#now i can go back to my other current wip that i had completely forgot

[tgmsunmontue]

You put a ring on a wild thing - 4/? WIP Hangster

Affectionately titled "Drunk Vegas" fic until I gave it the title above. Likely going to be around 4-5 parts (I say optimistically).

Explicit Hangster. Drinking and dubious decisions and complete disregard for actual facts.

PART ONE PART TWO PART THREE

PART FOUR

                Jake wakes up the next morning early, alarm persistent and he groans, turns off the alarm and throws his phone down on the floor; head thumping into the bed as he pulls the pillow over his face. Fuck. He’d been trying to stay awake last night so that he could talk to Bradley. Bradley. He scrambles to find his phone, thumbs it on, opening up his messages with Bradley. Scrolls through the messages they’d exchanged yesterday with fondness.

>>Just out to dinner with the family. Call you later?

>>Damn.

>>I’m going out to dinner with a friend tonight, might be late before I get back to my room what with the time difference.

>>Happy to call if you’re still awake though.

>>Lunch and dinner with friends. Popular man. Later’s good.

>>You awake?

>>Jake?

>>Sweet dreams. Try again tomorrow I guess. 😘

                Jake groans. There’s fifteens and twenty minutes between the messages, Bradley obviously waiting to see if Jake was simply busy or if he’d fallen asleep. Because it’s now tomorrow and he has to go and report to his new posting. He can also stop by the admin building and lodge his new marriage papers. Holy shit. He’s probably going to have so much paperwork. Maybe he should delay it a couple of months?

                No.

                Fuck it.

                He snaps a quick selfie, and he’s sleep-mussed and a bit blurry eyed but he’s pretty sure Bradley has seen him looking worse.

>>Morning. Sorry about falling asleep. Apology photo. I’ll send you another one later when I’m not half asleep.

                Sending a picture of him in full uniform would probably answer a few questions, but he’d like to tell Bradley he’s in the service rather than surprise him with it… although maybe he already knows? Something is niggling in his mind and he tries to grab it but it continues to elude him. Ah well, soon enough he’ll be able to tell Bradley himself.

>>You look good.

>>What are you doing awake?

>>6am flight remember?

>>Damn. I forgot.

>>Just queuing up to board now.

>>On time.

>>Miracles do happen.

>>Where are you headed?

>>Cali.

>>But I could be persuaded to call Texas home with the right incentive.

                Jake blinks at that. Not sure how to take it, whether it’s a joke or whether Bradley would seriously consider uprooting his entire life because Jake calls Texas home. He doesn’t need to wait long though before another message is coming through and it’s quickly becoming apparent that Bradley sends messages freely, easily and openly and he likes it.

>>I mean it’s where my husband is from.

>>Can I call you?

>>Sure.

>>Just about to enter the plane.

>>Give me a couple of minutes. I’ll call you.

>>Of course. I’m not going anywhere.

                He settles back, lets himself relax and wonders realistically how much time they’ll have to talk. At dinner last night Hannah had kept making him sly digs about needing to make a call, and his parents had known was something was up, but he’d managed to deflect all their questions onto other matters. They had taken him coming out with very little surprise and he wonders how long they’ve suspected. He did mention that there was maybe someone, but he’d wait a couple of months before introducing them. Hannah had been fucking useless, more hindrance than help and he wonders what she’s currently trying to hide from their parents. Then his phone is vibrating in his hand and he can’t helping grinning at the picture of Bradley that appears and he answers it, lets himself lie back down on his bed.

                “Hi…”

                “Hi, how are you?”

                “Hi. I’m good. You sound far more awake than me and it’s earlier for you.”

                “I’m used to early mornings. Don’t mind them in fact.”

                “That right?” Jake asks with a smile, thinks about yesterday morning and the pillow he’d pulled over his head. Maybe the alcohol and hangover were to blame for that then, and he adds it to his small pile of information about Bradley. “Didn’t seem that way yesterday…”

                “Holy shit. Feels like it was longer than yesterday.”

                “Happy two-day anniversary…”

                Bradley’s laugh makes him feel warm and he realizes he’s smiling at an empty room.

                “Happy anniversary to you too… How was dinner with your family? Who was there?”

                “Uh. My parents. My two sisters, Caroline and Hannah. Older and younger. Uh… Caroline’s husband and their baby. My nephew. I have a brother as well. My twin actually. He’s currently out of state studying, travels a lot… he does some pretty crazy shit.”

                “Yeah? What, oh… sorry. Just let me…” Bradley’s voice goes muffled then and he’s obviously got people moving around him, isn’t talking to Jake right now. “Sorry Jake. You still there?”

                “Course darlin’, I’m not the one on a plane…”

                “Yeah. I’ve only got a couple of minutes before they’ll make us turn our phones off for takeoff. I’m already getting some dirty looks. I’ll be able to talk tonight. Eighteen hundred work for you?”

                “I’ll make it work,” Jake promises.

                “Talk to you later.”

                “Later.”

…            …            …

                He showers and dresses in his uniform, packs his bag. Hannah is driving him to Corpus Christi. It’s not a long trip, close enough to come back visit for weekends, but not so close that necessitates the need to stay on base.

                “Talk to your hubby today?”

                “Yep. I have actually.”

                “And how is he?”

                “Good.”

                “Good? And? Fucks sake Jake, this is like getting blood out of a stone.”

                “And what?”

                “Did you find out where he’s from? What he does? Anything?”

                “He… was getting on a plane to California. So. Maybe California?” Jake provides, but his brain is catching on the memory of Bradley saying he’d move to Texas and that had thrilled him, until the harsh reality that he doesn’t fucking live in Texas most of the time. He lives wherever the US Navy sends him, regardless of where he might call home.

                “Can I have his number?”

                “No!”

                “Ugh. Spoilsport. Bet I’d get more information out of him.”

                “Yeah, probably,” Jake agrees, because he doubts Hannah would get sidetracked about remembering the way Bradley looks when he smiles. “Anyway, what were you hiding last night? You got a new boyfriend or something?”

                “What? What makes you think that?”

                “Because you controlled the conversation at dinner last night like a fucking militant conductor. Don’t think I didn’t notice. Caroline would have noticed it if she wasn’t trying to entertain Brody. And that distracted mom enough. So. What’s up?”

                That’s all it takes, and he settles back to listen to her current love life woes and he gets to relax for the rest of the drive, because clearly she needs to offload about how stupid the current guy she’s interested in is, and Jake makes interested noises, wonders if he’ll ever meet this one. She might give him shit, but she guards her own private life just as closely as he does. He wonders if it’s because it means it doesn’t make him stick out so much when he isn’t the only one not over sharing.

                Regardless, that part of him is no longer a secret, his parents and older sister know now and it went just as well as he expected. Then he’s passing over his military ID so Hannah can enter the base and drop him off. He goes through the usual routine, hugs Hannah goodbye and then reports in. Drops his bag at his bare bones base accommodation, home for the next five months. He has the paper work he has to take to the admin building, but first he has a really important phone call to make. He doesn’t message first, either he’ll answer or he won’t.

                “Is now a good time?”

                “Any time is a good time for you.”

                “Tyler.”

                “Jake.”

                There’s nothing for it. Tyler didn’t need to be at dinner last night because he already knows everything there is about him.

                “I came out to mom and dad last night. And Caroline and her husband obviously.”

                “You finally coming out to me?”

                “Fuck off…” Jake mutters, because he hasn’t ever technically told Tyler, but he’s pretty sure his twin figured it out when he walked in on him and Jonny making out back in high school. He’d been terrified at the time that it would drive a wedge between them somehow. He needn’t have worried. Tyler had just grinned, given him a fist bump and told him that he was glad he finally didn’t have to share or compete for the ladies with him.

                “Well. I love you. You know that.”

                “Yeah. I know. I just… uh. I have to tell you something.”

                “Okay. Hit me.”

                “I got married.”

                “What?” Tyler asks, voice suddenly cold and Jake realizes he’s fucked up. Hadn’t even realized until just now. Shit.

                “Uh… it wasn’t exactly planned.”

                “Yeah. No shit. You said I’d get to be your best man!”

                “I was drunk Tyler…”

                “Fucking hell Jake… So drunk you forgot I was meant to be there?”

                “I know, I know… it’s just, uh… Vegas you know? Plus he’s…”

                “No. I don’t know. Because I’ve never been to Vegas. Fuck. What did mom and dad say about it?”

                “Uh. Didn’t mention the whole marriage part.”

                That has Tyler laughing then and it makes something inside him relax.

                “Oh my god… you have come out to me. You just came out to me as married. Thanks for making me feel included. Wait. Are you staying married?”

                “Uh yeah. We are. For now… going to get to know each other. Actually give it a go.”

                “Oh shit… Cool. What’s his name?”

                “Bradley,” Jake offers, decides he’ll keep Bradley’s last name to himself for now. Doesn’t need Tyler mocking him for something else right now.

                “Oh my god… the way you just said that name. You big fucking sap.”

                “Yeah,” Jake agrees, because if Hannah can get the truth out of him with two questions, Tyler doesn’t need to ask at all. Just knows.

                “You got a photo? You’re going to have to have a party or something if it all works out. I want to do an embarrassing best man speech…”

                “Sure sure. Whatever. I’ll send you a photo. I’ve got to go and talk with the admin office. Figure out how to lodge these papers…”

                “Dude… you… are you lodging your marriage papers? Like… without telling mom and ad you’re married?”

                “Yeah?”

                “Nice… I look forward to having son of the year award when they find that out. Only you man… holy shit. So. What does he do?”

                Jake groans. Tyler and Hannah can form a fucking club.

                “I don’t fucking know okay? Hannah asked the same thing, and I haven’t managed to talk to him long enough to have a proper conversation without me having to leave to get on a plane, or him being on a plane. We’re talking tonight. He doesn’t know what I do either.”

                “Better hope he’s not anti-military or something, because pretty sure that’s ground for a divorce or something right there…” Tyler cackles.

                “Fuck off,” Jake mutters, but he’s grinning, talking to Tyler always makes him feel like he can take on anything with his brother beside him, even when they disagree he knows Tyler will support him. He does hope Bradley isn’t anti-military. That would be kind of awkward, but he feels like that isn’t the case. That there’s something, just on the edge of his hazy memories of not quite two days ago now. “Pretty sure he’s not anti-military.”

                “Well. You let me know when you find out. Everything else good with the family?”

                “Yeah. Hunter was eating solid food at dinner last night. Think the floor ate more of it than he did.”

                “Can’t believe Caroline is a mom.”

                They talk for a little bit, he asks about his studies and recent chases and wonders what the hell their mom was doing when she was pregnant with them to have two boys obsessed with the sky the ways that they are. He loves the fact that Tyler gets him though, and that he understand Tyler’s obsession in turn.

                “Right. I’ll let you go submit your marriage license. Holy shit. My brother is married.”

                “Yeah yeah… let’s hope I stay that way.”

                “Yeah. Of course. Love you bro.”

                “Love you too…”

                He gets off the phone with a grin, and he’s already outside the admin building and he steps inside, eyes taking a while to adjust to the sudden dimness of the building after the bright sunshine outside.

                “Good afternoon…”

                “Good afternoon Lieutenant. How can I help?”

                “I have a couple of questions I was hoping you could help me with…” Jake starts, and his mind is racing. He doesn’t want to admit he got drunk-married. That is all sorts of mortifying in the face of the stern-faced woman looking at him from across the counter.

                “I was in Vegas with my, uh, boyfriend… and we kind of did something a little… spontaneous and… rash.”

                “Okay. And what is it exactly you need my help with?”

                “Uh. Yeah. Sorry. Just. I got married. We got married. And I was just wondering if I should worry about lodging the papers and doing the paperwork… how much work is that to do exactly?”

                “Do you have all the papers with you?”

                “Yes.”

                She holds out a beckoning hand and Jake startles a little, hands over the folded pieces of paper and watches as she unfolds them and scans her eyes down the page.

                “Oh. Oh really? Bradley Bradshaw. That has to be Lieutenant Bradshaw. That’s sweet. Congratulations to you both…”

                “Uh. Yes. That’s right…” Jake says, mind racing. Bradley’s Navy as well. And has likely been posted in Corpus before, because Janice’s mind is a steel trap for names and dates and Jake knows she wouldn’t make a slip up. He sure as hell isn’t going to mention the fact that he doesn’t know his husband’s job. Fuck. What are the chances. At least a plausible way of meeting rather than getting drunkenly married in Vegas, that might be a bullet he gets to dodge if he ever gets to introduce his parents to Bradley. He feels a little hysterical bubble of laughter and he lets it out, pretty sure it’s going to sound joyful rather than completely unhinged.

                “You know, there’s so many more of you coming in and updating your contact details now with the names of your partners. It’s really good to see. Love is love!”

                “Uh huh…” Jake says, feeling slightly manic. Oh… some vague memory is coming back about them maybe both celebrating the fact that DADT had been repealed. Shit. Maybe Bradley already knows what Jake does? Assumed Jake knew and remembered as well? Grand gesture. Fucking hell. That was it. They’d talked about making a grand gesture.

                When he’d talked to Bradley earlier he’d said they’d talk at eighteen hundred and Jake had just agreed, but that’s… that’s not how most people use time. Okay. At least Bradley won’t be antimilitary at least. He really needs, now, wants to talk to him though. If he was going to California he could have been reporting in to North Island. He could be getting ready to be shipped out. That’s… it fills him with a sense of giddy relief, that he’s not married to someone who has zero understanding of what his life is like. That he’s somehow ended up married to a gorgeous man who just so happens to serve in the same branch of the defense force as him.

                What are the fucking chances.

PART FIVE

[lotusprotocol]

dreamcatcher devlog: past 3 months (oops)

(screenshot from current wip level, out of orbit)

full devlog below the cut!

long time no see! really sorry for missing the past two months; i never ended up getting started and by then it was too late to post. i'll try my best not to let this happen again, though i can't make any promises.

anyways, there's been a lot in the past couple months! without further ado, here's everything(?) that's happened since the last devlog:

i started off in december by getting some of the core mechanics working, such as the camera, level transitions, etc. the visuals aren't completely done yet, but my main priority is getting the mechanics to actually work, and i'll make them look good later.

i did a lot of work on optimizing the performance and build size of my game, which i made a few posts about (big one about build size here)

i made another track for one of the levels, and i think i've been improving at music! here's the audio:

(i also tried making album art later in december but it didn't turn out good so i'll redo it at some point)

one of the most important things i did in december was get playtesters! i made applications open from the 15th to the 22nd, and chose 6 people who submitted. it was hard for me to leave people out though, but applications may be open again sometime in the future.

i set up a daily goals list to put 5 things on every day, and hopefully stay focused. admittedly, it's been a while since i used this list, and i lowkey forgot about it until i looked through my post history before making this devlog, but i think i'll get back into it this month.

i also set up a twitch channel! i'll be streaming over at https://www.twitch.tv/lotus_protocol if you want to check it out!

i was on break for the last week of december, so i was able to get a lot more done in that time. i also got a stylus, which is a really nice upgrade from drawing with my finger before, and did a lot of practice with it.

january didn't start off great, and i barely got anything done over the first couple weeks. i was eventually able to get back in the groove, but i had a sucky feeling during that time since this game's a big part of my life and my mood depends quite a bit on it (in a healthy way though, it's not out of control)

when i came back to working on the game, i polished some stuff up before pushing the first playtester build! i got some valuable advice, and it went pretty good.

i wrote down the outline for the entire story! there's still some wiggle room if i want to go back and change anything, but it's nice to have it down instead of only in my head, and i've wrote the dialogue for a few scenes already.

i've been improving my art a considerable amount over january and february! i've gotten a lot more confident in my art as well, which motivates me more to make it!

(pencil sketch from mid february; there's quite a few mistakes here and there but i still really like it)

i continued working on one of the levels, which was what i did for the rest of the month. not much i can say here, but it's been shaping up pretty good so far!

to be honest, february wasn't a good month for development. i had a lack of motivation and a lot of work to do for other things in my life, and there was barely anything new from last month.

the main thing i did in february was work on the tas tools for the game more, which are coming along nicely. i've been having an issue with consistency and don't know exactly what's causing it, but i'll figure it out eventually.

(unrelated to dreamcatcher but) during february, i took some time to make a side project i had been wanting to do for a long time: an upgraded level editor for red ball, a flash game that i enjoy. there's still plenty of work to do on it, but so far it's pretty nice, and it's not my main focus right now.

(screenshot of the tool, you can find it here it you're interested)

i've also been delaying the next playtester build for a long time, and it was originally supposed to come out at the start of last month; if there's any playtesters reading this, sorry again! i'll hopefully have it done this month.

i finished off february by making some more music! here's a wip from a few days ago:

and that's it for the past 3 months! with all that being said, here's what i plan on doing next month:

get the current wip level done, and hopefully do another full one

finish all story scenes for the demo

push at least two new playtester builds

do some story art if i have time

enjoy the process :]

that's all for this devlog, and if you made it this far, thanks for reading! right now, i'm trying to get the demo out by august this year, so expect to see something done by then. also feel free to join the discord server, where you can get more regular updates, ask me questions, or chat with the community! anyways, signing off now, have a great day!

[count-von-kit]

Current WIPs and Some Incoherent Ramblings

🌹 Realm of Roses & Rosaries: With chapter 2 of my silly little for-funsies writing mess completed, I have now started on plotting where I want chapter 3 to go, with an outline.

So far I have the first arc planned to be five chapters total. My issue with this is that I initially wanted to write shorter chapters (less than 15 pages), but there's so much yet I still want to happen that I feel like they may just be longer. And, I mean, so long as I'm not dropping some 25-40+ paged chapter, I think I'll be ok with that. My ultimate goal was to make sure I was having fun with this and writing strictly for myself, so that's what I guess I'm going to throw in my face whenever I start to question something I'm doing.

As for the other arcs, I'm... still trying to organize that all in my head. Because I know what I need to get the characters to where they need to be. If that's the case and I keep them all together, with 5 chapters each between them, that would be a total of 15 collectively for the trio. With a third and final arc being their revolution and the final battle against the big bad. I think for an approach that's fine enough, and satisfies what I want.

🌹 Abel's YTP: Ugh. I'll be honest I was working on this, but then since editing a side document during a TTRPG night, I forgot (maybe) to transfer over changes (maybe), so now I'm not sure which draft was my good draft, and I really hate when I do this to myself. So I haven't been able to go back to look at it just yet. I know I'll have to figure this out at some point, but the issue is that both variants read fine, so I'm just at a loss. That said, there is a lot still to this. Chapter 3 is "finished", but the revisions are what is keeping me from marking it as DONE done. I really need to sit down at some point and finish it so that I can move onto transferring chapter 4 from my notebook onto my PC's worddoc. Far as the full novel goes, it's still 5 chapters lone, with an Epilogue, and four smaller shorts in-between as intermissions (because music-based). So uh... This project is still nowhere near completion. But also I think once I get a lot of my other WIPs cleared (I know, that's a huge writer lol there. Don't look at me rn. I can hope), I'll be able to come back to focusing on this. That's my plan anyway.

🌹 Xmas Piece: This is the time of year I should be starting to wrap this up. I vented to a friend about this last night on Discord, about how I really don't have much left to do with this. Literally 3 scenes left to finalize. That's it. But I think the reason why I haven't gone back to work on it is because of two things:

The first being my mood so far has actually been pretty good! Which is surprising given my depression is amplified by the onset of seasonal depression which just makes it an awful time for me mentally? Despite the fact I actually really love autumn? I've been hanging out with some friends more which has fed my starvation of human interaction, and I've been laughing more at some of the silly things going on - whether its something I've been reading or watching, or just something off-the-wall a friend has sent me. I've just been getting a lot more serotonin lately, and it's been kinda nice.

The second reason I feel hesitant is because this is the emotional climax to the story, where a lot of shit just drops. Normally when I'm in a bad mood I tend to write that energy into these kind of scenes because mentally I'm already there so why not? But also because I've been in such a good mood lately I'm kinda terrified that by crawling into the bathtub of bad vibes and big sad to soak in, that it'll wipe away my good mood. If that... makes sense. I've had to forcefully put myself in not-so-great mindsets before just to write out specific scenes from my other novel that's just... kinda setting off to the side... and I guess because of that, because it pulls big ol' sad energy from very specific songs, I'm apprehensive maybe that it'll happen. It has a happen ending, so I know I don't have to worry about anything. But ugh. I just need to push myself at some point or another.

🌹 Soloing The Other Side: This one is super close to being done. I haven't worked on it for a while, but I only had a few bits to finish up. Unfortunately it won't make much sense until I finish up the Xmas piece mentioned above, because it follows directly after, but at least by the end of the day it's a smaller and singular (not multi-chapter) piece I can cross off once completed. It's not complexed, but uh... I've only been working on it because of my apprehension towards Abel's YTP and the Xmas piece. lol

🌹 Abel's Backstory, Part 2: Man... I remember all the shit going on with this, but at the same time I have to completely revise the first part before I post it up, because SO MUCH with Abel has changed. Anyway, I haven't touched this at all with the others above pulling me in different directions. Maybe at some point I will get this finished. It's still in the very beginning stages, but tbh I think to get those vibes going I should just relisten to Magnus Archives, because damn does listening to Jonathan Sim read really inspire me to write.

🌹 Other Miscellaneous Ao3 Projects: Of the multitude of ongoing Ao3 projects I have that were "almost finished and then forgotten", I know I have quite a few. On top of everything else listed above. In terms of priority, the ones I'd like to finish, ideally, are Les Vampires (because it's close to the ending), Espresso-ly For You (because it's also almost finished), and maaaybe Eleanor? I haven't quite decided entirely. I'd like to finish the Senpai one as well, but that one is a bit harder to do because it's filled with so many inside jokes. I just... I need to not have writer's block when revising things, or to lose interest so I can actually finish all of these. ToT

[catboy-jupiter]

thx for the tag @kalira !! ₍^ >ヮ<^₎ ･ﾟ✧

[🎶] last song: according to my yt history that'd be Heathers' "Me Inside of Me", but since i've watched some yt essays since then it'd probably be some song they put on the background lol

[🎨] favourite colour: despite my profile colour scheme, pink is only my fifth fav colour (tied with purple)! my fav colour is actually black; or if it doesn't count, red and blue have a joint third place ^^

[📚] last book: ok. so. if manga counts: Boys Run the Riot. if not, but webnovels count: Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. if only physical novels count: Scum Villain's Self-saving System

[🎥] last movie: in general it's "Haikyuu!! Battle of the Garbage Dump", but in cinemas it was "Deadpool & Wolverine"

[📺] last TV show: that'd be Blue Lock S2!

[🍴] sweet/spicy/savoury: either sweet or savoury (i dont have much spice tolerance)... but i can tolerate way more sweetness so i'm going with that!

[🧠] current obsession: oh it's definitely batfamily stuff, hands down, no need to think at all lol specifically the robins (+ kon, match & bernard thanks to suzukiblu's wips), and more specifically yet dick grayson & jason todd

[🔍] last thing I searched online: i found out the scratches video essay had a part two so i watched it and when i was going to comment i totally forgot the characters' names (i heard the child was called robin blackwood and immediately forgot all other names bc apparently i now laser focus on any robin mention, even if completely unrelated to batfam stuff)... so i searched for "scratches blackwood" and clicked on the wiki to make sure i got them right 👍

[🏁] looking forward to: a bunch of my wips/fics finally being posted or getting more progress than they've had in years! also participating in fandom events (currently on the cyhaino big bang + planning for dc rarepair week, dickjay week and dick grayson week) :3 also going back to my singing + theater classes since i had to stop for a semester last year

[🌐] ten people I'd like to know better: i'm tagging (no pressure!!) @demonicsuffrage @teafairyartandmore @viery + anyone who wants to join in since i don't have that many ppl to tag lol

Ten people i’d like to know better

Thanks for the tag @hermiola

last song: one of the songs I loved most lately is 'In The Modern World' by Fontaines D.C.

favourite colour: blue

last book: that is not fanfic? 😂 The last book I've read is Persuasion (and yes, it was my first time). I'm currently reading Emma and a very Italian book written by the same awesome author who tagged me for this game (@hermiola 💜)

last movie: I can't tell you the last 'new' movie I watched at the cinema because I'm a bit ashamed (it's a Xmas movie made by two Italian youtubers, but what don't we do for our kids?). Last movie I watched on my couch, though, is Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (and yes, I don't feel fine about it 🤣)

last TV show: I'm watching THERE SHE GOES for the first time and I've just re-watched Around the world in 80 days. I'm also currently re-watching Scrubs and Staged with my husband (his first time, he's loving it 😂). Last 'new' show I've watched and finished is probably Dead Boy Detectives, though. Oh, I'm also currently re-watching Good Omens. Like constantly, always.

sweet/spicy/savoury: savoury

last thing i searched online: holiday vacation destinations for next summer (because the kids, again, you know 😃)

current obsession: Good Omens-Good Omens-Good Omens-Good Omens-Good Omens-Good Omens-Good Omens-Good Omens-Good Omens-Good Omens-Good Omens-Good Omens-Good Omens-Good Omens-Good Omens. Probably, also the whole M+D world (so, Staged too, apparently) 😂

looking forward to: those fu**ing pictures of Michael and David with dyed hair.

ten people i’d like to know better: (no pressure tags 🤩)

@anatomic-girl @ineffablerainstorm @somewhere-in-wales @captainblou @firephoenix2305 @phoen1xr0se @sunrisesinthesuburbs @bellisima-writes @yokohamama @missunderstoodlyrics

[nburkhardt]

Somebody Loves You, You Got A Friend. (Part 8)

Other parts: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Seeing as all my current WIPs are making me mad, I nearly forgot about this. Since it’s already written out and in my notes app, I thought I should post it lol.

Quick note: a few POV changes happen, there’s a bit of plot and I kinda bash Nancy a bit. (picks up right after part 7)

Gareth watches as Eddie falls asleep and he only knows because of how relaxed his friend looks and he pulls his eyes away to find the freshmen looking so confused.

They don’t ask anything, thankfully, but they’re not at all sneaky with their glances towards Eddie. Or the completely silent conversation they have with each other.

He just hopes whatever it’s about doesn’t involve Eddie.

Eddie’s dragging the rest of the day and Gareth is about ready to explode at how dumb his friend is being, “dude, you should’ve stayed home”

“I had to take tests, that effects my final grades” he says, “I- Ms. Click fucking hates me dude”

And unfortunately, his friend is right and he has to watch as he suffers finding his work and everything else. The rest of the day is pretty boring, the only weird thing was catching Nancy Wheeler eye Eddie during their shared class. He only noticed because he’s trying and failing at not laughing at Eddie, who’s nodding off during Mr. Smith’s lecture.

Once the final bell rings, he’s trying to find Eddie since their last class isn’t shared.

He turns the corner and nearly falls on his ass, “fuck” he mumbles and looks to see the person he ran into, “dude my bad.”

Jonathan Byers nods and helps him up, “sorry, I wasn’t paying attention either”

He’s about to say something else, when he hears an all too familiar laugh. Looking around he finds Eddie with a nasty glare aimed at Nancy Wheeler, he looks at Jonathan and wordlessly they both move towards the other two.

“I don’t fucking sell shit anymore, Wheeler and it wouldn’t be any of your business if I did!”

She crossed her arms and glares up at Eddie, “but you did sell! And it is my business!”

He can just see Eddie’s anger, before anything else happens, he steps closer to his friend and quickly grabs his arm, “Eddie let’s go, cool off before you get home, yeah?”

Eddie doesn’t answer, just glares at Nancy, “it’s not your business, he told you to stay away! That means, stay away from me too.”

He doesn’t say more, simply because Gareth punches his arm and leads him back out, “dude what the fuck?”

Eddie shakes his head and makes a beeline to the van, “Nancy is a bitch, dude.”

“I noticed, who were you talking about?”

“Stevie. Nancy believes she can get him to help her with some shit. Been like this for a year now, when Stevie and I were only just starting out with our friendship” Eddie explains with a glare aimed at nothing and his hands clutching and unclutching from frustration, “When he was only a few months pregnant, there was one morning where his mom answered the door to find her standing there and wanted her to wake him up to fucking talk about whatever”

That’s, really fucking confusing to Gareth. He looks towards the school and sees Jonathan and Nancy walk out with their brothers, “didn’t Nancy break up with Steve?”

Eddie let out a near hysterical laugh, a cigarette dangling from his mouth now, “She nearly fucking broke him, actually.”

“What?”

Eddie jumps into the drivers seat, pointing a finger to his passenger seat and he doesn’t need to be told twice. Once inside the van and Eddie starts it up, “Stevie told me that she blamed him for Barb’s death and his mom told me about how she found him sobbing about it. He said Nancy called him bullshit, that their whole relationship was bullshit.”

“Fuck dude”

He’ll never be able to look at Nancy the same, “and now she’s pushing you to what?”

Eddie scruffs and turns down his street, “Fuck, I don’t even know. She came up to me demanding to know if I knew why Stevie left school or where he is, then when I wouldn’t answer, tried saying I’m a bad influence”

He laughed, “I mean you are but not like that”

“Fuck you dude” he smiles and shakes his head, “I haven’t sold anything since I found about Ellie. Wayne pulled me aside after we told him, to tell me that I needed to stop- I mean, I already was thinking it.” He shrugs, “I don’t know why Nancy would think like that”

Gareth doesn’t either and he tells this to Eddie, the van comes to a stop in front of his home, “I don’t know either, she sounds like she’s a little obsessed with Steve.”

“I know and it’s weird, right?”

The Next Day

Eddie is woken up by Eleanor’s cry and he groans, he feels Steve stir next to him and he shushes him, “stay, I’ll grab her” he gets a hum in return and he sits up before dragging himself over to her crib.

She’s kicking her legs and wiggling trying to get out of the blanket, “hey baby” he whispers to catch her attention, she blinks up at him and whines.

Smiling, he lifts her up and rocks her, “come on, cranky.” He looks over and sees Steve smiling at him, it makes his heart beat a little faster.

Steve moves up a bit and pulls his shirt off, before he can even sit down next to him. Eleanor is no longer crying, thankfully, but Steve still makes grabby hands at him.

Laughing, he hands her over and then pulls the covers back over them before wrapping his arm around Steve. They sit in silence as Eleanor drinks and Steve drops his head onto his shoulder, “I guess it’s another long day”

Laughing softly he pressed a kiss to his head, “want me to stay home?”

“Maybe? She was so fussy yesterday, Eds.” He whispers, a hand patting her back, “even mom couldn’t get her to settle”

Later on Janet finds all three of them in bed asleep, Eleanor in Steve’s arms and Steve against Eddie. She shakes her head before going over and shaking Eddie, “Honey, don’t you have school today?”

He blinks back sleep and looks up to find her standing there, “nah, I’m skipping today. Gotta help Stevie”

She smiles, nodding before placing a kiss on their foreheads, “I’ll call the school, have one of your friends pick up your schoolwork later, okay?”

He nods and she smiles before walking out of the room and he looks down to find Steve still asleep with Eleanor snuggled against him. Sighing, he relaxes back down and decides they don’t need to get up anytime soon.

Steve is humming along to the mixtape Eddie put on to fill the kitchen as they make breakfast/lunch.

It’s currently noon and Eleanor is having tummy time in the living room with Eddie, while he’s busy making breakfast sandwiches. They slept in until nearly eleven and when they made their way downstairs, Steve found a note from his mom telling them she had several appointments today.

He can hear Eddie encouraging Eleanor to move around as he makes his way towards them with their food, when the doorbell rings. Confused, he sets the plates down and goes to the front door and through the peephole finds Nancy and Jonathan.

Even more confused and a little frustrated, he opens the door with, “Isn’t today a school day? Why are you guys here?”

They both look shocked to see him, which is weird since they’re the one’s knocking on his door.

“I’ve been trying to find you!” Nancy starts with and there’s her angry determination, “you’ve been locked up in your house?!”

Jonathan just looks uncomfortable.

Raising an eyebrow at her, he shakes his head, “uh, yes? I live here. Just because we don’t run into each other doesn’t mean I left town. Just my asshole father, now you should go back to school. Isn’t this your senior year?”

“Shouldn’t you be there with us?”

Rolling his eyes, he leans against the wall. Giving the impression of indifference, “I graduated earlier this year, through a different school. Not that it concerns you, I’ve told you before, Nancy. I’m not your boyfriend, and I’m definitely not your friend.” He then looks At Jonathan then back at her, “he’s your boyfriend, now leave me alone. Leave Eddie alone while you’re at it”

Nancy narrows her eyes at him and he can just barely smell the annoyance in the air from her scent, “So you are still friends with him? Is he the reason you dropped out? Why you won’t help with the upside down?”

“I have much more important things in life,” he thinks of carrying Eleanor for nine months, holding her and feeding her, thinks of being with Eddie and the alpha holding him like he’s the whole world, “like I said before, I was there to apologize. I stepped in when you needed help, but afterwards? We were told it was over. Will was found and is fine and safe. Shouldn’t you guys be over this?”

Neither person in front of him can give him an answer because he hears Eddie shout, “Oh Stevie! The little missy and I miss you!”

He sees the confusion on their faces and before they can ask, he slams the door in their faces. Which if he’s being honest, he should’ve done sooner. He locks the door and turns around to the ones that actually deserve his attention.

He knows, Nancy won’t give up though.

~

Yikes I completely forgot how I wrote Nancy in this 🫣 oops. Please know I DO love her but she’s just a stubborn person and can’t understand that Steve’s not involved and refuses to be involved.

I can’t believe I added plot to this lol anyway, we’ll get to more slice of life again 🥰

If you see any typos or mistakes, let me know!! Also if you have any ideas that you’d like to see, send me an ask or message! Same goes for if you want to be added to the tag list!

@spectrum-spectre @itsfreakingbats @mysticcrownshipper @artiststarme @thereindeerlady @justforthedead89 @ronniescontinuum @freyaforestafay @littlewildflowerkitten @zerokrox-blog @callme-keys @maya-custodios-dionach @rajumat @yellowdevilkitten @munsonfamilyband @steddierthings @tartarusfairy @mx-jinxous @zombiethingy @lunaticmarunatic @carlyv @thelittleclare @estrellami-1 @epiclazershark @bookworm0690 @forest-fogg @flustratedcas @p0lybl4nkk @tiny-enthusiast @a-gae-af-racoon @blackpanzy @marvelmwah @malicia62 @solliesolesito

[chevvy-ryder]

WIP Wednesday Thursday.

Got tagged by @theviridianbunny , thank you!

I'm never good with these sorts of posts. So hmm, what I'm currently working on? Way too much. I have so many ideas and new ones keep pushing in each day and I'm super bad at going after my list and tend to throw stuff in between plans. I'm currently very emotional about Ry again but my brain jumps from one boy to the next. Jaysen gets more and more Interesting as well, thanks to his tie to the story but also his own main one. I try to find out Thyjs' character in between. Vjay i well developed and easy going as in most unproblematic so I focus mainly on the others. I try to take new vp as we speak, I try to catch up, I try to finish layouts, I try to write, my head is all over the place.

Too many things but here's a bit more insight if you have time to read:

1.

I just got a bunch of very amusing shots done with Ryder and @gloryride 's Vanessa. I can say that much: Ry lost a bet. The idea of taking one simple pic turned into a lil' story, some real shots, mirror selfies and a mini set where Vanessa personally comes over (they are neighbors) to bring Ry things he needs for what they agreed on what the bet was. So much is said: it's not Ryder's fav color. 😁

2.

I made it to take some pride shots the other day. Ry was first since his mods had still been in the folder. So I did this post with the gay pride shirt. I attempted Thjys next yesterday but did not come far. Will pick it up later. Not sure if I'm gonna do the same with Vijay and Jaysen as well. I mainly focus on my two gay boys first.

3.

Whenever I find time I try to answer rp stuff for the story. And because I noticed 'm still struggling with how to write Ryder I started lose fic parts just for myself with Ry and Thy. Here's a snippet:

Ryder starts walking towards the bed, he bends down to pick up the combat boots that were lying in front of the bed and puts them away where they belong: to the rest of the neatly aligned boots collection. ‘There must be order in this apartment’ as Ry’s OCD part would say. Only now he notices the record playing. He reaches for the cover. “I completely forgot I own this gem,” Ry says scanning the track list. “Was amongst your noisy music,” Thyjs replies, pretending to read further in his book but in reality he was just looking at the words for now.

“You nosed through my music?” De Wit looks up once again. “Do I need permission to do that Sir?” Ry makes a face at the request, thinking a moment about it. “Yeah, you should.” Thyjs smirks at that. “Oké!” He repositions himself upwards. “Permission to kiss, Meneer!” “Granted.” Thyjs doesn’t wait after that, places the book aside and immediately grabs and draws Ryder towards him, making him land half on the bed next to him. Ryder responds within a second with a deep and long kiss. Fair pressure, and eager for more but then lets go so he could look at his soldier again while De Wit seems to be unable to open his eyes for a moment afterward. He is still processing the aftermath of that deep buss until he feels a hand laying on his chest wrapped in a dark green shirt. Staring into Thy’s sudden hungry two colored eyes, seeing him smiling a bit cheekily, made Ryder’s heart beat faster, squeezing the hand that got intertwined with his own. He mumbles a soft “You’re beautiful,” as he brings his hand up to caress Thyjs’ scarred cheek. For another moment they just gaze deeply into each other's eyes until Thy begins to focus Ry’s chest. He let his fingers trace along Scharfenberg’s greater pectoral muscle, black inked fingers gliding over scars, bigger ones than his. Remnants, some claws must have carved into the man’s skin. It must have been years ago though since ink was put over them. “Never asked about what caused those.” Thyjs speaks and searches for the pair of ebony glowing bright white eyes staring right back at him. He could get lost in gazing at those shiny round rings. “Drunk Tyger with metal claws. — 2073, Kabuki, around midnight as I left work. Headed home, got attacked by a group.” “Report further?” “All dead. One beheaded by my blades, the other two missing their limbs.” He will never forget their faces. sheer agony as they bled out. “The one who got me that claw present? I turned him into something … unidentifiable.”

Thyjs’ fingers were still tracing the leftover marks as he listened, until Ry placed his own hand onto his wrist, gaze shortly looking at his own arms with the sleeping blades inside. He feels the beast within already pricking up its ears as soon as he mentioned one of those past uncontrolled terminations he’s done. Killing them was righteous. They harmed you. Wanted you dead. Just for fun. We turned the tables. All that splatter. We killed them all. A feast. — It was no fun at all. On the contrary. “First time I lost control like that,” he adds. It frightened Ryder so much back then he didn’t leave his apartment for a week. Wishing this pounding voice he was starting to hear more and more clearly to go away. But it never did. “Didn’t intend to leave such a mess.” De Wit takes Ryder's hand. “Self-defense.” “Ja. But I—” Ryder starts then shies away shortly breaking their eye contact. “I— do not wish to be like this. It makes me not any different from them.” Thyjs does understand. He can feel Ryder's good mood shifting. It happens so fast. His expression is showing a slight anger already, eyebrows narrowing, lips turning into a thin line, teeth gritting behind them. Not only can Thyjs tell it now, he also feels that anger radiating around Scharfenberg. He’s probably judging himself again, so Thyjs tries to steer it back onto something nice, getting him distracted from those sudden thoughts. “We find a way to get rid of it. You’re a good man Ry.” “How can I be good? I’m losing control way too often now.” “I’ve seen it. You care — about the whole team. Everyone’s well being. About making this city a better place. You -do good-. Doing good sometimes requires bloody work. We all have blood on our hands. So do I.” Thyjs’ right hand wanders up under Ry’s chin to make him look at him again. “I’m glad to be part of your team’s vision. I want to help. Everyone — including you, too. Because you deserve to be free from it and happy. And because I–” De Wit pauses unsure of saying it out loud at first, but then proceeds in Dutch to complete. “Ik hou van jou.”

Hearing these sweet but totally uncommon words breaks Ryder’s sudden dark self-deprecating thoughts. He looks at Thyjs confused at first “Du ‘how van yauw’ was?” he repeats more or less with German now, looking at him like a lost puppy all of a sudden. Thyjs can’t help it but let out a laugh. The facial expressions Scharfenberg made sometimes are just so good. Oké, anders dan. “Let me try in duits.” Thyjs can feel the heat rising into his cheeks now. Why is it so complicated to tell someone you love them? He told Ry a while back he’s fallen for him, he just told him he loves him — in Dutch — because it went easier from his lips than in English. He gets nervous again. They shared so many kisses and touches during the last month, how can it still be so hard to say three little words out loud? He looks at Ryder, who is still confused, waiting. “Ick liebe dich.” Three little words spoken so softly with that Dutch accent against Ryder’s face in that rich voice. He understands now and immediately senses a feeling wanting to come back in. A feeling that simply has the magic to blow every dark thought away like a storm blows away dark clouds in the sky. One that is often described with the term ‘butterflies’. Ry smiles at the statement. He leans forth. “Nochmal bitte, deutlich und— in Dutch.” He feels De Wit’s analyzing eyes on him. “Ik hou van jou.” Thy repeats like it’s nothing now, gazing at Ry, cheeks still having their rosé tint. Ry leans in to place a kiss on one. And he repeats, “Hou van yauw, too” before leaning in again for the man’s rosé lips.

—

HNNGASADFSF!!1 It's a WIP right? So maybe dialogue might change. However, I HC these two speaking very softly with each other when they are alone and I thought a lot about would they ever tell each other "I love you" or not. Decided they do that pretty fast. Like some love at first sight thing just too, uh, shy to say it for a time being. Thiyjs always being first. Literally. Ryder is super romantic and at first really careful with Thyjs so he has all the time he needs to adjust into his newly discovered orientation as he wants to (and he adjusts fast as well — wanted to delay it first with some denial but it doesn't fit to Thyjs' character so he accepts fast he's into men). And once he's experienced his first time with Ry, Thyjs will lick blood as well. He's a still water but one that goes veeery deep and I imagine that Ry has a heavy influence on how Thyjs's gonna change from straight soldier to a gay power bottom wearing more crop tops and dress naughtier as well. They will get matching outfits with only slightly different changes.

EDIT: Forgot to tag peepz: @kittenchrissy, @dreamskug, @therealnightcity, @elvenbeard, @imaginarycyberpunk2023, no pressure tho!

[millennialgrandma]

December Wrap Up

What the fuck, how is the year over? I'm finally home after an extended visit with family over the holidays on account of the whole blizzard thing - a whopping 13(?) days of sleeping on the couch and eating Christmas candy and not knowing what day it was - and now you're trying to tell me that it's 2023?? In this economy??

Things I Wrote

Babes, I wrote nothing. I wrote zero things. Not a single writerly thought entered my brain this month.

Things I Read

Word count is going to skew a little higher this month because I *finally* read the final chapter of LaOHA (started way back in April and very poetically finished on Dec 31). Also, a large number of fics can be attributed to holiday group reads over in the RoR discord server. I'm delighted that we're making this a little holiday tradition 💝

Additionally, I was lucky enough to lend my voice to a podfic project. Over 20 voices came together to bring All I Want For Christmas (Is For You To Stop Talking) to life, with a chapter released each day leading up to Christmas. It was such a fun way to experience the story, and you can find the podfic version here!

Fiction:

Nonfiction:

Fanfiction:

Complete: (approx. 419.6k)

All I Want For Christmas (Is For You To Stop Talking) by @femmequixotic and @noeeon (drarry, E, 162.9k)

Advent Group Read: Where the Love-light Gleams by @monsterleadmehome (dramione, E, 4.8k)

Reread for Advent Group Read: I'm Never Lonely When I'm With You by @pacific-rimbaud (dramione, M, 5k)

"I Can't Stop Thinking About It" by brokenpromisesandhope (dramione, E, 10.2k)

Advent Group Read: Naughty or Nice by @morriganmercy (dramione, E, 5k)

Advent Group Read: Christmastime Is (Unfortunately) Here by @inadaze22 (dramione, E, 5k)

Reread for Crack with Friends: Father Christmas by MotherofBulls (dramione, M, 4.1k)

Reread for Crack with Friends: Dramione; OR, Drack Malofy, Second-Rate Detective by @grangerdangerfics (dramione, M, 2k)

Advent Group Read: Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot by @raven-m-3 (dramione, E, 4.4k)

Advent Group Read: brandy, apricot, and spice by @lovesbitca8 (dramione, T, 2k)

Advent Group Read: Christmas Eve by @colubrina (dramione, GA, 1.3k)

Advent Group Read: Crash into Christmas by @scullymurphy (dramione, M, 5k)

Advent Group Read: Richard by @indreamsink (dramione, M, 5k)

Advent Group Read: Snowdrifts by @indreamsink (dramione, T, 5k)

Wanted Man by @kittenshift-17 (hermione/thorfinn, E, 9.5k)

Anything, Minister Granger by @rockthecasbah (dramione, E, 2.6k)

Advent Group Read: Immersion Therapy by @senlinyuwrites (dramione, T, 5k)

Reread for Advent Group Read: Mulled Wine and Kisses by @willhavetheirtrinkets (dramione, E, 4.4k)

Advent Group Read: Towards the Finish of the Year by @willhavetheirtrinkets (dramione, T, 4.7k)

Advent Group Read: A Stake of Holly Through His Heart by @lovesbitca8 (dramione, E, 8.7k)

anything you want by harlowvera (darklina, E, 3.5k)

The Yule Guard by @rockthecasbah (dramione, E, 5.7k)

Love and Other Historical Accidents by @pacific-rimbaud (dramione, M, 153.9k)

WIPs: (approx. 4.9k)

Kingdom Come by @inadaze22 and @jaxxartbox - Chapter 10 (dramione, E, 4.9k)

Things I'm Currently Reading (Heading into 2023)

Well, shoot. I made a whole little list for myself in my notebook. Titled it "To Read Before End of Year" and everything. And yet (and yet, and yet).

So I guess heading into 2023, I have 9 WIPs I'm following that I need to catch up on. I started both Chosen by 5moreminutes and Disappearances by @batmansymbol this year (one as part of a group read and the other listening along to live recordings). Life happened and I never finished either, so they are top of my list for 2023. We had also started Contradictions as a group read before life rudely got in the way there, too. Never fear, @ambpersand my love, my horny deranged screams are coming for you this year!!

That's all for now, my doves! I hope you all had a lovely holiday season. Stay tuned for the annual summary stats post for 2022!

[wangxianficrecs]

Follower Recs

Stories I haven’t read yet, but clearly need to put on my ever-expanding List.

~*~

Welcome back queen [Thank you, it’s so lovely to be back!] if ur still doing follower recs I gotta recommend I would wait for a thousand years by bleuett it’s soooooooo good

[This one was actually recced to me by two different people, the other of whom said, “ Maybe I'm crying a little so I feel like a should recommend ‘I would wait for a thousand years’ by bleuett on ao3.”]... it’s def. on my List!

I would wait for a thousand years

by bleuett (T, 10k, wangxian)

Summary:  During the worst of winter, a traveler comes to stay at Lan Wangji's inn. He wears a red ribbon in his hair.

“Do you see the rabbit?” Wei Ying asks and points at the moon. “That’s the moon rabbit, he helps make Chang’e more immortality elixir. He keeps Chang’e company.”

“I do not wish the rabbit for company,” Lan Wangji says tightly. “You are the one I want by my side.”

“And I’m here, Lan Zhan. If you go to the moon, I’ll follow you, I’ll always be here now.”

~*~

I just read a great fic by aisthuu "every love story is a ghost story", didn't see it in your recs so wanted to recommend it! LWJ is a guqin composer and teacher, buys a cheap guqin off eBay which ends up being attached to WWX's spirit from canon era. It's bittersweet, LWJ deals with Lan's homophobia (implicit in a Lan way) and his feelings towards the ghost. This is author's only ao3 fic and honestly I don't remember how I stumbled upon it, but I'm happy I did and hope you will enjoy it too!  [I’ve recently read this one, and loved it!]

every love story is a ghost story

by aisthuu (M, 59k, wangxian, my bookmark)

Summary:  The man is in Lan Zhan’s bed. Did they—he begins to wonder, eyes trailing to where the man’s body lies under the blanket. Had Lan Zhan—?

Then the sleep-fog clears and Lan Zhan realizes that the young man isn’t quite opaque around the edges.

“You’re a spirit.”

The spirit narrows its eyes. “I’m so much more than that.”

(Lan Zhan buys a guqin off eBay for a suspiciously low price, only to find that it’s haunted. And now there’s a ghost in his bed.)

~*~

Ok so I absolutely have to rec "see you yesterday" by glyphic. It's a wip, but it's currently at 101k so there's a whole lot there, and it's terrible and wonderful and beautiful all at once. The way the backstory of canon events is adapted to the modern-with-cultivation setting is brilliant, and then there's the amnesia, and then there's the time loop. This fic lives permanently rent-free in my brain.

see you yesterday

by glyphic (M, 101k, wangxian, WIP)

Summary:  

Wei Ying 21:09 hey lan zhan what’s the weirdest way youve died

Lan Zhan 21:11 Falling encyclopedias.

Wei Ying 21:12 omg no way that’s so rude turning books against you???

Lan Zhan 21:13 A betrayal I will never forget.

On Halloween night, an exiled demonic cultivator and a Lan disciple get stuck in a time-loop, find each other, and try to figure it all out.

~*~

If you are looking for recs for yourself I absolutely love (the complete!) story Just as the Snow Melts by draechali on AO3. It's a canon divergence where everyone lives, even WWX! ~ @airmidcelt

Just as the Snow Melts

by draechaeli (T, 67k, wangxian)

Summary:  Like a snowy mountain top in spring the residents of the Burial Mounds trickled down the mountain and joined the flow of society.

“I went to the Burial Mounds,” Lan WangJi said.

“Ah, yeah… I’m sorry Lan Zhan,” replied Wei WuXian, “I hadn’t thought anyone would come to visit. I am still not sure how it happened; I brought A-Yuan to Yiling to play by the river and then ended up somehow teaching a bunch of children swimming and writing along with him.”

~*~

Hello! It's come to my attention that you have not as yet read Grandmaster of Meme-onic Cultivation! Please do! It's the only thing that gave me joy during 2020 😆 like proper belly laughs and disney villain style cackling. It is a wip, and it is long but so so worth it!! The author has reworked the entire canon through these message crystals and still conveys complex characters despite the tricky format. It's just so good!! Highly highly recommend it! ❤ ~ @theladypeartree  [Oh!  I’ve been subscribed to this one, and know that @swaglexander-the-great is a reliable provider of Hilarity, so I’m excited for it to be finished!]

Grandmaster of Meme-onic Cultivation 

by Hades_the_Blingking (T, 49k, wangxian, WIP)

Summary:  The Untamed universe is exactly the same, except everybody has magical crystals that have a suspiciously familiar messaging system. The story is pretty much the same as the show, except everyone lives!! (so minor changes).

or in which Wei WuXian tries his darndest to date Lan Zhan, Jiang Cheng possibly has a aneurysm, Jin ZiXuan is still the most awkward human alive, and Xue Yang makes me write some VERY cursed things. Written in chatfic format! :3

~*~

Chomrafy on AO3 deserves love and encouragement; she’s written a body of compact, poetic, and eloquent shortfics each of which can stand alone, but that comprise an intricately cross-referential and mostly internally-consistent universe. They’re grouped as chapters in works according to theme; for example, “in cupped hands” focuses upon Jin Ling and his second-generation baggage; “Departure in Autumn” portrays the last years of WWX’s first life. Follow the tag “Chomrafy’s MDZS shortfics.” [I don’t see this tag?]

in cupped hands

by chomrafy (G, 2k, wangxian)

Summary:  Of secrets, of futures, of love. A Jin Ling-centric collection of 200-word fics.

Ch.1: Jin Ling repays a debt (JL, JC, & WWX). Ch.2: Jin Ling and a ghost in the mirror. (JL & JYL) Ch.3: A matter of friends (JL & the other kids) Ch.4: In this house we don't keep dogs (JC & WWX) Ch.5: In the end, he remains silent (JL & uncles) Ch.6: A first night hunt, of sorts (JL & the other kids) Ch.7: Jin Ling, forgiving, forgetting (JL & LXC & JGY) Ch.8: Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling argue (JL, JC, & WWX) Ch.9: Jin Ling and his father (JL & JC) Ch.10: Jin Ling speaks up (JL, JC, & WWX) Ch.11: Jin Ling and a piece of home (JL, JC, & WWX)

Departure in Autumn

by chomrafy (not rated, 6k)

Summary:  Four perspectives. A steady march to the end.

Ch.1: Because if anything happens to them, Wen Qing would never be able to heal with these hands again. Ch.2: As long as this is still home, Jiang Yanli will wait as long as she needs to. Ch.3: Five times Jiang Cheng reaches for Wei Wuxian, one time he turns away. Ch.4: Whether the road is broad or narrow, bright or dark, they would have to keep walking. Wei Wuxian digs Wen Qing's grave.

~*~

Hello, hope all is going well. I don't have an ask, by I do have a recommendation. I read this fic a while ago and found it again. I just wanted to recommend this for everyone. Let me know what you think please. Thank you. [Oh!  This one’s in my To Read list, but  I’d forgotten about it.  Mmmm, fox!wwx and dragon!lwj.]

Ten miles of Lotus Flowers

by Yukirin_Snow

M, 274k, wangxian

Summary:  He was a mischievous fox spirit, wreaking havoc where he went, about to depart on a journey that would span centuries.

He was a heavenly prince, a proud dragon destined to ascend the throne to become emperor.

Neither expected their paths to collide over the span of three lives.

~*~

I forgot if it was your blog 😥 that recommended “Bestseller” (when Wei Wuxian writes the Xianxia cut-sleeve equivalent of Fifty Shades of Grey, based entirely on his experiences with Lan Wangji, he doesn’t expect it to become the next big hit) (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21528316/chapters/51318766)

But OMG IT WAS HILARIOUS!!! I LOVED IT!! And if it wasn’t your blog, I’m so sorry for how weird this sounds 😭😭😭😭 I just loved this fic so much that I have to tell it to someone 😢 [It’s on my List, but I haven’t read it yet!]

Bestseller

by pupeez4eva

M, 8k, wangxian

Summary:  He had written the book to prove a point. It was never supposed to be a big thing, and he certainly never intended for everyone — Jiang Cheng, Zewu-Jun, the Juniors, literally everyone— to be reading about his sex life.

Oh God, he definitely needed to make sure Lan Zhan didn’t find out about this.

(Or, when Wei Wuxian writes the Xianxia cut-sleeve equivalent of Fifty Shades of Grey, based entirely on his experiences with Lan Wangji, he doesn’t expect it to become the next big hit).

~*~

I’d like to rec On Your Marks, Get Set, Bake! by @blackwiresgrowonherhead

It’s one of my absolute favorites and I laughed out loud so many times when reading it

on your marks, get set, bake!

by BlackWiresOnHerHead

G, 41k, wei wuxian & juniors

Summary:  Jin Ling resumes thumping on the door to room 721, and the small collection of freshmen starts chanting “Senior Wei! Senior Wei! Senior Wei!” with increasing volume until finally Wei Wuxian opens the door.

“Yes?” he says with his widest, most innocent eyes.

“Senior Wei!” demands Lan Jingyi, shoving himself to the front of the group. “Why didn’t you tell us you’re a contestant on this year’s season of The Great Gusu Bake Off?!?”

--

Several months ago, college student Wei Wuxian secretly competed in the most popular reality show in the country. The show starts airing in the fall. The freshmen in his dorm collectively lose their minds.

~*~

If you're in the mood for v. short ridiculous fun fic, may I suggest My chain hits my chest/When I'm bangin' on the radio by x_los It's 2k modern cultivators AU, featuring WWX calling LWJ's sword Bitchin' [omg I’m laughing so hard] and I think it's more fun going in blind?

My chain hits my chest/When I'm bangin' on the radio

by x_los

T, 2k, wangxian

Summary:  Lan Wangji finds he doesn't even need to call for help for Wei Wuxian to come running.

[jasontoddiefor]

Title: would you be so kind Ship: obikin Second: Ten years ago, Obi-Wan Kenobi met Anakin Skywalker, a charming young mage from Naboo, but as fate willed, they could not be together. A decade and thousands dead later, Alderaan’s High Court Sorcerer meets a Forger and his excited apprentice. AN: I forgot to post this on tumblr apparently, but here’s the first chapter of my second long WIP I am working on!

Then

The ship was crammed, filled to the brim with people clinging to one another, staring either at the home they’d lost or the home they hoped to be sailing to. Hundreds of ships had left Dromund Kaas already, carrying refugees across the ocean to safer harbors. The tension was high and sharp enough to cut as they sailed away from the doomed country and only relaxed when the pressure of the country’s shields finally left their shoulders.

“An awful sight, isn’t it?”

Anakin startled, instinctually pulled his coat around himself. Were he in a better shape, he would have lashed out immediately, winds, bindings, blood—

But the power flowing through his veins was too constricted, caged like a wild beast. Instead, Anakin just turned to look at the person who’d addressed him. An old woman with snow-white markings and long lekku stared at the dying country just as he had moments before, grief and resignation painting a sorrowful picture. “I never thought I’d leave this place. Did you?”

Wordlessly, Anakin shook his head. No, he certainly hadn’t thought he’d ever leave this place again. He’d been ready to be buried under the ashes of marble altars, not see this new dawn.

“I was born here, married too. All my children were born within the boundaries of this country and perhaps that is the reason they all left,” the woman continued. “I am glad that they weren’t here. If I think about what could have happened to them were they anywhere near the capital… I apologize; I hope you don’t mind my rambling. You looked like you needed company. Are you traveling to Naboo?”

He opened his mouth to reply, to give an affirmation, but stopped. He hadn’t quite thought where he’d go, except as far away from this place as he could. Naboo was certainly an option; Padmé would be glad to see him, he was sure. She’d take him in without asking a single question and defend him against the storms that were sure to come.

But Padmé was his friend and Anakin couldn’t allow her to shoulder his burden.

“No,” Anakin heard himself saying. “I’m not traveling to Naboo.”

“They are quite defenseless right now, yes, you are right. The fact that it’s the first stop of this ship is tempting enough for most to disregard what troubles might find them there.” The woman nodded in understanding. “I’ll be going to Alderaan myself. My eldest lives there, and in a country as strong as that, a tragedy like this can’t strike.”

She turned to look at the remains of Dromund Kaas again. The coastline used to be covered by beautiful large trees; his Master used to tell him how vital they were for its defense.

Now there was nothing but ash and darkness. Even here on the outskirts, where it had taken the longest for the remains of the catastrophe to reach, nobody was safe from it. Dromund Kaas had been in a pitiful state after the last war, which had made it an easy place to hideaway in. Alderaan might be stronger, the blooming center of magical education, but Anakin doubted they’d be able to defend against an attack like this. Nothing could save them from an attack such as this.

But Alderaan’s distance to this cesspit of disease was enough to provide a different kind of security.

Thousands of refugees would search for safety there, and Queen Breha was as cunning as she was kind. No one would be turned away and Anakin could slip in just right with them.

“I’m going to Alderaan as well,” Anakin replied.

The woman looked him over, then she beamed as if she were a young child and not already among the older members of her species.

Her smile was the first Anakin had seen in weeks. “Looks like we’ll be traveling companions then! You must tell me your name, young friend. I’m Raya Tano.”

She held out her hand and Anakin awkwardly shook it with his own left.

“My name is—”

Now

“Anakin Skywalker! Your automaton is ruining my kitchen!”

Sighing, Anakin let the spell sink back into the metal and settle into it. So much for working on his commissions today. A quick glance around the workshop told him that it was not one of his automatons running wild. Artoo was currently charging up and Threepio was keeping himself busy cleaning up. All the other small automatons Anakin crafted when he was bored were either asleep and charging or hurrying around the workshop, washing up the floors and putting away the tools Anakin had been using.

Anakin tugged off his gloves and threw them to a tiny and eager little automaton before picking up his softer everyday gloves. The leather was still quite resistant and had more runes stitched into it than most people dared to weave into one cloth, but they were nowhere near as excellently crafted as his work gloves. The dragonhide gloves were worth a fortune and so they never left his workshop unless Anakin had to. Anakin watched the little automaton put the gloves in their usual compartment until he could hear the click reassuring that the lock was in place. At first, that had only been a measure against thieves as he hadn’t had much to his name, but by now, it was a habit.

And it discouraged Ahsoka from stealing them for her own projects.

Anakin walked out of his workshop and crossed the courtyard to the small cottage he called his home, finding a kitchen in disarray, Raya standing on a chair with a small red automaton attempting to clean the floors.

“Look what a mess it’s making!” Raya said accusingly. “Instead of polishing my floors, it’s dirtying them!”

“I can see that,” Anakin hummed. He waited until the small automaton had reached his feet, then he bent down and pressed his hand flat on its small back, stopping it. Ahsoka’s handiwork was getting better; this little guy had kept moving for a while despite her absence. Anakin had no idea what the formal apprenticeship for forgers entailed, when they ought to hit what milestone, but he was willing to bet that Ahsoka was years ahead of her peers. Her spells were strong, her rune work fantastic, and very few actual weaknesses were left to explore in her automatons.

But Anakin was still a Master and Ahsoka only an Apprentice. Her work was not yet good enough to keep out foreign interference. Without much thought, he deactivated the automaton completely.

“This was your granddaughter’s handiwork,” Anakin commented. “She’s improving in leaps and bounds.”

Raya huffed and stepped from her chair. “I’m glad to hear that, but weren’t you meant to teach her control?”

“I am,” Anakin said, the argument an old and fond one. They returned to it frequently, mostly to annoy the young Apprentice. “And were she still as much of a mess as three years ago, she hardly would be able to craft such a fine automaton. Can’t do anything about her manners.”

Especially since she’d become a teenager. Anakin didn’t remember being as much of a pain as Ahsoka could be.

“And here I was thinking Masters were supposed to teach their Apprentices a medium of decorum.”

Anakin snorted. “Yeah, well, that’s what she has you for, doesn’t she?”

Raya’s expression softened. “That she does.”

Anakin sometimes wondered how Raya managed to stay so kind and calm when the world had taken so much from her. Her husband, country, her children— and yet she still stood straight, caring for the fellow traveler she’d never allowed to leave and the granddaughter that had been dumped on her with just a warning for Ahsoka’s generally explosive tendencies.

“Where is Ahsoka anyway?” Anakin asked, looking around the kitchen as if she would jump out in the open any moment. “I sent her on an errand earlier this morning, but she hasn’t returned yet.”

Unfortunately, Raya couldn’t tell him either. “I have no idea where that girl is running around—”

“Anakin!”

Speak of the dark and it shall appear. The door was thrown open and Ahsoka rushed inside, tracking even more dirt all over the floor, causing Raya to throw up her arms in defeat in a way Anakin knew meant Ahsoka would be left with all her favorite chores for the next week.

“Welcome back, Ahsoka,” Anakin said. “You’re late.”

“Yes, yes,” Ahsoka replied and rolled her eyes, obviously disinterested in what he had to say. “I got all you asked for and ordered the new metals, but look at this!”

Ahsoka raised her hand, revealing a ripped-off poster. It was tasteful in design, fine cursive writing on light blues, gold ornaments in the corners and, of course, the royal crest right in the middle of it.

Her Majesty the Queen of the Kingdom of Alderaan, Breha Organa, invites all Alderaani Practitioners of the Mythic Arts to attend the festivities in the capital of Aldera—

“Absolutely not,” Anakin said before he could even read the rest of the text. “We’re not going to Aldera to some festival.”

“Why not?” Ahsoka shot back. “It’s no summit, but it would at least be something.”

Her bitterness did not go unnoticed. Ahsoka had begged for months to attend this year’s summit. Every five, all magic practitioners gathered on Tython to exchange notes on their craft and pretend they were not also discussing the politics of their respective countries, forging alliances and the like. Anakin hadn’t been to the last summit, it having been just after Dromund Kaas, and the one before were tainted by the memories that followed, no matter how sweet the time had been. Ahsoka, of course, had begged to attend this year’s one, but it would only be foolish and reckless. He couldn’t just walk into the biggest gathering of mages in the whole continent and expect to get out of it without anyone realizing who he was, asking questions, concluding what he’d done.

Anakin had too much to hide, too much to lose, and he wasn’t going to risk his little Apprentice for it.

Not that Ahsoka knew any of that and wasn’t in the least satisfied with Anakin’s reply and immediately made her displeasure known.

“What would you even want to see there?” Anakin asked, trying to downplay how entertaining such an event was. “It’ll just be all the posh court sorcerers showing off with their fancy focusing crystals. It’s utterly boring and uncreative.”

“Like you wouldn’t use a focusing crystal if you had one,” Ahsoka muttered, arms crossed. “It’s just— there’s nobody else around here who can do magic. And all you ever do is work on machines.”

“Which requires a lot of concentration as it’s not just the manipulation of one aspect, but—”

“—but many, yes, yes, I know the speech,” Ahsoka said and dutifully listed all elements that went into their craft. There was a reason why not many forgers existed. Most mages lacked the talent, patience, and education to learn this craft, or were just plain afraid that they’d permanently damage their ability to use magic at all.

And with the speed technology was evolving and magic weaponized to terrifying new heights, not too many people still had use for forgers. Where two-hundred-years ago, you wouldn’t have gone out to hunt a dragon with a simple sword, but only with one crafted by a Master forger, nowadays you didn’t necessarily need one. Battle magic was on the rise again, especially with more and more countries growing uneasy, peace treaties falling apart. Combined with the threats from the northern continents, it was no wonder people cared less and less about expensive forgers when they could mass-produce and enchant simpler items.

“I just hoped you’d allow at least this,” Ahsoka finished. Her shoulders dropped. “Should have known better. I’ll go finish my readings.”

Ahsoka turned around, her shoulders still hanging, her head low.

Damn it.

Anakin knew that she was doing it on purpose. His Apprentice was cunning and had learned how to play into his every weakness. Slowly she marched into the direction of the door, dragging her feet behind her for effect and dramatics.

Raya raised a brow at him. She usually stayed out of Ahsoka’s tutelage, knowing next to nothing about magic herself, but even with his past being little more than a mystery to her, she could read him better than anyone else.

“Urgh, fine,” Anakin heard himself say. “Fine, we can go to the festival.”

Ahsoka turned around quicker than light and jumped up. “Yes!”

“But that means you’re not going to bring up the summit again!”

“Yes! Of course!” A moment later, Anakin had an armful of an apprentice. “Thank you so much, Master, you’re the best!”

Once she let go of him, she went to hug Raya and hug even her dirty automaton to her chest, still radiating happiness. “I need to go pack my bags immediately!”

“The festival is not for another week—”

Ahsoka obviously didn’t care. So caught up in her joy, she rushed upstairs, heading to her room to start packing. It shouldn’t surprise Anakin that she was so motivated. Ahsoka was a person who thrived on interaction, being surrounded by other people. While the people of their village were friendly, none of them were mages or even just sensitive to magic. It was one of the reasons Anakin had decided to stay without too much fight. But growing up so far removed from other mages had made Ahsoka twice as curious to meet others.

The thought made his stomach churn. He’d have to give Ahsoka formal lessons about their trade now, just if somebody asked questions that were too pointed. She’d also need a bit of the know-how on how you usually interacted with other mages and which pretentious bastards to call sorcerers before they threw a hissy fit. All these capital folks were much too sensitive about terminology after all. Anakin had never bothered to tell her the differences before, but Ahsoka would kill him if she accidentally embarrassed herself because he hadn’t seen it fit to instruct her properly. Forget teaching Ahsoka how to improve her automaton, the next week would be full of etiquette lessons. Skies, there’d be people trying to steal their spellwork too. Had he even mentioned that kind of theft before? Anakin honestly couldn’t recall.

“Already regretting it?” Raya asked, her voice just a touch amused.

“Just a bit,” Anakin replied.

“It’ll be good for her,” Raya said, convinced and confident enough for the both of them. “And good for you as well. I’ve known you for years now and you’ve never even brought a friend over. I’m not going to be young forever, you know. I do expect to be introduced to your future spouse at some point.”

“And this is my cue to go packing as well,” Anakin announced and followed Ahsoka up the stairs with Raya’s laughter following him.

He had no intention of being with anyone, ever, unless he could find glamours that held up even when majorly distracted. On his way up the stairs, Anakin caught a look of himself in the window, saw black vines curling around his neck, inviting someone to take a closer look.

It was better this way.

[monsoonblooms12]

Love Again, Prologue: Not meant to be

Summary: What if Ethan's running away to the Amazon was successful and he convinced himself that his feelings and his relationship with Pooja had been reset?

In this Chapter: When there is a conflict between reason and feelings, will he be able to make a choice?

A/N: Unfortunate angsty ideas that would not leave be alone until I wrote them. I am going to hurt myself and my babies with this, I know it. Also, I wrote this at 1 in the morning.

Pairing: Ethan Ramsey X f!MC (Pooja Sharma)

Word Count: around 1K

Rating: General

Category: Angst, WIP AU

The languid pass of a moment. That's all it took for her to become his habit.

A torturous fight of 1,461 hours. That's what took him to rub away the words etched in stone.

Her words.

Distance. 4100 miles of distance to be appropriate. Why did his heart still manage to find her and tie the thread of fate? Why couldn't he tear himself apart from those notorious reminiscences of hers?

Every day for 2 months, he repeats the same words over and over again like a chant, a spell that would help him go away from her, to leave her and the feelings, which felt like the sweet fragrance of the ambrosial bluebells amidst a drought ridden island, behind.

We're not meant to be.

But she made it to too easy, way too easy to find a way back to her. She beckons him in the sweetest of voices, teases him with those amber orbs, making him want to get lost in them. To hold her hand, which fits perfectly, way too perfectly in his, as if fitting two halves of a whole together. Because that is what they are.

Were.

Two halves of a whole.

No. It doesn't matter anymore. Whatever they are, were. It's too dangerous, the pursuit of finding the emotion which must not be named.

And he starts it again, the reset. The tiring attempts to make her his past tense, no matter how much his soul craves for her to be his present tense.

Golden poison burns his interior with the same intensity as his heart burns. It screams, terrified, but his mind refuses to put out the blazing flame.

So that only ashes of a bygone era remain scattered in the desert of his soul, so ridden of its necessities that even a cactus cannot grow in it, let alone a maple tree.

He lies down, eyes transfixed on the tumultuous drumming that the storm carries out. It has come down to wash away anything of her that remains with him, he is convinced.

In the ferocious battle between reason and feelings, he can clearly see his reason win. Even if it pains, it tears him apart.

How can something as simple as a four letter word have so much power? To put him in so much agony, that all he wants is for her to stroke his forehead like she did when she laid beside him?

Sleep was a farsighted luxury he was not allowed to enjoy. Even though he hated robots, he wished he was one of them now. Oh, how easy it would have been. All he needed to do was press a button. A single button.

Reset

His encephalon had many, many more points to present than his heart. But his heart had one, one such statement, that would put all the lists his mind presented to shame.

It was the feeling which must not be named.

If one said he hadn't really pushed all stops, they were wrong. If they think they can guess the destruction the tornado of reset was causing from his masked face, they are foolish.

Not as foolish as he himself, but still, foolish.

He had deleted her number, all those texts which were like romantic quotes to him. He had deleted all those pictures which had served as a calm to his sore eyes. She was his meditation, his serenity and he had discarded everything away.

And she didn't know.

Everytime his heart tried to wonder what story she is writing on the other half of the slate they share unbeknownst to each other, he had to drag it back like it was a 2 year old child, crying at the supermarket for its favorite chocolate.

Millions have been clever enough to put back their sorrows to embrace happiness, life, love. To become a new person.

But has anyone ever been so foolish to throw the ecstasy life offered them, to erase the happiness people crave?

It felt like carrying out a funeral. Of everything he felt for her that made no sense, no sense to him. Burying her memories down the freshly dug grave in the labyrinth of his heart, the heavy mist from the ravaging strom enveloping him, as if trying to make him stop.

But he didn't heed.

And along with pieces of her that she had left with him, like an innocent mistake, he, knowingly or unknowingly, buried a part of him. He lost those puzzle pieces of him and her that remained connected together as if the rapid current of a gushing stream had pulled them into her flow, preventing him the chance of second thought.

The thunder cackled outside ceiling to floor windows, as if making fun of his idiocracy. His heart begged him to reconsider, to take the chance and dive, before the lucid water carried the drifting maple leaf of happiness, too far away from him. The creases of his forehead dug deeper and deeper into his mind, trying to pull out the stupid reason that had started to get better of him.

But it was late. Too late.

The maple leaf of feelings that she had unknowingly gifted him with a promise of eternity was now lost behind boulders of excuses his mind had created.

If only life had a rewind button...

And now, all that was left with him was pained pieces of the half of his heart, yearning for the other half. Even if Ethan Ramsey did not realize it.

He was incomplete. Without her, he was incomplete.

And yet he chose to be broken with reason than to be complete with love. And yet he chose to leave her with gazillion guesses of a what if , one that would trouble her, tear her apart, make her run through miles of guesses, never being able to get the answer.

And yet he chose to pass on his torture to her, an endless maze of agony she would never be able to escape.

And yet, he chose to trap her in the question,

Were they really not meant to be?

PS: If you are reading this, I am very grateful for you. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day❣️

Tags (Please let me know if you want to be added or removed or if I forgot you):

Perma: @gkittylove99 @neotericthemis @udishaman @aestheticartsx @twinkleallnight @schnitzelbutterfingers @sophxwithers @sweatyrysconnoisseur @nikki-2406 @choicesfanaf @trrfanaddict @starrystarrytrouble @gardeningourmet @parkbarks @mvalentine @lovablegranny @mercury84choices @izzyourresidentlawyer @jessiembruno

Open Heart (All fics and edit): @lucy-268 @maurine07 @bellcat2010 @headoverheelsforramsey

Ethan x Pooja (fics): @aleynareads @stygianflood @choicesaddict5 @mysticaurathings @jamespotterthefirst @ilikemenbutonlyethanramsey @takemyopenheart

@choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics

[galacticlamps]

There was a "ask the author" type post going around that you reblogged and I said I was going to get back to ask a question but I'm sorry I forgot -_- SO, to make up for that, how are your current writing projects going? Are there any you're not having fun with? Any that you are having fun with?

That is so kind of you, don't be sorry at all! If I'm being honest, my current writing projects are probably not technically "going well" - but at least I can say it's not their fault! I spent a good chunk of this month sick & getting over it, and then that set me back on work things (and a bunch of computer issues I really did not need right now 🙄), so I've been playing catch-up a lot lately in what would've been my free time, and it really feels like September's just passed me by. I haven't been putting a ton of time into working on writing lately but in the snatches of time I have had, I've definitely been having fun with it.

As usual though when I'm not close to finishing one specific thing there's a few I'm alternating between without much focus - two 6b-era one-shots (one a shortish reunion story, the other a mission dealing in fixed points), a proposal fic (I noticed I had A Lot of proposal-based wips, some of them quite short/close to completion, and I figured I should prioritize finishing some every now and again so it doesn't get to the point where I like, exclusively post proposal fics for a year), and one that's a get-together fic centered around dancing (for some reason, dancing is something I have a ton of ideas/headcanons based around for Two/Jamie and even 60s who in general, but they don't always take the form of something narrative enough for a fic, so I definitely want to take advantage of this one that does).

And aside from those, I'm low-key always working on my Human Nature AU (& have been for so long I almost called it by the fic name instead of the real episode, whoops) but it's set during the fall and so every fall I get like an extra burst of motivation & excitement about it - and the weather's just been starting to change so I've been getting lost in that one even more than usual recently.

[mkstrigidae]

Current WIPs and Fic Concepts

I promised I would do this yesterday, and then I forgot!!! (I was very sleep deprived). Anyways, here are a bunch of the WIP premises that I have in my 'unfinished drafts' folder. Most have at least a few pages written for them, but I love them all! ☺️💕

- A Santa Clarita Diet AU (Jonsa) Takes place in sunny southern California, where a shitty dinner at a mediocre restaurant turns into a huge problem for Jon and Sansa when Sansa's heart stops beating. Although she seems fine, Jon is flabbergasted several days later as he watches his wife- who alphabetizes their pantry and refuses to let anyone wear shoes in the house- rip the throat out of one of the sleazy new partners at their law firm, eating half of him before anyone processes what's going on. Hilarity ensues as Sansa's inhibitions and filter disappear, Arya ropes an extremely confused Gendry into helping figure out what the hell is going on just because he moderates the zombie forum on reddit, and Jon tries to deal with the fact that the woman he loves more than anything is now a humanitarian. He really could use a drink. (This one is actually mostly complete, but i need to refine a few things- i really love it. It's as gory and irreverent as the show, so viewer discretion advised, but it's a BLAST to write).

- A Thor/MCU AU (Jonsa, Steve Rogers/Sansa)- Asgardian prince Aegon is banished to Midgard after one too many arrogant decisions, and is promptly hit by a van containing Dr. Sansa Stark, Dr. Barristan Selmy, and Margaery Tyrell- two astrophysicists studying wormholes and Sansa's best friend and pseudo-intern. Marg yells at him, he yells back, Sansa tases him, and Barristan didn't sign up for the kind of heavy lifting that getting a 200+ pound slab of muscle into the back of a van takes. And then Aegon's younger brother, Jon, shows up, in the middle of an identity crisis because, apparently, he's adopted. He wasn't intending to stay, but he's rather drawn to Dr. Stark and her brilliance, and against her better judgement, she starts to trust him, and maybe even like him. This story is in about three parts so far- the first is based on 'Thor' and the second on 'The Avengers' and are fully Jonsa, and the third started as a family bonding story between the Stark kids and Tony (Ned and Tony are second cousins, and Ned was really supportive of Tony in rehab without expecting anything in return), and accidentally turned into a Steve Rogers/Sansa Stark story, which is a pairing i am HERE for. A lot of this one is written, but it needs some fill in before publishing, although it's one of my favorites that i've written to go back and actually read.

- A Star Wars AU (Jonsa) where Sansa and Arya are Alderaanian princesses who are off planet when Alderaan is destroyed- Sansa as a senator and Arya as a pilot, both working for the rebellion, and jon is a smuggler who does not know how all of these people got on his ship and why two princesses are sassing him. His copilot, Tormund (yes he's a wookie), thinks it is hilarious. I started this one just the other day, and it's already thirty pages long, most of them involving Sansa and Arya sassing people. Dany is a leader in the rebellion, Roose Bolton is the emperor, and Barbrey Dustin is a disgruntled former jedi trying to live in peace on a remote planet until another Stark crashes into her life and harangues her into teaching again.

- A witches/magic AU (Jonsa) where the Starks run an apothecary and spellcasting supplies shop. Jon had been completely in the dark about magic before his mother confessed to being born into a family of witches. He finds himself traveling to her hometown, trying to understand her world more clearly, and what it means for him. On the way, he develops something of a crush on the red-headed shop clerk who brews the best headache potions in town. Featuring lots of magical shenanigans, this is one of my favorites in the folder :)

- A 24 hour diner AU (Jonsa) where Jon is a local mob boss, and Sansa works the late shift at Seaworth's diner to buy textbooks for the PhD she's working on in botany. Sansa's running from memories, and Jon has a soft spot for the red-headed waitress who always remembers how he likes his coffee.

- An East of the Sun, West of the Moon AU!!! (Jonsa) This is one of my fav fairy tales, and of course i couldn't resist Jon as a direwolf striking a deal with the starks!

- A Roomates AU (Jonsa)- Arya, Jon, Tormund, and Sam have been renting the same house together off Winterfell's campus for years- but when Sam moves in with his girlfriend, they need one more person on the lease. Sansa, about to relocate to Winterfell for grad school, finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her and that her housing plans have fallen through, all on the same day. Needless to say, she's a bit upset when she calls Arya to relay the news. There's a simple solution here, if Arya and Tormund can stop teasing Jon about his crush for five minutes. (any excuse to write tormund and arya roasting jon, tbh).

- A Fae AU (Jonsa)- When Sansa, a baker living in the city, washes her face in an enchanted spring on a camping trip, she gains the sight as a result. Suddenly able to see the fae underworld all around her is disorienting and terrifying. Sansa tries to conceal it- afraid of what might happen if the fae around her know that she can see them- but slips up, and catches the attention of Jon Snow- one of the lords of the unseelie court.

- A nuclear winter wasteland AU (Jonsa)- (?? I don't even know how to describe this premise, haha) where the Starks are living and running the Free Winterfell settlement in Siberia after a worldwide nuclear meltdown. Before the fallout, Sansa was one of the world's preeminent researchers in plant genetics and pathology, and works at the settlement to create newer, disease and radiation resistant crops to distribute for free to other settlements, aiming to break up the monopoly that Lannister Corp has on the market. Jon is a scavenger, searching throughout Siberia for his sister Rhae who disappeared several years previously. When he runs across Arya Starkovna, helping her fight off another band of radiation ravaged scavengers is just instinct- he doesn't think twice about it. In thanks, she brings him to the Winterfell settlement, where her brother Robb offers Jon sanctuary and resources, in exchange for serving as a bodyguard for Sansa when she travels to other settlements. Sansa is not particularly thrilled by this arrangement, but given that multiple parties seem to want her dead, she doesn't have much of a choice but to accept his company.

- A reincarnation AU (Jonsa)- of sorts. Robb is an archaeologist who finds a strange set of runes at a site up north, and immediately calls in Jon Snow- a historian and expert in said ancient language, as well as an old university friend of Robb's. When he arrives though, Robb shows him their most valuable finds- two mysterious ice blocks, with what appear to be perfectly preserved bodies from over a thousand years ago. No one could ever have imagined that either of them were still alive, but when the ice melts, revealing two very alive girls, the entire crew is instantly buried in NDAs, and given an assignment from the Westerosi government to figure out what the hell was going on. Sansa and Arya wake up, extremely confused about the world they live in, trying to adapt and mourning all that they've lost, even as the people around them wear familiar faces.

- Soulmates AU (Jonsa)- (Yes, another one, I love this dumb trope) Trauma surgeon and medical resident Sansa Stark is having a very bad day, and ends up meeting her soulmate during what she thinks is a mugging gone wrong. Fortunately, he’s not the one mugging her, just an intervening bystander, but she ends up slightly shot nonetheless. Sansa’s fretting about bleeding on the upholstery in his car, but Jon is a bit more worried about her injuries than the blood stains. He’s a bit confused when she threatens him if he takes her to a specific hospital, nearly has a nervous breakdown when she insists on doing her own triage, and is very charmed when she insists on ice cream after taking pain meds at the hospital. On Sansa’s part, she’s a little less concerned about being shot, and a bit more concerned about whatever weird first impression she’s making to her soulmate while high as a kite on pain pills. (this one just needs some tweaking to be postable- I'm not sure if it's going to be a oneshot or a series, but i love what I have already)

- A Demon/Archivist AU (Jonsa)- where Sansa works in the university's historical archives in Oldtown, and is learning to restore old texts with her fellow student and friend, Alleras (Trans Sarella is an amazing concept). When Joffrey Baratheon shows up with a pile of old books from his family's library to donate, Sansa is eager to get away from his sleaze, and accidentally takes one of the books home with her in her rush to leave. Unbeknownst to her, it's more than it appears, and when she leaves it open overnight, she accidentally summons forth Jon- an ancient, powerful, and extremely annoyed demon who is under a curse, and now hers to command. As Jon and Sansa try to get used to this new normal, the Lannisters (unaware that Joffrey had donated the tome) try desperately to find the book and it's owner, wanting Jon's power for themselves, and putting Sansa in considerable danger unless she can figure out how to break Jon's curse. Fortunately, she's a pretty good researcher, even if Jon is initially a bit of a grump. (This is based on a total wish-fulfillment mary-sue type premise for something I wrote when I was thirteen, and I revisited it and wanted to see what it would look like if i took it very seriously, and i am really enjoying it so far. It's a love letter to the terrible, heartfelt writing i was doing in middle school that created the foundations for my writing today, and so much fun).

The one that I am MOST excited about though:

- A Pacific Rim AU!!!! (Ned/Cat, Gendrya, Braime, Sansa/Jon Umber)-Twins Sansa and Robb Stark have always been completely in tune with each other, and when your parents are Jaeger pilots and your mother invented the neural handshake, what option is there but the Jaeger academy? Sansa studies to be an engineer, but ends up copiloting the Jaeger 'Winter Wolf' with her twin brother, after they lose Ned Stark to cancer. When Robb is ripped out of the conn-pod and killed by a kaiju while he's still connected to Sansa, she barely manages to kill the creature before stumbling back to shore, traumatized, grieving, and swearing that she'll never pilot again.

Unfortunately, the Kaiju don't stop just because Sansa does, and when the end of the world is imminent, Marshall Catelyn Stark orders both her daughter and former pilot Jaime Lannister (who lost his twin and copilot, Cersei, several years previously) back to Hong Kong for one final stand. Forced to face both her demons and an irate Arya, furious that Sansa had abandoned the rest of them after Robb's death, Sansa and Arya have to figure out how to pilot Winter Wolf together before the apocalypse comes for them all.

Featuring Marshall Catelyn Stark (commander of the Hong Kong Shatterdome, inventor of the neural handshake, former Jaeger pilot, and BAMF), Sansa x Jon Umber (Yes i know it's a rare pair but i've always kind of loved the idea of them, even though we know so little about him), Kaiju parts dealer and smuggler Petyr Baelish, bickering kaiju biologist Dany and theoretical mathematician Jon Snow, LOCCENT officer Theon, lots of snark, lots of angst and heartfelt conversations, and a weird friendship between snarky-grieving-asshole Jaime Lannister and kind-quiet-grieving Sansa Stark, who are the only two people in the world who know what it's like to lose a copilot and a twin in the drift.

Thanks for reading guys!! There are more, but some of them I just don't know how to explain quite yet, haha. I'd love to hear what you guys think about these!

[pandoraimperatrix]

Cockblocked by Batman’s son

BatCat | Humour/Romance | 1,4k

The fucker was on her for a while, and as much as their cat and bat game was fun, it was beginning to get in the middle of her business. There was this tiny small Brazilian island with her name on it, and unfortunately it was hard to steal whole islands than jewellery, so, of course, to steal some of the latter to get her island. She was calling it her retirement plan.

She was so close to her goal 12 million goal, only 10k to go, the job had been a god send, a rich collector had just acquired an Edwardian aquamarine and diamond brooch that have been on her client’s list for ages, thank goodness it was not her style at all, so she wouldn’t be tempted. It was easy enough, the security system was not what she expected from her research, but it had been fun to crack it, it was good to be surprised sometimes, she thought, kept her on her toes.

Her prize was already safely inside her bag, and Selina was ready to leave, when he appeared dark and broody, cape flowing behind him like a vampire on a silent era movie.

“Put it back.”

“Oh for Bastet’s sake!”

She ran, he went after her, and to be fair she was having fun taunting him, but there was something odd about that night, usually he gave her a little more of work, he seemed to be lagging. She even looked behind a few times to see if he was still following her, because there was nights in which would just leave to take care of an actual life threating crime. Selina thought that was the case and stopped to look, as much as the danger of him actually catching her and taking her prize back was not null, it almost felt like a let down when he’d just leave like that without a proper goodbye. He had no manners! Have no one taught him how to treat a lady?

Not that she was one.

She turned away and head back small rooftop apartment on East End, she had just entered her home, and pulled the cowl off her head when she felt a massive weight smash against her back throwing her on the floor. Fear struck her even harder, had the celling just fallen? She screamed for her cats to find safety before she managed to wiggle her body around enough to get an idea of the situation.

“What the actual fuck!”

The celling was intact and what was currently pressing her to the floor was the wall of meat known as the Batman.

“Put… it back.”

And then his eyes closed. She had never been close enough to notice before, but they were blue.

Read on AO3

It was embarrassing. She was tied up to a bomb. Heist gone wrong, well, it was good that he appeared since it was his fault that there was a heist at all. After leaving her flat while she napped after playing his personal Florence Nightingale all night, he repaid her by stealing her brooch!

Can you believe it?

The ingratitude?

The disrespect?

It was entirely his fault that she was obligated to break into that stupid warehouse to steal her new mark – an art deco diamond bracelet with an asscher cut, totally her style, she was already planning how to get it back, for free, of course. It was not her fault that the intel that got forgot to inform her that it was the same warehouse that had been used by Don Malone to hide drugs. And that when she broke in the place was no empty and Malone’s goons thought she was working for Falcone. Of course, no one believed her when she told them that she didn’t have anything to do with that.

You know, that’s why Selina had no trouble lying, because the truth hardly matters when someone wants to fuck you up, they will just do it for good measure, for fun, because sometimes you bloody deserve it for being the fool that nursed the fucking Batman back to health and were robbed by him.

But then, just as was she was about to accept that was how she’d meet her maker, a little leprechaun fell from the roof and said in a squeaky voice that she’d be okay.

“Geez, freaks are getting younger every day!”

Until Batman appeared and started defusing the bomb she thought she had already died and was having a very weird afterlife.

“He’s not a freak.”

“Oh… he’s with you!”

Maybe she was having a very weird afterlife. But why the hell her afterlife included the fucking Batman?

“He’s my… hmm… son.”

Wait, that was too weird for an afterlife.

“Your son? And his mother is okay with that? Jesus, isn’t he afraid of falling down?”

The boy had limbed a rope hanging from the roof and was hanging upside down by his pixie booted feet.

“He doesn’t have a mother,” Batman muttered as he still worked on her bomb, well, not hers. She owned no bombs, your honour. He was awfully talkative that night, that Batman. “Robin, behave!”

Oh my god, he was the leprechaun’s father! The information was just too good and at the same time she had no idea of what to do with it. It was the kind of prize she’d keep for herself.

“I’m behaving!” the high pitched boyish voice shouted back, but he did a flip and landed on the floor. She could say she was impressed. How old was that kid? Less than ten, she’d bet.

“Poor kitten, is she…”

“She died” he said so devoid of feeling that she raised an eyebrow. Of course Batman tended to be stoic, but, that was cold even for him.

“I’m sorry for your lost” she tried lamely.

He sighed. Batman actually sighed. What the hell was happening?

“I didn’t know her. He’s adopted.”

That night was one shocking revelation after another, wasn’t it?

“So… There isn’t a Mrs. Batman, then?”

What kind of lame line was that? Urgh. But was he… Nah. She was imagining it. He had not, in fact, sniffed her neck.

Of course, she couldn’t see, he was behind her, and although she could see Robin at the entrance very well because the light coming from outside reflected his little yellow cape as he amused himself by doing what looked like very dangerous acrobatics, where she was sitting, tied to a chair that was chained to a bomb, was completely dark. She could only hope he was really some sort of vampiric meta that could see in the dark otherwise letting him disarm the bomb was not the best of her decisions.

“It’s done.”

He released her. Selina rotated her wrists and stood up, relieved.

“Robin, let’s go!”

She watched as the boy let out a happy yelp and ran ahead, they could use that one as a limitless energy source and end climate change.

“Wait” she said walking around the chair to meet him in the dark “let me say thank you first, you just saved my life.”

“There’s no n-“

He couldn’t end the sentence when Selina blindly pressed her lips against his.

She meant to be a small playful peck, but Batman’s gloved hand slid to the small of her back, pulling her close and before she could think clearly about what she was doing, her arms were around his neck, hoisting her body up to fix their huge height difference issue. He parted her lips and slid his hot tongue against the roof of her mouth, the hard pointy part of his mask that protected his nose biting into her cheek.

“Ewww,” they broke the kiss to look at Robin’s small face wrinkled with disgust, but still remained in each other’s arms for a moment. And then, slowly, they turned their faces back forward.

Selina swallowed down, she still could taste him. And he was not letting her go, she had to be the one to pull her arms back, her hells touching the floor again.

She never thought she’d ever see Batman acting awkward but there was no other word to describe the way he grunted and stepped back before nodding to her and left, taking his little killjoy with him.

She stood there for a while.

She almost died.

She kissed the Batman.

Was cockblocked by Batman’s son.

Batman’s son??

What the fuck!

------------------------------

The rain made the power go out and I was looking through my WIPs. I really don’t remember writing this story lmao. But now It is finished and you can read it!

Please tell me what you think of it.

Kisses, see ya.

[betz-threadform]

3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 12, 16, 17, 18, 24, 25 and 31 for the writing ask game? :] Apologies if thats a lot you can leave some out if you want, i'm just quite curious and the questions are interesting

ask thingy

oh no no it's fine this ask game's questions Are fun

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

hmm. i need to open the docs, write two paragraphs, then open another doc and start filling in what tags this fic i think would have on ao3. that helps understand what it's gonna be to be honest. also i Really don't want to come up with it on the spot later. also stalling. then i may come back to the fic. if i can remember also turn on literally any music, preferably extremely distressing and upbeat if it's fluff i'm writing. so in my opinion. meh. not really cursed. maybe slightly

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

off the top of my head, "feverish"

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

i... honestly i don't remember having any?

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 that multiple times, a oneshot, a character reflecting on themselves over the years. it's a very fun way to write, i should try that again sometime

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

hmm. i have made an excruciating amount of dark jokes on chapter 26 of HaK, and had writer's block on anything angsty for a few days after finishing it. so. "hearse" would be the closest. i guess for me that means leaving a long impact on the writer themselves, especially since it's most times very muffled for me compared to the way i'd experience it written by someone else

12. If a genie offered you three writing wishes, what would they be? Btw if you wish for more wishes the genie turns all your current WIPs into Lorem Ipsum, I don’t make the rules

what do you mean i can't wish for more wishes. what if i word it specifically so okay okay fine i don't need 30k of lorem ipsum okay

a cheaty one (Not about the rules get the lorem ipsum dolor sit amet away from me) for the way i write dialogue to be a morallyTM accepted one because i do not have it in me to switch to these wretched commas on the split

"You know," Felt gestured. "These ones."

"I prefer to write like this." They added. "I know this might be that one thing looking cursed in my writing and it probably is, but with the differences in dialogue styles between languages I can't bring myself to care about this thing in this particular one. Honestly, the rule looks a bit cursed to me." They took a deep breath. "Wow. That was one hell of a sentence there."

edit: also of course i completely forgot about the other two. welp. you can count the last of the wishes as the traditional genie repellent of freeing them :P and uh. being able to write fluff more. yea

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

i don't read physical books too often ngl, and i don't remember it well back in the day.. i think the worst would be a minions-themed collectable card i got at a mall. 3.9/10 weirdness

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.

oof. which is it even. well the lore is just a bunch of spoilers so nah. come back when i finish posting "early departed", then you'll get the juice. but for now i'll be harboring it. it's just kind of hard to talk about it when it's all only in your head and notes

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.

i write most things on the fly so that's also a hard one... alright, i guess on a multichap it's easier, still not gonna provide a specific quote though. if you're interested about that (the answer is probably gonna be i made it up on the spot), you can always send it with the number and ask. so in early departed, that moment (in ch1 so i can talk about it >:P) of fwhip waking up and walking down the corridor to find gem and lady beans, it was going to originally include joel sitting there with them, (that's why fwhip thinks he doesn't trust these two, that was originally a typo that i later rephrased as he doesn't trust lady beans and her husband. a note not a quote, mind you). the whole idea for the twins' "holidays" in the smallishbeans manor was to push fwhip further down the road of revenge and to get him to know people who will later be on the other side of the war and his vendetta. that scene was the start of it, and especially it pointed out the difference between his and gem's reactions to the people

24. How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

there's nothing, really, if i need to I google a bunch of things as i go. typically i do Not enjoy that very much because it's hard to find what i need

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

well! efwhip has a sweet tooth. i mention it in a fair few of my fics for no reason

31. Write a short love letter to your readers.

oh shit

oh fuck

okay

to end off on a note that's very dramatic and slightly pathetic on my writerly side, i really appreciate the support, guys. honestly even talking the time to read my stuff. it's a little insane. especially you people in lifesteal who are scrambled together with absolutely no fics and shower me with comments on every one of them. yes we do need more chlownzy fics. we do. yeah.

[cheshiremadd]

Uprooting Bindweed

Ao3

I'd had the idea of Rena and Chat talking about Marinette and Adrien in my WIP folder, and then @galahadwilder posted the perfect prompt on discord to go with it: what if Chat Noir fired Rena Rouge.

Thank you SO much to @alexseanchai and @sweetmeatdale for your feedback! 💜

Speaking of Alex, they came up with the title, because they're amazing like that. Bindweeds are used as "food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the convolvulus hawk moth". With that information and the Bindweed tarot card, I knew a more perfect title would not be found.

-

The Akuma of the Week was searching for Marinette. The fourth time this month, and he was really hoping there was nothing to that. So many targeting the same person not Chloé or Lila seemed strange to him. But that was a worry for another time.

Chat Noir and Rena Rouge had been sent ahead to the bakery (he was very glad that he’d stashed Marinette somewhere else). Rena was to Mirage herself into the designer and play bait, but they had to wait until Ladybug could lure the akuma closer. Five minute timer, and all.

Rena reached her balcony first, and went to the trapdoor without hesitation. Chat figured he’d have to be the one to open it, and had been planning how to go about it without giving away how familiar he was, but Rena had no qualms. His stomach soured at the thought that he wasn’t the only superhero to visit Marinette.

She’d redecorated some since he last was in her room. He wasn’t able to come as often as he wanted, and they typically preferred the open air and view of her balcony when the weather was warm.

Adrien’s modeling photos were still present, but they’d been updated to more recent shoots. On another wall were more candid pictures. Their friends and classmates. People he assumed were Marinette’s family (only some of whom he’d met). Several of Kitty Section. Her and Jagged Stone and Penny Rolling (it still blew his mind that she’s on a first name basis with them). Lots of her and Alya and Nino. Fewer of Adrien.

He knew she had more of Chat than of Adrien. But she kept those on her phone, locked away in a secret folder. Too much chance that someone would see her walls.

One caught his eye, placed directly in the center, the spot of honor. A high res of Chat-him and Ladybug. They’d thrown their arms over each other’s shoulders and snapped half a dozen selfies. It’d been Ladybug’s idea to submit the best of them to the Ladyblog, giving civilian them plausible deniability.

The last wall, above her sewing supplies, held her inspiration boards. One for general inspiration, holding her favorite pieces from her favorite lines (only one of which was a Gabriel piece, he noted with some interest), some fabric squares of different colors and patterns, and scenic pictures from around Paris. The other, he knew, was more specific to whatever she was currently working on. Pinned to it was a handful of dried flowers, a fabric swatch to match each flower, and several sketches.

Chat glanced at Rena, realizing she’d been quiet this whole time. She was staring at Adrien’s modeling photos, the look on her face unreadable. He looked with her. He wondered if there was a specific shoot Marinette favored.

“This must look so strange to you.”

Chat looked back at her, but said nothing. He wasn’t sure what he could say that wouldn’t give away exactly how close he was to Marinette.

“I promise she’s not some weird stalker in love with a celebrity. Well. He is a celebrity and she does have the biggest crush on him.” Um. What? “But they’re actually friends. She didn’t even like him when she first met him. The—the Wall actually started because he wasn’t allowed to hang out very often, and no one could get any candids of him.”

What?!

His shock must have shown on his face. He turned back to ‘the Wall’ in an effort to hide at least some of it.

“You seriously didn’t know?” Rena said. “You’ve got to be, like, one of two people in Paris that doesn’t. I keep flopping on whether Adrien knows or not. One minute it’s like he’s encouraging her feelings, the next he’s going on about how glad he is to have such a good friend.”

Chat tried not to sputter. “How—how does ‘no candids’ turn into—” He gestured at the collage of Adriens.

“None of them were perfect.” Rena said it like she’d heard it a million times. “This photo shows his sincere eyes, but the rest of the face is photoshopped too much to be his real smile. ‘That advertisement had most of his real smile!’ ” She pitched her voice higher in mimicry. “ ‘But they shaved several centimeters off of his waist! Several! He’s skinny but he’s not that skinny can you believe they felt like they needed to change that, Rena?’ Well, she didn’t say Rena, she said my civilian name. I mean—you get it. And, oh, that outfit looks really good on him, it looks like something he’d choose to wear himself, but he looks so tired in that one. I bet that was at the end of that all-day shoot.”

(They didn’t actually shave inches off his waist. They did shave a little, but that wasn’t the point because—) He never realized that Marinette paid so much attention to him. He wanted to deny it. She’d specifically told him that she didn’t have a crush on him. And Marinette hates liars.

But. But she’d been embarrassed, that day. And she was embarrassed around him a lot. Especially when Alya was involved. It’d taken him a long time to notice that, but once he had, he saw it everywhere. And with this new piece of information…it shone a whole different light on many of their interactions.

Chat swallowed. He wasn’t sure what to do with this knowledge. He’d been in love with Ladybug for…for a long time. And Marinette. Marinette was special. Rejecting her was hard enough the first time, but at least he’d known that it’d never work between a superhero and a civilian.

Oh, Kwamis. She had a crush on Chat, too! Adding that event with this new understanding, he realized she never meant to confess to him. She’d probably been about to backtrack, but then her parents interrupted, and it was out of control from there.

What better evidence that someone truly liked you for who you were than falling for you twice and not realizing it?

Rena shuffled a bit, finding other things to poke her nose in, and Chat realized that he’d never responded.

“So, you don’t think it’s creepy that this girl has like twenty pictures of her crush on her walls?” He didn’t think it was creepy. He thought it was endearing. But he was curious what she would say. She’d been interestingly defensive of Marinette.

She snorted. “Hey, if it’s crazy, Adrien’s her same kind of crazy. He’s got more photos of Ladybug on his phone than I do, and that’s saying something.”

His brain came to a complete stop. And then worked overdrive. How the fuck did Rena Rouge know that.

She sighed, picked at her flute, and continued. “I’ve been wondering if she shouldn’t give him up, though. It’s starting to get unhealthy. Ruining her friendships in class.”

His chest tightened and it became hard to breath. Loving him was bad for her. The thought rattled around, but what she said next wiped it all away.

“There’s this girl in class, Lila. She’s an amazing person, done all these things, and has a real chance with Adrien. Marinette can’t let it go. She swore that Lila was lying, then dropped it and now just gives her the cold shoulder. Won’t go to group outings if Lila’s involved. Keeps flaking out. Avoids her completely. Lila’s trying, so hard, to keep the peace, mend bridges, and Marinette just refuses to listen.”

Rena dropped her hands, hitting her thighs, and paced. Agitated.

“It’s jealousy, pure and simple. And if she’s going to be like that, then I just don’t know if I can approve her being in a relationship. Especially with him.”

Chat felt something inside him harden. Gritted his teeth. Considered biting his tongue. He knew who this was. It’s plain as day now, and he’s mildly surprised he didn’t see it before. She’s supposed to be Marinette’s best. friend. And this was how she thought of her?

To be fair, Rena looked torn over this. Chat could see the hurt in her eyes, the worry in her bitten lower lip. The frustration in the creases of her brow. And she was telling all this to Chat, whom she only passingly knew.

But he couldn’t keep the distaste from his face. “Marinette’s right. Lila Rossi is a fucking liar. You think she’s got a real chance with Adrien Agreste? He wouldn’t touch her with my extendable baton. He only does photoshoots with her because clearly no one at Françoise Dupont knows what proper procedures for expulsion are, and that stunt Rossi pulled almost turned into Heroes Day 2.0.” He tugged down one of Adrien’s glamour shots. Marinette’s handwritten and detailed critiques ran along the edges. “From what it sounds like, Agreste would be lucky to date a girl like Marinette.”

Rena stared at Chat, stunned. “What do you know about Lila?”

He let out a short and hard laugh. “Enough. That little interview on the Ladyblog? I doubt there’s a true word in it. I mean, Ladybug’s best friend? I’m Ladybug’s best friend!”

Some of the tension released from her shoulders and she rolled her eyes. “Right. I forgot how jealous you can be, too.”

Chat growled at her. His ears flicked back, low on his head, and his tail whipped through the air agitatedly. “If you’re going to sit here and defend that manipulative bitch then you might as well take that miraculous off right now.”

Rena stepped back into a defensive stance. She was a decent fighter, but he was better. If she refused to give it over peaceably—

Something thumped on the roof. Ladybug. There was still an akuma, and that took priority. They needed to be where Ladybug expected them.

“Mirage, now.” His words were short and clipped. He pounced past her and opened up the window opposite of where the akuma would be coming from. “Follow the plan. We can talk about this later.”

The plan worked out like most of Ladybug’s plans do: perfectly. Chat’d tied the villain up in Marinette’s tarp-roof, presented with a string-of-lights bow and a flourished bow to his Lady to his Lady. She did her thing, tossed the spotted paperclip into the air, and Marinette’s balcony and room put themselves back together. The glamour shot even taped itself back on the wall.

Chat sent Ladybug a look. She gestured in a direction and he nodded. He was pretty sure he knew the roof she meant.

Rena passed by him with wariness, but he paid her no visible attention. She took off with Ladybug in the agreed direction while he turned to the akuma victim. He had a princess to protect.

“Here, let me get you down to street level,” he said. The deakumatized girl seemed hesitant to step into his arms, but relented after seeing no other way down. “Do you remember anything?”

Tears shone in her eyes for a moment, but she swiped at them and tried a smile. It didn’t work. “I—I think I’ll be okay. It’s stupid, I just…let my stress get the better of me.”

He opened his mouth, but she cut him off with a gasp. “Oh, no, Marinette! I didn’t do anything to hurt her, did I?”

“Mlle Dupain-Cheng is fine,” he hurried to reassure her, “but…do you remember why you were after her? Did she do something wrong?”

“No! No. Marinette is lovely; she’s always helping us out in the Garden Club!” The girl paused, ashamed. “I was just feeling overwhelmed and she always seems so put together, she juggles all these responsibilities…I was jealous. Like I said. Stupid.”

“Hey, hey, your feelings are not stupid. Everyone gets stressed and feels like they’re drowning at times. I bet if you asked Marinette about it, she’d say that she always feels like that.”

He remembered himself and what he had to do, and glanced upwards.

“I’m very sorry. I’d usually stay longer and make sure you’re really okay, but I have an urgent something.” He handed her one of the business cards he’d made up. It had information on a number of Akuma support groups. “I can be back in about 30 minutes if you want to wait?”

Her smile turned a little more real. She took a deep, calming breath and let it out slowly. “I think I’ll be okay,” she said again. “I’ll—that’s good advice. Talking to Marinette. Thank you, Chat Noir. For caring.”

He smiled and saluted her, then bounded off. His baton confirmed that Ladybug and Rena were still active a few rooftops over. But then he watched Rena’s signal go out and put on a burst of speed to get there in time. They weren’t on the roof, it turned out, but in the alleyway adjacent to the building.

Ladybug’s eyebrows raised in silent question when she saw him. “Sorry, Bug. This is something that needs to be done.”

Alya looked between the two. Suspicion bloomed and, with it, fear.

Pernicious cat gods, this was going to be awful.

“Alya Césaire.” Chat held his hand out. “The Miraculous. Please.”

She grasped it so hard her knuckles turned white. She took a big gulp of air and said shakily, “This feels final.”

He stared at one of his closest friends, and didn’t let himself waver.

“Your recklessness has put many in danger, including Ladybug and myself. You gave Lila Rossi a platform to speak, to spread her lies. You, who had held a miraculous before, and likely would again. Whom Ladybug had shown a partiality to in interviews and questions. You had every opportunity to check Rossi’s story.”

And, oh, he sounded exactly like his father. That grated.

“In giving her credibility, you opened several of your classmates up to her manipulations. Your best friend warned you about her lies, and you wrote it off as petty jealousy. You tried to write off what I told you as petty jealousy.”

He could kind of see how she’d come to that conclusion, assuming Marinette never told her about that cringe-worthy ice skating date and knowing that she was in love with him. (Alya said ‘crush’. Having this new option to attribute to Mari’s behavior, he knew it was more than that.)

“Furthermore, I can guarantee that at least one terrorist watches your blog. A civilian claimed to be a superhero’s best friend and you broadcast that to the world. What happens when said terrorist decides to use that?”

It was harsh, and damning. But it had to be said. She needed to understand.

Alya looked from him to Ladybug and back, then repeated the motion. “You—you can’t…” Alya’s voice broke. Her eyes settled on Ladybug, who appeared to have turned to stone, she held herself so rigidly. “He can’t do this. Right? You hand out the Miraculous; it’s your decision. Not his!”

Ladybug’s stormy eyes turned to ice. The Ladyblogger realized her mistake and opened her mouth to salvage something, anything, but Ladybug cut her off. “You, of all people, should know that Chat is my equal. He’s right. I should've…but I didn’t…” She shook her head, once. “I stand by his decisions.”

Chat released a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. Alya’s eyes grew bright with tears and she clutched the Fox Miraculous harder. She stared at them, and they stared at her, and she finally dropped it into Chat’s claws.

Ladybug’s hands fluttered in Alya’s direction. She pulled up short, though, unsure if her touch would be welcome.

“This doesn’t make you a bad person, Alya,” she said gently. “You’ve been lied to and manipulated. That’s not your fault. But, as a reporter, it’s important to consider the consequences of distributing information. Just as it is to produce evidence to back your stories.”

Alya’s hand pressed against her mouth, muffled a sob.

Ladybug hesitated, considering, and then spoke again. “You can still be a hero, Alya. Magic, the miraculous, it doesn’t make you into what you aren’t. You make you a hero. And, like I told Chloé, being a hero starts with your everyday life.”

Silence. The only sounds were the girl’s sniffling and the pounding of Chat’s heart. Even the sounds of the city muted. He had to force himself to stay still. Fidgeting felt disrespectful somehow. It was broken by Alya.

“So—so Lila was never your friend?” she asked thickly.

Ladybug’s voice was so gentle, yet cut through what the Ladyblogger had known like a knife. “No.”

Alya nodded. Wiped her eyes and tried to pull herself together. Her short gasps of breath betrayed how upset she was. “I. I think I’ve—” She swallowed. “Got some thinking to do.”

She turned to face the street, straightened her spine, and walked out. Her walk looked a little robotic to Chat, a little too forced to be her normal. She barely made it ten meters before Chat heard Nino call out to her.

Good, he thought, deflating a little. Nino will protect her.

His priority was his Lady.

“Well, it looks like you finally joined me in getting past the time limitation.” His attempt at lightening the mood fell flat even to him.

Ladybug didn’t respond at all. She took a big, shuddering breath.

“Oh, Bug…” Chat was quick to wrap his arms around her, and gently pull her head to rest on his shoulder. He coaxed her into a shuffle-walk until his back met the dirty alley wall, the heel of the hand that still held the Fox necklace rubbing up and down and across her back. “I’m so sorry.”

She shook her head back and forth; his claws tangled further in her hair. He tried not to listen to her quiet tears. He drowned out the sound of Nino and Alya moving on. The cars on the street. Instead he looked for the delicate and distinct sound of an akuma’s wings. She deserved a moment to mourn without worry.

Ladybug took a deep breath.

“You were right.” Her voice sounded wet. “Her blog affects many, and we were probably the only ones she was going to listen to.

“Actions…actions have to have consequences. Alya wasn’t seeing them, and—and maybe we shouldn’t be judge, jury, and executioner, but—the longer this goes on the worse they’ll become.”

Neither of them moved. He continued to find no evil bugs. Or feathers, but they usually went weeks in between Mayura sightings.

A gentle wind blew. They were having a round of good weather. Sunny days that were just warm enough to make the breeze feel perfect. He was hoping it’d hold through the weekend.

Ladybug pulled away to wipe her eyes. He fumbled a folded black handkerchief with green embroidery into her hands and she shot him a grateful, if watery, smile. “Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Oh, that just warmed him down to his toes. And emboldened him to push a little more. “Hey, I was wondering, would you mind saying that bit about me being right again? Because I could listen to that all day—”

He internally cheered as his partner huffed out a laugh and rolled her eyes. “Careful, kitty. I can see your head getting bigger by the second.”

She returned fire!

Mission accomplished.

.

That meant it was time to go, he guessed.

.

Chat stood there a moment longer. Contemplative.

“What are you thinking about, minou?”

He turned to her with a small smile, trying to hold it back and mostly failing. She crinkled a smile in return and raised an eyebrow.

“I’m going to get me a girlfriend.”

He said it so resolutely, so surely, so smugly, that she couldn’t help but laugh. “You are, are you?”

He nodded. His smile spread to full blown glee. “If she’ll have me. Rena said something while we waited, and it just made me think. There’s this girl, LB, and fuck is she amazing. She’s been waiting for me for the better part of two years, and I just realized that I’m crushing on her. Hard. I don’t even know when it started.”

He sighed, happy. “I’m going to ask her out. Tomorrow. And pray to the kwamis that she gives me one last chance.”

(Adrien didn’t ask Marinette out the next day, because Alya looked awful and he figured she needed the support. He’d count himself lucky if she didn’t get akumatized over this, and would attribute the entirety of that luck to his princess. He did invite her to lunch the day after that—he’d thought it’d be more difficult than it was, but Alya was already leading Rose off to a quiet corner—where he managed a stuttered and stilted confession. He honestly had no idea how Marinette managed to understand it, but she must have because she gave an enthusiastic “Yes!” and the next thing he knew they were making plans to explore the city together on Saturday.)

-

It's the job of the Black Cat to recognize when something’s not working, and to get rid of it. Destruction is necessary for Creation to truly thrive. And, sometimes, that means destroying what Creation loves. But, sometimes, the thing Creation loves is the vine that's choking her.

(Or enables the vine that’s choking her.)

[supersickies]

Summary: "MJ wasn’t a STEM major, but if she were going for her Ph.D. she would bet he had a raging case of bronchitis. Not that the boy would ever admit to it.

“I can’t get sick MJ. It’s probably just some dust in the air.”

“Seriously Em, I just swallowed wrong that’s all.”

“My throat’s dry! I’m not sick!”

MJ had heard it all in the past few days, and she believed none of it."

OR

Peter is basically on his death bed, but MJ has a plan.

A/N: Yay! @sicktember day two! I can't lie this is really the only other sicktember fic that I have complete. Everything else is simply a WIP or merely a figment of my imagination just hoping to be made into an actual work. But who knows! Maybe I'll muster up some motivation between now and when I go see Shang-Chi in a few hours! Either way here's my first (of many) PeterMj fics for Sicktember 2021! Read it here or click the link to read on AO3! 

EDIT: LMAO I FORGOT TO POST IT BELOW THE CUT BUT ITS HERE NOW SORRY !!

MJ wasn’t really sure what she was trying to prove when she decided to take a microbiology course. Yes, she graduated from a STEM school (as valedictorian with honors, thank you very much) but college science courses like this were a whole other ballpark. Especially as a journalism major. But hey, she needed the STEM credit. That and her adorable (insufferable) boyfriend practically begged her to take the class with him. 

And who was she to say no to Peter?

So that’s how she found herself on the floor of his dorm, notecards of test questions scattered about, trying with all her might to study for their first midterm. But something was keeping her from concentrating. 

That something being her boyfriend, hacking up a lung.

Again, MJ wasn’t a STEM major, but if she were going for her PHD she would bet he had a raging case of bronchitis. Not that the boy would ever admit to it. 

“I can’t get sick MJ. It’s probably just some dust in the air.”

“Seriously Em, I just swallowed wrong that’s all.” 

“My throat’s dry! I’m not sick!” 

MJ had heard it all in the past few days, and she believed none of it. 

She had seen Peter when he was ill, long before the spider bite. In fact she had seen him sick a bunch of times, because pre-bite Peter was quite the sickly kid. She noted that this current “mystery cough” he had now was eerily similar to the one he had during their 6th grade holiday choir concert, and he sounded a lot like he did in 8th grade when he could barley talk for their group presentation on The Outsiders.

Not that she took note of all the times he was sick. She wasn’t obsessed, just observant. 

(She was a little obsessed).

But it doesn’t take an overly observant girlfriend to know that Peter should be in bed and resting right now. Especially when he could barley manage to catch a breath. 

MJ tenses as she hears the deep chesty coughs come from where Peter sits studying at his desk. She holds her tongue, not wanting to poke the bear more than she already had. Peter would never and has never in his life gotten angry at Michelle, but the more she had pushed him to admit that he wasn’t feeling well, the more annoyed he was becoming. So she stayed quiet. 

But Peter didn’t. 

It seemed as time went on, Peter’s coughs became harsher, deeper, wetter even. MJ couldn’t help but grimace at the wheeze that was also now very evident in his breathing. 

She glances up at him, his eyes glazed over with fever and his nose burred in micro-bio notes, seemingly unaware of the world around him and the virus raging in his lungs. MJ stifles a sigh, feeling fed up with her decision to keep quiet. She sets aside her flashcards and lays her head in her arms as she weighs her options. 

She could continue to push and try to beg Peter to admit that he was unwell. But Michelle knew that would only lead to more defiance, so that was out of the question. 

She could also simply force him to rest. She knew she had the capacity to get him into bed with just a look, but the idea of doing so made her feel uncomfortable. This was her boyfriend, not some animal she could just boss around.

Her feet kick in the air behind her as she continues to wrack her brain. She listens despairingly to Peter’s coughs as she thinks, and if she’s being honest, just the sound of his hacking was making her throat feel kinda scratchy too. 

Wait. That could be something. 

What if it wasn’t just Peter who wasn’t feeling their best. 

MJ was known to be prone to migraines, but hadn’t had one in a while thanks to a medication she had started. But what if, hypothetically, maybe she’d accidentally missed a dose?

MJ takes another glance at Peter, who was still zoned in on his own study guide, before making the first move in her grand plan. 

She groans. 

It’s too loud or overly painful sounding, but hopefully enough to warrant some alarm from her boyfriend. 

And it has the desired effect, as out of the corner of her eye she sees Peter stop his studying and glance at her. Now, with his attention, she takes it up a notch. She groans slightly again, this time adding a wince and an eye rub.

She hears Peter make a soft concerned noise. Bingo. 

He’s sill looking at her, so she does her best to look just as rundown and sick as she can. It works. 

“Em? You okay, babe?” Peter’s voice is gravely and nearly gone, but she can hear the worry in his tone. She’s got him right where she wants him. 

She turns her head to answer him, her eyes squinting to make it seem as though the lights were making the headache worse.

“Hm? Oh, no yeah everything’s fine, Pete.” MJ’s voice is usually deeper and raspier than most, but she really cakes it on for this. Again, desired effect achieved. 

“You really don’t sound great, Em. You sure?” His sentence is punctuated with a rough coughing fit, ironically enough. But even as the fit dies down his attention stays on MJ, who is now rubbing her temples like her life depended on it, both eyes squeezed together tightly. 

When he sees her miserable demeanor he quickly (yet shakily) abandons his own work to sit on the floor beside her. 

“Seriously, MJ.” 

She looks up at him with pitiful eyes, time to really sell it Michelle. She sighs, “M-My head just kinda hurts…It’s nothing.” She caps her Oscar worthy performance with another wince before burying her head back in her folded arms. 

She feels his way too warm hand on her back as he rubs it in an attempt to comfort her. 

He’s still buying it.

Maybe she should get a minor in theater performance?

“You sure? This doesn’t look like nothing.” He questions hoarsely. Now that he’s closer to her she can almost hear the crackling in his chest when he breathes. She had to get him to rest now or else this shit was going to get way worse. 

“I-I think I may have forgotten my pill this morning. I can’t remember. I think I was just so anxious about the exam that- I don’t know…e-everything’s so fuzzy, Peter.” She says quietly, letting out a shaky breath just like she would if her head were actually pounding. 

“Oh, Emmy.” He coos. “Come on, you need to lay down.” 

“But the midterm-“

“Hey, the midterm can wait. You’ve been working hard, okay? Take some time to take care of yourself.” 

Practice what you preach, Parker. 

“Will you lay with me?” She asks, her voice uncharacteristically small as she looks up at him, eyes still scrunched in “pain” but full of emotion. She’s laying it on thick. The things she does for this boy. 

“‘Course I will, Em.” 

And jackpot. He bought it. What a sucker. At least he’s pretty! 

MJ does a victory dance in her head as she lets him help her stand and climb onto his unmade twin bed. She waits for him to climb in and join her, but frowns when he turns and begins to to walk away. She quickly grabs his wrist and once again dons her best pitiful sick person face. 

“Stay. Please.” She “begs”, which works again (of course). Peter’s face breaks into a sad smile. 

“Just turning off the lights, Emmy. I’ll be right back, I promise.” He leans over and kisses her on the forehand, and she does her best not to think of all the germs he may have actually just passed onto her. She had him in the palm of her hand, she couldn’t break the illusion now.

For the full effect, she lets out a few pained groans here and there as he turns off the ceiling and desk lights in his room, leaving them under the glow of the spidey string lights she’d bought him as a dorm-warming gift. 

He’s rather sluggish as he makes his way back and up onto his bed. MJ figures he’ll be out as soon as his feverish head hits the pillow. And she’s basically right, as he lets out a huge yawn as soon as he curls up next to her. 

“Get some rest, Em.” He murmurs, already taking his own advice. “‘M right here if you need me.” He snuggles closer to her with a sigh, his arm wrapping around her torso and face pressing into the side of her shoulder. Only moments later soft snores are coming from his mouth. 

“You too, dork.”  She responds. 

Mission accomplished, MJ thinks triumphantly.