#leaving it there bc this post has been sitting in the drafts for a day

[t1oui]

jercy headcanons. i don't have anything witty to say im just sad and homosexual about them

1st image result for "nonsexual dom/sub"

jason carries percy around 24/7, percy doesn't even have to ask bc jason loves carrying him

they cook together

they bite each other. really bite. chomp chomp

cuddles are an essential part of the daily routine and the boys will get pissy if they don't get them

jason needs constant validation and percy gives it to him ofc :)

percy calls jason wolf boy and jason unironically wears wolf t-shirts

for christmas one year percy and piper get jason a shirt with a wolf in the asexual flag colors on it and jason wears it religiously but refuses to acknowledge it

nose kisses

thalia consistently calls percy a cradle snatcher for being a year older than jason (she's trying to get him back on the wanted list)

sometimes they go camping and it's just jason running around in a forest while percy watches fondly

they wrestle like puppies

they sit on each other's laps at fancy restaurants (sally loves her son but wtf percy)

percy probably makes powerpoint presentations about why jason is the coolest or whatever

they have fallen asleep mid sparring sesh before

nico showed up with a group of campers and they were just passed out in the middle of the arena

good for them ig but nico kicked their asses (he's homophobic towards them bc it's better than being homophobic towards himself <3)

actually nico's gay dads (nico hates them sm)

i haven't yapped about non-binary jason yet and that's a crime SO

at some point percy notices that jason has been stealing his letterman jacket bc it's oversized

so percy starts buying bigger sweatshirts specifically for jason to steal (he doesn't tell jace ofc) and jason wears them bc they help w dysphoria :)

jason tells piper about being nb first bc she was manipulated by hera about being cisallohet too

she helps them tell percy and percy validates the hell out of jason

yk how in greek mythology people used to be sewn together w their soulmates until zeus ripped them apart? these two talk about being sewn back together and they are dead serious

[max-nicoxfandom]

Happy WIP Wednesday ! Here is a first draft/snippet of a random chapter in my long fic I'm working on (don't go looking for it, still unsure if I'm going to post it), bc I think I'm gonna take this part out even if I really like the concept.

Danny is like 6-7yrs old in this

Danny is a weird kid.

That's not to say Dick expected him to be normal when his family took him in. No, even if Danny wasn't still half dead, no one in this family is normal. Not even Duke and Barbara, the self proclaimed normies of the family.

Danny has brought a certain life to the manor, even in death, that has Dick contemplating moving back. Somehow, even Jason has been spending more time than usual there. Arguments have been lessened, the manor has been less creaky and more settled, Alfred even looks a little younger these days.

It's both the fault of Danny's sweet exterior, and the odd green that swirls in the blue of his eyes. Not the same hue as Jason's, but something near to it.

He's a lot like Jason, actually. Dick is sure if Jason had come to them just a little bit younger he'd be the spitting image of Danny.

It's the little things that make them look so similar. Almost everyone in the manor has the blue-green eye, black hair combo. It's everything else in Danny that makes him look exactly like Jason.

Danny likes to wish the moon good morning when he sees it during the day, and insists on opening his curtains when he goes to sleep so the moon can listen to his bedtime story too. He likes to check his stuffed animals for injuries when they fall off furniture. He thanks Alfred for his food, and thanks his food for being yummy. When he leaves the manor, he blows the building a kiss goodbye.

Dick does not tell Bruce that the house pulls itself from the ground, and creaks back.

Sure, Jason wasn't dead (not yet, anyway), but he was so excited to be alive. He had that same disposition to do good to everyone and everything that Danny does. Jason may not be some sort of partial human like Danny, but Jason was Robin, and Robin? Robin is magic.

You don't have to believe in ghosts for them to be real, and you don't have to see Danny for him to exist. On the same wavelength, you don't have to see Robin to know Jason made him magic. It was just the truth. Like how the sky is blue and Bruce is Batman.

Dick is watching his life be changed one step at a time, just like it was with Jason–like how it was supposed to be with Jason–and like it was with his siblings.

He keeps flowers in his car now. He didn't before, he never had a reason for it.

But one time, Danny cried as they passed a graveyard. He was sitting curled up against the window in the back while Dick hummed along to some ballad on the radio. It was peaceful, as things tend to be when Danny's around, and even as the kid cried Dick never stopped feeling tranquil. He knew everything would be okay, Dick would stop at nothing to make his new brother happy again.

“I have no flowers.” He’d said. Dick hadn't even gotten the chance to ask what was wrong. “They'll all be so sad I came by, and I had no flowers.”

Danny's eyes were green when he'd spoken. Green, teary, and filled with more mourning a child should ever understand. Dick's heart broke about a thousand times over.

So now Dick keeps flowers in his car. Whenever he drives past a graveyard he throws a flower out the window, just like Danny does. And if the bouquet dies before he gets to give them away, he gives them to Danny, and he buries them in the backyard.

Green eyed and sad. Sometimes Jason joins him, sometimes Damian does. Dick never feels like it's his place.

This fic also has to do with the cult thing I was talking about sometime ago, and the post about big cities. I kinda regret having this take place in Gotham instead of Amity, but it's too late now (⁠ ⁠╹⁠▽⁠╹⁠ ⁠)

Asks and interactions are always welcome !

[blissfullsvn]

if i say, i love you

summary. after a long day, all you really want is to be in taesan’s arms.

pairing. han taesan x reader genre. fluff, established relationship word count. 0.9k warnings. n/a a/n. fun fact: this wasn’t the original taesan fic i wanted to post for his bday bcs stms it’s easier to write sth in 3 hrs than finish a draft you’ve had for the past 5 months 👩‍🦯 but as always, please enjoy this, and i hope everyone gets to have their own taesan in their lives :) masterlist

you and taesan have never been overly touchy with each other. it’s not that you both dislike physical touch; you just tend to express your feelings more often through quiet moments spent together.

today, however, you need taesan more than ever.

you trudge inside your shared apartment, your body feeling unbearably heavy. taesan is sitting on the sofa with headphones and his ipad propped up on his knees, a contemplative look on his face. it’s a familiar sight, one that occurs whenever a new idea for a composition strikes in his head and he has to record it down immediately, so you usually leave him alone to not disrupt his creative process.

seeing this, you force yourself to stand by the door, hoping for at least a greeting before you can retreat inside your room—if your boyfriend was busy, you’d rather break down without him seeing.

almost immediately, taesan looks up and smiles, the kind where his eyes are squeezed into crescents and whiskers appear under them. but when he finally sees you, he instantly plants his feet on the floor, setting his ipad aside and ripping off his headphones.

“y/n?” his voice is soft and gentle. he always treats you like a delicate flower; it makes you feel like you can fall apart in his presence and he’ll be there to pick up your pieces.

“y/n,” he calls again, and he’s about to get up before you briskly walk towards him and all but jump on him.

with your knees on either side of him, you wrap your arms around his neck and drop your head on his shoulder. noticeably, taesan tenses at the uncharted touch, and a moment of hesitation lingers. but his arms quickly shoot up to envelop you, hands resting firmly on either side of your torso as he holds you tightly against himself.

he remains silent, letting you take in his warmth as he gently caresses your back. you nuzzle against his neck, wanting to get as close to him as you can. despite his surprise at your touch, he doesn’t make it known and mirrors your actions, nosing your collarbone as he pulls you even closer.

you thought you would break into tears immediately in his arms, but the more you lean into his touch, the more you feel your weariness dissipate, until the huge lump in your throat eventually melts as well.

sensing your breathing calm down and your body turning lax against his, he places a kiss on your neck and whispers against your skin: “i’m here.” it’s a simple declaration; two words that neither push you to speak nor stop you from sharing, but just to remind you that, whatever it is, he’s always by your side.

“i… had a bad day today,” you begin, and taesan’s hold on you never once falters. as you tell him about what happened, his fingers continuously draw idle circles on your back, and he hums softly to reassure you that he’s listening.

“how do you feel now?” taesan, gentle as ever, asks after you stop talking.

“...a lot better,” you confess and nuzzle against his neck again, landing a peck there to emphasize your point.

“i’m glad.” the smile is evident from his voice alone, even if you can’t see his face.

a few more moments of silence pass between you, the two of you simply relishing each other’s company. it’s only when you catch taesan’s ipad light up with a notification from your peripheral vision that you remember what he had been doing before your almost-break-down.

you pull yourself away, but your hands remain on his shoulders, as do his on your waist. “you were composing something before this, right?” your eyebrows are knitted in guilt, lips jutting out similarly. “sorry, i didn’t mean to interrupt you… you can continue now.”

“no, don’t apologise,” taesan replies immediately, shaking his head. he reaches up to tuck your hair behind your ears and smiles, fondness seeping from every pore, “i’ll always put you before anything else.”

it’s strange how the emotions you initially expected to spill over from your negative experiences today are now threatening to escape from these seven words instead. with the lump returning to your throat once again, you don’t trust your voice to speak.

instead, you move your hands to cup his face and lean down to place your lips on his, letting your body do the talking instead.

with every movement, your feelings translate from your heart to his. his grip on your waist tightens as he cranes his neck to capture more and more of these feelings, until both of you are rendered breathless from all the emotions filling your bodies, squeezing around your ribs, your lungs, and your hearts.

when you pull away, the dazed look on taesan is something that you want to carve into your mind forever. for someone who’s never uncomposed, the fact that he’s been rendered like this, and because of you, makes your insides twist with something far greater than you can explain.

“i love you.”

for now, you’ll settle with the word ‘love.’

© blissfullsvn 2024. All Rights Reserved.

[that-sarcastic-writer]

A Love Game

DI!Single!Dad!Leon S. Kennedy X F!Teacher!Reader

Summary: You hear a glimpse of Leon's relationship with his daughter. And later he makes you a proposal you just can't refuse

Warnings: mild sexual content, still minors dni, brief phone sex, allusions to sex, Leon has a mouth on his as always, bit of soft!dom leon, mostly Leon being a soft dad on this one, foul language (as always), no use of y/n

WC: 3k

A/N: so I'm totally in love with this dynamic! And yalls support was insane. I literally wrote two separate drafts of a continuation of these two and whichever I finished first was gonna be posted, so the light smut one won bc I'm tired atm and didn't feel like sitting in front of my computer for 6 hours🙃 so this short part will have a second part to it with full spicy time. And another standalone part with these two (coffee and other things) having some more spicy time is also in the works, so stay tuned. Besitos <3

Universe Masterlist

Leon blinked slowly, his eyes now starting to grow sore from staring at the bright computer screen for so long. But he just hadn't had time to finish this stupid report. Sure, he has had two whole days to get it done, but with a tiny human clinging to his arm every waking minute, it was a bit more complicated than he thought. But he couldn't possibly ignore his little girl when he barely had the time to be with her without having to worry about stopping some mad scientist with too much time in their hands. He didn't mind though. His little girl was more important than anything else. 

Still, he took advantage of the little window of time he had now. He had given Isabella dinner a little over an hour ago. Then left her in the dining room to finish her homework. She had always been a smart girl, responsible with her homework, she never fussed when he asked her to do it, so it didn't worry him in the slightest to leave her to do her own thing. She tended to get distracted when he was around anyway. 

Though, maybe an hour had gone by when he heard tiny feet pad bare through the wood floors and he saw a mess of chocolate brown strands sticking from its bun peek above his computer screen. He slowly lowered the screen until it was almost shut and he was met with a pair of sapphire eyes that were a replica of his own. He raised an eyebrow at her. 

"Daddy." She took a step closer to him, her eyes big like she wanted to ask him something. 

Leon sat up fully, setting his laptop aside and nodded at her, giving her his full attention now. "What's up bee?" 

"Can I.. uhm.. I can play with your switch now?" She asked, dark lashes batting as she fiddled with her hands. As if she had to give him puppy dog eyes for him to say yes. He kept his face serious though. 

"You wanna play on my switch?" She nodded. He ran his fingers over his light stubble as if he was thinking real hard, he pursed his lips in thought. "I dunno hun, did you finish your homework?" 

"How did you know I had homework?" She asked with an adorable frown on her face, it took Leon all of his willpower not to break then. 

"Well I do now." He slipped a smile and she pouted. He couldn't help but chuckle at his little girl. He took her in his arms and sat her on his lap. "Well I knew before. Wanna know how?" 

Her head perked up. "How?" 

Leon leaned into her ear with a smile, "'Cause dads know everything about their little girls." He pressed a kiss to the side of her hair and set her back on her feet. "But yeah, Miss Pretty Teacher told me." 

"That's cheating!" She whipped her head around with a gasp and glared at him. He again couldn't hide his laugh. 

"Yeah alright, you caught me," he raised his hands up at her in surrender. "You can play on the switch for a bit. Do you remember how to turn it on?" 

Izzy proudly nodded and skipped over to the large TV hooked up to the living room. The TV had been on, nothing playing, but just on, since Leon had intended to play some white noise in the background but never actually loaded up anything. He switched to the right input as he watched Izzy turn on the Switch. It took her a second to remember how, but she was happily skipping back to the couch with the controllers as the loading screen came up before Leon could get up to help. He shook his head to himself, but he puffed out a breath when Izzy jumped on his lap, rather hard, the little girl giggling when he groaned. 

"Jesus Christ, when did you get so big?" He chuckled, fixing her on his lap so she wouldn't fall and watched as she scrolled through the games until she found Mario Kart. 

"I turned seven in October, remember?" She piped up, genuinely reminding him of such an important date, as if he would ever forget. He nodded. 

"I know, Izzy. I took you to Dave and Busters with Amara, remember?" 

"Oh. Yeah, you're right. That was fun. We should go again sometime! Please daddy?" She turned her head to look at him with this smile on her face and her big blue eyes. 

God, what did he ever do to deserve this kid? 

He pressed his lips to her forehead and nodded. 

"'Course. I'll talk to Amara's mom, okay?" 

He watched as Izzy excitedly nodded and cheered happily before she got lost in the game in front of her. He didn't mind her having screen time. It wasn't like she had an iPad glued to her face twenty-four-seven. He let her play once or twice a week, and maybe a third if he was feeling like playing with her. And she was more than happy to spend that time with her dad. 

Tonight he wasn't really feeling playing, so he watched her do her best. To her, she was the biggest winner there ever was, throwing turtle shells and bombs at practically nothing and hitting the wall with every curve, but she had fun with it, so he let her be, cheering her on whenever she finished a race, even if it was in ninth or eighth place. 

Maybe thirty minutes had passed when he felt his phone buzz beside him. He took his eyes away from the colorful screen to look at his phone. It lit up with a text, and his smile grew wide at the name. 

My pretty teacher. 

He grabbed his phone and quickly opened the conversation. You had been texting back and forth all day, for days now, after what he considered a perfect first date, but he just hadn't gotten around to match your schedule to plan another date. So you had resorted to texting and maybe calling once here and there. But God, he was really missing you right about now.

My pretty teacher: sorry, I went to dinner with my mom and sister. And I just got home. Hru? 

He bit his lip as he attempted to type into his phone one handed. 

Me: It's fine. I'm ok. With izzy. 

My pretty teacher: awww🥰 

Me: Can you call? I'm texting with one hand at the moment. 

You saw the message, and he could see the three text bubbles appear and disappear. Until they didn't come back. He mentally grimaced at himself, maybe the idea of talking to him while Isabella was there made you uncomfortable? Shit. He hadn't thought about that. Christ, he hadn't dated in so long he had forgotten that being a single dad wasn't exactly the biggest turn on. No matter how much one liked kids. 

His anxiety riddled brain stopped racing when he saw your contact name pop up on his screen as his phone started ringing. He grinned to himself. He glanced at Izzy— her full attention was still on her game, he shrugged and answered the call. He set his phone down, still having one ear bud in from when he was working on his laptop. 

"Hey Miss." He spoke first, his heart racing in his chest a bit. 

"Hi Leon." He could hear the smile in your voice. That shy smile he thought was the prettiest thing. 

"You busy?" He asked, still a bit worried he was interrupting you in the middle of something. Though the indistinct sound of TV playing in the background let him know that maybe you weren't that busy. 

"Not really. I got home a little bit ago so I was just about to run myself a bath." You answered, walking back and forth between your bedroom and the bathroom connected to it. "You?"

Leon tried his hardest not to think about your words too much. Not right now. 

"Nah. Just watching Izzy play on my switch. She's kicking ass in Mario Kart." He heard you blurt out a giggle, which made him chuckle, but what made him actually laugh was Izzy shooting him a frown over her shoulder. 

"Daddy, that's a no-no word." 

Leon snapped his head down at Izzy and he frowned, not sure if he heard her correctly, "What's that bee?" 

"I said that's a bad word."

"What is?" 

"Ass." 

Leon almost snorted at the way she said the word. With a frown and her lips pursed. He didn't care if she said bad words or not. He sure as hell said them all the time, but he encouraged her not to repeat what he said, in front of other people, at least. He narrowed his eyes at her. 

"So don't say it. I'm an adult. I can say them." When she kept looking at him, he placed a hand on top of her head and —gently— turned her head back towards the TV screen, despite her protest. "Keep playing your game, Isabella. Or you can't sit on my lap anymore." 

All Leon could hear was you attempting to muffle your laughter, but he could hear your giggles loud and clear. He only rolled his eyes, but he had a tiny smile of his own. 

"C'mon don't laugh, being a parent is hard. Are you the one teaching her this no-no bull— B.S?" He caught himself, closing his eyes when you laughed even more, now not even bothering to hide it. 

"I have to! I have a swear jar, I'm sorry. I gotta set an example." 

He actually laughed at this, remembering the mouth you had on you when he had you on his bed. 

"Yeah, well, you weren't so pure and innocent when you were screaming—" He caught himself again, his own eyes widening when he remembered Isabella was right there and he sighed out softly. "Give me an hour and I'll give you the answer you deserve, Miss." 

You stayed quiet for a second, not because he offended you, but because you needed a second to breathe and control the heat that flashed between your legs at his insinuation. You exhaled deeply before responding. 

"You're what again? Playing Switch with Izzy? 

Leon hummed in response. "She is. She's sitting on my lap so I'm being forced to watch." 

"I'm not forcing you!"

"On your game, Isabella. Stop listening to my conversation." 

"Does she have her own Switch or something?" You asked, now sitting on the edge of your bathtub as hot water poured from the faucet. 

"No. It's my Switch. But I leave it in the living room so she can play sometimes." He answered you with a shrug you obviously couldn't see. 

You chuckled softly, "How old are you again?" 

"Thirty-eight, but that's besides the point. I barely have time to use the thing. I mostly bought it for Izzy." He wasn't lying— entirely. He sometimes played, late at night by himself when he wanted to drown himself in a bottle of whiskey. He would choose to play a game to blow off steam instead of getting drunk with his little girl sleeping in the next room or passing out drunk at some shitty bar. 

"I'm very convinced by that." You snorted, making him sigh out at you.

"Hmph. Whatever. You wouldn't understand how cathartic throwing green turtle shells at tiny cars can be." 

"Oh I bet." 

"Daddy?" You heard Isabella's voice through the phone and your heart warmed.

Leon looked down at Izzy, "Yeah?" 

"Who are you talking to?" She asked with genuine curiosity, her very glorious race tournament now over and her attention was on him. 

He heard you go silent, most likely having heard the little girl and he sighed out, his eyes landing up on the ceiling for a second as he thought of his answer. 

"Just a friend, bee." He ultimately decided on that answer. It wasn't that he was ashamed of being with you, not at all, but Izzy was still young, and even he knew there had to be a proper introduction of you outside of your teacher role. He actually wanted to do this the right way.

"You fuck my brains out last week and I'm just a friend now?" He heard you comment in his ear and he groaned out. 

"C'mon, that's not fair." He leaned back into the couch, his forearm over his eyes now as he basically had two women all over him, pressing him with way too many questions for his liking. 

"I'm just giving you a hard time, Leon. I get it." There was humor in your voice, lightheartedness and even though he couldn't see you, he had a feeling you had that gentle smile on your lips. That eased the pressure on his chest. 

"Listen sweetheart, it's almost Izzy's bedtime," His eyes were on Izzy now, and with his eyes he was nudging at her to start wrapping up her game. She pouted, but didn't otherwise fuss. "Call you in an hour?" 

You both had this dumb, lovesick smile on your face, if only you could see the other.

"I'll be up."

The warm water, the foaming body wash and the intoxicating smell of your favorite candle had done wonders to relax you. When you left the bathtub you felt like a whole new person. Though there still this tug of butterflies in your stomach as you anxiously waited for Leon to call you. 

You sat on the edge of the tub, warm and fluffy robe wrapped around your naked body as you mindlessly scrolled through your social media for a little while before you decided to check out for the night. You nearly slipped right off the tile when your phone buzzed and you felt a cold shiver run down your spine. 

"Hey, sorry about, y’know, earlier. Izzy and I are like that." You smiled at the sound of Leon's voice, now a bit hushed but more relaxed and carefree, like he now could say whatever the fuck he wanted. 

"It's okay. It was cute, hearing how you talk to her. You're sweet." You smiled to yourself, and you could hear him breathe out a soft laugh, most likely a bit flustered by your words, but he otherwise didn't show it. "You put her to sleep though?" 

"Yeah, I stayed with her 'til she fell asleep. I'm in my bedroom now, about to take a shower." He said the words slowly, with purpose, like he wanted you to think about it like he had been thinking about you, taking that bath. "So, you take your bath yet?" 

"Yeah, it was nice. I definitely needed it. I could've used some company though." You bit your lip, testing his reaction. There was silence, then he hummed. 

"Yeah? That so?" Now it was your turn to hum in agreement, your legs instinctively closing as you tried to soothe the ache between your thighs. "I'm sure you could've. Would've been nice to have someone hold you, right? Have someone leave kisses on your wet skin, say how good you're doing while getting your pretty pussy fingered?" 

You couldn't hold back the moan that left your throat at his words, and your free hand instantly traveled down, stopping at your belly. 

"Oh, that's a sound I'll never get tired of hearing. Fuck, you're already moaning for me and I'm not even there to give you a reason." He exhaled out a chuckle, his hardening cock starting to press against his sweatpants. 

"Fuck, I really wish you were here." You sighed out, your hand itching closer towards your already wet cunt, but you knew it wasn't your touch you ached for. It was Leon's. 

"Yeah? Why's that?" 

You whined softly, your phone almost slipping off your grip as your head fell to the side. "Leon…" 

"Tell me." 

"Because… I really, really, need you to touch me, hold me, ugh— I just need you to fuck me, Leon." 

Leon clenched his fist as his side, teeth digging into his bottom lip as he listened to your desperate words, and the sound shot straight to his cock. Fuck, he'd be lying if he said he didn't need you, too. 

"Goddamn baby," He grunted softly, his hand now brushing the front of his sweats, where his cock strained against the material, and he tried to muffle the sound between his teeth, but you heard it anyway. "You have no fucking idea how much I've been wanting to ruin that pussy of yours again. It's actually driving me crazy." 

You shuddered, the ache between your legs starting to become unbearable. "I really want to see you too, baby." 

Leon closed his eyes, biting his lip raw as he thought fuck it. He could explain in the morning. 

"Fuck it, just fuck it. Wanna take the drive here? I swear I'll give you exactly what you need and it'll be so worth it." 

You'd like to think you were a rational person, you always thought things through twice, three times if necessary. You didn't take risks, much less acted in a way that could be considered immoral, but for Leon? Fuck, for that man you would become the biggest whore in this world if it meant he would take you just one more time. 

"Be there in thirty." 

Fuck it. 

Sneak peek of A Love Game Part II, coming soon

His lips were hard on your own, messy on your jaw, like he didn't know which part he wanted to kiss more. Your fingers were entangled in his perfectly soft honey brown strands, already melting under his touch. His hand came up under your jaw to grip your face in place, long fingers sprawled out over your neck. He pulled you back by your face and his eyes were hard on you, with this mixture of authority and utter need to fuck you. He could be both. 

"This is how this is gonna be. I'm going to throw you on that bed and fuck you the way you deserve. But I better not hear a single fucking sound leave those pretty lips of yours. Not tonight. Got it?"

Stay tuned for upcoming parts lovelies. Besitos<3

[terresdebrume]

Work is kinda hectic rn, my knees are NOT liking how much traveling between floors I have to do, and I am missing sleep like crazy so my WIPs are staying largely untouched but I HAD to push out this concept for a maybe-someday fic in the I'm down on my knees universe

Written for the free square day of @painlandweek . Have some hurt/comfort ft Charles and how he feels about his mum. Also belatedly tagging @ghostinthelibrarywrites bc I think you'll enjoy it and I accidentally posted a thing that was meant to stay a draft again xD

Charles is sitting on the doorstep. It's almost eight PM on a weeknight, Edwin is just back from a fun-study session—which is really just Maren's way of saying she wants beer with her textbooks—tired, brain swimming with texts of law, and more than a little tipsy... And Charles Rowland is sitting on his doorstep. His building's doorstep. The difference is irrelevant.

Caught off guard, Edwin blinks, and stares at Charles.

He is curled up on the ground, spine back in that parenthesis shape it had back in school. His elbows are on his knees, hands buried into the hair at the back of his neck, his eyes closed. Edwin takes in the tension in Charles' shoulders, the way the fading sunlight catches the green vines tattooed on his left forearm, the slow, deliberate depth of movement around his ribcage, and decides against calling out to him. Instead, Edwin walks up to him until Charles can no longer ignore the footsteps, and waits for him to speak.

"Hi," Charles says, muffled, from between his elbows.

"Hi," Edwin replies, chest twisting when the last hope he had that Charles was just a bit tired evaporates like rhum from a flambé.

He steps forward again, then ignores the fresh layer of summer dust on the steps and sits down next to Charles, deliberately picking a position that makes their hips and shoulders touch. Charles leans into it immediately, turning a light contact into solid pressure, and Edwin sighs. Things could be worse.

"I did not expect you tonight," Edwin prompts, trying to make himself as gentle as he can.

Tuesday nights are when Charles and Niko's dance classes take place. Edwin has never known either of them to miss one, so Charles' presence here is one more sign that whatever is going on is not to be taken lightly. As if to confirm Edwin's suspicions, Charles sighs, and mumbles:

"I ran into my mum."

Edwin freezes. For some reason, in the few months since he and Charles reunited, it never quite clicked for him that Charles' parents, for all that Charles hasn't had any contact with them for nearly eight years now, exist in the same world they do. London is such a large, dense city, it is easy to make your life in a corner of it and never step outside its boundaries. Edwin's parents certainly treat Kensington like an insular country only worth leaving for the richer shores of Mayfair, when they deign to visit the capital at all. Just like Edwin and Charles existed less than ten minutes away from each other for months without having a clue, the possibility of him running into Mr. or Mrs. Rowland by accident did not even cross Edwin's mind. Nor Charles', from the look of things.

"That must have been a shock," Edwin says.

He does not know enough to infuse more feelings into his response. Charles, for all that he shares his smiles, his affections and the chief of his worldly possessions freely, has remained incredibly tight lipped about his past. The summary of what Edwin knows of Charles' youth is quite easy to make.

Fact the first: at the age of sixteen, not one term into his stay at St. Hilarion's School for Boys, Charles Rowland jumped into a pool full of a deadly allergy trigger to save Edwin's life.

Fact the second: for the remainder of that school year, Charles endeavoured to make Edwin's life as painless as possible. His presence remains, by far, the brightest highlight of Edwin's adolescence.

Fact the third: at the age of seventeen, or near enough, Charles ran away from what he described as a bad home situation exactly once and proceeded never to mention again. It is Edwin's understanding that Charles may have escaped with nothing but the clothes on his back that day.

Two of those facts, Edwin knows because he was a direct witness to them, and the third was only shared with him because he accidentally made it an implicit condition to renewing his acquaintance with Charles.

Charles Rowland is not an emotional sharer, and Edwin is sort of at a loss.

"Yeah," Charles mumbles after a beat. "It was a bloody shock alright."

Edwin bites on his bottom lip, resisting the urge to push his fists together.

"Would you like to talk about it?" He asks, hoping his voice conveys the appropriate mixture of care and caution.

Charles shrugs, sniffing and rubbing his face against one of his forearms. Edwin bites his lip a little harder, and cautiously raises his right hand to place it on Charles' back. He feels and sees the muscles tense, Charles arching his back like an angry cat for the half second it takes Edwin to take his hand back.

"I apologize," he says, hand hovering uselessly above Charles' shoulder blades, "I wanted—"

"Neck's fine," Charles mumbles, low enough that Edwin almost misses it.

He swallows thickly, pausing when the upstairs neighbors walk by with puzzled faces. Edwin doesn't quite glare at them but it's a near thing, and he turns back to Charles the second they're out of view.

"Alright," he says. "Neck, then."

He only touches two fingers to the nape of Charles' neck at first, trying to keep it light, but that makes Charles tense again so he changes to a more present grip, palm flat and only just brushing with the edge of Charles' hair. Charles doesn't move into it this time, but he doesn't flinch away either. Edwin feels Charles take a deep, soundless breath, like a swimmer before a dive, and braces.

"I. She asked how I was," he exhales at last, and the wind rushes out of Edwin's lungs with a punched out sound. "I haven't seen her in over seven years and she—"

Charles takes a shuddering breath, sharp and painful sounding, and his voice sounds utterly broken when he says:

"He used to beat me up, you know."

Edwin, who hadn't known but kept the possibility in his mind like a bad thorn, bites down on a sympathetic hiss and leans a little harder against Charles instead, stretching so he can lean his forehead against the back of Charles' skull.

"Charles, I'm so sorry," he murmurs, free hand grasping around until it can find the jut of Charles' left knee, and wrap his fingers around it, squeezing with as much reassurance as he can muster.

He wishes, abruptly, that he'd thought to take Charles inside before he started this talk. They both deserve better than the front step of Edwin's building, where another pair of neighbors gawks at them as they walk past. Yet, now that they're here, Edwin wouldn't cut Charles off for all the gold in the world. He fears with an intensity he didn't know he was capable of, that interrupting Charles now would send him back into his usual reserve, and Edwin knows with absolute certainty that he will go to great lengths to prevent that from happening.

"She never—every time he did it," Charles says, almost choking on the words, "she'd just stand—she didn't do anything! And now—now she—"

A long fit of coughing cuts Charles off, wracking his body and shaking Edwin's head even as he tightens his hold on Charles, as if he could make up for his childhood with how much he loves him.

"I'm so sorry," he tells Charles. "You deserved so much better."

Charles' cough subsides, melting into shuddering, soundless sobs that Edwin wants to take into his ribs and hide from the rest of the world. He straightens up and, as gently as he can, guides Charles to lean against him harder until his frame his half cradled in Edwin's arms.

"It's not bloody fair," Charles manages between sobs, gulping air like he's drowning, shaking against Edwin.

Edwin breathes in, tears crowding at the corner of his eyes, and holds Charles closer. He wishes, so desperately, that he could love him enough to erase the past and make all the pain go away.

"I love you," he says instead, recklessly, pressing a kiss into the side of Charles' hair. "I know it doesn't make anything better, but I love you."

They sit like this for a long time, Charles crying and Edwin rocking him lightly like a child, until things finally calm down enough that Charles is ready to go upstairs for tea. They drink it out of the blue mugs Monty bought when he and Edwin moved in, quietly sitting on the couch in one of those strange bubbles of relieved fragility that comes after a crisis. For a long while, they sit in silence on Edwin's couch.

Then Charles sighs, long and tired, and leans sideways until he can rest his head on Edwin's shoulder, one arm looping around his waist.

"I love you too, mate," he sighs, making Edwin freeze. "And it does make things better that you love me."

Edwin, his heart singing from Charles' declaration and bleeding from the way he meant it, nods, and drinks his tea.

[realtapiocafan]

hiiiiiii i was reading your tags from the fic snippet and learned something new in that i did not Know ja’marr moved to dallas omgg 😀 can u provide some more info on this ✍🏿✍🏿✍🏿

Ofc! (This is long)

So from what I gather, after opting out, Ja'Marr went back home (Harvey, Louisiana - close to NOLA) until about November, when he moved to Dallas to get ready for the draft. In the Najee-Jaylen-Ja'Marr house thing they did (which includes what Pro Day was like post-COVID and has some other videos about the draft itself), Ja'Marr says himself that he hasn't actually been at the LSU campus ever since he opted out. (Also if you look at his twitter, he was live-tweeting LSU games lol).

Everything else below are articles mentioning Ja'Marr going to Dallas, as well as some other information regarding COVID-era Ja'Marr, sprinkled with my own little comments in between 🙂

So first off, the Dallas thing is specifically mentioned in this article by the Advocate (I'm going to include the necessary paragraphs bc some of these are paywalled smh)

There were more uncertain times, too. Chase opted out of the 2020 season during preseason camp last year, a time in which the pandemic was surging and there was tension in the football operations building after a mishandled team meeting regarding the team's player-led march amid national protests against police brutality. Chase told reporters at LSU's Pro Day that his decision to leave was because "I had a lot of stuff going on with my family at the time." Chase dedicated his time toward becoming a professional. From November until March, he lived and worked out at the EXOS training facility in Dallas. After almost a year out of public sight, he coolly ran a 4.38-second 40-yard dash at pro day — an impressive enough time that Jimmy said coaches and trainers told Ja'Marr he could shut it down. "I came here to put on a show," Ja'Marr told them, then proceeded to run routes and individual drills.

~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ ·

The Athletic (which i honestly trust more) goes more into detail into Ja'Marr's exact location. Apparently, Ja'Marr moved from Baton Rouge back home (it sounds like it was about September). Then in November, he went to Dallas. This article also includes some more information on Ja'Marr's experience in quarantine. That quote by Ja'Marr's dad really opened my eyes, because Ja'Marr was never really alone before this. He was always part of a team, always surrounded by people until... well, he wasn't. (Also now that I think about it, Ja'Marr did say he started watching tape because of Joe and apparently spent most of this year -which was away from Joe- watching tape... maybe it reminded him of Joe 👀)

Ja’Marr stayed in Baton Rouge initially after opting out in August. He remained close with his teammates, especially the receiving corps at first. But once the season cranked up, Ja’Marr moved back home, feeling a sense of isolation without football... “We kept him close to home. We noticed that he was struggling a little bit. Life without football. Life without a team. His whole life changed. It was his first time not playing sports since he was a young kid. Gamedays were the hardest day.” One thing jumped out to Jimmy as they watched games together, though. He never fully grasped his son’s football IQ. “We watched the games with him,” Jimmy said. “He would call the plays before the snap was gone.  And he would say how Terrace (Marshall) needs to do this because the defense is about to do this. And Racey (McMath) needs to do this so he needs to watch out for this. He’d call the play and I was like, ‘Damn!’ It would happen just like he said. So sitting out actually helped in that sense. He never really watched football. He was always playing. Now all he could do was watch it. He told me and I saw how much it helped him.” Watching games with Ja’Marr, his parents sensed his pent-up energy. He was healthy, but he wasn’t playing. The energy fed right into Ja’Marr’s passion for working out. He’d run to the gym often after games to let that energy free. The regimented workout routine really kicked up about six months ago. “He’s been at EXOS (A Dallas-based training facility) since November,” Jimmy said. “They had an opt-out session group that started out where they would work out three days a week. So he started out there at the end of October or early November. That lasted until the end of December. Then in January, he started getting into the more combine workouts. He’s been working hard and getting stronger. That’s really the only thing that’s been keeping him sane is working. That’s all he could do.”

~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ ·

This Sports Illustrated article further confirms he was in Dallas for at least part of 2020-2021. It also adds that Ja'Marr was so pent-up that he apparently wanted to opt back in (probably bothered by LSU being kinda shit that year -that third game, LSU lost 45-41 💀).

He spent the off-year training in Dallas, studying film and watching his former college teammates struggle through to a 5-5 COVID-impacted 2020 season. What many don’t know, his dad says, is Chase nearly returned to LSU midseason. “People don’t realize how close he was to coming back,” Jimmy says. “After the third game, he was watching and jumped off the sofa after they lost. He said ‘I’m about to opt back in!’ It was killing him.” The family seriously explored whether Chase would have been eligible to return (Jimmy says Ja’Marr would have) and spoke to coaches at length about his reinstatement. In the end, Ja’Marr remained on the sidelines. 

~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ ·

This Washington Post article also goes more into depth about the impact COVID had on Ja'Marr's family and what went into the decision to opt-out (Ja'Marr apparently has a hole in his heart which SHOCKED me the first time I read it) (It also goes the most in depth into Ja'Marr's aghast reaction at Les Miles saying he should be a DB and why Ja'Marr didn't want to commit to LSU at first)

But that March, Jimmy Chase says, their family began suffering from flu-like symptoms, and older son Jimmy Jr. and Toleah would be hospitalized with what they later learned was covid-19. “I was like: Shake it off, man,” Jimmy Chase Sr. says. “I can’t die now.” During a most unpredictable spring, when the coronavirus pandemic paused sports and shut down the world, the Chase family survived but eventually learned about “long covid” and the heart and respiratory problems some patients reported. Jimmy Chase says his son’s heart problem has healed, but it remained a frightening preexisting condition and again placed the father and son on opposite sides of a tense debate.

~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ ·

Last thing, if you were wondering about the team meeting in the first article, here's what information i found. Again, I don't know how reliable The Advocate actually is and unlike the article above, this is literally the only source I found that mentions this. I don't recall Ja'Marr or any other LSU players saying anything remotely negative about Orgeron - most of them say he was a great coach!

(At the same time, an old white guy giving ... maybe not racist, but tone-deaf advice to a bunch of college-aged black men, in the height of Black Lives Matter -it's not out of the question.)

Multiple sources told The Advocate that team morale turned south before the season even began, when a large group of players felt Orgeron mishandled a team meeting regarding the team's player-led march in August amid national protests against police brutality. The players skipped practice that day, met outside Tiger Stadium and marched to the university president's office without Orgeron, who later told reporters he didn't know about the protest before it happened. Orgeron met up with the players at the president's office and took part in a meeting that lasted about an hour. He later told reporters he and the players talked "about the things they're going through and how we can be a part of the solution." Privately, the meeting did not come off as productive as described. Orgeron and some players were upset during the meeting, multiple sources said, and while some players said the situation could've been handled better by all sides, other players left feeling Orgeron wasn't supportive. Three days after the meeting, star wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase announced he was opting out of the season, joining starting nickel safety Kary Vincent in preparing for the NFL draft. By the end of the week, starting nose tackle Tyler Shelvin opted out as well.

[worldstarz]

persona 3 spoilers (part 2!)

pairing: shinjiro aragaki x fem!reader

tags: angst

a/n: continuation of this post. i will edit this as soon as i wake up in the morning but i told myself i will not go to bed until this leaves my drafts bc it’s been marinating for like five days. also what is the title of this two part thing??

HUGE SPOILER WARNING FOR OCTOBER IN PERSONA 3 !!!

———

it still smells like him.

the room is barren. shinjiro never wanted to leave his mark on the world, trying to erase his own existence. but, as you lie on the sheets that have yet to be changed, the subtle musky scent engulfs you.

“it still smells like him,” you repeat your thoughts aloud, as if by addressing it would make it permanent.

maybe this was weird. if he were here, standing before you, he would be staring down at you with a quirked brow. “what the hell are you doing?”

why did he come to your room that night? what purpose did he have, knowing his own fate?

you try not to cry. you’ve cried enough already, and the image of shinjiro in your head would certainly scold you, telling you to just get up and get some food with him.

but he’s not here.

sure, it’s not what he would’ve wanted, but you make yourself comfortable on his bed. it’s the least he could do after confessing his desire for you, knowing he would die the same day.

lying on your back, you allow your mind to wander. why does it feel like you’re the only one stuck in the past? how has everyone been able to bounce back so quickly? hell, akihiko is basically his brother and he’s already moved on. speaking of moving on, amada’s completely—

fuck, what is wrong with you?

for the past few days, you tried to block these festering thoughts. being open minded was what lead you to be so close to shinjiro. akihiko just processes his grief differently, while amada was just a kid blinded by revenge.

but still…

you sit up abruptly. he wouldn’t want this.

you swing your legs over the edge of the bed and plant your feet on the ground. he wouldn’t want this.

you stand up, smoothing over your clothes. he wouldn’t want this.

but what the hell do you even know about him? how do you know what he would want? you couldn’t even become close enough to figure out what plagued his mind during his every waking moment. maybe if you did, you would’ve been able to stop—

no. he wouldn’t want this either.

just like how he would want akihiko, amada, and everyone else to come together and move on. he would not want you beating yourself up over something you weren’t involved in.

you take a deep breath in, then out. in. out. okay. you’ve got this. this is your last day to be in his room before everything is moved out. all that will remain is the memory of him. everyone else already got a turn a few days ago, so this is your last chance to preserve whatever fragments of him are left in here.

the drawer to his desk is slightly ajar. out of respect for his privacy, you begin to shut it, but something oddly familiar peaks out.

is that…?

with wide eyes and shaky hands, you reach in.

it’s a photo of the two of you, back when shinjiro still went to school, before you had any ideas about why he came to class everyday all beat up.

you’re smiling, holding up a peace sign, while shinjiro glared at the camera. it was a picture taken to commemorate the end of junior high school—one that took a lot of convincing for him to agree to.

on the back, sprawled in your handwriting, you wrote;

“shinjiro,

i found this picture of us from the last day of junior high! it’s weird how much time has passed.

have you been eating well? how is your sleep? are you still growing out your hair? i know you’re not feeling well, but as soon as your health improves, we should hang out again.

also, i miss seeing you in class. hurry up and get better! i need someone to talk to!

-[name]

11/04/08”

it takes you a second, but you do remember writing this. judging by the date, it was roughly a month after he took his leave of absence, citing medical issues. you didn’t have much contact with him outside of school, so you relied on akihiko to transport the photo to him.

you crouch down, trying to get ahold of your emotions. you’ve done enough crying. he wouldn’t want you to waste so many tears on him.

but haven’t you been ignoring his wishes already?

you bury your face in your hands in a pathetic attempt to muffle your sobs. physically, nobody was in here. but for you, shinjiro was everywhere. in this room, in the hallways, in the lounge, on the streets, at school—he followed you everywhere. your morale bent under the weight of his memory.

only now do you realize there will come a day where you will have known the grief longer than you have known him.

but this pain is better than never knowing him in the first place.

shinjiro, who secretly cooked meals for koromaru.

shinjiro, who never let you go to bed on an empty stomach.

shinjiro, who tried to push you away, but failed.

shinjiro, who held you close hours before his death.

shinjiro, who didn’t want to leave his mark on the world, but left a mark on you.

the grief will never go away. you will carry it with you wherever you go, and the weight of it will never diminish. but, you can grow around it. you will grow around it.

because that’s what he would’ve wanted.

[elizmanderson]

2024 wrap-up, part 1

part two | part three | part four

[ABBA voice] here we go again, my my—

anyway, now that I've put that song in your head, let's look back at my year

writing

book stuff

as you may know, my second book, The Keeper of Lonely Spirits, releases in March 2025! so I spent much of this year editing, then editing some more, then line editing, then copy editing, then going over pass pages, then over more pass pages... the process never ends (until it's too late to make changes)

(artist: Xuan Loc Xuan)

if you find any typos in the final book come March, instead of being annoyed about them, you should recognize their determination and give them an award for MVT (most valuable typo) and a kiss on their lil typewritten forehead. because they made it not only through my own fifty six thousand rereads, but also through my agent, my editor, my copy editor, and my proofreader, and I think almost every single one of those people went through the book at least twice

anyway, The Keeper of Lonely Spirits is a cozy fantasy about an old man cursed with immortality who hunts ghosts rather than making mortal friends who will die one day. when the residents of an Ohio town beset by a vengeful spirit adopt him as their own, he must decide: leave to protect his heart, or stay to save their lives?

link to StoryGraph listing

link to signed preorders through my local indie

link to unsigned preorders through the publisher

I also received my first ever trade reviews, one of which was a starred review from Library Journal! trade reviews can convince booksellers and libraries to purchase the book, especially if positive, especially if starred. they look good on a book's resume

read the reviews here:

link to Library Journal review

link to Publishers Weekly review

short stories

because I was so busy with novel stuff, I only wrote one short story this year. part of one short story. back at the start of January.

you know what happened? I let it sit for a few days for reasons I no longer remember, and when I came back I couldn't remember quite where I was going with it a l a s

anyway it's a queer Cinderella-inspired short, and I'd love to magically figure out a direction for it afresh so I can finish it in 2025

in-progress stuff

...we still won't talk about how revising last year's cozy mystery is going, but in my defense (a) I've been on deadline for other things and (b) just nine chapters in I had already strayed so far from my scene list that I had to rethink the whole book, whoops

mostly, I've been working on the second book that this publisher bought, which has resulted in a very terrible first draft full of so many footnotes and brackets that I would almost call it a zero draft, except I can't bring myself to use that term*

(*for myself. y'all use it as much as you like, if you like it)

literally it was 79,000 words, 6,000 words of which were footnotes-to-self so as not to ruin my fancy WIP aesthetic (Blackadder and Perpetua ftw) with comments

anyway, then there was a marginally less terrible second draft, which is what my editor got (a respectable 98,000 words with zero footnotes and almost zero brackets)

THEN I was supposed to take a break and not think about the book again until my editor read it and got back to me...but instead I immediately wrote a brand new synopsis, sent it to her like "seriously you don't even have to read the version I already sent you bc it's gonna look so different," and then a couple weeks later whoops turned around started rewriting the whole story

which isn't going great bc I really DO need a break, I can TELL I need a break, but unfortunately when it comes to writing my brain is like "NO BREAK. ONLY WRITE >:[" which is Not Good. but I am trying to let myself casually poke at it instead of going hard and getting it done fast enough to send to my editor before she can even read the version she has lolol, so that's something

no-context spoilers for this WIP:

(tried finding the original post but could not, so screenshot from the internet it is)

that's it for part one! part two to follow is here! link to part two

[spacey-xannabelle]

Fateful Encounter...

Last month, at around April 10th, I decided to revisit an old project I started months prior which was to polish up a test sketch of a comic page about Lucy encountering Lumi in the dreamspace. And after slowly making progress on this, I'm finally finished with this!

I'm gonna leave some artist notes under the read more, but overall I'm super proud of how this turned out!! This is pretty much my first serious attempt at making comics in general so this has been a very interesting learning experience!

Artist notes: So this is what the original sketch for this whole thing was. It was just me scribbling out a scene I had in my head for Startrails that I wanted to put on paper:

This I'd say was made around 2020-2021 ish. At the time, I didn't really do much with it. Until several months ago, I thought of trying to redraw this page and expand upon it.

But my first attempt at doing this didn't quite lead anywhere. I barely got through the thumbnailing process and just gave up bc I lost motivation (and life/work stuff was Happening so yea I had to put this aside as I figured stuff out). Here's the first draft of the thumbnails:

It was just two pages at the time and was pretty simple. I left this project sitting in my files for a while until I one day just, started binging videos from Thestarfishface on YouTube, primarily her webcomic guide videos. And I decided I'd give this project another go.

It was here where I began making a second draft of the thumbnails and this was what I had to work with:

I wanted to experiment with the panels and get funky with the compositions this time around. The 2 page draft expanded to a 3 page thing. But I thought it would've been better if I added one more page at the end with Lucy waking up as a conclusion to wrap this whole thing together.

And in the middle of working on page 3, my friend had suggested to do a an impact frame page, which I hadn't considered during the thumbnailing, so 4 pages became 5. And this was the result!

I posted the pages as I finished them onto my deviantart so that's where a lot of my thoughts were journaled as I went along dfjsdh. To summarize my ramblings there, this project was a very fun (and a bit frustrating) learning experience! I'm hoping to keep practicing and improving my workflow, and hopefully one day make Startrails a full fledged webcomic :')

Additional ramblings:

The structure that Lucy finds Lumi in is inspired by an orrery.

For page 5, I initially didn't plan for much dialogue but as I drew it, it felt just a liiiitle bit empty, so I kinda just threw in some dialogue for Mira. But bc I was already in the inking process (and I just wanted to have this project completed), I didn't redo the page to even include Mira in it. So Mira's just out of frame sdfjskdh. If I had more time and energy to keep this up, I'd have made a revision of the page so I could include her.

This experience has taught me that I could seriously work on my rendering process a bit more, and that my layer management is just atrocious sdkfjksdfh

This has also taught me that while Medibang has the tools needed for me to draw these pages just fine, it also lacks some stuff that I personally need if I were to do a longer project like this. So I'll be experimenting with CSP next!

The dialogue throughout this whole thing wasn't all that planned out- I really just stuck close to what the initial doodle had which probably wasn't the best idea bc I just have like, 2 pages of Lucy's awkward sounding dialogue aaaa. I might do something a bit more dialogue heavy to help improve this skill next time.

Anyway, thank you for reading through my 1 am ramblings on this little project of mine shdkjhks

[wizardofvamp]

For your distraction needs, please may I know ✅ + 🎶 + 🤔 + ⛔️ for the fic writing ask game? Thank yeeewww

hellllll yeeeeee ty for the ask @porcelainseashore!

✅ - ohgaaaaawd uh I'm very bad at harvesting my own glimmers but I'm gonna harvest some from notes I've gotten from other folks bc I trust other folks taste over my own any day of the week:

Glimmer from the most recent Sascha fic:

Eroded molars plucked like pomegranate seeds and summarily replaced with brighter pearls.

Idk I really like how this sentence shook out it's info dense while still retaining an easy, readable flow. Also tips its hat on the kitbashing going on without being obvious so it'll be a fun thing to pick up upon a second or third read (I think)! Because I'm one of those annoying people who likes reading/writing things that require several passes to get the full picture.

Glimmer from Limits:

Either post was crafted to mimic the trees they were gored from, the arc of the back panel--branches that tangled and fused at its center. Wildlife roiled behind the broad leaves–[Ana] had spent hours while she was young sprawled out on the bed, tracing her fingertips across every twig-clutching talon and leaf-stem coiling mousetail. Pressing her fingers into the two ragged, unvarnished gashes that tore into the falcon roosted in the top right corner. To this day, she does not know what put those there–Kliment would never tell.

okay cheating this is a full passage not a single line, but I'm particularly proud of this description of Ana and Roman's headboard from the second chapter of Limits so full excerpt be upon ye! And yes the tenses are weird but Memorium can be like that sometimes (says the editor-less writer)

🎶 - I'm hugely reliant on music!! I create playlists for all my projects, and the majority of my music listening habits are more or less informed by whatever I'm writing/drafting on a particular day. All my playlists are in tatters because I'm in the middle of yet another spotify playlist overhaul but here's an ole reliable I recently updated for some Ana/Roman oneshots that will hopefully see the light of day eventually:

🤔 - I got two different answers! One more general and one more fic- specific. So two answers for the price of one! General: I've been writing since literally I was old enough to hold a pencil/sit at a keyboard. So I don't really have an answer outside of "well I also eat and sleep so yeah I write" it's just something I do whether I set out to do it or not. Even if I go years without publishing/posting/producing, I usually have several WIPs floating around for me to peck away at and manage sanity. Fan/Fic: Usually a good setting is enough for me to spin out fic! I don't typically write canon characters unless they become an Intense Blorbo where I feel like I have something to add to the greater blorbo-sphere. Currently I don't really have any of those outside of stray Sascha concept that I've got cooking out back. But yeah if I come across a setting that strikes me, OCs will just start spawning naturally so I write fic to wrangle those OCs.

⛔️ - If I'm writing canon characters for a specific fandom, I try to limit the number of "Big Names" in the piece bc nothing's more annoying that reading a fic tagged with a specific character only for said character to be around for three paragraphs as a contact/side mission. If there's a bit part to be played, give it to nameless rando 172 and if he grows a personality great! I now have a shiny new OC people can get to know! But like if you have a vamp fic and you need a Nos contact maybe give Mr. Tung a break he has enough going on in SoCal he doesn't need to be bothered with breadbasket intel unless he absolutely has to, give that job to a bright-eyed Nos upstart with a cool pet rat named Pichu and let that fun lil gal bounce off the Big Wigs in the fic. Makes the story more accessible to folks who are new to the fandom/lore as well as something new for the old heads if executed with care. Win-win! I hope!

[habizuh-studios]

jjk squid game au (sketch/draft) (not all characters, feel free to request) - no curses - kind of u.s core (i dont live in japan) - sorry if it sucks im crying as we speak

2nd Gen Edition - Someone has played the games before... I'll make a different post about geto/shoko/etc.

cut me some slack i haven't seen jjk in a while and my memory is rusty </3

Itadori Yuuji is a 15 year old who needs money for his grandfather's treatment and school fees for sports he's in <- to earn a scholarship for his grandfather. his grandfather told him to help people, so he has idle dreams to start a nonprofit. he meets the recruiter, battered and bruised in an old hoodie after basketball practice, leaning against the wall of a hospital building. distraction is his best friend. he has some Issues and i reallyy wanna explore them

Fushiguro Megumi and his sister were put into Gojo's foster care. when he has to leave for some mysterious reason, his sister is already in the hospital and he's very lonely tbfr. he wants to go to college and be a vet, but it's expensive. when gojo said he'd be gone for only a week, he lied. he's been missing for a long while now, he hasn't updated the bills he sends now that rent has gone up. his sister is still in a coma and he has nothing real left to lose. he meets the recruiter when feeding a stray cat in the rain

Kugisaki Nobara has always wanted to move to the city, escape from her village and start a new and successful life. her grandma doesn't want to help her move, and after an argument with her, she meets the recruiter sitting at a train station. she tells her grandma that she's only going to be gone for a week because of an opportunity she found, won't you let her have this just this once?

Gojo Satoru has played the games before, being the sole survivor. he didn't have much energy after,,, everything. happened. he couldn't bear to see megumi (reminded him too much of toji) but met Yuuta while smoking outside a convenience store. he's looking for a girl - rika - and gojo remembers her. she died in the games.... he takes yuuta up as a mentee and promises to pay him if he works for gojo to help stop the games. yuuta inspires him to go in there again, where he meets everyone and shit

Okkotsu Yuuta is 16-17 years old. he met Rika when he was young and they promised to marry each other back then (he still has the ring, is still very in love). he gets bullied a lot at school but Rika is strong, always comes in to protect him and patch him up and shit. She's poor, though, and her family is barely scraping by. he's distant with his own family bc of his own issues, so he can't really help her (he's tried before). She says she'll be missing for a week, then comes back two days later and says that if she's missing after 4 days, don't look for her. it's been a while since then. and then he meets gojo

Maki left the family to start her own business or something........ her family was aristocratic (screw you moriarty the patriot making me think this way) or smth........ she needs money to start up her business, cover expenses, advertise, etc.?? maybe??? Mai is mad at her for leaving - Maki was very smart and strong and perfect to inherit the family business but she had little interest in it. Mai wants to but she's not as naturally skilled,,,,

yeah that's. that's all i got so far.

[rurugumi]

Today I bring you: a Roy-centric drabble set in the "Third time's the charm" universe

I wrote this back in august?? maybe?? and it's been sitting untouched on my drafts ever since. Now after a couple of quick reviews I finally decided to post it here bc it's a bit short for ao3 I think, idk. also this is less of a canon scene and more of a... character study/exploration I guess. In any case here it is and I hope you enjoy it :)

Step by step

The first few days, Roy thinks it's a nightmare. He goes to sleep every night and dreams of waking up in his nice, lived-in house, Lian climbing into his bed asking for pancakes for breakfast.

Every morning he wakes up in a small apartment that smells too much like cigarettes, too many empty bottles piled up on the floor by his bed.

The one thing keeping him sane is that he remembers. He remembers the mission and he remembers coming home. Soon enough, Cheshire should be dropping Lian off at his doorstep, and he wishes for it to be sooner rather than later because he just really wants his family back.

He entertains the idea of telling Oliver about the time travel, but just the thought of trying to explain himself to anyone, of convincing them that he's in his right mind, is exhausting. He ditches the idea altogether once he remembers that there's no one waiting for him back in his time.

Just when the days start to blur together and he begins questioning whether he did time travel or if his mind was playing tricks on him, Dick comes knocking on his door.

It's odd. He doesn't remember that happening before. But it's comforting as well, because it means he can still remember, and because it's Dick.

It’s even more odd when he brings up Jason, because he doesn't tell him that he's dead, no. Instead, he's talking about Jason acting weird, and he’s using the present tense, and Roy keeps the conversation going absent-mindedly as he runs the dates through his mind and realizes that Jason should already be dead, but he isn’t. Jason is alive. Jason is here.

Jason is here.

Clearly, Dick doesn't know, and it's automatic when Roy covers for him, for his partner, who is here, too. He's not alone. There may be nothing left for him, neither in the past nor in the future, but who cares? At least he has Jason, and soon enough, he'll have Lian again.

Dick is suspicious, that much is clear. He keeps shooting Roy those intense looks, as if he were trying to figure him out. Still, when Roy asks for help with getting clean, the furrow in his eyebrow softens. He looks concerned, but not doubtful. Never doubtful.

Roy hugs him tight before he leaves. Dick pats his back and promises to come back soon, this time with Jason. Roy earnestly tells him he can't wait.

He knows he's worrying Dick. An addict shouldn't just quit cold-turkey like that, and Roy Harper, age 20, shouldn't be so excited to hang out with his friend's little brother whom he has never met before, but he can't help the excitement building up inside of him. He's getting Jason back. Hopefully soon he'll have Lian too. In time, he can start working his way up to Oliver and everyone else.

If Jason is getting his life back, Roy will do that with him. He'll match him step by step. He's not falling behind now, not when the life that could have been is just within his grasp.

[toxicanonymity]

You're such a good writer! I was wondering if you had any advice for someone who wants to begin writing on here? Like what's your process for making stories?

Ty nonnie, I'm flattered and excited for you. I wish I had a better answer but I spilled some thoughts below. Also, if you view this post on my actual blog and press the "writing" tag on it, you'll find some tips I've given before on story planning, writing dialogue, getting active in a fandom and more.

For good advice, @writingquestionsanswered has a great masterlist of resources and answers to Q's like this. Also, @creativepromptsforwriting.

Hope you have a good day 🖤

I daydream a lot. I tend to visualize before writing. Sometimes I jump in and sometimes I make notes. If I write notes, it's pretty leisurely / when a thought strikes I jot it down. Even if I won't use it. "No bad ideas." Then if I haven't decided how the story goes, I'll look at those notes and see if something takes shape when I consider them all together. Then to write it, I might start with whatever is the most vivid part in my mind whether that be dialogue or physical action or scenery. It doesn't have to be all planned out, I can see where it goes.

To make it less daunting, rn I will only start writing something I think I can finish in one sitting. So like a single scene. I try not to get hung up on details. I put stuff in brackets and come back to it. [He doesn't want to go to the function] <- I would come back and turn that into dialogue/mood. Or I might leave myself a question. [What's he wearing?]

If I'm "stuck," I might vary where I'm writing (Google docs, notes app, messages to myself) which is a nightmare for organizating purposes bc I can't be trusted to remember or consolidate. But sometimes helps ideas flow. Changing fonts is a less complicated tactic too.

Sometimes I do "sprints" where I write for a set amount of time and no matter how bad I'm writing i just do it until the time is up. And that gives me something to work with/rewrite.

Note: If you don't know what you want to write, you can start with who. And then, what are your favorite things about them. And what situations would make those things shine or challenge/validate them. Ask yourself what-if questions. You could try taking inspiration from prompt lists or blogs like creativewritingprompts to get you started. Your own ideas will come.

The truth is I'm too chaotic for my own good a lot of the time. You only see what I post, not all the stuff I don't. And this year there has been a lot of that. Scenes missing context, story fragments, dialogue with no setting, unedited drafts just languishing in various locations.

I hope you give writing a try and feel free to follow up or DM me. 🖤🤟

[sloaaaa]

MY POKEMON BRAINCELLS HAVE BEEN REACTIVATED!!!!!! i kinda wanna open trainersona + pokemon team comms but i still gotta finish my current queue shjkdfg n i would be posting this on my art acc but i made the draft in my main so :((

also watch me ramble about my dream team under the cut

alRIGHT YOU CLICKED THE READ MORE AND YOU’RE IN FOR A WORLD OF WORDS BABEY!!! let’s start w my trainer sona yeah? :]

enterr Sploo from Petalburg city! :D he/they. our trainer starts out in petalburg city of hoenn where his pokemon adventure begins! since the professor’s lab is just a few town away it doesn’t take much for them to get his hands on his starter pokemon treecko! the babey boy ;; he catches lotsa pokemon to fill out the dex, sometimes keeping them on his team, and other times letting them go. he doesn’t like having the pokemon all crammed in the pc boxes :( some pokemon stay for a few battles and others maybe a few days, but things change after defeating his first gym. he meets an electrike at route 110 under the seaside cycling road, she’s just a lil puppyyy a lil babeeeyyy ;;;; super fun playful lil guys sticks around the team! -w- after his fourth gym badge his parents give him a gift pokemon for making it halfway through the gym challenge! a klefki! :3 a tame n helpful lil guys who just enjoys holding keys -w- sploo then continues on to complete two more gyms before his family moves to alola.

now on the boat to alola with grovyle, manectric and klefki sploo kinda just stays by the side of the boat watching the waves go by -w- also trying not to get too seasick shjkdfgl a lone shiny fletchling perches by them and he tries real hard to keep the excitement in and offers the fletchling some sunflower seeds! and asks if the fletchling would like the join their team! i mean who wouldn’t wanna pass up the opportunity of having a shiny pokemon on their team? after docking at akala island sploo travels around and catches some more pokemon to register to the dex, releasing them after as usual. then upon exploring diglett’s tunnel he finds a cover fossil! after cleaning up the rocks and dirt off the fossil spectrobes origins wii style he brings it to the fossil restoration center just along the route and meets the fifth member of his team :] and finally the sixth member of the team! a jangmo-o found in poni canyon, sploo came across the jangmo-o with its head scale stuck in the branches of a fallen tree. he freed the jangmo-o and excpected it to run back to its herd but it kept challenging them for a battle. after a long fight the jangmo-o is worn out, and sploo helps it back up on its feet with some potions and a plate of oran berries. sploo sets up a little picnic in the canyon! :3 helping nurse the jangmo-o back to health -w- the lil dragon sneaks into sploo’s bag and brings out a pokeball in its maw, determination in its eyes. and that’s how the team get together! :D but if u think i am done u are soo wrong sjhkjdfgd now i’m gonna go more in depth with each team member >:]

let’s start with mister! the sceptile -w- he is a grass/dragon type even without the mega evolution bc we were robbed and it’s not fair that swampert and blaziken get double typings while sceptile stays just grass >:[ chill and laid back, my baby boy ;; starter pokemon! he has a sceptilite in the friendship bracelet sploo made for him! :3 when walking through forests and jungles and very tree dense areas he’s always out of his pokeball darting around through the trees while sploo walks through -w- sometimes sploo stops for a lil break so sceptile can take care of sick trees in the forets! when having picnics out in the wild he can be found sitting and photosynthesizing when not playing around the trees. and since sceptiles are cold blooded mister stays in his pokeball when travelling through colder icy areas and he also enjoys having flynt resting atop his head or nesting in his tail leaves -w-

next up is storm! the manectric! a playful steadfast and loyal companion -w- she likes being out of her pokeball a lot and walks with sploo through towns n stuff. she has the manectite embeded in her collar :3 and also sploo charges his phone, pokedex and pokenav+ by just stuffing the charger cable in her mane jshkdfg sploo keeps a pair of sturdy rubber gloves in his bag bc of her :P

steele! the klefki. a very mild mannered pokemon -w- the one who’s always out of its pokeball! other than holding sploo’s house keys it also holds his multitools! since they’re also made of metal and has more mass than keys it has more metal ions for klefki to feed on -w- sometimes sploo will punch holes in bottlecaps of drinks so steele can have more metal to feed on and to enhance its threatening jingle :] steele enjoys playing around with flynt a lot! flynt n steele ;-; they fly around a lot but don’t stray too far from sploo -w- steele does not participate in battles unless it’s to use fairy lock on a wild pokemon that sploo wants to catch

then there’s flynt! :D my shiny!!! >< flynt perches on sploo’s shoulder when travelling through frigid area to keep him warm ;-; also flynt uses fly to deliver handwritten letters to sploo’s friends! :D it lets flynt fly free and enjoy the wind when the pokeball starts feeling cramped -w- flynt finds an everstone as a fletchinder and starts sitting on it like an egg and gets really attached (like that eagle that’s sitting on a rock jshkdfg) so she just holds the everstone now :P

koopa! the tirtouga -w- a bit hard headed, koopa needs a while to warm up to new trainers. he was a bit hard headed to train but after a while things went more smoothly :] koopa loooves the beachside! :D he knows dive and surff and helps sploo travel through water terrain! it’s a lot like how koopa shells worked in super mario galaxy where you hold on to a shell and it propels you through the water :3 stays in his pokeball most of the time unless it’s by the beachside or lake or any body of water

and last but not least rookie! the jangmo-o, a trusty and honorable battler! >:D much like ash's riolu from pokemon journeys! it takes a bit for the rookie to get used to the feeling of the chip in his head scale. but sooner or later rookie gets the hang of it -w- rookie loves getting to battle, but since sploo is a casual trainer and more focused on completing the dex and dragon types need more battling than usual to evolve dragon types rookie just stays as a jangmo-o :c not that he minds but yeagh

mister, storm, and rookie are the ones usually out for battles, flynt and koopa sometimes come out for battle too either when they get the urge or when they’re needed for certain type matchups! okay thank you for reading about my silly little guys they mean a lot to me and means a lot that you’d wanna read about them ;-;

[eulcgizeme]

eulcgizeme's plot brain rot

heyo weyo, listed below are just some plots i'm desperate to do so if you're interested, pls give this a like and i will come bother you. (: all of these can be for m/m or m/f pairings! heavily influenced from listening to ttpd for last four days

A. "even if it's handcuffed, i'm leaving here with you" for two former bonnie and clyde-esque characters who essentially out grew each other until they rekindle a little flame that gets them back on their ride or die bullshit, but one of them is insistent that the past is in the past (except maybe when someone's hand is down someone's pants oops). this would most likely be for eden [callum turner fc] since it's close to his backstory but watered down lol but could be someone else, possibly lyp adler [mike faist fc].

B. high school sweethearts remarried after they realized they were, in fact, far too young to have gotten married. it was messy, it was bitter, and fast forward they're remarried but unhappy bc they keep looking for the other in everything they do. an affair ensues and is it possible they've really grown up and come back to each other, or are they just as immature as they were back then? (possibly for andy rhodes, or knightley rhodes [josh o'connor or mike faist fcs])

C. based on the prophecy by miss taylor, where a promise to get married to their best friend if they're still single by x time and even though they're down for it, they're realizing maybe it's not the world against them but that they're not ready to belong to someone. fluff, comfort, and a bitter angst to not understanding why the person you've always loved suddenly doesn't want to be yours. (100% would have to be a new muse on my end but im ready)

D. muse a confesses to muse b that their spouse is cheating on them and ends a marriage. but instead of being hailed a savior, muse b holds it against muse a. add a little fortnight inspo and muse b could have lived right behind muse a, and muse a's marriage was the shit one while muse b lived happily until this revelation. muse a's marriage finally fixes itself and now muse b has to watch from their backyard their ex-best friend have the life muse a ruined by saying outloud the affair everyone but muse b saw. once again throwing my rhodes-burton family at this plot.

E. "like a tattooed golden retriever" about a young male model (i have a logan lerman fc in mind for this) taken in by someone else in the fashion industry who needs their next big break and is desperate. essentially plucks him off the street for his look to clean him up with little regard or what happens to him in the industry until they become emotionally attached and responsible for him.

F. two exes who broke up because muse a (who i'm thinking i might throw my callie adler [anya taylor joy fc] at for this! she does have a regular au lol but can be kept supernatural if ya want) was a mess tho muse b denies that it's a direct result of how they handled the relationship... and fast forward to muse a fixing themselves to spite muse b and everything they said about them.

G. and then a twist on the concept above ^ where muse a decides they're going to fix muse b to spite everyone around them. i can fix him (no really i can) as everyone insists they're no good. yeah, it's the song. and what of it?

H. begging for a plot based on the lines "it wasn't sexy once it wasn't forbidden" and "sparkling summer" and "you deserve prison but you'll never get time, you'll slide into inboxes and slip through the bar." i had more for this but this whole post has been sitting in my drafts for two days and i want it out there, but if you're a sucker for smallest man who ever lived i will give you my all on deets for this.

I. unrelated to ttpd, but some more plots for callie and lyp adler as theyre supernatural au muses and lyp indirectly/accidentally did use his soul as payment for more power and didn't take into consideration that as a twin he is a soul split in two and also sold callie's soul.

just putting it out there that aside from mike faist/callum turner, i have some muse ideas for tom holland, barry keoghan, josh o'connor, david corenswet, jonathan bailey. i prefer writing male characters but i do have a couple of gals that might work for some of these if needed! (:

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

10, 17 and 24 :)

thanks!! (the full list)

10. what is the longest amount of time you’ve let a draft rest before you finished it?

i am hopeful that the answer to this question will change someday (when i finally finish the nart fic i’ve been trying to write since might duy’s first appearance), but currently that prize goes to my clairestiel ficlet series, which i’ve been working on off and on since 2010. the series started out as “lol, small girl doing castiel things, he doesn’t realize it looks weird now bc why would he” but as the years went on i became more contemplative about Gender and also about claire’s position in all this; that said, the first draft for the most recent fic was basically done in 2013, when i finished the fic set immediately prior, so… seven and a half years, i guess is the answer.

17. talk about your writing and editing process

recently it’s been [think about the idea] [think about the idea] [think about the idea] from the day i receive the prompt to the week before the deadline, at which point i write the idea out in one sitting, leave it alone for two days, revisit and revise spag/turns of phrase, then ask someone to confirm it doesn’t suck. a little slapdash, but it gets the job done.

the reason i so rarely write longfic is because if i lose the momentum of that single burst of writing it’s hard to come back to a story, scene, etc. and keep the energy the way i imagined it. to work around this, for longer fics i’ll roughly outline the overall arc, identify the necessary scenes to make that happen, and try and tackle one scene at a time.

long fics need more editing too, to make sure i’m not repeating myself accidentally or undermining the intended overarching story. there’s nothing i find more frustrating as a reader then when the latest part of a wip has a Dramatic Reveal that i saw the same characters talk about casually two chapters prior. it really reveals a lack of care for your story. (if it’s been a long time between updates i sympathize, but you should refamiliarize yourself with the posted work before adding new material!)

24. how do you recharge when you’re not feeling creative?

bold of you to assume i recharge. there’s been a lot of dead air lately wrt fic talk on this blog for good reason.

seriously, though. there are two posts i see go around a lot that resonate with me.

the first: have multiple creative projects/hobbies, ones that ping your brain in different ways (for me this is writing vs cooking vs “art journaling”), so when one isn’t sparking joy you can hop over to the other. this doesn’t help recharge the writing energies, necessarily, but it’s good for preventing me from getting too frustrated with a project to return to it when i want to write again.

the second: when you have writer’s block, go read something new. i am not great about this, i like to go to my comfort reads when i’m feeling down and that’s highly comorbid with writer’s block for me, but if i want inspiration instead of comfort i need to put a new person’s words in my head. you gotta remind yourself why you like writing in the first place. get so jealous of a stranger’s turn of phrase that you burn with the need to make a stranger jealous of your writing!