#so where are my alien hero snippets

[kaeyas-beloved]

To Hold and Be Held

Characters: Alhaitham, Diluc, Kaveh, Xiao

Summary: Who is holding who and why and when?

Genre: Fluff/Angst/Comfort + Snippets

CWs: gn!reader, angst/comfort in Xiao’s and Kaveh’s, only proofread in a half-assed kind of way

To be held by Alhaitham is not rare but not common either. This act of intimacy happens primarily in the late hours of the night and the wee hours of the morning. It’s the times when he just can’t be bothered to let go of the pleasant warmth you give off as he stays snuggled in the covers, nowhere near ready to start his day. It's in the moments where you take a seat on the opposite side of the couch, sometimes even the other couch altogether, unwilling to disturb your lover as he reads. Yet, somehow, not even five minutes later the man will find his place beside you, eyes never leaving the page as he guides you to lean against him.

And even when you've found a comfortable position for the both of you, Alhaitham's arm remains in its spot around you.

To hold Diluc is to hold the weight of worlds because that is what he himself does. He carries the lives of everyone in the city when he takes up his place as the Darknight Hero, he manages a whole industry from its product to its staff, ensuring that both are properly taken care of. Most of all, he takes care of you. You who shall not see another day of harm or sadness if he has anything to say about it, you who shall always be loved by him.

To hold Diluc is to temporarily allow him to not shoulder these responsibilities, to let him relax, be loved and just be Diluc.

To hold and be held by Kaveh is like looking at the sea crash onto the sand then recede - sometimes there is more sand, sometimes there’s more water. This is an accurate way to visualize your relationship, sometimes Kaveh holds you and other times you hold him. To hold Kaveh is to let him know that just because he is sad doesn’t mean he has to hide it, least of all from you. Holding him means to shield him from the world just for a little while. To hold him is to let him calm down from venting or ranting, be the topic about Alhaitham or some client. To be held by Kaveh, however, is like drowning in happiness. If he’s holding you, the chances are high that he’s smiling earnestly, laughing at either something you’ve said or a situation he’s retold.

If you’re holding each other, the chances of him being happy are indisputably high. Really, if you’re holding each other, it’s no longer a chance that he’s content, it’s fact.

To hold Xiao is like holding a baby bird or glass figurine, so fragile and to be handled with care. Xiao is the furthest from being weak when it comes to physical or mental strength, but even he will one day succumb to the years of sorrow weighing on him, crumbling until it’s almost impossible to get back up. So to find him curled into himself, his agony hanging heavy and all-consuming, it’s only natural for your first instinct to be to embrace him. He’ll tense in the beginning, perhaps always remaining unaccustomed to physical affection, but the longer you hold him, remaining by his side and letting your warmth seep into his bones, the more the darkness backs away to where it came from.

It’s a long war to be fought, but in this instant, you can be sure you won this battle.

Tag list: @spoopy-fish-writes // @that-enby-alien // @xenuuu // @mariposa666haruka // @quackquackmfs // @saishin-michiyoshi // @ajaxstar // @genshin-impact-writings // @ventisweetheart // @lordbugs // @lemontum // @akiria12167 // @ari-the-wr1ter // @dontmindmebeing // @xiaos-wife // @irethepotato // @milkwithspiceyicecubes // @stygianoir // @stage-lucida // @x-zho

. . .

Wanna be tagged in future works? Consider filling out this form! And if you want to be removed just DM or send an ask into my inbox!

[radioactivepeasant]

Snippets: Free Day Thursday

As per the poll results, we are giving Damas stress via Just Plain Silliness. It builds character. Not that I needed an excuse to Inconvenience Characters in the first place 😆 it's become my favorite way of writing anything. Not Angst or Adventure, but Aggravation of Character in ridiculous ways 😂

This falls into the Trespasser au (last "episode" of that found HERE) a bit before the second Arena fight in the game.

The king of Spargus, Jak decided, was a killjoy.

For a city where strength and survival were supposed to be the most important traits, he sure didn't like any of Jak's demonstrations of strength or survival.

"You can't race Leapers in the middle of the market."

"Don't swim over the reef."

"Stop antagonizing the monks."

"You can't race Leapers on neighborhood roofs, either."

"If I told you not to swim over the reef, why would you assume I'd be okay with you feeding the sea monster?!'

It was like he was vehemently opposed to the mere concept of fun.

Jak folded his arms and tried not to roll his eyes while Kleiver complained about the scuffed up suspension and undercarriage on the Dune Hopper. Sure, he'd cut it a little close on the broken bridge, but he'd gotten away with the artifacts and left the Marauders in a two car pile up, so who was the winner, here?

Not Jak, apparently.

Damas listened to Kleiver yell about how he'd have to redo the entire suspension -- a gross exaggeration -- and how there was half a metalhead stuck in the undercarriage. Now that, Jak hadn't known about. When had he run over a metalhead?

"Hey! We didn't do that!" Daxter protested, "How do we know you didn't put that there last time you drove?!"

"Because I don't take the Hopper if I plan to do a run down Turquoise Canyon!" Kleiver snapped.

Damas steepled his fingers in front of his mouth and examined the damaged vehicle.

"One of these days, kid, I swear to Volcan-"

"What?! I got the job done, didn't I?" Jak protested indignantly. "Did you want the Marauders to get their hands on a functioning power cell?"

Damas’s jaw tightened so much that his mouth appeared to be folding inward. He inhaled slowly, and let it out again, ears twitching while he was very obviously counting to ten.

"There are no jumps in the canyon," he said slowly, "So how did you manage this?"

Jak shrugged nonchalantly. "The 'rauders chased us out to the ruins," he explained, "Ran out of turbo, so I had to get creative with the jump."

Kleiver started swearing very creatively under his breath. Damas turned an interesting shade of red.

"That does it."

The king grabbed Jak by the channeling ring and near dragged him out of the garage before Kleiver could clobber someone with a wrench.

"One more stunt like that out of you," Damas threatened, "and I'm entering you into an apprenticeship. Let's see you foment chaos with an actual structure in your day."

"You're not gonna do that," Jak scoffed.

Damas’s eyes narrowed. "Try me."

Jak did not take this nearly as seriously as he ought to have. In fact, he seemed to regard the threat as more instances of Damas "worrying too much". Damas did not worry too much! If anything, he wasn't worried enough about the insanity this young unknown relative had brought into his city! More than one advisor or guildmaster had been privy to the king muttering darkly, "I'm either going to kill him, or start training him myself. I'll let you know when I've figured out which."

And of course, Jak kept being Jak. Climbing the Arena walls because he saw a Precursor orb someone had dropped. Messing around with some kind of evil alien satellite on the beach. Inciting other inhabitants of the youth barracks to join foot races in the barrack halls in the dead hours of night. And he seemed to regard all of this as perfectly normal behavior. It was like all the impulses he'd had to shove down in Haven, all the ways he'd had to be perfect to fit under the yoke of that terrible word, hero, everything came crashing down in Spargus. He had almost no limits here, and that kind of freedom seemed to awaken a wildness that was above the paygrade of the dorm supervisor.

It came to the point where Damas was actually allowing the kid to go out into a sandstorm, just to get some of that boundless energy out! It wouldn't have been his first choice. Or even his tenth. But the storm rolling in was much larger than anything else they'd seen that summer. And for all his recklessness, Jak was their fastest driver.

"Four scouts have not reported in," the king told Jak and Daxter. His face was grim. "Two just set off their emergency beacons. At the rate this storm is going-"

He shook his head, cutting off his sentence.

Daxter had worried that Spargus would be another Krew situation at first. But here was the king of the cranky lizard-riders, flipping out because a handful of scouts -- one of the lowest ranks in the city -- weren't accounted for before a deadly storm.

In Haven, their absence wouldn't have even been noticed until roll call.

The old timers in the market were right, weren't they? "King's eyes see all." This guy watched everyone like a hawk, didn't he? Daxter wasn't sure if that bothered him, or if it just reminded him of Jak.

He supposed that was fitting, considering the two were probably related, no matter how in denial Jak seemed to be about being an Heir of Mar.

"Where's the Crawler right now?" Jak asked.

The mobile sandstorm shelter wasn't invincible, but it could take a lot. That would be the scouts' best bet.

Damas looked out the windows, glaring at the dark clouds as though he could hold the storm back by sheer force of will. It took a moment to hear his voice over the water.

"The Crawler is in the steppes at the moment. She's not a fast vehicle, Jak. I need you to get those scouts to either the Crawler or the city."

"I will."

Damas turned a stern look on them both.

"No stunts. These are people's lives we're talking about."

"I know!" Jak sputtered, a little offended. "And I won't bust the car up this time, so Kleiver can give it a rest."

"No. I'm serious, boy," Damas warned, "If it comes down to abandoning the car for shelter or trying to drive in the storm, you leave the car. Do you understand?"

Jak huffed. Damas had seen him outrun sandstorms before! What was so bad about a slightly bigger one?

"I got it, I got it," he grumbled.

Damas glared.

"No. Stunts. You get back here in one piece."

"Okay, I got it already!" Jak groaned.

"Jak-!"

"I know, Dad!" Jak complained.

An instant later his eyes widened.

The water suddenly seemed much louder than usual.

Daxter wasn't even sure any of them were breathing.

Three pairs of dramatically widened eyes darted back and forth between them as silence built up like steam under pressure. It was going to erupt sooner or later, the question was how.

Damas made a very small, strangled noise in the back of his throat.

Jak snapped out of his moment of horrified realization.

"Uh. I'll let you know when everyone is accounted for!"

He pivoted and bolted for the elevator before Damas could see his entire face burn crimson.

A guard at the back of the chamber opened his mouth to comment and in one rushed tangle of syllables Jak hissed,

"Youdidn'thearanything!"

Damas didn't blink for a good two minutes after Jak had left.

He didn't move for a good two minutes.

He stood exactly where he'd been, staring blankly at the empty elevator shaft.

The captain of the tower guard, an older man named Cephus, left his place by the windows to lean into Damas’s peripheral vision. He waved slightly, and the king finally blinked.

"Are you alright, sire?" Cephus asked.

Damas made a curious wheeze before speaking through a groaning inhalation.

"Oh no."

"Hm!" Cephus stroked his long beard. "Guess the wild one imprinted on you! Do I offer congratulations or condolences?"

Damas nodded slowly and stiffly.

"....help."

There could not possibly have been a worse time for the monks to finally send him the results of the blood test.

[helenaheissner]

Comic Review: Green Arrow by Joshua Williamson Volume 1: Reunion

As a longtime Green Arrow fan, I had been looking forward to reading the first trade paperback of the current ongoing series by Joshua Williamson for a few months now. Williamson's been having something of a moment lately- his also ongoing run on Superman has been widely-lauded and very much enjoyed by me personally, and while I've not yet read his Batman & Robin series, the snippets I've seen online make it look very much up my alley.

In the wake of a recent event storyline titled Dark Crisis (also written by Williamson, and which I've not read either), Oliver Queen, rich brat turned hardcore survivalist turned bow-wielding man of the people superhero, is missing, stranded on an alien world for reasons he knows not why. So he does what he does best: survive.

The drive to survive is something I consider an inherent part of Ollie's character: he's motivated not by a desire for justice, vengeance, or familial obligations like many other DC heroes, but by an iron will to survive implanted by his being stranded on the not-so deserted island of Lian Yu for several years. He wants to survive, by any means, and he wants that for everyone around him as well. That is both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness, because sometimes by choosing survival over all else, he neglects to let himself truly live the life he wants with the family he has built, or otherwise cross moral lines for the sake of his (admittedly very noble) concept of a greater good. That dissonance is a huge part of what drives this six-issue opening act. Because while Oliver is doing what he does on the other end of universe, his family- specifically his adoptive son and former sidekick Roy Harper/Arsenal; the on/off love of his life and mainstay of the JLA, JSA, and Birds of Prey, Dinah Lance/Black Canary; and his illegitimate biological son, former Buddhist Monk turned co-Green Arrow, Connor Hawke.

It's on their hunt that they find trace of Roy's presumed-dead daughter by an unrepentant supervillain, Lian, and a touching father-daughter reunion happens... Only for Lian to suddenly vanish in a rush of light, and rematerialize on the same world where Oliver has been stranded.

Let's talk about the Arrow Family for a moment, shall we? The Arrow Family is freaking great! Oliver and Dinah are genuinely one of my favorite ships in all of comics, Roy is a Teen Titans mainstay who's undergone some of the best character development in all of comics, Connor is a brilliant example of a legacy superhero done well, and Oliver's adoptive daughter and other sidekick, Mia Dearden/Speedy, as well as his other-other sidekick and much younger half-sister Emiko Queen/Red Arrow, are two of the most criminally underrated heroines in the DCU. But due to several questionable editorial mandates and a few baffling writing choices over the past twenty or so years, the family has been scattered. Lian was straight-up dead for over a decade in real time, Connor and Mia were stranded in the proverbial comic book limbo after a continuity reboot in the early 2010s (long story), Roy and Dinah were on the outs with Ollie at various points in the past two decades, and while Emiko has gotten to hang around pretty consistently, the character wasn't created until 2013 and didn't became her big brother's sidekick until 2017. And this is without even getting into all the instances of Oliver being an idiot about his personal life and isolating himself from his family in the process.

This comic makes that a driving tension in a very literal sense- something is causing the members of the Arrow Family to teleport away from each other when they're near each other, causing Oliver to conclude that the only way they can all survive is to be apart.

He's wrong, of course. And he realizes he's wrong. And I won't spoil why, other than a very clever reveal of just who from Oliver's personal history would want to mess with him, as well as setting up a new potential archnemesis for the entire Arrow Family going forward in Amanda Waller (which, frankly, is a move that makes so much sense thematically it's surprising it took so long for someone to try it, given the potential contrast between Oliver's humanistic progressivism and Waller's authoritarian patriotism). What I will say that when truly pushed, when truly forced to choose between survival and family, Oliver sticks to his guns (so to speak) and chooses his family, chooses to take a chance on all of them being together no matter what risk there is for something to go wrong. Because when you're hardwired for survival above all else, the idea of letting someone, anyone, let alone a whole family of someones, into your heart is TERRIFYING. But Oliver Queen is not a coward, and he wants very much to be able to prove wrong all the many, MANY people who think that he is a bad man. He wants to be able to look in them in the face and tell the unblinking truth when he says 'no, I am a good man. Fuck you.'

And he does. And it is GLORIOUSLY CATHARTIC.

This book also does emotional beats very well. We get two parent-child reunions in this story, between Roy and Lian and then later Ollie and Connor, and both of them bring on the warm and fuzzies something fierce as these people who have been through so much together put aside all the hurt feelings and bad memories and are just thrilled to see each other once more. And then there's Ollie and Dinah's reunion... Let's just say I swooned. I swooned something fierce when my OTP got a spectacular (and rather hot) kiss scene.

This book also does banter and superhero lunacy very well (Roy and Peacemaker getting into a shoot-off becomes a plot point, and Oliver fights literal alien corporate fat-cats while in space) while still balancing it all in real emotion and a compelling personal story with personal stakes. It's aided by superb artwork from Sean Izaaske, who not only provides fantastic panel layouts, action scenes, and facial expressions, but also does several fun stylistic shifts when representing different periods in Ollie's history. It builds on established lore and character arcs without actually requiring you to know the storylines they originally came from (which is not always easy in superhero comics). Basically, it's very, VERY good, and I recommend it highly.

***

Thank you for reading! If you like this and want to support my work, you can give me a like, a repost, and a share! You can also become a paid subscriber to my Patreon in exchange for advance chapters of my stories and other exclusive content:

or by leaving a tip via Tumblr or Ko-Fi:

[explorersaremadeofhope]

I would like to know more about both your Star Trek Terror fic and your Crozier hates tinder fic please 🙏

omg okay so like, these are both a bit old, star trek terror fic is proper old, i think i wrote it in 2021, but im still hoping!! i had so much fun just working out the worldbuilding on that one and how the different characters slot into different roles, but then i ran up against my old nemesis The Actual Plot and was like 'hmm ok, i think i need to know a bit more about Star Trek TOS lore for this', aaaand that's where i stalled. it's fitzier, but like, eventually. very eventually. you'll see why from the snippet 😂

crozier hates tinder fic was me going 'why is there almost no modern au romcom rossier fic' and then having a very funny convo with some folks on discord about science nerds on tinder. that one mostly exists in vague outline form with a scene or two written out plus random details like 'james ross owns not one but several tacky early 2000s mugs from various places in the southern hemisphere, preferably with penguins on'.

snippets mostly below a cut because they got long (sorry about that)!

Star Trek Terror:

francis raised his brows, but said nothing. ignoring fitzjames' confused expression, he turned his attention back to the file in his hand. "i see from your service record that you've received several commendations for bravery in engagements with the romulans and the klingons." he looked up. "out of curiosity, do you speak klingon? or romulan?"

"ah, no, sir," fitzjames smiled apologetically. "i'm afraid i don't."

"i see. so your expertise lies primarily in firing at alien races, not communicating with them."

it wasn't a fair question, nor a fair conclusion. clearly taken aback, fitzjames blinked in open surprise. "sir," he began carefully, "i believe my qualifications -"

"your qualifications, commander fitzjames, are perfectly adequate. even impressive. for war." francis fixed him straight in the eye and held his gaze. "but don't let the repurposed nature of our ship fool you. we are a survey vessel. you will appreciate, no doubt, that the primary goal of any exploratory mission is to avoid bloodshed, not to excel at it." fitzjames drew breath to speak. francis ignored it. "put bluntly, commander, we don't particularly need a war hero. what we need is someone who knows how to calibrate a spectrometer correctly."

"with all due respect, sir," said fitzjames, once he was sure francis had finished speaking, "i think you'll find i have the requisite scientific training to apply for this post." he'd uncrossed his legs while francis was speaking and now sat ramrod straight. his mouth was pinched, his dark brows drawn together.

francis waved that away with a flick of his hand and a shake of his head. "this isn't a twelve-month patrol tour along the neutral zone, commander. we will be five years in deep space. sometimes uncharted space. in that situation, a man's merits on paper will matter far less than his personal qualities."

there was a pause in which fitzjames lowered his gaze to the floor, his jaw working. when he spoke again it was to a point just above francis' shoulder. the affable buoyancy had drained from his voice, leaving a gravel harshness which francis privately suspected was far more genuine. "i respectfully posit, sir," said fitzjames, "that you don't know my personal qualities, seeing as we've only just met."

francis' smile did not reach his eyes. "be that as it may. i'm afraid my decision is made, commander." he set his padd aside and folded his hands on the table. "thank you for your interest. and good morning."

Tinder fic:

“Well,” says Blanky flatly. “That's sexy.”

But as he reads over the message one more time, Francis’ heart is actually slowing down from its panicked gallop – his dread replaced with sheer relief at being given a topic of conversation he's fluent in.

“No, no, it's fine,” he says absently, staring at the words I'm thrilled we matched. “I don't mind.”

“Aye, you wouldn't, would you. What the hell are–” Thomas peers at the screen more closely. “Pinnipeds?”

“Seals. Well. Not just seals.” Francis looks up. “It's one of those things – all seals are pinnipeds but not all pinnipeds are seals. You know?”

Blanky regards him with the look of a man who absolutely does not. "Right."

After staring at his phone for a few moments longer, Francis opens the keyboard. 

Hi, he types out with deliberation. Thank you for – no. That comes off a bit pathetic, doesn’t it. Backspace. 

Thank you; likewise. Exclamation point? Does the full stop look dour? Cold? But he’s never been much of an exclamation point man. Likewise – I’ve always wanted to visit Antarctica. What

He stops typing, seized by a sudden fear. Hurriedly erasing the message draft, he looks up at Blanky. “Can people see me typing on this thing?”

“Fuck should I know, Francis? I’ve been married for twenty years. – Give us a minute, though.” Blanky pulls out his own phone and writes a text. Less than a minute later, his phone pings. “Hannah says aye. Also wants to know if I'm cheating on Esther.”

[ganonfan1995]

totk spoilers

just thoughts on totk thus far

I keep seeing ppl say they've done away with the triforce in totk...but like....im 99% sure that's what the secret stones are supposed to be.

The triforce itself is comprised of the combined power of the royal 3.

But they also seem to work 1:1 like the triforce did in like LTTP.

Also there's 8 pieces which calls back to LoZ 2.

I'm not done the game yet, but totk seems to rehashing a LOT of older lore mixed with more recent lore. Notably, this game feels like its primarily touching on the first 3 games, plus OOT, with some of the better ideas from SS.

You see implications of who the gods truly are (apparently colonizing aliens who descended upon the land to mine its resources...which was something implied in SS quite blatantly???)

But it also adds context to the original 3 goddesses, implying that they had been ancient Zonai who posed as gods to the original inhabitants of Hyrule. Later becoming dragons and mythologized after thousands of years. (also me pogging that the light dragons stoney spines are the same colours as the goddess plumes!?!?!?? idk what that means but cool?????????)

I also don't know if they touch on this later, but it really seems like the Sheikah, esp the ancient Sheikah, were Hylians who specifically followed in the footsteps of the Zonai. I think this makes sense, and ties them to previous games where they were a tribe/clan/family of ninja who were closest to the gods. And since Zonai fancy themselves gods (or at least the ancient Hylians did, I don't think they were tbh) , this kind of clarifies that relationship/connection. Maybe they have a specific tie to Mineru, which would reiterate their bond to the royal family. But that might be over complicating things, since at least in botw they're just like, straight up ninja. But who knows, maybe not??

Also the young dumb idiot energy that Rauru brings is great. Big fan of young fucko who thinks he can be a good king but inherently fucks up because that's impossible, girl ur a monarch, is super interesting. wanna take him by the ears and look him dead in the eyes like, buddy you legit should not have taken those fucking stones out and just lived a quiet life in the woods...but then we'd be without a game. 🙄

I'm still collecting the slabs, the small snippets you get of both he and Sonia's relationship and characters are so fun. Sonia is also great, wish we got a bit more of her tho.

I'm really enjoying Ganondorf, he's a bit understated, but it's been interesting to see him younger than we ever have, right before the unification wars, head full of poetry and ambition. Why he green tho???????

Also really interesting how they've loosened the whole "hylia" stuff in favor for just "goddess"

Very much loving that Link is no longer a knight, but a swordsman who travels around helping people out. Total folklore/fairytale vibes, 10/10!! Also I feel like I'm connecting to him much more in this game, I really could never get behind the devout knight energy. He's a folk hero, he's here for the love of the game, and so am I!

Also mfw "Link...interesting...I look forward to meeting him." my man's been pining to meet ME for thousands of years, confirmed. I read homestuck, I know a black-rom relationship when I see one. (swooning)

[gryphonlover]

Did I hear you have a Vigilante AU????? I looooooove superhero/vigilante AUs O_O I haven't been able to find any in this fandom and I have been starving for one.

Is it public? On Ao3 or something? Or is it still cooking in your head (or docs I suppose)?

Do you have outfit ideas?? Capes or no capes? What flavor of superpowers are you going for? (everybody has one, freak accident, item that gives powers ala magical girl style, etc.). Are their identities going to be secret from one another or are they all going to be one big team from the get-go? Are they going to have codenames that aren't just "Legend" or "Time"? Is there going to be an overarching plot or is it more snippet-y? Are any items going to show up as supplements to their powers?

Anyways excited to see it. (Soory if that was a lot!)

Yep! I was actually waiting to answer this until I finished writing out that first bit about Legend & Wild meeting. I just got it posted to Ao3 this afternoon. All my works are set to only show to registered users right now because of the recent issues with AI and spam. However, I'm happy to post it here on Tumblr as well if anyone would like that.

I've also linked posts in which the vigilante AU is discussed. It's mostly my notes on characters for now, but that's where the bulk of the information is right now. Anything that's not written down yet is either still cooking, or I forgot.

Vigilante AU mentioned in DAILY BRAINROT 1st time

Vigilante AU mentioned in DAILY BRAINROT 2nd time

Vigilante AU mentioned in DAILY BRAINROT 3rd time

Vigilante AU mentioned in DAILY BRAINROT 4th time

There are a few superhero/vigilante AUs in the fandom already, but it is difficult to weed things out on Ao3 when the bulk of the AU tag is canon divergence. I actually have a list on hand, so I'll copy-paste the links in for you.

Fierce Hero 9 by @crazylittlejester

Linked Universe Incredibles AU by @skyward-floored

We Will Find You, Wherever You Are by Tessa_Reads

Empty Streets Full of Life by Owlface612

I have to admit that outfits are sort of my weakness. I'm not very good at coming up with ideas for clothes, and never have been, so I don't have solid ideas yet. But there will probably be no capes. Personally, I enjoy wearing capes, but I have to agree with Edna from The Incredibles on this one. It's just asking for an accident to happen. Warriors and Sky are going to have to figure something out for their scarf and sailcloth respectively, or leave them at home.

I'm trying to keep things down to 1 power per person for the sake of my sanity. (Four is the likely exception.) I haven't really thought about the origins of everyone's powers yet, beyond deciding not to include magic or aliens as a general rule of thumb. What I'll probably use is a combination of science experiments and genetics.

They're all separated in the beginning except for Sky, Twilight, and Warriors. They're roommates and know about each other's powers (although Sky is in denial about his own). The first person Wild meets is Legend, but doesn't meet him in his civilian attire until a little later. They live in different apartments in the same building. Wind and Hyrule both meet because the same underground group is trying to snatch them up. Time is something along the lines of Twilight's godfather/emergency contact, so they've known each other for a very long time. The rest is going to be a chain (pun intended) reaction like dominoes, I think.

I've been avoiding codenames because I haven't decided yet. I think it's going to be a mixed bag in the end, though. Wild's legal name is Link, but they don't really like it. Sky definitely goes by Sky as a civilian, but I have no idea why. It's just his name. I'll figure it out eventually.

For now, I'm just going to write whatever bits and pieces pop into my head and go from there. I don't have any specific plot lines or character arcs in mind, but there will probably be a little progression between general developments. I don't have an outline, and I'm not planning beyond collecting oneshots together in the same place.

Legend almost definitely has items because he's Legend. His power is also a milder enhancement that requires some degree of supplementation and creativity. Without any items, he has to focus on using parkour and martial arts like kickboxing to be effective, and he also can't take very heavy hits because he doesn't have any natural armor or resistance to blunt force. Item use is going to end up varying on account of who has access to what when and how much I can cram cool fantasy stuff into a science fiction setting.

I love answering questions about my projects and silly little stories, so if you've got any more questions about this AU or anything else I've been working on, feel free to drop them in my askbox. :) I don't often get this type of ask, so it was honestly a treat, and I've been looking forward to answering it all day.

[omniblades-and-stars]

🍕 ❤️ 💚 🧠 for Korak and Crash pls I’m having a weird day and they’re comfort characters for me

I'll bring you the good stuff for our beloved saints Crash and Korak just for you Korbs.

🍕 - What is their favorite food?

Crash: I already answered this elsewhere, but now I am on my phone because I have to pretend to do my job, so I will copy it here.

"There is an elcor street food vendor on Omega that serves the best food out of a giant pot that Crash has ever tasted. She doesn't know what's in it (he must have told her a hundred times, but she's pretty sure it changes every time), but it's delicious."

Korak: OK, I made up a food one time and I can't even remember if I fucking named it because of who I am as a person. Basically, it's like a goulash, heavy on that one little snippet of world building Bioware gave us about there being a spice called ignac native to Khar'Shan, and full of all sorts of delightfully weird alien veggies. Korak is also quite fond of sukiyaki he's found.

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

Crash: I gave an answer for Crash already, but she's such a joyful person, let's hit you with another. (I am coming up with this off the dome by the way.)

There was a young turian kid living on Omega who she knew well because his family lived in the same building as she did and he was often left unattended (latch key kid sort of situation). One day he comes to her crying because he can't find his ragged little stuffed varren toy.

Well, she went looking for it and found it pretty easily, the little scamp had dropped it just outside and it had gotten kicked out of the footpath. But instead of just giving it right back to him, she set up a little adventure/mystery for him to go on with her to rescue his toy.

They went mucking through the jungles of Sur'Kesh (the back alley behind the mega-complex) but alas! He was not there! So they trudging through the deserts of Tuchanka (an abandoned lot in front of an empty warehouse) and broke into the crumbling ruins of the evil krogan warlord's secret base (the warehouse) where they had a very intense imaginary battle to rescue the stuffed animal. Burn took a nasty wound to the snout, but our little turian hero was there to save the day and patch him up!

The best thing about this story is that her little buddy grew up and got off the station before it dragged him down or killed him like it so often does for so many others.

Korak: The first Nos Astra sunrise that Korak saw when he and Aumellio left Omega behind together. It was a simple thing. They were staying in a cheap hotel, didn't even have a place to actually live yet, all of their possessions condensed into a few not very large boxes. But leaning against a balcony rail together, watching a new beginning literally light up before them.

Cheap hotel coffee tastes really good when there's hope on the horizon.

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Crash: You know, it's an interesting thing to think about, how krogan perform gender. The examples we get canon-wise in game, krogan society is deeply gendered at least culturally. The women have their own clans, their own spiritual practices even. Crash rejected all of that. She left Tuchanka which it seems like not very many krogan women do. She wears armor and has no desire to live like the women on her homeworld do. But she still identifies as "female" for whatever that might mean. If we base all of what we know of krogan females on Urdnot Bakara, one might say she's gender non-conforming at the very least.

Though I suspect all of this is just another failure on Bioware's part to include non-cis-male aliens in their initial world building.

Crash is firmly asexual and aromantic. (She does however like romance stories but she won't tell you that.)

Korak: Korak is a cis dude, and he's very much a gay man. There's not a lot to elaborate on there, he's a pretty simple guy.

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

Fuck how am I supposed to choose?

Crash: I think my favorite thing about Crash is how sure she is of herself and her joy. She made a conscious decision a very long time ago to live in a way that made her happy, made her feel fulfilled, and she does it with all of her hearts because she knows she's doing what she wanted all along.

Korak: My favorite thing about Korak is that he's actually a bit of a sweetheart and he's so lost trying to be a good dad, but goddammit he is giving it all he's got.

Plus he's kind of a hunk.

[tiltingheartand]

secret agent man pt 2: electric boogaloo 👀

OKAY SO. this is actually a fic for the adventure zone: amnesty! and a sequel to be careful what you say (or you’ll give yourself away). (side note: sorting chronologically, this is the first barclay/stern fic posted on ao3! and like … i’m 100% sure that that’s because the few that were posted before mine were multi-chapter ones that updated, but still. i’m proud of myself for it.)

so the basic idea of the fic this would be a sequel to is: what if the guy who shapeshifts into bigfoot and the federal agent desperately trying to get proof bigfoot is real (to the detriment of his own career) went on some dates?

but i wrote it when the show was still on, before the story ended, so i also eventually got curious: what happens after the end of the story? because by the end, in canon, stern knows that barclay is bigfoot (and also that he’s an alien; it’s a whole. thing.) and that he’s been bigfoot the entire time they’ve known each other, and that a lot of the people living in this town are also aliens, and … there’s a whole The Veil Has Been Pulled Back thing going on.

but also, crucially, barclay and stern don’t actually get together in canon until the epilogue, but there’s a big chunk of time in there where barclay and the rest of Our Heroes have to go live a different place than they were because stern calls in the feds, so nobody talks to stern for Quite A While. and then things more or less immediately kick off into the climax/ending, and then the epilogue is months later, so we never actually see stern’s immediate response to all the everything, or barclay’s, which i find to be a real goddamn shame.

(also, it’s possible this won’t ever actually get written all the way, because i would really, really want to re-listen to the whole thing, but i’ve already tried that once and i couldn’t actually finish it, because i knew the ending was coming up and i was so dissatisfied with the ending for a number of reasons, so … yeah. who knows honestly.)

and anyway, a snippet, because it turns out i had significantly more of this written than i remembered:

“You’re worried about being rude?” Barclay can’t help but laugh, although he knows he’s the one being rude now. He can’t help himself. “I think we passed that a while ago.”

There’s another pause. It goes on for longer than he expects. “Look,” Tom says, “I know I have a lot of apologizing to do. I did a lot of shitty things and I refused to think about them too hard and I hurt a lot of people, either directly or indirectly. I hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you,” he says, and it’s such a cliche, and Barclay doesn’t want to believe him. 

He’s pretty sure he already does. He’s pretty sure he’s forgiven him, already, for all the things he’s planning on apologizing for. Breakups are so much easier to handle when they’re just because the love runs out. This is so much messier. 

“Just ask,” he says. “I can take your intention to apologize as a given, for the time being. Then you can just lump them all in together.”

(ask me about any of my WIPs, if you’d like!)

[marnz]

hello friend!! i was wondering since you both read and write a lot if you had any recs for books that are narrated by death?

also! how is your original novel writing going? you posted a snippet to tumblr once of the opening scene i think and i still think about it because your writing was so descriptive and lush

friend!! please accept my apologies in this delayed answering, your message was so kind that every time I thought about it I got overwhelmed 🥰

Okay books narrated by death! The only one I’ve read is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and it is gorgeous, I was so obsessed with it as a kid however it is about wwii in germany so ymmv.

however! I did some research and Mort by Terry Pratchett comes highly recommended (it is part of discworld). I enjoy Pratchett, he’s very fun. Death is also a big character in the Sandman Comics by N*il G*iman. I do not enjoy G*iman but ymmv!

I also am duty bound to recommend In the Woods by Tana French, a gorgeous, atmospheric murder mystery that is deeply spooky and unsettling. Death is not the narrator…but I do believe it is a character (many many interpretations!)

I feel quite bad sending you away with like 3 recs so here’s what I’ve been reading

- Exordia by Seth Dickinson - I’m not done with this yet but so far it’s like, what if every sci fi first contact military propaganda action movie…got lost and ended up being about the moral quandary of the trolley problem, Kurdistan, pink noise, and prime numbers? what if an author who hates imperialism and loves math decided to write a book length call out of Barack Obama’s drone warfare program with body horror? what if you were a cringe fail elder millennial in nyc that rescued a sexy alien with 8 snake heads instead of only one and every time you physically touched it was a sex scene? And this made the savior of the world? this book is for: homestuck fans, people who were in tragic situationships with their wife and their bestie, pilots, people who like their sci fi hard

- Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin - okay if you haven’t read this stop everything and read it immediately. This book is for: tragedy lovers!!!! Gay people!!!!! Francophiles. Marxists. People who were into the social network rpf in 2013 and read that one fanfic where Andrew Garfield and Jesse Eisenberg get cast in a Giovanni’s Room adaption and finally fuck. Anyway. Earlier this year (or possibly last year?) I read a memoir about toxic masculinity and how it demands emotional alienation of the self and I was like “okay. I mean. Obviously?” And buddy. Baldwin says more about this topic in chapter one than that author did in his whole book. And it’s sooooooooooo beautiful god like every paragraph has a life ending sentence.

- the Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai - the year is 1985 and the location is Boystown, the Chicago gayborhood. Our hero? Yale, art lover, is trying to pull off an insane deal at work and survive the devastation of the AIDs epidemic. But actually the year is 2015 and our heroine is Fiona, Yale’s best friend, who travels to Paris to track down her estranged daughter and then her emotional repression stops working! I know this book sounds devastating and it REALLY is, like at one point I was sobbing so hard my husband got really worried and I was like, no, it’s all good, thumbs up! But ALSO this book is very funny and very joyful. This book is for: people who love to laugh. People who love to cry. Art lovers. People who love emotionally messy families.

- I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai - a film studies professor & podcaster returns to her elite high school boarding school 20 years after graduating and find herself getting sucked into investigating the murder of her junior year roommate, who was murdered senior year and is now the internet’s favorite cold case. Please note this book is a response to #MeToo. This book is for: people who love True Crime but are also critical of it. People who love twitter drama. People who were losers in high school. People who devotedly at watch YouTube essays. Hot divorcées. Angry women.

I have also read a lot of excellent non fiction, the Murderbot diaries (just read themmmmm! Worth it), the entire Kate Daniels series (again.), the new SJM book, and some mid to bad books.

[sixpossumsinatrenchcoat]

Four More Years

(just wanted to post this lil suntan snippet of a new Omori timeskip fic/college AU i'm working on! it is silly and soft and not even a little bit tragic, bc my heart can only take so much. canon-compliant, post-good end, lookin at ~10k words)

Kel bursts onto the scene in typically noisy fashion. “Sunny! Suuunnnnyyyyy! Do you have headphones on again? C’mon, finish up, I’m starving!”

...He’s lucky he’s cute. If he wasn’t, Kel would be very unpopular with Sunny’s classmates. But even art school kids can’t bring themselves to hate Kel. It would be like hating a big friendly dog just because it stepped on your mixing palette and tracked paint all over the floor. The worst he gets is a few exasperated glances, and most of those bounce off his thick skull.

They buy Kel a couple of tacos to tide him over and then mosey over to Sunny’s apartment. Kel’s big idea of the week is to make a bento and deliver it to Hero at work. Apparently Hero’s been too busy with his residency to cook, and Kel thinks he’d appreciate a home-cooked meal.

“Cool,” Sunny says drily. “Where are you gonna find one?”

“Hey!! I can cook!!”

“Sandwiches.”

“Sandwiches are good!!!”

They’re still about a half mile from home when they get ambushed by the most beautiful armchair Sunny’s ever seen. It’s rich black velvet with a gilded frame and it has paws, thick wooden legs carved into clawed, sturdy cat’s paws. Sunny closes his eyes. “Ohhh…”

“You need it, huh?”

“Kel,” he says pitifully, pawing at Kel’s arm. “Kel, can you please tilt it on its back legs. I’ll never ask for anything again.”

“Easy!!”

The bones of the chair must be solid teak. Kel has to throw his weight into it just to get the front paws off the ground. But when Sunny crouches down to get a look, another little moan creaks out of him. Oh, god. They do. They really do have toe beans.

So of course they have to drag the chair the whole way home, because Sunny is 100% certain that if he takes his eyes off it, it will walk away without him. But again, this chair is ungodly heavy. Kel can barely shift it, so Sunny actually has to help, instead of just pretending. He’s not used to doing manual labor, so they stop and rest maybe every twenty feet.

The armchair is big. It’s designed for one person, but it’s definitely big enough for two, if the two people in question are very comfortable with each other. Which they are. They always have been.

But Kel won’t sit down.

“It’s all you, dude!” he insists. “Don’t stress it! I’m barely even tired!”

Sunny’s forehead furrows. “We can both sit, though?”

“Seems a little crowded, haha!”

“I could just sit on you.”

“Aw, you don’t want that. I just came from the Y. I’m all sweaty.”

“...You could sit on me?”

Kel looks genuinely moved. “Aw, Sunny. Buddy. My best friend in the whole wide world. I would crush you like a bug.”

“I’m not fragile,” Sunny mutters. “You’d have to do a lot more to break me.”

And Kel, for no reason that Sunny can think of, turns beet red.

Stuff like that keeps happening. Kel is acting totally normal, and then suddenly he turns weird. At the party last night, Kel moved to sling an arm around him—like he always has, for the past twenty years—and then visibly stopped himself on at least four separate occasions.

“He won’t even sleep over anymore,” Sunny sulks. “Last night he slept on the couch. But Basil’s bed is big enough for all of us. If he wanted more space, my bed was empty.”

“Ohhhh,” Aubrey says. “Okay, yeah. I got it. —Oh, sorry, was that it? Or did you wanna give me a little more context?”

He turns away from his work for just long enough to glare. “Explain.”

“Yeah, it pretty much sounds like he likes you, dude.”

Sunny frowns. “As a—”

“No, not as a fucking friend. Are you an alien? Obviously I meant he’s, you know. Attracted to you, or whatever. ‘As a man.’ Lmao.” She actually says lmao, pronounced like, luh-mao.

Sunny looks down at himself. “...Are you sure?”

“Hey, don’t sell yourself short, kid. You’ve got that whole dark academia thing going. You know, the piercings, and the… sweaters, and all pale and malnourished and shit.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

[starvels]

the many revelations of the making of the superhero community polycule map, ft. an increasingly complex notation system

i'm thinking something akin to an expanded polycul.es, with categorization and notation methods for any (or all!) of the following

any associated teams of an individual relationship designation, type, and status (sexual, romantic, kink, alterous, "whatever sounds fun," open, closed, exclusive, hierarchal status, perpetual, spontaneous, "exes so turbulent that it's essential knowledge," tentatively back together, zealously back together, etc) primary powers & abilities (non-hero, combatant, unenhanced, technological enhancement, mutant, mutate ± source, other biological enhancement, magic user, empath, telepath, specified/nonspecified elemental kinetic, shapeshifter, alien, interdimensional being, extradimensional being, etc) anything else one's heart may desire and/or find amusing

i would greatly enjoy at least one discovery of an unexpected relationship (regardless of whether it's because they have been involved, because they haven't, or due to the manner of involvement) or at least one person with an incredible number of current and/or former relationships, but mostly i just want to see where your mind goes kdjskdjskd

(prompt inspired by true events-- earlier this month i met my partner's partner, who then introduced her partner and partner's partner, and at some point it was revealed that that person's partner, who is five down the line from me if you're trying to keep track, has five partners of their own?? i do feel it's relevant to note that before the events of that day, i was only aware of the existence of the metamour, who i had not met, and the fact that they're also non-monogamous. evidently, it's much easier to end up in a large polycule than any prediction i could have come up with. aromanticism win? emphasis on the question mark)

polycul.es is a really cool tool! it might be something i fiddle with in the future but tbqh, i wonder how i would do with trying to order things like so, as i'm notttt a hugely ordered person? kdjfnbkjdnb i do make character notes for longer (20k+) fics, but its like.

seemingly very ordered planning thoughts for RSTV! but when you open the files its just

which is just snippets and not really any concrete, fully formed organized thoughts lol.

but ! i do find the idea of a vast complex, silly and ever evolving polycule amongst the various teams compelling. there's a couple of tools for hockey fandom where people have gone through and you can see the relationship mapping and degrees of interconnectedness amongst players and that's what i imagine this to be. could be a 616 canonical version and a fanon version where everyone is real gay and fancy free. i feel like it would be really delightful.

reminds me of that chaotic relationship post i did about the richards/dr. doom/namor/steve/tony.

so! in response! i could maybe do summat like that again if folks like it, yus!

fun for you on the discovery of five degrees of poly tho! congrats on the bacon 🥓

--

answering what pairing/porn trope/kink you wish i would write 👀

[lea-andres]

An Espnah oneshot/snippet thing no one wanted, yay~ I wrote this instead of finishing up the next chapter of WtDMtN, I'm sure everyone's thrilled, LMAO.

Although this does contain my lore's explanation for Smash Bros AND the Olympic Games games! Because those being canon amuses me. Along with Sonic knowing/being Santa.

Espio being a knight is not canon to my lore (...maybe... I'm tempted, tbh), it's a reference to SonicSong182. Iykyk, and if you don't you should remedy that. SS182's fucking great.

Dinah can't quite match I believe it was 17(!!!!) languages Espio apparently is fluent in according to MoStH, but she qualifies as multilingual. Latin and Japanese are the main two in here. I'm a dumbass American who only speaks one language, I cannot guarantee the 100% accuracy of anything ever.

Yes this is part of my plot to manifest Espio and Rouge as being 100% playable in the next Olympic Games game lmao. I want them, leave me alone.

"So… explain to me this whole Olympics thing again." Dinah requested, as she and Espio sat down on a bench by the rink entrance to pull on their ice skates.

"Where did I lose you?" Espio got his on first, and began doing some light stretches.

"Back at 'The Super Mario Bros are real'."

"You really struggle with the whole 'other dimensions and other planets' thing, don't you?" He teased, getting up and getting out onto the ice to do more stretches. Dinah finished lacing up her skates, and looked up at him to respond.

"Yes I do, because you know how often that comes up when I'm digging artifacts out of the ground?" Espio couldn't resist, forcing himself to keep a straight face, he locked eyes with Dinah, and said as evenly as he could manage.

"Ancient aliens."

"Adversus solem ne loquitor, you fucking moron!" She practically snarled back playfully. He burst out into laughter as he returned closer to the rink, holding out his hand to assist her. Dinah got up, a little wobbly in balancing on the blades, and took his hand as she made her way to him.

Once she got onto the ice, Espio launched out more toward the center, doing several tight spins and twirls before stopping sharply. The spaniel had stayed behind back at the wall, leaning against it as she watched him with an amused smirk. He blinked in confusion. Usually Dinah was all for jumping straight into an activity with him, eager to at least keep up if not try to top him. Why was she holding back now?

"Walk me through this multidimensional Olympics thing again. How did Sonic meet a video game character again?" She asked instead. He just nodded as he skated back toward her.

"Okay, so apparently Sonic got this letter in the mail. And when he opened it, it teleported him to this nexus where many great heroes across the multiverse were hanging out and having a low stakes fight club."

"Is this at all like Sonic's claim of going into that book and becoming King Arthur?" Espio smirked at that.

"I had been meaning to ask you for your professional opinion of that. Is Sonic the one true king?"

"Sonic gets points for sheer gall, but… I significantly doubt it." Dinah smirked back. Shifting so he was now gliding backwards away from her again, Espio continued.

"Anyway, Sonic met Mario there. Apparently WE'RE a game in the Mushroom Kingdom, so he was just as floored to learn about us as we were him."

"Are Sonic's games good?" Dinah raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"Plus minusve," Espio waggled his hand, shifting again to now be sweeping straight toward her again, completing the large circle. "It's a… polarizing topic over there, even amongst the fans."

"Ouch." The spaniel shook her head with a laugh.

"So, they became friends, apparently Tails and the Mushroom Kingdoms' best scientists got to work on connecting our dimension and theirs, and Sonic's friends and Mario's friends get together for a friendly Olympics inspired competition."

"And you've competed?" She continued to watch him circle back and forth before her. 

"Not… officially. Typically I've been invited to compete in a single event as a Rival, but I'm hoping to make the cut this year-"

"Whomp whomp…" Dinah giggled. Espio pointed at her in mock irritation.

"Don't make fun of me, I've been busy! I've got ninjitsu training, cases that pop up, whatever bullshit YOU throw at me-"

"Your mysterious part time job you keep vanishing to?" She continued to smirk teasingly.

"Oh right, that's related to this! So, I met Princess Peach at these interdimensional get togethers, and-"

"Is she as hot as she is in the games?" Espio studied Dinah's face for a bit, trying to gauge why she was asking that.

He decided to cover all bases: "You're not going to try to pull my boss and I will NOT invite her to a threesome."

"Your boss?" Dinah repeated, adjusting her glasses. "I didn't realize the Mushroom Kingdom was in the market for Shinobi."

"They're not, to my knowledge. Princess Peach knighted me and I've been serving as a guard in her castle-"

"No you haven't!" The spaniel interrupted in amused disbelief.

"Why would I lie about that?" 

"I take back my professional opinion of Sonic's delusions of grandeur, that wasn't the most absurd thing I heard today." She continued teasingly.

"Come with me next time and I'll prove it!"

"So do you wear the mushroom hat and the diaper, or-" Dinah cracked up laughing at that, almost knocked herself over, then flailed to catch herself on the wall so she didn't wipe out on the ice. She adjusted her glasses and smiled nonchalantly, trying to play it off.

"I don't, I have proper armor." Espio narrowed his eyes at her slightly, noting what he just saw.

"Is the Princess still getting kidnapped by Bowser all the time?"

"It's been a bit since the last one, but… I guess?"

"You're a shit knight." Dinah teased.

"HEY-" Espio himself almost wiped out at that, letting out a shocked laugh.

"Can't stop one fire breathing turtle from kidnapping the princess?" She tsked playfully.

"You should stick to ninjitsu and detective work, Onmitsu."

"Just because you study knights of olden times in our world doesn't mean you're qualified to review my performance as one in another, Himawari!" He fired back playfully, snagging Dinah's arm as he skated past, pulling her away from the wall and along with him.

She lost her balance almost instantly, dropping backwards. Espio lunged to catch her, sliding across the ice on one knee, firmly cradling her head with one hand and gripping her waist with the other as he stopped her skull from cracking into the ice. She had flung her arms around his neck in her attempt to save herself, letting out a big gasp of relief when she didn't crash hard.

"Thanks, Onmitsu…" She breathed, a little dazed from the adrenaline rush.

"You… can't actually ice skate… can you?" He accused softly, giving her a look of suspicion.

"You never asked if I could, you just asked if I've been ice skating, which I have. Once." She pointed out, grinning mischievously.

"Dinah…"

"Is it a crime to want to ice skate with your Onmitsu?" She teased, one of her hands wandering up to stroke his cheek.

"It should be, if you're going to risk spilling your brains all over the rink to do so." He chastised, shifting his grip so he could scoop her up bridal style instead.

"I can make this work." He smirked, making sure he had a firm grip on her before beginning to skate forward.

"What work? What are you doing?" Dinah demanded anxiously, clinging to his neck and shoulders.

"Resistance training for speed skating events." He started picking up speed. Quickly adjusting her glasses before returning to tightly gripping his shoulders, she teased with a grin.

"Don't crash."

"I'm far less likely to than you are." She thumped his chest lightly for that, both of them laughing.

[ursafootprints]

pray tell what are gone fishing and neighbor's cat flash about? heheheeheh and i can guess what aliens2electricboogaloo is huehuehuehue snippet? ououououo

and tell me about your color coding system? c:

(In regards to my WIP/snippet meme!)

gone fishing (NOT the actual title lmao) is my Starkercest AU where Peter does not tell his dad about his new superpowers because he wants to prove himself as a superhero first, and then is very, very irresponsible with his secret identity once Iron Man starts flirting with the new hero on the scene. (Or in other words, he catfishes his dad.) It has also literally been like 95% complete since June but I keep just not working on the only scene I have left to finish, you gotta love ADHD.

It was maybe one of the most awkward moments in his life full of awkward moments, but the next time Peter saw Iron Man on patrol, he did find the strength to take him aside and say, "About-- last time--" "Oh, we're going to talk about it," Iron Man said, and it was so hard to read his tone when he was in the suit, but Peter thought he sounded nervous. "Yeah, um," Peter said, rubbing at the back of his neck and trying to remember the script he'd come up with. "I'm-- sorry for running off like that, I know that wasn't-- super mature, but I just… panicked a little, because I'd never thought about… if you actually…" 'Wanted me' stuck itself under Peter's tongue and wouldn't come out, because thinking about someone wanting him still felt foreign and ridiculous and embarrassing, and he was agonizingly aware that he was talking to his dad in a way that he wished he would have been when Tony had kissed him, and when he didn't finish his sentence Tony shrugged.

neighbor's cat Flash is a SpideyFlash fic where Flash essentially annoys Spider-man into being friends with him (much like your neighbor's cat who pressgangs you into being their second owner even though you KNOW they're getting fed across the street because they just keep showing up at your door and aggressively demanding your attention,) and over time they turn into real friends(/Flash's immature hero crush becomes a very real and present crush) and it causes ~ripples~ for their dynamic at school because Flash stops being such an asshole under Spidey's influence. Lots of exploration of Flash's home life/internalized homophobia/things that I think would be interesting if they were influencing his canonical assholishness!

I don't have a genuine snippet to share because it's only in outline form, but it IS 100% outlined from beginning to end-- I'm not sure if I'll actually write it or just rework the outline into a bulletpoint fic, since I came up with the idea during the very narrow window between first getting into MCU Spider-man fandom and then pivoting H A R D to specifically Starker fandom, haha.

You know EXACTLY what aliens2electricboogaloo is lmao, but for everyone who doesn't, this is an idea of @king-of-kaoss's riffing on the scene in Infinity War where Peter's like, "if an alien lays eggs in my chest and I eat you, I'm sorry," and that's not exactly what happens but Peter DOES end up as a mutated monster alien thing and he makes it Tony's problem in a sexy way.

Peter crowded Tony against the wall and bent to bring those sharp teeth toward his throat, and if Tony couldn't believe how many things he'd survived just to get his throat ripped out by the mutated version of his own protégé, he was at least grateful that he wouldn't have to face May Parker's wrath at seeing what he'd allowed to happen to her nephew. And then Peter nuzzled into his neck, and said with a voice that was low and guttural and still somehow Peter's, "Mr. Stark, I think something's wrong with me."

Color-coding! It's kinda-sorta by ship, and then kinda-sorta by specific type of AU so that it's not just a wall of Starker-color? Green is complete, bright red is for whatever chapter of YNYD I'm currently writing (or, eventually, whatever my main priority at that time is, once I'm done with YNYD), deep red is Starker, purple is omegaverse ideas (so daddy long legs was also purple until I finished it), blue is Spiderio stuff and the lone yellow one is because it's Toomes/Peter. (That one and post-spiderio are ALSO Starker, but like, I gotta break up the wall of deep red somehow.)

Thank you for playingggg 💖💖💖

[one-spaceship-to-historia]

Writing Snippet #1

This is a discarded prologue. It is written from a POV that quite frankly had no impact on the story, it also doesn't help that I wrote this approximately five years ago now. It's also the second attempt at this sequence. It also portrays a discarded version of the character Auden, before they had finished unfurling into the being they are in the current narrative. Enjoy this clunky old piece of writing.

It started like any other day. 

  Well, at least it seemed to. She woke before the sun rose, was listening to the radio through her head set and looking out the hotel window. She was fully dressed, off in whatever fantasyland she’d been reading about that week. If at that moment I had bothered to read her expression. I would have noticed that she was frowning. But I sat up and sent my gaze into the adjoined hotel room where I could hear my other friends grumbling as they woke. I had called out to them, asking what today’s plan was. Asking her specifically what café she wanted to visit, because I owed her a raspberry tea. 

We had decided, being young and infallible, that going to the beautiful city of San Francisco after Graduating High school was a good game plan. A couple weeks pretending to be preppy shopaholic city girls. All while getting to see the sights with the eldest of our group being the tour guide. Then head off to college ready to start our next step in life. We drove in an older minivan that could seat the nine of us. Chatting, laughing, screaming, crying, yelling, and most of all singing our way from a small town east of Yellowstone a couple hundred miles to California. Nothing could go wrong, we had told ourselves and each other. We’re all together ready to take on the great big world of adulthood. 

We were oh so wrong. 

We had left the hotel that slightly brisk summer day, with smiles on our faces as we went to the nearest open book shop. We had a good deal of fun skimming the newer books, laughing at the clichés we were finding. Werewolf men and drama queens, fighting over some poor nerd who wasn’t even interested. Ha! 

 Now that I think about it, she didn’t laugh as loudly that day as she normally would. Her lips were extra red from her nervous chewing, as she walked the shelves with the books of legends bound in gold. The tales of heroes such as those were always a favorite. Her fingers had been gentle, as if she was saying goodbye to one of her art pieces. Her hair, once again cut short, hung in a messy gold curtain over her face as she looked at an antique copy of The Sword in the Stone. Her eyes had been sad. For something that I now know had yet to happen. 

After a couple more stops, Fate found us crossing a street. Sometimes I swore I could see the magic that exploded from the oldest of my friends at that moment. After it was over, she told me that she had been looking up at the sky as a butterfly flew through her vision. That she had felt the pull on her right hand as I tried to pull her out of the way. The harsh sting of the man’s magic as he tried to teleport back to his home world, to avoid the car; when he slammed into her shoulder. Sending her into the car's path. How she registered the scent of the burning breaks. Acidic in my own memory. But she stressed, that wasn’t what had her attention as her body fell asleep and her soul was ripped away to another world. No she was focused on the horror and regret in the poor woman, who was driving the cars, eyes. 

Looking back. I think she knew that this was only the catalyst. That she had seen the aliens that morning while she watched the sunrise. That she had been waiting for it. I think that she knew she was going to lose her mortal life. I think she knew she was going to die that day. 

All I can say on the matter now is that wherever she was taken, when she came back she was a hero. Even if her scars told a different story. And as her friend I had just held on to the fact that she would return because I owed her a raspberry tea.

[prfctparis]

MASTERLIST OF YOUR’S TRULY

[some stories and such for my own original characters within various fictional universes such as star wars, marvel, lotr & others; others are fics focusing on canon characters. not all of these are on here, so i thought i’d make this and attach links just in case someone wants to read them :)]

ao3 account

1. STAY WITH ME, MY BLOOD Masterlist

summary: A DPxDC crossover AU where Danny and Athanasia are twins, Damian is their little brother, and Danny was adopted by the Fentons at age ten.

2. TAKE THE FEAR THAT I DON’T NEED Masterlist

summary: A Star Wars fix-it AU series that mainly focuses on my abundance of original characters while the actual fix-it happens in the background.

3. WITH FIRE AND LIGHT Masterlist [coming soon]

summary: The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings AUs involving an original character as the main character in each story.

4. LIFE’S A GREAT BIG BANG UP SERIES | AO3 Link

summary: Peter Parker gets sent to Gotham City in one last attempt by Doctor Strange to keep the multiverse from destroying New York City. It takes time, but he soon gains friends and family once again – including a living variant of his dad.

5. FAMILY ABOVE ALL ELSE SERIES | AO3 Link

summary: Stories of found families – both in the ‘long lost family member’ sense and the ‘a bunch of semi-responsible heroes and vigilantes band together’ sense, but also the ‘dumb teen friend groups’ sense – that will mostly focus on my original character, Alisa Barnes, and Peter Parker as they struggle through life.

6. AMATEURS AT WAR SERIES | AO3 Link

summary: The Voltron Lions can actually form into real lions, the team’s bond grows closer and closer, Lance and Keith gradually fall in love, and the Galra Empire attempt to steal the Lions time and time again. Just the usual in an intergalactic war against an evil alien race.

7. MISCELLANEOUS STUFF

Snippet of an original LOZ AU / OC Aesthetic for Alisa /

[bythepen98]

The more I see those spoilers and snippets of past chapters about the war with all of them fighting in mha, the more I think about how Izuku and the gang are literally still just kids doing their best to fight overpowered villains and dealing with all types of stress they weren't expecting for this early. Sure they have powers and have been trained for it (even though for most of them, its only been months to a yr?) but like....I look at actual normal 15-16 yr old kids today and try to imagine them in Class 1A's shoes fighting the big bad. Crazy to think about and shifts my world view little by little.

I also don't know why I'm surprised-pikachu-face at the concept bc teenagers power scaling and fighting ppl that even powered adults couldn't handle is a staple in shonen.

Team 7 and co were actually out here fighting an alien goddess but I didn't bat much of an eye at them going ham in their war. Probably has something to do with them being magic ninjas who were trained to kill at a young age while mha, despite the quirk business, feels more grounded(???not sure about the word. Basically it parallels the /real/ world more than Naruto's -obviously- so I feel the surrealness more clearly) bc it's a modern world where kids generally get to stay as kids, barring any unforseen incidents, until they enter a hero school.

Makes it all the more impressive that all the students in mha fighting have progressed so well with their abilities considering their youth and especially when they, to my current knowledge, don't have the kind of plot armor power scaling Deku and the villains (and maybe a select few other characters) do.