#royal au but not necessarily about this piece

[lonely-north-star]

One look from you,

And I'm on that faded love

Out of my body,

And flying above

SO SO SO HAPPY WITH MY COMMISSION FROM @featheredcrowbones !!! EVERYONE LOOK !!!

I'm a big sucker for royalty AU's, and they brought my dream to life. 🥹 look at the crown!! All the details !! Living my princess dreams!!!

Mammon wanted one dance alone, away from prying eyes after the ball. He wanted to admire his princess without judgement or interruptions. His love always sparkled under the moonlight. He hopes she doesn't notice the way he's lost in her eyes or blushing. But it's okay. Little does he know, she's just as smitten <3

[queenie-official]

Chapter Twelve: ‘A Royal Scandal’ Bridgerton Au!Anakin

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

a/n: angst 😀 seatbelts on 🗣️

News travels fast everywhere, that was a fact. everybody loves a good piece of gossip. Now royal gossip- that was like a rare jewel that everyone wanted to buy. if you could take that rare jewel, copy it and give one to anyone willing to buy it you would be rich. so when a new tabloid came out just to write about what went down at parliament it truly didn’t come as a surprise.

Lady whistledown was the name of the anonymous writer who stepped up to the plate. you’d never heard of her. no one had, but her paper spread everywhere very quickly. Padme had been the one to bring the paper to you, it was exaggerated for sure but none of it was necessarily a lie either.

you could feel her eyes on you as you read over the paper clearly trying to figure out wether she would have to comfort you in anyway. but for some reason you found yourself calm? maybe numb was the better word. Lady whistledown’s paper did a good job at laying everything out in a way to keep people hooked, you could admit that as an avid reader. she also brought up some good questions that you had a feeling the rest of the Ton where definitely asking.

as a royal you have to learn to exist under the microscope of your people, that came with the job. but this felt different. this was more than just your people, this was all the neighboring kingdoms as well. ‘how could the murder of a king go unnoticed?’ ‘would there be a more severe punishment for something so large?’ ‘how can we ensure this won’t happen again?’ ‘if there was already a attempt on the new kings life can we really say any of the royals are safe?’

this was more than just a scandal it was a political nightmare. how do you even begin to address these issues? and even if you did how to you prove what you say to be true? you couldn’t say it won’t happen again because it very well could. endless streams of these thoughts swirled in your head as you finally looked up to meet Padme’s gaze. there was nothing but pure concern on your best friends face as she looked over you, searching for anything. sadness, fear, anger but there was nothing. you just sat there and did nothing, which to her was more concerning then if you did freak out.

“y/n?” she reached over and took your hand into hers as she spoke. it was all too much, you felt like you could snap under the pressure at any moment. the current numbness the only thing protecting your sanity. you don’t say anything in return, afraid that if you speak you’ll break.

overnight this was printed, overnight it seemed the entire world new what took place yesterday. Padme continued to stare at you sympathetically, silently debating whether to speak again. though in all honesty there wasn’t much else to say, there wasn’t anything she could say.

you stand up from your seat and she quickly follows suit, pulling you into a hug before you could get away. you stay like that for just a moment before pulling away and walking silently out of the room.

you knew it was wrong. you knew of all times to have people at your side, now would be the best time to do so. but you couldn’t help it, isolating yourself the same way you felt emotionally. it was like you where punishing yourself further for something that wasn’t even your fault, it was easier then facing reality.

to let yourself scream and cry felt to hard, if you let yourself feel that way- let yourself fall. you weren’t sure you’d be able to stand again, or breathe properly. Not on your own anyway, and that was even scarier, letting people in to help build you back up. What if you lost them? those support beams taken from you, you’d hit the ground hard. truly unable to get back up. no you couldn’t let them in, it was easier this way. so that’s what you did.

pushed them away, it was difficult not just because it was hard for you to shut them out but also because Padme and Anakin in particular where very stubborn individuals. honestly you where pretty sure they were working together, you’d tell the guards not to let her in the castle only for her to visit you in your study as if the order hadn’t been given at all. not even Braeden stopped her, and when you’d asked he’d simply reply he was given an order to allow her to visit at all times. there was only one other person who could give an order of such authority to him so you knew exactly who to blame.

Padme’s persistence was futile, it become a routine at this point she’d visit against your wishes and join you in your daily tasks. speak to you even though you refused to speak back, she acted as if everything was normal even though it wasn’t. it was infuriating but if you reacted you knew it would be the final push that broke you. Anakin was just as bad if not worse, he lived with you after all.

no matter how big the castle was it never seemed big enough with how easily he’d find you. try to get you to talk, to look at him. but you couldn’t if you looked at him you knew you’d cave. so you did your best to make sure he was almost never in the same room as you. but Anakin was a relentless person, if the stories he’d told you about him and Obi-Wan where anything to go off of you shouldn’t be surprised.

there was something else as well. he was growing just about as frustrated as you.

you where standing in your undergarments, Eleanora placing on your petticoats in silence. she wanted to say something but if padme couldn’t even get a word out of you she doubted she’d be any different.

to occupy yourself- more like torment, you reread Lady whistledowns tabloid as well as the new articles that had come out. questions of when the situation would be addressed publicly as well as who’d be replacing the council members began to rise more and more you’d noticed. “Get Out” your head snapped up to the person who’d let themselves in your room before quickly looking back down.

Anakin had let himself in and was staring directly at Eleanora when he spoke, you where silently grateful he hadn’t been looking at you because you weren’t sure what you’d of done if eye contact was made. you watched through your peripheral vision as she bowed to him and then exited the room closing the door behind her. now it was just you two, and you still hadn’t even finished getting dressed. but there he stood, arms crossed and staring directly at you.

“you cannot ignore me forever” he’s met with silence, you can feel the Tension in the air begin to grow stronger. “at least look at me” he steps into your field of vision but you quickly advert your eyes. “y/n” he reaches out for you and you step back, you hear him sigh frustratedly. “i am not leaving until you speak to me, and it’s not like you can exit the room dressed as you are so there’s no where to run” you huff but do not speak.

if only ignoring him was that easy, but you are very quickly reminded as to why you’d refused to be in the same room as him. for some reason you found it much harder to ignore his pleas than Padme’s, perhaps it was something about his voice that just tugged at your heart as if he himself controlled wether or not it truly broke. “why are you doing this?” the question was so simple and you knew he knew why just as much as anyone did. shockingly however no one had bothered asking, and the way he asked. the pure desperation in his voice, like it physically hurt him to see you like this. it was all too much and he’d barely done anything at all- that angered you.

you felt it boil up, everything you’d been feeling and pushing down swirling together to make a crimson red. “just leave!” you shout, it came out broken and raspy not haven spoken in so long. “leave me alone.” you added your voice deepening in a attempt to come off more commanding then you where. “no.” you take a sharp breath in at his calm answer biting your tongue so you wouldn’t shout again. “i said to leave.” you state trying to stay as levelheaded as you could.

“you can’t even look at me as you say that” he scoffed, why was he making this so difficult. “Anaki-” you’re cut off by him, a sudden bout of anger and frustration of his own taking over. “i will not leave you! i cannot leave you! not like this, while you’re so broken. those shattered parts of you trying to cut whatever they can.” his voice grows louder with each sentence, hoping that if he screams loud enough you may actually hear what he was trying to say to you.

“you may not love me y/n but i love you.” you feel the air knocked out of your lungs, snapping your head up to meet his face as you try to process if you’ve heard him correctly. “i’ve fallen in love with you.” his voice cracks, tears welling in his tired eyes. he looked like he had been getting about as much sleep as you. you felt your heart break and swell. “i’m in love with the lonely girl who cries out for company, a warmth shrouded in a cloudy mist calling for help.” why had you been pushing him away, your own vision began to blur as tears burned the back of your eyes.

warmth engulfed you, and you fell completely into his hold. “i love you, let me help you… please.. let me love you.” you sobbed at his words. the dam finally breaking, you let yourself feel not just for your own sake but for his, for Padme, for Eleanora. he pulls you in tighter, afraid to let you go in fear you’ll push him away again. you cling on just as tightly, shaking from each cry. everything was shit but it would be okay. you would be okay. he was there for you and he wasn’t going anywhere, not without a fight. you had a support system and it was time to let them do just that, support you.

“I love you too.”

part 13

Tag List: @luvvfromme @gatekeepingirlboss @bimbo-baggins86 @iluvanakinskywalker @bby-imasociopath @curlycarley @burnthecheshirewitch @misscaller06 @sweetcheesecakesblog

LOVE CONFESSIOOOONN🗣️🗣️🗣️ I REPEAT NOT A DRILL WE GOT A BRIDGERTON LOVE CONFESSION FROM ANI 🎉🎉 (don’t know who noticed and who didn’t but the way Anakin shouts his confession after telling reader to shout it to him so he can hear her and know she means it in chapter 7👀 just a fun little detail i wanted to point out 🥰 and don’t think reader forgot about that either🌝) chapter 13 i will hopefully have out tmr🧍‍♀️don’t @ me on that tho 👩‍🦯👩‍🦯anyways i hope you huns enjoyed Xx<3💋💋

[frostfire-17]

What is cuneiform?

@ipsomaniac asked if I could explain the cuneiform system, and so I am going to give it a shot. Here goes! (Update: it got long! But there's pictures!)

Part I: What does it look like? How do we work with it?

This is the cuneiform script:

This is a first-millennium BC text of Sargon II, in Akkadian (specifically Neo-Assyrian). My user icon is a much older Sumerian text. In a second we'll see some Hittite. Just like the Latin script is used for English, French, Turkish, and many other languages today, the cuneiform script was used for lots of languages in the ancient world. It changed a bit over three thousand years of constant use, but it remains pretty recognizable because of the wedges. "Cuneiform" is just Latin for "wedge-shaped," because scholars love giving things banal names and then translating them into Latin or Greek so no one can tell.

This is a Hittite tablet:

This particular tablet is part of the royal funerary ritual (which has many many MANY tablets, many of which are way more broken than this one, and/or missing entirely). It's been pieced together from lots of fragments, all excavated separately. (You can see their excavation numbers written on the fragments, e.g. 39/c.) It's written on clay, like most of their texts were. This is a pretty good amount of preservation for a tablet this size - many are more fragmentary. I wish the picture were better, but tablets are not catalogued by how good the pictures are and it would have taken a million years to find a really hi-res one suitable for our purposes.

You can see that each symbol is made up of a bunch of wedges. These were pressed into the clay with a stylus while it was still wet. If you look closely, you can also spot spaces between words (more obvious at the end of a paragraph).

Here's a little slice of our tablet:

And here's a drawing of that same little slice. This is how scholars usually interact with texts on a day-to-day basis, because taking readable photos of tablets is difficult and going to see the tablets is more difficult. Drawings are made by experts in the presence of the tablets and published so that everyone can look at them.

Here the scholar who did this drawing (published in Keilschrifturkunden aus Boghazköi vol. 39, text no. 4) was working with only some of the fragments, and so has written in the transliteration of the left half, which they weren't copying. So you can see how each cuneiform sign corresponds to a written syllable, sometimes in lowercase, sometimes in all caps, and sometimes in superscript.

What does all this mean? How does it work? Okay. Cuneiform is a really difficult and frustrating writing system to read, for a few reasons. 1) It grew organically from a time before writing existed, so people were just kind of slowly figuring out how to use pictures to represent words; 2) it lasted for thousands of years, so there were all sorts of innovations tacked on without necessarily jettisoning any of the old stuff; and 3) it was borrowed through quite a few languages, almost none of which were related to one another, so it had to twist around and adapt to totally different sounds and word structures. So it's weird! And hard to learn, especially for us, because we are not native speakers of any of the languages that used it, and also we're not a single person existing in a snapshot of time, where cuneiform had a specific form and iteration - we're looking at its whole span of three thousand years.

THAT SAID. I can explain some stuff about it and how it worked! Here goes!

Part 2: How does it work as a writing system?

We start with a picture. Let's use a star. Like this: 𒀭

Or this:

(this is a student text copying the star sign over and over - ignore the leftmost column. I got it from this excellent thread here)

This is the cuneiform sign for the sky, or for a god. In Sumerian, the language that first used cuneiform, the word for "sky" is AN. The word for "god" is DINGIR. So this sign could be pronounced either AN, and mean sky, or DINGIR, and mean god. This sort of usage is called "logographic" - a sign equals a word. It started as just a picture of a star, and came to mean a couple of things associated with the stars.

Eventually, there reaches a point where it doesn't just only mean the word "sky," it also means the syllable "an." That is, you could use it to represent a part of a word, or a grammatical element, that was pronounced "an." (E.g., ma-ah-ha-an: mahhan, which is a Hittite word that means "when," and which is written with four signs, including our an.) This is called the rebus principle: like a rebus puzzle, a picture of an eye can also mean "I" because they sound the same. This usage supplements the logograms rather than replacing them: you could still use "an" to mean "sky." You know which usage is in play based on context. (Or at this stage, maybe you don't. Sumerian is real hard and we don't understand it perfectly.)

You can also use signs a third way, which is designed to make reading easier: as what's called a "determinative." A determinative tells you what type of thing a word is. So if you use the star symbol as a determinative, it comes before a word and indicates that upcoming is a god's name. It's not pronounced when it's used like that. Other determinatives include: male and female markers, plural markers, markers to indicate what something is made of, what kind of animal it is, etc.

So any sign you see could potentially be a word (logogram), a sound (syllable), or a soundless classifier (determinative). In practice, only some signs take on all three of these functions.

When we transcribe signs now, we write them in Latin script based on which function they're serving. That's why, in the above Hittite texts, some of the signs were written in all-caps (for logograms), some of them in lowercase (for syllables), and some of them in superscript (for determinatives).

So then Akkadian borrows the system. They like to spell words out a lot more than the Sumerians do, so more and more signs are used primarily for their syllables, rather than their meaning. The signs also take on more syllabic meanings, because Akkadian has different words behind the logograms, and also has different sounds than Sumerian. A lot of signs end up doing double, triple or even-more-ple duty (e.g. the sign for "ag" can also be read "ak" or "aq" in an Akkadian text). Once again, you know how to read a sign from context, and in Akkadian you usually actually do know, because Akkadian is a Semitic language rather than an isolate like Sumerian, so we understand it way, way better.

Akkadian keeps using the symbols as logograms, though, too. Sometimes they'll spell out a word, but sometimes they'll just use the logographic symbol for it - like how sometimes we write out "two," and sometimes just write "2". Sometimes there are full Sumerian words or combinations of words that have become logograms: that is, they're not loanwords. They're not pronounced in Sumerian. They're written as a symbol (like 2), and the Akkadian word would be pronounced underneath (like "two.") The Akkadians also keep using determinatives.

At this point, most signs at least have a logographic value and a few syllabic values. Also (to make it extra difficult) plenty of syllables have a couple of different signs that could be used to represent them. In total there's a bit over a thousand cuneiform signs, incidentally, but usually only a few hundred were in use at any given time and place.

Then Hittite borrows it! They actually overall reduce the number of signs used, and the number of signs doing double duty, so it's generally simpler to read. Hittite's sound system is totally different from Akkadian's, though - which is totally different from Sumerian's - so they do some weird stuff with which signs represent which sounds. (The result of this is that our understanding of Hittite phonetics is somewhat imperfect.) They do use a ton of logograms whenever they're talking about physical objects, especially ritual offerings. Ritual texts are A PAIN IN THE ASS to read because they're full up with obscure logograms, and so you pore over a signlist trying to work out what the bonkers twelve-wedge sign you've never seen before is, and then when you finally find it you're like, "oh ANOTHER kind of bread. cool cool."

Part 3: Let's Read Hittite! (This is probably excessive.)

So finally, let's read some together! This is two lines from the Ten-Year Annals of Mursili II, an account of the first ten years of that king's reign. It's mostly conquering, but this bit is calmer.

(ANNOYINGLY, Tumblr will not do superscript, or I cannot make it anyway, so I will put determinatives in parentheses.)

nam-ma (URU)Ha-at-tu-ši ú-wa-nu-un nu (URU)Ha-at-tu-ši

gi-im-ma-an-da-ri-nu-un nu-za EZEN4.HI.A ŠA MU.6.KAM i-ya-nu-un

That's the text rendered sign-by-sign. Everything that is separated by a dash, a period, a space, or a parenthesis is a separate sign. Words are separated with spaces. Here's a more normalized rendition of the words (still with the logograms, though).

namma (URU)Hattusi uwanun nu (URU)Hattusi gimmandarinun nu=za EZEN4.HI.A ŠA MU.6.KAM iyanun

"Then I went to Hattusa, and I spent the winter in Hattusa and performed the festivals of the sixth year."

The ú in uwanun in the first line is written with an accent because there are several signs that can mean "u" and this is the second one. Similar for EZEN4: there's more than one sign for EZEN, and this is the fourth. Scholars always write logograms and determinatives in Sumerian, because that's where the meanings were fixed. URU, used before Hattusa, is both the determinative for "city" and the Sumerian word meaning the same. ŠA in the last line is italicized and capitalized because it's a logogram that comes from Akkadian: "ša" means "of" in Akkadian, and the Hittites used Akkadian words as logograms just like the Akkadians used Sumerian words.

Anyway, that's how cuneiform works! If you made it this far you're a hero! <3

[fountainpenguin]

🌃 City Lights AU 🌃

Fairly OddParents: A New Wish

An FOP series with a focus on exploring characters, relationships, and Dimmadelphia as a setting. Draws largely from "A New Wish" canon, but not beholden to it.

#ridwork guides

What Is City Lights AU?

An FOP: A New Wish-inspired series centered around character relationships... Namely, friendships, adventures, and traumas regarding the humans in A New Wish (alongside studies of Cosmo, Wanda, and Peri as they adapt to life in Dimmadelphia). Magical lore and Fairy culture exist in the background, but are not the focus.

🌃 City Lights AU follows an internal canon. While not necessarily compliant with A New Wish, all pieces within it are compliant with each other. They may build on each other to create larger storylines. You may also like Off the Rails: my AO3 series for misc. FOP AUs (Ex: Random one-shots based on A New Wish that don't comply with City Lights).

AO3 Series: City Lights AU

Blog tag - #City Lights AU

Tone

Mostly Angst, Drama, Romance, and Fluff.

Think "We talk about Dale's trauma, Dev's sadness, and Peri's stress, but we also see Cosmo and Wanda or Hazel's parents flirting while Hazel has a great time with her friends."

Pretty up and down, back and forth, like the show itself.

Characters

Heavy focus on the A New Wish cast. Limited appearances by OG series characters. The ones most likely to return in this AU are folks like Goldie Goldenglow and Sammy Sweetsparkle (Classmates of Poof and Foop in the OG series).

- Peri goes by Poof in backstory 'fics since Cosmo and Wanda seem to hear his new name for the first time in "Battle of the Dimmsonian." (Same deal for Foop-Irep). - Foop's alt personality may be mentioned by the name of Hiccup, as that's his name in Cloudlands AU.

Potential appearances from my existing OCs like Anti-Marigold (Goldie's counterpart), Finley (Pixie kid attending Spellementary alongside Poof and Foop), or Anti-Coriander (Foop's betrothed in Cloudlands AU), but maybe not! We'll find out together.

Most notable OC for this AU is definitely going to be Ed Leadly's daughter, Hadley, whom I set up with Dale back in 2018 (Cloudlands AU) and I think it's really funny to keep that canon in City Lights.

If Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda appear in this AU, they'll be referred to with those names since that's how their voice actors are credited at the end of "The Battle of Big Wand."

Timmy, Chloe, Kevin, Molly, Tammy, and Tommy will likely appear, but I don't expect them to be a focus. Time will tell.

Ships

This AU is not specifically Devzel-oriented, but not in an anti-Devzel way... More like "We don't have time to unpack whether or not they'd work together" / "What do you mean- SWEET GOODNESS!!"

I'm not opposed to Devzel, but there's a very specific story beat I feel is a dealbreaker for both of them. We'll find out together! Leave comments as I post works in this series and share whether you think they can work it out :)

Cosmo/Wanda - Retired, mostly chilling, very much love their son and definitely very good at being human.

Dale/OC - Hadley Harrington comes out swingin'! (Cherry lemon ship tag, my beloved...)

Peri/Goldie Goldenglow dating drama that's remarkably less traumatizing than it is in Cloudlands AU, but not necessarily... great. Mostly Peri groveling for her to take him back because I think it's funny if the kid who had everyone fawn over him during school because he was popular ends up struggling with relationships he has to put effort in <3

Mark/Vicky because I love them and I am not taking criticism at this time. You can pry them from my cold, dead hands.

"Are you going to bring their child OCs over to this AU?" - I... don't know. I think it would be hilarious. So, probably! In Cloudlands AU, she joins Mark on Yugopotamia as queen, but I'm equally fascinated by the possibility that Mark left his royal life to stay on Earth, which I think is 100% in line with his character. I'm into it. Let's do it.

Jorgen/Tooth Fairy - I have kid OCs for them that are very far-future in Cloudlands AU, but due to the way Fae age in City Lights, I think I'll bring them in and let them be baby... Italy and Fang, my beloveds...

Angela/Marcus because I think they're cute :) Probably nothing super focused on them, but they sure do exist.

I'm sticking with my Cloudlands AU ships of Timmy/Molly & Chloe/Kevin; they presumably live in Dimmsdale. Kevin and Molly are step-siblings in this AU too.

Leaning towards Irep/Sammy Sweetsparkle dating life fluff/drama because I want to :) Not sure if that's present-day or in their past. That said, we also might not go that route. We'll see!

Honorable mention to Dev and his many squishes. I don't think he knows what's going on either, but I support him.

Setting

Largely takes place in Dimmadelphia with references to Dale, Cosmo, Wanda, Vicky, Crocker, A.J., and others having Dimmsdale history. Some 'fics take place in Dimmsdale.

Fairy World, Anti-Fairy World, and Pixie World may make appearances, and so could alien planets. However, this AU centers around humans and is mostly grounded in Dimmadelphia... hence the title City Lights!

This series will follow a specific AU timeline, meaning birthdates will be picked for some characters. They might be contradicted in future seasons, but this is an AU, so that's fine.

Is It For Me?

- Pieces can range from G to E (Childhood silliness vs. trauma vs. Dale having a very hard time working up the courage to father a kid).

More info in the AU Notes and Warnings section under the cut.

- Heavy focus on Dale recovery, Cosmo and Wanda settling into Dimmadelphia, Hazel adjusting to moving (and occasionally reflecting on her past), Dev's upbringing, and Hazel's interactions with her godparents and friends.

- If you like 'fics that feel like grounded-in-reality character studies and lean into trauma, you might like this series!

- Limited exploration of magic and Fairy World. For now, this AU uses the same magic system and Fae culture vibes I've already made for Cloudlands AU - Click the Keep Reading for details - but I don't plan to delve into it. It just exists as a backdrop.

Major Themes

- Trauma!! How it haunts you... Letting go... Oooouggggh.

- Relationships! Growth, strain, ups and downs, self-care, break-ups, meltdowns, humility, forgiveness, toxic co-dependent friendships that haunt you long-term... The usual.

- Emphasis on friendship, family, adventures, and kindness... and the unbearable lightness of being a child in Fairly OddParents media.

Nobody has ever been okay in this show or any time after I've gotten my hands on them, but it's fine; that's just how it is, sdklfj...

Plot Highlights

- Dale and Vicky were friends when they were kids... Little by little, their dynamic starts to shift.

- Dale and his betrothed work through courtship and married life... also, Dale works through trauma. Newborn Dev is here too.

- Cosmo begins training to take over as Keeper of Da Rules after Jorgen. Long road ahead, but whatcha gonna do?

- With Cosmo's new position hanging over their heads, Cosmo and Wanda retire from godparenting. They enjoy a 10k-year vacation and settle in Dimmadelphia... disguised as humans and struggling to pass. I hope they pay rent.

- Peri vs. his strained relationship with Goldie Goldenglow.

- Hazel's early explorations of Dimmadelphia and friend-making.

- An exploration of the Peri-Dev dynamic during the 4.5 months between "Lost and Founder's Day" & "Operation: Birthday Takeback."

- Whatever Mark and Vicky are up to. Probably being their flirty, violent selves... Mark adapting mostly well to human life except for when he isn't. Actually, the same could be said of Vicky.

- Background Timmy/Molly and Chloe/Kevin married lives. Shout-out to Timmy/Molly still together because I love them and refuse to divorce them in more than one AU sldkfj.

- Probably not a lot of Hazel content at first, but I'll plan more for her when we find out if we're getting a Season 2. Leaving myself wiggle room for now.

Ongoing?

This AU guide was posted in September 2024 and this AU is very new. Works will be posted over time.

No update schedule- Just wherever the vibes take us~ But my plan is to post the story beats in the Dimmadome arc first (in the "50 Words" style) and then we'll circle back to "present day." In other words, we're gonna hit the ground running, fly through the timeline until Dev's an adult, then loop back for more detailed 'fics and fluffier childhood days :) You'll find out where we're going and then we'll work through how we got there! I post FOP 'fics on Fridays (if I have something to post; any AU)

Related

Relevant info for anyone interested in subscribing to some or all of my FOP 'fics on AO3:

🌃 - City Lights AU - All works for the AU described in this post. 🖤 - Off the Rails - Collection for misc. FOP AUs. This includes works that draw from A New Wish lore, setting, or characters, but which are not compliant with City Lights AU. 🚂 - 130 Reasons Why I'm Fairy Trash - Large one-shot collection focused largely on the OG series. Mostly adheres to Cloudlands AU canon, but other AUs appear as well. 🌈 - Rainbow Train - All-encompassing series for any FOP works that are not in 130 Reasons Why I'm Fairy Trash. ⭐ - Subscribing to both 130 Reasons and Rainbow Train will cover all my FOP 'fics (All AUs).

You can also subscribe to my AO3 directly if you want to. My AO3 is multi-fandom, so the above are the series I suggest looking into if you're only interested in my FOP 'fics. You can do whatever you want forever.

Warnings, notes, and explanations below so readers can learn more about this AU. Don't like? Don't read.

Dead dove warnings, so prepare yourself mentally. I am once again exploring child trauma in 'fics for the show about child trauma and bad decisions.

👀 Take a Peek

New here? You might like to start with these:

- "You Deserve It" - Dale - freshly escaped from Vicky - attends a fancy dinner party with his dad... and reunites with fellow rich kids from his childhood.

- "50 Words of Dale and Hadley" - 50 prompt snippets about Dev's parents (before his birth).

- "50 Words of The Dimmadomes" - 50 prompt snippets about Dev's early upbringing.

- "An Old Wish" - Dev, Peri, and a series of comedic magical attempts to win Dev's parents' love (including time travel, memory manipulation, and raising the dead).

These 'fics are early in the timeline and fairly tame :) At the time of scheduling this, they're unrevealed on AO3, but will be up soon.

Start Reading

Recommended ways to get into the full AU

🌄 First Written - "50 Words of Dev and Hazel"

51. Horror - Okay, so maybe that movie had been a little spookier than he'd prepared for... But even if flesh-eating mermaids haunted his dreams for a year, setting up that chocolate board, pillow fort, and brownie bar for his and Hazel's ultimate horror binge-watch was totally worth it.

50 scene snippets about a snotty rich boy (self-improvement in progress) and an anxious newcomer to the big city (Livin' big and lovin' life) - Set during "The Treble With Rivals" and the week following.

OR, Dev and Hazel go to Tokyo, say hi to Dev's mom, and Dev picks on orchestra kids because #Band For Life.

(G - 5,000 words)

📅 Chronological Start - Lemonade and Papercuts

Dale backstory 'fic that alternates between his extreme childhood trauma and adulthood stress (Especially regarding business deals, his wife's pregnancy, and Dev's birth).

Click HERE for chapter summaries

Not yet written, but very likely E or Not Rated for excessive trauma, uncomfortable arranged-marriage honeymoon, the intimacy leading up to Dev's birth, pregnancy, and probably a childbirth scene. Will update info when confirmed! Btw, I'll be posting Dale's character profile on the sideblog soon- Both that and the summaries page are a great place to get "Who is City Lights Dale as a person?" vibes if you want to read my take on his personality, but don't want to read this intense 'fic. I expect this to be the most intense of my dead dove longfics in terms of upsetting or sensual content as this one won't have started on FFN (with its restrictions), and also... Look at him. He was just handed to me with my favorite trope in the world: "Overwhelming intimacy issues that make bedroom life a cesspool of nerves and doubt" <3 Cupioromantic asexual instinct to strip him to his bones and take his mind apart...

I don't recommend starting the AU with this 'fic unless you're ready, but it IS the beginning of the chronology.

There are several tamer pieces in City Lights AU that touch on Dale's past with Vicky and Hadley if you'd prefer to start there.

🗺️ Worldbuilding - So, You're Studying the Cloudlands...

A collection of worldbuilding and meta essays covering subjects like biology, culture, history, holidays, magic, maps, and a handbook on new godkid assignments.

I'm not planning to change my worldbuilding because it's very detailed and I don't feel like starting from scratch. However, City Lights AU is not likely to deep-dive into magic and culture. Because... the cloudlands are heavily featured in Cloudlands AU. We live on the ground now.

You may also like my @riddledeep blog, where I first posted this meta. New Wish short bios and full character profiles can also be found on the blog.

I'm currently moving lore posts from the sideblog to the guide linked above. This way, the content is backed up and accessible to those who don't use Tumblr.

📋 AU Notes & Warnings

Notable lore tweaks (i.e. not canon-compliant with A New Wish)-

- I've heard rumor that Dimmadelphia is "canonically" not in California. However, in this AU it is because there are many Dimmsdale characters and references (such as the sign pointing towards Dimmsdale, implying it's near). -> In the OG series, Timmy's parents seemingly went to Dimmadelphia to look for Timmy in "Channel Chasers" after he ran away from home (They went inside the Dimmadelphia Cable building), further justifying it being nearby. -> In City Lights AU, it's in California (but you still have to go to Dimmsdale to climb the Rainbow Bridge from the bottom, as we know from OG canon that it touches down there). - This AU will most likely be replacing Hazel's 1 million wishes in "The Battle of Big Wand" with a fairyversary plot, because it just makes more sense to me. - No pasta puberty. My lore is very biology-based, so insect people producing spaghetti from armpits doesn't work for me (Plus, that episode was rough on my hemophobia and it simply does not spark joy). -> In City Lights AU, Hazel had something else going on that fell halfway between human puberty and having a ton of magic in her, kind of like the Terrible Twos from the OG series. - Dale is trying to keep Dev alive. I'll probably keep the part where he knocked Dev over in "The Battle of Big Wand" because it's interesting, but I'm playing him with a "My son needs to be my heir" angle. He will still talk about loving boots more than his wife and son, but he sure doesn't want his heir dead. - "A child must always get what they want" is not in Da Rules. That's not a smart thing to put in the laws that hold the universe together… Why even have a rulebook at that point? - Minor detail tweaks for world consistency - Ex: The people who show up at the school concert or stand near kids in lines likely have connections to them; this influences family headcanons. -> Classroom has consistency - Ex: In the show, Kev tends to disappear so Dev and Hazel can be portrayed onscreen at the same time, but there's no need for me to do that in 'fic. -> I've seen a lot of cool Dev heterochromia headcanons, but in this AU, his eyes are consistently blue. My thought here is that Dev's and Dale's eyes look green under harsh yellow lighting, but blue is what I'm drawing/writing them with.

Morally gray characters abound - No one is "purely cruel" or "purely good." Since I expect to post a lot of Dale trauma content, I want to be clear that he will neither be portrayed as extremely abusive towards his son nor excused from his wrongs.

I'm playing Dale from a neglectful angle where he tends to assume Dev is doing "just fine." He doesn't go out of his way to cause harm, but we don't excuse the harm he does. There's a lot of "Hadley comforting and supporting Dale" themes because... she's his wife and she was there when he was fresh out of his abuse. Just keep in mind that even if Hadley and Dale think they're good parents, we know they're not.

Idealization of abuse & neglect - City Lights Dale cared a lot for Vicky, denied and excused a lot of what she did, kept hoping she’d change if he was "a better friend," and had a hard time adjusting to life after she stopped telling him what to do. He has to work through a LOT of trauma.

Also, general vibes of Dev looking up to his parents and making excuses for them. Lots of rose-colored glasses in this family... Dale definitely did the same for Doug and Pearl.

Themes of guilt and shame - Dale blaming himself for Vicky abusing him… Doug insisting his son keep quiet about his trauma lest people start to talk.

Shout-out to the au pairs beating themselves up over their failures in canon: a trait I will totally be expanding on in this AU. Dale, do you wanna talk about that?

Fairy & Anti-Fairy counterparts consider each other family. They colloquially refer to each other as "cousins," but biologically, they're the same person (one soul split in separate bodies, with many believing they'll reunite as a single person after death).

It's fair game for them to attend family reunions, remark that they're relatives, or reference their shared soul. If that's a squick for you, you'll also want to avoid my Cloudlands AU. Example one-shot - "Scarred" - Stream of consciousness narration where Poof discusses his social and mental relationship with Foop. This is Cloudlands AU, but these vibes apply here.

Peri is a gyne: a biological "queen bee" whose freckles and pheromones lure in drone Fairies (who require preening to stay satisfied). Will he find any of his own in this AU? I don't know... Maybe in this AU, Cavatina doesn't try to kill him. That would be fun!

For reference, H.P. and Big Daddy are gynes in my lore; Peri will have the same bulky shape when he's older. Why is he one? He's an insect person who ate too much jelly as a baby- That's biology!

"You're not gonna explore a different-?" -> No, Irep's still got his pilot stripes (i.e. mustache and goatee), so I have no choice <3 "But he doesn't show freckles-" -> They're still in the pale white stage (and Irep's will still be purple like Foop's are in canon). Peri is still young and his freckles won't darken until he's older.

Poor Peri has a stronger scent than other Fae due to those pheromones. Even humans can whiff him without much effort.

As a "queen bee," Peri is wired to fight other gynes to the death if he gets agitated and loses self-control. I don't plan to delve into this in City Lights since that's what Cloudlands AU is for, but it might be referenced now and then, especially since Goldie thinks it's hot.

In City Lights, he still grew up as Finley's roommate (with Finley the dominant one). Peri is under the usual gyne lore: drones are drawn to Finley over him, but Peri's pheromones start picking up when he's in a place where he's the dominant gyne... like the Dimmadome household. Unless Dale and Dev spook him so much that he stays submissive, which is very funny, actually.

Violence, threats, and spooks - Canon-typical threats and commentary of the villain variety, keeping in mind that I write semi-realistic physics which can make these things more upsetting than the cartoon.

- Vicky's many weapons. OG series confirms she's left scars all over Mark and he interprets them as courtship signs. OG series Vicky often threatened Timmy and others with blades. - OG series H.P. put shock collars on Cosmo and Wanda and thought shocking them even when they did nothing wrong was hilarious ("Wish Fixers"). - OG series Vicky ate meatballs while believing they were eyeballs and claimed a severed arm served for dinner was "been there, done that" ("Timmy's 2D House of Horror"). - Bad luck can get messy. In canon, stepping on a crack breaks your mother's back. People get roughed up. People may experience burns, scrapes, and general injury. - Harassment charges and potential jailtime (e.g. "What if Tootie never toned back as she grew up?" & "Hey, maybe there should be consequences to Dale stalking a little girl.") - Foop's always had a thing for poisonous spiders and flames

Grossness & Gore - Messy, but always for a purpose.

- Vomiting (Magical backup, pregnancy, allergic reactions, general sickness) -> It is very likely Dale will have an eating disorder (or more than one). Will edit with specifics when I've finalized plans. I've always played Foop's alt personality with body dysphoria and bulimia, but it's never been shown onscreen. we'll see what happens. - Yoo-doo doll damage (Limb loss, smacks, cuts, burns, bite marks, and similar damage that can be inflicted on a doll) - Unpleasant descriptions of decaying bodies and bones. - Heavily implied (and possibly portrayed in L&P) cannibalism (Would that be messed up if I took Vicky's "2D House of Horror" comments literally or what? why did she say she's eaten multiple severed human arms? hey. what. Am I supposed to be normal about that? When will I ever get that 'fic opportunity again.) - Some characters go hunting (For birds, big game, etc.) Other characters (like Chloe, the Pixies, Gary, and Betty) are opposed to hunting. -> Dale (raised by Doug), Hadley (raised by Ed Leadly), Timmy (Pappy & Timmy's Dad grew up in the woods and Sparky is a good hunting dog), and Chester are all hunters (In canon, Chester and his dad eat things they've hunted or foraged iirc).

Detailed discussions of trauma, neglect, child abuse, and misery - Especially regarding Vicky, Crocker, and their influence on other characters.

'Fics are tagged. Trauma is discussed much more in the 'fics with high ratings. Trauma is glossed-over, sillier, or not mentioned in Gen and T works for this series.

- Dale, Peri, Timmy, and Irep in particular have issues with Vicky (Weapons, yelling, bullying, etc.) but that's par for the course. - Peri's Hocus Poconos trauma, such as in a possible post-"Lost in Fairy World" 'fic where a nervous Peri hovers over Dev. - Canon-typical miserable children in the miserable children show.

Character death - I'm committing to my "Doug is dead and Dale misses him" theory. If that gets disproved in later seasons, that's fine; this is an AU.

- Expect a 'fic of Dale witnessing Doug's death. Even if he doesn't, Doug's absence will be mentioned multiple times. - There will probably be minor character (OC) deaths in high-rated 'fics. I've not finalized plans, but it's likely. - Other character may also be mentioned as dead (Ex: Assorted ancestors, Cosmo's dad... Big Daddy could show up and imply he's doing shady things). - Beyond that, I don't have plans to kill canon characters at this time. If I do, I expect it to be in a far future piece where characters are in their old age, or when Fairies have moved on and are reminiscing on the past.

Break-ups & strained relationships - Peri/Goldie are strained for sure. They have a very on-and-off dating life that plays into the popular kid vibes the OG series set up for their school days.

Things are tense, but less traumatic for those two here than in Cloudlands AU (We're not mirroring their dubcon arc over here- They have new young adult problems now like learning to live alone and cook real food)

- Difficult family relationships (Ex: Dale & Doug, Dale & Dev) - Potentially some Irep/Sammy (or Irep/OC, especially if I go the route of betrothal drama). Undecided! I write a lot of Foop/OC in other projects and I think I'd enjoy the Irep/Sammy character exploration. - I don't have infidelity themes planned, but it could be discussed (Ex: My lore is that Big Daddy had an affair with a non-fairy - hence Anti-Wanda's round ears instead of pointed ones - so there's that, but I don't think that will come up in this AU). -> Dale's wife is super paranoid that he'll cheat on her because he hangs out with a lot of rich and powerful folks who are nice to him... but I cannot express enough how spooked of people City Lights AU Dale is and how much he would Not Do That. -> Now that I think about it, I feel like Dev is the kind of person who would try to set his mom up with someone else. Maybe I'll write that. She's a happily married woman, but I respect the hustle.

Sexuality and Consent Themes (Ex: Aspec- or trauma-themed dubcon)

Dating life, married life, aphobia (especially of the internalized kind), and sexual themes... written by an aroace person who enjoys playing with the ideas of attraction, anxiety, and consent [in fiction]

-> Think "Dale trusts no one, but has a kid- Let's talk about it!" and characters with thoughts like "Oh, maybe I'm not as comfy with this as I thought. Good to know!"

-> Imagine internalized aphobia along the lines of "Some of these characters grew up in the amatonormative 90s or early 2000s and don't consider that not getting in a relationship (or not having sex / children) is a genuine option they could pursue, or that there's even a word for their feelings or lack thereof."

- I write a wide range of aspec characters who each have their own preferences (some interested in relationships while others aren't). If you want a peek at these portrayals, I discussed many of my asexual headcanons HERE. - As with all themes, do not come to this AU expecting everything to be hunky-dory. Author deeply loves being aroace, but we raise a glass to drama... especially of the "just realized I'm aspec and not necessarily at a good time" variety. lol.

- I don't have rape themes planned, but it's on the table as something that could come up. Ironically, I can confirm it won't be for any of the characters who have rape/non-con trauma in Cloudlands AU. I do not expect it, but I would hate to not warn and then have it come up. As always, AO3 tags exist for a reason and there's nothing wrong with not reading 'fics that aren't for you- No pressure!

Themes of childfree life - And steps taken to prevent accidental kids. Not described in detail, but very relevant to some characters.

Ex: Dinklebergs are big on childfree life, all male witches are infertile, my OC Finley will die if he loses that much magic, some characters just don't want kids.

Themes of memory, including memory loss or manipulation - Godkids losing memories, Dev and Dale after "Battle of Big Wand," and so on. Peri [Poof] never got to say good-bye to Timmy.

Timmy and Chloe do not remember Cosmo, Wanda, or Peri. They've grown up to live normal, happy grown-up lives. They're chillin' with their partners (Molly & Kevin, respectively). I'm playing this as a positive thing, but it's worth warning for those who don't like AUs where Timmy loses his memories. Alas... the average kid stays average to the end, and no one plays the game forever...

That's everything I can think of right now. This AU is still in the early stages, so things might be added later. Works will be tagged appropriately on AO3. Please let me know if you think of anything I missed!

You can create works based on this AU. Please cite me and/or the AU as appropriate (i.e. for things very specific to this AU). You are free to expand on ideas you've thought of thanks to my AU as a jumping off point. I'd love to reblog or link things to my AO3 works if I see them!

I write content with morally gray characters. Please don't portray my story events or worldbuilding out of context with intentional malice. As in, I request you do not post things created for the specific intention of bashing me or the AU

[space-mermaid-writing]

Consort and King [IronStrange]

Summary: Anthony Stark, King of Midgard, needs a spouse. Whether he wants one or not. So he accepts an arranged marriage with the Prince of Kamar-Taj – a man he has never met in his life to the day they are standing in front of each other at the altar, speaking their vows. Is it possible that the feeling of duty grows into something more? Will their future be happy?

Relationship: Tony Stark / Stephen Strange

Tags: arranged marriage au, royal au, strangers to husbands, enemies to lovers, slow burn, idiots in love, fluff, hurt/comfort, miscommunication, all the good stuff

Ko-fi | Read it on AO3 | Series Masterlist | Word count: 4.5k | Previous | Next

Chapter 6: A Picnic

Tony was in the castle's forge, swinging his hammer. Peter assisted him. The boy was a fast learner and a great help; he got the fire going while Tony pulled out a piece of metal with a pair of long tongs, inspecting it.

It was hot enough and he moved it onto a large anvil.

Peter swapped places with him, so that the boy was now holding the tongs while Tony grabbed a big hammer.

Both of them were used to the loud clang of the iron tool hitting the metal; still it was ringing in their ears. It was hot in the forge due to the never-dying fire. They had stripped down to their linen undershirts, but were still sweating from the heat and the work.

It was important to Tony that Peter was involved in every step of the process and learned the art of blacksmithing. The boy loved it. Especially when he was allowed to wield the hammer himself under the supervision of the king. His strikes not yet strong enough to do much; it was mostly the weight of the hammer working for him.

But Peter had reached an age where he grew fast. And with him his strength.

So now the two of them were still working on a sword that Peter did not yet know would one day become his.

"Go get the other hammer," Tony instructed him.

Peter ran to the wall where larger tools were lined up and grabbed the right one without Tony having to specify.

"Did you know that Sir Strange hasn't been outside of the capital yet?" the boy asked back at Tony's side, "How about we take the horses for a ride? With some food?"

"Sure, why not." Tony was always glad to escape the palace for a few hours these days. Not necessarily with Strange, but if Peter wanted him to join Tony would not object.

It could be quite fun.

It was certainly better than listening to the boring and dry rants of the court members anyway.

_____________

A few days later, Tony stepped into the box stall of his light gray horse Friday and put a head collar on her. She nudged his jacket’s pocket where she knew he was hiding treats. But she had to wait until later for them. Instead he petted her neck. “Patience, girl.”

He led her out of the box and two stable boys came over to saddle her and prepare her for the ride. The mare let it happen calmly, familiar with the procedure, and enjoyed the attention she received from Tony.

He noticed out of the corner of his eye when Stephen entered the stable. "I see Peter has successfully persuaded you too."

The consort nodded. “He was very persistent that I join you.”

Tony chuckled. “Yep, that’s Peter.”

Stephen stepped to his side and looked at Friday. "She's beautiful. Strong ankles, clear eyes.” He appreciated a thoroughbred when he saw one, even if he wasn’t a fan of riding horses anymore.

“She’s my favorite,” Tony said proudly. “Don’t tell her brothers though.” Then he pointed to a chestnut horse. "Levi was saddled for you. He can be a little stubborn, but he’s loyal until the end – if he likes you.”

Stephen's eyes follow his gesture to another horse. Levi was tall and sleek but strong. A fine horse. Its color was almost identical to Stephen's last horse. The one that had been involved in his accident – the horse hadn’t had a chance to survive their fall.

Stephen tried not to think about it. Midgard had less steep cliffs than Kamar-Taj. He would be fine.

He had been sitting on horses since then. A few times. It wasn’t very likely that he would ever enjoy riding again. But it was a means to an end. A common way of traveling. In his opinion though, portals were much more convenient.

But now he was in the situation where he had agreed to the picnic – and really, it was probably impossible to refuse a request from Peter when he made his puppy eyes. So he pulled himself together and stepped in front of the chestnut colored horse, offering it his palm.

He wore his gloves, so it was fine. No need to be nervous about anything.

“Hello handsome,” he cooed.

Curiously, Levi moved his nostrils to Stephen's open hand. Intelligent black eyes watched him. But when Stephen tried to pet the horse, Levi dodged his hand and stepped closer to nick at Stephen's cheek.

The consort pushed the horse's neck aside. "Hey!" He wiped the horse drool from his face.

Tony, who had watched the encounter, chuckled. “I knew you two would get along.”

Stephen hmpfed. He wasn’t so sure about that. But at least his husband had fun. He patted the horse’s neck, before turning back to Tony.

“Where’s Peter?” he asked, because the boy hadn’t arrived yet.

Tony glanced around and came to the same conclusion: it was unusual that the boy was late. So he ordered one of the stable boys to go fetch him.

In the meantime, Stephen re-checked all the straps and girths of his saddle and its equipment. It wasn't that he didn't trust the staff – he knew Tony had capable people. He just needed to make sure for his own mind.

“I figure riding was also a big part of your education growing up?” Tony asked him.

“It was,” Stephen agreed. “I find that magic has more convenient ways of travel though.” He failed to mention his accident in this context. He didn’t want his husband’s pity.

“I heard about portals. Thank you for not opening one right into the throne room on our wedding day. People would have been shocked.” Tony would probably be one of those people. He had only seen portals after the wedding and the alliance between the realms. And while he saw the benefits of them, he wasn’t sure if he trusted them personally.

“There are actually rules for it,” Stephen explained. “We don’t open portals to a destination without their consent. We had no such agreement back then, so we portaled to the border of Midgard. Also, I have to know a place or at least see a painting of it.”

He faced Tony as he spoke, which seemed to displease his horse. It demanded his attention by nudging his shoulder again and again. Stephen petted its head absently, but that wasn’t enough in Levi’s opinion.

He gently shoved the consort, which earned him a nasty look from Stephen – which the horse didn't care about.

Tony was clearly amused about the whole ordeal.

A stable boy stepped up to the king’s side. “Your Majesty, Parker says he’s very sorry but he has important duties to tend to and cannot join you. He insists that you take Consort Strange for a ride anyway and show him the beauty of your kingdom.”

Tony raised an eyebrow and dismissed him with a gesture. The stable boy bowed again and then disappeared. Tony looked at Stephen. “What do you think about that?”

“I think that the boy is trying to set us up.”

“Clearly,” Tony agreed, amused. His gaze, still on his husband, became more playful. “Is it working?”

Stephen looked from Tony to Levi, thinking about it. It was the perfect excuse not to get in the saddle. There were enough duties waiting for him that he could do instead. Or he could just read a book. Or drink tea.

His mind wandered to his study, where he spent most of his time when he wasn't supporting Tony in court.

He liked the seclusion of his own space. Though there were enough servants in and out that could be considered company in a broader sense.

Still, in the long run it became a bit lonely.

Stephen’s eyes focused back on Tony. “They already packed the food, didn’t they? It would be a shame not to have a picnic.”

Tony rewarded him with a smile. “Exactly. There’s a beautiful place at the creek I want to show you. It’s perfect for a picnic.”

It shouldn't really surprise Stephen that Tony had already given it such thought – even though the whole thing had been Peter's idea. He learned that his husband was constantly making plans for everything, his mind running a mile a minute.

It warmed Stephen's heart and he decided that he had made the right decision in agreeing.

But now he had to face the task that was mounting Levi. While Tony went to his own mare, Stephen looked at his horse in earnest.

"I need you to be still for a moment here, okay?"

Or this might end up in a panic attack.

With the reins in his left hand, he grabbed the saddle’s pommel and reached for the stirrup with his other hand.

Levi glanced at him, waiting.

Stephen swallowed his fear, because his husband was already hoisting himself on his own saddle. Stephen would not back down. He put one foot in the stirrup and called upon his magic to strengthen his grip; and to swing onto the horse.

Then he sat on the saddle.

It was higher than anticipated.

Being a horse, Levi was somewhat taller than the ponies Stephen had sat on since his accident. The ground was further away than he would have liked and when he looked down, he felt like an invisible force was trying to pull him down. It didn’t quite feel like falling but it was certainly close to it.

Stephen grabbed the reins tighter – although that wouldn’t do anything to keep him on the horse in an emergency.

Levi became bored and started to walk forward. Stephen used the movement to distract himself from the fact that his own feet were not on the ground and he steered the horse using leg pressure and the reins.

Levi responded excellently and sensitively. It was obvious he had undergone a good training.

Stephen steered him out of the stable and Tony followed him.

In the courtyard, Happy and Rhodey were already on their own horses, waiting for them. The two guards would accompany them; as it was standard protocol. Their horses also carried the saddlebags with the equipment for the picnic.

“Ready?” Tony asked Stephen.

Well, as ready as he would ever be. For a moment, Stephen wished he was in his chair at his desk instead of the back of a moving creature.

He nodded, not trusting his voice.

They moved at a leisurely pace out of the castle’s gate. Stephen and Tony rode side by side. The horseshoes clattered on the cobbled path until the road turned into plain earth.

Happy and Rhodey followed at a distance to give the couple some privacy.

Stephen focused on the path ahead. His gaze was fixed at the spot on the horse's head between his ears – not too high as well as not down to the ground.

Tony rode beside him and talked about something. Stephen wasn't sure what; he didn't really listen. Too absorbed into pulling himself together, he was glad that the horse was doing most of the work.

Levi stayed at Friday’s side. Sometimes he swung a little closer to her, but steering him back took little effort. And Tony didn't seem to mind.

After a while Stephen realized he somehow missed the point of their ride since he was too busy to stay calm to notice any of the landscape. There was a lot of green around them. But that was it.

He hadn’t even noticed they had left the main road and were now riding across a meadow and past a small forest.

“So… did you?”

Tony's question made him look up and he noticed that his husband was watching him expectantly. Stephen had no idea what he was being asked.

“Pardon, I was in thought,” he admitted.

Tony’s smirk told him that the other man had definitely noticed his inattention, but Tony played it off as if nothing had happened - just as he ignored the blush of embarrassment on Stephen's face.

“I asked if you ever participated in a royal riding contest.”

“No,” Stephen said. “At least not outside of Kamar-Taj. And our tournaments are a little bit different.”

Royal riding contests were popular among many kingdoms. Not only members of the monarch families were allowed to enter but also every other noble born, like dukes, lords… Sometimes even very skilled soldiers or knights.

The contests were mostly for honor and to show off – so it was actually surprising that Stephen's parents weren't interested in them. But then again it would have meant they would have had to invite lots of people from outside their realm and host them – and they didn’t really like foreigners.

Instead, they preferred to host a tournament among their own people.

“How so?” Tony asked, intrigued to learn more about the closed up realm.

"We don't have any wide plains that can be used for racing." For the first time since they had left the castle, Stephen let his gaze wander and took in their surroundings. The bushes and trees had grown thicker, forming small islands in the vast landscape. There were ups and downs of small hills, but in Stephen's eyes they seemed flat, compared to the high mountains he was used to.

It actually made sitting on a horse more bearable since he could see where he was going. There were no yawning gorges, no hidden crevices, no sloping debris.

Nevertheless, his gaze returned to the horse's head.

Levi snorted. He probably sensed his rider's tension. It was a wonder that the stiffness was not transferred to the horse and he didn’t become restless. Instead, he behaved calmly and attentively.

"It's not just about speed – it's about skills and keeping your horse under control," Stephen continued. "The most popular race goes right from the castle park to a temple ruin on the mountain. Whoever reaches it first, becomes reigning champion for a year and gets a favor from the King.”

The corner of Tony’s mouth curled up. “How many times did you win?”

“A few times in a row. But that was years ago.”

Before his accident.

To be precise until the very day of his accident.

Stephen took a deep breath, deliberately thinking about anything else.

It was a nice day in Spring. The sun was doing its best, but the air still felt fresh in the lungs. There was still frost in the mornings, a fine blanket on the meadows and roofs. But by midday, it became warm enough that people shrugged off their scarves and hats.

Now it was Tony who closed up to Stephen. “Let’s see if you still got it in you. Race you to the bridge.” He pointed ahead, where in the distance a bridge – or rather a wooden crossing – led over a stream.

Before Stephen could object, Tony put spurs to his horse and got a head start.

Levi didn't want to be left behind Friday and he automatically quickened his pace without Stephen having to do anything – or being able to prevent it.

Panic overcame Stephen because he no longer had control over the horse. Leaving the reins loose, he held onto the saddle’s horn just to hold onto something.

Naturally, Stephen tensed up. And Levi took the leg pressure as an incentive to lunge into a full gallop. The previous walking pace had apparently bored him and he was happy to move his legs.

The meadow went downhill. There were a few ditches in the way. But they were no obstacle for the horse, who flew over them. A piece of cake.

Levi and Friday were now on a par.

Stephen heard Tony laughing. He was having fun.

For Stephen it was a nightmare.

He wanted his feet back on the ground. In his mind, however, he could already see himself falling again – which he wanted to avoid at all costs. In his panic he yanked the reins to stop Levi, while at the same time trying to hold onto them. His grip was weak and his hands were shaking.

Levi misunderstood the command and steered to the right, no longer heading to the bridge but directly to the water.

They got closer and closer to it, but the horse didn’t stop.

Stephen yelped as Levi jumped. The horse landed safely on the other side, but Stephen was now pulling on the reins as hard as he could.

He had to get down.

Levi slowed down and pranced restlessly sideways, not happy about the handling. But finally he stood still enough for Stephen to glide off.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, he felt his legs give way and he held onto the saddle. Stephen felt sick. Everything was spinning before his eyes.

He didn't hear the muffled sound of hooves on grass approaching but only noticed Tony when he spoke. “Wow, that was-… are you okay?”

Stephen didn’t look at him. He was trying not to black out and simultaneously fighting down his panic. “Yes, just… need a minute.” His voice broke, but he found that was the least of his concerns.

He wasn't sure if Tony was watching him. He felt eyes on him, but it could be his imagination as well.

Tony instructed Happy and Rhodey – who had been slower to follow – to set up the picnic as planned and handed Friday into their care before he turned back to his husband.

Stephen and Levi had moved to the stream. Levi drank the water while the sorcerer held his hands into the stream. His gloves, which he usually never took off, lay in the dirt next to him.

Something wasn’t right and it felt like Tony was missing something.

He walked up next to Stephen, who turned his head and finally looked at him again. He looked pale, almost shaking. The fresh water of the stream had to be freezing for his scarred fingers.

“Do you want to sit down?” Tony asked carefully with a nod to where the blankets had been spread out on the ground.

Stephen nodded and without a word he stood up and followed Tony to the picnic.

Absorbed in his own thoughts, he barely noticed as the two sat down and Tony poured them both wine. Only when the goblet was put down in front of him did Stephen focus on it.

He would love to calm his nerves with it, but he didn’t trust his hands at the moment.

A small piece of cake appeared in front of his face and when his eyes followed the arm, he found Tony looking at him expectantly. Stephen didn’t make a move to accept the food. Instead his eyes turned into a glare.

Tony sighed dramatically and way too over the top to be serious. “You know, feeding my husband sweets at a picnic would be way more romantic if he actually participated.”

Stephen snorted. “I never understood the concept of feeding someone being romantic.”

Tony was pleased to finally get some kind of reaction from him. He put the cake down on a plate next to Stephen's goblet. “Me neither. But I think you should try everything at least once in order to judge it.” He took a sip of his own wine and took in their surroundings.

It was a beautiful piece of meadow between the stream and the forest. Green grass with a few wildflowers. No farms or huts were in sight.

He had always liked this place. The simplicity of it. And he had hoped to share it.

His eyes returned to his husband.

“Are you afraid of riding?” Tony’s voice was softer than before.

It was a simple question. Stephen could just answer in a single word if he wanted. He wouldn’t be forced to tell the whole story, if he didn’t want to.

Just a question that was enough to inform Tony but that didn’t push Stephen into exposing himself.

Stephen respected him for that, and was thankful.

He spotted Levi next to Friday. The horses were visually comfortable in each other’s presence. And Levi really was a fine horse.

“I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to,” he finally admitted.

Tony made a noise in acknowledgment, but didn’t ask any follow up questions.

Stephen sighed. He knew it was better to get it all out at once. And this was the perfect opportunity. He knew he would hole up if he didn’t come clean now.

So he started talking before he could change his mind.

“Three years ago I participated in the annual riding tournament to defend my title as the reigning champion.” Tony looked surprised about the fact he actually kept talking, but Stephen had his eyes fixed on the cake. “The weather was particularly terrible on that day. It didn’t start that bad, just some rain, so the king decided to not postpone the tournament. Most of the riders agreed. So did I…” And he had regretted that decision ever since. “The weather got worse during the day. A storm arrived and some riders turned around. The mountains are dangerous on a good day for those who aren’t careful. But I was too prideful to give up. I didn’t want to face my parents empty handed.”

Stephen sighed again and glanced at his husband. Tony knew where this story was going. He saw it on his face.

“I’m not exactly sure what happened. My horse must have slipped or lost her footing. We fell down a cliff. Next thing I remember is waking up in the healer’s wing two days later. My hands were crushed. The horse had died. Poor thing. It wasn’t her fault; I pushed her beyond the limit.”

Tony's hand rested on his, gently. His gloves were still lying in the mud by the stream.

“Must have been tough for you,” Tony sympathized.

It had been. But what hurt the most was that his parents had shown their disappointment towards him.

But at least one good thing had come out of this: “It’s what made me turn towards magic.”

Stephen couldn't imagine his life without magic anymore.

He turned his hand under Tony’s and interlaced their fingers loosely.

Tony smiled softly at him. “One of these days you should tell me about the mechanics of magic.”

That suggestion actually surprised Stephen. So far, he hadn't had the impression that Tony was interested in magic. On the contrary, he seemed rather cautious about it; edging on being wary.

“I can do that if you want to know more about it,” he therefore offered.

“I like to know how things work.”

Stephen had learned that much about his husband. He was curious and incredibly smart, paired with a quick mind.

He felt his heart flutter. The prospect of sharing something that was so dear to his heart with Tony felt intimate. And he was looking forward to it.

“So, is that still a no on romantically feeding my husband at this picnic?” Tony prodded.

Now it was Stephen who was sighing dramatically. “I guess I can accommodate – if you keep on insisting.” His teasing smile told Tony that it was no burden at all.

Tony brought another piece of cake to his mouth and Stephen took a bite. A few crumbs fell down. Both men laughed about the clumsiness as well as the consistency of the pastry.

“Well, how would you rate your experience?” Tony asked while Stephen was still chewing.

He swallowed. It was a delicious cake.

"I can only judge that once I've tried both sides." He felt confident enough and his hands weren’t shaking as bad anymore. He grabbed a piece of cake and offered it to Tony’s lips.

The king was surprised but delighted. “Well, if you insist.” Gently he put a finger on Stephen's wrist and helped him subtly to stabilize his hand while he took a bite.

He made a satisfied noise.

“Hmm, best cake I ever had. Not sure if I have to compliment the baker or the company though.”

Stephen huffed; partly amused, partly to hide his embarrassment. But he couldn't hide the slight blush due to that compliment.

“I’m not sure if feeding feels very romantic,” he said, but then added, “At least no more than a picnic in general already does.”

Tony looked very pleased at these words. “It was worth a try,” he shrugged, but the smile stayed on his lips.

They continued to eat. Stephen ate slowly, but after the initial shock had finally passed he was hungry. He also tried the wine and emptied the goblet. Tony immediately gave him a refill while the conversation drifted to lighter topics.

Tony told him about Peter's upcoming birthday and his plan to gift him the sword he and the boy were currently crafting. Stephen voiced his approval of the idea. He had grown fond of the boy over the past weeks.

“You know there are techniques to embed magic into steel while welding it. It’s a way to add extra layers of protection into a weapon,” Stephen added, looking at Tony. “That’s something I would actually like to do with one of your own swords.”

Tony considered it. “What kind of magic would that be?”

“Mostly protection spells. But offensive spells are also an option. I can put together a list. We can go over it and I will explain them to you in detail.”

“Okay.”

Eventually, as the day went on, the picnic came to an end.

Tony stood up first. “Do you want to show off with your fancy portals on the way back?”

Relieved, Stephen nodded. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to go back on any horse’s back today. He could endure it – if he had to – but he would rather not.

He took his sling ring out of his pocket. Tony watched him sliding it on and then studied the motions of his hands.

A sparkling circle appeared showing the inside of the stables. Noises of surprise could be heard from the other side; the staff was not used to this. Yet.

Stephen moved first and stepped halfway through the portals, standing now on both sides with one leg. He turned to Tony and offered him his hand.

Tony eyed the orange-ish magic both with wary and intrigued. He took the offered hand and stepped onto the other side. Although he was thankful for the considered help, he couldn’t suppress a shutter. It just felt weird.

“I must admit, it is convenient, “ he still admitted. “But also disorientating.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

“Probably.”

Stephen enlarged the portal for the horses that were led by Happy and Rhodey. The stable boys immediately arrived to help them unsaddle the horses. Leaving the king and his consort with no further work to do but to go back inside the palace.

“We can use a carriage for traveling in the future,” Tony offered as they walked side by side, out of earshot of the others.

“There will be times I will prefer that,” Stephen admitted. “But I also want to overcome my fears. It shouldn’t be something that defines me.”

“It doesn’t.”

“It restricts me.” Even though it had been years since his accident, he sometimes still had nightmares about it. They would most likely never stop completely. But he could try.

_____________

Taglist: @goopierthenyou (tell me if you want to be added/removed)

[lohstandfound]

5 18 29

5. What’s a fic idea you’ve had that you will never write?

Okay. There's a few:

The one I've been sitting on the longest is one I called Be More Enhanced. It was inspired by a piece of fanart by maegimaki (I think) back in the day. I can't be bothered trying to find it rn but it was of Jake, Jeremy, and Rich but parts of their bodies that were affected by the squip were shaded in bright blue tv static (Jake's legs, Rich's burn scars, Jeremy's eyes). It gave me the idea for a fic of, like, essentially lab-made superheroes except they never reached superhero stage. Jake, Jeremy, and Rich had been in the lab for as long as they could remember. The second attempt at The Enhancement Project. Jeremy had enhanced intelligence and senses, Jake had enhanced strength/speed/durability, Rich could alter his appearance and physical form (enough to pass through walls). They eventually escape and end up on the doorstep of Michael Mell and his friends (the bmc girls), the failed and escaped first attempt of The Enhancement Project.

The other ideas arent necessarily things I won't write, I just might not get around to them. Those would be the popular kids polycule royalty au and The Poet's Garden. I love The Poet's Garden au so much, I just don't know what to do with it yet but I would love to talk about it

18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic?

I love the entirety of the royal pains pantone fic.

There are so many lines I like but the first one to come to mind is Jake's Pinkberry pizza metaphor

29. Share a bit from a fic you’ll never post OR from a scene that was cut from an already posted fic. (If you don’t have either, just share a random fic idea you have that you don’t plan on getting to.)

Okay, here's a bit from be more enhanced

Christine walked out of the room and stood in the doorway of the kitchen, watching Brooke and Michael have a very animated conversation with each other. She wasn’t sure what either of them were saying, but it seemed more like an argument. She turned around when she heard a groan coming from the stairs.

“God, turn you’re voices down. I can hear you two arguing from upstairs,” Chloe groaned, joining Christine in the doorway.

“Michael’s voice is gone again…” Christine mumbled.

Brooke and Michael had stopped arguing. Michael huffed, leaning against the bench. Brooke sighed.

“Michael isn’t sure if we should keep them here for too long.”

“Keep who?” Chloe asked.

“Three boys turned up on our doorstep. They’re like us,” Christine said. “Jake seems to be the leader of the three. He did all the talking. Strong protective energy coming from him. Jeremy’s is very weak, scared… Michael- they need to stay here.”

‘But what if they were sent to find us. We still haven’t been able to get rid of all their tech from us. Or to fix whatever they took from us.’ Michael said.

“They’re kids, Michael!” Brooke hissed. “They’re kids… Who knows how long Squip had them for, what they did to them.”

“They’re broken…” Christine said softly, looking back towards the doorway.

Michael sighed and shook his head. Brooke hit the back of his head. She seemed to be scolding him.

Chloe sighed, frowning at the two.

“Stop arguing like little children. We’re keeping them here. We can call Jenna tomorrow and she can fix your voice again and whatever damage Squip did to the kids.”

“You’re like us?” A voice said from behind them. Christine and Chloe turned around and Michael and Brooke looked at the doorway to see Jake standing there.

Chloe raised an eyebrow and walked over to him. “One of the kids, huh?” She said, circling him. Jake bit his lip as she watched the girl, tensing up when she touched him.

Christine bit her lip. “Chloe…”

Chloe ignored her, although she sighed and looked at Brooke.

Brooke glared at her. Chloe huffed.

[melodicaria]

Transformers Story Ideas #2

LMAO, YA'LL! I got terribly sick and my laptop charger broke, I'm talking plastic melting and wires exposed. The AO3 author curse is real cos wtf! Anyways, this doesn't stop me from blurting out a disgusting, vulgar, mangled pile of story ideas I so badly want to write. I have to tilt my laptop at a 30 degree angle to get the charging light to turn on. We are most definitely winning guys :)

These are all Sam centered and some of them have smut so like, totally beware! If I've written bits, pieces, and snippets for them, I'll create a separate post, so scroll through my profile/posts. I may have posted the crumbs there. Tumblr is so cute, its like little post it notes.

With porn.

Sometimes.

Frostbite | Optimus/Sam/Megatron | Sam not being able to decorate his new house to save his life, thankfully his neighbor Optimus is very good at it. But like, he and Megatron have also been stalking Sam ever since he moved in and plan to kidnap him and bring him away. Lmao, did I say kidnapping? I meant surprise vacation. Totally. (I'm actually working on this right now)

Snowfall Secrets | Various/Sam | Christmas with Cybertronains is just about as what Sam expects- and what he doesn't. This would be multi-chaptered, with each chapter being a different day leading up to Christmas, probably like 3-5 chapters.

Sneaky Green Leaf | Prowl/Sam/Constructicons | Sam telling Prowl and the Constructicons about the purpose of mistletoe. Unfortunately, they don't necessarily get the message. A quick peck gives way to hunger, which...gives way to vicious gangbang fucking under the mistletoe every time they see it.

Untitled | Autobots/Sam | Dacryphilia kink, the Autobots have a fascination with seeing Sam cry.

Untitled | Various/Sam | Cybertronian cum acts similar to an aphrodisiac for humans!!!

Stellaris | Starscream/Sam | Sam is tasked with escorting a prince soon to be king- unfortunately said prince is a royal asshole. (Royalty Starscream is so funny, can you imagine this dude actually have people willingly do things for him. I'd go insane if I had to serve Starscream.) This was literally all brought on by this one line I thought of: "You brought me all this way... what's a king without his queen, hm?

Untitled | ?/Sam | Sam meeting a guy who charms him, kidnaps him, then proceeds to take him home and keep him as a fuck slave. (Sunstreaker, maybe)

Untitled | Optimus/Sam | I NEED SAM RIDING AND MILKING OPTIMUS NOW!!!

Untitled | Ironhide/Sam | Lol, weapon fucking with Ironhide. Idk about ya'll, but the blasters they be using be looking mad wicked.

The Merchant of Death | ?/Sam | Cybertronian Sam AU, but he sells things. What are those things? Weapons of mass destruction and death, probably.

[fixfoxnox]

If you have any free time im requesting some camboy au headcanons about roach :0? Or letters to love headcanons about roach!!

Let's do some Letters headcanons! I haven't done one for Letters Roach and it gives me an opportunity to explain some things for the story!

Warnings: Stalker type behavior from Makarov, nsfw implied, slight non-con mentioned

Trans! Roach in the letters universe, which you guys probably knew, but he didn't come out until he was about sixteen

He is currently in his early-mid twenties in the fic and has been transitioning since he came out

Only person who knew he was trans earlier than sixteen was Eddie

Eddie is still a doctor in this AU and provided Roach with fantasy hormone blockers until he was ready to come out

So Roach essentially never hit a female puberty which has worked out for him because he doesn't have to bind his chest or anything

He was raised with a females education because he didn't come out until later

When he did come out, there was discussion of sending him through the classes for male aristocrats, but he would have been learning with small children, so they decided to just teach him the basics

For this reason Roach has no idea how to really fight (outside of a few things that we'll get to later), no idea how to hunt, and is a little less educated on things like war tactics, math, and history (he's learning though!)

Roach earned Makarov's affection when they were very young, which is part of why he doesn't remember it

Makarov was about eight while Roach was about five

Essentially Makarov was being a pouty bratty young prince

Little Roach got tired of it and came over to smack him with a book and tell him to shut the fuck up with his tantrum because he was trying to make flower crowns

Roach got in trouble for it, but Makarov was already smitten and it did not help that Roach later apologized to him with one of the flower crowns he made

Makarovs obsession was mostly innocent until he hit puberty then he started getting full on creepy and weird which is most of what Roach remembers

Roach and Jackson became bffs in this AU when they were kids. They were around the same age and their families estates are right next to each other, so it just made sense

Jonathan and Eddie fully believed that Roach and Jackson were sneaking around together when they were teens

Technically they weren't wrong, its just that rather than having sex, Roach and Jackson were going into town together and sneaking back to the estates with stray cats (the estates still have a cat problem because of them)

Makarov fucking despises Jackson, but he can't say or do shit because Jackson's family are the Kingdom's record keepers/treasurers

A list of creepy things that Makarov has done to Roach in this AU:

Stolen some of his clothes

Cut a piece of his hair to keep

"Accidentally" spilled wine, water, and mead on him several times

Had specific outfits made and sent to him (and since he's the prince, guess what Roach was wearing to any functions??)

Had copies of any portraits made of Roach made for himself (as well as hired some artists to draw Roach for him secretly)

Bought literally the exact same fragrances that Roach uses just so he can spray them in his room (and be creepy)

Followed him around secretly and made visits to Roach's families estate to sneak into his room

Literally tried to start rumors about the two of them to try and force them to be married

Straight up felt him up several times during big events where he could get away with it during like dancing and what not

There's other stuff but thats just some of the stuff off of the top of my head shdhdhdjjd

Roach is known for his penmanship in his kingdom! Its a highly valued skill in the kingdom and he's penned out letters for the royals before (including Makarov)

So when Soap is like 👁👄👁 with how fancy Roach's letters are, he was not exaggerating, like Roach is very very skilled

Soap is only Roach's third kiss in his life, not necessarily because there haven't been people interested, but rather that Roach hasn't been interested (take your guesses on who the other two kisses were lol)

Because Makarov is so solely interested and focused on Roach, Roach tends to get a lot of flak from other noble families

They want their own daughters/sons to marry the prince, so its very frustrating to them that Makarov has shown no interest in even trying with anyone other than Roach

It doesn't help that everyone can see how uninterested Roach is in the attention. They consider that to be a huge disrespect

So Roach has very few friends/support among the nobility, something that his mother has tried to fix but has often just resulted in Roach sitting in a room being made fun of all day

One last one: Roach is very much deeply attracted to the idea that Soap is a warrior king and has seen so much battle and all that, but he absolutely will not admit it

That shit is staying in his fantasies until after he is married thank you very much

[winterrose527]

🍍 What kind of AUs do you like? Are there any AUs you hate or just generally have beef with?

🍏 Is there something you overuse, whether it’s a certain phrase, trope, or piece of punctuation?

🍐 Is there anything in canon that you absolutely hate and love to fix in fics? A wrong choice made, a fuck-up in characterization, a misunderstanding never cleared up, a conversation never shown onscreen, etc…

<33333

ahh thank you for the ask my lovely!

🍍 Ahh I love so many kinds of AUs... I love a single parent AU, a forced proximity AU, a Royal! AU (particularly if it comes with arranged marriage and the ungodly embarrassment of being attracted to the person you're married to).

I don't necessarily have beef with any AUs per se but there are definitely ones that don't interest me - like I don't find rivalries all that interesting, because I think it's often two people just being super self-involved and inconsiderate which is unattractive to read. I also don't know that this is really an AU but I think when a story changes so much about a person's circumstance but doesn't change their character over it, it frustrates me. ASOIAF in particular. Their parentage, their privilege, etc. is SO intrinsic to so many of the characters and I write silly modern AUs all the time but I do try to keep core personality there while amending for different circumstances. (not to say I always succeed)

🍏 look if there is one thing we know about Myrcella Baratheon, it's that she is going to be wearing a cream colored cashmere turtleneck and her brother Tommen will be dead and that's that. Also, to steal a line from myself (though different punctuation), I use commas like they're sponsoring me.

🍐 I'M SO SORRY D&D BUT MYRCELLA DIDN'T DIE. IT'S SO EMBARRASSING THAT NO ONE TOLD YOU. NO SHE'S ALIVE, YEP, SOOOOOO ALIVE.

[zmediaoutlet]

Hey there,

Hope you are having a lovely Wincesty day...

Scrolling through your delightful blog, I cam upon your Presidential J2/AU story.

I had read it before, and it was nice to revisit this piece.

Catherine Ackles.... do you have more of a back story for her? I like her character, and I don't like want to dislike her? Does that make sense?

Does she hate/resent Jared? I mean she's gotta know J2 love each other

How did her and Jensen meet? Is he bi? Did they have political ambitions from the start?

So many questions..

I loathe politics with a passion and I never watched West Wing, although I heard good things about it, but you made this a great read, I love your writing style.

Anyways, if you have a back story for Catherine, I'd love to see it. Thanks!

aw, bud! I'm glad you gave those fics a shot even though you're not a West Wing head. <3 Super sweet, ty ty.

I'd thought about writing a fic from Catherine's POV, but I kind of like leaving that series as a self-contained trilogy -- a little fairytale, you know? But I can for sure give you some Catherine backstory, because I like her and I'm glad you do, too. :)

So:

Catherine and Jensen met in college, after he left the Air Force. (I think in a Master's in Public Policy program, specifically?) Jensen had been very very closeted for a long time and Catherine was smart and funny and talented and clearly saw a lot of potential in him, and it just made sense to get married, you know? Unfortunately, she is so smart and observant, she started to put some stuff together, and Jensen admits to her finally that he's gay sometime during the first state office campaign. She is Disappointed To Say The Least (and Jensen feels very guilty), but at this point she's invested in his political career and thinks he's the perfect person to get the things done that they both believe should get done, and so she takes a deep breath and decides that they won't get divorced, and they can just. Live like this. It's not ideal but. What is? She just makes Jensen promise that if he's ever going to act on the gay thing he has to be superhumanly discreet and also tell her immediately, and he promises, and never breaks that promise.

I feel really bad for her, though. Like -- she's getting what she wanted, which is to be throwing the levers of power and making things move without necessarily being in the spotlight herself (until Jensen becomes President, obviously), but... she also thought her husband loved her. And he does, but not like that. And they aren't going to have kids, which she wasn't even totally sure she wanted to do, but now she definitely doesn't want to try. And when Jared becomes a thing and Jensen finally comes to her after that one night and confesses, she hates Jared for a week and then realizes that's stupid. She's very rational and it's ridiculous to hate someone for getting something you never actually had. So she's not Jared's best friend, either, but she realizes this is actually a good option considering how closely they work together and that Jared's also a true believer in Jensen's political career, and... it'll do.

I hope that she has an inhumanly discreet boyfriend on the side. (Actually in this case I'm thinking more of House of Cards than The West Wing.) Some also-powerful donor to one of her hospital projects, or something, who would have nothing to gain from announcing to the world that he's nailing the First Lady, and so she can go on trips and then stop in his city and have a weekend where she pretends that this is fine. And Jensen calls and tells her that they successfully negotiated some bill that'll help get more kids fed, or something, and it is fine. Your own happiness isn't the most important thing in the world.

And, you know, that's maybe an ongoing theme of that series, now that I'm thinking about it. Jensen's never going to Publicly Come Out and have it be some nice Red White and Royal Blue situation. Catherine's never going to write a tell-all. Jared's probably never going to get a happy retirement home in Austin somewhere with former President Ackles, although -- who knows, maybe when they're in their sixties no one would notice or care. I'm interested in people who are willing to give, if not the last full measure of devotion, at least a large portion of it -- who will give up a part of their life to make the world a little tiny bit better. The series is pretty fluffy but that's there, somewhere, in the core. I think Catherine lives her life by that principle.

[stitchthesewords]

Finally had time to sit down and red The Royals Quests, and oh boy did I love it.

A few thoughts and theories I had along the way:

I love how Mumbo and Scar bicker in this AU. You can tell that they have known each other forever, and that they 1) care about each other 2) know exactly how annoying (affectionate) the other can be. They are like an old married couple and I love that for them so so much.

Special shoutout to Mumbo's ears reacting to his emotions. It's just so good. I can't decide if I hope he knows about it, or if I hope he is completely oblivious.

Having a lot of fun trying to piece together the mystery of Grian's past. The references to him feeling fresh air under his wings for the first time and not being able to fly nearly as much as he would have liked in the cave seems self-explanatory, but there being several references to him keeping his wings tugged closely to his back makes me wonder if there might be more to it.

The reveal that Grian isn't a "proper" Avian has me even more curious. Could it be a Watcher!Grian thing where he is from a colony of Watchers pretending to be/believing themselves to be Avians? Or is he perhaps from a parallel universe? I am eyeing all of this very much.

The fact that no one seemed to notice before Impulse pointed it out too. I wonder if it's some kind of misdirection magic that is keeping people from paying too close attention to him? And in that case, what makes Impulse immune to it? In short: worldbuilding good, brain go brrrrrr.

"Grian had come to learn that Scar kept that shelving unit there for the sole purpose of creating a shadowy space for Mumbo to retreat to" Also? I adore this line. Obviously, it's for vampire reasons, but I also love that Scar was like "Gotta get my husband bestie a dark corner to stand in and look menacing. It'll add to the aesthetic of the place, and the dramatics of our not-so-secret resistance meetings." Just. Gotta love him.

I love how it's like. Here is a fantasy world of magic and mystery. And also there's guns.

14/10 A++ highly recommend. Really, really enjoying the Rift AU a lot :D

Thank you for reading royal quests!! It’s nice that the king arc has wrapped up so now I don’t have to worry about them doing something and contradicting what I had planned lol.

I too love how Scar and Mumbo bicker in this. What’s funny is I honestly don’t think they bicker super often – its just that there is a lot to bicker about rn for them lol. But also yeeees – given how long they’ve been on HC together, I wanted to reflect that by having their relationship be pretty long [Relatedly, Bdubs and Etho have had a VERY long relationship]. They ARE like an old married couple and frankly everyone who sees them is shocked they aren’t married – I know Grian is sort of dealing with that confusion now.

ALSO!!!! I *LOVE* WIGGLING EARS DSKLAGSDKL. I think Mumbo’s ears are longer and swivel around and THAT is left over from my skyrim fanfiction days bc I headcanon that the skyrim elves can move their ears around. Scar's ears are much shorter so they don’t move. I also definitely think Mumbo USED to be oblivious to it but unfortunately the man’s been alive for centuries and I can’t imagine no one has pointed it out to him. Unless.

Hehehehehehehehehehe. Obviously I can’t reveal too too much about Grian’s past since, you know, spoilers, but I will tell you this – you are on the right track. I will tell you this in relation to the watcher thing – its NOT the watchers, actually. 👀👀I used to have rift AU tagged as Watcher Grian but I changed it early on because I decided to do something…different. With it. Hehehe. I definitely will be doing something with the watchers at SOME point, but not necessarily in this au – I think they’re more like an ancient religion no one really follows anymore. BUT you do have me thinking about Watchers-Pretending-To-Be-Human hm hm hm that WOULD work for one of my AU ideas hehehehe

Is it misdirection or is it obliviousness? Who knows. But also Impulse has some interesting stuff going on with himself too so he could totally be immune to it 👀 Or is it just that Scar and Mumbo have been too busy with bigger fish to fry to notice their new avian friend looks decidedly different from how Avians are supposed to. Hm hm hm.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEES Scar being like ‘Mumbo needs Shadows for his magic to work obviously regular shadows are boring I need to give my vampire bestie the best shadows” feels like such a Scar thing to do tbh. The aesthetics, the menace factor, the dramatics of it all. But also the fact that he thought about Mumbo and designed a part of his office with Mumbo in mind sfkjgfj I love them. There’s definitely like a light aimed at making the shadow be really strong.

You know the old joke of like ‘harry potter would’ve been shorter if he had a gun’ I disagree. It would have made things EVEN MORE COMPLICATED LGFKWDFH think about it. Magic evolving to deal with guns. Bullet Time/matrix-y bullet things. Magic infused bullets. But also I think the guns in rift au aren’t proper modern guns. They’re slow, a little clunky – think like guns of the late 1800s. Cowboy guns. Bullets are expensive, a little hard to come by, and King Ren is limiting the supply of them in an attempt to bottleneck Scar and Mumbo on top of that. I love fantasy guns.

Thank yoooooooooooooou!!! It means the world to me that people like rift au.

[copperbadge]

Hello! I finished reading Fete about 12 hours ago and I wanted to ask if there is any chance you would consider at some point writing genuine fanfic for the Shivadhverse, once you finish the stories you have planned? By which I mean things that don't belong in the actual novel because they don't necessarily serve the plot, and aren't long enough to be their own thing within your planned series of books, but that we fannish types would enjoy because they're sweet or funny (or steamy, if you'd consider higher rated stuff). I did read the first short story in the original AO3 post and the Duke of the Orange bit, and that's essentially what I mean -- just wondering if there is any more of that to come. I think the book as you wrote it told the story exactly as "completely" as a piece of fiction should, but in true fandom style I'm also not quite ready to be done with Eddie and Gregory's romance (I'm sure I will feel the same about Jes and Michaelis but I'm not that far yet). I just desperately want more fluff and shenanigans about those two being in love 💕

I'm so glad you enjoyed Fete! I hope you have fun with Infinite Jes and LATT, too :)

It's an interesting question to answer because there's two aspects to consider. The first is simply "Are there going to be more short stories" -- things that fit into the universe but aren't either supporting the storyline of a novel directly or novels in themselves. There are a handful more of those that you'll reach as you keep reading, and I do plan to put out a book of short stories when I have enough. Beyond the idea of more short stories, if you just want News Of Gregory And Eddie, that does definitely exist in the second and third books -- we see them developing their relationship and figuring out their life together. While I'm conceptually designing the second set of three books around non-royals (Caleb the musician, Georgie the bodyguard, Simon the chef) they're all royal-adjacent, so we'll still be following along with the lives of the royals.

But there is a second aspect, which is the idea of writing a story that not only doesn't fit into the canon neatly but might be divergent from it, like an AU or something that would mess up later canon if inserted. I'm less likely to do that simply because I enjoy expanding on what I've already done, and if I want something to exist within the narrative I simply make it canon. I think of Neil Gaiman being asked if he writes fanfic of his work, and him replying "Well, if I write it, I can just publish it." So I'm more likely to write something that could be considered fanfic but which ends up being labeled and printed as a short story, because it's my world and I can say what does and doesn't get published as canon.

Even if I were to write something on the porny side, it's not like erotica never gets published. Initially I had considered adding in some porn to Fete and publishing two versions, one with and one without, but I find writing sex scenes kind of exhausting these days, so I decided as long as I was doing this mainly to entertain myself, I wouldn't do anything that felt like work. :D I definitely do think about the kinds of sex the various people in the universe have, like for example I know that Gregory enjoys the fact that Eddie can significantly manhandle him. But the actual written prose version of those ideas is less likely to ever exist than simply stories about their lives.

But yeah -- I'm definitely not abandoning the storylines of the initial characters just because I'm writing other stories. There is a certain level of mirroring; the Eurovision story is also about Michaelis and Jes's developing relationship, the California story is also about Gregory and Eddie becoming dads, and Simon's story will have a strong underplot about Jerry and Alanna's marital misadventures. (This is all predicated on them getting written but between my love of this universe and my new medication it's looking pretty likely!)

[catreginae]

Thou Shalt Not Fall: Master Post

This is the Master Post for all posted chapters of my Linked Universe AU, Thou Shalt Not Fall!

You can also find WIPs and other fun bits under the tag #catreginae: thou shalt not fall (or if you know, you wanna block it). I also have #thou shalt not fall: bite sized facts for small pieces of information for Vampire!Warriors! My ask box is also open for any questions or comments regarding this AU!

Story Summary: Legend notices some pretty weird things about Warriors but as it turns out, there's a good reason for that. Warriors was cursed and now he's a vampire.

Warnings: though each chapter will have more potential warnings, be wary of blood, blood drinking, and graphic depictions of gore and violence as an overall theme.

Chapter Links: [1] - [2] - [3] - [4] - [5] - [6] - [7] - [8] - [9] - [10] - [11] - [12] - [13] - [14] - [15] - [16] - [17] - [18] - [19] - [20] - [21] - [22] - [23] - [24] - [25] - [26] - [27] - [28] - [29] - [30] - [31] - [32]

Archive of Our Own Link!

Look at fanart here!

Chapter summaries under the cut!

Observations: They were all weird, but Warriors? He was extra weird. Legend notes his observations of all the weird things that Warriors does and the weird things that happen to him.

Opening the Flood Gates: Naturally, there are a lot of questions when you find out that one your teammates needs to drink blood to survive.

Answering Wind's Most Important Question: Wind finds the answer to his most important question: if Warriors drinks blood from a drunk person, will he also become drunk?

The Joys of Invitation: Warriors doesn’t know why he has to be invited into a house, but he does know it’s rather inconvenient.

The Big Sleep: Sometimes, Sky wasn't the last one to wake up.

Royal Blood: Warriors needs blood to survive, but not all blood is particularly… useful to him.

'Tis Just a Flesh Wound: He gets better.

Declaration of War: Warriors and animals don't necessarily get along.

Hunger: Sometimes, Warriors gets a little too hungry.

Ravio Ruins Legend's Night: Unbeknownst to Legend, Time isn't the only vampire expert.

Warrior's No Good, Very Bad Day: Warriors faces one of his biggest foes - the sun.

The Bad Mint: Warriors finds the worst possible candy to suck on.

Vermilion Sky, Vermilion Eyes: Warriors encounters the blood moon.

Warriors vs The Wall: Warriors once again contends with the joys of invitation - but for science, this time.

A Bitter Meal: Warriors is, unfortunately, all too familiar with the bitter taste of some certain plants.

A Sad Tea Party: Warriors is confronted by three, worried friends.

Threatened and Threatening: no summary.

Dungeon Therapy: Warriors finally takes about his feelings.

A Midnight Snack: Legend wakes up to find that he can't sleep beside a buddy in peace.

The Past - Homecoming: Link, Mask, and Tune all return from the final battle with Cia, but Link doesn't seem to be feeling better.

The Past - Quarantine: Link wakes up in a place he doesn't recognize, but that's the least of his problems.

The Past - Teaching Old Vampires New Tricks: The vampires try to train Link in all things vampire… but it doesn't go the way it usually goes. The vampires begin to realize that Link isn't quite the same as the other vampires.

The Past - Return to the Castle: Link might be a vampire now, but he still had a role to fulfill.

Monster Guts - Wild gets some help harvesting monster parts.

Dungeon Crawl - Warriors gets to actually explore a dungeon for the first time and he's not impressed. His determination to speed up the process leads Warriors to discover new things about himself.

Vampire Field Surgery - Warriors has an unwanted hitchhiker from a battle… but he has an unconventional method to get rid of it!

The Better Mint - Four finally has a chance to work on a project he had in mind for a while - making something Warriors can actually put in his mouth if he wanted to tasted iron so badly.

Warriors vs Animals - It's Twilight's turn to show everybody his home. It goes great for everybody except for Warriors, who has to contend with the fact that he's in a village full of animals who don't like him.

Warriors and the Fog: Everybody is still in Ordon and Warriors can't help but to think there is something wrong about that. They can't just be here for a vacation, right?

The Munchies: Warriors has cravings. Intense cravings.

The Consequences of Hiding an Injury: Twilight forgets the most important rule to feeding your vampire friend: you need blood to spare.

Elena's Letter: Warriors receives a letter from his vampire mentor with some advice. He doesn’t understand why it’s so hard for everybody else to accept the advice.

[leviiattacks]

How about Levi x reader, where they get set up on a blind date by their friends as a prank, but actually end up liking each other

note :: honestly not my best at all but it was cute i guess T___T kinda an opposites attract thing also it’s a modern au !!

for some reason hange and sasha wake up one morning and decide they want to wreak havoc

it’s not peculiar coming from them

after all they are always up to something

like the one time sasha purposefully trapped herself in an elevator with a hot guy

or the time hange tried to make coffee with an energy drink mixed in it??

OR-

okay you’re getting sidetracked

but the point is they have no real reason for this new venture of theirs

when do they ever have a reason though?

somehow today their scheming has led to them begging you to go on a blind date

“he’s not my type i mean he’s old and whatever but you would like him” sasha’s stuffing her face with a buttery croissant

she doesn’t sound very convincing

then again, you have no objections to the idea

you’re single

you’re lonely

if it doesn’t end in love well ??? guess you could fuck

and if you don’t fuck well ?? you got to go outside and get some fresh air

BUT

the idea of blind dating makes you squirm

the uncertainty which comes along with the situation is intimidating

honestly, part of you is worried you’ll end up making a mortal enemy at dinner, not a lover

the other portion is petrified you’ll end up on a date with a murderer

what if it ends up like that one netflix show and you end up getting stalked????

you shudder at that thought

BE OPTIMISTIC Y/N!! YUP YUP OPTIMIST ERA!!!

levi feels the same way but his version of nervous is very different to your own

his fears are very different

what if his date appears prim and proper but it’s really just a huge facade hiding how their house is a pigsty?

imagine the third date in is a movie night in and he walks into a landfill site...

what if his date chews their food obnoxiously loud?

what if they just dislike him?

that’s why ideally he would prefer dating someone he knows beforehand

but there’s no one he knows already that he’s interested in

that’s exactly why when hange calls levi and asks him if he’s willing to go on a blind date on such short notice he scoffs and tells them that maybe if they got a life they would know that his answer is a straight no

he’s used to people not pairing well with him

he guesses it’s because of his sardonic personality, maybe it’s his occupation - he is constantly busy after all. perhaps it’s his foul mouth

erwin told him the last time he had a date that he should probably ease up on the cursing but it’s levi...

he isn’t going to change for anyone.

and really if him being little mean is that much of a deal breaker he won’t bother looking for anyone

he’ll go it solo he supposes

“LEVI. PLEASE. you both would fit together like jigsaw pieces.” hange is practically begging

then they stop for a second and wiggle their eyebrows “that can have many alternative meaningssss~”

levi purses his lips and shoots them a hard glare

“shut it, i’m not going. i’m busy.”

“busy doing.....?”

“cleaning i need t-”

“NO??? do it some other time please they’re smart, fun AND not boring at all.”

hange gives him a pleading look then explains how his mystery date has already agreed for sasha’s sake and he really can’t stand you up

“you want me to go on a blind date with one of SASHA BRAUS’ friends????”

he looks at hange in utter disbelief because that means you just have to be loud mouthed and annoying like jean or connie

or just be as stupidly unfunny

he shakes his head rejecting the idea completely

“i enjoy sophisticated people.”

hange sighs heavily

“give it a chance! c’monnn what if i bribe you?”

little does levi know hange and sasha have purposefully picked you out because of the way you’re both polar opposites

where levi loves order you’re disorderly, where he follows his own rules you don’t follow any at all, where he is disagreeable you’re agreeable in every way of the word

where he is cold, you are warm, he’s a night owl, you’re an early bird, you’re day and he’s night

everything about the two of you is different

that isn’t necessarily bad, but sasha and hange find it hilarious enough to set you both up on this date

if it fails it’ll still be funny

you’re rummaging through your closet looking for your favourite perfume because to be frank you are NOT showing up unprepared

like?? what if he moves in to hug you and he smells the scent of the chicken you were cooking today

yeah you did have a shower but sometimes you wonder if the smell lingers

you KNOW it doesn’t but it’s a matter of principle

imagine he leans in and smells marinated chicken

you think you’d die on the spot if that were to ever happen

shoving a pack of mints in your purse along with your emergency pepper spray you give your outfit a once over

it’s nothing too extravagant but it’ll do the job

at this point, everything is great! you’re walking out of your door and you’re pumped up

you’ll be early for once and there’s a spring in your step

making a good first impressions is key here

you’re so close to your uber BUT

then you hear it

it’s almost inaudible but you’re sure you hear a mewl come out of the alleyway to your right

you’re about to ignore it because you aren’t even sure if you’ve heard it correctly

and it’s late you don’t feel like wandering into an empty alleyway

but the sound only repeats itself

fuck.

cautiously venturing inside you see it.

eyes softening you look at the stray kitten in front of you and bite your bottom lip and scoop him up in your arms you’re debating if running back to your apartment and leaving him there is the best option

what’s the other option?

well you could bring the cat along with you...

it would be a funny story for the future if the date goes well

now. unlike you levi is nowhere near late

in fact he’s ten minutes early waiting promptly outside of the restaurant in his white button up

he fiddles with his collar and wonders how the actual hell he got talked into doing this

hange offering to buy him cleaning supplies free of charge is probably it

8:15pm, you were meant to be here five minutes ago

if you’ve stood him up he’s going to end hange for wasting his precious free time

especially when he rarely interrupts his schedule for anyone.

a few moments of silence pass and he thinks

how do you look? 

not like it matters to him

but he’d just like to know

okay, so.

it’s 8:30pm now

levi is royally pissed off that you even have the audacity to show up

you’re holding your knees as you puff in and out

“I’M SORRY. i know i’ve wasted all your time but i saw a stray on my way here and i couldn’t leave him”

the updo your hair is in is disheveled and fly aways stick out

you’ve ran here after your uber broke down that much is obvious.

to be fair, your explanation is believable and he would have let it slide if and only if

you had NOT brought the fucking cat along with you???

he’s eyeing it with disgust as it purrs up against you and you coo at it stroking its fur

“you want to sneak a cat into the restaurant?” he asks in pure disbelief

sheepishly grinning and scratching the back of your neck your response is “well i know we can’t but if you tried to i wouldn’t mind because i really like this cat :-(”

when hange said he’d have fun they were lying

but at least they didn’t lie about you not being boring.

he picks the cat up with one of his hands

looks it in the eyes

sighs then places him carefully into your purse

“don’t let him be seen.”

you light up and try to hide the grin forming on your face

he isn’t that bad

he’s a little too serious for your liking but you can handle that.

the two of you walk into the restaurant and fuck you because the cat has to start mewling and screeching

coughing rather aggressively to cover it up it miraculously goes unheard

he shoots you a sturdy glare because he’s able to hear the muffled sounds

luckily, no one else is standing near you or is within earshot.

gulping you realise this is not a good first impression at all

late to the date, bringing a cat with you, begging him to help you sneak the cat in

you feel guilty, he probably expected way better

“oi, move your ass” he snaps

you look up realising you’ve been too lost in thought to see levi walking in front of you

“sorry” you mumble

he doesn’t respond but he does look back at you

you can’t gather anything from his face because it’s either plain or he’s got his brows furrowed

currently it’s showing no signs of distaste so he must be accepting your apology

he’s kind enough, steps out of the way to offer you the space to sit down first

he sits after you and you have no idea where to look

then the cat cries again from your purse

“lucifer, shhhhh”

you’re patting him and try to silence him

“you’ve named it already?”

laughing to yourself you’re happy he’s initiated the conversation first

“he’s a little sneaky so i called him it. do you have any other names you’d like?”

“why would my input in this matter be relevant?”

“you’re basically his family now!”

he’s covering his mouth with his hands and you swear you can see the pink tinge of a blush creep upwards and flood his cheeks

but this man doesn’t seem like the type to blush over anything.

composing himself he sticks a hand out and finally asks “what’s your name?”

coming back to your senses you realize it’s been twenty minutes since you’ve met and you haven’t even had the manners to ask his name even after arriving late

“Y/N!! what’s yours?”

play it cool!!!

he doesn’t respond instead stares at your purse and points with his index finger

lucifer has escaped again and now you really are regretting bringing him along with you

whilst you’re grabbing the cat and hushing him your date hums “try to guess it.”

well, that’s spontaneous, he doesn’t seem like the type to entertain himself with games

you think hard, he’s serious but he is kind, you guess that’s why he reminds you of sebastian from the little mermaid

get it? because he’s sweet but he’s a crab so he’s crabby??

god that joke is AWFUL because it doesn't even take into account the actual character of sebastian the crab

but you have no other guesses available.

“hmm... sebastian?” you jokingly ask

“it’s levi.” he deadpans.

oh wow you couldn’t be more far off

playing around with your fingers in your lap you fidget nervously looking around for a waiter to interrupt the conversation

levi has to sense your unease because his tone loosens up

“...do i really look like a sebastian though?”

looking back up at him your bite your lip keeping a giggle in

you can sense the ghost of a smile on his face

“yeah like the crab from a little mermaid”

at that he scowls but he inquires what exactly that means

the rest of the date goes without a hitch, sure there’s a few moments where lucifer attempts to sneak away but levi has no problems stopping him

it takes a while but the conversation flows easily after the awkward barrier from before is broken down

it’s lighthearted and calm.

he’s humorous in a way you can’t describe

levi’s mannerisms are cute, everything about him is endearing despite the serious front he has

and you can’t quite put your finger on it but his demeanor is charming

overall you find yourself enjoying the date even more than you expected

now the two of you are walking away from the booth and the fresh night time air hits your face as you step outside

turning to him you smile radiantly and without allowing him to get a word in you take your opportunity by the reins

“second date?”

you don’t normally make the first move but you’re eager

and to your surprise he’s just as eager as you are.

it doesn’t even look like he stops to think before he nods and agrees to meet with you again.

exchanging numbers with him you wave as you and lucifer part ways with levi feeling satisfied

and to his shock after you leave it settles, levi thinks he just might enjoy your presence

well, that’s a first for him.

he guesses what they say about opposites attracting is true

[moo-moo-meadows]

Spare Georgebur royal au please? I really like your au and feel like it's been years since I read about it!!

anon i am on my hands and knees for you,, oh my god. idk every time i talk about my georgebur royalty au i always feel like the only clown in the whole circus so it really means so much that you enjoy it, so much so to seek it out omgfhgdf i’m crying thank you. this one’s for you anon i put my heart and soul in it, as i always seem to do when it comes to this AU lmao don't tell the others i have favorites x

send prompts pspspsp

“You love me,” his voice is so soft Wilbur nearly thinks he imagined it, a mere little thought wondered, pondered out loud. It’s clear to Wilbur that it was not something he was meant to hear, but he responds anyway.

“You say that as if it is hard to believe.” Wilbur reaches over to tuck a piece of George’s hair behind his ear, fingers grazing against the jewel attached to his lobe. An icy teardrop, a tiny thing in the grand scheme of things, and yet it still makes Wilbur’s heart swell due to what it represents. “Are you not as beloved here, as I am in my kingdom?” George turns his head, letting Wilbur’s touch stray against the warmth of his cheek, and smiles quietly at him.

“Maybe it’s because it’s me, and you.” An echo of a former conversation that makes Wilbur’s smile turn even more honeyed, and this time he finds that he doesn’t quite hate the term nearly as much.

“You’ve not said it back,” he remarks, his tone making it clear that he’s only teasing. Though Wilbur’s strength lies with his words, he does not need them to feel secure. Not when he already knows that his feelings are reciprocated, if only from the way that George brandishes his earring so proudly and only ever seems to smile and laugh and blush as much as he does when he’s around him.

Their moonlit garden seems even more lovely in the reflection of George’s dual-colored eyes as he smiles wider, tilting his head further into Wilbur’s touch, and he once again is reminded of a cat due to his lover’s antics. “Won’t you rather me say I’m yours?”

“No,” is his pensive reply after not even a beat.

George quirks an eyebrow. “No?”

“You don’t have to be mine, though I’ll have you if that’s what you wish. What I want is your love, not you necessarily.” Wilbur captures George’s lips in his, who softly sighs into the kiss. Part fondly and part exasperatedly.

“Must you always out romance me at a time like this?”

“Well, won’t you humor me and say it? Why are you so shy?” George turns back to gaze at the roses, leaning his body into Wilbur’s side and therefore his warmth.

“My family never did any of that ‘love is weakness’ bullshit,” Wilbur raises his eyebrows at the sudden vulgarness of his words, but stays silent as George continues, “but they’ve always equated vulnerability to weakness, and I know love makes even the strongest men vulnerable. It’s hard to unlearn something that I’ve been taught since before I could even walk,” he pauses, a breath.

“But I think I’d like to try if it’s with you.”

(“you are the first person to make me speechless” :handshake: “you make me feel like it’s safe to be vulnerable” georgebur in my royalty au making me want to throw up /pos)

“Careful, dove,” Wilbur murmurs. He must be drunk on moonlight and their time spent together; he doesn’t even realize that the words had escaped his mouth until George turned towards him.

“Dove?” George questions, pulling Wilbur’s hand away from where it covered his mouth as though he could take the words back. “What is that? Not ‘love’?” He tilts his head and Wilbur pretends as though the word in the sense of a term of endearment in George’s voice doesn’t make his heart stutter. Most things, in that sense, make his weak heart tremble, but Wilbur is but a weak man himself when it comes to his lover.

“It’s nothing. Forget it, please.” A sliver of desperation to cover up his mistake. He doesn’t even realize, once again, how his words seem to mirror something from a past conversation that flickers almost dangerously across George’s face.

“We know what happened the last time you told me to forget about something,” George says remorselessly, in both a forgiving and unforgiving way that makes Wilbur wince the tiniest bit. “Don’t we, dove?” He leans towards Wilbur with a curious ‘I won’t let this go’ kind of expression, repeating the word mockingly to show Wilbur that he won’t just forget it this time. Not that he did any other time.

“It’s-it’s something my parents would call each other, sometimes. I’m sorry. It just-it slipped out.” The vulnerability that comes with admittance makes Wilbur almost want to shrivel up. The underlying meaning behind ‘it slipped out,’ the idea that at Wilbur’s most honest self, he mirrors the way his parents act is, to put simply, embarrassing. Wilbur thought that he was past embarrassment at this point.

George’s eyes soften. More like, his whole expression both melts and brightens, eyes flickering with a hint of shyness that seems to bubble and bubble until he turns away, looking back to where he had been looking before. “Don’t apologize for something like that,” he coughs, bashful. The hand that’s holding Wilbur’s tightens.

(woahh george pov moment!! not sure how i feel about this one. honestly i don't know how i feel about his character as a whole in the fic but I'm trying it out a little and what better to test it out than to write bits and bobs of george's pov of their first meeting?))

“Look, George. All those sparkling lights in the sky are the twin gods’ tears blessing you, and our land.” George cannot remember his mother’s face. No amount of portraits scattered across the castle nor remarks that he and his sister carry her countenance well would ever amount to the gentleness in his mother’s expression that he fights every single day to remember and hold on to til his hands are balled into fists and shaking. He cannot remember her face, but he remembers the sweetness of her voice and her gentle touch on his head as he cranes his head up to look at the blanket of stars that seemed so unfathomable to him, only a child’s mind at the time.

Every time he looks at those same stars, he wishes he had looked longer at his mother instead. What was her expression on that night? Had she known her fate? George does not often lie, but he will admit now that to him, it is not the twin gods’ tears that stain the night on this supposed momentous day.

Frankly, he’s not sure why he said such a thing to the boy with the beautiful starstruck eyes, nor does he know why he’d asked him to stay when normally he’d force him to leave. Maybe it’s because his eyes, if George could go back in time to see his child self, must be the same as his that night. Maybe it’s because of ‘fate,’ as his mother might say if she were still-

If she were still-

Maybe he had been desperate for a distraction. Not from the celebrations, all meticulously prepared, all meant for him when all he wanted to do was count stars til his vision was too blurry to differentiate constellations from each other, and all else that was happening just beyond the closed doors to the balcony they were in. And maybe it was fate after all, though there was something in George that somehow knew that this stranger would be the only one to humor him when he asked to pretend. Pretend. As though foregoing his name and his title and abandoning his claim to this land and the stars above would make everything that happened on this terrible momentous day only a lie and not something that George will have to live with for all his life.

Well, it works. The twin gods must truly favor George, or perhaps they pity him, perhaps they are apologizing and perhaps George simply chose well. The kind and beautiful stranger told the most vivid and alluring tales and spun life with his voice both in speech and in song and George did not forget. How could he, when he knew too well what those icy blue eyes represent? But maybe, he allowed himself reprieve; he laughed harder than he’d had in years and smiled, genuinely, eyes creasing and heart both heavy and oh so light, and for that night that was more than enough.

He laces their pinkies together on top of the pavilion his mother loved. The stranger takes the rest of his hand and George would only find the gentleness to be half-familiar and remember it for years to come.

[queenofcats17]

So, @holdyourbreathfornow came up with a really cool Toy AU on one of the Discords we’re in and I wanted to write a drabble for it.

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

It was getting close to midnight as Benrey crept over to the castle clock on the other side of the playroom. He always waited until ten minutes before midnight before going over. Any sooner and he ran the risk of falling asleep or getting distracted waiting. Any later and he’d be scrambling to be ready. Ten minutes was just right for him to be there and waiting.

He made his way across the floor, taking care to avoid any toys that could make noise or be tripped over. He wasn’t exactly the most coordinated and he didn’t want to risk waking anyone up. Or not getting to the clock in time. He didn’t necessarily need to be there and waiting, but he wanted to be.

Gordon appreciated it. And that was reason enough.

Once he reached the clock, Benrey settled down, staring expectantly at the clock face and tapping his little mitts on the ground as he waited for the stroke of midnight. He’d begun looking forward to this every night since the clock had been installed and he’d first seen what happened when midnight came.

The castle clock was a gorgeous piece of work. It hung on the wall, just out of reach of tiny child hands, and was made of gold and bronze, with intricate patterns and details etched into the metal. It looked like something out of a clockwork fairytale, some sections having glass covers to display the inner workings. The clock face sat between two towers, above a small set of double doors.

It was getting close to midnight now. Benrey stared intently at the clock face, counting down to the moment it would strike midnight. Finally, it did, the chimes echoing throughout the empty playroom. Then the doors on the clock opened and he stepped out.

From the moment he’d first laid eyes on the Clockwork King, Benrey had decided Gordon was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Gordon Freeman, like his castle, was a clockwork being. His royal regalia was crafted of gold and silver, with intricate detailing and embellishments. His skin was smooth bronze, his hair made of fine filaments of copper. His eyes had been made from two tiny emeralds and sparkled when he smiled.

He was stunning.

In comparison, Benrey wasn’t much to look at. Just a simple worn out rag doll. But Benrey wasn’t too hung up on his appearance. It was proof he had been loved many times over. That reminder of all the love he’d been given made all the wear and tear worth it. And Gordon regularly called Benrey cute, so that gave him a real boost in confidence.

As Gordon stepped out of the clock, he was enveloped in a golden light, growing to Benrey’s size. A byproduct of the magic that animated them, at least according to Tommy. Benrey didn’t think too much about it.

Benrey leaned back on his hands, trying to act cool. “Sup?”

Gordon let out a soft laugh. “Sup to you too. Have you been sitting there a while?”

“Naah.” Benrey waved a mitten hand in a slightly dismissive manner. “Just got here. Had to, uh, had to secure the perimeter first. Make sure there aren’t any assassins.”

Gordon raised an eyebrow as he extended a hand to Benrey, pulling him to his feet. “That’s awfully thoughtful of you. Are you sure you could take an assassin, though?”

“You doubting my combat skills, bro?” Benrey feigned horror, flopping against Gordon. “You doubting my epic fighting moves? I’ve got a black belt in karate, y’know.”

Gordon snorted, shoving Benrey away. “You do not.”

Benrey grinned. “I totally do.”

“There is no way,” Gordon said. He was doing that cute little giggle he did when he was trying to keep himself from laughing too uproariously. Something about maintaining decorum as a royal. It was so adorable.

“Can’t believe my best buddy Gordon is doubtin’ me.” Benrey flopped against Gordon again. “Thought we were best friends, bro.”

“Benrey, I love you,” Gordon laughed, making Benrey’s heart skip a beat. “But you can barely dance without tripping over your feet. There is no way you can fight.”

“So mean to Benny.” Benrey draped himself further over Gordon. “Mean and cruel.”

“You want to prove me wrong?” Gordon asked, a mischievous smile crossing his features.

Benrey pulled away, frowning slightly. “Like...how?”

“A dance?” Gordon slipped an arm around Benrey’s waist, dipping him back.

It was times like these Benrey was incredibly grateful he was incapable of blushing.

“Yeah, sure,” he replied with a grin, trying to keep his voice from shaking too much. “Gotta show you my sick moves.”

He was sure he was going to make a fool of himself. He always did. Gordon was right. He always tripped over his feet when they waltzed together. Not that Benrey actually cared. He’d never taken himself all that seriously. Plus, it was always worth it to make Gordon laugh. The guy could be so uptight sometimes.

Gordon looked back at the clock and made a gesture with his hand. A clockwork orchestra emerged from the same doors Gordon had, although they didn’t leave the clock. With another wave of Gordon’s hand, they began to play.

As the music filled the playroom, Gordon put one hand on Benrey’s waist, holding Benrey’s hand with his other one. They began to move, Gordon taking the lead. Benrey had pretty much stopped paying attention, focused solely on Gordon’s face.

Waltzing like this...It felt like a scene from a fairytale.

He wished this moment could last forever.