#it was a very werewolfy week in fic

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (21-27 Jan 2024)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 Cat Person (The_She_Devil) - 72K, shrunkyclunks - Bucky's the SHIELD agt tasked with bringing newly defrosted Steve up to speed on the 21st century - there's really hot sex in a secluded cabin PLUS feelings. All around deliciousness.

😊 Dark Carnivals: Modern Horrors and the Origins of American Empire (W. Scott Poole, author; Enrique McGavin, narrator) - interesting, edifying, depressing. Not as much discusssion of the films as I expected/would have liked - like 70% rundown of USian imperial activities of the last two centuries, 30% horror/scifi film discussion. [In hindsight, should have read this in text, as there were passages I really wanted to highlight/quote and the narration was…weird. Voice sound & tone was OK but there were lots of bizarre pauses. Sometimes when reading a quotes from a notable figure, the narrator did do some very credible imitations of Clinton & Reagan.]

😍 Waking Up Slow (odetteandodile) - 44K, shrunkyclunks - single dad Bucky, living in a isolated lighthouse in Canada, finds an amesiac, just-thawed Steve Rogers washed up on his beach… (reread for stucky bookclub, forever fave!)

😊 for a good time, call… (EvanesDust) - 46K, sterek, omegaverse fake-dating - solidly enjoyable

😊 Maurice (E.M. Forester, author; Peter Firth, narrator) - read this for a discord book club, can't believe I hadn't read it before & it's been 30 years since I watched the movie. Forester's language & turn of phrase is amazing.

🥰 And My Love Life Waits for Me (Bittersweet_in_Boston (author); Alaskan_Outsider (artist)) - 62K, shrunkyclunks soulmate fic - satisfyingly enjoyable, not nearly as dark as the tags might make you think

💖💖 +190K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

Own Me series (nrnyx) - TW: Jordan/Derek /Stiles, 62K (series) - Stiles gets picked up by husbands Jordan & Derek at the club and what starts as a very hot one night stand becomes so much more. Very werewolfy omegaverse stuff. Hot quality smut but also action-y plot!

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Goncharov (berlincorpography) - Goncharov (1973): OFC / OFC, 6K - very clever & funny fic featuring disaster lesbians, film criticism & academia

Once Upon a Time (softestpunk) - The Sandman: Dreamling, 14K - just so soft & warm, pure delight! They're both single dads! Falling in love! Dream is a children's librarian!

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - s8, e5-10

D20: Fantasy High: Junior Year - "Not All Who Wanda Are Lost" (s21, e3)

D20: Adventuring Party - "I Wanda'd In" (s16, e3)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

What Next: TBD - Have Algorithms Ruined Our Culture?

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Whimzeyland

The Sporkful - Deep Dish With Sohla And Ham: Delta Tamales

Today, Explained - Frosty the Tesla

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Slowjamastan

It's Been a Minute - Benny Safdie on 'The Curse' — and performing goodness

Shedunnit - A Reading Life

Pop Culture Happy Hour - 2024 Oscar Nominations

Switched on Pop - Kali Uchis takes on the world

Today, Explained - Modi’s temple grandstanding

⭐ Vibe Check - A Special Conversation with Cord Jefferson

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern

Code Switch - What happens when public housing goes private?

ICYMI - The TikTok Joy of Mychal the Librarian

Vibe Check - Heavy Negro Sigh

Culture Gabfest - True Detective’s Coldest Case Yet

Ologies with Alie Ward - Carcinology (CRABS) Part 2 with Adam Wall

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - A Giant Spectacle in Goffstown

Films To Be Buried With - Vincent D'Onofrio

The Sporkful - Deep Dish With Sohla And Ham: Tteokbokki

Off Menu - Ep 218: Jada Pinkett Smith

Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - Into the Huluverse

Endless Thread - The schism at the end of the tunnel

Dear Prudence - My Husband Stopped Using Soap and He Stinks. Help!

⭐ 99% Invisible #567 - The Double Kick

You're Dead to Me - Pythagoras

It's Been a Minute - South Africa's case for preventing genocide in Palestine; plus, why people love cults

Today, Explained - Music’s Pitchfork in the road

99% Invisible - Roman Mars Describes Chicago As It Is

Hit Parade - The Bridge: The Number of the Nominees Shall Be Five

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Folk Radio • Chill

Pop Radio • Downbeat

Dive Bar Karaoke

"Unholy" [Sam Smith & Kim Petras] radio

Essential New Wave

Melanie Radio • Familiar

My Mix 4 (Jimmy Buffett, Gordon Lightfoot, Jim Croce, Eagles)

[seeminglyseph]

little bit of a redraw/redesign thing. I wanna shade it but also I spent multiple hours zoned out drawing her hair. I like feel super cringe showing the original but like it’s clear I used no reference, was more interested in silhouette than pose dynamics (I’m even being generous and cropping it, my ability to know what’s important to a picture is non existent) and also learned exactly how bad it looks to shade with grey. I did not use a reference and did not have the time or discipline to do the details I’m managing now...

I have this group of OCs I keep meaning to write... something about. I’ve been playing around with designs for a while (and not been very great at it, honestly looking at the old designs. They’re either really really bland or my concept of design and anatomy... can we just say I’m improving? That was meant to be lipstick but it was a bad choice and I definitely see it. I’ve also experimented with makeup in drawings. I don’t know how to mix it with the cel shading. I tend to make solid blocks of eye shadow, but it doesn’t work good for the really blush heavy looks. I’m trying to give her that like e girl style heavy blush and highlighter. My idea is that she’s like an anime and games youtuber/streamer? Her name is Tamara and she has two love interests and originally it was a werewolves are a found family story but idk if I have anything remotely werewolfy for them to do. also I don’t wanna draw wolves. I was gonna say ‘I just want werewolf dynamics without having to draw wolves’ but that’s just abo fic. which I am not above, I do love some mate bonding and like packs. it’s about a bunch of queer kids coming together and like doing stuff. when I was designing them I was super into Wet Moon by Sophie Campbell? So I was like thinking of just some just like intense character based journeys. Really original, “hello I would like to write queer found family personal drama?” groundbreaking. I wanna though...

Tamara’s kind of a sheltered baby of her family, she’s trans and her parents got a little hover-parent over it. She started her transition in her childhood so she was on puberty blockers and the whole thing, she was kind of a shut in because she’s shy and a nerd and didn’t get out much until she went to art school and the story starts. So she’s a shy lover of anime and cute things and she wants to be a manga artist and art school is going to be very hard because like why write a story about a thoroughly uneventful time? like I said I have no idea where the werewolf shit would fit in. I gotta admit this started focused entirely on the other main character Jon who has been through many incarnations but when they started being werewolves was like an uwu omega special werewolf mage.. so like there’s a confused disconnect between what was clearly self indulgent spank bait and what was supposed to be a lot of character drama.

which I suppose isn’t to say intense character drama can’t be spank bait but I think probably not with abo dynamics lol. though it would be interesting to play it straight and see if I’m a good enough writer to pull it off (I’m not) I do hears that there’s a market for it in the world of self publishing lol I just wanna write like batshit insane drama like a soap opera. I think part of me still misses the high of being into Teen Wolf, I just want extreme relationship drama and love triangles and found family and one night stands and shit combined with like monster of the week supernatural garbage. “Hi we’re a bunch of queer college age werewolves we solve ghost crimes” I want that. if teen wolf could get away with some prosthetics and eye effects, I can too. please don’t still be reading this I put it under the cut because I knew I was going to end up talking too much. I have to either say nothing about a drawing or explain my whole thought process, there is no in between.

Cutesy e-girl weeb goes to art school and maybe does supernatural adventures but definitely ends up the focal point in a love teetertotter between her best friend since childhood who went to college one year earlier and got like suuuuper attractive and it’s a little weird but she honestly couldn’t love anyone more, and the hot nonbinary fellow art student with like... depths. I know it doesn’t sound like it should be much of a fight but like just because a relationship is new it doesn’t make it less good. and theoretically the hot nonbinary artist is very hot so don’t give up on him yet. Though childhood friend is also theoretically hot. Everyone is theoretically hot because I wanna make them hot.

[chocoholicannanymous]

Ember pt 3 (Teen Wolf)

This is the last part of this fic, that was commisioned by @rubylis​ through @fandomtrumpshate​ 2017. Better late than never, right?

Part 2 here,  Part 1 here and  Flare here

As always, I own nothing except an overactive imagination, way too many plotbunnies and a worn red hoodie.

Ember, part 3

Stiles faces the camera, features deceptively relaxed and calm, but eyes hard. He waits for the light to change, just as he's been told – just like he's rehearsed – and when it does he counts to three before starting to talk.

“My name is Mieczyslaw Stilinski. Two years ago my Mark flared, and I've been hiding from the Council ever since.”

O---o--o---O

It's not a bad life, this new one. Oh, it’s unfamiliar, but it’s not bad. Just...hard. Strange. Like it should be someone else’s.

When Stiles wakes up in an unfamiliar room - or rather, when Stiles wakes up nothing makes sense. He should be dead. He planned on being dead. And yet. His body feels strong, and capable, and absolutely in no way dying. It makes no sense, fits none of his memories, just as the room doesn’t.

And then he sees Derek.

After that it’s easy to start putting the pieces of the puzzle together, and by the time someone comes to give him information (say, two, maybe three minutes after he first wakes up) Stiles has a pretty accurate idea. Not with all the details, no, but enough that not much of what the woman - Marin, she introduces herself as - says comes as a surprise.

Weres don’t do well with losing their Matches. Someone like Derek, who’s already lost so much (and yes, even as emotionally compromised as he’d been it hadn’t taken that long for Stiles to connect “Derek” to Derek Hale of Beacon Hills’s biggest tragedy) would have done even less so. It doesn’t exactly take a genius to figure out that Derek had been just desperate enough to not think, and risk everything, to give his dying Match the bite.

Because when he focuses Stiles can tell he’s been changed - and interesting, he’s almost completely certain he’s a were, not a Kanima. That’s another lie exposed, another strike for the Council then.

One day, he promises. One day…

The rest of the puzzle unravels inside his overactive brain, and Marin’s information just fills in blank spots and provides nuance. Such as the room, and the cabin, they’re in being located in a warded community - Stiles had hoped, but it’s good to have it confirmed - and that he and Derek are welcome to stay as long as they wish.

There’s one thing Marin tells him that’s a complete surprise though. Derek has given up his Alpha power, for Stiles.

He thinks about that one for a long time. The idea of someone giving up that kind of power is...almost unfathomable. Power is addicting, for one, and since Derek inherited his power from his family, sentimentality also plays in. Plus, you know, a hundred more reasons. And it could have come in very handy, too, for Derek to be able to control Stiles in some way.

Except Derek just gave it up. To keep Stiles safe.

That’s humbling.

It’s also another sign that maybe he and Derek truly are well Matched - the two of them, not just their Marks.

Stiles remembers thinking that if he could have Derek and his soul both he’d never give either up. Well. Looks like he’s getting his wish.

It’s not quite that easy, of course. As much as Stiles and Derek both would love to just lose themselves in each other the truth is they can’t. Not even having freed themselves from the council make them completely free. Because second chances never come for free, and the price for Stiles’s is everything else - including his humanity.

Teaching him to live with the change and find control has to come first.

It sucks.

Stiles expects focus to be as hard as always, control to be difficult, and finding an anchor easy as breathing - with Derek next to him, how can it be anything else?

Only it’s not. It’s worse than he could ever have imagined, and it’s a fight for every inch. His first full moon is, well, a disaster. Not even Derek can keep him from trying to run back to Beacon Hills. Regardless of the danger Beacon Hills is where his dad is, and caught up in instinct that’s all Stiles knows - his dad’s been his everything for years, and now he’s not here.

In the end the community’s magic users has to step in. Stiles wakes up the next day with an impressive headache, chained to the floor of a room he’s never seen before. Apparently they knocked him out after he tried to literally claw his way out - through Derek.

The shame over that lingers for months, which makes control even harder to find. Derek helps him through it all without reproach, and by the time Stiles has found enough of a balance for them to be able to focus on each other too that steady support has endeared the man even more to Stiles.

(Finding out that one of Derek’s reasons for giving up his Alpha power was so Stiles wouldn’t ever feel like Derek could control him has already made Stiles very close to falling in love.)

It takes the better part of a year for Stiles to get his werewolfiness in check - to be able to run free during the full moon, and to even think of doing anything but keeping himself under ironclad control. A year before his desire to run back to Beacon Hills and snatch his father away isn’t a danger to all of them. Before he can be trusted to keep his claws where they belong even when his emotions are running high. Before he’s safe to even consider dating. (Stiles is a teenager, okay, and one with a more than healthy libido. He’s learned the hard way why getting his hands on his gorgeous Match isn’t a good idea yet.)

The upside to that is that once it is safe Stiles and Derek have gotten to know each other enough that they can safely say that getting together is about the two of them, not about being Matched.

Not to say being Derek’s Match isn’t amazing. It is. Maybe it’s because Stiles is a were now, and that he and Derek are connected through the bite, through pack. Maybe it’s the magic of the Marks. Either way they can feel each other, and having that is, it’s everything. Stiles loves his dad, okay, he 100 percent does, and he knows it’s mutual. It’s just that the loss of Claudia Stilinski had left them both feeling adrift and unstable, and having Derek there as a constant and solid presence gives Stiles solid ground under his feet for the first time since. And the same, Stiles knows, is true in reverse.

They’ve both lost just about everything. They’re both giving each other exactly that. Everything.

If this is what Matches and Marks are truly about, Stiles thinks, it’s no wonder there are poets whose works deal solely with the subject.

Knowing makes him hate the Council even more for twisting it.

Still, here and now life is good. And then some Council-connected asshole tries to kill Scott.

It goes like this, he’s told once he’s no longer a frothing ball of fangs, fur and rage. Some Council flunky calls the Beacon Hills sheriff’s station, requesting assistance regarding Scott McCall. The thing is, the Beacon Hills sheriff's station? Is John Stilinski’s station. That means he’s the one who answers the call.

As he’s fond of saying, John didn’t get his job through his looks. He’s smart, intuitive, and a good detective. He also apparently has a much better idea of what his late wife was up to than anyone - she included - has ever realized. Add the bitterness of having lost his son because of the Council and the result is a man determined to not have others suffer the same.

He saves at least three lives that day simply by thinking faster than the other party.

As soon as the name Scott McCall is uttered John talks over the flunky, firing off questions too fast for the other man to actually answer them, ending with a oh-so-casual mention that Scott should be safely with his pack for the full moon. That stops the Council flunky dead, just as intended.

It’s Scott’s first full moon after getting the bite - a bite more of less brought on by medical emergency after his latest asthma attack nearly killed him - and well, records can be real slow to update. With Scott being a relative no one, having his status as a were out there before anything else can be said could be the only thing saving him from the very fate Stiles once feared enough to take poison.

John’s not about to let that happen on his watch.

Something about how the flunky reacts makes John nervous enough to set up a watch at the McCall residence that night, leaving him in a position to stop an assassination attempt - there can be no other description, he insists, for an attack using mountain ash, wolf’s-bane grenades and wolf’s-bane bullets. Not to mention the attackers doesn’t seem to care too much about the fact that there are two people living in the house.

And that’s before John realizes someone’d broken into his house while he was at the McCalls, most likely to get him too out of the way.

The cherry on top of that shit-sundae is that Scott is Marked and the Council doesn’t have his Match in custody. Nor do they seem very eager to rectify that, or even share information about who the elusive Match is. Leaving John and Melissa with Scott, a newly changed were, who is almost guaranteed to not be in control is Marked and a missing Match.

It’s a good thing Stiles only finds out afterwards.

A really good thing.

A week after that clusterfuck Marin passes on the information that his dad and the McCalls are safe, hidden in another of the secretive warded communities. She won’t tell Stiles where it is, or let him pass messages back - it’s still too dangerous to let anyone know he’s alive, especially with Scott being so volatile, and likely to set out on a hunt for his Match. She does promise, however, that once it’s safe they’ll find a way to transfer John Stilinski to their community.

It’s good, but it’s nowhere enough. Having just had the fact that no one is truly safe shoved in his face makes Stiles angry, angrier than he’s ever been. It’s not the kind of red hot fury that causes him to pop claws and want to kill people. It’s an icy-white one, cold and calculating, every part of brilliance from his human genius stoked by the wolf’s desire to protect his pack. The Council might have gotten away with killing his mom, but not this. Going after the only people Stiles had left in him to love (preDerek, obviously) just because Scott taking the bite to save his own damned life stops them from twisting his Mark to suit their own purposes is passing the point of no return.

Stiles might not have been willing to fight for himself, but he sure as hell will for the people he loves.

At first he wanted to find those faceless people trying to steal one of Stiles’s two friends and hurt them. Wanted to rip, and claw, and bite, and tear. their. throats. out. With his teeth. Now that he’s calmed down some he knows that’s not enough. Stiles wants to destroy them like they wanted to destroy Scott.

So he starts plotting. Living where he does Stiles isn’t without resources. First of all, the warded communities contain a lot of people who are just like him, in that they are in danger from the Council, and want to see it torn down. That’s good - he’ll need people like that.

Also, he’s got access to a lot of information he’s never known before, information the Council would prefer if no one knew, but it’s not enough. He needs more. Lots and lots more.

It’s time, Stiles decides, to play his hidden ace.

That ace consists of two sets of numbers that his mom made him memorize not long before she died. The first is a phone number, and the second an ID code of some sort that he leaves on the answering machine along with a number he can be reached on.

Then all he can do is wait.

That wait is why he didn’t make the call when his Mark flared, why he chose poison instead. Getting an answer will take up to 48 hours, time he hadn’t had back then. And no matter how much his mom believed that whoever answers could help, Stiles has limited trust in what they can do.

48 hours would have seen him locked up in a sub-training facility (provided he’d survived that long) and yeah. Locating someone in a sub-training facility, breaking in and freeing them is beyond a tall order, it’s pretty much impossible.

He’s got time now though.

The man that meets him looks like a librarian, meek and mild mannered - if you look at the surface. Stiles doesn’t do that. First of all because his dad taught him that appearances can be deceiving, second because going to school with Lydia Martin brought that lesson home big time, and third because he doesn’t have to.

Being a were has its drawbacks, true, but the heightened senses mean Stiles rarely has to guess about somethings. Like the fact that this man is lethal. It’s a thousand little things that a regular person wouldn’t notice, and that maybe one by one mean nothing, but put together it’s obvious.

He moves in a way that only a true predator does. He’s not a were (even if he could mask it from Stiles’s senses there’s no fooling the talisman Stiles brought) but he’s just as dangerous as if he were. Dangerous enough that Stiles isn’t 100% sure he could take the man in a fight, and that’s...chilling. Even more so as he’s also not sure he’ll be allowed to walk away without one if he fails to answer the man’s questions to satisfaction.

The interrogation - because that’s what it turns out to be - starts out with Stiles having to explain how he’d gotten the phone number and code he’d used. It continues to why, and how he can’t really be who he claims to be. It takes a lot more than Stiles had hoped to satisfy the still unnamed man, but at the same time that’s somewhat calming. Someone that careful about speaking to the right person for the right reasons should be safe to trust - at least a little.

In the end the man nods, and tells Stiles to call him Christian. It’s fake, obviously, but it’s better than “the man”, especially for someone with a parent in law enforcement.

“Did your mom ever tell you why she had that number?”

“She said it was for someone who owed her a favor, and who could help me if I had no other way out. ‘A hidden  ace in the sleeve’ she said.”

Christian nods, clearly agreeing.

“And why did you wait until now?” All things considered hangs in the air.

“Wasn’t until now I felt I could. Considered it, back when… But mom told me you’d need time to respond, and yeah, I didn’t have that. Had another option that didn’t need time though. I wasn’t exactly wanting to gamble on you being able to get me out of their claws, should I land in them.

“But now? Now I’ve got time, and a use for that favor that doesn’t depend on you being crazy enough to take on the Council to repay it.”

Christian looks at him strangely, and seems to be thinking hard. Stiles can tell that whatever’s running through the other man’s head is important, so he clamps down on his impatience and waits. He’s gotten better at that, thankfully.

When Christian finally makes up his mind Stiles has run through his contingency exit plans five times, in a different order every time, and he’s close to going for one of them.

“You know why I owe your mom a favor? No? It’s not a pretty story. A few years back my old military commander called in a favor. A huge one, meaning I had to disappear from the face of the earth for a bit.”

Christian smiles, a twisted mockery of humor that tells Stiles there’s a story there that he wants to hear but won’t.

“I’d been gone for five days, had another three left when my Mark flared. I made enough of a stink that they opened communications for me. When I got through one of my partners informed me he’d experienced the flare too, at the same time. And so had our third. Their Marks lined up, and from what we could tell, mine did as well.

“I know, a triple Match? Unheard of, but. It felt right. Felt like everything I never thought I deserved, but would give everything to have.

“Except our third, she was missing.”

Stiles thinks about going through that, about having Derek missing, and can barely breathe from how horrible even the thought makes him feel. Across from him Christian is nodding grimly.

“She’d just gone out for a quick errand, some important call, and got pulled into a wan. Everything pointed to her having been picked up for sub training, only it made no sense. Neither of us are the submissive type, but her the least. Out of the three of us, if I’d had to make the call, I’d have said Ha-Harry.

“But what really made the alarms go off was the fact that neither me nor H-Harry had been informed of a Match. That breaks all the rules, and it was worrying enough that I was pulled out and allowed to go back. We thought maybe it was because I was where I was. Except I got home, and there was still no contact, and when my old CO went snooping through records he couldn’t find anything about her.”

It sounds, Stiles thinks, like what would have happened to Scott had he not been bitten, and had someone other than John Stilinski answered the call. Both the disappearance, and the missing records - they’ve got access to topclass hackers, and no one’s managed to find even the slightest shred of information on his Match. All they have is Scott’s insistence that they’re out there, somewhere, and a sense of direction.

“Your mom was the one to help us. She got us the location of three sub-training facilities, and ranked them in order of most likely, and with that we were able to make a plan.”

Apparently, Stiles muses as the tale unveils, it isn’t impossible to break into a sub-training facility. Also, he’s clearly underestimated Christian. The man is insane enough to launch an attack on a Council facility, and brilliant enough to pull it off. Good to know. He also gets every single suspicion regarding what happens in sub-training confirmed, not that he needed it.

“Once we located her… She was unconscious, strapped to a bed, and showed obvious defensive wounds. It made no sense. She’s not a fighter, even if she can defend herself if needed. The way she works, she’d have either waited for us to come for her or for them to relax and then break out. For her to have fought…”

Not good.

“Yeah. Except whatever you’re thinking, it was probably worse. I checked her over, to see if she could be moved without extra caution, and let me tell you, I’ve seen women treated better in war zones - hell, I’ve seen war criminals treated better. In the end we counted six broken bones, a dislocated shoulder, a fractured wrist and several burn marks. I’m not even going to touch on what else they did. Suffice to say we sure as fuck didn’t need to run a rapekit.

“She wasn’t alone there - they had four others in various conditions. Two had been given the same treatment as our girl, only it must have been for a longer time. One was physically unharmed, but completely broken. The last one… She was braindead. They kept her on life support though, apparently as a warm body for when they wanted a fuck but weren’t up for the fight with the others.”

That...that’s Stiles’s worst nightmare right there, confirmed. He fights back the urge to throw up, and renews his promise to never let them take him alive.

“I can help you get away. You’ll never have to worry about the Council again, I promise you, but you’ll have to give up everything.”

Stiles starts to interrupt, but Christian raises his hand and continues.

“I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is. You can bring a bag, and if your dad’s willing, him too. Just, you can’t ever return, and you can’t keep in touch with anyone here.”

“Yeah, no. I’m not saying I wouldn’t give up a lot to be safe, but that’s not what I’m looking for here. I already did that, okay, I allowed my dad to think I was dead and left him behind to avoid the council. And I think I’ve done fine, staying under their radar. So thanks, but no thanks.

“But just for the record? If I’d agreed, there’s no way I would have gone without Derek. My Match,” he clarifies as Christian raises a questioning eyebrow.

For the first time Stiles sees the man react, apparently shocked by the fact that Stiles is with his Match, and that they’re close enough that staying together isn’t optional.

“So what is it you want then?”

“Information. Mom said you had ways to get it, on just about anything. Well, that’s what I need. As much as you can get me. The Council’s taken too much from me already, and from so many others, and I’m done letting them. It’s time they’re taken down. But I need information to do that.”

Once again Stiles gets to watch as shock travels across Christian’s face, followed by a longer silence.

“And you think you can do that?”

“I’m not seeing anyone else stepping up. Are you?” The double entendre hangs in the air between them, vibrating like the challenge it is.

“So, can you do it? Can you get me what I need?”

Christian hesitates, and Stiles is preparing to push when he hears a low murmur coming from somewhere close to the other man. Judging from the way Christian cocks his head slightly and from the way his face tightens - just minutely, only visible to someone like Stiles - he’s listening to something. Someone? A communications device of some kind, probably.

This...could turn nasty. He starts running through exit strategies again, but before he can make a decision Christian swears in a low, almost inaudible voice.

“Dammit, Ha-...”

Then he takes a deep breath and says, reluctance clinging to his voice, “you’ll get your information”.

As it turns out, back when they’d broken into the Council facility to get their girl the invisible “Harry” (and if that’s his actual name, then Stiles’s is Mike, which… yeah) had not only gone through the computers to steal as much information as possible, but also left a data mining program behind. Which is good for Stiles, but (understandably) makes Christian furious.

There are a quite few more muttered curses, as well as a very pointed remark about people who have no concept of safety, and who don’t understand that Christian can’t protect them if they keep fucking secrets. Stiles sensibly chooses to not even touch that with a ten foot pole. He’d react the same way if it was Derek being reckless - and he knows Derek will be even worse once he finds out just what it is Stiles is up to now.

Stiles won’t apologize for it though, not even though he knows he’s put not only himself but everyone in danger. Just as he won’t be anything but happy that “Harry” did something equally dangerous. It’s selfish, sure, but if getting this information gets him even one step closer to taking down the Council it’s worth it.

It’s another hour before Stiles can leave, the portable hard drive that supposedly holds the keys to the kingdom hidden on his body. Christian’s twitchy, and it’s obvious why. He wants to help, but at the same time he wants nothing to do with any of it.

“Look, I..:”

“No. You feel like you should offer to help out, right? Well, I’m not going to lie, I could use the help. But I’m not going to take it. You have your Matches to take care of, to protect. Your girl? She needs you to stay the hell away from the Council, and I’m running full speed ahead in their direction.

“Sure, you or your… ‘Harry’ find out anything, and send it my way, I’d be very grateful. But this is my fight, my choice. I’m not risking anyone else.”

That, of course, isn’t exactly 100 percent true. He’ll try not to, but something tells Stiles that in the end he’ll have no option but to risk others. He just won’t do it unless it’s completely unavoidable, and honestly? He’ll probably try and only risk people who deserve it. People whose deaths wouldn’t be that big of a loss.

But not these three. Not after what they’ve already suffered.

Christian looks him over, nods and reaches out to take Stiles’s hand. His voice is dead serious once he speaks.

“Alright. Once you launch whatever attach you’re planning though? You let me know. You hear me? And if you don’t let me know you’re okay after, I’ll come for you. They get you, I’ll get you out. Your Match too. No matter what, I’ll get you out and somewhere they can’t touch you.

“And not because of what I owe your mom. Because what you’re doing? It’s something I should have done - that I would do if it didn’t mean risking the others. And for that, man, I owe you.”

Once he’s back home, and has had his eardrums practically shattered from a dozen lectures, as well as almost getting frostburns from the cold shoulder Derek shows him, Stiles starts going through the material he’s been given. (Well, once he’s had one of the resident computer witches - or “techno pagans”, apparently - check that the drive’s safe.) It’s a lot. It’s a fricking mountain of information, is what it is, and Stiles is going to find what he needs in it even if it means not sleeping for a year.

He’s a were, he’ll survive.

Probably.

Three days in Derek tranqs him, forcing him to sleep through the night, and when he starts up again it’s with Derek next to him. That works much better. Well, “better” as in that together they cover more ground and sometimes Derek picks up on things Stiles misses due to different knowledge bases. “Not better” as in now Derek is involved. Stiles would prefer if he wasn’t, but considering Derek feels the same way about him there’s really not much he can do about it without looking like a big, fat hypocrite.

In the end they find what they need to know - and of course, Stiles thinks, it’s magic - and he makes a plan. It’s a good plan, in terms of achieving their goals, but he’s fairly sure no one else will agree.

“Are you insane?” Marin isn’t screaming, unlike everyone else in the room, but that doesn’t make her any calmer or less angry.

“No. Look, this is the only way to go. Worst case scenario-”

“We all die.”

“No. Okay, yes, but that’s the worst case scenario for every single day even doing nothing, as long as the Council exists. So we’re ignoring that. The worst case scenario is we break the magic that allows the Council to track the flare, and find Matches, but everything else stays the same. Best case? We ruin them. We free everyone, for the rest of time. I’m good with possibly dying being the worst case scenario if we can win that.”

Stiles isn’t suicidal, regardless of others might think. He wants to live a long life, with Derek next to him, and the year and a half they’ve had together is nowhere enough. (He’s not sure any amount of time will really be enough.) Just… The way they’re living, hiding and in fear, it’s not good. For now they’re safe, sure, but only if they shrink their lives, if they cut themselves off from everything outside the wards. And it really is for now. Sooner or later the Council will find them. The world has changed so much that not even the strongest wards will keep them completely hidden much longer. Once the Council starts truly searching - and they will - nowhere and no one will be safe any longer.

He wants a life where he can run free under the full moon with Derek by his side. He wants a life where Scott can find his Match and be happy. He wants a world where that is possible, and he’s willing to risk his life for it.

It’s as easy as that.

He gets a solid team of five. Derek - who won’t stay away, no matter how many times Stiles begs him. Jana the techno pagan. Another witch, a white haired old man who calls himself Raven. A bounty hunter slash bodyguard by the name of Braeden.

And then he gets Jennifer.

Under any other circumstance Stiles would rather cut his arm off than work with her. For one, she’s batshit crazy. He’s not making fun, or light, of the mental health issues she’s clearly got, no. When he calls her that he’s referring to the fact that she’s killed seven people (that he knows of) in some power-raising ritual.

She’s living in the community only because she can’t be allowed to walk free - either she’d continue to kill people, or the Council would capture her and use her - and the team sent to stop her wouldn’t dirty their hands or their ethics by killing her.

Stiles would have done the deed himself if not for the cold facts: if Jennifer could be made into a weapon by the Council she can also be one against them. That had been a possibility he hadn’t been willing to throw away. After all, there was always the option of killing her later should she turn out useless - unkilling someone however…

There are three things Stiles knows to be undeniably true about Jennifer: She hates the Council just as much as he does. She hates her Match who betrayed her to them even more. She cannot be trusted.

And now he’s going to have to do exactly that.

O---o--o---O

Stiles gives himself a mental shake, forces himself out of the memories, and refocuses on the camera. He's only got so long, and it’s important he do this right. His job is drawing attention. From the regular people watching his broadcast, the ones about to have the Council’s crimes thrown in their faces in full technicolor glory thanks to “Harry” and his data mining. But also from the Council, and their goons. He’s bait, plain and simple, to make them focus on him and hopefully miss as Jennifer and Raven smash two hundred years of oppressive magic to impotent little pieces.

“I've been hiding from the Council, because I know their secrets. I know what they are. I know what they do - what they would do to me given even half a chance. I know what they’ve done to others, and that the ones they killed are the lucky ones.”

He talks about Scott, and the girl that’s his missing Match. He talks about the Hales, about the people his mom tried to help, about people that only exist as notes and pictures in stolen files.

When he’s done, eyes aching and voice hoarse, he gives the camera as hard a look as he can.

“I'm done. No more hiding. No more living in fear. No more allowing them to break and twist and murder people.

“It's time for them to fear me.”

~The End ~

[asagi-s-garden]

Have you considered writing a Bleach AU for Sterek? I can see Derek and the Hale pack being a part of the shinsengumi and maybe Stiles being a substitute shinigami or maybe a quincy?

*dying walrus noises* I got a fic related question

I GOT A FIC RELATED QUESTION

Anon who are you where did you come from???? ;_;

But to answer- Fun fact, I actually DID write a Bleach/Teen Wolf crossover many years ago before Teen Wolf was my primary fandom! Though, it was actually IchiRuki as Sterek rather than the other way around, Rukia was Derek, Ichigo was Stiles, I remember having a near stroke imagining Rukia in a leather jacket because hnnnngggggg, as a matter of fact, I want to say it was for IchiRuki Week

As for the other way around.... honestly, everytime an event comes up with "Crossover" as a theme, I do consider it, I can see the Hales being a highly noble clan like the Kuchikis, Derek would fit in Squad 13 pretty well actually, eternally Leuitenit until his captain Peter ends up betraying everyone and Derek has to kill him and become the new captain, meanwile Stiles is a substitute who took Derek's powers at one point to protect his dad, Lydia has healing faeries, Scott has the power of his fists but only uses them to defend Stiles, Allison is the last Quincy, and when Derek is sent to Death Row they launch a war to save him

It all fits almost disgustingly well but it would be quite an overhaul of a project to do it *Well* and I rarely have that kind of patience (just ask @youfancymemaddearie , who had to suffer through listening to me scream about my Alive Hales fic wich is actually probably only around 20K)

But the thing is I don't know if I could ever do that because Bleach has left such an outstandingly bitter taste in my mouth, I spent just under a full DECADE completely and entirely dedicated to Bleach and I have the merch and fics to prove it, and so when it ended in literally the worst way possible... well, to say it still stings is putting it mildly, especially with IchiRuki- wich is still my OTP  to end all OTPs by the way, even though I don't write it anymore- because, see, IchiRuki is something that I never had a doubt in my mind would be together, I always thought that the worst it could end was to leave them ambiguously platonic and that's all, it never ONCE actually crossed my mind that it would end with them split into different pairs and not seeing eachother for a decade, so IchiRuki is very different from things like Sterek and SuperCorp that I WANT to happen, and that I think COULD happen but know within reason that there's also a good chance that it won't, IchiRuki was my "This is the one pair that will be canon even if all of the others aren't" ship, my Ross and Rachel, so the utter amount of bitterness I have towards Bleach for that is just...

I can still love IchiRuki and see it all over my house but my heart hurts when I think about Bleach, I used to love watching IchiRuki AMVs but now they hurt, I'm not over it yet, I'm not in a place where I can have any positive feelings towards Bleach yet because I'm so extremely angry and bitter and hurt by the crap ending, so I just... don't have it in me to write anything about Bleach right now, except for how upset I am with it, even if I had a different cast of charectors it just feels too painfull, it’s like a cheating ex I can’t stop love-hating Anon

Maybe eventually I'll get in a place where I can be ok enough to write about it again, but I'm not there currently

But.... I will leave you with a bittersweet ficlet Anon (and we're going to pretend that the timelines work even though they don't)

~~

Rukia and Ichigo were never together, for reasons neither really understood, and they always regretted it, and they both died young, Rukia reincarnated into a boy who could turn into a wolf and finally had the family she always craved- a big, warm family who loved her so extremely much, but they were gone in a flash of flames, leaving her alone with an older sibling who she knows she doesn't deserve again, a few years later Ichigo reincarnates into a hyperactive boy who's as bright and sunshiney as he was when he was a kid, he loses his mom just like he did in his last life and becomes anxious, cynical, and lonely with a father who tries but can't hold up without his late wife- just like last time

Stiles met Derek once, before the werewolfy shenanigans, they were both at the police station, and Derek had just lost his entire family, Stiles didn't really know what to do with that, so he gave him a Reeses and complimented Derek's bunny teeth- the teeth his mom had always loved, that had caused her to call Derek her little bunny, that had brought him so much joy, but that just made him cry harder that day

When Stiles is a teenager he has one freind who he would live and die for and who would live and die for him, his freind gets turned into a werewolf and suddenly Derek is in his life again and... Derek is grumpy and dark, he's quiet to the outside world but loud when they're alone, pushes Stiles into the door, slams his head on the steering weel, yells, screams, but always- ALWAYS- risks his life for Stiles and everyone Stiles loves and Stiles loves him for that, he does

Derek is alone now, having had two chances with a sister- one died in the woods and one couldn't stand to be near him for too long and left and it all feels very achingly familiar in a way he doesn't even want to understand, he loses everyone around him over and over again but.... there's Stiles, who never leaves, who fights for him powerlessly, gets himself dirty and bloody and keeps fighting, who chases Derek across the country line and keeps... fighting for him, and it feels familiar and he doesn't know why but he's afraid to find out

Then Stiles finally unlocks his full potential- his full spark, his magic- and it's all very weird, his power is massive but he only ever uses it to protect the people he cares about- to protect DEREK- and Derek suddenly finds it harder and harder to fathom being away from Stiles again

Derek is quiet in his loneliness and his self-doubt and his self-loathing, he's strong and brash but he's also gentle and soft, a Capricorn who loves winter and finds himself drawn to the color violet and likes sweet things and small, cute animals like rabbits and puppies but he would never say it out loud

Stiles is loud with everything, loves to read, is smarter than anyone ever gives him credit for, and doesn't care about being different, he loves spices and orange and blue- because METS- and finds himself creeping towards darkness now and then, he's harsh and vicious with people but rarely gets into physical fights, he doesn't need to, his silver tongue is razor sharp, so much so that it effortlessly slits throats, there's no need for blunt fists

Derek likes to doodle when he's bored and Stiles finds each drawing endearing- they're HORRIBLE but they're cute and Stiles laughs but it isn't cruel, it's fond and adoring and he keeps looking for way to display the artwork in the house whenever Derek makes some vague shapes on the grocery list, Derek always tries to stop him and it's weirdly familiar but also not and neither of them really question it

Stiles often dreams of butterflies, he doesn't know why

Derek's favorite fruit is strawberries, he hates that they're never in season

When they get married, there's a sense of "FINALLY" to it, and it's weird, because they only knew eachother for three and a half years before saying "I do" and it doesn't feel like three years should feel this long but...

It had felt like they had waited a lifetime before finally being together

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (13-19 Feb 2022)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 His Boy Next Door: #38 Top to Bottom (RJ Moray) - another lovely episode of Jack & Channon's story

🥰 Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood (Mark Harris, author; Lloyd James, narrator) - "Explores the epic human drama behind the making of the five movies nominated for Best Picture in 1967-Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Doctor Doolittle, and Bonnie and Clyde-and through them, the larger story of the cultural revolution that transformed Hollywood, and America, forever." This was fascinating & well-told & I thoroughly enjoyed it but my overwhelmingly my thought, multiple times through the whole thing was, the more things change, the more they stay exactly the same.

🙂 Whiplash (CBFirestarter, TrenchcoatBaby) - 142K, Destiel dystopian BDSM AU -

😊 Haven werewolf 'verse (YumeArashi) - 96K, Haven OT3 no-Troubles, werewolf AU - 37K is main story, the rest is vingettes/deleted scenes/notes and outline for intended sequel -

😍 The Trials and Tribulations of the Watermelon Werewolf (BlueSimplicity) - 147K, werewolf/soulmate AU - FANTASTIC fic: funny, fluffy, hot, great characterizations (esp of supporting characters as well) - instant forever fave

😊 Murder in First Class (Miss Underhay Mysteries #8) (Helena Dixon, author; Karen Cass, narrator) - this continues to be a quietly enjoyable cozy mystery series

💖💖+119K of shorter fic so shorter work shout out to these I really loved💖💖

Fierce (leveragehunters (Monkeygreen)) - MCU: Stucky, 15K - gorgeous little fantasy AU

Maybe the Real Gold Medal Was the Friends We Made Along the Way (thedishandthespoon) - MCU: Stucky, 18K - Olympics AU

TWO new episodes in the fabulous To Be Seen Aright verse by Deastar! Ours Will Still Be Hot (1.9K) & this braided business (10K)

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Explained - s1, e1

The Larkins - s1, e3-4

Agatha Raisin - s4,e3: A Spoonful of Poison

Star Trek: Discovery - s2, e1-4 - started back up again with these nerds

The Brokenwood Mysteries - s1, e1-3 - shout out to @door for convincing/reassuring me to give this a shot, it is delightful.

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

The Present Age - Climate journalist Eric Holthaus believes in a better world

Last Seen - Episode 4: Africa’s Lost Year of Hope

Desert Island Discs - Leslie Caron, actress (literally did not realize Leslie Caron was still alive! also they last interviewed her in 1956 which makes this the longest gap between interviews in their history)

Lore - Episode 192: Time Will Tell

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Panorama of the City of New York

Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities - Fill In The Blankenship

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - International Cocoa Quarantine Center

The Present Age - Joe Galbo is the man making memes for the U.S. government

99% Invisible #477 - Call of Duty: Free

Ologies with Alie Ward - Cycadology (RARE PLANT DRAMA) with Nathalie Nagalingum

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Extreme Travel with Dave Seminara

Shedunnit - Bonus: Jennifer Morag Henderson Interview

FILMS TO BE BURIED WITH Patreon Crew! - Ellie Taylor!

Twenty Thousand Hertz - Pirate Radio

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Last Sears in New York City

Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities - The Right Word

You're Dead To Me - Eleanor of Aquitaine

This is Good for You - Ep 25: Collecting Sneakers Is Good For You

Strong Songs Bonus Episodes - And Now, Some More Beatles Covers

Grim & Mild Presents - Sideshow 4: A Living Curiosity

Endless Thread - Space Heist! (Or, How to Steal a Planet)

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Presenting Debussy

Video Game music (station) - this ended up being a random mix of pop songs, occasional video game tunes in the mix; good but not what I was expecting

Presenting Backstreet Boys

Gentle Latin Electronic

Golden Age of Boy Bands

Mamma Mia: Original London Cast

Dancing Queen

CREDITS: Diane Warren

Tell the World: The Very Best of Ratt

Whitesnake

CREDITS: Charli XCX

Waiting To Exhale (Original Soundtrack Album)