#then four more chapters in part 2 and probably a super short epilogue

[violetclarity]

only one more scene to go in part one of my jeddy fic, and then I get to start part two aka when they actually fall in love!!

[greenapricot]

fanfic tag game

I was tagged by @thetimemoves. Thank you!

Ao3 name: greenapricot

Number of fics: 73 - 48 recent (the last 5 years). 25 from before 2009 (all originally posted on livejournal)

Fandoms: Lewis (40), Endeavour (7), Shetland (2), Inspector Morse (1), Victoria (1), Harry Potter (18), Supernatural (4), Firefly (2), Torchwood (1) The numbers don’t match up with the total number of fics because some of them are crossovers.

I’m only going to answer questions for the fics from the last 5 years because I don’t really remember a lot about writing the older ones.

1. Fic you spent the most time on: Phantoms in the Early Dark (Lewis, James/Robbie, teen, 35k). It’s a multi-chapter casefic and also my longest fic by far so it outpaces just about everything else. Second most time spent is probably the third part of my OT3 series, Overture (Lewis, James/Laura/Robbie, explicit, 5.9k) writing three people having sex at once is complicated as it turns out. Or Over the Edge (Lewis, James/Robbie, teen, 11.8k) which I resurrected from abandonment and then it grew multiple chapters.

2. Fic you spent the least time on: I assume one of the ficlet’s that’s less than 500 words is the one I’ve spent the least time on, but I also don’t have clear memories of the process there because they’re short. Both Why not? (Endeavour, Box/Fancy, teen, 800w) and Aftermath (Lewis, James/Robbie, teen, 1.4k) appeared almost fully formed in my head (one in the middle of the night one in the middle of a bath). I wrote them pretty much in one sitting on my phone and posted them only a couple days later which is very unusual for me (usually there is a lot of obsessive editing).

3. Longest Fic: Phantoms in the Early Dark 35k for the fic itself (38k including the epilogue fic). Second longest is Wolf at the Door (Lewis, werewolf au, James/Robbie, teen, 12k).

4. Shortest Fic: More than all the rest of the world (Lewis, James/Robbie, teen, 235w)

5. Most hits: Phantoms is the top of everything so I’m going to pick second most as well. Second most hits: All in All (Lewis, James/Robbie, explicit, 3.7k) part two of the All Told series.

6. Most kudos: Again, Phantoms. Second most kudos After All (Lewis, James/ Robbie, teen, 3.7k, 5x fic) part one of the All Told series.

7. Most comment threads: Phantoms. Second most comment threads: Over the Edge, and I’m going to also pick third since OtE was already an answer: It’s the heat, clearly (Lewis, James/Robbie, teen, 4.1k)

8. Fave Fic you wrote: Picking a favorite is very hard. I love them all. Phantoms is definitely the fic I’m most proud of and it may well be my fave, but since it ends up being the answer to so many questions I’m going to pic a favorite of the fics I haven’t already mentioned here (or in any other meme) and go with Misuse of Police Resources (Lewis, James/Robbie, explicit, 4.2k) because it was super fun to write and super fun to read the reactions to it in the comments.

This got really long so...

9. Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: I have plans for a third fic in my Shetland series No Holiday. I had also planned to write a follow up to Where Everything Slipped from when I first wrote it but I’ve never gotten back to it. I also have plans (and an outline and a fair amount written) for a casefic in my wingfic universe but in These Times I keep end up writing shorter less complicated things. I’m sure I’ll get back to all three of those at some point.

As far as rewriting, I can’t say that there’s anything that I’ve written in the last 5 years that I would change. I obsessively edit things before I put them out into the world, so if it’s been posted I’m happy with it. Probably some of that pre-2009 stuff could do with some rewrites though.

10. Share a bit of your WIP or share a story idea that you’re planning: My current WIP (Robbie takes a life drawing course and James happens to be the model) is in the (hopefully) final stages of editing. I posted a snippet from the first chapter in a previous writing meme. This is from chapter 2:

Robbie is at his desk staring down the new protocol that’s been mandated for the upcoming performance assessments when Hathaway arrives with coffees and two small, brown paper sacks. 

“‘Morning, sir.” Hathaway deposits a coffee and one of the sacks on Robbie’s desk. The sack has the tell-tale pleasing oily spots that mean it’s a croissant from that little bakery James passes on days he takes the longer route on his morning run. 

“Nice run?”

“Mmm.” James’ mouth is already full of croissant as he shrugs off his jacket and drapes it over the back of his chair; a not dissimilar motion to shrugging off his robe last night. There are no outward signs that James saw Robbie in class, which means either he didn’t, or he did and has chosen to ignore the whole thing. 

Robbie fishes his croissant out of the bag and takes a bite of flaky, buttery heaven to distract himself from the fact that he now knows exactly what the curve of James’ naked shoulders looks like under the fabric of his shirt. When he’s finished the croissant he’ll ask which course James has chosen, even though he already knows it’s Ancient Greek, and that will prompt James to ask him what he chose. He’ll admit it was the life drawing class, James will either turn red with embarrassment or make a sarky quip, or both, Robbie will offer to drop the course, and that will be that. 

He’s not even halfway through his croissant when Innocent pops her head in to “borrow James” for a few hours. They don’t have an active case at the moment, so off James goes, leaving Robbie to face the performance assessments alone. As James disappears out the door, he has the sinking feeling that not bringing up the class first thing was a missed opportunity. Ah, but what does it matter? James will only be gone an hour or two. 

But an hour or two turns into four hours, then the rest of the day.

_____

I tag @bryndeavour, @vita-s-west, @mcgstarroar, @daisyfornost, @ronniebox, @novemberhush and anyone else who sees this and wants to do it.

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

First Monday of the month, woohoo!

(And also kind of a NaNo roundup post because that was last month, after all…)

NaNo:

Sooooo I didn’t finish, lol. Not that I was…super expecting to, exactly, but I was hopeful! I think I just missed too many days in a row and lost all my momentum.

In terms of my goals, I was hoping to write:

1. 20-25k on Precipice 2. 20-25k on our faces like a mirror 3. 10-20k on Other Projects. 4. 50-70k total

In terms of what I actually accomplished:

1. 9,241 on Precipice (Sooooooo....about half of what I’d hoped, a little less. But I still got a fair amount done/prepped for upcoming chapters, plus a couple chapters actually posted, even while doing other stuff, so...go me!) 2. 9,043 on our faces like a mirror (Again, a bit less than half of what I’d hoped for, but I got enough done for the story/etc. to take a real Shape in my head. ...ish. See the specific OFLAM stuff later on in the post...) 3. 10,601 on Other Projects (Hey, I actually met this goal! ...barely, but still! Mostly thanks to the Nikita/Rebels crossover, lol...) 4. 28,885 total

Original Fiction:

I got a decent chunk of a big backstory piece for Lux done (in the form of a “then” and “now” set of scenes/vignettes for the five Archangels)--that being said, I’m not sure I actually like what I have there, lol. I know more or less what I need to cover, but the details are fiddly. Also not sure whether I should refer to Lux by her current name, for consistency’s sake, or use a different name (either Lightbringer or just Lucifer) since she does technically reshape her name after being released when the main Apocalypse storyline kicks off…also debating whether Lux should be/present as female way back when--angels don’t really do gender the way humans do in this ‘verse, but the closest human term for Lux would be genderfluid, sooooo IDK. Also also, for the ‘Now’ part…ehhh, I’m not sure I should have this be the first thing I post involving Trixie…but I’ll keep poking at it and see what comes out.

(I’d also planned to work on the big Kesshare character study saturation for The Farglass Cycle this month, and maybe go back to my untitled first-contact story, but neither of those happened, lol.)

Precipice:

We’re in the home stretch! Kinda. So to speak. Probably three to four more chapters in Arc Seven, which I’m hoping-fingers-crossed I’ll finish by the end of the calendar year??? (But given how much other stuff I hope to work on (see Other Fanfic Projects for more details…)

At that point--and I know I’ve said this before, and I’ll probably put it in an A/N in the next chapter or so, but following the end of Milestones, I’m planning to break off into a second/sequel fic, working title Protectors. This is at least in part because length (over 200k wtf I was anticipating 50-75k, maybe 100k, for these seven arcs @.@), but also was sort of planned even without the Length issue, due to some thematic/structure shifts following a six-year timeskip. Which, if you do the math, you can probably figure out where that’ll land us and why I might be structuring it this way…

Anyway, I’ve increasingly realized that there’s some stuff I should probably set up that I’ll need for later arcs in Part 2 involving some Rebels characters, more with the Last Batch, plus a Sith Apprentice who needs to turn up and die (although the gap between Infernalis and the next apprentice I actually care about/have a name and some kind of Plot for is only about four years in my mental timeline, so maybe there isn’t an active Apprentice in that period*…hmmmmm…), some background about the Hands, etc. But I feel like it’s all a little too disjointed for an entire additional arc. So, Arc 7.5, tentatively titled Preludes, is also going to be a thing XD I don’t think I’ll have a fixed schedule for that vs. the main storyline--and, honestly, it’ll probably work more like a collection of one-shots taking place during the timeskip than a proper Arc, but a little more Relevant than stuff that goes in Bonus Content, if that makes sense? It’ll probably be posted alongside at least arcs 8 and 9. Which, incidentally, take place more or less back-to-back and cover a fairly short period of time, but there is A Lot of plot/setup that goes into them. Like. If I tried to do it all as one arc, it’d be at least twice as long as any of the other arcs I’ve done, possibly including Arc Four--certainly over twenty chapters, I think--plus there’s a good (and by good I mean Horrible) place where I can split the arcs, so…we’ll see how that goes.

(…still not sure what to do with Maul, lol. He may just be Sir Darth Not-Appearing-In-This-Fic, or he might turn up in arc 10/11/13, which are the sort of vaguest of the next seven arcs which make up Protectors, in terms of how much I have planned out…)

(*On a semi-related note, I’ve been asked about Inquisitors a couple times in comments lately, and…well, I’ll probably mention this when I reply to the commenter in question, but I figured I’d set it out here as well, in case anyone else was wondering the same thing but doesn’t read other peoples’ comments. Like I’m pretty sure I mentioned at the start, when I plotted out** the bulk of this fic, I hadn’t seen Rebels yet. I’ve since decided to integrate a few characters/plot points (Kallus and Zeb will feature prominently in a subplot in arcs 13 and 14, for example), but, as a rule, characters and plot points from Rebels haven’t been taken into account unless I Really Like Them and/or they’re a good way to fill in a plot hole in a later arc, as with Kallus and Zeb. So, for example, when I include Thrawn, I’m writing more towards Legends!Thrawn in terms of personality, though the two have blended a bit in my head and I do reference specific events in Disney!Thrawn’s personal timeline; and b) more relevantly, I hadn’t made any plans to include Inquisitors, and that…hasn’t really changed. So, I might have them in Preludes, but they almost certainly won’t show up on-page/be super-relevant in the main arcs of the fic, sorry :/ )

(**Loooool I say “Plotted Out” like I’m the kind of author with a Master Plan or at least an outline. But I did have a general idea of the Major Plot Points going in, such as when Rex and Ahsoka would turn up, Luke’s storyline with Lavinia, how many Apprentices I would need to make them work, etc., and I’ve had parts of Arcs 8, 9, and 14 written for like at least two years now, so I know more or less where I’m going--though they’ll be edited once I have more of the connective tissue in place, in case I’ve accidentally Jossed myself…or I change my mind, which is becoming A Possibility with a major event set to happen in Arc 14, so…we’ll see.)

Aaaaaanyway. Exciting times ahead, I hope!

Other Fanfic:

This month, I finally posted another AU outline, woohoo! …I mean, it was a super-niche Nikita/Rebels crossover with a handful of OCs thrown in but who’s counting XD (I do actually intend to finish Let’s Go Steal a Crossover and update the Ventress one at some point but…yeah).

I also put out a Kallus one-shot that I think turned out really well. May do more of those at some point, who knows…

I made some significant progress on our faces like a mirror, as mentioned above! But now I’m waffling a little bit over structure. Basically, the fic covers Bo-Katan’s backstory from the time Satine becomes Duchess, through the Civil War, and eventually leads to Bo’s eventual break with her sister to join Death Watch. It comes in two pretty distinct halves--what I call the Fugitive arc in my notes, which covers the Civil War, and the Breakdown arc, which is everything after her return to Sundari.

So, my original plan was--prologue covering at least part of the final Epic Screaming Match that leads to Bo’s departure; jump back to the Fugitive Arc; and then follow through until we catch up to the prologue, with a coda/epilogue with her and Pre Viszla. The problem is, there’s…really not a lot to connect the two halves??

I’ve got a couple options on what to do about this, but I’m not sure which would be best.

Option One: Keep the structure as-is and just let it be episodic.

Option Two: Keep the structure as-is and find some way to connect the two halves (i.e., a recurring antagonist; I do have an idea of who this could be, but the problem is, it takes away a good chunk of the focus from Bo and Satine’s relationship for the Breakdown Arc…which I don’t really want to do.)

Option Three: Remove the framing device and focus on the Breakdown Arc, and include the Fugitive Arc as flashbacks, since the Breakdown Arc can’t really stand on its own. (The main issue I have with this one is that, if I want to actually write out future chunks of Bo’s life later--meaning, her time with Death Watch, and getting her from TCW to Rebels--I won’t have these flashbacks and I don’t want to change the structure too radically for any eventual sequels? Also, I’m not sure how I feel about a flashback structure for this fic in general…)

Option Four: Remove the framing device and focus on the Fugitive Arc, ending the story with Bo’s return to Sundari. (Two issues with this one--I really do want to go into the Breakdown Arc; that’s where my interest in this story started. Also, due to the constraints of setting and so on, Bo interacts with…like…two canon characters over the course of the Fugitive Arc? And while I don’t really have a problem writing a story that’s essentially a Backstory Epic for a tertiary character, populated by about 90% OCs, I’m not sure anyone actually wants to read that, except as the lead-in to the Breakdown Arc??? But maybe I’m overthinking…)

…so, yeah. Any thoughts/opinions on which option would be Best? (I may make a separate post asking the same question later, but figured I’d lay it all out here, too!)

Also, I’m working on a Secret Santa project, and probably not going to use OFLAM for SWBB, which means I need to come up with and write a different plotline of some kind, so back to the drawing board on that one…

Also also, I do genuinely plan to get Distaff off hiatus At Some Point, especially since I’ve gotten some new comments/responses lately…but given how much else I have on my plate, writing-wise, that probably won’t happen until next year, alas.

Anyway, the long and short of it is--lots of writing planned for this month! Now let’s see how much I actually get done XD

What about the rest of you? What’ve y’all been up to/what do you have planned for next month?

[artificialqueens]

Back to You (Craquaria) ~ Part 2/? ~ Pippin

AN// thank you so much for leaving a whole lot of love on the first chapter! I’m so overwhelmed from all the support and sweet comments - it left me so motivated to finish this next chapter! There’s one more chapter guaranteed to come after this one, but I’m still in contention over whether there’s going to be a part 4/epilogue - send me your thoughts over on aqpippin!

all my love, Pippin xo

Back to You

Part II: Aquaria

Aquaria can still remember waking up on her sixteenth birthday peacefully - not in pain like she expected. Her mom always told her that getting the words would hurt, would feel like a hot poker being pressed against your skin; but Aquaria stared at her reflection in her vanity mirror, running her fingers over the ink that trailed across her collarbone and over her shoulder.

Her parents had made this day out as something to look forward to - but now that it was here, Aquaria felt something akin to disappointment. Her life had undoubtedly changed, yet she felt nothing but underwhelmed by the words stained on her body. Ever the one to hide her true feelings behind an air of confidence, Aquaria expelled all evidence of disappointment from her body with one deep exhalation - before throwing on a sweater and deciding to make her presence known downstairs.

She padded down the stairs of her home, stopping two steps from the bottom when she heard her moms talking quietly.

“I can’t hear anything. I hope she’s okay,” Sharon Needles, as much as she tried to present herself as calm and composed, was always worried about her daughter. Aquaria simply put it down to biology, “I’m going to check on her, make sure she’s not trying to be brave.”

“Sharon, she’s probably fine. At least give her a few more minutes.” She heard her other mom chuckle melodically. Alaska Needles was what most considered a ‘cool mom’; she was poised and relaxed, although standing next to Sharon would make anyone appear as such.

Alaska and Sharon were each other’s soulmates and had been together since Sharon’s senior year of college, Alaska’s junior. They had been together for twenty years and, with love in their hearts (as well as a sperm donor), welcomed Aquaria into their little family not long after their first wedding anniversary. An only child - if you decided to exclude Peaches, the friendly street cat that was too tough to ever admit he liked Aquaria’s snuggles - Aquaria shared a tight bond with both her parents and considered herself more mature than most others her age.

“Morning,” Aquaria greeted her parents nonchalantly, seating herself at the breakfast bar across from her moms who stood gawking at her in the kitchen, “can you please grab the milk, mom?” Alaska nodded wordlessly, brows furrowed in confusion, but Sharon gripped her wife’s wrist and pulled her back.

“Milk can wait. Happy birthday Aquaria, notice anything unusual about your body?” Sharon had always been one to cut to the chase, but this level of abruptness caused both Alaska and Aquaria to stare at her as though she were a mad woman. Perhaps she was.

“Sharon!” Alaska yelped, backhanding her wife’s forearm, “you can’t just ask her that.”

“While I appreciate the enthusiasm,” Aquaria noted, now peeling off her sweater in an attempt to sate her mother, “the underlying aggression is a bit much. Can I have the milk now, please?” She sat, admittedly freezing, in just her pyjama shorts and a tank top, watching her mothers rush around the bench to inspect her body. Aquaria sighed deeply; the girl just wanted some cereal on her birthday. She didn’t think she was asking for too much.

“Starts on the collarbone.” Aquaria pulled her hair over her shoulder, leaning forward to get her hands on one of Sharon’s pieces of toast. She munched away silently, not thinking anything of it until the silence became deafening.

“Aquaria.” Alaska didn’t really know how to speak to her daughter - while Sharon stood frozen, hand resting on her daughter’s shoulder.

‘can I help you? I’m a nurse’

*

Aquaria spent the next two years of her life in superstition, always assuming the worst of everything and paranoid that something would go wrong at any given time. Hospitals had never been Aquaria’s favourite setting, but her trepidation reached a whole new level - and it didn’t help that her moms stepped up in how protective they were, especially Sharon.

Aquaria’s words weren’t simple or happy like those of her parents, they were ominous and left Aquaria scared that she wouldn’t get to spend as much time with her soulmate as she spent her childhood thinking she would. People didn’t just meet nurses by coincidence - meeting a nurse came with getting hurt, injured, sick. Not knowing what the future held was something that once excited Aquaria, but now she could think of nothing worse.

It was when Aquaria was eighteen and the Fashion Institute of Technology acceptance letter arrived that she decided she needed to start protecting herself. She was a big girl, and what better way to prove that to her parents than by moving from Pittsburgh to Brooklyn? Sharon cried at the airport, and cried when Aquaria rang to say she landed safely - Alaska told Aquaria that Sharon cried at least once a day for the first two weeks, and that the cat was confused.

*

Aquaria studied by day and partied by night under the influence of her roommate, Jordan. Her days were too full to routinely worry about soulmates and hospitals the way she did when she was in Pittsburgh; and Aquaria found herself indulging, possibly too frequently, in the luxuries New York City had to offer. She walked out of FIT at age twenty-one with a Bachelor’s Degree in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other, and started to trade her days of studying and cramming assignments for working and designing her own clothes, her designs influenced by the looks taking over the epicentres of global fashion - New York, Milan, Paris. She was now too busy to stress about the words on her body, and quite enjoyed the feeling of someone she didn’t know leaving blemishes across the soft skin.

*

Aquaria’s life of luxury came to a screeching halt when she was twenty-three, staring at Jordan incredulously as she held a box of pregnancy tests out to the blonde.

“You’re stupid, I’m not pregnant.” Aquaria huffed, cursing when the bobbin on her sewing machine snapped and snagged her fabric.

“I’m not stupid,” Jordan argued, unplugging the machine’s cord and putting the box of tests down on Aquaria’s workbench, “your tits are huge and I know you don’t have enough money to get them done. And besides, Aqua, we’ve lived together for, like, five years - I know when something’s off.” Aquaria groaned, snatching up the box and stomping into the bathroom, determined to prove Jordan wrong.

Aquaria nearly cried when the test came back positive, telling her she was at least three weeks pregnant.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she sniffled, shaking the test the way you shook a magic-8 ball when you wanted a different answer, and fell to her knees when the little smiley face didn’t go away, “I can’t have a baby.” Jordan sat next to her on the floor and stroked her hair softly, pulling the test from Aquaria’s clenched fist and staring at the digital screen.

“Guess what kiddo, we’re gonna be mommies.”

*

Aquaria’s fear of hospitals came back shortly after. She couldn’t meet her soulmate in a hospital, not like this - not with a baby.

“What if my baby gets really sick and she needs surgery or something?” Aquaria asked quietly one night, rubbing her hand over her twenty-four week belly and cocking her head to look at the sonogram image from a different angle. The little girl growing in Aquaria’s womb had wreaked enough havoc on her life, and she wasn’t sure how much more she could take. Sharon practically demanded that Aquaria move back to Pittsburgh, and it took a lot for Aquaria to convince her mom that New York was where she was destined to be right now, and that relocating would change her life course.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Jordan sighed, grabbing the pint of ice cream that rested in Aquaria’s lap, “this baby has an incredible mom, and one super cool other mother.” “Other mother?” Aquaria laughed, resting her head on Jordan’s shoulder.

“I haven’t decided if I want to be the other mother, or the fun aunt. I’m gonna teach her some cool stuff. We’ll be okay.”

*

Aquaria didn’t quite know how she ended up overdue and in an Uber heading towards Manhattan. She was home alone when her contractions started to come more frequently and when her waters broke on Jordan’s rug - she could vaguely recall leaving Jordan a note, quick scribbles about how she was indeed in labour but wasn’t ready for motherhood; and aside from that the rest of the evening was a blur.

She was crying in the back seat of her Uber, watching the rain fall heavily on the road. She felt sick, and her contractions were starting to get closer together and more painful. She had twelve missed calls from Jordan, twenty unopened texts, two calls from her midwife. She hollered some rushed instructions to her driver, demanding he take her to the nearest hospital instead, throwing a $50 bill at him as he pulled up outside Harlem Hospital Centre.

She waddled - walk was too loose a term at forty weeks and six days - inside the hospital, eyeing off a bathroom to her left. Somewhere she could cry for a little bit, wait out the next few contractions, ring Jordan back, and get another Uber back to her hospital in Brooklyn. She pushed the door open hastily, locking eye contact with a woman who was leaning against the sink. She hadn’t anticipated anyone being in the bathroom, and she gathered the woman felt the same way. Aquaria’s tears kept rolling as she leaned against the wall, sliding herself down and exhaling deeply. Aquaria heard the woman’s footsteps against the floor, presumed she was just going to keep walking - Aquaria didn’t expect the woman to lean down and grab her shoulder.

She felt a warm, fuzzy feeling in her tummy, felt her skin burning where the woman’s hand rested. Aquaria was sure she had stopped breathing, jaw slack as she stared up at this woman.

“Can I help you?” Aquaria felt the hand run down her arm and grab her hand, and that’s when the tears started falling again, “I’m a nurse.” Aquaria didn’t know what to do. She was panicking, could feel herself getting dizzy and overwhelmed. She grabbed the nurse’s arm in haste, not realising the nurse was now staring at Aquaria incredulously.

“I can’t do this, I want to go home.”

[the-canary]

Sky Full of Song - B.B (8/10)

Summary: Giving a recovering amnesiac the proper musical education he was missing, wasn’t supposed to involve feelings, right? (Reader/Bucky Barnes)

Prompt:  “Should I reveal exactly how I feel?”

Word Count: 1431

Masterlist

A/N: This is for @redgillan writing challenge. thank you so much for @springtime_bluebird for the lovely song suggestion! two more chapters and maybe a mini epilogue, thank you to everyone that had read this series so far. a bit of a filler, but it builds up the last couple of chapters.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 4.5 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 

Not a lot of people know this, but Two is a paranoid person by nature, it’s been implanted in her personality since she’s was a child and first learned how to use her powers (she’ll also tell you that it didn’t help that her father was a huge conspiracy theorist). She always needed to have her back against the wall and taught herself most things so nobody else could do it for her, and unlike the others in her group she went directly to S.H.I.E.L.D when she felt it was time, not because they found her. The years might have eased some of her tendencies and having Four and Seven, who left their hearts open too much and were into “believing in people”, might change her mind from time to time -- but for all that she still fell asleep with a knife underneath her pillow and looked twice (Four would certainly laugh at that pun) before doing anything else. Maybe, that’s why Security Director Hill had her watching over the members of her strange group.

“He has been adding something to the gloves that electrifies her nerve endings, I am sure that under extreme pressure it would turn into something she wouldn’t be able to control, due to how little training she actually has. He probably plans on discharging it during her upcoming mission with the Avengers, but her own emotions seems to have speeded up the process,” Two explains sitting across Maria Hill on a hazy afternoon in Downtown Manhattan.    

“Are you saying that he didn’t expect her to lose control?” the older woman questions, as she takes down a few more notes.

“Yes,” Two laughs, “I don’t think he was expecting her to fall in love.”

“Is that something we should worry about?”

“At the current moment, no. She’s still trying to figure it all out,” Two smiles softly for moment remembering you humming happily to a familiar song the other night,”But, I’ll keep you updated.”

“It’s like watching a television drama, isn’t?” Maria quips, and Two is confused for a moment  since the woman never makes a joke -- they weren’t really that close, but it’s nice for the moment.

“Something like that,” Two murmurs, thinking about about how much you had changed in such a small amount of time, she was proud of you but she was also scared. Damn, she really was like the big sister of the group.

“And what is your recommendation on how we should proceed?” her superior asks, pushing her out of her stupor and into the bigger issues at hand.

“She’s stable enough for the mission to move forward, and if anything should happen both Wanda and Vision should be able to stop it. He is constantly being monitored so we can arrest him at anytime,” Two declares confidently as Maria nods. Nothing more is exchanged on the subject.

It takes you awhile to get used to Wanda, but she is quiet when she needs to be and pushes you when you need it. You share some modern American music and she shares the music that her and her older brother used to enjoy, though she doesn’t talk about him much. It’s in-between all that she starts helping you manage your powers in little ways, whether through breathing exercises or teaching small hand movements similar to her own to redirect the electrical charges -- that’s when she brings in Vision. He is kind though a little strange as he helps control your powers bit more, as you use him a target practice every once and awhile, but you’re all fully aware that nothing could happen to him due the the complexity of his being. It was also fun to play a song and see how long it took him to figure out which one it was.

“I think she’s ready,” Vision declares looking at the three targets you had taken down with one blast. An electrical hum surrounding you completely under your control as it sends details on all the tech in the area, depending on how far away it was.

“Really?” you grin at the sight of both of them nodding their heads, a light laughter ripples in the air and for the first time you aren’t afraid of your powers.

tenth night through twentieth day.

Bucky plays the songs twice over when he first gets the flash drive, after asking F.R.I.D.A.Y if they could put them in his personal device. There are songs from every decade that had you looked over in your short time together and while some near the end aren’t really his taste, the feeling that you thought of him through them caused him to smile just a little more. After that, he tries to think of the sense of the word and tune between all the songs, looking for little meanings of what you might feel for him. Some are more obvious than others, but Bucky doesn’t dare get his hopes up, not after everything he had gone through and done. He doesn’t deserve someone bright and caring like you, but at night when a certain song hits he can dream of it a little more.

He’s playing one of the happier songs when running on the treadmill, a bit more anxious than usual since he hasn’t received an update from Steve (who was on a mission) in quite sometime and the post-notes come to an abrupt halt the night after Wanda had visited him. He didn’t know if you were getting better or if they had found the reason behind the control of your powers, which what from Bucky understood was very loose to begin with. He keeps running, lost in thought until Sam is pulling him out his daze.

“Hey Tin Man,” Sam grins at the lost look on Bucky’s face as he takes his earphones off,”Steve and rest of the team are back. Meeting in an hour.”

Bucky nods, though he doesn’t completely trust that grin on the bird man’s face. He proceeds to take a shower and heads to the meeting room 10 minutes before all of the Avengers --calling himself still feels weird-- are supposed to meet. Steve and Tony are already there and seem to be talking about something on the side with Wanda. His oldest friend stops to look at smile with a nod, as Bucky takes his place next to Natasha and Clint, but he can’t help the paranoid feeling setting into his bones.

When Bucky had joined the Avengers after his extended stay in Wakanda, he had given Steve and Tony a map of all the HYDRA bases that he remembered and a list of things connected to each them whether it was supplies, communications, or a research and through the past year the Avengers and small recon teams had been hitting them strategically to further destroy the damn organization.  It seemed that they were close to competing that objective.

“We don’t know what these HYDRA supercomputers have,” Steve picks up explaining, “But, our recon teams and Hill think it might be something big.”

“Didn’t the last time Steve and Nat messed with a super computer, it blew up in their face?” Sam questions as said teammates turn to look at him with frowns, as he shrugs stating that it was just the obvious.  

“Yeah, but we’ll bypass that with one of our recruits,” Tony explains, as he glances behind himself for a moment as if waiting for something. Everyone looks at him in confusion as Tony shrugs. Bucky immediately picks up a pair of familiar soft steps running towards the room and blue eyes turn to directly meet Steve’s, who gives him a sympathetic smile.  

Bucky’s fists tighten a little because he is aware of only one person who would be able mess with a supercomputer (and anything electronic) within the compound ins such a manner. The door behind Tony swishes open as he moves to the side, he’s wearing a smile on his face as he introduces her like a proud father. There’s a timid smile on her face as she turns to look at all the Avengers. She hasn’t changed that much from the last time Bucky had seen her, aside from a new set of earphones and gloves, but she somehow seems more confident, like she has finally bloomed underneath the sunshine of camaraderie and training.

“Sorry, I’m late, still not used to be up during the day,” she laughs and scratches the back of her head, “But, it’s an honor to met everyone. I’m Seven.”  

Part 9 

[courtingstars]

Notes for Storming the Castle, Chapters 1 & 2

Hello to my lovely AkaFuri readers! I just posted Chapter Two of Storming the Castle, so here are my notes for the fic, finally. (It turns out the delay was a good thing, because my plans for the fic changed a bit!)

About the Length/Format

Storming the Castle story should be novella length, around 30K~40K. (Fast Train was 85K, so about half that length or less!) The fic has two main parts, one half of the story for each visit. I was going to divide them into six chapters, whenever I switched point of view, but... That would’ve made two really long chapters, and four short ones? (Plus a longer wait for the long chapters!) So instead, there will be eight shorter chapters. The PoV will go like this:

Furi --> Akashi --> Akashi --> Furi --> Akashi --> Furi --> Furi --> Akashi

(Ch. 2 & 3 are basically like a single chapter from Akashi’s PoV, while 6 & 7 are a single Furi PoV. There will also be a short Furi PoV epilogue at the end.)

... Hopefully it will be obvious why I did this once I post more of the story? Either way, at least the chapters won’t take as long to write as Fast Train. XD (For anyone who liked the longer chapters, the third story in my AkaFuri series should be closer to Fast Train’s length!)

Cultural & Miscellaneous Notes

Here are some notes for Chapters One and Two! Mostly about Japanese culture things. A lot of anime fans are probably familiar with most of this, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to write it, in case anyone was curious or wanted details.

(Also, I should mention that I stole a lot of the things in this fic from my sister’s experiences studying and teaching in Japan, so thank you, @spinelstar! I’ll probably talk about my favorite example of that in my notes for Chapter Three.)

(Cut for notes about sleepovers, gift-giving, Furihata’s family’s names, and goodness knows what else...)

On Sleepovers

Generally speaking, Japanese kids don’t spend the night at their friends’ houses as often as kids in Western countries do. Some of it has to do with space; many Japanese houses don’t have a lot of room for guests, and privacy is limited. But also, it’s a bigger deal for guests to visit in general! That doesn’t mean overnight visits never happen, but there isn’t the same “sleepover culture” that I experienced growing up in the U.S. So Akashi being unsure of the “rules” of sleeping over has partly to do with his upbringing as an Akashi, and partly to do with how it isn’t as frequent in Japan. (Which is why Midorima isn’t sure how to answer his questions, and why a guy like Takao--who don’t care as much about politeness--would just wing it. //laughs)

On Bringing Gifts/Temiyage/Omiyage

On that note, there are Japanese customs for house visits in general. If you visit someone’s home, it’s polite to bring a gift. It’s also polite to insist the gift isn’t very good, and for the recipient to refuse it, sometimes multiple times! The recipient may also wait until later to open it. Here’s a rundown of some fairly common visiting etiquette, and more about gift-giving is here and here. In the fic, Akashi gives Furihata’s mother his gift right away, as it’s intended to be refrigerated. (What it is will come up in Chapter Three!)

Visiting gifts are called temiyage. There’s another type of gift called omiyage, in which Japanese people who go on a trip pretty much anywhere are expected to bring back souvenirs for their friends and family. So basically, there are tons of occasions where Japanese families receive gifts! Often a Japanese home will have some of these items on display, or even stuffed in a closet. (The tendency for this to cause clutter is one reason why food gifts are usually preferred.)

On Zaibatsu

I won’t go into this too much, but Akashi’s family in KnB is pretty clearly supposed to be a zaibatsu. The real-life reality of modern zaibatsu is not the same as in popular fiction... But in anime at least, zaibatsu are incredibly powerful old families who are ridiculously wealthy, and head up massive conglomerates. An example of a real-life conglomerate that started as a zaibatsu is Mitsubishi.

On the Genkan

There are different styles of houses and apartments in Japan, but basically all of them will have a genkan! This is the space right at the front door where you take off your shoes. It’s often lower than the rest of the floor, and you leave your shoes inside. Then you walk around the rest of the house in socks, and/or wear slippers.

It’s not always practical for the host family to provide super comfortable slippers to their guests (it’s more common to have a basic pair, if that), but since Furi and Akashi are so close in size, I thought a lending situation would be cute. ❤️ (Or maybe I just wanted to make a “perfect fit” joke because fairy tales, but uh anyway. XD Though I guess it isn’t really Cinderella, maybe more like The Prince and the Pauper? //laughs)

(Also, for anyone curious, I generally picture the Furihata house as looking something like the third photo in this blog entry, or the sixth photo on this page. Both give you some idea what a typical Japanese house looks like!)

On Summer in Japan

The fic takes place in mid-July of their second year, during the start of summer break. So I tried to incorporate a lot of things that are associated with summer in Japan! Mid-July is when the rainy season ends. The rainy season in Japan is unbelievably humid. Hydrangeas bloom during that time, like the ones outside Furihata’s house. Then after the rainy season comes the really hot summer. (I do not recommend visiting Japan in the summer, personally? I have done it, and... yeah. So much sweating. XD) Japanese coping mechanisms include AC units (usually a wall unit in a room with a remote control), fans of all kinds, chilled barley tea, and food like watermelon and chilled soba noodles. Another Japanese item with summer associations is a glass wind chime. (As in this emoji! --> 🎐)

On Shichi-Go-San

One thing that was specifically Japanese about the photo album Furihata’s mother showed Akashi was the photo of the coming-of-age event Shichi-Go-San. This is a sort of ceremony for Japanese kids that happens first when they turn three, and then again when boys turn five and girls turn seven. It’s a really popular time to take pictures, because the children get dressed up in traditional clothes and go to a shrine for a blessing. They also get candy called chitose-ame, which they usually carry around in a long, colorful bag. It’s supposed to bring them property and long life. (”Chitose” stands for a thousand years.)

(If you haven’t seen little kids doing this in person before, I urge you to do a Google image search for “shichi-go-san” and prepare for your brain to melt because it’s pretty much the cutest thing in the known universe.)

On Furihata’s Family’s Names

It’s probably painfully obvious, but I’ve been dying to write about Furihata’s family for forever! The Furihata surname itself means “below the standard” (via this post!), which is... not the most auspicious name? //laughs But it’s why I always pictured them as a very typical, “ordinary” sort of family.

Kouki (光樹) has the kanji for light in his name, and the full translation in the above post is “establishes brilliance.” I always thought that was such a fitting name for him! I wanted his family’s names to sound a bit like his, while also being common names, and having meanings that fit their characters. For his brother, I tried to pick a name that matched my take on his personality, and I came up with Kintarou (金太郎). Which means “golden first son” (and is also the name of a popular folk tale character!). Furihata’s mother is Kaori, and Furihata’s father is Yoshio. Here are the kanji I picked for them:

香織 = Kaori, “fragrance weave” (shares a kanji with the name Shiori because I’m a mean person, also I like to headcanon that they would’ve gotten along)

良夫 = Yoshio, “good man” (also can be read “agreeable husband” //laughs)

I think that pretty much covers it! I’ll have a few more notes to share in future chapters. Thank you for reading, and I hope you’re enjoying the fic! I’m definitely having a lot of fun writing it. ❤️

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

I Need Beta-Readers!

Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuun!

People of Earth.

The time has come.

I'm FINALLY recruiting beta-readers! After much time of saying the same thing: 'I'm hoping to start in a month', IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING!

AT LONG LAST!

For the sake of keeping this short, I'm going to get right into who I'm looking for!

Here are a few things I'm looking for in a beta-reader:

1. You must be a reader who would realistically pick up a YA contemporary novel at a bookstore.

If YA contemporary isn't your thing, this book probably isn't for you! But thank you for considering to beta-read for me! It's really important that I have readers in my target zone. No, age does not matter to me. I don't care if you're 15, or 35, you just have to be an avid reader of YA books, especially YA contemporary.

Cool? Cool. 

2. You must be willing to give detailed feedback, and be able to return the book to me by a reasonable date.

As a beta myself, I know how time-consuming this process can be, and by no means do I want you to prioritize my book over your life. PLEASE don't think this is the case--I totally understand that this is a 100% voluntary experience, and that you are taking YOUR time out of YOUR life to do this for me. Time is the most precious gift in the world, and can never be given back, so I thank you for giving me some of your life. So I do not have a set date for when I would like the book returned. I do have a very loose deadline of when I would like the book back, and that would be by the end of May at the latest. If you need more time, that is perfectly fine, just let me know. 

Ideally, I would like if you could get the book back to me within 2-3 months, but again, if more time is needed be sure to let me know. If you can only get it to me by the end of May, that’s totally cool.

I have other projects in the works that are not I'M DISAPPOINTED, so I am not in a rush to have people read and critique it.

With that said, I do encourage you to try your best to give me the most detailed feedback as you possibly can (when necessary!). Being long-winded is the most important part of being an awesome beta, so try as much as you can to include as much detail in your answers as possible.

I wrote up a post on how to be a better beta, so you can check it out HERE.

3. You must be okay with the following subjects:

Cursing, some violence, addiction (there is frequent mention of alcoholism), mention of sexual abuse, some romance, and lots of family drama.

If you have an issue with any of this, that is totally okay. This is just probably not the book for you. I would not wish to insult, or harm anyone with the content of my book, so if anything on this list bothers you, I wouldn't beta-read this book. Thank you so much for understanding. :)

Also, please keep in mind: this is a book about teenagers, written by a teenager.

No one is perfect, and I'm still learning! If you do decide to sign up (which I so, so appreciate), please keep this in mind. :) This book's target audience is primarily focused around teenagers, or people who enjoy reading young adult realistic fiction. If both of these things are not your thing, this might not be the project for you.

4. You will be required to share some (very, very little) personal information about yourself.

By very, very little, I mean very, very little. I wouldn't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable in this process, and will not ever force you to give me information you're not comfortable with sharing.

By personal information I mean:

-- Your name (or nickname)

-- Age is not required, although is helpful if you're comfortable. If you are not, you don't have to share this information with me, and that's okay. You can share an age group if you're more comfortable with that, but again, not necessary if you're not comfortable.

-- Your favourite book (any genre). As someone who's taking their time out of their day to help me, I'd like to get to know you! The last time I did a round of betas and asked this question, I found that a lot of my betas had super similar tastes as I did which was AWESOME. Just a fun thing that I thought I'd add in!

-- Your favourite musician (also, helps me to get to know you!)

-- Why you like to read YA

-- Why you’re interested in helping me out

(I also answer these questions in the response email I send to you, by the way!)

And that's really it! If there's anything above that you do not want to share with me, that is totally okay, you can just opt it out from the rest of the questions!

And that's all for the about you section of this post! Now we can get onto the book stuff!

Below is the synopsis that's in my query. I hope it'll give you an idea of the story!

Seventeen-year-old Clifford Wright is a disappointment to everyone he knows. Struggling with an alcohol addiction and a family that’s the definition of unsupportive, he’s one wrong word away from heading back to nights of out-of-control drinking, to mornings with a father who does nothing but yell, and a support system that only seems to make everything worse. But as far as everyone knows, he has everything under control. Until his provoked best-friend—the one person trusted with his secret—exposes his alcoholism at a party-gone-wrong and almost ends up at the bottom of a swimming pool—at the hands of Clifford. 

Now a year after being sent to rehab for his addiction and depression, he’s back to living in a town that does nothing but judge him. Isolated in his mind, he only wants three things: make it through his last year of high school, focus on his music career, and stay out of the spotlight. However, when he trips Sydney Hart at school, his plan of Going It Alone through senior year comes to an unexpected halt. Because suddenly, he’s not thinking about leaving his town and never coming back. He’s thinking about the girl who sees him as the somewhat-awkward aspiring-musician he is, and not just a disappointment. And without warning, Clifford starts to fall for the girl whose stepfather sent him to rehab.

But things aren’t looking up for them both. After a huge family fight breaks out and she’s stuck living with him, Clifford realizes that Sydney is not the carefree girl he once thought she was. With a hospitalized mother, stepfather who won’t get off her back, and a dead brother she refuses to talk about, their issues start to intermingle. And just as his sobriety is no longer an issue, everything starts falling back apart. Soon, Clifford starts to wonder if he can bear the weight of his problems without crushing himself, his progress with his addiction, and his relationship in the process.

Whew! So, if that sounds interesting to you, read on!

I'M DISAPPOINTED is a looong book. I wanted to put that out there before you signed up! It is completed at 93 000 words (about 170 single-spaced pages), and the reason I'm recruiting betas at this stage is so I can try to cut down the word count. If that hasn't scared you away yet, and you're still interested, you can read on!

So how will this process work?

Once you shoot me off an email, I'll send you the first chapter and its corresponding questions in a Word Doc. If Word doesn't work for you, please let me know in your greeting email that you'd like it in XX format, and I'll do my best to tailor the chapter and questions to your needs!

Once you read the first chapter and are still interested, scroll down, and you'll find the questions. I ask that you answer all of the questions in as much detail as you can manage, then send it back to me. If, by the end of chapter one, you are interested in reviewing more, include that you're interested in continuing in the email, and I'll send you chapters two to five, of which you can review in the same way you reviewed chapter one.

If you are not interested after reading chapter one, that is totally okay. I don’t need you to actually review the chapter (unless you want to) because I don’t want to impose on your time. I totally understand that not every book is for every person, and if after reading chapter one, you don’t think I’M DISAPPOINTED is right for you, no worries. You can just shoot me off an email, and I’ll get back to you!

I'll be sending the book to you in five chapter chunks (for the most part). There are 26 chapters in this book and one (relatively short) epilogue, so this means you'll be getting five parts (four five-chapter chunks, and one seven chapter section << including the epilogue). Each part is about 15 000 words long (more or less). Chapter lengths range from 3000-6000 words, for those wondering. Each chapter review should take around 45 minutes to an hour to complete (including reading time), if not less. Please don't spend too much time on the reviews if you can’t--I really would not want to impose on your time. If you try your best, that's all that matters to me.

Once you finish a chunk, you'll send it back to me with all of the feedback in one doc, and then I'll send you the next part if you wish to continue reviewing.

Well... Rachel, what if I don't want to continue reviewing?

If you wish to stop reviewing at any point during the process, that is 100% okay. Please just let me know why in an email. If the book isn't your thing, that is a totally valid reason to drop out, if you wish to. All reasons for dropping out are valid to me, I just need you to tell me! If it's a personal matter that you don't want to share, that's okay, just let me know that it's a personal matter. If you wish to drop out in the middle of a section, that’s okay. You don’t have to finish the section if you don’t want to--just send me what you have, and that’s fine.

And I think that's all I need to cover! If you have any questions at all, you can ask me on here, or through email.

Speaking of which...

If you are 100% ready to beta-read I'M DISAPPOINTED, and would like to voice your interest, please email me at coffeeandcalligraphy (at) gmail (dot) com!

I'll keep this call open for as long as needed, but will cut it off after a month's time!

If you do sign up, thank you so much! You sharing your time with me means the absolute world to me. :) If you do not, that's totally okay! Thank you for reading this post, and being so supportive of my blog!

As always, here's a final tip (I included this in my last beta call):

@jennamoreci has an epic vlog on how to be a good beta-reader, so if you’re interested, I’d suggest watching that. And also, if you’re interested in reading for me, but don’t know entirely what beta-reading is, check this vlog out. If you haven’t watched those videos – please do! Any questions you have will most likely be answered there, but if you have any more, let me know!

--Rachel