#inspired by last line from b99

[paperbackribs]

Eddie and Steve had just taken a moment. A minute. Barely anything. A kiss. One, two, passed quickly, especially after having only confessed to each other the night before.

The party was out by Steve's pool and a whole kitchen was between them and the two boys kissing desperately against the wall in the family room.

But then there was the stampede of younger feet pounding through the house. So very quick and fast that Eddie still held Steve. Steve, who was leaning against the wall with his hands gripping Eddie's shoulders for how unexpectedly weak his knees had felt since Eddie shoved him against the wall.

So when they quickly swung their heads to the left, arms around each other and eyes wide, Steve knew they were busted.

"What." Lucas asked, so surprised that he'd lost the up-tilt of inflection at the end of the question.

Max's eyes are narrowed as she flatly asserts, "they're boyfriends."

Steve felt frozen. He couldn't move his hands. It was lucky that his lips weren't still nuzzled against Eddie's neck when they'd all appeared.

And Eddie. Well, he just flat out refuses to move. His hands are practically at 10 and 2 and he isn't giving up any future opportunities to show Steve how devoted he is.

Dustin swirls to face Max, hands cocked on his hips just like Steve at his highest ire. "I know! But that's because I'm basically their brother. How'd *you* know?"

Max snorts and crosses her arms against her friend's indignation, "what? Like it's hard?"

Lucas's face screws up in consternation and he nudges Max gently in the ribs. She cuts those sharp eyes to her boyfriend, amused and inviting him in to enjoy the joke.

Lucas can't help but grin at her precocious cockiness. "Okay, but the rest of us may have some questions."

Mike exhales loudly, "Oh, there are plenty of questions. Like, how the hell has Steve bagged Eddie." His face is pink and screwed up in what Eddie would think is anger, but doesn't quite ring true.

Dustin scoffs, "Even when they weren't together Eddie had a lot of opinions about what he liked about 'Harrington.'

Steve rolls his eyes, "almost like I'm a damn catch."

Mike rolls his eyes back, but Dustin flings his arm out, nearly smacking Eddie's chest, "there's tons of reasons Steve would be a good boyfriend."

Eddie smirks down at the little sqirts, "that's right. I'm about to monologue, son."

[libingan]

IM BACKKKKKKKK

i was rewatching b99 and theres this one scene w captain holt that gave me the inspiration to write LMAO

something about reader being able to read simon like an open book is just so amusing to me

the base is buzzing with its usual sounds—radios crackling, distant chatter, boots hitting the floor in rhythmic patterns. you’re used to it all by now, the routines and rhythms, the way everyone moves around each other like parts of a well-oiled machine. today, though, there's an odd tension in the air, a stiffness lingering on the faces of the others.

you spot johnny and gaz huddled together, throwing glances at ghost, who stands near the far wall, still as a statue. he’s in full gear, mask in place, eyes dark and unreadable beneath the skull pattern. his shoulders are squared, his stance firm, his gaze fixed somewhere distant. there’s a quiet intensity to him that feels like it could crack concrete if he willed it. with his arms crossed over his chest, the black fabric of his sleeves stretching over his muscles, he looks every bit the silent, unapproachable specter he’s known to be.

johnny tilts his head in ghost’s direction, muttering something to gaz, who nods back, looking genuinely concerned. you drift closer, catching pieces of their conversation as johnny’s low, accented voice reaches you. “tell me that doesn’t look like a man on the edge,” he says, eyeing ghost. “i don’t remember the last time i saw him lookin’ this grim.”

“maybe he got some bad news,” gaz adds, brows furrowed. “you think he’s about to lose it?”

you glance over at ghost again, taking in the hard line of his jaw beneath the mask, the set of his shoulders, the way he seems to radiate an intensity that could send most people scurrying. but to you? nothing feels particularly unusual. you’ve seen ghost like this enough times to know when he’s actually having a rough day—and this isn’t it. so you shrug, looking back at johnny and gaz with a small smirk.

“bad day?” you say, trying not to laugh. “he’s in a good mood.”

the two of them whip their heads to stare at you, disbelief clear on their faces. “a good mood?” johnny echoes, brows shooting up. “that—ye’re tellin’ me that right there’s him happy?”

“yep.” you give a simple nod. “trust me. i can tell.”

johnny and gaz share a bewildered look, glancing back at ghost with renewed confusion. “so… that’s his version of cheery?” gaz says, more to himself than anyone else.

before they can keep speculating, ghost’s gaze shifts over, locking onto the three of you. there’s no warmth in it, but there’s a strange steadiness, a weight, that makes it clear he’s noticed your conversation. he starts toward you, his steps slow, measured, each one landing with the faintest thud on the concrete floor. when he reaches you, he stops just a few feet away, gaze flicking to johnny.

johnny clears his throat, glancing nervously at gaz before finally blurting out, “l.t., we were just wonderin’... somethin’ wrong today?”

ghost’s eyes narrow slightly, and his head tilts just a fraction. “wrong?” he repeats, sounding almost amused. “no. i’m havin’ a good day, actually. got an extra hour of sleep this morning.”

you can feel the stunned silence coming off johnny and gaz, both of them frozen as they process the idea that ghost—a man they’re used to seeing as an impenetrable wall of silence and scowls—has just announced he’s in a good mood. you can’t help the grin that creeps onto your face as you turn to them.

��told you so,” you say, crossing your arms.

johnny looks from you to ghost, and back again, a mix of disbelief and exasperation coloring his expression. “bloody hell,” he mutters, shaking his head. “how… how d’ye know that?”

you just shrug, catching ghost’s gaze for a brief second. there’s no clear expression there, but you swear there’s the slightest glint in his eyes, a hint of something only you seem to recognize. you don’t need words or explanations—you just know.

[madeofitzits]

The 5 stages of surviving Andy Samberg withdrawal:

Stage 1: Begin b99 rewatch

Stage 2: Intersperse with rewatches of Hot Rod, Popstar and Palm Springs

Stage 3: Revisit every available Andy interview (video, audio and podcast) then trawl archive.org in the vain hope of finding anything that was somehow missed during the last Samberg dry spell. When this fails, rewatch every SNL sketch, TLI music video, and movie cameo from Andy's 20 year career, as well as the first season of Cuckoo

Stage 4: Willfully break own heart by rewatching Celeste and Jesse forever, then mend it immediately by watching again but this time with the commentary track. In a moment's inspiration, remember that all Andy's movies have amazing commentaries and repeat Stage 2, this time with them turned on

Stage 5: Get dangerously close to considering a rewatch of 'That's my Boy' and pray that Andy steps up with new content before this line is crossed...

[lailannajacobs]

Straight, No Chaser

Pairing: Loki x fem!Reader

Request: Hello There! May I Please Request A Fluff Where Loki Just Loves When Reader Plays With His Hair??

Word Count: 3.3k

Warnings: nothing but fluff! 

A/N: Thank you for this request my lovely anon! I know it may not be exactly what you had hoped, I kinda ran with it in a very different direction than I had initially thought (I blame the episode of b99 I watched at the time that kind of inspired it) but I really hope you enjoy, I’d love to know what you think regardless!! <3 

“Explain to me again,” You demanded, your hands planted firmly on your hips, “how I got paired with you for this mission?”

Loki looked down at you, a roguish grin on his lips. He had skirted your question the first time you had asked before leaving and it looked like he wasn’t going to tell you now, outside of the restaurant either. It didn’t really matter. You were pretty sure you knew the answer. He had probably done it just to piss you off. Even if he hadn’t, you knew he’d end up annoying the hell out of you tonight, regardless. It was inevitable. It had been that way from your first day as a S.H.I.E.L.D agent and hadn’t changed in the last three years.

“You’d better not mess this up,” You warned, double checking your makeup in a parked car’s passenger window.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he drawled, “I can blend in quite well with mortals.”

You scoffed and turned back to face him, “Yeah, because calling us mortals is exactly what a regular human being would do.”

“Who says I have to be regular? Can’t I be an above average human being?” He raised his brow, looking as far from innocent as possible.

You smacked his arm, your irritation growing, “I do. We’re supposed to blend in, not attract attention.”

“If that’s what you wish,” He sighed dramatically, “I’ll be as mind-numbingly boring as possible. I can remind you of every other goody-two-shoes agent in the compound.”

“I was supposed to do this with Scott.” You grumbled, glancing at your watch.

Although you didn’t see Scott all that often at the compound, whenever you interacted with him you always found yourself having a good time. He was easy going and nonthreatening, which was exactly the partner you needed for this mission. Not the god of mischief.

“I can make that happen if you’d like” He crooned.

Loki began to shimmer, but you stopped him with a hand to his arm, “No. You know how much I hate it when you do that. It creeps me out.”  

He chuckled, “I knew you preferred to do this with me.”

You rolled your eyes, “Think what you will, as long as we get this to work. God knows how that’s actually going to happen now that you’re here.”

“I’m a capable agent,” he paused, his lips twisting into a smirk, “I’m sure we’ll think of a way to pretend we’re madly in love.”

You glared at him, “It’ll definitely be a test of my skills, that’s for sure.”

“When is this terrifying mobster supposed to arrive, anyhow?” Loki’s cunning eyes scanned the busy street.

“Soon.” You snapped, hoping he would stop talking.

For the past three months you had been working an undercover job, trying to determine if Hydra was running a black-market arms deals through the Genovese crime family. Although it was beginning to look more and more like Hydra wasn’t actually involved, you had finally worked your way up to a private dinner with the head of the family, Liborio Bellamo, and you weren’t about to skip on an opportunity for intel. The whole bringing a date thing was only a ploy to make your clandestine meeting look less suspicious to any street cops that were currently investigating Bellamo. When Loki had shown up to meet you instead of Scott, you had begun to wonder if there was any way you could do this alone instead. Scott would have been a great, oblivious civilian and the perfect con-man to bring along.

Loki, leaning up against a street post, had the look of a predator seconds away from pouncing, which looked nothing like the date she had promised to bring. He radiated power and mischief. He was a wild card that could turn a game the moment he flipped, and you would never have brought him along if you had been given any sort of warning.

Your eyes met his for an instant and he flashed you a smug grin as if reminding you that no, you couldn’t do this alone. You were stuck with him.

“Do you live to make everyone’s life miserable?” You sighed, wondering where the hell Bellamo and his wife were.

He furrowed his brows, pretending to be disappointed by your question, “I only live to create a little chaos. It isn’t my fault it makes you miserable.”

“Well that’s a load of - Bellamo.” You nodded respectfully at the approaching mob boss, hoping he had been too far away to hear your conversation with Loki.

“(y/n), I see you’re early, as usual.” Although there wasn’t much emotion in his face, you could tell he was pleased.

“I wouldn’t be late to a dinner in the best restaurant New York.”

He laughed, “Nobody wants t’be late to cousin Benny’s cookin. Have you met my beautiful wife, Isabella?”

You extended your hand, “No, I don’t believe we’ve met. It’s a pleasure.”

She smiled and shook your hand, her permed hair not moving an inch. “Pleasure’s all mine darlin. Libby here has been talkin all about his newest protege.”

“You must be Tom.” Bellamo’s voice had the same hard edge you noticed he used with threats, as he turned his attention to Loki.

Loki, who had been watching the whole interaction silently with his hands stuffed into his dark dress pants, barely managed to take one hand out. You wanted to shake him. His bored and jaded attitude was only going to piss Bellamo off, and as they clasped hands, locking into an intense staring contest, you felt yourself begin to bubble up with anger. He was going to ruin everything before you even entered the restaurant, getting you killed in the process. Who the hell had signed off on Loki going on this mission with you?

“Nice to meet you, Bellamo.” He crooned, his voice taunting. You hoped that only you could recognize the sass because of your years of knowing the god.

Bellamo didn’t respond, holding on a second too long before taking his hand back. Instead of putting his hand back in his pocket though, Loki wrapped his arm around your waist and pulled you in closer. Bellamo glanced between the two of you and the corner of his mouth lifted slightly in a way that you had learned to fear. You might have been a capable agent, but when you saw that look in the boss’s eye, it made you feel like he had the upper hand. That wasn’t something you wanted to let happen.

“Shall we?” He asked, offering his arm for his wife to take.

You nodded, “Absolutely, my stomach is growling in anticipation.”

Bellamo and his wife led the way and you followed, Loki’s arm still tight around your waist.

“What the hell was that?” You whispered angrily, “You can take your hand off now.”

His dipped his head, his breath tickling your ear, “If I take my hand off now, it won’t be convincing, and that’s what I was doing, darling, being convincing.”

You put a hand to his chest, stopping him in his tracks, “No, that’s not what you were doing. It looked like you were about to pick a fight with him.”

“I was simply letting him know that you don’t spend time with someone who can’t hold their own,” his hand slipped from his pocket and clasped yours, bringing it up to his lips for a fluttering second, “You’re going to need to trust me. I am on this date for a reason.”

“A reason you still won’t tell me.” You tried to keep the annoyance out of your voice, but around Loki, you had never been successful at it. It was like he could get your blood pumping without even trying.

He was right though. You were supposed to be on a double date, which meant not stopping randomly on your way to the table to argue with him. You forced a smile through gritted teeth and hoped that this evening wouldn’t result in your cover being blown or worse, your death. At least Loki’s grip had loosened, and his arm was draped around you instead of keeping you tucked in tightly at his side.

Before you started walking again, you looked up - annoyed that you were standing so close that you had to crane your neck if you wanted to look into his eyes - and warned, “This is important. He should be meeting with an important buyer tonight and I need to get a good look to be able to ID whether or not he’s Hydra. Mess this up and-”

“And what, darling? What is it that you think you can do to me?” He asked, brow raised.

“You don’t want to find out,” you snarled, dragging him along with you, “Now lets go pretend like we don’t drive each other crazy.”

His voice was barely audible when he whispered, “I don’t think that’ll be possible.”

Glancing up at him, you barely managed to catch a glimpse of a strange look on his face before he shot you a roguish grin. You rolled your eyes in response.

“I took the liberty of orderin’ a bottle of the house wine,” Bellamo said when you sat down at the table, “better than anythin’ you’s ever tasted in any of those fancy, fake Italian restaurants downtown.”

You smiled, “That, I don’t doubt.”

After the waiter poured everyone a glass, Isabella smiled at you, “So how long have you two been together?”

“I don’t know, what is it now?” You glanced up Loki, “It feels like it’s been forever.”

He smirked, “You know, even forever wouldn’t be enough time with you. But I believe it’s three years now.”

You almost rolled your eyes at his cheesy line, but instead pretended to be taken in by his words. You just hoped that you were faking it well.

Isabella smiled, “Ain’t that sweet. And how did you meet?”

“We actually met when I was still small time,” You grinned, “I had stolen his watch right off of him and he didn’t even notice.”

“I did get it back.” Loki interrupted, lifting his wrist to show a watch that probably hadn’t been there mere seconds ago.

“It took you long enough.”

“Three blocks, I believe?”

You stopped knowing he wasn’t going to back down. As much as you wanted to make him look less skilled than he actually was, he wasn’t going to let you even if it cost you the mission. He was playing a game of chicken that he knew he was going to win. He didn’t care about the job. He didn’t care about anything or anyone here. You knew that and he knew that you knew that, which meant that if the two of you were going to keep adding details to the story like a Jenga tower, the whole thing was bound to fall over sooner than later.

“How’d you know it was her?” Bellamo asked, his eyes darting between the two of you with interest.

You were about to answer for him, knowing that the calculating look in Bellamo’s eyes was more dangerous than Loki could ever realize, but he beat you to it.

“When someone this beautiful runs into you, it’s incredibly difficult to forget their face.”

Bellamo leaned back in his chair, “Seems unlikely that you’d suspect her then.”

Your heart began to hammer in your chest. He was asking too many questions. Either you weren’t doing a good enough job at pretending you were really a couple, or he had gotten word that you weren’t who you said you were. There wasn’t much you could do about the latter if it came down to it except hope that Loki would have your back. But you also knew there wouldn’t be any harm in strengthening the act.

Loki was part way through his explanation when you wove your hand around the back of his chair, rested your arm on his shoulder and began mindlessly playing with his hair at the base of his neck. The movement seemed to startle him for a moment, but he recovered quickly, the pause in his words barely noticeable.

Isabella, noticing your contact, snuggled in a little closer to Bellamo in the booth. You shot her a smile that she returned, but you could tell she was distracted. You hadn’t thought she was involved in Bellamo’s operations, but the way she scanned the restaurant suggested otherwise. A thought took seed. Maybe that was why you had never found any connection between Bellamo and Hydra…maybe it had nothing to do with his operation at all.

You tugged gently on a dark strand of hair before raking your nails from the nap of his neck up and he shivered. You weren’t sure if you were imagining it, but you were pretty sure his head was becoming heavier in your hand the longer you played in his hair.

The waiter came back with a refill for your wine, and to take your orders. You were about to stop and reach for your glass of wine, but his hand looped back behind his head and his long fingers wrapped around yours.

“I think you can reach your glass with your other hand.” His voice was low and throaty.

You looked into his emerald eyes, darkened by the size of his pupils, “Why?”

He blinked slowly and for a second you were pretty sure he wasn’t going to answer but then his gaze slid toward your guests and you had your answer. His grip lessened but you left your fingers where they were, choosing to weave your fingers further through his hair instead. It was true that Isabella has seemed more convinced by your act because of the physical affection, and you were glad that Loki had picked up on it. You still wished it had been Scott with you instead, but at least Loki was doing his job.

You reached for your glass and brought it to your lips when Loki’s fingers began to play along your thigh. Instinctively, you wanted to glare at him and shove his hand off, but there was no way to do that without drawing suspicion to yourself. Instead, you let his fingers create a trail of goosebumps in their wake until you shivered involuntarily. You were so annoyed with Loki and distracted by the sensation of his rough fingertips on your thigh, you couldn’t even tell what the conversation was about anymore. At least no one seemed to notice. The only reason you realized Isabella was talking to you was because she had said your name before asking if you were interested in joining her at the hair salon tomorrow.

You answered enthusiastically, knowing that would be the perfect opportunity to see if your new theory had any sort of credibility.

The meal continued seamlessly until dessert, when Isabella excused herself to go to the bathroom. You almost suggested you go with her, but you didn’t want her suspecting anything yet. You were starting to get antsy. Nothing had happened tonight despite the fact that you knew there was supposed to be a arms deal going down. If Bellamo had been in charge of it, you would have seen something suspicious happen already, right?

Suddenly, shouting pierced the low drone of the bland music that had been playing all night. All eyes turned to one of the front tables where a man stood, shouting at his wife about her getting close to their therapist. Bellamo stood instantly, striding over to the couple with dangerous purpose. The man, as if sensing the wrath coming his way, cowed instantly at Bellamo’s approach. They talked in hushed tones, which only captured the crowd’s attention more than the shouting had. The man pulled out a wad of bills, slammed them on the table and strode over to the exit, leaving the woman there. Bellamo called over a waiter and they discussed for a moment, probably offering the woman a free dessert.

A hand on your bicep startled you, and you turned your attention back to Loki, but, he wasn’t looking at you. His eyes were scanning the rest of the room, looking for someone. His relaxed posture might have fooled most people, but you recognized the intelligence and focus in his eyes.  

“I don’t believe misdirection is only a magician’s trick.” He murmured, seconds before Bellamo returned.

“Some people.” Bellamo muttered, taking a seat and signalling for another drink.

“Not everyone who comes to eat at classy restaurants are classy.” You said, trying to gauge his reaction to the event.

He nodded, “Unfortunately, there’s nothin’ we can do ‘bout it.”

A few minutes later, Isabella returned, a fresh coat of lipstick on her lips, “I heard shouting while I was in the bathroom. Is everything alright?”

Her eyes were wide, but you weren’t sure you believed the look on her face. She seemed sincere, but the kitchen was so close to the bathroom, that the noise should have drowned out anything happened out here. You stared, hoping to find some chink in her expression. Loki’s arm around your shoulder snapped you out of your intense observing before Isabella could realize you were analyzing her. You snuggled in a little closer, glancing up at Loki. He smirked, the focused and attentive look vanished from his face. Instead, he wore a flirtatious look that almost convinced you if you hadn’t known it was all part of your act.

“You’re welcome.” He whispered.

“You’re an ass.” You whispered just as softly so that only he could hear.

The rest of the night passed by uneventfully and when you were standing outside, Loki’s arm wrapped around your side to keep you close, you were thankful you had made it through the night.

“We should do this again next week!” Isabella suggested, seeming excited by the prospect.

As much as you wanted to be done with this mission, you nodded enthusiastically, “Absolutely. You know how to reach me.”

Bellamo extended his hand, “It was nice to meet you, Tom. (y/n), I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”

You gave him a curt nod and watched as they walked off. When they were out of sight, you let out a long, relieved sigh and stepped away from Loki. Cold air hit you instantly, making you realize how much Loki had been shielding you from the cold.

He flagged down a cab and glanced back at you, noticing that you were rubbing your arms to keep warm.

He raised a brow, “Cold?”

“What do you think?” You spat, knowing you no longer had to be nice to him.

He grinned, readjusting his folded suit jacket in his arms, “Maybe you should have brought a jacket.”

You rolled your eyes.

He opened the cab door, stepped aside and motioned for you to get in. You glared and were answered with a small, irritating chuckle.

After giving the driver the address, you rode in silence, keeping your attention everywhere but on Loki. You noticed the shimmer of magic surrounding the back of the cab and you looked instinctively to your own body but didn’t see anything different. You couldn’t be sure what the driver was seeing or hearing, but you knew it wasn’t anything Loki didn’t want him to.

“I suspect the wife.”

You looked over at him, surprised by the seriousness in his face, “I was thinking the same thing. Do you think Bellamo knows?”

Loki shook his head, “If he suspects anything, he is a master at playing the idiot.”

“Playing dumb.” You corrected.

He rolled his eyes.

“I’ll learn more tomorrow, hopefully.”

“If you don’t,” He murmured, eyes alight with mischief, “There’s always our next double date for you to corner her in the bathroom and figure out her dark and dirty secrets.”

“Don’t remind me.” You sighed, turning away to look out the window.

The sound of his chuckle filled the cab and the shimmering magic vanished as you neared the rendezvous point that would eventually get you back to the comfort of the compound.

[ofkanes]

me   pulling   up   wayyy   later   than   expected   :   👀👀,   fhdjs   hi   !!   i’m   nik   but   u   can   call   me   nikolaj   (   b99   stans   only      😤)   &   i’m   here   to   bring   my   mess   of   a   baby   kane   !!   ok   so   i’m   literally   too   excited   for   this   group   pls   don’t   @   me   .   before   i   start   i   just   wanna   say   that   all   ur   intros   ??   shakespeare   is   quaking   !!   send   tweet   .

[   jack   gilinsky   ,   he   /   him   ,   twenty   two   ,   cis   male   ]   do   my   eyes   deceive   me   ,   or   did   i   just   see   (   KANE   MORGAN   )   getting   out   of   the   car   in   hunnington   ?   i   guess   (   HE’S   )   living   around   (   ROCK   SPRINGS   )   ,   which   i   could’ve   guessed   .   hopefully   they   can   keep   their   (   -   SHORT   TEMPERED   &   -   COMPLACENT   )   shit   to   theirselves   ,   and   focus   on   being   (   +   ADAPTABLE   &   +   CHARMING   )   to   avoid   any   problems   .   and   for   the   love   of   god   ,   lets   hope   they   don’t   talk   about   the   (   HIDDEN   )   thing   .

ʙᴀᴄᴋsᴛᴏʀʏ 

ok lemme say that i envisioned kane as a movie bby , you’ll get what i mean in 2 secs . 

his two parents are both movie directors , his mother is an actress turned movie director . the morgan surname is well - known across the silver screens everywhere , not one that people take it lightly . here’s some background about his parents . 

tim morgan : father , but mostly known of his work as a movie director , i wanna say he has the career claim of frank darabont ( directed : the shawnshank redemption , the green mile , mary shelley’s frankestein , the walking dead ... etc ) . he earned his name despite being , at first , a nerdy film school student . very proud person , definitely snobbish . 

ingrid jackson - morgan : mother , but also a very good actress , i was thinking she had the career claim of michelle pfeiffer (  scarface , grease 2 , batman returns , hairspray , murder on the orient express ... etc ) . she comes from a line of models & actresses , so it’s no surprise there . 

now you have young kane morgan , now im ashamed to say he was named after citizen kane , his parent’s favourite movie ( rlly no taste ngl ) & you’ll never guess his middle name .... brando . that’s it , i’m cancelling him . 

but basically he’s a little accident that happened before the marriage , oops ? so really , an unhappy surprise for ms & mr morgan . his mother wasn’t very happy w his arrival because all she wanted to do was to work on movies & NOT take care of a child . 

don’t worry , cuz kane rlly felt that unhappiness ooze outta her . gr8 nannies though , he loves them . 

his father was happy to have someone to teach all his knowledge to , nerd alert , but that was one of the few moments he appreciated kane . that’s it . 

so one could imagine the disaster of a kid being brought up by movie stars ( read : nannies ) , not a stranger to cameras , red carpets & all that good stuff . 

ofc he was a child actor , his parents tried to put him in almost every movie they could , spreading that good morgan family name n all . kane didn’t think much of it , until he was old enough to understand .

he was definitely a little bratty , demanding attention from everyone all the time . being as fickle as they come , but that’s only because his parents didn’t give a flying fuck . 

as he grew up , still on the spotlight , he liked to be on & off the camera . some years , he yearned to be the center of attention & other’s he hated the job . very hard to keep up with . 

when he turned sixteen , he had his first ( & probably not last ) proper hollywood breakdown , almost as bad as brittany circa 2007 . he got a good role & was introduced to the bad side of hollywood . parties , drugs , shady people & all that good stuff . he was influenceable & fell into all the traps . it was only 2 years later that his parents were able to snap him out of it . they ofc paid all the tabloids to keep the good name out of their articles , but if you do your research , you’ll find some pretty pics of lil morgan . 

since then , he has cleaned up his act . ofc he took a couple of years off , went to college, tried to focus on himself & discover who he was ( he wasn’t only a morgan , he was kane !! who is kane ?? ) & he only started starring in roles recently , post college graduation . 

he just got off his first acting job post - hiatus & it’s a blockbuster . i was thinking maybe inspired on those coming of age movies ( à la hot summer nights but w more traction ) & people are freaking out !! kane morgan on the big screen ?? WHAT ?? he came back to nc before he decides on what to do next .

ᴘᴇʀsᴏɴᴀʟɪᴛʏ

ok so you can already guess that kane morgan is no humble kid . i like to think he has layers , but ppl can’t be bothered to look through all of them . 

some would say that his major problems stem from the fact that his parents didn’t give him enough attention & the public gave him too much . 

having your parents’ attention ? that’s so 2002 . 

for the press i like to think he has this movie star facade down . you know the old charming james dean smile , handsome but kind . loves the underdog , very humble about his social standing . generous , outgoing & loved by everyone . 

idk i never met james dean , all the information i have on him is taylor swift’s song : style .  

now if we dig a little deeper , he’s still quite the charmer ( c’mon he’s an actor after all ) , but maybe not as humble nor kind . he can be quite rude & entitled , but has some good jokes . don’t get him completely wrong , he’s still a bit generous ( he gives 25% tips wow ) . likes a good party , but knows his limits . always down for a good time . 

if we go even deeper , oof , he’s a bit broken . never learned to love properly , all he has it’s movies , which we can all agree are shit if you’re gonna base your attachment type on it . he lives on his own little world & likes to keeps his guards up . a sweetheart really , you can see past all the snobby film critic bullshit & he’s just a boy who wanna have fun & have a good life like all those people on the screen . 

you   would   fucken   think   im   a   film   major   but   NO   ,   i’m   not   even   that   fancy   w   movies   .   and   after   all   reading   all   those   movies   titles   ur   head   must   be   spinning   ,   MINE   IS   !!   but   ily   &   ur   an   absolute   queen   /   king   /   monarch   if   you   read   thru   all   of   this   !!   let   me   tag   my   plot   page   below   hehe   ,   it’s   were   we   get   angstyyy   !

plot page babey

[johnny-and-dora]

ten writer questions

tagged by the loml @amyscascadingtabs! special thanks to you and @amazingsantiago for giving holding back the flood some love ahaha i’m still very proud of that one

1. what’s your favourite genre to write?

i mainly write fluff or hurt/comfort, though i love the opportunity to sneak some angst in there as long as i can gaurentee a happy ending (see my royalty au)

2. do you pull inspiration from real life, or do you pull things from other books/fanfiction you’ve read?

in terms of fic i’ve definitely found myself inspired by specific lines or headcanons from other b99 fanfic and worked them in along the way...my real life is very boring and lacking in romance (yikes) so i tend to get most of my inspiration from lines/events in episodes that i want to expand on

3. do you tend to write one-shots, short stories, or longer things?

one-shots all the way babey i don’t have the patience, the attention span or the developed enough ideas for anything longer lol

4. do you prefer to write description or dialogue?

y’know usually i would say description but i actually think most of my best stuff was based around me coming up with all the dialogue first and then working that into a fic (my soulmate au, for example) so, dialogue i guess! only for characters i know well like jake and amy though writing dialogue for original characters is a NIGHTMARE

5. favourite fic/book of all time?

oh god uhhh i think my favourite book is probably radio silence by alice oseman because i’ve literally never felt more seen. i have SO many all-time favourite fics so i’m just going to leave a link to my bookmarked on ao3 ahaha those are my Greatest Hits basically

6. favourite trope?

all the classics. fake dating. best friends to lovers. soulmate aus. mutual pining. ALL OF IT

7. are you the kind of person to work on more than one WIP?

nope i usually need to focus on one thing at a time otherwise my brain will explode!

8. how long have you been writing?

i have been writing since i was very very young ahaha but i have been publishing fic on the internet since i was 13 years old which honestly is mortifying to think about

9. do you tend to write more in the morning, afternoon, or evening?

evening all the way! usually in bed on my laptop or last thing before i go to bed on my phone

10. do you prefer to post and update your WIP chapter by chapter or wait until it’s 100% complete before sharing it?

i have never written anything long enough to have chapters lol it needs to be 100% done

this was so much fun! i think everyone who writes has pretty much done this by now but consider this a tag if you want to do it!

[caatws]

ok i watched the ep with my roommate (another film student [i’m screenwriting and she’s tv/film production] who has a less biased pov bc she isn’t involved in fandom) and we both thought the writing was weird, if not just. Bad. tonight. here are some things we talked abt:

the cold open was clunky as fuuuuuuck. jake having to explain that they haven’t hung out in a month and their anniversary is coming up was such awkward writing that my film school peers would’ve ripped me to shreds for - toooooo much exposition. even the bumblee back and forth was not all there for me tbh. idk if it was the delivery of the lines or the lines themselves but that cold open was meh

also when the fuck is their actual anniversary they said it was coming up in the beginning of the ep but by the end they were like “ya it’s our anniversary :)” klsfnbklsdf?????

they kinda took their sweet time getting to the kids discussion tbh? like i wasn’t jazzed abt the character of pam (wish she wasn’t there at all tbh) and also can i just. let me just. the narrative never questioned the “mixed race babies” comment. yes you all are going to have to hear a mouthful from this abt me as a mixed race person. WHY DIDN’T THE NARRATIVE CALL OUT THE MIXED RACE BABIES COMMENT I’M SO FUCKING ANNOYED

so now jake and amy are like oh shit bc they are only JUST NOW realizing they have different povs abt kids.....to the point that jake claims he “never” wanted kids, and amy (nor literally anyone else in the ep) never calls back to the times jake has talked abt wanting or having kids? hello???

like this could’ve EASILY been fixed by tweaking jake’s line from “never” wanting kids to now being HESITANT or UNSURE due to new factors or reasons. but now they wrote jake into this corner of apparently never wanting kids and we all got dragged into this corner with him

ok but also stepping back for a moment - i saw gifs of amy saying “we don’t have kids yet but we’re gonna start trying soon” before i saw the ep and i thought she would say that at the END of the episode, after she discussed with jake....but instead she apparently not only assumed that they would in fact try for kids soon, but just. said that to a random stranger without ever having a concrete convo with jake first???????????????

i’m ???????????????????????????

why is it ok for rosa to threaten to coerce jake into wanting kids

why did terry base his argument of not having kids til you’re committed 100% off of basically how much he resents his own children?

i literally had a stay at home dad and he never complained abt, basically, HAVING CHILDREN, why are the men on b99 so fragile what the fuck

how was jake getting locked into a bomb sitch with pam (fuck pam) the experience he needed to realize he wanted kids? what makes this experience unique from other dangerous moments on the job to specifically inspire him to want children??

also our film student pov here: this scene went on WAY TOO LONG. the bowels gag got old hella fast, the convo between jake and pam was a waste of pages. that shit should’ve been no more than 1 to 1.5 pages tops. how did this ep’s writer not get eaten alive in film school i’m shitting myself

This Is Your Reminder I’m Still Fucking Annoyed About The Mixed Race Babies Comment

the fact that there was no jake/amy scene between amy walking out angrily to go with rosa and jake finally saying “wait i want kids!” was just rly weird and incredibly invalidating to jake imo. the message of this ep was basically that ppl who don’t want kids can change their mind just like that,,,, basically just,, you can Convince them to change their mind???

and no, amy implying divorce the first time she and jake have a convo abt kids is not great and also kind of manipulative so no i do not stan

yes half of the reason i’m annoyed bc this is the shit they broke up s*nvers over in s*pergirl and it was so last minute and lazy so anyone else who uses this trope to stir up fake drama is a lazy writer

legit, this ep would’ve worked in s4 aka before jake/amy got engaged/married lmfao

also i want to add something in here - yes, jake/amy isn’t a perfect couple and their communication isn’t always perfect but that’s. the one area they’re supposed to be good at. and i’ve known couples irl who never have huge fights or anything that are doing just fine, so this idea of imperfect couples = fighting is a Requirement is uhhhh toxic and annoying as fuck, frankly. this is the first time splitting up has been suggested in a p*raltiago argument. they didn’t even reach that point when they were still DATING. how does this writing make sense to any of y’all ?!??!?!??!?!?!??!???!

the only good thing that happened was rosa saying “kids are so cute it’s fucked up” that’s it that’s literally the only thing i enjoyed

[loveandlucky]

Eel Better

A.N: Hey so I’m snowed in and really bored. And I haven’t written anything in a long time. I cycled through some ideas in my brain and nothing seemed good. Scrolled through tumblr and saw a b99 post. And also I saw a pun. So, you could say I was inspired ;) Enjoy this little drabble about Nalu on a little stakeout mission that turns...fishy

“So exactly how long did he say this was gonna take?” Natsu plopped down on the marsh-like bank, ignoring the damp moss underneath him.

His partner rolled her eyes, scanning the horizon over the sea before laying down a small mat. “We could be here until dusk tomorrow, apparently. But hey, this is the smallest time window anyone has ever had them narrowed down to. Normally it’s a week, and they still never see them.”

“Are we sure they even exist?” Happy piped up from Natsu side. The small cat was already unwrapping his green pack for a snack. 

“Massive amounts of ship and harbor supplies don’t go missing on their own, Happy,” Lucy bluntly replied, trying her best to avoid the mud on all sides of her mat. “And I know we have to stay inconspicuous, but do we have to camp out in the actual wetlands?”

“You’re right, Lucy, we should have camped out right in plain view on the docks,” Happy snickered jokingly in the same tone.

Happy was right. It wasn’t as bad as their trips to Mount Hakobe, and although they could have floated along the shoreline in a fishing boat, she didn’t even bother bringing it up, due to Natsu’s ‘condition’. The hot grasp of the sun was giving way to a warm touch as it sank beneath the ocean’s line. A slight breeze shared the scent of wet leaves and a hint of salt, sliding through the nearby cat-tails and bulrush, as well as a certain someone’s pink hair.

Lucy exhaled, unaware that her breath had been caught after watching the wind ruffle his soft spikes. Closing her eyes to distract herself, she listened to the waves gently lapping at the shore a few feet away until the sound of splashing feet interrupted its peace.

“Lucy! I don’t think we’re gonna see anything for a while, let’s just relax!” The young woman jerked her head back as water shot straight at her.

Slightly irritated, she pulled a towel from her bag, drying her now soaked face. “First of all, galloping around in shallow water is not my idea of relaxing. Second of all, they could appear at any moment. Don’t you wanna be a ninja?” Lucy whispered the last part, adding a bit of secrecy to her tone and smiling.

Ignoring her attempt at trying to subdue his reckless energy, Natsu grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the shoreline. “I promise not to sumo-plex you this time,” he laughed, slightly surprised by how little Lucy was struggling against him. She sighed in surrender, glad she was already in a bikini top and track shorts. Saltwater isn’t good for clothes. 

They waded into the water, the ripples dancing in the blended orange and pink reflection. They shared the same thought. This was the same water they had their first encounter near. The same water that Aquarius used to ram Bora’s ship to the sandy shoreline of Hargeon’s main bay. The same water they ran from on their way to Fairy Tail. 

Stopping when the water reached their shoulders, Lucy solemnly glanced at the water around them, reminded of her first spirit and friend. Feeling embarrassed for her sudden burst of emotion, she turned away from Natsu, and let a few tears fall, quietly dripping into the ocean.

Noticing her change in demeanor, Natsu laid a hand on her shoulder and turned her back around, hoping it wasn’t something he did, yet knowing in the back of his mind it wasn’t. Although the tears were gone, he could still see the hint of red around her eyes and cheeks. The bright mage immediately turned her expression into a smile. 

“I’m good!” She insisted before Natsu could even get any words out, her eyes moving from Natsu’s to the glowing rays of the setting sun. Natsu took a moment to admire how her eyes contrasted the deep light, flecks of fire and pools of deep midnight glistening against their earthy background. He had seen her eyes glancing softly at her teammates, as well as glaring, cold as iron at their worst enemies. They changed a lot over the years. But they retained the same innocent curiosity as they had the first day he met her.

Natsu knew Aquarius was gone. The details were missing, but since Lucy did not wish to share them, he deemed them unnecessary. All that really mattered was the spirit’s disappearance. He knew better than to bring them up, besides, it would only make her sadder, and Natsu would rather be stabbed a dozen times than see her so heartbroken.

“Hey,” he started softly, “I’d hate to sea you so blue,” Natsu stated in the most serious tone he could.

Lucy whipped her head back in his direction, their close proximity almost bringing their noses together. After a silent moment, she began to laugh, harder than she had laughed in a long time. And all over a stupid pun. She lifted her hand from the water to splash him, and he quickly moved away. 

“Sorry, I’m a little tide up at the moment, no time to play!” He smirked as Lucy pounced towards him again, unable to catch him in the stronger waves.

“Are you having some fissues?” Natsu laughed at himself this time, giving Lucy enough time to strike, grabbing his arm and, unsuccessfully, trying to dunk him underwater. After laughing and wrestling for a few minutes, Lucy stopped and softly grabbed his face, her slim fingers curving lightly around his jawline.

“Natsu...” She looked deeply into his eyes. “I have to tell you something.”

Intrigued, and with a small blush gracing his cheeks, he leaned in, listening intently, feeling her light breath on his lips.

“I really reeled in a good one.” She whispered, her hands traveling to the top of his head, resulting in a successful dunking of the dragon slayer. 

Natsu bounced back up, and after gasping for breath for a second, started to reprimand his trusted partner. “Wh-!” He was stopped by a hand covering his mouth and looked up to see Lucy with her brow suddenly furrowed.

“I see a ship on the horizon, it could be those thieves.” Uncovering his mouth, she grinned mischievously. “Guess they came earlier than expected.”

Excited by the thought of a fight, and with their tender moment still in the back of his mind, he grinned as well.

After calling out for Happy to get their stuff ready back on the shore, Natsu turned to Lucy. 

“I did, too,” he said before starting to swim back, glancing over his shoulder at his flustered friend. 

Lucy only let out a small nervous laugh, taking one more look at the almost-set sun. The stars were already beginning to shine brightly in the pale dusk, and the celestial mage chalked it up to them to explain her sudden confession.

[cavehags]

Are you going to do a full write up for the b99 episode because I'm desperate to read it

tbh it wasn’t as upsetting to me as the odaat episode so i wasn’t gonna bother but i’ll do a quick one here. 

amy (and weirdly jake) are assigned a case where a woman played by briga heelan (of great news and married-to-rene-gube fame) broke a coworker’s penis after he tried to assault her. because this is a comedy, they make it clear that he only got as far as trying to take her clothes off. the image of the broken penis is played for laughs - we see him struggling to sit and stand in what’s apparently a diaper cast - so we aren’t really asked to worry too much about her well-being. this caused the conflict to feel extremely general and impersonal in contrast to the gravity of how the episode was hyped - in other news, a typical Very Special Episode. 

the core conflict is that amy convinces the woman to press charges against her attacker, which means she’s giving up her company’s offer of 2.5 million dollars to keep it quiet. VERY alarmingly, no one says a word in this episode about the ethics of the company offering that kind of deal. but rosa pushes back on amy’s decision to get her to press charges, arguing that this means she’ll have to go through the hassle of a trial that may or may not go her way, since amy doesn’t have any real evidence. (jake watches them argue and loudly interjects between their respective lines that he doesn’t think it’s his place to comment. because having compassion for women is something only women are allowed to do. :))

of course, rosa’s concerns only begin to touch on the reality of these cases in the real world, which is that in addition to the stress and stigma of going to trial, the cases themselves are rarely properly investigated. because this is copaganda, none of that comes up. amy does find her evidence using grit and determination, and she’s able to get the guy arrested. in the meantime, jake says something feminist that turns her on (it involved the word phallo-patriarchal or something like that and it made me wanna die), so amy’s happy. the only downside is that the workplace culture at the office where the victim works has turned against her after all this, so she has to quit her job, and without the two million dollars she could have claimed if she hadn’t testified. regardless, she’s glad she did it, because (against all odds!) it paid off. and another woman from her company comes to the precinct to report an assault, inspired by her coworker’s bravery. 

i guess this for me was an example of the danger of combining the Very Special Episode format with copaganda where everything related to the justice system must go off, improbably, without a hitch. sure, situations like this happen, but this show is a comedy about how cops always work hard and catch the bad guys (my roommate owns a t-shirt from the show’s merch that says what i guess is a slogan - “catch bad guys and look good doing it”) and statistics show us that that’s not the case even half the time, meaning this whole thing represents only a very slim percentage of real stories. there’s also something almost delusionally hollywood about the last part where another woman was inspired to come forward. certainly that’s been the case in the entertainment world this past year. i don’t know if i can be convinced that that holds true outside of the industry though. i really don’t think so.

in the meantime, the B plot is a pure comedy play with holt investigating an old nemesis from the 70s. it doesn’t touch on any of the same themes at all. so this felt very surgically inserted into a story where it didn’t fit, like all these episodes do. again i come back to the idea that this should never have been written. b99 is not a show with any investment in the topic of harassment and assault. a whopping FOUR members of the ensemble have sexually harassed coworkers and it’s been played for comedy - i’m referring to jake, gina, hitchcock and the guy played by joe lo truglio whose name i’m blanking on right now. i was joking with sasha that even this promo pic put all the women in the background (granted, 2/3 of them appear to be hiding pregnancies and that’s part of it) and it visually confirmed what was already obvious: the show does not center women in any way. as i’ve said before, it’s really cynical and misogynistic to try to make money and headlines by shallowly performing cultural anxieties about rape, particularly when it’s such a poor fit, as it is here. hollywood needs to STOP MAKING THESE.

[santiagoswagger]

i’m so lost without you

For week 7 of B99 Hiatus Creations, and the prompt was Supporting Characters. Inspired by a post from @startofamoment :)

At his high school reunion, Jake and Amy run into someone unexpected.

Read it on ao3.

Amy smoothed down her floral skirt and tightened her hair scrunchie before she exited the car. Jake shook his head at her and laughed as he locked it behind them.

“Ames, it’s my high school reunion. I’m the one who should be nervous, not you.” He grabbed her hand and gently squeezed three times, his signature way of telling her everything would be fine.

She scoffed at him as they walked through the parking lot to the school’s front doors. “Jake, this is my first time meeting most of your high school friends and I want to make a good impression.”

Jake smiled widely with his lips closed and Amy pinched him on his side in retaliation. “Don’t laugh at me, dork,” she threatened playfully.

He turned and stopped her before they entered the gym, grabbing both of her hands. “Babe, you look great – really hot, actually – and everyone’s going to love you.”

She beamed. How did he always know exactly what to say? “Thank you.” She leaned up on her tiptoes to loop her arms around his neck and kiss him chastely (they were in a school, after all.) “Maybe we can find one of your old make-out spots later.” She raised her eyebrows suggestively.

He laughed outright as his hands skimmed her sides. “Oh, Amy. You and I both know there were no make-out spots. But I can show you the bushes where I first tried to smoke pot before I realized Mike Colossimo had actually sold me oregano. It’s sacred ground.”

Amy unsuccessfully held in a giggle and nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

They untangled themselves from each other and headed through the doors, straight into the 90s. The reunion committee had gone all out to make the shabby high school gym into a legitimately beautiful setting, filled with strings of fairy lights and speakers pumping out Boyz II Men songs.

The next hour was a whirlwind of introductions for Amy and reunions for Jake while fielding texts from Gina, who was intentionally running late so she could make a memorable entrance and, in her words, “remind these plebeians who their true queen was and always will be.”

Jake and Amy were having a blast talking and dancing with his old friends, many of whom Jake hadn’t seen in years despite living only a neighborhood over from where he grew up. Amy loved watching him in his element and was thrilled by the number of embarrassing stories his high school friends were willing to tell her.

After dancing for their fifth straight song, they headed to the bar in search of beers to cool down. As they reached the end of the short line, the woman ahead of them turned around and made eye contact with Jake.

“Jake Peralta?”

“Jenny, hi!”

Of course Jenny Gildenhorn was here. Amy wanted to kick herself for not thinking about the possibility of this run-in before the reunion – she could have prepared herself with a thorough binder or, at the very least, a detailed list of pros and cons.

Jenny went in for a hug, which Jake awkwardly returned. Once they pulled apart, Amy cleared her throat, startling Jake out of his shell-shocked trance.

“Oh, Jenny, this is my wife, Amy.”

Jenny turned to Amy and warmly shook her hand. Amy was immediately, irrationally annoyed by the kindness she exuded. “Hi! You were at Gina’s mom’s wedding a few years ago, right? I remember thinking you guys were so cute together.”

Now it was Amy’s turn to be stunned into silence. She glanced at Jake and he looked like someone had savagely run him over with a bulldozer.

“Um, we actually weren’t together back then,” Amy said with a self-conscious laugh.

To Amy’s surprise, Jenny laughed too. “I’m so sorry! You were together the whole night and the way you looked at each other… I guess I just assumed you were a couple.”

Jake cleared his throat and smiled at Amy before looking back at Jenny. “It took us a little longer to get there.”

Jenny nodded knowingly. “Well, I’m glad everything worked out for you both.” She glanced at the drinks she was carrying. “I should get back to my husband but it was good to see you, Jake. Nice to meet you, Amy!”

Before they could discuss the bomb that Jenny had unceremoniously dropped, they reached the front of the line and Jake jumped to order their beers. Amy peeked at her husband as he handed some cash over to the bartender; she could practically see the gears twisting and turning in his brain.

He handed Amy her bottle and nodded his head toward the gym doors. She nodded and seized his hand as they walked out of the gym and into the high school’s hallway. After a minute or so, Jake stopped and leaned against a row of lockers. Amy followed suit, her shoulder bumping gently against his as they took swigs of their beer.

“So, how do you feel about seeing Jenny?” Amy broached the subject cautiously. She had to imagine it would be weird for him to see his former crush again, especially since he was still interested in her the last time they saw each other at Darlene and Lynn’s wedding.

Jake chucked and shrugged. “Well, I finally understand why she hooked up with that guy so quickly.”

Amy snorted. “I can’t believe Jenny thought we were together at that wedding.”

“I can.”

Amy looked at him curiously. “What do you mean?”

“Ames, I was ridiculously into you back then. I may have been talking about Jenny that day, but you’re the one I really wanted.”

He was gazing at her with that look, the same look she remembered him wearing at Darlene and Lynn’s wedding, and she felt like her heart could burst with the amount of love it contained for the man by her side. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed softly.

“We were really dumb, huh?”

“The dumbest,” he agreed and kissed the top of her head.

They stood there in contented silence for a few moments before Amy craned her neck to look Jake in the eye. “Want to go slow dance?”

He grinned. “Absolutely.”

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer as they walked back to the gym to right a wrong.

[elsaclack]

Hi :) This might sound weird haha but I adore reading you talk about your writing, it's really inspiring and I feel like I learn a lot of things every time I read you talk about it (you know I'm a fan of your style haha). And anyways while I was reading your answer to your last anon, this struck me: "when i was outlining that chapter i think the only line i dedicated to the actual fight itself was “and then they have a crazy knife fight (good luck future me)”" and I wanted to ask you (1/2?)

(2/3?) do you have like any tips for writing a multichapters fic? I guess from what you wrote here you outline the whole thing before you start with it? Or it depends or the story and sometimes you just go with the flow and see where it goes haha? Do you mind sharing some of your writing process of multichapter fics? :3 Bc I tend to get "bored" really easily and if I don't finish something in one sitting I usually never ever finish it. But also I'd like to learn how to take my time sometimes

(3/3) and idk maybe learning how to properly "get ready" to write something long would help haha. I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense at all but yeah in any case just thank you for blessing my nights with your fics and killing me over and over with feels, I'm sure I said it before but you (and all of the amazing writers this fandom is blessed with) are a true inspiration!!!

you are SO sweet to me i die fhflkdsjf

i’m gonna go ahead and throw 100% of my answer under the cut because i haven’t even started yet and i know this is about to be. So Long. i am sorry in advance lmao

there are a couple of different aspects to this ask that i want to touch on so i will be as brief as possible but as i have proven twice over tonight alone, i am really not capable of that lmfao

i’d say first and foremost, the biggest thing you can do to help yourself in this arena is figure out how to best discipline yourself. which SUCKS it’s like the worst most mom answer ever but in all honesty, developing discipline in writing is what separates the “i could write a book” people from the people who actually do write books. everyone is capable of writing, but not everyone has the discipline or patience to do so. long-form narrative requires even MORE discipline than a one-shot (or even a long one-shot) because it’s like you said, it requires the author to come back over and over and over again to write new material and edit existing material and figure out a way to cohesively connect everything they’ve written into one consistent narrative, and some people have a much harder time with that than others do. there’s nothing wrong with that either way!! the world needs short stories just as much as it needs longer stories. but if you’re wanting to work on writing longer-form narratives, working out a way to best discipline yourself should probably be your number-one goal.

that kind of brings me to my next point (and also ties in part of what i was talking about in that other ask) - comparing your writing style, your progress, your everything to other writers will only lead to heartache for you. when i first started reading and writing for b99 i came across a specific author (who is now one of my dear friends) whose fics were just. next-level works of art. and while i read through just about everything she’d written for b99 and LOVED every single one of them, i found myself getting more and more down on my own writing, because i knew i’d never be able to write like her. but the more comfortable and confident i got in my own writing, the more i realized that it’s less about writing more like That Person and more about developing my own style (my favorite comparison to make between my writing and hers now is that hers are like beautiful and intricate fairy tales, and mine are more of a smokey back room at a bar where a guy is sitting alone at a table and he says “come here and listen to this story.” they’re both Very Different, and perhaps have varying audiences, but one is not inherently Better Or Worse than the other). all of this to say, if you’re working as hard as you can and being really disciplined but still find yourself struggling with writing a multichap, THAT’S OKAY!!! there’s NOTHING wrong with that!!! your writing, however short or long, serves an INCREDIBLY important purpose within the fandom as a whole and no matter what, there will ALWAYS be an audience for your writing.

so okay as for the actual Advice!!! i actually have a couple of steps that i usually follow prior to actually Writing the first chapter of any long fic i’ve written (or am in the process of writing...@king and lionheart yikes). i have yet to really find any consistency in how i think of ideas for multichaps - so far the idea every multichap i’ve written has come from a different source (which is actually kind of Frustrating for reasons i won’t get into). but basically once i actually have An Idea, i’ll take a day or two to kind of think it over and flesh it out as much as possible. if it really starts expanding in detail and an actual Story constructs itself around the idea, i’ll move on to the next step, which is to find a few trusted mutuals here on tungle.corn and say “heyyYYY CAN I YELL ABOUT AN IDEA I HAVE FOR A SECOND” and then spill everything i’ve thought of so far. usually i can tell if an idea will live or die based on these conversations - if the other person is Into It and we start sort of developing the world within the chat, i know it’s time to really sit down and make an effort to pursue the fic. in that case, i will go and copy&paste that part of our chat into a google doc and i’ll build an outline in a separate doc. i used to despise outlines and i would refuse to do them in high school, but once i got into writing as a hobby and i started pursuing longer narrative forms, i tried once or twice to write a multichap without an outline and i just forgot a lot of the details i originally wanted to include, which left me feeling really frustrated with myself and with my writing. i came to realize that outlines kind of a necessary evil, so in writing them i made them as fun for me as possible (i.e. the “good luck future me” line from the king and lionheart outline i mentioned lmao). now i love them and i have them open at all times while i’m working on writing a new chapter.

so i know that i started this off by saying that writing multichaps requires a special kind of discipline, and i stand by that, but also...writer’s block and real life responsibility and just plain exhaustion are all Very Real Things, and they take precedent over keeping up with a publishing schedule (if you’re so inclined to make one of those for yourself). when i started writing king and lionheart, i didn’t know at that point that i would be headed back to school in the spring, and thought that i would have all the time in the world to write. right around november, i realized that i would be going back to school - that’s about the time i took an unofficial hiatus from writing king and lionheart, because i knew trying to keep up with writing that fic the way that i want it to be written and all of the intensive and demanding coursework was going to kill me. taking a step back from posting and coming back to it later is okay. i know i talk a lot about feeling guilty for not having an update for king and lionheart (and the cancer au before it) but in all honesty i know that it’s okay for me to take some time and deal with my real life. and, you know, it’s also okay to lose inspiration for a while and to take a step back until that inspiration comes back. i think it’s that fear of not being able to take longer breaks between updates that scares a lot of people off from even trying to write a multichap - as the queen of procrastination, i am here to tell you that it is 100% okay to start a multichap and to take a break and come back to it when necessary!

writing a multichap is very much like running a marathon - it requires a different kind of energy than a 400 meter sprint or a 1k fluffy oneshot. it’s gonna hurt and it’s gonna suck and there are gonna be times when you’re ready to just quit writing altogether. but there will be parts that are really fun and really easy and you’re gonna get some really great views along the way - and at the end when you cross that finish line and you’re able to check that “complete” box on ao3 before you post the last chapter, you won’t remember the parts that sucked. trust me!! i wouldn’t write as many as i do if the actual shitty parts of the writing process negated the good things that come from writing it and sharing it with other people!

it’s also worth noting that just because you get bored with an idea doesn’t mean that you can’t pick it up again later!!! honestly the first 2 or 3 paragraphs of on your heart like a tattoo sat in my google docs for MONTHS before i randomly decided one day to open it and take a crack at finishing it, and to this DAY i’m still getting people regularly commenting on it. every idea has its purpose and its place, even if it doesn’t always immediately seem like it.

i really hope this helps and i’m sorry if it doesn’t!!! you are such a kind and wonderful person and i absolutely adore you

[castcharmperson]

Taakitz: Crossover

What up!! It’s November!! Literally my only note to myself when writing this story was, and this is a direct copy-paste from my google doc, “For the love of god i gotta keep this one short or I’ll lose my mind.” AND NOW I HAVE 9k+ WORDS SO???

A thousand thank you’s to the folks behind @taakitzweek - participating was a joy and a privilege and gifted me this AU that I’m pretty sure will live in my heart forever. To be posted in six parts over the course of the next week. Please enjoy part one of Speed Trap, a b99 styled, white collar inspired, non-magical modern au where Taako does a crime and Kravitz absolutely does not get paid enough to deal with it. Warning for a paraphrase of the ‘tentacle your dick’ quote.

It wasn’t Taako’s fault that he got fired. The product was damaged, some kid was clumsy in the back of the shop, so the manager told Taako to throw out it. Sure, the eyeshadow palette was cracked, but other than that it was perfectly fine. Some pigment from the blue crossed into the green, but honestly, Taako had several outfits that would be amazing with that unique shade of teal. So the product was supposed to go in the trash, instead it ended up in Taako’s pocket. There was almost no difference between the two, especially when he changed out of his work uniform and into his black skinny jeans that were all but threadbare.

But then he was in the parking lot, sitting on the hood of his car and nowhere near the store, when his manager thought it’d be a great time to remind him that smoking would be the death of him. Seriously, Taako was off the clock and even if he wasn’t, his manager wasn’t his mom, don’t tell him what to do.

“Hey, why do you have one of our palettes in your pocket?”

So now Taako didn’t have a job. Again. He’d been lucky to score that easy gig, to have some sort of start at paying off his loans, but now he was blacklisted from the entire mall. And it wasn’t like he could work in any of the restaurants nearby because his asshole ex-boyfriend had literally soured every contact they had in the food industry.

Taako had three degrees to his name. He was an engineer and a chef, but even before his credibility was destroyed, the only thing his fancy education brought him was a bank account perpetually in the red.

“Hey Koko, you’re home early.” Lup shrugged off her uniform jacket and went directly to the fridge. Living with his sister was the best thing to happen to him since coming back from the nightmare Paris had turned into. She had a steady job, a dangerous one, but she was never late to pay rent like he always seemed to be. She was so patient with him, it almost felt unfair. She really should have kicked him out by now; instead, she constantly reminded him that his luck would change any day now. He’d catch his break, or there was always a job for him at the station.

He appreciated her offer, he really did, but Taako he knew he wouldn’t survive a day being a police officer. The idea of him being in uniform and competently saving lives was laughable. He barely managed to handle the stress of knowing his sister was putting her life on the line for this shitty city.

“Uh, yeah.” And he could not handle the stress of her knowing he got fired again.

“Everything okay? I know you’re manager’s a jerk but maybe-“

“They actually got fired today.” What? No, stop. He was not lying to his sister, she’d see right through him. Instead, Lup turned around grinning. “Yeah and um, I’m the new manager. Regional position, actually, pretty nice.”

“Taako!” She was hugging him and he felt sick. “That’s amazing! I told you things would turn around!” What happened to twin telepathy? Why did she believe him? Why was he lying to her??

She said something about a date with Barry, but Taako was barely listening. Now that he was thinking about it, it wasn’t surprising that she believed him; they didn’t keep things from each other, she had no reason to suspect anything.

Home alone again, the smart thing to do would be to tell her the truth. Text her. It would maybe ruin her date, but at least the fall out would be buffered until she got back home. Besides, date night with Barry meant the two of them were shopping for Mr. and Mrs. suitcase sets or some other gross couple-y nonsense. There wasn’t much to ruin. She’d be mad, but in time, everything would be fine.

Just sitting on the couch, phone in hand as he hovered over the digital keyboard, he was already nauseous from her imagined anger. Getting fired again was bad enough, but lying to her? Why did he say that?

The smart thing to do would be telling the truth. But the Taako thing to do would be to make the truth. He said he got promoted, new job, new hours, new money. All he had to do was find that job.

Next morning, he was out of the house before she even woke up. Note on the fridge, something vague about new hours for manager training and a breakfast pastry waiting for her, and she wouldn’t suspect a thing. Taako wasn’t sure where he was going to find this new truth of a job, but it had to be out there. The mall by the house wasn’t an option, but there were other malls and he had gas to burn after swiping that seemingly unlimited gift card off of some rich asshole a few months back.

Speeding down the highway, Taako forced himself to be hopeful. It was the tail end of fall, places would be hiring. The kids to help with the summer rush all had classes again and stores wanted to start preparing for the holiday rush. Lup was right, even if she didn’t know the whole picture. His luck was turning.

But maybe that luck was taking a smoke break as he heard sirens behind him. Glancing in the mirror, a cop car tailed him down the freeway. “Bullshit,” Taako cursed as he pulled over. Everyone sped down this stretch, why was he being pulled over?

He rolled down his window and was treated to someone glaring at him through a large pair of aviators. “Sir, do you know how fast you were going?” Ridiculous sunglasses matched with an equally ridiculous accent. No way that was real.

Taako couldn’t help himself, losing the fight against the grin taking over his face. “Blimey, officer, I ain’t sure.” It’d been over a decade since his and Lup’s high school stardom in a rather strange retelling of Oliver Twist but Taako’s accent was still more believable than the officer’s.

The officer’s brow twitched and then the glasses came off as though Taako’s joke might have somehow been a trick of his lenses. “Excuse me?” The accent was faltering worse now, but without the glasses, Taako was able to fully appreciate the man’s face.

“Oh wow, if all the cops were as handsome as you, I’d maybe be tempted to follow all the laws.”

The handsome man’s face twisted further in confusion. “What is wrong with you? I’m giving you a speeding ticket and you’re hitting on me?”

Taako just shrugged, but then the threat of a ticket finally sunk in. “Wait, shit, a ticket? Come on, I couldn’t have been going that fast.”

“I’ve certainly seen faster on this street, but eighty in a fifty five still isn’t great.”

Taako did the math real quick, facts and figures from Lup’s studying for the academy still fresh in his mind even though she’d graduated years ago. There was no way he could afford a ticket for going that high over the limit. “Okay hold on, hot stuff. Can’t you cut me a break? First time offense and all?”

“Not five seconds ago, you admitted to me that the lack of attractive police force was contribution to your history of crime.” His tone was turning amused now, seeming to enjoy the way the conversation had slipped back into his control. His smile was unfairly charming, even if the accent was still disastrous.

Taako couldn’t afford to be distracted though. “I’m not a criminal! Dude, come on, I will give you everything in my wallet if you don't ticket me.”

“Bribing an officer? I do not want to deal with the paperwork for that. Just stay here.” He started back to his squad car and Taako leaned out the window to holler after him.

“Come on, hot stuff, don’t be like this! At least lemme get that name, I’m about to suck your dick for free if I can’t do it to get out of a ticket!”

The officer ignored him, coming back to throw a slip of paper through Taako’s window. His sunglasses were back on, covering some of his face but not enough to hide the blush from what Taako had been shouting at him. “Do me a favor, Mr. Taako? Be a criminal in some other district because I would love to never ticket you again.”

At least the piece of paper gave Taako a name: K. Queen. Not that it meant anything with one of the most common last names in the city. Besides, Taako couldn’t exactly try to hook up with someone if he got arrested for overdue fines. Long after the officer drove off, Taako sat in his own car on the side of the highway. The price mocked him from the piece of paper, like it knew he’d never afford it and rent at the same time.

Another car zoomed past him, easily going over the eighty Taako had been caught for. If only he could pull over that guy, charge him in order to pay off his own ticket. It’d be fair- there were drunk drivers and reckless assholes all over this stupid city. They should be getting ticketed, not him!

Wait… That wasn’t a bad idea.

[Part Two]

Please come scream at me in my ask box about this AU because even after I post all of this fic I might write little bonuses for it. And thanks so much for reading! I know I am well past the taakitz week deadline for posting this. If you want to, check out my charmedwords tag for more taz fics!

[attackofthezee]

WIP meme

Pretty sure I’ve done this before but I was tagged by @bangyababy (and one other person I think??? But it either got lost in my activity notifications or was a weird fever dream??) so I’m doing it again cause I wanna. Also wow I have too many wips so this is under a cut cause it got long as hell. 

The Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous.

Grad School Bucky Cap Steve (There’s literally two lines in this document?? Idk what I’m doing with it and it might be shuffled into the fanfic mortuary file next time I sort through fics.) 

Barnes Home For Wayward Kids (Bucky keeps showing up at home with orphans and so he and Steve just end up with like a whole house of them. It’s also probably going into the fanfic mortuary cause it hasn’t been touched since uhhhh last year?) 

Werewolf Cap Merica F* Yeah (What it says on the tin! The serum is actually lycanthropy. Steve jumps out of things and gives Bucky heart attacks. It is exactly what people should expect from me tbh.) 

Found Baby AU (I WILL ONE DAY FINISH THIS ONE I SWEAR. It features Vet!Bucky who finds a baby in a dumpster and ends up in Pediatrician!Steve’s office at like 1 am and IT IS JUST A LOT OF SOFTNESS AND ONE DAY I WILL FINISH IT.) 

NEW DRAGON AU This Time Featuring More Fae (Steve is a dragon and Bucky is fae and they 110% use fae magic and accidentally blood bind themselves to each other at like 9 years old oops. Sarah and Winifred are NOT amused.) 

Party Goblin Sequel (One time, years ago, I wrote a fic called Adulthood Is Just A Myth -shameless plug!- and it didn’t do incredibly well despite my love for it at the time buuuut I’ve had a sequel planned for it since pretty much the moment I finished it. It involves Bucky losing his arm because I’m a terrible person, and like the exploration of disability and Steve being a disabled person dealing with the person he loves dealing with disability. It’s still funny, because I’m me, but it will also take forever and a day for me to ever finish it because I am Bad At writing things that are overly close to me.) 

Cap PSAs (Literally just a fic about Bucky getting a lot of joy at Steve’s expense from Steve’s really awful school PSAs) 

Practical Magic AU (Listen I have craved a Practical Magic AU for YEARS. So I started one a couple months back, but then wearing_tearing went and wrote one because they are a fic writing goddess so now I DON’T NEED TO. But it’s still sitting in my WIP folder so maybe one day I’ll actually finish it under the Two Cakes rule.) 

IW FIX IT (I had a lot of feelings after seeing Infinity War??? And I wanted to fix them??? But this is another one that’ll probably go into the fic mortuary because I have NO CLUE what I was planning to do with it.) 

MAJOR REWORK NEEDED great american roadtrip (Once upon a time, December 11th 2016 to be exact, at least according to the document details, I sat down to write an epic fanfic where two old assholes went on a road trip, saw the grand canyon, went camping, and also kept up with their therapy via phone appointments.) 

both fall of train au (you think both fall off the train aus mean they both get captured by HYDRA? THINK AGAIN. Because what is TRAGEDY? I CAN’T WRITE ANGST so this shit is just Steve and Bucky fall off the train together and both wake up in the 21st century and Have To Adjust. Idk where it’s going, idk anything beyond that basic premise but who knows, IT MIGHT BE GOOD ONE DAY?)

the sequel i'm not writing to where the heart is (the fact that I haven’t touched this since August means the title is technically correct. Basically it’s the story of how Where The Heart Is!Bucky and Steve go on vacation and end up taking down the leftover bits of HYDRA instead. Also Bucky’s instagram is featured a lot. This one actually has a lot written already so like, I wanna finish it eventually.) 

is it... a fake dating au???? (A one night stand turns into Steve fake dating Bucky for family events because I love tropes.) 

non recovery fic except it IS (Idk how to describe this one except that like it’s a recovery fic but it started based on the premise that not being okay is okay. It’s cute and sad and deals with recovery things.) 

Steve Rogers Meets His Irish History: c. 2016 (This one is literally just a document with a link to what inspired it and also will require a lot of research so who the hell knows what’ll happen with it.) 

A DIFFERENT FOUND BABY (THIS ONE GOT AWAY FROM ME GUYS. Like it started with Bucky Barnes coming home to Steve because he found A BABY AND I LOVE KIDFIC but then I veered into like How Steve Rogers Relates To Disability, His Body, His Gay Identity, And Gender All In Relation To His Past Disability so like, it’s a mess.) 

Angel Steve yo (This will one day be my magnum opus tbh. Steve’s an asshole angel who shows up to a Halloween party in booty shorts and devil horns. Bucky’s the confused millennial who wants to bone him. I don’t think I’ll ever love a premise more tbh.)  

ABO PREG STEVE WHAT (I am genuinely not shy about the fact that I like abo and mpreg and all that soft shit, so like, this is just the result of that enjoyment and features omega Steve going into the ice pregnant, waking up and having a baby because THAT PLOT HASN’T BEEN DONE A MILLION TIMES IN ABO FICS OR ANYTHING. whispering softly but with feeling: two cakes Elizabeth, TWO CAKES.) 

B99 Kinda (Steve Rogers is a cop in Brooklyn. Bucky Barnes is a firefighter who Steve’s kinda smitten with.) 

Jersey- Coda (Soft tummy edition) (someone commented on This Is Why People Don’t Go To Jersey saying they hope Steve’s tummy was soft after having a baby and my inner lizard brain went YES THIS IS GOOD, VERY GOOD. So it’s literally just a fic about Steve having a soft tummy and Bucky being very fond of it.) 

soulmate au f yeah (This is my CHILD and I will one day finish the motherfucker. It’s soulmate magical realism where soulmate’s hearts BEAT THE SAME and there is recovery and goodness and god I love the premise a lot, ngl.) 

FIRST LADY STEVE ROGERS (This is actually just the document that I have Making The Ride Count in, but it’s also got bits and pieces that will become other parts in the series.) 

Will an 80s winter soldier wear leg warmers? (Bucky breaks his programming in the 80s and he and Peggy pal around beating HYDRA and terrorizing people until Steve’s dug out of the ice again.) 

competitive assholes (the idea was given to me to have Steve and Bucky be neighbors competing over decorations and I NOW MUST WRITE IT.) 

Omega Rights Activist Steve (College abo with omega Steve and Alpha Bucky and like, lots of softness and Bucky just wanting to build Steve THE BEST NEST and Steve being like I AM A STRONG CAPABLE OMEGA but also ‘yes pls buy me seventeen pillows and twenty-five blankets and fluff them strategically for me.’) 

An Angel And A Demon Walk Into A Bar... (Angel Steve + Demon Bucky = BEST FRIENDS FOREVERRRRRR. Also lots of jokes about heaven having too much paperwork.)

holiday swap - finish by 12/21 (For the Marvel Holiday Swap. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING WITH THIS ONE DEAR LORD HELP ME.) 

 It All Comes Back Around (Chapter three! It’s coming along slow as hell but it IS coming along.) 

FOR LATER (a fic in which Steve wakes up from the ice and starts making mental lists of ‘things Bucky would like’ because he’s a sad, sad human being.)

Loyalty Devotion (For Happy Steve Bingo. There’s selkies??? and Steve is some sort of unspecified magic??? and it’s a little different than my norm writing style wise?? Idk we’ll see how it turns out. I might edit the first bits copiously so that it’s more my style, or i might embrace the flow of this one WE SHALL SEE.)

Aaaand I can’t think of anyone to tag right this moment because my brain is word soup soooo if you want to do this then please go forth and do it! There are no rules here, this is the wild west of meme games, BE FREE WRITER FRIENDS BE FREE 

[icanhearyouglaring]

Anything You Can Do

summary: There’s nothing wrong with a little healthy competition between frenemies (a meet in the JL-AU) wally/artemis. b99-inspired. a/n: first part of 3 of a gift i’ve been preparing for @rachelisanerd​. buckle up. <3

“Well, that’s funny.”

Tigress slowly spins around in her seat, spies the smile on Zatanna’s face, and willingly (gratefully) takes the bait. Monitor duty can be such a drag. With the Watchtower nearly empty and their shift nearly over, it’d been all too easy for the women to fall into the trap that is the annals of the League, conveniently accessible through their holo-monitors during desperate(ly boring) times such as these.

“What’s funny?” Tigress asks, leaning closer to Zatanna’s monitor.

Zatanna directs Tigress’s attention to a number next to Tigress’s name. “You have the highest number of successful missions this quarter.”

“I do?” Tigress asks, genuinely shocked. She has been pulling double shifts, traveling between Star and Gotham more than ever, but she hadn’t realized she’d been on that many missions.

“Yeah, your numbers are insane,” Zatanna says, nodding before she tilts her head. “Do you sleep?”

“Only on monitor duty,” Tigress snorts, before she sits back and smiles. “This is perfect. Next time you-know-who calls me a house cat, I can throw my numbers back at him and–”

“Oh no, you’re going to want to hold off on that,” Zatanna interrupts her and points to another name on the list. “Flash just updated his mission log. You’re tied.”

Well, there goes that, Tigress thinks, sinking deeper into her seat. “You have got to be kidding me.”

A notification pops up on Zatanna’s screen and she winces before she swipes it away.

“It gets worse,” Zatanna says with a frown. “He’s on his way up here.”

Tigress sits up straighter. “This is so not fair. I’ve been working my ass off and I can’t even get in a minute of gloating? He runs faster than the speed of sound, Zee! Of course he’s going to have high numbers. Plus, he has an entire rogue gallery on rotation and his own turf. I have to share with G.A., Black Canary, and Red Arrow. Even Batman, on occasion.”

“Maybe you should move?” Zatanna offers (un)helpfully.

“Let me look at his file,” Tigress says gruffly, turning back to her own screen and pulling up the mission log, and it only takes her a moment before she finds something of interest. “Oh, this is bullshit. Helped an old man cross the street. That is not a mission!”

Tigress throws her hands up. “Who writes mission logs for that?! These numbers are inflated. He’s cheating.”

Zatanna laughs, shaking her head. “Cheating? Since when did helping people become a competition?”

“Since you told me I was winning,” Tigress answers, her narrowed gaze trained on the outrageously detailed tiny-itty-bitty so-called missions before her. Tied my ass.

“What are you winning?”

It takes all of the self-control Tigress has in her to keep from swiping at the man who’d thought it’d be fun to sneak up on her. (How’d he do that? Surely he hadn’t dropped his habit of announcing his presence the moment he enters a room in a single day.) Tigress spins around in her seat, arms crossed and expression sour. Flash doesn’t flinch at the sight of her pinched face, so she makes sure to look extra annoyed as she regards his innocent (definitely not) smile.

Zatanna answers the question for Tigress, pointing to her monitor. “Tigress has the best mission record this quarter.”

Flash takes a closer look at the monitor and quirks his head. “We’re tied.”

“Only because you’re cheating,” Tigress says, more defensively than she intended. “No one counts giving directions as a mission.”

Flash leans against the railing of the monitor station and crosses his arms. “What can I say? Bats asked me to keep better track of my time in the field. I’m only following orders. Being thorough.”

Tigress doesn’t smile when she asks, “Does he make you log your bathroom breaks too?”

“Ha-ha,” Flash says flatly, sending Zatanna (whose snorting laughter echoes throughout the room) a quick glare before he turns back to Tigress. “Look, my numbers are good because I’m that good. You can’t exactly say I was cheating if I didn’t know this was a game with rules.”

“You know,” Zatanna starts, leaning forward in her chair wearing the same smile she’d used to drag Tigress into her discovery, “there are only a few weeks left in the quarter. We could lay down some rules right now and see who has the highest number at the end of the month.”

“I’m in,” Flash says, nodding at Tigress.

Tigress raises a brow at him. “That was fast.”

“Being fast is kind of my thing,” Flash says, and the peacocking he does as he says it is the last thing Tigress needs to see before she makes her decision to knock him off his pedestal.

“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” Tigress says, rolling her eyes as she raps her fingers against her armrest. Her gaze falls on Zatanna’s pleading eyes for a second before she sighs softly in resignation.

Flash crouches down next to Tigress’s chair and asks,  “Are you in or not?”

“I’m in,” Tigress says as she looks down at him and crosses her arms. “Here are my terms. No more mini-missions, like saving a cat in a tree or helping old people find the train station. There need to be actual bad guys involved for it to count as a mission.”

Flash nods and purses his lips before he adds, “And if we have a joint mission, whoever takes out the most perps wins the point for that mission.”

“Fine.”

“What do you want if you win?” Zatanna interjects, turning to Tigress, her eyes sparkling.

Tigress thinks for a moment before she says, “If I win, Flash has to be my coffee runner for a month.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Flash says, scoffing.

“That’s because you don’t know about her coffee addiction,” Zatanna notes, gleefully writing down the terms on her monitor. “You’re in for it.”

Flash scoffs before he smiles and says, “When I win, Tigress has to go on a date with me.”

A what now? She’d been expecting anything ranging from shaving her head to being his hype-woman around the Watchtower but a date was– well, that wasn’t– how dare–

“But–What–” Tigress sputters (out loud this time), “why is that what you want?”

Flash grins brightly as he answers her question. “Because you’ll hate it.”

Of course. She’d been thinking too small with the coffee lackey idea. Too late to turn back now.

Tigress narrows her eyes and holds out her hand. “Fine. Deal, but only because I know you’re going to lose.”

“Keep underestimating me,” Flash says, smirking as he shakes her outstretched hand. “I’m going to leave your numbers in the dust.”

Tigress snorts, releases her hand from his grip and uses the tip of her boot to lightly push Flash’s knee. He topples back onto his butt against the floor. (Zatanna loses it, burying her mouth beneath her hands and slamming her foot against the ground to quell her laughter.)

Tigress smiles down at him and asks, “Who’s leaving who in the dust now?”

-o-

Tigress enters her apartment (through the window, as one does) as the sun rises, and she can’t run to her laptop fast enough. She enters her missions in the log, her heart racing, and by the time she finishes her reports, the sun is high in the sky and she’s got a seven point lead on the enemy.

Take that, she thinks, before she closes her laptop and leaves it on her desk. Satisfied, she takes off her necklace, places it on her nightstand, and makes her way to the shower. While there, Artemis contemplates the many coffee orders she’ll be putting in over the next month. The opportunities are endless when your delivery boy can break the sound barrier and has access to the Zeta network. She finishes her shower and gets ready for bed with a full heart and a mind full of overly complicated caffeinated drinks.

Not even a minute after she shuts her eyes, her phone buzzes on her nightstand. On her screen is a picture of the mission log, and a single message. The picture shows Flash ahead by two missions.

🏃💨Better luck next time, 🐯.  –⚡[9:57AM]

Artemis dreams of crimewaves and espressos.  

-o-

“Look, I know the only thing you have on the line here is your dignity,” Rocket says, “but I’d like to remind you that I’m running the risk of losing a significant amount of capital if you lose.”

“Me too,” Superboy says.

“Can we talk about this later?” Tigress asks, kicking another robot monkey into the empty the elevator shaft.

It’s not like Tigress wants to lose (and she’d argue she has a lot more than just her dignity on the line), but there are only so many hours in the day during which she can rack up points. The only real advantage she has is the surging crime rates in Star City and Gotham (and those aren’t exactly things she wants to brag about).

Rocket shakes her head and traps a group of robots in a bubble. “Later would be too late. You need to win this one, right now. Another wave incoming.”

Tigress sends an arrow through a monkey’s eye. “How many is that?”

“Seventeen,” Superboy says, tossing two more monkeys out the broken window of the abandoned office building.

“How many do you think he’s taken out by now?” Tigress puffs, wacking another monkey away with a wooden board. Okay, no more of this. Time for swords.

Superboy squints at the wall for a quick second. “A grand total of none. He’s still at his post.”

“Do robots count?” Rocket asks.

“Ugh, I hate monkeys,” Superboy groans, grabbing a robot off his back and chucking it into the elevator shaft. “I’d say these qualify.”

“How much did you two bet on the bet?”

When they don’t answer, Tigress turns around and repeats her question in a sterner tone.

Superboy shares a look with Rocket before he coughs.

Rocket shakes her head and says, “It’s better if you don’t know.”

“Then the monkeys count,”  Tigress declares, spinning back around and stabbing her sword through two of the robots at once before she tosses them back from whence they came.

-o-

Robot monkeys don’t count! – ⚡[1:23AM]

Majority vote says they do. Better luck tomorrow, ⚡. – 🐯[1:25AM]

-o-

[pt.2 tbp]

[johnny-and-dora]

okay i hope you don't mind me sending several numbers for the fic ask thing. your fics were actually along the first b99 fics i ever read and i still love them. you're an amazing writer. 3 for 'be my baby', 1 for 'i'll hold your hands, they're just like ice', 8 for 'call me, maybe' and 5 for 'there's no horizon to this open sea (now that i'm giving it another chance)'

first off i have to say that this ask made me so so happy. thank you sweet anon

3. what’s your favourite line of narration? (be my baby)This year, he just so happens to be spending Valentine’s Day with Amy.

Not with Amy, of course – he means, with Amy in the sense that Amy is in his presence, sitting next to him in the passenger seat, anxiously drumming her nails against the dashboard and checking her watch every twenty-two seconds (not that he’s counting).

1. what inspired you to write the fic this way? (i’ll hold your hands)i really wanted to write some cute plot-less festive fluff! i actually wrote about…40% of it for christmas 2017 but never got around to finishing it until roughly a year later… it was also definitely inspired by johanna’s wonderful festive fic series that she wrote last year because it was so adorable

8. did any real people or events inspire this fic? (call me, maybe)nope! i think i just wanted to challenge myself by writing some pre-show and i just loved the idea of poor jake trying to nagivate the unwanted crush he has on his newest coworker :’)

5. what part was the hardest to write? (there’s no horizon)this whole fic was actually pretty difficult to write because it’s an actual narritivsation of that kiss scene rather than a missing scene, so i had to watch the evidence lock-up kiss like forty times (not that different from a regular day tbh) and try and accurately translate their body language and microexpressions into actual words which was a fun challenge! 

send me a fanfic title & a question!!!

[lunarriviera]

an about me meme thing

I never do these, because all I can ever think is “I’m just giving nonny more reasons to despise and mock me”; but @spearywritesstuff tagged me, so!

relationship status: divorced; I will die alone and the cat will eat me

favorite colour: *rolls up sleeves* okay this may take awhile. or—wait, no it won’t, just peek at my aquamarine/robin’s egg/sky/turquoise pinterest board! although since I got out of the hospital, where it was very white and gray, I’ve been obsessed with pink for the first time ever—peachy salmon or rose pink. and rose gold, which is, lbr, like the pumpkin spice latte of metallics.

top three ships: lifetime, or currently? lifetime ship is k/s, since I was a kid; past ships for which I will always carry the torch: deancas, stucky, sterek; currently writing: sam/steve, mcshep, and my weird novel that no one is ever gonna read.

lipstick or chapstick: both for different days? I migrate from sloppy femme to soft butch and back again (my gender is glitter & plaid). I swear by nyx soft matte lip cream in either antwerp (day) or amsterdam (evening). that shit is bombproof if you use the matching liner, and it tastes like buttercream frosting. here have some swatches from a dedicated blogger named emily fox. I also have milan and sao paolo but they’re a little too blue for me, I need warmer colours:

last song: "rainbow” by kesha rose. that I listened to—I wrote a sea chanty the other day inspired by my broken refrigerator which drones consistently at Bb

last movie: lady bird! exclamation point bc it was predictable but I liked it.

top three shows: of all time? the wire, the west wing, twin peaks, battlestar galactica, deadwood. if by three you mean five which clearly you did. honorable mention to ds9 and season 3b of teen woof, both of which I have watched eleventyleven times. currently I just watch stargate atlantis over and over while wolfing dinner, but I’m starting the magicians because @seperis shares my love for eliot. and oh my god jessica jones and the rosa diaz show, I mean b99.

top three bands/artists: bach and chopin/ but tori amos, joni mitchell, ani difranco, thom yorke, and kurt cobain. if by three you mean seven, which, etc.

currently reading: a kindle-full of queer and affect theory for my last comprehensive exam (!) as a phd candidate, hela and loki please let me pass. 

the last fic I read was cinderwings, during the usual hellish 16 hours in the emergency room trying to get admitted to the hospital, and it made my whole stay better. I’d lie in bed in my room thinking about the scene at the end that’s just an explosion of angelic wingcolors, which brought tears sparking to my eyes and made all my hair stand on end because it was straight outta milton (well I mean it’s @bendingsignpost but I’m p sure ben actually might be milton?):

Overhead, the golden line turns white along its entire length, angel after angel swooping down out of nothingness.

Bronze, sandy tan, copper, midnight blue, reds muted and fiery, white and dappled, onyx black, greens of grass and pine, burnt orange, every shade of brown, gleaming silver, a glimpse of purple, yellows faded and bright; in rapid, unrelenting succession they come, colors in every combination. The sky goes dark with the multitude of wingspans…[and] the angels begin to sing.

It isn’t one song but many, discordant in an uncoordinated rush of joy. They swoop and soar and spread out, many immediately flying due south. Their numbers still blot out the sun, still cover up the flashes of light heralding their kin.

ETA: UH-OH WAIT I FORGOT TO TAG PEOPLE... @200dollargod @shiphitsthefan @popkin16 @xylodemon @bettsfic @expatgirl @awed-frog @reallyelegantsharkfish @callunavulgari @bamfinacuddlyjumper @hypatias-sister and honestly this is just who autopopulated & I know most of you, so but please CONSIDER YOURSELF TAGGED and do the thing, I did the thing—