#the east germany spy au

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

Oooooooo ❄️Share a snippet from a WIP of your choosing.

isn't this the most fun question? Here's one from the latest chapter for Spiel ohne Grenzen that's been in the works for. 2.5 years. oh boy.

.

The next row of shelves was physics, according to the little brass sign at the top. Cassian strolled past the As and Bs, got roughly halfway down the row before he felt curiosity get the better of him. Why not? The opportunity was too good to miss – and after all, she’d mentioned her father to Javi, hadn’t she, in public, for everyone to hear.

It wasn’t very covert, of course, but that was fine. Jyn was pretty, political, and a little mysterious. Any spoiled politician’s brat from Havana ought to be curious about someone like her.

The book was surprisingly easy to find. It was a standard textbook and the university kept multiple copies, all hardcover, bound in nondescript beigy-grey linen. Simple red lettering stamped across the cover page, Introduction to Nuclear Physics by Galen Erso and Wolf Yularen, 1975. Introduction, history, the atom, nuclear decay, nuclear fusion, nuclear fission. No frills, no ‘about the authors’ section, but there was a brief dedication on the page opposite the introduction that caught Cassian’s eye. The second one was clearly Yularen’s – For Hertha Yularen – but the first line only read, somewhat cryptically:

For my stardust.

The wife? Possibly, she’d only been killed in ’76. But still, more likely his daughter. Jyn would have been eight or nine at the time.

Stardust, Cassian thought, idly leafing through the pages and remembering the girl’s faded jacket and dusty pants, her untidy hair; the spark in her eyes when he spoke about leaving, hard and bright like flint on metal. Stardust. He could see it, maybe.

WIP ask meme!

[sewerdraws]

please PLEASE tell me more about the tf2 a very secret service au because i'm living for this particular crossover and i was about to plan an au fic (i swear i won't steal your ideas tho). have you already got anything posted? sorry for the. vigor. it's just such a niche crossover that i can't believe someone else thought of that.

(for anyone clueless here A very secret service is a french TV show i obsessed about and mentioned wanting to do an AU for)

i'm genuinely flabbergasted that someone else crossed these two things in their mind holy shitttt and please do feel free to take (its not stealing !!) any idea from this cause i'd be fucking ecstatic to see what you make of it ?? Anyways i hadn't posted anything so here's the little i have !!

The first thought that sprung up the whole idea was surprisingly how much miss pauling fit Avss and how similar she was to Marie-Jo. So they're bffs now and their relationship to Moses evolve together !

The administrator retains a role quite similar to the canon of tf2. She puppets things from the shadows and is the one giving Mercaillon all the phone calls instead of the president directly.

The spies are agents and work mainly on french ground but they kind of oversee all the other agents as the oldest most experienced ones. Ferré (red spy) is still secretly scout's dad; scout (Jérémy) being a newly hired agent in training alongside Merlaux ! (I still have to draw scout). They can be called to oversee missions from the other agents in the other territories tho ! This is them in Algers :3

Heavy and Medic are now contacts for the french services. Ludwig works for the BND (west german allies of france during the cold war) and Misha works for the KGB in east germany but betrays them for france thanks to Ludwig's irresistible charm.

I've already thought up roles for all the mercs i haven't drawn yet; pyro and engie work at the workshop & supplies department together; sniper is a general sniper that can be affected on a mission alongside any other agent; soldier is one of the CIA contact agents, and demo is a SIS (british services) one !

[randomficrecss]

Eruri fic rec <3

Part 1

ugh they are so perfect, this is one of my most fav ships ever!!

these are gonna be all longer fics like 90K+ words but i’ll definitely post another part with shorter ones!

The Blue by bowowline

E | 176.1K | 14/14 | Hitman Levi, AU modern setting, Slowburn, Smut

“Look, kid. Don’t listen to what Uri says, you hear?” Kenny combs his hair with his hand, although there’s not a single strand out of place. “Don’t ever listen to him. You only have one kinda people you have to listen to. You know that, yes? Who do you listen to? Tell me,” he orders, kind of frantic.

“I only listen to the Family,” Levi says absently.

As a child, Levi refused to finish a job. He has not made one blunder after that. Twenty years later, fate catches up to him again.

Birds of Paradise by obiwhat12

No rating (check tags) | 94.9K | 14/14 | Hurt/Comfort, Sick Levi, Domestic Fluff, PTSD

On an expedition gone awry, Erwin and Levi find themselves stranded in the forest, fighting for their lives. They are graced with no other option except to put their faith in one another, despite their vast differences.

Under the same bright stars, they discover a new kind of consolation in each other that neither has known before.

In These Fallen Leaves by masksarehot

E | 210.2K | 32/32 | Temporary Character Death, Post-Canon, Hurt/Comfort, Smut

[Post-Basement canon-divergent AU] Ten years after the end of the war, Levi, still heartbroken over Erwin's death, is living out a quiet existence with a few Survey Corps survivors. But signs are beginning to surface that Erwin is not truly dead, and they're getting too vivid to ignore...

This fic explores (canon-divergent) choices that the survivors made after Erwin's death and their consequences for the world. It's also about healing, and Erwin and Levi learning to put words to things that have always been unspoken between them. And beneath it all are the paths, whispering to them that the fate of Paradis still rests upon their shoulders...

Corps-à-Corps by onthearrow (loved this one)

E | 223.6K | 25/25 | AU fencing, Slowburn, Smut

Meeting people in New York City is hard. When Erwin’s last good friend moves away for greener pastures, he joins the local fencing club in his Upper East Side neighborhood in hopes of rekindling both an old hobby, and his wilting social life.

-OR-

The newest member of Levi's fencing club has it all it all-- money, a highly successful career, overbearingly good looks. Levi doesn't have any of that. But he sure as hell wants Erwin Smith anyway.

The Means by calacreda

E | 130.2K | 16/16 | Post-ACWNR, Pre-AOT, Prostitution, Slowburn

'He hears him say “Do not tell a soul, Levi” and wants to laugh. Tell anyone? To what end? So that others have the images that Levi now has running through his head; of grabbing hands and harness marks, hard words and soft lips, of lies upon lies upon lies in a desperate attempt to get to the truth?'

Levi begins to notice Erwin leaving HQ alone and not returning until the dead of night.

Slow-burn, pre-show Eruri.

He Chose Titans by masksarehot

E | 486.1K | 43/43 | Semi-Canon Prequel, Truama, Fluff, Smut

Erwin swore he would never again be distracted from his fight against the titans, but when an unexpected bond begins to form with Levi, he must decide whether he will follow his heart or his head.

Mail Order Spy by 35g (Jaackdaw)

M | 230K | 24/24 | Slowburn, Espionage, PTSD, Fake/Pretend Relationship

2091. Titans are no longer the frail oddities they once were. They're changing, growing. Governments aren’t changing with them. The International Military Police is tightening their leash. Erwin Smith orders a spy.

Dresden by hedera_helix (one of my all time favs)

M | 334.4K | 26/26 | AU, Historial, WWII

When Levi acquired his false identification he knew that the key to survival would be to stay unnoticed and to contain the bitterness and anger he feels inside himself. As the tides of war start to turn against Germany, however, Levi finds himself in a position to make a choice.

CODA by crownlessk_ing

M | 222.2K | 27/27 | AU 80’s, Musicians, Canon Disabled Character, Period-Typical Homophobia, War Flashbacks

France, 1986 - The last time Erwin was in Paris, he had it all. Youth, love, success, and his place in some of the most prestigious orchestras of the world. His cello had been his faithful companion through it all, and many said Erwin was the most talented cellist of his time. With such a bright future, it was easy to pretend everything was perfect.

But a lot had changed in ten years.

Now, all he had left were ghosts in his shadows, blurred memories of what used to be, and a body broken beyond repair.

He hoped going back to where it all started would be enough to recover what he’d lost: his ability to hold a cello, to feel, to love. He’d been wrong so far. But there may be another soul just as broken as his, someone who was also wandering in search of their own missing pieces.

Final Tour by gouguruheddo

M | 131.9K | 22/22 | Friends to lovers, PTSD, Modern America, Mid-Life Crisis, grief/Mourning, Trust Issues, Hurt/Comfort

It's been twenty years in the army, and Levi is finally home--retired, bored, directionless. The world has moved on without him, including his friend Erwin. He struggles to learn to adjust, to deal with his nightmares, to flourish in a world he's never understood, only to find that Erwin is dealing with the same thing.

Pledge by EllaBesmirched (El_Bell)

E | 123.9K | 15/15 | AU college, Frat Boy Erwin, ex-thug Levi, Slowburn, Light Hazing,

Levi is not in a fucking frat.

The Laws of Survival by pasiphile

E | 120.8K | 7/7 | Slowburn, Dom/Sub Undertones, PTSD, Non-binary Hange

His friends are dead, and now he’s trapped in a world where he has no voice, no control, and no one on his side except for the bastard who forced him to join in the first place.

Trust doesn’t just grow in one day.

Vespers by Valisi (series)

E | 109.5K | 12 Works | read tags

A series of stories detailing Erwin Smith and Levi Ackerman's private life together. Pieces can be read individually or as a whole.

Some pieces will reference things that have happened in past parts of the story, but it's nothing so major that you'll feel left out.

[soopsiedaisies]

potter, james potter

@roalinda @lovelymasks

“Potter, James Potter” is basically a Spy x Family au. A super-spy from a country that is vaguely based on Berlin Wall!western europe (Westalis) has to go undercover in a country that is vaguely based on East-Germany (Ostania), in order to ensure there’s no new war starting. He has to assume a new identity, acquire a child, enrol the child in a prestigious school, and make contact with the Main Guy who’s a big danger to a new war starting, Abraxas. He also has to get married. It’s a found family but an actual family, basically.

James Potter (code name: Prongs; most talented spy of the Order of the Phoenix, the intelligence agency; professional liar) is a psychiatrist who adopts a little orphan boy called Harry. Harry can read minds. James does not know this. Harry’s also four, not six; James does not know this either. But he’s ‘papa’ now and he takes this task very seriously.

In order for little mind-reading Harry to enrol in the super elite school, James also needs to be married. His informant Franky Franklin Severus Snape tries to help him with this but Severus doesn’t make a convincing woman (to Harry’s amusement). Enter Sirius Black, code name ‘Padfoot’: a regular guy who is terrified to be seen as a spy, and who needs a boyfriend/husband ASAP. He’s also one of the best Assassins in the country, but nobody knows this. They get engaged in a very beautiful scene filled with dead criminals and an exploding grenade. It’s all very romantic.

Anyway then they’re a family and it’s a whole fluff fest. The whole family loves each other to pieces (“For the mission” - Agent Prongs) but They Do Not Know about the secret identities. An idyllic family of Liars. Harry (very advanced for his actual age) hates studying but needs to in order to advance in school. Harry also punches Draco (very annoying; son of the guy James needs to stop) on the first day of school. He’s one step closer to expulsion every time he enters the school and it stresses James out So Much because Harry needs to remain in school because the mission would fail otherwise. Sirius is mainly stressed about being a Good Husband (he doesn’t know how). Snape is a reluctant fun uncle. Also Lily is like the Head Spy of the Order.

Regulus (raised by Sirius and obsessed with Sirius) also has a secret identity: he’s part of the secret service. He Hates James so much. Despises him, really. James is not worthy of Sirius. He’s got a bit of a brother complex/daddy complex.

Also James figures out that Regulus is part of the Secret Service the moment Regulus tries to ‘get to know’ him. James cannot, for the life of him, figure out that Sirius (the husband he’s with for several hours every day) is an assassin. James panics when he thinks Sirius is mad at him (for the mission). Love makes blind, I guess.

Here’s a snippet:

James Potter walks past bags of rubbish and through rotting, rusted gates, approaches the doors of a rather dilapidated building without a hint of anxiety. Wool’s Orphanage isn’t exactly the height of luxury, but it’s for the best: these children are scarred and quiet and likely hardworking, easy to forge a background for. He would know.

The Matron, an older woman who calls herself Mrs Cole, is drunk. The children may be fed and dry and clean, but they all look miserable and frightened. Prongs—James asks for the smartest kid of the lot, one who can at least read and write. Matron doesn’t seem to have to think for long before leading him to one of the many cramped little rooms, and then gestures at a little boy who can’t be older than four.

“I’m six,” says the boy immediately, rocking back and forth on his feet. He’s cute, in that way a ragged animal with torn ears is cute. His eyes are massive and green, his black hair is a mess, his features are sharp. “I’m Harry.”

“He doesn’t look six,” says James. Can he even read yet?

“I guess.” Mrs Cole sniffs. “Smartest of the lot though. Can do the crossword—”

Harry procures a puzzle book and a pencil from somewhere, sits down, and begins to scribble. It’s not a particularly hard crossword for a trained spy such as himself, and Prongs can answer several hints correctly with nary a glance; but then Harry holds the crossword up, triumphant, and Prongs sees it’s all filled in correctly.

He does not goggle. Spies do not goggle.

“I’ll take him,” he tells the boozed-up Matron. The wording does not leave a bad taste in his mouth. That’s been trained out of him.

“Brilliant,” says Mrs Cole. She looks sickly pleased to have Harry taken off her hands. “I’ll get the papers ready.”

[cha-melodius]

OMG I remembered I have another ask for you: I can’t seem to find The Man from Uncle to watch in the UK, which is a shame bc I want to read your fics about it and also Henry Cavill gets me all 🫠 ever since he wore a henley on Superman. So, here’s my question: tell me a little bit about it? A little backstory on Napollya (iirc from your posts 😂) so that maybe I can just enjoy the fics? Pretty please? x

Back in action for asks! *cracks knuckles*

I would love to give you some backstory! (Also, if any of my TMFU folks are reading this and know where to stream it in the UK, please chime in!)

The good news is that for a lot of my AUs you probably don't need a huge amount of the background to appreciate the dynamic. It's a pretty classic enemies to friends to lovers setup, with the added bonus that (in the movie) they are actually true enemies rather than just people who dislike each other haha. I am going to put the rest of this behind a cut—no major spoilers for the movie, but it's gonna get long lol. So if anyone else also wants a character rundown + some important stuff about their dynamic so they can dive into some of my other fics, here's your primer!

Ok, so character rundown:

Napoleon Solo: aka "Cowboy," aka "The CIA's finest", formerly a top tier art thief who no one could catch, until he finally tripped up and got arrested. The CIA plucked him out of prison to work for them, and his handler still treats him like criminal dirt. Enjoys fancy cooking, classic yet fashionable suits, is utterly charming, a massive flirt, supposed to be the 'womanizer' but consistently shows a refreshing respect for women (especially given the James Bond comparison).

Illya Kuryakin: aka "Peril", aka "The youngest person to join the KGB", a giant (6'5"), inhumanly strong, super hostile and gruff exterior, surprisingly bad liar, polite king to little old ladies, actually softer than a marshmallow on the inside. His father was a Soviet official who got thrown in the gulag when he was a kid for embezzlement, forcing his mother into a kind of prostitution to survive. Probably resulting from that trauma, he suffers from dissociative episodes when he gets extremely upset in which he does things like trashes hotel rooms (his hands shake when he feels one coming on). Manipulated by his handler with threats of being sent to the gulag like his father. Favors turtlenecks and simple outfits, also a fashion snob. Extremely attached to his father's watch, which he wears.

Gaby Teller: aka "Chop Shop Girl", East German auto mechanic who's father was a nuclear scientist pulled out of Germany by the Americans during the war, leaving her behind as a kid. No-nonsense, prefers slacks when dressing herself, sometimes plays mother to our bickering boys. Possible alcohol problems.

Alexander Waverly: British Naval Intelligence, ultimately organizing the operation, a bit of an asshole but in a charming way, keeps together the team at the end as UNCLE (independent spy organization).

Victoria Vinciguerra: The evil mastermind. Napoleon sleeps with her at one point to save the operation, later she drugs him and leaves him to be tortured. Very tall, very fashionable.

Also other minor character you may come across in AUs: Oleg (Illya's KGB handler), Sanders (Napoleon's CIA handler), Alexander Vinciguerra (Victoria's husband), Rudi Teller (Gaby's Nazi uncle).

The main thrust of the movie is that Napoleon and Illya are both sent to East Berlin to try to extract Gaby for their own purposes, only to learn that they will actually be force to work as a team to take down the bad guys. They actively try to kill each other in not just their first but also second meeting. There's a scene where they argue over fashion while buying Gaby a new wardrobe that is *chef's kiss*. Extreme levels of banter and snark in every interaction. BUT, as these things go, they gain a grudging respect for each other. Napoleon saves Illya's life, Illya saves Napoleon's life. They work together as a team exceptionally well. By the end, they are trading extremely fond insults. There are moments of self-sacrificial plays to save a teammate you're not even supposed to like, gift giving, betraying your principles/agency for the other person. There is a canonical will-they-won't they between Illya and Gaby during the movie (one of the reasons another major ship in this fandom is an ot3 between them), but nothing actually happens.

I think that basically sums up their dynamic and gives you the backstory you'd need for the AUs especially. For the post-canon ones it's a little tricker since I'd rather not give away the main twist of the movie, BUT a lot of them are kind of "in the future working as a team already" setup that don't really reference movie events, so you'd honestly probably be fine there too.

All right, that's a lot of text lol. I hope it helps, and I hope you enjoy the fics if you decide to dive in!

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Maria-Rosa Rodriguez by Truus, Bob & Jan too! Via Flickr: German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/334. Photo: Art Messick. Exotic starlet Maria-Rosa Rodriguez was the sexy leading lady of a dozen French and Italian films of the 1960s and early 1970s. Her main claim to fame was the Louis de Funès comedy Le grand restaurant (1966). There is not much biographical information to be found about Maria-Rosa Rodriguez on the internet. A source suggests she was a Spanish actress, but possibly she is born in Ecuador. In 1960 a Maria-Rosa Rodriguez was crowned Miss Ecuador Mundo 1960. However, there is a bit more information about her film career. IMDb writes that during her film career she was also credited as Maria Rosa Rodrigues, Rosa-Maria Rodrigues, Rosa Rodriguez and Toty Rodriguez. Her first film appearance was an uncredited part as ‘Palma Diamantino’ in the French comedy Pouic-Pouic (1963, Jean Girault) starring Louis de Funès. Soon followed more film parts as a stripper in the kinky cannibal comedy Aimez-vous les femmes?/Do You Like Women? (1964, Jean Léon),co-written by Roman Polanski, and the sexploitation drama L'amour à la chaine/Tight Skirts, Loose Pleasures (1964, Claude de Givray). She appeared again as eye-candy in the spy film Coplan FX 18/FX-18 Superspy (1965, Riccardo Freda), the comedy Les gorilles/The Gorillas (1964, Jean Girault) and the crime comedy La grande frousse/The Big Scare (1964, Jean-Pierre Mocky) starring Bourvil. Other French films of the mid-1960’s in which she appeared were Les enquiquineurs/The pests (1965, Roland Quignon), the comedy anthology Les bons vivants/How to Keep the Red Lamp Burning (1965, Gilles Grangier, Georges Lautner) and the melodrama Le chant du monde/Song of the World (1965, Marcel Camus) starring Hardy Krüger. 1966 must have been a good year for Maria-Rosa Rodriguez. She was the leading lady opposite the immensely popular Louis de Funès in the hit comedy Le grand restaurant/The Big Restaurant (1966, Jacques Besnard). The choleric and energetic De Funès is the chef of Septim's, a very exclusive Paris restaurant. Problems occur when the president of an unnamed country gets kidnapped while having a dinner at Septim's. With police, gangsters and Maria-Rosa Rodriquez behind his back the always gesticularing De Funès tries to find the missing head of state by himself. The highlight of the film is a fabulous scene where a DS Citroen falls into a river and continues its ride as a boat. Maria-Rosa Rodriguez soon followed this up with a role in the fun filled caper Estouffade à la Caraïbe/The Gold Robbers (1967, Jacques Besnard) costarring with swimming champion Frederick Stafford, Jean Seberg and Serge Gainsbourg. She also appeared on tv in Amalia Escudero an episode of Au théâtre ce soir (1966). More tv roles followed in series like Les chevaliers du ciel/The Aeronauts (1967) – about the adventures of the French comic book heroes Tanguy and Laverdure - and Fortune (1969, Henri Colpi). In the early 1970’s she moved to Italy where she appeared in the ‘giallo’ thriller Il coltello di ghiaccio/Knife of Ice (1972, Umberto Lenzi) starring Carroll Baker. Her last film was a Spanish horror production La novia ensangrentada/Blood Castle (1972, Vincente Aranda). Most of Maria-Rosa Rodriguez’s biographies on the net stop here, but she kept on working as an actress. Under the name of Toty Rodriguez she is now a well known stage actress in Ecuador. In 1989 she appeared in another film, the East-German production Die Besteigung des Chimborazo/The Ascent of the Chimborazo (1989, Rainer Simon) filmed on location in Germany, France, Spain and Ecuador. In this adventure film she appeared briefly as a countess. More recently she was seen in a leading part in the Ecuadorian film Un titán en el ring/A Titan in the Ring (2002, Viviana Cordero). According to Rotten Tomatoes it’s an inspiring drama about the world of masked wrestling, set in a small community in the Andean Mountains. Sources: IMDb, All Movie Guide, Rotten Tomatoes and Wikipedia.

[gracefireheart]

'Aight, done a bit of digging now. Even though I'm not nearly done, I just wanted to get my rough ideas out there already lol

Looking into what brown bears live in Russia (and potentially Siberia), I ended up with three bears that Heavy could potentially be: An Eurasian Brown Bear, an Ussuri Brown Bear, and an East Siberian Brown Bear. The differences between them aren't too big (from what roughly read from their wikis), except how East Siberian Brown Bears apparently are more carnivorous than the other European bears, and how it doesn't like honey, which uh-- might cause problems (to the character(s)) Beastars' lore wise. If you know, you know.

After checking out what animals that can be found in Germany, I decided to pick the Alpine Ibex for Medic. If I read the wiki correctly, this animal is often seen in groups (that's depended on their age and sex), but you can find older males on their own. Anyways, I also wanted to pick it 'cause they got some wicked horns, alright?

I'm tied between either having Scout be a Black-tailed Jackrabbit, or a White-tailed Jackrabbit ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ That's all I got for him rn.

The others I haven't really found out quite yet what animal to pick for them. Like for Engineer, it would be cute if he was a Beaver ('cause they like building shit too), but it would be neat if he was some type of Dog breed.

With Sniper, I was thinking about some type of Elk or Deer, or maybe a Sheep 'cause-- New Zealand.

Demoman I'm a bit unsure of as there wasn't many Scottish animals that immediately screamed Demoman to me. The only animals that somewhat peaked my interest was a Badger and aScottish Highland Cattle, but he could maybe be a Scottish Dog breed.

For Spy, I wanted some kind of carnivore that can be found in France. To which I noted down animals like the Grey Wolf, Italian Wolf, Golden Jackal, Red Fox, and Least Weasel.

Pyro I was also a little unsure about. A few potential animals I noted down was Bobcat, Canada Lynx, and Wolverine. A Dog breed could work as well, but it also could be neat if they were some type of reptile that may or may not be poisonous.

Last but not least, we got Soldier. Which, honestly, there's only two picks for. It's either gonna be a Bald Eagle, or a Raccoon. Probably the latter ngl.

Onto some other side notes and whatnot (where the AU has all of these guys as adults):

Heavy moved into the city to hopefully find a job that would earn him, his mother, and his sisters more money. Said mother and sisters live quite far away from the city since it costs a bunch of cash to constantly buy and take those damn pills to make them less burly than they should be. Heavy did get a PHD in literature in an only-carnivore [whichever school you get literature PHD in I honestly have no clue orz], but finding a job- based on that degree, and in a city not really meant for bears- is quite hard.

No one knows when Medic first moved into the city, but at some point, he was found often either in or somewhere close by the black market. He finds carnivores way more fascinating than any herbivore he has ever met, wondering how their inner systems work to make them grow stronger from eating meat and whatnot. And so he may or may not be getting some dead [herbivore] bodies from the hospital and funeral homes, first for him to study their insides, and then sell it to whoever's willing to buy it at the black market.

Youngest out of his eight brothers, Scout was determined to be the fastest of them. Which, as he grew older and some strange changes happened to him (*cough his carnivore traits from his absent dad coming forth cough*), did make him way faster than his other brothers. And even if he tries not to look scared while being near a carnivore, he can't really help his instincts that wants him to run.

Aaand that's about it rn. I gotta pick animals for the others before I can delve deeper into what to put into this AU and whatnot.

Well, I guess one more thing I'll add is that Heavy and Medic will probably have a very slow burn romance due to the former being anxious about hurting or even killing the latter.

Ah shit.

Been watching a few Beastars videos lately, and now I'm thinking about TF2 x Beastars AU orz Help

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

if anyone remembers the chart i made for twtas and thinks I couldn't top that and/or had learned to devote my time to more useful things since then

meet my helpful chart for "Spiel ohne Grenzen", helpfully titled "dramatis personae". Spoilers for upcoming chapters that I may or may not write in the next ten or so years blacked out

listen i know it looks much less excessive than the last but there are like three hours of research in this chart.

Tracking: Name, Year of birth, Place of birth, university course, how they finance their studies, are they a member of the GDR youth organisation and the party, are they under Stasi surveillance, do they report to the Stasi, did they stay until the fall of the Wall or try to get into West Germany, did they take part in the Monday demonstrations

[ghoulfriendfam]

Shane Madej X Reader

College Bookshop AU!!

Summary: You are in college and for the past eight months you have been wrapped up reading books from a mysterious recommender that is only identified as “S” in your look bookstore. You have been trying to piece together who “S” is for month to no avail- but when you meet a handsome and helpful sales clerk you think you might have found your man!

Part 1 of 5 ; Part 2 (I will link the updates as they come out!) 

You woke up at the sound of your alarm. It was six am- which wasn’t any cause for excitement- but it was also Friday. Fridays were the best days. Fridays were when a new book would appear on that certain aisle, beyond the landing of the second floor of Calypso’s Bookstore, cradled within the wire holder that said “Recommendations ~ S” in chalk letters.

“S” you always had liked how that letter was turned, not quite cursive but not quite print either. It was crookedly curved and yet- yet at the same time it was perfect.

Imaginative? Artsy? Creative?

It was crazy how easy it was to attach a personality to that “S”- to someone you didn’t even know. You see Calypso’s was a busy place- a community- filled with university professors, students, employees and hipsters. “S” could be anyone of them and you had reluctantly given up long ago trying to seriously figure out who it was. You could ask- that’s true- but then what if they weren’t who you expected- what if it somehow it got awkward and things turned wrong- what would you even say if you met them:  

“I noticed that you were having a crisis back in September?”

Because you had noticed. They usually liked the classics- history too- and every now and again a few excellent thrillers. But in the middle of September the flow changed to “The Myth of Sisyphus,” “On Death and Dying,” and “Notes from the Underground.” No one reads those back to back by choice. Unless, of course, the choice is made for you by some existential panic...

Maybe you were reading too much into it. But there was something fantastic about trying to piece together who they were and what was going on with them. It was like a secret conversation- a private and personal aside with a stranger. And that didn’t just happen every day- well- except on Fridays.

Breakfast that morning was quickly hurried through, as even though the shop didn’t open till ten, you were impatient. Grabbing a stack of your class notes, you shoved them in your bag and wrapped up your in coat and picked up your umbrella. It was nearly summer- but the clouds were still going to have their final say before vacating for the hot month.

The rain was warm and steady as you walked down the campus side street past the Arts buildings and into the coffee shop that was across the street from Calypso’s. As you drank your favorite drink and half read through your assignments, every so often you’d glance through the foggy window of the shop, letting your eyes drift across the street. You could feel yourself hoping- hoping almost beyond your own acknowledgement- to spy movement on the second floor- like a child peeping down the stairs on Christmas Eve. But no movement was seen, to your expected but still irksome disappointment.

Returning, more earnestly to your work, the hours ticked by and soon it was 10:30. Quickly, you packed up your things and waved goodbye to your favorite Barista. In a half-skip half-jog you splashed through the rain and bounded up the curb to the bookstore. Pushing through the weathered door, the bell rang above you, a nice and familiar sound.

Inside the store was already bustling with the regulars- who were already taking up their common haunts. While you were an avid patron, you couldn’t beat the dedication of some of them. The romantic lit professors practically ran their office out of Calypso's and could, without fail, always be found nesting in leather armchairs with stacks of papers and red pens by their side. Near them were the groupie grad students, mimicking every word the professors said and eagerly shuttling coffee back and forth across the street. They were all on the first floor today- as always.

You shuffled your way by them and around the displays of best sellers towards the back, passing the Wiccan Craft Club- they gathered here every Friday too. Today it was Sigil cross stitching. Spooky- but fun. One day you had the notion to join them and see what it was all about. Maybe they could help you find who “S” was you mused.

Taking the steps two at a time, you wound your way up the spiral staircase to the second floor. The worn rugs that lined the upper aisles softly gave way under your steps, as you followed the familiar path. Your eyes lit up.

“The Spy Who Came in from the Cold”

Well, that was an interesting selection. They usually didn’t pick espionage books. Excited, you picked up the book and began reading the summary- even though you knew you were going to buy it anyway. A wry smile formed on your face. It was about East Germany. Two months ago “S” had recommended a nonfiction book “Anatomy of a Dictatorship” that was all about the Soviets involvement in East Germany. You could put some of the pieces together.

Tucking a copy under your arm, you went back downstairs to the checkout. It was 10 till 11:00 and your lecture began at 11:20, so you couldn’t really linger any longer. Placing the book on the counter, you began to shuffle distractedly through your bag for your money.

“Great choice,” Hummed an unfamiliar voice.

Your attention quickly redirected to the register. Leaning over the counter, happily scanning the book, was an unusually tall and lanky guy with bright eyes that shone right through you. You had never seen him before, and you were sure of that because you would have remembered it. As he moved his long unruly swirls of chestnut hair made a bob and you could feel your ears turn red.

“Have you read it?” You managed to say, your mouth suddenly dry.

“Yes, actually, I have read that one- and I venture to think that you’ll enjoy it too,”

He smiled. His face was by no external metric perfect- but it had wonderful sort of charm- a charm that was making your brain go all fuzzy.

“Y’know,” He mused putting the book in a bag, “It is surprisingly hard to actually read when you work in a bookstore.”

“Too many choices?” You laughed- a nervous god awful laugh- but he didn’t seem to notice.

“It’s the agony of my existence!” He exclaimed with comedic air, “Sometimes- y’know- I’d rather walk into the sea then make a decision.”

You giggled, pressing your hand up to your mouth to stop it from running away from yourself.

“That’ll be 13.95,”

“Oh!” You jumped, forgetting that there was an actual transaction going on, and swiped your card. In between the digits of your pin you stole several glances upwards at his name tag.

“Shane,”

Your ears got redder with the realization- Shane! Was “S” for Shane? The anxiety of being around such a cute guy soared- neigh skyrocketed- in an instant.

Taking the bag from him you blurted out a shaky: “Thank-you”

“Don’t mention it-” He beamed, “Come back soon!”

You nodded. There needn’t be any worry. You would be back- and on more days than usual. Ripping your eyes away from him, walked out of the store and into the rain. Putting your umbrella up, you began to walk slowly towards your lecture hall- and for once you were thankful that it was on the other side of campus. The long walk there would give you time to cool off from whatever had just happened.

He might not even be “S” you told yourself. So what- he had read the book- he works in a bookstore- of course he is well read- of course he reads things. On top of that, you had never seen him before today and you had been reading the recommends for almost eight months now. In all likelyhood it wasn’t “S” and to think so was just wishful dreams… dreams…

A smile formed on your mouth. Even if he wasn’t “S” he was still something- you could feel it- definitely- definitely something. As you rounded the sidewalk and strolled up the library lawn, “Come back soon” replayed in your mind and you knew that you wouldn’t hear a word of the lecture. And you didn’t.

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

Thank you so much!! Im so so happy you’re enjoying this fic so much even though it’s only been four chapters, you’re too kind 🥰

Rebelcaptain Valentine’s Fic Rec Week

Day 2: WIP || Multi-Chaptered

Spiel ohne Grenzen by @ruby-red-inky-blue 

Dear lord what can’t I say about this fic? It is one of the best things I have ever read, even outside of fanfiction. You can tell how much the author likes this era and Germany just by how detailed and fleshed out the setting is. The prose is gorgeous which is just something you should expect from one of ruby-red-inky-blue’s stories. They are also very good about using Rogue One’s original  themes and weaving them beautifully into new stories, in just a way that makes the story feel familiar (in the best way) and brand new at the same time.  

Speaking to just how incredible this story is, I already love Jyn and Cassian’s relationship and they have not officially met yet. In my defense Cassian is already half in love with Jyn and I can see what’s probably going to happen from Jyn’s side and I am so excited about it! I only recently (horrible I know) found this fic and I would have to say it’s my favorite Rogue One fic of all times. I’m sure I’ll literally cry and shout for joy when I get the next notification update because nothing about this fic does not utterly enthrall me, impress me, and leave me begging for more! 

1000/10, would die for this fic! seriously 

[melyzard]

Rebelcaptain Manip Recs

For @therebelcaptainnetwork Visual Art Appreciation Week/ Manips/AUs:

Again, if you haven’t checked out @runakvaed‘s incredible collection of gifsets and manips, then you are missing out, but here are a couple of my faves, all chosen for being beautifully rendered and highly creative concepts, which tell whole stories without a single word:

Jyn The Teenaged Witch AU (featuring Cassian and his literal demons)

Rebelcaptain Cuddles (in any universe, a thousand ways to share a bed)

Wrongful Imprisonment (Journalist Jyn and prisoner Cassian)

Go To Sleep

Smiling kisses AU (Mild nsfw, Consider this a visual PWP/fluff fic)

1920s Murder Mystery AU (Dr Galen Erso is murdered, and Jyn and Cassian must solve the crime!)

Resistance In Built On Hope (WW2 AU) (featuring Human Kay!)

Alliance-Raised AU  (Jyn and Cassian grow up together in the heart of the rebellion. Note, very light nsfw imagery)

REBELCAPTAIN MASS EFFECT AU (HAVE I EVER TOLD YOU I LOVE MASS EFFECT AND THIS IS THE BEST MASHUP EVER??) (*cough*read the ficlet by @shu-of-the-wind even if you haven’t played ME*cough*)

Another force of artistic nature in this field is @thereigning-lorelai​. Some of my favorites include:

Penelope AU (it’s both angsty and funny and romantic at once!)

Practical Magic AU (I’m HERE for Jyn As A Witch concepts)

Mission: Rescue Cassian (warning: violence, but also hugs)

Not Safe For Work (but utterly gorgeous)

Star Trek AU (live long and hope)

Favorite Fanfiction tropes (potentially not AU? Some AU. AU enough)

Huddling For Warmth (this was part of my inspiration for Cold Comfort, for those curious)

Some single AU manips/gifs/edits because they are all amazing, yes some of them have stories attached, yes you should probably read that story if you have the time (but mostly you need to look at the art), and YES I hoard these like a weird rebelcaptain dragon:

Zombie Apocalypse AU by @hoofgirl (the large bloody ‘quarantine’ sign in this one seems particularly apt just now)

The Entire Rogue One team as women by @twelvethirteens (not strictly rebelcaptain, but it could be)

Anastasia AU by @hedgewitches (additional link here to the post with @a-non-sequitur‘s additional meta/fanfic outline because, hey, you’re welcome)

what the rain washes away/Modern AU by @cassianandorjyn (moody blues that wash into greyscale, baseball bats labelled JUSTICE, it works, dude)

Cassian Wears Jyn’s Scarf by @dasakuryo (We see Jyn in Cassian’s coat all over the place, it’s fun to switch things up a bit!)

East Germany Spy AU by @ruby-red-inky-blue (look at them! Look at young Jyn and Cassian versus older Jyn and Cassian! Ahhh!)

AU manips done for my writing so I am biased, but please please look at them anyway they are glorious:

what she calls him by @thereigning-lorelai (Jyn and Cassian meet in Jedha before the movie AU)

starry scarf and rebel graffiti by @runakvaed (Jyn is with Cassian on Kafrene AU)

we need to be professional by @leaiorganas (fighting in the trenches AU)

[dukeofriven]

[Note: this post originally appeared in this thread. Owning to Tumblr’s inability to update reblogs with edits because it is a hellsite programmed by a secretive cell of former Stasi operatives to avenge the fall of East Germany, it has thus been re-edited and reformatted here for your reading pleasure.] JK Rowling’s wizards are the most useless, lazy, incapable dumbfucks in the history of fiction. The average Muggle? You take away their technology and they would be able to complete the basic tasks of feeding and clothing themselves without shitting on the floor. If a wizard ever lost their magic in Harry Potter, though, they would die. They’d be dead in three days. They’re garbage and I hate that I’ve come to hate Harry Potter - a series I once loved - because an author inexplicably hailed for her world-building is daily revealed to be appallingly bad at it. I realize this is a really dumb thing to be this angry about but I’ve been told for years what a great world-builder J.K. Rowling is, and that was not even true when the books were coming out. The Time Turner ruined all of Harry Potter forever, not because it offers easy time travel you can hold in your hand (although it does), not because you ask ‘why don’t they just use the time turner’ with every subsequent scenario forever (although you do), but because it was an enormous, flashing red light warning everyone that the series was going to attempt to make the transition from Fairy Tale Logic to Serious Fiction logic and fail. Badly. Really, really badly. I still think Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone is an almost perfect book: a distillation of decades of boarding school genre fiction combined with magic, friendship, and wonder. It is a book that owes as much to Enid Blyton and L.M. Boston as it does to C.S. Lewis or T.H. White and other authors with two first initials. Its sense of place is magisterial, from the frumpy, soul-crushing suburban sadness of Privet Drive to the ephemeral curio-shop wonderland of Diagon Alley to Hogwarts itself, a bastion of astonishment, homeliness, and delight. What it isn’t is the sort of framework on which you can support the horror that is the torture and murder of Charity Burbage in front of her colleague Severus Snape, who could not rescue her because he could not break his deep cover as a spy against Wizard Hitler 2. Long-running series can experience changes of tone and complexity. This is neither something laudable nor worth reviling; it’s a neutral phenomenon. Sometimes series do it well: Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld are both series that by-and-large end with books focused on far more complex issues than their earlier entries. TV series do this too: contrast the early episodes of Steven Universe or Adventure Time with episodes from later seasons. With Adventure Time, for example, trying jumping from the pilot to Remember You and see how hard you get tonal whiplash) Lois McMaster Bujold sublime space opera The Vorkosigan Saga doesn’t just change tones but also genre: space adventure, murder mystery, political thriller, goofy regency romance, comedy of errors, heist movie, schizoid identity crisis - on and on. The latest entry in the series has almost no plot to speak of, but is instead a musing on age, gender roles, grieving the loss of a lover, and the hope of new life. Some series, however, manage the transition poorly, largely because the initial tone cannot be harmonized with the later tone (Mass Effect jumps immediately to mind). But Harry Potter has more than just a problem of its tone getting darker: its trying to have darker events fit in the same world in which people can walk around with names like ‘Mundungus,’ the Hogwarts school song can be a nonsense poem, and the Philosopher’s Stone was defended with a series of video game puzzles. In a world in which the villain openly tortures somebody to death, the Philosopher’s Stone shouldn’t have any whimisical bullshit about its magical defences: it should have trip mines in the floor and an enchanted statue with a gun, because Voldermort isn’t a guy you confound with drinking potions and flying keys. You should just kill him. The charming fairy world of wonder of HP & The Philosopher’s Stone has room for a love potion. The later books, in which it is revealed that Voldemort was essentially born from rape, is not place where Ron Weasley can hand-out a book to Harry called Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches without seeming like a predator in the making. The cradle that is The Philosopher’s Stone cannot hold a beastly baby like Deathly Hallows any more than Grindlewald pontificating about the superiority of wizards can sit comfortably in a universe in which wizards took until the 18th century to accept the outhouse! Not that fascist ravings are inherently logical; but even non-fascists in Harry Potter never act like wizards are anything other than 100% better than muggles at all times. They can’t, because if the series were ever to do that it would have to acknowledge that the two worlds are different: neither better, just different. Instead - well, as Ron once bitched, magic makes coffee perfect every time, so it’s not clear how muggles stand being alive and don’t just roll-over and die from the hellacious half-life that is living with imperfect coffee. This has nothing to do with irony, a suggestion that ‘oh Grindewald talks a big game about wizardly superiority but wizards didn’t use toilets and cal themselves goofy names like Flumpus MacFludgeon: Rowling is using dramatic ironic to lampshade how wizard supremacy lacks self-awareness. No: this is about a world that is silly being asked to host a genocidal dictator and his crimes. It’s like those tedious ‘grimdark’ AUs that always show up in bad fanfiction by authors attempting to be serious: what if the Sesame Street gang had to deal with ICE, what if Po started haemoraging while hanging-out with Laa-Laa, what if Peppa Pig learned that she was adopted and her real parents were brutally murdered as part of gang war because they were heroin dealers and so on. (The best skewering of this edgelord comedy is still probably either Andrew Hussie’s Muppet Babies/Saw comic or any encounters the Shortpacked staff ever had with the Transformers: Buckets of Blood guy.) In Harry Potter, Rowling built a wonderful little fantasy world that ran happily on the logic of fairy tales and fairy stories, and then decided she was never going to be taken seriously as an author unless she introduced Hitler to the equation. And it never works for her. It’s not like it couldn’t have worked. The Lord of the Rings is famously a very different book from The Hobbit. It did, in fact, introduce Hitler into a little fantasy world but Tolkien made it work by abandoning huge portions of the Hobbit’s tone, style, and structure: he wrote a completely different book.  Frodo isn’t scarfing-down Bertie Bott’s Every Flavoured Beans on the slopes of  Mount Doom. The moment, say, Cedric Diggory lay dead in Harry’s arms, we needed to never meet Mundungus Fletcher ever again, or Weasley’s Gooftacular Prank Nonsense, or Ron getting Harry a book about love spells. All the very least that needed to go away, at least until the very end, because Rowling is not an author with the skill to keep the silly and the sublime on the same page. That’s fine in and of itself: all artistic people have strengths and weakness, nobody is skilled at every element of creation. J.M. Barrie was very good at writing a book about an eternal child, but a bit crap at writing a biography about his mother. Arthur Sullivan spent his life quietly seething no one wanted to listen to Ivanhoe instead of The Mikado. There’s a reason Jerry Lewis never released The Day the Clown Cried.  Virginia Wolfe is a great writer, but that doesn’t mean she would have written a great run on She-Hulk. [Although now that I’ve said it I can’t think of anything I want to read more.] There’s a great bit in the Lord of Rings after the Shire has been scoured of Saruman where the Hobbits essentially open-up their larders and allow people to have fun again; there’s also a nice bit slightly earlier where Great King Aragorn puts on his old Strider clothes just so he can be his D&D character again: when series change tone, unless you’re really good at walking on a knife’s edge, the quieter, gentler, lighter world isn’t gone forever, but it does have to go away for a while: which means its time to tamp-down on the people with silly names and personalities - like Slughorn, who slips into book six like the second-coming of the vain and silly Lockhart, even though that’s the book where Dumbledore dies.

Rowling keeps trying to makes her old tone fit with her new world without having to pull a Tolkien and actually write differently, which produces moment after moment of tonal whiplash in which the latest Potter-related movie literally involves referencing the holocaust but she also drops some fun trivia about wizards shitting on the floor like animals. (You could describe the entirety of the first Fantastic Beasts film as Tonal Whiplash: The Motion Picture. I’d say that’s an essay for another day but I do not want to have to watch that movie again.)

It needs to be said that a primary reason these tone shifts ‘don’t work’ for Harry Potter is that the logic of a fairy tale is different than the logic of a mundane story. The logic of a fairy tale tends to be self contained: it doesn’t have a smart ass running around asking questions like ‘why’ because there is no why; a thing is the way it is because it is the way it is. Fairies steal babies on the third Sunday of every month, and nobody in the story asks ‘well what about in countries that use different calendars, and what about the shift from Julian to the Gregorian calendar that skipped eleven days?’ because such a pedantic question has no substance in a fairy-tale world. The Clever Child might question what the fairies need with babies, but she’s not about to break-down the week-to-week investment metrics on the Fairyland Infant Exchange. It’s not that one cannot critique or bring critical thinking to fairy stories; it’s that in a fairy story you don’t ask how the sewer system works because it’s not pertinent to what the story is trying to convey. It’s being the guy at the book club who is mad nobody wants to discuss his theories on the music of Rush: its not that the theories are bad, it’s that in this time and place they are of limited relevance. Harry Potter, however, does not belong to to the world of fairy stories, but to the legacy of Tolkienesque fantasy - the world of

  In The Hobbit nobody would ever ask if Hobbiton had sewers - it’s not important, and if you ask those kind of questions expecting there to be a serious answer of grave import you’re being a twit. Lord of the Rings, though? Not only is it a valid question, but Tolkien probably wrote a paper explaining the etymology of the Westron word for ‘sewer’ and how sewers were first invented by Shítlívær the Noldor as a way of helping the Blessed Isles cope with all the crap that tumbled out of Fëanor’s mouth.

The world of The Hobbit is one you could enter and expect to quickly find yourself on an adventure. The world of The Lord of The Rings is one you could enter, walk-about, and study without anyone ever exepecting you to solve some sort of regionally-disturbing social problem: in short, it wants you to be invested in the existence of its world in a different way than The Hobbit. Even then, although The Lord of the Rings is more grounded than The Hobbit, it is not so grounded that it doesn’t leave room for mystery, and questions that refute Wittgenstein’s assertion that all questions must be answerable. Tolkien loved to create complex worlds, but there was stuff he knew wasn’t worth elaborating on. It’s really his fans and authorial heirs who developed the somewhat worrying belief that a good worldbuilder has to have an answer to literally every question or else didn’t think their world through. (This has killed more potentially good books than bad cover art ever has.)

The Lord of the Rings leaves room for The Undiscovered Country. Harry Potter wants too… but can’t. Firstly, Rowling obviously understands the need for what we might call poetic mystery - like the gateway in the somewhat unsubtly name Department of Mysteries - but she also wants you to know how wizards pooped three hundred years ago. You get the feeling she knows exactly how and why that gate works, and what it is, but she withheld the knowledge because she likes mystery’s aesthetic more than she ascribes to any idea that an author might have lacunæ in the knowledge of their own work. That is, she would never put something into her work that she didn’t have an answer for - for her there is no undiscovered country that exists beyond the knowledge of even the author; she is an omniscient deity. Not for her is C.S. Lewis’ insistence that for her characters: All their life in this world and all their adventures had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before. Rowling knows exactly what happens to every one of them from the moment they were born to the moment the rot in the ground and the day-to-day schedules of their lives in heaven. Secondly - and far more of an issue - is that Harry Potter becomes a world that invites you to pick up each part of its structure and think about it, because the author has - with loving care - built that entire world for you to interact with. A place for everything, and everything its place. Except JK Rowling is a lazy thinker who never, ever considers the consequences of anything she says. Nagini is actually an Asian woman cursed to live as a snake, wizards used to magically disappear their shit from wherever they just stood and shat it out, Hermione Granger can have a time travel device to attended a bunch of classes but Harry can’t grab one off a nearby shelf and go back fifteen minutes and save his godfather, and nor a few years later can the Minister for Magic’s protection detail keep them on hand to go back half an hour and tell their past selves ‘Hey Voldemort is about to walk in here and kill y’all thought you ought to know.’ No author can work-out every aspect of every element in their works - that’s impossible, and why ARGs are solved by the internet hivemind in half a day even though they took a far smaller group of minds months to devise. But Rowling is intellectually lazy - she adds the holocaust to her Magic Fun Land without sparing a single moment to think that idea through. She then gets defensive when confronted by the suggestion that her worldbuilding might have been shallow. Hey your American wizard houses seem a bit racist also America doesn’t really use the house system in its schools - and her response was to lash out and not listen.  Rowling tried to move Potter from a fairy logic world with its own rules into our world with our rules and our history but she doesn’t know our history very well, or even our rules, so she tells us wizards shat on the floor until the 18th century while the rest of us sit around going ‘but humans have never done that as social groups - even in horrible slums and facility-free prison cells humans create a designated place for taking a shit even if it’s just ‘that corner over there.’ We don’t just drop pants and go whenever!” This is because, as a worldbuilder, J.K. Rowling is actually kind of rubbish.

[ladyfl4me]

A,E,F,G,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z ;o

Okay *cracks knuckles* let’s go! F, M, and S have already been taken from this list, so feel free to send in... B, C, D, or H, I guess. Yeehaw. This is really fucking long.

A: How did you come up with the title to [TMWCIFTC]? -- It started, as many things do, as a bad pun. The novel The Spy who Came In from the Cold was a cold-war spy thriller, about a British spy who goes over to East Germany as an apparent defect, except he’s actually there to spread misinformation and fuck shit up. He falls in love, becomes disillusioned with his superiors, and is shot dead over the corpse of his lover after climbing over to the east side of the wall. Needless to say, this is nowhere close to what happens in TMWCIFTC. I chose it early on because of the literal meaning: there’s a moth(man), he’s coming in from the cold WV weather, boom shaka laka, we have a title. Over time, though, it’s evolved into another meaning. Indrid himself is coming in from an isolated, lonely existence: he’s rejoining the family that cut ties with him, he’s in love, he’s warm and safe. The moth sure did come in from the cold, and hopefully he stays that way.

E: If you wrote a sequel to [TMWCIFTC], what would it be about? -- Hm. Considering my entire TAZ fic career is a tangled hairball of sequels and prequels, I kind of have this base covered. At the moment, TCOS - aka The Children of Sylvain, the sequel to TMWCIFTC - is about three things: a Pine Guard road trip race against time and the feds, the Spanish Sylvan Inquisition That Nobody Expected (least of all Jake and Hollis, who have to set aside their differences and past conflicts to save Kepler - and who knows, maybe they’ll fall in love along the way), and Alexandra the Interpreter getting woke to Sylvan politics and doing what she can from the inside to change them. In other words, it’s going to be a massive sequel that is the finale of the Amnesty alternate universe I’ve created. It’s this series’ Endgame. (That reminds me, I need an actual title for this collection of stories I’m writing. The “Tin Cinematic Universe” doesn’t quite have the ring to it that I’d like.)

G: Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order? -- eh, it kind of depends. It’s like a buffering bar on Youtube videos. I outline what I can until I run out of ideas, then start writing, then add outlines to the end, until the outline is complete and I just have to keep writing.

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)? -- I don’t have one for reading, but for writing, I fucking love structuring chapters around songs. Classical or otherwise, I love music. All my stories play in my head like a movie screen, and I just do my best to describe what I’m seeing in my head with an accompanying score. It’s not so much a guilty pleasure as it is a writing process. Frankly, I don’t think I actually have a guilty pleasure; the act of writing itself is all the happiness I need.

J: Write or describe an alternative ending to [insert fic]. -- An alternate ending for The Devil Went Down To Georgia would be... interesting. It ended with Boyd-as-Jersey-Devil scaring the pants off some poor broke college kid, who stole his worthless fiddle; then he changed back, and he and Ned went on their merry way to go break into Aubrey’s house and send everything down the drain. If there was one thing that I could change in there, it would be how fast Ned ran. If he ran a little faster, he would have seen the alley; he would have witnessed Boyd turning into the Jersey Devil, or at least turning back into himself; and he’d get a very rude awakening as to what Sylvans are and that his partner (in crime, and everything that mattered) was a fucking cryptid. God, that’d be a fun AU to write. Who knows, I might go do that someday.

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with? -- At the moment, the only angsty idea that I’m actually conceptualizing is a Hollis/Jake angsty breakup for TSG. (Spoilers, I guess.) I once wrote a very grimdark ending to TMWCIFTC where everyone fell through the ice and drowned. It wasn’t fun. I’ve also mentally killed off each Amnesty protagonist and NPC in various ways, but I never felt comfortable writing them down. I only write angst with a happy ending because those are the kinds of stories I need to hear.

L: How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting? -- 9 times out of 10, I just throw it into the void. I write as much as I can in big chunks, and then kind of hope for the best. TMWCIFTC, for example, is a completely unedited, unbetaed vomit draft. I usually do a quick reread of my oneshots to catch grammar and spelling errors, but other than that I just trust myself that it’s fine.

N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you? -- Can I get some kind of resolution for To the Edge of Night? Can I please get some kind of resolution for To the Edge of Night??? I was 14 chapters into that bastard before I a) became a more casual MCU fan and b) discovered TAZ. It was such a niche fic with such a niche structure - LOTR as galactic Asgardian propaganda to cover up Odin’s mistakes - that at some point I lost interest in it. I just saw Endgame though, so now I might get some inspiration for stuff to bastardize.

O: How do you begin a story–with the plot, or the characters? -- Characters. When coming up with character backstories, I can usually find ways to slot their lives together that necessitate a plot. I love character-driven stories, where their actions actually do shit and their words actually mean something, in favor of getting dragged along behind the plot like tin cans behind a car.

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?) -- I’m definitely an architect, but in a really messy way. My friends can attest that I do an insane amount of planning for each story - often in their DMs, sorry about that, Fae, Cro, Indy and Aline 😬 - and all that usually ends up in a stream-of-consciousness rant outline on Google Drive. Knowing where the story is going helps me a lot, but the planning I do is definitely just building flower beds in which to sow seeds. Or building a greenhouse. I plan the bare bones of a story, and things get really wild within it, but it does follow a logical plot structure.

Q: How do you feel about collaborations? -- I have a lot of respect for the people who can successfully pull it off, but idk if i’d ever want to do one myself. I get really possessive of my stories and ideas and like to be the one in charge of their execution. That being said, some collabs have produced amazing stories. I don’t mind reading collab fics, but actually being in a collab grates on me more than it should.

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence? -- I’m definitely influenced heavily by Neil Gaiman. I read American Gods and Good Omens a lot while I was trying to write TMWCIFTC; not only was it a good brain break, but I was able to pick up a lot of tips on scene pacing, concise yet expressive language, and character interactions. My creative wriitng professors have always told us to read so we know what to steal - not in terms of content, but in execution. 

On the fanfic side, @miamaroo is a huge inspiration for me. I’ve been reading Northern Migration a lot recently, and I love how its canon divergence is so worldshaking and so complex, but is still familiar in nostalgic yet terrifying ways. I read it back in October, went, “Huh, I wanna do something that wild. And if miamaroo can do it then I sure as fuck can too,” and I started planning TMWCIFTC during that one month dead zone the McElroys took last year. Northern Migration is one of the best, most coherent, most stunning, and most incredibly written TAZ Balance AUs I’ve ever read, and if I hadn’t read it, I wouldn’t have been inspired to take the fuckall huge plunge into TMWCIFTC.

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist? -- Bed sharing and cuddling, hand kissing, wrist kissing, whump, sympathetic villains. Canon divergent AUs are my absolute favorite things to both read and write. Anything that would turn me into Charlie Kelly slamming his finger on a bulletin board screaming, “CAROL,” is a fic I would give my life for. 

T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand? -- Not a fan of a) woobification and b) flat villain characterization, to the point where the story is riding on villain tropes instead of an actual person or plot. Character nuance is always something I look for when I read. I don’t usually get bitter about tropes, though; some stuff, when subverted, works really well. I fully subscribe to don’t like, don’t read, don’t write, which is why I don’t write anything that warrants AO3 content warning tags or an Explicit rating, in favor of focusing on plot. Every author has a reason for what they write and how - be it their level of experience, personal preference, or simply the joy of writing something and getting it out there - and I respect that. Within reason, of course.

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much. -- 

@miamaroo, for reasons I’ve already discussed. My favorite TAZ Balance author hands down. Read Northern Migration and give it the love it deserves, or I’m replacing all the faucets in your house with silly straws.

@transagentstern. Fae has a bunch of absolutely incredible fics and an amazing grasp on characterization. We come from the same place with AUs, in that canon is but the bare planks on which we put the drywall of our plot an characterization. They structure AUs and character backstories from the ground up in believable and emotionally raw ways. Also they have great music taste. I especially like their interpretation of Indrid in Moth to the Flame; he, like all the other characters in the story, is far from perfect, and his character arc is explored in relatable ways that I love to read. 

@keplersheetz. Aline - theneonpineapple on AO3 - researches like a motherfucker and has a wealth of knowledge/experience/viewpoints to draw on, making author-author interactions with her an absolute delight. She’s also doing the lord’s work with rarepairs. Spin a wheel, find a ship, and she’s probably written for it or at least conceptualized it. Reading her character studies and stories of the old Pine Guard - aka Mama’s original crew, before the current PCs joined - is always a delight. I’ve also hashed out a lot of details for The Children of Sylvain, especially for Mr. Boyd Mosche, guilt-wracked Jersey Devil extraordinaire, with her help. 

V: If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose? -- Not gonna lie, I’m fine with a lot of stuff that’s out there right now. It’s been a hot few months since I’ve actually stopped to read fic, but from what I recall, most of the fics I’ve read have done a good job of keeping things intact.

W: Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones? -- The vaguer, the better. With really specific prompts, it usually feels as if the story’s been written for me already; with vague, general prompts, I have more agency to explore my own ideas. Some accompanying detail is usually nice, though. For example, the coffee shop/college/flower shop AUs that @transagentstern​ wrote are my ideal prompt for drabbles: premise, a little bit of open-ended detail, clear explanation of what’s going to happen while leaving the rest up to the imagination. Good stuff. If it’s for a long-form piece, though, I prefer full agency, or even just some time to lie facedown in the dirt and wait for an idea to strike me.

X: A character you enjoy making suffer. -- Yes.

Y: A character you want to protect. -- Tim.

Z: Major character death–do you ever write/read it? Is there a character whose death you can’t tolerate? -- I do read lots of major character death, yeah, though not always for TAZ. There’s something cathartic about seeing a character die, but sometimes it sits wrong with me in ways that I don’t like. As for writing, I’d rather kill a character for a reason rather than for shock value/for the Feels, though said Feels can accompany the reason. 

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

continuation of walk my street, unseeing, both part of Spiel ohne Grenzen

Valley of the Clueless

Two and a half minutes, according to her father’s watch, and only on days where the weather was passable enough not to spoil the feeling, of course.

That was Jyn’s freedom for the day.

The way from the run-down student residence to the university library was a short but strenuous bike ride, and every day she hated the trip with a fierce passion as she forced her old bike uphill, and it was mostly the thought of the way back that kept her going.

The experiments in class kept her occupied – she was good at what she did, very good, in fact, and she loved it. But she was still trapped, between those people with the party pins that had bought their university place, trapped between the walls of derelict old buildings, trapped underneath the watchful eyes of passers-by, of her professors, her roommates. Trapped underneath her parents’ acts of rebellion. Trapped, in the end, like everyone else, between barbed wire, thanks to having been born some one-hundred and seventy kilometres too far to the north-east.

Keep reading

[shu-of-the-wind]

Hey if you're still doing prompts Jyn/Cassian for “I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I’m going to take care of you.” (floating, sinking is some of the best stuff I've read all year . I've been recc'ing it on my own fic XD)

(!!!!! >///////////////////

So for some reason (maybe because I was thinking about this AU I’ve seen floating around Tumblr) the first thing that popped into my head for this was a The Man From U.N.C.L.E. AU. XD Hopefully that’s okay.

(…..grabby hands for your fic.)

(It’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie so I’m probably butchering it a bit. Also, I’m like…reworking some roles here: Cassian is the CIA agent, but has Ilya’s background (well, parts of it); Jyn is an ex-KGB agent who ran away to become a thief (combo of Napoleon, Ilya, and Gabi), and Bodhi is an MI6 agent who is despairing at their nonsense.)

“Right,” says Rook. “So we’re settled, then. Jyn goes in alone.”

Jyn, standing on the table, huffs through her nose. 

“I don’t like it,” Cassian says. He leans back against the wall near the door. “It’s too risky.”

“We don’t have any other option.” Rook rubs at his eyes. His hands are shaking, again, that nervous tic that Cassian still hasn’t been able to root out the source of. Unsteady hands don’t work well for a spy. Then again, nothing about Bodhi Rook says anything close to I’m the best spy British intelligence has to offer, but he’s still one of the most gifted agents Cassian’s ever had to work with. He’s not stupid enough to deny that. “Jyn–Jyn’s the one with connections to Krennic. He’ll suspect something if she comes with company.”

Cassian rubs at his jaw. He’s been clenching his teeth on and off for the past hour, which, coincidentally, is about how long they’ve been arguing about this. “You left East Berlin for a reason.”

“Because he dragged me out,” says Jyn, and looks hard at Rook. “To keep you from dragging me out.”

“That’s not the point.”

“I was the best they had before I left,” Jyn says. “The KGB’s been trying to find me for four years. Until you idiots showed up, they never did. You think I can’t handle Orson Krennic?”

That’s not it at all, but he can’t phrase it properly. His palms are damp and cold. “And if they catch you then both you and your father are going to wind up dead.”

“I know what I’m doing,” Jyn spits, and jumps off the table. “The tracker’s in place. I’m going in alone.”

She’s so tiny. He can’t believe he’s never noticed how tiny she is until this moment. Cassian looks at Rook, and Rook, to his astonishment, turns away to fuss over the surveillance equipment, whistling nonsense. Jyn hasn’t noticed. She’s fiddling with her earrings, simple studs, when he peels away from the wall.

“Erso.”

Jyn looks up at him through her bangs, scowls, and goes back to trying to put the stud in properly. “What?”

His tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth. 

“Figures,“ she says, and goes to push past. Cassian can’t remember reaching out, not really, but her skin is–soft. When he catches her bare arm in his palm (gently, not a grip, just a touch) it’s soft. Jyn stops, absolutely. She’s barely even breathing. The muscles in her forearm go hard under his palm. Still, when she lifts her chin, looks at him, her eyes are the greenest thing he’s ever seen.

“I want you to have backup,” he says. Rook’s muddling with the cameras fades into a buzz in his ears. “That’s all I meant.”

Jyn’s lips part, just for a moment. She barely blinks. 

“You remember what I told you in Germany?” He’s struck by how tiny she is, all of a sudden. She’s barely at his chin. “I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I’m going to take care of you.”

“Andor–” 

“I was wrong back then.” Cassian looks down at her necklace, at her wrist. “You don’t need anybody to take care of you. I just–want–” 

Her arm goes lax under his hand. Jyn says nothing. Her eyes are wide and green and bright, and for the first time, he thinks, he’s surprised her. Cassian looks over her head, out the window at the water. 

“I just want you to come back,” he says. “That’s all.”

He lets go.

[ebenpink]

World News Briefs -- February 15, 2019 (Evening Edition) http://bit.ly/2SIkQIE

U.S. President Donald Trump declares a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border as he speaks about border security in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., February 15, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Reuters: Trump declares emergency for border wall, House panel launches probe WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency in a bid to fund his promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border without congressional approval, an action Democrats vowed to challenge as a violation of the U.S. Constitution. The Republican president’s move to circumvent Congress represented an escalation in his efforts to make good on a 2016 presidential campaign pledge to build a wall to halt the flow into the country of illegal immigrants, who Trump says bring crime and drugs. Hours after Trump’s announcement, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee said it had launched an investigation into the emergency declaration. Read more ....

MIDDLE EAST

Push on last IS enclave blunted by discovery of civilians. Acting Pentagon chief says committed to defeating IS, but allies skeptical. Timeline of US withdrawal from Syria remains vague after Munich conference. Syria's Kurds protest in solidarity with detained leader. Yemen FM faces backlash for smiling, sitting next to Netanyahu. Netanyahu misquoted on Holocaust in Poland, his office says. 20 Palestinians wounded in border clashes: Gaza ministry.

ASIA

Trump claims Japan’s PM nominated him for Nobel Peace Prize. India warns Pakistan of 'strong response' to Kashmir attack. Pulwama attack: India will 'completely isolate' Pakistan. India, Pakistan to argue at World Court amid tensions. China and US make ‘progress’ in Beijing but trade war talks to continue in Washington next week. Japan accuses North Korea of dodging sanctions at sea ahead of Vietnam summit. North Korea's Kim Chang Son arrives at Beijing airport. U.N. campaign aims to raise $920M to help displaced Rohingya refugees. Japan to recognise Ainu as 'indigenous people' for first time.

AFRICA

DR Congo leader calls for 'better armed' UN peacekeepers. ‘Everybody suffers too much:’ Nigeria heads to the polls. Nigerian voter data 'statistically impossible', analysis shows. East Africa bloc lauds AU for support to cancel Somalia debt. Abdul Fattah al-Sisi: Egyptian president may rule until 2034. Comoros president steps down ahead of election. Kampala expels boss of MTN's Uganda arm, citing 'national security'. South Africa warrant for businessman Ajay Gupta cancelled.

EUROPE

French ambassador returns to Italy following dramatic spat. Europeans fire back at criticism from US over Iran. Spain PM Sánchez sets snap election for April. Pompeo, Mogherini hold tense meeting after Iran rebuke from US. Brexit defeat weakens May's hand in last-ditch Brussels talks. Germany rebukes Trump over criticism of Nato spending. Bellingcat identifies third Russian suspect in Salisbury poisoning. Senior Belgian spy accused of sharing secrets with Russia. Pence honors Holocaust victims in visit to Auschwitz camp in Poland. There are no independent countries in the world, Putin says. Chinese protest in Madrid against mass bank account freeze.

AMERICAS

US military aircraft to deliver more aid to Venezuela border. Trump's envoy is secretly talking to us, Venezuela's Maduro reveals as embattled socialist president reveals as desperately clings to power. Venezuela: 65 countries support Guaido, while UN backs Maduro. US sanctions Venezuela officials close to 'former President' Maduro. Haiti's president addresses nation amid violent protests. Property and business owners in New York City react in fury and call for a boycott after Amazon pulls out of its plans for HQ2. Vale SA employees arrested, jailed for 30 days over deadly Brazilian dam collapse. Canada police rebuke public after late-night alert for murdered girl causes complaints.

TERRORISM/THE LONG WAR

9/11 fund running out of money for those with illnesses. Trump promises announcement on IS 'caliphate' within '24 hours'. L.A. skyscraper shown exploding in new ISIS 'promise fulfilled' threat. MI6 chief: Britons who joined Isis cannot be stopped from returning. Tribal truckers, praying paramedics: mixed bag on last IS front.

ECONOMY/FINANCE/BUSINESS

Stocks post strong finish as optimism over trade talks grows. US-China trade talks break up without deal. EU trade surplus with US reaches new record in 2018. U.S. drafts WTO reform to halt handouts for big and rich states. from War News Updates http://bit.ly/2SA5NR7 via IFTTT