#idk if I'll be able to fit it into this fic though

[leedee013]

Chapter Four of Silly Little Jean Moreau fic: posted

Features:

- Jean getting emotional as he gets ready to go to California

- Jean and Kevin going on a long walk together

- Jean getting hugged and giving hugs

[ashthemadwriter-archived]

Two Peas In A Pod

—A blessing... or a calamity in disguise?

Fandom: Blue Lock

Pairing: Nagi X Fem!Reader

Genre: Crack, Humor, Horror

Format: Short fic

Warnings: Breast feeding, Jealousy, Probably ooc!Nagi

Word Count: 1.5K

A/n: Idk I just thought this would fit him lol. Might remind you of boss baby.

There are moments in life which can never be forgotten. Long awaited moments that leave a sweet velvety taste in your mouth and get engraved on your memory,

Moments like this.

Nagi is in hospital, standing next to the delivery room with his infant in his arms. He's wearing the most genuine smile he could ever wear, staring at his baby boy's angelic face. The baby has the tiniest hands ever that would get lost in his if he were to hold them, and the cutest chubby feet ever. He could just eat them right away.

"Wow Nagi, he looks just like you!" Reo says, smiling at the sight while snapping a picture. "You two are like two peas in the pod, except that his hair isn't long enough to be as messy as yours"

"I know. I did hope he'd take after y/n, but he's still cute"

Your husband looks so grown up like this with a baby in his hands. That's what makes Reo to snap another picture, this time in full frame of both Nagi and the baby. His smile is as soft as when he watched him saying his vow to you, and he can't help but to feel happy for his best friend.

"I'm gonna go get a cup of coffee and call Isagi and others. They've been waiting for the news"

"Ok"

Nagi's gaze doesn't leave the baby's face to follow Reo's footsteps walking away. He persistently stares at the baby's closed eyelids, wondering if they're hazel colored like his, or have the color of your eyes. Maybe it's a mixture of both, he thinks, if it's possible. He doesn't have to wait for long to find out though, because suddenly, the baby's eyelids start shuddering and in less than a second, they're wide open, displaying the warm chocolate brown color of his eye balls.

Every inch of his figure resembles his father. Even the look in his eyes is curious, just like Nagi's is right now.

"Welcome home, little thing. We're gonna have so much fun together, me and you"

…

"I don't think that's gonna happen"

Nagi doesn't know whether he should believe his ears, or his eyes. A talking baby? That's a miracle! Babies don't start talking until they're two years old, but this one in his arms was definitely the one talking a little while before, since his intense stare is piercing through Nagi's heart.

I must have very strong genes.

"What do you mean, that's not gonna happen?"

"Oh sorry, I guess I wasn't being clear on the matter" The baby speaks in a semi-grown up voice. "I meant that, you won't be having much fun from now on"

"How come?"

The baby's innocent expression is all gone. Now there's a straight yet devilish look on his face which Nagi doesn't find charming. "I thought you would already figure out that much, but I guess I was wrong. Heh...what a pain"

"Stop giving me that shit and tell me already"

"You don't care much for sharing; do you, my dear father?"

Oh.

Nagi doesn't like where this is going. He feels an unwelcoming sense of threat in his heart.

"So what? Are you saying you're gonna steal y/n from me?"

"No..."

The grin on the baby's face isn't casual. All of a sudden, Nagi doesn't find a single thing resembling him. The baby looks more like... Light Yagami from death note, the blond version.

"...I'm saying that I already have"

This can't be happening.

"Tough luck. You'll never be able to split us off. Y/n's love for me is boundless. I'm her one and only"

"You were her one and only" His gums are visible through his demonic smirk. "Now that I'm here, you won't get a quarter of the attention you used to receive. From now on, I'll be the one who sleeps in her arms at— well all the time. She'll always be near me, looking after me since I'm just a fragile little thing. The time she used to spend alone with you is gonna be limited to less than ten minutes, and your share of affection will also be mine. Even if you two do get the time to be alone with each other, she'll be too exhausted to even look at your face. She wouldn't miss it, since she gets to be with me all the time"

The world comes crashing down on the white haired man. Through his storming mind, he can see himself curled up under the strangely ice cold blanket while staring at you frustratingly, asking you to get in the bed with him already. But standing on the other side of the room, it feels like you're a thousand miles away, voice barely making its way to his hear yet so destructively striking him, saying you have to put the baby to sleep first. Even after doing that, you're so tired that you pass out on the bed before Nagi can even lay a finger on you.

"Not only that, I'm gonna take away all the other things you enjoy as well"

Another illusion appears before his eyes, only this time he's sitting on the couch, and you're standing in front of him, wearing a somewhat annoyed expression.

"I'm sorry Sei, but we can't afford to buy more video games anymore. We have to start saving up for Light's college"

No.... that can't be real. He can't give up on his video games for a serial killer's his child's future. That's absurd. You're not expecting him to do that, are you? You know how video games are important to him.

"Just you wait my stupid father, I will take everything you cherish in your life, and it starts from this very moment, with your most loved one"

His most... loved one?

Just as he's about to ask the little demon about his intention, the door to the room opens and a nurse comes out. "Alright! It's the baby's lunch time"

No. Not that.

"His lunch time? You mean, y/n's gonna feed her...?"

Nagi's voice is shivery, like he didn't know about how the babies drink milk. The nurse is a little taken aback by that, but still keeps her smile on.

"Yes sir, he needs to be fed right now, so if I may..." She reaches out to take the baby from his embrace, but fails when Nagi steps back.

"You... can't do that. I mean, this baby looks like he should drink formula milk instead of breast milk. It'll be better for him"

"The hell are you talking about, Nagi? Let the nurse take him to y/n" Reo suddenly appears next to him, giving him a questioning look.

"No— You don't understand— I—"

"What's up with you man? Here, ma'am; take the little thing to his mommy"

Nagi feels all the misery existing in the world raining on him as he watches the nurse take the infant to you. Reo looks away when you pull up your hospital gown to reveal the enchanting sight of your breast that are bigger than usual and are full of milk, all ready to be devoured in the baby devil's throat. This is it. The beginning of his torment, the sight of his most comforting treasure being possessed by another person, shattering his heart into a zillion pieces.

"No..."

The baby squeezes your right nipple with his hand, letting out a small whine.

"Stop it... No..."

You softly caress his cheek and baby talk him to enjoy his meal.

Why can't all of you people see his devilish smirk?

"No..."

The baby looks at him from the corner of his eyes. He's taking his most special thing, his stress balls, his warm pillows he snuggles his face into at nights, his soft squishies he plays with whenever he's bored, his delicious jello balls he sucks on to help him go to sleep...

"No... No... No..."

You hold your left boob and snuggle him closer to help him drink, and he helps himself out, by brutally taking it into his mouth.

It happens.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

Then Nagi wakes up from his sleep.

Through his blurry vision, he recognizes his room in the middle of the night, and of course, your kind hand on his shoulder.

"Sei? Are you ok sweetheart?"

Nagi keeps panting. He hurriedly looks around the room to see any sign of the baby, but thankfully, he finds nothing. He can't ignore the cute bump of your belly under your oversized T-shirt though.

"Y/n?"

"Yeah?"

"If the baby looks like me we'll give it away"

"Excuse me??!"

All rights reserved © 2023 AshTheMadWriter. Please do not copy, repost, translate, or modify my works on any platform.

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[magewolf-the-artist]

All of The Mighty Rabbit Must Get Out

IDK if I'll update the fic anytime in the future, and since not only is it important to Susan's story, but since it is her death day...

WARNING: SEMI-GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF STARVATION AND GORE AHEAD

Chapter 1- Takes place right where TWF 4 leaves off, Susan wakes up and sees Shadow Man approach her. She tries to yell for help but is only about to produce a raspy groan before dissolving into a coughing fit. The Shadow Man seems taken aback by something and backs away. She sees him go deeper into the technician closet before passing out again.  

Chapter 2- Susan wakes up again, this time to the sound of the restaurant closing. She shoots up but the metal bars tear at her skin. She has another coughing fit but doesn’t pass out again. When she recovers, she hears someone entering the back area and sees the Shadow Man. Strangely, they’re carrying food, and they feed her and give her water. It’s very awkward, especially since the Shadow Man is trying really hard to stay in the shadows and is handing her food like she’s a biting dog, but Susan guesses she appreciates the effort. She doesn’t understand why they won’t call the police though. The Shadow Man stands up and, once again, walks further into the back area, but now Bon is there. Susan is extremely wary and presses up further against the wall, but Bon barely notices her and starts talking to the Shadow Man. Their conversation is too quiet for Susan to hear and, much to her frustration, the Shadow Man leaves without calling the police. 

Chapter 3- Later that same night, Susan tries to move around. It’s difficult and painful, but she finds that being slow and gentle with her movements reduces the tearing into her flesh. She manages to stand up but sits back down almost immediately after because it sapped her energy. She resolves to try again tomorrow night before going to sleep. The next night she tries to walk but topples over almost immediately. Susan’s frustrated by this before recalling when Banny ate shit and laughs about it. This manages to cheer her up a bit and rests. She’s frustrated by the slow progress but resolves to keep trying. 

Chapter 4- A couple days have passed now. Susan has been able to walk further and further each time she tries and has built up somewhat of a pain tolerance and stamina. One challenge she has is that her field of view is limited, and she needs to feel around to make sure there’s nothing in her way. As well as that, her steps are slow and awkward, and they almost look like a shuffle. However, this reduces the amount of pain she’s in and a walk is a walk. Walking also takes a lot of energy, so she needs to rest often. Something noted is that stomach keeps feeling weird and she feels like she’s not eating enough, even though the Shadow Man comes by every night. She’s able to move further and further around the room until one day she’s right at the door. She shoves it open and now she's in the actual restaurant. She wanders for a bit, tripping over tables and taking breaks when need be, until she sees on the emergency exits. She thinks she sees something out of the corner of her eye but before she can process either of these things, she conks out. When she wakes back up, she’s back in the employee’s only area with no idea how she got there and no knowing why she passed out. But she realizes how close she was to the exit and is determined to get to it. However, it’s morning now and she’s very tired, so she plans to do it the next night. 

Chapter 5- Now the next night, Susan exits the backroom again and goes back to the exit but conks out again. But this time she’s back in Wonderland, uh-oh! Bon appears and says he had hoped the previous night was a fluke, but it seems that he must explain himself. He tells Susan that he can’t allow her to escape and that if she tries to, he’ll conk her out again and briefly explains how that works. He also mentions that he’s relieved she hasn’t tried to go out during the day because he’d have to conk her out then too, and that it would get repetitive and boring. Susan is obviously so fucking pissed and yells at him, but Bon sends her away. Susan wakes back up in the employee’s only area, still very pissed off, but now knowing why she passed out last night. But she’s determined not to let that stop her and gets up to move. She barely even makes it out of the door that time before conking out and back into Wonderland. Bon makes fun of her. This time Susan wakes up on her own and tries again. To her surprise she isn’t conked out again and enters the party area. She tries another one of the emergency exits but is, once more, conked out. 

Chapter 6- Susan knows that this isn’t working and wonders if she could try to get out through the front doors. This doesn’t work. Then she tries to smash open the windows by slamming herself against them, but it both doesn’t work and proves to be too much for the neck cables, because when she wakes up again her head is now tilted to the side. Susan is furious that she has to relearn how to walk AGAIN but rolls with it because fuck it. She does that for a day and then tries again, but she underestimates how tricky it is to navigate with not just a limited field of view and constant light-headedness, but now with her vision in portrait mode. But even still, she keeps going. 

Chapter 7- Susan is starting to get really fed up with this shit and tries to find other means of escaping. She tries to bang on walls to catch people’s attention, but she gets conked out for it. She tries getting the Shadow Man to stay but it doesn’t work. She tries seeing if there’s any other exits but there’s only three and all of them result in getting conked out. One night she manages to stumble into Felix’s office and, in a hail mary attempt, writes him a letter explaining her situation and begging him to help her. She doesn’t get conked out for this and at first is hopeful. She takes some post it notes and a pen back to the maintenance room to have an easier time accessing them and writes a lot. But Felix never comes to help her, and she wonders if Bon is somehow stealing them before Felix can read them. She confronts Bon about this in Wonderland and while he says no, he also dances around the topic as to why Felix isn’t seeing them, although not in a nervous way and more in a playfully manipulative way. While he’d love to see the look on Susan’s face when he reveals that Felix knows what’s going on and doesn’t care, and that he sent Bon to kill her, he knows Felix would throw a hissy fit over it and doesn’t. He says as long as she’s inside the restaurant with him, she’s under his influence. 

Chapter 8- Susan realizes that if she goes back on her own to the maintenance room, Bon won’t conk her out. She starts playing with this and seeing how much she can push it. She repeatedly goes up the exit doors like she’s about to try them but walks away. Bon is delighted by this and starts talking to her more often. Susan at first is scared but soon realizes this guy is insufferable as fuck. Still, she plays nice for now. 

Chapter 9- Susan is still playing nice with Bon and Bon is still being an insufferable prick. Susan is still trying to write Felix letters because it’s the best chance to get his attention, but none of them seem to reach him.  

Chapter 10- One night Susan feels that Bon is confident enough to have relaxed his guard and makes a break for the door but is conked out. 

Chapter 11- That same night, Susan wakes up and is irritated that her plan didn’t work, but Bon reveals he knew what she was doing the whole time. When asked why he didn’t try to stop her beforehand, he simply says he thought it was funny to watch her get her hopes up. Susan is of course horrified by this but realizes something else: Her body is starting to fail her now. 

Chapter 12- Susan keeps trying to escape the restaurant with little success, and not just because she’s always getting conked out. She’s now constantly tired, the hunger pains are unbearable, and she’s quickly losing energy. But she refuses to acknowledge this and keeps trying. 

Chapter 13- Same as last chapter, but more intense. She’s starting to see things now and is having trouble navigating the restaurant, often leading her to walk in circles.

Chapter 14- Same as last chapter, but now she can’t feel her legs from how much she’s walking. She keeps going in circles despite her best efforts. She tries to break the Banny animatronic at this point, but it doesn’t work. 

Chapter 15- Susan is exhausted to her very core and unable to move now. She tries but she can’t, and finally has to confront the fact that she’s dying. She reflects on her life as she lays on the maintenance room floor waiting for death. 

Chapter 16- Susan is literally on death’s door as she listens to a party. She’s sad obviously but is surprised when she hears someone coming through the backstage, since Shadow Man gave up feeding her days ago. Surprise, it’s Charles! Charles is confused why the Banny animatronic is sprawled out on the floor and breathing weirdly. He pulls off the mask and realizes OH SHIT ITS SUSAN!!! Susan is happy to see him despite the circumstances. Charles is obviously horrified and asks what the fuck happened, to which Susan gestures at the post it notes. In very sloppy handwriting, she writes out “Can’t talk. Neck broken”. Charles is still freaking out and asks her what happened. She writes out, “Bon”. Charles is confused and Susan clarifies, “He did this”. Charles is still confused but gets the gist what she means and asks how and why. Susan writes for the why, “I don’t know” and adds, “He said to make me beautiful”, and for the how she says, “He attacked me”. Charles doesn’t know how to react to this information and says they need to get her to the hospital, but Susan shakes her head. She writes, “I’m dying, Charles”. Charles can’t accept this and tries to pull her out of the suit, but this rips most the skin on her shoulder off. Charles looks sick, but Susan writes, “It’s okay. Can’t feel it” to calm him down. This makes him panic even more and he insists on taking her to the hospital, but she repeats, “I’m dying idiot”. Charles at this point is at a loss on what to do, so Susan, being afraid to die alone, asks him to just stay. She doesn’t know how long she has left but is fine spending her last moments with one of the few people she considers a friend. As they’re “talking”, a few more pieces of information are revealed. Charles says that it’s been two weeks since Susan went missing and says that Cyberfun Tech has been threatening to cut off its deal with BSI because of her disappearance, which surprises Susan because she assumed nobody missed her. Susan talks about how she was trying to get out but couldn’t. Charles feels awful that he didn’t find her sooner but before he can really wallow in the tragedy of this situation, Susan sees Bon right behind him. With the very last of her strength, Susan points at Bon, which gives Charles a head start to escape. In her final moments, Susan watches Bon give chase and hopes that Charles makes it out alive.

[sarahsmileslikesarahd0esntcare]

A Poet Could Not But Be Gay — part 2

Part 1

Pairing: college!au Ellie Williams x f!reader

summary: You and Ellie text after you like her post and see each other in class again. You talk to each other, slowly growing closer.

word count: 2.1k

warnings: mutual pining, reader has no rizz, anxiety, English class

a/n: M (minors and men) DNI, please! Y'all I can't believe you guys gave me 34 notes on my first-ever fic!!! I'm literally on top of the world and it really motivated me to write another chapter so here it is!! 😁

-------------------------------------

Ellie Williams: Hey stalker (;

You were frozen. Your breath had caught in your throat and you felt your entire body burning up as though you'd throw up at any second. Your phone screen had gone black by then and you only had time to blink before another notification came in.

Ellie Williams added you as a friend.

Finally, you were able to breathe. What the fuck is happening!? you thought. She has to be playing some kind of prank on me 'cause no one should be this cool about a random girl like a — how old was it? 5-week-old picture!

You decided that the best thing to do was to respond. She already knew you were online and you would only look more guilty if you ignored her. Ellie had caught you red-handed, sure, but she didn't need to know why you were looking her up. You started typing, probably taking way longer than you should to write a simple text.

you: hey! sorry i was just struggling with the homework and youre the only person i knew from that class so i looked you up

you: how are you handling the last minute assignment she sent us?

Really? A double text seconds after I was caught stalking her? I'm fucking dead. Every second that passed by felt like an hour. You were biting your nails, staring at the screen impatiently. She hadn't even seen it yet and you felt like she was judging you through the phone. After one minute, she opened the chat and started typing. Looking at those three taunting dots, you couldn't help but imagine all the texts she could be writing. Nightmarish thoughts were flying through your brain when her text finally appeared.

Ellie Williams: Oh fuck I hadn't even seen that email! What kind of psychopath of a teacher sends an assignment at 6pm?

You let out a relieved sigh, thankful she hadn't asked any questions regarding your lie. Your shaking thumbs started typing but you received another text.

Ellie Williams: And who even has a favourite poem to write 500 words about

Ellie Williams: Well you definitely do

You had to read that twice. She remembers about my poem. Your small smile grew into a grin, and the little exhale from your nose grew into a fit of giggles. You rolled onto your back before remembering you had to answer her.

you: im glad i was able to tell you about the assignment! and yeah i have a favourite poem and i absolutely LOVE telling people about it but i know how scatterbrained i can be so idk if ill be able to make sense

The two of you texted back and forth for a few minutes but your shyness held you back and your conversation eventually dwindled. After several minutes of radio silence on both ends, your phone vibrated again.

Ellie Williams: Well I'm gonna start writing that paper but I'll see you on Wednesday!

you: good luck with that!

you: cant wait to see you again :)

You held your breath, frightened by your boldness.

Ellie Williams: Don't miss me too much (;

You honestly thought you could have died at that moment. And there was that winking face again. You couldn't believe your clumsy mistake had led you to have an actual conversation! Outside of school! Sure it was mainly about your shared class but now it felt more personal. She wasn't just "Ellie, the hot girl from my poetry class" anymore. She was Ellie Williams, the charming girl you'd met in class and befriended and fell in love with and moved in with and married and — ok now. I shouldn't get ahead of myself. I don't even know her favourite colour yet. I don't even know if she likes girls, let alone me!

You decided that the best thing for you to do now was to focus on your assignment. It wouldn't take very long but at least it would keep your mind occupied for a little while.

Though the poem was about the beauty of nature and all it has to offer, you couldn't help but relate every verse to Ellie.

"they / Out-did the sparkling waves in glee" Ellie outdoes everyone and everything. There was not a single thing you could think of that you would rather look at than Ellie. There was no sound you'd rather hear than her laugh and no word you'd rather read than hers. I'm so fucking gay, it's ridiculous, you thought.

Some verses you felt rather poetic about, while others felt like they were describing the slight gay panic you'd had upon first seeing her, "I gazed — and gazed — but little thought". That's exactly how you'd felt. You'd stared at her sheer beauty and focused on nothing but her. The only thing you could remember from your time staring at her was the warmth that had formed in your belly and the tingling in your face.

You had known this girl for barely 8 hours and you could already see her in everything. Fuck, this is gonna hurt.

-------------------------------------

Tuesday was somewhat uneventful. You'd been awoken by your alarm once again and had rolled over to check your phone. You were barely awake when you saw that Ellie had changed your name on messenger to "y/n🌸". Has she been thinking about me? you thought with a grin plastered to your face. Before you had time to overthink, you quickly changed her name to "Ellie 😉".

Neither of you texted the other again until Wednesday. It was a cool and cloudy day meaning everything had grey undertones and you refused to let yourself darken because of some stupid clouds. That's why you chose to wear your long sleeve, bright yellow shirt underneath short, green overalls.

The sky might be grey and sad but I'm looking like a ray of fucking sunshine! you told yourself in the mirror. The colour you wore made you feel invincible, as though you could conquer the world and make it bright again.

Eventually, after an interminable lecture, you were sat at your seat in your and Ellie's shared class, awaiting the girl herself. To busy yourself, you started taking out your books and laptop, putting your pens neatly out onto your side of the desk. While you were distracted, Ellie walked into the class.

Ellie's thoughts

Ellie's mind was racing, trying to figure out what to say to you when she saw you. She knew she would say hi; that was a given. But what then? She didn't want to just be an acquaintance to you. She wanted to be on your mind as much as you were on hers, which was constantly. Dreams of you consumed her nights which she loved until she woke up and realized you had barely talked to each other.

When she walked into the classroom, she nearly froze in the doorframe. Of course, she thought, on a gross day like this, she has to look like a ray of fucking sunshine. It was as though you were trying to make her fall head over heels for you.

When she started walking normally again, your head popped up and a genuine smile graced your lips. Ellie felt like the Earth had stopped spinning and smiled back with false confidence. She sat down next to you and told you her scripted, "Hi," in her usual, honeyed voice, adding an improvised, "how you doing?", proud she hadn't stumbled over her words.

"Hi," you answered, voice quieter than hers, "I'm doing pretty good. I actually finished the assignment on time, so the semester's off to a good start!" you said with a laugh.

Ellie laughed back, happy you had initiated a topic so she would get to keep talking with you. "Wow! Three whole days in and no late assignments yet! I'm extremely impressed." she replied, the glee evident in her tone.

You giggled and said, "You should be!"

There was a beat of silence and she was scared you had run your conversation to its course before it had even started. Then you surprised her by asking, "How have you been?"

She looked up at you, taking a few seconds to admire every line and curve in your face. "Oh, you know," she said, "I've been busier now that school started up again but I've been good." She paused for a second and continued, "I haven't been too busy to figure it out though."

A smile crept onto your face and she thanked her lucky stars that she'd kept talking. "Figure what out?" you asked.

With slightly shaking hands she hoped you wouldn't notice, she reached out to your arm and pushed up the sleeve of your shirt to reveal the tattoo you'd shown her. "This," she said looking back up, her eyes boring into yours, "It's Wordsworth right?" You nod and she goes on, "That's a sick name for a poet. I read the poem and I have to say, you've got some good taste, pretty girl." The name just slipped out of her mouth. Her eyes widened and she noticed your smile falter. She pulled away from your arm.

She cleared her throat, trying to regain her composure but you spoke before she could, "I feel like with a name like that, he couldn't really go into any other profession, you know." you laughed dryly, clearly trying to ease the tension.

She laughed the same dry laugh and let out a quiet, "Yeah, he had to go into writing."

Luckily, your awkward moment only lasted a short time and Ellie was saved from any further embarrassment as your professor began her lecture.

About 30 minutes into the lecture, Ellie was flipping the pages of her textbook like crazy, trying to find the poem the class was discussing. She figured you had noticed her struggling because you tapped her on the arm and whispered the page number. She thanked you and started flipping to that page. In doing so, however, a page managed to slice through her skin, causing her to flinch and immediately suck on her cut.

She was cursing the paper when you tapped her arm again. She turned to you, finger still between her lips. You gave her a small smile and lifted something in your hand, "Do you need a bandaid?" you whispered. How could she say no when you were looking at her like that, big doe eyes full of concern.

She took her finger out of her mouth and agreed with a low, "Sure". Before she could do anything else, you grabbed her hand and wrapped the bandaid around her injured finger. Ellie could only stare at you, marveling at the care you gave to such a minor cut. "Thanks, y/n" she whispered. She thought she may have caught a glimpse of a blush on your cheeks but you had turned your head too quickly for her to tell for sure.

When she picked up her pen, she got her first good look at what you'd wrapped around her finger and laughed to herself. Of fucking course this personified beam of sunlight would carry around flower bandaids. I'm never taking this off. she thought as she admired her finger.

Back to your thoughts

You were looking up front but your mind was nowhere near whatever subject the professor was talking about. I touched Ellie! you though. Not the other way around! I touched her arm and then her hand! I'm gonna pass out. You were ecstatic, to say the least. You couldn't wait to call Taylor and tell her everything that happened during this second class with Ellie.

Soon enough, the class ended and you started packing your books. You got up, still giddy from excitement, and got ready to say goodbye to Ellie. She stood up after a few moments and spoke first, "So I was thinking," she said, her usual confidence seemingly vanished, "if you wanted to study or do assignments for this class, I'm free in the afternoon on Thursdays. We could meet in the library if you want. Or not even necessarily for this class, like, we could study for any class together if that was something you were interested in."

You gave her a quick open-mouthed smile. "Yeah!" you beamed, "Yeah that definitely sounds good. I know a secret spot in the library nobody ever goes to so we won't even need to worry about other people."

"Sounds great. I'll see you tomorrow then."

You both hesitated a little before moving to leave the classroom, and then again in the hallway, not sure of where the other was going. Seemingly amused by this, judging by the smirk on her face, Ellie put her hand on the small of your back, guided you in the direction you'd been headed in, and walked backward in the opposite direction.

"Bye, pretty girl!"

-------------------------------------

Part 3

a/n: I got a little carried away in this one... Did you see how much touching there was! Whoo, that was borderline smut! But I told you there would be more talking! Also, I am obsessed with Romantic poetry, specifically William Wordsworth so sorry if there was too much of him in this chapter but I really love his work! You guys should all read "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud". It's a really short poem that may or may not have made me shed a tear. Anyway, leave any ideas you have for this story in the comments! I can't wait to see what you think!!

ps: lemme know if you wanna get tagged in the next one!

tags: @lonelyfooryouonly

[merionettes]

rubicon ask!!

first off I'm so so delighted that I picked up FE3H last summer and that it led me to finding your writing & especially this fic. what an amazing experience, what a treat with every update, I have all these fun memories now of places I was when I got the update email (and screamed internally every time). a little collection of sense memories colored in.

as for the actual question: very curious about your process. did you have an outline going in? I have to imagine yes (or else you're braver than black friday shoppers). how did you go about structuring this, ie did you have a series of Moments in your head that you wrote around and connected, or did you try to build scenes to fit the arcs you had in mind, or a mix of the two? anything and everything you want to share, I'm 🤲

you're killing me!!! man, thanks so much, seriously. 

as for the actual question, indeed. hahaha. ha. i delayed answering this for so long because it kept devolving into an essay about the emotional experience of writing a novel for the first time. well i give up. this is now two posts. one is the actual answer to your question, only ten times longer than it needs to be. the other is an essay about the emotional experience of writing a novel for the first time. so… caveat lector. 

first part under the cut. ← not kidding about the caveat!!!!!!

i've talked a little about the process before, so i'll piggyback on that post and dig a little more into the differences between the original idea and the finished product, including spoilers i couldn't get into when i'd only posted 55k. ("only." god.)

technically this did start with an outline. technically because at the time i was brand-new to fe3h and hadn't written anything but a few friend-ficlets in about 8 years. thought "skating au!!", spent a fevered weekend outlining all the major scenes, started in on the writing, and…. very quickly realized that i was nowhere near competent enough to actually. write it. "intensely frustrating" does not even scratch the surface, lmao, of what it felt like to have this thing in my head and only be able to produce what felt like the worst clumsiest tritest version of it. very apropos for skating, actually. 

looking back on that outline, it had almost nothing to do with the finished product, especially on felix's side. it didn't have the nationals flounce, the timeskip, training in vancouver, the lake, the nhk trophy sports anime climax, the backstory reveal meltdown. (it did have the redemptive healing free skate.) what, critically, it did have was sylvain's personal arc—burned out, desperate to quit, wants to go to college. it ended at exactly the same place as the actual story, with sylvain and dorothea's final skate together. the last line was one of the earliest things i wrote. 

in other words, even though almost everything between the first and last scene changed WILDLY in the process of writing, i always knew exactly what i was working towards and that was invaluable. 

insert two year timeskip here! during which i would occasionally reopen the skating doc, take a stab at another scene, feel this ominous sense of foreboding, and give up lol. you can thank the 2022 winter olympics for making me get serious, specifically 1) yuzuru hanyu going out in a blaze of bittersweet doomed quad axel glory 2) shoma uno losing to some eighteen year old. i believe my exact words were (consults notes) "anyway time to go back to my fic where i control the narrative and i decide who wins." idk what made this attempt different than any of the others—right time, right inspiration, right circumstances—but this time it caught fire. in uh. in a big way. 

so that's when i wrote what i refer to in that post as a skeleton draft and what i've since come to think of as a storyboard on steroids. this is when felix's arc really took shape, beyond "he is sad… he is mad… he is perfectly positioned to see right through sylvain." the fallout from nationals crystallizing, in particular, was one of the things that snapped felix into place and helped determine the tone and focus of the story overall. (that initial outline had much more of a romcom/classic fwb-to-lovers feel.)

the other thing that did this, of course, was sylvain's narrative voice. when i committed to "burnout who is controlling every single word of every thought to avoid admitting that he is burned out" was when this story became what it is. the voice dictated every single scene, the tone, the shape, what was revealed, what was implied, what was never making it on the page. it led me places i didn't anticipate. it made the cuts for me! cute scene you've got in that outline lol sylvain would never. 

i see past me in that post dancing around the length, lmao. well the ""storyboard"", the skeleton, whatever you want to call it, was over 100k. and yet even then, EVEN WITH 100K ON PAPER, there was still so much i had no fucking clue was coming! felix pushing sylvain on what he wants was there, but sylvain never explained what happened. my oc jm gautier (thanks for nothing, three hopes!!!) was an ominous presence, but he wasn't the final boss. there was no memory of the first time sylvain and dorothea met. (<- insane.) there was no glenn skate. i had to write to discover all of that.

so like—i cannot emphasize how much i grew as a writer through the experience of writing this story. prose, structure, character arcs, thematic arcs. i was harder on myself than i've ever been. and if i hadn't had that end goal in sight i don't know if i would have made it through all those iterations—storyboarding, drafting, rewriting, editing. wanting to deliver that moment powered me through any amount of frustration/exhaustion/bewilderment.

wow this post sounds almost normal. nothing about this experience was normal. which is why you're getting a part 2.

[starlightingsss]

sparks fly / 1

sparks flew as she smiled. 2

haymitch x reader fic , eeekkkk i love him smmm !! escort is unnamed here bcs idk who was before effie, literally shitting on and slandering the district partner sooo !! long ass part btwww

as they gathered for the reaping - her last reaping - anxiety seemed to buzz in the air. she was 18, turning 19 in a few days, unlucky really. with her birthday falling on the week after the reaping, she was probably the oldest in there. the girls were dressed in their best dresses, she saw some really pretty ones but she still felt hers was the best. her dress was handstitched and embroidered by her, a blue satin dress with lace and embroidered flowers. the dress took her days, considering how delicate the satin was and how detailed the flowers were.

on this day, she was truly beautiful. the sun shone into her beautiful (e/c) eyes that seemed to glow at that moment, with the deep colors swirling and the little chunks of gold that seemed to just float. the sun shone on her (s/c) skin, reflecting off of it as if there was glitter. her features fitting themselves perfectly and beautifully as she walked in the street, people waved at the familiar beauty who grew up around them. as she walked hand in hand with her little sister to the reaping area, along with dozens of other kids.

they filed into the stands as she looked around admiring people's dresses, she saw a very pretty white sundress with puffed out sleeves and a woman with flowers braided into her hair.

as everyone stood there in anticipation, waiting for everyone to finish flowing into the large auditorium-like area.

"y/n .. what if its me this year?" liriel said, as her eyes filled with tears.

"sweet girl if they pull your name i'll volunteer." the woman said this without hesitation, knowing that the moment she did hear her name - or if she heard a name of a 12 year old - her arm would go up and the "magic" words would slip out of her mouth, sending her to her near death.

she knew that liriel wouldn't want her to volunteer but she knew she had a better chance at surviving in the arena either way. their chances were both slim but the woman was smart and resourceful, her body never really needed much food so it would never be an issue. her knowledge of poisons and herbal medicine was almost guaranteed to be unmatched amongst the tributes today, she knew how to make the most of the most simple things and that would probably save her life in the arena. she was small and fast, her frame probably letting her fit into many hiding spaces and holes, light enough to be able to scale the tallest trees.

as she was lost in her own thoughts, the escort on the stage started her speech, just some stuff about the hunger games. nothing important, but she was listening. waiting for the names to be called. she had this odd feeling in her gut, not something she had felt before but it wasn't dread. it wasn't pleasant either, it seemed to be acceptance. the woman had been able to put a smile onto her face for the very first time at a reaping, unsure of why. though this would be silly , she seemed to know her fate was already decided. she was going to be in the games this year.

and she was right, as the escorts shrill voice called out "y/n l/n", her little sisters tears and sobs filled her ears but still - she couldn't help but smile. this feeling of euphoria filling her senses and mind, and the smile on her face growing as she moved through the rows with "sorry"s and "excuse me"s, her escort was gorgeous, and the drunk stumbling on stage was even more so gorgeous, his blue eyes captivating, his rough beard adding this charm to his face. his features fit beautifully together, almost as beautiful as hers. she couldn't hear anything except the "cheers" of the district, a smile continuing to light up her pretty features as she imagined what it would be like in the capital.

the feeling she was feeling could only be described as euphoria, the freedom and happiness she felt unmatched to anything she felt in her life. her vision finally unclouded as she saw the world for its magnificent beauty. she gracefully walked onto stage, almost floating. she wasn't sure what this high she was feeling was but it was beautiful, and it made her feel more beautiful than she already was.

as she reached the stage, she shook hands with the escort, letting out a compliment directed to her hair. the escort smiled and thanked the girl, before turning and drawing a boy from the reaping bowl now.

the name basil thornehawk was boomed out into the mic, the ugly man making his way up to the stage. around the same age as y/n, but nowhere near as beautiful. his features contrasted themselves making him look like something in between a troll and an ogre. the girl herself wasn't tall but that man was short and disgusting. he looked like the kind of man who could only read at a 3rd grade level - and considering the general disregard for education in their district, saying 3rd grade was generous. but it was ok, she was gorgeous enough for both of them.

as they were led to the justice building, the say bye to their loved ones and board the train - her sister came in.

"y-y/n please you can't go .. please i need you .. i cant live by myself .. i- i don't know anything" she sobbed this out, as she hugged her sisters chest.

"awh it's ok, it doesn't really matter hon, you'll be fine, ok? i'll ask haymitch to make sure you're not starving n everything n it'll be finee" she said this as she patted the young girls head, oddly relaxed and optimistic in the face of this situation.

as the peacemakers tore the girl out of her arms, she seemed to still be smiling. the one on the left was a redhead, locks of his long hair sticking out of his mask, you could tell he had a fitter physique, he probably hot. the one on the left though, seemed older. he had a beer belly and reminded her of the men in the bar, she believes she's seen him before. he was quite handsome without his mask. she went with them willingly, following them down to the train station.

once she boarded the train, she examined the compartments. with luxury surrounding her, she felt like a princess.. a queen even. as she looked around, she saw the mahogany tables, the gold lined ceilings, the chandeliers, the fancy tiles on the roof, heads of animals hung on wall, porcelain vases with the prettiest designs on them, even a porcelain doll was on display. that doll something she was commonly associated with, "you look like a porcelain doll .. you're just gorgeous", a common comment she received. people calling her doll and dollface was something she was used to. the woman seemed to stare at the compartment in awe, as she saw even the display of liquor seemed to be held in crystal bottles. a little princess surrounded in luxury being sent to her imminent death, reminding her deeply of the story of marie antoinette, the magnificent and excessive former queen of france - the last queen of france, her spending having thrown the country off the rails.

the smile still lighting her face as she was forced to stand next to her dreadfully hideous district partner. she remembered him from the district when she waitressed in the bars and after her little "stunt" (his words) in the alley with the other even more dreadful man, he had mocked her for quitting her job. mocked her for how she did her hair and makeup, how she fiddled with the hem of her dress, how she loved flowers and indulged herself with naps in the meadow, he mocked her for her figure, mocked her for her face. he laughed at her eyes, how they seemed to be too deep, how he laughed at her when she was upset at attention from crude men, how he told her she was asking for it, telling her she was a whore and a slut. the man hated her deep in his soul, and she knew exactly why. as a waitress, she took tips, and the boy's dad was one of the more regular people at the bar. he tipped big, always giving her hundreds. too big for the people in the seam, where he lived. his dad had been giving away his salary to her, and his wife found out, causing her to demand a divorce. for splitting his parents, he always blamed her.

she sat down with a smile on her face, a little too close to her district partner for her own good, but she was happy. in that moment and in that hour, she was incomparably happy. she would get to remeet the man she had been lusting after for years, her savior and now mentor. maybe he would get the chance to save her again and maybe she could actually help him this time. her thoughts wandered as she looked into empty space dreamily, a smile on her face.

"stupid bitch" was something she heard from her district partner, the words not reaching her or bothering her. she was in her own little world, dreaming more than she should be able to in her pretty little head.

she was quickly snapped out of it, when her escort spoke.

"so pretty ! dear god you could be a model in the capitol ... i'm so excited to see what they do with you this year, darling!" her escort squeaked out, admiring the woman who seemed lost in her own head.

the woman was snapped out of her daydreaming state as she held the smile on her face, "you really think so? ive always wanted to be a model!", the excitement evident in her voice, beauty truly oozing out of her pores, as she seemed to glow.

"oh dear yes! those eyes ... that body .. those legs, honey! you could become a swimsuit model .. or maybe high fashion with that face .. so beautiful , unforgettable .. perfect." her escort seemed to be truly entranced with her, "i really hope they don't put you in those dreadful coal mining outfits again .. would really dull your shine!"

"oh those ... yea they suck but i remember once i saw this really pretty girl and she absolutely rocked it" the woman said this with such a smile on her face, as she seemed to dream.

"you're perfect! the perfect tribute! even when i was on stage .. i saw you in the crowd and i just thought 'oh my god..'! so happy i picked you this year, perfect victor." the escort seemed to be delighted. "now i wonder where abernathy is .. let me go check the bar car! you deserve to meet your mentor!"

as her escort scurried off, the man next to her tsked.

"jesus everyones obsessed with you, cant you just be normal for once?." his annoyance obvious in his words, as if his words weren't harsh enough.

the woman just rolled her eyes, not wanting to deal with the aggressive man's anger.

she pulled out a little flip mirror, as she checked her face. smudging out her eyeliner a little, making it look like a more cat-eyed look in opposition to what she had before. she pinched her lips and cheeks, refreshing the reddish tint that was there this morning. she ran her fingers through her hair, taming it.

she didnt expect it as the man grabbed her mirror, smashing it on the floor - right as the mentor and escort walked in.

this enraged the woman - that mirror was expensive.

"why the hell would you do that!" she hissed out, her voice pitching up in anger. she let out a few "ughh"s as she examined her now shattered mirror.

"sweetheart ..." said a familiarly grumpy voice, haymitch abernathy. she perked up as she stood and went in front of the man, squeaking out an excited "hi!" as she hugged him.

he was shocked by her hug, he had already gone through multiple glasses of the amber liquor in his cup and seemed too drunk to deal with this burst of affection, so he just ignored her.

he grumbled, "someones excited..", as he moved past her sitting down in her previous spot, next to her troll faced district partner.

she followed him and sat down directly across from him, with wide eyes as she seemed to genuinely glow in his presence.

he furrowed his eyebrows as he saw the doe eyed girl staring at him like he was everything, " if i didnt know better , i'd say you're hopelessly in love with me", he said this, chuckling at his own joke, taking another sip of his alcohol. she continue looking at him like she was utterly mesmerized by just his rough movements and his scruffy face.

the woman just let out a little giggle at that, unsure what to say.

he chuckled again as he said, "well i don't think i'm gonna make any progress with her today .. so, how about you." he said this, prying his attention away from the lovestruck beauty sitting across from him. to her distaste, he was looking at the absolutely hideous short gremlin that broke her mirror.

the man seemed to be caught off guard, in the middle of his probably really mean thoughts about the prettiest girl he'd literally ever seen, "huh?"

"jesus, we really have no luck with our tributes this year." haymitch said this, rolling his eyes, "what questions do you have for me?"

"oh um i- i don't know? i guess .. how did you win your games?" the stupid troll of a man replied, even she could've come up with a better response than that.

"was just smart", haymitch said this, shrugging off the question, clearly unpleased with it. "sweetheart, how about you go refill my drink for me?", as he directed his attention back to her.

she let out an "oh!" before she grabbed his glass, got up and walked over to the bar cart, "whiskey on the rocks right?", her voice ringing out of the room.

"whatever you want as long as its hard, hon" was his reply to her, as he looked back to her district partner as she got him a drink.

"i-is there any like general advice for the arena?" the younger man asked, still completely befuddled on what to ask his mentor.

"don't start a fire, don't go to the cornucopia, don't mess with the careers, find shelter and water, food won't matter as much" haymitch said this, as he saw the girl walk back into the compartment, a smile on her face, as she held his glass in one hand with a bottle of whiskey in the other. he let out a "thank you, sweetheart" as he flashed her a smile. she sat down, as he looked back at her district partner, "anything else?"

"whats the best shelter you could find in the games?" the woman said, the question seeming to dawn on her during that moment.

"finally a decent question.." he said this sitting up, and sipping from his drink as he saw the two tributes anticipating an answer, "either find high ground or somewhere underground, avoid bein out in the open." he hesitated a little before continuing this part, "you ..", he said as he pointed a finger at the girl, "you're gonna stand out like a sore thumb in whatever arena they put you in, sweetheart .. too pretty for your own good. make sure you find somewhere out of sight, now.. it's getting quite late, you two are gonna need your energy for tomorrow." he said this, as he stood up, stumbling a little. the girl immediately followed his movements, supporting the drunk man.

"don't have to .. 'm not that drunk", he said this.

"its fine, i wanna help you" she said this, still holding him. her response drew out a chuckle from his mouth.

as they walked to his room, the woman seemed to be ecstatic about being able to "help" haymitch like this, as they arrived to the room. "you can go now, hon." he said as she tried to follow him into his room.

"mm i'll go later, after you fall asleep n everything" she said, a little too eager

"sweetheart , i have to shower first, we'll be stuck together for most of tomorrow" he grumbled, as he pinched her cheek. she frowned in an exaggerated way, making a face at him.

"at least let me walk you inside?" she said, as a smile bloomed onto her face.

"how could i say no to a face like that?" he drawled, a little sarcastic as he did let her lead him into his room where he stumbled into his shower by himself.

as he didn't hear her leaving, he called out a wary "hon i know you're still there.", and her response to that was a squeak as she was caught off guard from being called out, as she walked out of his room. he undressed as he stepped into his shower, wondering why she seemed so attached to him .. not that he minded. she was gorgeous but he also acknowledged he was letting his guard down with her a little too fast, though he wasn't sure how he could not do that ... the prettiest girl he'd ever met seemed to be running around to try and tend to his every need, pouring his liquor, clinging to his arm. as he wet his sandy locks, he pondered a question. would she be able to stay alive ... could he keep her alive?

as he finished up his shower, he still peeked out of the bathroom a little cautiously, as to make sure the little minx wasn't still in his room, waiting for him to finish his shower. he dressed himself in whatever he could find, not actually going to sleep.

he went back out to the main room in their compartment, stealing bottles of whiskey from the table. he continued drinking later into the night, not actually being able to fall asleep until the later hours of the morning. the pretty girl remained on his mind, as he tried to drown out the idea of her imminent death and lack of chance in the arena. she was gorgeous but she definitely didn't look very strong. he didn't think she was a fighter, and he wasn't quite sure what she was. definitely gorgeous, but still, he didn't know how her little brain worked .. usually he could see the gears turning in someone's head as they were about to think up a question or something for him, but for her there was nothing, she seemed - in the nicest way possible - stupid. he looked into her eyes and there didn't seem to be a single thought floating around her head sometimes, but he knew there was something. he knew she wasn't stupid, she survived. he knew of her story, her parents, her sister, her history. he knew of how she was forced into exploiting men for a living, and he knew she could do it well, with the prettiest face and prettiest body he had seen, her voice a soft melody that seemed to bless the ears of whoever heard it, her gentle touch and her perfectly timed words. he knew she wasn't a woman who let herself be distressed, but a woman who still preferred to not get her hands dirty - not a killer.

her magnetism and how genuinely attractive she was would surely get her sponsors, just seeing her face would make men throw money at her. she knew how to speak, how to hold herself, and how to completely capture an audience. she without a doubt knew her cards and she knew how to play them, but being beautiful wouldn't win her the hunger games.

he eventually fell asleep, a light sleep, plagued by nightmares.

eventually, she and haymitch were the first ones awake.

she had set the table, taking a job from the avox, and she did it well and happily. haymitch had walked out in the middle of it, watching her as she worked, she still had a smile on her face. he wasn't sure what she was smiling about but her smile was pretty - and very contagious. after a few minutes, she realized he was there, greeting him with a "hi! good morning, the table's almost set so you can eat!"

once she finished up with setting the table, they both sat down. the avox served food, placing it down on the table. he saw she was hesitant to take it, and he asked, "not hungry?"

"oh um no, not really .. we never really had much to eat at home so im kinda just accustomed to not eating much, you know how that is?" she said, with her seemingly eternal smile as she sipped her orange juice.

"most of the kids are excited to eat capitol food." he said to her, as he put marmalade on his toast.

"well i mean it does look pretty good, i just dont really feel like eating it." she said, trying to "justify" herself.

"dont have to explain anything to me, sweetheart, i just think you should try to eat a little, gonna need energy for today." he said, as he bit into his toast. the woman who in contrast hadn't eaten anything, and looked a little uncomfortable at the table. he wondered if it was him but he also saw a change in her demeanor from yesterday.

she swallowed, as she barely said, "thank you for caring .. i guess i'll have some ..." she hesitated as she scanned the table, trying to decide what she wanted some of, "i'll just take a piece of ham!", she exclaimed this as she did pick a piece, eating a bit.

haymitch furrowed his eyebrows a little, her behavior and demeanor strange at the moment. but he decided just to ignore it, focusing on his toast.

"haymitch?" she called his name out of nowhere, catching his attention, "what are we gonna do today? we should be getting off right?"

he swallowed his mouthful of toast, "they'll just go clean you up a bit, trim your hair and everything then they'll send you off to your stylists for the parade.. don't worry about it too much, it'll just be some cosmetic things, i told them not to mess with your hair."

"oh thank god. i swear i would've knocked someone out if they tried to cut my hair," she joked, laughing awkwardly.

he smiled at her, wiping some jam off his beard before sipping his "tea", and continuing to eat his toast. "haven't touched your ham", he made the observation flustering the girl a little.

"oh well i mean i just, i guess i'm just not really hungry at all" she said, a smile he could tell she was forcing.

"are you like this back in the district too or is it just with capital food?" he joked, as he was getting drunk.

"i've never really been fond of eating, sometimes i forget .. doesn't really matter though", she said this smiling at him again. as her attention was directed towards her district partner coming out of his room. she didn't like basil - at all - but he was still her partner, and she was still grateful for him relieving the building tension in the room. haymitch didn't acknowledge the boy as he sat down, the girl just smiled at him.

he quickly scooped food onto his plate, a huge pile of eggs, bacon, and toast. she was still just sitting there watching them eat, while sipping on her orange juice.

no one really made conversation, up until basil asked another question about the games, " why shouldn't i start a fire?" he said, contradicting what haymitch had told them the night before.

"you shouldn't start a fire because the smoke is gonna give away your location." haymitch replied unhappily with a little bit of annoyance in his tone, trying to enjoy his toast and not make conversation with the other man.

"well what if i'm cold?" the idiot responded, stuffing his face with his mountain of food.

"if you're cold, you can deal with it. if you're dead, you'll be even colder." haymitch snapped, his tone insinuating he was done with the conversation.

"well i'm just saying i mean , dont you need a fire to cook food and keep warm?" basil asked, not seeming to understand what haymitch's tone was pointing to.

"fires make smoke and smoke tells people where you are, unless you're allied with the whole fucking arena, you're gonna get hunted down in the first five minutes." haymitch snapped, taking a long sip of his "tea".

"but what about food?" basil asked, continuing to eat his pile of eggs and meat.

"forage? you forage. get berries, leaves, whatever you can find that's edible?" haymitch growled, his tone making fun of the mans idiocy, "sweetheart.." he called, as he turned to her, "could you fill this with something?"

"oh of course," she said with a smile, having been watching the exchange between the man and her mentor. she took the cup and walked away, into the bar car to get him a drink. she'd only seen him drink whiskey but she couldn't find any so she just filled the cup with vodka instead, the clear liquor reflecting her face for just a second.

"here.. i couldn't find any whiskey so i just got vodka." her tone was a little apologetic, not wanting to irritate the man anymore.

"its fine, gorgeous, i don't mind either." he mused, smiling at her for just a second before resuming his attention on the younger man.

"what if we don't know how to forage?" her district partner asked after the exchange between the mentor and the lady was finished.

"what if you don't know how to forage, i know she does." he said, "her dandelion marmalade is probably one of the best things i've tasted, especially with her lavender sourdough bread and almond milk."

she smiled at how he remembered the exact contents of the little thank you basket she gifted him, "thank you..", she mumbled, as a blush grew on her cheeks.

"well, it doesn't matter how good she is at foraging if she can't even stand up without almost passing out .. cant even stop starving herself in the capital" basil spat out as if the mention of her was something disgusting.

"excuse me?" she said, the anger evident on her face.

"you heard me." he scowled.

the glar she shot at the man was a look of offense as she looked over to haymitch to see if he was gonna do anything, only to find haymitch looking down and focusing on his toast - not wanting any bit of her anger.

the woman sat still for a second, taking in the situation, trying to imagine the outcome of what she was about to do.

as she realized, haymitch wouldn't lay a hand on her, and basil wouldn't fight back immediately, she was safe to do what she wanted.

and with that, she leaned across the table, her fist charging at the boys nose, making contact almost immediately- everything happening too fast for anyone to react. she herself, seemed shocked at what she had done, hearing a loud snap that she knew wasn't her first. she had broken his nose.

"jesus.." haymitch grumbled, as he realized what happened. he sat up and looked over at the boy, "ehh your nose is probably broken .. you'll be fine.", still generally not caring about it.

haymitch had partially expected her to do something, not that but something.

"well .. at least we know you can throw a punch." he remarked, filing the silence as basil whimpered and she looked at him with wide eyes - regret mixed with her tears.

"gotta be kidding me.." he scowled, seeing her tears fill her eyes, he sighed as he told her it was fine as her tears fell.

after a few minutes or so, after she stopped crying and basil stopped bleeding, haymitch broke the silence again.

"gonna need a refill, sweetheart", he managed to deliver, with a hicupp.

"of course.. " she sniffled, as regret seemed to etch her face.

he just waved her off, he didn't really blame her for her violent outburst, to be fair - if he didn't know better, and if he was a little younger, and he heard the man make that comment to her, it would've been haymitch launching himself across the table instead of the woman.

she came back with a refill of his drink, which he took a long sip from.

"now. you two are going to stop arguing, stop fighting, and let me eat my toast in peace. you-" he scowled this as he pointed at basil, "stop whining, and you-" he said, pointing at her. he hesitated before speaking, as if trying to think of something to tell her to do before he seemed to just give up, not being able to find a criticism for her "fix the crying thing, they'll destroy you in the arena if you're always sniffling like that."

haymitch had only a few minutes to finish his toast, because right as he did, their escort squealed out a "we're almost there! thats the capitol!", as she got up to look out the window, pointing it out.

the younger woman raced to the window to see, as her tears evaporated and the smile that never seemed to leave her face grew wider. as they passed through a tunnel and ended up in the train station, she saw hundreds of capitol citizens waiting for tribute trains.

the woman was in her own little world and she waved, blowing kisses and smiling at the citizens, her beauty causing them to go haywire with cheers they could hear even in the compartment, as people seemed to adore her, she smiled before blowing one final kiss and ducking under the window. a look in her eyes like she had just achieved every single dream in her world as she slumped on the sofa, she was beaming. euphoria evident on her face, she sat up to see haymitch with a smile just like hers (thought a bit of annoyance still etched on his face over the very unpeaceful breakfast he just had), her district partner with a look of hatred and disgust on his face, and her escort beaming just like her.

"really hope you win this year ! too pretty to die .." her escort muttered, as the train skidded to a stop.

they all stood up as she shuffled over to haymitch's side, clinging onto the arm that didn't have a drink in his hand.

haymitch huffed again, a little annoyed but not too upset. "you two are gonna be escorted to 2 different cars with your stylists, they'll work on your hair and stuff, then you'll be shipped off to clothing for the tribute parade later tonight."

"mm.. really sorry for what happened.." the woman nodded, seemingly once again looking up at him like a wide eyed baby, as if the disappearance of food and her district partner eased her.

"crowds gonna go insane if they see you coming out like this, sweetheart." he told her, ignoring her apology and taking a swig from his flask, letting out a hiccup.

she was odd when she was stressed once she was relaxed though, she was seemingly pleasant. smiles all over and seemingly overtaken by little daydreams. haymitch wanted to help her, wanted to see her walk out of the games victorious. he let his thoughts wander like that as they both exited the train, hand in hand, causing the crowd to go absolutely insane as he anticipated. he didn't make many media appearances and she was probably the prettiest tribute ever.

ummm this is around 6k words .. went a little crazy !! but i love writing for haymitch sooo

ewww u guys the personalities are so inconsistentttt mbbb

haymitch is so demeaning to her too so im planning to give them both some major character development where haymitch realizes shes not js some hot bimbo n starts respecting her cs she proves it

but then as he realizes that, she starts losing her mind as shes training / prepping where her mental state is super unstable, so shes gonna have like a psychotic break once she gets into the arena

[corruptedplaylist]

act iii: final notes

edit: 4/9/2024: added some more stuff!!! i'll put this emoji 🫧 next to the new things so u know where to scroll.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH I FINISHED MY FIRST FULL LENGTH FIC HOLD ON LEMME JUST THROW UP IN THE CORNER REAL QUICK

i am sooooooo normal rn anyways let's get into it thank u for having me on the show, mr. kimmel. i've had a raging headache all day so the content underneath each sections will be kinda short. i'll go through and add more to it once i recover but i wanted to get this up before the week got too busy!

krolia

guys…. im so sorry for the angst….. it was necessary for the plot…….

maybe it’s just me projecting but in the actual show, i kind of wish we had seen more of the emotional fallout that occurred after krolia revealed that she was keith’s mom. because let’s be real here, there’s no way that keith’s traumatized ass would just willingly accept her back into his life. he’d have questions. he’d be in disbelief. it’s hard for him to open up to others and he carries a lot of hurt from being abandoned.

it was crucial in the course of this fic to have that confrontation between krolia and keith. it's not always going to be rainbows and sunshine, and even though they both missed each other deeply, you don't just automatically connect and forget everything that's happened. even if keith hadn't gone into the foster system, he definitely would have carried a lot of anger and hurt towards krolia when she shows back up. i'm sure that things won't just be smooth sailing and they'll need to hash things out multiple times as they rebuild their relationship but that first fight was a big hurdle to get over.

if you’re curious, i have a whooollleeee backstory for what happened with krolia and why she couldn’t get back to her kid. i couldn’t really fit it into the fic but i’ll put it right here for those who are interested:

2000: krolia in the US on student visa, first year of of PhD program

krolia meets heath and they fall in love

2003: krolia gives birth to keith

2008: krolia finishes grad school/PhD program/doctoral degree and applies for a work visa 

2009: she and heath and baby keith are living their life but krolia’s parents find out and are like girl you need to come home NOW or we will disown you 

krolia’s family are really wealthy and powerful 

krolia: i’ll come back for you guys idk how but i will 

krolia goes back to the states

2009-2011: she and heath write letters but then the letters start getting intercepted by the family and eventually peters out

krolia in arranged marriage and thinks her partner forgot about her or didn’t care

meanwhile heath doesn’t know what happened to krolia but can’t do anything about it bc she’s in a diff country and he doesn’t speak korean

2011: heath and keith move to texas for job or whatever

heath tells keith all about krolia and how she loves him but can’t be there and obvi that fucks keith up bc he misses his mom but where tf is she? how does he know she loves him if she’s not even there? he's a little kid

2013: heath dies and keith is put into the system

heath has no other family members

krolia put her english name on the birth certificate and so ofc she doesn’t exist in the US

texas social services try to reach out to krolia along with some friends but letters are intercepted

2016: someone reaches out to krolia after she finally gets facebook 

friend: thinking of you. miss you. so sorry about heath

krolia: …. what the fuck about heath?

friend: uhhhhhhhh

krolia goes on rampage to her family like wtf u mean u didn’t tell me that the father of my child is dead

cousin shows up with the intercepted letters (official notice from social services, heath’s letters and pictures, keith’s little notes and drawings)

krolia starts the process of legally and financially emancipating herself from her family (she basically was Britney’d)

2017/2018: finally is free and able to get a job in the states

starts tracking down heath (they only had a forwarding address for krolia so they’re like wtf who is this bih)

at this point, keith has already met the shiroganes and changed his name

krolia is in a different state and can only do so much 

spends the next few years trying to find him, hires P.I., again keep running into blocks bc social workers and case managers are NOT going to budge on giving up keith's personal information

2023, winter break: krolia reaches out to keith through facebook but it goes into his spam since they’re not facebook friends

allura

what better allegory for sacrificing yourself to save the universe is there than graduating college? in all fairness, i felt like sticking to the notion of allura saying goodbye and leaving the group had its merit, just y’know, i wanted to take a step down from the whole dying thing. i tried to pay homage to the canon material as much as possible while also providing my own spin on things.

one thing that’s been important to me is depicting allura as a college student. sure, while i think most iterations of allura as a kind and a great leader and intelligent are great, even in modern au fics, i just wish there had been a bit more... silliness? outside of her being like the girlboss, the hell yeah supporting character or love interest or bone-tired leader, i always wonder what she would have been like if she hadn't had to save the universe and was just trying to heal on her own terms. yeah, i nerfed her parents in this universe but i tried to showcase her doing normal college things as well, like presenting at research conferences, getting a bit messy drunk, having pizza nights and group hang outs. the funny thing about grief is that life does not stop for it, so you have to just figure things out along the way.

i also didn't want to elaborate too much on her relationship with lotor. she didn't magically heal from that one conversation with lance in chapter 8 but i wanted the readers to get a taste of what was going on in her head through their dialogue. plus, it was a little moment to show how she was allowing herself to open up to other people like lance. no one woman is an island, no matter how much of a bad b!tch you are.

🫧 also, i wanted to include it somewhere but basically, keith knew allura and romelle were hooking up since chapter 14! keith caught romelle sneaking out of allura's room early one morning and he just kept it to himself because snitches get stitches.

pidge

they are so precious to me. they're an amalgamation of 2 of my closest friends, and well, me.

i always knew that pidge was going to be a super important piece in klance development. while lance and keith are great friends, i think pidge played a crucial role in bridging them together in the beginning, before the two of them had cleared up their misunderstandings and made that truce. sure, allura asked them to be on the paintball team but pidge really forced the two of them into close quarters. lance might have extended the offer to keith to hand out without pidge or he might not have. honestly, i'm not really sure. but pidge inviting keith to hang out in chapter 4 was a quiet but big moment because both keith and lance are friends with pidge and will set aside their differences long enough to tolerate each other's presence in a shared space. pidge just has #babyofthefriendgroup privileges.

🫧 i honestly think that after the main two, pidge has undergone the most growth (physically and emotionally) throughout the fic, even though they're a supporting character. we can all benefit from community and friendship but i think pidge needed it a little bit more.

🫧 i partially wrote pidge to represent my younger self, especially when i first attended college. i was scared and alone and i had never been away from home and it was a struggle to form new relationships (and figure out my gender identity. mannnnnn fuck that). it was nice to see pidge find their place and niche among the greater social fabric of college, kind of like comforting my younger self for all the loneliness and uncertainty i endured.

hunk

i love hunk so dearly. ngl, i wanted him to have a bigger arc than he did but hopefully i did a decent job at making feel more well-rounded as a supporting character. i decided to actually kind of lean into this distance in the later chapters as well, esp from lance's pov, as they both got busier. at the end of the day, though, i knew that those two would come back together. hunk is a kind and sympathetic friend and his and lance's friendship will persevere because they're good communicators. their little talk in chapter 17 was me talking to myself and to anyone else who has went through a similar thing where they find themselves drifting a little farther from a friend.

people get busy and that's okay! there will be ebbs and flows in every relationship. even though shared history is a crucial part of a friendship but it can't be the only thing that will keep it going. you need to nurture it and tend to it in order for it to keep it alive and flourishing. hunk understands this and he and lance will be just fine after their talk. hunk is probably the most emotionally intelligent person after adam in the group, and i'm glad he was there to help both lance and keith out when they needed it.

adam

this man!!!!! got i have gotten so fucking attached to adam throughout this fic. he is so dear to me. i know in chapter 10 i wrote from adam's pov and he's a goofy guy in his twenties who's just trying to be a good dad friend but somehow he ended up being a voice of reason and comfort for klance in this fic. lance misses his family a lot and i think adam can not only relate to lance with the homesickness but also lance has started to rely on him a bit like he would with his siblings.

i wanted to try my own spin on adam and keith's relationship. i've seen fics where adam and keith hate each other, don't interact much, or adam takes on a parenting role towards keith as a kid. i wanted to look at keith and adam in the context of two people who both love shiro and then grow to be good friends/surrogate brother-in-law? idk. long story short, adam is very emotionally intelligent and i think he genuinely wanted to get to know keith outside of his connection with shiro and was patient enough to coax keith out of his shell. i tried to write in small ways adam takes care of keith like giving him LactoJoys because Keith likes the taste better than Lactaids, being there for him for his panic attack, adding food to his plate. things that won't draw too much attention, because we all know how keith is about receiving acts of kindness.

i mentioned this in a comment under one of the chapters but all of the advice adam gives keith is either advice i personally received myself or something i wish i could tell my younger self. i hope those words bring you comfort as well!

shiro

i had a lot more planned for shiro but goddammit i had no fucking time or space at this panned out. it's more so klance's story than shiro's.

look, there's a small moment in chapter 18 where shiro is very pleased (and a little surprised) that keith has talked about him with krolia. it has less to do with his faith in keith and more with how he sees himself. shiro has already acknowledged that he has heavy imposter syndrome and deals with his own struggles with self image. it's just always a jolt to your system when someone (could be your own family or your partner of years) validates your relationship.

shiro loves keith very much and just wants to be the best big brother. he has such eldest child syndrome, where he tries to pretend that everything is fine even though things are actually crumbling around him. the thing is, though, you can't build intimacy— real, lasting intimacy and depth in a relationship— without being vulnerable. shiro understands that even though he wants keith to work on opening up, he has to do the same and reciprocate the actions, or else neither of them will really get anywhere and be stuck in that loop of "are you mad at me/i feel like you're hiding something from me/i don't really know who you are."

i tried writing a bit from shiro's pov but i quickly realized that that would drastically change the tone of the fic so i had to scrap it. i might post a little oneshot in the distant future with adashi, though.

keith

🫧 i've talked about this before but although i think keith grew the most as a character in the canon show, that shit was WAY too fast and off-screen. also, i know that the whole found family trope is what drew a lot of fans to voltron in the first place (like me) but is the found family in the room with us rn? i felt like they all started to fall apart or at least weren't as close as the show wanted us to believe. it felt a lot like telling with no showing. other than some occasional moments in the show, the whole #teamasfamily felt hollow.

🫧 i wanted to build on this potential found family for keith's character. he's never had a support system before and he's used to pushing people away but now he has a whole ass friend group that's ready to fight for him if he gives the word.

🫧 initially, when i was writing keith's pov and trying to get a feel for his voice and tone, i struggled a bit. keith is one of those characters that i liked and sympathized with, but getting into his head was a whole different story. i'm more of a lance kinnie but once i got the hand of keith's voice, it was a lot easier. some of my best pieces of writing are from keith's pov! i tried to be as cognizant of keith's development as much as possible as i wrote (think me having various checkpoints for his journey whereas with lance i could just coast on vibes), and i'm pleased with how far he's come.

🫧 although both keith and lance's progress can showcased through their consciousness and thoughts (like duh ur reading from their povs), i leaned into keith's behavior as a way to portray his progress a bit more than lance. things like him being more open to physical affection, not sitting on the outskirts of group dynamics and sticking to shiro, and allowing himself to collect things, which by the way:

🫧 i like the idea of keith's room, once being so empty and ghost-like, is now full of stuff, mementos of his relationships that he's built. i tried to sprinkle in some relics from past chapters (paintball flag, polaroids, ticket stubs), as well add some new tidbits, like shiro giving him a cacti and that korean cookbook!

proud of u, keith bby <3

lance and marco

no i did not just torture lance for the sake of torturing him i would never do that to my boy.

i know this is a fanfiction, but from the start, i wanted to ground this fic in reality and breathe some life into it. lance's little arc with his brother having a substance abuse problem was loosely inspired by events in my personal life.

🫧 i'm not saying that everyone goes through something as drastic as a loved one going to rehab, but as young adults, when we leave home for uni, jobs, other opportunities, etc, there's this worry that something bad will happen while we're away. and often times it does. someone gets sick, a beloved pet passes away, it's all bound to happen. your childhood becomes a thing of the past, and things that you thought would stay the same just won't.

i projected a lot of my feelings onto lance ngl, and writing him work through his own grief and guilt over not being able to be with his family when they're going through a crisis helped me process a little bit more.

although lance had a happier ending than a lot of families might get in reality, i still wanted to show lance having a support system at college and realizing that he has a second family to lean on, and people who love and support him. he doesn't have to pretend to be okay for anyone and that's okay.

black paladin lance or as close to it as i could get

it was so important for me to make lance the new captain of their paintball team, as a stand-in for the black paladin arc he could have had in the show. he’s always been a selfless guy who puts others first and really pulls up when he needs to. he deserves to be recognized for that. not only did every single one of his friends validate him, but the person he looks up to the most literally endorsed him. lance struggles with his inferiority complex and the election scene was a little feel good moment for me, personally, so that he could receive the acknowledgement he deserves, especially with his growth. he's gonna be an awesome team captain (he'll be shuffling down to shiro's room at 2am covered in hickeys and talking about paintball strategies).

wrapping up loose ends

i tried to wrap up as many loose ends as possible and give all the characters a proper send-off. originally i wanted lance and hunk to also move into the house in castle street, like repurpose the basement or something but i realized that that just wasn’t possible because most college basements don’t even have heating or like,,,, a livable arrangement.

ultimately, i think it makes sense for pidge to be the one to take up allura’s room at the house. pidge has lived a single during the academic year but they also had lance and hunk right fifty feet away so it’s not like they REALLY lived alone that year. there was also the logistics of the house having a vacant room, and as much as i would have loved to have all of voltron under the same roof (hunk and pidge sharing a room, keith and lance sharing a room), i think they would kill each other. pidge filling in the gap felt like the right move. and lance and hunk are gonna be over a lot anyways, so it’s not like much has changed in the trio's group dynamic.

🫧 what was your favorite chapter to write?

i think i have different chapters in mind for different reasons, even if it's a copout answer. here are the chapters that are dearest to me:

chapter 4: recalibration this is the chapter where i really got to play around with character interactions. keith and lance's worlds were beginning to integrate in chapter 3 but in this chapter, i got to explore different friendships, like keith & pidge and lance & hunk, and the dynamics they entailed. you can see how important these friendships are to both lance and keith, and how their connection with others eventually helps them to reflect on their previous feelings toward each other, like "hmm maybe i've been too harsh with the other."

chapter 10: let's go to the beach the group dynamics were so solidified to this point, and it was so fun to write. i loved writing from adam's pov and being able to zoom out and showcase klance's relationship progression.

the winter break interludes i waxed poetic about these in a previous faq but to reiterate: i'm really pleased with the way each individual chapter turned out. i love a good character study, and it was a great challenge to my writing and characterization to dig deeper into their home lives and see how the past confronted the present, where their respective childhoods were brought into the light, and how long-held notions of belonging, home, and identity were challenged and remolded.

chapter 17: warm and light my beta reader drunkenguac said that this was some of my best writing and i've been coasting off of that validation for the past 4 months. keith's reunion with his mother was especially cathartic for me. as an adoptee, writing this chapter honestly helped me work through some of my feelings about my adoption as i pictured what it would look like if i was ever reunited with my birth mother. i'm very fortunate that i didn't have to go through the same experiences keith did, but i tried to imbue as much humanness as possible into his section.

chapter 18: moving on it just felt like a proper send-off, the one that we never got from s8 of voltron. i wanted the last chapter to basically have this vibe of "hey, things won't be the same but it's going to be okay because we have each other." when shiro tells matt in the end, "we'll still be here," that's me as the author, telling you, the reader, that this fic will still be here whenever you want to revisit it. it was a comfort to write and i've heard that it's a comfort to read, which is so so so gratifying. when i set out to write this fic in august of 2023, i didn't have any plans of grandeur or even expect like more than 100 people read it— it was just a passion project that i decided to share, and i'm glad that others have sought safety in it. outside of fandom, this fic is a love letter to my own college experience. i remember reading a college au fic when i was still in high school and lonely and closeted and repressed and wondering if i would ever be able to get out of my hometown and find a community as tightly-knit as the fic portrayed it. in a way, i got to reflect on my college experience by writing looking out for you. i find solace in this fic when i read back over it, and i can see aspects of my adventures throughout my freshman and sophomore and junior and senior years, waving from behind a thinly veiled curtain. this fic is dedicated to all the people who made my college experience.

anyways that's me rambling for now! thank you again to everyone who has tuned into looking out for you. this is the first piece of creative writing i've done in a long time, and i never expected to actually finish it. i'm so happy with the way it turned out and the love it's received. until next time!

[deepbutdazzlingdarkness]

I think @kennyomegasweave tagged me in this OTP meme like...months ago? And I just found it half-finished in my drafts and decided to actually get it done.

1. What ship were you completely obsessed with when you were a teenager, but now you don't care anymore? 20s, not my teens, but I used to be utterly obsessed with Jack/Kent from Check Please and now, IDEK what happened. I still love them, but I have old fic I saved and never read and can't bring myself to care anymore. IDK it makes me sad.

2. Which ship would you consider your first one? Hmm probably Betsy/Joe from the Betsy Tacy series or Anne/Gilbert from Anne of Green Gables? My first ships when I actually got into fandom were Sawyer/Kate and Sara/Grissom from CSI.

3. Your first fanfic belonged to which couple? Magnus/Alec!!! I never thought I would write fic and then I watched season 1 of Shadowhunters and banged out (lol) 7 fics and almost 30k of porn in less than 2 months in 2016. They all have an insane number of hits (like. the highest has 54,878 hits and the lowest has 15,836 hits.........) and I still get kudos on them almost every day, it's wild.

4. Do you remember the first couple you saw a fanart over? Genuinely no idea, but the first one in my fan art tag is Katniss/Peeta from 2012 <3

5. Did you ever get into ship discourse? My first instinct whenever I see someone talk about something I don't like is to mute/block, so perhaps not actively, but I'm sure I have at some point.

6. Did you used to have any no-otp or have it currently? LOL. Yes. I still fucking HATE Jack/Kate from Lost and always will. Also Dan/Blair from Gossip Girl. Lately...I'm such a multi-shipper but I gotta say Kate/Anthony from Bridgerton bc I've genuinely had to restrain myself from bitching about how much I hate them SO many times since s3 came out lol.

7. Who were the couple in the last fanfic you read? I finished a rewatch of Beyond Evil last night so I've been rereading some of my old bookmarks bc I've read almost everything that's out there 😔. Shout out to the masterpiece simple & clean by whir.

8. Currently, do you have any OTPs? So many!!! Taemin/Kai is still my #1, but also Juwon/Dongsik from Beyond Evil, PatPran from Bad Buddy (it took me several episodes to actually get into the show but once I did I cried...so much over them and how much they love each other LOL), KunTen from WayV, Louis/Lestat...I feel kinda bad that I don't have a major current f/f OTP but I'm literally checking my kpop tags multiple times a week for rule 63 fic and most of my current WIPs are rule 63 f/f so there's that. (Two KunTen including what hopefully is gonna be a long one, plus a Jigyu I started yesterday for a fest that I'm hoping I'll be able to get done - not because of the length, but because I've never written Seventeen before)

9. Is there any couple that, to this day, you are extremely mad about not getting together? So many??? I feel like I have to say Dean/Cas.......Lee/Kara never really got together so them for sure. Sawyer/Kate from Lost even though I 100% choose to believe they got together post-canon pre-flash-sideways. Oh my god I'm looking through my "forever bitter" tag and it's a lot of Cooper/Audrey from Twin Peaks as I expected, but I forgot about Mini/Franky from Skins. and ABSOLUTELY THEM. Everything about series 5 was terrible but that especially.

10. Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they are kind of interesting? IDK I feel like I don't usually change my mind like that. I wouldn't go as far as saying "kind of interesting" but I guess I don't hate Bree/Roger from Outlander AS much on the show as I did in the books lol.

11. Do you have any ship that, in the past, was considered normal but now you would be cancelled over? Hmm...Cesare/Lucrezia maybe? If not them almost definitely Norma/Dylan from Bates Motel LOL.

12. What was your favorite crack ship? I was gonna say I couldn't remember any that truly fit this definition, but then I remembered the Kent Parson/Claude Giroux series #dirtbags and that was great. Actually no my real answer is Syd/Richie from The Bear. Now *I* don't think it's a crackship but they have that vibe.

13. Who is the couple you read more fanfics of? Here's a side by side view of my most bookmarked ships vs the tags I have saved rn on my front page. Unfortunately you can only have 20 but I think it's a pretty good representation. (Other than the ENHA ship, where I legit don't know anything about them or frankly even what they look like, but that tag produces so much incredible unhinged porn that I read canon-blind.)

14. What most of your ships usually have in common? I feel like I have several different ~types, but: friends to lovers, I LOVE bicker-y couples, age gap relationships, especially when one of them is a mentor-ish figure, and power dynamics in general.

15. What do you absolutely hate in a ship? Nice Guy characters, whether they're a guy or a girl. The OG example is Xander (duh) and Chloe from Smallville but you also see it with characters like Sol on My Stand In...there's def more things I hate but that's one of most major ones for me.

[syrupsyche]

⭐ i'd love to hear your director's commentary on how marius won the hand :D

THANK U for the ask!! You probably already read my dir. commentary on Ch. 5 and Ch. 6 of How Marius Won the Hand [...], so I'll jump back and do a commentary on Ch. 4 of the fic!

I confess: I had no idea what to name Courferre so I picked the two names I feel I've heard the most often when it came to fan-assigned names. And not to give any spoilers, but Courfeyrac's name will come into play again in the future!

Also not to pull a Hugo but I wanted to emphasize how pretty Cosette was lol. Needed to give her and Enjolras some physical similarities first (beauty, etc.) before some spiritual similarities later on in the story!

Cosette canonically loves to tease Marius! See:

Ten years later, with the love of Marius in her heart, she would have answered: “A pedant, and insufferable to the sight! You are right!” (4.3.7)

“Monsieur, you are handsome, you are good-looking, you are witty, you are not at all stupid, you are much more learned than I am, but I bid you defiance with this word: I love you!” (4.8.1)

“Don’t cough, sir; I will not have people cough on my domain without my permission. It’s very naughty to cough and to disturb me.” (4.8.1)

And so I needed Cosette to have her spunk here as well!

Ninny mention!! *cue cheers and applause* Wanted the Valjean reveal to be Hugo-esque ("omg who could this mysterious old man be 🤭") and I'm glad ppl noticed it! Also, Valjean hates Marius so much that I NEEDED to include it, though I suppose Ch. 6 is a lot more obvious with it.

Pilf wrote an excellent post about what Valjean's dynamics with the Amis would be like. Though the context in this fic is quite different (Courferre + Marius having to gain Valjean's favour) but I still think it fits! Courfeyrac would be far too Courfeyrac-ish to gain Valjean's immediate liking, in contrast to Cosette who would love Courf immediately (which only just worsens Courfeyrac's standing). Combeferre, however, is able to stick to safer topics! They're just Two Polite Men. This fic has also only just hinted at Enjolras' and Valjean's father/son dynamic so far but it's very close to Pilf's post on it too. They do not talk to each other at ALL; they will sit in silence together for hours and enjoy it. That's their father/son bonding time babey!

A call back to an earlier part of the chapter when Marius tried to make sure that "his palms were not slick with sweat". Mission failed!

I like to write Courferre stumbling over each other trying to impress Cosette. Idk I just feel like they have that sort of energy à la Tulio and Miguel from The Road to El Dorado.

I'm really glad ppl liked this scene ehe. How did Marius drink soup with a fork? Just part of his Pontmercying shenanigans I suppose.

Cosette being shocked at Enjolras taking her hand is the same energy as someone getting shocked when a particularly introverted cat suddenly comes up and sits on their lap. I hc that Enjolras isn't a very tactile person (which could be canonically derived from his only-two-kisses moment), so Cosette appreciates any physical displays of affection she can get!

I argue that the main thing Marius lacked in canon that could have given him a proper 'character development' was the belief that he could have a solid support system outside of bourgeois circles. He was so close to connecting with Les Amis de l'ABC but he ultimately fell back into a self-deprecating hole once his world views were challenged. In this fic I hope to get Marius to reconnect with Les Amis on a personal level first (via Cosette and Enjolras) before attempting to push him towards connecting with them politically (and he's already beginning to, in Ch. 5!).

And it's no surprise that the first person he reaches for when he realises that he DOES have actual friends is Courfeyrac! Writing this fic and rereading les mis letters has got me in my Courfius feels; Courf was such a good friend to Marius and (fic spoilers?) is definitely deserving of being his chief groomsman!

—

And that's it for my Ch. 4 analysis! Sorry for the late answer lol; immediately after reblogging the post I got thrown 5 different assignment deadlines.

If anyone wants any other fic analysis (or even an AU analysis as a whole!) feel free to ask! I'm only one message away from blabbering like an idiot <3.

[misiwrites]

Mayblade Days 1 & 2

i got a questionable idea of trying to write a fic for @may-blade where each daily prompt makes up one chapter… will i be actually able to keep up with it? idk. i have to write really fast if i want this all done and posted on time, so this is very first draft tier writing

high school AU, a focus on hiromi and tyhil, set in a culturally ambiguous setting of a "bey town". this will be a bit different from what i usually do because i decided to throw in as many ships as i can fit (for high school shenanigans) and many are stuff i've never posted before, tyhil included. it felt like a fitting ship for a school AU and goes well with a side dish of reimax (and all this other stuff i'll sprinkle in) so here goes nothing. just gonna go bonkers with it. may clean this up later for posting on AO3, may not if i don't manage to even finish it, which is possible

and i flipped days 1 and 2 so i'm posting both at the same time. it felt sensible not at all because i ran out of time on monday

prompts: school, unpopular character characters: hiromi focus; see each chapter for who's included bc even i don't really know yet pairings: hiromi/takao; same as above

Hiromi is a first-year in Bey Town High where the majority of students engage in afterschool club activities. When her only friend in school quits their club with no other members, she's forced to venture outside her comfort zone and try to make more friends.

CHAPTER 1 prompt: school characters: hiromi, emily, mentions of others pairings: --

“So, what now? Are you going to quit the club for good?”

Emily’s chin dropped. “Well…”

“So you are.”

“I’m sorry, Hiromi – but you know how much I need the scholarship. Prioritizing the tennis club is the only sensible thing to do. It’s okay if you’re angry with me.”

“I’m not angry,” Hiromi said, though she was a little. She stared down at her fidgeting leg.

“It’s not like we really need a club to keep meeting like this, anyway. I mean…” Emily’s hand gestured vaguely around the space they were in, the lousy excuse for a clubroom they didn’t have; since its foundation in the beginning of the school year, their astrology club had been holding its meetings at the end of a musky corridor in the cellar floor of the school, next to some rusty pipes and other unfitting backdrops, where a perpetual waft of paint and some cleaning agent lingered in the air.

Alright, so maybe their astrology club didn’t have a clubroom. And maybe it had only two members, which were Hiromi and Emily. And, just maybe, they could as well have done their astrology-related geeky stuff literally anywhere else, such as either the Tachibana residence or the Watsons’, but. But but but.

“And, you know,” Emily then decided to put into words what Hiromi precisely didn’t want to hear, “maybe you could go check out some other clubs, too. It would be a good way to meet new people…”

The fidgeting intensified. Em, don’t do this to me.

“…and maybe even make new friends,” the ginger finished, tentatively.

“I don’t want to join other clubs.” Hiromi preoccupied herself with picking stray lumps of lint off her hoodie while talking. “Everyone’s got their own cliques already. It would be awkward. Nobody wants a random weirdo forcing herself into their group in the middle of the year.”

“I’m sure that’s not true. The people in this school aren’t as bad as you think, Hiromi. And you’re not a weirdo.”

That was easy for Emily, fairly popular and a rising youth tennis star, to say. Hiromi, on the other hand, was an unathletic tomboy with few redeeming social qualities; she was studious and quite enjoyed school, had never been the out-going type, and preferred putting an effort in homework over partying or whatever it was that others did in their free time; she had no impressive hobbies to speak of, as her main interests were geeking out about all things spiritual or supernatural and collecting old books; she had plain brown hair and brown eyes and had never been the type to pour copious amounts of time and money into her hair, make-up, or clothes.

Her personality was on the serious side, she wasn’t a playful jokester or a vending machine for clever one-liners like all the popular girls seemed to be. She had never been the bestie that someone would choose first for anything, she’d never been part of a tight-knit group, and she’d never had a real relationship with anyone. No, it would be awkward to the extreme to squeeze herself into some club now – not to mention that she wasn’t terribly interested in, well, almost anything mainstream. She wasn’t very artistic or good at games or well-versed with popular culture other than the couple of shows she religiously followed (and even then, she wouldn’t have joined a club for those because the extent of her nerdiness was definitely embarrassing).

She was, simply put, just a normal girl. Just a Hiromi. She couldn’t become something she was not.

For a minute longer, Emily tried to persuade her to come check out the tennis club, or maybe the rest of the sports clubs. Hiromi gave her a tentative “maybe later” while harboring feelings of intense disinterest.

No, she thought, I’m not giving up on the astrology club that fast.

The following morning was the first time in months that a nervous sweat threatened to dampen her palms as she walked the short way to school. She had so perfectly adapted to her role of being invisible in class already, now she’d have to actually start a conversation with someone new for the first time in weeks. It made her heart thrum uncomfortably. She’d even forgotten to properly prepare for the morning group class. Very uncharacteristic of her.

She took her usual seat by the window near the back of the room, set her backpack to the side, and turned to look at her class. A critical thought. Who in here could I in any sensible way imagine at least consider joining the astrology club?

And there it was: her group, 1-A. Stitched together from wildly different types of people by the infallible hand of the one and only Bey Town High.

Emily, who sat next to her, had yet to arrive. The few other girls she’d done as much as talked to before sat near the front of the classroom, including Ayaka whom she didn’t know much about – apart from the fact that she had a jerk of an older brother who was part of the school’s most notorious bully squad, which effectively kept anyone from starting any shit with her – and Salima, the school council president. Salima seemed alright, always cool and collected; she had a mature air to her that alleviated the intimidation factor. Next to Salima, as always, sat Kane – the two were inseparable, for all Hiromi had seen so far. Even now, as she ogled the pair from her seat in the back, the two were engaged in looking at something together from a shared phone screen. Hiromi wasn’t sure if they were a romantic item or not, but if they weren’t, they sure were a close set of friends.

Two desks over, usually behind the now-absent Emily sat Zeo, a dainty sort of boy from a rich family; behind him, another boy of the same rich sort but infinitely worse in personality, Olivier Bohringer (who insisted on being referred to by his full name by his “pleb classmates”) whom Hiromi was surprised to see present in the first place, the snob had a habit of being chronically late with very little regard to how it might inconvenience others. Olivier had the repugnant aura of do not associate with me, whereas Zeo was lively, friendly, if not a little pushy, as if he always had something to prove. Always trying, mostly in vain, to show off to the boy whose desk he now, too, was leaning back towards in his seat with the expression of an obedient dog – yes, right there, behind Zeo, sat the boy that Hiromi had been actively avoiding making eye contact with for the past few months. Kinomiya Takao.

Not daring to look at him for too long, she stole a deliberate glance at Takao as if in passing. As if her gaze was simply wandering. He was sitting back in his chair, relaxed, laid-back as always, wearing a cap of red and blue and white with the lid facing back, engaged in conversation with some classmates, some guys called Brooklyn and Garland, Hiromi hardly knew them, as she hardly knew anyone to begin with; Zeo was eagerly trying to join the conversation that he hadn’t been included in, he never was yet always tried, wanted to be one of the cool boys and their cool circle.

Hiromi let the words float by. She could hear Takao talking but didn’t want to listen, pretended not to hear his vivid voice that carried over the sea of classroom clatter like it always did. She swiftly fixed her posture and decidedly set her eyes on the back of the person sitting in front of her. It was this short boy called Ivan who only ever read comic books in class, some weird nerd she knew absolutely nothing about.

She was oh-so-annoyed by the way her heart had chosen to leap in anticipation. It was stupid, the way she riled herself up for doing as much as looking at Takao for a bit. She crouched to grab a notebook from her backpack; it felt safe, hiding behind the excuse of urgently and thoroughly needing to check something in her notes.

While making sure that nobody could see her writing, she scribbled the names in the corner of the notebook page:

Kane, Zeo – maybe?

LITERALLY ALL OTHER BOYS – NO.

Ayaka – maybe? don’t know what she’s like

Salima – ok.

So the decision had been made.

CHAPTER 2 prompt: the past characters: hiromi, takao pairings: hiromi/takao

Hiromi and Takao had been childhood friends.

Their houses had been right across from each other on a long, long street in the eastern district of Bey Town. To young Hiromi, this street had been her entire world. The old, wooden house like a jewelry box across the street had been so fascinating to her child’s mind, the large Kinomiya residence with its traditional dojo and yard full of unusual trees. She’d started visiting the family regularly and befriended their younger son, a boy of her own age, Takao. Everything had been so effortless back then, and they’d become friends with the ease and sincerity that only children possessed.

They had built a beautiful tree house with help from Takao’s older brother and held secret meetings; they’d gone to the corner shop of that long, long street to buy candy with the first pocket money of their lives; Takao dug out bugs with a stick from the ground and proudly presented them to her. Innumerable wonderful childhood memories had stuck close to Hiromi’s heart all through her life.

They had only been children. Silly and unassuming, copying what they saw adults do, turning it into just another game. After visiting some family to attend her aunt’s wedding, Hiromi had wanted to play it out. Let’s get married! Just like that. And Kinomiya Yoshie, Takao’s beautiful mother who always wore flowers in her hair, had sewn her a little white dress because she’d asked for one.

Hiromi’s understanding of “getting married” had been to hold Takao’s hand a lot. Parroting cheesy lines about how they would be together forever and taking oaths that were comically solemn for children of their age. She had told him he needed to get her a ring because a boy was supposed to get one for the girl he married, so he’d made one of some twigs he'd picked from the ground. It had been big enough for two of her fingers to fit through. She hadn’t minded, because it had been a gift from him; she’d been so grateful that she’d given him the smallest of kisses on the cheek, just a peck.

Then she proceeded to never forget about that peck. Not for one minute of her life.

Eventually, the Tachibana family had moved to a different house, to a plain flat in a plain apartment building where the only view was the wall of an equally plain neighboring building and a parking lot. She’d been as heartbroken as a child could be – for about three weeks. Then she’d started attending elementary school right next door.

She’d sworn to visit him at least once a week, but it was quickly forgotten. In her new school, she’d begun to notice that girls and boys did not play together – that it was, in fact, embarrassing to play with boys because they were stupid and messy and stinky. The next time the Tachibanas and Kinomiyas held a get-together, Hiromi had hid behind her mother and avoided Takao’s attention all day. The whole pretend marriage thing had started feeling thoroughly humiliating and she didn’t want it addressed ever again.

And she didn’t want to know if Takao still remembered that peck on his cheek now, in high school where they had been put in the same class to her absolute mortification. He had tried to talk to her in the first couple of days of the semester. She’d greeted him politely, then proceeded to pretend she didn’t know him. She prayed to gods that he hadn’t told anyone else in their class about their shared past – but he probably hadn’t, as it didn’t seem like the kind of thing guys would talk about.

Not that she really knew what guys were talking about. After all, she hardly spoke to anyone.

[starlightkun]

are you more of a plotter or pantser when you write?

ngl i did have to look this up, and i suppose im a bit of both? like, when i say i have a scene planned out, or that i have x words of planning, or that i have an outline, idk what other writers' planning/outlines look like (aside from the outlines they made us use in elememtary school you know). my word docs for a story always reserve the top part for "planning/outlining" then i have a divider, and under that is where the prose of the story actually starts. when i count word counts of drafts, i only count what's actually written in that second part, from beginning then through the scenes chronologically.

i usually don't start writing a fic until i have not only a solid idea, but also a general concept of the plot (though as my recent posts allude, i tend to have difficulties wrapping it up after the climax). sometimes a scene comes to me first and i have to then build the rest of the au and plot around that scene, but i usually don't start writing what i consider to be in that "prose" section until i have some grasp on the overall fic.

and my "planning/outlining" section usually looks like this:

- x au, a!neo, b!reader, (ft. any important side character)

- if it's majorly involved au like frankenstein complex or strawberry sunday, i'll make a short character list. like in strawbsunday it looked like:

Human!Johnny [roommates w MK]

Fairy!Jungwoo [roommates w TI, DY] ; Vampire!Jaehyun [roommates w TY]

Witch!Doyoung [roommates w TI, JW]

and so on. that one also went in descending height order (members who are officially the same height were next to each other in the list, like jaewoo), bc for a time at the beginning, i was playing with having their height be affected by their species, but that ended up not mattering in the end. i also had so many characters who were roommates bc it was a college au that i needed to be able to remember who lived with who after a while, so that went in the list too.

- then a brief paragraph describing the major story beats

- The Scene that made me get inspired to write it, if there is one, usually all dialogue written in a big block of text like this: "Abcd ef ghijk lmn opqr st uv." YN "Wxy zabcde fg hij klm nopqr st uvw." NEO "Xyz?" YN "Xyz. Abcd, efg hijk lmnopqr. Stuv!" NEO

- more scenes, only dialogue like above

- more scenes, only dialogue like above

so that's how my "planning/outlining" can be 8k+, it's my "sketches" of upcoming scenes that i haven't gotten to yet in the "prose" portion. and while im writing, i'll usually get ideas for upcoming scenes, and add their "sketches" to my planning area at the top. sometimes i don't always know exactly how all the little pieces will fit in, and kind of have to assemble them into a little frankendraft by the end. and sometimes i find that little snippets of dialogue that i thought would be perfect ended up not fitting anywhere, or had to be minorly/majorly modified.

i often go into unexpected places, and find out a lot about my characters while i write! i have my loose outline and im flexible with it if i find that the story is headed in a different direction as i go (like, for example, in changer, i was originally imagining sungchan asking reader out at the end of the valentine's day event at the boba shop and have it be more of a second chances things, but as i wrote it i realized that my werewolf sungchan was too much of a loserboy to do that and it wouldve felt a bit forced imo)

[sleepsonfutons]

20 questions for fic writers!

Ope it's double tag time >:D thanks @spockandthings & @bazzybelle for the tags~

This one's got length to it so get the scoop under the cut lol

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Shoot, how many do I have... let's see now... ooooh, that'd be 18!!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

Eyyyy 104,261 since I started posting last year :3

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The Sandman and The Witcher, though mostly Sandman so far lol

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

hmmmm, those would be...

In Awe, I Stand -> 370 kudos

Dream of the Dark -> 226 kudos

My Comfort. Your Touch. -> 216 kudos

Every Inch of Me -> 161 kudos

Starlight, Star-Bright -> 139 kudos

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

I do my best to, yes indeed! That doesn't always means it happens though cuz life and energy and honestly attention-span...but I read every single comment I get and cherish them. They are bright spots in my day and I like to share the joy I've been gifted with the person who gave it when I'm able 💖

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Ohoho that's gotta be Don't Ask Me To Say Goodbye!! I have Plans for that AU, but as it currently stands it's angst-central with only heartbreak~

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my fics have happy endings I wanna say, but happiest has got to be a toss-up between Starlight, Star-Bright and My Comfort. Your Touch. They're both super soft, self-indulgent delights :3

8. Do you get hate on fics?

*knocks on wood* nah

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

I do [hellmo.gif] How do you feel about potatoes? (but also like relatively "normal" stuff: butt stuff, mouth stuff, touching stuff, eldritch stuff, basically a variety of different stuff >;3 LOL)

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

Not so far, though I'd not be opposed to writing one.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

*knocks on wood again* not that I know of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope, but open invite to anyone who might want to! Just give me a shout when you're done cuz I'd love to see~

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

HECK YE!!!! @phinofthestorm is outstanding and I literally can't say enough nice things about writing with her! The amount of time we've spent on the same brainwave with our collab fic As a Stranger I Know Myself has been mindblowing and fantastic!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Honestly, I'll never get over GrimmIchi (Bleach) I don't think lol. The nostalgia factor is unbeatable at this point.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Truss Me Up But Never Leave Me Hanging probably fits the bill best, much to my chagrin. It was meant to be a canon-verse Dreamling shibari fic, but *vague handwaving* I wound up getting in my head over whether I could write it to the level of accuracy/quality I feel it deserves

16. What are your writing strengths?

Setting the scene? aka "purple prose" and metaphors

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Concise, "non-flowery" writing in general and dialogue

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I mean if it makes sense, idk why not. Only caveat to that is if it's not a language you speak yourself, definitely get someone who does speak that language to proof it!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

The Witcher with the bday fic I wrote for my bestie: Where You Least Expect It

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Dang, twist my arm why don't'cha... Sheesh favorite fic I've written... I love 'em all honestly, but I reckon Along the Garden Path, We Meet. It's just a short little thing though Dream being a lil shit to Hob early on, before even their first centennial meeting in 1489, absolutely sends me every time.

Woooo we made it to the end! Now to torment tag to join the fun with 0-whole pressure @seiya-starsniper @phinofthestorm @mentallyinvernation @certifiedbisexualdisaster @blueberrymffn @gabessquishytum @delta-pavonis @aquabluejay

[gemsofthegalaxy]

Hello hi 👋 if you are willing to indulge me I would love to hear any and all of your Canadian Greg thoughts!!

I am also a Canadian Greg truther but I live in America so I can’t imagine the full extent of what it means for him to be a Canadian boy™

Ooooohhhh hell yeah I love to share the Good Word about Canadian Greg at least from my thoughts

while I tend to tweak his background based on the specific fic I am writing here in there, I really truly believe Greg has moved around a lot in his life. I like to think in fact he's got American citizenship/was probably born there but after his dad (presumably) left after he (presumably) cheated on Greg's mother, they moved back to Canada so Marianne could be closer to Ewan (for better or for worse considering Ewan is....... kinda a dick imo) and now he's a dual-citizen, always an interloper, never quite Canadian enough but not quite settled into American culture.

Partially due to my own experience I think he grew up mostly in Ontario, he doesn't come across as, like, Quebecois to me tho neither do Ewan or Logan despite canonically being raised there so uh you know, and I only ever spent 5 weeks in Quebec myself. but, French Canadian peoples tend to be connected to their Francophone identities in my experience with Acadians and other Francophones in other areas of Ontario, so yeah i mean idk. It's not impossible but he feels more Ontarian, I could see some Western hcs but I've never been further West so like........... i stick him in Ontario bc it's what I know better.

On that, I think he speaks passable but not excellent French with an Okay accent, he likes and knows hockey, has a variety of Canadian slang he doesn't pull out around his US folks. He likes colour-coded Canadian money because it's easier, dammit.

I also like to imagine him spending a bit of time in small town Atlantic Canada, that is the epitome of self-indulgence for Me because that's where my own actual experience mostly lies. He has some random factoids about fishing. I like to imagine he did Little Rocks which is a curling program for kids, he was almost definitely a Scout (he might have moved to Canada young enough to be a Beaver Scout🥺) and he knows, how to safely start a fire and camping basics (i think he prefers to stay in a cabin to a tent tho lmfao), and I believe he genuinely likes some outdoorsy activities, such as hiking, but also wants to be able to retreat to a comfortable area and not be left out in the rain or anything like that.

I think he was raised Catholic which could be anywhere lmao and knows how to hunt but doesn't love it (which I think it was said he did in the scripts in Hunting, as well as Tom, but I can't recall?). I think he made friends that always felt temporary, he was often the new kid and always the weird gawky guy, but he got along with some people even if he was sometimes the butt of the joke too. He did stupid shit like putting hairspray on his hands and letting other guys light it on fire, partially to fit in and partially because "What's the worst that could happen". Not necessarily exclusive to Canada but I knew these guys irl. So.

One of the things I've noticed that is a big difference between Canadians and US Americans is we don't mythologize or adore our founders the way they do. Unsure impact that has on Greg, but part of me likes to do a little excusing for him, that he rationalizes meddling with American politics and the landscape of the News using the idea that it's not his "Real home", even though he knows damn well the US impacts Canada in a huge way. It's another one of his many excuses, like, "it's not my fault, i'll get in trouble if I don't, i need a job to survive and this one is as good as any" etc.

Finally. Another one of my Greg headcanons despite having 0 evidence canonically and in fact evidence against it to an extent- he likes a good graphic tee. Most of them are stored at his mother's. Most importantly, he owns this:

which i photographed in a real Canadian walmart.

[yourstruelyxo]

First fic ever on here and first post, omg accomplishment this was requested on my wattpad so 😍

Ashamed

paring: Rita Castillo x Reader

TW: Mild homophobia maybe idk, tell me if theres any pls 🫶😍

Y/Ns POV

Dating the Rita Castillo is amazing. well not really dating, fooling around? yes, but still amazing. She was truly a wonderful woman. Always making sure I am perfectly fine and i'm living comfortably, but going behind her husbands back and constantly sneaking around was getting tiresome. I love her, but it feels like she doesn't love me as much. It's exhausting hearing her go on about how she'll leave her husband and that we're going to be properly together soon. Yet she never leaves him and she refuses to be seen with me in public. "Rita, you know i love you right?" I asked her, "of course i do love, why would I need to speculate about how much you love me?" she says like she'd been surprised. "It just that i feel like you don't love me and i know you do but, you don't want to see me out in public and you've not left that absolute bastard of a man yet, so i feel as though you love me less then i love you" i say with fear in my voice. " I love you, My dearest Y/N, I swear to you that I love you and will forever love you, but I still need time okay. I need more time" she says frustratedly. "Is three years not enough time, I can't keep doing this, Rita I want all of you, I want you to be mine, I don't want to have to share you with anyone else, i want you to want me like that, to get angered when i am to close to another person and want to show them i am yours" i say with indignation. "Well you won't have that, i'm fine sneaking around with you, that way i'll neve have to worry about someone else, that way your all mine and i know it" She said rising out of her seat and walking over to the mirror. "Oh look at the time, I best be going, but you won't care, because well your just fine with me going off to someone else, right? because i'm not going to be the only single women in the god awful town" I say while walking to the door. "wh-what NO Y/N, are you truly upset by this? What do you want me to do, Shout it from the rooftops, Scream that I am yours and you are mine, because i will not do such a thing, i love you but i will not" She said, i could her the anger in her voice, even if she was trying to hide it. "Well i'll be leaving" and with that I walked out. Refusing to acknowledge the shouting of my name as I left, saying goodbye to to Isabel and walking straight out the front door not looking back. I got to my apartment and broke down. I am in love with Rita and she can't even see me.

Rita's POV

I haven't talked to Y/N since our fight, if you can call it that. I feel horrible, i haven't been able to sleep since last week and every time I go to her apartment, she doesn't answer the door. I feel guilty for how I acted and I want her to know that i love her, but in this world it's hard, people stare, people will make a mockery out of me, but oh how I love her. So i'm going to meet the women for the garden club today and tell them the truth.

*time skip cause i quite literally have no idea what to put xx*

"Hello Ladies, How are you all?" I say, a series of i'm fines and i'm alright rung around the room. "This meeting is very important for me and someone else, but first of all i'd like to make it known that I have ended my marriage, but we all know it had ended years ago", in unison all the women nodded their heads knowingly, "I am in love with someone else." Gasps and whispers started among the women as i told them this information "Well who is it Rita?" I heard Joan ask from the back. "Well, please keep in mind that we are all human and we deserve love, happiness and yaddy yadda, so please keep an open mind when I tell you this information." i say, all of the women nodded "I am in love with Y/N Y/L/N", suddenly all the women erupted into a fit of laughter. "You're so very funny Rita, we all know that Y/N is, well you know different, but you seriously think we believe that you are, this has to be some kind of joke" one of the women said in the crowd. their laughter continued. "This is no joke, i am very much in love with this women and yes i am older and i know that i am also a women, but i love her ever so dearly, and i need her to know i would put everything on the line for her" i stated. That was it, some of the ladies looked as though i had punched them in the stomach others had pure disgust written on their faces. "I think it's best you leave Rita, we'll until you come to your sense about this" someone shouted. So I left, I got up and left, and i went and found my girl.

Y/Ns POV

I was lying in bed, having not gone anywhere at all really during the past week, just in case i had seen her. When i heard loud banging against my door. "My love, please answer the door, please come out i need to see you" Rita's voice ran through my small apartment. God i missed her, but she had hurt me and i couldn't do this anymore. I swung the door open, "Rita i don't want to see you anymore, how can you not understand.." i stopped mid sentence, seeing her glassy brown eyes and disheveled makeup, my heart tore apart "Rita, what, what happened, are you okay?" I pulled her into my apartment, she grabbed my face and kissed me, our lips met and I melted, i had missed how her lips felt on mine, how i became putty in her hand when she touched me. she pulled away from me and said "I told them, the women at the garden club, I told them I loved you and well their probably telling their husbands and neighbours, i'll be the laughing stock of the town, but I did it for you, for us" the words came out of her mouth in a hurry "Rita, my dear Rita, you shouldn't have it's your reputation, everything you've built, i'm sorry, I shouldn't have made you choose" I say. "No, I did this because i want you and i want all of you, better yet i want to be yours, all yours, i'm filling for divorce and I'll be yours forever, I don't care what anyone in this town says, as long as I have you, that's all I need." She says before she kisses me again. Now I know she loves me, she gave up everything for me, she wants me and I want her.

[azzie-tangerine]

📓

Sweet more unused Azzie fics to talk about!

This next one is just as old as the previous fic idea, and I even mentioned it in my previous ask here (linking it in case others wanna read that one too!)

Like I said, in 2020 I had a lot of pretty boring Kirfluff aus. Mostly just me throwing Prince Fluff into stories where ship hijinks can ensue. This one was the first of these aus I did. And I also considered making it a fic in the past so the prompt works here.

So time for me to talk about how much I love Smash bros and how I wanted to write a kirfluff focused au on it!

Like a lot of people I assumed, the story of Smash Bros Ultimate didn't make a lot of sense to me? Don't get me wrong, I love Ultimate. I love the Smash franchise as a whole. Forever Kirby main here. But I wanted to perhaps, rewrite the story a bit to make it make a little more sense in my eyes. And to do that? why, add Kirfluff of course!

So in this au, everyone but Kirby still dies to Galeem. Galeem wipes out every single universe while he's at it. After all, all the heroes are gone. Who's gonna stop him? He wants to recreate the entire world that fits his view of perfection. None of these mortals fit that view in his eyes. Including a Yarn planet with a Yarn prince.

Prince Fluff dies to this attack too, and is actually the first spirit Kirby ever comes across. After a typical smash fight, Fluff joins Kirby as an ally, and gives him buffs like a Spirit does in the game (but for this au, Fluff would have a way better buff.)

They gather together every smash fighter like in that game, and I would have it that at least in the cutscenes/basic story mode (if my version of events were a game, you could choose with fighter had which spirit still) every fighter is paired together with a Spirit. Like, for example, Mario and Geno. They could be from the same series or they could be more mixed up to create some interesting and fun dynamics.

The main plot would be how to fix the ruined world and restore the universe- as well as all the spirits- back to normal. After all, the Spirits can't pass on. They're often stuck in monster's bodies and extremely vulnerable.

Kirby in particular becomes very, very scared of losing more people. They're upset they never got to confess to Fluff before he fell in this... state. He's worried if more of his other friends are in worse situations. This makes him kinda clingy to Fluff. And Fluff, in return, mostly wants to help Kirby to be able to be in peace. He would love to be able to return to an actual body of his, but he's more pessimistic than Kirby. so he wants to be there for his friend and help him save the world. If he can't revive, he can pass on knowing Kirby is safe.

But don't worry because the story would end with all the spirits being revived and the worlds being reset, lmao.

I don't know if I'll ever reuse this story for another one, but I'm leaning towards no. Even if I do nothing with this au, I still hold it dear. Like I said, I love smash bros. Idk, maybe I'll give this au a little more attention in the future.

also like the previous au I did have some art for it. I think I may be able to find the art for this au though. I'll look and reblog if I find it.

[tradetobest]

2, 26 and 30 for the writer asks please💙

SORRY THIS TOOK ME TWO DAYS TO ANSWER

2. a character whose POV you’re currently exploring

auston matthews!! i found this old kpop fic of mine that i thought would fit mitch and auston well and im rewriting it to fit them!! 1634 usually flows out of me from mitch's pov because i think hes more similar to me, making him easier to write for me. auston is interesting, esp in this fic, cuz he just kinda... has his world turned half upside down. only half though. and so he has to Deal and that is always fun to write!!

26. are you able to write with other people around?

if theyre strangers yes!! id argue im more productive with strangers around. if it's friends then no, i'll just talk to them.

30. share a fic you’re especially proud of

ok. sorry i have a few. and none of them are hockey. 😭

1. take a look at a boy like me: my hero academia fic where dabi brushes hands with eri and it heals his burns. i love this fic. idk. i had it on the mind for my entire mha phase and wrote it finally and. i love it.

2. have i been on your mind?: i wrote a heartstopper fic and people liked it which i am happy about!! soulmate au because im a SUCKER for them. and nick and charlie. love em.

3. I wanna be free, I wanna be loved: my TGCF fic!! i thought "what if secret identity but REVERSED" so i made it so that feng xin and mu qing couldnt tell who each other were while they were using their other identities (nan feng and fu yao) but xie lian could. and i RAN. i love this fic.

4. And Then I Saw Your Face: kpop!! wow this is from. 2018. butttt!!!! someone loved it enough to make a podfic of it so i MUST rec it.

thank you for sending the ask!!! :D