#i wrote a pirate au for another ship/fandom like four years ago and it got big from there but

[raayllum]

a/n: blatantly based off of @eerna’s wonderful pirate au and posted with her permission, hope you enjoy!

“Do you know where he is?”

Rayla’s first thought is that everything about the boy is soft. The childhood clinging to his face although he’s perhaps a year younger than her, the scarf around his neck and fineness of his clothes. Even his expression, wavering and trying to be hard, trying to enforce some steadiness, some sort of intimidation into his voice. To be taken seriously. The Governor’s other son who hasn’t perfected his father’s art of being commanding.

Everything, except his eyes. Sea green and steely, hardened with resolve, they catch her off guard. A little rimmed with red, too from crying. But she supposes his baby brother was just kidnapped the other day. And that ‘he’ must be the one this brother speaks of.

“You’re going to have to be a little more specific,” she drawls, resting one elbow on her propped up knee, hands chained and hanging (the way she will be soon too, she supposes), ever the pirate. Why she’s drawing this out, she’s not sure. Her corridor the jail block is currently empty, but it won’t be for long, and surely this boy isn’t supposed to be talking to her, either.

“My brother,” the boy says, upset and demanding now as he stands in front of her barred cell. “They took him. Your crew took him.”

“That they did,” she confirms, because it must be common knowledge by now. In newspapers and everything. Governor’s son and exotic dragon egg stolen. 

The boy narrows his eyes at her. She wishes she could remember his name. She knows it must’ve been in the papers, years ago. Something about the Governor getting remarried. What is it...? Clem? It can’t be camel. 

“And they left you behind,” he continues, and she just holds back a flinch.

It’s the pirate code, to leave behind weak links. She’s the one who messed up. They were right to leave her. She doesn’t care. She doesn’t. “What’s it to you?” she snarls. “Isn’t your father campaigning for a noose around your neck?”

“Maybe.” The boy shifts, fidgets with his scarf. His spine straightens. “But that won’t help me find my brother. You can.”

Rayla’s interest piques. It sounds like a deal, a bargain. If there’s one thing she knows as a pirate, it’s how to strike a bargain that gets her more rather than less. “Oh?”

The boy gestures with his hand now, face stern and wagging a finger. “I let you go,” he starts, then stops. “If I let you go, and get you out of here, then you have to help me find my brother.” 

Rayla’s mind races. A way out. Slim and fleeting, maybe, but it’s a way to live. All she’ll need is a ship and she can hightail it out of here. But she can’t let him know any of that, and schools her expression into something she hopes come across as neutral. “You realize the ocean is kind of massive, right? He could be anywhere.” 

“They stole him and the dragon egg. They must be connected somehow.” The boy brow pinches. His voice breaks. “They couldn’t have just gotten rid of—”

Unwillingly, her brain produces everything she knows of the Governor’s second son, which admittedly isn’t much. Sweet looking kid in the newspapers. Big grin. Named Ezran? Young. She grits her teeth. Maybe ten years old.

“My crew isn’t—wasn’t that cruel,” she says, catching herself (they left her, right?) and the boy’s gaze snaps up. She doesn’t know why she says it, even though it’s true. To give him hope, maybe? It’s a dangerous, stupid move. She’s five seconds away from a bargain. She can’t be caring already. 

The boy’s eyes shine with immeasurable hope that’s desperately trying to not grow too big. He coughs. “I get you free from the gallows, and you help me find my little brother,” he says, and meets her eye. “Do we have a deal or not?”

Rayla grumbles for a moment under her breath, already knowing she won’t be able to backstab him now, will she? Damn her. What was it Runaan always called her? Too soft hearted? It sounds about right, as she stands, and nods. “Fine,” she says terse.

He lights up, taking her word just like that. Clearly he’s never been around pirates before. She’s going to have her hands full keeping him alive, isn’t she? He opens his mouth to say something—maybe thank you—when a voice rings out.

“Callum?” Mellow and deep, if concerned. “Where are you?”

“I’ll be right there, father!” Callum calls, and then glances back at her. Steps closer to the bars. 

She isn’t sure whether she’s glad she knows his name now or not. Perhaps it makes this too real. This has really been her day. She’s really going to team up with a wimpy Governor’s son to rescue his baby brother back from her old crew. She’s lost her mind.

“Thank you,” he says, every syllable soft like he means it, and maybe it’s sort of okay, if she’s lost her mind a little. “I’ll be back tonight,” he promises.

For the breakout, she assumes when he scrambles away, back down the hallway to lie to his father. Her execution should be scheduled for sometime soon, and they don’t have time to waste.

She’ll have to figure out where they’re going to get a boat. 

Rayla glances out the window on the wall across from her cell, at the peek of the sea and the sun. Stars help her now.

[secreterces-charlie]

Yo yo yo! It’s Valentine’s Day and I’m tired, sad and single, but I cope by baking cupcakes and drawing my ships smooching ❤️

The original template is by @a-moop, and thanks @charliecharlo for calling my attention to this because it inspired me to draw some of these characters for the first time in years! Some of them I never even colored in any other drawings before!

Here’s the ship list👇

First row:

Marcus & Secret, a weird angel-demon thing and a very confused human, two characters from a story I have yet two write

LizardHat – Demencia & Black Hat, from the show Villainous by Alan Ituriel, and I know Hattie’s scowling, but we all know he loves his pretty little psycho dearly~

Lumpygrab – LSP & Lemongrab, a ship I dedicated a blog to because even though they’re canon, they’re still a rarepair and a crackship – what other craziness would you expect from Adventure Time?

Second row:

Francoeur & Vlaštovka (Swallow bird in English) – a robot dictator and his harpy companion, villains of another story I have yet to write. And yes, Vlaštovka does indeed have four arms. I drew those, but was too lazy to draw her actual wings.

Zora & Akta – the first gay characters I ever made, I think. Zora was a creepypasta/demon OC who I gave overpowered abilities to, but then redesigned her because she was killing me with cringe. Akta is... not exactly a demon? Her story is in progress, but I keep rethinking what she should be, exactly. As you could probably guess, she was inspired by Chara from Undertale :)

Trirax – Trixie & Thorax, from My Little Pony, the rarepair ship I will go down with. They’d be adorable together and you can’t tell me otherwise!

Third row:

Darx & Vitalia – would you believe if I told you these were Minecraft OCs? Yeah. I read a few books written in the Minecraft universe a while ago and was inspired, but I wanted to make it different. So, I wrote a story where Vitalia (the white-haired one) manages to topple over a bunch of potions that mix together and do something to her and the Enderman chasing her (Darx!). They discover that they’re slowly turning into each other’s race, she’s becoming a monster and he’s becoming human, hence the weird skin colours.

Goddess Secret & Rwakk – I made A LOT of alternate versions of Secret. She was originally a pony OC, and most of her AU versions are also ponies. In one story I was co-writing with a friend of mine, we started joking about him always writing bad endings and me always writing good and happy endings. This resulted in the creation of two gods of story-telling, influencing worlds, battling each other and playing with each other, and keeping the story-writing universe in balance. It’s not exactly a ship, but Rwakk is a dear friend of mine and he deserves a kiss 😘 Also we use these characters to cope sometimes, so 🤷‍♀️

Jabu and (the OG) Secret – two dorks from an RP filled with pirates, slavery and underage drinking, what fun! Basically Jabu (the zebra) has been serving a rich guy his whole life and never knew anything else, until Secret came with a pirate crew she joined on accident and, too empathetic for her own good, decided to show him friendship, and kindness, and a world where he didn’t have to always return favors, where he didn’t always have to listen to orders. While playing this RP and trying to get Jabu to understand as simple concepts as “this isn’t a deal, I’m just being nice, you don’t have to immediately pledge your service to me bro, chill” really challenged my writing (and also sometimes my morals, as Jabu had none).

Fourth row:

Entrapdak – Hordak & Entrapta from She-Ra: The Princesses of Power! One of my more controversial ships because Hordak is the villain, and he’s pretty evil, and then Entrapta is the greatest example of a morally grey character and his first real friend. I really hope they end up being okay, but with the way the series is going right now, I’m slightly worried about them. Also just a note, if you ever get into the fandom and ship them, know that there are ppl arguing against this ship everywhere. It’s not worth it to join the fights. Let the ship wars be.

Papara – Chara & Papyrus from Undertale, my two faves from the game. Over time I sorta gave Chara my own headcanon of abilities and backstory and stuff, and decided that someone like them could really use someone with endless forgiveness in his heart in their life. I wrote tons of “second chance for Chara” fanfics I never finished, and I hope there’ll be more content of them.

Prie & Lavinne – OCs from a comic I’m determined to make! Everything about them keeps changing except for their designs but rest assured that their stories are magnificient! Also you don’t get to see it from this angle but Prie has three eyes, two on this side and one on the side we can’t see.

Fifth row:

Penny and Marion – the OG ship. I got into MLP and FNAF fandoms around the same time and since I’ve never before been in one, I was absolutely in love with all of it, especially the Brony community. So, I wrote a crossover fan fiction about a robot pony fighting Purple Guy! I wrote two and a half story about her, with twenty parts total, and to this day I am immensely proud of this. The fact that she somehow falls in love with the puppet of all animatronics should not be important 😅

Lemon Pancakes – Lemongrab 2 & Breakfast Princess, a magnificient ship @charliecharlo came up with (bless you for this treasure) I realized I absolutely love BP’s design (especially in normal clothes tho) and I live for the angst that has to come eventually when LG2 becomes a part of LG3.

Charlastor – Charlie Magne & Alastor form @vivziepop’s Hazbin Hotel cartoon! If anyone dares tell me a) that Al is asexual and cannot therefore have romantic relationships or b) that Charlie is canonically with Vaggie, I won’t do anything but I’ll be silently judging you from over here. Once more I call to all of you. Let the ship wars be, they’re especially aggressive in this fandom, and it hasn’t even existed for that long. That being said, I love that they’re both musical souls and I really really hope Alastor becomes genuine friends with her in canon, at least.

So yeah, that’s a wrap!

Happy Valentine’s to all of you!

[fool-errant]

Ask a Writer

I got tagged by @rabbitkinder

1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean?

Well my studio handle is Foolish Mortal - but someone’s been sitting on that username since dirt. So I went with fool-errant - like knight errant but stupider. The fool part is obvious - and errant means alternatively “straying from proper course or standards” and “traveling in search of adventure” - which I felt summed up thing pretty decent. My handle on FFnet and AO3 is NoCapes - cause I wanted to make sure thatif you looked up my website for art - you didn’t accidentally stumble on TF2 slash. That name comes from the fact I have a little Edna Mode figure sitting on my computer monitor that caught my eye at the time I was looking for a name. 

2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/favorites, follows/subscriptions, visitor hits, kudos)

Erm - well I only have ze one main fic online these day. My long suffering TF2 fic Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. Though even compared to the long lost junk I wrote in high school - its still got the most feedback.

3. What is your FFnNet/AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?

I’m not sure I ever got an icon on those accounts. I just never got aroundto it. 

4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?

I honestly love all commenters. I have a few regulars who became buds of mine that I love. Also anyone that ends up making something in reaction to my writing is special to me. 

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

Not really. I’m a horrible person. I also have a mind that retains little details, so I am the sort that reads something once and can remember it clearly later. 

I DO have a few genre/ tropes I like to revisit reading wise. One is Lavellen/Cullen from Dragon Age. Another one I binge hit recently is anything about Finn from Star Wars needing and receiving hugs and people (mainly Poe) supporting him. And Princess Leia shows up to remind people to take care of themselves and Storm Pilot snuggles ever after.  

6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?

Uh...I’m honestly not sure. I squirrel away bookmarks and forget about them later. I have a couple in progress stories I subscribe to. 

7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?

I really don’t do AUs - unless you count the gag bit I wrote where Spy and FemSpy are the parents of Carmen Sandiego.  I tend to feel people are the products of their settings and removing them from that takes a lot of their traits away. Though that’s my opinion and I’m never going to tell anyone they can’t or shouldn’t go write and enjoy their own thing. 

8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)

Welp on AO3: Bookmarks:74  Subscriptions:77

Here on Tumbles: 268

on FFnet - I can not make heads or tales of that one. Though I seem to have a couple of folks in South Africa reading - which is cool. 

9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

.....*Maniacal laughter*  I deal with chronic depression and anxiety. So I have a very large list of things I WANT to do but don’t. A lot of it is due to the fear of judging - and a lot of “no one wants this - what is the point?”  

I had an original concept involving airship pirates - colonialism - and the main lead was a trans pan sexual in a setting that didn’t have words or play book for hat sort of thing. The story wasn’t ABOUT the fact the lead was the way they were, it was just aside thing. But I scrapped it cause I figured no one wanted it - it was stranger and I didn’t want people coming out of the woodwork telling me I didn’t have a right to do that or that I wrote the lead wrong.  

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.

I have long ago accepted my inability to porn well.  I’d love to be better with my updates. But as mentioned earlier I deal with depression - so my brain meats aren’t the most efficient at cranking out things in a timely manner.  Also replyingto comments/ social media shit. I am awful at. 

11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?

I guess Rarepairs...I suppose. 

12. How many stories have you posted on FFNet/AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?

Three/four - one large chapter monster and lots of little drabbles that sort of grew around it. 

13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?

*cough* Lots

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

...Depends on how long the story idea bugs me, how complicated the idea is and if I intend to do anything with it.  

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?

Not exactly. A bud of mine and me in high school triedto do that but gave up. Now a days I just co author smutty bits with someone else cause I am no good at those on my own.

16. How did you discover FFNet/AO3?

I knew about FF.net before the great PornPurge. I am not even sure HOW I found them. Probably just wandering the net as a young impressionable nerd. I also used to deal with webrings if you want to guess how old I am. 

AO3 I...think I heard about on tumblr, or I had a friend or two metion them tome when I started writing fic again seriously. 

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on FFNet/AO3?

No. I always end up baffled to find out people have read or remember anything I’d worked on. 

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

Not really? What?

19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

Not to my knowledge - I think there was a quote about art that I picked up via Ted Naifeh about how you have to get through 1000 bad drawings to get to the good ones. That tends to stick in my mind about  writing or anything I’m trying my hand at. 

20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

I don’t have much for writing - but creating things in general. When I started doing art in high school the forums I hung out on always had the reminder, “There will always be someone better than you. But you will always be better than someone else.” Write as things come to mind. You don’t have to write in sequential order - you can edit that later. Don’t worry if things come out rough and ugly in your first drafts, things can get polished later. Write what you want, not what you think others will want. Also to paraphrase Dr Suess - if you draw a monster with three heads, be sure to give it three toothbrushes. Keep details in mind when building a world/ scenario.

21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

I have a rough skeleton or shape I start with - when I start writing it all out things start getting filled in - or changed from the original plan cause something better came up. 

22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

Occasionally I would get folks complaining about “the slow bits” where it’s just banter - or folks getting snotty about the lack of sex scenes, but generally nothing “bad” just antsy. 

23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)

SMUT - I’m a poor little ace robot. My brain doesn’t quite know what to do with smut scenes. Where do hands go? What do they do? People do what? Don’t they know what comes out of those places? EVERYONE NEEDS TO WASH THEIR HANDS.  I don’t cut the scenes since I know it’s a thing people do- and it feels disingenuous to have violence in a story and then get all fiddly when sex shows up. So I have cucu help me out - and have lots of feedback from other folks as we muddle along. 

24. What story(s) are you working on now?

Still working on Smoke as I can and trying to flesh out an original concept, which is sort of a post apocalyptic noir,

25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

YEP 

26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

Not DAILY - but I do try to make myself add 500 words to what I’m working on when I do sit down to write. 

27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

Thankfully 

28. What is your favorite story(s) that you’ve written?

I dunno - I mean I don’t have much going on right now that’s eaten my time and attention as much as Smoke Gets in Your Eyes has. 

29. What is your least favorite story(s) that you’ve written?

Nothing that I’ve left out in public. I cleared out my old writing archives ages ago and I tend not to let myself look back. 

30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

I don’t actually know. I rarely consider myself a writer. I am an artist - I went to school for art and drawing. I just sort of accidentally picked writing back up. 

31. What is the easiest thing about writing?

Planning - Conceptualizing. The early stages when everything is still nebulous and nothing is forced into words. 

32. What is the hardest thing about writing?

Putting things into words. Also the whole “creating things to toss into the void” sensation.

33. Why do you write?

Because my brain sort of will keep daisy chaining ideas and building stories with or without my permission. So focusing on them - writing them and getting them out on paper for others to look at seems the only real solution.  Also cause my friends got sick of my being like “so hypothetically - if blah and blah happened - you think such and such would shake out of that?” 

I taaaag @fat-mabari @vkiera @prinxvariety

Cheers!