#stuff that would like span from their origins until where they are here

[saturnine-blue]

I got lost in the sauce making headcannons that I can't even begin to explain anyways I made some slightly aged up designs for the entire high stakes crew to account for the extra lore in my brain

theyre very important to me can you tell

[themusingsofacurlyhairednerd]

In the Moonlight

Author's Note: This is a part of the Dancing With the Devil AU, but can be read as a stand alone. The Vamp!Rhys brain rot has taken over and there aren't enough fics to satisfy me so I wrote more ;)

Pairing: Vamp!Rhys x Reader x Vamp!Azriel

Content Warnings: SMUT, threesomes, oral (f and m receiving) blood, typical vampire stuff

Based on this post/ original fic

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You’ve always loved music, the steady flow of the strings, the heavy pulse of the drums; it’s always been something that moves and excites you, your body knows how to respond to it as if it's its basest instinct. Music was the siren song that had pulled you and Nesta to the dance floor all those years ago, as children, eager to dance and move and lose yourself in the steps of a blooming waltz that made the other mortal children dizzy. It had been one of your few chances at freedom, and you had chased that opportunity all the way to the Velaris Estate weeks ago, and had now found a new sense of freedom.

It’s still tied to music, by some humorous twist of fate. You’d learned early on that the Lord of the Estate had the set list planned: Something graceful and elegant to start, the slow thrum of the string section pushing people onto the dance floor, highlighting easy prey in those lingering on the edge with no partner to claim them. Then something more sensual, as the predators take the floor, snatching their prey with a charming bow and disarming smile. These will span several songs, get their prey comfortable with their presence, before the shift becomes something with more drums and base, music to disappear into the dark corners to. 

Their ability to move so seamlessly, so flawlessly that no one suspects there might be ill intent in the gesture is still mind boggling. You stand in the shadows of the upstairs veranda, watching Rhysand and his horde move as you sip from a full wine glass, content to study for now. The bargain had never specified when Rhys was supposed to turn you, for now, you attend his parties and do your best to study them, so when the time comes you’ll be prepared. 

There are new faces in the crowd tonight, less and less of your neighbors and childhood friends filling the expensive ballroom now that word had spread that you hadn’t returned home, all those weeks ago. As expected, your brother had nearly torn the Spring Estate to shreds when he’d found you gone. Nesta had apparently witnessed you sitting in Rhys’s lap--though by some magic or sheer luck, she hadn’t seen him drinking from your neck--and had gone straight to Tamlin to tell him. The betrayal had burned white hot, and not for the first time, were you thankful the ancient vampire hadn’t turned you yet, or else the destruction you might have caused in the aftermath would have made Tamlin’s look like a child’s temper tantrum. She hadn’t tried to explain herself, every one of your friends had turned their back on you, a couple of them had outright called you a whore to your face before vowing to never speak to you again. None of them were known to be tight lipped either, the whole town was sure to know that you’d “debased yourself with the Lord of Velaris”. It would have hurt less if you hadn’t spent the last couple of years protecting Nesta’s own secret lovers, but you had to admit, the newfound freedom of living here lessened the sting more and more each day. There were no governesses dictating your every outfit and hairstyle; no stewards limiting the amount of food you got at each meal to ensure you stayed pretty and thin for a would-be husband; no guards to regulate how much time you spent outside and where you could go. If you wanted to wear something, you did; if you wanted to eat you could go into the kitchens now and ask for it and the staff would do so eagerly; if you wanted to go outside and run until you got lost in the mountains, you were free to do so. There were no restrictions with Rhys, the fact alone was enough to keep you here, though the prospect of immortality pulled a little more and more each day. It wasn’t even the living forever thing, you really weren’t that interested in that part. It was the strength, the power, the freedom to be wild and unrestrained and never have to worry about being hurt or caged again. Once you were a vampire, no one could keep you locked away. 

You take another sip of wine as the music begins to shift and the lights dim. Feeding time. Rhys dances beneath you with a blonde woman, the neckline of her gown so deep you can see the heavy swell of her breasts from your vantage point. You shove down the pang of jealousy you feel upon seeing those hands on someone else’s hips with another deep drink from your wine glass.

Mor dances with a female on the edge of the crowd, the darkest part of the dance floor, where the judgmental eyes of the town won’t be so quick to spot her. Cassian hasn’t danced all night, has spent the evening prowling around the refreshment table, trying to get drunk despite his accelerated metabolism making it hard. He’d hoped to make a similar bargain with Nesta all those weeks ago, but you’re pretty sure he’d stepped on her foot and she’d left scowling in search of you before she’d found you in Rhys’s lap. Poor Cassian has been moping since.

You haven’t seen Azriel all night, but that’s how he likes it. He could be as charming as Rhys if he wanted, but he likes his solitude too much to risk it. When he steps out of the shadows to your left, as if your thoughts had materialized him, it’s little surprise. Rhys had explained that every vampire had their own unique abilities, among some shared traits, and Azriel’s shadow manipulation made him an excellent hunter.

“You’re not dancing tonight?” He says as he comes to stand beside you, scared hands resting on the banister railing. 

You take another sip of wine. “I didn’t know I was on the menu tonight.” A lie, Mor had helped you pick a gown with a neckline that plunged all the way down to your midsection with the intent of catching the Vampire Lord’s eye, but you had chickened out at the last minute and hid. Having the freedom to chose and the bravery to walk out in public were two very different things, but you hadn’t realized it until too late.

Hazel eyes roam the expanse of your exposed skin, the way your hair is pinned up out of the way so that the full expanse of your throat is available. It doesn’t hide the hickey’s Rhys had left a couple nights ago either, the dark marks smattered across your collarbones and lower, following the path of your gown. “So everyone knows your mine,” Rhys had purred in your ear and before the ball you had been thrilled to show them off. Until a few wandering eyes had lingered too long, the judgment clear on their faces. You’d spent the rest of the night hoping everyone would forget you’d existed.

“He’s looking for you,” Azriel says half-heartedly, eyes still exploring you. There’s a hunger there you can’t miss; that has you pressing your thighs a little tighter together. Azriel is as devastatingly handsome as Rhys is, and this is not the first time you’ve noticed the attention he gives you, but it has never gone anywhere. Especially not when his sire is the one leaving all these marks on your throat.

“He seemed plenty preoccupied with that blonde,” you reply.

A half-smile creases the vampire’s usually stoic face. “Jealous, little one?”

“No,” you say. “Just observing.”

The grin remains as he holds out a hand in silent invitation and when you take it, you can’t help but wonder how those large, scarred hands would feel on your thighs, spreading you open…

The world spins and flips as Azriel shadow steps the two of you down into what they call the Den, the unlit corners of the ballroom where they can feed in near privacy. There’s no doors to lock, though there are several glamors in place to keep wandering eyes from getting suspicious. 

Mor and a newly turned Emerie are already sharing a female on a couch in the corner, and the blonde winks at you as she sinks her fangs deeper into her prey.

On the opposite side of the Den, nursing a glass of whiskey under the light of the full moon peeking through the curtains, is Rhys. He looks like a god in this lighting, violet eyes glowing in the dimness. You can’t help but notice that he sits alone, his dance partner nowhere to be seen. While it’s never been discussed that you’re the only human he’s feeding on, a part of you is relieved to see that he hasn’t taken anyone else. It’s a strange sort of satisfaction, knowing there’s something in your blood that keeps him coming back again and again.

Violet eyes watch your every step forward with the intensity of a jungle cat on the hunt. “There you are, Darling,” he purrs. “I was looking for you.”

“Liar,” you tease.

He makes himself more comfortable in the large wing-backed chair, legs spread and you can’t decide if you want to climb in his lap or get on your knees for him more. 

“Did you spook your dance partner?” 

“No,” he says as he brings the whiskey back to his lips and takes a slow drink. “She was dull and she kept stepping on my toes.”

“You poor baby,” you croon and he grins as he sets the whiskey down on a small side table.

“I would have been spared if you hadn’t decided to be a wallflower tonight,” he replies, hand tapping at his thigh for an invitation for you to come sit. “What’s bothering you?”

The slit in your skirts makes moving them out of your way easy as you climb into his lap, knees bracketing his hips. Every time you think you’ll enjoy it less, but there is no feeling quite like this one, you could sit here forever. “I-”

Rhys presses his lips over a bruise on your neck.

“I was going to come down, but,” the words catch in your throat a bit, your cheeks flushed. “I think I should have worn something else.”

Slender fingers brush over your exposed skin making a shiver run down your spine. “Why would you do that?” He counters. “You look breathtaking. Doesn’t she, Az?”

You’ve almost forgotten the other vampire was still standing there, still watching in that silent, shadowy way of his. When you throw a glance at him over your shoulder, he’s standing with his hands in his pockets, eyes narrowed into the exposed bit of your thigh from where the dress is split.

“Absolutely sinful,” he says softly.

Now you’re really blushing. “I-I was hoping you’d like it,” you stammer. “I just… I don’t like when people are looking at me.”

“I do like it,” he says so lowly that heat begins to build in your core. “So much so that I had to stop myself from taking you against the railing over and over again.” Teeth scrape lightly over your skin, teasing, not quite tasting you yet.

“Az was thinking about it too,” he hums into your skin. “You should hear the things he thinks about you.”

“Rhys-” Azriel begins, the apology on his lips, but Rhys pulls away from your neck to motion him over.

“What do you think, little one, should we give him a little taste?” You’ve never been more aware of your own body than you are with Azriel at your back, and the firm planes of Rhys at your front.

You glance back and forth between them, at the tension that rolls off Azriel, at the hunger that chases your every motion in Rhys’s eyes. In your mind he says, “It’s your choice, Darling.”

“You-you won’t be mad?”

His laugh is a beautiful thing, even in your mind. “Azriel and I have shared many females. Cassian too. I enjoy it, as long as my partner does too. And I know that you’ve thought about him, it’s hard not to, but only if you really want to.”

You’ve been studying all of them: The way they hunt, the way they move, what separates them from humans and other vampires alike. Rhys is refined in his ability to hunt, uses his charm and his wits to bait prey into the Den; he makes feeding an art form, something graceful and dazzling, an allure only someone who’s done this for a long time can make possible. Cassian is messy, he likes to splatter blood when he feeds, and while he’s calculating and strategic in the initial hunt, he has no qualms getting dirty. Mor thrives in the dark corners of the ballroom, meeting in secret with her lovers because she does not trust people enough to bring a stranger into the Den. And Amren, well you’ve only met her once, and she’d traded some of her books for a mere drop of blood from your wrist before she disappeared again. But Azriel, you haven’t really figured out. He always hovers at the edge of the crowd, only speaks or feeds when he needs to, as if denying himself the pleasure the others chase will absolve him of whatever darkness lingers in his past. You know it’s there, have heard it hinted at, but no one will say it out loud. The more you try to learn about them, the more a mystery Azriel remains, and you’d be a liar if you said you weren’t curious to see how he feeds compared to Rhys.

“I do.”

And there is no judgment there. Unlike everyone else tonight. The freedom to choose, to want, is enough to make you toss your arms around his neck and lean in to kiss the tip of his nose. Anywhere else he might be regarded as a monster of the night, but here, like this, you’ve never felt safer.

Rhys presses a gentle kiss to your lips. “And who am I to deny my little pet anything?”

Azriel’s hands settle on your hips, that immortal strength never failing to make you feel fragile and small in their grip. It sends a shiver of delight through you; there’s no denying how much you love the freedom of handing over your power and knowing they won’t abuse it.

His warm breath fans your neck as he brings his lips to your exposed throat. “Been thinking about this since you arrived.”

Rhys nips at where your neck meets your collarbone, hands skimming your sides until he finds your breasts, nipples peaked through the thin fabric. “How would you like to taste her first?”

Teeth scrape over your pulse point, savoring the rapid beating of your heart. “Turn her around.”

They move you together, fingers digging into your hips as you're positioned with your back to Rhys’s chest, legs spread by his knees. Your skirts get caught, bunched up around your hips, baring most of your legs and you give a little squeak of surprise as you try to close them, to spare what’s left of your dignity, but there’s no room as Azriel kneels between both yours and Rhys’s legs.

Heat pools in your core, even as your cheeks heat in embarrassment. “Someone is going to see us!” You squeak, voice more shrill than you would have liked it to be. You want this, you want it more than you’ll ever allow yourself to say out loud, but there is a crowd nearby and even with the glamor in place, it is still a far more compromising position than you’ve ever been in. At least before, your skirts hid your coupling, but there’s no hiding like this, as Rhys loops an arm around your waist and sinks his fangs into your neck.

The shadows that leak from Azriel drift off his broad shoulders, shimmering and darkening, as if they’re absorbing the moonlight seeping through the window. “Not unless you want them to,” he says as those scared hands drag up your soft skin.

Your hips buck despite yourself, body aching to be touched; for more, more, more. The aphrodisiac in Rhys’s venom takes hold quickly, makes your whole body molten. The combination of pain and pleasure makes you close your eyes and lean your head back against Rhys’s shoulder.

“Good girl,” Rhys purrs into your mind so he doesn’t have to release his grip on your neck. “Just relax, let us take care of you.”

Azriel must be linked into your conversation, because he says in your mind, “There’s not much room for creatures like us in temples, but I’ll worship here just the same,” as his own fangs sink into the tender flesh of your inner thigh.

It’s a far more tender spot than you thought it would be, a whimper of pain escaping you, body rocking back into the hard planes of Rhys’s chest and the growing bulge in his pants to try and escape. Their combined grip on you keeps you from getting far, but that whimper turns into a moan as Rhys drags a hand down between your legs to give you some relief. He chuckles into your mind when he finds you’re not wearing any underthings, but the slit in your skirts had made you nervous that someone would see the lacy underthings that kept appearing in your drawers if you moved too fast.

“Fuck,” Azriel moans as he unlatches his fangs from your thigh, fingers playing in the bit of blood that trickles out the puncture wounds. “She’s so sweet!”

Rhys, never one to make a mess, laps at what escapes from the wounds he made at your throat before saying, “I told you she was.”

Hazel eyes narrow into the teasing strokes the other vampire is making between your legs, watching with rapt attention the way Rhys spreads you open as he licks your blood off his lips. Vampires, you’ve noticed, have a strange sort of stillness about them, they can become still as statues, unmoving, never blinking, it was still nerve wracking, especially now that you know that predatory stillness comes right before they pounce, and Azriel has that same look about him, right before he leans in and licks a stripe up your center.

Rhys chuckles in your ear as you moan and try one more time to squirm away from their dual ministrations, body overwhelmed as he curls a finger inside you and Azriel follows with his tongue. 

You’re going to reach your high embarrassingly fast at this rate, especially when Rhys’s free hand slides your top to the side so he can roll a nipple between his fingers. You squeeze your eyes shut, one hand reaching behind you to tangle in Rhys’s hair, the other in Azriel’s to try and ground yourself. The intensity of both their venom in your bloodstream has heightened everything beyond what you’d already thought possible, your skin burning, coated in sweat from this alone. Their efforts are somehow too much and not enough and you’ve lost the presence of mind to tell which of their names you’re crying out first, it might be both of them. 

Azriel feasts on you like a male starved, and the shadows not making a shield around the three of you writhe eagerly over your thighs, dusting your heated skin with cool touches that make you buck your hips as best you can against their master’s grip. Rhys adds a second finger, using your gathering wetness and Azriel’s spit to spread you open further, giving the other male more access to you, his nose brushing your clit, chin absolutely soaked in the mess you’re making. The move has you panting, stars blurring across your vision as an orgasm tears through you.

“Fuck,” you whimper, body shaking from your high.

Rhys peppers kisses along your neck and shoulders as Azriel pulls back, licking your release off his lips. “No wonder you’ve been hiding this one from the rest of us,” he says huskily. “I could spend all night like this.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you, little one?” Rhys purrs in your ear, breath tickling your still flushed skin. Their venom hasn’t worn off yet, body still not satiated, still begging to be touched and claimed. There’s not a chance you can close your legs, the evidence of your still budding arousal leaking onto his pants.

“Please,” you whimper.

“Which one of us do you want first, hm?”

How are you supposed to choose? There are too many things you want and it’s all getting muddled in your head. “Both.”

It’s Azriel’s deep rumble of a laugh that skitters across your skin as he says, “You can’t take both of us in this body, little one.” Scarred hands skim your exposed thighs, fingers kneading into the bite marks that are quickly turning into a bruise. “Humans are so fragile.”

And damn do you certainly feel it like this, tucked between the two of them. They could so easily break you, so easily overpower you. It’s thrilling and terrifying all at once. 

“Want…” your cheeks heat, a blush crawling its way up your neck and Rhys runs his tongue over it with a chuckle.

“Tell us what you want, Darling.”

You shiver, despite the flush of your damp skin. “Want to taste you then.”

You watch with rapt attention as those hazel eyes widen, the golden ring thinning until there is nothing but pupil as he processes what you’re saying. Still, you grind yourself down on Rhys’s bulge as you reach for the laces on Azriel’s pants, hoping he gets the hint as well.

“Greedy little thing,” Azriel tuts, but he steps closer anyway, letting you figure out how to get the laces untied in the moonlight. “I don’t think you’ve properly trained your pet, Rhys.”

Rhys’s fingers dip into the tender flesh of your hips mercilessly as he grinds you back against his erection, a rumble of a moan echoing through his chest. “Don’t want this one trained,” he purrs. “They taste better when they’re wild.”

You manage to get the laces undone, hands shaking a bit when you realize what you’ve just gotten yourself into. Rhys is a lot on his own, Azriel is… bigger than you expected. A lot bigger, his cock heavy and erect against his stomach. 

They must be having their own mental conversation, when you pause to consider how to even go about this, Azriel suddenly reaches out to grab you by the hair, pulling you forward as Rhys moves your skirts out of the way. Their movements are in perfect sync and you don’t know whether you should hiss from the sting of those large hands in your hair or moan as Rhys rubs the tip of his cock against your center. The sound that comes out of you is a little bit of both in the end.

“Are you sure about this?” Rhys inquires as if there could possibly be any thought in your head other than how much you need the both of them right now. Do they not share the same ache you feel? How are they not consumed by this thing that begs beneath your skin to be touched and soothed and filled?

You lean forward just enough to lick Azriel’s tip, catching a bead of pre-cum on your tongue as the male’s fingers tighten in your hair, a hiss escaping him. “Very sure.”

“Tap my thigh twice if it gets to be too much,” Rhys orders.

You nod your understanding as he slides slowly into you, letting you get adjusted to the feel of him from this angle. He’s deliberately slow, gliding in inch by inch, making your eyes roll back into your head, all your focus on the feel of him instead of tending to Az. 

“I see she gets her greediness from you,” Azriel teases.

You have to brace yourself against Azriel’s hips as Rhys rocks your forward, chuckling. “Just because I said I’d share, doesn’t mean I’m not going to have my fill.”

Stars dance across your vision as he hits an angle inside you he hasn’t reached before, mouth falling open as pleasure licks its way up your spine. 

Azriel grips your chin between his thumb and forefinger, forcing you to look at him when all you want to do is squeeze your eyes shut under the pleasure. “Are you gonna put that pretty little mouth to use?”

You run your tongue over your lips, whimpering as Rhys settles fully inside you, “Mmhhmm,” is all you can manage to get out before he’s guiding you down to his leaking cock. 

“Been thinking about this for a long time,” Az whispers. “Always wearing that pretty shade of lipstick that would look so good smeared across my cock.”

You swirl your tongue over his tip again and his hips jerk involuntarily. It’s a greedy sort of satisfaction you get in knowing that you can reduce a thousand year old vampire to this with just your tongue, and you want to see how much farther you can push him. Keeping a hand on his hips for balance, you use the other touch him, tracing a line down the underside of his shaft that has him hissing as the muscles in his abdomen tighten.

Rhys takes as much time sliding out of you as he had sliding in, setting a leisurely pace you know is to help you get comfortable with this setting. As tight as his own muscles are, you know he’s holding back, and you’re grateful for it, as you start to take Azriel in your mouth. It’s going to take time to get used to, you have to focus all your effort into breathing out your nose and slackening your jaw. There’s no way you’re going to be able to fit all of him.

“Just like that,” Az moans, using the hand in your hair to guide you down further.

“Look so pretty like this,” Rhys encourages as he trails soft kisses over your spine. He’s far more gentle with you than a vampire ought to be, and you can’t help but think he might be getting attached to you; a notion that would have sounded absurd weeks ago, but makes your heart stutter a little now.

“Feels so good,” you tell him mind to mind.

He slides back into you with a groan, just a little more forcefully than before, making your head bob down Azriel’s cock until he hits the back of your throat. Az moans louder than someone who is usually so stoic ought to and you have to release him for a second to catch your breath.

He gives you mere seconds before he’s hurriedly pulling you back, groaning like he can’t bear to not have your mouth around him anymore. Rhys sets his pace to match, giving you a rhythm to follow as you get a hand around the parts of Az you can’t get your mouth around. 

This is a pleasure you didn’t know you needed; the way they both moan and pant over you has you rocking your hips back into Rhys, your hand pumping a little harder around Az. As much as you want them to ruin you, you want to do the same to them.

Rhys’s fangs scrape over your shoulder, fingers tightening into your hips in a move you know will leave bruises. He’s getting closer to the edge, all his praises whispered in pants against your skin.

Az throws his head back as he hits the back of your throat once, twice, then a third time, the muscles in his abdomen tightening with every thrust. 

They’re both so close, you not far behind, especially when Rhys slips his hand between your legs again.

“Fuck,” Az whispers. With his head thrown back like that, eyes pinched shut, muscled body bathed in the moonlight, he looks every bit a god. And if his tongue between your legs counts as worship, then so should this as you take him as deep as you can without gagging, face a mess of spit and pre-cum.

“Gonna cum,” he warns.

Rhys’s thrusts are getting harder, the chair groaning beneath him as he fucks up into you. This is usually where he likes another taste of you, you’re used to the routine of it, ready for him to sink his fangs into your shoulder, though the force of it this time is different, as if he’s losing control, the bite sloppy, teeth scraping against your skin before they push in.

Your whole body tenses at the sensation of a thousand year old vampire losing a bit of his usual control, pleasure building white hot in your core. You want to see him a complete mess one of these days. 

It’s your moan around his cock that pushes Azriel quickly over the edge, warm cum spurting in your mouth before he can pull away from you. Azriel, quite, broody Azriel groans and pants as he cums, the sound like music to your ears as you drink him down. His hand still hasn’t left your hair, now scrapping gently against your scalp as you release him with a pop that turns into a squeal as Rhys bites down on your shoulder a second time.

One more thrust, then a second before your own release barrels through you, white hot in the buzz of sensations swirling around your head. Your own release chases Rhys into his and he jerks forward with a cry as he spills inside you.

You fall back against his chest as you come down from your high, body trembling, breath escaping in pants. 

Azriel reaches out and wipes a bit of the mess he made on your chin with his thumb, muttering, “Beautiful.”

Still catching his breath, Rhys presses a sloppy kiss to your cheek, and judging by the wetness on his lips you think there might still be some blood on them, but you’re too blissed out to care.

“Did so well,” he praises in your ear, voice still low and husky.

You raise a hand to card your fingers through his hair, eyes drifting shut, beyond satiated. If someone had told you this would have happened because you’d decided to sneak into a party and dance with a stranger, you wouldn’t have believed them in the slightest, but now, it doesn’t matter how long it takes for him to fulfill his end of the bargain. There are new freedoms to be found still, new pleasures to experience. You know things will be different once he turns you, and you’re not ready to feel so different yet. Right now, you like this thing between you. It’s good. Freeing.

“I’m glad I met you,” you admit softly.

“How very human of you to say,” Azriel teases as he fixes his pants. Despite his words, once he’s done, he still leans down to kiss your forehead.

“You like that I’m human,” you counter.

Rhys manages to get you repositioned so he can stand and carry you upstairs to his room, where you know a warm bath will be waiting for the two of you. “That we do, little one,” he purrs. “There’s still so much more to explore before you turn.”

[bingebuddie]

Here... We... Go...

Hi all,

Well, so far, 2024 has sucked for me... but anyway...

I've been feeling pretty out of sorts mentally, and depending on where my head is at, I've been bouncing back and forth between Fics and my Wes and Cole novel.

I am going on a writing retreat May 4-12th... so... expect some major movement...

I wanted to provide a few updates on where I am with my Fics and other works.

Sideways:

Published updates here have been slower than I wanted or anticipated. This has nothing to do with the story, as I have this outlined for Arcs 6-10... Yes, up to Arc 10.

My personal life has gotten in the way a lot over the last few months and has just eaten up my time to write.

Now, Arc 6 will lead right into Arc 7 and 7 into 8. You will want to throw some stuff at me for some of the wtf moments and having to wait between arcs... but it's all coming. Anyone new to the series has had the benefit of reading five fully finished-out arcs that took me about a year to write. Have some patience with me. It will be worth it.

Arc 6, Into The Unknown, has multiple chapters drafted. I just need to clean up some edits from my beta, and they will be posted. May is going to be a big month for this arc.

This is a pivotal point in the series. It spans Chapters 37-48, making it the longest arc so far. This installment will delve into the Seals' backstory, their connection with Buck and Eddie, and much more. It’s a substantial piece of the puzzle that you won't want to miss.

This one does have some heavy moments...

This does end with a cliffhanger... But I promise, it's not our boys directly you are left wondering about...

Arc 7—Strong—Eddie will need his friends and family like never before. This is a heavy Diaz family arc. The outline is eight Chapters.

This also ends in a cliffhanger and that promise I made above... does not apply here.... insert evil laugh...

Arc 8 Genesis—This is the big one. It all comes together here, and it is the part I am most excited to write. It is also the longest, with an outline of 16 chapters. You will find out more about Genesis in Arc 6.

This arc will change all of their lives and the status quo as we know it. Grab your seats and tissues. The previous title for this was Unleashed...

Arc 9 - Experience/Circles - Tentative Title - No tease, as it will spoil what's to come...

Arc 10 - My All - googles Mariah Carey ...

Sideways isn't going anywhere...

Shifted:

Volume 1: Nevermore

This was originally planned to be 30 chapters. I have 20 published right now. The rest of this is outlined, and chapters 21-25 are written and ready to be published. I haven't posted these because Chapter 25 ends on a massive cliffhanger, and I don't want to leave you all hanging. I will be finishing this... after Arc 6 of Sideways ...

I have a plan for the second arc... but that's all the way behind everything else on my docket...

Impossible:

If you have read this one, I have yet to post the last chapter...

This has an MCD, and while I was writing this, I lost a friend. It was hard to finish. I have finished the outline, and this will be completed soon.

Run:

This is on hold. I have too much else to focus on. Consider this on hiatus until I say otherwise. It might even be scrapped... will see...

Would You Mind:

This one was a lot of fun... The wrap-up/epilogue is done; it's with my beta...

Lap Dancing Eddie will return... in Sideways...

I Don't Want To Be Your Freind:

As of today, 7 of 11 chapters are posted. This is all outlined. I have drafts of chapters 8-11 done. Going to beta and will be posting soon...

I started this leading up to Season 7; it was my mind dealing with all the rumors and leaks... In my mind and my group chat, I was calling this my Anti Tommy and Marisol fic...

This got way out of hand and became a monster of a fic...

Now... on to what else I have brewing...

Future Shock - 3 Part Series - Magic/BAMF/Mayhem/Found Family/Soul Mates/Redux/Ryan Throw's The Timeline Into A Blender and Tada...

As It Is - 2030 and the 118 have been a fractured team since the lawsuit. When members of the team start to be picked off one by one, Hen, Chim, and Bobby, have no one to turn to until friends and family return in their most desperate hour.

As It Was - Details what led to the fracturing of the 118. A retelling of Season 2 and part of season 3...

As It Was Always Meant To Be - Now reunited, will the 118 be able to rally around each other, or will their painful past be too much to overcome.

This has a loose outline and it's very large ...

Depressed, Devasted, and Destroyed aka Something To Hold On To:

I keep calling this Triple D or DDD... This is a pure angst fest... major whump... like I'm mad at myself for the whump here ... seriously...

This has an outline...

Relationship Goals—In an effort to rebuild their friendship after their recent relationships crash and burn, Buck and Eddie join a local hockey team along with some of Buck's old seal friends. This was pure fan service to myself and a way to get Buck, Eddie, Wes, and Cole to play hockey and not have to do it on Sideways. This currently sits around 60 pages.

Stolen - A stolen kiss changes everything between Buck and Eddie... This angst fest is somehow incredibly soft... This is about 35 pages right now...

The Ties That Bind - Buck breakdown fic... This might get scrapped and merged into DDD from above...

All I Want for Christmas - Think Scrooged Vs. It's A Wonderful Life Vs 911... This won't be posted until holiday time...

The Wes and Cole novel is still moving along... it's my refuge when the show does something stupid...

I should probably get to writing... it's not like I have nothing to do....

[chuckeroo777]

Dungeon Meshi Volume 6 Part 1

Welcome back to my liveblog! As a reminder, this is a re-read, so expect plenty of spoilers!

Don't intentionally spoil people or get thwacked in the face.

Huh. So they have been here for about a week. Makes Rin's exasperation even more understandable.

Wow, rude. I feel like if you actually knew her, that's kinda the last thing she would do. She hates eating weird stuff.

Batting 0 for 3 Maizuru. Honestly, I originally thought she was kind of a jerk, but between this and "Ninja Art: Babysitter", I think her observational skills are just really bad.

See? She doesn't have a clue why this is an atrocious idea.

I mean, it was an elf who was around during Delgal's day, and was using exceptionally potent ancient magic. Who the heck else would it be? Plus the orcs confirmed his identity. And of course Laios thinks Thistle is mad about the food.

Asebi is not amused.

Hmm... another depiction of the winged lion with horns. Also, there was no need to bring up the black magic. Marcille used a regular resurrection spell, just using ancient magic to boost the power level. If the dragon hadn't been soul-bound by Thistle, it would have gone without a hitch. People like to joke Marcille did nothing wrong, but in this one case, I think she was totally in the right. There is plenty of time for her to commit war crimes later.

Chilchuck: Gasp! You were drugging him!

Kabru is here for ALL the hot goss. From a distance.

I love how the canon explanation for why Faligon has feathers is that Dragons = Dinosaurs. It's like an atavism or something. Idk, it looks cool. Stop asking questions.

God. Marcille may be my favorite, but I relate so much to Laios. This chapter and the next are painful. (And I'm not talking about the part where everyone dies)

If only Chilchuck won the coin toss, we could've avoided this drama. (At least until Shuro saw Falin)

Now that's a trustworthy face if I ever saw one.

Well well well. If it isn't the consequences of my actions.

I know I just got done explaining that her actions were fine. Just let me be funny.

Eh, it's worth a try. It works in at least one alternate universe.

She's beauty, she's grace. She's gonna eat your face.

What's all the more heartbreaking is you get little moments where Falin shines through. She wants to pet the doggie! But then the dragon reasserts itself.

Even freakier, I think this is actually Falin too. You can see her pupils oscillate throughout this scene between normal, and elongated.

Like, I don't think it did that on purpose, but the dragon is more than happy to exploit the opening it creates.

Holm? Holm, are those golem cores? Have you been holding out on us?

Man, no wonder she freaks out. Imagine you've been a dragon for who knows how long, covered in scales of iron, and suddenly this dude manages to stab you five times like it's nothing. Heck, Laios just stabbed her in the foot with a normal sword. This dragon must be fearing for it's life like crazy.

Obligatory Whoa Hey!

An important image.

No you dummy. This is standard dungeon procedure. There's a reason healers like Holm and Falin wear those silly robes. So that they get priority resurrections.

Hold up a sec. My drama senses are tingling.

I am genuinely curious what this insult was in the original Japenese, if only because I can't see that coming from either of them.

You know, when I first read Dungeon Meshi, I kinda glossed over the secondary cast a lot. Hard not to when you have my attention span, and like two dozen characters. I didn't even notice the Asebi stuff.

I know people dunk on Toshiro a lot, but I really have to question his relationship with his retainers if a simple thank you and sorry elicits this sort of reaction. Honestly, I mostly get the impression that his dad isn't great, and Maizuru is too loyal to do anything about it.

I also have to wonder why he left Asebi behind. Did he just not want to bother? Or is he rethinking his whole relationship with his retainers, and is offhandedly giving her her freedom?

Like brother like sister.

Image limit reached! I'll be back in a bit. Need to get some meshi!

[lilythesingingwitch]

So I may have created a trolls AU based the show Julie and the phantoms (which I highly recommend you check out)

In this AU, instead of being a simple boy band like in the movie, they a literally a band, with JD on the lead guitar, Bruce on drums, Clay on the bass, Floyd on keys, and Branch is the second guitar in training. Poppy and Branch are still best friends, and are gonna become a couple eventually, but in the beginning, just friends.

So, without further adieu, let me introduce you, to Poppy and the Phantoms!

First up we have Poppy (Please don't mind the fact that she doesn't have tail in the drawing, I forgot to add it here but it will be present when I digitalize these)

Poppy is a University student still mourning the death of her mother, who is desperately trying to fix her inability to sing and play music since her mothers passing. She still loves music, but the grief is sadly stronger. When her dad brings up the thought of selling the house in favor of helping her, Viva and himself with moving on from her death, she goes to clean the garage, aka her moms old music studio. Where she finds an old CD, for a band called Brozone. When she puts it in the player and lets the first song play, three familiar ghosts pop out of nowhere.

(Things written on the paper, without my spelling mistakes and some minor stuff I didn't write down)

Lives in the house that John Dory and his new band would live and practice at

Discovers the phantoms when looking through her moms stuff in the garage

Figures out pretty quickly who they are, with Branch being her best boyfriend

They make a band to help the guys ascend and Poppy to mend her relationship with music

Lives with Viva and her dad

Next up, John Dory

Back when he was in his teens, he and his brothers made a band called Brozone, which, despite was pretty popular all things considered. However, when they were preparing for one of the biggest concerts of their live, they get into a fight about John Dory being too bossy and demanding of his younger siblings. After which, John Dory leaves the house and his family at the age of 17. In the span of his time alone, he makes a new band with some of his new friends. In a short span that they've been a band. John Dory wrote pretty much all of the songs that they sang, and though trial and error, they got an opportunity to play on a stage that has made a lot of underground artists mainstream. However, John never gets the chance to play on that stage, for her dies from a poisoning 30 mins before the show.

(Things written on the paper)

He and his brothers were in a band called Borzone, where he played the guitar

Until he, SpBruce and Clay quit, leaving Floyd and Branch alone (Well, they all lived with Grandma, you get what I mean)

Regrets it, deeply

Wrote all the Brozone songs, including songs for his new band

Also wrote "Unsaid Emily", which was originally named "Unsaid Family" as a tribute to his biggest mistake in life and an apology to his brothers, but renamed it.

Died right before his big performance on the same day and Bruce and Clay

Died at the age of 23

Bruce next

When his brother proposed the idea of making a band, he had his doubts, since they were all in school and had their own stuff to do, but then again, up until then, he and JD always did crazy things together, and band was by far the most tamest of his brothers ideas. And with everyone else on board he thought "fuck it, why not?". And it was fun for a while, until he noticed how controlling JD had become, always telling him to go practice instead of letting him hand out with friends, telling him to watch his shape, giving him a work out routine for that, Bruce had enough and finally stood up to his brother and claimed that he's quitting the band, to which Clay joined in on, and which prompted JD to leave all together. And soon after, he leaves the house at the age of 16. He rents a small house by the beach, works at the cafe near it, changes his name from Spruce to Bruce, and takes up surfing. Which also becomes his downfall on a particularly bad day, and he takes his surfboard out for a quick swim, gets swallowed by a wave, and never resurfaces.

(Things written on the paper)

Was the drummer in Brozone

Was the first one to declare he's leaving the band and feels like it's his fault for causing the butterfly effect of others quitting as well

Left to live by the beach as soon as he could

Wanted to reach out to his brothers, but only ever sent a single post card to each

Died in a surfing accident on the same day as John Dory and Clay

Died at the age of 22

Cried when they all realized that they're dead

Last but not least (for now), Clay

Clay was, surprisingly, very on board with JDs idea about the band, despite being the nerd and bookworm of the family. He just wanted to spend more time with his brothers and have fun. That quickly changed when John completely stopped paying attention to Clays interests, hobbies and dreams. And especially with the forced title of "The fun one". He finally snapped when John kept trying to push them beyond their limit for their important concert, the time they should've spent relaxing after all the hard work they did to get this far was instead spent with their instruments like that's all that mattered. When Bruce brought up quitting the band, Clay happily joins that train, and walks out the door as soon as John and Bruce do. And so, Clay leaves the house and goes to stay with his friend at the age of 14. He finishes high school, gets accepted into a very good university, and moves into a dorm as soon as he can as to not cause more trouble for his friend than he already has. And life is good again, he's doing what he wants, works at a local library, studying to be a licensed CPA, and is gathering his courage up to confess to Viva. However, he does the latter too late, for he confesses to her and dies in a fire at the university while saving her, pushing her out of the burning building before it collapses on top of him.

(Things written on the paper)

Was the bassist in Brozone

Stayed with a friend after leaving the band and moves into a dorm as soon as he got accepted into uni

Was going to be a licensed CPA

Was best friends with Viva before he died

Died on the same day as John Dory and Bruce in a fire

Died at the age of 20

Was also in a sad book club

There's still a lot I need to write out about this AU, and a lot of characters to draw and design, but I hope you all like what I have so far! Here are some redraws of certain scenes from Julie and the Phantoms with this crew (again, excuse the lack of tails on one of these, I once again forgot to add them, just imagine that they're there)

[tj-dragonblade]

WIP Wednesday Accountability Version

As put in front of me by @seiya-starsniper - let's ignite some progress on some stuff!

Rules:

Post up to five (5) filenames of your WIPs; not titles, file names. Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to play! After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file and share by answering the ask. If the filename is one you can't share from (for example, an event or gift fic), write 3 sentences on it anyway, and then 3 more on another to share. You can make your own post or reblog from the original post if preferred. No tags needed, please run with this if you feel like it!

My five wip filenames, all Dreamling, all potentially explicit:

1889 rain kiss

Academic Conference AU

A3 Adoration

smapril treasure

Greek Vacation AU

Snippet of words written Monday, from #1:

~

The guilt curls deeper, drawing Dream's thoughts in with it. Hob is justified in holding such fears; if Dream is to name him Friend, he would do well to assuage them.

"You have carried this fear more than a century. It will not be dispelled in the span of mere months." Indeed, that is the point of this nightmare; but again. It is within Dream's power to offer at least an attempt at reassurance.

It does not come easily, as it encompasses admission of fault, but. He must try.

"Hob." He waits until Hob's wet eyes are fixed on him. "I am…difficult, and my temper is…volatile. It is very possible, perhaps even probable, that I will. Take offense where it is not meant, someday again, but know this." He can feel the truth of it settling into the core of his being before the words are spoken. "I will always return. To you. However long it may take my temper to cool. I will not forsake our bond so lightly."

"Our bond, huh?" Hob flashes a watery, lopsided grin.

"Would you not name it so? Is friendship not a bond?"

"Yes. Of course. My dear friend." There is something in Hob's smile now that is both pleased and sad, a bittersweet note that sings of take what is given and do not seek for more and Dream. Can feel the thread of it plucked throughout the dreamscape, resonating with the notes of do not push and do not invite rejection that sound within himself.

Is it possible, then—

Does Hob feel toward him. Any semblance, of what he feels for Hob?

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Any idea about how the timeline of TWST would even look??? With the events, vignettes and Books?

Like, actual dates and such? I saw some comments saying that Yana confirmed that all begins in late September, but you can’t be serious that Riddle recovered that quickly from a OB.

Is okay if you don’t respond. Just, trying to get stuff in order here

Hi, let me start off by saying that, in regards to book 1, it does indeed take place in late September (as Yana herself has stated). On the subject of Overblots, all of the OB boys (Riddle included) revert back to their normal forms after they are defeated in battle. That (I guess) technically counts as recovery, doesn't it (since they're no longer in their OB forms)? I'm assuming that the OB students are not immediately sentenced back to classwork (where they may be putting themselves in further danger by exerting their bodies to use more magic). They're probably put in a probation period and/or monitored closely before they're given the clearance to go back to using magic. After all, it usually only takes regular rest, meals, and relaxing to restore one's magic and to ease away blot. Now, about the rest of the ask!! I won't be putting together a timeline. It would be a different matter entirely if I was being asked to just do this for the main story and maybe events (a lot of events, especially sequels or birthdays, could be lumped into the same general time frames), but all vignettes as well? That's where I draw the line. Right now, there are over 100 vignettes in Twisted Wonderland, and it's simply NOT feasible to comb through each one individually and seek out context clues for when the vignettes may be happening. Not only that, but I know for a fact that not every vignette will have clues about when they are taking place. I'm sorry, but no one has the time to do that, certainly not me 💦

Frankly, putting together a single comprehensive timeline for TWST is an impossible task. I know that there's been many fans who have tried their hand at this (and I applaud them for their efforts! It's nothing to sneeze at), but it's just not able to be feasibly done. There is no arrangement which neatly puts everything together in a way that makes total sense. (It would also be a VERY chaotic year if all the TWST content that has been released so far happened in the span of less than one year in which the main story occurs.) There will always be inconsistencies in how the characters act or what other details are referenced which will contradict where they are placed in the timeline. (For example, why is Epel friendly with Vil during the Halloween events in autumn when Epel didn't get his character development and learn to respect Vil until book 7 in like... early spring? It cannot be the Halloween after book 5 because Vil would be gone on his internship.) This is also an issue that the TWST devs themselves have, so Yana Toboso basically came out and said that vignettes and events happen in their own alternate timelines separate from that of the main story. (For example, Fairy Gala: If isthe event that is most obviously an alternate retelling of the original Fairy Gala; if this event were occurring after the other, the characters would be commenting on “why is this happening again”.)

At best, you'll be able to guess season, months, or general spans of time; there are rarely concrete dates granted (excluding birthdays, Halloween, Sam's New Year Sale, and/or NRC Founding Day/Anniversary). I also want to note that a lot of people tend to assume the Ceremonial Robes vignettes are all set before the entrance ceremony, but this is not necessarily true as we have outliers like Deuce’s vignettes which indicate he is wearing his robes for a special ceremony other than the opening one.

I would recommend researching yourself, maybe looking into timelines other people have made for fun. Just don't get too caught up in the technicalities and please be aware that the "perfect" and "contradiction-free" TWST timeline does not exist.

[isa-ghost]

About how much time a day, or a week do you spend on writing your fic?

Cause I've been reading fics for years, but haven't started writing until relatively recently. I always knew in the back of my head that it took time to write and come up with the stories, but until recently I hadn't even begun to actually understand the time and energy it actually takes to write a fic. both short and long ones.

Now that I've started to think more about it, it would probably benefit fandom spaces a lot to more widely aknowledge the time it takes. It could probably help with the consumeconsumeconsume mindset of fancreations that I know that I've had, and that are present in a lot of fandoms, especially bigger ones

100% that last part, yeah.

See, for me it's even more complicated because not only am I squeezing writing between irl obligations like class, homework, work, family dinner, sleep, etc.

But I also have ADHD, so I'm battling my attention span and the temptations of my hyperfixations, as well as keeping up with my friends, fandom spaces, etc. I don't want to neglect any of those.

But focus is very difficult when I don't have absolutely nothing going on, which means I often need to shut everything completely out (which can take a lot of self control). I'll vanish on my friends and social media for hours, but still pause here and there to catch up on what I've missed for a short while before returning to writing because I HATE falling deep out of the loop and having a lot to catch up on is overwhelming. On top of that, how easily words are flowing and such also impacts how much or how long I write.

So I don't know if I have a simple or precise answer as to how long. But nonetheless, it's HOURS.

So far, for the 4 chapters that are published, I've sat down multiple days in a row OR every other day if I have time-consuming irl obligations, and written as much as I could before something depleted my motivation or I reached a good stopping point. Lately that's amounted to 1-5 paragraphs depending on the scene I'm at.

If it's something my plot plan has left more open-ended, it can take hours for me to work out how exactly I want to get to the next plot point. The Ch 3 Pissa date and stretching out the Ch 4 Eggza day was MISERABLE /lh because it was super open-ended since I wanted to give myself room to improvise, I don't like rigidly over-planning things bc a lot of the fun in writing is filling blanks between points. I get some AWESOME ideas in the moment thar aren't initially planned in my plot. For example, the foreshadowing I included in the Ch 2 nightmare where he hears Missa scream? If you check my post of my plan after I published the chapter, I pulled that out of my ass. It was originally just supposed to be a nightmare where he could hear Fit, Etoiles & Missa yelling to each other. I never planned for him to hear what's implied to be Missa injured.

But even though improvising is important (and required at some points of AMFMN), it's kinda hard to sit down and think of what to do with those parts when your hyperfixation streamer streams 3 days a week and on the days he doesn't, you have class + other things to do + other streams you refuse to miss + friends + etc etc etc and therefore you don't have a perfect distraction-free time to just go ham.

It takes a lot of self-discipline and control to not engage with stuff so I can focus on writing. And even still, depending on how cooperative my brain is that day, that can still be hours of writing.

Generally I try to chip away at least 3 paragraphs or get from one plot point to the next per day until the chapter is finished.

So TLDR; I spend hours a day, which totals to even more hours a week, working on a chapter.

It's equal parts because I get in the zone with writing and smash out a huge amount of the plot points planned for the chapter, OR I'm struggling with flow/attention span/a bunch of other things.

Due to my schedule, Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays are usually the best days for me to write. But even still, I have class Tuesday until close to noon, possibly other streams (curse you Sneeg and Fit /lh), work every other Saturday, family daily routine things like dinner, and the occasional plans with irl friends.

So uh. I do be battling the horrors sometimes to get chapters out. But now that Phil is finally possessed, I have a feeling I'll be breezing through things easier. I know a lot of what's happening next and I'm a whore for the drama. :3c

You have NO IDEA how much watching people scream and lose their minds over crumbs and currently published chapters motivates me. I'm so fucking excited for late game fic. Like Chapter 9 onwards. Ohohohough

[chidoroki]

182 Days of TPN - Day 127

Chapter 127: "Confrontation"

I'm so horrible with remembering the entire history of the demon world and those that live in it to the point where I feel like I'm learning about the estimated moment of Mujika's origin story for the first time (though in my defense the timeline does span over several centuries so it's hard to keep track of everything).

Just imagine how different the story could've been if not for the special blood. Emma's wish for the demons and humans coexisting would've probably never been achievable without it. (y'all ever wonder what would happen if a human had a sip of this stuff? i never did til this moment.)

Brought this up somewhere else, but I like this shot of Norman's reflection upon the broken table. Only achievable since Barbara's outburst happened just a few minutes before Norman returns in the anime. The table in manga has been repaired/replaced since it's been at least a day in between conversations.

So harsh how the story leads us (& RE) to think that the higher ups just might use the blood to solve everyone's hunger, until the the next panel continues with "and killed and ate everyone with the special blood," as it shows them feasting on several dozen brains.

Can't be surprised at all that Ray remembers such a tiny comment from ages ago and manages to piece together which other demons are currently unaffected by degeneration.

The drug Norman plans on using to force the demons to degenerate is still unknown at this point, yeah? The anime has already revealed that ace up his sleeve by now, but the second season rushes through everything, so there's another inconsistency I'm slow in realizing.

Emma's reasoning is completely true and would solve everyone's problems, but unfortunately royalty is selfish and crave power as much as they do humans.

Anime being somewhat faithful with Norman sitting on the arm of the couch, only having him do so at different moments of the conversation.

That is certainly not the best thing you wanna say if you want Emma to yield to your plan, boss.

I definitely prefer the anime's take on Emma's reaction though with how she actually gets mad that Norman would even suggest killing her friends.

Eh, fair point. Even if the aristocrats have access to the evil blood, it doesn't mean they'll stop craving humans all together. Just look at Leuvis and Sonju. (also they keep saying "king" this whole time.. are they unaware that there's actually a queen? or am i the stupid one and forgetting who the king is?)

The anime also does this gradual close up on Norman here during the previously mentioned couch scene when the camera zooms in three times.

Careful what you say boss, Emma just might prove you wrong.

Favorite panel/moment:

Nothing special, I just like how Ray looks here.

[tresmontesentertainment]

A Measure of Character - Gold the Tenrec, and Standing Tall as Reality Collapses, With a Dash of History to Taste

It is no exaggeration to say that dimensional shenanigans were an essential piece of Archie Sonic's identity, handily one of the it's longest standing tropes and probably the first thing to truly set it apart from the games and cartoon that inspired it. No joke; this is something the comic starting dabbling with no sooner than Issue 02, way the hell back in 1993, so we might even be looking at the point of origin of this trope for the franchise as a whole, really. If there ever comes a point where it strikes you that Sonic just can't seem to stay put in a single plane of reality, just know that it's all part of a long treasured legacy spanning decades.

Suffice to say there's a fair bit of history to be found here, and set to play front-runner for the re-boot's refurbished take on the concept as she was, I like to think that Gold the Tenrec had the opportunity to revitalize it for the new order of things in some interesting ways, with the introduction of a much more expansive element of character than the comic had ever previously enjoyed being chief among them.

That is a surprisingly loaded statement, and it's one that requires a bit of contextual finagling to fully back up. So let's kick this off by looking back on some recent, and some not so recent, history…

So before we can dig into what Gold might have contributed at the character level of things, we need to do a quick summation of how the comic played about with it's notion of alternate dimensions the first time around. Chiefly speaking, when circumstance brought the action out onto the dimensional stage, it was happening in one of two ways; either somebody was heading out to get something specific done before heading right back to Mobius, or our intrepid heroes were dealing with some trouble falling on their heads on the home front.

Nobody was really "traveling abroad" for it's own sake, is what I mean to say, and this is pretty handily epitomized by Gold's most direct predecessor as resident dimension hopper, none other than Sonic the Hedgehog himself.

Sonic's history of breaking dimensional boundaries is a fittingly storied one. Whether it's getting launched into a confab with a trio of demigods after collecting his billionth power ring, being led by an actual, literal suit to the Casablanca homage dimension wherein he fights the robots from MST3K, to getting hauled off to the lawyer dimension after getting framed by his evil mirror universe doppelganger, this was stuff that our favorite needle mouse just kind of kept having happen to him. And I mean that rather literally.

On most any occasion where Sonic found himself in another time and place, there was an actual guiding influence leading him there, putting him in position to help those worlds in times of dire need and with no speedy blue heroes of their own to handle things. This would've been on a fairly regular basis in-universe, too, and all with said guiding influence gleefully playing coy on just why they were sending the poor guy off on some odyssey or another on what at least had to have been every couple weeks. Which on it's own would still probably be all well and good were it not for the fact that Sonic just never really had very much to show for all the work he'd put in while traipsing across creation.

This is a pretty direct consequence of what went on at the production end of things. See, same as it is today over at IDW, Archie Sonic developed an extensive catalogue of specials and side series over the years, and often as not, it was one & done day trips out into the multiverse that you'd find filling the pages of those specials. As a result, almost none of the places Sonic had gone to and the people he'd met would ever come up again.

This would be the shape of things right up until Ian Flynn took up the writer's chair, but then all that really amounted to was things veering off totally in the opposite direction with alternate universes becoming the least prevalent they'd ever been in the comic's history. Which is hardly surprising, given all the other things Ian was taking a machete to back at the start of his tenure, but the fact that we never got to enjoy the majesty that was Sally McAcorn in an actually decent art style still stings the heart to this day.

Put all this together and you're left with a dimension hopper who never seemed all that impressed with all the hopping around he'd done, which in turn leaves the sheer scope of it all bereft of any particular sense of grandeur. And it's on that one simple point that Gold represents such a major sea change.

It's through Gold that we finally would've gotten someone who truly appreciated the scale they were operating at, akin as it might've been at first to the appreciation one gets for the ocean as they're drowning in it.

Getting jettisoned to parts unknown without warning and with no real home to turn back to regardless, all manner of monstrous nastiness lurking about in the aeither, and with only themselves to rely on to pull them through it as reality tears itself apart. There's really no overlooking this particular element of… sustained severity, let's call it, characterizing the situation Gold and company find themselves in that Sonic never had to deal with. Learning how to cope with that severity would've marked one of the most pivotal turning points of their journey, and while it's something I think Team Psych on the whole would've eventually achieved, Gold would've represented it at it's purest.

Remember, Gold entered this story having only ever known the situation with the Genesis Portals for what it could be at it's most cataclysmic, finding herself powerless to do much of anything about it time and again. From that initial incident that left her stranded in a foreign world and then having to stand by as the closest thing she had to family worked tirelessly to bring that same kind of armageddon to their door, she was about as close to rock bottom as one can be without full-on hitting the ground.

It's hardly any wonder that she took that desperate gamble to seize the opportunity Silver and Schlemmer presented her even when confined to The Council's seat of power. It was probably the closest thing to hope she'd felt for a good many years.

And that's all it really takes, isn't it? A single spark of hope to lift up the spirit and help it find strength in the darkest circumstances. We can definitely see it work out for Gold like this. When that climatic scuffle with the Second Devourer seemed to take a fatal turn and the doom she'd evaded for so long caught up with her, Gold was able to face it head on, standing tall and with a smile. Quite the drastic turn from the way she'd previously been left a panicked wreck in comparably less drastic situations.

And it's through that same newly forged confidence and optimism that Gold would be able to make a rather simple but direly important contribution to the team later down the line. When the moments inevitably come that the team find themselves lacking direction or at risk of getting crushed by the sheer enormity of the task before them, Gold would be the one best able to keep the spirit of their mission alive by reminding them that even as reality itself insists on collapsing around them, they've stayed standing. They're the ones who've proven that this is not, in fact, the end, and that they'll be able to push on through whatever grisly happenstance comes their way.

It's that all too critical element of perseverance that Team Psych would need to keep them heading forward, and it's only fitting that the one who'd most known that kind of hopelessness by heart would be the one to ensure they overcome it and see thing's through to the end.

But, of course, there's still the matter of how they'll actually go about doing that. Because all this heartfelt ishkabibble aside, reality collapsing in on itself is still very much a practical concern they'd need to get a handle on, and there's only so much headway the power of friendship can grant you on something like that when your name isn't Sonic! That's an effort that calls for more than just three sets of hands, and rounding up that extra support was always going to be the natural progression for Team Psych's story.

How those efforts were going to shape up, though, may well have resulted in something… peculiarly familiar, but we'll get into the implications of that another time. And hopefully it'll be before this time next year!

[darlingpoppet]

i love wtdf so much!! how is the writing process and how far out have you planned the chapters?

Hi anon!! Aww thanks so much for your ask, you made my day! I’m really happy to hear you’re enjoying the story and also that you’re allowing me the opportunity to talk about the process :D

I’m normally kind of a pantser (or plantser?) when writing most of my oneshot fics—that is, at most I jot down only a vague concept that captures the vibe of what I want the story to be about, and then the rest of it comes together during the actual writing process.

Since WTDF is the very first time I’ve ever attempted a serialized longfic, I did not feel confident at all in my ability to completely go with the flow and find the story as I went along, especially with all the elements I’m attempting to juggle at once. In addition to the slowburn romance, I really wanted to include the sorts of tropes & techniques I love in stories, such as foreshadowing/chekov’s guns, unreliable narrators, uncovering a mystery, re-readability, stuff like that! (Chapter 1 especially is like, Foreshadowing: The Chapter and pretty much every detail about it has or is gonna become relevant in some shape or form later on lol!)

Admittedly idk how successful my execution will be so I don’t wanna oversell it too much, but if any of you out there enjoy looking for clues and theory crafting, fwiw that is absolutely something you can do with this fic ;D One of the reasons I was really excited about posting chapter 7 is because it was an opportunity to really start flexing those muscles and let a few planted things pay off… so if you liked that, there’s gonna be plenty more where that came from! ;3c

So anyway, all that to say I did a lot of planning for this story and in the broad strokes, I have the entire thing planned out all the way from start to finish. It’s not quite meticulous bullet points scene by scene though, that’s not my style—I’m still a bit of a plantser in that chapters & scenes are outlined at most with general vague summaries and maybe a few stated goals (there are some spots where I have to put stuff like “be sure to mention Thing A here which will be relevant to Scene B later on!”) and stuff keeps getting added and shuffled around (upcoming chapter 8 for example was a relatively late addition to the story and was split off from chapter 7 only a few months ago because I decided I really wanted to go whole hog with this particular episode lol.) I originally thought this story would be around 100k, which was already much longer than I envisioned, but now I’m certain that it’ll be at least twice that length, and I’m resigned now to the fact that this project is gonna continue be a big part of my life for at least the next year or two XD

That all said, I still wasn’t confident enough to start posting with just a roadmap, and I spent the last two NaNoWriMos in a row trying to lay down as much track ahead of the train as possible. As of right now, between published and unpublished bits over the span of the entire story, I think I have about half of the prose written.

On that note, my process for writing an individual chapter at this point seems to be: 1) write as much prose for the rough draft as I possibly can (or in other words, filling the box with as much sand as possible); then 2) I copy the individual scene documents on scrivener into a fresh single “second draft/editing” doc, where I 3) try to fashion it into something more refined, until I ???? and then 4) PROFIT/end up with the finished final draft.

This middle process takes A WHILE because I’m usually adding as much as prose as I’m taking away; and I’m often inspired to take more outline notes or skip ahead to write a bit of prose for something further down the line; I’m referencing my notes, referencing past & future chapters to make sure everything is staying consistent, doing new research; and I’m always trying really hard to be careful & particular about how I’m wording things… I often have several alternate wordings or sentences in every paragraph that I spend a long time swapping between and fussing over lol. And even then I often step away several times during the process to let the words marinate for a while. So if you’re wondering why it usually takes me about two months on average to complete a chapter, that’s why haha (even longer if god forbid I get blocked like I did with Chapter 4 oooughhhh). I’m sure many can relate! I still feel like I’m particularly slow though, and it’s only been getting harder as my story grows more intricate XD But I’m also having tons of fun with it!

I think the other thing that has helped me chill out a bit is keeping in mind that AO3 works are editable and so I can always just go back and fix stuff if, worst case scenario, I accidentally write myself into a corner or something like that haha. (Hopefully that won’t ever be necessary though!) I have already occasionally gone back to quietly tweak wordings or add a sentence or two that help keep the earlier published chapters consistent with the later ones (for example, I recently decided to stick with using the anachronistic term of “Greeks” rather than “Achaeans”, since it’s more consistent with Hadesgame naming conventions and ultimately this is a Hadesgame-verse fic.)

I think right now my biggest source of anxiety with this story is over how well I’m executing the pacing… whether or not I’m revealing things too soon/not soon enough, or whether or not the flashbacks are enhancing or undermining the momentum in the present story, especially the slowburn—it seems to me like the sort of thing where I can’t really anticipate at all how it’s gonna come across until I’m able to reread the complete story, haha. But I guess I also tell myself that I’m doing my best to order it in the most impactful way possible… and hopefully y’all are enjoying it too, so far :) I recently expressed this in an updated fic summary, but this story is now fully a three-in-one Hades fic: a canon divergence AU, a canon-compliant pre-canon story, and a mostly complete Iliad retelling with a Hadesverse spin… so the final word count is gonna reflect all that.

Thanks so much again for your ask! I’m delighted & eager to discuss my stories or Patrochilles or Hadesgame or the Iliad or anything else tangentially related to those topics any time, so my ask box is always open <3

[autisticlalna]

the weird thing about finally writing work a miracle is, like,

sometime during 2015ish, maybe early 2016ish (kinda hard for me to pin down), a friend messaged me on skype and went "hey, these two guys remind me of our ocs" and sent me a link to the first episode of the apprentice. and we watched the apprentice together, and galacticraft, and sometime during flux buddies prime i started watching on my own and blitzing through it as fast as possible until i finally caught up and started watching episodes as they came out

i had a multimuse rp blog at the time that was just, like, whatever my current hyperfixation was. and so when i was still near the start of fbprime i threw nano on there and started rping with people that had minecraft or minecraft-adjacent settings (shoutouts to CG, little talks still makes me cry too), and in what was supposed to be a one-off thread i decided to rp lalna.

and then the multimuse multiverse rp blog switched to a flux buddies (and baddies) rp blog. and then gradually turned into a lalna rp blog.

and, at the same time i was doing rp stuff, i started writing fic.

my writing back then was Not Good. i was halfway through fbprime while fb2.0 was ongoing and working off incomplete theories and out of context spoilers. i was still finding a style, and my characterization had a lot of holes in it, but i spent a Lot of time just.. writing. building up this massive story in my head of "okay, here's the backstory, here's how i think things would go with my headcanons in play, here's some ocs supplied by my friends and some off-the-cuff shenanigans, here's some spontaneous rp plotlines that would be really interesting if i turned it into a whole fic somehow"

eventually i started having trouble maintaining the rp blog and would take long, unannounced hiatuses. usually because of mental health or because of a really disastrous event. i still drew stuff now and then, and tried writing stuff now and then, but eventually i came to terms with the fact that i just.. couldn't continue. and i gathered up everything i'd made over the years, sorted through it, and went "i'm going to make something out of this". and that became the foundation of work a miracle. it also became the foundation of solar's fic vindicate me!, which was inspired by how i write lalnable and five (as well as some events that happened on the rp blogs)

sometime in 2019, i started writing. it was supposed to be a super long multi-chapter fic spanning from the apprentice to the end of flux buddies prime. it was extremely rough, and i only completed 3 chapters and a bunch of scattered scenes before i dropped it. later that year, another major life upheaval hit and i tried to find something to anchor onto while i sorted myself out. that's when solar suggested a rp where we switched roles: i wrote kakujo, and they wrote the flux baddies. that's how we got the hec and jo show, and from there the wider idea of KJFB. a month later i surprised solar with a pmv, just goes to show that you never can tell.

(i wrote a sequel fic, double up!, which i ended up only sharing with solar until finally posting it years later. it was my first time writing lalna since abandoning the blog.)

and like.. for years, i kept wanting to pick that original fic idea back up and do something with it. i kept slowly refining it, i started doing shitpost ideas like the lalna chart and connected things like alpha-z, even dreamout is tied into the base idea behind work a miracle. i started an animation meme that i'm still working on, i've talked to solar and co about my ideas for the flux buddies in spau (which is why there's a shadow on the lalna chart), i have fic titles and bullet-point outlines and everything except the actual fic.

and then at the start of this year, while sick and exhausted and generally having a bad time physically and mentally, i started writing. and now i have 2 chapters written of the first Work A Miracle fic, Surviving Your Apprenticeship, a 5-Step Guide.

i guess what i'm getting at is that it's really weird that i'm finally writing what is essentially a rewrite of some fics i wrote when i was 19 and also is the culmination of like 8 years of coming back to an idea again and again and again from different angles and in different forms and hoping this one'll stick

[amusedunderclock]

Backlog: Talking About Movies - TSS (2021)

Originally I posted this somewhere else May 2023, but I'm trying to consolidate right now. Furthermore, when I originally posted to Tumblr, it's system didn't realize I'm talking about a MOVIE and not about anything personal. Because I don't need 4 private messages about mental health, I'm just posting the title screen and calling it "TSS". Moving on.

So I watched TSS 2021. That is the sequel to the 2016 movie, for clarity. I wasn’t motivated to watch it because of GotG 3’s release. I forgot that the Guardians movie was close to coming out when watching this one.

Preamble:

After Batman V. Superman, didn’t care much to see anything DC Comics movies outside of some online summaries. But after Endgame, there were a handful of movies from that brand coming out that seemed decent so I would eventually check them out. Such as TSS 2021.

“You can’t use summaries as a substitute for watching-” I don’t care.

Some think the 2016 movie’s whatever, but the only person I directly knew going to bat for that movie, was a major asshole. To me, the sequel stands or falls on it’s own merits.

When I heard James Gunn was making this, I was interested. Ultimately though, I guess it worked out for him since he now runs DC Comics media from this point forward. I didn’t see that coming. Don't expect much in terms of how I feel he's doing in that role. I don't feel the need to judge until about 2-3 movies into his reboot.

But where do I start with TSS? Overall, entertaining movie. Would rewatch.

Now…back in May, I said this:

"You want a point in DC Comics’ favor when it comes to movies? Well when it comes to their CGI, from what I’ve seen, it’s been consistently great. TSS is no exception. Everything blends together with the real world stuff very well. They did a good job there."

And while I stand by TSS having great CGI…The Flash has now come out. I have seen clips of that. That doesn't erase what good the DCEU has done in the past concerning CGI. But damn, being worried about future CGI from them is not unwarranted.

Obviously comparing TSS to Marvel stuff would make sense. TSS feels like it has a different tone. Maybe that’s just because of one company being more hands off, but idk how WB really operates. Kinda felt fresh to just have more varying and modern music playing in one of these superhero things.

What set it apart from the MCU was the R rating which…yeah it took advantage of that. TSS 2021 is violent, detailed, uncensored. Offset by it’s comedy. Frankly, it’s a funny movie. A lot of the comedy is the villains oblivious to common courtesies, or just uncaring in general. It works.

Think I saw some complaints about comic book accuracy. A complaint with all these superhero type movies. Look to be frank, most of the comics people are referencing for accuracy aren’t exactly Nobel Prize winning literature here. Even when they are notably well written, movies are only 2-3 hours while a comic story can span multiple issues.

That's what I wrote in May. Since then, all of twitter is nothing BUT complaining that these products not being comic accurate means that they're inherently bastardized, worthless, a crime against humanity, and will lead to their downfall. This line of thinking is just begging for someone to make a 110% comic accurate superhero movie that ultimately flops because people deem it too fuckin goofy, nonsensical, or just not that interesting as the hype suggested. I'm not saying all of comic history is bad or the comics didn't do some things better. And I'm not ignoring the MCU's storytelling flaws. But damn, The Spider-Verse movies aren't 1 to 1 accurate with the Spider-Verse comics and no one is complaining about that because they are well written. The Guardians trilogy took SEVERAL liberties, but is called peak despite them.

Comic accurate does not automatically equal well writen and never will. Hell, one of the most popular comic youtubers, Comics Explained, is a person who goes on for hours about entire comic arcs. And he outright criticized "X-Men: Days of Future Past". Saying something like "Yeah people like Days of Future Past , but that's just because they copy/pasted the story from the comics" and was hoping for something more original in future movies. And I don't agree with all of his takes, but if someone who dedicates this much time to comics is saying these things, I feel it's more valid than people on twitter who I can't confirm if they read the comics they're praising.

Back to what I said in May, TSS is good without being exactly like the comic. I don’t understand how Starro being mustache-twirly evil would improve the film short of nerds checking off a list of comic accuracy. And him being Death Battle fuckin "He can blink the universe out of existence" powerful is outright nonsensical. Starro was good for what it was.

Interpretation needs to happen sometimes. That said, actors.

This is the first time I’ve seen Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. It’s not entirely like TV versions, but she made it her own and it works. She was in the role for 6 years, it’s probably expected she knows what she’s doing.

Idris Elba, he’s always been a cool actor. Not entirely something I've publicly talked much about on the internet short of him playing Knuckles and I think Heimdall, but he has good performances. Him being the main character was a good choice. Replacing Will Smith? Yeah, but unlike Smith, Elba is more willing to add more grit to his villain character and it's greatly appreciated.

Cena Peacemaker works here. You really do forget he’s a wrestler and for once in about 20 years, he plays a decent heel. Apparently this is a controversial statement, but I guess I've just not seen Cena all that much in the past decade to really focus on his past during the movie…..

…which is what I said last year.

In 2024, after seeing his lacking comments on Vince McMahon, I don't feel much need to praise him or focus on him in the future. Someone put it aptly.

How his Peacemaker solo series went, I have no idea and now I don't care. If he comes back in the reboot, I can at least see why but I still don't care. Harley and Waller tho? They should be priority to return. Especially those two. They're just THAT great.

The rest of the team are convincing enough as villains.

Although…Ratcatcher 2.

Don’t get me wrong. She is a good actor. It makes sense that she’s in jail for her crimes. But like, remove the rat communicator and isn’t she just a person? Can someone else use the communicator?

I don’t think that’s explained. My attempts to google didn’t answer that. If there’s some TSS interview explaining that the Ratcatcher family can only use the communicator, cool. Otherwise, I question how she’s on the Squad to begin with unless they're (likely) short on villains.

To anyone who may take this out of context, Ratcatcher 2 is a good character, good for stealth, & the payoff in the end is great. Just seems like she wasn’t exactly a nemesis of Green Arrow or something. I feel in another context, the communicator, more than the person, would've been Waller's priority.

Like I said, Amanda Waller is solid. Davis really read that character description and said “Easy”. Her character should show up more in future movies beyond TSS.

Rest of the cast is good. Even if they’re still fucked up for betting on lives, I liked Waller’s people turning on her in order to save a city.

Think only thing left to say is that the story for what it is, comes together nicely. These people are not the Avengers/Justice League, they’re forced to work together and are convicted criminals. The interactions they have feel unique as a result, and not everything works out.

Even some of the dead characters in this movie do have development. They do advance/achieve as characters even if it does cost them their lives. Plus it's a cool movie when it has people both cheering that a monster is defeated, and then has you feeling bad for said monster.

I said this movie should stand on it's own merits and it does. TSS 2021 is a great standalone movie. Usually I would sit here and talk about broader lore, but it's unnecessary. Aside from maybe the Captain Boomerang thing, you can just go into this movie and enjoy.

[skelezomperman]

Revising A Tale of Star-Crossed Knights - Chapters 18 and 19

Link to Chapter 18: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39015690/chapters/105269472

Link to Chapter 19: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39015690/chapters/105690093

These chapters are grouped together because they both cover the time period from Erinys' death up until the beginning of Thracia 776. And not so coincidentially, these are the most filler chapters of Part 3. The rest of Part 3 is nonstop because it covers basically the entirety of the second half of Genealogy in the span of 7 chapters. There wasn't really much I changed with these chapters, though I considered cutting the scene where Asbel gets Grafcalibur at the beginning of Chapter 19. I believe I did cut a scene in Chapter 18 with Finn and Nanna because I thought it served no real purpose other than to just give Finn an appearance...it flows better to have that chapter focus only on the Silessean kids.

Honestly I do find that I don't really like that C19 tries to have the three main characters (Finn/Ced/Fee) all have their plots develop at the same time, but I didn't feel like trying to rewrite the chapters so that they would all be segregated. It's a bit messy that they get split up between each other, but at least it doesn't last too long until Ced and Finn reunite.

Original A/N for Chapter 18:

Welcome to the beginning of Part III! The long night of Jugdral is beginning to end as the seeds of rebellion are sowed across the continent.

I decided that this chapter would mostly focus on Ced. Ced has the journey to go to Northern Thracia for the first time in search of his father. Fee tries to dissuade him but Arthur (!) convinces her to let Ced go. I like the Arthur-Fee friendship and it's something I really want to develop over the rest of Part III.

The rest of the journey is just...a journey. Ced rediscovers his ancestral homeland and that's great, but the big point here is Lewyn's encounter with Ced. It's the big reveal to the audience that Lewyn is still alive. Lewyn points out to Ced how foolish the plan is and he redirects him to go join the Magi. Ced is so awed that he follows Lewyn's requests even though he had previously been stubbornly locked onto finding Finn and he *should* have a lot of questions for Lewyn.

The last part is mostly about tying up some ends as to integrating with the broader plot of Jugdral - re-introducing Asbel and introducing Karin especially. And giving Finn a little scene too because I don't think he needed to be completely excluded from this chapter.

Chapter 19 will correspond to the beginning of FE5 and FE4, so see you then.

Miscellaneous notes: Paola's death is a scene I had conceived of before starting this chapter. There's no deeper meaning other than the pegasus being broken-hearted now that her owner is dead. "Lady Regent" - just made up stuff, although if you recall in an earlier chapter Lewyn did not become "King" until his coronation. Needed to explain away Ced being allowed to leave Silesse. Project Naga calls the C-rank light tome just "Light" like in the Tellius games. I personally dislike that so I stuck to the "Lightning" name used in every other FE game. For a moment I thought about having an encounter between Lene and Ced in Dahna but I didn't wish to bloat the chapter. I was having difficulties getting started on this chapter anyway. I don't plan on Julia and Ced becoming close friends, though she'll probably be friends with Fee. The "because you just told me" line is ripped off from Sonic Adventure 2. That's kind of cringe but that's alright. Lewyn not sleeping is actually inspired by a comic by Jadesnapart which you can find here: https://jadesnapart.tumblr.com/post/157387711668/boy-do-i-love-julia-and-her-weird-dad-is-he-ok

Original A/N for Chapter 19:

Originally I was going to condense the entirety of the first half of Thracia 776 into one chapter. But I realized that there's just so much content that I can't really do that.

There's three different plotlines here, all of which have are tangentially linked in some way. The first, the one that is front and center, is Ced's journey with the Magi. Ced still has the goal of wanting to find his father in the back of his head but working with the Magi has become his top goal. We see a bit of his new friendship with Asbel, then we have the conversation with Asbel when he sends off Asbel to find Leif, and we also see some insight into his thinking. He deliberately puts off trying to meet Finn.

Then there's Finn's journey. Finn covers the first events of Thracia 776 that we see in the game. He's worried about Leif taking charge and being insistent on fighting the Empire head-on, but he has to acquiesce to Leif since Leif is the lord and Finn is the servant. Finn faces feelings of regret to leave Leif (and Nanna/Mareeta) in Munster but he comes to terms with the fact that he couldn't have done more.

Finally we have Fee. Fee, worried for Ced, decides to go set out to look for him. She's initially hesitant to do that when a full year hasn't passed but then the news of Seliph's rebellion reaches her. In the original game Fee goes by herself with Arthur, but in this story I have Hermina, Hawke, and Karin accompany her. Originally in the planning stages for the story I envisioned Hawke going with Ced but I realized that the story would flow better if Ced was on his own. For this chapter I also initially wanted Karin to travel and meet Ced like she does in Thracia 776 but I decided mid-chapter to not do that - it wouldn't make much sense for a squire to travel all the way to Leonster on her own and I honestly forgot to integrate her into the scene that corresponds to FE5 Chapter 4.

About the length of the chapter, I wanted the chapter to actually end with Finn reuniting with Leif and Nanna (i.e., FE5 Chapter 7) and Seliph meeting Fee and friends (i.e., FE4 Chapter 6). But I target chapters being in the 3k-5k words ballpark and this one was well over that length so that's going to get pushed to Chapter 20. Instead, I indulged myself by making a scene introducing Altena. That interaction (as well as a couple in the next chapter) is borrowed from a previous story I wrote, Divine Wind, Earth Lance - but the plotlines in that one will have to get changed since that is based on Ced being Lewyn's son.

Miscellaneous notes: Clonfert - I literally just pulled up Ireland in Google Maps and picked a name that I thought was nice. I was lazy. The villa to the south of Munster that Finn wants to visit is Dryas'. Am I foreshadowing a relationship between Arthur and Fee? Find out later... I initially wrote the name of the fort as Fort Kelves like in an earlier translation of FE5. I honestly do not care for calling it Fort Kerberos but I generally try to stick to what the newest fanslations say, so I stuck with Project Exile's name. Tina mention...I might try to sneak her into a later chapter, not sure. "His Thracian Majesty" is Travant's style to emphasize that Travant claims the entirety of Thracia, not just the South.

Feel free to kudos/comment as always and see you next week :)

[toasts-httyd-hyperfixation]

To answer your question, we don't know exactly how old they were when they got married

Also, its a good point about her being pregnant, and it's definitely something that you can use to have the timeline and ages make sense and be more accurate, but there are a few things

One, them announcing they're trying for a child is irrelevant because that's expected of them the moment they get married, like producing an heir, thats part of their job, they're supposed to be doing that

Two, its not inherently true that Hiccup would be considered heir as soon as he was conceived

There are places and times where that was the case with heirs, but babies weren't typically considered heir until they were born (hence the term 'firstborn' often being used) because obviously, something could happen and cause that baby not to be born, that baby might not be considered legitimate, and, regardless of your opinion on whether a fetus is a full person or not, historically, a lot of places did not consider fetuses people until they have been born, and in some cases, until they've been Confirmed

And we don't know when a baby is considered Officially the Heir in universe, but we do know A: pregnancies and life in general was dangerous for them, so there's no guarantee that the baby will even be born and B: the babies could also be a runt and therefore have to be put to death

So in my opinion, the most likely time that Hiccup was declared heir was After he had been taken to the Naming Dame, when everything is all clear and he's (supposedly) legitimized

And even if it is from conception, I don't know that the amount of time for a pregnancy strictly gives enough time for the ages to quite fit

Because pregnancies don't last multiple years, and say it was that they announced Valhallarama was pregnant when Snotlout was 3 almost 4, lets be real here, Hiccup was probably a premie so like 8ish months, that still only gets him to 4 years older

And that's assuming they know Val is pregnant from the moment he's conceived, which, you cannot know you're pregnant right away, and Vikings didn't have accurate pregnancy tests, so either they're going based off Vague Inaccurate Prediction ( which, not unlikely) or they're not really gonna know until she starts showing symptoms, and that could be anywhere from a week to over a month or more

In which case, they wouldn't be announcing it right away, there would be additional time cut out of this, so there's still not quite enough time to span the 3- possibly 6 years

So like, yes, the gestation period could have an affect, but since this was all based on the fact that in the book Snotlout specifically refers to Hiccup being Born, and then taking everything else into consideration, in my opinion, it probably isn't relevant

But regardless, yeah, it is definitely something you could use to make the ages all fit a little bit better

And just to be clear, I, obviously, am not an expert on any of this stuff, this is all based on what I came across while doing a little research into inheritance laws, so anyone who sees this, feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong or if you have anything to add

I realise none of this is probably really relevant to my original point in this set of posts, but I enjoy doing random research for funsies and I have a need to explore various concepts so, yeah 👍

Love that with the way its set up, Snotlout is anwhere from barely 3 to almost 5 years older than Hiccup

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

sorry for the spam i just LOVED your gatekeeper jake meta!!

i do have a question as you seem like a pretty good source, if i were to read any of the comics which runs would you recommend?

Hello friend! No such thing as spam in Tumblr land. Like and reblog it all. Go nuts.

(Shameless plug: Check out my other meta that can be found in my intro)

It is true I have read all of moon knight comics. It is also true I have a serious memory problem.

BUT. General consensus, and I agree 100%, is that you need to read the Lemire x Smallwood run.

I'm going to be controversial. Start with Ellis (see long rant below to see why). 100% read Lemire. If you read nothing else, read Lemire. Then read Mackay.

I also recommend you pick up and read some of the original stuff, just to see where it all started. There's a lot of it. It suffers from old comic book syndrome, but some of it is really quite good and beautiful.

If you REALLY want to know more... Here's a Brief Timeline!

So the first Moon Knight was in Werewolf by Night, in which he was hired to hunt down Jack Russel.

They liked his character and design and he got his own comic!

This is the Moench run collection that spanned from the 70s through the 80s.

Then there was a long dry spell. LONG dry spell. He popped up now and then in the background and various other one shots.

But then Huston got his mits on him in 2006 with "The Bottom"

This is actually where I started because it is the more modern run.

However, this period is also very rough. He's called Schizophrenic, they use outdated terminology (Multiple Personality instead of DID). It highlights the crazy aspect and is very violent oriented.

But it's also a little fun and there are a lot of good classic moments found in these runs. You are also going to start finding some pretty amazing artwork in these runs (Deodato!)

The Huston and later Benson runs (The Bottom, Midnight Sun, God and Country, Death of Marc Spector, and Down South) are a good look at how messed up Marc lets himself get. Full of angst and him pushing people away. You don't see a lot of Steven and very little Jake in these. Marc is crawling through his mental health issues and you also get a look at his relationship with Marlene.

NEXT: 2009. The Hurwitz runs! (Shock and Awe, Killed Not Dead, and Shadowland.)

This run was actually pretty good. If memory serves me well (and it doesn't), I enjoyed the stories that were told here. You get a more messed up Marc, but Marc was TRYING. You see him struggle with his mental health and struggle to do good.

PLUS. Shock and Awe has THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ART. I loved the design of his suit and it showed peak Marc Spector fighting style of "I'm just going to throw my body at things until they don't get back up". You also get to see him interacting with other Marvel characters (Avengers, Captain America, Punisher, ect.). This is always interesting because they don't know what to do with him. You start to see the ableism set in and how much he's not just fighting himself but he's also fighting how others see him.

NEXT UP: 2011. Bendis. "The Heroic Age". This man nearly ended Moon Knight. It was bad. IT WAS SO BAD. No one talks about this run. It didn't happen. Skip it. Don't even pretend to buy it. If you want it, steal it. Get it from the library. Don't waste your money.

Bendis labled Moon Knight a Psychophrenic lunatic, sent him to L.A. to work on a 'team' then messed up his whole characterization and everything he stood for. It was bad.

NOTICE THE GAP HERE. NEXT RUN WASN'T UNTIL 2014!!!! That's how bad Bendis fucked up.

Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey took Moon Knight over in "From the Dead".

The story here is seriously lacking, but the art is amazing. This is ALSO where you are going to meet Mr. Knight for the first time and he is glorious.

Ellis is known in comic land for writing some of the darkest Punisher content that Marvel put out. He's known for blood and guts and violence. So… just keep that in mind.

But here we see someone that refuses to acknowledge who he is. There is no Steven Grant, no Jake Lockley, and he refuses Marc Spector. This is a man that had a serious mental break and is clawing up from the mudd and trying so hard to fix himself by not being himself. One might even say he's in a dissociative state this whole run.

Next we have "Dead Will Rise" by Brian Wood and Smallwood. It follows where Ellis left off and you start to get some of that Delicious Smallwood art. The story does pick up a bit here, but it's still very ambiguous and barely holds the Moon Knight title.

You see, Bendis really fucked up things and they didn't want him to be seen as "That crazy guy" anymore. So they play it safe and you get more of the original supernatural stuff that happened back in the day with Werewolf by night.

"In the Night" is next in this series by Cullen Bunn and Ron Ackins. Again, art is pretty good here and you start to get some of the old Marc Spector back in this. He crashes more vehicles and you see his reckless style start to creep back in. Story is still barely there, but it's descent. Again, we see Marc start to decline in mental health. He's alone, he's destructive, he's violent.

NEXT UP: 2016. ENTER LEMIRE. Bless this man.

Lemire saw the Smallwood art in "Dead will Rise". Smallwood loved working on Moon Knight.

But Smallwood is a busy man in the comic universe. Lemire knew Smallwood was going to struggle to keep up with the schedule. And Lemire had a hell of a story to tell.

THIS MAN. He broke his story up into three other parts and hired three other artists that had VERY unique and distinctive styles.

This let him break his story up so that you knew each part by the art!!

WTF. When the story was important and back on the main plot, Smallwood would come back in and tell it with his smooth and amazing art.

Then as the series progresses and gets more and more into it, you see all the art styles crash into the pages until he brings it back home in one final breath taking scene where Smallwood collects them again and sends them off.

Gonna fucking cry here. Gimme a minute.

So anyways: The Lemire run. (Lunatic, Reincarnations, Birth and Death.) Three volumes in which we see Marc Spector's mental break down, the fall out, and how he builds himself back up. We see his friends from the past, we see Steven and Jake find their place, and we see Marc start to accept that he is a broken man. It's a beautiful story. It's hard to follow sometimes and a little confusing at first, but once you get to the end it all makes sense and it's so beautiful. Lemire is what inspired the MCU show, in case you were unaware.

Ugh. Next. BEMIS. 2017. Fucking Bemis. "Legacy" (Crazy runs in the family and Phases) Bemis took what Lemire did and shit all over it. I swear this man did no research into the character. He just went, "Crazy huh? What if he's SUPER CRAZY AND EATS RABID DOLPHINS" (this happened. I'm not kidding). He tries to reboot Moon Knight. He fucking UGH. He tries to explain what caused his DID. He just… UGH. Antisemetic bullshit and he should have known better. UGH. Only good thing to come out of it is that you find out Marc and Marlene had a daughter and she's pretty badass.

Then in 2018 we got "Avengers Age of Khonshu" by Jason Aaron. This was a marvel tie in event. I have THOUGHTS about tie in events and none of them are good. Basically Khonshu tries to take over the world. He uses Marc. Now the Avengers think Moon Knight is a threat and needs to be watched in case his god tries to do anything again. Khonshu gets locked up in Asgard and Marc is now on his own.

Jason Aaron, much like Ellis, is also known for his incredibly dark and gritty comics. He also did Punisher Max and is a huge name in the comic world, but you have to have the stomach for him. I guarantee there will be vomit, spitting, and blood in everything he does. It's like a trademark.

This brings us to 2021" MACKAY! (Midnight Mission, Too Tough to Die, and Halfway to Sanity)

Mackay looks back at Lemire and goes, "Hey… what happened?" This man does the unthinkable. He doesn't reboot. He starts with the Mr. Knight that was given to us by Ellis and Wood, takes the story that Lemire gave us, and then acknowledges the bad in Bemis and Aaron.

HE TIES IT ALL TOGETHER. We see Marc that has started his heaing journey from Lemire but stumbled into his old bad habbits from Bemis. We see Marc trying to repair his reputation from Aaron and desperate to hate himself and forget himself.

We see him build back to his old habbits until Jake and Steven re-enter the picture and I couldn't be happier with how he does it.

He understands and runs with real DID awareness. He talks about Marc's PTSD. He lets the work as a system. He tells a story. He's bringing in Fucking Dracula. This man knows his memes.

The run is still going and I am excited to see what he does next. Can he just keep Moon Knight in his pocket for a while? I would love that. Just… Let him hold him a while longer.

.........TLDR: Depends on what you like. If you are new to comics and just want to get your food in the door, read Lemire then skip to Mackay.

If you like what you see and want to get more in depth. You want to know who Frenchie and Gena are (I love them so much) dip your toe into the early stuff with the OG Moench. If you want to see where Marc started to break down and a more modern Moon Knight came about, go to Huston and work your way through it. If you just want to see enough to get you to Mackay, start with Ellis.