow. You hold out your hand curiously, watching the great wet flakes stick to your palm and sleeves. It’s not the first time you’ve seen snow of course – Beast’s Castle has plenty of it – but it’s the first time you’ve seen it here in Daybreak Town this year. The air around the fountain seems almost crisper than usual, if there is such a thing. The water that’s splashed out onto the outer fountain wall has frozen into tiny patches of slick ice.

You shiver. You’d come from a mission in Castle of Dreams, and it certainly isn’t as cold there. You’ll have to go home and change. The keyblade wielders before you have worn down slushy paths across the plaza and you make your way up the stairs back to your home. The farther away you get, the more untouched the snow is until you arrive in front of your doorstep, the rest of the street pristine and sparkling with unmarked snow. Except… it looks like there are faint footsteps that go right to your front door. Not fresh footsteps, as they've filled in a bit since, but footsteps all the same. With a frown, you turn the door handle and walk inside. 

It smells… good? Like fresh baking and warm butter. You can hear voices coming from your kitchen, but when you close the door they suddenly stop speaking. "Hello?" you call questioningly, reaching down to take your shoes off. You weren't prepared to walk through a few inches of slushy snow so your socks are wet too, dampness creeping in through your warm-weather shoes. 

A familiar face with a cloud of fluffy white hair peeks out into your entryway. "Surprise!" says Ephemer, emerging from the kitchen. "We thought we'd make you some food for when you were done your mission today," he explains.

"What…" you begin, but are momentarily distracted by the amusing sight of Ephemer wearing your apron and can't help but laugh. "This look really suits you," you say, gesturing to the apron. He's got flour all down his front already. "What have you been making?" 

You return to the kitchen with him and see Skuld over by your oven, who waves when she sees you come in. "Don't worry," she says as she inspects something in the oven, "I'm putting him to good use."

Ephemer returns to your kitchen island, where he seems to be cutting shapes out of cookie dough to put onto a tray. "Gingerbread?" you ask, detecting the familiar scent of molasses and ginger. 

"Yeah! Skuld's idea. We wanted to have them done baking when you got home so we could all decorate them together, but we got sidetracked before we started so we're running a little late." 

You shake your head. "I'm not even gonna ask how you orchestrated all this. Hold on for a few minutes, will you? I need to change into something warmer." 

You dash upstairs and exchange your mission clothes for a comfy sweater and fresh pairs of pants and socks, then return and take up residence on one of the stools at your island near where Ephemer is cutting out more shapes for the cookies. Skuld inspects the tray of cookies in the oven and, deciding they need more time, resets the timer for an additional few minutes.

"So what brought all this on?" you ask, gesturing at the assortment of baking paraphernalia. 

Ephemer, still staring down at the dough he's trying to carve into the shape of a… actually you're not sure what sort of shape it's supposed to be. Maybe a sleigh? – chuckles and says, "Well, it is getting close to the holidays. It's even snowing today and everything! So we thought it'd be good to spread a bit of holiday cheer."

Is it getting close to that time of year already? You suppose it has been getting colder recently. Sometimes you lose track of the days when you're doing a bunch of missions in a row. 

You grab a second butter knife from your drawer and join Ephemer in carving shapes out of the cookie dough. To give him credit, it's harder than you thought. The knife pulls the dough as you cut into it so you have to be careful you don’t stretch it too much. You try carving a stump for an evergreen tree and end up making it too thin so it breaks off and you have to reroll the dough back together. You make a little sound of disappointment at your failure and Ephemer chuckles. "I've been trying to make bigger shapes so they don't fall apart. Snowmen and stars are the easiest. Well, I don't always make the most symmetrical stars but they have five points so the main bit is there. Those are the ones that'll probably turn out best."

"Up for a competition on who can carve the best reindeer?" Skuld asks, joining you after checking the most recent pan of cookies. She slices a section of the dough off and slides it towards herself.

"Ooh, challenge accepted," Ephemer says, cutting out a similarly sized square. You follow suit, deciding to take a different tack this time and cut away the outside until you've got it down to the shape you want. You decide to leave out the antlers so you're not worried about tearing them off by accident and try to make up for it by making the body more deer-shaped instead. It's not perfect and it looks rather more like a horse with a rabbit tail than a deer, but it's not bad, either. You look up to see Ephemer's progress. 

"Are those supposed to be its antlers?" you tease, gesturing. 

"It's…! Well, that's what they were originally but now I've decided my reindeer is just wearing a hat or something on its antlers. And has short legs because I tried making it look like it was pulling a sleigh or prancing and they got too thin so now it just has two small legs." 

You can't help but giggle a bit at the bizarre carvings. Ephemer’s looks more like a poodle than anything. Skuld lets out a sigh and pulls back from her own cookie at last." I tried to be creative and do a front view," she explains, gesturing to it on the floured countertop so the two of you can see, "but honestly it looks more like a snowman with legs at this point." 

Ephemer starts to chuckle and it’s so contagious that soon you and Skuld are giggling too. “I-it looks like–” he has to stop for a moment to take a gasp of air, “--like a little dancing man in boots.” He can hardly get the words out for laughing so hard.

“What? How?” Skuld asks, studying her creation. 

“No, see?” Ephemer says. He motions for her to look at the cookie upside-down. “Here’s his arms, and he’s wearing like bunny ears, and then these are his boots with little cuffs on them.”

Now that you see what he means you can’t help but start laughing again. Skuld frowns down at her cookie. “No, those are his antlers not his boots. It’s–” she sighs, and a smile creeps up on her face. “Y’know, you’re kind of right.” And then she’s laughing too, and you’re all just smiling and laughing at your silly cookies, your cheeks rosy from the warmth of the kitchen with the oven on and the room smells like gingerbread and it’s so good.

At last the laughter subsides a bit and you help Ephemer carefully lift each of the cookies onto the tray so they don’t tear apart. You reroll the remaining dough and carve out some less ambitious patterns – ornaments and stockings and the like. Skuld makes a couple of candy canes and Ephemer spends about three minutes attempting to carefully cut out a snowflake before giving up and rerolling the dough to turn it into an evergreen tree instead. At last, the final batch of cookies is safely in the oven. You wash off your flour-covered hands and collapse facedown onto your couch to rest for a moment. 

"Incoming!" Ephemer calls happily, and before you have a chance to brace yourself he's flopped down on top of you, his weight pressing you further into the cushions. 

"Aw Eph, make sure they can breathe," Skuld says, smacking him lightly with her oven mitts. 

Ephemer rests his chin by the crook of your neck. "You can breathe! Right, peach?" 

"Mmphbh," is all you can manage with your mouth pressed into the couch. 

"Aw, I'm moving, don't worry." He rolls off of you and stands up. 

Freed of the extra weight, you turn over and sit up, then pat the space in front of you. "No, come back, you're warm." 

Ephemer frowns slightly but sits down. "You can't possibly still be col – ahh!" 

Determined to get back at him, you dart towards him, fingers outstretched, wiggling them against his side. "Noo that's not fair!" he says desperately between laughter as you tickle him. He manages to grab your arms and tries to hold them away from his vulnerable sides but Skuld joins in, sneaking up behind him and causing him to loosen his grip on you in surprise. 

And then you're all laughing and tickling each other, cookies almost forgotten until the oven timer goes off and Ephemer finally manages to break free and dashes for the safety of the kitchen, leaving you and Skuld on the couch leaning on each other smiling and laughing, cheeks flushed from the exertion. 

"The cookies are done!" Ephemer calls, retrieving the tray and setting it on top of the stove. "Do we get to start decorating now?" 

"I wanna take a break," Skuld calls, sliding down the couch until her head is in your lap. She closes her eyes and makes a mock pouty face. "I worked hard."

You stroke her long hair with one hand while twisting to look back at Ephemer. “How’s the dancing bunny man?”

“He’s a reindeer!” Skuld insists, but she sounds like she’s enjoying the joke too. 

Ephemer looks back at the cookie tray. “His ears and arms spread out a bit so they’re a little fatter but he made the transition pretty well. One of the trees kinda smushed into a stocking though so now it’s umm… a tree on a sled if you turn it sideways.”

He prods at the buttons on your oven to turn it off and sets the oven mitts on the counter. “What’s the plan for decorating? Do we have icing?”

Skuld sighs and sits up to look over the back of the couch. “We can make icing. I have icing sugar and food colouring and stuff.”

“Did you guys have a shopping day to get all of this, or…?”

Skuld turns back to you. “Yeah, we went out this afternoon after a Leader meeting. Lauriam actually gave me the recipe for the cookies. He kind of just told me what he usually does for icing and I think I have the general idea.”

“I don’t usually make icing but I remember the most important thing is to add any liquids really sparingly or else you’ll end up with soupy icing. Shall we give it a go?”

She nods and the two of you join Ephemer in the kitchen. You retrieve a couple of plastic bags for the icing and bowls to mix the colours in while Skuld carefully measures out some icing sugar and adds a bit of soft butter. She mixes it for a while, and after seeing how powdery it still is, adds a little more butter. “I think Lauriam said he also adds a bit of milk and vanilla,” she says, inspecting the consistency of the icing. “Probably just a little bit and we’ll work up from there.” Ephemer pokes a tentative finger at the icing bowl but Skuld shoos him away. “It’ll just taste like butter and sugar until we add the vanilla,” she says, and Ephemer gives her his best puppy dog eyes. “No! You can wait.” She picks up the bowl and angles her body away from him to continue mixing.

You tug at his shoulder to come around to the other side of the island, where you’re laying out the cooled gingerbread cookies to decorate. You clear away some of the dirty bowls and set them in the sink so you have space to work.

“Hmm… what do you think of this?” Skuld says, offering the bowl of icing for you to see. “Thick enough? Too thick?”

“Maybe a teeny teeny bit more milk,” you say, pushing the carton towards her. “We want to be able to pipe it out of the plastic bags.”

Skuld looks with some surprise at the bags you have laid out on the island. “Oh, that’s actually such a good idea. I was thinking we’d just use butter knives to spread it or something. Yeah, okay.”

When the icing reaches the desired consistency, Skuld puts a dollop of it into each of the bowls you’ve laid out and you and Ephemer add a few drops of food colouring to mix in. The biggest bowls are the red, green, and white ones, but you also made a bit of yellow and blue for accent colours. You scoop it messily into the plastic bags and cut a small corner off of them to push the icing out through.

“Can I decorate Skuld’s disco bunny man?” Ephemer asks innocently, reaching for a cookie to add icing to. 

“No! He’s a lovely reindeer and I’m going to decorate him,” Skuld says, scanning the pile of gingerbread for her unfortunate cookie and placing it on her side of the counter. “You can decorate your own hat-wearing reindeer.”

Ephemer makes a ‘hmm’ sound and sets his decorated cookie aside to sift through the cookie pile and grab his oddly shaped reindeer. He tilts his head to inspect it. “Could make mine look like a person kneeling down with really big feet,” he says.

You set aside the white icing and drum your fingers across the countertop as you wait for Skuld to finish with the green. “You’re free to decorate it however you like,” you say. You find your own reindeer in the cookie pile and slide it towards yourself.

The three of you keep up casual conversation while you work, Skuld complaining that Ephemer is stealing all of the red icing and Ephemer retorting that it’s only because she’s always using the green so he’s improvising. You end up with several unusually-coloured trees and one ornament in particular that has icing piled nearly as high as the width of your finger. At one point when Ephemer reaches across you to grab another cookie, his other hand, which was clutching an icing bag, squishes some of the icing off onto your sleeve.

“Watch yourself,” you say, dragging a finger across the icing and putting it in your mouth. It’s buttery and sweet.

Ephemer looks down and realizes what he’s done, and then seems to get a strange look in his eye. Both you and Skuld exchange a glance and she opens her mouth to speak but Ephemer interrupts her. “Okay, but consider this–” he says, gesturing dramatically, “–edible face paint.”

Skuld looks mildly scandalized but you’re actually not one hundred percent against the idea – “Just, make sure we have enough icing to decorate the cookies first,” you say, putting a hand over his to direct the icing bag back over to his cookie. Ephemer pouts slightly but returns to decorating.

The three of you make some small talk as you continue to decorate, and after some time Ephemer has the idea to decorate one third of a cookie and then pass it along to the next person, so you end up with a couple of unusually-patterned “group effort” cookies, the most notable of which is a stocking which has yellow and blue polka dots on one third, red and green stripes for the middle, and a multicoloured dot pattern for the last third which took Skuld a very long time to do as she kept swapping out icing colours and having to wait on you and Ephemer to pass her the colour she wanted to complete her pattern.

There are only a few undecorated cookies left on the counter when Skuld suddenly looks up, frowning. “Where did…?” she murmurs, mostly to herself, and then she squints accusingly at Ephemer. “What did you do with my dancing– with my reindeer?”

Ephemer grins. “I’m so glad you asked,” he says, moving aside a bowl to reveal… “Meet Disco Bunny Man!”

For Skuld’s sake, you try to stifle your giggles. Ephemer has coloured Skuld’s unfortunate reindeer into a strangely proportioned person with bunny ears and sunglasses, complete with funny flared boots that Skuld insisted were its antlers. It’s truly a magnificent sight.

“My beautiful reindeer…” Skuld says with mock sadness – even she can’t hide her smile. She shakes her head. “I suppose he’ll taste good either way.”

“Absolutely!” Ephemer agrees, and you notice he seems to have a half-eaten cookie beside him already. Has he been munching on cookies this whole time? You hadn’t noticed.

“When did you take him?” Skuld asks as she inspects Ephemer’s decorating job. “I had him right beside me.”

“I just picked it up when we were swapping cookies,” Ephemer explains. Had that been his intention when suggesting it?

Skuld shakes her head at him again and returns to her decorating. You take a moment to squeeze the last remnants of blue icing towards the end of the bag to finish decorating your last cookie, a slightly lop-sided star. Your own reindeer cookie lies nearby – you’d given it a saddle and a red nose, and to be honest it’s looking more like a horse than ever but it’s sure to taste good nonetheless. You glance over and see that Ephemer has given his reindeer a rather familiar red scarf.

“Did you give your reindeer your scarf?” you ask him, smiling.

“Yeah! It’s such a nice scarf I thought he’d want one, too.”

You laugh at that and gesture to your reindeer cookie. “Well I think I’ve won the competition for best reindeer.”

“Where are his antlers?” 

“Uhhhh…” You prod at your reindeer’s ear. “It’s a baby reindeer and doesn’ t have them yet. Here, pass the white, I’ll give them those little spots baby deer have. Do baby reindeer have spots?”

Ephemer shrugs and leans over to get a better look at your cookie. “Here,” he says, smushing some of the yellow icing he’s holding onto your reindeer’s ear. “Now your reindeer has a party hat.”

“That was their ear! …Point made, though, let me see if I can squish any more blue icing out of the bag.”

“Aw, your reindeer is cute,” Skuld comments, looking over at your cookie. “I don’t think mine qualifies as a reindeer anymore for our competition, but you get my vote. What’s happening with your reindeer’s eyes, Eph?”

“It’s not my fault the white icing came out in a big blob! So now he has huge eyes.”

“Can I vote for my own reindeer?” you ask innocently before taking a bite of the blue star you’d finished decorating. The ginger and nutmeg in particular taste lovely.

“That’s no fair!” Ephemer complains. “You have to vote for someone else.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll vote for your scarf-wearing reindeer then, sunshine.”

“And I vote for disco bunny man! So it’s a tie.” He seems rather pleased with this outcome.

“Isn’t that kind of like voting for your own cookie?” Skuld counters, one eyebrow raised. “I mean, you did decorate him yourself.”

“Ooh, does that mean I win by default since you have to vote for me then?” you ask. “What’s the prize?”

Ephemer shrugs and looks at Skuld. “I dunno, it was your idea.”

“Hmm… well, maybe we could let you off dish duty. So me ‘n Eph will clean up.”

“I do like the sound of that,” you reply. “I can help gather up the leftover icing bags and stuff now though.” Only a small amount remains in the red, green, and white icing bags and the blue and yellow, of which there was less to begin with, are completely used up. 

Ephemer looks thoughtfully at the bag of white icing he's holding before sticking out his other hand and drawing a snowflake over the back of his palm. He holds it out proudly for you to see. “Edible body paint!” he declares, bringing his hand to his mouth and licking off the pattern. “Yum.”

Well, there really isn’t much else use for the icing now that you’ve decorated all of the cookies. You look down at the nearly empty bag of leftover red icing and pick it up, turning towards Ephemer. “Here, give me your hand,” you say, “and close your eyes. It’ll be a surprise.”

You’re pleased at how quickly he obeys. He puts a warm hand in yours but, instead of drawing on the back of his hand like he’d expected, you bring the icing bag up to his face and manage to give him a smooshed red blob on his nose before he crinkles up his face and pulls back with alarm. “Hey!” he complains, wiping the icing off his nose onto his thumb. “You didn’t tell me you were going to put it on my face.” He picks up his icing bag once more and advances towards you and you abandon ship, hastily retreating around the other end of the island to use Skuld as a shield.

Unfortunately for her, Ephemer is hardly deterred, and soon there’s icing on her hands and on the front of your sweater, and you both pick up the nearest icing bag to fight back, squeezing out blobs of the sweet confection onto cheeks, hands, forehead, whatever you can reach. Ephemer gets the worst of it, with both you and Skuld teamed up against him, and by the time all the icing has been squished out of the bags his fluffy white hair is speckled with green and red. 

Out of ammo at last, you toss your empty icing bag onto the counter and laugh at how disheveled your friends look as they wipe icing smears off their cheeks and from their hair. How wonderful it is to have friends like this, to be together safely inside your warm kitchen with the smell of gingerbread, the sweet taste of icing on your tongue, and the snow falling gently outside your window. You wouldn’t want to spend the holidays any other way.

***

This is a special fic for the winter holidays! I’ll be taking a break from uploading new chapters for my KHUx fic until the new year after this. If you enjoyed this story, feel free to check out Sound of the Sunset and Colors of the Sunrise on AO3 by me, theworldthatneverwas!

Also, bonus, some poorly-drawn MS Paint versions of everyone’s gingerbread cookies:

[yikesharringrove]

i’m sorry that you’re having a rough time. if you need to talk my ask is always open! 💜 something I haven’t really seen in the harringrove fandom is a bookstore aus. do you have any head cannons for that? or maybe you could write something? i can see billy being a pretentious, flirty sometimes grumpy bookstore owner who is simultaneously annoyed and charmed by clueless steve who is obvi not a reader, but keeps coming in. Billy’s clueless why the pretty keeps coming in. robin is not clueless!

(ao3)

“Fuck.”

Billy shook out his hand, just dropped a large box of books on his fingers.

“Dumbass.” Robin was perched at the counter, leafing lazily through some indie zine her friends made.

“You know you could, like, help.” Billy shot her a glare as she rolled her eyes, leaving him and his smushed little hand to shelve the new stock.

“No point in that, Boss.” Billy just kept sorting maneuvering himself through the narrow shelves to sort the new arrivals.

His bookshop had been open for about a month, and was doing well. He had a little cafe in the back corner, run by Heather and her baked goods. There was a second level to the shop he filled with squashy armchairs, and little tables. It had become a fairly popular spot with the kids from the local university as they studied, or avoided their studies with the books he had on the first level.

He had new and used books, had a trade-in program with book donations. It was warm in the little shop, sweet and cozy.

The bell above the door chimed.

“Hi, I was looking for Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals by Immanuel Kant.”

“You can find Billy, he’s in the stacks over there, and he should be able to help you better than I can.” Billy rolled his eyes, could hear the smile in her voice. He kept shelving, could hear the light footsteps approaching.

“Um, excuse me, I was told you can help?” Billy looked up, his breath hitching when he saw the guy. He was tall and lanky, slouching like he wanted to be small. He had all this messy brown hair, these big dark eyes behind his glasses.

“Kant, right?”

“Yep!”

“This is a good one. Have you read the Critique of Pure Reason? That book was pretty big for me, his thoughts on causation in relationship to time and experience were so new to me first time I read it.”

“Oh, it’s uh, it’s actually for a class. I’m not any good at this philosophy stuff.” Billy just smiled weekly. This guy was almost fucking perfect. He wandered over a few stacks to search.

“You at the university?”

“Yeah, I’m a senior. Just finishing up my generals and everything so I can graduate. I’m studying to be a teacher. Sorry, you probably don’t give a shit.” He had red splotches high on his cheeks.

“No, I always love talkin’ with new folks.” He smiled gently at the guy, reaching up for the book. “Immanuel Kant. Robin up front’ll take care ‘a you.” The guy fidgeted for a second, taking the book slowly.

“Thank you, I’m Steve, by the way.”

“Billy.” Steve waved at him, awkwardly and adorably.

-

Steve began coming in just about every other day.

He would say an awkward hello to Billy, would be all fidgety and weird, and retreat to the comfy second floor with a large iced latte, face red, mumbling to himself.

“He has a crush on you.” Robin was poking him over the counter. Steve had just high-tailed it up to work on his schoolwork after asking Billy how he was and looking so fond when Billy just said not so bad.

“Shut up, Rob.”

“He does. He’s in here almost every day, and gets so fucking nervous when talking to you. He wants to date you and kiss you.” She sang it at him, wiggling around a bit.

“Jesus Christ, Robin, he doesn’t. He’s a paying customer.”

“A paying customer that gets all cute and blushy when you two talk, and who never says more than three words to me.” Billy rolled his eyes, retreating to the back office.

She followed him, stomping loudly.

“At least admit you think he’s cute.”

“He’s fuckin’ adorable, but he said he’s not a big reader, and when I started talkin’ about Kant philosophies, his eyes got all big like that shit went way over his head. I don’t think we’d work out.”

“Just because someone doesn’t read and-slash-or comprehend eighteenth century philosophy, doesn’t make them not worthwhile.”

“It’s kind of a deal breaker for me, Rob.” She glared at him.

“You are so pretentious. He’s cute, and he seems sweet, what does it matter?”

“I just like intellectual types.”

“I fucking hate you.” She huffed, stomping back out into the shop.

-

“What in the hell?” Billy was up on the second floor, cleaning up the discarded coffee mugs and books left behind before closing. He heard muttering from the corner, looking to see Steve, tucked in a large armchair, frowning heavily at the book propped in his lap, something thick and heavy, probably for that philosophy class he’s been trudging through.

“You okay, Pretty Boy.” Steve slammed the book shut.

“Yeah I’m fine.” He began shoving his school work away, stuffing it roughly into his bag.

“Hey, whoa.” Billy plopped down across from him, taking one of Steve’s wrists in his own. “What’s wrong?” Steve whipped off his glasses, digging his thumbs into his eyes.

“It’s just been a long day, and my dyslexia gets so much worse when I’m tired, but this midterm is tomorrow and I need to study.”

“I didn’t know you were dyslexic.”

“Oh, sorry, I forgot my button that says I’m dyslexic, ask me how!” Billy sat back, one eyebrow raised. “I’m sorry, I’m just tired. And my brain hurts.”

“You know we have audiobooks. There’s a whole selection in the back downstairs.” Steve looked up at him.

“Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah. We have tapes and CDs. Have a bunch of random stuff. You wanna take a look through it all?” Steve’s eyes were wide. He shoved his glasses back on, following Billy to the display.

They were sitting on the ground, going through the selection Billy had, Steve had found two of the books he needed for his philosophy class.

“Billy I’m heading out-” Robin stopped when she saw the two of them, sitting in a sea of tapes and CDs. “You do know we closed, like half an hour ago.”

“Holy shit. Seriously? Why didn’t you tell me to go! I would’ve gotten outta your hair.”

“Relax, Pretty Boy. I don’t mind stickin’ around. Don’t got much else goin’ on.” Robin was watching them with a smug look on her face, sitting in one hip.

“No I have to, I should go. I’ll, um, I’ll come back for these tomorrow.” He pressed the few he had selected into Billy’s hand, gripping his upper arm. “Thank you, Billy. It really means a lot to me.” He gave him a sweet smile, threw Robin a two-finger salute as he hefted his backpack, leaving the shop with a jingle.

Robin slapped Billy’s arm.

“He’s so hot for you, and you’re practically in love with him too, this is disgusting and gay.”

“Robin no homophobia in my store, please.” She laughed at him as they locked up, Billy cleaning up the mess of audiobooks.

-

“Hi, I brought you this.” Steve was wearing a soft sweater under a pair of overalls. He looked so soft and Billy wanted to cuddle him.

He was currently pushing a plastic container full of chocolate chip cookies over the counter.

“I wanted to say thank you for helping me last night, and I know there’s straight up a cafe that sells these in the back, and you could probably eat as many as you like because you own the whole place, but I thought it’d be nice and I bake when I’m stressed and ramble when I’m nervous, if you couldn’t already tell, but you’re really nice and I just wanted to do something nice for you, and I’m gonna shut the fuck up if you don’t mind.” He was bright red, his eyes darting around the shop, looking everywhere but at Billy.

“Thank you, Sweet Thing.” He took a cookie, taking a big bite out of it. “And I got your audiobooks on hold.” Steve giggled when Billy talked with his mouth full of cookie, rifling through his wallet to get cash for the CDs. “Your midterm was today, right?”

“Oh, yeah. I, you remembered.”

“You told me last night.” Steve shrugged.

“Sometimes people kinda tune me out.” Billy frowned, opened his mouth to say something in rebuttle but Steve plowed on. “I had the test today. I think it was okay, but it always goes either way with me. Sometimes I feel super good about it afterwards, but then I’ll straight up fail and sometimes it goes the other way, so I’m hoping ambivalence is key.”

“I think that sounds like a valid plan. Just keep your mind off it.”

“You read anything good lately.” Billy just gave him a look.

“Take in where we are, then get back to me.”

“I mean, you probably read a lot, but have you read anything good lately?”

“Define good.” Steve shrugged. One of the straps on his overalls fell off his shoulder. It was so cute.

“Like, engaging content.”

“That’s a pretty low bar.”

“Well, I know you probably read like, super smart stuff that goes way over my head. If we were talking about novels I would say, engaging plot, interesting rounded characters, all that shit, but you probably read, like, I don’t even fucking know.”

“I’m gonna let you in on my best kept secret.” He leaned into the counter a little. Steve’s eyes were bright as he leaned over the counter, shoving his nose right into Billy’s space. “I’m a sucker for classics.” Steve had this cute little half smile on his face.

“Like, Moby Dick?”

“Jesus, no. Nobody actually likes that book. I mean like, Pride & Prejudice and Emma and Wuthering Heights and Don Quixote.”

“I think I’ve heard of like, two of those.” He gasped a little, his eyebrows going up. “I have an idea! Would you recommend me audio books? Of all your favorites? I want to be able to like, talk about them with you.” His eyes were shining and bright, so excited to share these books with Billy, these books that mean the world to Billy.

“Sure thing, Pretty Boy. I’ll pick a new one out for you every week or so.” Steve hoped from foot to foot, wiggling and excited.

“I wanna do that! WE can have our own little bookclub. It’ll be so fun, we can like talk about your favorite books, and I’ll actually get it because I won’t have to be, like, translating the fucking wiggly words.” He was crackling with energy over this idea, it was making Billy excited.

And then Steve’s phone started going off in the chest pocket of the overalls. When he took it out Billy caught a glimpse of the name Nance.

“Sorry, this is my ex-girlfriend.” He smiled at Billy who’s heart dropped. “But I’ll be back tomorrow, if you wanna have a book ready for me!” He pushed the cookies closer to Billy with a Look, answering the phone as he awkwardly pushed open the door with his back, and a little hey, Nance!

“How was your boyfriend today?”

“Straight. He’s fucking straight.” Robin furrowed her brows.

“Sorry, there’s no way that boy is completely  straight.”

“He got a call from his ex-girlfriend. He’s fucking straight, and we’re gonna start a stupid bookclub thing because he wants to read my favorite books and he’s fucking straight.” Billy shoved the cookies away from him, taking up on of the heavy boxes of book donations, heaving it to be shelved.

Robin followed him to the stacks.

“Just because he had an ex-girlfriend doesn’t mean he’s straight, Billy. He could be bi, or pan, or fluid, or literally anything.” Billy just ignored he, kept shoving the new arrivals away. She sighed at his back. “Okay, asshole. Give him some queer book, like Orlando and see what he says about it.” Robin tromped away when Billy refused to answer.

-

Steve tripped on the door frame the next day.

He spilled out hard on the floor, smacking his chin and spilling paper. It was so fucking funny, but Billy stifled his laugh, and helped Steve up. His face was red, the flush spreading down his neck.

He took one look at Billy when he stood up, and walked right back out the door.

-

He gathered up the courage to come back in three days later.

“Watch yourself there, Pretty Boy.” Steve’s face went hot again.

“I’m so sorry about that. I was so fucking embarrassed, I had to go have a panic attack for like, six hours after that.” He gave a shaky little laugh. “I believe I was promised an audiobook?” Billy took it out from under the counter.

“Maurice, by E.M. Forster. It’s a gay classic about coming of age, and having to live in the closet, and being in love. It’s excellent.”

“Sounds like my fuckin’ life.” Billy stared as Steve just read the snippet on the back of the box.

“You gay?”

“Pan.” Steve said it easily, didn’t even look up from reading the box. Billy can hear Robin gloating in his head, saying that she’s right.

“Cool.” Steve gave him a weird look.

“You’re being weird.” Billy shrugged. Steve glanced at the large pride flag hanging in the window of the store, looking back at Billy with one eyebrow raised.

“Yeah, I’m a big ol’ homo. I’m really not being weird. I just didn’t know.” Steve reached out to push his shoulder.

“I’m kidding, Bill! Quit bein’ so grumpy.” Billy couldn’t help but smile when Steve was looking at him like that, was giggling at him like that.

-

When Steve finished the audiobook, they talked about it over hot tea after closing.

That became their ritual, Steve would get a book recommendation, would finish it in about four days, he’d stay after closing an they’d talk. The next day, he’d get a new one.

They began talking about more than just the books.

Steve was an incredibly easy person to talk to. Something about his big eyes made Billy want to open, to share his past.

He told Steve about his dad, just the tip of the iceberg, just the basic he’s a homophobic asshole. But then Steve told him he’d been kicked out of his house at eighteen, so Billy told him his father was physically abusive, and before he fucking knew it, they were both tearing up and connecting.

“Who’re you texting?” Robin snatched his phone, dancing out of his reach as she scrolled through the texts between him and Steve. “Oh my God, are you sure you two aren’t dating.” He ripped his phone out of her hands.

“Shut up, Robin.” He stormed to the back office, his refuge whenever Robin started bugging him.

“No. You two have been doing this dance for months. You two have your own special bookclub. You need to ask him out.”

“I just don’t wanna assume anything and fuck up this friendship. I don’t have very many friends, and i don’t wanna lose him. Just because he’s into guys doesn’t mean he’s into me.”

“Billy you’re hot. And me, a whole lesbian, telling you that means it’s true. I’ve seen the way he is around you. Remember when he fucking fell and had to leave immediately? He’s so hot for you and nervous rambles all the time. If you asked him out he would say yes.”

But Billy never actually got a chance to ask him out.

The same night Robin was bugging him Steve came slamming roughly into the shop.

“You okay?” Steve was quiet, something Billy had never seen in him.

“Just a bad day.” He sipped at the tea Billy had placed in front of him.

“You wanna talk about it?” Billy said at the exact same moment Steve looked right at Billy as said.

“You wanna go on a date with me?”

“Sorry, what did-” Billy ears were ringing.

“No, I didn’t say anything.” Steve was looking everywhere but Billy.

“No you asked me out.” He took a breath.

“Look, I really like you. Like a whole lot. And today was shit and the whole time I just kept thinking about how I wanted to see you, and talk to you about it, and I knew just walking in here and looking at you would make the whole awful day that much fucking better and I just wanna go on a date. With you.”

Billy’s mouth was open.

“Holy shit.” Steve was steadily going even more red.

“I’m sorry if I just fucked up this whole thing we had goin’ on-”

“No, I wanna go out with you. I really like you too.” Steve was still, and then he started wiggling, that excited little side to side he does.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.” Steve stood up, shaking and wiggling in the cutest little happy dance Billy has ever fucking seen.

“Oh my God. I’ve wanted to ask you out for like, months. I’m so excited.” He flopped back into his seat. “Okay but first, Animal Farm. I think the pig’s an asshole.”

Billy leaned forward, pressing a kiss to Steve’s cheek.