#thanks for asking!!! i love talking about my fics lol

[eden-djarin]

The Rain Song - Chapter 1 "Spring"

Summary: You met Joel Miller by chance. Getting on his good side isn't easy, but maybe with the help of Ellie, you can get closer to him.

Word Count: 1.2K

Pairing: Pre-Jackson!Joel Miller x Female Reader , Jackson!Joel Miller x Female Reader

Chapter Warnings: no physical description of reader, mild angst, sadness, reader is bad at expressing emotions, unspecified age gap, Joel has a hard time being nice

A/N : This is my first time trying to write a longer chapter/multi-chapter fic, so I hope y'all like it. Also, very minor proofreading lol :) - Eden

It is the springtime of my loving The second season I am to know You are the sunlight in my growing

You had met Joel Miller in the springtime. Everywhere you looked, blazing stars and milkweed were blooming due to the newfound warmth in the air. Budding leaves on new branches filled the trees around you.  The pastures were green, and the meadows had a gold spilling through them.  Too busy finding some peace in the day, you hadn’t noticed that two unexpected strangers were coming up on your back.

Your soon-to-be friends hadn’t been paying attention to their surroundings, that is until the man heard you humming to yourself. He quickly grabbed the girl, shoved her behind his back, and put his finger up to his mouth, silencing her before she could say anything out loud.  The man reached for his gun, silently cocking back the weapon.

“Hands up,” the man yelled loud enough for you to hear through your humming

Quickly turning around, immediately lifting your hands into the air, you yelled back, “I’m unarmed! I only have a small tactical knife in my back pocket!”

As your hands remained in the air, Joel immediately started walking towards you, grabbing your hands and placing them behind your back, searching you for any weapons. He found the knife that you had put in your back pocket and chucked it to the ground, well out of your reach.

After he was convinced, you weren’t any harm to him or the girl, he let you go and asked, “What would a young girl like you be doin’ in the woods all alone? Hmm?”

You had escaped the Chicago QZ about a month ago. It was a last option for you, finally having enough of the constant abuse you had endured. You were not sure where you were planning to go.

“I left the Chicago QZ. I thought it would be better to be by myself than with people who didn’t care for me or my well-being.” You stated.

Finally being able to turn around and look at the people who had bum-rushed you, you could see that it was a man in his mid-50s, tall, and stocky. There was also a smaller girl, who barely looked more than 14.

Allowing yourself to have some courage, you asked the new people what their names were and where they were going.

“I’m Ellie! This is Joel. We’re going to- “Ellie was silenced by the older man immediately, him not wanting you to find out where they were going.

“Where we’re goin has no concern to this young lady, Ellie. Now, if we could be on our way. “Joel tossed you a quick side glance, not wanting you to bother them any more than you already had.

Silence was something you were good at. Staring back at them, you could tell that Ellie didn’t mind you tagging along, but Joel didn’t want you to be a burden on their team. Ellie started talking to Joel in a hushed tone, not allowing you to hear the full conversation. Joel kept glancing back and forth at you and Ellie, not wanting to back down from his previous statement.

Looking fully at you, Joel stated, “You can come along. You better not cause any problems, or we’re gonna have issues.”

Running towards them and silently thanking Ellie for putting up a fight for you to join them on their journey, you started along the path to wherever they were going together. As you start to walk away with them, you mumble under your breath, telling them your name.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Learning to be around others for longer than a few days is deemed to be more difficult than you had initially thought. Joel was hard to read. He didn’t trust you, and you could tell. He was always around when you were with Ellie, to the point where you were a little scared to be the real you. You never intended to harm anyone. Battling with your past, you thought it best to be quiet, and not try to set Joel off.

Ellie was great at breaking the mood. Always telling her jokes, was a way for you to take your mind off Joel and his brooding stature. Joel would joke along with Ellie, but he would never give you the time of day.

Being alone at night was the hardest part for you. You weren’t truly alone, but you felt far away from any resemblance of friendship, or trust with the man that laid ten feet away from you. Turning to face the opposite way of Joel and Ellie, allowed you to finally let yourself feel your flood of emotions that had been bottling up all day.

As you silently sniffled to yourself, trying to get comfortable in your sleeping bag, Joel turned over to look at you. He hadn’t noticed before how you would turn yourself away to not look in his and Ellie’s direction. He knew he was being harsh to you. He was not easy to trust others, and you unexpectedly coming into their lives was certainly not what he wanted. Secretly, for the past few months, you were growing on him. He loved that it was easy for you to get along with Ellie, and it seemed like Ellie liked you too.

Quietly, Joel whispered, “Everything alright?”

Freezing in your spot on the ground, you whispered back, “Yeah, everything is fine. Just a little cold I guess.”

Joel didn’t take that as an answer. Getting out of his sleeping bag, he walked in front of you and saw your red eyes and runny nose. Going to sit on the ground, he lowered his knees to the ground, making a slight popping noise. “I know you’re upset. I know I'm cold to ya. ‘S not my intention. I’m just tryin’ my best to protect Ellie. Ya get it, right?”

“I suppose.” You said while looking up at him blankly.

“If you want, I can sit with you for a while if you want. I know it can be a little scary being in the woods for a while with nobody else around.” Said Joel, while looking into your eyes.

“If you want. I don’t want to be a bother. I promise.” Starting to close your eyes again.

Joel moves to lie down next to you on the ground. Willing his heart to slow down a bit, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. You fell asleep surprisingly fast with Joel there, and Joel fell asleep within mere moments.

Ellie woke first in the morning, looking to see if both of you were still there. When she fully looked at you and Joel, you had moved to where your head rested upon Joel’s chest, and his arm was wrapped around your waist. Ellie chuckled to herself, laughing about how this whole time, Joel seemed like he could care less about you, but Ellie knew. Ellie could sense how he was starting to change his thoughts about you, even though Joel was not aware himself.

So little warmth I've felt before It isn't hard to feel me glowing I watched the fire that grew so low, oh

[fandomfluffandfuck]

Hey S! My mind is in the gutter again (when is it not?) and I mean after all these years Anthony (Mackie) must’ve walked in on Chris and Sebastian doing the dirty.

So imagine: They’re filming catws and I don’t think that Chris and Sebastian would have told him about their relationship. Yeah, maybe they know that Anthony has his suspicions and they’d be okay with him knowing, but they just haven’t had that talk yet, y know. And Anthony’s a smart man, he already knows, gives them knowing glances (we’ve seen them enough in interviews). But then, they go film on a different location and they stay in hotel rooms. It’s already late, maybe they all went out for drinks after filming and Chris and Sebastian got back earlier to have some fun of their own. When they check in and they go to their room, they don’t open all the doors, because they’re too busy getting each other naked and finding the bed.

Anthony on the other hand also came back, he got the room next door. He does open all the doors and sadly, the hotel forgot to close the door that intertwines the rooms (like for families and or people who want a really big room?) and there right in front of him. Is Sebastian riding the living hell out Chris, moaning at Chris’ dirty talk. Anthony screamed like a 9yo girl (he would never admit it) traumatized by the sight, but happy for his friends.

From that moment on Anthony’s their proud supporter and he will forever tease them about their sex life.

Okay so sorry for that, but I needed to get that out and I really want a better writer (like you, Sir;)) to write this.

For reference, my ask box is no longer open for requests, but this is from before I closed it, so I will be writing for this ask.

Hey! Lmao, fair enough, I fucking feel that shit. I live in the gutter at this point. I do not leave. And as far as poor, poor Anthony having to put up with Chris and Sebastian's shit...

May I interest you in this semi-recent ask answer from Minnie (@musette22) on this exact subject? Because, fuck yeah, you're not the only one thinking about it, lol. Also, though, I will add to that ask answer with another fic rec from Minnie that sort of fits the bill. Depending on how you look at it, haha. Technically Mackie doesn't walk in on them, he's already there when they get started, but still, I love the fic! It's "Intervention" by musette22 on AO3. Highly recommend!

Imagine, yes, though, I will 👀

(This was going to be actual smut, but then I couldn't help myself, and it turned into crack, so, my apologies. But I think I had more fun writing Mackie getting punked, anyway 💀💀)

Anthony has been dragged around on his fair share of film sets and he's been in the middle of fucking nowhere for that shit before. Thank you, no thank you, Hurt Locker, in the middle of the goddamn desert with practical explosions that blew them back onto their asses. Literally.

So, he thinks he's pretty damn lucky to have it nice and cushy this time as far as filming locations go. First in Cali, L.A. babyyy, then Washington D.C., and now Ohio. Sure, Ohio is a fucking abyss in the middle but Cleveland isn't so bad. It's nice. The location, the film budget, and his friends. It's all nice. Chris is a good buddy, Sebastian he hasn't seen much of but he's getting to know more every time he does and they have a scene together, and Scarlet, well, Anthony wants to see a hell of a lot more of Scarlet. Maybe before the movie and press are up he can convince Chris to tell him the secret to working on too many fucking movies with the same person. Yeah, that'd be good. He's gonna do that. That's a good plan.

He's set up good. He's got a good life. And he's had a good fucking night, following Evans around in downtown, club to bar to club to club--who knew Cleveland would have so many places to party, goddamn--after a day of relentless filming.

At some point after tipsy but before outrageously drunk, where Anthony is now, Chris and Sebastian split off from the group and disappeared. Anthony didn't let himself worry about it, they got it covered, and knowing how Chris gets when the lights go down, he was probably just off to a different place with some new friend he made and charmed the pants off of. It's no big deal. Everybody's having a good time.

Everybody was having a good time.

Now, he's been shuttled by taxi back to their newest hotel in their string of hotels over these past months of filming and stumbling into the lobby, falling into the elevator, and toddling toward his room as he shoves his hands in all his pockets, searching for wherever the hell he left that keycard. He's got it somewhere. It's a little hard to find, though, when his world is spinning off its axis and he's warm and loose with liquor. His fingers buzz and feel good, but can't really grab anymore.

It takes Anthony a few minutes, swaying in front of his door, to get into his room, but he does eventually. And, for another few minutes, he thinks that's it. That's all the fanfare for the evening, y'all. No more gaggles of lighting and film crews, no more well-meaning but pestering PAs, no more directors calling cut to confer, pressing their heads together like a two-headed expert, no more crowds of sweaty, writhing bodies, dancing, singing along to music loud enough to make his ears ring, rowdy shouts for "shots, shots, shots!" or cheering calls chug whatever is left in your glass. Just him and his hotel room.

After giving up on finding the lightswitch, Anthony's trying to figure out where the fuck his suitcase got dumped by one of the personal assistants without tripping over it or smacking into it first. Fuck it, he'll settle for just not smacking into the corners or walls, never mind his suitcase. It's fucking fine. He can just strip out of his shoes, socks, and pants, fiddling with his belt and dumb, drunk fingers, rip his shirt off, and he'll be good. The pile of clothes he leaves behind like a shedded snaked skin is sober Anthony's problem. That's a morning issue (just like the pounding headache he knows he'll have, but it's fine, tomorrow's Saturday anyhow).

But, his mission to get naked and fall into his hotel bed, ruining the nicely done sheets, and pass the fuck out is interrupted by two things that filter into his conception of the spinning world at once.

One) Someone is knocking? Hitting? Something? Squeak, squeak, squeak, it happens again and again and again. It's probably someone knocking on his fucking door at whatever ass o'clock it is but why the fuck now. It can't be call time already.

Two) His lights are on. Motion sensors? That, or, he hit a switch as he fell into the wall, slapping his hand out to catch himself. What the fuck.

While Anthony is trying to blearily figure out both of those things that hit him at once like a backhand across the drunk, uncoordinated face it comes to him. The understanding, that is.

Ah. Boom. Figured it out. Easy as shit. He's smart as fuck. There's an open door in his hotel room and Chris and Sebastian are fucking so hard that the bed over there, in that lights-on room, is hitting the wall.

Wait--

There's an open door in his hotel room?

Wait.

Chris and Sebastian are fucking?

They're fucking in his hotel room?

What.

Anthony reels back immediately after having just pushed off the wall in the first place, falling back against the drywall and slapping both hands palm-down onto the wall, needing support while his head spins faster than the world around him. He gawks at what he sees, blinking his blurry eyes hard, trying to figure out if what he's seeing it real.

Unfortunately for him, it is.

There's an open fucking door in his hotel room that leads straight to Chris and Sebastian in their room and Chris and Sebastian are all sorts of tangled up.

There's Chris, lazing back against the headboard of the bed. And there's Sebastian, straddling Chris' lap, his legs quivering, his arms trapped behind his back, caught in one of Chris' hands by the wrist, and his neck arched, head thrown back. Sebastian's bouncing in Chris' lap, moving so fast that he's really just a fucking blur of horny movement.

He's riding Chris hard.

So hard, that that's what the fucking noise is. Squeak. Squeak. Squeak. Their poor bed is screaming out for help under their enthusiasm, the springs squeaking beneath them, so loud they're nearly the same volume as Chris' voice, rumbling smooth and pressed into Sebastian's throat that's blushing bright pink and looks to have been mauled (oh my god, makeup is going to hate them). Sebastian throws himself into that too, not one to be outdone in his performance, and moans, guttural with its depth yet needy and high in pitch, "d-AH!-daddy!"

Anthony's eyes go so fucking wide they probably fucking bulge out of his head.

Oh. my. god.

This is blackmail material.

Anthony takes a single hysterical, terrible, hilarious second to recognize what the fuck he's seeing--the white-boy fuck he's seeing--and then, instantly, lurch forward the handful of steps he has to make it through, off-balance to get to the door. When he's finally close enough, Anthony slaps a hand out, gets it around the door handle, and slams that fucking door shut, sealing their rooms off from one another. Giving everyone the privacy they all desperately need.

Oh my god, he thinks again, dizzy.

Anthony ends up leaning back against the door he's just rushed to shut, needing support before he falls to the floor in a mess of drunken limbs and fucked-up reaction timing. His heart is beating out of his chest, double time with his alcohol-thinned blood rushing faster, faster, faster. It pumps loudly through his ears.

Chuckling in horror and pure hilarity, Anthony reconciles that he's never gonna fucking look either of them in the eyes ever. again.

What the hell.

He can't believe none of the staff thought to or paid enough attention to shut that door! What are the chances of that? That needs to be on the room clean-up checklist! What if there had been a fucking murderer next door? What if his suitcase and shit were dropped and the person next door just walked through a stole it? Also, fuck, he can't believe neither of them told him! Not the staff, but the idiots fucking next door. He's known Chris for, like, forever. Relationships--friends with benefits, serious, or otherwise--are important!

And, hold on, numbers zoom around in his head, too fast for his drunk ass--when did the first Captain America come out? When would that have been filmed then? How long ago was that? Did they start messing around then? It's gotta be right? And if it is, then it's been a good fucking while. Why wasn't he told? He wouldn't go gossiping, Chris knows that. He wouldn't loved to know. He would've cheered Chris on, he's cool, man. They're friends! Tight friends. That asshole, leaving him out of the loop.

Asshole is the wrong fucking insult to think of because then he's seeing the two of them together all over again in his head and hearing the noises Sebastian was making and, ugh, Anthony shakes his head to get rid of it only, leaning more so back up against the slammed-shut door, Anthony can hear them.

They're laughing.

They're laughing, those shameless motherfuckers.

Laughing and probably kissing because the sounds go quiet for a second but then they're back. And then Sebastian's distinctive, uncontrollable giggle that he gets going sometimes when he's tired and loopy and Chris is making dumb, shitty jokes is there. Half that giggle and half-gasping, moaning sounds that make Anthony have no choice but to pound on the door with his fist (which is probably the liquor talking, if he's honest, there are other options), shouting, "I'm gonna call the front desk and file a noise complaint, you loud fuckers! I swear to god! I am!" He's teasing and his voice is slurred from the drinks he had tonight, so there's no real threat, but it's annoying that those dicks (again, wrong fucking word for his mind's eye) don't take him seriously at all.

In fact, to make matters worse, Sebastian has the gall to sass him back through the wall, loud and almost joyful as he verbally sticks his tongue out at him, "m'kaa-ah!-yy! Mmm-hmm! You, you do that!" Reacting sharply, moaning-gasping more, to whatever Chris is doing to him.

Helplessly, Anthony laughs at him, shaking his head.

What is his life?

How did he get here?

Why are these his friends?

At least, for the most part, they do seem to try and keep it down as much as they can after that. No problem, though, Anthony is already planning to spend the time they keep him up workshopping all the embarrassing jokes he can make at their expense tomorrow. He can't wait to see their stupid faces when he knows and prods at them but no one else does. It's gonna be fucking hilarious. He's hilarious. He'll show 'em. Those assholes.

Bonus:

this video of Mackie [indirectly] calling them kinky

and this picture because it's so funny to me

[prince-liest]

I just want to thank you for the masterpiece that is 666!!! Your writing is such a huge part of my love for this show and every little snippet or post, let alone every new chapter makes my entire week!!! You are so talented and I’m so happy I ended up finding your work, I keep pestering my friends by info-dumping about your au almost daily haha

Anyway I hope you have a wonderful day and thank you again for feeding us freaks so well, there are not enough words I could use to express how much I love your writing ^^

Aw, thank you so much!! Freak pride!!!!! Honestly my fondness for this fandom is immense because of the sheer amount of positive encouragement and enablement I've received to keep at my shenanigans. I really appreciate the community, and everyone like you that's taken the time to let me know that they enjoyed my work! I'm so happy to have been part of the fandom experience for you! <3

[jichanxo]

made a tierlist of my kuwagami fics for funsies (+ notes for a few) ↓

(everything listed in the same tier are equals, so the order they're listed in has no meaning)

[stabbyfoxandrew]

Ooooh a werewolf neil au that you’ve been hiding, you say…. 👀👀👀

heehee yes! i am very excited about it but... i know it will be a long ass time before i end up writing it. :')

it was one of my ideas i had for the big bang this year. i ended up choosing the other one (which was demon neil. i'm very into neil being a Special Guy) but... the bb thing blew up and i dropped out. so yeah i'm also very excited about the demon neil fic! :)

if you'd like to hear about the werewolf one, let me know and maybe i can ramble about it sometime? :)

[areseebee]

The imitating-the-head-movement thing is soo great, tbh, I wonder if he was directed to or if he did that on his own. There's some really brilliant "little acting" in this show that's just so very good. I rewatched the S2 finale, and that scene with Cathy (not her eyebrows!), when she has that discussion with Ma Mary, he's full on beaming at his mother's pathetic claims about how much she's missed him, face completely dropping at Mary's "well you did dump him here quite a long time ago!", the way he says "Mum's had a lot going on" - that was sooo nailing the abandoned child in denial about their parent's lack of affection, brilliant, but also Mary's reaction!! When her eyes stay on James for a second before going back to Cathy going on about her business, you can literally watch Ma Mary's heart break for him! Considering there's some quite silly slapsticky comedy and over the top physical stuff in there as well, in some moments we really get to see how much *serious* acting talent there's assembled in this cast! ("Serious" acting talend in addition to comic acting talent, which is obvious in practically every scene I mean)

[this ask is referencing my tags on this reblog of a gifset of james in 3x07 as he watches his erin fancam footage]

yes, totally agree! there's some really, really top tier "little acting" from the entire cast (face acting, i think it's called? idk, don't quote me on that, i am not a trained actor).

in the same vein as the "little acting," the background acting in derry girls is just so excellent. i remember an interview with one of the main cast members where they talk about how tiring some of the long filming days would be because, even if they didn't many lines, they are always in the scene, reacting or doing something in the background. orla/louisa harland gets a lot of recognition for their/her background antics, but i think james/dylan llewellyn is really, really excellent with his background acting too. and, imo, it leads to a really rich text to work with as a fic writer and makes the show endlessly layered and rewatchable. i still feel like i pick up on new things when i revisit the show.

mine and @derrygirlstrash's fic, making moves, is grounded in only a look that erin gives james in the dark when the gang is sneaking into the protestant boys' room in 2x01. she's concerned about how she "doesn't have any moves," looks back at james anxiously, he very clearly notices, and then his next line is about how "boys like girls who are confident." like! why was she looking at him? had they talked about this together before? he's so quick to reassure her, to make sure she's not worried. boom - we wrote a fic about it.

or in 3x03, when james is about to sneeze on the train and erin is looking at him encouragingly, hoping she'll get to hear about his "hopes and dreams," and michelle is looking between the two of them like she suspects something, like whatever is about to happen needs to be stopped. did michelle really just happen on them kissing in 3x04 or had she been watching them for a while, seeing this develop right in front of her eyes and try to interrupt it? because i think it's fun, my headcanon is the latter and it's based literally on that one look in 3x03 alone. i'm not gonna write it, but someone give me a "5 times michelle suspected" fic!

there's just so much there if you've got an eye to it, so many spaces for fun ideas. it's the way i like to write and think about fic - to find those spaces in a source material, to find those opportunities within it to really explore what else could be there and to better understand who the characters are to themselves and to each other. imo not all source material has those spaces, but derry girls has it in spades.

[daboyau]

F for the ask game! I have a few scenes of yours I've reread because I really enjoyed them.

well now I’m curious which scenes those are! F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

so the following is from Eat the Dark.

“You tore it off,” Donnie says. His voice is too loud, and entirely too calm. Tears are rolling down Raph’s face, the blood on his cheeks smearing and dripping. Leo’s blood. On Raph’s face. “You tore his arm off with your teeth.” 

Raph doesn’t deny it. April doesn’t look anything other than sad. 

Chomp chomp, Leo had said. 

He takes a deep breath and snatches the probe from April’s hands, hunching his shoulders and leaning close to get back to work. His heart is racing, flooding his system with adrenaline, but his hands are steady as he treats his brother’s wounds.

Another breath. Choke down the bile. 

Zap zap goes the probe and a smell like singed meat tickles his nostrils. 

Choke down the bile. Breathe through his mouth instead. 

Chomp chomp.

“Leave,” he says, not lifting his gaze from the red of Leo’s wound.

There isn’t a ton of dialogue here, but it is one of my favorite things I’ve written due to how just a single word (leave) is so impactful. This is the moment that Donnie realizes exactly how Leo lost his arm, and in the stress of the moment he is absolutely furious with Raph. In the first chapter, Raph was so eager to get Leo to Donnie because in his mind, Donnie was the one who would be able to fix Leo. He trusts Donnie 10000% and was completely certain that his brother would be able to make the right choices, would know the best way to save Leo without having to sacrifice as much as they did. In his head he messed up, he wasn’t strong enough to protect Leo, wasn’t fast enough to get him back to the base in time for Don to jump in and take care of things in a better way, wasn’t smart enough to come up with a better idea, but he also feels so so guilty at the thought that he was willing to make Donnie make the hard decisions. Raph hates that if RAPH hadn’t been the one to remove Leo’s arm, then it would have fallen to Donnie, and then his little brother would have been the one to have to shoulder the burden of all the horrible feelings he’s got going on right now. In a way he’s glad that Donnie is angry with him, that he wants him gone, because that is exactly what Raph thinks he deserves right now. Later, when he’s not so hurt, when April and Mikey have talked to him about it more and Donnie’s had some time to cool down, and Leo’s up and laughing and only alive bc they made the choice together to do what had to be done, MAYBE then Raph will be able to forgive himself. But right now, he feels like he’s a monster who doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near anything as precious as his siblings. And Donnie, the smartest person he knows, just confirmed that.

[whattraintracks]

A BUFFY STAN?? BRO THATS SO REAL !!

(im pumpkinpie59 btw fjdkdkd)

Heck yeah, I'm a Buffy stan!! I loved "Poor Little Rich Turtle" because I loved her. Absolute crime we didn't get more of her. I am constantly haunted by the fact that I must create the content with her that I want to see. So thank you for your adorable art!!

[yellow-faerie]

Tell us about the fires of agni 👀

[From this post of my current WIPs, if anyone is curious ;)]

Ah yes, (one of) my Lu Ten lives AU which finally has a name!

The basic premise is that Lu Ten gets really, terribly injured at the siege of Ba Sing Se and ends up being returned to the Capital to recover; meanwhile, Firelord Azulon refuses to let Iroh return as well and so Iroh deserts with the intention of returning anyway and absconding with his son but ends up having a journey of self-discovery where he realises that the Fire Nation is shit, actually, and he has a new goal of Reformation TM.

In the capital, Lu Ten is recovering and also watching Shit Go Down TM as Ozai is a piece of shit. Too injured, he can't do much while everything happens very similarly to canon. Ozai says that Iroh is a traitor for leaving (which Azulon may grudgingly agree with) and that his line should take the throne; but then Azulon is like...Lu Ten is still alive and I like him more than you, to prove that you are actually still loyal, I want you to kill your daughter (and remove a potential threat).

Azula overhears - so does Ursa - and then things Go Down, as Ursa leaves the Capital after protecting her children in the best way she can.

Now Lu Ten is the only reasonably responsible adult in the area and he's like...twenty two, he should not be put in charge of children.

He gets on better with Zuko, but he is probably closer with Azula; he sees a lot of himself in her, especially the pressure that she obviously feels that she is under (although the pressure on him as a child was a little less intentional). He also has Complicated Feelings TM over his own father.

He has a fiancée drifting about, and there will definitely be a few more OCs of varying importances, but the end result of the palace is that when Zuko is banished, Lu Ten goes with him at Ozai's request, and Azula sneaks aboard too - for character reasons I have yet to properly establish, but the point of this fic is that the three potential heirs to the throne are on a ship, in the middle of the ocean, and they are varying degrees of angry at pretty much everything.

And have some shit to deal with.

Iroh is doing White Lotus shit everywhere and making up for War Crimes TM while Mai and Ty Lee are in the Capital being specially trained as Ozai's special operatives since his daughter ran away and refuses to appear again. He gets married again and probably has a baby kid with the poor woman, because both his heirs are currently Missing In Action and he can't have that (but, then again, he might also think that this means he won't be usurped because he's a bit doolally)

Lu Ten might be a nonbender, or he might be a prodigious firebender, I vacillate between the two ideas on the regular. Either way, he definitely know all the theory and he and his fiancée (her name is Hai Lien and she's one of the Imperial Firebenders and I could talk about her All Day) train the two younger firebenders.

Then plot happens? The vibes are vague, they keep coming across the White Lotus because Iroh is definitely keeping tabs on them. Season 2 is probably where the canon diverges properly - they end up on the run from Ozai who wants the both of them dead as he has his new heir and doesn't see the use in having any of them still alive, and they are both Convinced TM that they can be the one their father wants back.

Ty Lee and Mai are the ones sent after them, lead by Ozai's new wife - no name yet, just a terrifying bender with a lot of power and little precision; there is a lot of accidental arson that she does not feel sorry for - and like, the amount of effort they put in is Very Minimal; all of Ozai's attempts to make them loyal agents of the Fire Nation have made them go actually, no, not this thanks and loyalty to their old friends outweighs their loyalty to him.

Which means that Ba Sing Se goes hella different. First of all, the Jasmine Dragon still exists but Iroh created it like two years ago as a place for the White Lotus to meet up and this is where the fam all meet back with Iroh.

Second of all, no betrayal. Azula's not there to be all manipulative, it's only Long Feng and the wife who is a) not an emotionally significant figure for either of them and b) evidence that Ozai has really moved on from them - so when she's like you could come home :) neither Zuko nor Azula need Iroh to convince them not to go (although, I've been playing around with the idea that one of them might choose to go - either Zuko because he wants to believe his father, or Azula because she wants to believe her father - and the other staying but I shall see when I get there).

The walls still fall but I think Aang probably doesn't die - unless I make Ozai's wife go apeshit (as in, crazy firestorm that will Kill Everything which I might do) - and the Gaang gets the bedraggled remnants of the Fire Nation royal family (although Iroh peaces out to go do White Lotus stuff - noteably before getting told about the Day of Black Sun because I still want that to fail? I love AUs but I hate diverging too much apparently lol

Anyway; Lu Ten and Hai Lien stay with the Water Tribe fleet while the others go off with the Avatar. Things follow along as they do; Lu Ten and Hai Lien get captured by the Fire Nation after the failed invasion but they escape together, helping out a few other prisoners as well, if either Zuko or Azula go back to the Fire Nation (an idea I'm tempted by just so that the Gaang has a reason to know about the airships) then they return soon after the invasion.

The finale: Fire Fam feat. Katara go off to defeat Ozai's wife (left behind to Defend the Homeland). Lu Ten and Hai Lien meet the others at the airships, having used their escape to hijack one and cause chaos.

Zuko gets crowned because Iroh is like I sure as ain't having that, and Lu Ten is like...I have never wanted something less in my life (which is the end to some of his arc, where he's trying not to let everyone else's pressure get to him, kinda, it's very vague), but they're all very supportive to him, he has a whole family of people ready to help rule the country, he's just the guy officially in charge.

Ozai's in prison; his wife is either dead because accident or dead because she refused to be put in prison; the baby they had is probably barely a year or two old at this point so they are raised almost entirely by their weirdo family.

If I continued the fic, I'd probably rewrite some of The Search, so that Ursa hasn't lost her memories and now that the war is over, she returns to the palace. There's a lot of hurt feelings but they make up and they gain a Proper Parental Figure in her.

Also Kiyi exists because I think she's cute, but Ikem might not because I did not vibe with him. I kind of like the idea of Ursa and Hakoda hitting it off but nothing much happening because separate responsibilities, they just make sure to see each other a bit.

Anyway? Those are the vibes? That's kinda the plot?

There's a lot more character in between the lines, and I would like to add more of the Gaang to it because they're great; I also would like to make a disclaimer that Ozai's wife is not like Azula lite, just to replace her because she's good in this fic.

When I added her, I was slightly worried that that was how she would come across but I think she's very much a separate character - Ozai married her for her raw power but she is young and simply doesn't have the discipline to control it, showing a very important lesson about the uncontrollability of fire; she is also an avid imperialist, beyond the societal imperialism built into the Fire Lord system. Again, vibes - hopefully when I do eventually write this, she doesn't come off as Azula lite.

As for the other OCs! The only important ones I can think of now are Hai Lien (who is there through most of it as she is both a) an avid defender of Lu Ten as a person (either because she's in love with him or they're besties) and b) an avid defender of Lu Ten as the True Heir to the Throne, which is an entire thing going on - she goes through her own anti-imperialism arc herself as they're travelling, which probably ends in her joining the White Lotus; Lu Ten doesn't because he is determined to retire before thirty, that becomes like his entire life goal) and also the little sibling, but they probably become more important in a post series fic/writing.

I honestly don't have much for them, other than that they exist as a necessity for what Ozai is doing.

Anyway, once again, these are the vibes! Specific questions are very welcomed, I get far too distractable and I can miss this in my descriptions.

Here's a little snippet from what I've written already:

Lu Ten doesn’t wake up so much as drift through different states of consciousness until he’s more awake than not.

Everything hurts – a stabbing, rough pain from every slight movement he makes – so he focuses on his breath. Each one comes in deep into the stomach and out with a slow control, a pattern that’s been ingrained from a decade and a half of training under the Dragon of the West.

There’s a soft gasp beside him and he realises someone is holding his hand as it’s squeezed.

“Lu?” Hai Lien whispers, almost disbelieving, and Lu Ten forces his eyes open.

It’s dim, the candles few and each a cool red, but he has to squint all the same to get used to it. It takes him a moment to gather his wits about him, before he realises that this isn’t the eight person tent in the siege camp that he had begun to call home but is instead a cabin within a navy ship.

“You’re awake,” she says, disbelief shining in her dark eyes as her voice shakes. “You’re - oh spirits.”

She runs a hand through her hair (the one not tangled with Lu Ten’s upon the sheets) which is down and more dishevelled than he thinks he’s ever seen it.

“Oh-” She stands from her seiza at his bedside to call through the half open door. “Hey, go get the healers, tell them his highness has woken.”

“Hai?” Lu tries to say as her expression starts to get frenzied; if the dark bags beneath her eyes are anything to go by, she must be exhausted, but he could tell that just from how she was acting. He wants to tell her to go find somewhere to sleep, to get rest for both their sakes, but just trying to say her name alone hurts.

“No, no, don’t try and speak,” she says, her attention focussing entirely on him as she strokes back a lock of hair. “Just...try and stay awake for me, while the healers come. They’ll need to do some more tests, work out what they missed while you were...out of it.”

He wants to nod, wants to agree in some way but the longer he stays conscious, the more everything starts to blur together and hurt.

“And no dying either,” she continues, her voice getting wet with uncried tears, “I don’t want to write to your father if you do.”

So his father was still alive.

Oh that was good.

Everything is too fuzzy in his head to think straight, he can’t even work out why or how he’s even here.

There was a battle, that was right. They were taking advantage of the breach in the wall to take more of the agrarian zone and push into the lower ring and he had been distracted-

And he’d had tea and Pai Sho with his father the night before; he’d been planning the conversation for weeks, pacing anxiously around camp with Hai Lien at his side, but he’d been a coward in the end and didn’t manage to tell him the truth.

The door to the cabin opens and two healers file in.

“Your highness!” One exclaims, their voice wavery and thin over the rushing in Lu Ten’s ears, and Hai Lien’s warm hand in his falls away.

The healer’s fingers are cold, is the last cognisant thought he has before he falls back into the streams of unconsciousness.

[ashadeintheshade]

City of Angels, 8 and 9 for the fic ask!

Hey, ya'll are fantastic people for sending me asks!!! I'm SUPER lame for having reblogged this very fun ask game and then like, gone off tumblr for days. Unintentional!

Thanks so much for the ask @heyitszev!! Unashamedly, I love talking about COA, so, yay!

City of Angels, Fic Ask Game

8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

This is such a good question and one I don't think I've really thought of before. The easiest answer is that Christine is me, but I don't mean in a self-insert into fic way. I mean that I worked out (unintentionally, really, unknowingly) a lot of things while she worked them out too. I had panic attacks, so she did also. I was graduating college when I started the fic, and her absolute attachment to that place was mine. I can't say that any of the other characters or plot points were particularly based off any specific real event or person, other than the fact that I once did attend a sort of competition thing for singers in New England to end up at the Met, which is how Christine gets there too.

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Hoo boy, were there. HOO BOY, WERE THERE. It's so funny to even think about trying to explain the original versions to people who know it as it is now. First of all, the ORIGINAL plot line had Erik say, as Lerik does, that everyone should be dead and buried. He blew up the Campbell building, intentionally, knowing tons of people lived there, and he wasn't sorry. This got changed in like, chapter... 12?? When I realized this Christine could absolutely, positively never forgive the actual murderer of her father. So it had to become something slightly less bad lol. Just a little oops. Other original plot lines involved Madeleine actually being alive but having been driven crazy somehow by the poison she took ala Sweeney Todd, and Erik finding her in Los Angeles when he and Christine go together. Listen... this story went through a lot haha. It's been ten years since I started writing it!

A special shout-out must be given to @flora-gray for helping move COA from the original plot lines that didn't work to the ones that I feel do in the current version. We talked about this almost three years ago now! Thanks Flora!!!

[acaciapines]

Your nanowrimo pieces are soooo goooood they hit so hard fr fr. I’m especially LOVING today’s one with the owl & the collector even tho I don’t rlly know that much abt toh bc I haven’t watched it but I can tell that u LOVE IT & I can’t wait to learn more thru osmosis once the fic is poooosteeeed✨ (i WILL read it i PROMISE i SWEAR)

Anyways give us the thoughts, the tea, tell us how you make the words do that✨ anything u wanna give in regards to today’s bit!! We’re not picky!

Hope y’all are doing okay! Gal says hi :) Remember to eat and drink something, take breaks, and look after yourselves and each other! We love you! This has been a Daily Interaction Ask <3

he he :3 im glad youre enjoying!! its been really fun to pick out my favorite bits even when usually those are the ones w/out context lol. look at my owl and weep boy. firefly <3

YOU WILL LEARN SO MUCH VIA OSMOSIS....literally now that im also doing something for s1 its like. why watch owl house we have owl house at home (the owl house at home is a 1 million word daemon au) (<- 1 mil is not a joke btw idk if it'll hit it but itll at least come very close. no idk why i did this.)

as for today! hmmm...

its truly so fun to write the collector. like im not joking about him being my favorite owl house character despite his maybe twenty total minutes of screentime, so its been such a JOY to expand his role in this series!!

bc like. god. actually i think i wrote a whole like. bit of flash fiction/prose poetry type thing for them a while ago. probably in my files somewhere. but just. youre an immortal eight year old. you are in these years where you need to interact with other people for your own mental stability and health. to figure out the whole Being A Person thing. and you are trapped for like, centuries. trapped away from everyone and everything and DUST, which, in universe, in literally connection personified. you're cut off from all of this.

and you are, let me say again, eight years old.

truly the collector is just. hes had everyone he ever cares about leave him--his siblings the other archivists left him behind not out of any sense of cruelty, really, but because caring about people just isnt really a thing they do. quite frankly they live so long they didnt even notice. theyre far-away stars. not far because they're mean. just because thats what stars do.

and then king's dad (who um. doesnt have a name <3 this is why the collector calls him 'the big bully' its literally bc i never gave him a name--) was an adult the collector actually trusted and looked up to (he meshed REALLY WELL into titan society until the archivists started Doing A Murder since titans are the only beings that match them in power and they have very very different ideas about dust). like ive said before the collector is owlbeastkin but before that they never had a super stable sense of identity--in another world where they stayed w/ the titans they wouldve ended up a titan.

and then king's dad just. trapped him in a tablet forever.

and like, to be fair to king's dad he was reacting out of fear and the best knowledge he had (he assumed the collector led the archivists to the titans, and like, he did, but its not like he knew he was doing that, and, you know, poor guy had seen a huge chuck of his fellow titans killed including babies and eggs of which he had an egg to consider), but it still TRAPPED THEM. and then he died and so did all the rest of the titans so nobody could free the collector even if they wanted to.

and then BELOS, who manipulated and lied to the collector for so long and was also literally his only friend after being alone forever, so like, of course the collector just blindly went along with whatever he said. he was gonna free them!! he listened to them when they talked about stardust which nobody else ever did! he had no idea what the fuck a witch was! he just liked being able to see the stardust sometimes, and belos brought him to places with a lot of stardust. to destroy it, but like--you know. it was THERE.

but all these people were just USING them, and they never really understand that until king comes around. and king's also a scared eight year old!! but like. king's also not wrong. the collector did aid belos in destroying the entire isles. like no joke belos SUCCEEDS here. like not long-term obvi this has a happy ending but at the point we're in at for the future? it doesnt matter that the draining spell failed. all the palistrom trees are dead. witch society Cannot come back from that even if they did end up beating the collector. theyre doomed.

anyways what was i saying. collector. right.

so like, then they meet firefly/grr-click-growl/wings-across-night/the owl beast (king of having so many names i love her <3) and shes like, the first person who cares for them and ISNT using them. even king is using them!! but firefly has seen Some Shit. she sees the collector as a hatchling who was kicked out of his nest and is doing her best to be some sort of stable figure for him, but she doesnt Not see the stuff he's done.

the collector took over the world bc he's scared--all he's ever known is being used and trapped so he doesnt exactly trust most people easily. firefly would Love to not be in this world anymore. shes also got a loyalty to eda and king and luzmari. and, like, cool motive, still trapping an entire society of people.

but like. shes the one who is here right now and nobody else is trying to help this kid.

but the collector just. hes just an eight year old. a very, very old eight year old. but he doesnt understand things like "you can make the wrong choices and still choose to do better later" and "im mad at what you did but that doesnt mean i dont care about you."

he just sees someone upset with him. just sees another person who used him and doesnt care and is going to leave bc everyone leaves him and in a world where EVERY SINGLE PERSON comes in pairs, hes the only one who stands alone.

basically tl;dr: collector my beloved <3

[compacflt]

okay so something I love in what you've written is the running thematic element of how the "lack" of a character is treated as its own entity/character, not only with Goose--how he’s the “center of the universe” as you say--but also with Sarah. Idk if I just focused hard on Ice’s childhood/adolescence the entire time reading because I’m obsessed with how you wrote him, but the way there were bits and pieces thrown in about her as the story unfolded (Tom's pot-smoking era, the way they grew up so different but had a similar childhood, the unreturned letters and phone calls--also, Ice seeing Chorus Line on Broadway alone was so silly I loved it. Iceman Kazansky: pilot by day, musical theater fan by night. why was he so interested in fucking Chorus Line of all musicals.) but she never actually made an in-the-flesh appearance makes the entire fic, and Ice’s characterization, so dynamic and moving. Like Ice didn’t grow up as a sad little kid with no siblings and some evil overbearing Admiral father that turned him into a Navy-regulated cog in the machine; he had a sister (and grandmother?? A hipster Woodstock grandma?) who loved or at least cared for him a long long time ago, and her presence left a very visible mark (both emotionally and career-wise) on him no matter how “ice cold” he made himself. And in the very very beginning of WWGATTAI, he and Mav were bro-talking about their families and Ice was all like “grr I might as well not have a sister” because he’s secretly Popeye he was grouchy and young and Sarah had stopped talking to him, but then 9/11 happened and he kept trying to get in touch with her just to make sure she’s okay, and then they finally get to talk at the end of Debriefing and it's like...he's reached the top and he's become the person he's always wanted to become, but he's still the exact same. He wants his sister. He's “The Iceman" and can probably run the Navy on his own, but he’s also just someone’s little brother that used to smoke pot with all the other California hippies. He misses her but he can't talk about it.

Also, you didn't just shoehorn her into the story as a character that would be the Tom Kazansky Version of Carole-and-Goose (or as Ice's wife LMAO) and I loved how you gave her personal depth and a purpose/life outside the story while still adding to Ice's characterization through giving him another person to (a) care too much about and (b) shove into his closet of skeletons because the relationship he has with them is breaking some sort of federal regulation. I hope this all makes sense hahaha, but anyway I loved Sarah and how you treated her. It was so entertaining/heartbreaking to watch Ice wrestle with how the main three people he loves are his communist sister, a male romantic partner who is also a subordinate he bails out of sticky situations constantly, and the son of the man he was involved in the death of. crazy stuff.

ok this is so funny & I love this so much because… it wasn't really how I was thinking about it at the time & I'm so glad it comes across as much warmer than how I originally wrote it... okay like i could explain everything but muh “death of the author”…… eh fuck it okay. I’ll put it under a cut so you can choose not to watch me auto-fellate. another long post, sorry. 

so, on Sarah. 

I should start this post by saying straight off the bat that she’s literally just a self-insert for me, the author, as a leftist who lives in New York and would not give someone like Tom the time of day, so I could feel better morally/ethically about writing Top Gun fanfiction. So, there’s that. But she (just like everyone else in this fic) is just a tool to get across information about Ice and the story as a whole, and there’s a reason she was introduced in chapter one (two if you’re reading on AO3 i guess. no prologue, wtf is up with that AO3 you guys need to fix that). I wanted to convey a shitload of information at the start, especially because I was posting semi-weekly and wanted people to know what they were getting into because it’s a slow burn.

To summarize what happens in chapter one:

Goose is dead. 

Ice and Maverick kill some MiGskyites in addition to killing Goose and it cements some weird fucked-up hyperinterdependent relationship between them. 

No, this does not make them instantly friends. They are still fundamentally different people who dislike each other’s outlook on life.

Ice kills some more Soviets and becomes Maverick’s equal, though still not in rank/honor. 

Ice writes to his sister Sarah, who doesn’t answer. 

Ice hooks up with a girl, but finds that he can’t relate to her as much as he did before the experience of TOPGUN. Also, he can’t relate to women at all.

Ice tries to visit Sarah, and is rejected.

Ice sees A Chorus Line on Broadway by himself.

Ice and Maverick talk to each other as semi-equals, and Ice explains that his sister is a Commie who will never talk to him again. He also explains that he wants to get to the top because he thinks it will make him a good man, or that he can make the Navy better because he himself is a good man. Maverick says, yeah right bozo.

So we’re 5,000 words into a 90,000-word fic and already you know the following:

This entire story and everyone in it revolves around Goose’s death and who gets the blame for Goose’s death. 

Ice and Mav are brought together not because they like each other, but because the experience of killing both their friend and their enemies has made it impossible for anyone else on Earth to understand them to that same extent. From the first word, they're already both so fucked-up it really is each other or nobody.

This is gonna be a sloooow burn.

Ice and Mav might end up as superior and subordinate, but they are fundamentally equal ("you can be my wingman anytime/bullshit you can be mine"), and start out as equals. They are now directly responsible for the same amount of death.

Sarah is Ice’s sister, so Ice is definitely not getting married to a woman in this fic. Good news for everyone scared by the slow burn.

Ice had previously had fun with women, and still wants to marry a woman because it "follows all the rules," but after meeting Maverick/the whole TOPGUN experience he finds them annoying/unrelatable. He can’t relate to women at all and doesn't believe this woman when she tells him she loves him because he himself has never been in love with a woman. He is gay.

Ice sees A Chorus Line on Broadway by himself. He is gay. 

Sarah will not be in this fic, and Ice is a categorically lonely man who is isolated from anyone who could possibly help him talk about how he feels. 

Sarah is a Communist who rejected her military brother, not the other way around, so this is a leftist fic from a leftist perspective, but about conservative men whose conservative personal and political opinions will be repeatedly challenged by the end. This is not a pro-Navy story. 

As a corollary to that, the ship for Ice to “be a good man” has already sailed. He’s gonna try his best to be a good man—emphasis on man—throughout the story, but he’s already failed from the very first line. 

And Ice steadfastly and stubbornly refuses to be honest with us or himself about how he feels about any of the above.

So you basically have everything you need to understand the rest of the story. Now you (reader) and I (author) can meet each other in the middle on equal terms, and the real story can actually finally get started in the next chapter. It’s a lot of information. Which is why it’s not written very well and the pacing is fucked. 

But yeah I just used “Sarah” as an expository tool to help first-time readers understand the political lens of this fic from the get-go, so we don’t have to have a lot of hand-wringing when Ice becomes a war hero of the Persian Gulf War or anything like that (though in my a/n for chapter 5 i did admittedly do some hand-wringing. i gotta delete those a/ns). So, Sarah becomes kind of a weak stand-in for Ice’s political guilt. She’s only mentioned four times besides chapter one, i think—once when Ice is with “Laura” (he is still incredibly guilty about all the people he killed & feels like he let “Sarah” down); once with 9/11 (he still thinks about “Sarah” often enough that she’s the first thing he thinks of when the country has been attacked [still haven't decided if this is the real Sarah though]); once when he’s getting high with Maverick (he is constantly reminded by the brass of the ways in which he is not a good man); and once at the end of “Debriefing,” where they actually get to talk to each other—because he has finally “snapped out of it” and left the Navy.

This fic wasn’t meant to be my sorta-kinda-but-not-really-anti-military soapbox preaching, though, which is why Sarah’s hardly in it at all. It’s a D-plot. Maybe even an E-plot. All in service of the Icemav A-plot. That end scene has a couple different purposes, actually. The second is that Sarah, who at this point is pretty much just a stranger, becomes a receptacle for Ice to prove that he can finally be honest with himself and others about his relationship with Maverick. And…that’s pretty much it. I did do more with her in my Slider one-shot but i honestly dk if that’s getting posted at this point (ITS ROUGH) so im not gonna talk about it now. 

But—that was all Sarah as a symbol, which is very un-fun. Sarah as a character is kind of a blank slate, but how Ice thinks about her/misses her is not, as you said :) I’m wary of posting headcanons that are dependent on my fic, though I do have many, because I feel like that’s not really the point of headcanons… “compacflt!Ice-specific headcanons…” idk that seems a little self-aggrandizing even for me. But, yeah, I guess I would characterize my Ice’s childhood as not greeeaaat, because his dad apparently died in Vietnam when he was like eight and his mom apparently died in a car crash when he was twelve (which is why he’s such a good driver [ch 8 notwithstanding DO NOT DRIVE 120 ON I-5]), but also not, like, abusive or anything. Raised by his grandmother (in the Slider one-shot, which I might as well spoil for you since I’m feeling quite hopeless about it, Slider kinda helps Ice deal with her death in the second year they’re at the Academy together, and it’s how their friendship really starts) who might have been hippy-ish and encouraged him breaking the rules, but also he & his sister were very very impacted by the death of their father at war. This is getting kind of deep into it, and I’m just kinda making it up, but I think there was probably a lot of strife between him and Sarah when he was gearing up to go to the Academy/getting his recommendations etc., like actual arguments and screaming matches—yes, she’s disappointed in him, but more than anything she wants to keep him safe so he doesn’t die like their dad (relevant for ice/rooster later)—and he ended up losing her, so it made a deep, deep impression on how he handles (avoids) confrontation about serious stuff like this when he knows he's gonna lose… my ice has a confrontation issue, obviously. but so does canon. see him "apologizing" to maverick for goose's death in the movie for another example of this. bro is struggling.

But thats just me makin shit up so whatever.

But that’s me just makin shit up so whatever.

[dragonologist-phd]

oh also! 30 for the writer asks (out of your Pillars of Eterniry/Dragon Age fics specifically, if you can?)

Aah thank you! I’ll take any chance to ramble about my fics lol

30. share a fic you’re especially proud of

For Dragon Age, it has to be my longfic of DAO detailing the story of Marja Aeducan and Darvis Brosca, aka Of Diamonds And Dust!

The main thing I’m proud of is that I’ve gotten this far with it! It’s way too long and there’s still a ton more to go, but I have so much fun with this kind of thing and I’m very fond of this monster of a fic. Plus we need more Brosca and Aeducan appreciation and I’m being the change I want to see in the world!

It’s also part of a whole series now (because I think too much about all my Origin characters)!

For Pillars of Eternity, I’m cheating and putting two! (But they’re both short one-shots, so it’s fine)

With Grace In Your Heart: I’m proud of this one because it was the first really OC-centric thing I ever posted! I just had so many Thoughts about Desta and her journey that I had to put them somewhere, and I loved it so much that it kicked off a whole writing obsession!

If The Heavens Ever Did Speak: this one’s a little different, which is why I like it so much! It was born of the question of what Nona, my ttrpg Leaden Key character, would be like if she were the Watcher. The answer is that she’d still very much be Nona and she’d still be a devoted Woedican priestess, which ended up being a very interesting perspective! (Also, a surprising amount of that dialogue is lifted straight from Deadfire. The dynamic between Woedica and her priests is Something, y’all)

[laurapalmerz]

I love your polycule au!! I'm really glad someone is making something good and sweet out of what could've been the teens' friendship growing stronger for the sake of finding out who murdered laura :0)

omg thank you!!! although i do understand the need to create tension amongst the characters due to what would eventually be revealed (i.e. laura having a relationship with james behind bobby’s back), it mostly just made me sad for what could’ve been. the three of them could’ve been SUCH a good little group (alongside maddy) to come together to solve the murder of a girl they all cared about. this is why i love the polycule au so much, all of them were devoted to laura and each other, they would do anything to keep her happy, even when times were dire. so when she’s murdered, it absolutely BREAKS the three, giving them a push forward to figure out who did it. for her, for the girl who had a smile as bright as the sun. she did not deserve to be snuffed out so soon.

[taegularities]

...

[oflights]

do you have any fandom resolutions for the new year?

hmmmm. good question!!

i say this every year but i want to get better about commenting, always, and also about reccing?? i'm very weird about reccing because when i see something being recced a lot i'm sort of like "oh, there's no need for me talk about it" even when i genuinely loved it and think people should read it lol. and while i think there's a lot of merit to not reccing the same exact fics as everyone else over and over again, that also just results in me...not doing a lot of recs, even though i have a huge bookmarks folder of recs!

so there's a fandom resolution: more transparency as a reader!!

also getting through my already insane to-write list without getting burnt out. somehow.