#pondering fic stuff

[depizan]

anyone from imp int that appears semi regularly in the agent story (watcher two/shara jenn, keeper, etc?) mayhaps?

They're both characters I find really interesting. I'd say it's surprising they haven't put any fic appearances (other than Keeper informing Kyrian over holo that he's being arrested for treason), except that I haven't done that much with Kyrian's career when he's not out in the field actively coloring outside the lines.

Well, I do have a couple of Keeper mini-fics. LIke I said, interesting character. He's not a character type you often get on the "bad" side, being more of an "M" or...what's his name on Stargate SG1...Hammond than the sort of leader you normally see in the Empire. He clearly cares about the people who work under him, even if he's able to send them into deadly danger, exile them to Shadow Town, or worse...when necessary. He's a very effective combination of "good authority figure" and "did what I had to do/made the hard (but necessary) decisions."

If I do go back and fill in more of Kyrian's career, or write any Pheodra fics, he's likely to put in more appearances. Getting a little insight into why he ignored concerns about Kyrian for as long as he did (besides that Kyrian tended to succeed where it really mattered) could be fun. The game writing suggests that Keeper sees something of himself in a light side agent, and I've carried that over to ficverse. Of course, Keeper remained loyal to the Empire, despite its flaws, and gained the hardness and big picture thinking that Kyrian...did not.

Watcher Two is...hm, how to phrase it... She's more unquestioningly Imperial than Keeper, but that's unsurprising considering she was literally designed by the Empire. That she still came out a decent coworker/boss is more surprising. Her soft spots are different from Keeper's, and somewhat more personal, but she lacks his experience (I'm pretty sure he was Imperial military before his Imp Int career. Or is that just my headcanon?) and she rises in the ranks at nearly the worst possible time, given how quickly the Sith wreck everything.

Hm, actually I think the most interesting stuff with her, as far as the game story goes, comes later. Which means that if she were to appear in fic beyond giving mission info or taking a post-mission briefing, it'd probably be if I fic stuff with Pheodra. (Who, to her irritation, inherits Kyrian's designation and mission. She is cypher agent material; it was clear in training that he would never be.)

Then again, Watcher Two is so much more what a member of Imperial Intelligence should be than Kyrian, it could be interesting to give them a chance to interact around that. Especially as it's clear Kyrian did trust her (and Keeper) more than was wise. That means some discussion of methods is possible, or other concerns. Hell, she's observant enough--and close enough to being a coworker, rather than a superior--that she might pick up on his doubts about whether he is cypher agent material. (Okay, he knows he's not, he's just trying to do the job anyway. And dreading the eventual training he's certain he'll fail.)

Which raises the question of what Keeper (and Watcher Two, for that matter) thought of their skilled but squeamish field agent who'd been promoted way too soon. Did Keeper think that field experience would eventually file off his soft edges and make him cypher material? Are there aspects of cypher training that would make his flaws irrelevant? Was Keeper going to quietly demote him back to normal field agent once the crisis was over? Let him continue indefinitely as an untrained, field promoted cypher agent? (I mean, obviously, he had field agent training. But that's not the same thing.)

Was part of Watcher Two's job deciding what would be best to do with Kyrian once the crisis was over?

[findafight]

Thinking about Dorothy, twelve and scared and wanting to go home, walking back to the Emerald city after throwing water on the Wicked Witch of the West. The adrenaline wears off as her and her companions, her friends, set up camp for the night, and it hits her. She's killed a woman.

Again.

And brave little Dorothy Gale tries to hold it together, tries not to worry the wonderful new friends who have supported her throughout her journey in Oz, tries to be brave. But eventually, once Lion and Toto are cuddled up and asleep, Tin Man has taken to staring into the small fire, and Scarecrow stays just inside the circle of light staring up at the stars, Dorothy lets herself cry.

She shifts to hide it, lies down and curls away from the fire, muffles her sniffles in the blanket they've carried for her. All the fear and loneliness, the frustration, the guilt that has built up since she dropped into Oz spilling silently out.

She breathes deep, trying to contain the sobs, until there's a hand on her shoulder, and Scarecrow is there looking at her worriedly. His eyes are buttons but the burlap surrounding them folds and crinkles around them, stitched eyebrows furrowing. She sits up slowly, watching as he tilts his head to the side, squeezing her shoulder gently.

Suddenly, she wraps her arms tightly around Scarecrow's middle, needing the comfort of a hug. (Dorothy is brave, yes, but she is twelve and homesick and guilt ridden.) She burrows her face into his chest, breathes in the familiar scent of straw. Her friend carefully rubs his hands down her back, whispering reassurances that she can't accept.

"oh, Scarecrow! I didn't want to kill her! I never--i never wanted to hurt anyone. I-I just want to go home!"

Scarecrow pauses, stills unnaturally for a moment, before pulling back from her. He looks her face over, button eyes twitching as his stitched mouth pulls into something like a grim frown. It is so unlike what Dorothy has come to expect from her boneless friend that it is mildly unsettling. The only time she recalls him being this serious is perhaps when they saw the Wizard and the man gave them the task to retrieve the Witch's broom.

Her Scarecrow friend is so often happy, carefree in a way that lifts her spirits. It wouldn't do now, would assuge her guilt, and his lack of levity grounds her in an odd way. She knows he had been afraid, or timid, or... Something else about killing the Wicked Witch. But now she's dead and Dorothy killed her, even if it was an accident to save him. She's unsure how long his seriousness will last. Or if it will reassure her.

He looks at her, unblinkingly (for Scarecrows with button eyes don't blink) before glancing over his shoulder towards Tinman tending the fire. He makes to stand, unusually graceful. "Let's go for a little walk, alright, Dot?" He says, almost casually, but there is a tension in his voice. She nods, allowing him to help her (however unsteadily) to her feet and wrap the blanket around her shoulders. They wander a ways away from their campsite, but still within sight of the fire Tin Man resolutely tends to.

Scarecrow loops himself down to lean against a tree and gestures for Dorothy to join him. When she's settled and the blanket is readjusted to let as little of the cooling night air touch her, he begins.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to speak to you before all this." He gestures aimlessly. "But there were a lot of moving parts, and my mind is rather slow and tangled these days. Still. you should've known before hand."

"known what?" She can't help but ask. Scarecrow is acting mysterious. Though along their journey he sometimes would seem to know more than he left on, he'd never been avoidant of sharing with her before.

He sighs. "what I am about to tell you, Dorothy Gale, you must swear-" he grasps her hands and holds her gaze. "Swear you will never, ever, tell anyone."

Dorothy swallows. She nods. "I swear. Scarecrow, I swear."

"you must mean it. No-one in Oz can know of any of it."

She looks at Scarecrow, his button eyes meeting her perfectly human ones, and it strikes her that he has never seemed more human. He is obviously not; he has no bones and no organs; he feels no pain, can have his straw strewn about and restuffed and be perfectly fine; he does not need food or water or sleep; and he is, clearly, a scarecrow. But he has always had an air about him, a light in his eyes that leaves it without question that he was alive.

Now, though, with him asking, begging, her to swear she will keep some terrible secret for him; there is desperation in the way his voice trembles, his hands grip hers, his eyes stare her down. With that desperation, he seems fully human.

Dorothy squeezes his gloves hands, nodding. "I won't speak a word of it to anyone. Your secrets will be safe."

"Good. Good." He nods to himself. Shakes his head. "I am not quite sure where to start." He admits.

"the beginning?"

Scarecrow grins at her. Taps his burlap nose with his finger. "Ah, but where is that? When I met you? When I met her? Who's to say?" There is his silliness, sneaking through. It reassured Dorothy that perhaps this isn't some terrible story after all.

"you, I suppose?"

Shrugging, he sighs. "Yes. You're right." He rubs his ill formed jaw with his hand, takes a deep breath, and says with much gravitas, "her name is Elphaba Thropp."

Which doesn't make much sense to Dorothy. "Whose name?"

"The Witch of the West."

"how-"

"Dorothy," Scarecrow says. He rarely interrupts. "You must listen to the end. I am not telling you this to make you feel bad. Actually, hopefully it will ease your mind-" she doesn't know how knowing the name of the woman she killed will ease much of anything for her, but Scarecrow is so rarely serious. "Please listen. And-- and try not to judge me too harshly." She wonders what he might reveal that would make him think she'd judge him after he'd helped her so much. She nods.

He does what could be a swallow. He takes a deep breath, straw shuddering and trembling in him. His hands fiddle with the frayed hem of his shirt. "I know her name, because I know her."

Dorothy cannot hide her gasp. Scarecrow chuckles grimly. "Oh, Dot, it's worse than that." His head tips to the side as he looks at her. "I love her."

She shakes her head, pulling the blanket tighter around her. "But why--"

"I'll explain. I promise." He shrugs. "We met at school." He begins.

He tells her of almost-tramplings and of parties, and of roommates dated. "Glinda and I were never going to be long-term, if not for Elphaba, I suppose."

"Glinda? The good?"

"that's the one."

"oh my. Is it common for Scarecrows and Horses to attend school with Humans then?"

Scarecrow tilts his head again in that odd way of his. "Well, Animal bans restricted unsegregated businesses and schools. Under the Wizard things are very strict. Harsh. I had to make sure Feldspur was well away from the Emerald City a few years ago for his protection."

He sounded very grave, and the mention of the Wizard troubled Dorothy. He was behind Animals being pushed away? It didn't make sense. He was supposed to be wonderful.

"as for Scarecrows, I suppose I... Should have mentioned I... Well, Dot. I haven't always been a scarecrow."

"what?"

He scratches his cheek, shrugs. "I was Human, up until just before I met you"

"how??"

He winces. "I think I should tell it all in order, actually."

So he does. Explains how the Wizard tricked Elphaba, how she defied him, and he named her Wicked. Scarecrow tells her that he looked for Elphaba, that he and Glinda were sick with worry and grief, that they ended up in the Emerald City. How he continued his search.

Dorothy thinks he may never have told anyone this before. Scarecrow has been a steady presence for her during their travels, and now he unleashes secrets from his heart, she realises that he may have been pretending. For her sake.

His story continues mostly smoothly, until after he ran away with Elphaba (which, Dorothy can admit, she finds horribly romantic. Like something out of a fairy tale. It also causes acidic guilt to burn at her insides) and Elphaba had a vision of Dorothy coming to Oz and her sister's death. He trips and stumbles over their confrontation in Munchkinland, over him getting caught in Elphaba's place.

"I do not regret it." He says, steadily. And then avoids telling her anything that happened after except that they injured him, and he felt Elphaba's magic cover him. Then he met Dorothy.

She thinks the story finished, and is hurt and confused by why he would tell her all this. He loved the Witch, who was not so wicked, and Dorothy killed her. Why is he so kind, so gentle. He seems perfectly happy, now that all is in the open, despite that his love is dead. It makes no sense.

"I wrote to her, after we saw the wizard. Pure luck Chistery was able to get it to her."

He leans in, then, smiling. "Dot. Remember, I told you all this to ease your mind." He gives her hand a squeeze. "The most important thing you should know, from all of this. Is that Elphaba is a regular human woman that happens to have green skin." He says it significantly. Meaningfully.

It still confuses Dorothy.

He smiles, kindly, and asks "do you melt in the rain?"

Dorothy shakes her head.

"do you melt swimming in a pond?"

Another shake.

"do you cry in pain when you bathe?"

"no? It's just--" it hits her, then, what scarecrow is saying. She gasps. "It's just water." It comes out awed.

He nods. "Indeed."

"oh! It was a-a trick!"

His voice is sadder, now. "a cruel one, perhaps. But necessary."

"why?"

He tilts his head, hums. "For all the reasons I told you the story for. The Wizard sent us to kill her, and I love her, so I could not let it happen. If people know she's alive, she would be in danger. This way, we are free."

Dorothy can see it. See why Scarecrow told her all about their past. She had to know he loved her, had to know why he loved her, to understand why they did it, to accept it.

"I see. When will you meet her again?"

He smiles, big and full and bright. "As soon as I see you safely home, I shall meet her, and we shall leave Oz as well."

The thought swells Dorothy's heart. He sounds happy, her Scarecrow, self assured and unworried. He leaves his home to live with his love. It is tragically romantic.

She hugs him, smiling for the first time since they entered that castle. "thank you for telling me, Scarecrow."

He wraps his arms around her, squeezes, and says. "Fiyero."

She hums a question, making him chuckle.

"my name. It's Fiyero."

Dorothy pulls away, and continues to smile. "It has been very nice getting to know you, Fiyero."

"same to you, Dorothy."

She leans back in to hug him more thoroughly.

Tomorrow they will again set off to the tell the wizard of the Witch's death, but now it is enough for her to know that Elphaba lives.

[theangrypomeranian]

I think I'm almost ready to start writing again

[antlered-prince]

Do you have any recommendations for good Dream/reader fics? I can’t find any….its so cold out here………./j

i wish i did! but unfortunately he's so hard to find /reader fics for (that aren't nsfw one-shots) that i don't have any (⁠´⁠°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥⁠ω⁠°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥⁠｀⁠)

most of the dream/reader content that i have are old art/attacks or rps 😔

[morgan-n-cheese-91]

How often do you think Obi-Wan borrows a friend's cloak and the loses it?? And then has to do the walk of shame that he lost their cloak?

[boo-cool-robot]

Fic: womb, cursed [Jujutsu Kaisen, Gojo/Geto]

Word Count: 3294 Rating: Mature Summary: “The great and powerful Gojo clan can't hurt me anymore. They need me too much now that I’ve fully awakened Limitless.” Satoru slugged his second cola back and glanced sidelong across the bench at Suguru. “So you're going to help take my uterus out.” Suguru gave a smile that was much too calm and remained staring straight ahead. “Am I. Why?” In which teen Gojo gets a home hysterectomy and absolutely no one is having a good time.

Ft. Trans Gojo! Hot Premature Death summer! The worst possible way of dealing with distance between you and your boybestie!

This is possibly the most unhinged fic I've ever written. This doc was titled "Gojo's evil and gay hysterectomy" if that helps get the vibe across. Enjoy?

[banyanas]

man if i had an actual plot structure to use as scaffolding (because i can’t really do slice of life or things like it) i could write so many N and Uzi words that are just the actual practicalities and obstacles (varying in size and some seen, some unforeseen) of an interspecies relationship

[inspiteofganon]

I'm not really a "shipper" per se but I will admit that the utter lack of gansheik stuff anywhere is a real surprise to me. You can't hardly even find platonic stuff of them having a dynamic despite all the fuel that the manga gives for tension and potential interactions.

[longing4yesterday]

me most of this week w/ mclennison fic plotting

[impossible-rat-babies]

you know it had to be kinda nuts to be an Eorzean city state leader and finding out over a year later that eyrie was actively kinda dying. it makes sense it was kept on the low since. you know. the wol dying would be Huge, but it’s still nuts to find out after the fact

[theangrypomeranian]

if you don’t like a fic, just click out of it. leaving hateful comments is so unnecessary and demotivating.

[ceramicbeetle]

I have posted the first snippet of this OC fic on my neocities; I'm just kind of vibing with the page colors right now, but in the top corner there's a button you can click to make it plain black on white if that's easier to read!

[doctordoombignaturals]

hol horse and his ptsd in cddh is so interesting to me in particular. fundamentally unserious character made serious always gets to me. I think we should acknowledge this more. i love him i think

[kyouka-supremacy]

"#Also rip to the pages that fueled my sskk unrequited love agenda for one years " Oh you're finally done ? Even after you saw the confirmation it was requited I still saw you clinging to it so I'm surprised

Okay I elaborated plenty on my thoughts on unrequited sskk in the last ask but “oh you're finally done with your sskk unrequited love agenda” may as well be the funniest thing anyone has ever said to me. Long story short the anime may have deleted its potential canon basis and the manga may have disproven it in the meantime anyway but I'm taking my unrequited sskk agenda with me to the grave by sheer power of not caring about what canon says

[junkissed]

oh thaaaat ask... yeah i recall now hehehe i'm weirdly honored that i have a brand.. also i think i sent u an ask or two that i didn't sign off cause i was worried you'd get tired of me shshfbf so i honestly have no idea what i've sent u... anyways i can't stop thinking of brutal mean brat tamer hao suddenly switching it up one day when you brat at him and he goes "oh, i'm not tying you up because i trust you to be well behaved ^_^ you're so good, baby, i love you so much ^_^" and it surprises u so much that you actually do behave ... and maybe also slip into subspace 💤

SCREAMS OH MY GOD... switch!hao but instead of switching roles or positions it's him switching from hard dom to soft dom. like the contrast is so stark from how he is normally that even though it could be the most vanilla missionary in the world, it feels just as intense as the nights where he's got you tied to the bed with a vibrator and nipple clamps on you. they're both extremes but they're so different from each other that they're both equally pleasurable. extremes in a good way yk 🫠 and both times you just get to sit there and let him take care of you, whether it's punishment for being a brat or praise for being oh so well behaved for him

[who-needs-words]

“What are your fandoms”

How do define being ‘in’ a fandom? Consuming the base media? How much base media must be consumed? Do I need to create fan content? Or just share other’s fan content? What about just reading fic? Do I have to talk to others to be considered part of the fandom? What if the fandom is considered toxic?

“Uh? It’s um- self defined?”

Cool thanks.