#sarnakhwritesthings

[ageless-aislynn]

I was just realizing that my previous Halo writer rec post was missing some newer writers I've met in the time since. So here's an updated version of this post, still in alphabetical order, including their AO3 if I know it. Also, some of them write for the TV show or the game(s) exclusively, some write for both, and some aren’t actively writing for Halo right now but are still very much worth including for their past works, IMO. Happy reading! 🤗

@alienisticxo | Alienistic (AO3)

@authortobenamedlater | AuthorToBeNamedLater (AO3)

@empresskadia | EmpressKadia (AO3)

@flatlinedgamer | FlatlinedGamer (AO3)

@helix-studios117 | Helix_Studios (AO3)

@ionlymadethissoicouldleaveanask | Brown_Coat (AO3)

@ladyknightskye | LadyKnightSkye (AO3)

@lialacleaf

@morganas-pendragons​ | EurusHolmmes (AO3)

@mrtobenamedlater |​ MrToBeNamedLater (AO3)

@pelgraine | Pelgraine (AO3)

@sarnakhwritesthings | SarnakhTheSunderer (AO3)

@sweethoneyjazzeuphoria | Sweethoneyjazzeuphoria (AO3)

@t65flyer | T65flyer (AO3)

@writeforfandoms | JenSpartiates (AO3)

If I missed anybody, first of all, please pardon my swiss-cheese brain, it is especially swiss-cheesed these days. 🥺😭 Please let me know so I can add you to this ASAP! Also, if you have an AO3 and would like it linked (or unlinked), also let me know! 🤗💖

[poisonheadcrabsalesman]

weekend prompt: millinda and unintentionally ominous looming

Millinda is growing in my brain from 'haha how would these two interact' into 'oh Miller is her pet piece of wet bread.' I'm going to end up writing Blue Team makes Miller a real Spartan eventually, I just know it. Thanks for the prompt! (It got away from me)

-

Miller was finding that working with Blue Team, while incredibly stressful, was also incredibly rewarding. He felt like he was behind the camera of a nature documentary, watching in real time as the S-IIs wordlessly and flawlessly took down their prey. There was some chatter on TEAMCOM, but it was mostly from him doing overwatch.

Again, they adapted to the drills and scenarios immediately, including him and listening to what he had to say. His intel mattered. He mattered. There was no mistaking himself as part of Blue Team, but they had him at their disposal and made use of him. He helped before shit hit the fan and he wasn't playing catch up. Even if he left each session with Blue Team exhausted. Wire tight tension and the utmost focus for a prolonged period of time left his head hurting. Miller was being pushed to the limit and he liked it. Training with the best was like opening a door he never knew was closed to him. Troop movements and team cohesion and every other significant detail flashing across his screens let him direct them and grow.

That's how he found himself socializing with them beyond the desk job. Spartan Town was only so big. Blue Team was full of natural leaders, and their reputation preceded them by a country mile. That's why Miller was flabbergasted when Linda 058 singled him out.

"You want me as your handler?" He tries not to stammer.

The height difference between them was negligible but the confidence coming off Blue-4, Linda 058, was overwhelming. Jared could find some steel in his spine when it mattered, but not in the face of her many goggled helmet or piercing green eyes. It wasn't that she saw him and found him lacking - he got that from others - she pinned him in place with a look and left him feeling exposed. Like she could go for the kill in an instant.

She nods. "One sortie. Low risk. Training exercise."

Miller's dumbfounded. This is the chance of a lifetime, but the what-ifs are already shutting down his higher thought processes with anxiety.

"A solo op with me as overwatch? What about your team?" He grasps for some kind of stability to add to the conversation.

"Don't need a babysitter." She says resolutely.

"Wait, is this for me?"

"Training exercise." She says again, with a curt nod.

"Yes, I guess." Miller agrees and Linda nods again, barely a lift of her chin in acknowledgement and then she leaves abruptly.

And that's how Miller gets to see Linda 058 patrol the edges of Banished space. The factions were a mess and who better to recon than the Lone Wolf herself. It was easy to sneak an Owl down to drop off a single Spartan. Local flora masking her presence as soon as her boots hit the ground.

The mission goes well, for once. Miller is both by the book and trusting his gut. He doesn't chatter incessantly out of nerves, something he prides himself on after the fact. Instead he finds himself copying Linda's silent focus while keeping an eye on the bigger picture she cannot see. It's a weird feeling. One he can't label until it hits him.

Trust.

Snipers don't go out in the field alone, unless they are exceptional. Linda let him see what that felt like.

He makes calls and marks points of interest, and even a few dropships. She trusts him to watch her back. In return, he has to trust her to make the right call. She goes closer to enemy fortifications than he'd ever want his S-IV Fireteams to go without proper intel.

"Blue-4, you're getting too close for quick extraction."

She flashes green once over comms. A moment passes and she flashes acknowledgement twice.

Enemy Detected.

Linda becomes a shadow in the underbrush and Miller goes into overdrive. He doesn't flood her HUD with markers, but notes her approach, the flight vectors the Banished Phantoms are following, and the warping on the helmet cam.

Cloaking.

Miller squeezes every bit of intel out of the situation without impacting Blue-4's focus or giving away her position. He finds himself breathing in time with her. Slow and even, her vitals present onscreen barely show an uptick while he finds his own heart racing. She has her job and he has his. He does it and he waits.

The warping goes away, moving along the ridge line overlooking the Banished outpost.

Linda slinks back into the vegetation and towards evac. Neither of them let down their guard until lift-off.

Miller congratulates her, more out of habit than necessity and thanks her for the opportunity. It feels like brown-nosing, but the "thanks" she flashes back makes it worth it.

The mission was a success, and Miller relaxes - his second mistake. The first was agreeing to the mission in the first place. His third is having a publicly posted schedule on S-Deck with his fireteams' schedules. His fourth was discussing the mission and how to improve within earshot of Linda, not that he noticed her there.

Blue Team was no help. Kelly smiled at him when he approached them about Linda's newfound habit of popping up near him, randomly, at all hours. Miller had gained a second shadow, one that loomed over him and took his dessert when he wasn't looking.

"Working on your situational awareness." She had said.

He had yet to scream on comms, but it was a near thing when he noticed her in the vents of the Op Center. At this rate, Roland was going to get jealous over someone else competing for "who can give Miller a headache fastest?"

Miller just wanted his dessert and peace of mind back.

[bumblingbabooshka]

is Libby a patreon-only character so far? Or a VOY character I'm not familiar with? Intrigued by the last post and Libby's relationship with Harry but otherwise don't know anything!

She was Harry Kim's Girlfriend in the Alpha Quadrant~! She only appears in 'Non Sequitur' but is mentioned offhand in I think two other episodes.

[authortobenamedlater]

Inside Joke

Wasn't planning on finishing this tonight but I had no work, sat down at my computer, and here it is.

Chief trolls Lasky over a line in Forward Unto Dawn. That's all you're getting. I've wanted to get this out for about a year so you can wait to find out more until you read the fic. No Chyler in this one.

This won't make a whole lot of sense if you haven't watched FUD.

@mrtobenamedlater @makowrites @ionlymadethissoicouldleaveanask @thearbiterthel @caffeineyum

@infinityactual @sarnakhwritesthings @threshergm @naranghim @helix-studios117

@sparkledragon04 @jintana-critical @rainintheevening @ageless-aislynn

[threshergm]

Eulogy

A little scene from my upcoming John and Talia slow-burn titled Missing Pieces. Wanted to see what the tumblr community thought of it first before I really committed to a serious writing schedule and started hammering out word count. @lpmurphy @authortobenamedlater @mrtobenamedlater @fabulaprima @silverpelt3600

@t65flyer @ionlymadethissoicouldleaveanask @sarnakhwritesthings @makowrites @morganas-pendragons

@ageless-aislynn @pelgraine @inafieldofdaisies @helix-studios117 @littleneonlily

2327 hours, April 5th, 2552 (military calendar) UNSC Halcyon-class light cruiser Pillar of Autumn Slipspace transit on randomized vector per Cole Protocol Leaving the Branta system, bound for Reach

"Have you seen Corporal Perez?"

Even in just his techsuit, the Master Chief seemed to fill the corridor. Which is probably why the crewman apprentice he was addressing was trying to disappear into the bulkhead. Even with Cortana gone for six months now, he could practically hear her hum, "Social graces, Chief," and took a step back.

The E2 - name tape obscured by the apron he still wore upon emerging from the galleys - gaped and pointed down the corridor, muttering, "On the right," indicating a sliding steel door opposite the entrance to the forward enlisted mess.

Chief nodded once, gruffed a perfunctory, "Thank you," and stalked down the corridor. The Pillar of Autumn, functioning on military standard timekeeping now that they were underway, was in night mode. The chrono above the enlisted mess hatchway glowed a red 2327 hours, and the main lights overhead were off, leaving the only light in the corridor as one lonely lamp over the door labeled FREEZER A-19.

Chief snaked his hand into the recessed handle and yanked the door aside on its track, and stepped inside. He found a single light on inside as well; illuminating shelves and racks of frozen foods, three black body bags on the floor, and next to them, wrapped in a gray Navy-issue blanket, dark hair cascading off her shoulders, sat Corporal Perez.

Master Chief took two firm steps forward, stopping a stride from where the young Marine sat, legs tucked under herself. He stopped and settled into parade rest.

"Corporal Perez, why are you not at your post? Our shift began over a half-hour ago."

She didn't budge, save for breaths that came shallow and a little jaggedly, as if she'd been crying.

"Corporal Perez?"

Silence hung in the artificially frigid air, and Chief began to wonder if he should walk to the wall intercom and summon a medical corpsman. He glanced around, as if missing something, then returned his gaze to the small woman on the floor before him.

"Rand had a thing for me," she croaked out suddenly. So she had been crying. She didn't turn, didn’t move, except to reach a hand out from her woolen cocoon to stroke the bodybag nearest her.

"He always used to sit next to me in the chow hall on drill weekends, but he never knew what to talk about. 'Are you enjoying your chicken, Corporal?'" She laughed weakly, "'Rand, it's just fucking chicken. The same chicken we had last month and every month before that.'"

Her accent thickened alongside the sorrow in her voice. "We picked him up on Midvale back in '49, after the Red United Front bombed that dam. Pulled him off the roof of his family's ranch house with his two sisters. His sisters settled on Culloden, but he stayed. He was one of our full-timers; the Colonel found a job for him as the armorer's assistant. He lived on-base and sent all his pay to his sisters so they could buy land and start again."

She took in a shuddering breath, shoulders trembling underneath her blanket. "He said he saw something in the fog. Country boy, you know? Grew up hunting and I… I should have believed him."

She seemed to shrink in on herself for a moment, hunching against some wordless pain, until a low keening wail escaped, “He was only 19!” She shook her head, and Chief saw hot tears fly, while she bit her lip and fought to get her emotions under control. After a moment, with a grunt of pain, her hand shifted from one body bag to the next.

"Zara Bennett. She was our linguist. I loved her accent. She was from London, and she was the first person from Earth that I'd ever met. Her dad manages a titanium mine out in Tengeri back home on Reach. They're loaded, but you'd never guess it from Zara, we used to go thrift-shopping together. Her parents have a penthouse in downtown New Alexandria, and she could have gone to university back on Earth, easily. But she enlisted. Said she wanted to protect her new home." 

She patted the body bag fondly, black plastic crinkling in the silence, and her hand extended a little further.

"Milo Alvarez. He used to bag groceries down the street from my grandparent's place. He was an atheist, and we always used to argue and… oh, God!" Her voice broke. "I don't know where he is right now…" 

She bowed her head, leaning into the body bag, as if shielding it like Chief had shielded her from the glassing beam on that mountainside, sobs hitching her shoulders, "H-he didn't know you, Father, but take him home… take him home."

She lapsed into Spanish, a language Chief didn't know, and he fervently wished Cortana was there to translate. His brow furrowed; the lack of knowledge a gap in his preparation, the gap in his understanding suddenly a splinter in his mind. Without thinking, he took a step forward, closing the distance between the miserable scene before him, and kneeled beside Perez.

“You speak well for them.” He spoke in low tones; he wasn’t sure why. It simply felt right to do so. Perez stopped, turned upwards to face him, dark eyes reddened and slender face puffy in the dim light of the freezer. “God, I h-hope so. They’re m-my friends.” Tears still flowed freely down her cheeks, and her voice was hoarse. Umber eyes - the color of rich soil Chief had seen on a dozen worlds - held his gaze steadily in the dark, despite the pain swimming in them. “What were you saying, just now? In Spanish?” Chief cocked his head in question. Perez smiled weakly, eyes unfocused for a moment. “Yes, Spanish. I’m from Santiago Circle. I grew up speaking it at home,” she took another breath, steadier this time, “I-I’m Catholic. It was our Prayer for the Dead.” Her eyes met his own in the dark, and she held his gaze for a long moment. Chief wasn’t sure why, but he needed more. The name of a prayer wasn’t enough. He needed to understand this young woman sitting in a pool of her grief beside three corpses. “Tell me what you said,” he rumbled gently. It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t an order. He just needed to know. Perez kept his gaze for another long moment, then began to slowly recite, in English. In your hands, O Lord,

We humbly entrust our brothers and sisters.

In this life you embraced them with your tender love;

Deliver them now from every evil

And bid them eternal rest.

The old order has passed away:

Welcome them into paradise,

Where there will be no sorrow, no weeping or pain,

But fullness of peace and joy

With your Son and the Holy Spirit

Forever and ever.Amen.

The freezer-turned-mortuary fell silent as her recitation ended, and her eyes remained locked with his. “Thank you, Corporal.” The Master Chief rose suddenly, took three steps back, and turned to face her, once more at parade rest, his expression unreadable.

“Corporal Perez, I am not rated in cryotube maintenance or repair. You are. There are 1,042 cryotubes in our area of responsibility and all need to be monitored and, if necessary, serviced without compromising function or the occupant inside. I need you to --”

“I can’t leave them,” Perez croaked, voice thickening once more. Her eyes were pleading, her head shaking slowly. Chief’s augmented heart ached to see it, but he couldn’t say why.

“Corporal Perez,” Chief started slowly, not sure how to proceed. “You’re no good to anyone watching over three bodies. What made them your friends is gone. There are 1,042 men, women, and children packed into an identical number of cryotubes, all constructed by the lowest bidder, housed in compartments that were never designed to support them. They need us. They need you.”

The Chief stepped back into the hatchway, turning to look at Perez out of one eye, half his face painted into shadow by the dark of the corridor outside.

“The living need you, Corporal.”

[deuce-t]

Show your 5 favorite ships and let people assume how you view romance

I saw someone else doing this and wanted to join (I also added a ship bc I couldn’t decide which of my top 5 to leave out)

Spock/Jim Kirk - Star Trek: TOS

Deanna Troi/Will Riker - Star Trek: TNG

Meg/Hercules - Disney’s Hercules

Cleo deNile/Deuce Gorgon - Monster High G1

Kremy Lecroux/Gideon Coal - Legends of Avantris: OUaW

No pressure tags @cherryficmc @twyla19 @sarnakhwritesthings @dougielombax and anyone who wants to participate

[twobitpennydreadful]

The Halo Show is going to hurt my gay little heart, and it will be my own fault for expecting anything. As usual, I express myself through tasteful pinups. This scene is shamelessly stolen from @sarnakhwritesthings story Shielding Experiments. https://archiveofourown.org/works/43354638

Now to withdraw until the new season drops.

[a-star-that-fell]

i was tagged by @trxgicixn — thanks ash!

i had the hardest time filling this whole thing out holy crap i don’t listen to a lot of music

i’m gonna tag @sigynpenniman @hylianengineer @tirlaeyn @talvenhenki @sarnakhwritesthings @rayne-the-neutrois-nerd @paddysnexttopbillboardmodel @gerardwayshairtie and anyone else who wants to do it 💚

[duckprintspress]

Mid-Year Book Freak Out

Yoinked from @profiterole-reads

Number of books you’ve read so far: depends how you count, but Storygraph has me at 148, which includes 20-something DPP short stories. (like a hundred of these are graphic novels/manga/manhua/manwha, they're quick...)

Best book you’ve read so far in 2024: I can't pick one. Best novel: The Imperial Uncle by Da Feng Gua Guo. Best non-fiction: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel or Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe. Best graphic novel...extremely hard choice. I'm gonna go with Brooms by Jasmine Walls, I really liked that one. or The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich by Deya Muniz.

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2024: I have no idea how to define "sequel" in any way relevant to what I read, sorry.

New release you haven’t read yet but want to: Qiang Jin Jiu by Tang Jiuqing.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year: the last books of Thousand Autumns and Guardian.

Biggest surprise favorite new author (debut or new to you): Da Feng Gua Guo (new to me)

Newest fictional crush: Jing Chengjun.

Book that made you cry: I can't recall that any of these made me cry??? I almost never cry at media, sorry.

Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received): Beautiful as in...literally physically attractive? idk this isn't something I pay attention to much, they're all just books? I do love the art in the 2ha English releases.

Book that made you happy: several of the above, and a whole lot of others, let's go with Cheer Up! Love and Pom Poms by Crystal Frasier, it was super cute.

What books do you need to read by the end of the year?: so many, I'm trying to get through my entire TBR. Next up is three Katherine Addison books starting with The Goblin Emperor, and then after that is Rose and Renaissance by Zhi Chu. That's the next 7, after that I'm not sure what's next, maybe The Fall of the House of Tatterly by Shanna Miles? There's like 15 books on my TBR (there's also The Missing Piece by Kun Li Wei You, Babel by R. F. Kuang, The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin, Venus of Delta by Anais Nin, and probably a couple others I'm forgetting)., and I've got pre-orders that'll be coming in too. And there's the library books, with more there every time I go. oops. too many books.

Tagging @pterawaters @mayarab @deathbycoldopen @hullosweetpea and @sarnakhwritesthings

[dei2dei]

WIP it, WIP it good...

As I was just tagged in one of these, I'll share the love around again, too :D

The poll I did a few weeks back, y'all wanted me to work on the Sonya/Kenshi/Johnny OT3 piece, so I have been; here's a bit of it! (this comes out of C3. hopefully I'll start posting next month.)

====

Kenshi has already given her his blessing—for all she knows, he sounded Johnny out about his intentions back in the hospital. And it's yet another reason to love him, because he always has what's best for her at heart. Even if it means backing off so she can pound Kano's face into hamburger or wrap her hands around his throat or pick up a training session or a meeting so she can do something only she can do. "We can give it a try," she says cautiously. "I'm not—I can't make promises, Johnny. Not now. There's so much happening. Almost too much. I'm spread thin. But what's left…" "I'll take what's left." He lurches to his feet, tightening his grip on her. "For whatever time we've got. And if I help, Jax helps, Kenshi helps—you won't be spread so thin. Even if Jax doesn't help, between us, Kenshi and I have you covered." It uses every ounce of her willpower not to jerk away or laugh or respond at all to that. Oh God, if he only knew. He'd laugh or cry and she'd be mortified. But he's not wrong. With the two of them to handle diplomacy and negotiations and even some of the meetings—because Johnny has certainly had his fair share of them in Hollywood, she knows—she might not be so miserable. It would almost be like the old days, the three of them piled into the back of a chopper or rolling out with a squad in pursuit of oni, hunting down whatever was going to fuck with them, and fucking with it first. Everything clicked when it was the three of them. Why the hell had they ever let it stop?

------

If you have anything from a WIP to share and brag about, do it now! @cosmictapestries @alondradina @sarnakhwritesthings @eviltothecore13 @stvaltiel and anyone else who wants to

[ageless-aislynn]

As somebody who didn't realize just how RIDICULOUSLY rigid I am in how I write... I'm finally beginning to make some actual progress on "15 Minutes" ch7 using the methods cobbled together from the advice of several awesome friends. 💖

A Tumblr draft is my home base (thank you to @sarnakhwritesthings who recognized my need for practically continual autosaving).

At the end of a writing session, I update the Tumblr draft to AO3 for extra safekeeping.

I use Editpad to give me a word count (thank you to @authortobenamedlater for that one). I might could use Editpad also for writing but I haven't stopped to see its save options, etc. But it definitely came in clutch to let me know that I've got 2,159 words entered so far!

That's putting this chapter on course to be about 4k words? 👀 But I've had people tell me they'd rather read long chapters so, hey, we'll go for it! Unless that's too big for the Tumblr draft? Oh, better check on that one. 🤔

There's a decent cut-off point before the cliffhanger ending of ch7 so I miiiight end up splitting it so that I have a little more time to get currently numbered chapter 8 (still in hand-written form) a little further along ready to post. We'll see!

It's just nice to be doing something other than researching computer repairs. *whispers* It hasn't blue screened or frozen/locked up today and has been on for nearly 10 hours. *pats it gently* I know you're a good computer, Georgette! You just need for those old bad conflicts to leave you alone!

I'm also not sure when I named this computer Georgette but at some point I just started referring to her by that name. 🤷‍♀️

Peace, out, frens. 🤗💖

[poisonheadcrabsalesman]

Palmsky ‘things we didnt say at all’ prompt praps? :3

Whatever the thing between them is, she's not going to label it.

Whatever the thing between them is, he's not going to be the first to say it.

Whatever this thing is, it means the world to them. It means life and death. It means "Is there some concern?" - "Maybe a little". It means "I won't see you court-martialed for that woman". It means "I missed my shot". It means "Tell me what happened. Then we'll get your story straightened out". It means rolled eyes and "Incoming, Halsey". It means “You know me better than I thought, Captain” - “I do my best, Sarah”.

It's the first name basis, regardless of who's listening. It's covering for each other when ONI's dogs are baying for blood. It's the always a step behind and to the right, at each other's backs. It's the messes and the victories and the losses and the late nights. It's the whiskey and the silences. It's keeping the damn tub afloat when it all goes to hell.

The unspoken thing had such a strong start too. They didn't stand a chance. Not many first meetings have you saving your new coworker from getting spaced while the shiny new ship you've both been assigned gets hijacked.

People leave or they die or they get out. They've known more of the former than the latter. So far both of them have held onto this thing and each other and the job. Not much of a choice most of the time, but what kind of Spartan chooses to jog with a normal human. They don't say it, not with words. Deep rooted care flourishing in false ignorance. The UNSC doesn't allow for much choice - not any true choices anyways. But the ones they do get, those are the ones where they choose each other, over and over again.

[bumblingbabooshka]

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month--you try and bang out 50,000 words in a month, about 1667 words a day, or less if you get a good day one.

I've gotten up to about 24k in the past i think. It's fun but it's also EXHAUSTING

I see~!! Sounds like hard work!!

[authortobenamedlater]

GUYS

@sarnakhwritesthings @ageless-aislynn @mrtobenamedlater

Haven’t even watched it yet BRB

[haloreferences]

Halo Infinite . Kai-125 armor set . For @sarnakhwritesthings

[punkbxt]

This feels like B7 vibes to me: https://www.tumblr.com/sarnakhwritesthings/719797238439837696/one-time-i-dreamt-i-really-hated-this-girl-in

NO BC IT LITERALLY IS B7

heres a comic i started in 2020 with the same premise