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msfcatlover · 2 years ago

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@alycat76: What’s the platonic a/b/o one about?

Okay, this is immediately going under a readmore, because I know plenty of people hate the very concept of A/B/O, and I don’t want to make them uncomfortable.

SO! I have recently discovered that purely platonic A/B/O stories are actually something I kinda love. It’s about what it does to the setting, and the inter-character dynamics, and the incredibly intense hurt-comfort sickfics you can get out of it, and also I’m a sucker for empathetic bonds in fiction (people really don’t do enough with them.)

But there were some tropes that got repeated over & over again, while others I’d be interested in seeing just… never came up at all? And in the process of me spitballing what those fics would look like, I accidentally tripped and made a whole cohesive AU. Oops.

(Also, I saw like one person say, “What if betas could cancel out other smells as well as control their own,” in an ask somewhere, and proceeded to come up with a whole… thing that lets betas get in on all the sickfic & presentation fun that comes with this AU. It may or may not take up a full page of my notes. If anyone wants the specifics, just ask and I’ll post them.)

Anyway, the main pillars that this AU is built on are:

1. There are several fics where baby!Jay finds Robin in heat, knows full well how incredibly dangerous that is, and risks his own skin to hide Robin until either the heat passes or (most often) until Batman shows up. I love all of these. You know what I haven’t seen even once? Baby!Jason saving Dick Grayson in basically that same situation.

2. There are not enough fics where Bruce is a beta who uses his scent-control abilities to further separate his identities! *shoves my “Batman is just as much a public performance as Brucie Wayne” agenda into the very meta of this AU*

3. I am very fond of the “Jason’s big comeback plan goes completely off the rails” trope, especially when it comes in the form of needing to save a member of his family. I’ve seen a couple A/B/O fics with this premise with Tim. I have not seen any with Dick.

(Oh look, mirroring!)

4. It is here I realized why rut/heat-sickfics immediately became my drug of choice, and hey, if I’m gonna be projecting I might as well go all the way with it. *hands Dick a small mountain of medical complications on top of everything else*

5. My love of deceptive appearances (and the fact I have only found one (1) alpha!RH!Jason fic where I actually liked his part of it) means I am always going to default to omega!Jason.

6. So have you considered: Pack Alpha (by default) Tim? Oh, Bruce is still the Head of the pack, Tim doesn’t get to be automatically in charge or anything. But being the Pack Alpha comes with a whole host of extra instincts, which is only complicated further by the fact that as far as the rest of Gotham is concerned, when Tim first took on that role he wasn’t connected to the Wayne pack at all.

7. Hey, what do you think this particular arrangement does to Damian’s relationships with the family? Especially if we assume that, say, Talia refused to tell Damian their designations because it would be incredibly foolish to get a bunch of preconceived notions about the Bats just because of their secondary genders.

Things spiraled from there. I have, like, 10 drafts of both of those “Jason rescues Dick” fics, a whole bunch of fallout from Dick finding out Jason’s the Red Hood (some humorous, some not very much not,) Damian having a real rough time of it at the manor…

Here are my favorite story beats.

Dick actually initially rescued himself from the kidnappers, but then he was barefoot in Crime Alley with a chemical heat coming on fast while they looked for him. Dick yanks Jason down into his hiding space behind a dumpster before the kidnappers see Jason. Once the kidnappers leave, Jason offers to let Dick hide with him until the heat passes. Jason’s squat even has running water, even though it’s cloudy & cold.

Jason at some point says something about wishing he could make the nest better for Dick (who is obviously used to nicer things, but trying to make the best out of it,) which is when Dick remembers the emergency cash sewn into his clothes (Bruce is paranoid enough and you know it,) and gives it to Jason to go get whatever he thinks would be best.

While Jason is at the store, he sees the news about Dick Grayson being missing, an obviously distraught Bruce Wayne pleading for anyone to call with information. Jason remembers how Dick kept saying that his dad would be so worried. Jason remembers what it was like to sit up at night, wondering when or if his mom was coming home. Jason takes a few coins of his change to a pay phone to call the number, just to reassure Bruce that Dick’s safe.

Jason definitely panics when Batman kicks the door in that night, because as far as Jason’s concerned a very large, angry alpha just barged in on the omega Jason was trying to help (Dick even used the stupid Batman print towel Jason bought for him as the base of the nest, how is this fair?) Bruce sees a frightened, packless child ready to throw hands with the fucking Batman in order to keep Dick safe. Dick refuses to leave without Jason, because Dick’s already adopted him.

All of Gotham knows Jason was more Dick’s puppy than Bruce’s. Bruce is still the one who legally adopts Jason, since Dick is like, 16 at this point (Jason’s 10-11).

There’s a lot of whispering about why Dick completely disappeared from the public eye after Jason died. Dick so obviously adored the kid, and the few pictures people do get look so miserable, that most Gothamites get aggressively offended on Dick’s behalf if you try to suggest he had anything to do with it. He’s not even 20 and he’s grieving. Cut the boy some slack.

At some point after Tim becomes Robin, Dick needs to make a scene so he has an excuse to leave a party. After a quick check in to make sure Tim’s okay with it, a very drunk Richard Grayson proceeded to get on Janet Drake’s case about not appreciating the wonderful puppy she had waiting for her at home.

After helping him out of the room, Alfred came back to apologize for Master Grayson. “You’ll have to forgive him. It’s almost Jason’s birthday.”

In the greatest social blunder Janet ever made in her life (partially distracted by the wine stain on her new silver dress) she snapped out, “He’s still upset about that?”

(Fortunately for her, the room was loud enough that her voice didn’t carry far. But every conversation in a 20ft radius stopped dead. She did realize immediately and start to apologize, that came out wrong, oh god, she didn’t mean it like that!)

(Tim suggests Dick not antagonize Tim’s parents in the future after all.)

This is actually the verse that first made me realize I wanted Tim to ask Steph to be Robin in his place, because in this verse they’re not just losing Robin, they’re losing their Pack Alpha with nobody to replace him. That is so much compounding trauma just from one member leaving the pack, but if Steph takes Tim’s place as Pack Alpha before Tim’s dad makes Tim cut himself out of the pack…

(Cass & Alfred are both betas, for the record.)

Dick has a bad reaction to the inducers the second time Jason has to save him. By the time Jason hauls Dick back to the nearest safehouse, Dick’s such an emotional mess that the only way Jason could ever calm Dick down is for Jason to reveal his identity and repair their pack bond.

Dick knows it’s Jason, because you can’t lie through the bond.

(Tim shows up at some point in the night, and refuses to leave. “He said no alphas,” Jason snarls. “I wouldn’t be much of one if I left him alone like this with a stranger,” Tim snaps back.) (Dick drags Tim into the nest too as soon as he realizes Tim is there.)

Neither Dick nor Tim tell Bruce about Jason, because Jason made it clear he didn’t want Bruce to know. They do both proceed to hound Jason, trying to coax him back into the pack. Bruce is very uncomfortable with both of his sons being so determined to apparently befriend their newest rogue.

(I just have this delightful mental image of Nightwing dropping in on one of Red Hood’s meetings, saying he’s not there for trouble, framing it as an “I owe you for saving my skin” sort of thing. Before he leaves, Nightwing flashes his brightest smile at Hood. “By the way, Robin thinks you’re cool.”

Half of Jason’s goons die laughing as soon as they get over the shock.)

Damian picks a fight with Tim because (despite Talia’s best efforts,) Damian did pick up several assumptions about the different designations. Tim was the next-newest, so Damian could cement his place in the pack by beating the lowest alpha, surely.

Damian realized his mistake as soon as Bruce arrived. The pack Head is a beta. The Second is an omega. Which means Damian just picked a fight with the Wayne Pack Alpha.

And—since Tim is still breathing, speaking, and glaring daggers at Damian—Damian lost.

(Tim meets Damian’s gaze for 10 agonizing seconds before turning away with a lift of his chin; dismissive, just like Ra’s would do. Damian’s just like, “I am so dead.”)

(I have a bunch of other stuff that’s pretty much Hurt No Comfort of Dick dealing with his medical problems & also how this particular set up would probably affect his various assaults, and how the trauma from those would then compound back into those medical problems. It’s… it’s not good. It’s not fun. I don’t think anyone wants to hear about that.)

(It does give Jason the chance to hunt down Catalina Flores, and gave me the chance to type the line, “I don’t think you understand. I’m not his friend. I’m not his boyfriend. I’m not even a hero. I’m his son.”)

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thatbanditqueen · 2 years ago

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Basic Training Ch 2

This is a new Elvis Fan Fic set during his basic training at Fort Hood WIP I am playing around with for the summer. Comment, reblog , tag and let me know what you think or if you would like to be added to the taglist.

Thanks to my ever alpha @whositmcwhatsit who read the rough draft and made it so much better. Thanks Jader Gator. I love you and I think you know that I go between being so in awe of your writing that it is paralyzing to being inspired to write just to get close to what you create.

There are so many good writers in our fandom, and I am lucky to be friends with a little group of horny elvis witches who put up with me, answer my random questions and help me figure out narrative roadblocks, so thanks, as ever, to my sister wives @be-my-ally @vintageshanny @missmaywemeetagain @ellie-24 @from-memphis-with-love @powerofelvis for helping me write. You guys are so talented I feel lucky to breathe your air, you teach me everything.

Summary: Elvis surprises Bess at her office to thank her and gets to know some of the other women on post.

Word Count: 4.9 K

Warnings: None. Swear words? Handsy charming naughty Elvis?

I have formulas, tropes, motifs that I always go back to consciously or unconsciously.... whatever... as I was naming this chapter I realized how chapter two is always about the nicknames..... Here we go...

If you need to catch up, read Chapter 1: I Don't Date Soldiers here

Basic Training Chapter 2: Lil Moo Moo & Tupelo

Wednesday, April 2, 1958

1715 Hours (5:15 p.m.)

Fort Hood Front Office

“Oh, give me Burt Lancaster any day over Elvis Presley.”

Mabel’s eyes didn’t leave her work as she said this, not even when she placed her cigarette in the ashtray on her desk, the keys on her typewriter plunking up and down in her glasses’ reflection as she typed. Unflappable and wry, Mabel was a career civil servant with the commemorative lapel pins to match each milestone from her twenty six years and counting career at Fort Hood. Her light green metal desk was set in the center of the large outer room in the base’s front office, right in front of the CO’s door. Bess’s desk was to the right, across from the XO’s secretary Rose, who left everyday right at five o’clock on the dot.

The other two women Bess shared an office with were almost polar opposites. Rose worked punctually from eight to five every day, while Mabel was always the first to arrive between 6:45 and 7, and often the last to leave, determined to stay on post until the CO left.

Bess fell somewhere in-between, arriving most days with her father at 8 a.m. and then pushing him to leave as early as possible. But with her father out of town, Bess was mistress of her own destiny; a mistress who apparently couldn’t bear to leave until the final details for an awards ceremony tomorrow afternoon were hammered out.

Which is why she was perched on the corner of Mabel’s desk at 5:15, or at least it had been before Dori arrived. Waiting for her father, the CO, to return from inspections, Dori had turned the conversation to her favorite topic of late: her quest to meet Elvis Presley. Tonight she was specifically wondering if he would come to the MWR dance that weekend. This had prompted Mabel's unsolicited preference for the tall, athletic physique of Burt Lancaster.

Dori giggled. “How many times did you see From Here to Eternity when it was in theaters, huh Mabel?”

“More than I’d care to admit, Ms. Crenshaw.” Mabel lowered her bifocals as she hit her typewriter keys slowly, looking down every few seconds at some hand written notes. “And every time they play it on TV or show it here.”

“And how many times did you see Jailhouse Rock, huh, Bess?” Dori teased.

Bess blushed. “Only once.”

Mabel paused her typing and picked up her cigarette again. “I have the feeling Bess has turned sour on those Presley pictures. You should have seen her last week, damn near punched a dent in her desk after a reporter ran her off the road.”

“Ah, no, Bess loves Elvis.” Dori checked her lipstick before putting her compact back into her purse. “She’s lying too. I remember seeing Jailhouse Rock with you and the soldier on duty said you’d been to our sweet 'lil ol base theater every night that week.”

Bess fixed Dori with a grimace, mumbling defensively. “That was Loving You, and I only saw it three times. People were talking through it the first two times.” She shifted, rolling her thigh over Mabel’s desk as she balanced herself. “I didn’t care for Jailhouse Rock, though, kinda thought the main character was a jerk.“

“Oh honey, that’s what made it so good.” Dori’s high voice vaulted up the ceiling “Don’t you just find him scrum-diddly-umptious actin’ all tough and mean, but then being hung up on his lil ole manager the whole time?”

Bess straightened the stack of files on her lap.

“No, Dori, I don’t care for quiet, mean, brooding types who can’t just be a man and tell me how they feel, playin' mind games instead. And, as for Elvis, honestly I can take him or leave him. There are twenty thousand men on this base.” Bess straightened her ponytail, balancing her files on her lap as she spoke. “Why, I could find you ten Mississippi tall boys who can play gee- tar and yodel at you before mail call is done…”

Bess’ voice trailed off when she noticed Dori gasp and cover her mouth with her hand, eyes wide with shock as she smacked Bess’ knee. Mabel whistled low, her eyes quickly fixing on her typewriter as Bess shifted around on the big desk.

“What? What is it….” Bess’ jaw fell open and dropped her files to the ground. She felt them slip over her skirt on their way, unable to stop them, it was as if she had forgotten how to use her hands. No, all she could do was cringe with embarrassment at Elvis’ downward smirk as his eyes flitted up to look at her.

“Oh cluck a fuck, I mean fuck a duck - I mean, oh cluck!” Bess heard herself cry out reflexively, then remembering how to move, she scrambled to pick up her papers. She was grateful for Dori’s unflappable poise as the blonde hopped over Bess’ hunched body on the ground and introduced herself to Elvis, adding:

“Please excuse my friend there, she flunked outta finishin’ school.”

Bess watched Elvis kiss Dori’s extended hand with mild amusement as she squealed and smiled and unleashed her excitement onto him, her hand already on his chest.

“I been prayin’ every day to run into you, Elvis - Oh, may I call you Elvis?”

“Yessum, I -”

“Oh good! See, I knew we’d be great friends, I just knew we would! I have been all over this base hopin’ to run into you. Why, we’re all just pleased as punch ta have ya round here, aren’t we?”

She turned to see Bess still on all fours, curly brown hair half loose from her ponytail, while behind her Mabel looked up and grunted softly in salutation before continuing to type.

Mabel’s cranky glare and Bess’ antics on the floor did not create the mood Dori had envisioned for her first meeting with Elvis Presley. She looked down and her broad smile wavered for a moment as she realized the top button of Bess’ shirt was undone, revealing her bra completely. Dori’s painted pink lips popped as she nudged Bess with the tip of her heel and whispered through her teeth.

“Stand up, Bess honey, fo-ar gawd’s sake, ya shirt!”

Bess jumped up, fixing herself as a big red blush grew over her face, made worse as Elvis caught her eye with a wink. Mabel stopped typing for a moment and motioned for Bess to come and look at something while Dori kept right on talking to Elvis with her hand now firmly around his bicep.

“Now, don’t pay no mind to Bessie’s talk about you and your pictures, why, we’re all big Elvis fans round here, the biggest fans ya ever met.”

Elvis cocked his eyebrows up at Bess’ simmering glare from where she now stood behind Mabel’s chair.

“Huh, yeah, that’s sweet of ya, ma’am -”

Dori put her finger to Elvis' lip. “Dori, honey, puhleeze!”

“ - Uh, Dori.” Elvis’ spoke carefully, as if forming every word in the back of his throat before speaking out, his voice was soft and shy. “I don't s’pect everyone to like all my pictures. After all, I didn’t write them, it’s just a job to me.” He winked again at Bess. “S’pose I mind even less if they like some of my other movies. Like ‘em enough to see ‘em every night a tha week.”

Bess felt her cheeks redden even more, but before she could think of a clever reply, Mabel elbowed her and pointed at the XO’s handwriting.

“Can you read that? It looks like repercussion, but it could be reprimand as well.”

Bess picked up the legal pad for closer inspection and turned to the others, motioning for Dori to come take a look. She hadn’t expected Elvis to follow, but he did, making himself right at home and angling his tall body behind the women.

He snuck his hand around Bess’ waist as he looked at the writing Dori held up for him, eyes forward and completely detached from the movements of his fingers rubbing along the waistband of Bess’ skirt until she pulled them off. This made her stumble to the side and gave Elvis an excuse to openly grab her waist and steady her, She frowned, flustered by the way his long fingers navigated the crease right where her waist met her ribs, his thumbs squeezing tightly and then rubbing gently over her as he asked if she was ok.

Pushing Elvis’ hands away, Bess whispered that she was fine, trying to slow her pulse and still the shivers that ran up her spine. Her whole body trembled, aware of his proximity to her, and she refused to meet Dori’s now extremely curious eyes over Elvis’ shoulder. Nodding, he turned back to the others and helped himself to the paper, declaring that it was repercussion as he introduced himself to Mabel, kissing her hand, and asking her about the tiny, porcelain figurines on her desk as she giggled.

“That’s Lady and Lola, my brother brought them back to me from Japan. Are you a dog person, Private?”

Bess made her way back to her desk, taking in the youthful bloom of Mabel’s beaming face and girlish laughter. She had never seen her co-worker this cheerful and open before. Dori’s face was aghast as Elvis ignored her and made himself comfortable on Mabel’s desk, asking her for a cigarette and then turning with a conspiratorial whisper as he asked them not to tell anyone.

Dori began tapping her fingers along her crossed arms harder as she watched Elvis put his hand on Mabel’s shoulder, while the older woman batted his thigh and chuckled at his jokes about dogs. Bess smiled to herself at the way Dori tried to wrest the conversation back by talking about how she used to have the sweetest lil ol’ poodle in the world when she was a girl. But it was an uphill battle, because now Mabel was pulling out her secret tin of homemade shortbread and asking Elvis what he thought. He had to try five pieces before he could adequately decide his verdict, and he moaned as if he had never had shortbread before. His voice was low as he stuttered “Mmm hmmm mmm hmm mmm” in a hum, and Bess dropped her pen when he caught her eye and licked his lips, proclaiming through crumbly mouthfuls that it was “the best doggone cookie he’d had in a long while.”

Bess shook her head at Elvis’ transformation from the shy soldier who had walked into the office to the confident, cocky rascal he was now, only minutes later. Elvis was masterful, she mused, and it was down to the attentive way he looked at each person he spoke with, talking to you as if you were the most important person in the world and responding to everything you said and did with his eyes. No, with his whole body really, she thought. He had a magnetic energy that had drawn her in the moment they met Friday. Now that same magnetic energy was doing its work on Dori and Mabel before her very eyes, as he engaged with them in a way that was humble, considerate and disarming. Some soldiers were stiff and uncomfortable here in the front office where there were often three to five women bustling about. Elvis on the other hand, seemed to be in his element amidst a group of women vying for his attention.

Bess found, to her own chagrin, that this included herself and was disappointed by her own desire to get his attention. She held out until she could no longer help it and interrupted their conversation with a loud, authoritative cough.

“I’m sure you didn’t come to our building to talk about puppy dogs and shortbread, Private, we don’t want to keep you from your tasks or the mess hall.”

Elvis turned to look at her from where he sat on Mabel’s desk and began throwing his olive patrol cap from hand to hand as he gulped.

“Uh, well ma’am, actually, I came up here hoping to get a word with you, Bessie. Uh, I mean Miss Schwartz.”

Now it was Bess’ turn to swallow and once again avoid Dori’s questioning eyes. Mabel’s eyes snapped down to her typing, her face back to being an expressionless stone wall.

“Sure thing, um, walk me to my car? I just, I was just about to leave, I just, uh, need to put these in the Commander’s office.”

As she walked back to her father’s desk, she heard Dori’s voice ring out behind her.

“I didn’t know you were acquaintances with Bessie. That busy bee, she really gets around this base, huh? I reckon she knows more soldiers than the rest of us combined.” Bess smiled to herself at Dori’s insinuation. “ Are you here to ask her to the dance?”

“Uh, no ma’am, Dori, Miss. I, uh, reckon it's better for me to keep a low profile this weekend, let the boys enjoy their night.”

“Well, you know, that attitude might give our boys the wrong impression, like. Make the guys think you fancy yourself too good for our simple, lil ole MWR dance.”

“Uh - well- “ Elvis’ face lit up when Bess rejoined them and they shared a lingering smile that Dori vowed to interrogate Bess about later.

“Oh let him be, Doreen,” Bess murmured, her voice breathy as her heart fluttered once more at the depth of Elvis’ knowing, penetrative gaze. “Uh, he, uh, the boy, man, the man clearly doesn’t want to go. And he already knows that I don’t go on dates with soldiers.”

Mabel had stopped working again and was now chewing the edge of her glasses, leaning forward on her chin as if she was watching a soap opera unfold in front of her desk.

Dori pursed her lips and placed her right hand on her hip energetically. “Oh he does now?” She said playfully, flouncing up the bottom of her blonde bob. ”Well, Private, you’re in luck, because I do date soldiers. I’ll pick you up at 8.”

Elvis looked to Dori, then back at Bess, his confused expression transforming into a smirking wide smile as he registered Bess’ frown. Bess looked down, picking at a chipped piece of her thumb nail until it came off, as if it was the most important thing in the world and needed her attention immediately.

“Huh, well, whoo boy.” Elvis eyed Bess again, then his lips screwed up into a wider grin as he chuckled mischievously. “I don’t hardly know ya, but I can’t say as that’s ever stopped me before.”

Bess’ heart did a series of flip flops as she watched Elvis laugh with Dori. She wasn’t sure what she disliked more, the fact that her friend had just maneuvered herself into a date with Elvis, or that she was jealous. Bess decided it was the later and that she would will herself not to care.

Elvis' eyes flickered over her for a second and Bess suddenly had a sense that he could tell exactly what she was thinking and feeling in that moment, and she returned to picking at her thumb nail. She was vaguely paying attention as she heard Dori tell Elvis that she’d meet him up at his barracks Saturday night, but she thought Elvis smirked wider as he took in the smile that she forced her lips into.

“You’ll be there, won��t you, Bess. Even though you don’t date soldiers?” Dori looked at her, adding another few fluffs to her hair for absolutely no good reason.

“Hmmmm. Well, I usually do, since the CO encourages all the single female employees to go, but I did have some research st—”

“Don’t be silly, of course you’ll come, it’s gonna be so much fun. I can already tell. There’s gonna be a live rhythm and blues band we hired in from Houston. They are just the bee’s knees, and I’m on the MWR committee. My theme for this dance is Spring Fling, cuz it’s spring! The decorations we got are so adorable, floral Chinese lanterns y’all. I cannot wait.” Dori squeezed her hands into fists and did a little dance in place.

Elvis turned back to Mabel. “You comin’ Saturday night, Miss Maybelline?”

Mabel giggled like a school girl instead of the fifty year old woman she was.

“Every one I can make it to, CO’s memo encourages all single women on base to attend.”

Elvis took Mabel’s hand in his, softly trailing over the top as he kissed her knuckles and smiled devilishly as she giggled again.

“Well, be sure ta save a few dances for me, mmkay, honey?”

Mabel nodded with a giggle and a wink.

Elvis’ cocky smiled followed Bess' curt nod out of the office and into the back stairs of the building where her voice echoed down the concrete stairwell.

“You know Private, I really wish you wouldn’t come to my office unannounced.” She paused two steps below him and turned around so he had to stop himself from slamming into her finger as it pointed back at him.

“Hold on a minute there, baby, now, what’s wrong with being friendly?” He grabbed her finger. “Careful where you point that thing, woman. First lesson of basic training is safety. Thought you’d a know by now.” He grasped her hand and softened it into his fist. She seemed to lose her train of thought looking up into his eyes. “What’s got your panties in a twist, Bessie Boo, you ain’t jealous, are you?”

Elvis was decidedly less polite when they were alone, Bess realized. She wasn’t sure she liked it, or the way it made her feel as she pulled her finger away and kept descending down the stairs in front of him, her voice a little shaky.

“Of Dori? No, no, not at all. In fact, that all seems to have worked out the way it should.” She shoved the door at the bottom open and headed toward her car as Elvis’ long legs made easy work of striding next to her.

“Why’s that?”

Bess turned as she got to her car.

“Cuz, well, you seem like a good match.” She smiled, trying to really mean it, trying to keep her voice cool and nonchalant. “Dori, is, well, she seems to have the sort of, um. Well, that is, she’s very glamorous. And popular. And attractive. She’s a lot like the girls you’re always with in the fan magazines. I think you’ll have a lot of fun.”

Elvis stepped closer, fixing his work cap back on his head. “So you read the fan magazines, huh? Thought you could take or leave Elvis Presley.”

Bess didn’t know if her cheeks could take the constant flushing she was experiencing. She leaned into the hood of her car, changing the topic as she spoke to the blue paint.

“Look, why did you come by my office?”

Bess leaned her back into the car, and he reached out for her waist, rubbing his hands along the sides for a moment, before taking the handle next to it and pulling it open, tilting his head to get in.

“I uh, I came by because I wanted to thank you. Think we could just talk for a spell?"

Bess swallowed and nodded. After a few moments searching, she discovered her tongue where she had left it on the roof of her mouth and did her best to eke out intelligible words. They scooted along the white vinyl car bench until Elvis got to the other side and leaned back, stretching out his arms and looking at her.

“I know'd it was you that talked to Sergeant Norwood.”

Bess looked down. “I, ugh, actually. That would be highly inappropriate of me to talk to a senior instructor in your company and ask for any special treatment.” She looked back up at him. “But, um, how’s it going?”

Elvis grinned wide. “He’s, uh, well, he’s instruction’ alright, instructed me to come over to his house here on post after dinner most nights. He, uh, well, I uh, he lets me use his phone to call home and get a few hours of shut eye at their place. Though I preferred the bed at your house, Bessie bug. Cushioning there was better.”

Bess let out a snort as Elvis slid down to put his head in her lap, just as it had been that first night in her guest room. He pulled her right hand in his over her chest, threading his fingers through hers as he looked up into her face with apt admiration.

“Ya are the first real friend I’ve made here.”

“Hmmm. Seemed like you were doing all right making new friends upstairs.”

Elvis smirked, his squeezed his fingers between hers.

“You are jealous a Dori. Jus say tha word and I’ll take you to the dance too, baby. I could take both of you as my dates, ya know, nuff a me ta go ‘round.”

Bess tried to take her fingers back, but it was a half-hearted attempt and his hand was so much bigger than hers. Resigned, she squeezed back and sighed, looking out the window.

“Ha, I’m sure. But, no, I’m not jealous, I’m just giving you a hard time, Presley. You sure seem like a fast operator.” Bess felt an aching warmth blossom in her belly as his thumb rubbed the inside of her palm.

“Honey, I didn’t operate nothing, I’m just an innocent bystander caught in the eye of Hurricane Dori. If anyone is operatin’ fast, it’s your friend back there.”

“Yeah, well, you have to forgive her, she had a lot more going on in Savannah than she does here. We are sorely lacking in ladies’ charities and fancy galas for her to host. So Dori gets all pent up, all that energy and nothing to do with it. Maybe you can help wear her out. " Bess arched her eyebrows suggestively, her voice was light and teasing. "By dancing, I mean, of course.”

“Huh, sure. How ‘bout you? Will you have any pent up energy ya wanna dance off with an ol’ friend?”

“Ha, I’m about as old a friend to you as Dori is.”

“Nah, honey, you’re different, we go way back now. I don’t know anyone who’d risk their job to take a po’ boy like me home an feed me an’ take care a me so good.”

Elvis' eyes welled up and Bess softened, thinking he might cry. She found herself soothing the top of his forehead with her left knuckles.

“Hey, ssshhh, hey. You would have done the same for me, right? If our roles were reversed and I was a new recruit being trained for combat?”

The left side of Elvis’ face lifted into a crooked grin. Bess was transfixed watching the way his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.

“Course, course I would. You know, I’ve spent the last two years running from women chasing me, I reckon the Army’d be in better shape if they’d put ya girls into combat. Ain’t nothing more terrifying than a hoard of twenty thousand screaming girls coming for ya.”

“Ha, yeah, probably makes basic training seem like a breeze.”

Bess smiled down at Elvis, and made her fist into a fake microphone, affecting a serious, transatlantic accent like the reporters at his press conference last week.

“So, Private Presley, what do you think, is basic training harder or easier than running from women for a living?”

Elvis chuckled. His right hand let go of Bess’ fingers and snaked around her waist. “Well, ain’t nothing like getting clobbered by a swarm of women. I s’pose the main difference between those girls and the Russians is, they don’t mean to hurtcha. They’re just tryin’ to get themselves a piece of ya for a souvenir.”

Bess’ raised one eyebrow, her reporter microphone hand still at attention.

“Oh? Please tell us, the American people want to know, which piece of you are these girls trying to get their hands on?”

Elvis burst out laughing. “Uh, no comment, though I could show you later if you want.”

Bess blushed at the glint in his eyes, and kept talking. “Hmm, fresh. Next question, how devastating was it to get your haircut?”

“Well, now, that didn’t bother me none at all. You know what they say, hair today, gone tomarra."

He paused, grinning at her tepid "Ha. ha. ha."

"But no, I ain't sore. Now, if it weren’t never gonna grow back, yeah, sure, maybe I’d be sore, but I don’t mind following the rules and cutting my hair like all the other boys here. I’m actually starting to like it.”

Bess combed her fingers through his crew cut.

“MMhmmm. I liked it better long, but you know me, I hate soldiers.”

“Picked a weird place to work then, Bessie, ain’t nothing but soldiers here.”

“This is just temporary, till I figure out what’s next for me.”

Elvis looked down towards his knees, speaking softly. “Yeah, jus temporary. That’s what my manager keeps sayin’, but man oh man, I think it’s all over for me. Ain’t no one gonna remember me in two years.”

“That’s not true. Trust me, it just feels that way. How many records you sold?”

Elvis leaned his face into her fingers as they cupped his cheek, he could feel Bess’ thighs tremble slightly underneath her skirt and it made him smile. He looked up at her big brown eyes sheepishly.

“Oh, I don’t know, ‘bout 25 million I s’pose.” His voice was casual and aloof til he cried out at the smack of Bess’ hand hitting his shoulder.

“Ha, I would have guessed 4 or 5 million. 25? I can’t even picture a stack that high. It would go all the way to the moon, probably. You’re thick, you know that? Like we could forget you with all those records out there, spinning 'round in people’s homes, on the radio. No, I think the Russians would have to bomb us to kingdom come before we forget about you, what with 25 million records playing all over. ”

“You’re sweet, Bess, you know that? My uncle used to have a cow named Bess.” He grinned up at her and made a moo sound. “Lil' Bessie Moo Moo, she was sweet, just like you… Moo Moo.” His voice tapered off as Elvis' hand began to trail up the side of Bess’ body. His voice became low and earnest. “She had the sweetest milk.”

Bess shivered at the touch of his fingers before pulling her head toward him. Just as she was an inch away from his lips, she stopped him, and tilted back up, fake microphone fist in her hand again between their faces.

“And, I know our listeners will want to know this important detail, where exactly was this cow, Private, Memphis?” She was the reporter again, and her heart thumped with a beat of regret as she took in the split second of disparagement that played across his face as she lifted her lips away from his. But then it was gone and he was back to playing cool with a grin.

“Nah, back in Tupelo where I was borned and raised.”

“Tupelo, huh? Well, tell us Presley, why does all the good rock and roll music come from that part of the country, places like Mississippi, Tennessee?”

Elvis nestled his head back into Bess’ thighs, scrunching up his lips as he thought.

“Don’t know, I guess we jus have a history of it, it's a place where ya got Black rhythm and blues and country and western, spiritual music. It's in the air we breathe down there, I guess, gets all jumbled up and out comes rock ‘n’ roll.”

“Well, Private, is rock n’ roll the secret weapon we’ve all been waiting for to take down communism and restore civilization to Eastern Europe and Russia? And if so, when are you being sent over enemy lines?”

“Now, maybe you’re on ta something there, pretty sure it’s already destroyed civilization state side.”

“Oh, definitely, the very fabric of our society is crumbling, just ask any parent and they’ll tell you that their teenager hates school and wants to have sex, all because of rock ’n’ roll. No teenager ever felt that way before they heard your music.”

“Huh, you’re a smart ass, you know that?”

“I’ve been a smart ass since you met me. Try to keep up, Tupelo.”

“Huh, yeah, ya a piece of work, lil' Moo Moo. And ya asking for it talkin’ to a man like that.”

Elvis pinched her soft, springy sides as he chuckled. Anyone walking by the blue Ford would have only seen Bess’ silhouette sitting up, head tilted back in a deep, guttural laugh for the first time in almost a year, as Elvis lay back in her lap, tickling and pinching her. They sat in her car for another hour, as Bess fussed over a cluster of razor burn below his ear, and he asked her about her life, getting to know as much about her as she was willing to reveal until she had to push him off her lap to go meet Sargeant Norwood, dismissing his offer to come back to her house and show her that souvenir all the gals were chasing after

************************************************************************

Read Chapter Three Here

@eliseinmemphis @moonchild-daniella @tacozebra051 @ab4eva @kingdomforapony @everythingelvispresley @richardslady121 @dkayfixates @artlover8992 @peskybedtime @freudianslumber @amydarcimarie @toreigh @notstefaniepresley @18lkpeters @yynneessmons @lookingforrainbows @prompted-wordsmith @roadtogracelandx45 @ashtag2887 @literally-just-elvis-fics @waiting4brucewayne2adoptme @returntopresley @girlblogger2002 @rjmartin11

#elvis presley #elvis fanfiction #elvis #elvis fic #elvis presley fic #army elvis #1958 elvis #basic training #banditqueenwrites #wheeeee #because apparently i need another wip.....#xoxoxo #elvis x oc

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dandelion-wings · 5 months ago

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for the unusual fic-specific asks - broken ground, BTS?

Congratulations on getting un-shadowbanned! \o/ Which I assume is the reason I suddenly have two old meme asks from you in my inbox that I never saw when they came in. I am so sorry if it seemed that I was ignoring them!

I love pretty much all the scenes in this fic as they came out at the end of the revision process--despite its length it was a very tightly-focused fic for me, so I put a lot of effort into making each scene shine--but I will, as a sorting method, choose the one that was the absolute most fun to write, and most satisfying to get to, in the very first draft.

(Technically the whole chapter is one scene, in that there are no breaks, but I'm not going to do the whole 3500 words, so I'm choosing what feels to me like a natural 'break' point where the narrative attention shifts.)

All of Barbara's training tells her that Noelle and Albedo's approach is far too reckless to uncover a buried person. But she only holds her breath as the rocks around her sister are shattered to pieces, then scrambles forward over the gravel and drops to her knees at Jean's side. She has her sister's Vision clutched tight in her hand. There's no light in it, not even the tiniest, faintest, dimmest flicker at the very core. Barbara tucks it between her knees. She can't look at it right now. Then she sits back onto her heels, puts her free hand against her catalyst, and calls on her Elemental Sight.

I knew from very early on when writing this that I wanted Barbara to have to use her C6 ability for Jean. In the first draft, I played with the idea of this being a known power, though closely-kept secret, that she has--I think there's actually an excerpt somewhere on the blog of Kaeya outright asking for her because he knows she can--but it ended up working out better for the emotional arc for this to be the first time.

It's bad. Even if Sir Kaeya hadn't said what he'd said, even if she wasn't holding Jean's Vision, she'd have known it would be bad at the first glimpse of Jean's legs, tattered leggings revealing glimpses of purple-grey flesh. No, she'd known it would be bad from the moment they realized Jean and Sir Kaeya might be under all that stone. Barbara has been doing her breathing exercises ever since, doing everything she can to keep herself calm. Now is the worst possible time to panic.

Elemental Sight reveals many internal details to a healer trained to focus and refine their gaze, but her Hydro Vision makes her particularly aware of the flow of blood through someone's body. The blood left in Jean's veins, what little there is, has come to a stop.

There's absolutely no reason for magical healing to require the healer to see what they're doing, or justification for it to be visible to Elemental Sight like this. But it's something I like writing, so it's my dominant headcanon and one I run with whenever I get the chance.

Barbara picks up Jean's Vision and tucks it into her limp hand, still refusing to look at its dull grey surface. It had been flickering less than a minute ago. Maybe her heart had still been pumping when the rocks were blown apart. She's not dead yet, she's not gone, and if Barbara believes that- She has to believe that. She has to.

And as I imagined the mechanism here, she does have to. Pulling this trick off is reliant on her determination, which in turn is absolutely reliant on her belief. I also love in general, though, the trope of simply not wanting to believe that your loved one is gone.

Putting her hand over Jean's breast, she takes a deep breath, then begins to sing. Not one of her own cheery songs; a hymn, a plea to Barbatos, just in case he's listening. Beneath the hand she has over her own Vision, it begins to hum in tune, a vibration that's picked up next by her catalyst as the magic of her Shining Miracle begins to take form. Blue light gleams around her, its familiar patterns crazed by the broken rock. Barbara doesn't dare look. Her gaze is focused entirely on Jean, on the muddy swirl of colors shown by her Elemental Sight, the crazed amber of fractured bones and the fading blur of teal in her collapsed lungs and the blue of Hydro just barely visible where it traces through her, pooling in some places and draining from others. There's none of the faint violet that should limn the muscles, the lungs, the the heart- Barbara makes herself put that observation aside.

I have a whole system of what elements match to which parts of the body and which associated illnesses and ailments, which I laid out on this blog somewhere in my headcanons tag. I recall coming up with a whole mnemonic rhyme about it in my head at the barn that I was going to work into this scene as something Barbara is remembering from her training as she works, but ended up dropping that before I actually got to this part.

Hydro is her element. Take care of that one, first, or the rest won't matter. She gathers all the glowing Hydro song of the Shining Miracle and pours it into Jean, flooding her veins with fresh blood, drawing the pools into their proper current, cleansing what she draws out from crushed muscle and inflamed flesh as she goes. It's not enough; Barbara reaches out with her Vision, drawing in the moisture from the air all around. She can feel tears trickling down her face and draws from them, too, leaving salt-trails on her cheeks. A wind surges up from the lake, heavy with moisture. Barbara reaches the end of the hymn and begins it again, struggling to sustain the scale of this Miracle with only her Vision and her voice. Blood rushes through Jean's veins at her command, running through her heart in its proper course--in, out, in, out, in, out--as she pours all of that Hydro into it. Barbara can feel the Miracle starting to slip away. Fresh tears well up and she draws on them too, her voice starting to go raw as her throat dries out. It is too late. It's not going to be enough. Barbara's voice breaks in a dry sob.

I spend a lot of time trying to translate game mechanics into something that makes narrative worldbuilding and sense in my fics. It's utterly unnecessary, but it's very fun! And my personal de-gamification of 'elemental particles' is that Visions draw elemental power from their environment, which is strongest when it's free-floating energy from Vision use and other magic, but can also draw from natural sources. Like humidity. Or tears.

And then, with a flash of violet all through Jean's body and a jerk that Barbara can feel beneath her hand, Jean's heart begins to beat again on its own.

Hydro-based CPR!

The pattern of her Shining Miracle draws inwards as it does, the last of its power pouring into Jean's still form. That was the most difficult part, but Barbara is far from done. As she takes a moment to gasp for breath and assess the remaining damage, she looks up to see Noelle on her knees at Jean's other side. Barbara gives her a grateful look. "Do you think you can help with her bones?" Geo is best for bone-healing, but there's so much damage here that Barbara honestly isn't sure if Noelle is capable of it. Jean's pelvis is shattered, her legs crushed--Barbara is keeping her left femoral artery, nicked on the broken femur, from bleeding out by magic alone--and half her ribs broken, some of them buried deep in her collapsed right lung. If Noelle can heal them, though, Barbara has higher hopes about being able to handle the rest.

Finally getting to describe what was going on internally with Jean in detail, instead of vaguely alluding from Kaeya's POV or noting mostly symptoms from Jean's self-analysis, was very satisfying. TBH this may be why I have that Elemental Sight headcanon in the first place. Let the rescuer see and be aghast at just how injured the whumpee is--I love that particular flavor.

"Let me take care of it," Noelle says firmly, setting her hands on Jean's shoulder and hip. Through her Elemental Sight, Barbara can see the Geo energy starting to flow through her hands into the broken bone beneath, reshaping it and knitting it firmly back together. She seems to know what she's doing.

Noelle 100%, upon learning what the Geo healing specialty is, sat down and studied skeletal anatomy, then went out and practiced on broken-winged birds and such. As a knight with a Vision, it's an essential part of knightly training!

Relieved, Barbara starts to hum, pouring more of her Vision's power into the softer parts of Jean's flesh. She follows meticulously after Noelle, healing the soft tissue supported by each restored bone, wrapping blood vessels back around them and reconnecting them to the marrow within. There are poisons built up in Jean's crushed legs; she wicks them away before they have a chance to spread. Muscles and nerves have started to die; she pours blood and Hydro into them until they crackle again with life. Infection is already trying to take hold; she draws that out with the poison and chokes it ruthlessly to death. She siphons the sweat from her own skin, the moisture from the air, the saliva from her mouth. Her singing voice goes hoarser and hoarser as her throat dries out. Gloved hands hover over her Vision with ice cupped in them, and Barbara greedily draws on every bit of melting frost. Noelle, across from her, is pulling Geo energy from the stone all about at equal speed. Everything they can reach, they pour together into Jean. Bit by bit, drop by drop, they put her big sister back together.

This chunk of prose was just so fucking satisfying to write. I spent so much time at the barn thinking out the exact words and cadence. That three-sentence sequence with the semi-colons in it had to balance exactly. 'Bit by bit' spent time as 'bone by bone' and is still the most-debated line to me, but I really wanted to emphasize Barbara was leading the effort and alluding more directly to 'bone' than to 'blood' felt like it undercut that somehow.

"There," Noelle gasps, as she knits the last broken toe and the stretched-thin glow of her Geo fades. "Can I help with anything else?" "No," Barbara says, her voice even rawer. Her lips are chapped, and her mouth feels like a desert. There's nothing more her Vision can give her, or she can give her sister. A Vision's healing is powerful, but its use takes a strain on the body and mind that Barbara can see in Noelle's face, ghastly pale, and feel in her own aching flesh. Jean is still visibly bruised, her lung repaired but still collapsed, the bleeding in her skull eased away but her eyes still closed. She's breathing, Barbara tells herself. She's alive. That's all that matters.

That is all that matters! You did it! Good job, Barbara! I wanted this to feel like a massive amount of work and I do think I accomplished that.

"Will she make it?" Barbara registers Master Diluc and Sir Kaeya kneeling nearby, tense and at the ready, as if their martial prowess can do anything for Jean's wounds. Sir Kaeya claps a hand over his right eye as she looks up that doesn't hide the dried blood streaked all the way down to his chin.

Oh, right, the boys are here too. XD Also emphasizing how completely focused Barbara was--she takes the water they're making/melting for her above without any conscious awareness whatsoever of where it comes from, just that it's here and she needs it. Nothing else mattered until Jean was alive and going to stay that way.

"She's alive," she says aloud. "I'd like it if she woke up, so I could get her to use a Dandelion Breeze on herself, but... she's still alive, and mostly stable."

If this was where I'd ended the actual chapter, or had a clean scene break, it would end on 'she's still alive.' In fact, when I first wrote the first draft, it did! It felt nicely final to a very intense writing session. Then I came back the next day and had to continue the conversation (in which Diluc would never have changed the subject if he didn't feel it was safe for Jean to divert Barbara's attention), and it changed.

#why not meme i guess #asked and answered #i'll get to your other ask when i'm back in a 'can write kissing' mood. that one doesn't happen on command alas XD;;

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steddieunderdogfics · 1 year ago

Text

This week's writer spotlight feature is: @maryofdoom! They have forty-four Stranger Things and forty-three Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson works on archive of our own!!

@mojowitchcraft recommends the following works by ArgentumCivitas:

Tessellation

Every Time: A Steddie Drabble Collection

Corroded Coffin - Live On Tour - One Night Only

He Carries Me Quietly

Higher Education

Mary is such a talented writer, I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by her. She’s an incredible story teller and very generous with brainstorming offering advice. - @mojowitchcraft

Below the cut, @maryofdoom answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

To quote Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes, “I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul.” But for real, though, it's because my bestie and writing partner called me up on Discord one night and said, “Mary, you need to watch the first episode of Season 4 of Stranger Things. Right now. I mean it. I think the show is in love with Eddie.” (…Some, shall we say, substances may have been involved.) However, I stick with it because I love both the boys as characters. I think they're interesting. They have a lot of interesting aspects about them to explore, both singly and together, and I think we're all enjoying that.

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

Mutual pining! Good God, give me so much pining that I think I’m in the forest. Give me so much pining that I need to use an oil-based paint on them. Give me so much pining that I’ll saw those two boys into planks and repanel my house.

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

By far, it's when one of them has a crush on the other and is pissed off about it. There’s so much potential for sparky, interesting dialogue with other characters (and with each other) when the boys find themselves in that situation. And then it leads to interesting moments when they finally turn the corner and realize they’re not actually mad at the other one, they’re in love.

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

There are so, so many that I love. But instead of giving you one of the big ones, let me share this gem: Love My Way, by dreamspaces. It’s very short, at only 1,346 words, but sometimes a bite is as good as a meal.

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

It might be interesting to do something with “and they were roommates.” I haven’t truly messed around in that space, yet. I also haven’t done a proper enemies-to-lovers, either, mostly because I can’t stand to set up a proper enemy relationship at the beginning…but I am chewing on an idea at the moment that might necessitate that sort of opening relationship between them.

What is your writing process like?

It tends to follow a very specific order of operations:

Get an idea from somewhere. Possible avenues for ideas include conversations with friends, news stories overheard from NPR, something that hits while I’m listening to music, posts on Reddit, anything that turns up from general blorbo rotation, the works.

Write down the idea in my notes app of choice (I use Evernote)

Begin adding more thoughts and concepts to the idea (sometimes even snips of dialogue, if they hit interesting)

Once the idea has reached a critical enough mass, transfer it to Google Docs and turn it into a draft (if it’s a one-shot idea) or an outline (if it’s a longfic idea)

FOR A ONE-SHOT: begin writing the draft

FOR A LONGFIC: begin writing the outline, according to the outlining method detailed in Tom Lennon and Ben Garant’s Writing Movies for Fun and Profit (this book is half how to make it as a screenwriter in Hollywood and half solid craft advice on how to write a screenplay, and though I don’t want to write screenplays and though I was very skeptical until I tried it out, this is the only method that has worked to get me to finish any actual novel-length works)

FOR A ONE-SHOT: when the draft is done, put it down for as long as I can and then come back to it and revise it, heavily, to make it better

FOR A LONGFIC: once the outline’s done, actually write the thing

FOR A LONGFIC: once the thing’s written, put it down for as long as I can and then come back to it and revise it, basically rewriting it completely

FOR A LONGFIC: do the same thing again, and then again, pausing in between each iteration for as long as I can

FOR BOTH A ONE-SHOT AND A LONGFIC: once it’s to the point where I don’t hate it, get ahold of my bestie and writing partner and have her read it and crit it and tear it apart

(cry a little because her crit is probably right)

Implement the good changes and ignore the bad ones - sometimes we have a (good-natured) fight about which ones are which

Send it to my other writing friends for their thoughts and comments and incorporate those, in a similar fashion

Revise, again

Once it’s as done as it’s going to be, make a posting schedule (if it’s a longfic)

Get it out there, according to the posting schedule

Begin working on the next thing

Do you have any writing quirks?

I mean, I can sit here and say “Oh no, I definitely don’t,” but I’m sure that I do. I am sure I have a distinctive writing style, just as everyone else does, but I would have to defer to anyone who’s read multiple works I’ve written to pull out any specific “quirks.”I will note that I really try hard to get the characters’ voices down, in their dialogue. I don’t know that I always succeed, but I try.

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

Oh, a schedule, ABSOLUTELY. More power to those of you who post when you’re done writing, but I am the kind of person who needs to have everything DONE and ready to go before I put even a HINT of it up online. You can see this from my writing process. It doesn’t lend itself nicely to just throwing stuff out there as a work in progress.

Which fic are you most proud of?

Oooh, good question. I would have to say it’s a tie between the next two fics on this list. Tessellation, because I worked really hard on it (and because I figured out work skins), and He Carries Me Quietly, because I think it’s beautiful. The way it ends still gets me, even now. Not just because of the action that happens, but because of the words that I chose. I read them and I’m like, “...I wrote that? Damn, girl.”

How did you get the idea for Tessellation?

I mention it a little in its ending note, but I got the idea for Tessellation from a couple of places, one of which was the Steddie fandom itself. I love the idea of every single one of these 25,000+ stories about Steve and Eddie all being true all at once. Even the story of Stranger Things itself, as we see it on our TV screens, is just one possible version of the story that’s happening somewhere. (I truly believe that. I didn’t become an extremely lapsed Catholic for nothing. HECK THE RULES.)

When writing Tessellation, what was something you didn’t expect?

It was surprisingly easy to make connections between the six stories. It wasn’t like I was hunting for places to jam them in—they ended up falling into place very naturally. And I think my favorite one of these is when Steve, in the space story, is describing the spaceship that he pilots as “Rusalka class, she’s a good swimmer,” to Eddie, who presumably understands what this means in the context of the sci-fi world in which they live.

What inspired He Carries Me Quietly?

It started as something else entirely—a whole established-relationship fic with the kids coming over to Steve and Eddie’s (either house or apartment) to play D&D, with an arc about a blind Max being included as kind of an oracle or super-NPC through Eddie passing her index cards with Braille on them, so she could be part of the game when and if she wanted to be. The whole thing was supposed to be told in flashbacks. I had a whole scene where Steve was figuring out how to bake cookies for everyone with whatever meager ingredients he had on hand. …Then it took a hard left into religious trauma, through some meandering means. I guess it would be reasonable to say the inspiration, at that point, was seeing a tweet on then-Twitter with some speculation about how Eddie had come to live with Wayne. If it was the common (and unfortunate) queer-kid arc of being disowned by one’s parents. And then I thought, “Let’s go ahead and put Steve through that too, but let’s do it several years after it happens to Eddie, so that Steve has someone to guide him through the whole process.”

What was your favorite part to write from He Carries Me Quietly?

I think it was probably the opening, because of the rhythm of the sentences and how the sounds fit together with one another. I mean, if you choose to check it out, try reading the first few paragraphs out loud. It’s kind of what I think of when people talk about how writing has a cadence, or a musicality to it. That, and the ending. The ending, starting with, “There’s one more thing that Steve wants to know,” was one of those things that just fell perfectly into place. I can see it so clearly in my mind: the two of them having a conversation, late at night in bed together, after a traumatic day.

How do/did you feel writing Higher Education?

I love this goofy little story! It was part of a Discord server gift exchange in 2022 and my recipient said “College AUs are my jam,” so this is where my mind went. I wanted to consider a world where Eddie was the frat boy, instead of Steve. But if that were the case, the fraternity would have to be a pretty non-traditional one, wouldn’t it? The fictional Lambda House is based heavily on the fraternity house where I used to hang out in college. (It was at an engineering school and was populated entirely by nerds.)

What was the most difficult part of writing Higher Education?

The actual writing itself, honestly. Winter 2022 was a really difficult time for me, personally, and though I signed up for the fic exchange with all optimism and good wishes, it was a struggle to get everything done in time.

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

One that really stands out to me is from Wrong Number, which was a oneshot I wrote based on a short conversation with some Discord friends. Picture it: Eddie and Jonathan and Argyle are all hanging out in the basement, and they’re all extremely high. Argyle, in his own way, can sense that something is wrong with Eddie. In order to get him to confess to whatever’s on his mind, they reference the pact they made that “anything said in the basement stays in the basement. It’s the law of the basement.” That just hits me as something so quintessentially Argyle.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

Oh my, yes! I have two longfics in the pipeline that I hope to be sharing with everyone soon (or, well, as soon as I can get them through my Process). The Music of the Spheres is a Regency AU with a smoldering slow burn and an eventual happily-ever-after, while Home for the Holidays is a genre mashup: Steve’s in a Hallmark Christmas romance and Eddie’s in a psychological thriller. I am also rotating a couple more ideas in my brain that could potentially be longer works as well, but we’ll see how those go.

Outside of these questions, Is there anything YOU would like to add?

I think the esteemed and prolific two-time-Hugo-Award-nominee Dr. Chuck Tingle puts it very nicely when he says: “CREATE. BUILD. EXPRESS. CONQUER THE LYING VOICE THAT SAYS YOUR TECHNICAL PERFECTION IS BETTER THAN TRUTH OF THE MOMENT. FILL THE VOID WITH ART and do not fear because weve got your back buckaroo. we are ALL creators in our own way so LETS HECKIN CREATE.” Let’s heckin’ create, buckaroos. I’ll see you out there in the word mines.

Thank you to our author, @maryofdoom, and our nominator, @mojowitchcraft! See more of @maryofdoom's works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

#steddie #steddie fic recs #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie writers #writer's spotlight #writer's wednesday #maryofdoom

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adamsvanrhijn · 4 months ago

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13, 19, 36 for the writing ask game :3c

date of origin in my drafts august 21 2022... i didn't have answers so doing that now

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

this is soo vague. idk man. genre wise i'm pretty bad at scifi & fantasy because i get caught up in worldbuilding (many such cases) but Subject Matter... idk, a lot of the things i know a lot about and am interested in are not the things the characters i write do a lot of the time, which can be tough, so i try to leverage historical research & knowledge to compensate for that

idk, i feel like i'm an I Can Do Anything If I Put My Mind To It person sometimes and i can't think of anything specific here! certainly like types of stories or narratives or Tropes i sometimes prefer more than others but not sure that applies here :-)

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

i was that weirdo writing stories in kindergarten... very young age. then i ended up on a single fandom fansite that had fanfic and that sparked that particular kind of writing which i never stopped doing... i was very prolific in middle school on ffn unfortunately. i also had opportunities to like, go to writing camp and stuff as a kid/young teen and then i took a bit of creative writing in college so i had a solid background of Form by the time i was Seriously writing fanfic for people that actually cared. original stuff has come and gone but i'm really not interested in ~going pro or even self-published pro, despite a conceit that i probably could be successful at it if i really put my mind to it. i don't tend to be very interested in things that are easy to make commercial in fiction unfortunately so that would be the issue there... expecting to just focus on fic for the rest of my life :-)

36. They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice...what do you Know?

it's notttt terrible advice it's valuable for beginner authors who do not link what they know to be true about the way, for example, people behave and speak, in the case of having human characters who behave and speak, and what they are familiar with enough to describe intimately, to the stuff they are writing - leveraging the things you are already aware of about yourself and your surroundings because for most people starting out that tends to be easier and result in a higher quality work. "well i don't care about if it's easy" then you should look somewhere else than beginner writer advice!

for example i know a lot about language itself (functionally), and dialogue tends to come pretty easily to me but i am not a very visual person and don't really have interests or past education that require me to pay attention in detail to & be able to name specific elements of things like, idk, trees or cars to use a twitter case - so it's harder for me to write visual descriptions in a way that is accurate, good, and distinctive

#queue tag #most people i see complaining about this advice interpret it as decrying genre fiction?#and then they proceed to write not very good genre fiction. because they do not actually know much about genre fiction.#and it's like - yeah all writing is Valid and Practice. but if you are seeking writing advice from others you presumably want to meet an ex #if you Don't care about what other people find good or common Standards & Understandings #then just ignore the advice #i feel like genre fiction Especially benefits from starting off writing about what you know tbqh!

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rmd-writes · 8 months ago

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💙🤎🖤

💙 Blue: What inspires you to finish writing a fanfic, and what makes you quit writing one at any stage in the process?

Answered here

🤎 Brown: How did you decide to write (or why are you writing) a certain fanfic?

to the victor, the spoils aka my firstprince lawyer au came about because @indomitable-love love said that there wasn't enough [redacted trope but specifically as colleagues] in the fandom (we probably had that conversation late in 2021) and we were bouncing ideas for ways to make it work in the gc and then I said "but what if they were lawyers?"

I ran off to @welcometololaland because while I'm a lawyer, my area of law is pretty niche so I anticipated maybe needing some help, and then started writing. As it turned out, my first complete draft was very heavy on the smut and light on the law because I was worried people would find the legal things boring. Joke was on me because @indomitable-love and @athousandrooms both said that actually, they wouldn't mind seeing more the legal aspects of the story, so I went back and wrote more in!

🖤 Black: Do you think about your story when you're not physically writing it? Does it help with plotting scenes, character arcs, etc.?

Yes, and it's annoying because it's often at times when I can't actually write so I end up sending voice notes or DMs that are like "ignore me, just need to get this down somewhere so I don't lose it ..."

Does it help? Absolutely, without those random thoughts my fics wouldn't get written at all!

#fanfic heart ask game

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sweetfirebird · 2 years ago

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er. the process.

*weak jazz hands*

Someone asked, which then forced me to again think upon the mess that might be called "my process."

It is organized. It is not at all organized.

I did a Q&A on Patreon for patrons last year and some of them asked sort of similar questions, which I did my best to answer. I looked at those again, and I am going to post one of the questions and my answer here. But I'm not sure it's even what "my process" fully is.

(But also like, part of me feels like this is all pretty standard writing stuff. I mean, as I say, I don't write plot-based stories. I do character-based stories. So if you are a heavy plotter, this might be weird looking to you)

Anyway, the answer from that Q&A session. Question asked by KGA. <3

I'm curious which comes to you first, the characters or the story idea, and how much do you know/plan before you write the book.

--Sometimes, it starts with a notion. The notion can be small. “Dragon woos someone with garbage.” Which was a tumblr discussion that eventually, eventually, led to Zarrin. (It’s not quite garbage, in the end, but Joe was still confused.) Sometimes, it starts from a discussion about fun tropes from which we get “hyper space nerd has to be rescued repeatedly by giant space marine and at some point, has to think he’s been left behind only then giant space marine returns to save him.” And… you can tell what that ended up. Delf was because I just… originally wanted to do something with knights and a threatening vibe (what the threat was, I hadn’t decided yet). Knights alone in a dark, dark wood, that sort of thing, was the original notion. But why make the woods scary when the rest of the world is really what you should keep your eye on?

Occasionally, the character or part of the character comes first. I saw the name Potts on something and wanted to think about a gentle soul named Potts. (Or Jericho. Whatever).

Then I stew over the idea for a while. It rarely stays in its original raw form but the joy I took in that idea has to stay. That is the important thing. And then I start to consider what would get me to the point necessary for space nerd to always be in danger, to consider why the lonely witch in his lonely house is so lonely in the first place, or what on earth two knights would be doing in the woods if they aren’t after a dragon or a grail.

The steps are roughly the same after that. (Roughly.) Muse on it until it sparks into scenes or more ideas that please my brain. Extend a premise out of that. Then think about plot and characters. But characters first. Plotting is not my strong suit.

I make what I call ‘notes.’ Which is sort of an outline, or a map. I do it in linear order, because the characters grow over the course of a story so I can’t jump ahead too far or I will pay for it later when the characters that they become no longer want or need to do a thing I thought they might.

This process takes a while, and it basically… hmm I described it somewhere once as sort of like building a house. Sort of. The first part of the notes process is just me trying to get out all the ideas that have been forming in my head, including any specific scenes or lines I thought of.

Then I go to the start of the document and make little character sheets for their names and maybe some stuff about them. (There are a lot of question marks here.) Then once I have a better idea of my people, I go back to the outline part and I start to fill it in. This takes several passes and generally some time. A week or two or much longer than that, depending on the book or story. Each pass has more detail. Sometimes I will basically write a whole scene, including dialogue, but in messy note form.

When it actually gets written, though, sometimes that whole scene changes or gets cut. So what I call notes goes from true notes, to an outline, to a first draft of sorts, before I actually “write” it.

The notes for the ending scenes are always the most vague, deliberately. I usually have some sort of ending in mind (Confront emperor. Declare feelings in public. Realize your two boyfriends are your two boyfriends. And so on.) but, like I said, the characters will have been changed by the events of the story (some of which I don’t even know about yet) so the exact details cannot be known.

Little Wolf in my original notes ran away from Wolf’s Paw to protect it from Silas and also because he was used to running when he was scared. He goes back to Los Cerros, finds Ray (and Cal) and eventually Nathaniel came to get him. This was a terrible idea and because it was just notes, easy enough to delete and change. It would not have suited the Tim we actually get at the end of the book, because that Tim didn’t want to run anymore. Our baby grew up. Aw.

The notes I am working on now for a new thing have gone through… several versions omg. Over the past two years, I have considered and reconsidered what I wanted to do with this story and, in fact, at the time of answering this, I had only just figured out the end. And by that, I mean, it’s roughly there. It’s also finally more of what I want. My brain wantsto tell this story, so this is the one. Hopefully, it’s romantic enough for everyone. I think it is, or will be, with some more tweaking. (And you know, all the writing I have to do.)

(The new thing in question was Forget-Me-Not btw.)

#r. cooper #writing #from patreon #writer stuff #asks

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wishmemel · 2 years ago

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Heyy! I saw your ask a fanfic writer post so I hope you don't mind me participating :D

5, 17, 19, 20, 39, 42, 45, & 64

[ I would've asked more, but I don't want to overwhelm you w a bunch of asks 😭]

hi hi i appreciate you going out of your way to ask ! thank u sm for this as i’ve never gotten a chance to participate in one of these before > <

5. have you ever made a playlist about something you were writing as an elaborate means to procrastinate when you could have been actually writing and if yes drop a link, son

when it comes to playlists, i make them for my own OCs - not really for fics that i've written ! (but i have a playlist for satoru that is... still a work in progress. i'll totally share once i feel like i'm actually getting somewhere > <)

17. what is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

this is such a good question omg - had to scroll through all my unpublished wips for this, but my favourite line at the moment would be:

"IS A STORY DEEMED A TRAGEDY IF YOU TAKE BACK WHAT WAS YOURS (you can raise the dead, climb through hell, and fight the devil if you must; even the gods won’t interfere when they see a wrath like yours, harbinger. fear not, child of stars, lady midnight, the gods need not your wrath to bring about your damnation.)"

hehe this is from one of those never-ending fics that i keep in my drafts and finish two years later cause why not !

19. what are some books or authors that influenced your style the most?

rick riordan honestly altered my brain chemistry as a child. he was my favourite author for so long which is why i was a little disappointed when i grew up and read about all the cultural stereotypes in his writing :( aside from him, i know this is controversial, but i really like sarah j. maas's writing style for some reason? she focuses a lot on characters, rather than plot, and i tend to do the same, but overall i just enjoy her silly writing.

20. what is your favorite trope to write?

ahh this is such a hard one to choose from, but if i'm being honest i'm always a sucker for two characters in a relationship arguing and being really hurtful towards each other, and then later making up and being so so soft. idk if it counts as a trope, but i have countless wips of this ^.^

39. are you an avid reader?

yes ! ever since childhood ! i used to be a really shy kid and would always read while the teacher was talking until i was told multiple times to put my book away > < i'm more social now and usually only read during breaks when i don't have school to worry about !

42. describe the aesthetic of a story in 5 words.

this question confuses me a little, honestly... like one of my stories? a story i like? i'm so confused > <

since it's not very specific, i'm going to do it based off of this: JJK Men Tropes, if that's okay !

Suguru Version (cause i've been thinking of @mambalae-s recently and i'm always reminded of her love for Suguru): imprints, confessions, promises, childhood, and forever !

45. name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

it's been a while since i've read fanfic and this is more than three, i'm sorry > <

@tawus, @/beaubcxton on ao3, @/impxria on ao3, @edendaphne, and @/xoxodee on ao3 !

64. what is your favourite title for a fic you’ve read?

honestly, any taylor swift lyrics, but also you don't even know me at all (but i was made for loving you), and What Shall I Swear By? (Swear By Yourself, and I’ll Believe You), and Say It Later, Say It Now, and i put this heavy heart in you (it's not your fault) !

i find them all so so poetic and heart-wrenching !

ask game - come say hi (i promise i don't bite ^.^)

#i've read too many miraculous fics haven't i ^^#i don't even like the show #what's wrong with me #i have like 600 fanfics in my bookmarks #i wanna make a rec list #and omg don't apologize ml !!#i love answering these and talking about myself > <#thank u sm for participating #i had so much fun scrounging up these answers #it's nice to have a friend #i think she knows

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eyrieofsynapses · 8 months ago

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Aggregating some of the tips in the notes, plus adding a few.

Anyone telling you that you have to read X book to be a "true reader" is a snobbish lying asshole. Don't get caught in their superiority complex.

Audiobooks! If you just can't stay focused on a text, you can listen while you do chores or drive or whatever you want. (As someone with ADHD, I adore audiobooks, because they make boring tasks tolerable and even fun sometimes.)

Find the format that works for you! Don't like physical books? Use e-books. Don't like reading text? Listen to audiobooks/audio dramas. Don't like texts or audio? Try graphic novels/mangas/webcomics/comic collections/etc. Don't like long stories? Check out some literary magazines or poetry. Hell, you can go read online blogs, news articles, whatever. None of these are more or less valid than the other.

Read it out loud to yourself! Try silly voices! Or, even better, find a reading buddy to read out loud to.

You don't need to challenge yourself; you're more than welcome to stay in your comfort zone. If that zone is one specific genre or plot, go for it! (there's a reason why fanfic tropes exist, you're hardly alone)

On the flip side, sometimes challenging yourself to try something new is the spice that you need to stay focused or interested. Of course, you don't have to stick to the challenge if you don't want to--like everything else, you can drop it at any time.

You can come back to things! Think you'll enjoy a book, but you just can't quite get through it right now? Pick it up again in a couple years and see what's different.

There is no superior genre or form of literature. Kid's books, ancient Greek epics, young adult, poetry, nonfiction essays, educational books, purely for-fun sci-fi and/or fantasy, philosophy, classics, short stories, Wild West, mechas, mystery novels, erotica, horror, high fantasy, it literally does not matter. If you like it, it has just as much value as anything else.

Don't know what to read or what you'd like? Ask around! A librarian can chat with you and match you to a book; a friend can point you to what they know you might like; ask around on social media, whether that be a Discord server, Tumblr, whatever. Be as specific or as general as you please.

Chances are good that the thing you want is out there somewhere. It might take some digging to find, but it'll be there.

Don't just pick up whatever you find at the front of the library or bookstore. Go wander around the shelves, pull things off at random, read the first paragraph or two, and put them back on if you want. (This is sadly harder with e-book apps, but not impossible; usually there are collections you can skim through. They do provide samples.) Librarians won't be mad if you pull ten books and return nine (or all!) of them unread; you're just figuring out what you like.

Fond of a TV show or movie series or games or something similar? Ask readers in those communities what they like to read. If you've got similar taste in shows/games/etc., you'll likely have similar tastes in reading.

Check out some open mic nights! Yeah, it's not reading a text or anything, but you're enjoying stories. That's what it's all about, at the end of the day.

From personal experience: if you enjoy writing, it's absolutely worth joining a writing community and reading other people's WIPs and drafts. I have absolutely loved my writing workshops, because I get to read some fantastic work from my classmates. Too many times have I read a manuscript and gone "...well fuck, I want this as a book." Plus, writers often have good taste, so they can point you to good stuff.

Two things I've learned about through writing classes that I didn't know otherwise:

Take a look at nonfiction essay collections. (Essays in the sense of short stories, mostly.) One of my best friends writes the most delightful short stories based on his experiences, varying from eye-opening reflections to laugh-out-loud fun. Plus, nonfiction essays can be pretty dang short--sometimes nonfiction essays only run a page long, occasionally even shorter.

POETRY IS NOT JUST RHYMES AND MIND PUZZLES (for fuck's sake, education systems). There's free verse! There's modern poetry that is gorgeous and also hilarious! There's poetry to raise awareness, to educate, to rage at oppressors! There's poetry that's just there to make you laugh! Poetry is not a genre, it is a form. Here's two opening stanzas from Tim Seibles's "Ambition II: Mosquito in the Mist" (I could only find it online in that article, so just scroll down a little):

You human-types, you two-legged sapien-sapiens, you guys are walking smoothies ta me, milkshakes wearin’ trousers, a cup’a coffee mowing a lawn. I gotta hand it to you though— all the colors, the smells, tall, petite, skinny-minnies or whoppin’ whale-sized motha’ humphries—you got variety: I’m zippin’ around some summa’ nights and it’s like an all-you-can-eat situation.

And that's just the first two stanzas! I promise you, if they taught this type of poetry in high school people would fucking love it.

And finally: if you don't want to read, don't. There's only so much time to be enjoyed in life.

Don't make yourself do something you don't like just because everyone tells you to. "Be yourself" applies to reading just as much as it does to everything else.

people will read books they Do Not Like™ and then wonder why they hate reading

#whoops left this in my drafts apparently #anyway! there's a million ways to read if you want to y'know? don't limit yourself by other people's requirements #reading #synapse talks #libraries

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blue-manuscript · 10 months ago

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WIP Questionnaire

The rules: Answer as many (or as few) of the questions about your WIP as you can.

WIP: The Lucien Project

1. What was the first part of your WIP that you created?

I actually originally wrote this as a short story for a creative writing class about twelve years ago. I tried a couple times to adapt it into a novel, and then got busy with college and kind of forgot about it.

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

The song would be soft piano in a minor key, definitely originally composed by someone I care about because music is my other passion. I think the visuals that would go on screen with the music would look like Lucien's thoughts: flashes of dolphins, the hospital, the red-walled playroom , Aurelia, etc.

3. What are your favorite characters that you made? Why?

I have loved Lucien and Aurelia for a very long time. Part of what makes writing this piece hard is that I love them, but the story around them largely does not. I love Lucien because he feels like me, and I love Aurelia because everybody needs a friend like her.

4. What other pieces of media do you think your fan base would share?

I'm not completely sure how to answer this question. I think it would draw people who like Stanger Things, but I'd argue that The Lucien Project is in a different genre. It's about kids being forced to deal with things they are too young to be dealing with on their own.

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your WIP?

I have always had a very set, tragic ending for this story. I don't want to write it, but, in my heart, I know that it's the way the story should end.

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

Animals are in The Lucien Project are more symbolic than tangible. Dolphins, because that's how Lucien says hello. Robin, because that's how Lucien sees Aurelia. (My dad thinks Lucien should be able to communicate with animals, and I'm still struggling with whether to work this in or not. There's a potential that Lucien could end up with a mimicking bird as a translator.)

7. How do your characters get around? (Ex. Trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

So far, Lucien has only traveled on his own feet, around the halls of the hospital. Aurelia is driven by her parents in cars, and I can imagine her taking a train somewhere fancy.

8. What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

Aurelia and Lucien have been separated for some time; I am working on getting their plot lines to align again.

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe) of your WIP do you think will draw people in?

The main character is autistic coded, and, hopefully, should feel relatable to some readers like him. (It feels relatable for me, at least. It's been healing to write it for the most part.)

10. What are your hopes for your WIP?

My goal was to finish the first, complete draft of the novel by my birthday. I have left the Children alone for far too long.

Tagged by @winglesswriter (thank you so much!)

not tagging anybody specifically - play if you want to!!

#The Lucien Project #creative writing #tag game

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allqrcoded · 2 years ago

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early concept art of the protags in the game. some of the info here (especially in shan daxing's aka jen yichen.. as his old name was) are very outdated, so i didn't feel the need to censor as much in the bullet points. i changed so much in the story for it to fit in a game context, it's pretty ridiculous. the lore i included in public rkgks in my art blog is also ..severely different from today's. let's just say that most of the stuff i put in there are shaky at best.

in all honesty, i found beta sdx's hair .. really hard to draw. and something about it didnt really click with me. a couple of doodles later, i decided that i liked it better when his hair was half-parted, like the one where i drew him but water-clogged.. it just kinda evolved the more i sdxs i drew .

other than sdx's hair.. geng xiangfeng's (protag) had some drafts before landing on the definitive version we have today. i wanted to make someone who looks like they're struggling and in a bit of a pot hole... but also make them a wagey., specifically, an office worker. i drew him with short, slicked back hair in the beginning, but it was too "neat", so i lengthened it a bit + made him have messy bangs. he also used to have a side part ?? well, that's gone.

i forgot the real reason why i wanted to make sdx (or a third character), but i'm sure it's something along the lines of "it would be painful if gfx, would experience his story alone and with little to no support", so i made him. i'd like to think this game as sort of a letter to myself. it has all the things i enjoy in media..: angels, introspection, office men and situationships with a lot of hugot.

more on sdx.. thinking of a possible character trope he would fall into was also pretty difficult. i was wondering: what sort of person would gxf get along with? i had the mindset that the guy who he had relations with in the 1st place was already good, but i wouldn't want another one of him,... especially in the same story because variety and all. the first guy i drafted in the road to sdx was cute, so i kept him on the page and not scrapbooked over him... sooner or later, i ended up with the definitive sdx! cool. i might use beta sdx somewhere in a separate series. who knows.. he's just there, i guess.

#angel care #drafts #the more i post here the more i talk

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tired-beholding-bitch · 3 years ago

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I've read your rant about jmart chemistry and now I want a fic exactly like that: they get to know each other and fall in love without having to deal with the entities. Do you have any recommendations?

hello! I do have some recs ✨

just a little note: there's so many AUs out there of all different kinds and I'm not sure if you were looking for anything specific so I'm going to mix a couple things in that I feel focus on the falling-in-love part. but yeah, there are a lot of fics that qualify as "falling in love without dealing with the entities" that might be more or less complex, they’re lovely and hopefully one day I'll manage to make some more comprehensive recs. these are only the ones I think might fit best with that idea in mind but rest assured there’s more 💙

| One Step Behind (by acrisisofbeholding, Wildshadows) - ~4k, this is just. adorable. I read it one morning and it made me smile every time I thought about it for the whole day. perfect little hit of sweetness, very lighthearted, and also the whole concept is Very Them, 10/10

| in the rough draft he loved you (by cryptidkidprem) - ~12k, set somewhere else, they meet because Jon works at a bookshop and he's a nerd about books which. accurate. they do get back their memories eventually but this is incredibly sweet and totally worth reading! also that title makes me want to rip all my hair out it makes me feel things

| Blackwood Blends AU (series) (by bluejayblueskies) - ~7k total, GOD the love I have for this series is. unreal. just-- it’s perfect, it’s lovely, there’s a wonderfully delicate discussion of Jon’s asexuality as well and. I would die for this series thank you for coming to my Ted Talk

| stranger, stranger (by blueskiddoo) - ~36k, online dating au in which they don’t know they’re talking to each other, if you haven’t read it yet, go. it’s a must-read it’s. so lovely and funny and tender, and it does the whole oh-looks-like-once-we-use-our-words-we-do-like-each-other SO well. fun fact this is the first ever tma fic I read and I keep it so close to my heart, it’s my beloved, I’m going to go re-read it now

| Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma? (by ChristinMKay) - ~11k, professor au and fake dating what more could you ask, I feel like I haven’t screamed about this fic enough on here or, at least, not as much as I have screamed about it in my daily life. I think about it weekly. I am in love with it and it also explores really well how it was literally never about not liking each other as people and all about shit communication, which makes for lovely romance once it gets fixed. and in excellent writing as well

| Christmas on Hollyberry Lane (by CirrusGrey) - ~18k, I will never not recommend this fic, it’s the cutest! Hallmark Christmas movie-adjacent, it has small town charm and journalist!Jon and it’s just beautifully written and adorable, perfect for when you’re feeling a little down!

| a consideration of tropes (by gruhukens) - ~41k, this fic for the love of god go read it. it’s so precious, so well-written, what is there not to love about something that has “how many tropes i can fit into this” as a premise. it’s absolutely lovely and it makes for a very soft, comforting read!

that’s all I have for now without getting too specific, but I hope it’s kind of what you were looking for! 🌺

#tired answers #tma #fic rec #jonmartin #teaholding #oh i'm. going to start another tag yep. i feel like it'll be useful so #tired recs #i'm glad the chemistry rant was appreciated it was great to rant as well #but anyways #sue me i like my coffeeshop aus alright #actually i feel like we dont have ENOUGH coffeeshop aus in this fandom #yes i read every single one available to me #on that note if you want check out the other rec too! there's a couple that might qualify as well #also! if you see your fic here and would like to get tagged/mentioned by you tumblr @ just say! <3 #*your #usually i don't tag either because i'm not sure of the name or if it'd be appreciated if we don't really know each other well but!#no problem with adding it in if you'd like :D #thank you all for writing these though they are DELIGHTFUL <3333 #long post

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coffee-at-annies · 1 year ago

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I love this. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with a lot of the early stuff and how things have changed on the rpf side of things. I wanna add that it’s not just rpf that’s changed, it’s also the wider perception of the team and the boys. We know a lot more about Sid and Geno, but also Flower and Tanger and so many of the other guys. What we know now, is so so soooo different from what we knew then that it feels like two different sets of people.

If you’d asked me when I started reading fic if fandom thought Flower and Geno were friends I’d tell you no. The French Canadian crew (Flower, Tanger, Duper) were Sid’s sounding board and and his little council of friends to wingman for him/create circumstances to make him confess to Geno. Cause again, Sid was the protagonist, Geno the love interest, and Flower was the best friend. Except the image of Geno in the custom Flower jersey as a goodbye and honor to him on the eve of the vegas draft is burned into my memory and makes me so emo about them. I wonder if some of it is stuff like marriage/long term relationships - and fatherhood for Geno - making both of them more mellow or interesting from a reporting standpoint. Both Kris and Geno used to be bad boys that took too many stupid penalties and now both of them are fathers. Even if you’re writing something with them as college students, the perception and media attention has shifted the narrative.

Sid and Geno have shifted in fandom’s minds eye, but the marketing of the team has shifted too. I have literally watched the Penguins organization rewrite the narrative from its two superstars - the two headed monster - Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, to the longest tenured trio in sports - Crosby Malkin and Letang. If you’d asked anyone in 2017 when we didn’t protect Flower from the draft if you thought the organization would resign Letang when his contract was up you’d probably get some hemming and hawing and a comment that they could probably find first pair D somewhere else for cheaper. Tanger has made himself an indispensable part of the identity of the team, but he has carved that space for himself with his high level of play and the goal of keeping Sidney Crosby happy.

I also love the comment of “it’s been 10 years in a very niche community” cause you’re right it has been 10 years. Idk if newer fans know this but if SidGeno was a big MSF pairing (thank you for introducing me to that term), one of the biggest pairings was K*ne/T*ews for the same reasons - h*wks won a bunch of cups and you had the smirking bad boy and the grumpy rule follower. Even fics that were about Sid and Geno would have them as the secondary pairing. If writers included other teams, usually Ovi, Gonch, or a random Russian player would act as Geno’s outside-the-team voice of wisdom and Tazer or maybe Price would act as Sid’s. These were the days before Mackinnon or McDavid were drafted, back when Seguin getting traded to Dallas was shiny and new and before Benn got cancelled. It was the height of the Grilled Cheesby rivalry before worlds made it into something different. Then fandom got a wake up call about k*ne and a lot of people got burned and either dropped chicago in general or hrpf in specific.

Even without controversy, the natural turnover of fandom, of time passing, of life means that people come in and write what they want and find new things to write about and leave. Even outside of writers I can list URLs I started following in 2016 that were beloved mutuals but I can’t tell you the last time I saw them in the liveblog tags if they’re even still active on tumblr. These people bring their perception of the boys and their favorite tropes with them, and sometimes they leave with that too. There are absolutely tropes in fandom that you can trace back to a single author or friend group. You shouted out sevenfists but I remember a lot of fluffy domestic sidgeno from secretsidgenowriter who has left rpf. That turnover brings changes that I wonder if people who have only been here for a season or two notice.

I have watched fandom perception and participation shift in a lot of big and small ways and embrace every fact that the boys are willing to share. We still make up stuff wholecloth sometimes but there is a richer foundation to work with that just didn’t exist 10 years ago as Sid was tight lipped and Geno didn’t want to talk and no one cared about the boys underneath The Next One or the Russian Bear or the Two Headed Monster so long as they put the team of their back and put up points. I definitely think as they’ve aged and hit milestones and become more comfortable they’ve chosen to share more of themselves with each other and with the public. We as fans benefit from that.

could you explain more about what you view as the before era and what you view as the after? i need to learn my herstory

I think this requires a more detailed and educated/researched answer than I can give after an exhausting workday and an after-hours work event, but I'm going to do my best and also open up the floor in reblogs for people to chip in their thoughts

foremost: a DISCLAIMER that this post does not aim to shit on writers from the "before" era. there are many classic fics that I love and enjoy, even if I consider their characterizations to be "less accurate"* than the ones we have in the after era.

*aside to say: accuracy is based only off of literal media accounts we have of these men; we do not know them, we should not claim to know them, and they have had different comfort levels with the media knowing selective truths about their lives [sid out of choice, geno out of media xenophobia] than they did when these early fics were being written.

"before" fics (which I tend to refer to as "classic" fics, and had their heyday in 2012-2013 but continued up until 2016ish) tended to have more regimented roles for sid and geno. sid was usually the protagonist; geno was the love interest.

this came with a cascading set of characteristics assigned to each guy. sid was poor-little-meow-meow'd. geno was the pursuer in the relationship. sid usually bottomed. sid had the whole spacetoaster moment (he was the inspiration for the term, haha). there wasn't much a/b/o fic but sid was, like, the omega-fied one and geno was alpha-ized.

something I've been thinking about more recently is how 2012-2013 era sidgeno displayed signs of Migratory Slash Fandom. I don't think of MSF as an inherently negative/condemning thing, but I think it's a phenomenon that deserves to be mentioned/analyzed, yeah?

MSF thrives on big character differences.... like, grumpy/sunshine, sarcastic/broody, genius/empath. it's all about emphasizing disparate archetypes to create natural tension in a story. this works really well in most romance novels! I love it!

the issues arise when people try to make characters fit into these preset dynamics. and, frankly, when sidgeno first got big, we straight-up didn't know as much about sid and geno. I mean that. despite sid being EXTENSIVELY covered by media from age, like, 14, he was really tight-lipped compared to what we have now.

and geno was.... there. I don't mean that as a diss—he was INCREDIBLE, but the media totally passed him over again and again. or they helped contribute to stereotypes of him being a dumb oaf who didn't know english.

aside: ironically I think that helped in creating sidgeno and not, like.... sidflower or sidtanger. geno was so "DIFFERENT" from sid (aka: russian, characterized by media as not knowing how to speak [in comparison to sid's highly curated media soundbites]) that it meant he was the best candidate for A Ship with sid.

a lot of the really big writers who got into sidgeno were fandom veterans with lots of experience in other big fandoms. to me, that means MSF had a hand in all this. and we should be grateful, because it led to the BOOM of hockey fic, and of sidgeno fic specifically. modern hrpf wouldn't exist without it.

that being said, those template ship dynamics, plus the media's attitude then towards sid and geno in its coverage, led to those characterizations of whiny soft sensitive boy sid who needed to be rescued even though he was the best hockey player EVER, and geno as the lumbering tall strong alpha not-that-bright Love Interest Man.

this isn't to say every fic was this way, or that this is BAD. I, uh, love poor-little-meow-meow-ing sid and omegafying the hell out of him. what I'm saying is that it was a near-ubiquitous characterization across the board.

that all changed in 2016-2018. I personally wholly credit sevenfists, though I imagine it's more nuanced than that, but: my blog, I make the rules here. I don't know if sevenfists was psychic or just highly observant and absolutely excellent at reading people (and that's basically the same thing, right?), but characterization shifts began taking place in fic....

and the coolest thing happened, in that those characterizations were seemingly reinforced by more media coverage. the back to back cups brought with them TONS of interviews with and media about the team, and sid and geno in particular. the coolest part of it was that sid had loosened up a LOT and geno had gotten more comfortable (and had gotten a reporter firmly on his side).

the interviews about sid post 2016 were just SO different. so much information started coming out, and a LOT of it conflicted with Ye Olde Characterizations. as it turned out, sid was deeply one of the boys. he was funny. everyone liked him. he loved hosting. he was insanely comfortable around almost everyone, including strangers, because he's a little freak who's kind to everyone. he can make smalltalk like no one's business. he's kind of gross. he likes to giggle and be in on jokes and get into the thick of it. he isn't some blushing virgin bride sold off of mario's doorstep, yeah?

and geno, too, was finally getting the coverage he deserved. and his personality was both fortified by age and better shown to us through media. as it turns out, he isn't some happy go lucky oaf. he's mercurial and intensely aware of what others think of him (and he CARES). he's sensitive and thoughtful but also can lash out at random times. he has a wicked sense of humor that he uses as a defense mechanism and as a surefire way to get people to like him, which matters to him. and, as everyone says, he is SMART.

if you had to boil it down, I'd say that post-2016, it became clear that SID is the confident one and GENO is the insecure one. and fic caught onto that with a miraculously fast pace. also: they're more alike than they are different, but I still think romance inherently feeds off of difference and tension, so we still exaggerate things to make the stories ✨WORK✨.

I'm not going to give examples of pre- and post- era fics, because I don't want to point any fingers and say someone was doing characterization "wrong." that's not the takeaway I want anyone to have here.

fandom attitudes have changed. it's been 10 years since that first wave of fics, and while I don't think that's very long, it's a hell of a long time on the internet, and in a niche internet community. what was once the standard for fics (and what was well-read, and what people gravitated towards) was different. not worse—different.

I think it's fair to say the "after" era of fics is more "accurate" to what we know of sid and geno. it's also fair to say that this is only the case because we have a WEALTH of information, character-revealing interviews and videos and anecdotes, that Ye Old Authors could only dream of getting.

I really love the story of how everything has changed, and it's a fabulous microcosm of fandom evolution and how approaches to fanworks have changed and grown with fandom, and I think it's all so so cool.

#chit chat #rpf mention #I could write a dissertation of characterization then and how it simply is different from what we know now #remember the years Sid spent having his house built and everyone thought it’s cause he didn’t like it #and now we just know Sid is a specific little bitch and that’s so fun #I also think like - and these aren’t the right words - but like 00s and early 10s homophobia and stereotypes absolutely influenced the roles #like Sid liking to bottom is linked to like homophobia of it’s only gay if you’re getting penetrated and the feminization of gay men #that’s a different dissertation I’m much sketchier on #bc I don’t think it’s all like that but it adds to subtext and perceptions on what it means to love a teammate and in the locker room #and as general acceptance of queerness has grown it’s less deeply shameful to be gay in a locker room and more ‘who is safe to come out to’#so so so many fics had Sid assuming Geno would be homophobic because Russian and he’s now on record saying he’d be okay with a gay teammate #anyway I don’t think we’re perfect - I think fandom has its biases on how it writes them and that colors things like characterization #personally my own hc’s contradict a lot of common fanon - big believer in alpha/alpha s/g #but we are working from a very different starting point and with much more information than we used to have #and it’s really important to acknowledge that when going back and reading old fic #it’s not wrong - it’s just different

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