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aestheticaashes · 1 year ago

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1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

2. If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

15. Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Why or why not? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

23. Describe the physical environment in which you write. Be as detailed as possible. Tell me what’s around you as you work. Paint me a picture.

30. Talk to me about the role dreams play in your writing life. Have you ever used material from your dreams in your writing? Have you ever written in a dream? Did you remember it when you woke up?

31. Write a short love letter to your readers.

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

33. Do you practice any other art besides writing? Does that art ever tie into your writing, or is it entirely separate?

34. Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

36. They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice...what do you Know?

40. Please share a poem with me, I need it.

(i'm so sorry i know this is like so many asks shjdfgs, you can ignore this entirely if you want haha) (this is mostlycyanide but thats an alt soo)

do not apologize to me dude i am so fucking stoked to have so many asks to answer

i did throw the answers under a readmore though because much like dave and dirk i am incapable of shutting the fuck up

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

Generally I write in Bitter. I set it as my default years and years ago lol, but some things get written in different fonts if I'm feeling funky! Time and Healing in particular is written in Arial.

2. If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

I absolutely could and often do if I need a break from the keyboard/monitor. A) No I am not a wizard (unfortunate) and B) it depends on what I have on hand! I like pens for first drafts because I'm not worried about editing.

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

I don't really have a ritual, per se? And that in and of itself is probably cursed as hell by virtue of pure What The Fuck. I do like to have some ambient sounds playing and maybe music or a podcast, and I definitely write better when I do have those things, but I don't need them so it's not really a ritual.

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

Okay, so, see, thing is, I am a smut author at heart. I love writing character studies and heart-rendingly emotional shit and horrifyingly morally reprehensible shit, but mostly I like to write porn. I want you to know this before I say this:

I go feral over the word "easy". In ways I cannot explain but can sort of be understood based on the fact I write a fuckton of smut. Just. "Easy." God.

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

If you don't share the WIP it will die a painful death. If you DO share the WIP it will die a painful death. You must find a balance. You gotta share it with the right audience and make sure not to over-share it. This is true because every time I have gotten overzealous and shared too much of a WIP, it never got finished. It's not a superstition if there's empirical evidence.

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

Dialogue. I've done it before and it usually works out okay - I have this awful habit of getting too far into the characters' head, anyway, so if I don't have to worry about actual dialogue while I write what they're thinking and feeling and what's happening around them, then everything works out swimmingly.

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

Yes. God, yes. So many pieces of writing have haunted me. My own writing haunts me constantly.

If it lives in my head rent free for longer than 24 hours, and pieces of it crop back up in my head or permanently change how I think about something, that's a piece of writing that haunts me. I read a piece of writing when I was like 11 that contained a phrase that was something to the effect of, "Oh, how sweet. If I had a heart, I would cry." and I have never stopped thinking about it.

I read a fic series (twice) recently that has now permanently added the phrases 'shit-scared' and 'warm for his form' to my vocabulary.

15. Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Why or why not? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

I honestly own so few physical copies of books that. Like. I'm so used to books belonging to someone else, a friend or the library, that I'm shit-scared to damage them at all. The books I own I try my hardest to keep in perfect condition. I can't bear to write in the margins, or dog-ear pages. I don't read in the bath solely because when I'm in the bath I am trying to become one with the water. I don't judge anyone who does these things, though, because it's just another way to show appreciation for the books :]

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

Slice of cheese. (For like 30 seconds).

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

This could be a post all by itself, don't tempt me. God. Fuck. I am so painfully abnormal about Time and Healing. There is so much going on in this universe that I don't know if I'll get to explore. The tale of Mr. Snyder and his fuckwit self. Little details about how Bro raised Dave that line uncomfortably up with how his dad raised him, and little details Dave remembers that Bro can't that mean so much to him. Fuck. Goddamit. Don't do this to me man I could go on about this for weeks.

(I will make a post about this.)

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

' You stare at the doorknob for so long that Bro actually knocks again. "Dave?" You hear him ask, and his voice doesn't sound any different than how you remember it. Toneless, deep, and even that single word has the twinge fo his accent. You pull in as silent a breath as you can. Hold it. Breathe it out slow. Lift your hand and unlock the door, then pull it open. You keep your face carefully blank, suppress the low blood sugar tremors, and lean casually against the door frame, like you didn't flee into here with your tail between your legs to hide three days ago. "Sup?" You ask, without lifting a brow or letting the emotionless mask break at all. '

So. This passage. There has been a form of it in existence since long before Time and Healing became a fuckin' thing. We're talking since like 2014. This passage's original form came from an unfinished fic I started in 2014 called Late Night Bro Time, which was like. A mess of a oneshot (that I never finished) that was supposed to deal with post-SBURB Dave trying to come to terms with Bro being alive again and all the trauma he has around Bro having died.

In the end, though Time and Healing as a whole is based on that oneshot, this is the only thing from the original that sort of made it properly in. In the original it was more Dave agonizing over the idea of talking to Bro and having a hard time convincing himself to let him in. And now, well...

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

I started writing when I was pretty young. I couldn't tell you when, exactly, although my first actual memories of writing stories are when I was 8 or 9. I think I mostly started because it was an easier way to get ideas out of my head than walking around telling myself stories and getting stared at like a freak for talking out loud to myself.

In terms of bumps along the way, dear fucking lord have there been bumps. There have been so many bumps. All of the bumps. Between getting a shitty comment here and there or going through a severely fucked-up situation (the pandemic or my first real psychotic episode, for example), there have been times in my life where I just don't write anything at all, or I feel like there's no point in me doing it.

Where am I now? Well, I'm in a place where I'm happy if I don't write, and I'm having fun when I do. I don't feel any pressure to finish shit, which makes it easier to make myself finish shit - but because I don't feel that pressure, I can follow my motivation wherever it wanders to. If I want to hyperfixate on a random idea for four days and bang out 40K on it, then never touch it again, that's fine. And as for where I'm going, I'm hoping that one day I'll reach a point where I literally only do this because it's fun, and not because I care if people give me feedback.

(I am not at that point yet. Please continue giving me feedback. I eat it. It sustains me.)

23. Describe the physical environment in which you write. Be as detailed as possible. Tell me what’s around you as you work. Paint me a picture.

Now, see, here's a difficult one. I don't write in one specific place, and since I just quit my job I'm now spending more of my time writing in random places at home.

Lately, though, I write laying in bed. The room is usually comfortably cool, although right now it's hot as balls while my ac works overtime trying to fight the 93 degree weather outside. I've got a body pillow I use as the base for other pillows, and I tend to use stuffies to prop myself up against the wall - right now, I've got a minecraft glowsquid plush doing the hard work of holding up my bigass head. My husband's sprawled out next to me playing games, taking up half the bed while I squeeze into a comfortable little spot on the other side. Next to me there's a 44oz fountain drink I didn't finish, which is about as normal an addition to the scene as the bed itself is. The whole room is messy as hell: clothes on the floor, about half a dozen half-empty water bottles I never threw away, notebooks scattered on every available surface. I'm sweating to death, but here I am answering asks and trying to bang out some words on a couple of wips anyway.

30. Talk to me about the role dreams play in your writing life. Have you ever used material from your dreams in your writing? Have you ever written in a dream? Did you remember it when you woke up?

My dreams don't play a massive role in my writing life. I have used dream material to write from, but I so rarely have dreams I remember in any detail that there's little point trying. The dreams I do remember are usually some manner of sleep paralysis induced night terror, which don't make for great writing. I don't think I've ever written in a dream, but chances are that I have and just have no memory of doing it!

31. Write a short love letter to your readers.

You Lovely Fucking People You,

You have no clue how much it means to me that you're reading my stories. I have poured my soul into these things just for the sake of making them but nothing makes me happier than to share them. To know other people enjoy them. Every comment and kudo I get fuels me for days on end, and I probably wouldn't be so obsessed with my own writing if y'all hadn't decided to let me know how much you liked it.

You keep me going and I appreciate you all so much

Love,

Rhys.

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

I have. So many of these that they all fled my mind the moment I tried to answer. I'll get back to you on this one.

33. Do you practice any other art besides writing? Does that art ever tie into your writing, or is it entirely separate?

I do draw from time to time, and on occasion I've made music! Generally both of those artistic hobbies are entirely separate from my writing, but some of my best work in both has come from making things for my writing! I made an entire 10-song soundtrack for one of my fics once and it is, to date, the best music I have ever made.

34. Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

If you have read my writing, then surely you must, at least a little bit, have an understanding of how much I love the Oxford comma, seeing as I am incapable of shutting the fuck up and letting a sentence stop, and the Oxford comma makes it so simple, so easy, to keep a sentence going long past where it needed to end.

This is both my answer and an example.

36. They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice...what do you Know?

I Know a stupid amount of useless crime scene investigation techniques, a fuckton about drugs, a weird amount of things about kink, and what it's like to have a full-fledged mental breakdown complete with hysterical crying and laughter (often at the same time).

Convenient, given I write a lot of shit about crimes, drugs, kink, and mental breakdowns.

40. Please share a poem with me, I need it.

Ok so I don't read much poetry. But. I do have. An original poem. And it is sappy as hell ok don't look at me just take this except take it before i get the vapors

If love is meant to be forever, Then my forever is with you. And through any kind of weather, That much will still be true. There are no words to impart All of the reasons why You are precious to me. You have all of my heart.

-from "Home", by me.

#answered asks #rhysie.txt #weird asks for writers post

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itsallyscorner · 4 years ago

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just like magic with marvel cast, the vibe is----- a perfect song for a lil b*tch with a good heart and a sarcastic mouth

just like magic is the song we ALL need for 2020😌 Start manifesting ya’ll🖤 Also thank you sm for the request I am so so sorry this took so freakin’ long😭 Love u, happy reading🖤🖤 Tried to add my own lil twist to your request:)

(A lil different from the request, but I tried to make the reader have a bit sas.)

💌.

just like magic

Growing up within the Marvel Cinematic Universe was probably one of things you were most grateful for. When you first started out you weren’t that social. You were new to the business, you didn’t know anybody and you were intimidated by every single actor you crossed paths with.

At first you didn’t feel like you fit in. You felt as if you were a burden to everyone else. You barely talked to anyone which made the others approach you out of force by the Russos. Everyone around you was talented while you were just some newcomer who had jack shit as experience. The first few years you were insecure of yourself mentally and physically. You weren’t as pretty or fit as the other women in the MCU nor did your skills live up to theirs. Which led to some unhealthy habits. Plus there were haters and movie critics who would say horrible things about you and your acting.

You had a rocky start unlike Tom Holland and even Lexi Rabe. Until one day when you realized that you had to change how you were thinking. It took you a while but all that negative thinking you were doing was only bringing you negative energy. So when you had a break from filming movies, your number one goal was to improve yourself.

Wake up in my bed, I just wanna have a good day (Mmm, ah)

Think it in my head, then it happens how it should, ayy

Twelve o'clock, I got a team meeting, then a meditation at like 1:30

Then I ride to the studio listening to some shit I wrote (Oh)

You woke up with smile on your face in a sense of calmness. The sun shined bright hues into your room as you got up from your bed. Today was the first day back on set. You guys were finally filming Civil War and you were honestly so excited. As you did your morning routine, you went over how the day would go in your head. You’re genuinely excited to see the entire cast. It has been almost half a year since you’ve seen everyone and you couldn’t wait to be back.

You took one last look at yourself in the mirror. Compared to the previous year, you looked and felt healthy. Your eyes shined and you looked well relaxed. You know like one of those face cleanser commercials? That’s how you felt. You felt like a breath of fresh air.

The ride to the studio took a good 30 minutes but it felt like seconds. You entered the set with a new sense of confidence and pride. The energy was practically radiating off you.

“(Y/n)?” You hear someone call from behind you. You turn around and see Scarlett looking at you.

“Hey!” You greet her as you approach her. You pulled her into a hug, startling her.

“Oh! Hello to you too, honey.” She laughed as she wrapped her arms around you. “How are you?”

“I’m doing great! Life’s been good.” You answer as a toothy grin graces itself on your face. Scarlett’s eyes are filled with shocked. From the previous times she’s talked to you she’s never seen you so loud or open. You were always shy and closed off from everyone on set.

Good karma, my aesthetic (Aesthetic)

Keep my conscience clear, that's why I'm so magnetic

Manifest it (Yeah), I finessed it (I finessed it)

Take my pen and write some love letters to Heaven

Eventually everyone on set caught on to your new attitude. Though they tried to be discreet about their reactions and shocked expressions, you could still see how they were caught off guard by your sudden change of nature.

Anthony watched as you conversed with Elizabeth and Scarlett on the couch in Robert’s “village” . You were probably the most smiliest person in the room beating Evans, who was eating his lunch.

“She’s like different. But in a good way. It’s like she’s bloomed.” Anthony thought out loud to the men beside him. Chris (E) and Sebastian look in your direction.

“Bloomed?” Chris snorted as he swallowed his food.

“Yeah, like she’s growing into a woman.” Anthony hummed proudly as he went back to his own lunch. Sebastian smiled at you, “I think she’s gained some confidence in herself and finally realized how good of a person she is.”

“If she’s finally realized that, I’m glad she did. She’s like a ball of sunshine, it’s adorable.” Chris smiled proudly at you as your hands move around animatedly while explaining some story to the two women in front of you.

“Y’all think it’s a boy?” Anthony wondered. Sebastian rolled his eyes at his friend. Before he can even respond Anthony is calling you over. You approach the men with a smile and take a seat beside Sebastian.

“What’s up?” You greet them. Chris nods at you as he chews on his sandwich. Sebastian greeting you with a quiet “hey”.

“So who’s the lucky man?” Anthony asks teasingly. Your brows knit together head tilting to the side.

“Man?”

“Yes man, or boy, whatever. Who’s got you feelin’ yourself, (y/n).” Anthony wiggles his brows as he shimmies closer to you. Sebastian, who’s in between you two, cringes at the man to his left.

You didn’t take any offense to the question, knowing that everyone was curious as to why you were so unlike yourself.

You chuckled before smirking at the older man, “Anthony, honey. I don’t need a man to be feelin’ myself. I did this on my own.”

Chris and Sebastian’s mouth drop at your answer. Chris laughed as he pointed out Anthony’s face. Sebastian slung an arm around your shoulder bringing you into a side hug as he laughed with Chris.

“To be fair” Chris began to say but started to laugh, “To be fair, you deserved that.” Anthony’s face went flushed as he nodded to himself. You suddenly felt bad that you put him on the spot.

“Alright, stop laughing at him.” You playfully glare at Chris and Seb. You poke Anthony’s arm, “To answer your question, I’ve just been working on myself. Thinking more positively, I even tried manifestation.”

“You know what, that’s good. You’re taking care of yourself mentally and physically. I’m proud of you for doing this for yourself, we all are.” Anthony tells you as he motions to the two other men.

You look at all three of them, all of them looking at you with pride, “Thanks guys.”

Just like magic (Baby), just like magic (Oh yeah)

Middle finger to my thumb and then I snap it

Just like magic (Yeah), I'm attractive (Oh yeah)

I get everything I want 'cause I attract it (Oh)

As the months passed, the more you evolved into another version of you. You walked with determination, carried yourself with such grace and you’ve gained confidence in your career. You didn’t let your insecurities get to you, instead you faced them and overcame them. You were tired of letting them control you.

Your change in attitude and perspective on life has definitely affected your life in many ways. Manifestation was one of the things that have helped you the most. Writing about your goals and putting that energy out to the world has helped you persevere in your job. You’ve only faced good karma; sending out positive energy and receiving it back from the universe.

So far you’ve been casted in two new projects and have a campaign lined up with Gucci. If you were told a year ago that you’d be working with big time directors and freakin’ Gucci, you wouldn’t have believe them. Life has been unreal ever since you decided to change your life around. But of course you had to thank your Marvel family, without them and their support you probably wouldn’t haven gotten to where you were today.

Looking at my phone, but I'm tryna disconnect it (Oh yeah)

Read a fuckin' book, I be tryna stay connected (Yeah)

Say it's tricky at the top, gotta keep a slim ego for a thick wallet

Losing friends left and right, but I just send 'em love and light (Oh)

As many people recognized your success many people still tried to pull you down. Some fans on social media have noticed your change in behavior and have even praised you for practicing self care. While others still tried to push you off the mountain of success you were currently on and drag you across the ground.

These were the reasons as to why you were barely on your phone anymore. You used to be invested in your phone but after realizing how much negativity it brought you, you’ve decided to slowly disconnect from it. Which led you to becoming more interested into books.

Chris (E) had even brought some of his favorite arts of literature for you to borrow. You were currently on your third book of his, Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. You were sitting outside your trailer in a fold up chair under the shade. Your peacefulness was interrupted by Tom (Holland) who had a worried expression on his face.

“Have you not seen it yet?” He asked you as soon as he was in front of you. Being the two most youngest actors on the current set, you guys were closer to each other than with the adults.

“Seen what, Tommy?” You put a finger in between the pages you were reading to save your spot. Tom pulls his phone out and began to type. He tapped on his screen and turned the screen to you.

“She’s been talking crap about you for days.” You read the article and saw that one of your “friends”, Sabrina has been speaking out about your success and how it’s changed you as a person.

“She’s going off about how the more money you get in your wallet, the more bratty and arrogant you become.” He grumbled as he turned his phone off.

“I could care less, honestly. I know I haven’t done anything to her and if I did I was unaware of it. Plus, she stopped talking to me after I said I couldn’t get her a part in a movie.” You shrugged as you placed a proper bookmark in the book.

“You’re not upset?”

“I mean it’s sad that she’s acting so two faced. But if that’s how she wants to roll, then be my guest. It’s her loss, not everyone has great taste.” You flicked a piece of hair away from your face with your hand.

“You’re not gonna release a statement against her?”

“No, probably just wish her well with her life and move on with my own.” You answered much to Tom’s dismay.

Redesign your brain, we gon' make some new habits

Just like magic (Just like magic), just like magic

Filming has officially ended a few months ago and now you guys were doing press tour for Civil War. Before you were the new and improved version of yourself, you dreaded press tours. Some interviewers were nice and respectful, but there were those who would ask inappropriate questions and were just rude in general. All you could remember during those past tours was wanting to leave those rooms as soon as possible.

The q&a panel at New York had a packed room. There were many journalist crowded in the room shoulder to shoulder. You were sat in between Elizabeth and Scarlett, two of the women who have been guiding you and teaching you about life as a woman in the business. They were also like your older sisters.

The panel had been going smoothly for the first half hour until a man with a snobby face and cocky demeanor approached the mic.

“Hello, I’m Keith and my question’s for (y/n).” He began. You nodded in his direction, motioning for him to continue.

“I think everyone’s noticed how you’ve changed and developed as a person. Obviously something’s changed in your life. So I want to know if you’ve had any intimate relationships with any of the men in the cast?” You were surprised at the man’s question. First it was bold of him to ask such a question and second it was just disrespectful to you and the others on the cast.

“I mean someone’s gotta be fucking you good to make you crawl out your shell.” The man finished shrugging nonchalantly. Robert was about to interject but your mouth was quicker than his. The men of the cast were disgusted at the man while they sat at the edge of their seats.

“Well last time I checked my contract, my job was to act, not sleep around with the men who are part of these movies.” You spoke into the mic. All the attention was on you while the room was at a standstill.

“It’s also very upsetting that you think a girl needs to be fucked in order to be confident in herself. I hate to break it to you but women are completely capable of turning their lives around without the help of men and that says a lot about you, sir. So if I were you, I’d take myself back to my seat and rethink my life because if one of us has to redesign our brains it’s you.” You finished as you placed your mic on your lap. The room was silent until the cast began to clap. This was your first time standing up for yourself, usually Robert or Scarlett would swoop in and save you but this time, you were saving yourself.

You shook your head as you blushed, shoving your head in your hands. You felt some pats on the backs and cheers from your dysfunctional family. You look up and see Scarlett and Elizabeth smiling at you proudly.

“Isn’t she amazing?” Robert asked the crowd as he hugged you. The crowd cheering you on.

Just like magic, your life felt like a dream come true, knowing that you were worth it and enough for the people around you and for yourself.

#marvel #mcu #avengers #chris evans #chris evans x reader #Sebastian Stan #sebastian stan x reader #anthony mackie x reader #Anthony Mackie #Scarlett Johansson #Scarlett Johansson x reader #marvel cast x teen!reader #marvel cast x reader #ally’s 700 celebration #ally’s requests

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hizashiiis · 4 years ago

Text

Bakusquad + “Why are you awake” Part One

This felt like such a cute prompt! I had a lot of fun with it. The first part is Bakugo, Kiri, and Denki, and part two will be Sero, Mina, and Jirou!

Warnings: insomnia, exam stress, bakugo being angry

Bakugo Katsuki

- He often has to drag you to bed

- He acts like he hates your little night routine, but it’s honestly one of his favorite things

- He likes taking the trip down the hall to your dorm, knocking lightly, knowing you’re still awake, even if it’s pretty late

- He used to go to sleep really early, but now he tends to wait for your goodnight text before laying down

- It makes him feel better, knowing you’re asleep and resting before he drifts off

- But sometimes you keep staying up, not sending a goodnight text, so he has to go tell you to sleep

The students of class 1-A have pretty much gotten used to hearing Bakugo stomping down the hall to your dorm at night, but the hour actually surprises a few of them this time. They know that usually he’s banging down your door no later than eleven pm, but here he comes, angry footsteps and all, at 1:43 am.

Muffled curses are spat in the general direction of your room, Katsuki not even really trying to keep people from noticing. He’s on a mission, little sparks igniting in his palms.

He had not intended to let you stay up this late, but he had foolishly taken a nap right after training, and as a result, woke up around 1:30 am. He looked at his phone, searching for the goodnight text that must have come, but there was none. The two of you were a couple with principles, so he knew you wouldn’t have simply forgone the text.

Reaching your door, Katsuki doesn’t bother knocking, opting instead to barge in with a friendly, “What the fuck are you doing up?”

You turn around quickly, abandoning the book you were lost in when you see his pissed-off expression.

You didn’t really know what time it was. You had settled down with your book to wait for Katsuki about three hours ago, and you’d been wrapped up in the adventure ever since. But judging by your boyfriend’s face, it was probably well past time to go to bed.

“Hi, Katsu.” Is the only response you can think of at the moment.

“Hi, dumbass.” He mocks you, pointing to his phone, showing the late hour.

Your eyes widen. It really is later than you thought. “Oh, no, I’ve really kept you waiting a long time. I’m sorry, love.” His expression softens slightly when he realizes you didn’t mean to stay up so long.

He crosses over to you, putting a bookmark in your story, and pulls you into a hug. “I thought I told you about how rest is important. You can’t forget.” He kisses your forehead; an unusually soft gesture for him, and leads you to your bed.

“I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. The book was just…” You start to yawn, settling into your covers. “It’s a really good story.”

He listens to you talk about the book you’re reading and plays with your hair until you finally fall asleep. Pulling out his phone, he sends you his goodnight text, and walks back to his room.

Kirishima Eijirou

- He’s a pretty late sleeper, but he starts getting a little worried about you if he notices you’re still up past midnight

- He’s usually training at absurd hours when he notices what time it is

- He likes to check on you some nights, especially if classes were hard that day

- Like, if Aizawa had been particularly rough to listen to that day or something, he’s right there at the end of the day

- On weekends, he brings you to his dorm to hang out, showing you things he found online

- Sometimes he just lets you fall asleep there

“Hey, my little pebble! Are you still awake in there?” He knocks at your door before stepping inside, noting the small piles of paper stacked around the room. It was almost exam time, and you had been a little overworked lately.

You peek out from a blanket cocoon, eyes swimming after re-reading the same sentence about eight times. “Kiri? What’cha doing here?”

He looks over your shoulder at the work you’ve been doing and quickly tosses it to the side, scooping you up into his arms. “It’s Friday, baby! Did you forget?” His tone is light, teasing you, but you really had forgotten, and your head feels like it’s under an ocean.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I’ve been studying pretty much since I got back here.” You raise your head from where it had been laid on Eijirou’s shoulder, looking at his features up close. His face looks so nice from this perspective. He’s smiling at you.

“Don’t worry about it. Come on, it’s cuddle time!” Bounding out of your room, you in his arms, he looks so much like a kid. He’s very cute when he comes to get you for weekly cuddle time, always so happy to see you.

“Is cuddling manly, Kiri?” You tease him as he runs, causing him to halt in his tracks, nearly dropping you as he insists that only the manliest of men cuddle with people as lovely as you.

When you reach his room, Kirishima sets you down on his desk chair and tells you to wait there. His excited footsteps can be heard from behind you as he scurries around his space, collecting what seems to be a small mountain of things. He seems to have no regard for the fact that it’s quite late-- well past 1 am, in fact-- while he trips over things.

By the time he tells you to turn around, you’re both consumed with giggles. But all sounds fade when you face him. He’s holding a shoebox that’s been haphazardly decorated with red stickers, filled with comfort items.

“Since you’ve been so worried about exams, I thought I might make you something. Pretty cool, huh?”

“It’s amazing. Thank you, Eiji.” You give him a soft kiss, looking into his eyes for a few moments. Suddenly he seems to remember how late he came to get you, and his expression changes.

“Time for bed!” He scoops you up again, ignoring your squeak of surprise to put you in his bed, covering you up with his favorite blanket and settling next to you for the night. You’ll probably both get in trouble for this, but that doesn’t really bother either of you right now. It’s late anyways.

Kaminari Denki

- It’s completely the opposite for Denki

- He doesn’t sleep until the early hours of the morning

- Even if there’s something important he has to do the next morning, it’s really hard for him to get to sleep

- Because of his quirk, he always has a lot of energy, and it isn’t that he doesn’t want to sleep, he physically can’t sometimes

- Enter you

- Denki claims that you help him sleep better, and it’s possible that’s true, but it’s also possible he just likes having you close

- You’ve woken up to him staring at you a few too many times to be normal

- But anyway

- On nights where he can’t get to sleep, he has two things to try

- The first is calling you

- But he doesn’t want to bother you

- So sometimes he just waits, keeping his lights on way after he was supposed to turn them off, so that when you get up and walk past his dorm, you’ll come check on him

You’ve been asleep for hours already. It’s three in the morning, but you woke up suddenly with a strong urge to go get some water. Groggily, you throw the covers off and stand up, turning on the little lamp beside your bed. Your head feels heavy from sleep, and you exit your room slowly.

The walk to get water is short, and on the way there, you don’t notice anything out of the ordinary. It’s only after you drink the first few sips that you notice the light coming from under the door of your boyfriend’s room.

Yawning, you walk over and knock. “Sunshine? You up?” You call out softly, so as not to wake the other students. A few seconds later, the door opens to an exhausted looking Denki clutching his headphones. His usual energy is nowhere to be found, he just looks tired. Still, though, he smiles when he sees you, taking your hand to let you in.

“Hi, cutie. What’re you doin’ here this late?” He asks, rubbing his eyes.

Taking a look around his room, you see the evidence of his lack of sleep. His phone is plugged into his headphones, and there’s an old episode of Parks and Recreation playing from his smuggled television.

“Saw the light on.” You say, rubbing your thumb over his palm to get his mind to calm a bit. “I was worried you were still up. I was right.” You pull him over to his bed, moving various books and things off of it in favor of getting your tired boy to rest.

He laughs sheepishly. “Sorry. I tried, but I couldn’t fall asleep.”

You shake your head, not needing him to apologize, but not really knowing how to convey that through your current sleepy state.

You crawl into his bed, making grabby hands to get him to come with you. He happily follows, curling around you like a koala. He claps twice, and the lights turn off.

“Really, Kami? You have clap lights?” You say through giggles, looking at him in the darkness. He pouts, snuggling closer into you.

“Shhhhh. They’re convenient.” He mumbles, already drifting into a deep slumber. You giggle once more, running your hands through his hair.

“I’m sure they are. Goodnight Sunshine.”

#mha x reader #mha imagines #bakugo x reader #bakugou x reader #kirishima x reader #denki x reader #bakugo fluff #bakugou fluff #kirishima fluff #denki fluff #mha fluff

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rigelmejo · 3 years ago

Text

Some September 1st Updates

the READING SPEED difference of a novel at my level! I read the first chapter of 撒野 yesterday and this author is at exactly my reading level right now. I hit 0-2 new words each pleco page, which is usually the sweet spot to either guess the word or if I look it up I can pretty quickly adapt to recognizing it in context. Its also the sweet spot where if I only rely on guessing for new word meanings, on a second pass through I can fairly well guess the meaning quickly.

It was a 32 page chapter in pleco and I read it in 20 minutes. Compared to the 20 pleco page per chapter pingxie fic i just finished (like 124k characters! WOW I read and FINISHED that much!), which was taking 30-40 minutes per chapter (mainly because of number of new vocabulary per chapter being a bit higher). If I’d wanted to speed read saye I could have, I’d have missed some small details but I could have tried if I wanted.

Then I did a second pass later in the day with the audiobook just following along with the text. Realized 1. I knew most words in the audiobook and did not follow as well as i thought - but those first listen throughs without having seen the chapter I did manage to figure out the main character just broke up, just travelled somewhere, ran into a girl and somehow the girls brother showed and the two guys interacted a little and someone was being somewhat helpful, then the main guy met his father trying to ‘pick him up.’ Which is a true but very rough summary of what happens in the first chapter. By reading I could confirm the words I thought were names AS names, figured out WHY the girl was interacting with the main guy and that there were actually two girls in chapter 1, and figure out who helped who and who was the girl’s brother. Also somehow before I looked at the chapter text I never caught that the audiobook mentions a motorcycle despite me knowing that word and it SOUNDING like mota-che/motorche! it sounds like the word and i knew it and didn’t hear it! Then later following the audiobook with the text I realized another issue I had, is I’m not used to listening to soft voices with such faint pronunciations of the final sounds. I’m much more used to deeper crisper pronunciations and being able to rely clearly on initials and finals AS much as tones to recognize the words, whereas this particular audiobook i needed to mainly rely on tones and initials to figure out what word was what - that probably threw me off a bit. It’s probably good for me to get practice listening to such a different voice to what I’m used to. I have definitely learned the deeper the voice, the more I have a far easier time figuring out what’s being said. Also standard accent more like beijing but without a huge amount of ‘er’s just some, and taiwan accent are the easiest for me to hear when i’m not pa

For anyone curious, here is the audiobook for SaYe I’m listening to: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2w27tfjeeaySbMK272NpXwUtsBc-e3YN

Also here’s a chinese audiobook youtube I found: https://www.youtube.com/c/%E6%9C%89%E5%A3%B0%E5%B0%8F%E8%AF%B4%E5%90%AC%E4%B9%A6%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8Cyoushengxiaoshuo/playlists

Which includes The King’s Avatar: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTJaWZoVPdT1ZhIQIKxVci7fVEHr-oX6k

And ErHa: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsxEOGKlBMaFa6CS6Hf5ndy6qTtUL0Au_

Anyway, its a great book right now for reading practice. It’s very much around my level. I will probably stick with this author for a little while and solidify what I know/my base reading level.

IN OTHER NEWS:

I am apparently living proof listening-reading, heavy emphasis on re-listening a TON in the background as you work or type or walk/drive whatever, works for learning new words.

I re-listened to guardian chapter 1 audiobook at least 20-30 times by now, just a tremendous amount. Chapters 1-10 I’ve listened to at least 5 times by now random chapters at random days, and some probably also 20 times.

I have listened to these chapters enough, that I can officially follow so much that I know nearly every freaking word I hear, I know it immediately on hearing in at least 3 different audiobooks, and the few ‘less familiar’ words I recognize a second after hearing (like hearing ‘audacious’ or ‘glum’ in english it just takes me a second to re-remember), and the very few still forgotten words/specific details I learn From those words I can actually pick up from the context of listening.

I hear ‘powei’ and somehow forgot it AGAIN? Oh it means ‘rather’ in this context. ‘anli’ well i always hear ‘anlishuo’ as in ‘people say/generally speaking’ so ‘anli’ in this context must mean ‘generally/generally speaking.’ chuanghu? can’t remember it because i was just typing this JUST now and only hearing a few words from the audiobook in the background - well in context its obviously window, but out of context my brain said window and i just couldn’t remember if it was window or curtain but felt curtain had something more complex than ‘hu’ as the second half - just looked it up and my guess was right, even with no context which i’d have had if i’d been listening better and it had been clear it’s window, it still made me think ‘window’ immediately just hearing the sound. ‘xiang yi ge ren’ sounds like ‘looks like a person’ which is the next phrase i just randomly heard. ‘hua le yao ming’ shouted for their life/in awful terror? or that would be ‘huo’, so maybe ‘streaking toward him to take his life’? would make sense in context of a horror scene - i just looked it up and 划了要命 would be the second one. even IF i heard the wrong line, both of those are pretty close to a good guess in context and hua is the only unknown because without context i can’t place if it was hua or huo. i still confuse the words wu and wo for hold etc, but in context i can tell which one it is (wo is hold a hand, hold a face, etc).

I’m genuinely at a point where I can just completely follow the plot through at least the first 20 chapters from listening. And for most scenes, follow every detail too including stuff like guo changcheng spending half a year not working at home after he graduated, being so afraid of the phone, da qing being fawning to shen wei when they meet and rubbing against his leg, the specific conversation details when da qing runs across zhao yunlan’s car in chapter 2, what zhao yunlan’s room exactly looks like, etc. Its super cool to be able to follow the audiobook so well I can follow the story and details even when I don’t have time to read! It’s so fun! And it was not very hard!

It took 40 minutes of upfront study where you set time aside to focus: 20 minutes to have a program read the chapter aloud while you either see unknown word definitions pop up (like in Pleco) or look them up with some click dictionary as you listen. 20 minutes to go through and listen to the audiobook as you follow along with the text. Then after that, just play the audiobook chapters you’ve done this with whenever you want, either paying attention like when going to bed soon or walking, or in the background like when cleaning or doing busy work or driving. Since background listening can be done easily whenever all you have to do is remember to click play when you want something to listen to.

I’m honestly blown away by how much 3 months of studying mainly like this (which is quite fun and only requires me to carve out a small amount of actual study focused time) has improved my listening skills. I can now also listen to the 2ha audiobook okay and follow along (provided its a chapter I’ve read before so I have at least some prior context to help me out) - at least so far as that’s what I’m listening to right now. Basically, I can tell Guardian has both upped my vocabulary significantly and also improved my automatic recognition of many words I half-knew and learned since.

I recently found a new Guardian audiobook read by a deep voice and its lovely (and utilizes music and echo for effects, its lovely to listen to) I hope the poster keeps updating: https://fm.qq.com/show/rd002ED4aN0mYz2L__

I’ve been listening to it lately.

---

Also! Directions for using Pleco Android for screen reader:

1. To get any page bookmarked online:

Open a page in your mobile web browser you want to read. Click the menu, click share, click Pleco Reader (or ‘more’ or ‘...’ then Pleco Reader).

Go to Clipboard Reader. Now when you click text, dictate text megaphone will be an option.

*Since Clipboard Reader is free, you can do this to read in Pleco and have things spoken aloud with no money spent. (Though I find the Reader tool worth the money and add ons).

2. To have any text ‘dictated aloud’:

Go to Pleco’s menu, Settings, Audio, click ‘use TTS if no recording,’ then for Sentence Audio section area System TTS Setting click Speech Services by Google (you can also experiment by clicking other options I am just stating what worked for me, it didn’t work at first I had to make that my default TTS in my Accessibility-Talkback Settings menu on my main phone first and restart my phone before all this).

Then click the area right below to mess with speed and sound of the TTS voice.

(Note, to test if TTS is working you can go to any dictionary entry sentence, click the speaker next to the sentence and see if it plays audio. If it does not, you will get an error message and directions on what to change in your phone settings. That is what initially happened to me: I had to go to phone Settings, Accessibility, Talkback, TTS Engine, TTS Engine voice and settings. Pleco recommended I choose Speech Services by Google, and uninstall then reinstall the Chinese voice. Then restart the phone. That worked for me. An additional note: I have Talkback setting on ‘on’ and just have it in my toolbar to use if desired but am not actively using it. If you turn Talkback setting ‘off’ in the actual Settings area of Accessibility, I am not sure if it will affect Pleco’s ability to dictate).

3. How to put it together:

Now go to Clipboard Reader and read the page from the internet you wanted or text you pasted, or go to Document Reader and open the document you wish to read.

Click a word as a place to start. Now you should see both the loudspeaker (for pronouncing the single word) and the Megaphone next to it to start dictating all text. (If your phone is weird like me, you may need to press the megaphone a couple times before the audio works).

If you wish to change dictation reading speed, simply hold down the megaphone and select the speed desired.

Now that I’ve figured this out I really want to take pictures of my print book, make a pdf, and listen to all the changes.

(Now I just have to fix my weird dictionary in Idiom app and I’m all set on the new phone!)

---

All I’ve been doing the past august study wise is just reading pingxie fic and finishing, and listening to audiobooks. It’s been a busy time for me ToT

I do think it proved you can be lazy and still make some improvements though:

1. Reading in Pleco (or click-dictionary tool of your choice): pick something and read a chapter a day (that’s what I did, obviously the easier this is the less time you’ll need, but aim for around 30 minutes a day and reading material closer to your level if you don’t want to read too long)

2. Listening-Reading Method something above your reading level that you enjoy. Should take 40 minutes a couple times a week to several times a week to hours a week, depending on how intense you want to get with it and how much you’re going to alternate/include the reading portion. I did like 1-2 chapters a week so I was only spending 40 minutes to 1.5 hours a week doing this, or 3 hours one week no time another week. This is definitely something where you can do 6-12 hours one month then coast on it for another month just repeating older material’s audio/re-reading sections (which is what I did with guardian, doing 22 chapters then switching to just listening to audio a lot).

Once you’ve done a little L-R steps 2 and 3 (in either order, whatever works for you - and doing step 1 if you want more context prior to steps 2 and 3), then just make time during your days to play the audiobook chapters you’ve studied. You don’t need to be focusing every single time (although focusing on actually trying to follow the audio the first time you listen without text to aid you will probably speed up your comprehension a lot by giving you a lot of basic-context to help you comprehend more later). Aim to listen whenever you’ve got down time! Or time where you’d play music or some background youtube video or podcast - walks, exercise, drives, when cleaning, when browsing the web goofing off, when working if you have times when you’d listen to music with lyrics or a podcast in the background without issues, times when you don’t need to focus 100% on listening just putting it on to hear in the background).

That’s all I’ve done for study since May. It takes me about 30 minutes 5 days a week, plus 1-2 hours listening-reading actively a week. So 2.5 hours plus 2 = 4 hours of active study a week. Sometimes more like 8-10 if I got really into reading something or Listening-reading to several chapters. Then after that (very easy to fit into my life 4-10 hours per week of study) I just play the audiobook whenever I have downtime at work (that’s usually 0.5-4 hours where I just let it play because I forget its on while working on spreadsheets, updates, emails, etc, or play the audiobook while messing around on the internet in my free time at home, sometimes I put on music instead), while walking so 15-30 minutes maybe 3 days a week, while driving far so maybe 20 minutes - 2 hours per week. maybe lets say 2 hours*4 days a week (I don’t remember to listen every day) so 8 hours random listening+1.5 hours walking+1 hour driving per week. That’s 11.5 hours listening in the background or paying attention plus lets say 4 hours of active study a week. So 15.5 ‘study’ hours for chinese per week - an average overall of ~2.21 hours of chinese ‘study’ per day. This isn’t counting when I get into weibo and goof off, get into some chinese show with no english subs and just start watching it (I watched 16 episodes of Humans cdrama in August which is ~10.66 hours for a total of at least (15.5*4 weeks = 62 hours + 10.66 hours -> ~72.66 hours spent ‘with chinese’ in August at minimum. 4 weeks*7 days = 28, so over around 28 days or most of august I did 72.66 total hours/28 days -> or ~2.595 hours of chinese per day as an average. So... my guess that I spend at least 1-2 hours on chinese per day as the average was a decent guess. Looks like I’m usually 2 hours to 2.5 hours daily as an overall average. It’s not that hard to get in that much without a ton of time in the day once you get some listening skills built up ToT Deciding to build up my listening skills has been one of the funnest goals in chinese so far.

Notes on Listening Reading Actively - it also doubles as increasing your exposure to listening to your target language, and the more hours the better even if its passive in the background, just more hours adding up toward your mind getting a better ability to parse the sounds of the language is going to help your overall listening comprehension in general. So even if you don’t pay attention much and can’t follow the whole plot and only catch certain scenes, you will be improving at least comprehension of: hearing words you know, hearing colocations and common phrases and recognizing more automatically which will help with speaking/writing indirectly and reading recognition of those things, overall ability to hear things correctly in different combinations and getting used to the common combinations.

You will be surprised how much more you can pick up of plot and details the 3rd listen compared to the first, the 5th listen, the 10th listen. It’s wild. Like... I’m listening to the 2ha audiobook and even having never read it in chinese, just knowing basic context, the 2nd read through I caught so much more of the plot throughout just because I had forewarning of when scenes change a lot, what audio plays during some parts I recognized in previous listens, and so I have more focus for figuring out the new details I missed. Whereas the first listen, I didn’t always know WHAT the scene context was until I heard a familiar line or description I remembered from the english version of the scene, but on a second listen I now have a better guess at the scene the lines are probably taking place in before and after those lines I recognized in the first listen. And this continues etc each time you re-listen to something. (So yes, that initial context of knowing what you’re listening to with a previous read of its translation or target language transcript will definitely speed up comprehension pick up - but if you just wanna test what your basic listening comprehension to new content is then it works fine just going into new audio with no prior context its just more difficult at first lol until you build an idea of the context from listening).

The original Listening-Reading Method person did like 40+ hours a week, 8 hours most days, no wonder they made fast progress! They often included reading in some form (hence the name) and later translation, so they also were constantly working on listening AND some reading skills AND eventually often some speaking/writing skills. Doing it my way results in mostly listening comprehension of stuff you could already read to a degree, more automaticity in recognition, and for picking up new vocabulary both in listening and reading. I do extra reading on the side with other stuff to get more reading practice in an isolated way (since I’m trying to push my reading speed up above speaking speed). I always try to do it the way the creator originally intended, but I am not able to focus on things for more than 20 minutes at a time, 40 to a couple hours if I take a break every 20 minutes. So doing it 8 hours just doesn’t work out.

---

I’m fairly happy!

I am on plan for my main goals that started this style study plan:

1. Improving my reading level to get to start being able to extensively read actual danmei novels - we got there! I am at a reading level appropriate for SaYe at 98% comprehension when I checked, and at a bit above 95% comprehension for Guardian! I’m now continuing with that goal while adding on increasing reading Speed in general.

2. Improving listening skills so I have better automatic recognition of partly-known words from reading (working super well so far - I can tell because ability to watch cdramas in only chinese has improved noticeably and gotten much easier), and so I can start following the main plot and key details of audiobooks of things I’ve read before (working great for guardian, starting to work with other audiobooks provided I listen to the chapters a few times or several times if its brand new material I have no context for, however reading level matters and while things I have prior familiarity with are going very well - brand new materials are still quite challenging in that they require multiple listens for the full plot and several listens before I start picking up most non-plot-critical details).

#rant #september #september progress #august #august progress #listening reading method #pleco #rec list #audiobook #guardian #take all my study advice with heaps of salt #do what feels right for YOU #this is just the study plan that's been working for me recently #for my main goals: increasing base reading level and improve listening comprehension

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calumthoodshands · 3 years ago

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2021 Writing Self-Evaluation!

thank you @burstingsunrise and @daydadahlias my dear friends this is terrifying for my baby writer ass but i guess i’ll try! Under the cut

1. Number of stories posted to AO3: seven

2. Word count posted for the year: 164,489

3. Fandoms I wrote for: 5sos only!

4. Pairings: so far we’re cake exclusive but well i’m caught up in a story since literally march so

5. Story with the most Kudos/Bookmarks/Comments:

all of them and surprising to no one, are from Days in the sun. i sometimes lose my mind a little when i look at the number of kudos being over 100. how. how!! and so many comments!! over 30!! bat shit insane. i’m glad people like it but it does stun me every day

6. Work I’m most proud of (and why):

i’m gonna name two bc the reasons are different. Dits, because it’s the biggest fic i have written and ever will write, bc i managed to keep a story up in over 130 k words without losing the plot, bc i myself love the world i created in it. everytime i finish a chapter i’m baffled at myself that i’m actually doing this. that i’m writing this fic for soon a whole year.

the second one is probably The easy way out. it’s in no way a particularly outstanding fic, its not long or incredibly short or anything, but i’m proud of how it came to be. i wrote it in one go in just a few hours, i got the exact vibes across that i wanted, and it even did quite well for some reason. i like it a lot

7. Work I’m least proud of (and why):

i do have a fic i am not proud of but i dont see a point in mentioning it

8. Share or describe a favorite review you received:

okay i want to mention several people bc im me and these all made me cry

starting off with megs @igarbagecannoteven bc seriously every comment she leaves on dits makes my heart hurt bc theyre so detailed and really make me believe that i’m not just doing nonsense but actually. like. having an effect on people with what i’m writing. i appeciate it more than i can put into words

second of all was that one time i got a random ask from c @soggyburgers and it was in the very beginning still and out of all fics, about my sad fic high above the city lights. i couldn’t believe someone actually read my stuff. and thought it was good. i seriously think about that message almost every month at least once. i’m still sorry i made you cry, c, i hope you’ve forgiven me

third, and a must for me to mention is the playlist des @cakes-curls made all by herself for dits. when i tell you i cried for half an hour. that my fic had such an impact someone would actually sit down and invest the time to find songs that fit the fic and the vibes????????????????? i’m. i can’t. i’ve talked about it a lot of times already and still dont know what to say to express how much it means to me.

9. A time when writing was really, really hard:

i had a huge writer’s block at one point. i think it took me a month to finish a 3 k word chapter. but also right now, i was struggling with the new chapter for dits, then i was gone over new years, and i have so much to do and i cant sort my thoughts enough to get any further. i’m incredibly frustrated atm. i also constantly think about how i dont give characterisation enough thought.

10. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you:

probably the first kiss in dits! i had it planned completely different in the beginning, only for it to take not only WAY TOO MANY CHAPTERS but also to happen in a completely different setting.

11. A favorite excerpt of your writing:

i literally can’t if anyone has suggestions hit me up i’m too tired and there are too many words

12. How did you grow as a writer this year:

i mean. i started this year. i learned how to write. how to make sentences flow. those kinda things. basics

13. How do you hope to grow next year:

I really wanna keep an eye on characterisation and i really really need to broaden my vocabulary

14. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc):

actually, i think all the writers in the club. the fact that we have a community where you can ask the most stupid questions, where you can always ask for advice, even just reading what other people write and ask about. but also just reading their fics in general. meg’s and molly’s cake fics and jess’ were so good they were the last push to get me into fic writing. but also special mention to molly. thanks for always answering my dumb ass questions no matter when or what and helping me w fic ideas <3

15. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year:

oh definitely. i was in france!! i was where the magic happens!! but also just personal perceptions of things and preferences, but i won’t specify anything. i cant afford to be perceived even more

16. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers:

write. just write. dont be afraid of ideas going to ‘waste’. dont be afraid of writing things u can’t do. if you dont post it, who will know about it? no one but you. always write it down, no matter how small the idea. u can always edit, but u cant get ideas back.

17. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year:

i have several fics i want to write, but as long as im on dits still, i dont have the brain capacity to work on other longer projects. i would love to write the neighbour fic, or the ballet fic.

18. Tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read.

I’m probably the last rn so if you read this and wanna do this pretend i tagged you!!

#writer’s game #tag game #god this took forever #my eyes dried out

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diyeoracha · 4 years ago

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IwaOi Fanfiction Masterlist with 90+ Works

Hello! In celebration accumulating over 290 bookmarks on my AO3 account featuring IwaOi, Haikyuu S4 part 2, and @haikyuuweek2020 (Day 7 - Free Choice), I decided to create a masterlist of all of my favorite Iwaoi fics in order to keep myself organized as well as contributing to more traffic for those works! Works are split up into genres such as alternate universe (either not childhood friends or set on Earth), angst, canon compliant (post timeskip with spoilers), canon divergent (childhood friends but divergent timeline post timeskip), high school, and university au

Formatting update: Jan 13, 2021 (spacing is wonky on the mobile app!).

Fic update: Jan 7, 2021

This is incomplete as I got distracted while re-reading a lot of these and have only gone through half of my bookmarks, but feel free to check my own page here for the rest of them! I really do hope you guys enjoy reading these and leave comments and kudos! Please reblog and like so more people can enjoy

Titles marked with (♡) are my absolute favorites and there’s a chance I cried while reading them but otherwise they’re in alphabetical order

Alternate Universe

an allegory of all the things we could’ve been

Word count: 16k

Summary: “I don’t know anything about some red string,” Iwaizumi murmurs into the cracks of Oikawa’s skin, “or even about lifetimes or fate. But no matter where you are, I’ll find you. Gods or otherwise.” Reincarnation AU

And All the Prince’s Men

Word count: 65k

Summary: “Father only loves that which he owns, and I am the one thing that can never truly be his.” Royalty AU

Built a Temple in Me

Word count: 55k

Summary: Up the mossy mountain steps, past the komainu guardians and the faded red gate, and beyond the boundaries of the green shrine—that’s where the forest and the spirit world within it lies. That’s were Hajime met him, and where their story began.But intertwining of destinies can be ugly business, Hajime finds, when their first meeting begins with blood and the too-human eyes of a beast. God Oikawa AU

Quote: It fills his heart anyway, heals the hole in his chest that had been bleeding since he cut Tooru so forcibly from him.

Cotton Breathing

Word count: 13k

Summary: Long-distance and summer only but childhood friends AU

Conquering the Great King

Word count: 105k

Summary: Oikawa's lips twitched into a smirk and he brought them hovering just over Iwaizumi's, "One time thing, Two time thing, what's it matter as long as it's not a Relationship thing?"

Quote: Oikawa's eyes twitched wide for less than a second, his knee pressed in hard against Iwaizumi's thigh, "I may be gorgeous, but I'm not a doll."

dear diary, i met a boy

Word count: 15k

Summary: Iwaizumi's first impression of his upstairs neighbor involves getting woken up at two in the morning to the sound of Oikawa singing along to trashy pop music. He'd thought it would get better, but it all just goes downhill from there. Modern AU

Desperado

Word count: 82k

Summary: Clearly Iwaizumi had a checkered past. Kyoutani has never asked about it, nor has Iwaizumi ever brought it up. He knows it’s a sore spot for his mentor, just like the gorgeous Monte Carlo he keeps hidden away is, so he leaves it alone. Out on the streets, you learn a little something about when to turn a blind eye in order to survive; Kyoutani knows better than most to leave the past of men like Iwaizumi well alone. Heist AU

Even Heroes (have the right to dream)

Word count: 20k

Summary: Oikawa Tooru, ace reporter of the superhero beat of Asahi Shimbun, hates superheroes. Or maybe he just hasn’t met the knight one yet. Superhero AU

♡Infinite Risks

Word count: 8k

Summary: “It’s my fate,” Oikawa responds slowly. He’s crying. “It’s too lonely,” Iwaizumi’s heart sounded broken. “And I’m not there with you. Not really.” Edge of Tomorrow AU

In Defense of Reptiles

Word count: 9k

Summary: In their seventh year, Oikawa is chosen to be the Hogwarts champion in the Triwizard Tournament, and Iwaizumi suffers. Harry Potter AU

Quote: “You are so spoiled,” Iwaizumi tells him, but lets him shuffle down until Iwaizumi’s hand is now running through Oikawa’s hair instead of rubbing his shoulder.

In the Telling

Word count: 6k

Summary: Muggleborn Iwaizumi could not be less impressed with pureblood Oikawa Tooru. Harry Potter AU

♡Lockdown

Word count: 72k

Summary: Within the first few months of his stay, Oikawa gets caught up in a war between cellblocks, becomes a prime target, and must decide just how far he's willing to go to protect Iwaizumi Hajime. Prison AU

♡long nights, no peace

Word count: 18k

Summary: It's the steady knowledge that Iwaizumi Hajime will always be someone that he can rely on, that no matter what the world throws at the two of them, they share in a piece of each other's soul. Pacific Rim AU

Quote: Quiet settles between them softly, like the warm pressure of the blanket, or Iwaizumi's fingers curling to lightly hold the fabric of Oikawa's shirt.

The Long Light

Word count: 36k

Summary: Iwaizumi Hajime's seventh year at Hogwarts begins, and begins, and begins, and begins. Somehow, Oikawa Tooru is always there. Harry Potter AU

Magic Man

Word count: 12k

Summary: Oikawa is named the most desirable wizard in France. Iwaizumi is not impressed. Harry Potter AU

Quote: You keep saying partner or them. Is it rude of me to ask you to clarify?

Meet me in the grey area

Word count: 24k

Summary: Set in a hero/villain AU with Iwa as our trusty hero and Oikawa as our charming villain

Saw You at the Fish Market

Word count: 14k

Summary: In other words, Oikawa befriends hot part-time worker Iwaizumi and tries to impress him both off and on the court, in hopes of more.

♡♡ (sing with me) A Song of Conquest and Fate

Word count: 26k

Summary: When Seijou receives a missive from Aobajousai to discuss a potential peace, its emperor Oikawa Tooru could not have foreseen the series of events that would follow. Historical fantasy AU

Similar Creatures

Word count: 53k

Summary: "What's your name?" "Whatever you want it to be."(Or, Oikawa gets directions from an attractive stranger on a street corner.). Escort AU

♡Something Like Us

Word count: 28k

Summary: Friends since childhood, Oikawa and Iwaizumi now live together, both playing for the National Team. It's no secret that athletes who are bonded perform better. So if the two of them happen to bond...It'd be for the good of the team, right? A/B/O AU

Space

Word count: 44k

Summary: Tries not to think of his rooftop garden, or the apartment he used to inhabit, or Hajime’s broken expression on the night they whispered their goodbyes before Tooru’s launch, attempting to push it all to the back of his mind behind visions of this alien world terraformed. Astronaut AU

Stop the Time

Word count: 10k

Summary: Iwaizumi Hajime, 27, E.R. nurse at University of Tokyo Hospital. Hospital AU

♡♡The Loyalty of A Traitor

Word count: 76k

Summary: Iwaizumi Hajime was an undercover officer with a single objective: Infiltrate the Seijoh Syndicate of the Yakuza and tear them down from the inside out. His primary target was the boss, Oikawa Tooru. The job itself was simple enough, until Iwaizumi got in too deep and absconded not only from the mission, but from the city itself. Yakuza AU

These Flowers I Stole For You

Word count: 3k

Summary: ANBU don't cry. They tear themselves apart, bit by bit, and then they stitch themselves whole again. Naruto AU

on shipwreck shore

Word count: 8k

Summary: “I’m going to murder you in cold blood and feed you to the basilisks,” Iwaizumi says conversationally. “You can’t do that, I’m your boss,” Oikawa sings, positively sparkling. “Also we’re partners, which means,” he points at Iwaizumi and leans in, “you’re stuck with me.” Detective AU

Page 305 of 304

Word count: 53k

Summary: “…she called you ‘papa’,” iwaizumi managed. oikawa just stared for a moment longer before relaxing in a smile. “yeah. cute, right? but you can call me ‘daddy’ if you want.”

Temporary fix

Word count: 12k

Summary: “And you’ve shampooed his hair how many times now? Hmm. Yeah, that’s not technically a bromance.” A/B/O AU

Tokyo Boy

Word count: 16k

Summary: He has feelings for Iwaizumi Hajime, who probably has casual lovers just like him in every major city he visits on business. Oikawa is just his Tokyo Boy, just another pit-stop on Iwaizumi’s travels. Businessman AU

Trial by Fire

Word count: 78k

Summary: (lawyer!AU - in which Iwaizumi loves his objections, Oikawa is beautiful, and they have more chemistry than two opposing attorneys probably should.)

Watch Me

Word count: 32k

Summary: Oikawa's a cam model. It’s been a month since Iwaizumi first spoke in his chat. When they meet in person, things get complicated. Cam model AU

Angst

open when

Word count: 1k

Summary: Iwaizumi knew it was coming, but it still hurt. It still hurt when he opens one letter and drowns it in the tears he cannot keep at bay.

Chasing Paper Suns

Word count: 10k

Summary: Post-high school, Oikawa makes it to the national volleyball team but Iwaizumi doesn't. The next three years become an exercise in growing up without growing apart

Quote: “ ‘it’s just—I’m just trying so hard—’‘What, and I’m not?’

Timeless (We Have 30 Days)

Word count: 12k

Summary: Or AU where you're branded 50 days before you die. But Oikawa doesn't tell anyone so now there's only 30 days left.

the weight of water

Word count: 6k

Summary: “Again,” he says, the smallest tremor in his voice, and Oikawa blinks at him a moment before smiling, soft and sweet. “Iwa-chan,” he replies, and Iwaizumi closes his eyes. “Again.” “Iwa-chan.”

Canon Compliant

Are You Listening?

Word count: 4k

Summary: 30 times oikawa said i love you and 1 time he didn't have to

Quote: “Iwa-chan, watch out for the log—!” Oikawa looked on in horror as his best friend tripped and fell flat on his face.

Edge of the balcony

Word count: 8k

Summary: Iwaizumi looks older, he realizes. Oikawa knew he had aged as well, and so did everyone around him, but the thing was when you see people often, you don't notice the subtle changes in appearance. And Oikawa hadn't seen Iwaizumi in four years.

How can this loser ever win

Word count: 2k

Summary: everyone is in stupid love with Iwaizumi Hajime and he has no idea

♡♡♡Lost in Translation

Word count: 9k

Summary: Because misfortune come in threes, Iwaizumi Hajime starts his Thursday having a screaming fight with Shittykawa, spends his lunch break listening to the UCI women's volleyball team gossiping about how Ushijima Wakatoshi had gone public about his longtime love affair with Oikawa Tooru, and closes out the day by drunkenly dropping his phone into a sewer grate.

maybe we could be enough

Word count: 9k

Summary: iwaizumi hums in reply as the car goes silent, frank ocean crooning from the speakers. they stop at a red light when iwaizumi feels eyes at the side of his face, and turns to look at oikawa.

Most people never even get a single high school rival

Word count: 5k

Summary: Team Argentina gets to know Iwaizumi Hajime (27) Athletic Trainer.

Primavera

Word count: 8k

Summary: They say it takes twenty-six years, for certain breeds to fully bloom.

Quote: Did you know that distance is only me, growing towards you?

♡♡♡rest on your laurels

Word count: 4k

Summary: In Iwaizumi’s heart of hearts, untouched by time, they are young and alive, burning with the hearth of home and bright as winter light. Unbreakable. Invincible.

♡♡♡Something Borrowed

Word count: 16k

Summary: In which Oikawa and Iwaizumi have always been a foregone conclusion to everyone else, but a massive, unanswered question to one another.

‘Til Infinity

Word count: 2k

Summary: “Hey,” he says, “that cloud looks kind of like a dick.”

Quote: “I got you ladybug”

♡♡♡ You Set Off a Dream In Me

Word count: 15k

Summary: In which Oikawa is 41 and ready to retire. He's at the top of his game and ready to find a new challenge. Turns out his new challenge is pretty familiar. It's high school, round 2.

Quote: A past with an Iwaizumi that wasn’t on the opposite side of the net, monsters on all sides, guiding a setter that had lived the dream left behind in the ruins of Tooru’s past self.

Canon Divergent

a world alone

Word count: 60k

Summary: Iwaizumi has his medical books on the musculoskeletal system. Oikawa has his research papers on parallel universes. It isn't until much, much later that they realize they have each other.

♡Almost a Stranger

Word count: 16k

Summary: Iwa-chan's leaving Kapan. Tooru's not sure he can forgive him, but he's not going to admit his long-held feelings, either. A trip to Miyajima complicates everything.

Quote: There are only two things that have ever broken Oikawa Tooru’s heart. Iwa-chan would say Tooru has no heart to break, but that’s simply untrue.

Count your blessings, it goes 1,2,3, me

Word count: 7k

Summary: He's unsettled by the undefined boundaries of their relationship so it's all his luck that he accidentally wins three wishes to be granted just for him, and all that comes to mind is Iwaizumi.

Quote: Now, as an adult, past convenience of circumstance and the haze of hormonal lust, exactly none of his feelings have worn off

♡♡♡the courtship ritual of the hercules beetle

Word count: 66k

Summary: Tooru is pretty sure he could manage the mating habits of a mosquito. It’s the mating habits of people he can’t seem to get right.

♡days fall away

Word count:17k

Summary: Except now he’s back home, so close to his old haunts and to Oikawa himself, and it's—weird.

Quote: “You and Tooru,” he begins, and then shrugs. “I was just thinking, you look at each other a lot.” And he walks away, leaving Hajime winded, and sort of aching, somewhere deep in his chest. Whatever that means.

♡here comes your man

Word count: 8k

Summary: Iwa-chan, it reads, Have a good day today! Good luck! <3 <3 <3 Suga chokes. It’s hard to imagine anyone calling the scowling and fierce Doctor Iwaizumi “Iwa-chan.” But marriage probably comes with all sorts of liberties. Doctor AU

♡♡In damp earth my body

Word count: 15k

Summary: Onscreen, the nation’s favorite setter has arranged himself so that he’s bowing, forehead pressed to the court, like he’s thanking everyone for their kindness thus far, like he’s asking for forgiveness. Hajime thinks: shit, it’s really happening

In the Business of Love

Word count: 22k

Summary: Meet Oikawa Tooru: He's a best-selling shoujo manga artist, a hardcore romantic and you won't believe where he's getting his lovey dovey fodder from...Enter Iwaizumi Hajime: He's Oikawa's best friend, a realist who also happens to be a wedding magazine writer despite not believing in romance...

Quote: A flare of pride lit in Oikawa as he watched Iwaizumi's eyes crinkle with mirth and in that yawning second, it bloomed into a warmth that bordered on a burn, forcing a bittersweet inhale.

it's been so long (nobody knows me the way you do)

Word count: 8k

Summary: Tooru hums, only half-listening. Somewhere along the way, Hajime’s palm has settled itself over the curve of Tooru’s cheek, thumb tracing over the line of his jaw.

Quote: Iwaizumi blushes even more. “That you’re here, I mean. I’m happy that you’re here. With me.”

♡♡♡Mint

Word count: 19k

Summary: It's the December after Iwaizumi’s last year in university when Tokyo welcomes him with a new ad campaign for Bright Days toothpaste, and Oikawa Tooru—fresh off a run at the 2016 Summer Olympics—has decided to grace the city with his signature grin, a flip of his wayfarer sunglasses, and the most irrepressible tag line for the signboard above.

Quote: "To be able to tell him, in the new year." This comes under Oikawa's breath, so low that Matsukawa and Hanamaki can't hear, and the game continues.

Six-Month Lover

Word count: 89k

Summary: Iwaizumi barks out a laugh. “I’m still trying to get over the fact that you made a PowerPoint presentation about why we should date.” Oikawa doesn’t tell him the file has existed for the last twelve years, constantly receives updates, and that the original copy contained almost a hundred slides before he forced himself to get a grip.

Special Relativity

Word count: 22k

Summary: Time moves differently for people in different inertial reference frames. Oikawa goes on a two-year exploratory mission in space. Iwaizumi's been waiting for a lot longer than that.

♡♡sunset towns

Word count: 33k

Summary: In the summer of 2020, Oikawa Tooru returns home from his first successful stint as captain of Japan’s national volleyball team. In one hand, he holds the undisputed weight of an Olympic medal, and in the other, his unresolved feelings for a childhood best friend.

♡♡Thirty Years and Change (the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad)

Word count: 19k

Summary: It’s July 10th, 2024, and Oikawa Tooru is an Olympian. His smiling face airs on an NHK promo every 45 seconds. He’s captain of the national men’s volleyball team, reigning star of the professional leagues, and he hasn't spoken to Iwaizumi Hajime in two years.

Quote: Oikawa’s grin in the last set of the morning’s game. Oikawa’s grin as they sat on their asses on a golf course. Oikawa’s grin when they were in college. When they were in high school. When they were twenty-two, seventeen, fifteen, twelve, six.

High School

Bet On It

Word count: 13k

Summary: Hajime knows exactly how shitty Oikawa's personality is, and has no scruples whatsover about betting Oikawa six thousand yen that he can't be nice for an entire week.

Quote: The whole instant-compliance thing was seriously creeping him out. Oikawa from a week ago would have made a crack about how if he'd wanted something cold, he could have just put his face on Hajime's shoulder.

Betweens

Word count: 2k

Summary: Iwaizumi is asleep in the club room. Oikawa is blindingly awake in the club room. The sun moves slowly across the sky, and Iwaizumi’s skin is gold underneath it. Oikawa watches the changing shadows on Iwaizumi’s face and thinks about nothing in particular.

Don’t think too much

Word count: 6k

Summary: In which Oikawa and Iwaizumi have a confusing, drunken encounter and then deal with the (sticky) consequences.

Quote: As soon as that thought crossed his mind, though, Oikawa did what he always did: exactly the opposite of what Hajime wanted

Gates

Word count: 12k

Summary: The day after their graduation ceremony, they drive to the beach at Shirahama. Iwaizumi drives, because it’s his car, and as he has told Oikawa on multiple occasions, he’d rather die than let him touch the wheel.

Quote: ‘Yeah,’ he says, because they’re on a beach, and they’re supposed to be on a metaphorical journey, and they’re supposed to be growing up, and completing rites of passage, so it’s honesty, today - just for today, at least.

♡♡i sing the body electric

Word count: 8k

Summary: It was never part of the plan, falling in love with his best friend, but then again, most things in Iwaizumi’s life that involve Oikawa rarely unfold the way he thinks they will.

Quote: But Iwaizumi thinks about Oikawa laughing with that girl in the low light of the gym, a particular kind of quiet intimacy that Iwaizumi’s only ever read about in books hovering in the air, and all it makes him feel is small and petty and spiteful.

it’s better than words

Word count: 3k

Summary: [ or : oikawa makes iwaizumi participate in three bonding activities for new friends, and iwaizumi just wants to know why oikawa's being so weird about this]

Make sure you cross the line

Word count: 4k

Summary: With graduation just around the corner, Iwaizumi knows he has to gather the courage to really ask Oikawa out.

Quote: He’s been asking Iwaizumi to go out with him every single day this past week, increasingly panicked about getting his time and attention now that they’re nearing the end of this season of their lives.

Only the jellyfish know

Word count: 6k

Summary: Their third and final year at Aoba Jousai has come to an end, and the guys decide to go to the beach the day after graduation. That day, the ocean water is salty, the watermelon is sweet, and the people are sweeter.

static

Word count: 6k

Summary: Being snowed in with all of Seijou volleyball in his childhood home brings back a lot of memories for Iwaizumi, because it's kinda Oikawa's childhood home too.

Quote: It's fate that brought them together and choice that keeps them that way. The closest description in Hajime’s vocabulary is partners, but only because Oikawa taught him what its true definition is.

Told before and told again

Word count: 3k

Summary: This is how Hajime and Tooru fall in love, through the accounts of those around them.

Quote: When Oikawa lets out a long, heavy breath, Iwaizumi looks up at him and frowns, and flings a towel over Oikawa’s head to cover his face. Then, he tugs, once, on Oikawa’s fingers, and leads him down the hallway, Oikawa walking quietly in tow.

♡we can do better than that

Word count: 16k

Summary: Oikawa and Iwaizumi go on a road trip during the summer after their high school graduation. It doesn't go as expected, but maybe that's not such a bad thing after all.

Quote: Because Iwaizumi’s known Oikawa nearly all his life and never felt anything more than vague affection usually followed by intense irritation for him. But then suddenly at eighteen years old and nearly two weeks into a very badly planned road trip, it’s like someone flipped a switch somewhere inside Iwaizumi

♡when it starts to rain, they go inside

Word count: 33k

Summary: “Where?” starts Iwaizumi.“ My parent’s old lakehouse, silly, didn’t you hear me the first time?” OR: Oikawa takes Iwaizumi to his lakehouse for two weeks, post-graduation.

reassemble it

Word count: 15k

Summary: When Tooru was six years old, he discovered—unbeknownst to him at the time—two of the most important things in his life: volleyball and Iwaizumi Hajime. It was ironic that he had stumbled upon them hand in hand—quite literally, too.

♡things that change, things that stay the same

Word count: 8k

Summary: Oikawa realizes he's in love with his best friend; it sucks for a while. (But only a while.)

Quote: Iwaizumi’s expression right now is less terrified than it used to get back then, but he’s tight-lipped with concern, and his broad body blocks out other passengers as if their stares might be a danger to Tooru too.

University AU

An Archaeology of Affection

Word count: 23k

Summary: For Hajime, it is a riddle and simultaneously so evident. It fills his chest, surging like water, paints heat up his neck. In retrospect, it eats up his days, makes them its own until it feels like his heart has always been in his throat at the smile thrown over Oikawa’s shoulder, the stilling of his fingers on Hajime’s sleeve.

closure

Word count: 22k

Summary: In his first year of university, Oikawa builds a new friendship and upgrades an old one. Or: Ushijima is not a great wingman, but he tries his best.

Quote: “On the first day of his university career, Oikawa Tooru walks into his dorm, spots his assigned roommate, and turns one hundred and eighty degrees and walks right back out. He dials a familiar phone number - the first one he ever memorized - and starts complaining before Iwaizumi even gets the chance to say hello. “Iwa-chan,” he says, “tell me why Ushiwaka is in my dorm room.”

♡♡♡galaxies, within you

Word count: 21k

Summary: Hajime and Tooru move in together at the start of university. Too bad they’re stuck with the two gremlins that haunt their apartment.

Quote: I AM A HEADASS

Hands to yourself

Word count: 11k

Summary: He missed his parents, and he missed Takeru, and Takeru's badly behaved puppy. He missed Aoba Jousai, and he missed the volleyball team. He even missed Karasuno and Shiratorizawa, just a little.

Home, and how we made ours

Word count: 3k

Summary: “No, I like it here.” There’s a rustling as Iwaizumi shifts, inching closer. “I like it here, as in this crappy apartment—with you.”

Quote: “Do your fights end up being like—you know, about actual things and then extending into toddler days and suddenly you’re accusing Iwaizumi of kissing the girl you used to like in preschool?”

in progress to you

Word count: 6k

Summary: The eventuality of Oikawa and Iwaizumi falling toward each other is dramatically lackluster. Still, it's a process to go through.

Quote: “But what if you didn’t eat my pudding all the time?” Iwaizumi asks flatly, ignoring the way Oikawa is slapping his thigh to get out of his chokehold. “Do you think I buy them for you, huh? I buy them for me, you turd.”

Like we’re made of starlight

Word count: 6k

Summary: (a look into iwaizumi hajime’s journey of falling in love with oikawa tooru, from when they’re babies meeting for the first time to young adults moving in together.)

Ninety nine percent

Word count: 14k

Summary: more than anything, oikawa tooru wants to be with iwaizumi hajime, but he's only ninety nine percent of the way there.

Quote: Their ace was lining up for the ball, knees bent and arm pulled back, just as Tooru tosses the ball……to Hajime.

no sleep in the city

Word count: 7k

Summary: Along their journey to find Tokyo's best ramen, Iwaizumi finds himself asked again and again why Oikawa is still single.

Quote: “I was only telling Hanamaki literally yesterday that your personality isn’t as vile as before,” Iwaizumi informs, slightly stiff from the way Oikawa’s got an arm looped through his own. “Why do you make me such a liar to people I care about?”

Out of nowhere

Word count: 8k

Summary: They move in together after graduation and it's doing weird things to Iwaizumi's heart. He's a little in denial about it.

Quote: Oikawa excitedly ran up to him when Iwaizumi came home with groceries the other day. Not about the food but just to say how boring everything is when Iwaizumi's not there, eyes shining, and he couldn't meet his gaze after from blushing down to his neck. He doesn't know how much more he can take.

♡♡shiver

Word count: 16k

Summary: Oikawa was always the brave one. Hajime just followed two paces behind.

Quote: “I’m in love with you,” Oikawa tells him three days after they graduate junior high, head in his lap and hands gently folded over his chest and completely and totally unconcerned that he’d just shattered Hajime’s world.

Terpischore

Word count: 38k

Summary: They’d ended up going to different universities, Tooru and he. The distance was good for them. The confession Hajime dropped in both their laps wasn’t. That’s how it’d ended – a lifetime of friendship crumbled to dust in the space of five minutes. (Or, a lesson in learning to move on from things you can't have, in finding old loves in new ways and in understanding that life is never truly simple... till it is.)

terrarium

Word count: 11k

Summary: At this point, is he really happy with just staying best friends forever? Will he be writing journals and collecting rocks forever (he will, he knows, but that is aside from the point)?

these foolish things (remind me of you)

Word count: 3k

Summary: Oikawa helps Iwaizumi move into his new college dorm.

Quote: He’s desperate for something to happen. It must show on his face because Iwaizumi blushes and looks away. The thing is, Oikawa always looks at him like this when Iwaizumi isn’t paying attention.

They say it rains diamonds on Jupiter

Word count: 35k

Summary: "You're in love with him. "Hajime considers denying it. "Yeah," he says instead.

Quote: “Share the weight of your feelings with me, Hajime wants to beg when he hears Tooru's first hitched breath. Let me carry some of your burdens”

to be first, to be best

Word count: 26k

Summary: Hajime is apparently something of a masochist, and as he stares down at the tie-dyed AREA51 T-shirt in his hands, he thinks “I’m totally in love with this asshole, aren't I?”

Undecipherable

Word count: 4k

Summary: "Koi no yokan," he says. "The sense one can have upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall in love."

Quote: Because for all the bravado, for all the flaunting Oikawa does, he wants Hajime by his side, and no one else.

♡we shine like diamonds

Word count: 26k

Summary: "You know Abe-kun from class?" they snicker, hands cupped around their mouths like they're passing along a filthy secret. "I hear his older brother is... gay."

Where you are (I’ll be)

Word count: 6k

Summary: Theirs is a love that starts out like a seed and it takes two sets of hands tending it for a shoot to appear. There are no dramatic declarations of love, only a pair of hands that find each other again and again and again.

Quote: Oikawa broke off into giggles as Hajime slowed the descent of his hand from a slap to the back of Oikawa’s head to a gentle ruffle of the taller boy’s hair

♡♡with every second that you could give

Word count: 9k

Summary: The journey of Iwaizumi and Oikawa going for gold.

Quote: He knows they’re too close. Iwaizumi knows it too, and they both decided to move in together anyway.

Your love is sunlight

Word count: 6k

Summary: It's Iwaizumi's birthday, and they have a talk about the future.

Quote: But Hajime doesn’t think any present could top this: them, kissing in a sun-dappled bathroom, Oikawa’s skin warm under his hands, and the promise of a life together stretched out before them.

#haikyuuweek2020 #iwaoi #oikawa tooru #iwaizumi hajime #i spent more time on this than all of my edits combined pls appreciate this

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pencilofawesomeness · 4 years ago

Text

Fics I Absolutely Adore and Would Recommend to Anyone

I’ve been meaning to do this for a long, long time, because I love reading fanworks and they deserve a lot of love and I love sharing things that I love.

Obviously this isn’t everything, and if it’s not on this list that doesn’t mean I don’t love it, it just means I forgot at this moment. I will be adding to the list and I remember things or come across it again. (Trying to sort through my bookmarks and subscriptions is like trying to catch a fish bare-handed.) I’m also gonna shy away from the one-shots, even though I adore fun one-shots, just for the sake of organization. The list would be super long otherwise, and those are best sorted by fandom. Here... Here are just some brilliant works I want to rant about.

Disclaimer: I say “recommend” because I would recommend these works, any time any place, but do keep in mind the story’s rating and tags and stuff. Not everything is kid-friendly.

There is absolutely no hierarchy to the list below. They are added as I add.

Fairy Dance of Death

by Catsy ( @fairydanceofdeath )

Fandom: Sword Art Online Word Count: 660,282 Status: ongoing

「AU reboot of the entire SAO storyline, beginning from the premise that Kayaba Akihiko was obsessed with magic and Norse Mythology rather than swords and pure melee. As a result, he created the Death Game of Alfheim Online rather than the floating castle of Aincrad—a world in which player-killing is not a crime, and the nine player races are in competition with each other to reach the top of the World Tree. Multi-POV epic following the stories of multiple canon characters throughout the game.」

If Catsy wrote the SAO light novels and anime, SAO would be among the legendary series. Fairy Dance of Death has this amazingly simple premise of making Alfheim Online, the video game from the original series’ less-than-stellar second part, the game that the main cast becomes trapped in. However, it’s so much more. They took the characters and made them characters, and everyone gets ample spotlight—even background characters that normally wouldn’t receive a second thought. It’s masterful work, and to boot, there is a lovely frame of in-game mystery and player conflict. The organization is phenomenal and I aspire to world-build the way they did. Not to mention that stakes are so much higher and this series has ripped my heart to shreds more than once.

It has also brought me great joy, and even when I was in the dumps and didn’t want to read anything, a FDOD update made me pick up my phone and read when I otherwise wouldn’t have. It has a really special place in my heart. It updates once in a blue moon, but that’s okay.

Even if you have never seen a single piece of Sword Art Online, Fairy Dance of Death is still a great read. In fact, it’s the Better Version of SAO, if we’re all being honest, so I would especially recommend it if you hadn’t seen the original. Or if you have. The characters are given so much love and detail, to the point where Fairy Dance of Death’s characterizations are More Canon to me than Kawahara Reki’s work. It is just a beautiful piece of fiction, and it makes you question the depravity of man on levels that SAO shied away from.

Poisoned Dreams

by StrangeDiamond

Fandom: Genshin Impact Word Count: 82,852 Status: Complete, with a complete sequel and more to come

「 Every night now, Diluc dreams of death. Usually Kaeya's. In between these nightmares his life is falling apart. It doesn't take Kaeya long to realize that this is something much more insidious than simple bad dreams. His brother's life and sanity are on the line and there is nothing Kaeya won't do to save him. Bonus chapter added.」

In a growing fandom from a new game, StrangeDiamond swooped in and characterized these bad boys so well I think it’s canon. It really breathes life into the video game lore, and it’s an A+ depiction of awkward sibling re-bonding post-Terrible-Happenings. Poisoned Dreams can be read alone with a basic understanding of Genshin storybuilding, but StrangeDiamond has an entire group of fics and oneshots set in the same headcanon, and they integrate them really well and subtly together. Not to mention that the narrative style is really clever with making you question what is real and what is dream (a big point in this story) and the inner voices of the point-of-view characters are very compelling.

One Word to Change the World

by AgentMalkere

Fandom: Fairy Tail Collective Word Count: 43,988 (30 parts) Status: probably never coming back

「 In just one universe, Ultear called out to her mother instead of turning away and the fate of Fairy Tail and the world was irrevocably altered. These are glimpses of a world where a single word made all the difference.

In other words, welcome to the Butterfly Effect - Fairy Tail style. 」

It’s a really cute canon-divergent, and while the series makes no attempt to re-write Fairy Tail, it addresses the major events and just snippets in between. It does a good job at giving the vast cast ample spotlight, but it’s also an easy read. It’s special to me because it was the series that made me really pay attention to Bickslow in particular, and I respect that.

Vigilantis Pretium Libertatis

by aradian_nights

Fandom: Attack on Titan Word Count: 399,226 Status: Complete

「 Five years ago, an accident freed Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, and Armin Arlelt from an experiment that forced the most extraordinary powers onto them. After five years of separation, of being raised apart to be heroes by a set of three very different adults, they meet again. As they uncover the truth behind their captivity they realize being free and being heroes are sadly nothing but an illusion. 」

This wrecked me.

I still remember when I read it. It was the beginning of 2018, and I had the flu and a lot of time on my hands, so I binge-read this. It was simultaneously the best and the worst thing I have ever done, because I resonated with it so deeply there were times I was just staring up at the ceiling wondering what was real. I empathized with the characters to a level I rarely achieve, and I empathize easily. I laughed. I cried. It was amazing.

I refer to this story in conversation to this day. It handled themes published authors have only dreamed of achieving. Heck, if Dani (the author) took out the names of the AoT cast and replaced it with new ones, it could be its own stand alone novel. It is worldbuilding from the ground up, and any fandom knowledge you take in with you is used against you like a knife leveraged against your throat. Yet, no one is out of character. It’s phenomenal. I would say more, but this is something I daren’t spoil for anybody, because you must be as wrecked as I was. Vigilantis Pretium Libertatis is a level of writing I achieve to gain as a writer myself. It is a masterpiece in every sense of the word.

Life in Glass Houses

by blueskyscribe ( @blueskyscribe )

Fandom: Transformers (Transformers Prime, Transformers: Shattered Glass) Word Count: 119,900 Status: Ongoing (maybe, I hope)

「 No one would have thought Bumblebee and Knock Out were capable of getting along, but when they're stuck in a strange new world and their only hope of survival is cooperation . . . Yeah, they're probably doomed. 」

I could be biased because Knock Out and Bumblebee are two of my favorite characters, but it really is brilliant. Two enemies, stuck together—but not in an overly cliché way. It’s the right amount of cliché, with heaps moral conflict and inner conflict and sometimes just beating each other with a broom when no one is looking. It’s also a fascinating look into what makes a character the way they are in relation to the morals they possess, and how stalwart those morals can be. I can’t help but think of this story whenever I see or write a “role reverse” or mirror-verse AU. It does an excellent job at making all of the characters engaging and their own character, despite being in a mirror-verse.

Yesterday Upon the Stair

by PitViperOfDoom ( @pitviperofdoom )

Fandom: My Hero Academia Word Count: 424,070 Status: Complete

「 Midoriya Izuku has always been written off as weird. As if it's not bad enough to be the quirkless weakling, he has to be the weird quirkless weakling on top of it.

But truthfully, the "weird" part is the only part that's accurate. He's determined not to be a weakling, and in spite of what it says on paper, he's not actually quirkless. Even before meeting All-Might and taking on the power of One For All, Izuku isn't quirkless.

Not that anyone would believe it if he told them. 」

As a person who normally doesn’t read these kind of minor canon divergences, especially at the time of reading, I frickin’ love this fic. In fact, I think YUTS gave me a deep appreciation for canon divergence fics. It’s MHA in all of its glory but it’s so much more, and even the parts that rehash canon give new light to the characters and their points of view.

I had read Viper’s work before and saw Yesterday Upon the Stair filling my inbox, and then I finally watched My Hero Academia. It was one of the first MHA fics I read and it still has a very special place in my heart. I recommend this series to people who don’t even watch MHA; in fact, there are some who might prefer the darker tones and themes of heroism vs apathy to the main series. Not to mention the writing style is phenomenal, and I aspire to be that good. It made me laugh. It made me cry. Yes, tears streaming down my face crying. It is the best ghost story I have ever read.

the Vantage Point Universe

by Aggie2011 ( @aggie2011whoop )

Fandom: The Avengers (MCU) Collective Word Count: 1,032,651 (35 parts) Status: Ongoing (just slowed down)

「 Six months after the Loki incident, Clint isn't adjusting well. When an enemy from his days in the Army comes back to haunt him, he'll be forced to face a part of his past - and to move past Loki, if he has a hope of finding his place with the Avengers. (First of a universe created to center around Clint Barton) 」

// description taken from first installment

Have you enjoyed the MCU, especially the first-era Avengers phase, but like me, were disappointed in the fact that Hawkeye was barely there? The VP universe is for you.

I honestly have a hard time remembering what was canon and what was VP. And if it’s not canon, it should be. The VP universe gave so much life to Clint and to Natasha and to all of SHIELD and even the rest of the Avengers. It’s just...so good. It’s completely immersive. It focuses a lot on Hawkeye and Black Widow from before the Avengers team-up, as well as after, and it all flows together so beautifully. Not to mention that I can be reading a mission that happened pre-series, so I know that they are going to live with all of their limbs, and I still sit there on the edge of my seat the whole time.

The OCs, minor as they are, that are created for this are also wonderfully done. I can’t believe Dan and Phil don’t exist in canon. Every character, canon or no, is engaging and dynamic, it is a pleasure to follow each point of view. The emotional turmoil is also handled very well, and the VP universe carries the MCU trend of humanizing its heroes and takes it so much further.

Ghosts of the Future

by Evan Stanley ( @evanstanleyportfolio )

Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog Word Count: comic (18 issues) Status: ongoing

「 About 200 years in the future, Silver the Hedgehog is an average kid living in San Francisco... except for his strange and terrible dreams of a dying Blue Hedgehog, a Black Hedgehog, and mysterious gems called "Chaos Emeralds". What will he do, when these "figments of his imagination" appear before him in his real life? 」

// description taken from first installment

Okay so this is the only one that isn’t an Ao3 story, but rather a comic on DeviantArt. However, it is still one of my favorite stories. Even though it takes the commonalities of Sonic canon and turns them on its head, GotF really treats the characters well. There are enough familiar world elements to create intrigue, but it is set in a completely different take of the future, so there is ample opportunity for world building and being able to engage with a completely new thing. I wish SEGA put as much love in the series (namely the games, because the comics are *chef’s kiss*) and all of its possibilities as creators like Evan Stanley do.

The friendship and family relationships in GotF are so diverse and all so fantastic to witness. It’s a keynote example of the new hero and the old veterans, and both parties are active and trying their best.

Do not be alarmed by the starting art style. Sure, it’s rough around the edges at first, but then it gets better, and then it gets gorgeous, and then you’re left there so stunned that it looks like just life canon art. And then you could be like me, blinking slowly as my small brain finally connected that this Evan Stanley is in fact the Evan Stanley. GotF is an amazing fanwork, but she also draws and writes for the Official Canon comics (the IDW ones now) and that work is also phenomenal and should be supported.

Whirlwind

by Lynse ( @ladylynse )

Fandom: Danny Phantom, American Dragon: Jake Long, Miraculous Ladybug, Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja Word Count: 75,556 Status: Complete

「 Jake should be used to ominous predictions by now. Randy should know better than to blindly follow McFist. Adrien should think twice before sneaking away. And Danny really should've expected something like this when he got that phone call from Jake. (Secret Quartet fic) 」

I have to start by saying that I adore all of Lynse’s fics, and I chose this one simply because it is one of my favorites. But it’s all fantastic, one hundred percent. I also love Mirrored, the sort-of prequel to this fic, but Whirlwind just has the chaotic pure bean energy that each of the shows bring and it foils against each other so perfectly. This is the epitome of the Secret Quartet crossover, truly.

All fandoms and all characters get ample love, and the way the reader gets to see just how badly the characters’ assumptions are going is positively wonderful. It’s so easy to fall into the “I know what’s happening and so do the characters” trap, but Lynse leaps over it gracefully and lands in greatness. The fic had me smiling like a maniac one minute, and feeling sorry for my babies the next. Wonderful. Simply fantastic!

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writingontheclouds · 4 years ago

Text

can't help falling in love (with you)

For full-goosebumps-on-my-arm-giddy-feeling, play Kina Grannis' ‘Can’t help falling in love with you’ (also featured in Crazy Rich Asians) in the background.

You can thank me later.

Read it on AO3 here.

There were many times that Lily Evans thought she loved James Potter. She wanted to say it, to speak it out and let it be known, so the truth was finally out there in the universe for eternity to come.

It did not, however, start like an epiphany.

Although she will admit, when the first time the thought crossed her mind, it terrified her and her heart almost stopped. It was a cold December night, one of many that brutal winter, so it could have easily been hypothermia, she argued in her mind.

Lily was snuggled up in two blankets, sitting by the fire in the common room after hours, struggling to finish her essay that was due tomorrow and trying to not keep snotting all over it. Professor McGonagall had been kind enough to grant her a much-needed extension, as she battled a bad case of flu, but the work still needed to be done. This essay, this particular gruesome monster of an essay, that was making less sense as she prattled on trying to string comprehensible sentences, was finally due tomorrow. She had tried to bite her pride and let Marlene help her, the girl even offered to write it for her as Lily did not seem to be getting better and refused to stay in the Hospital Wing for longer than 10 minutes, but she had not relented. Even under the weather, she had a morality that didn’t let her do that.

Standon’s hypothesis for transfiguration is a law that describes transfiguration for objects that don’t move to objects that can move to help wizards. She stared at the sentence. She did have the morality but lacked the mental capacity to write English, apparently. She closed her eyes, leaned back on the sofa as another sneeze rattled her body and she rubbed her nose for the hundredth time that evening. It felt like she had rubbed sandpaper all over it, it hurt to even touch now.

She was about to crush the parchment in front of her into a ball and throw it in the fire when the door of the common room opened and she heard two hushed voices. She immediately threw the blankets over her head and tried to sink into the sofa and be as still as humanly possible, so the passerby's thought she was somehow a part of the sofa. She did not want anyone seeing her this way, red-nosed, hair resembling a bird’s nest and prominent dark circles under her eyes.

The voices stopped and there was an eerie silence in the common room. Lily, with her eyes, shut as tightly as possible as if it will somehow make her invisible, counted to 30 and slowly peeked out between her blankets.

James Potter and Remus Lupin were standing in front of her with bemused expressions on their faces. Lily did not think that her face could have turned redder, but apparently, it could. And she did.

“Lily?” Remus said, his head tilting sideways. “You alright?”

“Hi,” She managed to croak, after a beat and cleared her throat. Her throat felt sore.

“Merlin’s pants, Lily, are you okay? You looked like your face took a hit by a bludger,” James asked, shock coloring his face, then concern.

“Yeah yeah, I’m okay, just a little poorly,” She said, waving her hand and shaking it off. “Where have you boys been?” She managed to croak and tried to change the subject.

“Just out and about,” Remus answered, and Lily knew that was all the detail she was going to get about their shenanigans. She would probably experience it in person in a couple of days. She bet it involved some kind of an explosion in a very public setting.

“What time is it?” Lily asked, suddenly realizing it should be really late into the night now.

“Half three, I think.”

“Bugger!” She cursed and sat up straight, the blankets rolling over off her head and settling on her shoulder as she set about rearranging her books and ink pots and parchment, as if this might somehow give her the motivation to finish this assignment.

“Do you need help, Evans?” James asked, as he stepped closer and read the topic on her parchment.

“No, no, you boys go ahead with your scheming,” She said, waving them off as she rubbed her eyes to clear them and fought back a yawn. She then sneezed again so violently that Remus jumped. Lily had noticed that he got jumpier the closer it got to a full moon night, which was now just 2 days away.

“Sorry, Remus,” She said as she rubbed her nose again and tried to blow into a tissue.

“Let us help you, Lily. You’re ill, you should be in the Hospital Wing,” Remus said, as he tried to come closer.

“No! No, Remus, stay there, I don’t want you to catch my germs and become ill. You already look dead on your feet.” She said, stopping him right in his tracks. The last thing the boy needed was to be sick on Full Moon.

“You head up, Moony, and get some sleep,” James insisted. “I’m here,” He said with such an assurance that neither Lily nor Remus thought to argue with that.

She sat on the couch and he sat across the table on the floor, crossed legged, opening books, explaining topics, and bookmarking all the important points she needed to cover. There were theories to cover, limitations to write, methods to jot down and conclusions to be drawn. He didn’t offer to write it for her, or dictate her the answers point-blank. In some funny twist of fate, he knew what she needed at that exact moment and Lily was grateful. James also somehow brought a cheese toast and a hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows floating in it that smelled divine, even to her congested nose.

“Where’d you get these?” She asked as he tried to pass her the hot chocolate. She pulled on the sleeves of her chunky sweater as she held the mug, relishing the warmth it brought to her hands.

“I have ways,” James replied, as he bit into his own cheese toastie.

“James Potter, ever cryptic,” she said, and he just chuckled.

At one point in the morning, James had migrated to the couch and was perched beside her, books open in his lap and pointing to the diagrams as he explained another complication of the theory, his hands moving animatedly alongside as he talked on. Lily gazed at him as he continued, the rotten transfiguration theory long tuned out, as she watched the fire reflected in his glasses, his unruly hair pointing in all directions, and his sharp jawline showing a hint of facial hair. He looked beautiful, she thought, almost dream-like.

“Evans, are you writing this down?” Bright hazel eyes snapped at her and broke her out of her reverie and she startled and tried to concentrate again on Standon’s hypothesis. She felt disgusted with herself; when did she become so lovesick? She could have sworn she saw a hint of a smirk on his face, but she didn’t dare look up to confirm.

Lovesick.

Did it mean- no, of course, it didn’t. She didn’t lo-. No, just no. It’s not possible. She shook her head violently, ignoring the weird look James was probably throwing her and finally resumed writing, thinking that it was probably this flu that was messing with her brain.

...

ii.

She came in to find and congratulate Marlene, that’s her cover story, she told herself. Really, she’s her best friend, who’d doubt her?

Marlene had caught a bad bludger to her leg during the match. In fact, almost everyone on the Gryffindor team had. The Ravenclaw beaters, Bill and Luke, had been completely ruthless, both the players attacking and knocking down one Gryffindor player at a time. She had been furious when she saw Marlene's face scrunched up in pain, yelling profanities. Madam Hooch had called a foul, but that had made the two beaters even more relentless.

She had nearly flung herself onto the pitch when the beaters had caught James between them, smirking at him evilly when they sent bludger after bludger at him. He expertly dodged them; James wasn’t Gryffindor’s star chaser for nothing. He literally looked like sex on a stick… well, broom, in this case. But when James saw Bill and Luke flying after Noah who was speeding after the snitch, he had taken the heat himself. The bludger hit on the side of his stomach and then again one directly at his wrist. But James masked his pain as he maneuvered his broom with one hand, desperately trying to block the beaters path, while Noah successfully caught the snitch. The ground seemed to erupt in a flurry of red and gold as the whole of Gryffindor came spilling onto the pitch.

Lily wanted to congratulate him, he was responsible for most of the points Gryffindor made today. But she couldn’t get through the crowd of people surrounding the team. She didn’t even see Marlene in the crowd before the team disappeared back into the changing rooms. She’d already walked halfway back to the castle with Alice and Dorcas when she realized she should have made sure Marlene was okay. But when she couldn’t find her in the women’s changing room, she had contemplated trying the men’s. Not that Marlene would be there, but James might be.

Now that she saw he was barefoot, wearing his quidditch trousers and water dripping down from his hair, she realized she might not have thought this through. He must have just come out of the shower. But that’s not why she’s dumbfounded, unable to draw her eyes away from the sight in front of her.

He was shirtless. Merlin help her, a shirtless James Potter was standing in front of her, wrapping a white bandage around his left wrist. When he finally noticed someone in the doorway, he squinted, trying to see without his glasses. “Lily?"

“Hi James,” She said, nervously as she takes him all in. He promptly put on his glasses which were lying on top of his pile of clothes.

“Hey!” He said all smiles as he continued with the bandage. As if having a blushing female gaze at him shirtless was a regular occurrence. She could see the nasty bruise starting to blossom as he wrapped the bandage expertly, covering half of his palm and his wrist. The sight was somehow so bewitching. When she regained her composure, she realized that he was looking at her expectantly. Merlin’s pants, what did he say?

“Uhmm.. what?” She managed to stammer. Her mouth felt unnaturally dry.

“I asked what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in the common room celebrating?”

“Shouldn’t you?” She countered, completely forgetting she came in here for Marlene.

“We took quite a hit today. I just wanted to be alone for a bit.”

“But we won.”

“Yeah, but I need to change my strategy to defend ruthless buggers like Bill and Luke. Thought I’ll think about it while it was still fresh in my mind."

“Oh.” She said, mentally screaming at James to just put on a damn shirt so she can stop looking so confounded.

“That looks like a nasty one,” She added, motioning to another bruise that was starting to blossom on the left side of his abdomen.

“Eh, I’ve had worse.” He said, shrugging it away and sitting down now to put on some socks and shoes.

“I know, last year right?”

“I’m surprised you remember,” He said, looking up at her, eyes lighting up.

“The whole of Gryffindor probably does. You gave us all multiple cardiac arrests.” She said remembering the brutal match with Slytherin last year where a bad blunger caught James smack in the middle of his chest, knocking him off his broom and falling straight to the ground. He suffered from a broken arm, multiple broken ribs, and bruises and cuts covering every inch of visible skin. Even Madam Pomfrey was worried he might not make it, but somehow James had pulled through, waking up 6 days later while complaining about the bricks for pillows they had in the hospital wing that smelled like Sirius’ feet.

He blushed and got up, picking up a towel and running it through his hair. Merlin, he was trying to give her a cardiac arrest again, she was absolutely positive about it. But looking at him at that moment, she thought about warm summer mornings and that she wouldn't mind waking up to him coming fresh out of a shower like this. She blushed at the thought and felt her cheeks growing warmer, as her mind took an unexpected sexual turn.

His bandage had come undone, and he was fiddling with it again. Lily walked towards him, trying to look unperturbed by his shiftlessness. It was really unbecoming of a witch, and she was trying with all her might to ignore it now, while she said, “Here, let me.”

Without waiting for his reply, she took his bandaged hand and started to wrap it properly. She was so close to him that she could feel the heat radiating off of him and smell his shampoo. It smelled of eucalyptus. And mint. It made her swoon. Lily could feel his eyes on her. He was not exactly the king of subtlety, but if he still fancied her, he had kept it to himself lately. Though her hands were trembling with nervous energy, she managed to tie the bandage up securely within minutes.

“There you go,” she said, withdrawing her hands from his, her fingers still tingling from where it had made contact with his skin.

“Uhh.. yeah..” He stammered, looking down at his hand. “Thanks.”

She hums a nod in return.

“Great job today though, captain!” She said, grinning, punching him playfully in the arm, trying to douse the electricity between them.

He returned her grin, blushing again, his bandaged hand automatically reaching out to mess his hair at the back of his head. She realized it’s a nervous gesture, but it came off as so innocent and pure, like a little boy blushing at the thought of his first crush. “Thanks, Lil."

“Now, let’s go back to the castle. You deserve a victory party. Strategize tomorrow.” She said, turning around and walking towards the doorway. She turned back to glance at him, waiting for him to follow.

“Uhh yeah.” He said, picking up his Gryffindor jersey and a jacket, putting it on quickly, and following behind her.

She walked quickly out of the changing rooms and stopped short as she realized it was pouring outside. She really should have brought an umbrella; England’s weather was so unpredictable.

James was unperturbed though, he walked out into the rain, conjuring an umbrella wide enough for two people from his wand, and held out his arm to her.

“C’mon, it’s just rain.” He said, grinning from ear to ear. She grinned back and entangled her arm through his. They walked through the rain together, shoulders rubbing, talking, and giggling.

...

iii.

It was Christmas Eve and she couldn’t sleep. Lily lay awake in her bed staring at the window, tracing the path of the moon in the sky. Across the dormitory, her friends Marlene, Dorcas, Mary, and Jane slept peacefully in their beds, a Christmas stocking hanging from each of their beds. Dorcas was even snoring lightly. Lily scowled at her predicament, feeling jealous of their peace. Then felt terrible about feeling jealous because what kind of a friend was she, really.

This year she wanted to celebrate Christmas, her last Christmas here at Hogwarts with her friends. They’d had a great time; midnight kitchen runs to get hot chocolates now that James and Sirius had shown them the secret entrance to the kitchens, late-night gossip sessions, Witch Weekly’s quizzes that left them in splits, and a few study sessions here and there too but mostly just making the most of the little time they had left at Hogwarts.

She looked at her bedside clock again. It had barely been 20 minutes since she last saw it but it felt like hours. She looked at the new copy of Little Women sitting on her bedside table and got up from her bed. Moving silently, she shrugged on the thickest shrug she could find, put on cozy mismatched socks, and trudged downstairs to the common room, the book hugging to her chest. She scanned the common room, grateful that it was empty but then she spotted someone sitting in the armchair beside the fire, only a mop of messy black hair visible.

“James?” She asked. She could recognize that messy head anywhere. He startled like a deer caught in headlights and looked up at her. She could see the thoughts he was drowning in a second ago ebbing out of his eyes as he came back to the present. “Hey Lil, what are you doing up so late?"

“Couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’ll read,” Lily replied, turning the book around in her hand so he could read the title, plopped down on the couch beside the armchair, and tucked her feet up to get cozy.

“Little Women?” He said, cocking his head to the right to read the title on her book clearly.

“Yes, it’s a family tradition. We read it every Christmas.” Lily exclaimed as a matter-of-fact.

Her mother used to read to them from her own copy of Little Women every Christmas. This tradition had continued, without fail, every year. The last 6 years when she went back home for Christmas, her mum, Petunia, and Lily curled up near the fireplace as she read the story to them. Her mom's voice was made for narration. It was one of Lily’s fondest memories of home, she could just picture the 4 girls running about the house. It was also one of the only few times where Petunia and her would get along anymore, they both knew this time was sacred.

“What’s it about?” He asked, walking up to the couch and sitting next to Lily.

“You don’t know Little Women? It’s a classic! Every kid knows about it.” Lily said jumping, mortified that someone didn’t know about the story. Then she realized wizards are not really exposed to Muggle literature. They were really missing out.

“I kind of grew up on Tales of Beedle the Bard, Quidditch Through The Ages kind of thing.”

“Oh yeah, sorry. I forget sometimes.”

“No worries, what’s it about?” He asked again, plucking the book from Lily’s hand, turning it over, and reading the synopsis on the back.

“It’s a story about 4 sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy and how they grow up after the Civil War in America. It’s about societal expectations, living in poverty, breaking the patriarchy, and all. It’s a classic, in Muggle literature. My mom used to read it to Tuney and me every Christmas by the fire. It’s one of my favorite memories.” She babbled, smiling fondly at the memory.

“Hmm, I’ve never read any Muggle book before. How DO they grow up?” He asks, one eyebrow raised, handing the book back to her.

“Oh no. I don’t give away spoilers. You gotta read it to find out,” Lily said, smirking at him.

“I’m assuming you’ve read this about a thousand times?” James asked, teasing.

“I’ve heard it read a lot of times. Since we were little. I’ve never actually read it myself.”

“Does that count as reading, though? Listening to a book?”

“Of course it does!” Lily exclaimed, offended by the idea.

“I’m only teasing!” James said, surprised by her sudden outburst. “How about I read it to you?” James asked, suddenly.

Lily stopped short. “And why in Merlin would you do that?”

“Dunno. Nowhere else to be, nothing else to do, I suppose.”

Lily chuckled and shook her head, dismissing the idea, knowing he was just teasing her again. She was about to completely ignore his presence now and start reading the book when it suddenly disappeared from her hand.

“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.” James enunciated. “I absolutely agree with you, Jo,” James added, before resuming. “It’s so dreadful to be poor!” sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress."

“James..” Lily whispered, putting a hand on his arm to stop him, suddenly unsure of what she was going to say. She just couldn’t fathom that he would that for her. He stopped reading and looked at her.

“You said it’s tradition, right? Can’t have you breaking it.”

“Wouldn’t have pegged you one for traditions.” She said, incredulous, with a small playful smile.

“I’m nothing, if not traditional Evans.” He said shyly and flicked her nose playfully. He cleared his throat and made a big show of returning to his place in the book. “Ah, where were we now?”

“I don’t think it’s fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and the other girls nothing at all,” added little Amy, with an injured sniff. We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other,” said Beth contentedly from her corner."

She looked at him at that moment, and she swears her heart actually swelled. Throwing all caution and boundaries to the wind, and ignoring that growing endearment that she felt for James at that moment, she picked up his arm, putting it around her, and snuggled in so close to his side so there was absolutely no space left. She put her head on his shoulder and tucking her head all the way into the crook of his neck.

James, without breaking his narration, immediately rested his cheek on her head, with his arm resting by her waist the book in between them now, as if it was the most natural thing in the world for him to do. Like it was rehearsed and perfected between them over years.

He read till his throat was sore. Lily doesn’t remember when she fell asleep. It was probably somewhere around when Laurie and Jo went ice-skating, or when they were both somehow more tangled with each other than before. If she was being honest, she had trouble concentrating on what James was saying. His scent was enveloping her, she could feel his heartbeat through the layers of his sweaters. She tried to match her heartbeat to his, to calm herself down, closing her eyes and letting the warmth of James wash all over her.

She wondered when she had started noticing James; when his silhouette became a little more pronounced in her vision and when he started taking up more space in her mind. It was like little bits of knowledge she had added to her mental James bucket. She knew now that he preferred tea over coffee. Apparently, he did not need the caffeine to provide him with energy as he had enough on his own. She also knew he almost never stood still, his legs would be jiggling, or he’d be running his hand through his hair or fiddling with something in his hand. She knew he got little crinkles by his eyes when he smiled and he was absolutely blind without his glasses and he loved to fly on his broom in the rain.

But in her half-asleep haze, she most certainly does remember a sudden silence in the room, an envelope of quiet, then a kiss so gentle on top of her head as if she was made out of glass so delicate that would crack at the smallest touch. In truth, Lily realized suddenly, that she didn’t mind being lovesick. Especially if it was for James Potter.

She remembers hearing James’ voice one last time before sleep beckoned her.

“Merry Christmas, Lily."

...

iv.

She isn’t sure what made her walk all the way to the astronomy tower that particular night. She argued that it was such a beautiful night and she wanted to watch the stars and get some time alone with her thoughts, but it definitely wasn’t because she might find James alone there.

Though when Kyle Sullivan turned up for their nightly rounds instead of James, she was visibly deflated. She had come to relish these walks with him where he would recount stories of his childhood, his mum and dad, and 3 loonies that had become his family (his words, not Lily’s). So when the 6th year Hufflepuff showed up out of his breath, she was confused. James had apparently needed a night off and would owe Kyle one for this, so the Hufflepuff gladly replaced him. Having the Head Boy owe you one was certainly a great incentive.

She refused to believe that she had resorted to sneakily vying information out of Sirius later in the common room, pretending to be angry, when she actually was bummed. Absolutely not. If he was off trying to pull a prank, Lily as a Head Girl was obligated to put a stop to it and give him a week’s worth of detention and eat his ear off about his head duties.

“James likes to sulk at a certain height.” Sirius had chuckled, not taking his eyes off off the game of wizard chess he was playing with Peter. Lily had just hummed nonchalantly and marched back to her dormitory. After the common room had emptied not half an hour later, she had grabbed a shawl and ventured out. She convinced herself that she was on her way to give Potter an earful for staying out of the tower after hours and that he should not abuse his Head Boy position, but all that somehow vanished when she reached the top of the astronomy tower.

He sat with his back towards her, leaning back on his hands behind him and legs dangling off. He didn’t even turn to look who it was. She was not exactly quiet while coming up.

“James?” Lily said quietly, not wanting to break the silence of the night with her voice.

James glanced at his right for a beat, acknowledging her presence, but said nothing. She stood there, a little discouraged by his apathetic reaction and hesitated. There was once a time when he would automatically perk up when she entered the room, his eyes stealing glances at her throughout the day as if he tried to make sure she was real, sometimes. She used to hate that, despised that attention, but now, she found herself missing it. She sure was vain, she thought to herself. It shouldn’t bother her this much.

When he didn’t say anything for a long while, she turned to leave, thinking he truly wanted to be alone when he spoke.

“Can you believe it that tomorrow’s the last match I’ll ever play on these grounds?” He said quietly, head nodding towards the quidditch grounds barely visible in the distance.

She didn’t know what to say, so she stayed silent. Instead, she walked over to him and sat down beside him, legs dangling off the edge just like him. She didn't look at him, just kept her eyes trained on the distant grounds.

“I used to dream about playing for my house team. Just like Mum. She was a beater for the Gryffindor team back in her day.” He continued and Lily finally looked at him. He looked like he was deep in thought, but Lily could spy a hint of sadness in his eyes.

“Feels like I blinked and the 7 years at Hogwarts have come to an end. We’ll leave this place soon, and..” He looked down at his hands, the thumb of his left hand now rubbing the palm of his right hand. There was a ring there, with a faint P scribbled in an elegant scroll. “…and childhood’s over. We’ll have to be adults now. I’ve always thought I’ll be happy to leave Hogwarts, to make something of myself and make a difference with the war that’s going on, but right now…” He sighed, and finally looked at her. “I just want to be a child again.” It came out as a whisper. Lily thought she saw the barest hint of tears in his eyes but he looked down again.

Lily had rarely seen James this way. She’d seen him smiling coyly, grinning proudly as they set off another dung bomb, amused at Sirius, laughing so hard that he fell from the sofa but she’d never seen James Potter sad. Not once in the last 6 years and she’d lived in close proximity with the boy. And right now, she had absolutely no idea what to say to make him feel better. She tried to ignore the ache she felt in her heart seeing him this way, but it was demanding to be felt.

Suddenly, something took over her. Maybe she related to how he felt and dreamed about summer beach vacations in France as a child with her family again, or maybe it was an eagerness to see him smile again, that she slid her hand into his and entwined their fingers. Her thumb ran slowly on the back of his hand, and he looked at her, and she smiled and said “Me too.” When he smiled back, she could hear the beating of her own heart like someone was banging a drum in the background, the vibrations traveling to her very bones as the truth slowly and steadily seeped inside of her, taking over the veins and settled in every nook and cranny of her body.

It was like suddenly, something in the world shifted. Like something old and rusted yet familiar finally sliding into place. And suddenly, she wasn’t sure why she waited so long. She had spent almost a year battling her own feelings, burying them so deep and hoping it would get crushed under the weight of the other things in her life. When she saw glimpses of that love, of the potential of loving someone so deeply, it scared her. Because to love someone that deeply also means to be that vulnerable. She’d lost enough in her life and she didn’t think that she could survive losing James too.

But at this moment, when she was looking at him in the eyes, all she wanted to do was love him. So that’s what she did.

Lily closed the distance between them, stopping only when their lips were a hair’s breadth away from each other. She could smell mint on him, hear his sudden ragged breathing. They stayed like that for a moment, breaths mingling and noses touching and she waited as if asking for his permission. James put one hand on her cheek and pulled her towards himself, their mouths finally colliding.

And it was glorious. Kissing James Potter felt glorious. It felt so natural to be doing so that she wondered why didn’t she do it before. She could have saved herself a lot of sleepless nights and mental arguing that nearly drove her crazy.

When they finally broke apart, James chuckled, blushing, and said, “I was waiting for you to do that..”

#james and lily #James Potter #Lily Evans #james and lily fanfiction #jily #jily fanfics #jily fanfic #jily fanfiction #jily fic #writingontheclouds #james potter and lily evans

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obey-me-fics-n-shit · 4 years ago

Note

How do they brothers sleep with their s/o? (Like do they cuddle, do they not?, do they have a night schedule etc)

Ooh, fun! Thanks for asking!

How the Obey Me! Boys sleep with their MC

Lucifer

He’s so into cuddling and loves spending that time with you, he will never admit it to his brothers though. Lucifer surprisingly doesn’t have a super consistent sleep schedule. He’s made a habit of getting to bed in the late am because he’s been working on something for Diavolo, or finalizing plans and papers of some sort. Honestly before Lucifer met you he’d be lucky to catch more than three or four hours of sleep, between getting up earliest of all the brothers to be at RAD early to get things done and going to bed late (on average between 3-4 am). That however doesn’t fly anymore. Pretty early on in your relationship you made Lucifer promise to be in bed before 3 AM, he makes sure to stick to his promise and most nights nowadays by 2:30. You sleep in his bed most nights as in incentive for him to get to bed earlier (and it works, because the thought of you in hid bed alone is a big motivator for him to work just that much faster) Lucifer is big on cuddling, he’s pretty strict about being big spoon only. He can control so little that actually happens sometimes so feeling as if he’s protecting you is one of his favorite things.

Mammon

Mammon is a closet cuddler, he doesn’t bring it up, and he won’t ever ask you to cuddle, but he wants cuddles constantly. Because he refuses to ask, you have to be paying attention to know when he wants cuddles. Not that he’s at all subtle. If the two of you are laying down for the night and he wants cuddles he’ll kind of bury his face into your back or arm (wherever is more accessible at the moment) and that’s pretty much Mammon code for “please cuddle me, I’m not gonna say it out loud but I want cuddles” Mammon is pretty much always in bed by 10:30-11:30-ish. Also Mammon can and will take the blankets from you in the night, be prepared to practically wrestle to get them back. In the morning he’s more open about what he wants and will just lay with you for an extra few moments before he absolutely has to be out of bed so Lucifer won’t yell at him. Even though he’s not very good about asking outright he doesn’t particularly care if he’s big or little spoon, it can change depending on his mood. He just loves to be with you no matter the situation.

Asmodeus

It pretty much does without saying that Asmo is super fond of cuddling! Big spoon, little spoon, whatever’s in between. Asmo goes to bed no later than 10:30 (unless of course y’all are up doing *ahem* other things) but Asmo sticks to an otherwise strict sleeping schedule. His reasoning is because ‘a consistent sleeping schedule has numerous health benefits and is good for his skin.’ He’s right of course, since you’ve started sleeping in Asmo’s room your skin has been clearer and you’ve been waking up more rested than ever. Asmo’s nightly routine is so important to him its basically a ritual. Face masks, incense, and a ridiculous amount of body oils and lotions. Also be aware that he takes cuddles with you very seriously and he considers it the most important part of his nightly routine. Asmo is down to cuddle whenever, wherever and doesn’t care who’s around.

Satan

Satan doesn’t really have a specific bedtime routine, he really just does whatever strikes his fancy (mostly reading) then goes to sleep whenever he get tired or finds a good stopping point in his book. Satan really likes to cuddle you when he’s reading, there’s nothing better in his opinion, you and a book and cuddles? Yes please. His favorite places to cuddle are his room and the library, he doesn’t have any big issues with his brothers seeing the two of you cuddle, but he also isn’t in the business of going out of his way to cuddle you in public spaces. That being said, the second Lucifer walks in the room if he’s cuddling you he’ll get extra lovey-dovey just to irritate him, because he knows Lucifer isn’t a fan of PDA from anyone. If you’re interested in the book he’s reading he will read it out loud to you, if he notices you’ve fallen asleep he will put a bookmark in and get a different book so that he can continue the first one with you on a later date.

Leviathan

Levi isn’t big into cuddling early in the realationship and you’ll have to be the one to initiate cuddles. They will eventually grow on him and he’ll ask you to sit with him while he’s playing games so he can still have you there with him. He’s not really a cuddler when he’s going to bed but he will throw an arm over you or try and hold your hand so you know that he’s there. Levi doesn’t have a great sleeping schedule but if you’re sleeping in his room he will move from his computer or console to a handheld device so he can lay in bed with you but still play his games or tend to whatever online event has captured his attention this week. He’s tried cuddling you while you were both asleep before but it didn’t go well because his arm fell asleep and Levi’s also a mover in his sleep so he accidentally pulled your hair,,,,, long story short it was kinda a mess so you and Levi keep cuddling restricted to the waking hours.

Beelzebub

Beel is the biggest teddy hear of a man you’ll ever see, he’s is so warm all the time, dude is practically a radiator. He’s so big that when you two cuddle his body preactically swallows yours, and he has a lot of cuddle practice because of Belphie so he associates cuddles with all of his favorite people now. So not only is Beel really good at cuddles he’s also down to cuddle anytime. Beel is the definition of ‘pure of heart, thicc of ass.’ Because of his never ending need for sustenance Beel has a hard time going to bed and staying there, he will get up in the night to go looking for food. But best assured that once he’s back in bed he will wrap you up in his arms again and resume cuddles as best he can without waking you up. Beel may not have a consistent bedtime routine but since you’re sleeping in his bed with him you sure do. It’s pretty much up to you to brush whatever crumbs are on the bed off of the bed, because Beel doesn’t see the point in doing it because he knows there will be more later. If you explain the the crumbs bug you he’ll try to remember to take care of them himself more often. Overall a very cuddly boi, he’s almost always big spoon by design but he loves to be cuddled as well, doesn’t really care as much as long as the two of you are spending quality time together. He like cuddling you in his room because he likes it just the two of you, so its special thing for the two of you.

Belphegor

Belphie lives for nap time cuddles, because he can and will sleep anywhere, he can and will cuddle you anywhere. Belphie justifies almost everything he does by saying ‘it makes for a better nap’ and cuddling you is pretty much at the top of that list. Because he sleeps all throughout the day his bedtime routine doesn’t exist, he doesn’t need one because he falls asleep so fast after laying down. He’s a lot like Beel in that he likes to be cuddled, I mean look at the man, everything about him screams “Hug me! Hug me! Hug me!” Little spoons of the world do not fret, Belphie likes to be big spoon sometimes too. He hugs pillows when he sleeps alone so being able to hug you isn’t too far off from what he’s used to. Belphie, much like Asmo and Satan isn’t miffed of anyone sees the two of you cuddling. You will have to be careful on nights when Belphie is big spoon though because he becomes nothing but dead weight, so if you want to get up or shift a little bit it’ll be a big challenge.

#obey me!#obey me beelzebub #obey me headcanons #obey me imagines #obey me lucifer #obey me shall we date #obey me mammon #obey me asmodeus #obey me satan #obey me levi #obey me belphie #askbox #thanks for the ask!#ask #headcannons #@elisucksatlife

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back-and-totheleft · 3 years ago

Text

"Hollywood rabble rouser"

Late one night in the summer of 2008, I found what turned out to be a stockbroker’s iPhone in the back of a NYC taxi. Turning it on in order to contact the owner, I noticed that amongst the stock watch apps and currency converters was an icon of Gordon Gekko, the corrupt market raider immortalized by Michael Douglas in Wall Street, Oliver Stone’s 1987 tale of insider trading and corporate excess. Intrigued, I hit Gekko’s pixilated face (it felt good) and a website flashed up with an entire transcription of his infamous “Greed is good” speech — one of Hollywood’s most iconic parables to the pursuit of unrestrained greed. Whoever owned the phone found those words as important as checking Facebook or texting his girlfriend. Gekko was his hero, his daily inspiration.

Watching back Wall Street a few weeks later as news of the Lehman Brothers collapse and global recession spread, it struck me that a whole generation of financiers must have grown up, like Charlie Sheen’s character Bud Fox, yearning to be Gekko. He was the business equivalent of a rapper wanting to become Tony Montana, another Stone creation. And some of these brokers, as we’ve all since discovered, were willing to trade money that didn’t exist in pursuit of pin stripe suits, corner offices, penthouses, boats, women, and stacks of cash. Perhaps the perks made the 22-year prison stretch Gekko received at the end of the film seem like a viable risk. Or they deliberately chose to ignore his downfall.

Inspired by financial fiends like Bernie Madoff, Stone decided to spring Gekko out of prison for Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. Set in 2008, he is a reformed character that tries, and fails, to warn business leaders of the impending credit crunch. Many fans are understandably nervous about Douglas reprising his Oscar winning role, especially since his hair gel and brick phone have long been put into storage. Stone, who only agreed to direct the film because he felt that current financial climate lent itself to a sequel, understandably feels that it’s time for bankers to grow up. As the director of Natural Born Killers, JFK and Platoon he’s used to Marmite reactions. But, after giving Dubya an easy ride in W, will Gordon 2.0 be one step too far? Is the world ready for goody Gekko two shoes? Or will traders across Wall Street be deleting their “Greed is good” iPhone bookmarks forever? As they say on the stock market floor, let the bull charge.

Tim Noakes: When you were 18 your father got you to work on a financial exchange in France. Was that your inspiration for Wall Street?

Oliver Stone: No, it was a great summer job actually, because it was very exotic. My father was always into the stock market, into numbers. He loved that world in New York and I grew up on the fringes of it but I wasn’t particularly attuned to it. So it was a chance to see it first hand but I didn’t do very well as a trader. In those days you’d run from the phone booth in the back to the floor. It was cocoa and sugar. It was violent and busy. They used to elbow each other to get into the inner circle, like matadors. It was a real crush. I elbowed my way through it and got up to be assistant buyer, which was very complicated because you had to make the orders for everything right. You couldn’t screw up. A lot of money’s involved. So then I thought I should be one of the cocoa buyers. I was a little too ambitious for my own good.

Your father died before you made Wall Street. What do you think he would have made of it?

I think he would have appreciated that I had done a business movie. We always talked about it. He loved movies and he took me to them. We discussed them afterwards, which was an invaluable experience, and he would say that there weren’t many business movies. And there weren’t. There was not a specific genre. Hollywood was not into the business movie concept. It’s hard. I can understand why. It’s all financial talk, it’s not interesting to most people and it lacks those human emotions. Money is an interesting subject, however, for America. That’s why I addressed it in 1987. I thought, ‘Americans love money’, and what lengths they will go to get it is what that movie is about. Especially coming off Platoon, which is a different kind of movie. I was trying to prove that I could do something domestic with ‘Wall Street’.

The original was very much of its era.

It was the era of “Greed is good” and Reagan. With Wall Street 2, I’m obviously more mature, I’ve done more films, I have more confidence, I hope. I’m trying something a little bit deeper in the relationship field. There’s no Darryl Hannah in the movie. There’s a real English girl this time (Carey Mulligan). She anchors strongly the emotions of the film, because she is damaged. She’s the daughter of Gordon Gekko, if you can imagine what that can be like.

Michael Douglas once said that your style of directing is like taking people into the trenches. What did he mean by that?

He makes it sound like I dress him up in uniform and have a military hierarchy. Every single actor that I’ve worked with, and there’s obviously dozens now, you’d have to talk to every single one of them to get their perception. I would say some would disagree. Maybe Michael, because he hasn’t been in the military, would regard it as a military experience. I didn’t think of it that way. I think of a movie as an organisation that has to work at a very fluid pace involving a large amount of people who have to move quickly over a landscape. Call that what you will. It could be an adventure party or a military organisation. It’s really a satellite business. You form, you group, you rehearse, you shoot, you separate. It’s very nomadic. In that chemistry you bring together so many conflicting types of people who have different kinds of egos. It’s quite a mix. At the end of the day, if you look back at the — what is it? 19, 20 films — that I’ve directed, it’s just a mix of styles. Sometimes it really works with people. It clicks. I think Michael did great work on both films, so I’m very pleased with his result. My style might not have been good for him, but it works for other people. Some people, like Shia LaBeouf and Josh Brolin, were digging it. They loved the way I worked because it was intense and to the point and relatively fast.

Do you see yourself as a hard taskmaster or a disciplinarian?

No, I’m not a disciplinarian. I’m disciplined with myself and I think I try to lead by example not by imposition of my will. I try to lead by example. That’s just to say that people know that I’m trying to get this thing done. My approach is that we’re all in this together. The idea is king. We all serve that king. It is not a democracy, it is a constitutional monarchy, so to speak, with strong legislative power in the House of Lords. No, but the idea is king. I repeat that. Not the director. The idea. I serve the idea.

How do you balance the logistics with trying to create a piece of art?

Oh boy, if I didn’t tell you I wasn’t humbled so many times, you would not believe it. It’s a very humbling experience to make a movie, because you’re at the mercy of the elements. Of the winds and the weather as well as conditions that can go wrong — disease, sickness, bad tempers. All sorts of stuff can happen. Given that nature, to pull off a movie is extremely difficult. The editing room is another humiliation. All your mistakes are thrown back in your face. No matter how many good choices you make, and making a movie involves thousands of choices, you’re constantly having to question yourself again. I find it a very difficult position. I don’t think I enjoy it. I think I’m more experienced at it but I don’t think I completely enjoy it. I think sometimes it’s so painful you want to scream bloody murder and run somewhere.

What’s the cut-off point? How do you stop?

How do you stop? A famous director once said that every film is abandoned, never finished.

So you just let it go?

Some people won’t but I do let it go. I’m not looking for perfection. I don’t believe in it. I believe that a film is many things to many people and it changes over time. I think you have to feel good about it and about what you did. It hangs together and it’s going to be a story that can move an audience. It’s so difficult to pull off quickly. It takes time.

The world’s moved on since Wall Street. Were you apprehensive about creating a sequel to such a well-loved film?

Apprehensions? No. I’d have had more apprehensions if I’d had to do it in 1990, I think. Twenty-three years is a long time to call it a sequel. I think of it more as a bookend.

Don’t you think that’s laying you open for even more criticism? Look at what George Lucas did with Star Wars..

We’re not going back into that period. The beauty of this thing is that there’s a new period upon us, which is quite different, technically. It’s a different kind of Wall Street. The landscape has changed. It’s no longer 1987. It’s really a computer game now. The money has accelerated at a square root that is beyond belief from millions to billions. Hedge funds invest 30–40 billion dollars. Even to have one billion dollars is an enormous amount of money. When you hear these guys say, “Oh, it’s just a billion dollar hedge fund” it’s unbelievable arrogance. The heights are dizzying, and the losses are dizzying. It’s just unbelievable what happened. By all accounts it was a near-fatal heart-attack.

Were you planning on revisiting Wall Street is the crisis hadn’t happened?

No, that was the catalyst for it. It wasn’t the only reason. It was a wonderful idea for a script, that Gekko would be a different type of person. That he would start from the outside. He didn’t have power or connections anymore. Time had passed. He was dated.

Is Michael Douglas in danger of becoming a pastiche of what made Gordon Gekko good?

I feared that. That’s why we approached it in a wholly different way. Michael is playing it twenty-two years older, he’s coming out of prison. Michael has changed in that interim. He was a charming rogue, certainly, in the Eighties. You saw a lot of that in his subsequent performances. You saw a lot of Gekko in later films, so I think it was smart to move away from that pastiche, as you call it, because it would have been boring after a while. There are flashes of the old Gekko, which I love, but it’s not like the charming reptile, so to speak. It’s a different man now. I’m not saying that he’s a wholly reformed figure looking for a martyrhood, but what’s interesting about him is what he’s going to do, and how he’s going to play the game to get back. He has suffered extensively in prison, his family has fallen apart, his oldest son has committed suicide. It’s very tough on him.

How did you persuade Michael to get back on board?

Frankly, I didn’t convince anybody. I passed on the script in 2006. It wasn’t important for me to make it. I felt, what was the need to make this movie if it was going to glorify the pigs on Wall Street? They were really making money and it was ugly. There was a spate of books too like The Wolf of Wall Street, which was a big hit and they are going to make a movie out of that. There was kind of a surfeit and there was sickliness to it all. I got turned off by it. I passed, and I moved on with my life, and I did W and World Trade Centre and stuff like that. Then there was this crash and the crash changed the equation I think, I hope.

Do you think the original message of Wall Street failed because young traders ended up idolising Gordon Gekko?

That’s a very good question. Frankly, I wondered at times. The original Wall Street came about because of my experiences on Scarface. I was living in New York and I was hanging out with the dealers and the mob. That whole scene in Miami was a very shocking thing in 1982–3. Wall Street, was like Scarface north. I was suddenly seeing people my age, in their twenties, making millions of dollars, so easily, so quickly. Moving inordinate amounts of money. Also, snorting and drinking. The partying scene had really kicked in big time in the 80s. It was all new to me, so that’s how that was born. Then it went to excess. But I was very clear that Gekko was the antagonist in the movie, but as you say a lot of young people caught on to him. I do think, and perhaps I’m retrograde, that although he was not feted at the time the anchor of the movie is Charlie Sheen.

But no-one wanted to be Bud Fox.

Well that’s the movies. They want to be heroes. They want to make money. I did meet a lot of people in their 40s that said, “When I saw your movie I was studying this-or-that at this-or-that school, I was going to do history or medicine or law but then I saw the movie and I moved to Wall Street for that reason.” The the kicker was that some of them were multi-millionaires, one of them was a billionaire, and they had moved to Wall Street because of the movie. I said, “Oh boy, I wish I had a royalty on that.” These guys are really rich.

I find that quite worrying.

I gave birth to some rich people. But some of them did good. Some of them created something. That was the whole point of the original. Not to shit on Wall Street but to basically say, ‘Look, this is an engine of capitalism’. This can work. My father always felt that Wall Street was a good thing. It creates companies, it finances new companies, creates research and development, and it does. It still does, by the way, it’s not forgotten but it’s been buried in the greater picture of making bigger profits and more greed, but it’s still there. Wall Street is a good thing. It was a good thing and it can be a good thing.

Throughout your career critics have said you shouldn’t glamourise the people you put on the big screen. Do you like to provoke that reaction?

No, I like to make bigger-than-life characters but ‘World Trade Centre’ is about two very ordinary men who were real heroes. On Bush I guess you could say I supped with the devil and brought out all the reasons I thought why people voted for the guy. There is this fundamental thing which Americans like in him, and I was trying to root that out and how he became President.

You were criticised for making Bush too likeable.

You can fault that, but he was re-elected. I didn’t like him. I was very clear — I empathised. Empathy means I walked in his shoes, or tried to. As opposed to sympathised. I don’t agree with anything he said. Anything. I think he was a disaster. It was a nightmare eight years.

Do you think you were too soft?

No. I wish I’d done it a year earlier and it would have been more timely. He was out of favour when it came out, because of the economy, but frankly the movie was about the national security state which concerned me more.

Why are you drawn to these anti-heroes?

They don’t do me any good. Nixon, too.

I see a lot of similarities between Tony Montana and Gordon Gekko. In Scarface, Tony says “You need people like me to point the finger at and say, ‘That’s the bad guy’”. Do you think film critics see you in that light?

I think you’re right. I think film critics have me as a punch ball. It’s an easy target, I guess. I’ve been misidentified with the characters, but I think over time you see that there’s a whole assortment of different characters. But I agree, I think that’s true and I think that’s hurt me. It’s hurt my career as well as some of the political statements I’ve made and positions I’ve taken in documentaries I’ve made. They’ve hurt me too and they’ve given me a profile that’s not necessarily me, it’s just a profile. Absolutely.

There’s been huge furor recently that you’re reported to be attempting to humanise Hitler, Stalin and Mao Zedong.

I think it’s out of context. I did use the word ‘scapegoat’ and I think that was an unfortunate word, but frankly it’s a very interesting history that we’re putting together. We’re using the facts that we have, that are known but have been forgotten. There’s no question that Hitler had a big hand up the ladder. He didn’t come out of nowhere. He is a Frankenstein, he is a monster and I have no sympathy for him, but he was created by a Dr Frankenstein. That Dr Frankenstein is a very interesting mixture and you have to study cause and effect to understand history, otherwise you don’t learn anything from it. It’s my fault because I’m interested in the world, and I’m willing to go out there. I’m not trying to provoke, I’m trying to look for the truth. I’m trying to shine a light. For Christ’s sake, I feel like we’ve become so politically correct that you can’t do shit anymore. You’re not supposed to turn around.

Do you feel like you sometimes exploit sensitive subjects too much? More than some people can take?

Well, that’s why I like the English. They’re much more out there and they’re willing to explore subjects that the Americans are not. Having been to war, having seen the devastation America visited onto Vietnam, I cannot just be another typical American and live in isolation. My taxes are going as we speak to blowing up people in Afghanistan. I don’t feel good about that.

Back to Wall Street. Gekko says “Every dream has its price”, what’s the biggest price you’ve paid to get to where you are?

I’d have to talk to my psychotherapist, who I haven’t seen in ages. I suppose the price is that you do have long absences from home and normal quotidian values, at times. Your children grow up and you have to readapt to the fact that you haven’t been the attentive father. That’s a big issue, but I have been as attentive as I can be in taking care of them. Still, there’s gaps there. Divorces have happened. Those things.

I see Wall Street as epitomising the ruthlessness of the Eighties. During that era did you find yourself being a slave to the success that you had earned?

Yeah, I suppose everybody can become a mental slave to the need to produce. Remember, I was on a roll in the sense that I had to get financing for very complicated movies. I felt like I had a mission. To get JFK made in that era was very tough, still. You need heat. To make that movie after The Doors you need to keep rolling. In a sense I worked very fast, and hard, but I knew that I could get things done. Nixon was sort of the end of the line. I was making movies all those years. Platoon was impossible to get made. So was Salvador. Every single fucking one. ‘The Doors’. They were always problems. There were always tremendous issues. You asked what the price is? The price was to keep going fast, before they change their mind. The idea was ‘Wrap it up, get another one done’. These are tough subject matters. With ‘Nixon’ I’d done eleven or ten, I was exhausted. Frankly, I needed to take a break.

What kept you moving on? Obviously the pressures that you’re talking about manifested in different ways. You had your drug problems earlier on, but how did it manifest when the financing started to crumble down? Did you resort to those kind of vices?

I think there’s other factors. There was a lot of living. A lot of pain. Children. Divorces. This and that. But I think I have been very successful. I got movies made that wouldn’t have been done in the normal radar. They were not on the scope.

In Wall Street 2 Shia LeBeouf says, “No matter how much money you make, you’ll never be rich”. With all your success, do you empathise with that sentiment?

Of course I do. I don’t think money is the solution to happiness. Life is complicated, but certainly money can have the opposite effect. It can make you unsatisfied with life, and make life harder for you. There are two effects of it. One is that it leaves you unsatisfied, you always want more, as we see from these billionaires. Two, it leaves you falsely content and over-satisfied.

And you’re not either?

I don’t feel that way, no. I feel like I’m one trade away from disaster.

The new film is called Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. What gets you off to sleep?

What gets me off to sleep? Sonata. Medication. I’m just joking. The best solution for sleep is having lived a full day and tried hard to live life fully. That makes you feel the reward of sleep.

-Tim Noakes, "The Hollywood rabble rouser sets his sights on a new generation of Wall Street wolves," Medium, Mar 3 2010 [x]

#medium #tim noakes #w.#wall street #wall street: money never sleeps #oliver stone

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