#rough draft I say and then write the whole thing out anyways

[tricksheart]

Rough Draft of Akira's Final Fantasy 16 verse.

Mostly isekai'd / transported into the world, as in his magic doesn't have cost issues except for like getting a good nights rest. His age is between 18-19 and is after the Strikers sequel. He wears his phantom thief attire but sometimes doesn't have his overcoat on himself due to the clothing being somewhat an obstacle because it keeps getting caught on stuff.

Goes by the name Arsene, as this name is more in line with the world of Final Fantasy 16's setting. Can use the jump command despite not being a Dragoon class. Uses mostly knives as his melee weapon but can and will use his magic-like gun to defeat monsters and the like. The other weapon does raise some eyebrows but most are wanting to free the realm, too busy to really question it. Curse magic is his main ability but is shown to use other elements to his advantage.

Sometimes is the Dominant of Alexander, transforming into a living breathing castle and is good at being the ultimate defense. Not tied to an element and doesn't even have the penalty effects of normal Dominats. But does suffer from the ability to go back to his home world if he uses it for too long. Only uses the form sparingly.

If he's not a Dominant, then he has full access to his personas but still needs to level up to use the more powerful ones. He has to explain that no, these are not Eikons but demons / shadows that come from mankind, not from some god or otherworldly presence.

Joins the party and resistance before the battle of Drake's Head. No one really questions his existence and his quick thinking makes him tell everyone that he crossed from the seas beyond the continent like their leader Cid had done previously. Constantly wears a permanent smirk on his face, causing others to comment on how there is a guy smirking ( him ) and a guy scowling ( Clive ).

People that are warm to him right away are Jill, Gav and Cid. Clive takes a few months to come around but is appreciated of Akira's sometimes somber silence and quick wit with strategy, which is valuable all around, even in the battle field. Akira also quotes words and actions from the play Clive likes, taking the field as Mordu ( sp? ) and makes a really good villain. He quickly tries to know as much about this world as he can and is usually found near Harpocrates's location in the hideaway. Akira is still a huge charmer, even in this world. Too bad most of them are looking at Clive and his outfit.

What happens to him during the end game is purely speculation but he mostly makes it back home, despite all the connections he made in this world.

[nohva]

Zoro drunkenly (or while tipsy) confesses his love to Sanji one night but, in the same breath, tells him it’s okay—he knows Sanji is straight and is fine with them remaining "only" crewmates, he just had to get these feelings out of his system. And Sanji is overwhelmed because ???? Where is this even coming from? Why is the mosshead suddenly saying these things? This isn’t how their relationship is supposed to work. They don’t do the whole talking thing, especially not about serious topics?? When they have emotions to work through they fight each other, maybe throw in an insult or two. But this? This is unfamiliar territory for Sanji, so he’s really not sure how to react, much less respond.

So he doesn’t; he just stares at Zoro, his mouth opening and closing. Zoro takes that as his sign, gets up from the stairs he’d been sitting on, and leaves for the sleeping quarters. It is quite late, after all.

The next morning while preparing breakfast Sanji is oh so tense. He’s still mostly confused because there’s just no way the green-haired brute could harbor any such feelings toward another human being—least of all him—could he? And what if this does change things? Zoro said it wouldn’t, but who's to say?

And Zoro acts like nothing ever happened, he's just the same old moss ball that drinks too much Sake and takes way too many naps during the day and Sanji is so confused and he's getting angry now, because how can he act so nonchalant while the cook is over here losing his god damn mind over this? Does Zoro maybe not remember confessing? Had he been that drunk?

And obviously Zoro DOES remember, and he's NOT calm at all. He's freaking out internally every time he and Sanji are in the same room, but he'd rather lose his remaining eye than have anyone notice. So he does his best to play it cool. And yeah, maybe he takes a nap or two more than usual, and maybe he spends even more time working out in the crow's nest than is strictly necessary, but that is nobody’s business but his own, isn’t it?

Bla bla bla cue Sanji questioning the universe and his existence, freaking out over his sexuality, sloooowly coming to terms with it and then freaking out again about telling Zoro and what it means for the crew dynamic etc etc.

Also Robin being somewhere in the background of the story, smiling to herself, sipping on her tea, because of course she knows something is up, and she has a pretty good idea of what it is about, even if she doesn’t know the whole story, because she knows pretty much everything that’s going on on the sunny, cause she’s the responsible older sister™️.

————————————————————-

I have never attempted to write anything before, not even a rough draft like this, but Zosan has been living in my head rent free for the past few months now, and once the idea for a possible plot popped up in my mind I absolutely needed to note it down. Oh well, I hope I am not embarrassing myself too much by posting this.

Anyways, this is the most I can offer due to a lack of actual literary skills, but I still hope you enjoyed!

The obligatory English isn’t my first language speech: please excuse any spelling and grammar mistakes, I tried my best, I swear!

[zerodaytesttape]

another caldre writing that literally had 0 reason but I wanted to write it and it's been in my drafts for like a month.. i didn't proof read this so idk if it even makes sense, but I need it outttt of my drafts😭

NSFW AND RELIGIOUS/HOMOSEXUAL URGES GUILT

andre’s hands shake as they run down cal’s body, sliding under his shirt. ‘don’t do this,’ he thinks, but his fingers move anyway, tracing over cal’s ribs, feeling the way his chest rises and falls. cal sighs softly, and the sound is like gasoline poured onto the fire already burning inside andre. ‘fuck, stop,’ he tells himself, but when cal makes that tiny whimper, andre’s whole body reacts. he can’t stop now.

his hand dips lower, fingers brushing the waistband of cal’s pants, and cal lets out this quiet, breathless moan that makes andre’s skin crawl. not because it’s bad, but because it’s too good. too real, too "this is actually happening. 'this is wrong,’ he thinks, but he keeps going, pushing past the guilt that’s clawing at his chest. cal arches into his touch, his hips pressing up, and andre’s throat tightens. every noise cal makes is like fuel to a fire he can’t control, each one hotter, heavier.

“sir,” cal whispers, voice playful and slightly-laughing at the teasing nickname. andre’s hand falters, his mind racing. ‘don’t fucking do this, dont be this way, don't be a stupid fucking f-ggot.’ but he already is. he’s been that from the moment he started staring at his best friend a little longer all the way up till he kissed cal for the first time, from the moment he let himself get lost in it. he feels dirty, repressing every part of himself that feels wrong, but his body won’t stop.

"shut up," andre barks, his face blank, he genuinely wanted cal to shut up, he couldn't take the guilt anymore. cal giggles in return.

he then gasps as andre’s hand dips lower, just barely brushing below his waist, and the sound hits andre like a punch in the gut. ‘stop,’ he thinks again, but cal’s soft moans, his shaking breath, it’s all too much. it feels like the walls are closing in, like the world is collapsing around them, but cal’s the only thing holding him together. he stares at the pale scars on cal's hips and feels sick, he's really doing this, he's really THAT close to cal that he can see those, he feels horrible.

“fuck, andre,” cal says, the nickname fading, his voice cracking, and andre can’t breathe. there's no nickname to block that it's andre whose actually doing this, his fingers curl around the waistband, but he hesitates, his mind screaming at him to pull away. ‘you’re not supposed to like this you’re not supposed to feel this way get the fuck off of him.’ but he does feel that way, and he doesn't move. he can’t stop himself. it’s like every noise cal makes drives him deeper into something he doesn’t want to admit to, something that feels dangerous, something that feels too fucking good.

cal’s hips shift under him, pushing up into his touch, and andre closes his eyes, trying to block out everything he’s feeling. but it’s impossible. he feels every inch of cal, the way his body trembles, the way his breath hitches, and it’s like they’re both caught in a spiral they can’t escape. ‘i’m not supposed to want this,’ andre thinks, but he does. god, he does. he hates himself for it, but he can’t stop.

cal moans, soft and broken, and andre feels like he’s suffocating, like he’s drowning in the heat of it all. ‘dirty. i’m so fucking dirty.’ every touch, every sound is like another match thrown onto the fire, and andre feels like he’s burning alive. but he can’t stop. he doesn’t want to stop. the star of david necklace that he threw into the lake years before still burns in his memory as it burned his chest whenever he thought about kissing his boy best friend, he feels disgusting.

the thought of all of this is making andre aggressive, violent, a bit too rough with the way he moves and grabs at his best friend. the way cal laughs in response infuriates him more.

despite his anger, andre’s hand slips lower, hesitating for a moment, his breath caught in his throat. ‘don’t. don’t go any further,’ he thinks, but cal shifts beneath him, pressing closer, silently begging for more. andre feels trapped, pinned under the weight of his own mind, but he can’t stop. cal’s skin is warm, soft under his fingertips, and every small noise cal makes pushes him closer to something andre’s been fighting for too long.

he takes a shaky breath and slides his hand fully below cal’s waist and under his boxers. cal gasps, a quiet, breathless sound, and it makes andre’s stomach twist. ‘fuck,’ he thinks, his heart racing. ‘i’m really doing this.’ but instead of feeling worse, instead of the guilt crashing down on him, there’s something else, something that feels almost like relief. cal’s body is trembling, his breath coming in short, quick bursts, and andre can feel the heat radiating from him.

“andre…” cal’s voice cracks and it makes andre’s heart stutter. cal’s fingers dig into his shoulders, pulling him closer, and something shifts. andre leans down, their lips brushing together as he whispers, “i’ve got you.” his voice is rough, but softer than before, like he’s finally giving in.

“andre, jesus christ dude- fuck,” cal breathes out, and andre can feel his resistance melting away, slipping through his fingers. ‘i shouldn’t…’ but the words are gone, lost in the way cal feels, the way he arches into andre’s touch, the way he makes those quiet and desperate noises that andre can’t get enough of.

"cal shut the fuck up, fuck-" andre commands as he squeezes at cal, the rush of guilt and aggression rising in his chest. he wanted to scream and yell and beat cal until he was nothing but mush.

he slides his hand out to unzip cal's fly and he feels cal’s body tense beneath him, and for a moment, everything freezes. but then cal moans and andre moves before he can think about it. ‘god, i hate this,’ he says to himself, fully. but as he looks at his best friends face, his pale skin, his light eyes, his stupid structure, there’s no more fighting it now. he will have to give in and deal with the guilt later.

“you’re good, cal, it's okay,” andre murmurs, his tone switching fast, kissing him again, deeper this time, letting the warmth of the moment take over. cal’s breathing hitches, his hips rocking up to meet andre’s hand, and andre feels that heavy, suffocating guilt slip away, replaced by something better, something that feels right.

cal lets out another breathy moan, and andre’s head spins, his pants feeling suffocating, cal's scent making him feel safe. every sound cal makes is like fuel to the fire, every gasp and whimper pulling him further in. ‘fuck, i can’t stop now.’

“you like that?” andre whispers against cal’s lips, his voice low, and cal nods frantically, his eyes glazed over, barely able to form words and he smiled crookedly.

“yeah- yes. i- yeah,” cal breathes, his voice shaky as he laughs at his stupid stammering. andre watches cal, the way his chest rises and falls, the way his fingers feel as they curl in andre’s hair. there’s no turning back now, no holding onto the doubt that’s been eating at him for months. cal's face rushes with red as he feels heat pool in his stomach and sweat bead down his cheeks, "fuck- this is so wrong," he laughs. but instead of andre stopping and stressing again, he laughs too.

'this is okay. it has to be. its not wrong, not anymore' he thinks, the thought making him feel safe.

"it's okay you idiot, it has to be. doesn’t feel wrong to me, cal. not anymore.” he says, his tone joking and sweet, the words making cal feel safe as he laughs in return.

[swaps55]

Hi! I'm actually obsessed with Opus rn (like I'm daydreaming about it at work. You broke me). Anyways, I was wondering about your writing process for it! When did you first get the idea for it, and when did you start writing it? What does your revision process look like? Did you plan for it to be a full trilogy + more retelling or did it spiral out of Sonata? It's so amazing and I'm so happy that you're writing it :)

Talk about a dream question!!! I could go on about this for days.

Opus was directly inspired by @urrone, who back in 2019 had the lovely idea of creating a playlist and writing a short fic for each song. I'd been itching to get back into writing fanfic after a long hiatus, but hadn't found the right story to write. A songfic playlist suddenly gave me some direction. In the past I'd written a lot of short stories about a generic mshenko Shepard, and I knew certain things about how I saw that romance unfolding (such as them serving together before the Normandy), but I had never written anything consistent with a particular Shepard. So I figured I would try my hand at a short story collection tracing an mshenko relationship across the trilogy.

ONE work. Maybe 15 or so chapters, each one its own self-contained short. I still have the outline somewhere.

Now, let's be clear, this was never going to be how it actually worked in practice. This was a pipe dream. XD

As soon as I wrote the story that became the first chapter of Cantata I realized how much context I would need to set up their relationship before we ever got to the Normandy. I continued on in my delusion, however. ONE story. All 3 games plus the pre-trilogy roots. ONE.

Then I got stuck at Sharjila, and that's how Sonata, which was intended to be a silly one-shot diversion, happened. And once Sonata was written, it wasn't silly, and it wasn't a one-shot. But to fit it into my 'canon' relationship timeline, I'd have to change how I envisioned what I was doing. Sonata was a novel. So the other stories in it would have to be, too.

Each one has had a slightly different writing process. Sonata was chaos to write. I wrote an entire 30k word draft that I threw in the trash. (I was so rusty and had let some bad habits and lazy storytelling get in my way.) I wrote it out of order. I had no idea where the story was going or what I was doing. I figuratively closed my eyes and just let it come out on the page. It was a possession, from start to finish. It was 100% pantsed.

Instead of going back to what was now Cantata (which was also a mess, thanks to all the aforementioned rust), I rode my momentum into Fugue. But it was so brutal, and I knew I was eventually going to hit a point where everything that had happened on the 'Yang was going to become very important to Kaidan. At this point in time NO one but me knew who Pendergrass, Aslany, Beaudoin, and Captain Oseguera were, aside from a couple of references in Sonata. But for Fugue to work, people needed to care about what had happened before ME1, and miss those characters. So I put Fugue on the shelf to let myself recover, and went back to Cantata.

Cantata is closer to my original idea than the rest of Opus - it is a series of interconnected short stories. Each one tells a pretty complete story that stands on its own, but together they all create a bigger whole. While I had a rough idea of what I wanted to achieve with each story/chapter, I had no idea how I was going to do it until I started writing it. My 'outline' for Fall From Your Ladder says, "N5 training is a bitch. Fuck Benning," with no further notes.

Cantata was a joy to write. I miss writing it more than any other story. Even when it was hard (looking at YOU, scene transitions in Facing Giants), it was fun.

I think once Cantata was finished I was still scared of Fugue, so I did a quick detour to Concerto, which was a wholly different writing experience because I was adapting something I had already written, an ME1 novelization called Exordium, to tailor it for Sam. I only took on the Virmire piece of it, because it felt important. I have had no interest in writing a different take on ME1 from what I'd already done, because I love what I did. Someday I might do the rest of it, and make Concerto a larger story. But the bite-sized challenge of identifying what worked for Sam, what didn't, what needed to be added and what needed to be dropped or modified was a lot of fun.

Fugue was work. The first half before I took the break was still mostly pantsing: having a vague idea of what I wanted to accomplish and figuring out how as I went. The second half was...whew. In addition to managing Kaidan's grief and making his journey through it feel authentic, I had to start setting a chess board for a re-wired ME3 ending that I've been pondering for over a decade. I had to get more organized than I usually do when I write. I didn't do detailed outlines, but I did write thought dumps so I could think my way through all the different threads and how they needed to connect. Fugue was emotionally and technically VERY complex, and I did a lot of agonizing over each piece of it. The Weight of Everything and Remember We Flew were two of the most complicated and difficult chapters I have ever pieced together.

And now we're at Mezzo. Mezzo has been a different kind of hard for personal reasons. I'm burned out on a lot of fronts, so writing just isn't the sanctuary I can retreat to like it has been. My commitment to it is unwavering, but it just hasn't gone as smoothly or quickly as I would like. It doesn't help that ME2 is a disaster of a narrative - it's like a 24 episode TV season with monster of the week episodes peppered with the occasional overarching plot, which is great for a TV series but terrible for a novel format. Too many characters, too many disconnected plot lines, and a thin central narrative that ultimately has little impact on the overall trilogy. It's a great game, but it's a nightmare to turn into a conventional narrative.

It's also a very different experience writing through on-screen game events. I don't like regurgitating what readers already know, so when I need to do it, I try to find a different angle or perspective that gives you something new to chew on. My main approach has been to more or less let the plot and game events happen in the background wherever I can. If I don't have anything meaningful to add or change, there's no reason to put them in present action, so they happen off screen (like Freedom's Progress). The beauty of fanfic is that I can do that, because I know the reader already has the information I am leaving out.

Another tricky thing about Mezzo is telling a story that centers on someone's downward trauma spiral without access to their POV. Every time the story has gotten stuck, it's been because I have forced the POV character to fixate on Sam rather than let them be the hero of their own story. When I go back and instead let the POV character put themselves first, Sam does what the story needs him to do in the periphery, and the writing imitates what's happening to Sam: he is spiraling out of control and people aren't seeing it. But the reader does. :)

I could say so much more, but this is SO long and you deserve a cookie if you have read this far. Thank you so much for asking!!

[thelongestway]

Very-very tired for many reasons, but I made it with a very rough draft of the next chapter, ahaha. :P (Do not write near 4000 words in one sitting and stop on a tricky moment, that will block you!)

Very rough because I am very sleepy, will see about editing etc tomorrow.

Edit: Well, it took two days, but I basically added another half-chapter here in the beginning, and will need to quit fiddling with this by now - I'm growing pretty blind to the damn thing! I think I'll leave this one for the edits afterwards and move on.

Chapter 30: Preparations

Preparing for the war game was sort of like preparing for the hacker's game, except I wouldn't have ART with me, and I didn't have the option of just waiting out the opposition until they gave up. (Though letting the humans wear themselves out and then just walking past them would probably have made for a really effective tactic. But we were on a time limit.)

Instead, I waited for the humans to finish their preparations and answered the occasional polite tap from Dandelion, who was helping Aspen weave my outputs into their simulation system and wanted me to test if something was working or not. (Dandelion probably didn't need to help them. She did anyway.)

Aspen was standing next to me, hands folded on their chest, looking at the entrance to their old body and lost in thought. When they noticed my drone pausing next to them, they looked up and gave it a quizzical glance.

"Is everyone in your family out of the simulation area?" I asked.

"Yes, all out safely. Which wasn't hard--it's not like anyone's home much during a Meet anyway. But we'll need to make sure people aren't underfoot during the actual transfer, so this is good practice."

"Yeah. A hostage situation is the last thing this scenario needs."

They nodded. "It's a lot harder for four people to attack a massive gathering watched over by a station than just take someone isolated in their quarters. We can't link Note in to keep track of everyone with main systems down. But they can keep watch over a specific area."

We waited. I stood still (there weren't any chairs in the access corridor we were in), and Aspen paced--two steps forward, two steps back. Then they stopped in front of the old Courageous' wall and leaned back on it, frowning and looking up. Like they were talking to themselves.

"It sucks, though," they finally said, familiar bitterness in their voice. "This entire thing. I wish this wasn't how I had to say goodbye to them."

"What do you mean? Your cluster isn't coming with you?"

"They can't come. You'd be surprised how small of a cutting and stimulus you need to regrow the same synnerve patterns. I know my cluster too well. Having them with me would defeat the entire point of trying to retrain me on a whole new synnerve system."

I had a brief mental image of ART having to leave its humans behind if it wanted to be a station. (For some reason. I backburnered the thought too quickly to figure out exactly what reason.)

"How long is that going to take?"

"It's anyone's guess at this point. But we're looking at months or years. Maybe decades," they looked away, chewing on their lip. I wasn't monitoring their performance reliability or emotional instability or whatever, but I could bet it took a hit.

Stop borrowing grief from the future, Aspen, Dandelion said matter-of-factly, sending us her latest piece of code, designed to register fake outputs from my energy weapons.

"That's my entire job," they grumbled as they double-checked the code and implemented it on their end.

Dandelion retorted: No, your entire job right now is to get through the transfer intact. The rest is for others to handle.

Aspen snorted quietly, but I could see them smiling again as they refocused on their work. (They were also working on their own code, which Dandelion checked.) Both ships didn't talk much about it. They just sent each other snippets, picking up where the other left off seamlessly.

(Seeing them work together like that gave me a weird emotion. I backburnered it before I accidentally started bothering Aspen about it.)

Instead, I implemented my part, then tapped Dandelion's feed. Threat assessment on the transfer? Not on the security end, on the medical end.

It's complicated, she replied. Aspen being the first experimental node ship has made their synnerve system very convoluted, and trying to prune it without damaging them isn't an easy task. We're probably not going to lose them, but quality of life outcomes are variable.

Are you worried?

Dandelion sent me a snapshot of her performance reliability. It was hovering at the 95% mark.

No, she said. But I will be busy during the transfer, Note will have their processes full with two stations' worth of critical operations and all of the humans, and Blaze has space-side monitoring. With respect to your part of the job, the security teams will have to pull through on their own.

Then we'd better start practicing, I said.

She gave me a grateful tap, neatly caught the piece of code Aspen sent back to her, and implemented it.

---

Nike's and Aspen's humans were better at this than I thought humans who only had tactical simulation experience would be. They managed to get a few hits on me in the first scenario, where I infiltrated the Courageous as quietly as possible, and in the second scenario, where I imitated standard corporate tactics, they actually took me down. But that was after I killed 27 out of 36 human defenders, which was not what they were expecting either. Hiram and Basil (Nike's and Aspen's respective security chiefs, and jointly in charge of the simulation and upcoming defense) looked pretty rattled afterwards, but they really were a lot like my Preservation humans, which meant that despite being rattled, they immediately began updating their plans for the defense.

Their plans didn't involve me.

Tell them you're available for a contract, ART said second thing after it finally tapped my feed.

(First thing it did was send me a record of the ships' discussions, with commentary. It was weird. Looking at Dandelion, Aspen and Note in comparison to Nike and Blaze was sort of like looking at my Preservation humans in comparison to other Preservation humans, the ones who'd never encountered the Rim directly before. Except they were all ships like ART.)

They know that.

ART sent me one of its versions of the eyeroll emoji. (This one had five eyes).

I have had ample time to observe Aspen's humans. They will not engage a member of another node ship's crew of their own initiative.

It would be pretty rude to do that, yeah, Aspen said somewhere to my side, and I nearly jumped. I knew they hadn't just snuck up on me to sit on an overturned crate which their humans had used as part of a barricade, leaning forward a little, but try telling my fucking organics that! But I can inform them myself, provided you're interested?

Hiram and Basil both saw my face change and looked where my drones went. (Right now they looked like they were hovering over a random crate.)

"I'm just talking to Aspen," I said, "You can keep asking questions."

"You can do that at the same time?" Hiram said, looking surprised.

"And watch media. And code. And fight. And other things, too." I executed a little complicated maneuver with my drones at the same time as I tapped their handheld communicators.

To Aspen, I said: I can tell them. We're already talking anyway. Also, you didn't answer me during the referee call: why the fuck do you have carbon monoxide in your fucking ventilation systems?

Because the Courageous did, which was really fucking creepy. I mean, any ship AI could kill people if it wanted, but this wasn't ART's repurposed pathfinders. Carbon monoxide wired into the ventilation was a weapon that couldn't be used for anything except killing people.

Early corporate failsafe, Aspen said, shrugging. Antarctica wanted a way to kill the colonists if their plans didn't pan out. We repurposed the infrastructure later, but it was easy enough to put the weapons back now that we need them.

And your family doesn't mind?

Aspen's face twisted, and they folded their hands, looking guarded. They suggested it.

"Hell and high water," Hiram said, exchanging looks with Basil. "Nike said you were a node ship in human form, but I don't think I realized until now just how true that was."

"Even when I kicked your asses?"

"We have no real combat experience," Basil said. "You do. We expected to get our asses kicked at least a little, just not quite so thoroughly."

"You have better threat assessments than your ships," I said, and ART sent me a clip of Nike's outraged Hey! in the feed.

(To my left, Aspen gave a short laugh and said, Nobody who gets far enough to be a node ship ever has good threat assessments.)

(I agreed.)

"Let's hope they've improved enough to help us against our hostiles. They may not be little nodes, but they do have combat experience," Hiram said. "Thank you for the games, SecUnit. We'll make good use of the lessons."

He offered me a hand again.

I said, "I don't touch people unless I need to rescue them."

"Ah. I apologize," Hiram withdrew his hand. "Then thank you again, and do not let us keep you."

"Wait."

"Yes?"

"I'm available for further collaboration. And for the day of the transfer."

Basil and Hiram exchanged looks. Basil said, "Really? You're not busy with your clusters?" (Ke sounded surprised. Not in a "fuck off" way, but genuinely surprised.)

"Yes, I'm part of ART's crew. No, that doesn't mean I don't want to help defend the station. My humans are all going to be here during the transfer. The earlier the hostiles are neutralized, the safer they'll be."

"Well, then. Welcome on board, SecUnit," Hiram said, nodding, and his tone suddenly became a lot less formal. "We've got plans to discuss. D'you eat?"

"No."

"Mind if we do?"

"No."

"Then c'mon," Hiram turned and waved for me to follow him. "The Courageous cluster promised us dinner. Let's go get what food they left for us, settle into a spot and have ourselves a chat."

After about an hour of conversation in one of the Courageous' lounges and some literal napkin planning (with Aspen, Nike and ART providing occasional commentary through the speakers), I finally had a role in the Trellians' plan.

Both Nike and Aspen's security team agreed that the hostiles must want one of the hearts. ("Makes no sense otherwise," Tabby--Nike's hacker who'd killed her team by shutting down my grenade drone--said, "Caldera figured out the ships' intelligence pretty early, it figures they'd want in on it. And without the heart, the old Courageous is a bunch of scrap metal--no offense, Aspen!"

"None taken," Aspen said through their speakers. Their illusion spoke the words, too, and looked like they meant it.)

Note's security would be handling most of the civilians at the festival (where no one really expected any trouble, but Hiram sort of hoped the festival would keep civilians busy enough not to accidentally run into the corporate team), while Nike and Aspen's security would be handling the respective hearts. Hiram and Basil both thought there was also a chance that the Calderan team might go for Nike as the ship with newer neural architecture, and then the old Courageous was either a distraction or a mistake on the hostile's part. The old Courageous would still be empty, since Aspen's cluster had a role to play in the ceremony, same as Nike's cluster. Only the specialist cluster members would be doing the transfer, and they would be guarded at all times.

"If the target is Aspen, then we think the most probable moment of attack won't be on the Courageous' center, but at one of the corridor junctions, so the heart pod is already loaded and ready to move, and also close to Magma. That's the point we'll be monitoring the most heavily, and our teams will also be moving along with the hearts," Basil said. "But just in case, we've transferred most of the sensitive data off the old Courageous' systems. If Caldera miscalculates, all they will find is an empty old ship."

This didn't look too bad. Getting their house hit would suck for Aspen's family, but nobody would be dead.

Hiram said, "Considering your sheer speed and firepower, SecUnit, we want you to be our first response team if we've misread Caldera and they wind up hitting something we haven't considered--or the reinforcements to any team to make enemy contact. We'd like you to do as much monitoring as you can, and if a priority threat makes itself known, to go in and neutralize it. To that end, I think we'd be stationing you near the civilans, with Note. That's easy access to the Courageous' main body, which can work as a tunnel through half the station and is one of the priority targets, and only slightly harder access to Nike's new station."

"Who do I respond to?"

"Not respond, coordinate," Basil said, "You're basically Perihelion's chief of security, right? We'll treat you as one. You have autonomy in your sphere, but if one of us two--plus Note's chief--sends you a stand down code, you do. Conversely, you can send us a stand down code, and we'll do that, too."

"Or at least reassess. No guarantee that anyone will be be standing down until the end of the situation, but it will give the others a heads-up something isn't right," Hiram added. "Sound like a plan?"

ART's chief of security. I liked that. (I wondered what Senior Indah would have thought of me being treated like a security chief.)

"Yeah." I said. "Let's do that."

[just-prime]

Question to Dreamling folks…have you heard of Swedish Death Cleaning?

Okay so this has been hiding in my drafts for a WHILE now so bear with me

It's both a book and now a show, and I've been watching it recently. (well, it was recent when I originally wrote this) And the funniest idea has made its home in my brain...which is Hob getting stuck on this show. Logistically there are a lot of reasons why it wouldn't work...but let's just handwave all that, and say Dream is pulling some strings so that Hob's not recognizable on camera. I'd assume one of the Hob's employee friends at The New Inn volunteered him for it.

The camera crew are just trying to not be totally obsessed with this dude's quiet goth boyfriend who's raven keeps shouting curse words. Matthew has made it his personal mission to make Hob crack up on camera. Or the large maine coon who only is around sometimes despite being very obviously pampered, with eyes that have a really weird sheen to them.

The whole premise is 'decluttering your life so that after your death your friends and family won't have to do it' and I can just imagine that Hob's preparing to fake his death anyway, so he just says sure, what the hell only to realize that he needs to move all this stuff to a storage facility that is holding a bunch of stuff from past lives. And suddenly on the fly he is trying to come up with excuses of why he needs to keep a random glass bottle while a rather stern Swede is unimpressed. Plus employees of the New Inn keep mentioning different closets that are filled with things, so there's just a constant stream of really important things that Hob has to keep slipping to Dream to hold onto in the Dreaming so that nothing precious gets tossed out accidentally.

Or having to confront his grief over past loves that he's not truly over when he finds some last vestige of Eleanor and breaks down on camera. When it gets to the therapy section, it's kinda rough as he has to figure out what to censor himself on to stay realistic for his apparent human lifetime. The thing I love about the show is that one of the three hosts is an actual professional therapist, so Hob's gonna actually have to confront some of the harder truths that he may not even want to admit to himself yet.

When it comes time to have the final reveal, Dream helps with the decorating, and finds it incredibly soothing to put everything in the right place. After everything done, Hob jokes that he should become an interior designer or something...

This has been in my drafts long enough that I forgot when I actually started writing it...so yeah, just thought I should throw it out there finally instead of just keeping it in my drafts forever :P

[its-all-papaya]

N, Q, S, Z for the fandom asks!! Hehe -⭐

hi legend, cannot believe you came back when i have like three of your asks still half-answered in my drafts rn from like three days ago. you are too good to me.

asks from here

N- Your favorite fanfiction or fanauthor

oh my god i literally cannot in good faith answer this. i have like 9000 favorites. partial rec list here for anybody curious (hasn't been updated in quite awhile, fair warning), but for the sake of the ask:

favorite fics MOST RECENTLY have been turn down the world (i've read it + its companions probably three times just this week. this 'verse is to me what oscar's asmr channel IN the 'verse is to lando. don't think about that comparison too deeply and if you do don't tell me abt it ok thx!) and also feel you taking me home by @wedriftlikelonelyplanets which i have read - no lie - on average like once every other day since it has come out.

favorite author is genuinely impossible bc we exist in a delicious lovely golden era of landoscar fic, but SOME of my favorite works consistently are @1425fivefive's, @wanderingblindly's and @bright-and-burning's. also OBSESSED with @ipleadbritney's world-building skills, her magical realism makes me drool down my chin, and love @hanquality for the way so much of her work feels one-of-a-kind in terms of like... tropes? (tingle prison my beloved, i want ten more of it.)

also most of my bookmarks on ao3 are public!! that's lowkey probably the best way of tracking what i like, but i only started using them like maybe two months ago, so... sorry LOL. i'm working on a better way to keep track of all the fic i've ever loved. this is such a rough list, plz do not take it as comprehensive.

Q - A ship you’ve abandoned and why

i fear it's lestappen and it's partly bc my cursed lestappen fic damaged me critically from conception all the way through abandonment on ao3, but mostly bc i got maxiel-pilled WAY too mf hard. lestappen is the ship that got me into f1 - not just rpf but like literally the sport - so i will always be fond of it for that, but i really just do not interact with it anymore.

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon

this is where i must remind everyone that i do not concretely know what 'headcanon' really means. is it something i believe is actually true about a pairing irl? bc in that case... nothing? everything i write is made up and it's mostly projection.

the closest i can get to answering this in the way i think it's intended is to say that i identify with lando so aggressively when he's disappointed or upset that it feels like we share a mind. so my headcanon is that lando's brain when he is being self-critical is my exact brain when i am feeling bad about myself.

sorry that answer is bad, i truly don't think i have 'headcanons' about irl people. i have ways i consistently characterize my rpf versions of drivers, so if that counts for this, then... sub lando :)

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go

i took a class on fan behavior in college and we watched fursonas the documentary on the second day of it, but that craziest part of the whole thing TO ME is that we took this survey and there was like a third of the class who was like "i'm not a fan." like there exists a category of people who consume media and interact with the world and do not exhibit 'fan' behavior for anything. like no buying jerseys for sports teams, no contributing to blogs or forums, no consuming fanwork, just. passively consuming things and never engaging with them outside of their 'canon,' or like the exact thing itself in its exact form. I CAN'T IMAGINE LIVING THAT WAY. i know i was born with the hyperfixation nob like two ticks off its max setting, i know i'm more 'fan'-y than the average person, but there's levels, yanno? and it's crazy that 'zero' is a level a person can be at. HOW BORING. anyway. that's what you get out of me when you ask a question with no direction, i couldn't think of anything actually compelling to answer this with.

anyway, thank you thank you star anon for letting me yap!! gonna answer your dad lando asks soon i swear.....

[trensu]

do you think you'll put "Stasis in darkness" on AO3 eventually?

see, when the idea first came to me, I hadn't really planned on doing anything with it because I wasn't sure if I could make it work. there's a level of gravitas in the relationship between a god and their devoted servant that I didn't think would translate well to steddie because, let's be real, those boys are goofy dorks. but the idea wouldn't leave me alone so I typed up the original post in an attempt to work it out of my system and move on.

(the post kind of blew up, which I was not expecting at all!! like, not even a little bit! i post all sorts of rough little ideas for my own amusement and I've been able to do that without drawing much attention until that point.)

Anyway, I wouldn't have done much with it but @acowardinmordor left some comments/tags/what have you that helped me nail down the setting in my head which really opened the door for me to explore how the story could progress. (apologies, strife, I'm not sure I ever properly thanked you for that burst of inspiration, so please accept this shoutout as an expression of gratitude). And the amazing @ent-is-indecisive allowed me to rant about it which really helped flesh out the story. Seriously, there are elements and lore coming up that would not have existed if it weren't for ent. (and thank you once again ent for the ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL fanart you made for the reveal scene, I'm still overcome with joy whenever I think about it!).

Once it got to that point, I knew I wanted it to be a self-contained story and I was afraid that if I did a multi-chapter fic I'd lose the thread and never make it to the ending I want the fic to have. (no, the end scene hasn't been written yet but I KNOW what it's going to be and I hope everyone will love it as much as i do). So I promised myself that I was not going to post it on ao3 until the whole thing was written out completely.

However, I occasionally need a confidence/motivation boost so I've been posting consecutive parts of the rough draft here. you have no idea how much the people who reblogged with tags or left comments have helped me fight off the discouragement my brain likes to bog me down with; off the top of my head, @godsweakestboy , @redfreckledwolf, @fuctacles , @spectrum-spectre , and @lawrencebshoggoth have given me lovely, enthusiastic words of encouragement. and they're only the ones I can think of at this moment. there's so many other people who've done this, so if you've ever left me nice tags or comments, please know that I've read every single one of them repeatedly whenever I need to get over a slump. I'm so grateful for all of you!

Anyway, all this is to say yes! It is going to be posted as a oneshot on ao3 once I've finished writing it. <3

[tryingahandinholdingapen]

okay so I got distracted during my initial attempt at writing abt this au so we'll just call the first post (which I will link) a rough draft of a scene in the theoretical fic, and THIS post can be the summary of the actual idea for the au that I originally intended to write. okay? okay

here goes

(cw for discussion of noncon/dubcon sex but nothing explicit probably)

edit: I got distracted again and this time I ended up writing a whole scene wherein the Uchiha brothers discuss What The Fuck Is Going On but! I also managed to actually describe the au this time so! I'm saying it counts and this is a successful post summarising the au,,,mostly

so abt that au in which, during the war, Tobirama has a lot of dubcon sex with various Uchiha...

this au would have one and only one similarity to my blessed stray cat au which is that the Uchiha have a problem, somehow stumble upon something that seems to work as a solution to said problem and promptly go "well I have no idea why this is happening/working but sure this is doable" and if they knew what the Senju (particularly Tobirama) knew they'd know exactly why,,,but they don't, so they don't

that's the only similarity between the two aus though

anyway. in this au Izuna is the one who starts the whole chain of events. He's very impulsive, has heard+made a few too many jokes along the lines of how Tobirama would be more bearable if he just got laid, the Uchiha are having problems with trade due to the Senju that Izuna is CONVINCED are Tobirama's fault and is absolutely fucking furious about (and is more than a little obsessed with his rival whoops)....and he decides a logical way to vent his anger would be to track down Tobirama, trap him, and fuck him. Test the theory that the bastard would be more bearable after sex

So he tackles Tobirama and manages not to die in the ensuring fight mostly because a) Tobirama is exhausted physically mentally and in terms of chakra after a long mission and b) the second Tobirama realises Izuna is trying to get into his pants rather than slit his throat, he stops trying to kill Izuna. Which Izuna definitely noticed and is taking as a point towards his theory

This is not to say that Tobirama cooperates or even that he doesn't try to fight Izuna off, because he absolutely does, but overall the reaction is such that when Izuna ultimately leaves Tobirama restrained (it's fine the prick will be able to get out of it pretty easily given enough time and not having to multitasking fighting Izuna at the same time as trying to undo said restraints) the Uchiha is significantly less pissed off/satisfied and also is like. Theory confirmed?? Possibly??

And then it takes less than two days, barely even one day, after that encounter for the problem the Uchiha had been having in regards to trade to suddenly be resolved. And rumours/spies suggest that Tobirama was the one who changed the Senju patrols/practice again so that the Uchiha civilians were no longer being killed when they tried to restock on supplies

And Izuna is like....Holy shit?? Are these two things (resolved issue (probably by Tobirama but not 100% confirmed) and the encounter a day or so prior) connected???

Man I may have thought he'd be less unbearable if someone got that stick out of his arse but not to THIS extent what the hell, Izuna thinks, reasonably

Izuna toys with the idea of tracking Tobirama down again the next time he sees the Senju alone, to see if he can prove his theory definitively, but now that he's not running so much on rage and impulse he can logically assess the odds and be like. Okay we are usually equals in a fair fight, and if he's trying to kill me and I'm NOT trying to kill him just restrain him, then that puts me at a massive disadvantage. I succeeded last time, barely (OW my fucking ankle I can't believe he broke it the shit) but only because he was so close to his limits. Realistically if I try to go after him again when he's less exhausted (...and when he might expect what I'm doing? depending on how strongly opposed he is/isn't?) then he WILL win and probably just kill me on the spot

But Izuna desperately wants to confirm his theory because like, it would be completely insane if it WAS accurate, but also if there's even 0.0000001% of a chance that a fuck is sufficient for Tobirama to ACTIVELY WORK AGAINST his clan fuckibg the Uchiha over...that's valuable intel right?? Like that could be so good that could pay off so so so well for the Uchiha

IF the theory is correct. So he needs to confirm it. But how to do that without getting murdered in the process??

Hmmmm

Ultimately he decides to go to Madara about it for a second opinion

Madara is not impressed

"Otouto please tell me this is some new evolution of your fucked up humour," Madara says, pinching the bridge of his nose

"I am entirely serious," Izuna says, hand on heart, speaking ever so sincerely and earnestly and definitely laying it on too thick

Madara groans

Izuna waits

"Two main problems with this," Izuna nods, gesturing for Madara to continue, which only earns him a glare, "Firstly, do you realise how ridiculous this sounds?"

Izuna flings his hands in the air, "I KNOW! It seems like it must obviously be connected but it's just too crazy, which is why I want to CONFIRM IT somehow! I just can't figure out how to do that, which is why I came to you!"

Madara concedes the point and moves on

"Secondly, you're aware that once myself and Hashirama are heads of our clans, I had intended to try to make peace, as he keeps loudly offering?"

"I still think that's a bad idea. There's no way he's serious, not yelling about PEACE on a BATTLEFIELD whilst actively attacking you," Izuna says, almost reflexively returning to the old argument

"Senju Hashirama doesn't have a single deceptive bone in his body, if he refuses to make peace he refuses, but if he accepts he won't backstab us so it's worth trying to reduce how many of our people die every season," Madara returns, equally reflexively, then sighs and scrubs a hand over his face

"We're getting off topic. My point was... You're aware that Hashirama at least claims to want peace, and that I want that too, for the sake of our clan," Madara prompts, and Izuna nods somewhat reluctantly

"Yeah"

"And you're aware that the main reason Hashirama ever gave for wanting peace was for the sake of his little brothers?"

"Yes, I remember you told me that..."

"And you're aware that he only has one living brother left?"

"...I don't like where you're going with this," Izuna says, petulantly

Madara gives a wordless shriek of frustration, then gestures wildly such that Izuna has to dodge back a step from his brother's desk

"Uchiha Izuna did you rape Hashirama's last baby brother?!"

Izuna takes a moment too long to respond and Madara groans, slumping back into his chair with head in hands

"Otouto if you've just sabotaged our chances of eventually stopping this kami forsaken war and keeping our people SAFE, so fucking help me..."

Izuna cleared his throat awkwardly, staring at the ceiling

"I don't think I...did?"

Madara looked up to stare blankly at Izuna

"You don't think raping the beloved baby brother of the only Senju vocally in favour of peace has damaged our chances at ending the war," he states, flatly. It's not a question

Izuna stubbornly met his eyes and shook his head, even as he cringed inwardly at his own words, "No, I mean. I don't think I DID...rape him"

Madara stared at him for a long, incredulous moment, because by Izuna's own description that was not the impression he got, then sighed and leant his elbows on the desk. He waved a hand in Izuna's direction

"Go on then. Explain yourself"

Izuna cleared his throat awkwardly. Wow that ceiling sure is interesting!

"...Right. So admittedly I didn't exactly give the bastard a choice in the matter BUT," he hurried on before an already-exasperated Madara could interrupt, "BUT he absolutely did not fight me as much as he could have. Like when I first caught up to him he was fighting like he wanted me dead, but the very SECOND he realised I was going for his pants he immediately stopped trying to kill me. Didn't stop fighting, sure, but he definitely wasn't trying to kill me anymore and by the end he wasn't even pretending to try to escape"

"Thats really not sufficient evidence. You said yourself he was low on chakra and exhausted from whatever mission he'd been on, he could have just run out of energy or even given up-"

"-AND," Izuna cut him off loudly, "and at one point I stopped fucking him to see how he'd react, and okay yeah he didn't ask me to get my dick back in him, but he did almost immediately start bitching at me for stopping like you wouldn't believe, he was so annoyed about it it was actually really funny. And when I'd finished with him-,"

"Finished or FINISHED," Madara muttered snidely, but Izuna nobly ignored him in favour of finishing his explanation

"-that was the most relaxed I've ever seen the bastard. Like, ever. He actually almost seemed HAPPY. And, if nothing else, not once during the entire encounter did he actually seem upset, or scared, or sad. Angry at points, yeah, but, well, HE certainly didn't seem to feel violated," Izuna shrugged, a little awkwardly, "...so, honestly? I'm.. PRETTY sure I didn't rape him, in his head at least"

They were both quiet for a minute

"...I don't even know what to say to that," Madara spoke at last

".....Yeah that's fair," Izuna admitted

...

"....You're sure we're not going to have a furious Hashirama coming for our heads? Or, well, your head at least?"

"I would be extremely surprised if Tobirama told the tree anything at all," Izuna said honestly, "but no, I don't think we have to worry about death via mokuton any time soon"

"....Okay. That's good"

"Yeah"

...

"So about a way to confirm your ridiculous theory..."

"Yes! Give me ideas! I've been thinking about this since I first heard the Senju had laid off our traders and I've got NOTHING"

They did manage to confirm Izuna's ridiculous theory

And so ensues a ridiculously long period of time in which any time the Uchiha are having a problem (besides outright battles), with the Senju, someone goes to hunt down their surety heir (in other words, Senju Tobirama, the 'spare' to Hashirama's heir) and fuck him, and for some reason this results in the problem being solved very shortly thereafter like, nine times out of ten, which is a completely INSANE success record, so naturally they keep doing it

It's often Izuna who does this (because he's way too eager for an excuse to fight/fuck his rival hey who said that), but not always. They figure out pretty rapidly that Tobirama doesn't actually fight them THAT hard once he realises what they're aiming for (he still fights completely brutally on missions/battefield/patrol/random encounters though), so the main requirement for hunting the surety heir down becomes "can avoid dying in a fight with Tobirama long enough to make it obvious what you're going for"

(...and "can prevent him from escaping for the duration", because Tobirama fighting half-heartedly is still TOBIRAMA FIGHTING which is still a very difficult opponent for the overwhelming majority of the clan. And if Tobirama manages to escape before you can fuck him quiet, he will break a shit ton of bones in retaliation, vanish, and whatever the latest problem is won't get solved. Yes the unfortunate fucker who discovered this is still bearing a bit of a grudge, they were stuck in the healing halls SO LONG so many fucking bones broken and they were just stranded there before someone could come rescue them for fucks sake-)

They have absolutely no fucking clue why this works. Nobody's got anything better than Izuna's initial half-joking "guess he did really just need someone to fuck that stick out of his arse", but like, that is absolutely NOT SUFFICIENT to explain the extents the Senju heir will seemingly go to to make things easier for the Uchiha in the aftermath. So like what the hell?

But they haven't been able to find a better explanation, and just because they don't know WHY it works doesn't stop it from WORKING sooooo....

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results -- Gligglae

Sorry this is later than usual; traveling for the holidays makes it difficult to keep up with this sort of thing. The smart move would have been to write it up a couple days ahead of time, then on Monday just update it with anything new that had been posted since, but see, what happened was that I did not do that. Instead, I tried to type this up Monday evening in between various family obligations, realized I didn't have time to do it properly, and just shoved it in my drafts. Then all of Tuesday was taken up with the long drive back home from where my family lives, and now you're getting it on Wednesday.

(Also, don't worry, I followed all CDC guidelines appropriate for someone who had recently had covid, and wouldn't have traveled for the holidays at all if I hadn't been without a fever for 48 hours prior to departing. Plus I drove instead of flying, didn't visit anyone but immediate family, and had a mask the whole time, so even if I am still contagious somehow, exposure was pretty minimal.)

Anyway, the entry that our artists are working from is here:

And, of course, all previous material on this matter can be found at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

I think a larger number of people than usual identified the animal in question right off the proverbial bat, because this one has some pretty blatant tells, but as always I appreciate everyone trying to put it out of their minds.

So, anyway, in rough chronological order:

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) (thank you for providing your own alt text, I really appreciate it) brings us her usual impeccably medieval-stylized rendition -- the swirls and curves in this one give it a really interesting vibe, I think. We can see the Gligglae in full-body profile on the left there, and a group of them doing their cluster behavior on the right. The, like, griffin/cockatrice/vampire look is pretty great, also. I enjoy the overall design, which you can find some discussion of in the linked post. Gold foil also a nice touch.

Coolest-capybara also notes that the entry is very interested in the ways in which the creature is "almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a bird," and I can explain why that is. It is because this entry is in the Bird section of the bestiary, so officially this is a bird -- I mean, it flies, what else can it be -- but it's sufficiently un-bird-like that it really sticks out to the authors, so they need to explain the ways in which it's Doing Bird Wrong. Everything else in this section does X, so we need to point out that this one does Y, kind of thing.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has drawn an absolutely adorable little Gligglae. (Adorable if you have my sense of aesthetics, that is -- I suspect if you're among the portion of the population that finds aye-ayes more creepy-looking than cute, that might apply here as well.) There's an explanation of design decisions in the linked post, including a number of references to real animals that provided inspiration. I like the decision to play up the "lowly" and "mean" part of the description by making it small and kind of scruffy. And the general concept of blending "gliding rodent" with "nocturnal primate" to make an arboreal mammal with elements of both really worked out well here, in my opinion.

@aethereaii (link to post here) has done this beautiful piece in a style that kind of gives "19th-century naturalist" vibes. (Actually, it makes me think of James Gurney, but I suspect that association says more about my childhood reading habits than anything else.) This is a great design in my opinion, and you can find some brief discussion on design decisions as well as an earlier version of the Gligglae in the linked post. The earlier design is also very good, but I agree with Aethereaii that this one is a step up, particularly with the Anomalocaris-inspired faux-wings. I also really like the inclusion of the juvenile Gligglae (Gligglings?) clinging to their parent's back in the corner there.

@karthara (link to post here) decided to go in a reptilian direction with this one, which (a) works well and (b) caused me to spend a chunk of time reading about flying snakes on Wikipedia just now. So in this version, the "rowing motion with its skin" is a description of the Gligglae flaring its ribs and undulating through the air -- which I genuinely think really makes sense. The entry seems to legitimately disagree with itself about whether this critter has wings (or, taking it entirely literally, it has wings but flies through a completely separate method that specifically does not involve said wings, which I think we're justified in deciding is Wrong), so I think going with such a non-wing-like flight method works here. Also like the concept of making these very cuddly (and apparently loving, according to our bestiary author) creatures into a type of animal that usually isn't seen that way. The linked post also contains some brief notes on design decisions.

@strixcattus (link to post here) has, as per usual, provided a really excellent modern-naturalistic description of the creature they've designed in the linked post, and you should definitely go check it out right now. I'll wait.

... back? Okay good. I particularly like their interpretation of the "grape-cluster" behavior as a social group that's specifically not a kin group; and also the fact that said group is officially referred to as a "cuddle". The choice to make it a whole genus and show us several different wild and domesticated species, also very good, love it. As with several of these drawings, Strixcattus's Gligglae (Gligglaes?) are extremely cute -- which, really, does also fit the description provided in the entry. They're like tadpoles crossed with sugar gliders.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) credits Ken Sugimori's Pokemon illustrations as a stylistic inspiration, which I suppose explains why the Gligglae cluster seems to be hanging from a Sudowoodo. The linked post also draws certain parallels between medieval bestiaries and the Pokedex, which I think is actually pretty insightful. There's also a breakdown of their design decisions there, go read it. I think this is a pretty good rendering of something that is like a flying squirrel but distinctly not a flying squirrel, and I like the shaggy look of the fur.

Also, thank you for providing your own alt text.

@pomrania (link to post here) is, I think, the only person to take the bestiary author at their word that this animal has wings but flies through some other, non-wing-related method. You can see the tiny useless wings at the shoulder there. I really think that's fascinating as a concept: what evolutionary pressures would produce an animal that (a) has wings and (b) flies but (c) those two things are unrelated? Although this many appendages on a fur-bearing creature puts us firmly in the "alien biology" territory, so maybe it's silly to expect it to make sense by the standards of terrestrial biology. Regardless, I like it, and I think the decision to run with the "rowing" description by giving it those oar-shaped appendages is a good & creative one. The post linked above contains a fair bit of information on design decisions and the drawing process here -- there are sketches and everything.

@vindikat (link to post here) has interpreted this in a way I find really charming. The art is of course excellent, very well drawn, and I appreciate the effort that went into doing these different poses. However, I really like it from a worldbuilding perspective: this gives me the impression of a small species of griffin that's adapted to urban living, more pigeon/cat than eagle/lion. (Come to think, both pigeons and cats are examples of feral populations finding a successful niche, rather than wild ones that adapt to a city, so maybe we can speculate that these guys are also descended from domestic ancestors.) Also the Gligglae under the eaves there remind me of pictures of chimney swifts that have made the rounds on Tumblr.

The design is also generally very appealing; I think the extra wings and the long tail really work here. The linked post includes an explanation of the design decisions that I think is worth taking a look at.

@moustawott (link to post here) has given us another very cuddly version of the Gligglae. I particularly like the wing design here, how it's kind of a mammalian version of a pterosaur -- Moustawott indicates that they were specifically trying not to draw the animal that they're sure this is, and I think the pterosaur-squirrel design here is a great way to make something that could fill kind of the same niche while being an unmistakably distinct creature. The little round head and eye markings remind me of a chipmunk, also, which is cute.

@rautavaara (link to post here) continues to do interesting stylistic stuff with their contributions. I like how the limited color palette here makes this look kind of like a single-block woodcut or similar relief printing. Like, you could plausibly see this as a design someone's carved into a wood block, then printed on mustard-yellow paper with purple ink. (I'm actually not 100% sure that's not what it is; I would just be surprised if someone actually went the extra mile of breaking out the engraving tools for my little bestiaryposting thing.) Very dynamic scene, also, and a charming creature design; love the huge mouths with pointy little fangs.

All right, these are all the ones that come up on the search; if I missed yours, let me know please.

(I have to apologize here for another delay that's absolutely my fault -- I would have had this out a few hours ago, but I got derailed by impulsively deciding to check out that Hbomberguy plagiarism video everyone's talking out, and... yeah.)

Anyway, as a number of this week's artists indicated, this one was really easy to guess, so the reveal seems a little pointless, but we have a format, so:

Obviously, this was the sheep.

What? Look, you can't make assumptions with these things. Some of these medieval bestiary entries are really counterintuitive. Medieval Europeans believed there was a species of small, highly-social, flying nocturnal sheep native to Ethiopia.

Really, it's in Pliny the Elder.

...

Yes, fine, I'm just lying to you for fun. It's the animal you all think it is, there are no flying sheep to my knowledge. Here's the Aberdeen Bestiary illustration.

Yep, it's the bat. Oddly human face on that one, and generally I don't think this was drawn from life, but it's definitely a bat.

I do kind of find the way it's described in this entry kind of interesting, though. The confusion about whether bats count as having wings (even after having been placed in the "bird" category) is kind of odd, and the "rowing" description is not one I would have ever thought of. I very much like the declaration that the way bats huddle together is "an act of love of a sort which is difficult to find among men"; it's a sweet way to talk about a creature with a generally negative reputation, which contrasts interestingly with the fact that the author also thinks of them as "lowly" and "mean". You kind of get the idea of a creature that's a bit wretched but in a sympathetic way. "Scrungly", one might say.

[accio-sriracha]

Hii! @bradleysass thank you so much for tagging me in Your Post!

It looks like a super fun wip game, and I think I'll ask @silence-between-seconds @regulusblxxk @equippedtolove and @menwrittenbywomen ONLY if they want to do it, because I'm curious about their wips🧐 but open tags!

Tell us the name of your/ one of your WIP(s)

I have SO many, but I'll go with If Not For Wings

Describe your wip/one of your wips in the format of “___ + ___ =___”

Jegulus + Icarus = ... depressing southern poetry?

What tags or warnings will your / one of your wip(s) need?

Well... there's a few, but Major Character Death, Multiple Pie Addictions, and Southern James Potter I feel might be the most important

An alternative title to your/ one of your WIP(s)?

The acronym "INFW" was decided, but originally (in the VERY beginning of the project) the fic was going to be named "The Tragedy of The Sun"

Which wip you're most likely to finish next?

This is funny because I'm literally working my way down a list right now, trying to finish them all. The next is a drarry fic called "A Heart For The Holidays"

What is your document of your wip called? (not the story's actual title but what it's saved as)

Technically it's called "☀️ The Draft" but the entire doc is just labeled "If Not For Wings"

Post any sentence from your wip:

I couldn't choose so...

“Whatever you say, cowboy.” Regulus smiled back, grabbing James' black hat from the countertop and putting it on his own head.

And, of course:

James looked away, a single tear rolling down his cheeks. He had never been a fan of poetry anyway.

A scrapped idea for your WIP

Well, there was actually only one throughout the entire thing. I originally had Sirius overhear a conversation from his mother...

She was talking about Regulus.

Sirius felt his heart race, fear overcame him in waves.

They found Regulus.

What’s a story you’d love to write but haven’t even started yet?

I actually only have one wip that doesn't have anything written down yet. It's called If It Comes To It:

A zombie apocalypse has torn humanity to shreds. With less than half the population still alive, survivors need to band together in order to keep safe from the spreading infections.

Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, James Potter, and Peter Pettigrew couldn't be less alike. But in times like these? They were the closest thing to family they had.

How many Wips?

HAHAHAHAHAHA

122...

Is there a scene or anything in the WIP you are struggling with right now?

Right now the full rough draft is done so I think my main struggle is trying to edit😭

And because I'm a sucker for sneak peaks, this is a small side plot from Chapter 10:

Sirius shouted for Evan to play the song again and he did.

Barty’s laugh was loud, infectious, Sirius found himself laughing too.

Sirius lifted his free hand into the air, letting the force of the wind push it backwards.

It was like magic, the way his whole body seemed to come to life all at once.

He was going to find his brother.

The thoughts made him laugh again, letting out a shout into the open air, swallowed by the wind and the swell of the music. Barty whooped loudly as well, raising his own hand into the air.

Even Evan was laughing, cranking up the volume on the song until it drowned out everything but this feeling humming in Sirius’ very soul.

[marchiekana]

Greetings fella, I have way too many ideas and since I love your writing I'll drop some over time. Can I request an s/o with calloused and rough hands with some of the hsr ladies maybe Kafka, Stelle and Serval ? I don't know if you do Asta too, there isn't enough love for her she is so witty and sweet 😞

Hsr ladies with a s/o who has rough hands?? Count me in babes🫡

This is basically a word vomit i did while speed running through my projects🤭

Kafka x reader

Stelle x reader

Asta x reader

✨ fluff, established relationships, women❤️, cuteness, reader is a fighter in Stelle's, and Asta's.

Kafka

(your a violinist in this.)(no questions asked. Shush.)

Kafka doesn't really mind it cause she has calloused hands too since she wields a katana (probably?) And she loves that your hands are calloused and rough because you play the violin. Shows how much of a hardworking person you are.

Also loves it when you play for her. As a certified violin enjoyer, Kafka would definitely ask you to play her a a song and would praise you for how well you play.

Holds your hands ALL the time. Clingiest women in the whole of HSR fr.

Will unconsciously play with your hands or hair while talking to you or doing other things. She just loves touching you all the time. Overall she's a touchy women so let her touch you (😏)

Stelle

Stelle calls you and her as the "Power couple of the century" (self proclaimed)

This women is just absolutely, shamelessly, indefinitely in love with you (let me be delulu for a while pls) and so she loves every part of you which includes your hands too. As a fighter herself she too has calloused hands, and in her words, having rough hands shows how strong you are! Maybe it was her way of saying she loves your hands.

Will hold your hands all the time too(like mother like daughter) clingy women no.2 also shows off to everyone that your her lover. You don't see the point but oh well. Just let her go crazy(as if she wasn't already ❤️) the type of girl to boast about her lover and tell how great and nice they are .

Also loves how strong you are. Kinda relieved to know that you can keep yourself safe, but that won't stop her from protecting you.

Asta

This girlfailure probably doesn't even notice! But ofc you don't care. But really she does know how rough your hands are but just doesn't ask cause she knows it's normal for someone who fights

She's quite busy too so less time with you. The most time you spend together are in the mornings and night or when she has a break. It's sad but it's fineee you know how much she loves you.

Will also hold your hands when you're out on a date(which is rare af) and most of your dates consist of going to the museum or an aquarium!(you'd have to scold and stop her cuz she ends up spending too much money.)

On days you feel insecure of your hands or body, she'll always be right next to you. She'll say something cheesy like" this shows how strong you are, and how much you've practiced and improved in fighting love" with a geeky smile and a flushed face(such a girlfailure fr. I love her) Will try to take you clothes shopping but then again she bought you clothes just a few days ago. And a few days before that. And a few more days before that. And- well you get the point she spoils you rotten and doesn't even realise that she's spoiling you. Sugar mommy (unintentionally)

Only wrote for three cause now I'm just tryna speedrun through my drafts cause I'm busy for the next two weeks. But ANYWAYS women + boobies=happiness (this is exactly why I'm single 😔)

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© marchiekana do not repost, copy, translate or, plagiarize my work .

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

[bisexualnerd]

Writer tag game

I wasn’t tagged, but I saw the game randomly posted by another user so I want to play anyway! (red for fic links and blue for series links)

1. how many works do you have on AO3?

35 (and only one draft because I don't really like working on multiple projects at the same time)

2. what's your total AO3 word count?

395,306

3. what fandoms do you write for?

I write the most for Batfam, mostly Tim and Jason but usually, the whole fam (more or less) is also there.

I write a bit more for some other fandoms but there are only one or two fics for each (2021 Produce 101 - Chuang Zao Ying, Hollywood Undead (but these fics are not finished), Julie and The Phantoms (1 fic - finished), Arsenal Military Academy + The Legends (they are kinda connected in 1 fic) and I have like, one translation project too.

I'm hoping to write Star Wars fics one day too. Really like the whole time travel thing and Obi-Wan is my beloved.

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Monster Under My Bed (The Monster Down The Hall)

"Back Away From Him."

if i lose everything in the fire, i'm sending all my love to you

Cold

A Pile of Sleeping Birds

5. do you respond to comments?

All of the comments, definitely. I really enjoy reading and replying to them and sometimes, I even come back to re-read the comments to feel validated 🤣

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I write angst a lot but I have a thing for happy endings. But if I look at the fics individually and not like, as a part of a bigger series, it might be i have so much to say but you're so far away. But if not just the ending but the whole plot in general, it can be any fic really (I would recommend Restless Heart Syndrome, And Now You're Home, The Monster Under My Bed (The Monster Down The Hall), and What The Heart Remembers).

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

They all have some sort of happy endings (though some fics that are a part of a series might not but the series will have happy endings). But since all I have talked about is Batfam, I would recommend this from Julie and the Phantoms. I don't write romance often, but this is just a short soft, cute love story of two ghosts (Reggie and an OC based on his real-life wife) plus some humour in the band - ‘Cause I’m Not Too Far And You’re My Favorite Place. I was very satisfied with how it turned out and I still come back to re-read for my own enjoyment a few times so I hope you guys will give it a chance.

8. do you get hate on fics?

My most controversial fic would be Hold Me Close, Don't Let Go (Watch Me Burn) but it's not like people showed hate to me. They just didn't like the story and how I wrote it so there were some unpleasant comments. The newest one, I think I did well with my response. It's a rather heavy fic because I went through a really rough time when I was writing it (along with many others) so if you want to read it, be careful.

9. do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I don't. My fics are all rated G or T (mostly because of swearing and violence, and also some with suicidal theme or idealisation because I did have a really bad time).

10. do you write crossovers?

Just for two fandoms, Arsenal Military Academy & The Legends, because they share the same lead actor and actress so I thought it would be fun to write something about reincarnation. It's Then and Now, Forever and Always.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think I'm famous enough for that.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, into Chinese, actually. It's The Monster Under My Bed (The Monster Down The Hall). The link to the translated fic is in the fic.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Not really. I planned my current series How To Steal A Brother with my friend Den and she is also my beta-reader for this series but I still write all of the stuff, which she reads and corrects the mistakes for me later.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

That's hard to choose. I really like Robin (Dick Grayson) and Starfire. It was like my first ship ever because I watched Teen Titans as a child. I also like Marinette/Adrien, very cute but the secondhand embarrassment is not very healthy for me (at least she has gotten better at interacting with him). The Doctor (10th) and Rose was one heartbreak that got me crying like a baby in 8th grade.

So honestly, I don't think I can pick because those were the three that came to my mind first, but I still have like a few dozen left.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

The Hollywood Undead fic - When Gravity Pulls You In. It was a really fun idea but then I ran into a big writer's block and I haven't recovered for this fic. I have been writing for Batfam again but I doubt I can go back and finish this one (at least anytime soon).

16. What are your writing strengths?

I don't think I'm too good with dialogue but I do have a strength in describing and like some sort of metaphor (English is not my first language so this is a difficult question to answer). I don't know if this is also considered a strength but like I said, I don't really write many fics at the same time so I can manage them pretty well. Most of my fics are completed before I move on to another one.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Dialogue. And I forget a lot of stuff so I have to go back to the earlier part so the plot won't be inconsistent. And of course, I write in English, which is not my mother tongue, so sometimes, I lack vocabulary or my grammar can feel weird.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I mean, I would add translation or explanation very subtly in there. But I saw a Star Wars fic where the writer had like, floating texts or something for the conversations in Mando'a so like, I will research on that if I need to write in another language.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Batfam. Tim-centric.

20. Favourite fic you've written?

Damn, that's like asking a parent for their fav child on national television.

In terms of like, wording and metaphors and descriptions and all the technical stuff - And Now You're Home - because some of my fav paragraphs are in here. In terms of logic, time can never change for the flying bird under the summer sun because I went crazy with all the planning for the whole time-travel-but-nothing-changes-the-future thing. In terms of plot, i'm so out of touch with everyone, and everything's a blur to me. This was one of my earlier ones but when I came back to this earlier this year, I found it so enjoyable and fascinated. I couldn't even believe I wrote this one. But it is a part of a series so you might want to check out I've Got You Brother.

This has been fun and I have been shamelessly PR-ing my fics. I don't really know who to tag so anyone else who wants to play, go ahead and have fun!

[bunnbam]

Move on ( Lee Heeseung)

Quote: We're not who we used to be- Two ghosts

Ready for more?

syn: Your boyfriend had asked you to walk with him on the Hangang bridge without telling you why. But felt that you knew exactly what he was going to say. Wc: 400+

Contains: Anst? Fluff?, Petnames (Princess..)

It was cold were you stood. The wind was rough against your face as you felt the tears start to fill your eyes.

"I don't want you to cry" Heeseung said, as he also started to sob.

The two of you were standing on the Hangang bridge only two meters apart. You wanted to reach out and hug him som bad, but you knew. You knew that if you did, you would never be able to let go.

You had known that this moment would come for a wile now. All the dates that never happened, all the times that either of you had canceled on the other for no reason. You never hung out anymore, and even though how much you wanted it not be true, you both knew that the feelings between you two had changed.

"But why? Why can't we just figure it out Hee?" It was hard for you to understand. No matter how much you though about it, it never made sense. When did it go wrong? How did it go wrong?

"You know why. Things have changed, we just can't" You saw he didn't meen it, you saw he didn't want to.

You felt lost where you stood. It felt like he was moving farther and farther away from you, even though he was still standing right there. You felt dizzy, you felt like the world was turning.

"Y/N!" Heeseung yelled when you fell. He tried catching you, but failed last minute. He picked you up in a sitting position on the ground as he tried to get your attention. "Y/n? Can you hear me?" His voice was weak, breaking slightly as he spoke.

You looked him in the eyes, giving your best attempt on a smile. "I'm fine hee, I'm ok" You were both left in silence the only thing you could hear was the waves under you both.

"Hee?" He turned his head twards you as you broke the silence.

"Yes princess?"

Can I ask for one last thing?" he nodded for you to continue. "Can I get one last kiss, please?"

He chuckled, "Of course, anything for you princess"

Even though it hurt so much. The pain hurt a little less in the moment that his lips touched yours. The same lips that you had loved and cherished for two years. You tasted the salt of the tears rolling down your cheeks and in between your lips.

But even though the wind was howling and your heart was in a million peaces, you felt whole in this moment, never wanting it to end. But alas, as your lips parted and reality ret in, you knew you would be ok. It was going to take some time, but you would be fine.

Eventually

hmmmmm, i don't know what I think about this one. Was it angst? I don't know. PRO TIP! If you ever think about writing angst or like a genre you aren't that close to, read a bit before. it might idk help ig.

But anyway, this was legit the fourth out of my drafts because the story KEPT CHANGING man, but here it is, yippeiiiii!

ALSO can you walk on the Hangang bridge? I tried looking it up but I found legit nothing😭 but I wrote that you can so it’s ok 👍🏽

[altraviolet]

Hello Violet!!!

So I've been wondering about The Echo Garden, when you started it did you have a plan in mind? I think you get these sorts of questions often but, did you ever intend for it to get this big? And one final thing, when you went into The Echo Garden did you edit it as you go or did you write the whole thing out and then edited it? I love your work by the way, keep it up!

Hi potato-sauce!

[googles "potato sauce" to see if that's a thing, finds Czech recipe. oh hell yeah, that looks really good]

:D

>did you have a plan in mind?

I had the very rough plan of "Soundwave needs to go from not feeling to feeling, and then on the side I need to develop Soundwave/Rodimus in a realistic way against the backdrop of the Lost Light." Sub plans included "make the other alt-dimensioners each have a problem that SW solves" and "make the LL bots have different reactions to SW" and "uhhhhh he needs a hobby. crystals?"

My method of writing is more "discovery" than "planned," or at least it was until the end of the fic. Until, say around ch 40ish, I had Vague Ideas for what needed to happen in each chapter, and so I'd write them [aka each ch needs to complete X goals to push the narrative forward], and then as I went, my brain somehow magically sewed almost everything up together. Once it got towards the end of the fic, I could 'see' where things needed to end up. But even then, things were quite fluid when it came to sitting down and typing up any given chapter.

>did you ever intend for it to get this big?

No. I had no intentions at all. I didn't even have a GUESS or a THOUGHT it would get this big. The pairing was SO weird, I thought maybe 2 people would read it. Maybe. One of them has been with me since the beginning, and the other is a friend. I was SO sure everyone would go "pff weird" and skip over it. I was really nervous posting it, actually.

Keep in mind that the pairing is fairly well-known now, and that also a lot of people extrapolated soundrod from Cyberverse. so it doesn't feel weird now. BUT IT WAS INCREDIBLY WEIRD when I posted Ch 1

>when you went into The Echo Garden did you edit it as you go or did you write the whole thing out and then edited it?

I wrote it out over the period of 4 years and posted chapters as they were finished. anyone who read along as it was being posted would never know when a chapter would drop xD I tried very hard not to let too much time elapse between chapters, but sometimes there were large gaps. and other times I'd post 3 chapters within a week. I got too excited to dole them out more slowly, haha. I was bursting to share :D chapters usually came out on Sunday nights or around USA holidays, because I needed some temporal distance from my job in order to get my brain working

I don't think I could've finished the fic if I had fully written it out and then posted it. the comments I got while it was an ongoing WIP helped boost me and made me feel so happy, and that what I was doing was important and worth my time, and worth something to other people. without comments, the Echo Garden probably never would have been finished. that's why I always tell people to comment! especially on ongoing WIPs that you love. it's so encouraging and helpful for authors to know that their hard work is being enjoyed!

anyway I wrote each chapter and then edited the HECK out of it and then posted it when I was done. I also wrote a lot of things out of order, so sometimes when I got to the next chapter, I could grab a chunk of writing from my 'already written scenes' doc and then write around it to sew it into the existing story

the only editing I did after the fic was completely done was going through and fixing grammar/related mistakes. there are a couple things I would change, structurally, if I were going to go through and really edit it, as one should do with a novel. technically, the version on AO3 right now is the first draft! the fic could be edited further, but I'm going to let it stand where it is =)

thanks for the ask! cheers :)

[festivating]

hi!!!! absolutely LOVING attrition, I wanted to ask about your writing process...

how long have you had the idea for the story? what's your outlining process like? how big of a backlog did you have before you started posting?

your dedication and committment to this fic is incredibly impressive and i am astonished (and grateful!!!!) for the consistent weekly updates and fr i just wanna know how you manage it all... (speaking as someone who has been working on the same 40ish chapter fic for over 5 years lol....)

keep up the fantastic work!!

Omg hiiiii friend thank you for the questions I LOVE talking about writing!! I usually start writing long stories after I get an idea for a particular scene, and then I heavily outline around that scene and I plan everything down to the smallest detail, but for attrition I just.... didn't plan at all, that fic spawned to existence out of pure whimsy and happenstance. It was supposed to be a ONE SHOT 😭I started writing it in May of 2023 after I read the first book and I was like mm wouldn't it be interesting if Glinda found Elphaba at the convent surely this won't be longer than 5k words...

I am a severely delusional person.

By the time I hit 20k words I realized perhaps it would not be a one shot lol. I didn't really have an outline I just kept throwing ideas on the page thinking eventually I would just run out of things to say, but it actually took a very long time before that happened. The backlog is pretty much the whole fic tbh, I finished it all and sent it to my beta reader (who was horrified because the whole thing was one massive document not even divided into chapters) and then we went back and forth for months while I polished things up, tightened loose ends, added foreshadow, cleaned up the prose and things like that.

I'm still working on revising the final chapters, but the fic was 80% done before I started posting in November! I am truly more of an editor than I am a writer, the first draft of this thing was finished very quickly and it was very rough, so it took a lot of revisions before I was satisfied.

But anyway, yeah! I may not be the best person to ask how to manage it all because my process is weird I write super fast very unpolished first drafts then spend two lifetimes editing and revising. Mad respect to you and other writers who are able to write exactly what they want from the start and post that to incredible results!!