#magic whump (pending)

[will-o-the-wips]

"It's just a monster."

Hi, yeah, this is. Sure something. And the only snippet I've finished. I'm so sorry. Read the content tags and be warned. (seriously guys, don’t read this shit if you don’t vibe- is my first real post pls dont be mean kthxbyeee)

CW: minor whump, dehumanization, impalement (nothing vital but yaknow. rail spikes. lovely.), reluctant whumper-accomplice

“Hold it down.” Two other knights grasped at flailing limbs while Leander pinned the legs with a hand on its hip and a shin pressed over its ankles. The creature thrashed and snapped like a wild animal, but its size meant it lacked strength, and it was too unfamiliar with its own body to make it do what it wanted. The men didn’t even have the weight of armor to aid them; it was that frail.

The creature was a small thing. In some ways it made things easier - it wasn't strong enough to squirm out of their hold. On the other hand, more than a few soldiers had been dismissed, too unsettled by its child-like appearance. 'Just a boy' hardly meant anything when they knew exactly what sort of monster it was. It was a destructive thing that needed tamed and contained. That was what the mage had claimed, at least.

It still hadn't made a sound since the transmutation. Leander wondered if the mage had intentionally made it mute or if it just didn't understand that it now had a voice with which to speak. The knight was sure it would have nothing pleasant to say once it grasped onto the concept of words. Would it be able to? The thought made him uneasy – that a creature like this would have the capability to truly understand language and use it. But it would have to for the king and his mage to make any desired use of it. He hadn’t heard why exactly they made the creature into the shape of a human. Just that it had been, and that the knights would be needed to subdue it.

“Your men aren't very competent, captain.” The mage's words stung, but Leander tried to take little of it to heart. A mage could snap its fingers and perform things beyond mortal comprehension. (So why were they needed here?) Shifting, he pinned it at the knees with his other hand, setting his center of gravity more solidly. His mouth thinned at how his hand easily covered one knee and most of the other. He let the pins and needles sensation in his foot distract him.

“I'll handle it.”

It really was unsettling. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Leander wouldn't have believed this thing wasn't human to begin with. It was uncanny how it looked so much like a young boy - one that didn't have the youthful plumpness of a healthy child but hadn't quite begun the transition to manhood either. Like Leander’s nephew – eleven? Thirteen at most. Its face was twisted in anger. Its wild curls resembled the fire it had been born from, shimmering in the meager light despite the filth that surrounded it. It was unnatural how it hadn’t yet tangled like human hair was meant to. Another sign of magic.

“For Bren's sake,” he heard the captain grumble. Metal slid from wood. Something clacked. The knight didn't look away to see what he was doing, too focused on keeping his hold as the thing that looked like a boy continued its futile struggle. The man appeared soon enough in the corner of Leander's peripheral, some tool in hand. “Hold it here.” Another knight reached to pin its shoulder and the joint of the elbow while the captain knelt, holding something over its wrist. Leander glanced over just as the hammer came down on the spike with a clang.

The creature found its voice then. A shriek tore from its throat, knives in the ears of the room. All of the knights flinched, unable to keep their hands on it when it sounded so *much* like a suffering child. Even Leander backed off, watching with a perturbed glance as his ears rang. Free of the knights that had held its limbs, the creature rolled onto its side, curling while its free hand pawed at the bleeding wound and the nail driven through to the ground. Its blood was oily, spreading like tar across the stone. If it had been red, Leander would have had to ask for his own dismissal. Even without, he was considering it anyway.

The wretched thing whimpered now that its voice was free, choking on breath and noise and saliva. One of the other knights fled the chamber, face pale. The fingers of the creature’s pinned wrist twitched. It didn’t cry, Leander noted. Its chest heaved with breath, and it whined, but he saw no tears. Another aspect of its monstrous nature, perhaps?

“The other one, too,” the mage ordered from his tomes, his tone aloof. It was easy for him to say. He didn’t have to handle the creature. That’s what the knights were for. But was it really necessary? There was a glance shared among them, but not one that lasted long enough to clue the mage in on their hesitation.

The creature fought to stay in its curled position when hands set upon it, but its attempts were more feeble than before, and it was easier to pin it on its back as the mage wanted. Leander ended up the unlucky man to hold its other arm down for the captain, who aligned the spike without a word or hesitant glance. The creature jerked against his hold, but the knight was prepared for it and held firm. Leander turned his head away from the process, but in doing so, he found the creature’s face. Its heels shuffled on the ground for leverage, its chest fluttering, its snarl just a pained show of teeth. He saw the moment its eyes caught and realized what was happening, the blaze of its irises seeming to crack like the facets of a gemstone. It jerked, making a sound that he would have called frightened if it was from an actual human. Leander shut his eyes. The hammer struck.

The creature arched, wailing in agony, and Leander’s only form of mercy was holding it firmly in place to keep it from causing further damage, swallowing heavy on his unease. Its new voice cracked, and under the reedy rasp it faded to, Leander murmured the quietest apology he could. There were things no creature should go through. Not even monsters.

Eventually, its voice was wrung out, and the scream faded to whimpering, and then to ragged breaths. When Leander opened his eyes, he did so to the stone floor. He fixed his gaze on the carved line in the stone rather than the body that trembled and twitched beneath him. He inhaled, then exhaled. Then slowly rose to his feet, averting his eyes from the creature’s glassy stare. The captain discarded the hammer on the mage’s table as pages turned and glass chimed.

“You may go,” the mage said with a slow wave of one ring-heavy hand. The last few knights that had remained hurried for the few steps to the stairs. Leander longed to follow, but something held him fixed to the spot. He wished he could say he didn’t know why. The captain caught his eye, even as the mage spoke with him in hushed tones, and tipped his head towards the door, reiterating the order. Leander made himself breathe and tried not to glance down as he turned to leave. He didn’t quite succeed, and tried to remind himself that it was just a beast. Just another of the mage’s experiments – not human. Not a boy. Not a child. It was a monster. Nothing more.

The trek upstairs to the barracks passed in a haze, and at some point, Leander found himself sat down on a stool to one side with a flask in hand. He didn’t care much for the taste of alcohol. Today was a day he desired the effects more than he hated the taste. He hoped its sour burn would give him back some of his sanity. He tried to convince himself that the faint echo of screaming was just the freshness of the memory and sat in the silence among his fellow knights.

A little while later, the door at the foot of the stairs opened and clattered shut. All eyes turned, the few murmurs that had tentatively started falling silent. The captain emerged moments after with heavy steps, his face grim. He came to a halt at the top of the steps, scanning the faces of the men that followed him. Leander knew what he saw in most of them, what Leander himself was feeling just as much. He also knew the extent of the captain’s loyalty to the king and his mage.

“Captain.” Someone broke the silence on the other side of the room, imploring. Many, if not all of them, were thinking -silently praying for- the same thing. The captain’s mouth thinned. They already knew what his answer was, even if he didn’t say it in so many words.

“It’s not a boy,” the captain said firmly. “It’s just a monster.”

No one believed him.

[favorite-worst-nightmare]

Pending requests:

Oc+canon father & daughter dynamic (not a ship)

Naldell lab work

DNI under the cut

Extremely specific;

People who make their whole account about their paraphilia(s).

People who make their whole account about politics.

People who make their whole account about their disorder symptoms.

Far rights, far lefts, people who identify as “politically neutral.”

Anyone who draws huge ass bulges on every single character.

Anyone who draws huge ass boobs on every single character.

People who are into whump, darkship, and/or hypnosis publicly.

People who are heavy into arachnids, dolphins and trolls publicly.

Trolls.

Stinky magic the gathering players. You know who you are.

Hackers who are public about it. Bad sportsmanship.

People who post about their drug use at least 5 times a week.

People who post about their relapse untagged.

People who aren’t comfortable with shitty doodles of death.

Vent accounts.

Fictosexuals. Like wtf I thought we agreed that was weird.

Not super specific;

Dog-boners, kid-diddlers, corpse-rapers and trans-chasers.

People who draw any of the above and post it.

People who headcanon characters as any of the above and post it.

Fag-hags. (Women who seek out gay men.)

Himedanshis, Fujoshis, Otakus. How does one come so far in life using that label?

Republicans. I’m a democrat liberal. You won’t like me.

Rape-apologists, groomer-lovers, anyone with a history of abuse.

Transmeds.

Extreme tucutes (will explain if asked.)

Radqueers.

[destiny-in-the-universe]

New Introduction [Searching for Moots]

Good timezone, my lovely dreamers!

It's been a long while since last I'd been active in tumblr, but I figured getting to meet new people would be worthwhile as I've made my comeback!

To start, I answer to many names but primarily- you can call me Clay or Danny. I hoard names like a possessive dragon (/lh), but that's also in part due to my kin-list and I carry their names around proudly. (And also the fact I'm a system)

I'm bodily an adult, 23 years old to be exact and counting! I use they/them pronouns, though neos are fair game at times (such as pup/pupself and ghost-themed pronouns).

Now, I am a multi-fandom blogger and enthusiast of neurodivergent content- especially as I connect to a lot of characters.

Fun Things About Me

✦ I'm bilingual, knowing both English and Spanish

✦ I'm a fanfic writer. Mostly specializing in AU's, angst themes, and recently- working on two crossover projects

✦ I have multiple disorders (auDHD, suspected BPD and DID, and diagnosed with MDD)

✦ Current Fixations are Teenage Superhero Cartoons

✦ I'm a roleplayer! (I can be a bit picky with who I roleplay with, and maybe further down the line- I can send out a request)

✦ Profound animal lover. I don't claim to be an expert-

✦ I kin hard.

Fandoms I Am a Part Of

[Key - ♡ (Active Fixations), ✩ (Dormant Fixations/Will Talk About Them if Asked), ➶ (Casual Interests)]

♡ Danny Phantom

♡ American Dragon: Jake Long

♡ Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja

♡ Kim Possible

♡ My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

✩ Gravity Falls

✩ Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus/Riordanverse

✩ Laika Films (Coraline, Paranorman)

✩ Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss

✩ Doctor Who

✩ Anime (Mob Psycho 100, My Hero Academia, The Promised Neverland, Hetalia, Death Note, Disastrous Life of Saiki Kusuo, Fruits Basket, Black Butler, Wolf Children, Studio Ghibli)

➶ Warrior Cats

➶ Supernatural

➶ Merlin

➶ Sherlock

➶ K-Dramas

➶ The Owl House

➶ She-Ra: Princesses of Power

[Ask if there might be others I've missed!]

Current Projects

Independent Fanfics

✦ tell me atlas, what is heavier (the world or its people's hearts?): Danny Phantom - [Canon Divergent Timeline] -Angst/Whump Trope. The Guys in White manage to capture and detain Danny Phantom, alongside kidnapping securing Tucker, and what follows- well, it's only a matter of time before the truth spills out. - Work in Progress (Unpublished)

✦ DannyMay 2024 - Danny Phantom. A series of one-shots surrounding the fandom Danny Phantom. - Work in Progress (tag: dannymay2024, personal tag: PENDING)

✦ Bad Things Happen Bingo - Fandom One-Shots. A series of angst-filled prompts based on the Bad Things Happen Bingo card. - Work in Progress (tag: PENDING)

Crossover Fanfics

✦ Unlocked Doors AU (Mystery Kids AU) - Danny Phantom, Coraline, Paranorman, and Gravity Falls. Two years have passed since the fated summer trip to Gravity Falls, Oregon, and well- now Dipper and Mabel are returning for the new summer. When a group of untimely teens also end up spending their summer in the seemingly quaint town, nothing will ever be the same. - Work in Progress (Unpublished)

✦ [UNTITLED] (Secret Trio AU) - Danny Phantom, Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja, and American Dragon: Jake Long. A sudden, unexpected turn of events leads to three teenaged superheroes meeting. It goes about as well as you could expect. - Work in Progress (Unpublished)

✦ [UNTITLED] (Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons) - Rise of the Guardians, Brave, Tangled, How to Train Your Dragon. A new threat has presented itself across the world, and somehow- it leads to a group of young adults coming to cross paths. - Work in Progress (Unpublished)

[A rules/guidelines of my blog will be posted separately!]

[blooming-bruises]

Echo wanted to touch it. He wanted to pull on that fine, platinum hair and see the eyes that were currently hidden below lashes and lids widen as they looked up at him. He wanted to see what flowers could bloom on that porcelain skin under his fingers.

Hello! Welcome to Blooming Bruises! I'm new to the whump community so I'm sure this post will change as I figure things out, but for now -- Hi!

I'll be trying to post bits of stories and prompt ideas among just the ,, everything else. The start of this post is from a fae whumper / human whumpee story i have with a friend that I'm sure there will be more shared.

---

My Universes

Written with @waxwings-burning

Daybreak, feat. Aiden and James, will be tagged with #daybreak

- unstoppable force meets immovable object, slow burn, CEO versus captured FBI agent mole

- contains: torture, noncon drugging, gaslighting, restraints, and some philosophy

Hawthorne, feat Echo and Asher, (tag pending)

- fae magics, promises, deals, and predator/prey

- contains: manipulation, stalking, illusion magic, betrayals

[angstingantlers]

Whump, angst, hurt/comfort, and dark fiction sideblog. General cw for blood, injury, threat, harm, and otherwise dark themes.

Note: This is not a sexual blog. I am generally not a fan of explicit NSFWhump and will rarely if ever post things that are intended to be read as sexual. Feel free to like/reblog for those reasons but please do not add overly sexual comments on my original posts unless they already contain explicit sexual content. For my comfort I will block blogs that I notice doing this.

DNI, blog info, & tags under the cut.

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About Me

My name is Hunter, he/him. I am a queer, neurodivergent, and mentally ill adult over the age of 25. I'm a digital artist and writer who tends to be drawn towards horror, tragedy, and content involving either my original characters or specific fandom characters I've latched onto. I am white and live in the UK, and have a BSc (Hons) in Criminological & Forensic Psychology.

My main special interests include the horror genre and the nature of fear and trauma in media, psychology (especially in relation to rehabilitation and prison reform), prehistory, and my original characters.

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DNI

I am very liberal with the block button. Consider this a heads up that if you follow/like/reblog from me and I notice you fit the following criteria, then I will block you (and report you, if appropriate).

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⦿ The usual suspects: radfem, nazi, support Palestinian genocide, other bigots, MAPs, zoophiles, radqueer, etc.

⦿ LGBTQ+ exclusionist (transmed, anti-MOGAI, against mspec lesbian/gay, against aspec/arospec/aplspec identities, etc.)

⦿ System exclusionist (anti-endogenic, sysmed, etc.), against informed self-diagnosis for disability/illness, or 'fakeclaims' others

⦿ Proship/anti-anti/etc., treats pedophilic/incestuous dynamics as cute/desirable, ships real people, or posts kink content featuring underage/incest/RPF

⦿ Blogs that encourage self-harm or heavily focus on IRL self-harm -- including EDs

⦿ Blogs with a heavy focus on discourse/drama regardless of your particular 'stance'

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Tags

I try to tag specific media, characters, and actors wherever possible so they can be easily searched or blacklisted, using the following format:

⦿ #media: X, #character: Y, #actor: Z

Example: "#media: Doctor Who, #character: The Tenth Doctor, #actor: David Tennant".

Please feel free to correct me if I make a mistake when tagging media/character/actor names.

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I'll eventually have a tag to put all my original content under. For now you can find it by looking for:

⦿ #writing prompt, #whump prompt, #whump writing, #whump art

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I tag content that features or reminds me of OCs with the following:

⦿ #oc: can't a man just be fucking sad? [Finsterl Tyto]

⦿ #oc: a sad guitar [Deslie Tyto]

⦿ #oc: root of all evil [Hemlock]

⦿ #oc: eric needs a tag [Eric Elsonheir -- @victoryillustrations]

⦿ #oc: the bitter with the sweet [Rowen -- @victoryillustrations]

⦿ #au: supers in seattle

⦿ #au: -tag pending: zombies-

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Interests

The rest of this post serves as an extremely long breakdown of the things under this umbrella that I do and don't enjoy, followed by media that fulfills these interests or that I want to check out. For anything not mentioned here, you can assume I either don't feel strongly on it or don't know it exists.

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Character archetypes I like:

⦿ Resistant, defiant, & sassy

⦿ Arrogant & egotistical

⦿ Intensely manipulative

⦿ Completely broken/conditioned

⦿ Feral & animalistic

⦿ Non-human/anthropomorphic/magical

⦿ God-like figures

⦿ Villains & anti-heroes

⦿ Siblings

⦿ First responders (paramedics, firefighters, etc.)

⦿ Characters trying their best but still making mistakes/that aren't infallible

⦿ Specific OCs/fandom characters

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Hurt themes I like:

⦿ Interrogation

⦿ Hostage, ransom, kidnapping, etc.

⦿ Targeted, sustained abuse over time

⦿ Betrayal

⦿ Solo survival (lost alone, being hunted, trapped in rubble, etc.)

⦿ Surgery & surgical emergencies

⦿ Medical experimentation

⦿ Self-sacrifice/self-inflicted suffering

⦿ Near-death experiences

⦿ Being bloody/injured/beaten up & generally in pain

⦿ Being very vocal & reactive to pain

⦿ Enduring extended suffering & dissociating from extreme pain

⦿ Shivering & trembling

⦿ Exhaustion & being forced to give up/unable to keep going

⦿ Heart conditions

⦿ Fever, headaches, & migranes

⦿ Sleep deprivation & insomnia

⦿ Hallucinations, delusions, & paranoia

⦿ Emotional distress & breakdowns, especially in fear/panic

⦿ Suicidal ideation & casual risk-taking/recklessness as a result

⦿ Sadistic/impossible choices

⦿ Hypnosis, brainwashing, & mind-control

⦿ Conditioning, especially subtle/unnoticed

⦿ Slow breakdown of willpower/resilience

⦿ Sensory deprivation -- blinded, deafened, etc.

⦿ Loss of bodily control via possession, transformation, etc.

⦿ Threatening with weapons, particularly guns

⦿ Gunshot/stab wounds

⦿ Treating your own wounds (ineffectively)

⦿ Infected wounds

⦿ Restraints; chained up, bound in rope, collared, muzzled, etc.

⦿ Being trapped, purposefully or by accident

⦿ Manhandling & pinning

⦿ Grabbing by the face, throat, chin, & hair

⦿ Forced to kneel or take another respectful posture

⦿ Forced to accept comfort or other intimacy from their harmer

⦿ Backhanded affection or praise

⦿ Tragic ending/no escape/no recovery/etc.

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Recovery/comfort themes I like:

⦿ Slow, complicated trauma recovery & "messy" victims/survivors

⦿ Focus on restoring the recovering person's autonomy as much as possible; re-learning indepedence & self-care

⦿ Learning to live, not just survive

⦿ Anger/lashing out as a trauma response & learning to manage it

⦿ Unhealthy coping mechanisms -> healthy coping mechanisms

⦿ Exploring/coping with triggers & phobias caused by trauma

⦿ Realistic de-conditioning

⦿ Hidden trauma/injuries being discovered & treated

⦿ Aid with caring for injuries

⦿ Resistance to accepting help & learning to accept help

⦿ Having no choice but to accept help (severe injury, illness, etc.)

⦿ Caretakers as friends, teammates, found family, or siblings

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I'm sometimes interested in but can be sensitive to:

⦿ Death of significant characters

⦿ Characters dealing with grief

⦿ Impalement except in specific circumstances

⦿ Most natural disaster scenarios

⦿ Honestly most of the standard comfort-focused/caretaker content that's out there, it ranges from being uninteresting to making me feel uncomfortable 4/5 times

⦿ Caretakers as parental figures or romantic partners

⦿ Whumpers as parental figures

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I'm usually uninterested by/can tolerate:

⦿ BBU & other socially accepted pet/slave scenarios

⦿ Idealised/'perfect' caretakers

⦿ Focus on romantic or sexual relationships between characters in general

⦿ Generic character names (ie. just called 'Whumpee'), it just takes me out of it

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I may sometimes write the following myself, but almost always avoid or need to be in a specific mindset for:

⦿ "Bad boy/girl/dog/etc.", "You've been bad", etc. -- I hate that word and characters being called it

⦿ Explicit usage of medical needles/syringes

⦿ Alcohol/recreational drugs & substance use disorders

⦿ Trapped in fires & other fire-based scenarios/harm

⦿ Focus on graphic abuse or violence to children/younger teenagers (if it's offscreen or in backstory it's fine)

⦿ Parental abuse from father-figures

⦿ Infantilisation & treating bodily adults like children

⦿ Abuse for being autistic or having a similar condition/disability

⦿ Abuse related to enforcing gender identity standards, ie. demeaning a man for being feminine/woman for being masculine, misgendering a trans person, forcing someone to wear gendered clothing, etc.

⦿ Abuse related to a perceived lack of intelligence, ie. excessive use of insults like "stupid" or "dumb", being ridiculed or punished for not understanding something, etc.

⦿ Explicit sexual harrassment & sexual abuse

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Media

A list of content I've seen that scratches my itches well or that I want to look into. Always open for recommendations if you think there's something I'd like!

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Completed:

⦿ A very, very, very long list of generic horror movies

⦿ Apostle

⦿ Beaten To Death

⦿ Hannibal NBC

⦿ The Inheritance Cycle (Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, & Inheritance)

⦿ Jekyll & Hyde (Musical)

⦿ Lucifer

⦿ Mad Max: Fury Road

⦿ The Passenger

⦿ Ravenous (1999)

⦿ Watership Down

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Partially Completed:

⦿ 9-1-1 & 9-1-1 Lone Star (s2)

⦿ Casualty & Holby City (scattered arcs/episodes)

⦿ Game of Thrones (literally just Theon's scenes)

⦿ Grey's Anatomy & spin-offs (... s14? Or so?)

⦿ Grimm (unsure how much)

⦿ Once Upon A Time (scattered episodes)

⦿ Our Flag Means Death (s1)

⦿ The Vampire Diaries (s5 I believe?)

⦿ The Walking Dead & spin-offs (partway through s9 or 10)

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To Check Out:

⦿ The Blacklist

⦿ Broadchurch

⦿ Doctor Who

⦿ Endeavour

⦿ Hawaii Five-O

⦿ House MD

⦿ Leverage

⦿ Loki (& some MCU)

⦿ The Magnus Archives

⦿ The Revenant

⦿ Peaky Blinders

⦿ Prodigal Son

⦿ The Rookie

⦿ Station 19

⦿ Supernatural

⦿ The Witcher

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Notes To Self

I'd love to learn how to make my own movie/TV show gifs at some point. I know the basics but not enough to be happy with. This is a reminder of things I want to gif once I am ready to dedicate time to learning.

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⦿ The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It: Ed's heart condition

⦿ Mad Max: Fury Road: Max bound/muzzled & scenes with Furiosa

⦿ Apostle: Lots of Thomas and of the goddess

⦿ The Walking Dead: So much

[mantisgodsaus]

@niko-jpeg We are putting this in a reblog so that we don't end up grappling with Tumblr's reply system (tragic fate, we know).

So, funny story about the Mothiva Thing - you actually just hit on the subject of a fun little whump fic we finished a while ago! That particular fic's pending until the specific person who we asked to do the cover finishes it (it's been in progress since December) but! Holding a selkie's pelt allows you to control them, not only with the threat of death, but with the actual Effect of holding a semi-magical vital organ in your hand! With Mothiva specifically, the effect extends past actually physically holding it - that is to say, they don't need the threat of killing her to keep her in line, because she already has to keep in line.

Mothiva's pelt is not currently in her possession! Instead, it's held by her manager - she doesn't really get to see it beyond the bare minimum proximity to keep her reasonably healthy. She doesn't enjoy the situation, but she's resigned to it - it's all she's really known, and it's hard to imagine things being different. The public doesn't know she's a selkie, and her agency isn't particularly interested in letting them know.

Why assign them harp seals when there are so many seals to choose from? Mothiva and Leif's particular strain can land on pretty much any pinniped, and though Mothiva is shorter than Leif in moth form, if either of them had access to seal form she'd be about twice as long as him, because leopard seals are massive, murderous torpedos of death, and ribbon seals are Not That.

She's got the sort of... mildly murderous aura about her that comes from being a seal which eats Other Seals. Leif has not picked up on this once because like with many parasites, his sense of threat is kind of nuked. He really doesn't need to worry about predators. He's made of fungus. Predators are just bonus hosts waiting to happen.

Vi's Thing is, uhh... Well, listen, we've got 5k words currently penned down for that story, and it shows absolutely no signs of stopping soon. We'd love to hear your speculation, because it's likely to be months before that gets done. All we'll say is that she was running from something, and her exit from the hive was just a bit more stressful this time.

Kabbu is... listen, Vi's Whole Thing makes that thing more complicated than really needed, because without a skin the waters of selkie get a bit muddied. Leif doesn't even know he's a selkie until later, thanks to the massive range that being more than a century old grants him combined with the fact that his memories are a bit screwy. He blocked out any memories that might interfere with him acting like a normal moth - here, that just so happens to include all memories of being a selkie.

Kabbu is... less "left out" and more "unceasingly glad that he had the good fortune to not be a selkie". The pull to the sea, the craving for things that are overwhelmingly likely to kill him, the issues of having a pelt separate from his body that someone can steal and have full control of him... he has enough nightmares about having to return to the swamplands without that. A selkie can feel whatever happens to its pelt, and having your pelt slowly dissolve in someone's stomach is not a fun way to go.

He might feel left out on occasion, but between how Leif spent more than a year in less than perfect health thanks to being separated from his pelt and Vi's firsthand example of exactly what desperation and fear to do to a selkie, he has some very good reasons to not want that for himself.

If he were a selkie, he'd be some sort of leatherback sea turtle. Zasp'd be either a lionfish or some sort of moray eel.

Zasp is not a selkie, but he knows Mothiva is a selkie. The whole thing doesn't sit right with him, but she says it's normal, and he doesn't have another point of comparison - social bug hives need that rare mutation to trigger to turn out selkies at all, if the Queen or one of her drones wasn't already a selkie.

In terms of legislation, it is illegal to buy or sell selkie skins, but only in the Bee Kingdom. Elizant has never seen them as a big enough group to need protecting, the Termite Kingdom doesn't care, and the Wasp Kingdom is too isolated to have issues with it - besides the fact that they're almost entirely made of social wasps that only rarely produce a selkie, of course.

Queen Bianca has her own motivations for putting the law in place, but it's good PR and it's more protection than the other kingdoms offer, so she's got a higher population of selkies than anyone else, despite a few - if you'll pardon the term - skeletons in her closet.

New blog moment /pos

Hello! I am here to formally request you may or may not tell me more about this selkieverse. Is it an au where everyone is a selkie (or at least, some bugs are)? Do they just turn into aquatic like bugs instead of actual seals? If actual seals, do you have species picked out for the selkie characters yet? How does it work? Are they even selkies at all? Once more, you don't have to answer if its information you'd like to withold but as local marine biology (mostly seals and jellyfish though) nerd I must know if this may be an au that is like. Right up my alley.

Oh boy, we can answer questions! Technically, we've had this blog for a bit, we just... haven't been using it (we are afflicted with a chronic need to illustrate our worldbuilding and we just Haven't Been Drawing recently).

Not everyone is a selkie, but some bugs are - actual species varies! They're seals, or other assorted... vertebrates, mostly. "Selkie", here, is less referring specifically to seals and more referring to the general category of Bugs With Bonus Pelt. We've got actual species picked out for the selkie characters, but we do want to keep a few under wraps - of the few we can reveal, Leif is a ribbon seal, Mothiva is a leopard seal, Cenn is a yellow-bellied water snake, and Vi... well, her pelt was an ermine.

In terms of how it works - selkies are, more or less, bugs that come in two... pieces, or with two forms. It's genetic, though it can very much skip generations and occasionally appears to manifest from nowhere - generally, you have a few main strains of selkie in an area, maybe with a scattering of other species around. Seals are by far the most common around both Bugaria and The North, and the gene's most common in moths (as far as anyone knows), though it can appear in other species - and, as previously mentioned, sometimes you just get a kid who's a selkie without any previous selkie relatives.

A selkie's pelt isn't present upon hatching, but manifests later - generally either when they metamorphose, in the case of bugs like moths and butterflies, or during one of their first few instars on bugs who do That. It is, functionally, a part of them - a selkie cannot be separated from their pelt for too long, though they can wander farther from it with age and practice, and trying to keep away from it causes fun side effects (like organ failure, and feeling like you're being physically peeled out of your shell, and death).

The pelt itself is, as is typical with selkies, a pelt - seal, or snake, or ermine, or whatever else someone might be. Looks like you'd expect a seal pelt to be - although a selkie's pelt contains a few more bones. Generally, you've got a skull, spine, and ribcage, but it's not uncommon to have a few other bones - they shape the skin, more or less. As is standard, once the skin is donned, they gain the form of their pelt, but the selkie has some control over it - as well as some control over how the pelt moves.

The thing about selkie pelts is that, as they're a part of the selkie, they're functionally "alive" - an extension of the self, an extra limb. Technically, anyone can don a selkie pelt and take on the form of whatever creature they are, but it'll be... strange. Uncanny. They aren't the selkie, and this isn't their form - they're just wearing their skin. Unlike on the selkie themself, the bones aren't going to merge to them properly, they're just going to stick in there, wearing away at their shell until they eventually take it off. A pelt only retains its transformative properties while the selkie it belongs to is alive - once they bite it, it becomes just a piece of leather, though with selkie skin being the only real option as far as skins go, it's still pretty damn valuable dead.

If a selkie's pelt is destroyed, the selkie dies. Likewise, if a selkie dies, the pelt becomes inert. It's a bit like holding a vital organ in your hand - and if the selkie and the pelt are taken too far apart, the connection is severed and the selkie will die even if no damage is dealt to either them or their pelt.

As is standard for selkie mythology, having a selkie's pelt gives you some measure of control over them. Specific degree of control varies, largely based on the selkie - though all selkies can be commanded while you're actively holding their pelt, if they'll keep following that command once you've put it down is a whole 'nother ball park. If you had Leif's pelt in hand and told him to do something, he'd keep doing it even if you put that pelt down later, but if you tried the same with Vi (again, while she had it) she'd stop the second you put it down. With Mothiva, just possessing the pelt is enough - you don't need direct contact, you just need to have it. The effect's at least partially psychosomatic - while it's a direct compulsion with direct contact, anything past that is largely based on if the selkie thinks you should be able to tell them what to do.

The selkie form itself is fairly standard as creatures of its species go, albeit downsized for bug scale. They're around the size they'd normally be relative to a human, relative to an average bug (using an ant as your Standard Human works, here). A selkie is, functionally, both their bug species and their pelt species - behaviors in one form will affect the other, and vice versa. Generally, this'll manifest most noticeably in either tics or diet - a craving for raw fish, an odd sense of territorialism, an impulse to drag dead things to your dumb, bad-at-hunting teammate. It does, however, vary - and a good chunk of selkies do try to keep the fact that they're selkies hidden, especially if they might have reason to fear a stolen pelt.

...this is a whole lot of rambling on Selkie Magic Mechanics and not a whole lot of marine biology, uhh. Hope this helps sketch out the general mechanics for ya! We're always glad to talk about Cool AUs!

[greatandquestionablecontent]

Masterpost?

Hi, I'm Stormy! I'm 26, genderqueer, they/them.

My writing focuses on relationships, romance, queer themes, mental health, angst, comfort, and processing the effects of violence and trauma, with an occasional sprinkling of magic. A lot of my longer works eventually become Mature or Explicit, but most of what I post here is SFW!

I kind of just throw stuff up here at random, but my AO3 is where the finished stuff and active WIPs are.

Most of my writing features the same characters in different AUs. It's like being my own fandom! Here is the tag of all my writing, and here’s where I talk about writing.

I now have a worldbuilding masterpost!

AU breakdown under the cut

Conviction: 35 chapters are up on AO3! It's plotted out to the end and I'm on the third-ish draft. I consider it my main story, and it’s the one I actually take seriously and update continuously (although not regularly).

And they were cellmates! Slow burn friends to lovers, lots of mental health themes, angst and hurt/comfort, bed sharing, eventual smut. M/NB more than M/M but they’re in a men’s jail so that’s an entire thing.

You can find Conviction related posts here. 

If you like the characters, they all have their own tags, which are a roulette of different AUs, asks, moodboards, etc. Who knows what you’ll find in the tags. Trystan Gavin Ari Jade Denna

in the mirror i saw who you could have been: AKA “the AU where everyone is more morally grey and there’s a lot of weird magic whump and so much drama.”  It features some of the same characters as Conviction, but in very different contexts.

Masterlist is here! My favorite is Stop.

I post stuff for it at random sometimes but I’m not actively working on making it into something sensible. Jump in with whatever looks fun!

Trains!Verse: Yep the title doesn’t get better than that. This is the remnants of canon before I scrapped it for parts and made Conviction my main project.

Trystan has evil magic powers, and a cool girlfriend he met on a train (Jade). And he and Gavin are besties for AGES before it gets even a little homoerotic.  He spends his time running from his evil mentor figure, Constance, who makes him do evil magic stuff.

(Masterlist pending). The tag is here. My favorite is The Fic Where Trystan Leaves, which is broken into 4 parts. Here’s part 1.

Hunger Games AU: What it says on the tin. Ari and Gavin are Avoxes, Trystan and Jade are Victors. So far there is only a one shot.

Guard Dog AU: illegal crackfic played for angst. I wrote it during lockdown and we pretend it does not exist. tfw you have a violent furry living in ur house now and you don’t know how to deal with that. Rip if you followed for that.

Shenanigans with no particular AU, featuring the same usual cast:

Fear of The Ocean -- Trystan accompanies Gavin on a ship journey and hates it.

[wheredidhiseyebrowsgo]

Pending Asks

If you think tumblr ate your ask or you can’t remember if you asked we have this list for you. A peek into our inbox just for you.

And we’d love it if you took a peek at our Lost Fics page and see if you recognize any of them. 

ASKS

fav crossovers

fav 1k fics

body swaps

epitome sterek

fav non smutty fic

derek + ptsd

alpha!stilesX2

possessive!derekX3

size difference

knotting

post season 4

HS teacher!Derek

time travelX5

derek + traumaX2

pack mom!stiles

ghost whisperer!stiles

jock/nerd hs auX2

obsessed!derek

stiles + jackson

sterek whump

calls derek alphaX2

stiles+lydia siblings

stiles Real Name

superman

stiles takes after sheriff

sterek stuck together

western

eli hale-stilinskiX2

long derek returns to BH

period sterek

derek has a hobby

boyd+erica+stiles run away

stiles meets dereks friends

mpreg+amnesia

newer steter

pack appreciates stiles

stiles bitten

hurt!stiles

scott cheats

sheriff kicks stiles out

derek scares stiles

derek realizes feelings

isaac’s abuse

stiles and laura

necromancer!stiles

boss!derek

jane eyreX2

funny fics

hairy!derek

long and angsty

nogitsune uses stiles feelings

size queen!derek

twilight aus

derek insecure about lydia

royalty reveal

overprotective sheriff

fast and furious au

derek leaves + stiles find hims

sterek knew each other

pack mom! w steter

steter w morally dubious!stiles

werewolf!sheriff

duecalion/derek

stilinski family feels

sterek + feelings

fem!stiles

sterek between s2+s3

stiles adhd

scott comforting stiles

southern gothic

fem!stiles/peter

stiles and allison

stiles pushed out of packX2

white house sterek

wolf!stiles + anger issues

mean!derek

spanking

forced nudity

insecure about shift!derek

beacon hills sanctuary 

scott kills peter s1

accidental nudity

beacon hills reputation

derek comes back w eli

canon divergence

mistaken sterek break up

stiles-centric

dark!pack

siblings stiles + jackson

long soulmate/magic 

school is afraid of bamf!stiles/stiles reputation

stiles were-deer

shifted sex

who hurt you sterek

bad alpha talia

sterek mates

derek knows stiles’ name

mythology

murderhusbands

hale v argents

black sheep derek

sex or die

derek thinks stiles betrays 

stiles insecure about sheriff

live together

nogitsune not evil

steo

ethan + aiden

pining!stiles, oblivious!derek

stiles + peter knew each other

ghost riders

sick!stiles

abo hurt/comfort

autumn vibes

popular!stilesX2

canon compliant steo

s2 pydia

time travel to the future

panic attacks

power bottom!stiles

stiles trust issues

paige-centric

first meeting!steter

derek hears stiles

kate fails

soft!stiles

stiles sees derek naked

derek in heat

superhero

treated like a princess

self sacrificing!stiles

doppelganger smut

hurt/comfort

mermaids

addam’s family

(updated 11/7)

[wantonlywindswept]

Dishonored ficbit: Cullero Red, Karnaca Blue (1/???)

Title pending because fuuuck titlesssss.

So I’ve finally hit a bit of a hitch with this fic, which has made the intense ‘must keep writing must keep writing DO NOT JINX IT’ feeling go away, so here is the first bit of it! I’m actually p pleased with it so far, which is, you know. Unusual.

Also trying something new with adding screenshots/images into the story to help my poor lost followers (cough @cinaea​ cough [ilu]) get some visual flavor since they’ve never actually played the game.

/belatedly realizes this is a thing that can be done

Also this is supposed to like. Eventually be Corvo/Daud. Far in the future. Like holyshit slowest burn ever. Does it even count as slowburn if one of them is physically absent for most of it? wot.

so basically rn this is just whumped!daud eyyy

(Set immediately post DH2, some references to early bits of DotO but not canon-compliant for it.)

After two weeks trapped in a cage at the Albarca Baths, most of it spent either in a magic-suppressed haze or fighting for his life like a dog, Daud finally accepted the fact that he was going to die there.

An ignoble death--but likely the one he deserved. He'd spent most of his life as a rabid hound anyway, tearing out the throats of those who crossed him, his only leash the draw of coin.

Fitting, then, that he should die like one.

He could feel the corrupted bonecharms eating away at him: at his body, his mind, whatever passed as his soul. Whoever designed them knew what they were doing--and what would make the best show. The one around his neck kept him from dying, but any damage done to his body hurt a hundred times over. The one affixed to his wrist made his blows stronger but slower. The two clipped to his belt gave him more stamina physically, but they leeched away his connection to the Void, tightening like a vise to choke off access to the powers that he'd had for the majority of his life.

They were smart enough to not give him time to compose himself between fights. They'd drop some cocky dumb bastard into his cage, lock the hatch behind them, and lower the suppression field just enough that he could stumble out of the chair they kept him strapped to. And as soon as the fight was over they slammed it back on, the high-pitched droning that only he could hear paralyzing him so they could drag him back to the chair, and his opponent out of the cage.

After a while, he'd stopped trying to leave them alive.

"Break time, pet," a female voice cooed from above. Daud inhaled a shaky breath as the heaviness weighing down his body lifted, just a bit, just enough that his senses came back into stilted focus. The manacles on his wrists and ankles--superfluous, when the field was fully on--were now open, and he sat up unsteadily, glancing up through the cage's wires.

It was a witch: one of Delilah's scattered coven. If she'd been at Brigmore fifteen years ago, she showed no recollection of him. She was usually the one to oversee the short periods he was allowed free rein--just enough time to relieve himself, to eat what scraps of food they deigned to give him.

At the beginning, he'd refused to do any of it. To eat, to fight, to bow to their demands. But just as he'd asked Corvo Attano to spare his life all those years ago--despite not deserving it, despite having no right to ask that of the man--his damnable self-preservation won out in the end.

"What's on the docket today?" asked a different voice as he dragged himself out of the chair. Another woman: the one who seemed to run the operation. Lee?

Daud limped over to the food left on the ground just below the hatch: a jug of water, half a loaf of bread, dried strips of some kind of unidentifiable meat. Apparently someone had been in a good mood, too, since they'd dropped down a couple of pears that were only partially rotten.

"One open mat and three scheduled fights. Two with the Brute here, one with Jenny."

The small area below the hatch was about the closest place in the cage that Daud got to having any kind of privacy. He settled down wearily on the floor there, leaning against the wall and picking at the stale bread.

At least they'd cleaned out the bodies, this time.

"And the challengers?"

"Jenny's is a rematch, that half-brained dockworker that came in last month. The Brute's got one of our regulars and some out-of-towner calling herself the 'Masked Felon'."

Daud blinked.

"Isn't that the name of that thief who ransacked Dunwall during the rat plague?" the witch asked idly.

"Tacky, right? Can't even come up with her own stage name. I didn't--oh, shit, there she is, quiet--"

Had Daud any energy, he might have gotten to his feet at the sight of the slim figure that appeared at the edge of the cage. He probably would have had some kind of reaction aside from dull surprise, too. But as it was, he just sat there blankly, looking up at the mask that had haunted his dreams and nightmares for years.

That was Corvo Attano's mask.

"Ladies. Am I early?"

That was not Corvo Attano.

"By about three hours," Lee replied, peevishly. "We haven't even got the bets in yet."

"I'm not in a rush. But I did want to inspect the facilities. This is the device that keeps him in check?"

Daud tilted his head to one side as the newcomer stepped out onto the top of the cage. That unblinking, haunting mask looked down at him with the same impassivity of its former wearer, and some inkling of emotion finally slid through the fog that had clouded his mind for the past weeks.

Quietly, Daud began to laugh.

"That's right. We can vary the power; it's lower right now so he can shit, eat, take a piss. No sport if he's half-dead, after all. He--what the fuck, is he laughing? He's never made a sound before this--"

"Thank you," Emily Kaldwin said sincerely, "For that information."

Then she flickered out of sight.

Daud braced a hand on the wall, wobbily levering himself to his feet as shouts and shrieks echoed through the bathhouse. There was the telltale crackles of a stun mine, the quiet hiss of a crossbow. Glass shattered somewhere, followed by coughing and swears--and then everything was silent.

A few moments later the suppression field switched off, and Daud inhaled a sharp, gasping breath as the Void flooded back into him.

He nearly ended up back on the floor, his knees buckling beneath him as pain seared in his chest, burning through his veins. But then the hatch above slammed open with a heavy thunk, boots dropping onto the ground nearby, and abruptly Daud was being steadied by the slender hands of the Empress of the Isles.

He squinted at her father's mask, still as ghastly as it was fifteen years ago.

"Am I hallucinating?" he asked, wincing as the words passed his lips. His voice was rougher even than usual, raspy and disused after weeks of refusing to speak.

"Possibly," Emily allowed, tilting her head to the side. "Void knows what state you're in. Hold on."

The words were less a request and more a direct order--though the realization of that fact came just a second too late. Daud lurched forward violently as the Void twisted around them, bile rising in his throat as Emily transported them up through the hatch and out to the front of the building. He gagged, swaying drunkenly against her as she slung his arm over her shoulders, his vision swimming.

What in the Void was that power? His transversals were always smooth, quick things, and from what he'd seen of Corvo, his were the same. This was some kind of gut-wrenching monstrosity that latched onto something in the distance and just yanked.

"If you're going to throw up, don't do it on me," Emily warned. "I like this coat."

"As the Empress wishes," Daud mumbled.

Emily scoffed, half-dragging him up toward the rail carriage, seemingly uninterested in addressing the plethora of unspoken questions that hung between them. She dropped him into one of the seats and then leaned over, yanking off the bonecharms at his neck and wrist and tossing them onto the track to be crushed.

She reached for the ones at his belt, too, but Daud hastily batted her hands away and fumbled to remove those himself. And while he couldn't see through Corvo's appalling mask, he was pretty sure she rolled her eyes at him.

"I have a ship docked down below the Acantila Repair Station," she said as he discarded the charms. "As soon as we board, we're setting sail to Dunwall."

Daud managed a grunt of acknowledgement as the carriage began to move. With the magic of the bonecharms no longer boosting his energy, the weeks of neglect and torment all decided to hit at once: the exhaustion and the pain finally allowed to catch up with his battered body. He struggled to focus as Emily continued speaking, but the gentle, soothing sway of the rail line dragged away whatever coherency he had left.

He sank back into the cushions, and from there into sleep.

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

2016 Fanfiction Round-Up

Copied this fanfic round-up from @veliseraptor​ because I’m always a sucker for this kind of thing and I pretty much always do some kind of fic retrospective. Also I’m only doing this on AO3, not counting FFN.

Total Year-Long Wordcount: The unfortunate thing about my inability to finish stuff in a reasonable time frame means that there’s probably a big difference between how much I wrote last year and how much I actually posted. On the other hand, something like half of “the kindness of strangers” was written prior to this year and I’m still counting everything I posted, so whatever. Adding it all up, I posted 67,504 words on AO3 (minus “adventures of tiny Loki and Thor”), but my dubiously accurate 2016 document contains 97,000 words, so...my actual wordcount for the year is probably around 85,000.

This year I wrote and posted: 16 fics, of which 3 have more than one chapter, and 53 new “adventures of tiny Loki and Thor” posts 

Overall Thoughts

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? I didn’t set a word-count goal of any kind, so...I don’t know? I’d say I did okay, although now that I’m looking at it, I feel like I should have finished/posted even more short fics than I did, which is...not a super helpful way to look at things.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? Maybe the “I got pissed about Hydra Cap” one, considering I sure didn’t see that asinine “twist” coming. I also didn’t really expect I’d write so many Avengers Academy fics, although maybe I should have. Of course, those are still both Marvel. Probably the only really out-there fic was flailing in the deep, for @markiplier‘s Slime Rancher and Subnautica videos. 

What’s your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest? Overall, I think I’d have to say under bright stars burning--I struggled a lot with that one too, partly because it was so different from anything I’d written before (taking place over a long period of time, with two characters gradually developing a relationship, and a somewhat more meandering plot than normal because of that; plus most of it was set in the past, requiring a lot more research than usual), and I spent a lot of the writing process sure I was producing absolute garbage, but I ended up being really satisfied with it. I think it has a good arc, with vignettes that work well individually, and based on the comments, I think I did a good job writing Steve’s voice, using gradually maturing word/style choices for different life stages, and showing how he and Loki fit well together. I don’t know, I just like it a lot. 

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? Taking the plunge and committing to one of my long-term WIPs (the kindness of strangers) for Marvel Big Bang, I suppose. I learned, uh, that trying to wrestle a story I wrote in disconnected chunks over 2+ years is agonizing but more or less possible? 

From my past year of writing, what was….

My most popular story of this year: Not counting the adventures of tiny Loki and Thor, my fic with the most kudos was the state of my head (228), followed by “under bright stars burning” (178), Metal Gear Widow (137), and “the kindness of strangers” (131). By comments, it’s pretty much the same but in a different order: “the kindness of strangers” (58 comment threads), “under bright stars burning” (32), and “the state of my head” (16). If you go by percentage of kudos to hits, it’s “the state of my head” (13%), “the kindness of strangers” (12%), I’m your national anthem (12%), and “under bright stars burning” (10%). Also I’m sure that’s way more than anyone wanted to know. 

Most fun story to write: Maybe “the state of my head”; I got inspired by a prompt, it all came together quickly, and I knocked it out in a weekend. Writing from Tony’s POV was fun, too. “flailing in the deep” was another one where I got to be funny.

Story with the single sexiest moment: Literally the only semi-explicit sex scene (by which I mean, I didn’t fade to black but I also didn’t describe specific body parts) I’ve ever written was for let your colors bleed and blend with mine (Crimson Peak, Thomas/Edith) and that was right at the end of 2015 so it doesn’t quite count. Otherwise there’s a kissing scene in “under bright stars burning” but it’s...not very sexy...

Most “Holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story:  uhhhhh. well, “the kindness of strangers” probably has the most/nastiest Loki whump I’ve posted on AO3 thus far, to the point that I think a few readers were surprised, so I suppose there’s that??

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: I hadn’t really written Steve before “under bright stars burning” and that ended up being a reasonably long fic all from his POV, at different points throughout his life, so writing that one definitely gave me a better sense of him as a character. 

Hardest story to write: Gonna have to go with “the kindness of strangers,” which should be obvious to anyone who noticed me screaming about Marvel Big Bang for the last several months. 

Biggest Disappointment: I’m not great with deadlines, as everyone probably knows, so pretty much every time I sign up for anything with a deadline, I end up causing myself a lot of stress and just barely squeaking in under the wire, often with less of a story than I originally planned, or actually a little bit after the deadline in one way or another. I’ve often been especially bad about this with Yuletide, posting an unfinished placeholder on the deadline and then getting it actually done before reveals; way back in 2011, I never did get it done and they had to send it out for a pinch hit the night before reveals, and I still feel bad about that (and keep intending to go back to the fic I was trying to write). This year I got caught doing it again and although I did end up posting a complete story, I’m definitely not happy with it because it’s like...one third of the story I meant to write. I still intend to finish it, but the fact that I didn’t is frustrating. 

Biggest Surprise: Nothing comes to mind.

Most Unintentionally Telling Story: I’ve written exactly two Marvel-related fics that aren’t about Loki, and they’re both about Steve, one where he’s progressive and mad at the whole world, and another where Avengers Academy Steve realizes he’s on the aro/ace spectrum. That probably says something.

Favorite Opening Line(s):

At this point, Tony is running almost entirely on adrenaline and good old-fashioned Stark bravado (patent pending), so he’s pretty much prepared for things to go completely to shit at any second. The particular variety of shit remains to be seen, but honestly, shit is shit and he’s mostly just banking on JARVIS deploying the new suit before Loki switches from talking to shooting. (the state of my head)

“What the fuck is this?” (I’m your national anthem)

Dorian was worried about the Inquisitor. This was hardly unusual, to be fair; in fact it was so far from being a new state of affairs that when Dorian wondered briefly what it would be like to live without at least a vague background worry for Elden, he came up blank. (another year)

For as long as Gamora has known him, Thanos has been a collector, entirely unmatched. He has been so for much longer than that, in fact; Gamora herself and all her siblings are proof. (the kindness of strangers)

Favorite Line(s) from Anywhere:

“I wouldn’t say nervous,” he hedges. Nervously. (the weight of it all)

“I’ve never stood for any of that shit, and I’m sure as hell not going to let anybody pretend Captain America stands for it either. That’s not—I won’t give more power to that kind of hatefulness. If people want to be bigots, fine, that’s on them, but they do not get to use this symbol to spread and validate their hate.” (I’m your national anthem)

There’s about five seconds of resounding silence, during which Loki shivers and barely seems to be breathing and Tony keeps rubbing his shoulder because apparently this is his life now, and then Barton says, “What the fuck, Stark?” (the state of my head)

Loki growls under his breath and makes a sharp gesture that sends another robot flying. “End program,” he snaps, and glowers at Natasha again. “Did you have a point, or did you simply wish to drag me back to the infatuated horde slavering for my brother’s return?” Natasha tilts her head. Whatever else you could say about Loki (and there’s a lot), he sure has a fancier vocabulary than most people she knows. (getting the gang together)

He is a being of countless interwoven myths and stories, the precise intersection of which seems to shift every time he tries to examine it, and eventually he stops trying, because he is no longer sure that it is relevant to what he is doing here. One thing, in all this, is constant: always, he is Loki, and he knows more than almost anyone that identity is malleable, that facts and truth are not always perfectly interchangeable. (we could be heroes)

“I see,” Loki says. He does, actually; he has studied and used enough magic to know that some laws of reality simply are, immutable no matter the power of the one seeking to change them. This knowledge does nothing to make him feel any less weary, and for a moment he thinks the weight of all this really will crush him, that he lacks the strength to do anything but sink into the dust of this barren realm and sleep there forever. (in death’s other kingdom)

haha so it turns out I liked a bunch of lines in this year’s long fics so I’m just gonna...list those separately at the bottom...

Top 5 Scenes from Anywhere You Would Choose to Have Illustrated: 

"under bright stars burning,” Steve and Loki hanging out on Coney Island, especially the bit where they’re sitting on the boardwalk railing watching the beach with the Wonder Wheel behind them

ditto, the kissing scene :3

anything?? those are the only two scenes that really come to mind in a “oh man I wish someone would draw this, it would be super cute” way, but 1) “the kindness of strangers” already has a bunch of awesome art from @neurovicky, which is amazing, and 2) I am thrilled with literally any fanart of my fics

Fic-writing goals for 2017:

continue writing at least a little bit every day

continue to post at least one new short fic to AO3 each month (last year I said “even if it’s a new ‘adventures of tiny Loki and Thor’ or ‘Custom figures’ chapter” but I managed even without that, I think, barely, so I should be able to do it again

continue to try focusing on fucking finishing some of the many, many, many fics languishing on my WIP list, especially the shorter ones that I really should have written and posted months or even years ago

more specific fic goals:

finish “the kindness of strangers” part III

finish the rest of my Yuletide fic haha whoops

New Year’s Resolution fic because my actual Yuletide fic was late, more whoops

that damn Stoki Week fic I started back in June

“Avengers Academy: Friendship Is Magic”

finish the rest of always gold to me

shit, I should get back to winter in our bones

and work on a followup to “under bright stars burning”

I don’t knowwww there are so many others

Favorite lines from “under bright stars burning” because sure why not, please note these are all very spoilery if you want to read the fic and haven’t:

“You would [like Thor],” Loki says, like it’s a law of the universe. “Thor is…bright, and boisterous, and everyone loves him, even when they are displeased with him. He is impossible to ignore. And I am…not him.”

He darts a glance toward Steve and then away, studying the shoreline, and Steve is suddenly struck by how beautiful Loki is. He’s noticed before, but not quite like this, with the breeze ruffling Loki’s hair and the sun highlighting those fine, sharp features Steve is always itching to draw. He doesn’t just want to draw Loki now, though; mostly he’s wondering what it would be like to kiss him.

Steve sighs, shoulders slumping, and gives up on the attempt at a smile. “It’s my mom. She…working in the TB ward finally caught up to her.” He swallows hard around the lump in his throat, which seems to be growing sharp points with every word. “The funeral was today.”

Loki gives him a look that somehow combines concern with profound skepticism.

Steve nods, his gut twisting uneasily as more threads of the nightmare come into focus, connect, begin to compose a larger picture. The golden prince in the red cape, blinding and bright, with a shadow no one ever notices. Cheers and thunderous applause (but not for the shadow, never for the shadow). His hand turning blue and ridged in the monster’s grip, and horror freezing the breath in his lungs more effectively than the glacial cold. A glowing blue box radiates cold and his hands turn blue as he touches it monster monster monster and revulsion is so thick in his throat he thinks he’ll choke on it. Rage and terror, rage and terror, no more than another stolen relic, claimed to love me, tell me tell me tell me, never wanted never loved never real and fear again. A corona of golden light. A spear and a throne and plans plans plans he will do it he will show them he is right, is worthy (is nothing but the monster parents tell their children about at night)—

Desert. Blood on the sand. A bridge. Battle, galaxies hanging suspended overhead. An explosion that sends him flying, his grip on the spear the only thing holding him above the abyss, but he has no reason to hold on and so he lets go and falls falls falls—

Bucky falls and Steve can’t catch him. Schmidt takes off with the Tesseract and Steve can’t stop him. Instead he sits at the Valkyrie’s controls and makes a date with Peggy that they both know he won’t make and tries not to think that even as Captain America, all he can do is fail the people he cares about, over and over again. Tries, fruitlessly, not to spend his last moments wishing he had more time with any of them, and then he sends the Valkyrie into the water.

And then Loki moves, quick as thought, already inside Steve’s guard, and Steve has no time or space to block him (and barely the space of a breath for a rush of horrified betrayal) before the tip of his scepter is pressed to Steve’s heart. Everything else disappears in a blaze of consuming blue light.

He is drowning in pain and anger, and then (no, Loki) despair overwhelms everything else, and he opens his hand, and he falls.

Under other circumstances, Loki thinks he might be impressed with his captors’ efficiency. They are expending no apparent effort and still grinding him down, and he does not want to think what it means, that this all must be in preparation for something—or that perhaps it is not, and he truly does not know which thought is worse.

He knows Thanos is too powerful. To think otherwise comes near to blasphemy.

It is fitting, he supposes, that the monster should destroy everything that was once good in its life, even this. Steve does not deserve this, does not deserve to suffer for unknowingly befriending a monster and finding himself inevitably drawn into the monster’s fate, but he will, and Loki can almost feel his spine bending under the weight of his own despair.

Favorite lines from “the kindness of strangers” because ditto, and ditto on spoilers:

This is truth: Thanos is patient like Death is patient, with the calm surety that the universe will bow to his will in the end no matter how long it takes.

Gamora was never nice except when it suited her, even before; was already hard, and fierce in her defense of anything she considered hers, and so once Thanos had broken and remade her, she had something left of herself, harder even than the shell he made her create.

She is a daughter of Thanos, by necessity and unyielding determination (and by something she refuses to call desperation, even in her own mind), but she is also the last surviving member of the Zehoberei race. This second identity is not one she considers often; at best it is not useful to the life she leads now, and at worst it is dangerous, but it still exists, always, alongside anything else Thanos might make of her—a kind of sacred responsibility, almost, even if she has little time or patience for religion or superstition. And the last survivor of the Zehoberei, in the name of all the unknown dead that she alone carries, burns with quiet rage at the idea of Thanos gaining the power to wipe out another race.

“I would take you for a Valkyrie,” he says, quiet and hoarse, “but if that were so you would not come to me, for I cannot succeed even at dying and I know Valhalla is barred to me.”

Yes, she is afraid of Thanos, afraid down to her marrow, and any thinking being should be as well, and perhaps everything else she tells herself—everything else she holds close as evidence that she does not belong to him—is merely an excuse for her own cowardice.

But the truth that matters the most in this case is simple: her reasons have not changed, and they far outweigh her pity for Loki (and her desire to prove to herself that she is not a coward). Whether they are still good reasons or merely excuses to salve what remains of her conscience is immaterial.

This is another truth: Gamora does not like to think in terms of what she can and cannot do. It is too much like helplessness, to look too long at the choices she is denied, and she learned a long time ago that helplessness is a short step away from death or worse. Instead she assesses situations and finds choices to make, and then she chooses, and she does not regret or look back—even when the choices are impossible or effectively meaningless. There is always, always a choice of some kind to be made, and to choose is to regain some measure of control over the situation, no matter how small. If she chooses, she cannot be forced one way or the other, and therefore she is not helpless.

“Soon,” Thanos tells her, his expression satisfied, and something unpleasant curls in Gamora’s stomach, the same mingling of fear and relief she feels whenever Thanos is pleased.

The titan smiles down at him, something both paternal and predatory in his gaze.

Slowly the blankness in his expression is replaced by something just as sharp and feral as the first time Gamora laid eyes on him, only now it is more wary, more focused, both more and less desperate. ... Every now and then, Thanos tells Loki that he is pleased with his progress, and Loki smiles to hear it, and his smile is like a brittle blade.

And for a long moment that freezes the blood in her veins like shards of ice, all she can think is I have failed. She has not done enough, and Terra is going to fall like her world did so long ago, all because she was so determined to wait for the right moment.

“It’s really not that complicated,” Romanoff says, and then: “I’ve got red in my ledger. I want to wipe it out.” There is…a cadence to it, something he knows, not the words but the sense of…something practiced, repeated, held close…

“Because look, he busted up a town because of a fight with his brother, singlehandedly destroyed a SHIELD installation, took out a guy’s eyeball, and threatened a freaking Holocaust survivor. Even if he doesn’t want to be this Thanos’s tool, he’s still a tool in general.”

“Gentlemen,” Fury snaps, “if you’re going to have a pissing contest, do it on your own time. I’m not asking you to like each other or the God of Crazy, I’m asking if you’ll put on your big boy pants for five seconds, do what’s necessary, and work together.”